🌭 Flame-Broiled Hot DOGE

🐾 LET’S SIC ‘EM!

Attorney General Pam Bondi has slapped serious charges on three individuals allegedly responsible for a series of attacks on Tesla properties, including incendiary devices used to set vehicles on fire. With each suspect facing a possible 20 years in prison, Bondi is trying to sending a warning to anyone thinking of messing with Trump’s bae.

The attacks on Musk’s vehicles, charging stations, and showrooms have surged ever since power couple Trump & Musk took office and their actions — specifically DOGE’s — have fomented a hardcore backlash.

So let’s see… vandalize a Tesla, you get 20 years; vandalize the Capitol, you get an unconditional pardon. Got it.

Meanwhile, the growing number of largely nonviolent grassroots protests happening across the country seem to be having an impact, and yet Musk may end up doing more damage to himself.

Case in point: U.S. safety regulators just recalled pretty much every one of the 46,000 plus Cybertrucks on the road — which is the eighth recall to date since customer deliveries began to roll out a year ago.

And it’s not just the public who are rebelling. It’s becoming clear that Tesla’s board and major institutional investors are concerned about Musk's leadership too. Ross Gerber, a prominent Tesla investor and wealth manager whose firm holds approximately 260,000 Tesla shares, even said publicly: “I think Tesla needs a new CEO.”

Ouch. Well, then those Tesla VIPs definitely aren’t gonna be happy when they read Tesla’s latest financials. It was recently revealed that Tesla’s capital expenditures do not match its reported rise in assets, and an astonishing $1.4 billion has seemingly disappeared from its books. No explanation for the missing amount, but somebody clearly screwed the pooch. Time to hold another Tesla Sell-a-thon at the White House.

Dig Deeper here and here and here and here.

Just Playing Dead. Pentagon Reinstates Fired Probationary Employees Following Court Order.

Whoopsie! Some Pentagon employees whose jobs had been killed off by DOGE are coming back from the dead.

The Pentagon is reinstating many of the 364 probationary employees it previously terminated, thanks to a court order. While about 65 employees have already been reinstated, the rest are either still awaiting decisions or have declined the offer to return.

This move comes after a judge ruled that DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lacked the authority to order mass layoffs.

Despite this, Defense Secretary Hegseth maintains that some employees are still facing the prospect of getting DOGE’d in the near future.

Celebrating all of this impressive Efficiency has got us dog-tired. Grrr.

Dig Deeper here.

Put Down. Layoffs Loom at HHS Agency Responsible for Health Care Quality Research.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a small government agency focused on improving healthcare and safety, is about to get DOGE’d. The agency is facing drastic layoffs — with up to 90% staff on the chopping block — despite the agency’s critical role in healthcare research.

One of the agency’s areas of focus is supporting initiatives to tackle chronic disease and improve public health, which contribute to financial savings for the country.

Ironically, these deep cuts will undoubtedly cripple one of the key agencies who collaborate with Health Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. on some of his less-bonkers health goals.

So, we’ll see if this cross-purpose cluster-bark leads to a MMA-style DOGE Bro vs. Anti-Vax Bro cage-match on Pay-Per-View.

Dig Deeper here and here.

Neutered. DOGE’s Cuts Endanger National Security and Terrorism Prevention Efforts.

A fantastic yet troubling article in ProPublica lays out the ripple effects that DOGE's widespread and reckless cuts in the name of Efficiency are having a range of unintended trickle-down consequences — including impacting violence prevention programs that help thwart terrorism, initiatives aimed at countering white supremacist violence, and also protecting religious institutions.

For example, DOGE has reduced funding for FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Program — which does everything from install security cameras, to train staff, to develop emergency plans, and has directly prevented deadly attacks on Jewish institutions.

In fact, a harrowing anecdote at the top of the article recounts how a rabbi thwarted a gunman after a 10-hour hostage situation and saved his fellow congregants at a synagogue in Texas specifically because of the training he had received.

In a completely different arena, community-based prevention programs, like those at Boston Children’s Hospital for example, focus on early interventions for issues like mental health, substance abuse, and violence, particularly targeting vulnerable children and families. But now funding freezes jeopardize critical services such as counseling, substance abuse prevention, and social support that countless people rely on.

So many of DOGE’s actions may look good to some as they simply subtract numbers from employee counts across the government. But the end result of what is happening is that national security and public health are being weakened (among other things).

In all these cases, it’s not just jobs on the line, it’s lives. But try speaking human to DOGE’s Mongrel-in-Chief and see if he responds in any other way than a nazi salute.

Dig Deeper here.

