A lot of people who have keys to the kingdom may not really care about it. But it would be a mistake to think that there aren't any white nationalist ideologues within rank and file. At the very least, they are enabled and empowered.
These types of people blame the failures of their own policies on the scapegoats because they're convinced their ideology is actually natural law.
They control the courts, presidency, congress, most state houses and governors offices, have most popular news shows and networks, and they're unwilling to admit their policies are incompetently administered so therefore socialists and trans people must actually be running things, somehow, somewhere, in some invisible way.
They refuse to take responsibility and imagine conspiracies where some scapegoat is puppet mastering their failure.
You might have who I'm talking about confused. Musk, Vance, and their cabal don't actually believe in it. It's fascism and fascism needs an enemy to point at. That isn't to say they don't have people in their ranks that don't believe in it.
They do though. They mention obscure authors and theories about white replacement and neo-eugenics. There's constant controversies of people finding the online handles of these power players on sites like gab and bitchute where they express pretty unambiguous sentiments.
Musk has a trans child he's cutoff all contact with. There's very little evidence these people are faking it. There's never been a group chat that gets leaked to expose them as secretly fine respectable people.
We have this tendency to think socialist and leftist are all very serious about it while the people on the far right don't actually believe it, they're just pretending.
They're not cutting the budget, just rearranging spending priorities (i.e., more to the border -- as if that is where our biggest military threat will come from).
In fact, the upcoming Budget calls for an _increase_ in the defense budget.
One thing to keep in mind that Federal Spending represented 23.4% of GDP in 2024. Around 12% of that is defense spending. I have yet to see any way these cuts do not result is massive decreases in GDP. Even if all of it is redirected to defense.
Indeed. It's moreso the case that they view everything as "waste and corruption" and are making everyone miserable, but if you look at the (currently) top thread[1], it's a deliberate move at that.
Your article points out that that's a rare topic where there is a disconnect among the Administration. Not everyone in Trump/Elon's orbit seems to be aligned on what to do about military spending. DOGE has so far steered clear of it.
They are definitely not as laser focused on that as they are on nickling and diming workers and removing database columns that deal with diversity and inclusion.
How many people work for Doge? It's only been a month, after all. From what I've seen, I assume from their limited staffing, they're moving from department to department, rather than attempting to look at all departments in the government at once. It's seems reasonable to target the military later, for PR and utilitarian reasons.
You would think, with limited staffing, they'd want to start by focusing their efforts on departments where they could have a much bigger impact. Yet they decide to start with such small potatoes instead of the huge spenders?
It feels as though I'm trying to cut down my household spending and I focus on canceling my $15/mo Netflix account rather than negotiate down my $1000/mo credit card bill or work on finding an apartment that's $1500/mo rather than $4500/mo.
Military is pretty far down the list on total spent [1].
SS is biggest spending, and one of the first departments. USAID was viewed, by the administration, as being 100% waste.
Rather than starting at the biggest spender (and subjective greatest waste), what do you see as the metric for ordering? Do you think PR should be involved in the ordering? Do you think the administration ordered based on PR?
This is why in the debate of : Are they fascists or idiots? I tend to come down on idiots.
Fascist can be idiots, of course, but they tend to glorify the military (per Eco). And thus far, these guys have shown that they are mostly going to just bumble around and be gloryhounds. Sure Donny like the pomp, but real fascists wouldn't be gutting the NNSA or the DoD. They'd be building it up and expanding it, even at this early stage.
The only 'but' I can think of is that they are going to gut the military, then build it back up with fellow nutters. Something that many admins (and countries!) have tried to do to the Pentagon, and have all failed at.
Still, assume stupidity, not conspiracy, per Hanlon's razor.
I think this is an excellent point. If Trump and Musk were as brilliantly malicious as the Left claims, they’d be going about this much smarter. I think they’re solipsistic, nihilistic fools, and they’re going to ruin tens of millions of people’s lives.
"Dupes to the billionaires" sounds like something a dupe to the bureaucracy would say. I've never once had a problem with a billionaire. They have the common courtesy to stay out of my life. Can't say the same for the bureaucrats and their worthless gatekeepers and credentialed "experts" I'm forced to pay and spend time on because of their endless rules.
Smart and winning are not the same. Left was very correct about conservatives, Trump and Musk. They were correct about Vance too. They were punished for being correct.
Plus the rules are assymetric - Republicans can lie, strike outrage and do massively amoral things, but left and democrats are criticized for the same. Both sidism ensures that when Republicans do something bad, center knee jerks with euphemism it away while massively criticizing minor issues on democratic side.
