261 Comments

  1. SDF-7

    House Ethics Committee Decides Not to Release Gaetz Report

    But it will be “hacker” “leaked” by the weekend, I expect. Funny how that works.

    Morning, Banjos! Morning, all… Run in terror, Betty Boop — that guy looks like he’s going to eat you (“and not in a fun way” they all reply….)

    • Pat

      I thought I saw a headline that some congressional gadfly (MTG maybe?) had proposed to release all of the congressional NDAs if the Gaetz report was released. There’s a pretty good chance the lid stays closed if that were to actually be a realistic possibility.

      • SDF-7

        Mutual Assured Disclosures might work, yeah…. I hadn’t seen that, but the idea is intriguing. And it isn’t like anyone in DC knows how to play political hardball, after all. (/sarc)

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        One of the things I hear about MTG, no matter her politics, is that she is a congressional rules lawyer on par with Lyndon Johnson. Meaning she will dig into the bylaws and such of the House and use those to force changes.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The way I understand it MTG and Massie would hang out on the floor forcing everyone to follow the rules and force votes, enforce quorum rules, etc. Making them do their jobs was very upsetting to congress critters.

    • AlexinCT

      Personally I hope one of the team blue idiots leaks this Gaetz shit, and then it goes scorched earth and all the “secret shit” files on congress get released showing everyone how despicable the vast majority of these congress critters are to begin with.

      • Drake

        Rumors on X of an Adam Schiff sex settlement payed out by the Congressional sex abuse fund. Just a rumor – like Gaetz’s accusations, but exposing it all sounds good to me.

      • R C Dean

        Paid. It’s “paid out”.

        I’ve been seeing this error recently. Is it some weird autocorrect thing?

      • Gustave Lytton

        It’s fucking Reddit grammar.

      • Gustave Lytton

        “Payed” is a correct past tense, so autocorrect allows it. It’s just not the past tense of paying money.

      • Drake

        You suck Spell check.

        It probably wasn’t payed out like fishing line.

  2. SDF-7

    Senator John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson Signal Support For Recess Appointments

    Sigh… this really tickles my “That’s not how it is supposed to work” reflex. I don’t have a problem with the base concept, especially in the days when it took time for Congress to reassemble due to travel realities and all… but this just seems like abuse. Frankly, I’d rather the system was something like “recess appointments are fine — but a small minority (10% maybe?) can call for a full Senate vote up or down when it reconvenes? Something where you can’t dodge the actual Senate confirmation process en masse like this looks like, in any event.

    • Raven Nation

      I don’t understand their plan. Are they going to go through the swearing in and then immediately recess?

      • R C Dean

        Pretty much. At least, go into recess really early so Herr Trumpler can appoint his filthy, sycophantic cabinet.

      • juris imprudent

        As I recall, Congress (both houses) doesn’t recess until Easter or so, and then only for a week or two.

      • Drake

        When one house of Congress is in recess, the President can force the other half to recess. I knew the fix was in last week when Johnson got to sit at the big boy table with Trump, RFK, and Elon.

    • R C Dean

      It would technically be perfectly Constitutional, for what that’s worth.

      Setting that aside, these are executive department staff. I can’t think of any grand principle being violated by having the President appoint his own direct reports with or without legislative approval. Legislative meddling in the executive branch is what got us administrative agencies 99% staffed with tenured-for-life pubsecs, after all.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Isn’t the Senate supposed to “advise and consent” with the emphasis on consent? This is what saved us from Garland being on SCOTUS after all.

        Although I do agree with you RE president should pick his cabinet. Which is vastly different than a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land.

      • R C Dean

        A SCOTUS Justice isn’t a direct report to the President in the executive branch, so I wasn’t talking about those. There’s no such thing as recess appointments of judges, as far as I know.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        @zwak

        Yes. But there is a provision in the constitution for recess appointments. At this point it’s against the spirit of what the provision is designed for, but it is there, is legal, and hasn’t been changed since it was written.

    • AlexinCT

      Sigh… this really tickles my “That’s not how it is supposed to work” reflex.

      I will remind you all that that is how Obama got most of his appointments in 2009….

      Not saying that it is the right way to do things, but if you choose to play with a massive handicap, you should expect to lose.

      • R C Dean

        But, muh norms!

      • Ted S.

        I thought Obama had 60 Team Blue senators until Scott Brown won the special election at the end of 2009.

    • SarumanTheGreat

      I think the reasoning is they don’t want Trump to go scorched earth on THEM because of how McConnell refused to allow the Senate to go into recess for most of the first term in order to deny POTUS 45 the ability to put his own people in even on a temporary basis. Thus allowing the bureaucrats unhindered ability to block him. Recess appointments were traditionally allowed because they were a relatively rare event, because of death or some other unexpected departure. But of course when Orange Hitler came into power it was weaponized like everything else in DC. Can’t let the outside screw up our lucrative graft system, can we!

      And it only takes one Senator to declare the Senate is in recess. That is why I don’t much respect for Rand Paul. IMO he’s a performative contrarian, who talks a good talk which never seems to turn into anything substantial.

    • Ownbestenemy

      The recess appointment clause really is a relic of a bygone era when we had a part time legislature in my opinion. However, a President executing their Constitutional powers as described doesn’t bother me too much. My guess is the thinking behind this is, is that the Senate will filibuster any and all of Trump’s choices for any position just because.

      • Ted S.

        Keep the filibuster, but make it like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, shutting down every other bit of Senate business and requiring someone to speak from the floor of the Senate.

      • Grumbletarian

        is that the Senate will filibuster any and all of Trump’s choices for any position just because.

        I accept your terms. All it takes is an EO saying any department without a chief officer approved by the Senate shall have its operating budget reduced to zero and any and all operations ceased until such time as an officer is nominated and confirmed into the position.

    • cyto

      It could also be a threat to wield against the Democrats to keep them in line.

      Last time around they stonewalled his appointments, making running the government impossible. They were very happy about the success of their “resistance”.

  3. Rat on a train

    Over 6% of Missouri students now homeschooled, report says
    That’s not fair. Why should they get a good education while public school students don’t?

