US Tariffs, Sigh!

[CanuckSigns]

It's on the list on X from Elon.

No, he's not privatizing anything.

Well if Elon says so...

 

[Geneva Olson]

Well if Elon says so...

just curious. Why do you think elon is bad?

 

[Gino]

I watched an interview with the Treasury Department. They are happily accepting an audit as they suspect 50% of payment's they process are fraudulent. They are not allowed to question any payments - EVER - this goes back decades, before Trump was in office.

This is a bi-partisan problem. Plenty of Republicans have their hands in the cookie jar, definitely not just Democrats...Lindsay Grahm comes to mind with Ukraine...

Here's a list from the White House of a few line items. I don't see the Lawn Dart Safety Committee on here but that's old news now.

• $1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”
• $70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland
• $2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam
• $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia
• $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru
• $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
• $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt
• Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a non-profit linked to designated terrorist organizations — even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigation
• Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab
• “Hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria”
• Funding to print “personalized” contraceptives birth control devices in developing countries
• Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban

Wonder if I could get my name on that list ?? I'll change the spelling and I don't need anything near any of those other reasons, except maybe the irish bunch and some of the 'unsure group'.

 

[CanuckSigns]

just curious. Why do you think elon is bad?

It's not nessicarily that I think Elon is bad, although I don't like him one bit. The optics of having the largest donor of the president be give a "special role" in the government, while never being elected to do so don't look good.

Ask yourself why the world's richest man would ever want to take on this role?

 

[BigNate]

just curious. Why do you think elon is bad?

... just some thoughts here - (not jumping on a side, I can argue both effectively....)

Elon has some good, possibly even great ideas. However, after a major SpaceX issue with a launch was discovered, an issue with the engines that could have been fixed, Elon decided to go ahead an launch - fully knowing a disaster was very likely. He publicly stated that even if it exploded he would get good data for future launches.

now, not to argue with ideas, but taking something like OUR COUNTRY and saying something to the effect of "well, maybe it will blow up, but maybe it will be better - at least we will get data for the next one....." really scares some people.

I am not sure I like this method of collecting data. rooting out corruption can be good. Rooting out corruption can also be very corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely - there was a reason the Founding Fathers put in 3 Co-equal branches of government - America was created as a democratic republic, NOT an autocracy.

 

[ikarasu]

I'm not a big fan of having the people i'm investigating doing their own audit on themselves....Which is what is happening. and oh yea, i'm following the doge x account and all of the cabinet members x accounts. That's the only way to find accurate information right now.

They don't have to investigate themselves, you still bring in outside council to do the investigation. Itd be someone with the qualifications though... Not a billionaire donor.

It should be done by someone impartial who's actually an accountant and does this for a living... Not sure how Elon doing it is a good idea?

The findings should also then be reported, and brought to light. Stuff shouldn't just be shut down overnight... There seems to be a lot of reactionary decisions going on, that he ends up backtracking on a day later.... Like freezing government funding.


There's a proper way for things to be done, and while I'm not someone who knows the proper way.... I'm pretty sure how things are being done isn't the way to go about it! No one voted for Elon, no one confirmed / appointed him.... I don't see how he's qualified for the position.

Personally I think all rich people are assholes and they got rich by cheating the system, so a billionaire doing the auditing isnt going to be impartial. I'm all for cutting the cheating and holding people accountable, there's A LOT of government spending that shouldn't be happening. Should be a crackdown on it all.

 

[Gino]

They don't have to investigate themselves, you still bring in outside council to do the investigation. Itd be someone with the qualifications though... Not a billionaire donor.

It should be done by someone impartial who's actually an accountant and does this for a living... Not sure how Elon doing it is a good idea?

The findings should also then be reported, and brought to light. Stuff shouldn't just be shut down overnight... There seems to be a lot of reactionary decisions going on, that he ends up backtracking on a day later.... Like freezing government funding.


There's a proper way for things to be done, and while I'm not someone who knows the proper way.... I'm pretty sure how things are being done isn't the way to go about it! No one voted for Elon, no one confirmed / appointed him.... I don't see how he's qualified for the position.

Personally I think all rich people are assholes and they got rich by cheating the system, so a billionaire doing the auditing isnt going to be impartial. I'm all for cutting the cheating and holding people accountable, there's A LOT of government spending that shouldn't be happening. Should be a crackdown on it all.

Do you honestly think there is someone who isn't gonna be biased ??

