I doubt it was going to their news service. They run some service that lets you track every bill, order, etc in a huge searchable database. Has directory of all employees and contact information. Kind of like Bloomberg Terminal for government.

Going to guess it was for that. USAID is a joke and should be disbanded but that's one of the few things it spent on that was probably legit. Would cost way more than $8 million a year to build out and maintain that kind of system in-house.

The money spent at Bloomberg is almost assuredly for the terminal.

Oh, I don’t anticipate anything would come of it, it’s more a play on the meme where the “bully” says we should cut spending abroad to help people here, then when asked for help says “fuck off!” Even if you could do something else with the food there wouldn’t be the will to. That and just pointing out that yeah, the farmers are probably screwed.

Personally, I could go for some free rice. Maybe even soy crackers. Not sure how I’d process wheat though.

(I’d be all over beans, too. And government cheese if they have any.)

Pretty.

I wonder Bibi gave this to Trump before or after the beachfront comments.

Politico statement says it was for their "Pro" service ... whatever the hell that tier includes.

The problem with that is that the publicly visible numbers don't add up.

Either the visible subscriber count (i.e. of govt employees being paid for) is way low OR the amount per govt sub was many times higher than what the pro rate should have added up to.

I don't have a problem with necessary subscriptions -- I come from an industry, both my own and several clients over the years, where subs are a cost of doing business -- but I also have zero problem cancelling everything until controls can be put in place, proper accounting can be done, negotiation of group rates, etc etc and so forth.

Keep in mind that 8 mil number was spread out over several years.

The GOP running people out to the media to tell Americans they need to sacrifice because we have billionaires running the country is pretty amazing.

Politico Pro is a policy management and tracking tool. Agencies that rely on up to the minute policy and need to know of any and all changes coming from DC and other agencies use it because there isn't anything else out there that does it.

I assume that Biden also signed an executive order punishing the International Criminal Court for its actions in investigating Israel or maybe even it was all Biden’s idea or whatever horseshit we come up with here nowadays.

Technical Difficulties

There was also a bipartisan bill passed by the House to sanction the ICC under Biden right before Trump took office.. Biden and Blinken also called to sanction the ICC when they were just investigating Bibi but said they would just refuse to recognize any warrants against him.

I know you're trying to find differences in the two but it's not going to be in regards to Israel. Both have a stance that the ICC is only for black African leaders and Putin.

Looks like Casey DeSantis is going to run for her husband's seat.

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Is nepotism DEI?

It sounds like the $8 million is for the government as a whole since 2016. USAID had spent $44,000.

It also seems like the subscription costs $10,000 a year per login. Not sure what that entails but pretty similar to stuff like LexisNexis.

I don't like USAID at all and think it's a giant waste of money but this seems so far down the list of bad expenditures. They have like a $40 billion budget and this seems to be around $5000 a year for access to something they likely needed.

AI’ll tell em all everything they need to know.

$8M is what DoD spends on hammers.

dola - I'm all for rooting out waste in government, but if you're even going to look at the DoD's budget or disability fraud, then what are you even doing?

If anyone thinks they are actually reviewing waste and fraud and not just looking for ways to make themselves and their buddies richer I have some great oceanfront property for sale in Nebraska.

There's plenty to cut in USAID, but the food, medicine, and medical research isn't getting reassigned, it's just being cut. We did a lot of good that we're now just stepping back from.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/07/elon...y-x-staff.html

Totally not a party of racists.

Stock up on beans, coffee futures are through the fucking roof.

If they re-hire the DOGE idiot, there is no going back. Racism is not just allowed, it is now encouraged.

JD Vance blames the journalist who found the racist comments, maybe blame the guy who made them.

The most telling part for me is in his tweet Vance says "if he is a bad dude then get rid of him"

Umm....

Not Trump related per se, but a former reality star who has problems with drug addiction and rape and is from a prominent family is running for governor of SC. I guess if that profile works on the national stage, might as well shoot your shot.

Thomas Ravenel announces run for South Carolina Governor

I mean what's a little rape and cocaine addiction have anything to do with running for Governor or any election these days anyway am I right?

I'm honestly trying to decide whether that is better or worse than Mace.

It's always been a CIA asset that laundered money through the guise of goodwill and relied on government subsidies. Which is ironic because Musk is the exact same.

