Saturday, May 31, 2025
MAGA regrets
Sadly, Vanessa DID vote to deport moms. She just didn't pay attention when people told her that's what she was voting for.
Is Elon really gone?
I think you know the answer to that. But the mainstream media is pretending his announcement that he's leaving the White House means he's not involved in the Trump government any longer.
But, technically, his "special government employee status" was limited to 130 days per year, making May 30 a mandatory termination date. For THIS year. He'll still be working behind the scenes anyway. He might even be quiet about it. MIGHT.From day one, DOGE was an operation built on a series of failures and misfires. Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk’s first partner in efficiency, left the department after two months. The fact that he was even there in the first place was nothing short of ironic: Did the Department of Government Efficiency really need two people to do the same job?
Things went downhill from there.
DOGE illegally fired over 200,000 federal employees, terminated thousands of federal contracts and gutted the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to catastrophic levels. As you can imagine, it’s hard to be efficient when you’re severely lacking in employees and funding to get anything done.
Democracy Docket
Musk said that "We're talking about almost $200bn and rising fast," when asked about the total savings made by DOGE for 2025.
He also said that he would be reducing the amount he spends on political donations in the coming months: "I'm going to do a lot less in the future. I think I've done enough."
"If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I do not currently see a reason."
Newsweek
He says standing next to the man who has been pardoning criminals, setting them back on the streets, right and left. A man who has no empathy for anyone.
Translation: big donor.Elon Musk will not be fully exiting the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—and its activities are only intensifying. On Friday, President Donald Trump threw cold water on the idea that Musk would fully disappear from DOGE and the White House forever. "Elon's really not leaving,” Trump said in a joint press conference with Musk in the Oval Office. “He's gonna be back and forth. It's his baby, he's going to be doing a lot of things."
“I expect to continue to provide advice," Musk, wearing a black hat with DOGE written on it and a black shirt reading “DOGEFATHER,” said during Friday's press conference, while noting that his legal limit for service as a special government employee was coming to an end. "I expect to remain a friend and an advisor.”
Wired
A word to the wise: do not hold your breath waiting for that check.The possibility of payouts from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE stimulus checks, remains uncertain as the process must receive multiple approvals before a potential dividend is sent out to Americans.President Donald Trump said he's considering a plan to pay out $5,000 stimulus checks to taxpayers in the form of a 'DOGE dividend' during a speech in February. He explained it as part of allocating 20% of the savings identified by DOGE to be returned to American taxpayers.
This 'DOGE dividend' idea was previously floated by Azoria investment firm CEO James Fishback on Musk's social media platform X, suggesting Trump and Musk "should announce a ‘DOGE Dividend’ — a tax refund check sent to every taxpayer, funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE." Musk replied, "Will check with the President."
[...]
The checks, however, may fall short of the proposed $5,000. Fishback noted that if DOGE doesn’t hit its expected $2 trillion savings goal, stimulus checks could be reduced.
“So again, if the savings are only $1 trillion, which I think is awfully low, the check goes from $5,000 to $2,500,” Fishback said during a podcast appearance. “If the savings are only $500 billion, which, again, is really, really low, then the [checks] are only $1,250.”
Austin Statesman
The potential refund would be sent only to households that are net-income taxpayers — people who pay more in taxes than they get back — with lower-income Americans not qualifying for the return, according to news reports. The Pew Research Center cites that most Americans with an adjusted gross income of under $40,000 effectively pay no federal income tax.
And that doesn't include the cost of reducing the efficiency of agencies whose numbers have been slashed.Between reports of lost tax income, the cost of putting workers on administrative leave, and DOGE’s own budget, the Elon Musk fronted unit may wind up costing U.S.
[...]
Today, DOGE has pushed tens of thousands of workers into that bucket, with the thinking being that when those workers are off the payroll for good, the amount they would have been paid is then saved.
[...]
