Tag: joe biden

Biden Aims To Give Federal Workers Largest Pay Increase in 40 Years

Federal employees are set to receive the largest pay increase in four decades, courtesy of President Joe Biden.

In a letter sent to Congress last week, Biden called for a 5.2 percent overall pay increase for federal workers—the same increase that he’d included in his budget plan that was sent to Congress earlier this year. Biden said the huge pay increase was necessary so the federal government could “attract, recruit, and retain a skilled workforce with fair compensation in order to keep our government running, deliver services, and meet our nation’s challenges today and tomorrow.”

Technically, the pay increase will be divided into two separate categories. Federal workers would receive a 4.7 percent across-the-board pay raise, combined with a 0.5 percent bump in so-called locality pay. Because the amount of a federal employee’s locality pay varies from place to place based on the cost of living, the actual pay increases might not be the same for all workers.

It would be the biggest increase since federal workers received a 9.1 percent pay raise in 1980 during the waning days of the Carter administration, according to Government Executive, a trade publication for federal employees. As Government Executive notes, some members of Congress have been pushing for an even larger increase in federal employee compensation: A group of Democrats introduced a bill earlier this year to boost federal workers’ wages by 8.7 percent.

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Biden Officials Likely Violated First Amendment On Social Media: 5th Circuit Court

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that several Biden administration officials had likely breached the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to moderate or take down content they deemed problematic.

And here is Exhibit A of that First Amendment-crushing coercion and collusion… which obviously began in the Trump-era under Anthony Fauci. ZeroHedge was banned from Twitter one day after this email.

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ATF Agents Carrying Rifles Raid Oklahoma Gun Dealer’s Home, Confiscate Guns

As agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) left Russell Fincher’s house with 50 legally-owned firearms and his freshly relinquished Federal Firearms License (FFL), they offered him a tip.

“They said, ‘Tell all your FFL friends we’re coming for them next,’” Mr. Fincher told The Epoch Times.

An ATF spokesman said he could not comment on the June 16, 2023, raid at Mr. Fincher’s home in Tuskahoma, Oklahoma.

“We are not allowed to comment pertaining to ongoing investigations. I can assure you once we can discuss the case, you will be notified,” Ashley N. Stephens, resident Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Tulsa Field Office, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.

According to Second Amendment advocacy groups, the raid indicates a coordinated effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to throttle legal gun sales to advance a gun control agenda.

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Slacker-in-chief Biden keeps up record 40% ‘vacation’ pace despite disasters

He’s the American Idle.

The 24/7 grind of the White House has been anything but for President Biden, who has devoted more days to downtime than any of his recent predecessors, according to an analysis of press-pool reports.

This Labor Day weekend, Biden once again plans to be 10 toes up at his Rehoboth Beach summer home — after a short trip to Florida to view Hurricane Idalia’s wreckage.

As of last Sunday, Biden has spent all or part of 382 of his presidency’s 957 days – or 40% — on personal overnight trips away from the White House, putting him on pace to become America’s most idle commander-in-chief, according to data calculated by the Republican National Committee and confirmed by The Post using White House reports of Biden’s movements.

“We have millions of illegal immigrants pouring across our borders. Violent crime is surging. Inflation is crushing hard-working Americans. Our enemies around the world are emboldened,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told The Post. “Meanwhile, Joe Biden is filmed on the beach with his handlers preventing him from speaking to the media to answer basic questions Americans deserve answers to.

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“Even One Firearm Sale” Could Land You In Jail Under Biden’s New ATF Rule

We hate to say we told you so, but it’s official. The Justice Department announced a new rule to amend ATF regulations and expand the definition of a firearms dealer to include those who sell even a single firearm. 

The original rumors of the rule suggested anyone who sold five or more firearms could have to register as an FFL and conduct background checks, however the official released version says selling even ONE FIREARM without a license would be illegal.🤯

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 31, 2023

While earlier versions of the rule leaked to the public via the Biden administration’s allies in the corporate media hinted at a target of about five firearms sold without a license before requiring an individual to register as an FFL, the published rule seems more restrictive. Those who have sold or even “offer to engage” in a single transaction could be prosecuted for unlicensed activities.

That’s not all. The rule is also full of unclear language that gives ATF wiggle room to prosecute gun owners as they please. Examples of actions that ATF could use to define activity as operating as an unlicensed dealer are listed, but ATF notes that the list of examples is not exhaustive. This creates a system where gun owners must prove they are not dealers to be able to sell a firearm legally.

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US OKs First-Ever Foreign Military Financing Arms Package for Taiwan

The Biden administration has approved the first-ever military aid package for Taiwan using Foreign Military Financing (FMF), a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to buy US arms.

The Associated Press noted that FMF is typically reserved for sovereign, independent states, and the US does not recognize Taiwan as a country. US officials told AP that the only other time FMF has been used for a non-nation-state was assistance to the African Union, a bloc of 55 African states.

