Jacopo Bassano The Miraculous Draught of Fishes 1545
https://twitter.com/i/status/1888619828258214032
Bureaucracy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1888290487028560099
Bessent
WATCH: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Sets the Record Straight on @DOGE
"Elon and I are completely aligned in terms of cutting waste and increasing accountability and transparency for the American people. I believe that this DOGE program … is one of the most important… pic.twitter.com/F3vsrhzuKW
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) February 8, 2025
Alina
https://twitter.com/i/status/1888260298617803027
Rubio
Marco Rubio on USAID. pic.twitter.com/dsEpEFFON6
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) February 9, 2025
“They’re doing it at my insistence. It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption.”
Moving at breakneck speed as President Donald Trump shakes up the executive branch, Musk’s engineers and advisers have accessed information technology (IT) systems in several federal departments. Anonymously sourced reports, not yet independently verified by The Epoch Times, allege DOGE is probing several other agencies, and groups are filing lawsuits to bar Musk’s advisers from accessing those departments’ computer systems. DOGE’s actions, which Musk says are aimed at reducing government spending and waste, have spurred a backlash from some Democratic lawmakers who describe it as a breach of congressional oversight by an unelected “special government employee.” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) cited cybersecurity concerns if DOGE is connecting to federal databases with “their own unvetted commercial servers.”
This week, during a House Oversight Committee on “Reducing Waste in Government,” Rep. James Comer (R-K.Y.) defended Musk’s unprecedented role in the executive branch, saying “real innovation isn’t clean and tidy.” President Donald Trump defended DOGE’s access to federal data systems on Friday, adding that the Pentagon and the Department of Education are next. “We’re going to be looking at tremendous amounts of money … being spent on things that bear no relationship to anything and have no value,” Trump said. “I’m very proud of the job that this group of young people … [are] doing. They’re doing it at my insistence. It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption.”
So far, the DOGE team has accessed IT systems at agencies, including the Treasury Department, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Energy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), while a coalition of labor unions has sued to block access at the U.S. Department of Labor. Additionally, students in California are suing the Department of Education, alleging that DOGE staffers are accessing confidential student data. The Epoch Times could not independently confirm other agencies—including the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the U.S. Agency for International Development—where DOGE may have received access to internal systems or databases.The Treasury Department confirmed in a Feb. 4 letter to Congress that DOGE staff had been given “read-only” access to the agency’s nearly $6 trillion federal payments system.
According to the letter, Cloud Software Group CEO Tom Krause will work with the agency as a “special government employee” to review the Bureau of the Fiscal Service for operational efficiency and prevent abuse, fraud, and waste. The work will be done in conjunction with career Treasury officials.On Feb. 5, the Justice Department wrote in a court filing that it would, for now, restrict DOGE’s access to Treasury Department payment systems. DOGE was also granted access to systems and technology at CMS, the agency said on Feb. 5. CMS will be in direct collaboration with DOGE while two senior agency staffers will direct the effort. CMS, which is within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Medicare is a health insurance plan for older and disabled Americans, while Medicaid covers low-income enrollees.
While DOGE has said it wants to cut $2 trillion in government spending, the goal would likely be difficult to reach without reducing spending on health and social assistance programs. Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance subsidies made up 24 percent of the 2024 federal budget, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. However, Trump told reporters last week that there would be no impacts on Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security unless his administration finds waste or abuse. “The people won’t be affected,” Trump said, referring to recipients of those benefits.
“How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent?”
• Musk Slams Ruling Blocking DOGE From Accessing Treasury Payment Systems (JTN)
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk slammed an Obama-appointed federal judge for blocking his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department payment systems for at least one week. “This ruling is absolutely insane! How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent? That’s literally impossible! Something super shady is going [on] to protect scammers,” Musk wrote Saturday on X.
According to Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer’s order, access to payment records would be limited to “civil servants with a need for access to perform their job duties within the Bureau of Fiscal Services who have passed all background checks and security clearances and taken all information security training called for in federal statutes and Treasury Department regulations.”
The reason the radical Dems don’t want an audit of social security fraud is because they’re the ones getting it … https://t.co/zLDCxNRj6J
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2025
The Dems went “judge-shopping” and found one willing to block DOGE, and even the Treasury Secretary, from accessing Treasury files.
• Musk Calls For Impeachment Of Judge Who Blocked DOGE Access At Treasury (ZH)
Elon Musk has called for the impeachment of an Obama-appointed judge who barred DOGE and the Treasury Secretary from accessing payment systems at the US Treasury. On Friday night, Democrats went ‘judge shopping’ to ask that Musk’s team be stopped from accessing Treasury systems, knowing that instead of receiving a judge by random selection, the only available judge would be Paul Engelmayer – who held an ex-parte hearing without DOJ lawyers. Engelmayer did not cite any case law or precedent for his ruling, which many have criticized for vast overreach. The order prohibits special government employees, along with those from outside the Treasury department, and the Treasury secretary himself, from accessing the systems. On Saturday, Musk posted to X: “A corrupt judge protecting corruption,” adding “He needs to be impeached NOW.”
A corrupt judge protecting corruption.
