This is how Elon's Department of Government Efficiency will work – overwriting the US Digital Service US President Donald Trump has renamed the US Digital Service the Department of Government Efficiency and given it a mission to modernize government technology. The Department (DOGE) is a pet project of Elon Musk, who in a November 2024 article described its mission as “to cut the federal government down to size” through “ …
Way to go! Per "Sec. 3. DOGE Structure": "The United States Digital Service [(USDS)] is hereby publicly renamed as the United States DOGE Service (USDS)". And next up, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) could be publicly renamed as the United States Energy Production Agency (USEPA) ... brilliant! Saves money on signposts without sowing undue confusion (or not?).
The obliquely coupled medieval chief magistrate of Venice or Genoa couldn't be prouder (in all of its four-letter crossword glory).
What a brilliant choice to have Musk running things. How many BILLIONS has he sunk into Xitter only to bleed users like a stuck pig and money along with it?
Musk uses other people to get the job done and claims credit as if he did it personally.
You've got a toxic, childish, greedy psycho loose on top of Drumpf now. Two psychos for the price of one election.
Man did the American voters ever screw themselves and the world along with them...
Somehow I don't think any of the Medici would be flattered by even the most oblique comparison with Trump, Musk or the rest of the MAGA rabble.
Indeed if any of them were extant I would be very careful of what I ate and drank, after making such comparison... certainly avoiding dark alleys.
This lot - less il Principe more il Pagliacco.
I would be very careful of what I ate and drank
Given the state of safe drinking water in certain parts of the US, and the food that is banned from being imported to certain parts of the world, you do have to be concerned as those are more likely to deteriorate into the future
il Pagliacco
I think you meant 'Pagliacci':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagliacci
"Pagliacci (Italian pronunciation: [paʎˈʎattʃi]; literal translation, 'Clowns')[a] is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who murders his wife Nedda and her lover Silvio on stage during a performance."
(Sorry)
Could they license Elmo (from Sesame Street) to use as their mascot?
Now, how long before we start naming government facilities GIGA-<something>?
Although there is one bit of efficiency I would support. Get the US government out of the fucking public cloud. There is no reason an organization the size of pretty much every federal agency shouldn't be hosting their own cloud. How about this, USDS could build a huge cloud datacenter, 100 percent operated by Federal employees, and provide cloud services for the rest of the US Federal government. (just as long as they don't call it US GigaCloud)
Because it's so much better to put your data outside your secure environment on AWS, Azure, Oracle, where you don't have control of the border security, network configuration, or host system. Requiring all of your data requests to exit your secure environment and transit the Internet.
The USG would require multiple datacenters for redundancy. (fortunately they already own 1000s). And surely if they are competent enough to set up cloud architecture, they would be able to segregate tenant space. Not to mention the USG has many data classifications and storage of those would require segregation.
The USG is the largest cloud customer for any provider. They have the $$$ to buy the equipment and hire the personnel to do the job properly. Expertise would not be a problem. Centralizing would improve compliance with a coherent, standardized security posture. The risks are all political because big companies would lose a lot of revenue. Bezos and his peers need more yachts.
And speaking of numerous servers getting hacked, see Salt Typhoon.
"The outlet said that Musk had “privately undercut” Ramaswamy for weeks and grown frustrated with Ramaswamy’s lack of engagement in the Doge project, which aims to cut dozens of government programs and agencies, along with thousands of jobs, in a bid for government efficiency.
“Vivek has worn out his welcome,” one person close to Trump told CBS."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/elon-musk-doge-lawsuit
As Sgt Major Williams would say, "Oh dear, how sad, never mind".
What are the odds on Trump and Musk remaining best buddies?
What are the odds on Trump and Musk remaining best buddies?
That's a good question, as one has more wealth than you can imagine, and the other one has power, albeit temporary.
This will make an interesting clash of personalities, or they'll become allies.
Depends which one of them annoys the other one first!
Well one interpretation of this is the Trump team (who actually write the Exec Orders) are attempting to consign Elon to sorting out the Fed's IT. Something Elon is probably well qualified to do. Consigning him to IT might keep him out of the more political headaches and, more importantly, the news headlines at Trump's expense.
Like yesterday with one flick of the arm.
Knowing some (UK) government IT upper management: Musk is definitely overqualified.
I'm not even expecting him to be able to tie his own shoelaces to be smarter than the so-called IT experts who somehow bluffed their way into government IT upper management (at least, over here). And I doubt he could inflict the US with the kind of embarrassing disasters that are a result.
Was unfortunate enough to meet some of the UK Government IT upper managers... and I know of the mess they make of government projects. The reason they survive: They move on BEFORE things fall apart, leaving some other poor sap to try to salvage something from the mess. It's the latter who are the reason why things aren't quite so bad over here - even though the project does go over time and over budget (fixing the mess isn't quick, nor cheap, you know!).
