Trump Presidency

[mr.WHO]

Maybe in the future US will be ruled by Elon's AI. In order to distract the people, similar to Caligula in ancient Rome, a puppet is used as president who fools the people with bread and circuses.

You don't need the AI for this - we are already there.

The whole news setting and ongoing culture war can be summarize in one statement:
Bunch off suppose adults arguing whenever Disney princess is woke or not woke.
With one group of suppose adults claiming it's woke and it's undermining the fabric of society, thosands years of tradition.
While other group of suppose adults claiming Disney princess must become LGBT+ holy icon to save society.
This is basically a teenager discussion...of 30, 40, 50 , 60+ years old teenagers - this is the answer why young people are drawn to extremism and populism - current discussion doesn't really change anything for them and they see it.

This circus literally leak to every single layer of society, from news, video games, work (see "My Hostile Workplace" below this topic) to politics and law.

There is no adult in Oval Office, because there is no adults in both parties anymore.
There is no adults in both parties, because there is no adults in the voting booth anymore.

How to define an adult?
A person who can consciously make a decision, knowing and fully owning the consequences of it, beyond the scope of 5-10 years:
beyond ongoing political cycle,
beyond ongoing economic cycle,
beyond ongoing cultural cycle,
beyond short term goals and gains.
There is a nice poetic quote about planting a tree fuly knowing you will die, before you wil be able to rest in the shadow that tree will provide.

Humanity is aging all across the globe, yet we have less and less adults among politicians, experts, celebrities and among normal people.
We're still going full speed ahead into deep sh*t and there is very few competent people who can revert the course.

[fiksal]

Less regulation and less science will never make Americans healthier, while in addition screwing people on health insurance. Just sicker, more poor and delusional.

This is what RFK Jr. says:

I'm not going to let the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry run health policy anymore. We're going to turn health policy over to people who are actually concerned with public health.

We shall see.

We don't need to wait too long to see

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/1 ... n-00204339

Abraham’s announcement occurred the same day vaccine skepticRobert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in by the U.S. Senate to serve as President Donald Trump’s health secretary.

In a separate letter posted on the department’s website, Louisiana’s surgeon general decried “blanket government mandates” for vaccines and criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 vaccination push. Individuals should make their own decisions about vaccinations, Abraham said.

“Government should admit the limitations of its role in people’s lives and pull back its tentacles from the practice of medicine,” said Abraham, a Republican.

The department will still “stock and provide vaccines,” according to Abraham’s memo.

A vaccine "skeptic" in the Surgeon General position.

I looked up COVID vaccinations for Louisiana. At 50% and less than 1% for boosters. So already "skeptical". Do they vaccinate kids before school even? Maybe not for long as the State will have no need to advertise if the vaccines are needed.

That is one of the tenants, 'let people decide' or 'do research'.

I am nearly math and physics minor and computer science major, I don't have qualifications to decide on vaccines. Maybe folks in Louisiana have more special education.

Jennifer Herricks, founder of the advocacy group Louisiana Families for Vaccines, said she feared that the new directive would lead to an increase in preventable illnesses and deaths.

“We are very concerned for people in Louisiana who have historically depended on vaccination drives to get easily accessible vaccines that are no longer going to be available,” Herricks said.

The city’s Health Department Director Jennifer Avegno said state-supported efforts have led thousands of people to receive vaccines in the past. However, she anticipates vaccination rates for preventable diseases will drop due to the state’s new policy and misinformation promoted by the surgeon general’s letter. She pointed out that vaccines are most effective when they are widespread.

“Public health is really united on this issue: For more than a century, vaccines of all kinds have been a cornerstone of improving public health in America,” Avegno told the city council on Thursday. “There’s not scientific debate on this, this is as close as you can get to established fact that vaccinations, particularly mass vaccinations, and community immunity, saves millions and millions of lives.”

Good luck New Orleans

[clakclak]

Maybe in the future US will be ruled by Elon's AI. In order to distract the people, similar to Caligula in ancient Rome, a puppet is used as president who fools the people with bread and circuses.

You don't need the AI for this - we are already there.

The whole news setting and ongoing culture war can be summarize in one statement:
Bunch off suppose adults arguing whenever Disney princess is woke or not woke.
With one group of suppose adults claiming it's woke and it's undermining the fabric of society, thosands years of tradition.
While other group of suppose adults claiming Disney princess must become LGBT+ holy icon to save society.
This is basically a teenager discussion...of 30, 40, 50 , 60+ years old teenagers - this is the answer why young people are drawn to extremism and populism - current discussion doesn't really change anything for them and they see it.