He needs to be impeached NOW! https://t.co/zgnwZuOz2Y
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2025
In an earlier post, Musk wrote “it’s time,” in response to the suggestion that activist judges should be impeached. Engelmayer’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit by 19 Democratic state attorneys general who panicked over DOGE investigating waste, fraud and abuse within the US government. “The Court’s firm assessment is that, for the reasons stated by the States, they will face irreparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief,” wrote Engelmayer in his decision. “That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.”
“..Engelmayer’s order came in response to a lawsuit filed on Friday by Letitia James..”
• Trump, Musk, and the Deep State: The Battle Over Transparency Begins (Kimball)
Tasked with the Herculean labor of unscrambling the byzantine Rube Goldberg device that is the 21st-century administrative state for furthering corruption, illegal payments, and partisan influence at home and abroad, DOGE commander Elon Musk and his laptop-and-algorithm-toting lieutenants have been patiently uncovering the pyramid of waste, fraud, and abuse that is the foundation of the United States government in its twenty-first-century incarnation. In a remarkable piece called “Override: Inside The Revolution Rewiring American Power,” a blogger known as EKO showed how it worked. Four young coders arrive at the Treasury Department in the wee hours of January 21. Within hours they have succeeded in tracing long-hidden payment directions. No committees. No approvals. No red tape. Just four coders with unprecedented access and algorithms ready to run.
“The beautiful thing about payment systems,” noted a transition official watching their screens, “is that they don’t lie. You can spin policy all day long, but money leaves a trail.” That trail led to staggering discoveries. Programs marked as independent revealed coordinated funding streams. Grants labeled as humanitarian aid showed curious detours through complex networks. Black budgets once shrouded in secrecy began to unravel under algorithmic scrutiny. The difference between Trump’s first term and his second (acknowledged) term can be explained in two words: velocity and preparedness. In 2017, Trump’s initiatives were hampered, blindsided, litigated, and smothered in red tape. This time the Leviathan’s usual expedients are impotent. “Their traditional defenses—slow-walking decisions, leaking damaging stories, stonewalling requests—proved useless against an opponent moving faster than their systems could react.
By the time they drafted their first memo objecting to this breach, three more systems had already been mapped.” And here’s the point: “Pull this thread,” a senior official warned, watching patterns emerge across DOGE’s screens, “and the whole sweater unravels.” He wasn’t wrong. But he misunderstood something crucial: That was exactly the point. The left gets it. And their heads are exploding. So far, their biggest gun was the creaky cannon Judge Robart wheeled out: the emergency injunction with immediate “nationwide effect.” The New York Times, a house organ for anti-Trump hysteria, has a long hand-wringing column about the latest wheeze. Paul A. Engelmayer, a U.S. District Judge appointed by Barrack Obama, just issued an “emergency order” to restrict Elon Musk’s and DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s payment and data system.
He also insisted that anyone who had access to those systems after January 20 “destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems.” Fun part: even Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury, is prohibited from looking into the corrupt structures of his own department. Engelmayer’s order came in response to a lawsuit filed on Friday by Letitia James, Attorney General of New York and professional scourge of all things Trump, along with 18 other Democratic state attorneys general. What was the charge? The stated predicate was that by authorizing the investigation, Trump had failed in his Constitutional duty to “faithfully execute the laws enacted by Congress.” The real predicate was that Musk’s beavers were uncovering the inner mechanism of the deep state and the resulting truths were unbearable.
“Humankind,” said T. S. Eliot, in “Burnt Norton,” “cannot bear very much reality.” Similarly, Bureaucrats cannot bear very much transparency. Like vampires, the sunlight is fatal to them. How will Trump respond? We do not know yet. I hope it will be at least partly as Andrew Jackson is said to have responded in his contretemps with Chief Justice John Marshall. In 1834, the Supreme Court determined that the Cherokee Indians owned Northern Georgia. Nevertheless, Andrew Jackson evicted the Indians, reputedly observing that Marshall “has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” Lincoln responded in a similar fashion to Chief Justice Roger Taney in 1861. In April of that year, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. This allowed military commanders to imprison suspected saboteurs without indictment.
Taney said (in “Ex Parte Merryman”) that Lincoln did not have the authority to do this. Lincoln basically ignored him, invoking the novel doctrine of “nonacquiesence.” As usual, Lincoln demonstrated his deep understanding of the issues involved. “Are all the laws but one to go unexecuted,” he asked Taney, “and the Government itself go to pieces lest that one be violated? Even in such a case, would not the official oath be broken if the Government should be overthrown when it was believed that disregarding the single law would tend to preserve it?” In my view, Trump’s actions to expose the partisan corruption of the administrative state are in response to an existential threat is as grave, if less bloody, than the Civil War. The permanent bureaucracy that rules us has for decades been erecting and fortifying a nearly impenetrable edifice from which to preserve its privileges and power, stifle criticism, and export its globalist agenda.
Donald Trump was elected to deconstruct that edifice. Elon Musk is one of his most potent aides in accomplishing that task. Of course, the left is hysterical. Their gravy train is being derailed before their eyes. The people who elected Trump are delighted. I suspect that the squeals and tantrums of the ruling party and its minions will amount to no more than theater. I further suspect that Trump will resort not only to “nonacquiesence” but also to non-payment. In 2022, New York received $383 billion in federal spending. There are many ways in which Trump could stanch the flow of federal dollars to obstreperous states. I think he should consider them all. I am also happy to see some official pushback. Rep. Darrell Issa, for example, just announced that he is “immediately introducing legislation next week to stop these rogue judges and allow Trump and DOGE to tell you where government is spending your money.” Good for him.
