I think this is the best caricature of ‘Leader’ Mike Johnson I’ve seen. Not, as he flatters himself, a Moses, just another untrustworthy servant to a a cartoonish pharaoh…
Dress for the job you want: https://t.co/SRkzcO665W
— Defector (@DefectorMedia) May 19, 2024
On Monday [May 13th], Sen. J.D. Vance, the Appalachian memoirist from the suburbs of Dayton, showed up at Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan wearing a blue suit and plain red necktie, and proceeded to say the sorts of things that a gag order is supposed to be preventing the defendant from saying in public anymore. As the week went on, more synthetic Trumps kept showing up, a parade of major and minor Republican figures—some of them major and minor at the same time, like House Speaker-by-default Mike Johnson, or the media-penetrating failed presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
The men were decked out like Vance, which is to say like costume-store versions of Trump, to varying degrees of fidelity. Johnson finessed it with a striped tie in equal proportions of red and navy, but with the red naturally catching the eye; centimillionaire Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who turned up last week, went with a red-dominated repp tie. But a Tuesday lineup of Ramaswamy, Florida Reps. Byron Donalds and Cory Mills, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum stood shoulder to shoulder in nearly matching, fully blank red neckwear, like groomsmen, or backup singers looking for a band.
Or—in the most widespread interpretation—they looked as if they were auditioning for a part. Specifically, they were supposed to be auditioning for the role of Trump’s running mate. This seemed like a reasonable reading of the spectacle, but the details were hard to pin down….
The first, non-negotiable thing that Trump wants in a running mate is the guarantee that there won’t be another Mike Pence—that his new vice president would never turn against him, no matter what the law or constitutional duty might say. Already, under pressure from Trump, Republicans are refusing to say they’ll accept the results of this year’s balloting. He needs a crook he can trust.
Does J.D. Vance believe that Donald Trump would believe he could be that person? Eight years ago, he was calling Trump “reprehensible” and “an idiot.” Trump loves when his former critics crawl for him, but every obsequious line out of Vance’s mouth now is just a demonstration that he will say or do anything to advance himself. The same impulse that made Vance show up at the courthouse in a red tie would make Vice President Vance reach for the 25th Amendment if he saw an opening, and Donald Trump wouldn’t be Donald Trump if he couldn’t smell that on him.
To game these scenarios out is to realize that the game itself makes no sense. As Lin Biao and Liu Shaoqi discovered, being the No. 2 in a one-man cult of personality is no job at all. Trump needs a running mate who is combative yet submissive, safely weak but not pathetic, entertaining at the rallies without craving the spotlight. He needs someone who is more than a parasite on his own success, but less than an independent personality. He needs a running mate who is a negative space in the precise shape of Donald Trump; he needs someone who could put on a costume, because it was a costume, and somehow make people believe it was clothes.
My question: Are they taking vacation days to go on their field trips to NY or am I paying for it?
— Tesoro (@Tesoro414241412) May 18, 2024
Media coverage of Republicans stampeding to NYC to attack Trump's trial as illegitimate is marred by euphemism. This isn't just "currying favor" with Trump or "expressing loyalty" or auditioning to be his veep. It's placing Trump over the rule of law. 1/https://t.co/aWaE6XltrH pic.twitter.com/veCnRVzm2g
— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) May 18, 2024
We're on the verge of something truly horrible and a lot of people are sleepwalking into it. https://t.co/XLuEPJ2lla
— Jean-Michel Connard 좆됐어 (@torriangray) May 21, 2024
We're on year eight of gutter fash shit accidentally/incidentally/somehow winding up in Republican messaging and ads, even beyond Trump's. A takeaway from that should be that "they're too ignorant/stupid/lazy to be fascist" was and remains wrong. For one thing, how smart did you expect them to be?
— David_j_roth (@davidjroth.bsky.social) May 20, 2024 at 10:58 PM
War for Ukraine Day 819: The Russian Punishment of Sumy and Kharkiv Oblasts Continues
HumboldtBlue
What a fucking shit show.
sab
As an elderly Ohioan, I don’t think I will ever get over the shame and embarrassment of us electing JD Vance.
