Wednesday, May 28, 2025
DOGE’s Unfinished Business
Our Review of DOGE’s Work Shows It's Up to Congress to Enact Savings - OpenTheBooks
Elon Musk...while speaking to the Qatar Economic Forum, he made his office’s limitations clear to Bloomberg reporter Mishal Husain:
“DOGE is an advisory group; we are doing the best we can as an advisory group.”
“We do not make the laws, nor do we control the judiciary, nor do we control the Executive Branch,” Musk elaborated. “We are simply advisors. In that context, we are doing very well. We cannot take action beyond that because we are not some sort of imperial dictator of the government. There are three branches of government that are, to some degree, opposed to that level of cost savings.”
The Trump administration has claimed DOGE has saved taxpayers $160 billion so far.
Critics, including some on the right, said DOGE hasn’t achieved that level of savings.
So, who is right?
And how can the average person see the data and decide for themselves?
- At Open the Books we take these questions seriously and have tried to bring some transparency to the question in the analysis below...
Buying off the real science??!!-----Who is bankrolling the anti-MAHA movement? | Blaze Media
A deep dive into Big Ag's push against the MAHA movement - Rebeka Zeljko
- The MAHA report's findings suggested that exposure to agricultural chemicals like pesticides and insecticides are one of the many root causes that have contributed to chronic diseases and health epidemics afflicting American children...
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said the MAHA report "sows seeds of doubt and fear" and called the White House's endorsement of the report "deeply troubling."
- Notably, Blaze News found that multiple local chapters of the Farm Bureau have collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from Monsanto, a subsidiary of Bayer Global, which manufactures agricultural chemicals and GMO technologies.
- Some of this money has been allocated for various disaster relief programs, while some has gone toward political action committees.
- For instance, the Oregon Farm Bureau PAC has received over $130,000 from Monsanto from 2007 to 2017, much of which was "raised during an annual golf tournament" hosted by the Oregon Farm Bureau to "raise money for its political activities."...
'Snooping around': Government officials under fire for bypassing state constitution * WorldNetDaily * by Bob Unruh
'Snooping around': Government officials under fire for bypassing state constitution * WorldNetDaily * by Bob Unruh:
A court is being asked to act against state officials who bypass the requirements of their own state constitution.
The situation is that while the Alabama Constitution "makes it clear that if the government wants to come searching on your property, they need a warrant based on probable cause," agents from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources simply cite a statute to ignore that requirement.
Shyham Sankar: When's The Last Time You Saw A Movie With China As The Villain? | Video | RealClearPolitics
Shyham Sankar: When's The Last Time You Saw A Movie With China As The Villain? | Video | - RealClearPolitics - Tim
- SHAWN RYAN: How worried do we need to be about China?
- SHYAM SANKAR: Very worried:
- SHAWN RYAN: It seems like they just have us in all these different areas—manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, it seems like our whole supply chain comes from there. Then there’s the involvement with drug trafficking coming out of Mexico.
- SHYAM SANKAR: Yeah, the Reverse Opium War, as I call it.
- SHAWN RYAN: They’re buying up all our land, investing in our country. Where are they? How far are we behind China?...
History for May 28
History for May 28 - On-This-Day.com
Ian Fleming 1908 - Author, journalist, created character of James Bond
- 1863 - The first black regiment left Boston to fight in the U.S. Civil War.
- 1928 - Chrysler Corporation merged with Dodge Brothers, Inc.
- 1959 - The U.S. Army launched Able, a rhesus monkey, and Baker, a squirrel monkey, aboard a Jupiter missile for a suborbital flight. Both primates survived the trip.
- 1987 - Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow's Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses. He was released August 3, 1988.
- 1996 - U.S. President Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal were convicted of fraud.
- 2002 - Russia became a limited partner in NATO with the creation of the NATO-Russia Council.
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
FBI Breaks Pakistani Migrant Smuggling Network in Texas
FBI Breaks Pakistani Migrant Smuggling Network in Texas:
The FBI arrested two Pakistani immigration lawyers in Texas, exposing a smuggling network that imported Pakistani migrants via several forms of white-collar fraud.
