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Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

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Re: Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

#301

Post by Animats »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #299
Animats wrote: post #118

What we're seeing happen in the downsizing area is mostly from the Project 2025 policy manual.[1] The just-confirmed head of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, was one of the major authors of Project 2025. It's worth reading that, at least the key sections. Trump has insisted that Project 2025 is not his policy, but what's happening is close to the manual. The Project 2025 people couldn't agree on t…

Greenland at least was mentioned in project 2025 as having security implications. Trump may have freestyled some extra policy on top of that. > Concerning Greenland, the opening of a U.S. consulate in Nuuk is welcome. A formal year-round diplomatic presence is an effective way for the U.S. to better understand local political and economic dynamics. Furthermore, given Green- land’s geographic proximity and its rising…

Not sure about "security implications", but a mining site writes "Greenland is considered one of the last frontiers for exploration by mining experts."[1] There's oil, and some companies drilling, various gemstones, and iron.

[1] https://www.azomining.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=59

Re: Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

#302

Post by winrid »

motorest wrote: post #277
purplezooey wrote: post #268

"Demolition Crew"? That's a very kind euphemism for a collection of sycophant clowns that have no experience in government. Indeed I could not find a single one that had any experience.

You need experience to preserve and improve a service. If you want to destroy and sabotage a service, you place incompetent people at the helm. Even the CIA lists this as a strategy in its sabotage manual.

[flagged]

Re: Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

#303

Post by gman83 »

wnevets wrote: post #69

Expect a lot more fake stories about fraud and other nefarious doings from these guys to justify their crimes. The exact something happened with twitter.

Yeah, it's probably a fishing expedition to uncover some "scandal": https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/03/the-twitter-files-playbo...

Re: Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

#304

Post by Timon3 »

wallawe wrote: post #146
lapcat wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

More than half that voted is all that matters

Well, unless it's a Democrat winning the popular vote, right? Then the EC is all that matters.

Re: Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

#305

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

tmikaeld wrote: post #293

As an outsider trying to make sense of all this. Is America taking the hammer down on all types of spending because America is desperate to bring down debt from 120% of GDP?

Not at all, it's mostly optics. The US DOD spends like $900 BILLION a year, and you don't see DOGE even attempting to touch that money.

Re: Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

#306

Post by denvermullets »

GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #305
tmikaeld wrote: post #293

As an outsider trying to make sense of all this. Is America taking the hammer down on all types of spending because America is desperate to bring down debt from 120% of GDP?

Not at all, it's mostly optics. The US DOD spends like $900 BILLION a year, and you don't see DOGE even attempting to touch that money.

adding to this, they can't even pass an internal audit to account for where all that money is going. 7 years in a row they failed an audit.

Re: Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

#307

Post by tim333 »

winrid wrote: post #302
motorest wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need experience to preserve and improve a service. If you want to destroy and sabotage a service, you place incompetent people at the helm. Even the CIA lists this as a strategy in its sabotage manual.

[flagged]

No competence in government programs.

Re: Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

#308

Post by tim333 »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #298
emseetech wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're going to rewrite it in Nodejs and React aren't they?

From the insanely rambling Trump description it sounded like they were going to connect it to starlink because: > You can't hook up satellites to land and you can't hook up land to satellites. https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lhjqtveqxc2x

I think there are two different things. One, Musk said the traffic control system crashed last week and they want to check how it's set up. Two they are looking at making a new satellite based air traffic control system which could be interesting if a bit self serving if it means all planes have to get starlink.

Satellite based air traffic control could be quite interesting - there have been people wanting to make a computerised system for ages but it's hard to do because firstly with existing systems the UK one has to talk to the French one which has to talk to the Tunisian one etc and it's hard to make that work and secondly your London - NY flight wants to get permission to land but there's no data signal mid atlantic.

Re: Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

#309

Post by tim333 »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #300
motorest wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

They're more likely to claim the agency knowingly gave $100 million worth of paperclips to the Taliban as part of a Marxist plot.* If you're going to make stuff up, why not go big and viral. * And yes, if you're not keeping up with the news cycle this is a thing that really happened, just with condoms not paperclips.

You have to wonder given the Gaza mix up - they saw money going to "gaza" and assumed it was the usual one rather than Gaza, Mozambique - whether they are going to do anything competently.

I mean a techy seeing one word on a spreadsheet that looks iffy and putting hundreds of skilled people out of their jobs as a result is not a great way to run things.

Re: Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

#310

Post by tim333 »

afpx wrote: post #222
GiorgioG wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've learned the hard way that many people in this country do NOT actually care about democracy. Our democracy has been eroding for decades. Congress collects paychecks while gridlocking progress, even on bipartisan issues that could help ordinary citizens. Super PACs and "campaign contributions" (aka bribes) ensure the wealthy control both parties. Democrats and Republicans both spend recklessly and divide the nat…

How do you fix wealth inequality? That's what I want to know. I feel like we're so far past the point of no return. I'm sure they're all eagerly rubbing their hands together waiting to be a Duke in Peter Thiel's new global Monarchy.

High tax on the rich. We did it in the UK in the first half of the 20th century with tax as high as 90%. But to do that you have to vote it in and it's not really popular with the electorate these days.
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