Musk Says DOGE Halting Treasury Payments to US Contractors
www.bloomberg.com
Elon Musk said his “DOGE team” of government efficiency enforcers is shutting down some payments to federal contractors, suggesting that the world’s richest man may have access to sensitive systems used at the US Treasury Department.
  • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    33·
    9 hours ago

    It kind of makes me wonder if the US elite know something we don’t. This kind of stripping the copper out of the walls only makes sense in a country facing complete collapse. I can’t imagine the “deep state” would let this stuff happen unless they also benefit from it.

    • Leegh [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      28·
      5 hours ago

      Well all this cutting of government services, jobs, and funding will lead to a mass privatization of the public sector, which means easy buyouts, desperate unemployed workers to be swooped up, and more profits for American Billionaires no? You gotta remember that Capital always thinks short-term; while we see the self-sabotage of a centuries long Imperialist project, they see incredible opportunities to ransack the state coffers.

      I really don’t think it’s any more complicated than that.

      • Sickos [they/them, it/its]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        16 minutes ago

        I agree with this take. Capitalism basically stumbled into a successful several decades during and after the fall of the USSR; that was seen as the result of American exceptionalism and an inherent property of the society.

        There’s also the aspect of reaction trying to force things back to “the way they were” in some perceived idyllic past.

  • Cimbazarov [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    30·
    9 hours ago

    It is still kind of wild to me that he can just do this with no repercussions. The democrats doing nothing is actually so embarrassing now. At least in the first Trump presidency their excuses made some sense and what Trump was doing wasn’t collapsing the country. But now its just so blatant. They literally don’t want to do anything outside the “norms” while the norms are being ripped apart by the Republicans and Musk. Like what is the point of keeping to the norms? Do any of them ask themselves this.

    I mean like some others have said, the Democrats stand for nothing. It makes sense that won’t do anything.

    • DragonBallZinn [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      6·
      4 hours ago

      NGL, I’m surprised south park never came around and got more charitable to dems. At this point dems are the south park republicans of the 2000s, both with the whole “Who like….CAAAARES MAN?!” vibe

  • CleverOleg [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    63·
    12 hours ago

    I gotta be honest, I thought DOGE was only ever gonna be some little toy for Musk to play with that had no real power. Didn’t think it would just take over an actual department and start doing real damage, I was really wrong on that one.

    • EnsignRedshirt [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      29·
      9 hours ago

      I mean, it’s only real insofar as Trump is allowing it to be real. It would evaporate instantly if Trump played golf with someone who said it made him look like a loser. Musk isn’t actually doing anything, he’s just taking credit for things that are being done. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Musk was being set up as the scapegoat for when all of this quickly and inevitably falls apart.

  • Justice@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    76·
    15 hours ago

    Well, we’ll know sooner than I ever imagined how many CIA/FBI have the balls of their forefathers.

    Apparently Trump is firing a fuckload of FBI agents. Of course I shed no tears over such things… but his buddy RFK Jr should’ve probably told him what happened to his uncle (and father, I suppose) when he started targeting such agencies.

    It’s also just annoying that they do this in the most liberal (but more rightwing flavor) ways possible. “Nooo they targeted my precious boys on Jan 6!” For the record, I don’t think (most) of those dipshits deserved the sentences they got. I wasn’t exactly crying for them, but if we’re being real… shitting on Pelosi’s desk should get you an award. The Proud Boy fascist-style leader and such, well, it was a convenient reason to get rid of them.

    Either way, this is the stupidest possible pretext to destroy the US “security apparatus.” Not that I think he’s actually doing that or trying to do that. More than likely this is for show or he’s a moron (or both). Still, firing a huge percent of FBI and presumably digging into the asses at DHS, NSA, CIA, etc. is going to undermine what they’re doing. Intended or not.

    It’s like cutting USAID because “it doesn’t benefit Americans.” Well, it does (capitalists anyway), but I do wonder, again, if Elon/Trump are too fucking stupid (again… yes…) to actually know what “soft power” is.

    Well, either way, it’s about to insanely boring or the opposite of that in the next year or so.

    Between the tariffs which are obviously going to blow the backs out of millions of people, the incoming labor shortage because they chose deportation over amnesty and fair pay, and shit like just one by one destroying government “welfare” (in different forms) programs, the suffering knob is being turned up for absolutely zero reason when the other option is, I dunno… accept multipolarity and negotiate with China. Draw down the military presence. Stop whining about the border and making shit up about it. No, no, no… turn the pain knob. Isolate while simultaneously trying to increase imperialism. Seems sustainable…

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      17·
      10 hours ago

      Well, we’ll know sooner than I ever imagined how many CIA/FBI have the balls of their forefathers.

      Taken literally this would lead USA to establish eunuch court.

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      56·
      13 hours ago

      It’s like cutting USAID because “it doesn’t benefit Americans.” Well, it does (capitalists anyway), but I do wonder, again, if Elon/Trump are too fucking stupid (again… yes…) to actually know what “soft power” is.

      Musk bought one of the biggest consent manufacturing mechanisms in the US and he drove it into the ground. He couldn’t even subtly make himself more popular by elevating posts about him, he needed to shove his own posts in front of everybody’s face. Dude has no idea what he’s doing.

      • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        9·
        9 hours ago

        I’ve interacted with contracts during my time at Langley monitoring leftists that would make nonpayment on what you owe a fucking paradise.

        If you say that you’re owed 5% interest on an account you’re already loving life. If you have a break clause that entitles you to dues you’re loving life. If they’ve made a down payment, you’re owed 5% interest, and you have a break clause then your cost margins just went to 0 and you can wait 2 years to sell the debt to someone else and you’re loving every minute of it, Jerry.

    • blunder [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      14·
      12 hours ago

      Honestly it just works, what are they gonna do?

      Seen this shit from small businesses to the US govt. It’s not like Lockheed is gonna shut down a contract

  • culpritus [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    43·
    14 hours ago

    It seems like letting Musk run rampant in the core of the dollar system would be a stronger signal of the inherent risk in that system than anything that has come before (like stealing Russian accounts, etc). I guess until there is another option available, most of the closest US allies will just have to go for the ride.