Jeez, I’m gone for a bit and all hell breaks loose.
Trump said he’s really, really going to impose tariffs and the stock market took a correction in the back bathroom that really stunk the place up.
President Elon apparently has full reign over the government, and the Census and FAA websites are apparently down right now. He’s also locked government workers out of the HR systems.
Trump is a very weak old man and it’s clear that we have a combo of Trump out front pushing his favorite hobby horses, while in the back room, Elon is running the show.
It’s chaos city out there, but remember that the masters of his universe don’t like it when the stock market goes down. So we’ll see what happens tomorrow, if the world still exists.
Open thread.
les
C’mon. There’s plenty of real awful out there; a Dow drop of <1% happens all the time. Not even close to the wahwah trombones on Marketplace.
Baud
Small price for the MOTU to pay to oppress labor after Biden almost gave them a chance.
Baud
@les:
Yeah, not significant yet. But could end up being so.
ETA: but all negative news is Trump’s fault.
SpaceUnit
Yeah, if that’s the extent of the market reaction I’ll take it.
Of course there’s going to be four years of this shit.
SW
Save it for the -30% days ahead.
Spanky
It’ll be real fun when institutional investors realize that T-bills aren’t worth crap anymore. Which is where we’re heading.
trollhattan
Kid had to fly to D.C. today and wow, was she ever nervous. Dulles, but still….
princess leia
Is there any safe investments anymore?
Spanky
@princess leia: An off-grid cabin in Northern California/Oregon?
Stella
Trump is inventing new kinds of awful, it’s incredible.
https://sjvwater.org/decision-to-dump-water-from-tulare-county-lakes-altered-after-sending-locals-in-mad-scramble/
Baud
OT FYI. Via blue sky
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Or something, going by past Elon is going rename the government X of America and make it an online bank.
A crazy old man and crazy stoner, what a combo.
Kelly
@Spanky: Wildfire?
Steve in the ATL
@trollhattan: Dulles doesn’t have the same issues as [redacted] National, other than being named after someone horrible. The air is far less congested out there in the sticks.
mali muso
@trollhattan: We fly in and out of Dulles all the time. Unlike National, the airspace seems less crowded…at least the approach is always very long and slow. But yeah, flying anywhere in this moment is nervous-making.
princess leia
@princess leia: Yikes! Are not is! …. I must be rattled!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Have spent a lifetime flying in/out of all 3 DC airports.
Dulles is gravy, particularly compared to National.
Kayla Rudbek
@Steve in the ATL: yes, concur with the Dulles v National airspace. If the Congress were rational, National Airport probably wouldn’t be open to regular passenger flights.
cmorenc
@Baud: what is / was this -ai search appendage google stopped from working ‘no mo? What did it do ?
Jackie
Just reported:
Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is now Interior Secretary. 79-18.
PsiFighter37
Being in finance, the shock was more because the assumption the entire time is that the felon has been bluffing. Maybe the fact that he will be implementing this stuff less than 2 weeks into a 4-year stretch will cause the markets to seriously reevaluate the impact to economic growth this will have. It does not help that there is a quasi-serious hedge fund manager named Scott Bessent in charge of Treasury, whose main qualification was competently running George Soros’s fund before striking out on his own and performing in a quite mediocre fashion. His hedge fund is not a big name in high finance circles, and most of the successful names (even blowhards like Bill Ackman) likely had no interest in actually being on the hook for accountability for demonstrably bad economic policy.
Baud
@cmorenc:
Stopped Google’s AI response to a search
Kayla Rudbek
@cmorenc: -term will eliminate the particular term from Google search results, for instance if I want Birmingham but not Alabama I would enter Birmingham -Alabama. So -ai would eliminate the AI generated search results or AI as a term in general. Google being too big for its britches is trying to force you to see the useless AI results.
H.E.Wolf
@Jackie:
As usual, Electoral-Vote.com is on it before almost everyone else.
Here’s the relevant entry from their morning blog post today.
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Items/Jan31-2.html
I also like their Friday Freudenfreude (the opposite of schadenfreude) entries. Here’s today’s:
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Items/Jan31-7.html
MazeDancer
Allison Gill reports 88 FBI agents who worked on Trump and J6 cases were escorted out of the building.
Not sure by who.
