Emergency crews have suspended their search for victims of catastrophic flooding in central Texas amid new warnings that additional rain will again cause waterways to surge.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) July 13, 2025 at 1:15 PM
===
Armies of Texan volunteers are leading flood recovery and cleanup, supplementing official efforts even as more flooding hits and the search for the missing continues.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) July 14, 2025 at 2:00 AM
===
Noem lays down a marker: 'the best we've seen out of FEMA.' Mainstream media ought to take up the challenge and do some serious compare/ contrast about FEMA responses. Here's a good place to start: The Biden admin pre-positioning of resources BEFORE Hurricane Helene hit vs Noem's Texas efforts.
— @NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) (@newsjennifer.bsky.social) July 13, 2025 at 10:49 AM
===
California is proud to help Texas in this moment of crisis.
Tragedy tests us â how we come together to help communities recover defines us. https://t.co/pKtiFbps82
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) July 12, 2025
===
President Trump has so far withheld federal relief funds, with many arguing that California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats in the deep-blue state have mishandled the fires and should be forced to rescind liberal policies in exchange for aid.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) July 9, 2025 at 7:33 PM
===
FEMA Acting Administrator David Richardson finally visited Texas Hill Country today more than a week after the deadly floods.
Photos posted on X and Reddit show Richardson there, and Iâve confirmed via the FEMA daily internal brief.— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) July 12, 2025 at 11:44 PM
===
at one point he wore a jaunty hat
— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) July 12, 2025 at 11:46 PM
===
The DOD is halting a critical atmospheric data collection programâthe Defense Meteorological Satellite Programâat the end of June. They've given weather forecasters just days to prepare,
Hurricane season is upon us. In days we'll be "blind," hurricane experts are saying.— Fiona "Fi" Webster ?????? (@fiona-webster22.bsky.social) July 12, 2025 at 10:30 AM
===
As someone put it quite well:
1.) It is very, very hard to actually blow up the american economy, even with everything. Even the major financial crises we weathered significantly better than other countries.
2.) No one has really ever pulled every single fucking "blow it all up" lever all at once— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 9, 2025 at 6:07 PM
On The Road – Albatrossity – Northward migration – 1
Baud
Genuinely surprised Abbot was even that minimal level of gracious.
I agree that Biden built a resilient economy. Oh well.
mappy!
Down in the flood
Soprano2
Speaking of weather, ours is strangely wet for July. I feel like I’m living in the tropics rather than the Ozarks. This is the kind of weather pattern we used to have in June, not July.
Suzanne
That hat makes him look like the villain in an Indiana Jones movie. And I am someone who routinely wears ludicrously wide-brimmed sun hats.
ETA: Why isnât his shirt buttoned up? This is slightly porny.
Betty Cracker
FEMA dude looks like he just rolled out of a Hooters dumpster.
BTW, we didn’t get one fucking nickel out of FEMA, even though an inspector who arrived before the Biden to Trump admin transition documented extensive flood damage and we filed all requested paperwork to document our relocation expenses.
People I know who had hurricane damage that was less extensive than our flood damage filed claims that were adjudicated before Trump took over and got paid. We couldn’t file earlier because our damage was related to floods that occurred in the weeks after the hurricanes. We didn’t get jackshit.
FEMA has been gone since January 20, 2025. Most people just don’t know it. Doesn’t matter if you’re in a red state or a blue one. Trump will screw every one of us because he thinks it’s his personal money.
satby
Mexico sent help. CA sent help. Blue state IL sent help. Noem and her boss had to be hectored into helping.
hells littlest angel
Richardson looks like he’s been partying with Pete Hegseth and Don Jr. You can smell the stale sweat coming off that polyester shirt.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I’m sorry to hear that. It’s not the worst atrocity of this administration, but it’s difficult to hear about one of our own being directly affected by the election.
stinger
“Forced to rescind liberal policies in exchange for aid.” I recall the feds under some Repugnant president threatening to withhold highway funds from states that didn’t change some liberal policy unrelated to roads — marriage equality? abortion rights? child labor?
