It would be hard for a story-teller or screenwriter to write a more scathing ridiculous and hyperbolic parody of an “efficiency” campaign than the Dept Of Government Efficiency travesty of the last couple of weeks. Ignorant arrogant unvetted teen-age trolls put in charge; confused, nonsensical, garbled and/or illegal commandments blasted out, then quickly repealed, or only partially repealed, or left in an entirely unclear limbo. Mission-critical workers for major government functions fired on reckless whims, and then, in a panic, rehired–or not, because the ignorant teenage trolls have wiped their contact info. A blizzard of lawsuits, guaranteeing that nothing will happen quickly or efficiently. Grandiose and patently false claims about inefficiencies discovered; those same claims secretly edited or withdrawn without acknowledgment.
DOGE is above all a drug and arrogance-fueled carnival of incompetence and epic inefficiency comically posing as its polar opposite, an efficiency campaign. It takes a positive strenuous assertion of will not to see this. Never fear, though, our national media is up to the task! The Washington Post, at this moment: “The disruption Musk is bringing to federal agencies is central to a management style that has won admiration in Silicon Valley.”
I ain’t lookin’ to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up
Analyze you, categorize you
Finalize you or advertise you
All I really want to do Is, baby, be friends with you
In regard to Elmo’s deranged demand for a record of their work, HHS (RFK’s bailiwick! Not an expected source of sanity) sent an email to all staff, noting their freedom not to reply at all, and offering guidance for those who chose to reply, including this:
“Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly.” (via Marcy Wheeler)
Feels like a Holy Crap moment to me. Some major shade being thrown on Elon by somebody at HHS.
Some observers have recently said that this tech-group takeover is likely a resurfacing of gamergate, now with new generations in tow. The typical U.S. culture war but here featuring white male video game nerds instead of white male Christians. And it seems me their hijinks and attitudes and habits – and this whole lie about how it’s about efficiency when it’s really about rage at “wokeness” – suggest that’s kinda likely.
I would not be at all surprised if one reason the fools are having trouble rehiring essential workers they just fired is that said many essential workers are saying, "Fuck you. I’m not coming back. Figure it out yourself, asshole. [vigorous middle digit upthrusting] "
They inhabit a binary world: There’s the lords (themselves) and the workers (everyone else).
And if you choose to work in the public sector, there are only two possible explanations for that. Either (1) you’re so lazy or incompetent that you can’t hold down a “real” job in the private sector, or (2) you’re on the take.
Public service as a calling means as much to them as a Rembrandt means to a (munch munch) cow.
If it were a movie script, it would be rejected as too implausible. And in Hollywood, that’s saying something.
“The disruption Musk is bringing to federal agencies is central to a management style that has won admiration in Silicon Valley.”
Move fast, break things, destroy massive value, then scream at cringing minions to clean it all up, collect $101 billion pay package from worthless captive board. That management style?
Yeah, right! IRS employees…in tax season…have nothing better to do than spend time making up “accomplishments” for Elon, the super executive/ manager. If I had a boss who was that clueless about what my job was, I would be out the door looking for an organization that knew how to manage their work force.
I am afraid that he and Donnie represent a very large portion of the obscenely wealthy. How do you think they all got that way? You have to prioritize money over family, friends, ethics and morality to get as rich as those people are. There are the few who accidentally got rich, and then became assholes like Bezos and Zuckerberg. Money corrupts.
The enduring and pervasive trait of being a reichwinger is the utter inability to think ahead to the logical conclusion of your actions. Lacking any imagination, they cannot imagine that their half-assed ideas will not make any sense to any sane adult. And being ( in their minds at least) right about everything, they are entitled to their arrogance. It is just another variation on fundamentalist religion…and just as hard to convince a follower of same that they just might be wrong.
