Democratic leaders continued to ramp up their “rage rhetoric” following the inauguration. We have already seen violent protests and planned assassinations directed against Trump Administration figures. Despite the growing tensions, Democrats are ratcheting up claims of a “coup” and calling for Democrats to “fight in the streets.” After failing to win the election with claims that Democracy would die if Trump is elected, Democrats are doubling down on rage politics to try to win over the public. The difference is that they are now focusing on Elon Musk rather than Donald Trump.
Many of those fueling the anger are familiar names. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D, Mass.) declared “Elon Musk is seizing the power that belongs to the American people.” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D, Md.) claimed on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that Musk and Trump were conducting a “rapidly expanding and accelerating coup.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) appeared to be working off the same talking point and declared that a “coup” was being carried out.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) warned that Musk was “taking away everything we have.”
Despite voting to impeach Trump for calling for his supporters to “fight” against his opponents (while adding to do so “peacefully”), many used the same rhetoric to spur the left to action.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Cal.) said “We are here to fight back.” Sen. Cory Booker (D., NJ) called on citizens to “fight” and declared “We will rise up.”
Not to be outdone in the rage fest, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., TX) yelled, “We are gonna be in your face, we are gonna be on your a–es, and we are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like, and this ain’t it.”
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D., N.J.) added: “God d—it shut down the Senate!…WE ARE AT WAR!”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called for Democrats to fight “in the streets.”
In my recent book, I discuss the role of rage rhetoric in our politics extending back to the very beginning of the Republic:
“Just as a desire for free expression is quintessentially human, so is rage. As shown throughout our history, rage is addictive. It bestows a certain license to shed the confining expectations of reason and civility. … At times, our politics seem like a collective primal scream session where only the loudest prevail. Yet, for some, the license to rage goes beyond the amplification of their own views and becomes a demand for the silencing of others.”
Worse yet, it can inspire unhinged citizens who actually believe that this is a war against a coup. That relieves some of any qualms about taking violent action. It is the type of rhetoric that can prompt anti-Republican Nicholas John Roske to try to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh or Sanders supporter James T. Hodgkinson to try to massacre Republican members playing softball.
I still oppose those calling for investigations into such rage rhetoric despite my strong disagreement with these figures. The solution to bad speech is still better speech. The hypocrisy of these leaders is hardly surprising in an age of rage. However, “the rage is not what defines us. It is free speech that defines us.”
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Is Turley really this out of it? Musk is two steps from control of the US government, Trump is looking like he is just a figurehead, and that Constitution and Federal law is being ignored. And Turkey’s concern is the Ds are using too strong language?
Franke, please disclose if you are an employee of Politico so that we may better assess your comment. Perhaps you work for USAID. Then again, you may not work for either and your knowledge of the subject has been formed without proper researching of the matter. We get it. Never Trumper, never Musker. They’ve told you what to say and you’ve learned your lesson well. Living proof that robotics is an up and coming field of endeavor.
Is Turley really this out of it?
What “it” are you referring to, the Democratic party? In their current form, probably. The constitution and federal law? I have no doubt he has forgotten more about that than you will have ever learned.
Musk is two steps from control of the US government,
As he and his team continue to “follow the money, he’s more likely to be two steps from a total reveal of what the US government has been doing for the last 60+ years.
A month ago Franke was saying Trump is a dictator and now he is saying he is a puppet. That is liberal logic at it’s finest.
New data new analysis. A month ago we were unsure what Musk’s role will actually be. Now we know.
–then why didn’t you hold your mouth until you knew the facts?
Hullbobby is right. You play the media game.
You seem to be confused about reality. Have you been watching msnbc or cnn, perhaps The View? You do seem disorientated about the world and I do think you need an intervention before you lose total control of your mental facilities. Do you not understand our constitution, our congress and our supreme court? What is wrong with you?
Wrong. Musk in not in control of anything but his DOGE team. They are exposing all the fraud, waste and abuse. They are exposing the corruption. Seems the “Ds” are trying to incite an insurrection.
The DOGE people have not been there long enough to understand agencies to come to any conclusion about the spending. What they are doing is taking the title of an expenditure and making assumptions about what it is about. Federal expenditures are well documented for this exact reason, for people to look back at them, but DOGE is ignoring the underlining documentation and justifications.
