We finally got some much-needed rain yesterday evening. The added moisture brought tasty grubs, bugs and what-not to the surface for the dining pleasure of a pair of Sandhill Cranes who visit daily.
I feel so lucky to share a riverbank with these stately descendants of dinosaurs and try to present as non-threatening when sneaking around for a shot. But I get the feeling they’re thinking, “Fuck off, you hideous hairless ape!”
***
I see that congratulations are in order for our good neighbors to the north: PM Mark Carney retained his post, and the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, lost his seat. (NYT) It’s unclear yet whether Carney’s Liberals won a majority in Parliament, but great job, everybody!
And a special thanks to the Canadian readers who weighed in on yesterday’s post about the election. I learned a lot from your comments.
***
Speaking of polities that retain a shred of national dignity, Bluesky commenter Adam Gurri collected a list of grievances from the U.S. Declaration of Independence that are eerily applicable to our current situation:
Next year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration. Our forebears went on to overthrow their tyrannical king, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to toss the current would-be king out on his ass. But the only way to do that prior to an election is impeachment and removal.
As outrage grows about Trump’s lawlessness and overreach on multiple fronts, I hear more rumblings about the “I” word in left spaces, including Bluesky. Mistermix posted about the pros and cons of impeachment at Reverse Pyromania here.
***
Meanwhile, the orange shitgoblin is staging a rally in Michigan today to celebrate the catastrophic first 100 days of his second term, which include the illegal usurpation of hundreds of billions in funding for critical programs. AP has the rally details:
He’s expected to speak at a rally at Macomb Community College, north of Detroit, allowing him to revel in leading a sprint to upend government and social, political and foreign policy norms.
Michigan was one of the battleground states Trump flipped from the Democratic column. But it’s also been deeply affected by his tariffs, including on new imported cars and auto parts.
If I remember my ancient U.S. political history correctly, Macomb County was the region where the “Reagan Democrats” emerged in 1980. The post-election analysis gave birth to a media narrative that still grips reporters who were not yet born then.
Wouldn’t it be something if Michiganders turned out en masse to tell the current demented old coot to get the fuck out? They could borrow the more elegant words of the Declaration and object to “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
Open thread.
On The Road – Deputinize America – Malta I
Baud
I’ve been there, crane. I’ve been there.
Lapassionara
Love the excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. So fitting.
Suzanne
I am interested to see how the tariffs “play” in Michigan. Gretchen Whitmer may have lit her political career on fire by appearing with Trump and being somewhat mealy-mouthed about them. (And hiding behind her binder was….. not a good look, OMG.) The gossip from Smart People is that Michiganders favor the tariffs due to the auto industry. That strikes me as incredibly short-sighted…. but that’s a gentle way to describe probably 40% of American voters.
terraformer
Love that list of grievances! So apt for the current moment.
A rally, eh? Looking forward to wall-to-wall coverage of how Hair Führer was *completely lucid*, and made compelling cases for what he is doing/wants to do; that he did not lose focus in any way, shape, or form, such as veering off, multiple times, into unrelated topics; and totally didn’t lie about anything why do you ask
Jackie
Too bad I need to wash my hair tonight! And paint my nails…
stinger
Somebody must have wished for me, “May you live in interesting times.” Dammit.
Jeffro
I’m pretty tied up today, but I bookmarked two articles for later reading…
The first is the Times’ piece on trump’s eye-popping corruption when it comes to crypto. You could not find or make up a clearer case of a president straight-up using his office to line his pockets (and secretly, too) (and from the world’s worst actors, too). The piece even notes Carter’s peanut farm, Bush Sr’s blind trust, etc. The corruption is so over-the-top that even our blessed snooze media is waking up and finding it newsworthy, which really is incredible.
The second is a Pew poll piece that shows white evangelical support for trump holding up at an astounding 72% approval rating…and 69% rate the ethics of trump admin officials as excellent or good
It would be easy to be depressed by those numbers…but on the flip side, that means that a quarter of white evangelicals do not approve of trump, and nearly third of white evangelicals know that trump & Co’s ethics are not good…
…and that’s only three months into his term.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: Whitmer is appearing with Trump today (AP):
No idea what that’s about. I respect that she’s in a difficult position but haven’t found much impressive about Whitmer in the post-election coverage I’ve seen so far. Maybe she’ll step up. It’s early yet.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
rikyrah
Congratulations Canada 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦
Bless you 👏🏾👏🏾
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
They have no credibility. They are ridiculous 😡
They don’t know how to explain ethics
Splitting Image
At this point a minority is pretty much locked in. The Liberals have 168 seats, and there are about 15 or so seats not officially called. Of these, only four of them have the Liberals running second, and only one of them is close enough for the Liberal to overtake the leader. (It’s a Quebec riding where the Bloc candidate is leading by about 20 votes.) So 168 or 169 is pretty much the result.
