sockpuppet2
5d ago
Trump infamously tweeted a Mussolini quote in 2016, fwiw.
sockpuppet2
6d ago
I assumed his character was meant to be about that age before going to prison
Except the younger brother was still in high school, when he got out of prison.
sockpuppet2
6d ago
I'm agnostic about the optimal funding for this program. I find it noteworthy, due to it being in support of a stated priority.
sockpuppet2
6d ago
I don't know what you'll take for proof, but let's break it down:
- Despite it being very obvious, Adam's corruption is hilariously trivial: some nice plane tickets and hotel stays for fast tracking a building.
...
This is, of course, not definitive proof, because you might dispute the following assumptions:
- That this Adams' only instance of corruption: I don't know about only, but it is probably the worst, because nothing else seems to have come out after the indictment.
I don't know of another allegation of prior corruption, off the top of my head, but committing a second quid pro quo changing mayoral policy in exchange for the Feds dropping the charges for the first quid pro quo, as seems to be the case, would be pretty fucking corrupt.
sockpuppet2
6d ago
Are you going to continue to post each one you can find?
If there are more which I think are interesting and CW-y. Also note that the top level comment below this is me pointing out the conspicuous lack of intervention at the BATFE, despite that being an agency that commits a whole lot of fuckery that could legitimately be stopped by executive order.
sockpuppet2
6d ago
I took it as a joke, but it's also an interesting question.
sockpuppet2
7d ago
I think the fentanyl fighting rhetoric is just an excuse to enforce tighter border security.
Are training counterparts on the other side of the border and donating drug-detecting dogs not means to the end of "enforce tighter border security?"
sockpuppet2
7d ago
The point in contention between the two sides here is precisely if 'MSM' and 'gay' mean the same thing or not.
If they are not, then of course there needs to be a separately-created purpose-specific definition.
If they are, then 'gay' is said purpose-specific definition, and 'MSM' serves no purpose.
I think others gave good examples of ways in which they have different meanings.
sockpuppet2
7d ago
Thanks. I saw the executive order, but I interpreted it as lip-service-until-proven-otherwise - the faithful implementation of the stated goal would be to eliminate all BATFE rules about regulated firearm components and disallow Federal prosecutors from pursuing charges for anything but the clearest violations of statutory language, which doesn't require 30 days of review.
I miss your effort-posts on law stuff, btw.
sockpuppet2
7d ago
There is no neo-nazi culture. They essentially don’t exist outside of places like prison.
Was this true circa 1985-1995? The script was written 30 years ago.
sockpuppet2
7d ago
Aren’t Chicago democrats famously corrupt?
Yes. Adams's alleged quid pro quo is tough bar to clear, though.
And I don’t think you can fairly ask for a source on the second claim
2rafa said it was "clear" - how is it unfair to ask for proof of a "clear" claim?
sockpuppet2
7d ago
That said, while corrupt, he’s still less corrupt than the average Democrat machine politician in eg. Chicago or Philadelphia and it’s clear he was (even if justifiably) targeted because the party wanted Garcia.
Proof for either of these claims?
sockpuppet2
7d ago
sockpuppet2
7d ago
I rewatched "American History X." It's both as good and on-the-nose I remember. But one good way in which it's on-the-nose is that Derek (Norton's character) gives long monologues about rational racial grievances, showing how radical ideologies tempt a certain kind of person in a certain situation. Any other good examples of media doing a good job at this?
Some misc. thoughts:
The main plot has two inciting incidents that co-occur, with one being Derek's younger brother getting in trouble at school for choosing Mein Kampf for an English assignment about works related to civil rights. The school principle defends him to his English teacher, pointing out that it met the requirements of the assignment... but didn't do so by calling it "work to rule," which was a missed opportunity.
Norton was too old for the role and it really showed in the flashbacks... but his performance justifies willingly suspending disbelief.
The overqualified high school teacher/principal and community outreach something-or-other is played by Avery Brooks, filmed concurrently with Deep Space 9, in which he played Captain Benjamin Sisko (the one who responded to Q placing them in a boxing ring by punching Q in the face - totes the best Star Trek captain). This made me wonder if this role was the reason his character on DS9 grew a goatee mid-season, rather than between seasons, but it was filmed two years after the debut of the goatee.
The rest of the supporting cast was also great, including Ethan Suplee, best known for playing Randy Hickey (the brother) in My Name Is Earl. .
