This is a confusing ruling IMO:
“The constitutional power over whether to spend foreign aid is not the President’s own — and it is Congress’s own,” Ali wrote, adding elsewhere that Trump officials “offer an unbridled view of Executive power that the Supreme Court has consistently rejected.”
But then Ali said the administration does have the authority to make decisions on individual contracts, so he won’t reinstate those for the 2 plaintiffs.
Glad he has finally caught up to day 2 of learning how the federal gvt actually spends money. No way he has any material impact on medicare and SS though.
Sources also tell WIRED that Musk has wanted a government shutdown—an aim that runs contrary to the White House’s stated desire to avoid one—in part because it would potentially make it easier to eliminate the jobs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, essentially achieving a permanent shutdown.
Musk has spoken about removing so-called nonessential workers—many of whom perform critical tasks like inspecting food, processing applications for benefits programs, and collecting weather data—before. “If the job is not essential, or they are not doing it well, they obviously shouldn’t be on the public payroll,” Musk told reporters in late February, according to the New Yorker.
Half a trillion a year? Bar napkin math.
So this doesn’t pass the sniff test, shocking. A third of those receiving payments are doing so fraudulently? And nobody has ever figured that out? I know, the game is just to convince enough people that DOGE fixed the country so they can pass a largely un-funded $4.5T tax cut.
Am curious, but why is the SOA silent in all of this?
The SS Actuaries should be making a professional statement regarding SS via the SOA.
aren’t retired people going to notice if their social security benefits don’t come through?
don’t the republicans need those votes, a lot?
They won’t actually do anything. Just say they did on the ‘wall of receipts’ and run around high fiving each other, mission accomplished. Then tax cuts!
Elon Musk has told the White House he plans to give $100 million to President Trump’s political operation, according to a person familiar with his plans.
Why it matters: The contribution is unheard of in both amount and type: Musk, who is technically a special government employee, is the world’s richest person.
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/12/musk-trump-100-million-donation-political-operation
This one will be 
The Trump administration is shredding and burning “classified” employee documents at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) with personnel info that would be “essential” to rehiring unlawfully fired federal workers, according to labor groups suing the president, should it be required as a result of their litigation.
“Plaintiffs file this emergency motion for temporary restraining order to stop Defendants’ imminent and ongoing destruction of evidence,” the groups said in a Tuesday filing.
“Defendants are, as this motion is being filed, destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation,” the coalition alleged. “Plaintiffs will suffer immediate, irreparable injury should the agency continue to destroy records.”
Editorial note: There are also laws against destruction of government records that are being violated, but that doesn’t seem to be the focus of this particular complaint.
Goodbye, DoE.
Sad day for everybody with accessibility needs - the physically disabled, people with autism, Downs, learning disorders, etc.
The judge isn’t buying it:
“How could so much of the work force be amputated suddenly overnight? It’s so irregular and so widespread and so aberrant from the history of our country,” Judge Alsup said. “How could that all happen with each agency deciding on its own to do something so aberrational?”
“I don’t believe it,” said the judge. “I believe they were directed or ordered to do so by OPM in that telephone call. That’s the way the evidence points.”
The issue is that the termination emails said that people were being fired for performance issues. The employees are claiming that Ezell told the agency heads to fire people and say it was about performance. Ezell told the court in writing that is false.
After reading that…
The word that best describes Dudek is apparatchik
Its incredibly depressing to see this sort of thing happening in the US.
My Congressbeing apparently threw a bit of a temper-tantrum at a House Ways & Means Committee meeting discussing (the lack of) DOGE oversight.
Treasury says we are spending more in February 2025 than last year. No effect of DOGE saving at all. Only spot meaningfully down is Department of Education
Good to know. Where do you find this data?
