Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has been appointed by President-elect Donald Trump as the co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
I would think that we’d stop calling him Worlds Richest Man— his wealth isn’t cash ready, he couldn’t get liquidity overnight without tanking his wealth— he didn’t even use his money for twitter-it was Saudi money… he’s willfully ignorant, sad sack of a human, money has made him ugly- mind/body and soul.
I hope we start calling him worlds most worthless man, his value to humanity is undetectable.
The thing that gets me is Elon says asinine stuff like this without providing a meaningful alternative. So, what...do we just throw unhoused people to the wolves?
You're the richest person in the world, Elon, and supposedly a genius. Figure something out. If you're not going to care for all those kids of yours, at least do something for unhoused people.
Chief Justice John Roberts didn’t show any more humanity, than Musk, that people could always have a place to live, 40,000 in Grants Pass, OR don’t, when hearing and in decision on the Grants Pass case making homelessness a crime, argued and failed, on the precedent of Robertson v CA. Sotomeyer’s dissent was wonderfully clear that Roberts is again proving his ignorance and lack of reality and empathy, as Musk has, as he did when interpreting Hamilton’s opinion on the Executive needing criminals to be energetic in faithfully executing the LAWS!
Next they were considering taking another look at Robertson v CA, from 1962, that decision/precedent, relied/argued in Grants Pass, said criminalizing addiction violates the 8th Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause.
Musk is in trouble as he likes cruel and unusual punishment but also his own admitted ketamine overdosing.
They all love Musk’s quirky little three word reposts but this one hits more than three, by default, what Hitler called ASOCIALS…alcoholics, drug addicts, epileptic, mentally ill, hearing impaired, work shy, disfigured, homeless, but yeah but we went waaaay too far in calling them all fascists!
Elon musk fancies himself as a character in a marvel superhero comic. The man has no conscience. With all of his wealth, he could easily do something to help with unhoused people. But to do that you must have a conscience, and I do not believe that Elon musk has a conscience, I do not believe that Elon Musk cares about anyone but himself. He does not want to do anything for the greater good, all he cares about, is increasing his personal wealth. That’s it. Oh, and he fancies himself a kingmaker. He’s a terrible terrible person.
I write as someone engaged in working to do something about the severe lack of affordable housing in Minnesota. Thank you for laying out some of the facts behind those who are unhoused. MAGA has an easy job of telling and selling issues through lies and presenting everything as simple and definitive when in fact, EVERYTHING is nuanced and complicated when looking at systemic issues. I again thank you for your reporting. I send everyone I know to your Substack to read some of the best investigative reporting there is.
I worked for 30 years to get housing for people experiencing homelessness, disabled people and foster care children and youth. Thanks for doing something to help!
And with corporations investing in housing for profit, not renting them out, helps push more people into the homeless category. As the price of housing increases, the pay people make has to also increase, which doesn't always happen.
Thank you for this post. I read Musk’s vile comment yesterday. I don’t know whether he’s that ignorant or that hateful, but he’s villainizing another marginalized group of people. Why the fuck can’t these people make the world a better place for everyone? They certainly have the means.
So much light must be focused on the tragedy and misery that those with no bed (or toilet or kitchen) to call their own. Musk has no heart, perfect for an agent of Trump! Elon Musk and Trump are certainly cut from the same heartless and dumb witted cloth. My first response was, NO, the homeless are mostly vets and children who are escaping abuse at home--turns out to be the sad case!
First, I didn't know Musk was cheaping on his ...kids? Second, people like to bash homeless people, but as employment statistics quoted above show, even a couple working at their maximum could only afford a one bedroom home, so if they also have children that's a problem. Goodbye families...and goodby society because without children, there's no future here. Also not included here is that people age 50+ are also one of the fast-growing demographics, so addressing homelessness housing issues needs to include places for older folks. I might add, nursing homes are not the answer for all of those, even if they were affordable.
Musk however has “fathered” 12 kids and counting. He must think only his kind should have children, eugenics and all. I put “fathered” as he merely provided the sperms and not much else.
