Author Topic: DOGE:  (Read 9898 times)

DougMacG

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Re: A challenge to Michael Brewer's assertion of statutory authority
« Reply #50 on: February 06, 2025, 09:12:22 AM »
"Congress established USAID as an independent establishment (defined in 5 U.S.C. 104) within
the executive branch..."

   - Layman constitutionalist here, that sounds outside of constitutional structure to me.

Inside the executive branch but not reporting to the singular executive?

Legislative branch putting restrictions on the power of the executive branch?

Imagine an executive order changing how Congress sets committee assignments.
« Last Edit: February 06, 2025, 10:58:46 AM by DougMacG »

Crafty_Dog

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Re: DOGE: Elon (& Vivek no more)
« Reply #51 on: February 07, 2025, 04:07:52 AM »
LINO lawyer here-- that sounds like a reasonable line of thought to me.


Crafty_Dog

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Sec Treasury Bessent sets the DOGE record straight
« Reply #53 on: February 07, 2025, 08:36:40 AM »
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2025/02/07/bessent-sets-record-straight-says-doge-members-are-treasury-employees-1521262/
  ·
🚨U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen just laid every media rumor to rest over DOGE in the Treasury. Come to find out two of the DOGE members are Treasury employees:

**Reporter**: We're inside the cash room at the Treasury Department. It is almost impossible to overstate how important the work that is done in this building is to the U.S. financial system. Yet right now, there is widespread concern about the DOGE's team's access to sensitive payment systems. Are you at all worried that this access and that tinkering of the payment systems could affect the Treasury's market or cause any disruption?

**Scott Bessen**: Good, well, thank you for asking me about that because there's a lot of misinformation out there. First of all, when you say the DOGE's team, these are Treasury employees—two Treasury employees, one of whom I personally interviewed in his final round. There is no tinkering with the system. They are on read-only, they can make no changes. It is an operational program to suggest improvements. We make 1.3 billion payments a year, and this is two employees who are working with a group of longstanding employees.

**Reporter**: The letter that the Treasury Department sent earlier this week talked about how the team currently does not have access to change the system. Have they at any point this year had the ability to make changes?

**Scott Bessen**: Absolutely not. This is no different than you would have at a private company. And by the way, the ability to change the system sits over at the Federal Reserve. So it doesn't even lie in this building. So they could make suggestions on how to change the system, but we don't even run the system.

**Reporter**: And if they request the ability to change the system, would you grant that?

**Scott Bessen**: No, again, they have no ability to change the system. I have no ability to grant that change. They can make suggestions, then it would go to the Federal Reserve, and just like any large ERP system, there would be tests, there would be this, there would be that, and then the Fed will determine whether these changes are robust or not.

**Reporter**: As the Secretary of Treasury, you also oversee the IRS. Do you know what kind of access the team has to IRS data or individual taxpayer data?

**Scott Bessen**: Well, I'm glad you asked that too because, look, the IRS—the privacy issue is one of the biggest issues. And under the past four years, we've seen a lot of leaks out of there. The IRS systems are quite poor. When I started in college in 1980, I learned the program in COBOL. I think there are 12 different systems at the IRS that still run on COBOL. But as of now, there is no engagement at the IRS.

**Reporter**: And if they request that access, would you sign off on that request?

**Scott Bessen**: They haven't, so we'll take that when it comes to it. I think there is a lot to do there, but the President was elected with a big agenda, and to the extent that getting the IRS in better shape is part of that, sure. Because, look, with the IRS, what am I concerned about? I am concerned about collections, I am concerned about privacy, and I am concerned that the system is robust and customer service.

**Reporter**: But do you think that if they ask for access, that is something you would consider signing off on?

**Scott Bessen**: There are a lot of things I'd consider. But, look, we're in the middle of the tax filing season right now. We even, you know, with the government buyouts that are being— that expired midnight tonight, we have the mandated that the IRS customer-facing employees, they're not eligible for that until May 15th. So I don't imagine anything's going to go on at the IRS until then or beyond.

