Flotsam and Jetsam - Bondi In Tulsi Kash and RFK Jr Moving Forward - DOGE Marches On

Vicky Taft at PJM is pretty stoked that Pam Bondi Is Your New Attorney General. At TownHall Matt Vespa is too, BREAKING: Pam Bondi Confirmed As Attorney General, a 54-46 vote. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) joined Republicans in supporting Ms. Bondi. Sundance at CTH has Cabinet News: Pam Bondi Fully Confirmed as AG, Tulsi Gabbard and RFK JR Advance Following Committee Votes, Kash Patel Vote Likely Next Week. Stacy McCain hears ‘Shrill and Hysterical’: Michael Bennett, Tulsi Gabbard and Edward Snowden. "Her assignment from Trump, as I understand it, is to root out the Deep State corruption in the intelligence community (IC), and she was chosen for that task in large part because the Deep State went after her when she was challenging Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic primaries. She was a target of the “spies who lie,” and is therefore highly motivated." At the Politics Brief, Tulsi Gabbard Gets Stunning Endorsement of U.S. Senator, Dramatically Increasing Odds Of Confirmation, Susan Collins. Open Source Intel@Osint613 "Sen. Eric Schmitt: Tulsi Gabbard has the votes to clear committee and reach the Senate floor." Quote, Open Source Intel@Osint613, "Polymarket has Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, and RFK Jr. practically locked in—97%+ odds of confirmation. Interesting, let’s see." Whining atop Da Hill as Gabbard, RFK Jr. pass committee hurdles in win for Trump. At Althouse, "The Senate Finance Committee voted along party lines, 14-13, to forward the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the full Senate..." ""Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican and physician who had been on the fence about Mr. Kennedy, cast the deciding vote...." The NYT reports." Ace, Liberal-As-Shit Fake Republican Bill Cassidy Votes in Favor of RFKJr. in Committee, Plus: The Case for RFKJr. and MAHA. "He had threatened to vote against RFKJr., supposedly to "protect Trump" from backlash against RFKJr.'s vax hesitancy. Cassidy views Trump as an idiot and a weakling in need of his guidance. Just as he views all of us. But he's up for re-election, and Vance explained that simple fact to him." Matt Taibbi at Racket looks at America's Smear Machine Put on Trial. "A week of heated confirmation hearings served as a referendum on America's Reputational Death Star."

Sundance notes an almost daily occurrence, President Trump Signs Executive Orders and Holds a Lengthy Press Conference. Tim Minella at Da Fed warns, Trump’s Executive Orders Are Only The First Step In Defeating DEI. Don Surber says Trump has frenemies jumping through his hoops. A Larry video at Hat Hair, Trump's Victories Are Causing Mass Democrat Panic. Althouse has "Partner with Trump when he’s right—like on DEI." "That's point #3 on a 4-point list by Ruy Teixeira, in "Trump 2.0: A Survival Guide for Democrats" (Free Press)," and "The Supreme Court has also embraced the 'unitary executive theory,' as the legal idea is known." Mike Freeman at USA Today whines Donald Trump is going to the Super Bowl - and ruining one of America's best days. From VodkaPundit at Insty a poem, DEMOCRATS CHOSE THE FORM OF THEIR DESTRUCTOR from Dr. Strangetweet.

From Fox, Trump handed 'opportunity to save Medicare’ after Biden admin’s final blow to seniors: expert, "'This is Trump’s opportunity to save Medicare,' former New York Rep Ann Marie Buerkle says."

From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.04.25 (Afternoon Edition), EBL: Team Trump drives a wedge between Panama and China, Louder With Crowder, Chuck Schumer embarrasses himself with a Mexican beer trying to dunk on Donald Trump’s tariffs,  Vox Popoli, From Free Trade to Forced Trade, Testing the Free Trade Hypothesis, and A Desperation Move. And at his In The Mailbox: 02.04.25 (Evening Edition), American Greatness, The Art of the Smackdown! How Trump Turned the Tables on Colombia

The Brussels Signal says Trump plays hardball on tariffs, EU plays pretend. At the Telegraph, Trump’s trade war exposes German carmakers to a ‘full-on storm.’ Regarding the DC plane crash, Guy Benson goes off on The Gall of Pete Buttigieg.