So I doubt Musk will be as bad.
Or perhaps I hope, for the sake of the American people, he's not...
Something Elon is probably well qualified to do.
Elon is patently unqualified to oversee massive migrations of legacy data and infrastructure, having only ever worked in new-build environments on a "Move fast and break things"/"Fail rapidly" basis.
It is very weird to suggest that he has any meaningful expertise in migrating legacy government systems from (say) a creaking and inflexible - but highly reliable - mainframe infrastructure to something more modern, distributed or with more scope for a better user/public-facing services.
Even sober and planned migrations like that of TSB and HSBC (Eyes passim) can go badly wrong.
The idea that such migrations will happen on Elon time-scales (and after he's sacked half the staff) is laughable.
Except it's not laughable, because it's easy to rip stuff out and much harder to put it back together. Elon could wreak havoc in 12 months that will take a decade (and $B) to put back together.
All money appropriations are, by the Constitution, the duty of the congress to fund. Of course Trump could use the same dodge he used for the border wall last time (and stupidly signed off on by the Supreme Court) by declaring a military emergency and using funding from the Pentagons budget. Which is an irony to end all ironies as the military has for decades been one of the most wasteful agencies in the US. Hey, I want my country to be strong militarily but at 800+ million dollars and probably heading for a nice round trillion in the next four years (still more than the next 8 countries, some of them until very recently allies, COMBINED) somebody needs to say no once in a while.
Technically speaking that did not require any appropriations of funds, they had already been appropriated and spent. And one should note that the Supreme Court shot it down a couple of times, unlike the false claim of military emergency. Finally the whole student loan program has been a cluster f*ck of epic proportions mainly due to high interest rates (that I believe started after it was privatized) which has some people attempting to pay the loan off 20 years after it was made and still not having made any real progress on the principle. I'm not sure how this differs from indentured servitude other than the servants can sometimes manage to pay off the debt before they die.
mainly due to high interest rates (that I believe started after it was privatized) which has some people attempting to pay the loan off 20 years after it was made and still not having made any real progress on the principle
When I had student loans in the 90s, they were on a 30 year repayment schedule and over 7%. (down from 8.25% due to a one time refinance option)
While I can sympathize with the rising cost of education and the indoctrination of the parents that their precious little snowflakes MUST have a college degree, the terms were explained to them in advance and previous generations fought the same issues. If you entered the job market in the Reagan years, you know that the difficulty of finding a good paying job isn't a new thing.
"which has some people attempting to pay the loan off 20 years after it was made and still not having made any real progress on the principle."
Some of that might be blamed on colleges offering and people taking degrees in subjects with no market value. Since there's no way to discharge the loans in bankruptcy, the lenders were happy to write the contracts. IF those loans could be BK'd off the books, the lenders might take a keen interest in the degree sought and the amount being borrowed. That would have prevented colleges from whomping up useless liberal arts degrees that don't lead to worthwhile jobs.
"I'm not sure that liberal arts degrees are 'useless', "
Not all are, but there are things being offered at colleges that have zero value. They wouldn't otherwise be in the catalog in a rational world as only a few people with the means to fund the degree path would take them. In a lot of history, people that have done in-depth research into many niche things have been children of wealthy parents. The work they have done is valid and useful, but more than a handful of people doing it would be overkill. There were also many areas within the arts that were acceptable for a lady, especially a Lady.
I have have supervised some interns that were on course tracks for things like "Aerospace Engineering" where I felt the degree was too shallow and those interns would have been better off reading for a Mechanical Engineering degree with a aerospace specialty since the education would be broader and give them more opportunities. A friend got her BSME with a rotating machinery specialty and works wherever she likes from nuclear plants to companies that make food processing equipment. I think she off again after having increase world population by one more, again. I met her when we were both working on rockets.
TL:DR, going deep into debt for a degree that companies don't need or value is not good.
Military spending significantly influences the U.S. economy.
You could go as far as saying without the Military Industrial Machine the US economy would be a very different picture.
The challenge you have with such a large military is if it's not being used for actual benefit, when not at war, then why spend so much.
Of course, as with all Militaries, it is supported by subordinate functions which directly benefit from the Military, think car show rooms, strip clubs, boozers, home improvement depots etc.
Most of the rest of the world has scaled it's military to suit actual operations, or actual threats, whereas the US appears to grow its spend in the defence space every year, which in turn supports the Military Industrial Machine.
> which in turn supports the Military Industrial Machine.
Complex.
It is the Military Industrial Complex.
A "machine" is something that does (useful) work, hence the classic machine being the lever.
