Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

I really should read my own blog.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Decision time: keep arguing about the last election, or try to win the next one?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Broken & Borked

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Broken & Borked

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Saturday Morning Open Thread 41

(Clay Bennett via GoComics.com)

 

It may not be the end of the world, but you can see it from here…

Republicans are stealing from you to cut billionaires' taxes.
They are risking nuclear disaster to cut billionaires' taxes.
They are slashing Medicaid and SNAP to cut billionaires' taxes.

[image or embed]

— James Downie (@jamescdownie.bsky.social) February 13, 2025 at 9:34 PM

BREAKING
Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson just issued an order preventing the Trump administration from:
1. Deleting CFPB data
2. Firing CFPB employees
3. Transferring money from CFPB's reserve fund
Right after the order was issued, nearly all CFPB employees were placed on administrative leave

[image or embed]

— Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM


Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Europe stands with you for a just and lasting peace, with strong security guarantees.
We will keep providing continued and stable support to Ukraine.
And speed up work on your EU accession.
Joint read-out with @eucopresident.consilium.europa.eu ?
europa.eu/!MfPPPC

[image or embed]

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu) February 14, 2025 at 8:13 AM

Saturday Morning Open Thread 42

(Joel Pett via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

147Comments

  3. 3.

    Chief Oshkosh

    So, we have idiots mistaking one Gaza for another, and then stepping on their dicks making all kinds of crazy statements. The same idiots are too young to know Cobol and so “discovered” that there are several people on the SS roles who are 150 years old, and then stepping on their dicks making all kinds of crazy statements. NOW we have the oldie but a goodie: An entire political party, the party in charge, made up of people who STILL don’t understand the Department of Energy is NUKES and not solar panels (where’s Gov. Goodhair when you need ‘im?)

    And the press continues to report all of this, literally, like it’s just another story.

  5. 5.

    Rusty

    I thought my loss on faith in the press hit a low after the election, but since the inauguration it has been free fall.  There has been a lot of pissing and moaning about the slow response of our elected Democrats, but they are actually responding.  The absolute cowardice of Republicans that know better and the press is really something to watch.

  7. 7.

    MagdaInBlack

    Elnos face in that still of the clip with trump pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

    *heavy sigh

    such a smug little fuck.

  11. 11.

    Spanky

    Good luck in 2026!

    The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has frozen efforts to aid states in securing elections, according to an internal memo viewed by WIRED.

    ETA link.

  18. 18.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: Agree. What I mean is that most of these media people probably voted for Harris. But they love the performance of FFOTUS,  and they aren’t personally threatened, so they underestimate the risk to real people’s lives it creates.

    I would bet significant sums of money that most of them don’t know anyone who’s ever used SNAP or Medicaid.

  20. 20.

    lamh47

    So I received the email last night right after COB and just before the beginning of the fuqn holiday weekend, that my employment with federal government will be terminated in 2/24/2024.  10 days before my 1 year probation period would have been over.

    i wish I could say I’m shocked because I’m not.  What I am is angry 😡 nor more than 9 days (8 since Monday) to figure out what the dafuq I need to do.  I’ve reached out the an employment attorney,  I’ve reached out to my union rep and I’ve reached out to my mgr.

    But other than what else can I do other than look for work an apply for a new job like crazy this weekend.  Which of course could take forever.  We are in the middle of a pay period which means I only have 1 full paycheck left until I find a new job.

    I literally, less than 6 months bought a new car bought a new car and of course I’ve got all the other household shit like rent and utilities to pay let alone other credit things.

    I’m so fuqn angry right now guys.  But I’ve got to stay focus and just pray and hope I can find something or by some miracle my mgr finds a way to work the shit out.

  28. 28.

    karen gail

    People need to read history; not the whitewashed version in most textbooks but the books from stacks in colleges and universities. The foundation was formed by wealthy white slave owners; sure they claimed that they got the ideas from Iroquois Nations (at least that is what the Suffragettes claimed when pushing for rights for women.)
    So in a twisted way wealthy white males are the foundation and Trump’s administration and GOP is going back to roots of foundation.

  31. 31.