Frank Sempa at Am Spec says To Secure the Panama Canal, Reinstitute the Monroe Doctrine. "China’s penetration of the Canal Zone makes it necessary for Trump to reassert U.S. sovereignty over the Zone." John Sexton at Hat Hair hears Trump: 'We Will Take Ownership of the Gaza Strip'. Head 'em up, move 'em out. Althouse, "President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed moving Gazans to a 'good, fresh, beautiful piece of land' in another country, offering a vision..." ""... of mass displacement likely to inflame sentiments in the Arab world as he welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. Trump’s proposal was likely to provoke a furious reaction from many Palestinians as well as their Arab allies in the region, since it suggested permanently removing Gaza’s 2.2 million residents from Palestinian territory and settling them outside of their land. In saying that the Palestinians would not return to Gaza, Trump did not specify who would ultimately control the territory. But an annexation of Gaza has long been a goal of Israel’s far right, which has sought to fully expel Palestinians from Palestinian territory...." From "Trump proposes permanent displacement of Gazans as he welcomes Netanyahu to White House. . . ". Plenty of space on Greenland. At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.04.25 (Evening Edition),   Dana Loesch: The United States Owes Gaza Nothing, Legal Insurrection, Trump Says U.S. Will Take Over the Gaza Strip.

After yesterday's crush, I had to open a new digital bin for DOGE. At Hat Hair, Dave Strom says DOGE May Turn Out to Be Most Important 'Department' in US History. Frank J. Fleming@IMAO_, "Guy trying to describe how bad Trump is: “He just shut down a government agency!” *crowd cheers* “All the workers are out in the streets crying!” *crowd cheers more* “And he’s not done! He’s going to do it more government agencies!” *crowd goes nuts*" PJM's Stephen Kruiser asks Dude, Where's My Bureaucracy? Grummz@Grummz, "I dunno if people are talking enough about this, but Trump and Elon have thrown down such a huge gauntlet that it's literally a battle for final survival. Either the gov corruption is rooted out 100% or it's over for them. The put everything on the line to make things right." Respect. Alex Cohen@anothercohen, "If you’re more angry that a handful of 22 year old software engineers are writing code to uncover fraudulent government spending than at the people who are fraudulently spending your hard earned taxes, it’s time to do some soul searching." Larry Schweikart @LarrySchwe94560, "USAID is going to become the biggest scandal in US history, ahead of Teapot Dome or the Tweed Ring. It will become so monstrously huge that within a year the Hoax News Media will admit it then try to blame it on Trump." Jeff Carlson @themarketswork, "The biggest story never told is unfolding in real time: Washington Elite stole trillions of taxpayer dollars. Our government has been warped into a vehicle of bureaucratic self-enrichment at taxpayer expense. Impacting our social, domestic & foreign policy. No going back now." Western Lensman@WesternLensman, "RUBIO: USAID rife with “rank insubordination” — “we had no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control." "They have basically evolved into an agency that believes that they're not even a U.S. government agency...they're completely unresponsive. They just don't consider that they work for the US." Nick Arama at RedState, Sen. Kennedy Punctures the Dems' Wild Ranting About USAID With the Real Question They Should Be Asking "Our question is, 'What the hell happened to the money?'"

 

USAID-affliated NGOs flowing to Kristol's non-profit

At Twitchy, 'Worse than 9/11 for Dems': Insider Spills TEA (and Texts!) on the Democrat's USAID Freak-Out and WOW. VodkaPundit at PJM, The Dynamic Duo Have the Dems on the Run Insty explains WHY THEY’RE SQUEALING SO LOUDLY: Mike Benz@MikeBenzCyber and at his NYPo gig, Smashing the ‘rice bowls’ — how elites are lashing out at Trump and Musk’s reforms . "From Liz Cheney to Barack Obama, a lot of people still don’t appreciate how much of America’s political aristocracy class grew up in USAID families." Quote Mike Benz@MikeBenzCyber, "Obama's momma worked for the same CIA / State Dept funding conduit primarily responsible for financially bribing Brazil's internal censorship industry ecosystem for 6 whole years pushing it to the point Brazil censored X. That CIA / State Dept conduit is called USAID. x.com/shellenberger/…" John Ʌ Konrad V@johnkonrad, "I don’t like reporting secondhand info, so take this with a grain of salt. I repeat: take this story of rich liberal panic with a grain of salt. . . " Oilfield Rando @Oilfield_Rando, "You have to understand that hundreds if not thousands of parasitic NGO offices are located in and around DC. And all of the people staffing them are staring at the abyss of not being able to pay their bills with our confiscated earnings." DataRepublican (small r)@DataRepublican, "48 vCPUs are throttled curating the USAID grant network for every single EIN, will take a while (~12 hours). Which is fine, it gives @watilo time to prettify it in the morning. Blame the federal government for creating such computational complexity. But here's a teaser - this is what the network for Defending Democracy Together Institute looks like. The graph represents grants from various USAID-affliated NGOs flowing to Kristol's non-profit." 