Doge is just opening up the cabinets in the bureaus. Nothing more, he has no government authority, that lies with the elected President Trump. congress and SCOTUS. What you and the other Progs are afraid of is the exposure of the grift, corruption, collusion and other situations that have been oozing out your tax dollars in ways that sane Americans ae repulsed by. The dems know the jig is up and they are trying, very unsuccessfully, to convince us that we are at risk, when it is their slushy, corrupt cabals that are at risk, including some jail time and/or fines for the worst of the grifters. The indoctrinated minority placeholders in congress are actually afraid that an enlightened public may not send them back to their money-maker job in congress and their assumed privilege of “racist ideology” is no longer cutting it with the general taxpayer. And let’s not even begin with the farce of DEI or transgenderism as that is being exposed for the failed anthropological scam that it has always been.
The DOGE people have not been there long enough to understand agencies to come to any conclusion about the spending.
In other words, DOGE is not the wolf auditing the henhouse.
The purpose of financial audits of foreign spending is to ensure that funds spent internationally—whether by government agencies, corporations, NGOs, or any other organization—are used appropriately, efficiently, and in compliance with relevant laws, regulations, and agreements. These audits specifically focus on monitoring and evaluating how money is spent in foreign countries, and they serve a few key functions:
– Ensuring Compliance with Laws and Regulation
– Preventing Fraud and Mismanagement
– Evaluating Proper Use of Funds
– Assessing Performance and Efficiency
– Enhancing Transparency and Accountability
– Risk Management
– Building Trust with Taxpayers, Donors, Partners, and Stakeholders
What DOGE is doing is opening the books and providing the data of foreign spending that is crucial for verifying that funds are being used appropriately, maintaining compliance with both local and international standards, and ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the spending, while minimizing risks like fraud and corruption.
Really ?
Musk is auditing spending – exactly as Trump promised.
He has absolutely no authority.
Trump has personally ordered Musks access to each and every system that he investigates.
Musk makes recomendations based on what he finds.
Trump evaluates those finding and issues orders. As with USAID putting them under the supervision of the State department which then determines the actions that will be taken.
There is nothing unconstitutional or illegal here – that is left wing nonsense.
DOGE is part of the federal government – a small one, it is essentially an advisory office to the president.
It has a tiny staff. contra the media they are all government employees and they all have very high security clearances – higher than those of the people in the departments that they are auditing. Further – you should look at the resumes of these people
They may be young but they are unbelievably accomplished.
Auditing the federal govenrment is slumming it for them. One of these guys was the first to successfully read 2000 year old scrolls from Pompey that had been burned to a crisp. He is reading greek text from rolled up ash that will disintegrate if it is touched using computers. The courts have split over TRO’s restraining them – but that is just stupid.
First this is going to be an easy win. There are SOME questions about Trump’s presidention power to simply declare agencies created by and budgeted by congress gone.
But there is ZERO legal or constitutional question about the executive power to audit them and to shut down spending that is NOT clearly authorized by congress.
These lawsuits may take time – but they are big losers in the end.
But that all presumes the orders matter. Everyone of these guys is an out of the box genius. If the courts blocked one source of information – they can move to another.
Do you really think that someone who can figure out how to read greek text from burned to ash 2000 year old scrolls,
is going to consider a TRO anything more than a speed bump.
# Yes, the violence is caused by a deficit in reasoning skills.
Audits are a slow, detailed, and boring process to compare what is to what should have been. Audits also do not start by firing people nor do they need write access to computer systems, nor do the auditors themselves take actions. DOGE is not auditing anything. What we are seeing is a power grab by Musk.
If you find that your house (our various unionized, unelected bureaucrats) is infested with anti-american or unconstitutional ideology you do the same thing that Orkin does to your house, you tent it and gas it and kill everything inside because ferreting out each termite is impossible. Let us just state that the prog/left dems caused this infestation and now they and their foolish tools will pay the price. Good – they were a nasty, lying bunch of grifters – especially samantha powers, merit garland, anthony fauci, just to name a few and they need to be isolated and removed for the good of the entire nation – not just the prog/left democrats.