LEAVE MY WIFE'S COUSIN ALONE!!!

Insert Chris Rock slapped meme

A little rape and a little cocaine could get you in the white house one day. It's the new standard for republican leadership.

His resume is a little light on racism. Maybe he can improve there as he works his way up through the farm system.

Kanye feels is his racist title is under threat and is trying to reestablish himself as the nations biggest celebrity racist on Twitter.

Elon says DOGE racist is coming back.

All his opponents in the primary need to do is keep posting the pictures of Thomas with his drug dealer. Given his wealth and standing, you might think he was buying his coke from a Victor Maitland...but actually his dealer of choice was, uh, more of a Reggie Hammond. ;)

Clarification: Thomas did not SELL drugs, and from everything I've seen/heard, there's zero evidence that he was a cocaine addict. (Yes, he went to a rich-guy rehab, but my strong suspicion is that the "addiction" he claimed was just a play for sympathy when he got busted.) No, he didn't sell, and he likely wasn't an addict. He was arrested and convicted of *distributing* cocaine. As in "come to my insane rich-people parties in my downtown Charleston mansion! The coke is FREE!!!!"

A money quote in one of the many articles from 2008 when he was sentenced:A proper genteel Southern host would NEVER have their party guests pay for their coke, y'all.

Dola:
Yes, I too am fascinated that the witness could enumerate that there were precisely 27 parties that he or she attended. Was there a party diary??? Was "party at Thomas's" on the ol' Outlook calendar 27 times??? I have SO many questions.

The calendar probably isn't that farfetched. Plus, if those were part of the TV show tapings, they probably got even more calendar attention.

Hell, it's SC society. Maybe that witness just checked their receipts and found they bought 27 new dresses.

The cocaine parties were in the aughts. The show didn't start until 2014, so not that, but this......is gold.:lol::lol::lol:

Mace would be the funniest choice. She's got such a weird career. Went into Congress as a moderate Republican. Had an affair with McCarthy and the ensuing breakup made her go crazy. Now she acts like one of those 19 year old influencers who will say and do anything for views. Tweets 100 times a day about kids genitals which I guess has an audience.

Another one of the Musk incel team was fired from his previous job at a cybersecurity firm for leaking company secrets.

Damn, time sure flies.

Tangent ... cocaine isn't that bad

JFC

Trump issued an EO to allow resettlement into the US for Afrikaners.

dola

Trump has named himself chair of the Kennedy Center board. He really just does like playing President on TV.

*inserts all of the "Afrikaners/Africans jokes here*

I know weakness is sort of their thing but imagine how JD Vance's wife and kids feel. He cares more about defending some groyper than he does you.

Trump is going to wreck R1 institutions. The indirect rate for NIH grants is going to be capped at 15%, well under the rate most schools use. R1s face millions in shortfalls now.

Yeah, our institution has a decent endowment, but that covers a lot of things (for instance, for my PhD students we only pay $10k in tuition costs). Not to mention scholarships for students and plenty of other things. This 15% is a nut punch and will kill innovation. Not to mention many small startups get these IDCs to help their research along, and this will kill them. At my university, 2 professors invented an HIV and HepB drug that like 95% of patients take. It was their startup and grants to their startup that led to being acquired by a big pharma company that could actually pay the $100M it takes to bring a drug to market.

Oh well, this will pay for nice tax breaks for Tesla I'm sure.

Make America a Third World Country Again, apparently.

MATWCA?

That's a terrible acronym.

Well, that's why I'm not President.

Around $150M reduction for some of the research-heavy privates down here.

Not to get too conspiratorial but all these cuts seem to benefit China in some way and the guy doing them has huge vested interest in making China happy so his business can flourish.

Yep

China has been investing heavily in renewable energy, especially in Africa, while we're doubling down on fossil fuels and making cuts to reseach. China could come out of the next 4 years with a lead we can't overcome.

Any contest with China is over. Im just hoping for a reasonably decent place for my kids to grow up and live

It was over years ago but it's interesting seeing the stories coming out now about how China is content to sit back and let America give make them stronger.

Like I said, I don't buy into the conspiracy theory, but it does seem like Elon is targeting all the things China wants and they've kept their hands off his businesses in return. USAID was a huge thorn in their side and now they can expand influence in the region. Gutting eductation is a huge win for them as they increase their skill advantage. And cutting off scientific research just lets China become the world leader in another area. The tariffs are just a cherry on top.

