US Politics Thread 2021-24

[vienna]

Early on in the DOGE takeover of US government systems, Musk's teams of script kiddies royally screwed up the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) email system, leaving it wide open to attack from outside the government and, perhaps even more distressing, outside the US:


Trump Broke the Federal Email System and Government Employees Got Blasted With Astonishingly Vulgar Messages --

https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-email-system

In my experience with administering and/or dealing with IT, I don't recall ever seeing as sloppy an effort to change a system as what Musk's Minions are committing; to leave a system so openly naked to attack is appalling; ignoring existing security protocols in favor of Musk's flavor-of-the-month approach would be enough to get anyone in the private sector fired, if not criminally charged or sued; yet, Trump persists in standing by the cyber klutze...


Cybersecurity, government experts are aghast at security failures in DOGE takeover --

https://cyberscoop.com/musk-doge-opm-treasury-breach/


It is important to note that DOGE's efforts are not just going to affect internal government data sets; their lax security "standards" and breaches also will affect data sets containing the personal, and private, information of citizens and the critical data involving their lives; the way its going now, its going to be a field day for the hackers, phishers, and other denizens of the web, both open and dark...

Originally Posted by August

This is a link to the Doge Live Tracker. It shows totals and individual items. At time of posting they've saved $45 Billion taxpayer dollars and counting.


https://www.doge-tracker.com/?fbclid...Yhn1f8CKBnOGZQ

...and, it appears, DOGE couldn't even secure their on webpage, something that really should been easy for Musk's "best and the brightest"...


Elon Musk's DOGE Website Being 'Hacked' Sparks Mockery --

https://www.newsweek.com/doge-websit...-trump-2031707


The Keystone Kops aspect of it all would be amusing if it weren't for the fact that our nation's security is being endangered; I received an email with one of IT expert Bruce Schneier's periodic IT security newsletters; one of the subjects was this:

DOGE as a National Cyberattack


[2025.02.13] In the span of just weeks, the US government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history -- not through a sophisticated cyberattack or an act of foreign espionage, but through official orders by a billionaire with a poorly defined government role. And the implications for national security are profound.

First, it was reported that people associated with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had accessed the US Treasury computer system, giving them the ability to collect data on and potentially control the department’s roughly $5.45 trillion in annual federal payments.

Then, we learned that uncleared DOGE personnel had gained access to classified data from the US Agency for International Development, possibly copying it onto their own systems. Next, the Office of Personnel Management -- which holds detailed personal data on millions of federal employees, including those with security clearances -- was compromised. After that, Medicaid and Medicare records were compromised.

Meanwhile, only partially redacted names of CIA employees were sent over an unclassified email account. DOGE personnel are also reported to be feeding Education Department data into artificial intelligence software, and they have also started working at the Department of Energy.

This story is moving very fast. On Feb. 8, a federal judge blocked the DOGE team from accessing the Treasury Department systems any further. But given that DOGE workers have already copied data and possibly installed and modified software, it’s unclear how this fixes anything.

In any case, breaches of other critical government systems are likely to follow unless federal employees stand firm on the protocols protecting national security.

The systems that DOGE is accessing are not esoteric pieces of our nation’s infrastructure -- they are the sinews of government.

For example, the Treasury Department systems contain the technical blueprints for how the federal government moves money, while the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) network contains information on who and what organizations the government employs and contracts with.

What makes this situation unprecedented isn’t just the scope, but also the method of attack. Foreign adversaries typically spend years attempting to penetrate government systems such as these, using stealth to avoid being seen and carefully hiding any tells or tracks. The Chinese government’s 2015 breach of OPM was a significant US security failure, and it illustrated how personnel data could be used to identify intelligence officers and compromise national security.

In this case, external operators with limited experience and minimal oversight are doing their work in plain sight and under massive public scrutiny: gaining the highest levels of administrative access and making changes to the United States’ most sensitive networks, potentially introducing new security vulnerabilities in the process.

But the most alarming aspect isn’t just the access being granted. It’s the systematic dismantling of security measures that would detect and prevent misuse -- including standard incident response protocols, auditing, and change-tracking mechanisms -- by removing the career officials in charge of those security measures and replacing them with inexperienced operators.

The Treasury’s computer systems have such an impact on national security that they were designed with the same principle that guides nuclear launch protocols: No single person should have unlimited power. Just as launching a nuclear missile requires two separate officers turning their keys simultaneously, making changes to critical financial systems traditionally requires multiple authorized personnel working in concert.

