LOL, Ok. Just trying to provide an additional data point before you make up your mind although I guess I'm a little late.Quote:
Originally Posted by frugal-one
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LOL, Ok. Just trying to provide an additional data point before you make up your mind although I guess I'm a little late.Quote:
Originally Posted by frugal-one
trump fires those who provide numbers he doesn’t like. Here’s an additional talking point for you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-f...ka-mcentarfer/
OK, thanks for that. As an aside though there's a difference between data points and talking points. One should precede the other.Quote:
Originally Posted by frugal-one
This stuff going on with JD Vance's Cotswalds vacation is really weird. Apparently secret service have gone door to door asking people for their social media accounts, and then they took up all the disabled parking spaces at a farmstore:
Cotswolds angry with JD Vance and Secret Service over latest blunder
As someone who uses a disabled parking sticker, this one really bothered me. As someone who uses social media, the first one bothered me more. Makes me nervous about posting here. Really weird.
Sorry, adding a link about the first one:
JD Vance's secret service entourage 'demanding villagers' social media details' | LBC
Is that even legal in the UK? If it were some kind of UK policy to protect foreign visitors, wouldn't it be something the UK security detail would manage?Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
I have a disabled parking placard myself. That pisses me off. The social media thing, too. I had posted a few months back how I had been posting on my own FB how the tariff rollout was a mess and it made my job much worse. Someone who is an Orange Man fan boi complained to the local Customs office that I wasn’t supporting the prez. Customs person contacted me as I’ve dealt with her for a long time. We both had a good laugh.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
Remember the UK has no issue prosecuting people for stuff posted on social media. I listen to the BBC a lot. Lots of people have had the cops show up at their door questioning them about postings.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
I suspect it wasn't the Secret Service going door to door but rather the local constabulary. I worked with the SS several times during the 90's and early 00's during presidential visits/events and it was my experience that they allow local police and private security associated with the visit/event to incorporate their own methods/means within their participation plans.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
Also, over the past several years the UK has gone batshit crazy over social media posts. It appears that just about any social media post critical of preferred policies or demographics are an invitation to an early morning knock on your door. It doesn't surprise me that local police may ask anyone they come in contact with about their social media presence.
I spend several months a year in Cambridge and Oxford. I just hosted several scholars from those universities here in Brigadoon for a few weeks. I discussed this issue with them at some length. The situation is a bit less dire, and more nuanced, than is commonly made out here in the USA...Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
yes, I think you are right, and I read it wrong. This seems to indicate it was the local police then passing it on to the SS:Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
Villagers near JD Vance's Cotswold's mansion claim they were 'quizzed by police for social media details' as VP's security lockdown sparks outrage among locals | Daily Mail Online
I think.
Related: I am about to receive my first-ever Social Security check.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
Fun fact: The Bureau of Labor Statistics data is used by the Social Security Administration for the annual cost-of-living adjustments to our Social Security benefit.
Fun fact 2: EJ Antoni, who was just appointed to head the BLS after the previous head was sacked by Trump, said late last year about Social Security: "... a Ponzi scheme that was foisted on the American people by the Democrats in the 1930s. You're not going to be able to sustain a Ponzi scheme like Social Security. Eventually, you need to sunset the program."
That’s not the issue.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
But it often is, especially in social media, and in these days it's becoming alarmingly noticeable in most all media.Quote:
Originally Posted by frugal-one
All statistical numbers will be dubious from this regime. Be thankful if you don’t have to rely on social security because this autocracy will do what it can to destroy.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
Not what we were discussing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
OK, sorry.Quote:
Originally Posted by frugal-one
yes, that is worrisome and is worrisome to those in the UK paying attention.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tradd
All of these Western countries claiming their case law and traditions substitute for the First Amendment rights in America are learning otherwise.
Further, inflation numbers are used to determine prime lending rates, which then affect the rates of bonds and other fixed income securities. Those of us counting on fixed incomes in retirement may also take a hit if the numbers are manipulated.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
I wonder if the day will come when the government tries to push cryptocurrency as payment for social security payouts.
Winning hearts and minds:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/u...OhZcpvkf1fUG8g
Another example of trump’s authoritarian show of force! Glad to see citizen’s in Washington and LA are protesting this unwarranted dictatorship move! Teachers are actually patrolling around schools to sound the alarm of ICE agents! What a sad world this is becoming.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
I don't know what in the world is causing this trend in authoritarianism. But it's not just a US thing. I was just reading a Chris Hedges article about conservative right-wing Hindu majority trying to make Hinduism a national religion, and they are suppressing, and even have killed journalists who are reporting the truth about what's going on. And then there's Hungary, China and Russia. I think, unfortunately, Trump is shooting for membership in that club.
