During a Senate hearing to review the FBI’s FY2026 budget request, Director Kash Patel was forced to admit that, despite the law requiring it, he had no such request ready to review.
This surprising development came during an awkward back-and-forth with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking Democrat and Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees and approves budget requests.
Senator Murray reminded the FBI Director that the budget request was legally required “last week,” and after the director responded, she surprisedly added, “And your answer is you just understand you’re not going to follow the law?”
This is what mediocrity looks like
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.
I’m going to upvote just from the great usage of the word Mendacity
What does “legally required” here mean? I assume there’s supposed to be a punishment?
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.
Maybe it means Kash isn’t the FBI director since he didn’t provide the budget. Whoever provides the budget first wins the title!
Fascists are inefficient.
He’s probably waiting for orders on how to do it, like everyone waiting for Hitler to wake up before countering the Normandy invasion.
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.
I want to say he even habitually hanged/demoted/sent people who woke him to the Eastern Front.
President Xi, I am sending you Trump’s golf schedule by way of TikTok coded message.
Please, President Pooh-Bear, you’re our only hope.
He probably also fired the people who know how to make the budget in the first place.
He’s too busy running his clothing brand Based.
“I thought this was just a meet and greet”
Okay, so $0 for the FBI. Done!
That’s what Trump wants. Take note of the military and ICE budgets, however…
That’s what Trump wants.
It’s win-win. Either Dems don’t sign a blank check, and Trump uses this as an excuse to hand more power to the DHS. Or Dems do sign a blank check, and Trump uses it to fund an FBI dedicated to further dismantling the democratic state.
Right now we are seeing a power struggle between at least two groups of plutocrats in the US.
The FBI is not on Trump’s side. They’re not exactly our friend, but their defunding would give more power to Trump
The FBI is not on Trump’s side.
The director of the FBI is absolutely on Trump’s side. And anyone downstream of him who isn’t is getting weeded out.
His name is Kash but he doesn’t have any…
Can’t imagine how you’d expect an idiot like Kash Patel to do anything right at all.
His name is Kash but he doesn’t have any…
I wonder if they’re advising agency heads to do this so they can fuck with the budget for their wealthy tax break bill?
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.
People need to drop the “they’re incompetent” shtick if they beat you every time. Because if you get beat by people you think are incompetent, what does that make you?
It implies nothing because it is not competence that is evaluated here.
Republicans beat Democrats because:
#1 A sizeable core of the American demographic cannot tell the difference between their elbow and a chair (too stupid) and are fearful of their own shadow
#2 The alternative, the Democrats, are almost as incompetent as the Republicans making the distinction moot.
The side that isn’t willing to shoot up schools
You can be great at one thing and an idiot at everything else.
In the photo, the fucker looks like a little kid who didn’t do his homework and got caught in the lie.
Hardly the brightest and the best.
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
I’m going to guess drugs or alcohol.
My dog ate the budget!
Reminds me of the Office: “I thought this was a meet and greet”.
Exactly what I immediately thought of.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/06a73aad-0ef6-4664-8247-25c19d84cae9
Well this doesn’t boad well for the branch.
You let’s Tusli get away with her shit, maybe I should have fucked her too!
He’s moving the FBI to Kash accounting.
Hold him contempt or stop clutching your pearls.
I’m sure Schumer will move quickly to form a search committee to form a task force with plans to complete a strongly worded letter by late 2027.
After a prolonged investigation taking many months and costing the taxpayer millions, the search committee regretfully concludes that they have been unable to find their balls.
that strongly worded letter will contain upwards of 12 strong questions. that way you’ll know he’s taking this serious
He’s super-cereal!
As opposed to what? Asking DOJ to issue a warrant for the director of the FBI?
Why would any of Trump’s administration care? None of them have been held accountable for anything, except to Trump.
The only people held to account in the US are the poor, disabled and non white.
They aren’t even held to account, they’re mostly abused for trying to survive the abuse.
Hey us poor whites get screwed over too! It’s not a race war (only) - it’s a class war.
Yea and you’re included in the use of the term Poor. Your education system has failed you and your society has blinded you.
yeah, Trump was accountable af, given that he ia now thw president again
I meant his henchmen are accountable only to Trump, not that Trump was the only one held accountable.
my bad
The fucking clownshow continues.
