cubsfan

@John Hjorth Your buddy Zelensky now has a long plane ride home to thing about 1) What can I sell the Ukrainian leadership on? 2) Do I want to continue this war? 3) Will Europe bail my ass out? 4) Do I wish to lose the support of the United States? He is NOT in a good position - BUT the ball is absolutely in his court.

Not in the least. You are witnessing high stakes negotiations in process. Did you think it was going to be EASY to settle a war between 2 parties that HATE each other? Zelensky is fucked. He either comes around with reasonable terms or Europe can step in. John - get your European leadership to step in now - and they can be heroes. IF they can make a peace deal happen - Europe will be heroes forever. Get them to work.

History in the making.

I seriously doubt that would ever work. The entrenched resistance in the ranks is much too deep. The same assholes that fought every step of the way in the President's first term. Radical surgery breaks some glass, but works time & again. So we will just beg to differ.

Don't expect a lot of tears to be shed for a vicious and out of control Federal government that got replaced. When you destroy lots of high paying pipeline, oil & Gas, mining and manufacturing jobs - and tell those impacted "learn how to code" - you won't get much sympathy from your citizens. When you send hundred of armed law-enforcement agents to arrest senior citizens at gunpoint with swat teams to rifle through underwear drawers - you're getting what you deserve. Unlease the IRS & NSA & FBI & DOJ on political opponents? Shoe is on the other foot for once. Agencies like USAID funnelling money to censor political opponents and solely fund the favorable press? Close it down. Unfortunately, a body deeply infected with cancer requires chemotherapy that is pleasant for no one. But the Federal government earned it.

Nice article. Thanks @Hektor - since I can't get beyond paywall. Pulling DOGE off will certainly be one of the most difficult tasks of any US President. It's much, much easier to tax & spend, tax & spend - throw money around like it's nothing and leave the disaster for the next administration. I'm not sure when the Federal Government willingly attempted such a task. Everyone knows it has to happen. It's great to see it happen.

Yup, all the man is trying to do is answer one question: "What the hell happened to the money?"

Like I said - you are totally disingenuous @cwericb All this was so easy to find, it took me about 3 minutes - mainly because it happened over and over. But keep pretending it never happened. Anyway - I am moving this conversation to other threads, to obey Parsad's ban on politics. But keep playing the perpetual victim and hating the United States. It's not a good look.

Obviously you failed to read the direct quotes I provided for Mr Gibbons question regarding Justin's constant stream of insults to undermine the President. It really doesn't matter to me that you want to be totally disingenuous. That's just how you roll @cwericb

Musk haters have real impact! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-25/tesla-sales-fall-45-in-europe-as-rivals-ev-registrations-soar Congrats!

^^^ Term limits and restrictions on post-private sector jobs would be awesome.

+1 - to one of the nicest guys around @John Hjorth

Be patient - the penalty phase is coming.

Sure -- @RichardGibbons - I never paid much attention to Justin, for no other reason then I was not too interested in Canada's politics, but more my own. However, what brought him to my attention over and over - was the constant insults and virtue signaling. This one really got my attention - wow - Justin really thinks he's something. — After President Donald Trump called him “two-faced,” Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, admitted Wednesday that he and other world leaders were talking about the US President https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/04/politics/world-leaders-joke-about-donald-trump-nato/index.html But It's been a pattern forever: https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/trudeau-insulted-trump-for-years-now-places-are-reversed https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-york-canadas-trudeau-takes-veiled-swipe-trump-2023-04-28/ Every insult from Justin about the MAGA movement and Trump, pretty much assured that Trump would return the favor.

@parsad - thank you. You are a gentlemen and diplomat.

You seem to forget the years of Canada's leader doing exactly that to the US President. Justin's big mouth couldn't stay shut for a moment about MAGA and Trump. Unfortuantely for him - he now has to try and work with him after years of insults to American leadership.

This is really an awesome clip. The relevant stuff starts at the 4:00 minute mark. Takes about the DOGE process, the DOGE findings, the methods of blocking DOGE. Great stuff.

Poor guy, but what a great resource he is.

Every tech company I ever worked for conducted RIF's (reductions in force) when things were not operating well. Big cuts, deep, quick, painful for all - great for the company. Capitalism is an amazing thing - it adjusts FASTS. Given what I've seen from the Chicago government, Illinois government - the waste is monumemtal. I'll be shocked if it's not enormous with the Feds. The chainsaw is the silicon valley model - and it's about survival of the entity. Government employees don't give a shit about efficiency - their only solution - TAX MORE!

Yes, very true, just like I don't trust Paul Krugman, I don't trust the NYT. But I could not read beyond the paywall, so I was confused. My real issue was, hey so they are joking around about the Cabinet approving of Elon. Well, it doesn't matter, only that the President was happy with Elon. So the reporter's question was irrelevant. I've worked with collegues I did not like, but if the boss was happy with them - that's what mattered.

I'm looking forward to exactly that. If you believe Mr Musk, there is vast amounts of waste/fraud, etc -- in addition to unneeded overhead, etc. I'm not betting on anything in terms of a "number" - I'm simply delighted the current government is committed to cutting the deficit. I've no doubt this will be a difficult tightrope to walk between tax cuts & budget cuts.

Gotta love what Elon is doing with DOGE..... the naysayers will piss and moan, while the public cheers. https://doge.gov/savings

Well - you have a direct contradiction if you listen to the video. He still thinks he can cut $1T. That is an aggressive, but worthy goal.

@Hektor Thanks for the video Hector. The whole thing is excellent and anyone that wants to understand DOGE should listen to it.

Here's what funny to me - when I saw your original post - I thought - we haven't heard from you forever! ...... so much for being reasonable.