There are a lot of obvious continuity errors, confusingly mismatched sightlines, and things that just don't make sense. Again, the impact of the performances justify willingly suspending disbelief.
It was filmed disproportionately in close-up, with few wide shots. It's unclear if there was a thematic intent to this, but it's interesting.
All but the youngest character in the family (including the dead dad) have first names starting with the same letter, but nobody lampshades this.
sockpuppet2
7d ago
Reuters (with links to documents): Trump’s foreign aid freeze stops anti-fentanyl work in Mexico
All of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) programs in Mexico are currently halted due to the funding freeze, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters. These programs focus heavily on dismantling the fentanyl supply chain, according to State Department budget documents reviewed by Reuters. Their activities include training Mexican authorities to find and destroy clandestine fentanyl labs and to stop precursor chemicals needed to manufacture the illicit drug from entering Mexico.
In Mexico, INL also donates drug-detecting canines that helped Mexican authorities seize millions of fentanyl pills in 2023 alone, according to a March 2024 INL report.
“By pausing this assistance, the United States undercuts its own ability to manage a crisis affecting millions of Americans," said Dafna H. Rand, former director of the Office of Foreign Assistance at the State Department from 2021 to 2023. “U.S. foreign assistance programs in Mexico are countering the fentanyl supply chain by training local security services and ensuring maximum U.S.-Mexican cooperation in the fight against this deadly drug.”
...
Through INL projects, the U.S. partners with Mexican authorities operating on the counternarcotics frontline, including the military, prosecutors and police. Beyond narcotics, INL in Mexico also provides support to combat illegal migration and human smuggling.
Hundreds of projects covering billions of dollars in assistance around the world came to a halt, including much of INL’s work globally, after Trump on January 20 ordered a freeze on most U.S. foreign aid, saying he wanted to ensure the spending was aligned with his "America First" policy.
While U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued waivers for what he called “life-saving humanitarian assistance” to be exempt from the freeze, aid workers and U.N. staff have said most of the programs remain shut and that confusion persists as to what is or isn’t permissible.
One source familiar with the situation said the administration was considering a waiver to permit funding for some foreign anti-narcotics programs, but it wasn't clear if INL’s Mexico projects were among them. Two of the sources said INL’s Mexico projects have not at present been given exemptions.
The funding freeze really seems to have generated many foreseeable problems. This one seems to go pretty directly against the administration's stated policy goals, and I'm having trouble coming up with good defenses of it:
It should have been done by the DEA, not the State Department? Setting aside whether or not this would have been organizationally superior, the way to correct the error of having this be done by the State Department would be to transfer the INL to the DEA... which is apparently not being done.
The administration couldn't have expected this to be done by the State Department, not the DEA, setting aside which is organizationally superior? This would be tacitly conceding their incompetence, and they haven't fixed the problem, despite now being aware of it.
We shouldn't be devote resources to combating drug trafficking on the other side of the border, on principle? Mexico could just as easily say that international drug trafficking is a problem of the recipient country's making, since the recipient country is the one with illicit demand, so Mexico has the principled reason to not devote resources to it.
Anyone have better ideas?
sockpuppet2
7d ago
Is it gay for intoxicated college girls to kiss and grope each other (or more) for the purpose of getting male sexual attention, without "debasing" themselves with male sexual interaction? I wouldn't say it isn't, but the point (in case it needs to be stated) is that demographics aren't natural kinds, so having purpose-specific definitions of certain categories in certain contexts is better than the alternative.
(See, also, The Categories Were Made For Man, Not Man For The Categories)
sockpuppet2
7d ago
Anyone know of Trumpian "reform" of the BATFE, thus far? Doing an internet search for "Trump BATFE" with a one month time limit doesn't turn up anything. Anyone else wondering why the BATFE should/would be spared? It seems to me that the BATFE should be near the top of the list of federal agencies the base wants "reformed." Some ideas for possible reasons:
The base doesn't actually care about BATFE fuckery, unlike libertarians and policy wonks. (Anyone know if this is true?)
Donald "Take the guns first, and do due process later"/bump stock ban Trump is (mostly) secretly pro-gun control (for little people, of course; not VIPs. Perhaps supported by his general lack of comment on the issue, this election
Some strategist decided that, unlike the FBI, the BATFE would be perceived as "legitimate law enforcement" and, thusly, is off-limits.
sockpuppet2
7d ago
How is his physiognomy relevant, if it's not ratlike? (And who do you consider to be "his people?")
sockpuppet2
8d ago
Why shouldn't they have been participating in clinical trials? Couldn't the problem have been avoided by the stop-work order having specific previsions for per-protocol discontinuation of trial interventions, as applicable?
