gov employees (congress etc) freaking over an audit

[benstt]

Log in to YouTube and start looking at the comment sections of all the videos that have suddenly made an appearance. People no one ever heard of posting videos blasting Trump are getting thousands of views and comments. A few I saw just yesterday:

“ Too bad about the 2 misses”

“ You know what they say, 3rd time’s a charm”.

And those were on one of Robert Reich’s videos.

One video about arming yourself was rife with comments from far leftists who apparently ( according to them) are as many, as well armed and as well trained as the right and all itching for a confrontation.

Endless comments from people who make no sense and are calling for all sorts of action. Impeachment, hanging Musk, etc. Mind bending.

And that was just a couple hours one afternoon scrolling through YouTube.

I don't go on YouTube much aside from woodshop videos and music. Any pundit, left or right, can f off. They just **** people off and make things worse. People would be so much better off talking to other people outside their own bubble and finding out they aren't that scary. Go to news for news, not opinion. Good luck seeing that happen, though. It's much more fun to be angry and sit in an echo chamber.

While I'm not for the talk of looking for confrontations, I'm glad more on the left are getting into guns. Here in Minnesota a lot of people all over the political spectrum just grow up with them. My whole family is lefty but we all have them and know how to use them. I'm helping my cousin teach his kids to shoot and hunt right now, and my nephew and niece will be old enough soon. I even bought a AR to sit between a .22lr and a 30.06, so there's somethign they can feel when it goes off but won't knock them flat.

 

[Shibadog]

The only reason the loonies are screaming is they know there are things they want to remain hidden from the public. If you above board an audit is nothing to worry about. On the other hand if you’ve been stealing or embezzling….maybe you need to be scared. Also there’s the whole issue of the logic in borrowing money so you can give it away to promote your agenda elsewhere. Craziness.

 

[Bassbob]

I don't go on YouTube much aside from woodshop videos and music. Any pundit, left or right, can f off. They just **** people off and make things worse. People would be so much better off talking to other people outside their own bubble and finding out they aren't that scary. Go to news for news, not opinion. Good luck seeing that happen, though. It's much more fun to be angry and sit in an echo chamber.

While I'm not for the talk of looking for confrontations, I'm glad more on the left are getting into guns. Here in Minnesota a lot of people all over the political spectrum just grow up with them. My whole family is lefty but we all have them and know how to use them. I'm helping my cousin teach his kids to shoot and hunt right now, and my nephew and niece will be old enough soon. I even bought a AR to sit between a .22lr and a 30.06, so there's somethign they can feel when it goes off but won't knock them flat.

I agree. I’m glad the left is getting into guns too. There’s enough room in the tent for everyone.

I only go to YouTube for one or two gun channels ( Taofledermaus and OG’s Danger Show mainly) and cat videos. I was really sad when I figured out that all those videos of people ( mostly in India and China) saving hurt and starving cats and kittens are fake.

 

[last2brake]

I think it seems naive to want to know where all of our tax money is being fraudulently spent by humans.

I don't think it's possible to encapsulate it all without needing other humans to gather, summaize, and present the info to others.

Look at how many boxes full of paper it takes just to print the government budget every year

If you're using other people to interpret how people spend our money, you still have the same weakness in the datastream.

You're still using people to assess and summarize other people's spending, and people are the weakness. They all have different values, opinions, and agendas.

NOBODY knows where all the money is being spent. It is not humanly possible.

So we're left choosing between different opinions, and personal opinion is the uncertainty in the whole process.

It would be great if it was possible, but different audits will have different results, and (once again) we're left choosing who to believe.

 

[Bassbob]

The only reason the loonies are screaming is they know there are things they want to remain hidden from the public. If you above board an audit is nothing to worry about. On the other hand if you’ve been stealing or embezzling….maybe you need to be scared. Also there’s the whole issue of the logic in borrowing money so you can give it away to promote your agenda elsewhere. Craziness.

The thing I hate is they manage to get citizens to be upset about it and think it’s a threat to democracy.

 

[Belt Fed]

YOU PAID FOR IT... BUT NOT ANYMORE! Breaking This Morning, the White House releases more projects that you paid for with USAID, the wasteful unaccountable government agency that has been dismantled by DOGE and Elon Musk! Here is a look at where your tax dollars went (including terror groups!): I hope you're proud!