One final suggestion. If left-wing regime-party judges can issue emergency restraining orders with “immediate nationwide effect,” why couldn’t a politically mature district judge in, say, Alabama do the same, overturning the order issued by his left-wing colleague on an “immediate, nationwide basis?” I offer the idea free and for nothing.
Want to oppose finding fraud?
• Musk Says DOGE, Treasury Agree on New Anti-Fraud Measures (Ozimek)
Elon Musk said Saturday that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the U.S. Treasury Department have agreed on new anti-fraud measures aimed at preventing tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent government entitlement payments each year. In a Feb. 8 statement shared on social media, Musk described the scale of the problem as “utterly insane,” citing estimates that at least $50 billion annually is being lost due to improper payments, including funds going to individuals without Social Security Numbers or even temporary ID numbers. Musk, who leads DOGE and has been designated a “special government employee” by President Donald Trump, revealed in the post that Treasury officials estimated that $100 billion in annual entitlement payments may be going to individuals without verifiable identification.
In a discussion with Treasury personnel, Musk said he asked for an estimate of how much of that is “obvious and unequivocal” fraud, and the consensus was that at least half—$50 billion per year, or around $1 billion per week—is fraudulent. “This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately,” Musk wrote, adding that the DOGE team and Treasury have jointly agreed to a series of reforms. One of the most significant changes will be the requirement that all outgoing government payments include a payment categorization code. According to Musk, these codes are essential for financial audits, yet they are frequently left blank, making it nearly impossible to track where taxpayer dollars are going.
Under the new rules, every payment will also need to include a rationale in the comment field. Currently, many government payments lack any explanation, making it difficult to assess their legitimacy, Musk said. While he emphasized that no judgment will be applied to these rationales at this stage, requiring at least some justification for payments is expected to serve as a deterrent against waste and fraud. Another reform involves more effective implementation of Treasury’s Do-Not-Pay list, which is meant to prevent payments to fraudulent entities, deceased individuals, suspected terrorist fronts, and other entities or people who should not be paid by federal agencies. Musk said that this list has not been strictly enforced, with some payments still being made to flagged entities. He also pointed out that it can take up to a year for names to be added to the list, calling for weekly or even daily updates to prevent ongoing fraud.
Musk said that the above “super obvious and necessary” changes will be implemented by existing, long-time career Treasury employees; not anyone from the DOGE. His remarks in this regard align with Treasury Department Scott Bessent’s insistence that DOGE members have read-only access to Treasury data and that they have not been “tinkering” with sensitive payment systems at the department. The development comes as DOGE focuses its cost-cutting and efficiency-enhancing efforts at multiple federal agencies, including Treasury, as part of the Trump administration’s broader aim of reducing deficits and eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse from government.
Republicans have praised DOGE’s efforts to identify government waste, while Democrats have denounced the body’s actions as an abuse of power and its operations as skirting congressional oversight. There have been protests over DOGE by members of Congress, federal employee unions, and privacy advocates, along with a number of lawsuits targeting its activities. Recently, a judge blocked DOGE’s access to the personal financial data of millions of Americans at the Treasury Department. Bessent recently defended DOGE’s actions at Treasury. He said in an interview with Bloomberg that the DOGE team is made up of highly trained professionals and “not some roving band running around doing things,” possibly in reference to claims by critics that DOGE has embraced and is applying the adage “move fast and break things,” which is part of the Silicon Valley start-up culture of being innovative, nimble, and disruptive.
Just one example of many.
• US Treasury Pays $100bn Annually To Unknown Recipients – Musk (RT)
Elon Musk, as head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has said that the US Treasury pays over $100 billion annually to individuals without Social Security Numbers (SSNs) or temporary ID numbers. Musk has urged immediate reforms to address potential fraud and inefficiencies in payment systems. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X has been appointed a “special government employee” to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under US President Donald Trump’s administration and is currently among Trump’s key advisers. Despite its name, the agency is not a permanent federal executive department, but a temporary body dedicated to reducing government spending. The tech billionaire has set a goal of reducing the federal deficit by at least $1 trillion, which would require daily cuts averaging $4 billion.
“Yesterday, I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious,” Musk posted on X. According to Treasury officials, approximately half of these payments, equating to $50 billion per year, or $1 billion per week, could be fraudulent, Musk stated. He described it as “utterly insane and must be addressed immediately.” Musk said that in response, DOGE and the Treasury Department have agreed to implement measures to enhance transparency and accountability in government payments. These include requiring all outgoing payments to have a payment categorization code. Musk pointed out that this field is frequently left blank, making audits challenging. Additionally, all payments must include a rationale in the comment field, which is currently often omitted.
Musk noted that it can currently take up to a year to get on the “Do-Not-Pay” list. The list includes entities known to be fraudulent, deceased individuals, probable fronts for terrorist organizations, and recipients not matching Congressional appropriations. Musk has asked for updates at least weekly, if not daily. He emphasized that these changes are being implemented by existing, long-time career government employees, not by anyone from DOGE. He expressed his astonishment that such obvious and necessary changes were not already in place. Last week DOGE announced that it had managed to save over $1 billion thanks to the elimination of contracts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The published index lists 30 federal bodies, stating that 104 contracts with a “ceiling value” of over $1.2 billion were eliminated.
