Tag Archives: Elon Musk

national news

Arrogance rules at DOGE

There is an undeniable aura of arrogance at play when I watch Earth’s richest man make decisions that have a direct impact on ordinary Americans’ lives.

Elon Musk has taken his seat near the center of power in Washington, D.C., handing out orders to fire thousands of dedicated public servants. He sends them to the unemployment line not knowing if they will be able to buy groceries for the dinner table, pay for a child’s college tuition or just meet the financial requirements we all face as we go about living our lives.

What does Elon Musk know about any of that? Not a damn thing!

He’s worth something just south of a trillion bucks these days. Yet there he struts as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, slashing payrolls and denying Americans the chance to advance in careers they chose to pursue.

Donald Trump says Musk and his DOGE goons are hellbent to make government smaller and less corrupt. It is beyond absurd to realize that the administration has fired many of the inspectors general who are trained to root out the kind of corruption Trump insists is present in many government agencies. The DOGE gang is now relying on 20-something interns to do the work formerly done by trained professional government watchdogs.

This is making government “more efficient?” Hardly.

What we have here is an oligarch running amok … with the blessing of a POTUS who’s been impeached twice and convicted of 34 felonies. Oh, brother.

national news

How does Musk flout dress code?

Now comes a question I just know others are dying to ask: How does Elon Musk get away with attending a Cabinet meeting wearing a MAGA ballcap, dark shirt, dark pants, dark jacket … with no tie hanging from his neck?

The dipsh** took center stage at first Cabinet meeting held since Donald Trump returned to the White House. I didn’t listen to most of what the asshole had to say, given that his presence anywhere near the halls of power bug the living crap out of me.

I’ve always understood that the White House had a dress code. Those conducting the business of the state generally dressed in business attire. Men wore suits and ties; women wore pant suits or blouses, skirts and jackets.

Yet there is the zillionaire space rocket/motor vehicle mogul preening and prancing around the Cabinet Room like he owns the place. Well, he doesn’t! Neither does Trump. The place belongs to you and me!

I rather like the idea of enforcing an unwritten dress code for those who are doing the people’s business inside the White House. Many presidents never did their jobs in the Oval Office without wearing a suit and tie. Sunday might be a day when the president shows up with an open-collar shirt and denims.

Seeing Elon Musk, though, wearing his MAGA get-up strutting around the Cabinet Room in front of sharply dressed men and women, well … it makes me sick.

media news

Spared the news of the day

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Times like today fill me with a mixed blessing of sadness and relief.

Sadness arrived about 9 a.m.  when I learned my sister died this morning of heart failure brought on by the acute COPD she suffered. I wasn’t surprised when the call came. It still saddens me beyond all I dare seek to measure.

The blessing? I have zero interest in what’s happening in the world. I have kept my TV quiet and dark all day as I have gone about my personal business here in Princeton.

I do not give a sh** what Elon Musk, the de facto POTJS, wants to slash from the government. Nor do I give a rat’s royal red ass what Donald Trump is bloviating about today. I don’t care about the Democratic response. I don’t give a sh** about the political consequences of all this mayhem.

I care instead about my brother-in-law and the loss I know he is feeling. His best friend has left this good Earth. I am going to worry only about him and I will let the other crap just fester without me.

national news

Conservatism turned upside-down

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As I watch Donald Trump and his No. 1 suck-up Elon Musk, I am wondering how it is that the new administration can possibly describe itself as “conservative.”

The budget strategies being developed by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency is slated to increase the national debt by $4 trillion. Yep, that’s “trillion” with a “t.”

DOGE members also are boasting about how they’re acquiring power normally reserved for members of Congress. Roll that around for just a second, ’cause that’s all it’ll take. Conservatives used to rail, rant and rage over consolidation of power. Now? Why, it’s cool, if you buy into the MAGA morons’ world view.

Conservatives formerly fought for the need to reduce the size of the federal government. DOGErs say they intend to reduce government’s size by putting millions of Americans out of work through layoffs, buyouts and firings. They are stretching the rules of legality by firing federal employees for — and this is rich — doing their jobs!

None of this is “conservative government” as I have long understood its meaning and application. It’s the reverse, for criminy sakes!

But … the MAGA goons who govern us now don’t know or care that they are redefining our government structure into something none of us recognizes.

Think of it as the ultimate conflation of ignorance and apathy.

national news

Stunning Oval Office image

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The optics from Tuesday’s Oval Office event were stunning in their delivery.

You had Donald J. Trump, the incumbent president of the United States, sitting at the Resolute Desk. To his right was Elon Musk, the billionaire high-tech guru who’s taken on the role of co-POTUS.

Musk pontificated for several minutes about the need — in his mind — to slash billions of dollars from the federal budget. With him was one of his 11 children, sitting on Musk’s shoulders, playing around and acting like a charmiing little boy.

All the while, Trump sat there silently, letting Musk prattle on about what he intends to do to make government more efficient.

Wait just a second, shall we?

Who in the world was elected president in November? It damn sure wasn’t Musk, a foreign-born richest man on Earth. Trump got more votes than his opponent.

And yet … the incumbent president sat at his desk, acting for all the world like a bit player in a scheme to restructure the nature of our democratic republic.

Of course, we need to understand that Musk has Trump’s blessing to take center stage. Still, the Oval Office image is beyond weird.

It scares me sh**less!

national news

Stop the Musk train wreck!

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Elon Musk must be stopped cold, ending the charade he is leading as some sort of federal budgetary guru advising Donald J. Trump on what to cut from the government.

The man is out of fu**ing control! Period!

