I understand that. What I'm hoping is that the rest of the members of government will remember that Trump cannot do it without them. All an executive order really is, at it's core, is direction for how federal agencies should conduct their business. None of it circumvents congress or the courts. Yes, I know, those two branches of government aren't on our side either, but at the very least I expect them to be slimy enough to know when they have leverage and use it to their advantage - stall out or kill legislation before it has a chance to become anything more than just an executive order full of hot air if for no reason other than to extract concessions from Trump. It all adds up.
I mean, this isn't really governance. It's Trump signing an executive order that will never come to pass without an constitutional amendment, which isn't going to happen. Trump might have promised to be a dictator on day 1, but no matter how much he fancies himself a king, he will always have to work within the boundaries of the framework of government, no matter how ratfucked it might be. Expect this one to be struck down in court very quickly.
I noticed a trend with Trump's executive order spree yesterday - almost all of them are just fluff or red meat for the base that don't have any effect on anything, like the one defining genders, and others are so blatantly unconstitutional that they will be challenged and most likely never implemented, like the one in question terminating birthright citizenship - it's guaranteed to go before the courts and get struck down. Doing something like that would require an constitutional amendment.
He's counting on the goldfish brain base to give him credit for doing these wacky things and then not pay attention three weeks from now when an ACLU lawsuit essentially puts the order in limbo before it dies in front of a judge.
Trump might as well sign an executive order that declares himself Emperor of the Moon and Supreme Chancellor of Outer Space, it'll have about the same amount of impact as this first round of executive orders will.
Of course. I always look at claims such as this with a healthy degree of skepticism, doused with a generous splash Occam's Razor for good measure. A skeptic's simplest explanation would be that nothing happened and Trump is being an idiot as usual. But still, it's worth looking into I would imagine. A subpoena to get Trump and Musk on record about this statement and what Musk does or does not know about the voting machines, at the very least, would be prudent.
I kind of like that TOR is a more primitive version of the web out of necessity (because having these fancy webpages with graphics and other shit to load would just take forever through an onion relay) but I kind of hate that it's just damn hard to find working links to stuff and the association with the seedy underbelly and criminal enterprises of the internet. Also, I've been totally spoiled with my fast internet connection to the clearweb because I no longer have the patience to click on a link and wait for 20 minutes for it to finish loading.
I guess in the future there might be more of a reason for people to retreat from the clearweb, especially considering how shitty things are going in western politics right now.
It's a little more nuanced than that, but it does heavily imply that Elon Musk had some kind of insider knowledge on how the voting machines worked (which, as a private citizen with no connection to the manufacturer of the product, he should not have access to) and Trump credits him as the reason he won the state in a landslide... Highly, highly suspicious phrasing. It could be that Trump is just giving Musk credit for his knowledge of tech in general, but given Trump's known history of attempting to influence the outcome of elections through nefarious means, I wouldn't put it past him to have actually done something. Especially something like using the resources of the richest man on the planet to get what he wants.
Of course, spineless Dems will never challenge him on this. I expect him to fully get away with it, like he does everything.
You're talking about a guy who told an average of 21 lies per day during his first term, and you believe him when he says he has your best interests at heart?
He has no intention of putting the USA or it's citizens first. He's a liar and you've bought into his bullshit.
When the value of your money is only measured by how much of a different currency you can exchange it for, and not it's actual purchasing power (which is 0 for 99.9% of all cryptocurrencies) then it's essentially fake money. Literally no different than the monopoly money Luigi was carrying around with him.
The important thing is that we remember. Every last one of these shitbags who are kissing the ring must never be allowed to wash their hands of the stink of Trump.
If some public figure or company kowtows to Trump, they might as well be dead to me. I'm not going to forget that shit in 4 years when Trump is gone and they try to go back to pretending that they are on our side.
In this political environment, when the corporations are the kingmakers, you can't afford to not be a corporatist. Democrats and Republicans are both very pro-business, but big business likes the Republicans better because they are completely mask-off about letting them do whatever they like, while the Dems have to pretend they care about stuff like regulations to appease their voters.
