‘You have no timeline?!’ Senator gobsmacked by FBI director Kash Patel showing up at budget hearing without a budget

Its not tin-foil hat, it's Putin. Its always Putin, using Skum and HitlerPig as his muscle.

When will people truly internalize that the two biggest foreign Sociopathic Oligarchs, have partnered up with the most prolific traitor in American history? None of them have any loyalty or patriotism toward America, and only see us as a big, rich, fat, lazy target to be ruthlessly exploited and looted, and it's happening in real time before our eyes.

All they care about is money, and either Putin is paying them directly out of the Russian Treasury (HitlerPig would rape and murder his own mother for far less than a billion bucks, and Putin could order a lot more than that), or they've cut a deal to split the booty like the pirates they are.

When it's not working, it's working.

I doubt a single one of our Democratic party elected officials actually sat down and read all of Project 2025.

Don't sell yourself short. I bet you're more competent than everyone in this administration.

I'm saving your comment because this was my exact experience, too, and I'm glad to see this silver lining occurred for others.

These people truly are mentally children, running around playing grown-up. Meanwhile, when I was an actual child, I was expected to be held to the same standards as grown-ups by Boomer parents (and as you likely know, autism + adults not explaining their social expectations = very difficult childhood.)

It's been a trip to see high-level government absolutely sucking at skills that I struggled with for ages, skills that I have been made to feel bad about for lacking. I work harder any day that I go out into public, even if it's my day off, than any of these privileged losers ever seem to. I have to be extremely mindful of myself - my posture, my tone of voice, my volume, my face (can't have resting bitch face), on top of whatever other tasks I have to do, every second of every minute that I'm around other people. I'm also expected to be aware of and mindful of the feelings of those around me, so I have to also accurately rate their posture, tone, etc. Fail any of these things, and anything I say or do has a chance of being misinterpreted poorly. It's fucking exhausting, and I wish there were more understanding and acceptance that allowed us to relax.

These are part of a whole set of skills - situational awareness, social awareness, self awareness - that the modern GOP appears to completely lack. They were raised without needing to apply them, and we can see evidence of their privileged backgrounds whenever they pull some tone-deaf stunt and still expect approval. Whenever I'm feeling down, I can remind myself that I may not be perfect, but at least I'm not as out-of-touch as they are.

The only people held to account in the US are the poor, disabled and non white.

yeah, Trump was accountable af, given that he ia now thw president again

No, they get a contigency budget of 20 bucks and this pallet of expired lunchables.

Does that mean they won't be able to notice people organizing against the Trump administration? Or is ICE the new FBI (do they have the capabilities)?

And when Hitler woke up his first order was for breakfast and he chilled a bit before finally having his meeting. He misread the situation so fucking bad it is a miracle that even the enlisted men guarding him didn't scream at his face.

BTW. The Allies took into account Hitler's sleeping habits when timing their invasion. No joke.

You are thinking of someone else, this is the guy who writes deranged children's books where Trump is the king.

I feel like he always looks like that. He always looks like he's guilty and looking for an exit or coming up with the next lie. I can't imagine living like that

That's what Trump wants. Take note of the military and ICE budgets, however..

It's actually a worse idea. There will still be, nominally, federal control, centralized in him. Other than that, every local and state FBI branch will act as, effectively, a terror cell - they work their own leads, make their own arrests on their own recognizance, and generally conduct business as they see fit. This makes for an incredibly dangerous form of secret police - they have no leaders above the local level, no real command and control, and they're all tasked with only one thing: make less crime.

Imagine the Cheka, but they're organized like al-Qaeda.

Mendacity.

He knew. He didn't care. He just put out his hand and dared the Senate not to give him a blank check.

And he's going to get that check, because Democrats more are terrified of looking obstructionist than of looking like they can govern.

No, I think he's that dumb. Look at the lies the Bush Jr. team came up with before the Iraq invasion. Those were great lies; handcrafted with Old World dedication and aged in oak barrels until they were perfect.

These clowns are just incompetent.

I've not read the laws, nor am I a lawyer, but I suspect that the budget laws say something like "The [FBI] shall provide a budget by [date]", but there is no following section attaching a penalty as there are in criminal laws, so there is likely no recourse.

I imagine that this is the same as when you don't have that report ready for the big meeting, or skipped out early before your end-of-shift duties were done: a reprimand from your boss and potentially getting fired.... but his boss is, I think, Pam Bondi, the AG, in this case.

Theoretically Kash could be impeached or censured, as could Pam if she doesn't act. But we know how well that will go. Until then, his inaction is illegal, but unlike some of trumps actions, which can be stayed or reversed via court, I don't think you can stay inaction.