Anyway, it’s a pattern. States’ rights and local autonomy go out the window when Republicans don’t get their way, and it’s not just the Felon. Pure blackmail.
stinger
@Suzanne:
That was my thought, too. In group photos, every one else is buttoned up normally. He’s intent in displaying his dogtag, for some reason. Important People at disaster sites typically wear a nametag on a ribbon.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: He’s cosplaying “sweaty manly man.
p.s.> from the comments:
“Just looking at that picture you can smell the BO, last nights vodka and a dousing of English Leather oozing out of his pores.”
NotMax
The stupid, it burns.
Baud
@NotMax:
Why can’t the so called liberal media actually call it fake, rather than relying on scare quotes? Ugh.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Thanks. It sucks, but we were fortunate since we were able to muddle through this time without losing our home or jeopardizing our health. I think about the people who weren’t that lucky, and it’s going to keep happening as long as these corrupt frauds are in charge.
Suzanne
@stinger: The smaller picture really emphasizes how much containment work that shirt is doing. Godspeed, shirt.
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: I donât mind the hat as much as the rest of his outfit. He needs to go up a size, or more.
Also, blue jeans? Nope, not for a government official and especially not in the Texas heat.
He clearly dressed for effect but what an effect.
patrick II
Specifically which liberal Forest policies has Newsom mishandled that would cause Trump to withhold assistance? Exactly what is a liberal anti-forest fire policy?
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom: I am petty and judgmental, and maybe I would improve as a person if I was more emotionally generous with these fuckersâŠ. but every image of these clowns just looks off. Like, in government service, just donât make your clothes a distraction. You donât have to spend a lot of money or follow the menswear guy. You donât have to know all the nuances of style. Just donât look weird.
Why Is that so difficult?!
p.a.
It’s a meme, but kind of a background one: how can people who hate government be expected to run a functioning government?
Relates to Government of the Grift, By (Buy?) the Grift, For the Grift.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: Of course, the first person I hear about that I personally know who gets screwed by this maladminstration would be you, girl, and I am so sorry.
THESE MOTHERFUCKERS. I’m glad y’all are all right, but goddamn, these motherfuckers!
Baud
@p.a.:
People who hate government hate government for helping those other people.
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: “Why is that so difficult?”
It’s difficult for them because they are weird.
It’s literally in their natures, from Trump right on down to this guy looking like a refugee from a Sopranos episode.
Matt McIrvin
@p.a.:
They use their own incompetence as a selling point. We saw this during the Bush years: screw up government, then blame “government” in general and run on the idea that you shouldn’t vote for the big-government party if government sucks so much.
It’s some cause for hope that it didn’t work well for them then. But the other side of the coin is that if Democrats come back in and don’t fix everything instantly (over active Republican obstruction), the pitch works again.
Van Buren
The US economy is like a huge aircraft carrier, not easy to get it to change direction or speed, so you have to anticipate well in advance to avoid trouble.
Oh, and right now most of the maintenance crew has been furloughed and captain is too busy meeting with the PR team to meet with the engineers.
lowtechcyclist
@MagdaInBlack:Â â
With that case of Dunlop’s Disease? (His belly done lopped several inches over his belt.)
mappy!
At some point, does the I Didn’t Vote For This, turn into a chorus? I get the sense that Florida and Texas are maybe one hurricane away from that point… It’s the Not My Fault cry of the deep space laser victimhood posse.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Besides the bigotry angle, I will give Republicans credit for persuading a lot of people that the “real problem” with government lies with “unelected bureaucrats” rather than elected officials and their political appointees.
