Posted by: 3dc ||
02/05/2025 03:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10327 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
Alex Jones on this story
BREAKING: USAID Was Secretly Funding The BBC To Run Anti-Trump/Musk Reporting Similar To The $300 Million Given By The Biden Administration To Reuters To Target Musk!
#7
USAID employee says staffers hid pride flags, 'incriminating' books when DOGE arrived
This means they are smarter than they look. The Petulant Child would have doubled down and made a big deal about their "You're not the boss of me!" defiance.
I wonder if any USAID money goes to National People's Radio (NPR). Not directly, of course, but via intermediaries.
A standard NPR trope is that they are not government funded but "listener-supported, by people like you", which is kinda sorta true. Basically, the grift is USAID, etc. gives money to The Center for Media Excellence which makes a grant to the Media Excellence Center which passes out cash to local NGOs, QUANGOs, and fellow travelers who all make donations to NPR during the multiple pledge weeks. See, people like you! And a generous grant from YOUR NAME HERE.
#11
Donors look like less than 15M pounds, out of a total budget of about 2500M pounds.
Just to put it in perspective.
Posted by: James ||
02/05/2025 16:17 Comments ||
Top||
#12
I don’t like federal funding of public television. I like the Feds funding someone else’s television even less. You can’t even argue that the BBC was producing Pro-US propaganda. They can hate us for free.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/05/2025 17:24 Comments ||
Top||
[FoxBusiness] Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered his country's state-run oil company to sell off its operations in the U.S. on Tuesday, saying they would reinvest the funds into green energy.
Petro announced the move during a televised cabinet meeting this week, arguing the company, Ecopetrol, cannot be "for death and not for life." The order relates to a planned joint venture between Ecopetrol and the U.S.-owned oil company Occidental Petroleum, or Oxy. The deal was set to produce some 90,000 barrels of oil per day, but Petro now says he opposes it because it relies on fracking.
"I want that operation to be sold, and for the money to be invested in clean energies," Petro said in the meeting. "We are against fracking, because fracking is the death of nature, and the death of humanity."
"There is no other way for humanity but to stop the path of fossil fuels," he added. "This is not happening because the oil companies are beating us, because we are afraid of them. I am not afraid of them."
The move comes just weeks after Petro backed down to President Donald Trump and allowed the U.S. to move forward with deporting Colombian illegal immigrants out of the U.S. and back to their home country.
In late January, American officials sent two flights of Colombian illegal immigrants as part of Trump's deportation program. Petro rejected the flights, writing that the U.S. cannot "treat Colombian migrants as criminals." Trump struck back immediately, vowing 25% tariffs on all goods from Colombia, a travel ban on Colombian government officials and other steep financial sanctions. He said the tariffs would reach as high as 50% by next week and insisted the migrants being sent back were "illegal criminals."
Petro initially retaliated with his own 25% tariffs on Colombian exports into the U.S., insisting he would not accept the return of migrants who were not treated with "dignity and respect" and who had arrived shackled or on military planes. However, amid intense political pressure from within his own government, the former Marxist guerrilla fighter acquiesced to U.S. demands.
The White House confirmed later that weekend that Colombia's president had caved "to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay."
#2
I was under the impression the ironically named "Gustavo Petro" had already shut down much of the Colombian oil industry, in the name of stopping global warming.
The undercover video of that idiot can be seen at the link, providing the piece the previous article about this story lacked.
[OKeefeMediaGroup] Brandon Wright, a GS-14 Platform Services Manager for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), admitted that career officials within the department actively resist directives from political appointees, including newly appointed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
“The truth is, we don’t let them [secretaries] get in our way,” Wright disclosed to an undercover O’Keefe Media journalist. He went on to explain the deeply entrenched bureaucratic resistance within DHS, likening it to a multi-layered septic system that filters out directives it does not align with. “There’s a lot of layers, like [in] government… By the time the actual marching orders get to me and below, we can filter it in a way that steadies the ship.”
This admission exposes a deliberate effort within the department to manipulate the interpretation of policy decisions based on personal and ideological preferences, rather than faithfully executing the agenda set by elected and appointed officials. “If we don’t agree with those priorities,” Wright stated, confirming that DHS officials often redefine priorities they oppose to make them more palatable to their own perspectives: “There’s a lot of room for interpretation.”
Wright didn’t mince words about his view of Kristi Noem’s ability to lead the department, declaring: “Kristi Noem doesn’t know… She doesn’t know her ass.” He went even further, casting doubt on her competency: “The Department of Homeland Security could fall on her f*cking head, and she wouldn’t recognize what it is.”
His disdain for Noem’s leadership was clear, as he admitted: “To say that I am not excited about this would be the most epic understatement.”
The Department of Homeland Security provided the following statement to O’Keefe Media Group:
“Secretary Noem has not seen the video in its entirety. This type of behavior will not be tolerated. This person has been placed on leave and is under investigation… The senior official says the termination of the official is imminent.”
The text also includes an explicit threat, stating that 'any Justice Department attorney who declines to sign a brief, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Justice Department’s mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination.'
#2
Getting boozed up in Georgetown and talking smack on hidden camera was dumb when the first guy did it several years ago. Yet they keep doing it.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/05/2025 17:13 Comments ||
Top||
#3
...well, they're well liquored liberals. It's an ego thingy not to mention a small appendage thingy. Back in the old Soviet days it was referred to as a honey trapping.
You are going to start seeing a bunch of weird stories like this now where private companies magically can't pay their employees which should tell you where their actual funding came from. https://t.co/wKWE3J0omf
USAID top donor to the BBC The Beeb is a tax-supported organ of the British government. Why is the American government a major donor? And why am I paying monthly for the privilege of watching its shows on cable on top of that?
