DOGE at work

[ghuns]

He did say the same thing about MTG (Jewish space laser lady) and Boebert.

You think he may be lacking in some character judgement?

Integrity is defined as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.

IMHO, MTG and Boebert are lacking in both departments. They are vapid opportunists.

On the other hand, Omar and AOC are true believers. Now what they believe in is the destruction of the USA, but they are both all in for it.

Integrity is not always a good thing.

[Del.]

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Only an idiot would want Maxine and Chuck protesting cutting spending. They look crazy.

[ghuns]

The weeping and gnashing of teeth by the left over the defunding of a .gov agency none of us knew existed until a week ago is pretty telling.

[Jeff]

The weeping and gnashing of teeth by the left over the defunding of a .gov agency none of us knew existed until a week ago is pretty telling.

Because 97% of USAID employees donate to the Democratic party.

[neurosis]

This guy is a clown.. he just vomits insane BS is to get a reaction.

I'm not sure he was hunting for a reaction when he said that. He was talking about the indiscretions of other Congress members and how they're all hypocrites for criticizing him for his. Then he pointed to a few that he actually thought had integrity. 

He was talking to Bill Maher so who knows.   

[gcode]

The weeping and gnashing of teeth by the left

I almost drowned in liberal tears listening to NPR will driving to work this morning
It was glorious. 

[RobertELee]

I almost drowned in liberal tears listening to NPR will driving to work this morning
It was glorious. 

Was that the water Trump turned on? 

[CNCAppsJames]

Was that the water Trump turned on? 

Was that the regular water or the glorious water?

[Jim at Gentex]

Because 97% of USAID employees donate to the Democratic party.

It is also alleged that some of the very funds acquired from the USAID disbursements were directly funneled back to the DNC as campaign contributions.

You know, "Ten percent for the big guy" seems to have been the standard arrangement documented on Hunter's laptop, so that sounds about right. 

[beej]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/04/democrats-foreign-aid-trap-trump-00202447

 

Democrats Are Falling For Trump and Musk's Foreign Aid Trap

Three veteran strategists want their party to be more thoughtful about fighting Trump's anti-bureaucracy campaign.

After three months of soul-searching about how to revive their party, some Democrats this week believe they have finally found a rallying point following Donald Trump's presidential victory.

Billionaire Elon Musk's campaign to dismantle the federal bureaucracy piece by piece at Trump's behest, starting with the U.S. Agency for International Development, lit a fire under many Democratic lawmakers — several of whom rallied Monday outside USAID headquarters.

But relaunching the resistance to defend one of the least popular corners of the federal budget could be a monster miscalculation — and some prominent Democrats told me they have serious strategic reservations about how their party is fighting back.

When I asked veteran strategist David Axelrod whether Democrats were "walking into a trap" on defending foreign aid, he literally finished my sentence.

"My heart is with the people out on the street outside USAID, but my head tells me: 'Man, Trump will be well satisfied to have this fight,'" he said. "When you talk about cuts, the first thing people say is: Cut foreign aid."

Rahm Emanuel — the former House leader, Chicago mayor and diplomat — told me much the same: "You don't fight every fight. You don't swing at every pitch. And my view is — while I care about the USAID as a former ambassador — that's not the hill I'm going to die on," he said.

Trump's orbit, meanwhile, couldn't be happier seeing Democratic lawmakers lined up on a downtown Washington sidewalk Monday — in their view, wasting political capital defending an agency that they believe the public doesn't give a rip about. Musk himself spent the following 24 hours posting videos of Democrats protesting the move.

"The federal bureaucracy is very unpopular. ... It's a pretty widely held, majority position — if you poll it, people think the government is wasting money. And, very simply, that's the battle that we're fighting," one senior Trump administration official told me Tuesday. "The Democrats are now taking the opposite position: 'Everything's perfect.' 'Nothing to look at here.' 'No money is wasted.' 'All your tax dollars are being spent well.'"

"Not a very politically tenable position," the person added.

That's to say nothing of the argument that Democrats' fight needs to be everywhere all at once given the scale of the threat. That's what Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz passionately argued to me soon after this column first published.

"People empowered by the president are violating federal law in multiple ways, taking over federal payments, illegally shutting down whole departments, freezing Head Start and Medicaid, and the best these podcasters can muster is that we should wait for a more popular program to defend? Spare me," said Schatz, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing USAID.

"The emergency is now. We need to act like it," he added. "This isn't about any particular program or the theater criticism that substitutes for strategy. This is about making sure these billionaires are not able to loot the federal government and strip it for parts."

"Part of the problem for the Democratic Party is that it has become a stalwart defender of institutions at a time when people are enraged at institutions," Axelrod said. "And they become — in the minds of a lot of voters — an elite party, and to a lot of folks who are trying to scuffle out there and get along, this will seem like an elite passion."

[SuperHoneyBadger]

Because 97% of USAID employees donate to the Democratic party.

Don't forget that foreign aid is a scam at all levels. My uncle was a diplomat in redacted in the late '80s, they needed an office there. The logical course of action for a federal dept was to 100% duplicate all employee roles and equipment and have them shipped to Africa, while keeping the original staff at home as well. Where they got nothing done, hunted and fished, drank and partied, and the ladies all had 2 or 3 local boyfriends they told the husbands not to worry about. All told, a $500 million CAD shitshow, because they accomplished nothing except a nice 5 year vacation, funded a local warlord and sent everyone home.

One case, obviously, but it bears telling because that was only ~30 people, and one dept 35 years ago. Surely it hasn't improved.

[Jeff]

The logical course of action for a federal dept was to 100% duplicate all employee roles and equipment and have them shipped to Africa, while keeping the original staff at home as well.

What's that line from the movie Contact?  "Why build 1 when you can have 2 for twice the price?"

[SuperHoneyBadger]

What's that line from the movie Contact?  "Why build 1 when you can have 2 for twice the price?"

Can confirm, its really true. GD feds.

[neurosis]

Where they got nothing done, hunted and fished, drank and partied, and the ladies all had 2 or 3 local boyfriends they told the husbands not to worry about.

Can you tell me where I can get a job like that?

[SuperHoneyBadger]

Can you tell me where I can get a job like that?

I think all federal jobs just end up that way eventually!