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On March 04 2025 03:34 EnDeR_ wrote:Show nested quote +On March 04 2025 02:47 Vivax wrote:On March 03 2025 16:26 maybenexttime wrote:On March 03 2025 07:36 Vivax wrote:On March 03 2025 06:58 maybenexttime wrote:
I still have no idea what you're getting at. Are you saying Europe should be able to throw Ukraine to the wolves but Trump made it harder? What are you saying? If by throwing to the wolves you mean finding an option that doesn‘t involve war, if it exists and doesn’t mean they become part of Russia, then yes. They‘re attempting to negotiate a ceasefire. Maybe the option exists. Well, then you are just regurgitating Russian propaganda. The reason why we have war is not the US, it's Russia. In case you haven't fucking paid attention, the US/West have tried diplomacy for several months before Russia invaded. Are you aware of Russia's minimum demands for "peace"? Russia gets the control of all four regions they formally annexed (including lands they never controlled and lands they already lost), Ukraine is barred from NATO, has its army reduced to 50k personnel, is barred from developing nuclear weapons, establishes a demilitarized zone along its border with Russia on the Ukrainian side, and, finally, has a regime change (i.e. a Kremlin-appointed puppet). Does that seem reasonable to you? If I were Russian, it would be. But since I live on the western side of the conflict and benefit from NATO, it‘s in my interest that Russia doesn‘t get what it wants. From a logical point of view without moral implications. I don‘t see why I have to be so emotionally loaded about it to accuse someone of regurgitating propaganda. It‘s a conflict between hemispheres. Doesn‘t mean I have to automatically abhor a pragmatic approach if it means less damage and casualties. I‘m not in the chain of command to have the authority to decide anything anyway. I can just hope they know how to do their job well, and watch what happens. If you think I have a shitty opinion, maybe you‘re right. It‘s not me who voted in the US, so I‘d say your anger is misplaced. Poland is awfully close to Ukraine and it wouldn't be the first time Russia had a go at running half of it. If Putin is as keen as he seems to be in realising the soviet union V2.0, Poland would be in the cross hairs. If we don't have a strong showing in Ukraine, we would just be signalling to Putin that all of these territories are up for grabs.
Like Trump already did ?
Yeah we can‘t pull the rug from under their feet like he did.
But we‘re far from ready for this shit. Even if Europe gears up you need at least 5-10 years to get something up and running that can replace the things we relied on the US for and even then it‘s not optimal, probably.
Especially when it comes to cyber-matters. We‘ve just been the open book and the free data cash cow so far in exchange for being able to use the same software.
I don‘t know what it implies when the US cyber ops stand down from actions against Russia but most likely that we are open to all sorts of sabotage from either side.
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LibHorizons: I was wondering about the reasoning behind Democrats unanimously supporting Trump's pick for Sec of State, Rubio. Turns out it was ostensibly based on the mistaken notion that "Little Marco" would stand up to Trump and stop him from doing what he's doing with Ukraine instead of facilitating it.
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 124309175704701392 times..."
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On March 04 2025 01:28 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Trump is about to impose 25% tariffs, ignoring the USMCA, under the guise of a "fentanyl emergency". Last month 19 grams of fentanyl was seized at the US//Canada border.  As the basis for this "emergency" the metric Trump uses is the # of domestic deaths due to fentanyl overdose. Again, Trump does not want to raise income taxes that he substantially lowered in 2017. Trump plans of raising money via tariffs. None of this has anything to do with fentanyl.
Soon, a loaf of bread in Canada will be more than $20
If a loaf of bread is $20 it's not only Trump fucking you. Probably every single line in that supply chain has an inch or two up your asshole at that point.
It's bread. It's wheat, or whatever grain you want to make of it, salt, yeast, water and some additives. Just buy a couple of thousand tons of flour at that point and wipe out the competition. It's not like grain and it's refined products are particularly hard to source or ship. It's been staple logistics since the Roman empire ffs.
