In 20 years the US Government made $2.7 TRILLION in improper expenditures. In fiscal year 2023 alone, GAO determined the federal government improperly dispensed $269 Billion.
That's all very well, but do you trust a 19 year old techie to understand how government works and WHY it exists? Do you think these teenyboppers are equipped to determine what is and is not an appropriate expenditure by the federal government?
There are processes for eliminating fraud, waste and abuse. Why not strengthen those mechanisms instead of the slash-and-burn approach taken?
And it's pretty rich that we look to the wealthiest man in the world to put social safety net expenditures on the chopping block. Taking food out of the mouths of babes.
And finally, do you anticipate Musk will put his lucrative government contracts on the same chopping block?
James Monroe was 18 years old in 1776. Hamilton was 21, Madison was 25 and Aaron Burr was 20. Age means nothing. Intelligence, drive and ability are most important. The DOGE boys got it.
How strange people aren’t angry about the corruption as much as how it is being uncovered.
What nonsense. That was a different time, when young men were pushed out into the world at very young ages and gained EXPERIENCE of it. Yet the Founding Fathers still wanted senators to be 30 years old and presidents 35 or older, right? So not 18 or 21
His role was more proscribed, and he was elected to a deliberative body. He was not let loose, unelected, to tamper with the federal government's payment systems and have carte blanche to dismantle agencies. He wasn't MAYOR at that age. In our small city, we have university students who run for seats on the city council, adding a useful voice and perspective on life in a college town. Not quite the same thing as Musk's young bros, is it?
In theory, perhaps. But you know that's not happening in practice. In no way can what's been happening be characterized as advisory.
Because Trump can't simply create a new AGENCY without Congress, he renamed the United States Digital Service -- created by Obama WITHIN the Office of the President to improve all the federal and executive websites -- to DOGE and retooled its mission to hunt down fraud and waste. There's a reason the kiddos were hired, precisely because they know how to TAMPER WITH, delete and write new code.
I appreciate your point, however I think that Saint Elon chose the "young bros" for their expertise rather than their youth. And in that respect their roles are as proscribed as are those of Cleveland City Council members.
I wonder. There's a reason military service officially starts at the age of 18. Precisely the time when the teenage brain can distort a moral compass, and when one can exploit the surge in testosterone. (Sure, no careers to protect, and no families, typically, but is that really the reason to turn young people into killing machines?)
Musk did not bring his truly experienced tech staff to the job, but these youngsters. It's the generation that grew up causing mayhem in violent video games, without having to invoke their consciences in any way. Just a theory.
At least we agree it is a genocide as ICJ has said. It’s been difficult for partisan establishment Dems to use the word. Obviously Israel depends on the US for those weapons. Netanyahu couldn’t do it alone or he already would have a while ago. Biden has always supported every war, taken large donations from the lobby and we already know about Blinken’s ideology is
Less than a handful of United Nations members refuse to admit that it is genocide, all Zionists. Unfortunately, one of them has a veto in the security council. It is too bad that there isn't such a thing as an anti-veto.
Exactly! Thank you, for shortening my response I would add 'TRANSPARENCY' is sadly lacking. Locking people out of what is indiscriminately happening, is a license to steal without even being seen too. How about comprising a list and then allowing votes, and informing the TAXPAYERS where that money came from, went, and how it will not be used not to fund some new programs, 500 BILLION for the PROJECT STARGATE, or new wealthy tax cuts. But making sure SS is funded, as it should be anyway.
Don't be silly. One of his techie team is 19 years old. The others range from 22-25.
One has to be 30 to be a Senator, and 35 to be President & VP. For good reason, surely. Car hire companies won't rent a car to someone under 25, and insurance companies charge a high premium for drivers under 25. It's because of a phenomenon known as the teenage brain.
But you know, Musk's own biographer Walter Isaacson describes Musk as a man-child. So perhaps I wasn't that far off the mark?
i thought youth were the spark of revolution! Check out Catherine Austin Fitts last article here for something else that is good..lots going on and we're gonna have to hold two things on our mind
* In response to a since deleted post which began by asking who the 19-year old is, and then ventured into the realm of genocide, propaganda and dementia:
Edward Coristine, who is 19 years old and goes by the nickname “Big Balls.” That tells you everything about the caliber of Musk's team.
Another one, Marko Elez,resigned after his posts came to light saying he was racist before it was cool, and "normalize Indian hate". I believe he's since been reinstated, with JD Vance making excuses for him.
It's instructive that all seven of them rushed to scrub the internet of their profiles and posts after their names were published by WIRED. Now why would they have to do that if they didn't have something to hide, if they themselves didn't realize how crass they sounded?
Yes, Biden was too old. But at least he brought a wealth of real life experience to the job, with competent people around him. The genocide was committed or abetted by a whole host of people involved in policy-making. But it was no doubt at Musk's instigation that Trump has withdrawn aid from South Africa for passing a law stipulating that the government could redistribute land that was currently not being used. or where it was in the public interest -- to right some of the wrongs done to the indigenous African population over the decades of Apartheid repression and oppression. The devil will be in the details, but why should Trump describe this as discrimination against whites, who had all the advantages and privileges and power since the countriy's inception and especially after Apartheid as not just a creed but a statutory scheme was introduced in 1948?
