• CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    The stupid “doge” thing was never about balancing the budget anyway. That’s all bullshit red meat for the dumbasses that voted for donvict.

  • Wren@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Let’s qualify this more accurately. It’s not lost. It’s “lost.”

    Let’s all keep an eye out for the shiny new upgrades to putin’s war crimes in Ukraine.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    2 days ago

    I think we should organize and go demand everyone working for DOGE… stop. And not demand like with funny signs and chants, but like with 2nd amendment arms.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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    2 days ago

    Wait till you see how much we loose from killing the Department of Education. Education is like the easiest ROI

    • piecat@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Just like in corporate america, the savings hit this quarter so bonuses all around. Then the CEO jumps ship and it’s someone else’s problem next quarter.

    • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It’s not the quickest though. ROI timeline is 18 years minimum for tax from non-degree level jobs, 22/23 years for degree level, and 26 to 30 years for post doctoral.

      It’s sad. The quarterly pressure to generate value is one of the worst economic forces of capitalism which drives enshitification, job-instability from the “fire bottom performing 10%” so that you can post more “profits” from cost cutting, and the general short-term thinking that pervades all aspects of the culture.

      It’s the reason “nobody” builds things to last or metaphorically plants something now for the future: it’s not profitable quick enough.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        That’s what is so sad to see - whole lotta young dumbasses with the same kind of short-term thinking dunking on “boomers” and things like Social Security. As well as unions, the post office, and public schools. Even worse when the framing of it is accompanied with some blather about “my generation” and so on, yadda yadda.

        They are probably so filled with Dunning-Kruger that it hasn’t even occurred to them that prior “generations” were told the exact same hokum and that their “generation” is not magically any different…

      • Kage520@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Totally agree. Was talking to my brother who worked for the US Corps of Engineers. He said they have a decades long outlook for their projects. So if they want to remove a dam or something, studies are done to make sure that is the smartest move not just for the next few years, but the next several decades.

        So refreshing vs the typical “new CEO wants to fire x% of the workforce to generate 1% more profit this year (ignore the fact that customers will leave when it’s that much shittier here… That’s next year’s (and next Ceo’s) problem)”.

    • Jeffool @lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Not “lost” as in “misplaced”, but “lost” as in “missed the opportunity to bring it in, in the future”.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      You’re trying to pressure the President to freeze the accounts of Donald Trump and Elon Musk? Have you checked on who the President currently is? I’ve got some bad news for you…

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    You gotta give it to Elmo, few people would have been able to pull off that feat. I mean, losing that much money takes hard work and dedication, and I’m not even kidding hete. It actually takes a certain skill set (extreme incompetency combined with an unending unearned confidence) to be able to lose that much money that quickly. I was impressed with the money he lost from Twitter, but that’s peanuts now, that’s a rounding error in comparison to what he’s losing the US now.

    • MisterOwl@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      That money isn’t lost, I think we all know who’s going to divvy it up when all is said and done.

    • smeenz@lemmy.nz
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      2 days ago

      Hey now, let’s not demean little Donny two-scoops, who has an almost equally well honed ability to lose money where it should be impossible.

  • deadkennedy@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Lost.

    Not saved. Lost. Elon and the Musketeers lost this nation half a trillion dollars.

    • Paul_1958@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      And don’t forget the 10 trillion in lost war plane sales due to "toning them down in case our allies turn on us’, just like he has turned on Canada and Europe.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        …that’s not what happened.

        This is like a fuck off huge gas turbine generator spinning at full chat and then just starting to take parts off of it and snipping fluid lines. One of the features of turbines is that they will continue to run for a bit even when they’re heading in the direction of catastrophic failure, since it’s all angular momentum and no reciprocation. But it IS going to catastrophically fail.

        This is the system just eating itself and money being - at best - siphoned into someone’s pockets, or more likely, just being outright wasted. The USAID cuts, for instance, basically locked an absolute shitload of consumables and perishables in warehouses to spoil. That’s what we’re talking about. And that’s only the most obvious example.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I’m not sure where they expect the loss, but I’m sure it’s not regular people whose paychecks have taxes withheld, and who file their taxes without major fraud.