This approach, known as “separation of duties,” isn’t just bureaucratic red tape; it’s a fundamental security principle as old as banking itself. When your local bank processes a large transfer, it requires two different employees to verify the transaction. When a company issues a major financial report, separate teams must review and approve it. These aren’t just formalities -- they’re essential safeguards against corruption and error. These measures have been bypassed or ignored. It’s as if someone found a way to rob Fort Knox by simply declaring that the new official policy is to fire all the guards and allow unescorted visits to the vault.

The implications for national security are staggering. Sen. Ron Wyden said his office had learned that the attackers gained privileges that allow them to modify core programs in Treasury Department computers that verify federal payments, access encrypted keys that secure financial transactions, and alter audit logs that record system changes. Over at OPM, reports indicate that individuals associated with DOGE connected an unauthorized server into the network. They are also reportedly training AI software on all of this sensitive data.

This is much more critical than the initial unauthorized access. These new servers have unknown capabilities and configurations, and there’s no evidence that this new code has gone through any rigorous security testing protocols. The AIs being trained are certainly not secure enough for this kind of data. All are ideal targets for any adversary, foreign or domestic, also seeking access to federal data.

There’s a reason why every modification -- hardware or software -- to these systems goes through a complex planning process and includes sophisticated access-control mechanisms. The national security crisis is that these systems are now much more vulnerable to dangerous attacks at the same time that the legitimate system administrators trained to protect them have been locked out.

By modifying core systems, the attackers have not only compromised current operations, but have also left behind vulnerabilities that could be exploited in future attacks -- giving adversaries such as Russia and China an unprecedented opportunity. These countries have long targeted these systems. And they don’t just want to gather intelligence -- they also want to understand how to disrupt these systems in a crisis.

Now, the technical details of how these systems operate, their security protocols, and their vulnerabilities are now potentially exposed to unknown parties without any of the usual safeguards. Instead of having to breach heavily fortified digital walls, these parties can simply walk through doors that are being propped open -- and then erase evidence of their actions.

The security implications span three critical areas.

First, system manipulation: External operators can now modify operations while also altering audit trails that would track their changes. Second, data exposure: Beyond accessing personal information and transaction records, these operators can copy entire system architectures and security configurations -- in one case, the technical blueprint of the country’s federal payment infrastructure. Third, and most critically, is the issue of system control: These operators can alter core systems and authentication mechanisms while disabling the very tools designed to detect such changes. This is more than modifying operations; it is modifying the infrastructure that those operations use.

To address these vulnerabilities, three immediate steps are essential. First, unauthorized access must be revoked and proper authentication protocols restored. Next, comprehensive system monitoring and change management must be reinstated -- which, given the difficulty of cleaning a compromised system, will likely require a complete system reset. Finally, thorough audits must be conducted of all system changes made during this period.

This is beyond politics -- this is a matter of national security. Foreign national intelligence organizations will be quick to take advantage of both the chaos and the new insecurities to steal US data and install backdoors to allow for future access.

Each day of continued unrestricted access makes the eventual recovery more difficult and increases the risk of irreversible damage to these critical systems. While the full impact may take time to assess, these steps represent the minimum necessary actions to begin restoring system integrity and security protocols.

Assuming that anyone in the government still cares.

This essay was written with Davi Ottenheimer, and originally appeared in Foreign Policy.

I posted the entire article because the Foreign Policy site require registration and it wouldn't be available to those of you who might be interested...




<O>

[vienna]

Originally Posted by u crank

Given how Trump was suppose to be Hitler, a Fascist, a racist and that he was suppose to destroy democracy, shouldn't Harris have won and by a landslide?

...

...and, conversely, if Harris was as flawed and a threat to democracy as Trump/GOP/MAGA made her out to be, shouldn't Trump have won in a decisive landslide? Same, difference...

Originally Posted by u crank

...

Trump won the popular vote by 2,284,967 votes.

...and, yet again, he was incapable of garnering a real majority (over 50%) and his 2,284,967 was less the an Clinton's margin over him in 2016, and less than a third of the margin Biden had in 2020; by those metrics, Trump has never enjoyed a solid backing of the voters...

Originally Posted by u crank

...

And now you are making my point.

...

Actually that is my point: Trump wouldn't have a second term if he ran against a solid candidate and his scant margin is proof of that; as I said, Trump is/was not a strong candidate by any means...

