Elon Musk...human? - Political

[Sweet]

The government added two trillion of spending during covid and it never really reverted back to trend.  So whatever has received extra since Covid can’t it be reduced back to the 2020 base plus inflation.

Edited Wednesday at 10:24 PM by Sweet

[Parsad]

46 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

Gotta love what Elon is doing with DOGE.....

the naysayers will piss and moan, while the public cheers. 

 

https://doge.gov/savings

 

 

 

 

 

I'm happy to see him get rid of a ton of waste...but as I said before, I think he's taking a chainsaw to it, rather than a scalpel.  There are a ton of programs that he cut on that list related to renewable energy, agricultural efficiency, numerous studies, etc.  If they have anything remotely to do with DEI, renewables, minorities, etc...they were just cut out.  Cheers!

[Parsad]

12 minutes ago, 73 Reds said:

But just bear in mind that Elon doesn't have to be doing anything for DOGE or the US government so it all depends on how integrity is defined.

 

He's already getting government contracts for his projects...from Starlink to Space X.  You don't think he's going to be getting a shitload more of these contracts by working for the Trump administration?  It also frees up capital that can be spent on projects he wants to see through.  Cheers!

[73 Reds]

Just now, Parsad said:

 

He's already getting government contracts for his projects...from Starlink to Space X.  You don't think he's going to be getting a shitload more of these contracts by working for the Trump administration?  It also frees up capital that can be spent on projects he wants to see through.  Cheers!

OK, but is that necessarily a bad thing?  And don't you think that otherwise worthwhile programs that are being cut can be/will be reimplimented with better personnel and perhaps some different objectives?

[Parsad]

4 minutes ago, Sweet said:

The government added two trillion of spending during covid and it never really reverted back to trend.  So whatever has received extra since Covid can’t it be reduced back to the 2020 base plus inflation.

 

They'll also be adding trillions as they cut taxes, because it will take some time for lower taxes to generate increased revenues for the government.  Tariffs won't account for all of the lost income tax revenue.  Cheers!

[Parsad]

Just now, 73 Reds said:

OK, but is that necessarily a bad thing?  And don't you think that otherwise worthwhile programs that are being cut can be/will be reimplimented with better personnel and perhaps some different objectives?

 

When you are talking about integrity, you don't believe there should be barriers to conflicts of interest or awarding of contracts based on price and service?  Cheers!

[73 Reds]

Just now, Parsad said:

 

When you are talking about integrity, you don't believe there should be barriers to conflicts of interest or awarding of contracts based on price and service?  Cheers!

Sure, but how many "Elon Musks" exist in the world?  To describe him as exceptional would be an understatement so do you think he should be treated like everyone else when it comes to what he can potentially generate?

[DooDiligence]

To answer the question posed in the title of this thread.

 

NOT A SHRED of HUMANITY.

Strictly lizard brain.

[cubsfan]

17 minutes ago, Parsad said:

 

Point is you didn't believe the NY Times.  This deterioration in what we trust as news and what we qualify as news has become plainly apparent.  There is a measles outbreak in Texas, with one child dead, and the head of the government on health doesn't believe in vaccines.  Fiction has become fact!  Cheers!

 

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.

[cubsfan]

10 minutes ago, Parsad said:

 

I'm happy to see him get rid of a ton of waste...but as I said before, I think he's taking a chainsaw to it, rather than a scalpel.  There are a ton of programs that he cut on that list related to renewable energy, agricultural efficiency, numerous studies, etc.  If they have anything remotely to do with DEI, renewables, minorities, etc...they were just cut out.  Cheers!

 

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!

[james22]

1 minute ago, Parsad said:

I think he's taking a chainsaw to it, rather than a scalpel.

 

No one is arguing that.

 

The argument is it's too late for the scalpel.

 

 

[james22]

On 2/25/2025 at 10:06 AM, james22 said:

But reformers are now no longer dependent upon the bureaucracies to provide information.

 

 

[cubsfan]

36 minutes ago, james22 said:

 

 

 

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.

[lnofeisone]

43 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

 

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.

This must be the result of some of these fine, fine methods.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/26/musk-doge-savings-website

Edited yesterday at 12:14 AM by lnofeisone
grammatical error

[Spekulatius]

On 2/25/2025 at 10:31 AM, james22 said:

 

Move Fast and Break Things

Works for startups but not for large organizations where there is a lot to lose when things break.

[DooDiligence]

19 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

Works for startups but not for large organizations where there is a lot to lose when things break.

 

Like the world maybe.

[Parsad]

I can't get rid of the politics stuff...even I get sucked into it over and over.  But let's keep it polite and cordial, rather than antagonistic and rude.

 

I'm going to allow political discussion around the war threads (Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Gaza) and on threads regarding Elon, Doge, etc.  But don't start adding threads...use the ones already there.

 

For anyone going to non-political threads and starting political discussions...automatic 30 day ban.  No politics allowed at all outside of those mentioned threads on the General Discussion area...so not in BRK, FFH, Investment Ideas, or anything else...automatic 30 day bans otherwise.

 

Cheers!

[james22]

 

[lnofeisone]

4 hours ago, james22 said:

 

I hope there are people left in Census or USPS (or some random redditor/X user) to tell him that has already been tried, and it didn't work well at all to continue to expansion of the pilot OR they can try it again, waste $ and come to the same conclusion.

https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-20036.pdf?1505825175

 

The number of wheels this administration will reinvent is going to be colossal. 

[james22]

1 hour ago, lnofeisone said:

I hope there are people left in Census or USPS (or some random redditor/X user) to tell him that has already been tried, and it didn't work well at all to continue to expansion of the pilot OR they can try it again, waste $ and come to the same conclusion.

https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-20036.pdf?1505825175

 

The number of wheels this administration will reinvent is going to be colossal. 