Is this good for Kash Patel?
WTFGhost
I just learned my life is in the hands of a federal judge, so, I figure I’ve got a 50/50 chance, like in the Vega song. Otherwise, being disabled only helps if I’m a fetus that needs to be carried to term, which, given the whole-body effects of my very existence, makes *me* feel like “jeezus fucking *CHRIST* you assholes put MY MOM through that shit? Don’t EVER fucking say you did it for ME!”
Bill Arnold
Acting POTUS Elon Reeve Musk.
Autopen Donald John Trump.
prostratedragon
Congressional Dems bluesky starter pak
matt
MAGDA Make America Great Depression Again.
Harrison Wesley
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Sounds like a great beginning for an apocalyptic movie set in Mar-a-Lago.
MobiusKlein
@Stella:
I saw that too – absolute insanity. Let folks who know what they are doing manage the water. When the lakes run dry, and the farmers are moan their crops are dying, we will point to this. Make Turmp own it all.
J
Today as Donald Trump prepares to put into effect his plan to inflict economic harm on Canada, as part of a broader plan to destroy good relations between the United States and other nations, it seems worth recalling the once celebrated example of international cooperation and friendship: 11 Sept. 2001 when Canada and Canadians stepped into the breach as American airspace was closed providing refuge for stranded planes and passengers. (I’m an American long resident in Canada and sick at heart.)
Sister Golden Bear
@Baud: Adding curse words to your search query also causes Google to omit AI results and is a lot more fun. Yes, seriously.
John S.
@Jackie:
Goddamn it. Maria Cantwell keeps voting for these fucking clowns. I really don’t understand why. Especially when Patty Murray seems to have gotten the memo to act as the opposition.
I mean for fuck sake, Cantwell just got re-elected last year. IN WASHINGTON. There’s just no good reason for her to vote this way.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@MazeDancer:
A coincidence, of course.
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear:
I’m going to get a visit form HR because of my work googling, aren’t I?
John S.
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog:
Oh goody, more dog whistling to Nazis.
Harrison Wesley
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: The cases they worked on, the number 88, or both?
Jay
https://interactives.lowyinstitute.org/features/china-versus-america-on-global-trade/
As King Tangerine currently claims that tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the ROW will now start Feb 18th,
prepare to watch what little remains of the blue, (primary trade with the US) in 2023, disappear and never return
When you have lost Greenland,……………………………….
TheflipPsyd
Another plane crash — small plane crashed in Northeast Philly — near the Roosevelt Mall. I spent most of my teen Friday nights there. Wow.
NotMax
And the hits just keep on coming.
Jackie
@John S.:
Sounds like we Washingtonians need to be making phone calls… it really doesn’t make sense, and we need to find out wtf.
bbleh
@TheflipPsyd: have seen a report that it was a medical flight, tho nothing official. Sigh.
Tom
CBS is giving in to the FCC and releasing the full unedited video from Kamala Harris’s 60 Minutes interview because Trump wants to retaliate against them. Everyone seems to be folding at a time when we need to stand against these fascists to preserve our fundamental rights such as that of a free press. Hopefully we’ll still have some rights when the next election rolls around…
John S.
@Jackie:
Come Monday, it will be my third time calling her office because she can’t seem to stop voting for Trump cabinet picks.
The only person who seems to be much worse is John Fetterman, who so far has voted to confirm every piece of shit except for Hesgeth. His record is barely distinguishable from Dave McCormick.
ETA: I see Fetterman didn’t bother to show up for the Burgum vote.
LeftCoastYankee
I really wish the media would stop referring to Musk as head of DOGE and acting as if DOGE is legitimate.
It’s not a government agency. It’s probably not even registered as a business. It’s a club of unpaid fanboys who will be the ones thrown under the bus if accountability comes.
cmorenc
@Baud: thx
frosty
@NotMax: I don’t understand why the head of Census would step down. He’s opposed to what Trump wants to do. Why give him the opportunity? What “offer he couldn’t refuse” did they make?
I’m heartsick at all the news today. Musk can do anything he wants? Is that where we’re going / are?
tobie
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: You’re right. This was a signal. FBI as rightwing paramilitary force.
frosty
@John S.: So my three calls to Fetterman so far have been useless. Fuck!