The younger members of my family got the hell out and moved to California. JD Vance did too, but he made money there but didn’t fit in, so he packed up his carpetbag and came home, and claimed he had liked us all along. And we fell for it.
OT Back when I mistakenly moved to California and worked for a big eight/six whatever accounting firm they signed me up for a retirement account at Vanguard. 401k? I didn’t like my job so I moved on. A few years later another employer also had a Vanguard 401k. I participated briefly, then moved on. For that account there were actual contributions. I was married by then.
35-40 years on, my 99 year old dad died and I am a beneficiary of his IRA at Vanguard. I tried to sign on, but I have hit a huge stumbling block : “dual synchronicity” they call it. One person, one Social Security Number, two names. Of course I have two names. I am a traditionally minded woman who got married.
Vanguard cannot wrap its tiny computer brain around this fact. So they won’t let me set up an account to transfer my beneficial interest to dad’s account to be a beneficiary. I have been trying for weeks. Faxed them my social security card fore and aft, my marriage certicifate, etc etc.
Fortunately the delay is also holding up my siblings, who were not stupid enough to take married names. They are furious. As long as they cannot get their money either they will remain furious and on my side.
Vanguard may be stellar in investments, but if you cannot cash out what the fuck was the point of investing?
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue:
Featuring a bunch of fascist shitstains.
sab
Do these political morons from elsewhere in the country know that they just look like NYC mobster flunkies?
JaySinWA
@sab: My wife took my family name when we married. She had no problem setting up a Vanguard account after that or migrating to their new systems. OTOH she set up her account decades ago. I have issues with the current Vanguard online systems, but we haven’t had problems with her identity.
I hope you can get them straightened out. Obviously they were able to do it at one time.
Ah, rereading, you apparently had a Vanguard account under a previous name. So I’m no help.
Ruckus
@sab:
The point of investing in things like Vanguard was to make money for them. That an investor might get 10 cents on the dollar was absolutely an oversight – as long as they get 20 cents on your dollar.
sab
@JaySinWA: She set it up after that with her new name. I had, unbeknownst to me, an unfunded prior account under my maiden name. Vanguard is befuddled by a woman having had two names in her lifetime, with accounts under both. Apparently, the Social Security Number with documentation for why the change is not enough.
I am about to go on a feminist rampage about this. Possibly call my Senator. The not JD Vance guy is quite responsive to constituent complaints.
JaySinWA
@sab: I updated my comment before reading this. I see the problem now.
ETA. Yes, constituent services may be the answer.
sab
@JaySinWA: This doesn’t seem like a weird problem. Single women with jobs get married all the time. Many of them take married names. It happens every day, yet Vanguard cannot handle it?
I have been plugging away on this for many weeks. Every day I talk to well-intentioned kids and not kids on the phone and they all try to help, but we all hit a wall.
I am furious. All I fucking did wrong was to change my name when I got married.
Had my dad known, he would have bailed out of Vanguard
And I can’t fix it, because I had an account under both names. Can’t pretend for now that I was never married.
The whole thing, aside from the immense frustration, makes me spitting angry. All I did wrong was take a married name. Apparently that is also wrong in modern America
ETA How embarrassing. I may have to contact my Senator’s office. His wife was single then married before. Yet this is an election year.
Mai Naem mobile
@sab: I used to know somebody who worked at Vanguard here in Scottsdale AZ. I’d just assumed they had local office in major cities but they only have offices Scottsdale, NC, PA, Dallas and DC. Do any of your siblings live in one of those places? It sounds like you would have more success with this if you were talking to somebody IRL, not the phone nor just online.
sab
I am the executor of my dad’s estate, and thanks to Vanguard I can’t pay all the creditors. There weren’t many. I paid some of them out of my pocket. That was my mistake. I should have stiffed them and blamed Vanguard. This needs a lot more publicity.
I still cannot afford a headstone.