“These firings they’re conducting without following the law will result in hundreds of thousands of former federal employees being owed back pay, plus interest, plus benefits, plus attorneys fees,” said labor attorney Suzanne Summerlin in an interview last month with The Guardian. “When the bill comes, it will be monumental.”)
The full cost of the number of workers currently on forced administrative leave is something no one has been able to calculate yet, in part because of the rapidly escalating number of people being impacted by reductions in force and the ensuing court fights.
Inc.
Beyond the cost of administrative leave, DOGE firings at the Internal Revenue Service are expected to result in a significant revenue shortfall this year.
Disruptions from DOGE could mean $500 billion in lost federal revenue this year, according to a report in The Washington Post. A growing number of individuals and businesses may opt to not files taxes or not pay what they owe the IRS, knowing the agency enforcement division is being de-emphasized. (That amount, to put it in perspective, is about 60 percent of the Defense Department’s annual budget.)
And they're coming after those things in order to give the richest people in the country more tax cuts.Rather than set government straight, Elon Musk is leaving Washington with the federal budget all cattywampus. Deficit spending is increasing, not waning, and there is a growing school of thought that his “efficiency” effort could end up costing the government as much as or more than it saved.
[...]
Musk will leave government work “disappointed” that the Republicans he helped put in power are working to pass a bill that is estimated to add some $3.8 trillion in deficit spending and which Trump calls “big” and “beautiful.”
There’s no accounting trick to correct that imbalance. The budget is trillions out of whack, and the shock-and-awe campaign Musk and Trump imposed across the federal workforce has led to some serious PTSD for federal workers and contractors while claiming only to have saved $175 billion.
That’s not chump change, but it’s not going to radically reform the US government. What’s listed on the still-rudimentary DOGE website is also not an accurate reflection of what the group might actually have accomplished.
[...]
Picking apart the “estimated savings” of $175 billion on the DOGE website, [CNN’s Casey] Tolan told me that less than half that figure is backed up with even the most basic documentation. That means it’s possible only even to start investigating about $32 billion of savings from terminated contracts, $40 billion of savings from terminated grants and $216 million of savings from terminated leases that DOGE claims.
Plus, some of the specific terminations that are included in those numbers have no details at all. And Tolan has reported on the fact that DOGE’s tally has “been marred by various errors and dubious calculations throughout the entire time they’ve been releasing this info.”
DOGE claims to have saved $1086.98 per taxpayer. Is that right? Probably not. The figure is based on “161 million individual federal taxpayers,” according to the DOGE website, which drastically undercounts taxpayers in the US. That 161 million figure is more likely a reflection of individual tax returns and would not reflect married people who file jointly.
[...]
“This distinction is about trying to get that number as large as possible. If instead it was expressed as per American then it would be $514,” and only if you assume DOGE has saved $175 billion, which it probably has not.
[...]
[S]taffing cuts at the IRS will mean the US brings in less revenue — but so will operating national parks short-staffed. Plus, a universe of litigation related to DOGE’s efforts to cancel contracts and fire workers seemingly without cause is percolating through courts.
“In total, estimates suggest that what has been spent to generate these cuts may be as great as the cuts. In the long run, it’s not clear that DOGE generated any savings."
[...]
The federal workforce is literally in trauma — something Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, said was an aim of his.
[Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service] estimates the federal workers will be much less productive after DOGE’s efforts, for a variety of reasons. Workers are now worried about losing jobs; their morale is depleted; they are distracted from their work; and many top performers are being reassigned or are leaving entirely.
[...]
While Musk has promised maximum transparency, it has been impossible to verify much of what DOGE has said it has done.
[...]
“So far, we’ve just canceled contracts,” [Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute] said. “The money is still spent because Congress spends the money.”
[...]
“And the receipts that DOGE has shown that are posted publicly are nonetheless woefully inadequate to back their claims.”
[...]
[Jessica Tillipman, an expert in government procurement law at George Washington University said,] “What have we seen? You require everybody to come back to work and you don’t have office space,” she said as one example.
