#publishing #ThePembrokePapers #Issue3 #corruption #regeneration #SouthQuay #Pembroke I know, snappy snaps, if you want the*.pdf mail me. From £18mil to £63mil in a bink! #PCC = Pembrokeshire County Council pembrokepapers@gmail.com
#publishing #ThePembrokePapers #Issue3 #corruption #regeneration #SouthQuay #Pembroke I know, snappy snaps, if you want the*.pdf mail me. From £18mil to £63mil in a bink! #PCC = Pembrokeshire County Council pembrokepapers@gmail.com
"Trust doesn't return with a photo op, a handshake, or deals signed under duress. It is built slowly, consistently, through a pattern of behavior. #Trump broke that pattern. He salted the earth. And now he struts through the wreckage, calling it a win.
The rest of the #world sees it for what it is...
They'll smile for the cameras. But they won't forget. And they won't trust."
- @Daojoan
https://www.theindex.media/trust-is-dead-trump-keeps-selling-the-corpse/
"The damage isn't theoretical... Trade routes are shifting. Investment is diversifying. Global power is rebalancing... All of it is premised on a hard-earned truth: the #UnitedStates cannot be trusted to lead. Not because of one man but because of what half the country has chosen to normalize. Not because of #Trump alone but because every institution built to restrain him failed & then got in line."
https://www.theindex.media/trust-is-dead-trump-keeps-selling-the-corpse/
"Allies are preparing for retaliation cycles. Enemies are exploiting the vacuum. #Trump brags about getting countries to the table. But a meeting is not respect. A press conference is not a partnership. These aren't alliances. These are standoffs with better lighting.
...His statecraft is theater. His negotiation tactic is a threat. His diplomacy is extortion. And the rest of the world is reacting accordingly."
https://www.theindex.media/trust-is-dead-trump-keeps-selling-the-corpse/
"None of these governments believes #Trump will keep his word. How could they? The man broke every commitment he ever touched.
The #Iran deal. The #Paris Agreement. #NATO cooperation. #WTO norms. Trade deals with #Mexico, #Canada, and #China. He walked away from each of them. Because #chaos creates attention, and attention is the only currency he respects."
https://www.theindex.media/trust-is-dead-trump-keeps-selling-the-corpse/
Trust Is Dead. Trump Keeps Selling the Corpse.
Behind every handshake is a nation plotting its exit strategy from the American empire.
https://www.theindex.media/trust-is-dead-trump-keeps-selling-the-corpse/
" #DonaldTrump says he's cutting deals again... His team calls it a triumph... But no one with a functioning memory or a map believes this is real. It's not leadership. It's damage mitigation. The #UnitedStates is not being courted—it's being managed.
The trust is gone."
This is for everyone who has a #government that does horrible things in their name, who voted for a campaign promise but got nothing or the opposite, who has been disappointed repeatedly, who feels unheard, or who never even got a chance to vote!
If you can relate, feel free to use this as your profile image so that others like us can see they are not alone, and those affected by our countries #politics see we disagree!
DOGE Secretly Changes Receipts for Almost Half Its Supposed Savings
DOGE keeps quietly editing how much it has saved through its cuts.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192248/doge-changed-almost-half-savings-receipts
"errors still persisted on the site. #DOGE still claimed that it had saved $106 million by canceling two contracts... but in reality, those contracts were completed during the #Bush admn.
This isn’t the first time that this has happened. DOGE’s website... has turned into a hall of humiliation"
"The credit card program allows federal workers to bypass the typical procurement process required to buy goods and services. A 2002 report from the Department of #Commerce said that, “by avoiding the formal procurement process, #GSA estimates the annual savings to be $1.2 billion.” It also enables federal employees to avoid paying sales tax on expenses that the #government is exempt from."
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-elon-musk-spending-cuts-federal-workers/
Why shutting down the International Space Station could make Musk a fortune
https://www.muskwatch.com/p/why-shutting-down-the-international
"White House advisor and SpaceX CEO #ElonMusk called for deorbiting the International Space Station (ISS)...
financial windfall for #SpaceX...
would pave the way for private companies to launch commercial space stations. Servicing commercial space stations is a key part of SpaceX's growth strategy."
