[tomder55]

Open the Books has identified 75 agencies on the Federal Register that no longer exist

Untitled

But that may have to wait until the courts give the go ahead . 3 suits were filed as Trump was swearing in to stop DOGE.

DOGE hit with three FACA suits as Trump admin starts

Amazing

Trump's 2nd term will be defined by the unmovable object (the deep state ) vs the unstoppable object . (Trump)

It appears that the Dems want to use the courts to stop Trump while Trump tests the new boundaries of executive power in light of recent SCOTUS decisions.

If nothing else it will keep lawyers busy.

Take the phony hysteria over temporary funds freezes that impacted exactly no one (everyone dependent on direct payouts from the government were not affected . ) Shmuck Shumer went on his high horse calling the pause illegal (it was not ) and the lawsuits were filed in friendly courts.

Trump rescinded the order . But he was right in his assumed power . Fund freezing has happened many times.

Part of the reason is because in his rush ,Trump was not specific . He needs to get his staff to pause long enough to make EOs that are coherent .

But the truth is that most of his attempts to push the boundaries will meet resistance.

[tomder55]

Well here you go . Dems are in a panic because DOGE has access to the Treasury's books . It is being spun as DOGE is taking over Treasury or some such nonsense.


But it has been made clear that this is a READ ONLY access. This is something an independent auditor would do .

A person familiar with the arrangement said DOGE representatives won’t have direct authority to stop individual payments or make other changes, describing their access as “read only.” Bessent approved the arrangement on the condition that the DOGE representatives’ activity be documented and monitored. DOGE representatives intend to review the overall efficiency of the payment system, the person said.

Elon Musk’s DOGE Gains Access to Payment System Doling Out Trillions to Americans - WSJReading the compliant press they are sending up all types of red flags without considering why such an audit might be necessary

Musk's DOGE commission gains access to sensitive Treasury payment systems: AP sources | AP News

Here's one example . Maybe it will explain why Ukraine President Zelenski says he received less than half the aid that was allegedly going to Ukraine.

Ukraine Has Received Less Than Half of Promised US Military Aid So Far: Zelensky

$75 billion received of the $177 billion in aid


Where did it go ?


Let's say I have my suspicions




The highest ranking Treasury official, David A Lebryk, is resigning rather than complying with a request
for access to audit where they’ve spent trillions of dollars a year. Why would career bureaucrats fear an audit to see where we can save money?

Treasury Official Quits After Resisting Musk’s Requests on Payments - The New York Times

[tomder55]

[tomder55]

According to this report some of Musk's team are very young people;one of them a recent high school graduate . This I don't mind. However it does bring up concerns.
1 They have access to sensitive information even if it is on a 'read only basis. What is their security clearance ? On who's payroll are they ?

Sources tell WIRED that Bobba, Coristine, Farritor, and Shaotran all currently have working GSA emails and A-suite level clearance at the GSA, which means that they work out of the agency’s top floor and have access to all physical spaces and IT systems, according a source with knowledge of the GSA’s clearance protocols. The source, who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation, says they worry that the new teams could bypass the regular security clearance protocols to access the agency’s sensitive compartmented information facility, as the Trump administration has already granted temporary security clearances to unvetted people.

The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover | WIRED

Anyway I imagine this won't last long.

Musk is grabbing attention away from Trump. The rifts are already developing.
Trump says Musk cannot take actions without 'our approval' | AFP

[tomder55]

Evidently Musk's staff is being threatened on Bluesky Social .

Ed Martin on X: "Dear @elon, Please see this important letter. We will not tolerate threats against DOGE workers or law-breaking by the disgruntled. All the best. Ed Martin https://t.co/jIgMPVbPT5" / X

[tomder55]

Thanks to the Wired write ups we learn that one of Musk's protégé young guns is a genuine genius . Last year Luke Farritor did something that historians have failed to do for centuries . Using an AI program he developed, he deciphered a 2,000 year old, charred from the Mount Vesuvius eruption, papyrus scroll.

an early read suggests that it is a philosophical treatise on pleasure, akin to what the organizers called “a 2,000-year-old blog post about how to enjoy life.” The preliminary analysis has also confirmed that the text was never duplicated, meaning that it has gone unread since at least A.D. 79, when Mount Vesuvius drowned the surrounding area in ash and volcanic mud.

Farritor named co-winner of $700,000 prize for ID’ing scroll passages | Nebraska Today

He learned Latin as a kid and used to spend hours in history museums, but he never considered the classics an especially lucrative pursuit.

