Legalize comedy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2025
pic.twitter.com/uKr6fiRI3K
Must Watch Video: Elon Musk Has Been Knighted At CPAC After Receiving The Chainsaw For Bureaucracy
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) February 20, 2025
» WATCH/SHARE THE LIVE X STREAM HERE:https://t.co/7NYWKPuERO pic.twitter.com/mFe0unDA7u
On this day, February 21 1964, the Rolling Stones released the single Not Fade Away in the UK. Originally a Buddy Holly track, the Stones recorded their version at London’s Olympic Studios and it became the band’s first Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom! 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/kkM69cBxUz
— The Rolling Stones (@RollingStones) February 21, 2025
In his late teens and early adulthood, Milei was the lead singer of a Rolling Stones cover band called Everest, where he performed their songs and even emulated Mick Jagger's dance moves during school recesses. This early engagement with the band's music suggests a deep admiration that predates his political career. His love for rock music, particularly The Rolling Stones, has remained a consistent thread in his life....
During a 2024 BBC interview, he enthusiastically named "Rip This Joint" as his favorite Rolling Stones song, linking it to an album he described as having "libertarian components," reflecting how he connects their music to his ideological views. In a Lex Fridman Podcast episode in November 2024, he called The Rolling Stones his favorite band, expressing a dream of meeting Mick Jagger and jokingly suggesting he’d love to perform with them—though he admitted his tribute band days might have "damaged" their music. He even likened his political events to Rolling Stones concerts, citing a May 2024 performance at Luna Park where he sang to 10,000 fans, blending his rockstar persona with his presidency.
Further evidence comes from casual interactions, like his response to a viral X post in March 2024, where he credited England with giving the world "THE ROLLING STONES," and a June 2024 Q&A on X where he again named "Rip This Joint" as a favorite. These consistent references—spanning his youth, media appearances, and presidency—demonstrate that Milei’s affection for The Rolling Stones is both longstanding and integral to his identity, far beyond a passing interest.
AND: That made me wonder whether Donald Trump had a pop-culture source for his stage moves. I asked Grok, which came up with 2 possible sources: professional wrestling (e.g., Ric Flair) and Johnny Carson.
Milei's Rolling Stones connection also made me think of Václav Havel and his connection to Frank Zappa and Lou Reed, but that wasn't about adopting their style of performance. That was about loving music that had been banned in Czechoslovakia and finding inspiration from the spirit of the music.
ALSO: What are some other examples of political figures taking spiritual inspiration from an artist? Again, I asked Grok, and I got a list of 6, one of which surprised me:
1. Nelson Mandela and Bob Marley
2. Angela Merkel and Richard Wagner
3. Barack Obama and Toni Morrison
4. Hugo Chávez and Silvio RodrĂguez
5. Lech Wałęsa and Bruce Springsteen
6. Aung San Suu Kyi and John Lennon
The surprise was #2. If you'd asked me what political figure took inspiration from Richard Wagner, I'd have said Hitler. I remember the Woody Allen line (from "Sleeper"): "I’m always joking around with my staff about how whenever I hear Wagner, I have this uncontrollable urge to invade Poland." Why would Angela Merkel want to identify with something that people identify with Hitler? But the answer is something like: Wagner deserves to be liberated from Hitler.
What's your next concern? Maybe it's disbelief in Obama's sincerity about finding deep inspiration from Toni Morrison. But maybe it's: Who's Silvio RodrĂguez? In which case, here's a Spotify playlist. Hopefully, that won't give you an uncontrollable urge to ruin your own country.
PLUS: I'm just rewatching the chainsaw video and noticing that Musk positions the chainsaw between his legs in a way that I judge to be intentional phallic symbolism. Also, I would have thought that Musk is protected by extremely tight security that wouldn't let anyone near him with a chainsaw — even the President of Argentina. Maybe it was a deactivated chainsaw. Still, I'd rather have seen Milei whip out maracas. You never see Mick Jagger with a chainsaw.
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96 comments:
The Milei clip is laugh out loud funny! Didn’t watch anymore of the Alex Jones commentary.
The glee that some people show about people losing their jobs is really shameful.
When I was a kid my dad became a foreman at his work and during some rough times he had to fire some people and it struck me how depressed he looked having to do that. A formative childhood memory, maybe because he was an old-fashioned sort who didn't show emotions very much. Now, that I'm the age he was then and he's an old man and a maga person and I see him cheering on this stuff and I feel such disgust for the situation.
