Manic Monday.

Best picture nominees I have seen:

Conclave

Dune II

I'm Still Here

Conclave was good. Dune II was fine if you like that sort of thing. I'm Still Here had great performances but I didn't think the movie was overall that great.

I'm not one of those people who thinks "not seeing things" is some sort of boast or rebellion.  I'm just giving my brief opinions on what I've seen.

This is Third Way but they are pretty influential, and of course journalists love them.

 

Not sure if it's better that he/they knew the recent notable use of "coalition of the willing" or that they didn't.

I'm not going to waste my Sunday getting mad, but I am going to put this out there to remind us that as lots of of people want us to "unite" to "fight Trump," this is what some Professional Democrats are doing.

Ex-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel spouts transphobic talking points to Bill Maher. "Look, in seventh grade, if I had known that I could have said the word ‘They’ and got in the girls bathroom, I would have done it."

[image or embed]

— Jake Wittich (@jakewittich.bsky.social) March 1, 2025 at 8:23 PM

Do we think it's helpful? Do we think it's helpful to say it like this, in this format? Do we think 2024 nonvoters will be inspired by this, that what they lacked was a candidate that didn't hate trans people enough?

Rahm doesn't run the party, but he has a bigger platform than any trans person does, than any person who is positive about trans people.

"Most Cis men are big sexual predators, like me, and the only way to keep us from trying to peep in bathrooms is to make being trans in public illegal."

Sunday funday.

Rock on.

 The new era of vaccine tourism arrives.

A panel of scientific experts that advises the Food and Drug Administration on vaccine policy — and that has been the target of criticism from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — learned on Wednesday that its upcoming meeting to discuss next year’s flu vaccines had been canceled.

One issue with supplements is people tend to think that if one is good, then two might be better, and Vitamin A is actually a bit dangerous, especially if you started hyperdosing kids.

More than one month into a major measles outbreak in western Texas that has sickened 146 people and killed one school-age child, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its first public statement and it highlighted a therapy that has raised some eyebrows among infectious disease experts.

“Measles does not have a specific antiviral treatment,” read the statement, which was posted only on X on Thursday night. “Supportive care, including vitamin A administration under the direction of a physician, may be appropriate.”

tl;dr There is evidence Vitamin A helps with measles in areas where people tend to have a deficiency, but it certainly doesn't prevent or cure measles.

 

You would think that we could put that one to rest.  We could've put it to rest about Lindsey Graham, specifically, about 25 years ago.  Maybe the Klob believes her unique charms can win him over, but, well...

It is possible, but I do think that betting on there being a definitive moment - airplane crashes, stonk line going down, massive unemployment spike, whatever - when it becomes clear, perhaps even to them, that they have fucked it so much that they have to change course is not a good bet.

Rich people getting a sad would lead to them... giving a bunch of free money to rich people.

Slacker Saturday

Rock on.

get happy

I admit I have nothing smart (or stupid) to say about the Trump-Vance-Zelensky show.

Given that white collar crime is legal now anyway, the FBI follies will be kind of funny, at least relative to the "planes crashing into each other" stuff.

eat

All of this is deadly serious, but I have to find the humor where I can. More than that, it is important to make clear that these people are fucking idiots. Elon is a fucking idiot. 

I don't have a car, so my driving experience is a series of occasional rental cars. It's actually a bit maddening because the user interfaces of cars are all a bit different now, requiring touch screen use, not just for the "tune the radio" stuff but for more important things as well.
 
The best rental car I had recently was like an 8 year old KIA that had absolutely no "modern" features like touch screens.

Aside from my personal annoyance with them, touch screen-only systems are incredibly dangerous. You need to be able to do things by touch/feel when you are driving, without having to look at a touch screen.  You can learn that with knobs and buttons. It is never possible with touch screens.

