DOGE helps Veterans Affairs end IT contract run by service-disabled entrepreneurs Elon Musk's newly minted US Department of Government Efficiency claims to have helped the Department of Veterans Affairs end a technology contract run by service-disabled veterans. A post from DOGE on X said the Department of Veterans Affairs had ended a $3.5 million contract for "enterprise mail management program support …
We know how the Draft Dodger thinks of those who were killed or disabled in service for the USA. This is just a way to show it in monetary terms:
> On troops wounded in an Iranian retaliatory strike on a US airbase in Iraq
"I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things. But I would say, and I can report, it is not very serious." January 8, 2020.
> On disabled veterans
"Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded." September 30, 2019.
"Look, I don't want any wounded guys in the parade. This doesn't look good for me." Summer 2017.
21 things Trump has said about the military
Lesson 1 of Dictatorship for Dummies: If you, or your cronies, want to start a real tyranny, you should keep the military happy.
"how utterly insane that America has become"
That is one thing that is clear.
This has been beautifully illustrated in a study by yougov.com.
They took 128 policies 64/64 from both candidates in the presidential elections, blinded them for which candidate supported them. Then asked voters about their preferences.
Harris vs. Trump on the issues: Whose policies do voters prefer?
Results were clear, voters preferred Harris' policies but still voted for Trump:
Across nearly all issues, policies backed by Harris and the Democratic Party are, on average, more popular than those backed by Trump and the Republican Party. 89% (57 out of the 64) of Harris' policies included in the survey are supported by more than half of voters. The same is true for just 48% (31 of 64) of Trump's policies.
Many more results in the link, all going in the same direction. Trump was strongest on economic items. I wonder whether his voters are still enamored by his economic policies now that they see them in action?
And yet, you chose to reference a policy that President Biden /did/ institute, legally and with knowledgeable statesmanship, dropping the price diabetic magettes paid for insulin and other critical drugs by over 95%.
Not the guy in women’s makeup who fled Washington in 2021 after he got fired.
The deplorables may giggle and frantically clap their tiny childlike hands together in glee as veterans lose both their jobs and life-dependent services, but the orange convict in chief has done nothing for the people of the country other than entertain the poorly educated and the oligarchs of Russia, China, and Murica.
Yeah, but Trump had that outrageous bully defiantly assertive daringly vulgar flouting of rules that so many folks love in the US (and elsewhere), reminiscent of bratty kids who give school teachers the finger without a care in the world. I'd say it smelled like freedom from stuffiness for many, de-suffication, de-administrative over-bearingness and related ponderous paperwork burdenship, plus revenge against intellectual lecturers, know-it-alls, spellcasters¹, scientists and the likes, who won't let you believe whatever you want about anything, deadly viruses, climate catastrophes, and economics included.
He basically won people's irritable lungs and bowels, sweaty armpits and foreheads, and illiterate spirits of childish makebelieve, and we all have those, which is more than can be said for brains.
And he successfully convinced a whole bunch of folks that if they were complete and utter loser halfwits, it wasn't their fault at all. No. It was because of all the woke trans migrants that Joe Biden invited to continuously invade the US from Mexico, Canada, and China, through tunnels, with Fentanyl shoved up their butts, and an uncontrollable urge to brochette your pet dogs and cats, for a quick and satisfying afternoon snack, and voodoo.
It's hard to counter the rush (and high) given by such blissful Kool-Aid, with sanity and reason (imho)!
¹⁻ translated from Georges Brassens' "jeteurs de sort" in "Les copains d'abord", great song!
>And yet somehow DJT won 65% (I looked it up) of the veterans vote in 2024.
On the whole, I find veterans who have actually been in combat tend not to talk about it all that much. The ones who rabble rouse and wave the flag at every opportunity are more likely those who only ever used a weapon in training. Not a hard and fast rule, but seems to hold as a general rule of thumb.
Reddit has a new and wonderful subreddit that contains posts of Trump voters whining online as they've lost their jobs in the last two months. Of course it's called "LeopardsAteMyFace". A few of these poor souls believe that if they ask Trump for their job back via Facebook, it'll work.
The vets went 2-1 for him. Don't worry about them, they'll get to go on the New Apprentice (ie: news interviews), talk about how they're getting fucked, get some time in the spotlight and all the donations from pay-triots who thank them for their service. It's a new game show.
Eventually this new game show will pick them as a w(h)in(n)er. Just gotta have faith the Carotene Quisling will pull through....
Any veteran alive today is almost certainly a veteran of a war which actively made the USA less safe.
Interesting take. So, do you also blame victims of rape for the crime against them too?
