As a career fed with some experience WRT budgeting/spending, it just seems so odd the way some elements can play fast and loose with spending and staffing. Pretty consistent with my overall idea that, in general, it TPTB do not wish to authorize something, they are quick to cite chapter and verse of why they are prohibited from doing it. But if they WANT to do something - even something that is seemingly expressly prohibited, all of those prohibitions just seem to magically disappear.
You’re not wrong. There are many lawsuits against the legality of DOGE and they are still going through the Courts. They mostly focus on DOGE authority (or lack thereof).
I don’t know how much those lawsuits went into the actual pay of DOGE staff, though. Like, there was an attorney in Minnesota recently in an ICE adjacent case who told the Judge she wanted to be put in contempt to get some sleep. Remember her? She was an ICE attorney, paid by DHS. That was her real job and she worked immigration hearings. But, during that “put me in contempt” hearing, she had been on loan to DOJ for a bit to act as a federal attorney to help with the DOJ backlog of habeas cases in Federal Courts. She didn’t work for ICE/DHS then. That’s legal to loan her out to another agency for different work, but still getting her DHS salary, for a short time period. The argument would be somewhat similar for DOGE staff pay.
According to Newsweek (and a few other sources) “Trump is expected to attend the upcoming Shield of the Americas Summit to discuss strategies to bolster U.S. leadership and coalition in the Western Hemisphere alongside the Latin American leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed at a briefing March 4.”
I’m thinking there must be some weird conspiracy theory that ties Shield of The Americas to Bad Bunny’s recitation of countries of the Americas in his Super Bowl halftime show, but my mind is moving slow and I can’t come up with anything.
Seems odd to claim that Karoline Leavitt confirmed this “Shield of the Americas Summit” on Wednesday when the first anyone heard of the Shield of the Americas was Thursday. So I went to YouTube and found the video of her Wednesday press briefing. If you get to the very end, she says
41:12 I’m pleased to announce the President will welcome the heads of state from 12 nations across our western hemisphere in Miami, Florida on Saturday. The point of this newfound Latin America Summit is to promote freedom, security, and prosperity in our region. The following countries will be in attendance, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad, and Tobago, and maybe some others as well. And the President will be speaking with the leaders of this country who have really formed a historic coalition to work together to address criminal narco terrorist gangs in cartels, and counter illegal and mass migration into not only the United States, but the Western Hemisphere, which remains a key and top priority of this president. Thank you very much everyone, and you’ll see the President yourselves in an hour.
So it seems they’re retroactively slapping the “Shield of the Americas” name on an already planned meeting with Latin American leaders.
And the whole thing is about drugs & smugglers. How nice.
Which groups are conveniently being relabeled as terrorists so most of the US laws that protect suspects from unilateral preemptive government violence and overreach don’t apply to them.
Once they can label your corner pusher as a “terrorist”, ICE can disappear everyone who looks like a drug dealer. Hint, the paper bag test will be used a lot.
I had considerable experience with non-DOJ fed attys being “deputized” to do DOJ work. All required specific details, designation as “Special Assistant AUSA”, etc. The never just called over to our shop and said, “Hey, could you send over some attys to help us move some boxes?”
So, they just mill around for an hour until ol’ Stinky deigns to show up? Reminds me of all the gangsters waiting around in Goldfinger’s living room. A good subject for the Shield would be what to do about a rogue country sinking random boats in the Caribbean.
That’s a term I’ve seen used in a couple of different UK companies for Slow Horses type departments. Filled with people who aren’t quite useless enough to sack, but have been there too long to get rid of cheaply through redundancy. The idea is to manage them closely so you can build up a case for dismissal, and/or bore them into quitting.
Unfortunately, it’s also used in other companies as a term for a team of elites who actually work on special projects. You never know what kind of ‘special projects’ team you’ve been assigned to until you get there!
Another phrase I’ve seen used is ‘promoted to a desk/office nearer the door’.
Soon I will be awake.