    YY_Sima Qian

    The way DOGE is setting the torch to USG, it is probably a field day for foreign intelligence agencies.

    The last time there was such a free for all was probably after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when all of the Western intelligence agencies ransacked the Stasi archives.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    They can now just refresh the DOGE website to get top secret information instead of trying and failing to hack Hillary’s servers for risotto recipes.

  43. 43.

    lamh47

    @lamh47:

    Mostly right now I’m angry that I didn’t prepare for this earlier and now I’ve got to fuqn scramble.  Fuq’n cowards waited until end of a day when most Fed workers are preparing for a 3 day holiday weekend.  10 fuqn days and I would have been done with my probation year 10 fuqn days.  Not even deserving any grace for just 10 fuqn days.  Right now at most I have one month to find work or by some miracle the termination is suspended.  Which I’m not holding my breath on of course.

    all I can do is look for work and work out arrangements with the bills but at most ai have a month to find work that will be enough to pay what I need to pay.  If I was home in New Orleans I would just shack up with my mother but I’m in expensive azz SF…

    Right now I wish nothing but bad things for the entire fuqn administration and their fuqn allies.

  44. 44.

    Miki

    @lamh47: Adding my fury to your righteous anger. Really seriously POd for you and everyone else losing their job right now.

    Hoping your union can steer you toward some interim relief, UI benefits if nothing else.

    Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

  46. 46.

    MagdaInBlack

    @TBone: Listening to our hero, Heather Cox Richardson on Katie Couric’s youtube channel.

    p.s. she very much reminds me of my history prof/academic advisor in my past life as a non-traditional student (old)

  47. 47.

    Captain C

    @Betty:

    That’s the scariest part. Business as usual for the media. Ho hum.

    NYT Pitchbot pitch:  Nuclear Explosion in North Dakota!  What the Democrats Could Have Done to Stop It

  49. 49.

    Lily

    Tens of thousands fired should yield some people who now will work harder for D control of both houses.  Add angry spouses, parents, grown children, friends to the number.  More people who consider a run for local or state office.  Decide to join the journalistic and legal work of investigating (badly needed), suing, reporting; or to be sources of leaks.

  51. 51.

    Wilson Heath

    It’s like a bunch of meth heads tearing down load-bearing walls and tearing out the copper pipes and wire without turning off the water or electricity.

    This is national suicide.

  52. 52.

    Phylllis

    In other news, school district Office of Civil Rights contacts received this missive late yesterday, informing K-12 and HIgher Ed folks of our DEI crimes:

    Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon “systemic and structural racism” and advanced discriminatory policies and practices.

    There is a link at the end of the letter to the form to be used to make OCR complaints. Which is laughable, because much of the OCR staff that would respond to the complaints are being laid off.

    I’ll also note that a key indicator for the Carl D. Perkins* Career & Technical Education Act is the percentage of students participating in non-traditional career paths–think women in engineering & agriculture and men in cosmetology. I’m wondering how soon this will go away, as it sounds damn DEI-ish to me.

    *Not the blue suede shoes guy.

  60. 60.

    Trivia Man

    @Chief Oshkosh: This week ive been texting my younger brother, trying  to convey that it is republicans who got us in this mess and everyone needs to pressure republicans to stop fucking things up. He us smug because he didn’t vote either major party.

    Democrats had a bad candidate twice, it’s their fault.
    the media is heavily biased towards democrats… obviously the NYT and NPR but (link to a media bias chart). I sent him a headline yesterday highlighting this sane washing but he ignored it.

    Hes an older white male tech worker with extremely serious health problems and hes getting crushed by the economy. His response? DEI did it all. And the federal government is too big and nosy.

     

    Any neutral stories to suggest that talk about sane washing and debunk the so-called liberal media bias?

  63. 63.

    oldgold

    The Motherlode is a normie. She follows the news, but does not marinate in Josh Marshall’s musings or consider Rachel Maddow must see TV.

    That expressed, from time to time she will rant about that “damn fool” (not me, but Trump).This morning, she went off. The cause? This:

    “Designers have drafted options for how to remake the surface of the Rose Garden, which sits just outside the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. Mr. Trump has discussed whether it should be limestone or an easily interchangeable hard surface, with the possibility of installing hardwood floors for dancing, according to four people briefed on the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.”

