Well, he will be in a few more days, anyway. I’m not hip to all the Christian stuff, but from what I understand, Jesus goes all around the world on his birthday, coming down chimneys and feasting on milk and cookies. Sadists leave out a bowl of M&Ms, since they know that they drop through the holes in his hands. He apparently knows when you’ve been naughty or nice. Me, more of the former.
But that’s later, there are birthdays today, including a guy who was in the Matrix; a guy who was at once a hero and a villain; a guy who wrote probably every opera you’ve ever heard of; a guy who I think of when I calculate ionization potentials; the guy who brought us gongs and Alec Guinness; a partridge in a Hartree; a woman married to the most awful American in my lifetime; a woman who got her share of pearl necklaces; a guy who is only behind Mel Ott in number of NYT Crossword mentions; the architect of the Forever Wars; one of the most cringingly shitty TV interviewers ever (who did she fuck to get to where she was?); two guys who pioneered the worst music genre ever; and a guy who Wikipedia helpfully describes as “Canadian.”
Let’s do Links before Jesus gets here.
“We built it. We paid for it. It’s ours.” Fuck Jimmy Carter.
Christmas shopping can definitely be stressful.
“I got the room next to Biden.”
Janet Reno would have just burned them all up. But she was a real man.
“Experts worry” always means “We have a new grift.”
I’m sure that, somehow, this is Trump’s fault.
This song is a chestnut, so why do I have it here? The live version is an illustration that, although Chicago was best known for its horn arrangements, the real star was Terry Kath. The guitar solos on this… holy shit, this is outstanding shredding with no gimmicks. Whenever we talk about truly great rock guitarists, Kath ought to be in the conversation but (sadly) so rarely is.
It’s been 2,000 years, so the moment is more imminent now than it’s ever been.
“Jesus is coming. Look busy.”
Happy birthday Edward III?
Happy Birthday GRRM…. oh wait, that’s the “Wait Forever For Wars”… (I joke without actually being affected… never got into those books or the show. My patience for unending book series that tease story arc conclusions and never deliver died long, long ago.)
do not forget Joe Haldeman
Happy birthday Hank Williams?
Happy birthday Elaine Chao?
I was going to guess Michelle Obama.
What about her husband? Oh….
Happy birthday Joe Haldeman.
that’s what I said find your own thing.
No.
Back safely in Kentucky. Past couple days were a blast. Stopped in Memphis for a beer and some music. Then to Nashville to watch some more music and then a hockey game.
Though it is getting rough sitting for long road trips I tell ya
Glad to hear you had a nice trip, OBE… though I strongly suspect “define ‘long'” would come up if we were having an in-person conversation. My long road trips are about 3 days and 3400 miles or so… if this was just about anything East of the Mississippi (where you can cover most one-way trips inside of a day, easily) it was a good day-trip, but not ‘long’. 😉
If I’ve merged onto a state or interstate highway, it’s a long trip as far as I’m concerned.
Ah…to be back in Glibtopia where personal anecdotes are checked and ackutual’d.
Thanks SDF!
Heh… ackschually I think most corners of the ‘Net would do that for you, OBE! 😉
Seriously — glad you had a good trip. Wasn’t trying to be any more of an ass than usual here.
If it isn’t at least two days, it isn’t a long drive.
Even if you have nothing to think about?
You don’t always need a long drive.
Plus much, Pat. One of my favorite bands. Good news for People who love bad News is their ‘best’ album. I love World at Large though many don’t, and Moon & Antarctica is damn damn good. I saw them this summer in Indy. It was a good show, but not great. Hindered by my being there on a cracked femur and crutches. Bro wasn’t too thrilled, methinks, but them’s the breaks.
World at Large into Float On is a fantastic summary of my semi-drifter personality and how I travel and bounce around. The bouncy lightness of Float On is necessary for the comparison.
I didn’t indulge in much travel or drifting myself, but you catch the aesthetic from the album. One Chance would have been a great conclusion, but it wouldn’t be the same without The Good Times are Killing Me.
IIRC, we share a birth year. That album, while I don’t think it’s necessarily their best output (has to be The Moon & Antarctica for me, with The Lonesome Crowded West hot on its heels), is my favorite in their discography, simply because it hit exactly the right tone at exactly the right time my junior year of high school. To this day I’ll throw it on, and it still retains some of that essence for me.
