And now they're all effectively dead, killed by illegal executive actions whose lawsuits have stalled out in the Supreme Court queue. But the employees are already fired and looking for new jobs, so even if the actions are rolled back when SCOTUS finally gets around to it (strategic delay -- they can move like lightning when it suits them), they'll be hollowed out and unable to perform their legislatively mandated duties.
> Donors hating these agencies means that no political party really fully supports them or funds them fully when they get power.
I'm sorry but democrats have not and are not trying to clean up messes left by republican administrations. Further, it was the democrats under Clinton that have done the most damage to government function "The era of big government is over". They ushered in the privatization and corporate capture of government. A lot of the Dems are still in congress from the clinton era.
Lina Khan is a really good example of the problem with democrats. She was one of Biden's most popular appointees. I saw her praised from across the political spectrum because she, with the little power she had, was actually doing what a lot of people wanted.
And she is exactly the person that dem donors wanted out [1]. Kamala was week there. Rather than embracing the actions of Khan, she was silent as was biden. It was a real question if she'd keep her on board because the donors were so against her.
That's the problem Democrats have. Republicans would never hire a Khan in the first place. If the donors squeal loud enough, despite how popular a cabinet pick is for the general public, dems will capitulate. Weakening trust that they are actually trying to fix anything.
I could go on. The boarder is another prime example of democrats utterly failing. Rather than make the case for the humanity of immigrants, they adopted the republican narrative and policies. Biden for nearly his entire admin had identical boarder policies to trump. Almost nobody in the Democrat representees is talking about scaling back ICE (certainly not the leadership). I do not think if they get power, they'd even contemplate reducing the new insane ICE budget.
It looks like PFAS is a bigger problem in red states (Republican-voting states, for those outside the US). I suspect it's due to the prevalence of fossil fuel extraction and refining facilities and military bases in those states.
The majority of what I see on Bluesky is people saying that political violence is unacceptable. There are a good number juxtaposing Kirk's saying mass school killings are an acceptable price to pay for the right to bear arms. They are not, however, saying that political violence is acceptable. I haven't seen anyone say that.
I have seen right-wing commenters say that the left was saying this. When I asked for examples I got nothing. I got responses, but the left-of-center commenters they pointed to were in the two categories I describe above: those saying the event is terrible and those saying it's ironic.
Now, I'm sure you can find people saying political violence is okay. I'm just saying I haven't seen it at all and therefore it isn't the central tendency in my feed.
They also grow coffee in Puerto Rico. Nevertheless, these few small islands have much less area available for coffee growing than Brazil. And coffee is grown in many other countries than Brazil, all of which are under Trump's trade assault. There is no way to substitute US-grown coffee for foreign-grown coffee.
When I was in Thailand, people honked at pedestrians to let them know they were passing them. Not angry honks, just toots. Different culture. It left a lot of confused tourists.
> You can't just put up a speed sign and hope people will magically abide by it.
Off topic, but one of the more maddening things I see here in the US is signs which say "End thus-and-such speed limit." I don't want to know what the speed limit was. I want to know what it is!
In Ontario a new speed zone is always signed with "BEGINS" below it, which is very helpful if you missed the last sign. I wish this was standard practice across Canada.
In much of Europe, including the UK, they have the concept of standardised "national" speed limits, which vary depending on the road type and which you are expected to know. When a road returns to the national speed limit, the sign is a white circle with a slash through it, indicating that there are no more local speed limits and the national speed limit is in effect.
There are at most three standard speed limits on Europe: built up areas, highways and motorways.
I find this easier to remember than the constantly changing limits in the USA. In my two weeks here, I've seen every multiple of 5 between 5 and 70mph.
In Sweden at least, there's an informal rule that a new speed zone is marked with speed limit signs on both sides of the road, whereas a continued limit is marked with a sign only on the driving side of the road.
I never quite saw the point though -- my response is the same either way: adhere to the limit that applies going forward. (I suppose maybe it's useful feedback of inattention and the need for rest?)
If this were the whole story you'd expect all of Trump and Elon's siblings to be equally terrible. Maybe they are and just haven't had the opportunity to demonstrate it? I have the impression, though, at least in Trump's case, he's in a different league.
Not necessarily. Every psychopath has a golden child, after all; perhaps it’s the same here. It depends who was singled out for more abuse and coldness or demands, and it depends who had more parental love from the other parent, and it could also be a question of genetic predisposition in terms of how they react, it might be different if you have more siblings, etc.
Maryanne Trump Barry —- a federal judge —- was nevertheless part of the family tax cheating scheme.
Robert Trump cheated on his wife and his egregious behaviour seemingly drove her to an overdose.
Fred Trump Jr (Mary’s dad and Fred’s eldest, intended to run the business) drank himself to death, unable to survive the unbearable pressure his father put on him.
DJT is in a different league for sure: he is a malignant narcissist which is already a very unusual personality type, and he was also shaped and protected by Roy Cohn.
Either way, evil dads are always in the back stories of these guys (Emory Tate was a cruel, diagnosed narcissist, a misogynist and adulterer, and often absent too)
Also, there is almost no deterrent effect. The people who authorized or perpetrated the abuse are not punished if you sue and win a settlement. They don't even have to hire and pay the lawyers. The payment comes out everyone's taxes, perhaps with interest if the government has to pay by issuing debt.
When the police abuse their power, it's the community that pays their salaries that feels the pain.
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