The very idea of Lenny and Squiggy ,(ok I am old. This is a reference to two characters on the 1976-1983 TV comedy “Laverne & Shirley) a/k/a Elon and Vivek advising Trump is not just absurd but frightening!
I'm going to keep saying this: 47 and his proposed cabinet of oligarchs will only have as much power as we let them have. If We the People scream loudly enough and refuse to shut up, we will deflate the power of 47 and *all presidents who come after him*.
Tell your legislators what you think of 47's stack of nominees by taking action. I've been collecting useful links here https://bit.ly/StopRecessAppts.
And don't "@" me, because yes I know the DOGE thing falls outside of direct Congressional approval. But funding, cooperation and the influence to get shit done still has to come from somewhere. If legislators and staffers refuse to play their games, these shenanigans will turn into nothing more than lame ducks.
What will happen if everybody simply refuses to take a meeting with the DOGE-y team? I'm not exactly sure but I'm having fun imagining it.
Get angry, stay angry, and use your voice loudly and often. It's time to reduce the power of the office of the president.
I’m asking, not rhetorical, Does Trump have the authority to set up a separate agency? I assume DOGE will be taxpayer funded? Musk has been given(apparently) a lot of unelected authority?
It’s not a true department. It’s an advisory committee. DOGE has no real authority but clearly Musk has influence on Trump. Too much influence obviously.
elon KNOWS everything you've talked about in your article. he's not stupid. but the problem is he DOES NOT CARE. or let me put it another way - he DOES care, but he's not interested in helping those who need help. he's only interested in helping the uber rich, and feeding red meat propaganda to the ignorant who allow people like elon to distract them from who is really causing their problems.
Doug, having worked in the field of homelessness for thirty years, I think I can assure you that Elon does not know anything about the facts of homeless. Most people, including the authors of this article, obviously believe that people who are unhoused have PTSD, chemical dependency,etc. The issue of affordable housing was listed last. I can’t respond adequately without a lengthy report of my own. But here’s a snippet.
In 1996 President Clinton signed legislation to convert federal TANF (previously AFDC) assistance to very poor families from an entitlement to state block grants. Many states have not increased that assistance since 1996. By 2023 TANF cash assistance (the only source of assistance for paying rent) in 17 states brought family income to 10-19% of the Federal Poverty Standard. TANF grants in the most “generous” states (CA, WY, UT, ND, CT, VT, NH, RI) only raised family incomes to 40-60% of the Federal Poverty Standard. And how much to you think rent increased during that quarter century? And, BIG SURPRISE, the number of homeless families exploded after 1996. Do we think there was an explosion in mental/chemical/domestic violence/PTSD among families at that exact point in time?
Ms. Wherley, I was an ADC social worker years ago. It was and is appalling how the overwhelming majority of Americans know nothing about poverty in this country. Unfortunately it is quite easy for misanthropes to get their messages of hatred for the poor before the general public. Musk reminds me of Marie Antoinette: "Let them eat cake!"
marge, sorry, i think elon knows quite a bit more than you give him credit for. he simply doesn't care what the facts are. he's selling an agenda.
re: clinton - he's the one that opened the door to the democratic party feeding at the same corporate trough as that other party. which is why the working class gobbles up the lies and disinformation peddled by that other party. because no one is looking after the working class anymore.
I agree with your second paragraph. But I’ve provided training to hundreds of people, across the US who have extensive experience with homelessness and found that many (maybe most) still carry stereotypical assumptions similar to Elon. I wasn’t suggesting Elon is stupid but I guarantee that just like most people he doesn’t have real knowledge about homelessness.
elon is simply milking the stereotypes he knows many people have regarding the homeless. maybe he knows, maybe he doesn't. the point is he simply doesn't care, regardless of what he knows. he's just feeding whatever propaganda he knows his supporters will happily consume.
