Much as I appreciated and felt lifted up by this post, I was even more touched by the presence of Bishop Barber in a video interview I saw yesterday. His love, his active care, his intention and most of all how these qualities elevate him beyond the constraints of physical pain. I am also a person who suffers with a slowly progressing debilitative condition, and I salute Bishop Barber from the bottom of my heart. What a role model for us, our children, our grandchildren, and maybe above all for those weak-spined members of Congress who seem more griven by fear and greed than anything else.
Thank you for your brilliance, your never-ending strength and your enormous compassion to do right for ALL people. You continue to bring hope to us all and I am so grateful. 🙏 Many blessings.
Yes we need to motivate that 90 000 000 folks who did not vote in 2024 to protest peacefully,vote in the midterms and 2028,and day by day stand up for justice for all of us and our planet. Onward TOGETHER!
In an Oval Office send-off today, Trump feted Elon Musk for the role he played in a position of unprecedented access to government data under the auspices of an audit of “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
No doubt, these three ills exist in any human institution as large as the US government. But history and experience have shown that any good faith effort to eliminate abuse in a government that serves hundreds of millions of people requires the kind of care and precision you would expect from a surgeon.
Elon Musk chose a chain saw as the symbol of his pseudo-governmental scam.
DOGE was a scam from the start. It was never a department of the government because Congress played no role in creating it. And it was never about efficiency because it took broad and dramatic action to eliminate whole programs before there was any time to conduct an investigation of potential “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
DOGE is a scam, but its consequences are real. According to research at Boston University, more than 300,000 people have died because of the careless cuts Musk made to the USAID program, decimating US investment in fighting hunger and disease around the world.
During the hour Trump and Musk celebrated themselves in the Oval Office today, 103 more people died.
Our Dean at Yale Divinity School, Greg Sterling, spoke out with moral clarity from the very beginning of these cuts. Here’s an excerpt from what he wrote for MSNBC in February.
Whether a person is American or from another country, whether they live next door or half a world away, whether they are our best friend or a complete stranger, Christianity👉 compels its followers to care for them and to help them. Today, this core Christian value is under threat, not from foreign enemies but from our own government, which has proudly proclaimed that the U.S. Agency for International Development is going into the “wood chipper.”…
While I am not in a position to judge all of the policies or practices of USAID, I do know the agency is charged with caring for vulnerable children throughout the world. The U.S. is — and should be — the largest donor for children in the world. Yet, with the latest announced cuts in federal spending, many of the programs that have helped people in need across the globe are at risk, such as the AIDS relief effort credited with saving 25 million lives, mostly in Africa.
These life-saving and life-sustaining programs were canceled because Elon Musk lied and called them “waste, fraud, and abuse.” 👉His lie meant that children died of malnutrition, diarrhea, and tuberculosis.👉 It meant folks showed up for medical appointments and didn’t receive the ARV drugs they need to stay healthy. Countries around the world 👉are asking what has happened to the United States because they have seen the suffering caused by Musk’s lie about “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
👉We need moral clarity about the lie because it is not going away. Musk’s illegal actions have been halted by courts and protested in the streets. We suspect Musk is departing the Trump regime because his approval rating is lower than Trump’s at 35%.👉 But the lie about “waste, fraud, and abuse” continues in the big, ugly budget bill that is now before the Senate.
Thank you for your tireless work. I do not believe Musk is leaving his role with DOGE. I believe this is a farse, an effort to get him back in good graces with Teslea's Board.
What worries me most is how easy it’s become to rebrand dismantling essential programs as “efficiency.” It’s one thing to talk about rooting out actual waste, but it’s another to cut off access to food, medicine, and basic stability,and then call that reform.
You don’t have to agree with every line in this piece to see the pattern: broad moral claims, vague labels like “abuse,” and very real consequences for people who never had much of a safety net to begin with. When policy decisions start from slogans instead of serious evaluation, the people hit first are always the same.
If this budget passes, it won’t just be about numbers,it’ll be a signal about what kinds of lives this government sees as negotiable.
Much as I appreciated and felt lifted up by this post, I was even more touched by the presence of Bishop Barber in a video interview I saw yesterday. His love, his active care, his intention and most of all how these qualities elevate him beyond the constraints of physical pain. I am also a person who suffers with a slowly progressing debilitative condition, and I salute Bishop Barber from the bottom of my heart. What a role model for us, our children, our grandchildren, and maybe above all for those weak-spined members of Congress who seem more griven by fear and greed than anything else.
