US labour watchdog halts Apple cases after group’s lawyer picked for top job

I think for many of us saying this out loud (or typing it out on sites like this) is a coping mechanism.

During Trump 1, there were some adults in the room -- congress seemed to be less complacent, the cabinet appointees had more independent (and more pragmatic) judgement, and the scale of purges across the government felt like nothing compared to what's currently going on.

There's none of that now. Congress is complacent and arguably complicit in an ongoing constitutional crisis, the admin is just breaking a number of laws without even putting in the work to have plausible deniability, and with every passing day the corruption's growing to levels that many of us who've been born and raised in the modern economic west just haven't seen in a few generations.

Even if I don't particularly like the individuals, it did feel like some people involved felt compelled to be there, even if they didn't really want to be... Rex Tillerson comes to mind. I can't imagine Trump's moral character sat well with a literal boy scout. John Kelly was another no-nonsense member who seemed steady & driven by a motivation that, agree with or not, was defensible vs. the current batch's motivations. Surprise - he didn't last long either.

If there are anyone on the (currently) winning side in this Congress who aren't a bunch of greedy, self-serving boot lickers they better step up soon. I can't imagine someone like John McCain would remain silent in this environment. Best case scenario: history will forget most of these assholes; if not, it will not be kind.

if you have any scruples and a brain, you'll shut up until you have a chance to obstruct something really important. Its easy to replace you if you vocally oppose trump.

You gotta hope.

Trump 1 also had no plan and most there were for their own gain in money or power, so they were ineffective and got barely nothing done. Trump 2 has the Project 2025/Curtis Yarvin plan and plenty of competent people to execute it. They prepared a shitload of executive orders and set up a system where sycophants can upload their CV to take government jobs when they fire people.

After he won I started reading more about who these people were and what they were planning to do and sold all my stocks after the inauguration, there was no way it was going to be a normal presidency, even compared to the last one.

The libertarians in the Republican party, like Massie and Paul, still seem to vote [1] according to their ideology. I don't agree with their ideology but they do seem consistent. [2]

Collins, McConnell, and Murkowski have been voting against the administration for more traditional Republican policy, sometimes.[3]

Nine Republican Reps blocked H.Res 282[4] because it would have killed bipartisan H.Res 164[5] and that caused the House Republican leaders to cancel votes for the whole week.

It's not all lockstep boot licking. Just mostly.

[1] https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202550

[2] https://xcancel.com/RepThomasMassie/status/18995193281369747...

[3] https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1...

[4] https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202587

[5] https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-resolutio...

It's really surprising how few people seem to understand what working under a hostile regime actually means, and how civil disobedience can never be done publicly - because that would just mean you get replaced and can't help anymore.

What did you do with the money from the stocks instead? Gold?

Nothing, not a particularly active or savvy investor, had most in nvidia/amd (bought both around $15) and s&p 500 index. Gold and EU arms is obvious in hindsight. Just waiting for some of this to be over and I'll buy index funds again.

If your prognosis is that index funds will be worth buying after this is over, doesn't that imply that they're a bargain now?

Probably. But I think its only the beginning of them fucking around like this, so far its just reactions on tariffs, we haven't seen the real impact yet. And unless congress stops them they're not going to stop.

Not if he expects them to keep going down as long as the current administration is in power.

Oh so you just have it all in cash in a savings account or something?