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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau virtually shut down as DOGE, Russ Vought take over The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) -- the government watchdog charged with safeguarding American consumers’ finances -- has come to a virtual standstill Saturday night, according to an internal email obtained by ABC News. The email sent late Saturday night directs all CFPB staff to "cease all supervision and examination activity" and "cease all stakeholder engagement" effective immediately. The agency’s website shows an error message and its X account was also taken down. The email was sent by Russell Vought, the newly confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget, who is also now the acting director of the CFPB. Vought was an architect of "Project 2025."

Yep Trump’s Buyout Offers Backfire As Federal Workers View It As A “Scam”

Well well, it turns out that USAIDs inspector general was in investigating USAIDs public/private partnership with Musk/SpaceX arrangement for supplying Starlink services to Ukraine. This surely has to be suspicious or at least a conflict of interest. See video (relevant part starts at 5:37) Also FAA fines SpaceX $600 000. Interesting that the head of the FAA "resigned"

'A lot of garbage': Fmr. Republican USAID administrator slams Musk and Trump for gutting agency The thing that Trump and his followers do not seem to appreciate is that providing aid to a third-world country is not just about a wealthy country lending a hand to a poorer country but also about self-interest. Helping an African country with an Ebola outbreak is better than that disease spreading to the US. Australia provides aid to the South Pacific partly because the Chinese wish to endear themselves to the people of this region. It is called soft power. Trump is entitled to change things however it has to be within the law (which it is not) and it is mind-numbingly dumb to go in with a sledgehammer and destroy everything. If I have a medical problem I want the help of a surgeon wielding a scalpel with care not a moron with a chainsaw.

The BBC has two corporate charities. Children in Need is our UK-based charity which provides grants to thousands of projects which focus on children and young people who are disadvantaged throughout the UK. BBC Media Action is our international development charity. It makes TV, radio and multimedia content, and mentors journalists and broadcasters to help people in some of the poorest parts of the world. So which part do you object to? the Children in need or the mentoring journalism in the poorest part of the world Perhaps you should be paying more interest in what Elon and his DOGE teenagers are up to. For a start, there is a massive conflict of interest. Elon and his techno bros have been given access to an extremely sensitive database. Elon is the recipient of huge amounts of money from the government (Space x Telsa etc) He likely has access to information about his competitors. This is a conflict of interest. His band of techno boys don't even have appropriate clearances.

Trump and Musk Promote Misleading ‘Scandal’ About Government Funding Media

So is that was this buffoonery is about, is it actually a cunning plan?

I just heard a line in a video analysing Trump's tariff policy that made me laugh. It referred to the tariff policy from the US perspective as "stop or I'll shoot myself in the foot"

Sounds good to me 😃 Michael Pachota, Suzuki Australia general manager, said the brand is set to significantly change its model range over the next 12 months. “We’re clearing the way for new technologies; Suzuki Australia’s hybrid and electric journey starts now,” he said.

Yep, it is a lie however his sycophantic followers believe it. Banks are not allowed to do business in Canada -YES THEY ARE AND THEY DO. Fact check: Trump falsely claims Canada prohibits US banks Daniel Dale By Daniel Dale, CNN Trump falsely says U.S. banks aren't allowed to do business in Canada. What does he mean? Trump wrong, U.S. banks can and do operate in Canada, association and professor say Trump says Canada doesn’t even allow US banks to operate but...  Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/us-news-trump-tariff-canada-banks-open-do-business-whats-that-all-about-trump-says-canada-doesnt-even-allow-us-banks-to-operate-gets-fact-checked/articleshow/117916180.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst No, Mr. President, Canada Doesn’t Prevent U.S. Banks From Operating There I mean there are about 20 more links I could post but I am sure I have made my point. Trump spews bulsh1t and you Trumpers eat it up. You don't seem to get that Trump's modus operand is to make up a problem or at least exaggerate a problem, then take some kind of action and then claim that he fixed it.

I consider myself of reasonable intelligence but I am having trouble grasping the point you are trying to make.

You see the thing is I specifically stated I did not read the article so if you have criticisms about its accuracy you are free to post hard evidence. I don't give much credence to your opinion and I don't think you should give much credence to mine. We should both (and everyone else) be supporting our "opinions" with hard evidence. We can of course dispute evidentiary sources. The thing is it is dumb (for either of us) to assert that Biden did or did not eliminate sanctions whem it surely is a matter of public record. The problem is that the far right (and left) is apt to assert things that suit their political beliefs. For me, it is the evidence. Experts can disagree so therefore I take the majority opinion amongst these experts. This is why I vaccinate and am concerned with climate change. On both of these issues, I don't give much credence to the outliers such as yourself.

This is not a question of debate regarding Trump's expansionist appetites but just a general question. In this scenario who would do the essential low-paid jobs? A society full of millionaires still needs people to fill holes in the road and someone to wipe the arses of the elderly in care. Would a society of millionaires be a nice place to live?

Fact check: Is Joe Biden weakening Iran sanctions? Note: I have not even read this article so it may support or contradict your assertion.