April 28,
Odd squirrels with dates. 1987 was my intention, not really my full bday, but now you know Jessica Alba’s, Sadaam Hussein’s, and the day Mousselini was executed! Boom!
Yep. I started with Good News in ’03, also my junior year. Moon & Antarctica is my second fave; I was thrilled they opened their show with Dark Center of the Universe. Me and my best friend were the only two who had their own cars, not borrowed from parents. We lit up, with many joining us, on long cruises through Evansville. Being a delivery driver for Jimmy Johns in ’05 was a plus. I was once tipped with a shotgun beer. Accepted and no negative consequences.
It’s a great album and, indeed, part of my high school essence. To be cherished.
So the Eastern half of the US is just a 15 hour city?
Yeah — there’s some real social stigmata about that practice.
Morning, OMWC… morning, all.
You nailed that pun.
INRI
It’s nailed right in.
Just don’t ask him to walk on water again.
Also walked on water
Also walks on water.
Alternatively
I don’t think I’d cross him if I were you.
Perhaps “experts worry” will follow the trajectory of to protect our white women and for the children, since it means pretty much the same thing – shut up and give us money.
I thought “to protect our white women” was the excuse for antebellum and Jim Crow Democrat party policies….
and anti-Chinese in the far west.
including a guy who was in the Matrix;
I was going to guess Laplace, but apparently his work didn’t involve matrices.
Moral of the story: don’t spend a fortune building shit in a country you don’t plan to permanently occupy.
+1 Hong Kong
And don’t think the CCP doesn’t have designs on the canal too
They’ve already been at work on a parallel canal, which may account for some of the lack of water impacting transits the last couple of years.
I didn’t even know Panama was already selling their soul to them. But not surprising.
I was pretty sure it wasn’t Panama – https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/08/nicaragua-cancel-china-canal
Looks like there wasn’t much progress actually going on there. I know there’d been some rainfall shortages in the lake area that provides canal water – but I thought there had also been some diversion issues referenced before.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if TR wasn’t expecting us to, in practice if not literally. This was the “official” transition to The American Empire period, after all. Assholes.
Let me guess. The people of that Texas district will be told they cannot sue for Constitutional violations and since she is already retiring, it’s all moot.
every opera you’ve ever heard of;
Happy birthday Jon von Tetzchner!
I hang my head in shame — I predicted what the joke would be… but am so far away from linear algebra and the like that I couldn’t have predicted anyone besides the big L everyone would have guessed. Ah well… age — takes its toll. (but listen closely… not for very much longer…)
https://nypost.com/2024/12/21/us-news/riders-catch-a-whiff-of-new-2k-nyc-subway-scents-lavender-with-a-hint-of-despair/
Or you could get rid of the urine production which is 50% of the issue.
Bill Gates and company would like to let you know they’re working hard on such carbon reduction, Sensei.
Imagine your job being so useless that you can disappear for 6 months and nobody notices.
a guy who is only behind Mel Ott in number of NYT Crossword mentions;
Happy birthday Al Hirt!
Not Hirt but Eno has more than the birthday boy.
I don’t think you’re taking into account the popularity of the Amadeus movie for this age range, Old Man. Mozart being damned good in his own right, that movie certainly brought up (3, I think?) of his operas to widespread attention.
Kierkegaard’s Either/Or was a bit of a slog since I’ve never seen Don Giovanni, and don’t plan to. It’s not necessary to have done so in order to digest the deconstruction of aesthetics, but the references for, oh, 600 pages or so get to the point where you just become footnote blind.
Either/Or.
How much of an amphetamine load did Kath have? New theory on his death – he had a vision of what Chicago was going to inevitably become and that’s why he offed himself.
Dang… I thought it would be Ernie Els. But yeah — he’s got to be up there.
Omar Sharif seems to come up a lot as well.
Yma Sumac, Uta Hagen, Una Merkel…
The left’s propping up Iran and its terrorism is one of team Obama’s priorities I never understood. What the fuck is the point? I get “being evil” but JFC already.
And the NYT making a sob story out of their problems. SMDH.
Dinesh D’Souza framing every decision Obama made from childhood to the presidency as motivated by anti-colonialism was a bit of a stretch, but it probably did play at least some role in the the Iran ass kissing, particularly given the academic environment when Obama was coming up.
