Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

[Shenanigans]

MOD NOTE — cut the crap.

With conservative fascism here, right now, with all due respect, not one single thing I have posted here is crap. I am letting my Heels people know what is 100% happening before our very eyes, and what you need to do about it. That's all. Hop aboard the destroy trumpers train. It's the only thing they will understand with their low-functioning redneck brains.

 

[superrific]

@superrific I appreciate you asking about my health recently, to which I am not doing any better or worse. As such, @nycfan is moderating this place out of the kindness of her heart and while I don’t fully understand everything going on, I am just asking that you don’t make things hard for her (and extension me.)

Seeing as I don’t know what’s happening, you very well could be right in whatever you’re saying. And if so, it would help a bunch if everyone just took a breather and maybe read some sports news or go outside and listen to the birds sing.

Pretty please.

I was accused of being a Jacobin and a jihadist (and pushing the boundaries for sport) because I . . . accurately described the animating principle of the constitution and the philosophies of the framers. I get that you're unwell, and out of respect for your health and your service, I'll take a hike.

When you feel better, you should look at the proportion of threads started by nycfan. That's not a sign of a vibrant community. It's especially not, since the typical nycfan post is just a tweet and the typical responses are "those motherfuckers." Then the trolls come in, and people bicker with them.

Posters say, "why do you engage with the trolls" and the answer is that there's nothing else to do. The trolls have become a vital part of the site's ecology, because they are providing a service in rare supply: disagreement. And it's sort of sad that we can't do better than that.

Paine and I have had some disagreements that have led to useful discussions that people seem to like. But he's been scarce, probably in part because he's engaged and seems to have other things going on, and maybe because this bores him. Otherwise, the overall dynamic is approximated by "nycfan posts news; people get angry and yell at the posters who are provoking them as stand-ins for the tyrants who we would really like to be speaking to but they aren't listening."

If that's what you'd like the site to be, OK. I predict boredom. I get that you're unwell and I really feel bad for you, and I get that you have no energy to follow my thought process above. As I said, I'll take off for that reason. Just food for thought.

 

[CFordUNC]

I’ll be completely honest, and this is not intended to be disrespectful to nycfan, whom I appreciate and admire as a poster, but this board is becoming virtually unreadable and is a whole lot less enjoyable by the passing day to be part of. It actually has nothing to do with politics or ideological disagreement in my opinion, and everything to do with the fact that we have feels like 15 new thread topics started every single day, the overwhelming vast majority of which are by the same poster. There is absolutely no way that we need this many new threads. How many different threads do we need on Elon Musk or Elon Musk adjacent or doge or doge adjacent topics? I haven’t said anything until now but it has become a point of irritation to me recently, but I was more than willing to grin and bear it because overall I enjoy this community and the people in it, but if we are airing grievances on this thread, consider mine aired.

 

[Rock]

I was accused of being a Jacobin and a jihadist (and pushing the boundaries for sport) because I . . . accurately described the animating principle of the constitution and the philosophies of the framers. I get that you're unwell, and out of respect for your health and your service, I'll take a hike.

When you feel better, you should look at the proportion of threads started by nycfan. That's not a sign of a vibrant community. It's especially not, since the typical nycfan post is just a tweet and the typical responses are "those motherfuckers." Then the trolls come in, and people bicker with them.

Posters say, "why do you engage with the trolls" and the answer is that there's nothing else to do. The trolls have become a vital part of the site's ecology, because they are providing a service in rare supply: disagreement. And it's sort of sad that we can't do better than that.

Paine and I have had some disagreements that have led to useful discussions that people seem to like. But he's been scarce, probably in part because he's engaged and seems to have other things going on, and maybe because this bores him. Otherwise, the overall dynamic is approximated by "nycfan posts news; people get angry and yell at the posters who are provoking them as stand-ins for the tyrants who we would really like to be speaking to but they aren't listening."

If that's what you'd like the site to be, OK. I predict boredom. I get that you're unwell and I really feel bad for you, and I get that you have no energy to follow my thought process above. As I said, I'll take off for that reason. Just food for thought.

