Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton
US airlines had gone 16 years without fatal crashes.

Then MAGA fired the FAA chief, gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, and threatened air traffic controllers with layoffs.

Now there have been two fatal crashes.

Hope your unvetted 22-year-olds fix things fast.

Secretary Sean Duffy @SecDuffy
·
I know you’re lashing out because DOGE is uncovering your family’s obscene grifting via USAID, but I won’t let you lie and distort facts. The FAA administrator announced he resigned over a month before Trump took office, and the air traffic controllers were always exempt from Trump’s civil service buyouts.

The previous administration shamelessly used USDOT as a slush fund for the Green New Scam, throwing away money and resources on wasteful environmental and social justice projects rather than updating our nation’s antiquated air traffic control systems and other critical infrastructure.

I’m returning this department to its mission of safety by using innovative technology in transportation and infrastructure. Your team had its chance and failed. We’re moving on without you because the American people want us to make America’s transportation system great again. And yes, we’re bringing the 22-year-olds with us. //

Evita Duffy-Alfonso @evitaduffy_1
·
Just a PSA: My dad would never commit suicide. //

anon-ai01
6 hours ago
No wonder the Dems moved heaven and earth to try to bankrupt, imprison or kill Trump. They wouldn't have minded so much if a Romney or a McCain type had been elected. Had they been, it would have been business as usual with typical Republican do nothings. But Trump. Ah, that's a different story. I never thought I would see it in my lifetime. It is a wonder to behold. God bless President Trump and Elon Musk! You go, guys! //

CurtTX53 JimboCA
3 hours ago
Remembering how quiet they and their CGI got after 2016, almost disappeared, hoping to stay away from any investigations. Run silent run deep for those four years.

Jennings described what he called the "dumbest strategy in politics" currently being utilized by Democrats, where they take the side on an issue that has 20 percent approval because they reflexively revolt against whatever Trump is doing. This includes keeping men out of women's sports and collapsing USAID.

"This is like Trump's superpower," said Jennings. "Finding a bunch of 80-20 issues and getting on the 80 and everybody who is reflexively against him gets on the 20, and now the Democrat Party has a 31% approval rating."

As usual, Jennings is right. Though he's using the 80/20 idea here loosely, he's still accurate.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that America wanted to freeze foreign assistance programs via USAID by 16 points (56 percent vs 40 percent) and an NYT/Ipsos poll found that people say 79 percent of males should not be allowed to participate in women's sports.

But you can see this in other places as well. //

According to the Daily Wire, a poll conducted by McLaughlin and Associates on behalf of Tea Party Patriots Action, sees that the vast majority of Americans love DOGE's work and want to see a border bill: //

But far be it from me to stop them from lodging their own bullets in their own feet.

RealRobert🇺🇸
@Real_RobN
And this is,

the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe,

the FBI was ordered by Barack Obama not to arrest Hillary Clinton for espionage in violation of — 18 U.S. Code § 793. Gathering, transmitting or los defense information. In fact, James Comey effectively served as Hillary Clinton’s personal attorney.

James Comey: “What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done honestly, competently and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear.”

CIA John Ratcliffe: “Lisa Page confirmed to me under oath that the FBI was ordered by the Obama DOJ not to consider charging Hillary Clinton for gross negligence in the handling of classified information,"

Transcript excerpt of his interview with Page:
John Ratcliffe: Okay. So let me if I can, I know I'm testing your memory, but when you say advice you got from the Department, you're making it sound like it was the Department that told you: You're not going to charge gross negligence because we're the prosecutors and we're telling you we're not going to –
Ms. Page: That is Correct.

If forgiveness means saying, “That’s OK” to things that aren’t OK then none of us should forgive. Forgiveness is not about pushing ourselves to the limit of what we can tolerate. Susan Shapiro in the Washington Post Eight Times It Might Be Healthier Not to Forgive makes the point that whenever forgiveness begins to sound like “you have no reason to still be upset” it shifts the blame from offender to the person harmed. Forgiveness is not about saying “that’s OK” about things that are not OK.

We consider some advances in relational and affective neuroscience and related disciplines that attempt to resolve some fundamental aspects of the mind–brain problem. We consider the key role of affect in generating consciousness and in meeting our essential survival needs; the neural correlates of relating; how self and other are represented in the brain and awareness of self and other is generated through interoceptive predictive processes. We describe some leading models of the generation and purpose of consciousness, linking theories of affective and cognitive consciousness. We discuss psychiatric and psychotherapeutic innovations arising from this research, new integrated biopsychosocial interventions and the obstacles to be overcome in applying these models in practice.

