WOW! Leaked Video Exposes Child “Gladiator Fights”, Andrew Tate’s Florida Problem, & Trump's Speech
PDS Published 03/05/2025
-
The Attorney General of Florida is investigating the Tate brothers.
Right, Andrew and Tristan Tate landed in Florida a few days ago, and yesterday AG James Uthmeier (Uth-my-er) tweeted:
“Last week, I directed my office to work with our law enforcement partners to conduct a preliminary inquiry into Andrew and Tristan Tate. Based on a thorough review of the evidence, I’ve directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to execute search warrants and issue subpoenas in the now-active criminal investigation into the Tate brothers.”[]
“Florida has zero tolerance for people who abuse women and girls. We will not allow it.”[]
That statement did not specify what exactly the investigation is into, but he did later tell a Scripps reporter that:
“These guys have themselves publicly admitted to participating in what very much appears to be soliciting, trafficking, preying upon women around the world. Many of these victims coming forward, some of them minors. People can spin or defend it however they want, but in Florida, this type of behavior is viewed as atrocious.” (0:00-0:24)
“If these guys did criminal activity here in Florida, we will go after them with the full force of law and hold them accountable.” (0:59-1:06)
And this is obviously not the first time the Tates have ever been under investigation, right.
They were previously investigated and arrested in Romania on trafficking charges, which they have denied.][
Though travel restrictions in the country were lifted on them last week, allowing them to arrive in the U.S. as the case is still playing out.
The Tates were also previously set to be extradited to the U.K. following proceedings in Romania under a British arrest warrant.
And some want Prime Minister Kier Starmer to seek their extradition from the U.S. now that they are stateside.
This all while they are being sued by a woman in Florida who accused them of luring her to Romania for sex work, an allegation that they have denied and are suing her for defamation over.
And now, it is not too surprising to hear that the state’s AG has opened a criminal investigation.
Governor Ron DeSantis said the brothers were not welcome in Florida after they landed and said he would discuss the matter with the AG.
But Andrew Tate is pushing back against this, responding to the news of the investigation by writing:
“Absolute communism. I’ve been in America for 5 days. I sat on my laptop and did a podcast. Insanity. I am super disappointed in the United States. This isn’t the America I know. This is a sad sad day for America. Trying to find crimes on an innocent man. I’m not afraid. I’m genuinely just disappointed.”[]
Their lawyer, Joseph McBride, also condemning this investigation, alleging that by doing this, the Attorney General:[]
“threw ethics law out of the window when he publicly took a side in an ongoing Florida lawsuit where Andrew and Tristan Tate are suing a Florida woman for orchestrating a sophisticated plot to use sex as a weapon to ruin their lives.”
“Attorney General Uthmeier’s statements are inflammatory, biased, and designed to affect the outcome of our pending civil suit in Palm Beach Court.”
With their lawyer then calling DeSantis an “angry, vertically challenged imp who hates Tate and Trump for being actual men. Attorney General Uthmeier is his pathetic lap dog.”
And closing by saying that the Tate brothers have not committed any crimes in Florida.
As for responses, you have people on Tate’s side slamming Florida, accusing the state of targeting the brothers without evidence.[][][]
But plenty of people celebrated the news too, right, saying they are glad that Florida’s AG is seeking justice.[][][]
With a senior vice president at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation telling ABC News:
"Florida AG Uthmeier is right to criminally investigate the Tate brothers who have publicly boasted about exploiting women yet have continuously sought to undermine the Romanian investigation into these crimes. Over 40 victims have been identified across Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They deserve justice. Florida's investigation is a positive step towards justice realized."[]
Because it is worth noting that the Tates’ arrival in the U.S. prompted a ton of backlash, and not just one the left, some conservatives were not thrilled either.[].[][][]
With tons of people pointing the finger at Trump, because even though he Trump said he was unaware of the Tates coming to Florida,[]
Previous reporting claimed his administration was pressuring Romania to lift restrictions on them.