Originally Posted by u crank

...

Trump has run for office three times. He won twice. Where are you getting that he lost twice?

I'm speaking in terms of the popular vote, the only objective measure available; there, he indeed lost twice; gaming a flawed system is hardly a "victory", nor is his 2024 election a "vast" or "overwhelming" mandate...



<O>

[u crank]

Originally Posted by vienna

...and, conversely, if Harris was as flawed and a threat to democracy as Trump/GOP/MAGA made her out to be, shouldn't Trump have won in a decisive landslide? Same, difference...

What difference and who cares. Trump is the 47th President of the USA. Crying about it won't change that fact.

...and, yet again, he was incapable of garnering a real majority (over 50%) and his 2,284,967 was less the an Clinton's margin over him in 2016, and less than a third of the margin Biden had in 2020; by those metrics, Trump has never enjoyed a solid backing of the voters...

You do understand the meaning of the word majority don't you?

Actually that is my point: Trump wouldn't have a second term if he ran against a solid candidate and his scant margin is proof of that; as I said, Trump is/was not a strong candidate by any means...

I've never said he was a strong candidate.

I'm speaking in terms of the popular vote, the only objective measure available; there, he indeed lost twice; gaming a flawed system is hardly a "victory", nor is his 2024 election a "vast" or "overwhelming" mandate...

Yea. Cry me a river. It's gonna be a long four years for the TDS crowd. I am sure there are therapy groups out there. Get help.

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

It's beyond me why people like to see someone fail.

And isn't that also what MAGA has been pulling for since 2016? Of course, people want to see others fail. I want to see Putin fail, I want to see all despots and dictators fail, I want to see all criminals fail, etc.

Do I want to see Trump fail? Given how much of what he's doing I'm against I'd say yes, but this would be king knows how to play his crowd and get people to cheer him on and vote against their best interests so the circus entertainment goes on.

"Little under a century ago, an ill-fated law helped spiral the Wall Street crash of 1929 into a worldwide depression. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff encompassed roughly one-quarter of all imports, flaring tensions with U.S. trading partners and halving American imports and exports as a result. Caught in the crosshairs, Americans learned the hard way that trade wars are expensive, and today, we ought to be careful deciding with whom to pick them."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/othe...d=BingNewsSerp

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by vienna

So, I see you haven't really been able to prove your "vast majority" line of bull using the popular vote tallies, so you've switched to trying to justify your claims using the Electoral College vote, instead; let's look at that, then...



First of all, unlike the direct popular vote, which is basically objective (one voter, one vote), the Electoral College is highly subjective and prone to being gamed and manipulated; the popular vote is the purest of the two and is a far more accurate barometer of the public will than the Electoral College; remember, the Electoral College was initially set up to appease the Slave States (SS); the SS had a number of issues with the way they were being seen; when the Continental Congress (CC) first established the means of counting citizens for the purpose of allocating House seats, slaves were not included in the population counts seeing as the SS openly regarded the slaves as property and not people; however, when it became obvious that the SS were not going to have as many seats in the House as they wanted, they demanded the slaves be included in the head count for for seats; the CC balked at this and, after much debate, a compromise was made where a slave was to be considered 3/5 ths of person for the purposes of population counts towards House seats and Electoral College votes; the result was to give the SS more influence than they would have gotten if the population count was solely based on the count of citizens in those states who had full citizen's rights; the SS wanted their slaves to be seen as property but they also wanted to reap a benefit, politically, by wanting those 'non-citizens', with no rights under the law, to be counted as if they were, even fractionally, 'real citizens'; the Electoral College, since it is based on the same criteria that determined House seats, is just an offshoot of the 3/5 ths Compromise; the Electoral College and its reason for existence really should have been ended when slavery was abolished, but, yet, it remains as a sad, pathetic relic of past days and deals..

Secondly, the way EC votes are allocated can vary from state to state and are not, in any way, homogenous; each state determines the way they will cast their EC votes based on their own criteria, thus it is not really objective overall and is more subjective than the popular vote system...

Thirdly, the EC system can be gamed and manipulated far, far more than the popular vote; we saw just how badly the process can be corrupted in 2020 when slates of fake Electors were attempted to be entered and when machinations by the incumbent President to tamper with some states' Electoral process was revealed; it is far, far easier to "fudge" the EC than the popular vote; in fact, with the EC, it is very possible for a Presidential candidate to win the direct popular vote, often by a goodly margin, and yet, be denied office because of the vagaries of the EC, and there is historical fact to prove this...

