Ongoing hobbling of Agencies and general regulation nonsense

[1Zach1]

The FBI has announced that Agents will continue to be paid, via some mysterious funding source, they announced. Unclear who exactly in the FBI this will impact, or if it will be the entire Agency.

I'm not going to be surprised when it's announced that magic money has shown up to pay ICE and any other federal LEO.

"You've found a way to get these individuals paid during a government shutdown," Patel said to President Trump during an unrelated Oval Office event. "On behalf of the FBI, it's a great debt that we owe you."

Patel did not specify the source of the funds that would be used to pay the agents.

The announcement follows recent moves by the administration to ensure members of the military receive paychecks this week despite most federal workers going without pay until the government reopens.

"We got the people that we want paid, paid," Mr. Trump told CBS News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs. "We want the FBI paid and we want the military paid."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fbi-pay-government-shutdown-kash-patel/

 

[Diabolical]

I suspect more multi-year appropriations funding or obligated-but-not-spent “R&D” (or similar programs) funding being shuffled, robbing Peter to pay the jackboots. It’s what they did in the DOD.

If the folks over at GAO have any sort of spine, they’ll take legal action - this is a misuse of obligated funds, also known as “fraud”.
The leadership there seems to not have a spine, though. So I wouldn’t hold my breath on them doing anything other than maybe a page from the Schumer playbook of sternly written letters.

 

[dzid]

I suspect more multi-year appropriations funding or obligated-but-not-spent “R&D” (or similar programs) funding being shuffled, robbing Peter to pay the jackboots. It’s what they did in the DOD.

If the folks over at GAO have any sort of spine, they’ll take legal action - this is a misuse of obligated funds, also known as “fraud”.
The leadership there seems to not have a spine, though. So I wouldn’t hold my breath on them doing anything other than maybe a page from the Schumer playbook of sternly written letters.

No Kings. More is better.

 

[Diabolical]

<- Federal Employee. Discretion is necessary.

 

[arcite]

I'm trying to imagine what happens if the FBI don't get paid. ...do the FBI protest? Or how about the CIA? Literally nothing will happen, they will sit at home and check email.

 

[theevilsharpie]

This a government press release, so FYI on the tone:

California announces coalition of Governors forming new alliance to protect public health from political interference

Governor Gavin Newsom today joined 14 other Governors in launching the Governors Public Health Alliance, a new non-partisan hub coordinating public health leadership across the country. The Alliance will strengthen emergency preparedness, improve communication, share data and expertise, and ensure states and territories can respond quickly and consistently to emerging health threats.

[...]

This announcement comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s dangerous misguidance on vaccine safety and efficacy, and the advancement of policies like the Big Beautiful Bill that strip millions of Americans of critical health care access.

The federal government’s failing attempts to “Make America Healthy Again” have left yet another leadership gap in our nation’s health and science efforts. The Governors Public Health Alliance is necessary to bring leaders and experts from across the country together, quickly, to help protect Americans from disease and injury.

The alliance announced today builds on California’s existing regional coordination efforts, like the West Coast Health Alliance. By bringing together public health groups and regional groups, the Governors Public Health Alliance will enhance cross-collaboration and serve as a forum to discuss best practices and common challenges.

The states (and their governors) listed in the alliance:

• California (Gavin Newsom)
• Colorado (Jared Polis)
• Connecticut (Ned Lamont)
• Delaware (Matt Meyer)
• Hawaii (Josh Green)
• Illinois (JB Pritzker)
• Maryland (Wes Moore)
• Massachusetts (Maura Healey)
• New Jersey (Phil Murphy)
• New York (Kathy Hochul)
• North Carolina (Josh Stein)
• Oregon (Tina Kotek)
• Rhode Island (Dan McKee)
• Washington (Bob Ferguson)

Also part of the alliance is Guam, represented by Lou Leon Guerrero.

It's not entirely clear what impact this alliance will actually have beyond data sharing, but if they can speak with one voice and have the expertise and resources to back it, it could be a credible alternative to the advisory bodies within the CDC that have been politicized.

 

[dzid]

This a government press release, so FYI on the tone:

California announces coalition of Governors forming new alliance to protect public health from political interference



The states (and their governors) listed in the alliance:

• California (Gavin Newsom)
• Colorado (Jared Polis)
• Connecticut (Ned Lamont)
• Delaware (Matt Meyer)
• Hawaii (Josh Green)
• Illinois (JB Pritzker)
• Maryland (Wes Moore)
• Massachusetts (Maura Healey)
• New Jersey (Phil Murphy)
• New York (Kathy Hochul)
• North Carolina (Josh Stein)
• Oregon (Tina Kotek)
• Rhode Island (Dan McKee)
• Washington (Bob Ferguson)

Also part of the alliance is Guam, represented by Lou Leon Guerrero.

