Ben Friedman

Meanwhile FEMA seems to be getting Doge'd today.

Interesting piece in @columjournreview.bsky.social by PolitiFact founder Bill Adair..

www.cjr.org/analysis/pol...

Which confirms what many of us have been saying ABOUT 'fact-check' features and "critics say"/"both-sides" coverage for decades now.

(And they have ignored or huffily denied.)

Came here to say exactly this.

A shameful disgrace.

YouTube video by Kris Quartermus That's Not How This Works!!

Reminds me of the Facebook Grannies commercial ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq_1...

Not a bad idea -- if House Republicans refuse to hold town halls in their congressional districts, local Democrats should set one of their own up.

Hakeem Jeffries is in no way shape or form the man for the moment. And so many of us have known this for a long time.

Jon Stewart literally out here bleeding for us.

Who is that? She looks familiar.

Plenty of indications that the 2024 election was neither free nor fair and was manipulated by both legal and illegal means. Too bad Kamala and the Ds are stuck on the high road.

“You’re terminated because…?”

Fired federal employees are telling their stories—no deep state, just career public servants tossed aside.

DOGE’s mass firings aren’t about efficiency—they’re gutting expertise, wrecking lives, and calling it “reform.”

Weren't these employees of the US Digital Service which was renamed DOGE? So it's not like these were acolytes who turned, but rather legacy employees who said, "I won't be a party to this."

If you read one thing today, let it be this piece that explains the how and the WHY of the dismantling of the USG.

The House GOP Budget Hinges on Two Votes—17 Are at Risk The House Republican majority is razor-thin—218 to 215—and if just two Republicans fail to vote for this budget, it collapses. The bill slashes Medicaid by $880 billion, guts agricultural support, and weakens defense contracts, directly harming seniors, farmers, and workers in districts where representatives won by the narrowest margins. Trump does not vote in their districts, but the people who will suffer under this budget do.

There are moments in politics where the math is simple. This is one of them. The budget bill that just cleared the Senate now moves to the House, where Republicans hold a narrow 218-215 majority.
jimvincent.us/the-house-go...

Exasperating. He was really sweating it. I want to scream at the teevee that it doesn't matter if they don't follow the court orders and they control the enforcement arms.

When they said Leon couldn't dance, I didn't realize he _actually_ had two left feet ...

This morning at Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HQ in DC as mandatory return to office began, this video played on loop for ~5 mins on screens throughout the building, per agency source.

Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs.

I worked hard for years to help USAID/ West Africa and USAID/ Washington make good decisions about the use of its resources. I’m devastated for the career civil servants and Foreign Service employees who are hurt by this administration’s harmful actions. And perhaps worse for the people they serve.

I thought it notable that when he was called a traitor by Fanone his response was not to reject the accusations, but rather to say, "So are you," essentially acknowledging that he is, in fact, a traitor.

DOGE recommended firing workers at:

-FDA, which oversees Neuralink

-FAA, which oversees SpaceX

-USAID, which probed Starlink

-CFPB, which oversees Tesla's financing arm and a potential payment platform on X.

"Conflict of interest" is a severe understatement.

Could someone place an order for 100 more Jasmine Crocketts for overnight delivery to the Democratic Party

thx in advance

WTF is going on with all these plane crashes??

NIH funding is a matter of life or death Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Paul Nestadt says cutting NIH funding for suicide prevention research is 'not just a fiscal decision—it's a threat to human lives'

Indirect costs are are quite literally the "costs of doing business" and anyone who understands government contracts also knows that these costs are not arbitrary but are based on actual audited expenses.

Is there anybody with any significant platform looking into this?

This is an absolute scandal.

Trump and Marco Rubio abandoned American workers and their families abroad, delaying waivers to provide for their safe return to the United States.

As these civil servants lost their possessions, housing, and money, Elon Musk was slandering them with bogus accusations.

Devex Newswire: Legal pressure on Trump’s foreign aid freeze ramps up The latest lawsuit against Trump’s foreign aid freeze; the data on how much funding is affected by the U.S. aid halting; and WFP resumes food aid delivery.

Every little bit helps I guess ... www.devex.com/news/devex-n...

Judge Nichols' Order Blocking Trump From Gutting USAID It's been a minute since I wrote about a court order, but this one is really good

The Judge's order blocking Trump from putting 2,200 USAID workers on administrative leave and reinstating the 500 that were already on administrative leave. My latest: www.muellershewrote.com/p/judge-nich...

And we have motive.

... maybe with Congress back in session tomorrow.

That would be even better, yes.