“You have people doing work that they’re not trained to do. You have talent drains,” Tillipman said, pointing out that most of the government firings so far were among recently hired workers often brought on with a particular expertise.
“Half the training programs for the government have been canceled, so these pipelines that the government spent decades working on to make sure that there’s a steady supply and the government’s an attractive place for high-quality talent have gone away.”
The long-term effect of those changes will not be clear for some time.
[...]
[G]overnment outlays are on track to rise by 9% in 2025 compared with 2024. That’s because Americans are living longer and drawing more from programs like Medicare and Social Security.
CBS
None of this considers the cost of the physical damage DOGE has caused to federal offices.
Whoa.
Stay off Ketamine, kids.
Also, he says he got the black eye from asking his five-year-old to punch him in the face.
UPDATE 07:40 pm:
UPDATE 06/01/2025:
"His" judges aren't delivering
Remember Leonard Leo? The guy who set up all the Trump judge deals and, specifically, the Supreme Court, which has given Trump unmatched power? Trump was extremely happy with him just a few months ago.
President Donald Trump’s angry, unhinged rant on Truth Social over this week’s judicial ruling against his tariffs is getting attention for its fury at Leonard Leo, the mastermind of the conservative takeover of the courts. Trump blamed the Federalist Society—which Leo championed—for the ruling, in which two judges appointed by GOP presidents, including Trump himself, found that Trump’s tariffs dramatically overstepped his presidential authority.
[...]
The judge that Trump appointed to the three-judge U.S. Court of International Trade—which issued the ruling—has protectionist sympathies, yet even he saw the tariffs as illegal. [...]The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs. In other words, hundreds of politicians would sit around D.C. for weeks, and even months, trying to come to a conclusion as to what to charge other Countries that are treating us unfairly. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential Power—The Presidency would never be the same!“Under this decision, Trillions of Dollars would be lost by our Country,” Trump fumed. “The President of the United States must be allowed to protect America against those that are doing it Economic and Financial harm.”
[...]
Trump derides the very idea that Congress should have a good deal of authority over the levying of tariffs. Trump claims this can’t apply in the case of his new tariffs because it prevents him from acting to protect the country in an emergency. In this case, that emergency is the one Trump has invoked—our trade deficits—to appropriate for himself virtually unlimited power to levy sweeping taxes on products imported from all over the world.
This is what the court ruled illegal (though the tariffs can proceed for now).
[...]
Trump is openly declaring that he should have the power to circumvent Congress in levying these tariffs to address emergencies. Yet as Trump himself demonstrates here, in claiming this authority, he’s invoking an emergency that is not real. Trillions of dollars are not being “lost” by our country due to trade deficits, as his rant proclaims. That is not how trade deficits work, and they certainly do not constitute “emergencies.” As Trump’s tirade plainly shows, he made up the “emergency” to grant himself extraordinarily sweeping authorities.
[...]
What’s really at issue here is whether Trump can simply pull “emergencies” out of his rear to assume dictatorial powers for himself. The court is saying, No, you can’t. Trump’s rant basically says: Yes, I can.
The real reason Trump and his minions are raging at the courts is that they want that latter proposition to be the controlling one—which, not incidentally, would make great strides toward making his power to tyrannize over us quasi-absolute. That is their project, and they’re not even hiding it anymore. The only question at this point is whether they succeed—or whether we stop them.
New Republic
Trump 2.0 - Gangster state
Raskin says some GOP Congressmen have "wanted" posters of some judges posted outside their offices.
Friday, May 30, 2025
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Destroying ourselves
That's great, but how many will apply in this climate?
Oh, Jesus Joseph and Mary
Again. The whiniest POS on the planet.
Speaking of which...
Meanwhile...
I don't suppose THIS confusion is causing him any mental anguish. But it is the rest of the world.
Christ!
