Another shitshow of the day politically. The Senate approved Gabbard and RFK, and immediately released their make america healthy bullshit, which includes pretty much everything but, you know, providing people medical care. This part will be one of the many fun things they do:
assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs;
Going after SSRI’s while simultaneously having Vought and DOGE kick a lot of retired veterans off their disability is an interesting choice that will in no way lead to anything bad, I am sure.
In other news, only they are now firing every probationary employee in the federal government, which means that every department and agency is going to be critically understaffed, at least until they abolish the departments.
And Elon and his doge team are into the IRS now.
So everything is going fucking great.
On a personal note I joined the Phoenix DSA today and will begin attending meetings and getting involved.
How are all of you doing?
Karen
So they’re defying the judge. Didn’t the judge say to get out?
The Unmitigated Gaul
“We live in an era of the most extraordinary cowardice.” (Joy Reed)
Baud
Figures psychotics would be opposed to antipsychotics.
Just like fascists are opposed to antifa.
Suzanne
Xhitter says that Tulsi Gabbard and Kyrsten Sinema hooked up a bunch of times, and that strikes me as distressingly plausible.
NotMax
A tiny moment of respite. Closed caption funnies.
Dialogue (man, in French accent, to woman on a date): “I like it. You look like heaven.”
CC: “I like it. You look like Evan.”
:)
.
TBone
Looking at a favorite meme, where a woman tied to a stake is leaning over into the flames to light her last cigarette.
NotMax
DSA?
No capiche.
TBone
@NotMax: bwahahaha!
TBone
@NotMax: Democratic Socialists of America
Professor Bigfoot
I thought DSA was that crew dedicated to a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party.
NotMax
Can’t find it at the moment, but always liked the picture of the Grim Reaper holding a weed whacker seen years and years ago.
;)
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: although I’m not officially affiliated, I have always considered myself to be a Socialist Democrat.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy
Anonymous At Work
Taking mood stabilizers and other anti-PTSD meds away from the VA? Brain-injured vets with skills with guns and who probably know how to get them? What’s the place in the US that’s farthest from any VA facility and has a low veterancy rate?
WTFGhost
NextGen Rambo to high muckety muck: Do we get to win this time?
High Muckety Muck: what do you mean?
Rambo shoots high muckety muck
Rambo: That’s what I mean.
Spanky
@Anonymous At Work: There’s an enormous number of vets here around DC, and my personal observation is that a fair percentage are combat vets with … issues. Also easy access to weapons in both MD and VA.
Just a short drive into the District…
Sister Golden Bear
Don’t worry John, RFK Jr. has talked about how everyone on anti-depressants and ADHD meds will be sent to
re-education camps“wellness farms” for a couple years to learn how to live without them through better diets. I wish I was joking.RSA
The Washington Post suggests that Trump (via Musk) wants to eliminate 25% of the federal work force. That’s more than half a million workers, almost ten times as many as the largest private industry layoff in history.
Trump and Musk have built their reputations on being successful businessmen. I want the public to see how much these model CEOs have thought about the lives of ordinary workers that they’re disrupting. We all know they have given it zero thought–make them face up to it.
kwAwk
It is weird to me how smart Elon Musk is while at the same time being so stupid. He’s calling for mass impeachment of judges now. Maybe he doesn’t have a basic understanding of our type of government since he isn’t from here, but he doesn’t have the votes to remove a single judge from office, and he could tie up the calendar of the Senate as we have once trial after the next for a few years.
And he seems to be in may ways coasting on past triumphs. He’s lost $30 billion on Twitter so far, for a platform that is barely profitable. His notion of turning X into an everything app doesn’t work if half the population wants nothing to do with the platform. Self driving cars aren’t going to be as lucrative as he thinks. I personally am not that interested in the technology, certainly not to the extent I’d pay a high premium for the service. For people who live a few minutes from work and don’t commute hours at a time, the convenience level isn’t there. Hyperloop has been a complete busk. Cybertruck is a dangerous piece of over-hyped junk. The whole notion of colonizing Mars is a fools errand. There is nothing on Mars to be had and it will be a standard of living so low for at least a century that it will be comical. But people still idolize him.
