Musk’s vassal got his sharpie out and squiggled on this:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order bringing independent agencies under the control of the White House — an action that would greatly expand his power but is likely to attract significant legal challenges.
It represents Trump’s latest attempt to consolidate power beyond boundaries other presidents have observed and to test the so-called unitary executive theory, which states that the president has the sole authority over the executive branch. And it reflects the influence of Russ Vought, Trump’s budget chief, one of several conservatives in his orbit who have called for axing independent arms of the executive branch.
The theory was long considered fringe, and many mainstream legal scholars [Ed: LOL] still believe it is illegal, given that Congress set the agencies up specifically to act independently, or semi-independently, from the president. These include the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which enact regulations and can impose hefty fines on businesses that violate the rules.
That’s Politico but it’s free and seems like a decent run-down on the order. I had to laugh at the notion that “mainstream legal scholars” are going to have much of a say on this one. Today’s “mainstream legal scholar” is tomorrow’s “Wal-Mart greeter”.
Moving on, here’s a good article from a very sober specialty publication on the layoffs at the FAA. I’ve posted on this enough but wanted to get this article out there for those of you who like deep dives. The short answer is “safety-critical” is most people at the FAA, including maintenance folks who clear a path to safety-critical instruments, and examiners who review medical certificates for pilots and controllers.
An “ASMR” video of an alien deportation flight has been posted by the White House (link to Xitter, you’ve been warned). It shows agents putting deportees in chains and those chains clanking up the stairs of a plane.
Finally, I posted this on BlueSky last night but I thought it was worth seeing:
This is a woman I follow on Instagram. She's in Mexico (Baja) and the shelves are full of eggs. Interesting fact: eggs aren't refrigerated in Mexican grocery stores. They don't wash off the bloom, so they stay fresh on the shelf.
— mistermix (@mistermix.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 7:06 PM
If you don’t know what the bloom is, here’s a piece explaining it. Unwashed eggs with the bloom on can be safely stored for a up to a month. They need to go in the fridge as soon as the bloom is washed off. The bloom keeps salmonella from penetrating the egg shell.
Elizabelle
Yes. Germany does that too with eggs: sold unrefrigerated.
NotMax
Always have heard it referred to as a cuticle rather than a bloom.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Good background piece on why we (and some others do it) while most of the world don’t. This piece from an organic farm will tell you everything you didn’t know about why we do it this way:
https://www.organicvalley.coop/blog/why-does-us-refrigerate-eggs/
A Ghost to Most
The end result will be what the christian supremacists on the Supreme Court want.
TBone
No one puts this baby in a corner to wash off her bloom! Just kidding, I no longer wear (visible) war paint.
TS
Lived in a small country town growing up. Our eggs came from the local market gardener and no-one kept them in a fridge – I was probably 7 or 8 before we even owned a fridge. Not all stores in Australia refrigerate eggs but where I shop they do.
Downpuppy
The Executive order (full text) is designed to prevent Regulatory Agencies from regulating. The active part starts by inserting OMB into every damn thing:
Then he plants Commissars:
TBone
I once had a falling out with a DelCo friend who kept chickens for a while (ugly ending to that attempt which I won’t detail here involving birds of prey and Little Foxes). She frequently brought cartons of unwashed eggs to share at the weekend cabin. Bitch hid one carton on a chair seat under dining table, which I didn’t discover until my next trip up, which was a month later hahahahaha! Pee EWW
WereBear
@TBone: In addition, I no longer CAN. My system is currently too sensitive and it begins to itch immediately, the kind that drives a person insane.
Which I tend to avoid.
Adrian Lesher
Unrefrigerated eggs are sold in much of Europe, not just Germany.
WereBear
@TBone: Reminds me of The Egg and I.
Book very dated, but both amusing and horrifying…
TBone
@WereBear: I so feel your pain! Dentist recommended a Dentek night mouth guard to stop me grinding teeth at night. One use and I broke out in an ugly, blistering rash on both upper thighs!
Belafon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Refrigeration makes them last longer, which is useful when you need to ship them all over the US. Which is also why US beers are made differently than European ones.