#1
It will be very interesting to see who suddenly has no income in the next few days and weeks… The sunshine is blinding.
I don’t like reporting secondhand info, so take this with a grain of salt. I repeat: take this story of rich liberal panic with a grain of salt.
A liberal friend of mine has a very liberal friend—let’s call him Marko. Everybody loves him. He’s rich, always relaxed, has a ton of… pic.twitter.com/SMRVugj6Vm
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The FBI is being forced by Elon Musk's DOGE to hand over the names of 5,000 officials who worked on January 6 cases.
Those officials could face being fired for failing the Trump 'loyalty test' being given to rank-and-file employees.
Officials working for Musk at DOGE were spotted by CNN entering FBI headquarters on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to collect the information.
FBI agents filed a lawsuit Tuesday trying to block the release of their names or identifying details after Trump administration officials demanded documents about who worked on January 6-related cases.
The agents say their jobs could be terminated within days.
The 'loyalty' test asks questions such as: 'What was your/your employee role in the investigation(s) or prosecutions(s) relating to events that occurred at or near the US Capitol on January 6, 2021? Select all that apply.'
It then lists a series of boxes that includes investigatory work such as surveillance, a grand jury subpoena, or an arrest.
According to the lawsuit 'the very act of compiling lists of persons who worked on matters that upset Donald Trump is retaliatory in nature.'
It said the move was 'intended to intimidate FBI agents and other personnel, and to discourage them from reporting any future malfeasance and by Donald Trump and his agents.'
The group of agents warned of 'unlawful and retaliatory' actions against them, and said the information sweep could violate civil service protections.
Last week, several top FBI and Justice Department officials who were involved in Trump investigations were pushed out.
The firing of rank-and-file agents and the heads of 20 FBI field offices was announced on Friday as those who were fired were 'escorted out.'
A source familiar said agents who worked on the Mar-a-Lago and January 6 investigations were escorted out of the Washington Field Office.
The source added that officials in charge of the DC, Miami, Seattle, New Orleans and Las Vegas field offices were removed.
The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Richard Durbin of Illinois, has written acting AG James McHenry and Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll warning about a 'purge' of experienced prosecutors which has encompassed all six FBI Executive Assistant Directors.
Acting Deputy AG Emil Bove, who previously represented President Donald Trump in his hush money case, ordered the move in a January 31 memo.
Durbin's letter says more than a dozen DOJ prosecutors were fired after getting a memo from McHenry stating: 'Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I do not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President's agenda faithfully.'
Durbin also cites a letter by Bove to Acting FBI Director Driscoll – who was accidentally appointed to the top post but kept in place anyway.
Bove told him to 'provide the names of all FBI personnel who worked on investigations related to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and an unrelated terrorism case, and warned that "additional personnel actions" could follow.'
Driscoll himself, who has gained notoriety for putting up resistance to the request, told staff in a Friday memo that 'I am one of those employees' who took part in those cases.
Specifically, he played a role in the arrest of QAnon conspiracy theorist Samuel Fisher, who was found during a raid to have a 'ghost gun,' a thousand rounds of ammunition and an illegally modified AR-15.
The 5,000 names that the Trump administration is demanding reflects the wide reach of the January 6 prosecutions, which resulted in 1,500 convictions. Trump pardoned nearly all of the defendants on his first day in office.
They are part of a nationwide workforce of 13,000 agents and 38,000 total employees, CNN reported.
According to the lawsuit by a group of FBI employees, they 'assert that the purpose for this list is to identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action.'
'Plaintiffs reasonably fear that all or parts of this list might be published by allies of President Trump, thus placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons.'
The plaintiffs 'are employees of the FBI who worked on Jan. 6 and/or Mar-a-Lago cases, and who have been informed that they are likely to be terminated in the very near future (the week of February 3-9, 2025) for such activity.'
The Mar-a-Lago case references the FBI search of Trump's Florida club before he was charged with having national security information. DOJ dropped an appeal related to that case after Trump was elected in November.
The clash comes as agents for Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have been shifting their gaze to the agency – after shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development for two consecutive days amid a major purge.
A top FBI agent has warned that his workforce is in the midst of a 'battle.'
James E Dennehy, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York field office, reportedly sent an email round in which he promised he would 'dig in' and said agents are being targeted for doing their jobs 'in accordance with the law'.
Legal commentators have noted that lower-level agents and prosecutors routinely get assigned cases and are obliged to work on them. Some of the people convicted after January 6 engaged in violent clashes with police officers.
#3
If any of you give me crap about this, check the comments posting logs with my comments. I'm NOTHING like ACA JOE but I'm getting treated the exact same way; this is beyond fucked...
#6
I have no idea what you’re going on about, Raj. Most of your comments stand, and this is the first time I’ve seen this thread, as I am still posting articles. So whatever you wrote that was objected to, I have no idea.
But being spamcopped is a common experience here, as you well know. It’s happened to me and all the other moderators as well — and in fact I have more than once spamcopped my own comments when on reflection (that should have happened before I hit submit instead of after) I realized something I wrote was strongly inappropriate and y’all deserved not to have to deal with it.
#10
In other words, what I post, innocuous and harmless as it is, is just as banned as ACA JOE. Thanks for your ever loving 'filters' you wish to blame it on.
#17
I digressed.
The fbi was arresting J6ers as late as 1/3/25. They knew those cases would go nowhere. In many of the January Arrests the fbi presented false evidence. Their intent was to injure as many Trump supporters as possible. I’m for treating said agents the same way they treated J6ers, pro lifers, those who go to Latin mass and school board protesters. Make the SA’s sorry.