At Hat Hair, John Sexton says Forget DEI, Democrats Are Desperate to Save Government Spending by Any Means Necessary and Dave Strom, BOOM! Democrats Go To the Mat Over...USAID and AOC: I Am Smarter Than Elon Musk. Assumes facts not in evidence. BrooklynDad_Defiant!@mmpadellan, "HOLY SHIT, Rep. Jasmine Crockett: "We are going to be in your faces, we're gonna be on your ass, we're going to make sure you understand that this is what democracy looks like!" Nick Arama, WATCH: Dems Go Completely Off the Rails in Crazy Protest Outside Treasury Department. At least they came into the office. Insty, ONLY WHEN DEMOCRATS LOSE: Kurt Schlichter @KurtSchlichter "Is that what we’re calling elections now?" Quote ALX @alx "Jen Psaki: “What is happening now is a hostile takeover of the U.S. government.”" John Sexton, Have You Heard? Elon Musk is an 'Unelected Billionaire' (Plus 'Lock Him Up') and ABC Tries to Smear Elon Musk; It Was Weak Tea. Sean Davis @seanmdav, "LOL at anyone who pretended Joe Biden was in charge for four years suddenly acting concerned about “shadow government.” Quote Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer, "An unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government. DOGE is not a real government agency. DOGE has no authority to make spending decisions. DOGE has no authority to shut programs down or to ignore federal law. DOGE’s conduct cannot beShow more" The Babylon Bee has an Op-Ed: Citizens Being Able To Vote The Ruling Party Out Of Power Is The End Of Democracy. At Twitchy, What Was This EFFER Up To? Yevgeny Vindman Tried REALLY Hard to Get Into USAID Building but Was STOPPED. Insty, HAHA: Frank “The End of History” Fukuyama is unhappy with how things are going. Catturd ™ @catturd2 "And there it is." Quote Patrick Webb@RealPatrickWebb, "BREAKING: 97% of all political contributions from USAID employees went to Democrat candidates, according to the Daily Wire."

Sundance warns Downstream Layoffs Expected to be ‘Catastrophic’, in the Multiple Thousands Within DC, as a result of USAID Pause. Althouse, "Inside Musk’s Aggressive Incursion Into the Federal Government/The billionaire is creating major upheaval as his team sweeps through agencies, in what has been an extraordinary flexing of power by a private individual." "This is an important NYT article — with 6 authors (including Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman) — and I've been trying to force myself to blog it since yesterday evening. I'd read the article and thought of some idea of how to present it." Elon Musk@elonmusk, "Fraud in the federal government is closer to 10% of disbursements, so more like ~$700 billion per year. Outright waste is at least 15%, so another trillion+ dollars. Anyone who works in government knows this." Quote Michael Shellenberger,@shellenberger, "Forty-three paragraphs into the NYT's latest hit piece on @elonmusk, the six (!) by-lined reporters reveal that the federal government lost $236 billion to apparent fraud ("improper payments") in 2023 alone. Maybe this isn't the dunk you guys thought it was?" 'Bonchie' at RedState, Joni Ernst Drops Devastating USAID Thread, and You Won't Believe Where Your Money Has Been Going. Oh, I believe it. Rep. Chip Roy Press Office @RepChipRoy "What you've been paying for through USAID . . ." At PJM, Cathy Salgado shows USAID Lavished U.S. Cash on Hamas-Run Gaza and Vicky Taft says USAID Pays the Terrorists Who Kill Us.

Rush-Babes, It’s hard to keep up with Trump’s Troops: The march through the corrupt institutions in DC Capt. Ed at Hat Hair hope 'It's USAID Today, It's Gonna Be the Department of Education Tomorrow'. NewsMax, Trump Close to Signing Order for Dismantling Education Dept. Ace isn't all shook up, that Trump is Preparing to Dismantle the Department of Education? "So says the WSJ." VodkaPundit at PJM says1,000 EPA Employees Told They Could Be Fired 'Immediately' and I Just Wet Myself. Leslie Eastman at LI, Over 1,000 EPA Employees Upset Over Warning They Face Possible Dismissal, "The new EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is also upsetting Democratic Senators and climate justice warriors. . . . I would strongly urge those at the agency who wish to remain employed to review Trump’s policy statements and get a grounding in climate science rather than from climate alarmists." Ace, Trump Informs EPA That 1,000 of Its Layabouts and Make-Work Social Justice Warrior Hires May Be Dismissed "Immediately." "They're not fired yet, just told that they may be fired at any moment. Which is almost better, as far as The Cruelty goes " and Trump to End Funding for Hamas Front Group UNRWA, Pull US from UN Human Rights Council, "Every day is Christmas morning." Mark Tapscott at Insty, NPR, PBS CHICKENS COMIN’ HOME TO ROOST: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is chairman of the DOGE subcommittee on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Boy did she ruffle some feathers Monday when she “invited” the CEOs of NPR and PBS to come for a hearing in March. Can you guess what the focus of that hearing will be?" and TRUMP’S TROOPS AT OPM RESPOND TO UNIONS, DEMS: "The ink was barely dry on the memo to all federal workers about an extraordinary buyout offer authorized by President Donald Trump before the biggest federal employee union, AFGE, Democrats like Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and a host of others on the left was making multiple claims that proved to be wrong. Yesterday, officials at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a significant rebuttal that is well-worth reading in its entirety. Note also at the end of my Epoch Times story this morning the Supreme Court cite that somehow got cut short in the editing process."

