Trump Presidency

[alt3rn1ty]

Security and encryption are not equivalent; encryption is just one element of security. Validating that the people who are involved in a conversation are who they say they are (and in this case who you intended them to be) is another important factor. And in the case of government activity, security also includes maintaining an audit trail of who said what to whom so that those involved can be held accountable. Signal may provide decent encryption but that does not make it a secure system for these kinds of communications.

Agreed, and the mistakes made there are the fault of the management of the meeting. But the Signal software itself is not an insecure medium.
I heard Trump also mention there were problems with the software, but he's just talking out of his arse as usual.
If the CIA endorse its use for their own personnel, thats good enough for me ..
"Signal is installed by default on the devices of most CIA employees and its usage is covered by standard onboarding training".
I just think Signal (which is a non-profit foundation) is getting bad press at the moment and it is undeserved.

[matthewfarmery]

But still, the issue is, one of those in the meeting was in Russia and they will likely have monitored the communications regardless. this kind of meeting should have been face to face, not done by phone.

[Vertigo 7]

So here's another update to the destruction of Social Security. They are now requiring in person ID verification for all new applicants as well as current applicants updating direct deposit information, meaning people now have to go to a field office - which many were just shuttered and the remaining few have hardly anyone working there now, making it a virtual impossibility for people to apply for or update their benefit information as this can only be done by appointment if you're able to get one.

[esd]

~ And lets not even forget that they used an insecure form of median to talk in, Plus one of them was in Russia for goodness sake. ~

Signal is probably the most secure personal communications app there is. Pretty sure it uses Diffie Helman Curve cryptography which can never be cracked, and is future proof against quantum computing. The original founder of Signal (Moxie Marlinspike) also made sure it only used cryptography which the NSA had no influence upon to undermine its excellent security.

https://signal.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)

WhatsApp is based on the same code (but undermined a bit by Facebook/Meta's privacy settings which are adapted for the company who bought it from the original developers).

So out of just those two I would trust Signal way above WhatsApp.
Whatever spin is being put on this, its not the software at fault.

Whoever Included a Journalist and someone from Russia in the secret Group meeting is the problem here.

It could be quantum double stuffed encryption, it doesn't matter if the phone they use it on can be compromised, which is exactly why they shouldn't be doing what they did.

[Vertigo 7]

you don't think a couch humping VP and an alcoholic SoD could ever do anything wrong... right?

[Chips]

Surprised they're not squeezing out some edge/borderline issues under the cover of invited-journalist-furore.

I mean, who is actually surprised? The competence was already assumed bottom tier, so this isn't *actually* a surprise. Just assume everyone wants a scalp from it.

But it's been a good few days for burying moderately bad news on the back of this, no? So what's *not* being looked at while this happens...

[Observe]

you don't think a couch humping VP and an alcoholic SoD could ever do anything wrong... right?

I think Secretary Hegseth needs to resign. He initiated the Signal chat, he shared specifics — including weapons systems, target locations, and timing, and this happened on his watch.

[matthewfarmery]

Of course he needs to resign, but he should never have had the job to begin with. He was totally inept to do the job. But Trump picked him, along with the rest of the clown show.

[Chips]

Also, who had they intended to invite to this group chat

[Skism]

I'm worried about my host parents in the US. Both are around 80, my host Mom is in a memory ward. I just talked to my host Dad, they closed the SS (and yes, it is REALLY weird for a German to type that abbreviation) office in the town they live in (55k inhabitants). The next closest one is in a city 80 miles away (120k people). He has to register something this week, and his only option is the webpage, which now you tell me has frequent outages. How on earth is this acceptable in any country that wants to consider itself even something close to modern?

That is horrific

I could write a lot about how we got into this situation
Basically far left and far right are at war inside the country and are destroying the lives of ordinary people
The Usa in particular is downright cruel to people on SS it’s designed to make people leave it in my opinion and it’s somewhat coming here to Britain too

Once again where is this supposed far-left in America? Because quite frankly looking in from the outside it seems as if the far-left does not really exist in America.

They most definitely exist although a precise definition is difficult- for example how would you define the far right? They most definitely exist

I could write an essay on the far right if I felt like it

The Far left is likewise they are hard to pin down but a few characteristics:
Forced social equality by wealth redistribution
The use of the state in order to do the above
Mandatory everything - similar to far right in which it is also mandatory to do certain things but precisely what is mandatory differs

[Skism]

Surprised they're not squeezing out some edge/borderline issues under the cover of invited-journalist-furore.