It continues to tickle me fucking pink that we live in a country where a plurality of the population thinks it’s perfect acceptable for 6 year old children to decide they want to chemically and surgery alter their bodies to give the appearance of being a different sex, and a 13 year old should be able to leave their state of residence in order to obtain an abortion without their parents knowing about it, but we still have a huge taboo about wagering, of all the fucking things. I guess because my parents didn’t give a shit about betting, and my dad played poker and bet on dogs until they closed down the stateline greyhound track, the pearl clutching over gambling has always mystified me.
I mostly see gambling as an extension of free trade/bartering. One person is putting up knowledge, luck and entertainment for a chance to exchange it for a commodity, in most cases, money.
I’m with you Pat.
It defiles the Protestant work ethic you damn heathen!
Currently lead to the same article.
It works.
This is what happens when I do Links after a late night out.
a guy who wrote probably every opera you’ve ever heard of; – do not be preposterous
Christmas shopping can definitely be stressful.
Not a Luby’s restaurant?
I know we’d never do it…. but the chaos that is gang-driven Mexican politics, the perpetual shitshow that is Central America… their economies depending on shipping their productive class to us and getting remittances anyway, the Canal… and that it would certainly be a lot easier to defend the southern end of Panama as our border should make all of Central America aware that the US could simplify a lot of things by annexing the lot. And 1846 shows we don’t need a lot of justification (or can just make some up if Lincoln was right, iirc).
More seriously — while I do think Trump would play hardball to a point… I think this is just pre-negotiation trash talk that he’s wont to do.
Well, you have to admit, it isn’t a important as Greenland.
Of course — the unemployed in Greenland are those we need for our Brute Squads.
Well then obviously Greenland first so you can recruit them for the job in Central America.
I would hate to be stranded there. Ugh.
Funny how the fleeing driver went through the mall and struck the crowds unlike the Wisconsin and German “self-driving” cars in that headline there, AP…. guess because this was accidental and not casting shade on your side you could put on the “impartiality mask” this once….
“We built it. We paid for it. It’s ours.”
In the 1800 the US should have taken over Canada, Mexico and everything to Panama, build the canal, and now you would have a border moat.
😉
*snort*
Except the Civil War would have happened 25 years later and been a lot bloodier, probably fought to a draw, and slavery would still be the accepted practice in the CSA.
On the other hand, the tasty drinks and wrap around porches would be protected from Northern Aggression.
“She had previously served as second lady from 1961 to 1963 when her husband was vice president.”
“Served”. This notion that the spouses of POTUS and VPOTUS have some role in governance, hold office, need staff, etc. just annoys the living shit out of me.
Official presidential china place setting picker!
We yearn for a Monarch
Stop feeding my misanthropy!
Bill Burr has a pretty good bit about the Bush’s and their spouses being kept in line.
Maybe. Whenever I hear any government official start to go on about gambling, especially online gambling all I hear is “Our beak is insufficiently wet!” Which to me is subtly different than a grift per se… but if that’s what you meant, I’ll just agree and move on.
Trump duped the link!
USAA. “This time we got it. Really!”
USAA Federal Savings Bank hit with cease-and-desist from US regulator
Good. It’s too bad every bank doesn’t ignore those bullshit, nakedly unconstitutional regs and tell the feds to learn what the 4th amendment means.
Cool. While we are at no Federal insurance.
Otherwise I’d argue there is an interest.
Now now — everyone knows what the Founders really meant with the Bill of Rights was that FedGov would just have to subcontract out restrictions to speech, guns, warrantless searching, etc. Pat… Otherwise The Current Bad Guys ™ will win! No one wants that except crazies or people with something to hide!
Hmmm… you don’t have something to hide, do you
ComradeCitizen? Nice life you have here…. hate to have to de-bank you…..(we joke because we must… but this really boils my blood pressure…)
Even better, but I’ll take de-fucking our right to transact business with a financial institution privately as a good first step. I would be stupefied if putting innocent people through the equivalent of a federal investigation for depositing an amount of money arbitrarily deemed too much or conducting a number of transactions arbitrarily deemed too many saved the FDIC one thin dime, and those regs also apply to non-FDIC insured institutions like credit unions.
Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
Must just be me but those seem like diametrically opposing laws.
We gave up so much and willingly so with thunderous applause with the Patriot Act.
Damn, I’ve been with USAA for over 50 years, why didn’t I know these things? I don’t even know the things I’m supposed to worry about.