> real fascists wouldn't be gutting the NNSA or the DoD. They'd be building it up and expanding it, even at this early stage.
Not necessarily. If those organisations were not blindly obedient to the leader (which they shouldn't be in a functioning democracy) then the fascist playbook then would be to neuter them and replace them with a more loyal apparatus.
In Hitler's Nazi germany, the SS were a new organisation with loyalty to the Fuhrer rather than the state. The SS acquired immense power and became a virtual state within a state.
You're also assuming that the fascist end goal is global domination. If the Fuhrer was driven primarily by narcissism, and by nature lazy rather than as hard working as Hitler apparently was, and they already have control of the largest democracy and arsenal in the world, then war and global domination may not be required to satisfy their psychological urges.
> The memo, dated Tuesday, calls for military leaders to provide a proposal for eight percent in budget cuts each year for the next five years. The proposals for the massive cuts to the Pentagon’s budget of approximately $850 billion are due by February 24, less than one week after Hegseth issued the memo.
> It was issued the day before President Donald Trump endorsed the House’s budget plan which includes a $100 billion increase in defense spending, suggesting a major disconnect within the administration. Hegseth himself called for an increase to the defense budget one week ago. While visiting Stuttgart, Germany, Hegseth said, “I think the US needs to spend more than the Biden administration was willing to, who historically underinvested in the capabilities of our military.”
One of the best moves wrt nutrition, fitness, and productivity I've made the last couple years is adding electrolytes to my supplement stack.
I've always been deliberate about having sufficient water intake, but supplementing electrolytes on top of that made a small, but noticeable, difference. I take a small amount by pill w/each meal (along w/a multi-vitamin, etc.), and via powder form in my water or beverage once a day. I feel more refreshed and focused while at work or at the gym, and I no longer experience muscle cramps (I never had them frequently, but being deliberate about electrolyte intake has removed them entirely).
So, while the study focused on 'hydration', it's worth remembering that doesn't comprise of water intake alone. My performance and focus on sufficient water intake, while ok, felt inferior compared to sufficient water intake + electrolyte supplementation.
Addendum: I believe the basis for electrolytes is salt and water; the sugar is there for taste. You will find the WHO recipe has a similar Gatorade kind of taste. That’s the sugar and salt flavors mixed. Perhaps the sugar changes the water polarity? But you can do what ever you want after 1L of water + 1/2 tsp salt and some sort of sugars. 1/8 tsp (pinch) baking soda is another popular addition.
> An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that are electrically conductive through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water.[0]
You need to have the sugar because it is required to transport sodium across the cell membrane in the intestine. Without the sugar you will not absorb the salt, which is what helps maintain hydration and electrolyte balance. This discovery has possibly saved roughly as many lives as antibiotics.
I've recently started using REDMOND Re-Lyte Hydration Electrolyte Mix, and it has been working well for me. I know you can make your own electrolyte mix at home, but I find that the convenience makes it easier for me to adhere to some kind of hydration routine.
If it's one of those fizzy tablets you put into water then magnesium carbonate and potassium carbonate work too as long as they contain citric acid. They will react (the fizzing) and create the citrate.
Another source of potassium is "low sodium salt". This is often the cheapest form of potassium you can easily get.
As a longtime PHP developer, my opinion differs from yours regarding PHP vs. Python syntax.
Python took some getting used to, but the more I used it the more strongly I began preferring its lack of things like curly braces, semicolons, even parenthesis in some cases. Because of that, python feels more concise, human-readable, and more efficient to write, than PHP.
I like both languages, and still rely on PHP for a lot of web work, but for data science or ML I do end up enjoying my time with python.
I feel "partial" in 'partial mobilization' intends to be deceptive. The version of the decree released to the public [1] contains nothing limiting number of recruits. That number is specified in a classified portion of the decree [2]. If it simply stated the same number Putin and Shoigu claim (300k), I doubt it would need to be classified.
Sounds like they're masking this as "partial" mobilization in the same way they've masked their war as a "special military operation."
And just hours later, we're starting to see reports claiming exactly this: "Hidden paragraph of Putin's decree allows to mobilise 1 million Russians".
Granted, that's a Ukrainian news article, but I won't be surprised if the true scope of Putin's claimed "partial" mobilization ends up being far more than they're masking it as.
> The report treated "who did it" as an unimportant detail ... it was the only reason they were invited.
Might've been why they were invited, I don't think that's why they went.
Their tweet of mission objectives [1], and their article over appeal made for the visit to the UN Security Council [2], merely stated motivation to "carry out ... activities in nuclear safety, security and safeguards and at the same time provide a stabilizing influence", and to "provide an independent risk assessment of the nuclear safety and security risks."