I agree there need to be some cuts, but let people retire and don't fill the roles back in. Cut the actual excess not some blanket 10% of everything. This is not only callous, it's also inefficient. In a few years they'll have to hire many people back because they're not actually reducing the amount of work that needs to get done.
Rip this Joint is the bomb. That and The Leader are two kinda short songs that just tear every damned thing apart in about 90 seconds. I saw Bobby Keys and Stanley Clarke play with Phil Marriott at some restaurant in Lajolla when I was 22. It cost five bucks. They did Rip this Joint. Talk about your glorious noise.
Steven, too late for that buddy.
The chainsaw thing is just guys having fun.
Milei's country was crippled by super-hyper-inflation which was miserable for everyone. His chainsaw became the symbol for "no more half measures, big cuts are needed" and he followed through by cutting whole departments out of government. It worked. No country had ever before transitioned from economic disaster to success as quickly as Milei achieved. Within his first year inflation was within normal parameters, employment was recovering and he had achieved his goals.
That success, that relief for the masses is more than enough to offset the difficulty that a relative few government employees had to endure. Most people in real life are downsized or let go at least once over a career. It's too bad some in our government have jobs that are no longer needed, but the policies that their party voted for brought us to this point.
Some comfort can be derived for the fired by contemplating how the bad decisions that led to their job loss should reach several of the politicians that will stand for election next year.
Trump is cutting spending based on data gathered by DOGE...a division of USDS established by Obama. Spending...>.Redundant . Excessive. Fraudulent. Illegal spending.. Reducing the waste of taxpayers dollars. If it means that useless, redundant departments are cut and people are losing their jobs....so be it.
No one is guaranteed a job for life. People lose their jobs all the time, for all sorts of reasons, including Government action. Ask the Keystone Pipeline people, mining and oil workers and those whose livelihoods and small businesses depended on the incomes and spending that those jobs entailed.
They were told...boo hoo...learn to code. Find another job dummy. No one should be gleeful that some people are losing their existing jobs and that they will no longer be on the taxpayer's dime now and forever on government pensions. Money funded by ordinary workers who most don't have guaranteed pensions.
We should be gleeful that finally....FINALLY someone is taking action on the graft, corruption and sheer incompetence that is Government.
Hate to disappoint you, Steven, but Donald’s right. That ship has sailed.
On the bright side, those former government “workers” can learn to code. Or maybe mine coal.
Not all of DOGE's cutting is of jobs. A lot of this is about putting systems and checks in place to make sure government payments are only going out to the intended payees, in the right amounts, and that they're all duly accounted for.
But as for job cuts per se, of course they're disruptive to the lives and fortunes of the people left unemployed. But government doesn't exist to provide employment. As far as I'm concerned, if someone in the public sector wants to make a compelling argument for why their job shouldn't be eliminated, it better not be based on the fact that they need the job.
The Rolling Stones were among the first bands to become "tax exiles," following the UK's institution of a 95% marginal income tax rate. They moved to France for tax avoidance, and wrote "Exile on Main Street." Other rock bands also changed domicile for tax avoidance. And of course, George Harrison wrote "there's one for you, 19 for me" in "Taxman." Libertarians? Probably not. Rationalists? Sure.
I always liked this version of It's All Over Now</a Brian Jones playing the teardrop, Keith already showing the grit, and Mick doing his thing when they were so young.
The glee that some people show about people losing their jobs is really shameful.
Perhaps the glee is for the jobs being saved by letting some go now, because our path was unsustainable. The glee is for relieving the pain of all the people who were oppressed by our out of control administrative state and battered by high inflation. As Milei proved, when you drastically cut government spending it breaks the back of inflation and relieves the pain of the vast majority of the population.
Just like with Twitter when he slimmed it down, Musk is saving the greater good for us by highlighting where cuts can be made now. That is something to celebrate. That was my motivation when I had to let employees go. You can misinterpret it as cruel glee at firing people, but I think you can see the point of the greater good and understand what I think they are celebrating.
Musk rejected my suggestion he strut around on stage with a giant dildo inscribed "Fuck 'em!"
The glee that some people show about people losing their jobs is really shameful.