WereBear
Funny enough, my aunt brought pullet eggs, membrane on, and unrefrigerated. When she handed them over she said, “I know Mr WayofCats wasn’t brought up on the farm, and will probably freak out.”
Indeed, between the tiny size, less than uniformly colored, and seeing them on top of the cupboards he regarded them as alien eggs, and didn’t even want me eating them. Passed on to those who understood…
sentient ai from the future
mexican eggs, you say?
this video is like forever old but i always found it amusing.
https://youtu.be/G5MsHBeVB4M
TBone
@WereBear: I LOVE that movie! My Great gramma kept chickens very successfully through The Depression onward and my wee child mom was urged to collect the eggs for her grandma. Because she didn’t want to disappoint her, Mom did so and was henpecked for life by ornithophobia!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
WereBear
@TBone: It only takes one attack, and they don’t have catch you to give you the nightmares.
Not kind to each other, as I recall. Most birds respect their own more than that.
WereBear
@rikyrah: Good morning, we hope you already had your eggs today.
TBone
Am being summoned for tube feeding time again, gah. Later …
H.E.Wolf
Some of my German forebears (great-great-uncles?) were in the egg business in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
My grandfather remembered seeing their shipping containers in his childhood. Each container held 1,440 eggs: 4 sections, stacked 2 high, each section with 6 rows of 30 eggs. The containers must have been huge.
At the time, I asked Grandpa about refrigeration during shipping, and he said, as though it was obvious, “Not needed. Eggs keep for a long time.”
WereBear
All of the illegal things tRump is doing fills my heart with hope. He can do the cruelest things that are apparently legal… let’s start heightening those contradictions, shall we?
Our chief weapons are… humor, cognitive dissonance, and a nitpicky insistence about obeying the laws.
Leto
@Downpuppy: it’s not like Project 2025 didn’t spell out the entire playbook on what they were going to do. Noooo…
My Reagan and Gorbachev professor, on the first day of class, said he didn’t believe Trumpov was smart enough to carry out “pr… project something” (verbatim quote). I didn’t want to immediately correct the stupid motherfucker that he didn’t need to be “smart enough.” All of the people he’s assembled helped write the goddamned thing, and they were all going to be running the agencies. 75 year old white dude who has the biggest hard-on for Reagan and “Maggie” Thatcher. I just… both of his classes this semester have been extremely hard. Not from a class materials standpoint, but from an interpersonal standpoint. The overwhelming urge to punch him in the dick every day probably isn’t healthy, but here we are.
Glory b
Trump is claiming powers that both he (well, he should but who knows?) and the Attorney General (same for her I guess) know he can’t usurp, probably to scare people and cause more confusion.
Again, I wish someone in the media would ask Elon if he, as a high level GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE, has filled out his annual required financial disclosure form?
I had to, it’s for higher level local, state and federal employees and all elected officials. It’s meant to disclose potential conflicts of interest and is signed under oath.
The deadline is usually some time in March, we were always given several emailed reminders, which included the statement thar failing to file was a firing offense.
Captain C
@Leto:
But the FTFNYT told us that TCFG had assured us that he had nothing to do with that, and how could we be so horrible as to suspect that Deadbeat Donnie would ever lie?
At some point we’re either going to have to figure out how to wrest the FTFNYT away from the Sulzbergers and put into a nonprofit trust, or find a new paper of record since they’ve decided to be Pravda West.
rosalind
re. FAA: bluesky post by Eric Michael Garcia who rec’d Signal message fm one of the staff who was fired: “Friday night around 1am, probationary FAA safety specialists in my office were told of immediate termination. Of my team of 12 we lost 3 people. We work in Enroute Navigation Charts for Pilots and Air Traffic Control – an essential part of keeping the flying public safe. Air Traffic Controllers rely on our charts to do their jobs.”