Princess
On the economy: the real pain has not even begun to begin yet. If Trump holds to these tariffs (a big if) the pain across the globe is going to be tremendous. My guess is countries cave to most of his demands because they canât afford not to but there will still be negative effects globally and in the US. The budget pain is a ways off.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot: See, I think there’s an underlying values issue at work. (Perhaps this is the art student in me overinterpreting, but I donât think so.) We all understand the semiotics of dress, even if we donât especially care â and in that case, most select clothes that appear deliberately normie and nondistracting. Different arenas of life have these different codes of acceptability. Government has historically had very lowercase-c conservative dress associated with it, because one wants to project an image of responsibility with public resources, and of the person’s dedication to public issues. (My profession is different on this, for sure.) So when I see these people dressed in such a way as to command attention to themselves, I wonder why they want to do that.
stinger
@Suzanne: LOL. Love your phrasing!
Baud
Suzanne
@stinger: And lest anyone think Iâm body-shaming, I can assure you I am not. Chris Christie is a big man, and I canât remember him showing up to any important event looking sloppy or inappropriate.
Itâs nice, because then I can just hate him for being an ASSHOLE REPUBLICAN, as God intended.
Chris T.
@Suzanne:
I didn’t, until a smart girlfriend taught me in my 20s. (I had a vague clue, but not enough of one.)
Hoodie
@Suzanne: That ensemble doesnât suggest much more than barely functioning alcoholic to me.
sab
@Suzanne: I have a hat just like that, but I am a girl.
Suzanne
@Hoodie: 100%. You can just tell that dude didnât shower.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Why can’t the so-called liberal media ask, JUST ONCE, who “they” is?
Scamp Dog
If we Dems get a trifecta, I think we should lead off with a âFuck the Billionairesâ tax bill thatâs a straight up tax on wealth above $100 million (or whatever). Donât have an accurate valuation because itâs thinly traded? Cough up that percentage of ownership to the feds. Half goes to a sovereign wealth fund, the rest goes on sale so we have a value for the next go around. Oh, and if you supply information that someone has cheated, you get a juicy fraction of the revenue, so their accountants are motivated to turn them in.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyoneđđđ
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: see, thatâs why an engineer (me) needs to listen to people who know art history ânâ suchlike(you!); because I think your analysis is dead on, and a layer deeper than I would have thought about.
Why, indeed. Seems like self-aggrandizement is a fundamental trait of this entire administration.
Eyeroller
@Suzanne: I’ve seen plenty of large men who dress in clothing that fits them and does not over-emphasize their shapes. Â They look perfectly good and classy. Â Too many overweight guys won’t wear clothing that fits them.
(Women do this too, like the old expression “poured herself into that dress,” and that looks bad as well.)
O. Felix Culpa
@Professor Bigfoot:
Now that made me LOL. Understatement of the year.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
Understatement of the administration, for sure.
Like, Mr. Suzanne is not a clothes guy, and he would know to wear some goddamn chinos and to button his shirt for this appearance.
ETA: And they would be chinos that I had purchased for him, because he does not give enough of a damn to purchase his own chinos.
Matt McIrvin
@Scamp Dog: I think the general feeling is that the courts would declare that unconstitutional. But it might be politically worth making them do it.
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:Â â
Firesign Theatre:
Peorgie: It’s all a fake, Mudhead! They lied to me!
Mudhead: Who do you mean, ‘they’?
Peorgie: You know, ‘them.”
Mudhead: Name three.
.
Raoul Paste
@Betty Cracker:  âFEMA dude looks like he just rolled out of a Hooters dumpsterâŠâ
First smile  of the day.  Kudos
Hoodie
@Suzanne: Iâm thinking can of Right Guard in a gas station bathroom. He gives off a vibe of one of those passed over officers in a Korean War noir.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I always figure this kind of thing is a power move, especially for men, whose acceptable range of fashions is relatively narrow today: if I weren’t top dog, I would get mocked and shunned for dressing like this, so the fact that I do it and get away with it shows my power.
RevRick
@NotMax: Sheâs batshit crazy, but sheâs right. The âtheyâ are fossil fuel corporations dumping methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And they are doing it in plain sight.
