DradisPing
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User ID: 1102
DradisPing
2d ago
It's infamous for being full of Education PhDs who change up federal standards so that their side businesses selling education materials generate steady income.
The top Education PhD programs are famous for far left ideological gatekeeping because you need a degree from one of them to work at DoE.
People on the right just think that breaking it up into other departments would result in better people fulfilling it's requirements.
DradisPing
2d ago
The most likely explanation is that when DOGE asked about the work USIP tried to play the "private organization" card instead of answering questions.
DradisPing
2d ago
It looks like USIP is structured to get government money and spend it without oversight. It'd be very surprising if it weren't up to anything shady.
DradisPing
2d ago
As a side note, the Trump administration seems to REALLY hate US assistance to foreign countries and they're doing their damndest to shut it off.
I think it's more accurate to say that he sees foreign policy as solely within the power of the President and doesn't like the fact that there are a bunch or orgs around DC funded by the US government with official sounding names that are undermining the foreign policy of the White House.
DC loves these para governmental organizations. In the case of USIP the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence are ex officio board members. The rest of the board members must be appointed by the POTUS and confirmed by the Senate. So it seems like it's sort of part of the executive branch but also not when it comes to oversight.
DradisPing
3d ago
The family values voters were mostly Silent Generation and are mostly dead.
Musk is a Trump ally. But I think everyone on the right is aware that he only got there because the more authoritarian elements in the Democratic Party felt he wasn't toeing the line and decided to go after him.
But I do think there is less of a split than you think. The traditionalist right has always been pretty accepting of wealthy men being bad parents so long as their children were all well provided for. Musk is more shameless and extreme than is typical, but it's really less offensive to conservative sensibilities than a DINK couple.
DradisPing
6d ago
Rural Italy was quite poor. Making spaghetti was laborious. Meatballs were a rare treat to be savoured.
They didn't want to drown all that in tomato sauce.
Seafood pasta dishes are actually more traditional.
Once they started extruding pasta in the 19th century it became a lot cheaper.
Italian-Americans could afford meat and had access to extruded pasta and canned tomato sauce. So they experimented with traditional ideas and new ingredients.
DradisPing
9d ago
It's actually been going the other way as there are special benefits to identifying as non-white these days. Back when there were restrictions on non-white immigration Indians fought to be classified as white and won. Similarly hispanics includes a lot of people with 80%+ European ancestry. A nearly 100% European ancestry kid who doesn't speak Spanish gets to identify as hispanic for college applications because his grandparents were born in Latin America.
Steve Sailer has a bunch of articles on "the flight from white" that are worth reading.
One of the interesting battles within the Democratic Party has been about how Jewish activists see themselves as non-white, but a lot of the activist base sees them as white.
DradisPing
15d ago
The random jihadi style attacks are less ideological than people assume.
Islam liberalized a lot of social policies, but also froze them. One of the problematic rules was that low level officials had unlimited tax power over their regions. These could be enforced on a small level.
One of the things that travellers between Christiandom and Islamdom often commented on was that in the Christian lands peasants often had carts. Under Islam they did not.
A cart was too much of a visible investment and could be sized by the local lord (not sure about the correct title) at any time.
How does a family protect it's wealth under those circumstances? One strategy it to convince everyone your family is too dangerous to mess with. The local lord or his relatives are frequently vulnerable to a mob of people with knives, they can't be hyper aware and guarded all the time.
However committing suicide makes you, and thus your family look weak. And therefore vulnerable to exploitation.
So you have things like "Running amok" where a brooding person suddenly lashes out in random violence.
So the attacks are often closer to "death by cop" than some deep ideological motivation.
You could probably eliminate a lot of it if there was some way for men who feel they've failed at life to die gloriously. But that's a big step for society to take.
Perhaps we could just start off by sending them on "the Hock".
DradisPing
16d ago
Jewish students at UCLA had to go to court because protesters were blocking Jews from entering the campus and UCLA argued it had no responsibility to stop them from doing so.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/14/us/ucla-campus-protests-court-ruling/index.html
There has been a lot of targeting of Jews for being Jewish by protesters over the last few years.
DradisPing
17d ago
The problem with ransom attacks is that they require the victims to do an individual rational cost benefit analysis and pay.
Most of these companies would refuse to pay out of moral indignation, which collectively gives them a herd immunity.
There are also types of insurance to cover some of the losses from business interruption.
DradisPing
23d ago
The obvious answer is "Elon Musk." Certainly everyone seems to assume he's in charge of DOGE. He (and Trump) talk like Musk is in charge of the effort.
I think Musk's role is akin to the tank role in video games. He's drawing aggro and absorbing damage. He's basically taken over Trump's shitposting duties.