Appreciate your thoughts.

I’m not asking you to leave altogether if that’s what you’re suggesting. I was just asking that for this current situation, everyone just do me a favor and turn your attention elsewhere for the time being.

I value your thoughts on the board and agree with some of the things you said. Our registrations and site traffic keep ticking up so I’m not overly concerned with something being “wrong.” I’m sure Trump is a big driver of that because people want to read/discuss his actions.

Whatever direction the board goes in, I’m confident that @nycfan is an enormous driver of interest here. I’m not saying that to defend her or say you’re wrong, it’s just that I don’t know how to change the forum for the better through some action on our part. If you have any thoughts, please share them with me. And I mean that genuinely.

I’m sorry I’ve been sick and haven’t been more active but I’m hopeful the spring weather will help cure me and we can take this place to new heights.

 

[Calheel]

Do you mean a political theory site? Why would you caricature my position as jihad? Do you think that's fair? And the problem with nycfan's position isn't its reasonableness but its workability.

But if you're inviting me to leave . . . I've said many times that I'm ambivalent about my participation here. It's both bad for me, and kinda sadly necessary for me.

I’m not inviting you to leave and jihadists was tongue in cheek.

But NYCfan is clearly concerned that condoning political violence could lead to blood on her hands. All sites have to draw the line somewhere. She draws it differently than you’d draw it. And it is not like this is a new issue. She’s been raising this issue consistently for several months. At some point, it just becomes rude when you won’t respect her line drawing.

 

[Rock]

I’ll be completely honest, and this is not intended to be disrespectful to nycfan, whom I appreciate and admire as a poster, but this board is becoming virtually unreadable and is a whole lot less enjoyable by the passing day to be part of. It actually has nothing to do with politics or ideological disagreement in my opinion, and everything to do with the fact that we have feels like 15 new thread topics started every single day, the overwhelming vast majority of which are by the same poster. There is absolutely no way that we need this many new threads. How many different threads do we need on Elon Musk or Elon Musk adjacent or doge or doge adjacent topics? I haven’t seen anything until now but it has become a point of irritation to me recently, but I was more than willing to grin and bear it because overall I enjoy this community and the people in it, but if we are airing grievances on this thread, consider mine aired.

Thanks. We’ll work together to address this.

I come from a few forums, KUs version of IC, Phog.net, where we had more isolated threads and less running threads. But, IC users prefer the more long running threads surrounding a topic (Trump, Musk, etc.) correct?

 

[WaynetheDrain]

 

[Granville]

I have no problems with the threads or the moderation.

 

[gtyellowjacket]

I have no problems with the threads or the moderation.

Me either. If we want less threads that's fine but if we want more threads, that's fine too. I am a big fan of people not calling for the assassination of public figures. Can't believe that's controversial.

 

[Duke Mu]

1. Because Biden and Harris were, in fact, keeping Bibi at least somewhat in check. And because Biden and Harris would never sell out the very idea of Palestine, as Trump has done. And, after the election passed, the administration would have more leeway to address both sides of the conflict. You just can't embrace pro-terrorist voices during an election season. You just can't. Voters expecting them to do so have little comprehension of our system and refuse to listen.

2. Biden and Harris embraced them as much as possible consistent with winning. That's the best you're going to get as a pariah group. Did black people like it when Clinton denounced Sista Souljah? Not the ones I knew. But Clinton was way better for racial equality and justice than the GOP. Black activists realized that the best way to help their communities was not by big political campaigns, but getting well-placed in policy positions where their voices could be heard, or their views put into practice by administrative agencies. I get it -- this was a war, and not something amenable to incrementalism. But in the end, what they did was devastating to their cause.

Take another example: climate change. Climate change has probably become my #1 voting issue. When I think of the damage being caused by Trump, I think of climate change. Trump is basically locking humanity into a devastating climate change future, unless we find miracle technologies to decarbonize and/or die out to AI. Did the Dems embrace that? No -- they barely said anything about climate change. So yeah, I'm frustrated with that. But I also know that Dems are trying to do something, even if it's insufficient; and are likely to do more when they have more power; and at least they won't make that worse. It's not great bread, but it's better than eating grass.