Matt McIrvin
@Princess: I think he probably caves on most of it again. It’s just going to be this constant headache through his administration: he claims he’s ready to pull the trigger on monster tariffs, gets attention by tanking the markets and revels in everyone “lining up to kiss his ass”, then dials it back to just a vaguely painful level with a promise that he’ll do it in 90 days or whatever, and the markets rally again.
Hoodie
@Matt McIrvin: This seems more pathetic than dominant, like âI really donât want this fucking job and would rather be downing boilermakers at the VFW.â Heâs kind of a sad figure, almost Queegish. MIA for days and then shows up looking like this.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Much like the rigged-election conspiracy theories, I recall worry about the “deep state” originally coming from the left, particularly the foreign-policy left. No matter who was in charge, neocons and corporatists had “burrowed” into the civil service where they could warp policy and nothing could dislodge them. But the right took ownership of that one with a vengeance.
Suzanne
@Hoodie: Yeah, agree. This dude strikes me as having gained a bunch of weight since he bought those clothes, and canât be arsed to go buy some new ones. Lack of discipline. The details of life are slipping away. Def pathetic.
Ben Cisco
@Suzanne: I saw elsewhere that he looked like a minor villian out of “Road House” – HA!!
UncleEbeneezer
@Nukular Biskits: Because everyone knows who (((they))) are.
Quiltingfool
I was just over at LGM, reading comments (story was about DHS and NWS), and the clothes choices of the FEMA director was roundly criticized. Â For example:
Heh heh.
Josie
I wonder if his clothing choice is his idea of what “a real Texas man” would look like. You know, the jeans and boots and manly chest with shirt unbuttoned. Being a real Texas person myself, I can assure you that he has no clue. The men in my family would never look so slovenly.
Librettist
I could of been an actor, but I wound up here…
Literally a “crisis actor”.
Another ghost payroller getting dragged into work, courtesy of Donnie Two Scoops.
Betty
@Suzanne: Oh, the comments on social media appearance were much nastier than this. I see Betty Cracker is using some similar language. Hoo boy!
snoey
@Suzanne: Quick look at Wikipedia says that he was career military so probably didn’t have much call to appear in civilian clothes but otoh he is some kind of galleryable artist who should have an eye for this.
Quiltingfool
Hereâs another LGM commenter on FEMA Directorâs sartorial choices:
UncleEbeneezer
@Professor Bigfoot: Second! Â FEMA screwed us too back in February. Â Denied us assistance because we had renter’s insurance (which only covered about 30% of what we lost). Â FEMA is supposed to help cover the remainder, from what we were told by our insurance adjustor and people at the FEMA location where we applied. Â I didn’t mention it much here because between our renters’ insurance and generosity of friends to our GoFundMe, we did well enough to manage okay without appealing the FEMA shit. Â But from what I’ve heard from other Altadena victims of the fire (home-owners who lost way more than us) FEMA generally hasn’t paid out for almost anyone. Â I’m guessing that would’ve been different with Biden or Harris running the show. Â But you know, we all deserved to suffer because something, something Genocide and Biden was old etc…
Betty
@Eyeroller: So he doesn’t have a big enough mirror to know he is no longer the fit Marine of his youth?
Quiltingfool
Hereâs an LGM comment about Noem:
The picture is the one of her posing in front of prisoners at CECOT.
Oh, no disrespect to strippers, btw. Â One of my former students was a stripper; she had some good, er, interesting stories.
Jeffro
Newsom, in my dreams: “Well, we’re the fourth-largest economy in the world, and we get back $.50 on the dollar of our federal taxes in the best of times, so if there’s no federal aid coming when we need it, there’s no point in staying in the union, is there?
We’ll re-join once sanity and the rule of law reigns in Washington.”
jonas
@patrick II: He won’t let state LEOs cooperate with ICE/CPB in their gestapo jackbooted roundups of people trying to sell fruit ices on street corners.
stinger
@Suzanne:Â â
@Eyeroller:Â â
Another example is JB Pritzker. Overweight, always dresses sharp.