Car makers in Europe are being encouraged to stop using touchscreens for basic functions like turn signals and wipers in an attempt to promote safer driving. As reported by the Times, the European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) — an independent and well-regarded safety body for the automotive industry — is set to introduce new rules in January 2026 that require the vehicles it assesses to have physical controls to receive a full five-star safety rating.

Baby step, but a good one.

How long before Elon realizes the FAA needs good weather data (not just them, of course).

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began firing staff on Thursday, continuing a wave of government-wide layoffs ordered by the Trump administration. The terminations, which include staff at the National Weather Service, could impact weather forecasting used by many people and industries across the U.S. economy.

Also, too, SpaceX.

Funky Friday

Rock on.

Get happy

It is all very confusing. I hope bird flu doesn't destroy the country, but I also hope that these people, for their own sakes, tell everyone to fuck off.

The Trump administration touted a nearly $1 billion plan Wednesday to combat the spread of avian flu and mitigate skyrocketing egg prices as the outbreak rips through poultry flocks across the United States.

But the measures come as the Agriculture Department is struggling to rehire key employees working on the virus outbreak who were fired as part of the administration’s sweeping purge of government workers. Roughly a quarter of employees in a critical office testing for the disease were cut, as well as scientists and inspectors.

Just have Big Balls ask Grok what to do.

Concerning!

I Think It’s Bad That Nazi-Adjacent Youths Might Be Overruling the President and Secretary of State

Reports about DOGE’s chain-of-command privileges and links to Holocaust denialists continue to raise concerning questions.

Good luck, everybody!

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I remember when "we" primaried Joe Lieberman and official Washington acted like Genghis Khan's army was crossing the Potomac. Then one of those Kennedy guys primaried Ed Markey and nobody seemed to be too concerned. Some of his House colleagues supported him! It seems like running primaries against incumbents is OK after all!

1. Dan Goldman (NY-10)

2. Seth Moulton (MA-06)

3. Shri Thanedar (MI-13)

4. Danny Davis (IL-07)

5. David Scott (GA-13)

6. Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05)

7. Stephen Lynch (MA-08)

8. Gerry Connolly (VA-11)

9. Ro Khanna (CA-17)

10. Rob Menendez (NJ-08)

Click through for the case against each one.

The corruption is so brazen. Starlink works better than knownothing me imagined it would, but it does have issues during bad weather!!! Use fiber!

(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is close to canceling a $2.4 billion contract awarded to Verizon (VZ.N), opens new tab to overhaul a communications system, and awarding the work to Elon Musk's Starlink, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Well what are you going to do about it? I guess this one is on Verizon.

It doesn't always matter what celebrities say, but sometimes it does, a bit.

To make his stance even clearer, Pedro posted a separate comment writing: "I can’t think of anything more vile and small and pathetic than terrorizing the smallest, most vulnerable community of people who want nothing from you, except the right to exist."

Big movie coming out soon!

go

Rock on

Get happy.

It was quite amazing that it never occurred to the journalists who got Big Mad about people withholding their money from Bezos's Post that they were doing it to stop Bezos from being Bezos. Like most protests it wasn't likely to work, but it was the only thing that could've worked.

Trust the guy with the power, said the people whose job is supposedly to not do that.

Jeff Bezos sent an amusing memo outlining his plans to shrink the range of views on his opinion page, saying, "We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets."

There are a lot of funny things here. One is that every conservatarian dipshit believes the views that dominate and frame the coverage of everything in the US are somehow marginalized. Another is that many "veteran" (older, mostly) journalists were enraged when people started canceling subscriptions when Jeff interfered over the presidential endorsement.

You can (and they did, angrily) argue that opinion is just one part of the paper, and it shouldn't stop you from paying for important journalism. But Jeff doesn't need your subscription money - you might have heard that he is rich - all it does is give him more clout. Fewer subscriptions = less clout.

Breaking A federal judge will NOT pause his order giving the Trump admin a deadline of 11:59 p.m. tonight to pay all invoices for foreign development funds for contracts completed before Feb. 13. Doc https://buff.ly/3EWALvP

[image or embed]

— Adam Klasfeld (@klasfeldreports.com) February 26, 2025 at 4:59 PM

Eat

Vaccinate quickly before that Kennedy guy makes it illegal.