Now, to your claim of Trump getting 312 EC votes as being proof of some sort of voter acclaim; in 2016, Hillary Clinton defeated Trump in the popular vote but her victory was overturned, not by the voters directly, but by the EC's structure; the GOP gamed the election, not really to get the approval of the voters for their candidate, but to ensure they'd get enough EC votes to 'win'; Trump got 304 EC votes and declared he had won by a landslide; four years later, Biden got 306 EC votes (and over 7 million more votes than Trump), so I guess Biden won by an even bigger landslide than Trump in 2016; in 2024, Trump got 312 EC votes: now, you're probably saying something like 'it proves Trump was a really big winner' but not so fast; the EC is such a twisted mess of subjective influences, it has no real connection to or correlation with the will of the voters as expressed in the "one voter, one vote' objectivity of the popular vote; my favorite instance of just how wildly the EC can be versus the popular vote is the Nixon V. McGovern election of 1972; Nixon won the popular vote garnering a solid 60.7% of the votes cast; however, when the EC votes were tallied, Nixon got 96.8% (520 votes) of the EC votes, a figure way out of step with the popular vote; in 1980, Reagan got 50.4% of the popular vote, but got 90.1% (489 votes) of the EC votes; in 1984, Reagan got 58.8% of the popular, but got 97.6% (525 votes) of the EC; the numbers in the EC just don't have the ability to accurately reflect the wishes and/or mood of the US voters; the EC is an archaic, arcane leftover from slave days' attempts to appease the slavers...

So, you think 312 is something to write home about? try Reagan's 525 and 520, or Nixon's 520, for that matter; there is no landslide for Trump in 2016, 2020, or 2024, and there certainly no "vast majority", at all...




Yes, numbers don't lie and I have the numbers to prove your claim of a "vast majority" are just so much BS and have no basis in objective facts; you tried to pretty up the Trump Pig, but no amount of lipstick is gonna make that oinker any more pleasing to the majority of the voters who didn't vote for him...

..and as far as crying is concerned, I shed no tears over this; I'm just enjoying watching Donald Dumb and his merry band of minions Keystone Kop their way through the last term of someone who will fulfill his destiny with yet another failure; unfortunately, they are going to do a lot of damage in the process, but the US is a strong country and I'm sure we'll get through the next four yeas of Oval Office idiocy and emerge with a better sense of how to avoid something like this happening again...

Remember, politics in the US is like a pendulum and however far you pull a pendulum in one direction, it will swing back just as far in the other direction; it would seem the MAGA minions are gonna be in for a rude awakening once The Giant Lemon has served his term...


Ahh, the tears of the MAGA will be delicious...

<O>

First off, Vienna, The Electoral map and numbers doesn't lie. Neither does the fact that President Trump won 312 Electoral College Votes to Kamala Harris's 226. that's 86 more in case you can't count. Further, President Trump won all 7 Battleground States. Not one of them voted for Kamala. This was after Mama Kamala Campaigned heavy in all those states.. The voters saw enough of Kamala to know she was a blithering Idiot. In the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump received approximately 77.3 million popular votes, while Kamala Harris garnered about 75.0 million votes. Apparently, You don't understand numbers and keep asking for more. People aren't elected by the popular vote. In this case, Trump won both the popular vote and the Electoral College Vote. That's it.

Second off, What does the numbers for Reagan have to do with the 2024 Election. No one gives a Rat's behind about an election that was 44 years ago, Vienna. No one. What does that have to do with anything ????

Third off, you complain about the poor candidate running for the Democrats. Who's fault is that ?? The Democrats could have had a primary to determine the best Candidate. As everyone knows, they didn't. In this case, Mama Kamala was the best the Democrats could do. That's because the Democratic party is stupid and incompetent.

As far as Elon Musk knowing about the treasury, I hate to tell you this Einstein but there will always be someone in Government who knows everything about you. Why is it this an Issue for you now ? You had no Idea who these people were in the Treasury Dept. during the Biden Administration and you were ok with it. Now that Elon is rooting out waste, now you are upset ?? Really ?? With regards to the people in the Administration of Biden, Chances are, they weren't elected either but simply hired or appointed, like Elon Musk. George Soros was a consultant for the Democrats. No one elected him either. George Soros lurked in the shadows. Where were your complaints then ??