And let's remember the people who are indeed suffering from severe, untreated mental illness and who should be getting some help for their lives, preferably MEDICAL help. My dear brother Evan was a paranoid schizophrenic who functioned really well on his meds: he took care of our mother 24/7 for the last YEARS of her life when she had severe dementia. He drove her to all medical appointments, made sure she used her nebulizer nightly, never slept well because he had one ear open to hear her getting out of bed, and even fed her and cleaned up the mess when she eventually became incontinent. After her death he stopped taking his meds and ended up homeless, just driving his truck all day aimlessly until his death from heart failure last year. HE WAS A CAREGIVER for years, with his meds, and he deserved decent, kind treatment and help and love. Can we please remember that our safety nets for people with severe mental illness are TERRIBLE and homelessness often results these people can't function in their lives? There have to be more humane solutions. I made sure Evan had a working pickup truck and enough money to buy food, etc. though he didn't trust me in his last years and told me never to contact him again. I spent the last 2 weeks of his life with him in the hospital, telling him again that what he did for our mother was amazing and he should be endlessly proud of himself for that.
Thank you! At least I'm kind, and I love my brother still. If only more people could understand that a life of severe mental illness is a life of SUFFERING and haver more compassion! Evan suffered terribly and didn't have as much support from our family as he should have. I live abour 2,000 miles away from where he lived, too, so I mainly was financial support so he wasn't hungry and abandoned.
I would think that we’d stop calling him Worlds Richest Man— his wealth isn’t cash ready, he couldn’t get liquidity overnight without tanking his wealth— he didn’t even use his money for twitter-it was Saudi money… he’s willfully ignorant, sad sack of a human, money has made him ugly- mind/body and soul.
I hope we start calling him worlds most worthless man, his value to humanity is undetectable.
"Most worthless man" is perfect thank you
Agreed. I shall begin today. Musk: The World's Most Useless Man!
spot on!
That title probably belongs to Putin, but he's far too modest to brag about it!
The thing that gets me is Elon says asinine stuff like this without providing a meaningful alternative. So, what...do we just throw unhoused people to the wolves?
You're the richest person in the world, Elon, and supposedly a genius. Figure something out. If you're not going to care for all those kids of yours, at least do something for unhoused people.
The monster-musk is not in any way a genius. Everything he was lucky enough to get rich off of was created by other people
Chief Justice John Roberts didn’t show any more humanity, than Musk, that people could always have a place to live, 40,000 in Grants Pass, OR don’t, when hearing and in decision on the Grants Pass case making homelessness a crime, argued and failed, on the precedent of Robertson v CA. Sotomeyer’s dissent was wonderfully clear that Roberts is again proving his ignorance and lack of reality and empathy, as Musk has, as he did when interpreting Hamilton’s opinion on the Executive needing criminals to be energetic in faithfully executing the LAWS!
Next they were considering taking another look at Robertson v CA, from 1962, that decision/precedent, relied/argued in Grants Pass, said criminalizing addiction violates the 8th Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause.
Musk is in trouble as he likes cruel and unusual punishment but also his own admitted ketamine overdosing.
They all love Musk’s quirky little three word reposts but this one hits more than three, by default, what Hitler called ASOCIALS…alcoholics, drug addicts, epileptic, mentally ill, hearing impaired, work shy, disfigured, homeless, but yeah but we went waaaay too far in calling them all fascists!
Elon musk fancies himself as a character in a marvel superhero comic. The man has no conscience. With all of his wealth, he could easily do something to help with unhoused people. But to do that you must have a conscience, and I do not believe that Elon musk has a conscience, I do not believe that Elon Musk cares about anyone but himself. He does not want to do anything for the greater good, all he cares about, is increasing his personal wealth. That’s it. Oh, and he fancies himself a kingmaker. He’s a terrible terrible person.
I could not agree more. He is a waste of a human life.
I write as someone engaged in working to do something about the severe lack of affordable housing in Minnesota. Thank you for laying out some of the facts behind those who are unhoused. MAGA has an easy job of telling and selling issues through lies and presenting everything as simple and definitive when in fact, EVERYTHING is nuanced and complicated when looking at systemic issues. I again thank you for your reporting. I send everyone I know to your Substack to read some of the best investigative reporting there is.