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LibHorizons: More info on what Third Way Democrats are thinking should be the plan moving forward and what to expect from Elissa Slotkin in response to Trump:
In early February, a group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials and party leaders gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a day-and-a-half retreat where they plotted their party’s comeback.
The gathering — organized by Third Way, the centrist Democratic think tank, and operated by Chatham House Rules — resulted in five pages of takeaways, a document Playbook obtained from one of the participants. (Not all attendees endorsed each point.)
“In the wake of this election, where it became so evident that the things that the left was doing and saying deeply hurt Harris and down-ballot Democrats, a lot of people are looking to us, not just Third Way, but the moderates in the party, and saying, ‘We got to do it your way, because the other way ain’t working,’” said Third Way’s Matt Bennett, who helped organize the February retreat.
Those gathered then laid out 20 solutions for how Democrats can regain working-class trust and reconnect with them culturally.
More than a few stuck out to Playbook:
— The party should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery”;
— Democrats should “ban far-left candidate questionnaires and refuse to participate in forums that create ideological purity tests” and “move away from the dominance of small-dollar donors whose preferences may not align with the broader electorate”;
— They should “push back against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging” ;
— Candidates should “get out of elite circles and into real communities (e.g., tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, churches)”; and
— The party needs to “own the failures of Democratic governance in large cities and commit to improving local government.” www.politico.com
I'm more inclined to support Bernie's "Fighting Oligarchy" tour.
As I've mentioned, fighting oligarchy requires a deliberate and executable plan that anyone that claims to oppose Trump can't wait another second to join in on.
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Thats frozen ezekiel bread. Thats a super dishonest picture jimmy. Im in the US and the raisin is like $12 and the regular one is 7 or $8
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This is just getting stupid www.theguardian.com
White House directs officials to draft proposal to lift US sanctions on Russia
The White House has asked the state and treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for US officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days as part of the administration’s broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic relations, the sources said.
"Hey Putin, go ahead and start a couple more wars. We will lift sanctions in return"
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Northern Ireland23825 Posts
On March 04 2025 05:15 EnDeR_ wrote:This is just getting stupid www.theguardian.comWhite House directs officials to draft proposal to lift US sanctions on Russia Show nested quote +The White House has asked the state and treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for US officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days as part of the administration’s broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic relations, the sources said. "Hey Putin, go ahead and start a couple more wars. We will lift sanctions in return"
They’re not even putting up the pretence, this administration is full of Putin stooges.
What a fucking shower.
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On March 04 2025 04:23 CuddlyCuteKitten wrote:Show nested quote +On March 04 2025 01:28 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Trump is about to impose 25% tariffs, ignoring the USMCA, under the guise of a "fentanyl emergency". Last month 19 grams of fentanyl was seized at the US//Canada border. As the basis for this "emergency" the metric Trump uses is the # of domestic deaths due to fentanyl overdose. Again, Trump does not want to raise income taxes that he substantially lowered in 2017. Trump plans of raising money via tariffs. None of this has anything to do with fentanyl.
Soon, a loaf of bread in Canada will be more than $20
If a loaf of bread is $20 it's not only Trump fucking you. Probably every single line in that supply chain has an inch or two up your asshole at that point. It's bread. It's wheat, or whatever grain you want to make of it, salt, yeast, water and some additives. Just buy a couple of thousand tons of flour at that point and wipe out the competition. It's not like grain and it's refined products are particularly hard to source or ship. It's been staple logistics since the Roman empire ffs.
It’s Ezekiel loaf, fancy woo woo organic bread made in the style described in the bible or something. $20 Canadian sounds about right considering some are over $10 USD normally for a loaf right now.
Just like how Jimmy’s complete lack of intellectual curiosity prevents him from spending a minute and imagine how a blanket tariff is just a regressive sales tax (so effectively just a tax on everything he does, likely outweighing any income tax cuts he would get in the first place), he’s also being completely intellectually dishonest using the most expensive loaf of bread he can find in the supermarket as an example of expensive bread prices.