===========

Also see:  Klobushar with Soros Jr.

https://m3.gab.com/media_attachments/61/a2/03/61a20383083f517850a12e317426abe2.png?width=568
« Last Edit: February 09, 2025, 08:26:20 AM by Crafty_Dog »

Crafty_Dog

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I so resemble this!
« Reply #54 on: February 07, 2025, 10:05:09 AM »


Body-by-Guinness

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DOGE Does NOAA
« Reply #56 on: February 07, 2025, 01:16:04 PM »
NOAA tries to dodge & weave on the DIE front & ends up in DOGE’s sights. While they are there hopefully they’ll take a look at how NOAA cooks the climate books too:

https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/02/hurricane-doge-sweeps-into-the-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration/



Body-by-Guinness

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Re: Why even supporters will say DOGE goes too far
« Reply #59 on: February 07, 2025, 03:17:38 PM »
Second

https://danconiajournal.substack.com/p/special-report-what-to-expect-from?fbclid=IwY2xjawITcCtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHbncRFYFO8L6JZLdI6Ikr3PDE2uYsPTdfL0hZ1fjUE9F764NWNeAE5Ujfg_aem_hEa9R5cJr_cdKdBBSR4Ibg

Those “supporters” would be wrong.

In my day job I’ve attempted to implement a lot of the steps mentioned, and get pushback from everyone involved every time. Methinks “supporters” confuse reflexive avoidance with going too far. 

DougMacG

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Re: Why even supporters will say DOGE goes too far
« Reply #60 on: February 07, 2025, 03:56:13 PM »
He hasn't gone too far for me either.

 Having the government on your back takes on a different meaning if you're taking a check from them. Spending and processes should be scrutinized.

Crafty_Dog

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Re: DOGE: Elon (& Vivek no more)
« Reply #61 on: February 08, 2025, 04:35:35 AM »
Agreed!

I think the author's intended point is that part of Musk's method is to go "too far" as part of the process of discerning what is "just right".





Body-by-Guinness

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Can’t Account for what You Haven’t Reconciled
« Reply #66 on: February 09, 2025, 06:40:09 PM »
Perhaps tangential to DOGE, but emblematic of the deep rot in the system. I mean holy kaka, when I was a 17 year old kid figuring out food cost in the kitchen I managed I understood I couldn’t justify an expense without confirming the raw ingredient actually came in the back door. Seems like many feds haven’t quite sorted that out:

https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1888023047116124602

Crafty_Dog

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FO
« Reply #67 on: February 10, 2025, 08:03:03 AM »
(1) DEMS TURN TO COURTS TO STOP TRUMP OVERHAUL: Washington D.C. District Judge Carl Nichols ordered the Trump administration to pause a plan to place 2,000 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on leave until 14 February.
New York District Judge Paul Engelmayer temporarily blocked Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to Treasury information, until a hearing scheduled for 14 February.
Why It Matters: The Trump administration is currently facing at least 20 lawsuits over DOGE access to government systems, and agency and personnel actions. The two latest suits to block political appointee access to Treasury systems, and block USAID employees from being placed on administrative leave were filed at the last minute Friday, likely to generate favorable media coverage supporting the Trump resistance. Democrats are also now threatening to force a government shutdown to stop Trump from reforming federal agencies. - R.C.
(2) VOUGHT: CFPB MONEY SPIGOT NOW TURNED OFF: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will not take its next draw of unappropriated funding. “The spigot that was long attributed to CFPB’s unaccountability is now being turned off,” Vought added.
Why It Matters: The CFPB has long been criticized as a progressive cudgel operating outside Congressional oversight because it’s funded through the Federal Reserve instead of Congress. CFPB supporters say this is to protect it from political influence. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with political action groups like Indivisible, MoveOn, and others are holding a protest against Elon Musk and Russ Vought outside the CFPB building today as legal challenges are filed. - M.S.

