Trump - 4 more years of this at least...

[TheDemonLord]

The Rapture.

I laughed out loud - Excellent retort.

[F5 Dave]

Toe to toe, dancing very close
Barely breathing, almost comatose
Wall to wall, people hypnotized
And they're stepping lightly
Hang each night in rapture

Back to back, sacroiliac
Spineless movement and a wild attack
Face to face, sightless solitude
And it's finger popping
24-hour shopping in rapture

[Berries]

Village People have lost the plot.

[F5 Dave]

Actually that was more when Debbie Harry lost the plot and started trying to rap.

[pritch]

What was the Urgency behind: The Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships?

Is that a government department? Serious question because I seriously doubt it. There are a whole range of government funded advisory boards etc that are not government departments. Congress alone has the authority to create a department simple.

This is too silly colour me gone.

[pritch]

Today we found out that news outlets like Politico, and the New York Times were being given millions of dollars from the US government.

Benny Johnson says:

This is the biggest scandal in news media history: No employee at Politico got paid yesterday. First time ever the company missed a pay period. This is a crisis. Now we learn Politico — a “news company” — which spent the last 10 years trying to destroy the MAGA Movement was being massively funded by USAID.

It seems some $27 million dollars went to Politico during the Biden years — and that’s just the subscriptions (not the USAID). Truly, Politico charges as much as $10,000 for a single “Politico Pro” subscription — and so the taxpayers fork out big bucks to pay for politicians “work expenses”, and the money ends up covering the salaries of journalists who are working hard to deceive the hapless taxpayers.

As ZeroHedge reminds us, Politico went in hard in the 2020 election to cover for the Hunter Biden laptop from hell.

They also point out that the Blob has many other ways to keep newspapers toeing the line…

It’s not just the subscriptions: there are huge “ad contracts”, dinner parties DC throws itself under the guise of “media conferences”, sponsorships, etc all paid for by taxpayers. Once done with Politico look at its spawn Axios, founded by Politico veterans”

Interesting. If you found that out you found out wrong. The amount paid to Politico was $40,000 for subscriptions. Their professional subs are expensive but there are people in government who need to read the news.

Benny Johnson has a lot to say but he is not a credible news source.

[TheDemonLord]

Is that a government department? Serious question because I seriously doubt it.

Short answer - Yes and No.

Longer answer (because it is interesting) - All Government Departments in the US Context are Offices. However, Departments tend to refer to the largest entites that align with an entire Policy wing - e.g. Department of Defense, Department of Justice.

So, you could technically refer to it as such, but using the US context, it would be a bit silly.

The ATF, for example - is not a Department in that sense, it sits under the aforementioned Department of Justice.

Same with the FBI.

HOWEVER

USAID is NOT a federal executive department, despite having department in the name.

There are a whole range of government funded advisory boards etc that are not government departments. Congress alone has the authority to create a department simple.

Sure - but as above, you are refering to the a Federal Executive Department:

State, Treasury, Interior, Agriculture, Justice, Commerce, Labour, Defense, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veteren affairs and Homeland Security.

So - to be clear - if Trump wanted to nuke one of those, say the Department of Education, he would need Congress to vote on it. However, he would be within his rights as the head of the Executive Branch to appoint a Secretary to the head of that organization to severly limit their influence.

USAID, you will note, is not listed in the above.

And to be fair - neither is DOGE, despite being called the Department of Government Efficiency.

This is too silly colour me gone.

What I find silly is this:

Let us for the moment accept all the dislike of Trump and Elon - every reasonable and unreasonable critique - let us take them as holy writ.

Even if I accept that position - Can you defend the spending that DOGE has uncovered. Why must the US Taxpayer fund LGBTQ propaganda in foreign countries or local versions of Sesame Street or Brazil forest and gender consultant services or an Anthony Fauci exhibition at a Museum etc.

Especially for a country that every year is spending $2 TRILLION more than it collects in Taxes.

In order to raise a complaint about what is being done - you have to approve of the above - I dont think that is a tenable position. Now, some of the spending cuts might be debatable - I saw an article about a Grant for electric buses in one US city that was frozen (not cancelled) - One could certainly look into that - and it might be something they would want to spend the money on.

However that still does not alter the fact that there was insane spending on things that the average american would never have approved to spend US Tax Dollars on.

[TheDemonLord]

Interesting. If you found that out you found out wrong. The amount paid to Politico was $40,000 for subscriptions. Their professional subs are expensive but there are people in government who need to read the news.

Benny Johnson has a lot to say but he is not a credible news source.

Then tell me this Pritch - why was it when the Government spending was frozen, that Politico reported it could not pay its staff on time...

That is not from Benny Johnson or from any right wing news source.

Just like the Guardian being proped up by the BBC in the UK - there seems to be a lot of very cozy relationships.

[sugilite:Me]

In a typically cynical move by musk, he bought his son along to his lieathon press event in the oval office in a "look at me I'm just a normal parent like you" move.
Problem is, toddlers like to parrot what they hear at home and in one of the most truthful moments in oval office history, the kid went over to trump and said "you are not the president. You need to go away" and "I want you to shush your mouth".