3. I say this as someone who has zero tolerance for bullshit discrimination, and who tries to do my best to act out my principles. An Afghani restaurant opened up near me last spring, run I'm sure by refugees. My wife and I basically stopped eating anywhere else, to give the restaurant our maximum support. The food was meh. But the idea was important. Alas, it closed last week.

Welp, I suppose Musk and Trump can just fire NOAA scientists and then they can't track problems related to climate change...like it doesn't happen. "Climate is always changing."

So as an example of positive feedback (amplification in a biological system ), the increase in CO2 and warming has caused fires and dumping of CO2 from Canadian and Siberian tundra.

As always, Trump fails to examine the perks and problems of a "real estate acquisition."

https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/arctic-tundra-becoming-source-of-carbon-dioxide-emissions

 

[Duke Mu]

1. Because Biden and Harris were, in fact, keeping Bibi at least somewhat in check. And because Biden and Harris would never sell out the very idea of Palestine, as Trump has done. And, after the election passed, the administration would have more leeway to address both sides of the conflict. You just can't embrace pro-terrorist voices during an election season. You just can't. Voters expecting them to do so have little comprehension of our system and refuse to listen.

2. Biden and Harris embraced them as much as possible consistent with winning. That's the best you're going to get as a pariah group. Did black people like it when Clinton denounced Sista Souljah? Not the ones I knew. But Clinton was way better for racial equality and justice than the GOP. Black activists realized that the best way to help their communities was not by big political campaigns, but getting well-placed in policy positions where their voices could be heard, or their views put into practice by administrative agencies. I get it -- this was a war, and not something amenable to incrementalism. But in the end, what they did was devastating to their cause.

Take another example: climate change. Climate change has probably become my #1 voting issue. When I think of the damage being caused by Trump, I think of climate change. Trump is basically locking humanity into a devastating climate change future, unless we find miracle technologies to decarbonize and/or die out to AI. Did the Dems embrace that? No -- they barely said anything about climate change. So yeah, I'm frustrated with that. But I also know that Dems are trying to do something, even if it's insufficient; and are likely to do more when they have more power; and at least they won't make that worse. It's not great bread, but it's better than eating grass.

3. I say this as someone who has zero tolerance for bullshit discrimination, and who tries to do my best to act out my principles. An Afghani restaurant opened up near me last spring, run I'm sure by refugees. My wife and I basically stopped eating anywhere else, to give the restaurant our maximum support. The food was meh. But the idea was important. Alas, it closed last week.

The Infrastructure Bill supported green energy, but it wasn't enough. We need a Man on the Moon initiative for Fusion Power. Trump is trying to make sure that when he Destroys the US this time, there ain't no coming back...and/or a military auto-coup.

 

[Shenanigans]

Me either. If we want less threads that's fine but if we want more threads, that's fine too. I am a big fan of people not calling for the assassination of public figures. Can't believe that's controversial.

The assassination of conservative dictators. Get it right, for once in your bosiding life.

 

[CFordUNC]

Me either. If we want less threads that's fine but if we want more threads, that's fine too. I am a big fan of people not calling for the assassination of public figures. Can't believe that's controversial.

Me either. If we want less threads that's fine but if we want more threads, that's fine too. I am a big fan of people not calling for the assassination of public figures. Can't believe that's controversial.

Definitely with you on all of the above. I just meant that for me personally, I find it a bit frustrating how many brand new threads are started every single day on topics that are very similar, but at the same time I am not criticizing anyone for starting those threads, nor am I saying that the board should cater to my personal preferences by any means. I just felt like it was the right time and forum in which to share that feedback on this thread.

 

[gtyellowjacket]

Definitely with you on all of the above. I just meant that for me personally, I find it a bit frustrating how many brand new threads are started every single day on topics that are very similar, but at the same time I am not criticizing anyone for starting those threads, nor am I saying that the board should cater to my personal preferences by any means. I just felt like it was the right time and forum in which to share that feedback on this thread.