You mention the kids working with Musk. A lot of these kids had built Companies as teenagers. What were you doing at a teenager. On second thought, we don't want to know. The end result, DOGE turned over their findings for verification to determine waste of which there are Billions of Dollars. And, you are upset about that ?? You are so much in denial like the other democrat gang, It's unreal. By the way, if your Democrat buddies keep leaning to the left, I don't see anyone electing them to anything.

If you saw Jesus himself walking on water, you would look and say, he isn't so great. He can't even swim.

No one cares Vienna if you can't handle the Election loss. I really think you need professional help and therapy like U crank said.

[Gorpet]

Originally Posted by Otto Harkaman

^ And if we put that quote into historical context, I am sure people in the 1770s would have no way to comprehend the idea of transgender males playing in women sports

- because many of the things we do today would be considered satanic and deviant by their standards.

Well there is, This is a fact the people of the 1770s are dead, along with the 1800,s Along with the 1900,s But we do know from records that men and women and their children were what made up this country's population.

And i can guarantee you, A man was a man, A women was a woman, And a family was a family. And life was a matter of life and death back then. As a society.
What you want to explore are the relationships of the Cattle drovers the Cowboys on those months of herding.Im sure there were transgender males along the way.They were not considered satanic and deviant.

It just came down to daylight and dark..... Fast forward to today transgender, well hell, they have their own Alphabet and its in the face of of the everyday citizen, Look at me! Ok i see you! So tomorrow will you show up for work .? And all trans can reply, and tell me why you are so special ? Why do you think that you need any recognition ?

In my travels thru the southwest over to the pacific ocean we found the deeper we went into California holy ****, This state is a socialist country within the USA. Ya don't believe me ? If take your ass over and see.

[mapuc]

No mocking and no name calling or Jim may close this thread for a while.

Agree on the fact that you disagree and then move on.
Just my 10c of opinion

Edit
CW have changed part of his text, so I removed the quoted part.

Markus

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by mapuc

No mocking and no name calling or Jim may close this thread for a while.

Agree on the fact that you disagree and then move on.
Just my 10c of opinion

Markus

You're very right, Markus. Completely.


* Corrected *

[Otto Harkaman]

Originally Posted by Gorpet

Well there is, This is a fact the people of the 1770s are dead, along with the 1800,s Along with the 1900,s But we do know from records that men and women and their children were what made up this country's population.

And i can guarantee you, A man was a man, A women was a woman, And a family was a family. And life was a matter of life and death back then. As a society.
What you want to explore are the relationships of the Cattle drovers the Cowboys on those months of herding.Im sure there were transgender males along the way.They were not considered satanic and deviant.

It just came down to daylight and dark..... Fast forward to today transgender, well hell, they have their own Alphabet and its in the face of of the everyday citizen, Look at me! Ok i see you! So tomorrow will you show up for work .?

Brethren, in reflecting upon the records and recollections of our forefathers, we do indeed behold a time when the order of creation was held inviolate—a time when man was fashioned as man, and woman as woman, and the family unit stood as the very bedrock of our society. In those days, life and death did pass by the measure of God’s appointed course, and all were called to labour in the fields of duty and piety.

Yet, as we survey the present age, there appear diversities and new customs which perplex the common mind. Though it is writ in the good book that all men are made in the image of the Almighty, we must also remember the order set forth at the very dawn of creation. The changes which have come to pass—whether in the tongue of the people or the relations among them—should not be met with hasteful condemnation, but with a sober and prayerful deliberation.

Let us then be mindful to labour each day with diligence and charity, that our commonwealth may remain steadfast in its covenant with God. For as the light doth break the darkness, so too may the eternal truth of divine order guide our lives, even as the customs of the day shift like the sands. May we each, in our appointed station, strive to build a community that is both just and holy, ever mindful of the sacred truths handed down from our ancestors and ordained by our Creator.

Meet the American who reported the first sensational UFO encounters, Puritan leader John Winthrop

[Gorpet]

Originally Posted by Otto Harkaman

Brethren, in reflecting upon the records and recollections of our forefathers, we do indeed behold a time when the order of creation was held inviolate—a time when man was fashioned as man, and woman as woman, and the family unit stood as the very bedrock of our society. In those days, life and death did pass by the measure of God’s appointed course, and all were called to labour in the fields of duty and piety.