Shameless
Marco Rubio's parents were immigrants to this country. I hope they are still alive and disown him. I am no longer sure Rubio had a soul to sell.Secretary Marco Rubio’s State Department published a reorganization chart Thursday morning showing massive cuts to diplomatic offices and functions, plus a few new additions. Rubio’s department also reportedly sent the plan to Congress concurrently. What hasn’t been previously reported is the extensive 136-page document Congress received that includes the more granular details of what the reimagined department would look like— including an “Office of Remigration,” a far-right, anti-immigrant buzzword made popular in Europe for ridding the country of migrants.
The Handbasket
Nazis. Fascists.Arguably the most alarming piece of the report comes in the section for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM). The report states that PRM will be “substantially reorganized” and that a number of new offices will be created as part of the absorption of USAID. There will be three new offices under the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Migration Matters, “to shift focus towards supporting the Administration’s efforts to return illegal aliens to their country of origin or legal status.”
One such office will be the Office of Remigration (REM), which will “provide a policy platform for interagency coordination with DHS and other agencies on removals/repatriations, and for intra-agency policy work to advance the President’s immigration agenda.” There will also be offices of International Migration/Repatriation and Refugee Processing.
[...]
While these plans align with Trump’s open objective of expelling as many migrants from the United States as possible, the use of the word “remigration” is particularly striking as it’s widely used by far-right extremists in Europe.
And in our case, "American", which to MAGA means white people.Just last week, approximately 400 far-right activists—including a former Trump-endorsed GOP state legislative candidate from Michigan—gathered in Italy to specifically discuss remigration. Per one news report, “Flemish nationalist Dries Van Langenhove -- who has been sentenced to a year in prison for denying the Holocaust -- quoted Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban and asked participants to chant the slogan ‘Save our nation, remigration’.”
[...]
“Remigration is a series of policy proposals, drafted by Austrian Identitarian and former neo-Nazi Martin Sellner, to end the so-called ‘replacement’ by purging the continent of non-white people and eliminating all forms of multiculturalism. The goal is to make countries ‘European again.’”
Trump 2.0 - Fake shit
The Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his “Make America Healthy Again” Commission report harnesses “gold-standard” science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions.
[...]
Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes is listed in the MAHA report as the first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents. When NOTUS reached out to her this week, she was surprised to hear of the citation. She does study mental health and substance use, she said. But she didn’t write the paper listed.
NOTUS
Today in history 1941
Labor pressures had been building in the Magic Kingdom since promises made to artists over the success of Snow White were reneged on, and Walt Disney’s lawyer Gunther Lessing encouraged a hard line with his employees.
On May 28, in defiance of the Wagner act, Disney fired animator Art Babbitt, the creator of Goofy, and 13 other cartoonists for demanding a union. A motion to strike was made that evening.
The picket line with major cartoonists began the next morning.
Zinn Education Project
With neither side willing to give in, the event lasted into the fall, turning uglier and lasting longer than either side had ever imagined. In the end, the workers won, and neither the Disney company nor the animation industry would ever be the same again.
[...]
While a union seems like a no-brainer for keeping employees happy and content, they are still resisted by people in positions of power, whether that person be the co-creator of Rick and Morty or Ed Catmull, the current president of Walt Disney Animation Studios. Catmull is staunchly anti-union, and has fought tooth-and-nail to keep the company he co-founded, Pixar, a union-free shop. As a result, even though Pixar is now owned by Disney, and even though Pixar has been the most financially successful animation studio in America for the last twenty years, the average starting wage for animators at the studio remains below unionized feature animation workers.
It also shouldn’t be a surprise that Catmull has emerged as the mastermind behind a wage-fixing scheme that has rocked the feature animation world over the past year, with evidence emerging that Catmull has worked for decades to prevent the industry’s employees from advancing their careers or being paid what they were truly worth.
[...]
[Disney Corp] today is worth $163 billion, making it the most valuable entertainment conglomerate currently in the world.
Cartoon Brew
Animator Art Babbitt, one of the strike leaders, leads a picket
at the premiere of “The Reluctant Dragon.”
Yes, many of the women are marching the picket line in skirts and heels, and men wear sport coats and ties.
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