Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted
8 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

 

 

It's been said a billion times but it's absolutely bonkers that not that long ago this guy had most of the world thinking he was a genius. The musk story is going to make one hell of a comedy movie/show one day if it's somehow still legal to make and distribute such material. 

  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted

Feed the hungry? Support our nation’s farmers? 

“Not on my watch.” -Krasnov

 

Quote

The Agriculture Department has axed two programs that gave schools and food banks money to buy food from local farms and ranchers, halting more than $1 billion in federal spending.

Roughly $660 million that schools and child care facilities were counting on to purchase food from nearby farms through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program in 2025 has been canceled, according to the School Nutrition Association.

State officials were notified Friday of USDA’s decision to end the LFS program for this year. More than 40 states had signed agreements to participate in previous years, according to SNA and several state agencies.

The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which supports food banks and other feeding organizations, has also been cut. USDA notified states that it was unfreezing funds for existing LFPA agreements but did not plan to carry out a second round of funding for fiscal year 2025.

In a statement, a USDA spokesperson confirmed that funding, previously announced last October, “is no longer available and those agreements will be terminated following 60-day notification.”

The spokesperson added: “These programs, created under the former Administration via Executive authority, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency. LFPA and LFPA Plus agreements that were in place prior to LFPA 25, which still have substantial financial resources remaining, will continue to be in effect for the remainder of the period of performance.” 

The Biden administration expanded the spending for both programs to build a more resilient food supply chain that didn’t just rely on major food companies. Last year, USDA announced more than $1 billion in additional funding for the programs through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a New Deal-era USDA fund for buying agricultural commodities.

The Trump administration’s move to halt the programs comes as school nutrition officials are becoming increasingly anxious about affording healthy food with the current federal reimbursement rate for meals. As food costs have risen in the last few years, more people are turning to food banks and other feeding organizations to supplement their increased grocery bills.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, castigated the administrationfor the decision, noting that her state would lose $12 million it planned to dole out to school districts.

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk have declared that feeding children and supporting local farmers are no longer ‘priorities,’ and it’s just the latest terrible cut with real impact on families across Massachusetts,” Healey said in a statement.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/10/usda-cancels-local-food-purchasing-for-schools-food-banks-00222796

 

 

  • Rage+1 6
Posted
4 minutes ago, royiv said:

Make America Healthy Again!

You will buy all of your food from the only approved seller, XGroceries.  The food will be manufactured by the only approved manufacturer, XFoodCo.

You will submit, peasants.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
11 hours ago, Hookah Horns said:

It's been said a billion times but it's absolutely bonkers that not that long ago this guy had most of the world thinking he was a genius. The musk story is going to make one hell of a comedy movie/show one day if it's somehow still legal to make and distribute such material. 

How do you say Giuliani in Afrikaans?

  • Like 1
Posted
4 minutes ago, 27-25 said:

The $55.6 billion was for overall economic impact, not direct National Park Service revenue.

With that nit picking out of the way, it changes nothing.  I don't give a rat's ass if the NPS is "profitable" or not in their own books.  The NPS is a national treasure and should be treated as such.

Thanks for the clarification. And, agreed.

  • Like 1
Posted

Replace fired federal employees with AI? What could go wrong?

Quote

A new phase of the president and the Department of Government Efficiency’s attempts to downsize and remake the civil service is under way. The idea is simple: use generative AI to automate work that was previously done by people.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/gsa-chat-doge-ai/681987/?utm_source=apple_news

  • Rage+1 1
Posted
39 minutes ago, pacman said:

With Grok's biased, hallucination prone xAI LLM model? At no charge to US taxpayers, right?

Grok said there’s a 75-85% chance that dotard is a Russian asset so it can’t be totally bad.

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 2
  • Haha 4
Posted

Trump official tasked with defending DOGE cuts posted fashion influencer videos from her office

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/11/politics/opm-spokesperson-fashion-influencer-videos-invs/index.html

Quote

 

As the Office of Personnel Management oversaw the layoffs of thousands of federal workers and pressed others to justify their positions, the agency’s chief spokesperson repeatedly used her office for a side hustle: aspiring Instagram fashion influencer.

