The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for February, 2025

Any hope that the new administration that took office on January 20th would govern in a sober and responsible manner to address the nation's problems was quickly buried under the chaos of its first three weeks. President Elon Musk and Vice-President Der Furor have cut a wide swath of destruction through the machinery of government, governed in clearly illegal and unconstitutional ways, picked needless fights with allies and adversaries alike, squandered our international reputation, and governed by - in the immortal words of Steve Bannon "flooding the zone with shit."

A major driver of incoherent and unruly governance is today's ass clown designee. Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, the award of

The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for February, 2025

is presented to

The "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE)

Headed by billionaire Elon Musk, who purchased the presidency last year with his illegal contribution of more than a third of a billion dollars to Der Furor's campaign, DOGE has rushed forward to bulldoze federal offices and programs to which President Musk* and Vice President Der Furor object. One of its first actions was to send an e-mail to most federal employees, suggesting that they accept "deferred resignation" and leave their "lower productivity government jobs" for "higher productivity jobs in the private sector," in exchange for full pay and benefits through the end of the fiscal year. 

This e-mail was clearly stupid and insulting, as well as likely illegal - making the guarantee that federal employees who accepted the "deferred resignation" could take other full-time employment while still receiving their federal salaries. In any case, the federal government is, at the moment, funded only through March 14th via the latest continuing resolution which Congress passed just before Christmas in order to avoid defaulting over its inability to pass a federal budget ... making guarantees of pay after March 14th obviously impossible. (NOTE: on February 6th, a federal judge temporarily blocked the action until Monday, February 10th, pending further review.)

DOGE employees, some of them barely out of high school and with no formal vetting or training, have forced their way into critical federal databases and computer systems that control payments like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, allegedly looking for evidence of fraud. Indeed, a 25-year-old engineer who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies, has direct read and write access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government, according to a sourced report in Wired. Many government networks must now be considered compromised, possibly with malware or backdoors installed by DOGE employees or facilitated by their unsupervised penetration.

It must be emphasized that "DOGE" has no legal authority and has never been approved or funded by Congress ... it is a whole-cloth creation of President Musk and Vice-President Der Furor to stoke their fever dream of eliminating government waste. Its entire purpose appears to be to sow confusion and despair throughout the government and encourage public servants to leave, making room for loyalists whose allegiance is not to the Constitution or the nation, but to Musk and Der Furor.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" is the Right-Cheek Ass Clown winner for February, 2025. We can only hope that good government can be reconstructed from whatever wreckage is left behind.

Have a good day. Let your elected representatives know what you think about the destruction of your government, especially if those representatives are hard-right GOP characters who have swallowed the MAGA kool aid or are terrified of their MAGAt base.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* Also known as a "Special Government Employee" under 18 USC §202, wink, nudge. Under this law, a "Special Government Employee" may only be "retained, designated, appointed, or employed" for 130 days out of a consecutive 365, but considering how much damage this one has done in less than three weeks, it really doesn't matter.