This circus literally leak to every single layer of society, from news, video games, work (see "My Hostile Workplace" below this topic) to politics and law.

There is no adult in Oval Office, because there is no adults in both parties anymore.
There is no adults in both parties, because there is no adults in the voting booth anymore.

How to define an adult?
A person who can consciously make a decision, knowing and fully owning the consequences of it, beyond the scope of 5-10 years:
beyond ongoing political cycle,
beyond ongoing economic cycle,
beyond ongoing cultural cycle,
beyond short term goals and gains.
There is a nice poetic quote about planting a tree fuly knowing you will die, before you wil be able to rest in the shadow that tree will provide.

Humanity is aging all across the globe, yet we have less and less adults among politicians, experts, celebrities and among normal people.
We're still going full speed ahead into deep sh*t and there is very few competent people who can revert the course.

I don’t necessarily agree with you on why we are going into deep shit, I personally think that the issue has more to do with the problematic practice of making criticism of capitalism a thought crime and calling everyone who says that maybe, just maybe, an economic system that is aimed at unlimited growth while we live on a planet with limited resources won’t work in the long run is a dirty commie who will kill people with their plans and thus discarding any criticism against the current system as the ramblings of a crazy person. That might have done a lot to lead us where we are now and allow people like Musk to accumulate obscene amounts of wealth that make him a god like figure and above the law that mere mortals are bound by. (I once for example got asked to defend the actions of Mao Zedong after I criticized a preventable environmental disaster caused by BP, as if me calling for higher safety standards meant I supported a mass murderer like Mao. The other person was convinced that because I wanted to “control company profits” (e.g. making them liable for the cleanup even if the accident happens in the third world), I was clearly calling for violent revolution. Mind you, this discussion did not take place online, but in the real world face to face.)

Anyway, leaving all that aside, I agree with your conclusion and I am reminded of a quote from Battlestar Galactica:

“You gave a speech at the ceremony. You said humanity never asked itself why it deserves to survive. Maybe you don’t?”

[mr.WHO]

I don’t necessarily agree with you on why we are going into deep shit, I personally think that the issue has more to do with the problematic practice of making criticism of capitalism a thought crime and calling everyone who says that maybe, just maybe, an economic system that is aimed at unlimited growth while we live on a planet with limited resources won’t work in the long run is a dirty commie who will kill people with their plans and thus discarding any criticism against the current system as the ramblings of a crazy person. That might have done a lot to lead us where we are now and allow people like Musk to accumulate obscene amounts of wealth that make him a god like figure and above the law that mere mortals are bound by. (I once for example got asked to defend the actions of Mao Zedong after I criticized a preventable environmental disaster caused by BP, as if me calling for higher safety standards meant I supported a mass murderer like Mao. The other person was convinced that because I wanted to “control company profits” (e.g. making them liable for the cleanup even if the accident happens in the third world), I was clearly calling for violent revolution. Mind you, this discussion did not take place online, but in the real world face to face.)

You make a valid point, so I'll just enrich it with broaded perspective.

It's not (just) capitalism, or (just) the West.
Recently I fancy a lot of videos about China - for suppose different culture, majority of their problems starts to mirror problems in US nearly perfectly (there are some niusances, but in general those are the same problems),
from health care, food deserts, social security, social mobility, wealth disparity, (different form) of political correctness, urban decay, democraphic collapse, strip-mine approach to environment, oligarchy, corporationism, techbros scams, even immigration starts to be problem.


The commies walk different path yet somehow they are going towards the same dark place as we are.

[fiksal]

people do fine in various circles, and act as adults
some church communities, colleges and universities, etc

what we don't do well is politics

I have hard time summarizing US politics, so I won't even attempt to do it with the world.

The problem is specifically not in discussing Disney movies.

Americans never made the right conclusions from both Civil War and civil rights. We have generations who are way behind.

Americans, majority of, never critically examined capitalism.

Never examined two party political system, that is both intended and written down in the laws. The system of two parties that was meant to lead people than serve them

Americans made a system that revolves around election of a single individual, who concentrates more power than anyone else in government. Not a king but a king like. For this to work, for power to be in people's hands, it requires high participation in the democracy. Americans don't have that.

Quarter of Americans easily give in to fascism as long as they are made to feel part of the superior group. A result of above and other factors.