In at least a dozen videos filmed in her OPM office, political appointee McLaurine Pinover modeled her outfit choices for the day, while directing followers from her Instagram account to a website that could earn her commissions on clothing sales.

On the same day OPM sent a government-wide memo pressing federal officials to identify barriers they faced in their work to “swiftly terminate poor performing employees,” Pinover posted a video blowing a kiss to the camera with the caption “work look” and the hashtag #dcinfluencer. Her Instagram account linked to a site where viewers could buy the $475 purple skirt she wore in the video.

One watchdog group said her videos could run afoul of rules restricting the use of government property for personal benefit because, while in the workplace, she was using a website that pays content creators commissions from the clothing brands they promote.

Former OPM staffers during the Biden administration also told CNN that they were offended by Pinover posting as a fashion influencer on government property while defending mass layoffs of federal workers – at a time when top Trump administration officials have accused career employees of being lazy and wasteful.

“Your number one job as a leader is to protect and support your people,” said Jack Miller, who preceded Pinover as the politically appointed OPM communications director under President Joe Biden. “So instead of fighting tooth and nail to keep your team, we’re posting fashion videos. It’s absurd.”

Pinover, who started her job at the federal government’s human resources agency in January, has issued numerous statements backing the Trump administration’s moves to lay off probationary employees and offer buyouts to tens of thousands of others. When OPM sent federal employees an email last month asking them to list five bullet points of things they had done in the past week, Pinover described it as “a commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce.”

Pinover did not respond to a list of questions. But she deleted her Instagram account, @getdressedwithmc, minutes after CNN asked about it.

On Instagram, where she had about 800 followers, Pinover’s posts were adorned with hashtags like #dcstyle and #dcinfluencer, and soundtracked with hits like Sabrina Carpenter’s “Busy Woman.” She had posted as recently as Tuesday, when she uploaded a video showing herself typing on her office computer. Her account did not identify her as a federal employee.

 

Pinover posted at least a dozen fashion influencer videos from her office in the agency's Washington, DC, headquarters. 

 

The videos were filmed inside the office of the OPM communications director on the fifth floor of the agency’s Washington, DC, headquarters, according to three former OPM staffers. The office is across the hall from a secure annex that has become a hub for workers at the Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting effort pushed by Trump ally Elon Musk.

“I saw it, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, that’s my office,’” a former OPM communications staffer, who asked not to be named out of concern for retaliation, told CNN. “She’s the spokesperson for the agency that is advocating for the firing based on performance and efficiency of the rest of the government workforce, and she’s using government property as a backdrop for her videos.”

Pinover’s Instagram page linked to her account on the fashion website ShopMy, which featured links for viewers to buy the same pieces of clothing Pinover wore in her videos. At least some of the links on Pinover’s ShopMy page were “affiliate links” for clothing brands like Quince and Reformation, as well as retailers like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s – a technique used by social media influencers to receive payments from companies whose products they promote.

Brands pay commissions to ShopMy users who send them customers through affiliate links, according to the website, with the influencers sometimes receiving about 15% of the sales price. It’s not clear what commission rate Pinover could have earned or whether she received any money through the links. Pinover also deleted all the content on her ShopMy page on Tuesday.

According to federal regulations, government employees must not use public property “for other than authorized purposes,” with exceptions for “de minimis personal use,” such as sending a personal email from a government account.

Donald K. Sherman, the chief counsel for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Pinover’s posts appeared to violate rules prohibiting the use of government resources for private gain, and would not be considered “de minimis.”

The rules don’t “give cover to a federal employee using government resources to subsidize their private business,” Sherman said. “It is highly problematic that while dedicated civil servants who want to work for the government are being fired for all manner of dubious reasons, or are being forced out by this administration, that someone at the agency leading that attack on the civil service is using their government job for private gain.”

