The economy's tanking. While We The People are bothered by that, Convicted Felon Donald Chump doesn't care. Jonathan Allen (NBC NEWS) notes, "In a recent CBS poll, 80% of respondents said addressing inflation should be a top priority -- while just 29% said they believed Trump was prioritizing the issue 'a lot'."
If we're going to cut out waste and fraud in the US government, let's start with Donald Chump and the way he wastes our money. He wasted money during his first term as well. In fact, on the deficit, let's note this breakdown that Michael Tomasky provides at THE NEW REPUBLIC:
Jimmy Carter added $25 billion to the deficit.
• Ronald Reagan added $74 billion. That seemed bad at the time; just you wait.
• George H.W. Bush added $102 billion.
• Bill Clinton reduced the deficit by $383 billion, leaving the budget in surplus when he left office.
• George W. Bush added $1.54 trillion to the deficit.
• Barack Obama got the deficit down to $585 billion; that is, he reduced it by $825 billion.
• Donald Trump added $2.1 trillion to the deficit.
• Joe Biden reduced the deficit by about $942 billion.
$2.1 trillion. Pretty sure that Chump's going to leave us much higher in debt by the end of this term.
Why did he run for another term? He said he wanted to be in the White House so why can't he sit that fat ass down and stay in the residence we're paying for? Oliver O'Connell (INDEPENDENT) reports:
Less than two months after returning to the White House, Donald Trump has reportedly played golf on 13 of the 48 days he has been back in office — and the cost of those trips to Florida has been mounting.
On the same day his prized Scottish golf resort, Turnberry, was vandalized by pro-Palestinian activists in response to his “genocidal rhetoric” regarding the future of Gaza, the president was back on the course near Mar-a-Lago.
The White House pool report on Saturday (March 8) had him arrive at the Trump International West Palm Beach just after 8:15 a.m. after a short drive from his “Winter White House” just across the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach proper.
According to an analysis by HuffPost, this is his 10th trip to the club, adjacent to Palm Beach International Airport, since his inauguration on January 20th. He has also golfed three times at Trump Doral, just east of Miami International Airport.
The outlet claims, citing costs from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report, that the president’s apparent insistence on spending his weekends (six out of seven so far) in Florida has now cost American taxpayers in excess of $18 million.
He's destroying the economy, he's destroying the country, he's destroying our schools. Is that what has him on the run?
Guilt?
Or maybe he's on the run due to that poor jobs report that came out Friday?
And if he's so worried about a looming shutdown, shouldn't he keep that fat ass planted in DC so he do face-to-face with members of Congress?
Doesn't Alien Musk have any drugs he can share with Chump? Harold Meyerson (TAP) reminds:
One year ago, a report appeared in the media documenting Musk’s heavy use of a range of illegal and mind-altering drugs. This report didn’t come from some left-wing scandal sheet; it was actually a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal. Here’s how the story begins:
Elon Musk and his supporters offer several explanations for his contrarian views, unfiltered speech and provocative antics. They’re an expression of his creativity. Or the result of his mental-health challenges. Or fallout from his stress, or sleep deprivation.
In recent years, some executives and board members at his companies and others close to the billionaire have developed a persistent concern that there is another component driving his behavior: his use of drugs.
The world’s wealthiest person has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties around the world, where attendees sign nondisclosure agreements or give up their phones to enter, according to people who have witnessed his drug use and others with knowledge of it. Musk has previously smoked marijuana in public and has said he has a prescription for the psychedelic-like ketamine.
The story documents the drugs he took at parties, naming specific people (a brother, a board member, friends) with whom he took them. It recounts incidents at work where he appeared to be too wasted to function (including one attempt to address SpaceX employees that attendees termed “nonsensical” and “cringeworthy”). It cites repeated concerns of his companies’ board members about his ability to function on at least a somewhat steady keel, and their concerns that his companies might have to pay a price for his conduct. In particular, members also feared that Musk’s drug use might threaten SpaceX’s ability to do business with the government, as SpaceX is privy to highly classified information about the U.S. spy satellites it sends into orbit. As a subsequent Journal story that ran less than three months ago reported:
[T]he company’s lawyers advised senior executives not to seek a higher security clearance for Musk that would give him access to details about sensitive programs SpaceX is involved in, according to people familiar with the matter.
The reason, these people said, was that Musk would have had to answer questions from the government about his contacts with foreign nationals and drug use previously reported by The Wall Street Journal. In internal discussions, the lawyers and executives posited scenarios in which Musk might inadvertently disclose secrets to foreign officials with whom he regularly speaks, the people said. The Journal reported in October that Musk has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022.
