Trump's DERP State

Beerman, BSN · Feb 27

nursej22 said:

The two clips I posted showed Trump speaking about his new gold cards.

It seems you are saying Trump is not a reliable news source. Now that is something we can agree on.

I found this news article.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/here-s-what-to-know-about-trump-s-5-million-immigration-gold-card/ar-AA1zQYhv?ocid=BingNewsSerp

According to the article and Commerce Secretary Lutnick, the Trump plan would replace the EB-5 program. There were no details about vetting.

No. I said a tweet by a professional Trump critic wasn't a reliable source.

And, I didn't dispute the content of it. I pointed out it omitted a lot of information.

At least I encouraged you to educate yourself and obtain more context about the idea.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 27

Beerman said:

A tweet isn't a citation worthy of discussing, in my opinion.

I didn't take it as a "citation". I took as an X post.

I think if you said the post was omitting information you might have discussed what that information was and what you felt about.

If it's not worthy of discussion why the need to announce you're not going to discuss it?

Anyway the card replaces a program he of course claims is "full of nonsense, make believe and fraud." but offers no evidence of that.

These kinds of deals aren't unique. Rich people can get into all kinds of countries with enough cash/investments.

His base that got him elected his working class people. At a time of anti-immigrant sentiment offering rich people a away in poor judgement imo.

toomuchbaloney · Feb 27

https://www.newsweek.com/rfk-jr-texas-measles-outbreak-vaccination-2036972

The first death from measles in 10 years was downplayed by the anti-vaccination director of Health and Human Services.

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During a Wednesday meeting of President Donald Trump's Cabinet members, Kennedy said the Health Department was following the outbreak. He added that the situation was "not unusual" as the U.S. had "measles outbreaks every year."

In that same meeting the goofball said that the hospitalized patients were only hospitalized for quarantine purposes.

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Kennedy also said on Wednesday, "There are about 20 people hospitalized, mainly for quarantine."

Hahaha

That would be funny if it weren't so incompetent and dangerous, right?

Vaccination rates have been dropping since Measles was considered eradicated from the USA in the early 2000s. We no longer have protective levels of vaccine acquired herd immunity in our communities and infection rates are climbing.

https://www.CDC.gov/nchs/fastats/measles.htm

toomuchbaloney · Feb 27

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-vaccines/fda-cancels-advisory-committee-meeting-flu-vaccine-strain-selection

RFKjr is having the desired effect on vaccine recommendations and public health planning.

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The VRBPAC meeting is the second meeting of a vaccine-related federal advisory group to be canceled or postponed in the past week by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Last week, a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, scheduled for February 26 through 28, was postponed, with no word on when it will be rescheduled.

Just a reminder, the CDCs ACIP is the group that recommends the vaccination schedule for children and vulnerable adults. That is the basis for affordable childhood vaccines for working class and poor parents.

toomuchbaloney · Feb 28

https://apnews.com/article/social-security-layoffs-doge-musk-trump-93efbed33957af5ec8ac37744d0592de

Cut field offices and service to senior citizens. That is seen as waste to billionaires, apparently.

nursej22, MSN, RN · Feb 28

toomuchbaloney said:

https://apnews.com/article/social-security-layoffs-doge-musk-trump-93efbed33957af5ec8ac37744d0592de

Cut field offices and service to senior citizens. That is seen as waste to billionaires, apparently.

You would think all those 150 year old seniors are going to need extra help.

toomuchbaloney · Feb 28

nursej22 said:

You would think all those 150 year old seniors are going to need extra help.

That made me chuckle right out loud.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Feb 28

Substack Commentary

The Department of Government Ineptitude

Elon Musk's DOGE team is violating every basic principle of good management.

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...As President Donald Trump's front man, Musk's fire first and ask questions later approach to purging the federal workforce has created havoc, jeopardized critical government functions, upended the lives of federal employees, likely incurred large financial liabilities for violating the law, and has been riddled with outright blunders. In short, DOGE is anything but a department of efficiency...

There's much more. Thousands of federal employees accepted the government's "deferred resignation" offer to resign immediately but still be paid through September. Days later, many of these public servants were sent notices that they were summarily fired. In another instance, buyouts were offered and then rescinded to Department of Veterans Affairs employees after it suddenly dawned on the DOGE crew that this would affect care and services for our nation's veterans.

In addition, some of the jobs abruptly eliminated by the DOGE team and then restored days later are paid for by fees from banks, medical device companies and other funding sources, and would not have saved taxpayer dollars but instead would reduce government effectiveness and hurt our economy....

