Repeat after me: DOGE HAS NO LEGAL AUTHORITY for any of its actions. Nor does Trump for the vast majority of DOGE's actions. Please quit portraying DOGE as if it has legal standing. It does not.
Musk is what happens when someone who doesn't have a clue how the government functions tries to pretend it's a business. Oh, wait. Musk is terrible at business, like Trump.American culture simply loves rich white guys even if they're buffoons.
This is exactly why I get so angry when centrist pundit types, even some I generally like, insist on front-loading every conversation about Musk with "to be sure, I also want to cut down on waste and make the government smaller." First, the Doge destruction has NOTHING whatsoever to do with creating a more efficient government. And second, in many areas there should be MORE government employees. not fewer. I want more cancer researchers and national parks employees and IRS agents going after the rich and people and staff who make sure we get our passports and my mother's social security checks in a timely manner. I don't care how much the government saves, it makes no difference to 99 percent of us anyway.
All this hype that it’s about time the government started being run like private companies is really getting on my nerves. The government’s job has always been to create and enforce laws and regulations that serve and protect our citizens. Generally speaking, it, through its elected representatives and civil servants, has done a pretty good job of that. Neither t***p nor muskrat have a single clue about service to or support of those of us who are not millionaires or billionaires, and that need help and protection from the mighty corporations who used the COVID pandemic to raise prices to enrich themselves and their shareholders. Why the Republicans struggling making it from paycheck to paycheck don’t get that, I will never understand.
Has no one noticed that Elon's black "Make America Great Again" hat in the first picture is written in a German typeface!? He looks like a gangsta Nazi. This man is a danger to humanity. Aside from World Domination and going to Mars, what is his endgame?
He's the fraud! Get rid of him robbing our gov't blind with his contracts and turning his Starlink Satellites on and off to countries or areas he is against.
Thank you for exposing the lies being spread by POTUS Muskrat and PINO Drumpf and their minions. PINO's unsupported claims of fraud and abuse on Fox should come as no surprise to anyone. Long ago he made it perfectly clear that if the mouth is moving, he's lying. Brave Peter Alexander should watch his back after asking a simple "clever question" about evidence of fraud and a time line for indictments. Mr. Alexander may suffer the fate of another brave reporter, Jim Acosta, who was temporarily banished for asking direct and hard questions during the first reign of terror, T 1.0.
I would add the "improper payments" are NOT fraud. They are the payments SS auto deposits into accounts of people that die in the beginning of the month before they receive notice the person died! Those deposits are generally clawed back via an auto withdrawal from the bank a few days after they are notified the person died! I always tell me clients to leave the money in the account because otherwise the account will be overdrawn! So that means fraud in SS is vanishingly rare and occurs less than half of 1%. Trying finding better delivery of service with that near 0 level of fraud anywhere in the private sector
After years of watching Republicans try to 'dirty up' Biden with various accusations and NEVER finding hard facts to even prove a crime, let alone who committed it, it would be amazing to find them presenting actual evidence that was real for a change.
Trump lied with countless accusations about the 2020 election, lied about the Jan 6 Defendants that he pardoned, lied about all the judges and prosecutors and everyone else he could see to threaten and accuse that would create the taint he wanted to make. These accusations are only the latest. Trump accused immigrants of eating cats, of Ukraine starting the war...
What is clear is that all their efforts are simply to dismantle and destroy various agencies, departments in our government, each created by laws and maintained over the years by both parties (with varying levels of effectiveness). The accusations are just the cover story which does not even match up well with their demonstrated actions such as mass firings and efforts to intimidate workers into retiring / quitting.
The funny thing is, it would be a miracle in a bureaucracy as big as our federal government for their not to be ANY fraud, waste or abuse, and the fact they have not identified any (which we know because then specific legal and other actions would be taken) just proves they are not even looking.
Didn’t watch the Hannity “interview” … but the “they’re finding things like that” quote is an uncomfortable reminder of the desperate “They’re eating the dogs!” outburst.
"Waste, Fraud and Abuse" sounds good and reasonable, and every administration has worked to eliminate them (to varying degrees of effectiveness), but the way you spot those is by having thoughtful people investigating carefully, double checking their facts and not making accusations until they have been verified because it would be all too easy to stop a payment for instance, only to find out it was in fact necessary for the health, safety, security of our nation.