Franke – lest assume the absurd and pretend you are right.
I would vote for Musk as president before I would vote for Trump.
If Musk is the real president – which is a ludicrously stupid claim,
Then he is doing a great job – and I hope he keeps it up.
This stupid claim is a effort to create daylight between Trump and Musk.
While I have zero doubt Trump will fire Musk if Musk crosses a line with Trump.
Frankly I suspect that Musk will complete the current task quickly and leave.
Musk has LOTS of balls in the air – this is just one.
And Musk has “Big Balls” working behind the scenes as well. 😁
“While I have zero doubt Trump will fire Musk if Musk crosses a line with Trump.”
I’m not so sure about that. At this point, I think Musk has earned enough credibility with the people who voted Trump in that they would demand a damned good reason for that action. I know I would, and I doubt that I am alone. Trump can certainly fire Musk, but if he did so on a whim, or for some petty. implausible reason at this point, I think there would be a price to pay in his approval ratings.
“And [Turley’s] concern is the Ds are using too strong language?”
Better that than:
Your house is infested with termites, destroying your foundation.
And you question the age of the exterminator’s assistant.
OT:
Trump’s declaration on taking Gaza was another example of true genius no matter how it evolves or turns out.
It has completely changed the discussion universe.
We are no longer talking about what we are going to do with the Israeli people.
Now the question is what are we going to do with the Gazans.
They are the problem, the deep well topped and overflowing with evil.
# The idea is too generous overall. Quite brilliant but it’s being received by violent goat herders. Consider the audience.
Excellent observation. Trump is excellent at managing what the discussion should be about. He is a businessman. Politicians lack certain attributes a successful businessman has.
Fuggem
I think sunshine is always the best disinfectant; both in continuing to expose the rot AND allowing the prog/left dems to continue to expose their lunacy for all to see. We need to observe more Crocketts, Waters, Mr. McBrides and, of course,, more joy reids, Oscars, justice jackson’s broadway performances and episodes of the View. Just let them run their insanity up and down their flagpole and let the light shine on just who they are, who they protect and when and where they scream the loudest.
The left knows it’s lost against Trump so now their target is Musk. They will tell you about an African not being able to get his AIDS medicine but they won’t say a word about money from USAID being used to prop up left wing governments throughout the world. They don’t want you to know that your tax dollars have ended up in the bank accounts of The New York Times, the BBC and Politico. Their target is now Elon Musk because he is pulling back the curtain that reveals saving democracy is not their real agenda but their real goal is extracting as much cash as they can from your pocket as fast as they can. The RAGE is not about right or wrong it’s about the loss of the color of money and what it can buy to continue the long march of socialism. So now it’s about Musk and they hate him because they believe that he is impeding the inevitable course of history. Don’t you understand, it all can be found in Mao’s little red book and Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. Over the top you say. Just remember that Obama had a strategy meeting at Bill Ayer’s house who often quoted Alinski. Know your enemy.
I am always amazed at how all of obama’s previous connections were so efficiently swept under the rug. I do think it is time for some enterprising video/documentary producer to create an expose on just who was obama before the dems made him into a demi-god.
# Obama’s banner is racism, the human characteristic, trait of racism.
TiT,
Well said.
# Yes, it’s correctly characterized as looting and destruction.
Quite finished. LA will never be rebuilt. If people had no insurance they’re finished.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
What President Trump, DOGE and his administration are revealing is that the two party system was a mirage. What we’ve had for almost a century is a two government system. On one side is the constitutional form, and on the other a power and money hungry beast I will call the progressive form. Both parties have conned the American people that they are of the constitutional form. But their governance has largely been rooted in feeding that beast. Both parties were relatively content with the con until Obama decided the time was right to go full beast mode with the Democratic party. President Trump’s 2016 victory was as consequential for our country as Lincoln’s in 1860. And for 8 years we’ve had our “civil war.” And this time the President survived assassinations. He is leading us into this age of reconstruction and the American people are seeing how the beast took over the Democratic party. Without power and without money, they are but an empty shell. They have no realistic claim to the constitutional form, Trump and the Republicans have that now. And without policies or money, the only thing left for them is to rant and rave. This is an amazing thing to watch.
