I think the lesson of Trump is to develop your own defence. It’s horrific to say, but nuclear proliferation is the logical conclusion of this. And short of that, get the best hi-tech gear you can. I would have thought that in the age of drones that will be fairly accessible.
If America wants to decouple from allies, and blur the line between friend and foe, a global arms race is going to ratchet up.
The irony.
I doubt the veracity of the golden visa numbers if a Trump spokesperson is saying it. It sounds like a plot line from Willy Wonka.
If true, the group probably contains assorted wealthy scumbags who want the option of residing in America should the shit hit the fan and a large scale war ensue.
This shouldn’t shock people
https://x.com/endwokeness/status/1903153008952873087?s=46&t=o3XUPKxiqJH7KZYdWMCtqg
I asked my son why all his friends in their early 20s voted for Donald Trump - FTR he doesn’t vote - he said it was because the Democrats were too focused on culture wars, particularly race
https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1903117093253550293?s=46&t=o3XUPKxiqJH7KZYdWMCtqg
Funny enough, one of the big effects of Trump is we are seeing many of the US top academics leave the US. A real brain drain.
Here in NZ I lead one of the big research institutes, in the past week I have been contacted by 3 US professors/researchers wishing to move to NZ and asking for a job. I know the same thing is happening in Europe too.
Big driver is funding is deprioritizing things like Biotechnology
And terms such as Climate Change being red light
Outcry as Trump withdraws support for research that mentions ‘climate’ | Climate crisis | The Guardian.
PS - as a naturalized American citizen, the education system here is baffling. There is no respect, or little respect, for expertise. The quantity of people who home school is like nothing I’ve seen before. Related to that are assorted co-ops and small scale private schools. I haven’t looked into the funding deeply, but I think parents get vouchers, or tax breaks from the government to opt into the parallel education stream.
It’s so odd. They usually want small government and an emphasis on doing things for yourself, but they are happy to take handouts for - presumably - a sub-par education for their children.
Education should not be politicized!
Both Democrats and Republicans should stay out. Assemble an independent body to debate what a good education should include. Surely the bulk of it will be a given.
And then give some options around a core curriculum, and trust qualied educators to… educate.
More dribble of course,but then that might get Charlie to California too!
One of the biggest factors in how children are influenced to vote, or lean politically, is their parents.
Judging by your offerings in here, it is no surprise at all to hear that your son thinks the Democrats are all about the culture war.
It simply isn’t true. The people who speak the most about it are on the extreme right. And it is a distraction, to get the public up in arms while they dismantle the country and carve it up for their own greed.
I said he didn’t vote.
I said how his friends voted.
My mistake. I was home schooled, my comprehension skills aren’t up to par 
Your underlying point still stands, though.
I still have pretty close connections to the university where I taught for a decade and I’m hearing they are putting together contingency plans for how to even teach core parts of the med school curriculum like Biochem given that it is research funding that has largely supported the employment of the people who teach those courses.
The US’ place at the top of the scientific research is driven in large part these days by labor from India and China putting in 80 hour weeks for a stipend that averages out to less than minimum wage. It has become so competitive and the demands driven up so high that the ratio of american born citizens coming out of these programs has plummeted. China has spent 2 decades investing heavily to take advantage of that and bring them home and there has been lots of conversation about what it means for our universities once China becomes a more attractive place for those students to go to for their PhDs. No one seriously thought that our response to what was already an existential threat to US dominance in this space would be to kick ourselves in the dick like this.
Columbia agrees to Trump’s demands.
Columbia agreed to ban masks, empower 36 campus police officers with new powers to arrest students and appoint a senior vice provost with broad authority to oversee the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies as well as the Center for Palestine Studies.
Control of the Middle East department has been a central dispute in negotiations and sparks controversy across campus. Faculty at Columbia and nationwide are expressing deep reservations about letting the federal government dictate how they can operate an academic department. The new vice provost, appointed by Columbia, will review curriculum, nontenure faculty hiring and leadership “to ensure the educational offerings are comprehensive and balanced.”
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/columbia-university-trump-demands-federal-funding-e94d41ca
Over half the students at Columbia are from abroad. Why? Because they pay full freight.
https://cis.org/Feere/Schools-Highest-Foreign-Student-Populations
Qatar has given $6 billion to American universities, with roughly half going to the Ivy League. The Ivy League was where all the pro-Hamas demonstrations were going on.
https://www.jns.org/universities-soak-up-13-1-billion-in-arab-funds/
400 million dollars is just too much for principles and Free Speech for a university. Autocracy wins.
https://x.com/SpaghettiKozak/status/1903057077838238118
Too true in so many ways.
For them the immigration issue was NEVER about legal status. Everyone who argued it was only about people here illegally were ducking suckers
https://x.com/cbsnews/status/1903208588384010528?s=61&t=VxX1vHU3NOwwNhlbyICG-g
