#shared from facebook

[erik-even-wordier]

Here’s some absolute bulls**t DOGE f**kery which isn’t getting much play, if any, from news media. But it certainly should

Posted to Facebook by Len Nelson on February 26, 2025.

Here’s some absolute bulls**t DOGE f**kery which isn’t getting much play, if any, from news media. But it certainly should.

I’ll preface it by reminding you that DOGE stands for “Department of Government Efficiency.” Keep that last word, “efficiency,” in mind.

On Monday, federal employees who hold a government credit card, a normal and mundane tool of their jobs so they can purchase office supplies, gas for government vehicles, travel expenses or whatever else might be an essential part of doing their work, discovered that the available credit limits for the cards assigned to them were suddenly set at $1. Yes, ONE DOLLAR.

A very close acquaintance of mine is one of them. She has two government issued credit cards, one which she is authorized to use for day to day job-related purchases and the other for when she is required to travel for work. She is also authorized to use a third card, a “fleet card” for when she has to fill up her agency’s work trucks or other equipment. But, of course, you can’t pay for staples, ball point pens or gasoline when anything costing more than a dollar would result in the card being declined, all thanks to convicted felon, adjudicated fraudster and rapist Donald Trump and his unelected and unaccountable billionaire oligarch co-president and top campaign donor, Elon Musk.

I will note here that she and every other federal employee who is authorized to use the cards has to go through specific training on proper uses and procedures for them. It’s literally mandated as a condition of employment. The expenses for which they use the cards is documented, monitored and reviewed by supervisors and agency accountants who understand the nature of their work and the items they are required to purchase in order to do it. Elon Musk doesn’t have any experience or knowledge in such matters, even as he pretends it.

When I asked her just how these yahoos with DOGE expect government workers to function according to their job descriptions under the new restrictions, she said the “new guidance” from her agency, via DOGE directive, is that they can still use the cards for purchases…but only with specific prior approval. So now, every purchase in excess of one dollar (which is literally all of them), even filling up the work truck, must get approved by a district supervisor. Not approval to, say, go ahead and fill up several times this week as needed, but every single time they do so. Apparently the credit limit will then be increased to cover that one purchase and then will reset to one dollar. DOGE has also apparently created some sort of magic list somewhere which contains the names of supervisors who can approve the purchases. They, and only they, can give the okay.

Now, in my close acquaintance’s case, the district supervisor under which she works is the boss for an area which covers a pretty large swath of central, western and southwestern Wisconsin. As the insanely stupid DOGE directive went into effect, she was traveling to one of the district’s field offices for meetings when she got the directive. She had to scramble to figure out how to even get back home because the DOGE “experts” mistakenly left her off the magic list. So, she was literally stranded unless she wanted to use her own money for work expenses and then pray that somehow she would be reimbursed, not an easy task because government expense reimbursement procedures are cumbersome. That’s why workers have the credit cards in the first place.

Now, this district director has to specifically approve every individual use of the agency’s employee credit cards for every one of the dozens upon dozens of employees working in that district. Because, sure, a district director really needs to be on the phone or laptop several times each hour just responding to and arranging employee requests to buy gas for the work truck, bar oil for the chainsaw or even a package of butt wipe or disinfectant spray for the office bathrooms.

The abject idiocy of it is off the charts. I heard about it from someone close to me but I also read an account of it from a health care worker at the Veterans Administration. She complained that she went to buy supplies for the clinic at which she works, things like bandages, tape and other medical supplies, only to find her government card had suddenly and without notice been reduced to an available credit limit of one singular United States of WTF dollar.

Sorry, honorably discharged military veteran seeking care from the VA. Can you just hold back the bleeding with your hand while we wait and wait and wait to get approval from someone up the chain of command who might be on the magic DOGE list in order to replenish our bandage supply? Thanks, soldier. Then tack on a thousand or so indiscriminate firings of VA workers, including veterans employed in public service to other veterans. But sure, Republicans who support Trump and Musk, tell us more about how much you love and support our vets, right?

So, in the name of “government efficiency,” Musk and DOGE have instead injected absolute chaos into even the simplest of government operations and are forcing our dedicated civil service workers to have to perform their jobs in the most inefficient way that one could design or even imagine. But Trump says Musk is a “genius” when it comes to making government work better.

This isn’t “genius.” It sure as hell isn’t “efficiency.” It’s clearly purposed incompetence by design.

Well, I need no prior approval from anyone in order to say, “F**k these corrupt and malevolent dips**ts.”

[erik-even-gayer]

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Neurodivergent Girl

[hereticallyeverafter]

[thenightshadowqueen]

I just feel like we need to talk more about this clip of Sam

[trashytarbosaurus]

Turns out the middle ages were onto something.

[nostalgicfun]

Casius and Scooter, 1999

[vulcanette]

[triassictriserratops]

Here for Katniss and Peeta annoying everyone with how in love with each other they are. And it’s not even how horny they are. It’s the pure love that’s just as annoying. The banter and flirting just gets worse with time now that they’re heart eyes towards each other while doing it.

They're definitely that couple that communicate non-verbally. Like, they're hanging around people in town and someone says or does some wildly unhinged shit and they just LOOK at each other like, "Oh we're HELLA gossiping about this when we get home" and the heart eyes???? constant. neverending. literally ALL of the time. The SECOND that Peeta gets to call her his wife, he's bringing it up ALL the time. Basically like, "My wife, the inventor of the toaster strudel..." and KATNISS? hooboy. level 12 koala cling. peeta just walks around town wearing her like a backpack sometimes. people don't even think twice about it, it's just normal now.

[louferrignojrofficial]

pictures of lou with some friends i haven’t shared yet (from years 2009-2013)

[sweetdreamsjeff]

From the Newark Star Ledger in New Jersey as shared by J Michael Raber on Facebook

Image by Art Cuffee

Article written by Tom Moon

Article title: Death Silences a Voice of Tremendous Potential

[erik-even-wordier]

Pretty damn obvious that the NRA and all those guns and all those flags were NEVER actually about defending anyone from tyranny. These militia types, they tell you they are the spiritual inheritors of the 3%, the Minutemen, who once rose up against a king. But they're really the Loyalists, those miserable bastards who embrace absolutism and who would turn their guns on their neighbors and who only became patriots AFTER the revolution was over.

Jim Wright

[erik-even-gayer]

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

What Making Friends Should Feel Like:

I CAN Network Ltd

[dramas-vs-novels]

Okay but the picture and caption are both adorable

[ariparri]

Digital Art Progress

Went through my digital art to see how much I’ve improved through the years. You all don’t know how badly I cringed at the older ones. I mostly wanted to see just how much my coloring and line work improved.

I don’t really want to talk about 2014 since it was only one or two pieces, 2015 was when I really started doing digital art and yeah my coloring was AWFUL. My shading especially. And don’t get me started on my lazy ass refusing to draw backgrounds. 2016-2017 wasn’t any better with the backgrounds. 2017 was when I started making use of the effects for the shading. I also had art as an elective during those years so my teacher was a real help in improving it. Oh and I did have more artist friends to learn from too.

2018-2019, my coloring was getting better. At least the coloring for hair and eyes mostly, I noticed I went really soft with the shading. I also noticed a bit of a drawing regression through 2019-2020 but I was forcing myself to draw between those years. 2020 was the year I started coloring my linearts xD It was also when I started adding more effects and layers to make the shading better. And then 2021 is when I started doing a base layer for all the coloring so I didn’t have to worry about erasing any colors that went past the lines.

2022-2023 had a lot of my favorite art. My coloring and shading has improved greatly. I was experimenting more with different brushes for better lineart and coloring. I’m still in love with that drawing of Coby, it’s my favorite art for HPHM xD but yea, more effects more layers. I used to stick with about 15 layers but it moved up to 25 layers. 47 on a good day. As for colors, I kind of improved on that especially for shading xD At least characters with blond hair don’t look weird anymore when I shade and highlight them. I’m still working on coloring leather though.

And then there’s 2024/2025. I learned another way to color lineart without having to directly color on it. Just set it to purple and set the layer to hardlight and it’s done. Though it really depends on the kind of drawing, I still had to color in some areas so it blends better. But that’s how I colored Thoma's mystic skin in the image here. And my fire effect is getting better (￣▽￣) I used to cheat and just use IbisPaint's fire materials. Also I no longer need to do three layers of shading to get the desired effect. I’ve also switched to a more simpler method to color hair, which is honestly fine. I think I prefer it this way now over the previous method. And once again I’m learning more on color theory because I still struggle. I’ve also been desaturating my art more now, especially with the latest ones. It honestly make them look so much more nicer to just stare at.