It's taken a while, but now we're demonstrably living in the world of mainstream News/Bias, where standard hard news mixed with opinion, innuendo and partisanship is just simply considered...The News.

Now I'm old enough to remember how the breach of this trust in 2005-2006 canned the career of Dan Rather, who was kind of like the most trusted guy in news at the time. But like a cryogenically stored body thawed out once they discover the cure for cancer, Rather has re-emerged in recent years because a cure has been found for the truth. Which, it seems, is no longer as valuable as the motive behind the story. In other words, your news stories are now fables with a message instead of simple news stories. Dan Rather wanted to tell a story about George Bush that wasn't supported by his native tongue (JD from Sam Houston State Teacher's College), so he decided to blaze a new trail and incorporate "his truth" into the mix so that the "greater truth" could spread. Great idea. Too bad he was too avant-garde for his peers then.

But he's back now after 20 years, and just like a fine cabernet that improves after years in the dark, liberals and progressives finally recognize the bravery and beauty of Rather's sacrifice. I imagine he sees himself a little bit like Caesar leading his Triumph as he hits the outskirts of Rome after having been gone for a couple of decades. He's got a book, a Netflix series and a home on Substack now. And like Caesar himself, he just might avoid going into the Capitol proper to avert the new government's reach and Donald Trump. He'll probably tell his fans that he fears retribution and arrest but can remain silent no longer. So Bold. So Brave... sigh

Anyway, after 25 years (at least) of the legacy media switching out hard news for the opposite kind, keep an eye on this one to see how much traction it gets. If it breathes life into the whole progressive narrative after having been stomped on lately, we could see more attempts to undermine Trump's presidential leadership. //

Robert A Hahn
32 minutes ago
The fellow who brought down Dan Rather was an attorney in the Atlanta area who used the screen name "Buckhead" on Free Republic. At the time, "FR" was the largest conservative-leaning forum on the internet.

I was on there one night and saw a very short note from 'Buckhead.' It said, "I gotta go, so I can't follow this up. Dan Rather's proof is fake. That is Times New Roman font, which is part of Microsoft Word, and that did not exist when W was in the National Guard."

People on FR were already making gifs that flipped back and forth between the CBS News document and the same thing typed into Microsoft Word... and the two were identical.

That got picked up by one of the early blogs -- I think it was Hindraker at "Power Blog" -- and the rest is history.

USAspending is the official open data source of federal spending information,
including information about federal awards such as contracts, grants, and loans.

The more President Donald Trump does, the more the left flies into stammering, impotent rage, and the more the rest of us have to point and laugh at. And the president is doing a lot, including removing us from impractical and even wasteful international deals that hurt American prosperity - like the Paris climate accords, which the president yanked us out of right away.

That made the climate scolds angry, of course. But now it's getting even better; as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is finding more and more wasteful expenditures, the more all the president's men are cutting out of the executive branch's budgets - and a lot of those cuts are emptying the coffers of some notorious climate scolds.

That's right, the federal government was paying these people to advocate for the destruction of our modern, high-technology lifestyles. At the great climate website Watts Up With That, author Charles Rotter has brought receipts.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/02/05/schadenfreude-at-its-finest-climate-grifters-cry-over-trumps-grant-freeze/

Secretary Sean Duffy @SecDuffy
Big News - Talked to the DOGE team. They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.

Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton
·
8h
They have no relevant experience.

Most of them aren't old enough to rent a car.

And you're going to let them mess with airline safety that's already deteriorated on your watch?

Secretary Sean Duffy @SecDuffy
·
Madam Secretary, with all due respect, “experienced” Washington bureaucrats are the reason our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling. You need to sit this one out. ///

She quote tweeted a screenshot of his tweet and turned off replies so that nobody who replies shows up in her "mentions" and her account has the last word.

“The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America,” reads the very first sentence of Article II of the Constitution. “A” is singular. There is a President of the United States. He has the executive power. The federal bureaucracy operates under the President. Congress has, in some cases, established executive departments that the President cannot get rid of due to their statutory origin. Congress has granted some executive powers that the President cannot get rid of due to their statutory origins. But everyone in the executive branch serves at the pleasure of the President and, with few limits, he gets to direct the executive branch. //

rump is, they claim, engaged in a coup against the American administrative state.