The adults in the room are being entertained but the lost soul, indoctrinated tools will never give up their delusion. The sad part of this is; just for reference look at the woman who was arrested planting the Mexican flag after tearing down the Stars and Stripes and declaring that a particular part of the US was actually Mexican soil. I don’t blame her as much as I blame the prog/left disinformation campaign waged to create division and strife. How do we undo all the indoctrination about victimization, racial inequality, climate change, cultural aberrations such as transgenderism? Sure, Musk may be able to drain the swamp but there are hordes of prog/left indoctrinated fools/tools out there who really think Trump will put them in camps and take away their free stuff. Maybe he will cut back the free stuff etc, but these hordes of whiners will take to the street at the behest of soros type proddings, we are in for a long hard slog to undo 60+ years of prog indoctrination and waste.
Whimsical: I saw that too! (re: the Mexican woman -whose broken English still obviously knew how to say “FU” in English, as she hurled it out repeatedly at the officers!) Your points are well taken.
# The holes in national security are being revealed.
Mr. Musk, the singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court. The totality of the welfare state must have been struck down at every step of inception.
The entire communist American welfare state is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, CRT, DEI, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, NPR, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax for ONLY debt, defense, and “general Welfare” – ALL or THE WHOLE WELL PROCEED through governmental provision of security and basic infrastructure – omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual Welfare, specific Welfare, particular Welfare, favor or charity. The same Article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY the Value of money, Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes, and land and naval Forces.
Further, the 5th Amendment right to private property was initially qualified by the Framers and is, therefore, absolute, allowing no further qualification, and allowing ONLY the owner the power to “claim and exercise” dominion over private property.
Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure.
The Necessary and Proper Clause is nothing more than a perfunctory redundancy for the purposes of clarification—a reinforcement of that which was previously codified—and may not be wielded to amend and impose separate acts that do not represent but alter the letter and spirit of the Founders and Framers.
I think we’ve seen a great use for AI. Develop a program that parses the 1500 page omnibus spending bills and spits out exactly who is getting how much and why. It could distill those monster bills in 2 minutes. Then we will all know where the dark money is hiding.
# oooo hear hear
“Develop a program that parses the 1500 page omnibus spending bills and spits out exactly who is getting how much and why. ”
Great suggestion. My issue with it is that it appears that an AI LLM can pretty easily be d1ck3d with by whoever “trains” it. How do we ensure that the model is trained to ferret out ALL corruption, and not merely a targeted and biased portion of it? How do we ensure that if that is successfully accomplished, no faction retrains it once the notoriously fickle attention of the public has moved on? I’m afraid that there is a potential that the ultimate result could be less transparency, rather than more.
Further thought: That analysis assumed that you were suggesting this analysis be conducted by government. If it was done by an nominally neutral 3rd party, or, even better, multiple independent 3rd parties, that could alleviate some of my concerns.
Political violence is never the solution. We had a healthy dose of that on 1-6. That being said, in the short span of a couple weeks the new administration has launched two trade wars with our two closest neighbors and threatened to invade no less than three independent nations with one being Canada. It’s pretty safe to say that has alarmed most rational people in the nation. Regarding Musk, it would be good to hear Dr. Turley’s opinion on the constitutionality of his actions verses democratic rage.
Hey Jeff, why didn’t you mention all the political violence that occurred during the second half of 2020? Why no mention of when Trump was forced into the WH Bunker as many, MANY secret service agents and Capital police were injured? Why no mention of the antifa and blm riots? Why no mention of the historical fact that the left told us to stay home to save lives from March until June of 2020 and then by some miracle it was then ok to march thousands strong to protest whites or something.
I know why, because you are either a partisan political hack, a paid operative or just a biased unthinking liberal.
If you read my post, you will see I say political violence is never the answer. Ever. I’m lifelong GOP. I am all for cutting wasteful government spending. I’m not sure scorched earth tactics are the best way or even constitutional. That’s why I asked. However, the trade wars and threats of invading century old allies is absolutely unnerving.
# He’s been pushed around for 8 years and been shot. He’s in a hurry to get things done.
There’s nothing to do with people like Waters, Crockett, Cortez , great gulf of intelligence and personal gain.
