Has Musk committed crimes yet? He is just starting.
Sheeesh, what are your "news" sources? Musk does not have the legal authority to fire civil servants, to shut down an entire agency funded by Congress, and to seize highly sensitive and protected personal info on tens of millions of federal employees, contractors and other payees.
Did you complain when George Soros donated money to the DNC?
Since it appears that unelected, South-African-born billionaire Elon Musk is effectively running the country, I’d like to have a quick word with all the right-wing conspiracy theorists out there.
Hey, guys. Do you remember how you spent forever babbling on and on about shadowy billionaires trying to implement a totalitarian government and bring about “a new world order” and such?
I mean, the whole “fear of monied elites” has kind of been your bag for as long as I can remember. Conspiratorial loudmouth Rush Limbaugh painted liberal billionaire George Soros as a puppet master controlling then-President Barack Obama. And Republicans refer to liberals as “rich coastal elites” so often they probably repeat it in their sleep.
So I guess my question is: Why are all you conspiracy theorists so quiet right now? I mean, you’ve FINALLY got an actual elitist billionaire taking control of the government – the thing you’ve always predicted and railed against – and all I’m hearing are non-conspiratorial crickets....
I mean, if President Joe Biden had brought Soros into the government as an “efficiency expert” and let him have access to federal government data, Republicans would have impeached Biden instantly. They would have set the White House on fire using the flames erupting from the heads of Fox News hosts.
The only difference I can see here is that Musk isn’t … ohhhhhh, wait a minute. I get it. He’s not Jewish. I forgot your whole thing has to be antisemitic. My bad....
I get it now, far-right conspiracist theorist. Your long-standing fear that wealthy elites were plotting to fundamentally change your way of life was just a bunch of crap. Neat.
Enjoy life under Musk’s new world order.
Worth reading the whole thing instead of just my excerpts.
“The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
-- Howard Zinn, 2004
1312. ETTD
Intentional misgendering? If so, that's childish and bigoted, not funny.
Last edited by Vrede too on Tue Feb 04, 2025 12:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
“The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
-- Howard Zinn, 2004
1312. ETTD
Well, I think welfare can be streamlined. Weed out the people who are abusing the system and cut them off entirely. That supports your suggestion to review government programs and make necessary adjustments if necessary.
What year do you think it is? I guess cons never can shed outdated whining points. "welfare" was slashed decades ago, and its remnants largely support kids. That's who you want to cut "off entirely." Yuck.
“The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
-- Howard Zinn, 2004
1312. ETTD
Well, I think welfare can be streamlined. Weed out the people who are abusing the system and cut them off entirely. That supports your suggestion to review government programs and make necessary adjustments if necessary.
Also, paying living wages and Universal Healthcare (which would actually be beneficial to the GDP) would eliminate a huge, huge portion of the social net.
Eamus Catuli~AC 000000000101010202020303010304 020405....Ahhhh, forget it, it's gonna be a while.
All the reports I have seen indicate that only dangerous illegals will be housed there.
Same here, along with being ones that their home countries don't want back. If we're talking 30K out of a planned millions to be deported, some screen must be applied.
It may be moot now that El Salvador, also a RW government, has offered to take any of our deportees from any home country, including US citizens. It says that the fees will be less than the cost of US incarceration, and much less than the cost of Gitmo. Of course, this may break several international treaties and US law, but the DonOLD criminal enterprise has shown that it doesn't care about such details.
“The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
-- Howard Zinn, 2004
1312. ETTD
All the reports I have seen indicate that only dangerous illegals will be housed there.
Same here, along with being ones that their home countries don't want back. If we're talking 30K out of a planned millions to be deported, some screen must be applied.
It may be moot now that El Salvador, also a RW government, has offered to take any of our deportees from any home country, including US citizens. It says that the fees will be less than the cost of US incarceration, and much less than the cost of Gitmo. Of course, this may break several international treaties and US law, but the DonOLD criminal enterprise has shown that it doesn't care about such details.
I did see another report that clarifies the situation at Gitmo. The bad guys are housed in the high security section.
Those awaiting transfer to home or other countries are detained in a less secure section. It was reported this is the section Clinton used with the Haitian crisis during his term.
Well, I think welfare can be streamlined. Weed out the people who are abusing the system and cut them off entirely. That supports your suggestion to review government programs and make necessary adjustments if necessary.
What year do you think it is? I guess cons never can shed outdated whining points. "welfare" was slashed decades ago, and its remnants largely support kids. That's who you want to cut "off entirely." Yuck.
"Welfare fraud" does still exist, despite no programs currently being like "going on welfare," but it's not nearly as frequent as some believe. Sometime in the past, somebody has seen (or heard about) a "welfare Cadillac" or somebody buying beer with "food stamps" and forever more they can say "see, I told you so - total waste of tax money."