I would somewhat agree with this. People plan their lives based on an expected steady stream of income, when that changes that causes a lot of problems. However, what bothers me more than people celebrating folks losing their jobs are Federal employees acting entitled, as if their employment unlike everyone else's is sacrosanct and should be guaranteed. It is especially aggravating when they pretend as if them working is "Service."
Those government employees will no longer have to "sacrifice" the higher compensation we've been assured for decades would be theirs in the private sector.
@ Dogma...Who said: ".As far as I'm concerned, if someone in the public sector wants to make a compelling argument for why their job shouldn't be eliminated, it better not be based on the fact that they need the job."
That's right!! They need to protect their Phony Baloney Jobs. (harump harump harump) Blazing Saddles reference for those who might not know.
Milei - the guy is so philosemitic and so Pro American. I wonder what the average Spanish Speaking Catholic in Argentina is making of this.
Why Argentina was constantly having hyper inflation and why this guy could solve it all it a matter of months is a mystery.
When somebody talks about cutting the budget or cutting out the red tape, they are talking about cutting out the job of somebody who's incompetent or unnecessary. That stings if it's coal miners or steelworkers or nurses. Not so much if it's bureaucrats or corporate execs.
Perhaps Steven is right and less chainsaw and more scalpel (or at least carving knife) is needed. I do see the embarrassing and cringeworthy side of it. It was like Netanyahu giving the golden pager thing to Trump. What do you do in a situation like that? I guess you just play along.
Perhaps something like this was bound to happen when neurodivergent Musk met Millei, who follows libertarianism, which has much attraction to neurodivergents. Still, Millei with his chain saw approach has done much good pulling his country out of its longtime misery.
Mick Jagger and Bob Marley are the two most electric performers I’ve ever seen. They dominated the stage.
It's not a good look, but that's what you get. It takes someone who is comfortable being inappropriate to go into the belly of the beast and start hacking away at the blubber.
In one way it's refreshing. Kind of sort of like ripping off the Band-Aid all at once. It's very painful in the moment but that quickly passes.
I've been laid off a week before Christmas and was fired a week after Christmas in my late twenties and early 30s while being the sole breadwinner for my wife and two kids.
After the layoff it took me 3 weeks to get another job that paid about 30% more than I was making when I was fired. After the layoff within 2 weeks formed my own company with two partners. That company ended up lasting for 28 years.
Althouse said...
"You never see Mick Jagger with a chainsaw."
Did you ever see The Texas Chain Saw Massacre? Horrible, wasn't it. You know, people ask me "is it really true where you live in Texas, is that really true what they do around there, people?" I say, "yea, every time I drive through the crossroads, I get scared there's a bloke running round with a fucking chain saw. Oh! Oh! oh No, he's gonna cut off, Oh no. Don't saw off me leg, don't saw off me arm."
- Mick Jagger
Perhaps Steven is right and less chainsaw and more scalpel (or at least carving knife) is needed.
Wasn't Jack Welch's rule that every year a company should fire the bottom 10% of employees? Has the Federal bureaucracy ever had a significant downsizing since the modern post WW2 era? How much waste and redundancy has built up over decades of accretion? In my mind a scalpels are for 1%, 2% or maybe even 3% cuts. Anything more requires an instrument better suited for the task.
I'm gleeful that we are cutting wasteful spending that doesn't have return on investment, meaning no knock-on spending effects for the economy. When money is spent responsibly there is more than the primary effect, there are secondary and tertiary economic impacts.
Take as a contrary example, the Biden cut of Pipeline XL. The immediate effect was the loss of jobs to install the pipeline. Those people lost their job, but was the purpose of that pipeline? It was going to carry heavy crude from Canada to refineries in the United States. Without the pipeline, Canada lost jobs in their oil sector. However, some jobs were saved by using rail transport, which is dangerous and we've seen some loss of life from derailment, but that's an aside. Americas also lost jobs that would have been needed to keep refineries. Also lost were the jobs that relied on the cheap refined products and contractors that would keep the refineries operational.
So what happened to the money saved from Pipeline XL. Well, it went to stuff like EV charging stations. Much of that money went to China to purchase raw materials at an inflated rate, because previous Democratic Administrations have given away most of our mineral rights to China. What they didn't give away, they banned US miners from drilling. Who benefitted from this? Not sure yet, but there are a lot of Bidens with more money than their jobs paid, and they'll all have Presidential pardons. What are the Biden's doing with their money? Well, we can look at Hunter's laptop to see much of it went to drugs and hookers, who certainly need money, but they don't tend to improve the economy at a large scale.
