Isn’t this why the 2nd Amendment exists?

[nigel99 484]

Watching the news that members of congress were blocked from entering the Department of Education, isn’t this the entire premise of the 2nd Amendment advocates?

[BIGUN 1,317]

4 minutes ago, nigel99 said:

Watching the news that members of congress were blocked from entering the Department of Education, isn’t this the entire premise of the 2nd Amendment advocates?

Jesus. It's going to be a long, hard, four years. "I'm getting too old for this shit." ~Roger Murtough

[wmw999 2,452]

One law for thee, another for me

Wendy P. 

[gowlerk 2,205]

4 hours ago, BIGUN said:

Jesus. It's going to be a long, hard, four years. "I'm getting too old for this shit." ~Roger Murtough

There are just so many outrageous things going on at once that the whole system is overwhelmed and unable to respond to all the fires at once. There is an element of genius in the chaos. A combination of the project 2025 authors acting as quickly as they can and Musk having unprecedented power and influence. This whole thing is incredible. 

[jakee 1,499]

I'm just waiting for him to try and fire or sideline a Federal Judge. That'll be your point of no return.

[BIGUN 1,317]

1 hour ago, gowlerk said:

There are just so many outrageous things going on at once that the whole system is overwhelmed and unable to respond to all the fires at once. There is an element of genius in the chaos. A combination of the project 2025 authors acting as quickly as they can and Musk having unprecedented power and influence. This whole thing is incredible. 

I used to do acquisitions. There's a period of assessment, observation, and stake holder input as you being to downsize. THEN, you develop a strategic plan. Then you sell it with lower-level endorsement. The last top-down RIF mandate came right after Desert Storm. It was fucking nasty. Thank you Mr. Cheney. 

[gowlerk 2,205]

3 hours ago, BIGUN said:

The last top-down RIF mandate came right after Desert Storm. It was fucking nasty.

I read once that when a take over happens the first thing the new management does is issue a statement saying no personnel changes are planned. The second thing is that they get on with the firings.

[nigel99 484]

6 hours ago, BIGUN said:

I used to do acquisitions. There's a period of assessment, observation, and stake holder input as you being to downsize. THEN, you develop a strategic plan. Then you sell it with lower-level endorsement. The last top-down RIF mandate came right after Desert Storm. It was fucking nasty. Thank you Mr. Cheney. 

I don’t understand? 

[wmw999 2,452]

1 hour ago, nigel99 said:

I don’t understand? 

I think he’s saying it looks like an ugly clusterfuck, based on personal experience.

Wendy P. 

[nigel99 484]

1 hour ago, wmw999 said:

I think he’s saying it looks like an ugly clusterfuck, based on personal experience.

Wendy P. 

It’s really hard separating the news and truth. 

I caught up with a friend last night who is an avid Trump/Musk supporter. He’s adamant that Musk doesn’t have a conflict of interest.

He’s determined that Musk’s little computer genius’s have uncovered massive fraud. This is despite him being a business owner and admitting that an audit of even a small business takes months and that computer skills don’t equate to legal and accounting skills. 

One thing I appreciate about Bigun is that despite his different world views he engages in critical thinking and is driven by facts and will change position if presented with evidence. 

[wmw999 2,452]

Personally I find that different world view to be educational in a good way; I have a couple of other conservative friends that I can talk politics with. One of the big differences is who they give the benefit of doubt to — which makes it clear to me that I have to pay attention to whom I give the benefit of doubt.

And it’s good because it educates me without beating me around the ideological head and shoulders. That approach rarely leads to mutual understanding; the zero sum approach to discussion 

Wendy P. 

[BIGUN 1,317]

13 hours ago, nigel99 said:

I don’t understand? 

Over Cheney's four years as secretary of defense, encompassing budgets for fiscal years 1990-93, DoD's total obligational authority in current dollars declined from $291.3 billion to $269.9 billion. Except for FY 1991, when the TOA budget increased by 1.7 percent, the Cheney budgets showed negative real growth: -2.9 percent in 1990, -9.8 percent in 1992, and -8.1 percent in 1993. During this same period total military personnel declined by 19.4 percent, from 2.202 million in FY 1989 to 1.776 million in FY 1993. The Army took the largest cut, from 770,000 to 572,000–25.8 percent of its strength. The Air Force declined by 22.3 percent, the Navy by 14 percent, and the Marines by 9.7 percent.

https://history.defense.gov/Multimedia/Biographies/Article-View/Article/571284/richard-b-cheney/

Not long after - Clinton had a RIF of 400,000 federal employees. (Federal Workforce Restructuring Act.)