So tons have tied Tate’s presence in the U.S. to Trump, and are hoping any alleged involvement might backfire as a result of Florida’s investigation.[][][]
But right now, we will have to wait and see what comes of this, how long this investigation plays out, if it leads to any charges, anything at all.
-
You take the kids and you put them into the fighting pits.
As absurd as that sounds, that is more or less what 30 correctional officers in California have been accused of.
Right, last year, the LA Times published leaked security footage from Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, California.
With that footage showing 8 probation officers just standing around while a group of kids came swinging at one 17 year old boy one at a time. [B Roll 3:11-3:43]]
So these officers are just watching this kid fight half a dozen other kids.
And this video originally came from that 17 year old’s attorney while they were arguing that he wasn’t safe at Los Padrinos and should be released until his trial. []
Now, once this footage was out and about, the California Department of Justice launched an investigation.
Which uncovered nearly 70 fights like this in the span of 6 months involving 143 different kids between the ages of 12 and 18. []
And that brings us to the big update - this week, a grand jury indicted 30 officers for their role in facilitating these fights.
With each officer facing a felony child abuse charge - which, if convicted, is between 2 and 6 years in prison. []
One of the 30 is also facing a misdemeanor battery charge for allegedly using force and violence against an “unnamed subject.” []
And 3 others of that 30 are also being charged with conspiracy to commit a crime.
With the indictment alleging that 2 of the 3 knew about the fights beforehand, their time and location, and then told other officers to watch the fights but not report them. []
With the third allegedly telling new hires that the fights were an example of how the detention staff controlled the children in their care. []
After the indictment was unsealed, we saw California Attorney General Rob Bonta saying to the LA Times,
“They did have multiple gladiator-type fights between individuals with probation officers employed by L.A. County right there in the room, watching, not intervening, not keeping the young people they were charged with taking care of.” []
Adding that prosecutors believe the officers organized the fights,
“We believe that this was planned. It was intended. There was a desire on the part of the juvenile probation officers for these fights to occur. They often wanted them to happen at the beginning of the day and a certain time in a certain place.” []
Notably, the Los Padrinos director has also been indicted but his attorney argues that he’s innocent.
Saying he didn’t set up or even know about any fights so, quote, “I'm not sure how they got him into this as an accomplice." []
Regardless, the LA County Probation Department - which is in charge of the facility - says that it, quote, "fully supports and applauds" the indictments. []
And noting that all of the officers involved have been placed on leave without pay.
And saying,
"Our department sought the assistance of law enforcement authorities when misconduct was discovered, which eventually led to the AG's office investigation. Since then, we have fully collaborated with our partners.”
"At the same time, we have been conducting our own internal inquiries... Accountability is a cornerstone of our mission, and we have zero tolerance for misconduct of any peace officers, especially those dealing with young people in our system.” []
Though not everyone is against the officers in question here - the president of the LA County Deputy Probation Officers Union, which represents all 30 of the officers in labor talks, has said that they’ll offer support however they can. []
Saying,
"Every American is innocent until proven guilty. Our members are entitled to this same presumption of innocence and deserve to be treated with fairness and due process, just as they provide to those in their custody." []
It is also worth mentioning that this is not the only issue that Los Pandrinos has had.
In fact, they are actually under an order from the state to close but the LA County Supervisors are using an emergency action to keep it open. []
Because of the lack of any other juvenile facilities.
So we’re just going to have to wait and see how this case turns out - for the officers involved and for Los Pandrinos itself.
In the meantime, I’d love to know your thoughts about this in those comments down below.
-
These astronauts are finally coming home!
Right, you may remember the flurry of headlines from last year about these two astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni (Sunny) Williams.
They were the crew of the Boeing Starliner’s test flight last June and were supposed to be on the International Space Station for a grand total of 8 days.
But that wasn’t what happened at all.