Bernie, or someone like him, is essentially fighting an uphill battle. You can't take money from corporations, while simultaneously having to defend yourself from far-right extremist slander and the DNC actively trying to sabotage you so they can replace you with a corporatist. Meanwhile, Trump can be the big tent and get everybody in bed with him because the right will clearly stoop to any level to win and businesses have no scruples about who sits in the chair as long as they get a return on their investment.
It's frustrating. Maddening. We are completely screwed for the foreseeable future unless Trump manages to fuck up even worse than he did in his first term or a grassroots left wing movement really gets going in time for the next election, presuming the institution of voting isn't completely ratfucked or dismantled by then.
My theory is that the type of person who falls for conspiracy nonsense is the same type of person who also succumbs to solipsism. They have a core belief that they are the protagonist of their own story, and their story can't be plain, humdrum, or boring like their daily lives had been up until the moment they "uncovered" the grand plot to deceive the world. Acknowledgement of the fact that they are not special or somehow inherently different from any other individual is psychic death, so they retreat into safe spaces and echo chambers that validate them, which make them easy targets for pseudoscience and quasi-religious beliefs.
Conspiracy allows them to indulge in the fantasy of grandiosity, while also introducing them to a community of like-minded people who will welcome them and their beliefs, and never challenge them. That makes it all the more difficult for them to break out of the spell, even when presented evidence that runs contrary to what they believe.
I understand the desire of people who don't want to see accusations like this be used as a political weapon, but the pendulum is swinging too far in the opposite direction here. Trump is using his status as a political candidate and now president-elect to sidestep the judicial process entirely.
It's one thing to say you can be president even from a prison cell if the electorate so wills it. It's another to say that because he was voted to be president, we can't even put him up for a trial to determine guilt or innocence by a jury of his peers.
And now we'll probably never know the answer to that.
Yeah, you're right, but you also conveniently cut out the second half of my sentence where I specifically mentioned being turned away for emissions. Context matters.
This is a great example of the importance of teaching people critical thinking skills.
If you stop to analyze what was written in this sensationalized post rather than acting on your emotions, the first question that should come into mind is "who stopped them?". There are no checkpoints between Oregon and California where cars are turned away from crossing state lines due to emissions. In fact, that would probably violate federal free travel laws which would supercede any stupid law like that.
Next, consider the source. Is this person trustworthy? Did they provide ample citations to reputable journalistic outlets that verified the factuality of the claims? If not, they may be trying to deceive you with falsehoods or have an ulterior motive for misrepresenting the facts. At best they are repeating claims that they've heard from others and anything they report on should be taken with a grain of salt.
This post doesn't hold up to the slightest amount of scrutiny, but people get fooled every day by crap like this. My advice is that if you hear something that sounds outrageous or too good to be true, stop and think carefully about it for a few minutes, or maybe just wait for another source to report it. Saves you a lot of stress and protects you from endlessly doomscrolling.
As much as I'm a fan of the project, I don't think SC/SQ42 would scratch the same itch that somebody who just got done playing Starfield or Mass Effect would feel. Star Citizen is way more on the simulation side and light on RPG elements.
Okay, that's a very fair point. Perhaps we are not giving enough acknowledgement to the fact that we are living in a place that historically has been extremely fire-prone and that if we had bothered to ask the native tribes living here when we arrived, they probably would have warned us that settling in this area with buildings meant to last is probably not the best idea.
I understand that. What I'm hoping is that the rest of the members of government will remember that Trump cannot do it without them. All an executive order really is, at it's core, is direction for how federal agencies should conduct their business. None of it circumvents congress or the courts. Yes, I know, those two branches of government aren't on our side either, but at the very least I expect them to be slimy enough to know when they have leverage and use it to their advantage - stall out or kill legislation before it has a chance to become anything more than just an executive order full of hot air if for no reason other than to extract concessions from Trump. It all adds up.