On top of that somebody needs to sit him down and explain the difference between efficiency and utility. Efficiency means getting more outputs from the same inputs. Utility is the actual perceived value of the output you receive from your inputs. You can make government as efficient as you’d like, it doesn’t matter if you ruin our way of government and life. You haven’t made gains. He needs to remember that the next Democrat as President will have access to the same level of power that he claims for himself. And the pendulum will swing.
Leto
@Sister Golden Bear: I can talk about how much I hate them, but that just doesn’t seem adequate anymore.
Melancholy Jaques
@TBone:
Same here. Olof Palme & Michael Harrington were two of my early influences.
Spanky
@kwAwk: The short answer to your post is that Musk was born rich and is breathtakingly stupid. Period.
different-church-lady
It
Can’tCan Happen Here.kwAwk
@Spanky: He seems to have jumped the shark.
bbleh
I hope indeed that RFKJr will be the wedge that finally splits a (distressingly large) percentage of the (wealthy, connected) medical community from (what remains of) the Republican Party.
SSRIs, vaccines, germ theory FFS. Even though a lot of docs are happy to ignore what’s going on elsewhere, focusing on patient health and believing (with reason) they’re insulated from blowback, this whackaloon and the associated MAGA minions very likely are gonna do some serious damage to public health, very much including the patients of … almost every doc.
pajaro
@kwAwk:
The reason he doesn’t understand our system is that he’s apparently never read the Constitution. I’d like to know who took the citizenship test for him.
different-church-lady
@pajaro: The reason he doesn’t get our system is he doesn’t give a fuck, and President Immunity will protect him.
bbleh
@Spanky: wait! you mean JUST like … uh … this other guy … um … was JUST thinking about him, WHO was it …?
Anonymous At Work
@Spanky: Baltimore VA is the nation’s largest. Not gonna wanna visit Inner Harbor and Charles Street Market is right out. But those are largely homeless vets. It’s the ones that came back and held off their issues with drugs that RFKJR disbelieves and will take away, leaving them with issues and enough money to act on their issues. Those are the scary ones.
cain
@Suzanne: Lesbians for Trump?
Poe Larity
Where can I invest in leopard futures?
Nancy
@TBone:
Thank you. I didn’t know either.
JoyceH
Come after my Zepbound and we’re gonna have words. And it ain’t just Democrats either.
YY_Sima Qian
@NotMax: CC must have been generated by A”I”.
Quinerly
VA just announced cutting at least 1000 employees.
MSNBC reporting
Bill Arnold
@pajaro:
Agreed, Musk at least presents as not having read the USA constitution, or having forgotten it.
Do you think he knows that he is violating his naturalization oath (or affirmation)?
tobie
My understanding is that ketamine, adderall, and steroids didn’t make RFK Jr’s list of substances whose health benefits need to be investigated. The same’s probably true for viagra
ETA: I got my COVID booster as soon as I heard RFK was confirmed. It’s only five months since my last shot but I didn’t want to pass up on the opportunity. Check with your doctor that your vaccines are up to date.
trollhattan
{Waves} WFH day, VDay tomorrow, weekend looms, raining like a motherfucker so no drought this year for California.
If I ignore everything that occurred eastward, a good day in balance.
TS
I have given up reading the news & rarely read BJ – it is so demoralising to see what is happening in the US. I can’t imagine a civil service without trainees to learn the functions, requirements, goals, activities within government departments
The new president’s nominee is certainly doing what the GOP has ranted about – drowning the government as we know it. Maybe those in congress will start to object when he dissolves them as well.
cain
@bbleh: There is a benefit of going fast and breaking everything.
So far on every aspect of the united states is being touched and turned into sludge in mere weeks.