Ready, aim, fire

The DOGE team came into our government with no understanding of how it works and no thoughtful plan to improve what exists. Instead, it is indiscriminately firing as many people as possible without identifying poor performers, occupations that might be overrepresented or areas where logical cost savings might be achieved.

A sizable number of those fired have been recent hires still on probationary status, with many representing a much-needed infusion of young talent adept in areas of great demand, including AI, cybersecurity and technology. And though some staff reductions might be in order, the federal workforce, spread across the country, is about the same size as it was in 1969 -- but, as a proportion of the overall population, substantially smaller.

Engage, don't enrage, your workforce

As any seasoned manager knows, it's best to engage and motivate rather than to alienate your workforce. The DOGE team has gone the extra mile to denigrate public servants and public service itself, which is a recipe for chasing away good people and will lead to a poorer customer experience for the public.

DOGE's latest offensive missive to all federal employees -- instructing them to send a summary to the Office of Personnel Management of what they have done in the last week -- has created massive confusion and belongs on top of DOGE's list of government waste. Trump's agency leadership will soon find that they cannot get much done, and the diminished organizational performance will be with us for years to come.

Context matters

The federal government isn't Twitter, but the DOGE team appears to be a one-trick pony. The Silicon Valley "break it to fix it" approach is a terrible fit in the public sector where a lot of vulnerable people are getting hurt. The DOGE team has shown no curiosity to understand the organizations it allegedly wants to improve and no interest in what anyone has tried before. Context matters, but everything is a nail to the DOGE hammer....

toomuchbaloney · Feb 28

NRSKarenRN said:

Substack Commentary

The Department of Government Ineptitude

Elon Musk's DOGE team is violating every basic principle of good management.

It looks like Elon stepped on the FAA/ATC toothpaste tube and now wants that toothpaste back in the tube.

https://www.salon.com/2025/02/27/musk-decries-shortage-of-air-traffic-controllers-weeks-after-offering-them-buyouts/

He wastes lots of time by simply being uninformed and ignorant about government agencies and their function.

toomuchbaloney · Mar 3

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/trump-administration-exclude-government-spending-gdp-obscuring-impact-119347775

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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that government spending could be separated from gross domestic product reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn.

This is reminiscent of the federal government not wanting to test for or report Covid numbers during the last Trump craziness.

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"You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures.” "They count government spending as part of GDP. So I'm going to separate those two and make it transparent.”

Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the U.S. economy's health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because changes in taxes, spending, deficits and regulations by the government can impact the path of overall growth. GDP reports already include extensive details on government spending, offering a level of transparency for economists.

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Musk's efforts to downsize federal agencies could result in the layoffs of tens of thousands of federal workers, whose lost income could potentially reduce their spending, affecting businesses and the economy at large.

The commerce secretary's remarks echoed Musk's arguments made Friday on X that government spending doesn't create value for the economy.

"A more accurate measure of GDP would exclude government spending,” Musk wrote on his social media platform. "Otherwise, you can scale GDP artificially high by spending money on things that don't make people's lives better.”

There's growing evidence that Musk, an unelected billionaire, is calling the economic shots for the crazy dementia victim.

toomuchbaloney · Mar 3

https://www.wired.com/story/doge-elon-musk-spending-cuts-federal-workers/

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Last month, the Trump administration placed a $1 spending limit on most government-issued credit cards that federal employees use to cover travel and work expenses. The impacts are already widely felt.

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The change comes as Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency continues to hunt for alleged examples of waste across the federal government. Late last month, DOGE announced that it was working to "simplify" the government's largest credit card program, which issues GSA SmartPay travel and purchase cards for federal employees. Last Wednesday, the agency claimed 24,000 cards had been deactivated.

This doesn't seem to have any point beyond mucking up the function of our government. Buckle up. Things are going to get very rocky.

toomuchbaloney · Mar 5

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2025-03-04/cyber-hegseth-pentagon-russia-17031715.html

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"TO BE CLEAR: [The defense secretary] has neither canceled nor delayed any cyber operations directed against malicious Russian targets and there has been no stand-down order whatsoever from that priority ... ,” read a Defense Department Rapid Response post on X. The denial came after The Record, a cybersecurity publication, reported Hegseth had ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions. The story was followed by The Washington Post and The New York Times that added their own confirmations from unnamed officials.

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Hegseth on Monday retweeted to his personal X account a post from a D.C.-based CBS reporter, seemingly confirming cybersecurity operations against Russia were continuing. The report also claimed Hegseth ordered a temporary pause last month on "some provocative offensive actions" against Russia ahead of negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

Is he dumb or incompetent?