Major media rules would require a headline like ‘We Americans have disgraced our standards’, but f*ck that — I take no responsibility for the criminial choices of a Putin figurehead elected by a bare plurality, as enabled by some of the least useful GOP ‘legislators’ assembled since Incitatus was a Roman Senator.
Slava Malamud, born in Moldavia, emigrated to America as a teenage Jewish refugee. “Rage. Grief. Shame.
On the horrific feeling of being implicated in a crime against humanity”:
My only hope right now is that Ukraine survives these four years. That, in spite of everything, in spite of being despicably and blithely betrayed by the country that still has the temerity of calling itself the “leader of the free world”, it can endure and remain free…
My hope is that I can visit a free Kyiv someday. Walk its streets, talk to its people, see an FC Dynamo football match (even though I always hated them as a kid, mostly because everyone in my school rooted for them), marvel at its history and culture. But I will never be able to feel pride there for being an American. I will feel compelled to apologize, to beg forgiveness for my compatriots whose hate, or resentments, or stupidity, or ignorance have put Ukraine on the brink of destruction…
… America hasn’t just betraying its friend today. It has betrayed every single American ideal it’s been breathlessly advertising for over 200 years. It has betrayed all the beautiful myths we have told ourselves about who we are. To be sure, these were ideals we have never really approached. Captain America was never anything more than a silly fantasy and an exercise of white self-adoration. But to actually join the ranks of evil? To actually fight against freedom and democracy? Give our ancestors some credit. They were never this shamelessly open about it…
I am not going to waste breath debunking every single Kremlin talking point that Trump has spewed about Ukraine. Nobody with a modicum of sense can be surprised by this turn of events. Trump has never hid neither his disdain for Zelensky for not going along with his “Perfect Phone Call” election interference scam nor his admiration of Putin and other dictators. Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, JD Vance and Tulsi Gabbard, whom Trump listens to, have always been open about their support of Russia. And if you still don’t understand that Trump has no morals, ideals or convictions and views every single relationship as strictly transactional and every transaction with someone he perceives weaker than him as a way to dupe and swindle the counterpart, then you are truly an ignoramus, and I can’t say much more beyond this. The fact that America, by electing Trump, has taken the side of a fascist aggressor who is attempting to derail the democratic world is unambiguously clear.
And what this leaves me with is rage. And grief. And profound, unwashable shame. I have personally done nothing to bring this horror about, but, being a citizen of a country firmly aligned with evil, I am ashamed for it…
The war is un-winnable for Ukraine argument would be better if we weren't 3 years into a two day operation.
— Il Pomodoro (@dabenner.bsky.social) February 21, 2025 at 8:10 PM
At the risk of pointing out the obvious, Zelensky is negotiating with a very big card: 3 years of thwarting Putin's attempted conquest, at an immense cost to Russia which they cannot sustain.
We can be confident Trump gets, at some level, how big that card is, because he keeps trying to weaken it.— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) February 21, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Trump: Zelenskyy had the most beautiful cities and they’re all demolished
Fox host: But that’s Putin’s fault, don’t you agree?
Trump: I get tired of listening to that, I’ll tell you what
Fox host: Don’t you think it’s Putin’s fault?
Trump: *ignores* pic.twitter.com/1kTWKcAOMT
— FactPost (@factpostnews) February 21, 2025
Musk: What are Ukrainians dying for? What exactly are they dying for? pic.twitter.com/4SxZcOrlmB
— FactPost (@factpostnews) February 20, 2025
"I'm gonna go straight to the end game" is something a guy thinks five turns before losing a game of chess https://t.co/5qHSBd80i8
— Fentanyl Tsar (@canderaid) February 20, 2025
A Ghost to Most
Sometimes, “I warned you” just doesn’t cut it.
Lapassionara
Trump has disgraced the United States. I strongly prefer expressing that idea in the active rather than passive voice.
How can we survive 4 years of this nightmare?
AM in NC
We must NEVER let ANY Republican forget that they did this. I call my GOP Senators daily and remind them that THEY aided and abetted this destruction of American power and respect around the globe.
Fatherfucker Thom Tillis and his strong statement in support of Ukraine this week was far too little far too late. He KNEW what Trump was, and he did nothing to stop him.
If he can’t uphold his oath of office because he’s getting death threats from the MAGAs he suckled at his breast for years, he needs to resign. Which I be sure to say to his staffers.
John S.
At this point, Ukrainians who voted for Trump are looking exactly like Jews who voted for Hitler.
Elizabelle
I know.
And the WaPost has a cartoonish story up, scolding Zelenskyy for picking a fight with Trump. Has to be seen to be believed. Not linking, but I saved the whole text, in all its insane glory, in event BezosPost starts tweaking it after it’s been up a few hours. Fuck ’em.
Great place to put a fundraising beg from United24 — satby informed us of this official Ukraine fundraiser to buy armored evacuation vehicles. They seek $1.5 million to buy five armored medevacs. They’ve raised a little over $1 million at this time.
United24 is an official Ukrainian government website. It felt so good to donate.
Fuck Trump.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Right now the (least-likely) best-case scenario I can think of is Acting President Hakeem Jeffries in 2027.
Baud
@A Ghost to Most:
100%
Elizabelle
@Lapassionara: The Founders were not expecting this, particularly when one half of the Congress is complicit with the intending dictator and absolute traitor and usurper.
Maybe we will see another impeachment demanded by the majority of the citizenry. But why leave the government in the hands of the party of usurpers?
Really a mess.
Elizabelle
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I could live with that.
Or maybe earlier, if we have a few vacancies in the House, which is already a razor thin margin.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
The Founders weren’t expecting civil rights for people not like them. Maybe if they had, they would have expected the backlash.
WTFGhost
Wow. That was actually a *good* chess analogy! See, the opening, you can open poorly, and be behind all game. Then comes the midgame – this is where the king can be mated in the center of the board, and where you can’t count “moves to queen a pawn.” Once the queens are off the board, you can try to *advance* to the endgame, by trading material, but you’re also squandering possible opportunities to make the endgame even easier to win.
So: yes, “I’m going straight to the endgame” is something a person might say, three or five moves before moving their king to a spot where a queen can mate. “But you were supposed to *trade* queens… not checkmate me!” is the common feeling when you’ve made that mistake. Yes, you realize, “oh, yeah, they chose to win the game outright, because I stupidly gave them a chance!” but your first thought is that it was some kind of dirty trick.
matt
Trump is trying to rob Ukraine while stabbing them in the back. He’s the worst leader this country has ever had.
caphilldcne
What is there to say. We are dishonorable. We cannot be trusted. Even those of us who tried to avert this. America will never be the same. At one time in my life I was an Air Force officer. I cannot believe that we have surrendered to a Russia run by thugs. Fuck MAGA voters.