I don't know who "they" are who spread Russia-gate propaganda. All kinds of people are spreading all kinds of propaganda, including Trump's defenders. And you're worried about genocide, when Trump proposes ethnically cleansing Gaza and the West Bank?
As for waste, that's nothing new. But one could strengthen the existing mechanisms. He's fired independent Inspectors General, presumably to replace them with Trump loyalists. How is that going to improve things?
The whole enterprise is lawless and unconstitutional.
“You’re worried about genocide when Trumps proposing ethnic cleansing”..this way of arguing is a problem. It assumes I am taking sides on the issue of genocide but I’m not. That’s as much a waste of time as busying ourselves over the meaning of Super Bowl half time show instead of asking why Richard Medhurst was detained. Neoliberalism presents itself as tolerant. Corporations love woke. To them it means a woman CEO or a black man at top of the military or transgender allowed in military. The MSM wants us to argue about partisan politics as Matt Taibbi’s book “Hate INC” so illustrates. But I don’t disagree with you about Trump’s agenda. The Mueller investigation, the Twitter files, showed us who pushed Russia-gate. It’s the info landscape that is making it so difficult for citizens to communicate. We’d have to be reading some of the same books, or hearing some of the same lectures to know a context to start with. Otherwise we spin our wheels.
I agree that what-about-ism is a problem in these kinds of conversations. Nevertheless, it's not unusual for those who point to Biden's complicity in Israel's genocide to forget that Trump has worse in store for Gaza. And I'm pretty sure that one reason Trump is withholding aid from South Africa is because they had the temerity to lodge a complaint against Israel at the ICC, though his pretext is "discrimination against whites" in land redistribution.
I’m sure you’re right. I’m listening to outside info like substack here. Seymour Hersh, Chris Hedges, Aaron Matte, Max Bloomenthal, Colonel McGregor, Col Larry Wilkerson , John Mearsheimer, Jeff Sachs, the guests on judge Napolitano’s show, Glenn Greenwald etc. and so influenced by them. They seem pretty independent from establishment and call out wrong where wrong exists as best I can tell. I’m trying to stay open and see what’s what. Not easy
Yes they seem pretty independent, but they inevitably bring their own biases to their writings. They certainly start out with a point of view, a world view.
It's difficult territory to navigate, because I can agree with them on many things, but not everything. And I do see a tendency to default to being highly critical of almost everything the US does.
Where it becomes disconcerting is when they veer into Biden Derangement Syndrome. Biden was a mixed bag. Did some very good things, and some really bad ones. He was content to wear blinders where Israel and Gaza were concerned. How many Palestinian deaths are "too many" in the face of the 1,200 or so Israelis who were slaughtered? Definitely has a blind spot there, and Harris was not able or not willing to distance herself from this in any meaningful way.
Looking at these comments and I have to sigh. Nothing will ever be done about this. Liberals don't care, if Trump is behind it it's bad. Perhaps we needed a person who doesn't care what you think to do this. No other politicians have been willing to put their name on the exposure of corruption that would follow. The fact is, you keep electing these people to do nothing. A liberal will never vote out their congressman or senator, for fear that the big, bad Republicans would take the seat. And Democrats as a rule do not primary one another. Hence, you get people like pelosi and Schumer in the house forever, stealing from us. The same story with the Republicans though they seem to be willing to run against their incumbents in a primary. Still, Congress has no impetus to fix this because they are taking kickbacks and they know that their voters will accept it. Such a sorry state of affairs, mostly because y'all have lost the comprehension of nuance. It's not okay to defraud the public regardless of whose team you're on.
Thanks Dennis. And your calling out the decades of allowing migrants in, keeping them in fear, all to take the wage slave jobs that, as you've pointed out, keep American wages down. Workers insecure and the mainstream media crowing how it's great we have these immigrants to take all the s---t jobs our workers can't afford to take and still keep their families intact. The millionaire talking heads are either heartless or just Despicable idiots. Or both.
How much at DoD, Dennis? The department that is unable to pass an audit? That's where the big bucks are, and it's really sad to see you obfuscate about this.
Nobody is arguing about transparent spending in government agencies. That would be the ultimate vehicle against corruption. But this latest attempt to throw the baby out with the bathwater is waste cutting as a means to illegally block and surveil both programs that serve people and a functional AI plug-in to election interference and control. If you're not paying attention, this looks like people care about us. But the reality is these people now in control are unelected and unstoppable in their plight to dismantle American democracy. This is a fascist authoritarian takeover of our country.
Good for you for pointing out that the Government Accounting Office has been tracking this fraudulence for many years, just not brought to public attention. So the idea being foisted on the world, by those who got their bribery money from USAID (Peep-a-boo, New York Times!) that all of the accusations of misspending are purely Elon Musk's DOGE, and therefore illegitimate and false, is provably BUNKUM.
You are the greatest congressman of all time. We could use 535 of you in every Congress. I'm glad to see USAID go bye-bye because of all the regime change and trafficking activities it's been involved in. My concern is that its activities will just be shuffled to the State and Defense Departments or the CIA or Pentagon.
