Summary
Elon Musk’s DOGE faces mounting pressure to show achievements amid criticism. Staffers, under pressure from Trump administration officials, seek public relations wins to counter negative headlines.
Cuts to federal offices led to mass layoffs, and efforts to modernize government services have been chaotic. DOGE prioritizes speed over security and protecting sensitive information.
Trump has distanced himself, stating agency chiefs, not Musk, control department cuts, preferring a “scalpel” over a “hatchet” approach. Public opinion has turned against DOGE, with 48% disapproving versus 34% approving, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll.
With limited time before their tenure ends, DOGE officials are desperate to show results.
I suggest Russian roulette, winner is one that finds the hidden present.
Like all his others companies.
- SpaceX has exploding star ships
- StarLink comes with so many ties, that alternatives are highly sought after
- Neural link might already be defunct, I don’t know
- His stake in OpenAI is too complicated to follow
- Tesla has 3 models you could buy, none of them is FSD yet, one is the Cyberstuck, no truck, no robots.
- Boring company was just fluff and BS, since a tunnel that’s only 1 lane wide is a safety nightmare and hyperloop is like the simpisons “monorail” Episode
Maybe at some point in his mid 50ties he should have focused on one thing.
Maybe at some point in his mid 50ties he should have focused on one thing.
He seems to be focused on twitter posting.
yeah don’t follow that
“X marks the Rot”
You don’t have to pretend space x is bad to hate musk. Spacex has done massive leaps for space tech
So much of the criticism focuses on Starship, specifically. Starship has never claimed to be anything other than a test program. Look back into the history of NASA test programs and you’ll fine lots of exploded pieces of rockets. Starship is also moving along a whole lot better than the SLS at a comparable stage of the development track. People bleating about this clearly don’t have a lot of knowledge about rockets and their history.
Safety is somewhat valid. Obviously, exploding rockets over the Gulf of Mexico is not a good thing, but the chances of debris actually hitting a plane are minuscule. See Big Sky Theory, which is the basis for a lot of air traffic policy. It’s just that the aviation industry has extremely tight safety standards, and so they divert planes.
Falcon 9 also exists, and now has a better track record than Soyuz (the previous gold standard). People making these arguments seem to conveniently leave that out.
Now, environmental standards, how Musk is trying to gut NASA and the FAA, and how the company never would have survived without government subsidies? Yes, absolutely focus on those. Also, the fact that SpaceX employees are mostly insulated from their idiot CEO. They’re the real heroes of the company.
In a different Administration, I think SpaceX should be nationalized and run something like the USPS or Amtrak. NASA shouldn’t make their own rockets anymore. They’re really bad at making anything close to cost effective.
SpaceX is not some virtue of musk, he also pollutes heavily, and ignore safety standards to launch all those in texas
They have 95% success rate for landing boosters in a relatively new technology, saving loads in terms of trash and pollution (if that’s even a metric somebody is remotely interested in for space travel).
This is a huge leap. Probably not worth giving Musk credit for, but still.
No, it’s not. But that’s not contrary to my statement
@Fredthefishlord @QuarkVsOdo all his companies basically exist to siphon off government funding that should be going to something more worthy. In the case of SpaceX, look what’s happening to NASA now. And with the Hyperloop, he openly said he promoted that to take attention and money to prevent the development of high speed rail
Yes and no. The engines and upright landing is very good… designing&Testing unbound by yearly grant applications but with “fuck you money” really propelled the industry forward.
But they cut so many corners.
Agreed, I despise Musk as much as any sane person does now, but I just can’t get on board with this prevalent behaviour of indiscriminately trashing everything about a person who you don’t like.
Just be honest! He clearly has played a big part in achieving some spectacular results: Whether you think that was in engineering, or by cunning manipulation all the way up; the fact is SpaceX have achieved feats nobody else has, and I don’t believe it would have happened without Musk.
None of that changes the fact he is a cunt, but dishonesty in criticism only weakens it.
I like this place. If this was in reddit, you giving even a little bit of credit to the man would leave you with -200 and probably banned.