Jay
nitter.poast.org/Gerashchenko_en/status/1893215482724884861#m
The “new “offer”” Dolt 47’s ruZZian vatnicks have come up with to twist Ukraine’s arms with is:
2/3rds of all Ukraine’s Rare Earths and all other minerals will accrue to the US,
1/3rd of all Ukraine’s Rare Earths and all other minerals will be used to “pay back” aid previously supplied by the US.
There are no territorial or security guarantee’s.
Sign now or Starlink will be turned off.
two notes,
1). Starlinks in Ukraine are on contracts. Turning them off, violates the terms of agreement between Ukraine, individual users (a lot of Starlinks were individually crowd funded), Donor Nations and both the US and SpaceX. So, globally and in the US, all Starlink contracts are worthless.
2). This is a move to force Zelenskyy to sign an agreement that will make him highly unpopular, force Ukraine into illegal and un-Constituional elections and allow ruZZia to install their puppet Government in Kyiv.
NotMax
That Fox exchange sort of reminds me of a scene right out of Sax Rohmer.
Fu Manchu : That is very good news…
Servant : Why is it good news, master?
Fu Manchu : Because I’m in no condition to receive bad news. I shall fine you each 1000 yen.
Servant : But you don’t pay us, master.
Fu Manchu : Then I shall start paying you in order to fine you.
Lapassionara
@matt: I try to imagine what historians will write 20 to 30 years from now. Ouch! Trump makes Neville Chamberlain look like a hero of WWII, rather than a chump.
zhena gogolia
Elect a criminal traitor thug, get a criminal traitor thug.
John S.
@WTFGhost:
Your comment took me back to when I played competitive chess as a kid.
I remember playing a tournament where I ended up in the final against a much better player. So my strategy wasn’t to win, but to stalemate. She was playing to win and assumed that I was too, so we ended in stalemate.
Jive talkin
I used to say that you could go to any state prison and pick out 100 prisoners at random, and I’d rather have at least 75 as president vs. Trump. I can’t use that analogy anymore. If there is a serial child molester or killer I might take Trump but that would probably be it. The Republican congress are traitors/ cowards/quisslings. Take your pick.
Suzanne
@John S.: I am interested to know how many Americans of Eastern European, and especially Ukrainian, descent voted for FFOTUS.
This makes me sick. I hope that Trump’s name comes to be associated with even greater cowardice than Neville Chamberlain’s. This is reprehensible.
John S.
@Jay:
Just wanted to say I enjoy your informative comments on Ukraine, especially on Adam’s threads.
WTFGhost
@Baud: I agree with Elizabelle. The idea that a President would use foreign policy to attack a political rival would have been so foul to the founders that they would have expected 80-90 votes to convict, grudgingly admitting that the guilty (political) party wouldn’t trust the charges, but, still – most would.
That was their biggest fear: the use of the executive to expand power. The use of the executive against political foes. Their biggest comfort was that they included in the Constitution that the President must see the laws *faithfully* executed.
Good faith – the President won’t just decree that the laws have been executed, but he must see that they are executed as a faithful public servant should.
Someday, they’ll blame the Democrats for not impeaching Trump for “faithless execution of the laws,” insisting that Republicans would have voted guilty for *that*, and not for the specific lawless and criminal acts for which he was impeached. They’ll swear the Constitution was good (INSPIRED BY GOD!!!!11!!!!!!!elventyone!!!), but the DEMOCRATS didn’t hold to it!
By the way: what kind of arrogant asshole would think that God inspired the effing Constitution, including the 3/5ths compromise, so that it was, like the Fundamentalists Bible, inerrant, like everything a fundy pulls from their fundament?
I’m just asking because God didn’t descend from the heavens with stone tablets, nor did George Washington talk about some mysterious gold plates found in the US west, nor did any mythology provide any reason to believe God inspired the founding documents. And the only people who’d think God inspired the 3/5th compromise are those who believe *every word* in Dred Scott, and believe God would have wanted it that way, even to this day.
That thought would make me sure that I was following… not a false prophet, but some special kinda stone-stupid post-turtle.
If you’re interested in the nolongerChristian perspective.
John S.
@Suzanne:
I don’t know if that data exists. All I know is that based on comments made by G&T and others who are plugged into that community, there is a not insignificant number of them who voted for Trump. Which is mind boggling.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@zhena gogolia:
BuT ThAt pAlEs iN CoMpArIsOn tO ThE PrIcE Of eGgS.
Baud
Thom Tillis pretends to be a good guy.
You can’t support Trump and oppose Putin.
RaflW
“every transaction with someone he perceives weaker than him [is] a way to dupe and swindle the counterpart”
Yep. But the even worse part is, like seeing Trump emerge from the private meeting with Putin in his first term, looking hang-dog and dominated, holding the above belief also means he’ll show his belly to the few men he perceives as stronger.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
Sure you can. Republicans engage in Schrodinger’s Paradoxes for any subject that suits them. It’s not unlike fitting Jesus into any construct of their making, ie., Gun Nut Jesus, Supply-Side Jesus, etc.
Tillis can be the Schordinger’s Cat Russian Foreign Policy Senator at a moment’s notice…like he did in that statement.
Jeffg166
@Elizabelle:
I think the founders alway knew there was a possibility of this happening. It’s a wonder we got as far as we did before it happened.
Suzanne
@John S.: Data will come out later this year from Pew that will be much more definitive and detailed about the election.
I will note that the state with the largest Ukrainian population is Ohio, and the second-largest is PA, and they both went red.
Gvg
@Suzanne: chamberlain was not a greedy traitor. Trump is a Benedict Arnold, except he has no real accomplishments before the betrayal.
Suzanne
@Gvg: It is difficult for me to express my sadness and loathing at what is happening.
Jay
nitter.poast.org/SimonOstrovsky/status/1893328079335964958#m
The EU Aid package announced 2 days ago as 8billion Euro’s has now grown to 20billion Euro’s in arms and money as European governments respond to America’s siding with ruZZia.
The “Merkin Putinist’s Putschists “Peace Deal” apparently includes abandoning all NATO members who joined after 1990. This effectively kills NATO, and it’s so cute that Amerikka’s Nazi’s don’t think they will be kicked out of the rest of Europe.
The EU is reported to be negotiating with Britain and France to come under their nuclear umbrella in the short term, while developing a pan EU domestically produced nuclear umbrella.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Gvg:
Thank you for pointing out that very salient fact.
