So here we are, 10 days in, and we are once again in that place where every day is as long as a life-age of the earth, as a local writer put it once. My income currently depends on two surprisingly vulnerable factors: 1) higher education institutions in the US, and 2) the GBP to USD exchange rate. Should this week’s highly illegal funding freeze take effect (which looks less likely) that will obviously impact factor #1.
Factor #2 is doing well for the moment, but I thought you all would like to see this:
So that’s today’s exchange rate. I take dollars out of my US bank account and transfer them to my UK account, and it costs me $1.24 to buy a pound to pay Severn Trent Water or HMRC or Tesco with. That rate is historically terrific, even in the not-quite-20-years I’ve been over here: it was as high as $2.10 back in 2007, and dipped as low as $1.08 during Liz Truss’s tenure in 2022. (A friend unkindly suggested at the time that seeing the pound and the dollar almost reach parity may be what actually did the late Queen in.) 2024’s high was around $1.35 back in late September, and it has been worming its way down toward $1.20 ever since.
Anyway, today you can see it went on a bit of a roller-coaster ride. That ride’s dips and climbs are timed to breaking news:
- 7 a.m. UK time was when the news about last night’s air disaster broke. The line went up, and my life became ever so slightly more expensive.
- Just after 2 p.m. UK time, the President began flapping his mouth about last night’s tragedy. Traders seemed to remember who exactly is in charge over there, and again, the dollar weakened.
- Just after 9 p.m. UK time, he made his announcement about his tariffs, and the line dropped off a cliff.
Currencies tend to strengthen when their governments impose tariffs. I imagine the rate will be down to $1.23 tomorrow morning when I wake up.
Regardless of the short-term benefits of a stronger dollar, this roller coaster ride is not one I want to be on, because it’s controlled by whatever noises come out of Donald Trump’s mouth.
I don’t have a snappy wind-up here; I’m just sharing my angle on how exhausting it is to be an American in the world right now. It would be wonderful not to worry about the mood swings of a bitter old man I’ve never met, but unfortunately, I live in interesting times along with the rest of you.
Still, living 3,000 miles away means I’m not on the sharp end of his policies. I get paid tomorrow, and I’ll be directing some of my money to The Trevor Project, a suicide-prevention nonprofit for LGBTQ+ youth. If you can, you may want to consider helping them out, too, or reading some of their resources for allies. After immigrants, trans youth are probably the most vulnerable population in the US right now.
Open thread.
Elizabelle
I worry that he will trash the economy. His oligarchs can buy our assets pennies on the dollar. What does he care? Down is up in that world, and there is no truth — it’s just what comes out of his addled gob.
Betty Cracker
We’re what, less than 10 days in? And yep, you nailed it — it’s fucking exhausting. We’re going to have to pace ourselves. Thanks for the reminder about the Trevor Project.
Rose Judson
@Elizabelle: I think he will do his best to make that happen, because it’s what the Project 2025 people want. And Musk, et. al., obviously. But I have to try to get through the day somehow.
prostratedragon
Some resources I saw today. Reminder that they’re on record as wanting specific categories of people to die.
Almost Retired
The Trevor Project is indeed a worthy recipient of our funds and volunteer time. I know one of the founders, Peggy Rajski, in real life She is passionate, committed and brilliant.
A Ghost to Most
Hey, at least you’re not busy preparing for a possible civil war.
Elizabelle
22 hours ago, that accident had not yet happened.
Something like that, it is like flipping a switch. Here and. Gone.
Rose Judson
@A Ghost to Most: Only in that I’m wondering where I’ll fit the family members who will need to flee one.
Baud
@Rose Judson:
And jackals!
TBone
I missed the tariffs announcement. Should I look? “Sonofabitch, I am going to touch it anyway!” *
(*Reference to a thread here a while back about kids and cussing. A wee girl was fascinated by some flashy doodad on a Christmas table, and was admonished NOT to touch it!)
Pete Downunder
The Aussie Dollar (otherwise known as the KangaRuble) is also highly volatile. Since I get US Social Security but converted to AUD I am very happy now with the AUD hovering at about USD $0.62 so I get about AUD $1.60 for each USD. My friends here who want to travel to the US for whatever reason are less happy as it makes it quite expensive. Everyone here is worried what the Orange Fartcloud will do to the world. His comments about yesterday’s air disaster were stupid and insensitive beyond words.
