D.O.G.E (Department of Government Efficiency) II

[selmaborntidefan]

I'm with you 100% but they do always say "waste, fraud, and abuse" - I suspect a vast majority of what they've found falls into the other two categories. If they do find fraud, I hope they'll pursue charges, but eliminating waste and abuse alone would save incredible sums of money.

I have two problems, not that I disagree with the basic premise:

1) The notion we can only find FWA from DEMOCRATS is laughably absurd.
2) He has yet to actually PROVE any of this to my satisfaction.

I'm sorry, but one biased guy appointed by one other biased guy who has a history of making grandiose claims that will not withstand even basic scrutiny does not fill me with any confidence whatsoever. That's why you tend to need a bipartisan team. But my bigger problem is this: however distasteful a bunch of this stuff is, the fact is we have a SYSTEM. If this spending was approved by Congress - no matter how ridiculous (and they corner the market on this) - then we have a process in place for it. Blow the horn and tell the voters who did this - and let THEM do something about it.

But here's the thing: Donald Trump has said to "spare no expense" and he wants a "golden dome" to protect us from nuclear attack, something even the wasteful big spender of all-time, the Pentagon, is saying is impossible. And that alone makes any of his "look at all this money I'm saving you" claim ring hollow. Furthermore, it seems to me his tariff throwing nonsense is a violation of the Constitution as well, but his party is more terrified of him than the electorate.

I'm 100% with you on so many of these things. There are going to have to be severe spending cuts across the board (yes, board liberals, even in the things YOU like) or eventually the band is going to snap anyway. There are ALSO going to have to be some reasonable tax increases weighted heavier towards the wealthy to sustain it. I'm even fine with AOC and MTG sitting down and, "Ok, I cancel your government contract in Manhattan and you cancel mine in Georgia."

But I have zero reason to trust Donald Trump for anything.

And if someone wants to say "Musk," he was still appointed by the genetically incapable of delegating Trump.

 

[Huckleberry]

https://www.wate.com/news/local-news/usda-cancels-722k-food-shipment-to-second-harvest/

$722K in food shipments to East Tennessee food bank canceled by U.S. Department of Agriculture

Twenty-one tractor-trailer loads of food coming to East Tennessee were canceled by the United States Department of Agriculture, Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee shared.

According to the food bank, the loads contained $722,000 worth of USDA commodities food and represented more than 377,000 lbs. of nutritious proteins and dairy. The shipments were scheduled to arrive between April and July before being canceled on March 24. The food was funded by the Commodities Credit Corporation (CCC), which is paused due to federal review.



Hey, that's ok. Yeah, they're poor Americans, but who cares if they go hungry? We all have to sacrifice (unless you're rich, then you get to decide who goes without).

 

[jthomas666]

https://www.wate.com/news/local-news/usda-cancels-722k-food-shipment-to-second-harvest/

$722K in food shipments to East Tennessee food bank canceled by U.S. Department of Agriculture

Twenty-one tractor-trailer loads of food coming to East Tennessee were canceled by the United States Department of Agriculture, Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee shared.

According to the food bank, the loads contained $722,000 worth of USDA commodities food and represented more than 377,000 lbs. of nutritious proteins and dairy. The shipments were scheduled to arrive between April and July before being canceled on March 24. The food was funded by the Commodities Credit Corporation (CCC), which is paused due to federal review.



Hey, that's ok. Yeah, they're poor Americans, but who cares if they go hungry? We all have to sacrifice (unless you're rich, then you get to decide who goes without).

View attachment 50189

This what they voted for...

 

[CrimsonNagus]

This what they voted for...

No matter how much they hurt from the things Trump and his administration do, the right wing media will always convince them it is someone else's fault. Trump does no wrong in their eyes.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

Musk claims DOGE inquiry caused Institute of Peace to wipe 'terabyte of financial data'

The group allegedly dumped significant amounts of financial data, Musk wrote.

cbsaustin.com

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk claimed Monday the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) deleted a “terabyte of financial data” amid a probe of its internal operations.

Musk replied to a post via his social network X which claimed DOGE had uncovered payments to the Taliban and Iraqi leaders. That post suggested the FBI and Metro Police assisted in giving DOGE access to the information.

The group allegedly dumped significant amounts of financial data, Musk wrote.

“They deleted a terabyte of financial data to cover their crimes, but they don’t understand technology, so we recovered it,” his post reads.

 

[AWRTR]

Musk claims DOGE inquiry caused Institute of Peace to wipe 'terabyte of financial data'

The group allegedly dumped significant amounts of financial data, Musk wrote.

cbsaustin.com

Yeah, but Musk is the criminal trying to steal all our data so he can sell it to phone and text scammers in Nigeria, Serbia, and China. Our wonderful government agencies would never do anything wrong or try to cover their own butts because they did illegal and unethical stuff. They are saints with halos

They wiped the servers with a rag like Hillary.

