801–810 of 1001 posts
"There has been a government-wide purge going on of references to any sorts of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) criteria, and indeed, various elected and unelected officials have for some time now been using "DEI" as a scapegoat term and apparently a shorter way of casting suspicion on anything that is not being run by some white guy. As a white guy myself, I find this phenomenally offensive, and I can't even i…
Some people here seem to be upset. I don't get it. More than 40% of US adults are obese. The rates of chronic diseases are through the roof. There's obviously a systemic problem in these institutions who are tasked with the well-being of the country. We know of many fraud in social sciences (ever heard of priming research?), medical science (eg. alzheimer researchs) and nutritional science (eg. saturated fats). In fa…
Do you believe that it is the responsibility of the NIH to decide what Americans eat?
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> Trump stated what mental gymnastics are you having to do to believe Trump, who is a proven pathological liar -- I mean, come on, that's not even a question of debate I believe 0% of what Trump says. But even if that were true, it doesn't resolve the conflict of interest story. Gov money being cut from _fill in blank of gov agency_ means that there's more money available for what's important to Musk (corp tax cuts,…
Not really. Government spending doesn't need to be balanced like a household budget. Whether or not policies are enacted which financially benefit Musk is not dependenant on whether he can find savings or not.
Right now all we have is speculation on your behalf that Musk is acting unethically by ignoring a conflict of interest, versus a public statement from the president that he's not being permitted to do so.
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Yes let's call a spade a spade, it's a coup. Trump is passing as much stuff as quickly as he can to bypass the separation of powers while they catch up.
I don't think you can call a democratically elected president doing what he promised to do a coup.
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The other big elephant in the room is that the self-appointed wanna-be ruler, Musk, owns companies which have received very large amounts of both government (taxpayer) grants and contracts. Back in 2015, the LA Times reported Musk's companies had received nearly $5 billion in grants. That's taxpayer money. Plus there's the SpaceX contracts--not saying those are unwarranted, certainly SpaceX deserves the contracts mor…
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Ok, so all payments are paused while funding is reviewed? Allowance for emergency payments to keep the lights on? This is taxpayers money and these agencies report to the President under the executive power. A shocker that government agencies might need account for spending. And I’m sorry “its not a lot of money” doesn’t fly when all the “its not a lot of money” is $8 trillion dollars. The federal deficit will never…
This stuff is a rounding error against SS, Medicare, and the military.
Doesn’t make tossing $50B out the window “ok”.
It’s like the people making a $100k who don’t know where all the money goes. It’s all just a rounding error, but rounding errors add up fast.
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> I recall an election recently not a coup. List of dictators that achieved power via what were at the time, free and fair elections: Adolf Hitler - 1933 Ferdinand Marcos - 1965 Alberto Fujimori - 1990 Robert Mugabe - 1980 Alexander Lukashenko - 1994 Hugo Chávez - 1998
Which of these was elected, lost power, and were elected again? Normally dictators don’t let go of power
This was attempt number one: https://youtu.be/Iludfj6Pe7w
All including the ones using violence against policeman were just freed less than a week ago.
"Republican Senator Graham calls Trump's Jan. 6 pardons a 'mistake'" - https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republican-senator-graham-c...
"Mitch McConnell calls Donald Trump pardons a 'mistake,' Jan. 6 'an insurrection'" - https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5122585-trump-mcconnell-...
"There has been a government-wide purge going on of references to any sorts of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) criteria, and indeed, various elected and unelected officials have for some time now been using "DEI" as a scapegoat term and apparently a shorter way of casting suspicion on anything that is not being run by some white guy. As a white guy myself, I find this phenomenally offensive, and I can't even i…
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Routinely reaching past the defined limits of the executive branch could be described as a coup. Depending on the event/circumstances, it's congress being overthrown, or the constitution, etc. Assuming a definition of coup like "violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group" there's a reasonable case to be made.
That ship sailed several decades ago, at the least. Presidents have been routinely testing the limits of executive authority longer than I've been alive. Everyone is perfectly happy to rationalize it with motivated reasoning until it is their ox being gored. The histrionics over the current flavor of the month betrays an ignorance of what has been historically routine in Washington DC for a long time or hypocrisy. People only pay attention when they are told to pay attention.
As a matter of principle, one side doesn't get to reserve tools of abuse for themselves. I'd rather a system where this was not a thing at all, but since it is, a lot of the shrillness has a "leopards eating faces" vibe. The wheel turns, and it will continue turning.
Despite all the hyperbole in this thread I will try to speak plainly. It has become tiring to see how DEI has affected all aspects of academia. Hiring people based on race, awarding grants to work exclusively with members of a particular set of minorities, etc. I'm sure most people choose to close their eyes to such things and move on and focus on the actual important work but there must be unimaginable waste going o…
Do you know what is the original and ultimate identity politics? Enslaving people because you deem them inferior to your own race. The civil war, the civil rights movement, and modern social justice movements are a response to this, not the root of the conflict.
I'm a white guy in academia - not tenured yet - and I cannot fathom the ignorance necessary to believe that white males are at an disadvantage because of university administrators being "woke". Give me a break!