"A 50% global defense spending cut??" Topic

He didn't waste HIS time on renaming the Gulf of Mexico- he got YOU to waste YOUR time worrying and fretting about it- which was probably part of the point.

Yes that seems to be the rub for some.

They could have called it something else … but it still would not have satisfied some.

How about the name was just left alone. As it has been for 500 years.

And as for transparency, 35thOVI, it's easy enough to find out 'whats' been axed, how about something along the lines of: we are now going to turn our attention to …. When we've published our findings we'll announce our proposed cuts.
Not too hard. Kind of the decent thing to do really. Or maybe that word is a little too sappy, or childish, when it comes to peoples livelihoods.
In case I need to restate it, I'm for the trimming, but not this approach.
I await a list of links that prove me wrong.

Sil I screamed bloody murder on TMP about all the name changes in the past 4 years. I was vilified. I was a called a racist, a southern apologist, a white supremists. Even if it had nothing to do with the confederacy. I do find it extremely funny at some of the outrage now as to the gulf of America. Would I change it, no. But the names changed back I have no issues with at all, like Mount McKinley.

Did you read the first 2 links in that last group. It is updated as they change. The MSM will drag out every sob story possible to try and sway public opinion. They will even lie to try and obtain their way. The swamp is deep, powerful and getting wealthy at our expense. Read the last story here as well.

Case in point about the lies, like this 60 minutes piece:

Subject: Thread by @nataliegwinters on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App


link

But maybe this will be if interest

Subject: DOGE finds nearly untraceable budget line item responsible for $4.7 USDT in payments


link

I and others may be proven wrong about President Trump. But I wasn't wrong about Biden and for sure about Harris. For now I will trust what he is doing.

Fair enough.
I genuinely hope things work out. I'd rather a peaceful world than to sit smugly in the ruins.
So I'm headed back to my half-built T-26s and do my utmost not to peek in on these threads for a while.

Sil enjoy your work. I stopped painting multiple years ago.

We all hope for peace.. at least I hope.

OPPs! Supposed to be a Trump/Musk interview tomorrow. I believe on Hannity show.

I'll throw some gasoline on the fire… The video is action-packed)))

link

Could not resist

Democrats are demanding investigations to determine if Trump is responsible for the Hindenburg, the 9/11 tower crashes, Flight 19 and other air disasters.
😉

Subject: NBC News: Trump to Blame for Toronto Plane Crash Due to FAA Cuts


link

Interesting that they don't mention Trump's comments after the DC crash. And they did not mention Hillary OR Obama!

Both sides should refrain from political blamery. Congress should have fixed this years ago. I fly all the time – with my fingers crossed.

I agree it should have been fixed. Congress moves like a constipated old man.

Tort,

I love the word blamery. It is so fitting.

I did systems development. When something I programmed for dollar values did not add up, I told my manager I had "offages". My boss did a presentation and used the word to other management. 😂

Maybe that's how all those fighting Doge will describe all these discrepancies.

"Yes, we simply had offages".

FAA firings more, from "the hill". So not a conservative source. 😉 Pete B., people who live in glass houses, should not throw stones. All and NBC, remember Toronto is in Canada. 😉

"Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy seemingly defended the recent firings at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Monday, arguing the probationary employees who were let go made up only a minor portion of the workforce.

"Here's the truth: the FAA alone has a staggering 45,000 employees. Less than 400 were let go, and they were all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago," Duffy wrote in a post on the social platform X. "Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go."

He was responding to a post from former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who called for more transparency from the agency as employees were notified over the weekend they were being fired. The email went out late Friday, just weeks after a deadly crash outside of Washington put a spotlight on the agency.

One air traffic controller said impacted workers include people hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance.

Duffy previously agreed to work with tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to cut federal spending, though he also expressed the need for the FAA to hire more air traffic controllers and fix its "antiquated" systems.

The Transportation leader slammed Buttigieg in his post on X, arguing that his predecessor failed to address the air traffic controller shortage and update the systems.

"In less than four weeks, we have already begun the process and are engaging the smartest minds in the entire world," Duffy said.