The "complex" is a load of messily interconnected things, having both a real and an imaginary part, leading to a collection of psychological symptoms, including a heavy dose of paranoia (e.g. "they are coming to take away my funding").
that one in the corner > "A "machine" is something that does (useful) work, hence the classic machine being the lever."
Not necessarily:
See, for example, William Heath Robinson, the Wallace and Gromit 'documentaries' or: https://www.instructables.com/The-Most-Useless-Machine/
Au contraire, every Heath Robinsonesque machine does *extremely* useful work: it keeps us entertained! And in the good way.
If you go to the Heath Robinson Museum or a Tim Hunkin installation then you'll be left trying to decided how they've managed to beat Thermodynamics: you'll emit far more chuckle energy out than there is any right to be present.
"Military spending significantly influences the U.S. economy."
Indeed it does, however I'm sure we could find more than a few things that are more important than wasteful spending. Badly needed infrastructure repair and providing multi-billion dollar subsidies for soy bean farmers after the Chinese started buying from other sources due to tariffs from a previous Trump administration come to mind. Can't wait for the new tariffs ones to be implemented. Plus some of the MIC (new TLA?) companies have been making a killing due to the Vlad the Invader's war on Ukraine. Just to be clear I fully approve of the aid to Ukraine unlike the new administration. And no, I know trump will not be able to stop it in 24 hours just like it was laughable that anybody believed that Mexico could be forced to pay for the wall. Apparently somebody forgot to tell Trump that he was not elected king of the world. At this point I can only hope for the best, which will not be good and prepare for the worst, which could be a disaster.
Plus some of the MIC (new TLA?) companies have been making a killing due to the Vlad the Invader's war on Ukraine. Just to be clear I fully approve of the aid to Ukraine unlike the new administration.
Supporting Ukraine makes perfect sense, so of course the new administration wouldn't agree with it.
1. we flushed out all the old equipment and ammunition from our stockpiles and replaced it with shiny new stuff.
2. we got to see how older generation equipment worked against Russia's 1st line military equipment and strategies. (not some proxy country)
3. we got to encourage Ukraine to try out military strategies against one of our primary opponents.
4. we gained a lot of knowledge on new strategies from outside our military's echo chamber. (COTS drones, for example)
Not a single US soldier has been put at risk. We got the deal of the century to do the right thing.
"Most of the rest of the world has scaled it's military to suit actual operations, or actual threats, "
At least "credible" threats. It's hard to quantify an "actual" threat sans one being on offer.
A lot of US spending has been pushed along by a fear of the Russians having something that it turns out years later they didn't. In present times is as much the Chinese as the Russians. It seems more likely to me that the battlefield with China is commerce. They can wage war on that front while making money at the same time. The other way does the opposite.
"You think America could have defeated the Taliban with only 19 carrier battle groups, rather than 20?"
They couldn't do it with 100, but perhaps 1. The issue was the ROE (Rules of Engagement), not the force that could be brought to bear. The goal would also have to be to defeat the Taliban. I'm not sure the US politicians had any goals with respect to Afghanistan.
Military spending significantly influences the U.S. economy.
Indeed. It hides the USA's social welfare programmes, which subsidises private industry's unwillingness to invest or train their staff.
Can't afford college? Join the military and they'll put you through a degree.1
Become a signaller and get stacked with your <Vendor> networking certs ready for a career in the private sector. We can't expect private enterprise to train their staff or pay for CPD after all.
Just don't join the infantry.
Plus, lifetime socialised healthcare through the VA!
Service means citizenship!
1. Success may very with trade and branch
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Of course, the US could spend that military budget direct on education and healthcare. There's no real need to make people join a bloated military as salaried personnel to access those opportunities. They could work as productive private sector workers and still access those benefits, reducing cost to the taxpayer. Or we could spend it on infrastructure, by hook or by crook. A canny president - recognising the need for better rail connectivity across the US for freight and passengers - could order the Army Corp of Engineers to design and start construction on such a network for defence purposes, in the same way they manage other - dubiously military - civil engineering projects like Mississippi flood control. The fact that those lines would then be predominantly used by civilian Amtrak services, making use of free space when the military aren't shifting materiel - would be a complete coincidence.
This would all benefit the US economy (because public spending makes the private sector work - since all money ultimately comes from the government/Fed, unless it's counterfeit!). It doesn't need to be military to benefit the economy. Infrastructure, healthcare and transport would also work.
"Can't afford college? Join the military and they'll put you through a degree.1"
The US Navy was after me to join and do nuclear stuff. It turned out that it's a lifetime hitch. You do boot camp, get a fleet assignment, come back and go to school, back on active duty, back to school, more active duty, lather rinse repeat until I'd wind up with a PhD in nuclear engineering. After a couple of decades or so of that, I'd wind up on reserve subject to recall. There were some downsides for not doing well in school up to an AdSep (less than honorable discharge).
