The Apprentice Season 2 - The Second Presidency of Donald Trump

[LawBeefaroni]

Regardless, I read something over the weekend that suggested University of Alabama was one of the top recipients of NIH money. It was something like $700 million in 2022 and $900 million in 2023. If that money is cut off, it is going to be absolutely devastating to that school and the surrounding community. I'm having a hard time believing the intention of this administration is to punish a state like Alabama, but maybe they view the higher ed communities in deeply red states as the enemy, so they don't care.

Tommy Tuberville, meet your own petard. You fuck.

[Isgrimnur]

Oh, and Tuberville can go fuck himself.

[Skinypupy]

Regardless, I read something over the weekend that suggested University of Alabama was one of the top recipients of NIH money. It was something like $700 million in 2022 and $900 million in 2023. If that money is cut off, it is going to be absolutely devastating to that school and the surrounding community. I'm having a hard time believing the intention of this administration is to punish a state like Alabama, but maybe they view the higher ed communities in deeply red states as the enemy, so they don't care.

Tommy Tuberville, meet your own petard. You fuck.

Tuberville coached at Auburn. He probably loves this for Bama.

[LordMortis]

Time to start degoogling my life. This is going to suck. Not even sure where I want to begin nor how. The worst is I really appreciate syncing calendar and email from desktop to phone so easily.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.4254793 ... FQAw%3D%3D

[LawBeefaroni]

Time to start degoogling my life. This is going to suck. Not even sure where I want to begin nor how. The worst is I really appreciate syncing calendar and email from desktop to phone so easily.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.4254793 ... FQAw%3D%3D

Depends on the zoom. Mine says "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)" except when zoomed in below 500 mi scale.

[stessier]

Time to start degoogling my life. This is going to suck. Not even sure where I want to begin nor how. The worst is I really appreciate syncing calendar and email from desktop to phone so easily.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.4254793 ... FQAw%3D%3D

In fairness, Google's reasoning for the change is reasonable and content neutral. They go off the GSCIS for the country. Outside the US it will show both designations as they do with other contested areas. I think Mexico might see only The Gulf of Mexico.

[Smoove_B]

The worst is I really appreciate syncing calendar and email from desktop to phone so easily.

I guess you didn't see this then?

[LordMortis]

Way to make it all sooooo much better. This is going to take some time and effort. Fortunately, I never trusted chrome and FF makes it easy to switch to DuckDuckGo. I honestly could leave youtube without to much effort and can easily mostly leave it. Unfortunately, I've really integrated their calendar and gmail into my omnipresent existence.

[LawBeefaroni]

Way to make it all sooooo much better. This is going to take some time and effort. Fortunately, I never trusted chrome and FF makes it easy to switch to DuckDuckGo. I honestly could leave youtube without to much effort and can easily mostly leave it. Unfortunately, I've really integrated their calendar and gmail into my omnipresent existence.

Brave Search. They also have a decent browser.

[Zaxxon]

Huge fan of Kagi here.

Time to start degoogling my life. This is going to suck. Not even sure where I want to begin nor how. The worst is I really appreciate syncing calendar and email from desktop to phone so easily.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.4254793 ... FQAw%3D%3D

In fairness, Google's reasoning for the change is reasonable and content neutral. They go off the GSCIS for the country. Outside the US it will show both designations as they do with other contested areas. I think Mexico might see only The Gulf of Mexico.

Yeah, I was going to give Google crap relative to Apple on this, then saw that Apple announced the change today, too. Which I also can't blame them for--I don't want Google or Apple being the arbiter of place names.

I just wish the actual arbiter of place names wasn't so dumb.

[gbasden]

I'm very mixed on it. On the one hand, yeah, F those Red states; they voted for this.

On the other, I can't help but think it suggests there's a coalition of Blue States forming and this might edge us closer to an official (administrative?) Civil War as the divide grows. I honestly think it's going to be a weather event or some other type of large-scale disaster (like the next wildfire situation) that is going to potentially bring this to a head, depending on where and when it happens and if there's a situation where money/aid is quickly being funneled to a Red state but clearly being withheld to a Blue one.

I strongly believe we are going to see political violence start to occur and sooner rather than later. There is simply too much anger on both sides, and with Trump smashing everything it's going to boil over.

[Smoove_B]

I strongly believe we are going to see political violence start to occur and sooner rather than later. There is simply too much anger on both sides, and with Trump smashing everything it's going to boil over.

I'm 100% with you.

[Blackhawk]

There's a reason that me and mine have been keeping a low profile locally. Commenting on any area internet site is done only through an alias account, for example.

[Zarathud]

And 100% expect MAGA to be surprised when people actively fight back physically, after years of threatening (and doing it) themselves.

Deplorable wasn’t a strong enough word.

[waitingtoconnect]

Look at this. Musk is the acting like the actual president.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/gove ... r-AA1yQSpI

He is claiming the judicial branch of government is illegal or wrong…

[Zarathud]

Notice how Musk identifies himself as the people and demands government to be responsive to him. Personally.