On the ride up to the ISS, the Starliner ran into a bunch of issues and glitches - including helium leaks and thruster mishaps. []
And so Sunny and Butch’s stay in space got extended by months and NASA ultimately decided that it was too risky for them to ride the Starliner home. []
Making the announcement back in August that the Starliner would be coming back to Earth unmanned - with the NASA Administrator Bill Nelson saying at the time,
“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star.” []
After that, it was decided that Sunny and Butch would keep doing work up on the ISS and they would be folded into the Crew-9 team that flew up there in late September. []
The Crew-9 team consisted of two people - one NASA astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut - rather than the planned 4 people in order to leave room for Butch and Sunny on the SpaceX flight back to Earth. []
Now, with this whole situation, we saw many people saying that Butch and Sunny were abandoned or stranded in space.
Including Donald Trump and Elon Musk - who reportedly blamed the Biden administration. []
With Musk saying on X that it’s terrible they, quote, “left them there so long.”
But even from space, Butch and Sunny pushed back against this idea that they were abandoned - telling Anderson Cooper on CNN, []
[“We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded. I understand why others may think that. We come prepared, we come committed. That is what your human space flight program is. It prepares for any and all contingencies that we can conceive of. And we prepare for those.” 3:34-3:50]
As for their return, the original plan - well, not the original original but the new original plan - was for Crew-9’s replacement Crew-10 to fly up there in a brand new SpaceX capsule.
But last month, plans changed a little bit once again - with NASA announcing that instead of using a new capsule for Crew-10’s launch, they are instead going to fly up in a used one, hopefully lifting off March 12. []
Then Crew-9 and Crew-10 will spend about a week together for a hand-off before Crew-9, including Butch and Sunny, jump into the capsule and head back home. []
Which should put them back in solid ground by the end of the month. []
Which brings us to yesterday, 9 months into their 1 week space trip, when Butch and Sunny gave a pre-departure news conference. [B Roll 0:00-0:30]
With Sunny saying the hardest part was keeping their families back home waiting - saying,
“It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us. We’re here. We have a mission. We’re just doing what we do every day, and every day is interesting because we’re up in space and it’s a lot of fun.” []
Obviously, they’re not home yet so there’s still the potential for things to change.
But it seems that we’re just a couple weeks away from Sunny and Butch finally making it back to Earth.
So this is definitely something to keep our eyes on.
In the meantime, let me know your thoughts about this in those comments down below.
-
PART 1
We gotta talk about Trump’s speech to Congress.
Right, it was the longest presidential address to Congress in modern history – with Trump speaking for roughly one hour and forty minutes – so we’re definitely not gonna be able to go over every little thing…
But we’ll try to cover the key points, the highlights, and the big takeaways.
And with that, the speech began in typical Trump fashion – singing his own high praise:
“America is back.”
“Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in four years or eight years — and we are just getting started.” (1:05:21-1:05:54)
And with that, of course, it’s not unusual for the president to spend some time celebrating his perceived accomplishments.
But also, notably, they often these addresses to Congress to lay out their agenda for the year ahead.
However, Trump? He spent little time unveiling new policies.
And what’s more, his speech also generally lacked calls for unity and bipartisanship that have historically been common –
Which is why we’ve seen it described as divisive and partisan with little to no precedent – with even a guest on Fox News describing it as the “most partisan” speech he’s ever heard a president give in this kind of setting.
And with that, while blaming one’s predecessor for the country’s problems is also kind of presidential tradition, Trump?
As usual, he took it to another level, calling Biden “the worst president in American history” –
And mentioning his name a dozen other times to blame him for everything from the high costs of eggs to drugs and crime.
And, besides Biden, he attacked Democrats in general for standing in his way and complained they would never applaud his accomplishments –
Also referring to them as "these people" and "radical left lunatics" and even using his "Pocahontas" nickname for Senator Elizabeth Warren.
“Once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud. Nothing I can do.” (1:13:21-1:13:33)
But with all that, of course, we saw Democrats hitting back.
Right, there had been some debate over the best way to deal with this speech, with people like Maxwell Frost of Florida, for example, arguing:
"We want to make [clear] that things are not business as usual. Things are falling apart."
And in the end, top Democratic leaders and most others in the party sat quietly without disrupting Trump’s remarks.
But some skipped the speech entirely and others, along with Independent Bernie Sanders, opted to walk out early in protest.