Misreading history or drawing inaccurate parallels is a chronic occupational hazard online which it shouldn’t be given how easy it is to bring up tons of authoritative sources…like this one:
encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/neville-chamberlain
One of the salient points in that piece is the very first one:
What Hair Furor is doing isn’t pragmatic nor reflective of any *widespread* domestic concerns in ‘Murka. Also too, it flaunts literally the entire post-WW2 era of ‘Murkin foreign policy, much of which (for better or for worse) had a strong bipartisan element.
The Orange Fart Cloud’s departure from such foreign policy philosophy is one of the main, obvious reasons, that otherwise godawful, conservative politicians like the Cheney’s are voting Democratic these days.
I’m trying to come up with a better historical comparison to what we’re observing now, one that has more of a contemporary feel to it in the specific context of our international treaty obligations and strategic foreign policy goals (as opposed to a generic “It’s 1930s Germany All Over Again” motif). Hell, I’m having trouble going back far enough to find something.
WTFGhost
I had thought that one of the big ticket budget was as much security moving massive amounts of modern weapons, including high explosives, from the US to a partner country (or Ukraine directly), who might then send on the same materials (or materials from their own stockpile), but yes, sending American made HIMARS rockets and American made planes and American made artillery, and American made tanks, a lot of that money flows back into weapons manufacturing and (again, I assume) the military for transporting the weapons. It costs a lot of operate the military transport, but, that money is going into military paychecks and maintenance/upkeep.
He is cutting a lot of spending, and soon, people will start pulling in their own spending, because people won’t be spending as much, because there’s not a cash flow. That’s called a “recession” if you didn’t know. (Yeah, they have a different guess/marker they publish, but that’s the real, economics textbook definition.) Massive cutting of government spending, especially US-directed spending, would be reasonably expected to cause a recession. Any advisor could tell him this, if they could cut through the right wing noise machine that’s constantly playing in his head.
Gin & Tonic
I like all the cartoons; I particularly like that the ones using the outline of the country have its full territory, including Crimea.
Jay
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Trump’s Afghan “Peace Deal”.
Steve LaBonne
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I don’t think there are any analogies to be had in the realm of statecraft. This is a Mafia shakedown. We all know Trump, as a (not very successful) NYC real estate developer, has been mobbed up his whole life and has taken mobsters as his role models.
WTFGhost
@Gvg: Right. Arnold’s foot, at least, was buried with full military honors!
I heard it said that Chamberlain gets a bit of a bum rap because England wasn’t ready to engage Germany directly, so appeasement, while going back and saying “MILITARY BUILDUP!!!” was seen as pragmatic.
The US doesn’t have to engage Russia directly, though. And if Ukraine bloodies Putin’s nose, it will likely be good for America.
(Okay, okay, if Ukraine breaks Putin’s nose for the umpteenth time, in this “two day operation.”)
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: I don’t believe either state has a large enough Ukrainian-American population to be determinative. It is true, though, that a lot of Ukrainian-Americans, especially older ones, have been Republican supporters since the Cold War. Their children are much more likely to be Democratic voters.
Suzanne
@Gin & Tonic: Agreed. I am just noting that the areas of the country where there is a relatively high amount of Ukrainians, and other Eastern Europeans as well, don’t seem to be voting bluer.
I’m guessing they vote like, well, other white people. Which is to say, a big gap in voting behavior depending on whether or not they went to college.
WTFGhost
@RaflW: Worse, he wants to be a big, vicious, dog. I swear, I can just hear Putin saying to Trump “people don’t understand the new reality. Look, China is going to seize territory; Russia is going to seize territory. And you, America, you can do the same! Why not make Canada one of your states? Why not take back the Panama canal, which so many of your ancestors died while building. Have you seen how Greenland takes up so much of the arctic circle? With that, and Canada, why, you might even give us back Alaska, ha ha, kidding.”
And Trump thinking “he is a BIG BAD BOLD DOG, and I could be like him, because I don’t care about reality or consequences!”
Well – he’s probably incapable of thinking the “because” clause.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jay:
True but I was trying to think of anything in the context of something other than what he did first time around, either by a US head of state in our history or another European country/head-of-state over the last 150 years or so.
What we’re seeing here is the literal breakdown of the Western Democracy International Security Structure. And yeah, that’s led us down some not-so-nice places over the last 75 years and I’m sure there’s plenty of people who think this isn’t a bad thing.
It is a bad thing. And it really is a demonstration of what should have always been a theoretical construct: “The Mafia Shakedown Form Of Government and Foreign Policy”.
If we had functioning checks and balances, perhaps the worst excesses of this could be curbed. I’m no longer holding my breath on that happening until after the mid-terms.
RevRick
@Elizabelle: Actually, Hamilton had an inkling of the danger of the “populist on a white horse” smashing the government. But he thought the guardrails built into the system would prevent this calamity.
Jay
@WTFGhost:
Most of the “money” values for the US arming Ukraine were:
trollhattan
Three months late, dude.
Ksmiami
@Elizabelle: fuck Trump. Thinking of Scaffolding atm. Pitched in to United 24
Baud
@trollhattan:
Billionaire investors should read Balloon Juice more, cuz we knew all that long ago.
Gin & Tonic
@John S.: I don’t have a lot of time right now, but maybe tonight I’ll write up a longer comment about the political dynamics of this community.
prostratedragon
@Jeffg166: Oh, they knew. Remember Ben Franklin.
trollhattan
@Jay:
Also forced us to confront the lack of production capacity for stuff like artillery shells, gun tubes and boring stuff like that. Been a long time since we were in a set piece battle or conventional war. Ukraine invasion woke us up—now Trump is taking ALL the Ambien. Another lesson about to be lost.
Lapassionara
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I think Putin has defeated the US and is now reaping the rewards of that accomplishment. Our country is no longer the leader of the free world, as the saying goes. We will align our foreign policy with his goals, and we will be counted on to do his bidding.
I don’t see how we can view this treatment if Ukraine in any other way.
John S.
@Gin & Tonic:
That would be awesome. If you want to post it in one of Adam’s threads, I’ll look for it there.
Based on what you described to Suzanne above, it sorta sounds similar to the Cuban dynamics I am familiar with in South Florida.
ETA: As a recent transplant to the PNW, there is a noticeable Ukrainian (and Russian) community here in Washington. So I always love to learn more about my neighbors (literally).
Baud
@Lapassionara:
I think that’s correct. Trump will ask the Republicans to host Putin for a joint address to Congress, the way they did Zelenskyy.
Jay
@trollhattan:
Hasn’t really been confronted. In one of Adam’s Ukraine threads, somebody posted a graphic addressing this issue.
Of the money that flowed to the top 3 US Arms Corporations, roughly 1/3 was spent on stock buybacks, 1/3rd on Executive bonus’s and dividends, with roughly 1/3rd going to actual production.
