Good morning one and all to another spectacular day!
Trump nominates RFK Jr. to head Department of Health and Human Services
Vaccine maker stocks fall as Trump chooses RFK Jr. to lead HHS
Trump Picks Former Rep. Doug Collins for Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Trump Taps Doug Burgum To Lead Department Of The Interior.
House Now at 219-212 With 4 Races Left to Call
With 1.7M uncounted ballots, CA election head takes ‘pride’ in not being ‘rushed’
Infighting Escalates and Rumors Swirl at Kamala HQ As the Campaign Bills Come Due
Rand Paul says he wants to eliminate cybersecurity agency but will likely reorganize it instead
Cruise Company Offering TDS Sufferers “4-Year Trip” to Avoid Trump’s Second Term
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
Tricksy linkers think they can prevent my Firsting.
Picking a NoDak?!
What level of hell have we descended to?
I fear that the NoDak boys will leave us to take cushy jobs in DC. They are about the only other people in the state.
May as well shift Interior out to NoDak – bring the jobs to the people.
I like the cut of your jib, LCDR.
Have calls by the media been made that Trumps picks are too white and too male?
They are too busy shitting bricks to formulate the words yet.
White, male bricks, I might ad.
No trannies in the cabinet?
I’m just wondering when we’ll get all of the celebratory “Trump appoints FIRST WOMAN EVER to Chief Of Staff and National Security Advisor.”
A man can dream just as well as TMITE can hypocrite.
Gender traitors don’t count.
@RoT:
Only females with ladydicks count.
Hey now! 😒
I saw some segment where some old guard lefty on PSMSNBCS was freaking the fuck out that all the appointees were honkeys, and there were no diverse people, including women with penises.
/looks at Vivek Ramaswamy, Tulsi Gabbard, and fuck… Elon Musk
So, these are all white American born men?
Hate to break it to you, but DOGE isn’t a cabinet agency, so the blue and gold dark elf and the richest african american are off in a gray area.
True UCS, but I doubt any republican in congress will say they do not want to cut government after the election with the mandate to do just that…
Why do I think the 4-year cruise will end any less well than the 3-year cruise?
The operative phrase is vowing to return. Why would these rubes expect any better?
Well, if the company starts out already having a ship, that’s a vast step towards getting things moving.
If I were a cruise company looking at long term passengers like that I’d pick a ship which is slated for a refurb in four years so that the damage done is just going to get ripped out when the overhaul begins anyway. These don’t strike me as contientious tenants.
Four years of Legionnaires’ Disease will change their perspective on life.
I seem to recall that several of the people who had signed up for that trip had already contracted to sell their homes. There are those who live cruise to cruise in their retirement. It would not be my first choice.
Did Billy McFarland organize it?
At least it won’t be a 3 hour cruise shared with an academic, a hollywood starlet, a fresh-from-the-farm-girl, a millionaire (and his wife)….
Are we still talking about the last Glib Cruise?
Only way to find out is to sign up for the next one!
The Navy offers a 4 year cruise program, and they even pay you for going!
But the accommodations are awful, and they expect me to work!
But they feed you.
“CA election head takes ‘pride’ in not being ‘rushed’ ”
Dey on island time, mon.
“Look mon! Anudder vote for Donald! Get me de shredda!”
When your party bosses are a supermajority across the board in the state… why the hell should you care? Everyone else can wait on you — you’re important!
(More seriously — this isn’t a surprise since while ballots must be “postmarked” by Election Day (for some value of postmarked, most likely) – they aren’t due into the county offices (I guess to allow the Glue Pony Express?) until the 12th. So they’ve only had the real ballots to get started for the last couple of days, man…. no point in really buckling down before then!
“No man is an island”
-John Donne counting.
Daily Ray of Sunshine
Good for a laugh in the morning, Jimbo. Thanks.
That’s funny, reminds me of my 110 pound rottweiler that would complain to us that our cats were sleeping on his bed.
The 2 cats would be all stretched out, comfy as could be and he would be terrified to disturb them.
Cats really are assholes. Cute and funny, but assholes nonetheless.
“We take pride in the fact we are not rushed,” said California Secretary of State Shirley Weber at a virtual press conference. “We make sure every person who is eligible to vote gets a chance to vote.”
Left unsaid: “And if the need arises, we’ll make sure that people who aren’t eligible to vote get a chance to… as long as they vote the right way.”
Particularly in cases when we need an extra 1,500 votes to make sure that county commissioner gets elected, and another 18,000 votes to keep that house seat…..
It takes time to go find those votes that need to be counted
Surprisingly they haven’t perceptibly done that in my district (CA-13) It has been pretty hotly contested the last few cycles since they flipped it with the ballot stuffing and got Pelosi her majority at one point, then the Rs flipped it back… now it teeters. I think Modesto is going more blue — the rural parts of Stanislaus and Merced try to balance it.
