General Politics Thread

[kitler53]

Russell T. Vought, who served in Mr. Trump's first administration and is his choice again to lead the Office of Management and Budget, has spoken openly about the Trump team's plans for dismantling civil service.

"We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected," Mr. Vought said in a 2023 speech. "When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains."

[kitler53]

so what does legend think about the creation of a sovereign wealth fund?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/sovereign-wealth-fund-trump.html

The three-paragraph executive order tasks the Treasury and Commerce Departments with generating a plan within 90 days for creating a such a fund. Sovereign wealth funds are popular in oil-rich countries like Norway and Saudi Arabia that can invest large budget surpluses in projects around the world.

But the United States runs persistent, and widening, budget deficits, and it is unclear where the Trump administration could find the money to seed such a fund. Howard Lutnick, Mr. Trump's pick to lead the Commerce Department, suggested that the government could take a stake in companies it does business with.

i 100% believe this will be a source of massive corruption to benefit trump and his oligarchy chums.    things like "investing" in trump's crypto.

[kitler53]

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5124897-marco-rubio-el-salvador-american-criminals-deportees/

Rubio traveled to El Salvador, part of his tour through Central America and the Caribbean to drum up support for President Trump's immigration agenda, which the administration said will include mass deportations.

"He has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of U.S. citizenship and legal residents," Rubio said Monday, according to the State Department readout. "No country's ever made an offer of friendship such as this."

sounds like a good opportunity for trump.   much easier to lie to americans about the creation of concentration camps if there is no american oversight...

[the-pi-guy]

Unilaterally shutting down USAID is likely unconstitutional, if that's indeed what has been happening.

This might be more of a gray area. Congress didn't directly create the US AID department - they mandated a creation, but it was an executive order than directly created it. 
The President could probably create a new agency to dole out foreign aid, and have it be okay. But I would doubt that's the intention.


I think it's more likely that the Supreme Court will decide in Trump's favor, and expand how much oversight the president has over the purse. 

[the-pi-guy]

Congressional Office Says Trump Has No Authority to Dismantle USAID

According to the congressional report, the White House can make make structural changes to USAID and to the State Department, such as shifting functions from one agency to the other. However, the administration is supposed to notify and consult "appropriate congressional committees" prior to making changes, and "in the past, administrations have implemented such changes only after this notification."

[kitler53]

trump's strategy is that if you break 10 laws a day the system is too slow to keep up and will only be able to overturn the 1 or 2 most blatantly illegal actions taken that month.  the other 298 crimes won't get overturned because the system can't keep up.  do this long enough and system breaks entirely and trump's coup is complete.

trump has 208 weeks in office.  we're only in week 3.  he'll commit thousands more crimes before the next election (if there is one).

[kitler53]

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/02/06/congress/elon-musk-approval-rating-00202805
Democratic polling finds Elon Musk is unpopular

https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-yougov-poll-influence-trump-2027156
Republicans Are Changing Their Minds on Elon Musk


Finally something we can all agree on,.. everyone hates Musk!!

[the-pi-guy]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-administration-agrees-restrict-doge-access-treasury-department-p-rcna190898

Attorneys for the Justice Department have agreed to temporarily restrict staffers associated with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from accessing information in the Treasury Department's payment system.

The agreement comes after a group of union members and retirees sued the Treasury Department alleging that providing DOGE access to the federal government's massive payment and collections system — and the personal data housed in it — violated federal privacy laws.

The order would allow exceptions for two special government employees at the Treasury — Tom Krause and Marko Elez — saying they are permitted access "as needed" to perform their duties, "provided that such access to payment records will be 'read only.'"

[kitler53]

It's ok you'll benefit from this too.
Musk and DOGE have had so much more direct control than I expected. Will be interesting to see how close they get to hitting their target when DOGE disbands in a year.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/vance-and-musk-attack-judicial-authority-as-trumps-agenda-gets-pushback-from-courts

Vance and Musk attack judicial authority as Trump's agenda gets pushback from courts

"If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power," Vance wrote on X on Sunday morning.

