Buckwoody Egger said:

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Canugghead said:

Canugghead said:

sounds like all 1's to me 

stealing jic's line... nobody gets my jokes (lame) sarcasm?

i probably missed it!  my comment was to the general topic and not to anyone specific. 

 “DOGE’s ‘wall of receipts’ is riddled with errors and inconsistencies,” by POLITICO’s Jessie Blaeser: As proof of its purported $55 billion in savings for taxpayers, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has offered up a “wall of receipts” representing a subset of canceled contracts.

But in a new review of the published data, among the 1,100-plus contracts purportedly canceled, POLITICO found:

• Contracts that had not yet been awarded;
• Instances where a single pot of money is listed multiple times — tripling or quadrupling the amount of savings claimed;
• Purchase agreements that have no record of being canceled, but were instead stripped of language related to diversity, equity and inclusion;
• Contract savings identified by DOGE that do not match with records they refer to in the Federal Procurement Data System; and
• Contracts where the underlying document is for an entirely different contract.

“Everyone in the consulting industry has been well aware of the questionable contracts issued and outright errors in the data, and everyone is very well-aware they’re repeating the wrong numbers,” said a manager at one of the recipient companies listed on the DOGE site. “But we don’t want to speak up because we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”

"The Trump administration will select journalists to participate in the White House press pool, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday, breaking with nearly a century of access being regulated by the independent White House Correspondents’ Association. Justine McDaniel reports for the Washington Post.

Trump yesterday said he would strip security clearances from lawyers at a Washington law firm that employs high-profile Democratic lawyers who worked in the Obama and Biden administrations and provided pro bono legal advice to former Special Counsel Jack Smith. The firm will also be cut off from receiving any federal government work, Trump added. Devlin Barrett, Glenn Thrush, Maggie Haberman, and Alan Feuer report for the New York Times.

Amy Gleason, a former U.S. Digital Service (USDS) official, is the administrator of DOGE, the Trump administration announced yesterday following weeks of dodging questions about the identity of DOGE's leader. Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing and Ben Johansen report for POLITICO.

The Trump administration’s new White House Liaison to the Homeland Security Department, Paul Ingrassia, is a former far-right podcast host and election denier who shared social media posts calling for “martial law” to keep Trump in office following his 2020 election loss, a CNN review of his social media presence shows. Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck report.

About 1 million federal employees, or about half of the federal workforce, responded to Musk’s “what did you do last week” email, the White House said. The employees’ responses are expected to be fed into a LLM AI system to determine whether their jobs are necessary, sources suggest. Emily Peck reports for Axios; Courtney Kube, Julie Tsirkin, Yamiche Alcindor, Laura Strickler, and Dareh Gregorian report for NBC News.

A group of 21 employees of USDS, the unit rebranded as DOGE, resigned yesterday, saying they would “not use [their] skills … to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services.” Brian Slodysko and Byron Tau report for AP News. 

The Trump administration plans to introduce a requirement for undocumented migrants in the United States to register and provide their fingerprints to the government or face criminal prosecution, the Homeland Security Department announced yesterday. Hamed Aleaziz and Zolan Kanno-Youngs report for the New York Times.

Trump yesterday announced he will replace the foreign investor visa program with $5 million “gold cards” providing green card privileges and a route to citizenship, a move that immigration experts say likely requires congressional approval. Marianne LeVine reports for the Washington Post.

DOGE is seeking to cancel contracts that provide support to veterans,according to internal Veterans Affairs Department documents. Emily Davies and Hannah Natanson report for the Washington Post."

MJG said:

Sorry, could figure how to embed the YouTube link…

"Presidents might rightfully defy court orders in “extreme cases,” President Trump’s Solicitor General nominee D. John Sauer and former personal lawyer told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday during a confirmation hearing. Aaron Reitz, selected to lead the Office of Legal Policy, said that there is “no hard and fast rule about whether, in every instance a public official is bound by a court decision.” Erica Orden reports for POLITICO; Devlin Barrett reports for the New York Times.

Military leaders involved in the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan are “going to be largely gone,” President Trump said yesterday, in a sign of further incoming removals of top military officers. Paul McLeary reports for POLITICO. 

The White House yesterday denied access to Trump’s first Cabinet meeting to Reuters, Associated Press, HuffPost, and Der Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper. Reuters, AP, and Bloomberg, traditionally the permanent members of the White House press pool, released a joint statement condemning the move. James Oliphant reports for Reuters.

Transgender service members will be separated from the U.S. Army unless they receive an exemption, according to a memo Pentagon lawyers filed in court yesterday. The move would essentially ban transgender troops from joining or serving in the military. Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart report for Reuters.

Federal agency leaders are to prepare plans for additional “large-scale reductions” in the federal workforce in March and April, according to a memo circulated to government leaders by Office of Management and Budget (OPM) Director Russell T. Vought and the OPM’s acting head, Charles Ezell. Chris Cameron reports for the New York Times.