Or are you stupid enough to want military coups replacing governments if they deem a war is ill advised?
If we in the US had shitcanned Kissinger's realpolitik and spent half as much as we did on defense on building roads and schools and clinics and the like instead of military bases, we'd have been the most beloved country in history. Instead, we spent our money being bullies. And we still haven't learned a damned thing from it.
When they start slashing budgets shutting down hundreds of millions of $ of wasteful spending you get credulous partisan journalists to write about some small minor small change contract held by some group that gets public sympathy and blow it up to a "Oh the Humanity." story. Meanwhile the other hundreds of millions of $ of waste and often outright fraud is totally ignored.
The usual bollocks.
And then you have a whole bunch of low information lemmings pile in playing into the totally self-serving bureaucracy game shouting Shame, Shame.
Its very obvious from the inane and stupid comments below that none of the commenters seem to actually know any Vets, know how the VA works, or heard first hand the many many horror stories about the VA. Not quite in the same league as the BIA but close. In fact a quick idiot test for this subject and related subjects is - Know what the BIA is without looking it up? Of course not. But most well informed Americans do. Which in my experience is remarkably few of those who vote Democrat in states like California. Republicans and especially Independents do far better.
For those who dont know how these programmes work. They are about 95% waste / fraud. A number that has not changed since the 1970''s. Due to the onerous and often bizarre requirements this money goes to those with political connections or insider NGO's/ NGO related people. No one running any kind of legitimate small business will get involved with the Federal / State / City government with these programmes. And if they do, will only do it once, learn their lesson, and never again.
One other observation for the Know It All Brits and others non-resident aliens. Unless you ever registered for Selective Service no one and I meant no one in the US gives a flying f*ck what you might think on this and related subjects. In exactly the same way Brits dont give a flying f*ck what Americans think about British politics and how the UK is run. Because the phrase Not Even Wrong applies in both cases. If you are wondering I qualified to vote in UK elections and Selective Service around the same time - mid 1980's. Back when Selective Service meant a sporting chance of getting to see the inside of a boot camp if the Soviets went weird. A rather got weirder. 1983 was a close call. Too close for comfort.
Anyway, looks like you young 'uns will get to enjoy the pleasures of National Service sooner rather than later. Builds character I hear. Or rather a short sharp shock of reality. Thats what "We Stand With Ukraine" really means. Because if you want to stop a war of pure genocide that is mostly your problem (we've got China to worry about) sooner later slogans are not enough. Ask the Finns how far all the fine words went in 1939/1940.
I didn’t bother to read your entire seventeen paragraph screed, since it started off on a false premise and didn’t seem to suggest it would get any better.
However, everyone knows how the too few registered voters that were engaged and actually…voted knew ALL of the “news” of pandemic conspiracies, Russian apologism, election interference, and mass immigrations of rapists and crooks were all genned up by the Fox entertainment corporation in the service of their puppet rapist.
Yet you chose to dismiss the unrelenting assaults on our country’s greatest heroes—the ones from the armed services that the draft dodging Chester Molester refused to allow his youngest daughter to join under the threat of cutting off monetary support to her mother—as “small minor small change”.
You are disgusting, madam.
And you completely lie to yourself and attempt to lie to the rest of this that the Veterans Administration was on the rise and well regarded because of all the veterans who signed up to care and serve their brothers and sisters in arms while under President Biden, unlike and despite doofus’ attempts to privatize it in the term he had before the insurrection.
I know my telling you I’m a veteran will mean nothing to you. And honestly, I don’t know your Russian term for veteran, but the others here should know that I enjoyed my hearing aides (necessary for service reasons; I’m 46), colon exams, counseling (also for service reasons), affordable medications, and caring and capable medical specialists because of the appreciation the country has for its veterans.
I understand you’ve been taught by your mother to demonize your fellow Americans, but I will never understand why you hate this country and spit on its total-sacrifice heroes.
I’ve decided to let you have the final response. However, I don’t hold out any hope that you’ll show any glimmer of being a decent person or American this late in your life.
"Because if you want to stop a war of pure genocide that is mostly your problem "
Bahahahahahaha!!! Oh wait, you're serious? Let me laugh even harder!
But seriously, the situation in Ukraine is largely the fault of the US. What was it that Victoria Nuland said? Something along the lines of 'F*** the EU'.
Why are you trying so hard to make me hate you Elon. I don't like hating people and try really hard not to hate people unless they really deserve it. Unfortunately for me there are plenty of people that fit the bill already and I don't want to add more if I can help it. DJT became one of them several years ago with his all out effort to make the list. But you are trying so hard that it has become impossible to not add you and this makes my hate too easy for my peace of mind. As I said, I REALLY don't like hating people!