Body-by-Guinness

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DOGE Bites San Francisco & Surrounding Bergs
« Reply #68 on: February 10, 2025, 02:47:20 PM »
Panties are being soiled in San Fran. Note: the author states she has been reporting these orgs to CA leadership, to no avail

DOGE Accountability 101: The Left is Freaking Out With US Taxpayer Gravy Train Cut Off
San Francisco’s nonprofit sector is the largest per capita of any California county – $9 billion outstanding in federal grants and loans
By Katy Grimes, February 10, 2025 9:06 am

Non-profit organizations and Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become a shadow government in the U.S. Many years ago I reported blatantly phony non-profit groups to the California Attorney General. Nothing ever happened. So for many years, going back to when Jerry Brown was California’s Attorney General, I have researched and investigated dubious non-profits and written about them, hoping government officials would take notice – to no avail. California’s corruption begins at the top, as does the corruption in the United States.

Think back to Barack Obama and ACORN, a very shady “community activist” organization that helped bring Obama to power. ACORN was a community organizing group that claimed to help poor people with low-income housing issues, but was really registering thousands/millions of people to vote in Democratic districts. Some of these supposed voters reportedly were actually dead, nonexistent, or used shacks and empty buildings as their home addresses.

Sounds just like ACTBlue.

The lid was blown off of ACORN by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, but the organization never really disbanded – they just changed names and continued their “community organizing” and shady leftist voter registration practices.

At the Globe, we’ve reported on so many dubious organizations, with damning details, but crickets… Read this recent article, about “Free Speech for People,” the non-profit parent organization of “Impeach Trump. Again.” for an example.

With President Donald Trump and DOGE Chairman and “White House Tech Support” Elon Musk exposing the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) agency, the scheme is up.

“USAID has been a substantial funder of over 6,200 journalists across 707 media outlets and 279 “media” NGOs, including 90 percent of the reportage out of Ukraine,” Wikileaks posted on X.

And: “USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, “Internews Network” (IN), which has “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and “training” over 9000 journalists (2023 figures). IN has also supported social media censorship initiatives.” (more on this organization to come).

It gets worse.

“USAID Sent $9.3B to Islamic Terror States That Killed 3,000 American Soldiers, And over $18 billion to Islamic terrorist states,” Daniel Greenfield reports today:

USAID support for Somalia had doubled under the Biden administration and with $3.3 billion from USAID allocated in the last 5 years.
USAID sent $2.1 billion to Gaza and the West Bank since the Hamas attacks of Oct 7. In 2024 alone, $917 million was programmed for the terrorist areas occupying Israel.
USAID provided over $3.7 billion to Afghanistan since the Taliban took over with $832 million in the previous fiscal year alone.
Even while the United States of America was at war with the Houthis, the Islamic terrorist group firing on US Navy vessels out of Yemen, USAID continued to direct billions of dollars to Yemen. In 2024, USAID announced a $2.7 billion aid request for Yemen and allocated $753 million. Over the last 5 years, it doled out $3.4 billion.
The San Francisco Standard reports today Bay Area nonprofits are dumbfounded from President Trump’s “funding cuts and chaos. San Francisco has the largest share of the nonprofit workforce of any California county. Other Bay Area counties, including Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Alameda, follow right behind.”

Oh no. Say it isn’t so!

“San Francisco’s nonprofit sector is the largest per capita of any California county – $9 billion outstanding in federal grants and loans for Bay Area entities, according to U.S. contract data. That includes more than $1 billion earmarked directly for nonprofits, and much more that filters down to organizations across the region through state and local governments and institutions.”

This has been paid from taxpayer money – money taken from the people’s paychecks. As Greenfield wrote, “USAID’s partnerships with foreign governments, and with large unaccountable organizations including the UN and the World Bank, have raised concerns of money laundering. The revolving door between USAID personnel and some of the non-profit and for-profit groups who all profit from it has also raised questions about the legitimacy of those arrangements.”

