this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025
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[–] pyre@lemmy.world 138 points 2 months ago (2 children)

funny but make no mistake, the entire purpose of doge is to find funds to divert to rich people

[–] Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The money is already diverted. That's what the tax cuts were in 2017.

This is just a way to upset various government agencies that might otherwise not be ok with law being upended to accomplish the goal of eliminating services our elected government has mandated.

The entire legislative branch is broken now.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm not American, but it seems to me, that to get to where you currently are, the legislative branch probably needed to be already busted.

This just shines a spotlight on how busted.

[–] jecxjo@midwest.social 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

it's a demonstration of how democracy is broken. It all depends on everyone to play nicely. You can cheat but if you're caught you bow out gracefully. The checks and balances are all based on one part of the government pointing saying "we see what you did, you're out." But what happens when one side has no shame. What happens when they have no empathy for others?

Congress controls funding and it is explicitly not the President's role. He is now circumventing the laws to get his agenda done without the support of Congress which should trigger an impeachment. Of course Congress is either already in his pocket or is too impotent to do anything so here we are.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

At it's core, yes, absolutely.

It should have checks and balances. The problem is that those checks and balances rely on people to take action. As you've stated, in this case, Congress should be the ones to stop unlawful power grabs by the President and start the impeachment process.

This shows very clearly that the people who are tasked with the duty of keeping those checks and balances in place are either unable to act (Democrats), or unwilling to act (Republicans). This sad reality means that the system is fundamentally broken to the point that it is liable to collapse. Trump/Musk/Vance are already making large swaths of the American population very unhappy with what they've been doing in the first 100 days. The only alternative to four+ years of this is basically a revolution at this point. Given how many "fans" they're making in the Whitehouse, that possibility doesn't seem impossible.

[–] wirebeads@lemmy.ca 122 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Guarantee that’s not going to happen. In fact with all the savings from the other more critical services being defunded, Elon will have more money for his own projects.

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 37 points 2 months ago

GIMME ALL YOUR LUNCH MONEY, PUNK! DON'T YOU KNOW THERE ARE PEOPLE STARVING WHO CAN'T BUY GROCERIES???

... Now to buy second dessert with this sudden windfall!

[–] burgersc12@mander.xyz 64 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] Botzo@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm five drinks in and this is still what jumped out.

[–] MyNameIsIgglePiggle@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I read the first post, spotted nothing amiss, saw this, thought it was a correction, then noticed they were both the incorrect spelling

[–] cmoney@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago
[–] BigMacHole@lemm.ee 54 points 2 months ago

Hey! He EARNED that Welfare UNLIKE those SINGLE MOMS working 3 JOBS!

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 31 points 2 months ago

The parasite class

[–] ToiletFlushShowerScream@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Since they started, how much money in subsidies found its way directly to the American co-president anyway?

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 26 points 2 months ago (3 children)

well, the one that hit the news recently is that bullshit $400m 'armored tesla' contract for state department. the one they 'oopsed' and went back to remove tesla by name from.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago

That whole thing sounds rather counterintuitive. Armor is supposed to protect the occupants of the vehicle, but Tesla's crown jewel of armored* trucks has a track record of spontaneous system failures that put its occupants in direct harm.

*with glass windows and steel sheet metal that can't stop a bullet.

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Looks like that was initiated under the Biden administration?

The Tesla contract started in the Biden administration "to explore interest from private companies to produce armored electric vehicles," a State Department spokesperson said on Thursday.

Tesla was the only company to express interest in the department's request at the time.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/13/g-s1-48571/trump-administration-order-400-million-worth-of-armored-teslas

[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't matter. Musk must withdrawal his company from consideration due to conflict of interest.

[–] Denjin@lemmings.world 2 points 2 months ago

He's not elected. He couldn't give a f about conflict of interest.

[–] JackFrostNCola@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Armoured tesla...
Was the cybertruck just a soft prototype of the TeslaTank© ?

[–] Chivera@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

Co-president? Elon is the only president.

[–] icdmize@lemm.ee 22 points 2 months ago

Donald Trump's dad made a lot of his money off of overcharging for FHA housing. Does that count?

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

FYI this'll prob get removed because c/memes has a strict no political memes rule

!politicalmemes@lemmy.world is a better fit

[–] uis@lemm.ee 5 points 2 months ago

"Why save billions, when we can save millions?"

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Which SpaceX subsidies are you referring to? Just the contracts they're fulfilling for NASA and the DOD?

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 23 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Nice try.

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html

Musk is insane and lies when he opens his mouth. The whole operation runs on government dollars and tax breaks.

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I was wondering the same thing. I wasn't aware he got subsidies. The article only pinpoints $4.9B, but it's an old article. Thanks for sharing.

[–] parrhesia@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yes, it talks about spacex winning $17B in federal contracts from the US government. That's not subsidies. The US government is a customer.

If we assume the 1B is the rest for Tesla, that's in EV subsidies. It isn't just Tesla that benefits from those. Any manufacturer that sells EVs does.

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[–] Not_a_gov_agent@eviltoast.org 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

@IncogCyberspaceUser@lemmy.world

The article linked in the post I'm replying to, while from 2015, details $5.9 billion of subsidies that no-one I know approved in forms including tax breaks, century long $1 leasing deal in New York, rebates, and gifted sellable carbon credits.

This is separate to the $5.5 billion in SpaceTwitter contracts.

Both numbers, have, I'm sure I don't need to check any data sets to see have gone up in the 10 years since.

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[–] IncogCyberspaceUser@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If that's the case, which I suspect it is, we look really fucking dumb being so hyperbolic(or what would the word be here? I just woke up). Let's not stoop to their level with nonsense like this, there are plenty of legitimate criticisms to be made.

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The complete opposite is the case. Musk is lying through his teeth. The whole world sees it, just some folks still don't want to accept it.

[–] IncogCyberspaceUser@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure what you're trying to say in response to what I said. I'm not denying that Musk lies.
I'm saying calling money from government contracts for NASA and the likes subsidies is not correct. Unless my definition of subsidies isn't right and needs expanding.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'd agree that unnecessary contracts are subsidies but then that just pushes your point down the road a little bit. I'd say that maintaining the ISS isn't unnecessary, for instance.

[–] Argonne@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maintaining the ISS is absolutely necessary unless you want brainrot like RFK Jr and have all your best scientists move to Chinas new space station projects. The world is a complicated place, but shunning science and space is not the answer

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

That's exactly what I said.

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