and this is before the reliance on migrant workers is impacted
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Seems convenient…
Exclusive: FDA staff reviewing Musk’s Neuralink were included in DOGE employee firings, sources say | Reuters.
The above article is behind a paywall. You can ise a typical bypass to access it such as: https://www.removepaywall.com/
Yeah, maybe my biggest frustration of the past 8 years, is that people keep falling for parlor tricks like this. Another good one; Elon pointed out that there were “over 400 government agencies” a month or two ago.
I did about five minutes of research and discovered that a bunch of these agencies where like, select commissions from the Reagan or Clinton years that staffed up, did some research, published a report, and disbanded.
Elon’s illusions are rarely more complex than this. They an be defeated by anyone with a few minutes, Google, and the desire to ask and answer some pretty basic questions.
You do this two or three times, and you brain pretty quickly makes the mental shortcut that Elon is lying, whenever something new comes up. I don’t know how we get people to do this, though.
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If it’s me in this situation, I’m not coming back without at least a 150% bump in pay.
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People don’t care enough yet because it isn’t affecting them.
We are seeing some 2nd order effects hitting various areas now so I suspect the pushback will get a lot louder.
The benefit of using a Blitzkrieg type attack is that you don’t give your opponent time to come up with an effective response, so you can win by default even if you are only 80% effective yourself.
Trump is a moron. But the people behind him and Musk himself are not.
The Ds have lost this initial battle but if I were them I would focus on the damage (like the real damage on the ground far away from DC these cuts and firings are causing) and publicise it as much as I can.
This propaganda war has just gotten started, and the Ds need to get dirty as well. They will not defeat Trump and Musk otherwise.
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The problem is the old saying of a lie being able to cross the world before the truth ties its shoes. They’re doing a Gish Gallop on the US.
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My biggest concern at this point, is that trump cuts a bunch of high yield federal activity, that doesn’t really save much money. Things get only slightly shittier, and they immediately spend that savings, and then some, on tax cuts for the rich.
Deficits go up, but the impact of that won’t be felt until a decade from now. Trump is dead. Elon has already absconded with a trillion dollars. Whoever is in power (likely democrats) will have to pick up the pieces. Focusing on surviving. Progressive policy like making healthcare and college affordable will be pushed to the 2050s.
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Oh! I thought of more!
Trump cucks out on Ukraine. China is emboldened by this and saber rattles Taiwan some more. China and Russia also rush in to fill the soft power vacuum created by axing USAID. We see a permanent decline in US middle class standard of living.
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Yuuuup. China has expanded a lot, obviously. Below is the number one trading partner with each country, between China and the US.
The president of the Congo and said “Every time China visits we get a hospital, every time Britain visits we get a lecture.” So yes, morons, we occasionally spend money to fight HIV in Africa. If you look at foreign aid spending as a % of GDP, America isn’t spending much compared to many other countries.
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Oops I did it again
lol…I think @twig93 wants to mention Musk’s predictions about FSD.
Half of the current DOGE savings appears to be a math error. The remaining half seems questionable too.
Meanwhile Musk companies get $8m per day from the government teat, which can never be investigated or questioned until he and Cheetolini are at loggerheads
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It’s like 40% of the federal budget! /s
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Reminder: you can’t fix the budget problems by firing people unless you want to get rid of the military
Firing people at random by DOGE has proven to be exceptionally stupid at a minimum, and eliminating departments established by law will still hopefully be judged illegal.
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I’m curious if the people who were fired for failing to meet their performance goals but received solid performance reviews have a shot at filing a successful wrongful dismissal claim.
They do, but it’s not especially generous. It starts at 1% of average salary per year of service and after a LONG time it bumps up to 1.1% of salary per year of service. I don’t recall all of the details.
That said, unlike a lot of state employees they do participate in Social Security.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/us/politics/elon-musk-doge-personal-data.html
From the LinkedIn of Leland Dudek, acting head of the SSA:
The Beetle is still around. They’re colorful and have eyelashes, but they are still around.