I worked for 30 years to get housing for people experiencing homelessness, disabled people and foster care children and youth. Thanks for doing something to help!
Thank YOU Marge!
Thank you for your work! These are never ending needs in our country, decades of commitment should be appreciated!
"EVERYTHING is nuanced and complicated when looking at systemic issues."
Precisely!!!!!!!!!
And with corporations investing in housing for profit, not renting them out, helps push more people into the homeless category. As the price of housing increases, the pay people make has to also increase, which doesn't always happen.
Keep writing Judd…Truth will always win!
Thank you for this post. I read Musk’s vile comment yesterday. I don’t know whether he’s that ignorant or that hateful, but he’s villainizing another marginalized group of people. Why the fuck can’t these people make the world a better place for everyone? They certainly have the means.
He is one of the biggest cranks out there. Unfortunately for us, he has more money than anyone else and has the United States government backing him.
So much light must be focused on the tragedy and misery that those with no bed (or toilet or kitchen) to call their own. Musk has no heart, perfect for an agent of Trump! Elon Musk and Trump are certainly cut from the same heartless and dumb witted cloth. My first response was, NO, the homeless are mostly vets and children who are escaping abuse at home--turns out to be the sad case!
First, I didn't know Musk was cheaping on his ...kids? Second, people like to bash homeless people, but as employment statistics quoted above show, even a couple working at their maximum could only afford a one bedroom home, so if they also have children that's a problem. Goodbye families...and goodby society because without children, there's no future here. Also not included here is that people age 50+ are also one of the fast-growing demographics, so addressing homelessness housing issues needs to include places for older folks. I might add, nursing homes are not the answer for all of those, even if they were affordable.
Musk however has “fathered” 12 kids and counting. He must think only his kind should have children, eugenics and all. I put “fathered” as he merely provided the sperms and not much else.
And he also selected male embryos only until Grimes talked him into having a girl. He’s a sick POS.
The very idea of Lenny and Squiggy ,(ok I am old. This is a reference to two characters on the 1976-1983 TV comedy “Laverne & Shirley) a/k/a Elon and Vivek advising Trump is not just absurd but frightening!
Great comparison.
Question: What do billionaires know about homelessness?
Answer: Nothing (most were born with silver spoons in their mouths.)
Most billionaires are surrounded by 'yes men' and have no concept of reality.
(Reminds me of the holiday movie 'Trading Places' -- Musk should give this a try!)
Another good movie that applies to Musk is Maid to Order from the 80’s.
I'm going to keep saying this: 47 and his proposed cabinet of oligarchs will only have as much power as we let them have. If We the People scream loudly enough and refuse to shut up, we will deflate the power of 47 and *all presidents who come after him*.
Tell your legislators what you think of 47's stack of nominees by taking action. I've been collecting useful links here https://bit.ly/StopRecessAppts.
And don't "@" me, because yes I know the DOGE thing falls outside of direct Congressional approval. But funding, cooperation and the influence to get shit done still has to come from somewhere. If legislators and staffers refuse to play their games, these shenanigans will turn into nothing more than lame ducks.
What will happen if everybody simply refuses to take a meeting with the DOGE-y team? I'm not exactly sure but I'm having fun imagining it.
Get angry, stay angry, and use your voice loudly and often. It's time to reduce the power of the office of the president.
I prefer to be ‘determined.’
I’m asking, not rhetorical, Does Trump have the authority to set up a separate agency? I assume DOGE will be taxpayer funded? Musk has been given(apparently) a lot of unelected authority?
It’s not a true department. It’s an advisory committee. DOGE has no real authority but clearly Musk has influence on Trump. Too much influence obviously.
Legal or not we, the taxpayers will be footing the bill...you can feel confident that we will pay in more than one way... and all others
No he does not. Congress has to create agencies.
Only Congress has the authority to create a department, which is why this is unofficial and advisory.
When will the irony of the "world's richest person" attempting to dictate cost cutting programs on the general public finally sink in?
