— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2024
Musk seems to feel comfortable — and amused! — portraying his worldly efforts as divine retribution.
The dog is cute, so that takes the edge off, but Satan would take the edge off. Ha ha. So amusing. Destruction!
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The dust storm makes me think of "The Mummy", only instead of a scary head we have the cute doge dog meme. It's a funny juxtaposition.
The doge head won't be as cruel as the mummy head, which brings pestilence and death, but it is still a storm coming for the DC establishment, which believes itself so ordered, sprawling, and safe that nothing can disrupt it.
Elon never learned about the Dust Bowl it seems
Release the hounds!
Musk is having a good time. He’s funny. He’s refusing to constrain himself to the words and images that the censors want to suppress. He’s deliberately provocative, a la Lenny Bruce. There’s a teen-aged boy brashness and irreverence to this Happy Warrior that I enjoy. He’s giving a hugely deserved middle finger to all the drama queens playing out the “I’m offended!” and “Our Phony Baloney Jobs!” scams.
It’s called a haboob, and it’s a weather phenomenon that can occur in desert areas when a thunderstorm collapses.
Or, in the context of the image and Kate’s explanation, the government never did.
Oh no, some civil servants might have to find jobs in the civilian sector. At least, according to those civil servants, the economy is doing great and unemployment is low. And it will be when the economy is unburdened by the past.
"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war." from Marc Antony's famous speech in Julius Caesar.
The question is: "Arizona leads the nation in the production of what natural resource?"
The answer is Dust.
I think a much easier model for understanding Elon Musk tweets is that he is a weird guy with a quirky sense of humor and no filter. You don't need to look for deeper symbolism or hidden implications, because there likely aren't any.
For those who haven't been paying attention, NPR is a hotbed of liberal journalism in the United States. It is funded by the federal government. At any time, it could lose its funding but of course it never has.
For the last 4 years, Republicans have controlled the US House of Representatives, where all federal spending bills must originate. And for each of those 4 years, Republicans have funded NPR. They've funded Harvard, hotbed of liberal indoctrination. They've funded literally THOUSANDS of Democrat-controlled non-governmental organizations that are currently in the job of importing millions and millions of illegal immigrants into the United States to replace the American people.
Republicans are doing that.
Elon Musk has exactly ZERO chance of changing that. He's going to get in their enough to threaten some of the people who regulate his companies and that's the extent of what his involvement or interest will be. Once he's handed a few very public defeats, he'll head off where he came from declaring that American simply cannot be fixed.
He's not the first to take this route.
Doge is going to cover the earth. Doesn't seem very apocalyptic to me. In AZ (and CA I would assume,) dust storms aren't really damaging or scary. They're kind of exciting.
"But why would Musk want his effort to be represented by a dust storm and the bloated government to be represented by an orderly suburban neighborhood?"
Just because a government is orderly doesn't mean it isn't bloated. Having worked in the federal bureaucracy, and I can say that the agencies go about setting up their fiefdoms in a very orderly manner. It doesn't mean that they accomplish anything, but the org charts look great.
On another level, maybe Musk is saying that bloated government bureaucracies are like thirsty cities that have been built in inappropriate desert locations and that DOGE is like the forces of nature reclaiming its own.
Actually, FDR delayed doing much of anything about the dust bowl’s poverty-stricken victims until winds carried that federally-created ecological misery right into Washington DC and the White House. So I’d call this a very sophisticated and historically informed political cartoon.
Or a giant Golden Retriever created by a funny weirdo.
+1. I remember when 'suburbia' was a catch-word for stifling conformity and small-mindedness.
A storm cometh.
You tell ’em I’m comin! And hell’s comin’ with me, you hear? --Wyatt Earp, Tombstone
Orderly suburban neighborhood like the one in the opening of “Sicario”
DOGE Day AfterBuffoon
The destruction of suburban complacency, like the beatniks in the 1950’s. Elon Musk is the Allen Ginsberg of our time.
Reminds me of the Dylan lyrics:
Because something is happening here
But ya' don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
Instead of a nice middle class neighborhood - he should have replaced it with Nancy's hoo'd, Tammy Baldwin's swanky NY hood, Martha's Vineyard and the DC swamp - all combined.