Elon Musk posted on X details of DOGE’s deep dive into Medicaid payments:

To be clear, what the @DOGE team and @USTreasury have jointly agreed makes sense is the following: – Require that all outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is necessary in order to pass financial audits. This is frequently left blank, making audits almost impossible. – All payments must also include a rationale for the payment in the comment field, which is currently left blank. Importantly, we are not yet applying ANY judgment to this rationale, but simply requiring that SOME attempt be made to explain the payment more than NOTHING! – The DO-NOT-PAY list of entities known to be fraudulent or people who are dead or are probable fronts for terrorist organizations or do not match Congressional appropriations must actually be implemented and not ignored. Also, it can currently take up to a year to get on this list, which is far too long. This list should be updated at least weekly, if not daily. The above super obvious and necessary changes are being implemented by existing, long-time career government employees, not anyone from @DOGE. It is ridiculous that these changes didn’t exist already! Yesterday, I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious. When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was about half, so $50B/year or $1B/week!! This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately.

“So they designed treasury payments the same way they designed the voting system. Impossible to audit,” a follower responded.

Musk replied:

“The best way to understand the system is that it is designed for complaint minimization: people don’t complain if they receive money, but do complain loudly (especially fraudsters!) if they don’t receive money. Therefore, everything is geared towards sending out the money, even if wasteful or fraudulent.”

“This was how they turned all of us into slaves! And spent our money like Hunter Biden…” another follower responded.

Boom.

Adding insult to injury, “DOGE Team Discovers FEMA Spent $59 Million Last Week on Luxury Hotels for Illegals in NYC Violating the Current Law – Musk Vows to Recoup the Funds,” the Gateway Pundit reported this morning.

Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, hands are wringing, pearls are being clutched, big crocodile tears are being wept, and safe spaces will be needed:

“City leaders are considering layoffs to close the gap on a massive home-grown deficit. And that assumes San Francisco holds onto the $1.8 billion in federal funds it is counting on this year — 11% of the city budget, according to the controller’s office. With threats looming that the Federal Emergency Management Agency won’t reimburse $234 million it owes the city, and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directing the Department of Justice to pause funding to sanctuary cities, it’s clear that San Francisco’s government is in a similar predicament to local nonprofits.”

DOGE is investigating the more than $100 Billion a year of entitlements payments to individuals with no Social Security Number or even a temporary ID number. Our government was paying billions out to people with no provable existence. Let that sink in.

Shut it down. All of it.

https://californiaglobe.com/fl/doge-accountability-101-the-left-is-freaking-out-with-us-taxpayer-gravy-train-cut-off/


DougMacG

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VDH: DOGE is 100% Legal
« Reply #70 on: February 11, 2025, 07:26:58 AM »

Crafty_Dog

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Re: DOGE: Elon (& Vivek no more)
« Reply #71 on: February 11, 2025, 07:56:16 AM »

Dem talking point:

"Is Musk was the right man for the job to cut the Pentagon’s budget, given his company SpaceX has ongoing contracts with the military?"

Seems like a fair question.  How do we respond?

Body-by-Guinness

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Business About to Boom?
« Reply #72 on: February 12, 2025, 09:24:22 AM »
@BillAckman
We should not be surprised by the pushback against @DOGE as criminal acts are about to be exposed.
Quote
Mark Mitchell, Rasmussen Reports
@Mark_R_Mitchell
·
11h
Over three times more people in DC are googling "Criminal Defense Lawyer" than anywhere else in the US!

ccp

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Re: DOGE: Elon (& Vivek no more)
« Reply #73 on: February 12, 2025, 09:35:48 AM »

Dem talking point:

"Is Musk was the right man for the job to cut the Pentagon’s budget, given his company SpaceX has ongoing contracts with the military?"

Seems like a fair question.  How do we respond?

We keep saying that he has only the power of recommendations no further and the Trump team go out of their way to avoid the appearance of favoritism when considering his ideas.  That said Trump has clearly been granting favoritism .   