It’s almost like the world is nuanced and not just red vs blue…
In the end, DOGE financial waste will be bigger than any “savings” they produced, but the real costs of their action will be much, much bigger in the end.
Just think of the people who will get killed by hurricanes without a warning because they dismantle NOAA.
Seems like a waste of funds to me
48% disapproving.
He’s destroying our entire government and 52% of Americans think ‘yeah, this is fine’ or ‘yeah, who cares?’
They don’t understand what the people being fired do. There’s no marketing or awareness campaigns for the GSA clerks that keep every government office in the country stocked with chairs; or the mental health nurses that pick up the phone at 2 in the morning.
People think it’s some white guy just golfing while they collect checks.
That’s… an ironic image, to say the least.
It’s okay if little d fucks off and doesn’t really work. He’s rich and therefore, better than you. Worthington’s Law.
I want DOGE to be put to sleep.
imagine this sentence 10 years ago!
rip Kabosu, your alias was not meant to be stained in such a way :(
Dicks out… Er wait.
Nah we can do it for both les go
Or maybe just move to a farm upstate where they can run and play through the fields all day. No one to say “bad doge”, no one to stop from digging homes or chasing squirrels, no one to care when they play on the mud
What’s all the BS they’ve been doing all this time? Is it not winning to crash about like a bull in a china shop wrecking things? What sort of “win” are they looking for? Are they looking for a Death Star shot where the entire country says, “as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.”
These idiots are so drunk on their own Kool aid that everyone in government is useless and corrupt and not actually working and that it’s all a “waste.”
Also that zillions of people are on government support that should not be, nevermind that its people, exactly like Musk, who have run their shitty corpos in such a way that people can’t afford to exist anymore without government assistance.
I mean, technically he is right, there are a ton of people who should not be on government programs, that are, because profit profit profit companies have made life miserable and those people don’t have a choice.
Musk is on government support. He has scores of billions in contracts, loans, subsidies, and incentives.
Ooh traditional American victories included overthrowing a regime in a third world country, there’s one he doesn’t even have to do much to do.
I mean… If it’s about efficiency, wouldn’t the military be the first place to audit?
That’s how we know it was never about auditing or waste.
We have generals from the military asking for less equipment , and then congress ignores them and rubber stamps the contracts of their doners in the Military Industrial Complex.
https://apnews.com/united-states-government-united-states-congress-4416606e329b4c8baa755aad333d73db
If we want to go after real waste in our spending we need to start forcing the rich to make concessions. This becomes more true every year we allow wealth inequality to continue growing.
This is a common misconception. The military isn’t designed to be efficient on the back end. It’s designed to win wars efficiently, which is an entirely different thing. The last time they tried to be “efficient” with the military the 101st ended up doing the world’s fastest ground and air assault on rations because they didn’t have enough food and water. And entire battalions got extremely sick from using local water when they absolutely had to.
When was the last time the US won a war?
Iraq
The last time they tried to be “efficient”
Thus sounds like a cherry picked example.
It also happens to be the last time we actually fought on a full scale level. We haven’t done anything like 2003 since.
I’m not sure what that proves except that whoever tried it last time sounds like a moron.
George W Bush in 2003. And no, it wasn’t just that he was a moron. There were very smart logistics officers working on the problem. It’s an inherent problem. The military normally would much rather over supply an area and write it off after the fighting. Because that means there’s always a pallet of whatever you need and a plane or helicopter to transport it. Trying to meet the exact needs means that when something gets blown up, it’s replacement isn’t even in the right region of the planet.
So to be efficient at blowing shit up you have to accept inefficiency in the back end.
Find the student loan records and erase them!
I mean to say… "Don’t find the student loans records and don’t erase them! Migrants hate that soon much! "
And the trans. Definitely…the trans would haaaaaate that.
More trans people should come out as loan repayment lovers. It would be such a shame to just erase those loans away. And migrant families love paying the loans. Imagine if they had no loans to repay! What would their purpose in life be then with so much money just hanging around all the time.
I thought a cool online name like Big Balls was win enough.
What a get.
Someone should send them an email l to summarize their work from the past week
Taking drugs and fucking shit up are my strengths but I’m not to shabby at sexual harrasment or cheeky wanks at my desk either.
