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Tesla down 27% since the start of the year (and 39% since the all time high on Dec 17). Yes, it sparks JOY, lots of JOY.

First measles death in the USA since 2015... kid died in West Texas and lots of people in the hospital.

Not vaccinated of course.

Kennedy says they're "following the outbreak very closely" hahaha fucking clown.

Some lunatic right winger conspiracy theorist just killed their own kid based partially on his past advice.

They'll find some other way to blame mind control vaccines and some vaguely left wing related excuse.

I am viewing the Canada-Mexico tariffs delay as purely a bad faith negotiation tactic now. After the announcement, a WH staff (un-named in the news brief that I read) said despite the announced date, there is still room for negotiations. So to me, Trump is just trying to wield that stick to whip us and Mexico into falling in line, and give into whatever demands that he wants.

But it is unclear to me where he wants the concessions to take place. Most logically, re-negotiation of USMCA with terms far more favourable to the US would be the place where he wants us to give in. But so far, the whole Trump side has not really made any indications to suggest that.

Did they try shining a UV light on his balls!?

Doesn't surprise me at all, again given how many doctors I had heard about or met in Texas that were ardent anti-vax conspiracy theorists.

It's fucking wild.

whether the US applies tariffs or not, it's a huge losing game for them at this point. people are already abandoning US goods on the personal, business, and governmental level. if they do not apply them it will be a costly bluff.

the art of the deal! who knew winning could be this easy?

I like in his cabinet meeting today, Trump said "Does anyone not like what Elon is doing? If so we'll kick those people out immediately"

Yah....... nothing like having a valid difference of opinion right?

I really genuinely wonder, does Elon think he's doing good, or does he objectively know it's bad and is just trying to get back at the world for making fun of him all the time.

Of course Elon thinks he's doing good! Just ask hehe!

I think it's important to remember they have no actual allegiance to their supporters. They will gut every program to accomplish their goals despite who it harms and regardless of the damage it will cause. Their supporters are simply naive enough to believe that by voting for them they will be spared from their wrath.

OK ... so here's a small counterpoint, not saying I like what Musk is doing BUT we ALL know government is inefficient, bloated, and have a certain kind of lazy entitled culture. So, tightening government departments is something that I would think most of us would agree on, after all, we joke about it's lazy ass culture. Let's just look at our Canadian government, forget the US for a moment.

But I suppose it would be the way to 'trim the fat' from public sector and to create a better working culture. Not the cut throat way that Musk is doing it in the US.

Hehe did not put me up to say this.

Never did I imagine that I would be putting Steve Ballmer's name under the category of "Good Billionaire" but here he is doing an incredibly valuable public service. I've heard he's been a great owner of the LA Clippers as well.

This is unlike Jeff Bezos who announced today that he's killing freedom of speech at The Washington Post. The opinion section will now only focus on defending personal liberty and free markets which is gross. The news section of the Post is "untouched" but I'm not sure I'm going to keep subscribing to the Post now (I quit the NYT years ago).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/com...journalism_at/

Yes but...if I were to take the average of how efficient and effective private business is and compare it to public sector I don't know that it'd be THAT different. I've seen (and have been a part of in some cases) crazy forms of waste, stupid decision making, bad leadership, useless people etc in private sector. And I would strongly argue that govt work is harder and more complex at the high levels than private sector work - you don't have to try to please everyone (or even consider them) in private sector.

There's definitely stuff gov't can do better at and I'm surprised/impressed at how much govt workers make (the benefits! oh my! We should all have that). As you mention the cut throat way doesn't work - we're seeing quite obviously that there's actually a lot of really important work that goes in gov't and cutting it willy nilly is not just bad but outright dangerous (like Elon killing the ebola prevention team).

Edit: I believe all govt have an inspector general whose job is to audit the gov't (Trump fired them all) - there are jobs in my past where, if we had an IG, that they would have raised a few eyebrows at the way money was spent.

Look at what treatment of diseases cost in the private healthcare environment compared to the public healthcare environment and it doesn't paint the picture of less waste. The admin fees in the US are far higher than ours.

I was going to say, out of all the crazy shit they are doing down there. This honestly makes the most sense to me. Will it cause chaos? But most governments need to do this, they just need a wackjob that can see it through. No doubt it will cause pain. But if they succeed, think of how an efficiently run government can benefit everyone, not just slowing drag everyone through the mud until the end of time??

Do you think he's actually making the government more efficient, and everything that is getting scrapped is basically useless and will have no effect on anything other than saving money?

No. But if you’ve had hand in government, there is many useful departments that have useless employees that are their purely because they are too expensive to fire. Blows the budget for the year, looks awful for the council…. Looks awful for who ever is running the joint at that period in time. It’s cheaper and easier to let it run its course.

It’s take a monumental movement to clear the house, and sadly there is only one way to do it.

Is that the only thing going on? I don’t know, but that is the only way to do it. I don’t believe everything my leftist leaning feeds are completely true and can’t bring myself to believe everything being done is pure evil.

I'm sure there are useless employees and whatnot, but that's not what is being done here

The head coach of Canada's soccer team who is American on this 51 state BS.

This guy makes a good video putting some context to the scale of the US federal budget:



Essentially shutting down the entire US Government (Including the entire military) except for Health Care and Social Services, and that doesn't even get to 2 trillion in savings...

I would never comment on what it's like to be a pilot from an employment perspective because I'm not one and never have been one... and I'd hope you'd show the same respect not working for the government... even the statement "too expensive to fire" doesn't make a lick of sense man, that's not in any way how it works.

K, I hear that private and public sectors both have 'fat' argument. Hell, we don't need to be so general, I'm sure most of us have a colleague or two that appears to live off the gravy train, can be more efficient and productive, takes every sick day/wellness day allowed (1 a month to go golfing). Given. What % of public vs. private is bloated ... I'm not competent to assess. If I'm siding on public sector being more bloated, I'm really just going by anecdotes and stereotypes. I've never worked in public sector but I have friends who went from private to public exactly for the stereotypical reasons - nice pension, nice union, they can't fire you, nice benefits, etc.

Are there hard working people in public sector, of course there are. Are there lazy people in private sectors, of course there are. But is there truth to the fact that generally, public sector is more bloated than private? Ultimately you be the judge of that.

Again, not agreeing with Musk, slash, burn, nuclear options in trimming the fat on US government but just saying that if someone proposed gradually culling of 'fat' in government , most of us probably would agree. Like no new hires, let the retirees retire, offer optional paid severance laid off, trim 10%. It could save the government some money.

Am I beginning to sound like a conservative? Or a centre lib?

Well my wife is involved and that’s exactly how it is. Lol. Maybe not your department. This is municipal vs. federal. But she has led two departments as of recently after “waiting” for the head “city worker” to finally retire. As they have manipulatively held their position to do the least work, while protecting their position using the protections available. Whether withholding blackmail information for those above or otherwise. Literally just like the movies. Honestly hilarious. Once they retire new blood moves in and regenerates the departments. This is small scale, but I’m sure this doesn’t just happen on the municipal levels. It’s literally politics.

Doing that properly takes time and costs money. Past a certain point you're spending more than you're saving.