You managed RFK's campaign for a while. Is it likely that he'll encourage Trump to appoint you to an important position? We need you back in government.
HOWEVER, sadly in the past (present?), you were (are) anti-abortion and an F-rating on the Second Amenfment (2A) from the NRA-ILA on gun control. Otherwise you might have made a great L/libertarian candidate, just like my former 2 term NM Gov. Gary Johnson.
I worked for 23 years for the US Treasury Department.
The problem has not been with faulty payment SYSTEMS. The problem has been that officials of the government have certified payments for reasons of graft, bad judgment, theft, and the idiocy and lunacy of members of Congress and presidents who order payments for the most corrupt reasons.
Treasury has not had a recorded instance of corruption in its long history. But it's their job to make payments certified by authorized officials. But they too are only doing what the political bosses tell them to do.
It's the political bosses--most recently the Obama-Clinton-Biden-Harris organized crime cartel.
See this please for more information on those trying to destroy our country.
There may be waste and fraud within our government, but DOGE is identifying wasteful and fraudulent programs on the basis of Musk disagreeing with their purpose, not because an examination of them found wrongdoing or wastefulness. No one is asking DOGE for evidence.
Precisely. We haven't yet been presented with any actual evidence of what they claim is fraud and waste. I'm sure it's there, but there's no transparency, no due process, nothing but bald assertions and hoodlums rushing in to destroy everything.
In 2023, the Federal gross expenditures were $7,662 Billion. Now add $4,466 Billion in total revenues, for a grand total of gross accounting entries of $12,127. BILLION. And our Inspectors General found $269 Billion in improper payments. That 3.5% of the nearly $8 TRILLION in expenses, and 2.2% if you add revenues (because errors can happen on that end, too).
I'm struggling to understand why you believe this level of discrepancy means the Inspectors General should all be fired, and an unvetted team of young male computer hackers (whose frontal brain lobes are likely not on deck yet) be brought in to download, scan, and make revisions to the code that manages payments of nearly $8 TRILLION every year – one of the largest payment processing systems in the world, upon which our national reputation for good fiscal management rests.
The TrumpElon moves are flat out crazy. As an old supporter from your presidential runs, and supporter of your NEED Act, I'm incredibly disappointed in the poor understanding of math in your post, and your willingness to argue that the only choices you seem to think we have are to ignore it all (what you imply we are doing now) and tear it all down (what TrumpElon is doing).
There is simply zero evidence that Trump-Elon are actually going after improper expenditures and fraud.
IF one wanted to increase the integrity, one would increase the staffing for review, not cut it. How about a 1% to oversight mandate for every government contract?
I didn't sign a HIPAA form allowing MuskRat or Cesspool access to my medical records through the Medicare database. I don't want or need MuskRat and his unvetted hacker minions having access to my Federal Income Tax returns. And I sure as hell don't authorize them to have my banking information or the ability to withhold my Social Security payments! Two wrongs don't make a right unless you're Cesspool, in which case all the wrongs you can get away with make all MY rights disappear. No thank you! You want to investigate waste, fraud and abuse by government contractors? Start with MuskRat and work your way down from there!
Executive lawlessness and allowing unrestricted private sector pirates access to all sensitive national security and financial data along with the personal and financial information of the entire US population >IS< the >only< government corruption they're capable of putting on public display, confident that the US voters are too collectively ignorant to even notice and too big a pack of apathetic morons to object ‽ Sadly, they may be right! Nevertheless, it's the only >real< corruption they're capable of exposing. Anything the so-called DOGE pirates >say< is corruption and waste will have as much documentable proof as that serial public masturbator - so to speak - Jim Jordan was able to uncover by misappropriating all those misspent tax dollars he wasted on those pointless congressional hearings based on hearsay testimony of known, admitted, proven liars. Have you not noticed Musk's wrecking crew is a pack of easily manipulated, wet behind the ears program coders and NOT seasoned expert accountants or economists as would have been appropriate ‽ Get your head out of your backside!
Sometimes, those who slap you in the face are not your enemies, and sometimes those that flatter your vanities with utter tommyrot are not your friends. Those >sometimes< are NOW!
All well and good, but for those who only read the first few paragraphs they would find full throated support for what Musk/Trump are doing - which while it might have merit- is illegal and unconstitutional. You later modify your position to a more reasonable one. And still, no one mentions the scamming of the gov’t by the private insurance companies who run Medicare Advantage Plans or the giant corporations that don’t pay taxes. Congress is to blame for not doing its job. Because Congress has been bought off by the likes of Musk and Trump and Co who all benefited by lack of the oversight they claim they are now doing. The hypocrisy is stunning. And by your making excuses for the Trump - White, Christian Nationalist Party (there is no longer a Republican Party) - you are complicit it easing the way into a dictatorship. Yes, it is coming, so think carefully before you decide who and what are the real threats. Americans are the most uninformed/misinformed people in countries not run by autocratic oligarchies. Due in large part by the defunding of public education, the foundation of any democracy. And the tech revolution, which gave us social media, which is turning into a scourge. Read The Tech Coup. Read history of fascism. Think! Let’s stop pretending we’re just doing “spring cleaning.” This is a demolition derby, and we all will suffer, the poor most!