In a post on X on Monday, Musk described DOGE as “the wood chipper for bureaucracy.” Musk’s team has also gained access to the federal payment system, courtesy of US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, to oversee and curb government expenditures. This move has sparked concerns among some officials, who worry about potential conflicts of interest and the impact on sensitive taxpayer information. Lawyers with the US Justice Department have agreed to a proposed order that would temporarily restrict DOGE from accessing sensitive financial data at the Treasury Department.
“‘Independent media’ lmao…”
• Musk Mocks Pro-Western ‘independent’ Media For Losing US Funding (RT)
Elon Musk has derided pro-Western Russian and Ukrainian media outlets over their degree of perceived “independence,” as the publications now find themselves under severe financial strain following US President Donald Trump’s clampdown on the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Shortly after his inauguration, Trump suspended most of US foreign aid pending a three-month review, which primarily affected USAID, Washington’s agency for funding political projects abroad. Trump has called for the agency to be shut down altogether, citing rampant corruption and overall inefficiency. On Sunday, Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and also a fierce critic of USAID, mocked a Washington Post article entitled “Independent media in Russia, Ukraine lose their funding with USAID freeze.”
“‘Independent media’ lmao,” he wrote on X, employing the acronym meaning “laughing my a** off.” The WaPo report highlighted the dire financial situation many pro-Western media in Ukraine and Russia found themselves in following Trump’s return to the White House. The article noted that the lack of funds affected Ukraine’s small regional outlets and investigative websites. Detector Media, a Ukrainian journalism watchdog, warned last week that “We risk losing the achievements of three decades of work and increasing threats to Ukraine’s statehood, democratic values, and pro-Western orientation.” Natalya Ligachova, head of Detector Media, estimated that “more than 50%” of media outlets are dependent on American assistance, at least to some extent.
Meanwhile, The Moscow Times, an Amsterdam-based English- and Russian-language newspaper, reported, citing sources, that up to 90 Russian organizations operating outside of the country – many of which have been accused of spreading falsehoods about Russia – have lost US funding. Many of them may be forced to cease operations altogether, the report said. The Moscow Times itself has been designated “undesirable” by the Russian government for “discrediting” Russia’s foreign and domestic policies.
Prior to the USAID clampdown, Russian officials repeatedly accused the US of waging an information war, including by using numerous foreign-funded liberal outlets against the country to justify the West’s “hybrid aggression.” Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Moscow took tough measures to curb the spread of falsehoods about the Russian military, imposing a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison for violations. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last September that despite the conflict in Ukraine, the media are still free to express their opinions, as stipulated by the Constitution. He stressed, however, that both domestic and foreign media are obliged to obey the country’s laws.
“..when Ukraine’s current past-best-by-date leader Vladimir Zelensky actually did face and win an election in 2019, his single concrete – and sensible – promise was to seek peace through negotiations..”
• Trump’s USAID Purge Has Revealed US Scheming In Kiev, But Won’t Stop It (Amar)
First, we now learn that almost the entire Ukrainian media sphere – 90 percent of news organizations – depended on USAID funding. Indeed, Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent (the irony…), a staunchly info-warring publication, fears that losing access to the USAID trough “has caused harm to independent Ukrainian journalism on par with the COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of Russia’s full-scale war.” Hear, hear. More generally, a recent article in the Columbia Journalism Review is worrying that losing USAID money will threaten “independent” journalism worldwide. No wonder, as USAID itself has proudly claimed that the US government “is now the largest public donor to independent media development globally.”
But any talk of “independence” here is, just like Rudenko’s complaint, obvious Orwellian-grade propaganda: Journalism that literally depends for its very existence on funding from an organization serving as a front for the foreign interests of the single most powerful and aggressive country in the world may be anything, but it cannot be – by definition – independent. You may, if that’s your thing, politically sympathize with such journalism or argue that you feel it is still, on balance, useful, if you wish, but please cut out the absurdity. In practice, Ukraine is a perfect illustration of how such media dependency-across-borders can easily end in catastrophe: Anyone who knows Ukrainian well enough – as I do – can have a look for themselves.
What they will find is a Potemkin village of pseudo-diversity, at best, with very few and embattled exceptions. In reality, the Ukrainian public sphere has been massively manipulated by a monotonous diet of pseudo-”patriotic” messaging. The single most urgent question concerning Ukraine’s own national interests, however, has been systematically maligned and made taboo: namely, if serving as proxy war cannon fodder for the West has been worth it. The second manner in which USAID has promoted this devastating war was, if anything, even worse, in the sense of more drastic and hands-on: It’s now almost forgotten, but when Ukraine’s current past-best-by-date leader Vladimir Zelensky actually did face and win an election in 2019, his single concrete – and sensible – promise was to seek peace through negotiations.
