tal @ tal @lemmy.today Posts 252Comments 6,640Joined 1 yr. ago
Treason is an extremely-rare charge in the US, and the conditions for it are very narrow.
They are much narrower than "doing things that are detrimental to the country".
I am confident that RFK Jr. would not meet the bar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason_laws_in_the_United_States
In the United States, there are both federal and state laws prohibiting treason.[1] Treason is defined on the federal level in Article III, Section 3 of the United States Constitution as "only in levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." Most state constitutions include similar definitions of treason, specifically limited to levying war against the state, "adhering to the enemies" of the state, or aiding the enemies of the state, and requiring two witnesses or a confession in open court.[2] Fewer than 30 people have ever been charged with treason under these laws.[3]
If we can't have independent Executive Branch agencies, then Congress is probably going to have to create some under Congress. They do have some bureaucracy of their own, like the Congressional Research Service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Service
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis. CRS is sometimes known as Congress' think tank due to its broad mandate of providing research and analysis on all matters relevant to national policymaking.[4]
CRS is one of three major legislative agencies that support Congress, along with the Congressional Budget Office (which provides Congress with budget-related information, reports on fiscal, budgetary, and programmatic issues, and analyses of budget policy options, costs, and effects) and the Government Accountability Office (which assists Congress in reviewing and monitoring the activities of government by conducting independent audits, investigations, and evaluations of federal programs). Collectively, the three agencies employ more than 4,000 people.[5]
The whole federal government is about three million people, so that's a tiny fraction of it. But it is a thing -- the Legislative Branch can have its own bureaucracy.
I mean, you cannot stick stuff related to oversight of the Executive Branch within the Executive Branch if it doesn't have independence.
Maybe the Irish will increase taxation on it to make him happy.
Musk did some crazy brand management with Twitter, but the Tesla/Trump stuff has got to be unparalleled in the history of branding. He built a product that was an identity-broadcasting thing for liberals and then pulled a 180 and drove as hard as one could possibly imagine in the other direction.
Even if he had some idea of selling to conservatives, become the only EV manufacturer selling to that segment, he could have put out a different brand, which lots of manufacturers do, and mitigate losses to the original brand.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-sale-big-losses-second-hand-value-plunge-elon-musk-2025-3
Tesla owners offloading their cars over Elon Musk backlash are in for a nasty surprise
- Some Tesla owners are considering selling their cars as backlash against Elon Musk and DOGE grows.
- They may have to take a serious haircut, with prices for used Teslas plummeting in recent years.
- The average price of a pre-owned Tesla is now $30,000, nearly $10,000 less than a non-Tesla EV.
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-gaining-republicans-loses-traction-democrats-stifel/
Stifel’s Think Tank Group data has shown that Democrats’ net favorability of Tesla fell to -15% from 7% since February 2024, while Republicans’ rose to 27% from 11%. Democrats’ net purchase consideration for Tesla vehicles also dropped to -42% from -31% since Musk endorsed Trump in August, while Republicans’ improved to -13% from -26% in the same period, per Stifel.
“There is a clear negative shift from Democrats, while Republicans willingness to buy a Tesla is rising… This backlash has surfaced anecdotally and on social media (people placing bumper stickers on their Tesla’s claiming they love the car, but not Elon, and other variations),” the analyst noted.
E.U. Retaliates Against Trump’s Trade Moves, Places Tariffs on Produce From Republican States
So now the US has a trade war with China, which has tariffs targeting US agriculture, and concurrently a trade war with the EU, which has tariffs targeting US agriculture.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-tariffs-us-farmers/
China's retaliatory tariffs went into effect Monday, spelling trouble for American farmers by making U.S.-grown crops more expensive for their top purchaser.
Beijing imposed the levies in response to President Trump's extra 10% blanket tariff on Chinese goods. Under China's retaliatory action, U.S. farmers now face levies of 15% on chicken, wheat and corn, and 10% on soybeans, pork, beef and fruit.