Absolutely. Our Democracy has given way to a Pathocracy.
Pathocracy is a form of government where a small group of people with personality disorders control a society. The term was developed by Polish psychologist Andrzej Lobaczewski, who lived through both the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Poland.
How does pathocracy occur?
* A person with a personality disorder, such as narcissism or psychopathy, becomes a leader
* The leader's personality appeals to some people who are psychologically normal
* The leader's pathology spreads to the general population
_________
What are the characteristics of a pathocracy?
* The government is turned against its own people
* The prevailing moral values are perverted
* Coded language is used in place of genuine logic and morality
Abolish the illegal Federal Reserve (Central) Bank and give power back to the Treasury to print/coin money, based on real assets (we've been acquiring Gold, why not return to it as the BRICS have done, at least partially?). It's easy to spend when you simply print debt-based interest-intensive "money" to keep the "slush funds" of the various unconstitutional, non-elected bureaucratic rogue agency fifedoms acting in concert with policies and practices foreign to and in conflict with the U.S's charter and primary Federal-level Raison d'etre as delegated to them by the sovereign states.
The "discovery" of massive, widespread, ongoing malfeasance is less a surprise and more another interesting confirmation that is but a novelty to distract the populace at large while the other ("unseen") hand busies itself with the continuation of the global agenda prerogatives -- digital money and biometric ID, the assembling of massive nuclear-powered Aritificial Intelligence center database operations for constant surveillance and monitoring of all citizens, the unilateral support for and co-opting of genocidal dictator governments masquerading as biblically-mandated apartheid nation states calling themselves by biblical names, the integration of an all powerful and intrusive "one health" medical [and more] control system that venerates Pharma and radical "under-the-skin" infusions of synthetic biology to transition human populations to patented, owned slaves of the corporate/governmental (fascist) regime(s) subservient only to the globalist New World Order, divided into regions (*like the one described by Trump quoting the Technocrats of the 1930s -- to include Canada, U.S, Panama, Greenland, etc.) while farmers are driven out of business, the military refined for fanning the embers of existing unresolved hostilities that are as of yet unresolved, awaiting the right moment to flame and ignite worldwide activation of embedded, imported terror groups to wage urban warfare on unarmed and unsuspecting populations, to disable power grids, to leverage the already twice declared emergency state into the mobilization of armed troops actively patrolling the streets of nations as "peacekeepers" and the widespread surveillance of every facet of human life -- in the physical and the biological realms to "mange" them into the carefully crafted kill box developments planned for their use and eventual disposal. The re-wilding is already underway. The myths abound and the populace so poisoned from chemicals rained on them, and in their food, water, soil and brains that they are blindly following, rallying as they do the latest greatest chief promiser and professional actor ever to hold an office from the most recent "selection" process, in "Lock Step" with the pre-planned and appointed next steps in the completion of he globalist's final triumph over the spent and compromised, brainwashed and bettered populations - the digital panopticon readied for their destiny.
In an era of feigned and fabricated "scarcity" of imagined resources, of the perpetuation of the climate hoax, and the blustering over rights that have long been obliterated, the new "saviors" enter with their plan - it may very well be that after "voting" for the most recent cast of clowns, there may never be another selection -- because the world as we know it is facing entropy of the greatest magnitude at a pace that will leave most in disbelief.
Thank you for pointing this out. I am one very concerned about what is happening. Another takeover by other elites is what I see. This through the Technocrats. Both sides have been corrupt. People need to see what is going on.
Bigger contracts for Musk et. al. Tracking and tracing coming in at higher speed. We need to see this is all planned. Both sides helped move us forward and we are in for a wild ride to total Digital Control. We are going to become prisoners and we think we are cheering on FREEDOM!
Beware of the Trojan Horse, it is at our gate. Just part of the GRAND PLAN that has been in effect for many, many, many years.
It's horrifying and thank you for speaking up. These moves are not about freeing us but having the Fed, the IMF, and the Techs through AI taking over and there are no laws or rules there in that arena.
That's all very well, but do you trust a 19 year old techie to understand how government works and WHY it exists? Do you think these teenyboppers are equipped to determine what is and is not an appropriate expenditure by the federal government?
There are processes for eliminating fraud, waste and abuse. Why not strengthen those mechanisms instead of the slash-and-burn approach taken?
And it's pretty rich that we look to the wealthiest man in the world to put social safety net expenditures on the chopping block. Taking food out of the mouths of babes.
And finally, do you anticipate Musk will put his lucrative government contracts on the same chopping block?
James Monroe was 18 years old in 1776. Hamilton was 21, Madison was 25 and Aaron Burr was 20. Age means nothing. Intelligence, drive and ability are most important. The DOGE boys got it.
How strange people aren’t angry about the corruption as much as how it is being uncovered.
What nonsense. That was a different time, when young men were pushed out into the world at very young ages and gained EXPERIENCE of it. Yet the Founding Fathers still wanted senators to be 30 years old and presidents 35 or older, right? So not 18 or 21
Musk's boys are barely out of short pants.
Dennis Kucinich was elected to the Cleveland City Council at the age of 23. Perhaps you think that that's too young...?
