This is a sickening article that appeared in The Irish Times about a meeting on Capitol Hill between Congressional leaders and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Why is it sickening? It shows our elected Congressional leaders preening and groveling in the presence of the world’s richest man and a man who is only very rich.
Why an article from The Irish Times? My good friend and executive director of the Network for Public Education Carol Burris is spending the holidays there and sent it to me.
As you read the article, you can feel the obsequiousness that these elected officials are expressing as they wait for the phony Department of Government Efficiency to tell them what to cut.
“Elon and Vivek talked about having a naughty list and a nice list for members of Congress and senators and how we vote,” reported Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who offered a beaming smile that suggested she knew which list she’d be making. “And how we’re spending American people’s money. I think that would be fantastic.”
One wonders what Ted Kennedy or Henry Clay or Lyndon Johnson, during their Senate years, would have made of two billionaires with zero political experience or authority, breezing into the Capitol and explaining to them they had a chance to make the nice list.
Speaker Johnson promised that Thursday’s meetings will be the first of many visits by Musk and Ramaswamy. “We believe it’s a historic moment for the country and these two gentlemen are going to help us navigate through this exciting day. Elon and Vivek don’t need much of an introduction here in Congress for certain and I think most of the public know what they are capable of and have achieved.
“They are innovators and forward thinkers and that’s what we need right now. We are laying the new ground rules for the new Congress in the new year, and we are going to see a lot of change here in Washington of the way things are run. That is what this whole Doge effort is about.”
Should they cut Social Security? Medicare? Veterans’ Healthcare? Grants for higher education? Title 1? Headstart?
Everything is on their chopping block.
How many civil servants will they seek to terminate?
Musk cut 80% of the staff at Twitter. Will he aim to lay off a huge percentage of the people who keep government running?
Musk tweeted a few days ago that government “should be rule by democracy, not rule by bureaucracy.”
How is it democratic to allow two unelected oligarchs to decide which programs should be eliminated? Why do Elon and Vivek–who will never need Medicare or Social Security–get to decide whether the rest of us can keep the programs that we rely on? If they get their way, there will be more people dying of health conditions that could been treated, more seniors eating cat food for dinner.
The politicians eagerly await their marching orders.
Sickening.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have a good cost saving measure….ban Trump from playing golf . It cost tax payers over $117 million.. This is an estimate. Thanks Margaret Doherty
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hah!
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We’re all just here to serve the billionaires.
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Shall we serve them on the fine silver platters?
Might have to braise them for a few days as they tend to be tough, sinewy and stringy ol bird. . . brains.
(My apologies to birds.)
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Here’s an interesting post with suggestions for how to survive the reign of terror and plunder we are about to face.https://jdietsch.substack.com/p/tips-to-survive-in-2025?r=5mzb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
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“Musk cut 80% of the staff at Twitter. Will he aim to lay off a huge percentage of the people who keep government running?”
Unless I do not understand the news, Twitter is worth much less than it was when Musk took over. Why is he the unelected official we want running anything?
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Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter.
I read recently that its current value is $12 billion.
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Because he kisses the tRump’s rump.
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When, in my twenties, I was a truck driver and a warehouseman, my co-workers and I called this sort of thing “brown-nosing.”
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Absolutely, totally no surprise at all.
Capitalism thrives on sucking up to rich folks. And, so many Republicans especially seem to have no shame in that regard.
At what point will people in the United States take to the streets, like they did in South Korean recently? (I’m just going to keep repeating this question over and over again…)
The phrase, ‘Better to die on your feet, than live on your knees’, has come to mind repeatedly since November 5.
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P.S. the word “sickening” used at the end of this post is the most accurate description of this post-election/ pre-inauguration miasma we’re enduring that I’ve read.
Slavery, the “Trail of Tears” the Red Scare, the Internment of Japanese-Americans… think of some of the most sickening chapters in American history then add NOW. Right now.
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The suffering that Musk and the other rich guy will cause, if Congress lets them, wasn’t a secret. Musk told us before the election.
“Elon Musk has a new message for Americans about what to expect from a potential second Donald Trump presidency: suffering.”