Yes, images of destruction and dust clouds in NYC is definitely the image one wants the guy who bought the election to hype.
Alternative interpretation?
There's a meme storm coming.
The meaning is the reformers about to attack the bloated government and leave it at that. Musk’s doge dog matches the color of the cloud, too..
the guy who bought the election
How did Elon buy the election?
Thanks for the link, Ann.
Fun fact - The dog featured is Kabosu, a Shiba Inu adopted by a kindergarten teacher in Japan that became famous and inspired the Doge meme and the crypto meme coin Dogecoin.
How did Elon buy the election?
He found it on the curb after the Democrats threw it away.
Mark - Kamala burned thru over a billion dollars. Mark - what are you talking about?
No one paid me to vote against horrid-joke mob-controlled radical Kamala-Walz.
Doge in the wind
All we are is Doge in the wind
It's childish and incoherent. He should be building excitement for DOGE, but this isn't the way.
The "orderly" civilization is appearance only. It is kept that way to hide the bad acts and bloat. The sandstorm gets into every nook and cranny and roots out that which is rot.
Mark - why are leftists so enraged when non-Democratic-leftists attempt to get people registered to vote?
Yes. It is just a play on DOGE. (It isn't a wolf after all. And it isn't a sheep. Christ's warning was to beware of ravenous wolves dressed in sheep's clothing, not ravenous wolves dressed in dog's or DOGE dog's clothing.)
My take: the effects of DOGE will sweep the land. Each suburban home's dishwasher and gas range will be deregulated, each food or drug product in the home will have been more efficiently vetted. Each purchase decision will be free of market distorting tax incentives and back-room government grants.
To haboobs!
I interpreted it as a sandstorm. My dad sandblasted stuff all the time when restoring old cars. Things blasted by sand get cleaned. Sand will remove rust and dirt from metal objects, for example. The stuff that doesn't belong gets removed leaving only the intended functional parts.
A haboob for the nattering nabobs, then.
It’s okay if you or anyone else doesn’t get it. It isn’t TomT. or NYT/ WaPo level stupid, it’s Musk/rehajm level stupid. It’s all okay…I’m reminded of what Rogan said recently about NYT people- they took themselves VERY seriously. This isn’t that…
Whatever the DOGE winds up offering or contributing, it cannot pass appropriations without Congress.
Payments through Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' health benefits and other programs do not need annual appropriations. That's more than half the federal budget right there. Payments under these programs essentially just send the bills to the taxpayers, yet the taxpayers have made it clear they do not want those payments to stop.
The third item budget hawks cannot reach is the budget for defense or national security.
At 13% of the budget it is almost two-thirds the price tag of Social Security. And any chance of curtailing it probably went out the window with the election of the current Republican majorities in Congress.
A mid term spanking in 2026 and GOP will balk.
Government is not the private sector.
Not sure Tony Stark would be impressed …
It will be fun to watch corrupt democrats whine about cutting waste as "racist"
It's a childish meme from a childish man.
Like everything that Trump and his team do. Dated, ill conceived, not thought through and meant to impress those who do not understand the subtleties.
Absolutely. Not nearly as sophisticated as somebody holding up Donald Trump's bloody, severed head. Now, *that's* a meme.
…childish to the point of an sophisticated appeal. Camp. I love that about him. There’s enough self-important, self-indulgent Gates in the world…
I concur…but for the moment it’s kind of fun!
executive can ass can all they want though they probably won’t…
"the bloated government to be represented by an orderly suburban neighborhood?"
DC is probably 80% "orderly suburban neighborhood." Rich, too.
"...it seems" is doing quite a bit of work here for Dumb Lefty Mark's evidence free little lefty brain comment.
$270 million reasons, chuck
Mark will explain how dark money flowing into democrat coffers is all fine.
Anyone who spends any money on the R-party - why that's a felony.
If you have a Master's or Professional college degree, you'll make about as much in the private sector as you would in the Federal government. But if you have a Bachelor's degree or less, you'll make more working in the government, once you take benefits into account. The latter group is over 1½ million workers. Those payroll dollars might not amount to much against the Federal budget, but a little fear of losing sinecure will go a long way toward attitude adjustment for those who think it's a good idea to go after citizens using the bludgeon of the Federal Code to make their lives miserable. Like ranchers with a puddle on their land, or a Christian school trying to comply with tax codes. There is a cost to the economy arising from that kind of malfeasance. It's past high time to shift the costs onto the back of the antagonists.