It's not entirely clear what impact this alliance will actually have beyond data sharing, but if they can speak with one voice and have the expertise and resources to back it, it could be a credible alternative to the advisory bodies within the CDC that have been politicized.

It's a good start. [Not] having access to accurate data is something I've been worried about, and that states need to pick that up in order to address old (preventable diseases) and new (chatbot exacerbated) properly. The part that says 'forum to discuss best practices and common challenges*' is key. Because this all costs money, and presumably adjustments will need to be made. I heard the governor of Maine bring up that possibility a few days ago. Then again, Maine isn't on this list. Hmm.

* Common challenges will be all the gaps in essential services the federal government axed.

 

[GMBigKev]

The FBI has announced that Agents will continue to be paid, via some mysterious funding source, they announced. Unclear who exactly in the FBI this will impact, or if it will be the entire Agency.

I'm not going to be surprised when it's announced that magic money has shown up to pay ICE and any other federal LEO.


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fbi-pay-government-shutdown-kash-patel/

Just agents. No support staff.

 

[AverageDutchGuy]

This a government press release, so FYI on the tone:

California announces coalition of Governors forming new alliance to protect public health from political interference



The states (and their governors) listed in the alliance:

• California (Gavin Newsom)
• Colorado (Jared Polis)
• Connecticut (Ned Lamont)
• Delaware (Matt Meyer)
• Hawaii (Josh Green)
• Illinois (JB Pritzker)
• Maryland (Wes Moore)
• Massachusetts (Maura Healey)
• New Jersey (Phil Murphy)
• New York (Kathy Hochul)
• North Carolina (Josh Stein)
• Oregon (Tina Kotek)
• Rhode Island (Dan McKee)
• Washington (Bob Ferguson)

Also part of the alliance is Guam, represented by Lou Leon Guerrero.

It's not entirely clear what impact this alliance will actually have beyond data sharing, but if they can speak with one voice and have the expertise and resources to back it, it could be a credible alternative to the advisory bodies within the CDC that have been politicized.

I think this is step in the direction of things that need to happen for the stuff in the "dissolution of the united states is the only way forward" thread to have a chance of happening. States that actually know what they're doing will have to arrange the needed institutions for themselves, even if that means that for a (long) time they'll be paying double to both the (incompetent) Federal institution and their own actually competent one

 

[dzid]

I think this is step in the direction of things that need to happen for the stuff in the "dissolution of the united states is the only way forward" thread to have a chance of happening. States that actually know what they're doing will have to arrange the needed institutions for themselves, even if that means that for a (long) time they'll be paying double to both the (incompetent) Federal institution and their own actually competent one

Yeah, I agree that sounds good. But I've also seen the accelerating economic aggression that the federal government is inflicting on all the blue states. They're all either teetering at the brink of or already tipped over into recession - like mine. That's not to say I don't expect to endure some major discomfort, but it's going to be bad.

ETA: Now, if you look at the Deep South and scattered bits of red, they are of course indulging. Fuck these guys sideways.

 

[Shavano]

The FBI has announced that Agents will continue to be paid, via some mysterious funding source, they announced. Unclear who exactly in the FBI this will impact, or if it will be the entire Agency.

I'm not going to be surprised when it's announced that magic money has shown up to pay ICE and any other federal LEO.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fbi-pay-government-shutdown-kash-patel/

Someone needs to look into where those funds actually ARE coming from. It's not the existence of the money that's to be questioned; it's "Where's the appropriation by Congress to pay the FBI?" What appropriations bill was that in and what was it appropriated TO?

 

[ZNXO]

It's not entirely clear what impact this alliance will actually have beyond data sharing, but if they can speak with one voice and have the expertise and resources to back it, it could be a credible alternative to the advisory bodies within the CDC that have been politicized.

You buried the lede somewhat. The new Governors Health Alliance is part of a new organization called the Governors Action Alliance which has mandates for reproductive freedoms, safeguarding democracy, and public health. The last one is linked in your post. The GAA is a not-for profit organization that is doing more of the jobs that used to be the responsibility of the Federal government. I'll end with a link to their donation page.

Go Fund Me (a government)

 

[DarthSlack]

Someone needs to look into where those funds actually ARE coming from. It's not the existence of the money that's to be questioned; it's "Where's the appropriation by Congress to pay the FBI?" What appropriations bill was that in and what was it appropriated TO?

Unfortunately the people that need to do the looking is Congress, and there's no way Republicans are going to allow that to happen.

 

[Shavano]

Press often get these things started.

 

[1Zach1]

Welp, first $0 paycheck.