Yet, as we survey the present age, there appear diversities and new customs which perplex the common mind. Though it is writ in the good book that all men are made in the image of the Almighty, we must also remember the order set forth at the very dawn of creation. The changes which have come to pass—whether in the tongue of the people or the relations among them—should not be met with hasteful condemnation, but with a sober and prayerful deliberation.

Let us then be mindful to labour each day with diligence and charity, that our commonwealth may remain steadfast in its covenant with God. For as the light doth break the darkness, so too may the eternal truth of divine order guide our lives, even as the customs of the day shift like the sands. May we each, in our appointed station, strive to build a community that is both just and holy, ever mindful of the sacred truths handed down from our ancestors and ordained by our Creator.

Meet the American who reported the first sensational UFO encounters, Puritan leader John Winthrop

"Allahu Akbar" to you, we believe in the shifting of sands of life.That will bring us closer.So that we can embrace together and you can find 21 transgenders and i will find 21 virgins. Oh buy the way do you like my avatar picture ?

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

And isn't that also what MAGA has been pulling for since 2016? Of course, people want to see others fail. I want to see Putin fail, I want to see all despots and dictators fail, I want to see all criminals fail, etc.

Do I want to see Trump fail? Given how much of what he's doing I'm against I'd say yes, but this would be king knows how to play his crowd and get people to cheer him on and vote against their best interests so the circus entertainment goes on.

"Little under a century ago, an ill-fated law helped spiral the Wall Street crash of 1929 into a worldwide depression. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff encompassed roughly one-quarter of all imports, flaring tensions with U.S. trading partners and halving American imports and exports as a result. Caught in the crosshairs, Americans learned the hard way that trade wars are expensive, and today, we ought to be careful deciding with whom to pick them."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/othe...d=BingNewsSerp

You are likening Trump to a dictator, despot, and criminal. You want to see government efficiency fail? You enjoy having tax dollars pay for programs already listed by DOGE as frivolous and not in the best interest of the tax payer? Why is that?

A little over 4 years ago Trump did the same with tariffs. Did America sink as a result?

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

You are likening Trump to a dictator, despot, and criminal. You want to see government efficiency fail? You enjoy having tax dollars pay for programs already listed by DOGE as frivolous and not in the best interest of the tax payer? Why is that?

A little over 4 years ago Trump did the same with tariffs. Did America sink as a result?

It seems to me that a Dictator and someone with Autocratic visions would want to see the size of the Government increased as a means of control. Trump apparently wants to reduce the size of Government and eliminate waste and redundancies.


If Trump want's to be a Dictator, he is going about it all wrong.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

It seems to me that a Dictator and someone with Autocratic visions would want to see the size of the Government increased as a means of control. Trump apparently wants to reduce the size of Government and eliminate waste and redundancies.


If Trump want's to be a Dictator, he is going about it all wrong.

The government was not supposed to be as big as it has gotten. The dollars wasted is out of control. I'm glad Trump is putting a stop to it.

I have one government employee I work with that has in all of his emails the following verbiage: I'M TELE-WORKING AT HOME. IT IS BEST TO REACH ME BY EMAIL. WTH? It is in the word TELE-working. Telephone. Reach by email only means he is not working or will get back to you when he feels like it. He should be available by phone during working hours. This is the reason for return to work. This is the reason for firings. This is the reason for early retirement offered.

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

You are likening Trump to a dictator, despot, and criminal. You want to see government efficiency fail? You enjoy having tax dollars pay for programs already listed by DOGE as frivolous and not in the best interest of the tax payer? Why is that?

A little over 4 years ago Trump did the same with tariffs. Did America sink as a result?

DOGE is run by an idiot who doesn’t know diddly squat about government. He’s Bozo the Clown throwing darts at a target in the dark with a blindfold on.

Trump added seven trillion to the deficit in his last term.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

DOGE is run by an idiot who doesn’t know diddly squat about government. He’s Bozo the Clown throwing darts at a target in the dark with a blindfold on.

Trump added seven trillion to the deficit in his last term.

Elon does not need to know anything about government. He only needs to identify waste. Thus far, he is doing a bang up job. Sorry to disrupt the funds going to DEI and other nonsense.

And to add, I have transported items for USAID in the past. Pallets of toothpaste to Africa and the like. Last week there was a bid for pallets of tarps to go to of all places....Dubai. Dubai, the richest city in the world. Why are taxpayers not only paying for tarps but also the transportation of said tarps to Dubai? I think Dubai can get their own tarps and pay for transportation of the tarps.