This is a total Musk inspired wind storm.
Of the 2.2m ( 2022 #s excluding Postal Service) civilian Federal employees about 1.4m (63%) are in Defense, Veterans or Homeland Security Departments whereas the 2 most mention targets (EPA and D of Ed ) employ 14k and 4k respectively. As with all workforce reductions you can only achieve meaningful reductions by targeting the areas which employ meaningful numbers. I’m sure there’s scope in the Defense / Veterans / Homeland Security departments but history says there will be very limited appetite to target these areas.
In any event the real waste of tax dollars is actually at the State level where a further 18m people are employed and DOGE will be unable to tackle this. Additionally in order to achieve meaningful cost reductions the focus would need to extend to the 96% of Federal spending that is not employee compensation. This inevitably brings you to procurement which badly needs reforming but the powerful industry lobby groups who own many of the legislators will never allow this to happen.
Indeed it’s even unclear if Musk wants to tackle that issue. After all he’s likely to be seeking ever greater Federal assistance for his own pet projects.
It's gold dust.
Haboob? Derecho? Bomb Cyclone? Bombogenesis? Gustnado? Sharknado?
Is it Musk who keeps dreaming up new versions of the apocalypse or is it Soros, Schwab and Gates?
In the runup to Trump's first term, his adversaries were able to focus their fury and unquenched thirst for power upon the racist, sexist, disloyal, dishonest, short fingered vulgarian from Queens, and create a make believe network of couragous crusaders for goodness, The Resistance.
Now, they find themselves facing multiple threats from multiple directions, and Biden's blatant senility and corruption have lessened their monopoly on legitimacy. The coming storm may engulf them before they can create a new heroic narrative for themselves. Beware the coming Pomeranian cloud!
Definitely not a Sharknado: no shark. Could certainly be called a Dognado, or a Dogenado, or a Musknado.
Hey, what about the 4 C’s: copper, cattle, citrus, and cotton?
It wasn't just years or even decades or even centuries. I think the Galen system of balancing the humors was the preferred treatment for illnesses for more than a millennium. All the wisest men agreed that bloodletting and other purges of the patient was the proper treatment for most illnesses......Experts know more than me on their field of expertise, but they don't know everything and they're hesitant to admit their ignorance. I guess you have to pay attention to the experts, but I really wish they would be more forthcoming about their ignorance.
Rich. DOGE is about anti-appropriations. It's about government spending less.
I know it's difficult, but please try and pay attention.
My first thoughts were illegal aliens. But that’s probably not accurate.
Had to scroll all the way down to Toby Tucker's explainer to find someone who understood the meme. The likeness of the late canine named Doge was used in countless memes over the years, so of course incorporated into meme regarding D.O.G.E.
"The iconic Shiba Inu dog Kabosu, from the “doge” meme and Dogecoin fame, died on Friday, May 24. The canine passed away at the age of 18 after a long battle with liver disease and leukemia. Kabosu first went viral in 2010 on Reddit and Tumblr, which later served as the inspiration behind the famous “doge” meme and cryptocurrency Dogecoin."
I just read that 94% of Federal workers are still working from home. It's gotten so bad that the water in the pipes at the EPA headquarters is bacteria-laden from being stagnant from unuse. I've read elsewhere that Federal employees game the 'must be in office at least one day per month' rules by organizing to work on last and first days of consecutive months. I've also read that employees have moved away from DC to cheaper parts of the country and commute occasionally back to DC for their 'in office' days, while still collecting their paychecks that are uplifted to account for higher cost, DC living expenses. Does any of this make you mad? It makes me mad when I consider the way the people in flyover country is typically treated - like for instance people living in tents, or people coughing their lungs out from train derailment chemicals. It only takes a few professional slackers and benefits-gamers to give it all a bad look. Whatever DOGE accomplishes might be symbolic rather than consequential, but just having a workforce that reports for work *in person* might be something good, eh?
"and meant to impress those who do not understand the subtleties."
You flatter yourself. Again.
