D.O.G.E.: Our Last Chance

“And suddenly, I realize that all of this, the gun the bombs, the revolution – has got something to do with a girl named Marla Singer.” – Fight Club

Elon Musk wants to send millions of people to Mars.  He’s either a genius or the most creative serial killer of all time.

I fully believe that the biggest impact of Trump’s re-election is D.O.G.E.

I’ve long (at least 8 years) publicly maintained that the United States is due to end in its present form.  My earliest time for this to happen is 2025, and the latest I’d expect it to come is around 2040.  The three most likely candidates for the resulting body have been:

  • An American Caesar
  • A Civil War
  • Peaceful Balkanization

There are many different reasons I believe this is likely still inevitable.  The cultural split is deep.  The financial imbalances and utter lack of control of spending is immense.  The diversity we’re supposed to “tolerate” is nothing but division.

It’s really clear to see – the forest really is made up of trees.  And our forest is on fire.  How’s that for a tortured metaphor?

However.

D.O.G.E. is here.

What is D.O.G.E.?  It’s the Department of Government Efficiency.  In characteristic humor, Elon has selected one of the funniest memes of the 2010s for one of the most serious jobs of the 2020s.  I don’t go into depth on the origin of Doge, but the first time I saw Doge was on this poster:

Would a missing poster for Schrödinger’s cat say it would pay extra if he was found dead and alive?

D.O.G.E. is important.  It’s a shot across the bow of the managerial state.  During this election cycle, someone (I don’t have a reference as to whose idea this was) noted that when the GloboLeft said “our democracy” they were really referring to “our bureaucracy”.  This is an amazingly astute observation.

How can the GloboLeft whine and complain that democracy somehow failed when they lost the election and the popular vote?  Because their faith isn’t in the electorate, and they feel nothing but contempt for more than half of the voters.  I’m okay with that, since as long as they keep playing the game that way, we win.

But the managerial state has been growing in the United States since (more or less) Woodrow Wilson.  The idea came with the money from the income tax – the United States Government was a thing to be administered, as were the people.  As most people in the country and as most administrators were explicitly Christian, at least something was holding them back.

Now?

Not at all.  The managerial state exists to grow the number of managers.  The tragedy in Waco was almost entirely due to the ATF attempting to create a nice big sexy raid right before budget time to show how important that they were and justify their need for more money and more employees.  The managerial state exists for itself.

How do you stop a Department of Education that doesn’t educate anyone, or a Department of Energy that has never produced any energy?

D.O.G.E.

I hope they get badges and walk into the FBI and yell, “Respect my authoritayyyyyy!”  This would be followed up by, “So, what would you say it is that you do here, Special Agent Johnson?”

D.O.G.E. is set up to make government more efficient.  When Musk bought Twitter®, he eventually fired about 80% of the employees and ended up with a company that was focused on the product, rather than on hiring more employees.

In September of 2023, there were about 3 million federal government employees.  Eliminating about 2.4 million of them would be a good start, but it’s far from enough.  The crazy spending that those government employees enable is over $6 trillion dollars per year.

Much of this money is money that comes from the people and companies that live in a state that is sent to the fed.gov and then recycled back to the states.  How does that add value?  Not sure, but it does increase the power of the federal managerial state, so they’re for it.

D.O.G.E. will, presumably, start taking a machete to this mess and remove a large chunk of federal employees and of federal spending.  Since government doesn’t actually produce anything, those fired employees will have to get jobs where they have the ability to actually create value.  And, if spending is cut as drastically as it should be, there will be a recession.

A big one.

Maybe we can hire Bob to build a wall to keep Dora from exploring.

Elon himself mentioned this – defanging the managerial elite and stopping fed.gov from spending will be a big dislocation on the economy as a whole.  This will be destabilizing on the country, but since the big destabilization from the economic trajectory we’re on will be worse, I’m calling it a potential win.  It will be worth the pain.

