Musk said DOGE was shutting down payments to Lutheran Family Services, a faith-based charity that has been providing social services to refugees.

Summary

Elon Musk claims his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is shutting down payments to federal contractors, including a Lutheran charity, asserting it is eliminating corruption.

This suggests DOGE has access to Treasury’s payment systems, though officials have not confirmed the extent.

Senator Ron Wyden warned that DOGE may interfere with Social Security, Medicare, and government contracts.

Musk also called USAID “a criminal organization” that should “die,” amid DOGE’s growing influence over federal financial operations.

  • Chozo@fedia.io
    2221·
    10 hours ago

    At what point do we declare this a coup? This isn’t what even the most diehard conservatives out there voted for, I don’t understand how this isn’t considered a hostile takeover.

    • neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      12·
      3 hours ago

      It’s stressing me out to no end. I think the average person doesn’t even know this is currently happening.

      • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
        7·
        3 hours ago

        I don’t follow politics. I voted for trump because it was badass when he said fight fight fight. Elon’s a genius, I’m sure he’s gonna make it better.

        These are real takes I’ve heard out there in the world.

    • ininewcrow@lemmy.world
      29·
      7 hours ago

      When this happens in a developing country we laugh at their politics.

      When it happens in America, no one bats an eye

      • jonne@infosec.pub
        111·
        5 hours ago

        Americans still think their country is somehow different even though it’s still a developing country in many respects.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
          4·
          5 hours ago

          Not just country nations, reminder the regions with the strongest identities are either the oldest, important, or Mormon. We are very much kn the same state the late western Roman empire was in, where they had African Romance, Brithonic Romance, and Gaulic Romance we have Californian, Texan, and Northestern the east coast tracks to eastern Mediterranean.

      • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
        8·
        3 hours ago

        Hungarian here, whose face got eaten by the leopards.

        Political illiteracy is a serious problem, and so is the access to information. They actually thought the crime rates were up, because the very few news outlets they’re exposed to likes to uplift a few cases with scary headlines, often making anniversary reports on some crimes. They actually thought, that the opposition was “too far-left”, because pundits told them so, and they learned in school the real nazis did evil things for the sole sake of evil, thus people that say they want to eliminate crime, and have crime statistics must not be far-right.

        This is not for to excuse their behavior, but to explain it. Maybe can even lead to an end of this cycle.

      • ProIsh@lemmy.world
        471·
        9 hours ago

        Fucking yes.

        All conservatives at the tables with all these nazis asking who voted in all the nazis.

        At this point your party has folded. Keep saying “but not meeeee, I’m a real conservative!” All you want.

    • SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world
      1141·
      10 hours ago

      They’re in too deep to admit how badly they obviously fucked up. Shit is gonna have to actually reach the ugly bitter end, leaving them no other possible explanation to try to hide behind. In the meantime, this must be what it felt like for the citizens of Rome as it burned.

      • MummifiedClient5000@feddit.dkEnglish
        22·
        8 hours ago

        It is not until it affects them on a personal level they make that realization. That is how far the empathy of the average conservative voter reaches.

        • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          21·
          2 hours ago

          Well, in essence and at its purest level the difference in thinking between Leftwing and Rightwing is the difference between “I want people to have a better life” and “I want to have a better life”.

          All the political complexity above that comes from the different possible ways to achieve either end and from how one end partly overlaps with the other (i.e. for many a general improvement of people’s lifes gets translated into a personal improvement).

          So yeah, conservatives are just “What’s in it for me” types who believe in a different method to maximize their personal upside than the Fascists. In fact many American-style Liberals (the political version of “Liberal” in the US, not to be confused with those who believe in the actual Liberal Ideology) are also rightwingers who believe in yet another method for personal upside improvement.