His role was more proscribed, and he was elected to a deliberative body. He was not let loose, unelected, to tamper with the federal government's payment systems and have carte blanche to dismantle agencies. He wasn't MAYOR at that age. In our small city, we have university students who run for seats on the city council, adding a useful voice and perspective on life in a college town. Not quite the same thing as Musk's young bros, is it?
Musk has no ability to tamper with any part of the federal government. He is strictly advisory with Trump following his advice.
In theory, perhaps. But you know that's not happening in practice. In no way can what's been happening be characterized as advisory.
Because Trump can't simply create a new AGENCY without Congress, he renamed the United States Digital Service -- created by Obama WITHIN the Office of the President to improve all the federal and executive websites -- to DOGE and retooled its mission to hunt down fraud and waste. There's a reason the kiddos were hired, precisely because they know how to TAMPER WITH, delete and write new code.
I appreciate your point, however I think that Saint Elon chose the "young bros" for their expertise rather than their youth. And in that respect their roles are as proscribed as are those of Cleveland City Council members.
I wonder. There's a reason military service officially starts at the age of 18. Precisely the time when the teenage brain can distort a moral compass, and when one can exploit the surge in testosterone. (Sure, no careers to protect, and no families, typically, but is that really the reason to turn young people into killing machines?)
Musk did not bring his truly experienced tech staff to the job, but these youngsters. It's the generation that grew up causing mayhem in violent video games, without having to invoke their consciences in any way. Just a theory.
One has to get out of diapers first.
Those who haven't know that crying gets them everything they need.
Keep crying.
Well said!!
It can’t be as bad as having a dementia patient in charge while a genocide takes place
We should be so lucky that Netanyahu had dementia.
At least we agree it is a genocide as ICJ has said. It’s been difficult for partisan establishment Dems to use the word. Obviously Israel depends on the US for those weapons. Netanyahu couldn’t do it alone or he already would have a while ago. Biden has always supported every war, taken large donations from the lobby and we already know about Blinken’s ideology is
Less than a handful of United Nations members refuse to admit that it is genocide, all Zionists. Unfortunately, one of them has a veto in the security council. It is too bad that there isn't such a thing as an anti-veto.
Biden is not a dementia patient. There's a difference between slowing down because one is aging, and having dementia.
Kindly specify the claimed difference.
Dementia is a diagnosable disease of the brain. Aging is a process.
They are irrefutably correlated in every medical way.
Maybe it is chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which can't be confirmed short of autopsy.
Here's an AI overview -- probably less biased because AI has no skin in the bash Biden game:
Dementia and old age are distinct concepts, although they can sometimes overlap.
OLD AGE:
A natural process of aging that occurs as a person gets older.
Characterized by gradual cognitive and physical decline, such as slower processing speed, memory lapses, and reduced mobility.
These changes are typically mild and do not significantly interfere with daily life.
DEMENTIA:
A medical condition characterized by a progressive decline in cognitive abilities, including memory, language, reasoning, and problem-solving.
These changes are severe enough to interfere with daily activities and relationships.
Dementia can be caused by various factors, such as Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and Lewy body dementia
Do you by any chance know what is the genus and species of this Musk creature? (Asking for a friend.)
Of course. It is porcinus disgusticus.
A Musk rat?
Or since he's from South Africa, maybe a meerkat, who live in groups called mobs. No lie!
Exactly! Thank you, for shortening my response I would add 'TRANSPARENCY' is sadly lacking. Locking people out of what is indiscriminately happening, is a license to steal without even being seen too. How about comprising a list and then allowing votes, and informing the TAXPAYERS where that money came from, went, and how it will not be used not to fund some new programs, 500 BILLION for the PROJECT STARGATE, or new wealthy tax cuts. But making sure SS is funded, as it should be anyway.
👍
You think that Musk is 19 years old?
Don't be silly. One of his techie team is 19 years old. The others range from 22-25.
One has to be 30 to be a Senator, and 35 to be President & VP. For good reason, surely. Car hire companies won't rent a car to someone under 25, and insurance companies charge a high premium for drivers under 25. It's because of a phenomenon known as the teenage brain.
But you know, Musk's own biographer Walter Isaacson describes Musk as a man-child. So perhaps I wasn't that far off the mark?
he is such a piece of work....
Looks more like a piece of WOK!
i thought youth were the spark of revolution! Check out Catherine Austin Fitts last article here for something else that is good..lots going on and we're gonna have to hold two things on our mind
https://substack.com/home/post/p-156902743?source=queue&autoPlay=false
👍
* In response to a since deleted post which began by asking who the 19-year old is, and then ventured into the realm of genocide, propaganda and dementia:
Edward Coristine, who is 19 years old and goes by the nickname “Big Balls.” That tells you everything about the caliber of Musk's team.
Another one, Marko Elez,resigned after his posts came to light saying he was racist before it was cool, and "normalize Indian hate". I believe he's since been reinstated, with JD Vance making excuses for him.
It's instructive that all seven of them rushed to scrub the internet of their profiles and posts after their names were published by WIRED. Now why would they have to do that if they didn't have something to hide, if they themselves didn't realize how crass they sounded?