But if the House majority was actually close — I wouldn’t put it past them — we’re only talking about 1000 “found” ballots to flip it, after all. Low hanging fruit.
With UCMerced, and housing prices in the bay out of control, it is no wonder, and I am pretty sure there is a Minority/Majority district down there somewhere too.
Not mentioned: How making sure everyone has a chance to vote slows down counting.
I love how the second sentence bears no relation to the first one whatsoever. Perfect apparatchik flapdoodle.
I mean, the chance to vote has been expanded to late summer onward to election day. So sure, get the stragglers to get your numbers where you need them I guess.
When the taxi that is supposed to take you to the airport is two hours late, the driver takes pride in not being rushed.
Could be worse — the driver could pick you up at the airport then step out with the meter running to chase down his girlfriend and deal with his drinking problem.
One of many countless great gags in that movie.
Reminds me of my last trip, the girlfriend and I had an early flight, so rather than worry about it in the morning, we scheduled a rideshare. Morning comes, getting everything ready, last minute checks… and get a notification on my phone. “We’ve found a closer driver, you’ll be getting picked up in 5 minutes!” This happened to be ~20 minutes before the scheduled pickup.
That is not helpful.
“Dear Comanpy XYZ – When I schedule something in advance, I plan around the scheduled time. Causing that time to change in either direction is not good. I was still in the air when your driver arrived.”
(Yes, I know 20 minutes would not have put you in flight.)
Other way around, instead we got to sit at the airport for an additional 20 minutes.
AOC – “Let’s be very clear, a Tulsi Gabbard nomination is a pro-war nomination”
https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1857235028037480489?s=19
I don’t even know what the supposed logic to that statement is.
She’s a Russian asset who is going to lead us into war with Russia. Yea, that one is painful.
Apparently people literally believe Tulsi is a Rooshun agent.
“If you go through with picki mg Gabbard, Congress is going to declare war! On somebody!”
Congress, declare war? Pish.
Still holding out on Trump or one of his picks for DoD to declare they will not expend any monies until Congress declares war on any of our ongoing ‘conflicts’. Make Congress accountable.
I remind you all that democrats and their world view are directly downstream from hoaxes and other beliefs that fly in the face of economic, natural and human nature laws…
I can totally see that big booty latina’s followers buy that idiotic shit that Tulsi is a warmonger because “RUSSIA!!”..
Even if she were a Russian asset, is the thinking here that Putin wants the US involved in the Ukraine conflict, but on the Russian side? Because I’m fairly sure he doesn’t.
From Hilary’s mouth to the ears of the true believers. Once the lie is told, it becomes truth to that group.
Yes this is all Hillary. The story I saw was that when Tulsi was in Congress, she was on a committee, and Hillary and Obama wanted to bomb Syria (?). And Tulsi said she didn’t see any reason to do that. From then on Hillary hated her. Then when Ukraine started getting hot, Tulsi was on the news saying we should talk things out and not rush to war with another nuclear power. At that point Hillary called her a “Russian asset” and “Putin apologist.
Another area of focus has been the infighting over how the $1 billion Harris raised during her short campaign for president was spent, with the revelations on how she spent substantial amounts seemingly to buy endorsements, not to mention the $15-20 million spent on the election-eve concerts, ushering forth a lot of second-guessing and finger pointing.
Hey, polishing a turd is expensive.
Now did she make the spending decisions, or is it – as I suspect – the people running the country for the last 4 years from the Obama admin?
In either case, it explains why we are where we are..
To steal an idiom from Obama….
Let me be clear…. the reason you want the votes to all be counted at the same time and in a short period is to prevent election fraud. If all the votes are counted within 2 hours (florida) there is no opportunity to find out that you only need 5,000 votes to swing the senate race and rush out and manufacture 5,000 votes
USPS sees $9.5B net loss in FY 2024, does not expect to hit ‘break even’ goal next year
Like fusion, USPS break even is always years away.
Didnt email kill the post office, as first class mail subsidized the whole thing to a degree?
Well, that and all of the package market going to competitors. Except for those extremely costly rural locations, I suppose.
Amazon (and maybe UPS, couldn’t say), subs out some of its deliveries to the Post Office.
If I recall correctly, the Amazon contract was abominable for the post office from a financial standpoint. (May have even been ‘we lose money on each package delivered’ territory).
UPS does too, and the other way ’round. Logistics is a business where then result, getting things delivered timely, makes strange bedfellows.
Question for Glib lawdawgs:
https://nypost.com/2024/11/14/entertainment/disney-faces-backlash-over-snow-white-star-rachel-zeglers-trump-comments/
Can Disney claw back whatever they paid Rachel Zegler on the theory that she bears responsibility for the failure that NuSnow White is going to be?