Elizabelle
@Ksmiami: Yay you!! Thank you.
Shalimar
@Jay: The Starlink threat pisses me off more than anything else. I want all of Musk’s companies burned to the ground so he never has any power again.
John S.
@Baud:
I can see them inviting Putin to come here. Would he actually come?
Shalimar
@trollhattan: Trump is phenomenally stupid, but even he knows tariffs are a tax. That is why he wants them, to replace the taxes ultra-rich people won’t be paying.
AM in NC
@Baud: Thom thinks he can support Trump and somehow have clean hands on Ukraine/Putin capitulation. He is a power-hungry asshole who ensured one-party legislative rule in my state. I want his scalp next election. I think we have a chance if Roy Cooper runs.
Jay
@Shalimar:
It’s not Apartheid Clyde threatening to turn the Starlink’s off, it’s Putin’s Puppet Putinist Putschist’s State Department.
Jay
@John S.:
Nope, he’ll make them come to Moscow like every other time.
RevRick
@WTFGhost: The GOP suffers from the math problem of saying subtraction is really addition.
It’s cheap and easy to campaign on the notion of cutting government spending, because that claim is an abstraction. It’s a fill-in-the-blank argument. The vast majority of people have no idea what constitutes government spending, and for many it just conjures up the notion of boondoggles. So when GOP candidates assert they’re going to cut government spending, most will be on board.
The reality is that government spending translates into somebody’s paycheck. Social Security goes into the accounts of seniors, the disabled, and widowed with minor children. Medicare and Medicaid go to doctors and nurses and hospital and nursing home staff. SNAP benefits pay the employees of grocery stores (and the users get food). So, slashing government spending means someone is losing income. Which means they have to cut back, like fewer outings to restaurants or holding off on buying a new car. This loss of income cascades through the economy.
Subtraction really is subtraction.
Starfish (she/her)
@Baud: You can charge thousands annually for that type of newsletter.
Shalimar
@Jay: The State Department doesn’t have the ability to turn Starlink off for all customers in Ukraine. All they could do is turn off the contracts the US government is paying for. Musk has the ability, and he has hinted before at doing it.
JMG
@trollhattan: Give him a break. He spent all winter working on signing Juan Soto. He’s just getting around to his inbox on the economy.
Baud
@John S.:
Probably not. It may be the one where our glut of guns has a good effect.
Jay
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Secret Addendums?
Shakti
@John S.:
Kinder people better at organizing would engage
tauntthis Ukrainian-American who voted for Trump in 2020, 2024, insisted Musk was a Ukrainian ally. I truly hope this is not representative of Ukrainian-Americans voting.
AM in NC
@Shalimar: Come sit by me.
TBone
Seems like another great place for U.K. satirist Jonathan Pie for anyone who’s missed it:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk0nUUqG_Ag
Speaking of Neville Chamberlain…
AM in NC
@Shakti: So it’s the white supremacy. Why is it ALWAYS the white supremacy with these people?
Tom Levenson
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the link. Donated.
TBone
@Shalimar: this Shirley’s for you
m.youtube.com/watch?v=pEte-YJz-cc
zhena gogolia
@Lapassionara: Putin hasn’t defeated the US or Ukraine.
zhena gogolia
@John S.: Never. Nikogda.
Jay
@Shalimar:
It’s the State Department making the threat, not Apartheid Clyde.
Which just shows how deep the treason goes.
Elizabelle
@Tom Levenson: Thank you! Satby alerted us to United24 in Anne’s morning thread.
Jay
reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/1ivuicw/cant_access_email_will_mean_bye_bye_job/#lightbox
Felon Musk just sent out a twit, saying that all Federal Employee’s will receive an email, requiring them to note everything they got done last week. Failure to respond will result in termination.
Tom Levenson
@Elizabelle: I’m on a crazy deadline for a book (the one after the one that comes out in April). So I don’t always catch everything that gets posted here.
Which is why it’s a kindness to do as you did, reposting important stuff for those of us perhaps a little slow on the uptake. ;-)
Shalimar
@Jay: I’m saying I am not as worried about them following through as I am about Musk announcing that the company can no longer do business in Ukraine.
UncleEbeneezer
This is so enraging because it was completely predictable and we all know damn well that Biden or Harris wouldn’t abandon Ukraine and Trump absolutely would.
THIS should have been the foreign policy issue hammered home to voters constantly and centered in the 2024 election. My heart goes out to the people of Ukraine. We failed your country as well as our own.
TBone
‘Tis time for Gritty to storm the Bastille
Jay
@Elizabelle:
There are hundreds of verified crowd funded campaigns that one can donate to, not just United 24. Some are for medical gear, some are for wounded soldiers rehabilitation, some are for drones, some are for engineering equipment,
much of this defense of Ukraine has been crowdfunded.
bsky.app/profile/kriegsforscher.bsky.social/post/3lip5o7ipgc2w
Shalimar
@TBone: gracias
Shakti
@AM in NC:
No idea.
And this particular person claims she has Jewish ancestry through her father; married a Russian she found in North America, is proud of looking “Slavic” which could be several things but she’s ‘blonde’ and blue eyed.
I just know that white ethnics often double down on the racism and get vein poppingly mad at the merest suggestion of proximity to blackness.
Raoul Paste
@Jay: This is a domination play. And it won’t help the stock market on Monday
TBone
@Shalimar: any time, catharsis helps me stay calm and save some adrenaline for when it’ll be of best use. It’s some powerful shit.
Suzanne
@Shakti: Too many white people have lost the cultural memory of being hated. And now they want to do some hating of their own.
Jay
@Shalimar:
Felon Husk might not want to do that. Only 31% of Starlink’s revenues, (which include DOD and State’s Starlinks supplied to Ukraine) are from the US. The ROW provides 69% of Starlink’s revenue.
Turning off Ukraine’s and breaking the contracts, means that Starlink contracts are worthless.
Gin & Tonic
@Shakti:
And my BS meter is going DING DING DING!
Jay
@Gin & Tonic:
On the Internet, no one knows you are a dog.
Jobeth
@Jay: And who is going to read all two million of those emails? What an asshole.
Glory b
@AM in NC:dyingofwhiteness.com/
Shakti
@Suzanne: Possibly.
This person immigrated from Canada and before that immigrated from Ukraine. So she wouldn’t have the memory of being hated and it’s my understanding once you get past two or three generations you don’t really have the immigrant experience anyways in your brain.
I don’t understand the point of immigrating to a country, naturalizing and cheering when someone shits all over their key institutions but then also Musk is doing all of this and naturalized from Canada, so clearly I’ve missed important truths.