The NDP has 7 seats though, so the Liberals can govern with NDP support, like they have been doing for the past few years. The Bloc don’t have enough votes to throw in with the Conservatives and probably wouldn’t anyway.
So the good guys won. A much better result than anyone would have predicted a few months ago.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Betty Cracker
@Splitting Image: Good to know — thank you!
jonas
“72% of Peoples Temple Members Rate Grape Drink ‘Excellent’, Wish There Was More of It”
Also: “New Study: Majority of Evangelicals Have No Idea What Jesus Taught, Are Probably Going to Hell”
Jackie
I hate FFOTUS’ guts for many, many, many reasons, but this is close to #1: Making me cheer for China :-C
Melancholy Jaques
No Democrat should be appearing with Trump for any reason at all. It means whatever the fight of that moment is, Democrats lost. And it makes every other fight harder to win.
stinger
I thought we liked Big Gretch. The guy is president, after all, and she’s surely trying to benefit her state. I can’t turn on a dime, throw the baby out with the bathwater, etc., and it seems to me that a lot of politicians have to do things they may not much want to do. If I lived in Michigan I might have a more informed opinion.
Hildebrand
@Betty Cracker: Whitmer keeps doing this and she won’t even be in the VP conversation in 28:
Betty Cracker
@Jackie: Since Bessent “wants US allies to ‘approach China as a group,’ giving his side more leverage in negotiations,” I’m just marveling at the genius opening salvo of this foolishness, which was to slap tariffs on the whole fucking world (except Russia), including penguins. I mean, what better way to assemble a team and make sure they have your back before you confront China?
MrPug
@Jackie: Dang it. I too have other obligations. I have to shave my hair with a cheese grater while chewing on tin foil (that is a line from Cheers episode that I have never forgotten: tvquot.es/cheers/quote/4epopzph/).
sixthdoctor
Jeff, Donny, break it up or we’ll have to send you both to your rooms for a time out!
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: Those are the dumbest and most bigoted people in America. I grew up around them and I know whereof I speak. MAGA is never going to lose them.
MrPug
@Jeffro:
I dunno, but those numbers seem very soft for Trump among that demographic.
Matt McIrvin
@Splitting Image: There were times during the night when it seemed like Liberal + NDP was in danger of not being a majority and they might have to deal with the BQ. But it held.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: A lot of Trump voters still think the tariffs are going to benefit US industry–you just wait, the Golden Age will happen–and will have to see it tank to believe otherwise.
The next shoe to drop that I’m watching for is that at some point, Trump is going to announce that he’s zeroing out the federal income tax, because the tariffs are making it unnecessary. (Never mind whether that’s in any way legal, it’s not going to matter.) There’s going to be some desperate flurry of renewed elite support for him because of that, dopes like Bill Ackman touting it as a genius chess move they didn’t see coming. What I’m wondering is whether it sticks for any length of time.
Belafon
@Suzanne: As a non-Michigander, I favored tariffs on Chinese EV imports for a short time to give our companies a chance to produce a car that could compete. But that required specific tariffs on specific things (cars) for a short period to achieve a realistic goal. His are going after more than cars since they totally ignore how cars are built.
Parfigliano
@Jeffro: The only people worse (barely) then MAGA white evangelicals are leading Russia.
Jeffro
@MrPug: right?
and we’re only 3 months in
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jeffro:
And yet, nothing will get done about it because the other branch of gubmint that could do something about it is thoroughly captured.
Matt McIrvin
@Belafon: I don’t think tariffs are necessarily bad in all cases. They’re something you have to deploy rationally and carefully, though, with thorough consideration of all their positive and negative effects, and you can’t structure them so as to kill the industries you’re trying to promote. What Trump has done here is the tariff equivalent of a nuclear first strike.
pajaro
@Betty Cracker:
This is the second time in the last few weeks that Whitmer has chosen to appear with Trump. I have no idea what she’s up to, but she is behaving completely differently than, for example, Pritzker, who is going around the country speaking against Trump.
Betty Cracker
@stinger: I do like Whitmer and am not writing her off. The crisis of having a buffoonish psycho in the White House and right-wing kleptocrats running the government is a huge test for Dems. Some are stepping up, others not so much yet, but I think there’s still time. IMO, things will only get worse in the foreseeable future, and since we still have the tattered remnants of a democracy, everything hinges on public opinion. They’re all following that, except maybe Trump, who lives in a bubble constructed of propaganda and untreated personality disorders.
