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Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

  • Thread starter Thread starter nycfan
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Musk team’s push to gut federal workforce bypassed key Trump officials​

Billionaire Elon Musk has worked behind the scenes on an initiative aimed at depleting the civil service, prompting questions about its legality.


“Billionaire Elon Musk’s influence over a traditionally nonpartisan agency that oversees the federal workforce culminated in the government’s stunning proposal Tuesday offering employees an inducement to resign, according to four people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal talks.

The proposal, emailed late in the day to many of the nation’s 2.3 million federal workers, blindsided some advisers to President Donald Trump, including officials in the budget office and agencies that typically would be consulted in advance of such monumental changes to personnel and spending policies, the people said.

Since Trump took office, Musk has moved quickly to exert control over the Office of Personnel Management, the small independent agency that acts as a kind of human resources department for the federal government, issuing policy for agencies to implement.

Musk personally visited the OPM’s offices Friday, and several of his longtime surrogates — including Anthony Armstrong, who helped Musk buy Twitter; Brian Bjelde, who ran human resources for Musk’s firm SpaceX; and Amanda Scales, who worked at Musk’s artificial intelligence firm, xAI — have been installed in senior leadership roles at its offices in downtown Washington, the people said. …”
 

Fetterman: RFK Jr.’s nomination in trouble after rocky hearing​



“Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who was thought to be open to voting for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services, now says the nominee is in serious trouble after his rocky confirmation hearing.

“I don’t think it went well for him today. I don’t think that was a good one,” he said after Kennedy sparred with Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee over his past statements and stance on vaccines.

… Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), one of the Democrats who grilled Kennedy at his hearing Wednesday, asked him pointedly about his comments on a podcast that exposure to pesticides could be causing more children to identify as transgender.

… RFJ[sic], Jr.’s nomination will be voted on by the Senate Finance Committee, but before that happens, he will appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for a second round of questioning Thursday. …”
 
AP:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. struggles to answer questions on Medicare and Medicaid at confirmation hearing​


apnews.com

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. struggles to answer questions on Medicare and Medicaid at confirmation hearing

If approved, Kennedy will control a $1.7 trillion agency that oversees food and hospital inspections, hundreds of health clinics, vaccine recommendations and health insurance for roughly half the country.
apnews.com apnews.com

FOX News:

'Dems look unhinged': Conservatives rally around RFK Jr's 'masterclass' confirmation hearing performance​

No Republicans appeared to oppose Kennedy's confirmation in Wednesday's hearing​

'Dems look unhinged': Conservatives rally around RFK Jr's 'masterclass' confirmation hearing performance | Fox News

No Republicans appeared to oppose Kennedy's confirmation in Wednesday's hearing
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com

NY POST (opinion):

Charlatan RFK Jr. lies his way through senate hearing​


“… And, as you might expect of any Kennedy, his answers were full of obfuscations, half-truths, and outright lies. …”

nypost.com

Charlatan RFK Jr. lies his way through senate hearing

As you might expect of any Kennedy, his answers were full of obfuscations, half-truths, and outright lies.
nypost.com nypost.com

Politico (opinion):

Watching RFK Jr. in the Senate Was Personally Painful​

I worked for his father. He never would have been so slippery.


“… There was another aspect of Kennedy’s mindset that was painfully absent in the testimony of his son: his sincerity.

At his confirmation hearing Wednesday, again and again, the younger Kennedy simply would not accept the many on-the-record comments from his past: full endorsement of abortion rights (“Every abortion is a tragedy,” he repeatedly recited by rote), constant warnings about the deleterious impact of vaccines (“News reports have claimed that I’m anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither.”), and even comparing the CDC to Nazi death camps (“I don’t believe that I ever compared the CDC to Nazi death camps. I support the CDC,” he said.).

… The contrast between his full-throated previous support for abortion rights as solely a woman’s choice and the position of his potential boss, Donald Trump, is so stark that the only answer would have been for Kennedy to say something like: “I want to run the Department of Health and Human Services and turn my health care views into policy, so I will completely put aside my views on abortion and follow the views of the president.” That would have had the virtue of honesty, but it was apparently a bridge too far. …
 
StrangePackage said:
You and GT actually may be dumb enough to not see the difference in those videos, but that does not mean the rest of us are.

Or you're a Nazi apologist.

Which is it?
Click to expand...
Or you may be dumb enough to see a significant difference when there isn't one.

The difference I saw is that Elon specifically said "My heart goes out to you" after doing the motion.
 
ZenMode said:
Or you may be dumb enough to see a significant difference when there isn't one.

The difference I saw is that Elon specifically said "My heart goes out to you" after doing the motion.
Click to expand...
So if I have this right the excuses have gone from him being autistic and enthusiatic, to it being a different type of salute, to all politicians do this, to him saying that his heart goes out to people - which is an expression he has used before with an entirely different non Nazi gesture.

All I have to say is if I ever see anybody say that their heart goes out to me and they do that gesture, I too will immediately say that I'm not doing what I'm about to do.
 
StrangePackage said:
So if I have this right the excuses have gone from him being autistic and enthusiatic, to it being a different type of salute, to all politicians do this, to him saying that his heart goes out to people - which is an expression he has used before with an entirely different non Nazi gesture.