Musk is a zillionaire who is spawning movements across the country to remind our gutless wonders in Congress that Americans did not elect this foreign-born high-tech mogul to the nation’s highest office. Americans elected Trump to a second term. Trump has willfully handed the reins of budgetary power to Musk, who once shared that duty with Vivek Ramaswamy, who has mysteriously disappeared.

Musk now is on his own, pitching budget slashes that would leave millions of Americans helpless against forces they cannot fight without the federal government.

I never thought I would say this, but here goes: I am beginning to wish Trump would jerk this clown into place, reminding him that he hasn’t been elected to anything. Trump needs to remind Elon Musk that he — Trump! — is the elected politician who’s in charge and that Musk needs to play second fiddle to the man who holds the title of president of the United States of America.

Pundits already have projected a tenuous relationship between Trump and Musk. Some of them have predicted that Musk won’t last a year as head of that thing called the Department of Government Efficiency. Now it’s called DOGE.

DOGE doesn’t have any constitutional authority to act as its daddy, Elon Musk, is trying to do. Budgetary responsibility rests with Congress, which disposes of ideas that the president proposes.

Elon Musk is a pretender who needs to be stopped!

national news

Why explain who rules the roost?

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When a man waiting to become president of the United States feels the need to explain that, yes, he’s in charge and not some hireling, well … then the next POTUS might be in serious jeopardy.

Donald J. Trump has been dogged by chatter that Elon Musk, the zillionaire businessman brought on board to offer Trump budget-cutting ideas, has emerged as “co-president.” Trump told a group of supporters that Musk is not a co-president and that he — Trump, that is — is in charge of the incoming administration.

Trump also had to remind his cultists that Musk won’t become president because — get ready for it — he wasn’t born in the U.S.A. Musk is a native of South Africa, born to South African parents.

When does a president-elect feel the need to explain himself in that manner? It seems to me that the Musk talk is getting under Trump’s skin. Oh, and he has a vice president-elect, J.D. Vance, who has been pushed aside and barely mentioned out loud as being an active player in the transition from the Joe Biden administration.

This is a bizarre phenomenon we are witnessing in the chaos that is preceding Donald Trump returning to the White House.

God help us.

economic news, national news

Musk poses grave danger

Elon Musk is emerging as the most dangerous man in America, thanks to the weird kinship he has formed with the next president of the United States.

Musk, as we all know, is the world’s richest man. He has filled Donald Trump’s vacuous noggin with notions that he can fix what’s wrong the federal government. He — along with right-wing blowhard Vivek Ramaswamy — leads a government reform project, or some such thing, that seeks to cut trillions of dollars from the government coffers.

Americans have elected Musk to no political office. He has no political standing other than his strange relationship with Trump. Musk has emerged as a sort of de facto co-president, if you dare swallow that bit of information in one bite.

The guy frightens the hell out of me. He ought to scare the bejabbers out of anyone who has this sort of love affair with good government. That should be all Americans who prefer that the president and Congress go back to what the late Sen. John McCain would call “regular order.”

There is not a damn thing that is “regular” about the way the next POTUS and Congress are getting ready to take the reins of power.

Trump figures to rely on the machinations of Musk — and, of course, Ramaswamy — as he proposes spending cuts.

This dude Musk, though, is one scary son of a … well, you know.

Uncategorized

Musk and the Blowhard … what gives?

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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy make quite a duo as they take up their undefined — or ill-defined — posts in the new presidential administration that is taking shape.

Musk is the richest man in the world. Ramaswamy is a loudmouth who ran for the Republican presidential nomination against the guy who won it all in 2024. They now form what is called the Department of Governmental Efficiency.

They want to slash trillions of dollars from the federal budget. They want to eliminate entire Cabinet offices. They have Donald Trump’s ear.

Several huge problems stand in their way. One is the Constitution. The nation’s governing document states clearly that Congress is in charge of budgeting. It’s been said over many years that “the president proposes, but the Congress disposes” of all budget items. That won’t change, no matter who is president.

Another obstacle that Musk and the Blowhard need to confront are the huge egos of the 535 men and women who serve in the legislative branch of our government. They all represent states and congressional districts with specific needs and they depend on their senators and House members to deliver the goods to the folks back home. They aren’t going to shed their constitutional authority just because a couple of know-it-alls order them to do it.

I keep hearing all this grand talk about what Musk and Ramaswamy will do cut government waste. Neither of these clowns — not even the guy with the bottomless pockets — can cut a damn thing without congressional approval.

Oh, and then we have the president. This fellow is the most mercurial, unpredictable, maddening individual ever to occupy this office. He often acts on the last thing someone tells him before decision time arrives.

The rich guy and the loudmouth must prepare themselves for the possibility that every grand idea they propose could get shot down in flames by the numbskull who sees himself as monarch rather than servant.

crime news

Shut up … Elon!

Elon Musk needs to stick to making lots of money, manufacturing cars, shooting rockets into space and whatever else he’s “expert” at doing.

For the zillionaire to suggest that allegations that the Allen Premium Outlet Mall shooter was not motivated by white supremacist attitudes means he is getting way ahead of himself and the investigation.

Musk refers to a website that “no one follows” that is being offered as evidence of these views. He calls it “bullsh**.”

I must mention the Nazi tattoos they found on the moron’s body after the Allen police officer shot him to death. I agree that the probe is ongoing. To say it’s all BS, though, is to draw conclusions that no one is able yet to draw.

I would bet real American money that when all is done the authorities are going to find nefarious motives — such as white supremacy — as lurking behind the madman’s motives.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com