As the measles outbreak in Texas keeps spreading, parents who previously chose not to vaccinate their children are now lining up to get their kids the shots needed to protect them from the serious illness.

“People are more and more nervous” as they watch the highly contagious virus spread in their communities, mostly among children, said Katherine Wells, director of public health for Lubbock's health department. “We’ve vaccinated multiple kids that have never been vaccinated before, some from families that didn’t believe in vaccines.”

There are some complicated issues related to when the state should intervene to overturn parental decisions, but "must get vaccinated" isn't complicated and "we" should have fought harder against this stuff.

Adding to the previous post, what I meant is that most arguments against this stuff just concede the point, even when the point is nonsensical.  Especially when the point is nonsensical.

Data dorks will pull out their nerd charts and argue this isn't true somehow, but the real points are 1) this is silly unrebuttable nonsense 2) it is all government adjacent which is good and how everything works.

Wacky Wednesday

Chillax

This is the kind of person that shapes all presidential coverage.

“Despite his sometimes strident and sometimes even violent rhetoric about the press, he loves talking to us,” the print reporter said. “And his team—they like talking to us, and they know that they’re going to have a huge audience.” 

"I actually think the team that’s coming in is not going to be as horrific as people might imagine,” the veteran White House reporter said. “It’s not going to be like the first Trump term, where nobody had any idea what they were doing.”

Inbetween weepie invocations of Watergate and angry demands that people subscribe FOR DEMOCRACY, the supposedly respectable outlets will do nothing.

 

Shop while you eat! (Ad, I get a commission).

I know there are certain CEOs we are not big fans of, so shop elsewhere if you wish but if you are going to shop there anyway...

You know, the one staffed almost entirely by "former" Republicans.

All the folks who exited NBC today. Seen together, hoo boy. Message received.

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— Brandon Friedman (@brandonfriedman.bsky.social) February 25, 2025 at 4:14 AM

That's how it was covered when Dems got a bit freaked out by Tea Partiers.

Taco Tuesday

Get happy.

Not that what follows will necessarily be better.

The Office of Personnel Management told government agencies today that responding to an email titled “What did you do last week?” was voluntary for federal workers. The new guidance from the agency, which sent the message on Saturday, contradicted Elon Musk’s claims that any worker who didn’t respond would be thought to have resigned.

Amazing stuff

In a row of six greenhouses on a remote stretch of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, Larry Ellison is trying to use his golden touch in tech to remake the way people around the world eat.

The company behind his effort, Sensei Ag, is eight years in the making and has cost the world’s fourth-richest person more than half a billion dollars—far more than he spent buying the island itself. Early on, Ellison touted cutting-edge technology that would modernize agriculture, make a big impact for society and eventually help grow food in places such as Africa. The billionaire has told executives he sees the project as part of his legacy.

So far, it’s mostly been a bust.

Little of the revolutionary tech the company has extolled—sensors to monitor development, artificial intelligence to breed crop varieties and robots to harvest plants—is being used, according to people familiar with Sensei. The company has been beset by problems typical to tech startups, including executive changeovers, shifting goals and bad Wi-Fi. It has also stumbled from farming inexperience. The greenhouses, for example, weren’t built to withstand Lanai’s strong winds and their solar panels have broken down. Some of its top executives are tech veterans who have no commercial agricultural experience.

Paywalled, but if you're wondering how it all went wrong:

The 80-year-old Ellison and his Sensei Ag co-founder, celebrity doctor David Agus, [...]

Agus, a medical doctor with no previous agricultural experience, [...]

Sensei Marketing Director Jonathan Lee said last month the company is making major investments in technology to grow food better.