AND we keep pointing out we cannot have government audit themselves anymore without true and honest outside opinion

Are there enough "criminal defense lawyers" in the swamp to go around? :wink:

Body-by-Guinness

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DOGE-Tracker.com
« Reply #74 on: February 12, 2025, 09:53:20 AM »
2nd post:

For those playing at home … the DOGE tracker:

https://www.doge-tracker.com/



Body-by-Guinness

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How Much are those Windows on the DOGE?
« Reply #77 on: February 13, 2025, 06:10:52 PM »
What are the betting markets saying about the success of DOGE?

https://news.polymarket.com/p/bite-of-the-doge

ccp

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Dems - agree with cutting programs BUT
« Reply #78 on: February 15, 2025, 09:10:03 AM »
IT HAS TO BE DONE BY CONGRESS!!!

IT HAS TO BE DONE MORE SURGICALLY AFTER STUDY NOT BY TAKING AN AXE AND CUTTING WHOLE PROGRAMS!!!

THE CHIEFS OF THE BUREAUCRACIES SHOULD DO IT SINCE THEY, WHO ARE OF COURSE LIFE LONG DEDICATED PUBLIC SERVANTS, THE ONES WHO REALLY KNOW WHAT CAN AND CAN'T BE CUT.

Me ->  how stupid is this thinking?  Congress and the bureaucratic class cannot do what they never have done because as Rush would say :

That "is their source of power". 

We have to win the midterms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections

ccp

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Crafty_Dog

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DC Home prices collapsing
« Reply #80 on: February 16, 2025, 04:46:05 PM »


Body-by-Guinness

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High End Centurians on Social Security Rolls
« Reply #82 on: February 17, 2025, 10:27:07 AM »
Jeepers, I hope we've dispatched social science grad students to capture the oral histories of the ~1.5 million citizens that were alive during the Civil War.... :roll:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1891350795452654076

DougMacG

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Barack obama, We don't need to wait for Congress..
« Reply #83 on: February 17, 2025, 11:16:06 AM »
Barack Obama, "We don't need to wait for Congress to do something about wasteful spending that's out there."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulZ-dIj0tkA&t=37s&pp=2AElkAIB

What changed?
« Last Edit: February 17, 2025, 11:40:50 AM by DougMacG »


Crafty_Dog

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Crafty_Dog

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My friend Michael Brewer
« Reply #86 on: February 18, 2025, 12:13:25 PM »
Michael Brewer on my FB page:

Marc Denny preach it! It's good to see some of the youth waking up to why it matters that they be participants in the political system and not just consumers of it.

As far as the impoundment issue, I'm also looking into it with some new perspectives. I'm no expert, and like most, I only started giving a shit when all this became a real thing, so the sum of my experience spans about a month. That said, here's what I have found so far -

Disclaimer: I leaned on ChatGPT to help me compile this stuff. The list is ChatGPT's work, not mine. The opinions about it are mine.

Key Precedents of Presidential Impoundment

1. Thomas Jefferson (1801)
Context: Jefferson refused to spend funds appropriated for gunboats, arguing that they were unnecessary.
Outcome: As Congress did not challenge him, the impoundment was effectively accepted.
2. Andrew Jackson (1830s)
Context: Jackson refused to use appropriated funds for internal improvements, believing they were unconstitutional.
Outcome: Since Congress did not pass legislation to force the spending, his impoundments stood.
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1930s-1940s)
Context: FDR selectively refused to spend funds appropriated for public works projects and defense programs based on policy priorities.
Outcome: While Congress pushed back, no formal legal challenge over presidential impoundment was made.
4. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1950s)
Context: Eisenhower withheld funds appropriated for public housing, citing concerns over inflation and fiscal responsibility.
Outcome: Congress did not override his decisions.
5. John F. Kennedy & Lyndon B. Johnson (1960s)
Context: Both presidents used impoundment to control federal spending, particularly in areas such as highways and water projects.
Outcome: Congress began questioning the practice but took no significant action.
6. Richard Nixon (1969–1974)

Context: Nixon took impoundment to new levels by withholding billions of dollars from programs he opposed, including environmental and social programs.