You don't like rich people ?? I know plenty of rich people..... none of them billionaires, but many multi-millionaires and they made their money honestly. That's a very narrow-minded position to take, especially since you or anyone else trying to make a living, is trying to become debt-free and live a rather nice life style for themselves and their families. Otherwise, why not just become a hermit and squat on someone's land in the forest and fly under the radar ??

 

[Geneva Olson]

They don't have to investigate themselves, you still bring in outside council to do the investigation. Itd be someone with the qualifications though... Not a billionaire donor.

It should be done by someone impartial who's actually an accountant and does this for a living... Not sure how Elon doing it is a good idea?

The findings should also then be reported, and brought to light. Stuff shouldn't just be shut down overnight... There seems to be a lot of reactionary decisions going on, that he ends up backtracking on a day later.... Like freezing government funding.


There's a proper way for things to be done, and while I'm not someone who knows the proper way.... I'm pretty sure how things are being done isn't the way to go about it! No one voted for Elon, no one confirmed / appointed him.... I don't see how he's qualified for the position.

Personally I think all rich people are assholes and they got rich by cheating the system, so a billionaire doing the auditing isnt going to be impartial. I'm all for cutting the cheating and holding people accountable, there's A LOT of government spending that shouldn't be happening. Should be a crackdown on it all.

wow, you said a whole lot and contradicted yourself in the process. Elon made his money the same way everyone else does. He is pretty smart and knows how to run a company efficiently. he got rid of a huge percentage of twitter staff and it still runs like it used to. Elon cares about humanity. How do I know? i watched an interview with him. This deep state blob has taken over our country and even the world. They were paying for media services ALL OVER THE WORLD.

I'm also not sure what your reasoning is about needing an impartial person whos NOT a billionaire. The dude already made his money. He is not trying to get MORE money. He's trying to right wrongs. And heres where you are contradicting yourself: ELON is doing exactly what you want to happen. He is cutting the cheating and handing it over to trump to hold them accountable. This is what trump has been telling us for 10 years now. Id like to recommend a book by roger stone: the bush crime family. It will REALLY open your eyes. and piss you off.

 

[CanuckSigns]

. This deep state blob has taken over our country and even the world. They were paying for media services ALL OVER THE WORLD.

What does this even mean?

I'm also not sure what your reasoning is about needing an impartial person whos NOT a billionaire. The dude already made his money. He is not trying to get MORE money.

Yes if there is 1 thing billionaires are known for its moderation, I've never seen a billionaire with multiple private jets or a freakish obsession with power, very level headed individuals...

He's trying to right wrongs. And heres where you are contradicting yourself: ELON is doing exactly what you want to happen. He is cutting the cheating and handing it over to trump to hold them accountable.

Elon has been "investigating" for less than a month, do you really think him and his team of 20-something engineers have managed to thoroughly audit a federal agency in that time? Or do you think it's more likely he has an agenda he is following.

This is what trump has been telling us for 10 years now. Id like to recommend a book by roger stone: the bush crime family. It will REALLY open your eyes. and piss you off.

 

[JamesLam]

What happens if you rent to what seems to be a wholesome white American, and they do the same?

Send them back to their parents.

 

[JamesLam]

He's shutting down a bunch of government agencies in the name of "efficiency" likely so they can privatize them and his billionaire buddies can take them over.

I have not heard of Chelsea Clinton's wedding being paid for by tax payers, do you have a source?

I was under the impression that the EPA was already under private control, I mean ownership. Kind of like the Government of Ontario.

 

[JamesLam]

It's not nessicarily that I think Elon is bad, although I don't like him one bit. The optics of having the largest donor of the president be give a "special role" in the government, while never being elected to do so don't look good.

Ask yourself why the world's richest man would ever want to take on this role?

So he can rub Bill Gates' and George Soros' noses in it.

 

[JamesLam]

So, anyway, now that the idea of 25% tariffs are on hold what are our thoughts for early March when the tariff quibbles are back?

This should give the grandstanding from the three USMCA partners more time to settle down.

 

[Gino]

Nothing against our northern friends, but if you didn't vote on/in our election..... what gives you the right to TELL us what we're doing wrong ?? You're not living it. You being spoon fed the same malarkey the rest of the world sees and hears. Suggest things or give examples of fixing things, but don't be telling us what it is or isn't. We have enough problems without bullsh!t concerns. I don't care what's happening round the world, but don't be in our faces, when you have NONE of the real facts other than what your government wants you to know or believe.