I've had several friends that worked on military bases and it's contractors and civil servants that get the most interesting work. A friend that passed away a couple of years ago maintained T-38 jets. Military folk filled them with Jet-A and flew them, but civies turned the wrenches. I know a couple of people that started in the military aiming for electronics training which wound up being following flowcharts (rigorously) and swapping modules more than theory and component level work. They were sufficiently interested to go to college after their hitch and let the government pay for their BSEE. The Army wasn't going to give them that education while in-service.
"The fact that those lines would then be predominantly used by civilian Amtrak services, making use of free space when the military aren't shifting materiel - would be a complete coincidence."
Amtrak is supposed to have about $65bn for improvements and updates right now unless something orange happens. Part of the reason for the formation of Amtrak by the US government was to make sure that passenger rail did not go away. I love it and going by how much trains will fill up, it's gaining popularity again. With new rolling stock and more routes/stops, I hope that interest continues. I'm pretty sure that the military transport aspect wasn't a secret. That it could also be used in the event of a large disaster to move people away from an area and others into a place is a good resource to have. The route from New Orleans to Florida is still needing to be reopened after hurricane Katrina (I think it was Katrina that messed up the tracks).
But Amtrack is slow. Very slow. How slow? Thanks for asking ... A little quick research shows it is about 2430 train-miles from San Diego to New York. There are 9 trains leaving SD for NY per day. The fastest makes the trip in just over 72 hours on a good day (or three). That's an average of about 33.7 MPH ... I can easily drive cross country faster than taking the train.
In fact, the Wife, Daughter and I spelling each other in the Peterbilt have made the drive from Sonoma, California to Allentown, New Jersey and back (5,800 miles, give or take) in under 100 hours. Not once, but several times. Without even bending the speed limits. (Yes, "limits", plural ... interstate highway truck speeds vary by state. Here in California, it's 55MPH, cross the border into Nevada and it becomes 80MPH.)
Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy traveling by train. Amtrack is the vacation, not transportation to a vacation.
"But Amtrack is slow. Very slow. How slow? Thanks for asking ... A little quick research shows it is about 2430 train-miles from San Diego to New York. There are 9 trains leaving SD for NY per day. The fastest makes the trip in just over 72 hours on a good day (or three). That's an average of about 33.7 MPH ... I can easily drive cross country faster than taking the train."
The speed is a big problem and a good portion of that is having to share tracks with freight and running 40 year old stock.
San Diego to NY isn't a direct train so one routing would be SD>LA>Chicago>NY and having to change trains against schedules that don't align with most routes only having one departure per day. With the very poor on-time figures, you don't want to try and connect from Chicago to NY on the same day as you'd likely not make it and going out the next day after a rescheduling might mean a coach seat. All of that said, I heartily agree that taking the train is the point, not getting to point B as fast as possible. Travelocity shows that flights between San Diego and Newark non or one stop depart 53x per day and aren't all that expensive provided you are under 5'6" and can fold up into an economy seat along with your luggage.
I took a train to see X perform in Albuquerque, NM last year. All things considered, especially the 24 hours of estimated drive time round trip, I found it a better way to go. Driving would have been faster and flying cheaper than both (discounting the needed counseling for the trauma inflicted by airport "security"). An overnight train both ways with my BYO G&T kits was bonus.
Years ago I held a California CDL and I also used to do courier work as a side hustle when wet signatures on documents was the norm. I did one job carrying around $1mn worth of CPU's when those were crazy expensive and that $$ amount would fit in a couple of medium sized boxes. FedEx or UPS weren't good options. I think Fedex has a high value secure service, but they'd be far more expensive. The courier work was often cannonball runs consuming lots of coffee.
But Amtrack is slow. Very slow. How slow? Thanks for asking ... A little quick research shows it is about 2430 train-miles from San Diego to New York. There are 9 trains leaving SD for NY per day. The fastest makes the trip in just over 72 hours on a good day (or three). That's an average of about 33.7 MPH ... I can easily drive cross country faster than taking the train.
Amtrak isn't slow. The private freight lines they run passenger services over are slow. And those freight lines are great. They shift huge numbers of containers (and semi-trailers) safely, efficiently and keep that national traffic off the highways, leaving space for local and regional traffic. But we could hardly expect the private sector to ever invest in upgrading their 19th century railroads to support modern passenger services.
Hence my suggestion for doing what the nation did in the 1960s and build an interstate (high speed) rail network. They did it for cars, but never for trains. Which is a problem for people who can't drive either through lack of a licence, personal preference, disqualifying disabilities, or having kids not-of-driving-age who definitely can't take a turn in the Peterbilt...