Jackie
@sixthdoctor: Bezos is trying to have his cake and eat it, too. I do applaud his decision to display tariffs price increases, though, and hope other retailers follow suit – including grocery stores. FFOTUS doesn’t handle passive aggressiveness well, at all.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Belafon:
One of the things Big Gretch has been saying on this refers to Biden’s “surgical” approach to tariffs (which the Chinese EV one is Example #1) as being the smart way to do it and not Hair Furor’s big-fat-club approach. Good piece from earlier in the month:
nbcnews.com/politics/elections/disaster-gretchen-whitmers-talk-tariffs-meeting-trump-anger-fellow-de…
But, it’s clear a lot of Dems, not just us, think the political optics of what she’s doing leaves a lot to be desired. From the piece:
Harrison Wesley
@Suzanne: I don’t see what she gets out of this appearance. He’s almost certainly going to get up there and spout lies about non-existent “deals”.
frosty
Those grievances are eerily prescient. Wait, what? They’re from 1776? We’ve come full circle, dammit!
UncleEbeneezer
@stinger: Seems like just yesterday people were constantly speculating that maybe Whitmer (and Newsom) would be better than Kamala /eyeroll…
Jeffro
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: nothing will get done…yet…
all we can do is keep pointing out both the unbelievable corruption by trump & Co and the stunning abdication of responsibility by the MAGA GOP majorities in the House and Senate
It should matter as the months wear on. It should matter in Nov 2026 and Nov 2028. Keep pounding!
BlueGuitarist
New protest demonstrations have been added for Thursday May 1
day and evening, and Saturday afternoon May 3.
there’s a new one closer to me than the April 5 handsoff and April 19 no kings protests.
Will work on making a better sign.
Jackie
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
bbleh
@Lapassionara: @terraformer: at the Philly “no kings” rally there was a clot of people with signs in like colonial-era-style calligraphy with exactly those phrases on them. Very effective.
sab
@Matt McIrvin: I have my doubts whether this is fixable. My late ex-father-in-law, a tough negotiator in business, used to say “Trust is like the soul. Once it is gone it doesn’t come back.”
Mexico never trusted us, sensibly. Nor did the Chinese. Canadians did. Europeans did. Everyone around the world now knows we are always one nutjob away from chaos, and Congress does not care.
Eolirin
@Suzanne: They’re not going to favor the tariffs when they start seeing goods shortages and the cost increases to cars starts bankrupting the car companies, even if they do now.
Jeffro
I’m glad that some Dem candidates are likely taking themselves out of the running for 2028 with these completely unforced errors. Dem primary voters are NOT going to rally behind folks whose priorities in these dark times included going on RWNJ podcasts and doing joint smiley-face appearances with trump.
It strikes me as something akin to Dems’ stances on the Iraq War, heading into the 2008 election.
BlueGuitarist
@bbleh:
interesting! Thanks.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@UncleEbeneezer:
*Some* people like Governor Goodhair II, certainly not all (raises hand like Horshack).
@Jeffro:
Agreed. It’s the kind of thing that could/should play well in the midterms. With lighter turnout and the Orange Fart Cloud not on the ballot, my hope is a repeat of 2018.
Melancholy Jaques
@Matt McIrvin:
They say that because they repeat whatever they’re told to repeat & agree with whatever that asshole is doing.
A very large number of people who are not Trump supporters also believe tariffs are going to benefit US industry because they don’t understand how trade works.
Harrison Wesley
@BlueGuitarist: I’m heading to one on Thursday, my first since the Iraq invasion. Since it’s a weekday I figure attendees will be college kids and us Olds.
sab
@Betty Cracker: Even your rants, which I agree with, make me laugh: ‘against the whole world, even penguins…’
Eolirin
@Melancholy Jaques: This is one of our core problems, too few people know how anything works. And social media exploits that
Melancholy Jaques
@Jeffro:
Which was a dramatic reversal from 2004, when Democratic primary voters demanded someone who supported the Iraq invasion.
Belafon
@Jackie: Bezos no longer runs Amazon. So this, to me, is similar to Microsoft providing development support for Linux after Gates stepped down.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Sound like those “Countries” Trump is negotiating with are really US companies.
Belafon
Pritzker does have it a bit easier. His state doesn’t have nearly the dependency on one industry that Michigan does. How will he act when a climate change induced massive tornado outbreak upends much of his state?
I still remember red-state governors having to meet with Obama and Biden when their states were in need of help.