 

[Geneva Olson]

What does this even mean?


Yes if there is 1 thing billionaires are known for its moderation, I've never seen a billionaire with multiple private jets or a freakish obsession with power, very level headed individuals...


Elon has been "investigating" for less than a month, do you really think him and his team of 20-something engineers have managed to thoroughly audit a federal agency in that time? Or do you think it's more likely he has an agenda he is following.

Hold up. Elon isn't the one whos been investigating this for years. It's congressmen (and women) investigating. I'm not sure if you knew that part. But, there were several congressional committees who were investigating hunter biden's laptop and the Build Back Better program. Lots of waste was found. This was then handed over to Elon when Trump was sworn in.

This is a HUGE mess. And another book to recommend that I have not read yet but I'm hoping to is by Dan Bongino called Follow the money. This is a huge corrupt network that was used to launder money. Ukraine was also a piggy bank.

 

[Stacey K]

They don't have to investigate themselves, you still bring in outside council to do the investigation. Itd be someone with the qualifications though... Not a billionaire donor.

It should be done by someone impartial who's actually an accountant and does this for a living... Not sure how Elon doing it is a good idea?

The findings should also then be reported, and brought to light. Stuff shouldn't just be shut down overnight... There seems to be a lot of reactionary decisions going on, that he ends up backtracking on a day later.... Like freezing government funding.


There's a proper way for things to be done, and while I'm not someone who knows the proper way.... I'm pretty sure how things are being done isn't the way to go about it! No one voted for Elon, no one confirmed / appointed him.... I don't see how he's qualified for the position.

Personally I think all rich people are assholes and they got rich by cheating the system, so a billionaire doing the auditing isnt going to be impartial. I'm all for cutting the cheating and holding people accountable, there's A LOT of government spending that shouldn't be happening. Should be a crackdown on it all.

I voted for Trump expecting Elon would do exactly what he is doing. I've gone down the Elon rabbit hole. I don't want to know him as a person, he's a jerk. I absolutely want him to help me run my business. He fully believes there are many things people do better than robots as seen below. (links below) These are a few references in which I have based my opinion that he is qualified to cut waste.

Don't hate on rich people. There's lots of gray areas within the tax code. Smart people take advantage of gray areas to help them become rich. Smart people borrow money from the banks to make more money. Smart businesspeople take advice from businesspeople who are wealthier than themselves. Smart sign makers take advice on this forum from more experienced sign makers. If you want to get rich, take advice from rich people. Some rich people are crooked but one they are typically not, is dumb.

A fun video to show where he cuts corners on the Teslas...

A tour with Elon in his Tesla factory...

Book: Elon by Walter Isaacson

 

[ikarasu]

wow, you said a whole lot and contradicted yourself in the process. Elon made his money the same way everyone else does. He is pretty smart and knows how to run a company efficiently. he got rid of a huge percentage of twitter staff and it still runs like it used to. Elon cares about humanity. How do I know? i watched an interview with him. This deep state blob has taken over our country and even the world. They were paying for media services ALL OVER THE WORLD.

He sure did... He removed a lot of moderation staff,essential personnel... He removed a lot of the verified features trying to make it a pay to be verified, so anyone can pay and verify themselves... . in 2022 before musk bought twitter, it was worth 44 billion. Left articles state it's lost 80% of what it was worth, Conservative articles say it's lost about 50% of what it was worth...so best case scenario, he took a company worth 44 billion, and gutted it to make it worth 20 billion.... Within a few months it's dropped half its value, and it hasnt even started to pick up again.

Now say its because people hate him, or mistook something he said... but the reasoning doesn't matter... fact is he kneejerk reactioned things and gutted a company to make it worth half of what it is.

I'm also not sure what your reasoning is about needing an impartial person whos NOT a billionaire. The dude already made his money. He is not trying to get MORE money. He's trying to right wrongs. And heres where you are contradicting yourself: ELON is doing exactly what you want to happen. He is cutting the cheating and handing it over to trump to hold them accountable. This is what trump has been telling us for 10 years now. Id like to recommend a book by roger stone: the bush crime family. It will REALLY open your eyes. and piss you off.

In most of the cases Billionaires can't be impartial. He's made his money, but it'll never be enough. If he didn't care about money, he wouldnt be going to court trying to fight for a bigger pay package, and then refusing to do business in the town where the judge said it wasnt allowed.