 

[Huckleberry]

Yeah, but Musk is the criminal trying to steal all our data so he can sell it to phone and text scammers in Nigeria, Serbia, and China. Our wonderful government agencies would never do anything wrong or try to cover their own butts because they did illegal and unethical stuff. They are saints with halos

They wiped the servers with a rag like Hillary.

Absolutely! After all, we know what paragons of virtue billionaires and their minions are. They would never use their position to enrich themselves or increase their power. The current president and administration are perfect examples of the unlimited benevolence and empathy for which the wealthy are so noted.

Seriously, this might be a real instance of fraud and/or other illegal acts. If so, I hope those government employees responsible are investigated and, if guilty of malfeasance, prosecuted to the fullest extent. People, whether in government or the private sector, need to be held accountable for their actions.

 

[Huckleberry]

The Atlantic Gift Link


The Actual Math Behind DOGE’s Cuts
If you thought Elon Musk was really trying to cut costs, you weren’t in on the joke.

In November, when Donald Trump first announced his plan to place Elon Musk in charge of a new Department of Government Efficiency, the idea was widely written off as a joke. Then Trump took office, and DOGE began its very real stampede through the government. As an effort to meaningfully reduce federal spending, however, DOGE remains wholly unserious.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

A joke, it definitely was.

The end of that good article for those who will not click on the link:

Even if DOGE somehow manages to end up in the black, any modest savings it achieves will be completely overwhelmed by the GOP’s push to expand the 2017 tax cut at a cost of roughly $500 billion annually. Claims that Washington can no longer afford to spend 0.1 percent of its budget providing lifesaving HIV treatments to 20 million impoverished Africans cannot be taken seriously when the administration and Congress are preparing to cut taxes and expand other spending by trillions of dollars.

None of this is to say that DOGE has failed. Musk might not have followed through on his unfocused and evolving promises to eliminate payment errors, balance the entire budget, and implement regulatory reform. But he has successfully given the White House cover to purge and intimidate the civil service, helped Congress justify exorbitant tax cuts, rewarded MAGA voters with revenge against their perceived enemies, and granted himself the ability to access sensitive government data and possibly ensure his companies’ continued government contracts. Sure, annual budget deficits remain on track to double over the next decade. But if you thought DOGE was really about cutting costs, you were never in on the joke.

 

[cdub55]

A joke, it definitely was.

The end of that good article for those who will not click on the link:

Tax cuts for the people > Sending billions to Uzbekistan to teach midget pygmies Pig Latin

 

[dayhiker]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1920732324745838626

 

[Huckleberry]

Tax cuts for the people > Sending billions to Uzbekistan to teach midget pygmies Pig Latin

Also apparently true: Billions in tax cuts for the rich > Millions to save lives around the world.

In any case, I thought it was about reducing the deficit. That was the message, anyway. It’s not much of a surprise to discover that it was all a lie.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

Trump official who is taking over DOGE from Elon Musk revealed

He will soon take much of DOGE's workload, including working with Congress to recoup funds, reclassifying federal workers and advancing the proposed 2025 budget.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, will soon take on much of DOGE's workload, including working with Congress to recoup funds, reclassifying federal workers and advancing his proposed 2025 budget - which would greatly slash government funding, the Wall Street Journal reports.

But the pick is likely to draw outrage from Democrats, as Vought was one of the major architects of Project 2025, a hardline conservative manifesto they say is a blueprint for Trump's second term.

It called for major cuts to Social Security and Medicare, as well as the abolition of the Department of Homeland Security.

 

[2003TIDE]

In any case, I thought it was about reducing the deficit. That was the message, anyway. It’s not much of a surprise to discover that it was all a lie.

If we cared about any of that we wouldn't be wasting money on dumb stuff like codifying the name change of the Gulf of Mexico and spending money on updating all the governement resources to reflect that.

 

[Huckleberry]

Washington Post gift link

How DOGE’s grand plan to remake Social Security is backfiring
The agency is abandoning an initiative aimed at preventing fraud, the latest example of a failed effort by Elon Musk’s disruptive cost-cutting team.

The U.S. DOGE Service arrived at the Social Security Administration this year determined to slash staff and root out what it claimed was widespread fraud and wasteful spending — a mission Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team has pursued across the government.

But as of this week, many of the major changes DOGE pushed at Social Security have been abandoned or are being reversed after proving ineffective, while others are yielding unintended consequences and badly damaging customer service and satisfaction. The problems come as the agency struggles to cope with a record surge of hundreds of thousands of retirement claims in recent months.