#24
Raj, wrote something up a while back I wanted to share and got spamcopped, hit the Go Back on the browser and recovered my post, but could not find the naughty word. Copied the post to word and proceeded to post the write up in paragraphs until one paragraph didn't post. Challenge Mode was activated at that point and spent some 15 minutes trying to figure the copped word. Seemed rather innocuous until I thought of the other ways it could be used, and how spam was a real problem for a time.
#25
^ True. I've been here pretty much since the start and still occasionally can't post what I type. I use the back button to try and figure out the offending words. Not always successful
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2025 13:26 Comments ||
Top||
#26
It's ca$in0, Raj. Try it that way. Do you really want spam bots posting billion of ads for that stuff here? And pr0n. Try that.
#29
Given that the moderators used to have to spend hours a day madly deleting spam posts, I don’t think Fred and badanov are going to turn off the spam filter.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The White House is firing back at Democrats and union bosses who urged federal employees not to take a 'buyout' currently on the table for millions of workers.
Last month, President Donald Trump announced an offer that would allow government workers to resign and continue to be paid through September 30.
So far, around 20,000 have accepted it out of two million, Axios reported Tuesday.
The Trump White House wants to reduce the federal workforce by between 5 and 10 percent.
But the American Federation of Government Employees union is claiming the offer could be a 'trick' and Democrats have slammed it as 'scam.'
The union claims Trump and DOGE leader Elon Musk may not have the authority to make such an offer - meaning federal employees who quit might not get paid out.
Democrats including top lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee Reps. Jamie Raskin and Gerry Connolly have called the offer an 'illegal scam' and demanded Trump rescind it immediately.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has also been vocal against Trump's plans, including the buyout and the federal funding freeze he called 'evil.'
'The American people will not stand for an un-elected secret group to run rampant through the executive branch,' Schumer said about DOGE on Tuesday.
'Being innovative is good, but Mr. Musk, this isn't a tech startup. These are public institutions.'
But the Trump administration's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) pushed back on those fears in a statement to DailyMail.com.
'Union leaders and politicians telling federal workers to reject this offer are doing them a serious disservice,' spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover said. 'This is a rare, generous opportunity - one that was thoroughly vetted and intentionally designed to support employees through restructuring.'
Pinover added: 'Instead of spreading misinformation and using workers as political pawns, they should be making sure federal employees have the facts and freedom to make the best decision for themselves and their families,' she added.
Katie Miller, the wife of top Trump aide Stephen Miller, who is now working on an advisory board for DOGE, confirmed that the buyout email was being sent out to 'more than TWO MILLION federal employees.'
The Washington Post reported Tuesday on an email sent to employees of the General Services Administration saying that layoffs across the federal government are 'likely.'
The OPM memo also warned that it would be subjecting federal employees to 'enhanced standards of suitability and conduct' and gave notice to the workforce that there would be additional downsizing down the line.
This wording gave union leadership pause.
'Purging the federal government of dedicated career federal employees will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government,' AFGE union President Everett Kelley said.
'Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration's goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to,' he said.
Others warned that the buyout deal might not stick.
'There's no budget line item to pay people who are not showing up for work,' said Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine during a Senate floor speech last week. 'Don't be fooled. He's tricked hundreds of people with that offer.'
If you accept that offer and resign, he'll stiff you just like he stiffed the contractors,' Kaine said.
An OPM source countered that claim saying the Deferred Resignation Program was 'not a hastily assembled program.'
'It has undergone extensive legal review by experts in the field to ensure fairness and compliance,' the source said. 'This is a rare opportunity - not a buyout or a loophole - but a deliberate effort to provide employees with financial stability as agencies adjust their workforce.'
Thursday is the deadline for federal employees to decide.
#7
Poor Senator Schumer is bilious about the fact that Bibi didn’t pay court to him this trip — something about Chuckie organizing his fellow Democrats to mortally insult him the last time he was in town … not to mention conniving with the Biden administration to freeze weapons shipments over there to hobble Israel’s war.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Six baby-faced men with little-to-no government experience have been handpicked by Elon Musk to help him dismantle America's foreign aid agency.
The billionaire Tesla founder was appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency after months of campaigning with President Donald Trump during the election.
Now, Musk has taken over and enlisted a troupe of men aged 19-25 - three of whom are believed to still be in college - to fill high-powered engineering roles and cut costs.
At just 19, Edward Coristine is the youngest of the fresh-faced bunch taking on corporate America and longstanding government institutions.
According to WIRED, he's been dubbed an 'expert' in his field, and specifics about his role aren't yet clear.
Akash Bobba, 21, Ethan Shaotran, 22, and Luke Farritor, 23, along with Coristine, have reportedly been granted A-suite level clearance for their work, meaning they can work out of the agency's top floor with access to all physical spaces and IT systems.
Musk's DOGE has been rapidly growing in power and expanding its remit, most recently securing clearance to access to restricted parts of the General Services Administration buildings and IT systems. These systems store sensitive data including social security numbers, addresses and contact information.
The oldest of the bunch is 25-year-old Berkeley graduate Gavin Kliger, who while not identified as having top level clearance has already proven he wields significant power.
Finally, Gautier Cole Killian has been named for his role with DOGE, which is reportedly on a 'volunteer' basis at this stage.
After widespread criticism about the men's youth, Musk released a statement about the appointments.
'Time to confess: Media reports saying that DOGE has some of world's best software engineers are in fact true,' Musk wrote on X.
GAVIN KLIGER, 25
Kliger was named by the New York Times as the account holder behind a controversial company-wide email sent to employees at USAid. The Berkeley graduate reportedly instructed all employees at the agency not to return to Washington headquarters on Monday.
Meanwhile, up to 600 staff began reporting they were being locked out of their work computer systems. The reports were similar to those experienced by Twitter employees during Musk's takeover and the transition to X.