It would depend on the language in her contract, but I assum she’s a SAG, so probably not.
But they can refuse to ever hire her. I suspect she’s not going to get any more acting gigs going forward having had three flops in a row and a big public spectacle from the last one.
It is like she watched Brei Larson alienate the fan base and said “hold my chardonnay”
Not a lawyer, but I would guess it would depend on the contract. I’ve read that publicity is usually a portion of the contract, which can include a non-disparagement as well as requirements for communication.
But I think Disney would have to prove that Zegler caused it to flop, instead of it already looking like it was going to flop hard.
They may not be able to fire her, or the writers or the director due to long-term contracts.
BUT, Disney could reassign them to work in the canteen until their contracts are up.
Following Trump’s win last week, Zegler shared a series of messages with her 2.3 million Instagram followers.
“I find myself speechless in the midst of this.
She was speechless!
Then why haven’t you stopped talking?
Had you done so months ago, you’d be in a much better spot now.
1. I really, really doubt she has a legit 2.3 million followers.
2. I mean, they’d have to reshoot the entire film (which was always going to flop, anyway) in order to “fire” her. There’s no way in hell they’re doing that. The shit has been finished for a while now and only delayed because of her past antics.
Like BatChick, they might just shelve the whole thing.
As a side note, there was a time when studio’s held long term contracts with actors and made sure they didn’t do stuff like this. In return the actors had a guaranteed run of films.
And this shows why that was a good thing for both.
They also put stars in really crappy movies at times, which is why Bette Davis fled to London and sued Warner Bros.
MGM and Paramount, then two of the top studios, also punished two of their stars by lending them out to very low-status Columbia. Columbia and the stars got the last laugh, though, because the movie was “It Happened One Night”.
👍🦵
A reserve chaplain could be a good pick for VA regarding some issues. I knew a Navy Reserve Chaplain who joined after working as a civilian chaplain for the VA hospital in Richmond (Greek Orthodox).
Just hope that he’s ready to make some serious changes in partnership with DOD.
I gotta wonder if it would be any more expensive for health care … if vets were paying $50/month for Tricare (like reserve tricare) with say….a $25 copay and $8 prescriptions – for 100% disabled (possibly free if missing limbs/eyes/paralyzed/etc)…. a $50 copay for 75% disabled, etc..
Something like that. If you could go to any Tricare approved facility – covered by Tricare – ie. most healthcare systems in the US – with actual insurance vice medicaid/medicare/VA medicine.
You could cut probably 90% of the current VA employees and I bet it would still be magnitudes less expensive than the current system.
Obviously some VA stuff still necessary for GI Bill and other programs, but given the current veteran population (since we have very few people left from WWII/Korea) – it seems like a worthwhile alternative – much the same way that SS is not sustainable.
I think this would have the added benefit of getting better, more efficient treatment in a timely manner – which would also cost less in the long run – compared to the abysmal record VA currently has.
Also – once the initial disability calculation is complete – Tricare takes over all care – someone can enroll in whatever local system works best for them – ie. UVA – etc and then they can do all their normal stuff there with no other issues.
I was thinking the same thing…. my lab in grad school was in a VA hospital building. It was not a great place. And vets complained about having to travel a long way to get treatment.
Just dumping the entire VA system and paying for good Healthcare plans, even in an HMO, seems a better option. Vets should be able to get top flight care without delay in a reasonably convenient location.
Bonus if it would save a ton of money.
Makes too much sense. The local VA center is 30 miles away, it is busy with vets. I use Tricare instead, have the same doctor every time for routine visits and is hospital adjacent and has emergency staffing.
Tricare4Life?
What’s the current monthly rate/copay? Several hundred $$$?
Tricare4Life picks up all the tabs, I use a local pharmacy and pay a little for every prescription.
Ex: I get a 90 day supply of something or another, my cost 80 cents, pharmacy pays $1.40 to mail it out.
My two brothers were also retired Army, one used the Navy Hospital at Great Lakes, the other used VA. I could never understand why.
Thanks. I think I was getting mixed up between Tricare4Life for folks who were retired at a certain age vs Tricare4Life – if I separated tomorrow and wanted to use it vs something else.
I posted this on the dead thread: What do you think og ex-congressman Doug Collins as head of the VA?
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/11/14/president-trump-announces-nomination-of-doug-collins-for-secretary-of-veterans-affairs/
Not sure. He’s an AF Reserve Chaplain who has deployed to Iraq – don’t know enough about his perspectives on VA care (unlike Hegseth who has done a lot of work for Vets – see his Shawn Ryan show interview I linked a couple times yesterday).
I’ll need to dig and see if there’s any interviews.
Why isn’t this calculated immediately…?
“We need to jigger the numbers”
AK ballots are moose antlers that don’t scan well?
I could see waiting until you have all the ballots in your possession before you release any numbers with ranked choice voting.
