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bolverk

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by bolverk

  1. Well, we've had some of that discussion elsewhere already. I didn't read your article, so they may have been discussed, but several oil-producing states like Saudi, Norway, the Gulf States, etc., have Sovereign Wealth Funds where they use surplus revenues (profits) from their state-owned oil companies to make investments they feel benefit their countries. Texas has one, too, of sorts: the Permanent University Fund. We (the federal government) has also looked into setting one up before, so it's not exactly a new idea. But take Brisket's point about the who in this context and what is going on at this moment, then I think it's fair to say that some skepticism about the motives and how this thing would be funded is warranted. Administration officials did not say how the fund would operate or be financed, but Trump has previously said it could be funded by "tariffs and other intelligent things."
  2. Lake Boehmer: https://maps.app.goo.gl/EbryBFdJ232Em2KGA
  3. I take it as a thread concerning the ongoing attacks (many of them unconstitutional) on the core administrative functions of the federal government. Maybe this op/ed essay will best convey what's being discussed here.
  4. Ahem @realgreggym
  5. A good, short read on the new Mexican president's approach to the negotiations.
  6. My guess is they were keeping track of the people who went inside the Capitol building.
  7. Just kind of fumbled around like a baby chimpanzee in diapers tasked with putting a square peg in a round hole. Wordle 1,326 5/6 ⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛ ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #604 🟩🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1107 8️⃣5️⃣ 6️⃣🟥 m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
  8. 20 minutes. Well worth it.
  9. I always gotta fuck up something.
  10. And this serves their interests, too. Our relationship as John Q Taxpayer with the Federal Government is like them forcing us to take a swig of some toxic swill once a year to serve as a reminder to hate them. It hasn't made me, personally, ever want to watch the whole thing burn down, but I think that's half the reason for the angry mob with pitchforks.
  11. Wow
  12. This has been one of my chief personal complaints as a simple taxpayer. In other countries, this is how it's been done for however long (since the 80s in France, I know). They get the letter (tax bill) upfront based on everything the government already knows, and then they go through the exercise of whittling it down to their satisfaction. Here, we do it where the taxpayer sits down at the kitchen table sweating bullets the entire fucking time. It's a tortuous process, so no wonder everybody hates paying taxes. I've often pondered the possibility that this is by design so that the American taxpayer would always be predisposed to hate the government and everything it does. Oh, and also these private firms leeches profit off a fucked up process.
  13. What if the Canadians are just better at hiding things? Did you ever think about that, ya hoser!
  14. We must cultivate our garden.
  15. All your government are belong to Grok (with a healthy dose of irony). Elon Musk Ally Tells Staff 'AI-First' Is the Future of Key Government Agency Sources say the former Tesla engineer now in charge of the Technology Transformation Services wants an agency that operates like a "startup software company." In a Monday morning meeting, Thomas Shedd, the recently appointed Technology Transformation Services director and Elon Musk ally, told General Services Administration workers that the agency’s new administrator is pursuing an “AI-first strategy,” sources tell WIRED. Throughout the meeting, Shedd shared his vision for a GSA that operates like a “startup software company,” automating different internal tasks and centralizing data from across the federal government. The Monday meeting, held in-person and on Google Meet, comes days after WIRED reported that many of Musk’s associates have migrated to jobs at the highest levels of the GSA and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Prior to joining TTS, which is housed within the GSA, Shedd was a software engineer at Tesla, one of Musk’s companies. The transition has caused mass confusion amongst GSA staffers who have been thrown into surprise one-on-one meetings, forced to present their code—often to young engineers who did not identify themselves—and left wondering what the future of the agency’s tech task force will look like. Shedd attempted to answer these questions on Monday, providing details around a number of projects the agency will pursue over the coming weeks and months. His particular focus, sources say, was an increased role for AI not just at GSA, but at agencies government-wide. In what he described as an “AI-first strategy,” sources say, Shedd provided a handful of examples of projects GSA acting administrator Stephen Ehikian is looking to prioritize, including the development of “AI coding agents” that would be made available for all agencies. Shedd made it clear that he believes much of the work at TTS