The Political Thread

[Chris]

DOGE slashes millions from Education Department research

Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency canceled education research contracts worth roughly $1 billion on Monday.

www.usatoday.com

The U.S. Department of Education moved to terminate nearly $1 billion in research contracts on Monday, a decision critics said depleted the government of vital data sources on American schooling and all but decimated the agency’s research division.

The move was announced on social media by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a new quasi-government agency run by X owner Elon Musk. The task force helmed by Musk, a tech billionaire, said it terminated 89 contracts worth $881 million. In another X post, DOGE said it had canceled 29 “DEI training grants” totaling $101 million.

Eliminating the agreements effectively halted the work of the Institute of Education Sciences, the arm of the Education Department responsible for gathering information about students and schools nationwide.

 

[Chris]

Elon Musk can say jump and Donald says how high senpai

Top FEMA Official Is Fired Over Payments for N.Y.C. Migrant Shelters

The Trump administration fired the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s chief financial officer and three others after Elon Musk misleadingly claimed the agency had used disaster relief funds for migrant services.

www.nytimes.com

The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it had fired four employees from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, including the agency’s chief financial officer, over their roles in disbursing federal funds to house migrants in New York City hotels.

The firings capped a startling chain of events that began on Monday with an early-morning social media post by Elon Musk who claimed, misleadingly, that FEMA had recently sent $59 million meant for disaster relief to New York City to pay for “high end hotels” for migrants, and who called the expenditure unlawful.

New York City officials raced to clarify that the federal money had been properly allocated by FEMA under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. last year, adding that it was not a disaster relief grant and had not been spent on luxury hotels.

 

[Chris]

Lol

The billionaire Elon Musk said in an extraordinary Oval Office appearance Tuesday that he was providing maximum transparency, while offering no evidence for his sweeping claims that the federal bureaucracy is corrupted by cheats and officials who have approved money for “fraudsters.”

Answering questions from the media for the first time since his arrival in Washington to run the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Mr. Musk stood next to the Resolute Desk and asserted that his work was in the interest of the public and democracy. President Trump sat behind the desk, chiming in with approval as he let the world’s richest man expound for roughly 30 minutes on the rationale for the administration’s overhaul of the federal bureaucracy.

 

[Comrade Khan]

Président Musk

 

[Grim]

*cough*

Laissons parler la guillotine

 

[Samoa Looch]

Spoiler

 

[Tommy Shelby]

We've had to sack a minister of health Andrew Gwynee MP Denton and Reddish. Anti Semitic prick singing songs in a What's App group about my people's ain't a good loos especially now we've attained power after 15 years with the most competent Leader since Tony Blair before 2003 . Got suspended and should be kicked out the party imo. Piece of anti Semitic shit

Another new MP also been suspended. Fucking fuming I am. Glad to see strong leadership By Keir Starmer.

 

[Chris]

Inflation heats up, adding pressure on Trump over vow to lower prices

A growing chorus of economists say the risks of a broader slowdown are rising.

www.nbcnews.com

Price growth unexpectedly accelerated in January, posing an early threat to President Donald Trump's economic agenda.

Prices for so-called core items, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, climbed 3.3% over the past 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday, above economists' expectations of 3.2%. On a monthly basis, the inflation measure rose 0.4%, exceeding forecasts for 0.3%.

Trump took office vowing to lower prices. While the latest report's survey period does not cover his first weeks in office, the fresh data shows the challenge of slowing price growth could be more difficult than Trump and other economists had anticipated.

 

[Chris]

Trump administration live updates: Tulsi Gabbard confirmed; DOGE panel holds hearing

Follow live updates as the Senate votes on Tulsi Gabbard's nomination. The House DOGE subcommittee, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, holds its first hearing.

www.nbcnews.com

The Senate confirmed Gabbard as the director of national intelligence, after the former Democratic congresswoman overcame skepticism from some GOP senators.

The vote marks another victory for Trump, who has had all of his Cabinet-level nominees approved by the Senate so far.

 

[Chris]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/12/ukraine-russia-eu-foreign-ministers-lammy-trump-hegseth-europe-live-news

US president Donald Trump has just posted on Truth Social saying that he had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Russian president Vladimir Putin and agreed to start peace talks on Ukraine “immediately.”

He says that they both “want to stop the millions of deaths taking place” in the war, and bragged that Putin referred to his campaign motto of “common sense.”

He says the the two leaders will direct their teams to start talks immediately, and will begin by calling Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “inform him of the conversation.”

 

[Grim]

No change in borders, and hand back the rebel regions, and Crimea.

 

[Chris]

Senate Votes to Advance RFK Jr's Health Secretary Nomination

The Senate voted along party lines to advance the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary to the floor for a final vote, likely Thursday.

www.nytimes.com

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine critic who spawned a movement he calls “Make America Healthy Again,” moved one step closer to becoming the nation’s health secretary on Wednesday after the Senate voted along party lines to advance his nomination, setting the stage for a final confirmation vote, likely on Thursday.

The 53-47 vote was a stunning show of Republican support for President Trump, who embraced Mr. Kennedy, the scion of a liberal Democratic dynasty, and promised to let him “go wild” on health. And it was a sign of Mr. Kennedy’s strength; in the immediate aftermath of Mr. Trump’s election, many observers thought he would be unable to win confirmation.

Mr. Kennedy’s vocal criticism of vaccination made some Republicans deeply uneasy. During his confirmation hearings, he refused to accept the scientific consensus that vaccines do not cause autism, rejecting large scale studies that have found no link.

 

[Samoa Looch]

 

[Chris]

Serious question (I know, what's the point), but what is the actual logic for wanting Greenland at all? Like what's the benefit other than swinging our dick? Am I unaware of oil under the ice or something

 

[Grim]

Serious question (I know, what's the point), but what is the actual logic for wanting Greenland at all? Like what's the benefit other than swinging our dick? Am I unaware of oil under the ice or something

It's owned by Denmark, and is strategically about 2k miles from Moscow, which means if the US owned Greenland, they could theoretically stock up nuclear missiles there.

Either that or they're planning on turning Greenland into an island detention center for dissidents to freeze and die in.