America isn't Russia who is a century or so behind on the topics of government, but there's a long ways to go. And I don't know how.

[EGO_Aut]

people do fine in various circles, and act as adults
some church communities, colleges and universities, etc

what we don't do well is politics

......

America isn't Russia who is a century or so behind on the topics of government, but there's a long ways to go. And I don't know how.

We make the mistake of always comparing ourselves to the "big ones" like China, the USA, Russia and India. I think Switzerland has the perfect form of government, here the power really comes from the people. Everything else is nonsense.

[mr.WHO]

Americans ....

Nah, it's not about Americans - it's just that they are on the frontpage due to mass media and social media.

Disney is just a convinient meme - you can just swap it for analogue in any society you analyze, the whole point/process will remain valid.

Same problems and issues pop up in vastly different societies and system - China, India, South Korea, Continental Europe, South America (e.g. Brasil, Argentina).


What is weird is that long term, percentage wise up to COVID, poverty was gradually declining, which should theoretically decrease populace desperation and promote long term thinking.
News and then Social media algorithms broke this trend, promoting short term consumerism and fast gains.
From there, it's just fast path to stuff like populism, techbros, corporationism (the same mechanism that makes EA/Activision/Disney strip mine a franchise, works when Western or Chinese corporation strip mine the area for resources - all that matter is a next quarterly gain report, whatever happens to company/area/world 5-10y in future be damned).

The universal and most basic issue is complete and utter lack of long term thinking.

and I mean actual thinking, not pretense of thinking or posing
- is it that hard to realize enviromental thinking shouldn't be promoted by people owning private planes and multi-milion $ mansions?
- should we really listen to people who profesionally pretend to be someone else?
- should we really listen to multi-bilion (now it's multi-trillion - inflation is a b*tch) corporations that wave and switch flags every month?


You need genuine, honest people, with genuine long term plans.
Then somehow, you need them to break the bubble of present day media and politics.
Only that way you will be able to beat all the Trumps all over the world.

Time of posing and pretending is over - only genuine work will save the day.

It will be hard, maybe even near impossible, but alternative will be literally World War 3 - this should be rather good motivation to stop posing and get to work.
I can tell you from my perspective, every time I have a bad day, I imagine I'm in wet trench in the middle of winter under artillery fire - that works really well as a motivating factor, especially when there is actual warfare and bombardment just over 100 km from your home.

We make the mistake of always comparing ourselves to the "big ones" like China, the USA, Russia and India. I think Switzerland has the perfect form of government, here the power really comes from the people. Everything else is nonsense.

Indeed, Switzerland has very good political system...and yet they share a lot of issues with the rest of the world - housing, health care costs, inflation, immigration, upcoming retirement poverty (I know a few relatively wealthy midle class Swiss, who say they will still delay their retirement for a few years, otherwise their pension will be small).

Political system is just a tool - you can use a hammer to build something, or you can use the same hammer to bash someones head.

[clakclak]

I don’t necessarily agree with you on why we are going into deep shit, I personally think that the issue has more to do with the problematic practice of making criticism of capitalism a thought crime and calling everyone who says that maybe, just maybe, an economic system that is aimed at unlimited growth while we live on a planet with limited resources won’t work in the long run is a dirty commie who will kill people with their plans and thus discarding any criticism against the current system as the ramblings of a crazy person. That might have done a lot to lead us where we are now and allow people like Musk to accumulate obscene amounts of wealth that make him a god like figure and above the law that mere mortals are bound by. (I once for example got asked to defend the actions of Mao Zedong after I criticized a preventable environmental disaster caused by BP, as if me calling for higher safety standards meant I supported a mass murderer like Mao. The other person was convinced that because I wanted to “control company profits” (e.g. making them liable for the cleanup even if the accident happens in the third world), I was clearly calling for violent revolution. Mind you, this discussion did not take place online, but in the real world face to face.)

You make a valid point, so I'll just enrich it with broaded perspective.

It's not (just) capitalism, or (just) the West.

First of I want to say I 100% agree with that. I mean as annoyed as I am by the discorse here, at least I don't get send to a interment/concentration camp like I would in some other countries for speaking my mind.

Recently I fancy a lot of videos about China - for suppose different culture, majority of their problems starts to mirror problems in US nearly perfectly (there are some niusances, but in general those are the same problems),
from health care, food deserts, social security, social mobility, wealth disparity, (different form) of political correctness, urban decay, democraphic collapse, strip-mine approach to environment, oligarchy, corporationism, techbros scams, even immigration starts to be problem.