Note the mass firings, often targeted at investigators, inspector generals, lawyers and all of the employees who are easiest to legally fire, such as those on probation because they have been promoted or shifted to another department or position but with lots of experience, all without ANY review of their actual competence or the necessity of their work. All of this chaos actually creates opportunities for fraud, waste and abuse, because nobody is looking for it, being too busy just trying to keep the wheels of necessary government function turning.
Trump makes accusations ALL the time with little to no evidence and NEVER with even the slightest fact checking. He will often phrase it to give himself an 'out', which is completely bogus as he is the president and can get any fact checked he wants almost instantly. He just likes to accuse and relies on the power of accusations to 'dirty' people up, which is all he wants.
COBOL is rarely used today outside of the government, and as such, Musk’s young engineers may not even have heard of it and certainly have no skill in it.
"Because COBOL does not have a date type, some implementations rely instead on a system whereby all dates are coded to a reference point. The most commonly used is May 20, 1875, as this was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the Convention du Mètre. These systems default to the reference point when a birth date is missing or incomplete, meaning all of those entries in 2025 would show an age of 150."
Let us focus for a moment on what Trump's team has done that is actually legal.
Seriously, I would like to understand what of the countless things they have done that is LEGAL under our laws, the laws the created the various departments, their functions their ability to enforce and process of defining regulations.
It is easy to see the things that are not legal: From immigration enforcement that ignores the Amnesty laws to efforts to ignore birthright citizenship. Stopping payments authorized and mandated by law. Firing of employees without due process, notably LYING by claiming they were "poor performers". Firing of people when the law specifically says their term of office is not yet ended.
There are certainly things that are legal, such as the ability of the POTUS to pardon people, except that MANY of them were convicted insurrectionists PROVING Trump gave them Aid and Comfort (in addition to all the rest of public knowledge of his involvement it he insurrection), thereby making it crystal clear, per the 14th amendment that he can not hold office.
Trump's ability to add tariffs on our allies, in breach no doubt of our NAFTA agreement.
Threats to force countries become part of the US, such as Canada, Panama, Greenland... while trying to GIVE Ukraine to Putin, as a 'love gift' no doubt.
Musk/Doge is merely a weapon unleashed by Russell Vought. Please shine more light in that direction.
Repeat after me: DOGE HAS NO LEGAL AUTHORITY for any of its actions. Nor does Trump for the vast majority of DOGE's actions. Please quit portraying DOGE as if it has legal standing. It does not.
I'm not sure that's what was done here, but I appreciate the reporting.
The fraud is staring them in the face. It is them.
Musk is what happens when someone who doesn't have a clue how the government functions tries to pretend it's a business. Oh, wait. Musk is terrible at business, like Trump.American culture simply loves rich white guys even if they're buffoons.
This is exactly why I get so angry when centrist pundit types, even some I generally like, insist on front-loading every conversation about Musk with "to be sure, I also want to cut down on waste and make the government smaller." First, the Doge destruction has NOTHING whatsoever to do with creating a more efficient government. And second, in many areas there should be MORE government employees. not fewer. I want more cancer researchers and national parks employees and IRS agents going after the rich and people and staff who make sure we get our passports and my mother's social security checks in a timely manner. I don't care how much the government saves, it makes no difference to 99 percent of us anyway.
All this hype that it’s about time the government started being run like private companies is really getting on my nerves. The government’s job has always been to create and enforce laws and regulations that serve and protect our citizens. Generally speaking, it, through its elected representatives and civil servants, has done a pretty good job of that. Neither t***p nor muskrat have a single clue about service to or support of those of us who are not millionaires or billionaires, and that need help and protection from the mighty corporations who used the COVID pandemic to raise prices to enrich themselves and their shareholders. Why the Republicans struggling making it from paycheck to paycheck don’t get that, I will never understand.
No finding of fraud—but of course! Begs the question: How much has DOGE cost this brave expense-saving administration?
Has no one noticed that Elon's black "Make America Great Again" hat in the first picture is written in a German typeface!? He looks like a gangsta Nazi. This man is a danger to humanity. Aside from World Domination and going to Mars, what is his endgame?
He's the fraud! Get rid of him robbing our gov't blind with his contracts and turning his Starlink Satellites on and off to countries or areas he is against.
Thank you for exposing the lies being spread by POTUS Muskrat and PINO Drumpf and their minions. PINO's unsupported claims of fraud and abuse on Fox should come as no surprise to anyone. Long ago he made it perfectly clear that if the mouth is moving, he's lying. Brave Peter Alexander should watch his back after asking a simple "clever question" about evidence of fraud and a time line for indictments. Mr. Alexander may suffer the fate of another brave reporter, Jim Acosta, who was temporarily banished for asking direct and hard questions during the first reign of terror, T 1.0.