Never because the general public is so stupid that they think that they will get money from the “good fairy “ or their savior the felon
elon KNOWS everything you've talked about in your article. he's not stupid. but the problem is he DOES NOT CARE. or let me put it another way - he DOES care, but he's not interested in helping those who need help. he's only interested in helping the uber rich, and feeding red meat propaganda to the ignorant who allow people like elon to distract them from who is really causing their problems.
Doug, having worked in the field of homelessness for thirty years, I think I can assure you that Elon does not know anything about the facts of homeless. Most people, including the authors of this article, obviously believe that people who are unhoused have PTSD, chemical dependency,etc. The issue of affordable housing was listed last. I can’t respond adequately without a lengthy report of my own. But here’s a snippet.
In 1996 President Clinton signed legislation to convert federal TANF (previously AFDC) assistance to very poor families from an entitlement to state block grants. Many states have not increased that assistance since 1996. By 2023 TANF cash assistance (the only source of assistance for paying rent) in 17 states brought family income to 10-19% of the Federal Poverty Standard. TANF grants in the most “generous” states (CA, WY, UT, ND, CT, VT, NH, RI) only raised family incomes to 40-60% of the Federal Poverty Standard. And how much to you think rent increased during that quarter century? And, BIG SURPRISE, the number of homeless families exploded after 1996. Do we think there was an explosion in mental/chemical/domestic violence/PTSD among families at that exact point in time?
Ms. Wherley, I was an ADC social worker years ago. It was and is appalling how the overwhelming majority of Americans know nothing about poverty in this country. Unfortunately it is quite easy for misanthropes to get their messages of hatred for the poor before the general public. Musk reminds me of Marie Antoinette: "Let them eat cake!"
Regan’s Welfare Queen meme still lives on…and on…and on.
marge, sorry, i think elon knows quite a bit more than you give him credit for. he simply doesn't care what the facts are. he's selling an agenda.
re: clinton - he's the one that opened the door to the democratic party feeding at the same corporate trough as that other party. which is why the working class gobbles up the lies and disinformation peddled by that other party. because no one is looking after the working class anymore.
I agree with your second paragraph. But I’ve provided training to hundreds of people, across the US who have extensive experience with homelessness and found that many (maybe most) still carry stereotypical assumptions similar to Elon. I wasn’t suggesting Elon is stupid but I guarantee that just like most people he doesn’t have real knowledge about homelessness.
elon is simply milking the stereotypes he knows many people have regarding the homeless. maybe he knows, maybe he doesn't. the point is he simply doesn't care, regardless of what he knows. he's just feeding whatever propaganda he knows his supporters will happily consume.
And let's remember the people who are indeed suffering from severe, untreated mental illness and who should be getting some help for their lives, preferably MEDICAL help. My dear brother Evan was a paranoid schizophrenic who functioned really well on his meds: he took care of our mother 24/7 for the last YEARS of her life when she had severe dementia. He drove her to all medical appointments, made sure she used her nebulizer nightly, never slept well because he had one ear open to hear her getting out of bed, and even fed her and cleaned up the mess when she eventually became incontinent. After her death he stopped taking his meds and ended up homeless, just driving his truck all day aimlessly until his death from heart failure last year. HE WAS A CAREGIVER for years, with his meds, and he deserved decent, kind treatment and help and love. Can we please remember that our safety nets for people with severe mental illness are TERRIBLE and homelessness often results these people can't function in their lives? There have to be more humane solutions. I made sure Evan had a working pickup truck and enough money to buy food, etc. though he didn't trust me in his last years and told me never to contact him again. I spent the last 2 weeks of his life with him in the hospital, telling him again that what he did for our mother was amazing and he should be endlessly proud of himself for that.
Philosopher: you are kind and wise. I wish more people thought and felt like you!
Thank you! At least I'm kind, and I love my brother still. If only more people could understand that a life of severe mental illness is a life of SUFFERING and haver more compassion! Evan suffered terribly and didn't have as much support from our family as he should have. I live abour 2,000 miles away from where he lived, too, so I mainly was financial support so he wasn't hungry and abandoned.