But ultimately, everyone’s anger is going to be to our voters. I expect blowback against us.
The MOMENT he removes vaccines, no American will be allowed anywhere without proof of it. Not even the rich dudes.
Professor Bigfoot
Ahhh, no, it was “Justice Dems” who proudly announced their intended “hostile takeover” of the Democratic Party.
cain
@Bill Arnold:
Like the bible and kids – they are meant to be seen not heard.
schrodingers_cat
DSA is an interesting choice.
Time travelin
@Suzanne: less concerning than the kid rock/boobert hook up
Poe Larity
@RSA: If normal federal turnover is 6%, four years might get you there.
Now since he wants to cut DoD 50%, there won’t be room for any of those folks.
Quinerly
@Spanky:
Truth. He’s stupid.
reuters.com/business/us-defense-department-contract-inaccurately-represented-social-media-says-2025-…
RevRick
@RSA: The thing is the federal workforce is no bigger now than it was during the Eisenhower administration, when the U. S. population was half the size.
kwAwk
@pajaro: Well, yes, I’m sure Trump has promised to pardon him.
But from a larger perspective he still wants to go to Mars, and from all information apparently wants to be the King of Mars.
And watching what he has done in Washington and at Twitter, who the fuck would be stupid enough to follow him to Mars? You would essentially be his life slave because there will be no way back to Earth and you wouldn’t be able to quit and get a different job. He would have complete control of you and every aspect of your life.
YY_Sima Qian
Evidence # 998 of imperial decline/collapse:
Collision was w/ a 53K ton bulk carrier. Since the bulk carrier went on its way to its destination, it probably was a glancing blow, but there must have been some serious delinquencies among the crew on watch on both vessels.
different-church-lady
@Bill Arnold: Those are just words, man…
Sister Golden Bear
@Leto: Hating them the fire of 10,000 burning suns seems so inadequate these days. Gonna have to up my game.
frosty
@TBone: Social Democrats may not be different than Democratic Socialists but it sounds a lot different and a lot less menacing. DSA shot themselves in the foot with that name. Unless they meant to, in which case … run away! (Sorry, John)
tobie
Trump scored his first and only victory in court today. Judge George O’Toole — a Clinton appointee — ruled that the unions suing Trump regarding early retirement offers didn’t have standing. Such matters, he opined, need to go to the NLRB, which Trump has already gutted. It was a deeply disappointing and cruel ruling and I wonder how much it paved the way for the mass firings today. What agency can the fired workers turn to if they can’t disupte their firing in court any longer? This is so upsetting and wrong and damaging for the workers and the country.
RevRick
@Spanky: Musk made a couple of smart moves betting on PayPal and Tesla and SpaceX, but though he is obscenely wealthy, he is as hollow a human being as… Trump.
And definitely as stupid, because stupidity always believes itself smarter than it actually is.
different-church-lady
@frosty:
They’re socialists, what the hell else do they do?
Geminid
I’m doing fine, Comrade. Thank you for asking!
TS
@frosty: Socialism as defined is not a bad word – the GOP just makes everyone think it is a bad word. The world needs more socialism and less oligarchs – more equitable distribution of income and no billionaires, more democracy and less autocracy etc etc etc
Sister Golden Bear
@cain:
In unison queer women all channel their inner Kendrick Lamar scream “They not like us, they not like us, they not like us.”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Edolph’s path to gigantic wealth has been buying a company and then getting bought out for vastly more. Failing upwards, but with Hype.
Adam Silverman said this about Edolph in Oct 2022 and it’s still the best description to date:
Gretchen
The DOGE incels also told the VA to justify why they need to spend money on a Veteran’s Suicide Hotline. I didn’t know they also wanted to get rid of antidepressants before gutting Suicide prevention.
MAGAs are mad that Cincinnati Children’s Hospital has refused to put a JD Vance relative on the heart transplant waitlist because her parents refuse to get her flu and covid vaccines.
We thought measles was gone from the US in 2000. There are 9 Texas kids in the hospital today in Texas.