So, ask me again if I find a chainsaw to be rude? And I also recommend picking up a chainsaw. Go to a store and pick one up. Then when you set it down, hold it at arm's length, to the side of you, and then gently lower it to the ground. Remember to keep the arm fully extended to your side. Then ask yourself if you did that to avoid making an obvious phallic symbol. Then again, I noticed the topic got changed rather quickly...
There is something about running a chainsaw that is super empowering. It is both scary and powerful which causes you to be so totally in the moment that Tibetan monks who meditate for a lifetime never reach that close to Nirvana.
You can see how Mick must have struck people at the time as something incredibly energetic and totally new (and maybe you can also see that mainstream audiences might have found something similar in Chuck Berry and other black performers if they were paying attention). Mick is certainly the center of attention. Brian Jones's frustration doesn't show up in the clip but knowing the context we can imagine it.
And Mike Douglas ... I used to catch his show, and Merv Griffin's, sometimes after school. Their shows seemed more real, more entertaining, and somehow more serious than talk shows on the telly now, but maybe that's just aging. Or maybe I didn't realize back then that everybody was just there to sell something.
How can we trust that any of the audits that have been conducting or any present or pending audits are even accurate, much less leading to the conclusions that these mass firings are justified and necessary? Given Musk's colossal and fucked up misinterpretation of the data he found in the Social Security Administration, how much else has he/they got wrong? And why have the audit outcomes not been made available to Congress for review? We're accepting the crude and expedited demolition of the government without any knowledge of what is actually in the audits, or having a discussion of the appropriate and proportionate remedies.
I just put in the code for closing italics
@Stephen : ..."The glee that some people show about people losing their jobs is really shameful. ..."
Pretty much anybody that has ever held down a job, has felt the fear associated with losing it. Many of us have been let go because of a failing business, or a failing economy. So many of us also have felt the pressure of finding work. What most discover, is that there is work to be had - for those willing to work.
On the other hand, many have also felt the insult from bureaucrats at one time or another, the sting of petty tyranny. And couple this with the unfolding revelation that malfeasance has been running rife within the federal bureaucracy, in numbers too big to ignore or downplay. Sure, it's probably not as bad as it's being advertised, so cut it in half - cut it by 80%. The numbers are still staggering. And the signs of malicious compliance, of protest, of pretended outrage: This is the arrogance that feeds the sense of glee that you mention. They call this kind of arrogance 'Bad Mind' in the Caribbean. No mercy, for this.
Yeah. I think the chainsaw is funny. Jobs are being cut for arrogant liberal federal employees who haven't shown up for work since at least COVID. All the while American taxpayers struggled through the Biden inflation of 2021 and 2022, and suffered through the COVID upward wealth transfer.
"I'm just rewatching the chainsaw video and noticing that Musk positions the chainsaw between his legs in a way that I judge to be intentional phallic symbolism."
Are you talking about around 6-7 seconds in the video? I've used chainsaws a few times and that is usually where you hold a chainsaw, especially if you are about to start it by pulling the cord. If musk has used a chainsaw before that might just be muscle memory. Plus, I think if Musk intended to make a phallic reference with the chainsaw he would have exaggerated it even more, perhaps with some hip thrusts, or something else even more overtly lewd. Musk enjoys being transgressive. I'm not sure though.
Regarding the deactivated chainsaw, I believe when Milei would use a chainsaw as a prop before the chain was removed, so he could rev up the motor but not actually have a risk of accidentally cutting something. I'm not sure about the status of this chainsaw.
Maybe Musk and DOGE can take a chainsaw to all the wasted WI State bureaucracy in Madison. Don't tell me its not wastefully bloated like Wash DC.
"And then, do you think this is funny, wielding a chainsaw? I mean, he's cutting thousands of jobs. Those are real people."
My taxes pay their salaries. What are those "real people" doing for me?