[base698 15]

11 hours ago, nigel99 said:

He’s determined that Musk’s little computer genius’s have uncovered massive fraud. This is despite him being a business owner and admitting that an audit of even a small business takes months and that computer skills don’t equate to legal and accounting skills. 

The big two, one of which is not found by DOGE:

1) USAID turned it's overseas propaganda network inward after the 2016 election (InterNews is one of primary orgs).  There was a theory on the new/dissident right that the consistent messaging across academia and the news networks was because of a concept called "the cathedral".  It was similar to the iron polygon but a fusing of the bureaucracy and press/academia.  This theory, which I bought, seems to be wrong.  It turns out it was just good old fashion money and people with guns.  Mike Benz was on a press tour discussing it a couple of months ago.  Maybe that was by design to help get the word out given it seems to be an early target. 

In addition, politicians are directly on boards of charities funded by USAID, in some cases pulling in 500k salaries.  So the whole thing seems to work like a patronage network.  Part of the database is online and searchable here: https://datarepublican.com/ if you want to know if any of your local charities are funded by it.  That account regularly interacts with Elon and direct action seems to have come from it.

2) There appears to be $100b in entitlement payments to entities with no SSN.  Seems to be directly from DOGE

Apparently Musk bought ads for Superbowl with his own money to explain some of it. 

[wmw999 2,452]

24 minutes ago, base698 said:

The big two, one of which is not found by DOGE:

1) USAID turned it's overseas propaganda network inward after the 2016 election (InterNews is one of primary orgs).  There was a theory on the new/dissident right that the consistent messaging across academia and the news networks was because of a concept called "the cathedral".  It was similar to the iron polygon but a fusing of the bureaucracy and press/academia.  This theory, which I bought, seems to be wrong.  It turns out it was just good old fashion money and people with guns.  Mike Benz was on a press tour discussing it a couple of months ago.  Maybe that was by design to help get the word out given it seems to be an early target. 

In addition, politicians are directly on boards of charities funded by USAID, in some cases pulling in 500k salaries.  So the whole thing seems to work like a patronage network.  Part of the database is online and searchable here: https://datarepublican.com/ if you want to know if any of your local charities are funded by it.  That account regularly interacts with Elon and direct action seems to have come from it.

2) There appears to be $100b in entitlement payments to entities with no SSN.  Seems to be directly from DOGE

Apparently Musk bought ads for Superbowl with his own money to explain some of it. 

So then is Musk buying ads for the Super Bowl with personal money a sign of USAID corruption? That’s some weird shit.

Internews goes back to 1982; its primary stated purpose is to support independent media throughout the world. Its finances are publicly available (that whole silly transparency thing). I’m not sure why Mike Benz is such an authority, except that he makes it “clear” that if a right-leaning guy isn’t making it, it’s because the system is rigged against him.

Wendy P. 

[base698 15]

53 minutes ago, wmw999 said:

I’m not sure why Mike Benz is such an authority, except that he makes it “clear” that if a right-leaning guy isn’t making it, it’s because the system is rigged against him.

They've been fairly clear all political sides benefit from this.  Benz specifically pointed out InterNews turned domestic after 2016 and he is right leaning.  But the data shows tons of Republicans benefited from the payments USAID made.

For Benz ended up focusing on internet censorship I don't remember the reasons.

Edited Sunday at 02:54 PM by base698

[jakee 1,499]

3 hours ago, base698 said:

The big two, one of which is not found by DOGE:

1) USAID turned it's overseas propaganda network inward after the 2016 election (InterNews is one of primary orgs).  There was a theory on the new/dissident right that the consistent messaging across academia and the news networks was because of a concept called "the cathedral".  It was similar to the iron polygon but a fusing of the bureaucracy and press/academia.  This theory, which I bought, seems to be wrong.  It turns out it was just good old fashion money and people with guns.  Mike Benz was on a press tour discussing it a couple of months ago.  Maybe that was by design to help get the word out given it seems to be an early target. 

You don't believe any of that. 

Anyway, you said you voted for Trump primarily because the Dems tried to get you fired. Now, Musk and Trump are illegally firing tens of thousands of people. Real people with families to feed and mortgages to pay. Aren't you angry about that? It's exactly what you ought to hate. Or are you more of a revenge kinda person - like if you can't have exactly what you want then fuck everyone else?

[base698 15]

1 hour ago, jakee said:

You don't believe any of that. 

What specifically?  The fact every media org had the same messaging (even ones that should have had differing views) seems like a good indicator it's not bullshit.