This should be standard for all elections.
Everything should be closely held and then tabulated all at once.
The reason Atlanta is always late with their counts is so that they can see where they need votes. I dont understand republican areas releasing vote totals before the big Democrat areas do. Huge mistake.
I must be missing something. Why wouldn’t they already have all the ballots? Unless Alaska is another state which fraudulently allows ballots to roll in for weeks after Election Day.
“I could see waiting until you have all the ballots in your possession”
Well, that would/should be close of business on Election Day, right?
When I lived in California, they counted all the votes on election night and Republicans often won (Republican Governor and LA Mayor). All that has been fixed good and hard.
Checking the LA County site…at least no one voted in my name. 14 years and running…they have not purged my voter registration regardless of registering in three different states I have since lived in.
Yep, most…secure…election…system…ever.
Pretty much an inverse Florida. We had all manner of trouble counting votes within 48 hours in Broward, and state offices were often Democrat.
Now the votes are counted as soon as the polls close and it is solid republican.
Eliminating early voting (or maybe within a week) and limiting vote by mail to old school absentee ballots would completely secure our elections in florida, where we scan your ID when you vote in person.
Yep – Same happened when they cleaned up the election system in Ohio. Makes me wonder what other states would swing way to the right with clean elections. Arizona obviously, most of the upper Midwest, NC. New Jersey and Virginia would be in play.
Someone gets paid to research these articles:
https://nypost.com/2024/11/09/lifestyle/pornhub-reveals-each-states-top-election-night-searches-you-wont-believe-what-florida-was-looking-at/
Did you submit it to DOGE?
Huh…’ass-to-mouth’, ‘tushy’, and ‘ass-licking’.
Well, we know where HM had his VPN set to.
Tushy.com makes high-quality porn.
Arizona and Iowa exchange knowing glances.
Iowa is just more refined
Iowa is just more refined
Much of my sexual education is derived from SP.
Why am I not surprised by WA?
Could San Francisco’s cable cars be suspended due to budget shortfall?
If you can’t convince your representative to subsidize San Fran’s cable cars, at least buy some merchandize from The Muni Store.
waitwaitwaitwait – they haven’t shut those down yet?
The cable cars were pretty cool and fun until they filled up with psychotic drug abusers.
San Francisco was pretty cool and fun until it filled up with psychotic drug abusers.
Tourism must be way down if they can’t run the cable cars anymore.
Well, when your city has become better known for it’s feces filled streets, homelessness, and crime, it stops being a tourist magnet.
Before the psychotic drug users?
What, 1964?
*snort*
Well, I lived there in the late 90’s and it was pretty easy to avoid them then.
“Tourism must be way down if they can’t run the cable cars anymore.”
Yeah, I remember reading somewhere a few years back that the SF cable cars were one of the very few “light rail” type transportation that was actually profitable.
Rhywun: I think I was gone by 1989. I was there too for a while.
Go Long on Anti-Anxiety Med Manufacturers
In a deeply satisfying headline, CNN is reporting a widespread “Feeling of Dread” among the millions-strong Deep State — er, federal bureaucracy — afraid that Donald Trump will fire them.
In case you’re curious why they used your tax dollars to influence the election.
From your keyboard to God’s (well, Trump’s) ears, dude.
I think I’m going to have to call someone for an erection that lasts more than 4 years.
Because the last one was so effective at sticking it to Donald. 🙄
They’re going to make the pussy hat great again.
If a small group of college kids don’t show up with dicks sewn onto the pussy hat…I will be sad.
This years will have a blue stripe!
Patriot Front will be reported to show up. There will be pics of them with their masks still on. There will be reports of their awful, heinous violence against peaceful protesters. This will all be dutifully put on the front pages of all right-thinking media.
ZWAK:
The Blue Waffle hat?
(If you don’t know what this is, I highly recommend you stay happy in your ignorance and don’t search the term. If you do search it, make sure that all images are blocked. It’ll be NSFW.)
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3eqPkmem5f8/U947rsFfJ-I/AAAAAAAAB-c/n9H-z_nkP4o/s1600/Blue+waffle+hat.jpg
Neph, will they use the blue waffles as ear flaps, attached to the Cunt Cap*?
*my name for the pussy hat, as it rings off the tongue a little better.
Remember, the theme and action plan being promoted was “the resistance”. Political leaders were openly pushing for the bureaucrats to resist Trump, sabotage him at every turn, and throw him out. For all their bleating about peaceful transfer of power, Clinton advisers came out of her hotel the morning after the election, before she had conceded and said “don’t worry, we are going to impeach him”.
This, of course, was in reference to the spy campaign against Trump that the Obama administration had undertaken. That administration would go on to brag in the NYT that they had distributed “classified information” around the government to be leaked after Trump got into office, for the purpose of getting a special counsel named, leading to impeachment.