I have a problem with the question and a problem with the people who are asking the question. We are in the very early stages of The executive trying to transform the United States government into something first is sustainable and second something that works for citizens in the productive economy…all in the face of opposition from people who are benefiting from likely TRILLIONS in corruption and graft. Their strategy for continuing the corruption and graft is the same as it has been for decades- claiming a dollar reduction in the size of government will cause immense pain and suffering for all of humanity citing every vulnerable group of people they can imagine. Normally this strategy is quite successful. In the face of that I’m quite okay if Elon leans in to the emotions of the very people who are sickened by the previously unseen and/or unnoticed levels of corrupt government.
Losing a cushy job stinks for the person doing the losing but I’m not interested in the heroes of this story from backing off one iota. You bleeding hearts could have helped us all make this a priority a bunch of pain ago, but here we are. Now fuck right off…
"How can we trust that any of the audits that have been conducting or any present or pending audits are even accurate, much less leading to the conclusions that these mass firings are justified and necessary?"
New talking point must have been sent out.
The Stones first few albums were mostly covers. Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street hold up really well.
Perhaps Steven is right and less chainsaw and more scalpel (or at least carving knife) is needed.
That would be great. . . .except it'll never be done. What would happen is that tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars would be spent on forming a committee, hiring aides ($$$), hiring outside consultants ($$$), legal advice ($$$$$), travel expenses ($$$), conferences ($$$), etc. etc. etc., and two years after that all you'd get is an 800 page report titled something like "America's Roadmap to Fiscal Responsibility" which would consist of grand plans to raise taxes and recommendations to "cut" spending by decreasing the rate of increase. Of course, the taxes would be raised but somehow the spending "cuts" would never be implemented.
Insourcing, outsourcing, not so green Green Deals, DEI, too. Displacement, replacement, inflation, and abortion aren't funny, but they are a progressive condition in liberal democracies that will hopefully be mitigated with forward-looking choices.
we had the grace commission in the 80s, what come of it,
same with reinventing government,
Pink pussy hats, pink slips, a scalpel would have been a more Diverse, equitable, and inclusive theme in the spirit of the modern family.
"crude and expedited demolition of the government"
Yep, yep, yep,,,swift removal of a limb to save the body.
I’m trying to temper my outrage for the waste we have been seeing with compassion at some level. This is made more difficult when I recall 4 of my sons lost jobs because they wouldn’t get jabbed. It’s also made more difficult because I live around lots of these government workers who I can see in real life, barely show up to work and yet have cushy jobs and benefits. I’m sure this will be hard for many of them. Like I told my sons during the pandemic, there will be another job- hold tight to your convictions and beliefs and be a man right now for the sake of your family. Go and find work, it’ll be ok. Think of the future and this unpleasantness might wind up being a blessing in disguise in a year or two.
Out of curiosity anybody seen data on how many government employees have lost their jobs in these early stages?
"How can we trust that any of the audits that have been conducting or any present or pending audits are even accurate, much less leading to the conclusions that these mass firings are justified and necessary?"
How can we trust that any of the data that the Federal employees have created is accurate, you mean? DOGE is just working with what's there... They are not inventing line items of data. They don't have write access, afaik.
"That would be great. . . .except it'll never be done. What would happen is..."
The same thing that happens when there's a "government shutdown" due to a "budget crisis". The government would make every effort to inconvenience taxpayers instead of dealing with the issue. There'd be countless stories in the "news" about the hardships to be endured by government workers who essentially end up getting another couple of weeks of paid vacation. And then, everything would go back to the way it was before.
Fuck that shit. Bring on the chainsaws.
@Steven: Unfortunately for them, many of the recent hires were Biden misadministration plants, so dumping a lot of probationary employees is simply smart business.
@Gadfly sez: "We're accepting the crude and expedited demolition of the government without any knowledge of what is actually in the audits, or having a discussion of the appropriate and proportionate remedies....."
Are we, really? I thought that auditors produced findings, and these findings from the audit team are presented to management, who then put together an action plan to address audit findings. At least, that's how I've handled audits in my direct experience, on both sides. The onus is on the management team with direct responsibility for the department, to address and resolve the findings. But you seem to have a different idea of how this is working. You seem to think that the DOGE team is acting on their own findings. Is this your understanding? Tell us more ! What would it say about your 'protected class' of federal workers if they refused to act on DOGE audit findings? Would that be a fire-able offense?
They been Shattered. Shadooby.
This town's full of ... money grabbers.
