Isn’t there drug-testing for staff at this level? About 15 years ago, I had to take a drug test because I worked with credit card information, and this ketamine-addled dolt gets access to incredibly complex financial systems?
Who the fuck is vetting these people—trump’s pardon committee?
First, a nightie-night note on the price of eggs. Today at my co-op in western MA I bought a dozen cage-free, no hormones, and so on large brown eggs from Lancaster County, PA for $6.99. Yesterday the cheapest eggs at Stop ‘n’ Shop (a major chain in NE) were $8.99/dozen. The egg market is weird. And will get weirder. Increasing bird flu in the nearby Hudson River Valley, already a problem in nearby Connecticut.
Also, passports. The system has changed radically since we renewed ours 10 years ago. Find the nearest Post Office (google) that handles passports. You won’t have to travel far. (We had to go one town to our east, under 10 minutes away.) They even take your passport photo ($15.00 – I’ve aged since 10 years ago, sigh). They look over your docs to make sure they will pass muster with the State Dept. (Turns out, if you make the slightest error and cross out something, you could meet delays.)
“They,” in our experience today, was a beautiful woman, maybe 35, with lots of purple hair amidst the unbelievably black, and eye makeup that led my husband to think she was of Asian extraction. (No. Men! Eyeliner…) We had a great time with her in the back area where the sorting goes on (and where a little area was set up for the photo). I recalled to her when I sorted mail in a place like this over 50 years ago. We compared notes, exchanged some stories about sorting packages. We heard – I won’t say “complaints” because this woman was all good energy – about understaffing in their office.
She was confident we’d get our new passports in time for our trip to Montreal in April. Let’s hope Elon doesn’t screw things up, or Mario.
This Deep State woman put a big bounce in my step today.
It will be too late. It may already be too late. The lack of action to stop any of this is stunning. The USA will be brought down by college kids taking orders from a ketamine billionaire who takes orders from Putin. No words.
Another thing to keep in mind is that If Musk can do this now, he probably corrupted voting systems to enable tRump’s victory.
This is truly terrifying. This coup will destroy us
“They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire. “They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.”
Then there’s this - the goal of which makes sense. The method? Not so much.
The U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday it’s temporarily suspending all inbound packages from China and Hong Kong Posts.
A provision in the orders eliminates a popular trade loophole, known as “de minimis,” which allows exporters to ship packages worth less than $800 into the U.S. duty free.
According to the US Customs and Border Protection, the total volume of de minimis shipments into the US was over 1.36 billion in the 2024 fiscal year.
The US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement on January 17 that shipments into the US under the exemption have gone up by more than 600% over the last 10 years.
Which resulted in this
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China would take “necessary measures” to protect its companies, and urged the U.S. to “stop politicizing economic and trade issues and using them as a tool, and to stop unreasonably suppressing Chinese companies.”
Wasn’t this the same plan for post-Saddam Iraq? Dick Cheney, “Jobs, jobs, jobs.” Rumsfeld, “But there are also unknown unknows.” W said, “In Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council are also working together to build a democracy.” Twenty years, 500,000 dead and $3 billion later, what do we see in Iraq? OK, Trump and Trumpies, dream on.
I’m looking forward to the lawsuits against Musk’s companies and Musk in his individual capacity, since he’s not a government employee and he’s using people his companies employ to do the shit he’s doing. Take away his billions.
Hell, if I could I’d bring a Qi Tam suit against him over the data breach. He’s fucking liable as sin.
I thought DOGE was funny. It would be a glorified advisory commission, that would issue a report that would be quickly forgotten. Instead, it’s a full-blown coup d’état and I am not laughing.