Jeffro
Yup.
“Let’s quit electing people who don’t want to run the government (other than to steal from it) ” – Dem campaign line, everywhere, every year.
A variation on this is their current attacks on higher education.
Never mind that states have been lowering their contributions to higher education, resulting in higher tuition and fees, for decades (so that legislatures can keep paying for older folks’ care while keeping taxes low)…the RWNJs say that the REAL reason American kids (white ones especially) can’t go to college is that all the spots are being taken by nonwhites and immigrants.
Same old, same old.
Shakti
Bon le 14 juillet! C’est la fĂȘte nationale française.It’s Bastille Day!
Enjoy this absolute banger performance of Ăa Ira the sans culotte version with some interpolated tune Habanera from Carmen.
Ăa Ira by Gojira
Of course, the Marseillaise is also full of blood and makes the Star Spangled Banner look peaceful in comparison.
prostratedragon
Why not just a cotton buttondown or a polo with khakis? Keep it simple. Or, wasn’t he supposed to have been in Peru? Unless it was Peru, IN, you’d think he’d have picked up some guayaberas.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
Or, “if California is as horrible as you say, you surely wouldn’t mind if we up and left, right?”
Suzanne
@prostratedragon:
This would be the choice for a normal person who has enough awareness of social conventions to not make an ass of themselves, while not really wanting to devote much mental effort to style. Which is perfectly acceptable. It’s okay to not be into this stuff.
Belafon
@Scamp Dog: Without passing a constitutional amendment first, years will be spent litigating a wealth tax. Far simpler change the upper marginal tax rates and let the IRS do its job.
Chris T.
@Suzanne: What the <insert word here> is a “chino” anyway?
(OK, googled, apparently they are lighter weight khakis. I sort of know what those are, although I thought “khaki” was a color or pattern. Apparently it was originally.)
Chief Oshkosh
@satby:
This is a very good point. And I am not sure that the Dipshit Duo has actually sent helpful help.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: I am terrified of California seceding because it’s hard for me to imagine an outcome that doesn’t involve Massachusetts being bombed into flaming and possibly radioactive rubble.
lowtechcyclist
@Shakti:
Bastille had some pretty good songs, but a whole day to honor them? Seems a bit much! ;-)
Soprano2
Weren’t a lot of them Fox News personalities? That would track, they’re used to playing to the camera and being the center of attention. That FEMA guy looks like he woke up from a 3 day bender and hurriedly threw some clothes on.
stinger
Odd to me that Wikipedia doesn’t know Richardson’s age/year of birth. The Marine Corps let that slide?
Downpuppy
NASA got them to continue the satellite data feed through July, 31. Since then, nobody has explained the reasoning, so there’s a fair chance that the whole thing will blow over.
Especially if a hurricane comes near Palm Beach.
Shalimar
@NotMax: Marjorie Taylor Greene pisses me off because she acts powerless. She is an elected member of Congress with oversight authority and a large staff. Don’t try to scare me with what “they” are doing. Find out who they are and shut them down.
No one wants wants evil people creating natural disasters that hurt all of us. That is amazingly stupid.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Same thing here: get them to agree in advance that the USA would be better off without all those commie pinkos in Massachusetts.
Shouldn’t be hard, they’ve been demonizing Massachusetts for far longer than they’ve been demonizing California (with the limited exception of San Francisco).
brendancalling
This morning, I saw what reported to be a video of the Kerrville residents at what looked to be a town meeting adamantly saying âno Biden funds.â Comparing Biden to the devil, âwe donât need the federal gummint because weâre TEXANS.â And I saw one just the other day of some woman grieving the dead, and then in a split screen the same woman being all MAGA with the racism etc.
Those poor kids. Those poor kids. Looks like some Texans ate their own facesâbut hey, they got to call Biden âthe devil,â and they got their way on finding, so it all balances out.
