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Trump's Second Term

EHocking said:
Ask Trump's boss how he did it.

Under the amended Article 83 of the Constitution, the president will have the power to submit to the Federation Council, the upper house of the federal legislature, requests to terminate powers of judges of various ranks, among them the chairman, deputy chairman and justices of the Constitutional Court; the chairman, deputy chairpersons and justices of the Supreme Court; and the chairpersons, deputy chairpersons and judges of courts of cassation and courts of appeal.​
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Yeah, Trump would LOVE to have the same as Putin did in Russia, I'm sure. ;)
 
Jack by the hedge said:
When he rails against "judges who repeatedly fail to follow the law" it's almost as if he genuinely has no idea these judges are the ones upholding the law.
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As for the impeachment of judges, this will never attain the (current) legal requirements to succeed. I suspect Elon knows that too. But it's a great ◊◊◊◊-stir to post on X for the MAGAchuds.
 
Trump Administration Jacks $80 Million From NYC Bank Account Used To Aid Migrants

New York City leaders are calling the Trump administration's move to revoke more than $80 million from the city's bank accounts over migrants “highway robbery.” The Trump administration revoked a $80.5 million payment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Shelter and Services program on Feb. 4. New York City received the money under the Biden administration to house asylum-seekers and migrants.
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Did not see that one coming... We've moved from oligarchy to plutocracy to kleptocracy in a very few number of weeks. I think were going to run out of words that end in the letter 'y' pretty quickly.

PS: How on the Earth does The Onion survive this?
 
Orphia Nay said:
Surely -2 for harm to the world?
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TellyKNeasuss said:
I disagree about the National Energy Dominance Counsel. It sounds like it has the agenda of increasing fossil fuel production while reducing environmental protections. To me, that's a negative.
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I think TellyKNeasuss nailed it. The executive order refers to "crude oil, natural gas, lease condensates, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal heat, the kinetic movement of flowing water, and critical minerals." So a lot of it is fossil fuels, and noticeably absent are wind turbines (Trump hates them) and solar.

The order also calls for providing "to the President a recommended National Energy Dominance Strategy to produce more energy that includes long-range goals for achieving energy dominance by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the energy-producing economy, focusing on innovation, and seeking to eliminate longstanding, but unnecessary, regulation." In the context of the Trump administration that probably means "to hell with the environment, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and global climate change."

I have re-scored the item to -1.
 
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As of the close of the day on February 15, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -147. The total took a big jump when I fixed a bug in the program that tallies the score.

15 February 2025
-1: Executive Order: Keeping Education Accessible and Ending Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates in Schools (-1 for lies)
-1: Trump: "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law."
-1: Headline: ‘Highway robbery’: New York City hits back over FEMA funds seized by Trump administration (Politico)

Added to February 14:
-1: DOGE fires between 50 and 300 people from the National Nuclear Safety Administration, that oversees nuclear weapons
-1. Musk mistakenly claims there are 150-year-old people claiming social security (it's actually a COBOL glitch)
 
zooterkin said:
More repercussions of inexperienced people moving fast...

Musk claims there are people who are 150 years old claiming social security. It seems the explanation is actually that the birth date field is empty, because not accurately known, and because the epoch for COBOL is May 20th 1875, an empty field shows up as an age of 150.

www.fox5dc.com

Elon Musk claims there are 150-year-olds on Social Security

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made claims earlier this week that there are 150-year-olds on Social Security.
www.fox5dc.com www.fox5dc.com

www.dailykos.com

Nope. There are no 150-year-olds on Social Security. It's COBOL!--UPDATED Feb 17

Elon Musk claimed that his team found 150-year-old people collecting Social Security! He implied there were dead people being sent benefits, with checks cashed by someone else. But no—the people getting paid are very much alive. They are collecting...
www.dailykos.com
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It's not actually a COBOL thing.

www.threads.net

Crispin Fresch (@crispinfresch) on Threads

With this COBOL and year 1875 stuff being in the news as a result of the DOGE "investigations", I just want to add my 2 cents worth to the conversation, since I have done several years of COBOL programming, starting in 1990. I have worked on systems for some of the biggest mutual fund companies...
www.threads.net www.threads.net
Whoever wrote the code, that just how they chose to do it. COBOL has standard Y2K compliant dates as well.
 
As an addendum to my previous post,Trump has allowed Musk to use the same approach as he does in politics, and over here in the UK, it is called "trial and error", and requires no upfront thinking, only post damage restorative measures. It is usually the most expensive method, but easier on the brain cells. Even the Polish foreign minister knows this, when he stated yesterday "President Trump has a method of operating, which the Russians call reconnaissance through battle. You push and you see what happens, and then you change your position, legitimate tactics".

However, let us all hope this doesn't apply to a potential nuclear war.
 
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a_unique_person said:
It's not actually a COBOL thing.

www.threads.net

Crispin Fresch (@crispinfresch) on Threads

With this COBOL and year 1875 stuff being in the news as a result of the DOGE "investigations", I just want to add my 2 cents worth to the conversation, since I have done several years of COBOL programming, starting in 1990. I have worked on systems for some of the biggest mutual fund companies...
www.threads.net www.threads.net
Whoever wrote the code, that just how they chose to do it. COBOL has standard Y2K compliant dates as well.
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Thanks for the follow up, and my bad for assuming someone knew what they were talking about. I'm still assuming that Musk is mistaken at some level, even if that's not the reason.

(I did write one program in COBOL, around 1980 as part of my degree, but it was not a language I loved, and even failed to hand in the compulsory COBOL project, so I couldn't sanity check the claim.)
 
a_unique_person said:
It's not actually a COBOL thing.

www.threads.net

Crispin Fresch (@crispinfresch) on Threads

With this COBOL and year 1875 stuff being in the news as a result of the DOGE "investigations", I just want to add my 2 cents worth to the conversation, since I have done several years of COBOL programming, starting in 1990. I have worked on systems for some of the biggest mutual fund companies...
www.threads.net www.threads.net
Whoever wrote the code, that just how they chose to do it. COBOL has standard Y2K compliant dates as well.
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20 years since I wrote COBOL so I checked my copy of COBOL Unleashed - they mention the CYYDDD format "uses the year 1990 as a starting point (or any other years that you choose)". So the 1875 appears arbitrary.
 
Tech bros getting gov't to buy their AI and stick it into government. And services. Why...Amazon could replace all of USPS package delivery!

Musk’s plans have already excited Silicon Valley mainstays such as Palantir, whose executives praised Doge on an earnings call last week and talked about how the disruption by the billionaire’s strike squad was good for the company. Palantir already has won hundreds of millions of dollars in US military contracts in recent years for AI-related projects.
“I think Doge is going to bring meritocracy and transparency to government, and that’s exactly what our commercial business is,” Palantir’s chief technology officer, Shyam Sankar, said on the call. Sankar claimed the cost cutting would target straggling software projects, which he called “sacred cows of the deep state”.

“This is a revolution, some people are gonna get their heads cut off,” Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, added. “We’re expecting to see unexpected things and to win.”
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www.theguardian.com

Elon Musk’s mass government cuts could make private companies millions

Defense and tech firms – including Musk’s own – await potential contracts as Doge decimates US agencies
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Just been listening to The Rest is History podcast about Caligula and some of the parallels with what is happening right now in the US are chilling.

A populist leader who liked to humiliate his enemies who sought to humiliate the Senate and make them bow to him personally. Someone who was supremely self confident but also thin-skinned. Someone who sought to sweep away the establishment because he didn't belong and appealed to the mob. One of his first acts was to pardon those on trial for political crimes. He also escaped death and emerged sure of his own divinity.

 
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