jones that's just how gentrification works bro. If you don't know, now you know.

    Claudius I think there's a way to get through. I tried to paint the picture to my Uncle from the perspective of an American. One who had lost their home and neighborhood and livelihood and family members in a war against an imaginary militarily and economically superior neighbor. This neighbor had occupied your land, fenced you in, controlled every aspect of your economy, and your life basically. Turned you into a second class citizen, you know, the whole apartheid bit. And recently they'd banished you and what's left of your family into a rotten refugee camp in Utah. And then, this country's sponsor, the ones that create and supply their money, weapons of war and destruction and death and the associated technology, comes into the picture and says he wants to do all that on your sisters blood. Luxury hotel and resort development. On the blood of the hundreds of thousands that have died/injured in this struggle. I asked if he would think this person is a genius visionary?

      Claudius there's still an overriding sense of 'we'll just vote them out if things don't work out'. not sure it will pan out quite as smoothly as that. I'm sure there's some vague 'abuses' going on at the FEC that musk and co will be sorting out in the coming months

        jones How do you feel now if you supported this? It would've been far better if that useless spook on the roof had put a bullet in him.

          editorial section will now be focused on free markets and personal freedoms? what does that even look like? such capitalist gobbledygook

            Gazza M poor Bezos is upset because he’s the only mega billionaire without his own social media platform so has to make do with bullying a newspaper instead like the old days

                Mirth didn't think of it that way. the most perverse of pissing contests

                  Honest question: do we think it's that Zuck, Bezos and Musk have drunk the techno-futurist Kool-Aid?

                  If they reckon there's going to be a total social and economic revolution caused by AGI, then they might think they're going to need full vertical integration of US government, military, media and manufacturing to "beat China" as it unfolds.

                  This is an existential threat to them, because if they didn't "beat China" then they'd rapidly fall into a second tier of wealth and status. And it'd make sense for the "disruptors" to be hugely paranoid about getting "disrupted".

                    Burnwinter I think they are just more overtly able to embrace being an oligarch and the power that comes with it when you are in the government.

                    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/26/trump-cabinet-elon-musk

                    "But Doge, mostly consisting of young male software engineers fuelled by pizza and Red Bull, has been a disaster. It fired the people who oversee the nuclear weapons stockpile then hastily tried to rehire them, only to find they were hard to contact because they could not access their work email accounts. It claimed to have saved $8bn on a terminated contract that was actually worth only $8m. Musk falsely stated that the US spent $50m on condoms for Gazans. And it emerged this week Doge quietly deleted the top five items from its public ledger of alleged savings after they turned out to be nothing of the sort."

                    More unsurprising insights on Musk and Doge from exact reason you should not trust them outright without evidence. We cancelled ebola prevention but don't worry we picked it up. What about things that you cancelled that you don't realise?

                        There it is. The "trillion dollars of savings" line. Saw that coming a mile off.

                        If you are spending wildly more than you make that position is not sustainable. You either need to raise taxes or cut spending. Total American debt has doubled in the last 10 years, already at like 120% of GDP and think the current deficit is like over $1.5t over the last year, America are on the path to bankruptcy.

                        A lot of other Western economies need to get realistic as well about their spending and debt levels.

                          I'm sorry, but if you honestly believe proper due diligence is being done around these cuts before they happen and the amount of it he calls "fraud", I don't know to tell you. Any auditor will tell you that it's impossible to conclude about something being fraud that quickly.

                          I didn't say I think due diligence is being done. They've decided to move fast and aggressively and that is their choice, DOGE seems to be very popular in America and doesn't take a genius to figure out why. If they do fuck up then there will be political consequences for Trump and Elon Musk.

                          I'd be shocked, absolutely gobsmacked if there wasn't rampant fraud happening. Not just in America but even here in the UK. We all know the Tories were at it but Labour aren't any better.

                            JazzG I'd be shocked, absolutely gobsmacked if there wasn't rampant fraud happening. Not just in America but even here in the UK. We all know the Tories were at it but Labour aren't any better.

                            • Fraud absolutely does happen. The National Audit Office even says so themselves and yes, it's a disgusting waste of resource.
                            • Fraud that meaningfully changes the national debt figure does not. Because even £87bn (the upper limit) is only 3% of the UK national debt.
                            • There already are audits conducted - at least in the UK. These reports are publicly available.
                            • Slashing government spending under the guess of efficiency is literally what austerity was. That is not popular.

                              JazzG I didn't say I think due diligence is being done

                              Okay... So do you think that is important or just something besides the point?

                                  JazzG If they do fuck up then there will be political consequences for Trump and Elon Musk.

                                  No there wont. Trump is in his final term, its not a parliamentary system where they can vote no confidence. He's there for the next 4 years unless he dies in office. 🤞

                                      its a farce. muskrat is starting his X propaganda campaign against verizons $2B contract with the FAA. how convenient that he's proposing starlink to supplant verizon. the daft rebuttal that he's not profit-seeking because 'why would he need more money?' is utterly juvenile koolaid chugging. the consequences of what's being done won't end with trumps term.

                                      I'm no fan of this buffoon. he's been caught launching crypto scams for the last few months. but he does represent a bellwether of 'trump bro' sentiment. he's not a hardliner like some other MAGA influencers, but trump leaning at a minimum. first it was the H1B visa stuff, then the bizzare Gaza AI clip and now this Epstein files debacle. there are some early signs of at least spider cracks forming in the dam of popular sentiment.