Suzanne
@Chris T.:
Not important, other than just being incredibly generic, nondescript, unremarkable pants, available in every department store in the country. The perfect thing for a government administrator to wear when (1) needing to appear in a natural/disaster setting and (2) not inadvertently make the appearance all about oneself.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist:
And do you think they’d tolerate it continuing to exist as an independent polity, rather than opting to depopulate it entirely? Nah, more likely they’d treat us like a big Gaza or a small Ukraine.
prostratedragon
@stinger:Â 1964 or 1965?! This guy is awfully shadowy.
Jackie
@Ohio Mom:
Heâs using the Kristi Noemâs dressing-up-for-a-role book. Same crap as Meloniaâs safari outfit. All wearing costumes they imagine defines the part – as if theyâre all in a play on stage.
Booger
I feel seen.
Portly Neighbor
He looks like he crashed at Cole’s place last night – ” Hey man, I thought you said you had air conditioning.”
schrodingers_cat
This administration reminds me of the British East India Company’s behavior in occupied Bengal. But the important difference is that the majority of the white people and wannabe white people voted for this.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Why not? They’d expect Massachusetts to fail on its own. The MAGAts would be looking forward to seeing what sort of disaster Massachusetts turns into once they kick you out of the USA, and would be looking forward to the opportunity to gleefully point and laugh at your failure.
Can’t see that the Ukraine or Gaza comparisons make much sense. For all the horror show that Israel has been in Gaza, 10/7 cemented Gaza as a source of terrorism in Israelis’ minds. And there’s just something in Russia and its culture that causes it to regard itself as the rightful owners of an empire; they still think Poland and the Baltics are rightfully theirs, let alone the former SSRs of the USSR.
Redshift
@Belafon:
All right, but we also need to take Krugman’s recent series about the causes of the explosion in inequality starting with Reagan as an instruction manual and reverse all of them. The existence of billionaires itself is undermining government of the people and destabilizing the world order.
gene108
@Baud:
I had a thought about âsolvingâ the problem of âunelected bureaucratsâ. Have everyone working in government run for election every four or six years, thus no more unelected bureaucrats.
Soprano2
@stinger: That was in the 1980’s, they made all the states raise their drinking age to 21 to get highway funds.
Redshift
@Betty Cracker:
Trump’s insistence he was going to get rid of FEMA made no sense to me until he let skip a month or so ago that he wanted to replace it with him personally deciding who got disaster money. I’m not reassured by their recent reversal in that because I suspect his people explained to him that he already does get to decide who gets the money without abolishing it (followed by Noem’s attempt yesterday to paper over their failure in Texas by claiming they’ve fixed FEMA and this was it working how it’s supposed to.)
Omnes Omnibus
I think it’s great that FEMA is run by the physical manifestation of how everyone pictured Bender’s Dad in The Breakfast Club.
eclare
@Shakti:
La Marseillaise is the best national anthem out of all countries, including ours.
Redshift
Who the hell are the “many” in that WaPo squib, providing cover for Trump withholding sister aid? That’s appalling.
It’s bad enough we get easily probable facts prefaced with “Democrats say” too maintain “objectivity”, but this is clearly either administration officials or some flavor of wingnut who aren’t even being identified, with a Fox News “may people are saying.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: I had a sales and marketing job that took me to Delhi, Chennai, Beijing and Qingdao regularly and trust me on this, I was the fattest MF a lot of people in those cities had ever seen.
AND SO I made damned sure that my clothes fit properly, draped properlyâ for a fatass American I looked damn good. đ
(Iâve since lost somewhere close to 60 pounds and all those most excellent suits, trousers and shirts DONâT FIT ME NO MORE!!! đ)
Omnes Omnibus
@eclare: It is known.
evodevo
@Soprano2: Same here in KY – we can’t get anything done outdoors for the rain, and the plants are SUPER happy. Like living in the tropics. My husband is mowing almost every day seems like.
Professor Bigfoot
@UncleEbeneezer: MAN.