Kliger has since published a Substack article - which subscribers can read for $12 per month - titled: 'Why DOGE. Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America.'
Matt Hopson, who Trump appointed as the new chief of staff at USAid, reportedly resigned after the incident. Trump has ordered a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance.
Trump said the department had been 'run by a bunch of radical lunatics', insisting he is simply 'getting them out, and then we'll make a decision.'
The agency spends about $70billion a year in foreign aid. Projects include HIV/Aids treatments and encouraging women's health in conflict zones.
LUKE FARRITOR, 23
Luke Farritor has a known link to Musk already, having interned for SpaceX prior to landing his new gig.
Farritor dropped out of the University of Nebraska in order to begin working for Nat Friedman, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur behind GitHub. Friedman described Farritor as 'a national treasure' after his appointment with DOGE was made public.
He won part of a $700,000 prize in 2024 after using AI technology to help decipher a 2,000 year old document - part of the Vesuvius scrolls from Pompeii - which scientists had been trying, and failing, to solve for centuries. The charred scroll was believed burnt beyond recognition.
EDWARD CORISTINE, 19
The youngest of Musk's elite squad is just 19 and a student at Northeastern University in Boston. Coristine reportedly interned at Musk's Neuralink for three months last summer, after graduating high school.
Little is known about Coristine's role at DOGE, however he is listed as an 'expert.'
WIRED cited sources alleging Coristine has been conducting calls with staff in the department and making them 'go over code they had written and justify their jobs.' Employees were allegedly confused by his inclusion in the meetings, and later expressed concerns that they were not properly briefed on his identity or role, even during the call.
Coristine's father, Charles, is the CEO of popcorn empire, LesserEvil. Coristine once worked as a team member for the brand.
Up until recently, Coristine reportedly used a social media handle named '@EdwardBigBaller.'
AKASH BOBBA, 21
Bobba is another 'expert' within the department still studying at the University of California, Berkeley. According to a former LinkedIn account, which has since been deleted, Bobba was an investment engineering intern at a hedge fund. He had also previously interned for Meta and Palantir - who was founded by 2016 MAGA donor, Peter Thiel.
Just six years ago, Bobba was the organizer behind the Princeton Junction, New Jersey, local model United Nations. His father is an academic in computer science.
ETHAN SHAOTRAN, 22
Shaortran founded Energize AI - a scheduling assistant for professionals. The startup earned a $100,000 grant from OpenAI in 2023.
The 22-year-old said in September he was a senior at Harvard University, and was reportedly working in the school's computing lab on autonomous vehicles. Musk is famously trying to develop self-driving cars at his Tesla headquarters.
Shaortran is part of the Harvard Mountaineering Club and worked as a scuba divemaster in Hawaii over a gap year.
He also has a unique link to Musk, having participated in his xAI 'hackathon'. He and his team were runner ups after they used xAI's Grok to create plausible responses from X followers to a hypothetical question.
GAUTIER COLE KILLIAN, 24
Killian was working as an engineer at Jump Trading, which specializes in high-frequency financial trades and algorithms. Now, he is reportedly working as a 'volunteer' with DOGE, although in what capacity remains unclear.
The 24-year-old graduated McGill University.
MUSK'S DOGE BOASTS SWEEPING POWER
Musk is leading an extraordinary civilian review of the federal government with Trump's agreement.
'It became apparent that it's not an apple with a worm it in,' Musk said in a live session on X Spaces early Monday.
'What we have is just a ball of worms. You've got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It's beyond repair.'
#2
Perhaps I am swimming against the tide, but please show me the authority Musk has for invading gov’t spaces, unleashing an army of unvetted whatevers to dive into our country’s finance and personnel records. I have seen nowhere that these people seire any sort of oath of loyalty to the US as I did when serving or Mrs. Ret in her gov’t career; to me it looks like a rabble not much different from a a smash and grab in a jewelry store. And nobody has said one word about the obvious conflict of interest musk has in accessing contracts; do his competitors get a courtesy copy of the same data? Yes I voted for Trump over the Word Salad Queen but not for this ransacking of the gov’t. Musk reminds me of a little yippy ankle biter dog always in the way that you just want to kick away but refrain out of civility.
Not saying things need to be done but it appears that there is only one tool in Musk’s
hand, and that is a hammer and he sees everything as a nail.
Leaving the legality of these civilian gov’t worker buyout/ loyalty oath/firings for another time.
#4
/\ I can see where you're coming from USN Ret, but I suspect Musk is trying to prevent what we're seeing currently in South Africa, from happening here. His folks and other family members (still living there) are probably giving him rather frightening SITREPS.
The recent USAID revelations (which many suspected were happening), is enough to turn DOGE lose on my county commissioner.
'Elon Musk is mounting a blitzkrieg-style administrative coup of the US government, accessing and editing critical systems that manage everything from Social Security payments to private taxpayer information,' said Clinton, who attempted to hide the deletion of over 30,000 emails from her private server.
#7
Thanks, B, but last I checked there were only 3 branches of thr government, not some renegade privateer. Jan. 6 folks were arrested and locked up for causing a ruckus in the Capital, but not one bit of law enforcement action for Musk’s actions. Please, anyone show where this doge thing is legal. Because Trump says so?
Trump ain’t a king so he doesn’t get to make the rules.
And the testicullarly challenged Congress that continues to not even question him scares me also.
#9
Please, anyone show where this doge thing is legal. Because Trump says so?
Trump ain’t a king so he doesn’t get to make the rules.
