Good morning one and all to another sunny day!
From tax cuts to Medicaid reform, Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ heads to Senate
Why Two Republicans Voted Against Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill
RFK, Jr. to Present His 100-Day “Make America Healthy Again” Report at White House
‘It’s Going To Be Chaos’: Democrats Are Reportedly Anticipating An Over-Crowded Primary Season
USDA Clears Iowa, Indiana to Bar Food Stamps for Soda
DHS Blocks Harvard’s Ability to Enroll Foreign Students
Congress Passes Resolution to Overturn California’s Strict Pollution Rules for Cars
FTC Launches Investigation into Far-Left Group Media Matters
US government to phase out penny production by 2026 in cost-cutting move
Jaguar Claws Back From Biggest Marketing Fail Since Bud Light
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
whaddup doh’
Hey Banjos- how YOU doin’
Last day of school! Can finally sleep in past 5:30am again.
My kids are skipping today. What is the school going to do – revoke their perfect attendance certificate?
I miss the old traditions of the suburb I grew up in. Last day of class every year (twice actually, since the public and private schools had different last days) nearly every middle school kid would launch into a shaving cream/squirt gun war. Through the parks, the (technically private) woods we ran through, people’s lawns, playgrounds, and (once in a while) grocery stores. Locally stores would stop selling shaving cream to kids the week or two before to try to stop this, but it never worked. The big change was when the shaving gel cans came out, because you could really get some range with those. Each year there were the rumors of some bully (always from the other school system) mixing Nair into their weapon of choice.
Good times… good times…
Seems a bit early, I also went into June. My daughter goes to next Thursday. When Memorial Day is early, they go to Thursday after, when late, they end on Friday before. I think next year goes back to Friday before.
And Colorado has the fewest required days of any state.
Here in New York it was always Wednesday after Labor Day until sometime in mid-June.
They adjusted the school calendar years ago. The primary reason given was to end the semester at the winter break. They also disconnected spring break from Easter so it aligns with the end of quarter. School is now August to May.
The first year sucked for the kids. The old school year ended in June. The new school year started in August. It was the year of the short summer.
*adjusts onion on belt*
Used to be Labor Day to Memorial Day. I recall starting maybe the week before Labor Day a few times.
@Neph thanks for dislodging a tiny memory that was sitting at the back of my brain. We used to have shaving cream fights too, and there was always the rumor of Nair but there was never any proof. Kind of like the razor blades in Halloween candy; my mom was a nurse for 40+ years and she told me that in decades of x-raying bags of candy, they never found one needle or razor blade.
Big whoop. “In my day” we went from day after Labor Day to Juneteenth, six days a week, walked uphill 5 miles to school in the snow or rain, slopped the hogs and curried the horses, shoveled out the manure, did five hours of homework, had to learn Greek and Latin or couldn’t graduate from 4th grade, and eat all our broccoli because kids in China were starving. For fun, we rolled an old barrel hoop downhill five miles from school, or stole wormy apples from Old Man Jensen’s orchard. Good times!!
Mine have another month.
Closures due to power outages and downed trees that blocked busses tacked on 4 days.
USDA Clears Iowa, Indiana to Bar Food Stamps for Soda
It’s unfair to the poors. Why are luxuries only available to those that can afford them?
These government people are just trying to make it hard to sell that SANP shit for money they can use for better things like drugs, booze, or strippers.
“FTC Launches Investigation into Far-Left Group Media Matters”
It is about time. At least find out once and for all if the collusion was forced or voluntary. (I lean towards forced)
The collusion between media outlets? I’m pretty sure it was nearly all voluntary, since it was the right thing to do, obviously.
I have a little more hope because it’s an agency looking into this. Congress has their hearings that produce sound bytes but never amount to anything.
‘It’s Going To Be Chaos’: Democrats Are Reportedly Anticipating An Over-Crowded Primary Season
This is why the party should pick the candidate.
What? Trust the unwashed fools that keep falling for the lies? The democrat machine is evil and stupid, not nuts.
As an alternate, maybe they can meet up at a Waffle House to fight for the nomination.
Jasmine Crockett approves.
Crockett isn’t the kind to fight, she’s more like “are you gonna let them talk about me like that? Get in there and kick some ass [for me]”.
She is all in for having OTHER people fight..
*Looks at 6’1″ creepy man shoving girls out of the way to win swim meet*
No Alex, they are nuts too.
I saw Crockett demonstrated her jive-ass act the other day. Incredible.
Raised with a silver spoon, attended all private schools, went to Rhodes college (where, incidentally, she performed a false flag racist attack) and she goes way over the top with her ‘hood’ act.
It is as pathetic and fake as that AOC clown.
I’m pretty sure AOC’s boobs are real.
“(where, incidentally, she performed a false flag racist attack)”
Link?
Undergarments can be just as deceptive as implants.
I love pennies. Used them for years as the cheapest game markers you can buy. Pennies becoming collectable will be weird. Also will sales taxes round up or down? I suppose that is a rhetorical question.
We not only need to keep the penny but reintroduce the Mil.
And intitute policies that drive up the value of the dollar until the Mil pays for itself in minting.
Deflation forever!
What is the law regarding gas stations that charge by the mil?
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on May 22 approved requests from the governors of Iowa and Indiana that asked permission to bar residents from using food stamps for soda and certain processed foods.”
Why do they have to ask the USDA?
Because food stamps go through the USDA because they were originally (and still are in part) federal welfare for the farming sector?
Someone needs to convince Trump that corn syrup is gay.
Next Week’s Headline: “9th Circuit rules congress cannot legislate against California’s mandates”
“The federal government must grant waivers to the Clean Air Act so long as they are more strict.”
Permission is permanent and may never be revoked. Kinda like your consent to being governed.
You joke… but yes, that’s exactly what they’re going to try.
Of course. The lawfare will be crazy the next four years. The good thing about it is all that dem donor money will dry up.
Sigh. Reality will hit back long before then. The only question is how many billions of dollars will Gavin light on fire before then.
Who said I was joking?
While simultaneously suing the administration claiming only congress….oh fuck, never mind.
And of course some district judge will order congress to do what he wants, because if a district judge can order the executive branch to do something, there’s no reason that imaginary power wouldn’t also apply to the legislative branch.
The good thing about it is all that dem donor money will dry up.
Another reason we need loser pays in any legal case.
No need to order Congress to do anything. One of the innovations of the gay marriage litigation was that judges just went straight to amending statutes themselves.
Yeah, I guess the founders never should have put judicial supremacy into the constitution…oh, wait…
It is like every complaint the Anti-federalists had has proven right. In this case, the out of control judiciary.
Yeah, that one is right on target in 250 year hindsight.
Human nature is now as it eve
Human nature is now as it ever was.