  64. 64.

    SFAW

    Mrs. SFAW was watching one of the morning prettyface “news” shows, and the under-banner talked about the maladministration’s “government slimdown.” Seeing that phrase set me right-the-fuck off. It’s NOT a fucking “SLIMDOWN,” it’s wholesale destruction of the government, so billionaires can have a tax cut.

    I was practically shouting as I said to my wife something on the order of “And if they pulled those talking heads aside and executed them in PrimeTime, the response from the MSM would be ‘well, they must have done something to deserve that.’ ”

    Yesterday, at my job, a customer had a bumper sticker “Don’t blame me, I voted for Trump.” It took a lot of will power not to plow the company car into that asshole’s car.

     

    I hope I can survive the next four years. And I’m in a much better situation than most of America. [Well, I hope so, that is.] I can’t yet imagine how bad it is, or will become, for the less fortunate.

  68. 68.

    Ohio Mom

    @lamh47: I am so angry on your behalf. You did everything you were supposed to and Republicans blew it all up. You got robbed.

    I know you are smart and resourceful, you’ll step back and weigh the consequences of every possible option, and somehow you will muddle through, probably less comfortably than you might have liked but you will be in one piece. Small comfort, I know.

    We’ll all be cheering for you every step of the way.

  70. 70.

    M31

    @SFAW: ​

    a customer had a bumper sticker “Don’t blame me, I voted for Trump.” I

    if you had a sharpie you could cross out the “Don’t”

  71. 71.

    AM in NC

    @Phylllis:        ” . . . the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices.”

    How the fuck else would you describe genocidal ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population, and slavery?  How else would you describe laws prohibiting women from getting a credit card without a man’s signature up until 1974?

    These assholes. These fatherfucking assholes.

  73. 73.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Another one drawing parallel between DOGE & Mao’s Cultural Revolution (click through the link for the canceling of long running longitudinal studies on education research):

    Carl
    @HistoryBoomer

    DOGE is burning it all down. They aren’t spending time seeing what works and what doesn’t, it’s just slash and burn to end “waste.”

    It’s a (tamer) Cultural Revolution filled with ill-informed fanatics attacking the “four olds,” sure they’re building a better world. It’s dumb.

  77. 77.

    MagdaInBlack

    @oldgold: That just made my eyes roll back into my head. These people are just…..carpet-pissers…if its nice they have to ruin it. I expect some disco balls will be in order as well.

    I need way more thc then normal with my coffee this morning.

  78. 78.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @lamh47:

    Yikes!

    Like most others have said, I’m so sorry this has happened to you.  Good luck, keep us posted.  If you need a financial boost, holler.

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    @Trivia Man: I don’t have any links about media bias, but I also know people who believe something similar to “the government is too big and nosy.” My suggestion there is to point out that tech titans have trying to get their mitts on our personal data to monetize it for decades. There’s copious evidence of that, and any rational IT worker (or ordinary citizen who goes online, for that matter) would know this, so you shouldn’t have to convince him of this truth.

    Then point out how tech titans kissed Trump’s ass by contributing millions to his inauguration and effectively paying bribes by “settling” lawsuits, which stuffed millions into Trump’s pockets. Ask him what’s their motive?

    Then point out that Musk has unleashed a squad within government agencies to hoover up data. Mention that these minions include people who’ve been fired for leaking and stealing data, have posted classified material on unsecured servers and have likely expropriated data, i.e., our personal information from government servers.

    Point out the fact that Musk announced a few weeks back that he wants to turn X into a banking app, then moved to eliminate the CFPB, which would have been an oversight agency to make sure he doesn’t scam people or improperly use their data.

    You get the idea. There’s lots of material that should scare anyone who’s worried about the government being too big and nosy. If they thought that was bad, imagine how much more intrusive it will be when quasi-government entities like so-called DOGE that are embedded with profit-driven companies monetize all of our financial, health, etc., data. It should scare the shit out of anyone who cares about privacy.

  81. 81.

    jimmiraybob

    Has the EO gone out yet branding the Democratic Party as a terrorist organization?

