“What if Elon Musk, if he focuses on his new task at Doge (the Department of Government Efficiency), really does find tens of billions of dollars of savings? Could it show the way for other governments to slash the cost of bureaucracy in the dawning age of AI? All of these things could happen, and we could be thanking Trump for them a couple of years from now”
That quote by William Hague. It’s insane. Initially Musk suggested 2 trillion in cuts to the Federal Budget. Which was more than the entire budget. Which shows the thought that went into THAT. He’s likely to cut Medicaid and Education. Isn’t it just like a Tory to celebrate that.
I don’t care how many nuanced or frankly insane articles right wing newspapers come up with it’s impossible for me to not look at Musks Nazi salute and not be chilled by it.
These are dangerous and stupid times and it’s hard to keep up, even if you want to but hardly a mention from any commentator that an ex PM of the UK was walking around DC with a MAGA hat on. The fact it was Truss and was only 44 days is irrelevant to me. Next time any right wing blowhards shout about the ‘Great’ in Britain, they should be reminded about how deeply unserious and pathetic we actually are.
I was busy with work (and kinda ignoring the world) for the first part of 2025 and got behind on my newletter subscriptions. Here in March to say that these have aged like milk in the hot sun is an understatement.
Thanks Mic for the ID parade. I’ve tried to laugh at the way the dullest hacks are coming out of the far right closet to wet themselves over a malodorous old sexpest. But really it’s just ugly and menacing. As for Musk's vile gesture, it was unmistakable. It even included the hand on heart flourish. There are still some decent countries – Germany – where he’d be promptly arrested.
"Could it show the way for other governments to slash the cost of bureaucracy in the dawning age of AI?"
I know I'm late to this party, but I've found it fascinating seeing how the Trump administration has manufactured support for this narrative since taking office.
I've recently been watching a lot of debates between American liberals and Conservatives, some of whom aren't full on MAGA but broadly support the stated aims of DOGE. Early in every debate, you'll hear some form of the statement "it's true that the bureaucracy is bloated", before the commentator proceeds to either defend or dispute HOW Musk is tackling it.
It was only last week that I finally heard someone respond to the question "but you do agree that the bureaucracy has grown too large, right?" with a simple "I don't know - has it? What size should it be?", and I realised I'd fallen into the trap as well.
I actually have no idea how many people should work in a government department. Moreover, I can't think of a time when I've walked into a bureaucratic office, such as a Job Centre or a municipal building, and thought "there's too many staff here". It's usually the opposite.
Yet somehow, seemingly overnight, millions of Americans with little knowledge of the workings of government have unquestioningly accepted "the bureaucracy has become way too bloated" as a truism that justifies putting thousands of people out of work at the stroke of a pen. So I sit here wondering if Brits could be convinced of the same.
I guess we've already seen a smaller scale version of this, over the course of the Tories' destruction of the public sector. I do wonder, though - could the media and the next right wing government manage to convince people that a big part of our spending problems are because of an arbitrarily determined excess of public sector employees? They've dabbled in this narrative with the NHS for years - everyone accepts that there's "too many middle managers", a truism that I rarely see justified much less quantified - so how hard would it be for them to announce, like Liz Truss did at CPAC, that we need to cull vast swathes of the civil service to root out "waste and abuse"?
As if by devine intervention, google recommended me an article of BRENDAN FUCKING ONEIL defending the salute.
Because of course he fucking would.
He would have it tattooed on his five-head for posterity, but there’s not enough ink in the northern hemisphere.
The article literally admits it was a weird salute then quickly throws in the BUT BUT BUT.
“What if Elon Musk, if he focuses on his new task at Doge (the Department of Government Efficiency), really does find tens of billions of dollars of savings? Could it show the way for other governments to slash the cost of bureaucracy in the dawning age of AI? All of these things could happen, and we could be thanking Trump for them a couple of years from now”
That quote by William Hague. It’s insane. Initially Musk suggested 2 trillion in cuts to the Federal Budget. Which was more than the entire budget. Which shows the thought that went into THAT. He’s likely to cut Medicaid and Education. Isn’t it just like a Tory to celebrate that.
I don’t care how many nuanced or frankly insane articles right wing newspapers come up with it’s impossible for me to not look at Musks Nazi salute and not be chilled by it.
Since Trump has already said that he's abolishing the Education Department, I think that's basically a cut of 100%.
Because educated people tend to vote Democrat - unless they're oligarchs or would-be oligarchs.
These are dangerous and stupid times and it’s hard to keep up, even if you want to but hardly a mention from any commentator that an ex PM of the UK was walking around DC with a MAGA hat on. The fact it was Truss and was only 44 days is irrelevant to me. Next time any right wing blowhards shout about the ‘Great’ in Britain, they should be reminded about how deeply unserious and pathetic we actually are.
What’s worse is that it’s become predictably anodyne, their lazy musings on the MAGApoloooza.
If Tim Stanley gets angry enough, his bow-tie rotates at such a rate that he achieves brief but livid flight.
I was busy with work (and kinda ignoring the world) for the first part of 2025 and got behind on my newletter subscriptions. Here in March to say that these have aged like milk in the hot sun is an understatement.
Their takes I hope!
Thanks Mic for the ID parade. I’ve tried to laugh at the way the dullest hacks are coming out of the far right closet to wet themselves over a malodorous old sexpest. But really it’s just ugly and menacing. As for Musk's vile gesture, it was unmistakable. It even included the hand on heart flourish. There are still some decent countries – Germany – where he’d be promptly arrested.
"Could it show the way for other governments to slash the cost of bureaucracy in the dawning age of AI?"
I know I'm late to this party, but I've found it fascinating seeing how the Trump administration has manufactured support for this narrative since taking office.
I've recently been watching a lot of debates between American liberals and Conservatives, some of whom aren't full on MAGA but broadly support the stated aims of DOGE. Early in every debate, you'll hear some form of the statement "it's true that the bureaucracy is bloated", before the commentator proceeds to either defend or dispute HOW Musk is tackling it.
It was only last week that I finally heard someone respond to the question "but you do agree that the bureaucracy has grown too large, right?" with a simple "I don't know - has it? What size should it be?", and I realised I'd fallen into the trap as well.
I actually have no idea how many people should work in a government department. Moreover, I can't think of a time when I've walked into a bureaucratic office, such as a Job Centre or a municipal building, and thought "there's too many staff here". It's usually the opposite.
Yet somehow, seemingly overnight, millions of Americans with little knowledge of the workings of government have unquestioningly accepted "the bureaucracy has become way too bloated" as a truism that justifies putting thousands of people out of work at the stroke of a pen. So I sit here wondering if Brits could be convinced of the same.
I guess we've already seen a smaller scale version of this, over the course of the Tories' destruction of the public sector. I do wonder, though - could the media and the next right wing government manage to convince people that a big part of our spending problems are because of an arbitrarily determined excess of public sector employees? They've dabbled in this narrative with the NHS for years - everyone accepts that there's "too many middle managers", a truism that I rarely see justified much less quantified - so how hard would it be for them to announce, like Liz Truss did at CPAC, that we need to cull vast swathes of the civil service to root out "waste and abuse"?