Trump Is About to Hide DOGE’s True Costs From the Entire Country
Trump’s commerce secretary is preparing to mess with the country’s economic statistics.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192216/trump-lutnick-economic-statistics-gdp-doge
"The #Trump administration might exclude #government spending from gross domestic product reports to cover up upcoming poor #economic reports, and to hide the true scope of #DOGE cuts.... [which] could have a negative impact on the #economy."
Vulture Capitalism Comes for #Democracy
The playbook #Trump & Musk are following to dismantle govt resembles the one used to pick apart America’s newspapers.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/vulture-capitalism-comes-for-democracy
"Trump & #ElonMusk... are taking their chainsaws to the federal #government. Waiting in the wings are Trump’s #billionaire buddies—including 13 in his administration—who are salivating at the prospect of govt agencies being privatized"
FAA Officials Ordered Staff to Find Funding for Elon Musk’s Starlink
The Federal #Aviation Administration directed staff to locate tens of millions of dollars for a #Starlink deal...
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/elon-musk-starlink-faa-officials-find-funding-1235285246/
"these internal directives have mostly, if not entirely, been delivered verbally — which they say is unusual for a matter like this... it appears as though “someone does not want a paper trail.”"
A letter to the American People:
https://18f.org/
"18F was doing exactly the type of work that #DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated.
When former #Tesla engineer Thomas Shedd took the position of #TTS director... he acknowledged that the group is the “gold standard” of civic #technologists... He repeatedly emphasized the importance of the work, and the value of the talent that the teams bring to #government"
Two Good Reads.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/two-good-reads
"Musk’s anger at federal regulators powered his dedication to the wilding spree...
the plain facts of what both pieces describe make clear that the best conceptual model for #DOGE is something between an #InsiderThreat action and a #terrorist operation. The emphasis on secrecy, misdirection and illegality is all there, the focus on seizing control of central nodes of #power & destroying things"
"Allies of Musk also began arriving at tech hubs in the federal government before Inauguration Day — the first hint of the scope of his incursion."
#GiftLink
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/politics/musk-federal-bureaucracy-takeover.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0U4.t9r3.sBTAws_GSyV3&smid=url-share
I recommend reading the whole article. You can do so even without a subscription by using the above link.
" #Musk would not be named the #DOGE administrator, but rather an adviser to #Trump...
secrecy...
If people filed #lawsuits seeking disclosure of his emails or the operation’s records under #FOIA, the arrangement would set the admn up to argue that such documents were exempt... FOIA does not apply to a president’s White House advisers or to #WhiteHouse entities that advise him but wield no **formal** power"
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/politics/musk-federal-bureaucracy-takeover.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0U4.t9r3.sBTAws_GSyV3&smid=url-share
How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy
The operation was driven with a frenetic focus by the billionaire, who channeled his resentment of regulatory oversight into a drastic overhaul of govt agencies.
#GiftLink
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/politics/musk-federal-bureaucracy-takeover.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0U4.t9r3.sBTAws_GSyV3&smid=url-share
"Without ceding control of his companies, the [South African immigrant] has embedded his #engineers & aides inside the govt’s critical digital #infrastructure"
"This is the point where I issue the required caveat that yes... there is indeed #fraud that targets #government programs. But the crew of berserkers now demolishing the federal govt doesn’t care about any of it. Which is why it is impossible to have an honest discussion right now about improving the way govt works. The only task is to make sure everyone knows they’re lying, and mitigate the damage they’ll do."
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/the-republican-fraud-lie
The Republican "Fraud" Lie
#Musk, #Trump, & the #GOP aren't even looking for fraud. They just want to destroy agencies & slash benefits.
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/the-republican-fraud-lie
"What they won’t tell you is that we already investigate #fraud in these programs...
But they are going to say they’re not only looking, but finding fraud. It is a #lie. And it is going to be used in particular against #Medicaid, which they are targeting for enormous cutbacks."