There was literally nothing objectionable about the post that got HN banned.*

*I mean nothing objectionable to anyone who isn't emotionally unstable or feeble-minded.

I didn't know crossnerd was "chased off."

Sorry to hear that.

You're a good mod, so all will be well.

DOGE operated without transparency, oversight or accountability. It was so bad that the government was literally unable to answer in court who was the leader of DOGE, because nobody wanted to be held responsible for holding the reins.

Not that I think the goal of DOGE was ever to find fraud or excessive spending, but if we go the alternate reality where that was what they actually wanted to do, then the case is simple: You can not fight corruption and fraud without transparency, you can not fight government inefficiency without accountability. And transparency and accountability sounds nice, but it means showing all the ugly. There is an irony to corruption, in that it often looks a lot shinier and more appealing than honesty. The corrupt will tailor their message to the audience, after all. The honest will say things you do not want to hear.

My guess is that DOGE as it was executed led to more corruption, more fraud and more government inefficiency.

Other than that, an actual independent group or watchdog with expertise, resources and a broad mandate to basically audit government function and spending is not a bad idea, as long as it is solidly rooted legally and politically. We know both from the Panama papers and Epstein files that there is plenty of corruption and rot to root out. However, that would certainly be a painful affair, and not only for the dishonest.

So we can expect months of lagtight kissing cordis ass in every other post because crossnerd is gone? Great.

Agreed

Not sure what topic he crossed the line .

Yet SRM is still here tells you all

30 million on a GOP primary in Kentucky that is crazy

This $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" (drawn from the Judgment Fund) is a perfect example of how Trump destroys government. For the last 70 years, the Judgment Fund in its various permutations has been a permanent, indefinite appropriation by Congress for funding settlements and judgments related to claims against the state. Although the Anti-Weaponization Fund may survive legal scrutiny, Congress obviously didn't intend for the Judgment Fund to be used as a slush fund to reward hand-picked supporters of the president, which is how this fund will end up functioning.

This is Trump in a nutshell. He views government norms and rules in the same way he views the tax code. That is, he views those norms and rules as things to be exploited in the immediate term for personal gain with no regard for the long-term impact on government or the effective functioning of a democracy.

People who support this should admit that they simply don't care about the preservation of democracy. There is no other conclusion.

Let's be clear. Housenuts is a terrible poster. His entire schtick is "not-sure-if-serious" trolling, and he has more or less admitted as much. He doesn't care about anything, and therefore no one really should care what happens to him.

For years, the posters in this forum have made moderation unpleasant and thankless. As a result, the forum effectively is unmoderated now, except for the very rare occasions when a poster gets so personally crosswise with a moderator that he gets banned. If you want to call someone a fascist ********** who deserves to be anally raped with a broken broom handle, go for it. That's allowed. If you want to say that only white men should be allowed to run for president, go for it. That's allowed. If you want to make jokes about how Kamala only succeeded in life by getting on her knees, go for it. That's allowed.

coordi graciously volunteered to be the super light touch moderator that the forum said it wanted, which is more than anyone else was willing to do. I didn't think that an effectively unmoderated forum was likely to be a better forum, especially in the era of Trump. And in my view, it hasn't been a better forum. Maybe it has slightly increased the overall amount of traffic, but the signal-to-noise ratio has never been lower than it is right now.

Every single HN post was basically ‘lol ain’t I a stinker?’ Being outraged anyone would get tired of that is pretty lol

People often have this notion that "erosion of democracy" is abstract.

It isn't.

Fair enough than tell me how that differs from SRM's posts ?

housenuts pushed coordi's buttons, knew he was doing it, and didn't care. Is it fair? No. Neither is life.

I wasn't defending SRM or any other specific poster. I certainly could find posts by SRM that I rate as needlessly inflammatory and insulting posts with no content. Is that worse than your polite whataboutism? Hard to say.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Every time lozen whatabouts, it robs me of joy.

It isn't abstract at all. Sometime the erosion isn't immediately apparent in people's daily lives, but that's a different issue. Trump has planted noxious weeds all over the government. Many of those weeds have not fully matured yet.

Probably only one out of every three posts tbh.

I never knew posting the hypocrisy of the democrats which yes is a whataboutism was not permitted .

Its very clear that what side your on liberal or conservative enhances your chances at getting banned. I guess calling folks rapists consistently has no repercussion but supporting Trump gets you banned . WE live in a time were your no longer allowed to offend someone especially if your a conservative

As if your posting anything of value hear. Run away again, Mr. 80%.

Zionists have lots of money. Proving that some tropes are actually true.

Maybe someone should have done something about these posters instead of letting the entire forum rot

It's just one, big persecution fetish all the way down.

I appreciate you stepping in and doing it.

Housenuts is a Canadian who explicitly claimed hundreds of times that he thought Trump was an idiot and the only things he cares about are crypto go up and lolling at the libs.

He’s not a conservative in any actual sense of the word.

As critical as I am of Trump, and as cautious as people like jalfrezi probably view me to be, I understand at the 100,000 foot level the enthusiasm among MAGA supporters for a non-traditional president. The U.S. almost certainly was due for a candidate that did not feel compelled to do things in the same way they have been done for the last 50 years from a policy perspective. The U.S. may have been due for a candidate who was willing to push the boundaries of government processes in certain ways. U.S. democracy and civil liberties arguably have been due for some sort of updating to account for the vast changes that have occurred in the last 25 years.

The problem is that the desire for a shake-up, which almost certainly had more than a kernel of legitimacy, expressed itself in the worst possible way. If you are going to shake things up, it is imperative that the person doing the shaking have the national interest at heart. People like Teddy Roosevelt shook things up quite a bit, and they were highly imperfect in various ways, but they neverthless acted in the long term national interest as they perceived it. Trump does not. Trump does not distinguish between the national interest and his personal interest. Trump does not care what happens after he is gone. For Trump, government is a toy that, by virtue of winning elections, he believes he has earned the right to break for personal amusement and gain.