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Managers given 200 characters to justify not firing nuclear regulators
51–60 of 179 posts
Re: Managers given 200 characters to justify not firing nuclear regulators
#52Has the rest of the democratic world been making plans to reduce reliance on the US since the first Trump administration? Will this term be the end of the craziness or is this the end of the US as a super power?
Yes.
There are many in the US who have a particular strand of thinking. It goes a bit like this:
The US is meddling too much in other country's affairs.
Only a handful of countries actually have agency - US, Russia, China mostly.
All the wars out there are actually proxy wars, because the US is up to no good and interfering with one of the other countries with agency.
It follows that all that is required for global peace is to withdraw US support for foreign adventuring.
America looks after America, Russia looks after (extended) Russia. The more isolationist a country is, the better it is. Hungary is a better friend than the UK because it opposes American adventuring, just like us.
There are other elements of the logic. America interferes abroad for cynical reasons. In Afghanistan, it was the poppies. In Iraq, it was the oil.
They scratched their head a little over Ukraine, but then decided it was for rare earth minerals.
I don't know if it's the end of the US as superpower, but what Musk is doing is destroying US state capacity from within, and what Trump's representatives are doing are destroying US influence abroad. If the goal is ending the US as a superpower, the actions are certainly shaped in a way that look like they're trying to end it.
Re: Managers given 200 characters to justify not firing nuclear regulators
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Has the rest of the democratic world been making plans to reduce reliance on the US since the first Trump administration? Plans were already being drafted before Trump won the election, given his strong polling, but bureaucracy makes things move a little slow. I think it has united EU countries who understand that this over-reliance on the US can be problematic given how quickly policies can shift, and will lead to…
My fear is not that Russia and allies will fight a giant land war with all of Europe. It is that Putin will continue moving his lukachenko and viktor orban pieces and acquire new ones through out Europe that will effectively make Europe reliant on russia and in some ways controlled by Russia. They don’t need to own everything to control everything.
This push has been ongoing for year and the success has definitely been less than expected, with Finland and Sweden joining NATO. I think with the Americans stepping back, this will only strengthen ties between EU countries, though there still are issues which have to be solved on the energy sector to reduce reliance on Russia.
Re: Managers given 200 characters to justify not firing nuclear regulators
#54Has the rest of the democratic world been making plans to reduce reliance on the US since the first Trump administration? Will this term be the end of the craziness or is this the end of the US as a super power?
I actually have been speculating since Trump 1 on whether Europe would eventually join the Chinese block. On the one side, we (now) have Trump both threatening Europe with the potential of an invasion of Groenland, and explicitly telling Russia that it won't intervene if Putin bombs Europe, so if I were a European leader, I'd be looking for allies. On the other side, we have China and Europe being the two powers who…
It's crazy how Trump is making China look like a good partner. At least they would be reliable and predictable to large extent.
The human rights violations and ambitions to grab Taiwan are obviously worrying. Europe may need to give up on the ideal of promoting human rights, democracy and peace, and just be happy to be able to preserve them at home.
Re: Managers given 200 characters to justify not firing nuclear regulators
#55In nuclear the saying "there's always enough time to do it right the first time" comes to mind. Preventing rework and reducing risk to the safety of the public.
When it comes to the doe there are likely departments that could be trimmed back and interpretations of some laws to the cfr made a little more clear, but since the doe is in charge of everything nuclear it might be good to do a more indepth look at each department instead of a quick and careless wipe.
Currently nuclear power is regulated in a way of "bring me a rock and I'll tell you if it's the right rock, but if it isn't the right rock it will be painful.
Re: Managers given 200 characters to justify not firing nuclear regulators
#56Bruce Schneiers thoughts : https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/02/doge-as-a-nat... https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/02/ai-and-civil-...
>> Assuming that anyone in the government still cares. Schneier hits the mark here. Government only works at all if people care. And if you tell someone that their job, and the organisation they work for - are of no value - then those people won't care any more. I don't know what the outcome would be of large swathes of the government either being fired or not caring any more but we're going to find out and I don't t…
Government is a huge ship where everything happens slowly. If you fire all sailors at once, you won't notice the difference immediately. The phantom ship continues to sail.
Then engines start to heat up and fail. And if there's an obstacle along the way, it's game over.
This is a dangerous game played by morons full of hubris.
On June 16 YC organizes an "AI Startup School"; the first speaker is Elon Musk:
https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/ai-startupschool
What a shame.
Re: Managers given 200 characters to justify not firing nuclear regulators
#57> Nuclear security is highly specialized, high-pressure work, but it's not particularly well paid, one employee told NPR. Given what's unfolded over the past 24 hours, "why would anybody want to take these jobs?" they asked. The people who will be hired in those jobs in the future are the ones who can't find any other job, and don't care one way or another. It will be a catastrophe of epic proportions, but hard to no…
I guess the EU should hire them, since they probably need to enhance their nuclear weapon capabilities now.
Re: Managers given 200 characters to justify not firing nuclear regulators
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
It really does feel like this is the end of the US as the dominating super power and world police. Who wants to buy weapons from the US when you won't get permission to use them to defend themselves? Who wants to make deals with the US when they will just get torn up and the US will even threaten their allies with economic sanctions and even invasion? Who in their right mind will lean on the US to protect them, when…
They'll transition to be an even bigger bully.
Yes, the US is moving towards a Russian-style oligarchy with frightening speed.
Re: Managers given 200 characters to justify not firing nuclear regulators
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you believe Musk wont reach it you are dreaming. Just cutting all funding to all those NGO and those foreign news institutions will do it. In many countries a big chunk of governments workers are bs jobs and are just there to maintain an aging machine look like its working while helping reducing unemployment rate by financing useless jobs.
In the game Civilization, there are different ways to achieve victory, one of which is a Cultural Victory. A lot of the foreign aid the US does is kind of like this, where we're attempting to shift other countries to our way of life through a mix of direct aid, loans, news, and other methods. There's a real long term ROI on these things where it's inarguably to the US' benefit that other countries want to speak Engli…
There are a few interesting channels on YT of Africans singing Chinese folk and pop songs. Quite fascinating and a sign of how China has been able to spread influence in Africa through investment. (Of course none of it a free ride)
Re: Managers given 200 characters to justify not firing nuclear regulators
#60> Nuclear security is highly specialized, high-pressure work, but it's not particularly well paid, one employee told NPR. Given what's unfolded over the past 24 hours, "why would anybody want to take these jobs?" they asked. The people who will be hired in those jobs in the future are the ones who can't find any other job, and don't care one way or another. It will be a catastrophe of epic proportions, but hard to no…
Plus some spies. It's an absolutely ideal time to turn up as a spy with a suitably right-wing Twitter account and blag your way into Federal offices.