Farmers are bearing the brunt of the effects of a trade war with key U.S. trade partners, Boyd added. "The president is using American farmers to bargain with, but at the end of the day, we are the ones that are hurting."
Nick Levendofsky, executive director of the Kansas Farmers Union, told CBS MoneyWatch that the industry had anticipated that Mr. Trump would impose levies on key U.S. trade partners, but that there wasn't a whole lot the farmers he represents could do to prepare.
"Of course, agriculture products are subject to the retaliatory tariffs, and farmers tend to be the ones that get it first and hardest in a trade war; we take the brunt of this and get a black eye or busted nose," Levendofsky told CBS MoneyWatch.
He explained that farmers across the U.S. are grappling with high input costs, including the price of seeds, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel and equipment costs needed to run their farms. Meanwhile, commodity prices are low.
"This trade war and these tariffs adds to that very stressful time and does not help the farm economy. When farmers aren't making money, they are not spending money and that directly ripples across the rural economy," he said.
I once again reiterate my earlier statements that a lot of Trump policy does not seem to be to be very good at all for American agriculture, which is surprising to me, given that the present-day Republican Party is the party of rural America.
How Many Presidents Have Been Accused of Being the Antichrist?
Hint: It’s not just Obama.
Suspected White House shooter Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was obsessed with President Barack Obama, according to investigators, and reportedly thought Obama was the Antichrist. In September, heckler David Serrano called Obama “the Antichrist” at a fundraiser. Have other U.S. presidents been suspected of being the Antichrist?
Yes. Perhaps the first U.S. president suspected of being the Antichrist was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s extraordinary influence and desire to form a worldwide United Nations raised the suspicions of many conservative Christians. When President Roosevelt began to engage in diplomacy with the Soviet Union, prominent evangelist and politician Gerald Burton Winrod suggested that Roosevelt was at the very least under the influence of the Antichrist, and carrying out his plans. During John F. Kennedy’s candidacy for president, Protestant leaders compared electing Kennedy, a Catholic, to electing the Antichrist. In 1990 a man named Gregory Stuart Gordon invaded the house of former president Ronald Reagan, telling Secret Service agents “Ronald Reagan is the Antichrist. He must be killed and I must kill him.” While Gordon’s attorney claimed that Gordon was only trying to attract attention in hopes of gaining treatment for a drug problem, courts judged that his threat was serious and sentenced him to a two-year prison term.
Because the President and the Republican majority in the House and Senate are onboard with it, and that's the authority driving it (mostly the President, but the reason that Congress isn't objecting to or trying to block stuff is because they're okay with it). Musk may be the face of the cuts --- he doesn't have to worry about re-election, unlike politicians --- he has no authority of his own. His organization is just saying "this is what we should cut", and the cuts happen under the President's authority. Musk isn't independently going out and cutting things.
I use gdb myself.
I don't know exactly what you're after. From the above, I see:
"easy to use"
" the mouse is faster, not slower"
You don't specify a language, so I'm assuming you're looking for something low-level.
You don't specify an editor, so I'm assuming that you want something stand-alone, not integrated with an editor.
There are a number of packages that use gdb internally, but put some kind of visualization on it. I've used emacs's before, though I'm not particularly married to it --- mainly found it interesting as a way to rapidly move up and down frames in a stack --- but I'm assuming that if you want something quick to learn, you're not looking for emacs either.
Maybe seer? That'd be a stand-alone frontend on gdb with a GUI. Haven't used it myself.
EDIT: WRT gdb, the major alternative that I can think of to gdb is dbx, and that's also a CLI tool and looks dead these days. gdb is pretty dominant, so if you want something mouse-oriented, you're probably going to have some form of frontend on gdb.
There are other important debugging tools out there, stuff like valgrind, but in terms of a tool to halt and step through a program, view variables, etc, you're most-likely looking at gdb, one way or another, unless you're working in some sort of high-level language that has its own debugger. If you want a GUI interface, it's probably going to be some sort of frontend to gdb.