NickM
Is it just me, or are the everyday MAGA fucks (both in personal and wider circles) staying pretty quiet lately? Do you sense they know they bought the ticket and they’re going to take the ride, including dealing with a lot of hatred and anger from us about what they’ve done? Or is it just me?
Starfish (she/her)
@frosty: Keep calling. Also ask people if they will consider running against him and hand them fistfuls of cash or do whatever it is you do to properly contribute to the campaign and document contributions with the secretary of state.
John S.
@frosty:
I don’t know what is wrong with your Senator. He even voted to confirm Kristi Noem and Lee Zeldin. Those should have been very easy “NO” votes.
trollhattan
@Steve in the ATL:
Understand, having flown in and out of both. Telling the kid that has surprisingly little calming effect.
trollhattan
@NotMax: Remember how Louis DeJoy resigned so Biden could nominate a new Postmaster General? Me neither.
Stella
@MobiusKlein: He’s now bragging about emptying the reservoirs. I feel like I’m going insane.
https://bsky.app/profile/sky.skymarchini.net/post/3lh36zvdid22h
bbleh
@NickM: I generally agree, and I’m a little surprised (tho not upset) at the lack of what I expected would be widespread braying.
Insofar as one can generalize, I put the latter down to a mixture of satisfaction about the outcome, a slowly growing confusion about exactly what “ride” it is they’ve signed us all up for, and a dawning realization that they’ve finally made their long-held paranoid fantasy about everyone else hating them finally come true.
frosty
@frosty: I told Fetterman to vote against Hegseth (he did), RFK Jr, Gabbard, and Patel. The latter two haven’t come up to a vote yet. I’ll call again.
He’s not going to oppose in lockstep, I understand that. I want him to vote against these four though.
Kayla Rudbek
@Sister Golden Bear: I love that idea although I can’t get away with it at work
Geminid
@MazeDancer: From the reports I heard on WTOP Radio* this afternoon, those 88 agents are just the beginning. National security correspondent said “hundreds” of FBI agents could get the axe.
As for Kash Patel, he’s probably glad an acting director is getting the dirty work done before he starts as FBI director.
Bill Arnold
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog:
Tradition! (Nazi edition)
Ohio Mom
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: Of all people, shouldn’t these FBI agents have seen this coming? Maybe they did and brought home copies of times and such earlier in the week.
trollhattan
Motherfuckers. They’re going to leave the SALT cap in place, aren’t they. Can’t be giving sweet tax cuts to mere citizens, now can we.
The motherfucking Laffer Curve will. Not. Die.
Wyliecoat
Large chunks of the CDC website also down.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/01/31/health/cdc-websites-gender-lgbtq-datasets
Melancholy Jaques
@John S.:
Some Democratic senators are seriously out of touch with the realities of 2025 America and with their base voters.
Dear Democratic senators: When you vote to confirm that asshole’s nominees, you are jointly responsible for whatever corrupt & fucked up things they do. If you want to serve the people of your state and America, you must say no to every single one of them. Every single one.They are going to get confirmed anyway, we know, but let them do it without you – and by association all Democrats – being complicit. Please.
MagdaInBlack
@matt: Please don’t make me change my nym.
Shalimar
So Elon’s goons were turned away from taking control of the government office that issues disbursements, but we know they will try again until they succeed. People are worried about Musk outright looting trillions, but I am worried about the other end. Social Security won’t be changed in Congress. We will win that fight every time. But what if Musk stops the payments every month? End social security simply by refusing to send it to people? He could do that and I’m not sure what would happen afterwards. There would be outrage, financial catastrophe, and deaths. But would people fight back enough to win?
Ohio Mom
@NickM: I think they specialized in saying stupid and means things about Democrats and they don’t have any Democrats in prominent positions to kick around anymore. They are reduced to insisting that Trump is cleaning up messes.
Ksmiami
@bbleh: oh I hate them and plan to make them suffer.
Ohio Mom
@Ohio Mom: copies of files
damn spell check
Bex
@TheflipPsyd: It was a Lear Jet medical flight plane.
different-church-lady
Welp, if you were ever wondering what it was like to be a German in the 1930s, then wonder no more.