Argentina was in the red but Milei was inspired to paint it black.
Musk's colossal and fucked up misinterpretation of the data he found in the Social Security Administration...
...is a DNC-Media-created myth. He didn't say what has been widely quoted, though he did question the accuracy of the data. Musk said the duplicate SSN being used to pay people also signaled a problem. I'm not surprised Robert falls for the disinformation DNC talking points, because he has repeatedly read here in the Althouse comment area that Musk is not making cuts or conclusions about the data, he is highlighting anomalies for further investigation and targets for immediate action.
It will be up to the SSA to figure out what the bad birth dates, dead or alive questions and sharing of SSN means. A good rule of thumb that works for both Musk and Trump is that if you didn't see it said by the man himself or penned on his account, take media accounts of "what he said" with a small grain of salt the size of a large boulder. The Media lie. When you repeat their lie you're part of the problem. "Musk said" is quickly becoming the "fine people" of 2025.
>Ann Althouse said...
I'm just rewatching the chainsaw video and noticing that Musk positions the chainsaw between his legs in a way that I judge to be intentional phallic symbolism.<
Really? Seek help, Ann.
I've done a lot of chainsawing - that's where you hold a chainsaw, if you're going to hold it when it's not in use. Chainsaws are heavy; you don't fight gravity by holding them out in front of you or off to one side or the other, you let them go where gravity takes them.
"My taxes pay their salaries. What are those 'real people' doing for me?"
You may find out when they're all gone. If you're lucky, maybe it won't be painful to you. It certainly will be for others.
"Musk said..."
with the "quote" followed by "as told by an anonymous source close to the situation".
Fucking liars. If you watch the "news" to get information, you're an idiot.
I went looking for good chainsaw gags in Film and television but AI only seems interested in the slasher movies. Mr. Mom was one I could recall. There’s another where the protagonist holds the running chainsaw over their heads but I can’t remember where…
"'Musk's colossal and fucked up misinterpretation of the data he found in the Social Security Administration...'
"...is a DNC-Media-created myth."
Hahahaha! Well, if you want to believe that, you might also want to buy a bridge from King Trump, all money down!
"Chevron Corporation Vice Chairman Mark Nelson confirmed that the company expects to cut up to 20 percent of its workforce.
“Chevron is taking action to simplify our organizational structure, execute faster and more effectively, and position the company for stronger long-term competitiveness,” Nelson said in the statement.
“We expect these actions to result in workforce reductions of 15 to 20 percent, beginning in 2025 with most complete before the end of 2026,” Nelson went on to state.
“We do not take these actions lightly and will support our employees through the transition,” Nelson added.
“But responsible leadership requires taking these steps to improve the long-term competitiveness of our company for our people, our shareholders and our communities,” he continued....."
How the Private Sector rolls:
See the difference?
How much sympathy did federal or state employees have for all the poor "non-essential" workers that suffered during COVID? NONE! And then all the liberal employees wanted to stretch the COVID bs out as long as they could. Even "working from home" in 2025. Grab a shovel. Dig a ditch. Do something useful.
When I wrote, I'm not surprised Robert falls for the disinformation DNC talking points, because he has repeatedly read here in the Althouse comment area that Musk is not making cuts or conclusions about the data, he is highlighting anomalies for further investigation and targets for immediate action.
It should been followed by "We've pointed out that Musk is the auditor, not actually wielding the chainsaw. But Robert ignores that as if he doesn't want to believe it. " Read the substacks by Eko if you want context for what DOGE is and is not actually doing.
How can we trust that any of the audits that have been conducting or any present or pending audits are even accurate, much less leading to the conclusions that these mass firings are justified and necessary?
The fact that it is universally acknowledged that the US is more than $36 trillion in debt suggests that these and more firings are needed.
“And then, do you think this is funny, wielding a chainsaw? I mean, he's cutting thousands of jobs. Those are real people.” Given their alleged voting patterns and campaign contributions Musk probably sees them as “the enemy” whose sponsors are villifying him and attempting to impair his livelihood. It’s not funny, but it’s not inappropriate.
Musk's own words are: "There's crazy things like, just a cursory examination of Social Security and we've got people in there that are about 150 years old... I think they're probably dead is my guess, or they should be very famous. One of the two." And then, "The goal of auditing the Social Security Administration is to stop the extreme levels of fraud taking place, so that it remains solvent and protects the social security checks of honest Americans! That’s it. That’s the goal. End of story."
