Dispelling the democrat myth
There seems to be a lot of controversy over Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk was appointed as a government official. President Trump by Executive Order created DOGE as a temporary government agency which would only exist until July 4th, 2026. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (who recently resigned) were appointed by Trump to run the agency. Elon Musk has statutory authority. Clearly it is not a cabinet agency. Musk does not need to be approved by congress.
The democrats have sued on the basis of approving funds for some of these agencies and Trump is not spending the money and they also claim that Musk can only have his authority via congressional statute. When it comes to not spending money spent by congress, I believe Joe Biden set the standard when he threatened to withhold funds (which were approved by congress) from Ukraine over an investigator getting too close to Hunter Biden's business in Ukraine. When Biden became president there was all that money approved to build the wall. He cancelled the wall. Isn't it ironic?
The challenges to Trump's legal authority will make their way through the appeals process up to the Supreme Court. There I expect to find that President Trump is well within his rights. As for Musk, he is doing what he did at Twitter. The democrats then told us he would destroy Twitter when he fired about 90% of the workforce. They were wrong. Then they tried to boycott Twitters' advertisers. You may have noticed that Amazon now has advertisements on the reformed X. Musk proved one thing: Sometimes you need to change the people to change the culture.
In the news:
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would not accept a peace deal it did not help negotiate. I'm sure he will get a place at the table once the preliminary talks are concluded. Otherwise, he can fight until the last Ukrainian soldier is dead. Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime minister, offered British troops to help guarantee Ukraine’s security in any peace deal.
Storms and flooding have devastated Kentucky, causing at least nine deaths.
Federal prosecutors were divided after Trump’s team asked lawyers to dismiss corruption charges against Eric Adams. Adams has resisted calls to resign and now Andrew M. Cuomo and former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall issued a pair of coordinated statements over the weekend indicating that the disgraced former governor is considering a run for mayor.
The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to give a team member working with Elon Musk access to sensitive files.
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Good morning.
The first test of Trump’s power to fire officials has reached the Supreme Court. Lawyers for Trump asked the justices to let him fire a government lawyer who leads a watchdog agency.
Why would you fire a watchdog? Not watching I assume.
I'm guessing it might just be a 6-3 victory for the President.
It is MLK Day.
Some of the orders issued by acitivist local justices are such overreaches that they are going to lead to rulings that democrats regret. Unsurprisingly, instead of making strategic decisions about which orders to challenge, they spazzed out and it’s going cost them.
Justice Thomas has longed talked about the Court confronting them over it.
An unelected judge blocking/delaying federal policy is a bit insane. There has been a move to impeach at least one of them.
If the court rules on it today (not likely), and it is a 6-3 decision, the left will, once again, screech that the court is filled with racists and white supremacists.
They believe Thomas is a white supremacist.
Yep. it will absolutely restart the decades long war on the Court's legitimacy from the left. Usually they wait until closer to June to start the frenzy.
The Justices mat even once again be threatened. They will need to muster all their courage to do their duty to the Constitution.
They believe Thomas is a white supremacist.
We have heard that at length right here.
President Trump by Executive Order created DOGE as a temporary government agency which would only exist until July 4th, 2026
The important point is trump renamed an intergovernmental agency that Obama created and congress funded to DOGE so trump didn’t really create it within the bureaucracy. It was cleverly done.
She by far isn't the only one with questionable wealth screeching about Musk finding what very well may be fraud committed by them over the years.
Not bad for a one term Rep and former Public Defender.
Not bad ……
I wonder if public defender included "I will get you off for (fill in the blank amount)?
Isn't it a DOGE report that has her net worth at that? From what I find using Google, there's nothing to back up that claim. It's also easy to find where she denies that report. And her 2022 financial disclosure report does not show a net worth anywhere close to that. I've included a link below to that document.
This looks like fake news to me as there's nothing to back it up.
10050508.pdf
Makes sense, to be there at her age and background would be very egregious.
Surely a woman of her intelligence could make accumulate such wealth / s
It could be fake, but we do have actual facts that Biden accumulated millions based on using his name, but of course, has never reported any of it..
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[✘] Would not doubt that other politicians went the same route with their returns.
Can't people wrap their heads around the fact that this is Trump's 2nd term? Trump is building upon what he did (and learned) from his 1st term. Trump's actions aren't that unusual for a two term President. Trump is not a new, untested President.
The major advantage for Trump is that the separation between terms allowed him to start the 2nd term without the deadwood from his 1st term.