Yes, Biden was too old. But at least he brought a wealth of real life experience to the job, with competent people around him. The genocide was committed or abetted by a whole host of people involved in policy-making. But it was no doubt at Musk's instigation that Trump has withdrawn aid from South Africa for passing a law stipulating that the government could redistribute land that was currently not being used. or where it was in the public interest -- to right some of the wrongs done to the indigenous African population over the decades of Apartheid repression and oppression. The devil will be in the details, but why should Trump describe this as discrimination against whites, who had all the advantages and privileges and power since the countriy's inception and especially after Apartheid as not just a creed but a statutory scheme was introduced in 1948?
I don't know who "they" are who spread Russia-gate propaganda. All kinds of people are spreading all kinds of propaganda, including Trump's defenders. And you're worried about genocide, when Trump proposes ethnically cleansing Gaza and the West Bank?
As for waste, that's nothing new. But one could strengthen the existing mechanisms. He's fired independent Inspectors General, presumably to replace them with Trump loyalists. How is that going to improve things?
The whole enterprise is lawless and unconstitutional.
Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?
“You’re worried about genocide when Trumps proposing ethnic cleansing”..this way of arguing is a problem. It assumes I am taking sides on the issue of genocide but I’m not. That’s as much a waste of time as busying ourselves over the meaning of Super Bowl half time show instead of asking why Richard Medhurst was detained. Neoliberalism presents itself as tolerant. Corporations love woke. To them it means a woman CEO or a black man at top of the military or transgender allowed in military. The MSM wants us to argue about partisan politics as Matt Taibbi’s book “Hate INC” so illustrates. But I don’t disagree with you about Trump’s agenda. The Mueller investigation, the Twitter files, showed us who pushed Russia-gate. It’s the info landscape that is making it so difficult for citizens to communicate. We’d have to be reading some of the same books, or hearing some of the same lectures to know a context to start with. Otherwise we spin our wheels.
I agree that what-about-ism is a problem in these kinds of conversations. Nevertheless, it's not unusual for those who point to Biden's complicity in Israel's genocide to forget that Trump has worse in store for Gaza. And I'm pretty sure that one reason Trump is withholding aid from South Africa is because they had the temerity to lodge a complaint against Israel at the ICC, though his pretext is "discrimination against whites" in land redistribution.
I’m sure you’re right. I’m listening to outside info like substack here. Seymour Hersh, Chris Hedges, Aaron Matte, Max Bloomenthal, Colonel McGregor, Col Larry Wilkerson , John Mearsheimer, Jeff Sachs, the guests on judge Napolitano’s show, Glenn Greenwald etc. and so influenced by them. They seem pretty independent from establishment and call out wrong where wrong exists as best I can tell. I’m trying to stay open and see what’s what. Not easy
Yes they seem pretty independent, but they inevitably bring their own biases to their writings. They certainly start out with a point of view, a world view.
It's difficult territory to navigate, because I can agree with them on many things, but not everything. And I do see a tendency to default to being highly critical of almost everything the US does.
Where it becomes disconcerting is when they veer into Biden Derangement Syndrome. Biden was a mixed bag. Did some very good things, and some really bad ones. He was content to wear blinders where Israel and Gaza were concerned. How many Palestinian deaths are "too many" in the face of the 1,200 or so Israelis who were slaughtered? Definitely has a blind spot there, and Harris was not able or not willing to distance herself from this in any meaningful way.
But we are reading Kucinich so there’s at least that
Looking at these comments and I have to sigh. Nothing will ever be done about this. Liberals don't care, if Trump is behind it it's bad. Perhaps we needed a person who doesn't care what you think to do this. No other politicians have been willing to put their name on the exposure of corruption that would follow. The fact is, you keep electing these people to do nothing. A liberal will never vote out their congressman or senator, for fear that the big, bad Republicans would take the seat. And Democrats as a rule do not primary one another. Hence, you get people like pelosi and Schumer in the house forever, stealing from us. The same story with the Republicans though they seem to be willing to run against their incumbents in a primary. Still, Congress has no impetus to fix this because they are taking kickbacks and they know that their voters will accept it. Such a sorry state of affairs, mostly because y'all have lost the comprehension of nuance. It's not okay to defraud the public regardless of whose team you're on.
Thanks Dennis. And your calling out the decades of allowing migrants in, keeping them in fear, all to take the wage slave jobs that, as you've pointed out, keep American wages down. Workers insecure and the mainstream media crowing how it's great we have these immigrants to take all the s---t jobs our workers can't afford to take and still keep their families intact. The millionaire talking heads are either heartless or just Despicable idiots. Or both.
How much at DoD, Dennis? The department that is unable to pass an audit? That's where the big bucks are, and it's really sad to see you obfuscate about this.
Nobody is arguing about transparent spending in government agencies. That would be the ultimate vehicle against corruption. But this latest attempt to throw the baby out with the bathwater is waste cutting as a means to illegally block and surveil both programs that serve people and a functional AI plug-in to election interference and control. If you're not paying attention, this looks like people care about us. But the reality is these people now in control are unelected and unstoppable in their plight to dismantle American democracy. This is a fascist authoritarian takeover of our country.