What part of that is a "massive fuck up" Robert? Or share your actual quotes. Mine came from a Grok3 query to produce "Musk statements on Social Security audit."
Those are the only direct quotes it could find.
Robert Cook said...
"Musk's colossal and fucked up misinterpretation of the data he found in the Social Security Administration...” Cook knows this because the leftmedia citing the deep state told him so. Thus, it became fact! That’s how they roll. More importantly for Cook, if it is fact, Musk’s efforts to find corruption and waste in our government should be stopped. He’s interfering with Democrat graft and the progress of Gramscian Marxism.
How can we trust that any of the audits that have been conducting or any present or pending audits are even accurate, much less leading to the conclusions that these mass firings are justified and necessary?
Findings are posted online for anybody to make their own observations. Conversely, prior to the audits, we were forced to trust without audit or online material that spending behaviors were justified and the people spending the money were doing so in compliance with the law. As we learn that the spending trust was given but abused; the abusers lose their job. The majority of the population lacks sympathy for the former government employees that abused the trust given to them.
Test
Rehajm, I seem to remember a gag chainsaw scene in the old Mark Harmon movie Summer School
"How much sympathy did federal or state employees have for all the poor 'non-essential' workers that suffered during COVID? NONE! And then all the liberal employees wanted to stretch the COVID bs out as long as they could. Even "working from home" in 2025. Grab a shovel. Dig a ditch. Do something useful."
What makes you think the "liberal"* employees had any decision-making authority regarding any aspect of the COVID policies? That all came from above, starting with Dum Trump.
*(Also, what makes you think federal employees are "liberals"? Some liberal, some conservative, some unpolitical. They're just everyday people trying to make a living...like you.)
Sorry about the 'Test' comment. The system has been rejecting all my comments for close to 24 hours, telling me to 'try again later'. Later finally came.
"So much masculinity: 1. Comedy, 2. Power tools, 3. The Stones."
These should be the basis of a government agency. Like Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
Cook appears to have an overwhelming desire to “die on dat hill”.
Works for me.
“The Stones first few albums were mostly covers. Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street hold up really well.”
I would add Beggars Banquet and Let it Bleed to that short list. There wasn’t anything cooler in ‘68 through ‘72 than the Stones. IMHO.
If you hop around the stage with a chainsaw, you're more apt to look like Gallagher and his bit with watermelons than like Mort Sahl delivering witty observations. Musk has a sense of humor, and he's genuinely likable, but this is not a good look and the MSM will use it against him......I presume that many among those who have been laid off are meritorious people, and some of them probably even do useful work. You can bet that the MSM will be featuring their stories in abundance, and you will hear nothing of the waste and fraud......We'll see how it goes. The MSM ain't what they used to be, but they're something and not all the moves of Trump and Musk are executed flawlessly.
"I mean, he's cutting thousands of jobs. Those are real people."
You realize, I trust, that this is an excellent argument for never, ever ending any job. We should all still be following mules up and down a wheatfield.
Robert Cook said...
"You may find out [what these people were doing] when they're all gone.”
Nancy Pelosi responded…
“We have to fire these people to find out what they are doing!”
There is an old, 2015 or so, report by the Office of Inspector General, named "Numberholders Age 100 or Older Who Did Not Have Death Information on the Numident". In response to it, SSA essentially said (paraphrase) "We know about it, it does not matter, and too expensive to fix it". Response of OIG was, verbatim (it is all on the internet, find it): "We also note we initiated our 2015 review upon the receipt of information that a man opened several bank accounts using SSNs belonging to numberholders born in the 1800s who had no death information on the Numident."
Again, it is all publicly available, I am not sure how can anyone argue against cleaning this up to eliminate fraud, which seems rampant. That is separate from the truly tasteless celebration of people being indiscriminately fired; many of whom might have actually been dedicated civil servants, non-political. It is always said when someone's life gets derailed.
They’re not all gonna be gone Cook, just the ones we don’t need.
I have worked in the public sector.
Sorry, they are not just every day people doing their job.
Remember when the social media guy for some communist party (not joking actual communist) was working a DC desk job and using that time to do his political side gig instead?
Yeah, that happens.