The statement about targeting government employees with assets as corrupt shows a witch hunt and its a completely tone-deaf statement by a wealthy person gutting the government.

[waitingtoconnect]

I see this and the body language and the language.

Musk chose to interrupt an interview with the president of the United States. He walked in. Even if prearranged the optics on this are obvious. The billionaires now run the country.

Trump is clearly the junior partner here and is subservient. Someone who was seeking to show themselves as the dominant male would stand because Trump is taller.

[Blackhawk]

I must have closed the window before I hit submit. I also mentioned that I'm looking forward to the body language experts analyzing this.

And I feel more sorry than ever for little X AEIOU 69 (or whatever it was.)

[Smoove_B]

Times like this really make me miss Norm MacDonald.

[Kraken]

I strongly believe we are going to see political violence start to occur and sooner rather than later. There is simply too much anger on both sides, and with Trump smashing everything it's going to boil over.

I'm 100% with you.

Depending on which pundits you read we are either already in a constitutional crisis or on the brink of one...or our republic is already dead or on life support...either way, everyone I know is boiling mad. With Congress having rolled over the courts are our last defense, and they're wobbling.

There's a reason that me and mine have been keeping a low profile locally. Commenting on any area internet site is done only through an alias account, for example.

Fear is absolutely a healthy response. Those who have the least are the first in the crosshairs.

[Blackhawk]

Those who outwardly espouse liberal values while having trans family in a red rural redneck village in a red state aren't just in the crosshairs, they're likely to be ganked and spawn camped.

[waitingtoconnect]

Calling it for what it is. State capture.

And if Musk is allowed to take over OpenAI he could hold so much sway over our lives he could be the most powerfully man who has ever lived.

We could have a man who could control space exploration, AI, TikTok, Twitter and worse the US government. If he gains control of the government, it won’t matter who the president is.

We were warned: we are living in the twilight zone…

[Kraken]

Calling it for what it is. State capture.

And if Musk is allowed to take over OpenAI he could hold so much sway over our lives he could be the most powerfully man who has ever lived.

We could have a man who could control space exploration, AI, TikTok, Twitter and worse the US government. If he gains control of the government, it won’t matter who the president is.

Good link, worth 13 minutes of my rapidly dwindling lifespan.

Musk is training a LLM on all the data that comprises the federal government. That's what his rampage through all of the government's computers is about -- collecting training data. His grok model can't handle that deluge, but OpenAI is *this close* to producing a model that can rule us all. Honestly, it isn't hard to train an algorithm to be smarter than trump.

Musk's ultimate goal is to outsource government to AI.

[IceBear]

Wait, I saw something about a bill acquiring Greenland and renaming it Red, White and Blue land and just assumed it was a joke, but it's real?

[stessier]

FWIW, any one in Congress can submit a bill saying anything. Doesn't mean anything is going to come of it.

[IceBear]

FWIW, any one in Congress can submit a bill saying anything. Doesn't mean anything is going to come of it.

Wow, what a frivolous waste of time

[Alefroth]

We're a very serious country.

[WYBaugh]

I saw a post on Imgur that NIH will resume issuing grants but not sure how great the source is (Popular Information)

[Smoove_B]

Judge declines to block buyout:

After issuing two stays, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole has declined to block the Trump administration's deferred resignation program for federal employees.

The ruling comes more than two weeks after the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent an email to more than 2 million civilian employees of the federal government with the subject line "Fork in the Road."

...

In his ruling, O'Toole wrote that the plaintiffs — the labor unions — lack standing to challenge the "Fork" directive, because they are not directly impacted by it.

"Instead, they allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members' questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm," O'Toole wrote in his decision. "This is not sufficient."

O'Toole also stated that the court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction. Federal employees, he noted, are supposed to take their workplace complaints to the independent agencies set up to review personnel matters within the government.

Yet on Tuesday, attorneys for the unions asked O'Toole to consider that President Trump ousted the chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority and a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, two forums where claims brought by civil servants are reviewed.

"These terminations have now fundamentally weakened these entities and undermined their bipartisan composition, further impairing any purported opportunity for 'meaningful judicial review,'" the attorneys wrote.

O'Toole did not rule on the legality of the deferred resignation program.

Status:

In a statement, OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover said the agency was pleased that the court had rejected "a desperate effort" to strike down the deferred resignation program.

"As of 7:00 pm tonight, the program is now closed," she wrote Wednesday evening. "This program was carefully designed, thoroughly vetted, and provides generous benefits so federal workers can plan for their futures."

A short while later, federal employees began receiving emails from OPM, informing them that any resignations received after 7:20 pm ET, February 12, 2025, will not be accepted.

More than 65,000 federal employees, roughly 3% of the federal workforce, had agreed to resign as of Tuesday morning, according to a spokesperson at OPM.

