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Archive for 2025
February 10, 2025
BRING IT ON: DOGE’s First Round of Cuts Went to Trump Priorities, but Bigger Targets Await.
The White House’s Department of Government Efficiency has drawn scrutiny for the rapid work of its technology team burrowing into multiple agencies, but it also says it has identified and cut more than $1 billion in spending in the first three weeks.
That is a mere fraction of the $2 trillion in spending cuts that Elon Musk, DOGE’s public face, has set as a goal, but it shows how the entity has begun going program-by-program across multiple federal agencies and paring back what it considers low-hanging fruit. The initial actions it has taken, identifying relatively small-dollar programs, could soon change markedly as DOGE team members are now embedding in some of the government’s largest programs, particularly those focused on healthcare.
Musk’s team is also working with the General Services Administration, which manages government buildings and commercial real estate, to identify which leases can be canceled or let lapse, looking for underused office space and ways to consolidate.
More than half of the cost savings that DOGE says it has found is related to diversity, equity and inclusion, totaling more than $1 billion, according to a review of the group’s posts on X, where it publishes its results. Since taking office, President Trump has ordered federal agencies to terminate diversity programs and contracts, which reflects his desire to put the culture wars at the center of his presidency.
DOGE said it also terminated about $30 million in contracts for digital modernization projects and at least $4 million in leases for little-used office space.
DOGE didn’t provide comment or details of how it arrived at the spending cuts when asked by The Wall Street Journal.
The Pentagon, Medicare/Medicaid, and DHS are all juicy targets.
RACIST, SCHMACIST: After objecting to schools’ ‘equity’ programs, liberal parents attacked, called ‘racist.’ Nowadays if they’re calling you racist, it usually just means they’re defending some sort of grift or graft.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Heads Are Going to Explode When DOGE Cancels This Boondoggle.
IN SOME WAYS, CHANGING THIS CALCULUS WILL DO MORE GOOD THAN ANYTHING:
The calculus for joining government is radically changing. The promise of gaining control of enormous dark money government slush funds and routing them to your friends who stand up totally vague and nebulous NGOs that then launder the money back to you and your other friends, is…
— Tyler Winklevoss (@tyler) February 9, 2025
MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS FIX FOREIGN ELECTIONS:
🇺🇸 EX-CIA, USAID OFFICIALS RUN META'S ELECTION "SAFEGUARDS"
Meta has reportedly placed former intelligence operatives in charge of its election integrity efforts.
The platform's online security chief, ex-CIA officer Aaron Berman, reportedly implemented sweeping content… pic.twitter.com/h9uVAdEJ34
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 10, 2025
Full text:
Meta has reportedly placed former intelligence operatives in charge of its election integrity efforts.
The platform’s online security chief, ex-CIA officer Aaron Berman, reportedly implemented sweeping content controls across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp during Brazil’s 2022 elections.
The program included content removal, warning labels, and message forwarding restrictions.
Meta Online Trust and Safety Executive Aaron Berman:
“We remove content on Facebook and Instagram that discourages voting or interferes with voting”
Meta placed warning labels on more than 150 million U.S. election-related posts.
The company expanded its fact-checking partnerships in Brazil from four to six organizations, raising concerns about intelligence community influence over democratic processes.
Source: @NameRedacted247
There’s little doubt in my mind that those “former” intelligence officials were working at the Biden Cabal’s direction.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: GOP senators back Trump’s space-based ‘Iron Dome’ plan with $19.5B bill. “The move comes just days after Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order, which directed the Pentagon to develop a comprehensive missile defense system heavily reliant on space sensors for tracking hypersonic missiles — like those being developed by China — which fly at extremely high speeds and can maneuver to evade traditional ground-based radar systems.”
I’ve often wondered if SpaceX has a few hidden tricks up the sleeves of those 7,000 Starlink satellites.
ISRAELIS “POUNCE”: For the far left and its allies, it’s always about how normies react to Islamist crimes, not the crimes themselves.
IT’S EQUALLY UNCLEAR WHETHER CNN REPORTERS ARE IMBECILES:
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump Can Outlast the Dems’ Desperate Stalling Tantrums. “Let them keep flailing, it’s going nowhere for them. They are all so blinded by Trump Derangement Syndrome that they don’t know that they’re awash in futility. What they’re completely unaware of is that these little Facebook high-five emoji moments that they’re having while interfering with the Trump agenda aren’t playing well in real America.”
CDR SALAMANDER: 21-Days of Trump Chapter 2: How is Everyone Holding Up? Not we Americans…but the rest of the world. “Our poll of 28,549 people across 24 countries revealed four things. First, Europeans are almost alone in mourning Trump’s election. . . . The USA is EU-positive, which is something that the Europeans should leverage. Instead they seem intent on making problems with the relationship—something that does not help either party. The media and ruling class still get their view of the USA from the New York Times and Washington Post—and their derivatives—and it shows. People in the USA who only have those news sources hate their own country, so this is no shock.”
Related:
HOW BUREAUCRATS THINK ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY: “Elon Musk and DOGE are doing what amounts to a comprehensive audit of the federal government, and it is driving the Democrats nuts. This is, of course, because the federal budget is their piggy bank that funds both the leftists themselves and all their evil plans.”