This is what they are hoping to rekindle.
South Park has predicted much of the past 24 years.
Love all the reprises.
Will the screamer return for an encore performance?
A man can dream….
Tonio? Animal? Grzz?
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/13/california-arrest-insurance-fraud-00189470
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14082483/California-Bear-suit-Rolls-Royce-Mercedes-man.html
ahem!/ demographic
If those means aren’t shuttering TMITE and muzzling virtually all government actors from speaking, I don’t want to hear it. Whatever “misinformation” exists on social media is mirrored, and then some, by official government communications and in literally every newscast in the country.
I find discussion in good faith is usually a useful method for stopping “misinformation”, but that would require more people to understand what a good faith argument is.
Shutup, racist (and probably misogynist)!
Good faith is the normalization of the white supremacist value system, in the same vein as having a nuclear family, being on time, and working hard.
The Paradox of Intolerance informs us we must fight misinformation with more misinformation.
“If we close the censorship agency, we need to make sure to stand up a new censorship agency.”
“Your terms are acceptable”
Sort of offhand, but Bennie Thompson is one of the prime reasons we need to expand the House. My family in Mississippi lives in his district and it’s probably one of the poorest regions in the US. His District represents over 700k people which has not served them well at all and the idea that one person can represent that many people go against common sense and proportional representation
Totally agree with that. It’s up to 766,000 now – ridiculous. Last time this came up someone pointed out that it’s much lower in most countries that practice some form of representative government.
Do these people really want the Republicans to pass censorship laws, and have Trump pick who is in charge? Maybe he can pick Alex Jones.
This is not a normal schedule for me. Normally my wife, who is an early bird, gets up with the kids. My oldest son drives them to school (about a 1h 15m round trip). But wifey and oldest son are out of town, so those jobs fall on me today. I generally work what amounts to second shift, so I’m generally not up at this time, but right now I’m wide awake. I’d love to go patch my synthesizer, but if I do that there will be no nap, and I work until about 11 tonight.
Shit.
Well, matty, to start, that’s a man. and he looks very unhealthy both physically and mentally. I’m not sure he should be employed, let alone running a federal agency. Send Mr Levine home to get better medical care.
Well, it isn’t a woman. We can start there.
I don’t want public health advice from a fat man confused about gender.
The pendulum always swings back in American politics, and probably will in 2 years for some reason. Either through Democratic fuckery or just the whims of voters when Trump disappoints. But god damn if the left isn’t completely clueless as to why they lost this election. They suck on every fucking issue. They are in opposition to the majority of the public on every issue.
Trannie pride is a losing issue. Acceptance and tolerance is where it will end for most people, unless you’re talking about with children. And they can’t stop talking about the children and the notion of “gender affirming care.” People don’t want trannies in female spaces.
and is a four-star officer in the nation’s eight uniformed services
So once he is appointed then that is a qualifier, right? It reminds me of people saying Obama’s qualifications for president was running a successful campaign.
You know, forget that it’s a man badly masquerading as a woman. That’s just easy, low hanging fruit. Like his balls. Does anyone remember the creepy ass shit they said about mutilating children and about covid? Brochettaward The Great remembers. That’s the real problem with “Admiral” Levine.
After completing her training in pediatrics and psychiatry at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, Levine moved from Manhattan to central Pennsylvania in 1993 where she joined the faculty of the Penn State College of Medicine and the staff at Penn State Hershey Medical Center.[14] During her tenure, she created Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s Division of Adolescent Medicine and the Penn State Hershey Eating Disorders Program. She was in charge of the latter when she was nominated for the position of Pennsylvania physician general in 2015.
From wikipedia. There has to be something dark in that past.
Sending kids from the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Penn State to the football program?
He was Sandusky’s gimp.
Levine is also big on “transitioning” little kids. That adds to the outrage, understandably.
Also, I hope the DOGE will take a good hard look at the USPHS (where Levine’s Admiralty comes from) and decide that we don’t need a uniformed public health service. Would require legislation to undo, but converting all those positions to regular federal civilian service would be a worthy goal in itself.
IIRC they put those government doctors in uniforms because their initial job was tending to the health of sailors and it was felt the seamen would respond better to men in uniform.
Oh look, spurious allegations are once again pounced on by the media. I guess we are back to #BELIEVEALLWOMEN
Trump’s Defense Secretary Pick Pete Hegseth Said to Face Previous Sexual Misconduct Allegation
At worst it appears, he stepped outside of his marriage and ended up with someone else. Life fucking happens.
Many people have wondered why Popeye and Bluto fought so determinedly for the love of Olive Oyl, when she doesn’t seem like much of a catch. Those people have never been to sea. Sailors only are in a particular port for at most a few days every few weeks or months. Even worse, when they are out to sea there is no female companionship.