Iâm so very bloody sorry to hear thisâ was just remarking to Mrs. B this morning, âif any major shit goes down, babe, weâre on our own.â
Vile, thieving, grifting, fuckers.
Glidwrith
@stinger: SCROTUM specifically ruled that states couldnât be forced expand Medicaid when Obamacare rolled out. Originally, funding would be withheld without that expansion. So, how is what Shitgibbon doing any different (asking rhetorically, of course).
Miss Bianca
@Shakti: Heh heh heh. I can tell from the first video shot that I’m gonna like this.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot: Congrats on the weight loss! Itâs a journey, Iâm sure!
eclare
@Omnes Omnibus:
Perfect! Why yes, I am Gen X, how could you tell?
Jeffro
I’m good with this. More than good, actually!
“Tax the Billionaires JUST BECAUSE” polls better than “Tax the Billionaires so we can do X and Y”, so let’s do it JUST BECAUSE
Professor Bigfoot
@stinger: We shall always speak well of the Great Khan; and even in his Western-style garments he always presents as the Great Leader he is!
Jeffro
@Scamp Dog:
@Matt McIrvin:
@Belafon:
@Redshift:
just get a Dem trifecta and make the tax code so progressive that it functionally eliminates the accumulation of wealth once you make more than $100M a year
Librettist
When no one recognizes the Stevie Ray Vaughan Halloween costume.
I told you to print the SRV decal and put it on a Playstation guitar…
eclare
@Professor Bigfoot:
Congratulations on the weight loss! As to the clothes not fitting, find a good tailor, they can do magic.
Another Scott
@patrick II: California voted for Harris.
That’s all you need to know.
Of course.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Geminid
@evodevo: We’re getting that wet weather in Virginia too.
Miss Bianca
@Professor Bigfoot: LOL!
Professor Bigfoot
@eclare: Agreed, although I think the Soviet was the prettiest.
Omnes Omnibus
@Professor Bigfoot: COMMIE!!!!!!!!!!
Professor Bigfoot
@Miss Bianca: Second to MVP, the Great Lotus Herself, The Great Khan is the best.
(I love the whole âNomadic Warriors for Pritzkerâ thing- a big difference between us and them is that we can have fun, that we can be âjoyful warriorsââ and of course, it doesnât hurt that JB really really is a âright guy!â)
Professor Bigfoot
@Omnes Omnibus: Jusâ sayinâ! <snicker>
rikyrah
Andrew Bates
@AndrewBatesNC
.
@BarackObama
: “Whatâs needed now is courage.”
“Less whining and being in fetal positions”
@SpanbergerForVA
and
@MikieSherrill
are âpowerful spokespersons for a pragmatic, commonsense desire to help people”
“Stop looking for the messiah. You have great candidates running”
x.com/AndrewBatesNC/status/1944738963740123636
Professor Bigfoot
@rikyrah: The weakest part of our coalition is its weakest part.
Iâll place bets now that there will soon be tweets and skeets about how âuselessâ Obama is and why doesnât he DO SOMETHING?!!
ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ
Ben Cisco
@Professor Bigfoot: And they can GET BENT
stinger
@Soprano2:Â â
Thanks!
Sandia Blanca
@Portly Neighbor: LOL! But Cole wouldn’t have let him leave the house without taking a shower the next morning.
Bokonon
Well, look at the contrast. The MAGA policy might consist of pointing lots and lots of weapons at the trees and brush, and yelling “you bastards better not catch on fire! If you make President Trump look bad, there will be HELL TO PAY!”
We could station government agents in forests all over the country, and deem wildfires to be a form of terrorism …
O. Felix Culpa
@Ben Cisco: What you said.
catclub
@Jeffro: There is a gigantic roadblock in the Constitution to any tax on wealth versus income.
Good luck eliminating that.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Trump will screw every one of us because he thinks itâs his personal money.
I think it’s worse than that, but not that you are wrong.
In my mind he also ACTS like it’s his personal money.
Blue Galangal
So, like a carbon fiber submersible?
(Too soon?)
