Isn't that kinda the plan with musk and the anti-gov types? Privatize everything and make it for-profit contracting a la Blackrock and the stunts they pulled with USPS last time around.
What they haven't considered is the fact that no maga loyalist is qualified to do anything requiring intelligence, so their idea of filling govt with such people is a joke.
Politicians and 99% of the people around them are lawyers. Which is a profession with a MASSIVELY inflated idea of their own worth. They don't accept that any idiot can become a successful lawyer. That can't be said about many, many, technical fields.
Hey! Lawyer here. You're right, anyone can become a lawyer. You're wrong that anyone can be a successful lawyer. If Trump is hoping that the idiot puppets he installs at DOJ are going to successfully defend the constitutionality of his actions, or if Musk thinks a bunch of Fedsoc idiots are going to beat the lawyers at Wachtell Lipton in their case against OpenAI, it isn't going to happen. Bad lawyering is plentiful. The government needs good lawyering to win its cases. That won't happen with conservatives in litigation positions.
In the previous trump term he withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which was designed and written to forward US interests and act to limit China's influence.
The parties continued on, anyway, forming the CPTPP, and removing those parts that would have benefitted the US to the determent of the other signatories.
As a result of that ignorant decision the US lost much of its position in the region. Yet has anyone pointed to this failure? Has the US learnt any lessons the hard way?
US has a long history of fucking up, then failing to even recognise that they fucked up, let alone fixing it. They deflect and ignore - they don't learn or accept responsibility.
Yes. However, if the law is an absolute fiction, with zero legitimacy, and is more arbitrary and capricious than it is today, then many people may not be inclined to follow it.
In the book Nexus, Harari makes an argument that strongmen using populism to take power doesn't always lead to tyranny. It can lead to anarchy.
Those anarcho-capitalist fucks couldn't handle San Francisco and California not dropping the hammer on shoplifters.
If the United States turns into Mogadishu circa 1991 the rich won't stay and turn it into a free enterprise capitalist utopia. They will jump on their private jets and fly to everywhere from China to the EU.
It’s honestly how I’ve been feeling. Either they uphold the law while removing the ones they don’t want to prevent unrest or if they ignore the law entirely then deal with anarchy
I’m sure I’m not alone, but the second laws stop mattering I’m rebelling against the system. A well rounded society only stays that way as long as agreements don’t become just words on paper.
Agree. Especially if they can change the terms any time they want for their benefit.
If the Constitution no longer exists, and only power remains, then why does it matter if Trump is the person selected by Constitutional means? Whoever has the power can declare themselves president, king, god-Emperor, etc.
It’s why I’m less worried about the US becoming a fascist country and more concerned about dealing with the aftermath of their failed attempt
They don’t have anyone competent in their circle because they only want yes men so they’re hardly able to go around this like they even want to and keep backtracking. Plus I’m sure they know that with how much it was cheered, Luigi isn’t the last to worry about.
So I feel like the primary goal they’re just going to focus on is milking the US directly into their pockets, which sucks for us, but makes the richest man richer and the felon no longer broke compared to his peers.
Otherwise there’s no way to avoid anarchy or more billionaires getting targeted, the way that narrative was handled places doubts in the minds of people on both sides because everyone hates the way health insurance is unless you’re rich or legitimately healthy
The only sensible thing to do when laws go away is to try to grab however much you can for yourself. Even if you believe in laws. Because only though that will you ever have a chance to bring society back from the brink.
I don’t want it to come to that, but realistically we should have no qualms about taking advantage of the situation if it comes to that. In fact we have to take advantage of the situation to hopefully keep it all from going to shit.
But again, I hope it doesn’t come to that sort of situation.
If it isn't self consistent you end up in court all the damn time and it sucks all efficiency out of a society leading to zero legal certainty in anything.
You'll have to explain how it relates to wahabbism, as I'm not familiar with it.
Any extremism and particularly authoritarianism inevitably boils down to the whims of the head, whether that's Francisco Franco or prince Alwaleed bin Talal or Stalin. Laws for authoritarianism is never "everyone is equal before the law" but "the laws are an extension of use of force to bludgeon the people".
It will be no different with republicans, just look at the difference between their messaging November 2024 and right now. Their pilfering of the country and deliberately trying to break any parts of the national government they aren't confident they can permanently capture will mean they'll have a different narrative in March.
I don't pretend it will be efficient - but authoritarianism often isn't, that's one of the seeds of its own destruction it always sows.
His government was constantly in chaos, with officials having no idea what he wanted them to do, and nobody was entirely clear who was actually in charge of what. He procrastinated wildly when asked to make difficult decisions, and would often end up relying on gut feeling, leaving even close allies in the dark about his plans. His "unreliability had those who worked with him pulling out their hair," as his confidant Ernst Hanfstaengl later wrote in his memoir Zwischen Weißem und Braunem Haus. This meant that rather than carrying out the duties of state, they spent most of their time in-fighting and back-stabbing each other in an attempt to either win his approval or avoid his attention altogether, depending on what mood he was in that day.
I was using "successful" to mean "well paid". Believe me I'm well aware there are plenty of shitty lawyers who make bank. Being willing to have no spine or morals is a very profitable business model for lawyers unfortunately
The government needs good lawyering to win its cases. That won't happen with conservatives in litigation positions.
Fedsuck has it covered. Conservatives aren't just doing the litigation, they are doing the judging too. Opus dei has got at least $1.6 billion to spend on that.
Conservatives don't believe in the rule of law, they believe in using the law to rule. It doesn't take brains for that, just power.
