The direction of society lately

[Too Tall]

Jeepers Mickey, I get it. It should take alot less than a hammer blow to understand a clearly NOT OK situation.

We are in it pal.

[echappist]

So the career FBI agents who partook in investigation of Trump are set to be dismissed, and a career Treasury official in charge of sensitive payment system is set to retire after confronting minions of the ersatz Duce del Venezia (circumlocution intentional).

So much for law and order...

[72gmc]

I don’t have an active facebook account, but my wife does. A friend of a friend, a woman who is very accomplished as a journalist in science and health, shared that she and her staff just finished copying as much as they could from the CDC website. They’re providing that information via Scientific American because the current administration is shutting down cdc dot gov so that it can edit the data portal for ideological reasons.

IMG_6383.jpg

[bironi]

There is a stranglehold on facts and truth.
These channels are no match for the grip around the throat.

[vertical_doug]

I don’t have an active facebook account, but my wife does. A friend of a friend, a woman who is very accomplished as a journalist in science and health, shared that she and her staff just finished copying as much as they could from the CDC website. They’re providing that information via Scientific American because the current administration is shutting down cdc dot gov so that it can edit the data portal for ideological reasons.

IMG_6383.jpg

The Washington Post is covering this. Some of the changes make corrections to what was DEI overreach. Correcting the term 'Pregnant People' to 'Pregnant Women' seems correct to me. But the program written to do this is also making funny changes because it was a program written in haste- i.e. IRS website use of equity and inclusion is different than typical DEI use. Since Trump Admin believes (wrongly) tariffs can replace taxes, they probably don't care.

The issue will be to find the other nasty changes they slip in under the cover of the DEI edits.

Finally, Donald Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do. This is what people voted for.

If you want to be mad, be mad at Congress. Both Democrats and Republican congress are pretty feckless here. If congress won't stand up in a bipartisan unison to push back against the presidential power grab for the power of the purse, well the takeover will be complete.

It is a plutocracy. Follow the money

[bironi]

Yes Doug,
The WP is covering this, but we read the WP, is that enough?
By

[suspectdevice]

If you aren’t emailing and calling your congresspeople and senators nuisance amounts every day, you aren’t American-ing hard enough right now.
The modern world that your parents and grandparents fought for is being disassembled… Have some respect

[thollandpe]

If you aren’t emailing and calling your congresspeople and senators...

Now on my daily to-do list. Thanks for the reminder.

[suspectdevice]

Now on my daily to-do list. Thanks for the reminder.

202-224-3121

Nancy Mace’s office LOVES hearing from me.

[takashi]

202-224-3121

Nancy Mace’s office LOVES hearing from me.

Do you give her money? Like, lots of money?

[j44ke]

Do you give her money? Like, lots of money?

I think, given Nancy Mace's infamous politics, Mickey was being sarcastic.

[takashi]

I think, given Nancy Mace's infamous politics, Mickey was being sarcastic.

I am unfamiliar with her. I was suggesting that politicians pay attention to money and not much else.

[j44ke]

I am unfamiliar with her. I was suggesting that politicians pay attention to money and not much else.

Then you should do some research. She is not someone to be ignored.

[suspectdevice]

Now on my daily to-do list. Thanks for the reminder.

Then you should do some research. She is not someone to be ignored.

She is my rep in SC district 1!
It’s funny because i remember when she was the first female graduate from the Citadel… Her dad was the commandant or something, so they actually did something about the abuse and harassment…. just for her.

[takashi]

She seems like a moron, but that is an accurate reflection of most of the country. Not surprising she is an elected official.

[suspectdevice]

Thinking about SC1 a little bit more:
the majority of african slaves came in through it.
The civil war started in it, it was where the Emancipation Proclamation was first read, aloud, by a veteran of Bleeding Kansas wars who often supped with John Brown, flanked by the SC 2nd regiment, a fighting force made up of contraband slaves who 6 months earlier were freed by the largest amphibious invasion force the world would see until 1945.

Reconstruction was born in SC1 and it ended there, violently after mobs of white veterans waged violent terror campaigns against the town’s established by black veterans. 40 acres and a mule, aka field order 15 was already unneeded in much of SC by 1865, as the formerly enslaved were paid enough by the US treasury department to buy the titles to the homes and land their former masters had owned before fleeing the federal armada.

The reason The Port Royal Experiment in freedom, education and self government ended in the SC 1st?
The 14th amendment… Birthright citizenship

president biden spent his last day in office in visiting the SC 1st… Don’t even get me started on how the Paris Island executive golf course is built on top of the original Spanish colonial capital from the 15th century….

Anyway, please, america, pay attention to your history classes, and beware serpents from the sc 1st.

[Saab2000]

She is my rep in SC district 1!
It’s funny because i remember when she was the first female graduate from the Citadel… Her dad was the commandant or something, so they actually did something about the abuse and harassment…. just for her.

About 7 years ago I worked a trip with a graduate of the Citadel. I was not impressed with him as a human being.

[echappist]

She is my rep in SC district 1!
It’s funny because i remember when she was the first female graduate from the Citadel… Her dad was the commandant or something, so they actually did something about the abuse and harassment…. just for her.

Par for the course for most of the modern GOP, doing something that has benefits to society at large only when it directly benefits their immediate interests. See also Dick Cheney's support for gay rights.

[72gmc]

Par for the course for most of the modern GOP, doing something that has benefits to society at large only when it directly benefits their immediate interests. See also Dick Cheney's support for gay rights.

If modern politicians were more motivated by simply having more, rather than the heightened selfishness of taking and keeping stuff from someone else, there’d be more opportunity to buy their actions for the common good. Zero-sum thinking lacks imagination and limits society.

[BBB]

If modern politicians were more motivated by simply having more, rather than the heightened selfishness of taking and keeping stuff from someone else, there’d be more opportunity to buy their actions for the common good. Zero-sum thinking lacks imagination and limits society.

I'm not sure I understand. Agree that taking and keeping stuff from someone else is not ideal. But, why do they need to be motivated by 'simply having more'? Arguably 'having more' is part of society's problem. Why have one house when you can have three? Why be a millionaire when you can be a billionaire. Etc. Also why are do we want to 'buy their actions'? The common good is good, but buying is not. They get a salary for their role. And that should be it.

It's just my opinion of course, but there needs to be a re-interpretation of politicians role vis à vis the people. It won't come from the politicians themselves as self-interest is involved. This leaves the court system. Given the power politicians can exercise over the people (tax for example, or the provision of benefits for the less fortunate, or policy on contentious issues such as climate change) and the minimal power the people have (a vote every 3-5 years), the relationship should be re-categorised as a fiduciary relationship. That would put their heads well and truly on the chopping block and like everyone else who stands in the role of fiduciary (doctors, lawyers, etc) they would have to act in the best interests of those that stand in the other side of the fiduciary relationship, in the politician's case, the people.

What's in the best interest of the people is of course subject to interpretation. However, things like this example below are not in the best interest of the people. How hard is it to accept that climate change is ruining the Great Barrier Reef? The last two Australian Governments have tried to fight the bleeding obvious.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...in-danger-list