The funny part will be seeing how China hawks spin all this in a few years.

My father in law said he was happy that federal workers are getting laid off because they've never had to worry about it before like people with normal jobs.

There's also a cheating scandal at my daughter's private Catholic school where almost an entire class openly cheated and there was no punishment. He blamed it on liberal wokeness and participation trophies not holding kids accountable. I just said that it's actually a bunch of spoiled conservative rich kids who think they can do what they want because there's no consequences for them, just like the people running the government.

He just said hmm and went back to spouting some other nonsense. There's no helping these people.

How many times was your FIL ever let go, I wonder?

As a contractor, I’ve come to constantly fear being cut. Even if you’ve been told that you’re doing a great job. There could be internal Fed politics which affect your team, there are always budget constraints, your contracting company may decide they want to go cheaper (or if you are a subcontractor just want to convert slots to themselves as the primary), you might be up for rebid and your company loses the contract…your FIL should be disabused of the idea that you go merrily along without a care.

He was never laid off. His last boss for 20 years before retirement was, let me know if you've heard this before, was a racist asshole who demeaned everyone, would fire someone with no notice and if given the chance to save a person or a pile of money wouldn't even hesitate to save the money. He hated him with every fiber of his being and thinks his boss is burning in hell. Yet he openly cheers the same people doing to same things to people he doesn't know.

Also, my brother in law went no contact with them and literally moved as far away as possible while living in the US.

This is why Noem didn't get far in the VP stakes. She's an idiot.

BASH: I remember a time when Republicans were very careful about the government having access to personal data

NOEM: Well, we can't trust the government anymore

BASH: You are the government pic.twitter.com/xRh4Q3VINk

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 9, 2025

It has been interesting to see people find out in real time the "positive" and "negative" roles the federal government plays in their lives. I put those roles in quotes because for many what they thought was a general negative ended up being a definite positive for them personally and vice versa.

I am not talking about people who intentionally think the government should help them when needed because they are deserving and not help others because they are not deserving. I mean people who generally have no idea the extent that the government plays a role in their lives to know whether it plays a positive or negative role for them.

Looking forward to what they find to cut in Military/Defense and how much

President Trump predicts Elon Musk will find 'hundreds of billions' in waste in next DOGE directives | Fox News

That's not a conspiracy theory, it's a common sense reading of the facts.


Meh, she didn't go far because she shot a puppy and there are something that even MAGA can't forgive (barely).


It was only 15 years ago that the same people were screaming about keeping the government out of Medicare.

Well this should be interesting, assuming Musk goes about it in an impartial non-partisan way.

You can only say that because Donald Trump hasn't shot a puppy. (Let's please not test this theory.)

Trump says some of the US debt is irregular and maybe we don't have to pay it back.

I wonder how markets will take that if it isn't walked back quickly.

'Predicts" ... in the same way he "predicted" the 2020 election would be rigged when he lost, but the prediction did not come true in 2024 when he won.

They will find what they want to find and either not provide any evidence or distort what they "find."

This is frightening:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/u...ive-order.html

Trump just posted that he is going to direct the Treasury to stop minting pennies.

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I have no issue with that. It should have happened years ago.

An actual good idea

It will be followed by, "... and we're going to collect all pennies from every single person in the country and direct that trans people be paid only in pennies."

The problem is just getting rid of pennies without adjusting pricing, interest, etc. just fucks things up and ends up being a huge giveaway to business. Tens of millions of transactions adding a couple of cents to make things divisible by five.

Trump gives plenty of legitimate things to critisize. This isnt one of them, good riddance to the penny

Jphillips, why would they adjust things? He did not eliminate the penny (he can't). He just stopped minting them. They still continue to be in circulation, and they is still a 1cent in electronic transaction. This affects nothing but the number of pennies that exist.

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I expect this is a first step to getting rid of the penny. Even if it isn't there will soon be a penny shortage and businesses will claim they can't provide change in less than five cent increments.

That is already happening. I rarely get pennies back in change the few times I use cash.

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Yeah, I’m good with the penny thing.

Making pennies costs about 200 million a year. The cost of adding 2-3 cents to every purchase is going to be much more than that.

But that money goes straight to business.