Church contributions stopped.
JaySinWA
@sab: You’re post triggered a memory of an article about two people ending up with the same SS number. Search tells me that that is common with ID theft attempts or less common with data entry errors sometimes by SS itself. So you might be caught up in recent security upgrades attempting to deal with fraud. None of the articles I’ve read address the issue of legal name changes and how they are managed.
sab
@Mai Naem mobile: Those people are all in sales. Naive as the rest of us. They don’t know what the back end is doing. They are just bringing the cattle in through the front door.
Tony Jay
The OG Nazis weren’t exactly the cream of postwar Germany’s intellectual crop. Angry little men and frustrated failures with admirers in the ‘they’ll protect our wealth’ set and a roiling street-army of curd-chewers looking for someone to punch.
Being a good fascist requires a low level of entry intelligence, so the fact that the scum dribbling down the national poop-chute in Trump’s wake aren’t exactly the best brains on offer is convincing proof that fascism is exactly what they’re offering.
sab
@JaySinWA: As far as I know no one else has my Soc Sec.
My stepdaughter was adopted out of foster care and it is rife there. A lot of American foster parents are crooks. Our girl’s parents weren’t just crooks. They were accessories to murdering their own grand child. But our girl escaped with her life and her SocSec # intact.
JaySinWA
@sab: You might have some luck with contacting officers of Vanguard to escalate.
Publicity might work faster instead of or along with your congress people. Your story might get some air or print time.
Gloria DryGarden
I just read that England is dissolving parliament to hold a new election July 4. The royal family is cancelling outings that might distract from the upcoming election.
I don’t understand how their system works. Can anyone explain? Are some people here English?
I wonder how this affects things there, and around the world, and what precipitated this.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
What a collection of absolute fools. What they don’t get is who ever wins the Trump VP stakes has a good chance of being one of the first against the wall if Trump is able to do his little revenge fantasy. The VP is the heir and always the alternative to the dictator.
JaySinWA
@sab: I wasn’t suggesting you were a victim of ID theft, just misidentified as a victim or perp.
sab
@JaySinWA: I don’t want publicity. I just want access to my dad’s account.
opiejeanne
@Ruckus: I have some Vanguard products. I’ve been looking at the performance reports for them recently and have come to the conclusion that I’d do better cashing them out now and sticking the money in the cash account.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Gloria DryGarden:
Calling Tony Jay! ;)
opiejeanne
@Gloria DryGarden: Have you met Tony Jay? He posted comment #14.
ColoradoGuy
Been using Vanguard for thirty years now. They are super-cautious about fraud and identity theft, for obvious reasons (fraudsters draining accounts of elderly account-holders).
You might contact the fraud division and see how you can establish your legal identity and get things unlocked. I suspect an automated “fraud” flag has been tripped, and needs to be re-set through human intervention.
Ksmiami
I want the fascist Republican lickspittles utterly crushed, their media shut down and billionaires taxed at 60 percent no loopholes. We need to fight and to put muscle into pressuring the Dems to bring a media machine gun to this election.
Tony Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
Oh, I’ll be covering this – almost certainly at unwelcome length – when I get a chance.
Short version.
Tories are – very – unpopular. The miniature desk-toy currently leading them has the credibility of a Russian athlete and the longer he waited before calling a General Election the worse the situation was going to get. Calling one now might anger his MPs, many of whom are looking down the barrel of humiliating defeats, but it removes the possibility of a leadership challenge, and that’s all that matters to Sunak.
We’ve got a 5 or 6 week Election period, during which some horrible, degrading shit is going to be thrown around. Starmer’s centre-Right version of Labour will take the opportunity to purge the last few left wing MPs before the vote. There’ll be a huge drop in voter participation, and in the end the Tories will lose lots of seats and we’ll have a slightly lighter-blue shade of ingrate in charge.
