octave

I have been doing some hardcore reading. Project 2025 is the playbook for the new government and it is frankly pretty scary. It is a 920 page document. The problem regarding the FAA (and other departments) is that Project 2025 calls for a purge of all government workers and where workers are replaced it is with Trump loyalists. "WASHINGTON (AP) — Job-seekers hoping to join the new Trump administration are facing a series of intense loyalty tests, with White House screening teams fanning out to government agencies to check for “Make America Great Again” bona fides and carefully parsing applicants’ politics and social media posts. President Donald Trump has long said he believes the biggest mistake he made during his first term was hiring what he considered to be the wrong kinds of people. Now, aides are working aggressively to ensure the government is filled only with loyalists. Negative social media posts have been enough to derail applications. Those seeking jobs have been told they will have to prove their “enthusiasm” to enact Trump’s agenda and have been asked when their moment of “MAGA revelation” occurred. One federal employee said they briefly considered buying Trump’s crypto meme coin in case the president’s team asked about their voting record." A strength of many Western government systems is the neutrality of the public service. What does a Trump loyalist aviation say if an accident is contributed to an accident? Trump is so insecure that criticizing him in any way gets you excommunicated. The other side of the coin is kissing his big orange ass gets you a job. Example trump only a few months ago said of RF Kennedy. "Kennedy is a Radical Left Democrat, and always will be!!! It's great for MAGA, but the Communists will make it very hard for him to get on the Ballot," Trump posted on his social media platform in March." And yet Kennedy is apparently the man for the health department. Did Kennedy change? No, when he pulled out of the presidential race he pledged support for Trump. It was purely transactional. Trump does not give a sh1t about the country. it is all about stroking his fragile ego.

Trump begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash Hundreds fired at aviation safety agency, union says

I know a former politician quite well. My family were immigrants from Britain and the area they moved to was full of British immigrants. Our next-door neighbours immigrated about a year after my family. Our neighbour's kids were my friends. My neighbours were known to me as (won't use real names) Uncle A and Auntie B. Our neighbour's daughter was usually in my class at school and I for many years was sweet on her. I was very good friends with our neighbour's son although he was a year younger than me. Their kids were extremely intelligent. Some years later Uncle A stood successfully for council. By this time my family had moved house. At 17 I wanted to join the RAAF as a musician. I passed the rigorous audition but still had to be accepted by RAAF recruiting. It was taking some time. By this time Uncle A became mayor of the local council and had then stood for election to the gov of SA. Uncle A wrote me a glowing reference which seemed to speed up RAAF recruiting. After my basic training, I was posted to NSW and lost touch with my ex-neighbours. Being in another state I lost touch with SA politics. Uncle A went on to become a senior minister in the Bannon government. My parents kept in touch with Uncle A and Auntie B and they would get together regularly. My father ended up in aged care and Uncle A and Auntie B would visit him regularly. My father died I was unable to be at the funeral (COVID) but Uncle A made a beautiful speech which we watched on a livestream. These days my mother is in care and nearly every week Uncle A and Auntie B drive from the other side of the city to take my mother out to lunch. When we visit SA we go to lunch with them. Although my mother is a little past being able to engage in stimulating conversation, Uncle A assured me that he and Auntie B could still talk about the old days and that as long as he could drive he would always be there for her. I am FB friends with Uncle A and Auntie B. They are still politically opinionated. They don't have a racist, sexist or anything else ist bone in their bodies. If I try to find a fault it is that they are dyed-in-the-wool labor folks. Although they are extremely concerned about the environment they would never vote green because of their labor history. I disagree with them on this but their heart is in the right place. I did do a little research and found that Uncle A did take a principled stand on an issue that put him at odds with the party, I read an account of him being summonsed to Bannon's office and reprimanded and I think demoted Bit of a long ramble but I guess the point is that unless you think that Uncle A is a bad person then it must follow that all politicians are not *****s. I do look down on binary thinking.

Dishonest Candidates Win Elections, According To New Research

I think the problem of politicians and honesty comes down to us. The thing is that we don't reward politicians who tell the truth. A recently elected politician said "I will end inflation on day one", he was elected, he did not end inflation. If a politician explained that inflation was a global problem regardless of the flavour of the government and that although some measures may go some way towards creating the conditions that MAY help to reduce inflation. most people will vote for the lying politician. Many people prefer a reassuring lie rather than the truth. We need to grow up a bit I think.

Trump/Musk, so f******* dumb that they fired the people who oversee the safety of the nation's nuclear weapons only to attempt to rehire them when they realized their stupidity. Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realizing they oversee the country’s weapons stockpile, sources say This is what happens when you cut with a chainsaw rather than a scalpel.

The Trump administration is composed of mostly billionaires. They do not represent the average person. The wealthy are less likely to need the services of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The likes of Musk do not need this service, they can afford to sue. However, it does suit Musk to take power away from ordinary people. This is especially wrong because Musk seeks to provide financial transactions on Twitter. Musk has everything to gain from getting rid of consumer protection and the ordinary people have a lot to lose. Trump's talent is convincing ordinary people that he has their interests at heart.

The greater point though is that it is obvious that Musk has so many conflicts of interest that he can't possibly be unbiased. Running a financial system whilst having the power to cripple the organisation tasked with regulating financial services is not on. This is more than a conflict of interest it is corrupt.

That is an understatement. Musk is killing off the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while simultaneously moving towards X formerly Twitter offering financial services. It is awfully convenient for him not to have protection for his customers. Elon Musk's vision of turning X into an “everything app” is one step closer to reality with the announcement of a new payments platform. The company's new X Money service is set to launch later in 2025, giving users a digital wallet on X to store money and make peer-to-peer transfers.