Sounds like you’ve got executive level potential.
Sounds like a perfect candidate to keep!
/s
The funny thing is that Elon Musk is the wealthiest man ever and enough hecklers chanting “no one likes Elon” in a sing song manner would bring him to tears
Turns out the federal government is actually pretty efficient. Who would’ve thought!
Yeah, because they have to account to Republican and Democratic administrations repeatedly. Other than defense spending, which is just allowed to literally not add up…
Every time there’s a World War, a bunch of industries are put under the control of the government in a process called Nationalization, or a “War Economy”…
…this is because it’s highly efficient. This is an excellent argument against free market libertarian types. They don’t put business in charge of government (like is being done now, eg. Privatization) they put the government in charge of business/industry.
My societal dream is that the government would nationalize industries once they reach the monopoly or oligopoly stage. Like, congratulations Comcast/Verizon, you won the game of capitalism. Now move over and let the government actually provide services to the people at a reasonable cost.
But I know this is just a dream.
Honestly I’d prefer that the government set up government corporations to provide basic needs. The private corporations could still operate but they would control the higher end market. The gov. corps. would just make sure basics were affordable, not high quality.
Need a car? The gov corp car is $15,000 brand new and is basic as hell, but it gets the job done.
Need Internet? The gov corp fiber network is mid range speed and connects to everyone. As a bonus for profit corps and but rights to the dumb pipe fiber network that the gov corp set up and off higher speed at a higher price.
Basic clothes, basic toiletries, basic food, etc. you want designer or high end stuff, get it from the for profit corps. But basic necessities should be made at cost by the government for the citizens. It is the job of the government to care for it’s citizens after all.
I mean, the poison is already in your pitch - “private sector gets the high end”. What happens when the government fiber turns out to be faster? What happens when the government cheese is actually better? What happens when the government clothes turn out to be higher quality than the shit we wear today?
What is Verizon going to do? Cry to Congress that they need to go out of their way and pay more to artificially slow down gov fiber. Kellogg will cry free healthy food is ruining demand for overprocessed corn syrup products. If they don’t kill it in the cradle they’re all going to chip away at it, one bit at a time
How about the government produces the basics and the infrastructure, and corporations get fucked? Let small local business take over, and use the infrastructure at cost. Let competition thrive, and we use antitrust like the pro-active protection against oligarchy it was meant to be
I get what you’re saying, but government fiber speeds could be capped, products wouldn’t be high end, ect.
I am by no means an economist, or an expert in these matters, and I apologize if I was presenting as those I was. I just feel like you should put those kind of ideas out there for others to iterate on.
But there’s the root problem - why are you capping the speed at all? Why are you making inferior products?
To leave room for others to make money. That is the taint in the idea… Why do they need to make money if they can’t provide a better service than what the government can do at cost? Or lower even, for the essentials
It’s looking at it backwards. People don’t need to make money - money is the sign that you’re providing value to society. If you can’t beat out the government, which is presumably focused on the things everyone needs, why does someone deserve money for it?
It’s ok if the government becomes the largest food distributor, hopefully that means everyone eats. It’s ok if telcos go out of business, so long as people pay less to get online
Companies should be able to challenge the government, but that doesn’t mean they should be given special privilege - making money is a sign you’re doing something valuable. If you’re carving out room for people to make money you’re doing it wrong
I have been approaching this from a middle of the ground standpoint. Basically I know that a large enough percentage of Americans would reject this as “evil socialism” so putting caps on the government industry at first would be a Trojan horse to get a footing and get society comfortable with the idea.
Ultimately I would like to see companies have to compete with government offered products and services, but I just don’t see it being feasible in our current political climate. Sadly I think it will either take generational change to get it done, or a more kinetic change that would harm the country and take far longer to recover from.
There is no point in capping fiber speeds. Either that capacity is in use or it isn’t. It isn’t like water, where a resource is depleted from usage.
Aside from that, I agree with your concept of the government providing all the essentials. Capitalism is great for providing products that suit a person’s individuality, but it sucks at ensuring the survival and wellbeing of people.