Rathskeller
@JaySinWA:
you might try the CFPB or the PBGC.
https://pensionrights.org/know-your-agencies-3-what-parts-of-the-government-regulate-retirement-and-how-they-can-help/
sab
@ColoradoGuy: That might be helpful. Thanks.
sab
@Tony Jay: Jeez. I was an American in UK when they went into the EU for very good solid economic reasons in the late 1970s. So when forty years later y’all decided to bail for not any reason other than ethnic xenophobia (hating all “foreigners” even the indigenous ones) I thought it would turn out badly and I said so at the time.
I am so glad I didn’t decide to immigrate back in my youth, I am so sorry for you dealing with this.
JWR
Yes, but will Nikki Haley accept the results of the 2024 election? Has she been asked? Enquiring minds and all that.
Tony Jay
@sab:
It’s an absolute shitshow, but that’s managed democracy for you.
NotMax
@Tony Jay
NoblesseDistress oblige.//
p.a.
Johnson = Smithers
tRump =/= Burns. Burns is smarter.
Maybe tRump = Crusty.
WikiP: … Krusty is a multimillionaire who has amassed his fortune mostly by licensing his name and image to a variety of substandard products and services, from Krusty alarm clocks to Krusty crowd control barriers.[16] Many of these products are potentially dangerous,[14] such as Krusty’s brand of cereal, Krusty-O’s, which in one episode boasts a jagged metal Krusty-O in each box. One of many lawsuits regarding these products is launched by Bart, who eats a jagged metal Krusty-O by mistake and has to have his appendix removed.[17] The “Krusty Korporation,” the company responsible for Krusty’s licensing, has also launched a series of disastrous promotions and business ventures…
p.a.
In moderation. ???
Anne Laurie
@p.a.: Too many links — I believe anything over seven throughs you into moderation as a potential spambot. Some people strip out ‘extras’ by hand, or just use a shorter extract.
Mai Naem mobile
@sab: i know this sounds like a lot of work but Vanguard’s corporate HQ is in PA. Some town near Philly. Is it worth a drive/flight there? It’s their HQ so this one can’t just be a sales office. I’m not talking about being rude or making a scene, but having a client talk very negatively about their late parent’s assets is front of other clients might at least convince them of taking of your situation.
Gvg
@sab: In Florida you get a new SS# when you are adopted. Possibly this is a change since my nephew was adopted in 2011.
The foster care system has children’s SS#s seen by too many people, multiple agencies, and custody changing so their numbers get stolen. The medical system has a problem there. Often the children need medical care from multiple sources quickly and don’t have a long term guardian to notice extra billings for services they didn’t actually need. Then there is taxes. Non custodial parents and former foster parents claiming child credits. My sister had issues with a former foster parent claiming her eventual son the year after she began fostering him and with another foster child his biological father claimed him when he had never had custody and lived in another state.
Getting her son a new number helped a lot.
spc123
@Gloria DryGarden: UK gov needed to call an election no later than Jan 2025 but it is up to the party in power to ask to dissolve parliament and call for one. Typical election campaign in the UK is six weeks from the call to the actual vote. A couple things happening in the background: Tories are 20+ points down versus Labour and far-rightish Reform party is also chipping into Tory polling percentages (UK is first-past-the-post like the US so smaller parties tend to eat into the vote totals of the main two parties). 14 years of Tory rule has been a disaster – falling standard of living, cash-starved local council governments, NHS is a mess, etc. (Brexit certainly a factor for all of this) and a rotating chair at 10 Downing. Most recent economic data shows UK nudging slightly out of recession with inflation getting closer to targets so PM Sunak decided to pull the trigger now rather than wait for a later “miracle” that is unlikely to come. Also rumours of growing number of Tory MPs pushing towards a leadership challenge and Sunak would probably rather get fired by voters than by his own party. The goal for the still reality-based faction of the Tory party at this point is to minimize losses – change a potential blowout into a slimmer Labour victory. Whether calling the election earlier will matter or not – we’ll see in July.
Kay
@sab:
Overnight them a letter. You’ll hear from them.
