Big Brother Is Watching  😶

The NY Times - Opinion - Trump Is Ruling by Willful Blindness  (unlocked link)

Aug. 29, 2025

The Trump administration has identified a key weapon in its campaign to remake the federal government: information control. 

 

Shortly after taking office, it ordered federal health agencies to freeze their communications with the public. 

 

The government promptly scrubbed many of its websites of data about climate change, public health, foreign aid and education. 

 

The "Department of Government Efficiency" slashed federal data-gathering activities, and the president fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after a middling July jobs report.

 

Instead of using data to determine how to govern, the administration is manipulating, ignoring and even jettisoning data altogether. ... The administration has clearly embraced the strategic cultivation of uncertainty and ignorance.

 

This article is worth reading.

The NY Times - Appeals court rules against many Trump tariffs

breaking

A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that many of President Trump’s most punishing tariffs are illegal, delivering a major new setback to the administration that may severely undercut its primary source of leverage in an expanding global trade war.

 

The ruling, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, affirmed a lower court’s finding that Mr. Trump does not possess unlimited power under the law to impose taxes on nearly all U.S. imports. 

 

But the appellate judges delayed the implementation of their order until October to grant the administration time to seek review by the Supreme Court, which would allow Mr. Trump to keep his contested duties in place for now.

 

Unfortunately, Trump "owns" the Supreme Court.  🙄

EDIT   Predictably, Trump has launched another salvo of attacks against the federal judiciary after the appeals court ruled against him.

and

The tariff uncertainty principle.

How do you run a business when you don't know if your product costs you 25-30-100% more or not.

You are getting bills to pay to clear your goods.
Uncertain on when and if you get a refund. Eating into your cashflow no matter.

Given Trump as President is immune himslef as ordered by Supreme Court.
Agencies that would otherwise follow any orders are also reluctant to disobey Trump.
FBI is firmly under his thumb.
Anyone that does move against him could lose their job or have Trumplican 'BrownShirts' set upon them by the President.

It seems to be a costly risky environment that increases business.
Like your cashflow being murdered by tariff levies that may or may not be refunded and you don't know when.

Do traditional GOP supporting and voting business owners enjoy all this? 

ezbee:

 

Do traditional GOP supporting and voting business owners enjoy all this? 

 

They've drunk so much of the Trump Kool-aid now, I honestly think he could randomly start shooting people who voted for him that they wouldn't care.

I know that sounds horrible, but that's how wrapped up they are in all his bs. Oh and that reminds me, I unfriended my ex-sister-in-law, waiting to see if she notices or not.

The NY Times - The Nobel Prize and a Testy Phone Call: How the Trump-Modi Relationship Unraveled  (unlocked link)

30 Aug 2025

President Trump’s repeated claims about having “solved” the India-Pakistan war infuriated Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. ...

 

Mr. Trump had been saying - repeatedly, publicly, exuberantly - that he had “solved” the military conflict between India and Pakistan, a dispute that dates back more than 75 years and is far deeper and more complicated than Mr. Trump was making it out to be.

 

During a phone call on June 17, Mr. Trump brought it up again, saying how proud he was of ending the military escalation. 

 

He mentioned that Pakistan was going to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor for which he had been openly campaigning. The not-so-subtle implication was that Mr. Modi should do the same.

 

The Indian leader bristled. He told Mr. Trump that U.S. involvement had nothing to do with the recent cease-fire. It had been settled directly between India and Pakistan.

 

[This disagreement]  has played an outsize role in the souring relationship between the two leaders, whose once-close ties go back to Mr. Trump’s first term.

 

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Required reading, but Donald doesn't read much ...  😕

EDIT  The NY Times - The U.S. Wooed India for 30 Years. Trump Blew That Up in a Few Months. (31 Aug 2025)

quickymart:

 

They've drunk so much of the Trump Kool-aid now, I honestly think he could randomly start shooting people who voted for him that they wouldn't care.

 

I know that sounds horrible, but that's how wrapped up they are in all his bs. Oh and that reminds me, I unfriended my ex-sister-in-law, waiting to see if she notices or not.

 

With all respect, I don’t think that is an answer. Once you cut off all communication, you lose all possibility to reach or persuade that person.
Even if they are so far down the rabbit hole they can’t be reached or persuaded, there will always be some things that can still be shared, even if it is only birdsong in the garden. Every moment like that is an antidote to the craziness.

What makes society work is shared values and acting together to protect them. The problem we are having now is that people are getting angrier and angrier and pulling further and further apart. Some may come from the Left, some from the Right, but disagreements did not used to be about the common cause, just the way of achieving that. We all want a better life and a society we can feel comfortable in. We all want to get ahead in some fashion.