Tim C
@NickM: Yes. Noticed it in my community. Even before Donald took office again, they seemed to be getting angry that so many people were dreading what is to come. It’s also only getting started. No idea if he will actually start tariffs or not, but again, people really are going to discover what’s what pretty soon.
different-church-lady
@Stella: Like, we’ve got an immediate and perhaps long-term future where Dumbfuck Hitler has a brain fart and instantly the machine of government just goes into action for a few hours or days before everyone collectively realizes they’re responding to the brain fart of an evil senile man and somehow backs away, IF WE’RE LUCKY.
Sister Golden Bear
@Stella: He’s emptying the reservoirs into the ocean. In other words, the exact way of “wasting water” he and other conservations have complained about for years.
different-church-lady
@NickM: VOTE FOR CRAZY, WIN CRAZY PRIZES.
Steve LaBonne
This was the wrong day to stop sniffing glue.
Denali5
Has RFK been voted on?
Stella
@Sister Golden Bear: Thank God the ocean won’t burn down thanks to his quick action.
VFX Lurker
The day before the Idiot started his first term, I switched everything to autopilot in my retirement accounts — Vanguard Lifestrategy Moderate Growth. 60/40 stocks/bonds, with 40% foreign exposure (ex: Toyota, Shell, Michelin).
The day after the Idiot won his second term, I wondered if I could do better than that. Maybe more bonds? Inflation-protected securities?
In the end, I stuck with what I had. Either my portfolio withstands that meteor strike, or it does not.
I’m investing in exercise and education for the next four years.
columbusqueen
Will we be lucky enough to have a mob drag Musk out of his DC lair & lynch him in front of the White House?
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: Orange Hitler is punishing farmers in red counties. Brillliant!!!
MobiusKlein
@Sister Golden Bear: Not to be the “well actually” guy, but …
Typically many of the lower-central valley rivers do not drain to the ocean, except in the years with the most massive rainfalls. I did not check if those lakes were in that area or not, so…
lowtechcyclist
@frosty:
I don’t understand either. He would have been fired or forced to resign sooner or later, but at least for a little while he could have shielded Census staff from the worst of the buffoonery from above, and given them more room to concentrate on doing their jobs.
If I were still working there, his resignation is the point where I’d start keeping a bottle in my desk drawer.
cain
Looks like our wishes that the american voters get what they voted good and hard is being realized.
columbusqueen
BTW, a student at Whitehall Yearling High School on the east side of Columbus tested positive for TB today.
TBone
@J: hugs
TBone
@Sister Golden Bear: do all curse words work, ’cause I have some rather unconventional epithets.
Soprano2
Bad week for plane crashes, a medical transport crashed in Philadelphia. It was on the way to Springfield-Branson National Airport.
different-church-lady
@cain: That wasn’t a wish: that was an inevitability.
TS
@Baud:
Just noticed this morning – the WaPo AI on comments refers to trump as
Former president trump – I quite like that interpretation – if only it were true
TheflipPsyd
@Bex: Just devastating for that neighborhood. Images are just awful. The ring footage of the plane crashing — it was really fast.
TBone
@bbleh: AP says it was indeed a medical flight en route to Missouri.
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear:
At least the Pacific is no longer on fire.
@cain:
Yay?
gene108
@NotMax:
At some point during the next four years economic information that makes Trump look bad will be banned from being published to the public or outright falsifications.
They’re already banning critical health information from being communicated.
different-church-lady
@Soprano2: Well, if they were trying to help people they deserved it.
TBone
@columbusqueen: tar and feathers should make a comeback in his case.
TBone
@columbusqueen: oh dear lort make it stop… somewhere
Sister Golden Bear
@MobiusKlein: Yeah, now that I check the map, it’s no clear if the Tulare County lakes drain all the way to the ocean. That said:
It’s not explicitly spelled out in the news article, but sounds like they released the water in a way that means it won’t be available for use later in the year when it’s needed. Plus they created a flood risk that forced local water officials to work overnight to prevent. So much winning….
Sister Golden Bear
@TBone: You’ll need to experiment and report back to us. Because science!
ColoradoGuy
@VFX Lurker: Pretty much my Vanguard portfolio too, just with a 50/50 stocks/bonds ratio, and about 35% foreign exposure. Probably as safe as anything, and widely diversified.
