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DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds
151–160 of 317 posts
Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds
#152The security and intelligence apparatus made bet big that they could prevent a second trump election, after quite successfully destabilising the first -- they failed. And now the very system of unaccountable executive power which has been built up, is now being used against the executive itself. This makes me increasingly concerned for a similar turn of events in the UK (ie., given the many actions of the UK state to…
Ah, here we go with the "invisible deep state" theory that secretly controls -- or tries to -- things behind the scenes. Does make for good movies though.
It's not invisible, nor is it much of a secret. Nor does it "control" anything in particular. Much of the coordination against trump by NGOs funded through USAID, publicly, is just online -- you can just go watch recordings of the conferences.
It's just an institutional consensus about Trump's style of populism which gave profound motivation to a large number of groups, to organise against his perceived threat. The issue is how the US government was involved -- not the activity itself -- , eg., leaning on mass media organisations to censor americans -- unconstitutional, and widely documented. You may think it's "for the good", but either way, its unconstitutional for the US gov. to do that. The US gov cannot demand social media censor americans, it's a prominent part of the bill of rights.
The US gov. funds many programmes under the guise of aid, or sponsorship of "democracy" or "independent media", or, eg., "healthcare".
Consider how egreious it would be for the US gov to lie about funding healthcare, but instead to use that as a guise for one of your "impossible, movie plot lines..."
Oh wait, ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_fake_vaccination_campaign_...
FYI, this happened to the far-left in the 60s & 70s, leading to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee --- it's just now happening to Trump and the far-right. Kinda funny the right have discovered it, after decades of calling the left nutjob conspiracy theorists.
Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look for politicians (in your district and state) who are already active, pick the one who seems to be not a useless parrot (but also not someone who doesn't get the big picture), and ask them how can you help them, how can you support their efforts. The good playbook consists of rebooting the D party. (Which lost the election because it did not understand what the majority wants, and how to authentically offer somet…
Rebooting the D party is unnecessary. Losing only by 1.5% in an election where globally nearly every _incumbent_ lost is pretty good. In the UK, the incumbents lost 20% of their seats [1]. The democrats lost 2 seats in the senate [2] and _gained_ 2 seats in the house [3]. Making drastic changes to a party because you narrowly lost an election with a candidate that never won a primary is dumb. [1]: https://en.wikipedi…
> Making drastic changes to a party because you narrowly lost an election with a candidate that never won a primary is dumb.
That depends on who you lose to.
Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
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> If you want the return of wasteful, unaccountable and corrupt government spending on ideological goals Corrupt? You mean like how Musk silences speech on Twitter: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/03/musk-shows-us-what-actua... Unaccountable? You mean like how DOGE has taken steps to ensure its communications are not subject to freedom of information requests and are sealed until 2034: https://www.404media.co/doge-e…
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Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds
#155The security and intelligence apparatus made bet big that they could prevent a second trump election, after quite successfully destabilising the first -- they failed. And now the very system of unaccountable executive power which has been built up, is now being used against the executive itself. This makes me increasingly concerned for a similar turn of events in the UK (ie., given the many actions of the UK state to…
The difference in the UK is, there is no recourse. It's actually why America exists as a state to begin with. They have parliamentary supremacy and no enshrined checks and balances against parliament. Nor do they have a formal constitution. And the populace is disarmed. A sufficiently united parliament can in theory do what it wants. The only practical risk they have is a coordinated coup by the military. The US syst…
> The US system, while far from perfect, does have enshrined checks and balances.
The current administration is having a good think about fixing that:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/trump-v...
Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The EU is so regulated its hard to do anything nowadays. What are you referring to here, specifically? Something that is a net-positive for society, and that would be legal in the US but is illegal in Europe or EU?
Starting the next Google or OpenAI. Not illegal, just not possible.
Well, Mistral is looking pretty promising for AI.
Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds
#157I say this as a UKian with a constitutional monarch as head of state: These actions suggest that today the United States seems to have a de facto King with far greater powers than even those held by George III at the time the founders decided that America did not need a King. They might not be called that, but they have the ability to exert behaviours akin to an English monarch not seen much since Henry VIII. Arguabl…
It is way worse than than that. If it all falls apart, the worst for Trump is to lose an election and retire to Florida. He has no real stake in any of this. The king is the king and the only way out is abdication, passing the problem to his own family.
I am so very happy we have a monarchy. I used to be against it, but the fact that no one person can wreak this kind of havoc is fantastic. And of course the king has really very little power.
I've turned into a monarchist (thanks to Trump)!
Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to mention financial. Its all but inevitable this will have expensive financial fallout, likely for individuals and the government.
I am absolutely gobsmacked that the markets simply don't care about any of this.
They muscled through COVID, they're gonna try and muscle through this.
It's in essentially every person with power's benefit for the number to go up, so everyone ensures the number goes up. See also: Bitcoin pricing.
Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The EU is so regulated its hard to do anything nowadays. What are you referring to here, specifically? Something that is a net-positive for society, and that would be legal in the US but is illegal in Europe or EU?
Starting the next Google or OpenAI. Not illegal, just not possible.
Thanks to what laws/regulations? Or was that just the meme "Europeans are lazy/slow" but tailored to HN readers?
AFAIK, things like specific the text and data mining (TDM) exceptions would allow you to even train on copyrighted materials without permission in certain cases, in the example of LLMs.
Mistral also seems to be making progress, and I'm not aware of any African, South American or Australian efforts that are further ahead, so while it might not be number 1, Europe is at least not last.
Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US fell in a month much deeper than the EU in a decade. Like I said the EU falls slower.
It may fall slower but it also keeps falling... US' GDP is now 80% higher than EU's. The usual retort is that Europeans are not chasing money and prefer to have good quality of life, healthcare, etc. but this misses the key thing that if your income falls behind little by little at some point you will no longer be able to afford those things... we're already seeing it.
> we're already seeing it.
Where exactly are we seeing this? AFAIK, most people in Europe still has access to healthcare, and still be able to have a job + free-time, with parental leave and more. Has that disappeared from any countries where it used to exist?
I think the constant worry and focus on GDP is a great example of the differences of mindset between Americans and Europeans. As long as "number goes up!" is true, Americans seem to think that most things are fine and working alright, while a European might be more focused on things on the ground and around them in their daily life, rather than judging their quality of life based on how the economy is doing for the rich people.