Summary

Elon Musk claims his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is shutting down payments to federal contractors, including a Lutheran charity, asserting it is eliminating corruption.

This suggests DOGE has access to Treasury’s payment systems, though officials have not confirmed the extent.

Senator Ron Wyden warned that DOGE may interfere with Social Security, Medicare, and government contracts.

Musk also called USAID “a criminal organization” that should “die,” amid DOGE’s growing influence over federal financial operations.

  • Moineau@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    33 minutes ago

    I sure hope this was worth it to hate on the trans and the browns. That’s the only thing dumb ass Americans voted for in 2024.

  • ansiz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    2 hours ago

    Musk is himself a giant government contractor via Space X and Starlink. Odds are he’s just trying to clear the board to funnel the money to his businesses. Especially when it comes to defense money!

  • jonne@infosec.pub
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    edit-2
    5 hours ago

    Does anyone know what the story is behind this charity he’s mentioning?

    Edit: looks like they feed and provide shelter for asylum seekers, and obviously he’s against that.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    6 hours ago

    Great way to get sued for breach of contract. This administration is going to be tied up in court for the next four years

    • Jaybob32@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 hour ago

      Do you really think this is going to play out in a court? They don’t care about the law and are actively plowing through them at will.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      5 hours ago

      Unfortunately, when all this stuff is resolved, it’s still the government that’s on the hook, not Musk personally. Although the new admin should probably just impound all of his and Trump’s assets to pay for the fallout, but obviously Democrats would never do anything this based.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    93
    ·
    8 hours ago

    Oh please start halting payments to government contractors. This guy starts holding payments to Lockheed Martin and Raytheon he’s going to wind up real Dead real quick

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    41
    ·
    8 hours ago

    A lot of our day to day military operations run on contractors. This seems like a good way to get more helicopters falling out of the sky.

    • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      17 minutes ago

      Like for real. They got rid of Malcolm, MLK, mayve even Kennedy, and organized a nationwide crack epidemic in black neighborhoods but they can’t deal with the biggest actual internal threat since the Confederacy. Useless orgs filled with useless people.

  • Chozo@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    222
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 hours ago

    At what point do we declare this a coup? This isn’t what even the most diehard conservatives out there voted for, I don’t understand how this isn’t considered a hostile takeover.

    • neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      3 hours ago

      It’s stressing me out to no end. I think the average person doesn’t even know this is currently happening.

      • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        3 hours ago

        I don’t follow politics. I voted for trump because it was badass when he said fight fight fight. Elon’s a genius, I’m sure he’s gonna make it better.

        These are real takes I’ve heard out there in the world.

    • ininewcrow@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      8 hours ago

      When this happens in a developing country we laugh at their politics.

      When it happens in America, no one bats an eye

      • jonne@infosec.pub
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        5 hours ago

        Americans still think their country is somehow different even though it’s still a developing country in many respects.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          5 hours ago

          Not just country nations, reminder the regions with the strongest identities are either the oldest, important, or Mormon. We are very much kn the same state the late western Roman empire was in, where they had African Romance, Brithonic Romance, and Gaulic Romance we have Californian, Texan, and Northestern the east coast tracks to eastern Mediterranean.

      • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        3 hours ago

        Hungarian here, whose face got eaten by the leopards.

        Political illiteracy is a serious problem, and so is the access to information. They actually thought the crime rates were up, because the very few news outlets they’re exposed to likes to uplift a few cases with scary headlines, often making anniversary reports on some crimes. They actually thought, that the opposition was “too far-left”, because pundits told them so, and they learned in school the real nazis did evil things for the sole sake of evil, thus people that say they want to eliminate crime, and have crime statistics must not be far-right.

        This is not for to excuse their behavior, but to explain it. Maybe can even lead to an end of this cycle.

      • ProIsh@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        47
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 hours ago

        Fucking yes.

        All conservatives at the tables with all these nazis asking who voted in all the nazis.

        At this point your party has folded. Keep saying “but not meeeee, I’m a real conservative!” All you want.

    • SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      115
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 hours ago

      They’re in too deep to admit how badly they obviously fucked up. Shit is gonna have to actually reach the ugly bitter end, leaving them no other possible explanation to try to hide behind. In the meantime, this must be what it felt like for the citizens of Rome as it burned.

      • MummifiedClient5000@feddit.dk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        22
        ·
        8 hours ago

        It is not until it affects them on a personal level they make that realization. That is how far the empathy of the average conservative voter reaches.

        • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 hours ago

          Well, in essence and at its purest level the difference in thinking between Leftwing and Rightwing is the difference between “I want people to have a better life” and “I want to have a better life”.

          All the political complexity above that comes from the different possible ways to achieve either end and from how one end partly overlaps with the other (i.e. for many a general improvement of people’s lifes gets translated into a personal improvement).

          So yeah, conservatives are just “What’s in it for me” types who believe in a different method to maximize their personal upside than the Fascists. In fact many American-style Liberals (the political version of “Liberal” in the US, not to be confused with those who believe in the actual Liberal Ideology) are also rightwingers who believe in yet another method for personal upside improvement.

    • untorquer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      57
      ·
      edit-2
      8 hours ago

      Lawsuit submitted

      Lower court determines whether to stay the action while case is handled

      Changes are unrecoverable since department can’t pay staff managing the payments

      Law enforcement given warrant to force stay

      Law enforcement chooses not to enforce because they have no motivation

      Payments never restored

      Case goes to supreme court

      Law interpreted in favor of the administration because clearly no means yes, it’s obvious

      Congress doesn’t respond due to right wing majority

      Checks and balances are dead.