Jay
@MobiusKlein:
According to WaterBoard officials, the secondary (State and County) reservoirs used mostly for farm irrigation are being filled up, once full, the rest will simply run off, either to the sea, or wetlands.
However, both the systems are needed desperately in a drougt year and a drought year is coming.
Also, all that water is “owned” and “allocated” under Water Laws, so cities, municipalities and farmers have had a large chunk of “their” water flushed away with out compensation.
In other words, stollen by Dolt 47 and the Army Corp of Engineers, (who should have known a fuck of a lot better).
A Ghost to Most
Elmo is already planning new and exciting OTA updates for his robot fleet.
scav
@MobiusKlein: Still, the farmers rather liked having the water handy in the dams, ready for those dry summers like the one probably facing them, so ocean-destined or not, their water wouldn’t be where they could get to it. Thanks to their drip in chief.
brendancalling
@John S.: he’s hiding from his constituents too. Hasn’t done a town hall in god knows how long. Don’t think it’s going unnoticed.
MobiusKlein
@Sister Golden Bear: I feel a bit unclean for nitpicking like that. It will go down to Lake Tulare, and evaporate / leach into the aquifer. Net effect is the same – performative BS that won’t help farmers, firefighters, fish, or anything.
Sister Golden Bear
@Baud:
Next week will be multiple offshore oil well blowouts in SoCal, which will then catch fire. Drill baby drill!
My sole consolation is that one of the closest rigs is just west of Huntington Beach, aka MAGA by the Beach.
lynno
Did ya know we import tuna from Mexico? Yep the stuff we put in cans. What is Walmart going to do? Mark everything up Sunday or give the produce away to food banks and shut down the produce departments?
Jay
@lowtechcyclist:
Guy’s got a pension, (for now), is well off, so putting up with constant threats, harassment and death threat’s from MAGgot’s for how ever long he can cling on, probably isn’t worth it to him.
Let MAGgot’s what they voted for and hard.
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: Porterville is in the far south of the valley so the water goes all the way to San Francisco Bay since there’s no way through the mountains east and north of Santa Barbara.
Ask me how I know from Porterville.
different-church-lady
Have you noticed the press is remarkable silent on whether Dumbfuck Hitler is senile?
TBone
@Sister Golden Bear: that’s a guarantee when I have more IRL time to FA than I do right now hahahaha!
lowtechcyclist
@Jay:
I honestly can’t imagine that many MAGAts pay much attention to the Census Bureau. We were about as uncontroversial as it was possible for an arm of the Federal government to be.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: Many fewer than 120 articles this week in the NYT on that. Strange.
gene108
@Melancholy Jaques:
Political junkie base voters (us) are an incredibly small portion of the electorate. Also, almost no one is going to pay attention to confirmation votes by 2026.
I don’t think this is a hill worth dying on.
bluefoot
@Jay: FFOTUS is trying to destroy California, and I think Musk is right there too. It’s all just petty revenge and hate.
Jay
@lynno:
It was Saturday, now it’s not until Feb 18th, apparently.
Probably because the Tariff Threats aren’t working on anybody, other than to completely undermine any faith in the US as a trade partner.
Take a look at the infographic linked to in Comment #39.
For the majority of Nations, the US just isn’t as important anymore, having screwed over and has driven away too many trading partners through bullying.
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: Why in the wide, wide world of fuck would even someone as brain-dead as Donald Trump *do* that? I mean, that’s even more insane than his other 99,999 other insanities.
different-church-lady
@Miss Bianca: There’s no bottom.
Jay
@lowtechcyclist:
Lot’s of MAGgot’s in the Census Bureau, for now, given demographic distribution.
Dolt 47’s appointee will either get rid of their jobs, too, make them untenable, or just the sheer hell of being in a “Corporate” job.
They voted for the Leopards Eating Faces Party, just didn’t think it would be their faces.
Jay
@Miss Bianca:
Somebody found some of those taps he kept harping on about.
Miss Bianca
@different-church-lady: Well, since senile ol’ Donald Trump is suing and threatening all the media companies that have ever published anything about him that he takes exception to, and all the publishers are buckling under and forking millions more into his maw, it would be a mighty brave journalist who would dare to suggest it.
And probably not only quickly fired, but made personally liable for the inevitable Trump lawsuit.