In a previous post, the secretary asked the American public if there were any individuals or corporations willing to pitch in and upgrade the technology.

"Mayor Pete chose to use this amazing department — that is so critical to America's success—as a slush fund for the green new scam and environmental justice nonsense," he wrote.

Duffy challenged Buttigieg, noting he would like to hear from him once they "get a full accounting" of his management of the department.

DOGE officials continue to inspect federal spending at various federal agencies and departments, which has upended operations and workforces across the workforce.

The Trump administration sent buyout offers to many air traffic controllers, but later deemed them ineligible, as well as safety officials and Transportation Security Administration officers.

The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of its goal staffing levels, Reuters reported"

Interview tonight on Hannity at 9pm est Fox News. Musk/Trump if you want to listen to them.

Since some of this post went into Trump/Musk I took the easiest office to show some of the ridiculous expenses that are hopefully stopped. Usaid. These are just some of them. But I think you can see they are agenda driven expenditures.
Why we would even think to push DEI agendas in countries that dont want them and only alienate us to their people, is beyond my understanding. In some cases for such a minute amount of any population. This especially alienates Muslim countries.

Let me try to put a small amount of this money into perspective. Let us say you spend 100 dollars a week on groceries. An expenditure of 5 million dollars could furnish 50,000 people with 100 dollars in groceries. Hope my math is right. What do these countries want, studies of sex with other men, or food in their stomachs? What buys more good will?

Among the most stunning revelations from a White House list of questionable spending was nearly $10 USD million USAIDspent on meals that went to al Qaeda-funded terrorist groups.

Then there was the roughly $75 USD million USAID spent on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in foreign countries.

Some of those recipients of taxpayer dollars included:
• $16.8 USD million to support equitable outcomes in inclusion in Vietnam.

• $8.3 USD million for "equity and inclusion" education.
• $7.9 USD million to teach Sri Lankan journalists to avoid "binary-gender language."

• $6.3 USD million to study men having sex with other men in South Africa.
• $6 USD million to advance LGBTQ principles in "priority countries around the world."
• $5.5 USD million to promote LGBTQ causes in Uganda.

• $3.9 USD million to promote LGBTQ causes in Western Balkans.
• $2.5 USD million to promote inclusion in Vietnam.

• $2 USD million for sex changes and LBGTQ "activism" and sex changes in Guatemala.
• $1.5 USD million to advance "diversity, equity and inclusion" in Serbian workplaces.

USAID also spent millions to promote transgenderism through various media outlets including using $47,000 USD of taxpayer funds to produce a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 USD for a transgender opera in Columbia, $70,000 USD for a "DEI-themed musical" in Ireland and $2 USD million for a "transgender comic book in Peru."

In addition to DEI initiatives, USAIDspent millions to promote media outlets in other countries:
• $20 USD million to produce an Iraqi version of Sesame Street.

• $8 USD million to buy subscriptions to Politico Pro.
• $2.1 USD million to the British Broadcasting System to "strengthen the media ecosystem in Libya."
• $1.3 USD million for Arab and Jewish photographers.
• $1.5 USD million to rebuild the Cuban "media ecosystem."
USAID also has a $150 USD billion climate strategy aimed at building "an equitable world with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions" by 2030. However, it is unclear how much of that money was spent.
Also included on the list was $6 USD million approved by USAID to promote tourism in Egypt, a move that was authorized by the first Trump administration.

And Musk mistakenly stated that half the 16 billion in contract money he has saved so far was 8 billion on ICE but it turned out to be 8 million. Get the IGs back and talk to them like professional investigators would do. I don't care what happened under Biden, whataboutism blamery needs to be over.

35th there is definitely waste and @#$& being funded here, but I would bet that they are also being framed for political effect and imaging.

Get the IGs back and talk to them like professional investigators would do. I don't care what happened under Biden, whataboutism blamery needs to be over.

Those IGs were part of the problem -- either providing cover for grift, or too afraid or disinterested in being active. Doge has been running for what, like two weeks? Let it run its audit course, see what we find and then do what needs to be done.