Ruckus
@Ohio Mom:
He clearly dressed for effect but what an effect.
It may be that he always dresses like that. When I worked in professional motorsports I traveled the entire US 8 months a year and saw people from all walks of life. This guy is dressed like a lot of people at least used to dress on a daily basis, at least in some parts of the country.
Mai Naem mobile
I’m wondering if the billionaires dump tfg now that they have their tax cuts and whatever else they wanted in the bill.  I’m genuinely surprised Abbott had anything good to say to Newsom.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
Why Is that so difficult?!
Because so many people make it difficult. I was a mental health counselor long ago and can say with ease, some people weren’t raised anywhere close to reasonably. Or didn’t want to be reasonable. And they were successful at unreasonable. Might be the only thing/rationalization they can be reasonable at.
Being unreasonable.
They want things/positions they can’t earn so they want to take them. But a lot of life is not something one can take, it’s something one must learn and or earn. And they don’t want to have to earn or learn anything. They want it all to be given to them. And it seldom is.
Shakti
@lowtechcyclist: There’s always stuff they’re unearthing at Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius is an incredibly active volcano.
@eclare: It’s way fightier than the Star Spangled Banner — which was about the War of 1812.
@Miss Bianca: the tune is from a contradanse air Marie Antoinette liked to play; the refrain and title come from Benjamin Franklin saying “Ăa ira, ça ira” about the American Revolutionary War while he was in France as an ambassador.
The sans culottes version of this song has the most aggro lyrics straight up calling to hang the aristocrats and clergy from lampposts. I’m sure they found it terrifying.
Ruckus
@Professor Bigfoot:
I’ve owned, in going on 8 decades 2 suits. OK I had one when I was a kid but I don’t remember ever wearing it. (And I worked hard at the forgetting!) I worked in physical labor jobs my entire life so really a suit was for funerals or weddings. I’ve worn them at both. And I can count the times on one hand.
Also there are people that can alter those suits…..
AND congrats on the giving away of 60 lbs. It’s never easy but it can be rewarding.
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot:
@Suzanne: itâs because they have oppositional defiance disorder and they wonât listen to anyone (especially not an expert or a woman)
Kayla Rudbek
@Suzanne: I grew up with Dress for Success as a prominent reference book in my house (I took the copies, both the original and the sequel for women, when I moved out), wore uniforms for most of grade school and all of high school, and my dad told me that he needed to dress like a Republican banker at work (he was referring to the pre-1980s Eisenhower/Nixon cloth-coat Republicans, I think, not the glitzy coastal or Texan Republicans). Dad was military so when he was doing military duty, he wore class A uniform in the 1970s (which I still think is preferable to the jumped-up camouflage print pajamas that the modern US military wears).
I did theater in high school which taught me that beyond sanitation, safety, and protection from the elements, all clothing is a costume and what you wear will change peopleâs perception of you. So wearing more expensive clothing is not necessarily a sign of virtue or intelligence. However, dressing in an outrĂ© style means that you want attention and you are dressing that way to attract attention and to send signals to other people. Fine and dandy if you are nonconformist somehow (Goth, Amish, etc.) and you own it that you are dressing differently. Not okay if you are trying to pretend that you are the establishment/conservative and your clothing is signaling that youâre not really conforming to the accepted standards.
Kayla Rudbek
@Suzanne: also, as a former government employee who works with government employees still, spending too much money on fancy clothes and accessories is suspicious (where are you getting the money to pay for fancy suits/ties/scarves/watches/jewelry on a government salary? Particularly if you have kids in the house still?)
So you have to look professional and decent and nicely turned out, but not so fancy that people start wondering how you can afford to dress like that. Â Brooks Brothers and Talbotâs are about as expensive as you can get and you wonât be wearing it every day.
Kayla Rudbek
@Eyeroller: âten pounds of sausage in a five pound boxâ was the phrase that one of my law school classmates used (not about me) and Iâve had a horror of being in too-tight clothes ever since.