931–940 of 1001 posts
But apparently in this country, you have to be either pro government waste or pro DOGE. No middle ground or common sense allowed.
> Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. Congress gets to make laws. They can intervene by making a law that allows them to intervene, which is the job we elected them to do. Apparently they prefer getting bossed around instead.
Unfortunately, laws have to be signed in by the president
I don't even have much to say about which sorts of decisions that two thirds should make--that's their job--I'd just like it if they grew a spine and started making some.
I found Bukele's comments to be eye opening, https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1886059275174506850 > Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up. > While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs with political agendas, and destabilizin…
It’s not Elon Musk’s place to make spending allocation decisions for the US government. The Constitution assigns that power to Congress. It is not hyperbolic to say that if Elon/Doge can arbitrarily cut spending, then Congress has effectively been abolished, and the US Constitutional order is over. Now, if Elon wanted to review spending allocations and recommend cuts to Congress, that would be fine. I would be in fav…
the money they give away tends to fund extremism and terrorism, and never goes to where it's needed
- Haiti: Post-2010 earthquake, $1.14 billion was spent on a port and power plant project promoted by President Bill Clinton. The project never built anything. - Cuba: A 2006 audit showed $74 million in “democracy promotion” funds vanished without oversight. - Afghanistan: Millions squandered on health scams; hospitals never built. - Nigeria: Chemonics, a major USAID contractor, was linked to a subcontractor's overbilling scandal. Hundreds of millions lost. - COVID 19 Funding: USAID sent over $40MILLION in taxpayer money to a scientist located in Wuhan to do gain of function mutations. This directly led to the creation and release of COVID-19 - $2.5 MILLION to DEI in Serbia - $70,000 onan Irish DEI musical - $47,000 on transgender operas in Colombia - $32,000 on a trans comic book in Peru - Iraq: $20M for an Iraqi version of Sesame Street to promote LGBTQ Agenda - Egypt & Tunisia: $56M for “tourism” - Jordan: $40M for “schools” - Vietnam: $11M to fight “trash burning” - Central America: $27M for deportee gift bags. - Trump Lawfare: $27M to fund left wing prosecutions of populist political opponents around the globe, including Donald Trump. Patently illegal.
Average age of engineers and scientists in the Manhattan Project was 25. Our current gerontocracy is ahistorical. Perhaps one reason startups work so well is they are one of the few places that still let young people exert agency. The average age of NASA’s mission control team during the Apollo era was 27— they put humans on the moon. Young people bring a force of curiosity and creativity that can disrupt the status…
Source? and what's the median? Also, that was during WW2 which would likely skew those #s (though I would actually expect to much older, as in not most-fit-military age)
The age of modern quantum mechanics started in 1925. Heisenberg received the Nobel Prize for his 1927 work on the uncertainty principle in 1932 at the age of 31. 10 years later the Manhattan Project started.
There just weren’t that many older scientists with training in the field. Young PhDs were only a few years removed from the first discoveries that enabled nuclear physics to leap forward.
I hate that in this country, everything is political and everything has only 2 sides. Is there waste and inefficiency in government spending? Yes, I think so. Should we do our best to cut and trim this? Absolutely. Is DOGE's ham-fisted, half-assed version of this "doing our best"? Of course not. But apparently in this country, you have to be either pro government waste or pro DOGE. No middle ground or common sense al…
> But apparently in this country, you have to be either pro government waste or pro DOGE. No middle ground or common sense allowed.
Take a close look at who is creating two sides. Perhaps there is more nuance to the points being made by the people who do not seem to be pro DOGE.
I found Bukele's comments to be eye opening, https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1886059275174506850 > Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up. > While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs with political agendas, and destabilizin…
No, not kudos! Before destroying an entire organization, it’s important to know their true impact and how much it’ll hurt to have them gone. So far, I’ve seen zero evidence that deep thought or analysis went into these decisions. In other words, it’s objectively a careless decision. If it’s not careless, then Elon should be sharing evidence, lengthy discussions on his decisions, etc. Plus, there should be a public co…
You have no business pretending this is undemocratic. These offices being shut down are the same people who sabotaged Trump during his first term, they have every right to do this. And if anyone understands large organizations, it's Elon: the man who's proven he's the greatest engineer in the world and that you don't need a PhD to be that.
I hate that in this country, everything is political and everything has only 2 sides. Is there waste and inefficiency in government spending? Yes, I think so. Should we do our best to cut and trim this? Absolutely. Is DOGE's ham-fisted, half-assed version of this "doing our best"? Of course not. But apparently in this country, you have to be either pro government waste or pro DOGE. No middle ground or common sense al…
I hate that in this country, everything is political and everything has only 2 sides. Is there waste and inefficiency in government spending? Yes, I think so. Should we do our best to cut and trim this? Absolutely. Is DOGE's ham-fisted, half-assed version of this "doing our best"? Of course not. But apparently in this country, you have to be either pro government waste or pro DOGE. No middle ground or common sense al…
> I hate that in this country, everything is political and everything has only 2 sides. > But apparently in this country, you have to be either pro government waste or pro DOGE. No middle ground or common sense allowed. Take a close look at who is creating two sides. Perhaps there is more nuance to the points being made by the people who do not seem to be pro DOGE.
Average age of engineers and scientists in the Manhattan Project was 25. Our current gerontocracy is ahistorical. Perhaps one reason startups work so well is they are one of the few places that still let young people exert agency. The average age of NASA’s mission control team during the Apollo era was 27— they put humans on the moon. Young people bring a force of curiosity and creativity that can disrupt the status…
I hate that in this country, everything is political and everything has only 2 sides. Is there waste and inefficiency in government spending? Yes, I think so. Should we do our best to cut and trim this? Absolutely. Is DOGE's ham-fisted, half-assed version of this "doing our best"? Of course not. But apparently in this country, you have to be either pro government waste or pro DOGE. No middle ground or common sense al…
I do think that Elon Musk and DOGE are attempting to create a "with us or against us" binary narrative that leaves no room for even-handed nuance (not unlike Trump), in an effort to push an agenda that maybe doesn't have much to do with government efficiency (for example, MTG's clampdown on allegedly-liberal media [0]).
[0] - https://www.axios.com/2025/02/03/marjorie-taylor-greene-hear...