Still, Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said Pinover’s potential rule violations were small potatoes compared to other ethical questions surrounding the role of DOGE and Musk in the Trump administration.

Because Pinover didn’t reference her OPM position in her online posts, “she does not appear to be attempting to trade on the prestige of government office,” Clark noted.

Some federal agencies also have regulations that say certain employees need to get approval before pursuing a “business relationship or activity involving the provision of personal services by the employee for direct, indirect, or deferred compensation,” although it’s unclear if a similar rule covers OPM workers.

Several of the Instagram videos from Pinover’s office were posted during business hours, according to a review of code embedded in the social media website, and most appear to have been filmed during the daytime.

The former OPM staffers say they were particularly offended by one video Pinover posted on February 13. That was the day that OPM reportedly held a call with other federal agencies directing them to lay off thousands of probationary employees – and when about 20 people on Pinover’s team were told their jobs would be cut, according to Miller, her predecessor.

The agency’s communications team “worked their butts off to support other agencies and the workforce,” Miller said. “To post that video the very day your entire team is getting laid off is ridiculous.”

“While her team is getting axed, she’s twirling around in her office,” added the other former staffer.

Related article‘Second American Revolution’: The team behind DOGE’s government overhaul

Pinover also posted a video on February 28, the day that OPM sent out a second government-wide email asking federal employees to summarize their work. Administration officials like Musk have described those emails as part of a broader effort to root out employees who were not using their time efficiently.

“Pretending to work while taking money from taxpayers is no longer acceptable,” Musk posted on his social media network, X, in January.

Before Pinover joined OPM at the beginning of Trump’s second term, she worked as a senior director at a public affairs firm, and was a deputy communications director for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to her LinkedIn page. She also worked as an assistant in the Executive Office of the President during Trump’s first term.

image.thumb.png.beb59274001279a7c4e08872f2916c56.png

  • Haha 2
  • Rage+1 3
Posted
2 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

These morally bankrupt assholes don't care about what they cause; they care only about themselves. So let's be clear. This woman is the very definition of plain and forgettable. If you asked the greatest AI of all time to draw "a woman who is average at best" this is exactly what you'd get. 

Basic. At best. 

It’s as Ann as the nose on plain’s face. 

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Posted
11 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

These morally bankrupt assholes don't care about what they cause; they care only about themselves. So let's be clear. This woman is the very definition of plain and forgettable. If you asked the greatest AI of all time to draw "a woman who is average at best" this is exactly what you'd get. 

Basic. At best. 

100% on the bolded.

Also......would.  

Because I have no shame.

  • Hook 'Em 3
Posted
11 hours ago, TexasHooch said:

On Instagram, where she had about 800 followers

I'm no influencer or anything.  I'm just a guy who likes to take pictures of food but even I have as many followers 🤣

She has terrible taste in clothes too.....

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

Friend of mine got the news last night. She’s a lawyer who went to Harvard Law, so she’ll have no problem getting a job in the private sector. But lots of the impacted may not have it so easy. 

IMG_1881.thumb.png.1f325f5c2d50b90e6cac765fe076ffcc.png

  • Rage+1 6
Posted
8 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

100% on the bolded.

Also......would.  

Because I have no shame.

Why would you be ashamed of banging a woman who is solidly average in appearance? That's not what shame is for. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
Posted
22 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

You will buy all of your food from the only approved seller, XGroceries.  The food will be manufactured by the only approved manufacturer, XFoodCo.

You will submit, peasants.

I owe my soul, to the company store..

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 2
  • Rage+1 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Jive Turkey said:

Friend of mine got the news last night. She’s a lawyer who went to Harvard Law, so she’ll have no problem getting a job in the private sector. But lots of the impacted may not have it so easy. 

IMG_1881.thumb.png.1f325f5c2d50b90e6cac765fe076ffcc.png

 

image.jpeg.b9adf500f96a90008e2b319e0ae36b48.jpeg

  • Like 1
  • Haha 4
Posted
18 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Yes, in the form of government contracts and deregulation.

