This will be brief, since sitting still isn’t my strong point.
The idiots who believed–or pretended to believe–that DOGE was all about rooting out “waste and fraud” from the federal government will dismiss the truth, much as Trump has responded to economic data by firing the workers who reported it, but numerous outlets are reporting the all-too-predictable facts.
DOGE cost taxpayers a fortune. Far from finding waste and fraud, DOGE was waste and fraud.
Billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump tried to take a chainsaw to federal government spending, but it turns out they actually wasted tens of billions of taxpayer dollars.
The Department of Government Efficiency generated some $21.7 billion in waste across the federal government in the first six months of the year, according to a new report from the minority staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI).
As Talking Points Memo reported,
Democrats on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations yesterday released a jaw-dropping report attempting to document the scope and scale of financial waste, personnel upheaval, and human suffering caused by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk’s giddily uninformed strike force of Peter Thiel acolytes. In all, the Democrats, led by Richard Blumenthal (CT), estimated DOGE cost the government $21.7 billion.
“DOGE-generated waste could also have easily funded monthly food assistance for the 5.3 million families losing an average of $146 in monthly food security assistance ($9.3 billion per year) under the new budget; or it could have been used more broadly to support the 40 percent of taxpayers that will see a net increase to their taxes as a direct result of the Trump tax plan,” the report contends….
Neither the buyouts nor paying workers while on administrative leave (costing an additional $6.1 billion) increased government efficiency, as was always obvious and predictable. The report details many other costs, from the petty and pointless (millions of hours of wasted employee time writing the Musk-required email listing their weekly accomplishments) to the catastrophic (the elimination of the United States Agency for International Development, “projected to cause millions of additional deaths globally while simultaneously endangering domestic public health by reducing essential medical staff and programs.”)
There is much more, and you really need to click through and read the depressing details, but this is what happens when people who have absolutely no idea what they are doing–in this case, children in their early 20’s armed only with ideological platitudes–are given entry into sophisticated systems without any understanding of either the missions of the agencies involved, or the data relevant to that mission.
A perfect example of Trump/MAGA….
The more the bull in the China shop approach to government bites the supporters of the bull, there’s no one else to blame it on but the bull. Food costs are starting to rise rapidly, cheap clothing for the masses is going through the roof. The cost of fuel is rising, insurance companies are increasing the cost of insurance and other offerings by up to 35%. Actually more if you count last year’s increases. It’s becoming more difficult to receive appropriate medical care, because those involved in medicine are starting to get out of Dodge. Two of my doctors blew the pop stand.
The whining has already started, wait till it comes time for the taxes. All the while, they keep pouring more money into military equipment, but then they are deporting the war fighters, or disqualifying many! I would imagine the draft is not going to be too far off. That’s what they’re planning, and That’s going to create a whole nutha issue. Climate change is becoming more obvious, along with areas of extreme heat and others of drought. The strength of and thunderstorms, not to mention tornadoes, is starting to become catastrophic. The melting ice is releasing pressure keeping the magma below the surface resulting in volcanic eruptions and violent tectonic fracturing. The list is just endless, And there is more to be released concerning Epstein and other pedophiliac reprobates. All in all, it’s starting to turn into a very apocalyptic scenario, and it is not going to be a kumbaya moment.
Pointing out these things is fine and necessary. More important is building resistance to both specific actions and the bigger picture- Fascism NOW! Sure- email politicians however relying on the 2026 elections is Not Enough. Protests are one starting point. Hosting gatherings with Indivisible and other groups, even going to ICE offices with others- standing outside with fellow resisters is another action. Build locally- listen to the Wise suggestion here.
Hope- includes reality checks with Actions including potlucks with neighbors, building Coalitions etc
We know the republic will be in shambles as elections roll around next year, and we know how to mobilize voters.
Our mission for the next year is the latter because the rules of Congress mean there is little that can be done with both houses with red majorities competing for who can kiss Donald’s butt most convincingly.
The DNC has the responsibility to plan for the next year, five years, and ten years, as much as possible, while ignoring the chaos of DC in shambles.
This is what a Constitutional Crisis feels like.
Waste and fraud during the Trump Administration has come to mean the waste of four years during which the United States could have been solving the real problems of global warming and the fraud sold to the world as a leader but really is just another gangster criminal.
Here is a message to those who voted for this waste and fraud, ‘The rest of the world will NEVER forgive you.”
Several good and meaningful posts this morning … The mad king and his cronies MUST be removed or overpowered by a Congress that actually knows how to do the right thing. Republicans, mostly, are fundamentally corrupt, cowardly and incompetent legislators. They are willfully destroying an infrastructure that mostly benefits the least among us. Sure, there’s waste and fraud. It’s what humans in large groups do. But to shoot off both feet in the spirit of being successful is insane.
Resist? Sure. VOTE? Absolutely … while we still can. Somehow, however, the nuclear codes must be taken away from the psychopath in charge. Otherwise ….
To John’s point about the likelihood of the draft being reinstated:
“Indiana Code (IC) 20-32-4-1.5 mandates that students using the ASVAB for graduation pathways must also complete a Military Enlistment Intent Form. This form is required for students in the 2025 graduation cohort and beyond.”
ASVAB = Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
Consider that ICE is now poaching local and state law enforcement with signing bonuses up to $50,000, student loan forgiveness and enhanced retirement benefits. And you can bet that there are those who will jump at the chance to sign up. The new SS.
The governor if Indiana is welcoming the DHS concentration camp with open arms while local law enforcement agencies are enthusiastically lining up to collaborate with ICE agents in roundups of anyone who “looks” like they may be undocumented. No due process, no access to an attorney, just whisked off to a for-profit run concentration camp within 38 miles of one our renowned public universities now run by him and his political lackeys.