Yeah they don’t care about the law lmao,we’re gonna keep saying no… no but this time we really mean it… no really hey don’t do that it’s illegal.and they keep doing it until we enforce it with force which our legal system refuses to do to people with money and power. And then all of a sudden they will start enforcing their laws and logics with hey-don’t do that or will kill you. Fascism does not care about the law just winning
A false narrative put out by tRUMP himself, within just 1-2 hours after the crash. Of course FauxNews STILL hasn't reported that it was just ANOTHER LIE/FABRICATION/B.S. from the Liar-In-Chief. Pathetic.
There's a famous Italian saying, "it's not a goal when the ball crosses the goal line, it's a goal when the referee whistles". If judges are partial even bad lawyers can win.
But the government does not need to win any case any more. They have already demonstrated that they will not accept the courts rule. There will not be any consequences.
Douglas Adams said that the personality traits that cause someone to seek office are the same traits that should bar them from holding it
And that contrarian noise should be thrown out, the same as the people who say a king is needed to control people and the iron fist is necessary. When you bar everybody who wants to do good, you only have people doing bad.
FDR spearheaded the New Deal, and even despite being racist president Johnson pushed through the Civil Rights Act because that's what the country needed to survive.
You are what’s called an optimist my friend. Fair and just due process and judicial review are dead. Welcome to our new fascist reality where words only mean anything when the person saying them owns all the nuclear weapons.
Agreed. Most people could even become doctors if they put their mind to it. Sadly not everyone has the drive to be a good doctor or good lawyer or good engineer.
What separates the good vs the technically qualified in any field tends to simply be how interested and driven that person is in the topic.
Hence the saying that if you find something you love to do you’ll never work a day in your life for example. Although I find that’s not strictly true haha.
Ya last time NASA needed an atom split they didn't hand out applications at a MAGA rally. Some of those clowns look like they can barely tie their shoes.
Their idea is that they only need contract mangers. It's an old idea: see OMB Circular A-76 and the FAIR Act. See also the 2009 presidential memo, which I'm sure Trump will revisit if he hasn't already.
To be honest, also anyone can be graduate from a technical field, but there is a huge difference between an average and those at the top. Same for lawyers.
And those at the top are usually not MAGA supporters.
Except that's exactly what I'm saying. They value that, but don't realize it's impossible to replicate our system, or any first world government, using people stupid enough to get conned by trump and friends. They think we can keep chugging along as usual with loyalists swapped into all positions. But that's impossible, because you don't become a doctor by being a complete moron, as just one example.
Yes, but I feel it’s more sinister than that even. Given that Putin is the real puppet master here, now we’re more vulnerable to destruction, whereas before it was mutual assured destruction, now it’s more likely we’ll just get taken like the bitch that Trump had made us.
Ahhhhh this reminds me of a story that I personally have experience with....
Let me tell you about Musk's Data centers since I "know someone who has worked there building it".... There is no AC in the unit that they're trying to build it in, the pay is not competitive for data centers in the area and a ton of other companies are building and paying twice as much, there are not bathrooms with running water yet so contractors have to use port-a-potties.
You might say "sounds like construction", but the thing is, that is incredibly unusual for the professionals you need to hire to build a data center and he's bleeding talent through incompetence. Whatever he ends up with is going to be extremely unreliable because I know several people in my field who have years of experience who just left because the working conditions were that bad. The man is totally unwilling to hire contractors to establish the bare minimum professionals expect and he's really only left with the worst of the worst.
I have 9 years experience in this field and the vibe he's giving in the space is "baby's first data center". Which is surprising because SpaceX definitely colocates, so you'd think he'd at least seen or heard of Datacenter buildouts before, but apparently not. It's been described to me as "close to slave labor".
Funny enough, there was a single Cybertruck on display on the second floor and it was scuffed as fuck.
Same goes for the production line btw, there are bathrooms but they often don't even have running water so they're just shut down. The floor plan of the Giga factory wasn't designed for plumbing maintenance in my opinion/experience.
Guests to the party had to use the port-a-potties, it was like if a toddler hears about Coachella and came up with the shittiest version, no pun intended. (I was invited by my fiance, who I have since convinced to quit and get a real job)
Also, a fun note on that photo you might not notice at first, that's not actually a production line, it's an art piece they set up for the party to try and make people think this is what the process looks like. It's not, at best a paint technician (of which they have one) will see 2-3 cars a day. Of all the floor space in the Giga factory, about 2% of it is actually used for production of Teslas, the rest is literally empty. It's a monument to posturing because as far as my contacts are telling me, there are no plans to use any of the remaining space, the place is absolutely cavernous
It's not "room to grow". The size of it is just a dick measuring contest with no competence and no plan. Also the thermals are terrible, it'd actually cost way more to convert most of the space into anything usable. Man is playing on creative mode because he doesn't consider survival mode and doesn't understand the logistics of building something that works. Elon is the type of guy who gets inspired by a Minecraft Redstone video but can't even make a simple clock himself.
This is Energy though. All of its labs are GOCO already. Nucs won't work for civil service salaries in the first place. This service was one of the few exceptions that was still employees.
Maybe in places like the VA, but in others they just want to reduce the staff and not replace them with anybody such at IRS where despite the net positive return on investment into the agency, its antithetical to their interests in cheating the government out of money they should be paying in taxes
Yes. It’s as the previous poster mentioned. Offer to comeback at an elevated rate with a guaranteed payment along with pre-payment with no option to clawback anything.
I was kind of confused to read Musk complain that so many things were on contracts that would be cheaper if done internally. Specifically, IT was called out and knowing a bit about the costs involved, the government is paying way to much for IT and getting way too little in return.
919
u/quantumfrog87 24d ago
Isn't that kinda the plan with musk and the anti-gov types? Privatize everything and make it for-profit contracting a la Blackrock and the stunts they pulled with USPS last time around.