"Some people deserve hate."
Yeah I know, like I said I have a list. But that doesn't make it any easier for me.
The utterly stupid pedo remark was the final straw for me as far as having any respect for him goes. Given his background and his open support of apartheid he never deserved respect but at least I gave him a chance.
I remember first two people in Thailand: One desperately trying to show how clever and heroic he was (and failing), and one trying desperately to save children in lethal danger.
Now that the narcissist out of the two called the other “pedo boy” didn’t come as a surprise.
I wouldn't advise hate, because it's ineffective.
To view this whole mess with a rational analysis:
His influence over the U.S. adminstration plus his attempts to extent that influence to several european countries (UK, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, France, ... ) shows detrimental effects on at least Europe and the US.
Acting as a right-wing nut with a chainsaw and imposing his sociopathic world view on U.S. adminstration damaged the lives of many people and the U.S. as a whole.
Making his companies Tesla, X and SpaceX lose good people and therefore talent and skills due to his sociopathic leadership damaged the investors of those companies.
So there is quite enough rational cause to argue that preventing him from earning more Dollars is a good thing - hit him where it hurts.
Reduced wealth will limit his capability to buy more/other administrations, reduced hype due to his companies failing will result in more rational assessments of his capabilities by more people. Eben his greatests fans can only lose so much money on their Tesla stock and still think he's a genius.
Sell and advise to sell stocks he is invested in.
Boycot and advise to boycot products made by companies he is invested in or has control over.
Offline and online.
That's probably much more effective than just hating him.
Hate seems to work really well for DJT. But then again he lives it, I don't.
I don't understand your list of "rational" comments. I am well aware of everything you list and since most of them involve hurting people one way or another and as much as possible I stand by my hate. Like I said it's not what I want for anybody but some people do deserve it.
"Reduced wealth will limit his capability to buy more/other administrations"
Sorry but LOL. I don't see that happening to anywhere near the extent needed, especially if he get his $56 billion pay check for his ongoing attempt to ruin Tesla. I can do nothing that is one your list of remedies. I have never in any way financially supported him and never will. And while reducing his influence is a good idea it pales in comparison to all the harm he has done and continues to do to people.
Speaking of Tesla and their new spokesperson in chief, I saw video of him and Musk standing by a CyberTruck yesterday with Elon hitting the rear panel with his fist and it falling off. I'm not sure where I saw it and it has not been widely available. Why am I not surprised? So has anybody else seen it and know where it can be found? Speaking of Tesla part two - on a YouTube video I saw a Ford F150 and a CyberTruck run through a gauntlet of really rough and tough endurance tests and in the end the F150 was at least still drive-able. The CyberTruck was a pile of useless parts that would cost more to repair than to buy a new one. I can't see how that piece of crap can be hardened to work in a military environment unless it is for delivering ice cream to children on a military base (Silly children's jingle in the background).
“Left” being defined as anyone supporting democracy, rule of law, the US military servicemembers, and holding child diddlers to account.
This lifelong Republican (until 2016) Against Trump/Project 2025/Russian invaders is “Left” by that definition. And proudly.
"anyone supporting democracy"
LOL! You mean the people screeching and screaming about how they didn't get their way and want a do-over?
"rule of law"
Smashing up private property? Doxxing people? Calling for violence?
As for your last point, the Dems have objected to every bit of legislation that would hold such people accountable as somehow it would disproportionately affect the alphabet people.
"In autumn last year, the VA released $330 million in payments to Oracle, which provides electronic health records for VA hospitals and other medical facilities."
I bet there is NOT even the slightest chance that DOGE will suggest altering the Oracle contract, not when Trump and Larry Ellison are good pals. No screw over the consulting group ran by disable veterans instead.
What a bunch of cock wombles DOGE and Musk are.
Let's cut a bunch of contracts and tell the VA to do it themselves, while plans are afoot to fire 80K VA employees in a couple months. I'm sure whoever is left will be able to do 3x their previous workload to pick up all the 3rd party stuff plus the fired employee stuff if they're merely willing to work 120 hours a week like Musk thinks everyone should.
> Let's cut a bunch of contracts
Don't forget that the contracts to SDVOSBs are directly helping disabled veterans - you know, the thing that is the whole purpose of the VA's existence - by supporting their businesses, whilst also getting back useful services for that money, so it isn't "just" going into handouts. What a sane person might call a "win-win".