CONTACT US BY MAIL
USPS mail:
Vanguard
Attn: DC
PO Box 982902
El Paso, TX 79998-2902
Overnight mail:
Vanguard
Attn: DC
5951 Luckett Court Suite A2
El Paso, TX 79932
Soprano2
@sab: Sadly it sounds like you need an attorney to get it sorted out. What a fucking nightmare, I’m sorry.
Soprano2
@JaySinWA: That’s a good idea. One of our local TV stations has a feature called On Your Side. They eat up stories like that.
TBone
Oh my gawd, the picture of this bug eyed Nazi fuck is real. Not photoshopped. It’s… well, you have to see it. It’s…shocking. At the very end of the article he confirms it’s a real, unretouched photograph. 🧐😳
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/bug-eyed-fascist-agolf-shitler-cant
Click to embiggen photo and tell me that’s not really, really FREAKY! 😱
Kay
The ridiculous lashing out at the ICC is, IMO, just frustration with the dawning US realization that even putting aside the humanitarian disaster and war crimes (no one should put those aside but apparently, and shamefully, we in the US are) this thing is an incompetent shit show:
I genuinely wonder if anyone in the world will intervene before they wipe out all the Palestinian civilians. I’m no longer confident anyone will.
piratedan
@Tony Jay: Tony, what are the chances that one of the parties does something “radical” and proposes to rejoin the EU?
TBone
@Mai Naem mobile: Malvern, Pennsylvania. We had to fight for a year to get them to distribute the IRAs we inherited from my parents. I don’t know many details. Dad died, leaving everything to Mom. Mom died, leaving everything to my brother and me 50/50. It took a full year of our Estate attorney wrangling with Vanguard before accounts for the Inherited IRAs were set up. A deadline was only narrowly met because you have to make Required Minimum Distributions on Inherited IRAs within that year and every year thereafter. I had a financial advisor AND the attorney and still was told for months “next week” over and over. Much paperwork and consternation finally led to proper accounts being set up just before the deadline where we’d have lost fifty percent of the account values to IRS penalties.
I’d drive to the Malvern, PA office in person with marriage certificate and all other paperwork in hand. Do not leave any original documents with VG.
Betty
@spc123: To put it simply, in the parliamentary system, there is no established date for elections other than an outside limit. The Prime Minister decides to call elections when s/he decides the time is favorable. The majority in Parliament chooses the new Prime Minister after the election.
TBone
Scammy Alito has yet another FLAG PROBLEM.
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/05/justice-sam-alitos-newest-reason-recuse
Tony Jay
@spc123:
Excellent précis.
Kay
Maybe if we all just clap louder for Israel we can drown out the fact that this is an absolute disaster for the United States, on just about every level.
We’re now not only going to pretend Netanyahu hasn’t committed war crimes and isn’t wiping out a population while we protect him, we’re going to honor him for doing it.
Mai Naem mobile
@TBone: I just think it’s easier to ignore an email or a phone call but a client in person, you can’t just file them away. You have to deal with them. They’re not just going to disappear.
Kay
I really don’t think I can watch the level of gaslighting this lauding and congratulations of Netanyahu in the US Congress is going to require. We’re now completely in fantasyland. I hope at least some Democrats have the spine to resist.
TBone
@Mai Naem mobile: EXACTLY. I would appear in person in Malvern at corporate headquarters! I almost did that, but they complied just in time…
Tony Jay
@Kay:
It is a shitshow. I could understand the US State Dept and the White House thinking that behind the scenes pressure and a common sense appraisal of Israel’s best interests would have an influence on the Israeli Govt’s behaviour … but only in a fictional universe where that Govt wasn’t made up of Hard Right criminal thugs, religious supremacists and militaristic expansionists who have always been clear that they see Palestinians as a temporary problem requiring removal by force.
We long ago passed the point where Israel’s rampage was in any way ‘understandable’. This isn’t a tantrum, it’s not going to burn itself out. This is a policy of genocide implemented through multiple war crimes, and the rest of the world has lost patience with the pretence that it’s anything else.
Starfish
@sab: Don’t worry. The programmers are working on AI to make customer service non-existent for everyone.