        They’ll lose money off people like the mango Mussolini whose corporate shell game is so complex that he used to brag the IRS couldn’t afford to hire enough people to audit his taxes

    • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      No, the HAVE lost this nation half a trillion, and they are still losing more. Just “they lost” sounds like a past thing that’s over now.

  • oyo@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Imagine being so fucking dumb you use IRS data to go after immigrants who are paying taxes, thus ensuring no immigrant ever pays taxes again.

  • CircaV@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Oh so sad. Elect a clown expect a circus.

    Install an unelected billionaire, expect theft.

  • Australis13@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    It should be blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that the “Department of Government Efficiency” isn’t really about efficiency.

    • Elvith Ma'for@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      Remember, they’re talking about efficiency all day long, but they’re not mentioning effectivity with a single word.

      Efficiency is how fast/cheap/ressource-less you can get something done. Effectivity is if you’re even doing the right thing at all.

      You can be super efficient, but still not be effective by doing something, so…

      • Madison420@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I mean we can just say they aren’t about efficiency because they don’t research anything before they start making cuts it’s simply I don’t like USAID let’s gut it, I don’t like the SSA so let’s gut it.

        They know what they’re doing even if Trump somehow gets the boot we’re looking at probably 50 years or more to get back our world position if they don’t fuck our economy up so badly it’s effectively impossible to comeback.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 days ago

        Effectivity is if you’re even doing the right thing at all.

        Not exactly. It’s more about whether or not you’ve accomplished the thing you set out to do, irrespective of resources and irrespective of “right” or “wrong”.

        So in this case, if DOGE’s actual goal is the dismantling of the administrative state (literally spelled out in Project 2025), then I would say that they’ve been very effective.

        They don’t seem to care about the efficiency aspect.

      • Comtief@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        They just use the word efficiency because it sounds good. Its not like they actually care about any of what you said.

    • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      To their credit they’re destroying government to pave the way for oligarchy very efficiently

          • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 days ago

            The thing is that the environment they thrive in just isn’t sustainable.

            Food & water scarcity is going to really hurt in 20 years time.

            Trump doesn’t care because he will be long dead. He just likes signing executive orders because it demonstrates how powerful he is.

            Musk knows that in troubled times the wealthy are held accountable. Billionaires will only be able to exist in a dystopian hellscape.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            2 days ago

            They know a climate apocalypse is coming, so they all have doomsday bunkers and shit. They see themselves as the future neo-feudal rulers of whatever remains.

            If the population is culled in some way or another, prior to said climate apocalypse, then maybe it can be mitigated or averted. And they see themselves as the future neo-feudal rules of whatever remains.

            This is how they think. Some of them are just preparing for the former. Others are actively trying to bring about the latter.

            I saw someone here a while back refer to it as “Immortan Joe fantasies” if you’re familiar with Mad Max: Fury Road.

    • NimdaQA@lemmy.world
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      It makes the government more efficient at increasing waste, fraud, and abuse perhaps.

      (Judging by the downvotes, it seems some people think DOGE actually decreases waste?)

  • TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com
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    2 days ago

    MAGA/DOGE were bragging about getting like 100 billion dollars over ten years from tariffs while the US gains ~1.5 trillion dollars every year in income tax revenue.

    Everything is bad right now.

    • rocket_dragon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      This would be more than reasonable if they were actually doing what they said.

      In real life, they’re costing the US an insane amount of money, and working class taxpayers will carry the burden of paying for it as usual.

      It could easily set a new record for largest transfer of wealth from the workers to the rich in human history.

      • Letsdothisok@lemmy.world
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        they’re costing the US an insane amount of money

        How exactly does that work? Seriously don’t think you’re right about that.

        • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Vance the couch fucker.

          There was a claim that, in the first draft of his book, Vance recounted a teenage sexual encounter with a couch. In great detail.

          This claim came with an image of the text, which is easily found if you want that sort of thing.

          The truthfulness of the claim has been questioned, but Vance just seems like the kind of guy who would fuck a couch.

          • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            The truthfulness of the claim has been questioned, but Vance just seems like the kind of guy who would fuck a couch

            But not the truthiness of the claim, which I think is the more important part.

        • pyre@lemmy.world
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          you might find things other than loose change behind the cushions when there’s a couchfucker on the loose.

          • sporkler@lemmy.world
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            you write a book that gets turned into a movie, help draft the most optimistic plan for turning a reasonable functional democracy into a dictatorship, rock eyeliner at least as well as any 80’s glam-rock start, but you fuck one* couch, and that’s all you’re remembered for.

            • well, you know, the ones in the furniture store didn’t count, and the futon was technically a futon, and I was genuinely concerned that I’d be maimed by the recliner, and when I was drunk didn’t count, and beanbag chairs are barely even a chair…
  • PedroMaldonado@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    From what I hear…elon, thief and their cronies are specifically wrecking government to push a corporate takeover…jeeze. it’s like robocop.

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      And/or destabilizing the country’s economy and political power worldwide so our enemies like Russia can do whatever they want without the US interfering. The complete destruction of US soft power via things like USAID and the blatant attempts to destroy any collaboration with our allies seems to point more in that direction.

      • orclev@lemmy.world
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        Different groups, different motivations, but they’re headed in the same direction more or less so they’re working together. Trump is working to install himself as a dictator under orders from Putin. He wants to be for the US what Lukashenko is for Belarus. Ultimately he’ll be Putin’s puppet but he’ll largely have free reign within the US which is the only thing he cares about. He’s destroying all the US soft power and doing everything he can to turn all the US allies against it. Domestically he’s painting targets on the backs of as many minorities as he can in order to keep the useful idiots that elected him distracted.

        Musk meanwhile is working to establish an oligarchy and to steal or destroy as much of the US government as he can manage. Ultimately his goals are fairly transparent as he’s motivated entirely by naked greed. Since his efforts hurt US foreign relations as much as the domestic situation he’s a useful tool to Trump in his efforts to neuter the US for Putin.

        Then you’ve got the Christian nationalists in the GOP that don’t really care about what’s going on as long as they’re allowed to trample all over the first amendment and declare Christianity as the official US religion with all the associated bigotry and discrimination. Since that plays to Trump’s efforts to distract his supporters he’s perfectly fine with it, but likely keeping a close eye on that group lest any of them think about usurping his crown, particularly when he still hasn’t really gotten to go full dictator yet.

        • pathos@lemmy.world
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          I would disagree on your Musk-analysis. He and the other techbros are not after the money but after the power and influence that being in these positions nets them. The monetary gain is a side-effect. The goal is to enforce their unrealistic ideas about how to reshape society. Look up ‘Longtermism’ and the ridiculous ideas of one Curtis Yarvin. Remember MAGAts are fond of yammering about the World Economic Forum and the Gates, Soros etc? How these are supposedly trying to reshape society into some big brother-esque dystopia?

          That is what the tech-oligarchs are facilitating.

          • orclev@lemmy.world
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            Well it’s kind of both. While I agree that is a goal it’s ultimately about hoarding wealth to them. Power is wealth and wealth is power. The only reason they care about the peasants is because control over them ensures they can continue to harvest wealth and that nobody can become wealthier. Their goal isn’t any specific amount of wealth but rather they treat it as a game they’re competing in. They don’t care if they have a million dollars or a hundred trillion as long as nobody else has more.

            Everything they do is in service to acquiring more wealth for themselves and denying wealth to others including the accumulation of power. They’ll spend money to acquire power but only if that power then allows for the accumulation of more money. That’s their current play with the US government. They’re destroying the US in order to carve it up and add it to their personal hoard of wealth.

            • pathos@lemmy.world
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              If it was only that easy. The quasi-religious convictions that Musk specifically holds in regards to Longtermism go ideologically deeper than just lust for power. Why do you think he still propagates his unrealistic ideas about spearheading a mars colonization?

              Greed everybody can understand and reckon with. These ridiculous ideas make people do unintelligible things.

    • Silicon@lemmy.world
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      Worse than RoboCop, we don’t have a cool robot cop shooting dicks off to show for it