DOGE Catch-All

[EyeballKid]

If the politicians of this country for the last 30 years hadn't just sat back and willingly watched the largest transfer of wealth in human history take place from the US to the world's looter, that being China, China wouldn't have all the money they are using to spread their influence and build a military they will use to fight the US in any potential future conflict.

Since we are now worried about China, with all of their money, using that money to maximize their influence over world affairs while minimizing the United States, then it would seem logical to me that it is past time for the US to take drastic measures if necessary to minimize the wealth China is gaining at the expense of the US. Agree?

lemme see if I’ve got this right:

—The Trump admin has voluntarily ceded America’s soft power influence across the globe.

—As predicted by anyone with a brain, China is stepping into the void and broadening their soft power across the globe.

—Therefore, instead of reversing course and trying to bolster our position as the “leader of the free world”, we must instead impose global tariffs and attempt to punish China for filling the void we created.

Makes sense.

 

[hedge]

The corrupt politicians have won

For the moment...

 

[Mulberry Heel]

If the politicians of this country for the last 30 years hadn't just sat back and willingly watched the largest transfer of wealth in human history take place from the US to the world's looter, that being China, China wouldn't have all the money they are using to spread their influence and build a military they will use to fight the US in any potential future conflict.

Since we are now worried about China, with all of their money, using that money to maximize their influence over world affairs while minimizing the United States, then it would seem logical to me that it is past time for the US to take drastic measures if necessary to minimize the wealth China is gaining at the expense of the US. Agree?

Not if doing so would wreck the American economy and severely harm Americans as a result. The "transfer of wealth" you're talking about didn't come about because of the government, it came about because the American people - including very large numbers of MAGAs - buy all kinds of products from China because they're much cheaper than if they had been made in the USA. Conservatives love the idea of corporations being unregulated and able to pursue maximum profits in any way they please, and as it turns out once they discovered that they could move their operations to China (and lots of other places) and increase their profits because foreign workers would work for far less pay than American ones they decided to maximize their profits and move. Most businesses aren't going to return to America because it's far more expensive to build things here, not because of government regulations but because American workers won't work for the extremely low pay that workers in China and other places will. Do you think that MAGAs would work for, say, maybe $2 or $3 an hour (at most, in many places it's much less)?

The bottom line is that for your plan to succeed Americans are going to have to be willing to pay higher prices (and in some cases considerably higher prices) for the products they buy, and study after study has shown that the great majority of Americans - including Trumpers - simply don't care where the products they buy are made as long as they're as cheap as possible.

 

[ChileG]

If the politicians of this country for the last 30 years hadn't just sat back and willingly watched the largest transfer of wealth in human history take place from the US to the world's looter, that being China, China wouldn't have all the money they are using to spread their influence and build a military they will use to fight the US in any potential future conflict.

Since we are now worried about China, with all of their money, using that money to maximize their influence over world affairs while minimizing the United States, then it would seem logical to me that it is past time for the US to take drastic measures if necessary to minimize the wealth China is gaining at the expense of the US. Agree?

Drastic measures? Maybe. Dumb measures? No.

 

[ChileG]

It should be shocking to realize the level of waste and fraud that goes on within the government of this country, a country 36 trillion in debt, and we have just scratched the surface. I can see why politicians would love the status quo with their access to trillions of dollars every year to line the pockets of friends, family, and themselves.

But something I just can't understand is how those same wasteful, corrupt, and nonchalant politicians can convince people who, along with their children, will be the ones paying the price for all of this corruption to actually fight against its discovery....at their own peril.

So, Elon has moved on. The corrupt politicians have won in that regard, and they will try to convince their supporters that they have won too but the question is, how many people will be gullible or stupid enough to believe them. If history is any indicator, I would predict a lot.

Nobody had an issue with it when Clinton did it. Maybe the difference was in their methods. Ever consider that?

 

[Zoo_View]

Imagine that something that didn’t work all that well for a private company that maxed out below 8,000 total employees was a failure at government agencies with tens of thousands of employees (about 3 million federal employees in the aggregate) … who could have known?

“……insight into their employees contributions…..”

Most Federal workers are NOT Trump or Elon or Bondi or Hegseth’s “employees.”

They work for the United States of America.

 

[nycfan]

https://www.wired.com/story/fired-doge-staffer-who-is-in-charge/

“…
Two other Musk loyalists, Anthony Armstrong and Baris Akis, were present at the “E meeting.” These three men— Armstrong, Akis, and Davis—appeared to be the people in charge, Lavingia claims.

“Steven is basically like a chief of staff or body man when Elon was there,” he says.

Akis, the co-founder and president of venture capital firm Human Capital, is a long-time Musk associate. He is not a US citizen. In February, the Atlantic reported that Trump advisers had prevented Musk from hiring Akis into DOGE because he was born in Turkey, but has a green card. U.S. legal regulations, the Atlantic noted, generally do not allow for non-Americans to be employed by the government.

Lavingia says, however, that Akis was the person who helped bring him into DOGE, messaging let him know that he would be assigned to work at the VA and connecting him with the DOGE team lead for the agency.

Akis did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment and WIRED was not able to review messages between Lavingia and Akis. The Atlantic noted in their February report that Akis also did not respond to their request for comment.

In a live recording with the All-In Podcastearlier this month, Antonio Gracias, another Musk ally and a known DOGE affiliate, appeared to confirm Akis’s presence, and said that “Baris and Emily do the recruiting” for DOGE. (Lavingia could not confirm who the mention of “Emily” referred to in the podcast.)…”