Call Me Irresponsible
Rainbows I'm inclined to pursue.
She co-founded the office that became DOGE. Now, she sees ‘irresponsible transformation.’
It’s difficult to tell what Jennifer Pahlka’s role is here. She is either the responsible adult in the room decrying the DOGE vandals or she tried to reform government and became captured by the bureaucracy only to become its principal defender.
‘It’s really easy to look from the outside of government and say, “That’s crazy it works that way. I’m going to go in and fix it.” And when you get in, it’s that way for a reason, and you gain so much more empathy and sympathy for people in public service. You realize that people who you thought were obstructionists actually are just trying to do their jobs.
‘Civil servants deserve respect. We’re just not transforming government fast enough.’
Meet Elon Musk’s Top Lieutenant Who Oversees DOGE
Notice the emphasis on expertise – or the lack of it.
Sometimes coming to a problem with what the Buddhists call a “beginner’s eye” makes all the difference in the world, if you’re smart enough, experienced enough, and hard-working enough.
‘How Mr. Davis got to this position is hardly a secret. For more than 20 years, the engineer has devoted himself to fulfilling Mr. Musk’s desires, following the billionaire to his various companies, including the rocket maker SpaceX and the social media platform X. Mr. Davis wholeheartedly believes Mr. Musk will bring about humanity’s progress, according to interviews with 22 friends, former colleagues and government officials.
‘For Mr. Musk, Mr. Davis represents the ideal employee — an engineer who will throw himself at any task, even if he has no expertise in the area, two former colleagues said. Mr. Musk has especially praised Mr. Davis’s ability to excise waste, once likening his lieutenant to a cancer-killing treatment.
‘“Steve is like chemo,” Mr. Musk said at a transition meeting before President Trump took office. “A little chemo can save your life; a lot of chemo could kill you.”’
Tensions on rise in Milei’s Argentina as unions, movements confront government
Milei is under pressure domestically. The crypto disaster didn’t help.
‘"There has been a backlash against Milei since the [‘$LIBRA’] cryptocurrency scandal, which includes [the bid to impose Supreme Court] judges by decree, the late reaction to the flooding in Bahía Blanca, the repression of pensioners [at protests] and the agreement with the IMF. No-one can come out of this combo unscathed," said Hugo Godoy, secretary general of the CTA-A, in an interview with Perfil.’
Trump admin guts Institute of Peace of ‘rogue bureaucrats’ after DOGE standoff in government office
The bureaucracy doesn’t run the Executive Branch. The President runs the Executive Branch.
The rest of the story is nuts. The fired acting President barricaded himself in his office. Employees blocked the appointed chairman from entry. He only got in with the assistance of the police.
‘The Institute of Peace, however, did not comply with the February executive order to reduce its size to the statutory minimum, leading to the Trump administration to fire 11 of its 14 board members last week, Fox Digital learned.
‘"President Trump signed an executive order to reduce USIP to its statutory minimum," Kelly said. "After noncompliance, 11 board members were lawfully removed, and remaining board members appointed Kenneth Jackson acting president."
‘The remaining board members include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Defense University President Peter Garvin, who on Friday fired acting president and CEO of the institute, George Moose.’
Bessent: Trump administration re-examining ‘all bank regulation’
Why in God’s name is there a capital charge to banks for buying Treasury bills?
Do the regulators know something we don’t?
Good grief. No wonder Bessent is pushing for deregulation.
‘During an interview for the All-In Podcast, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration is re-examining “all bank regulation” with a focus on easing the burden for banks, although he singled out the supplementary leverage ratio as one regulation that could be eliminated.
‘Bessent said that regulators are incentivized to “keep tightening the corset” without regard to growth or “common sense.” He noted that bank regulation is primarily handled by the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the FDIC. Only the OCC is part of the Treasury Department. However, as Treasury secretary, Bessent is chairman of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which has representatives from all three agencies.
‘“I plan to just keep pushing for safe, sound and smart deregulation. ‘Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that?’” Bessent said.
‘One regulation Bessent plans to reexamine is the supplementary leverage ratio: “There’s a capital charge to banks for buying Treasury bills … If we take that away — it’s become a binding constraint on banks — we may actually pull Treasury bill yields down by 30 to 70 basis points. Every basis point is a billion dollars a year.”’
Trump’s EPA vs. Biden’s Dark Climate Money
Deep Throat says follow the money.
Congress can’t just delegate its duty to third parties. That’s not the way this works. There needs to be political accountability, checks and balances.
‘Mr. Zeldin claims the freeze is needed because of “substantial concerns regarding program integrity, the award process, programmatic fraud, waste, and abuse, and misalignment with the Agency’s priorities.” He’s right that the program is rife with political conflicts. In one example, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund director Jahi Wise oversaw a $5 billion grant to his former employer, Coalition for Green Capital.
‘The Biden EPA awarded another $2 billion to Power Forward Communities, an umbrella group of climate outfits that was formed in 2023 supposedly to “finance home energy efficiency upgrades.” But the IRA includes tax credits and other grant programs for this purpose. Power Forward’s real purpose is to spread taxpayer funds to progressives.
‘One Power Forward member is Rewiring America, which is backed by the Windward Fund, a nonprofit managed by the liberal dark money group Arabella Advisors. Rewiring America hired Stacey Abrams as a senior counsel in 2023 to “guide the organization as it builds the tools and capacity” to connect Americans—i.e., liberal groups—to “Inflation Reduction Act incentives.” Ms. Abrams is the former candidate for Georgia Governor who refused to concede she’d lost for years.
‘The program’s biggest recipient is Climate United, which was also formed in 2023 and has received $7 billion—nearly as much the EPA’s annual budget. Climate United claims on its website to have made a handful of “investments,” including $32 million for a solar project in Arkansas and $250 million for California electric truck manufacturing.
‘Climate United says it is “partnering with” Forum Mobility, a California electric truck and charging startup, whose CEO Matt LeDucq is a Biden-Harris donor. The primary beneficiary of the Arkansas “investment” is Scenic Hill Solar, whose CEO is Bill Halter, the state’s former Democratic lieutenant governor who worked in the Clinton Administration.
‘We discovered these political connections via Google searches, and no doubt there are—and will be—many more. Mr. Zeldin says the Biden EPA intentionally structured the grant agreements with liberal groups to prevent the agency or Congress from overseeing how the funds are spent.’
Crypto regulation must go through Congress for lasting change — Wiley Nickel
This is not wrong.
‘"I think it's really important for anybody who cares about this issue to step back and realize that if you want lasting change in Washington, you must move legislation through Congress. Otherwise, if you're talking about executive orders, it will just go back and forth.”’
Google, Apple hit by EU regulatory crackdown
Making up for their lack of homegrown competitors, the EU regulators claim their vigorish.
‘Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab was hit with two charges of breaching landmark EU rules on Wednesday, while Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab was ordered to help rivals connect with its iPhones and iPads, as Europe's antitrust regulators continued a crackdown against Big Tech.’