 

But what if they failed to answer the email from Elon that they didn't get because their email accounts were cancelled while they were fired? W

ASHINGTON (AP) — Barely a week after mass firings at the Food and Drug Administration, some probationary staffers received unexpected news over the weekend: The government wants them back.

Beginning Friday night, FDA employees overseeing medical devices and other key areas received calls and emails notifying them that their recent terminations had been “rescinded effective immediately,” according to messages viewed by The Associated Press.

I saw a lot of people, who should know better but who love nothing more than telling the hysterical libs that they're being hysterical again, claiming that these denials were convincing. Ah, well, nevertheless.

It appeared as if the State Department was taking steps to award Elon Musk's Tesla a $400 million government contract to buy armored electric vehicles to securely transport diplomats. The move to set in motion a lucrative contract to a company controlled by a high-profile ally of President Trump's seemed so bold it surprised even longtime observers of the norm-busting president.

When asked about it, the State Department issued a statement saying the plans are now on hold with no plans of fulfilling the contract, pointing out that talks with Tesla began during the Biden administration.

But NPR has obtained a State Department document detailing that Biden's State Department planned to spend just $483,000 in the 2025 fiscal year on buying electric vehicles and $3 million for supporting equipment, like charging stations. It represented less than 1% of the hundreds of millions of dollars likely destined for Tesla vehicles after the Trump administration quietly revised a State Department procurement document.

If "we" do manage to get through all of this, don't forget the poweful institutions that surrendered instantly.  For example,  wealthy universities with large endowments who turned on their students and faculty and any ideal of academic freedom instantly.

Was called away for a bit.

James Carville predicted that President Donald Trump’s White House team will “collapse” in less than a month. 

 

The famed Democratic Party strategist claimed that the downfall will hit as the president’s approval numbers continue to crater. Trump has implemented a multitude of executive orders and fired thousands of government officials all within his first month in office—moves that risk sending the economy into a tailspin. 

 

He advised Democrats to simply sit back and watch it happen.

 Once again.

I have been a very good blogger all week, Elon.

I wonder what broke Dash Sulzberger. I thought they couldn't call something a lie, because it was impossible to determine the state of mind of the person making the claim.

None of these guys can comprehend that for a lot of people, no paycheck=no rent/mortgage payment. After 2-3 months if not one.

I suspect this is the beginning of the end of Regent Musk, though that doesn't mean what comes next is any better.

Not bad, Senator Smith:

This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk - except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick.

[image or embed]

— Senator Tina Smith (@smith.senate.gov) February 23, 2025 at 12:41 AM

Sunday funday.

enjoy

Shop while you ponder the meaning of existence. (Ad, I get a commission).

I don't root for actual devastation, but the line going down (and the money boys reacting to it) is one of the few things that will catch Trump's attention. We shouldn't direct policy solely at making the line go up, either, but it's better than pure crony capitalism.

It demonstrates you can't rip out all the copper without some consequences that some of the "right" people care about.

NYT

Mr. Hegseth has previously said General Brown should be fired because of his “woke” focus on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the military.

“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Mr. Hegseth said in an appearance on the “Shawn Ryan Show” in November. He added that any general involved with D.E.I. efforts should be fired. “Either you’re in for warfighting, and that’s it,” he said. “That’s the only litmus test we care about.”

versus the AP:

Hegseth had previously taken aim at Brown. “First of all, you gotta fire, you know, you gotta fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs,” he said flatly in a podcast in November. And in one of his books, he questioned whether Brown got the job because he was Black.

“Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn’t really much matter,” Hegseth wrote.

The NYT is always sanding off the worst bits, while giving themselves just enough plausible deniability.

Hegseth just said (wrote) out loud what is basic elite discourse thinking at the moment.

 

Slacker Saturday.

It's alright.

Get happy.

Guessing here, but I'd bet a majority of them board a plane more than 50 times per year! "Conservative guess!

Late last week, just as Presidents’ Day weekend was starting, Donald Trump and Elon Musk purged hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees — including multiple lawyers whose job was to help prevent pilots with drug and alcohol problems from getting in the cockpit, knowledgeable sources tell Rolling Stone.