Baud
I believe protocol requires you to blame DEI for that.
lowtechcyclist
I haven’t been able to find an Administration announcement about tariffs, other than a story that tariffs on Canada might happen this weekend (gift link) that didn’t seem to name a particular source. But nothing in that story about Britain or Europe more generally.
TBone
@TBone: awww shit, I REMEMBER receiving a check signed by that motherfucker and I took a Sharpie to it and wrote “Impeached #3” after his name before depositing!
GAH
https://apnews.com/article/trump-energy-economy-inflation-ev-oil-gas-00be8d3d5216a328e129666032c889e1
What the everloving fuck?
Miss Bianca
@Pete Downunder:
Calling his remarks “stupid and insensitive” actually feels like an insult to stupidity and insensitivity.
Elizabelle
@Miss Bianca: That was an accident that was going to happen. It was a matter of time.
Wondering if The Felon was told who crewed the military heli — that information would have been rapidly available — and seized on the ugly DEI as a response.
Also: even if complicit in a terrible tragedy, caused by pilot error: those servicepeople served in our military. What a terrible thing to say, immediately upon their loss.
That. Firing the Coast Guard commander. Who wants your kid serving under The Felon’s watch?
Of course, if he trashes the well-functioning Biden economy, people may enlist due to lack of other employment options.
But. Just cannot get over the disrespect in a time of tragedy.
Everyone involved in that accident, and those at the airport and responding: they all have families.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
People voted for him to be disrespectful.
I disrespect him and his culture, so we’re even.
Baud
Some potentially good news
hells littlest angel
What irks me is that these times really aren’t interesting at all. They’re just stupid.
Baud
@hells littlest angel:
Agreed. Forced chaos is dull.
laura
@Baud: I could use that right now. Total hip replacement this morning. The pain is sudden and searing.
Betty Cracker
@hells littlest angel: So true it should be committed to needlepoint!
@laura: Woof. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Baud
@laura:
Amazing your up for being here. Feel better.
prostratedragon
@laura: Owie! Regardless, hope whatever they let you have helps; consequences are for later in this case.
Dan B
@laura: Heal quickly. And feel better soon!
Miss Bianca
@Baud: we still have an FDA?/
JGreen
@TBone: I’m starting to use that line more and more although not to the public in general. I’d have to explain the source and that would diminish the impact. I always say that if you have to explain the joke, it’s no good.
NotMax
It’s getting wild out there, weatherwise, this afternoon.
laura
Many thanks all- my gratitude is much higher than my pain. And Shout-out for earned benefits. Had I done this before September when I aged into Medicare, my deductible was 12 large plus copay. Total out of pocket was $200.
While I believed it was due to walking literally hundreds of miles on picket lines over the last dozen years, I learned that I have scoliosis and the troublesome leg was 1/2″ longer than t’other.
I shall evangelize for protecting our earned benefits till I’m gone. Thanks again for well wishes. Now back to fighting for our beloved trans brothers and sisters and children, and fighting the fascist motherfuckers.
TBone
@JGreen: in my case, I can see that little girl, muttering under her breath, while all dressed up for the holiday hahahaha. Last time I made that reference, someone here asked me what it meant, so I figured I’d explain in advance like a good Jackal. I hate to ruin jokes, but as I can clearly see the little girl’s face, it’s still pretty freakin’ funny.
I hope you get great mileage out of it too!
Baud
Via reddit
TBone
@NotMax: I hope you have a basement or other proper shelter!
Harrison Wesley
@Baud: If it was dropped off a cliff, probably Wil-DEI Coyote was involved.
TBone
@Baud: my question is, which arrest happened first. J6 or DUI.
HeleninEire
When I saw that exchange rate I checked the dollar against the Euro. It’s €1 to $1.04. I don’t think for all the times I’ve been exchanging dollars for Euros that I’ve gotten more $ for €.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: Jeez. Batten down the hatches! Hope you’re in a relatively safe spot.
TBone
I have to limit my mouth today, it wants to run and screech and shout and cry and keen. Simultaneously. I cannot comment on anything pain related except to say please make it stop for all of us, so snark and jokes is all I got left.
Just for today.
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: Snark and jokes keep me going. You know this.
J. Arthur Crank
@Baud: I first read that as a “DEI crash”. I gotta take a break.
Regarding the linked story: fuck his momma.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: WTOP Radio* had some good coverage tonight on the helicopter/plane crash. They are DC’s all-news station. I can’t pull in their local 103.5 FM signal but their Fredericksburg transmitter comes in fine at 107.7 FM.