I mean, technically in accounting terms, I think those are more like dividends than a salary.  Which is important, because the tax rate for capital gains and such is different than the tax rate on earned income.....neither of which Elon pays, of course.   Just wanted to get that out there.

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Rage+1 1
Posted
15 hours ago, F250 said:

She is fugly. I mean, yeah it's obviously unethical but she is an ugly dork. Jesus, these fucking losers that are sinking the country.

Frustrated Clint Eastwood GIF

I normally think the Surl is fucking insane with it's "Seen hotter on campus" bullshit, but that is.......well, Cringe is being charitable. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Posted

This issue keeps me up at night, because it causes our eldest so much pain.

Quote

 new report from the nonprofit United for Medical Research (UMR) shows that every dollar of research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) delivers $2.56 in economic activity, a multiplier effect that extends the agency’s impact as the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world.

In fiscal year 2024, the report found, the agency awarded more than $36.9 billion to researchers, supporting more than 408,000 jobs and generating over $94.5 billion in new economic activity nationwide. The funding supports a broad range of institutions in states across the nation, including academic research centers, private companies, startups, and advocacy organizations.

The 2025 update noted NIH-funded research has improved patient health; boosted job creation directly and indirectly; supported the purchase of research-related goods and services; and produced spin-out companies that drive tax revenue and attract innovation-intensive businesses. The new report arrives amid growing concerns over future funding levels for the federal agency.

By fueling basic scientific research, the NIH helps the U.S. maintain its position as a leader in the global life sciences, medtech, and biopharmaceutical industries. Forty-six percent of all basic research in the nation is conducted at academic research institutions, and most of that work is funded by the federal government, according to UMR, a coalition of leading industry groups and research institutions, including Harvard University.

At Harvard, NIH funding supported the development of an AI tool called Clinical Histopathology Imaging Evaluation Foundation, or CHIEF, which made huge strides in diagnosing cancer and guiding treatment. Other NIH-funded projects include developing a procedure to repair once-untreatable eye damage; creating a new class of antibioticsto combat drug-resistant infections; finding new ways to fight depression; and deepening our understanding of neurodegenerative disease, among other projects.

The UMR findings come in the wake of a 2023 report showing the exponential economic impact of research funding in rural states. In the nation’s seven most rural states, NIH funding generates an average return of $2.30 for every dollar invested and supports an average of 2,300 jobs and $353 million in new economic activity per state.

That research also yielded important regional benefits. West Virginia has the nation’s highest overdose rate and suffered numerous outbreaks of HIV and hepatitis C in recent years, issues that have overlap owing to their links to hypodermic needles and other drug paraphernalia. West Virginia University researcher Judith Feinberg has used NIH fundingto integrate care for substance use disorder and infectious diseases in local health centers.

“NIH research happens everywhere,” said UMR President Caitlin Leach. “Whether you are from a red state or blue state, there are very real economic benefits to your state because researchers there receive NIH grants. That NIH research funding saves lives and fuels local economies throughout the United States is a very powerful message.”

NIH funding, in fact, historically has been a bipartisan priority. The agency’s budget has grown by more than $17 billion since fiscal year 2015. UMR warned that a constrained NIH budget in fiscal year 2025 and beyond could decrease the agency’s effectiveness and potentially undermine the nation’s dominance in biomedical innovation and as a hub for training the next generation of scientists, physicians, entrepreneurs, and

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/03/nih-funding-delivers-exponential-economic-returns/

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
  • Rage+1 2
Posted

Elmo visits the NSA unannounced and has some ideas on how to revamp it.  What could go wrong?  God help us.

 

  • Rage+1 6
Posted
9 hours ago, 27-25 said:

Elmo visits the NSA unannounced and has some ideas on how to revamp it.  What could go wrong?  God help us.