The first factor greatly reduces the pool of women who are willing to date them. The second factor significantly increases their level of desperation.
Popeye himself was quite a catch.
I suspect she was modeled on Mabel Normand.
A Norwegian fisherman made a surprising catch on Monday in the form of a US submarine.
Harald Engen was delivering a catch of halibut to the village of Malangen, on Norway’s west coast, when he got an unusual message, Norwegian broadcaster NRK News reported.
He was told that the propellers of a submarine had become tangled in his nets and had dragged them two nautical miles — about 2.3 miles — out to sea, NRK reported.
The 377-foot, nuclear-powered USS Virginia had been on its way from the port of Tromsø, the outlet reported, adding that a Norwegian Coast Guard vessel escorting it had to help cut it loose from the nets.
“I know about other vessels that have sailed over fishing nets, but no one out here have ever heard about a submarine doing so,” Engen said, per the Barents Observer.
https://www.businessinsider.com/norway-fisherman-caught-uss-virginia-nuclear-powered-submarine-nets-tangled-2024-11
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to throw that one back, Harald.”
Are you kidding, he’s going to sue for the damage done to his equipment and lost catch.
They could probably spend a whole month celebrating how proud they are.
Tania Marshall 🇨🇦🇦🇺🇳🇿Psychotherapist Author
@TaniaAMarshall
💭
My therapist colleagues are removing pronouns from their bios. What’s going on?
💭
https://x.com/TaniaAMarshall/status/1857244588337168486
people all about fashionable nonsense drop the nonsense when it is less fashionable. First AOC now this…
Unfounded and unhinged fear that the government will round up all pronoun users.
no one can honestly believe that.
PieInTheSky:
These same people think the only reason Harris lost was racism and misogyny. They can believe all sorts of untrue things.
More likely that they realize just how stupid the rest of the public thinks these are.
They can’t honestly believe that Trump is going to track women’s periods either, but here we are.
There is no such thing as peak stupid.
The blue haired harpies in their HR department will fight to their dying shriek.
Few people at my Big Corp job have pronouns in their bios, but probably 50% of the KPMG employees I have to deal with do. So far none of them have removed the pronouns.
Around here the tech people don’t do that.
Somehow among end users, it’s the most clueless who do.
Total opposite here. Pronouns in every tech email signature. I think it was forced.
Apolitical to a fault
President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and former National Guard soldier, for Secretary of Defense, is being met with disbelief and outrage among members of Congress and former military officers.
——-
Many people with experience in defense and foreign policy fear that, if confirmed, Hegseth would politicize the officer corps.
,/em>
There is currently no politicization in the Defense Department. None.
There is scant indication that any changes in the ranks have fundamentally disrupted the military
ORLY? How have recruitment numbers been over the last four year or so?
Anyone been to/from Chattanooga? Was thinking of a little day trip over Thanksgiving weekend. Any little touristy things to do? What about Lookout Mountain, the TN Aquarium, or the Coker Museum? Any other suggestions?
Chattanooga?
Choo-Choo!
Chattanooga is MAGA country as a woman you should avoid it.
See Rock City!
There are a few cool caves in the area too.
Ruby Falls?
Sounds right.
I haven’t been there other than to pass through in at least 3 decades. But I vividly remember beautiful caves, and a See Rock City birdhouse we had hanging until hurricane Andrew blew that thing a long ways.
I have seen Ruby Falls as a kid. It was cool.
Of what you listed, I know the Aquarium and Lookout Mountain can be fun. On Lookout Mountain itself there’s the old incline railway and Rock City (old-timey tourist attraction with caves, overlook, etc.).
Chickamauga Battlefield and the associated historical sites in the area are just a short drive South if you’re into that sort of thing.
Yeah Ruby Falls is what I was trying to remember and couldn’t. Another old-time thing, but watch out for long lines near a holiday.
I see Ruby Falls has an early-morning guided tour, before it opens to the general public. That looks really cool, but I’d need to do an overnight to get there by 7:30am. That will go on the list for future visits
The TN Aquarium is pretty good.
I think this is nearby…
https://www.sequatchiecovecheese.com/
At first I was like “Cheese? Oooh” Then I saw their cheeses and went “Whycome they’re all moldy varietals?” then I read about the cheeses and noted that only one is moldy, two merely look moldy*, and I hadn’t noticed the oozy french-style cheese because of the mold next to it.
*the ash line on the coppinger doesn’t look appealing at all, and I hope that rind on the cumberland is dark wax and not a crust of cheese mold.
Now I’m sad.
Ok…maybe I’m just getting spun up too much just theorizing about stuff like this. I don’t really want to attempt an article on this just because I don’t have the numbers theory for anything like this. Just wanted to throw some stuff out – back of the napkin style – to see if anyone wants to poke holes in the basics.
Total number of vets in US.
