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A generic Lemmy server for everyone to use. https://lemmy.world

Senator says Bukele staged margaritas at Abrego Garcia meeting, wanted it by pool

submitted by https://lemmy.world/u/MicroWave

The New York Times reported that one of Bukele’s aides planted the tropical-looking drinks on the table to make it look like Abrego Garcia was living large. Van Hollen confirmed this on Friday. “This is a lesson into the lengths that President Bukele will go to deceive people about what’s going on,” he said, “and it also shows the lengths that the Trump administration and the president will go to, because when he was asked … about this, he just went along for the ride.”

Van Hollen added that Bukele’s government wanted the meeting to take place by a pool: “They actually wanted to have the meeting [take place] by the side of the pool in the hotel,” he said. “This is a guy who’s been in CECOT. This is a guy who has been detained. They want to create this appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmar, which, of course, is a big fat lie.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/chris-van-hollen-meeting-kilmar-abrego-garcia-1235321088/

https://lemmy.world/post/28433704

Elon Musk’s handpicked IRS chief lasts just 72 hours

submitted by https://lemmy.world/u/MicroWave

Summary

Gary Shapley, best known for blowing the whistle on Hunter Biden, was forced out as acting commissioner of the IRS after just 72 hours.

Sources said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “complained” to Donald Trump that Shapley was “installed without his knowledge” and “at the behest of billionaire Elon Musk.”

Bessent claimed Musk and his DOGE acolytes had “done an end run around him.”

The Times does not list any specific actions that led to him getting sacked. Shapley will remain at the IRS as a senior official in its criminal investigation division.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musks-handpicked-irs-chief-gary-shapley-lasts-just-72-hours/

https://lemmy.world/post/28422642

Al Sharpton calls meeting with Target's CEO amid DEI backlash 'very constructive and candid'

submitted by https://lemmy.world/u/inclementimmigrant

Still, this is a case of too little, should not have done it in the first place.

https://apnews.com/article/target-al-sharpton-dei-520dbc23cd668b57b3bfef76d1bc7cdd

https://lemmy.world/post/28422609

‘The platform where bot farms are still effective’ How Russia is leveraging TikTok's algorithm to try to warp public opinion in Ukraine

submitted by https://slrpnk.net/u/Five

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/04/16/the-platform-where-bot-farms-are-still-effective

https://lemmy.world/post/28422395

Elon Musk decimated the government and saved almost nothing

submitted by https://lemmy.world/u/MicroWave

Summary

$150 billion: that’s the grand total of savings Elon Musk revealed last Thursday that he and his DOGE team are expecting to make after months of ruthless and often mindless cuts.

To call this a monumentally unimpressive number doesn’t do it justice. Musk’s “savings” here — which are already error-ridden and inflated in the first place, created by totaling up spending that never actually existed or that was, alternately, either already cut or never actually was — represent just 15% of the trillion dollars he originally promised he would slash

In fact, government spending so far under Donald Trump has actually gone up compared to the last two years under Joe Biden.

“Musk will have effectively crippled the modern American state and ripped vital services away from ordinary Americans in order to pay for more waste at the Pentagon.”

https://jacobin.com/2025/04/musk-doge-savings-austerity-spending

https://lemmy.world/post/28389818