DOGE/Trump results: No fraud, less efficient, little savings, scared seniors. Mission accomplished, I guess.

 

[2003TIDE]

Well DOGE probably killed their first US citizens over the weekend. Congrats?

Tornado warnings delayed because of DOGE cuts

At least 27 are dead in Missouri in Kentucky after severe weather alerts were delayed overnight because of DOGE cuts.

www.mesoscalenews.com

stealing this comment from reddit



Key facts before the politics start flying:

• What happened – A nocturnal tornado outbreak late 17 May killed at least 27 people across Kentucky and Missouri (18 of them in Laurel County, KY). Radar‐based debris signatures appeared before midnight, but the first official warnings for parts of the path weren’t pushed until minutes after circulation was already on the ground.
• Why the gap matters – For night-time storms you’re asleep until a phone alert blares. Even a 5- to 10-minute lag can be the difference between getting to a basement and dying in bed.
• Staffing reality – The Jackson, KY forecast office that covers Laurel County has been running 31 % below its authorised staffing since DOGE-mandated cuts early this year. The overnight forecaster position—whose only job is to watch radar while everyone else sleeps—was eliminated in April. Nearly half of NWS offices now have 20 %+ vacancy rates, according to an Associated Press analysis.
• Warnings on the night – Because the office can’t staff 24/7 anymore, an on-call meteorologist had to remote-log-in when rotation ramped up. That start-up window accounts for the delay you see in the warning logs.
• Experts warned this would happen – Meteorologists and the employees’ union flagged the risk in February; The NY Times, PBS, and WaPo all ran pieces in the past month on how the same budget axe was forcing eight forecast offices—including Jackson—to drop round-the-clock coverage.

TL;DR
The science isn’t broken; the funding pipeline is. Cut the people who keep eyes on radar at 11 p.m. and you buy tragedy at midnight.

 

[Huckleberry]

Well DOGE probably killed their first US citizens over the weekend. Congrats?

Tornado warnings delayed because of DOGE cuts

At least 27 are dead in Missouri in Kentucky after severe weather alerts were delayed overnight because of DOGE cuts.

www.mesoscalenews.com

stealing this comment from reddit



Key facts before the politics start flying:

• What happened – A nocturnal tornado outbreak late 17 May killed at least 27 people across Kentucky and Missouri (18 of them in Laurel County, KY). Radar‐based debris signatures appeared before midnight, but the first official warnings for parts of the path weren’t pushed until minutes after circulation was already on the ground.
• Why the gap matters – For night-time storms you’re asleep until a phone alert blares. Even a 5- to 10-minute lag can be the difference between getting to a basement and dying in bed.
• Staffing reality – The Jackson, KY forecast office that covers Laurel County has been running 31 % below its authorised staffing since DOGE-mandated cuts early this year. The overnight forecaster position—whose only job is to watch radar while everyone else sleeps—was eliminated in April. Nearly half of NWS offices now have 20 %+ vacancy rates, according to an Associated Press analysis.
• Warnings on the night – Because the office can’t staff 24/7 anymore, an on-call meteorologist had to remote-log-in when rotation ramped up. That start-up window accounts for the delay you see in the warning logs.
• Experts warned this would happen – Meteorologists and the employees’ union flagged the risk in February; The NY Times, PBS, and WaPo all ran pieces in the past month on how the same budget axe was forcing eight forecast offices—including Jackson—to drop round-the-clock coverage.

TL;DR
The science isn’t broken; the funding pipeline is. Cut the people who keep eyes on radar at 11 p.m. and you buy tragedy at midnight.

Haven’t you heard? Saving money/reducing government > saving lives.

 

[2003TIDE]

Haven’t you heard? Saving money/reducing government > saving lives.

Yeah all these details are in Project 2025 which was "made up think tank type stuff." I can't wait for private weather services where you only get tornado warnings if you pay your $19.99/mo subscription fee. All the Trump voters in here notice the lack of blue font on that. They want to privatize NOAA. What else do you think that means?

 

[jthomas666]

Yeah all these details are in Project 2025 which was "made up think tank type stuff." I can't wait for private weather services where you only get tornado warnings if you pay your $19.99/mo subscription fee. All the Trump voters in here notice the lack of blue font on that. They want to privatize NOAA. What else do you think that means?

"Hurricane Bertha is being brought to you by..."

 

[2003TIDE]

"Hurricane Bertha is being brought to you by..."

I have my popcorn ready for hurricane season. Mango Mussolini is going to make DeSantis work for that FEMA money(if there is any left.)