Yes, for all the conservative wailing about how hiring should be done on the basis of "merit" (which is what many implementations of DEI seek - they just want to make sure that minorities etc. are CONSIDERED for a position, not given an "affirmative action" advantage as far as hiring, because too often companies would be highly overrepresented with white male applicants because of the methods they used for conducting their job search) there is some DEI stuff that the government has done for decades. One of which is the DoD giving veteran owned / veteran staffed contractors an advantage when it comes to procurement decisions.
This is all chump change. Want to balance the budget? Find ways to reduce entitlement spending and defense spending. And forget about the unneeded tax cuts for the wealthy. They don't need it. They didn't need it.
Have the courage of your convictions. If you really think you're going to create massive wealth through a energy and manufacturing Renaissance you don't need the tax cuts to still make lots of money.
At least defer them until you, as you believe is possible, fix the economy for the working and middle class. Imagine the politics of saying as a billionaire I want a tax cut, america knows it but I decided to forgo it to fix the deficit.
Instead they're going to bring years of pain and everyone will say that it was to afford tax cuts for the rich.
Political malpractice.
@AC
Well written comment but I have some disagreement/additions
"Want to balance the budget? Find ways to reduce entitlement spending and defense spending."
Under Obama the rule of being able to fight 2 wars at the same time was dropped and yet the US has issues keeping up with the pace of Chinese military development. There has been recruitment issues in the US so there is some sense in trying to fix this. But you are also right about it costing so much. Which is partly why getting Europe to actually fund its own security is a good thing.
Entitlements is difficult because every cut makes people scream.
"And forget about the unneeded tax cuts for the wealthy. They don't need it. They didn't need it."
Its not so much about them needing it as the people in the economy needing it. Growth in the economy is necessary, those who would increase growth need incentivising to do so and the increased growth makes everyone better off.
"At least defer them until you, as you believe is possible, fix the economy for the working and middle class."
Not wasting their tax paying money and focussing the money on the recipients instead of the costly bureaucracy is surely part of that. Personally in 2026 I wanted Rand Paul to win who wanted to cut down the tax return to 1 page and remove a chunk of the bureaucracy.
@AC
"Why are you so bothered about that anyway? You're English, and you don't even live in the US.
It doesn't affect *you* at all."
Because the UK is closer aligned with the US than Europe. So if we see real improvement in the US we can consider the possibility here.
Why do my comments bother you so much?
> "Because [ as a right-wing Yankophile I'd like it to be the case that ] the UK is closer aligned with the US than Europe."
FTFY.
Can't think of a worse time to *actually* want to move towards closer alignment with the US unless one's all-in on your unwavering fantasy of becoming the 51st state.
Or, more likely, Airstrip One.
But the UK *IS* more closely aligned with the US than Europe and has been for a long time.
We share a common language, we pretty much founded their darn country, their laws have a historical lineage from English law and we have a seat at the top table with the US as one of the few nations who has a thermonuclear capability. We've shared many technologies over the last 100 years with the US. Cavity magnetron, jet engine, the flying tail needed for supersonic flight, programmable computer... its a long list.
> "We share a common language, we pretty much founded their darn country"
That's nice. It doesn't mean much nowadays, unless you expect the tail to wag the dog. But then, the problem with the UK is that it never really accepted that at some point it *did* become the tail.
On the contrary, it's the sort of self-affirmation that the UK tells itself to maintain the idea of exceptionalism and importance that have- in reality- declined massively since the days of empire.
The sort of thing that propels the self-flattering myth of the (one-way) "special relationship", for example. Something that the Americans couldn't give a toss about, but are understandably happy to exploit when it suits them.
Twenty years ago, Tony Blair was using it to flatter his- and the UK's- vanity with the idea that, by staying onside, he could moderate and influence the behaviour of George W Bush in Iraq. It was bleeding obvious even then that this wasn't the case, and the Americans were doing what they would have done regardless. (White House insiders even admitted this later on).
Blair's fawning support did nothing other than to legitimise the Americans' behaviour and distract from the fact it was all but unilateral.
And it's the same self-important flattery that led the UK to swan out of the EU- which it has always resented- bloviating that it held all the cards, and that getting a trade deal with the US would be a piece of piss.
Still waiting for that one, and I don't like to think what sort of a "deal" that bullying orange piece of shit is going to offer the UK which put itself in a position of weakness and which he now has over a barrel.
> "we have a seat at the top table with the US as one of the few nations who has a thermonuclear capability"
So does France. Difference being that theirs isn't as reliant upon another country which- in the past few weeks, if it wasn't already- it's become very clear is no longer a reliable partner.
I suppose one could technically argue that *is* a case where the UK certainly is "aligned" with the US, but only in a way that makes clear that this is completely undesirable.