I do know they quickly paid 2 claims recently on storm damage on my garage. When my kids were learning to drive, USAA was there bailing me out.
NCUA is a federal agency, too.
Are they really unsafe, or are the people around Biden trying to grift money out of them before the Trump inauguration?
Snark aside. It is really tough to fucked up this badly for this long.
On the public front only Citibank comes to mind and that s exponentially bigger so much harder to solve.
It’s not a solvency issue, but it points to really bad management.
Maybe they can drop another couple million on advertising and sponsorships to get them over the line.
Well, most of them anyhow. Puccini (top) wrote twelve operas, while Rossini (below) wrote thirty-nine, including what could’ve been the NFL anthem of the 80s.
“Liberal leaders say they have a plan for a new, more effective anti-Trump resistance in 2025” – Again, they’re terrified of what Trump could do, and there’s no attempt to look at their *message* and why ‘it’ might be unpopular; only talk of how to be effective *against* Trump.
“But less than a month now before Trump’s second inauguration, a picture is emerging of Resistance 2.0. It’s out with the “pink pussy hats” and 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐩 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 and in with strategic confrontation, from the halls of Congress to the courts and, when called for, the streets.” So that’s what it’s called. “Performative pop culture gesturing” = Virtue signaling. Yay. Kinda hurts when your attempt at a ‘message’ is detested by 51%+. Might wanna work on that, but we know they won’t. We’re I to build a cult, I wouldn’t found it on such tempestuous sand.
“There will be policies that will cause clear riffs and divisions in their own base, in their own voter coalition,” said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party.” This is likely correct on the slim margins. Republican pols are just as intent to keep their spot at the trough. <– Hint, hint. (That's the problem.)
* It's remarkable that Trump + Musk are positioned to be the Heroes We Need. At least a brake for ppl to see how unimportant pols really are. I'd keep referencing the Congresswoman missing for six months and no one really giving a shit. (Should be the baseline for your position. It isn't *supposed* to be so important.)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/22/politics/resistance-trump-liberal-groups/index.html
national director of the Working Families Party
A party with zero presence outside of NY state if I’m not mistaken. When you are looking up at the LP for presence, you don’t deserve to be quoted by anyone, not even Jacobin.
In other intersectional sports news…
Never mind the normal antipathy between anything to do with Brazil and Argentina, but football in particular. Read the whole thing, there is much mirthful antics of the fairer sex.
Aped around and found out
Brazilians really are becoming shit-flingers about this. Hey Vini – it ain’t racism when your black teammates and the black opposition players aren’t targeted, just you.
Talk to me Goose!
https://www.foxnews.com/world/two-us-navy-pilots-shot-down-over-red-sea-apparent-friendly-fire-incident-us-military
I am so sick of playing Team America.
IFF/SIF fail? Shit happens but this is getting old.
I’m guessing the guys in the aircraft feel the same.
I S O L A T I O N I S T !!!!!
So are they really rebels or just a govt we don’t like?
Yeah — just read about that over on Townhall. Unsurprisingly, not a lot of meat — either an IFF issue or someone royally f’d up is my first impression.
I wasn’t really going to say anything about it… but I realized there is something to say, even if it is almost certainly preaching to the choir around here. And that is — “These sorts of things will happen because war [“military action” / “police action” / euphemism of the day] is inherently a chaotic mess. Training, equipment, etc. can reduce your chances — but nothing will ever eliminate it. Which means that choosing to use the military means not only are you committing to killing the enemy — but you’re risking the lives of your own forces even in the “lob stand off weaponry” scenarios. And that’s a price that I think a lot of people don’t consider / are too distant from with our all volunteer, mostly from the same families, small percentage military.
They used to call it expending “blood and treasure” for a good reason, after all… and the blood part is often some of the best of us that we’ll never get back. One truism about my own journey through time here — I’ve grown increasingly sure that those in charge don’t weigh that in the balance at all well and that I’m beyond tired of paying it for things that either other countries benefit from (so they should pony up) or are ambiguous in any real goals at all.
Anyway… rant off. Sheesh, Sensei… this — the banking crap… are you trying to have the vein in the center of my forehead throbbing all day?
Even aside from IFF, Link-16 should’ve been handling that since it is a key part of target acquisition (both for plane and ship).
Would have to be an IFF issue for a US-launched missile to target. That said…even without IFF, the ID picture can’t have been that crowded with non-US flyers in the area – at those speeds anyway.