    Just checking.

  82. 82.

    Trivia Man

    @YY_Sima Qian: great analogy.

    I hope most or all of our newly freelance experts get scooped up by Europe or friendly nations in asia and africa. That glut of ex commie intelligence agents doubtless helped america the same way nazi rocket scientists did. I am very pessimistic about the future usa as a world power, my wish now is a benevolent successor power instead of warlord billionaires.

  83. 83.

    trnc

    Is there a betting pool for when Europe says, “If you aren’t going to honor your security agreements, you need to vacate your military bases here?”​

  86. 86.

    Another Scott

    @lamh47: It’s terrible.  I’m so sorry.  :-(

    I hope that a judge steps in for cases like yours.

    Let us know if we can help.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  87. 87.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Betty Cracker:

    Point out the fact that Musk…

    Makes $8m per day from the government.

    Then point out that the average senior on Social Security gets $65 a day from the government.

    Then point out which budget Edolph and Hair Furor want to cut.

    That from Congressman Greg Cesar who had the best cable news exchange earlier in the week:

    Brianna Keilar: Do you think that calling Elon Musk a dick is effective messaging?

    Congressman Robert Garcia: Well, he is a dick.

    x.com/RepRobertGarcia/status/1889767639754445038

  89. 89.

    Phylllis

    @AM in NC: On the one hand, I’m like, ‘there isn’t a teacher in my district with the intellectual heft to frame American History this way, unless that’s exactly what’s written in the textbook they’re reading aloud from’. On the other hand, I keep in mind what I heard a teacher on TikTok say, which is ‘I can’t get kids to remember to write their name and the date at the top of their document from one day to the next; what makes you think I’m capable of any deeper form of indoctrination?’.

  90. 90.

    Ohio Mom

    @Trivia Man: In situations like yours, I always start out with empathy. “I know how tough it’s been for you” “I agree, you got the short end of that stick.” Of course, personalize it with specific examples.

    The other person is usually so relieved to be *heard.* And you are not saying anything that isn’t true. Underneath all that bluster and anger is fear, panic, self-doubt. You are telling them those feelings are legitimate responses to the pickle others in power have put him in.

    The tricky part is moving from that part of the conversation to the part where you broach the larger ways our system is screwing him over. He’s stuck in bad job situations because having health coverage tied to employed makes for a meek work force, or whatever. That might not be the case with universal coverage.

    The tricky part of the tricky part is pacing yourself. Don’t give more than a snippet of social critique at a time or he’ll shut down.

    He’s already not making calls so you aren’t losing anything by helping him inch along at an infuriating slow rate.

    And now I think I’ve used up my empathy for the day, my reserves are low.

  94. 94.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Tolkien pedant observation:

    The Theoden/Wormtongue memes this week are visually appropriate, it’s easy to see why they’ve been used.

    But it’s a totally wrong analogy because Theoden was a good/heroic man, betwitched by an underling working for the enemy.  The Orange Fart Cloud is about as far from a good/heroic man as you can get.

    I’ve gotta focus on something because if I focused on the important things that are happening, I’d be wondering which guerilla group I could join.

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning jackals.

    I put gift links for the Elle Reeve articles in the WaPost and NY Times in post above.

    Look forward to this Zoom; sounds timely.  And a good use of a wintry, maybe snowy for some, Saturday afternoon.

  97. 97.

    Trivia Man

    @Betty Cracker: all great points to work in. My latest attempt to stem his ignorance is to point out his rage at DEI should be pointed at the exploitation by the owners. Hes not struggling because hes white, he’s struggling because wealth is being siphoned off. And Not by DEI hires.

    The news about the new OSHA head was also shared. Think benefit of the doubt will lean to safety or profits?

  100. 100.

    Trivia Man

    @Betty Cracker: He is in IT and data security, I’ll look for a good tech article that will speak his language. Maybe bad database hygiene will outrage him more than DEI.

  101. 101.

    jimmiraybob

    @TBone: “Mebbe we should be training a Dem Militia to enforce the Court Orders.”

    I Googled left-wing militias the other day while pondering what might happen if tens of million Americans get fuqked over.  I’ll just say, interesting.