This is you going in to your Professor’s office hours to ostensibly turn in your final paper for a course, it is half your grade in the class, and you actually just sit down and explain you are ‘still working on it’ and ‘can i get it to you maybe by the end of next academic quarter?’
I am honestly so, so relieved by this high level public idiocy.
I really am not kidding.
I’ve struggled with impostor syndrome much of my life.
All gone. Done. No more.
I am legitimately more competent than almost everyone in this administration at their own jobs, despite the fact that I hardly have any relevant credentials to most of their positions.
…yeah. Honestly, this is simultaneously disturbing and encouraging.
On one hand, Random Joe is more competent than Trump Regime officials. On the other, Rebellious Joe is more competent than Fascist officials. It is weird for the venn diagram to be a circle like this.
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.
I think we might have a Anacyclosis situation going on here. It is an hypothesis that posits that civilizations are like animals - they are born, mature, age, die, and replaced by their children. Hopefully, you, I, and others who suffer from the Regime, will recreate the United States into something worthy of pride.
Oh my God…it’s not resting bitch face I’m just thinking… When I read that sentence I was like okay I totally get this person’s reality. I’m so tired of hearing smile more
It is why I wear a mask all the time now. I don’t have to remember how to emote correctly, which is very helpful since I am autistic.
EDIT: Wow, my internet dropped or something as I was posting this, duplicated a few times, and my clipboard has now just lost the text I tried to copy paste out of it… derp.
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Yep that’s my experience too…Once people realize ilmy face does not = my emotional state, things are better.
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This has been my experience… forever.
Not autistic, but light sensitivity, tinnitus and chronic pain make me look angry basically all of the time. And since I’ve had all of those since I was a kid, I’ve been hearing variations of “what’s wrong”, “are you OK” and “are you angry” for the past 45 or so years.
I now just describe it as resting bitch face and let people do with that as they will.
Also, “empaths” fucking suck. Spare me your vast insights gleaned from dodgy authors. I just don’t care.
… And I am saving this comment, as you have well voiced the madness of all of this experienced in particular by high-functioning / highly-intelligent Autistic children.
A short summary of how Ive felt much of my life would be: constantly being mocked and belittled by hypocritical idiots who are too stupid to realize they are hypocritical and have totally logically inconsistent worldviews, and inconsistent applications of them… as well as just that they are idiots in the sense of just being objectively wrong about most things.
…
Yeah, it is quite cathartic to realize that masses of the general public are themselves, and voted into power officials who… are just literally schoolyard bullies, absurd, malignant, anti-social narcissists who literally cannot concieve that they could ever have any flaws or ever be in error, who are actually incapable of empathy, of mirroring emotions of others experiencing or describing something that did not happen to them personally.
…
I no longer mask.
There is no point, and it is too exhausting to be expected to be some kind of mind reader.
If people can’t actually succinctly verbalize their thoughts, or express them in writing, that’s their problem, not mine.
Just say what you actually mean.
Use your words, and know what those words actually mean.
I am done learning how to be an interpreter for every different person I meet.
Idiots and the uninformed love bullies, they assume they must be bullying people that deserve it, instead of just whoever makes them feel stronger.
In fairness, neither do they.
My work involves emptying dog shit bins in public parks, and I’m also pretty sure I could do a better job than this guy. We could swap roles - except that I couldn’t bring myself to kiss trump’s flaccid saggy butt. I’ll stick with the dogshit bins - I’ve got standards.
The “education” system is almost entirely based on privilege and indoctrination. Politicians are the cream of the crop.
Don’t sell yourself short. I bet you’re more competent than everyone in this administration.
I am only hesitant to agree because:
1: I have terrible social anxiety (yay autism and trauma)
2: I assume, at least, some of them are competent people… at… at least something.
That being said, I also cannot think of a single one who falls into category 2.
Hrmm.
Peter Thiel might be the most competent of the bunch. He built the Palantir surveillance network, and seems content being in the distant background while the other oligarchs act in the open. Hopefully, he isn’t forgotten if we have a French Revolution.
You can recognise your own weaknesses, that already makes you more competent than most government officials in most countries.
Not only are you personally more competant than anyone in this administration, but you’re also not a Nazi (I’d imagine), which alone already makes you better than any Republican politician.
The fact that you think you might not be competant at the job is one of the things that makes you more competant (because you actually think before you act/speak).
Its the age old problem of government:
Anyone who strongly desires to be in a position of power likely is not the kind of person you would want in a position of power.
