Gurgen I think Europe needs to take some of the blame here as well. I don't agree with the American stance but Europe has been for too long ignored their own armed defences and relied upon American security for a long time. They've pissed away their money and now they'll be dictated to by the Americans how this war ends and the terms of it. They know exactly what Russia are like yet still chose that path, hell they happily bought oil off them.

Lets see what Trump does but early signs are he wants the war to stop and doesn't really care too much about anything else. Europe does have a lot of frozen Russian assets which it could try to use as leverage. But right now a lot of European countries needs to have a long hard think about how they prepare going forward. The Americans are not providing security any more, if they do it will come at a high cost.

Kel Varnsen I agree with the goal of Musk and Trump. Not sure they are doing it the right/most efficient way though.. we'll see in a year or two. Reducing the bureaucracy (in size and power) is necessary. Liberal democracies need more democracy (populism) and a less liberalism (institutions).

Democrats used to talk about this as well. I don't know how much Clinton and Obama got done, I do recall the last time their government had a surplus was under Clinton and possibly the first year of Bush.

Mirth What you described is a common scam that most businesses face and unfortunately some fall victim to.

I dare say that if the NHS flagged it at £250k, they have more sophisticated controls than Meta and Google!

I can't remember now how it was picked up but it happened long after the money had gone and they didn't recover anything. That Meta scam seems a lot more sophisticated then just sending an invoice through the post and hoping it gets paid!

Claudius So you actually need to actively create programs to grow and retain women. Doesn’t mean that the women are too stupid for the work. They juat face a million structural constraints that make their lives a lot harder than a man’s. That’s what DEI is about. It’s not about getting stupid people into your company.

Like I said it started with good intentions but it clearly being abused when less clever kids get vip lanes into top universities over more brighter kids because of their colour. I strongly support programs which have helped physically and mentally disabled people get into work, the problem is these good programs end up being abused by people with certain ideological beliefs.

awooga83 Your presumption seems to be that what they claim is the truth even without the evidence to I support it. You want transparency from government, why can't we have transparency from Musk et al?

That is the way government works, if Elon and Trump are fucking around they won't be able to hide it. In a couple years time when the next elections happen Trump will end up as a lame duck president like he did last time and then nothing gets done.

JazzG That is the way government works, if Elon and Trump are fucking around they won't be able to hide it. In a couple years time when the next elections happen Trump will end up as a lame duck president like he did last time and then nothing gets done.

Which is fine but it's only worth considering what they have alleged when they provide the supporting evidence, until then it's unverified and not worth taking on board because you have no way to know what's true.

JazzG Americans encouraged that behaviour because it suited them just fine to have the most powerful military in the world with as many countries as possible depending on them. They don't get to beat Europe with that stick, though Europe should wise up.

JazzG have you read the tech bros manifestos? that aint the way this ends

The anti-DEI stuff is engineered to give its spectator the vicarious thrill of punishing minority groups and their supporters.

That thrill is what you get to have instead of getting to have a more level playing field, a fair society and a better life. You're still behind the legacy admissions getting into the Ivy League.

I saw someone had filmed a good ole' boy / minuteman type blocking the door of a USAID office the other day. Then someone else made a photo montage of mostly just the black women who couldn't attend their former workplace. Which promptly went viral among Twitter fascists. That's what "anti-DEI" means: payback for chauvinists.

Gurgen Catching up on the news - it's incredible. All this stuff on DOGE and everything else is smoke and mirrors really compared to the reshaping of the world order.

Claudius it's funny to complain about "DEI hires" and then look at the various people Trump has chosen for their roles.

QuincyAbeyie yup. Cos it’s not about DEI. It’s about maintaining white supremacy.
At least Trump and co don’t try to hide it. They’re quite open with policies like refugee programs for Afrikaners. Other folks have had to operate on the fringes with words like woke for the last few years. It’s a good time to be a white supremacist. .

Kel Varnsen

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-gen-z-popularity-favorable-rating-yougov-2030595

The 18-29 bracket aren't really a long term indicator - they're the most likely to shift over time compared to 30+

Gazza M Trump said Elon Musk and his team were gonna do it this way and that is what is happening. I mean tough if you don't like it but he won the popular vote and all swing states, he has a pretty strong mandate to do all this. When mid terms come if this all turns out to be a load of rubbish the voters will punish them and he'll end up a lame duck president for the rest of his term.

Obama's staffers talking about it and saying they should have done some of this stuff.

Mirth I'd agree with the latter, the US are taking about multi polar worlds and looks like they have no interest in spreading themselves thin. Their main worry and focus is China. Marco Rubio did an interview recently and it kind of gave a glimpse into their thinking. Ties into this all of a sudden obsession with the Panama Canal and Greenland.

Claudius The supreme court ruling that overturned Affirmative Action was bought forward by I think a conservative group who said the policies discriminated again Asian American students, are these Asian Americans the people who are trying to maintain white supremacy? A recent case gone into California alleging discrimination against Asian Americans. My understanding is that community feels pretty strongly about this, I had a few Chinese friends and spoke about them about this culture in their community of prioritising education over everything else. So I'm not surprised they feel a bit annoyed.

A mandate doesn't come from what margin you think is acceptable. He won the electoral college, popular votes and all the swing states. And all this DOGE stuff he has been going on about it since the summer.

Yes Obama had a mandate and a shame he didn't use his mandate to go after the banks and put people in jail after their fucks up tanked the world economy. Living a nice cushy life now I hear though.

This tweet goes into the detail about DOGE, if this is correct they have repurposed one of Obama's agencies and turned it into DOGE.