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: So he found the “giant faucet” and turned it on, and soon he will be crowing about the great success. Or is he already crowing
(or what you said at #121)
scav
@Miss Bianca: Well, he’d said that President Biden hadn’t turned on that Big Tap to stop the fires but was saving some little stupid fish so of course he needed to play with the Presidential Really Big Tap and Save The Day and besides, he couldn’t find his Sharpie or his paper towels. . . .
MagdaInBlack
@different-church-lady: You and I are definitely in the same frame of mind this evening.
RaflW
I’ve been saying this for decades: The markets suck at pricing risk. Very few investors are able to anticipate the impacts of what’s going on now in terms of how it will drive share prices in a week, a month or a year. There’s herd behaviors that let loose in some tricky moments. I’m not really any better. Mostly I’ve just hung on through ups and downs and that’s been a good long term move, but it can be harrowing for stretches.
If one has to take draws to make ends meet at bad times, it can screw up a retirement.
I’m not feeling very good about our economic prospects, though. I think these Musky idiots really will trigger some downside consequences they do not understand.
TBone
I have been inspired to expand my repertoire for these interesting times. Nominees for defeat of AI Goggling:
Bescumber: A word from the early 20th century meaning “to spray poo upon.”
Scobberlotcher: One who never works hard.
…
No definitions necessary:
Mosquito-buggerer, pissflap, shitnubber, dickcheese, pettifogger…
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: I work in a body shop. The list of word combo’s I have is not fit to print here.
lowtechcyclist
@gene108:
They don’t have to die on any hill; they just have to vote ‘no.’ It takes not a bit more effort than voting ‘yes.’
The message that the failure to do even that modest act sends is that our elected representatives, the people who we put in a position where they can speak for us, aren’t willing to resist even to that incredibly trivial level. So why should anyone else bother trying?
That’s the message it sends. A message of acquiescence, of giving up and giving in. That’s not the message we need to hear from them.
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: I also have many I was hesitant to put in print here because pearls would be clutched and broken! But I won’t spare The Goggle!
trollhattan
@TBone: Noice!
Judges will also accept addlepate, nob, cockwaffle, bellend.
different-church-lady
@trollhattan: Judges INSIST on cockwaffle.
lowtechcyclist
@Jay:
What does that have to do with your claim that Santos must be getting death threats and the like from MAGAts, hence his resignation? Sounds like this counters that claim, to the extent that it’s relevant at all.
Jay
https://nitter.poast.org/thedailybeast/status/1885436917342187630#m
Sister Golden Bear
@Miss Bianca: So that Trump could say that he “turned on the faucet.” Like many things Trump does it’s performative bullshit for the cultists who don’t know any better (and have no interest in knowing). I’m sure Fox will be crowing about it tonight.
lowtechcyclist
@MagdaInBlack:
Aw c’mon, it’s after dark…
MagdaInBlack
@lowtechcyclist: I would but it was a long week and I think I used up my quota and have no fuks left to give ;-)
NotMax
@Tbone
“Who’s the wisenheimer who booked The Aristocrats for a four year stint?”
//
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: Yeah boy, that’s one well coordinated administration, ain’t it?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Andrew Weissman was on Jen Psaki. It’s almost cute how outraged he is that the FBI firings are illegal. He still thinks that matters. I hope that’s true.
Jay
@lowtechcyclist:
Name one Official that “stood up” to Dolt 47 during the Dolt 45 years or the President Joe Biden Administration that did not wind up getting death threats,……………..
Bueller?,……………………..
Bueller?,……………………..
Bueller?,……………………..
Bueller?,……………………..
Bueller?,……………………..
Ever heard the phrase “get while the getting is good?”
Every Company I have ever worked at that started going into the toilet had two different kinds of Staff.
The ones who bailed early and the ones who tried to stick it out.
The ones who bailed early, all did well, new jobs, ofen in a higher position, all with better pay and benefits new careers,
The ones who stuck it out in hopes of a turnaround, wound up burnt out, frustrated, often losing severance and pensions.
When at my last job, MGMT changed and created a toxic workplace, I pushed back for a month, then quit.
Took me 40 years of learning the hard way, to learn that.
Sister Golden Bear
And the State Department travel website just removed “LGBTQ” from its website and replaced it with ”LGB”….