Geminid
I see Rick Scott has thrown his hat in the ring for next Republican Senate Leader. Scott expressed confidence that it will be Majority Leader, and he’s got the right stuff. Senators John Cornyn and John Thune are already bidding for tbe job.
Cornyn and Thune may have the last laugh, because this November Democrat Debbie Murcasel could force Rick Scott into a much-deserved retirement. Then he won’t even have a vote in the leadership race.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Tony Jay:
What’s your general opinion of the Greens in the UK. I know they’re entirely different than the basic griftfest that are the Greens here.
I ask because I know somebody who ran for Bristol City Council as a Green. She lost the race but made national news by losing a finger to a dog that bit her while she was out flyering a neighborhood.
I know the Greens did really well in Bristol and nothing in her campaign material, etc., seemed all that whacky. In fact, given what I saw of them campaigning in Bristol and your descriptions of Labour in general, I would have voted for them if I lived there. Heaven help me for even thinking that.
Starfish
@JaySinWA: Someone I know has someone else in town working on a social security number that he was assigned. They are not a wealthy family and cannot afford to pay taxes for this other person who is using the social security number that is not theirs.
TBone
VG just got a new CEO (tenure effective in July). He’s, shall we say, not as spotless as the founder and his predecessor.
Tony Jay
@piratedan:
None of the major ones. Both are absolutely committed to ‘making Brexit work’. In fact I’d expect the Tories (in whatever form they survive) to see the crying need to break with that before the centralising spitemonsters running newlabourinc get around to it.
The absolute best result for the country would be a hung Parliament where newlabourinc had to grudgingly work with the Lib-Dems and the Scots Nats to form a Government. No Tories, and a anti-Brexit counterweight applied to the centre-right loons openly trying to reinvent Labour as the successor party to the old ‘One Nation’ Thatcherite Tories.
TBone
@TBone: he’s about to implement changes where you have to actively manage your own trades. I say WHAT THE FUCK AM I PAYING YOU FOR THEN?
Starfish
@TBone: Oh, everyone at the top of a lot of companies is down with hives of scum and villainy. They cannot be avoided because they have all the money.
Starfish
@TBone: What do you mean by that?
If he chooses to make things terrible, we will all go to Fidelity because they have a better website.
Kay
@Tony Jay:
I knew we were going to go from “what are those icky hippies screaming about?” to “holy shit, this is a… catastrophe on every level?!”
I knew that because I listened the ME expert who resigned from the State Department. She predicted exactly this – first we would have to ignore the human rights abuses and then we would have to ignore the incompetence and lack of any plan to end this, short of actually wiping out every Palestinian in Gaza.
Maybe that’s the plan? We just wait until the “Palestinian problem” is solved because they’re all dead?
Anthony Blinken should maybe stop worrying about the ICC indicting war criminals – which is actually none of his fucking affair- and worry more about this shit show he’s embroiled in.
Kay
@Tony Jay:
The US, smug that they’ve now arrested and/or beaten all the 19 year old protestors and shut them up, now has the actual clusterfuck reality to deal with. Surprise surprise.
Maybe a couple more editorials on how college students don’t know history will fix it.
Ironcity
@sab: You appear to be stuck in Vanguards systems and layers of systems to prevent fraud or people getting money out (sometimes the same thing, but not always).
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is as good as they can be, but things do get confused and SS numbers are not golden identification on their own. I have had 2 different social security numbers because the original one assigned in 19xx had already been assigned to somebody else. 10 or 15 years later SSA figured out that they shouldn’t be getting contributions from someone on their list of deceased beneficiaries. It took a visit to the local SSA office with their own notice to my employer, govt. issued photo ID, and birth certificate and I was issued a new SSA number and an offical letter explaining what happened so I could go around to everybody that had the old number and change it to the new one. In doing that I learned more about back offices in financial institutions than I ever cared to. The SSA systems appear to be designed by geniuses to be operated by monkeys so you have to get through the monkeys to at least the first supervisory layer to get anywhere. I would bet money that Vanguard is the same way. Good Luck.