IT’S AMAZING HOW FAST THEY’VE COLLAPSED ONCE THE MONEY SPIGOT WAS CLOSED:
Today, the entire local opposition called for a massive demonstration against mining.
Every political party joined the call, along with 90% of all NGOs, universities, churches, and activist groups. They ran a month-long mainstream media and social media campaign, had the backing… pic.twitter.com/y6UJrtWF19
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) February 9, 2025
If your ministry has to close down after state funding dries up, it's not a "ministry," it's a state church. https://t.co/yNiKarMLkG
— @instapundit (@instapundit) February 10, 2025
It’s as if the global left was always a sham. I’m reminded of after the fall of the Soviet Union, when all sorts of “grassroots” “popular rebellions” disappeared overnight once the outside funding stopped.
YOU’RE FIRED: SIGAR John Sopko, ‘The Donald Trump of inspectors general.’
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), John Sopko, was among those recently fired as part of the Trump administration’s purge of 17 inspectors general (IGs). That’s despite the fact that Sopko proved to be among the most transparent and effective IG in terms of identifying on behalf of taxpayers waste, fraud and abuse
For going up against powerful “establishment” forces inside the federal government and among contractors in the defense and humanitarian aid world, Sopko was once called “the Donald Trump of Inspectors General.”
He was frequently targeted by Congress and in the news media on behalf of interests connected to the Pentagon, the State Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) after he audited their projects that identified waste and fraud.
According to Sopko, Americans spent more than $143 billion in tax money to rebuild Afghanistan as the U.S. war against Islamic extremist terrorists was waged for 20 years. He says that a stunning 30% – or $43 billion of our money – was lost to waste, fraud, or abuse.
And the rest they can’t account for.
GOOD: The Supreme Court’s SFFA Decision Has Caused An Unprecedented Shift In Law School Admissions. Proof that they were discriminating according to race before.
ROGER KIMBALL: Trump, Musk, and the Deep State: The Battle Over Transparency Begins. “Trump and Musk are unraveling the deep state’s secrets at record speed, and the left is panicking—wielding emergency orders, judicial overreach, and legal theatrics to stop the exposure.”
Spoiler: It won’t work.
ICYMI: THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRATS ARE GOING BATSHIT CRAZY OVER:
UPDATE: Reader John Steakley writes:
From some of what I see online and conversations with my lefty friends, the Dems seem to be coalescing around an innocuous-sounding theme of “Slow Down.” I.e., without debating the merits of what Trump is doing, can’t we just all agree that he’s doing it all way too quickly?
This avoids any awkward debates about the merits of USAID funding transgender basket-weaving classes in Patagonia, and skips right to the real Democrat goal of just stalling Trump until we are closer to midterm elections.
If the GOP indulges this for even a second, they deserve every midterm loss they will suffer.
Keep going. Don’t slow down. Don’t even slow down to talk to the bitter losers asking you to slow down. You have at best four years of a GOP Congress and probably only two. Don’t waste time.
Faster, please.
Related:
Dems: We need 80000 IRS agents to audit your $600 venmo payment.
Reps: There are over $100B annual entitlement payments to people without social security numbers.
Dems: Auditing is extremely dangerous to our democracy!
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) February 9, 2025
Plus:
If you’re outraged at all the ridiculous and wasteful government spending you should be. If you’re outraged that DOGE is looking into things, I wonder why?🤔
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) February 9, 2025
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THEY CERTAINLY DID FA. NOW IT’S THE TIME TO FO: That the left acts like their atrocious vindictive censorship was a small thing is why this is happening and will continue to happen until you finally understand how terrible you are.
THIS YOUNG LADY IS CERTAINLY NOT ALONE: They broke the things I loved. They broke the people I loved. And they thought, because they did not care that they broke them, that I would not care. They were wrong.
And we have had enough. We’ve all had enough. They did manage to make us care. The injuries are different, but so many over the last four years. So many.
HE’S FLAILING: Sen. Andy Kim: Cuts To USAID ‘Devastating To National Security,’ ‘Doing China’s Work For Them.’
Previously:
Somebody from a developing country said to me, ‘what we
get from China is an airport. What we get from the United States
is a lecture.' https://t.co/dT674x0Qc0— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) April 14, 2023
Whatever foreign aid was supposed to accomplish in superpower politics, it hasn’t been doing that for a long time.
WHEN NANCY PELOSI AND JOE BIDEN ARE THE FACES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, IS THAT A SURPRISE?
CBS just recorded their highest approval rating for President Trump in their polling history this past week.
The thing that makes this newsworthy is the age split: Trump's doing better among the young than the old! pic.twitter.com/nUlLtLlDrk
— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) February 9, 2025
Related:
One of the underrated aspects of why the Democratic Party is in the dumps right now is that they are so lame and cringe.
That’s showing up with young voters.
Luckily, they’ve made David Hogg vice chair of the party so that’s sure to up their appeal. https://t.co/oyttc6tfZ7
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 9, 2025
Also, younger people consume more non-mass-media news so the monolithic narrative approach doesn’t work on them very well.