Key Conflict: He impounded funds for the Clean Water Act and other congressional priorities.

Legal Challenge:

Train v. City of New York (1975): The Supreme Court ruled that the President could not refuse to spend appropriated funds when Congress had clearly mandated their expenditure.

Outcome: This case led to a significant rollback of presidential impoundment power.

Nixon's actions finally pushed Congress to legislate the activity.

After Nixon’s aggressive use of impoundment, Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) of 1974, which:

Restricted the President’s authority to withhold appropriated funds.
Required the President to notify Congress if funds were not to be spent.
Allowed Congress to override any impoundment through legislation.

So that brings us to a couple of interesting questions. All of this is a bureaucratic process, and as such, there are lots of rules about money and when and how it can be used. For example, there are three types of money appropriated to programs in government:

Annual Appropriations: Most federal funds are annual appropriations, meaning they must be obligated within the fiscal year for which they were appropriated. If not obligated, they expire and revert to the Treasury.
Multi-Year Appropriations: Some funds are available for a longer period (e.g., two-year or five-year appropriations), giving Congress more flexibility in releasing them if an impoundment challenge extends beyond a single fiscal year.

No-Year Appropriations: Some funds (e.g., those for ongoing programs) do not expire and remain available indefinitely.

This gives Trump a loophole with which to play, and it's a very powerful one. Pay attention, kids, because this is where you can win by losing. If the appropriations window for funds expires before they are spent—whether due to presidential impoundment, legal challenges, or administrative delays—the funds typically revert to the U.S. Treasury as expired or canceled funds. That means if Trump makes a move to impound funds and Congress contests that, with a sympathetic Congress and the right kind of maneuvering, he can stretch the process out past September 30th and those funds go back to the Treasury anyway. I would be surprised if we didn't see some of that kind of thinking enter into the DOGE calculus, and the really juicy targets saved for the summer so that they're closer to the end-of-year mark. If Trump's goal is to cut waste and return money to the Treasury that was being wastefully or fraudulently spent, he could get that done even if Congress successfully blocks the impoundment.


Body-by-Guinness

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Straw Websites?
« Reply #88 on: February 19, 2025, 11:14:24 AM »
Checking sites listed by Elon:

https://share.icloud.com/photos/01a9JLHWnw5kPrYjm8Nn5dsag

As long as they are paper straws and not plastic ones….

Crafty_Dog

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Crafty_Dog

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Actually, it wasn't classified info
« Reply #90 on: February 19, 2025, 12:57:54 PM »


Body-by-Guinness

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Doge find $2 billion Earmarked for Abrams
« Reply #92 on: February 20, 2025, 12:40:33 AM »


Body-by-Guinness

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Time to Privatize Mail?
« Reply #94 on: February 20, 2025, 08:07:47 AM »
Doge on ending the USPS monopoly. I handle the mail contract for my college and can attest to all sorts of wacky manifestations of monopoly that likely wouldn’t exist in a competitive market place (though I also have my share of Amazon horror stories and consider them something of a defacto monopoly, too).

https://x.com/DOGE_USPS/status/1892437673543160089

Body-by-Guinness

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Unqualified Dem Activist Judge Learns the DC Shuffle the Hard Way
« Reply #95 on: February 20, 2025, 10:20:00 AM »
I’ve become a regular Coffee & Covid reader. Given that he tends to cover multiple topics under the aegis of a single URL, I’m going to start breaking his bon mots up by topic, albeit posting the same URL for each piece published in that day’s column:

Hahahaha! Behold, the most side-splitting headline since they had to figure out how to climb down from mandatory outdoor masking. Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story headlined, and I am not making this up, “Trump Team Finds Loophole to Defy Spirit of Court Orders Blocking Spending Freezes. The sub-headline explained, “Officials cite other legal authorities — not Mr. Trump’s court-blocked directives — to keep withholding foreign aid and domestic grant money.”

image.png
Speaking as a litigator, try as hard as you like, but it is literally impossible to “defy” the “spirit” of an order—because a court doesn’t issue a “spirit.” It issues orders. Not spirits. Parties aren’t required to hold séances asking spirits what the judge really meant. ‘Spirit of the Injunction, speak to us!’