The US has been transformed into a 3rd world.
Again and again I raise the issue of partisan media. (Sorry in advance.) All this week, media has broadcast all those sad stories of mean ole Trump, –e.g., starving babies with flies in their eyes suffering because Trump assigned Musk to look into USAID and Musk paused it. Protesters denounced Musk for stating that only @10% of funds finally makes it to the starving babies. No media dared to mention actual facts.
(1)
For anyone interested, I attach two links. The first shows graphs breaking down USAID funding, starting with U.S. congressional funding and ending with the foreign recipient, i.e., the starving babies.
Go to: https://www.cgdev.org/blog/usaid-localization-numbers
The opening paragraph:
“Foreigners don’t receive much of America’s $35 billion* annual foreign aid budget, at least not directly. Less than ten percent goes to local charities, companies, or governments in developing countries. Instead, big American aid contracts tend to go to big American companies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).” [*now reported @$40B -this article was written a few years ago]
Move down to Figure 2 and the two paragraphs just above it, starting with “Before we dive into….”
In sum, the color-coded graphic depicts an astounding olive-colored paltry amount that actually makes it to the starving babies, i.e., local foreign recipients of the funds.
(2) In addition to American partners/NGOs skimming off the majority of the monies, there is the problem of corollary foreign governments and entities doing the same, before the bread crumbs finally make it to the “starving babies.”
EVEN WORSE, this is just one example of where the paltry res/remainder might end up:
“The Inspector General for the United States Agency for International Development [USAID] is investigating the agency’s funding of Helping Hand for Relief and Development, an Islamist organization with ties to jihadist organizations in South Asia.”
https://www.meforum.org/usaid-investigating-funding-of-islamist
Sooooo, how can we get from A to E if we cut out all the intermediary Bs, Cs, and Ds? I dunno.
Lin,
Thank you for that analysis and summary.
Upstate Farmer: I am comforted (without ever having met you) that every pound of grain/feed that you purchase for your livestock –ends up spent on them. I would make a “snow angel” in your front yard! (But I don’t trust you enough to know that you wouldn’t carve out/give it horns or a tail, ha!
Lin, I would join you in making snow angels in Mr. Upstate, but I left the snow 8 years ago and I have NO intention of ever being in it again. But your cause of celebrating Upstate is righteous.
Lin,
Actually I dont use feed. I hay my own fields, put them up in the lofts for the winter. Hot, sweaty work, but a LOT cheaper!
What? Would I do that? 😉
# As you’re finding out you paid for the media.
Here’s a bit about worldwide media manipulation command and control:
https://discernreport.com/wikileaks-drops-bombshell-about-usaid-and-internews-network/
Go back and look at some of the Q posts about open borders, USAID, media… no wonder Q-anon, whoever it was, whatever it was, was attacked so vigorously. Q even came up in a democrat question in a recent confirmation hearing. It just hit too close to home, didn’t it?
Oldfish: Good one!
(I did not see yours before I posted mine, supra ^^^
But they are not redundant, so all is well….)
BRAVO the work being done by the new administration!
The left is aghast that 20-something year-olds are combing through the books of the federal government to weed out wasteful and possibly fraudulent spending by government agencies that were authorized by prior Congresses. Well, it is these 20-somethings that will, in their middle age, bear the future cost of the staggering national debt growing now at an unbridled rate. It is a spectacle that those largely responsible for this financial negligence (Maxine Waters, 86 y/o; Chuck Schumer, 74 y/o; Nancy Pelosi, 83 y/o; Steny Hoyer, 84 y/o; Jim Clyburn, 83 y/o, among many others) are so vocal in their condemnation of DOGE. None of them will be around when the bill comes due from years, no, decades, of their budgetary negligence. This old guy says that 20-somethings have every right to lead the way and fight this fight.
Amazing how structures start to emerge when you visualise a system using nodes and connections. It works whether you’re trying to untangle crappy software architecture or illegal money laundering.
Omnibus bills no one ever read
.
“This old guy says that 20-somethings have every right to lead the way and fight this fight.”
Amen!