While others in attendance? They were shouting, heckling, and otherwise trying to express that their opposition went beyond normal partisan disagreement.
With them kicking off just a couple minutes in as Trump sought to take another victory lap over the 2024 election, though they were overpowered by Republican chanting:
“The presidential election of Nov. 5 was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades. We won all seven swing states, giving us an Electoral College victory of 312 votes.”
“We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country —”
[DEMOCRATS INTERRUPT AND REPUBLICANS START CHANTING U.S.A.] (1:06:55-1:07:10, 1:07:24-1:07:40)
And with that, throughout the speech, you had some Democrats laughing out loud when Trump said the era of rule by “unelected bureaucrats” is over;
applauding loudly when he talked about aid to Ukraine;
and yelling January 6th when he talked about protecting police officers.
And then, some waved signs that read “MUSK STEALS,” “SAVE MEDICAID” and “PROTECT VETERANS.”
With Rashida Tlaib bringing a whiteboard and writing different messages on it through Trump’s speech – including “NO KING,” “LIES,” and “Start by paying your own taxes.”
But getting the most attention now is what happened with Al Green from Texas, who stood up, waving his cane, and shouting, among other things: “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!” (BROLL).
With this quickly leading to him getting kicked out:
“Finding that members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the Sergeant-at-arms to restore order,”
“Remove this gentleman from the chamber!” (1:09:53-1:10:06)
And with that, to be clear, this isn’t the first time an opposition lawmaker has interrupted a president’s address to Congress (BROLL: 1:10:19-1:10:23)
Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, for example, repeatedly interjected during former Biden State of the Union speech in 2022.
But notably, unlike them, Al Green wasn’t only kicked out, he now might be censured in Congress.
But in any case, with all that out of the way, getting more into the specifics of what Trump talked about?
A good chunk of the speech involved Trump applauding his administration’s own efforts to roll back transgender rights as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion programs:
“What I have just described is only a small fraction of the common-sense revolution that is now — because of us — sweeping the entire world” (1:23:02-1:23:10)
Because we are getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military and it’s already out and it’s out of our society, we don’t want it. Wokeness is trouble, wokeness is bad.” (2:18:16-2:18:28)
But from there, Trump also pledged to fight what he described as the “economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare” “inherited” from the Biden administration.
With him claiming his administration will reduce inflation by lowering the price of energy:
“The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95 percent, slowed pipeline construction to a halt and closed more than 100 power plants — we are opening up many of those power plants right now.” (1:24:57-1:25:12)
It’s called drill, baby, drill. (1:25:51-1:25:54)
And secondly, he said the administration would be combatting inflation by ending the, quote,“flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars” – with this, making it clear that he fully supported Elon Musk and DOGE:
“Thank you, Elon. He’s working very hard. He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. Thank you very much, we appreciate it. Everybody here — even this side appreciates it, I believe. They just don’t want to admit that.” (1:27:52- 1:28:06)
And with that, he spent several minutes listing what he described as "appalling waste” identified by the DOGE team.
“$22 billion from H.H.S. to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens.” (1:28:16-19)
$8 million to promote L.G.B.T.Q.I.+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.” (1:28:40-1:28:50)
“8 million for making mice transgender — this is real.” (1:29:02-1:29:05)
“$32 million for a left-wing propaganda operation in Moldova.” (1:29:10-1:29:15)
“Under the Trump administration, all of these scams — and there are far worse — but I didn’t think it was appropriate to talk about them. They’re so bad. Many more have been found out and exposed and swiftly terminated by a group of very intelligent, mostly young people headed up by Elon, and we appreciate it. We found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.” (1:31:00-1:31:25)
Now, with that, there’s absolutely zero evidence that DOGE has uncovered hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud – and it’s up for debate whether you consider these programs – which are often mischaracterized by Trump and Musk – as “waste.”
But with that, DOGE itself has only claimed to have generated $105 billion in savings –
And of course, that’s a figure that they haven’t really been able to prove.
Right, the New York Times, notably, has found that DOGE has erroneously reported savings based on contracts that had already ended and miscalculated numbers.