Absolutely. The equivalent in this country would be Peter Dutton being elected and giving Gina Rhinehart access to the government department that has our social security and tax records and is responsible for paying pensions etc. As someone who follows space flight, I can tell you that although some higher-ups in Space X have the highest security clearance with NASA Musk does not. Why Elon Musk doesn't have access to all of SpaceX's top secret work: report and yet he has been given access to sensitive information including private information. If this doesn't raise alarm bells with Trump fans I don't know what will

Firstly illegals are not pouring in across the Canadian border into the US in fact more are going the opposite way. Fentanyl crossing the border by the US's own figures is minuscule and in fact drugs also pass the other way as well as guns. You seem to be confident that YTrump would not tariff Australia however he did impose a 10% on steel exports during his first term and backed down Donald Trump, Malcolm Turnbull hit on deal to exclude Australia from new US tariffs Will there be tariffs this time? Plenty of analysts think it is possible. ‘We have to stand up to him’: Trump tariffs could hit Australia Trump said in an interview that Canada treats the US badly and one of the issues he sights is the US banks cannot operate in Canada. The only problem is that Trump was lying (or ignorant. Trump wrong, U.S. banks can and do operate in Canada, association and professor say Trump would probably get less pushback if he did not make stuff up.

Here is an interesting explainer on how tariffs work

Yes but whole industries that rely on exporting to the US will be in serious trouble. It is not just about what Canadians pay for US products it is about industry and jobs.

The article I read had that as a headline however reading the whole article it said. "Mulino stated that the agreement is set for renewal in the next one to two years, and his government will evaluate the possibility of terminating it earlier. "We'll study the possibility of terminating it early," he said. Panama initially joined the initiative in 2017 under a previous administration. "I do not feel that there is any real threat at this time against the (neutrality) treaty, its validity, and much less the use of military force to make the treaty," Mulino said, adding that it will be important to have face-to-face talks with Trump." There is a real risk of this bullying buffoon driving some countries away from the West.

I am not ani tariff. tariffs are often used to protect local industries from cheaper imports such as the tariffs Australia had on imported cars to help our local car industry (when we had one) Tariffs can also be used to punish such as tariffs on Russia. The tariffs on Canada seem to be not about protecting particular US industries but to punish Canada or perhaps to persuade it to become the 51st state. What is Canada's crime? Trump promised to end inflation on day 1, did he? No. Will adding 25% to the things that Americans buy from Canada - No

In the case of Canada, the last year for which they have the figures (2023) showed more Americans crossing into Canada than Canadians crossing into the US. Minuscule amounts of fentanyl cross the border from Canada 19 Kg seized compared to 9600 from Mexico and indeed fentanyl passes from the US border into Canada with 10.8 pounds seized that year. (I am happy to post the sources for these figures. So how do tariffs on Canada which will cause damage to Canada and the US make sense?

this is an interesting article. Tariff On Canada Not Justified By U.S. Immigration And Drug Claims Furthermore, the migration flow is not one-sided. In 2023, the last year for which we have statistics at the moment, more people crossed illegally from the United States into Canada than in the opposite direction. With Canada experiencing a labor shortage and increasing economic opportunities, it is likely that the number of individuals moving north in 2025, both legally and illegally, will continue to surpass those moving south. In Fiscal Year 2024, USCBP seized 21,148 pounds of fentanyl at the southwest border, mostly smuggled from Mexico. In contrast, only 43 pounds were intercepted at the northern border. This means that less than 1% of all fentanyl seizures occurred at the U.S.-Canada border. Furthermore, drug flows are not a one-way street. In 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) seized approximately 10.8 pounds of fentanyl coming into Canada from the United States. In comparison, CBSA reported that 17.6 pounds of fentanyl were smuggled from Canada into the U.S. This suggests that the trafficking issue is not as one-sided as the administration claims.

My understanding is that Canada is not a huge source of drugs compared to Mexico. This surely this should be something that the US has some control over at its border. How much Canadian fentanyl crosses into the U.S.? As the opioid epidemic raged in the United States, killing thousands, Congress in 2020 established a commission to look into ways to reduce the flow of the drugs into the country. The commission found that “Canada is not known to be a major source of fentanyl, other synthetic opioids or precursor chemicals to the United States, a conclusion primarily drawn from seizure data,” according to its February 2022 report. Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted about 19 kilograms of fentanyl at the northern border, compared with almost 9,600 kilograms at the border with Mexico, where cartels mass-produce the drug. As far as trade imbalance goes. In 2023, the goods and services trade between the two countries totalled $923 billion. U.S. exports were $441 billion, while imports were $482 billion, resulting in a United States $41 billion trade deficit with Canada.[1 This hardly seems enormous, especially given the differences in population US 345 Million and Canada 41 Million. What is Canada supposed to do, buy stuff it does not need? Trump sees the fact that the US buys more from Canada than Canada does from the US as an injustice but it is just about what one country has to sell and what another country needs to buy.

It is not clear to me what the tariffs on Canada are supposed to achieve. Perhaps one of the Trump supporters here can explain the game plan.

Trump’s treasury secretary gives the world’s richest person entry to one of the most sensitive US government databases