This is all crazy.
bbleh
@RevRick: aw it’s all a show for the ignorami.
Where are the LARGE MAJORITY of Federal employees? Why, in Defense and Veterans Affairs! Do you hear Republicans wrapping themselves in the flag and demanding that THOSE departments be slashed? No, only those Overpaid Bureaucrats who Tell Us What To Do and Give Our Money Away to THOSE people.
They’ll almost never find out differently either. They don’t connect food and drug safety, or workplace safety, or infrastructure maintenance and improvement, or flood control and irrigation, or or or to federal workers. And of course when it comes to disbursing money like Social Security and Medicare and agricultural price supports, they DESERVE those things because they EARNED them and just how much work does it take some guy in an office to do that anyway, huh?
They don’t know, they resist understanding, and it’s gonna be a long time before it’s shoved in their faces, and we really don’t want that to happen anyway
It’s a show. And the employees who remain will keep the pumps running and the lights on as long as they’re able. And the Republican ignorami will remain (angrily) ignorant.
frosty
@TS: Oh, I agree. But once the word is toxic (and it is) why embrace it?
tobie
@RSA: DC and Baltimore, two majority black cities, will be devastated by this. Maybe that’s the point. Social Security’s main campus is in Baltimore and the VA hospital in the city is big. Trump called Baltimore a “rat and rodent infested mess” in 2019. This is how he plans to starve it.
lamh47
@RSA:
Long time since I posted, but so many here gave great advice when I first moved here to Cali for my brand new fed job. So this directly could affect me, more than even the B.S. “deferred resignation” bullshit.
Trump administration directs agency heads to fire most probationary staff
Been dealing with alot since the election of the orange demon and dealing with even more since inaugration and now this just after hearing about the confirmation of that AVID…anti-vaxxer.
Sigh… BTW this RIF came AFTER the end of the last extension of that B.S. early resignation “fork in the road” bullshit.my start
My date was last year…if probation is 1 year I’m still short about a week and a half but the article says 2yrs and If it’s 2 years, I’m not close at all.
So I’m pissed, angry and annoyed because these fuq’ers are not communicating with any of the workers and the mgmt isn’t really saying anything either.
I will likely go back to lurking again tomorrow, but this news just really ugh…
Bill Arnold
Re ESTABLISHING THE PRESIDENT’S MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN COMMISSION EXECUTIVE ORDER (February 13, 2025)
Much of that executive order has serious Crank Energy. e.g.
RFK Jr treats science in lawyer mental style (bad mismatch), and generally very dishonestly, with cherry picking and blatant misrepresentation of a body of science, and of individual studies. Even casual observers notice this.
He and his henchmen will do enormous damage to USA medical science, including relative to the rest of the developed world. Especially if NIH research funding ends up being neo-Lysenko-style.
frosty
@lamh47: Nice to see you again, but this is not a good circumstance. I’d hope for the best for you but it doesn’t seem likely, does it?
Fuckers. All of them.
Ohio Mom
How am I? Day four of some virus I have not been vaccinated against (yes, did a Covid test) or was incompletely vaccinated against. I’m at the coughing-my-lungs-out stage. I believe the word I’m looking for is Bleech.
The list of drugs that RFK has declared need looking into reminds me of one of the first support group meetings I went to, right after Ohio Son was diagnosed. The leader thought that going around the room and having everyone share what meds they and their kids were on would be a nice icebreaker. When I didn’t have anything to list, you could see the shared thought balloon over everyone’s head, “Oh sweetie, you will be.”
This is a moment when, until a month ago, I would think, Oh, big business will save us, they are no going to give up all those profit lines. But maybe not.
DSA? I guess as a college teacher, Cole is used to being around idealistic and naive young people.
Finally, if nothing else Trump/Musk/Vougthbis doesn’t crash the economy, laying off all those people very well might.