Musk sent to NYT. These guys are tech geniuses that develop algorithms to uncover shady and wasteful spending of taxpayer money. what are Democrats afraid of. The fact that they are so concerned about what was already uncovered at USAID is of big concern to taxpayers. Put it to another vote. Taxpayers voted for accountabilty of government spending and an independant audit is what we need. Why is the media not doing some deep dive investigative reporting or do they still believe they know better what the people want. The people in the election sent a clear message. Hopefully. the government has not forgotten they report to the people and its the peoples money thats being wasted. The payments to Politico was a scam. Did the NY Times recieve unusually large payments? 32 trillion of debt and how much of that was scam special interest spending by Congress. I want all scam spending stopped and I want to know what congress person had that PORK put in the budget. investigate if there are kickbacks to any individuals at the agency. The overnment has ballooned into a giant waste of taxpayer dollars. The media and democrats can only attack whats happening because they are afraid about what will be found. Try investigative reporting instead of attacking or are you afraid?
Where will taxpayers money go now? Please explain the justification of cutting funds from the most disadvantaged then granting enormous tax cuts to the very wealthy. What really is the underling philosophy regarding “poor” and “low income “ and how that rational goes against overlying principles of our constitution. Don’t tell me about trickle down economics. This bureaucracy was created by both political parties, and the power change these policies belongs to congress. It seems you are supporting power illegally appropriated by the executive branch to make changes without adhering to constitutional law of checks and balances.
Where will taxpayers money go now?
That’s your question? We’re $35 trillion in debt. How about; where has taxpayer’s money been going? Auditing government agencies and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse is precisely what we need for government accountability. Only then should we be asking, where will taxpayer money go.
😂
Fellow Republicans – We’ve Only Just Begun – Stay strong stay United!
Schumer “taking away everything we have” is saying the quiet part out loud. All their slush funds are being threatened.
“rapidly expanding and accelerating coup.”
How do you coup yourself?
Or does the Left not recognize that Trump won the election? Which is sort of a . . . coup.
Those howls of protest are a bit much, coming from a mob that soft-couped its own presidential candidate.
Thank you Professor Turley for being in the fight and God bless!
Also for this:
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5133353-elon-musk-reduces-government
In a free society, all actors have the freedom to ignore that which they rate as undeserving of their own attention (and by extension that of others). When I ignore something, i.e. refuse to give it airplay in conversation, I’m exercising that basic right. So too, organizations have the freedom to ignore. Where that freedom ends and censorship begins is something I’d like to understand better.
Today’s column is boring to me…the theme is “look at those sore losers”. I’d rather see ink spent on moving the conservative agenda forward, with topics that are hardly making a dent. One would be redesigning a next-generation Internet 2, with the property of law enforcement (deterrence of cybercrime) built into it. Internet 1 was hastily configured under minimal specs without that property (or even recognizing national autonomy and borders). This is something every American wants…to be able to rely on the internet as a place where crime is tamped down almost immediately.
Seeing the Democrats squirm and steam-off may be entertaining, but it is a total waste of time, when you consider the important reforms stacked up and waiting to be solved. Where is the gravitas?
There is a point to exposing the hypocracy of these people.
They impeached and launched a special counsel investigation of Trump for the same speech and conduct which they routinely engage in
But like you I have little interest beyond that.
Further I absolutely REJECT Turley’s thesis that the speech of democrats is contributing to political violence.
The mass shootings and other violence we call political in the US is the acts of seriously mentally disturbed people.
They were going to do SOMETHING bad no matter what. Absolutely they were searching for a cause – and sometimes it is democrats that provided one. But they would have glommed onto something no matter what
The Giffords shooter had a manifesto about Grammer.
The story here is hypocracy. There is nothing wrong with the political rhetoric of democrats – well except that they lie constantly,
beyond the hypocracy that they want others prosecuted for acts they do routinely.
Yes, security is nonexistent
We all have known there was fraud, wast and abuse in the government. We have all wanted it cleaned up. Even sane, normal, traditional Democrats want transparency and accountability. So now here we have it! But because Musk, DOGE and Trump are exposing the fraud, waste and abuse and putting an end to it at USAID, the left wing grift that it was, our leftist friends are freaking out. The question I have is what other fraud, waste and abuse is going on in other department or agencies and are they scrambling right now to hide it? Will they be able to without leaving a trail Musk and his team can find?