Anyway, they identified a possible failure point: the Air Traffic Control station was understaffed. A former FAA official commented on this and said it merited investigation; that this wasn’t unusual but maybe it should be. I forget her name but it was a familiar one.
At least 40 of the deceased have been recovered. While names have not been released, they include 3 students at Fairfax County schools and 6 parents of students. Also, 4 members of the Prince George’s Pipe Fitters and Steam Fitters Local.
Ed. WTOP just had another report that referred to Trump’s response. It included a soundbite from Senator Tammy Duckworth. I could hear the anger in her voice.
* I remember WTOP as a “Top 40” music station. Now its a good source for reporting on national as well as local news. D.C. being a company town, they carry a lot of political and national security news besides the CBS News “on the hour and half hour.”
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: and I adore you for it. And for reminding me that that’s perfectly ok.
WaterGirl
@laura: Yikes! Hoping for quick relief for you.
Central Planning
I was fortunate to get the low GBP exchange rate 2 years ago when my daughter was going to school over in England. That was a pleasant, unplanned surprise for me.
And, even with the higher exchange rate other years along with the “privilege” of paying the extra international fee, the tuition and room and board was still less expensive than her previous school here in the US.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: Yes. Understaffed since late 2023, I believe.
There have been so many near misses. This was due to happen, if not at DCA, elsewhere.
PS: Thank you re 107.7. Will see if I can get that from Richmond. Recently found WRIR independent radio — small station — comes in at 97.3. Pleasant surprise.
Sister Golden Bear
One bit of good news, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s attempt to transfer a trans woman to a men’s prison, after she had been in the women’s prison for years, and denying her access to hormones, which she’d been taking since she was a teenager. The attempt was part of Trump’s first anti-trans EO. Judge will be considering whether to issue a longer-lasting injunction. Three other trans women in prison filed a similar lawsuit, also challenging Trump’s policy, on Thursday in DC.
It’s small victory, but we’ll take all the ones we can get. If nothing else, it’s showing that Trump’s EO’s are not an invincible force.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: WTOP used to be the call letters of the CBS-TV affiliate as well, when I was a kid. Then for a while after that it became WDVM (District-Virginia-Maryland), then WUSA.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: A *lot* of these guys are going to reoffend pretty quickly.
zhena gogolia
@Sister Golden Bear: Good.
prostratedragon
Fell Happy Birthday to Lynn Harrell, wherever you are:
Haydn cello concerto no. 1, 3rd movement
Harrison Wesley
I’ve been curious about something I’m sure someone here can answer. I’ve sort of followed how the current Washington infestation has been disappearing any attachment or reference to military personnel past or present who aren’t Patriotic Merkin Knights Templar. But what about initiatives in the last few years to weed out potential or actively serving Nazis and Klansmen and such? I remember these investigations starting, but haven’t heard boo in a while.
Dan B
@Matt McIrvin: Four of the pardoned J6 people have been caught criming. It’s probably going to be many more.
Poe Larity.
I get too tired to wait for open threads, so will someone ask Martin to write up how to turn my FB UX to Sturmabteilung Brown?
thx!
Quinerly
Haven’t read all the comments. This may have been posted. Fed judge temporarily halts the transfer of the transgender inmate who was suing.
A spokeswoman for the group GLAD Law, the group that brought the case, said the order “requires them to keep our client in general population in a women’s facility and to maintain her medical care,” according to a statement to the outlet.
The case marked the first legal challenge to Trump’s Jan. 20 order targeting “gender ideology extremism.” The judge has also ordered the case to be partially sealed from public viewing, making it difficult to keep tabs on the case as litigation proceeds.
Reuters, WaPo reporting
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/30/metro/trump-order-transgender-prisons/
Harrison Wesley
@Dan B: Straight out of West Side Story. When you’re J6, you’re J6 all the way…
scav
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, but this winner seems to have been driving blasted, going the wrong way down the road and killed a few people a few days before pleading guilty to J6 tourism. So she’s already multi-tasking her skillset rapidly.
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: That’s a relief. I feel that the question, “How have trans people existing directly affected your life?” is a good one. My answer is, I’ve met a lot of wonderful people and one who was a bit of a grump (trans man).
prostratedragon
Coming in a moment on TCM, Gene Hackman tribute on Actor’s Day. Think he’s the one I’d pick.
Jay
@Geminid:
Dolt 47’s freeze on hiring ATC’s and firing over 100 FAA employee’s has left 99% of US Control towers understaffed.