I cancelled a trip I was about to take, not because I am a nervous flyer, but because of the chaos being sown, the inability to know how the firings are affecting FAA operations, or how the stress is affecting those still in their jobs.
suzanne
This is utterly true and utterly devastating.
karen gail
I still wonder who is writing these EO’s since figure that Trump is either reading only the sticky note on folder or the note is for person handing him the order and telling him if 10 words or less what the order says. Those order should have author or authors responsible for those orders; look how stupid it was to declare only 2 genders with no clue about science or biology.
No eggs for me other than in baking; I have always had problems eating eggs and when pregnant the people downstairs fried eggs every morning and the smell alone was enough to trigger “worshipping the porcelain throne” for some time. The smell of hard-boiled eggs often does the same thing.
Belafon
@Captain C: That would require liberals to invest in something, and not run away every time some story isn’t up to their standards.
TBone
@WereBear: you are my spirit animal today!
Another successful tincture administration to the Six Million Dollar Cat too hahahaha!
Captain C
@Belafon: Purity ponies will be the death of us. I still am amazed that there were a nontrivial number of people in 2024 who thought the most important thing in the elections was to Teach Democrats a Lesson.
TBone
@sentient ai from the future: hola huevos rancheros! No soup for pendejos today!
sentient ai from the future
@Glory b: they claim one maximalist thing publicly (musk is a special government employee), and then an entirely different, contradictory thing once it gets to court (and they have figured out roughly what the way to avoid accountability is, like that musk is not even associated with “doge”).
because who’s going to call them on it, the press?
TBone
Lest We Forget
Just wanted to see that again, MM!
Quinerly
OT
PSA
Just dropped by to plug Penzey’s Spices and a great sale. FANTASTIC company. Very anti Trump. They welcomed Kamala at one of their bricks and mortar stores.
Someone here on a evening thread was looking for beef soup/broth bases the other night. We all were discussing substituting chicken broth base.
I love the ones Penzey’s has. …especially the seafood one. Right now the jars that are regularly $12.95 are $8.95. Also some other great items reduced. The bases are excellent buys. Very concentraded. I always hit the $50 gift cards when they run them for $35. Then use the gift cards on these great sales for bonus savings.
Can’t go wrong with any of these soup bases!
Have a great day. I’m unplugging for 10-12 days.
TBone
@NotMax: insane in the membrane (I have heard that too).
sentient ai from the future
@Quinerly: the penzey’s soup bases are fantastic, better than “better than boullion” which i’ve used for years, and yes they have seafood base (which BtB says they have, but i’ve never seen it for sale)
you use more of the penzey’s base so it is more expensive per unit, but i like it enough to say it’s worth it, myself.
TBone
@Quinerly: have fun!!! Am a bit jelly, but will wait till you can again regale us with tales of adventures and mayhem!
(I prefer to roast actual bones because I am just that kinda witch.)
TBone
Today’s Tiedrich, for all who celebrate:
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/elderly-golfer-blasts-ukraine-for
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
TBone
@Downpuppy: I see the TV Batman-style thought clouds graphics when I read that. “Great Caesar’s Ghost, Batman!” Kablooey! goes the cartoon-shaped ticking time bomb…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Dunno who might have seen this:
https://archive.ph/SEhIx
Southern Poverty Law Center, since last summer, has basically shut down it’s immigration section:
Kay
Front page of NYTimes is that Congressional Republicans are wildly popular with the public.
A parody of a newspaper. They have absolute, withering contempt for the liberal readers who pay the bills.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/us/politics/congress-approval-republicans.html
Its really worse than Fox because people still think they’re a legitimate news source. Since he was elected its been triumphant crowing over there that their hometown hero is sticking it to the libs.
WereBear
I got excited too soon.
NutmegAgain
Regarding eggs & bloom. They are also sold that way in Germany. (I love going to grocery stores when travelling.) One time I saw a tall pyramid of eggs stacked at the end cap of an aisle, and I thought, “OK that is just asking for trouble.” Also, there, they don’t come pre-packaged by the dozen. You grab a cardboard egg holder (like the bottom part of a US egg carton) and put as many eggs as you want/need in there. Could be 1, could be 6.