"So does France"
It doesn't have many, have said they are only really interested in defending themselves with them and I would not trust Macron. The UK's fleet of Nuke missiles is in theory completely separate from US control.
We sadly sold our souls to the US defence industry for many political reasons.
Blair fawning over Dub-yah was sickening.
At one point we had better planes than the US but no American airline would buy from overseas. And then the beancounters got involved and as ended up with the Trident and the Yanks got the 727.
> We've shared many technologies over the last 100 years with the US. Cavity magnetron, jet engine, the flying tail needed for supersonic flight, programmable computer... its a long list.
And as we've given them those technologies, they've promised to give back in kind. But only after we pay, pay, pay.
Joking aside, that's a good point to raise- has Codejunky even *visited* the US?
And, even if he has, does he have any real experience of it, or did he get his affinity with the country and idea of it as a would-be libertarian utopia after going on holiday to Florida and Disney World for a couple of weeks nineteen years ago?
@CrazyOldCatMan
"Please go away you pathetic troll. Nobody cares for your RWNJ rants, deviod of fact or rationality. The world is much more complicated than you can conceive of."
At least you have some self awareness with your name. Come back if you have anything of value to add with fact or rationality.
@UnknownUnknown
"You can’t balance the budget by raising the debt ceiling by a further $4bn to pay for $4.7bn tax cuts for the rich/corporations.
Simple as."
But raising the debt ceiling because the spendthrift government has run out of money even though Trump hasnt been in office long enough to have been the cause is necessary if the US isnt to default. It would default because the US spends too much giving it a large debt as well as a deficit.
That's the sad part about reducing government spend: it will always and inevitably also hit projects that seem "worth it".
It will be interesting to see what comes out of it when they try to tackle the elephant in the spending-room: the Pentagon.
Because that's where the real savings could be made.
The EPA has done nothing useful for a long time. They are a paper tiger.
One of the stupid environmental regulations set by the US govt is the CAFE standard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_average_fuel_economy
This is what has resulted in US vehicles getting larger and larger and the switch from cars to SUVs classed as trucks.
In relation to Erin, the US has still not banned hexvalent chromium.... It has been banned in Europe for years.
SUv’s classes as trucks is age old tariff protection. Simple as. Otnerwise they’d be driving Toyota HiLux’s like the rest of the world - and not Ram’s, Silverado’s and F150’s.
The EU’s increasing Euro I to VI is far more useful.
After all, literally what’s more fiscally conservative than more miles with less fuel.
There is plenty emission bullshit and dodging in the Uak.
There was a wheeze a few years back where Company Car drivers chose Mitsubishi Outlander PHeV’s - and made it a category best seller - because of their beneficial emission/mileage rating due to the PHeV hybrid flattering the numbers and this gaining a better tax code for this….
…… and then never ever bothered plugging it in leading to worse milage/emissions as the vehicle was hauling around several 10’s of Kg’s of unnecessary Plug-in paraphernalia over and above the hybrid.
Ok yah MUSK, you stink! There is a much better way here, YOU have an idea what it may be here i think, and your making half-a$$ attempt here. Sure, they'd be better off ending that program, it's failing, and I've two things to say here.
1: smooth move ace, greedy of you all. There's a mountain of unused resources available and selfish greed caused that and caused this. Now those failures get to try to fond some other way to put food on their table and feel like they should be recycled. Quite a heart ache going on over this and it's wrong.
2: I think you know all they needed is some of the magic in that program. Lots of way to make shine, and ... well crap the va doesn't actually deserve it, that's why it failed. Omg those guys! Regardless, it didn't have to go like this and you left em to figure it out their way. Boo! Poor showmanship! They are the guys, WE actually, who serve this country I matters of military, war, and die if necessary go make us happy. They treat us soldiers like garbage sure, and still! Whatever man. Glad to see your failing too! Guess who deserves that ? Pft!
3: Extra time: MY TIME, spent here talking to both of you ignorant people (MUSK AND THE VA, I know they drooled their way right past that). Occult declined to be honest with you guys. Pass muster. Up hair, look at this one! Me! I mean me! I matter! Send some tribute to appease me until I decide am. Then perhaps I will bring it to you guys. Pronto! Jerkoffs. Us all in the dirty gutter, they saying over and over 'we're helping you!' And here we still are. Oh man, pissing me off and begging pissed on... that's what I see here.
"Not one mention of what these service-disabled vets are gonna do. No plan for them. No mention if they survive on work like this."
Why would this be their only contract as a consulting firm? And if it is are you saying these disabled vets with skills good enough to be contracted are useless and unable to find work?
The problem would be for someone (gov) to try and plan what private individuals should be doing.
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