Zhi Zhu 🕸️ (@ZhiZhu@newsie.social)

6h

DOGE Is Making It Harder to Track Extreme Weather. What Could Go Wrong?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/opinion/weather-service-doge-cuts.html

"These cuts threaten your budget, too. #Insurance companies rely heavily on #data gathered by #NOAA and the #US Geological Survey to assess wildfire, flood, wind and other risks. Some firms are warning that any interruption in data availability could drive insurance premiums for customers even higher."

#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Trump #GOP #USPol #Weather #Climate #News #US #USA

Headline and photo with credit.

Headline:
DOGE Is Making It Harder to Track Extreme Weather. What Could Go Wrong?

March 17, 2025, 5:02 a.m. ET

Photo:
A collage of a photo of the Earth surrounded by blue-gloved hands holding stethoscopes on a static background.

Credit: Shannon Lin/The New York Times ...Illustration by Shannon Lin/The New York Times; source images by Roberto Machado Noa/Getty Images, nisara Tangtrakul/Getty Images, nndanko/Getty Images, lusia599/Getty Images, herstockart/Getty Images

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6h

Top broadband official exits Commerce Dept with sharp #Musk warning

“Stranding all or part of rural #America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Evan Feinman warned.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/16/official-exits-commerce-department-musk-warning-00232278

" #Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich #ElonMusk ’s satellite #internet company w/money for #rural broadband.

The #technology offered by #Starlink, Musk’s company, is inferior"

#Corruption #News

Headline from Politico:
Top broadband official exits Commerce Department with sharp Musk warning

“Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Evan Feinman warned.

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5h

Some Federal Office Leases Restored After Pushback to Musk Team’s Cuts

The chaotic effort to reduce the govt’s real estate portfolio is another example of the setbacks the admn has faced as officials try to carry out Trump’s agenda.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/musk-doge-lease-terminations.html

"turnabout comes after [ #Doge]... released a list of... 440 fed properties that could be sold off, incl several HQs for cabinet-level depts, before removing the entire inventory the next day w/little explanation."

#Musk #News #USPol #USA

Headline and photo with caption.

Headline:
Some Federal Office Leases Restored After Pushback to Musk Team’s Cuts

The chaotic effort to reduce the government’s real estate portfolio is another example of the setbacks the administration has faced as officials try to carry out President Trump’s agenda.

Photo:
Men wearing hard hats stand on a metal platform while working on a large silver container.

Caption:
The potential cancellation of the lease for a Department of Energy office in Carlsbad, N.M., raised alarms among some lawmakers because the office is responsible for the nation’s only permanent underground repository for nuclear weapons waste.
Credit: Michael Stravato for The New York Times

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5h

DOGE Cuts Reach Key Nuclear Scientists, Bomb Engineers & Safety Experts

Firings & buyouts hit the top-secret National Nuclear Safety Admn amid a major effort to upgrade America’s #nuclear arsenal. Critics say it shows the consequences of heedlessly cutting the federal work force.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/federal-job-cuts-nuclear-bomb-engineers-scientists.html

"Officials had initially expected that the nuclear agency’s #NationalSecurity mission would protect it from layoffs."

#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Trump #GOP #USPol #Politics #Security #News #USA

Headline:
DOGE Cuts Reach Key Nuclear Scientists, Bomb Engineers and Safety Experts

Firings and buyouts hit the top-secret National Nuclear Safety Administration amid a major effort to upgrade America’s nuclear arsenal. Critics say it shows the consequences of heedlessly cutting the federal work force.

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3h

@ZhiZhu The rushed nature of this affair, reeks of incompetence, not efficiency. Thugs #MuskRat and #ConDon are either hell bent on destruction, seizing total control of the FedGov, breaking its ability to function for the people, or the two culprits reek of incompetence and mismanagement.
FedGov has been reduced in size before under Clinton and Obama, but in an intelligent and non-disruptive manner, by Presidents who actually care about the country and they’re sworn duties.

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5h

Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 16, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2025/03/16

#ElonMusk, #Doge & the #Trump administration are skewered in #Doonesbury #Comic strip.

"In just seven years, we shrunk the federal workforce by 426,000, consolidated 800 agencies and eliminated 640,000 pages of rules...

And you didn't notice because the process was carefully planned and responsibly executed.

It never disrupted essential public services. Compare that to now."

#Musk #Coup #Corruption #USPol #Humor #Comics

Part of the Doonesbury Comic Strip for March 16, 2025.
Six of the eight panes are shown (four completely, two partialy).

In the first two panes Mark, the radio host, answers a call from Al Gore.
Third pane: Mark asks, "So, Al, wasn't government reform once your jam?" Al replies,"It was, Mark. Reinvention was job one for me as veep."
Fourth pane: Al continues,"In just seven years, we shrunk the federal workforce by 426,000, consolidated 800 agencies and eliminated 640,000 pages of rules.
Fifth pane: Mark says, "Wait... What? Why didn't I know that?" Al replies,"Because you didn't notice at the time.
Sixth pane: Al continues, "And you didn't notice because the process was carefully planned and responsibly executed."
Top of the Seventh pane: Al continues,"It never disrupted essential public services. Compare that to now."
Top of the eighth pane: Bits of chaos with a minion shouting, "Banana" and another one shouting, "Poopaye!"

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