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  • Current Events & Politics Moderators: deficiT | tryptakid | Foreigner

US Politics the 2025 trump presidency thread

Yes - I wonder if it's an attempt to work out who is likely to pose the biggest threat to his desired actions. With all of those tech bros on board, I can well imagine that they will keep a close eye on anyone using digital communication to form an opposition.

I'm someone who still uses letters. Why? Because there are far more legal protections surrounding a third party intercepting and reading physical letters when compared to intercepting and reading E-mails. In the UK at least, the police must prove that a letter or package contains something illegal or is being used in the prosecution of a crime to get a search warrent. And judges do not readily hand them out.
 
4DQSAR said:
Yes - I wonder if it's an attempt to work out who is likely to pose the biggest threat to his desired actions. With all of those tech bros on board, I can well imagine that they will keep a close eye on anyone using digital communication to form an opposition.

I'm someone who still uses letters. Why? Because there are far more legal protections surrounding a third party intercepting and reading physical letters when compared to intercepting and reading E-mails. In the UK at least, the police must prove that a letter or package contains something illegal or is being used in the prosecution of a crime to get a search warrent. And judges do not readily hand them out.
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Wise advice..

We are, afterall, discussing these things in *their* domain.

P.S. I like that Camus quote
 
Letters and packages are slower but I'm old enough to have lived in a pre-internet world and you know what? We managed FINE using just the postal service.

In fact, letters have the advantage of making people THINK if what they have written is appropriate or of benefit to others.

It was even possible to contact Indian pharmacies and buy stuff using only the postal system. The feds would HATE anyone moving back to that model.

There were people who acted like Tor. You sent them a letter with another letter inside it along with $2 and they posted it on. Imagine that. Just imagine the resources it would take if every time you got your order, you got a new intermediate name and address. Law enforcement agencies LOVE the internet and hated those old methods because they were so costly and difficult to spot, let alone to tackle.
 
4DQSAR said:
Letters and packages are slower but I'm old enough to have lived in a pre-internet world and you know what? We managed FINE using just the postal service.

In fact, letters have the advantage of making people THINK if what they have written is appropriate or of benefit to others.

It was even possible to contact Indian pharmacies and buy stuff using only the postal system. The feds would HATE anyone moving back to that model.

There were people who acted like Tor. You sent them a letter with another letter inside it along with $2 and they posted it on. Imagine that. Just imagine the resources it would take if every time you got your order, you got a new intermediate name and address. Law enforcement agencies LOVE the internet and hated those old methods because they were so costly and difficult to spot, let alone to tackle.
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One of my first online connects was a service where you mailed them a letter with a return address on it, and they'd mail you back 5 pills of 60mg codeine. Then you'd mail 5$ and they'd mail you 10 pills

They also had stilnoct (ambien) which I much appreciated.
 
It required trust but the thing is, in truth the price of codine and stilnoct it SOOOOO low.

1Kg diazepam costs $250

Even the BNF price for 28x5mg diazepam is just 47p.

So the seller could simply black-list anyone who doesn't pay.

I mean, loads of the RC vendors offered free samples so what's the diference?

There are more sophisticated mailing tricks I learnt from a Dutch friend. The Netherlands being so small and with so many boarders, they could post from 4 nations easily.
 
Electrum1 said:
It's the EIN's (Employer Identification Number) and dollar amounts for groups that moved tax payer dollars through USAID affiliated 501c's and NGO's (so it doesn't count as tax dollars) to Bill Kristol's group

Giz725SX0AArTvb


Giz725aWoAEBf_o


But that corrupt network is shut down now, so exposing and shutting down the next patronage network is what's next. Probably DOE but maybe that one takes more time due to speedbumps
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I guess its a good thing we know about subscriptions now

Its pretty funny how those kids Elon had working on this misunderstood and misrepresented what the data in those databases actually means

I suppose Elon wouldn't be mad about getting investigated? 🤔

gizmodo.com

Elon Musk's Enemy, USAID, Was Investigating Starlink's Contracts in Ukraine

The agency was in the midst of a probe into the billionaire's equipment at the time of Musk's assault.
gizmodo.com gizmodo.com
 
jasperkent said:
samharris.substack.com

The Cult of the Bully

Does the world still need good people, or are we all free to become monsters now?
samharris.substack.com samharris.substack.com
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Excellent excellent article. Years ago Sam Harris use to annoy me being so definitive about his beliefs. As time went on he matured and kept an open mind. So glad he broke down what he is witnessing. I have grown to really like what he puts out, much more than say 20 years ago. The cult of bully pretty much sums it up.
tryptakid said:
Normalizing any of this is absurd.
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Not to worry TK. It is like this. You can have every moron in the world jumping up and down saying the Earth is flat. We know that is not true but someone on social media can say that and then a whole slue of brain dead people agree with that trying to normalize it. But there are man made laws and natural laws. Never will natural laws be normalized. They are static. So if people get away with breaking man made laws (which I admit a lot are dumb but some to protect people) no one gets away with breaking Natural laws ever. So there is truth, even if parts of the media want to not tell truth. Truth stands the test of time. So even dumb statements like the earth is flat will NEVER be normalized. People can give gravity the finger but still have to reap what it offeres. There are views of reality, and then there is true reality.

