I Fought the Swamp... and the Swamp Won!

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by Precious_b

One think I would suspect is that AI is contributing to a bigger carbon footprint. Along with draining other resources.

Human Beings deserve what we get if we bankrupt the resources of this world for a chatbot.

Now, she is a self serving bitch, and I'm suspicious about her estimate of electricity consumption, although too lazy to check it. But ChatGPT tells me that deep research question that took her 30 minutes consumed 0.02 to 0.06 kWH electricity and 0.5 to 2 liters water. She also tells me the USA per capita energy consumption is 81,800 kWh per person per year, and 975,000 gallons of water per year.

So the resources expended by the Church of Tiny in bringing enlightenment to you heathens was definitely worth it. Seriously Precious_b, I've heard your argument from a couple of friends and don't believe it stacks up. While AI isn't everything it's cracked up to be, and while Wall Street and others probably are flushing money down the drain through overinvestment, I don't think the "consumption of resources" argument is valid.

[Tiny]

Any thoughts on Trump's desire to boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion and the DHS's budget to $175 billion a year? IMO there are Republicans who want to do something about over-spending and the deficit, but Trump's not one of them.

[69in2it69]

Originally Posted by Precious_b

One think I would suspect is that AI is contributing to a bigger carbon footprint. Along with draining other resources.

Human Beings deserve what we get if we bankrupt the resources of this world for a chatbot.

Modern data centers are very carbon friendly, but I agree that humans deserve what they are about to get.

[Precious_b]

Originally Posted by Tiny

Now, she is a self serving bitch, and I'm suspicious about her estimate of electricity consumption, although too lazy to check it. But ChatGPT tells me that deep research question that took her 30 minutes consumed 0.02 to 0.06 kWH electricity and 0.5 to 2 liters water. She also tells me the USA per capita energy consumption is 81,800 kWh per person per year, and 975,000 gallons of water per year.

So the resources expended by the Church of Tiny in bringing enlightenment to you heathens was definitely worth it. Seriously Precious_b, I've heard your argument from a couple of friends and don't believe it stacks up. While AI isn't everything it's cracked up to be, and while Wall Street and others probably are flushing money down the drain through overinvestment, I don't think the "consumption of resources" argument is valid.

Now, admitting you don't know about the consumption and not doing any research into it (i'm not expecting you to), how do you know that the source you are turning to (the subject in question) ain't gonna give you nothing but the peaches-n-cream reply that it wants you to hear?

Seriously, if we are to believe what the chatbot returned, that is for one measly query. If you looks at the search engines available, you will see alot of them are processing them as AI driven. The resources to do these are on an increasing scale. And that metric is exponential. And she will be a self serving bitch and with projections that *I* think, it will be the death of us if we don't change some things.

Originally Posted by 69in2it69

Modern data centers are very carbon friendly, but I agree that humans deserve what they are about to get.

I threw the carbon footprint thing out there because one bright thinking individual wanted to harness the burn off gases from a refinery to power a server center.

But I wanted to call to attention the resources use. The example tiny came up with, you can double because I asked another question online and the AI reply (which I didn't ask for) came back with an answer that is a little more informative. My query was how many searches a day happen online.

Take tinys numbers and multiply by 14-16 billion. And that is for one day. You can scale the numbers. And the number of searches is only going to increase.

[Texas Contrarian]

It's been widely reported that ChatGPT has on a number of occasions been subject to "hallucinations." (I love that euphemism for "getting stuff totally wrong.") For instance, several attorneys contesting recent tort suits have been sanctioned by the courts for submitting AI-generated or augmented briefs that cited wholly fictitious cases.

Nonetheless, I applaud pxmcc for taking a stab at having AI run a quasi-simulation on what a true deficit reduction plan might look like. (I've done this myself several times late last year; it's an interesting exercise.)

However, the chatbot whiffed in a couple of key areas here, I'm afraid. Perhaps the most glaring is the assumption that raising the capital gains tax to the top-bracket rate on ordinary income would raise additional revenue. That's a very bad idea and would almost certainly reduce revenue substantially relative to current policy. That's been well-known in policy circles for at least 45 years now.

