The US Office of Personal Management reported in 2017, the latest date I could find, that there were, summed across all territories, types, and geographic areas, 1,869,986 Federal civilian employees.
Why is Naomi Wolf not happy about this? I find myself cheering Elon on, while at the same time being leery. What is happening is probably the great reset, or all this is some kind of elite behind the scene secret war between the Tory types and Patriot types.
There is late-breaking news that if they achieve their target savings of $2T, they are considering giving every citizen $5K, the individual's share of the savings. Sounds good to me--if you feel strongly that your money should be used to support things like transgender opera in South America, by all means endorse your $5K check and send it along...
So Musk being open and transparent about what he’s finding gives her the vapors? But not the nefarious, underhanded, hidden shit bureaucrats did for decades? Ridiculous.
Whatever we call it, 'everything is what it is and not another thing' and what it seems to be and hopefully is, is a powerful act of cleaning up. That's what matters.
Having been hired for some temporary"government work" in the past, seen "government work" and known "government workers" there ought to be plenty of "government work" to cut.
The real question is: Will the meaning of the connotation "government work" change?
Elon Musk whose team is serving as Tech Support, (oh how I'd like to be a fly on the wall as boy genius crack code and bone on government waste), has made these statements in the past few months:
- governments can go bankrupt just like people.
- the United States is the pillar holding up governments around the world.
- we'll get to Mars and have an outpost there by 2035 if civilization does not collapse.
At first, I was outraged about the Social Security payments to people over 112 (ages variously reported) years old. 'The Social Security Administration has on its books, and has been paying, five million people over the age of 140.'
Looking into it further, as with most things, it's not as cut and dried as it seems. The Social Security Inspector General has been complaining about these undead old people since at least 2015. Read the conclusion of the 2023 IG report: https://oig.ssa.gov/assets/uploads/a-06-21-51022.pdf
I read the report and in a footnote it states benefits were associated with 44,000 of the 18.9 million people. One example cited was a survivor benefit to a widow.
I have been wondering why SSA has not responded with clarification. I guess it is because they knew about the problem, but thought it was too expensive to fix and not worthwhile.
Interesting. I guess there are a lot of people on Social Security who are so inconsiderate as to die without notifying the Social Security Administration that they are dead. And if nobody else takes it upon themself, then SSA never finds out and never expires them. Maybe they stop cashing their checks and SSA stops sending them, but the active numbers are still in the system, and other people can start using them for purposes of establishing fraudulent identities.
That's pretty much the gist of it. Two of my family members died and SSA yanked the last payment with no warning. SSA gets notified by mortuaries, hospitals, and the like. Some deaths are bound to slip through the cracks, especially decades ago. What I gleaned from that IG report was that no, all those active numbers are not getting paid (although some number of them are), but the active numbers are fodder for identity theft, etc.
I wouldn't minimize the digital money/surveillance/tracking that the Tech Bros are interested in bringing to America. I'm telling you that the bad that comes with the good will be horrifying. Just wait until they restrict any speech that is "anti-jewish" (ie: anything critical of jews, jewish power and or, especially, Great Israel).
Is the bad going to worth the good?
I also must ask if DOGE will ever find a republican theft (of which we know is also rampant), or will it be partisanship politics, as usual?
the problem is the horses are already out of the barn sort of speaking.
too late to close that barn door.
the best way to solve it is to cut, so that the workers don't have the time.
idle hands are the devils workshop.
now i think Musk is focused on cutting....
and cutting forces more work to be done by fewer people...
so they'll be focused on whatever it is that they are supposed to be doing.
supervises too...
could i be wrong? sure...
maybe after everything is said and done, everyone will get a new social security number and then the old ones that are stolen will be worth less to them...
Naomi Wolf has a point. If you work with these open data sources, and you count on your own desktop processing and storage, you know what she's talking about. My capacity to keep up with the data stock is increasingly eroded by updating and cloud cramming and other shenanigans. If I actually had to make a living off of it working alone, I'd go nuts.
Why is Naomi Wolf not happy about this? I find myself cheering Elon on, while at the same time being leery. What is happening is probably the great reset, or all this is some kind of elite behind the scene secret war between the Tory types and Patriot types.
There is late-breaking news that if they achieve their target savings of $2T, they are considering giving every citizen $5K, the individual's share of the savings. Sounds good to me--if you feel strongly that your money should be used to support things like transgender opera in South America, by all means endorse your $5K check and send it along...