The amount of Rah! Rah! Rah! in the comments show out lust for more, not less
Need to stop those pirates driving up the costs for us and everyone else in the red sea. Israel is already doing their part. I think we could have shut shit down a lot faster after Oct 7 if our SecDef and CinC were actually 1/2 serious at their respective jobs and responsibilities.
I don’t make the news, just report it.
That was the link I fucked up this morning.
That way SDF-7 can take it out on me instead.
Glibertarian moment!!!
Until the next shiny thing.
Interesting classification of “Government shouldn’t be a bloated shitpile” as “Libertarian”. Who knew Truman was Libertarian?
Shit, Bill Clinton is a libertarian by current standards.
Cigar sex < butt sex
Jesus is coming.
Look busy.
“That’s what she said!” (GT in this case)
Just realized that is a fantastic euphemism
a guy who wrote probably every opera you’ve ever heard of
Joe Green’s birthday is in October.
We’re not interested in that sort of trivia (or as the Italians call it, “La Triviata.”)
However, Joe penned what should be Glibertarians’ theme music, so he gets a pass from us.
It isn’t all that often that a single link says so much about so little.
It’s not a country with a civil war, it’s a civil war with a flag
Maybe that is where all the Palestinians should be resettled.
I mean I would also accept the Empty Quarter, but close enough.
When even ISIS says “nah, brah” to Palis moving in . . . .
“EXCLUSIVE Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez to marry this week as secret plans for $600M Christmas wedding revealed”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14217859/Jeff-Bezos-Lauren-Sanchez-wedding-plan-Aspen-date-is.html
A quiet $600,000,000 ceremony?
Have to say that this is my reaction. What was that above about humans always seeking a new monarchy/aristocracy?
He bought Aspen for her?
Tit jobs for all the guests.
Bezos is a simp. Some dudes never learn.
$550 million for security alone? Bezos and guest list would be pretty “target rich” one assumes.
Are they flying in each guest on a separate private plane?
Jeff Bezos to marry fiancée Lauren Sanchez in lavish $600M Aspen wedding next weekend: report
Missed it by 1 minute.
$600 million wedding
How in the hell to you spend 600 million? Not in a what a stupid waste sort of way, but what are the logistics of being able to find enough things to spend on to get to that number? Pre-paying the divorce settlement(s)? (No, I’m not going to read the article on the off chance it explains it, not that interested – Have fun you crazy kids!).
Flying the guests in on a Blue Origin rocket so he can write it all off as a business expense?
Blues Brothers fan?
A pickup truck driver fleeing police careened through the doors of a JCPenney store in Texas and continued through a busy mall, injuring five people before he was fatally shot by officers, authorities said.
The truck crashed into the department store in Killeen, about 68 miles (109 kilometers) north of the state capital Austin, around 5:30 p.m. Saturday and continued into the building, striking people as it went, Sgt. Bryan Washko of the Texas Department of Public Safety said in an evening news briefing.
That trick never works.
My first thought too.
My first thought was “Don’t they have those removable metal poles in front of most mall entrances now that would have stopped such a thing?” Then my second thought was “Maybe it was a strip mall more than a full-on mall-mall… they don’t tend to.” :shrug:
I guess we know who doesn’t read the links.
Or the comments.
In a typical Texas mall, a pickup truck careening through is going to be end with the proverbial hail of gunfire.
I’m spending today getting all my work out the door before Christmas and roadtripping. Today I am designing (print) a book on hypnosis.
I’m still in a lather about Draft2Digital’s primitivity.
Sounds entrancing, Mojeaux.
You should lay the text out in a spiral.
Hopefully it doesn’t put you to sleep.
It’s going to be a bumpy ride
The president-elect successfully pushed House Republicans to jettison some spending, but he failed to achieve his central goal of raising the debt limit. It demonstrated that despite his decisive election victory and frequent promises of retribution, many members of his party are still willing to openly defy him.
Trump’s decision to inject himself into the budget debate a month before his inauguration also showed that he remains more adept at blowing up deals than making them, and it foreshadowed that his second term will likely be marked by the same infighting, chaos and brinksmanship that characterized his first.
“Stay tuned. Buckle up. Strap in,” said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., a senior appropriator.
Four more years of incessant bitching and moaning about the ruthless destruction our political guardrails by President Cartoon Villain.
