Yearly Archives: 2025

New Lawsuit Reveals Trump Quietly Fired Head of Office That Protects Whistleblowers

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Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Then-nominee for Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy Hampton Dellinger is questioned by the Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on July 28, 2021. (Photo: Sen. John Kennedy/YouTube/screen grab)

“This illegal firing undermines the office that investigates whistleblower disclosures of wrongdoing and enforces the law meant to keep partisan politics out of the federal workforce,” wrote one watchdog group.

Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, the head of an independent federal agency that protects whistleblowers, filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday alleging that U.S. President Donald Trump’s “purported” dismissal of him via email on Friday is unlawful and ignores for cause removal protections that Dellinger is entitled to.

Dellinger is one of a number of officials at independent federal agencies that Trump has moved to fire in recent weeks.

According to the complaint, Dellinger received an email from Sergio Gor, director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, on February 7, which read: “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as special counsel of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service[.]”

The complaint lists six defendants, including Gor, Trump, acting Special Counsel of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) Karen Gorman (“upon the purported removal” of Dellinger, according to the complaint), Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Chief Operating Officer of the OSC Karl Kanmann, and Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought.

Dellinger is requesting that the court declare his firing unlawful and affirm that he is the head of the OSC.

The filing also asks the court to order that “Bessent, Gor, Kammann, and Vought may not place an acting special counsel in plaintiff Hampton Dellinger’s position, or otherwise recognize any other person as special counsel or as the agency head of the Office of Special Counsel.”

The watchdog group Project on Government Oversight called the move against Dellinger “illegal” and wrote on X on Monday that it “undermines the office that investigates whistleblower disclosures of wrongdoing and enforces the law meant to keep partisan politics out of the federal workforce.”

The OSC is both an investigative and prosecutorial agency whose main mission is to protect federal employees from “prohibited personnel practices”—in particular reprisals for whistleblowing. The office is different from the “special counsels” that the U.S. Department of Justice may appoint to prosecute cases in instances where they deem there may be a conflict of interest.

Dellinger was nominated to be the special counsel of the OSC by then-President Joe Biden in 2023 and was confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term that was set to expire in 2029.

The complaint cites federal statute, which mandates that “the special counsel may be removed by the president only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Dellinger’s legal counsel argues that the email from Gor does not accuse Dellinger of “any inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance… nor could it.”

In late January, Trump fired National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne Wilcox, who has since sued over her dismissal, as well as two Democratic members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Federal Election Commission Commissioner and Chair Ellen Weintraub also said that Trump tried to remove her improperly.

The Trump administration also purged over a dozen inspectors generals who perform oversight duties at various federal agencies.

The filing also argues that the removal of these sorts of civil servants makes the work of the OSC all the more important.

“Congress authorized the OSC with a crucial investigative and oversight role to protect the integrity of the civil service in circumstances such as these,” wrote Dellinger’s lawyers.

“The recent spate of terminations of protected civil service employees under the new presidential administration has created controversies, both about the lawfulness of these actions and about potential retaliation against whistleblowers,” they added.

Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingNew Lawsuit Reveals Trump Quietly Fired Head of Office That Protects Whistleblowers

Activists occupy consultancy firm over renewal of Drax subsidies

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/activists-occupy-consultancy-firm-over-renewal-drax-subsidies

Emissions from the Drax plant near Selby on a winter’s day

ACIVISTS occupied the London offices of a lobbyist for Drax power plant today, protesting against the government’s decision to bankroll Britain’s top carbon emitter.

Labour announced yesterday that it will provide subsidies to the wood-burning power plant for at least four more years.

The plant has received billions from taxpayers because it is classed as a source of renewable energy, a claim long disputed by campaigners as it emits the largest amount of carbon in Britain.

Drax has also been fined £25 million by Ofgem for misreporting where its wood is sourced from after a BBC investigation found that it had used wood from environmentally important forests in Canada.

This morning, 20 activists from Axe Drax occupied the offices of 5654 & Company, a corporate affairs consultancy they say lobbies for the power station, with staff forced to leave for the day as a result, according to the campaign group.

Rosie, who only shared her first name, from Axe Drax said: “The decision to back Drax is a disaster for the climate and our energy bills.

“Funding the biggest carbon emitter in the UK in the name of green energy is insane.

“It is time for Labour to dump Drax and their lobbyists, not double down support.

“We are sick of their unaccountable power, while millions of us have our bills hiked.”

…

Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/activists-occupy-consultancy-firm-over-renewal-drax-subsidies

Continue ReadingActivists occupy consultancy firm over renewal of Drax subsidies

‘Workers are  being employed as indentured labour’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/workers-are-being-employed-as-indentured-labour

Staff on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London, January 18, 2023

Damning report finds migrant workers propping up Britain’s crumbling care system are trapped in awful working conditions

CAMPAIGNERS demanded reform today after a damning report laid bare shocking conditions facing migrant workers propping up Britain’s crumbling care system.

Unison surveyed more than 3,000 people who came to Britain on health and care worker visas to tackle shortages in the sector.

It found that nearly a quarter had paid fees to an employer or an intermediary upfront in return for a job — with dozens handing over more than £20,000.

Many workers, who are from countries including Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Zambia as well as India and the Philippines, were given no shifts when they arrived, or not the number promised.

Around 18 per cent said employers had deducted money from their salaries since arriving, with firms claiming the fees were for expenses such as training and administration.

Pay issues impacted three in 10 migrant care staff, with problems including unpaid travel time between care visits and no sick pay.

More than a quarter were paid below the legal minimum wage of £11.44 an hour.

In one shocking testimony, a worker reported having to sleep on the streets because their employer did not pay them for shadowing other colleagues.

And 9 per cent described the accommodation they were provided with as poor or very poor.