He is the Executive in charge of the Executive Branch that these minions work under. They derive any authority through his delegated power. Musk doesn't make decisions on firings or Department eliminations. He is bringing the Bobs to ask: "Just what is it you do here?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2025 11:28 Comments ||
Top||
#10
DOGE is legal because it is a re-naming of an Obama office to improve software efficiency. Twitchy
Trump did his homework.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2025 11:54 Comments ||
Top||
#11
^If it were Illegal, wouldn't SCOTUS be very busy now?
You have a good point. Starting in the 90s, the Federal Govt. started having contractors deeply involved in policy in many of the cabinet departments and sometimes action instructions were issued by these contractors without the signature of actual government employees. Mostly, this was stopped under W.
It is certainly legal for contract employees or, for that matter, non employees, to draft proposals, instructions, contracts, etc. However, the final product should be signed by someone with authority to sign it.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/05/2025 12:02 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Musk and his minions haven't "invaded" anything. They are RESEARCHERS, uncovering the byzantine schemes various agencies have used to funnel and hide money...and what many agencies (FBI, et al) have done to weaken America. They are reporting what they discover back to Trump. HE will take action, or not...his call.
Posted by: Go DOGE! ||
02/05/2025 12:16 Comments ||
Top||
#14
I'm glad USN, Ret. asked the question. An opportunity to learn!
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2025 13:07 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Responding to Go DOGE: reporting is one thing, duplicating/modifying gov’t code is another.
Thanks.
#16
All that legal stuff does not compute for my brain, so good find, Bobby.
I had been thinking of the DOGE group as merely outside auditors, the kind private businesses are required to bring in to examine and certify the work done by the accounting department and the internal auditors. What I have been finding comforting is the kinds of things revealed by DOGE that the departments and inside auditors — so many of whom President Trump recently fired — have been ignoring, glossing over, or conniving to achieve. Not having had a sworn duty, USN, Ret’s concerns had not occurred to me.
#20
#17 unless the judge can show Congressional legislation that authorized it, it's a violation of separation of powers for them to butt in. That's a problem they're going to face. If it was done by EO it can be undone by EO.
When they tell us who was putting EOs in front of Biden to sign for the last 2 years, then I'll worry about what Trumps agents, Musk Inc., are doing. Those people had no more authority over the government than the DOGE boys, but it was all shoved under the carpet.
#21
All that said, it has come to this point, and if there isn't a plan with such issues already internally addressed, its one hell of a bluff, and in its way they are ceding the authority to DOGE up front like they know they are cooked.
#22
" Perhaps I am swimming against the tide, but please show me the authority Musk has for invading gov’t spaces, unleashing an army of unvetted whatevers to dive into our country’s finance and personnel records."
Since Obama already handed over the OPM database to chairman Xi, we've already had the worst case scenario with our government abusing to death two million or so people at his direction. We swallowed the camel, it's time to stop choking to death on gnats.
#3
"The Kentucky state Legislature passed legislation on Thursday that would change how vacancies in the U.S. Senate are filled, over the objections of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.
The Republican-sponsored bill, which would require a special election to choose a senator in the case of an open seat in the unexpired term, passed with bipartisan support as the Legislature nears the end of its session. It passed both chambers with veto-proof majorities."
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2025 17:50 Comments ||
Top||
#6
"Falls down" or was shoved ?
Reminds me of the Far Side where the guy walks under a piano held up by a rope, and God is on a computer watching it happen, ready to press the let it fall key.
[FoxNews] The visit comes one day after California lawmakers approved $25 million in legal funding to challenge the Trump administration.
I thought the president already made clear his price for giving California aid: Mandatory voter ID and cooperation on arresting illegals, if I recall correctly. They can’t offer turning on the water spigot, because the president already did that last week. And he already forced the mayor of LA to let Palisades residents access their homes and start cleaning up, so that’s off the table, too.
#1
CA mismanaged COVID and transportation funds. Giving them more money without accountability for previous waste is ill advised. Mismanaging state forestry and fire prevention does not get you more funds.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/05/2025 17:18 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Geologically speaking, Los Angeles is not even part of North America. Maybe Trump should offer to buy it.
Unless Gavin does something amazing, he has burned his chances for the Dem presidential slot.
🚨BREAKING: Reports are coming out that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is unwilling to vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel.
Let's send him a message... if you think that Senator McConnell should vote to confirm them, leave a "👍" in the comments. pic.twitter.com/eRz6nSruJs
And another one refuses to support Trump: Senator Cassidy (R-LA)
🚨BREAKING: Reports are coming out that Senator Cassidy (R-LA) is unwilling to vote to confirm RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary.
Let's send him a message... if you think that Senator Bill Cassidy should vote to confirm RFK Jr., leave a "👍" in the comments. pic.twitter.com/xInNZkBlng
Indianapolis, IN 46240
(317) 226-6700
New Albany, IN 47150
(812) 542-4820
Fort Wayne, IN 46802
(317) 226-6700
Valparaiso, IN 46383
(219) 747-7780
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-5623
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Elon Musk teased the next target for his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) crackdown may be the Internal Revenue Service.
The world's richest man asked his army of X followers in an informal poll whether they would like to see the IRS audited by DOGE, which received a staggering 94.3 percent support.
Musk's post comes days after Donald Trump vowed to terminate almost 90,000 IRS workers who had been hired under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a pledge that received huge cheers as he spoke at a rally in Las Vegas.
'They hired - were trying to hire 88,000 new workers to go with you, and we're in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them or maybe we move them to the border,' the President said to raucous applause.
'I think we're going to move them to the border where they are allowed to carry guns. You know, they're so strong on guns. But these people are allowed to carry guns. So, we will probably move them to the border.'
Musk's post was met with widespread support, as just five percent of people said 'no' among millions of voters in the poll's first hours.
If carried out, the IRS would join a growing list of federal agencies and government-funded organizations that have already felt DOGE's influence in the early days of Trump's second presidency.
