Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Latest Breaking News
In reply to the discussion: Pete Hegseth's Defense Department blew $22M on steak and lobster in a single month, watchdog claims [View all]
jfz9580m
(17,182 posts)22. That is exactly right
It was actually an attack on the black middleclass.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-federal-job-cuts-trump-musk-dei-middle-class-rcna191704
Much of the Black middle class was built by federal jobs. That may change.
For the last several decades, federal jobs helped Black workers find stable work with guardrails to prevent bias, but mass cuts are threatening decades of upward mobility.
For decades, the federal government provided both reliable jobs and guardrails to offset systemic racial bias in hiring and promotions, offering an alternative for Black workers who might be overlooked or ignored in the private sector. They played a crucial role in helping Black workers like Verdine join the middle class and thrive. But vast cuts by the Trump administration, led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, are threatening to close down that once-dependable path to financial stability.
The government, which has about 3 million employees, is the largest employer in the country. At least 75,000 of them accepted buyout offers and thousands were fired in the last several weeks. Many of the workers fired were either newer hires or told they were let go for subpar performance.
“The federal workforce was a means to help build Black middle class. It hired Black Americans at a higher rate than private employers,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents the Education Department employees.
As a part of his efforts, President Trump is angling to shut down the Department of Education, a move that will have dramatic repercussions around the country. Nearly 30% of Education employees are Black according to a 2024 report by the department.
Smith said 74 workers at the department had been let go so far, 60 of whom are Black.
For the last several decades, federal jobs helped Black workers find stable work with guardrails to prevent bias, but mass cuts are threatening decades of upward mobility.
For decades, the federal government provided both reliable jobs and guardrails to offset systemic racial bias in hiring and promotions, offering an alternative for Black workers who might be overlooked or ignored in the private sector. They played a crucial role in helping Black workers like Verdine join the middle class and thrive. But vast cuts by the Trump administration, led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, are threatening to close down that once-dependable path to financial stability.
The government, which has about 3 million employees, is the largest employer in the country. At least 75,000 of them accepted buyout offers and thousands were fired in the last several weeks. Many of the workers fired were either newer hires or told they were let go for subpar performance.
“The federal workforce was a means to help build Black middle class. It hired Black Americans at a higher rate than private employers,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents the Education Department employees.
As a part of his efforts, President Trump is angling to shut down the Department of Education, a move that will have dramatic repercussions around the country. Nearly 30% of Education employees are Black according to a 2024 report by the department.
Smith said 74 workers at the department had been let go so far, 60 of whom are Black.
And all for what? This type of “growth” by guys like these, all of whom assiduously hump this administration:
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/
Or is it because we, as a society, do not want to look too closely at the powerful? Is it because we've handed our economy to men that get paid $79 million a year to do a job they can't seem to describe, and even that, they would sooner offload to a bunch of unreliable AI models than actually do?
We live in the era of the symbolic executive, when "being good at stuff" matters far less than the appearance of doing stuff, where "what's useful" is dictated not by outputs or metrics that one can measure but rather the vibes passed between managers and executives that have worked their entire careers to escape the world of work. Our economy is run by people that don't participate in it and our tech companies are directed by people that don't experience the problems they allege to solve for their customers, as the modern executive is no longer a person with demands or responsibilities beyond their allegiance to shareholder value.
I, however, believe the problem runs a little deeper than the economy, which is a symptom of a bigger, virulent, and treatment-resistant plague that has infected the minds of those currently twigging at the levers of power — and really, the only levers that actually matter.
The incentives behind effectively everything we do have been broken by decades of neoliberal thinking, where the idea of a company — an entity created to do a thing in exchange for money —has been drained of all meaning beyond the continued domination and extraction of everything around it, focusing heavily on short-term gains and growth at all costs. In doing so, the definition of a “good business” has changed from one that makes good products at a fair price to a sustainable and loyal market, to one that can display the most stock price growth from quarter to quarter.
We live in the era of the symbolic executive, when "being good at stuff" matters far less than the appearance of doing stuff, where "what's useful" is dictated not by outputs or metrics that one can measure but rather the vibes passed between managers and executives that have worked their entire careers to escape the world of work. Our economy is run by people that don't participate in it and our tech companies are directed by people that don't experience the problems they allege to solve for their customers, as the modern executive is no longer a person with demands or responsibilities beyond their allegiance to shareholder value.
