It seems to work very well in practice when you look at the countries that are closest to it (e. g. Switzerland has managed to stay out of the EU).
Switzerland is a country of less than 10 million, mostly high educated individuals, with extremely strong fiscal discipline. In the US (and most countries let's be realistic) most people don't even know what they're voting for half the time.
Agreed, of course, there's nuance. I was talking about energy production, not really gas for cars.
They are pretty average compared to european peers (like netherlands and france) wrt. education, and the fiscal discipline comes from the semi-direct "populistic" democracy you're complaining about.
The Gas is the one that directly affects people in terms of Food and uh..Gas.
The fiscal discipline comes from their constitution, everything else is secondary. In the US that could never work, and you can see it as just about most of the country asks for more money and less taxes. I'm all for less taxes, but then you gotta kill social security, medicare/medicaid, welfare, gut federal jobs, the military, stop subsidizing farmers etc etc etc.
Yes, I was largely replying to the person saying we should do nuclear, in that message.
We do have quite a number of oil burning power plants which could be mothballed in favor of nuclear.
If Trump died they'd IMMEDIATELY flip to hating Vance just as bad. The NPC firmware update meme is real. They don't care about Trump or his policies, they were programmed to hate him so they hate him. We saw something similar with Bush and Cheney, but it wasn't near as bad, possibly becuase of the lack of networking and social media.
I'm not a democrat or anything, but if I bring up Trump's policies and how much of a myopic shitshow they are, the responses will just be "cry more, liberal" or "you lost, get over it" or the classic "show hands". There's really not a point to engaging honestly, I don't see how you can't realize this.
The issue is that your views feel like the already discredited style conservative. I also feel that you want to maintain the financialization and globalization policies that were put in place and have been disastrous for Main Street encouraging outsourcing and also imported foreign labor. The problem is that this system is unsustainable and something would have broken it. I don’t feel you offer anything besides keep the status quo even in doing so just makes the problem worse.
I have idealistic views which are very heavily libertarian, yes, but I also have pragmatic views based on how this country works currently. For instance, I think that pragmatically there needs to be a large number of deportations. I don't think the shock and awe approach helps. I think it actively harmed the whole outcome of mass deportations actually.
I adore how stupid-angry people get about a change that generally has an actual impact on their monthly expenses. Glad you live in a nigger infested urban center where everything is close together but the other 60% of people may drive 30-40 miles one way so 80 miles a day. Each day is a lovely 2 gallons.
I don't know if you are faggot, nigger, retarded, or all three. Transport companies will send out surge pricing to clients who then have to send out price adjustments to their clients when gas fluctuates and these costs piss everyone off. Getting told that for the foreseeable future all shipping will be up to 11% more expensive means it is back to the drawing board about the feasibility of certain projects. Just because you don't see an asterisk at the store saying, "This costs more because of increased gas prices". Doesn't mean it was not part of the price spike.
Is this satire?
But you did have a pleasant back and forth before via my invitation I believe. That’s another reason I @‘d you. There’s hope, I feel. What would go a long way is respect between the two threads.
How are you allowed to vote?
Plus populism doesn't work when you can import voters
Sure, until something more contentious happens and things get heated, then goodwill gets commonly thrown out of the window and maximalism comes back in fashion. It's all part of the fun, anyways
DataRepublican (small r)
@DataRepublican
19m
BREAKING: Miles Taylor: "Anonymous," former DHS Chief of Staff, Google security executive launched a website called GTFO ICE that collects your full name, email, phone number, and zip code to join an anti-ICE "rapid response network." And publishes the user infromation via a public API.
17,662 people have signed up.
The sign-up data is exposed on a public REST API. No true authentication. No rate limiting. Full records: names, emails, phone numbers, zip codes, timestamps.
The man who ran the third-largest federal department (250,000 employees, $60 billion budget) who oversaw election security architecture and led counterterrorism operations, then served as Google's Head of National Security Policy...
...can't secure a sign-up form. But he does milk hundreds of thousands of NGO dollars on these credentials. While freeloading off his fame as the person who wrote the infamous NYT article "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration."
And despite me pinging @MilesTaylorUSA about this 12 hours ago, the REST API is still wide open and exposed as of now. Everything has been turned over to FBI, HSI, ICE, and more agencies.
As always, patience as I pull together the thread.
May 2, 2026 · 2:17 PM UTC
DataRepublican (small r)
@DataRepublican
16m
Taylor's security clearance was suspended by presidential memorandum in April 2025. Trump called his conduct "treasonous." Five months later, Taylor launched DEFIANCE dot org. Five months after that... GTFO ICE.
DataRepublican (small r)
@DataRepublican
14m
GTFO ICE is a coalition of three orgs:
1. DEFIANCE dot org : Miles Taylor + Xander Schultz
2. Save America Movement : Steve Schmidt (yes, of the Lincoln Project)
3. Project Salt Box
DataRepublican (small r)
@DataRepublican
10m
Steve Schmidt co-founded the Lincoln Project. Raised ~$65M. Finances called under question when the money went to founders' consulting firms. AOC called it "scam territory." Co-founder John Weaver allegedly soliciting young men. Schmidt now runs Save America Movement ... same structure.
DataRepublican (small r)
@DataRepublican
6m
Scott Goodstein — GTFO ICE's "media contact" — was Obama's 2008 external digital director and led Bernie Sanders' 2016 digital fundraising ($218 million raised). His advisory board ties connect directly to the Arabella Advisors dark money network. "Grassroots."
DataRepublican (small r)
@DataRepublican
2m
$625,000+ in confirmed Arabella/Sixteen Thirty Fund dark money flows to GTFO ICE coalition principals:
• $300K → Lincoln Project (Schmidt)
• $250K → One for Democracy (Schultz)
• $75K → Defeat by Tweet (Schultz)
DataRepublican (small r)
@DataRepublican
1m
DEFIANCE.org calls itself a "nonprofit." I could not find IRS registration. It solicits monthly "memberships" up to $1,000/month... $12,000/year... with no known accountability.
DataRepublican (small r)
@DataRepublican
4m
GTFO ICE's own site promises to secure data and notify users if their data is compromised. As of this post... no official notification has been sent to the 17,662 people whose information was exposed. So they are kindly being notified through unofficial channels.
DataRepublican (small r)
@DataRepublican
2m
The "bipartisan grassroots movement" is an unknown "nonprofit" run by Obama's digital director, Lincoln Project's co-founder, with hundreds of thousands in Arabella dark money... whose sign-up form was built by a former DHS Chief of Staff and Google security executive who left everyone's data exposed on an open API.
The man who ran homeland security couldn't secure a sign-up form. And we wonder why the government is such a mess.
THREAD END.
May 2, 2026 · 2:41 PM UTC
