cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/36033796

Amid the ongoing shutdown, the HHS secretary wiped out entire offices that investigate disease outbreaks, manage infectious disease responses and collect data.

  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    Yeah and the rest of us are learning too. Look at the recent elections in Canada, Australia, Finland, etc. MAGA style politics were soundly rejected.

    Goofy Americans LOL. But you can still have a sense of pride over influencing the world (that seems important to you) but as a cautionary tale that no one wants for their own country.

    • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      What do you think the end game here is when the Nazis have a stranglehold on America? do you think their plan is to let you just sit there and do whatever you want? Do you think they plan on sticking to election interference or maybe get a little more aggressive? Like no one’s going to go after Canada in the later stages of this? Who’s going to come to your aid when you’re landlocked by the largest navy in existence? You’re goofy asses are in this with us. They’ve already started the claim of 51st state lmao. Just delusional to the interconnectedness of our two countries. Americas fate is your fate too.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        I guess you realize now the MAGA style politics is losing traction outside of the US.

        The US invading it’s allies would be insane, and very costly. There’s a reason why countries don’t go to war with countries they do a lot of trade with. The US is already teetering on the brink of economic collapse and that would send it over the edge. Doesn’t mean it won’t happen, it was almost as stupid for Putin to invade Ukraine, authoritarians do stupid things sometimes.

        But that’s a low probability. You’re being goofy if you don’t realize a civil war within the US is a much more likely outcome than the US invading allied countries that will fight back. Of course Trump’s supposed “enemy within” will fight back too, but the US is already in a cold civil war states are sending soldiers into other states. It’s still cold since shots aren’t being fired yet, but it could go hot. I hope for your sake it doesn’t.

        • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I think there is a truly infinite number of plausible outcomes from here, not many would exclude Canada from the fate of the US. Americans are probably too lazy for civil war, but im not excluding that. This republican regime has friends in most nations and they are eager to buy more. There’s nothing chaotic about what’s going on in America, and Im not accusing you of mirroring our political beliefs, or claiming to understand yours. Im just saying there’s a reason why JD Vance is visiting Germany for AfD rallies. This doesn’t end with trump, and it doesn’t stop in America. No one is out of reach of the American economy or military. Calling Putin stupid while he still occupies Ukraine is a great analogy of how I see your perceived independence from this chaos. Yes it’s stupid, yes it’s still happening, and yes the toll in human suffering is astounding.

          Your neighbor is a nuclear superpower spouting belligerent aggressive threats. Im just a US Citizen who’s been partially Russified along with the mass majority of this country. A psychopath has taken control of our nuclear arsenal and is holding the world for ransom in some kind of strange protection racket. Most of us are completely powerless and apathetic, surly this won’t devolve from here! Hopefully we do have a civil war and disarm ourselves before we usher in nuclear Armageddon. My money is on comrade trumps central economy and wealth redistribution to be the down fall. hopefully a real populist uprising and some French style revolution with guillotines, maybe a little WW3 as a distraction from popular uprising tho who knows.

          They are still testing boundaries right now.

    • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Germany seems to be having a hard time with their far right, Italy, Hungary, France. I think there are more examples. You guys fended off a polished PP but he’ll be back. Your wealth inequality and housing crisis ain’t getting any better. It’s just a matter of time. How are things in Alberta anyway? I’m going to take a wild guess and say you live on the coast? Or an internet echo chamber?

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        No, we get news all about Alberta throughout the country. There’s some idiots there to be sure, but they’re the minority. The oil industry dominates there and they’re only loyal to the almighty dollar. The farmers in Alberta don’t seem to like how things are going with the oil industry domination of their politics, and certainly don’t like the separatist bullshit promoted but the oil industry assholes that only care about money.

        PP has had to moderate quite a lot and Mark Carney is what we call a Red Tory… a conservative in the Liberal Party. Carney has a lot of popularity because he appeals to traditional conservatives and liberals aren’t going to be voting for PP, so that leaves the NDP which has lost the working class and seem directionless at the moment. PP is an internet weirdo (and only appeals to internet weirdos, not traditional conservatives) and there’s a very good chance he’ll be removed as leader of the party. There’s a significant probability that Doug Ford will replace PP next year, but in any case the Conservative rhetoric now seems to be all about them being tougher on the US than Carney. Even with PP has had to push that kind of rhetoric.

        See politics is more complicated that your simplistic view of things. There isn’t really any chance that Canada will fall in line with Trump, it would be political suicide to do so. The only grumbling I hear is that Carney is being too friendly with Trump.

        The other examples you listed are incumbents voted in before the tides turned.

        Consider the possibility there may be more going on in politics in other countries than people just mindlessly copying the US. But there’s an undercurrent throughout the world that Trump sucks (because he does) and politicians that resemble him are being rejected.