Pew poll on Trump. It's more of a general poll vs specific policies (which I'm sure will come).

Nothing way too surprising with the expected partisan results.

Trump's second term: Early approval ratings, public expectations, views of fitness for office | Pew Research Center

Pardons were significantly negative with total 74-25 against. But if we think that is bad, better hold on as good odds that Trump will give a blanket pardon his family & many of his team when he leaves office (and say, but Joe did it).

I'll never understand why so many people are so willing to throw away their dignity.

He probably recorded a video for after his death telling people not to vote for JD.

I don't think Trump really wants a successor. He'd be just fine and probably would prefer MAGA died with him.

This, he wants a way to stay in office, so in his mind he won't need a successor.

I can't decide whether, in 2027 when we start talking seriously about the next Presidential race, Trump's camp decides do go with repealing the 25th amendment, or just ignoring it.

It's really not that big of a deal.

We phased out the penny over a decade ago in Canada, and I think many other countries have done it as well. As others have said, it only affects cash transactions. And cash transactions were all rounded either up or down. 1,2,6,7 were rounded down and 3,4,8,9 were rounded up. So it wasn't a case of rounding all transactions up to benefit businesses.

We already know the answer. January 6th they pushed the boundaries and with no guard rails this time around they are going to attempt whatever they want.

Real question is who, in a position of governmental power, will actually stand up against it?

Oh good, the resistance is starting to fight back.

I definitely don't mind cutting wasteful stuff with USAID, DoE and others. And we know there is waste. But Trump is doing it a little too wildly. I'm okay with ready-shoot-aim but he's just doing shoot.

Live updates: President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE seek to reshape government, new tariffs | CNN Politics

Is that the law? That's what I said we need to do before implementing this. We're just going to cut the penny and let things fall where they will and that's going to end up being a giveaway to business.

dola

A tiny bit of good news, Trump actually put a bird flu expert in charge of Pandemic Preparedness.

double dola

Trump dropped the investigation on mayor Adams seemingly in exchange for Adams being more friendly on immigration. Just startingly corrupt.

Not startling at all. fuck that orange abortion

You mean the charges that came after Adams didn't go along with every asinine illegal invasion friendly policy of the Biden admin?

No fan of Adams, he willingly aligned himself with the single greatest force for pure evil -- the (D) -- on the planet so he's obviously unfit for office ... but can we at least not pretend about how he ended up in trouble in the first place?

Don’t worry guys. Corporate bribery is A-OK now.

His corruption is so open and shut even the AG's memo says this has nothing to do with the merits of the case. There are sooo many of the mayor's allies also under indictment. A trial anywhere in the country would be an easy win for the government.

Lol. So they are changing the name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg (because why would America want to celebrate Liberty?), BUT it is no longer in honor of Confederate General Braxton Bragg. Instead, it is in honor of Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, and hero of WW2, who, among other exploits, once stole a German ambulance to save a fellow soldier.
And if you believe that....

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Even Adams attorneys don't deny it happened since there is so much evidence against him. They just say that it's not technically a crime to take a bribe for a job because others have done it. They also don't deny the illegal donations and stealing taxpayer matching funds. They just say he wasn't aware of it.

The insane levels of bootlicking it takes to think he's innocent of crimes even his own defense attorneys admit took place. Like have some self-respect.

For a country that continues to lose wars, it's probably more fitting to name it after Bragg. One of the most incompetent generals in military history who's own soldiers thought he was working for the other side because he was so bad at his job. Another participation trophy.

Bibi & Gatz must be giving high fives to each other. Better odds than not, that Trump is not bluffing and they'll restart the war, with more US support, weapons and latitude.

Trump says ‘all hell is going to break out’ if Hamas doesn’t release hostages by Saturday at noon | CNN Politics
Yup, I think we knew foreign aid was the carrot-or-stick with Jordan & Egypt. It's about $1.2B and $1.4B which is ... peanuts. Trump can sweeten it considerably if he really wants to make a deal. Saudi Arabia is about $2.1B. Below doesn't include military/defense support so probably can toss that into negotiations also.

https://www.foreignassistance.gov/cd.../obligations/0

Check out video, happens at the very beginning. Maybe start thinking about a transition plan for the next election.

Trump paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act yesterday.

I've thought about this, and I can't think of a corrupt act from this administration that would shock me at this point.

Retire you old fucks.