CAPRISA appears to be an NIH partnership, FWIW. I'm open to the possibilities she was incorrect or lying, but it seems Dr. Monsoor believed the stop-work order applied to discontinuing interventions per-protocol. (Even if she, herself wasn't employed by USAID, it wouldn't be surprising if it was practically impossible to do so without using any USAID resource.)
sockpuppet2
8d ago
Real rats don't have large, domed heads, though, and his face is fairly flat.
sockpuppet2
8d ago
NYTimes article that wasn't paywalled for me, with my browser extensions: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/health/usaid-clinical-trials-funding-trump.html
In more bad-things-happening-due-to-USAID-stop-work-order-news*, it turns out that USAID participated in clinical trials. ("The Times identified more than 30 frozen studies that had volunteers already in the care of researchers...") Interrupting clinical trials is bad:
Asanda Zondi received a startling phone call last Thursday, with orders to make her way to a health clinic in Vulindlela, South Africa, where she was participating in a research study that was testing a new device to prevent pregnancy and H.IV. infection.
The trial was shutting down, a nurse told her. The device, a silicone ring inserted into her vagina, needed to be removed right away.
When Ms. Zondi, 22, arrived at the clinic, she learned why: The U.S. Agency for International Development, which funded the study, had withdrawn financial support and had issued a stop-work order to all organizations around the globe that receive its money. The abrupt move followed an executive order by President Trump freezing all foreign aid for at least 90 days. Since then, the Trump administration has taken steps to dismantle the agency entirely.
Ms. Zondi’s trial is one of dozens that have been abruptly frozen, leaving people around the world with experimental drugs and medical products in their bodies, cut off from the researchers who were monitoring them, and generating waves of suspicion and fear.
The State Department, which now oversees U.S.A.I.D., replied to a request for comment by directing a reporter to USAID.gov, which no longer contains any information except that all permanent employees have been placed on administrative leave. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the agency is wasteful and advances a liberal agenda that is counter to President Trump’s foreign policy.
In interviews, scientists — who are forbidden by the terms of the stop-work order to speak with the news media — described agonizing choices: violate the stop-work orders and continue to care for trial volunteers, or leave them alone to face potential side effects and harm.
The Declaration of Helsinki, a decades-old set of ethical principles for medical research that American institutions and others throughout the world have endorsed, lays out ethical guidelines under which medical research should be conducted, requiring that researchers care for participants throughout a trial, and report the results of their findings to the communities where trials were conducted.
Ms. Zondi said she was baffled and frightened. She talked with other women who had volunteered for the study. “Some people are afraid because we don’t know exactly what was the reason,” she said. “We don’t really know the real reason of pausing the study.”
The stop-work order was so immediate and sweeping that the research staff would be violating it if they helped the women remove the rings. But Dr. Leila Mansoor, a scientist with the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (known as CAPRISA) and an investigator on the trial, decided she and her team would do so anyway.
“My first thought when I saw this order was, There are rings in people’s bodies and you cannot leave them,” Dr. Mansoor said. “For me ethics and participants come first. There is a line.”
Setting aside that we now won't get the scientific results of these studies, fucking people over like this** seems like counterproductive foreign policy.
*I'm posting this, because I didn't recall clinical trials coming up in the other discussions (I only learned of it this morning), so it's presumably also news to others and I thought it was different in a key way. (see footnote 2)
**I say "fucking people over," because it's not a situation in which receiving something is better than nothing, even if you didn't receive everything you expected/were promised; these test subjects risked their own health on the basis of guarantees from the trials and the USA reneged on its part of the deal. (I.E., if you're too hard-heartened a libertarian to believe in Kantian medical ethics, the USA is still in the wrong, due to not following the terms of contracts it entered.)
sockpuppet2
8d ago
There is something deeply ratlike about Dominic Cummings. ... Plus, his physiognomy is terrible.
To be clear, do you think he looks like a rat, or are you just insulting him? He doesn't look ratlike, to me.
sockpuppet2
10d ago
Do you have evidence of USAID unjustifiably deviating from best practice or Sierra Leonians having a genetic susceptibility for postpartum hemorrhaging?
What are the easiest ways to get a sinecure, without special connections or credentials?
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