        Sorry, but the US is sinking ship and everyone else in the world knows this and is trying to get as far from you as they can to avoid getting sucked down with you. You’re the goofiest country in history going from the wealthiest country in the world to becoming a shithole country because something about your culture created the conditions so most of you got hypnotized by a real estate conman.

        • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Sorry, but the US is sinking ship and everyone else in the world knows this and is trying to get as far from you as they can to avoid getting sucked down with you. You’re the goofiest country in history going from the wealthiest country in the world to becoming a shithole country because something about your culture created the conditions so most of you got hypnotized by a real estate conman.

          Im not arguing with any of that, cause you spitting facts. I know nothing about politics outside of the US. I just know that the people in power here absolutely have the money power and influence to do this to any country. It only took a couple generations here. You guys aren’t really getting out fast enough, no ones really acknowledging us as a military threat or an economic threat. Decoupling your investments and economies has not happened yet. Why is that? of ya fear of escalation, because it is a real threat to any economy, thus we are all in this together brother. you may not share the glory of the American civil war, but you will feel the economic effects, and hell the winner might invade you so there’s that. Need to do some immediate looting and pillaging to rebuild the empire ya know? Your national security is closely tied to USA stability. you don’t want hordes of refugees or troops flowing over your uncontested boarders.

          • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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            1 day ago

            The trade war is top news here, and we’re spending a lot more on military including developing drone production capabilities.

            Every week I go to the grocery store there’s fewer US made products on the shelf and more products made elsewhere. Most of us are avoiding products made in the USA, it’s a common sight to see people checking labels for where things are made and putting it back on the shelf if it’s American, I do the same. We can survive economic hardship as long as we have food. This is on the minds of every Canadian and a lot of Europeans as well.

            China’s trade to the US is way down, but their overall trade numbers are up. Why do you think that is? It’s because trade is being routed around the US because we know the US cannot be trusted. Used to be China was the last place I’d buy things from (only when there’s no other option) but now the US is the last place. And not as much stuff is made in the US as you might think. It’s difficult to avoid buying stuff from China, but it’s actually very easy to avoid buying from Canada. The US is stupidly handing over the economic power to China, which sucks. But we’ll get by.

            And don’t think this is a temporary thing either. Even if the US votes in a Democrat next election (if there even are elections) we can’t trust you to not go back to someone as crazy (or even crazier) as Trump. We thought y’all learned when Trump got voted out last time, but obviously there are fundamental problems in American culture that will take generations to fix, if ever. The most reasonable outcome is the the US to dissolve and form smaller countries, hopefully it won’t take a civil war to accomplish that. But it’s obvious the US doesn’t work as a country anymore, the sooner Americans realize that the sooner the world can form trade relationships with the less stupid parts of the US like California and New York. You know, the parts of the US that actually matter to the rest of the world.

            • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              Yea I mean that’s one way it could work out. How are those economic boycotts going over here you ask? Well all of our stock markets are at all time high. Money is pouring into our glorious tech companies, who are working with Trump to great a global surveillance network? Im pretty sure you guys buying a couple billion dollars of whiskey is not going to make or break our economy sry. Im not sure my countrymen are smart enough to strike or boycott, so the whole boycotting things… I wish it was doing more, but it’s not. You’re going to need to convince China to stope buying chips and stuff from us.

              You really think you’re gonna be able to stop Donald Trump from consolidating power and invading you in 2-3 years? You think this conversation with me is going to change this countries path? We’re about to start canceling elections lmao. The show is over bud you’re on a strict timeline before you share our fate.\

              Also as a Mainer, stay the fuck out of Maine. You guys are shitty tourists, you drive like morons, and your boycott here was lovely. Keep it up for my sake. Never come back <3

              • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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                21 hours ago

                Americans always think the stock market = economy. While there may have been some connection between the stock market and the economy in the past, once you transferred most of the money to the wealthy, that’s no longer the case. Now it’s essentially a casino for billionaires, and they get all the insider tips.

                Speaking of casinos, Las Vegas is a ghost town now because your tourism industry is suffering. Which means unemployment. China isn’t buying soybeans from US grown soybeans anymore which means farms will go bankrupt or (more likely) they’ll be bailed out by the government.

                You really think you’re gonna be able to stop Donald Trump from consolidating power and invading you in 2-3 years?

                The most probably outcome is things are mostly the same but suck a bit more for you. Next most likely, economic depression. After that US completely collapses hopefully like the Soviet Union did, but with the American fetishization of violence, civil war would be more likely.

                You need to get far down the list of probably outcomes to get to the US invading Canada.

