Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

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punchbowl.news

2/24/25 ☀️ AM:

IN THIS EDITION Johnson’s task: A tricky budget resolution vote followed by a shutdown fight Medicaid cuts, DOGE chaos makes some Republicans wary Senate
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This is moving well past incompetence and seems like purposely undermining national security. He’s selling out to foreign interests.
 
politicalwire.com

DOGE is the Theranos of Cost-Cutting

Paul Krugman: “It has always been a mistake to trust anyone promising to run the government like a business. Businesses and government agencies have very different objectives, and even genuinely great business leaders often have
politicalwire.com politicalwire.com

“… Now, imagine that a publicly held company were to release a statement about its earnings that was riddled with major errors — with all the errors going in the same direction, making the company’s earnings look better than they are.

What would you conclude? The answer, surely, would be to suspect that the company’s business is going very badly, but that top executives are trying desperately to hide the bad news while they sell off their own shares and possibly loot the company through sweetheart deals and so on.

… In the case of DOGE, it’s pretty clear that Musk is failing more or less comprehensively at his supposed task of saving money by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. But he doesn’t want the public — or, more important, Donald Trump — to figure that out until he’s achieved his real objectives, which seem to involve taking effective control of large parts of the federal governmentb — particularly those parts of the federal government that are trying to regulate his enterprises and those of his tech-bro buddies.

Of course, given the indiscriminate nature of the layoffs he’s been carrying out and the devastating effect they’re having on worker morale, he may end up breaking the federal government rather than taking it over. …”
 
nycfan said:
politicalwire.com

DOGE is the Theranos of Cost-Cutting

Paul Krugman: “It has always been a mistake to trust anyone promising to run the government like a business. Businesses and government agencies have very different objectives, and even genuinely great business leaders often have
politicalwire.com politicalwire.com

“… Now, imagine that a publicly held company were to release a statement about its earnings that was riddled with major errors — with all the errors going in the same direction, making the company’s earnings look better than they are.

What would you conclude? The answer, surely, would be to suspect that the company’s business is going very badly, but that top executives are trying desperately to hide the bad news while they sell off their own shares and possibly loot the company through sweetheart deals and so on.

… In the case of DOGE, it’s pretty clear that Musk is failing more or less comprehensively at his supposed task of saving money by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. But he doesn’t want the public — or, more important, Donald Trump — to figure that out until he’s achieved his real objectives, which seem to involve taking effective control of large parts of the federal governmentb — particularly those parts of the federal government that are trying to regulate his enterprises and those of his tech-bro buddies.

Of course, given the indiscriminate nature of the layoffs he’s been carrying out and the devastating effect they’re having on worker morale, he may end up breaking the federal government rather than taking it over. …”
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Great analogy. I think I’ve even noticed Elon recently trying to speak with a man’s voice.
 
As someone who came from the credit card industry, it would be my wet dream to have my regulator implode. Let the party roll.

I'd love to put some money down on a financial crisis in the next five years.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
You will never convince me that Trump is not a Russian mole.
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Putin began cultivating Trump as a Russian asset back in the early 1990s.

I suspect that Putin recruited Melania as a Russian spy and orchestrated the formation of her relationship with Trump that began in 1998. Keep in mind that Trump actually ran for president in 1999 as the Reform Party candidate.

Putin has been playing the long game for over 25 years...
 
nycfan said:
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“… Farritor, 23, is a former SpaceX intern and University of Nebraska dropout who became famous in the tech world for having been part of a team that decoded an ancient Roman scroll. Kliger, 25, is a deep-state conspiracist on social media who, according to Wired, attended Berkeley and worked for an AI start-up. (He’s also the guy Musk has now installed at the Treasury Department.)

… Finally, on the second Saturday in February, the two IT guys from DOGE shut everyone else out of the payment system entirely. They were now the only people who could even see the payments waiting to be approved. Hardly any of the essential funding promised by Rubio had been processed as of last week.

… But if you step back for a moment, what’s happened at USAID over the past couple of weeks is unfathomable. A $50 billion agency — funded by taxpayers, empowered by Congress and employing something like 11,000 people around the world — is now tightly controlled by a handful of 20-something software engineers who have never worked a day in government. They disregard promises from the American secretary of state while agonized policy experts stand by helplessly. …”

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So is Rubio in on the joke, merely pretending PEPFAR is being funded when he knows otherwise? Or is he so toothless that these techbros outrank him?

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nycfan said:
“… Farritor, 23, is a former SpaceX intern and University of Nebraska dropout who became famous in the tech world for having been part of a team that decoded an ancient Roman scroll. Kliger, 25, is a deep-state conspiracist on social media who, according to Wired, attended Berkeley and worked for an AI start-up. (He’s also the guy Musk has now installed at the Treasury Department.)

… Finally, on the second Saturday in February, the two IT guys from DOGE shut everyone else out of the payment system entirely. They were now the only people who could even see the payments waiting to be approved. Hardly any of the essential funding promised by Rubio had been processed as of last week.

… But if you step back for a moment, what’s happened at USAID over the past couple of weeks is unfathomable. A $50 billion agency — funded by taxpayers, empowered by Congress and employing something like 11,000 people around the world — is now tightly controlled by a handful of 20-something software engineers who have never worked a day in government. They disregard promises from the American secretary of state while agonized policy experts stand by helplessly. …”

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So is Rubio in on the joke, merely pretending PEPFAR is being funded when he knows otherwise? Or is he so toothless that these techbros outrank him?

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I believe the GOP response is: gotta crack a few eggs (let people die) to make an omelette (give uber wealthy people yet another tax break that they don’t need).
 
nycfan said:
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If Rubio actually had a spine he might do something to defend his department and not be seen as a Trump/Musk doormat. But since he has no spine, character, or honor I'm sure he will just look the other way and ignore Musk and his DOGE boys interfering with and mucking up the State Department that Rubio supposedly leads.
 
Seriously, how far will be too far? What will it take for Billy Bob to wake up and see that his country has been reduced to ashes and rubble?
 
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