Trump is expected to name his former top environmental attorney, Jeffrey Bossert Clark, to lead the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, sources say. Clark is facing the potential loss of his law licence over allegations he tried to overturn the 2020 election results. Robin Bravender reports for E&E News.

The Food and Drug Administration this week cancelled the meeting of a panel of scientific experts scheduled to discuss next year’s flu vaccines, a senior official said. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Christina Jewett report for the New York Times.

The Trump administration is preparing to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed up its deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to multiple sources. Priscilla Alvarez and Alayna Treene report for CNN.

DOGE engineers are working on updating software that could automate the firing of federal workers across the government, sources say. Makena Kelly reports for WIRED.

The Justice Department is ending federal civil rights lawsuits accusing police and fire departments of discrimination based on tests given to applicants for jobs or promotions, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced yesterday, citing the Trump administration’s move away from recruitment based on “DEI quotas.” Josh Gerstein reports for POLITICO.

The Trump administration is planning to eliminate more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) foreign aid contracts and cut $60 billion in U.S. assistance around the world, according to an internal memo reviewed by AP News. Ellen Knickermeyer, Matthew Lee, and Mark Sherman report.  

The Trump administration is giving thousands of USAID workers 15 minutes to clear out their desks across today and tomorrow, according to a notice posted on USAID’s website. Gary Fields reports for AP News."

"The Defense Department yesterday ordered Pentagon leaders to set up procedures to identify troops diagnosed with or being treated for gender dysphoria by March 26 and begin firing them by late April. Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor report for AP News.

The FBI has begun investigating the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Biden-era grant program for climate and clean-energy projects and the DOJ in recent weeks advanced its own investigation, with interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin submitting a warrant request in the face of career prosecutors’ refusal and searching for prosecutors in other offices who would take part in the case, sources say. The seizure warrant application was rejected by a D.C. judge over lack of proof a crime occurred, the sources added. Spencer S. Hsu, Maxine Joselow, and Nicolás Rivero report for the Washington Post.

The Justice Department is recruiting new attorneys to help defend President Trump’s policies, public job postings, department officials, and legal experts suggest. Perry Stein reports for the Washington Post.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has urged the White House to strike down the scientific finding that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health underpinning the federal government’s climate change regulations since 2009, sources say. Environmental groups said they would challenge any moves to remove the finding in court. Maxine Joselow reports for the Washington Post.

The Office of Personnel Management on Wednesday instructed federal agencies to create lists of divisions that should be consolidated or cut entirely by March 13 and outline proposals for relocating their D.C. offices to areas with lower cost of living by April 14. Eileen Sullivan reports for the New York Times.

The Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 people, with the overall planned workforce reductions potentially reaching 50% of staffers, sources say. Fatima Hussein reports for AP News.

The EPA is planning to reduce its budget by 65%, a White House spokesperson said yesterday following Trump’s earlier comments suggesting that the figure referred to planned reductions in staffing levels. Separately, sources say the Trump administration has fired 800 employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with more firings expected today. Zack Budryk reports for the Hill; Ella Nilson and Tami Luhby report for CNN.

Private prison company CoreCivic yesterday said it expanded its contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to increase detention capacity for immigrants at four of its prisons. Russeall Contreras reports for Axios."

Interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Ed Martin demoted several senior top federal prosecutors in the fraud, public corruption and civil rights section of the D.C. Justice Department office to entry-level positions, according to sources. Some of those demoted prosecuted the far-right Oath Keepers and former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro, the sources added. Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward report for Reuters.

Trump on Friday transported boxes of documents the FBI had seized at his Mar-a-Lago property in August 2022 back to Florida. The documents, which allegedly included classified files, formed the subject of an investigation into Trump’s mishandling of presidential documents. Kit Maher and Donald Judd report for CNN.

The Trump administration forced U.S. Army’s Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland to retire last Friday, officials say. Crosland was the head of the Defense Health Agency and one of the most senior Black female officers in the Army. Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart report for Reuters.

Federal employees across multiple agencies again received mass emails asking them to detail what they did over the past week from the Trump administration on Friday, in what the messages said would be a weekly requirement. Defense and Homeland Security Department employees received emails instructing them to reply to provide similar lists in internal emails to the DOD and DHS leaders, according to emails seen by CNN. Tami Luhby, Rene Marsh, and Nick Valencia report.

State Department and National Aviation and Space Agency leaders instructed their employees to ignore the second “what did you do last week” email, messages reviewed by the Washington Post show. Evan Halper, Dan Lamothe, and Hannah Natanson report.

Trump yesterday signed an executive order making English the official language of the United States, rescinding a policy that required government agencies and federally-funded organizations to provide language assistance to non-English speakers. Maia Davies reports for BBC News.

The Pentagon is sending approximately 3,000 more active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. officials said Saturday. Lolita C. Baldor reports for AP News.

Homeland Security Department officials are pushing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to turn over the addresses of roughly 700,000 undocumented immigrants the DHS is seeking to deport, with the IRS resisting over taxpayer privacy law concerns, sources say. Andrew Duehren reports for the New York Times."