StringOnAStick
Yesterday I managed to buy the last in a 400 mile radius of a certain entry model Taylor guitar; since the lower end models are made in Mexico, the stock in stores is utterly depleted. I wanted to play it first, or else I could have ordered directly from Taylor, but I never buy an instrument unless I can play it first after a couple of less than optimal experiences years ago. I had to drive to Eugene to do it, while on my way to Portland*.
*I’m helping a friend move her grad school daughter to a new apartment, or I’m here to dance in the smoldering ruins of the city and to sacrifice said daughter to the DEI gods, whichever you find more plausible. Plus: excellent Ethiopian food last night!
Splitting Image
@sab:
I suspect that Donald Trump has had it in for penguins ever since the creator of Bloom County put his brain in Bill the Cat’s body and ended the strip with Opus pasting him in the face with a lemon meringue pie.
Princess
@Suzanne: I agree with you, Suzanne. I think tariffs will be really bad for Michigan and Whitmer made a big mistake.
sab
@Eolirin: We are already having shortages. I cannot get my P&G brand of toilet paper, or Milkbone dog biscuits, or my cats’ favorite cat food.
Melancholy Jaques
@Belafon:
It destroyed Chris Christie’s political career.
sab
@Splitting Image: I do believe Trump strategizes at that level of deal-making sophistication.
twbrandt
@Hildebrand @Betty Cracker: Michigander here.
My sense is that Whitmer is cooked among Michigan Dems. People more vocal in their opposition to Trump are making a lot of noise, like Mallory McMorrow, who is running for Sen. Gary Peters’ seat now that he’s retiring.
As for tariffs, the UAW came out in favor of them, but rather inexplicably to me didn’t take into account the damage they will do auto production and their members’ jobs. Farmers and other small businesses are getting screwed and are not happy.
Harrison Wesley
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Sounds like a Cunning Plan.
Melancholy Jaques
@StringOnAStick:
Congrats on the Taylor. My 410 has been one of the best I’ve ever owned. And completely agree with having to play it before purchase, especially with an acoustic.
Princess
@Betty Cracker: I don’t what drugs Bessent has access to but he should lay off them. Canada has incredibly bad relations with China, like, they jail our citizens bad, and would certainly have stood with the US. But not now. I think most Canadians would say they trust China more than the US right now, which does not mean they actually trust China — it’s a sign of how bad things are with the US, and the fact that China is stable and the devil you know.
Harrison Wesley
@Belafon: But those guys actually delivered aid. Swino just turned down Arkansas, which wasn’t a blue state last time I looked.
jonas
@Hildebrand: I think she wants it to look as if she’s at least *trying* to intercede with Trump to somehow minimize the fallout of his policies for Michigan — which are going to be devastating — but it’s hard not to do that without also looking like you’re bending the knee. So I sort of feel bad for her while also acknowledging that it’s very much not a good look to be continually making appearances with Trump in hopes that he won’t be as much of an asshole. Lose-lose, IMHO.
tam1MI
I’m so old I remember just last July when I was lectured that an 85% rating for President Joe Biden was supposed to be catastrophically low.
Jackie
@Belafon: Bezos still owns Amazon, so he’ll get the credit – or, in FFOTUS’s case – the blame for being disloyal. The WH is actively attacking Bezos as I type.
I only hope Bezos doesn’t chicken out again, as he did with the WaPo.
StringOnAStick
I keep telling my husband that there’s about to be shortages that will make Covid look easy; his normie response is to buy an extra 24 pack of TP. Sigh. Though his reactions give me a useful gauge of what normies are thinking, and even though he pays more attention to politics than he used to, he has not put the pieces together yet about how messy this is shaping up to be.
I figured that anything we had planned on purchasing had to be done before April ended, especially if it’s imported (like most things seem to be). Bought a condenser microphone that better suits my low voice last week, guitar yesterday; now I can happily play music through the coming retail apocalypse. The veggie garden is off to an excellent start, so at least there will be food in a few more weeks!
NotMax
@
So the more they increase the price of their vehicles the less they have to pay for parts?
NotMax
#71 meant to be @Enhanced Voting Techniques.
Captain C
@sixthdoctor: So people who Donnie screws are now supposed to cover for him?
TS
@Splitting Image: Thanks for all the updates – and explanations
Geminid
@pajaro: My understanding is both Whitmer’s White House visit and her appearance with Trump today have to do with that National Guard base they’ll be at. She’s either trying to save it or expand it, not sure which. I’m not saying this is justified, but that is what she’s up to.