2024 Dept of VA budget – $325 billion
High estimate – say 20 million total. (how many “eligible”?) 16.2-18 million
Obviously not everyone would necessarily take advantage of these rates if they have other family plans at work that might have better rates – since this is VA specifically, I think initially it makes better to focus on coverage for just the veterans – potentially with significant increases to add spouse/kids (non-active duty tricare rates).
As a reservist, I’ve been paying about $50/month with something like a $250 annual deductible (IIRC) – so my first treatment or so in the year was a little pricier, but closer to the copay for the rest of the year. Plus, Tricare pays doctors more than medicare/medicaid but they still negotiate rates – especially for testing, etc.
I know there are a lot of folks with expensive treatment requirements, but I think spreading out the costs with low charges per person – particularly given the current average veteran age – would even that out a lot – while making it more sustainable – and as noted before, you could empty out the mass of the Department. I can’t see that this would result in a lower quality of care, veteran suicides, etc.
Please poke as many holes in this as you want.
As someone who deals with a fuck ton of ‘migrants’ who are getting Medicaid and free shit every month, I see no need to charge vets anything at the current moment. If Pedro can get 200 dollars a month to spend on his 8 kids (and uses it to ship shit back to his home country, really) through Medicaid, then why the fuck am I going to charge the people who went off and fought in this nation’s shitty wars?
I want a sustainable system – the same way they modified the retirement system from 50/50 to Blended Retirement 401(k).
Obviously the other stuff shouldn’t be paid for either, but we can cut in this department and the other departments should cut as well.
Plus – I want them to receive quality care, not an excuse for the disgusting excuse for “free” care that fails on every level with unqualified personnel.
It’s like SS. Any mention of reform brings out the special interests groups.
“OMG, they’re cutting the VA services”
I think there is a need for a better system but it’s going to be an uphill climb. OTOH renaming military installations was relatively easy but some of us will never acquiesce.
“We need a primetime debate between Harris and Biden on whose fault it was that Trump won. Proceeds to charity. Commercials would sell at Super Bowl rates.” — National Review’s Charles Cooke
that guy is not a REAL AMERICAN!
Yes he is, because he chose to come here and adapt, not make it into the shithole he left.
The Royalists
@TheRoyalistsUK
We are delighted to announce that, starting in January 2025, The Royalists will distribute free photo portraits of His Majesty the King to British addresses.
Pre-registration for free portraiture will open from Sunday, 1 December.
https://x.com/TheRoyalistsUK/status/1857071389997465708
Hegseth and other conservatives have long complained the military cares more about diversity and equity than meritocracy and preparing for war, though there is scant evidence to back up those claims.
Okay, Shirley.
There is no cannibalism in the British Navy!
And stop calling me Shirley.
That unbroken chain of humiliating military defeats since 1945 notwithstanding, of course.
The last few years of recruiting is chopped liver?
The huge downturn in recruits doesn’t count I guess.
Those are just stupid rednecks, we don’t want them anyway.
The 91 Gulf War was the first big deployment of our co-ed military. There were still no women in combat units, but much effort went into sweeping the complete shit show in command and support units under the rug. Officers relieved for fraternization, prostitution arrests, women service members (some married and deployed without the spouse) sent home pregnant. It was a fucking circus.
do married women in the military not know about condoms?
Some women in the Army used pregnancy to get out of hardship assignments or the Army completely.
Pie – Hard to describe what the combination of overseas deployment, youth and extreme physical fitness, and immediate physical danger all do to a libido. Like your body and subconscious decide “now or never” and go off the reservation.
You know, if Bezos was serious about trying to restore credibility in journalism, he would tell his editors to ban anything that looks like “claimed falsely” or “without evidence.”
Alternatively, be sure to include those universally.
“AOC claimed, without evidence, …”
“Cruise Company Offering TDS Sufferers “4-Year Trip” to Avoid Trump’s Second Term”
Joke’s on them, the first week they sail off the edge of the Earth!
Huh.
Imagine having policies so bad that people are able to find even illegal aliens who support the guy who ran on a platform of deporting them instead.
According to Hegseth’s account, the tattoo in question was identified by his superiors as “white nationalist.” In fact, the symbol — a large cross with four smaller ones in the corners — is a Christian one known as the Jerusalem Cross. It is one of at least two tattoos that Hegseth sports whose origins date back to the Crusades, when Christians defeated Muslims to take the Holy Land.
Hegseth has said that the tattoo is simply a symbol of Christianity. Nonetheless, some far-right extremists have co-opted Crusade symbols. And according to some scholars, they are more precisely correlated with Islamophobia.
“They are far-right Christian symbols that signal a very, very deep antipathy towards Islam,” said Matthew Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore. “[Hegseth] literally wrote a book called ‘The American Crusade,’ drawing parallels between the Crusades and the present moment in the United States and Europe and pushing back on Muslim immigration to those areas.”