  103. 103.

    Betty Cracker

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: In my interactions with disengaged and/or “conservative” people IRL, I’m trying to tailor my talking points to issues I know they care about. Are they worried about data privacy and government intrusiveness? Go with the data monetization angle. Are they worried about Social Security stability? Use the stat Casar provided. Etc.

  104. 104.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Trivia Man:

    Yikes.  This sounds like every glibertarian I’ve known over the last 40 years.  Never take electoral responsibility, always have excuses for not voting Dem to cover their inherent libertarian-ness, etc.  Typically getting hammered by the economy for a fair chunk of their lives (off and on), always smug, etc.  JFC, you’ve just described at least a third of my niche gaming community world.

    Problem is, they’re as unreachable as any bog-standard RWNJ because that’s what they basically are, only don’t want the label.  Over the years, I’ve had friends in this gaming world come around ala Cole.  They’re actually the best ones to try and approach somebody like you describe and I’ve seen many try…and the results are always the same.

    It takes two to tango as it were.  Cole’s a good case study in this so that’s always *a* mindset to have going into such a conversation.

    But at some point, if the reaction remains the same, then any additional effort is basically reinforcing failure.

  106. 106.

    Another Scott

    @Baud:

    Since everything the federal government does has to be assigned to a charge number (someone has to pay for it), this comment makes sense to me. Yeah, the governor controls the Guard, but the feds pay for training, etc., so if the feds say NO then it doesn’t happen.

    That thread also says bands have been told not to participate in St. Patrick’s Day parades, either.

    Such MAGA, wow.

    Grr…

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    @Trivia Man: I’m sorry.

    Facts won’t get him to change his opinion.  He has to change his opinion himself.

    Maybe ask him, “If someone wanted to destroy the United States government from the inside, would they be doing anything differently than what Musk and Trump and their minions are doing?”

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    Trivia Man

    @Ohio Mom: thanks for the support. I do empathize, i do care, he is getting pummeled from all sides. Im still trying.

    He got sucked into rush limbaugh framing early and it tainted his perspective forever. He is very intelligent and a prolific writer. One difficulty i have is his gish gallop firehose of misinformation combined with actually true quotes and anecdotes.
    He is incapable of short back and forth, every comment is  a minimum of 300 words. Exhausting

  110. 110.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Betty Cracker:

    The Cesar stat is a brilliant, very relatable talking point that I’m gonna trot out every chance I get.

    In fact, if such a conversation IRL goes any further, one could point out that Edolph basically wants to take away even that minimal $65/month if they gut Social Security.  It basically says the average senior is getting crumbs and Edolph/Hair Furor want to take even that away.

    The “Well, because he is a dick” is a message for a different audience. ;)

  111. 111.

    Elizabelle

    @lamh47:  I hope a court case stops your termination in its tracks, and you get to work (and be paid) for months while the courts take a whack at Elon and his puppet, The Felon.

    Hugs.  Terrible news, and I am sorry this is happening to you.  You and other federal employees do not deserve this.

  113. 113.

    RandomMonster

    @Baud: They can now just refresh the DOGE website to get top secret information instead of trying and failing to hack Hillary’s servers for risotto recipes.

    And it’s a lot more pleasant than walking into Trump’s bathroom.

  115. 115.

    oldgold

    @Betty Cracker:  The point of my earlier comment was that normies point of engagement is different than those immersed in politics.

    My experience is that process and slippery slope matters are not where they engage. Matters like the Rose Garden and Kennedy Center, which are concrete and informed with emotion, is where I have been able to engage most productively with them.

  117. 117.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Trivia Man: I have never, ever gotten a conservative to even consider that there is no such thing as “the liberal media.” This goes all the way back to Nixon/Ford/Carter for me. So, sorry, I don’t have any arguments or examples that will be helpful here.

  119. 119.

    Another Scott

    @Trivia Man:

    I always find Brian Krebs compelling. Teen on Musk’s DOGE Team Graduated from ‘The Com’:

    […]

    The trouble with all this is that even if someone sincerely intends to exit The Com after years of consorting with cybercriminals, they are often still subject to personal attacks, harassment and hacking long after they have left the scene.

