America & the World V: DOGE Business

[Mayhem]

Slow internet rumble building re Starlink, which is Mr Musk's territory, for the voting machines this time ignoring Harris votes, where as Trump accused Dominion of faking votes four years ago...

Whilst it might be repugnant, one of those things is first ammendment protected and one of them is not and could put yourself in legal jeopardy or worse, so I'm not sure it's a good response tbh.

I believe if you just post the info and nothing else, that's within the rights. Inciting or threatening as well as part of this is not covered.

[MartyG]

Such as posting these things to employers and relatives? I'd suspect that's crossing the line of criminal law, but you're opening yourself up to civil proceedings even if it doesn't cross that threshold as well and it's not exactly a proportional response, personally I'd err on the side of caution even if the legal aspect wasn't an issue, lest you want to be doxxed yourself and the trouble that could bring.

In other news we're already seeing the murmours of what's to come in the convicted fellon Trump's next stint as PotUS from the alledged appointment of the white nationalist Steven Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy, meanwhile the civilly convicted rapist Trump wants to be able to appoint cabinet picks without congress approval.

[Neon Ignition]

Trump selects Elon Musk to lead government efficiency department | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Musk, who has no understanding of Government body operations and restructured Twitter to a loss of $32bn, has been put in charge of slashing jobs in government.

[QualityChimp]

Trump selects Elon Musk to lead government efficiency department | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Musk, who has no understanding of Government body operations and restructured Twitter to a loss of $32bn, has been put in charge of slashing jobs in government.

I'm not sure what deals they've done with each other, but Musk definitely went from insisting Twitter be a free speech zone to making it biased towards Trump.
Cost Musk a fair chunk of change, but he's got this role in the Government and I suspect we're all thinking the same thing and wondering how it's going to benefit Musk. There may be a hefty wage packet, but I suspect the thing that will make America the most efficient will be by reducing taxes on Teslas and sending SpaceX rockets to Mars.

Oh lawd, we're in for a rough 4 years.
I'd be less bothered, but now that Team America is the World Police, if they step back from NATO or Ukraine support, there's going to be a global domino effect.

As for Musk, he was mimicked by Dana Carvey on SNL, but he took it in good grace and had a laugh about it.
No, wait. The thin-skinned billionaire whined about it on X saying “SNL has been dying slowly for years, as they become increasingly out of touch with reality" and “Dana Carvey just sounds like Dana Carvey.”

[Neon Ignition]

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4987358-pete-hegseth-defense-secretary/

The 45th President of the United States - The Worst President in American History

The 47th President of the United States - Hold My Beer...

[fuse]

Trump selects Elon Musk to lead government efficiency department | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Musk, who has no understanding of Government body operations and restructured Twitter to a loss of $32bn, has been put in charge of slashing jobs in government.

HEY LOOK GUYS THE DEPARTMENT ACRONYM SPELLS OUT "DOGE". YOU KNOW, DOGE! LIKE THE MEME! AND THE CRYPTOCURRENCY I'M CURRENTLY HAWKING! LOL!

As noted elsewhere, appointing two heads to a department of "government efficiency" would be excellent satire if it were not you know, real, and horrifying in its implications.

[QualityChimp]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/13/the-guardian-no-longer-post-on-x-twitter-elon-musk

The Guardian will stop posting to X.

Side note: I refused to stop calling it Twitter for ages, but I think we can all agree that X is not Twitter. Not anymore.

[Neon Ignition]

They'll stop posting to it... but I bet they keep reading it

[briareos_kerensky]

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4...nse-secretary/

The 45th President of the United States - The Worst President in American History

The 47th President of the United States - Hold My Beer...

The only think we can hope now is that Trump will post all his close supporters to important positions thus screwing Project 2025 through sheer incompetence.

[Dogg Thang]

They'll stop posting to it... but I bet they keep reading it

They say that in the article. It's their job.

[QualityChimp]

The only think we can hope now is that Trump will post all his close supporters to important positions thus screwing Project 2025 through sheer incompetence.

I keep thinking this, however I'm now of the opinion that his followers will excuse any of his actions.
"It's not Trump's fault those schoolboys are so sexy..."
"It's Biden's fault the economy is tanked, even 4 years later!"
"Hey, he didn't push the nuclear button, Putin asked him nicely..."

[briareos_kerensky]

I keep thinking this, however I'm now of the opinion that his followers will excuse any of his actions.
"It's not Trump's fault those schoolboys are so sexy..."
"It's Biden's fault the economy is tanked, even 4 years later!"
"Hey, he didn't push the nuclear button, Putin asked him nicely..."

I'm not arguing over his followers always finding a way to praise/excuse him, that's a very very sad given. I just hope he collective incompetence of Trump and his cronies won't turn the US in a christian fundamentalist state (or...more than it is now).

[Yakumo]

Trump selects Elon Musk to lead government efficiency department | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Musk, who has no understanding of Government body operations and restructured Twitter to a loss of $32bn, has been put in charge of slashing jobs in government.

Well, someone has to punish Americans for voting in Trump 🤣
In all seriousness though, what a ****ing moron Trump is for this decision and of course many more to come.

[Neon Ignition]

It was being broken down on the radio earlier that Musk may have walked himself into a blind alley with his Government appointment. The Department of Government Efficiency isn't an actual government department meaning that when Musk directs all of the planned cuts the Government can officially ignore him. Trump could decide to enact those cuts but there would then very likely be a protracted challenge as that would represent him making government decisions under instruction from a civilian with conflict of interest.

Trump has given Musk till 04 July 2026 to complete the work, so another avenue would be to go through the political process to formally create and appoint the department and Musk's role. However, this process too would take up nearly all of the time with either route risking the mid-term elections disrupting them. Additionally, by accepting a formal role Musk would have to divest his business interests which is incredibly unlikely.

Musk would, and likely will, see increasing pressure to divest X as well as the platform is now shifted very heavily toward being state-controlled media.

The clearest way to sidestep the entire set of issues is the most obvious one. Don't formally create the department, don't formally appoint Musk to government. Use it as a distraction to hand wave Musk's involvement in Trump's presidency and both of them not deal with the issue at all - instead spend their time exploiting their positions for rampant corruption.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/14/election-republicans-win-house-majority

Underlining the scale at which the American voters shot themselves in the face, the voting in the elections has now seen Republicans take the House as well giving Trump the final piece he needed for unchecked power.

Pentagon stunned after Trump picks Pete Hegseth for defence secretary | US news | The Guardian

Republicans baffled after Trump picks ‘reckless’ Gaetz for attorney general | Republicans | The Guardian

Not sure why they're shocked. It's like no Republican know Trump.