WereBear
@TBone: Aww, I hope he understands it helps him feel better. They often do.
oldgold
On egg prices, I do think we might actually have a legitimate grievance with the Canadians.
Not with the people of Canada, but with the damnable Canadian geese.
Belafon
@Captain C: I will put in a plug for my radio project: NPR.
The story goes that NPR started doing more conservative stories when Gingrich threatened their funding. For a non-profit like them, even losing the fraction they get from the government would have been devastating. And then, because of that shift, they get called Nice Quiet Republicans, and people use that as an excuse to avoid them. But what if every liberal donated, listened, and told them to fix their reporting? What if they didn’t have to beg every year?
For a large part of the country, they are the only non-right wing radio news source, which is one of the reason’s they’re a target for ending government funding. If Republicans cut their funding this year, and people don’t make up for it – since only 10% actually do donate – NPR is either going to have to shut down, make major cuts, or find more corporate sponsors.
Kay
Between rampant, unchecked measles and unchecked bird flu maybe Mexico should close their border to the US. All the guns would dry up too, so side benefit. They may want to reconsider if their relationship with the US is beneficial to Mexico.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: India too.
Belafon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Another among many things that need people to donate.
WereBear
@Belafon: And they have done good stuff lately.
Kay
When does that start, I wonder? Where US travelers will be denied entry to functioning countries because of our unchecked measles epidemic?
Belafon
@Belafon: I meant to type Nice Polite Republicans.
rebelsdad
@rikyrah: Good morning ☀️
schrodingers_cat
@Belafon: They will take our money and pimp their wealthy masters like they always do.
TBone
“You will not hear me cry, ’cause I do not sing the blues” (been listening to Gimme Back My Bullets).
This is a not that palate cleanser.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dAeeJOInJ7I
Mood music
Belafon
@schrodingers_cat: If every average listener donated there would be no masters.
Here in the DFW area, they have a sister music station, kxt.org. It also runs off of donations. Now, because it’s not as expensive, they don’t need as much money, but they still get a little bit of funding from businesses, which are acknowledged with plugs of “You should check out ____”. But the cool thing is that the DJs drive the song selection, not record labels. That would definitely change if they had to resort to more corporate funding. The point of this being that we could actually reduce NPR’s need for corporate funding, and have the clout to challenge them when their reporting is skewed.
Baud
@Kay:
Great. I’m glad to hear Americans have chosen a path forward, even if it’s not my path.
E.
@Belafon: yeah they lost that option completely about 25 years ago. Just like The Washington Post did this year. You want to help them be better by giving them money you go on ahead.
Gretchen
@Kay: There was a CBS news report that the Texas measles outbreak started in a Mennonite community with a large number of religious vaccine exemptions. So not disease-ridden migrants, but nice white Christian conservatives. I notice that part of the story isn’t being widely reported.
Glory b
@WereBear: Lol
TaliesinWW
@schrodingers_cat: can you name another media entity with that level of across the country reach that produces shows like Reveal, or Throughline, or TED Radio Hour, or Code Switch?
Centrists bash it for allegedly being radical liberals. Liberals bash it for being centrist (the US has no radical liberals anymore). But my local NPR station brings me local, regional, national, and international reporting, and lots of BBC coverage as well.
I’ve donated monthly since I was a broke college kid, and I continue to do so.
And from what I gather in this community, it’s the only damn national level news institution that did deep dives and follow up reporting on abortion rights.
frosty
@Quinerly: Bye! Have a good trip.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Belafon: *sigh* Nice Polite Republicans.
I still contribute although I have stopped listening. I cannot abide Mara Liasson.
Bemused Senior urged me to cancel my FTFNYT subscription (done) and now I have done the same for the WaPo.
On the Media (WNYC) is still worthy of support.
Ohio Mom
@Gretchen: I gave that a quick google to see what I could learn about this outbreak and apparently, Mennonite and Amish communities see measles outbreaks on a fairly regular basis — several hits from outbreaks in other years.