    That’s because a huge part of Com culture involves harassing, swatting and hacking other members of the community. These internecine attacks are often for financial gain, but just as frequently they are perpetrated by cybercrime groups to exact retribution from or assert dominance over rival gangs.

    Experts say it is extremely difficult for former members of violent street gangs to gain a security clearance needed to view sensitive or classified information held by the U.S. government. That’s because ex-gang members are highly susceptible to extortion and coercion from current members of the same gang, and that alone presents an unacceptable security risk for intelligence agencies.

    And make no mistake: The Com is the English-language cybercriminal hacking equivalent of a violent street gang. KrebsOnSecurity has published numerous stories detailing how feuds within the community periodically spill over into real-world violence.

    When Coristine’s name surfaced in Wired‘s report this week, members of The Com immediately took notice. In the following segment from a February 5, 2025 chat in a Com-affiliated hosting provider, members criticized Rivage’s skills, and discussed harassing his family and notifying authorities about incriminating accusations that may or may not be true.

    […]

    Given the speed with which Musk’s DOGE team was allowed access to such critical government databases, it strains credulity that Coristine could have been properly cleared beforehand. After all, he’d recently been dismissed from a job for allegedly leaking internal company information to outsiders.

    According to the national security adjudication guidelines (PDF) released by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), eligibility determinations take into account a person’s stability, trustworthiness, reliability, discretion, character, honesty, judgment, and ability to protect classified information.

    The DNI policy further states that “eligibility for covered individuals shall be granted only when facts and circumstances indicate that eligibility is clearly consistent with the national security interests of the United States, and any doubt shall be resolved in favor of national security.”

    On Thursday, 25-year-old DOGE staff member Marko Elez resigned after being linked to a deleted social media account that advocated racism and eugenics. Elez resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection to the account.

    “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” the account posted in July. “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” the account wrote on X in September. “Normalize Indian hate,” the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.

    Elez’s resignation came a day after the Department of Justice agreed to limit the number of DOGE employees who have access to federal payment systems. The DOJ said access would be limited to two people, Elez and Tom Krause, the CEO of a company called Cloud Software Group.

    Earlier today, Musk said he planned to rehire Elez after President Trump and Vice President JD Vance reportedly endorsed the idea. Speaking at The White House today, Trump said he wasn’t concerned about the security of personal information and other data accessed by DOGE, adding that he was “very proud of the job that this group of young people” are doing.

    […]

    The people on Musk’s team are often associates of criminals (or worse). They’re not cleared for the work they’re doing. They don’t understand the rules and the laws and the systems and the data they’re working on. They don’t understand why the systems work the way they do, and how the systems were built base on directives and constraints put in place by Congress.  They’re only there to quickly break things, fire people, and make plausible-sounding lists of big numbers to sell to the gullible media and too-busy and too-disinterested hoi polloi so they can have too little opposition to their efforts to remove rules and organizations they don’t like, grab contracts without oversight, and get giant tax cuts.

    They’re doing things this way because they know they cannot pass actual laws to do what they want through Congress and the Courts. They’re hoping to cause enough quick damage that nobody can stop them.

    Grr…

    Much more at the link.

    Good luck!

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  122. 122.

    jimmiraybob

    @Chief Oshkosh: “I have never, ever gotten a conservative to even consider that there is no such thing as ‘the liberal media.’”

    It makes perfect sense.  If you define liberal as everything left of the John Birch Society.  Or QAnon.  Or Putin.

  123. 123.

    LAC

    @lamh47: i am so sorry about this.  I just got out of HHS and your story is one i am hearing from my former colleagues across the government.  I hope that the unions and courts can stop this madness.  I am still a union member and am keeping track of their efforts.   What pisses me off so much is that we knew this was going to happen but have normalized the mischaracterization of federal employees by these psychos that they are barely thought of as human beings with full lives.

  124. 124.

    SFAW

    @M31: ​
     

    if you had a sharpie you could cross out the “Don’t”

    Proposed alternative: getting my own car, using the trailer hitch to spell it out. Of course, I’d have to do it in Morse code, which might take up more space — like, the whole length of the car.
    Hmm, let’s see: D: -.. O: — N: -. T: –
    which becomes -.. — -. –
    The only question is: do I do two closely-spaced punches for a dash, or do just one and drag it? I’ll have to practice on a CyberNaziTruck, to see which works better.