The reason this is an off-ramp is that it is, essentially, a bloodless revolution.  The path that we’re on is unsustainable, and only drastic action will change the outcome.  D.O.G.E. is just exactly that type of drastic action.  Combined with actual repatriations of illegals and a dismantling of the power structures the GloboLeftElite have created within big companies (a very big ask) we just might get on the right path, again.

Do I think D.O.G.E. will work?

Ultimately, it faces long odds.  The managerial class has maintained power for over a century, and they really are the Deep State and will react with great violence at any perceived loss of power.  Waco was just them looking for a higher budget.  The ATF along with the FBI will kill women and children without remorse for a 2% increase in power.  And they will investigate themselves and find that they did nothing wrong.

Inside of a month, the ATF would consist of one guy torching all the ATF 4473 forms that the ATF has if Brandon Herrera was in charge.  He also promised he’d donate all his pay to no-kill doge shelters.

The biggest chance Trump has to save the country is to act fast and without mercy before the immune system of the GloboLeftElite has the time to react.  No, the FBI won’t be talking to his appointees like they did with General Flynn.

Ever.

Trump has one chance to make the rubble bounce.  He’d better act quickly.

They’re going to fight back.  And this is our last chance.

Author: John

Nobel-Prize Winning, MacArthur Genius Grant Near Recipient writing to you regularly about Fitness, Wealth, and Wisdom - How to be happy and how to be healthy. Oh, and rich.

51 thoughts on “D.O.G.E.: Our Last Chance”

  1. Leviathan is made up of several million individuals but with one thought: Survival. Cutting the fat, and those who live on the fat, as well as the Boss Hoggs who live on the fat of all those minions, may prove a Herculean task beyond the strength of Team Trump. If Team Trump persists at it, they may have a chance. Parasites once entrenched, will leave, but not easily and quickly. They exist, and breed on many levels. The existence of the parasites, exposed to the nation, should be a part of the operation to get rid of them.

      1. Their power is based on the illusion of power, riddled well by GOT:

        We The People, (According to some old paperwork) is where the power resides in our Republic.
        If only We The People would put down our phones, ignore the distractions of the bread and circus games, and pay attention, stand UP and get to Work.
        Than and only then can the Republic, as imagined, fought for, and formed, be saved.
        MSG Grumpy

  2. I would love to see it succeed but I doubt it will have more than a symbolic impact. I have watched Republicans talk about cutting the Federal government for decades and never done more than slightly slow/delay the growth of the leviathan. We certainly don’t need a Department of Education that has never taught a single child or a Dept of Agriculture staffed by people that have never been on a farm. That doesn’t mean we will be able to reduce their size much less eliminate them entirely.

    1. It will never happen, but I’ve long believed that the way to eliminate most of the bureaucracy is to move the seat of Federal govt. every 2 to 3 years. Let it reside in a state capital where it can only be in session when the state legislature is not in session and then a few years later, move it to another state capital. Rotate through all 50 states and then start again. Washington DC should then be turned into a prison similar to Guantanamo where illegals are held until being deported.

      Bureaucracy is a lot like all of that junk that accumulates in your closet that is really painful to pack up and move should you ever have to relocate. Eventually you get tired of moving it and just throw it away. Same will eventually happen to bureaucracy if you make the relocation painful enough. .

    2. It comes down to the fact that entrenched bureaucrats oppose them. Unless you line I-495 with crucified bureaucrats, lobbyists, and politicians nothing permanent will be accomplished. Leave even one of those groups alone and it will quickly reconstitute the others.

      All of the solutions to our problems are obvious, and often easy to implement. The issue is that the reason the problems exist is to benefit those in charge of implementing the solutions, so workable solutions will never be found.

      1. “Unless you line I-495 with crucified bureaucrats, lobbyists, and politicians nothing permanent will be accomplished. Leave even one of those groups alone and it will quickly reconstitute the others.“

        Your terms are acceptable.

      2. Be still my heart. Guillotines on every street corner in D.C.

        Postal Service $9.5 billion over budget.

    3. That was the experience of the first Trump Administration – he was going to hire outside the Beltway. Instead? Same cast of insiders. We’ll see.

