I thought they were against Medicare fraud, it’s how they want to save money.
I guess they’re not really serious.
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This is what happens when you support a bill without reading it and latching your entire identity to a bill.
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Quite correctly so.
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Surprised it took this long to get around to this…
Emergency medical conditions included, but were not limited to, “ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features.”
I guess it’s ok if women die.
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Today is best and final offer day. Exciting!
Happy Taco Wednesday!
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Oh, dear. They haven’t paid enough Dongeld.
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“craft”! 
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During last week’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Secretary Burgum claimed that “about 26,000 people work in the park system.” But according to the Department of the Interior’s own workforce database, as of May 13, 2025, the National Park Service had just 18,066 employees — a nearly 16.5% drop since FY2023.
Secretary Burgum stated, “We got several thousand people working in IT and I don’t know what they do.” Yet, based on the Interior’s workforce database, as of May 13, 2025, the Park Service employed just over 2,060 “office staff” nationwide, including staff in DC, regional and program-related offices, and fewer than 450 IT and HR positions across the entire agency (only 2% of the Park Service’s workforce).
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This summarizes pretty much every “slash and burn” position these asshole appointees have taken. And why the results have been so disastrous. So, yeah, pretty much on par with all the other asshats.
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It’s almost as if things like DOGE, combating the dreaded deep state, tariff war and making the United States bloated again were just lip service to create a surveillance state capable of making the Stasi blush.
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That sounds like a you problem, Burgum. It’s something you should have known before being nominated or confirmed, much less figure out within the first 24 hours of running the department.
I mean, I know what they do. They run a huge e-commerce front- and back-end. The Parks Service has online reservations and permitting, not to mention a ton of merchandise in the park stores. They are basically Disneyland x 75. With 450 people.
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I think it’s reasonable to conclude that Burgum:
- Doesn’t know what the National Park Service does
- In addition to parks, they also operate museums, like The Brown v Board of Education National Historical Park
- Doesn’t know what IT staff for the National Park Service does
- I don’t either, but…
- I have enough imagination to think that some/all other employees use electronics in some part of their job, as it is 2025
- I’m not the director of the organization…
- I don’t either, but…
- Doesn’t know what IT staff do, generally.
I always find this position fascinating, given the presentation that states the government should be run like a business. Although it is far too commonplace for private organizations to indulge in mass-layoffs in order to juice this quarter’s numbers, it usually comes from a somewhat informed place, while still being rightly condemned as short-term and self-destructive behavior.
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I think it’s also interesting that the number given is 450 IT and HR positions. So depending on what proportion of that is HR, that’s even less for IT… for all of that, and supporting a nationwide organization of ~20k people. (and the HR side can’t be too shabby, either, considering that they also manage thousands of seasonal employees as well)
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You don’t need to be in IT to know that you need IT people to handle the IT infrastructure of 18k people. From the Sysadmin area, you will need people to manage lots of servers. file servers to store the data, as you don’t want the data to be stored in the terminals, even if they are encrypted; mail servers - even if they use microsoft outlook, a goverment institution probably won’t have “cloud mail” but their own servers; web servers (even if they have them “cloud based” you will need someone to manage them!).
Then you have the hardware guys, usually teamed with SAT but we normally consider them a separate (usually outsourced) part. They procure, repair and image (aka install the OS and preload the software) the more or less the 18k terminals (that’s your average computer, but encrypted and locked down so users don’t do funny things like installing malware), plus any kind of specialty computer (“one kind” specialty computers: developers, engineers using CAD, your boss’s extra nice laptop, etc)…
Then you need SAT personel to attend the needs of 18k users.
Even with a fully computer literate workforce, I assume they will receive several dozens of password reset requests (you don’t want them to be automated, as thats a security weakness), plus they will handle the procurement of small bits hardware (you need ear-mic for conferences? an extra webcam? a projector for the conference?), plus any kind of request like “What does mean insert paper intray?”, “can you install (x) software on my computer?”, “How do I print a PDF?”, “can you export my mailbox?”, “I accidentally printed 30 copies of this document and I need extra printer quota”, etc…
(I’ve worked in SAT and HWPROC in the past)
Finally you may need Developers which may or may not be on your IT department: They will develop any custom software the department needs, plus maintain the webpage, etc etc. This may also be outsourced if SAT can handle the requests.
Given all that… I think 450 IT employees, moreover if you count that HR is also counted there… is not much at all. So either they have a very spartan deployment or some non-IT employees are doing IT tasks 
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One of those things where I can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.
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Kurzgesagt just came out with this:
Seems like just the sort of thing Il Douche would want to end, hmmm?
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Paul Krugman boils down the problem: Trump has put the US in an extremely weak position for any trade negotiations, but also his complaints are delusional, so there’s nothing to negotiate.
So if the EU is supposed to make big concessions to the United States, the question has to be, “concede what?” The EU can’t eliminate high tariffs that only exist in Trump’s fevered imagination.
…
So we’re in a situation where Trump imagines that the world is laughing at us over our open markets, but perceives correctly that everyone is laughing at him over the TACO thing. And at the same time he has delusions of grandeur when it comes to U.S. economic power.
Does this sound to you like a situation in Trump makes big boasts but effectively climbs down? That’s not how I see it. Instead, I think we’re in for a prolonged period of chaotic Trump lashing out through whatever trade weapon he can get his hands on.
Not if Alex Jones can help it!
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