On Friday, February 7, Trump set off a megaton blast by reducing the allowable overhead rate for NIH grants to 15%. This is how NIH says the overhead works. //

The average rate inside NIH stood at about 25 percent; that is, $9 billion of the $35 billion in research grants was skimmed off the top. Allegedly, this money went to support the lab, but "support" is an expansive term that might be used to describe a DEI administrator or business class airfare to a five-star hotel for a "conference.". //

But, in the media, you'd have thought that Donald Trump was personally destroying America's competitive advantage in science, never mind that the overhead rate from the Gates Foundation is 10%, and none of the big private grant funders exceed 15%. //

Ten years ago, the GAO pointed out how overhead was killing scientific research; see NIH Should Assess the Impact of Growth in Indirect Costs on Its Mission. Just five years ago, it was common to find articles demanding a lowering of the overhead rates: The NIH needs to become leaner and more innovative. Here's how | STAT. //

Five years ago, overhead rates were killing science, but with Trump as president, lowering overhead hurts science. Go figure.

No matter the intent, it is an unassailable fact that in these three instances involving Politico, the New York Times, and the AP, the massive increase in their subscription business with the US government coincides with Joe Biden's election and is really obvious by February 2021, Biden's first full month in office. There is no such volume of subscriptions in either the Obama or Trump administrations. //

Trump needs to order an investigation into this unseemly financial connection between the Biden administration and the media that covered it and give America a full accounting of what they find. //

anon-mdjj
2 days ago
Since the subscriptions were purchased with my tax money, I demand complete and total access to all the politico pro and NYT subscription services.

Everyone from Musk's young children to his ex-wives is named and described in the piece, some in ways clearly meant to provoke embarrassment. To be sure, there is no valid reason for any of these family members to be thrust into the public eye, and The Hill's framing makes it clear that this is in retaliation for Musk daring to take "an influential Washington role" in reforming the bureaucracy. It's the mobster tactic of winking and nodding while saying, "That's a nice family you've got there. It'd be a shame if anything were to happen to them."

I'd say the mainstream press should be ashamed of itself, but we all know its members possess no shame to offer. These "journalists" operate like ghoulish leeches, willing to publish anything to serve their political wants. There are no boundaries, and some news outlets sure seem to nudging others into committing physical attacks on Musk and his family.

That attitude extends to Democrat politicians as well, who have made "Elon Musk wasn't elected" a rallying cry, as if his appointment is somehow invalid while the unelected bureaucrats are unassailable. Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently ranted and raved that people need to use "every tool" to stop Musk.

When DOGE found empty fields in Treasury's payment system, they uncovered more than missing data.
They found a mechanism.

Simple things were left blank:

Payment categories

Payment rationales

Basic audit controls

The kind of fields any small business would require. The kind that let you track where money goes. The kind that stop a billion dollars of fraud. Every week.

Here's what Treasury didn't want exposed:

Over $100 billion flowing annually to accounts without Social Security numbers. No temporary ID numbers. No verification. Nothing.

When Musk asked Treasury officials how much was "unequivocal and obvious fraud," the answer revealed decades of corruption: HALF

Let that sink in.

$50 billion per YEAR.

A billion dollars every SINGLE week disappearing into accounts that shouldn't exist.

The kind of fraud that would shut down any bank in America.

The kind that would land any business owner in federal prison.

But Treasury had perfected its system:

Process payments

Ignore controls

Keep the machine running. //

Nineteen Democratic state attorneys general filed suit. Not about the fraud. Not about the waste. Not about billions vanishing into accounts without SSNs. But about "protecting" the Treasury Department from its own Secretary.

A judge in New York responded with something unprecedented: an ex parte order blocking Treasury officials from accessing their own department's data. No warning. No chance to respond. No opportunity to present evidence. Just a wall between the people elected to fix the system and the system itself.

Think about what that means: The Secretary of the Treasury—effectively the CFO of the United States government—legally barred from seeing how money moves through his own department. The people's appointee blocked from viewing the people's accounts. Young coders mapping the missing controls ordered to stop looking.