1920s all over again, only this time they are in camo and carrying military grade weapons instead of white robes, hoods and fiery crosses.
Welcome to our version of pre-war NAZI Germany.
The silence from the wealthy and powerful in this state is deafening.
Speaking of waste and fraud … How about that $200 million dollar ballroom? Or that $950+ million dollar airplane refurbishment even though two (2) brand new AF-1s are in work at Boeing? Do ya think we’ll get invited to dance in the ballroom? Will any of us get a thrill ride on the ARI-Qatar airplane toy for the psychopath?
But hey! The labor department statistician gets fired for allegedly manipulating real numbers for political purposes. You know, waste and fraud and lies and cheating and pedophilia and war-mongering and idiot-level tariffs and a gutless, stupid Republican party. None of this matters. MAGA all the way … to our total destruction.
Everything Trump and Republicans touch dies. Yeah, I know. We’ve heard it all before, but will publicizing it be enough to get voters off their asses and replace the idiots in Congress? The whole world wonders.
id be looking at all the info collected by outsiders, and,did they transfer it?where? looking back at an article that conviently disappeared during this doge purge,was musk saying he would purchace openai for 85B$ if it would make a profit. we see his gov contracts and his lack of respect for privacy for personal gain. if he will bundle the info,grab the laws, and past whatevers into ai, he sells it back to the gov,and leases its existance. he didnt just get unfettered access for the doge crew, he gained access to change,and make sure the American pays up to the billionaires needs over the working class.. ive filed hundreds of stories from the very news sources we read here,and some yea bias, but gets the subject across and brings light to further its study. i dont app shit. i dont social media, and i cant get stubstack to answer one fucking question,can i use your site with out a app?(there is no contact mail at stubstack that is answered) but i still read into many journals a day on a few subjects. ones if watched for decades. i rather look into many journalists and investigations by known and some new voices. follow and read other like pieces. the whole right wing thing was a con job on the ignorant. using the mind as its own weapon. the sitting right wing venture capitalist in congress are bought and sold into a billionaires domain,they now pull the strings ,denial is effortlessly numbing. money now decides your living and dying. people like trump and musk are the new hitlers,ice is the guestappo and were mere economic slaves to the 2025 bunch. let freedom ring!
The fact that a conscious, energized Congress could oppose Trump is precisely why the regime is aggressively working to rig the 2026 midterms in advance.
In Texas and other states, the regime has ordered the state government to implement a radical gerrymander that packs most non-MAGA voters into a handful of districts in order to create more “safe Republican” districts. The art of gerrymandering with computer data is now so advanced that statewide majorities for one party can, through the magic of redistricting, be reliably transmuted into lopsided, veto-proof legislative majorities for the popular-vote loser. They will be. The idea that control of the government is not determined by the popular majority is already widely accepted.
We will also see shameless voter suppression, intimidation of all-too-pliable news media, subversion of the election-certification process at all levels, and a wholly corrupt and partisan “Justice” department ordered to harass, sue, and if necessary arrest or “disappear” opponents, or to simply unilaterally declare certain elections “void” because the regime does’t like the outcome. We are going to see election manipulation on a grand and shameless scale. We may even see the incumbent congress or vice-president simply refuse to acknowledge or seat Democratic winners, with the backing of the military, law enforcement, and the Supreme court, because of unspecified charges of “fraud”, “illegal DEI”, “wokeness”, or whatever. Perhaps inconvenient winning candidates will just be deported, as Trump has explicitly threatened to do with Zohran Mamdani.
Don’t think that can happen? How many other blatantly illegal actions by this regime have you said that about?
This is not a call to despair, but an acknowledgement that the fascists really mean it when they say, like the Heritage Foundation head, that they are enacting a radical remaking of American society that ignores or functionally abolishes the Constitution. And the Peter Thiels and Curtis Yarvins of the fascist movement really mean it when they say they want to end democracy. That’s what American democracy is up against, with all three branches of the government and most of the corporate world captured and controlled by the Fascists. I don’t know if the feckless, self-sabotaging, historically spineless Democratic party, or enervated and legally hobbled labor unions, or financially bullied and compromised news media, are up to the task. And legal activist groups, however well intentioned, are useless against a wholly corrupted partisan court system that simply ignores laws, or a fascist regime that can simply ignore courts.
I hope I’m being overly pessimistic. I hope I’m wrong. But I fear that preserving American democracy and rights is going to require more than just dutifully doing “the usual thing”.
The more all of us Americans sit on our hands and don’t do anything but watch what is going on the worse things get. And the sad part of it is, those entrusted with more power over what happens (3 branches) are not effectively addressing the problems at hand. We cannot afford to be afraid or fearful and yet here we are. Its going to take more than just voting because we know they will try to cheat at voting. Somehow we have got to extract people from the governmental system that don’t belong there and replace them with those that do. How it will be done though I have no idea. Maybe it starts by making laws in the legislature that prohibit certain corrupt actions from happening when Americans go to vote.
We don’t need more negativity. We Democrats and Independents need to work together to stop the destruction of our country’s precious freedoms. Trump is using these tactics to frighten us into submission and its up to us to stand up and say NO!
If trump’s regime was really about eliminating waste and fraud they wouldn’t have fired all those inspector general’s whose jobs were to oversee precisely that. Seems the main aim of Doge was to collect and monitor data to use for their aims. Domestic enemies make up Maga movement with project 2025 in opposition to US Constitution and obviously aiming toward a totalitarian state.
Rose: the standard practice is to accuse the enemy of doing exactly the things MAGA is preparing to do. Politicians used to lie but they at least tried to provide some believable cover story. Now they just lie continuously. I think this is an acknowledgement of how hollow and weak the MAGA policies and programs really are. They know they could only win elections in gerrymandered states