The contrast to Jack Smith is interesting, because that was a very clear violation of the appointments clause. Smith was signing court documents as a prosecutor without being confirmed as a prosecutor.
Whereas I doubt anything Elon has announced on Twitter is actually backed up by documents signed by Elon in official capacity.
DradisPing
23d ago
John Eastman goes into the the types of jurisdiction and birthright citizenship in this interview: https://rumble.com/v6me54x-sidebar-with-john-eastman-birthright-citizenship-executive-order-lawfare-an.html?start=936
Unfortunately there's no transcript I'm aware of.
DradisPing
1mo ago
The key point here is that this is in SDNY. SDNY likes to pretend that it's not a normal district, instead it's a second DOJ.
The prosecutors are resigning in large part to promote that myth.
Of course that's not true. SDNY has no special legal status over say the Northern District of Alabama.
Barnes specifically has long been critical of the Federalist Society. Culturally it skews more pro corporate and more authoritarian than most of the right wing base would like.
DradisPing
1mo ago
It is not working yet! Judges have blocked almost all of his big cuts. Because they aren't legal by established law and precedent (Impoundment Control Act).
NGOs have run to DC and SDNY to get blocks because those are the most politically corrupt districts. The problem for them is that the TROs are so unprecedented and off the rails that higher courts are going to need to step in quickly.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Hasidic Jews got minority status for federal programs back in 1974.
I think this was actually a key plot point in War Dogs, Jonah Hill had to pretend to be Hasidic.
This rule seems to be just extending that, since trying to determine if a given Jewish person counts as Hasidic or not is probably pretty difficult.
It is kind of silly that the two wealthiest religion groups in the US, Jews and Hindus, get special treatment for loans.
DradisPing
1mo ago
People in the State Department and on the left in general want Trump to give funding to Hamas to "rebuild Gaza".
Their usual game is to play up the humanitarian disaster.
Arguing that the US should take over and rebuild with direct management counters that, because the pro-Hamas people suddenly have to argue that Gaza is fully capable of running itself.
I don't think it's any sort of real proposal, just an indication that US money isn't coming without control on the ground.
DradisPing
1mo ago
But the terrorist designation activates specific regulations in the financial system. Sure, they could pass new laws and regulations to do the same thing. But this does have an impact on it's own.
DradisPing
1mo ago
So, thoughts. San Francisco continues to generate weird murder suicide cults just as it has for the past... 80 years? This really needs to be investigated because the effect has persisted over numerous different ideological movements.
Climate is a big part of it. There are a lot of people who like it hot and won't admit how nice the SF climate is.
But it really is. Apr-Oct there's no rain, no heat, no cold. Just sunny days with pleasant breezes. You can just wander around in a light jacket in a dreamy state without nature ever forcing you back to reality.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Cheetah's become more feminine coded once you find out that they meow.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Big cats are a massive money sink. A world leader having a private zoo big cats is basically proof that they are crooked and impoverishing their people.
DradisPing
1mo ago
A couple of things do that.
First the facial feature proportions of house cats are close to human babies. This activates nurturing instincts in women. More so than other small animals.
If you pay attention you can really see how that affects how men and women interact with cats. Men tend to see their cats akin to jobless friends crashing at their place. Some women become deeply concerned for their cats socialization and emotional life.
They match up better to yin and yang traits, cats being yin.
Most people these days have met enough loud outing women that yin traits don't strongly code feminine to modern eyes.
Some languages need to classify everything as masculine or feminine and from what I've seen there's a lot of randomness. In French cheese is masculine but apples are feminine.
I'll try to tie this together for a closing. Their wariness towards new people is seen as traditionally feminine coded. As is their quietness compared to a puppy. Dogs interests match up better to traditional masculine tasks -- patrol the boundaries of territory, go on hunting expeditions. Cats keep an eye on the homestead.
In modern life the feminine coding comes more from women who get them because of unmet baby desires. Also men are expected to at least pretend that they regularly trek through the wilderness.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Listing cartels as terrorist organizations is actually a big deal. It enables the government to aggressively track money.
It's widely suspected that payments from the cartels to Chinese chemical companies are being laundered through Canadian real estate.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Ridley Scott is 87. I imagine that he's been handing off duties on the film that he used to manage himself.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Well there is this: https://instagram.com/p/DA8kWHdPBRw/
But for something longer format the rehab stories from John Mulaney: Baby J were hilarious.
It's more of a thumb on scale thing. The ED giver out a lot of grants and also has school evaluation programs. Assorted state groups who live off of grant money will toe the line when ED policies come out. Common Core was pushed out in part using "Race To The Top" grants.
Basically being the major source of education grants lets people at ED control what is trendy in education. It's not direct control but it's a significant influence.
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