Wednesday's Most Active Threads

Yesterday was another day in which the actions of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump and Shadow President Elon Musk dominated discussions. All of the threads that I will discuss today deal with that topic. The most active thread yesterday was titled, "How can we prepare our children for the coming storm?", and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster asks, in light of the apparent oligarchy that seems to be seizing control of our country, how do we prepare our children? She asks whether her family should flee the country or open foreign bank accounts for their children. In response to almost any thread in which posters show concern about Trump, a few different camps of posters emerge. There are, of course, those who agree with such concerns. For instance, in this thread, one poster says that she is stockpiling Plan B for her daughters and saving every penny in order to be able to send her children abroad for college. There are also a few posters whose concerns might even exceed those of the original poster, such as one who is worried about her 17-year-old son being drafted. Then there are the posters who are convinced that the original poster is overreacting. One example of that was the very first poster to reply, who wrote, "Some of you have lost your damn minds." Another poster has very simplistic views of things, writing, "Astounding that Democrats are opposed to saving money, getting rid of waste and fraud, ensuring women compete in women’s sports, and working toward world peace." Whatever that poster is smoking, she should share. Nobody opposes saving money, getting rid of waste and fraud, or world peace. But if that poster believes that is what Trump and Musk are doing, she is quite delusional. As for women's sports, the small number of trans athletes was probably never going to impact that poster's life, and Trump's actions have been motivated by bigotry rather than by real-life justification. While this poster believes that Trump is striving for world peace, another MAGA poster laments in response to concerns about a draft that the U.S. is raising "generations of softies" because not enough of our sons have been fighting wars. Many times, politics exists on an almost completely theoretical level. It is discussed more like a board game on which pieces are moved around, and it is simple entertainment. But Trump's and Musk's bulldozing of the federal government has made it real to a number of our posters, many of whom stand to lose jobs or otherwise be impacted. This, therefore, is another division among posters in this thread. It is between those who sit comfortably elsewhere calling others "chicken littles" and those for whom the sky is actually falling.

The next two most active threads were the threads about Trump taking over Gaza and Blake Lively. Since I've already discussed those, twice in the second case, I'll go to the next most active thread. That one was also posted in the "Political Discussion" forum and was titled, "To Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran". The young men whose names are listed in the title are part of the group of young people who are working for Shadow President Elon Musk as part of DOGE. The original poster has composed an open letter to them. The letter expresses understanding of the group's motivations but urges them to reconsider what they are doing. Again, this thread immediately divided into different camps of posters. In contrast to the original poster who sees the young men as well-meaning but misguided, other posters praise them and urge them to continue their task of rooting out waste and fraud. This is a depressing discussion. As I've said, nobody opposes eliminating waste and fraud, but it is unrealistic to believe that a small group of inexperienced recent high school graduates are going to accomplish that goal overnight. What we've actually seen happening is people who are well outside their capabilities making amateur mistakes. Two recent examples are confusing the Gaza province of Mozambique with Gaza, Palestine, and claiming that U.S. government subscriptions for PoliticoPro were grants meant to support Politico. Who knows what else this inexperienced team is misunderstanding as waste or fraud? In the meantime, government services are suffering. I started a thread yesterday about community health services in Virginia that were being forced to close because their grants had been cut off. This is in contravention to multiple court orders and probably hurting MAGA voters the most. But posters with MAGA-colored glasses stand staunchly in support of Musk and his minions. It is unrealistic to believe that Musk's actions won't eventually harm these posters as well, and it will be interesting to see if they change their tunes at that point. Much of this thread is devoted to debating Twitter, now X, and whether Musk will do to the government what he did for Twitter. After buying the social media network, Musk cut the staff significantly, claiming to make it more efficient. Many posters think Musk's leadership of Twitter is a great example of what he can do for the U.S. government. While X, as a basic service, does seem to run relatively well, it has significant problems. The search system is barely functional, many users have fled, advertising is down significantly, and the algorithm mostly promotes Nazis, whom Musk then retweets. I hope that nobody is suggesting a future U.S. government that similarly has decreased user-friendliness, less revenue, higher deficits, and is dominated by Nazis, yet that appears to be what we will likely get. Hopefully, the youngsters named in this thread's title will heed the words of the original poster and consider whether they want such a transition to be their legacy.