[waitingtoconnect]

The union just gas no standing to bring a case. It’s not some mega victory, Jesus.

It's wild to see all the conspiracy brained Alex Jones types who hyperventilated for years over "the Amero" and a supposed North American Union that was going to be brought in by Obama as the ultimate tyranny.

Then Trump starts talking about annexing Canada, Greenland and Panama and all of a sudden they're salivating at the prospect of building an empire.

Same thing with "using the military as a domestic police force". They can't wait to see Trump shooting protestors.

They'd love a "one world government" if they thought Trump or Elon would be in charge.

[Kraken]

Yeah, remember when Republicans were about shrinking and neutering government? They're realizing that once they purge all the liberal elements, it's going to be their ultimate weapon.

[El Guapo]

Judge declines to block buyout:

After issuing two stays, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole has declined to block the Trump administration's deferred resignation program for federal employees.

The ruling comes more than two weeks after the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent an email to more than 2 million civilian employees of the federal government with the subject line "Fork in the Road."

...

In his ruling, O'Toole wrote that the plaintiffs — the labor unions — lack standing to challenge the "Fork" directive, because they are not directly impacted by it.

"Instead, they allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members' questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm," O'Toole wrote in his decision. "This is not sufficient."

O'Toole also stated that the court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction. Federal employees, he noted, are supposed to take their workplace complaints to the independent agencies set up to review personnel matters within the government.

Yet on Tuesday, attorneys for the unions asked O'Toole to consider that President Trump ousted the chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority and a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, two forums where claims brought by civil servants are reviewed.

"These terminations have now fundamentally weakened these entities and undermined their bipartisan composition, further impairing any purported opportunity for 'meaningful judicial review,'" the attorneys wrote.

O'Toole did not rule on the legality of the deferred resignation program.

Status:

In a statement, OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover said the agency was pleased that the court had rejected "a desperate effort" to strike down the deferred resignation program.

"As of 7:00 pm tonight, the program is now closed," she wrote Wednesday evening. "This program was carefully designed, thoroughly vetted, and provides generous benefits so federal workers can plan for their futures."

A short while later, federal employees began receiving emails from OPM, informing them that any resignations received after 7:20 pm ET, February 12, 2025, will not be accepted.

More than 65,000 federal employees, roughly 3% of the federal workforce, had agreed to resign as of Tuesday morning, according to a spokesperson at OPM.

I'm curious who would have standing to challenge the legality of the program, if not the unions. I doubt individual employees would - how could they have harm, if they can just not resign? Maybe the agencies, on the grounds that they'd lose valuable employees, but is it possible (setting aside the obvious impracticality) to have agencies have standing to challenge OPM actions?

Also:

"This program was carefully designed"

[pr0ner]

Agencies can prevent employees from taking the Fork offer already so they don't have standing.

[Punisher]

The union just gas no standing to bring a case. It’s not some mega victory, Jesus.

It's wild to see all the conspiracy brained Alex Jones types who hyperventilated for years over "the Amero" and a supposed North American Union that was going to be brought in by Obama as the ultimate tyranny.

Then Trump starts talking about annexing Canada, Greenland and Panama and all of a sudden they're salivating at the prospect of building an empire.

Same thing with "using the military as a domestic police force". They can't wait to see Trump shooting protestors.

They'd love a "one world government" if they thought Trump or Elon would be in charge.

How long until they realize that Trump isn't even in charge of our government..

[Isgrimnur]

State of the Union Address should be fun.

[Zaxxon]

State of the Union Address should be fun.

A little awkward, though. Musk has never been eloquent.

[LawBeefaroni]

State of the Union Address should be fun.

A little awkward, though. Musk has never been eloquent.

He'll use his kid as a prop. "Gravitas is hard!"

[Smoove_B]

State of the Union Address should be fun.

A little awkward, though. Musk has never been eloquent.

I'm fully expecting him to be there and there will be lots of finger pointing during Trump's speech to Musk and he'll be jumping up and down, making an "X" with his body.

I also can't help but think Musk is going to get to bang the gavel that calls the House to order.

[Rumpy]

His kid has more eloquence and is more perceptive than he is.

[raydude]

So, does anyone else think the Republicans are just going to be rulers of a ruined 2-bit banana republic? I don't see inflation going down anytime soon, we're going to get sicker and poorer, unemployment will go up, and with a ballooning deficit caused by tax cuts for the rich, sooner or later the country will be as broke as Trump's casinos. Oh, and if you decide to cut immigration, birth rates will decline rapidly - fueld in part by poor children's health, no vaccinations, and a general malaise by a poorer populace. I mean, the poorest redneck towns are just limping along until they eventually die off due to everyone drinking or drugging themselves to death.

I get that they're winning, but I don't see it being a sustainable win worthy of envy by all the other dictators. At most it will be a race with Russia to see who can get the lower GDP.