Thank you for your brilliance, your never-ending strength and your enormous compassion to do right for ALL people. You continue to bring hope to us all and I am so grateful. 🙏 Many blessings.
Thank you for the work you are doing.
Yes we need to motivate that 90 000 000 folks who did not vote in 2024 to protest peacefully,vote in the midterms and 2028,and day by day stand up for justice for all of us and our planet. Onward TOGETHER!
Mike - Nurse from Quincy,MA
In an Oval Office send-off today, Trump feted Elon Musk for the role he played in a position of unprecedented access to government data under the auspices of an audit of “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
No doubt, these three ills exist in any human institution as large as the US government. But history and experience have shown that any good faith effort to eliminate abuse in a government that serves hundreds of millions of people requires the kind of care and precision you would expect from a surgeon.
Elon Musk chose a chain saw as the symbol of his pseudo-governmental scam.
DOGE was a scam from the start. It was never a department of the government because Congress played no role in creating it. And it was never about efficiency because it took broad and dramatic action to eliminate whole programs before there was any time to conduct an investigation of potential “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
DOGE is a scam, but its consequences are real. According to research at Boston University, more than 300,000 people have died because of the careless cuts Musk made to the USAID program, decimating US investment in fighting hunger and disease around the world.
During the hour Trump and Musk celebrated themselves in the Oval Office today, 103 more people died.
Our Dean at Yale Divinity School, Greg Sterling, spoke out with moral clarity from the very beginning of these cuts. Here’s an excerpt from what he wrote for MSNBC in February.
Whether a person is American or from another country, whether they live next door or half a world away, whether they are our best friend or a complete stranger, Christianity👉 compels its followers to care for them and to help them. Today, this core Christian value is under threat, not from foreign enemies but from our own government, which has proudly proclaimed that the U.S. Agency for International Development is going into the “wood chipper.”…
While I am not in a position to judge all of the policies or practices of USAID, I do know the agency is charged with caring for vulnerable children throughout the world. The U.S. is — and should be — the largest donor for children in the world. Yet, with the latest announced cuts in federal spending, many of the programs that have helped people in need across the globe are at risk, such as the AIDS relief effort credited with saving 25 million lives, mostly in Africa.
These life-saving and life-sustaining programs were canceled because Elon Musk lied and called them “waste, fraud, and abuse.” 👉His lie meant that children died of malnutrition, diarrhea, and tuberculosis.👉 It meant folks showed up for medical appointments and didn’t receive the ARV drugs they need to stay healthy. Countries around the world 👉are asking what has happened to the United States because they have seen the suffering caused by Musk’s lie about “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
👉We need moral clarity about the lie because it is not going away. Musk’s illegal actions have been halted by courts and protested in the streets. We suspect Musk is departing the Trump regime because his approval rating is lower than Trump’s at 35%.👉 But the lie about “waste, fraud, and abuse” continues in the big, ugly budget bill that is now before the Senate.
I deeply appreciate all of you who are doing this work. Based here in DC, I will join you, and bring any and all who will listen, and act.
So grateful for your truth - moral clarity - care.
Thank you for your tireless work. I do not believe Musk is leaving his role with DOGE. I believe this is a farse, an effort to get him back in good graces with Teslea's Board.
Dear Supreme Being (or Whoever is On-call):
Please give loving attention to Rev Barber, we so need to hear his strong and compassionate voice. Thank you.
Thank you Bishop Barber and may the door hit him squarely in the backside and not re-open ever again!
Me too, Thank You🙂 Bishop Barber
My recent post about you: https://open.substack.com/pub/frankkashner132119/p/will-we-just-sit-here-and-die?r=3ibbx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
What worries me most is how easy it’s become to rebrand dismantling essential programs as “efficiency.” It’s one thing to talk about rooting out actual waste, but it’s another to cut off access to food, medicine, and basic stability,and then call that reform.
You don’t have to agree with every line in this piece to see the pattern: broad moral claims, vague labels like “abuse,” and very real consequences for people who never had much of a safety net to begin with. When policy decisions start from slogans instead of serious evaluation, the people hit first are always the same.
If this budget passes, it won’t just be about numbers,it’ll be a signal about what kinds of lives this government sees as negotiable.