The justice system will be overwhelmed for years, so I don't think you'll see much progress. The current presidency reveals that, with a compliant Congress, the executive branch can execute whatever it wants. By the time the judicial system steps in, the damage will be done. The situation is unhinged with or without context.
This tracks my view. I'm genuinely curious on how folks are rationalizing this. I see more accidental sane washing than I'm comfortable with. Expecting there is flat out sane washing in some outlets?
holler back when these below (and other ACTUAL government waste) is being worked on vs. enjoying current TV show by a celebrity reality TV host for easily-entertained masses doing nothing but parading themselves on TV while enriching themselves while you stare at the screen… :)
What Trump and Musk are doing is picking up pennies by gutting public services citizens rely upon instead of plugging the tax system, and addressing the waste in the military and healthcare industries. The way Trump and Musk operate not only makes enemies out of loyal government employees, it will also cost the government more money once it starts losing in court.
You realize how much he makes from the government right? You won’t see him making cuts there. You are a rube if you think he will do anything except things to benefit himself.
You aren't necessarily wrong, but this is almost the definition of privatizing the reward over public risk? The grants his companies received were just that, grants. And without those grants, his companies would have likely failed.
the reward is only obvious today, in the very beginning of SpaceX everyone thought elon was crazy and he had to bet his entire net worth multiple times to overcome early challenges.
I wanted to remind you that NASA and ULA that is fully funded by the government, completely fumbled space tech and had to rely on Russian Roscosmos (running ancient soviet era technology) to get to the space.
if you want to look where the waste is, look no further than NASA, ULA, Boeing and the rest of the military/space industrial complex
This is not addressing the point? That largely there is no financial reward equivalent for the public sector money here. Consider, you claim that NASA completely fumbled. This despite us having massive public reward in terms of space tech such as GPS.
GPS enabled US public corporations like Garmin, TomTom, Google (via google maps), all businesses (via google maps), Apple via iPhone, and contributed enormous economic benefits in terms of jobs, taxes, employment, GDP, etc.
This is exactly how public funding into basic research should benefit the country
Right, that was my point. There were rewards, but they were not a financial rewards. My gut would be that the things that have resulted from NASA and similar government spending far outpace even the wealthiest man in the world's personal value. But it is easier to count dollar values attached to individuals.
And now we run the risk of regulatory capture by someone just clawing all of the things they want into a pile they personally control in what looks an awful lot like the corruption that they are yelling about.
non-sequitur much? Nothing I said indicates I do not want SpaceX to exist. Nor do I really care to say bad things about it. But, you can just as easily say that the investments into it from our government is as vital to its success as any private contributions.
rockets are being launched, satellite constellations are roaming the space, USA civilians and military now have low orbit global Internet capability - where exactly is the waste?
My prediction is in 2028, after all the cutting, the deficit will look like nothing had ever been done to it and will in fact be worse. At that time, all the people now who are saying we need a lower deficit, will then be saying the spending is justified and necessary.
> The data housed by OPM is extraordinarily sensitive for several reasons. The federal government is the nation’s largest employer, and OPM’s records are one of the largest, if not the largest, collection of employee data in the country. In addition to personally identifiable information such as names, social security numbers, and demographics, it includes work experience, union activities, salaries, performance, and demotions; health information like life insurance and health benefits; financial information like death benefit designations and savings programs; and classified information nondisclosure agreements. It holds records for millions of federal workers and millions more Americans who have applied for federal jobs.
DOGE has unlawful access to tremendous amounts of data on american citizens. Intervening to protect their privacy seems very much in line with the EFF's mission.
Please pardon my ignorance but why is it unlawful for DOGE to be accessing this data? I was under the impression they had proper security clearance and were given lawful access by the president somehow.
as a hypothetical, if the prez defined 'proper security clearance' as opening up http (unencrypted) access and clicking OKAY on the website (or many with all this data), allowable to anybody on the internet to access said data.. would you be okay that it was happening?
my point is that "proper security clearance" is subjective, and as we are observing, (from what i read the other day) "clearance" is given to folks who would have never made passing the clearance checks in the very recent past (lol like a few weeks ago recent past).
is it all lawful? time will tell, and thats what EFF and others will try to decide - and good luck if any of that data is ever properly disposed of and not benefited from (aka insider knowledge).
