As predicted, the hubris of Elon Musk's promises of $2 trillion in DOGE savings now crashes on the rocks of reality as he promises only $150 billion in savings in FY 2026

 

 Have there been no savings from the Department of Defense, the costliest department in the federal government? No $1,000 toilet seats to be found? No savings from sex change operation eliminations? How about the $7 billion in military equipment left behind in Afghanistan, stuff like that? Didn't we get booted from Niger last year? Anything left behind there? You get the idea, but we've heard nothing about Department of Defense waste, fraud, and abuse.

I mean, where did Army Surplus come from in the first place?

Oh, by the way, the Pentagon failed its seventh audit in a row in November 2024. It has $4 trillion in assets in every US state and 4,500 locations worldwide, but Elon Musk couldn't find one thing to eliminate?

Yeah, but they're on track to fire 300,000 federal workers.

Meanwhile the $150 billion in claimed savings to come, if they actually do get here, is already gone, swallowed up by the Giant Squid. The deficit year to date is already $242 billion higher than it was last year at this time.

DOGE has been nothing but theatre, and Elon's just taking a bow as his gig comes to an end at the close of May.

Has anything in recent memory failed more spectacularly than this?

 

 

 

Liberals are upset with Trump's EO on elections because it threatens to withhold federal money from jurisdictions which don't crack down on voting by non-citizens

Whether liberals will address this head on, however, remains to be seen. They may simply challenge the meddling of the executive in a matter the constitution reserves to the states.

The Supreme Court has consistently deferred on this to the states, even during all the election controversy of 2020, rebuffing Trump over and over again, and is likely to do so again, which would be yet another defeat for Trump.

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

-- Article I, Section 4, clause 1

Trump promises more EOs on elections in the future.

He's already issued 100 of them. And the next guy can issue 100 overturning them. 

This is all theatre. Republicans' narrow majorities in the House and Senate make any of these becoming permanent law extremely unlikely.

 Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring proof of citizenship

Government belt-tightening theatre at CNBC: Social Security new proofing procedures requiring in person visits are a joke, a costly upheaval designed to stop a puny problem

 

Social Security Administration to emphasize in-person office visits to curb identity fraud

As the Social Security Administration seeks to curb identity fraud, more people will now be required to visit an office to prove their identity for new benefit claims and direct deposit changes. ... The changes are aimed at helping to avoid the fraudulent redirection of benefit checks, which the agency has been warning about for years. ... SSA estimates the agency is now losing more than $100 million per year due to direct deposit fraud. ... The change may require foot traffic to Social Security offices nationwide to increase by about 75,000 to 85,000 more in-person visitors per week, according to reports on an internal Social Security Administration memo. ... The AARP, an interest group that represents Americans ages 50 and over, urged the Social Security Administration to reverse the decision.

In fiscal 2024 Social Security paid out $1.35 trillion in benefits. $100 million is 0.0074% of that!

I predict that the costs of this silliness will exceed the savings. 

Impeachment of judges is pure theatre, that's all, end of story

 

  Musk and Republican Lawmakers Pressure Judges with Impeachment Threats

 

 ... Judicial impeachments are rare and notoriously time-consuming. ... Any such move would be all but certain to fail in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority would be needed for a conviction. ...

It's deportation theatre at Fox News: The ICE Capades

 

Just a reminder that theatre is exactly what this is, starring Mexico, Canada, and Donald Trump

 Sound familiar?

More tariff theatre: Trump announces 25% tariffs on Canada on Saturday, reverses himself before dinner on Monday lol

 

Trump pauses tariffs on Canada imports for 30 days after doing the same for Mexico

... Trudeau said Canada had made new commitments “to appoint a Fentanyl Czar.” 😉😉

“Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl,” the prime minister wrote. “Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.” ...

In 2024, more than 21,100 pounds of fentanyl was seized by U.S. authorities on the border with Mexico, compared to only about 43 pounds seized at the Canadian border. ...

The stock market didn't give a flying fig about the Fed's quarter-point interest rate increase today: Powell was way too timid, should have just gone with one full point

 The insanity of easy money is liked most by the stock market, which is why Powell is going slow on his way to two percent after he completes the six more increases he's promising over the next year.

If he thinks the rate ought to be 2% to curb inflation, well then get on with it, boy, and show us what you've got! Nip it in the bud if it's that big a FD.

Truth is they've got nothing, and intend to do nothing about inflation.

Inflation this high needs a bigger gun than 2% one year down the road. That's not how it was done in the 1980s, and 2% even if done right now won't do a damn thing.

This is just inflation theatre, just like the TSA war on terror security theatre, the this government theatre, the that government theatre, and lately the vaccine theatre.

Meanwhile the first in line to all this easy money keep getting richer, and richer, and richer.

Gotta keep that going while appearing to DO SOMETHING!