Clearly, at the time, that promise was a major factor in his unprecedented landslide victory. Once in office, for a very short moment, it seemed as if Zelensky was trying to keep that promise. But then – years before the 2022 escalation – he made a 180-degree turn and emerged as an uncompromising and shortsighted nationalist and a tool of the US – if a very expensive and occasionally capricious one. It is likely that he will soon be discarded, as tools can be. But the damage he has already done to his country is enormous. Many observers have long been puzzled by early Zelensky’s terrible turn. Was it fear of the powerful and aggressive Ukrainian far-right? Was it a misconceived play for even more popularity? Was it money? Was it Western pressure? We still don’t know the whole story, but we do know one important new thing: a wave of “popular” resistance “from below” and by “civil society” against Zelensky’s initial attempts to look for peace was not genuine.
Instead, it had massive Western backing, including from USAID. In particular, the organization was one of the key sponsors of a “joint statement” which presented a concerted threat to Zelensky in 2019, that is, almost immediately after he assumed office. On the surface the product of 70 Ukrainian NGOs, this was, in reality, a massive affront to democracy and the rule of law: Its sole purpose was to unconstitutionally constrain the newly elected president with so-called “red lines” and, in particular, nullify what so many of his voters wanted, namely an honest search for peace. None of this means that Zelensky is innocent. On the contrary, it was his duty and, literally, his job to resist such shameless pressure tactics and their foreign backers and stand up for his voters and the country as a whole. His failure to do so is his and will remain so forever.
Feels like a good idea.
• Designating Cartels as Terrorists Will Have Huge Consequences (Summers)
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that started a process by which international organized crime cartels would be designated as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” or “Specially Designated Global Terrorists.” The designations would give the U.S. government power to go after the cartels’ finances, target those who supply them with weapons, and even carry out military strikes against cartel-owned facilities. With groups such as the Sinaloa cartel, MS-13 from El Salvador, and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua posing a serious threat to the United States, analysts say these new terrorist designations could have far-reaching consequences. The Trump administration has not gone into detail about how it plans to use the new powers, but on Jan. 31, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he would not rule out military strikes against the cartels.
On Feb. 3, following Trump’s tariffs threat, Canada announced it would invest $200 million and appoint a czar to investigate the fentanyl trade and would also designate the cartels as terrorist organizations. Ioan Grillo, a Mexico-based journalist and author of several books, including “El Narco, The Bloody Rise of Mexican Drug Cartels,” told The Epoch Times the terrorist designations would provide the U.S. government with more power to go after the cartels’ finances. He said it could also be used to target arms dealers in the United States who provide weapons for them. “You could go after people trafficking firearms to the cartels, you could arrest them for providing material to a foreign terrorist organization,” Grillo said.
Organized crime syndicates such as Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa cartel will be put in the same basket as al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other groups listed as designated foreign terrorist organizations on the State Department’s website. Francois Cavard, a human rights activist who has spent years investigating the drug trade in Central and South America, told The Epoch Times that changing the legal status of cartels such as Tren de Aragua from “being considered just another criminal organization” to being designated as terrorists was “huge.” Cavard said the gang—whose name translates as the “Train of Aragua” and which began as a group of corrupt workers on a failed railway project, which was funded by a huge loan from China—was heavily involved in human smuggling, drug trafficking, and money laundering.
Greta Nightingale, an attorney and partner at O’Melveny, a firm of Washington-based international lawyers, and chair of its national security group, said that being designated as a “foreign terrorist organization” and a “specially designated global terrorist” were based on different statutes but have essentially the same effect. She told The Epoch Times that the assets of the designee are frozen and that if they come within the control of U.S. persons (such as a U.S. bank) they cannot access them. Nightingale said Americans are also not allowed to engage in any dealings with such designees or engage with third parties if they will benefit the designated party. “If a U.S. company does business with a Mexican company that is tied to one of these cartels, they risk an enforcement action,” she said.
“If the company is owned or controlled by a cartel, then such business is clearly illegal. But if the ties are more attenuated then the legal exposure is less clear.” Nightingale said that “the safest approach is to stay away if you have information that suggests that there are ties between a cartel and a Mexican business, as you invite reputational harm and also may undermine the safety of your employees.” Cavard said the most significant effect of the designation is that cartels and gangs such as Tren de Aragua were no longer considered to just be after illegal financial profit but are considered “to also have power and control purposes … that represents a serious and extremely dangerous threat to the security of the country.”
“..all of this work we’re doing now with getting [illegal aliens] out, finding murderers on the street. … all of this that we’re doing is because of him allowing people to come into our country.”
• Trump Stripping Security Clearances Of Numerous Antagonists (Devine)
President Trump has ordered security clearances stripped from a new hit list of antagonists. Just days after revoking Joe Biden’s access to classified information and secure federal buildings — “because I don’t trust him” — Trump said his new top target is ex-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who orchestrated the “Dirty 51” letter from former intelligence officials on the eve of the 2020 election. The infamous missive falsely claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop, the contents of which The Post revealed, was Russian disinformation. Blinken’s security clearances will be revoked, following the same presidential directive aimed at Biden and the 51 ex-spooks last week, Trump told The Post in an exclusive interview. “Bad guy. Take away his passes,” he said of Blinken. “This is to take away every right they have [revoking security clearances] including they can’t go into [federal] buildings.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg join the new group of eight Democrat foes Trump plans to punish by revoking any access to classified information and barring their entry to federal facilities. The president said they all will be given “exactly the same” punishment as Biden and the Dirty 51 as part of his administration’s vow to hold government officials accountable for actions he regards as election interference or the mishandling of classified information. Bragg prosecuted Trump last year in the so-called “hush money” case and James brought a civil fraud case against the president for supposedly exaggerating his wealth when applying for bank loans.