I appreciate you saying that though. =D
Impostor syndrome is basically the inverse of the Dunning Kruger effect, as it is known in popular culture.
If you actually read the actual studies by Dunning and Kruger, and subsequent work based off of it:
Idiots consistently wildly overestimate their correctness.
… But people who actually are quite correct, quite competent… well they actually tend to self evaluate themselves as somewhat less competent than they actually are.
Because humility and a fundamental idea of ‘i could be wrong’ are foundational to a rigourous system of critical thinking that can actually allow for that true, detailed knowledge to be gained.
So, ironically, Dunning Kruger effect also describes more or less impostor syndrome, its just that that isn’t the aspect of those kinds of studies that pop culture focuses on…
So we now have a situation where understanding of the ‘Dunning Kruger effect’ itself is subject to the ‘Dunning Kruger effect.’
There are a couple evil yet competent people in the administration. Russell Vought is one, a hire direct from the Heritage Foundation. Another is Stephen Miller. Heritage seems to be full of actually competent yet completely evil men. But I guess that what happens when a majority of your funding comes from oil, gas, and now tech barons.
I’m so tired of the theatrical outrage and shock and surprise. Of fucking course they’re working in bad faith. But no - let’s give all the fucking fascists the benefit of the doubt. You’re not allowed to be fucking surprised by this. It was all in the playbook. The playbook has been published openly on the internet since early 2020.
I doubt a single one of our Democratic party elected officials actually sat down and read all of Project 2025.
Don’t you remember all the stuff that Biden did to prevent this? \s
I think some of the young progressives probably did, but I still think the count is probably in the single digits.
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.
It’s not Putin. Plenty of home grown idiocy in the US. At the most, the Trump admin is a loosely bribed bunch of useful idiots.
Of course it’s Putin, and denying it marks you as an unserious person.
America (amd the Democratic world) has been at war with Russia since 1918, whether you want to admit it or not. This was an unarguable fact by EVERYONE ON THE PLANET for the entire 20th century. It was only when HitlerPig came along with his close ties to Putin that it became a controversial opinion.
Grow up and get some Critical Thinking Skills.
Lib qanon.
Except that its all documented history. Just because its a conspiracy doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Plenty of conspiracies have been true, and Russia’s long-term targeting of America has long been documented. It’s not like it’s a secret.
Trump has had an ongoing relationship with Russia going back to the Soviet days. He’s a filthy traitor, and the Putin and Skum aren’t even American. The only people who are denying it are idiotic MAGA Nazi traitors.
I feel like, if this were true, wtf are literally all the other countries’ intelligence and agencies doing to prevent such a thing?
I’d like to think China, while mostly on Russia’s side, would not want Putin having control over the U.S.
ofc most of NATO wouldn’t want that either.
Is every other country incompetent, complicit, or is the U.S. just becoming its own oligarchy?
The US was warned about Russian influence before Trump’s 2016 election by intelligence agencies in Great Britain, Germany, Canada, France, Estonia, Poland, and Australia- and those are just the ones that spoke out publicly.
They were called “fake news” and “DNC operatives.”
Don’t pretend the rest of the world was surprised by this.
Well, I’m glad they spoke out publicly. Maybe they (World Governments) can put in a bit more elbow grease next time to prevent one of the world’s largest militaries from being bought by an authoritarian country at discount prices.
The CIA can destabilize governments across the world.
Russia can take over U.S. “Democracy” right in front of the world.
I guess nobody has inside men anymore. Does Germany, France, Britian not have a CIA of their own?
My point is that these World Governments have kinda gotten soft if this is where we’re at. Hell, the fact that Ukraine is still at war and not being physically backed is proof enough (though stepping in w/ Russia holding U.S. means that ship has sailed).
So… the fault lies with rest of the world who should have worked harder to save the US from itself while Americans plugged their ears and gave them the finger?
Just typical American exceptionalism.
Oh they’re exceptional, all right
I mean, the fault lies with everybody - as we’ve expressed, the writing was on the wall the whole time.
I don’t expect the ignorant children to prevent the adults from driving the car off the bridge (that’s a metaphor for most Americans).
Are you proposing more election interference…?
I mean…if it prevents a fascist takeover…
I think respecting another country’s sovereignty is better.
china is frenemies with russia, they are definitely not on thier side. China does have russia by the balls though, since they bought up some of siberia.