The clock struck 2 AM on Jan 21, 2025.
In Treasury's basement, fluorescent lights hummed above four young coders. Their screens cast blue light across government-issue desks, illuminating energy drink cans and agency badges. As their algorithms crawled through decades of payment data, one number kept growing: $17 billion in redundant programs. And counting.

"We're in," Akash Bobba messaged the team. "All of it."

Edward Coristine's code had already mapped three subsystems. Luke Farritor's algorithms were tracing payment flows across agencies. Ethan Shaotran's analysis revealed patterns that career officials didn't even know existed. By dawn, they would understand more about Treasury's operations than people who had worked there for decades.

This wasn't a hack. This wasn't a breach. This was authorized disruption.

While career bureaucrats prepared orientation packets and welcome memos, DOGE's team was already deep inside the payment systems. No committees. No approvals. No red tape. Just four coders with unprecedented access and algorithms ready to run.

"The beautiful thing about payment systems," noted a transition official watching their screens, "is that they don't lie. You can spin policy all day long, but money leaves a trail." //

By Inauguration Day, over 1,000 pre-vetted personnel stood ready—each armed with clear objectives, mapped legal authorities, and direct lines to support networks. This wasn't just staffing; it was a battle plan decades in the making.

"This is the new normal," Vice President JD Vance declared from his West Wing office, studying real-time data flows across agency systems. "He's having the time of his life," he added, referring to the President's relentless drive. "We've done more in two weeks than others did in years." //

For the permanent bureaucracy, this wasn't just change. It was an extinction-level event. Their power came from controlling who got paid, when they got paid, and what they got paid for. Now those controls were evaporating like dawn burning away darkness.

The pattern was devastating in its simplicity:

1. Map the money flows
2. Deploy aligned personnel
3. Expose the networks
4. Restructure the systems
   //

This isn't just reform. This isn't just change. This is American governance reimagined.

What he never bothers to explain is how state attorneys general have any standing to challenge the internal workflows of the Treasury Department, how auditing a system within the Treasury Department is beyond the power of the Treasury Department, how the Executive Branch can violate the separation of powers by carrying out an audit, or how DOGE's action is anything other than the epitome of the "Take Care Clause" which would seem to anyone without TDS to require laws to be obeyed.

It should be to no one's shock that the lead clown in this pathetic circus of TDS sufferers is Letitia James.

The complaint presents a veritable "parade of horribles" of things that "might" happen, which, even if true, fall in the "not your circus, not your monkey" category of complaints. //

This will turn out to be more performative than real. When a federal judge ordered a halt to Trump's spending freeze (see Biden Judge Puts Trump's Spending Freeze on Hold and Orders the Feeding Trough Opened), the administration essentially answered, "yeah, no."

Defendants do not read the Order to prevent the President or his advisors from communicating with federal agencies or the public about the President’s priorities regarding federal spending. Nor do Defendants construe the Order as enjoining the President’s Executive Orders, which are plainly lawful and unchallenged in this case. Further, Defendants do not read the Order as imposing compliance obligations on federal agencies that are not Defendants in this case. Defendants respectfully request that the Court notify Defendants if they have misunderstood the intended scope of the Court’s Order. //

We'll soon see how Attorney General Bondi responds to this nonsense and if she's willing to draw a line at this sort of judicial overreach. If she goes along with it, it effectively means that the President literally does not have the authority to give directions to the Executive Branch, and the Treasury Secretary cannot establish policies in his agency without getting the approval of some judge somewhere based on the complaint of random people. //

Lugger66
a day ago
As i said u might as well have a judge say DT cant be POTUS.
Truth is not only does this need to be slapped down they need to be punished. //

anon-adwq
a day ago
Treasury Secretary made the DOGE auditors employees of the Treasury. So the Judge's order now applies to people who do not exist ("outside auditors"). Game, set, match. Trump's team is well ahead of the flailing activist Democrat judges. They can scream into the wind. The common meme picture of the screaming Karen can be updated to wearing judicial robes. Gotta love it! //

PubliusCryptus
a day ago
This conflict is a make or break event. The Judiciary has been out of control for generations now and it must be forced back into its Constitutionally defined role. Judges who exceed their authority must be removed from the bench and prosecuted for abuse of their powers. Their abuse has been going on for so long and their hubris has reached such a level that I fear simply ignoring them will not solve this problem. Arrest and imprison them.