Quinerly
@Dan B:
Excellent piece. NPR. Durbin cited and questioned Patel about them today. Durbin name checked NPR. Seems to be lots of guys who like kiddie porn and terrorized their wives and children
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/30/nx-s1-5276336/donald-trump-jan-6-rape-assault-pardons-rioters
Quinerly
@Sister Golden Bear
Was so happy to see this when it crossed my feed. Should have read all the comments.
Hugs.
Dan B
@Harrison Wesley: Your musical observation is spot on!
prostratedragon
@Dan B: Refs a number that has alwys sounded different to me since September of 2001.
Dan B
@Quinerly: Seems like many of the J6 folks have nasty pasts, and probably futures.
Ohio Mom
@laura: Oh dear. I’ve experienced a similar cliff when anesthesia for my cornea procedure wore off and the pain med I was sent home with wasn’t up to the job. Well, to be fair, I waited too long to start taking it and then I found out Percocet doesn’t agree with me. But I digress.
You deserve not to be in agony and pain slows down recovery. Do NOT be shy about demanding better relief. If you are at home, phone the on-call doctor. That is their job, to answer calls from patients whatever time it is (I’m assuming you must be home, else you would have rung up the nurse).
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, go get greasy.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Which my Maryland brother-in-law has always pronounced ‘wussy.’
When I was a kid back in the 1960s, WTOP was news and other grownup programming. The Top 40 stations were WPGC and WEAM.
Ohio Mom
@NotMax: I did not know it could snow in Hawaii. This blog continues to educate me. Stay safe please.
HinTN
@Ohio Mom: The Big Island summits (Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa) are way on up there.
TBone
@prostratedragon: I enjoyed the one coming on next (10pm) although it is noir and not for everyone
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Moves_(1975_film)
Stella
Bipartisan senate agreement to fast track nominee confirmations so they can go home for the weekend:
https://bsky.app/profile/mcopelov.bsky.social/post/3lgyrd7qvnc2m
This is after Dem governors beg Schumer to slow the process down:
https://bsky.app/profile/golikehellmachine.com/post/3lgyq7hq65k25
Senate Dems are absolutely failing us at this moment.
Sister Golden Bear
@Ohio Mom: Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island are each about 14,000 feet, and Haleakalā on Maui is about 10,000 feet. Snow on all three happens not infrequently.
Temperature drops 3.5º F — or 2º C for those using sensible systems of measurements — for every 1,000 feet, so the peaks of the former are 49 degrees colder than sea level, and the latter 35 degrees. Add in wind chill and it can get damn cold. Ask me how I know.
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear:
Oh, come on. Those numbers are almost the same.
lowtechcyclist
WaPo front page headline right now:
Airport control tower was understaffed before collision
Two people were handling the jobs of four when the plane and helicopter collided in D.C., killing 67 people, report says
lowtechcyclist
@Stella:
God damn, their weekend is more important to them than doing their fucking jobs right under these circumstances??
I hope they all have the worst weekends of their lives so far.
pajaro
@Stella:
The only nominee being voted on tonight is Doug Burgham, for Interior, according to the bluesky post.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: And the hits just keep on comin’… : /
Stella
@pajaro: And breaking two filibusters.
prostratedragon
@TBone:
I like it too. Also The Conversation. The French Connection is a great novie overall, but I find Hackman’s character just a touch loathsome. Love, love, the way the stages of the heist are shown, and the NYC footchases, which capture something about living even a legit life there.
Quinerly
@Baud:
Yep. Sullivan, Missouri
Our old Ozark’s area.
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: Oh, thank goodness. I’ve been haunted by that story every since you told us about it. It was one of the things that was churning through my brain at oh-dark-thirty this morning.
Miss Bianca
@lowtechcyclist:
@Stella:
Their *weekend*? Goddamn.
If I were a mean kinda person (oh, wait, I am), I would ask the Senators why they feel so goddamn anxious to fly out of National right now.
VFX Lurker
Hear, hear!
-+-
Today, Evan Urquhart of Assigned Media signal-boosted a person who needs GoFundMe help for transition care. I made a small contribution because Evan asked, and I hope it helps.
TBone
@prostratedragon: ooh The Conversation is a great one! And I completely agree about The French Connection.
Anastasio Beaverhausen
FYI, a dozen large, free-range eggs was $4.40 at my Sainsbury here in Richmond.
Chris T.
@Sister Golden Bear: Dead thread here, but I must note that the adiabatic lapse rate depends on the humidity.