One can hardly launch a coup against oneself. The executive power is vested in a single President, not an administrative state. Mr. Trump is retrieving powers long ago distributed to unelected bureaucrats who have used that power to advance progressive goals even when progressives do not hold power. //

Contrary to some Trump supporters’ claims, USAID did not spend $50 million on condoms for Gaza. It was $45 million and included “sexual and other reproductive health care” for Gaza, not just condoms. There was, separately, $10 million for condoms in the Gaza Province of Mozambique, in Africa. USAID also spent $2 million on healthcare for transgender youth in Guatemala; $45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma; $520 million for leftwing ESG investments in Africa; and $45 million to promote social justice and democracy based on the theories of an Italian Marxist professor. The money flows through and subsidizes various leftwing NGOs. Virtually one hundred percent of USAID’s top outside contractors, recipients of billions of dollars, donate to the Democratic Party. Tim Meisburger, a former USAID employee, discovered that “Of the top 17 grantees and partners of USAID’s Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Governance, 14 saw 100 percent of their political donations during the 2019–2020 election cycle directed to Democratic Party causes with only one (the International Republican Institute) under 90 percent.”

Therein lies the reason Republicans now wish to wind down USAID and Democrats wish to preserve it. The organization is not just a clearing house for aid from the United States to the developing world but both a boundary-breaking vanguard of progressive funding abroad and a pass-through source of Democratic Party donations domestically.

The State Department can run PEPFAR and other programs. USAID is not a necessary entity.

Things are about to get much worse, though, so buckle up. According to recently revealed records, left-leaning news outlet Politico received over thirty-four million dollars from USAID and other government agencies. That money went to pay for "subscriptions" for various bureaucratic officials, including "pro" subscriptions that add up to over $10,000 a pop. //

Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze
·
Guess which outlet the Biden campaign and intel officials solicited the laptop letter story to?

Sunny @sunnyright
We do indeed appear to be funneling large sums of tax money to @politico so that some bureaucrats can read left-wing journalists complain about Republicans
9:02 AM · Feb 5, 2025. //

There's more, though, and while it's speculative, it's certainly a pretty big coincidence. After all the funding from USAID to Politico got shut down in late January, they suddenly missed their next pay period, claiming "technical difficulties.". //

If you've ever wondered how some of these left-wing news outlets stay afloat financially, what has been revealed about Politico is one big reason. Democrats use federal agencies to funnel money for the express purpose of influencing elections and pushing left-wing ideology. It's been out in the open with organizations like NPR and PBS, but the level of corruption we are going to find out about will be mind-blowing. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Politico should not survive this. To take millions of dollars from the entity you are covering and not let your readers know about it is a huge breach of journalistic ethics. Hopefully, this leads to major investigations because does anyone actually believe it costs $447,998 for 37 subscriptions to a news site? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck.

The truth is, with every discovery of waste and corruption, I feel even more excited about what Musk is doing. With every panicked and angry speech given by a Democrat, my confidence in what Musk is doing is only increases.

I'm not just feeling hostile, I feel happily hostile.

But one thing needs to be understood by Psaki and the Democrats. This is definitely a takeover, but it's not a takeover by Trump or Musk, it's from the people. All the hostility they're feeling is coming from us, the people whose tax dollars were wasted and even used against us. Before we stopped them, they wanted to empower the IRS with our own tax dollars to take even more of our tax dollars.

Have a happily hostile year, everyone!

Ernst’s struggle to hold USAID accountable frustrated Musk who called the agency’s obstruction of her attempts to investigate ‘outrageous.’. //

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst disclosed in an X Spaces forum with DOGE Head Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on Sunday that USAID issued “all kinds of threats” to the Republican and her office for her attempt to “exercise my oversight capacity in Congress.”

Ernst first pressed USAID on how it used its tax dollars to pay the facilities and administrative costs outlined in Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreements (NICRAs) in November 2022. //

When USAID finally responded in February 2023, the agency claimed it did not “have a system to track or report on this data, as it is not possible to compare indirect costs between for-profit and nonprofit organizations at the rate level.”

One week later, Ernst’s staff debunked this claim by sending USAID a link “to a publicly reported NICRA database.” USAID confirmed the existence of a database but once again refused to indulge Ernst’s demands.

This time, the agency claimed that divulging NICRA information was impossible because it would violate several federal laws including “the Economic Espionage Act, Protection of Trade Secrets Act, and Disclosure of Confidential Information Act.” //

Eventually, Ernst’s staff was permitted access to “very limited data” about USAID’s indirect costs.