After gutting a raft of government spending in DOGE's first moves, attention turned this week to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which Musk branded a 'criminal organization.'
[FoxNews] The lawsuit seeks an immediate injunction to delay President Trump's executive order.
A group of seven families, as well as LGBTQ+ advocates and medical organizations, have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his administration over an executive order to ban federal funding for transgender healthcare for individuals under the age of 19.
The lawsuit was filed in Baltimore federal court and seeks an immediate injunction to delay the implementation of Trump’s executive order from last week.
"Over the past week, hospitals across the country have abruptly halted medical care for transgender people under nineteen, canceling appointments and turning away some patients who have waited years to receive medically necessary care for gender dysphoria," the lawsuit reads.
"This sudden shutdown in care was the direct and immediate result of an Executive Order that President Trump issued on January 28, 2025 — Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation — directing all federal agencies to ‘immediately take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving Federal research or education grants end gender-affirming medical care for people under nineteen (the "Denial of Care Order")."
The denial of care order follows on the heels of another executive order Trump signed on Jan. 20, 2025, to defend women from gender ideology extremism and restore biological truth to the federal government.
The group of plaintiffs claims executive orders are unlawful and unconstitutional, saying the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse.
"The president does not have unilateral power to withhold federal funds that have been previously authorized by Congress and signed into law, and the President does not have the power to impose his own conditions on the use of funds when Congress has not delegated to him the power to do so," the lawsuit reads. "President Trump’s directives to cut off funding have had concrete and immediate effects. Hospitals across the country, including those that have provided medical care to the Transgender Plaintiffs, have ended the provision of ongoing and essential gender-affirming medical care to transgender patients under nineteen because of the Executive Orders."
The lawsuit is the latest to come out of Trump’s recently signed executive orders relating to gender.
The executive orders, signed in late January, include a reinstatement of the ban on transgender troops in the military, a ban on federal funding for sex changes for minors and a directive requiring federal agencies to recognize only "two sexes," male and female, in official standard of conduct.
"This ban betrays fundamental American values of equal opportunity and judging people on their merit," Jennifer Levi, director of Transgender and Queer Rights at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), said in a statement about the trans military ban.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/05/2025 3:17 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Those Families that played "See us, we're Liberal Advocates" for FaceBook and etc. Then bragged as they raised their kids to be Transvestites. Instead of properly raising and educating them based on the obvious chromosomes' basics.
Shouldn't they pay for the MENTAL ILLNESS they inflicted on their children? Plus stand trial for child abuse & sexual perversion of a minor?
#4
If adults want to mutilate themselves, so long as the taxpayer never has to cover any of the costs then or thereafter, there’s an argument to be made. Though given that it’s the mark of fairly severe mental illness, there’s a strong argument that it oughtn’t be allowed for that reason, just like we do not passively allow anorexics to starve themselves to death for a different body dysphoria.
But there is no way in Hell I agree to allowing children to cut off major organs and olay with hormone levels, especially since almost always the desire is the result of grooming. And while many of the kids outgrow it a few years later, the damage is permanent, painful, and debilitating.
[NYPOST] President Trump signed an executive order Monday to create a sovereign US wealth fund — saying that TikTok may become one of its first acquisitions.
A sovereign wealth fund is an investment fund owned and operated by a government. The world's largest and wealthiest such funds are owned by China and resource-rich countries like Norway and Middle Eastern emirates.
It was not immediately specified how the US endowment — the creation of which was first reported last month by The Post's Charles Gasparino — would be capitalized, but Trump previously floated using tariff proceeds.
It's unclear if adding a stake in TikTok would require up-front investment, or if Beijing would offload it without charge to avoid a looming 10% levy that Trump announced Friday.
''It's a very exciting event. We're going to have a sovereign wealth fund, which we've never had,'' Trump said in the Oval Office — as News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch and Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison sat nearby.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10326 views]
Top|| File under:
[NYPOST] Lefty New York City Rep. Alexandria Boom Boom Ocasio-Cortez Dem Congressgirl from da Bronx in Noo Yawk and leader of the Mean Girl Caucus in Congress. One of the Great Minds of the 21st Century, she is known as much for her innaleck as for her dance moves. She is all in favor of socialism, even though she's fuzzy on the details. She was the inventor of the Green New Deal, though she doesn't talk about it much anymore claimed Monday that Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is stupid during a fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... screed that drew mockery from her critics. America's Dumbest Bartender™
''This dude is probably one of the most unintelligent billionaires I have ever met or seen or witnessed,'' Ocasio-Cortez, 35, said during an Instagram Live video session. “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.” – Plato
''This dude is not smart, and the danger in the lack of intelligence and the lack of expertise that Elon has, I mean, this guy is one of the most morally vacant but also just least knowledgeable about these systems that we know of,'' she added, referring to his efforts to reform government spending — which she and her Dem cronies vehemently oppose.
The South African-born Musk, 53, moved to the US from Canada in the 1990s and quickly formed the multimillion-dollar company Zip2 before starting another firm that later became PayPal.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10327 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
Even worse for her ... she doesn't realize that TESLAs record and transmit everything the car does, some times the video in and out of the car and voices?
#21
My read was not the stupidity but the underlying desperation. There is a Baghdad Bob element to the Dem rallies and statements. They didn’t expect the Thunder Run and have no response.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/05/2025 17:38 Comments ||
Top||
#22
#19 - love her! I just wouldn't want to be confronted by her coming home with a buzz from the bar
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2025 17:48 Comments ||
Top||
#23
So she's fuming mad he didn't call her the next day?
[YahooFinance] Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination for Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary cleared a key Senate committee today.