We'd love to only fire those guys or the rubber room guys, but civil "servants" have unions and gotten very strong rules so instead of a careful surgery, we have to cut limbs.
THEY CAUSED THAT TO BE THE CASE. THEIR UNIONS AND THE CIVIL SERVICE LAWS.
So they get nice soft rides for 50 years and then an event like has to happen to burn down all the scrub...sorry.
Biden increased the size of the civil service by 46%. Almost a million people. With family, that's gonna be at least 2 to 4 million votes. Non partisan civil servants my a**. Democratic client vote buying.
Unfortunately, due to my biases, with respect to government workers I think about the Japanese commander in Bridge on the River Kwai, if you work hard you will be treated well, if you do not work hard you will be punished. Be happy in your work.
The "shades" block observers from seeing the current state of his Ketamine use.
I remember Nancy Pelosi saying something about people being let go, and on unemployment - it was an opportunity for them to do creative things, like painting or ceramics.
I had a roommate who lost her job due to the "15 days to flatten the curve" order from Fauci. She was eligible for unemployment benefits in California, she applied but because this was after they had been just mailing out $10,000 lump sum checks to anyone and everyone to the tune of $20 billion, the process to access benefits became untenable and excruciating as the state EDD tried to rein in the incompetence and malfeasance. But that's California, results may differ in other jurisdictions.
Getting laid off sucks for sure, but that doesn't justify taking it slow or not doing it at all.
Take Nancy's advice, maybe start a rock n roll band, that way you won't fade away.
The market and consumer sentiment seem to be reacting to Trump’s policies…..📉
Prior to the presentation on stage there was an unboxing of the chainsaw offstage by Millei and Musk with Millei's wife watching over a Musk toddler as they swung the thing around.
"Steven said...
The glee that some people show about people losing their jobs is really shameful."
Sometimes, a surgeon has to amputate a limb to save the patient's life. I was laid off twice in my career. It sucked. There are reportedly 2.7 million civil service employees in the federal budget. What you're proposing of letting everyone stay in until they retire means it would take decades to make any significant reduction in headcount. The country simply can't afford that many civil service employees anymore.
I looked at the numbers from TaxFoundation.org for 2021. If you take the revenue collected that year and divide it by the number of returns filed, the average was $14,280 per return. That includes those people who didn't actually pay any taxes but filed a return to qualify for things like the EITC. As an approximation, if the average civil service employee in DC gets paid $100,000, the true cost of employment with benefits and overhead costs is about $200,000. That means it takes 100% of the federal income taxes paid by average taxpayers to pay for one civil service employee, of 37,800.000 people to pay for all of the civil service employees. $14,280 is $1190 a month. If you asked almost 38 million taxpayers if they supported having $1190 a month deducted from their pay to keep all of the bureaucracy employed, I doubt if many would think that's a good use of their money.
https://x.com/i/status/1892709483157024850
That which does not kill you makes you stronger.
Bette Middler's act used to include, "My husband is German. Every night, I dress up like Poland and he invades me."
"You may find out when they're all gone. If you're lucky, maybe it won't be painful to you. It certainly will be for others."
How so?
"I have worked in the public sector.
Sorry, they are not just every day people doing their job."
Where I used to live, at the local post office, there was a clerk who would not allow you to purchase insurance for anything in a #10 envelope because "If it's in an envelope, it's a letter and you can't insure letters."
You can't insure letters, true enough. But you can put things other than letters in an envelope. I talked to the postmaster, she said I was correct but Robert (the clerk) had been there a long time and he had his own way of doing things so if I wanted insurance, to go to a different clerk. Not real helpful, when there was just one window open.
*That's* the public sector for you. It's easier for the supervisors to just let the workers do as they like than inform them of the correct policy so as to better serve the public.
Trump's style model is the "Rat pack": Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis jr, Joey Bishop, Angie Dickerson, etc, widely seen on NBC Thursday night "roasts" hosted by Dean Martin. their style is his style, plus a little of Al Pacino in the Godfather.
Government employees are no more special than anybody else. Often times, they're worse. A lot worse.
The glee that some people show about people losing their jobs is really shameful.
Apparently, you slept through the left's response during the Covid bullshit.
‘Bette Middler's act used to include, "My husband is German. Every night, I dress up like Poland and he invades me." ‘
Plausible only if Poland could wear a bag on its head.
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