The phrase “defying the spirit” is semantic skullduggery. It hints darkly at malfeasance without actually alleging any particular violation. It’s how journalists (or robed activists) smear someone even when they are following the rules. If a judge wanted to prohibit a specific action, they could —arguably, they are duty bound to— do so clearly. If they didn’t, but wished they had done, that’s on them.

The Times isn’t even accusing the Trump Team of malicious compliance. It should know the difference too, since the Times lovingly reported Biden’s childlike efforts to skirt the Supreme Court’s slamdown of his criminal student loan forgiveness programs. Oh, Biden’s lawyers are so creative! So brave! So persistent! But I guess when Democrats actually defy the express terms of orders, that’s okay. Just not spirits.

image 2.png
The Times’s knickers are twisted. It wasn’t supposed to be this way! Things were going so swimmingly. Last week, Judge Amir H. Ali —the country’s first Muslim-Canadian federal judge— ordered the Trump Administration’s foreign payments freeze to itself be frozen. In other words, get out your Ouija boards and reopen the money gates!

Biden appointed Judge Ali, 39, to the DC District Court last year based on his experience practicing as a civil rights activist lawyer. (He was confirmed 50-49.) In other words, Ali had never been a judge, not even a county judge, not even a traffic ticket magistrate. But now, he’s a brand-new federal court justice. Ta-da! And he is conjuring up restraining orders against the President of the United States faster than a drive-thru medium reading palms at an interstate travel plaza.

This week, after the payments gusher failed to resume gushing (it resumed only a flaccid trickle) as per the spirits of Judge Ali’s order, the plaintiffs complained in court they still hadn’t gotten their checks. The judge summoned the parties into court, and the Trump Team explained that they were complying, they were ignoring Trump’s instructions, as ordered, but they were still withholding payments under various other statutes, contractual and grant provisions, and other rules that have been around for a long time. The judge never ordered them to ignore other laws.

Young Judge Ali is discovering what a more seasoned benchholder might have foreseen: the vexing difficulty of micromanaging the federal bureaucracy. The bureaucrats know the byzantine laws and regulations and contract rules— and he doesn’t. So one simple order won’t resurrect USAID. He’ll need an entire team of Ghostbusters.

The New York Times needs a new Tarot deck.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/triggering-thursday-february-20-2025


Body-by-Guinness

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Schools Spend $200 Billion on Covid w/ Little Accountability
« Reply #96 on: February 20, 2025, 10:56:39 AM »
2nd post:

@DOGE
Schools have spent nearly $200B of COVID-Relief funds with little oversight or impact on students. $393K to rent out a Major League Baseball stadium, $86K in Caesars Palace hotel rooms, $60k in swimming pool passes, and even an ice cream truck.  All of this money was drawn with zero documentation.
There is $4B left and the new
@usedgov
 is setting a simple new rule - all grantees must provide receipts for every purchase BEFORE funding is released.
Sources:
https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-updates-guidance-covid-19-funding

https://defendinged.org/investigations/wasteful-esser-expenditures/

Crafty_Dog

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Crafty_Dog

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NSA Chatroom
« Reply #98 on: February 25, 2025, 07:19:58 AM »

Body-by-Guinness

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Data Republican Doxxed
« Reply #99 on: February 26, 2025, 08:15:11 AM »
Data Republican (small r) whose X posts I've shared here has been doxxed and so has self-identified as she hopes to control the narrative, with autism and being deaf a part of her identity and story.

https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1894540234089795908

And interview with her (through an interpreter):

https://x.com/schneggen2/status/1894544097022529542