Leaderboard

Who gets to judge those things, though? Currently it is a crew of inexperienced 19-23 year old coders who might be able to write script but clearly have not a clue about anything else. Cuts are being made on the basis of what Elon Musk thinks is useful to himself. He is of course well known for his lack of ability to care about anyone except himself and his 10,000 offspring (or so I infer from his statements and behavior), so condemning a few million people to die of malaria, HIV, or starvation is a small price to pay if he gets his tax cuts and trip to be the king of Mars. When Congress creates programs and allocates money, the Executive Branch has no constitutional authority to kill or defund those programs. The Executive can lobby Congress to get rid of such programs, but to do so they would have to convince Congress to take responsibility. Unfortunately the current cult formerly known as the Republican Party is all too happy to let Musk, who doesn't have to worry about re-election, take the heat for killing programs and ruining many lives, at least until he goes after Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (which will begin any day now) and 2/3 of the people who vote R suddenly find themselves in line at the soup kitchen. I fear, though, that virtually every Republican congresscritter will discover that they have no idea where to look for their cojones after Trump and Musk cut them off and fed them to a drove of pigs.

Business is about making a profit for the owners or shareholders. Government is (or should be) about providing services that are not inherently profitable, such as protecting peoples rights and safety, regulating business to limit their tendency to maximize profit by screwing over people, supporting basic research that isn't profitable in the near term but eventually may lead to advances that can be picked up on by industry to develop products such as new drugs, and so on. It's infuriating (to say the least) to see the US government being taken over by grifters who clearly seek to personally profit, either by direct means or indirectly by eliminating the ability of government to prevent them from running roughshod over everybody else. "it's just the way it is" is just a slightly different way of saying "fuck anybody who I don't like".

Hi. Man it seems like we've known each other for a couple of decades :)

Hi folks, Looks like the Jack Daniels people are crying crocodile tears: Jack Daniel's maker says Canada taking bottles off shelves 'worse than tariffs' Too fucking bad, I say. Jerry Baumchen

To this observer from across the pond it appears Trump and Vance seem hell bent on dissolving NATO. Formed in 1949 in Washington NATO comprises a collective of countries who agreed to support each other in the event of hostility being targeted against any of its members. (Article 5) In 76 years Article 5 has only been invoked once. 12 September 2001 by the USA, every member country stood by the US, most lost hundreds of troops in the subsequent war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Government is and should always be different. It's not a business, nor should it ever be.

Jack Daniels CEO Lawson Whiting (also a Trump supporter) is having some #tregret as Canadians pull US products from shelves. It is a "disproportionate response" and completely unfair to him. "I mean, that's worse than a tariff, because it's literally taking your sales away, [and] completely removing our products from the shelves."

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/s/unxqzqDuSz Serms Trump has at last succeeded in getting Europe to agreeing to spend more on defence. I wonder if the idiot realises the money will be spent in Europe on European products?

Probably there isn't anything now that will stop China from taking Taiwan, the Spratley's, or anything else they want. We can only hope that Europe can keep the front lines in Ukraine steady to keep Russia from re-arming while all of Europe gets their military capabilities up to speed. What a shit show. Trump is giving Europe to Putin and Republicans in Congress are standing up and applauding him while he's doing it. Unbelievable.

Hi