    • AlexinCT

      I content that the greatest reason for those that argue against that home schooling is not really the educational advantage the students being home schooled get, but the fact that these students manage to avoid the indoctrination and stupid that gets drilled into them in the public school system, that one side of political elite need to create a dumb and beholden populous…

      • juris imprudent

        Huxley: “…the greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled.”

        So, not so much one side and not at all conniving by the elite.

      • AlexinCT

        Not questioning Huxley and his assertion, but in the case of education there is a clear divide between the teams. You could make the argument that team red would be all in for the public school system if it was indoctrination they approved of (the old ways where people were thought to love the country, and not hate it like the left has done), but they seem to have given upon being able to address that issue with the public school system.

      • rhywun

        It’s some of that and a lot of supposition that those kids are turned into christfag wingnuts.

      • R C Dean

        I think the opposition to homeschooling and charter schools is based on the fact that government schools get a lot of funding based on student numbers. Every kid in homeschool or a charter school “costs” them money.

      • juris imprudent

        there is a clear divide between the teams

        In my last article I asked – who had ever been taught about that de Toqueville quote. No one answered, because no one, under any education system (including my own when California truly was the gold standard) had. Fuck off that the Republicans are really a more responsible, serious party. They teach mindless conformity just as much as the Democrats.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I think the opposition to homeschooling and charter schools is based on the fact that government schools get a lot of funding based on student numbers. Every kid in homeschool or a charter school “costs” them money.

        The plan with my kids is to have them do associates degrees from 16-18. In my county, if they were enrolled in public high school they could do this for free. As homeschooled kids, I will have to pay for the associates degree out of pocket. So yeah, clearly I have saved the school system money over 10 years but they would argue I have cost them money and now cannot have the “free” community college.

      • Ownbestenemy

        There is going to have to be a paradigm shift sooner or later though. With the ubiquitous nature of all the world’s knowledge contained in nearly every kids pocket, our current model of rote bullshit. What we shift to, if we ever do, will really set the pace for humanity for generations to come.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        It isn’t so much team R vs. team D, but, rather, which team is up, and which team is down. The team that is down is going to reach for the protections of the constitution at every opportunity to protect itself, and the team that is up will try to ignore those in order to get its wishes.

        This is true in every instance: education, law, politics, etc.

      • AlexinCT

        ,Fuck off that the Republicans are really a more responsible, serious party. They teach mindless conformity just as much as the Democrats.

        I am a bit unsure how you got from me saying that the democrats had wrecked the school system for personal gain, and thus, siding with the republicans to break the monopoly now, meant the republicans were the serious party. I am not team blue or team red, but pragmatically right now my choices are between marxist insanity from team blue that have wrecked everything, or team red setting them back on this journey on the river Styx they have taken us on.

      • AlexinCT

        It isn’t so much team R vs. team D, but, rather, which team is up, and which team is down.

        One of the most effective memes I saw recently was that the election was between patriots and those that hated the country and were destroying it.

        Team blue hates the country for sure, and if it is not yet obvious they want it wrecked so they can remake it in their marxist image, you need to check your vision. That doesn’t mean team red is the good guys. Right now they are not the bad guys because they have been forced by the patriots to take on the corruptocracy.

      • juris imprudent

        siding with the republicans to break the monopoly now

        Republicans don’t want to break the monopoly, they’d be far happier keeping the monopoly and bending it back to their viewpoint. They’ll allow a bit of relief at the margins to keep the pressure off.

      • Ted S.

        Everyone knows it’s the Democrats who are the serious party: they have no sense of humor whatsoever.

    • The Other Kevin

      We have a Hispanic woman at our gym who moved from Illinois so she could home school her kids here. I learned that Indiana provides funds for homeschooling, even giving extra

      • The Other Kevin

        (dog ate my comment)
        … money to cover the kids’ lunches. It’s more than enough money and she loves it here.

  4. SDF-7

    Google Lashes Out at DOJ Plan to Force Sale of Chrome Browser Business

    Personally, I’d rather destroy their entire business model by making it illegal to track people online in the first place, for ad purposes or otherwise…. but there’s not really a legal framework for that — it is just my own utter distaste for our surveillance society speaking.

    • Nephilium

      The DOJ is trying to force Google to sell Chrome to them. That’s the truly offensive part.

      • Pat

        The interesting thing about divesting Chrome would be… how do you define Chrome? The Chromium base is open source and used as the basis for every browser that isn’t Firefox or Safari. The Blink engine is technically open source, although Google doesn’t distribute it separately from the Chromium binaries. Chrome is the Chromium base with their proprietary blobs and default services larded on. Chrome without Google is… every other browser on the market.

      • Nephilium

        Pat:

        Yeah, Chrome isn’t the problem, it’s the data collection tied to advertising where the issues crop up. I ‘member when Facebook got in big trouble for creating “shadow accounts” for people based on tracking cookies and the like for people who had never created an account.

      • SDF-7

        I’m not seeing that. “To a buyer approved by the Plaintiffs in their sole discretion”, yeah the DOJ wants to approve who it goes to… but I would expect that in an anti-trust forced breakup suit. The Court still has to approve it — and it isn’t “to the Plaintiffs” nor is it really implied it is to the government.

        But maybe that’s what they really want — I don’t know… have a citation, Neph?

      • R.J.

        Interesting. I was trying to divine the intent. Now it makes some sense. I don’t use it but I defend Google’s right to own what they built.

      • SDF-7

        Pat:

        G. “Chrome” means all code, software, applications, APIs, and other products and
        services included in Google’s Chromium or the Chrome browser, including the open-source
        application framework, libraries, runtime, and kernel which are published at
        http://www.chromium.org (or successor sites), and all code, software, applications, APIs, and
        Case 1:20-cv-03010-APM Document 1062-1 Filed 11/20/24 Page 3 of 35
        4
        other products and services provided by Google that are critical, in the determination of the
        Technical Committee, to the full and proper functioning of Chromium or the Chrome browser.

        is apparently how the DOJ is defining Chrome, right or wrong. Just fyi.

        So… yeah, Chromium is part of it (unsurprisingly).

