Elon Musk dismantles USAID

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

Should we have another national vote on each item?

You should at the very least have some form of oversight on what these are, and why they are being cut.
"Elon said so" is a very weak argument.

 

[Leimonis]

View attachment 404366

I’m curious, how come that each and every thing that Trump did so far is something that would bring a smile to Putin‘s face. Why is that?

 

[WyattEarp]

I would rather call it corruption and abuse of power.
Your entire case rests on the fact that you dont find the government transparent and therefore you believe whatever Elon tells you.
In short you are just as much, in the dark now as you were before.

No, that's not at all what I am saying. You said Elon's role isn't transparent. That was my response to your point.

My argument is that the President of the United States has certain authorities to review and make decisions on expenditures. He also has the authority to appoint and hire people to act in his name.

The abuse of power you are concerned about is a matter for the courts and/or Congress.

PS- I don't think your use of the word corruption is applied properly.

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

My argument is that the President of the United States has certain authorities to review and make decisions on expenditures. He also has the authority to appoint and hire people to act in his name.

The abuse of power you are concerned about is a matter for the courts and/or Congress.

Yes and using such authority to hire someone to work without transparency, protocol or oversight is abuse of power and corruption.
I think the word is applied properly.

 

[mitchell76]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1887576815637585954

 

[Valcazar]

mandrill, Valcazar, Shaq, etc. listen to me, Trump is the Chief Executive of the United States of America. These are normal executive decisions.

Wrong.
These are not and it is willful blindness by you to say so.
These may not even be Trump's decisions, as you know.

No one in the executive branch has the legal authority to unilaterally cancel congressional appropriations.
Taking over the Treasury payments system and using it as a means of political retribution is not something that is a normal executive decision.
Summarily dismissing civil servants without cause is not a normal executive decision, they don't have the authority.
The "fork in the road" letters offering fake "buyouts" that aren't appropriated funds isn't something they have the authority to do.
Can't take down and scrub government websites of public data - don't have the authority.

He's got limited time while the Democrats and the liberal media proclaim this is some travesty and an affront to Democracy.

Because it is.

I have no idea what they are beefing about.

That seems odd, though, because despite our differences, I didn't peg you for someone who is in favor of wanton abuse of executive power.

If expenditures are valid and the current Congress approves of them, they can be reinstated fairly quickly. We do have a $1.7 billion dollar deficit to consider.

Congress has approved them.
The executive doesn't have the right to cancel shit and steal it for its own purposes and only re-instate the ones their new pet Congress approves of.

 

[Valcazar]

Let me get this straight. You want to keep Musk, Trump and the American public away from the business records of the United States, but you are worried that their communications are outside the authority of a FOIA.

Of course I'm worried about them explicitly telling DOGE to not use slack so that their communications can't be FOIA'd.
You are not concerned by the blatant "Look, we can't allow the people to find out what we are doing or planning"?

And yes, Musk needs to be kept away from Government systems.
If he wants to do an audit, he should do an audit.
You know, not illegally seize systems and start rewriting code.

 

[Valcazar]

Acting aggressively for optics without thought or protocol is useless and harmful.
And Elon is not an auditor of government programs.
He knows nothing about these programs and therefore there needs to be an established process for it.
Transparency goes both ways.
There needs to be transparency on what Elon is dong, how he is making decisions, what data is exposed to him, and on the impacts of whatever he is cutting.

Wyatt seems to be very much against the idea of government accountability like that.
Far better to have unaccountable moves by diktat.