Much of the USA's declining economic condition can be traced to declining access to healthcare, education and employment and contracting social mobility, some of which has to do with the cost of healthcare and education, but quite a bit of which also has to with physical access - the state of public transport. Of course we get more into (sub-)urban transit there, but national and regional transit also plays a role. There's really no reason why someone in St Louis shouldn't be able to jump on a train to Chicago or Indianapolis for a job interview and be there in 90minutes. But driving takes 4.5 hours, the Texas Eagle (train) takes 5:15 and the Greyhound is nearer 7hours. Madness in a first world country. Most of the mid-west cities should be 90minutes apart. The same is true of the DFW-Austin-Houston triangle. Put those regional lines in place with nationally standardised signalling/platform height/loading gauges and it becomes a very small job to then hook them together into a national network for coast-to-coast sleepers and the like.
Some will point to the fact that there are 14-15 flights per day between St Louis and Chicago, and they "only" take 70minutes, which of course is a minimum of 2 hours by the time you get past Touch-Squeeze-Assault, and you also need your airport transfer at either end. That's without asking if the US can really afford the climate cost of running that many short-haul flights - c.f. the current state of Los Angeles or Lake Mead.
Amtrak is supposed to have about $65bn for improvements and updates right now unless something orange happens.
Unfortunately $65Bn is table stakes given how little investment has had over the decades. Doesn't even catch you up really (per your point about the New Orleans route). And of course a lot of their routes are rented from private freight firms anyway, so out of their hands.
What AmTrak needs is a national high speed network. In theory this could enable a coast-to-coast service in about 14hours, which would be a really nice sleeper (beats spending a day in an airport/flying).
But more pragmatically, that would simply be a happy end result of stitching together various regional high speed networks which could do things like get you between most mid-west cities in 60-120minutes, or similar for the Dallas-Houston-San-Antonio/Austin triangle. This beats the hell out of 4-5 hours of driving.
A fast rail network would also be very handy for the likes of FedEx to run fast parcel freight trains as an adjunct to their air freight operations. Realistically, including ground handling and trans-shipping from the airport, a parcel train arriving in a city centre station overnight and exchanging some cages before speeding on, will be just as quick as driving parcels to the airport freight terminal, loading, flying, unloading and sorting for onward shipping or delivery.
I don't think he has done anything (officially) other than rename the agency. He would have considerable latitude though in interpreting how the agency performs it's mission. Technically the Congress is the only one with authority to allocate money, but as we saw from his last term the Whitehouse has access to a considerable slush fund for pet projects. It's not like they are being tasked to build a wall.
And Elmo's DOGE would still be separate. I suspect any position he would accept would be high enough to require Congressional approval. And who knows if he can pass a drug test.
You mean what the (Anti-Nazi) Anti-Defamation League explicitly defined as just 'an awkward gesture':
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/20/trump-elon-musk-salute
But to save you the time of reading through the Guardian article:
"In a statement posted to social media later on Monday, the ADL said: “This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety.
“It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge. In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.” "
*EVERY* historian so far with expertise in the National Socialist era and inter- and post-war politics has branded it a Nazi gesture. If the people who actually *study* this stuff say it's a Nazi gesture, it most likely is.
Any claims of "Roman gesture" or "awkward gesture" are just dodging the elephant in the room. The ADL especially should be ashamed, given their purpose to call this kind of crap out.
Is this like the 51 intelligence officials?
And when you say 'every' and then 'so far' is that just 1? And how many of the experts were actually alive during the initial era? Or is this just a bunch of academics who suffer from TDS and only work on fourth hand information trying to get some screen time on CNN?
>Sorry, what's TDS?
testosterone deficiency syndrome - an unfortunate condition which forces people to drive pickup trucks and carry guns to compensate for
Sorry to bring serious issues to an interesting discussion, but Monday 27th January is Holocaust Memorial Day. Anything that appears to be even remotely like a NAZI salute would not be appropriate. 7 Million Russians (of whom 1.5 million were Jews), 6 million Jews, hundreds of thousands of other supposedly 'undesirable' peoples, such as Roma, Communists, Trades Unionists, Pacifists, Homosexuals, physically or mentally handicapped, and non-Aryan people murdered should all be remembered.
Note: all numbers are very approximate as the NAZIs destroyed records, and some of the women will have been pregnant.
Well said - have an upvote.
And just as anything that appears like a Nazi salute is especially inappropriate at this time, so is any casual use of Nazi as an insult for people whose politics we happen to disagree with.