      • Nephilium

        SDF-7:

        Looks like that was an error in the early reports of this that broke last night. The stories have been updated to clarify that the DOJ was forcing a sale, not that they were going to buy it (which was the original story).

      • Pat

        So… yeah, Chromium is part of it (unsurprisingly).

        I wonder how the buyer will feel when Chromium, the engine for which is itself a fork of WebKit, which was in turn a fork of KHTML, gets forked 15 minutes after the sale is completed. Probably about like Apache when all of the OpenOffice devs fled to LibreOffice. I wonder if they can legally enjoin Google to cease all development of any other browser engine while they’re at it.

      • juris imprudent

        How exactly does Google convey ownership of open-source? Of course the DOJ hasn’t considered that.

      • Urthona

        They just have to wait for the Trump DOJ.

    • AlexinCT

      Personally, I’d rather destroy their entire business model by making it illegal to track people online in the first place, for ad purposes or otherwise….

      Like me you are showing your age, brah…

      Are you aware how many young people seem oblivious to the surveillance state because they prefer the convenience sold to them by those tracking them?

      That shit is daunting. Especially when they then have certain shibboleths where they think they should have privacy on after they have already given it all away.

    • Not Adahn

      What I heard (no assurances as to veracity) was that the ad business are primarily run from data derived from Chrome usage and from google usage, so splitting them immediately creates competing entities.

  5. Pat

    Google executive Lee-Anne Mulholland issued a statement condemning the DOJ’s alleged proposal, asserting “An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.”

    FTFY

  6. SDF-7

    Bitcoin hits fresh record, races toward $100,000 as rally continues

    At least to balance out my “Wish I’d bought into some of that a while ago” reaction I have my recognition that I have an innate knack for “buy high, sell low!” instincts… I tend to not do such transactions to avoid carrying out that destiny.

    If I had bought Bitcoin (or if I were crazy enough to buy some now thinking “Oh… it will only grow!”), that would be the surest sign that the universe were about to bring it crashing down. So all of y’all actually invested in it can thank me for that.

    • Pat

      I have a similar knack with gas prices. Every time I fill up, I can guarantee as surely as the sunrise that it will be cheaper within a week. The last time I filled up they actually dropped it by 2 cents per gallon during the ~4 hours I was working inside the store the station is attached to.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      Regular periodic purchases of fixed dollar amount in both cases. Regular periodic rebalancing for investments. Don’t know what the analog of rebalancing is for gas.

    • R C Dean

      I bought some BitCoin more or less on a lark, to see how it all worked, ten(?) years ago. I forget what I paid – around $1,000, maybe? I sold half when it doubled, spent a little bit, sold the rest a few years ago, all at a decent profit. Sure, I would have made more if I’d held on, but as it was I made some money. Can’t complain.

      Now, the guys who had thousands of BitCoin on some drive they lost (or lost access to), or had it stolen from one of the hacked exchanges – that would truly suck.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      MSTR is close to +15% again pre-market. I don’t really understand, but glad I bought at $75 in 2021 even if I did have to watch it go down to $15. Sometimes you just need to be a little retarded.

    • AlexinCT

      While I think cryptocurrency is a great way to diversify your investments, my big problem with cryptocurrency of any kind has always been that it depends on electricity and an internet to provide it’s value. The disasters I am prepped for, where I can see having personal wealth to provide you the ability to overcome calamity of needing a hard currency, all also come with reliable internet and electricity service being not being present with enough surety to make it worth it.

      I am invested in the 3 precious metals for that. Physical gold, silver, and of LOTS course brass & lead and devices to deliver that down range. I won’t mention some of the other stuff related to chemistry and combustion one might also need.

      • AlexinCT

        Don’t jinx us JI!

  7. rhywun

    Deep-Blue California Voters Reject $18 Minimum Wage Proposal

    I’m not clear on why the voters got a say in this effort but not the one that jacked up the minimum for fast-food workers.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      Because the Calidems wanted someone to blame when it goes sideways. Stupid voters.

    • Rat on a train

      Voters get a say when the legislature is unwilling to take the blame?

    • SDF-7

      damifino, really…. politics in this stupid state only annoy me typically. I’ve given up trying to understand them most of the time.

  8. R.J.

    I keep wondering what Google did to get hit with the anti-trust action. And I completely disagree with it. There are a million browsers out there. And tons of search engines. Any insight ?

    • Nephilium

      There may be a million browsers out there, but most of them are built on the same core as Chrome. Same as some of the search engines rely on Google search results (such as DDG). It would be interesting (to me at least) to see what would happen if someone out there set up a search engine using the original Pagerank algorithm.

      It’s also somewhat shocking to me that no one has been able to topple Google’s search dominance. I remember the days of new engines coming out and being targeted for specific things (pours one out for AltaVista and AstaLaVista).

      • Pat

        DDG sources its index from Bing; Startpage is the privacy-friendly front-end to Google.

        (pours one out for AltaVista and AstaLaVista).

        I used AltaVista quite literally until the page started redirecting and am still resentful.

        Thing about search engines though, is that nobody navigates to a search engine’s web page in a web browser anymore; they search from the search bar on their phones, which means if they’re not using an Apple device, and aren’t a .0001% privacy schizo with Lineage OS installed, they’re searching with Google.

        Search is a diminishing aspect of their business anyway. They generate more revenue and data from Android.

    • Pat

      There are a million browsers out there.

      All but two are still Chromium-based though, and the cumulative market share of those two is around 10%. In terms of web browsers, Google legitimately does have something as close to a monopoly as you can reasonably get without a legal grant like a utility provider. That said, the fedgov has allowed that situation to exist for decades without any involvement, and has been so deeply involved with Google since the DOD incubated it at Stanford that it’s pretty close to an NGO. I don’t know the scuttlebutt, but Google pissed somebody off.

      • R.J.

        “ Google pissed somebody off.”

        ^This. The best summary.

      • Rat on a train

        Google pissed somebody off.
        They didn’t suppress enough wrongthink to win the election?

    • rhywun

      I’m wondering if the word “monopoly” will ever recover from the ridiculous abuse that has been heaped on it by these grifters.

      • SDF-7

        There’s probably a chance — but it would take funds from the community chest to do it.