Will Musk and DOGE find that other agencies are 90-95% engaged in totally unauthorized spending of a 40B/yr budget ?
I suspect not. But are they going to be able to find hundreds of Billions in totally wasted spending as they go through govenrment – without any doubt.
But this is well past Waste. It is about unconstitutional criminal malfeasance as well.
This is not just wasteful spending.
It is graft, it is about directly funding democrat politicians and their allies.
it is US government involvement in illegally funding the Gain of Function research that likely resulted in the Pandemic.
It is about funding the same terrorist organizations that were responsible for 9/11 AFTER 9/11 to take out the governemtn of a country that is neither an enemy nor an ally.
It is about staff participating in acts of terrorism.
It is about initiating the impeachment of a sitting president by planting false stories in the media and conspiring with CIA Analysts.
It is about the fact that nothing seems to be beyond what these people will do to gain and hold power.
These are the people that Chuck Schumer warned Trump about in 2017.
They came after him but ultimately fell short.
“When you strike the king – you must kill the king”
It is past time to clean house.
Let me get this straight. After the review of a large governmental agency that has comparatively a small amount of the budget, there were many areas of questionable expense that is not going for the feeding, medical health, education and development of the community it is serving, the Democrats are outraged. Trump is working that rototiller. Next up apparently is the DOE. What wasteful expenses will Mr. Musk find there? Trump is churning up the field. The activist journalists have been given their talking points–the young interns. Boy, the intern that they focused their microscope on–at 16 he had an LLC. At 16, I had no idea of what an LLC was. They keep saying he has only graduated from high school. Is he in college? Since 16, I guess he has developed several businesses (?). Good for him. Maybe these young interns will learn something about the waste in government, how it is done.
Anonymous – the budget for USAID is $40B/yr and the evidence so far is that 90-95% of that spending has nothing to do with what it was budgeted for – or any legitimate constitutional purpose.
Worse still – just USAID’s ACTIVE involvement in the Oct 7 terrorist attack in Israel – something that was made public BEFORE Trump was elected, justifies going through the agency with a Scythe.
Not only is USAID proving to be massively wasteful,. almost entirely unauthorized and participating in acts of terrorism.
But it also engaged in criminal violations of the Hatch Act.
It is completely flabbergasting the extent of the malfeasance within USAID. 90-95% of its spending has NOTHING to do with its mission.
It is hard to know what they have done that is NOT supper offensive and criminal.
USAID and CIA conspired to orchestrate the 2019 coup/impeachment of Trump.
They are funding Politico
They are funding BBC
They are funding Chelsea Clinton
They are funding numerous Democrat politicians.
Staff was actively involved in acts of Terrorism.
I am not sure if USAID is tied to the Funding of Al Queda AFTER 9/11 to take out Assad – but the US govenrment and CIA were, and
USAID is the CIA front that is normally involved in those type of efforts.
USAID was funding the export of Woke ideology to countries that find that deeply offensive.
And that is ignoring the fact that Woke ideology has no business anywhere in the US government.
Which of these is MOST offensive ?
Which of these is not alone sufficient to end USAID ?
There is information and interviews available covering Musks DOGE staff – these people need no education from Trump.
The CV’s of these young people are already incredibly impressive.
I viewed an interview of one yesterday – this 20 something was the first to use computers and AI to read the chared scrolls recoveed from Pompei. As a result of his world we are vastly increasing the ancient literature that we now have access to, and out knowledge of that part of history.
rapidly tracking down corruption in USAID seems trivial in comparison to what he has already accomplished.
And the rest of the DOGE staff are all similarly accomplished.
I should not have expected any less from Musk.
These are our best and brightest.
These are the guys you will not be able to hide anything from.
These are the guys James Comer needed to trace the Biden’s money – they would have sorted out in an afternoon what Comer took more than a year.
“Next up apparently is the DOE. ”
DOE, and, apparently, Labor, as well. At least I just read a report that a group of trade unions had sued to stop DOGE from accessing DOL systems, and the judge refused on grounds of lack of standing. If the unions are that worried about an audit of Labor, there could be some very interesting findings there, as well 🙂