We could all do with reading more history and less social media posts.
so is any casual use of Nazi as an insult for people whose politics we happen to disagree with
Agreed. Which one of Umberto Eco's 14 traits of fascism do you think are not accurate to describe Trump?
* Cult of tradition? ✓
* Rejection of modernism? ✓
* Action for actions sake? ✓
* Disagreement is treason? ✓
* Fear of difference? ✓
* Appeal to a frustrated middle class? ✓
* Enemies are both strong and weak? ✓
* Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy? ✓
* Contempt for the weak? ✓
* Cult of death? ✓
* Machismo? ✓
* Selective populism? ✓
* Newspeak? ✓
Spade is a fucking spade.
Giving Nazis "the benefit of the doubt" is how they thrive.
The ADL are - unforutnately - not merely concerned with anti-semitism but are historically extremely Zionist and pro-Israel. Given that the Prime Minister of Israel is a borderline fascist, facing international charges of war crimes, and the ADL have been deemed "generally unreliable" on the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (such as labeling pro-Palestinian activists as antisemitic), we have to take the ADL's position with a pinch of salt as they have allowed their credibility to slip via a series of unwise proclamations. This is just the latest.
The ADL attacked Trump remorselessly in his first term, but seem to have softened their stance given that Trump is backing Israel's campaign of genocide (apparently they consider carpet bombing neighbourhoods to constitute a "precision strike"). Just yesterday Trump revoked sanctions against Israeli colonialists who had settled land on the West Bank through force. I was under the impression that colonialism was bad. But the US and Israel have decided otherwise.
It's weird how people continue to give Britain grief for the undoubtedly dark actions in the days of Empire but - rather than taking a way a message that slavery and genocide is bad - then turn around and say "well anyway, watch this!".
"Then there is that salute to explain away - Is there some medical condition akin to a "trigger finger" that effects the arm?"
I believe that it is known as the "Bellamy Salute" and was used in US schools during the Pledge of Allegiance up until the end of 1942 - it was named after the author of said pledge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute
As such, it would appear to be a particularly US thing.
It'll be funded by MAGA magic, jake... get with the program(me)!
It's all the billions saved from cancelling all DEI initiatives, and booting out all the trans people and stopping all abortion services and and and that'll pay (for) the DOGE.
In all seriousness though - if it wasn't for the guy who signed the paperwork and the guy who is meant to run it, I would say that this might not be a bad thing... Killing off all the little fiefdoms with all their "not invented here so not a good thing" and "all the data is ours and ours alone" attitudes (*specially* the DoD, DoS and their sprawling mess of agencies) could be a more streamlined government experience. But, like I said in the beginning, if it wasn't for the guy who signed the paperwork and the guy who is meant to run it...
It would be efficient for the US government to put all data it has on every citizen into One Database to Replace them All, and let every government official, from the Director of Political Reliability down to the Chief of Poultry Control in Claptrap, Iowa, access every bit of data, via the Internet, regardless of "need to know" or lack thereof, without the time-wasting procedure of entering passphrases or other authentication keys.
But being efficient doesn't make that a good idea.
>... has re-named the US Digital Service the Department of Government Efficiency and given it a mission to modernize government technology.
Oracle has just ordered half a dozen 3MW pumps for it's marketing office to pump out the saliva currently flooding the basement from the executive suite. A crack team of the filthiest whores in all Bogota** has been flown in to try and grind down the raging boners before they need medical intervention.
**apologies to Bogota.
Very well made point.
Efficiency is one thing, fit for purpose is really what one should be aiming for.
Saving money is an admirable viewpoint, but don't do what normally happens: kill head count then try (look how much I have saved boss!) and then rehire cheaper and put yourself in dire straights as you've lost all your experience and talent.
"what normally happens: kill head count then try (look how much I have saved boss!) and then rehire cheaper and put yourself in dire straights as you've lost all your experience and talent."
Which leads to hiring a mess of those people back as consultants at 2-3x the money. Of course, money for those positions is under a different account.
"And all those gov employees are being forced back into those previously empty unlit unheated offices...
"
Offices ornately built of stone that are incredibly expensive to heat and cool, by the lowest bidder, with no thought to subsequent upgrades. I've read some history of the White House and it's incredibly hard to retrofit tech physically and also difficult and slow from a security standpoint.
"But why did the evil Canadians burn so much stuff in Washington, DC?"