 

It didn't work well? You know this?

 

Or did it fail for other reasons - was it a protected jobs program, perhaps?

[lnofeisone]

5 minutes ago, james22 said:

 

It didn't work well? You know this?

 

Or did it fail for other reasons - was it a protected jobs program, perhaps?

I know for a fact that it didn't work. The numbers were off by a considerable margin, somewhere in the 50-75% range. I also know of another effort about 2 years ago where they tried to use satellite data, couple it with cell phone usage, and utility power usage, and internet usage to estimate numbers and they were still off. We aren't talking single % digits off or margin of error off. We are talking high teens % off. 

 

I don't know what the protected jobs program is, but I do know that the Census employee who ran the program was a smart cookie, very tech oriented, very frugal, and also cared about getting numbers right. 

[Ulti]

https://warontherocks.com/2025/02/the-rise-of-the-fake-tech-workforce-state-sponsored-infiltration-of-u-s-technical-supply-chains/
 

This is the type of shit the the rich techno savvy Doge head should be focused on..

[james22]

33 minutes ago, lnofeisone said:

I know for a fact that it didn't work. The numbers were off by a considerable margin, somewhere in the 50-75% range. I also know of another effort about 2 years ago where they tried to use satellite data, couple it with cell phone usage, and utility power usage, and internet usage to estimate numbers and they were still off. We aren't talking single % digits off or margin of error off. We are talking high teens % off. 

 

I don't know what the protected jobs program is, but I do know that the Census employee who ran the program was a smart cookie, very tech oriented, very frugal, and also cared about getting numbers right. 

 

You could well be right (we'd probably save more by eliminating the Post Office, rather than giving it more responsibilities), but the fact that it didn't pencil out once before doesn't convince me it isn't worth trying again (technologies and politics both change).

 

The current state isn't sustainable.

[Saluki]

17 hours ago, 73 Reds said:

Sure, but how many "Elon Musks" exist in the world?  To describe him as exceptional would be an understatement so do you think he should be treated like everyone else when it comes to what he can potentially generate?

 

YES!  If mere mortals can comply with the rules about bidding on contracts then why can't he, with all that supposed brain power?  Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates don't seem to have problems adapting their unique genius to pedestrian affairs. 

 

And if wasteful spending is so important to the current administration, why wasn't it an issue when the Treasury Secretary was taking a private government plane so that he and his wife could watch the eclipse? Or when the HUD Secretary spent a ridiculous amount of money (intended to house poor people) to redecorate his office. "you can't get a nice chair for less than $5,000."  Or what about the flights where Air Force one was forced to stop over in Scotland and personell were made to stay at Trump's resort at taxpayer expense?  

 

I'm not trying to rude, but I spent a long time in government at a regulatory agency that had a reputation for efficiency and effectiveness, and whenever I saw a disgusting waste of funds it was NEVER at the staff level. It was always the political appointees who were nominated by the President.  I'll give you an example, red and blue.  RED: A chairman who has the title "Dr" in front of his name. He had two full time economists spending almost a year to do research and write his doctoral thesis for him. Then they also had to spend weeks afterwards to explain his paper to him so that he could he defend his dissertation to get his Ph.D. How about BLUE:  a commissioner who instructed my friend, an economist, to find something going on in Paris between X and Y dates that had some arguable connection to our mission so that she and her chief of staff could go on a girls shopping trip. 

 

If you really care about waste, does it bother you that the guy tasked with rooting it out didn't mention how a Biden pilot contract for $400k in electric vehicles from Tesla was changed to $400 million and back-dated to look like it was approved under the prior administration?  You are worried about money for a play in Afghanistan or something but this isn't a concern?  

[73 Reds]

3 minutes ago, Saluki said:

 

YES!  If mere mortals can comply with the rules about bidding on contracts then why can't he, with all that supposed brain power?  Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates don't seem to have problems adapting their unique genius to pedestrian affairs. 

 

And if wasteful spending is so important to the current administration, why wasn't it an issue when the Treasury Secretary was taking a private government plane so that he and his wife could watch the eclipse? Or when the HUD Secretary spent a ridiculous amount of money (intended to house poor people) to redecorate his office. "you can't get a nice chair for less than $5,000."  Or what about the flights where Air Force one was forced to stop over in Scotland and personell were made to stay at Trump's resort at taxpayer expense?  

 

I'm not trying to rude, but I spent a long time in government at a regulatory agency that had a reputation for efficiency and effectiveness, and whenever I saw a disgusting waste of funds it was NEVER at the staff level. It was always the political appointees who were nominated by the President.  I'll give you an example, red and blue.  RED: A chairman who has the title "Dr" in front of his name. He had two full time economists spending almost a year to do research and write his doctoral thesis for him. Then they also had to spend weeks afterwards to explain his paper to him so that he could he defend his dissertation to get his Ph.D. How about BLUE:  a commissioner who instructed my friend, an economist, to find something going on in Paris between X and Y dates that had some arguable connection to our mission so that she and her chief of staff could go on a girls shopping trip. 

 

If you really care about waste, does it bother you that the guy tasked with rooting it out didn't mention how a Biden pilot contract for $400k in electric vehicles from Tesla was changed to $400 million and back-dated to look like it was approved under the prior administration?  You are worried about money for a play in Afghanistan or something but this isn't a concern?  

@Saluki, Not sure exactly what you are asking but if we are looking only to a standard that would qualify Mother Theresa, who would be tasked with the job?  Perhaps 30 years ago a man named Buffett would have been perfect.  Do you have someone else in mind?