Speaking of DOGE and Shadow President Elon Musk, the next most active thread was titled, "DOGE's new scam - ‘Medicaid/Medicare Fraud’" and like the previous threads, posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster quotes from a Wall Street Journal article that reports that representatives of Musk have been working within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and have gained access to "key payment and contracting systems". The original poster suggests that DOGE's involvement will result in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid despite cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's promises not to make such cuts. The original poster predicts that such cuts will be justified as eliminating "waste and fraud". This topic really illustrates the shortcomings and contradictions of Musk/DOGE. Almost certainly there is waste and fraud to be found within Medicare and Medicaid. It is probably equally certain that Musk's band of neophytes is unequipped to accurately identify it. Moreover, given Republican attitudes towards Medicare and Medicaid, there is considerable suspicion that eliminating waste and fraud is even the goal. Ironically, Republican Senator Rick Scott oversaw the largest case of Medicare and Medicaid fraud up to that time. That certainly has not harmed his popularity among Republicans. As to be expected, MAGA posters were quick to defend DOGE's actions. They accuse those opposed to Musk of not wanting to get rid of waste and fraud. "Waste and fraud" are one of those things like communism, slavery, and Nazis upon which there is almost universal agreement that they are bad. Well, maybe not Nazis so much anymore. But, like communism, which can be used to label anything from the Marxist dialectic to a simple desire for clean air in order to create opposition to it, "waste and fraud" can be used or misused to justify almost any sort of budget cut or program elimination. The issue here is whether Musk and his recent high school graduates are actually going to be able to identify and eliminate actual waste and fraud or whether they are going to cause significant damage, putting the healthcare of millions at risk. Since DOGE has apparently  adopted the tech sector's ethos of "Move fast and break things", the fear of many is that DOGE is going to cause more harm than good. Changes to complex systems can often have unintended consequences. This is especially true if you don't understand the complex system in the first place. Moreover, there is considerable doubt that anything Musk and DOGE are doing is legal. There is no apparent legal authority for their work and little is known about how DOGE is empowered. Civilized societies used to fear barbarians at their gates. In our case, the barbarians have invaded many of our most important government agencies and are accessing our most sensitive collections of data. This can't be good.

The last thread that I will discuss today was posted in the "Jobs and Careers" forum and titled, "Fork - who is waiting until Thursday to decide?". When Shadow President Elon Musk emailed federal employees encouraging them to resign, the email linked to a document titled, "Fork in the Road". Incidentally, that was the same title Musk used when he attempted to get Twitter employees to resign after he purchased the social media network. The resignation offer has become known simply as "Fork". Musk's offer was originally presented to the news media as a buyout. However, it later proved to be a deferred resignation. Federal employees who resigned by February 6 — which happens to be today — would not be required to return to their offices but would continue to be paid until September 30. There were contradictory messages concerning whether those employees would be required to work during the intervening time. From the very beginning, this offer has been marked by confusion and contradiction. As with almost everything that Musk has been undertaking, it is not clear whether the offer is legal. Much of the guidance has contradicted itself. The contracts sent to employees who have accepted the resignation offer have said that despite other assurances, their salaries cannot be guaranteed. This is due to the fact, repeatedly pointed out in earlier discussions, that no money has been appropriated for this purpose. The contracts also stipulate that federal agencies can rescind the offer at any time and the employee would have no opportunity to appeal. Even more concerning is language requiring employees to waive their right to "pursue through any judicial, administrative, or other process, any action against [AGENCY] that is based on, arising from, or related to Employee's employment at [AGENCY] or the deferred resignation offer". In other words, if a federal employee accepts the Fork offer today and gets fired tomorrow, they have no legal recourse to do anything about it. Almost every legal expert that has weighed in considers the Fork offer to be misleading and something to which employees should not agree. Not surprisingly, most of the posters in this thread are not taking the Fork offer. For many, the biggest issue is the connection of Fork to the "Voluntary Early Retirement Authority" or VERA program. A number of posters would be interested in VERA, but they are unsure of the connection of Fork to VERA. To make things worse, Musk and company have repeatedly changed the terms of the offer. Even this morning, the last day on which the offer is valid, terms were still being changed, and for the worse. One prediction that I feel secure in making is that we can expect significant controversies arising from the implementation of this offer, and I would not at all be surprised that many of those who accept it will end up regretting their decision.