  125. 125.

    Kay

    People should really start thinking about how they might prepare for a very bad economy. My skilled trades clients say more and more projects are “on hold” – I think due to the chaos and instability in our country. Business people are afraid to go forward not knowing if we still have a functioning federal government. My IBEW son is already down to 40 hours, no OT, and the far Right have only been in power a month.

    Remember Musk and the rest of the tech authoritarians don’t know anything about the economy. They’re fad following, poorly raised shallow morons and their greed and stupidity will hurt regular people.

  126. 126.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @AM in NC: It’s StatesRights/LostCause™ mythology/bullshit that has been around forever.  Conservatives were fighting the long battle over this stuff going back to the very beginning of public schools.  It’s the same line of bullshit they used against Progressive Education and they have been organizing around it forever.

    Unfortunately, Al Gore was fat, Hillary had Emailz and Biden/Harris were Genocide so our electorate couldn’t be bothered keeping people like John Roberts, Sam Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett from filling five spots on our Supreme Court (not to mention whoever Trump gets to appoint in the next four years).

    We never take control of SCOTUS seriously when it matters, and so now here we are…

    Performative Dem-bashing was more important than trying to protect a century of civil/human rights advances.

  127. 127.

    SFAW

    @lamh47: ​
     
    I’m so sorry they’re doing this to you. I wish there were some way I could help, outside of sending good thoughts your way.

    And the next mofo who tries the “hey, you gotta break a few eggs to …” will earn a 2 x 4 (figurative or literal? Not sure) upside their head.

  129. 129.

    SFAW

    @Kay: ​
     

    Business people are afraid

    Feature, not bug, for those mofos. They won’t be happy until EVERYONE not in the inner circle is afraid. Because once they get there, they’ll do whatever they want. Of course, there will always be some jerks who refuse to cower, I think they were called the “Resistance” 80-or-so years ago. I expect it will be a larger group this time, but not confident.

  132. 132.

    WTFGhost

    @Baud: You know, I was thinking about this earlier, and it’s like, “guys, do you want him to start a nuclear war, where a significant percentage of the earth is killed? Would *that* be good and newsy, and would that prevent you from losing Republican “access”? Well… why did you give an unstable maniac, who can’t speak a coherent sentence (he’s weaving, all right, from the *brain damage*) the actual frickin’ NUCLEAR CODES?

    “I’m only asking, because it seems to be an important question right now, while you have NO FRICKIN’ IDEA what Elon Musk might be doing, and what the eventual damage might be, given the only one riding the brakes is the aforementioned nuclear-codes-festooned baboon in barely human form”

    (Seriously: he’d have a card, from the governor of NY, just like Nobby Nobs had, something ilke “the preponderance of evidence, including extensive interviews with the midwife, supports the assertion that the the bearer, one (name elided) is human.”)

    ETA: closing parenthesis

  133. 133.

    WTFGhost

    @Sister Golden Bear: It is entirely possible that it was the end of an entirely different world as they knew it, and a fine feeling was appropriate, though I won’t promise the lyrics suggest that.

    (For some songs, I’ll never understand the lyrics. Most I can do is remember them, and quote them, and become aware of when they’ve started, and ended, within the song, but that’s *not* the same thing.)

  134. 134.

    George

    @Rusty: ​
     Word. We are where we are now not due to Democrats being too slow to respond. We are where we are because the GOP is comprised of fascists and their simps, and because the same media that for the entirety of Biden’s term seemed to think that a recession was just around the corner has now lost their ability to critique the sitting administration, which was exactly the same as FFOTUS part 1.

  135. 135.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Kay:

    Remember Musk and the rest of the tech authoritarians don’t know anything about the economy. They’re fad following, poorly raised shallow morons and their greed and stupidity will hurt regular people.

    Worse than that. Musk has repeatedly talked about the need to crash the economy to rebuild some vaporware better techno-feudalistic version of it, i.e.

