TREE HOUSE NEWS 🏡

NEWS AGGREGATOR & COMMENTARY

May Great Spirit bless 🙏

Today it's raining, with an expected high of 55.4°F, which feels like a cool day in Florida. I went to see my dentist yesterday, and it was mostly nice and sunny and mild. I will have three more appointments and should be getting my dentures by mid-February. Good, then I can eat chips, hot dogs, and hamburgers, and you wanna bet the barbecue will definitely get fired up for a steak. We fried steaks, chicken, fish, and hamburgers all winter out there on the barbecue last winter. On a nice sunny day with no wind, it's nice to sit out there, like I did yesterday. Sitting in the sun, drinking hot tea, and scrolling through my phone. Yesterday was a beautiful porch day.

I'm feeling fine, and everything is going well here this morning with me and Bobbie McGee, my imaginary friend. Follow your dreams, they say, and I said, OK, and went back to bed 😁 Na I'm up for the day, except maybe for a wee nap this afternoon. I call that going back to my childhood. At grade school, I had recess; in retirement, I have naps and dream about recess 😂 I like it when I feel good; it helps crank up the funny-bone stuff. That will be about it from my morning report here at the Newsroom.

BREAKING NEWS:

NASA chief announces 1st-ever medical evacuation from space station, Crew-11 to come home early

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuN4tBooNkY

Viral?

Anyway, here goes with Today's Discussion:

- PROJECT 2025 -

Got a little curious about this Elusive Topic Project 2025, I was particularly looking for names. I took out my magnifying glass and trench coat and did some further research in the darkness of the wee hours of this morning. Then out came the corn cob pipe, chalk in hand, at the blackboard to draw out the forensic details of the crime scene. A complete map showing where all the crooks are 🤣

TODAY'S DISCUSSION:

WHAT IS PROJECT 2025

Brief Outline Below:

Project 2025 (also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project is a political initiative published in April 2023 by the heritage Foundation with the goal of reshaping the U.S. federal government by consolidating executive power in favor of right wing policies, It constitutes a policy document that suggests specific changes to the federal government, a personnel database for recommending vetting loyal staff in the federal government, and a set of proposed executive orders for the U.S. president to implement those policies.

The project's policy document Mandate for Leadership^[7] calls for the replacement of federal civil service workers by people loyal to "the next conservative president" and for taking partisan control of the Department of justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Comerce (DOC), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Education (ED), would be dismantled.^[9] It calls for reducing environmental regulations and realigning the National Institute of Health (NIH) with conservative priorities. The blueprint seeks to reduce taxes on corporations, institute a flat income tax on individuals, cut Medicare and Medicade and reverse as many of President Joe Biden's Joe Biden policies as possible. It proposes banning pornography, removing legal protections against anti-LGBT discrimination and ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs while having the DOJ prosecute anti white racism The project recommends mass deportation of illegal immigrants The plan also proposes enacting laws supported by the Christian rights such as criminalizing the sending and receiving of abortion and birth control medications and eliminating coverage of emergency contraception.

 

Background

 

Kevin Roberts president of the Heritage Foundation, established Project 2025 with the goal of "building a governing agenda, not just for next January but long into the future"

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank founded in 1973, has had significant influence in U.S. public policy making. In 2019, it ranked among the most influential public policy organizations in the United States. It coordinates with many conservative groups to build a network of allies.

 

The Heritage Foundation is closely aligned with Trump.^] The project's president, Kevin Roberts, sees the organization's current role as "institutionalizing Trumpism At a 2022 Heritage Foundation dinner, Trump endorsed the organization, saying it was "going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do ... when the American people give us a colossal mandate." Roberts said in April 2024 that he had talked to Trump about Project 2025; the Trump campaign denied this.

 

Vice President JD Vance wrote the foreword to Roberts's book Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America. Some have claimed that Vance is connected to Project 2025 through shared views on policy matters.

 

Project 2025 was established in 2022 with Paul Dans as director to provide the 2024 Republican presidential nominee with a personnel database and ideological framework. According to the Johnson Amendment, 501(c) organizations like Heritage cannot explicitly promote a particular election candidate. The Heritage Foundation spent $22 million preparing staffing recommendations for a conservative government in 2025. This was much more than what the group typically does for its staffing recommendations because President Trump said he had terrible staff during his first term. Citing the Reagan-era maxim that "personnel is policy", some political commentators have argued that personnel is the most important aspect of Project 2025.

 

A Few More Names:

 

May 2024, Russel Vought was named policy director of the Republican National Committee Republican National Commitee platform committee. The Center for Renewing America (CRA)

Steven Miller In November 2024, he was appointed as an advisor to the White House for Trump's second term.

 John McEntee, a senior advisor for Project 2025 and former Trump aide.

Christopher Miller wrote the Mandate's chapter on the Department of Defense.

Peter Navarro, one of Mandate's authors, was appointed Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing.