EDIT2: Huh. Apparently llvm has its own debugger, lldb. Haven't used it, and it's probably not what you want anyway, since it's also a CLI-based debugger. I am also sure that it has far fewer users than gdb. But just for completeness....guess you already looked at that, mentioned it in your comment.
Rolling back a few years to an earlier Trump campaign, a select quote:
https://401kspecialistmag.com/how-trumps-401k-performance-compares-to-presidential-predecessors/
“If for some reason I wouldn’t have won the [2016] election, these markets would have crashed. That’ll happen even more so in 2020,” Trump told a rally-goers in New Hampshire last week. “See, the bottom line is… You have no choice but to vote for me because your 401k, everything is going to be down the tubes. So, whether you love me or hate me, you’ve got to vote for me.”
I just don’t know how you change affiliation at this point.
In California? You can do it online.
https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/frequently-asked-questions
How do I change my political party?
In order to change your political party preference, you must re-register to vote. You can re-register to vote by completing a voter registration application online at RegisterToVote.ca.gov.
Anybody but the traiterous incumbant Gavin Newsom,
He's term-limited. He won't be the next governor of California.
Californians will vote for a new governor in 2026. That person will replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cannot run for another term for this office. Newsom’s current term will end early January 2027, according to Ballotpedia.
I read an article earlier suggesting that Newsom's potentially trying to position himself for a Presidential run, which might explain the trans thing.
I think that what started that snowball rolling was the Seven Years War. That started the Brits on the path of being the bigger global empire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Years%27_War
For much of the eighteenth century, France approached its wars in the same way. It would let colonies defend themselves or would offer only minimal help (sending them limited numbers of troops or inexperienced soldiers), anticipating that fights for the colonies would most likely be lost anyway. This strategy was to a degree forced upon France: geography, coupled with the superiority of the British navy, made it difficult for the French navy to provide significant supplies and support to overseas colonies. Similarly, several long land borders made an effective domestic army imperative for any French ruler. Given these military necessities, the French government, unsurprisingly, based its strategy overwhelmingly on the army in Europe: it would keep most of its army on the continent, hoping for victories closer to home. The plan was to fight to the end of hostilities and then, in treaty negotiations, to trade territorial acquisitions in Europe to regain lost overseas possessions (as had happened in, e.g., the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle). This approach did not serve France well in the war, as the colonies were indeed lost, and although much of the European war went well, by its end France had few counterbalancing European successes.
In India, the British retained the Northern Circars, but returned all the French trading ports. The treaty, however, required that the fortifications of these settlements be destroyed and never rebuilt, while only minimal garrisons could be maintained there, thus rendering them worthless as military bases. Combined with the loss of France's ally in Bengal and the defection of Hyderabad to the British as a result of the war, this effectively brought French power in India to an end, making way for British hegemony and eventual control of the subcontinent.
several CISA employees working on election security were placed on leave in January.
I want my pencil and paper ballot back.
https://www.tickcounter.com/countdown/6133013/days-until-trump-is-out-of-office
Days until Trump is out of office
1410 DAYS : 19 HOURS : 02 MINUTES : 02 SECONDS
They appear to have added a nice Space Shuttle background too.
I mean, the Thin Mints are pretty good.
The thing that the Tesla brand had been lacking was the "Trump bump". But would a personal sales pitch by Donald Trump on the White House lawn be enough, or would Tesla need to produce a limited edition, gold Cybertruck, numbered and personally signed by Donald Trump?
I once again comment that the Trump administration seems to adopt a lot of policy farmers wouldn't like, for a party of rural areas.
Half of American nonretirees already expect to get nothing from Social Security when they retire.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/546890/americans-upbeat-future-social-security-benefits.aspx
I mean, there'd be a lot of upset people, but...
Ending the Ukraine War: A Reset in U.S.-Russia Relations? | Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Michael Kofman
The geography of generative AI’s workforce impacts will likely differ from those of previous technologies
Trump’s billion-dollar bargain: how the US pressured Ukraine and why the deal collapsed
'NATO Santa' shot down over Moscow in apparent Russian propaganda video