Farritor predicts that reading these ancient scrolls “will completely upend our understanding of the ancient world. There’s just so much work that was lost.” At present, much of our understanding of ancient Rome comes from gluing together “guesses on other guesses.” To have access to an ancient library is “going to rewrite a lot of the assumptions we have,” he added.

The 22-Year-Old Who Unlocked the Secrets of Ancient Rome

Now he gets to decipher and unscramble the many layers of corruption in the US government. He work on the papyrus may have been the easier task.

[tomder55]

This is better reporting than anything I have seen in the compliant press.

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."
That trail led to staggering discoveries. Programs marked as independent revealed coordinated funding streams. Grants labeled as humanitarian aid showed curious detours through complex networks. Black budgets once shrouded in secrecy began to unravel under algorithmic scrutiny.
By 6 AM, Treasury's career officials began arriving for work. They found systems they thought impenetrable already mapped. Networks they believed hidden already exposed. Power structures built over decades revealed in hours.
Their traditional defenses—slow-walking decisions, leaking damaging stories, stonewalling requests—proved useless against an opponent moving faster than their systems could react. By the time they drafted their first memo objecting to this breach, three more systems had already been mapped.

"Pull this thread," a senior official warned, watching patterns emerge across DOGE's screens, "and the whole sweater unravels."
He wasn't wrong. But he misunderstood something crucial: That was exactly the point.
This wasn't just another transition. This wasn't just another reform effort. This was the start of something unprecedented: a revolution powered by preparation, presidential will, and technological precision.
The storm had arrived. And Treasury was just the beginning.

Read the rest here .
OVERRIDE - EKO LOVES YOU
The whole thing is mind boggling shocking . No wonder Schmuck Shumer was able to mobilize the whole Dem legislative branch to pull all nighters and attempt to stop what DOGE was finding .

No wonder Musk and his team are sleeping on cots in the Federal buildings and offices they are auditing . They may be afraid to venture out.

Here is the reality. Trump is in his 2nd term. That makes him a lame duck by definition. At most he has 2 years to accomplish what he campaigned to do. Traditionally there is a mid-term adjustment where the majority party loses seats . That means the Dems could take the majority and then all bets are off. Even now the audit is getting bogged down . All it takes is for the Dems to find friendly judges to delay . And that is the Dem game plan ...delay delay delay.

"We don't have a lot of time," the President reminded his team daily. "Four years is a lot of time in political life but it's not a long time in real life."

A President who nearly took a bullet to the head believes every day he has is precious . He is acting with urgency.
The article points out that it is having an immediate impact as funds finally make it to their intended purpose and red tape that delayed projects are being cut.

Across America, funds once lost in administrative mazes suddenly found their way to actual problems needing solutions. In rural Tennessee, broadband expansion projects long buried under bureaucratic red tape broke ground overnight. In Michigan, water treatment plants received upgrades that bureaucrats had studied for decades but never approved.
The transformation was measurable. In just two weeks:

• Tens of thousands of redundant programs identified
• Billions in waste exposed
• Hundreds of unauthorized initiatives halted
• Countless local projects unleashed

[jlisenbe]

Really great information. The great disappointment here is that our elected officials obviously did not give a rat's rear end where the money was going or how much was being wasted. You would think that people responsible for 36 tril in national debt might would develop some small concern for rolling back spending, but that was obviously not the case. I think they all should be held responsible.

[tomder55]

Here is another one .
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) , Congress authorized payments for many programs whose authorizations had actually expired and were NOT RENEWED .

The money just went out the door...................How much money?
In 2024 alone $516 billion.



Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2024 | Congressional Budget Office

The good news is that is down from 2023
.................................................. .................................

And DOGE revealed that just last week ; FEMA spend $59 million housing illegals in NYC alone .

FEMA sent $59M last week to luxury NYC hotels to house illegal migrants, Elon Musk says

This in direct violation of Trump's suspending payments. Evidently Cameron Hamilton, Trump's acting administrator of FEMA responded . He did not know that his agency was sending out the payments . In other words ;the desk jockeys at FEMA were sending out the payments despite Trump's direct orders.

FEMA halts migrant housing funds in NY after Musk’s criticism - ABC News


“As Secretary Noem said yesterday, we must get rid of FEMA the way it exists today," McLaughlin told The Associated Press on Monday. "This is yet another egregious example. Individuals who circumvented leadership and unilaterally made this payment will be fired and held accountable.”

Where else did similar payments go ?

