Clown Show
Also known as a cabinet meeting.
First, a status O for POTUS!
Then, as one expects at a cabinet meeting, it’s the Elon Show!
Elon describes himself as “tech support” (he has a t-shirt that says so, so it must be true!).*
He states that they are upgrading computers (yet, if done properly, that would, at least initially, cost money).
He then goes on to talk about savings, which has nothing to do with tech support.
He admits that they “accidentally” canceled ebola prevention, but they fixed it! Well, WaPo reports: Musk says DOGE ‘restored’ Ebola prevention effort. Officials say that’s not true.).
He also claims that all the proof we need of how much success DOGE is having, is at their vaunted wall of receipt. I have noted that it isn’t so vaunted upon scrutiny.
And this is healthy, yes?
*Again, I am not one to get too uptight about what people wear or about rules like taking hats off indoors. But Good Gried, he looks ridiculous. He certainly doesn’t look like a serious person doing a serious job. If my doctor, lawyer, or accountant walked into the room looking like that, I would be quite concerned.
Baseball hats that sit high on the head always look so silly. Also, why is he wearing a hat inside? (On the one hand, to curry favor, on the other hand, it’s disrespectful so…).
I find this entire situation so very bizarre. Musk is clearly running the show (probably part of the bargain struck when he shoveled tons of campaign cash at Trump, maybe?), and everyone at that table, save Trump, must realize that they are going to be the object of derision when their respective agencies begin to fail.
That’s a “when” they fail, not “if”. Many of these departments have been UNDERSTAFFED for years, particularly in specialist positions.
Also, I’d really like to know more about the “updating” of the computers. Is someone overseeing this process so we know it’s something other than him loading malware so he will forever have backdoor access to all of the government’s data? (Our data, because we the people paid for its collection.)
@Jen:
What care they about derision? Mocking them is the right thing to do to these clowns, but the MAGAts have built a remarkable defense system. The deluded can turn derision into oppression. Fake news, social media censorship, lawfare are all mechanisms to enable their shameless. If anyone in that room once had a conscience, they had it surgically removed as a precaution against becoming a Never Trumper.
Elon’s the richest man in the world. He can dress as he pleases, and fuck you if you don’t like it. Right, Elon?
I’m surprised Trump doesn’t force all his cabinet members to wear MAGA caps at meetings.
@CSK: I’m surprised that collection of hacks and clowns don’t all wear MAGA hats voluntarily.
@CSK:
Donald? Elon? Are you listening?
As long as a clown nose is part of the uniform, I’m down with it.
It’s so obviously a clown show. To drive that point home, it’s always a “fun” (i.e. depressing) thought experiment to imagine the reaction if Democrats had done something similar. Endless fainting spells amongst the serious media and talk of impeachment.
Needs to be crosslinked to Joyner’s “Democracy Rankings” posting.
America as “flawed democracy” might become too kind an assessment.
Somone needs to ask Trump and Musk (separately) if they believe America is “flawed” in its democracy, and how so. And then follow up asking their specific suggestions for improvement. Sure we can all speculate on their responses, but it would be informative to hear their actual thoughts and rationalizations.
Fact checking the clown show…
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/politics/video/daniel-dale-fact-check-donald-trump-first-cabinet-meeting-digvid
And DOGE claims another victim.
She hoped Trump’s victory would change her life, but not like this (WaPo)
She unwisely chose to support a con artist who told her, “I don’t care about you, I just want your vote.”
And unsurprisingly, she got conned, with terrible consequences for her. FAFO.
@DK: That story is so incredibly sad, but I believe it informs a lot of what is out there amongst “apolitical” people. She knew Trump was awful and had voted for Biden in 2020. But, desperately wanting a baby after an endometriosis dx, along with being completely surrounded by Trump supporters in her community, was enough to tip her decision making.
I genuinely don’t know what Democrats could have done that would have changed her vote. She heard what she wanted to hear (“IVF will be free”), and that’s where the assessment process stopped.
Fact-checking the Clown Show…
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/politics/video/daniel-dale-fact-check-donald-trump-first-cabinet-meeting-digvid
@DK:
I wonder if she would now renounce the cult?
I’m not sure fact-checks are all that valuable here. In fact, my fact check of any Trump-led media event goes like this:
“Every word you just said was wrong”.
(h/t to Luke Skywalker).