”I don’t think he likes to see grandstanders in Congress,” Leavitt said. “What’s the alternative, I would ask those members of Congress. Do they want to see a tax hike? Do they want to see our country go bankrupt? That’s the alternative of them trying to vote ‘no’ and the president believes that the Republican Party needs to be unified and the vast majority of Republicans clearly are and are listening to the president … Republicans like Thomas Massie and others should take note.”
Trump doesn’t like to see grandstanders. That’s why he never looks at a mirror.
“We’ll go bankrupt if we don’t spend more!”
Uh-huh
Hey they cut spending in the bill, surely the crackdown on Medicaid fraud will easily provide spending cuts (indistinguishable from a rounding error) that will get us on the pathway to financial stability (financial stability in this context meaning keeping on a steady course, with no deviation, straight toward the giant whirlpool ahead with the flashing sign over it reading “Currency Collapse, Do not enter!”)
“Congress Passes Resolution to Overturn California’s Strict Pollution Rules for Cars”
What they need to do is repeal all the ridiculous safety regulations.
Make Automobiles Dangerous Again!
*rubs eyes*
It hasn’t been sunny in a week.
I feel that.
/looks at another grey sky and rain
Im getting a day to sneak in a mow
It’s raining up there?
I came straight from the (502) to (937).
(513) waves as you pass
Tres:
Off and on for most of this week, and going into the weekend. We’re going to need fucking coats to go to a rib cook off.
I was promised global warming.
I can remember a memorial day cookout in the mid 1990s and there were snow flurries.
Jarflax- since the Dayton area is now devoid of any Frisch’s, I did stop at one in your area for the mandatory Big Boy and onion rings.
I was going to drop into Camp Washington, but my lust for a burger w/tarter sauce was too much to overcome.
What? 😨
When did the last one close? I swear there was one there within the last year.
/looks up 130th to the Big Boy
The parent company went broke; a few locations have been bought by another company, and I think a few others are limping along pending eviction and trying to restructure the company, but it has been a mess.
AFAIK, the loss of Frisch’s (regional Big Boy chain) is mainly Cincinnati/Dayton phenomenon. I think the real estate owner jacked the rent sky high. Frisch’s has always been my sentimental favorite restaurant because my grandfather always took us to the one near his house in Hamilton. 😢
Ex-Frisch’s near my office south of Dayton has reopened as “Dolly’s,” supposedly after Big Boy’s girlfriend, and has essentially the same menu. I haven’t checked them out yet… but maybe that’s what I should do for lunch. 🤔
The real estate owner jacked the rents up, but that was Frisch’s own fault since they sold all the real estate to that owner a few years ago on a sale and lease back arrangement. Everything that followed from that was foreseeable, but ad hoc thinking is a common problem.
When did you guys arrive in Oregon?
Ha, when I moved from Oregon to Virginia, people were complaining about not seeing the sun in a week. I was like, what are you talking about, it isn’t bad until it’s been a month without any sunshine.
“Media Matters President Angela Carusone called the move by the FTC a “threat” by the Trump administration in a statement to the New York Post.
“Right-wing media figures holding key posts and abusing government power to target critics are two hallmarks of the Trump administration,” he said in a statement on Thursday. “Threats won’t work, our mission continues.””
That’s rich.
The left believes that when they win they get to do whatever they want, and when they lose they get to still do whatever they want.
We have a winner.
They aren’t wrong, tho.
I’m waiting for the article about how the Blaze claws back from its bad decision to charge for articles.
No wonder nobody links to them anymore.
The bill is projected to surpass House Republicans’ goal of slashing spending by more than $1.5 trillion over a decade.
Sure, in years 8, 9 and 10 of that decade. Liars. The omnibus bills are always stuffed with BS.
It’s laughable. The Dems will be back in power before then and blow out spending regardless of what this bill claims to do in ten years anyway.
Backloading is such a standard trick of decade budgeting. There will be plenty of opportunities to quietly rescind the backloaded changes.
And you know damn well that in the next 2 years minimum – probably more like 5 (which is the actual FY plan basis) – all of that spending is UP.
No, this time it’s real. We’re going to make a balloon payment in year 10 that will quiet the naysayers. Just you wait and see, it’s gonna be OK.
I hate all these guys.
Media Matters, an open enemy of the US and western civilization in general, is just now being investigated? This is shameful.
Soros and the WEF crowd should be in prison for years now, including that booger eating moron that is king of some little island. Round up the heads of all the NGO’s as well. Toss ’em all in the clink.
Influence isn’t illegal, no matter how much you might hate it. And the problem isn’t that someone has influence, it’s the dipshits (i.e. voters) who can be influenced.
I will grant that influence is not illegal but laundering taxpayer money to our enemies should be. What I find even more reprehensible are the pols here in league with them.
Yes, the voters are getting what they voted for and that is enraging to me who did not vote for any of it.
Suthenboy:
Unfortunately, all of the NGO money laundering appears to have been 100% legal. If you want to stop that, we’ll need a better class of legislature, executives, and judges.
The bulwark criminal entities that finance and then enact the progressive agenda, not just in this country, but too oft, globally, are all criminal enterprises that are able to do what they do because the crooks that align with them urn a blind eye towards the crimes they commit. And the evil thing is that they seem to be paid by American tax payers being robbed. I want justice too, but the machine seems hell bent to protect these crooks from that.
Linked from there:
“Nickels, worth five cents, cost approximately 13.8 cents to mint, according to the 2024 U.S. Mint report.”
JFC.
I know. At that price you could replace all nickels and pennies with fake metal Spanish Doubloons and still save money. I wonder if Elon considered that?
Buying metal fake money for games is surprisingly expensive. And those don’t need to have anti-counterfeit measures. Which does lead me to wonder why don’t we reduce some of the anti-counterfeit measures on the coinage, as long as it costs more to make than the face value, why counterfeit it?
Good point.
Pro tip: Have you looked at the price of hardware lately? It is cheaper to take the coin of your choice, drill a hole in it and use it for a washer than to buy washers.
If you’re that bad at formulating coinage, just introduce the new Dollar, face value 10 old dollars, the new coins will have a different formulation from the old coins so vending machines will know the difference, but let the old dollar age out.
Return the dollar to being equal to 371.25 grains of silver.
Problem solved.
Can’t we use a round number?
Rounds and bars use the same number.
Grains are only for measuring bullets anyway.
Congress chose that in 1792, who am I to disagree.
Considering its off by a factor of 30 now, we could choose any sort of rounder number. But, nah, I like the historical number.
not true, you also use them to measure the propellant charge
Point conceded.
Akshually, grains is a common unit in air pollution. Grains per dry standard cubic foot (gr/dscf) is often used to report concentrations of particulate matter.
7000 grains of wheat is one pound.
That’s where grains comes from if anyone actually cared.
Sorry, Tres, you will need a different unit of measure.
@Kinnath, like barleycorns to the Inch, the conversion cannot be exact if you use actual biological matter. Also, which species and cultivar of wheat? In which year? I’m sure the grain size has changed over the centuries.
Who had the job of counting the 7000 grains, and who double-checked the count?