— $7.9 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid “binary-gendered language”
— $20 million for a new Sesame Street show in Iraq
— $4.5+ million to “combat disinformation” in Kazakhstan
— $1.5 million for “art for inclusion of people with disabilities”
— $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
— $6 million to “transform digital spaces to reflect feminist democratic principles”
— $2.1 million to help the BBC “value the diversity of Libyan society”
— $10 million worth of USAID-funded meals, which went to an al Qaeda-linked terrorgroup
— $25 million for Deloitte to promote “green transportation” in the country of Georgia
— $2.5 million to promote “inclusion” in Vietnam
— $16.8 million for a SEPARATE “inclusion” group in Vietnam
— ~$5 million to EcoHealth Alliance, one of the key NGOs funding bat virus research at the Wuhan lab
— $20 million for a group related to a key player in the Russiagate impeachment hoax
— $1.1 million to an Armenian “LGBT group”
— $1.2 million to help the African Methodist Episcopal Church Service and Development Agency in Washington, D.C., build “a state-of-the-art 440 seat auditorium”
— $1.5 million to promote “LGBT advocacy” in Jamaica
— $2 million to promote “LGBT equality through entrepreneurship” in Latin America
— $500K to solve sectarian violence in Israel (just ten days before the Hamas October 7 attack)
— $2.3 million for “artisanal and small scale gold mining” in the Amazon
— $3.9 million for “LGBT causes” in the western Balkans
— $5.5 million for LGBT activism in Uganda
— $6 million for advancing LGBT issues in “priority countries around the world”
— $6.3 million for men who have s*x with men in South Africa
— $8.3 million for “USAID Education: Equity and Inclusion”
For decades, USAID bureaucrats believed they were accountable to no one — but that era is over. President Trump is STOPPING the waste, fraud, and abuse.

 

[Belt Fed]

 

[Belt Fed]

 

[benstt]

I'd look for sources for those numbers.

 

[benstt]

YOU PAID FOR IT... BUT NOT ANYMORE! Breaking This Morning, the White House releases more projects that you paid for with USAID, the wasteful unaccountable government agency that has been dismantled by DOGE and Elon Musk! Here is a look at where your tax dollars went (including terror groups!): I hope you're proud!

— $7.9 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid “binary-gendered language”
— $20 million for a new Sesame Street show in Iraq
— $4.5+ million to “combat disinformation” in Kazakhstan
— $1.5 million for “art for inclusion of people with disabilities”
— $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
— $6 million to “transform digital spaces to reflect feminist democratic principles”
— $2.1 million to help the BBC “value the diversity of Libyan society”
— $10 million worth of USAID-funded meals, which went to an al Qaeda-linked terrorgroup
— $25 million for Deloitte to promote “green transportation” in the country of Georgia
— $2.5 million to promote “inclusion” in Vietnam
— $16.8 million for a SEPARATE “inclusion” group in Vietnam
— ~$5 million to EcoHealth Alliance, one of the key NGOs funding bat virus research at the Wuhan lab
— $20 million for a group related to a key player in the Russiagate impeachment hoax
— $1.1 million to an Armenian “LGBT group”
— $1.2 million to help the African Methodist Episcopal Church Service and Development Agency in Washington, D.C., build “a state-of-the-art 440 seat auditorium”
— $1.5 million to promote “LGBT advocacy” in Jamaica
— $2 million to promote “LGBT equality through entrepreneurship” in Latin America
— $500K to solve sectarian violence in Israel (just ten days before the Hamas October 7 attack)
— $2.3 million for “artisanal and small scale gold mining” in the Amazon
— $3.9 million for “LGBT causes” in the western Balkans
— $5.5 million for LGBT activism in Uganda
— $6 million for advancing LGBT issues in “priority countries around the world”
— $6.3 million for men who have s*x with men in South Africa
— $8.3 million for “USAID Education: Equity and Inclusion”
For decades, USAID bureaucrats believed they were accountable to no one — but that era is over. President Trump is STOPPING the waste, fraud, and abuse.