Yeah. Definitely agree that feedback is good for Rock and NYC. This place is still new and I'm sure it helps them.

 

[CFordUNC]

Yeah. Definitely agree that feedback is good for Rock and NYC. This place is still new and I'm sure it helps them.

Absolutely. They both do such an incredible job with this board - and largely a thankless one at that- so that dorks like me can come argue about politics on the internet. They definitely have my gratitude.

 

[nycfan]

Merged the Trump Gaza video into the general thread as a clean-up of thread proliferation.

 

[BlueSteel]

Trump is trolling. Possibly hoping to distract from the tax cuts for rich people going through Congress. And its going to work.

Exactly this. It's been Trump's entire playbook for years now. His only, and I mean only, interest in this presidency is twofold:

a. avoid accountability (read: jail) for his multiple felonies --- Done.
b. make as much money as possible over the next four years via backdoor schemes and tax cuts for the rich --- In progress.

Everything else is simply a distraction to divert attention from those priorities. Hand-picking his WH press pool makes things all the more easy.

And Americans continue to fall for it. Spectacularly.

One day we'll all look back and scratch our heads as to why, in the waning moments of losing our democracy entirely, we just sat on our hands and did as we were told—seemingly unaware that our country was in fact gasping its final breaths.

 

[Calheel]

Exactly this. It's been Trump's entire playbook for years now. His only, and I mean only, interest in this presidency is twofold:

a. avoid accountability (read: jail) for his multiple felonies --- Done.
b. make as much money as possible over the next four years via backdoor schemes and tax cuts for the rich --- In progress.

Everything else is simply a distraction to divert attention from those priorities. Hand-picking his WH press pool makes things all the more easy.

And Americans continue to fall for it. Spectacularly.

One day we'll all look back and scratch our heads as to why, in the waning moments of losing our democracy entirely, we just sat on our hands and did as we were told—seemingly unaware that our country was in fact gasping its final breaths.

You forgot c. His ego.

DT absolutely loves the power to force people to grovel beneath him. He likes that almost as much as he likes money.

 

[Zoo_View]

Sure he may be trolling and he sure looooves the attention, but it's just SO incomprehensible that this man is president. And that millions of people voted for him and love him, and what that says about us as a society. Republicans used to run on values, but really it turns out that MAGA values are to be the most selfish, greedy humans possible. (Unless you're in their in-group, in which case they might be kind on an as-needed basis.) Pitiful.

Republicans such as Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, Dubya, Mitt Romney, and the clown cars of GOPers in ‘16 and ‘24 CLAIMED to be the “family values” party……CLAIMED.

 

[bassydude77]

Welp, I suppose Musk and Trump can just fire NOAA scientists and then they can't track problems related to climate change...like it doesn't happen. "Climate is always changing."

So as an example of positive feedback (amplification in a biological system ), the increase in CO2 and warming has caused fires and dumping of CO2 from Canadian and Siberian tundra.

As always, Trump fails to examine the perks and problems of a "real estate acquisition."

https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/arctic-tundra-becoming-source-of-carbon-dioxide-emissions

We live in an area with a lot of NOAA, USGS, Fisheries and related scientists. I was talking to a friend last night who's wife works for NOAA. They are totally streesed out. No idea what is likely to happen from one day to the next. Another friends wife works for a nonprofit that supports wetlands management. They have multiple wetlands retoration projects under construction that are largely funded by federal grants, so they have no idea if there will be money to pay the contractors that are in the field doing the work.

Not to say all of these projects are necessary or helpful, but the people that voted for Trump really make no connection to the consequences of cutting funding for all of these departments and projects and the impact on actual working Americans. These cuts ripple through the entire economy. The private sector (energy, pharmaceuticals, tech) uses a tremendous amount of research produced by Federal level scientists. Will the private sector start funding all of that needed research on their own? Maybe?

The contractors doing the field work for the wetlands restoration projects likely voted for Trump without any thought as to how cuts would impact them.

FAFO indeed.