Except that he may accomplish a lot more in his second term, which is not the norm.
The major advantage for Trump is that the separation between terms allowed him to start the 2nd term without the deadwood from his 1st term.
Plus, the American people got a good dose of what democrats wanted to do.
The non-consecutive terms allowed Trump to realign the administration without going the 'bloodbath' route. The break between terms got rid of the Congressional ties to bureaucrats in Trump's administration. A clean slate for a 2nd term does wonders. And what has been interesting to me is that the politicos and press seem to be ignoring the fact that this is Trump's 2nd term.
The American people got to see that the Democratic Party is nothing more than a coalition of factions. Democrats had to spend too much effort appeasing radical factions. We're seeing that play out now with Democrats failure to establish a unified, coherent opposition to Trump.
IMO the only way Democrats can rebuild their party is with moderates taking over and giving the finger to radical factions. Time for some tough lover, brother.
In hindsight, I developed a bit of respect for Obama for resisting what Biden could not.
IMO the only way Democrats can rebuild their party is with moderates taking over and giving the finger to radical factions. Time for some tough lover, brother.
It is my opinion as well. I just don't see how they can.
I expect the donor base will force hard choices onto the party. Look how quickly business leaders have dumped DEI. The donor base is fed up with radical coercion, too.
Just in:
CBS News not answering questions about whether Margaret Brennan will keep her job after claiming free speech caused the Holocaust
If CBS keeps running her out there to embarrass the network, I'm not sure how long CBS news survives.
I was so proud of Marco Rubio. How did he say it? ..... "I have to disagree ..."
It didn't end there for CBS "news." Later on 60 Minutes they claimed Kristina Drye “was fired this month in the chaotic shutdown of USAID.”
Question of the day: Was it true?
Between Brennan starting the day blaming free speech for the holocaust and closing it with 60 minutes running out democratic activists to play victim of Trump's curtailing of USAID and a segment applauding mass German censorship, 60 minutes had as bad a day as any news division has had.
Maybe they can ask the party who demanded we rename football teams, military bases, and pancake syrup why they are so upset about the Gulf of America?
Absolutely great point!!
Notice that the people freaking out over DOGE are NOT claiming they are lying?
I'm not part of the hair on fire contingent but I do have some issue with DOGE and how it's being done.
I do agree that there are some agencies that should be removed. I don't know of anyone who could disagree that there is waste in the federal government. But I am concerned at the speed they are working this and the fast action in deciding who to fire. It seems to me that they are doing mass layoffs without deciding if the individual should be removed. Case in point the firing of 300 individuals from the Department of Energy who are part of the group that oversees nuclear weapons in the U.S although I understand most of them have already been reinstated. IMO a more careful and methodical approach should be taken so that they don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Secondly I'm not happy with the lack of transparency. We see claims but do not see the underlying evidence that backs up the claims. DOGE was set up under the Presidential Records Act so their records will not be released until five years after Trump leaves office. I don't think that's the better way to handle this. IMO if they want more support out there the transparency needs to be fully above board as the public currently only gets to see the talking points. Have to admit that the Democrats do handle one action very well, the pushing of fear about the falling of the sky. Without full transparency about all we get is a regurgitation of that old beer commercial, 'Tastes Great / Less Filling'. Claims and counter-claims fill the media with no evidence to show which is correct. That IMO is a mistake as public trust of the federal government is very low to begin with.
Are either of these concerns going to make any changes in how any of this moves forward? Nope and I realize that. But I do wish that more members of this site would write to their Congressmen to try to get more transparency in this work. I do believe that this work is some of the more important work that needs to be done in Washington and I also believe that the majority in Washington are so insulated in their bubble from the average American that they only rely on their level of perception.
Maybe they are moving so fast as to prevent Congress from delaying their actions, the only thing Congress is good at is bloviating and procrastinating. Nobody wants to see the democrats spending weeks telling us the importance of transgender plays in Ecuador and why we need to support them.
As Republicans hold the majority in both the House and Senate, I don't think that's a part of the reason. I think it's more likely this is an effort to overload both Democrats and the main-stream media so that their reactions are delayed and out of sync. We both know that MSM likes to focus on one or two issues and "attempt" to hammer those from all sides in a feeble attempt to show how 'balanced' the MSM is. When they are hit this fast with this many issues they do tend to get flustered.
Additionally as there is a deadline on DOGE to begin with and the federal bureaucracy is so large, perhaps they felt they needed to run hard at it all to get it done within the timeline. But I do wish we had more transparency into their work.