"I just read that 94% of Federal workers are still working from home…Does any of this make you mad? It makes me mad when I consider the way the people in flyover country is typically treated"
You just don't understand the "subtleties", Aggie. I'm sure Rich would be happy to explain it to you.
According to James Carville, Kamala's campaign burned through 2 1/2 billion dollars.
"The last Federal Budget that passed through “regular order” was for Fiscal Year 2008, …The CRs as they are known, punt the spending debate by accepting a baseline of prior spending and tweaking around the edges."
Subtleties.
"Government is not the private sector."
Of course not. In the private sector, you typically go to jail when you take money from people at gunpoint.
After 4 years bitching about Zuckerberg's outsized donations (and decades of Soros rants), I mistakenly thought you guys were concerned about these donors.
To be fair, "take money from people at gunpoint" should actually read "take money from people under threat of imprisonment or death, to be enforced at gunpoint".
Yes, the dust storm with the doggie face is a meme.
Elon is famous for cranking out meme tweets, but he's telling us here we ain't seen nothing yet...is my alternate interpretation.
After 4 years bitching about Zuckerberg's outsized donations (and decades of Soros rants), I mistakenly thought you guys were concerned about these donors.
Your candidate burned through billions of dollars inside of 10 weeks. Maybe you ought to be quiet donors and bought elections. Because you're soaking in it.
A mid term spanking in 2026 and GOP will balk.
You haven't gotten over having your ass handed to you a few weeks ago and you're already making predictions about 2026?
Good grief.
Apparently Mark (3:38 PM) somehow got through childhood without learning "What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander" and "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em". Or am I going too far in assuming he did 'get through' childhood and isn't still in it?
I agree with your point, but have you ever been in a dust / sand storm? I was on a ski trip heading west in Kansas on I-70. The Highway Patrol shut down I-70. We made it to Great Bend and got the last motel room. We walked out of our room, what we saw was our two month old Ford Country Squire station wagon with bare metal from the top center of the vehicle on the passenger side. The storm even removed the Vinyl fake wood. The driver side looked like a new auto. We didn't panic it was a company car. ;<)
If the US stuck to defending it's own borders, the Defense budget could be halved and the Homeland security dept could be eliminated.
Get rid of the Toilet Safety Agency. And quit paying Social Security to millions of illegal non citizens.
"but have you ever been in a dust / sand storm?"
I lived in Phoenix for a while and have been through several. They're not all the same, they can be as tame as a tan fog.
Just sayin'.
Foreign aid is 1% of the US budget.
So much of DOGE appears to be “insights” that wouldn’t pass muster in a first-year government seminar. The GOP has assembled the least serious people to work on the most serious issues.
/The United States gives more in aid to foreign countries than the next 9 countries combined.
Where exactly is that money going and how is it being spent?/ ~ DOGE
https://x.com/DOGE/status/1865447796041511248
I lived through that very storm back in 2012 or so. It made a truly awful mess of our yard and pool. No permanent damage though. Other than these “haboob” storms and the occasional wildfire or flash flood, we don’t really suffer from natural disasters here.
Much blow!
Very dust!
Wow!
Last Biden pardon of student loans could cost $600,000,000,000
"Subtleties"
What's being missed is that at least half of government jobs are patronage/gift jobs and never meant to be work per se. Congress has been in the dirty sausage-making industry for many generations.
See 30% (600,000+) military veteran "Veteran's Preference" positions. See the vast number of veterans employed by the benefits-payer Veterans Administration (VA). Some of these jobs are useless make-work, but loved by Republican military supporters. Many career bureaucrat managers detest Veteran's Preference because they are forced to hire low-motivation people with marginal skills.
Now, add in another 20% or 30% who are installed in domestic agencies (e.g., HHS, Education, EPA, NEA, NIH/NIMH, etc. -- see federal employee union staff, DEI officers, and researchers who exclusively research pro-left topics). These positions are often blue-region equity payback from left-wing politicians as they buy left-wing votes.
I think it's a bad meme because (1) Phoenix has routine (short) dust storms like this and they simply "blow over" without doing much harm, and (2) the dog face is too kind and friendly. The DOGE plans and words don't match this imagery.
When was the last time you heard a breathless news story saying "XXX people died in a dust storm! Oh, the humanity!" It doesn't happen.
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