I know someone who seriously considered moving to Florida recently with a young baby and more on the way. I was beside myself trying to find reasons they shouldn’t move. I was so concerned for those kids but the weather. How do you compete with that? Nowhere is really safe in this country, even less so now, but Florida?! If you don’t want your kids there are better options than moving to Florida and crossing your fingers.

I think it’s important to acknowledge that USAID was not a perfect organization. I have said as much before. Countries are often not doing that kind of thing for purely altruistic reasons, but evidence suggests that people were getting food and healthcare through them that they otherwise would not have received. You can argue the benefits of supplying that vs upskilling or local investing, but people are now lacking something they used to be able to count on USAID for. I think good could have come from something like that, and there just isn’t the political will to remake that where possibly it could be used for good. I understand people may feel like reform is impossible, but I think a lot of USAID work was doing something for people that we owe something to. More and better should have been done, but I don’t think dismantling it the way they did helped as much as it hurt.

It’s a good thing we got rid of USAID. How else would be able to scrounge up the spare money needed? We’re already going without healthcare and education, often without food and housing. So glad we still had some fat to trim and are able to support this. I’d hate for that money to be going to food and medical aid for countries we exploited or god forbid, go to help people actually in America.

imprisoning children $200 billion

kickbacks to besties $150 billion

weapons for genocide $800 billion

REBRANDING $3,600

Grok AI gf integration $150 billion

Someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. My wallet is drying

It’s unbelievable to me that R voters do not see how wasteful petty garbage like this is. They were “worried” about life saving medical aid sent to other countries, but apparently setting up Nazi style banners of their fuhrer is a great use of taxpayer money.

When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.

But for real, it’s a dumb sport. All sports are dumb, but this one more so than most others for sure.

That’s in part why I think articles like this are so important. Catholics overall really have not been seen to care about anyone else being affected, so maybe this will reach them. Catholics are not getting sympathy from me, but I think this kind of article will help get them on our side if it’s at all possible.

Not sure the intention of your comment, but I think it’s good to have this out there. America is a pretty religious place and a lot of people still consider the clergy as emissaries of god. Being very clear about them being harassed by ICE might affect people’s perception of ICE when other people being harassed would not. I don’t think the priests think they are exempt, they are just trying to rally support from people who care about them more than their other community members.

Anyone who decries metoo as “cancel culture” is not a comrade in my book.

I have a feeling that the government kidnapping members of their community and not being held accountable is actually not that unthinkable to a lot of indigenous people. I don’t want to speak for them, but the body of the article doesn’t really give the impression either so I feel like the title is a little insulting to their history.

I think people do recognize what the underlying issue is, but it’s hard to organize against “racism” or “capitalism” or anything else for that matter. Sure, you can march, but in reality if you march and then go back to your normal life having changed nothing, you will likely change nothing. Target for example had a drop in sales due to boycotts, and plenty of border towns are being hit by a drop in tourism.

If you want ire directed at the people telling the story, then it needs to be directed at capital. That’s what boycotts do. Sure, you can’t stop everyone from traveling, but if you have a friend wanting to see Yellowstone and they see social pressure to not travel to the US, maybe they’ll wait. If enough people do that then the tourism industry suffers and the surrounding industries as well. I do not want people to financially struggle, but unfortunately if no one changes their behavior then the world continues to get worse. I’m seeing that the EU is investing in EU tech infrastructure and that’s amazing. That’s what I want to see. Divest from the US so that other countries are not so able to be affected by US pressure.

I can’t speak for the person you’re responding to, but I can say that if I was out of the country I would not go to the US for most reasons people travel. I have family in red states, and I have just decided not to visit them or go to family events there. They don’t even agree with the state government, but moved there because it was fiscally convenient, they were not personally affected by the laws, and they don’t mind being surrounded by people that agree with those policies. At a certain point we all have to make our own choices, and I would rather not spend money in a red state. If people come for life saving treatment, or they would lose their income otherwise, I can see how they would make that decision, but I seriously question anyone coming for things not related to life and limb.

People should boycott the US whenever possible at this point. We were always bad, but we’re out and out fascist at this point. I wouldn’t visit Germany during the rise of Hitler, so I don’t know why I’d make excuses for the US. I don’t think it’s about thinking you personally will get deported, it’s about solidarity and geopolitics.

I’d much prefer they embrace martyrdom than the murdering thing they’ve been doing instead.

DEI tends to encourage the hiring of diverse people because they have been historically underrepresented due to past policies and systemic injustices. One could argue DEI is people making choices due to the behavior of people from previous generations. It seems at odds to support that and not acknowledge some concept of debt owed to people wronged by society in the past.

Also, DEI is not about lowering standards. It’s a pretty common dog whistle to suggest that corpos pick less qualified candidates because of DEI. I’m not suggesting you intended it that way, but going forward it’s good to keep that in mind.

Do you have an opinion on DEI?

I agree, but unfortunately that same thing happens terrestrially. One country decides to reverse course on renewables and the whole world suffers the consequences. Companies pollute one river and the trash and chemicals can be found worldwide. We have not been good stewards of the earth, and I fear space will just be a continuation of that. I can’t believe AI has found a new way to ruin the environment already. I’d laugh about all the techbros insisting we have to invest in AI because then the AI will solve every problem, only to then have them use AI as an excuse to ruin the environment, but it’s all too much.

Yep! Exactly my thoughts.

The article makes it clear these are not substantiated claims.

It should be noted that these complaints are uncorroborated tips to the FBI, and the existence of those tips does not indicate eventual credibility.

Things may be released to muddy the waters. Trump is a pedo and rapist, but please keep in mind that not everything reported to the FBI is true. Believe whatever you want, but please don’t get caught up in the most scandalous details. Any abuse is disgusting. Just sticking to what identified victims have publicly stated should be enough for him to be radioactive. Please remember that if anything comes out disputing these reported claims.

Anything is avoidable if you have the power to change it. WWI was avoidable. WWII was avoidable. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean I can actually do anything about them. Someone getting arrested under fascism? Predictable, but we cannot stop every arrest. We’re already trying to stop the kidnapping of every day people. Swarming around someone who works for one of the biggest companies in the world is not as helpful in the grand scheme of things. He has a lawyer. Do you? How many people do you know have the resources for a lawyer. I’m not saying he’ll be fine, but he’s better off than the people being kidnapped by ice or bombed in Gaza. I’m glad no one threw away their life falling on the sword for this guy. People suggesting to do so have no idea what the situation on the ground is like, which makes sense because they’re not actually here. Actual action requires people be alive and doing the action. Maybe this will give people like Ezra Klein some perspective on the role of reporters. I’m very sad this is where we’re at, but this individual instance is a blip in the bigger picture and people are fighting on a national scale and it’s working, which is why they are bothering to do this. If the protests weren’t a problem they would be doing this.

Exactly this! Why were you not all camped out outside his house and accompanying him to the restroom?! You should be at every protest, and journalists home, and journalists work, and checks notes at their hotel while they’re covering the Grammys, simultaneously or you’re failing your country!

This is a bad take. You can’t stop someone from being taken into police custody. It’s a great way to get shot and accomplish nothing. This is the actual cops, not an ice raid.

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