As previously mentioned, musk presents the single largest conflict of interest I have ever seen in my lifetime. And since he has teamed with trump, his lies have sky rocketed out of control. Remember the quaint days where he just fibbed about tesla model release dates?
When a reporter asked him about the $50 million gaza condoms, he said he would get some stuff wrong, not bat 1000 and would set things right. Except he did not set things right at all, he let the lie ride. This doge is all performative, and he is telling lie after lie in order to outrage the base giving him the power to do what ever he likes most often with zero oversight.
Don't get me wrong, if course there is massive scamming by the pollies and their mates in these schemes. musk is not the one to be doing this job of rooting it out. Everything related to doge that comes out of his mouth can only be treated as a lie unless he presents actual indisputable proof. That is the sad fact of this situation.

The latest bullshit demo of this conflict of interest.



Now some here, OK one person here likes to spout on about small government being trump and musks doge's aim, and at this point i can be reasonably confidant that this doge situation will have them breaking out the walls of distortion text at a great rate I'm sure.
Personally I feel this small government idea is nothing but a simplistic catch phrase with no actual merit.
I advocate for efficient government for the people, and if a department needs a lot of personal to do the best possible job, then so be it. Saying small government will fix everything is at best a naive pipe dream born of a simpler age.

[TheDemonLord]

Now some here, OK one person here likes to spout on about small government being trump and musks doge's aim, and at this point i can be reasonably confidant that this doge situation will have them breaking out the walls of distortion text at a great rate I'm sure.
Personally I feel this small government idea is nothing but a simplistic catch phrase with no actual merit.
I advocate for efficient government for the people, and if a department needs a lot of personal to do the best possible job, then so be it. Saying small government will fix everything is at best a naive pipe dream born of a simpler age.

Yes, DOGE has been better than ever my most fevered of Fever Dreams.

I have one question first though - you say Musk is not the one to do it. This has been going on for at least 4 years and most likely longer:

If not Elon, then who? And the follow-up: Why have they not done it until now?

However, onto Small Government - I will first ask - do you really want the Government to do the best possible job? Stop and think for a moment. There is the law of diminishing returns.

The cost to make an F1 engine is around $10.5 Million dollars. Yet a local 1,000 BHP+ Crate engine is $47,000.

One is the Best possible job - and it has a cost. When I talk cost here, I dont just mean in the Dollar sense - I mean in Man-hours, resources, time that could be spend doing other things.

For an F1 team where any additional lap time or performance is generally worth it, even though there are diminishing returns (in the technical sense).

However - Do you want to pay for the Best possible Job - because I dont think you (or anyone else for that matter) does. What most people want is bang-for-buck.

Getting the most value out of our Tax Dollars. Now - to your point - Yes, that sometimes means that Government departments have to grow and people have to be hired.

But that also means that sometimes it has to shrink

When you further add in the moral element that Taxation is the forcible removal of resources from the people that produced them by force, there is a moral obligation for the Government to be as lean as possible.

I will note in your critique of Elon and Co - that not once did you defend the spending that was canceled. You even acknowledge that there are snouts on the trough.

Everyone was in on the racket and no one wanted to upset the applecart and their nice fat pension. Elon, the richest man in the world, comes along - he has no need of Government handouts, is free from the lure and able to kick over said applecart.

Just like Milei in Argentine.

When I say I want Small Government - it is accepting that sometimes it is the right thing that a man and a bucket goes and fixes a pothole rather than having a Comittee of road repairs, an Iwi consultation, 3 payroll experts, a Soil report, a Geoseismic report etc. etc.

This is not to say that there are not times when those things are relevant (although the necessity could be argued in some cases...)

The real question will be what the Federal Government looks like after Elon and Trump have finished their policies (which, I will remind you - were voted in by the People - Electoral College, Popular Vote, Senate and House).

Maybe it will be a massive failure.
Maybe it will be a massive success.

We will see.

The naysayers (who are all government employed or 1-step removed from the Government coffers) all tell us that Noooo you cant shrink the size of the Government, Society will fall apart!

And given their complicity in the situation we find ourselves in - suffice to say I dont give their complaints any weight.

[pritch]

The acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, a Trump appointee, has resigned after being told to drop charges against Mayor Eric Adams. Trump must have mistakenly appointed someone with appropriate qualifications and a healthy respect for the law. He won't make that mistake again.

[pritch]

Personally I feel this small government idea is nothing but a simplistic catch phrase with no actual merit.

Absolutely. It really means small government for me, big government for thee. Consider all the personally invasive legislation Republicans push. They are constantly wanting to pass laws about what women can do with their bodies. Some states were considering laws allowing the government to track women's periods so they could tell if anyone became pregnant and then lost it. US women have been advised not to use the cycle tracking app in their phone in case it is used against them. Republicans want to control who can sleep with whom, and which people can use which toilets. Small government? Yeah right!

[pritch]

And just when you were getting used to the crazy. DOGE is terminating employees at the National Nuclear Safety Administration. The people who, among other things, ensure the safety of the US nuclear weapons. What could possibly go wrong?

[F5 Dave]

Fuking arse rooting cherist.

5% of nz people in census identity as on lgbgt spectrum.

No one is falsely identifying. Think about it. Many will under report as they don't want to come out to their parents.

It proves there is no God.

But fuuckers want to believe there are only 2 sexes.

Those same cunts oppress women as being inferior. Over 50% of the whole fucking world are women.

Get fucked you cunts.

[onearmedbandit]

Fuking arse rooting cherist.

5% of nz people in census identity as on lgbgt spectrum.

No one is falsely identifying. Think about it. Many will under report as they don't want to come out to their parents.

It proves there is no God.

But fuuckers want to believe there are only 2 sexes.

Those same cunts oppress women as being inferior. Over 50% of the whole fucking world are women.

Get fucked you cunts.

Genders...not sexes.