Musk says Americans will have to face ‘hardship’ if Trump wins
I think most of the corporate media ignored what Musk said and didn’t report it or buried it so deep most people would never see it. I saw it once in my Google feed but didn’t bother to read it since I will never vote for Trump or anyone like him.
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In its 1983 Chadha ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that “Convenience and efficiency are not the primary objectives — or the hallmarks — of democratic government.
“There is no support in the Constitution or decisions of this Court for the proposition that the cumbersomeness and delays often encountered in complying with explicit constitutional standards may be avoided, either by the Congress or by the President.
“With all the obvious flaws of delay, untidiness, and potential for abuse, we have not yet found a better way to preserve freedom than by making the exercise of power subject to the carefully crafted restraints spelled out in the Constitution.”
Even if the so-called “Department of Governmental Efficiency” (DOGE) were an actual government department — which it is NOT — any steps it takes to institute changes that change established federal law, would violate The Nondelegation Doctrine that arise from Article 1, Section 1, of our Constitution.
Article I, Section 1, of our Constitution states: “ALL [emphasis added] legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
On June 28 this year, the current Supreme Court ruled in Loper v. Raimondo that federal department and agency rules and regulations that carry the weight of law are unconstitutional because only Congress can make law. That ruling is consistent to both Article 1, Section 1, of the Constitution and with previous Court rulings.
So, a legal path to blocking any DOGE proclamations is via The Nondelegation Doctrine.
That puts the burden of making “efficiency” changes and “savings” or “waste” changes that carry the weight of law onto Congress, where the Constitution says such changes reside.
Because of the impact of such changes on at-home voters, Congress — as it always has been — will be reluctant to make them.
The Nondelegation Doctrine of Article 1, Section 1, is also a constitutional pathway to blocking and negating any presidential Executive Order that carries the weight of law: Only Congress — not the President — can make laws.
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Don’t overthink this. You don’t need any fancy doctrine to “block” DOGE from making law. DOGE has no legislative authority, no delegated authority, and no other authority. This will not be disputed. It has an advisory role, that’s it. But it seems likely to me that its recommendations will be taken up by people who do have authority, i.e. Trump and the Congressional GOP.
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Regarding DOGE: some of its recommendations may be passed by Congress. The big ones will not be.
The number of people dependent on Social Security and Medicare make it highly unlikely that red state Senators and Congressmen will adopt DOGE proposals for drastic cuts.
Elon and Vivek’s ideas of government “waste” is Planned Parenthood and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Together, they are a small part of the federal budget.
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This just in: Musk wants to change the name of America to Xia! We would become the USX.
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Elon Musk gave Trump at least $250 million. He bought the naming rights to the nation.
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Musk, the father of 12 kids that we know about, has this weird strange obsession with the letter “X.” He names everything X; SpaceX, Twitter became X, some of his kids have X-type names. One son is named X Æ A-Xii. Other names of his kids are Exa Dark Siderael and Techno Mechanicus. In my opinion, such names amount to child abuse, these poor kids will be teased by their classmates with such crazy names.
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Joe Jersey,
Elon is weird. I expect he will bottle and monetize his sperm, in hopes of encouraging white women to have more babies.
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DOGE is not meant to make government more efficient. It is an effort to reallocate money to the oligarchy. So when some of these cuts pass Congress, and they will, we will hear nothing about the continuing climb of the deficit. In just four years, the Trump administration increased the federal debt by 25% between 2016-and 2021. Trump has already said money will be no object when he starts to coral immigrants. NASA will basically be handed to Musk. I’ll help him pack his suit case if he promises to get on that rocket to Mars.
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Bam. Right there. Just as we’ve seen with the “school choice” movement, this is another attempt by the wealthy to get their hands on public funding.
If they are serious about cuts and such believers in capitalism, I have a suggestion that meets both criteria: eliminate farm subsidies.
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“DOGE is not meant to make government more efficient. It is an effort to reallocate money to the oligarchy.”
Bingo Bango Boingo. . . Give that intelligent man a Kewpie Doll.
Just like in post-Soviet Russia. . . Oligarchs stripping a country of its wealth for their own benefit.
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barf bag please
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Please empty it on the DOGERS.
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