Gin & Tonic
@Jay: Interesting fact, that cartoon is over 30 years old.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
We should have listened to it.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: How do I know you’re not a dog?
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
In all our time together here, I have never once tried to sniff your butt.
Ruckus
@Lapassionara:
shitforbrains has disgraced HUMANITY.
Jay
@Shakti:
Musk immigrated from South Africa to Canada.
Illegally immigrated to the US,
Illegally got a work visa,
Illegally got a Green Card, (because of #2 and #3),
Illegally got Naturalized, (because of #2, #3 and #4).
Shakti
@Gin & Tonic: I agree, it stinks. Like a potato left in a vent.
Suzanne
@Shakti: From what I have observed, many people consider politics to be primarily about power and favor, not about values. This creates weird effects, like one came know that their grandparents faced discrimination and that was bad, but that person probably sees no dissonance in then discriminating against others.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Hard to argue with that logic.
Jackie
@Jive talkin:
You really believe FFOTUS hasn’t molested and raped underage girls? He was besties with Jeffrey Epstein.
Shakti
@Suzanne: I loathe people.
As a naturalized US citizen, I have voted in every single presidential election that has occurred in my life. And every midterm save the one that occurred when I was a teen.
I have a picture of that first time because I was proud to be a citizen to vote.
To gleefully rip all that apart and root for that? How are they claiming to be American in any way, let alone arbiting any part of that? That is the floor. And I clearly have a different idea of what loyalty to a country even means.
I loathe people.
Baud
@Shakti:
Come sit by me.
Geminid
@Shakti: This morning I linked to an article about Elon Musk that is so good I will link to it again. It’s in New Lines Magazine– a valuable resource– and is written by Capetown-based reporter Joseph Dana:
The writer discusses past and present day South Africa, as well as Musk’s and Peter Thiel’s lives growing up in that country.
Fun Elon Musk fact: in the 1930s, his grandfather Josua Haldeman was a follower of the Teknocracy movement. The Teknocracy movement advocated management of society by experts, in place of democracy.
The article ends with a quote from Johnny Steinberg, who wrote an article about Musk’s beliefs for Business Day:
The link:
newlinesmag.com/argument/the-worldview-of-the-afrikaner-diaspora-now-haunts-the-us/
glc
@Gin & Tonic: That is an interesting fact, indeed. Given that Mosaic appeared in 1994, it’s kind of stunning. A couple of years made a difference.
“He drew the cartoon only in the manner of a “make-up-a-caption” item.” (Wikipedia)
And we only got “Someone is wrong on the internet” in 2008.
Ruckus
@matt:
He’s not a leader.
He has zero concept of a leader. He has been his entire life the jackoff that thinks money makes one smart. It doesn’t. There are a lot of things money can buy, it does NOT BUY, in any way, any humanity or intelligence whatsoever.
He is the worst imitation of a human being to sit in that office.
MagdaInBlack
@Geminid: Thank you, I missed that earlier link.
Geminid
@MagdaInBlack: New Lines Magazine is published by a Syrian American, Hassan I. Hassan. Its articles cover a wide range of subjects from Neolithic British culture to the war in Gaza, in depth.
It’s a valuable resource; my only problem with New Lines is the articles are long and detailed and my reading skills are conditioned by short form reporting.
Suzanne
@Shakti:
Come sit by me. I have snacks.
ETA: Goddamnit, Baud.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@UncleEbeneezer:
This.
It’s why I welcomed otherwise odious political entities like the Cheneys into the campaign fold. I naively felt they might add something to the message of “vote for that man and you might as well be dooming Ukraine.”
It’s another reason why I view the Congressional GOP as essentially traitors, particularly the Senate.
MagdaInBlack
@Geminid: I was and still am, drawn in to the rabbit hole of several other articles there =-)
Shalimar
@Jackie: Trump was also great friends with John Casablancas before he even met Epstein. Casablancas helped Trump set up his modeling agency. Casablancas supposedly used casting couch tactics on 13-year-olds, he was the guy who signed Ivanka to a modeling contract when she was 15, he had a public affair with Stephanie Seymour when she was 16, and he married a 17-year-old Elite winner when he was 50.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@Elizabelle: Speaking of which, I know there are some long shots, but did BJ want to maybe have a thread about contributing money or resources or information about off year elections that could make that margin thinner?
It’s something to do that’s not letting our own panic swallow us whole like mine’s been threatening to do to me.
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne: I loathe people and I love them.
PutinTrump / Zelenskyy Ukrainian people
People who flew planes into WTC / Firefighters who went UP the stairs
zhena gogolia
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain: I’d like to see a front-page Razom fundraiser (or other support for Ukraine).
Baud
In before they’re laid off by DOGE
Jay
@Shakti:
It is also known as the IGMFU, the Ladder theory, etc.
Suzanne
@zhena gogolia: Yeah.
It’s harder some days than others. That balance is constantly shifting for me.
Another Scott
@zhena gogolia: If anyone in the US is concerned or curious, US donations to
UKRAINE24UNITED24 go to “UNITED24 (Ukraine House DC Foundation)” – a US charity.ukrainehouse.us/
Slava Ukraini!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jay
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain:
There is a donation bar off to the right of the screen. Right now it’s for the Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat.
Just under the header image, and on the right side of the bar, there is a Targeted Fundraising tab. It has not (yet) been updated for 2025.
matt
@Lapassionara: Such an incredible victory, controlling a country with 13x the GDP of his country. Just had to find the worst, most traitorous and evil faction and help them out.
Another Scott
@Baud: That’s ONE bullet point. What about the other FOUR, huh? Huh??
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jay
bbc.com/news/articles/cr72n1yyj30o
matt
@Ruckus: He has inspired a lot of this country’s people to be worse people.
Geminid
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain: Those fundraising threads are usually done closer to the elections in question. I remember WaterGil doing fundraising threads for a couple Viriginia legislative candidates in 2023. She was able to pick a couple with close races, which is hard to do before August.
I like these threads because in addition to the funds raised, they give readers a chance to learn about different candidates and districts. To my mind, that is one of the best ways to learn politics.
Besides 100 House of Delegates seats, Virginia will have statewide contests for Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General. The party that wins the Governor race typically wins the other two.
This Governor race will attract plenty of national attention, probably some international as well. Virginia is right accross the Potomac from D.C. and the many reporters based there, and it’s an easy venture. Plus former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic contender, is a formidable politican..
me
My brother, who is the union rep for his department, told me that he told everyone to not respond to the first buyout email. I haven’t asked him about this one yet.
TBone
@Geminid: more full service blog points!
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: did you see the dark humor death video I posted yet?