                The US is good at invading countries. Not so good about about occupying countries. And you’d be asking people in your military to die because of the whims of a crazy old man. Remember that both Canada and the US were in Afghanistan for decades. Which means the US would be committing the greatest betrayal in human history, invading a country years after being in a decades long war together. All because a crazy old man want to change how things look on the map? Also remember Canadians have experience in Afghanistan. I have a family member that diffused IEDs In Afghanistan. Pretty sure he also knows how to build an IED. Something you should keep in mind when you’re fantasizing about a war with Canada.

                You may be looking at the massive numbers and tech the US military has, but the only number that matters is 2000. That’s the number of American soldiers that died in Afghanistan, so that’s the number of soldiers we’d have to kill if they dared cross into Canada. And remember there wouldn’t be an ocean between you and the country you’re fighting, there would be war within the US which Americans wouldn’t handle very well. Y’all shit your pants when there’s a few unidentified drones over New Jersey, what would you do when there’s drones flying over you carrying munitions? You think Pete Hegseth and his right wing version of DEI of prioritizing people looking the part over competence would keep you safe?

                Your military is being converted into a Russia style military designed to look good at parades, be loyal to the dear leader, and tell dear leader what he wants to hear. Your government is being tasked to go after the “enemy within” so with every passing day you’re becoming weaker against outside threats. In 2-3 years time, continuing the current trend, if you were to invade Canada it might go about as well as Putin’s “two week special operation” in Ukraine.

                You’re becoming Russia. You’ve got the kleptocratic government, authoritarian leadership, and declining military capabilities, but the authoritarian leader isn’t aware because he fires anyone that doesn’t tell him what to hear. They’re working towards media control and phony elections like Russia has. Even a decade ago, the US didn’t have the capabilities to occupy a country the size and population of Canada. With your country in decline, you may soon lack the capability to successfully invade, which is relatively easy compared to occupation. But you still like to threaten other countries (like Russia does) to create a narrative about being big and strong while you’re in decline.

                • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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                  18 hours ago

                  Isn’t that what I’ve been saying this whole time? You have a belligerent neighbor that has become Russia? however we haven’t had 2 decades of military rot yet. Still pretty well oiled, but I agree 2-4 years probably will look like a ghost of itself. So will modern war. As you go through your lovely military strategy, that is my other point, this will affect you. It is effecting you, you are running game theory on a USA invasion rn… Also you’ve certainly adopted some nationalism as a result. It’s a slippery slope from there! Anyway, yes obviously things are going to be worse for the American people but lmao you’re running war outcome scenarios for a potential invasion. So yea it’s going to suck equally for all of us. After we’re done with the internal struggle the survivors will get to go fight the external struggles.

                  Perhaps you should do meaningful boycott and sell your US based financial assets as a country. You’re not decoupling fast enough and it seems like Europe and Canada governments will treat us like Russia as well. Endless appeasement. Sound familiar? You should have a little less faith in your government and be a little more human because we’re all going to share this tragedy. I didn’t support or vote for Donald Trump, I tried to convince anyone I could to throw the man in jail after 2020. Idk why you’re mad at me I’ve been boycotting these fuckers for over half a decade, welcome to the club, you could do so much more, and be less hateful to people who have no controls over the levers.

                  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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                    16 hours ago

                    No I’m saying we’re preparing for every possible contingency no matter how unlikely. You’re talking like this is a certainty and we’re unprepared for it.

                    You’re not quite understanding the probability of an economic collapse of the US, the probability of the politcal collapse of the US, the probability of that leading to a civil war. These are far more likely scenarios than Trump convincing the US military to invade and ally without that resulting in the military turning on Trump, combined with the probability of our NATO (two of whom are nuclear powers) allies also abandoning Canada, countries like the UK which would’ve been fucked in WWII without Canada, along with a bunch of countries Canada liberated. I know as an American you think you single-handedly defeated the Nazis and all countries are beholden to you forever about it, but Canadians were flying over Britain in their darkest hour and Americans weren’t. Whose side do you think Europe will take? This scenario is 99.9% an internet fantasy, but we’ll be ready for that 0.1% anyway only because we have to plan for all possible contingencies. But you’re going on like it’s a certainty and it’s very very far from that.

                    Perhaps you should do meaningful boycott and sell your US based financial assets as a country

                    You think a guy like Carney doesn’t have financial plans for the US? It’s not in our interest to be the cause of a US financial collapse it’s better for us if that happens on it’s own, so Americans blame Trump for it.

                    dk why you’re mad at me I’ve been boycotting these fuckers for over half a decade, welcome to the club, you could do so much more, and be less hateful to people who have no controls over the levers.

                    Because you’re exhibiting the American superiority that’s the root cause of all of this mess. You think everything in the world has to revolve around the US, and can’t accept the US not being the bestest most greatest nation in history. You are not the rulers of the world, if your country collapses we’ll have a tough go of it for a few years, but we’ll be fine. Probably won’t even be as bad as the pandemic, and we got through that.