Trump had plenty of opportunity to inject himself into the budget discussion since the “incumbent” doesn’t seem to be able to inject himself into anything other than a bowl of pudding.
*you think you hate the media…but you don’t hate them enough.
I doubt Biden can inject himself into anything at this point. Eventually, even the little blue pills stop working.
Oh c’mon man. I’m sure if the hair smelled right, the soldier would still stand at attention.
Fine dinner last night with NPR Prime. Belated birthday celebration, so she told me to pick any bottle on the wine list that I wanted. “Don’t worry about the price, just get the best one on there.”
To her credit, she didn’t wince when the bill came. I’m thinking more and more that Mojeaux and KK were right this time, much as it pains me to say that.
I didn’t think a bottle of Moscato could cost that much.
Manischewitz does not come cheap!
Mock if you will, but a dry Moscato from the regions near the Italy-Austria border (like Trento) can be magnificent. I snagged several mixed cases from an importer buddy and SP and I finished them off within a few months.
Either she’s incredibly nice or she is really setting you up for the kill.
You need to up your game.
http://www.bumwine.com/
So you’re saying you can be bought?
I’m still fond of C-Sweetie as a name.
But that was the other one, Retread, now out of the picture.
Which one is which?
Excellent. Going back after having broken up almost never works out well.
For many of Trump’s supporters, disruption could be its own goal. Thirty-seven percent of those who voted for him this year said they wanted “complete and total upheaval,” according to AP VoteCast, a broad survey of more than 120,000 voters. An additional 56% said they wanted “substantial change.”
Terrorists should not be allowed to vote.
93% of his voters hate our govt! Whycome they not love Big Brother?
The trouble started when top lawmakers released a copy of the bill, known as a continuing resolution, that was required to keep the federal government functioning until March. It wasn’t the president-elect but Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a Trump confidant, who first began whipping up opposition to the legislation on social media by calling it excessive spending.
The substance of any legislation should be a closely guarded secret until after it has been passed and signed. That’s how you govern efficiently.
And of course ignoring the dissident/non-establishment Republicans who were complaining the moment the damn thing was unveiled.
OFFS!
How dare the proles read what their betters want the law to be!
” Nikki Glaser spent almost $100K to attend 22 Taylor Swift shows — here’s why she says it was ‘worth it’”
https://nypost.com/2024/12/21/entertainment/nikki-glaser-spent-almost-100k-to-attend-22-taylor-swift-shows-comedian-claps-back-at-critics-says-she-can-afford-it-because-she-doesnt-have-kids/
Narrator: It wasn’t worth it.
So she paid $100K to watch Taylor lip-synch the same songs 22 times?
Eh, it’s her money.
I can’t hate Taylor Swift.
1. She’s nice to her fans and she has built a community that outstrips pretty much every other fandom and they seem to be nice to each other.
2. She drops money on local charities wherever she goes.
3. She pays her people well and she’s nice to them.
4. She generally seems to be a nice person.
You might have noticed a pattern here.
As for dropping $100k to see the same show over and over again:
I didn’t drop $100k by any stretch, but I did see The Fugitive (1993) in the theater many, many, many times. I could not get enough of Tommy Lee Jones. I spent about half that for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) because. Well. Anyway. So I get it.
“The city Department of Education has turned into Scrooge this holiday season, demanding cash from staffers it fired for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Social worker Diane Pagen, terminated three years ago for violating the city’s vaccine mandate, received an “invoice” after Thanksgiving from the DOE seeking $2,290, a sum covering her salary for 10 days in 2021 when she was ordered not to work….
Pagen is one of 1,780 city employees — including 1,100 in the DOE — forced to leave on Oct. 4, 2021, because they would not comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
But the DOE kept them on the payroll until Oct. 15. Now it wants refunds for 10 days of salary from employees the city put on “involuntary unpaid leave” because they didn’t get vaxxed.”
https://nypost.com/2024/12/21/us-news/nyc-doe-sends-holiday-invoices-demanding-cash-from-unvaxxed-employees-fired-during-covid/
CWABOA
Lie down with dogs: get fleas.
On the one hand, what an asshole move. I’d like to see confirmation that it was unpaid leave from day one.
OTOH, pubsec, so, meh.
It’s definitely an asshole move, but when you go to work for Galaxy Class assholes like the NY DOE what the hell do you expect?