We who nothing nothing about infectious disease are surprised, ID specialists are, “Here we go again.”
schrodingers_cat
@Belafon: Ordinary listeners can’t outcompete Zuckerberg and Koch brothers.
@TaliesinWW:
I sent a monthly donation to my local PBS station because they do good local reporting. I have zero interest in funding NPR’s sane washing of Republican extremism.
Trollhattan
@NutmegAgain:
Curious about age of the eggs at the bottom of that pyramid. Does some hapless stock person get assigned to rotate them upwards? If so, there has to be a complicated German noun describing the position. Eierrotatingladperson or somesuch.
Jeffg166
There is a video at the bottom of this page to watch if you have the time.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/a-belgian-congo-plan-for-ukraine
Krugman unleashed is much more interesting.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Belafon:
We honestly don’t know. I get the sense you’re assuming that everybody donate but then also say “Do better” (or something to that effect) and wah lah, their national reporting will “get better”. Instead, many of us have said “Show us you can do better and we’ll return to the fold.” That hasn’t worked but there’s no indication that what you’re saying will work.
As s_c said above, they’ll take one’s money and continue doing what they’re doing given their history of the last 25 years.
Here’s a piece from a former higher up at NPR written *20* years ago:
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/14/99295/-N-P-R-And-how-you-fix-it
I knew that guy (he was another Central Misery resident back in the day), trusted his judgement. I did everything in that piece, maybe I was the only one but we can see how that played out over the subsequent two decades.
NPR has become a “traditional media” outlet by 2025. It does the whole “balance” and “both sider” crapola for a number of reasons:
They and their editors have been pushed back against for 2 generations now by the right. They are scared shitless of the right, thus, their typical bothsiderism reporting nominally keeps the letters to the editors calling for their heads down to a minimum.
They do it to preserve access. Given that they’ve turned into a stenographic media, unless they have access, they have nothing to report.
Traditional media is corporate media. It’s all about ratings, clicks, subscriptions, whatever. Taking moral stances against one party will cost them income, thus they’re unwilling to do that. As such, those directives come down from above and affects the reporting culture. I’ve had my Villager friend (former WH reporter) flat out tell me this when she worked for a print media outlet.
Don’t forget who the prime consumer of traditional media is. NPR is an excellent example. The typical NPR listener is white, makes at least 90K a year and has been brainwashed since 1980 that BOTH SIDES DO IT! In other words NPR programming targets upper middle class moderates reassuring them that everything is gonna be alright. Outside of the 1%, that’s the most comfortable group in America. If traditional media were too responsive to the unwashed, partisan masses, they would alienate their base and their corporate sponsors.
Even when they earnestly attempt to be legitimately even-handed, they don’t realize they’re operating in a tilted arena that’s been built atop right-wing postulates — you can “agree” or “disagree” without realizing that the entire framework is slanted and you’ve tacitly endorsed their position the moment you agree to the terms.
You’ve stated before that a reason NPR continues to be important is it’s reach into rural areas and how it’s the only resource a lot of normies have and kinda/sorta keeps them voting Democrat. When you originally said that, yeah, I hearkened back to moving to Central Misery in 96 and thinking NPR was a lifeline. By 2002, that had changed because of how their reporting had clearly changed.
But I get your point about reaching an audience many of us don’t typically think about, including me who lived it. I purchase media and a donation to NPR would be a purchase just like a subscription to FTFNYT or the Wa(com)Post, in my case a wasted purchase. Those are dollars I could send, instead, to a group like you referenced above, the Southern Poverty Law Center, or the ACLU, or my local indie online, media paper, and feel I’m getting more bang for my buck.
But, per the DK link I provided, one is purchasing a service of sorts and to summarize whether or not one should give NPR money depends on:
schrodingers_cat
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Our very efgoldman used to work or was in someway involved behind the scenes at PBS IIRC. He didn’t like them much.
Trollhattan
@Belafon:
Purity mavens do not care for them and they do far too much boffsides content for my liking, but burning the village to save it is never the right path and ignores they hold onto their vastly valuable licenses. These will otherwise fall into the mitts of Clearchannel, Sinclair and their fellow evil henchmen. Once they control an FCC license they will never relinquish it. A.M. once had its uses. Today? Much of F.M. has followed.
