The Trump Presidency, Season 2

[WolfEyes]

Heartening to read all the comments and support in this r/fednews thread if you need a little pick-me-up

https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/s/Z8RU9Fe5Wm

Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social)

Incredible things continue to happen on the federal worker subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1icqyh1/to_my_fellow_feds_especially_veterans_were_at_war/

bsky.app

In reading over some of the comment I came across this video. I haven't watched it yet, but I thought others might be interested.

 

[Myradyl Muse]

In reading over some of the comment I came across this video. I haven't watched it yet, but I thought others might be interested.

Beyond the message content, which is eye-opening indeed, the thing that also struck me was how/why so many of those bro speakers resemble white skinhead nazi sympathizers! It actually gave me a distinctly visceral shiver reaction.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Bluesky

bsky.app

 

[Essence Lumin]

Bluesky

bsky.app

It's just too much for me to read closely now without throwing up, but the journalist accurately wrote.

Last week Trump signed an executive order restoring his standards. He explained: “We have to have our smartest people. It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. It matters intellect, talent – the word talent, you have to be talented, naturally talented genius. You can’t have regular people doing that job.”

It’s almost as if you need a master race.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

Bluesky

bsky.app

He -says- 'meritocracy' ... he -means- 'nepitocracy'.

Nothing fails to deliver the best and brightest like hiring people on the sole merit of how shamelessly they kiss your ass.

 

[Free]

Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social)

Good news: Early signs are Trump White House is so grossly incompetent that much of what they try will fail. Bad news: Much of what we need them to do they can’t do.

bsky.app

It's a glass half fucked sort of thing then.

 

[Free]

They are really on top of the important issues (that is, whatever will keep them in Trump's good graces).

Trump's FCC chief opens investigation into NPR and PBS

President Trump's new head of the Federal Communications Commission has ordered an investigation of NPR and PBS, with an eye toward unraveling federal funding for all public broadcasting.

"I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials," Chairman Brendan Carr wrote on Wednesday to the presidents and chief executives of NPR and PBS, Katherine Maher and Paula A. Kerger, respectively. "In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements."

 

[detrius]

Both examples make sense in "American Suburbs" logic. The owners of those homes don't want strangers driving around who have no business in their neighborhoods. It's one of those irregular verbs: "I want quiet and safe streets", "You don't want a lot of traffic or casual visitors near your home", "He is scared sh*tless of minorities and drug dealers and the poor getting within 3 miles of his wife and kids or his evangelical church."

Yeah, I know and find the entire mindset utterly psychotic.

Over here you'd have footpaths and bicycle paths opening up dead ends for cyclists and pedestrians, like this.

Or this.

It's not as if that kind of infrastructure doesn't exist, though. Here's an example of a suburban neighbourhood in America that has a street grid which enables children to walk to their school.

Also, look at how narrow the European streets are compared to this. That's how you build when you want to reduce noise and traffic. Those comically wide streets in American residential areas also require maintenance, so if you build them 2-3 times as wide and 2-3 times as long because only detached single family homes are allowed, then the costs for the infrastructure are going to skyrocket.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Welcome to Vichy America

After the Fall

www.unpopularfront.news

Julia Carrie Wong (@joolia.bsky.social)

I finally convinced the Guardian to let me write about Vichy France and all it took was the fascist takeover of the US government and complete capitulation by the supposed opposition https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/vichy-france-trump-democrats?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

bsky.app

 

[Beebo Brink]

13,000 Federal Employees Receive Abusive Email in Comms Exploit

A whopping 13,000 federal employees reportedly received an abusive email on Thursday after a new broadcast system was quickly exploited.

In an email with the subject header, “Resign,” all 13,000 federal employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reportedly received the abusive message, which read, “Aren’t you tired of working for a complete cunt?”

 

[Cristiano]

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

Those comically wide streets in American residential areas also require maintenance, so if you build them 2-3 times as wide and 2-3 times as long because only detached single family homes are allowed, then the costs for the infrastructure are going to skyrocket.

We need those comically large residential streets for the comically large sanitation vehicles to come and haul away our comically copious detritus.

 

[Beebo Brink]

My residential neighborhood is built with those "comically wide" streets, but we're not a suburb. We're center city in a working class area that was built in the mid-1800s. My house was built in 1896 (give or take a year, I'd check the plaque on the side of the house, only it's cold and raining right now). So this is apparently an old and very entrenched aspect of American city planning.

 

[Khamon]

We also have comically wide sidewalks and it is so nice to be able to walk with people side-by-side around the neighborhood.

 

[Free]

We also have comically wide sidewalks and it is so nice to be able to walk with people side-by-side around the neighborhood.

By comically wide, I assume you mean "conveniently."

 

[Beebo Brink]

By comically wide, I assume you mean "conveniently."

Take it up with detrius, it's his term, not ours.

 

[Free]

Take it up with detrius, it's his term, not ours.

Khamon did not include it in quotes.

 

[Khamon]

They are this _______________________________________________________________________________wide!

 

[Soen Eber]

Yeah, I know and find the entire mindset utterly psychotic.

Over here you'd have footpaths and bicycle paths opening up dead ends for cyclists and pedestrians, like this.

Or this.

It's not as if that kind of infrastructure doesn't exist, though. Here's an example of a suburban neighbourhood in America that has a street grid which enables children to walk to their school.

Also, look at how narrow the European streets are compared to this. That's how you build when you want to reduce noise and traffic. Those comically wide streets in American residential areas also require maintenance, so if you build them 2-3 times as wide and 2-3 times as long because only detached single family homes are allowed, then the costs for the infrastructure are going to skyrocket.

From what I've been able to look up, wider streets are mostly for ease of traffic flow and safety. It's usually set at a city level or higher following guidance probably from NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). This is in line with a decades-long trend in reducing traffic fatalities, which occured simultaneous with suburbanification and the outward growth of American Cities. I think part of the factoring is "can a firetruck safely maneuver at 'X' speed with cars parked on both sides".

Larger cars also require larger streets, and as cars became larger and trucks more popular it's become an arms race to stay safe by getting larger cars. Nearly every American parent makes sure their first son's or daughter's car is an ugly, unwieldy beast.

 

[Free]

They are this _______________________________________________________________________________wide!

There's a sense of humor to them, I'll say that.