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1. Steve Randy Waldman (interfluidity@zirk.us)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 04:43:40 JST Steve Randy Waldman

   i think a pretty good, pretty accurate, way of explaining to less news-obsessed people what’s going on is Trump and Musk are turning the US into a “shithole country”, as the man himself once put it.

   • Steve Randy Waldman (interfluidity@zirk.us)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 04:43:35 JST Steve Randy Waldman

     in reply to

     • The Felon Pope :popephil:

     @Phil the fiscal footprint of the Federal government is down to health care, social security, and military. USAID, for example, is a rounding error. Trump has promised to preserve and protect SS and Medicare. Should we go after VA? Medicaid for the poor? Dramatically shrink the military? 2/

   • Steve Randy Waldman (interfluidity@zirk.us)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 04:43:36 JST Steve Randy Waldman

     in reply to

     • The Felon Pope :popephil:

     @Phil the share of the workforce Federally employed has dramatically shrunk, because people making errors like yours have been around since the 1970s. that has increased the cost of the Federal government, as contractors charge much more and over time perform much worse (as they don’t preserve institutional knowledge). 1/

   • The Felon Pope :popephil: (phil@freeatlantis.com)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 04:43:37 JST The Felon Pope :popephil:

     in reply to

     @interfluidity Doesnt matter, federal spending as a percentage of GDP has grown steadily since 1948. And this number UNDERSTATES the problem since federal spending is included in GDP, if you look at federal spending in relation to non government GDP, its grown to be enourmous. and its intrusive, wasteful and corrupt.

     Regarding the number of people, regardless of percentages, (which is a bogus measure since many positions have nothing to do with the size of the population) its way to many

   • Steve Randy Waldman (interfluidity@zirk.us)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 04:43:38 JST Steve Randy Waldman

     in reply to

     • The Felon Pope :popephil:

     @Phil do you know how much, say, Federal government employment has grown as a share of the population?

   • The Felon Pope :popephil: (phil@freeatlantis.com)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 04:43:39 JST The Felon Pope :popephil:

     in reply to

     @interfluidity for 50 years a great beast has been hovering over our nation engorging itself, growing ever larger and shitting more and more all over the people. Trump and Musk are disembowling that beast, but those who love wallowing in the beasts excreta and live to feed it, are mourning the process.

   • The Felon Pope :popephil: (phil@freeatlantis.com)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 04:44:01 JST The Felon Pope :popephil:

     in reply to

     @interfluidity
     superficial. As an example, nearly 90% of all money spent on welfare is consumed by the beast, crumbs actually go to the poor.

     USAID is only one small venue through which money is spent on corruption/waste.
     Federal workers are over paid, underworked, and overly self important.

     Yes we should go after everything, I'd be happy to see the entire thing collapse.

     What percentage of my life should I have to work for other people to reap the benefit? At present it's about half.