Pre-Trump, I had a paid online subscription to Guardian for a time, because it was so well written and informative.
After 2016, however, they seemed to adopt a firm anti-MAGA stance which I found to be biased and off-putting. Their highly critical stance against Israel after the Hamas attacks of October 2023 was the last straw.
Then, they withdrew from the X platform and now they might as well not exist, as far as I'm concerned. I think that was a mistake, given their significant following on X, but I guess they felt they don't need it.
Funny, I started following the Guardian around then as it was the only paper that had a common sense takes on Israel instead of the highly compromised ones like the NY Times.
That’s completely untrue. The bureaucracy follows the rules Congress provides, and there are many checks on their power built into those processes both internal and via the courts.
The reason DOGE are asserting that they don’t need to follow the law is because the cuts they want to make are themselves in violation of the law, not because there’s no other way to do it.
Many such bureaus have been established over the years that have extralegal powers existing basically outside the Constitution. I’m thinking of the NLRB, CFPB, FBI, IRS, and several others.
We as a society have a consensus that we need such agencies to manage the hugely complex country that we have become, but that doesn’t necessarily mean these bureaucratic organizations are themselves properly managed.
Years ago, I read about a man who the IRS was trying to levy extensive fines on. After five years of court battles, he committed suicide.
Perhaps this was an extreme case, but there is nonetheless an important question that arises out of this tragedy: does the government exist to serve the people, or do the people exist to serve the government?
I believe our colonial era checks and balances no longer protect us from a bureaucracy that is automatically funded by the Treasury, that the President has limited control over, and that only an act of Congress can change.
In an era when no one political party has enough control to enact legislation (i.e. a filibuster proof majority), the bureaucracy is effectively out of control and the only real way it can be reformed is by uncovering waste and corruption.
You’re shifting the goalposts again. You not liking them doesn’t mean that they’re unconstitutional, it means you have a problem with how Congress has exercised its constitutional authority.
No it absolutely doesn't. The "permanent bureaucracy" as you call it (or people just doing their jobs as I call it) is the most compliant part of government to checks and balances.
I'm guessing what Trump is doing is not the most efficient way to do it, but isn't he trying to get rid of the "permanent bureaucracy" - the people responsible for creating policies and spend money, that are not elected and don't have a term limit?
That idea of an unelected policy maker is a work of political fiction. There are two types of federal employee: political appointees and senior executives, who do not have job security, and the merit-based civil servants who have job protection in the sense that they can only be fired for cause. All of them can act only within the bounds that Congress defines – that’s why there are lawsuits about things like whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant because the EPA can’t regulate outside of what the law authorizes.
Tesla is not just cars. Their large scale solar power storage business is growing, they manufacture batteries, they have the largest charging infrastructure for end users, massive super computing to crunch fsd data, a lithium refinery in Texas starting up this year, and their humanoid robotics division.
Perhaps their stock was overpriced, perhaps not. Long term, there’s tremendous upside and right now it’s arguably a buying opportunity. Musk’s involvement with DoGE will end in a matter of months or maybe a year, and the people keying cars and engaging in political theatrics outside Tesla dealerships will soon move on to the next cause.
> large scale solar power storage business is growing, they manufacture batteries, they have the largest charging infrastructure for end users
Tesla’s infrastructure-sales prospects outside America have basically been hobbled for years to come. I’d argue similarly for our most-populous states.
Like, on what planet is a Canadian or California politician surviving greenlighting a Tesla project? For that matter, how many places currently leasing space to Tesla for charging infrastructure want a permanent protest magnet on their property?
Musk is inextricably tied to MAGA and global rightwing populism at this point, DOGE or no DOGE. If and when the US starts invading allies and sending Democrats to El Salvador, the brand will become unsalvageable barring Musk’s complete eviction from the company — and maybe not even then.
Part of the reason that Tesla has been so valuable, is that is was/is seen as an investment in Elon Musk as a person, not specifically just Tesla. SpaceX is a private company, so people can't invest in that. But Tesla's stock price has in the past seen spikes and dips associated with successes and failures by SpaceX.
Right now, Musk has a decent amount of power over the domestic functions of the US Government. Regardless of your opinions about that fact, it's an objective truth that that is an economically valuable position for a person to be in. And so, Tesla stock remains high, independent of the performance of Tesla the automaker, and frankly independent of many people's opinions of what Musk is doing.
Were Musk to get booted from the current administration, and Tesla sales to increase 30%, I think the net effect of that would be a drop in Tesla stock.
Like many unicorns. During the Dot Com era, when Oracle chief Larry Ellison was briefly thought to be lost at sea on his sailing yacht, Oracle’s stock tanked, then recovered after he was found safe.
Electric cars do have an effect on urban air pollution, though. Chinese cities have really cleaned up the air and become more breathable recently, for example. You used to have black soot coming out your nose; it was awful.
A smooth and picture perfect launch, docking, and return to Earth. Congratulations to SpaceX, NASA, the astronauts and all personnel involved.
I’m surprised there isn’t more interest in this topic. Is there another hn thread that is more active? I wonder if people have become jaded by the seemingly routine business of space travel. Yet, it remains a very difficult and dangerous endeavor.
The Chinese are ahead in the mass manufacturing and commoditization of electric vehicle batteries, but there are still some interesting innovations coming out of the U.S. and Europe, as well as Japan and South Korea.
As for Tesla’s recent hiccup, they have a strong product portfolio and are likely to recover before long. It’s happened before.
the road to recovery will be long and hard. tesla hit everything perfect, built charging infra before they had many cars, started with luxury roadster/model s and built a brand. showed the world EVs don’t have to be uglier and smaller versions of prius. the owners overlooked A LOT of insanely subpar things about the cars because of all this.
now there is serious competition that did not exist before and every single price point (model 3, model y, model x…) there is serious and pound-by-pound superior competition. add to that all the politican nonsense happening and you got a perfect storm.
not impossible of course but I think tesla has an uphill battle ahead
I’m also a data point for excellent Toyota service from the dealership where we bought our Prius. From the concierge who holds your hand throughout the visit, to the free lunch voucher in their pleasant little cafeteria (sadly, closed after covid), to the couple of years of free oil changes, I actually looked forward to bringing the car in. And they cleaned it as well, a quick interior vacuum at least.