PART 2
But in any case, moving on, another point we should touch on? Tariffs.
Right, which is obviously a big topic right now since Trump imposed sweeping 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico, as well as new tariffs on China, yesterday.
Of course, many economists have warned that a trade war won’t benefit anyone.
And with that, we immediately saw the markets taking a massive hit – erasing a lot of the post-election gains, especially as countries have begun responding with tariffs of their own.
But Trump defended the tariffs and warned that reciprocal tariffs would go into effect on April 2.
“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries.” @1:42:54-1:43:01
He went on to highlight some of the tariffs US products face, such as an over 100% tariff on American automobiles in India.
As well as an average tariff in South Korea of over four-times what the US has on South Korea.
But there’s been pushback on that, with some Indian outlets claiming it’s not that high and instead the highest tariff is 70%... which is still VERY high for a tariff.
And South Korean officials pointing out that tariffs on American cars are “effectively zero percent.”
Regardless, Trump went on to say:
“Whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal, back and forth. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them. If they do nonmonetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do nonmonetary barriers to keep them out of our market.” @1:44:13-1:44:38
And with all that, Trump somewhat acknowledged there could be a negative economic impact but downplayed it and continued to insist it’d be beneficial:
“Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again, and it is happening and it will happen rather quickly. There will be a little disturbance, but we are OK with that. It won’t be much.” (@1:51:11-1:51:22)
It’s notable that we’re now seeing many members of the Republican party – long a party that has staunchly supported free trade – applauding the tariffs.
Right, it really goes to show how much Trump has bent the party around him.
And on that note, Republicans and Congress are now working on a massive tax and spending bill focused on clearing the way for key elements of Trump’s domestic agenda.
And so, in his speech, he also went over what he wants to see in that.
With the big thing being just cutting taxes.
And the next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody.” (1:39:11-1:39:19)
“...We’re seeking permanent income tax cuts all across the board. And to get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation, I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors. (1:40:04-1:40:23)
But with that, shifting now to foreign policy, we should talk about Ukraine.
Right, as we’ve gone over, Trump has recently blamed Ukraine for the war, yelled at its President in the Oval Office, and yesterday, he temporarily suspended the delivery of all American military aid to Ukraine.
But in his speech, while he did start off by complaining about how much aid the US has sent, overstating the amount by a couple hundred billion, he also dialed back the rhetoric against Zelensky a bit.
Reacting positively to a social media post earlier – which Trump referred to as a letter – in which Zelensky voiced regret for Friday’s blowup and said he was ready to begin peace talks.
“I appreciate that he sent this letter. I just got it a little while ago. Simultaneously we’ve had serious discussions with Russia. Then I’ve received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn’t that be beautiful? Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”
“It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end the senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.” (2:33:01-2:33:15; 2:33:35-2:33:47)
Speaking of international takeovers:
The Danish prime minister has described Trump’s call for the U.S. to purchase Greenland as “absurd.”
While Greenland’s pro-independence prime minister said his people don’t want to be Americans.
A massive majority of Greenlanders — about 85 percent according to a recent poll— oppose the idea of becoming part of the United States.
But despite that, Trump said:
“And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. We strongly support your right to determine your own future. And if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America.” @2:26:13-2:26:25
The part about “self determination” is probably the only part of this that the Danish foreign minister didn’t oppose.
But the rest kind of undermined that, as Trump made it clear that the US will get Greenland “one way or the other:”
We need Greenland for national security and even international security. And we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it. But we need it really for international world security. And I think we’re going to get it — one way or the other, we’re going to get it. We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.” @2:25:26-2:26:53
And with that, still talking about Trump’s territorial ambitions outside the US, he also talked again about “reclaiming” the Panama Canal
“We didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama. We’re taking it back.” (2:25:02-2:25:05)
And with that, he referenced recent news that a Hong Kong-based company has agreed to sell its stake in two Panama Canal ports to American as well as Swiss investors –
Pointing to this as evidence that he’s already started reclaiming the canal.
But of course, we’ll have to wait and see if that works out, and if it does, whether it satisfies Trump.
