And yet that’s also not the same. Yes, many impoverished countries are stuck in a cycle of poverty by overpopulation and too high a birth rate. Yes, helping them control that goes a long way toward helping them to help themselves. No, not eugenics

Still the wrong conversation. Yes he was appropriately villainized for anticompetitive behavior running Microsoft, accumulating excessive wealth at the expense of many others, but come on ……

I have no issues with sending $7B to Africa, but that sure seems like something the people should agree upon first,

Just no. His philanthropy, his wealth. His choice.

But I’m with you on inadequate taxation for the wealthy, and that we have a responsibility as a country to help the less privileged of humanity, and should not just assume someone’s personal largesse.

Wrong place for “both sides the same”. Sure, any of us could do more, and billionaires could do a lot more, but you’re equating a Nazi cutting entire government programs to aid the most vulnerable here and abroad, with a billionaire who has donated a significant portion of his personal wealth to aid humanity, including eradicating diseases

Even if we have him the benefit of the doubt, that this is true, it was proven, there was due process …… ICE snatched more than 100 people. What about the rest of the people?

I don’t think I ever knew he was also diagnosed with Mercury poisoning. Pretty sure that has cognitive impact

“Telling it like it is”

I have the worst timing …. I’ve been trying to eat my way down to an empty freezer. I bought a chest freezer in covid and kept it full ever since, but it really needs to be defrosted. I still have more stuff in there than can fit in all my coolers and in the fridge.

But maybe I should restock while I can and try again to defrost in four years

That’s awfully absolutist of you not seeing the huge difference in scale, the blatant ignoring of checks and balances, states rights, and the resulting constitutional crisis. Never before have so many government leaders so blatantly committed so many acts of corruption while holding themselves above the law. Never before have we so intentionally cut so many services and intentionally disrupted the economy so much. Never before have we done so much harm to the US’s stature in the world, damaged our future so much. Previous attempts to ruin education for religious or other malicious reasons have been mostly local, never before has there been such an attempt to control education across the board, everywhere, at every level

I wish them great success. Not only were they greatly wronged, which could cost future jobs, but in the rush for clicks, too many streamers think that freedom of speech also means free from the consequences of their words. That needs to change

I’m also concerned with the “fraud, waste and corruption “ that was the infrastructure bill. It’s becoming more and more clear we’re sitting on a timebomb of infrastructure built over a century ago and that we’ve ignored for at least half a century. It’s going to keep getting worse and worse , keep getting more expensive to repair: we’re way past time to invest in infrastructure and that was only the start toward getting back in a decent state of repair.

… just watching a video where they were debating whether it’s worth to rebuild a 137 year old tunnel in heavy use. How is that even a question?

It’s effective. If you listen to interviews where people give reasons they voted for mango Mussolini, it’s invariably something he declared regardless of reality or evidence.

It shouldn’t take much listening to the guy to realize everything he says is BS but apparently some people only hear what they want to, and take that as fact

$9B is still a lot of money, plus you know more spite is coming - turnipas ego doesn’t like to be told no

I swear I saw an undertaker measuring Musk for the casket. Even he’s got to realized he’s being set up as the fall guy. Before the year is out, he’ll be propped up for display in the town square for everyone to revile (and be distracted from the real fascist).

FIGURATIVELY

The KISS principle applies here, keep it simple. There is no plan, there is only Trump saying “I win”. He’s just declaring victory in the face of disaster as usual

this was actually 10d chess on trump’s part to extract concessions

It’s called a shakedown. Instead of actually talking to someone, start by threatening them then extract concessions. Best deal maker ever

Far right politicians are not mindless dupes. They are self-centeredly hopping onto whatever bandwagon they think will best further their personal interest. They are not fooled, they are malicious. They may be only thinking of their immediate self but they are helping build a larger combined evil. If they had any empathy or morals, any backbone, this would not happen. The thing is that simple greed for power should fuel many of our checks and balances but these people can’t even stand up for that. They deserved to be booed and then some.

That’s different from voters, many of whom might be low information and/or manipulated by misinformation, echo chambers and peer pressure. You’re right that a more constructive approach could help them

Maybe, but they also need an heir apparent if dear leaders third inauguration is blocked by something as silly as the Constitution, or if dear leader somehow doesn’t live forever. He wants to stand out as a “strong, independent leader” just as capable of fulfilling Putin wishes and further enriching his corporate owners

This is so egregious a violation of national security and government security policy that we’re not even discussing whether it was appropriate

And this makes it even worse, complaining about a mildly dissenting opinion, not the breach of security, not a bunch of yahoos who think they are above security and ethical policies, and not talking about a proxy war halfway around the world

Yes those details should clearly be considered classified and the people who exposed those details because of negligence, and willfully ignoring government policy should be removed from positions where they could cause farther harm, and brought to justice

Are you claiming wastefulness of central planning in China is a valid example for firing people in the US or Germany