Ok, now that I’ve had a bit of sleep (,3rd shifter here) how about the government owns the fiber a sells access to the for profit companies. But there is no monopolies so there is competition and every company is required to offer a basic package that is low cost and has enough bandwidth for the average work from home video meeting. Oh yeah, and no data caps.
After that they can increase prices and offer more services. And if somewhere like farm country isn’t being served by any of the for profit companies, then the government corporation could set up an ISP and serve those citizens.
Like they do for snail mail? The government gets an envelope through in one or two days for a dollar or two, the corporations do it in two or four days for ten or fifteen… Because they’re high end?
It is the job of the government to care for it’s citizens after all.
This is where some people would have a difference of opinion.
While I disagree with those that feel differently, that’s what this country is supposed to be about, finding a middle ground in differing opinions. Sadly we seem to have largely lost that mentality.
This is how I assumed things would work when I was a child.
Efficient and complicated. Not that these dipshits would understand that.
And super fucking important
I wouldn’t call it “efficient” but I would call it optimal given the complexity.
“Optimal given the complexity” fits the definition of efficient.
I think it certainly can, since humans are involved, and humans are messy.
A lot of government stuff should be automated in software, but that takes an immense amount of time to develop. Like… why are taxes so hard when the IRS always has all my data?
Efficient? Not as much as it should be. But good luck wrangling that many people’s needs at once.
I mean, simple file should already be a thing, and the IRS would prefer it be easier for everyone to file. But h&r block and turbotax have lobbied heavily against it because they’d lose money with easier filing. One way to make things more streamlined and efficient would be to get rid of middle men and focus on making internal systems better.
But this administration wants the internal systems to be broken and needlessly complex so that they can outsource it to their preferred middle men so that they all make a lot more money.
And they were spamming everyday to one of my emails, when Trump won. When before they dint since I haven’t used their (free now defunct filing) since 2023
Yeah a lot of government inefficiencies can be explained by the private sector blocking their abilities and influencing sellout politicians. If lawmakers truly worked for the interests of the masses you’d see a lot better systems/procedures. You think long voting lines are because the government can’t run elections properly? Nah it’s from lawmakers purposefully making things worse to better themselves
Like… why are taxes so hard when the IRS always has all my data?
In some European countries, the government automatically does the taxes and just sends a letter showing the result of the calculation so you have a chance to review the result.
They have all the numbers already…
Taxes are so hard because Tax Return Companies spend a lot of money to lobby the government to make it harder. The IRS could do it all in-house for “free” but there’s too much money in making us go through 3rd parties to file our taxes. Private business always finds a way to add more inefficiency to processes to make us pay more so they can nickel and dime us. “Want that efficient service? Well, you got to pay more.” It’s a scam.
There is a lot of stuff, sure, that could be automated in software, but that’s mostly admin work, like processing invoices and things like that. But then, no one ever wants to spend money on things. For instance, I work for a state DOT. It’s a battle to get the state legislature to properly fund maintenance. They’d rather spend their money on new shiny things they can show off to get elected.
The real inefficiency in government is almost always directly related to the elected official’s decisions. Take graffiti, they don’t want to spend money, and we don’t have the budget to keep up with graffiti and provide road maintenance. But then a big sports event or famous band comes to town for a huge event, and next thing you know graffiti is our number one priority.
Another thing, is if tax filing is too easy the IRS would have more time and money to go after rich people and corporations, they can’t have that.
Shit’s so silly. Especially with taxes. It’s an example of exactly what’s wrong with this country.
As far as graffiti goes, I think we should just let people go at it. The city belongs to the people, let them paint it. If someone scrawls “I floss my teeth with ass hair” across a wall, a better artist will come put something cool over it.
A lot of government ‘redundancy’ is the auditing/oversight process where people check other people’s work. Plus ensuring there is adequate staffing for the busy times, like tax season!
But a lot of the things like not having taxes automatically calculated for the vast majority of the population or similar complex systems is the fault of the legislature. They wrote the laws that kept the IRS from building the system that lets people confirm their taxes are right and add exemptions.
I thought destroying the government and setting up racism was the win?