…

Public Services International care organiser Huma Haq said the findings reflect a broader global crisis in care: “The exploitation of migrant care workers in the UK is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a broken system globally where governments have increasingly privatised and underfunded essential care services.

“Governments must step up and take responsibility for providing quality public care services.”

Original article is at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/workers-are-being-employed-as-indentured-labour

Continue Reading‘Workers are  being employed as indentured labour’

Thoughts of the Day 11 February 2025

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Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.
Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.

I’m writing about someone without naming him or her. It might be worth using these metrics with anyone, see if they’re capable and adjusted?

She is easily manipulated because: She is not able to appreciate anyone else’s perspective and is therefore incapable of empathy. She can’t distinguish her own interests from the interests and responsibilities of her office or position.

The second issue may derive from the first: if you haven’t progressed from – or regressed to – infantile self-interest then there are no responsibilities and interests other than your own. Rich people are taught to only be concerned for themselves.

…

12 Feb 2025

Since writing this yesterday I’ve realised that this might also apply to myself [edit: i.e. “… can’t distinguish her own interests from the interests and responsibilities of her office or position.”] I was appointed to a position without my knowledge or consent in the early 90s. Some would say that I wasn’t appointed and that it was instead a recognition. Soon later I went off grid and disappeared. My attitude is that since I didn’t have an option in it, FU you’re stuck with me and I’ll do as I like which in practice means I had chosen my path and I continue. Seniority appears to apply to this position and to me. I’m surprised that some people respect this position while many others seem to rebel against it and me, use their positions to try to entrap and persecute me. [14/2/25 Not so much now, used to happen so much when Bliar was PM and into late 00s.] Life is interesting and strange and then you die.

Continue ReadingThoughts of the Day 11 February 2025

100+ Groups ‘Decry and Oppose’ Trump Push to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza

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Original article by Jessica Corbett republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Displaced Palestinian children sit on a sand mound overlooking tents set up amid destroyed buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 6, 2025.
 (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

“Palestine is not just an idea—it is a place. It is a homeland to the Palestinian people,” the coalition wrote.

A coalition of over 100 organizations on Monday forcefully denounced U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip of Palestinians and take over the coastal enclave recently decimated by an Israeli military campaign conducted with American weapons.

Led by A New Policy—a group founded by Biden administration officials who resigned in protest—and the Quaker organization Friends Committee on National Legislation, the coalition said that “we are deeply alarmed by President Trump’s recent statements, tracing them back to January 25, just days after the Republican returned to power.

“We, the undersigned organizations, decry and oppose any effort or initiative, and any calls for, the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, and support the joint statement of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority, and the Arab League that similarly rejected any such steps, the coalition wrote, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The letter highlights the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in the 1940s during the formation of the modern state of Israel, which Palestinians call the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe; that since 2006, Gaza “has been in a state of siege,” with residents enduring repeated bombardment and restrictions on necessities; and that since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, they have faced what various experts have found to be a plausible case of genocide, with over 48,000 people killed.

“Through this all, the Palestinians in Gaza have stood with remarkable dignity and perseverance, insisting throughout the immense suffering and loss that they will never abandon their homeland,” the letter continues, echoing recent remarks from residents. “We are deeply concerned by clear statements of intent from Israeli government officials over the past year concerning the creation of new Israeli settlements within the Gaza Strip, which further reinforce the intent of ethnic cleansing.”

“The United States has no right to dictate to the Palestinian people in Gaza to leave, and direct other countries to participate in their displacement. We are also aware that even a temporary external displacement could be used by Israel to enact permanent exile,” the letter says. “While we agree that the short and medium-term humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza may be difficult to meet given the nearly complete destruction that Israel has wrought, if the necessary services cannot be provided in Gaza, the people of Gaza must be able to access them elsewhere within the historic borders of Palestine and must be able to return.”

The coalition also expressed alarm over “an uptick in settler violence” and deadly Israel Defense Forces operations in the illegally occupied West Bank, writing that “these actions are part and parcel of a strategy that seeks to make not just Gaza, but all Palestinian areas across historic Palestine, unlivable for the Palestinian people, and are thus contributory to a process of ethnic cleansing.”

“Palestine is not just an idea—it is a place. It is a homeland to the Palestinian people,” the groups stressed. “To participate in, facilitate, or endorse their removal from it would violate every precept of international law, devastate the rules-based international order that protects us all, do irreversible harm to America’s global influence, and be an act of unconscionable immorality.”

The letter concludes with a poem from Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish, who wrote:

My country is not a suitcase
I am not a traveler
I am the lover and the land is the beloved.
The archaeologist is busy analyzing stones.
In the rubble of legends he searches for his own eyes
to show
that I am a sightless vagrant on the road
with not one letter in civilization’s alphabet.
Meanwhile in my own time I plant my trees.
I sing of my love.

In addition to the coalition leaders, signatories to the letter include ActionAid USA, CodePink, Democracy for the Arab World Now, Demand Progress Education Fund, Democratic Socialists of America, IfNotNow Movement, Just Foreign Policy, Madre, National Iranian American Council, Oil Change International, Peace Action, Progressive Democrats of America, and September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.

The letter came amid a fresh wave of alarm over Trump’s latest comments about Gaza and Palestinians, which aired Monday morning on “Fox & Friends.” He said: “We’ll build safe communities a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. In the meantime, I would own this—think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land.”

Asked by Fox News‘ Bret Baier whether Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza, the president said, “No, they wouldn’t.”

The letter also came as Hamas on Monday suspended its next planned release of hostages taken in October 2023, citing Israel’s deadly violations of a fragile cease-fire deal that took effect last month.

Original article by Jessica Corbett republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.

Continue Reading100+ Groups ‘Decry and Oppose’ Trump Push to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza