The State Department was planning to buy $400 million worth of “Armored Tesla” later this year, according to its 2025 procurement forecast, a document outlining projections of anticipated contracts, which was published in December. But after reports emerged on Wednesday of the potential for conflict of interest given Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s prominent role in the Trump Administration, the document was updated, removing mention of Tesla and changing the line item to “Armored Electric Vehicles” instead.
As of late Wednesday, both versions of the 2025 procurement forecast remained available on different State Department webpages. The earlier version that mentions Tesla also lists the planned procurement under NAICS Code 311999, an industry code for miscellaneous food manufacturing, while the newer version, which says it was modified at 9:12 p.m., Feb. 12, lists the revised “Armored Electric Vehicles” procurement under NAICS Code 561613 for “Armored Car Services.” No other changes were made in the document, which contains 319 other line items.
The State Department website says it issues annual procurement forecasts pursuant to the Business Opportunity Development Reform Act of 1988, which “requires agencies to compile and make available projections of contracting opportunities small and small disadvantaged firms may be able to perform.” It is meant to give “small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, HUBZone small businesses, and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses” opportunities to compete for direct contracts with the government or subcontracting opportunities.
TIME has reached out to representatives at the State Department and Tesla for comment on the change and clarification about whether Tesla remains the intended awardee for a contract that is anticipated to be awarded, according to the procurement forecast, on Sept. 30.
A judge has blocked President Donald Trump from firing the head of the federal office that investigates government corruption and protects whistleblowers.
On Friday, Trump sent a one-sentence email to Hampton Dellinger, who has led the Office of the Special Counsel since March 2024, telling him he was fired, according to a Wednesday night restraining order that temporarily halts the firing.
By law, Dellinger was supposed to serve a five-year term unless removed by the president for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
“This language expresses Congress’s clear intent to ensure the independence of the Special Counsel and insulate his work from being buffeted by the winds of political change,” Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who former President Barack Obama appointed, wrote in the order.
The Trump administration didn’t deny firing Dellinger without cause. Instead, it argued the statute limiting the president’s ability to remove the head of special counsel except for cause was unconstitutional.
But Berman Jackson wrote that no court had struck down the law so far, and the Supreme Court has “taken pains to carve the OSC out of its pronouncements concerning the President’s broad authority to remove officials who assist him in discharging his duties at will.”
She had previously issued an order keeping Dellinger in place until Thursday night, and the latest order allows him to keep his job for now while the court considers his case. A hearing was scheduled for Feb. 26.
Dellinger’s job as Special Counsel at the OSC is distinct from that of a Special Counsel appointed by the Department of Justice. The office is an independent agency that gives whistleblowers an avenue to report potential abuse and—crucially—protects them from reprisal. The office also enforces the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activity by government employees.
Those responsibilities put Dellinger in a prime position to challenge the Trump administration if the courts continue to block his firing.
Jordan Klepper covers Trump pushing his Gaza takeover plan even further and the hypocrisy, conflicts of interest, and terrible “jokes” behind the most powerful unelected bureaucrat in D.C., Elon Musk #DailyShow#ElonMusk#Gaza#DOGE
His performative lawsuit game cost him at least once — judge slapped him with a $1 million sanction a couple years ago for his frivolous lawsuit against Hillary (and he paid it)
Putin doesn’t like that Trump is copying his style. So he does what anyone would do … invade Canada.
The Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America — but Trump isn’t stopping there. And there’s one key world leader who has suddenly figured out how to take advantage of Trump’s mass rebranding agenda… #PUPPETREGIME
At least 24 cases of measles have been detected in Gaines County, Texas, the state’s Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said this weekas it warned that additional cases were likely given the highly infectious nature of the disease.
None of the 24 infected individuals had been immunized with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, the health authority said. Two of them are adults, and the other 22 are children. Nine patients were hospitalized.
U.S. vaccination ratesfor measles have fallen in recent years and continue to decrease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts say measles outbreaks in recent years are linked to an increase in the number of parents seeking exemptions from childhood vaccinations following political backlash to coronavirus restrictions and rampant misinformation about vaccine safety, The Washington Post has reported.
The outbreak is clustered in a small county in West Texas that is home to about 22,500 people.More than 3 percent of K-12 students in Gaines County had a conscientious exemption for at least one vaccine in the 2023-2024 school year, the highest bracket recorded by the Texas DSHS. The Associated Press reported that 14 percent of school-age children in the county had an exemption for at least one vaccine, one of the highest rates in Texas.
Even a small decline in vaccination rates can dramatically increase the likelihood of an outbreak: Measles can “easily cross borders” in any community where vaccination rates are below 95 percent, according to the CDC. Symptoms of the disease include fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes, tiny white spots (called koplik spots) and later a measles rash, which looks like small raised bumps or flat red spots.
Of the three schools in Gaines County that were tracked by the DSHS during the 2023-24 school year, the highest MMR vaccination rate among kindergarten-age students was about 94.3 percent. The lowest was about 46.2 percent, data from the department showed, while a sampling of seventh-graders at that school the same year showed an MMR vaccination rate of about 55.6 percent.
[…]
And RFK Jr. will likely be confirmed as HHS chief this week or next.
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan to Save the CFPB From Elon Musk” “Banks hated this agency from the first time I ever talked about it.”
“Yes, I have a plan, and it’s already the law. The CFPB cannot be shut down by Elon Musk, so we’re in the courts to make sure that Elon Musk and Donald Trump follow the law. The CFPB is still the law. It’s still funded. It’s still ready to go. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are illegally blocking it, and they need to get out of the way. The courts will enforce the law.”
Nice thought, but Dictator Don-Elon have no intention of following court orders. They don’t need Congress, either. All of these Republican suck-ups were promised something. I hope they got paid up front, because once the deed is done they will be kicked to the curb, the spineless idiots.
Hmm, it seems only the Tesla name was removed from the contract. It’s not canceled. Elon had to offload those monstrosities somewhere and shore up Tesla stock, too.
“Ignoring Court Orders Would Make Trump a King” “How Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Christian nationalist figures are pushing a fresh constitutional crisis.”
“But as federal judges begin to block Trump administration actions, Musk, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their followers have responded with a campaign to discredit not only those judges, but the judicial system itself, should it stand in their way. The strategy, which echoes Christian nationalist beliefs about the sovereignty of rulers, appears to be an attempt to set the stage for defying the US Supreme Court if it doesn’t ultimately validate their efforts.”
“If the Supreme Court ultimately rules for Trump’s administration, “it’ll all be forgotten. But if they lose, they prepare the ground for rebellion against the judges,” Scheppele warns.”
DODO’s chief priority is to keep ordinary folks mired in their own personal and family health emergencies, superseding any other concerns in their lives. This leaves him free from oversight into ransacking the Treasury and funneling new tariff money into his personal wealth.
Elon is helping him and Congress is not standing in his way.
“The United States Justice Department sued New York, its governor Kathy Hochul and other state leaders on Wednesday as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.”
So, (F)Elon isn’t ignore court orders, but going after others in the courts. Got it.
Part of the plan is to kill off a lot of the population and replace it with young, white humans. After you aren’t productive (or reproductive), you will also be tossed aside.
Anonymous
5 days ago
post-menopausal women don’t have a purpose, according to JD
Anonymoustuff
5 days ago
aren’t ya glad Biden did nothing to prevent what we all saw coming
“US aircraft carrier collides with merchant ship near Egypt, but no injuries reported”
“The Truman, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, deployed in September to the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It had just completed a port call in Souda Bay, Greece.”
Civilian planes, military aircraft, train wrecks, and now this. What gives? Distractions? Mismanagement? Both?
Last edited 5 days ago by blueINdallas
Anonymoustuff
5 days ago
how do you distract a populace that isn’t paying attention
What happens to Ivanka and her family in Elon’s worldview? Her children’s father is Jewish, and she converted. How long before skin tone and eye color aren’t enough for the n@zis.
Had to chuckle and shake my head when the na@zi, MuskRat, said government departments needed to be removed completely; that it would be dangerous to leave even a small root of something because it could spring up, again.
Anonymoustuff
5 days ago
oops posted my last response in the wrong thread 🤷♂️
“we’re fucked” was the point
yes, i saw Pogo already made that point in this thread, can it be made often enough?
“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has urged the parliament to declare a state of emergency, citing ‘the events of the last 24 hours and the statements made by the U.S. government’ regarding Ukraine. This call comes in the wake of recent developments and remarks from the U.S. that have raised concerns in Germany about the situation in Ukraine. Scholz‘s request reflects a growing urgency within the German government to address the implications of U.S. policy and its potential impact on European security.”
anonymoustuff
5 days ago
you don’t get dumber than hoping to subpoena the Warren commission sometime in the future
“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has urged the parliament to declare a state of emergency, citing ‘the events of the last 24 hours and the statements made by the U.S. government’ regarding Ukraine. This call comes in the wake of recent developments and remarks from the U.S. that have raised concerns in Germany about the situation in Ukraine. Scholz‘s request reflects a growing urgency within the German government to address the implications of U.S. policy and its potential impact on European security.”
Stern did a Carnac bit last week and had to explain who Carson was and then what the Carnac bit was just to set up the bit, was bad
we have to analyze politics these days with the understanding that people who weren’t even born before 9/11 are now working, voting (or not), and contributing to the discourse (or not)
they were raised by screens not villages
certainly have no idea wtf the Warren Commission was
if we don’t educate such people, Anna Paulina Luna will
I laughed like an idiot the first time I saw it, on a T-shirt.
But back then…
1963 November.
10th grade study hall. School closed, go home.
Neighbor kid comes over, says, “They ought to give the guy a medal.”
I was astonished.
Ran his ass off.
Must be something he’d heard at home.
We’ve been divided a long time now. Hell, the civil rights act wasn’t even passed yet and this kid is talking shit like that.
“WASHINGTON − President Donald Trumpsigned a memorandum on Thursday instructing his administration to pursue reciprocal tariffs against nations that put fees on U.S. exports, escalating a trade war that could lead to higher costs for Americans.”
“Whatever they charge us, we’re charging them,” Trump said Thursday. “It’s a beautiful simple system.”
“The Trump administration on Thursday moved swiftly to fire thousands of workers and directed agency heads to terminate most trial and probationary staff — a move that could affect as many as 200,000 employees…”
The next unemployment report will be wild.
Where is the military?
Last edited 4 days ago by blueINdallas
anonymoustuff
4 days ago
Van Halen was so good on guitar and David Lee Roth was such a good frontman and yet their songs suck
🧘♂️
anonymoustugf
4 days ago
cartoonish level of sycophantic goons in this “cabinet”
wrecking crew is more like it
i’d call ‘em something else but have to watch my verbiage in this post-Constitutional era
i can’t believe that voting for trump was a sane or rational decision by anyone except a few billionaires and a handful of Putin admirers
Last edited 4 days ago by anonymoustugf
anonymoustugf
4 days ago
one need not even go down the trumpco hierarchy very far before even associating with him is perilous
White House says it’s the judges — not Trump — causing a ‘constitutional crisis’
Tesla Removed From $400M Federal Contract Amid Musk Scrutiny
Judge Stops Trump Firing the Head of Anti-Corruption Office
Jordan Klepper covers Trump pushing his Gaza takeover plan even further and the hypocrisy, conflicts of interest, and terrible “jokes” behind the most powerful unelected bureaucrat in D.C., Elon Musk #DailyShow #ElonMusk #Gaza #DOGE
Nice cartoons, PatD. Do we laugh or cry?
Elon is paying Trump $10 million to settle suit for when the blob was banished from Twitter X
Elon Musk’s X Paying $10 Million To Settle Twitter-Era Trump Lawsuit Alleging Censorship, Report Says
jamie, get $10 million for merely filing a frivolous lawsuit? deviously clever new way to hide bribes.
His performative lawsuit game cost him at least once — judge slapped him with a $1 million sanction a couple years ago for his frivolous lawsuit against Hillary (and he paid it)
Hegseth booed by military families. Children walk out on his appearance.
This guy will be lucky if someone doesn’t bring back fragging.
Hegseth heckled and booed by military families at pro-DEI protest in Germany | Trump administration | The Guardian
Putin doesn’t like that Trump is copying his style. So he does what anyone would do … invade Canada.
The Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America — but Trump isn’t stopping there. And there’s one key world leader who has suddenly figured out how to take advantage of Trump’s mass rebranding agenda… #PUPPETREGIME
They’re BAAACK!!! WaPo
And RFK Jr. will likely be confirmed as HHS chief this week or next.
We are so screwed.
today’s meme…
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/sen-elizabeth-warrens-two-word-plan-to-save-the-cfpb-from-elon-musk/
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan to Save the CFPB From Elon Musk”
“Banks hated this agency from the first time I ever talked about it.”
“Yes, I have a plan, and it’s already the law. The CFPB cannot be shut down by Elon Musk, so we’re in the courts to make sure that Elon Musk and Donald Trump follow the law. The CFPB is still the law. It’s still funded. It’s still ready to go. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are illegally blocking it, and they need to get out of the way. The courts will enforce the law.”
Nice thought, but Dictator Don-Elon have no intention of following court orders. They don’t need Congress, either. All of these Republican suck-ups were promised something. I hope they got paid up front, because once the deed is done they will be kicked to the curb, the spineless idiots.
Hmm, it seems only the Tesla name was removed from the contract. It’s not canceled. Elon had to offload those monstrosities somewhere and shore up Tesla stock, too.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/donald-trump-elon-musk-jd-vance-ignore-defy-court-orders/
“Ignoring Court Orders Would Make Trump a King”
“How Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Christian nationalist figures are pushing a fresh constitutional crisis.”
“But as federal judges begin to block Trump administration actions, Musk, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their followers have responded with a campaign to discredit not only those judges, but the judicial system itself, should it stand in their way. The strategy, which echoes Christian nationalist beliefs about the sovereignty of rulers, appears to be an attempt to set the stage for defying the US Supreme Court if it doesn’t ultimately validate their efforts.”
“If the Supreme Court ultimately rules for Trump’s administration, “it’ll all be forgotten. But if they lose, they prepare the ground for rebellion against the judges,” Scheppele warns.”
PS – RFKJ (sigh)
Yep. And just in time for three outbreaks he can mismanage: tuberculosis, measles and bird flu
DODO’s chief priority is to keep ordinary folks mired in their own personal and family health emergencies, superseding any other concerns in their lives. This leaves him free from oversight into ransacking the Treasury and funneling new tariff money into his personal wealth.
Elon is helping him and Congress is not standing in his way.
He will not mind if there is another pandemic. The last one didn’t hurt him.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14391325/pam-bondi-justice-department-lawsuit-new-york.html
“The United States Justice Department sued New York, its governor Kathy Hochul and other state leaders on Wednesday as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.”
So, (F)Elon isn’t ignore court orders, but going after others in the courts. Got it.
Part of the plan is to kill off a lot of the population and replace it with young, white humans. After you aren’t productive (or reproductive), you will also be tossed aside.
post-menopausal women don’t have a purpose, according to JD
aren’t ya glad Biden did nothing to prevent what we all saw coming
https://apnews.com/article/truman-aircraft-carrier-collision-merchant-vessel-50e039f339c4658d246a08ca496a21d9
“US aircraft carrier collides with merchant ship near Egypt, but no injuries reported”
“The Truman, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, deployed in September to the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It had just completed a port call in Souda Bay, Greece.”
Civilian planes, military aircraft, train wrecks, and now this. What gives? Distractions? Mismanagement? Both?
how do you distract a populace that isn’t paying attention
boat captain just fucked up
What happens to Ivanka and her family in Elon’s worldview? Her children’s father is Jewish, and she converted. How long before skin tone and eye color aren’t enough for the n@zis.
Had to chuckle and shake my head when the na@zi, MuskRat, said government departments needed to be removed completely; that it would be dangerous to leave even a small root of something because it could spring up, again.
oops posted my last response in the wrong thread 🤷♂️
“we’re fucked” was the point
yes, i saw Pogo already made that point in this thread, can it be made often enough?
Everybody knows that the ship is leaking,
Everybody knows that the Captain lied.
—Leonard Cohen
Watching Trump and thinking we will be damn lucky if this ass doesn’t bring on another 9/11
The white people going out to demonstrate against DODO should be wearing red hats.
Exactly, Jamie. Third Reich didn’t fall because its people rebelled. It fell because outside countries attacked it when it threatened them.
Today marks the 80th anniversary of the Allied bombing of Dresden.
https://deepnewz.com/germany/germany-s-olaf-scholz-calls-state-emergency-over-u-s-statements-on-ukraine-last-2aa4c8cd
“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has urged the parliament to declare a state of emergency, citing ‘the events of the last 24 hours and the statements made by the U.S. government’ regarding Ukraine. This call comes in the wake of recent developments and remarks from the U.S. that have raised concerns in Germany about the situation in Ukraine. Scholz‘s request reflects a growing urgency within the German government to address the implications of U.S. policy and its potential impact on European security.”
you don’t get dumber than hoping to subpoena the Warren commission sometime in the future
Two Electoral Autocrats share a stage
“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has urged the parliament to declare a state of emergency, citing ‘the events of the last 24 hours and the statements made by the U.S. government’ regarding Ukraine. This call comes in the wake of recent developments and remarks from the U.S. that have raised concerns in Germany about the situation in Ukraine. Scholz‘s request reflects a growing urgency within the German government to address the implications of U.S. policy and its potential impact on European security.”
https://deepnewz.com/germany/germany-s-olaf-scholz-calls-state-emergency-over-u-s-statements-on-ukraine-last-2aa4c8cd
Anon
Is anyone from the Warren Commission still alive? Its been 62 years.
Just checked. The last remaining one passes away in 1991.
I don’t even have a Ouija board to offer to contact the really dead, dead.
icymi:
https://www.nj.com/news/2025/02/gop-congresswoman-wants-to-interview-dead-witnesses-in-new-jfk-assassination-probe.html?outputType=amp
at least she’s getting press unlike Democrats
purge the party, start with Schumer and Jeffries
Carnac didn’t age too well
Hadn’t seen the article. There are some jobs that really should require some basic education above the 4th grade.
https://delawareliberal.net/2025/02/13/song-of-the-day-2-13-war-slippin-into-darkness/
The biggest laugh Carnak ever got.
Stern did a Carnac bit last week and had to explain who Carson was and then what the Carnac bit was just to set up the bit, was bad
we have to analyze politics these days with the understanding that people who weren’t even born before 9/11 are now working, voting (or not), and contributing to the discourse (or not)
they were raised by screens not villages
certainly have no idea wtf the Warren Commission was
if we don’t educate such people, Anna Paulina Luna will
lol that was just “for example”
This amp goes to eleven.
So many examples and they’re throttling the schools.
Was Stern trying to show somebody what it was like or was he actually trying to pull off the bit?
Old Carson got a boo or two for his little gay dig.
he’s been ripping off that bit for decades
the person who photoshopped that Oswald pic must have been laughing like an idiot the whole time 😆
I laughed like an idiot the first time I saw it, on a T-shirt.
But back then…
1963 November.
10th grade study hall. School closed, go home.
Neighbor kid comes over, says, “They ought to give the guy a medal.”
I was astonished.
Ran his ass off.
Must be something he’d heard at home.
We’ve been divided a long time now. Hell, the civil rights act wasn’t even passed yet and this kid is talking shit like that.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/13/trump-tariffs-trade-war/78415322007/
“WASHINGTON − President Donald Trumpsigned a memorandum on Thursday instructing his administration to pursue reciprocal tariffs against nations that put fees on U.S. exports, escalating a trade war that could lead to higher costs for Americans.”
“Whatever they charge us, we’re charging them,” Trump said Thursday. “It’s a beautiful simple system.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/13/trump-administration-fires-probationary-federal-workers/
“The Trump administration on Thursday moved swiftly to fire thousands of workers and directed agency heads to terminate most trial and probationary staff — a move that could affect as many as 200,000 employees…”
The next unemployment report will be wild.
Where is the military?
Van Halen was so good on guitar and David Lee Roth was such a good frontman and yet their songs suck
🧘♂️
cartoonish level of sycophantic goons in this “cabinet”
wrecking crew is more like it
i’d call ‘em something else but have to watch my verbiage in this post-Constitutional era
i can’t believe that voting for trump was a sane or rational decision by anyone except a few billionaires and a handful of Putin admirers
one need not even go down the trumpco hierarchy very far before even associating with him is perilous
like one rung, maybe two
NEW THREAD