...

While air traffic controllers were supposedly immune from the purge, some air traffic control support workers were terminated, the FAA worker says. Rolling Stone separately spoke with a fired FAA employee whose job involved ensuring flight paths account for hazards like cranes and new buildings, as well as another terminated FAA staffer who ensured that pilots are medically able and cleared to fly. No one wants their plane to cross paths with a crane, of course, but the latter role is important, too, given the nation’s ongoing pilot shortage.

Elon Musk.

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Elon had many obvious frauds that the press willingly did free PR for, including "free speech champion."

Not only will Hochul not remove Adams, she's using it as an excuse for the state to do a power grab from the city, a tool of abuse for future governors!

It was a good 16 hours, Kathy.

If you’re wondering why I declined to talk to the NYTimes, then you haven’t been following my account for very long. They bear a direct responsibility for the current situation we find ourselves in, and I responded by laying out my position and that I would only talk to @jamellebouie.net

— Chris Kluwe (@chriswarcraft.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 11:37 PM

Every damn day.

Rock on.

Once again.

Bond will face the new organization W.O.K.E., headed by a supervillain played by Laverne Cox, as it conspires to infect the world with a virus.

The James Bond film franchise will no longer be controlled by the Broccoli dynasty, after long-serving masterminds Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson announced they are stepping down.

The Bond films were launched by Albert "Cubby" Broccoli in 1962, before his daughter and stepson took over.

The pair will now give creative control to Amazon MGM Studios, which was formed when Amazon bought Bond's parent studio in 2022.

As hysterical pro-abortion activists pointed out for years, abortion IS health care, and you can't have women's health care without it.

Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion in 2021, ProPublica found in a first-of-its-kind data analysis.

The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester, ProPublica found.

Once you override the judgment of patient and doctor, this what you get. Imagined centrist "compromises" always envisioned making things illegal without ever prosecuting anyone. How does that work?

Everybody knew, Jesse, everybody knew.

Fox News host Jesse Watters made an on-air plea that the Trump administration be “less callous” when implementing when laying off federal employees after a military veteran friend was “DOGE’d” in Elon Musk’s Pentagon cuts.

They're bad people because they mostly don't care about the consequences of smashing things, but there's something wrong with them otherwise in that they are unable to even conceive of those consequences. And, just to be clear, Mr. President King, Sir, my friend is white.

The host added: “He texted me and said: ‘Jesse, this is not good. I’m really sad. I’m upset.’ This guy is not a DEI consultant. He is not a climate consultant. This guy is a veteran. So when you’re talking about DOGE-ing people, veterans should get priority. Because if you’re going to go out there and kill enemies, put your life on the line, you should not be in the same category as people that are doing DEI.”

eat

But racism is only counts when its done by imaginary left wing college students.

Remember when warbloggers and other Iraq war supporters loved that term?

Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was arrested Tuesday on a charge of disturbing an assembly in Huntington Beach, California, per the city's arrest log. The incident occurred at a city council meeting.

Kluwe, 43, was protesting the city's approval of a public library plaque that was designed to use words to spell out "MAGA," the acronym for President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, as an acrostic.

A video from the council meeting shows the former Minnesota Vikings punter beginning his protest by reading a prepared statement that called MAGA "explicitly a Nazi movement." Kluwe continued by saying he would engage in "peaceful civil disobedience," whereupon he left his spot at the lectern and approached the city council members' bench.

Had forgotten Kluwe was a good one.

Good stuff, in response to Trump attempting to cancel NYC's congestion pricing.

Gov. Hochul: "Think about this next time you're stuck in traffic." www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhFl...