So Musk being open and transparent about what he’s finding gives her the vapors? But not the nefarious, underhanded, hidden shit bureaucrats did for decades? Ridiculous.
"Naomi Wolf failed to understand this in a recent popular article in which she called Musk running DOGE a “digital coup”.
The lady mentioned has failed to understand quite a few other things as well. Given her pride in her critical skills, wilfully it seems.
It's a pity that in these fraught times such writers are not more often and openly denounced for what they are.
I think it IS a digital coup--against the Deep State. The only argument is about whether it is good or not (and I consider it the former).
Whatever we call it, 'everything is what it is and not another thing' and what it seems to be and hopefully is, is a powerful act of cleaning up. That's what matters.
I do trust DOGE to cut cut cut.
I will hope that the DOJ imprisons imprisons imprisons. The people wasting our tax dollars deserve a Kolyma-style experience for what they've done.
This is a good response to Wolf’s argument. I wouldn’t say trust DOGE, though. I’d say don’t trust anyone. It’s Fed. It’s incapable of being benign.
Having been hired for some temporary"government work" in the past, seen "government work" and known "government workers" there ought to be plenty of "government work" to cut.
The real question is: Will the meaning of the connotation "government work" change?
Elon Musk whose team is serving as Tech Support, (oh how I'd like to be a fly on the wall as boy genius crack code and bone on government waste), has made these statements in the past few months:
- governments can go bankrupt just like people.
- the United States is the pillar holding up governments around the world.
- we'll get to Mars and have an outpost there by 2035 if civilization does not collapse.
It's really easy to see his motivation.....
Before even starting the article, I must award a +10 for the Bruce Campbell still.
Edit to add: first sentence, that should be Office of *Personnel* Management.
At first, I was outraged about the Social Security payments to people over 112 (ages variously reported) years old. 'The Social Security Administration has on its books, and has been paying, five million people over the age of 140.'
Looking into it further, as with most things, it's not as cut and dried as it seems. The Social Security Inspector General has been complaining about these undead old people since at least 2015. Read the conclusion of the 2023 IG report: https://oig.ssa.gov/assets/uploads/a-06-21-51022.pdf
I read the report and in a footnote it states benefits were associated with 44,000 of the 18.9 million people. One example cited was a survivor benefit to a widow.
I have been wondering why SSA has not responded with clarification. I guess it is because they knew about the problem, but thought it was too expensive to fix and not worthwhile.
That was one of their arguments. I appreciate you looking at the report. I think most people stop at the headlines!
Interesting. I guess there are a lot of people on Social Security who are so inconsiderate as to die without notifying the Social Security Administration that they are dead. And if nobody else takes it upon themself, then SSA never finds out and never expires them. Maybe they stop cashing their checks and SSA stops sending them, but the active numbers are still in the system, and other people can start using them for purposes of establishing fraudulent identities.
That's pretty much the gist of it. Two of my family members died and SSA yanked the last payment with no warning. SSA gets notified by mortuaries, hospitals, and the like. Some deaths are bound to slip through the cracks, especially decades ago. What I gleaned from that IG report was that no, all those active numbers are not getting paid (although some number of them are), but the active numbers are fodder for identity theft, etc.
I wouldn't minimize the digital money/surveillance/tracking that the Tech Bros are interested in bringing to America. I'm telling you that the bad that comes with the good will be horrifying. Just wait until they restrict any speech that is "anti-jewish" (ie: anything critical of jews, jewish power and or, especially, Great Israel).
Is the bad going to worth the good?
I also must ask if DOGE will ever find a republican theft (of which we know is also rampant), or will it be partisanship politics, as usual?
i understand Naomi Wolf's concerns...
the problem is the horses are already out of the barn sort of speaking.
too late to close that barn door.
the best way to solve it is to cut, so that the workers don't have the time.
idle hands are the devils workshop.
now i think Musk is focused on cutting....
and cutting forces more work to be done by fewer people...
so they'll be focused on whatever it is that they are supposed to be doing.
supervises too...
could i be wrong? sure...
maybe after everything is said and done, everyone will get a new social security number and then the old ones that are stolen will be worth less to them...
i don't know what will happen.
Drill, baby, drill.
Cut, baby, cut.
Naomi Wolf has a point. If you work with these open data sources, and you count on your own desktop processing and storage, you know what she's talking about. My capacity to keep up with the data stock is increasingly eroded by updating and cloud cramming and other shenanigans. If I actually had to make a living off of it working alone, I'd go nuts.