The IGs found $135 USD Billion in waste. I would say they were doing their job.

Tort I heard that on CNN. The same channel that was decrying all these cuts as the end. Suddenly they change tactics and the woman did the "8 million instead" story and how that is just peanuts. "No biggie". What will tomorrow's narrative be? 😉 of course some numbers will be wrong, and the ones right will be ignored by the MSM. This as you know is politics.

I am going to give them at least 2 years to see what we get. 🙂 This is going to be painful to some people. Hopefully just as painful to the grifters

I was thinking the other night. When I think of a president, what immediately comes to mind about them to me.

For instance:
Kennedy: ask not what… and seeing him shot.
Johnson: Vietnam
Ford: hitting his head
Carter: Iran, embargo… basically disaster.
Nixon "I'm not a crook" and his fingers in the air.
Reagan " Tear down that wall…" and the fall of the Berlin Wall
Clinton: a stained blue dress.
Biden: tripping up the stairs on air force one. Falling on the stage. Shaking hands with the invisible man. Falling off the bike. The back of his head.
Trump: blood running down his ear, pumping his fists in the air, yelling Fight! fight! Fight! After nearly being killed.

OVI +1

This new POTUS, VP and admin, etc. are the right team at this time to fix the folly, foolishness, etc. That was SOP by the last POTUS, VP, etc.

All those clusters were not by accident but planned by the far left. And the last admin were just puppets of the far left who infected the Dem party, the US and in some parts of the world.

I am as appalled as anyone at the assassination attemp. Both sides have become almost impossible to put up with, and this was a hideous low point.

Here is my OPINION…

Trump's call to fight, like the call to fight before breaking into the Capitol to stop the election certification, still feels like a call to fight other Americans. Not interested in this kind of leadership. We are divided not entirely because of him, but he will always be associated with weakness and division in America to me, divisions he stokes as much as anyone during this era. That both sides are responsible is almost impossible for people to acknowledge in a rational way. Biden took the bait and said things that I never expected to hear also.

I don't know how it was decided BEFORE the investigations that the IGs were corrupt. They are not chosen lightly. And there should have been clear facts and due process to justify removing these guard rails. In the era of the Great Divide, each side seems to jump to conclusions like lightening, chasing power and influence in the war on ourselves. I don't know if we can ever get out of this.

For me there has been a sudden and unexpected tipping point. Zelensky is the latest victim of revisionist wacky history. He caused the invasion of his own country. And Putin, a brutal aggressor and gross-out war criminal, will be a great business partner. Putin we will not fight, apparently.

There is a lot I am willing to accept from POTUS in these early days, hoping for some things to change. Not this, however. This is not like us, IMO. Or whoever we used to be. I think I may now understand better how angry those who think Trump is mostly right can feel. We all have our beliefs and they run deep.

"The game is afoot"

Subject: Elon Musk is Sherlock Holmes
Enjoy!

Elon Musk is Sherlock Holmes – Movie Trailer Parody featuring Donald Trump's Detective
YouTube link

You couldn't do any better than that, could you?

Half the politicians in America talk about "fighting" at every opportunity, most particularly the ones who'd wet their pants in a firefight, and you choose to take issue with the fact that Trump got shot and came up yelling "fight"? Somehow that's worse than Senator Pudnocker telling his constituents who he's fighting for? And we aren't even getting into the issue of politicians who name groups or people they intend to fight against, which we all know happens.

But somehow Trump is different, because it "feels" wrong to you.

What a load of hypocritical nonsense.

Trump's call to fight, like the call to fight before breaking into the Capitol to stop the election certification, still feels like a call to fight other Americans. Not interested in this kind of leadership. We are divided not entirely because of him, but he will always be associated with weakness and division in America to me, divisions he stokes as much as anyone during this era. That both sides are responsible is almost impossible for people to acknowledge in a rational way. Biden took the bait and said things that I never expected to hear also

Nah -- the Democrats and the Left have been dividing us for years while they robbed us blind, using racial politics under the guise of DEI and Social Justice to anger people, make them feel like victims and turn on each other. All while using the bully pulpit of the Establishment and Social Media to further isolate and anger us, not to mention weaponizing government power against dissent and political opponents. Trump is the symptom of this divide, an attempt to course correct.