(It’s not for everyone, please do not @ me)
m.youtube.com/watch?v=ghuntBvDKLE
PS disable closed captions
Jay
@me:
The respondents to the “buy out” email, were later told that the “buy out” was invalid while it was before the courts,
and then were fired for “underperforming”.
Another Scott
@me: From the GovExec.com story linked above:
“Law, schmaw. Don’t you know I’m really, really, rich??” – Melon, probably.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
different-church-lady
@Jay:
But everyone can tell if you’re an asshole.
different-church-lady
@Jay:
“I got tons of shit done DESPITE the fact that you’re trying to make every bit of it impossible, you asshole.”
Aziz, light!
Trump is doing everything we expected him to do. Checking off every item on the Project 2025 list and carrying out his personal vendetta against our allies. What I did not expect was the complete abandonment of their constitutional duties by the Republican members of Congress. They are all on board because they are getting what they have long desired: to destroy the regulatory state, kill the New Deal, restore white male supremacy, and further enrich the rich.
The ship of state has been commandeered by pirates. They are going to kill the crew, steal the cargo, and scuttle the ship.
TBone
Let’s cry for the Bad Man 🎶
m.youtube.com/watch?v=yEDVGSThqEg
Shalimar
@Jay: My understanding is that most or all of the people fired for “underperforming” were probationary people who had been in their job for less than a year. Some of them had also accepted the buyouts, but it is giving Musk’s minions way too much credit for competence to say there was any connection between the two attempts to get rid of people. I think they were separate, and all of the people fired would have been fired anyway even if they didn’t accept the buyout.
Jackie
@Shalimar: You proved my point. Most of this I knew/suspected; I was just pointing out ONE example to @Jive talkin for suggesting FFOTUS was a better option than child molesters/murderers.
Jay
@different-church-lady:
Some people apparently can’t thus Apartheid Clyde and Child Rapist, Rapist, 37 Convictions Felon, Insurrectionist and ruZZian agent Dolt 47.
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: Yikes! =-)
Shalimar
@Another Scott: The first thing that occurs to me is that this is a bluff. DOGE doesn’t have even 1% of the manpower to evaluate hundreds of thousands of people describing what they do each week. They’re going to use AI, and it will not understand what people do. What they want is for people to refuse to fill it out so they can “fire” them for that.
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: when she (almost) leaps the fence and starts sprinting!
Jay
@Shalimar:
1000 Full time, Non probationary National Parks full time workers were fired, and not rehired, and no they did not take the buyout.
A bunch, (the number is unknown) who did take the illegal buyout offer, many were full time, non probationary, some though the 7 months pay, (that did not exist) would allow them to transition to a new job or take early retirement, were fired for underperforming.
As pointed out just upthread, its a MOU Techie manipulation to get people to self select for firing, with out cause, to quickly do mass firings with out having to involve HR or any research, (tasks, responsibilities, performance, etc).
Jay
@Shalimar:
Yup, there are over 2.4 million US Federal Employees, as of now.
Suzanne
@Shalimar: I hope there’s some five-star malicious compliance occurring right now.
read and forward email = “served as a conduit of vital information under time constraints”
brought in coffee and donuts = “provided life-sustaining nutrition, resulting in exponential increase in team productivity”
Got on a Teams meeting = “facilitated digital collaboration across platforms, transcending barriers of space”
Another Scott
@Shalimar: Yeah, they’re trying to come up with that One Weird Trick that will let them go around all the rules and regulations and collective bargaining agreements and US Code and laws and all the rest.
I pity actual civil service supervisors who are having their weekends ruined by these stupid twoots and emails, trying to figure out what they mean when they don’t come through proper channels with actual information on who is sending them and on what legal authority, explaining all the things that cannot be included, and all the rest. Of course, those actual civil service folks don’t get overtime…
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
TBone
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social
8m
If you’re a federal worker looking for a good accomplishment to share with Elon, tell him you responded to texts from the mother of your children.
Jay
@Another Scott:
Here in BC, it takes 2 years just to get a Employment Standards hearing on an illegal firing, and you will need your own Employment Lawyer, paid or pro bono to put in at least 50 hours, at $300 an hour. That’s even if you are Union.
If you have to challenge it in court, 5 years.
The Union’s usual tactic is a mass walk out, but that relies on the strength of the Union and the guts of the Shop Stewart.
US Courts have not been a check on Dolt 47 or Felon Musk.
The probable result will be the breaking of all Federal Unions.
Another Scott
@Suzanne:
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
Via reddit
Jay
fox59.com/news/telehealth-will-soon-no-longer-be-covered-by-medicare/amp/
Another Scott
@Jay: This isn’t single firings.
A GovExec story says they are planning on trying to fire 60,000+ DoD civilian workers, starting Monday. That’s just one (albeit large) department. They’re trying to gut the entire federal government as quickly as possible, process and law and regulations be damned.
They’re trying to panic people into resigning, trick them into resigning, and all the rest, because they don’t want to follow the rules. They think rules are for suckers.
We have to stand up as a country and show them that they’re wrong.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
YY_Sima Qian
What is the saying? “There are decades when weeks happen, & there are weeks when decades happen.” The 4+ weeks since Trump’s inauguration feels decades have happened, domestically & internationally.
Jay
@Another Scott:
Sent 8 from my real email and my 7 throw emails. Added some nasty white links to some shady stuff on my 7 throwaways.
Geminid
@Jay: 145,000 if those federal employees live Virginia. While people often associate them with Northern Virgina, 40,000 live in the Richmond area and 75,000 live in the Tidewater region, where there are several large naval bases and shipyards.
That’s on top of 120,000 active duty military and 600,000 veterans. Bottom line: this will not be a good year to run in Virginia as a Republican.
YY_Sima Qian
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Generally, disorder is worse than all but the worst kind of order. That is not to justify the perpetuation of an unequal & unjust status quo, but revolutionaries/counterrevolutionaries want to see a new order emerge out of a period of anarchy, & are convinced only by tearing down the old can the new be born. That may be true from the anthropological perspective, not to be wished for, let alone engineered.
OTOH, meaningful reform is the only way to forestall revolution.
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: I saw an interesting post by Syria analyst Aaron Y. Zellin. It was accompanied by a picture of China’s Syria Ambassodor and the Syrian President seated in a reception room:
Another Scott
Meanwhile, all of you who thought that the lead 208 nucleus is a perfect sphere are wrong.
I bet you feel pretty silly now, don’t you??
;-)
(There’s always new stuff to learn, because nature is almost always richer than we imagine.)
Best wishes,
Scott.
Marc
It will understand well enough what Elon wants it to understand. Do you really think this is about efficiency, merit, or actual job performance? Try asking his AI: Why?