Also, the reference to a 12.5% "effective rate" carbon tax is a rather unusual way of quantifying it. (12.5% of what? The cost of the fuel or whatever it is that produces the carbon?) Actually, carbon tax rates are described as a price in dollars per metric ton. For instance, one widely promoted plan calls for a $50/ton carbon tax, which would likely be estimated to raise around $100 billion annually and raise the cost of gasoline by about 50 cents per gallon.

But, since a carbon tax would be highly regressive, its promoters typically pair it with some sort of "rebate" to middle-class and working class households so that they could reasonably expect to get back as much as they would pay in increased costs. (Otherwise, the whole thing would be a political non-starter.) Generally, then, fans of the carbon tax see it not so much of a revenue-raiser but as a way to disincentivize activities that produce greenhouse gases.

As I see it, the biggest challenge is that total spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid has gone up over the past 25 years by close to four percentage points of GDP. The population is aging and health care costs have skyrocketed. In addition to this, we now have the added burden of rapidly increasing interest payments on our ballooning national debt.

Thus, total federal government spending, which had declined to about 18% of GDP at the end of the 1990s, is now around 23% -- and climbing.

Just over 10 years ago, I started a thread simply entitled "Who Pays for Big Government?" I suggested at the time that the article and graph in the opening post might be quite an eye-opener for some of our progressive friends.

https://eccie.net/showthread.php?t=1325605

AOC, Bernie Sanders, and a few other uber-liberals seem fond of extolling the virtues of big-spending social democracies such as Norway and Sweden, but how do you think it would go for them if they introduced the tax systems that middle-class households are subjected to in those countries?

Those little ponderables may point up the enormity of the fiscal challenge.

[Tiny]

TC, This post started out as a link to your graph showing the relative progressivity of the French and U.S. tax systems, as I wasn't seeing it in your link. But apparently I didn't wait for the page to load. So, I'll take the opportunity to ask a couple of questions.

If you were dictator, how would you close the gap between spending and revenues? And how quickly would you close it and to what extent? For example, would you try to get the deficit to 2% of GDP over 5 years and leave it there?

Please note you're a dictator, like Idi Amin Dada. You can do whatever you damn well please with no political considerations. You're going to have hot and cold running women and whatever else your heart desires for the rest of your life regardless of what decisions you make. So you can do what you believe is best for a majority of Americans, instead of what's best for TC.

[RX792P]

Looping back to the original post of DOGE.

Among DOGE accomplishments may be the DOGE team misusing Social Security data

Two members of Elon Musk’s DOGE team working at the Social Security Administration were secretly in touch with an advocacy group seeking to “overturn election results in certain states,” and one signed an agreement that may have involved using Social Security data to match state voter rolls, the Justice Department revealed in newly disclosed court papers.


Elizabeth Shapiro, a top Justice Department official, said SSA referred both DOGE employees for potential violations of the Hatch Act, which bars government employees from using their official positions for political purposes.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/0...urity-00737245

[lustylad]

Originally Posted by RX792P

Looping back to the original post of DOGE.

Among DOGE accomplishments may be the DOGE team misusing Social Security data...

Except there's no evidence it actually happened. From your link:

it’s not yet clear whether either of the two DOGE team members — who are not identified in her filing – actually shared data with the advocacy group, which is also unidentified.

How in the heck was DOGE supposed to root out Social Security fraud, waste and abuse (FWA) without being given access to the system's database?

Oh wait, I get it... the real goal was to fan & fuel unwarranted fears of Americans that their private information was being compromised, in order to kill DOGE.

Chalk up another win for the swamp!

[Texas Contrarian]

In the spirit of the late, great Blackie Sherrod:

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to the legacy of William Proxmire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece_Award

Plenty of candidates for that exalted award nowadays!

And it's hard to disagree with this recent quote from a blog:

"Hopefully, Elon Musk and his DOGE boys have learned a lesson the hard way. To wit, their earnest, dogged, sweeping and compelling demonstration early in 2025 that hundreds of billions can be cut from the Federal budget has already been shit-canned.

Almost in its entirety. And by the usual suspects—-the GOP appropriators on Capitol Hill—who are the biggest fake fiscal conservatives to ever come down the pike."

-- David Stockman

He's damned sure right about that! And he knows whereof he speaks, having seen his efforts in the early 1980s thoroughly thwarted.

Originally Posted by lustylad

Chalk up another win for the swamp!

Yup! The swamp's on quite a roll.