“They were allowed to go into a room and they couldn’t take notes. They were on camera the whole time. They couldn’t remove any of the information,” Ernst told Musk.

Even with “very limited data,” Ernst said her staff discovered USAID spent “anywhere from 50 to 60 percent” on indirect costs which could range from someone’s “rent in Paris” to a “fancy dinner to entertain whomever.”

Kennedy's Executive Order 10973 named the USAID. But read the first line carefully.

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (75 Stat. 424) and section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, and as President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:

This corresponds to a Congressional directive, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. That law required Kennedy to create a foreign aid organization to replace the hodgepodge then in existence. The law lists a wide range of international aid activities required by Congress and directs the president to put those functions under a single person.

The President may exercise any functions conferred upon him by this Act through such agency or officer of the United States Government as he shall direct. Tne head of any such agency or such officer may from time to time promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out such functions, and may delegate authority to perform any such functions, including, if he shall so specify, the authority successively to redelegate any of such functions to any of his subordinates. //

Such designation and authorization shall be in writing, shall be published in the Federal Register, shall be subject to such terms, conditions, and limitations as the President may deem advisable, and shall be revocable at any time by the President in whole or in part. //

From the beginning, the USAID administrator has required Senate approval and has had a budget.

Because Congress created the agency, President Trump will either gut it and leave the remnant alive or set off a direct conflict with Congress, which he may or may not want.

" Medical conditions associated with unreactive pupils include brain injury, stroke, and certain neurological disorders
" Seek immediate medical attention if you experience unreactive pupils along with severe headache, dizziness, or loss of consciousness

"I’ve left instructions," Trump said. "If they do it, they get obliterated. There won’t be anything left. And they shouldn’t be able to do it."

The comments came as the president signed an executive order restoring a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, something he indicated he was "unhappy" to do because it was really tough on Iran but necessary since he believes they are "close" to building a nuclear weapon. //

President Trump's threat to obliterate Iran if they dare carry out threats on his life is reminiscent of a similar warning he issued to Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Baradar, now Afghanistan's acting first deputy prime minister, was involved in negotiations for the United States withdrawal with Trump during his first term. And he received a hell of a threat from the then-president, reminding him not to harm a single American.

“Under my conversations with Abdul, who’s the leader of the Taliban, for 18 months, we didn’t lose one soldier,” Trump bragged in an interview with Sean Hannity, adding that he told Baradar he’d “obliterate” him if he failed to follow orders in their negotiations to withdraw.

To drive home the point, Trump sent him a lovely picture.

"I sent him a picture of his house,” he revealed. “He said, ‘But why, but why do you send me a picture of my house?’ I said, ‘You have to figure that one out.'”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt battled the press on Monday, listing off several grants she described as "insane." That includes over a million dollars to push DEI in Serbia and tens of thousands of dollars for a transgender opera in Colombia. As it turns out, those examples were just the tip of the iceberg. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) put out a thread on Tuesday and you won't believe what your money has been going to.

On second thought, you might believe it given our government's track record, but it's still jarring. Take a walk with me because things are about to get crazy.

Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal
🇺🇸🇸🇻 TRUMP AND RUBIO’S PRISON DEAL WITH EL SALVADOR IS A LEGAL AND STRATEGIC MASTERSTROKE

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have secured a historic agreement with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele that will allow the U.S. to deport violent criminals—regardless of nationality—to serve their sentences in El Salvador’s high-security mega-prison. This bold initiative will cut prison costs, reduce overcrowding, and enhance public safety by removing dangerous criminals from U.S. soil.
...

Yuchen Jin @Yuchenj_UW

judging an engineer by age is BS

• Linus Torvalds wrote Linux at 21
• Steve Wozniak built Apple I at 25
• Palmer Luckey created Oculus VR at 20
• Vitalik Buterin designed Ethereum at 19
• Mark Zuckerberg coded Facebook at 19

Looking back, I realize that 18-25 is the peak time.

"The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation."

Elon Musk @elonmusk
.
Fraud in the federal government is closer to 10% of disbursements, so more like ~$700 billion per year.

Outright waste is at least 15%, so another trillion+ dollars.

Anyone who works in government knows this.

Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger
·
Forty-three paragraphs into the NYT's latest hit piece on @elonmusk, the six (!) by-lined reporters reveal that the federal government lost $236 billion to apparent fraud ("improper payments") in 2023 alone. Maybe this isn't the dunk you guys thought it was?