Fortunately, printing $100 bills is cheap!
You know, JI, you’ve got it. We need to replace the shitty coins with lower denomination bills. They are much easier to manage than coins, and we can crib from other countries, make the sub $1 bills marginally smaller than the $1+ bills to easily differentiate them.
Bring back the $500, $1000, and $10,000 bills. The fact that the largest bill currently printed is $100 is stupid. Back when the hundred represented an actually significant amount of money we had larger bills in circulation. Today it isn’t even a days wages for anyone with a real adult job.
Jarflax:
Why do you want drugs to win the war on drugs?
(At least from memory, that was one of the reasons for phasing out the larger denomination bills, was that it made drug trafficking too easy.)
Mr Ilium – Drugs have already won. Right now we’re just negotiating the terms of our surrender.
I’m torn between agreeing with UCS that drugs already won and going on a rant about tar, feathers rails and politicians who interfere with markets and liberties in order to make it easier to go after some group of criminals. I think I’ll go with both.
UCS, we used script in the overseas PXes back in the ’50s. Script was different sizes for different denominations. Off post the locals would accept script in $5 increments, not legally of course but there’s always a way.
Same in VN.
I linked this yesterday, but…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58SrtQNt4YE
This is the kind of stunt that I would enjoy at first, but then grow increasingly bitter and angry about as I grew older:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/leap-together-kermit-frog-says-commencement-address-university-marylan-rcna208692
Well, when your faculty and students are all a bunch of muppets…
Someone has their hand up these moron’s asses and basically manipulates them, so yeah. Muppets.
I dunno. I can’t even remember who spoke at my high school or associate degree graduations 40+ years ago. And nowadays if I had my choice between comedy with Kermit or some leftist prick lecturing me for an hour I would pick Kermit.
Interesting choice given this recent Sesame Street controversy.
How much money is HBO getting for that?
Daily Ray of Sunshine
That was the dustiest it’s ever been in my house.
Breaking: Trump Deports Justin Bieber as MS-13
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14741817/Shirtless-Justin-Bieber-shows-strain-sparking-fight-wife-Hailey-disrespectful-act.html
lol
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him not shirtless and I suspect that grabbing his crotch in public is not unusual either.
Denmark to raise retirement age to highest in Europe
They are running out of other people’s money.
I know somebody who would take Greenland odd their hands.
Isn’t it still fifty-something in France?
They had riots over raising it from 62 to 64.
The French had riots?! No, that cant be true.
It’s funny how these right-wing, fascist ideas like raising the retirement age or banning transgender surgery and hormones for kids are starting in liberal Europe.
Europe will be less and less liberal as the Caliphate assumes a majority in parliament.
I know this is an unsympathetic audience, but I have to grouse to sombody, and you lot are used to ignoring my whining.
I hate this liminal state of being “overtime exempt” rather than salaried. I get none of the benefits of being salaried (they will dock either my leave or my pay if I do not work full hours) and none of the benefits of being hourly (ineigable for overtime) with a policy of no comp time if I go over full hours in a pay period. So when something breaks on the last day of the pay period when I’ve already worked full hours and my day runs until 9pm (I start at 7am for reference), I’m screwed out of that time.
If I’m not really salaried (paid same regardless of how many or few hours on the clock) then at least give me comp time.
But think of all that sweet sweet pension money they’ll have run out of long before you hit retirement!
I’m “wage exempt”. I am not allowed to work extra hours in a pay period without approval. It’s common for people to take the last day of the pay period off because they ran out of hours. Any approved overtime is single time.
That’s how my old job was. I unofficially received comp time, but it turns out that I wasn’t actually allowed to use. I stopped keeping track when it reached 200 hours.
Now that I get to actually make the decisions, I’m trying my best to learn from all of that bullshit and do right by my employees. We’re looking at a heavy influx starting next week, so I’m going to do a surprise close at noon today to start the weekend sooner.
My last job was like that too. It was the best of both worlds for my employer, the worst of both worlds for me. I was given the choice of comp time or straight pay for overtime hours, and at one point I earned enough to get into the next tax bracket. When I left that job, I was paid for my remaining vacation time, but I had at least 30 sick days saved up and it was company policy to not pay me for those.
You sound like a great employer, good for you for learning the right lessons.
I’m going to retire next week. Wednesday is my last day.
I had planned to retire a year ago, but my boss was begging me to stay on. I made them a deal, I would stay another year, but I wanted to go work in Japan and be a “special projects” guy. No more running a team and all the goofiness that went with that.
They actually agreed with one caveat. Since I was going to be out of the country, I couldn’t be an employee and would have to be a contractor (I have no idea why they were convinced of this). As part of switching to a contractor, we had to come up with a list of things I would work on and write contracts to cover that.
Instead of my boss doing his due diligence and defining these projects and budgeting them, he gave me the task. He said that it was just an exercise to keep the c-suite happy. We agreed that I’d basically work hourly, but bill based on these contracts.
Everything went pretty well. Suprisingly. The only wrinkle was when I resigned and still had 2.5 weeks of vacation on the books. I figured they’d just pay out. Nope. That wasn’t company policy. Fuck.
Then this week, I was working on some transition stuff and the guy said my boss had told him I was working until mid June. I told him that he was mistaken and it was next week. Like I’ve been telling him for a month.
I did some digging and realized that the contracts that had been sending me for each of these pseudo projects had a 18 day gap between two of them. So the end date according to that was mid June.
So I let my boss know about the discrepancy and that next week I’m retiring because I worked through that gap.
I got a ton of chat messages from him asking me if I could maybe just start working half days and extend my end date. Or something. Anything except actually quit. Every “idea” was me bending over and taking it in my ass. I was polite but told him that I wasn’t interested in working anymore.
I’m not 100% sure, but I think he told the c-suite my last day was in June and wasn’t excited to have to report that they had fucked up.
I’m so ready to be done with this shit.
Congrats.
I am still working for the foreseeable future.
Yup — congrats and enjoy yourself, Your Holiness.
I’m almost certain to remain working until and unless the ageism endemic to my industry pushes me out.
Or I drop dead (I definitely pay for as many years multiplied by my pay as I can in case of that).
We’ll see what happens first.
One of us! One of us! Congrats and enjoy doing what you enjoy and not what you are paid to do.
“The reconciliation budget, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives early Thursday morning in a 215-214-1 vote, would have initially prohibited Medicaid from covering “gender transition procedures” for children, until a late Wednesday amendment struck the words “minors” and “under 18 years of age” from that section, the Independent reported.
Gender transition treatments that would no longer be covered include puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries.”
https://www.breitbart.com/health/2025/05/22/trumps-big-beautiful-bill-defunds-medicaid-covered-transgender-surgery/
Stopping child transitions is the most important thing. Continuing to cover hormones for adults seems reasonable, and is not that expensive. Regarding people before they transition, it’s practically impossible for anyone to see a psychiatrist under Medicaid. So that’s more evidence of rubber stamping.
