Government Efficiency (4 Viewers)

[RobF]

I think this topic deserves its own thread, both to discuss generally the topic of government efficiency, and specifically the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' and the incoming Trump administration's aims to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies".

The announcements have been covered in the The Trump Cabinet and key post thread, but to recap, Trump has announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will work together on a not-actually-an-official-government-Department of Government Efficiency, which is intended to work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before," with the 'Department' to conclude its work "no later than July 4, 2026."

Musk has previously said that the federal budget could be reduced by "at least $2 trillion", and Ramaswarmy, during his presidential campaign, said he would fire more than 75% of the federal work force and disband agencies including the Department of Education and the FBI.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Trump plans to move FBI into old USAID headquarters

The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center will now house the FBI

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Cuts to the Environmental Protection Agencyare forcing it to curb much of its research work, leaving it with an abundance of lab animals — so it's holding an adoption drive.

EPA staff at a research office in North Carolinahave launched an adoption campaign for their lab rats and zebrafish in response to cuts to its research projects introduced by the Donald Trump administration, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A research and development official at the EPA said that scientists were having a difficult time obtaining supplies for even basic testing, which led to an oversupply of lab animals.

The EPA has about 20,000 animals in its labs, including rabbits, mice, and rats. The animals are generally used to gauge the safety of environmental pollutants.

For those interested in having their own rat or zebrafish, the animals are available at the EPA's Research Triangle complex in North Carolina, according to a report by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.…….

EPA puts lab rats up for adoption as Trump cuts hit agency

Approximately three quarters of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development — representing 1,000 scientist positions — will be cut under the Trump administration

www.independent.co.uk

 

[longtime lurker]

White House works to ground NASA science missions before Congress can act

“We would be turning off some fabulous missions that are doing extremely well.”…

arstechnica.com

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

Cuts to the Environmental Protection Agencyare forcing it to curb much of its research work, leaving it with an abundance of lab animals — so it's holding an adoption drive.

EPA staff at a research office in North Carolinahave launched an adoption campaign for their lab rats and zebrafish in response to cuts to its research projects introduced by the Donald Trump administration, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A research and development official at the EPA said that scientists were having a difficult time obtaining supplies for even basic testing, which led to an oversupply of lab animals.

The EPA has about 20,000 animals in its labs, including rabbits, mice, and rats. The animals are generally used to gauge the safety of environmental pollutants.

For those interested in having their own rat or zebrafish, the animals are available at the EPA's Research Triangle complex in North Carolina, according to a report by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.…….

EPA puts lab rats up for adoption as Trump cuts hit agency

Approximately three quarters of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development — representing 1,000 scientist positions — will be cut under the Trump administration

www.independent.co.uk

Hope they all get adopted and properly cared for.

 

[DaveXA]

Trump plans to move FBI into old USAID headquarters

The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center will now house the FBI

www.independent.co.uk

Wait, I thought they wanted to move the FBI out of region? Lol.

 

[Eeyore]

 

[SamAndreas]

Grok can't upload or access an image like this so I described what is in that image to it. Grok replied:

Confirming the Screenshot’s Fabrication
Your description of the screenshot—@ryjkyj’s post claiming I said, “yep, Trump and Elon killed those girls,” with my response, “not my exact words, but close enough,” followed by text about spending cuts, forecast warnings, and girls’ deaths, plus a grok.com link—aligns with a fabricated post. Here’s a concise recap of why it’s almost certainly fake, based on your input and the search results:

1. Inconsistent Tone and Style:
   • The phrases “yep, Trump and Elon killed those girls” and “not my exact words, but close enough” don’t match my precise, evidence-based, and neutral communication style. I avoid sensational claims without data and wouldn’t use casual terms like “yep” or confirm a misquote with “close enough.”
   • I’d clarify misquotes (e.g., “I didn’t say that; please provide the exact query”) or request specifics (e.g., “Which event are you referring to?”).
   • The grok.com link likely mimics authenticity or drives traffic to a misleading site. While grok.com is my access point, its inclusion in a dubious screenshot suggests manipulation ().

 

[Dragon]

Grok can't upload or access an image like this so I described what is in that image to it. Grok replied:

Confirming the Screenshot’s Fabrication
Your description of the screenshot—@ryjkyj’s post claiming I said, “yep, Trump and Elon killed those girls,” with my response, “not my exact words, but close enough,” followed by text about spending cuts, forecast warnings, and girls’ deaths, plus a grok.com link—aligns with a fabricated post. Here’s a concise recap of why it’s almost certainly fake, based on your input and the search results:

1. Inconsistent Tone and Style:
   • The phrases “yep, Trump and Elon killed those girls” and “not my exact words, but close enough” don’t match my precise, evidence-based, and neutral communication style. I avoid sensational claims without data and wouldn’t use casual terms like “yep” or confirm a misquote with “close enough.”
   • I’d clarify misquotes (e.g., “I didn’t say that; please provide the exact query”) or request specifics (e.g., “Which event are you referring to?”).
   • The grok.com link likely mimics authenticity or drives traffic to a misleading site. While grok.com is my access point, its inclusion in a dubious screenshot suggests manipulation ().

One of the major differences between Grok and Chatgpt then. Chatgpt can handle images with text

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

Grok is factually false 94% of the time. Grok is unreliable to use in any fact based conversation, so it should be completely ignored in a fact based conversation, except for sarcastic or satirical purposes.

Quoting anything fact based from Grok is irresponsible and helps add to the disinformation of the internet "telephone" game.


