DOGE Catch-All

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lawtig02 said:
The actual reason is to avoid oversight.


"Musk is classed as a temporary government employee, with a 130-day cap on his services at the White House. Under that designation, his tenure would conclude at the end of May."
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That and I’ll bet the board is starting to get a bit agitated. Support for his $55 billion payday (he is appealing, isn’t he?) has likely eroded a bit.

DOGE would still be stacked with people who answer to him.
 
StrangePackage said:
So owning a $500 million dollar asset... Is bad.

You know what I'm going to go out on a very sturdy limb and suggest that you actually know nothing about what you're talking about.
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The taxpayers spent $500 million dollars on that asset. I'm going to guess they could have spent $500 million dollars on something else that you and I would both rather see it spent on than a nice building for some diplomats.
 
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gtyellowjacket said:
The taxpayers spent $500 million dollars on that asset. I'm going to guess they could have spent $500 million dollars on something else that you and I would both rather see it spin on than a nice building for some diplomats.
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According to Wikipedia, in 2004 Congress authorized $100 million dollars to build that headquarters. So if it's worth $500 million now, then it in fact made the taxpayers $400 million dollars.

Such waste!
 
BlooVooDoo said:
That and I’ll bet the board is starting to get a bit agitated. Support for his $55 billion payday (he is appealing, isn’t he?) has likely eroded a bit.

DOGE would still be stacked with people who answer to him.
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He is appealing, but Tesla also relocated to Texas. I honestly have never considered the jurisdiction of Delaware courts over companies that were Delaware companies but relocated. If this was a federal claim, the appeal would be rejected as moot (or some similar concept -- there are lots of different ways of saying the same thing on that issue).

You're right that the support is probably waning so maybe that's why they are appealing rather than just putting in a new pay package. I doubt there is anyone in a Texas court or legislature who would block that reinstatement.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
$500 million for that building? Is it promoting peace better than if it had been $50 million? There's just so much waste. It boggles.
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You’ve heard of real estate appreciation ? The little house my dad and friends built in early 50’s might have cost him $2000. Today’s market value is like $250,000. Anyway, the value of this building is neither the question nor the problem. It’s the fact these billionaires are trying to seize a half-billion$ property that they have no right to. That’s graft…”acquisition of gain or advantage by dishonest, unfair or sordid means, especially through the abuse of position or influence in politics…”
 
tarheelbillie said:
You’ve heard of real estate appreciation ? The little house my dad and friends built in early 50’s might have cost him $2000. Today’s market value is like $250,000. Anyway, the value of this building is neither the question nor the problem. It’s the fact theses billionaires are trying to seize a half-billion$ property that they have no right to. That’s graft…”acquisition of gain or advantage by dishonest, unfair or sordid means, especially through the abuse of position or influence in politics…”
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I'm not sure that's right. They're seizing it for the taxpayers. Musk doesn't get to keep it. Now realistically its on the national Mall and it's never going anywhere. They'll put something in there. I doubt they tear it down.

But looking back, it seems like an awfully big number for a lavish architectural project when other office space could have done the job.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
But looking back, it seems like an awfully big number for a lavish architectural project when other office space could have done the job.
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Yeah, who would ever want to spend $500M on peace?

Has it occurred to you that the HQ is part of the project? The point is to attract attention to the cause. What would it say about the US if the institute of peace were shoehorned into a tiny office building somewhere in BFFB (like E except FB is Foggy Bottom)?

This is part of soft power that you don't understand. Tourists from other countries come to the US. Do you know what makes them feel like America is a good country and on their side? A cathedral to peace. We don't house the DoD in a prominent place in DC -- in fact it's not in DC and it's nowhere near anything touristy -- in part because that's not the image we'd like to project. Everyone already knows about the American military, and that's in part the source of global resentment toward America.

It was a $150M project (partly financed privately, meaning that the theft is surely illegal and/or the money would have to be returned). The building has lasted 15 years so far, so even if it doesn't last another minute and it's sold or scrapped for nothing, it's a $10M/yr investment. Plus interest on the loans, which during the past decade was quite low; maybe another couple of mil a year.

Do you think we should nitpick the federal budget so finely that we can't even fund an institute for peace? I mean, come on. How about we make rich people pay the taxes they owe instead?
 
gtyellowjacket said:
I'm not sure that's right. They're seizing it for the taxpayers. Musk doesn't get to keep it. Now realistically its on the national Mall and it's never going anywhere. They'll put something in there. I doubt they tear it down.