Good for you for pointing out that the Government Accounting Office has been tracking this fraudulence for many years, just not brought to public attention. So the idea being foisted on the world, by those who got their bribery money from USAID (Peep-a-boo, New York Times!) that all of the accusations of misspending are purely Elon Musk's DOGE, and therefore illegitimate and false, is provably BUNKUM.
You are the greatest congressman of all time. We could use 535 of you in every Congress. I'm glad to see USAID go bye-bye because of all the regime change and trafficking activities it's been involved in. My concern is that its activities will just be shuffled to the State and Defense Departments or the CIA or Pentagon.
You managed RFK's campaign for a while. Is it likely that he'll encourage Trump to appoint you to an important position? We need you back in government.
Agreed, the best fiscally responsible Congressional Dem. since the late WS Dem. Sen. Wm Proxmire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Proxmire
HOWEVER, sadly in the past (present?), you were (are) anti-abortion and an F-rating on the Second Amenfment (2A) from the NRA-ILA on gun control. Otherwise you might have made a great L/libertarian candidate, just like my former 2 term NM Gov. Gary Johnson.
I worked for 23 years for the US Treasury Department.
The problem has not been with faulty payment SYSTEMS. The problem has been that officials of the government have certified payments for reasons of graft, bad judgment, theft, and the idiocy and lunacy of members of Congress and presidents who order payments for the most corrupt reasons.
Treasury has not had a recorded instance of corruption in its long history. But it's their job to make payments certified by authorized officials. But they too are only doing what the political bosses tell them to do.
It's the political bosses--most recently the Obama-Clinton-Biden-Harris organized crime cartel.
See this please for more information on those trying to destroy our country.
https://montanarcc.substack.com/p/the-plan-to-destroy-the-us-is-in
You swept the floors at the treasury department for 23 years?
What are they afraid of? It’s apparent to anyone that doesn’t have the same salary, health insurance, per diem, vacation and other benefits…
Most of them are bought or forgot who is their employer
There may be waste and fraud within our government, but DOGE is identifying wasteful and fraudulent programs on the basis of Musk disagreeing with their purpose, not because an examination of them found wrongdoing or wastefulness. No one is asking DOGE for evidence.
Precisely. We haven't yet been presented with any actual evidence of what they claim is fraud and waste. I'm sure it's there, but there's no transparency, no due process, nothing but bald assertions and hoodlums rushing in to destroy everything.
He's operating on the "trust me bro!" Well, I damn well don't!
In 2023, the Federal gross expenditures were $7,662 Billion. Now add $4,466 Billion in total revenues, for a grand total of gross accounting entries of $12,127. BILLION. And our Inspectors General found $269 Billion in improper payments. That 3.5% of the nearly $8 TRILLION in expenses, and 2.2% if you add revenues (because errors can happen on that end, too).
I'm struggling to understand why you believe this level of discrepancy means the Inspectors General should all be fired, and an unvetted team of young male computer hackers (whose frontal brain lobes are likely not on deck yet) be brought in to download, scan, and make revisions to the code that manages payments of nearly $8 TRILLION every year – one of the largest payment processing systems in the world, upon which our national reputation for good fiscal management rests.
The TrumpElon moves are flat out crazy. As an old supporter from your presidential runs, and supporter of your NEED Act, I'm incredibly disappointed in the poor understanding of math in your post, and your willingness to argue that the only choices you seem to think we have are to ignore it all (what you imply we are doing now) and tear it all down (what TrumpElon is doing).
There is simply zero evidence that Trump-Elon are actually going after improper expenditures and fraud.
IF one wanted to increase the integrity, one would increase the staffing for review, not cut it. How about a 1% to oversight mandate for every government contract?
https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/files/reports-statements/financial-report/2024/financial-statements-2024.pdf
I didn't sign a HIPAA form allowing MuskRat or Cesspool access to my medical records through the Medicare database. I don't want or need MuskRat and his unvetted hacker minions having access to my Federal Income Tax returns. And I sure as hell don't authorize them to have my banking information or the ability to withhold my Social Security payments! Two wrongs don't make a right unless you're Cesspool, in which case all the wrongs you can get away with make all MY rights disappear. No thank you! You want to investigate waste, fraud and abuse by government contractors? Start with MuskRat and work your way down from there!
Executive lawlessness and allowing unrestricted private sector pirates access to all sensitive national security and financial data along with the personal and financial information of the entire US population >IS< the >only< government corruption they're capable of putting on public display, confident that the US voters are too collectively ignorant to even notice and too big a pack of apathetic morons to object ‽ Sadly, they may be right! Nevertheless, it's the only >real< corruption they're capable of exposing. Anything the so-called DOGE pirates >say< is corruption and waste will have as much documentable proof as that serial public masturbator - so to speak - Jim Jordan was able to uncover by misappropriating all those misspent tax dollars he wasted on those pointless congressional hearings based on hearsay testimony of known, admitted, proven liars. Have you not noticed Musk's wrecking crew is a pack of easily manipulated, wet behind the ears program coders and NOT seasoned expert accountants or economists as would have been appropriate ‽ Get your head out of your backside!
And this is how you deal with pirates! : https://youtube.com/shorts/rxF3oweHDVE?si=1I8S4cUAIk5ww3it
Sometimes, those who slap you in the face are not your enemies, and sometimes those that flatter your vanities with utter tommyrot are not your friends. Those >sometimes< are NOW!