[image or embed]

— Joshua J. Friedman (@joshuajfriedman.com) February 19, 2025 at 9:16 PM

More:

Governor Hochul: “At 1:01 p.m. today, The U.S. Department of Transportation emailed us a letter from Secretary Duffy, announcing their attempt to end the congestion pricing program in the State of New York… I don't care if you love congestion pricing or hate it. This is an attack on our sovereign identity, our independence from Washington. And we are a nation of states. This is what we fought for. This is what people like Alexander Hamilton and others fought for: To set up a system where we are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington.”

Hochul: “In the streets of this city, where battles were fought; we stood up to a king. And we won then. And in case you don't know New Yorkers, when we're in a fight, we do not back down. Not now, not ever. Because, who are we fighting for here? We're fighting for our residents, our commuters, our riders, our drivers, our emergency personnel.”

Even my least favorite Dem politicians can get my forgiveness pretty easily!

Get it started.

Rock on.

Do your best

Boeing is a very respectable firm with a long history of the highest engineering standards.

President Trump, furious about delays in delivering two new Air Force One jets, has empowered Elon Musk to explore drastic options to prod Boeing to move faster, including relaxing security clearance standards for some who work on the presidential planes.

The University of Pennsylvania.

eat

The reason to make snarky comments like that is to try to mildly embarrass all of the people who take her seriously every time.

WASHINGTON (AP) — To earn the vote he needed to become the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a special promise to a U.S. senator: He would not change the nation’s current vaccination schedule.

But on Tuesday, speaking for the first time to thousands of U.S. Health and Human Services agency employees, he vowed to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio and other dangerous diseases.

Senate Dems use "don't scare Susan Collins" as a reason to tell outside groups to shut up, as she perfected the ridiculous stunt of claiming she was going to do the right thing until Move On ran a mean ad, or whatever. 

The wallet inspector gets rich every time.

That there is more coverage of the price of eggs than the worrying reason behind it is, in itself, worrying.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that, over the weekend, it accidentally fired "several" agency employees who are working on the federal government's response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak.

The agency said it is now trying to quickly reverse the firings.

"Although several positions supporting [bird flu efforts] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters," a USDA spokesperson said in a statement. "USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service frontline positions are considered public safety positions, and we are continuing to hire the workforce necessary to ensure the safety and adequate supply of food to fulfill our statutory mission."

"Accidentally" means the Nerd Reich fired them from a hotmail account before someone important enough stepped in.

I expect centrist dipshits to follow the times. They always do, even as they portray lickspittle conformity as noble rebellion. ...adding for clarity: centrists did not cancel this concert, but they (the nyt, the atlantic, the various substack bros, jon chait) waged a war on trans people while believing, or pretending to believe, that trans people could be sacrificed - should be sacrificed - while maintaining achieved gains in LGB rights otherwise.

Get it started.

Rock on.

do your best

Jeff Bezos.

That was a much bigger deal than, say, this, or the Bush administration's US Attorney scandal.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top federal prosecutor who supervised criminal cases at the Washington D.C. U.S. Attorney's office resigned on Tuesday, citing what she described as an improper demand by Trump-appointed officials to launch a criminal probe and pursue an asset freeze.

eat

"We" shouldn't have to prod The Democrats to do the obviously correct thing!

Do rich people think that if they fly private jets then it doesn't matter if the rest of ATC doesn't work?

I suppose it is time for another stirring speech about the price of butter, or whatever...

Michelle King, the top official at the Social Security Administration, left her position this weekend after she refused a request from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to access sensitive government records at the agency, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

Once again.

Rock on.

get happy

For all the discussion of egg prices, I've been very surprised at the tiny amount of coverage of what is actually causing them.

Gonna be great.

During his short-lived presidential campaign, Kennedy proposed creating wellness farms where young people could “get off” SSRIs and Adderall, a stimulant widely used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Those comments were first reported by Mother Jones.

A Washington Post review of Kennedy’s public appearances found he also promoted these centers as particularly beneficial for Black youth.

“Every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, on SSRIs, benzos which are known to induce violence and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented, to live in a community where there’ll be no cellphones, no screens. You’ll actually have to talk to people,” Kennedy said in a June 2024 episode of the 19Keys online show.