And, just to be annoying, everything that is going on makes the most sense if one accepts the fact that there is some sort of private deal between Musk, Trump, and Putin. They talk to each other in private, why is this so hard to accept?
Suzanne
@Marc: So I listened to the episode of Sarah Longwell’s Focus Group podcast about Elmo this morning. Kara Swisher said straight-up that Elmo is looking for government data because he’s behind his competitors in AI.
Not a thing I had considered. I am considering it now.
Baud
@Another Scott:
I hope the other atoms don’t make fun of it.
Marc
@Suzanne: Musk has cared about exactly one thing for decades, he wants Mars. I see all of his companies (and extracurricular activities) as intended to enable that.
Jay
@Marc:
independent.co.uk/tech/elon-musk-grok-twitter-ai-misinformation-b2645906.html
fortune.com/2025/01/28/elon-musk-grok-ai-not-a-good-person/
WaterGirl
@Geminid: @TurnItOffAndOnAgain:
Just a quick preview of some irons already in the fire…
We have a phone meeting with “Good Kim”, aka Kimberly Pope Adams, scheduled for Monday. You may recall that we supported 2 candidates in the VA state elections last time – Good Kim, who lost to Bad Kim by a handful of votes, and Michael Feggans, which was the race that put Ds over the top and gave them a majority in VA.
Also, I talked with the folks at Four Directions yesterday (Friday) and it looks like they will be working with the native vote in Virginia because the governor’s race is coming up in November of this year. And not just the race for governor, but also Attorney General, Secretary of State, etc.
I won’t provide much more detail than that right now because they are still formulating their plan for Virginia. But I can say that there are about 125,000 voting age Native folks in Virginia, so there’s a chance to have a real impact there
We’ll be gearing up soon to fund some things in Virginia. Early money matters!
Gin & Tonic
@Marc: I’d be delighted to chip in a nickel to send him there, tomorrow if possible.
A Ghost to Most
I’d like to thank all the enablers, apologists, and appeasers for clearing the way for the christian fascists.
Suzanne
@Marc: Time’s a-wastin’, let’s try to send him there tomorrow.
ETA: Goddamnit, G&T.
Marc
@Gin & Tonic: One of my college buddies who was proto-MAGA stopped talking to me after I drunkenly offered him $100 to pay his airfare to Texas, since he found the Bay Area so appallingly liberal. Musk would be worth at least that much.
Aziz, light!
@Shalimar: Federal employees can’t simply be promoted by their bosses. To move up, they must compete with other qualified applicants for a job at a higher pay grade. It might be their own job that has been reclassified, or a job somewhere else. Then (as I vaguely recall from my own experience as a fed) they are probationary for one year at the higher grade. Elmo summarily chainsawed a lot of people whose strong job performance had propelled them into a higher grade. Some had long federal careers behind them but were treated the same as recent recruits.
What he did was illegal, but his victims will find no redress anytime soon, if ever.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: The PRC is not picky when it comes to partners (particularly economic partners). Just about the only condition is not caring about what the CPC regime does in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, & at least not challenge the PRC’s claims to Taiwan.
Even though the PRC had supported Assad as the internationally recognized, “legitimate” government of Syria, it had not provided the kind of support that Iran & Russia did. Now that there is a new government starting from a nearly blank slate, it is unsurprising that the PRC will look to find commercial & geopolitical opportunities there. Given the financial & infrastructure building prowess of the PRC, it makes for a natural partner in Syria’s reconstruction.
Türkiye (who has also been active in building infrastructure across the Muslim world in the past decade) might be the even more favored one, but it does not have the financial wherewithal & the resources of the PRC, & I suspect al Jolani will not want to be completely beholden to Türkiye. Getting global/regional powers to outbid each other on a case to case basis is perhaps the best way for small countries to maximize their interests in the newly chaotic world.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian:
Speaking of the world’s official diplomatic positions wrt the PRC’s claims to Taiwan, below article from the Lowy Institute in Australia is a great primer:
TL:DR
Status Quoists: 40 countries (including the US, the UK, the Scandiavians, Italy, Spain, Canada & India) acknowledge the PRC’s claims w/o either challenging or endorsing it
Mixed Signalers: 23 (including France, Germany, Ukraine, Vietnam & Malaysia) supports the China‘s claim over TW, & recognizes Beijing as the only legitimate government representing China, but w/o endorsing the CPC regime’s preferred One China Principle that states Taiwan is an inalienable part of the PRC, (frankly the nuance of the mixed signalers’ stance is lost on me)
Beijing leaners: 119 countries (including the rest of the BRICS & BRICS+, outside of India) endorses the One China Principle
Beijing backers: 89 of the 119 “Beijing leaners” support Beijing’s effort to achieve “reunification”, with/o specifying that such efforts be peaceful; CEE, LATAM & ME countries are the “Beijing leaners” whoa re not “Beijing backers”
Team Taipei: 11 & dwindling number of countries (outside of the Vatican, all are small states almost entirely dependently on the US’ largess) that recognizes Taipei as the only legitimate government representing all of China
For the past few years, there has been a notably concerted effort by the PRC to get as many countries in the world as possible into the “Beijing backer” camp. My take is that Beijing is trying to build the international legitimacy of a “war of reunification”, if it ever comes to that. No serious China scholar thinks there is any evidence that Beijing has made a decision to invade TW on any kind of timeline, but there are plenty of evidence that Beijing is preparing the geopolitical environment, economic resources, & military capacity to prevail in such a contingency. Xi does not want to be caught in Putin’s position of being rounded criticized by even many parts of the Global South at the start of his re-invasion of Ukraine.
Kayla Rudbek
@Jay: Shalimar: as I said over on Bluesky, this is one situation where it’s morally okay to use ChatGPT to generate your answers to this. The wrecking crew is going to be feeding the answers into an AI anyway, so this is the perfect chance to feed AI-generated slop into the AI to create a Hapsburg AI database (more inbred than the Spanish Hapsburgs)
Gvg
@Suzanne: there also could be backlash. Historically, areas that see a lot of immigrants start resenting them once they reach a certain noticeable number, even if they are welcomed before.
The other factor is that immigrants can be the ones who liked their country the least, or didn’t like the direction it was going in. Perhaps, the Russian leaning ones were the ones most likely to leave?
Kayla Rudbek
@Suzanne: I’m worried about what he’s going to do to the Patent Office. Patent applications are not available to the public until and unless they are published (which usually happens 18 months after filing). And the applicant can choose to withhold the application from being published until it issues as a patent, or internal review can put the application into a security level that means it won’t be published. Or you can even file patent applications on material that has a security clearance. That rat bastard Musk having access to the unpublished applications is a danger for every patent applicant.
Jay
@Marc:
Felon Husk has no real interest in Mars, Its a sales pitch to make him look like the “smartest man” on the planet.
