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DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

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Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

#241

Post by scarecrowbob »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #7

We're watching the ultimate destructive expression of the comp sci "oh, we can just automate that" hubris.

Who among us has not thought "I could rewrite twitter in half a day in rails"?

:D

The grace which saves us all is that we do not have the power to follow every idiotic impulse and see it's horrible effects.

I found "Forbidden Planet" to be quite helpful in seeing that idea put forth in film- it's quite good and left an impact on my thinking around these kinds of things...

Unrelatedly, I am starting to feel like I am living in a timeline where we're seeing the collusion of two men who have been cursed via "may the gods give you everything you ask for." Perhaps a whole culture of that, in fact.

Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

#242

Post by mjburgess »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #231
mjburgess wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not in my interest to discuss the actions of the intelligence system in the US/UK, so I wont. I'm inclined never to address the subject again, to be honest. Tulsi Gabbard's hearing may be a tiny bit illuminating. The DOGE wrecking ball might lead to a new Church-committe-style hearing, there's already hearings in the house on the "censorship-industrial complex" but they're too naive at the moment. DOGE still thi…

> USAID has something to do with being leftwing (rather than, say, the funding counter-government movements) Yes, against our allies. Literally how soft power works. (As well as funding insurgencies against our adversaries’ proxies.) Zero evidence it’s been used domestically. Which makes sense, because that would be dumb. Use those resources to attack directly. > "How should the intelligence services conduct themselv…

I think this weakness is out of date. The privatisation of mass culture via social media (, the internet, etc.) provides highly asymmetric rewards for action via these "private" entities which can be strong-armed and hands-bloodied in participation in relevant "consensus-building NGOs".

Absent trump's election, the whole apparatus deployed to against media companies (targeting their ad networks to defund, strong-arming censorship, strong-arming participation etc.) would have went completely institutionally unaddressed.

> that would be dumb

Sure, given that your opponent can be elected your boss -- which happened, and now he's taking a wrecking ball to every agency which concerned itself with these tactics.

However, at the time it did not seem dumb. It seemed that trump was an existential threat to democracy. That may have even been to a degree true, but the dirty tricks approach has radicalized the far-right against the state in ways which used to be confined to the (previously targeted) far-left.

Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

#243

Post by ninalanyon »

kcplate wrote: post #223
ryandrake wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An eligible voter who doesn't vote is effectively a vote for the winner, so a majority was at least complicit.

“Complicit” is an interesting word choice here—as if a non-voter is somehow responsible for wrongdoing? What “wrong” was done here? Trump won because he was democratically elected by every measure we have, both popular vote and electoral college. If your candidate lost it’s because they didn’t earn the votes, have the message, or created the reason for that non-voter to vote for them. The candidate and campaign are m…

If an incident of mobbing occurs in a Norwegian school the bystanders are held to account as well as the actual perpetrators.

Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

#244

Post by adleyjulian »

ramshanker wrote: post #116

[flagged]

> He is fulfilling his declared policy objective ...his actions are basically US (majority) people's collective action.

Process matters and laws matter. The federal budget is set by congress. If the executive branch is allowed to unilaterally withhold or redirect money then what is the point of congressional budgetary authority? If they had won a super majority then they would have also been able to pass whatever laws/budgets/etc. through congress (assuming they're constitutional).

People are not just objecting to what they're doing, but how they're doing it.

Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

#245

Post by insane_dreamer »

mjburgess wrote: post #202
insane_dreamer wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of rightwing stuff that circulates is disinformation -- there are plenty of examples of it. Trump is an inveterate liar about almost everything (this is easily fact-checked), and his followers have adopted the same strategy (lies are powerful because they are usually more shocking and travel faster than a boring fact-check). Not to say that other politicians don't lie or distort the truth, but Trump has taken t…

The issue isn't whether that's true or not (personally, I think you're 80-90% correct). If private citizens, or organisations, want to get together and develop political counter-narratives that's fine -- entirely within the constitution, and always a good idea. The issue here is the top-down astroturfing from state-sponsored orgs whose boards are the last x heads of the CIA/etc. At the moment there is no strong firew…

Sure, it turns out there was no big Trump/Russia conspiracy. But there were a lot of signs of Russian interference in the elections that was certain worth an investigation -- which did its job and then submitted its report, like lots of other special investigations. When you think about it, it's much more of an important topic to investigate than whether Clinton got a blow job in the Oval Office. So I disagree that it was a "witch hunt" and therefore agree that Trump's labeling it as such was disinformation. Basically 90% (pulled that number out of the hat, but feels pretty close) of what Trump said while in office was incorrect, disinformation, or straight out lies. I mean, he's so far outside the normal distribution that there's no other president to compare him with. So yeah, I'd be training journalists to label Trump's speech as disinformation too.

Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

#246

Post by insane_dreamer »

lupusreal wrote: post #214
insane_dreamer wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been cases before where both the Executive and Legislative branches have been held by the same party. What's different now is that Trump is trying to consolidate much more power in the Executive branch (an explicit Project2025 goal), and Congress is powerless because the GOP are all afraid of highly vociferous MAGA reprisals (I mean, he did pardon all those who violently stormed the capitol and threatened…

> Congress is powerless because the GOP are all afraid of highly vociferous MAGA reprisals They're afraid of their voters, as they should be, as Trump is more popular with their voters than any of them are. All Trump/Musk need to do is endorse an opponent in their primaries.

Yeah that's what I meant, but you expressed it more clearly.

Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

#247

Post by lupusreal »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #97
tyleo wrote: post #8

Is there anything we can do? I don’t mean to ask that and imply that there is nothing. I mean it as an honest question. Is there a process or organization to snap into right now to help?

Isn't this what you guys have the second amendment for? To secure a free state?

There's a word for people who start shooting when they don't like the outcome of an election: insurrectionists.

Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

#248

Post by JumpCrisscross »

f38zf5vdt wrote: post #236
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> nuclear weapons are more or less useless in a modern conflict, as has been observed in the Russia-Ukraine war with endless Russian sabre-rattling Russia is constrained by India and China in its use of tactical nukes in Ukraine. That wouldn't apply in America. > collateral damage from nuclear weapons makes their usage suicidal The excess damage caused by tactical nukes when compared with conventional weapons, partic…

> There have been no AI drones in that war. Drones are reigning free because nobody established air superiority. This hasn't been true since last year, when automated targeting systems began entering the battlefield. They still are not as widely deployed as personnel controlled drones, but over time it appears to be shifting towards battlefield autonomy. Nuclear weapons are a cudgel, automated human-free weapons are…

> hasn't been true since last year, when automated targeting systems began entering the battlefield

By this measure we’ve had hypersonic AI “drones” in air-to-air combat since the 70s.

Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

#249

Post by kcplate »

ninalanyon wrote: post #243
kcplate wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Complicit” is an interesting word choice here—as if a non-voter is somehow responsible for wrongdoing? What “wrong” was done here? Trump won because he was democratically elected by every measure we have, both popular vote and electoral college. If your candidate lost it’s because they didn’t earn the votes, have the message, or created the reason for that non-voter to vote for them. The candidate and campaign are m…

If an incident of mobbing occurs in a Norwegian school the bystanders are held to account as well as the actual perpetrators.

This is not even remotely equivalent. Making not intervening when a crime takes place means there is a crime taking place.

In the US elections are not a crime and “not voting” is not a crime.

Re: DOGE staffer is trying to reroute FEMA funds

#250

Post by red-iron-pine »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #106
no_wizard wrote: post #61

Earlier 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.

the markets are, at this point, entirely divorced from the average citizen

plus most of the market doesn't move much, and even in the S&P 500 it's only a handful of companies that see serious gains. And they happen to be tech companies whose leadership "kissed the ring".

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