  4. The bureaucracy / democracy meme came from Bill D’Agostino…

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1853887450365735153

    …and he’s right. Here’s a couple o links to show what DOGE is up against…

    https://www.usgovernmentmanual.gov/ReadLibraryItem.ashx?SFN=Myz95sTyO4rJRM/nhIRwSw==&SF=VHhnJrOeEAnGaa/rtk/JOg==

    …and here’s a breakdown of just where 2 million or so of them are located…

    https://www.opm.gov/about-us/open-government/Data/Apps/Agencies/

    …but wait, there’s more…

    https://www.usa.gov/agency-index

    It’s a termite mound of unbelievable complexity eating up the foundation of freedom. Here’s hoping Elon and Vivek raid every nook and cranny.

    1. Elon, send a memo to all Executive Branch employees.

      “Attention: Warning is given that a severe staff reduction and cost cutting measures are coming. If you are not sure of your value to this institution, you may want to leave now and sell your house before the market completely collapses.”

  6. “when the GloboLeft said “our democracy” they were really referring to “our bureaucracy”

    We are the biggest threat to Their Democratcy. And we need to make good on that threat while we can.

    The only sane way to play The Prisoner’s Dilemma is tit-for-tat. Bullies will keep escalating until you beat them into submission.

  8. John, I remain doubtful but hopeful. I think what would help the momentum is some highly visible and demonstrable returns. I would love a chart that shows how much money we are saving and how much less we are borrowing.

  9. I don’t understand why they don’t just require a balanced budget every year and strictly enforce it. If any organization overspends the excess has to come out of salaries, starting at the top (with leadership facing termination and/or civil penalties if the overspend is egregious enough). Most states have to stay within their budget and no reason the Feds can’t do so as well.

    Require a balanced budget and it forces everyone to scrutinize and prioritize every action. It also requires organizations to prove their worth in terms of effectiveness/efficiency or get their budget cut. There is really no choice but for the fat to get removed.

    1. Because that would usurp their pocketbook, which pays for their bacon-wrapped shrimp at the lobbyist’s party.

  10. During my career, I found that those that were not contributing, had multiple methods of avoiding work (such as constant stomach “troubles” that mandated numerous trips to the port-a-can to sneak a smoke), or were outright lazy couldn’t be allowed to stay on a project. Beside the waste was the morale damage to those producing. Terminating those was an immediate responsibility, and avoiding the task only added more problems. That’s what needs to happen, and if it requires Congress to cut huge amounts of funding, then they need to get busy.

    I don’t have much faith in Congress doing much of anything other than wasting time, and money. That’s why some of Trump’s important appointments should be allowed during recess, but I doubt McConnell will make it happen. He’s a cog in the wheel of corruption, and won’t stop the cumbersome, inefficient machine known as government.

    1. It only takes ONE senator to decline to vote to stay in session. The Republican shame is that last time Trump was in they denied him recess appointments. Every damn Republican.

  11. The boys coming home after WWII needing jobs gave Ike the cover to expell millions. Imagine replying to a MSNBC gotcha question about mass expulsions and replying you are just trying to make jobs for all the liberals fired by Elon.

    1. Hahahaha! Imagine the entire Department of Education picking strawberries – the first useful work of their lives.

  14. Don’t forget, Trump can’t fire the peons. There’s a law against that. However, it’s established precedent that Congress authorizes spending, but the President doesn’t have to spend it. If the money doesn’t go to the agency to pay the wages, they have to cut the workforce to match the payments.

    So, no matter how much Congress authorized for, say, the Department of Education, if the Executive withholds the money, they shut down.

  15. Day One: Everyone in FedGov not an oath-swearing member of the armed forces has 48 hours to report to a given city-hub along the Mexican border.
    Anyone not present at that point is fired from FedGov, for life. No appeals.

    Day Two: Hand out shovels and picks, and start building the border wall, continuously, from the Pacific to the Gulf Of Mexico.
    It’s government, so it will be about as tall as Hoover Dam.
    Good luck to Tim Walz starting a company to make 500-foot tall ladders.
    Supervision will be the 500 deadweight military admirals and generals who’ve been feather-bedding their positions since 30 years ago, and fired by SecDef on Day One. Or, they can retire at the permanent grade of E-1. Dealer’s choice.