I don’t know, my reaction would be “you told me not to come to work, your payroll continued to pay me, I’m not responsible for your incompetence, go pound sand. See you in court if necessary.” Of course, it would be a New York court so…
The other day, I decided to do a little tiny maintenance project on the Element. It has been sitting around doing nothing since I replaced the O2 sensor, but it’s the winter car (awd), so I thought I’d give it a little attention. I had noticed a buildup of corrosion on the battery terminals/ cables, and the starter seemed awfully lazy. I pulled the cables off and cleaned them up, put a little grease on them to resist corrosion; put it back together, and nothing but clicking relays. Odd. The volotometer said 12V, but you never know. I threw the charger on it all afternoon and didn’t think too much about it. Went back to it yesterday. No improvement. Fiddled around a bit with no results; then I clipped the leads of the voltometer to the battery and stuck it where I could see it as I turned the key. 12V; turned the key to “on” and voltage dropped to 5.7V. The battery might possibly be kaput.
I guess I’m getting a new battery for Christmas. I won’t be buying the $700.- version.
You have a bad battery. They can provide a voltage with no load, but you will get a large voltage drop if it has high resistance/ no current capacity.
I need to buy a new one for my motorcycle, but I might just trade two bikes in for a new bike.
They are both about 8years old and I hardly ride one of them.
Bad amperage. Did you grease the terminals before you connected them? Dielectric grease is non-conductive, you only want to put a thin layer on the outside of already connected terminals or you could be straining both your charging and starting systems.
You have a bad battery.
Yes. I don’t remember having one go bad like this, but I’m guessing it’s because it has been sitting around in the cold in a very low state of charge.
At least it wasn’t on concrete. Never understood that myth.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/general-science-you-asked/concrete-truth-about-batteries-stored-concrete
Here is a good site with way too much info on batteries.
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-802a-how-does-rising-internal-resistance-affect-performance
I have gone down may ratholes on this site.
One of the weird things about Tucson is that the heat absolutely kills car batteries. They typically last a couple of years.
Yes. People in hot climates have shorter battery life.
The issue is that cold starts in very cold temps take the most current and puts the most stress on the battery. So you get the usual first really cold day and all the weak batteries stop working.
I keep having to explain this to Texans who want EVs and assurances that our climate is great for batteries.
Ha! Yes, Texas is also brutal on batteries. Even if your battery has built in cooling, it’s gonna get fried if you leave it in an uncovered parking lot at work all day. I imagine Arizona is the same.
https://archive.is/OhU20/82049a623e789fa9203cecd1d6e30214000fe112.jpg
Slutty Sunday bringing beautiful backsides, hearty hindquarters and callipygian cabooses for this festive season.
https://archive.is/6t8zS
At least it wasn’t on concrete. Never understood that myth.
I assume it’s a myth, but I still put a couple chunks of 2×4 under a battery instead of putting it directly on the concrete floor. The most likely explanation I have heard is that the concrete just sucks the heat out of the battery.
Shovelling money out the door
China’s strongly worded statement “deplores and firmly opposes” President Joe Biden’s authorization of $571 million in military assistance to Taiwan and the Department of Defense’s (DOD) confirmation of $295 million in approved arms sales to Taiwan. The White House authorized the package on Saturday, and the DOD confirmed the approval on Friday.
He’s got a pen and a checkbook.
Technically speaking, those gun mounts worth 30 million that they reference may actually be ones they pulled off the FFGs we retired over the past 16 years. I guess they could be new ones – which we don’t manufacture…but who knows from that article.
We just weren’t hitting it hard enough
Unrigging an economy that has been rigged over decades also takes time. President Biden and Democrats began the process of rejecting failed, trickle-down economic policies and embracing middle-out, bottom-up economics with real results: We created over 16 million jobs, saved our economy from a pandemic disaster, and passed programs to support struggling families from relief checks, housing assistance, and the child tax credit. But when Republicans took over the House and allowed all those provisions to expire, voters were left facing continued price-gouging by corporations and feeling like the rug was pulled out from under them—leading to them rightly feeling they were worse off than before.
That’s exactly why progressives pushed hard to ensure we passed Build Back Better, legislation that would have addressed two of the biggest inflationary costs: universal childcare and housing. That bill was blocked by two conservative Democrats in the Senate and torpedoed the effort to address the rising costs that families continued to face. Had we delivered on these two critical pieces in a timely way, voters would have felt the effects—and the election result may have been very different.