Gretchen
@RSA: I don’t understand this. Usually presidents brag about lowering unemployment. The Trump admin is deliberately causing a rise in unemployment by firing all these federal workers, at the same time that there are a lot of layoffs in the tech sector. Rising inflation and unemployment and falling stock market, farmers angry at losing farm workers and markets for their products and cancelled grants. Is that the record they all want to run on?
Kelly
Well at least the Make America Healthy Again EO acknowledges Americans on average have shorter less healthy lives than other economically advanced countries. Republicans are loudly certain American health care is the best in the world. Seems possible best system producing worst results might be a clue.
Elsewhere in the EO “transparency” is called for. Usually when anti-vaxers call for transparency they mean throw out all research which follows patient/ subject confidentiality rules.
Near the end it condemns cronyism which is really something coming from T@#$%.
Gretchen
@Ohio Mom: Did you find support groups helpful? How did you find good ones? We have a new autism diagnosis in the family and don’t know what to think.
Sister Golden Bear
@lamh47: If you if ever want a jackal’s ear to vent to over coffee, I’m nearby on the Peninsula.
Gretchen
@Kelly: Anti-vaxxers also have the rallying cry that there were no placebo trials. The original vaccines were tested against placebos, but when they’re updated, the new version is tested against previous version which were placebo-tested. RFK actually thinks that every time we get a newer version, we should just have a control group of unvaccinated kids and compare how many deaths in each group, even though we’ve been using some of them for decades. He’s just so stupid, too stupid to know how stupid he is. Like a lot of these people.
Mr. Bemused Senior
As am I. We should have a meetup sometime.
eclare
@Ohio Mom:
I have not talked to a friend of mine for a while, but her stepson is schizophrenic. Diagnosed. On medication so that at well over six feet tall, he does not get violent.
He has to call his dad every night to confirm that he has taken his meds.
Or you know, he could just exercise and be a falconer.
Spanky
@Ohio Mom:
Sounds like the flu that Mrs Spanky had after Christmas. She went to the doc and got some meds, which helped a lot. Go see a doc.
And iirc it was a strain not covered in the flu vaccine.
Sister Golden Bear
@Gretchen:
They plan on not having to run at all.
Ohio Mom
@Gretchen: I did not read past the headlines, I am Team Cincinnati Children’s all the way, so I did not see that this girl is related Vance?! If you are merely there volunteering, you need up-to-date shots.
I see Vance’s half brother, founder and pastor of a (basically storefront) church, is running for mayor of Cincinnati.
VFX Lurker
Argh. Wishing you the best possible outcome on this.
Gvg
@Gretchen: there were measles outbreaks back then, I recall antivax measle idiocy going back to I think the 90’s…so I don’t think experts thought it was gone.
lamh47
@Sister Golden Bear:
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
I do appreciate the offers, but TBH, I’m just doing as much avoidance until I get concrete emails or correspondence.
I already had to anticipate the change in my WFH agreement to on site every day, which TBH, doesn’t bother me as much because pre-gov’t I was on-site laboratory work every day anyway. Plus it will force me to get off my butt during the day cause my go to is to lallygag a bit too much at home cause yes, my bed is still there.
As for the RIF possibility…it’s good that I never let my state license (LA or CA) lapse nor did I allow EITHER of my national certifications lapse. So if push comes to shove I will return to hospital lab work in the Microbiology lab outside fed service. Which if ya’ll recall is my first love anyway.
What I need is to just KNOW WTF is gonna be going on for me…so that I can do what I need to do in terms of income and moving if needed. It’s the uncertainty that the bullshit part of it all.
ETA: Also too, I literally just bought a car last September, so I’ve got car notes and insurance to pay for as well.
lamh47
@lamh47: First all I need to know is that I am on the chopping block or nah. My hope is that my department is so much separated from what most people in fed govt consider bloated that it won’t matter. But it’s the uncertainty that bullshit
tobie
@Gretchen: ive heard some people say Musk is following the playbook of Curtis Yarvin, father of the Dark Enlightenment Mvmt dreaming of a tech-aristocracy. Another inspiration seems to be Balaji Srinivasan’s Network State. Both see democracy at its end and envision tech titans as the new leaders.