      • Pat

        I blame Parker Brothers.

      • Ted S.

        Yeah; government schools have a greater percentage of minor children in their grasp than anything the government claims is a monopoly.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Well, it is still Garlands DOJ, so maybe payback for not fixing the election for them?

      • juris imprudent

        Knowing the speed of the bureaucracy, this was definitely percolating in the first Trump admin, possibly even late Obama.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        There is nothing like losing power to force you to exert power.

      • juris imprudent

        This is the same DOJ that prosecuted anti-trust actions against IBM and Microsoft.

    • SDF-7

      Are there really? I thought most (almost all now) are just skins on Chromium these days. And those who aren’t (maybe Firefox? Not sure how much is still Gecko and how much is Chromium now… I thought they were converting over the last couple of years) are trending towards it. Which allows the big G to pull crap like breaking ad-blocking / no-track extensions across the board to help their core business.

      But as mentioned — I just despise that part of their core business, so I’m probably too biased to look at this objectively. I hate all the tracking that’s become “acceptable” over the last 25 odd years. Don’t care who is doing it. Anyway… not going to rant. Preach, choir, etc.

      • Pat

        Firefox is still 100% Gecko. They were going to rebase on a new engine during the Servo/Quantum skunkworks, but ended up just integrating the changes to the Gecko engine itself. The only other viable engine that supports all modern web standards is WebKit. The PaleMoon furries still maintain an ancient fork of the pre-Quantum Gecko engine, but it runs like dog shit and hasn’t been standards compliant in years. Even if it were a good fork, the guy that runs the project is a megalomaniac who handles feature requests and bug reports like you called his mother a cunt. I can only guess his day job is as a Gnome dev with Red Hat.

      • rhywun

        There is a wonderful graphic out there showing all of this… let me find it.

      • SDF-7

        Legitimate LOL…. I would have gone with “like that asshole behind systemd (Poettering, I think?)”, but that’s close enough.

      • rhywun

        Ah… I think it was this. The engines seem to be color-coded.

      • Ted S.

        I miss pre-ChiCom Opera.

      • slumbrew

        I confess I sort of like systemd

      • rhywun

        I miss pre-ChiCom Opera.

        I liked old Opera too. Especially the Mail application.

      • Pat

        I don’t know if it’s still maintained, but Otter Browser was a chromium-based project to mimic the UI and functionality of vintage Opera.

      • Nephilium

        rhywun:

        I still remember the old Eudora mail client, and their “anti-flame” pepper rating on messages. I even remember setting up my own Mailwasher client for spam filtering back in the day.

        /goes and gets a Werthers.

      • Pat

        Lol, my dad used Eudora long after it was discontinued and only stopped when his mail provider began requiring modern security features that Eudora didn’t implement.

      • Ted S.

        I used Hamster for its Perl rege filtering.

      • PutridMeat

        I can only guess his day job is as a Gnome dev with Red Hat.

        HA!

        “like that asshole behind systemd (Poettering, I think?)”

        I too sort of like systemd a la slumbrew, but Poettering certainly comes across as an asshole, though maybe that’s sort of par for the course to develop such a large software base. Which is where systemd sort of falls on it’s ass – trying to be too much and provide hooks for every system function.

      • Pat

        Which is where systemd sort of falls on it’s ass – trying to be too much and provide hooks for every system function.

        100%. All it needs to become a fully stand-alone system is systemd-kerneld. Once upon a time it was supposed to be an init system. Booting a modern system on parallel sysvinit was, indeed, cumbersome, but other inits solved for that without packing 80% of an OS into PID1. It *does* make administrative tasks easier in some ways, but at the cost of a really unwieldy, unauditable piece of software that is the antithesis of Unix philosophy. And ironically enough, it now takes an age to boot, which was supposed to be half the reason for moving away from sysvinit.

        I still use Debian with systemd for my servers, but I vastly prefer runit as an init.

      • Pat

        *on non parallel sysvinit…

      • Grummun

        Ah… I think it was this. The engines seem to be color-coded.

        I’ve been using LibreWolf, which I don’t see on that chart. I think it is largely a disto of FireFox with lots of privacy-improved settings standard.

        My wife has, for reasons I have not explored, been using Brave (or maybe just Brave Search?). I don’t see that on the chart either.

      • Pat

        LibreWolf is, indeed, Firefox-based/Gecko engine. It’s more or less a Firefox distribution that ships with a custom user.js similar to the Arkenfox framework, and the telemetry disabled.

        Brave is chromium-based.

      • PutridMeat

        LibreWolf

        Firefox with privacy features turned on, telemetry off. I believe you could make librewolf by taking stock firefox and configuring (i.e. I don’t think there are code changes?).

        My wife has, for reasons I have not explored, been using Brave

        Brave is chromium based.

        I have librewolf and brave installed and use brave when something I need to do for work breaks irreparably with librewolf.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I miss NetPositive from BeOS. I used BeOS from about 1998-2003 or so when I was forced to go to Windows (briefly) when I started grad school, then within a couple months of starting grad school I switched to a Mac.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I thought a lot of the uproar was because of the prepackaged and only installed browser on Android devices, which hold something like a 70% share of devices worldwide.

      • rhywun

        Presupposes that users are too stupid to install a different browser – just like the Internet Explorer days….

        Maybe they’re right but it’s still dumb. No, I am sure this is simply about extracting $$$.

      • Pat

        Android SystemWebView is a front end to Chromium, and is also used for all of the non-browser web-rendering functions in Android (including AOSP/Lineage). Same for ChromeOS, if that’s still even what they’re shipping on Chromebooks these days – it’s a barebones Gentoo system that launches a Chromium instance as the “desktop” to access Google services. You could technically swap in another rendering engine, but as currently constituted, divesting Chrome would break Android and ChromeOS as well.

  9. Ted S.

    Anybody else notice the difference in tone between the coverage of the 4B movement and MGTOW?

    • slumbrew

      Sort of like the difference between icky sex bots that men are interested in and the empowering use of vibrators by women, I imagine.

    • rhywun

      *looks up MGTOW*

      Oh, that. Wikipedia all but calls them Nazis.