Someone somewhere said they were stopping “conversion” therapy – in other words, therapy intended to treat dysphoria.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
States can still pay for it if they want. They just won’t be able to get the federal matching funds.
Ruy has really had to eat his own dog’s breakfast. But credit to him, he hasn’t tried to pull a Tapper and blame everyone around him but himself.
Well, they could start with not producing racist, sexist crap like the “rising American electorate”. Pinning all your hopes on people staying on the plantation was a dumb idea.
It is refreshing that he’s looking at everything through the lens of “what do we need to do to take power.” Ideas and values are completely irrelevant (I’m not saying that the (R)s are any different.)
Policies are the lies politicians tell to get power. Values don’t enter into the thing at all, and the only idea that does is that power will get them money and sex.
The Rs are different – they prefer being the minority party so they can enjoy the graft without ever being expected to actually do anything.
Funny how both parties disappoint their respective bases when they have power – the Ds for promising everything under the sun and not delivering, the Rs for promising to not grow the govt.
The purpose of politics is to provide an acceptable lifestyle for politicians.
Took my daughter to a specialist appointment in Centennial yesterday afternoon, so hit Denver traffic, which always sucks. I am rarely there and when I am, I very very rarely go south of I-70 on I-25. But a question I have had before really came up again yesterday: WHY IS THERE AN EXPRESS LANE ON NORTHSIDE I-25 BUT NOT ON SOUTHSIDE?
Also, didnt happen yesterday because it was wrong way for me, but google maps really hates the reversible express lane between downtown and I-270. It freaks out when you are driving on it. I guess GPS tech isnt at the point to handle it yet.
The quirks of GPS, collision warnings, and lane assist lead me to a lot of skepticism about autonomous vehicle claims.
I went out to New Hampshire recently. They replaced a bridge over a river along the Vermont/NH border. It was a few blocks down from where the old bridge used to be. My GPS hadn’t gotten the news and kept insisting I go to the nonexistant bridge while getting freaked out when I drove in the river (over the real bridge)
I had that experience when some new roads were built in my area. I was driving through fields. It would try to snap me onto nearby roads then pop back into fields.
My car hysterically beeps at me every time I back into the parking pad I installed in front of my house. It views the trunk extending over grass as a collision.
“Don’t drive on the grass.”
The bill is projected to surpass House Republicans’ goal of slashing spending by more than $1.5 trillion over a decade.
So a decade to slash spending to pre-CARES act levels? That’s assuming a future Congress doesn’t undo the changes.
By the way, Pepperidge Farms remembers who signed the CARES act.
Massie and Davidson were right to vote no.
So a decade to slash spending to pre-CARES act levels?
No. That is $1.5T over a decade not per year.
Right, that’s what I said.
It’s not a decade to cut annual spending by 1.5 trillion (pre-CARES level) It’s 1.5 trillion total, so an average of 150 billion a year, but all back loaded to the last three years. It never gets to pre-CARES level, and as with all spending cuts it’s based off that vile baseline concept so the spending in years 8,9 and 10 is not actually lower than current spending. The hypothetical cuts don’t reduce the spending from this year’s spending they reduce the theoretical spending from current projections of spending in those years, but still higher than current spending. Or, in more common parlance. It’s a pack of lies
It never gets to pre-CARES level, and as with all spending cuts it’s based off that vile baseline concept so the spending in years 8,9 and 10 is not actually lower than current spending.
Oh. My assumptions are off.
Return spending to 2006 levels. Over the past 20 years we have had multiple “one time” emergency increases to spending that magically end up as the baseline for future years, all that needs to be stripped back out.
“No, fuck you, cut spending.” — Thomas Massie, probably
And he is right and obscure all in one
Rand is not wrong either:
The previous administration increased the deficit so we don’t have to.
It is turnabout, Trump signed off on the $2T increase over 2019 spending – that was only going to be a one-time emergency.
I think Rand meant “deficit” not “debt”. Debt is bipartisan.
But yeah, the point is still correct.
“Indigenous Amazon tribe says New York Times story led to its members being smeared as porn addicts”
https://nypost.com/2025/05/23/us-news/indigenous-amazon-tribe-says-new-york-times-story-led-to-its-members-being-smeared-as-porn-addicts/
SIJLTH
Porn addict? Have you sucked dick for porn?
If you suck dick to pay for your porn addiction, and do it on camera, does that make you gay? Does it depend on what kind of porn you watch? What if you never touch the balls?
Are they porn addicts?
They can’t use social media without people asking about it.
STOP READNG THE NYT!
Is it even printed in your obscure, only-spoken-by-200-people language?
Remember this?
grrr This, but with a close quote
“Doctors, former patients warn of LASIK eye surgery dangers: ‘Biggest scam ever put on the American public’
LASIK providers say the procedure is 95% to 99% safe, but one LASIK survivor said she had suicidal ideations for two years after her “disastrous” surgery in 2000.
She also claimed to know of at least 40 people who took their own lives because they couldn’t stand constant pain and vision problems, which developed after the procedure….
Waxler has previously told CBS in 2019 his own analysis of industry data showed complication rates between 10% and 30%, and in 2011, he petitioned the FDA to issue a voluntary recall of LASIK.”
https://nypost.com/2025/05/22/health/doctors-former-patients-warn-of-lasik-eye-surgery-dangers/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14741503/lasik-eye-surgery-patients-police-officer-suicide-ryan-kingerski.html
Yikes!
Gee, and I thought having a flap sliced into the front of the eye so they could zap lasers into it was the worst part.
Obligatory.
XX was rx’d hard contact lenses as a tween to slow down the progression of her eyesight decline. She couldn’t tolerate it. I had no patience with this, but my husband, too, has eyeball squeamishness. Me, I’m just too lazy to put contacts in every day (I am not down with extended wear). My current contacts are 25 years old, still work for me, and I only use them when going swimming. That said, they are far superior to my glasses when driving, especially night driving.
Or…they have underlying issues and they point to a major change in their life as a scapegoat…
But ya, lets go with the DailyFail
10% to 30% complication rate? No thanks.
If that were true, LASIK would have been sued out of existence.
I’m just fine with contacts & glasses.
“The percentage of those with poor outcomes are in the double digits, not 1 percent. And they know it,” she claimed.
Trust her
I am waiting for the cataracts to set in. Then they can fix my distance vision when they swap out the lenses.
If that were true, LASIK would have been sued out of existence.
You seem unfamiliar with the risk waivers they make people sign prior to surgery.
Waivers are completely useless in front of a jury with a weeping young woman who is now blind.
As a long-time four eyes – what is so horrible about glasses?
When it comes to my ability to see, even a 1% complication rate is more than I’m willing to accept. Show me a 0.1% rate and we can talk.
Yeah, no. I know enough people who have had it with zero problems that they are either using some fake definition of complications, or just lying about the rate.
“I occassionally get dry eye.”
“Complication!”
