Another beautiful Sunday here in the Deep South…..what better time than now to drop some under reported news your way?

During the early days of the Trump Administration lots has been happening but not all of the ‘progress’ (for lack of a better more civil word) so IST has decided to pass on those subjects that need to be said.

To begin with there is DOGE and its fearless leader, Elmo….his tactics are popular with His Highness but not so much elsewhere….

Unelected White House budget slasher and richest man in the world Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency has ripped through the federal government like a bull in a china shop.

The billionaire’s hodge-podge team of underqualified 20-somethings — and at least one literal teenager — have already ripped up countless government contracts and fired thousands of federal employees — only to rehire those who were in charge of nuclear security and protecting the US from a looming bird flu crisis.

It’s a spectacular level of incompetence that has Americans increasingly furious, as a new Washington Post-Ipsos poll shows.

A whopping 49 percent of respondents said they disapproved of the “job that Elon Musk is doing within the federal government,” while only 34 approved. The degree of animosity shouldn’t be understated either, with 41 percent “strongly” disapproving, while only eight percent “somewhat” disapproved.

https://futurism.com/new-poll-americans-increasingly-disgusted-elon-musk

Staying with DOGE….this agency is promised to save the taxpayer billions…..and so far they are a bit short from all the extreme actions they have taken….

Donald Trump and Elon Musk claim they’re saving billions through the Department of Government Efficiency’s mass purge of federal bureaucracy, but government spending has actually gone up since Inauguration Day.

Through the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk has fired over 20,000 federal workers and gutted a number of federal agencies, most notably the U.S. Agency for International Development, which spent $42 billion in 2023. The cuts are part of Musk’s goal to reduce the federal deficit by $1 trillion by 2026, a likely impossible feat, especially given the administration’s newly revealed spending habits.

Unsurprisingly, many of DOGE’s claims have been exaggerated or fraudulent. The department claimed to have cut an $8 billion ICE contract—the real amount was $8 million, The New York Times reported. An analysis from The Washington Post found that hundreds of contracts DOGE claimed to cancel were actually already finished, resulting in absolutely zero savings.

(newrepublic.com)

Trump’s downsizing….

Federal agencies must develop plans to eliminate employee positions, according to a memo distributed Wednesday by President Trump’s administration that sets in motion what could become a sweeping realignment of the American government. The memo expands the Republican president’s effort to downsize the federal workforce, which he has described as an impediment to his agenda. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired, and now his administration is turning its attention to career officials with civil service protection. More from the AP, which notes law enforcement, national security, public safety, military positions, and US Postal Service positions are exempt:

• From the memo: “The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt. At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public. Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hard-working American citizens.”
• One criticism: Kevin Owen, an employment lawyer who represents federal workers, compared the administration’s initiative to the kind of disruptions that are caused by government shutdowns during congressional budget standoffs. “This looks like a plan for a significant and shocking reduction of the federal workforce that I don’t think the American people are prepared for,” Owen said. “It’s going to cripple a lot of government functions.”

Please tell us who these ‘radical interest groups’….

If a GOP tool has his way we will have fresh money….

No lie: South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson has proposed the US offer a $250 cash bill bearing President Trump’s face. The long-serving congressman, who made waves in 2009 for shouting “you lie!” during a speech by then-President Obama, shared Wednesday on X what appeared to be an AI-generated image of a $250 bill with a color portrait of Trump. He claimed American families had been forced to carry more cash because “Bidenflation has destroyed the economy” and suggested a new “most valuable bill for [the] most valuable President!” per the State.

Wilson said he was “drafting legislation to direct the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to design a $250 bill featuring Donald J. Trump.” He may have forgotten that an 1866 law prevents any living person from being depicted on currency notes, per Axios. The law was a response to a living Treasury official, Spencer Clark, printing his own face on a five-cent note. Congress wanted the bill to honor William Clark of the Lewis and Clark explorations. “But allegedly, the document that reached the Treasury specified only that the new bill should honor ‘Clark,’ without clarifying which one,” per Atlas Obscura. Granted, Wilson might simply be trying to top other Republican lawmakers who’ve suggested ways to honor the president, even if it means changing the Constitution.

Trump is considering getting rid of the penny because of the cost to produce…..how much will a retool cost to print a new bill denomination?

This creep suggest changing the Constitution to make this possible but he is not a fan of doing so to help his fellow Americans.

In the first Trump cabinet meeting a line to go down in history….

President Elon Musk, during the first Cabinet meeting of his new administration, allowed also-President Donald Trump a few moments to speak Wednesday. And when Trump spoke, he uttered a phrase that will no doubt stand tall among quotes from great American leaders past.

“This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting,” Trump said.

Inspiring rhetoric that will surely uplift the masses off their bloated, fat and disgusting keisters. I guess.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/02/26/trump-cabinet-meeting-america-fat-musk/80534668007/

Was he looking in a mirror when he made that proclamation?

Just wondering.

Golf the president real passion…..and the deals made for his business….since being in office he has spent several million dollars of taxpayer money to feed his passion.

n his first month in office, Donald Trump destroyed federal agencies, fired thousands of government workers and unleashed dozens of executive orders. The US president also found time to try to broker an agreement between two rival golf tournaments, the US-based PGA Tour and the LIV Golf league, funded by Saudi Arabia.

If concluded, the deal would directly benefit Trump’s family business, which owns and manages golf courses around the world. And it would be the latest example of Trump using the presidency to advance his personal interests.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/27/trump-pga-liv-saudi-arabia

Then there is the possibility of enrichment of Elmo with a lucrative contract from the FAA….

The Federal Aviation Administration is close to canceling a massive Verizon air traffic control project and handing it to one of Elon Musk’s companies, insiders tell the Washington Post report. Verizon was awarded the $2.4 billion contract in 2023 to upgrade the country’s air traffic communication system. The move to hand the contract to Starlink, a subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX, “would represent a significant test of protections against conflicts of interest in government projects,” the Post reports. The FAA announced Monday that it was testing Starlink satellite internet terminals at three sites, one in New Jersey and two in Alaska.

Records show that Verizon has already completed around $200 million of work on the 15-year contract, the AP reports. According to one of the Post’s sources, the government was due to make a final decision on paying Verizon next month, but Musk’s team decided Starlink should get the contract instead. The source says the lengthy process for unwinding a federal contract has not been followed in this case so far. Musk criticized Verizon in a post on X Monday, saying its system, which uses fiber optic cables, is “not working and so is putting air travelers at serious risk.” In recent days, a team of SpaceX employees has been working inside the FAA.

Ethics experts—and some former FAA officials—have questioned the lack of transparency and Musk’s conflicts of interest, the AP reports. John P. Pelissero, director of an ethics center at Santa Clara University, tells the Post it appears that “because of Musk’s current position in DOGE and his closeness to Trump, he and his company are getting an advantage and getting a contract.” “I challenge anyone to question the honesty and my technical integrity on this matter,” one of the SpaceX employees working at the FAA, Ted Malaska, said in a post on X. The AP reports that Malaska is one of three SpaceX software developers who have received “ethics waivers” from the administration that allow them to do work that could benefit Musk’s companies.

This ought bring the lawsuits and may go to SCOTUS and we know how that will end.

That was last week in Foggy Bottom…..I hope you enjoyed the round-up.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”