      • Not Adahn

        Nazis/Incels, potato/potahto

  10. Pat

    Why a warm home will soon become a luxury

    Pimlico is a quiet part of central London. But in recent weeks, it has been turned into the front line in the climate wars, thanks to the local council’s zealous pursuit of its Net Zero targets.
    _
    At the centre of the battle are the residents of Pimlico’s Churchill Gardens Estate. They fall within the jurisdiction of Westminster City Council, which since 2022 has been run by Labour. More than 3,000 homes, schools and a library on the estate are currently heated by three giant but ailing gas boilers and a system of ageing pipes that are prone to bursting. One solution to this problem would be to supply each home with an electric boiler at a cost of between £1,500 and £5,000 each – a solution that would require no new pipework.
    _
    But Westminster City Council has other, far more expensive ideas. It is considering asking each household to pay between £40,000 and £66,000 to be moved on to new pipes in a low-carbon ‘heat network’ – all so it can achieve its dream of Westminster becoming Net Zero by 2040.

      • R C Dean

        Dammit, JI!

      • Drake

        I can guess the answers they’ll get.

    • rhywun

      pay between £40,000 and £66,000 to be moved on to new pipes in a low-carbon ‘heat network’

      That is how you graft.

      It’s almost funny if it weren’t so enraging.

    • Sensei

      There is a reason that in the UK this would also be called a “scheme”.

    • AlexinCT

      All fact checking has been bullshit.

      Most people don’t read past the headline, so the headline always states whatever they want you to believe regardless of what is true.

      Id they provide context, you will eventually find out the headline is fake as shit if you can read between the prevarications they put in the explanation.

    • AlexinCT

      Did they do that with one of those paper shredder trucks that have been seen doing the rounds at various DOJ or FBI offices?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Meh, I’d regularly schedule paper and HDD shredders to my locale cause of the nature of my work. Not everything is a conspiracy.

      • Grumbletarian

        Not everything is a conspiracy.

        That’s just what They want you to think!

      • Not Adahn

        Duh! You regularly schedule shredding so you can disguise your irregular shredding.

    • cyto

      The FBI has had informants and undercover agents talking to him since the beginning of the year.

      Over/Under on the IQ of this guy?

      They represent that he “tasked them with taking photos to determine the best location for a bomb”…. wanna take bets on how that really went down?

      They said he kept bomb making plans in a storage unit, where they also found watches, with timers that could be used to make a bomb.

      • Pat

        The surest way to tell when a foiled terrorist bombing was an FBI setup from the get go is when the feebs actually catch the “suspect.” Their record on preventing bombings they didn’t orchestrate themselves is abysmal. Their only real shot is if the bomb maker makes a boo boo like the Weather Underground retards in Greenwich Village.

    • cyto

      Also….

      The headline says “Florida Man”

      Really? That is the distinguishing feature of an Arab Muslim who wanted to join ISIS?

      • rhywun

        Maybe he was born there. Sometimes the 2nd generation is more radicalized than the 1st.

  11. Ownbestenemy

    Well, Mrs OBE and myself have successfully completed 12 trips around the sun together and on through our 13th cycle. So happens it was also my oldest’s birthday yesterday, though we tell him we were married in December because at the time, they had the vile ex whispering in his ear that I hated him and only cared for my wife.

    • The Other Kevin

      Congratulations! Keep up the good work. And happy birthday to the kid!

      The 53rd anniversary of my birth is on Saturday. Unusual that it’s so far before Thanksgiving this year.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      NICE!!! Frau Zwak and I did our 19th last month. (plus two years of sin…)

  12. The Other Kevin

    Good morning Banjos and all of the Glibs!

    When will they drop the name of the next unqualified, Russian asset podcaster?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Need more info. A whole lot of Ukraine says and a lot of not sure what type in that article. Not to put it past Russia, just seems like perfect timing to ramp up the fear factor.

    • Tundra

      Two months of nuclear chicken is gonna be fun.

      I agree with OBE, this smells of more Uke horseshit.

      • slumbrew

        You’d think so

      • Drake

        Would we know if it did?

      • Drake

        And that’s the Russians’ point. The Storm Shadow and our missiles being launched into Russia by NATO are fully nuclear capable.

      • juris imprudent

        Would we know if it did?

        Oh, you might expect a little bit of noise around DEFCON jumping a couple of levels.

      • R C Dean

        Although we supposedly don’t have the shells anymore, 155mm howitzers are nuclear-capable.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        The US ain’t Blinkin!!

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Is it really an ICBM if you don’t have the IC part?

      • AlexinCT

        yeah, this is just people that don’t understand the terminology.

        I bet it was a ballistic Iskandar launch, and those are short range (less than 800 miles) range, but no ICMB. To fire an ICBM short range would be idiotic.

  13. Tundra

    Good morning!

    The Descendents are just so damn good. Excellent selection, too. If that doesn’t get you going yore hopeless.

    • The Other Kevin

      That confirms my preconceived ideas and includes pictures, so I’m giving it an “A”.

    • Pat

      The really good part is the graphic in there about how much the Dems have lurched left – despite their (and the media) lying about Republicans being the ones far off the center.

      To be fair, they thought they had successfully shifted the Overton window such that the center was approximately Elizabeth Warren.

      • juris imprudent

        The funny thing is if that were even remotely true, they’d have a left that was tearing up their asses for being so centrist. Then again, why coddle the delusions of broken minds?

      • R C Dean

        “they’d have a left that was tearing up their asses for being so centrist”

        Well, they do, but it’s apparently not very powerful. OTOH, they did get the Green New Deal passed.

      • juris imprudent

        RC, I’ve never heard anyone attack Warren as too centrist, and that certainly would be the case if the OW had moved sufficiently that she was.

    • rhywun

      We’re watching a coalition that was always fragile & at odds with each other fall apart in real time.

      Now they’re going to have to tell the white elites who run the party to ease off on the tranny and free shit for illegal aliens stuff? LOL good luck with that.

      • The Other Kevin

        They created a party of religious zealots, where no dissent is tolerated. I know a few of them, I have no idea how they’ll get those folks to chill out.

      • B.P.