Should Big Pharma be worried? Analysts believe it bodes poorly for vaccine makers. But Pfizer (PFE) CEO Albert Bourla said he doesn't think so, in an interview with Yahoo Finance.
In fact, he said that RFK's views on vaccines are not as radical as publicly perceived.
And he isn't the only one to have had closed-door meetings with RFK and left with the same conclusion. Bourla said that he met with Kennedy and President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago prior to Trump taking office. Trump brought up the topic of vaccines -----------------------
Pfizer, Moderno and others were initially down sharply on news that he had been advanced to the Senate vote but the companies recovered after Bourla's comments.
[FoxBusiness] Karoline Leavitt told FOX Business 'Trump campaigned on that promise'
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to reports that President Donald Trump is planning to use executive actions to dismantle the Department of Education during an interview on FOX Business, Tuesday.
"President Trump campaigned on that promise, and I think the American people can expect him to deliver on it," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Stuart Varney on "Varney & Co." in response to a question on whether she can confirm Trump's plan.
Leavitt expanded, stating that it "goes back to his wanting to make this government accountable to the American taxpayer."
"When you look at the literacy rates, the math and the reading rates of young children and students in America, they are not good. Our nation's report card was released last week, and it showed that only 40% of fourth graders are reading at a proficient level. So clearly, the tens of millions of dollars that the Department of Education is spending every single year is not working. And President Trump wants to empower parents to have a greater say in their child's education system," she continued.
Officials reportedly discussed an executive order that would shut down the functions not written into the statute of the department, or move certain functions to other agencies.
As the president starts to take action on education, a White House official confirmed to Fox that Trump plans to reevaluate the future of the Education Department throughout his presidency.
Last Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory (CRT), and another to support school choice.
The executive order states that any K-12 school that does not comply with the directive to end discrimination will lose all federal funding, citing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination over race, color, and national origin for any activity or program receiving federal funding.
According to Leavitt, closing down the Department of Education could be next on Trump's agenda.
#4
#2 I've taught at TAU and Weizmann Institute and a whole bunch of high schools and one college. That's your experience to decide that teachers' colleges do not need to be obliterated?
#5
Given the Democrats & NEA's Social Political agenda and control over how the Dept of Ed "WAS" ran. Plus its power to demand and dictate it to the states.
[RestorationNews] WATCHDOG: Comatose Seniors Illegally Registered to Vote in WI Nursing Homes. Special Voting Deputies assigned by election officials allegedly abused vulnerable seniors suffering from severe cognitive disabilities, including comas, for political gain.
Wisconsin officials charged with helping seniors cast a ballot in 2024 may have illegally registered coma patients to vote in a West Allis nursing home, according to a complaint by the Center for Vulnerable Voters, a civil rights watchdog.
By law, Wisconsin nursing homes must appoint Special Voting Deputies (SVDs) to help nursing home residents register to vote and cast an absentee ballot. Those deputies are authorized to supervise, issue, and help complete residents' ballots, but only if they request it—residents "may decline to vote when the SVDs visit."
Yet the center discovered SVDs may "have been registering people to vote who are comatose" or otherwise "cognitively unable to request registration [forms] and ballots." This happened just days before early voting began in Oct. 2024 at VNP Healthcare and Community Living in West Allis, a Milwaukee suburb, according to emails submitted to the city clerk/administrator and later shared with Restoration News.
"SVDs may not affirmatively offer voting assistance to nursing home residents who have not asked for help marking their ballots," the center pointed out, referencing the Wisconsin Election Commission. "Fraudulently marking a ballot for someone is a crime and our organization will seek every legal remedy to protect these citizens, including, but not limited to, filing a formal complaint with the District Attorney's Office." The center requested West Allis provide an "action plan to protect the rights of vulnerable citizens" before early voting began.
Disturbingly, Rebecca Grill—who became the Oshkosh city manager in December after 9 years as West Allis' city clerk/administrator—refused to investigate the center's allegation further since it could not provide the deputies' names and has protected the original complainant's identity. Grill denied at least one more request to investigate.
"Without additional information, I am unable to look into this further," Grill wrote.
The center believes otherwise. Grill would likely have a list of the 2-3 Special Voting Deputies assigned to that nursing home, the group told Restoration News.
"To the best of our knowledge," Center for Vulnerable Voters chairman Lori Roman said, "By her own admission, Rebecca Grill did not take action to remedy these activities after she was made aware of the problem."
Based on past discoveries, there was deep cause for concern.
WIDESPREAD ELDER ABUSE
In June 2020, the Wisconsin Election Commission—the body that regulates voting laws statewide—voted 5–1 to block Wisconsin clerks from sending Special Voting Deputies to nursing homes, ordering them to instead mail ballots directly to residents during COVID lockdowns.
At least 91 nursing homes reported 95–100% turnout in the Nov. 2020 election across the Democratic vote-rich Milwaukee, Dane (Madison), Brown (Green Bay), Racine, and Kenosha Counties, according to a later Special Counsel investigation ordered by the state legislature. There are roughly 92,000 Wisconsin seniors live in nursing homes statewide; the Center for Vulnerable Voters believes these shockingly high turnout rates suggest a coordinated effort by nursing home staff that violates state law.
A 2021 investigation by Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling revealed nursing home staffers admitted to illegally "helping" residents fill in their ballots. The investigation was prompted by a Racine County woman who told authorities her elderly mother "didn’t have the mental capacity to vote absentee in the months leading up to her death in October [2020]." Recall that Special Voting Deputies are only allowed to assist residents who request help voting.
In 2022, the Wisconsin Office of the Special Counsel found numerous elderly voters who suffering from "severe dementia" who'd cast a ballot in 2020 from their nursing home. A number of them were legally barred from voting by court order, yet voted by mail anyway. One Dane County resident had been deemed incompetent by doctors since 1972. A Brown County senior unlawfully voted twice by absentee ballot; another in the same facility submitted a ballot with a mismatched signature.