Yeah, those waivers are meaningless in reality. Now, they might scare some people off who don’t know they are meaningless. Every medical procedure is preceded by a disclosure of risks as part of informed consent. If those waivers were effective at all, you think hospitals, etc. wouldn’t require them? Yet they don’t, which should tell you something.
I got Lasik in ’99 and it was AWESOME!!!! Best money I ever spent.
Astigmatism has crept back and had to start wearing glasses again in ’17 or so. Eye doc says I still have enough eyeball left for one more Lasik treatment.
I plan to get it done in the next couple years. I can’t stand wearing glasses. My main problem is that for the most part I don’t need them (mostly for reading stuff at a distance – aka power point presentations). So I wander off without them and then when I need them, they are nowhere nearby.
Lasik is one of my top 5 best life decisions.
she had suicidal ideations for two years after her “disastrous” surgery in 2000
And yet, here she is 25 years later.
The wife had LASIK with very satisfactory results. OTOH, I worked for a guy who had a terrible outcome.
My mom had Lasik. Her first job got her 20/20 vision in the eye they worked on. She had the other eye done a month later. same place, same people, same everything. She ended up blind in that eye.
No freaking way do I do this procedure cause when it comes to my sight, I have no margin for error.
The only person I know who had issues was a guy who went to some dirt cheap outfit that was literally doing the procedure in the back of a semi-truck trailer.
He was so proud of spending so much less than the rest of us. His complications were a longer healing process and some halo effect at night. So not anything that was super bad.
Alex:
You might have some margin for error if you could just stop the self abuse. You’d also save a ton on razors not having to shave your palms all the time.
My (and my husband’s and XX’s) astigmatism is too bad for LASIK to get rid of the glasses. XY didn’t even bother to find out. I’m not taking those risks just to keep having to wear glasses.
My glasses keep getting thicker and thicker. I have had the cataract surgery, didn’t help at all, made no difference since I wasn’t having any problems before.
Now I have double vision and need a prism lens to make the adjustment.
I had it. It fixed my legal blind level myopia and then I was fine.
Got my package all done up for a detail to implement machine learning into our maintenance program.
Im sure my measured, its a tool not God, view of LLM and ‘AI’ will put me at the bottom of the list
Say no more!
“Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has called President Donald Trump a “monster” over the administration’s probe into the city’s hiring practices for alleged discrimination.
Johnson claimed that Trump holds “animus towards women, people of color, [and] working people.” He then added, “We have always known who he has been. This is not a surprise. He’s a monster period. We have the most diverse administration in the history of Chicago, and he is threatened by that.”
Johson added, “You can tell when someone is fearful is because they act out. We have a president that is screaming and having tantrums right now because we have an administration that reflects the city of Chicago. But he would much rather have administrations that reflect the country club. He is most comfortable around people who think and look like him.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/chicago-dem-mayor-says-trump-is-monster-as-doj-investigates-alleged-discriminatory-hiring-practices
CWAA
“How Dare You investigate my illegal racist hiring practices!”
monster period
Godzilla has cramps, Tokyo best beware
Diversity is stupid. There. I said it.
Soooo…the racist is the guy who DOESN’T want race-based hiring?
Sure, Sparky.
That hasn’t changed for decades.
Chicagoans aren’t buying his bullshit either.
I was going to post that video too. It is wonderful.
It’s wild how one can make Lori Lightfoot look like Cincinnatus but by gawd he did it. He’s a one termer but the damage he’s done to this city will last for a long time.
Democrats are currently searching for someone that can lower the bar.
And yet the residents of Chicago will keep voting Democrat, because it’s worked out so well.
He is most comfortable around people who think and look like him.
Yeah, look at the mote in that other guy’s eye — can you believe it?
Good morning all!
Any big plans for the long weekend? I think I’m gonna roll out early on Saturday and go check out a new (well, old, but under new management) shooting range out in Eastern WV.
I’m going to look at pistols. Maybe do an ammo run to restock. Depends on whether I think the traffic will be bad.
Do you have Ken’s contact info? He’ll take mail orders if you want to buy in bulk.
I do not, no.
I’ve been driving around with 2000 rounds of 9mm Luger in the back of my truck all week. I need to move that shit into the ammo closet, but it’s pretty heavy…
saratogashootingsports.com
He has the same prices as targetsportsusa with the Ammo+ subscription. Because that’s what he uses. But he gets an extra kickback from them.
I would have figured you’d have shot through that in a week.
Thanks, NA
2,000 rounds of pistol ammo is my usual count for a month of training. This was June’s purchase.
Guns are a gateway drugs to more drugs. Like tatts.
Zero the green dot on my P322. Draw up the corrected stages for the RM program. Take the dog for walks. Have corned beef hash and fried eggs for breakfast.
Speaking of: Anyone in the NH area want to work for me for three days? My stage at Area 7 needs another RO. I will only cane you if you deserve it.
That sounds pretty awesome. I haven’t been to the Virginian for a nice southern breakfast since my last hospital stay.
Sadly, I’m not in the NH Area and wasn’t planning to shoot the Area 7 – it’s a little close to the Area 8…
Yes it is. That’s why I’m not working A8 this year. I really wanted to, but leave A8 Monday show up at A7 Wednesday was no bueno.
Don’t tell anyone, but A8 was a better match. Still, A7 is my home and SIG feeds and has better perks than GPGC.
I will say that the teardown for A7 was one of the best experiences at a match ever. Everybody helped until the last stage was on a truck. Never seen anything like it.
I’m in NH but I have no availability over the next month or so for a three day job outside of what I’m already committed to.
The match is July 18-20. There is a staff match on 7/17 (free to staff). You’d need to be a USPSA member ($40, same as downtown).
GPGC just really came out of nowhere with the awesome matches. Surprised even me.
Trying really hard to not get DQ’d from Area 8 this time around…
*checks calendar*
Huh. I guess it is Memorial Day weekend. Doesn’t really change my schedule at all.
Ain’t retirement grand?
With it expected to be cold (50’s) and raining all weekend, most of the outdoor plans have been set aside. I’ll likely hit up the West Side Market tomorrow to pick up some choice items for dinner (and treats, too many good bakeries inside). Maybe grab a bite at a good breakfast place. The girlfriend was originally going to close the salon on Saturday, but she started getting requests for appointments (last year they were dead), so she’s going to be going into work. So I’ve left Sunday for her to plan (it may be a rib cook off, it may be going to an arcade, it may be going to a movie and brunch). Monday it’s looking like I’ll be going to the *sigh*
IndiansGuardians game with a friend who has a spare ticket.Got to go honor the Boys in Blue in the parade Monday. I think it the least I can do to remember my ancestor who took a bayonet to the groin on July 2, 1863. It missed the important parts or I wouldn’t be here to remember him.
Packing and prepping for a trip to New Orleans. I plan to eat my way across the city.