There's a veritable shit-ton of DOGE relate links at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.04.25 (Afternoon Edition) and In The Mailbox: 02.04.25 (Evening Edition), but I'll let you find them.

Hat Hair's Beege Welborn is pissed about Illegals Throwing Anti-ICE Temper Tantrums, Blocking Freeways, Making Friends. Capt. Ed, NJ Gov Backpedals: Illegal? What Illegal? Elon Musk @elonmusk, "She is breaking the law. Literally. Outright." Quote Ian Miles Cheong, @stillgray, "Ilhan Omar is conducting seminars for Somalians who are living illegally in the U.S. without documentation, providing guidance on how to evade deportation." Dave Strom, CBS Accidentally Shows That the Border Crisis Is About Human Trafficking.

Capt. Ed, NEW: FBI to Cough Up Names of J6 Investigators and FBI: Into the Valley of J6 Rode the ... 5,000? Da Mail whines Purge begins as DOGE enters FBI to obtain names of 5,000 agents who worked January 6 cases and face firing. Ace, FBI Stops #Resisting Trump's Order and Turns Over List of Agents Assigned to Political Persecution of J6ers. "FBI officials were threatening to resign or simply refuse to comply. No wonder they wanted to keep the information secret. The FBI under the Criminal Wray and Merrick Garland devoted one seventh of its entire workforce to tracking down the J6ers and putting grandmothers in jail for years. One seventh. If one seventh of the organization can be detailed to political persecution, seems like the FBI could afford to lose one seventh of its staff." John Lucas at Bravo Blue notices D.C. Federal Judges Join the Resistance. "Overriding the President's Control of the Department of Justice."

Mike Rosen at Complete Colorado opines Obama’s third term as president ends with a gasp and wheeze. Atop the Da Hill, hope, New DNC chair: Democratic Party ‘not dead’. Beege Welborn looks at The Scandal of North Carolina's State Hurricane Recovery. "In North Carolina, thanks to xPOTATUS, the cackler, and a bloated, biased bureaucracy that couldn't find it in their hearts to get off the couch, less mind dispense sorely needed help to devasted areas, less mind ruined residences with Trump signs, all the focus was on the feds."

Natalia Mittelstadt at JTN not surprised to report Automatic voter registration let non-citizens in South Dakota, Oregon onto voter rolls. "24 states and Washington, D.C., have automatic voter registration."

Dave Strom, Delaware Judge Went After Elon Musk; Now Delaware Losing Corporations at Alarming Rate. NewsMax, Meta Plans to Leave Delaware, Reincorporate in Texas.

Seamus (FreedomToons)@seamus_coughlin "You people doxxed a minor for awkwardly smiling. You told the entire world where he went to school. A Disney producer said he wanted to shove him and his friends into a wood chipper. Trump isn't going to make the left "start to be cruel" He's going to make you stop." At Althouse, Proposed museum installation: Loop this clip and project it endlessly onto each of the 4 walls of a darkened room. "I watched it 10 times and felt quite mesmerized" The head of NPR

Defund NPR. It should survive on its own.

pic.twitter.com/dtm5qbbxix

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2025

At UnHerd, The Left won’t let go of woke, "So much for the ‘vibe shift.’" Herr Professor Jacobson at LI, DEI and the Metaphor of the Boiling Frog, "DEI “didn’t come out of nowhere. It was 20 to 30 years in the making, and it captured key institutions in our society.”"

Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist @DeAngelisCorey "His name is Gene Wu, Chair of the Texas House Democrats. He went to private school. He sends his kids to private school." John Sexton mixes Columbia with Grievances, Lawsuits, Resignations and a New Trump Administration Investigation. 

Lincoln Brown at PJM reports Letitia James Orders NY Hospitals to Continue Trans Surgeries on Minors. Meanwhile Dave Strom at Hat Hair VIP is astonished to see a 3000% Increase in Detransitioners in One Year? "I sincerely doubt that the rate of "detransition" was only 1% and suddenly jumped to 30%, but WPATH transgender doctor Amaya Deakins is now calling for WPATH to begin research and develop standards of care for people who started down the path of gender-affirming "care" and regret it."

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: F**k Art, Let’s Dance and FMJRA 2.0: Return to Mediocrity up and running at The Other McCain.