        TOK — I’m in the same boat and I agree. I have one friend who sends me lefty tracts (in book form). I think I’m expected to read them and declare allegiance.

      • The Other Kevin

        BP, it’s insane to think they are going to win anyone over. So they’re shrinking their cult, but somehow under the delusion people will see the light and repent?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        They are “more selective” TOK.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Perusing the headlines, I can’t help but think having sex in America is one of the worst crimes imgineable.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Only if you’re doing it right.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        See looks like a series of MIRVs coming down.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        “Sure looks”

      • Drake

        If they correct about the missile type, it straddles the line between “intermediate” and ICBM depending on the payload. The cutoff range is 5,000 km.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeah, it’s a kind that was treaty banned until 2019 looks like.

      • Grummun

        ::roots around for copy of Nuclear Escalation board game::

        Hot Fudge Sundae!

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        You forgot Skippy the Super Virus!

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Red shift

    The country largely shifted to the right in this presidential election from where it was four years ago.

    In 2020, President Biden won six of the seven most closely watched states, but this year, they all shifted toward President-elect Donald Trump.

    What’s more, Trump is on track to win the popular vote this time, when Biden won it by 7 million in 2020.

    They didn’t vote for the hard core lefty candidate with the proven track record of failure. What a bunch of right wing racists.

    • AlexinCT

      Anyone to the right of Mao or Stalin is right wing to these idiots…

    • rhywun

      when Biden won it by 7 million in 2020

      With an assist from those 12 million voters who for some unknown reason decided not to vote in 2016 or 2024.

      • juris imprudent

        The early vote totals were not complete and while Harris is still down from Biden, it isn’t as dramatic as it first appeared.

      • Common Tater

        Mail in ballots were a huge part of that. In 2020 many places sent them out without request.

      • rhywun

        The early vote totals were not complete and while Harris is still down from Biden, it isn’t as dramatic as it first appeared.

        Fair enough, with CA still counting. 🙄

        But first colorful woman candidate and some millions of Dems stayed home? Something’s fishy.

      • juris imprudent

        Give Harris credit, she was a worse candidate than Hillary (who at least actually won the nomination via the primaries).

      • R C Dean

        “In 2020 many places sent them out without request.”

        That didn’t stop after 2020. I’m sure it did in some places, but not all. Not, for example, in AZ, where junk ,ail ballots are the default and you still have to opt out as far as I know.

    • WTF

      Odd how no arrest warrants were issued for the Hamas architects of the October 7 atrocities.

      • AlexinCT

        The barbarians are oppressed people and everyone knows Jews are white supremacist colonizers!

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Vice President Harris was hoping she could turn out women in the suburbs in key swing states to get her across the finish line. But that didn’t happen. Trump, for example, won white suburban women by 7 points, as well as white suburban men — by 27. So there were some split kitchen tables, but not enough to help Harris win.

    Trump won the white suburban wimmyn vote? I guess they’re just too dumb to understand their best interests.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Nope. They’re gender traitors who are jealous of the success of independent women. They seethe at the idea a woman could get by without men.*

      *You know, except for the whole of modern civilization that men have completely built and wholly maintain part.

    • The Last American Hero

      Their husbands reviewed the ballots before they went to the dropbox.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Crying in the wilderness

    Haley first went after Gabbard, a former Democratic member of Congress and 2020 presidential candidate who endorsed Trump this year before announcing she was a Republican. The nomination has also raised concerns from some traditional GOP foreign policy thinkers.

    “She opposed ending the Iran nuclear deal. She opposed sanctions on Iran. She opposed designating the Iran military as terrorists who say death to America every single day,” Haley said on SiriusXM’s Nikki Haley Live. “She said that Donald Trump turned the U.S. into Saudi Arabia’s prostitute. This is going to be the future head of our national intelligence.”

    Haley added that it was “disgusting” that Gabbard, a military veteran, went to Syria in 2017 “for a photo op with Bashar al-Assad” while he was attacking his own people and has expressed skepticism that the dictator was behind chemical attacks on his own people.

    Haley said DNI was “not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer.”

    Democracy is so weird. The winner gets to run the government.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Haley’s a whore, not a spread your legs whore but a whore for death and destruction in service of money which is way worse. I’d be less ashamed of my daughter if she was working a street corner in a bad area of Detroit.

      • Nephilium

        in a bad area of Detroit.

        You can just say Detroit.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Poor baby. Her contrition act isn’t getting her a position in the new admin, so she’s having a tantrum.

      • juris imprudent

        STEVE SMITH NOT PROBE DEAD INTERN, JUST LIVE ONE.

      • Not Adahn

        DEAD INTERN HAVE INSUFFICIENT STRUCTURAL INTEGERITY.

      • juris imprudent

        SNAZZY RAT MAKE JOKE ABOUT DIGITAL CONDITION?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        JURIS SMITH PUTS FINGER ON PROBLEM.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    From the same link:

    Transportation Security Administration chief David Pekoske is signaling that he’d like to stay on in his current role as President-elect Donald Trump begins his second term.

    During a segment about Thanksgiving travel with CBS on Tuesday, Pekoske was clear that he’s hoping to stay until his term ends in 2027, saying that he “loves” the role.

    “It’s important for continuity in TSA to run the second term to its conclusion,” he said, adding that the agency has made numerous investments and increased partnerships not just in air travel but on surface transportation security, too.

    I’d say the absolute last thing we need from the TSA is “continuity”.

    Shut it the fuck down.

    • The Other Kevin

      I think we should keep him, and on her first day Tulsi can sit him down and have a nice conversation about why she was put on the Quiet Skies list. Maybe Matt Gaetz will want to be there too.

      • juris imprudent

        “Why don’t you tell me about everyone involved in putting together this program?”

    • Not Adahn

      Dude. Keep your nitrile glove fetish to yourself.

  19. Common Tater

    “When Donald Trump first won a presidential election in 2016, Corey Burke and her trans wife considered leaving the country….

    Burke had a high-flying job with Jeff Bezos’ space exploration company Blue Origin. The company is yet to comment on the allegations against her. Her wife, Samantha Leigh Allen, has enjoyed a glittering career as a Conde Nast editor.

