_scott

Nationalize SpaceX!!!!

i'm starting to see some scoldy posts pointing out that we are laughing about a fire on the deck of our sinking ship and i have to be honest once the ship started sinking i decided i would take the laughs where i found them

First they came for Elon Musk, and I did not speak out because I was not an unhinged narcissistic billionaire.

THIS is the infuriating bullshit.

The ‘5 things’ emails are going by the wayside as Musk readies his exit U.S. agencies maintain an inconsistent patchwork of policies relating to the DOGE leader’s demand that all federal employees submit weekly emails listing their accomplishments.

The size of the Federal workforce is over 3 million. That means that when Musk made the ask for these reports, they were on track to cost the American taxpayer about 15.9 BILLION dollars per year of overhead. How's that for efficiency?

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Assume a status email takes a worker 15 minutes to complete, and they do 48 of these a year. This means 12 DAYS of effort a year on top of performance reports that already exist in every Department. That's an average of $5300/year (average compensation is $106k for working 240 days).

Back when I worked national programs, one of the Chief Architects would sometimes estimate how much a big meeting was about to cost the American taxpayers in order to encourage us to make the best of our time. In that spirt, I've been thinking about Musk's weekly "5 Things" email:

the victim to focus on here is due process itself

🧵 THREAD: A federal whistleblower just dropped one of the most disturbing cybersecurity disclosures I’ve ever read.

He's saying DOGE came in, data went out, and Russians started attempting logins with new valid DOGE passwords

Media's coverage wasn't detailed enough so I dug into his testimony:

It struck me in 2015 how by-the-numbers the Trump propaganda approach was. There has only been recognition of it at the outer edges of the left; the fact that major media outlets have never called it what it is has been a huge disservice to America.

Every dictator in history has claimed that they’ll only use their powers to go after the worst of the worst.

Every dictator in history has lied.

Donald Trump is no different.

for when next time someone says they’re “pro-life”:

I enthusiastically aid and abet terrorism.

the mass amnesia about the past has been strong

At this point I am starting to wonder if there is White House collusion with some hedge fund managers. The market shifts would be EXTREMELY predictable if given advance notice on when some of these announcements are coming out.

Okay lets game this out: You are a Nintendo employee given unlimited funds and authority to move Switch 2 production to the US. No new factories, that's going to take way too long, you need to work with existing American Contract Manufacturing capacity. How fast can you do it?

1/x

The White House just put out a statement threatening to veto this bill if it reaches Trump's desk.

punchbowl.news/sap-s-1272/

Fourth Circuit panel, including conservative icon J. Harvie Wilkinson, unanimous in rejecting Trump administration position in case of El Salvador abductee Abrego Garcia.

The United States Government has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process. The Government's contention otherwise, and its argument that the federal courts are powerless to intervene, are unconscionable.

The Fourth Circuit is famously succinct. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Well this seems like a fantastic plan.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/h...

So we're clear: Defense contractor CEO - and only this one particular CEO - who also has authority to shift agency spending and who *also* has major business interests in China and talks to Chinese leaders, is to get the detailed operational/technical level briefing on our China OPLANs

All good.

Amid all the whining about Dems that largely ignores what role particular Dems play, it is quite significant that Murray, Senate Appropriations Ranking and so the one in discussions about making Trump follow the law to get $$, is doing this.

November 2024: Trump will save the economy
March 2025: We have returned to subsistence agriculture

No one in DC can bargain in good faith with Trump because he will not follow laws passed by Congress.

No one internationally can bargain in good faith with Trump because he will not respect agreements made by the United States.

Being a counterparty just makes you a target for another shakedown.

The DOGE Brain Drain Has Begun It’s not just jobs cut and agencies gutted. It’s the talent that will be lost for generations to come.

@samsteindc.bsky.social lays out all the ways that Trump is causing a brain drain.

This is America's competitive advantage. Trump is just pissing it away.

www.thebulwark.com/p/the-doge-b...

You know how I was screaming about this weeks ago? Well, they came right out and said it; the Trump admin would rather go after migrants than pedophiles, drug traffickers, and terrorists.

Funnily, Fox News is eerily silent about this. Because of course.

Autogolpe What’s really happening beneath the Musk/Trump chaos

Don't just ask how Musk/Trump actions serve their supposed purposes. Ask how they aid the attempt to seize power paulkrugman.substack.com/p/autogolpe

Leopard: I will eat your face

Bank analysts: Our baseline assumes no face-eating

Leopard: Chomp chomp chomp

google is becoming nearly unusable for me because of the terrible AI overview. it’s like they decided to obstruct their top product with a page of spammy misinformation.