An apple is an apple is an apple is an apple. Call it a fucking banana or anything. It’s a fucking apple.
 
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alasdairm said:
could you link me to one of the polls please? thanks.
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tumbleweed.jpg


well. i don't want to draw the somewhat obvious conclusion . i'd love to read the poll results and i'm quite open to my instinct being proved wrong.

in the meantime, i did some brief, unscientific searching and did manage to find one poll wherein the sample was asked "Which of these best fits your interpretation of the gesture that Elon Musk made?"

A Nazi salute ...................................32%
A gesture from his heart ........................19%
A wave ...........................................5%
A random movement or spasm .......................4%
A Roman salute ...................................2%
Something else ...................................3%
Not sure ........................................13%
Not asked - hadn’t heard anything about it ......22%

draw your own conclusions but definitely does not support a claim that "Most people don't agree that he did an sig heil."

alasdair
 
many trump supporters don't give a shit about what he says or how he behaves. that became clear years ago.

he said he'd end the war in ukraine before january 20th. he didn't. they don't care.

he said inflation and prices would come down immediately he took office. day one! lots of people voted for him because of this. nothing's changed. they don't care.

they only care when it starts to personally affect them. and it is absolutely starting to happen. it's the leopards tweet manifest:



sure, right now it's a few cases here and a few cases there. but unlike his first term people are starting to twig that maybe, just maybe, this billionaire narcissist and his billionaire friends just aren't in it to make lives better for ordinary americans who voted for him.

fafo? sure.

alasdair
 
tryptakid said:
Playing mindgames isn't a good way to run a fair and transparent government.

Playing mindgames IS a good way to troll.

Trolling might be fun but it's an inherently anti-social activity.

Normalizing any of this is absurd.
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It's not absurd. Trump is a business man and the business world is all about mind games. He's just transferring that to his diplomatic style. People wanted it, they voted for it, now they have it. Stop crying.

I'm not even a die hard Trump fan but I'm sick of the constant misrepresentations. It seems like so many people just don't view the world accurately anymore.
 
JackARoe said:
Excellent excellent article. Years ago Sam Harris use to annoy me being so definitive about his beliefs. As time went on he matured and kept an open mind. So glad he broke down what he is witnessing. I have grown to really like what he puts out, much more than say 20 years ago. The cult of bully pretty much sums it up.
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A die hard Trumper is someone who is angry at their lot in life because they ended up making a living performing menial tasks for the kids they picked on in high school.
They will support Trump as long as he "owns the libs", no matter what else.
Trump makes them feel like "winners".
And, the conspiracy theorists will always conspiracy theory because it makes them feel,"in the know" and smarter than the rest of us... haven't mentioned that before.

Cult of the bully, it's really all it is. Only swing voters can be persuaded, It's why arguing with a Trumper is like arguing with a high schooler. Pay attention, same moving targets, same strident tone, same ad hominems about you being a "loser", same winning by volume and deception over facts.
Foreigner said:
Oh well *shrug*
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But, you claimed there would be a poll. That wasn't a lie, was it? Maybe just "mind games" which are fine for a politician? A politician who lies to me is disqualifying, as it should be. Grandiose plans of invasion and conquest on the world stage might work short term but, like any empty blustering on any schoolyard would need to be eventually backed up. So, we have war or we lose (more) credibility.

And, speaking of credibility, why should anyone believe anything you claim now?
 
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Elez’s resignation came after a report from the Wall Street Journal linked him to a now-deleted social media account that shared racist content and advocated for eugenics.

According to the outlet’s review of archived social media posts, Elez posted on X in July: “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”

The account also reportedly shared a post calling to normalize “Indian hate,” suggested Gaza and Israel be “wiped off the face of the Earth,” and said: “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.”

fortune.com

25-year-old employed by Elon Musk’s DOGE who posted he was ‘racist before it was cool’ resigns after being linked to deleted social-media account

Marco Elez was part of a team of young, tech-savvy DOGE workers that have been tearing through government agencies.
fortune.com fortune.com

Elon purposely hires people like this, why do you think he unbanned all of the people spreading white supremacy content when be bought twitter?

He even started a poll on twitter now to bring this racist, white supremacist kid back
 
Foreigner said:
It's not absurd. Trump is a business man and the business world is all about mind games. He's just transferring that to his diplomatic style. People wanted it, they voted for it, now they have it. Stop crying.

I'm not even a die hard Trump fan but I'm sick of the constant misrepresentations. It seems like so many people just don't view the world accurately anymore.
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But good governance isn't.

That's the problem I (and many people) have with the man. Mind games aren't good when people rely on you. Mind games aren't appropriate when you can't just leave your job and work somewhere else - citizens of the US have to live here, as do their families.

This isn't some cutthroat company whose ethics might be too risque for you and if so, seek work elsewhere, this is our home.

That's the problem.
 
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