They should make him burn it off with a blowtorch as part of his initiation.
Matthew Taylor needs to be put out on his ass to find productive employment.
Well, that settles it. Mind reading FTW!
This shit is so fucking tiring. Even a tattoo some dude just thought looked cool can’t be left to be. It must be analyzed to death, with only the most unflattering interpretations allowed.
This is why we voted for Trump, asshole.
If these assholes spent as much energy writing about the corruption and spending at the Pentagon instead of writing about this kind of crap our country would be in much better shape.
They should make him burn it off with a blowtorch as part of his initiation.
That never ends well, especially in light of the coming zombie apocalypse.
Maybe a blanket disqualification for tats?
But perhaps the most glaring challenge for Hegseth will be running the Pentagon, a sprawling bureaucracy that encompasses 2.3 million troops and civilian workers, with an annual operating budget of some $900 billion.
“We’re talking about someone who is primarily known as a media figure who would be running really one of the largest institutions in the United States, who doesn’t appear to have any sort of managerial experience of that sort, and would be one of the most prominent figures in U.S. politics,” said Nicole Hemmer, a political historian at Vanderbilt University, who has long studied the interplay between media and the conservative movement.
I’m sure Lloyd Austin is up to his neck in the day to day micromanagement of The Pentagon, Inc.
Like the rest of this admin – head of the pentagon can be out cold in a hospital bed for a week and nobody notices.
The Deep State prefers a figurehead.
Because the experts in place now are doing such a great job? It’s an agency that burns though money like a degenerate gambler in Las Vegas, beholden to the weapons manufacturers, and gotten us into wars that we had no business being in.
gotten us into wars that we had no business being in
Hey now, they had help from the IC and State! Oh and the media.
Dirk Fuckner 🚯
@timerube
over *320 people* at tonight’s nyc dsa 101
le Sour Patch Lyds
@sourpatchlyds
Almost 20% of these comments are whining about no one masking 😂 A bunch of the others are about racial diversity. We have nothing to fear from these particular communists.
https://x.com/sourpatchlyds/status/1857246271037161941
I had to pick up more salt for lunches at work so I bought a cardboard shaker of sea salt. I was looking at the humorous nutrition information on the shaker (I was eating lunch and the break room is a boring place) and noticed that it was a product of Israel.
My first thought went “Is this Mediterranian Sea Salt or Dead Sea Salt?” (having forgotten about the Red Sea for a moment)
My second thought went “The Dead Sea is more saline so it’d be easier to extract from there.”
The third thought was “But don’t they run desalinization plants to get drinking water? Wouldn’t those produce a concentrated brine that would also be easy to extract from?”
Now I’ve got myself worked up with curiousity about Morton’s Israeli production operation.
So now we have to worry about ((salt)).
Interesting. You got me to look it up too. Morton salt talks about their sea salt operations, but does not mention Israel.
https://www.mortonsalt.com/morton-sea-salt-sourcing-production/
Looking at that page, it doesn’t mention any specific geographic source.
Though if we start with “assume the statements are generally factual” it would preclude using desalinization byproduct as a source, as they say their process is to pump seawater into evaporation ponds and collect the residue.
What’s wrong with Lake Erie salt?
It’s stolen from Gaza.
Not qualified
Donald Trump has tapped North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to lead the Interior Department, and Newsweek has looked at his record on abortion and trans issues.
——-
As Secretary of the Interior, Burgum would oversee the management of federal lands, the use of natural resources, Native American affairs and environmental protection.
While Burgum has a reputation for being a business-minded conservative, as he was a successful software executive in the early 2000s, he has also signed some of the country’s strictest abortion laws into effect for his state.
On top of this, he was once called out by the Human Rights Campaign, the U.S.’s largest LGBTQI+ civil rights organization, for signing into law some policies it considered discriminatory. Here is everything you need to know.
How can he be our nation’s Groundskeeper Willie if he’s an anti-quiltbag bigot and abortion denier?
This is exactly why they lost the election. Hardcore Dems think that everyone should have the same views and priorities as they do. And anyone who disagrees is stupid, racist, sexist, etc.
Guess what? 90% of people don’t give a shit about that.
When you are in a cult, everyone not in it is a heretic..
I’m beyond not giving a shit, I now want to slam it back down their throats until they gag on it.
I cannot wait until Elon finds the money source for legacy media and pulls the plug.
Ed’s Dream Pick’s for Cabinet:
Sec of State – Rand Paul
AG – Scott Bullock
Treasury – Raghuram Rajan
Defense – Ron DeSantis
So the NYS DEC flat out lied.
P’Nut the Squirrel was ‘marked for death’ and decapitation from the start — as rabies test results reveal tragic twist
I’m sure that this will be thoroughly investigated with serious consequence including possibly termination for the public servants involved.