“Diddy’s assistant says rapper popped ecstasy pills shaped like President Obama”
https://thepostmillennial.com/diddys-assistant-says-rapper-popped-ecstasy-pills-shaped-like-president-obama
LOL
Mmm, mmm, mmm Barack Hussein Obama.
“BREAKING: Two Female Secret Service Agents Get Into Physical Fight Outside Obama’s DC Residence… ‘Get a Supervisor Immediately Before I Whoop This Girl’s A**!’
Last year a female secret service agent assigned to Kamala Harris got into a physical fight with other agents at Joint Base Andrews.
According to reports, the problem agent, identified as Michelle Herczeg, began acting aggressively, speaking gibberish and shouting incoherently at other agents while they were near the lounge at JBA.
Herczeg reportedly threw menstrual pads at another agent before getting into a brawl a JBA.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/breaking-two-female-secret-service-agents-get-physical/
WTF? Makes the Butler attempt seem less conspiratorial.
I’m just happy to know that they assigned the DEI hires to Obama.
Sure, Cassandra
“This bill dramatically increases deficits in the near term but promises our government will be fiscally responsible five years from now,” he continued. “Where have we heard that before? How do you bind a future Congress to these promises? This bill is a debt bomb ticking.”
We’ll get clean this time. Just one more hit to stop the shakes.
I don’t understand, three dead Democrats did not vote against the bill?
When you’re building that PC with the 6kW PSU from the other day, you’ll want sufficient storage:
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/this-976tb-external-storage-solution-with-28-gb-s-transfer-speeds-likely-costs-over-usd130-000
What game requires this beast to run? Global Thermonuclear War?
That’s a lot of porn. A lot.
Sometimes too much porn is barely enough.
AI based porn? Shades of Brainstorm?
If it is standard size this is the case for it.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/05/return-of-the-turbo-button-silverstone-is-making-another-80s-style-beige-pc-case/
Oy. I don’t think I could look at that all day. I remember those. I tie them to the heavy scent of cigarette smoke and bad diet decisions. And the feel of polyester short sleeve shirts. Just a bad old office vibe.
I remember in the ’90s going down to my company’s data center to see the new 1T disk array that they had just bought.
All of us geeks were so amazed to see a virtual 1T drive. Cost a ton of money and we couldn’t really think of why anyone would need that much space. (This was when Win98 was installed with 24 floppy drives).
Now you feel ripped off if the bank gives you a 1T thumb drive.
That would bloody well rock for my shadow IT Linux workstation I use for virtual machine development… not going to buy the equivalent of a third house for it though.
News I didn’t hear on NPR:
https://nypost.com/2025/05/23/us-news/dc-jewish-shooting-suspect-elias-rodriguez-father-eric-rodriquez-invited-to-trump-address-by-far-left-lawmaker-chuy-rodriguez/
Totally will not be surprised if this turns out to be correct. That’s the modern progressive movement.
“As reported exclusively at PJ Media in September of last year, Joe Biden’s USDA Secretary explicitly denied under oath that his department had “collaborated” with the CCP-controlled Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to modify bird flu viruses to make them infectious to humans — i.e., gain-of-function.
Later, through diligent investigative work by White Coat Waste Project, FOIA-ed documents revealed this to be a brazen lie, as the USDA had an active grant at the time with the CAS literally titled “US-UK-China Collab: Predictive Phylogenetics For Evolutionary and Transmission Dynamics of Newly Emerging Avian Influenza Viruses.””
https://pjmedia.com/benbartee/2025/05/23/trump-usda-secretary-commits-to-terminate-ccp-gain-of-function-partnership-n4940083
Poultry farming is agriculture, but that sounds nuts.
Never forget: “Gain of function research” is just a euphemism for “bioweapons development”.
Then even more nuts if true.
Don’t worry — our brave government “servants” have taken a Stand against such bioweapons development.
Mad scientist division.
Who said you could do that?
A federal judge in San Francisco has indefinitely paused President Trump’s sweeping overhaul of the federal government.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued the preliminary injunction late Thursday, nearly two weeks after temporarily halting Trump’s Feb. 11 executive order directing agencies to shut down offices and lay off thousands of people.
A coalition of labor unions, nonprofits and local governments had sued to block that executive order and the subsequent memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management instructing agencies on how to carry out Trump’s order. The plaintiffs argued that Trump lacks the authority to carry out such a radical transformation of government without approval from Congress.
That’s how we’ve always done it.
All these stays and unstays and counterstays from filings legitimate and illegitimate were to be expected but it’ll all grind through the courts to a hopefully favorable resolution.
Y’all didn’t think those twats were just going to roll over did you?
I so want a Samuel L. Jackson/Pulp Fiction meme with “standing, motherfucker, do you have it”.
Soda bans when food stamps are outright sold for cash or other prohibited goods is laughable. FY,CS.
Does any state still use stamps?
“No, all states in the U.S. now use electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards instead of actual paper food stamps for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The EBT cards function like debit cards and are used to purchase eligible food items at authorized retailers.”
-per Brave’s AI function
Oh, *snap*.
I still call it food stamps. Regardless, it’s money and fungible. The dead beats just go with the buyer and payer for their groceries in exchange for cash (at a discount) or other goods (drugs, pet supplies, etc).
“After dramatic staff reductions, these agencies will not be able to do what Congress has directed them to do,” she wrote.
The purpose of those agencies is to hire lots of people and spend lots of money. That’s what makes America great.
It’s that time of year. Tell us why you are so great.
I hate the performance review system. I liked the old one before we were bought out.
We have two a year now.
Yay.
Yeah, my company had that for decades. More and more people started complaining that these reviews where meaningless because when we were asked to produce them senior leadership had already done their meetings to decide bonuses & raises for the period of that review. They kept telling us they totes looked at these reviews. We knew it was shit and stated boycotting the idiocy. Finally they then made them optional. These reviews were and are used basically to go after problem people or to give management an excuse when they do your annual performance and tell you you despite all your work they are not giving you squat or just enough to keep you from going medieval on them.
Pretty much this, it provides legal documentation and justification for canning your ass or at least not giving you a raise or bonus. More than one Needs Improvement in a row and it’s probably best to be looking for another job.
I once worked at a company that had big bonuses and a pretty complex goals/evaluation system.
It was a farce for me because I was always being thrown into the forest fire du jour, so good luck setting goals and meeting them to get your bonus.
At the end of the year, you were supposed to do a self evaluation survey and turn it in. Your boss and his boss would review the survey as part of setting your bonus. I always gave myself a 10 out of 10 on every question.
My immediate boss would get pissy about that. Mostly because his boss was the CEO and was also seeing that I wasn’t taking the survey seriously.
My answer was always, “Why would I do anything to negatively affect my bonus? You are crazy to think I’m going to help you take money out of my pocket.”
* I said the same thing to the CEO when he was needling me about it. He laughed and said he agreed with my approach, but I still wasn’t going to get 100% of my bonus. (I usually ended up in the high 90s)
I once gave a comment on a manager’s rating, “Can’t hit an inside fastball”. No kick back from HR. Following year, “Still can’t hit an inside fastball” Still no kickback.