    1. Crash economy
    2. ???
    3. Profit!

    But don’t worry, he’s assured us the pain will only last a couple years.

  136. 136.

    Miss Bianca

    @lamh47: Oh, sweetie. I’m so sorry to hear this. Infuriated doesn’t even begin to cover how I’m feeling right now about this whole fucking shitshow.

  137. 137.

    Ohio Mom

    @Trivia Man: Okay, you understand empathy, I only made my suggestion because there are an amazing amount of people who never think of starting there. You have, and now you are exhausted.

    Another approach is setting limits. Say something like, you seem very unhappy to me and that makes me sad for you. I am willing to support you in getting happier but I will not listen to political sound bites. I will listen to you talking about your feelings.

    And then stick to that, if you can. Or, set a timer. I can talk for 10 minutes. And stick to that.

    I get feeling family loyalty but at some point, it’s put your oxygen mask on yourself first. You can’t help someone who doesn’t meet you halfway. As Al-Anon says, Detach with Love.

    Sorry, no easy answers.

  138. 138.

    Grin and Bare

    @lamh47: I am so incredibly sorry this is happening to you. It’s enraging.

    We lost so many good people at CDC. This is a travesty.

  139. 139.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: I think the same, time to batten down all the hatches. Not that we were spending money wildly before.

    When economy crashed last time, was that 2008, 2009?, that was thirteen years ago, Ohio Family was thirteen years younger. I had the feeling that somehow, we’d eventually catch up, family-financial-wise.

    This time around, we are retired. There aren’t decades ahead of us where we can catch up, somehow.

    And now I am less hopeful about how possible it will be to dig ourselves as a nation state out of this hole. Because it won’t be just the economy that needs rebuilding.

    This morning I have been this about how all four of my grandparents left various parts of the Austria-Hungarian Empire for better, less oppressed, more prosperous, lives in America. Now I’m going to spend the rest of my life in a version of Hungary’s Christain Authoritariasm? Oy Vey.

  140. 140.

    George

    @lamh47:

     I understand your pain. I left federal service at the end of December but I have kept in touch with former colleagues and supervisors. My former supervisor had to tell five people yesterday that they were being let go. Former colleagues who were not fired this past week are nervous that they will be fired in the next round.

    Morale in my former agency already was toward the bottom in the annual federal employee viewpoint survey. It has sunk even lower. The federal government workforce will take decades to recover even if Congress flips in the 2026 election and a Democrat wins the presidency in 2028.

    The current continuing resolution funding the federal government expires in four or so weeks. After the shutdown in December 2018/January 2019, Congress passed legislation that promised federal workers would be paid for furloughed time in all future government shutdowns. I think one reason that FFOTUS and Skum are doing what they are doing now with such rapidity because they want as few employees as possible on the books should a shutdown happen.

  141. 141.

    George

    @Trivia Man:

     I know people similar to your description of your brother. Their behavior is typical of anyone in a cult, I think, and there can be no reasoning with them.

  142. 142.

    Kay

    @Ohio Mom:

    I feel terrible for the federal employees, but if it adds any sense of justice I’m pretty sure this whole economy is going down, so we’ll all be in it together.

    Elon Musk is a liar. Hes a media and fan-boy creation. He’s not even an engineer, not that an engineer would know anything about the economy either. He doesn’t know how anything works.

  144. 144.

    Trivia Man

    @jimmiraybob: my grandmother told me she didn’t like the john birch society because they were too soft on communism.
    instant execution for anyone accused of communism is as close as i can get to understanding her position

  145. 145.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: the word is, come to the zoom, even if you haven’t read the book, because it’ll be that good.
    im reading it, and she’s good! A good storyteller. Makes it fun, has a way w words.

  146. 146.

    TBone

    @Gloria DryGarden: thank you, but I do not possess the technology to zoom at this time, and if I did, I’d have to wear a mask.  I haven’t yet had time to wash my face or hair or anything else because I wanted to see an entire movie today without interruption.  Because my home has an open floor plan, I was able to cook supper for the next 2 or 3 nights simultaneously.

    We run a tight ship here!

    The tube weaning attempts are tricky and continuing.  Noah is not easily outsmarted!

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