Elon provided internet to the  area, did the government do that too?

North Carolina lawmakers flesh out details
of proposed $500M Helene relief package

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina House members advanced
Wednesday a Republican package to boost state recovery funding
after Hurricane Helene as committees fleshed out details on how
best to spend another $500 million to address the historic flooding.

The House's budget-writing committee voted for the latest spending
proposal, which would emphasize repairs for damaged homes, private
bridges and roads, assistance to farmers who lost crops and rebuilding
infrastructure adjacent used by small businesses.

GOP House leaders had unveiled a version last week, but several
amendments adjusted the measure in a special Helene recovery
committee on Tuesday. A House floor vote is expected next week, said
Rep. John Bell, the House rules chairman and co-chairman of the
recovery committee.

The package remains less than half of the $1.07 billion
that new Democratic Gov. Josh Stein sought in new recovery
spending earlier this month from legislators.

https://wlos.com/news/local/north-carolina-lawmakers-proposed-500m-helene-relief-package-details-republican-committees-flooding-repairs-damaged-homes-gop-house-leaders-gov-josh-stein

As I said, this is what happens when the state sits idle because they assume FEMA and federal aid will take care of disasters.  It's called the bystander effect.

The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological
theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a
victim in the presence of other people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

If the Feds didn't announce FEMA was providing aid, then the state and local groups would have no choice but to step in and help victims.

It comes down to who sees themselves as having responsibility to provide aid, and the degree of responsibility rests in whether they see anyone else who also has responsibility.  If FEMA is responsible, then others will either offer to assist FEMA or avoid getting in FEMA's way.  Now, months later, after FEMA has demonstrated they have no intention of providing adequate relief to NC, the state finally steps in to pass funding.

Helene's destruction, mostly from flooding, hit North Carolina September 27, 2024.  That was nearly 5 months ago, and there are still people without passable roads and bridges, which makes repairing homes, electrical, water and sewer systems next to impossible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Helene_in_North_Carolina

DOGE WEBSITE

https://doge.gov/

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2025/02/14/hawaii-ag-files-lawsuit-against-elon-musk-unconstitutional-actions/
oddly quiet from our State anti Trump cheerleader - Crazy Mazie...

Examples of DOGE issues being addressed:

The Congressional Budget Office recently found that Congress provided
$516 billion in appropriations this fiscal year to programs that had expired
under federal law.

The funds were associated with nearly 500 expired authorizations,
according to the CBO’s July report.

“Nearly two-thirds ($320 billion) of that $516 billion was provided for activities
whose authorizations expired more than a decade ago,” the report said.

According to CBO’s estimates, about half of the authorized appropriations
in the report expired at least 10 years ago, and the oldest expired in 1980.

In 2023, the amount of funding for expired authorizations was $519 billion.

The federal government made $247 billion worth of payment errors in fiscal
year 2022 and $236 billion in 2023, according to the Government
Accountability Office.

These errors, also known as improper payments, include overpayments or
payments that should not have been made, such as to someone who died
or someone no longer eligible for government programs.

Estimates show the federal government spent $2.7 trillion in payment errors
since 2003.

In 2022, the majority of improper payments spanned across 82 programs, a
majority coming from Medicaid ($81 billion) and Medicare ($47 billion).

“Improper payments and fraud are long-standing and significant problems in
the federal government,” said House testimony from GAO in September.

Federal government agencies are using just 12% of the space in their
headquarters buildings on average, according to the Public Buildings
Reform Board, which is an independent federal agency focused on
recommending the disposal of underutilized federal properties.

“Even before the pandemic, of the federal properties analyzed, federal
occupancy was low, particularly in Washington D.C.,” the board’s report
to Congress in March said.

These spaces must be furnished, which also costs money.

The House Oversight Committee spent $3.3 billion on furniture over
the past few years.

Apparently, to furnish office spaces left mostly empty under maximum
telework. Some agencies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on
updating empty conference rooms

“Hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds are spent annually
just to maintain government-owned properties that should be sold off,”
said Chairman Rep. James Comer of the House Oversight Committee
in a hearing last year. “A billion dollars or more could be saved annually
by terminating unneeded federal office space leases. Unused federal
space was an issue prior to the pandemic — federal property management
has long been on GAO’s High-Risk List — but it’s now become one that
is simply too big — and too costly — to ignore.”

A penny may cost one cent for people using it to pay for goods and services,
but it costs triple that for the government to produce it.

For 19 years, the cost of producing pennies has surpassed the value of the
coin.

The same is true for nickels. Though valued at five cents, a nickel costs 11.5
cents for the government to produce one.