I would add the "improper payments" are NOT fraud. They are the payments SS auto deposits into accounts of people that die in the beginning of the month before they receive notice the person died! Those deposits are generally clawed back via an auto withdrawal from the bank a few days after they are notified the person died! I always tell me clients to leave the money in the account because otherwise the account will be overdrawn! So that means fraud in SS is vanishingly rare and occurs less than half of 1%. Trying finding better delivery of service with that near 0 level of fraud anywhere in the private sector
After years of watching Republicans try to 'dirty up' Biden with various accusations and NEVER finding hard facts to even prove a crime, let alone who committed it, it would be amazing to find them presenting actual evidence that was real for a change.
Trump lied with countless accusations about the 2020 election, lied about the Jan 6 Defendants that he pardoned, lied about all the judges and prosecutors and everyone else he could see to threaten and accuse that would create the taint he wanted to make. These accusations are only the latest. Trump accused immigrants of eating cats, of Ukraine starting the war...
What is clear is that all their efforts are simply to dismantle and destroy various agencies, departments in our government, each created by laws and maintained over the years by both parties (with varying levels of effectiveness). The accusations are just the cover story which does not even match up well with their demonstrated actions such as mass firings and efforts to intimidate workers into retiring / quitting.
The funny thing is, it would be a miracle in a bureaucracy as big as our federal government for their not to be ANY fraud, waste or abuse, and the fact they have not identified any (which we know because then specific legal and other actions would be taken) just proves they are not even looking.
Didn’t watch the Hannity “interview” … but the “they’re finding things like that” quote is an uncomfortable reminder of the desperate “They’re eating the dogs!” outburst.
"Waste, Fraud and Abuse" sounds good and reasonable, and every administration has worked to eliminate them (to varying degrees of effectiveness), but the way you spot those is by having thoughtful people investigating carefully, double checking their facts and not making accusations until they have been verified because it would be all too easy to stop a payment for instance, only to find out it was in fact necessary for the health, safety, security of our nation.
Note the mass firings, often targeted at investigators, inspector generals, lawyers and all of the employees who are easiest to legally fire, such as those on probation because they have been promoted or shifted to another department or position but with lots of experience, all without ANY review of their actual competence or the necessity of their work. All of this chaos actually creates opportunities for fraud, waste and abuse, because nobody is looking for it, being too busy just trying to keep the wheels of necessary government function turning.
Trump makes accusations ALL the time with little to no evidence and NEVER with even the slightest fact checking. He will often phrase it to give himself an 'out', which is completely bogus as he is the president and can get any fact checked he wants almost instantly. He just likes to accuse and relies on the power of accusations to 'dirty' people up, which is all he wants.
COBOL is rarely used today outside of the government, and as such, Musk’s young engineers may not even have heard of it and certainly have no skill in it.
"Because COBOL does not have a date type, some implementations rely instead on a system whereby all dates are coded to a reference point. The most commonly used is May 20, 1875, as this was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the Convention du Mètre. These systems default to the reference point when a birth date is missing or incomplete, meaning all of those entries in 2025 would show an age of 150."
The only FRAUD is DOGE's: "DOGE incorrectly identified..." is a polite way of explaining DOGE's accounting FRAUD!
Let us focus for a moment on what Trump's team has done that is actually legal.
Seriously, I would like to understand what of the countless things they have done that is LEGAL under our laws, the laws the created the various departments, their functions their ability to enforce and process of defining regulations.
It is easy to see the things that are not legal: From immigration enforcement that ignores the Amnesty laws to efforts to ignore birthright citizenship. Stopping payments authorized and mandated by law. Firing of employees without due process, notably LYING by claiming they were "poor performers". Firing of people when the law specifically says their term of office is not yet ended.
There are certainly things that are legal, such as the ability of the POTUS to pardon people, except that MANY of them were convicted insurrectionists PROVING Trump gave them Aid and Comfort (in addition to all the rest of public knowledge of his involvement it he insurrection), thereby making it crystal clear, per the 14th amendment that he can not hold office.
Trump's ability to add tariffs on our allies, in breach no doubt of our NAFTA agreement.
Threats to force countries become part of the US, such as Canada, Panama, Greenland... while trying to GIVE Ukraine to Putin, as a 'love gift' no doubt.