But aside from the money aspect - The departments which are getting axed, and the people who are being fired (Not legally, as again its congress who appoints / fires some of these people), are departments and people which are investigating Musk and his companies. He has very close Ties with China trying to get less restrictions on Tesla.... You can't say some guy whos job it is to do forensic accounting, who gets paid 100k Would be more biased, or have more to gain finding the fluff in the government than musk is. Thats the thing though... It seems to always be an "us vs them" mentality now, If you hire a republican, the democrats will complain, if you hire a democrat the republicans will complain... It should get back to the old days where congress, the senate, and the president can all find someone they all have faith in and do a full audit.

But it's not even his conflict of interest, its how musk is - he went on record saying they should remove ALL regulations by default, and that they never could do it before with democrats in power, so now is the time.. Then add regulations back as needed. So no food safety, no work place safety... he's pulling out the nuclear option instead of the surgical option.

 

[Geneva Olson]

He sure did... He removed a lot of moderation staff,essential personnel... He removed a lot of the verified features trying to make it a pay to be verified, so anyone can pay and verify themselves... . in 2022 before musk bought twitter, it was worth 44 billion. Left articles state it's lost 80% of what it was worth, Conservative articles say it's lost about 50% of what it was worth...so best case scenario, he took a company worth 44 billion, and gutted it to make it worth 20 billion.... Within a few months it's dropped half its value, and it hasnt even started to pick up again.

Now say its because people hate him, or mistook something he said... but the reasoning doesn't matter... fact is he kneejerk reactioned things and gutted a company to make it worth half of what it is.



In most of the cases Billionaires can't be impartial. He's made his money, but it'll never be enough. If he didn't care about money, he wouldnt be going to court trying to fight for a bigger pay package, and then refusing to do business in the town where the judge said it wasnt allowed.

But aside from the money aspect - The departments which are getting axed, and the people who are being fired (Not legally, as again its congress who appoints / fires some of these people), are departments and people which are investigating Musk and his companies. He has very close Ties with China trying to get less restrictions on Tesla.... You can't say some guy whos job it is to do forensic accounting, who gets paid 100k Would be more biased, or have more to gain finding the fluff in the government than musk is. Thats the thing though... It seems to always be an "us vs them" mentality now, If you hire a republican, the democrats will complain, if you hire a democrat the republicans will complain... It should get back to the old days where congress, the senate, and the president can all find someone they all have faith in and do a full audit.

But it's not even his conflict of interest, its how musk is - he went on record saying they should remove ALL regulations by default, and that they never could do it before with democrats in power, so now is the time.. Then add regulations back as needed. So no food safety, no work place safety... he's pulling out the nuclear option instead of the surgical option.

1 - Twitter works better now than it did before.
2 - michael schellenberger told the whole story about what was happening behind the scenes with twitter. Did you read the twitter files? too much to talk about in here. but I would encourage the read.
3 - Twitter has added spaces where people can listen to what's happening in the government.
4 - how do you know "it'll never be enough"? I think people have a common misconception about money. SOME PEOPLE don't care about money the way you think they do. Elon sleeps in his office. He's got money but you don't see him spending it extravagantly. unless you think rockets are extravagant.
5 - elon has proven time and again that he's depended on for many things. He rescued people on a space mission. when people are without internet service, he will send skylink over. In fact, he sent skylink over to north carolina and the gov told him he couldn't.. who does that? except a corrupt government.

6- and this is the bigg one. CONGRESS IS BEING AUDITED BY DOGE. that's why they aren't allowed in the buildings that are being investigated.
7 - you're going to have to prove that he has ties to china.

everything you have mentioned is very easily debunked. just go look at elon's twitter feed and the doge account for that proof.

It baffles me that people still don't see all of the corruption that our government was doing and it took people OUTSIDE of the government to point it out and yet you are still skeptical....

 

[GAC05]

Relax.
Once Musk's Neuralink brain chip is mandated and installed everyone will calm down and see the truth. No more worries, it will be benign, like having a Social Security card in your wallet that you can never misplace.

 

[ikarasu]

Rather than stay political.... Let's go back to tarrifs.

25% tarrif on aluminum and steel across the board... I'll bet anyone $50 it gets backtracked within a week. And if it doesn't... It's going to hurt everyone on this forum. Acp.... Aluminum signs.... Frames, cars etc. 25% from every country means you guys just taxed yourself 25%.

Pushing manufacturing back into USA isn't a bad idea, but trying to force it overnight is... Why not use some of the savings to build out infrastructure to bring manufacturing back?