Producing these two coins last year cost the U.S. Mint $179 million.

The Government Accountability Office reports more than 5,300 open
recommendations for federal agencies to make the government work
better. In July, GAO estimated taxpayers could save between $106 billion
and $208 billion if the recommendations were implemented.

Apparently the Government Accountability Office has been working hard to do what DOGE is doing, but without the follow-through to actually hold anyone accountable or eliminate the fraud and waste.  it's been happening for decades, too.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/government-waste-inefficiency-trump-doge/

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2025/02/14/hawaii-ag-files-lawsuit-against-elon-musk-unconstitutional-actions/
oddly quiet from our State anti Trump cheerleader - Crazy Mazie...

Give her a while.  She is stupid.  Some people would call it "slow".....

Office of Inspector General wants to audit DOGE about their accessing stuff.  Not about what they found, but yeah....nothing to see here folks.

DOGE error. $50 million in condoms going to Gaza wasn't the Palestine Gaza, but one in Africa.  That's still way too much to spend on condoms being sent overseas.

Office of Inspector General wants to audit DOGE about their accessing stuff.  Not about what they found, but yeah....nothing to see here folks.

DOGE error. $50 million in condoms going to Gaza wasn't the Palestine Gaza, but one in Africa.  That's still way too much to spend on condoms being sent overseas.

Elon said they corrected their mistake, but it was a mistake of no consequence.  Why is the US subsidizing condoms for any other nation?

I'm sure there's a case to be made for reducing the spread of disease like HIV, but isn't that something their own nation needs to adopt and provide for their people?  Again, the US is not a charity, but people seem to think every single problem in the world is our government's to solve.

DOGE exposes government funds being laundered through private "philanthropic" organizations into huge, national gun control groups -- groups which are barred from receiving federal tax dollars by law.

USAID Funded Gun Control With Your Tax Dollars

DOGE exposes government funds being laundered through private "philanthropic" organizations into huge, national gun control groups -- groups which are barred from receiving federal tax dollars by law.

USAID Funded Gun Control With Your Tax Dollars

https://youtu.be/BrSloSMAI7E?si=NCGzg5d-p2WhJIsd

The enemy just lost most of their funding. Time to go on offense

Intersting that the vet often says hes part of veterans counsel for everytown or something like that.

This last hearing, he said he was part of MDA.

Im hoping they cut his funding.

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Intersting that the vet often says hes part of veterans counsel for everytown or something like that.

This last hearing, he said he was part of MDA.

Im hoping they cut his funding.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

EveryTown == MDA

EveryTown For Gun Safety was created as a way avoid some of the stigma associated with Mothers Demand Action. 

MDA received some bad press over their ignorant ads and stupid positions on gun control.  EveryTown tried to create a "less stupid" image while still fronting for the same gun control group.

Someone I went to high school with half a century ago texted me her son was among the probationary employees in federal government fired under Trump's (and Musk's) first cut at reducing government waste and overspending.

She was saying how this might be more reason to turn him against Trump.  i told her i don't care.  200,000 is nothing compared to the millions who already hate him for no reason.  He's in office and will never need anyone's vote ever again. He doesn't have to like it, but the government has become too massive to properly manage.  Our taxes should not be used as a jobs program for bureaucrats.  Military and government functions prescribed by the Constitution should be funded.  Everything else needs to demonstrate it's needed by the people or be cut from the budget.

Her son should find a job that offers more than a biweekly paycheck.  He should be doing something that offers value to society and a chance for personal growth and satisfaction.

Too many federal employees admit they collect a paycheck to do nothing.  They sit around waiting to be told to do something.  I took over a section at Langley AFB like that.  The section chief spent all day on the web.  He had one person able to do most of the computer system testing they were responsible for.  I came in for 2 months, gave everyone a reason to come to work, and made them responsible for a part of the whole mission for the section.  They actually gave me a little party after 2 months to show how much they appreciated my leadership.  Even gave me a small gift card to Walden Books.

If my experience is happening all over the government, then we are doing the employees a favor letting them find more productive and meaningful income.

Sucks to be the one fired, but it sucks more that taxes and debt have to increase to pay them for nothing.

I wonder how many federal employees voted for Trump because they believed in making America Great again but didn't realize that part of that goal involves them losing their federal jobs.

My wife's sister (SIL) worked for the federal government.  She is retired now.  There was this program at her workplace that gave them opportunities to work in Japan.  She was given that opportunity and it involved government paid moving expenses, COLA, and her spouse my wife's sister's husband, (I refuse to say BIL) gets to also go on the governments dime.  Forgot to mention housing in Japan is also paid for by the government.