The commies walk different path yet somehow they are going towards the same dark place as we are.

It really is strange to be honest. There seems to be something, something about the systems we currently have, no matter which flavour of the economic question they land on, that tend to lead to horrible outcomes. I am sure there are many theories that try to explain it, I am for example reminded of the Chimerica, which I personally don't quite agree with, but which I always found fascinating.

Maybe studying the inbetween cases could be interesting. I for example lived in Namibia for quite some time and Namibia is an....interesting country. Horrible inequality, yet a very free press that routinly used to rank above both the U.K. and France on the Press Freedom Index (even though it has been under attack the last two years and thus moved down a bit). A dominant socialist party with ties to North Korea (the national museum was quite literally build by North Korea), that is unwilling or unable to rig elections and has been loosing votes ever since the country became independant in the 90s, now in the last election being close to sliding below 50% even though it had more than 90% of the votes in the first elections. The same immense social tensions also found in South Africa, yet barely a fraction of the violence. And so on and on. I never could quite grasp what the magic glue was that is holding the country together, but there is something there, because quite frankly conflicts should be tearing it apart right about now. But somehow that does not happen. My personal theory is that as long as Kapana remains affordable, people are willing to talk things out.

[burger1]

Looks like US Department of Agriculture has seen staff fired also. Wonder how many haven't been reported.

Canada and other nations have formed an alliance to counter US tariffs as a group.

China launched a complaint with world trade organization.

US thinking about reciprocal tariffs which would leave it at the mercy of trading countries since they would control US tariffs.

Protests still going in US.

Associated Press banned from White House news briefings. US has appointed it's own government press agents replacing some reporters.

The judicial system is in conflict with the government. The current administration is trying to get rid of judicial interference so they can violate constitutional rights, etc...

Federal funding is still being withheld by the government despite their claims to have unfrozen it.

US raising it's debt ceiling by 4 trillion to 45 trillion. So "cutting costs" while going deeper into debt and increasing spending.

[mr.WHO]

US raising it's debt ceiling by 4 trillion to 45 trillion. So "cutting costs" while going deeper into debt and increasing spending.

This will be the end of Trump and Musk - people will start asking why debts are still piling up, when costs (and services those costs provide) were cut.
Maybe not this year, but next year when the ceiling will be raised again.

[chew-ie]

US raising it's debt ceiling by 4 trillion to 45 trillion. So "cutting costs" while going deeper into debt and increasing spending.

This will be the end of Trump and Musk - people will start asking why debts are still piling up, when costs (and services those costs provide) were cut.
Maybe not this year, but next year when the ceiling will be raised again.

Honestly, I pretty much doubt that. People who enabled Trump (and Musk for that matter) didn't do anything once Musk earned billions per day since the election all the while people in the US had no change to their status quo. All they got are promises, nothing more. And yet billionaires immeditately get their cash [they don't need to survive] - the common folk have to wait for the "long-term-developments". And gullible as the common folk are they patiently wait. Like they always do. Hope for better days is all they do - and occasionally voting facists into office because the "other side" didn't help them either is okay for them.

[mr.WHO]

Honestly, I pretty much doubt that. People who enabled Trump (and Musk for that matter) didn't do anything once Musk earned billions per day since the election all the while people in the US had no change to their status quo. All they got are promises, nothing more. And yet billionaires immeditately get their cash [they don't need to survive] - the common folk have to wait for the "long-term-developments". And gullible as the common folk are they patiently wait. Like they always do. Hope for better days is all they do - and occasionally voting facists into office because the "other side" didn't help them either is okay for them.

People like that are not the majority of recent Trump voters and you shouldn't bother with them.
There are swing voters (even some democrats), independent and normal folks who voted for Trump as a lesser evil.
Once they start noticing that Trump/Musk is not the solution they hoped for, they will start leaving in search for alternative.
They are the important ones - people who are in opposition to Trump should put away depression glasses and start to work towards 2026 midterms.

As weird and convoluded the US system is, midterms is unique US solution to "oh sh*t, we need to backtrack and we need to do this fast".

[matthewfarmery]

Trump Officials Want to Un-Fire Nuclear Safety Workers

“National Nuclear Security Administration officials on Friday attempted to notify some employees who had been let go the day before that they are now due to be reinstated — but they struggled to find them because they didn’t have their new contact information,” NBC News reports.