The FBI investigation and the arrest follow promises by President Donald Trump’s deputies to separate investigations into white-collar mignation crime. The Justice Department reported:
Instapundit - ICYMI: YOU WON’T BE WRONG IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE ENTIRE POST-WWII POLITICAL ORDER AS A BIPARTISAN EFFORT TO MAKE SURE THE VOTERS DON’T GET WHAT THEY WANT:
Instapundit - Glenn Reynolds
- ICYMI: YOU WON’T BE WRONG IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE ENTIRE POST-WWII POLITICAL ORDER AS A BIPARTISAN EFFORT TO MAKE SURE THE VOTERS DON’T GET WHAT THEY WANT: - Glenn Reynolds
This State Is Achieving Impressive Reading Gains. Why? | American Enterprise Institute - AEI
This year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress results were mostly grim, but there was one bright spot: - Frederick M. Hess
- The impressive growth in performance by a handful of Southern states.
Here’s what he had to say:
Confounding those who think of Southern states as benighted, when we adjust the 2024 NAEP reading results to account for poverty, states like Mississippi and Louisiana actually emerge as high performers alongside traditional leaders like Massachusetts...
The silent war on American workers * WorldNetDaily * by Amanda Bartolotta
The silent war on American workers * WorldNetDaily * by Amanda Bartolotta:
The influx of temporary visa holders, through H-1B, L-1, Optional Practical Training (OPT) and Curricular Practical Training (CPT) programs, has been accompanied by reports of unethical practices, such as shell companies and dubious credentials, which have effectively marginalized American talent.
Fix the damn system!-----DOGE Has Found $14 Billion in Medicaid Fraud, Waste, and Abuse, Dr. Mehmet Oz Says | The Epoch Times
‘There’s about $14 billion we’ve identified with DOGE, of folks who are duly enrolled wrongly in multiple states for Medicaid,’ - Jack PhillipsAs an example, Oz said: “You live in New Jersey, but you move to Pennsylvania, and which state gets your Medicaid?
- Turns out both states collect money from the federal government.”...
- Oz echoed statements made by GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.)., who in recent days said that able-bodied individuals and illegal immigrants have received Medicaid benefits...
“I think there’s a moral hazard if we don’t, because you’ve got people who are not working who could work, who should work, and it’s better for them and better for the country if they do,” he said, referring to Republicans’ having added work requirements to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed in the House of Representatives on May 22...
'Nobody told us that!' Trump erupts on Harvard's foreign secrecy * WorldNetDaily * by Joe Kovacs
'Nobody told us that!' Trump erupts on Harvard's foreign secrecy * WorldNetDaily * by Joe Kovacs:
PALM BEACH, Florida – President Donald Trump on Sunday blasted Harvard's secrecy when it comes to the university's large number of students from foreign countries.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: "Why isn't Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student's education, nor do they ever intend to. Nobody told us that!
EXCLUSIVE: Trump VA Takes Machete To Huge Disability Claim Backlog That Piled Up Under Biden |
The VA brought unresolved claims down from 264,717 to 198,378 — or by approximately 25% — since President Donald Trump returned to office - Hudson Crozier
“Under President Trump, VA’s claims processing productivity is the highest it has ever been, and we will continue working overtime on behalf of Veterans until the backlog is at record lows,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said.
“Veterans and VA beneficiaries deserve timely and accurate claims decisions, and that is exactly what we will deliver.”...
- The VA has faced complaints of delayed or low-quality health care for wounded former soldiers across multiple presidencies.
- The VA’s backlog grew to around 378,000 under Biden as it prioritized partisan agendas such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
- Before Biden’s term, the first Trump administration brought the number to its lowest ever at 64,738, the VA said.
Just kickin’ the can down the road.
Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) posted at 11:26 AM on Sat, May 24, 2025:
Get a load of this.
- In 2009, CBS News warned that the Arctic would be ice-free and turn into an “open sea” within 10 years.
- Last year, CBS News ran a story saying that the Arctic would be ice-free within a decade.
Just kickin’ the can down the road.
https://t.co/N7c3jyM9JN(https://x.com/ChrisMartzWX/
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