GBenton
a day ago
This is what I'm talking about, lol. They're so cooked.

The Swamp depended on both parties keeping secrets about how the Uniparty is a parasitic infection in our government.

But Trump isn't playing the game of going into government with a few hundred grand salary and suddenly being worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

He and Musk have F U money already.

And they are opening the books to a People's Audit (that sounds communistic, but I mean it in a populist sense), and they are gonna destroy these vampires with good old fashioned sunlight.

The Dems could tie him up in court, they could log jam in Congress, and they could use agencies to sandbag with noncompliance.

But they can't stop being exposed by sunlight when Musk controls the largest social media platform and the public is already super pissed off.

This is check mate, Dems.

Any move you make to resist makes you complicit to corruption.

Trump and Musk are not going for incremental reform, they are tearing down what the Uniparty has built over the past century.

Take that, Frankfurt School and Cloward Piven - THIS is how you collapse a corrupt system.

NavyVet GBenton
a day ago
Exposing the flood of illegal outflow is one thing. The next step is to uncover where it went.

Where did those tens of millions of accumulated small donations to ActBlue come from? Methinks these streams of illegal payments.

Now, if the democrats did not know, were innocent, they would be just as curious as us, and just as outraged. The fact that they are doing all they can to obstruct, prevent exposure, prevent scrutiny, tells us, they already know what we will find. They are guilty and they know it.

At this point, they would be wise to cut their losses, demand transparency along with us, and be happy that all they lost is the wellspring of our tax dollars. But they are not wise. By fighting exposure, they implicate themselves as knowing criminals.

RICO! RICO! RICO! You listening, Pam? RICO!

GBenton NavyVet
a day ago
Yes, and the bitch for the corrupt is that DOGE is bringing receipts.

The downside of the surveillance state they built is that it's now being used to expose their fraud.

Sorry, not sorry, lol.

Their Frankenstein monster is gonna destroy them.

anon-73eu GBenton
20 hours ago
I think I love that the most. Obama set up the Digital Dept that Trump is going to use to nail everyone of those idiots. And oh my, the RICO possibilities. (yeah had to clean up what I really wanted to write).

Obama 'What magic wand do you have?' to Trump on the economy in 2016.
Trump 'YOURS' on fixing everything else in 2025.

Congress illegally spent at least $516 billion in 2024 on programs for which there was no authorization. Yes, billion, with a "b." A stunning report by the Congressional Budget Office underscores the reason for the legal assault upon President Trump's right to audit payments by the Treasury Department.

In a report titled "Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2024," the CBO observes: "Historically, House and Senate rules restrict lawmakers from considering an appropriation if it lacks a current authorization." Nevertheless, "CBO estimates that $516 billion was appropriated for 2024 for activities with expired authorizations, which the agency identified for each House and Senate authorizing committee and appropriations subcommittee." That $516 billion in illegal payments cover "1,264 authorizations of appropriations that expired before the beginning of fiscal year 2024 and 251 authorizations of appropriations that were set to expire by the end of fiscal year 2024." The legal authority for some of these payments expired 40 — that's not a typo — years ago. //

Making this all the more intriguing is that it would seem that the President could stop those payments without worrying about violating the Impoundment Control Act as they are not legal appropriations by Congress's rules.

I will guarantee you that when DOGE really digs into this, they are going to find other ongoing illegal payments on a Biblical scale.