So where did the rest of it go? What programs? What were the non-soundbite descriptions and outcomes of the programs listed? Are you getting cherry-picked numbers to get you riled up? Did USAID also feed a ton of people who'd otherwise starve? Does spending that money buy influence with local populations that might otherwise ally with our enemies? Is USAID the soft power that goes along with out military hard power?

Ask questions and get more info, dude. It's probably not as simple as those numbers presented in Stephen Miller's bit I saw on Hannity's little propaganda circus while training on the treadmill last night.

 

[Bassbob]

She’s not.

 

[Bassbob]

So where did the rest of it go? What programs? What were the non-soundbite descriptions and outcomes of the programs listed? Are you getting cherry-picked numbers to get you riled up? Did USAID also feed a ton of people who'd otherwise starve? Does spending that money buy influence with local populations that might otherwise ally with our enemies?

Ask questions and get more info, dude. It's probably not as simple as those numbers presented in Stephen Miller's bit I saw on Hannity's little propaganda circus while training on the treadmill last night.

One things for sure. It wasn’t spent on Americans.

 

[benstt]

I agree. I’m glad the left is getting into guns too. There’s enough room in the tent for everyone.

I only go to YouTube for one or two gun channels ( Taofledermaus and OG’s Danger Show mainly) and cat videos. I was really sad when I figured out that all those videos of people ( mostly in India and China) saving hurt and starving cats and kittens are fake.

I do watch cat and dog videos when I've had a rough day and want something upbeat.

 

[last2brake]

I shouldn't have said "seems naive to want to know"...

I'd like to know, too.

What I meant was, the task would be so gargantuan it would need impartial summation.

I wish it was possible to find an impartial auditor.

 

[jumpinjoe]

Nah, they hide it all the time. Think 4th Amendment. My response would be "pound sand" 100% of the time unless there's something like a warrant or threat of termination compelling me. My business is no one else's, no matter how mundane.

When one works for the public IE: is a public servant, and is funded by the public, then everything they do regarding their 'public service' is subject to the public oversight in one way or another. "Your" business and the public's business are two separate issues and should be maintained that way. There should never be a question as to whether or not you're doing the public's work, or one's personal work ... "no matter how mundane"!

 

[jumpinjoe]

Ok, so a cop or someone walks up and tells you to go get your bank records with no warrant or legal authority and you'd just do it because you have nothing to hide? On a personal level, yes. Pound sand. On a company level, yes. Pound sand. To me considering this is unfettered access to government systems, including the ones with my information on it by an unelected person/group with no authority or oversight, yes. I want those agencies to tell DOGE and Elon to pound sand. Come back with authority from Congress and oversight so we know what that nutter is taking and accessing when his people plug into federal computers.

So now it appears we're more intuned to 'everything is relative'?

 

[benstt]

So now it appears we're more intuned to 'everything is relative'?

No, I don't agree with that. I'd say my statements have been consistent. Come with some authority (a warrant, strong P.C., appointment or confirmation by Congress), and with some oversight and guardrails. If those two conditions are not met, pound sand. Just sending people do dig through data, apparently without constraint, is a no go for me.

 

[jumpinjoe]

A federal judge has a case before her in which it is alleged DOGE people accessed taxpayer SSNs, addresses, and bank account numbers. That's really, really bad. I disagree it has to be done, and definitely the way its being done. contractors aren't new but the work needs to be done legally, and there need to be robust data protections.

I've not seen where anyone's personal, private information has been involved in any way with DOGE. What I have seen is it having to do with spending public monies.

 

[benstt]

I shouldn't have said "seems naive to want to know"...

I'd like to know, too.

What I meant was, the task would be so gargantuan it would need impartial summation.

I wish it was possible to find an impartial auditor.

I wouldn't even care if they weren't impartial if they were vetted, cleared, and there were established guardrails to protect sensitive information.

 

[jumpinjoe]

No, I don't agree with that. I'd say my statements have been consistent. Come with some authority (a warrant, strong P.C., appointment or confirmation by Congress), and with some oversight and guardrails. If those two conditions are not met, pound sand. Just sending people do dig through data, apparently without constraint, is a no go for me.

But you didn't say that originally, you basically just said anyone/everyone can pound sand about anything, "no matter how mundane".