God I'm tired.

 

[KT421]

Today breaks the record for Longest Government Shutdown, and no end in sight. The CR that failed to pass the Senate repeatedly on only goes through the 21st so at this point I don't expect that they'll even vote on it again. They'll need to draft a new CR, which means the House will need to reconvene.

Meanwhile, my entire agency is just about shuttered. There's maybe 100 or so staffers on non-appropriated funds that can keep some operations running but the core of our work is frozen. It's going to be a fairly epic unfuckening when we ever return, given that we'll also be short staffed.

 

[Kevin Lantz]

And yet the private army ice is still funded and going strong... While we reduce air traffic.... and fight snap benefits from going out...

 

[Diabolical]

I'm at work.
Just checked my LES.

<le sigh>

Man, sorting out the night & Sunday pay differential along with the holiday grade for regularly scheduled work on a holiday is going to be a nightmare afterwards. So many paper timecards for adjustments. Bleck.

 

[GMBigKev]

I need to figure out if it's better to pull out of my TSP or get a loan through my bank. I think I have a TSP loan already so I don't know if I can get a second one... But it was years ago so I'm unsure if it's been paid off.

 

[Neill78]

NPR just put out an excellent podcast interview with the authors of a new book about how and why the Justice Department failed to properly investigate and prosecute Trump starting with the false electors fraud. It's pretty shocking.

Fresh Air: The Undoing Of The Department Of Justice

Episode webpage: https://www.npr.org/2025/11/04/nx-s1-5598281/the-undoing-of-the-department-of-justice

Media file: https://chrt.fm/track/138C95/prfx.b...x-s1-5598281&p=381444908&d=2632&size=42119088

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

Another judge issues a ruling on the USDA's withholding of SNAP funds, this time ruling against the use of a smaller payout. The decision was immediately appealed but so far the courts are not putting up with the regime's excuses about needing to starve Americans.
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/nx-s1-5600097/snap-partial-payments-trump-administration

In failing to fully fund the food assistance program that covers 42 million low-income Americans, U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell Jr. said the government "failed to consider the harms individuals who rely on those benefits would suffer." He also said President Trump showed "intent to defy a court order" when he posted on Truth Social this week that SNAP benefits would not restart until after the federal shutdown was over, a comment that was walked back by the White House.
[...]
USDA's proposed change came after an analysis by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which found the agency's original formula for partial payments would not have tapped all of its contingency funds. Two federal judges had found the administration is legally bound to spend that money to keep SNAP going.

CBPP also estimated the original reduced benefit plan would have left nearly 5 million people with no payment at all this month.
[...]
McConnell ordered the administration to restart the country's largest anti-hunger program after funding lapsed last Saturday, a month into the government shutdown. USDA rejected the suggestion by that judge, and another federal judge in Boston, that it tap a larger pot of money to fully cover SNAP payments. Instead, it chose to use only a smaller contingency fund that could cover only about half of the program's monthly cost.

Trying to implement the reduced formula would have delayed payments for weeks as it filtered down through the states, too, so it would have still left people without funds.

I'm cynical about this outcome's chances with the Roberts gang.

 

[Bardon]

Well it seems that quietly, DOGE may be done.

Details are sparse, but when asked the OPM director told Reuters "That doesn't exist" and it was no longer a "centralized entity".

So that leaves a lot of questions - what happens to all the data they collected, is there any record of what they did and if so, will those records be handed over? Musk spoke a lot about transparency but they really never showed any....

If this is the wrong thread happy to move/repost it, this one seemed to make the most sense.

 

[1Zach1]

They may be done as a centralized organization but their hires are deeply engrained into upper management positions of Agencies, continuing to do their damage.

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

I'm guessing shitloads of data have been exfiltrated, and probably compromised. DOGE was all Elon's baby, and he's been on the outs for months after his Trump falling-out. There was no enthusiasm for it when it became clear what a hack job it was turning into, even among bathtub-drowning Republicans. Probably didn't help that Elon's picks for the jobs included implausibly deniable white supremacist trolls (you know, without the tactics to cover their asses) and cyber criminals. He didn't have the right kind of insider network.

 

[Diabolical]

Probably didn't help that Elon's picks for the jobs included implausibly deniable white supremacist trolls (you know, without the tactics to cover their asses) and cyber criminals. He didn't have the right kind of insider network.

Maybe if he’d had everyone in DOGE join the Young Republicans first? They’d have fit right in, anyway.
That’s a touch glib of me, I think, but if it quacks and walks….

