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- The "Department" of Government Efficiency

Proposals to increase US Government efficiency:

#1: Fire Elon Musk.

^ just for fucking emphasis before Octavious starts telling us why Musk is such a wonderful guy.

He isn't. He's a cunt.

Still very much in cunt season, I see. Must have been a bad winter as you've usually switched over to the "cunt is misogynistic and we mustn't use it" point of view by this time of year.

Not wishing to accuse you of pig ignorance, but I have been consistently anti Musk since the Thai pedo cave incident nearly a decade ago.

Also, I know it's not a school day... but half two in the morning? Get some sleep, man. You're not a teenager anymore

Octavious wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 08, 2025 2:34 am

Also, I know it's not a school day... but half two in the morning? Get some sleep, man. You're not a teenager anymore

sleep is overrated

Octavious wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 08, 2025 2:34 am

Still very much in cunt season, I see. Must have been a bad winter as you've usually switched over to the "cunt is misogynistic and we mustn't use it" point of view by this time of year.

I knew you would say that. I don't believe I've ever made such a claim. I have a lot of female friends who use "cunt" as a (relatively extreme) form of insult and if they can, I feel it is acceptable, if the circumstances merit it. Elon Musk is an acceptable use case.

Octavious wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 08, 2025 2:34 am

Not wishing to accuse you of pig ignorance, but I have been consistently anti Musk since the Thai pedo cave incident nearly a decade ago.

Ok, fair, perhaps unfair to call you out in person. Oink.

What's your view of the "DOGE" campaign to wreck America's civil service, in general?

You definitely went through a very anti cunt phase. My timescales may be a tad off, as frankly everything since the Millennium has felt like the last few years

I don't know enough about the American civil service to make a properly informed comment. My understanding is that Musk is a subscriber to the idea that 10 percent of the people do 90 percent of the work, which is a similar train of thought to the 80/20 idea that was popular in the British civil service. Not that we did anything about it other than talk about it and put up a few Kanban boards.

I'd be amazed if efficiency savings couldn't be made, as they always can, especially when a small government administration takes over from a big government administration. In terms of how they're going about it, the general feel from an outside perspective is that it looks clumsy. The proof will be in what it all looks like in a year or two

Wow! Webdiplomacy's search function is actually working today. So, here we go as a starter for 10!

Jamiet99uk wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 21, 2018 3:19 pm

No, Major is right. I apologise for my use of the c- word. I should have chosen a less gendered profanity. I don't apologise for anything else said in this thread though.

Jamiet99uk wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:33 pm

I get angry bu the C word isn't justified.

The government is working with lots of systems which are decades out of date and would be massively more efficient if they were updated. One of the craziest things they found was the processing of retirement applications from an abandoned mine. Everything is done on paper and processing a retirement took MONTHS. Absolute insanity that this was still in place in 2025.

When the government does try to update systems and attempts to get contractors to do it, they make requirements that throw in everything and the kitchen sink (I have seen a few of these RFPs), so the work is absolutely massive...and many times these projects fail or get delayed for years after 10s of millions/100s of millions/billions of dollars spent.

I am not particularly a fan of the slash and burn that DOGE is doing...but if they can make some progress on getting some of these archaic systems and processes updated, that will be a big win.

Of course, even if they do succeed in this it would be unlikely to significantly change the budget deficit unfortunately. And it looks like they will extend/increase the unaffordable tax cuts (ugh).

Bonus points here of course for purging the progressive activists which have infected absolutely every f**** department from the Department Of Agriculture to the DoD which has been a big driver of the culture wars. This plus Chevron (thank goodness it was overturned) generated massive changes in public and foreign policy while bypassing congress. No wonder conservatives were justifiably pissed...while Democrats continue to gaslight and lie ti us and claim
"But we didn't do anything! The culture wars are the Republicans fault!!". Of course Republicans are going to overshoot...but I believe in the end I think we will be closer to balance in the culture war than we were before.