From Wikipedia
Geminid
@lamh47: I’m very sorry to hear about this
Gretchen
@lamh47: 1-2 years is a very long probationary period. Private businesses I’ve worked at it was 3-6 months. I hope this will be ok for you.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@lamh47: good luck, keep us posted.
lamh47
@Gretchen: True, but all the article says probationary and could involve newly hired less than 2 years as well
I believe 1 year is common for fed workers.
Jackie
@lamh47: I’m sorry. Nothing else I can add as to what you’re going through.
kalakal
@Leto: I used to think I hated Thatcher & Reagan. Compared to what I feel about Tmurp & co that was only mild dislike
frog
@kwAwk:
There is a YouTube channel dedicated to all the successes of Musk’s vaporware.
youtube.com/@Thunderf00t/videos
Ohio Mom
@Gretchen: My rule of thumb is that you learn more from other parents than doctors so I say yes, try out whatever groups are near you. There must be online groups as well, I don’t think I was online back then in the very early 2000s.
After you get your sea legs and have been to a couple of meetings, it will be clear which mothers are a great source of info and which ones are wackadoodles.
My other advice is, move into a deep-pocketed, well-regarded for special ed school district (ask the other mothers, the sane ones).
At this point I usually interject something about getting your finances in order, there are ways to shelter assets that will smooth the way for your loved one to receive benefits as an adult but Whoopee! Who knows what will be left of the social service safety net?
You can ask a front pager for my email if you like. Good luck, there are many great interventions and almost all children make very good progress.
sentient ai from the future
@Bill Arnold: there will be brain drain, the question is, to where?
Jay
@Bill Arnold:
Thank you for the link to Lysenko.
tobie
@lamh47: Hang on there and stop by when you have the strength. The uncertaintis must be so agonizing.
Gretchen
@Ohio Mom: She is the adopted daughter of one of his step-siblings. They adopted her from China at age 4, knowing that she had a heart defect that would eventually require a transplant. They prayed on it and Jesus laid it on their hearts that vaccines are bad, but they don’t see why that should interfere with the kid going on life-long immune suppressants so she doesn’t reject a transplant. People are suggesting Vance should threaten the hospital’s federal funds.
Ohio Mom
@eclare: Every state does Medicaid differently but here in Ohio, there are next to no supports for people like your friend’s son, just Social Security and Medicaid. And those people need support! I’m sure your friends worry constantly what happens when they die.
sentient ai from the future
“Legislators in states including Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina and Florida have introduced bills in the past few months proposing to establish government reserves to invest in bitcoin and potentially other digital assets. ”
jesus christ. KILL IT WITH FIRE.
Sister Golden Bear
@lamh47: I hear you, I hear you. That sort of uncertainty is one of the things that sucks about being stuck in contract work, especially in contracts where you’re repeatedly in limbo about whether you’ll get an extension for another X months.
Gretchen
@Gvg: the World Health Organization declared measles eliminated from the US in 2000. Subsequent cases were introduced later from overseas travel. Measles is so contagious that we need a 95% vaccination rate to prevent outbreaks from introduced cases.
Ohio Mom
@lamh47: You are illustrating what I thought when I first heard about the buy-out offer. Most everyone who works in the government is highly educated and adept at reading fine print. They are not going to fall for that bait-and-switch.
Ohio Mom
@Gretchen: Ah. I thought she didn’t look Murican.
You begin to see why the hospital is always giving training in patient relations. They deal with people at their worst and worst people at their worst is off the chart.
Gretchen
@lamh47: I’m a microbiology MT also! I remember when you moved for that job. That’s one thing these idiots don’t understand: people move for jobs, line up housing, have family members with jobs or schools, and they don’t care about just forcing people to dump all that and start over – they’ve never had to worry about paying movers or an apartment deposit.