Shop while you eat! (Ad, I get a commission).

I know there are certain CEOs we are not big fans of, so shop elsewhere if you wish but if you are going to shop there anyway...

 

Not essential.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

What about the cost of living, Mr. President??? 

Clown show.

In polls and focus groups across an array of internal Democratic groups and allies, described to CNN, centering on talking about prices remains the most prevalent advice — and it’s where House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has kept returning to, flanked by signs at his two most recent weekly press conferences headlined “HOW IS THIS LOWERING COSTS?” and “REPUBLICANS BETRAY THE MIDDLE CLASS.” Jeffries conceded, when pressed by CNN, that voters hadn’t bought this argument from voters last year, but he insisted the difference now is that Republicans haven’t delivered.

One problem with this is that even the dumbest voter wouldn’t expect them to have "delivered" after one fucking month.  

get it started

Rock on.

I dunno, man. 

Talk amongst yourselves

Not the most important thing here, but it is funny that this question mostly disappears when Republicans are in charge.

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said Tuesday that Homan was “begging” for additional funds when he met with lawmakers this week. Graham’s committee adopted a budget blueprint for legislation to boost border security and immigration enforcement by $175 billion.

If you point this out to reporters, they only hear it in the Peanuts Adult voice.

Sunday funday. Gonna try to enjoy this one, because every day is hell now.

Hard to beg people to come back to work when the shitler youth already terminated their email accounts.

People have their own personal constraints but I hope many of them stay unreachable.  Unless we all die of course.

When covid hit, various international associations of lunatic right wingers were thrilled that the old and weak, the botched and the bungled, and of course the poor, would be culled.  

The cult of elite rich weirdos is a eugenics cult.

Eat

When Trump made Rick Perry the Energy Secretary, journalists took to twitter to tell people how stupid they were for rolling their eyes about it because Perry was the governor of an oil state.

Slacker Saturday. Congress and me both.

Don't worry.

 The NY state dems (including many NYC dems) would rather burn down Manhattan than let Jumaane Williams - next in line - be mayor.

Well they WOULD say that WOULDN'T THEY.

The Department of Energy has paused the firings of hundreds of employees who work for a key agency maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, multiple sources tell ABC News.

Managers with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are frantically calling employees back and telling them that -- as of right now -- they're not fired, despite some receiving termination emails and phone calls on Thursday. Their badges are getting turned back on and access to federal systems is being restored, at least temporarily.

Hundreds of probationary employees were terminated Thursday night in the mass Trump administration layoffs. The move prompted concerns of a national security risk because the agency is responsible for maintaining U.S. nuclear weapons, transporting them, and nuclear counterterrorism, among other missions.

NNSA held an all-staff meeting Friday morning, announcing the DOE had agreed to pause the layoffs, due to the agency's national security mission.

A problem with tariffs is that there isn't an easy way to deal with the processing.

Feb 14 (Reuters) - Days after U.S. President Donald Trump ended duty-free entry for cheap Chinese goods entering the U.S., his administration put the order on hold after more than a million packages piled up at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

It was the result of a rushed, confusing policy change that proved unworkable on short notice. Government officials are now scrambling to implement the order in a way that won't cripple America's hyper-efficient import system.

I don't think it matters that the ridiculous "DOGE" website is insecure in and of itself, but it does show that the Incel Clown Posse have probably left the entire Treasury open to hackers.

The Trump administration is taking over New York City through an illegal "deal" with its Mayor to drop the prosecution of his corrupt ass, so insane that even the FedSoc attorney resigned, but sadly there's nothing we can do.

Hold on, I'm being told that there IS something "we" can do, that the democratic governor of New York can simply remove him.

Also I'm being told, alas, she won't because democracy or something.

It is kind of funny that journalists followed up Watergate with Whitewater. To balance the scales.

Get happy.

Puerto Rico should probably look into being annexed by someone else (or independence, of course, but there is the little issue of defense).