But there may be at least a faint glimmer of good news, as a few states may tee up a game of "DOGE Ball."

https://www.city-journal.org/article...es-waste-fraud

But the challenge is daunting, as UT-Austin law professor Charles Silver notes:

https://www.city-journal.org/article...icare-medicaid

Originally Posted by Tiny

TC ... if you were dictator, how would you close the gap between spending and revenues? And how quickly would you close it and to what extent? For example, would you try to get the deficit to 2% of GDP over 5 years and leave it there?

Please note you're a dictator, like Idi Amin Dada. You can do whatever you damn well please with no political considerations. You're going to have hot and cold running women and whatever else your heart desires for the rest of your life regardless of what decisions you make. So you can do what you believe is best for a majority of Americans, instead of what's best for TC.

Musing about deficit-reduction "solutions" that I might suggest if I were a dictator might be a fun exercise! Maybe I'll come back later with a comment or two, but I need to get in touch with tax counsel and get answers to an important question first. That is, if I only want the hot women, can I get a tax break for donating the cold ones to a charitable organization of my choice?

[RX792P]

https://doge.gov/savings

Estimated Savings

$215B

Combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.

[RX792P]

The DC SWAMP....literally

D.C. Swamp: Sewage Spill That Polluted Potomac River with E. coli One of the Largest in U.S. History
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...n-u-s-history/

A sewage spill into the Potomac River near Washington, DC, caused by a broken pipe, has polluted the body of water with levels of E. coli “nearly 12,000 times what authorities limit for human contact,” authorities said.
Authorities explained that a “broken interceptor pipe to the Potomac River near Lock 10” is to blame for almost 300 million gallons of contamination that has entered the river since the 72-inch broken pipe was discovered last week.

[RX792P]

Finally...TRUMP gets to clean up a real swamp!

There is a massive Ecological Disaster unfolding in the Potomac River as a result of the Gross Mismanagement of Local Democrat Leaders, particularly, Governor Wes Moore, of Maryland. A sewer line breach in Maryland has caused millions of gallons of raw sewage to be dumped directly into the Potomac River, a result of incompetent Local and State Management of Essential Waste Management Systems. This is the same Governor who cannot rebuild a Bridge.

It is clear Local Authorities cannot adequately handle this calamity. Therefore, I am directing Federal Authorities to immediately provide all necessary Management, Direction, and Coordination to protect the Potomac, the Water Supply in the Capital Region, and our treasured National Resources in our Nation’s Capital City. While State and Local Authorities have failed to request needed Emergency Help, I cannot allow incompetent Local “Leadership” to turn the River in the Heart of Washington into a Disaster Zone.

As we saw in the Palisades, the Democrat War on Merit has real consequences. The Federal Government has no choice, but to step in. FEMA, which is currently being defunded by the Democrats, will play a key role in coordinating the response. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/202...-river-nearly/


Just to clarify, The pipe, which carries wastewater from areas near Dulles Airport in Virginia to the Potomac Pumping Station and then the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, D.C., is under the jurisdiction of DC Water.

Just to clarify...who's 'defunding' FEMA?
That'd be President Trump, who announced plans in Jan 2025 to

"begin the process of reforming FEMA or getting rid of FEMA," “I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away,”

[RX792P]

Trump blames somebody else for DC's problem.




DC is Democrats?
Well, Trump is familiar with sewage...

[txdot-guy]

Originally Posted by RX792P

Trump blames somebody else for DC's problem.




DC is Democrats?
Well, Trump is familiar with sewage...

"This is a Radical Left caused Environmental Hazard,"

More egregious lies from our diaper wearing clown of a President.

[Turner2099]

Originally Posted by RX792P

The DC SWAMP....literally

D.C. Swamp: Sewage Spill That Polluted Potomac River with E. coli One of the Largest in U.S. History
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...n-u-s-history/

A sewage spill into the Potomac River near Washington, DC, caused by a broken pipe, has polluted the body of water with levels of E. coli “nearly 12,000 times what authorities limit for human contact,” authorities said.
Authorities explained that a “broken interceptor pipe to the Potomac River near Lock 10” is to blame for almost 300 million gallons of contamination that has entered the river since the 72-inch broken pipe was discovered last week.

Has Health & Human Services Secretary Kennedy gone swimming, yet?