And besides that, of course, there’s a whole lot more we could talk about with this speech.
Like I said, it was exceptionally long, and we haven’t gone over every issue discussed, or fact-checked every claim he made.
Though, on that note, I will say, there are plenty of fact-checks out there and as usual Trump made an impressive number of false or misleading claims if you’re interested in that.
PART 3: Slotkin Response
But where I’ll finish this is talking about the final response from the Democrats.
With Elissa Slotkin, a first-term Senator from Michigan, delivering her party’s rebuttal from the city of Wyandotte –
Which, notably, as she pointed out, both her and Trump won in November.
And with that, she started her speech trying to emphasize the common ground that she says still exists between Democratic and Republican voters.
“It might not seem like it, but plenty of places like this still exist all across the United States – places where people believe that if you work hard, and play by the rules, you should do well and your kids do better.
It reminds me of how I grew up. My dad was a lifelong Republican, my mom a lifelong Democrat. But it was never a big deal. Because we had shared values that were bigger than any one party.” (0:56-1:19)
And from there, you had Slotkin acknowledging that “Americans want change” – also saying she was on board the idea of improving government efficiency and cutting waste, but adding:
“....there is a responsible way to make change, and a reckless way. And, we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country, and as a democracy.” (1:32-1:41)
And with that, she shifted to criticism of Trump, claiming he hasn’t come up with a “credible plan” to deal with rising prices –
And adding that his policies, including tariffs, will actually leave most people even worse off than they are now – with the exception being the super rich:
“President Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends. He’s on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America. And to do that, he’s going to make you pay in every part of your life.” (2:56-3:10)
And besides economic issues, you had her raising concerns about national security, as well as accusing Trump of pitting Americans against each other rather than bringing them together.
Finally, urging people to to take action to preserve American democracy – including by staying engaged, holding elected officials accountable, and organizing.
But with all that, gotta pass the question off to you? What do you think about Slotkin’s response? And what do you think about Trump’s speech?
Both the general tone-slash-unusually partisan nature of the speech overall?
But also any specific policy area that we did or didn’t get a chance to go over.
-
Imagine being a remote worker and being told you need to go back to the office only to find out it’s not equipped to handle workers at all.
That’s the exact situation many federal workers across the country are finding themselves in right now after President Trump ended work-from-home for federal workers.
In some cases, it’s led to really awkward work set ups, such as in the Department of Defense where a ton of people were forced to work in a conference room together since it was the only room with wifi. []
Small problem: someone on that team dealt with highly sensitive information and whenever they had to make a call, every else had to leave.
Eventually, they were moved into a separate office, but then they didn’t have wifi and were forced to use their phone’s hotspot.
(Which if you’ve ever used you’ll know is notoriously “meh.”)
They told CNN, “The only thing a return to the office has given me is an hour of traffic while driving and a loss in efficiency.” []
And then over in Dallas, it’s being reported that a Department of Education building was left with ethernet cables all over the floor and random wires sticking out of the wall.[]
Motion detectors for lights were also not working, leading to people being forced to work in the dark.
Eventually a woman tripped over some cables and reportedly cut her foot up real bad, leading to a worker’s comp claim.
And those were the workers who were lucky enough to have buildings at all.
In a few cases, officials at the Interior Department and the General Services Administration -- which actually manages federal buildings -- hadn’t been coordinating when leases would end.[]
For example, in the Western US, at least two buildings used by the Department of the Interior no longer had leases.
The GSA has tried to alleviate these closures with a “Space Match” program which allows agencies with emptier offices to host workers from other departments who don’t live near their offices.[]
For example, you work for the DoJ but don’t live near a DoJ building because you are remote.
Instead, the closest building is a Department of the Interior and you go there to work.
But even that is falling apart because of the GSA once again not coordinating leases.
And some administrators are learning that their leases will be up as early as June… causing massive confusion about where exactly everyone is supposed to work. []
All of which has led some workers to saying things like:
“We don’t really know what this means. We can’t telework, but we aren’t going to have an office in a couple of months?” []
This is an issue that will probably just grow, since DOGE has bragged about canceling more than 200 leases.