The good news is that Democrats do have a clear path forward: to be united and passionate about fighting for bold, direct economic policies that unrig the system and deliver change so families across America can stop just trying to survive and start to thrive.
That means being united in fighting the GOP on anything that rigs the system against working people and poor people. One of the first opportunities to do that will be over Trump’s efforts to expand tax cuts for the wealthiest: the Trump Tax Scam 2.0. The last time around, every Democrat voted against the Trump Tax Scam 1.0 and it was the moment—apart from Jan. 6—where Trump’s public approval rating was at its very lowest. We fought hard and voters noticed. That should be our game plan again.
Bring on the dictatorship of the proletariat.
I wondered what idiot wrote that.
Does anyone remember what day is “Festivus” this year? Seems like we’ve been airing our grievances all year long.
Rand Paul should release his list tomorrow.
“Well, I chat with grumps and curmudgeons
And other things that bitch all night
‘Cause to me every day is Festivus
I’ve given up smiling and started to grouch…”
It isn’t anything to cry about.
I chaired the House Budget Committee in the late 1990s when the federal budget was balanced for the first time since 1969.
Is this when they changed the accounting for Social Security taxes to “balance the budget?” I haven’t made a study of Kasich’s record, but unless he voted against every spending bill during his tenure, he’s full of shit here.
Did you grease the terminals before you connected them?
Yes, but not with dielectric. It has never been a problem in the past, but I pulled it all back apart and cleaned the grease back off. I used a moly grease because that was the first thing I found. I don’t think the grease was the issue. I think the battery is junk. Unfortunately, I can’t just swap the Civic battery in as a test because the terminal locations are swapped and the Element battery leads have no slack.
Then the battery is bad. Should only drop about 2 volts under starter load unless the battery is bad.
I wondered what idiot wrote that.
Oops. Forgot the trigger warning.
But not THOSE women!
The irony of an abundance of appointments of women to high levels of influence in the second Donald Trump administration is breathtaking. The 13 proposed choices include eight white women and five women of color (WOC).
Yes, female role models matter to generations of women and men. But this is not a feminist victory.
This is a new version of the U.S. female political leader—one who embodies the triumph of women’s ascent to power while acquiescing to tolerance and compliance with toxic masculinity tainted with sexism, misogyny, racism, violence, and hate.
The high visibility of these appointments also appropriates a tainted retro version of female appearance—one popularized by the social media “tradwife” memes.
Needz moar ugly fat lesbian communists.
Needs more mentally ill trannies.
But this is not a feminist victory.
Of course not – these women are succeeding based on competence not shrillness.
; a guy who wrote probably every opera you’ve ever heard of
Happy birthday Andrew Lloyd Webber!
Hailing achievements of this Project 2025 sorority is a contradictory betrayal of the advancement women have made in the last century with the goal to support, promote, and protect all women in their progress regardless of political identity, appearance, age, or race.
Of course, women are not a monolith, and feminists are not one type of ally. But these appointments in public office are not just women exhibiting power. They are women who honor assertions, laws, and systems that cripple and erase the rights of women from home to school to workplace on health care, reproductive and LGBTQ issues of access, fairness, and safety.
Lighten up, Frances. You’re breaking my heart.
Artificial-TERF.
Garbage in, garbage out
More than 50% of youth in the United States are very or extremely worried about climate change, according to a recent survey in the scientific journal The Lancet.
The researchers, who surveyed over 15,000 people aged 16–25, also found that more than one in three young people said their feelings about climate change negatively affect their daily lives.
The study adds to a growing area of research that finds that climate change, which is brought on primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, is making young people distressed. Yet experts say there are proven ways to help young people cope with those feelings — and college classrooms could play a key role.
“When any of us talk about climate with students, we can’t just talk about what’s happening in the atmosphere and oceans,” says Jennifer Atkinson, a professor at the University of Washington. “We have to acknowledge and make space for them to talk openly about what’s happening in their own lives and be sensitive and compassionate about that.”
Higher education is all about feelings.
Just stop using a plastic straw in your drinks; feel much better because you are saving the world.
I’m starting off the Christmas season with a cold. Yay.
And my new video appears to have died. Yay.
But Old Guy Music is good.
And my new video card appears to have died?
That sucks, what model?