I normally would feel solidarity with Americans about to get fucked over by these type of inflationary policies, considering the price of eggs was apparently a metric they most cared about during the election, but the peasant brain mentality combined with American exceptionalism really makes it awfully hard. If they’re not Jensen Huang, they’re not getting shit from these policies besides some nebulous definition of “winning” against other countries.
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Northern Ireland23825 Posts
On March 04 2025 04:33 GreenHorizons wrote:LibHorizons: More info on what Third Way Democrats are thinking should be the plan moving forward and what to expect from Elissa Slotkin in response to Trump: Show nested quote +In early February, a group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials and party leaders gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a day-and-a-half retreat where they plotted their party’s comeback.
The gathering — organized by Third Way, the centrist Democratic think tank, and operated by Chatham House Rules — resulted in five pages of takeaways, a document Playbook obtained from one of the participants. (Not all attendees endorsed each point.)
“In the wake of this election, where it became so evident that the things that the left was doing and saying deeply hurt Harris and down-ballot Democrats, a lot of people are looking to us, not just Third Way, but the moderates in the party, and saying, ‘We got to do it your way, because the other way ain’t working,’” said Third Way’s Matt Bennett, who helped organize the February retreat.
Those gathered then laid out 20 solutions for how Democrats can regain working-class trust and reconnect with them culturally.
More than a few stuck out to Playbook:
— The party should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery”;
— Democrats should “ban far-left candidate questionnaires and refuse to participate in forums that create ideological purity tests” and “move away from the dominance of small-dollar donors whose preferences may not align with the broader electorate”;
— They should “push back against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging” ;
— Candidates should “get out of elite circles and into real communities (e.g., tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, churches)”; and
— The party needs to “own the failures of Democratic governance in large cities and commit to improving local government.” www.politico.comI'm more inclined to support Bernie's " Fighting Oligarchy" tour. As I've mentioned, fighting oligarchy requires a deliberate and executable plan that anyone that claims to oppose Trump can't wait another second to join in on.
I think their proposed platform is mostly fucking shit.
Might it work? Quite possibly
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It must be so surreal to try and stay professional when you're taking your job seriously as a journalist and then you need to ask a question about Trump's policies and when he's babbling about in one of his speeches. Insane.
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United States24578 Posts
This is the first week of widespread compliance with the mandate for federal employees to send in bulleted lists of accomplishments ("What did you do last week" email) from the previous week. Speaking from experience, drafting the bullets didn't take too long. Obtaining and incorporating comment from the immediate supervisor took some time to coordinate. Routing them to the section deputy so he can gather them all for consolidated section head review didn't take much time, except incorporating comments from the deputy did take some time. Then, the deputy had to get all the bulleted lists for the section through the section head, who had additional comments. Once they were all incorporated, there was disagreement about who to put on "copy to". Once that resolved, the e-mails were sent by the employees and the workday was basically over. Although, it only actually ate up about half the day by work hours. Four hours of work was not accomplished as a result.
Presumably, next week will go more smoothly now that the process and expectations are better established...?
You might ask, why did so much effort go into reviewing these bullet points? Well, what if the employee doesn't sum up their accomplishments well and ends up on the chopping block despite doing a good job with their actual work responsibilities? What if they say something that is factually true (or not) but has poor optics and implies that the organization is over-staffed, even though it's not? Without knowing how the bulleted lists will be used, and without trusting the persons behind this exercise, agencies are forced to assume the worst and play defense, eating up substantial personnel resources in the process.
Speaking from experience, the exercise did not in any way actually enhance internal reporting of work without being entirely duplicative. It was a waste of time that can only be used to harm the individuals tasked with writing up these bulleted lists.
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On February 24 2025 07:17 GreenHorizons wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2025 07:00 micronesia wrote:On February 24 2025 05:51 GreenHorizons wrote:On February 24 2025 04:02 micronesia wrote:On February 24 2025 03:15 GreenHorizons wrote:On February 24 2025 02:03 micronesia wrote:On February 24 2025 01:24 GreenHorizons wrote:On February 24 2025 01:14 micronesia wrote:On February 24 2025 01:12 GreenHorizons wrote:On February 23 2025 22:39 micronesia wrote:
He actually threatened that failure to comply with the bonkers request would be considered "resignation."