 

"First, give me access to everything in the NSA's files, especially any information on people who disagree with Trump or me.  You can trust me, I won't do anything bad with it.  Oh, I don't have any other ideas, that's the only one -- I just said 'first' to make it sound like I had an actual plan."

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Rage+1 2
Posted

From HuffPost:

The Thursday repost on Musk’s X account read: “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.” 

Along with Hitler, the post referred to Josef Stalin, the communist dictator of the Soviet Union until 1953, and Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, who was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions through starvation and disease. 

Musk later deleted the repost, but not before X users and others condemned Musk’s apparent defense of dictators responsible for genocide and mass murder. 

“It is deeply disturbing and irresponsible for someone with a large public platform to elevate the kind of rhetoric that serves to undermine the seriousness of these issues,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement 

Musk’s disturbing repost targeting public sector workers comes at a time when the billionaire ― now in charge of the new, so-called Department of Government Efficiency ― has been responsible for the firings of thousands of federal workers. That includes workers in critical positions at the National Weather Service , the Federal Emergency Management Agency , the Department of Veterans Affairs , and more.

  • Rage+1 4
Posted
On 3/14/2025 at 12:02 AM, 27-25 said:

Elmo visits the NSA unannounced and has some ideas on how to revamp it.  What could go wrong?  God help us.

Keep waiting for the NSA and CIA to "fix the glitch" here, but nothing.  Is it too much to ask that we wake to the news that Elon was found dead after a ketamine overdose (or perhaps polonium poisoning or defenestration to provide some poignant irony)?  So much for the deep state ...

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 2
  • Rage+1 1
Posted
From HuffPost:

The Thursday repost on Musk’s X account read: “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.” 

Along with Hitler, the post referred to Josef Stalin, the communist dictator of the Soviet Union until 1953, and Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, who was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions through starvation and disease. 

Musk later deleted the repost, but not before X users and others condemned Musk’s apparent defense of dictators responsible for genocide and mass murder. 

“It is deeply disturbing and irresponsible for someone with a large public platform to elevate the kind of rhetoric that serves to undermine the seriousness of these issues,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement 

Musk’s disturbing repost targeting public sector workers comes at a time when the billionaire ― now in charge of the new, so-called Department of Government Efficiency ― has been responsible for the firings of thousands of federal workers. That includes workers in critical positions at the National Weather Service , the Federal Emergency Management Agency , the Department of Veterans Affairs , and more.


Maybe the public sector workers who need culling are DOGE?

I mean, certainly I’m not the first one this has occurred to. There must be literally thousands - laid off public workers perhaps? - who’ve had the same idea?
  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 2
Posted
1 hour ago, Satchel said:

From HuffPost:

 

The Thursday repost on Musk’s X account read: “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.” 

Along with Hitler, the post referred to Josef Stalin, the communist dictator of the Soviet Union until 1953, and Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, who was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions through starvation and disease. 

Musk later deleted the repost, but not before X users and others condemned Musk’s apparent defense of dictators responsible for genocide and mass murder. 

“It is deeply disturbing and irresponsible for someone with a large public platform to elevate the kind of rhetoric that serves to undermine the seriousness of these issues,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement 

Musk’s disturbing repost targeting public sector workers comes at a time when the billionaire ― now in charge of the new, so-called Department of Government Efficiency ― has been responsible for the firings of thousands of federal workers. That includes workers in critical positions at the National Weather Service , the Federal Emergency Management Agency , the Department of Veterans Affairs , and more.

Not even really accurate.  The death camps and concentration camps were run by the SS, which was the paramilitary arm of the Nazi Party itself and not the German government or military command.  Many of Mao’s massacres were done by the Red Guards, which was also a party and not state organization.  

Stalin’s NKVD was the official interior ministry, however. So 1/3.

A hostility to and mistrust of an apolitical bureaucracy and a need to implement strict political control and parallel political party structures is a hallmark of authoritarians. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 4
  • Rage+1 1


×
×
  • Create New...