As per the US constitution, removing funding for federal agencies requires congressional approval. What DOGE is doing has not been approved by Congress. DOGE has removed funding for federal agencies, such as USAID. It follows from these three premises that DOGE is acting unconstitutionally.
Obviously, IANAL. I took it from reading various news articles. You can find more online quite easily.
DOGE is part of the government, DOGE having access to data is no different from OPM employees having access to data - because they are part of the same executive branch
As per the US constitution, removing funding for federal agencies requires congressional approval. What DOGE is doing has not been approved by Congress. DOGE has removed funding for federal agencies, such as USAID. It follows from these three premises that DOGE is acting unconstitutionally.
There, I spelled it out for you. You must understand, just because Trump is president does not make him a king, although the GOP is very much pushing for that. He is still supposed to abide by the law.
I will wait for the Supreme court decision to clarify this.
What DOGE is doing is uncovering waste and running PR campaign, they do it for few more weeks, and Congress will be unable to reject DOGE's proposed cuts to federal agencies - because taxpayers are getting more and more angry at what kind of waste is being uncovered
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 80.5 ms ] threadSimilarly, is there a good source that contextualizes this in a way other than near unhinged?
I would welcome your constructive counter-arguments, though
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/elon-musks-us-department-de...
Recent contracts were signed by biden admin, so I dont think there is any nefarious collusion, but rather arms length transaction.
You say he is getting rich, I would love some more nuance: is it unfair that he created a company and out-executed everyone including nasa?
Would usa be better off without spacex, relying on Russians to launch satellites???
At least he created thousands jobs, created blns in wealth for his shareholders, made some incredible innovations.
Compare to usaid, whose only achievement was promoting trans surgeries to children
Mind you Musk is the biggest taxpayer so he is interested that system spends money wisely
I wanted to remind you that NASA and ULA that is fully funded by the government, completely fumbled space tech and had to rely on Russian Roscosmos (running ancient soviet era technology) to get to the space.
if you want to look where the waste is, look no further than NASA, ULA, Boeing and the rest of the military/space industrial complex
This is exactly how public funding into basic research should benefit the country
And now we run the risk of regulatory capture by someone just clawing all of the things they want into a pile they personally control in what looks an awful lot like the corruption that they are yelling about.
I’d rather have american company SpaceX do it
I don’t care about rockets or more military grift. It is useless to humanity.
On that note, are you aware that they're planning to give themselves trillions in tax cuts?
DOGE has unlawful access to tremendous amounts of data on american citizens. Intervening to protect their privacy seems very much in line with the EFF's mission.
my point is that "proper security clearance" is subjective, and as we are observing, (from what i read the other day) "clearance" is given to folks who would have never made passing the clearance checks in the very recent past (lol like a few weeks ago recent past).
is it all lawful? time will tell, and thats what EFF and others will try to decide - and good luck if any of that data is ever properly disposed of and not benefited from (aka insider knowledge).
As per the US constitution, removing funding for federal agencies requires congressional approval. What DOGE is doing has not been approved by Congress. DOGE has removed funding for federal agencies, such as USAID. It follows from these three premises that DOGE is acting unconstitutionally.
Obviously, IANAL. I took it from reading various news articles. You can find more online quite easily.
Citation required.
DOGE is part of the government, DOGE having access to data is no different from OPM employees having access to data - because they are part of the same executive branch
I don't know, just google "doge illegal". I don't feel like "DOGE is operating extra-legally" is a particularly contentious fact.
I dont see discrepancy or conflict here, would you expect donny auditing expenses by himself exclusively ?
There, I spelled it out for you. You must understand, just because Trump is president does not make him a king, although the GOP is very much pushing for that. He is still supposed to abide by the law.
What DOGE is doing is uncovering waste and running PR campaign, they do it for few more weeks, and Congress will be unable to reject DOGE's proposed cuts to federal agencies - because taxpayers are getting more and more angry at what kind of waste is being uncovered
The case is AFGE, AFL-CIO v. OPM, 1:25-cv-01237 (S.D.N.Y. 2025).[1]
[1] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69631573/american-feder...