TBone
@Starfish: I have what’s called “Inherited IRA accounts” so it’s not that simple for me. I’m stuck like chuck – can’t just change custodian without severe penalties. I’m locked in.
BellyCat
Perfect.
Mai Naem mobile
@Tony Jay: after Gordon Brown, Milliband and Corbyn I fully expect Labor to screw it up and lose. I’m also sure RW Brit media with an assist from Putin’s pals will be involved in some way.
Geminid
If and when “Bibi” adresses Congress, someone ought to print up T-shirts with, “Benjamin Netanyahu Farewell Tour.”
Baud
@Geminid:
You have a nice positive outlook.
TBone
Maybe I’m missing something but how can President Biden completely divest the U S. from sending military aid dollars to Israel without running afoul of the law?
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/14/fact-sheet-memorandum-understanding-reached-israel
Geminid
@TBone: There are still various ways the Prdsident can restrict the shipment of tbese weapons, and Biden has used one of them already.
TBone
@sab: you cannot add anything to an inherited account. You can take your personal distribution of your personal funds, but cannot roll any additional funds into an inherited account; in other words, you cannot commingle those funds.
TBone
@Geminid: yup am aware of that. It’s the people who think President Biden can wave his magic wand and completely extricate the U.S. from this clusterfuck that drive me nuts.
Geminid
@TBone: I figured you knew; I still thought it important to point out if only because it got the Israelis’ attention.
Ed. The pause on the arms shipment got more attention in Israel than it did over here.
TBone
The part where she tells the judge “It’s a fact” and gives THE LOOK is why my female coworkers at my law office all told me “OMG THAT’S YOU!”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BllWI-OUwmI
TBone
@Geminid: 👍
Mai Naem mobile
@Geminid: haha. I love that. They could do a joint TFG+Bibi farewell tour. Listen to some of your favorite tunes live in person for the last time .
Geminid
We’re finally supposed to get some of the heavy weather todai in Central Virginis they’ve been getting out west: hea y thunderstorms, posdible hail, flask flooding. Could be similar weather Memorial Day.
trnc
How do we get from “relationship transcends single PM” with the obvious implication that THIS PM is the problem to “sure, invite THIS PM?” Schumer has been a lot better as senate leader than I expected overall, but he has a huge blind spot on this.
sab
@TBone: I knew that. Dad had two accounts, the regular one and the rollover one. Each has different required minimum distribution rules as well as different contribution rules.
My problem is that they won’t let me open any account because of the “dual synchronicity” of two names to one social security number already in their system.
TBone
@sab: ugh. Maybe file a Petition for Name Change in your local court (like those used after a divorce) changing your name back to your maiden name? It’s prolly too late for that though. Fuck. I’d drive to their Malvern corporate headquarters in person but I have no idea if you’re able to…
sab
@Kay: Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll try that today.
evodevo
@opiejeanne: Yep…Hubby and I have been doing just fine with laddered CDs and DRIPS for years, even when the interest rates were low. You don’t pay fees/commissions/etc. and the principal is guaranteed by the Feds, no matter what the economy does. The Crash of ’08 screwed a lot of our friends who were bragging about their stock returns just a year earlier. Some had to put off retiring. We were fine. I certainly don’t intend to go through that…our income from dividends and interest is WAY up the past couple years, so much so that we had to start paying quarterly estimated tax this year…
Tony Jay
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I don’t know – that – much about the Greens, TBH. Their appeal has always been more local, with their only MP being from Bristol. It – could – be that they suck up a ton of votes from disgruntled Labour voters who would never vote Tory but can’t vote for Starmer’s tribute act either, or those voters might just stay at home.
Crazy election this. Everyone wants to boot the Tories, but they are paradoxically so unpopular that no one outside of marginal seats and seats with huge Tory majorities feels the urgent need to vote against them. It’s going to be a low turnout, with the number of Tories staying home deciding the outcome.