That may explain why Donald Trump hasn’t officially appointed Musk to anything, as he might be required to perjure himself to become an actual administration official. Then again, chatting with Putin while in possession of highly classified U.S. secrets and being hallucinogenically high as a kite probably poses no problem in the Trump White House.
Was Musk high when he sent his privacy busters to HHS to go over the private records of Americans who pay child support? Jeff Stein and Dan Diamond (THE WASHINGTON POST) report:
The Department of Health and Human Services has granted associates of the U.S. DOGE Service access to a sensitive child support database with troves of income data, overriding the objections of career employees, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The government database — created to help enforce child support payments and overseen by the Administration for Children and Families, or ACF — contains substantial amounts of personal income data linked to nearly all U.S. workers. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
An HHS official confirmed that DOGE received access to the system, saying that DOGE’s agents sought “read-only access” to the system and were required “to take all necessary trainings” before being granted permission to use it.
“ACF supports DOGE’s efforts to improve efficiency and data quality to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs,” the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal operations, wrote in an email. “ACF will continue to assist DOGE in efforts to strengthen the programs it runs.”
Pema Levy (MOTHER JONES) reports:
Nearly two months into President Donald Trump’s lawless dismantling of the federal government, a small agency has stood up with a tell-all lawsuit. The lawsuit from the president of the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) asks the courts to spare the agency from obliteration at the hands of Elon Musk and his band of tech bros. In doing so, it lays out in detail just how Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency go about their illegal takeovers—and how one tiny agency stood up for its mission and the rule of law.
Since the opening days of the administration, Musk and his minions have barged into agencies, including such august institutions as the Treasury Department, where they demanded access to the most sensitive systems and were handed the keys to the kingdom. Across government, career officials facing DOGE orders have resigned quietly, leaving the public to guess as to what is happening as reporters rush to share snippets.
But the lawsuit offers something that has been generally lacking—an example of top agency officials who not only fought DOGE’s attacks, but are sharing with the public exactly how these attacks are taking place.
USADF and its president Ward Brehm has something going for him that some larger agency leaders do not, in that it operates outside the purview of any Trump-appointed cabinet official. By blocking DOGE’s access to their systems, despite threats, and then filing a lawsuit, USADF demonstrates how smaller agencies and officials can stand up against Musk. After all, as the lawsuit points out, Musk and his staff do not have actual authority to do what they are doing. At least in this case, they just have bravado. While DOGE personnel were escorted into the USADF headquarters by federal marshals on Friday, if the agency’ lawsuit succeeds, its resistance could fend off annihilation at the hands of DOGE.
The allegations in the complaint lay bare how DOGE operates. First, Trump issued an executive order targeting several agencies as “unnecessary,” including USADF. Next, DOGE staff attempted to penetrate USADF’s internal networks “under the false pretenses of modernizing and streamlining USADF’s computer systems.” When USADF leadership were later told the real reason DOGE sought access was to essentially shut USADF down, they refused them access.
What followed was an increasingly outlandish series of threats, lies, and actions without any legal authority on the part of DOGE as they sought to take control at USADF.
“DOGE employees began threatening members of the Board—telling them that unless they carried out DOGE’s plans to strip USADF to its core, the Board would be fired,” the complaint alleges. “When that didn’t work, USADF was told that President Trump did not need to follow the required process for advice and consent of the Senate and instead had appointed Pete Marocco as the sole board member (despite there still being four properly appointed board members, none of whom had received any notification of termination).”
Chump and his bed and business partner Musk are destroying the country and destroying the world. Wafaa Shurafa (INDEPENDENT) notes, "Foreign ministers from Muslim nations on Saturday rejected calls by US president Donald Trump to empty the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population and backed a plan for an administrative committee of Palestinians to govern the territory to allow reconstruction to go ahead." Chump's stupidity on Gaza isn't playing well around the world . . . or here at home. Sarah Ward (IRISH TIMES) reports:
Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort has been vandalised by activists in response to the US president’s statements on Gaza.
The golf course in South Ayrshire, owned by the US president, was targeted overnight, with activists painting Gaza Is Not For Sale in three-metre high letters on the lawn, and damaging the greens including the course’s most prestigious hole, used in Open Championships.
Red spray paint was used to deface the elite club house at the 800-acre resort, on Friday night.
Palestine Action described it as a “direct response to the US administration’s stated intent to ethnically cleanse Gaza”.
Mr Trump’s recent comments include plans to “clean out the whole thing”.
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