That's tax dollars from you and me.

In my opinion the DOGE should look into this program to see if this is a necessary function.  My SIL often states that part of her job is to make sure ALL of the appropriated funds to her dept. is spent and justified PLUS recommend increase in funding to ensure the departments efficiencey and productivity, yada yada yada.....She also lamented how wasteful some of those appropriated funds ended up.   But that was her job.  In a nutshell actually.

By the way, most spouses of those employees sent to Japan found work in Japan working at the exchanges, warehouses, or commissaries.  What did my wife's sister's husband do?

Nothing.

Anyway, it was a 3 year tour.  Extended another 3 years because wife's sister's husband wanted to stay longer.  Joked my wife that her sister would do "anything" for her "son".

I wonder how many federal employees voted for Trump because they believed in making America Great again but didn't realize that part of that goal involves them losing their federal jobs.

My wife's sister (SIL) worked for the federal government.  She is retired now.  There was this program at her workplace that gave them opportunities to work in Japan.  She was given that opportunity and it involved government paid moving expenses, COLA, and her spouse my wife's sister's husband, (I refuse to say BIL) gets to also go on the governments dime.  Forgot to mention housing in Japan is also paid for by the government.

That's tax dollars from you and me.

In my opinion the DOGE should look into this program to see if this is a necessary function.  My SIL often states that part of her job is to make sure ALL of the appropriated funds to her dept. is spent and justified PLUS recommend increase in funding to ensure the departments efficiencey and productivity, yada yada yada.....She also lamented how wasteful some of those appropriated funds ended up.   But that was her job.  In a nutshell actually.

By the way, most spouses of those employees sent to Japan found work in Japan working at the exchanges, warehouses, or commissaries.  What did my wife's sister's husband do?

Nothing.

Anyway, it was a 3 year tour.  Extended another 3 years because wife's sister's husband wanted to stay longer.  Joked my wife that her sister would do "anything" for her "son".

i could go on for hours talking about the number of stupid, wasteful and corrupt spending practices i've experienced or witnessed in government. 

The worst problem is the baseline budgeting process.  They use the budget for the previous fiscal year, add what they think they can spend the following year, then put together enough justifying reasons they need the money.  As long as the % increase over the baseline doesn't attract scrutiny, the lower level budgets get rolled into the ones above.  Once appropriated, the funding trickles back down in the proportions requested.  This leads to a situation every August to get rid of any remaining monies.  Otherwise they risk having their budget reduced.  That's when everyone on staff gets new laptops, big screen TVs, and all those other big ticket, mission essential items they didn't seem to need the first 10 months of the year.

Number of people with active social security numbers aka alive.

Unknown if those over 110 are still getting benefits.

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https://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/zip/d/honolulu-free-mouse/7827324757.html

Dang I missed it. Screen cap next time.

I look at it this way, the media and left will find any reason to blame Trumps admin for anything negative. Refer cure for cancer example.

Are there people who will be negatively impacted and who don't deserve to be fired, i'm sure there are/will be.  Wil mistakes also happen with across the board firing, of course. Look the the recent nuclear something division. They fired 400 people, only to bring them back a few days later after they realized their mistake.

With the recent DLNR firings of noobs, the alternative is to fire the more XP people with pensions/retirement?  Of the 2, the noobs are the lesser of 2 evils.

No one is blaming all the prior mis-management and slackers.  Blame all the managers for adding stuff to buy at the end of the year so their budget isn't reduced later.

Also, it would take far to long to audit ever single employee to see if their position is needed.

Rip the bandaid off and rebuild is the way I look at it.

A person I know works DOD and transferred to another department. The new department isn't ready for her as they're behind for X reason. And her current department already planned her exit date. So now she was told to just go home and get paid her normal salary and wait till the new department is ready for her.  They have no ETA and told her it could be a few days to months.  Guess what, it's been 3 months already. She just came back from a 3 week vacay while on our tax dollars still paying her salary.  She also said they had another transfer and the guy was cruising at home for 6 months until the department was ready for him.  She's single and rents a big home, IDK what she does but I find it hard to believe that she would spend her monthly income on a place this big.  Maybe she also gets COLA or some thing equal to it?

A guy I know was air traffic in X state.  He is also part of the national guard in his home state.  When he has drill, he gets sent to work at his home states ATC as there's a shortage, this way the feds pay for his airfare and lodging.  So he doesn't have to pay out of pocket to go back for drill.  IDK why he hasn't transferred to his new homes state Guard.  Basically, his supervisor found a way for him to save from paying out of pocket for drill.