The Office of the Special Counsel report concluded that the only way these elderly voters could've requested, filled out, and returned their ballots in huge numbers was with illegal assistance by—and pressure from—nursing home staff, who may have forged their signatures. And that pressure was enabled by the Wisconsin Election Commission's decision to replace Special Voting Deputies with unaccountable mail-in ballots in mid-2020.
GROUND ZERO FOR ELECTION CONCERNS
Under Rebecca Grill, West Allis accepted over $62,000 in "Zuck Bucks"—payments from Meta/Facebook founder and leftist mega-donor Mark Zuckerberg to the officials responsible for counting ballots—in 2020, funds used to boost voter turnout in Democrat-heavy jurisdictions nationwide. Neighboring Milwaukee took $3.4 million in Zuck bucks, the largest grant anywhere in the state.
In 2020, West Allis broke 56–44% for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. It went 54–44% for Kamala Harris in 2024. The city is part of Milwaukee County, which voted 69–29% for Biden in 2020 and 68–30% for Harris in 2024.
Wisconsin voters finally banned private funding for election operations in April 2024 after Democrat Gov. Tony Evers twice vetoed similar bills from the Republican-run legislature.
The Center for Vulnerable Voters plans to keep a close eye on nursing homes in the upcoming April 1 election, when Wisconsinites will vote on a critical state Supreme Court seat and an initiative mandating photo ID in future elections.
"In upcoming elections, election authorities must do a better job of training Special Voting Deputies and volunteers who work at polls," Roman said. "Through our Vote Fraud Hotline and our staff and volunteers on the ground, we will be monitoring."
[FoxNews] President Donald Trump was handed the "opportunity to save Medicare" after the Biden administration rolled out its final Medicare Advantage proposal early in January that experts say underfunds the insurance plan after already facing rate cuts in previous years.
"This is Trump’s opportunity to save Medicare," former Republican New York Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, who is also a former nurse and was chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission until 2019, told Fox News Digital in January.
"Medicare Advantage is Medicare for 34 million Americans who choose it. Those seniors are experiencing disruption with their healthcare as a result of two years of cuts — if Trump ensures MA gets funded in line with projected medical cost trends in 2026, he’ll be fixing Joe Biden’s mistake and giving seniors the healthcare they deserve right before the GOP’s midterm elections."
Medicare Advantage plans are private health insurance plans that contract with Medicare and are used by roughly 34 million Americans. The program mostly enrolls adults older than the age of 65, but also offers benefits to people of all ages with disabilities. Traditional Medicare, conversely, is a federal health insurance program for adults older than the age of 65, as well as younger individuals with disabilities.
The Biden administration previously had made cuts to Medicare Advantage rates, including in April 2024, when experts said enrollees would face an additional $33 a month for out-of-pocket costs, or $396 a year, due to the cuts. Critics at the time said the cuts would be especially devastating to seniors living on fixed incomes who are already coping with ongoing inflation issues.
Roughly two weeks before leaving office, the Biden administration rolled out its final regulation affecting Medicare Advantage, which did not outright cut rates as it did for 2024 and 2025, but increased the average benchmark payment to Medicare Advantage plans by 2.2%.
The proposal, however, seemingly works as another cut and underfunds Medicare Advantage because the proposed rates are still lower than the current rate of inflation, Buerkle said, with the consumer price index showing a 12-month inflation rate of 2.7%. The proposal also comes on the heels of the Biden administration finalizing a 1.12% cut for fiscal year 2024 and a 0.16% cut for fiscal year 2025.
"Underfunding for Medicare Advantage will result in higher premiums, more out-of-pocket costs, and higher deductibles for the 34 million Americans who choose Medicare Advantage," Buerkle told Fox News Digital. "This, on top of the inflation that the Biden Administration caused by their flagrant spending creates a difficult situation for those seniors on a fixed income."
The proposal is not yet locked in, as the newly minted Trump administration has until April 7 to finalize its policy for fiscal year 2026.
"Medicare Advantage saved the federal government $144 billion over the last decade," Buerkle said.
That is because Medicare Advantage plans "use taxpayer dollars more efficiently than traditional Medicare," she said. "By managing the care for 34 million seniors, MA plans are able to offer more benefits for the same price as original Medicare. Senior satisfaction rate is high, too, with 96% of seniors reporting their satisfaction with their MA plan. So, making sure MA is funded appropriately is a gift to taxpayers," Buerkle said.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services touted the proposal when it was released in early January, saying the health plan will continue providing affordable care, while "being a good steward of taxpayer dollars."
The agency "has worked to ensure that people with Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D have access to stable and affordable offerings," said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. "Today’s Advance Notice continues CMS’ efforts to provide access to affordable, high-quality care in Medicare Advantage while being a good steward of taxpayer dollars. We are also continuing implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, ensuring people with Medicare Part D have more affordable coverage for their medications."
SCOOP: Brown University Medical School now gives "diversity, equity, and inclusion" more weight than "excellent clinical skills" in its promotion criteria for faculty."
The criteria say DEI is a "major criterion." Clinical skills, by contrast, are only a "minor criterion."🧵 pic.twitter.com/5vOYSZZ3H0
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The FBI is being forced by Elon Musk's DOGE to hand over the names of 5,000 officials who worked on 
Dem Congressgirl from da Bronx in Noo Yawk and leader of the Mean Girl Caucus in Congress. One of the Great Minds of the 21st Century, she is known as much for her innaleck as for her dance moves. She is all in favor of socialism, even though she's fuzzy on the details. She was the inventor of the 
[Axios] 
