DOGE Catch-All

[hedge]

The corrupt politicians have won

For the moment...

 

[Mulberry Heel]

If the politicians of this country for the last 30 years hadn't just sat back and willingly watched the largest transfer of wealth in human history take place from the US to the world's looter, that being China, China wouldn't have all the money they are using to spread their influence and build a military they will use to fight the US in any potential future conflict.

Since we are now worried about China, with all of their money, using that money to maximize their influence over world affairs while minimizing the United States, then it would seem logical to me that it is past time for the US to take drastic measures if necessary to minimize the wealth China is gaining at the expense of the US. Agree?

Not if doing so would wreck the American economy and severely harm Americans as a result. The "transfer of wealth" you're talking about didn't come about because of the government, it came about because the American people - including very large numbers of MAGAs - buy all kinds of products from China because they're much cheaper than if they had been made in the USA. Conservatives love the idea of corporations being unregulated and able to pursue maximum profits in any way they please, and as it turns out once they discovered that they could move their operations to China (and lots of other places) and increase their profits because foreign workers would work for far less pay than American ones they decided to maximize their profits and move. Most businesses aren't going to return to America because it's far more expensive to build things here, not because of government regulations but because American workers won't work for the extremely low pay that workers in China and other places will. Do you think that MAGAs would work for, say, maybe $2 or $3 an hour (at most, in many places it's much less)?

The bottom line is that for your plan to succeed Americans are going to have to be willing to pay higher prices (and in some cases considerably higher prices) for the products they buy, and study after study has shown that the great majority of Americans - including Trumpers - simply don't care where the products they buy are made as long as they're as cheap as possible.

 

[ChileG]

If the politicians of this country for the last 30 years hadn't just sat back and willingly watched the largest transfer of wealth in human history take place from the US to the world's looter, that being China, China wouldn't have all the money they are using to spread their influence and build a military they will use to fight the US in any potential future conflict.

Since we are now worried about China, with all of their money, using that money to maximize their influence over world affairs while minimizing the United States, then it would seem logical to me that it is past time for the US to take drastic measures if necessary to minimize the wealth China is gaining at the expense of the US. Agree?

Drastic measures? Maybe. Dumb measures? No.

 

[ChileG]

It should be shocking to realize the level of waste and fraud that goes on within the government of this country, a country 36 trillion in debt, and we have just scratched the surface. I can see why politicians would love the status quo with their access to trillions of dollars every year to line the pockets of friends, family, and themselves.

But something I just can't understand is how those same wasteful, corrupt, and nonchalant politicians can convince people who, along with their children, will be the ones paying the price for all of this corruption to actually fight against its discovery....at their own peril.

So, Elon has moved on. The corrupt politicians have won in that regard, and they will try to convince their supporters that they have won too but the question is, how many people will be gullible or stupid enough to believe them. If history is any indicator, I would predict a lot.

Nobody had an issue with it when Clinton did it. Maybe the difference was in their methods. Ever consider that?

 

[Zoo_View]

Imagine that something that didn’t work all that well for a private company that maxed out below 8,000 total employees was a failure at government agencies with tens of thousands of employees (about 3 million federal employees in the aggregate) … who could have known?

“……insight into their employees contributions…..”

Most Federal workers are NOT Trump or Elon or Bondi or Hegseth’s “employees.”

They work for the United States of America.

 

[nycfan]

https://www.wired.com/story/fired-doge-staffer-who-is-in-charge/

“…
Two other Musk loyalists, Anthony Armstrong and Baris Akis, were present at the “E meeting.” These three men— Armstrong, Akis, and Davis—appeared to be the people in charge, Lavingia claims.

“Steven is basically like a chief of staff or body man when Elon was there,” he says.

Akis, the co-founder and president of venture capital firm Human Capital, is a long-time Musk associate. He is not a US citizen. In February, the Atlantic reported that Trump advisers had prevented Musk from hiring Akis into DOGE because he was born in Turkey, but has a green card. U.S. legal regulations, the Atlantic noted, generally do not allow for non-Americans to be employed by the government.

Lavingia says, however, that Akis was the person who helped bring him into DOGE, messaging let him know that he would be assigned to work at the VA and connecting him with the DOGE team lead for the agency.

Akis did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment and WIRED was not able to review messages between Lavingia and Akis. The Atlantic noted in their February report that Akis also did not respond to their request for comment.

In a live recording with the All-In Podcastearlier this month, Antonio Gracias, another Musk ally and a known DOGE affiliate, appeared to confirm Akis’s presence, and said that “Baris and Emily do the recruiting” for DOGE. (Lavingia could not confirm who the mention of “Emily” referred to in the podcast.)…”

 

[altmin]

https://www.splinter.com/this-is-fine-head-of-fema-doesnt-know-that-hurricane-season-exists

Reuters published an exclusive report about David Richardson, Trump’s head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that is gobsmackingly stupid even by Trump administration standards. It’s already common knowledge that whomever Trump appoints to oversee an agency is tasked with destroying it, but the level of ignorance displayed by the head of FEMA in this report is astonishing even when compared to their immensely low bar. Reuters reports that FEMA staff were “left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.”

 

[superrific]

Reuters reports that FEMA staff were “left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.”

Can't be real.

 

[lawtig02]

https://www.splinter.com/this-is-fine-head-of-fema-doesnt-know-that-hurricane-season-exists

Reuters published an exclusive report about David Richardson, Trump’s head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that is gobsmackingly stupid even by Trump administration standards. It’s already common knowledge that whomever Trump appoints to oversee an agency is tasked with destroying it, but the level of ignorance displayed by the head of FEMA in this report is astonishing even when compared to their immensely low bar. Reuters reports that FEMA staff were “left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.”