I am curious to see where each department will fall out on this. LibHorizons: Feels like an obviously empty threat that all managers should be telling workers to ignore. Can't imagine the rationale for being complicit, other than being a Trump supporter. You wouldn't do it just because your boss told you to would you? I didn't even get this opm e-mail so it's currently a moot point, but... You are asking if I would refuse to follow a legal order (i.e., send a bulleted list of accomplishments to opm) from my actual chain of command because of the ramifications of it? Probably not. LibHorizons: In that case, I'd imagine most people/departments will end up being complicit. Why wouldn't they? Employees who follow that order to submit the e-mail (from their chain of command) would be complicit in what? LibHorizons: Trump/Musk/DOGE's agenda/government/commands. No, I don't think so. That would be victim blaming. There's nothing immoral about documenting your accomplishments and routing it within government channels (outside of certain risks like spilling sensitive information where you shouldn't). Just because the request for information from DoGE/OPM was immoral in its rollout doesn't mean the workers who follow their chain-of-command's directive to submit the e-mail are necessarily complicit in immorality, and certainly not the entire DoGE agenda. LibHorizons: The rest of the post was also applicable to your argument. Fascist regimes need a lot of people doing "regular" jobs going about their usual day-to-day tasks in order to accomplish their agenda. Filling those roles doesn't negate one's complicity.
Nonetheless, the point was that it wasn't really a mystery. There isn't really a reason for most government workers not to accede to this demand from Musk, unless they see their complicity as crossing a line, like the many people across a variety of parts of the government that have already resigned.
As you and micro point out, there isn't really reason to believe this crosses some line ethically or with regards to their dignity. DPB sounds like it would bother them, but still not cross the dignity line. I'm not sure what your point is. I'm discussing what to do in response to that OPM e-mail, and why. + Show Spoiler + You are discussing a broader issue which either lacks direct applicability to this particular situation or is based on such high standards that there hasn't been a year since the beginning of the USA that you could work for the US government in a rank-and-file position without being complicit in something that necessitates immediately resigning. You are entitled to that view, but it's pretty extreme. LibHorizons: The main point was that it is/was obvious that the vast majority of government employees are going to comply with Musk's recent "bonkers" demands. Following these commands from Musk and validating his power does not cross any line ethically or with regards to your dignity. I don't think you, DPB, Acro, etc are unusual in that way.
LibHorizons: Took an extra week, but we got there. Everyone knows this command from Musk is absurd, dysfunctional, and a waste of resources. With that in mind, they are doing it anyway. That doesn't bode well for the US imo.
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Yep, huge signal for the US that people choose keeping the income that they and possibly others depend upon over going to your blog, where even people like Nebuchad and Acrofales are purity tested and accused of trolling, for praxis.
Or okay, forget the blog. If only more people would click that link you keep posting recently, that you purport to be a deliberate and executable plan, that goes to a post that just says "we really need a leftist version of Project 2025 everyone!".
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Of course though, when Hasan buys a luxury sportscar you're not allowed to point that out without being a "and yet you participate in society, how fascinating" person, but rando people in the middle class should absolutely up and risk their jobs.
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Northern Ireland23825 Posts
On March 04 2025 09:42 Turbovolver wrote:
Of course though, when Hasan buys a luxury sportscar you're not allowed to point that out without being a "and yet you participate in society, how fascinating" person, but rando people in the middle class should absolutely up and risk their jobs.
I dunno who Hasan is, nor why I’m apparently ‘not allowed’ to criticise him for buying a luxury sportscar. Who is forbidding me from having that opinion?
That aside, I don’t think it’s a particularly effective critique of GH’s presented worldview.
Agree/disagree with him by all means
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EPT