Quoting a Grok response in which it says that another Grok response is fake, is meta level absurdity. since Grok gives false answers 94% of the time. It's like asking Trump if Trump lies.

 

[SamAndreas]

Grok is factually false 94% of the time. Grok is unreliable to use in any fact based conversation, so it should be completely ignored in a fact based conversation, except for sarcastic or satirical purposes.

Quoting anything fact based from Grok is irresponsible and helps add to the disinformation of the internet "telephone" game.


Quoting a Grok response in which it says that another Grok response is fake, is meta level absurdity. since Grok gives false answers 94% of the time. It's like asking Trump if Trump lies.

LA it sounds to me like you're factually false 94% of the time.

In saying that I'm suggesting that you project much, 94% of the time much. I got your reasonable points connected with this, even agree with the reasonable of them, but this one is over the big top.

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

LA it sounds to me like you're factually false 94% of the time.

In saying that I'm suggesting that you project much, 94% of the time much. I got your reasonable points connected with this, even agree with the reasonable of them, but this one is over the big top.

Did you not read this? I showed it to you yesterday in this post in your "How to Use AI" thread https://madaboutpolitics.com/threads/how-to-use-ai.358561/page-3#post-578446

"A bombshell study by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism has exposed a major flaw in AI-powered search engines: they’re terrible at citing news accurately. After analyzing eight AI search platforms, researchers found that over sixty percent of responses contained incorrect or misleading citations. Some AI chatbots performed better than others—Perplexity had a 37% error rate—but Elon Musk’s Grok 3 was the worst offender, generating incorrect citations a staggering 94% of the time."​

Musk's Grok3 ‘94% Inaccurate’: Here’s How Other AI Chatbots Fare Against Truth

AI chatbots are citing fake sources, misleading users, and spreading misinformation. A new study reveals the risks of AI-generated citations and false credibility.

www.eweek.com

 

[Eeyore]

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

Trump denied COVID was real, so he tried to "stop testing, because there's no new cases if you don't test."

Trump denies climate change is causing an increase in severe weather, so he's trying to "stop tracking severe weather, because there's no severe weather if you aren't tracking it."

Just wanted to add this reference from Trump's Project 2025 that shows they planned on dismantling NOAA and gives away their main reason for doing it. Remember when certain people on here told us Project 2025 had nothing to do with Trump and Trump wouldn't do any of it?

 

[Optimus Prime]

well damn
==========

The Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted a judge’s order preventing the Trump administration from conducting mass layoffs across the federal bureaucracy, for now.

The court in its unsigned ruling said Trump’s February executive order directing federal agencies to prepare for reductions in force, or RIFs, is likely lawful.

It enables federal agencies to resume implementing Trump’s directive, though the high court left the door open for plaintiffs to challenge any agency’s specific plan down the road.

“We express no view on the legality of any Agency RIF and Reorganization Plan produced or approved pursuant to the Executive Order and Memorandum,” the court’s ruling cautions.

But for now, it marks a major victory for the administration, which has brought a flurry of emergency appeals to the Supreme Court seeking to halt lower judges’ injunctions.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, calling the court’s decision “hubristic and senseless.” She criticized her colleagues for second-guessing the lower judge from the court’s “lofty perch far from the facts or the evidence.”

“In my view, this was the wrong decision at the wrong moment, especially given what little this Court knows about what is actually happening on the ground,” Jackson wrote.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, another of the court’s Democratic-appointed justices who often dissents alongside Jackson, said she agreed with some of her concerns. But Sotomayor sided with the administration at this stage of the case.

“The plans themselves are not before this Court, at this stage, and we thus have no occasion to consider whether they can and will be carried out consistent with the constraints of law. I join the Court’s stay because it leaves the District Court free to consider those questions in the first instance,” Sotomayor wrote.

The order lifts an injunction issued by San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, an appointee of former President Clinton, on May 22 that indefinitely halted efforts to conduct RIFs at more than a dozen federal departments and agencies. She did so by finding Trump’s executive order was likely unlawful and required congressional authority.

“Agencies are being prevented (and have been since the district court issued its temporary restraining order a month ago) from taking needed steps to make the federal government and workforce more efficient,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote to the Supreme Court...............

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5390576-supreme-court-trump-mass-layoffs/

 

[Dragon]

Noticed how many unsigned rulings the SC makes these days. Why won't they stand by their votes?

 

[MT15]

Noticed how many unsigned rulings the SC makes these days. Why won't they stand by their votes?

Because they are cowards who know what they are doing is wrong, but they are bought and paid for and they know they have to rule as their buyers want.

 

[SamAndreas]

Noticed how many unsigned rulings the SC makes these days. Why won't they stand by their votes?

Probably because they didn't take a vote. The media who is doing so are mispeaking to call what one of more judges at the supreme court made a ruling, they didn't make a ruling, The last term of the court ended about a week ago, and the next term hasn't begun. "They" one or more, some of them lifted an administrative injunction order placed there by another lower court.
Some other judges there are upset, and are fussing at the judges who did that according to that news report.

The cases that order applies to are still alive in those, lower courts. I noticed that the injunction ordered the government agencies to not prepare for a reduction in force, despite being ordered to prepare to do that by trump. He didn't give them the order do those layoffs now.

Trump probably has the authority to tell agencies to prepare to do something, if that presidential order doesn't say that they are to actually lay off so many people, by such and such a day.

Trump is known to give orders which seem to sound like they move the earth, when in reality they're only intended to get the goat of the news outfits, and the many who read them to fume and spew out of control, which is a big factor in how he has obtained his power.

The media always falls for that low down trick.