What a crock.

 

Chip Roy calls latest House immigration bill a show, political theatre, which is ignoring the invasion

Everything government does is theatre, usually bad theatre, and when it's occasionally mediocre theatre because it's so rarely even that good the politicians abandon all sense of proportion and fall all over themselves telling us how wonderful what they did was.

Trump won't actually do his job. Congress won't actually do its job.

Sounds like a trend.

Link.

Two kinds of security theatre, not actual security: $8 billion a year for TSA to feel up grandma at the airport, $5 billion for part of a wall around which sex offenders will still get in

Maybe it would just be cheaper to bring them straight in and let them loose in the airports.

Security Theatre: TSA failure rate to detect weapons and explosives improves from 95% to 80%!

Way to go, Brownie! Or somebody.

From the story here:

When ABC News asked the source familiar with the report if the failure rate was 80 percent, the response was, “You are in the ballpark.” ... The news of the failure comes two years after ABC News reported that secret teams from DHS found that TSA failed 95 percent of the time to stop inspectors from covertly smuggling weapons or explosive materials through screening.

Like TSA security "theatre", ICE plans deportation theatre: "Hundreds of families" or maybe just "hundreds" to be deported

WaPo reports here:

"The Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, according to people familiar with the operation. ... The ICE operation would target only adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge, according to officials familiar with the undertaking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because planning is ongoing and the operation has not been given final approval by DHS. The adults and children would be detained wherever they can be found and immediately deported. The number targeted is expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater."

----------------------------------------------

As with the TSA, which routinely shakes down your granny before she gets on the plane while missing guns and knives on others, ICE will focus on the many harmless easy marks and miss the criminals who are already safely embedded in gangland.

The incompetent serving the fools.

Security Theatre still the rule at airports: DHS punks the TSA 95% of the time

Sneaking through explosives and weapons.

And forget about baggage screening.

From the story here:

"In addition, the review determined that despite spending $540 million for checked baggage screening equipment and another $11 million for training since a previous review in 2009, the TSA failed to make any noticeable improvements in that time."

Sarkozy v. Hollande: Their Only Difference (Small) Is Height

UMPS!

As observed by a supporter of Le Pen, quoted here in The Christian Science Monitor:

In a fiery speech to thousands of supporters waving French flags, Le Pen slammed Sarkozy's rhetoric on the need to strengthen borders and maintain a clear national identity as pure theatrics and labelled him and Hollande as lackeys of the European Central Bank, IMF and European Commission.

"The French have started their emancipation," she said, scorning the mainstream parties, the UMP and PS, or Socialists, as an indistinguishable "UMPS" bloc.

"The UMPS will not succeed," she said. "All of their efforts cannot stop us growing and cannot block our path to power."

Mockery of the two remaining candidates was a common theme among Le Pen's supporters:

"Sarkozy and Hollande, they are exactly the same," said an 18-year-old who gave her name as Justine. "If there is a difference between the two it's their height."

Incompetent Airport Security Misses .32 cal Ammo TWICE

Both in the US and in the Bahamas:

It’s unclear how the bullet was not detected by security at Kansas City International Airport and in Nassau.

No, it's entirely clear. You're incompetent and your security is pure theatre, you miserable cretins.

There's more here.

TSA De-deputizes Pilot For Posting Video of Sacramento Security Theatre

The story, with video, is here.

Apparently the TSA is upset that you find out from this story that ground crews don't go through the invasive screening that you and flight crews have to endure. Ground crew members swipe a card reader and get access to your plane, by-passing metal detectors, naked scanners, and enhanced pat downs.

Do you feel safer?

Well, do ya, punk?

TSA Screeners Routinely Miss Guns and Bombs

According to this ABC news story, last fall a guy forgets he's got a loaded pistol in a carry-on but gets through security anyway in Houston and doesn't realize it until he's in his destination hotel room after the three hour flight.

And then there's this. The story says it was an international flight. Didn't he go through customs at the other end?

Do you think if we had profiled the Iranian-American, Farid Seif, we'd have found the weapon?

Whatever people may think TSA is doing at airports, it isn't security. It's security theatre.

Security Theatre with Jeffrey Goldberg

If you haven't read "The Things He Carried" by Jeffrey Goldberg for The Atlantic, November 2008, here, you should. 

He successfully sneaked the following past security and onto aircraft at major airports all across America:

pocketknives, matches from hotels in Muslim countries, dust masks, rope, cigarette lighters, an 8 oz. tube of toothpaste in a front pants pocket, box cutters, a Beerbelly wrapped around his stomach containing two cans of beer, and a variety of terrorist-themed souvenirs.

Oh yeah. He also tore up fake boarding passes in full view in a bathroom and no one reported him. And he used one to get on a plane with a 12 oz. bottle of saline no one verified was saline.