HighOPS

Was firing Auditor Generals on there? That's setting up for some major grift.

Firing all the federal workers only saves a couple hundred billion. The workers themselves were (are?) a bargain at only $1000 or so per American. Of course (as almost everyone here knows) the only way to balance the budget, if it were a sincere and useful goal, is to return to 20th Century taxation or have huge reductions in Medicare, Social Security and military spending.

It will be worded so bonuses for certain financial sector workers will be "tips". Just like certain salaries are considered long term capital gains.

And no empathy.

You can torture immigrants in Arizona to get a pardon, too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio

Plus, by breaking the government they can restore the services people demand. Of course the restored services will be privatized, be more expensive due to profit, have higher fraud because the contracts will be structured on service delivery numbers, and pay the workers delivering the services less. It's Russia in the 90's. Hopefully, we won't get even more Germany in the 30's to go with it.

Or, perhaps worse yet, how many times had he been told already?

Signal caused the empire to kill 50 civilians to get one leader in such a way as to create great risk to our pilots and equipment? It does sound defective.

"Siri, add Mogul to chat" "Adding Goldberg to chat"

I expect "wear red for [something]" days so the cult can go out in public with their MAGA gear and only seem like assholes and not complete assholes.

Do you think Waltz has Trump in Signal using "Gold" as part of a nickname?

But, did Schumer get to his first promotional event on time?

Guy down the street who generally seems annoying (e.g. chopping down city planted tree and burning the stump for three days) has the Ukrainian flag flying.

I know the broader market seems to move 2-4% on based on 25% tariffs. But, there are probably some specific stocks that move a lot more giving a great opportunity for graft if you know the timing of the announcements.

I'm OK with the $250 bill as long as they don't repeal the relevant part of the 1866 Act of Congress.

The 880b is over 10 years, so it's just a devastating cut, not a complete elimination. Except for the 10% of people no longer covered or the medical providers reimbursed further below cost.

I'm wondering if I should treat the US Government like PayPal or some shopping rebate site and create a mostly unused checking account for payments. I'm sure some DOGEr is actually a spy, or wants to retire somewhere w/o extradition, or needs to feed their drug habits . . . I assume the payment database and personal info databases are going to be out there.

My $8 a month probably doesn't matter, but I prefer democracy to Star Trek.

Oh dear. If that ends up poorly written in addition to destroying departments (the intent) it could put so much money in the economy that we'd wish for the post COVID inflation.

The first sect to start taking donations on $Trump will have an advantage, I'd think.

Chase must need to buy a little time to come up with a way to get the protection money to Trump. Surely Trump's lawyers can think of a frivolous reason to sue? Or, Chase can approve a "loan" of some sort?

Almost all the executive actions seem to reinforce white supremacy. I assume Miller and co wrote them. To the extent he has cogent thoughts Trump can probably understand that it helps the grift continue because running a white supremacist government means the most violent militias in the US will support him should someone in government or the military actually follow the law at some point. Or, the militias threat of reprisal will cause people to resign, or take the easier course and follow orders. Plus the grift has gotten lucrative. Crypto is a better scam then loans, hotel rooms, and golf tournaments. It is hard for me to imagine having tens of millions of dollars and harming so many people for a few billion more. But, then I have at least a limited conscience.

Representatives are introducing bills that essentially declare war on Denmark. I think Putin still DMs from time to time.

The DiSS will surely be interested. (we use department more than ministry so stasi doesn't really work. Plus, we can say you were DiSSed by Kash).

One concern with RFK-like health policies broadly applied is - could there be a time when the US military can't effectively fight because of a contagious disease outbreak? I'm more worried that Trump's only competence is in marketing and he'll be capturing people without a plan for their safety. I'm also more worried about mid-level positions at department protecting the environment and food chain being taken over by ignorant political hacks. But, a military unprepared for stupid reasons is something, too.