Posted on 02/11/2025 1:47:47 PM PST by DFG
Remember Covid?
When 3/4 of the federal government was sent home for 9 months, what happened?
Did we suffer massive terror attacks, roaming bands in the streets, airplanes colliding, and an alien invasion?
Seriously, what happened when 3/4’s of the entire federal government went home for 6-9 months?
You can get rid of 1/2 of the ENTIRE federal workforce (non-DoD) and still get all essential services from government.
Our government is massively bloated, full of programs that are good ideas by politicians: department of education, DEA, TSA, consumer protection agency, and many of them have little impact on what they are supposed to be impacting.
I hope Trump succeeds.
Absolutely. You can tell he loves that kid.
I have no idea what that means.
Good—learn.
They can pick vegetables.
Link—then click on what Mr. Musk has to say about Mockingbird 2.0:
https://x.com/mkibbe/status/1887660760131609072
A lot of those Fed employees who don’t take the early out offered will soon be pissed at the union and themselves when they are shown the door by security with a “Thank you for your service”.
If you cannot explain it in one sentence, it is not important.
The mass media—at home and abroad—is bought and paid for by US Intelligence Agencies and their front organizations.
Mockingbird 2.0.
The mass media—at home and abroad—is bought and paid for by US Intelligence Agencies and their front organizations.
Mockingbird 2.0.
I would bet that his first comment would be.....
"I can't believe it. For the first time in 50 years I am speechless."
“What is the last time you benefited from federal agencies.”
Well you are playing on an internet originally conceived by Federal workers. You probably drive on highways designed by Federal workers. You listen to or read a weather report ? Well the information for that report was captured, compiled and presented by Federal workers using Federal satellites and weather stations. Big storm coming ?……you can see it on radar or better yet, Dopplerradar both invented by the government. Maybe you’re a farmer, well every soil survey in the US was done by the Federal government as was every geological and hydrological survey if you are a miner or driller. Plant and animal diseases or blights…. Identified and isolated by Federal workers who usually also provide guidance on mitigation. Want to build a house ? Maybe a flood map would help, those come from the Federal government. Need to fly ? Federal government make sure planes have standard safety features and that airports and communication are standardized. Gets goods by ship ? Federal government does all the harbor and ship route dredging and all the marking of navigation channels in a standard easily understood form. The government does alot wrong but it also benefits people every day in ways they barely notice.
I want to think he’s looking down and smiling.
Good list—but most of the positive stuff was done in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Context is critical.
Most civilian federal workers today do functions that should be done either in the private sector or not at all—probably in the 80 to 90% range...
Another comment—if the feds get up to date computer systems/AI that should help cut federal civilian employment in half for most functions—even without any further changes.
The Fed computer systems are a quagmire created by an endless series of contractors who get the contracts because of DEI or friends in high places—and often are unable to complete the contracts on time or even at all.
Highways are still built, repaired and improved today with the direct assistance of the US Department of Transportation, same with aviation and maritime. Doppler radar is fairly new and the government is working on a new gen of that system to make it even better. Weather data is a modern everyday thing. Flood maps are updated every 20 years etc etc. It is easy to say the “private sector” will do it but any reasoning person knows they will not unless there is a profit in it. That is the fatal flaw with the “private sector solves everything” mindset. The private sector has never solved every problem and sometimes they cause immense problems. There is a reason so many of these Federal departments exist and that is because there was a vacuum where nobody was tackling these issue on a coordinated national level. It is not 1787 anymore, the world and the nation is a hugely different and more complicated place. It is a solid argument that the Federal government does too much but it is courting disaster if we get to a point where they do too little. Trim but trim with care and foresight, don’t just burn it down because ideology says burn it down.
Agreed! Just look at people like Vindman who got promoted. Clear sign that there's a bunch of incompetency and waste.
Let us just pick flood maps because I am very familiar with them.
They are horribly inaccurate—and are subject to political corruption as developers do not want certain areas in obvious flood areas to be declared to be in those areas.
The developers hire lobbyists who work on Congress-critters who work on the agency leaders who produce the maps.
Each piece needs to be looked at under a microscope—there are often pluses and minuses that could be reasonably debated—and alternatives that could be considered.
The Federal government uses many of the same systems private business uses. Maybe 30 years ago they were outdated but they have caught up in many aspects (not all though). As for AI, the drive to implement it ignores an important factor and that is human intuition. A Human Will look at data and question it, a computer usually will not. I cannot tell you how many times in my experience that programs have made decision suggestions that we knew were incorrect. Sometimes bad data, other times lack of quantifiable data (having heard chatter about part or system obsolescence before any official notification for example). Humans hear and see things that a computer would never see, never know and that goes into our decision making processes. We may be slower at coming to an answer but our answers are often much more considered. And lastly from a public standpoint, if you make an inquiry to the government and a person does not provide a satisfactory response, you usually can go to another person for a different opinion. If an AI system tells you no, who are you going to ask then ?? Another AI system ???
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