 

[Louis XVI]

I'm guessing shitloads of data have been exfiltrated, and probably compromised. DOGE was all Elon's baby, and he's been on the outs for months after his Trump falling-out. There was no enthusiasm for it when it became clear what a hack job it was turning into, even among bathtub-drowning Republicans. Probably didn't help that Elon's picks for the jobs included implausibly deniable white supremacist trolls (you know, without the tactics to cover their asses) and cyber criminals. He didn't have the right kind of insider network.

I think this all true, but also Musk already got what he wanted out of DOGE—theft of tons of data and evisceration of the administrative state. There probably isn’t much need for DOGE to exist as an independent entity any more.

 

[dzid]

I think this all true, but also Musk already got what he wanted out of DOGE—theft of tons of data and evisceration of the administrative state. There probably isn’t much need for DOGE to exist as an independent entity any more.

Yes, that and I wonder how much intelligence-related sources and methods will have to be regarded as "burned" if we ever put out the dumpster fire, whether or not DOGE had access to any of that - there was something about the NRO budget in the DOGE 'reports', and even that could be of some use to adversaries.

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

Smash-and-grab combined with eliminating effective oversight of his various businesses.

BTW, I meant to put in "tact" instead of "tactics" above when talking about DOGE's artless racists, contrasted to the somewhat slicker variety that infests most of politics. The ones that know where the dog whistles are kept.

 

[Embattle]

It seems if some PFAs and other ingredients in American food wasn't bad enough, here are some more:

https://washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/11/22/forever-chemicals-pesticides/

 

[Neill78]

It seems if some PFAs and other ingredients in American food wasn't bad enough, here are some more:

https://washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/11/22/forever-chemicals-pesticides/

Say goodbye to your export markets, USA.

 

[dzid]

Say goodbye to your export markets, USA.

Day ending in 'Y'

 

[Bardon]

Say goodbye to your export markets, USA.

Yeah, this doesn't help but that ship did sail quite a while ago.

 

[concernUrsus]

It has been awhile since USA make=quality, right? Even the "USA brands" have local factories with slight different formulation which meet the local standards/regulations.

 

[Shavano]

Say goodbye to your export markets, USA.

We won't have to worry about export markets when the new pesticides kill off the pollinators.

 

[dzid]

We won't have to worry about export markets when the new pesticides kill off the pollinators.

Something will kill us and the pollinators for sure if we don't get them out of power.

 

[Kevin Lantz]

This is a summary of many of the acts we've cataloged here

It's crazy to think all this shit in less than a year

 

[Kilkenny]

The State Department takes another hit:

Trump removes nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial positions

The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the U.S. diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of President Donald Trump’s “America First” priorities.

AKA Lackeys

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/articl...areer-diplomats-from-ambassadorial-positions/

 

[Shavano]

To be replaced by incompetents appointees incompetents.

I know political appointees are given sinecure ambassadorial positions in Democratic administrations too.

But the era in which international relations are entrusted to non-career appointees should have ended permanently in the Garfield administration.

 

[karolus]

Garfield himself was permanently ended by a jilted someone looking for a patronage position. Perhaps that should serve as a stark warning.

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

Whiny little crybabies.
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/27/g-s1-103808/kennedy-center-lawsuit-chuck-redd-cancellation-trump

The Kennedy Center says it plans to file a $1 million lawsuit against jazz artist Chuck Redd, after the musician canceled his annual Christmas Eve performance. The Associated Press first reported that Redd pulled out of the show days after President Trump's name was added to the exterior of the performing arts center in Washington, D.C.
In an email to NPR on Saturday, Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi said Redd's decision is a disservice to the arts.
"Any artist cancelling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn't courageous or principled—they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people," she said.
[...]
Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell sent a scathing letter to Redd on Friday, criticizing him and calling the cancellation a political stunt. The center shared the letter with NPR.
"Regrettably, your action surrenders to the sad bullying tactics employed by certain elements on the left, who have sought to intimidate artists into boycotting performances at our national cultural center," it reads.

So incoherent.
"You're clearly a victim of bullying, so we're suing you for a million dollars!"
Let's not even mention the umbrage at an artist doing something "political." Dumb fucks think they're entitled to a performance from some kind of trained monkey without opinions or expression.

According to a Kennedy Center online biography, Redd has been involved with The Smithsonian for more than two decades, serving as artist-in residence at The Smithsonian Jazz Café from 2004-2008. The Kennedy Center is part of the Smithsonian Institution.

"Art is a shared cultural experience meant to unite, not exclude," said the statement from Daravi. "The Trump Kennedy Center is a true bipartisan institution that welcomes artists and patrons from all backgrounds—great art transcends politics, and America's cultural center remains committed to presenting popular programming that inspires and resonates with all audiences."

The Kennedy Center says it will file the lawsuit against Redd after the holidays.