I mean, who is actually surprised? The competence was already assumed bottom tier, so this isn't *actually* a surprise. Just assume everyone wants a scalp from it.

But it's been a good few days for burying moderately bad news on the back of this, no? So what's *not* being looked at while this happens...

Yes…I have a theory that a lot of what Trump does is to overwhelm with BS Then quietly add the real agenda (Somewhere)

The solution I think is to stop listening and stop believing!

[clakclak]

That is horrific

I could write a lot about how we got into this situation
Basically far left and far right are at war inside the country and are destroying the lives of ordinary people
The Usa in particular is downright cruel to people on SS it’s designed to make people leave it in my opinion and it’s somewhat coming here to Britain too

Once again where is this supposed far-left in America? Because quite frankly looking in from the outside it seems as if the far-left does not really exist in America.

They most definitely exist although a precise definition is difficult- for example how would you define the far right? They most definitely exist

I could write an essay on the far right if I felt like it

The Far left is likewise they are hard to pin down but a few characteristics:
Forced social equality by wealth redistribution
The use of the state in order to do the above
Mandatory everything - similar to far right in which it is also mandatory to do certain things but precisely what is mandatory differs

Today I learned that anarcho-communists are not far-left. At least they are not given your definition of the "The use of the state in order to do the above [redistribute of wealth]". A group like BOAK would for example not be far-left given your definition.

Could you name a group you find to be far-left in America, which you think is 'destroying the lives of ordinary people'?

[Skism]

Once again where is this supposed far-left in America? Because quite frankly looking in from the outside it seems as if the far-left does not really exist in America.

They most definitely exist although a precise definition is difficult- for example how would you define the far right? They most definitely exist

I could write an essay on the far right if I felt like it

The Far left is likewise they are hard to pin down but a few characteristics:
Forced social equality by wealth redistribution
The use of the state in order to do the above
Mandatory everything - similar to far right in which it is also mandatory to do certain things but precisely what is mandatory differs

Today I learned that anarcho-communists are not far-left. At least they are not given your definition of the "The use of the state in order to do the above [redistribute of wealth]". A group like BOAK would for example not be far-left given your definition.

Could you name a group you find to be far-left in America, which you think is 'destroying the lives of ordinary people'?

I want you to understand something - you are playing into Trumps hand

By refusing to bend on certain things by being unwilling to compromise you feed the Far Right - they are able to use examples to magnify their agenda, I believe this can be summerised as accelerationism

The intentional destruction of the middle group plays right into their hand.

[clakclak]

They most definitely exist although a precise definition is difficult- for example how would you define the far right? They most definitely exist

I could write an essay on the far right if I felt like it

The Far left is likewise they are hard to pin down but a few characteristics:
Forced social equality by wealth redistribution
The use of the state in order to do the above
Mandatory everything - similar to far right in which it is also mandatory to do certain things but precisely what is mandatory differs

Today I learned that anarcho-communists are not far-left. At least they are not given your definition of the "The use of the state in order to do the above [redistribute of wealth]". A group like BOAK would for example not be far-left given your definition.

Could you name a group you find to be far-left in America, which you think is 'destroying the lives of ordinary people'?

I want you to understand something - you are playing into Trumps hand

By refusing to bend on certain things by being unwilling to compromise you feed the Far Right - they are able to use examples to magnify their agenda, I believe this can be summerised as accelerationism

The intentional destruction of the middle group plays right into their hand.

I am not American and not an active participant of any social media platform besides this forum, so I think you are far overestimating the influence I have on American politics.

So once again, what far-left group with any meaningful influence are there in America? I am willing to learn. For example here in Germany the party „The Left“ which certainly can be considered as radical left, got more votes than any other party with the 18-25 year olds in the last election (although over all they only got 8+%). They clearly have influence on German politics, but I fail to see anything like that in America . Bernie Sanders, AOC and a handful of other are certainly left wing, but even they are comparatively tame by international standards.

To illustrate my point, compare them to other successful left leaders from democratic countries. For example compare AOC with Julius Malema.

[Observe]

So once again, what far-left group with any meaningful influence are there in America?

I don't think there is a nationally recognized far-left or far-right political group per se. We have a two-party system, so the fringes tend to identify with one or other of them.

In super-duper simplistic and highly limited terms:

The Far Left represents Radical Progressivism – which focuses on systemic change in social justice issues like race, gender, and LGBTQ+ rights. The Far Right presents Libertarian Extremism – where government is nearly non-existent and markets solve everything, sometimes veering into anti-democratic policies.