    Day Three: The military assists civilian authorities in every state in repatriating every foreign national here illegally back to their country of origin.
    By C-130 air drop off the tail ramp, if necessary.
    Anyone declaring asylum status must apply at the US Embassy in their country of origin, and await consideration.
    They’ll have a long wait to apply, because the people that would process that application are swinging a pick on the Mexican-U.S. border, Until Further Notice. So are the courts that would adjudicate that application.
    LOL. Suck it, bitchez.

    Day Four: Anyone here illegally and breaking any U.S. laws is ankle-shackled in groups of twenty, and will complete a five year sentence at hard labor building the wall, before repatriation.
    All U.S. citizens convicted of drug offenses are put to work alongside them, and serve 100% of any term of sentence to completion.

    Day 366: Select personnel, no more than 0.2% of the prior amount, will be selected, based on personal merit, for return to their government offices, if there are any government jobs that it turns out are actually necessary and beneficial to the republic.
    The rest work on the wall until it’s complete, and then their positions are terminated, and they have to get real jobs. Anyone there will be terminated without FedGov pension the day before the one when they would become otherwise eligible. Welcome to the private sector, leeches.

    If it goes down like that, win.
    If, like most government projects, it acquires perpetual zombie life, the wall just gets bigger and wider until it can’t be crossed without a space program. Bigger win.

  17. “And, if spending is cut as drastically as it should be, there will be a recession.

    A big one.”

    I’m not sure I believe that anymore. We’ve all been told this, but who said so? The ones whose livelihoods depend on us fearing that spending cuts will cause a recession

    I’ve been puzzling through it, and it sure seems they are saying, “You can’t take the emergency brake off. The car would come to a stop!” Those whose jobs are taking money from the states, skimming some, sending the rest back are nothing but e-brakes. If DOGE simply focused on the departments engaged in the production of bads, and left anything that might be accidentally producing goods, that friction on the economy goes away.

    Those causing the friction are left with the same choice all the rest of us have — get a job producing something people are willing to pay for, or go live under a bridge.

  18. John,
    I rather your earlier post about the inherent dangers of an economy that was too “Efficient”.
    The examples given were the lack of back-up for important resources and stress points.
    BUT,
    When discussing the NEED for “Efficient Government” those same draw-backs for the economy become the actual selling points for MORE efficient government.
    Nice article about that here:
    https://politiquerepublic.substack.com/p/efficiency-by-inefficiency
    Gotta say, I LOVE the very efficient border plan stated above by Aesop…
    So efficient it not only prunes the zombie bureaucrats but actually creates a self sustaining self liking Ice Cream cone…and who doesn’t Love that?

    MSG Grumpy

    1. Great article. I follow Amuse on X. Take away their computers, internet, and cell phones and see how long they last sitting. Oh, and punish them for talking to each other.

  19. And while we’re up, once DOGE is stood up, we change the mascot to a rottweiler, fangs bared, mouth fully afroth, acting like it hasn’t eaten in a week, and excess government employees are raw steak.

    Then we direct the agency to act like one.

    1. There would be SHIT TONS less resistance if they were laid off with severance pay, like 6 months “transitional” pay. They have to be out day one, for every day they delay, their pay drops by 25%. Set up Code schools, they’ll be fine. Even if they were fired with pay, it would be cheaper, because they wouldn’t be there spending money on things that shouldn’t happen because it harms people, the economy, the social fabric.
      Close 95+% of over seas bases, stop interfering in other countries affairs, militarily, economically, politicly, socially. Root out the Globohomo, pedo, commie, Satanic, human/drug trafficking, bosses, their minions and adjacents, punish appropriately.

  21. “a disruption on the economy”
    that’s cute. i agree that it has to be done and not doing it is only going to make the inevitable reckoning orders of magnitude worse. i just question whether congress will have the will to follow through. my answer is no.

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