"A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!" said Musk, who has been tasked by President Donald Trump with rooting out waste across the federal government.

"I don't like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I'm just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us," the person had written, in part.   (refering to a tweet musk shared)

Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller called the ruling "an assault on the very idea of democracy itself."

"We're very disappointed with the judges that would make such a ruling, but we have a long way to go," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. He added: "No judge should frankly be allowed to make that kind of a decision."

what you were saying?   

the only thing trump/musk is going to leave us is a constitution in tatters.   the only thing incredible about this is my sadness for the country my children will live in.

[kitler53]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-02-10/doge-backed-halt-at-cfpb-comes-amid-musk-s-plans-for-x-digital-wallet

DOGE-Backed Halt at CFPB Comes Amid Musk's Plans for 'X' Digital Wallet

In another weekend takeover of a federal agency's operations, staffers from an efficiency initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk helped to effectively shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — as they gained access to an array of the bureau's protected information.

The actions began last Thursday, when four young staffers working under Musk for the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, showed up at CFPB's Washington headquarters. At first, they had what was described as read-only access to a limited array of documents, including the agency's internal personnel files, procurement records and budgeting and financial data, according to an email shared among CFPB officials.

Then, late Friday night, the DOGE staffers were granted access to all the CFPB's data systems, including sensitive bank examination and enforcement records, according to five people familiar with the matter and emails seen by Bloomberg News. The people asked not to be identified, citing concerns over potential retribution. By Sunday, the agency was a skeleton, with its funding limited and activities suspended.

In the email, which was seen by Bloomberg, Chilbert asked employees to give the DOGE team the benefit of the doubt.

"I know there's a lot going on in the press and on social right now," Chilbert wrote. "It's hard to separate fact from fiction. Please reach out to me anytime you have questions or concerns. I'm very proud of the work we've done to build a strong technology foundation and I think we have a lot of good things we can show" DOGE.

The team's initial entry to CFPB Thursday had been accompanied by an "Assignment Agreement," or a memorandum of understanding between the efficiency initiative and the consumer agency, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News. It explained that authority for the CFPB operation emanated from a Jan. 20 executive order. It also said that the scope of the DOGE team's efforts would include, "work on software modernization initiatives," the promotion of "inter-operability between agency networks and systems" and the use of software engineering to "champion the use of modern technology development and management approaches."

CFPB employees who read the memorandum of understanding started backchannel discussions about it and raised red flags, according to the five people familiar with the matter. They asked why DOGE would need to access the human resources, finance and procurement data if its goal was to modernize the agency's software, the people said

On Sunday afternoon, Martinez, the chief operating officer, sent an email to CFPB staff informing them that the agency's headquarters will be closed this week and they should work remotely. Employees who were in the office were ordered to vacate the building by the agency's director of security.

[Legend]

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/vance-and-musk-attack-judicial-authority-as-trumps-agenda-gets-pushback-from-courts

Vance and Musk attack judicial authority as Trump's agenda gets pushback from courts




what you were saying? 

the only thing trump/musk is going to leave us is a constitution in tatters.  the only thing incredible about this is my sadness for the country my children will live in.

Yeah that's how the constitution works lol.

[kitler53]

Yeah that's how the constitution works lol.

tbh i don't know what you are saying.  you're response is too short for me to be sure what you are thinking.

[kitler53]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/technology/elon-musk-openai-bid.html

Elon Musk Leads Bid to Buy OpenAI for $97.4 Billion

[Legend]

tbh i don't know what you are saying.  you're response is too short for me to be sure what you are thinking.

fair

Not interested in debating. Just saying that if someone believes a judge made an unprecedented and egregious ruling, seeking impeachment is one avenue the constitution supports. Getting a higher court to overturn it is another.

[the-pi-guy]

Yeah, the Constitution gives powers to impeach judges.

"Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power"

But this is insane and horrifying. Checks and Balances exist between the three branches, and for a good reason. And to dismiss any checks and balances between the Judicial Branch and the Executive Branch as if there aren't any, is horrifying.