    In her best-selling book, Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States, Allen writes about how the couple struggled to deal with the 2016 presidential election.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14084253/corey-burke-power-lesbian-killed-father-seattle.html

    They sound insufferable. Still, no idea what’s a power lesbian.

    • PutridMeat

      Still, no idea what’s a power lesbian.

      I still have no idea who’s XX and whose XY or whatever of the possible permutations fit the couple.

      Nor do I care too much – all one needs to know is 2 mentally ill people got together and at least one did mentally ill things.

      • juris imprudent

        Murdering someone is not mental illness. We shouldn’t use the terminology of the therapeutic state.

        It’s fucking evil, plain and simple.

      • PutridMeat

        Murdering someone is not mental illness.

        No, but arriving at the conclusion or having the lack of socialization and/or self control that makes you think that’s the proper response to interacting with another human being, can have its root in mental illness. I suppose its a matter of semantics at some level though I suspect you’d disagree!

      • juris imprudent

        It is semantics, a bit.

        The problem is it makes it seem that murder can be fixed by fixing some mental illness; that the person wasn’t as responsible because of a quasi-medical condition (and not one like Whitman’s tumor); AND it further stigmatizes mental illness (because it is being conflated with evil action).

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Trump won in 2016 women and children fathers hardest hit.

    • The Other Kevin

      I’m hearing they aren’t vetting the people with whom they are placing children. This makes me sick. Just like the first time I saw videos of people pouring over the border, and realizing our own government was facilitating this.

      • Common Tater

        It’s worse than that, with many children all sent to the same phony addresses.

      • rhywun

        They aren’t vetting the people coming in, either.

        It’s impossible to come to any other conclusion than that Joe’s handlers want the increased chaos and crime. They are literally helping to organize “tren de aragua” or whatever it’s called and who knows how many other criminal gangs.

      • The Other Kevin

        The second part that makes me sick is knowing how much work and expense it will take to reverse this. What a waste. Everyone involved should at the very least have their retirement confiscated and their wages garnished until they die.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      When my wife was getting her green card we had to show that I had enough income or that we had enough assets. We also had to sign a document that stated that she would not require any public support for 12 months. That seemed reasonable, even if it was a pain in the ass. I had no income because I had been laid off from my job in Europe. We had the assets in the form of her apartment, which she bought when it was privatized, but it normally took over a year to transfer the deed. We were able to shorten that to a couple months with some gifted vodka and candy. It chaps my hide that these people are flown in, given apartments and all kinds of support and the government claims there’s nothing it can do.

      • AlexinCT

        As someone that has sponsored two people before I was proud to help become US citizens, a process I would not wish on even my worst enemy because of it’s shittiness, and is now going to sponsor my son when he gets married, I can’t tell you how furious I am at the government doing what they are doing now with illegals. Fuck them all.

      • AlexinCT

        Man I should have read that before posting. The gist is that I sponsored two great people in the past, and I will be sponsoring my son’s soon to be wife. The two I sponsored in the past are great Americans. My soon to be daughter in law will do the same in time.

        It is an insult our government prioritizes people that commit crimes over these people.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Is “sponsoring” aliens a viable business model, like having aa fleet of foster children?

    • Sensei

      One of the tortious ways to come here legally is be sponsored. As in job and reimbursement for social services if consumed, etc. or be related and family.

      It’s difficult and expensive so it’s better to come illegally and get lots of free shit.

      • UnCivilServant

        or be related and family.

        No.

        No chain migration.

    • juris imprudent

      a fleet of foster children?

      Well, it’s no substitute for a well administered gang of orphans.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    TSA spokesperson on Wednesday backstopped Pekoske’s comments. Pekoske “was instrumental in pushing for equal pay of all TSA employees to make them commensurate with the rest of the federal government” among other initiatives like lowering workforce attrition and increasing screener employees at airports, the spokesperson said.

    Musk and Ramaswamy should put his head on a pike outside their office, for the edification of the masses.

    • Ownbestenemy

      The thought that my decades of radar experience and electrical know-how is belittled to make ball grabbers and panty sniffers have equal pay makes me want to reach out to Musk

  22. Common Tater

    “Bruised Jay Leno got back behind the wheel just days after a horror 60ft fall left him with a broken wrist and sporting an eyepatch.

    The iconic host, 74, who suffered second degree burns in a car fire in November 2022, revealed he had broken his wrist and been hit in the eye by a ‘bunch of rocks’ on Saturday as he headed to dinner – just three hours before his show.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14107097/jay-leno-wheel-fall-broken-wrist-eyepatch.html

    Yikes!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Didn’t he get burned pretty good working on some old car not too long ago? Say what you will about the guy but I admire his tenacity.

      • Sensei

        Yes. Steam car. Got a face full of fuel that ignited.

        Recovered and a few months later drove through a driveway with a chain he didn’t see and almost got decapitated riding a bike with a sidecar.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        I hate to say it, but he might need to turn in his license, hang it up.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Strictly on the up and up

    Senior Biden administration officials insist that their latest efforts to help Ukraine aren’t moves to box in President-elect DONALD TRUMP’s foreign policy when he takes office in January but rather responses to the battlefield needs of Kyiv’s fight against Russia.

    The latest U.S. decisions include transferring American anti-personnel mines to Ukraine, lifting a ban on how Ukraine can use U.S. long-range weapons to strike Russian territory and allowing U.S. military contractors into the country. The Biden administration has also vowed to commit $7 billion in military assistance to Ukraine by the time President JOE BIDEN leaves office. (Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN on Tuesday announced a new tranche of $275 million for Ukraine that would include more drones, artillery ammunition and mortars).

    Some senior Trump advisers have framed these as a last-minute way for Biden to escalate the war and limit the incoming president’s options on Ukraine and talks with Russia. Other pro-Ukraine European officials and U.S. lawmakers have framed it as a long-overdue way to support Ukraine before Trump takes office. Either way, they see this as all about Trump.

    But Biden officials say that’s not so.

    He’s just doing his job. Honest injun.

    • slumbrew

      Those crafty foreigners, sneaking into our country on their private jets.