All I have to say is if I ever see anybody say that their heart goes out to me and they do that gesture, I too will immediately say that I'm not doing what I'm about to do.
Click to expand...
I'm not making an excuse for anyone. I'm saying all three made the same gesture, but Elon specifically said "My heart goes out to you" after doing it.
 
StrangePackage said:


Nazi apologists fuck off
Click to expand...

So, you believe that Elon does, or thinks about, the Nazi salute so often in his everyday life, that it just comes out uncontrollably and being in a situation where uttering "My heart goes out to you" made perfect sense, was just a fortunate turn of events?

Do I have that right?
 
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ZenMode said:
So, you believe that Elon does, or thinks about , the Nazi salute so often in his everyday life that it just comes out uncontrollably and being in a situation where uttering "My heart goes out to you" made perfect sense, was a fortunate turn of events?

Do I have that right?
Click to expand...
No, you don't. But that's not terribly surprising given how little you have right.
 
nycfan said:

Musk team’s push to gut federal workforce bypassed key Trump officials​

Billionaire Elon Musk has worked behind the scenes on an initiative aimed at depleting the civil service, prompting questions about its legality.


“Billionaire Elon Musk’s influence over a traditionally nonpartisan agency that oversees the federal workforce culminated in the government’s stunning proposal Tuesday offering employees an inducement to resign, according to four people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal talks.

The proposal, emailed late in the day to many of the nation’s 2.3 million federal workers, blindsided some advisers to President Donald Trump, including officials in the budget office and agencies that typically would be consulted in advance of such monumental changes to personnel and spending policies, the people said.

Since Trump took office, Musk has moved quickly to exert control over the Office of Personnel Management, the small independent agency that acts as a kind of human resources department for the federal government, issuing policy for agencies to implement.

Musk personally visited the OPM’s offices Friday, and several of his longtime surrogates — including Anthony Armstrong, who helped Musk buy Twitter; Brian Bjelde, who ran human resources for Musk’s firm SpaceX; and Amanda Scales, who worked at Musk’s artificial intelligence firm, xAI — have been installed in senior leadership roles at its offices in downtown Washington, the people said. …”
Click to expand...
For those who support Trump because, “he would run government like a business.”
This is absolutely not how to run a successful business. And anyone being honest would agree.
 
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They're everywhere. You can't have a discussion with someone that disagrees with you without one popping up somewhere. Glad a few brave folks on here have the finely tuned radar to be able to spot a Nazi and the walnuts to call them a Nazi on an anonymous message board.
 
Two man landing party, including unidentified Musk rep, arrive at FBI ahead of nominee Patel

www.thedailybeast.com

Now Elon Musk’s SpaceX Buddy Is Going to Help Run the FBI

One former official shared fears of the agency “infusing a one-sided ideology and purging the people who don’t share that viewpoint.”
www.thedailybeast.com www.thedailybeast.com

“… Tom Ferguson, a former agent and aide to Rep. Jim Jordan, has reportedly returned to the agency. He said he was “just going back home to help.” Jordan (R-OH) often claimed that the FBI was a corrupt Joe Biden tool. He famously led a 2023 subcommittee on the apparent “weaponization” of the agency against conservatives and even suggested moving the agency from Washington, D.C., to Alabama to shield against what he saw as liberal politics.

NBC stated that the other new arrival, an individual with links to Trump’s “first buddy” Elon Musk, has not been previously reported and is still currently unidentified. And while it is unclear who actually paved the way for the pair to bag the new gigs, or even what their exact areas of focus will be, the news still adds to fears of an eroding of the FBI’s non-political, non-partisan heritage.

… One former agent, Rob D’Amico, told the publication that the new hires are there to oversee reform. This will include sending headquarters staffers into the field. “That’s absolutely needed,” he said. “Things have gotten too headquarters-centric, and when headquarters is in D.C., the natural thing that happens in D.C. is that things get political.”

…
D’Amico conceded, however, that it is not the usual modus operandi to have people with ties to partisan figures in such areas. “This will have to be done very carefully,” D’Amico said. “How does that chain of command work? You have to be very careful that it doesn’t become like the Russian political officer on a Russian nuclear sub, enforcing party discipline.”

Another shared fears of the agency “infusing a one-sided ideology and purging the people who don’t share that viewpoint.” …”

——
Musk and Trump have their own landing party reps, which is what I had read would happen at a lot of agencies, with the DOGE Commissar being a temporary hire to dodge any Congressional oversight…

Since it hasn’t started yet, we don’t know for sure it’s a purge by reassignment, but that’s what it sounds like.
 
Look. In isolation, I think we could all agree that an overexcited autistic man might do something akin to a nazi salute by accident. But, come on, he's been courting the far right party in Germany, posting a variety of white nationalist related memes on twitter (such as pepe), and making some pretty incendiary comments.

When Steve Bannon (STEVE BANNON) accuses someone of being "racist" and "truly evil," then maybe we acknowledge that that person might just be problematic. Steve Bannon condemns Elon Musk as ‘racist’ and ‘truly evil’
 
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