Also just heard a report a trans woman who had her passport seized by TSA, while traveling domestically, for supposedly not matching her birth certificate. Given that TSA don’t have access to birth certificate info, it’s likely a rogue TSA agent who decided to fuck with someone who looked visibly trans. But don’t expect them to be disciplined.
Expect to see more and more of this.
Sister Golden Bear
@MazeDancer: Don’t have to worry about Kash Patel heading the FBI if there’s no FBI, amirite.
BrotherCrab
Useful for removing unwanted AI from Google searches:
https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-turn-off-ai-overviews-google-3445771/
NotMax
@Sister Golden Bear
Federal Bureau of Invisibles.
//
Jay
@NotMax:
Federal Bureau Of Vengeance and Revenge.
Sister Golden Bear
Trans vet died of suicide at the Syracuse VA.
The blood is on Trump/Musk’s hands.
tobie
I wonder if any lawsuits are in the works. Until someone requests a TRO, this madness will continue unchecked. I’m seriously worried about Musk’s control of data concerning hundreds of millions of Americans.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
Oh, god. “In an unprecedented $820 million deal, Caesars Las Vegas has locked in The Aristocrats for an 18-month artists in residence gig, beginning January 2025.”
—Hollywood Reporter
Chief Oshkosh
@Shalimar: Wait, I missed this. He DIDN’T make it into the building? I swear AP and Reuters reported that he and his 20 fanbois entered with couches to spend the weekend non-stop fucking up things.
Steve LaBonne
@tobie: There had better be lawsuits, stat. Everything possible has to be done to slow this down, coupled with Democratic politicians yelling about it all the time to force the mediots to cover it. As Josh Marshall just posted, press releases don’t cut it.
tobie
@tobie: Ron Wyden’s demanding answers regarding Musk’s access to the Treasury Dept’s payment system….the system that tracks everything from IRS refunds, Medicare disbursements, Soc Sec checks, govt contractors, etc. That’s a start.
https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/wyden-demands-answers-following-report-of-musk-personnel-seeking-access-to-highly-sensitive-us-treasury-payments-system
RevRick
@PsiFighter37: It’s becoming an open question as to who is more stupid: Trump or Musk. Both of them evidently believe they’re the smartest in the world. And that belief is always — always — a sure sign of stupidity.
They both think they can wreck things without consequences. Our alliances, pfft. Our governmental structure, pfft. Our financial institutions, pfft. Our agriculture, pfft. Our environment, pfft.
Their goals may be reactionary, but they are the epitome of Leninists, a revolutionary vanguard promising a new and glorious age, but only giving us bulldozers and bullets.
Their ultimate failure is certain, because what they want to create is nauseating. But in the meantime, the costs will be immense.
Steve LaBonne
@Chief Oshkosh: That was at Office of Personnel Management, where the Muskrats are firmly in charge and have locked the career employees out of the computer systems. They haven’t succeeded with the Treasury payment system yet but they’re obviously not going to stop trying.
Steve LaBonne
@RevRick: If Hitler hadn’t invaded Russia the Thousand Year Reich might be approaching the century mark.
TBone
@Chief Oshkosh: they seized the Office of Personnel Mgmt. (OPM) on Jan. 20 and moved into the Director’s office with sofa beds, locking everyone out just like the xitter takeover.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-aides-lock-government-workers-out-computer-systems-us-agency-sources-say-2025-01-31/
NotMax
@tobie
Musk is a private citizen, not a government employee and has no portfolio to engage in what’s being reported.
NotMax
@trollhattan
LOL.
different-church-lady
@RevRick:
The voters.
RevRick
@Steve LaBonne: That invasion was a colossal blunder, but I think war between Nazi Europe and the Soviet Union was probably inevitable.
tobie
@NotMax: All the more reason for someone to file suit pronto. Has any legal association offered to take the case? I looked at CREW’S timeline on bluesky but didn’t see anything.
Quinerly
FBI purge….
At least the 4th time I have said it on this blog last few weeks….remember this name.
Ed Martin from Missouri
Pure evil.
RevRick
@different-church-lady: yes, the voters made a terrible choice, and the MAGA segment is convinced they are always right (stupidity), but many of the voters who chose Trump had also chosen Obama. They are the ones pushed by general economic conditions, good or bad from their perspective.
