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US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

bbc.com

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Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#451
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half the people in the country either a) want to watch everything burn, because the system has served them poorly for too long, or b) are stupid enough to believe that Trump actually wants to help them. Or both. Many (most?) Americans don't seem to have ever learned how to think critically or question what authority figures tell them to believe. On top of that, COVID was rough for lots and lots of people. Even though…

> Half the people in the country either a) want to watch everything burn, because the system has served them poorly for too long I believe this as well, but it still baffles me. Don't people have a sense that things can always get worse?

No, they don't. Most people don't seem to get beyond 1st order thinking. At best, it's cause and effect - 3rd/4th/5th order effects are just not computable. If X then Y is the best they can manage.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#452
post #446
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feds consumed It's hard to take these apocalyptic premonitions about federal government reduction seriously.

But that growth period also came after the largest Marxist redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor that's ever happened in America.

The mythos often presented is mass wealth inequality is incompatible with raising of living standards of the poor.

The poor can gain something at least temporarily by taking it from the rich. Another less violent option is mutually beneficial voluntary interactions.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans should care because America isn't the world. So much wealth and power derives from people seeing you as the good guy. Blowing that up will make America poorer.

The US is far less dependent on trade than the average country. We could close our borders to the world entirely and be fine after an initial discomfort. And nobody has has seen America as the “good guy” in my lifetime. We’re the country that destabilizes Latin American and Asian countries, bombs the Middle East, etc. I used to think there was at least a logic to all that, but it turns out our elites were just ideolo…

Who do you think buys U.S. debt (2 trillion this year) and props up the U.S. stock exchange and assets when recycling USD?

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans should care because America isn't the world. So much wealth and power derives from people seeing you as the good guy. Blowing that up will make America poorer.

The US is far less dependent on trade than the average country. We could close our borders to the world entirely and be fine after an initial discomfort. And nobody has has seen America as the “good guy” in my lifetime. We’re the country that destabilizes Latin American and Asian countries, bombs the Middle East, etc. I used to think there was at least a logic to all that, but it turns out our elites were just ideolo…

The US is extremely dependent on trade because the US needs the USD to be the currency of trade and reserve to sustain its debt and deficits, without which GDP would drop precipitously.

The US isn't far less dependent, China is at 37% GDP from trade to the US's 27% but doesn't have the structural dependency on trade from having the reserve currency.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#456

"US media reported" That's not a source. This is how the media just makes things up. After admitting that 8% of the BBC media action budget came from US taxpayers which has now been cencelled, I wonder if they might have an ax to grid.

For anyone who has no idea what the "BBC Media Action" is (like me, before googling). It's a small international charity- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Media_Action

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#457
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American left has also (always?) been anti-government overreach too. It's all a matter of who gets to define the "over" in "overreach". Laws which enforce racial segregation are overreach, for those in the American left who support equality. Federal laws which override state segregation are overreach, for those in the American right who support structural racism. Marijuana prohibition laws - overreach, or not? An…

Please stop with the false equivalencies. I'm incredibly tired of these types of bad-faith arguments.

It isn't a false equivalency. I'm undermining the entire assertion by pointing out the 'over' in 'overreach' is entirely in the eye of the beholder.

By definition, "overreach" must be beyond the point of acceptable action, so if you're going to use that term you need to say why it's overreach.

I think michaelscott, as an outsider, has bought the propaganda the right has pushing for decades, without realizing it's a falsehood.

By recasting it I mean to provide context about why it's a falsehood.

Some nudists think it's overreach for the government to require clothing in public? That's not really a left/right thing.

Is it government overreach to have Daylight Saving Time? That's another one that seems equally pro/anti.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your use of the word "innocent" there is doing a lot of heavy lifting. He did not have a day in court, and what he did was indirect. However, a lot of people consider the supposedly "innocent" guy that got killed a mass murderer. Whether or not you agree with that assessment, it seems like you don't understand a few links in the chain there or are otherwise playing dumb. It is very reasonable for people to not care a…

[flagged]

> The left lost the election because the general public got sick of the nonsense and hysterics.

The left lost the election because a ton of people thought "hey, better stay home than vote for Kamala because she's too cozy with Israel", and look where it got them, not only do they now have Trump in power but Netanyahu has no one to hold him in check.

Trump got 74M votes in 2020 vs 77M in 2024, the key thing is that Biden got 81M votes in 2020 whereas Harris got 75M votes.

The Democrats lost more people to non-voterism than they lost to Trump.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#459
post #452
post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that growth period also came after the largest Marxist redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor that's ever happened in America.

The mythos often presented is mass wealth inequality is incompatible with raising of living standards of the poor. The poor can gain something at least temporarily by taking it from the rich. Another less violent option is mutually beneficial voluntary interactions.

I'm talking about Emancipation. So no, this isn't temporarily taking something from the rich, or something that could have been solved through "mutually beneficial voluntary action".

The government told a bunch of rich people that the incredibly valuable people they owned were no longer their property, and gave money and land to the people who previously had nothing because they hadn't been considered people. That's what kicked off your Gilded Age

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#460
post #141
post #19

What's the biggest difference between a startup and a country? Aside from the obvious distinction, Musk has no experience running existing corporations with lots on the line to lose, he comes from move fast break things, great for a social media app, who gives a shit, great for literal moonshots, go big or go home. However when you manage something big, any upside from improving is weighed against its risk of degrada…

> What I find confusing is that this is not typical of conservatism, it's like a progressive right of political outsiders whose express goal is to destroy the government Right, these people aren't classical conservatives in any sense of the word. I would think of most of these people more as libertarians: small government, little regulation or oversight, let the market sort it out. The striking thing is that the actu…

There's a good 538 article on this subject: https://abcnews.go.com/538/gop-trumps-party-now/story?id=118...

59% of Republicans in Congress are newly elected since Trump began his first term (which saw the highest attrition among members of the president's part in modern history). Those who remain are the most aligned with Trump, or at least willing to appear so in order to retain their office.

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