Just in case one of our house MAGAs wants to try to defend this guy --​

David Richardson

Mr. David Richardson was previously appointed as the Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD). CWMD leads DHS efforts and coordinates with domestic and international partners to safeguard the United States against...

www.fema.gov

David Richardson​

Office of the Administrator

Senior Official Performing the Duties of FEMA Administrator

Mr. David Richardson was previously appointed as the Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD). CWMD leads DHS efforts and coordinates with domestic and international partners to safeguard the United States against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.

Mr. Richardson previously served as a United States Marine Corps ground combat officer. In uniform, he commanded artillery units, taught history at the George Washington University, strategy at the U.S. Army Field Artillery School, and Marine Corps Martial Arts. During the Long War, he served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Africa. Mr. Richardson was awarded for valor during combat operations.

Mr. Richardson hails from Waterford, Michigan. He received a B.S. in biology from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He lives in Northern Virginia with his two sons.

 

[superrific]

Is it too much to ask that our administrators attend real universities? I mean, not everybody has to be Harvard, but Harding? Come on. I'm knowledgeable about higher education and I've never even heard of this place.

 

[UNCatTech]

If the politicians of this country for the last 30 years hadn't just sat back and willingly watched the largest transfer of wealth in human history take place from the US to the world's looter, that being China, China wouldn't have all the money they are using to spread their influence and build a military they will use to fight the US in any potential future conflict.

Since we are now worried about China, with all of their money, using that money to maximize their influence over world affairs while minimizing the United States, then it would seem logical to me that it is past time for the US to take drastic measures if necessary to minimize the wealth China is gaining at the expense of the US. Agree?

No, don't agree at all.

 

[UNCatTech]

It should be shocking to realize the level of waste and fraud that goes on within the government of this country, a country 36 trillion in debt, and we have just scratched the surface. I can see why politicians would love the status quo with their access to trillions of dollars every year to line the pockets of friends, family, and themselves.

But something I just can't understand is how those same wasteful, corrupt, and nonchalant politicians can convince people who, along with their children, will be the ones paying the price for all of this corruption to actually fight against its discovery....at their own peril.

So, Elon has moved on. The corrupt politicians have won in that regard, and they will try to convince their supporters that they have won too but the question is, how many people will be gullible or stupid enough to believe them. If history is any indicator, I would predict a lot.

There's not enough waste and fraud to pay off our debt. It just doesn't exist and it never has.

To pay off the debt we need real leaders who are willing to seriously evaluate our situation, not the ass clowns with a chainsaw. And that evaluation would more than likely include increasing taxes, but not in a form that destroys the economy, like the orange man's tariffs.

 

[UNCatTech]

 

[lawtig02]

Is it too much to ask that our administrators attend real universities? I mean, not everybody has to be Harvard, but Harding? Come on. I'm knowledgeable about higher education and I've never even heard of this place.

Makes more sense when you realize that on the theocracy scale, it's somewhere between Oral Roberts and Bob Jones.

Harding University | A Christian Liberal Arts University

Harding is an affordable, Christian liberal arts college in Arkansas that prepares leaders to integrate faith and learning into their everyday lives.

www.harding.edu

 

[nycfan]

 

[EyeballKid]

It should be shocking to realize the level of waste and fraud that goes on within the government of this country, a country 36 trillion in debt, and we have just scratched the surface. I can see why politicians would love the status quo with their access to trillions of dollars every year to line the pockets of friends, family, and themselves.

But something I just can't understand is how those same wasteful, corrupt, and nonchalant politicians can convince people who, along with their children, will be the ones paying the price for all of this corruption to actually fight against its discovery....at their own peril.

So, Elon has moved on. The corrupt politicians have won in that regard, and they will try to convince their supporters that they have won too but the question is, how many people will be gullible or stupid enough to believe them. If history is any indicator, I would predict a lot.

“A former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency says that he found that the federal waste, fraud and abuse that his agency was supposed to uncover were "relatively nonexistent" during his short time embedded within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"I personally was pretty surprised, actually, at how efficient the government was," Sahil Lavignia told NPR's Juana Summers.”

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/02/nx-s1-5417994/former-doge-engineer-shares-his-experience-working-for-the-cost-cutting-unit

 

[Mulberry Heel]

“A former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency says that he found that the federal waste, fraud and abuse that his agency was supposed to uncover were "relatively nonexistent" during his short time embedded within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"I personally was pretty surprised, actually, at how efficient the government was," Sahil Lavignia told NPR's Juana Summers.”

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/02/nx-s1-5417994/former-doge-engineer-shares-his-experience-working-for-the-cost-cutting-unit

Well, yeah, that's the difference between living in reality and living in your own right-wing fantasy world where the government is your enemy and can never do anything right, because that's what Fox News and other right-wing media constantly tells you.

 

[nycfan]

The Trump-Musk divorce may lead to the Administration itself feeding a lot of these types of stories.

 

[8992Tiger]

The Trump-Musk divorce may lead to the Administration itself feeding a lot of these types of stories.

God, that would be wonderful. Archive it, and in the next election season ask if this the kind of leadership, management, expertise and professionalism this country needs. Then pull up quotes from which ever Trump sycophant happens to be running against you.

 

[ChileG]

The Trump-Musk divorce may lead to the Administration itself feeding a lot of these types of stories.

I remember in these forums a lot of people smugly asking, “how can you be against cutting fraud and making the government more efficient?”