"The Americans occupied York for six days. They looted homes, took or destroyed supplies, and burned Government House and the Parliament Buildings." - Fort York (Canada) National Historic Site
The inciting events are generally not emphasized much in US schools. It's a lot more "The Canadians burned Washington"
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Historically, the idea of "small government" babbled by the Repooplicans is just bullshit and lies they feed the public to buy their vote,
Smaller government is a misunderstanding by the voting public that is encouraged by the GOP. It's not about efficiency or saving money. It's about redirecting tax money to private corporations. Voters ALWAYS want more services for their tax dollars. (better yet, someone else's tax dollars)
Ex. rather than letting the army's trained staff handle the mess halls in Iraq, they outsourced it to private companies that did stupid stuff in the name of profits. (concentrating large groups of soldiers in a single location at the same time, rather than staggering meals throughout the day, because it was cheaper. Or failing to build proper water treatment facilities so that soldiers always had clean drinking water and didn't get electrocuted in the showers)
Rewriting every piece of government software, replacing all the old hardware infrastructure, and then developing a massive new interoperability layer on top of every IT system.
By the time all that's been paid for, any marginal efficiency improvements that result will never cover the cost of doing it. Sounds much more like an excuse to hand out yet more billions to the tech companies that will be bidding to do the work.
"Rewriting every piece of government software, replacing all the old hardware infrastructure, and then developing a massive new interoperability layer on top of every IT system."
Yeah, that always goes well. As in well over budget, well over schedule, and well hell here we go again.
"Rewriting every piece of government software, replacing all the old hardware infrastructure, and then developing a massive new interoperability layer on top of every IT system."
Regardless of the purpose, there will be one set of standardized interfaces that will be confusing for every use case. The ol' "one size fits none" motif. The rigid hardware spec will mean the computers are either massively overpowered or too slow. All equipment layouts will be standardized. Get the plans for one server room and all of the rest will be nearly identical.
They are going to force everyone onto the russian owned hive mind collective to control thoughts and minds..
also, those making a big deal about open nazi salutes don't seem to remember the last ruspublic conventions, where they openly did nazi salutes, called themselves domestic terrorists, and handed out russian flags to everyone.
You are so, so fuvked America
2017 cpac. They nazi saluted, announced themselves domestic terrorists, and were so blatant in their message, a couple of protesters replaced the flags with russian flags. Nobody knew the difference and handed them all out. The whole convention proudly waving russian flags.
Ah, this is from like 8 years ago and involves a single person.
So the guy handing out the flags was not in any way affiliated with Trump or any Trump supporting group.
He had the flags confiscated and was removed from the event.
And he is quoted as saying: “Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the U.S. Constitution and the American people,” “That’s why Putin picked him for president, because he knows the Trump regime is good for Russian interests, not the American people. Trump is Putin’s puppet, a traitor to the United States, and must be impeached immediately.”
So he is a TDS sufferer, hates Trump and drank the 'Russia Russia Russia' kool aid.
This isn't the win you think it is.
Most 'merkins couldn't tell the difference between the French, Dutch and Russian flag. They certainly couldn't get a Union Flag the right way up. Actually most brits would probably fail both of those.
Could be worse, they could be waving the flag of a country that killed many tens of millions of people, the red one with the hammer and sickle in the corner or the red one with the stars in the corner.
Those of us that used to be regular users of Twitter have experience of what happens when Elon gets his hands on existing technology platforms. Large quantities of staff are removed, it costs less to run, but it's no longer a place you want to hang around in much so its overall utility and value tanks.
In the UK, I'd say most public facing government IT works reasonably well, if not brilliantly. I've avoided working behind the scenes on any of it but friends and colleagues would suggest it's somewhat inefficient and costly to implement and run, mostly due to management by committee and red tape. Does the same apply in the US?
For some reason I cannot get the idea out of my head that it has been copied fiord the UK's (fictional) 'Department for Administrative Affairs'
I just hope there is an America equivalent of Sir Humphrey Appleby to steady the ship. After all, Jim, Hacker had a 'major success' when he tried to shrink the UK's Civil Service:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751827/#
A tech modernization of the IRS, something they've tried and failed to do multiple times since at least the 90s if not earlier.
It'll be fun seeing all his lofty promises and the ostrich sized egg on his face when he fails spectacularly. I'm not sure if anyone is capable of modernizing the IRS systems, but if I had to pick someone I was sure could not do it he'd be at the top of the list. Massive hubris and telling people to sleep in their office and work 7 days a week is definitely not going to get any government projects accomplished!
"A tech modernization of the IRS, something they've tried and failed to do multiple times since at least the 90s if not earlier."
The "do it all at once" approach has never worked.
"When confronted with a problem you don't understand, do the part you do understand and look at it again" ~Prof. Bernardo De La Paz
I only wish I had been taught that in school.
"When confronted with a problem you don't understand, do the part you do understand and look at it again" ~Prof. Bernardo De La Paz
I only wish I had been taught that in school.
Along the same lines as "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."
Any of us who have been in IT for a while has seen big projects go down in flames. It generally starts with a death march to release date. Followed by a catastrophic launch. Then limps into a qualified success as deliverables are redefined. And finally, key players moving on to new jobs while the grunts clean up the mess.
