141–150 of 411 posts
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If you think this is actually about "rampant waste in our government" then you are incredibly naive.
What do you think it is? What do you think is motivating Musk?
https://gizmodo.com/elon-musks-enemy-usaid-was-investigating...
His attack on USAID was not "rooting out waste", it was to settle a personal vendetta against the agency.
It's a technocratic coup in broad daylight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment Arrogant Silicon Valley CEOs think the world belongs to them. They want liberal democracy to fail and transition to a "tech monarchy". Quite frankly, I don't think the 2026 and 2028 elections will happen. Look up Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin, Nick Land, Steve Bannon, Marc Andreessen, and other figures involved with the "Neo-Rea…
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I’m curious how you believe elons experience here would be beneficial?
By understanding problems and then solving them. I cannot think of a more universally useful skillset.
> On his personal Substack, he wrote an essay titled “Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America,” according to press reports, and described failed U.S. attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, who withdrew from Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct, as a “victim” of the deep state. The fact that nobody is stopping these people is the clearest evidence anyone needs that there's no such thing as "the dee…
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What are countries like Finland, Norway, or Estonia doing differently and how can we import it to our countries?
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> TLDR: a sufficient amount of congress implicitly endorses trumps activities. Which is because Congress has been captured by the autocrat that wants to turn himself into a dictator. They've rolled over and are allowing it to happen. They are setting up a system that will allow them to hold into power for perpetuity, and prevent future elections from changing that.
In any case congress has hardly been captured. People keep saying this nonsense as if it’s been many years. It hasn’t even been a month. Once the constituents digest the activity congress will adjust accordingly.
Most of trumps EOs have been blocked or frozen for now. The system is balancing as intended.
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More than half of us voted for this. And we love what is going on; that action is being taken. Don't presume everyone thinks the same way you do.
Trump got 49.8% of the vote with 63.9% turnout, which would be 31.8% of eligible voters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidentia...
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Americans have the some of the cheapest housing and highest salaries in the world and look around and cry foul. The biggest thing holding poorer Americans back is lack of education opportunities and wage theft by their employers. What does this department do to address those issues?
I must be living in a different America then.
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Trump is ignoring laws. Canning USAID is a great example. Ignoring background check processes is another.
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You don't.
> Just because you say it's illegal doesn't mean it is.
It's illegal to the point it even violates the US constitution.
> Biden unilaterally cancelled a trillion dollars of college debt, which the Supreme Court said was illegal, (...)
The Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Education didn't had the authority to enact such a large program and needed to seek approval from congress, and the rule was called by Trump's appointees.
Biden's student loan debt programs still went ahead because, unlike the original claim, the department of education already was running student debt forgiveness programs before and during Trump's first term, and those existing programs were never questioned as being illegal or unconstitutional.
The fact that you are trying to compare this event to Trump's string of illegal and unconstitutional efforts to shut down and dismantle the whole federal government, not to mention the whole sabotage campaign involving threatening long-standing allies of military invasion and economic war, speaks volumes of how disingenuous you're being.
> On his personal Substack, he wrote an essay titled “Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America,” according to press reports, and described failed U.S. attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, who withdrew from Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct, as a “victim” of the deep state. The fact that nobody is stopping these people is the clearest evidence anyone needs that there's no such thing as "the dee…
What Trump is doing is a reversion to how the federal government was run after the founding and during the 18th century (what’s derisively called the “spoils system”). Trump campaigned with a bunch of people with specific ideas (RFK, Musk, Gabbard, etc.) and then when elected put those people in positions of authority. Here, taking an axe to the civil service was Item #9 on Trump’s platform: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/platform. He sent Musk as his surrogate to camp out in the key swing state of Pennsylvania the week before the election. For many Trump voters, this is what they voted for. For others, maybe DOGE wasn’t their thing, but they were content with it to get RFK Jr. or Gabbard or Tom Homan. And from all those people you got a winning coalition.
What you’re talking about sounds more like Wilsonian managerialism. Where elections are more like an input signal to a credentialed civil service service that applies its expertise to the problems of governance: https://fedsoc.org/commentary/fedsoc-blog/woodrow-wilson-s-c....
You can make a fair case that governance by detached civil servants is better, but how can you possibly say that it’s more democratic?