Bannon: "They stole it. The system is so big, so corrupt, so powerful ... fix bayonets, we're charging again. That is why Kash Patel is director of the FBI! That is why Bobby Kennedy is the head of HHS! That is why Tulsi Gabbard is at DNI! That is why Pete Hegseth is in the Pentagon! Fix bayonets!"

Too bad for you if you need to contact the IRS for any reason. There won't be anyone there to answer your call or letter.

But the Fox News viewers will likely see only the promise not to cut.
#8 | Posted by LampLighter

They will see the cut if their Medicaid is cut. That's what it's going to take to wake some MAGA voters up:

'Chainsaw to a silk rug': Blindsided Trump voter furious after firing

A disabled military veteran and information technology technician with the Federal Emergency Management Agency said he was blindsided this week when the Trump administration " whom he voted for " informed him of his termination.

FTA:

For the most part, Republican members are publicly cheering the administration's push to slash the federal government, which is being led by billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk with Trump's blessing. But privately, many are feeling helpless to counter the meat-ax approach that has been embraced so far, with lawmakers especially concerned about the dismissal of military veterans working in federal agencies as well as USDA employees handling the growing bird flu outbreak affecting poultry and dairy farms.

"I thought we were supposed to be in a new era of meritocracy. Not the indiscriminate firing of people," said one Republican congressional aide granted anonymity to speak candidly.

He got Charlie Manson eyes...
#7 | POSTED BY LEE_THE_AGENT

He's got googly eyes.

Some of the MAGA reading this are going to die because of sh-- like this.
#2 | Posted by Zed

My response when I hear about some MAGA voter crying and complaining when they find out Trump is hurting them or someone they love: "Oh well."

After going on Fox and declaring Medicare and Mediciaid wouldn't be touched, Trump turns around and does this:

Marcy Kaptur
@repmarcykaptur.bsky.social

There is nothing efficient nor cost-savings about the way DOGE is proceeding. They are doing a hatchet job in areas where a scalpel is required:

Facing a furor after news reports last week that the prestigious corps of young epidemiologists being trained as "disease detectives" at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had been targeted for termination, the administration of President Donald Trump reversed course. The roughly 100 trainees at the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) were spared.

But another outstanding group of young CDC trainees wasn't so lucky. At least 15 of 21 fellows in CDC's lesser known Laboratory Leadership Service (LLS) were axed last weekend. The ultracompetitive, 2-year program, which trains Ph.D. scientists in the intricacies of public health laboratory work, has spawned leaders at state and local labs from Milwaukee to Tennessee to New York City.

In an interview, McConnell said he could not say much about the visit for security reasons. But Bevin, speaking on WHAS radio, divulged a few more details. He said it took "quite a bit of time" to get in and out of the facility, and said officials had to cut a seal to open the vault for them.

In addition to the gold bricks, Bevin said he got to hold a 1933 double eagle, a $20 gold coin that was never circulated. Bevin, who said he collected coins as a child, compared it to "seeing a leprechaun on a unicorn."

"All I will say is that it is freakishly well secured," he said. "The gold is safe."

The Fort Knox depository has only opened its doors to non-authorized personnel on three occasions: In 1943 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1974 for 10 Congress members to break down "cobwebs" to "re-assur[e] the public that their gold is intact and safe" and in 2017 for a delegation including Sen. Mitch McConnell, R. Ky., and then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "It is freakishly well secured," then-Gov. Matt Bevin, R. Ky., said after visiting the Fort Knox depository in 2017. "The gold is safe," Bevin added.

"Anyone that has multiple citizenship, passports and loyalties needs excluded from ever representing national sovereignty and its people as an alleged citizen or official in government."

Don't forget to add financial incentives/entanglements to the list.

Steve Bannon, hero of The Left.
If irony could kill.
#25 | Posted by sitzkrieg

The enemy of my enemy is (temporarily, conditionally) my friend?

BW, do you like polls? Here's one from Trump friendly Gallup:

Less than one month into his second term in office, President Donald Trump's job approval rating is at 45%, similar to his first post-inauguration reading of 47% in January.

Trump's ratings on several issues that his administration has targeted in the first weeks of his presidency are similar to his overall rating, including on immigration (46%), foreign affairs (44%), foreign trade (42%) and the economy (42%). Meanwhile, slightly fewer Americans, 40% each, approve of the president's handling of the situations in Ukraine and in the Middle East between the Israelis and Palestinians, as fewer offer opinions of his performance on these two issues.

Ninety-three percent of Republicans, 37% of independents and 4% of Democrats approve of Trump's job performance overall. Republicans also broadly approve of the president's handling of immigration (92%), foreign affairs (90%), the economy (90%) and foreign trade (89%). Another 80% of Republicans each approve of Trump's handling of the situations in the Middle East and Ukraine.

