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.
 
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