That could help smaller parties like the Greens, or it could hurt them. It’s hard to guess how people will jump.
Timill
@TBone: Or sab could even change both names to something new. Probably not FUVanguard, though…
kalakal
@Gloria DryGarden:
To add a little bit to Tony Jay and SPC123 excellent posts
In a UK General election all 650 MPs (Members of Parliament) are up for reelection ( Think of the House of Representatives all up for election on the same day) . The leader of whichever party has a majority of MPs* after the election becomes Prime Minister ( In US terms the Speaker of the House would also be President ).
As both Tony and SPC say the Tories are going to get hammered, it remains to be seen how much Labour have actually shifted to the right or have simply been avoiding saying or doing anything that the British Media ( which makes the current US MSM look like a bunch of Trotskyists ) would use to destroy them as they have done so often in the past.
Apologies if you already know this
*technically the Prime Minister is the one who “can command a majority” of MPs. If no party has an overall majority there’s a lot of negotiation to form a coalition
Tony Jay
@Mai Naem mobile:
It would take astonishing political malpractice for newlabourinc to lose this election.
So no, not impossible. Highly unlikely, given how unpopular and maladroit the Tories are, and how cringing obedient newlabourinc are to the owners of the UK Media industry, but they really are bad enough at basic politics to screw it up.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@sab: If you’re formally in probate, can you sic the judge on them?
evodevo
@TBone: And I bet they will STILL take out commissions and fees when that happens LOL
Tony Jay
@Kay:
When you find yourself standing in front of a camera angrily insisting that Israel can’t possibly be guilty of the war-crimes it’s clearly guilty of because HAMAS BAD!
It’s a good idea not to be in front of a camera for a while. Credibility, etc.
sab
@a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio): IRAs aren’t usually in probate. That is one of the points for having them. And I doubt a local probate judge can or would even want to try to take on a huge enterprise like Vanguard.
artem1s
This isn’t just about the VP pick. It’s an attempt to get them to ‘sign’ a loyalty oath for the 2024 EC certification. Each of the congress critters should be hauled in front of Congress to answer whether they are planning on staging a coup when the EC votes are certified in January 2025.
Also,too – the opening question/s should be “who won the 2020 election?” and “who is the current POTUS?”. Or better yet, yes or no. Is Biden the President? Did Biden win the 2020 election?
Nettoyeur
@piratedan: The EU has made it clear during Brexit that they will not bend over backwards to help the UK get back in to the Union like they did the last time. The Brits will not like the conditions on offer. I reck they’re scrood.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Tony Jay:
Thanks for the reply.
It’s pretty clear that Bristol is where, for whatever reason, the Greens have electoral success.
Bill Arnold
@TBone:
Thanks!.
Large pupils, and the right eye is pointed in a different direction. (Right brain hemisphere (left eye) is engaged with someone physically present.) D. Scavino must be freaking out.
I do not recall obvious “lazy eye” in Trump in the past. Anyone?
rikyrah
@Geminid:
UM….he stole their money the last time he was in charge of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee…
Geminid
@rikyrah: Rick Scott is like Willie Sutton. “Why do I want to be Leader? Because that’s where the money is.”
Another Scott
@TBone: Um…
Original photo.
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
Thanks. I had just returned to this thread to get the image url to do a reverse search.
Still looks like lazy eye & large pupils, to me at least.
sab
@Kay: @sab:
Thanks Kay. This might work. I called today and was politely relentless that I had been trying online for more than a month and it wasn’t working and surely they had a form they could send me or email me that I could send back with documents.
Call took hours, but I finally persuaded him that online wasn’t working and that I had been promised paper forms ( via e-mail) that hadn’t arrived. Then presto (sort of, 4 hours later) there they were in my e-mail.
spc123
@kalakal: Yeah, Starmer gets a lot of criticism, but running a campaign on getting back in the CU – as a rule taker no less – is probably not the wisest choice (yet) despite growing dissatisfaction with Brexit. He seems – to me at least – to be a bit of a cypher though and overcautious to a fault.