Flame-Broiled Hot DOGE. Trump’s Pay Raise for Firefighters Overshadowed by DOGE Job Cuts.

Can’t anything just be plain ole good news ?

Co-President Trump ensured that wildland firefighters will get to keep the four-year-old hike that Biden signed. However, the other shoe that dropped is now getting chewed up by DOGE.

That’s because DOGE’s broader cuts — to the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and NOAA — means that firing thousands of crucial employees is going to have a direct impact on all kinds of firefighting-related sectors, like maintaining wildfire defenses, conducting prescribed burns, and managing trails… to name a few.

So the workforce is being devastated, but also the shrinkage in manpower makes the actual job of fighting fires more dangerous in countless direct and indirect ways.

As one veteran forester put it: “I do think there’s a clear lack of understanding about how the inter-agency wildland fire system is set up, how it works, and how people that don’t have ‘firefighter’ listed as their job are still a massive part of the response system in the country.”

So that pay hike, which they were supposed to get anyway, should be called extra extra-hazard pay.

Dig Deeper here.

"Trump Signs Executive Order to Gut Department of Education"
It’s happening. He’s been talking about it forever, and now he’s finally done it. Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. There are still a lot of dominoes that have to fall, but many are concerned about the loss of essential funding, protections for marginalized students, and student loan oversight. Of course some DOE responsibilities — like administering Title I, special education, and student loans, etc — could be transferred to other agencies or to states, but the transition remains uncertain. Not to mention that DOGE’s radical makeovers have been so chaotic that it doesn’t exacly inspire confidence.

“Musk’s Starlink Conquers India With Massive Telecom Deals”
Elon Musk has secured deals with India’s two telecom giants, Reliance’s Jio and Bharti Airtel, to roll out Starlink internet services across the country. This deal — no doubt heavily influenced by Musk’s bromantic ties with Co-President Trump — promises to expand internet access into the world’s second most populous country of nearly 1.5 billion people. Of course, since Musk can never get out of his own way, he is also simultaneously suing the Indian government for allegedly censoring Twitter. Still, of all of Musk’s endeavors, Starlink is the one to keep an eye on and be guard-dog vigilant about.

“Trump Claims He Had An Aptitude For Music As A Child”
Yes, we’ve all read about Trump’s depressing takeover of the Kennedy Center, but some of the lesser known details about his recent visit there are both comically bizarre and disturbing. First, he said “Fiddler on the Roof” is one of his favorite Broadway musicals — um, ok. But then he went on to claim he possessed musical aptitude as a child yet had been thwarted in pursuing a career in the arts by his dogmatic father. And before you can finish processing that, here comes the chef’s kiss quote from the White House communications director: “Trump is a virtuoso and his musical choices represent a brilliant palette of vibrant colors when others often paint in pale pastels.” Say what now? Beyond the painful eye-rolling and smell of bulldogshit that this elicits, you can’t help but draw a parallel to another totalitarian dictator who’s trajectory in life veered off course after failing as a painter/artist. Just sayin.

“Some Named in Released JFK Assassination Documents Get Doxxed”
After all the build up to Trump’s declassification of the JFK assassination files… the biggest reveal turned out to be that the careless release exposed sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers of over 200 people associated with the case. The icing on the hoisted-petard cake is that this botched release ended up being cited by a judge in court documents in ruling that DOGE is not allowed to access people’s SSN's. To the judge, this reckless JFK release only proved the point that there is indeed an expectation of privacy when it comes to Social Security Numbers. Self-own achievement unlocked.

“Pentagon Maybe Will / Maybe Won’t Brief Musk on War With China”
Co-President Musk is set to visit the Pentagon today to discuss innovation and efficiency, according to Co-President Trump and senior officials. Despite reports suggesting that Musk would be briefed on military plans regarding a potential war with China, both the Pentagon and Trump have denied these claims. Musk's role as a senior adviser to Trump while overseeing major government contracts, like SpaceX's deals with the Pentagon and NASA, has raised concerns about conflicts of interest. Musk's visit will purportedly focus on improving military efficiency and smarter production. However, since half of Teslas are made in China, and also accounts for over 1/3 of all Tesla sales, and is home to 720 Tesla stores, and Musk just opened a new Megapack battery plant… well, it’s pretty obvious that Co-President Musk will get whatever briefing about his biggest benefactor that he wants.

Well, that was a lot to chew on… Again.

So as your reward, here are a few treats.

Some doggy goodness to calm your nerves… lift your spirits… and get you through to tomorrow…

Your Daily Dog.  The Best Pups from the Internet.

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👍 Thanks for reading. Have a barking beautiful weekend. See you on Monday.  

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