At the same time, Democrats register single-digit approval ratings of Trump on all six issues measured. Aside from independents' 40% rating for the president's performance on immigration, their ratings range from 31% on the economy to 37% on foreign affairs.

The answer to the change was there all along. Before last weekend's "cleanup" of stats page:

Gracie started it to ask a legitimate question and she was right. Rcade confirmed it.
The thread blew up when corky jacked himself off in #9
#165 | Posted by eberly

She was right that the stats had changed. She was wrong about why they had changed.

BR is a great example of someone lurkers who are interested in the news rather than the noise would plonk.

People coming for the news/articles could very well block a bunch of people who don't bring much that is news worthy to the table.

If I came here to read the articles and peruse a bit of discussion, I could see plonking a bunch of people.

Is someone an active user it they sign in to read only? I could see those people killfiling trolls and yet those trolls would not know their names, having never interacted with them.

"Everyone here is convinced Bellringer IS Jeff so he's a sock puppet account. Same goes for others including Bluewaffles, Shrimptacodan, legallyyourdead, wardog, etc....a lot of active users ARE part of a list of accounts controlled by a single person."

Or alternately, didn't you say that some accounts, Bellringer may be one, are controlled by multiple posters, who switch on and off using the handle?

Musk's recent claims that the Social Security Administration is sending out payments to tens of millions of dead people more than 100 years old"a claim echoed by President Trump"were wrong: the software system defaults missing birthdates to more than 150 years ago and the Social Security Administration decided not to spend more than $9 million on upgrading its system to include death information. Right-wing podcaster Trish Regan warned DOGE that "it's critical to present the math CORRECTLY" and noted: "Looks like the team got out over its skis on this one."

"The following users appear most often in the killfiles of active users."

My question is: how does RCade define an active user? Did he change the killfile list to limit it to active users at some point? I was under the impression the killfile list used to include users who had killfiled someone even if that person no longer posted at the site. IOW, the killfile number was all inclusive and went all the way back to when the killfile option was first initiated. If RCade has changed that policy to include only active users now, that could explain why the number of killfiles some posters have has dropped.

#72 It's amusing. Some of the more intelligent posters (S/) on the left would use the plonk count as proof certain conservative posters were not worthy. GRACIE HAS 21 PLONKS, SEE? The ones that believed there was 21 real posters plonking. Now, almost overnight I have 9. This came about when I looked at the STATS page to see if someone landed in the basement for a rather energetic night of pushing the envelope. Like magic, plonks for the top five disappeared and accounts not seen before, but set up previously, appeared on the STATS page. Weird.
#74 | Posted by gracieamazed

Maybe Gracie really did have 21 plonks and those plonks included posters who no longer post here, some of whom have passed away, but now she has 9 plonks from actual active users. If so, then this dramatic drop could have nothing to do with sock puppets. I don't know. I'm just considering other possibilities.

Ron Filipkowski
@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social
Elon is telling everyone that he discovered trillions of dollars of social security money has gone to dead people & there is something else Congress is doing today besides holding hearings & having him testify about it under oath? Why? What could be more important?

Ron Filipkowski
@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social
Elon claims trillions in social security went to dead people but instead of holding hearings on that today and having him and DOGE testify under oath, Republicans are filing bills to put Trump's face on Mt. Rushmore & make his birthday a holiday. DON'T THEY CARE ABOUT OUR MONEY!

Democrat Dismisses Trump's IVF Executive Order As 'Lip Service'

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), whose "Right to IVF" bill remains blocked by Republicans, dismissed Trump's executive order on IVF as "just lip-service from a known liar."

"Don't be fooled. Donald Trump's executive order does nothing to expand access to IVF," she said in a statement. "In fact, he's the reason IVF is at risk in the first place. But if he is actually serious about taking real action to accomplish his own campaign promise to make IVF free for everyone, there's a simple way he can prove it: He can call on Senate Republicans to immediately back my Right to IVF Act that would require insurance plans to cover IVF."

Duckworth, a U.S. Army veteran who lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq, has spoken openly about using IVF to conceive her two daughters. The Illinois senator says her doctor suggested her struggles with infertility may be tied to the many X-rays she received while undergoing treatment for her injuries.

Time will tell:

Senator Patty Murray
@murray.senate.gov

Let's be clear: this PR stunt does NOTHING to actually expand access to IVF. Republicans created this mess by overturning Roe and they've blocked legislation MULTIPLE TIMES that WOULD make IVF care more accessible and affordable for families. Give me a break.