But looking back, it seems like an awfully big number for a lavish architectural project when other office space could have done the job.
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You also thought having two air marshals on every domestic flight and four on every international flight was an extraordinary expense that needs to be eliminated, but it turned out you were wrong about that. Maybe there are things about this building you don't know. Certainly the $500 million price tag is not what it cost the taxpayers when it was established.
 
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gtyellowjacket said:
I'm not sure that's right. They're seizing it for the taxpayers. Musk doesn't get to keep it. Now realistically its on the national Mall and it's never going anywhere. They'll put something in there. I doubt they tear it down.

But looking back, it seems like an awfully big number for a lavish architectural project when other office space could have done the job.
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“They're seizing it for the taxpayers”. Time will tell. This is interesting: “The Trump administration is giving federal agencies until mid-April to propose relocations of bureaus and offices out of the D.C. region”. If that happens there is going to a lot of vacant real estate up for grabs… all paid for by taxpayers.
 
The Ministry of Truth—Minitrue, in Newspeak—was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below. Scattered about London there were just three other buildings of similar appearance and size. So completely did they dwarf the surrounding architecture that from the roof of Victory Mansions you could see all four of them simultaneously. They were the homes of the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided. The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.
 
www.wired.com

Trump and DOGE Defund Program That Boosted American Manufacturing for Decades

President Donald Trump says taxing imports will strengthen domestic manufacturing. Hours before announcing new tariffs, his administration cut support for centers that help US firms do just that.
www.wired.com www.wired.com

President Donald Trump says taxing imports will strengthen domestic manufacturing. Hours before announcing new tariffs, his administration cut support for centers that help US firms do just that.

At the height of the US trade war with Japan in the 1980s, Congress established a nationwide network of organizations to advise small American manufacturers on how to survive and grow in what was then a particularly difficult environment. Decades later, there is now at least one Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) center in all 50 states, and they continue to provide taxpayer-subsidized consulting to thousands of businesses, including makers of ovens, printers, tortillas, and dog food.

But on Tuesday, shortly before the president announced sweeping tariffs on global imports, Trump administration officials informed members of Congress that it was withholding funding for some MEP centers because their work no longer aligns with government priorities.

The Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which administers the program to help manufacturers, emailed lawmakers to say that it would not be paying out nearly $12.9 million that had been due overall this week to MEP centers in 10 states, according to Democratic staff of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology who spoke on on the condition of anonymity.
 

Inside Elon Musk’s Shock-and-Awe Months in the White House​

Trump directed his chief of staff to better manage Musk after complaints arose from his cabinet and aides​


GIFT LINK GIFT 🎁 —> https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy...04?st=W8UaWH&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink

“… After an early March cabinet meeting, where several cabinet secretaries aired grievances about Musk, the president pulled aside chief of staff Susie Wiles and told her to improve relations between the agencies and the man he empowered to cut them.

Wiles needed to manage Musk, Trump said, making it clear that he backed Musk’s government-cutting zeal but sympathized with complaints from his cabinet. Wiles now has two long meetings a week with Musk, people briefed on the meetings said.

Trump was also unhappy when he learned in mid-March that Musk was scheduled to get a briefing on China and secret U.S. war plans at the Pentagon. Publicly, Trump dismissed the report as “fake news.” Privately, he called the potential briefing a conflict of interest given Tesla’s extensive operations in China and was frustrated he didn’t know about it in advance.

… They nevertheless have forged a symbiotic bond. The two men speak daily, often many times, and Musk flits in and out of meetings in the West Wing and Oval Office, where he has walk-in privileges.

… Musk’s influence with Trump is partially powered by his close relationship with Stephen Miller, Trump’s domestic-policy adviser and the architect of the executive orders, and Miller’s wife, Katie, a special government employee who is viewed as one of Musk’s top aides. Katie Miller has been known to invoke Musk’s name and give orders liberally at the White House, to the consternation of other staffers skeptical of her status—like Musk’s—as an unpaid, temporary employee rather than a salaried one.

Musk has an office on the second floor of the White House, but the door is rarely opened, and the lights are never on, with Musk working across the street instead with lieutenants, White House officials said.

… Republicans around the country have learned that Musk is sometimes the easiest way to get ideas in front of Trump. … Lobbyists say it is impossible to get on Musk’s calendar so they create campaigns hoping to reach him on X, in the hopes he might then share the material with Trump. …”
 
NATO countries need to pay their fair share so the US doesn’t have to spend so much. Also, we’re increasing our military spending by 30%.
 
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