The FMF package is worth $80 million, but the administration did not disclose its contents in a notification to Congress. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act included $2 billion in FMF funds for Taiwan. This marks the first time the funds have been used.

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Biden Looks to Prevent Future President From Ending Ukraine War

The Biden administration is working to reach a deal with Ukraine for long-term military support to keep backing the war with Russia that would be difficult for a future president to exit, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The effort is part of a commitment made by G7 nations at the recent NATO summit in Vilnius to negotiate their own bilateral security deals with Ukraine. Besides the G7 nations, 18 other countries have agreed to provide long-term military support for Kyiv.

The idea of the long-term commitment is to show Russia that it can’t wait out the Biden administration. The Journal report reads: “Western officials are looking for ways to lock in pledges of support and limit future governments’ abilities to backtrack, amid fears in European capitals that Donald Trump, if he recaptures the White House, would seek to scale back aid.”

Trump, who escalated US involvement in Ukraine during his term by taking the step to provide Javelin missiles, has said he would end the Ukraine war within “24 hours” if elected in 2024. The former president is the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

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National Archives acknowledges 5,400 Biden pseudonym emails, faces lawsuit for their release

The National Archives and Records Administration acknowledged possessing potentially up to 5,400 emails connected to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s pseudonym accounts that he used to forward government information and discuss business with his son, Hunter Biden, and others, and on Monday the Southeastern Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit to compel the agency to turn over the emails.

The non-profit constitutional legal group that filed the lawsuit said the archives confirmed that Biden used the pseudonyms of Robin Ware, Robert L. Peters, and JRB Ware during his time in the Obama administration. 

The archives’ admissions confirm years of reporting from Just the News about Biden’s use of a personal email as vice president and the pseudonym accounts he used.

The legal foundation first filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the archives for Biden’s emails in 2021 on behalf of Just the News editor-in-chief John Solomon.

The legal foundation renewed its initial request last year with a second FOIA request, but the archives “has failed to produce a single one of these emails,” the group said.

Monday’s lawsuit turns up the pressure on the archives to release the documents.

“All too often, public officials abuse their power by using it for their personal or political benefit. When they do, many seek to hide it,” Southeastern Legal Foundation general counsel Kimberly Hermann said. “The only way to preserve governmental integrity is for NARA to release Biden’s nearly 5,400 emails to SLF and thus the public. The American public deserves to know what is in them.”

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Biden Alcohol Czar Says US May Change Recommendations For How Much Beer Americans Should Drink

A U.S. federal official suggested in a recent interview that Americans may be told by officials that they are recommended to have no more than two alcoholic drinks, or beers, per week.

Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) George Koob told the Daily Mail on Thursday that the United States could follow how Canada handles its alcohol guidelines.

The NIAAA’s guidelines currently recommend males up to age 65 limit themselves to two drinks per day, while women up to age 65 should limit themselves to one. Recommendations published under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans (pdf), which are not mandates or requirements, are slated to be reviewed in 2025.

For the NIAAA’s “heavy” drinking limits, it says that men should drink no more than four per day, and no more than 14 beverages per week. For women, according to the guidelines, they should drink no more than three drinks per day and seven per week.

Meanwhile, Canada’s current guidelines recommend people have only two drinks per week. A drink is defined as containing 0.6 fluid ounces of alcohol, or equivalent to one beer, one glass of wine with 12 percent alcohol, or one shot of hard alcohol.

“If there’s health benefits, I think people will start to re-evaluate where we’re at [in the U.S.],” Mr. Koob told the Daily Mail.

When asked about whether the guidelines would change in 2025, he said that it’s likely officials will not recommend that people drink more per day or week, as compared with the current guidelines.

“I mean, they’re not going to go up, I’m pretty sure,” Mr. Koob said. “So, if [alcohol consumption guidelines] go in any direction, it would be toward Canada.”

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Biden Regime Declares War on Ceiling Fans to Fight “Climate Change” – Settles on Costly New Scheme that Could Put Small Manufacturers Out of Business

First the Biden regime came for your gas stove, then your dishwashers, then gas furnaces and then your water heaters.

Now the Regime is targeting for your ceiling fans, jeopardizing small businesses in the process. Like the other previous schemes, the primary purpose is to advance the Regime’s radical “climate change” agenda.

Fox Business reported Friday that the Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing a new rule that would require ceiling fans to be more “energy efficient.”

The DOE says that proposed rule, which is dated June 22, would save Americans “a significant amount” of energy.

DOE’s analyses indicate that the proposed energy conservation standards for ceiling fans would save a significant amount of energy.

As Newsweek reported, the comment period for the new rule closed on August 21 and the DOE is in the midst of reviewing all comments, data and information.

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