I quit rating people, told HR to do it themselves if they needed busy work.
As I said to RC Dean, ain’t retirement grand!
Ok, I might be done with Twitter for today.
She seems pleased.
Re Milana Vayntrub from dedthred: She’s almost as adorable as Anna Kendrick.
Re Pop excluded from SNAP: I have a rant.
Re dededthred @NotAdahn, in case you missed it. XX is 22 and XXBF is 29. I have great affection for the May-December romance, so I am unbothered by a mere 7 years’ difference. XX is way ahead of people her age and especially me at her age.
Re government employees (viz., UCS’s complaints): I’m applying to be a 911 dispatcher for once my mother has moved out. It’s one of very few jobs where the salary is good and they have lots of openings and only one expectation I may not be able to fulfill (physical fitness exam).
Re this weekend: We have never really done Memorial Day or Labor Day. We have BBQ and picnic food all summer and since I’ve been self-employed for the last 22 years, it’s just another day to me. There is no “Whew! I get today off!” However, sister #5 is coming up to visit Mom tomorrow and they’re both really looking forward to it. Also, while she was “peeved” at me for dragging Cunty Aunt Susie (sister #3) (and Cunty Aunt Millicent, sister #2 as an afterthought), she acknowledged that a) she and my mom have a far longer history than either of them do with cunty aunts and b) never realized what I did was to protect my mother, which my mother made sure to emphasize to her. Millie did apologize to Mom. Mom asked me, if Millie apologized to ME, would I let her in the house. Sure. She has to enumerate what she did and apologize sincerely and then I will have no problem.
Re Mom: She’s kind of regressed with regard to her breathing and we had to pull out the oxygen concentrator again. She THINKS it might be a medication side effect, but the medication is necessary, so even if it is a side effect, she still has to take it. However, home health has discharged her completely. Tuesday, we are going to tour her planned apartment complex and hopefully snag an apartment for her. We’re at that stage of living together where our relationship starts deteriorating because to her, I’m her child again, and to me, she has no business ordering me around or yelling at me about things I can’t control or don’t find important.
Re Glue Factory (with equines Elmer and Gorilla): Still under contract, closing on July 2. Septic system has to be repaired, and Cunty Aunt Susie has made no attempt to use that as another delaying tactic. Mortgage rates are going up, and Susie has been dumb in her efforts to drag this out, AND insists on buying, not renting, She won’t be able to afford anything, and mortgage rates are going up. I’m highly amused, but still wary of her throwing some kind of spanner in the works (honestly, I’m surprised she didn’t use the septic problem). One of her two remaining horses is 26 and very sick. She (the horse) needs to be put down (and not just because I hate horses in general and those in particular) (although I wouldn’t cry any tears if Susie keeled over), but Susie won’t hear of it. Yes, Susie, go ahead and make everyone around you miserable so you can have what your little lizard brain wants.
Re WordPress: It needs to go die in a fire. Not only is posting now all about the block editor, SO IS THE THEME CUSTOMIZATION. I built a static website from scratch faster than I could customize the fucking theme. I need an alternative CMS.
Lastly, I’m re-revising my first book (2nd time) and wondering if I should cut a scene I loved the first and second times, but now am wondering if it’s necessary at all. Also, it has a continuity error that bugs me.
“She’s almost as adorable as Anna Kendrick.”
They have opposite bodies. Anna Kendrick looks like she weighs 90 lbs.
That makes zero difference as to their adorableness.
Don’t care. Would on both.
“I’m applying to be a 911 dispatcher”
Do you need to be an EMT?
No. I don’t know why I would. My formatting business has all but dried up. Medical transcription (for any decent pay) is dead. My sweet, sweet gig is winding down as the clinic is switching over to AI completely. I wasted $5,000 learning to do medical coding only to find out a) I hate it; b) that n00bs CANNOT in fact get jobs; and c) that the company I work for, which also supplies coders, has to also phase out the coders because AI is replacing that, too. Nobody predicted THAT one.
I’m seriously thinking about learning to do @groat scotum’s BIM tech job.
“No. I don’t know why I would.”
Because many 911 calls are medical emergencies?
EMTs are dispatched by 911, you don’t have to be one to do the dispatching.
“EMTs are dispatched by 911, you don’t have to be one to do the dispatching.”
They ask medical questions and give medical advice over the phone.
Nice SNAP rant. Your “deprivation of liberty” through forced charity bit is right on. Surrounded by progressive Christians, I’ve added a new bit about compulsory charity is “thwarting Jesus’ wishes that each of us has to make the choice to love others.” It isn’t your choice to compel me to favor your charitable impulses over mine, or to let me have no charitable impulses at all. I have gotten a few “I’ll have to think about that” replies, but the idea of compelled charity is deeply rooted in many professed Christians.
Progressivism was Christianity-based, then dumped God for govt entirely.
The Puritans always did find God not quite up to proper Puritan standards.
Indeed.
I have a buddy who’s a 911 dispatcher. He says that it’s fairly hard work, but he finds it quite fulfilling. And it does pay pretty well.
I expect a heavy emotional burden. Is it also physically demanding?
You have to be a decent typist.
Probably not physically demanding. It can be rough on the sleep.
I’ve spent 40 years typing for a living. I’m pretty okay at it.
Oregon’s shitty weather at the graveyard of the pacific
https://ibb.co/vRzNqdx
News is showing 2M long daikon. New kaiju unlocked.
What woman is going to be brave enough to try that?
Emma Watson? She was always hanging around Daikon Alley after all…
*cue insert reaction bubble of presenters with O faces*
Old great article, relevant to the SNAP soda thing.
“The White Ghetto By Kevin D. Williamson December 16, 2013 6:30 AM
It works like this: Once a month, the debit-card accounts of those receiving what we still call food stamps are credited with a few hundred dollars — about $500 for a family of four, on average — which are immediately converted into a unit of exchange, in this case cases of soda. On the day when accounts are credited, local establishments accepting EBT cards — and all across the Big White Ghetto, “We Accept Food Stamps” is the new E pluribus unum — are swamped with locals using their public benefits to buy cases and cases — reports put the number at 30 to 40 cases for some buyers — of soda. Those cases of soda then either go on to another retailer, who buys them at 50 cents on the dollar, in effect laundering those $500 in monthly benefits into $250 in cash — a considerably worse rate than your typical organized-crime money launderer offers — or else they go into the local black-market economy, where they can be used as currency in such ventures as the dealing of unauthorized prescription painkillers — by “pillbillies,” as they are known at the sympathetic establishments in Florida that do so much business with Kentucky and West Virginia that the relevant interstate bus service is nicknamed the “OxyContin Express.” A woman who is intimately familiar with the local drug economy suggests that the exchange rate between sexual favors and cases of pop — some dealers will accept either — is about 1:1, meaning that the value of a woman in the local prescription-drug economy is about $12.99 at Walmart prices.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2013/12/white-ghetto-kevin-d-williamson/
“Last year, 18 big-city mayors, Mike Bloomberg and Rahm Emanuel among them, sent the federal government a letter asking that soda be removed from the list of items eligible to be used for EBT purchases. Mayor Bloomberg delivered his standard sermon about obesity, nutrition, and the multiplex horrors of sugary drinks. But none of those mayors gets what’s really going on with sugar water and food stamps. Take soda off the list and there will be another fungible commodity to take its place. It’s possible that a great many cans of soda used as currency go a long time without ever being cracked — in a town this small, those selling soda to EBT users and those buying it back at half price are bound to be some of the same people, the soda merely changing hands ceremonially to mark the real exchange of value, pillbilly wampum.”