Soprano2
@TBone: En route to my city!
tobie
@RevRick: Seriously? Are we still plugging the line about economic anxiety? The American consumer was on a shopping spree the last two years. (Food prices had dropped considerably by then.) US consumption was so high it managed to drag the world out of a recession.
TBone
@Soprano2: you are a Springfielder? There are Springfielders all over the nation!
Our DelCo, Pennsylvania Springfield has the distinction of being the location of one of the first mass shooting events in the nation at the Springfield Mall by Sylvia Seegrist.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Seegrist
Gloria DryGarden
@NotMax: I was the last one knocking on doors as they closed the census in 2020. Right up to 9 pm. I was closing difficult cases, that had been attempted 10 times.
During those months of the Covid times census, I hollered in spanish through a lot of doors, to convince spanish speakers they were safe to be counted.
The thought of the damage he already did, and will try to do again, takes my breath away.
Jackie
@Shalimar:
I will be among them. My income is SS.
Gloria DryGarden
@TheflipPsyd: was it from poor safety management?
Im starting to think all these DOGE things are very dodgy. Cheap short cuts, understaffing, doing incompetent work, it’s a recipe for disaster. And it’s expensive. It doesn’t save money, or anything else. It just makes a mess.
Hasn’t everyone already tried a short cut or two, and seen the result? Or bought the cheaper item, and had to replace it sooner, at greater cumulative cost?
Jay
@NotMax:
And?,………………………………………………………………………
Yet, here we are.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jackie: i can’t retire, because my SS won’t be enough. But without it, I don’t even know what to say. Or how to prepare.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: I’ve just hopped on in the last hour. Any cat news I missed?
you know I’ve got a candle lit on the virtual altar for you guys…
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
Properly canned Billionaire meat, stored in a cool dark place will last for years.
Ditch the internal organs, trim all the fat you can.
Make sure the safety seal on the lid pops inwards, if you go to use a jar, if the safety seal has popped up, toss it
The meat will keep for decades as a pemmican, just use a clean fat instead of body fat, usual recipes are 1/2 dried meat, 1/4 raw fat, 1/4 dried fruits and berries, Store in an air tight wooden box, cedar is best.
They can also be smoked, dried or jerkied.
Meats and fish are the largest meal expense. Stock up on brown rice and dried beans, which can be kept for years in an air tight container.
Then all you need for good, healthy meals, are herbs, spices, salt and a few veggies.
That will save you 10% to 20% on expenses a year.
Gloria DryGarden
Billionaire meat. I googled it. I’m still not sure what that is. Thanks for these wonderful tips.
Melancholy Jaques
@gene108:
With respect, it is not a hill and no one is going to die by voting no for all of Trump’s nominees.
Who are the Democrats? What do they stand for?
Remember, the lack of answers to those questions is one of the things that costs us elections.
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
Try the”Eat The Rich Brand” if you need it pre-prepared.
Avoid their pate.
NotMax
@Jay
Pemmican is the very definition of an acquired taste.
Grin and Bare
All of MMWR is gone to the public. Even internally, most is not currently available.
Here is a wayback link for MMWR, for anyone who wants it:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250123035302/https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index.html
Jay
@NotMax:
Pemmican was most commonly used as an ingredient. Yes, you could eat it out of the box, but it was used more commonly as a stew, soup or meat pie ingredient,
sab
@lowtechcyclist: Maybe he doesn’t want to have to hire personal security people at his own expense for the rest of his life.
different-church-lady
@tobie: Well, thank god those days are over…
Jeffg166
Krugman & Azhar: The World in 2025 video. An hour long.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/krugman-and-azhar-the-world-in-2025
A lot of technical stuff but interesting. I should watch it again there was a lot talked about.
Gloria DryGarden
@Grin and Bare: I think we’ll really want to be able check numbers, as outbreaks spread, TB, bird flu, Covid and it’s latest variant.
Chris T.
@RaflW:
I’m sure this too is a dead thread by now, but I feel compelled to note an interesting herd-behavior I spotted the last few times the Rs were trying to wreck everything. There’s a persistent feeling that “US Treasuries are safe”, so when someone threatens to wreck some part of the financial system, Treasury prices go up and yields go down. That happens even if it’s the Treasuries that are in trouble!