@Jen: “Biden made such a mess of this, and we tried our best to get it back in shape, but ultimately it couldn’t and shouldn’t be saved. We heroically let it die for the American people.” There will be no shame.
Speaking of the clown show, apparently Musk is on X asking retired air traffic controllers to consider coming back to work.
This is (additional) proof that Musk does not have any effin’ clue what he is doing. If they are retired, it’s probably because of the MANDATORY retirement age for ATC. And, did he JUST fire a bunch of probationary (aka, new employees who likely are on entry level or similar salaries) controllers?
Honestly. This is making me think that a nationwide air strike is going to be the only way to get through to these utter fools.
@Jen:
Re: the Forest Service lady with the IVF issue.
The Democrats have worked hard to preserve a system where people have the psychological security to live their lives while taking little interest is politics. So people have absorbed the lesson it is okay to not pay politics much attention.
DOGE/Trump is educating people the hard way to understand that politics needs to paid attention to and understood.
Experience is a hard teacher, the test comes first.
@Jen:
The answer is nothing. I’m absolutely convinced that there was nothing the Democrats could have done or said that would have gotten her not to vote for the thing she wanted that she was told would be free and simple.
I keep thinking about the need for an artful way to make the generic Democratic campaign slogan for 2026 and 2028 basically “We told you so” but in a witty way that has the Ryleigh Coopers of the country feeling betrayed rather than defensive.
@Scott F.: I know this feeling. I totally get it. I have this feeling a lot in my personal life.
AND, nobody wants to hear it. It’s an electoral loser. Run on “you were lied to” instead. At some point, the electorate is gonna turn on that cheating bastard who took up with that other woman and lied to me… What we need to do is nod along and pretend like this is all news to us.
Yes, it sucks. But it works.
The good news is that the Ryleigh Coopers of the world want the things I want. They want the services that liberals want to implement. They like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.
So maybe we should run on, “Cheap IVF. And we mean it.”
(I don’t like “free”, because things that are “free” tend to get wasted. Making it super cheap should appeal to the natalists, right? More babies? That’s good, right? Are we gonna say that only rich people can have babies?
I mean, I support UBI for the times that the government fires you for no good reason, and lies about it, saying that it’s for “cause”. At least you would have something to fall back on.
@Jen:
I bet there are like dozens of pundits who can give you dozens of different answer, none of which can be proved one way or another.
@Jay L Gischer:
I think UBI is a great idea, but I’ve trouble getting the numbers to add up.
Assume a monthly $1,000 UBI payment for every citizen. For the US that’s about 330,000,000 people, times $1,000 = $330,000,000,000 (Three hundred and thirty billion dollars 00/100).
You can bring the numbers down by giving such money only to adults over 18, but that gets you to around $260 billion.
And this is where I give up and let someone else determine how much this is per year, and how to finance it.
Such large numbers also bring up all sorts of complicated financial trickery and artifice. Like paying UBI in Treasury notes one can let accumulate interest over time, or cash out as needed. And that’s relatively simple. It could be in some kind of crypto which might be worth a lot later, or might evaporate into the ether.
IMO we won’t see it at such scale anywhere. If this gets implemented at all long term in any city, state, province, or country, there will be a cutoff for payments, like up to twice the minimum wage or so.
@Jay L Gischer: I get that UBI is another of the liberal half-loaf, living wage lite plans that we have to put up with on accounta leftists have to tack to the center because winning is the only thing, but I still resent the f*** out of taxpayers needing to subsidize the Jeff Bezoses of the world because a trillion dollars of market cap isn’t enough.
@Kathy: 260 billion/month is roughly $3 trillion over the course of a year. (260 X 10 + 520–november and december)
ETA: Finance? The same way we do now–deficit spending.
@just nutha: Money’s value to you is always relative to the amount of money other people in the marketplace have available to them.
Billionaires wouldn’t be wealthy if everyone was a billionaire – things would just cost a lot more.
This is why the minimum wage, UBI, and high marginal tax rates are so important to leveling the playing field. And why those things are so opposed by the billionaires who run this place.
Creating proper incentives is a legitimate government interest – there needs to be some level of disparity in wealth and income so that people innovate and work hard and put their best efforts forward.
At its core, economic policy decides how much wealth the top person can have relative to the amount of wealth the bottom person has.
Is the right ratio 100:1? 1000:1? 1,000,000,000:1?