What is this "Chevron" of which you speak?

I thought that was an oil company.

Back to corrupt lying oligarch Elon Musk, the South African government has today been forced to respond to lies being told on X by Musk which continue to reveal his pro-apartheid racist views:

https://www.reuters.com/world/south-africa-rejects-musk-claim-starlink-cant-operate-there-because-hes-not-2025-03-07

Jamiet99uk wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 08, 2025 5:00 pm

What is this "Chevron" of which you speak?

I thought that was an oil company.

He's referring to a recent Supreme Court decision that overturned something called the Chevron doctrine, which required courts to defer to the legal interpretations of federal agencies. The decision limited the power of a lot of agencies and shifted it to the courts.

Essentially, if a law is ambiguous, instead of a federal agency being able to say that it is whatever they want it to mean, a court has to decide on interpretation through the legal process.

(It's named that because the original decision had to do with a legal issue between Chevron, the oil company, and some federal agency.)

Here is what could happen while Chevron decision was active:

- someone sues government agency over an interpretation of the law
- government agency says the law should be interpreted their way
- because of Chevron, judge deferred to the federal agency
- after this federal agency could then refer to the judge's decision and claim it was settled law.

It was insane. Interestingly, it was the Republicans that wanted Chevron (it was during Reagan time) so they could reinterpret EPA regulations to weaken environmental protections without a law change. But since Obama time it has been Democrats which have gone nuts with exploiting it.

Jamiet99uk wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 08, 2025 6:10 pm

Back to corrupt lying oligarch Elon Musk, the South African government has today been forced to respond to lies being told on X by Musk which continue to reveal his pro-apartheid racist views:

https://www.reuters.com/world/south-africa-rejects-musk-claim-starlink-cant-operate-there-because-hes-not-2025-03-07

I don't know what the laws are now...but there may be some truth to this. A company I previously worked for wanted to win a deal with Telkom South Africa. If I remember correctly we had similar issues. I think we had a consulting company that fronted the deal for us to meet their racial requirements. We didn't win the deal...though I did get a chance to go Pilanesburg National Park which was cool.

flash2015 wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 08, 2025 8:51 pm

Here is what could happen while Chevron decision was active:

- someone sues government agency over an interpretation of the law
- government agency says the law should be interpreted their way
- because of Chevron, judge deferred to the federal agency
- after this federal agency could then refer to the judge's decision and claim it was settled law.

It was insane. Interestingly, it was the Republicans that wanted Chevron (it was during Reagan time) so they could reinterpret EPA regulations to weaken environmental protections without a law change. But since Obama time it has been Democrats which have gone nuts with exploiting it.

Interesting!

Ok in this case, as a legal scholar, I would say the Chevron decision is nonsense and I'm amazed it could have been arrived at in the first place.

The court needs to be able to determine the law. It should be bound by precedent, but it should not be bound by the opinions of particular actors.

I have now read the "Chevron defense" judgement.

It could be argued in the specific case in which it occurred. But as a general principle it is flawed. It may surprise some of you but I agree with the overturning of this one.

Various US Government websites are removing photographs and mentions of the aircraft "Enola Gay" (named after the mother of one of the flight crew) because they are afraid to use the word "gay" because of Trump's anti-diversity edicts.

I would like any Trump supporter on this forum to defend this level of ignorance. Please.

FUCK TRUMP

Ah, here comes the British version of DOGE

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9q4nr42z20o

Civil Service reforms "will be radical". Gosh... We may be about to see a trebling of the number of Kanban boards!

Octavious wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 09, 2025 4:32 pm

Ah, here comes the British version of DOGE

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9q4nr42z20o

Civil Service reforms "will be radical". Gosh... We may be about to see a trebling of the number of Kanban boards!

Pfft. This is the same line that successive British governments of all colours have been peddling since 2010. More austerity. There is no significant difference between Labour and the Conservatives, beyond Labour being slightly* less of a tragi-comic clown show at times.

*note I am only saying "slightly".