I think the irony is that people give up the need to trust in the truth when they are offered easy solutions to complex problems by people who promise them a magic wand. Think those immigrants are taking something from you? Just deport all their asses. Have you been promised hope for a return to better days? Who cares if those promises are laced with lies? The pull to buy in is seductive when it costs you nothing but your suspension of disbelief.
Protests scheduled for tomorrow all over the country in protest of trump trying to get redistricting in TX (and elsewhere) AND unwarranted show of force by military on our streets. We all NEED to get out and show our displeasure of the current regime!
Historically, we seem to move in opposite directions now and then. I was reading about Jung's concept of enantiodromia which one could apply to current political changes. Hoping some equilibrium happens yet in my lifetime but it is hard to be hopeful at this moment in time.Quote:
I don't know what in the world is causing this trend in authoritarianism.
Pinky toe, I had to look this up. How had I never learned that term??? Thank you for challenging my brain today.
Enantiodromia is a principle introduced in the West by psychiatrist Carl Jung. In Psychological Types, Jung defines enantiodromia as "the emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time." It is similar to the principle of equilibrium in the natural world, in that any extreme is opposed by the system in order to restore balance. When things get to their extreme, they turn into their opposite. Wikipedia
Haha! I looked it up, too! Word of the Day! Thanks for posting the definition, nswef. I do think enantiodromia makes sense--I think there's often a pendulum effect in a lot of things we do individually and as a culture.Quote:
Originally Posted by nswef
Looked it up also. Should have kept reading! Feeling there will not be time for me to see the reversal. Hoping it is not too late for us all. Mother nature is showing her fury as well.
One of the political pundints I’ve heard recently (and I don’t remember who at this point) made it clear in his writings that democratic rule and freedom of speech is NOT the natural state of man governing himself. It is a new and precious thing we have to consciously guard and protect. That road looks rocky.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
Oh, yes, Modi is very Hindu nationalist. I have to hear all day long at work, when the owner is there, how wonderful India is. Gag. This is a country that had a caste system, has a bad record of treating women like trash, including killing them. The government at times will shut down the internet to certain areas.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
Then you’ve got Russia, China, and the Islamic countries.
I sometimes think that humans just aren't very smart as a species. We have such a beautiful planet and yet we continue to destroy it and each other.
Some people NEED to be destroyed.Quote:
Originally Posted by pinkytoe
On the plus side, it's highly unlikely that we can destroy the planet. Earth has has five extinction events and will probably have another, whether it's a volcano or asteroid, or a human caused event. The planet will likely regenerate with a new diversity of life forms, just like it has in it's long history, even if it takes millions of years or longer. However we could sure make it an unpleasant place to live for future generations.Quote:
Originally Posted by pinkytoe
I agree, but it's so frustrating that we willfully trash our house and don't care. We're mocking God with our ingratitude and hubris.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogar
ETA: Here's another example of the pendulum swinging in the same direction as the US: Ecuador.
Here's an article from the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/o...gos-noboa.html
And here's the TL;DR version:
For almost two decades this small country has pioneered new ways of imagining and legislating the human relationship with other life on Earth — and inspired similar innovations around the world.
Now, however, that ecological progress is under severe threat from a series of reforms steamrolled by Ecuador’s young populist president, Daniel Noboa. Mr. Noboa is the heir to an agribusiness empire, and came to power with the promise of combating organized crime. His reforms will throw Ecuador’s stunning landscapes open to mining and drilling, dismantle government agencies in the name of “efficiency,” target public officials and civic organizations that he claims obstruct his agenda and concentrate broad emergency powers in his own hands.
Together these measures amount to the most serious assault on environmental protection and constitutional integrity in Ecuador’s recent history. They also come at a perilous moment for a country where murder rates increased sixfold between 2020 and 2023, and where violence toward environmental activists is now also rising.
Mr. Noboa’s first and boldest step was to dissolve the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition on July 24 and hand its powers to the Ministry of Energy and Mines. This is a clear case of putting the fox in charge of the henhouse, and leaves Ecuador without an independent institution to protect its extraordinary ecosystems.
Sound familiar? :(
Today's NYT had an article about how the environmental efforts have been set back by at least a generation. There was a time when the Earthday protests were among the largest in US history. It's beyond unfortunate that we've lost sight of these things. Appearently the evangelicals don't place custodianship of the planet as one of their priorities over money.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
The conversion of the rose garden into a mara largo type ball room is a good analogy for a shift in public opinion.
Traitor trump siding with Putin on Ukraine. Would not be surprised if trump is getting a deal from Putin to build another trump tower there !