But there is no way to upgrade the IT systems of the entire US government in 4 years. These guys will be long gone with fat wallets before accountability catches up. If you are into conspiracies, you might think that they are setting huge goals for a reason.
"But there is no way to upgrade the IT systems of the entire US government in 4 years."
There could be parts that don't really need upgrading. The first steaks from the elephant need to define one or three things that are the biggest problem. Solve those in a way that doesn't break anything else and see what the next upgrade needs to be. I'd also suggest that if the UI isn't the bottleneck, not to mess with it as getting people up to speed is often the most time consuming and expensive aspect of new systems replacing old systems. I hate it when my eBay does yet another pointless rehash of their UI and I have to waste time figuring out how to do everything all over again with less organization. But, Hey! now the messaging looks just like text on a mobile instead of an email exchange. (Why?)
"hey won't be looking to modernize the IRS. They are perfectly happy with the loopholes that allow them to avoid paying taxes."
It's not so much the policies which Congress would have to thrash out, but the machinery behind the scenes. If you've ever wondered where M$ sold the bulk of the licenses for Vista................
"When a professed billionaire pay less in taxes than I do something is seriously wrong with the system."
Billionaire? Are you sure?
There's a massive difference between owning stock that might sell for $XX.XX today and an equivalent amount of cash in the bank (and being debt free). That's why those things are treated differently for tax purposes. One also has to go from your premise to who (in the US) is paying the largest percentage of tax revenue collected. Hint: It's not coming from the homies in the 'hood.
Income tax applies to income, not wealth, assets, stocks being held, etc. It's also much easier to live less expensively when you have wealth. If you own your home outright, there's no monthly payment and no requirement to have insurance. You'd do better in many cases by holding money in a high interest account in lieu of buying insurance. Same goes for cars. Vimes' boots, etc. Lady Sybil wasn't out buying furniture since what she inherited was high quality and would last ages more. It's not taught in schools, but there are books on building wealth and planning to get to a position where you live quite well and aren't on the hook for loads of parasitic taxes.
Or you just borrow against your stock, so you don't have to sell any and so pay even the reduced capital gains tax.
Then when you die the value of your stock is reset to the current market value so the bank doesn't have to pay tax on it either.
But the important part is the way this trickles down to the ordinary people.
One problem with the US' IRS computer upgrades is that many important people have a vested interest in the IRS not becoming more-efficient!
As to the problems with the Federal Aeronautics Administration's air-traffic control computers (attempted) upgrades ...
Mine's the one with the 7-track UNIVAC magtape in the pocket.
Half a trillion! invested by the "private" sector my azz.
These are the people who will get the kick backs and tax breaks forcing Americans to pay for it. Then they will have sole control over your thoughts and feelings while sitting back and printing money with frumpy's face on it.
Americans are going to be like bruce willis in "the fifth element", when he is trying to scrape enough allowance credits together to get a cigarette from the robot dispenser.
And the HELL to pay if you ever are able to get rid of these traitors.... I don't want to hear jack chit about the price of NOTHING. It's your own stupid monkey fault.
"49% of voters, once all the votes were counted. A bit tired of politicians who would have to face a runoff election in most states (for not reaching more than 50% of the vote) claiming that they somehow have a "mandate from the people" to do any particular thing."
So, to break it down, you don't know how the election system works in the US for electing a President nor how lesser elections rules apply.
"Assumes facts not in evidence, given the quoted material you are replying to."
A non-Presidential election doesn't require a candidate to get over 50% of the votes. The candidate with the most votes gets the position. If you have 5 people running for an office and one gets 30% of the total votes with the remaining 70% split equally amongst the other candidates (17.5% each), the one with the 30% wins. Talking about a "mandate" is MSM piffle and has nothing to do with the rules. Run-off elections are usually only going to be held if the margin between 2 candidates is within the counting error bars. If 2 are in the race and the tally is 50% each +/- 10 votes out of 100,000 ballots cast, that's likely going to be rerun since the spread is too close. If the number of ballots cast is 200 in total, I would doubt there would be a do-over. Of course, it would mean that around 101 people voted one way and 99 the other to be 50/50.
The office of President isn't decided by a popular vote but through an "electoral" system which is very different than people in other countries realize. There's also good reasoning for the Electoral system. It's not perfect, but better than a popular vote. Maybe somebody will work out a better scheme some day to replace it.
"There's also good reasoning for the Electoral system. It's not perfect, but better than a popular vote" - It would have held the GOP out of the WH the last 30 years (GWB only won b/c "incumbent").
Given the economic mess left behind after "fiscally responsible" Republicans like 43 & 45 ...
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