Ohio Mom
@schrodingers_cat: IIRC, he had been some kind of a disk jockey for classical music, lost that job and landed as one of those people who answer the phone at Fidelity when you have questions about you account.
Gretchen
@Ohio Mom: Anti-vax activist Steve Kirsch (one of those rich tech bros who decided that expertise in one thing translates to expertise in everything) went to talk to a few Amish in Pennsylvania and came away claiming that there is no childhood diabetes, autism or cancer among them. Covid vaccine deniers latched onto this claiming that children are healthier without vaccines. Of course none of this is true, but it spread far among the « skeptics ».
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-amish-covid-vaccines-cancer-diabetes-autism-356029928165
WTFGhost
Mainstream legal scholars might be wrong, but they’ll still be highly paid mainstream legal scholars tomorrow. It’s the little people who get crapped on.
What you meant was “today’s mainstream legal scholar knows as much as your average Wal-Mart greeter, unless they’re privy to FedSoc plans, and Trump’s current case of putinitis” (symptoms include historical references, delusions of grandeur, and a desire for territorial acquisition).
Belafon
@WTFGhost: I think that’s meant to be interpreted in the “Chinese Cultural Revolution” sense.
WTFGhost
Random thought: in private industry, these workers who’ve been fired, and are desperately needed, would be in the driver’s seat, willing to take a decent bid to get them back.
Trump is just *ordering* them to come back to the office, because *he* made a *mistake*, and saying they don’t get *any* considerations for having been kicked to the curb, because *TRUMP* doesn’t know what he’s doing.
People *get* that.
“Every one of those people deserves at least a month’s salary, to stick around for another year of uncertainty. Instead, they’re told they should hang out in one of the most expensive places to live, commute to effing *DC*, and just come back to work after getting told they were crap!”
WTFGhost
@Belafon: Come the revolution, the lawyers will always be protected. I saw someone show the enshrinement of the DoJ talking about THE LAW, and not a mention of justice.
You’d think the department of, you know, *JUSTICE*, the notion that people should be treated fairly and decently, would mention that notion, and not just THE LAW… but they don’t.
Most US lawyers don’t think people *matter* as long as the law is followed. But if the law isn’t about justice, the law is tyrannical in its very inception.
Melancholy Jaques
@Captain C:
I don’t think you understand how good those recipes are or the value of their arts coverage to our culture.
Belafon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: When the Washington Post was allowing the one guy to report on Trump, a bunch of us did actually support the paper. Then Bezos decided it was in his best interest to change that, and then we stopped.
I’m trying to keep it out of the hands of the oligarchs that are buying everything else up. Sometimes, when you’re in situations like this, you have to make the up front investment and expect the reward later. And there won’t be another large radio platform that the left will have a chance to access. And I do know that lots of people listen to it.
Belafon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I haven’t said that last part. I’ve mainly just said that it’s about the only thing they have access to that isn’t Sinclair that isn’t skewed hard right.
Belafon
The fun part right now is that the major publications that are doing good reporting right now, Vanity Fair, Wired, Rolling Stone, are also being funded by a wealthy family, they just happen to be good for the moment.
TBone
@Belafon: public radio is essential
Captain C
@Melancholy Jaques:
Clearly I don’t. Also, I should buy more of those expensive diamonds that get advertised in the Sunday paper.
Kay
Denmark Boosts Arms Spending Over 70% After Trump Scolds Europe https://www.wsj.com/articles/denmark-boosts-arms-spending-over-70-after-trump-scolds-europe-52eccc65
Lol. Danes are like “what the FUCK with these people?”
Sure Lurkalot
My bank shows my SS deposits as “processing” which is not atypical but in these times, what was acceptable “before” is worrisome now. I also have a few bill pays that I set up on Sunday that are “processing” today due to the Monday holiday.
Seniors, after decades of working and paying taxes in America, do you like having to monitor your account or mail every month for your Social Security deposit or check?