If you look here I voted for Elon and Vance over Trump so yeah, this is what I was hoping would happen.  

Whether it sticks and isn't just performative is another matter.  I'd rather the $100 hamburger not be because our country has been looted for the last two decades.  Make the $100 hamburger an aviation thing again.

Something had to be done about this chart.

 

[jakee 1,499]

59 minutes ago, base698 said:

What specifically?  The fact every media org had the same messaging (even ones that should have had differing views) seems like a good indicator it's not bullshit.

You don't really believe any of that.

Anyway:

59 minutes ago, base698 said:

If you look here I voted for Elon and Vance over Trump so yeah, this is what I was hoping would happen.  

You voted specifically to make the thing which hapened to you that you hated, happen to tens of thousands of other people? Do you still think it was unfair or wrong in anyway when it was done to you? If so, how do you justify that feeling when it's actually what you want?

[base698 15]

32 minutes ago, jakee said:

You voted specifically to make the thing which hapened to you that you hated, happen to tens of thousands of other people? Do you still think it was unfair or wrong in anyway when it was done to you? If so, how do you justify that feeling when it's actually what you want?

Can you explain how when wages remain constant and prices for housing, insurance, education and food triples everyone is supposed to afford life and basic necessities?  Anecdotally I'm paying the same or more in a medium cost of living city as I did living in Santa Monica 7 years ago.  

The decision is between 2-4 million possibly impacted (if you add contractors) and all 170 million labor age people in the country losing the ability to pay for basic necessities.

I worked/do work in the private sector, so I don't really see the comparison.  I just wanted to be left alone.  This USAID/InterNews system seems to have been weaponized directly at many people.  Just from the media and Internet censorship and narratives that caused Covid and to make people hysterical, yeah I want anyone involved in that to go back to working in Starbucks so they can't wield power over anyone ever again.

[base698 15]

41 minutes ago, jakee said:

You don't really believe any of that.

How could you not believe it?

 

 

[jakee 1,499]

59 minutes ago, base698 said:

Can you explain how when wages remain constant and prices for housing, insurance, education and food triples everyone is supposed to afford life and basic necessities?  Anecdotally I'm paying the same or more in a medium cost of living city as I did living in Santa Monica 7 years ago.  

It's not the Government's fault that wages are constant, and firing a huge number of people while cutting benefits and services for those on low wages won't make them change by a cent.

1 hour ago, base698 said:

The decision is between 2-4 million possibly impacted (if you add contractors) and all 170 million labor age people in the country losing the ability to pay for basic necessities.

You dont believe that for a second.

1 hour ago, base698 said:

I worked/do work in the private sector, so I don't really see the comparison.  

Then you were never under threat. So why all the bitching and moaning? 

1 hour ago, base698 said:

Just from the media and Internet censorship and narratives that caused Covid 

<Sigh> Internet censorship and media narratives did not cause covid.

[jakee 1,499]

1 hour ago, base698 said:

How could you not believe it?

 

Ok, you've got a clip of a number of local stations all owned by the same media company reading out a pro-Trump statement written by the owner of the company. It's very obvious that you don't believe any of that has anything to do with USAID.

[base698 15]

4 minutes ago, jakee said:

It's not the Government's fault that wages are constant, and firing a huge number of people while cutting benefits and services for those on low wages won't make them change by a cent.

You dont believe that for a second.

Then you were never under threat. So why all the bitching and moaning? 

<Sigh> Internet censorship and media narratives did not cause covid.

The media did cause 40 somethings whose risk from Covid was roughly on par to a weekend of skydiving to act like they were playing Russian roulette by walking their dog. I saw a person run into traffic because someone got 20 ft away from them.  

These people that believed normal society was now Russian roulette were made that way by the media that conflated a high IFR in 80 year olds with the general population risk.

 

5 minutes ago, jakee said:

Then you were never under threat. So why all the bitching and moaning? 

Biden directly tried to force private companies under OSHA to fire people unwilling to vaccinate.  I know people who worked at companies remotely that were impacted.  

[jakee 1,499]

1 minute ago, base698 said:

Biden directly tried to force private companies under OSHA to fire people unwilling to vaccinate.

No he didn't.

Quote

  I know people who worked at companies remotely that were impacted.  

What do you care if a private company decides to fire someone? You like people being fired.

[base698 15]

8 minutes ago, jakee said:

No he didn't

Seriously? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59989476

11 minutes ago, jakee said:

Ok, you've got a clip of a number of local stations all owned by the same media company reading out a pro-Trump statement

Disinformation on social media was Trump's thing?