The move is regarded as more symbolic than consequential for the New York lawfare duo. But it could hamper them in carrying out their official duties by prohibiting them from entering courthouses, prisons, and law enforcement facilities in Foley Square in lower Manhattan, including the Thurgood Marshall and Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouses, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, and the Jacob Javits Federal Building which houses the FBI’s New York field office. They also will not be able to set foot in the US Attorney’s offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, in Manhattan and Brooklyn. “It’s more an insult and a slap in the face than a real deterrent,” said attorney Bob Costello, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who testified as a defense witness in Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan.
The other targets Trump disclosed to The Post include Biden’s former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who also was chief foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton during her failed 2016 presidential bid when he notoriously helped foment the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. Also in Trump’s sights are Biden’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who was involved in overseeing lawfare investigations against Trump and coordinating the DOJ response to the Jan. 6 riot. She also helped orchestrate the Russia hoax while working as an aide to President Obama.
Next in line are anti-Trumpers Andrew Weissman, the lead prosecutor in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russiagate investigation of Trump, who frequently maligns the former president in his role as an MNBC contributor; lawyer Mark Zaid, who represented Eric Ciaramella, the CIA analyst identified as the whistleblower in Trump’s impeachment in 2019 over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; and Norm Eisen, special counsel to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment. Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore says Trump’s action is largely symbolic and hard to enforce, especially on New York officials. But it will have a “major impact” on Zaid’s legal practice “because he fashions himself as a national security lawyer.” “He’s a whacky partisan guy [who] tweeted after Trump was inaugurated that it was time for a coup. He makes his money during Republican [presidencies] by going against the administration.”
Trump last week cut off Biden’s access to the daily intelligence briefings normally afforded former presidents, before stripping his security clearances, telling The Post he doesn’t “trust” his predecessor with such sensitive information. “I don’t trust him. He’s not worthy of trust … To safeguard national security,” He told the Post his administration had no plans to investigate his predecessor, while noting that Biden did not pardon himself when he pardoned his son Hunter and six other family members. “I wouldn’t do it specifically. If something comes up, he’s certainly prime time for investigation. … It’s not good what he did to our country. I mean, all of this work we’re doing now with getting [illegal aliens] out, finding murderers on the street. … all of this that we’re doing is because of him allowing people to come into our country.”
“It is beyond dispute that Defendants wanted Harris to win the Election, and indeed political gain for Harris was certainly Defendants’ intent behind their tampering with the Interview..”
• Trump Doubles CBS Harris Interview Lawsuit Damages to $20 Billion (ET)
President Donald Trump has expanded his lawsuit against CBS, doubling the damages sought to $20 billion and adding CBS parent company Paramount Global as a defendant. The amended complaint, filed on Feb. 7 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges news distortion, election interference, and financial harm caused by CBS’s handling of its “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. “It is beyond dispute that Defendants wanted Harris to win the Election, and indeed political gain for Harris was certainly Defendants’ intent behind their tampering with the Interview,” the amended complaint reads. “But Defendants’ primary motivation was commercial and pecuniary gain.”
Trump’s legal team claims that CBS deceptively edited Harris’s responses to make her appear more articulate and composed, while also diverting viewership from Trump’s media platform, Truth Social, reducing ad revenue. The complaint asserts that CBS intentionally aired different portions of Harris’s remarks on “Face the Nation” and “60 Minutes,” misleading the public about her full statements. “Once Defendants finally released the unedited version of the Interview, it became apparent that they had engaged in gross broadcast distortion cover-up and manipulated not only Harris’s Reply about Prime Minister Netanyahu, but the Interview in its entirety,” the amended complaint reads. CBS has dismissed the claims and maintains its edits were standard journalistic practice.
“We are posting the same transcripts and videos of our interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that we provided to the FCC [Federal Communications Commission],” the network said in a Feb. 5 statement. “They show–consistent with 60 Minutes’ repeated assurances to the public–that the 60 Minutes broadcast was not doctored or deceitful. CBS further stated that a longer portion of Harris’s response aired on Face the Nation while a shorter one aired on 60 Minutes for the sake of brevity. “As the full transcript shows, we edited the interview to ensure that as much of the vice president’s answers to 60 Minutes’ many questions were included in our original broadcast while fairly representing those answers,” the network stated. “60 Minutes’ hard-hitting questions of the vice president speak for themselves.”
The uncut transcript reveals that some of Harris’s answers were cut roughly in half and clarifies her full response to a question about the Israel–Hamas war, which Trump’s campaign claimed was awkwardly phrased and was unfairly edited to improve her image. The transcript also shows that Harris’s complete answer was a combination of the two aired clips. “Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. And we’re not going to stop doing that. We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end,” Harris said, per the transcript.
Reacting to the transcript’s release, Trump wrote in a post on social media that it shows CBS had removed Harris’s “horrible election changing answers” and replaced them with better ones and that this was election interference and “election fraud at a level never seen before.” He also called for CBS to lose its broadcasting license.
“..he justified that decision by pointing out that the convicted Jan. 6 defendants had already been locked up for years, often in “inhumane” conditions..”