The majority are either moderates, or center left and right. The far-left and far-right are the smallest population group, but their radical ideas get the most attention. The majority are rather unheard, because there is nothing unusual about their ideas to garner attention.

The "war" is between the far-left and the far-right. Everyone else tends to get pulled into the ensuing chaos. Right now, we have a far-right administration. They aim to destroy and bury everything that the far left stands for. The far left has a similar goal to destroy the far right. The media amplifies the extremes, because that is what catches people's attention, fascination, horror, and sells the most popcorn.

[clakclak]

So once again, what far-left group with any meaningful influence are there in America?

I don't think there is a nationally recognized far-left or far-right political group per se. We have a two-party system, so the fringes tend to identify with one or other of them.

In super-duper simplistic and highly limited terms:

The Far Left represents Radical Progressivism – which focuses on systemic change in social justice issues like race, gender, and LGBTQ+ rights. The Far Right presents Libertarian Extremism – where government is nearly non-existent and markets solve everything, sometimes veering into anti-democratic policies.

The majority are either moderates, or center left and right. The far-left and far-right are the smallest population group, but their radical ideas get the most attention. The majority are rather unheard, because there is nothing unusual about their ideas to garner attention.

The "war" is between the far-left and the far-right. Everyone else tends to get pulled into the ensuing chaos. Right now, we have a far-right administration. They aim to destroy and bury everything that the far left stands for. The far left has a similar goal to destroy the far right. The media amplifies the extremes, because that is what catches people's attention, fascination, horror, and sells the most popcorn.

I think herein lies the issue as our understanding of the far left is fundamentally different. If I think of the far-left I think less about progressive takes like this:

"Crime is a symptom of a diseased society that neglects its most marginalized people, and we do not solve that problem with police."

and more of something like this:

"Of course we say the cops are pigs. We say the guy in uniform is a pig, not a human being. And so we have to deal with them. That means we don't have to talk to him, and it's wrong to talk to these people at all. And of course it is permissible to shoot [them].”

[Mailo]

They most definitely exist although a precise definition is difficult- for example how would you define the far right? They most definitely exist

I could write an essay on the far right if I felt like it

The Far left is likewise they are hard to pin down but a few characteristics:
Forced social equality by wealth redistribution
The use of the state in order to do the above
Mandatory everything - similar to far right in which it is also mandatory to do certain things but precisely what is mandatory differs

By that definition any party that supports a percentage based tax system (aka 20% of your income) instead of a fixed amount (aka $20k per year) is far left ... including Republicans.
You do realize there is a broad spectrum of how to redistribute wealth? On one end of the spectrum is something like "0.01% of income from people earning more than $10 million goes towards less fortunate", on the other end something like "everyone earns exactly the same, no matter what job they do".

The terms left, socialism, communism etc. have been misused for so long in the US that pretty much noone remembers their actual meaning. As others have commented before, in an international comparison, there is no left party in the US. Democrats are pretty much central, with some parts being quite a bit on the right side of the spectrum.

Mandatory everything is not a part of the left-right spectrum, by the way ... that's a different axis with authoritarian on one end, and anarchy on the other.

[burger1]

Musk trying to buy Wisconsin State Supreme court election.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/electi ... rcna198544

Musk, who has become a central figure in the race to decide partisan control of the state Supreme Court, has sunk millions of dollars on behalf of the conservative candidate in the race, Brad Schimel (who is also backed by President Donald Trump).

Trump also signed further election rules/laws. Musk might have broken them. Allows Republicans to change vote counts and punish blue states.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/2 ... s-00249891

Democrats pull off an upset in a special election to fill a Pennsylvania state Senate seat. Went from red to blue.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/2 ... a-00250127

Trumps still targeting elections and the judicial system. More extortion and bribery. Ignoring the law.

Lots of travel warnings for US.

Legal immigrants being targeted by immigration enforcement officers.

Also more legal immigrants might be deported.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-to-rev ... ants-chnv/

Crazy Trump cult attorney general Pam Bondi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRxWwBt-oKg

Can add Japan to list of countries mad at the US after Trumps insults..

[mr.WHO]

Am I the only one who thinks the latest speech of Vance in and about Greenland is literally Putin 2.0 ?

[clakclak]

Am I the only one who thinks the latest speech of Vance in and about Greenland is literally Putin 2.0 ?

No you are not. Not even just the words but the imagery. Standing before soldiers in the place he seeks to occupy. The difference here is, that Russia at least half heartedly did some propaganda take about how they were helping a suppressed minority of Russian speakers in Ukraine. Meanwhile America is just straight up stating, that this is about resource and strategic importance not about any alleged human rights violations.