Talking about Social Security, Trump said yesterday that “America is a very corrupt country”. He truly hates this country and has contempt for every single one of its citizens including the 70 million who think he’s the second coming. I hope he chokes on a bone in his Filet-o-Fish sandwich.
TBone
@WTFGhost: it is hard to walk the line representing criminal defendants – I’m not excusing the horrendous behavior of some attorneys, I am relating my experience that attorneys must sometimes put up a firewall against identifying too closely with their clients, and that protective head space goes beyond repping criminals to the best of one’s ability. A lot of law specialties require a hardened heart. Can’t get too close to the real, suffering people if you want to practice law to help them. It’s a double edged sword, for some.
Alcoholism and drug use by attorneys is a big thing also too.
WTFGhost
@Sure Lurkalot: better to hope he chokes on a Big Mac – any bones in the Filet o’ Fish will be too small and fine to choke on.
(You know, when McD’s le royale with cheese went to fresh ground beef, they were a decent pickle-onion-ketchup burger. So I’m especially hoping if he were to choke to death (for I am too saintly to wish such a happenstance), it would be on a Big Mac, if, indeed, he were doomed to choke.
Unless he choked and died on Putin’s cock. (Hey, don’t look at me like that – I’m sure KFC includes cock, er, rooster.)
Baud
@Sure Lurkalot:
Unusually introspective of him.
lowtechcyclist
Reminds me of “the stockholder of yesteryear is the stowaway of today.” – Groucho, Monkey Business (1931).
Wapiti
@Gretchen: Something I found amusing at the beginning of the Covid pandemic: Christian Scientism (?) does not forbid vaccinations. They leave it as a personal choice, but accept it as a public health need. (I do wonder in which epidemic they made that dogmatic choice).
raven
@Sure Lurkalot: Both of ours came on time.
Steve LaBonne
@Kay: I’m told the Danes like to remember that they’re the descendants of the Vikings.
Downpuppy
@Wapiti: By 1900, Mary Baker Eddy herownself was telling the Christian Scientists to accept mandatory vaccinations & not mess with public health.
Professor Bigfoot
@schrodingers_cat: One thing I noticed in India is that the eggs and the butter just tasted better.
Another thing I miss. <sigh>
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: points for classic!
sixthdoctor
Transportation secretary/lower-than-Danny-Bonaduce-level-reality star announces Trump Administration will try to roll back NYC congestion pricing.
MTA offers back the words “you” and “fuck” and offers to reorder them.
Ruckus
@Glory b:
Seeing as how they (shitforbrains and his handler) have no real concept of being actual leaders and zero concept of who they “work for” (because they are both the
rathercompletely selfish brand of human), the “elected” one having aged out and his handler being one of the most obviously selfish humans to ever live, none of this will go well. shitforbrains has aged out, seemingly a few decades ago but now for sure and his handler believes he is the lord high ruler of all – because he has money. And as we all know, money is the first and foremost concept of intelligence and correctness. Just ask either of them.Ruckus
Sure Lurkalot
@raven: Ours “came” on time too but the funds are not yet available.
The internet of all things is not necessarily reliable but there are some 68 million people who receive SS benefits, about 50 million of whom are retirees. Overall, about 20% of recipients rely on these payments as their only source of income. I’d hazard a guess that there’s another 10% whose SS payment is their primary source, with other sources being more meager and/or less regular.
That a billionaire who sucks off the government teat and a renowned tax cheat have their shit stirring hands on the levers of these payments is absolutely infuriating.
Ruckus
@Sure Lurkalot:
Mine is pending as well but arrived today so not all that unusual at this time
lowtechcyclist
George Will had a column in the WaPo this morning which, for the briefest of moments, gave me hope that this was his stopped-clock moment at least. It was titled, “The Supreme Court can fix this mess of its own making.”
Was his column about how they decided last term that the President was above the law, or about anything remotely near that important? Hahahahaha. No, it was about an eminent domain decision of theirs from 20 years ago. As our ship of state sinks, Will wants to make sure the deck chairs are arranged to his satisfaction.
schrodingers_cat
@Professor Bigfoot: They are fresher, that’s why. London too had better eggs and produce in general.