Well, I think welfare can be streamlined. Weed out the people who are abusing the system and cut them off entirely. That supports your suggestion to review government programs and make necessary adjustments if necessary.
Sure. Weed 'em out. Have you seen evidence that program administrators don't do that? I'm pretty sure they'd have something similar in Hawaii, but in LA they've got a Welfare Fraud Prevention and Investigations Section that works pretty hard at it. https://dpss.lacounty.gov/en/resources/wfpi.html And an anonymous hotline where people can turn in their neighbors if they think they're committing fraud. And in addition to the county agency, there's a California state agency working exclusively on fraud prevention. Do they get 100% of those who try to commit fraud? No, but they're definitely not ignoring fraud or refusing to enforce. What else would you like them to do?
The difference is, Griner was in Russia legally. (I suspect he was detained for political reasons, as a way to negotiate an exchange.)
That's neither the point nor a difference. She was accused of committing a crime while being a foreign non-citizen. According to your logic, doesn't that give Russia the right to abuse her?
Way back in the dark ages, I worked for ITT (when there was still an ITT) Harold Geneen, who was CEO/Chairman at the time was somewhat a Trump except smarter. I spent much of my time with them in travel, getting various subsidiaries out of trouble with the feds or enforcing some corporate practice. But my "office" was at headquarters 320 Park. Geneen was known to drop entire departments and I'd return to find an empty space where workers were a week or so ago. On a couple of occasions, they moved my office while I was gone. Geneen's plan was to buy up a bunch of companies, strip them down, cutting costs at any price, then either run them into the ground or sell them off a some fire sale after sucking all the profits out. And it worked pretty well for ITT for a while - not so well for the companies acquired, though. Anyway, like most other Ponzi schemes, ITT eventually crashed and burned.
Point here is that Trump, through Doggie, is taking the same approach to essential government services. Cut them down, deny resources, then dump them because they're not "productive" enough. Others have tried this model, and it never works out long term. Musk still thinks he did well with Twitter, and is trying the same thing with the government. Not likely to have a happy ending.
Not sure if this was already discussed, or even been determined, but how is Musk and his team actually identifying "fraud"? I find it hard to believe someone can come in, examine a dataset as large and as complex as some of the items they've been examining, and be able to immediately ID suspected fraud. A couple of us here work in tech, and I can tell you it's no simple matter figuring out how a complex system works when you come in fresh.
I wonder how many items falsely ID'd as "fraud" are going to have real world implications for real life people. Items that weren't actually fraud, but just sorta "felt" like it.
Wouldn't auditing federal systems be the job instead of those with expertise in the matter? Isn't this the job of the GAO, which is an independent entity, and the Inspector Generals that Trump canned?
I think supporters of Musk's actions think it's like some superhero flick where the hacker man taps a bunch of random, near indecipherable, commands on a black screen in a dimly lit room like the matrix or something.
Feels like the question of "how" is completely glossed over.
^ Department Of Unauthorized Crazy Hateful Eviscerations ^
“The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
-- Howard Zinn, 2004
1312. ETTD
Not sure if this was already discussed, or even been determined, but how is Musk and his team actually identifying "fraud"? I find it hard to believe someone can come in, examine a dataset as large and as complex as some of the items they've been examining, and be able to immediately ID suspected fraud. A couple of us here work in tech, and I can tell you it's no simple matter figuring out how a complex system works when you come in fresh.
I wonder how many items falsely ID'd as "fraud" are going to have real world implications for real life people. Items that weren't actually fraud, but just sorta "felt" like it.
Wouldn't auditing federal systems be the job instead of those with expertise in the matter? Isn't this the job of the GAO, which is an independent entity, and the Inspector Generals that Trump canned?
I think supporters of Musk's actions think it's like some superhero flick where the hacker man taps a bunch of random, near indecipherable, commands on a black screen in a dimly lit room like the matrix or something.
Feels like the question of "how" is completely glossed over.
Trust us bro - DOGE
Like I said the other day....it's like Twilight Zone shit. And the cult gushes in awe. Incredible.
... Instead of gutting education and health agencies, the First Buddy and his DOGE lackeys could spare us all the noise and drawn-out drama by simply cutting off the US's exorbitant, multi-trillion dollar nuclear weapons program.
As The Scientific American opines, this would almost single-handedly achieve Musk's promise that he'd shave $2 trillion off in federal spending.
... Apparently, it's stuff like DEI initiatives that are the real menace, which is what DOGE is deciding to focus on. Maybe someone should tell Musk that nuclear weapons are woke.
“The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
-- Howard Zinn, 2004
1312. ETTD