I've yet to read, in those 2 sources or others, assigning responsibility for the shelling in their objectives. Do you have sources that do?
B/c it sounds more like their scope was limited to assessing damage and establishing a presence to ensure safe operation of the plant.
I often listen to movie or tv series tracks. Recently that's included music from Hans Zimmer (Mission Impossible [1], Rush [2], etc.), Calm with Horses [3], El Chapo [4, 5], and The Kingdom [6].
I sometimes listen to my favorite bands (Tool, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, etc.), but like OP, I'm mostly biased towards non-lyrical while working.
> a sprint / heavy session would feel good ... but fatigue ... would cause me to skip a follow up. This year's focus will be on consistency - only do as much as will allow another session the next day
One of my martial arts instructors had a memorable saying for that - "train today, so you can train tomorrow." His point was similar to yours - he often had to temper enthusiasm for hard or over training in favor of consistency and longevity.
Regarding the garage gym - I did something similar and agree it's an excellent health/life investment.
I avoid back squats due to injury, but I do have a station for belt squats, a flat bench w/olympic bar, hex bar for dead lifts, an assortment of plates/dumb bells/kettle bells, all on gym mats. Having a gym next to me has provided excellent motivation to get out of my desk chair 3-4 times a week to use it. I dropped 25 lbs this year thanks to consistent routine, and my body and day-to-day feel so much better; less joint aches, better sleep, and more energy, mental clarity, and confidence.
To tie that back to OP's question on self care, avoiding burnout, etc. ... I'd say it's worth paying attention to mentions of physical fitness and exercise in this thread. Staying physically active and taking care of your body helps protect against some of the negative mental states or outcomes these kinds of threads try to avoid.
That's an awesome setup; congrats on your results, and great to hear how it's affecting all aspects of your life. That desk chair is a slow killer unless combined with workout routines.
(If you haven't already, have a look at the Barbell Prescription book - the plethora benefits of such a routine are almost chilling.)
Your martial arts instructors sound wise! I've had the thought in the back of my mind, but I've resolved to make it my #1 priority this year. I'll be logging volumes, etc, and how I feel the the next morning to arrive at loads I can sustain with daily activities long term.
You mentioned confidence. I have a noted how improved fitness has helped carry myself with a straight back; the benefits on mental health are hard to overstate. I also have ADHD, and likewise for my ability to focus.
I heavily favor end-to-end integration tests as well. For the kind of code you commented on, but also for older code bases w/out a hint of prior test automation. My experiences sound similar to yours - I've found they provide excellent understanding of general code paths and data movement, and that they help those remain stable during new development or refactoring w/out having to change too much within the code base.
Likewise on the controversy - my favor toward integration tests tends to get replies in favor of unit tests instead, in which case I'll say I understand their benefit and use them too. E.g. sometimes a method or class that handles some computation needs more coverage than what an integration test typically provides. Maybe the class or method gets called within an API, where inputs or contextual data are well understood. But it might also be called from back end jobs, or by code written by internal data teams where inputs or related data are more nuanced. In such cases, it's worked well to mock the class and go to town with various input or edge case data that might fall outside the perview of an end-to-end test.
> The absolutely crazy thing is the person who caused this doesn't think they did anything wrong.
And now he's saying this of the person he took the work from [1]:
1. "I believe he is a good person, but love colorette too much and prefer impulsive actions ... Impulsive behavior can be very dangerous."
2. "Comments like this [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28662796] shows that his behavior in that case was very questionable. Seems like he is systematically put himself in conflicts."
True or not, I find his claims of the victim having impulsive or questionable behavior, and systematically creating conflicts, ironic.
On a more positive note - it looks like both parties are starting to discuss a resolution [1]; maybe even co-maintainership of the original work in question [2]. I personally think that would take a lot of guts, from both parties, given everything that's transpired.
I also think johnnyshields in the linked GitHub thread [1] deserves acknowledgement for some noticeably simple, but effective, attempts at facilitating resolution.
"Colorette isn't some obscure project either. It is well used. Now imagine I find a project that meets that description. Clone it. Erase the .git directory. Initialize a new repository. Make a few extraneous changes. Incorrectly benchmark it. Falsely claim improved performance. Tweak the docs. Change the name. Add a logo. Start aggressively promoting it and sending PRs to high-profile projects while leveraging a non-trivial social media following. I'm not against forking a project and adding new value to it. I encourage that. But that's not what's going on here. This is the collector getting away with a new piece for their collection."
Comparing that, to "promoting alternatives" to one of your projects on Twitter, shows a creepy lack of acknowledgement.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/hegseth-military-maj...