.................................................. .........
A Federal Judge reversed Trump's decision to freeze Federal Spending .Yesterday he said Trump was violating his directive by keeping the freeze in place.

Judge finds Trump administration violated court order halting funding freeze
I actually welcome these court challenges because I have no doubt that Trump as Chief Executive has the constitutional power to manage the Executive Branch .



Yes this will delay ; but I believe that ultimately SCOTUS will have to weigh in.

[jlisenbe]

Copied much of this to Facebook. The situation with FEMA is incredible. It's the Swamp at work to be sure. Heads should roll over this.

[jlisenbe]

And just like that, the FEMA payments are halted.

FEMA Halting Payments for Migrant Housing in N.Y. After Musk Criticism | Newsmax.com

[tomder55]

This has to stop . Congress creates a Department that is added to the EXECUTIVE Branch run by the CHIEF EXECUTIVE ;the President. Then Congress says that the employees that are hired by that Department can't be fired without Congressional approval ??????
Take the IG's he canned . Even Repub Senators like Chuck Grassley are pushing back saying he did not follow the law because he did not give Congress 30 day notification of the cause of the firing.
Senators push back on President’s firing of IGs

It is a stupid law and Congress knows it. That is why they didn't bother to add any penalty to the violation . But the trick they played is that they made it hard for the President to replace the IGs
Trump Fired 17 Inspectors General—Was It Legal? | Lawfare

This is a silly game .
Flashback There was what is being called today by the Dems a "Constitutional Crisis " in 1867 . Andrew Johnson became President after Lincoln's assassination. He was a southerner ;a good old boy from Tennessee and a Democrat.

Lincoln believed in unity and had decided to not punish the South. Johnson believed in Lincoln's reconstruction goals .
But by 1867 the Repubs were in a mind to force changes to the South and no southern President was going to stand in their way.

They created the Tenure of Office Act to prevent Johnson from canning (what was then called )Radical Republicans . Johnson decided to defy them and he fired Sec.War Edwin Stanton over his punish the South Reconstruction policies .

Congress impeached Johnson and the case went to the Senate for trial. One Senator stood in the way of conviction ;Repub from Kansas Edmund Ross

Of note ; JFK's book 'Profiles In Courage ' identifies Ross as courageous for his impeachment vote . He said it helped save constitutional separation of power.

To add an exclamation point ;SCOTUS weighed in on the issue . 1926 Myers v. United States ;they again defended the President's power to run the Executive Branch .

. After tracing legislative debate of the First Congress in 1789 which dealt with the interpretation of the President's appointment power, Chief Justice Taft concluded that the power to remove appointed officers is vested in the President alone. According to Taft, to deny the President that power would not allow him to "discharge his own constitutional duty of seeing that the laws be faithfully executed."

Myers v. United States | Oyez

[tomder55]

Started new post

[tomder55]

Trump and Musk's efforts will be wasted if SCOTUS does not restore the Executive authority.

Trump's order to temporarily freeze $2 billion in foreign aid in the wake of what DOGE discovered in USAID fraud and abuse was blocked by a freekin District Court judge. ( Canadian -American Judge Amir Ali ...DC District )

In a divided ruling (the ususal suspect pseudo -conservative Roberts and Barrett joining the majority ) SCOTUS sided with Ali. Sam Alito is dissent said Ali lacks the authority to overrule an Executive order.

"Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic 'No,' but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned,"

24A831 Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (03/05/2025)


There have been over 100 suits against Trump's orders since his term began. Most of them challenge the right of the Chief Executive of the nation's power to do his job. Alito added the decision “makes a most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers.”

Acting U.S. Solicitor General Sarah Harris said that the payment deadline imposed by Ali was “not logistically or technically feasible” and the order could be a violation of the Constitution’s authority granted to the executive branch.
20250226200602007_AIDS_Vaccine_Advocacy_Coalition_ et_al_application.pdf

[tomder55]

If you go to the National Debt Clock They have now added to it a DOGE clock that shows the savings that DOGE has uncovered .

As of now it sits at $185 billion .

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

That's the good news. You can see the bad news vividly.

[tomder55]

Ray Dalio is no liberal . He is a hedge fund manager and owner of Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund. CNBC is not a conservative station. He was on CNBC and was saying out loud what only Musk has had the courage to say.


We are in the end game. The debt is so big and out of control that we will have trouble finding buyers of the debt .