And

Trump Cuts Hit Office Handling Bird Flu Response

“Laboratories in a national network of 58 facilities responding to the spread of bird flu were notified Friday that 25 percent of the staff in a central program office coordinating their work were fired in the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal employees,” Politico reports.

Not a good idea, but this is the Trump administration for you. So much for making America healthy, when they do dumb shit like the above.

[matthewfarmery]

Well, there is another thing,

Yesterday Trump posted this on his social media platform

He who saves his country doesn't violate any law

If that doesn't end the discussion that Trump is about to become a full dictator, I don't know what is. As he is basically saying, he is above the law. And other dictators in history have said similar.

Napoleon,

I am the revolution

I think Trump is about to do something extremely illegal, and is bragging about how untouchable he is. Put is this way, if Biden had said what Trump said, the media and the republicans would have been mad as hell. and would have criticised him for saying that. So, the next question is, what is Trump about to do, that is highly illegal?

[Chips]

Wait and see I guess - or we could have a sweepstake.

But there's so many damned options. Something Israel/Gaza, Ukraine, Canada, Greenland, Diego Garcia (over the UK and Chagos Islands - which the home crowd will likely love anyway), Panama, Putin to US for talks... -- and that's only at the huge international, rather than national, issues.

If they go scatter/shotgun approach to their actions, it does indeed appear nothing can keep up... so it could be 3 at once.

I'd say Ukraine announcement - without anyone's involvement. Or a true "out of left field" (I think that's the saying) guess of - they'll add main EU political parties to the proscribed terror watch list!

[burger1]

US might be shutting down middle of March.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/us/p ... udget.html

US also fired more air traffic controllers. Airport safety shutdowns should be interesting.

US dollar might be loosing value due to the instability and economic choices of the government? Might just be a short term trend in the currency markets. Usd is usually bought for currency stability so if the US is unstable then might be getting sold off vs other currencies.

US has a book ban along with removing parts of history. Some South Africa apartheid type sanctions might be warranted for the US.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-did-dona ... 41950.html

On Feb 16, Moore revealed on Instagram that her first ever book has been banned. “It is a great shock for me to learn that my first book, Freckleface Strawberry, has been banned by the Trump Administration from schools run by the Department of Defense. Freckleface Strawberry is a semi-autobiographical story about a seven year old girl who dislikes her freckles but eventually learns to live with them when she realizes that she is different ‘just like everybody else.’

[matthewfarmery]

Musk Seeks Access to Taxpayer Data

“Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is seeking access to a heavily-guarded Internal Revenue Service system that includes detailed financial information about every taxpayer, business and nonprofit in the country,” the Washington Post reports.

“Under pressure from the White House, the IRS is considering a memorandum of understanding that would give DOGE officials broad access to tax-agency systems, property and datasets. Among them is the Integrated Data Retrieval System, or IDRS, which enables tax agency employees to access IRS accounts — including personal identification numbers — and bank information.”

And on top of that, Trump administration fires a lot of IRS officials. If Musk gets his hands on this data, then he will be able to do whatever he wants. could very well bring down banks, businesses etc. It will be ugly.

Edit

Musk could use the data to destroy every competitors against Space X /X and those that stood against Trump. Still, this could even cause a run on the banks as well. And that will only see markets collapse.

[Chips]

As others have said, everyone should absolutely feel reassured about those in charge of what they're doing. I don't think this was posted from Friday?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-do ... 32005.html

The DOGE website is wide open and vulnerable to hackers, according to reporting from 404 Media. Two coders had already infiltrated the site and left their own messages on it at the time of 404’s reporting on Thursday evening: “THis is a joke of a .gov site,” said one, and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN -roro”

Obviously cleaned up now to provide the rolling commentary of "work being seen to be done..."

[matthewfarmery]

Mass Firings Continue Across Nation’s Health Agencies

“The Trump administration carried out more mass firings across the Health and Human Services Department this weekend, continuing a chaotic purge of the federal workforce that career officials and lawmakers warned would hurt key programs and impair efforts to track threats to public health,” Politico reports.

“The cuts hit staffers at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services… The administration also terminated some staff at the office responsible for emergency preparedness and response.”

At this rate, what is RFK role going to be if there are mass lay-offs? I also read there is an outbreak of measles in Texas, easy preventable with the right meds, but with these mass firings, lack of meds, Not surprised. At this rate, the republicans will have blood on their hands.

[clakclak]

Trump administration puts pressure on Romania in order to ease the life of suspected sex trafficker, rapist and fraudster Andrew Tate.