I, however, believe the problem runs a little deeper than the economy, which is a symptom of a bigger, virulent, and treatment-resistant plague that has infected the minds of those currently twigging at the levers of power — and really, the only levers that actually matter.
The incentives behind effectively everything we do have been broken by decades of neoliberal thinking, where the idea of a company — an entity created to do a thing in exchange for money —has been drained of all meaning beyond the continued domination and extraction of everything around it, focusing heavily on short-term gains and growth at all costs. In doing so, the definition of a “good business” has changed from one that makes good products at a fair price to a sustainable and loyal market, to one that can display the most stock price growth from quarter to quarter.
This is why the poorest people (disabled veterans, people on social security etc) are treated contemptuously and the black middleclass is destroyed while venture welfare for some parasites whose jobs no one is clear on and who attack people like Lina Khan with the blessing of flatulent and imperious billionaires like Vinod Khosla is glossed over:
https://www.businessinsider.com/real-reason-silicon-valley-hates-lina-khan-figma-ipo-exits-2025-8?op=1
The apotheosis of this arrived last week, after Figma IPO-ed and its stock surged 250%. Former FTC Chair Lina Khan took a victory lap, saying regulators' efforts to block an earlier Adobe acquisition resulted in a far better outcome.
"A great reminder that letting startups grow into independently successful businesses, rather than be bought up by existing giants, can generate enormous value," Khan wrote on X. "A win for employees, investors, innovation, and the public."
"A great reminder that letting startups grow into independently successful businesses, rather than be bought up by existing giants, can generate enormous value," Khan wrote on X. "A win for employees, investors, innovation, and the public."
Further down it describes how venture welfare works.
That ass Khosla was here in India recently, encouraging our corrupt and parasitic local ai industry and speaking contemptuously to Cisco employees with 20 years of experience about how ai is the future. I would take those employees any day over the type of social climbing, parasitic and sycophantic garbage start up with no real produce or service who is the pet of a prolifically flatulent arse like Vinod Khosla. That man is a pathetic ass surrounded by bootlickers and should focus on taking down his nudie pics instead of trying to hog all spaces because his bootlickers give him the impression he is a king, rather than a very bloated and gassy old man. I don’t think that is libel and anyway Trump and Bill Maher’s orangutan dispute might make it unwise to sue du over such posts..I have had defamation, slander and libel laws on my mind a lot lately.
These are the kings and our media is a disgrace writing about “freebies” for the poor as these bloated and overrated narcissists bleed the place dry and break the planet selling shit no one wants or needs like those LLMs and agents. Our fatuous media gushed about that grotesque Ambani’s son’s wedding which cost 17000 times the average Indian’s annual income. The guy has gold toilets.
And with garbage tech it is easy to unleash these stalkerish and criminal mobs of predatory henchmen lower down
A criminal lawsuit is the only way forward here in India based on. I have no idea what you guys will do over there.
The time for a muscular democratic public pushback that is serious and avoids the errors of the past could not come a day too soon.
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
Recommendations
3 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
53 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
Pete Hegseth's Defense Department blew $22M on steak and lobster in a single month, watchdog claims [View all]
BumRushDaShow
Mar 11
OP
And don't forget that Musk and Trump's cut of USAID* has already killed 1,000,000 of the poorest
Botany
Mar 11
#17
"Well, Hegseth, Trump, and all other rich people worked hard, so, they deserve it!" Would be the RW cope talking point
Oneironaut
Mar 11
#35
I believe it was mostly people that could have bought my house and car with their change.
chouchou
Mar 11
#42
Contempt for the average tax-payer and their economic struggles is a hallmark of tRump and his MAGA bootlickers.
Timeflyer
Mar 11
#10
Use it or lose it at the end of a fiscal period leads to a lot of this kind of spending - this seems over the top
JT45242
Mar 11
#11
At $22 per steak that's a million steaks. Even at $44 per steak that is a half million steaks.
twodogsbarking
Mar 11
#34