You do know that Trump and Musk want to abolish the Consumer Financial Bureau a body that protects the ordinary person from predatory banks and credit card companies? If Trump doesn't seem to give a toss about bank customers being ripped off why would he care about electricity customers being treated with contempt Trump's followers are quite gullible if they believe a bunch of ruthless billionaires are looking out for them. Second Trump administration Consumer Financial Protection Bureau homepage screenshot February 2025 On February 1, 2025, Chopra was fired by President Trump, making deputy director Zixta Martinez the acting director of the agency.[36][37] Two days later Treasury Secretary and former hedge fund manager Scott Bessent was named the agency's director and immediately ordered the agency to halt all work.[38] On Friday, February 7, Russell Vought emailed CFPB staff to let them know he was the acting director.[39] On February 10, Vought ordered all CFPB staff to cease all work between February 10 and 14, and closed the CFPB Washington headquarters.[40][6] In February 2025, the Bureau became a target of the Department of Government Efficiency, the Elon Musk-led team carrying out part of Trump's cost-cutting agenda. Staffers gained access to consumers' data.[41] As of February 8, 2025, all pages, resources, webforms and instructions on how to contact the agency by email remain in place on the official website of the Bureau, but its front page displays a deceptive 404 error (not found) message. [42] CFPB workers have accused Elon Musk of glaring conflict of interest.[43] Helaine Olen, from the American Economic Liberties Project, argues that closing down the CFPB "is an overt power grab by Big Tech — and their gain could result in the rest of us losing much more than almost anyone realizes."[44]

Elon Musk's DOGE takes aim at agency that had plans of regulating X "The fact that Musk is now engaged in payment businesses that would be regulated by the CFPB at the same time he's trying to tear down the CFPB puts in sharp relief the conflicts of interests here and how much this disserves the general public," said Richard Cordray, who led the CFPB under President Barack Obama. "The whole situation is rife with conflicts of interest."

FAA Leader Quit Before D.C. Plane Crash—Thanks to Elon Musk The administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Michael Whitaker, resigned from his position on January 20 after repeated demands from Elon Musk that he quit, leaving the agency without a Senate-confirmed leader during a major crisis in the wake of the D.C. plane crash. Musk called for Whitaker’s resignation in September after the FAA chief proposed fining Musk’s company SpaceX over $600,000 in civil penalties for failing to follow license requirements during two launches in 2023. Whitaker told a congressional panel at the time that fines were “the only tool we have to get compliance on safety matters.”

Ah Trumps America. Montana Considers Becoming First US State To Ban mRNA Vaccine Use meanwhile in Australia Using mRNA technology to prevent cancer and treat disease

This is a humorous statement. As far as I know, Marty does not own a gun however the right wongers on Jan 6 DID build a gallows. I believe their threats were very real and every right-thinking person should strongly condemn these right-wing morons.

Unlike the righties ehh? Jan 6 mob threatens to hang Mike Pence during hearings Share Facebook Twitter

It seems that the area is not big enough for today's larger turbines which require more spacing. The council's policy director Nick Aberle said the site was not large enough for up-to-date wind turbines, which were larger and could generate six times more energy than the turbines at Codrington. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-13/pacific-blue-decommissioning-codrington-wind-farm-port-fairy/104926348

Yep. We are going to visit him in a few weeks (in NZ) and he always lends us a car. I am thinking this time I take the other car.

Here is a picture of a modification my son made to his car. I was amused when he said it had lost value because of "heil damage"

and yet votes for major parties are declining and for minor parties increasing. The steady decline of voters choosing the major parties is reshaping Australian politics Over the past 40 years the share of votes going to independents and minor parties has risen in both state and federal elections. Seismic shift’ from major parties defines 2022 election Almost one in three voters cast their ballot for minor parties or independent candidates in the 2022 federal election, the highest number in almost 100 years, Australia's largest and longest-running study on elections has found. If the AEC is favouring the ALP and Coalition it does not seem to be paying off for them.

I am not trying to be mean but trust me, you don't understand how preferential voting works

Yes because of course Trump doesn't use disparaging language about anyone else. For a man who happily insults others he sure does have a thin skin but this is the hallmark of a malignant narcissist.

It went up because of it's US operations as in the portion of it's business situated in the US. Its US operation may benefit from tariffs but is Australian operation won't While BlueScope is best known in Australia for its Port Kembla steelworks, south of Sydney, the company generates more revenue from its North American operations than in Australia, according to its most recent financials. It has a large presence in Ohio, and could therefore end up a beneficiary of a tariff regime that hinders rivals. Its shares were up 4% earlier on Monday, in response to Trump’s announcement. A BlueScope spokesperson said the company would “continue to work with the Trump administration and the Australian government, as we await further details”. Steel fabricator Bisalloy did not fare so well on Monday morning, with its shares falling 4% in early trading. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.25% by late morning, tracking a sell-off on Wall Street on Friday. The tariff announcement likely created further uncertainty for traders, weighing on overall market sentiment.

So Musk and rumps latest "kill" is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. From its creation until 2017, the CFPB "has curtailed abusive debt collection practices, reformed mortgage lending, publicized and investigated hundreds of thousands of complaints from aggrieved customers of financial institutions, and extracted nearly $12 billion for 29 million consumers in refunds and canceled debts."[41] That figure had risen to $19 billion by 2024.[42] Consumer Financial Protection Bureau I am not saying that it should not be immune from cost-cutting however it seems to me that a billionaire, who can, afford to sue a bank if they are wronged, probably does not appreciate the importance of this organisation to ordinary people who might find themselves wronged by a bank. The running cost of this department seems to be about 500 million a year,(2021) but it has returned 19 billion dollars to consumers in 7 years. Musk is taking a chainsaw to something that he perhaps cannot see the purpose of but this is because of his extreme wealth.