 

Key leaders

Associate project director Spencer Chretien, associate director of presidential personnel during Trump's first term^] said it was "past time to lay the groundwork for a White House more friendly to the right"

 

On July 2, 2024, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts created controversy by saying, "we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be." Shortly afterward, the Foundation released a statement adding, "Unfortunately, they have a well established record of instigating the opposite."

Project 2025 released a statement on July 5 saying the project "does not speak for any candidate or campaign" and that it is up to "the next conservative president" to decide which of its recommendations to implement. In July 2024, Trump reiterated his disavowal of Project 2025, but in the same month Project 2025 Director Paul Dans confirmed that his team had ongoing connections with Trump's campaign. During the week of July 29, Dans told Project staff that he would step down as director in August to focus on the election campaign. Kevin Roberts assumed leadership of the project

 

Philosophical outlook

The Mandate for Leadership outlines four main aims: restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life; dismantling the administrative state; defending the nation's sovereignty and borders; and securing God-given individual rights to live freely Roberts writes in the Mandate's foreword: "The long march of Cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before."

 

^{READ MUCH MORE:}

 

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

BREAKING NEWS:

Anti-government protests spread in Iran as authorities cut communications

Here's What we Know

• More anti-government protests broke out Friday in Iran, in the latest unrest to sweep the country. The unrest began nearly two weeks ago over crippling economic conditions, resulting in the deaths of at least 45 protesters, including eight children, Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO reports.

• Authorities cut internet access and telephone lines in Tehran and other cities after major protests on Thursday.

• Donald Trump has threatened to attack Iran if security forces kill protesters, but on Friday Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the US president should “focus on the problems of his own country.”

• The latest demonstrations are the biggest since the large-scale protests that were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the religious police in 2022.

Read More:

10 min ago

Iran’s supreme leader says protesters are trying to "please" Trump

More To Read:

Updated 10:36 AM EST, Fri January 9, 2026

- CNN -

French-U.K. Starlink rival pitches Canada on 'sovereign' satellite service for Arctic military operations

Joint project with Eutelsat promoted by French president during G7 summit

What’s behind the highly unusual move to block Minnesota officials from investigating ICE shooting

Mutual distrust between federal and state authorities derailed plans for a joint FBI and state criminal investigation into Wednesday’s shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer, leading to the highly unusual move by the Justice Department to block state investigators from participating in the probe.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Thursday that after an initial agreement for the FBI to work with the state agency, as well as prosecutors from the US Attorney’s office in Minneapolis and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, to investigate the shooting, federal authorities reversed course and the FBI blocked the BCA from participating in the investigation.

Behind the move to sever ties were concerns in the Trump administration that state officials couldn’t be trusted with information that emerges from the probe, and that ICE agents’ safety would be put at risk, including with potential doxxing of agents involved, two people familiar with the matter told CNN. The mistrust goes both ways, as state officials attacked the conduct of ICE agents and raised concerns that federal authorities can’t be trusted to fairly investigate...

• A history of state and federal cooperation:
• Investigating the driver:

Read More:

Updated Jan 9, 2026, 8:21 AM ET - 2 hr ago

- CNN -

CANADIAN NEWS:

French-U.K. Starlink rival pitches Canada on 'sovereign' satellite service for Arctic military operations

Joint project with Eutelsat promoted by French president during G7 summit

A company largely owned by the French and U.K. governments is pitching Canada on a roughly $250-million plan to provide the military with secure satellite broadband coverage in the Arctic, CBC News has learned. Eutelsat, a rival to tech billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink, already provides some services to the Canadian military, but wants to deepen the partnership as Canada looks to diversify defence contracts away from suppliers in the United States.

A proposal for Canada's Department of National Defence to join a French Ministry of Defence initiative involving Eutelsat was apparently raised by French President Emmanuel Macron with Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of last year's G7 summit in Alberta...

• 'Sovereign capacity':
• Souring on Starlink?:

Read More:

Posted: Jan 09, 2026 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

- CBC -

Fireguards to protect residents also a boon to Alberta wildlife

Bow Valley elk, grizzly bears, birds enjoy new food and open spaces

Fireguards are designed to protect people and communities by clearing land to slow the spread of wildfires. From Lake Louise through Banff and Canmore into Kananaskis Country, hundreds of hectares of forest have been removed in the last five years, with more to come.

But residents and visitors aren’t the only ones benefitting. Wildlife such as elk, grizzly bears and birds are also taking advantage of the work...

WATCH | 83 hectares of trees being felled around Canmore Nordic Centre to reduce wildfire risk:

• Short-term disruption, long-term gain:
• Avoiding wildlife impact:
• Wildlife use open spaces to move:

Read More:

Posted: Jan 09, 2026 6:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

- CBC -

French-U.K. Starlink rival pitches Canada on 'sovereign' satellite service for Arctic military operations