This includes offices for the Social Security Administration and the US Attorneys’ Offices.
And the Federal Government currently has hundreds of buildings that could go up for sale soon. []
A lot of this should have been foreseen, since even before Trump took office, it was known that the government was downsizing office spaces due to work-from-home.
Such as in 2024, when it was revealed that the Department of Veterans Affairs reduced their office space in DC by 16% between 2020 and 2022.
That resulted in saving $15 million annually.| []
Also, it’s not like workers were never going to the office.
Reportedly, only 10% of federal workers were fully remote.
And a 2024 OMB report found that workers who did have some work-from-home spent 60% of their time in the office… although that does vary agency-by-agency.[]
Not to mention that the Biden administration was shooting for workers to be in office at least 50% of the time, so it’s not like people were just never showing up.
Many return-to-work orders have been delayed and there’s a suspicion across many workers it’s simply because officials have realized they have nowhere to go.
All that has fed a real fear though that heavy layoffs are coming, with one worker telling CNN,
“The only way RTO (return-to-office) works in these types of situations is if you now reduce the number of people.” []
Stepping back a bit, there are reasonable arguments on both sides for requiring workers in office vs. work-from-home.
And it’s probably largely dependent on what the job is.
But even if you demand return-to-office for federal employees, it shouldn’t be too controversial to admit that this is a bit messy.
We’ll probably find out in a few weeks and months just how much this impacted the federal workforce… and from there it’ll probably be years to see the lasting impact.
-
And for your DeFranco prescribed good news story for the day, you should be saying “f*ck” more.
Right, according to Richard Stephens, a researcher and senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University in England, swearing is actually good for you.
With him calling it, quote, “a drug-free, calorie-neutral, cost-free means of self-help.” []
Back in 2009, Stephens and his colleagues published their first article linking swearing with a reduced sensitivity to pain.
This study centered on a cold pressor task - with researchers asking participants to hold their hands in ice water for as long as possible while repeating either a curse word of their choice or another non-swear word. []
At the end of the day, this experiment associated swearing with both an increased pain tolerance and a decreased perception of pain altogether.
More studies quickly showed similar effects - like in 2020, Stephens looked specifically into the use of the word “fuck” and how it compared to a neutral word or a made-up curse like “twizpipe.” []
And there, they also found that swearing was linked to an increased pain tolerance.
But it isn’t just pain - the Washington Post reports that swearing has also been linked to bolstered social bonds, improved memory, and it even eases the sting of exclusion or rejection.
With Olly Robertson, a psychology researcher at the University of Oxford, saying,
“Neurologically, the pathways for physical pain and emotional pain are the same. So when you have heartbreak, it’s the same neural structures. It’s the same biological blueprint, and that’s why it feels so visceral, because it literally is.” []
But more recently, swearing has been linked to increased strength.
With Stephens in 2018 finding a link between swearing and participant strength during an anaerobic power test on a bike. []
The caveat to that is they couldn’t find physiological evidence that supported this link so Stephens thinks that it's more psychological, saying,
“My research has been trying to understand what’s the psychological mechanism by which swearing brings about these effects, both for pain and for physical strength.” []
So are you practically invincible if you use sentence enhancers every other word? What’s the proper swearing dosage?
According to Nick Washmuth, professor of physical therapy at Samford University in Alabama, if you want to use swearing to increase your pain tolerance, you should start a little bit at a time. []
Saying,
“If no word comes to mind, the f-word is the most commonly self-selected swear word by participants in these studies and is considered one of the most powerful swear words out there. Swear at a steady pace once a second to once every three seconds, at a normal speech volume.” []
But for those of you who don’t want to be dropping f-bombs at the doctor’s office, Washmuth is currently studying whether internal swearing could have the same effect. []
So we’ll have to watch out for the results of that.
In the meantime, what is your go-to curse word? When you stub your toe or something, what’s the default 4 letter word for you?
Level up your health at ARMRA and use code DEFRANCO at checkout to get up to 15% off your first order.