Captain C
@lowtechcyclist: What could have fixed it was all of the Shitty Six either resigning or flat out doing the honorable thing between ’21 and ’24.
Gin & Tonic
I’m in district RI-2, but saw a clip of the RI-1 Congressman on CNN this morning pushing back hard against the Trump lies about Ukraine. So I called his office to express my thanks and support, then hung up and called my Congressman’s office to suggest he could emulate his colleague, and got an earnest young staffer telling me he’s in full support as well. No surprise, probably, that both reps are Democrats.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Glad to hear it. Trump is out of control.
Trollhattan
@sixthdoctor:
This makes me happy to read.
Am imagining the response he’d get from Philly, trying to tell them how to do bidnez.
Gin & Tonic
@sixthdoctor:
I’m so old I can remember when the R party was in favor of local control of local issues.
Sister Golden Bear
@Gin & Tonic:
But only issues that they were in favor of.
WTFGhost
@TBone: No worries on criminal defense attorneys, nor trial attorneys – I’ve known some good ones, and I can agree wholeheartedly. In fact, what infuriates me is that old intro to the show Law and Order, where “the people are represented by…”. No… the people are represented by the defense attorneys and the jury; the *state*, which calls itself the people, is represented by prosecutors and cops.
I don’t get irate at attorneys who practice for the law and for justice (and, for criminal defense, it does mean trying to serve your client as well as you ethically can); were I in an angry enough mood, I’d say I hate those who only practice the law for whomever pays their bill, without a care for justice.
So I can see a defense attorney throw shade on a *perfect* criminal case, and I don’t bat an eye – that’s what defense attorneys are supposed to do. But I see a prosecutor trying to jail every mule who can’t flip on someone they don’t already have, and it makes my blood boil, because that’s not justice… even though I might understand, on a gut level, that you need *some* threat, or *no one* talks so (waves hands in a helpless, “what can a single person *do*?” motion, which is really pretty expressive for a wave.)
WTFGhost
@Sister Golden Bear: If you’re not old enough, there was a time when they always said “local control is better.”
Now, if you knew US racial history, you know that means “we should be allowed to have ‘sundown towns’ if we want to!” But if you didn’t, you’d think they’d agree, local control is always better.
Now, it’s stupid: local control might make WV burn coal fired power plants which harm surrounding states, so “local control is always better” is clearly not wise, but, at least it seemed like an *idea*.
The basic idea behind “local control” is simple: corruption. If you make medicaid a block grant, there’s a *boatload* of money that can be handed out… locally. That’s where Republican politicians are born. That’s why they want charter schools – there’s lots of money in education, and, the state will have to make up for any deficiencies, now, or later.
Now, you’re correct: they’ve proven it *is* only for issues they were in favor of… not *just* race. I guess this makes them a bit more consistent, in the sense of the wolf “I am going to eat you!” (“well, at least he tells it like it is.”).
Searcher
Yes, but —
If the laying hen has salmonella, the salmonella can be in the egg when laid. The Bloom only protects against bacteria that are deposited on the shell after it is laid.
(Similarly, this is why “washing off” chicken is generally worse than useless; if you didn’t just drop that chicken on the kitchen floor, the contamination is *inside* the meat, and you’re just spreading it around your kitchen.)
TBone
@WTFGhost: good answer, hat’s off in salute!
Betty
@Kay: Wildly popular for doing what? That doesn’t make any sense.
Kayla Rudbek
@Belafon: sane billionaires versus insane billionaires, and where the hell are the rest of the sane billionaires anyway?
dyspeptic
@Adrian Lesher: And both Mexico and Europe have much higher incidence of salmonella. The US system is not perfect but washing is better. Also salmonella often found insuide the egg as weel b/c the bacteria lives in reproductive tracts.
FWIW I have worked in egg safety for 2 decades and have met with US, MX and EU health authorirties on salmonella in eggs.