I feel like I listened to something consequential today. JD Vance just made a speech at the Naval Academy. Once upon a time I went to that graduation ceremony and heard Barack Obama do the address. He was a good speaker I guess, but I can’t remember a thing he talked about.
The second half of Vance’s speech was the same fluff stuff (we’re counting on you, we’re proud of you, etc.) but the first part was about the new foreign policy direction of this administration. He sounded like Ron Paul. I think this is going to be a big deal.
Vance is no libertarian, but he is going to make a very good President I think. The Dems might finally wake up during his administration that they need to check the far left contingent and pull back to center.
He’s not, but it seems like he’s influencing Trump on this. Hearing our president and VP saying our meddling in the middle east has been a disaster, is surprising.
Define ‘disaster’.
If your goal is to launder taxpayer money into your pocket and the pockets of your friends and human life and morals in general mean nothing to you then it has been a raging success. Ditto for The Ukraine.
The spending bill still irks me but I’m pleasantly surprised that Vance and Trump has taken the, “Not our monkeys, not our circus stance,” with regards to foreign policy.
Ed, I am not a fan of the spending bill either, but there is no way in hell that Thomas Massie’s ideal bill (or anything close to it) would be passed by the ultra slim majority that the Republicans have now. There is no way a single Dem is going to do so. I think it is probably the best that could be gotten right now. If you want some optimism, I think that the real fight over spending is going to happen after this bill when Trump starts impounding some of the green bullshit left in it and the Dems immediately sue. It’s going to the SC and I think there is a more than fair chance Trump wins that fight.
Once upon a time I went to that graduation ceremony and heard Barack Obama do the address. He was a good speaker I guess, but I can’t remember a thing he talked about.
Obama was very charismatic; he was a master of intonation, facial expression, gesticulation, and emotional hooks. But yes, he did not really have anything substantive to say. Maybe it’s just all the sales and persuasion psychology books I’ve read over the years, but every phrase out of his mouth just conjured up images of a bunch of suits looking at a whiteboard with possible words and phrases to use. He never seemed like a man talking earnestly about ideas he believes in.
Since we’ve giving updates:
This Sunday is our annual Sausage Fest party. I successfully cased 80 pounds of pork last weekend, now it’s time for the derby girls and hopefully some of my teammates to show up and enjoy.
Mrs. TOK planned to take this week off to prep for the party and get stuff done at the gym, instead she’s been in bed all week with Influenza B, ear, and sinus infections. She’s just now up and about and feeling better.
The Nimitz is now parked in Malaysia. My son-in-law is actually getting out and checking out some sights. (He and my daughter are introverts and not into tons of friends and going out a lot). Sounds like they are staying in the Pacific for now, but with carrier groups rotating out of the Middle East, that might also be in his future.
That’s a lot of sausage.
It is a lot. This time it went pretty fast, we were essentially done by 3pm last Saturday. Some years we were working past 7. We’ll probably thaw 75% of it and keep the rest for our own use.
There simply has to be a sleds and rollers joke in all of that sausage.
Mrs. TOK didn’t put the invite out on Facebook this year for some reason. Usually there are weeks of double entendres flying around.
In Austin, Roller Derby girls are more into clams than sausage.
There’s some of that, but her team has a lot of married women and a lot of them are moms. They lose about the same number to pregnancy as injury.
The end of breathable air
Congress has voted to undo a Clean Air Act regulation that strictly controls the amount of toxic air pollutants emitted by many industrial facilities like oil refineries, chemical plants, and steel mills.
The decision represents the first time since the creation of the landmark environmental law that Congress has rolled back its environmental protections.
——-
The vote targets a rule finalized late in the Biden administration, which re-imposed tight regulations on facilities that emit seven so-called “super pollutants” like mercury, a dangerous form of lead, and dioxins. The rules regulating those seven pollutants, along with more than 180 others, were first imposed in the 1990s, but were rolled back during the first Trump administration.
The House approved the resolution early Thursday morning, following a Senate vote in favor of changing the rule earlier this month. Under the Congressional Review Act, lawmakers can review EPA regulations within a short window after their implementation and reverse them with a simple majority vote. President Trump has signaled he is likely to sign the bill when it arrives on his desk.
They’re decimating the Clean Air Act. Millions will die.
Under the Congressional Review Act, lawmakers can review EPA regulations within a short window after their implementation and reverse them with a simple majority vote.
I am missing something here. EPA regulations have force only because Congress by a simple majority granted the EPA rule making authority. How is there any limitation on when Congress, who holds the entire legislative authority, can overturn a regulation issued pursuant to a limited grant of that authority?
I believe the key is no filibuster on reviews.
Love how misleading this is. This is all based on PM 2.5 pseudoscience too I bet.
I’m not sure if I’m reading this right. Congress didn’t actually roll back anything, they just asserted their ability to approve or veto some of the regulations the EPA decides to enact? It seems that once again, NPR is being deliberately misleading. They can’t be shut down fast enough.
The regulation Congress targeted concerns which facilities count as “major sources.”
Since the 1990s, EPA’s policy has stipulated that any “major source” would remain categorized as such, even if it cut pollution levels to below the certain thresholds—a policy known as “Once in, always in.” The policy intended to keep toxic air pollution levels not just lower, but as low as possible.
But under the first Trump administration, the EPA allowed major sources to re-categorize if they had reduced their dangerous emissions. Last year, the EPA under Biden undid part of that change, once again expanding the number of facilities covered.
We wouldn’t want to recognize or reward success. That would be crazy.
Ah, like the pre-clearance for election changes for some states that was eventually struck down.
Just heard some talk on the teevee about spending levels blahblahblah and I see more talk here in the comments.
Just in case anyone is wondering: Pols are thieves and con artists. Anyone that thinks they are going to police themselves and ‘cut spending’ is either wildly naive or has rocks in their heads. They are never going to voluntarily give up the money and the power that comes with that.
This is why I’ve always been against campaign finance laws and the like. Sure, let’s trust the foxes to come up with a security plan for the hen house.
And there are too many ways around it anyway. Astronomical “speaking fees” and hiring kids for a do-nothing job with gigantic salaries come to mind.