Everything the Establishment Media have done for the past 30 days is lie, spin, promote fear and division. Did you see that bizarre statement by the CBS reporter that attacked Trump/Vance promoting free speech by saying the Nazis used "weaponized free speech" to commit genocide?!? Is she that stupid, or is she stirring the pot -- really, equating Free Speech with Nazism!?!

Btw, the IGs thing isn't anything new -- doing some searching, looks like new Presidents almost always clean house. Obama did it, Biden did it, and now Trump is doing it.

For me there has been a sudden and unexpected tipping point. Zelensky is the latest victim of revisionist wacky history. He caused the invasion of his own country. And Putin, a brutal aggressor and gross-out war criminal, will be a great business partner. Putin we will not fight, apparently.

Sure, whatever. That's not what's going on. Zelensky had a peace deal being negotiated with Russia in March of 2022, he succumbed to pressure by Biden and cancelled the deal. For whatever reason he also refused to talk peace. And now there's a peace deal being discussed and he LIED about stuff and his saying Ukraine will never accept peace with Russia.

He LIED about the mineral rights deal -- HE proposed it, not Trump and then he pretends to be offended and says Ukraine isn't for sale? is he doing? Then throwing feces over a peace deal he could help steer, instead of obstruct while his people dies and his country dies?

He must know that there is no scenario in which Ukraine gets back the territories Obama let Putin grab. There's no scenario in which Ukraine defeats Russia. So either accepts a less than ideal peace deal to rebuild his nation and see what the future cam bring, or he lets it all collapse.

I'm not sure what "LIED" means. Yes, Zelensky proposed offering minerals as recompense and encouragement for more support. Who has denied that? But Trump countered with 50% and that was not acceptable.

I'm hearing a lot of lying and half-truths at the moment. Dictator. Started the war. 4%. etc.

On the other hand, condemnation of the aggressor seems to have slackened somewhat.

SB I don't disagree that we have been robbed left and right! You and I have disagreed on 2022 and the negotiations before. I still think the mass murder of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, hands zip-tied in some cases, bodies left to rot, ended those talks. Zelensky is no saint. But he is no Putin either.

OVI +1

9lbs +1

SB m +1

OVI +1

9lbs +1

SB m +1

I still think the mass murder of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, hands zip-tied in some cases, bodies left to rot, ended those talks. Zelensky is no saint. But he is no Putin either.

That's never stopped a high level peace deal before. The Bucha Massacre seems more the public excuse than the cause:

1. There was a peace deal being negotiated
2. Ukraine was close to signing (contents not clear)
3. The US and Europe pressured Zelensky to sever peace talks

So I want you to ponder this. The NORMAL reaction to the outbreak of a War in Europe should be, "How horrible! We need to stop the war before it escalates and spreads, and before more people die! The war is destabilizing, destructive and needs to stop as soon as possible!"

But what was the reaction of the Biden Admin and his allies among the European political elites?

Never let a good crisis go to waste.

They cold bloodedly and ruthlessly viewed the Ukraine war as an OPPORUNITY to harm Russia -- no matter the cost to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians were seen as useful meat puppets, armed and funded just enough to prolong the war and bleed Russia, not for Ukraine to win. Just keep the war going, keep the dying going and cause Russia as much as pain as possible and destabilize it and try to topple Putin.

If that took 100,000 dead Ukrainians…500,000 dead Ukrainians. Well, that's a price Biden was willing to pay. Did Ukraine pay 3,000 tanks and AFVs and shredded crews to kill 10,000 Russian AFVs. Sounds like a 3:1 deal to Biden and team. Nothing really going on a sea? That's OK, we'll use this war to attack the Black Sea fleet and bleed the Russian Navy.

Is the Ukrainian economy in free fall? Meh, who cares, look at the harm done to Russia!

Seriously. Think about how brutally cold and calculating that was.