“

The first thing is the debt issue, we have a very severe supply-demand problem,” Dalio told CNBC’s Sara Eisen at CONVERGE LIVE in Singapore. ”[The U.S. has] to sell a quantity of debt that the world is not going to want to buy.”
He said this was imminent and of “paramount importance.”
The U.S. deficit needs to go from a projected level of 7.2% of gross domestic product to about 3% of GDP, Dalio said.
“That’s a big deal. You are going to see shocking developments in terms of how that’s going to be dealt with,” he added.

Growing U.S. debt will lead to ‘shocking developments,' says Ray Dalio

We will be forced to make cuts that will dwarf what Musk says is needed. Nothing will be off the table. We may indeed have to choose which creditor we default . Or maybe we can print more monopoly bucks and go the way of the Weimar Republic .
Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic - Wikipedia

So how are the Dems reacting ? Schumer is willing to let the government shut down if the Repubs try to pass the CR that continues spending at Joe's level of spending . They want to spend even more .

Senate Democrats say they will reject GOP's funding bill as shutdown draws near

What they know and secretly want but left unsaid is that when the sh*t hits the fan ,it will be on Trump's watch.

This is the real reason why Trump is going the tariff route. He is desperate . Dalio says it resembles 1930s Germany's attempts to handle their debt bomb.

Dalio said there was a write-down of debt at that time, alongside a hike in tariffs to boost revenue and a buildup of its domestic base. “Be nationalistic, be protectionistic, be militaristic. That is the way these things operate,” he said.
“The issue is really the confrontation of all of this, the fighting of all of this. So, tariffs are going to cause fighting between countries,” Dalio said, adding that he was not necessarily talking about a military confrontation.
“But think about U.S., Canada, Mexico, China, and all of those types of fighting. There will be fighting, and that will have consequences, and I think that’s the main thing to pay attention to,” he said.

[tomder55]

So how are the Dems reacting ? Schumer is willing to let the government shut down if the Repubs try to pass the CR that continues spending at Joe's level of spending . They want to spend even more .

Senate Democrats say they will reject GOP's funding bill as shutdown draws near

Well Schumer had a change of heart. Saying he did not want to give Trump a victory ;he gave Trump a victory.

Schumer announces he'll vote to keep government open, likely avoiding shutdown - ABC News

[tomder55]

Flashback When DOGE was cool 'Nobody messes with Joe " He will bring transpancy to the government <sarc/>

The Campaign To Cut Waste

Campaign to Cut Waste | The White House

Yeah a 'new culture of efficiency ...... that's the ticket

[tomder55]

In one case, former Vice President Kamala Harris handed over a check for nearly $7 billion to Bethesda, Maryland, based group Climate United Fund, which does not appear in the IRS’s charities database, and has no federal filings.
The non-profit fund had only been incorporated in Delaware on November 30, 2023, according to public records, five months before Harris handed over the cash in April 2024.

Exclusive | John Podesta $375B EPA slush fund gave billions to newly-formed charities

5 months in operation and the Veep personally delivers a $7 billion check ? Nothing suspicious there.

The article points out that this was part of a $350 billion slush fund that was given to John Podesta for distribution . You may remember him as the Clintonista who managed the Monica Lewinsky scandal for Bubba. He took over as 'Climate Czar ' after JFKerry left the job. The $350 billion came from the Green New Steal aka the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.

To understand the level of theft and corruption, keep in mind that the total Federal Deficit is $1.83 trillion . The slush fund Podesta managed was over 20% of the deficit .

[tomder55]

To put all this in perspective ;let's put the shoe on the other foot. What would happen if the Repub Congress gave Trump $billions to shell out to businesses and conservative groups he favored ? A new Dem President would be completely justified in ending that racket.

EPA boss Lee Zeldin disclosed this scam, which was essentially squirrelling the money to NGOs to bypass Congressional oversight.

Dem Senators have blasted the administration for bypassing oversight in regards to the stopping of the funding while failing to admit that the whole point of the scheme was to bypass oversight.

Letter dated February 4, 2025 to Secretary Rubio on USAID

The nondelegation doctrine says Congress can't hand off their responsibilities to private groups or individuals.
nondelegation doctrine | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute

SCOTUS says that Trump can't stop payments for "services" already rendered .
But Zeldin has identified over $20 billion of monopoly bucks that haven't been spent yet. Lib groups that the slush fund was promised to want that money.

E.P.A. Offers No New Evidence in Battle Over $20 Billion in Climate Grants - The New York Times

I look forward to reading and hearing how this theft of taxpayer money is justified .If nothing else the American people get to see the inner workings of the swamp .