One of my very best mates has gone down the conspiracy rabbit hole. He seems to genuinely believe mass media are a government propaganda machine and vaccination does more harm than good and he prefers sources like Reality Check radio. But he is also highly intelligent and is willing to at least listen to other points of view. Our long time friendship is too important to me to abandon over this kind of thing and together we have managed to find a way to not let the things that divide us overwhelm the things that dont. We don’t hide our different perspectives from each other but we don’t dwell on them either. There are plenty of things we can agree on and we still enjoy each other’s company.

I don’t have a real answer for this issue but I think it is a mistake to ban people I disagree with from my life. If we all retreat into our bunkers society disintegrates. Instead, I try to use myself as an example, without trying to bash people for their beliefs. For example, I am a strong believer in vaccination and I make a point of announcing the fact when I get a booster. I don’t go on and on about it but others can see that I am still alive and well and not ‘vaccine injured’. Maybe that does some good. 

My friend and I are both proud of our friendship. We are proud that the friendship survives in spite of our different beliefs. We are proud that we have been able to make that work. It can be done.

Rikkitic:

 

I don’t have a real answer for this issue but I think it is a mistake to ban people I disagree with from my life. If we all retreat into our bunkers society disintegrates. Instead, I try to use myself as an example, without trying to bash people for their beliefs. For example, I am a strong believer in vaccination and I make a point of announcing the fact when I get a booster. I don’t go on and on about it but others can see that I am still alive and well and not ‘vaccine injured’. Maybe that does some good. 

 

For sure, but note in her posting she said she was happy for anyone to unfriend her if they disagreed, as she wasn't going to debate her views. To be fair, you don't know her personally like I do, but I do know there would be no debating her/changing her mind on her love for Trump - that's just the type of personality she is.

Plus US politics has become far more polarising and tribal now, especially in the age of Trump.

quickymart:

 

For sure, but note in her posting she said she was happy for anyone to unfriend her if they disagreed, as she wasn't going to debate her views. To be fair, you don't know her personally like I do, but I do know there would be no debating her/changing her mind on her love for Trump - that's just the type of personality she is.

 

Plus US politics has become far more polarising and tribal now, especially in the age of Trump.

 

I am well aware how tribal US politics have become. I wonder how much of that is not due to digging into entrenched positions instead of looking for common cause. 

I don't think you should even try to debate or change anyone's views. Just carry on being yourself and acting as your own example. If she tries to turn everything into a Trump proclamation, gently change the subject without trying to argue with her: 'Is climate change a lie? I don't know but isn't it a beautiful day today?'

Not everything has to be a confrontation. Find out where the other person's limits are and work within that.

Rikkitic:

 

I am well aware how tribal US politics have become. I wonder how much of that is not due to digging into entrenched positions instead of looking for common cause. 

 

I don't think you should even try to debate or change anyone's views. Just carry on being yourself and acting as your own example. If she tries to turn everything into a Trump proclamation, gently change the subject without trying to argue with her: 'Is climate change a lie? I don't know but isn't it a beautiful day today?'

 

Sorry but I don't get the connection between talking about climate change moving to Trump being a bad leader?

In any case, like I said, I'll probably never see her again, so it's not like she's up the street and I see her all the time or anything.

quickymart:

 

Harsh/accurate

 

 

They all deserve to be in a cabinet. A titanium one with locks

And thats not a partisan comment. You can get leaders or parties that are a bit crap, but this is magnitudes beyond that. If the media wrote a short story about this Trump administration a few years ago, they would be laughed out of court for being stupid and shallow. But it has actually played out

Sideface:

 

Be afraid, be very afraid ...

 

The Washington Post - The 5-Minute Fix: What happened under Trump this week

 

There’s increasingly a belief in Washington that President Donald Trump does what he wants, sometimes without even consulting his advisers. “I have the right to do anything I want to do,” Trump said Monday.

 

Many of this week’s actions - from trying to fire a governor of the nation’s independent central bank to cancelling billions in international aid that Congress mandated - underscore that. …

 

[headings only] :

 

• The nation’s disease control agency is imploding over Kennedy’s vaccine scepticism ...
• Trump seeks government stakes in U.S. businesses ...
• A ‘revenge-driven loyalty purge’ at the CIA ...

 

Trump is a textbook autocrat with a huge ego, possibly combined with early dementia ... Mad King Donald.   😟

 

IIRC there was an article last week where he said he is nit a dictator, but dictators can be good, or words to that effect. 

Next election when they are gone burger, I wonder how the GOP will divulve themselves from the Trump Effect. The latter will taint voters for a while, especially those that are GOP but dont want Trump. They wont want a Trump wannabee either