  24. Tundra

    Trump can apparently learn.

    https://archive.is/RvVU7

    Since his victory, Trump has ignored many of the rules and practices intended to guide a seamless transfer of power and handover of the oversight of 2.2 million federal employees. Instead, the president-elect, who has pledged to fire thousands of civil servants and slash billions of dollars in spending, has so far almost fully cut out the government agencies his predecessors have relied on to take charge of the federal government.

    Lots of butt-hurt in DC. It warms the heart.

    • Sensei

      At the root of this unprecedented approach, say those close to Trump’s transition, is an abiding distrust and resentment of federal agencies that the president-elect blames for blocking his agenda in his first term, leaking his plans to the press, and later sharing his documents with investigators and bringing criminal charges against him.

      He should just lie back and take it. For the good of us all.

      • Tundra

        It’s hilarious. These stupid fucks still have no idea what is happening.

      • AlexinCT

        They thought they had the system rigged in their favor, and then they got blindsided that Trump chose not to play the game they had rigged.

        It is glorious.

    • The Other Kevin

      It’s funny how they keep writing these “scare” stories and half the people who read them think all of this is great. I think we should start calling them “briar patch” stories.

      • AlexinCT

        I think the reason the scare stories is all we are getting is that the machine now realizes without a doubt that the majority of the people feel the government is too big, completely corrupt and self serving, and that there is no more grace to be given to them. People want payback. And they have no idea how to move forward with that revelation. After all, they were doing whatever horned demon that gave them their vision of the “Fundamentally changed America” wanted, and now they have been told that is unacceptable.

      • Suthenboy

        I will second that.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Why stop there?

    House Republicans have renewed a push to pass a bill that would allow the treasury department to strip non-profit groups it deems to be supporting “terrorism” of their tax-exempt status.

    The so-called “non-profit killer” bill would give the government broad powers to sanction civil society organizations. Progressive groups have rallied in opposition to the bill in recent days, arguing that Donald Trump’s administration could invoke it to punish his political opponents.

    The measure “would be profoundly damaging to all sorts of non-profits”, said the American Civil Liberties Union federal policy counsel, Kia Hamadanchy. “There’s the stigma of being called a terrorist-supporting organization, there are banks who may not want to transact with you once you have that status, there are donors who may not want to give you money because they’re afraid, themselves, of being called supporters of terrorism.”

    “Civil society organizations” my eye. Do away with nonprofits altogether.

    • Suthenboy

      “The measure “would be profoundly damaging to all sorts of non-profits”

      This is another one of those ‘you dont have to try and sell me on it’ things. Get rid of them all. They aren’t just used to support sketchy causes they are also used to launder money to pols. Get rid of them all. Also, get rid of the income tax.

    • creech

      Think about how this power could be used if President Newsom/V.P. AOC were running the government? Stuff like this comes back to bite one in the ass. I like idea of stripping non-profit status from revenue code altogether. A non-profit shouldn’t be making a profit anyway so what is there to tax? [And no personal income tax deductions for donations to non-profits either].

      • B.P.

        Problem is, it was already happening to nonprofits that the left doesn’t like. IRS going after certain groups, banks throttling certain groups, etc.

      • B.P.

        That said, I too have trepidation about a move like this. Go after nonprofits that are afoul of current law in terms of corruption, acting as fronts for identified terror organizations or hostile foreign governments, etc.

      • The Last American Hero

        God forbid you get a grant in December and spend it down over the next year. Or that you have actual reserves for continuing the mission when when funding is delayed or lower than usual. Or that my HOA now has to pay taxes because we took up a collection in the neighborhood to have someone cut the lawn at the neighborhood entrance .

    • rhywun

      punish his political opponents

      Inconceivable!

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Who names there kid Kia?
      I won’t even go that far,

    • Sensei

      Why would you ever want to reuse large parts of a spacecraft when the government will pay you to build a new one every time?

      /s ULA

    • The Other Kevin

      I agree. I’m like a kid when I watch those. It does the soul some good.

  26. Suthenboy

    Recess appointments are like the electoral college. Everyone bitches about it when it’s the other guy’s turn but no one ever changes it.
    Trump will get his appointments.

    • The Other Kevin

      There is talk about some of the people being part of the negotiation process. As in, make a crazy first offer. To me that gives Trump two ways to win: He either gets these nominees, and if he doesn’t, the next ones look less extreme and he still gets someone good.

    • AlexinCT

      The goal is to crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and to hear the lamentation of their women on Tik-Tok, Instagram, YouTube, Blue Sky, and X.

      Especially the blue and green haired land whales claiming they will no longer have sex.

    • Urthona

      The electoral college is actually good though.

      I could do without recess appointments.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    From Tundra’s link:

    Many of the president-elect’s moves to skirt official transition policies are within the law, experts said — or at least are subject to laws that are not regularly enforced.
    But his transition alarms some officials who say the president-elect is weakening transparency, eroding checks and balances, and risking national security.
    “The Trump team is attempting to convert the government into an instrument of his private agenda,” said Max Stier, president and chief executive officer of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. Instead, Stier said, “We’re seeing a push to revert to the spoils system,” a reference to the 19th-century practice of rewarding supporters with government jobs without vetting and often not based on merit.

    Everybody knows the President should be nothing more than a ceremonial figurehead. We can’t allow him to exploit these loopholes to wrest power from the establishmentarian bureaucracy. It’s not fair.

    • Suthenboy

      Above I said we get complaints about recess appts with every incoming admin. I left out that it is always the same complaints word-for-word like they are reading from a script.

    • WTF

      The Trump team is attempting to convert the government into an instrument of his private the agenda the people voted for.

      FTFY

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      a reference to the 19th-century practice of rewarding supporters with government jobs without vetting and often not based on merit.

      Since when is getting government jobs about merit? Our VP is an affirmative action hire.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Trump’s mistrust of the State Department dates to early in his first presidency, when transcripts of his calls with then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and another with then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull were leaked in full to the press. Several career diplomats were subpoenaed by Congress to testify at Trump’s first impeachment hearings about their alarm at the Trump administration’s unorthodox policy toward Ukraine.

    They were acting in the national interest. They’re heroes.

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