Dem senators went with the "inside" plan - approach their colleagues (call them Lucy) with reason and kindness. Susan Collins will be with us if we don't scare her!

This plan involved voting for a lot of Trump's nominees and discouraging any outside campaigning against their colleagues.

How did that work?

eat

Crime is legal now, for the right people, so there is nothing to be done.

That fucking newspaper. (paywalled, everything is paywalled).

Once you have decided that there are too many people identifying as trans, you have opened a negotiation with the right wing about how many of them to get rid of, and by what means. The polite, liberal Times position is "get rid of enough of them that I don't have to worry about my child being one" and "by discouraging transitioning." The Trump position is "get rid of all of them" and "by making them illegal." And the Trump position effectively includes the liberal position, though anti-trans liberals don't like to see it that way.

...

On the question of sports participation, the Editorial Board immediately contradicted itself:

The fearmongering is all the more disproportionate, given how few people identify as transgender. They are a minuscule less than 1 percent of the American population. And they are 0.002 percent of college athletes—a population that’s been especially incendiary in the culture wars.

Why should there be room for fierce debate, or conversation, about the participation of 0.002 percent of college athletes in sports? Why should there be room for a 3,000-word front-page New York Times story on the topic? If you call as much attention as you can to how you think there might be a stray nail sticking up somewhere, why would you be shocked when someone shows up swinging a hammer?

Prost ihr säcke.

Some 20 senators have their bags packed for the Munich Security Conference this weekend, but they are waiting on a final green light from Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) before heading to Andrews Air Force Base.

So easy to ruin their fun.

Thorsday.

Rock on.

get happy

I guess Musk can just pull money out of your accounts now.

The Trump administration quickly made good on its vow to claw back federal funding meant to cover some of the costs of housing migrants borne by New York City, unilaterally reversing the transfer of $80 million that the Federal Emergency Management Agency made to the city last week.

The comptroller’s office noticed early Wednesday that $80 million had gone missing from city bank accounts. The Department of Homeland Security, which houses FEMA, confirmed later that day that the money had indeed been taken back, a significant escalation of President Trump’s attempts to freeze or reverse funding that had previously been appropriated by Congress.

Your money isn't safe in that bank. Hopefully we find out which one.

This isn't new - he's been moving in this direction for a long time - but Lambert ran the premier "Tesla fan/Elon suckup site" for a very long time.

I - and most people - get that Democrats don't have the power to yell, "STOP, SIRRAH," and completely end the Trump agenda.  But what they do have the power to do - at the minimum! - is get on TV and generally make as much news as possible to highlight what is happening.   

They can do more than that, but they're complaining about being asked to do that!

If they don't do that, then the much hated "groups" are going to take over the discourse.  Whining about that won't stop it. They don't work for you.

And if they're getting poll numbers saying "people like this, akshually" then the right reaction is to understand that people don't know what is happening, and understand it is your job to fix that, not tell yourselves that (Reagan*Thatcher)^100 is super popular.

eat

I get that instant "fact checking" isn't always possible, and sometimes journalists will end up passing along things that important people say without ensuring that they are correct.  This isn't good, of course, but I see how it happens innocently.  

What is amazing is the outlets that went to check the "DOGE website" and saw that nothing was there, and then typed up "oh obviously this is what he meant, posting stuff on X" which is also not, in content, what he claimed.

You don't understand, they've got this.

 once again

Rock on.

Get happy.

Even the lunatics are going to have to put back some of the jenga pieces, but will they manage before the whole thing tumbles?

Russ Vought is an own-the-libs kind of guy, an ideological warrior who delights in watching the world burn. Shutting down the CFPB is his idea of paradise; now the rugged capitalists can get back to work making America great again without interference from meddling bureaucrats determined to punish success.

Then he heard about the APOR tables.

Not knocking the judge here, but they all need to come up with a plan to deal with "fuck you, no."

 Here for them going at it.