• Freed Jan. 6 Prisoners Speak Out as They Begin to Rebuild Their Lives (Hisle)
Prosecutors acted with “unrelenting integrity,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said, as the Justice Department pursued cases against 1,583 people for events on Jan. 6, 2021—a date etched into the American psyche with unforgettable images of vandalism and violence at the U.S. Capitol. President Donald Trump, who had attracted a massive crowd to Washington that day amid a dispute over his 2020 election loss, decried these cases as “political persecutions.” He tossed out the prosecutions upon his return for a second presidential term on Jan. 20. Saying he was ending “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years,” Trump commuted sentences for 14 serious Jan. 6 offenders and issued full pardons to all remaining defendants—1,569 people, based on federal data.
Trump showed mercy even to those convicted of assaulting officers—a controversial move. He previously stated that only peaceful, nonviolent offenders deserved consideration. But he justified that decision by pointing out that the convicted Jan. 6 defendants had already been locked up for years, often in “inhumane” conditions. They were targeted for political reasons and were punished more harshly than many people who committed worse offenses, including killings, he said. A half-dozen of the former Jan. 6 prisoners told The Epoch Times their side. The publication also reviewed Justice Department statements about each interviewee and dozens of other resources for this story. The interviewees, ranging from a 25-year-old entrepreneur to a 55-year-old former New York police officer, say much information has been suppressed and distorted.
They, like many Americans, continue to question why security in and around the Capitol was clearly insufficient on Jan. 6. They also suspect a government setup—and a coverup. Although officials have rejected such claims, a government watchdog’s recent report reignited questions over the actions of “confidential human sources.” Twenty-six of these informants were present on Jan. 6, the Inspector General’s report said. Four of the informants entered the Capitol; 13 others entered restricted areas on the grounds—without FBI permission. The FBI didn’t authorize the informants to encourage violence, either.
But the report left it unclear whether informants obeyed that order. The interviewed Jan. 6 defendants say many Americans still incorrectly believe that police officers were killed in the melee; 140 officers were hurt, none fatally, despite initial reports. It’s unclear how many civilians were injured, but Trump supporters were the only people who died that day. Police fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, 35, and beat Roseanne Boyland, 34, who was knocked unconscious in a stampede; her cause of death remains in dispute. Investigators cleared officers of wrongdoing in both cases.
“All branches of the US military are facing some of the worst recruiting shortfalls in their history.”
• ‘Diversity Is Our Strength’ Dumbest Phrase In Military History – Hegseth (RT)
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke out on Friday against diversity initiatives in the armed forces, blasting the phrase “diversity is our strength” as the “dumbest” in military history. Addressing Pentagon staff, he said his leadership would focus on unity and fairness while eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. “In this department, we will treat everyone equally,” Hegseth told the audience in the Pentagon auditorium. “We will treat everyone with fairness. We will treat everyone with respect, and we will judge you as an individual by your merit and by your commitment to the team and the mission.” Hegseth, a former Fox News host and US National Guard veteran, has moved to end DEI, arguing such programs are divisive. He has also halted identity month celebrations, such as Black History Month and Women’s History Month.
In his speech, he said such efforts “put one group ahead of another” and “erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution.” Hegseth also talked about global security, saying recent events had damaged perceptions of American strength. He pointed to the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Ukraine conflict, and the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel as signs of instability. “Chaos happens when the perception of American strength is not complete,” he maintained. “And so we aim to reestablish that deterrence.” He pledged accountability for the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021 when the US-backed government in Kabul collapsed faster than expected.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan, planned by President Donald Trump in his first term, followed a 20-year military campaign that cost billions of dollars and killed tens of thousands. Former President Joe Biden was roundly criticized for his handling of the pull out, in which 13 American service members were killed, and for leaving thousands of allied Afghans behind. “We are going to look back at what happened in Afghanistan and hold people accountable,” he said. “Not for retribution, but to understand what went wrong and why there was no accountability for it.” President Trump has pushed back on DEI within the federal government since assuming office on January 20. After being sworn in, he signed a series of orders rolling back protections for transgender individuals and terminating DEI initiatives.
Trump banned transgender people from serving in the US military in 2017. Biden repealed the ban shortly after taking office in 2021, only to have Trump reverse that in his second term. The Pentagon repealed its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in 2011, allowing gay and lesbian troops to serve openly. Gender dysphoria, the clinical diagnosis for many transgender people, was still considered cause for involuntary discharge until 2016. All branches of the US military are facing some of the worst recruiting shortfalls in their history. Republican lawmakers have blamed the problem on the Pentagon’s prioritization of diversity over military readiness. A 2021 report commissioned by Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee found that the US Navy was focusing more on “wokeness” and diversity than winning wars.
“Paris is officially supporting some kind of incredible and insane force of neo-Nazism, which has flourished in Ukraine,” Zakharova said..” “Moreover, the neo-Nazism in Ukraine has already turned into terrorism, it has mutated.”
• Paris Backs Neo-Nazism in Ukraine – Moscow (RT)
The French authorities have unquestionably supported the rise of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. She emphasized that the Kiev regime has turned into an international terrorist cell with the connivance of its Western backers. Moscow has repeatedly accused the current Ukrainian government of embracing Nazi ideology, and listed the denazification of the country as one of the key objectives of its military operation, along with demilitarization and enforcing neutrality. “Paris is officially supporting some kind of incredible and insane force of neo-Nazism, which has flourished in Ukraine,” Zakharova said in an interview with RIA Novosti published on Sunday. “Moreover, the neo-Nazism in Ukraine has already turned into terrorism, it has mutated.”