Most of the people I know who started working from home in 2020, worked for companies that got rid of a lot of their office space, including the federal government. There’s not even an office for a lot of people to go back to.
I hope you get clarity soon, and am glad you have some alternate possibilities.
eclare
@Ohio Mom:
They are pretty fortunate so they have a trust set up for the son. But every few years they have to find new doctors etc on Medicaid. So yeah let’s cut that.
Well over six feet tall guy in a state with no gun regs who has been certified schizophrenic. What could go wrong?
kalakal
Question for the hive mind.
Battery powered leaf blowers and weed whackers. Can any one recommend brands?
lamh47
@Gretchen: Hello fellow Microbiologist!!
Micro is my first love and will likely be my last (I had it all planned out to return to Micro lab work in my retirement years to fund my travellust!)
Office work/consultation was never truly on my list of professional development, so returning to the lab, after a short break like this would not be the end all be all.
The issue is the uncertainty of it all. With 20+ yrs of Micro lab work, 2 science bachelors, a HCM masters, 2 licenses (CA/LA) and 2 national certifications (Micro specialist and generalist)…I’m not so much worried about getting work…it’s the uncertainty of when/if.
ETA: to keep it 100, I am perfectly willing to leave this fed job and rethink returning after orange demon is dead or another Dem administration gets here.
As you know Micro jobs are not always easy to come by, so when there are listing…you want to take a leap
Gretchen
@Ohio Mom: Thank you. It’s my 2 1/2yo grandson. I’m going out to see them next week. He’s a twin, which probably helped catch the delays earlier since his twin talks a lot and he does very little. Fortunately, they live in NY which seems very pro-active. They have multiple therapists come to the house every week to work with him, paid for by the school district. This contrasts with my friend’s autistic son, now in his mid 30s. She had to drive 20 miles across town for a once-weekly OT that they had to pay out of pocket, and spotty school services in MO. I wanted daughter’s family to move back home, but am now grateful that they’re where they can get help rather than Missouri’s 50th in the nation teacher pay and education funding. When friend first called me to say her son had been diagnosed with autism, I had to say « what’s that ? ». Imagine the innocence. I can’t help but wonder where he’d be if he’d gotten that kind of intensive intervention back then.
TBone
@frosty: those are indeed two different things, as noted in the very beginning of the Wikipedia link I posted at #12.
It is most definitely NOT merely a fad for naive, young people and is a succesful model of governance that restrains the worst excesses of capitalism.
Seems like some of us should actually read that link.
Gretchen
@Ohio Mom: Yes. That’s a big worry, and they’re getting up there in age and health challenges. There’s not much in the way of support services for adults who can’t live on their own. He does have good siblings so I expect the plan involves them somehow.
Leto
@kalakal: I’m plugged into the E-Go brand; have a leaf blower and a hedge trimmer. They’re nice, batteries are interchangeable, charge fairly quickly. Got mine from Lowe’s.
sab
@kalakal: We have an Ego brand leaf blower that we like a lot. It is new to us this year, but we are very happy xwith the same brand lawn mower we have had for years
ETA Nwe fot ours from Ace Hardware.
kalakal
@Leto: Thanks, planning a trip to Lowes this weekend, good to know they stock that brand.
TBone
@TS: come sit by me anytime.
Citizen Alan
@frosty: My understanding is that the Social Democrats and hte Democratic Socialists are diametrically opposed on a number of important issues. I consider myself a Social Democrat, which is why I 100% support the Democrats who are the only possible vehicle for Social Democrat policies in this country. And I LOATHE the DSA.
Geminid
@Citizen Alan: My understanding is that DSA members don’t agree on what democratic socialism should be. At least, there are 5 or 6 distinct caucuses within the party.
They seem to have had a bumpy last few years. The Ukraine war was a stressor because their International Committee took a very tankie-ish line on the war that was unpopular with many rank and file.
