"We were having an intelligent discussion, then you resort to personal attacks. Why?"

Suggesting someone may not be well versed on a topic is not a 'personal attack.'

"a reality TV star with decades of fraud and exhaustively documented lying"

THIS is a personal attack. It isn't directed at me but all the same.

"- Social media / Truth and X are full of horrible individual biases to be considered a reliable source."

Valid information is innately valid without dependence on the credibility or lack thereof of the source.

"- Newsmax is a hard no based on numerous false stories they have run. This isn't to say other major traditional news networks are less guilty, but a hard no.
- Epoch Times promoting conspiracy theories from QAnon - hard no on that as well."

All false and the sources that have spread this misinformation are themselves fonts of misinformation. Listening to such sources is almost certainly why you haven't arrived anywhere near the middle.

"- Project veritas has had numerous falsified stories - absolutely not."

Project veritas doesn't even do stories, they interact in social and off-the-record settings to make secret recordings of sources being candid and then post the material publicly. It's some of the most reliable material out there.

Yeah bro, so compelling. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2Fa%2FGbOxKX1

I can prompt AI to generate those with anybody I want jumping out of the back of a penske truck as well but you do know those fake masked fascists staged for political photo ops aren't proud boys or any other conservative group. It's all just part of the propaganda stage by your side of the isle.

"Have you ever not been an incompetent clown?"

How bitter ya'll are in your sad defeat. Let me guess, you pushed your kid to destroy their body in support of your political nonsense and are stuck continuing to pretend to believe it to live with yourself?

"Oh, you don't have access to the internet? [foxbusiness.com]"

There is nothing about ICE agents dressing as proud boys or vice versa in that link even if were from a credible source. That's just an article saying ICE made use of rentals when enforcing federal law and Penske claims they violated the rental agreement by doing so.

I appreciate a good nitpick but does the distinction between $99, $50, $150 really matter when the combo can't possibly cost Apple $10? For $150 you can probably find a chromebook that throws in a mouse and touchpad.

"Cutting interest rates stimulates the economy, which can be good if GDP growth is too slow or unemployment is too high. Cutting interest rates when the economy is growing will create inflation."

Raising rates slows growth but can help counteract inflationary forces. Lowering rates encourages growth but risks inflation. We currently have high rates because of the high inflation we had under Biden. The economy is showing signs of improvement but that doesn't mean the damage is all healed and we are as strong as we potentially can be. Fed interest is a corrective measure and limits growth as a side effect of removing money from the supply. At any moment we want the MINIMUM interest required to prevent inflation not the maximum interest we can sustain without stopping growth; there is no upside to limiting growth. So if we see inflation dropping and signs of growth we should test the waters with small periodic rates drops until there is some hint of inflation and then either stop and let it settle if we have a nice growth rate or dial it back a notch depending on the strength of the indicator.

Conservative tears? Tears of joy because we are winning just about everywhere, the policies you said would destroy our way of life are resulting in a booming economy and improvements across the board, or maybe I'm just so depressed that our majority is doing nothing but gaining momentum.

"They're transporting ICE agents dressed like Proud Boys in literally the exact same kind of Penske rental truck that the Proud Boys dressed like ICE agents were being transported in, now."

Riiiiigggggghhhhhhttttt

Since when is failing to buy wild conspiracy theories 'trolling?'

"Parent is partially correct here. They were not masked and did have badges/uniforms when they smashed the windows"

Partially correct? They were federal law enforcement agents arresting criminals for violating federal law the majority of the population supports and which is common to every first world nation. Someone having broken a window somewhere to get at a bad guy doesn't support any implication of this claim.

"Its public knowledge for how the data is collected and analyzed - https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bls.gov%2Fopub%2Fhom%2Fc... [bls.gov]."

That is how the data was supposed to be collected and analyzed which is part of the puzzle but how the data is presented and reported is also a factor. Just because you publish methodology doesn't mean you've actually followed it. The person who led the collection and analysis has an employer who reviews and assesses their performance and has various backchannels for detecting and investigating potential malfeasance along the way... he determined this occurred and fired his minion. You seem to assert the rando running the BLS asserting they'd done their job is more credible than the POTUS asserting they haven't. I think the BLS operates only on power and supervision from the POTUS we the people elected to run our government. This data is collected and analyzed in the first place for the use of the rest of his administration. If he thinks there is something wrong with the data and someone else will get him more useful numbers to work off of, how is that a problem?

""How sad it must be believing that scientists, historians, scholars, economists, journalists have devoted their entire lives to deceiving you, while a reality TV star with decades of fraud and exhaustively documented lying is your only beacon of truth and honesty" --> not Neil deGrass Tyson who said it, but, holds relevance here."

Sadly unironic that you use a fake quote [a plea to authority] which is itself nothing but a sad plea to authority chain with each link composed of a group no more trustworthy than any biased group of random strangers to defend your claim. I on the other hand use reality. I can see the two versions of Kamala's speech. I can watch the debate with Biden myself and watched him wander off stage a half dozen times. Donald Trump didn't make up networks having to pay him to settle the literal crimes they committed when using false data to try to shut him down. I can watch the REAL speech he gave regarding charlottesville. I read the real supreme court rulings. If you actually understood cybersecurity you'd understand that we have a concept of zero trust now because reality has proven that trusted networks ALWAYS end compromised.