All well and good, but for those who only read the first few paragraphs they would find full throated support for what Musk/Trump are doing - which while it might have merit- is illegal and unconstitutional. You later modify your position to a more reasonable one. And still, no one mentions the scamming of the gov’t by the private insurance companies who run Medicare Advantage Plans or the giant corporations that don’t pay taxes. Congress is to blame for not doing its job. Because Congress has been bought off by the likes of Musk and Trump and Co who all benefited by lack of the oversight they claim they are now doing. The hypocrisy is stunning. And by your making excuses for the Trump - White, Christian Nationalist Party (there is no longer a Republican Party) - you are complicit it easing the way into a dictatorship. Yes, it is coming, so think carefully before you decide who and what are the real threats. Americans are the most uninformed/misinformed people in countries not run by autocratic oligarchies. Due in large part by the defunding of public education, the foundation of any democracy. And the tech revolution, which gave us social media, which is turning into a scourge. Read The Tech Coup. Read history of fascism. Think! Let’s stop pretending we’re just doing “spring cleaning.” This is a demolition derby, and we all will suffer, the poor most!
Absolutely. Our Democracy has given way to a Pathocracy.
Pathocracy is a form of government where a small group of people with personality disorders control a society. The term was developed by Polish psychologist Andrzej Lobaczewski, who lived through both the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Poland.
How does pathocracy occur?
* A person with a personality disorder, such as narcissism or psychopathy, becomes a leader
* The leader's personality appeals to some people who are psychologically normal
* The leader's pathology spreads to the general population
_________
What are the characteristics of a pathocracy?
* The government is turned against its own people
* The prevailing moral values are perverted
* Coded language is used in place of genuine logic and morality
Abolish the illegal Federal Reserve (Central) Bank and give power back to the Treasury to print/coin money, based on real assets (we've been acquiring Gold, why not return to it as the BRICS have done, at least partially?). It's easy to spend when you simply print debt-based interest-intensive "money" to keep the "slush funds" of the various unconstitutional, non-elected bureaucratic rogue agency fifedoms acting in concert with policies and practices foreign to and in conflict with the U.S's charter and primary Federal-level Raison d'etre as delegated to them by the sovereign states.
The "discovery" of massive, widespread, ongoing malfeasance is less a surprise and more another interesting confirmation that is but a novelty to distract the populace at large while the other ("unseen") hand busies itself with the continuation of the global agenda prerogatives -- digital money and biometric ID, the assembling of massive nuclear-powered Aritificial Intelligence center database operations for constant surveillance and monitoring of all citizens, the unilateral support for and co-opting of genocidal dictator governments masquerading as biblically-mandated apartheid nation states calling themselves by biblical names, the integration of an all powerful and intrusive "one health" medical [and more] control system that venerates Pharma and radical "under-the-skin" infusions of synthetic biology to transition human populations to patented, owned slaves of the corporate/governmental (fascist) regime(s) subservient only to the globalist New World Order, divided into regions (*like the one described by Trump quoting the Technocrats of the 1930s -- to include Canada, U.S, Panama, Greenland, etc.) while farmers are driven out of business, the military refined for fanning the embers of existing unresolved hostilities that are as of yet unresolved, awaiting the right moment to flame and ignite worldwide activation of embedded, imported terror groups to wage urban warfare on unarmed and unsuspecting populations, to disable power grids, to leverage the already twice declared emergency state into the mobilization of armed troops actively patrolling the streets of nations as "peacekeepers" and the widespread surveillance of every facet of human life -- in the physical and the biological realms to "mange" them into the carefully crafted kill box developments planned for their use and eventual disposal. The re-wilding is already underway. The myths abound and the populace so poisoned from chemicals rained on them, and in their food, water, soil and brains that they are blindly following, rallying as they do the latest greatest chief promiser and professional actor ever to hold an office from the most recent "selection" process, in "Lock Step" with the pre-planned and appointed next steps in the completion of he globalist's final triumph over the spent and compromised, brainwashed and bettered populations - the digital panopticon readied for their destiny.
In an era of feigned and fabricated "scarcity" of imagined resources, of the perpetuation of the climate hoax, and the blustering over rights that have long been obliterated, the new "saviors" enter with their plan - it may very well be that after "voting" for the most recent cast of clowns, there may never be another selection -- because the world as we know it is facing entropy of the greatest magnitude at a pace that will leave most in disbelief.
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Thank you for pointing this out. I am one very concerned about what is happening. Another takeover by other elites is what I see. This through the Technocrats. Both sides have been corrupt. People need to see what is going on.
Bigger contracts for Musk et. al. Tracking and tracing coming in at higher speed. We need to see this is all planned. Both sides helped move us forward and we are in for a wild ride to total Digital Control. We are going to become prisoners and we think we are cheering on FREEDOM!
Beware of the Trojan Horse, it is at our gate. Just part of the GRAND PLAN that has been in effect for many, many, many years.
It's horrifying and thank you for speaking up. These moves are not about freeing us but having the Fed, the IMF, and the Techs through AI taking over and there are no laws or rules there in that arena.