That war broke out at an inopportune time for the DSA. They had a slate of candidates running in New York City area Democratic primaries, for local and state legislative offices. They ran on issues like affordable housing and criminal reform, but opponents made an issue out of the DSA’s position on Ukraine and NATO. This wasn’t exactly fair but as someone once said, “Politics ain’t Beanbag.” This seems especially true in New York.
The Gaza war was another bigger stressor. That one precipitated an internal fight between theCentrall Committee and a committee dedicated to Israel/Palestine issues. I think the Central Committee backed down. The war was a source of disputes over endorsements of Congressional candidates Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Greg Casar.
There is a commentor here who was a DSA member, dedicated enough to attend their August, 2023 biennial convention in Chicago as a delegate. He and I had a back and forth a couple weeks before the convention. He said he did not care much for the national level committees but thought the work his party did at the community made participation worthwhile. But a few months later I noticed him saying that he had left the DSA.
I am not so hostile to the DSA as you are. They’re a hundred thousand people trying build a movement independent of the Democratic Party. They’re not cynical and they’re not accelerationists. But they tend to catch the flak directed at a broader group of lefties and Dem-adjacent people who want to tear down the Center-Left Democratic coalition so they can build a Left Party in its place.
I’m more wary of the Justice Democrats that Professor Bigfoot referred to, whose head announced back in late 2018 that they were engaged in a “hostile takeover” of the Democratic Party. He deleted that and a few other similar posts but the posts were screenshotted and widely circulated afterwards. Perhaps because of this, now the Justice Democrats more often sponsor candidates under their alternate “Brand New Congress” brand. I expect there will be a number of them running in next year’s Congressional primaries.
TBone
@TS: I did a term paper for my college poli sci class on that very subject. My poli sci professor was really cool, he advocated for me to get extra college credits for “life experience.” (I dropped out of high school, got my G.E.D., and worked – some of that in a law office, and didn’t start college until I was 21 y.o.). In fact, the attorney I worked for was the reason I applied to Rosemont where his daughter went, along with some other schools. I was accepted at Rosemont based in part on the strength of my application Essay, which was about my work experience leading me to want a college degree instead of a shitty job hahaha!
TBone
@TBone: that poli sci professor also assigned us to write a paper on a female political figure he chose (at the time, Rosemont was still an all girls school). He assigned me to write about Hannah Arendt. I’m so grateful to that guy, I learned so much, especially about the class struggles in our great nation. He was of Irish ancestry and even looked the part.
Professor Bigfoot
@kalakal: Second on the EGO brand stuff.
I have an EGO lawnmower, weed-whacker, lawn-edger, snow-thrower, leaf-blower and pole-saw; and they all work great.
I got my first EGO battery with my mower, that would be 8-9 years ago; it finally stopped taking a full charge last year; but it still takes enough that I still use it on the smaller stuff.
Highly recommended.
Professor Bigfoot
@Geminid: White people deciding that the Black and brown and Jewish people of the Democratic Party are ignoring their interests.
Betty
@kwAwk: And he’s a con man. Sly but but not really smart.
kalakal
@Professor Bigfoot: Thanks, the battery lifetime is really a biggie for me. I’m fed up with replacing battery packs
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: Justice Dems, DSA they are all the same.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: There’s definitely overlap. The JDs used DSA volunteers to carry its “Squad” candidates to victory in the 2018 and 2020 primaries. It was more of an informal alliance, I think, and from the little I’ve read the general strategy of “electoralism” a controversial one within the DSA.
Next year’s primaries will be an interesting test. I expect the Justice Democrats to promote candidates under their alternate outfit “Brand New Congress.”* I think we’ll get to see the extent of coordination with DSA members; they seem to be a talkative bunch on social media.
* Brand New Congress was the original iteration of Justice Democrats. Their original plan was to run “Progressive” candidates in all 435 Congressional districts. Then they decided on a less ambitious program of primarying a few incumbent Democrats and contesting some open primaries, and created Justice Democrsts to execute it.