There is nothing about that concept which is unique to cybersecurity. Your celebrity quote is part of your trust network, the professional groups you listed are also trust networks, again no more trustworthy than any random people. Less in some ways because their profession will carry certain innate biases which require outsiders to counteract.

"i.e. Most of Fox News will be changing their programming and no longer catering to the MAGA base."

Fox news does not cater to MAGA, they cater to Republican establishment and the uniparty. Most of the problems so far appear to stem from the people in the intel community but it isn't entirely partisan, rather they use highly contentious issues to divide and conquer the population using contentious issues and human psychology that makes us want to think in terms of groups. First I use abortion to cut the population in half, then I come up with a law that runs counter to your interests but spin it with language that sounds positive. Half of you support me because I'm on your 'team' on the issue of choice which matters more to you due to feels and the other half who would oppose me and all I need for a majority is to win a few of your moderates and some of those likely just joined your team as the only way to win in a given district.

Note FOX was right there baselessly claiming Trump made 'baseless claims' about the 2020 election along with MSNBC before Trump had even given his speech. Every network did this from what I could see [personally checked NPR, PBS, FOX, CNN, ABC, and MSNBC in realtime] and all used the same obviously coordinated phrasing.

"Show us who/what your primary information sources are then for MAGA. I am a factual based person and would appreciate new factual information from an independent middle to review."

If you want real news you have to be openly skeptical of all incoming data and review primary sources yourself where possible. Social media is good for this, truth and X are great sources. A helpful tool is ground.news but the rating there constitute a chokepoint for a trust network so be wary [the same is true of anywhere which assesses the bias of media FOR YOU or does facts analysis FOR YOU], also useful are openly biased sources which are true believers because they tend to produce more reliable data than those pretending neutrality. If you want something in the style of traditional network news there is newsmax, there is mixed reliability in coverage from the NY Post but they are one of the better sources, Epoch times is a major network which is run by the group which the CCP persecutes and genocides domestically, as a consequence their US political coverage tends to be better than most. Project veritas is an excellent journalist organization that produces primary source material.

Maybe this is a troll but if so then TFA and Submission is as well because he's right. There is no evil authoritarian takeover of government.

The POTUS has accepted supreme court loses, has negotiated in good faith and delivered outstanding performing considering how bad the economy was, has done excellent things with immigration in a humane and careful way. I wish they'd be more aggressive.

The guy isn't even canning the fed chairman who is ignoring the economic data and refusing to cut rates as a political gesture.

And yet we watch him depicted as Saddam Hussein and forcing the media to say they like him at gunpoint (despite the traditional media doing nothing but sandbagging him however they can), outmaneuvering all the power of the various elements of government and yet if you'd believe them also somehow senile like Biden and unable to ramble a coherent sentence.

"But regardless of what you think, the idea that masked men without badges and uniforms can smash car windows and drag people out should really disturb anyone."

That isn't a real thing.

"Now you have someone fired for reporting labor statistics that the President of the USA doesn't like. "

Never mind that the data was false? He's their boss and isn't pleased with their performance. This is actually how it is supposed to work. You see we live in a representative government and the only elected representative the executive branch/agencies/etc reports to is the POTUS. If they don't answer to us then they answer to themselves and whatever balance of shifting currents of power favor trading in DC has amounted to across their otherwise lifetime unelected careers. Particularly alarming at the intelligence communities.

"The President is trying to take control over large segements of our democracy, universities, sports organizations, television networks, newspapers, courts, etc."

They lied to us for at least the past 12yrs and we formed grassroots information networks to bypass them and their powerful networks including banking giants to elect the guy they made the central target of their lies and propaganda. Of course he is enacting sweeping reforms. We literally elected him to do exactly this and it's only begun. Those universities are still running DEI programs that the Supreme Court found unconstitutional for any university or corporation under the Biden admin... Harvard was the subject of the ruling and defied it!

"I'm a political independent who has friends who are Republicans. I try to stay in the middle."

You might think that but you are clearly listening to traditional media or bluesky as your primary information sources. MAGA IS the independent middle and we hijacked one of the two major parties because the system has become rigged to require that. These media sources that not only willfully pushed false propaganda about Trump but were caught openly doctoring Kamala Harris interviews and actively colluded to help cover up Biden's mental state. Wake up along with an increasing portion of the rest of the population. Trump isn't even firing the fed chairman who is openly going against him and he can't both be some evil monster tyrant crushing every powerful political pillar in our nation while also somehow being on his sickbed with the mental decline they pretended Biden didn't have.

"Deibert described the recent political events in the United States as a "dramatic descent into authoritarianism," but one that the cybersecurity community can help defend against."

You are falling for a giant trove of bullshit propaganda and spin.

I wish I was 20 and this naive again.

Sometimes the content is unpopular in the scientific community and a thin excuse is used when the publisher or author pressured are by entities they are associated with retract in response to political backlash.