and the broader government, particularly around finance tasks, could be automated. "This does raise red flags,” a cybersecurity expert who was granted anonymity due to concerns of retaliation told WIRED on Monday, who noted that automating the government isn’t the same as automating other things, like self-driving cars. “People, especially people who aren’t experts in the subject domain, coming into projects often think ‘this is dumb’ and then find out how hard the thing really is.” Shedd instructed employees to think of TTS as a software startup that had become financially unstable. He suggested that the federal government needs a centralized data repository, and that he was actively working with others on a strategy to create one, although it wasn’t clear where this repository would be based or if these projects would comply with privacy laws. Shedd referred to these concerns as a “roadblock” and said that the agency should still push forward to see what was possible. Sources say that during the call Shedd tightly connected TTS and the United States Digital Services—rebranded as the United States DOGE Service, or DOGE, under Trump—as “pillars” of a new technological strategy. Later in the meeting, he said that there was no plan to merge the two groups and that projects would flow through them both depending on available staff and expertise, but continued emphasizing the upcoming collaboration between TTS and DOGE. Employees, sources say, also asked questions about the young engineers, who had previously not been identifying themselves in meetings. Shedd said that one of them felt comfortable enough to introduce himself in meetings on Monday, sources say, though Shedd added that he was nervous about their names being publicly revealed and their lives upended. Shedd was unable to answer many staff questions about the deferred resignations, the return to office mandate, or if the agency’s staff would face substantial cuts, according to sources. At one point, Shedd indicated that workforce cuts were likely for TTS, but declined to give more details. (Similar questions were also asked of Department of Government Efficiency leadership in a Friday meeting first reported by WIRED.) Towards the end of the call, sources say, a TTS worker asked if they would be expected to work more than 40 hours per week, to deal with all of the upcoming work and potentially laid off workers. Shedd responded that it was “unclear.”
  16. Ownership of the means of production! When are our free marketeers going to stop this march toward socialism? The three-paragraph executive order tasks the Treasury and Commerce Departments with generating a plan within 90 days for creating a such a fund. Sovereign wealth funds are popular in oil-rich countries like Norway and Saudi Arabia that can invest large budget surpluses in projects around the world. But the United States runs persistent, and widening, budget deficits, and it is unclear where the Trump administration could find the money to seed such a fund. Howard Lutnick, Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the Commerce Department, suggested that the government could take a stake in companies it does business with. ***** “And I think in a short period of time, we’d have one of the biggest funds. And you know, some of some of them are pretty large,” Mr. Trump said. “So, that’s a big deal, huh?”
  17. Next time then: Ontario Premier Doug Ford said earlier Monday that he was ripping up a contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Canada. Ford had also said he was also banning the sale of American booze and blocking American companies from provincial contracts. “We have some good news today. We have temporarily averted tariffs that would have severely damaged our economy, giving time for more negotiation and time for cooler heads to prevail,” Ford said in a statement. “With the U.S. pausing tariffs, Ontario will also pause our retaliatory measures.” https://apnews.com/article/canada-trump-tariffs-ontario-musk-2bc1b52b0390aee9686b270606c51573
  18. Have the tariffs on China been called off yet? Are we going to turn around and do this dance with our EU allies next, or in a month again when the month-long reprieve has ended? Are tariffs the new infrastructure week?
  19. It would be the ultimate act of irony if the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission disbanded our fledgling Texas DOGE Agency.
  20. So, GRUhorn, I don't believe you ever got back to me on that question the other day about how many sock accounts you've burned through. Any idea?
  21. We were given explicit and angry instructions, including questioning our ability to understand English and a screengrab from a dictionary, that we are NOT to discuss threatened invasions or even just the broader topic of foreign relations in DT. You guys are gonna get into some big, big trouble.
  22. I don't know what this acronym means, and Google wasn't helpful.
  23. A little light reading on the man just named in charge of USAID right now: Trump ally Peter Marocco behind evisceration of USAid: ‘He’s a destroyer’ Former Trump official reportedly in the Capitol on Jan. 6 now working with the transition
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