The science and the engineering that even Felon Husk understands, is that we won’t get to Mar’s even in his kids lifetimes.
Felon Husk, like any self obsessed narcissist, he wants the ego high he got from all the Muskboys back in the early days of Tesla.
Since then, he has been desperate for anything to feed that ego, but everything he has tried has just put his public image on a downward track, and he has tried more and more desperate things to try to get that back, to the point of self destruction.
Elizabelle
@Kayla Rudbek: I love your concept of Hapsburg AI.
And yes, re Musk getting access to others’ inventions. He is a slime mold (racist, too).
RaflW
Sen. Tina Smith has had it. Dang!
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: Turkiye is carrying out urgent projects like setting up sitports and repairing Syria’s electrical grid. But I think Turkiye’s plan for Syrian reconstruction is to have the Gulf Arab and EU states foot the bill for projects Turkiye’s engineers and construction companies execute. R.T. Erdogan seems to have the attitude that the business of Turkiye is business.
China has influence beyond marerial matters though. Trump Gaza “plan”excited plenty of negative pushback worldwide. I noticed that Al Arabiya, which is owned by the Saudi government, reported a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement that Palestine was for tbe Pakestinians and population transfers were contrary to Chinese policy
I thought this was significant; at least Al Arabiya did. And while Israel is often seen as a rampant bully that does what it wants, even Netanyahu’s stupid government knows it crosses China at its peril. Same with crossing the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Kayla Rudbek
@Elizabelle: not original to me, but I have seen the concept come up in all the various material that I have been reading and watching about AI. And yes, they call it Hapsburg AI because the dataset gets so inbred.
Bill Arnold
@Kayla Rudbek:
He/DOGE will no doubt demand write access as well, and ability to exfiltrate at scale.
Am glad I am not in a position to be asked for such access, even read-only; would actively not comply.
Baud
TBone
@Baud: or deport it after detainment.
TBone
@Baud: I need a more comprehensive list than “Amazon, Apple, and Verizon.”
I wonder what the CWA union has to say about this – my brother, a long time member, might know. I already know what he thinks…
Kayla Rudbek
@Elizabelle: yes, although we can actually teach the slime molds to solve math problems (traveling salesman problem if I recall correctly). And I should not have insulted honorable lab rats and Ursula Vernon’s Temple of the White Rat by associating rats with Musk.
TBone
Reminder: February 28 is National HIT THEM IN THE WALLET, WHERE IT HURTS Day.
usatoday.com/story/news/2025/02/22/retail-boycott-what-day-and-when-why-are-consumers-boycotting/794…
No gas or fast food either. Get that shit on the 27th.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: Until very recently, the PRC was all in on the pro-Palestinian narrative once Israel started the war of vengeance against Gaza, to the point where Chinese think tankers & even government officials trafficked in anti-Semitic tropes. Yet, the Israeli government was quiet despite all the barrages from Beijing, at the same time never hesitated to launch fusillades at its critics in the West.
Then again, Bibi & the Israeli far right has no problem allying w/ anti-Semites, as long as the latter ignore what they do in the ME.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: Surely Al Jolani has greater ambitions for Syria than a playground for regional powers, & the way to give himself more freedom of action is to court distant great powers. We see this dynamic in every region of the world, & we may see it soon in Europe, too.
NotMax
@Kayla Rudbek
The Spanish Habsburgs at least had the grace to die out naturally. The other Habsburgs, not so much and continued breeding.
;)
Kayla Rudbek
@NotMax: although Otto von Hapsburg was anti-Nazi en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Habsburg
Marc
We can agree to disagree, he’s been talking shit about Mars for a good 25 years.
PJ
Another Scott
@Another Scott: The GovExec story has been updated:
This makes a lot of sense, not least because a little bird told me there are all kinds of rules and regulations about how federal agencies communicate, what can be disclosed, what can’t, what processes need to be followed for any information disclosure outside the organization.
Demands for information from a mass email that is unsigned, cites no relevant legal or regulatory authority, etc., etc., is not how these things are done.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
FLD
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: One can only hope that the Pentagon brass resents being led by a three-star.
NotMax
@Kayla Rudbek
To be fair, the last of the Spanish Habsburg rulers died (without progeny) in 1700.
;)
Jackie
Did I just hear
FBI Director Kash Patel is to be named ATF chief???
Quiltingfool
@Elizabelle: I’m very late to the comments, but I’d like you to go to my Etsy site (just click on my nym) and send me a message. I’ve got a photo to share with you!
Quiltingfool
@zhena gogolia: This comment is late, but could you send me a message through my Etsy store? Just click on my nym.
I’ve got a photo to show you!
Another Scott
@Jackie: That’s a bit different from some other news…
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jackie
@Another Scott:
Thanks, Another Scott
I’m banging head on desk emoji
rikyrah
CAN Anyone from South Carolina expound on what she’s talking about? a 1.8 BILLION DOLLAR ACCOUNTING ERROR??? https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Yt2bHP/
Another Scott
@rikyrah: Not from SC, but made me look…
WRDW.com (from 2/19):
It’s always the witches’ fault, amirite??
I’m sure if SC lets 47 build a casino and condo tower and golf course then that pesky federal investigation can quickly go away, also too.
Grr…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Yutsano
@Jay: I got that e-mail today. I tried not to giggle but I also noticed the ridiculous turnaround time. The e-mail was dated today. It was due by Monday 11:59pm EST.
I got another e-mail from the deputy commissioner of the IRS saying they were looking at this. Although they didn’t say to not respond.
Kayla Rudbek
@Yutsano: and most workers (federal, contractor, private sector) don’t check their emails on the weekends if they’re working a standard 40-hour M-F week. It will be very interesting to see what Ask A Manager says about this on Monday morning.
Yutsano
@Kayla Rudbek: The only reason I did see it today is because I was doing some overtime. Otherwise I would have seen it on Monday like everyone else and been like whaaaa..
I did get the heads up from here so thanks for that fellow Jackals!
Kayla Rudbek
@Yutsano: Musk is like every caricature and bad manager from Ask A Manager, Facebook/instagram reels, and Reddit rolled into one. Wait, I think Ask A Manager had some posts specifically about Musk at Twitter, and I don’t remember if he won her contest for Worst Boss of the Year.
YY_Sima Qian
@Yutsano: This a parody of the Office.
NotMax
Caligula? More like Elagabalus (a.k.a. Heliogabalus).
NotMax
Damn. #208 – wrong thread.
rikyrah
@Another Scott:
Thank you
Another Scott
@YY_Sima Qian: +1
I have 8 different bosses right now…
:-/
Best wishes,
Scott.