The spokeswoman mentioned a series of atrocities allegedly conducted by Ukrainian soldiers in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye in the Russian region of Kursk, which are currently being probed by the country’s Investigative Committee, in the latest instance of what she branded “a fusion of Nazism and fascism with new technological capabilities and a terrorist nature.” Earlier this year, Russian investigators reported multiple incidents related to the village, located 10km north of Sudzha, which had been occupied by the Ukrainian army since last August. The officials charged that Ukrainian soldiers raped, tortured, and murdered local residents. Some of the allegations have been confirmed by Ukrainian soldiers captured during the liberation of the settlement.
“All these [war crimes] are being backed by Paris via supplies of weapons and money, via lending political support, via encouraging [Kiev], and of course via saying no word of condemnation,” Zakharova maintained. The spokeswoman concluded that officials in Paris prefer not to notice that killings of civilians and journalists “through the use of the weapons supplied to Ukraine by Western backers, including France, do not match with the ethics supported by the French authorities on the international scene.”
Earlier this week, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced that the Ukrainian military had received the first batch of fourth generation Mirage 2000-5 aircraft that French President Emmanuel Macron promised to supply last year. Lecornu added that the jets would be operated by Ukrainian pilots who have undergone training in France. Commenting on the move, Russian lawmaker Leonid Ivlev said that the transfer of the fighter jets would inevitably lead to the involvement of France in a military conflict with Russia. Meanwhile, a representative of Russian defense conglomerate Rostec said the jets would be swiftly destroyed if Kiev uses them near the front line.
“..an energy crisis that’s heavily contributed to voters across the bloc turning against establishment parties..”
• The EU’s Worst Enemies Are Its Own Russophobic Leaders (Marsden)
It’s a big day for the EU, says the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas. All because three former Soviet states – Latvia, Lithuania, and her home country, Estonia, where she previously served as prime minister – have just swapped out their historically reliable Russian electricity entirely for a system regulated by the folks in Brussels, whose recent energy security strategies have included imploring citizens to dress in sweaters, like turtles, and to consider group showers. “Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia will permanently disconnect from Russia’s power grid tomorrow,” Kallas wrote on social media on February 7th. ”Russia can no longer use energy as a tool of blackmail. This is a victory for freedom and European unity.”
Yeah, Western Europeans are united, alright. On the fact that the EU has triggered an energy crisis that’s heavily contributed to voters across the bloc turning against establishment parties in recent national elections. The skyrocketing cost of living, largely attributed to a lack of affordable energy, was even cited by the EU’s own Eurobarometer report last year as a motivating factor for 42% of Europeans in last summer’s EU parliamentary elections. Those elections saw the arrival in Brussels of “more MEPs on the far-right benches than before,” Le Monde wrote, characterizing the rise of anti-establishment populism, notably on the right.
While loudly shunning cheap Russian energy, the EU has nonetheless been importing record levels of it, in the form of LNG, at several times the price. Russian oil being shipped to the EU has surged by putting on a fake mustache and arriving on European shores from Türkiye, India, and China, with Foreign Policy magazine underscoring just last month that Europe “somehow still depends on Russian energy.” The end result is essentially a virtue tax that gets passed on to the consumer. All this to impress the EU’s girlfriend, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, whose country was raking in about a billion dollars a year just for him kicking his feet up and watching Russian gas flow across Ukraine to the EU. Easiest job in the world, right? With the added bonus of pocketing cash from Russia that it can’t spend on the battlefield, according to typical EU logic. But Ukraine and the EU colluded to even put an end to that, creating an even bigger financial sinkhole for themselves to fill. Brilliant.
The EU has also become heavily dependent on the US – now to the benefit of President Donald Trump’s agenda. Which hopefully Brussels loves, because it has already set itself up to finance it as a result of its overdependence on the US as a means of sticking it to Putin. Trump has made it clear that he views the EU’s lack of sufficient dependence on the US as some form of abuse – of the US. “I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas. Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way,” Trump wrote last December on social media. What a mess. How did it all go so wrong?
RFK
Pain is the touchstone of growth. Struggle shapes character.
Through adversity, Bobby Kennedy has emerged as a leader who understands suffering, redemption, and the fight for something greater than himself. pic.twitter.com/G0QXQrwnAk
— MAHA Alliance (@MAHAalliance) February 8, 2025
Pachamamba
https://twitter.com/i/status/1888315624755253330
Levitation
The skill to create the illusion of levitation
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) February 9, 2025
Calm
https://twitter.com/i/status/1888621964908007723
Baby elephant
Baby elephant asking for treats pic.twitter.com/1Q3mh6ekZR
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) February 9, 2025
Bluebirds
https://twitter.com/i/status/1888527926645211398
Bubbles
Dolphin blowing bubble rings pic.twitter.com/fla9Uz3R2T
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) February 9, 2025
Bull
A bull in Brazil taking his drunk owner home pic.twitter.com/fff1b0njwU
— NO CONTEXT HUMANS (@HumansNoContext) February 8, 2025
MTL
https://twitter.com/i/status/1888327059942052276
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