Aesthetica @Anc_Aesthetics
·
This is the doxxer at the WSJ who doxxed the DOGE team member and got him fired. She worked at Business Insider who have a history of doxxing people and she was funded by USAID. It looks like she was hired solely to go after the DOGE team.
9:34 PM · Feb 6, 2025

Aesthetica @Anc_Aesthetics
·
Replying to @Anc_Aesthetics
Also worked as a USAID contractor, how did she get access to tweets from a deleted X account? We know USAID is just an offshoot of the CIA. This needs to be investigated.
10:01 PM · Feb 6, 2025

Aesthetica @Anc_Aesthetics
·
Replying to @Anc_Aesthetics
Very silly of her to post her email and signal like that when people can just flood her inbox with msgs that prevent her from doxxing anyone else
10:02 PM · Feb 6, 2025.

Mike Benz @MikeBenzCyber
·
That’s incredible. The journo who doxxed the DOGE staffer worked at 3 of the Top 4 Blobcraft Agencies I stress in lectures do organized political warfare as intelligence work: USAID, State, and DOD’s Political-Military branch. Literally the only resume point missing is CIA 😂

Sam Spade @MusicalPurist
This is the reporter who doxxed and got Marko Elez fired. Note her background:
1:50 AM · Feb 7, 2025. //

anon-BHS
40 minutes ago edited
Question....Who at the WSJ leadership level was the person who just hired K Long , "solely to go after the DOGE team"?
Next question....So, does this reveal to us that the WSJ is another one of the media publications (like Politico) who was receiving USAID funding??? (a discreet attempt to ruin DOGE before it uncovers/exposes their own involvement?)

You cannot make this up. Politico responded to the allegations that USAID was their sugar daddy and did not disappoint. It was an exercise in gaslighting and a terrible one at that. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) crew uncovered mountains of waste and fraud, which led to the agency being virtually shut down on Friday. It’ll be absorbed into the State Department, with most of its workers being furloughed.

Yet, USAID also spent millions on various media subscriptions. And while we won’t call it a funneling of cash per se, it pretty much was that, but with extra steps. The government was essentially running a state media operation, which is the Democrat-media complex personified. We knew it existed, and now we have literal receipts. //

NightStalker
2 hours ago edited
So, Politico Pro, for a mere $15,000-$20,000 a year will inform the government what the government is doing? Gotcha.

Commodore Decker NightStalker
2 hours ago edited
This is a distinction without a difference. It’s money, laundering, plain and simple. We’re not that stupid.

Take the “L“, politico. You’re looking like the proverbial elephant trying to hide behind the flagpole. All this proves is what we have known all along. You are a part of the Democrat/government/media information operation.

Representatives from Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service have fed sensitive data from across the Education Department into artificial intelligence software to probe the agency’s programs and spending, according to two people with knowledge of the DOGE team’s actions.

The AI probe includes data with personally identifiable information for people who manage grants, as well as sensitive internal financial data, the two people said. They described DOGE activities at the Education Department on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.

The DOGE team is using AI software accessed through Microsoft’s cloud computing service Azure to pore through every dollar of money the department disburses, from contracts to grants to work trip expenses, one of the people said. Lower level department staffers were directed by agency leadership to let Musk’s teams access the sensitive financial data, the person said. //

If this is being weaponized to screw over the political class, trim the fat from government, and expose the waste and corruption as we’ve seen over the past few weeks, then so be it. Keep feeding that AI machine, which we’ll call Skynet but without the genocidal tendencies. //

Commodore Decker
8 hours ago edited
The use of the phrase “sensitive internal Financial data“ is intended to undermine the legitimacy of the effort and raise fears of privacy invasion. The good news is that the privacy being invaded are bureaucrats making these payments to pet left wing causes with your tax dollars which are hidden but which the AI software is able to expose.

The Democrats have spent decades constructing this Potemkin Village of payoffs, kickbacks, lazy unionized featherbedding work rules, and no accountability along with a sense of entitlement and privilege. The perfect employment for people with useless degrees and not a lot of work ethic. But like any house of cards, one good breeze can blow it all down. And it’s got them terrified. And it should because it’s long overdue.

I never imagined I would see this unfold so rapidly, but it’s great that it has because it’s got democrats completely unbalanced and unable to respond. Trump is inside their media decision cycle and inside their heads. They lash out with hysterics and retarded chants like Schumer the other day who had one of the most cringe worthy moments I’ve ever seen. And none of it seems to be working.