Harrison Wesley
@StringOnAStick: Definitely control of your food supply will be really important! I think joining a CSA program was one of the few smart things I’ve done in the last few years.
StringOnAStick
@Melancholy Jaques: I bought a 210; I’m barely 5’3” and I wanted a smaller body guitar that fits my fairly female shape, if you get my drift. I’m switching to guitar from ukulele after hitting the wall on the limitations of that instrument, Taylor seemed like my best bet and I love their responsible materials sourcing.
Captain C
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Is this piece on the front page? Dominating the front page? Or is it on page A17 while the front page and editorial page tout FFOTUS’ naughty brilliance in all caps?
StringOnAStick
@Harrison Wesley: i wonder if the CSA farmers are going to have to emergency price increases because of input costs? We need to keep those folks in business!
jonas
God, what a fucking tool. Like we’re going to have allies after this is all over.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I can’t be the only one who remembers when NPR was tweeting out the Declaration a few lines at a time on some July 4 during the First Trump Reich, that MAGAs were going absolutely ballistic during the grievances section, not recognizing the source and thinking it was just a screed directed at their god emperor.
For example
Professor Bigfoot
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I keep getting the feeling that there are a lot of people for whom the performance is most important.
See, for example, the accolades accorded to AOC and Bernie for their rallies by the “DO SOMETHING” chorus.
NotMax
@StringOnAStick
Did someone mention ukulele?
;)
Harrison Wesley
@StringOnAStick: That’s important. I’ll text the lady who runs mine. Haven’t heard anything as of yet. And, yes, I’d pay more to help local farmers stay in business
RaflW
I saw last night that Poilievre was in danger of losing his seat, I find it absolutely delicious to wake up this morning to confirmation that Trump screwed him so badly that he not only failed in his P.M. bid but got the shove entirely. The US Republican Party will completely misread/ignore this result and continue the beatings until morale improves.
Speaking of which, “White House says Amazon’s decision to display tariff-based price increases on products is a ‘a hostile and political act by Amazon,’ who they accuse of working with ‘a Chinese propaganda arm.’ So, yeah, Trumpublicans are coping really well.
Betty Cracker
@StringOnAStick: Good for you for mastering the uke and moving on to the guitar! I still play my uke, very badly. ;-)
Suzanne
@Belafon:
Agree.
This is not the time to discuss nuance, though. We need to be letting FFOTUS own this disaster in its entirety.
Harrison Wesley
@Betty Cracker: I remember when I quit playing bass after I had become a full fledged alcoholic. A friend tried to look on the bright side: “So now you play the bottle. Much easier! It’s only got one hole.”
RaflW
Also, the American consumer is not as dumb as Trump thinks.
@carlquintanilla.bsky.social
WASHINGTON (AP) – US Consumer confidence slides for the 5th straight month to levels not seen since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
TS
@Harrison Wesley:
The PM of Canada in his victory speech emphasised that he was the PM for ALL of Canada whether they voted for the Liberals or not. As Did Obama & Biden in regard to the US. Seems only the RW bigots pick their sides – although trump seems to govern for no-one except trump/
brendancalling
@Betty Cracker: I’m old enough to remember when people were saying she could run for President.
Guess those heady days are over now.
Librettist
@Geminid:
Not every politician’s career goal is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. She has been pretty consistent in knocking that down.
RaflW
@jonas: The hilarious thing (in terms of beclowning Bessent, who I know knows better, but he has to eat shit daily now that he’s in this deep): The rest of the world will approach China as a group. Just one that is missing a single, idiotic member. Us. And they’ll get great deals from China, because they do need customers for all the productivity, and there are willing buyers everywhere.
I said it before Trump even won the election, but I’m being proven right faster than I expected: Voting Trump is voting for China as the world hegemon for the 21st centrury.
NotMax
Morning (first world) rant.
Grr. Don’t know if it’s a universal change but now when I fire up Prime video on the Roku the “Continue Watching” row has migrated from right below the big ass promo up top to 4 (or more) rows further down.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Indeed our word was golden now it is tacky fake gold foil like the orange God of Rs.
NotMax
Did Donny Dolto or his wife or staff pay whatever the tariff is on any Italian goods they brought back on Air Force One?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Geminid
@Librettist: Even if Whitmer wants to run for President, what looms large today could be forgotten two years from now, when the 2028 primary race starts shaping up. There will be a lot of water under the bridge by late April, 2027. And not that many Democrats will even hear about Whitmer’s appearance today, much less remember it a couple years from now.
Soprano2
Holy shit, we have a real tornado warning, not that radar indicated crap. I don’t think we’re in the path, but it’s too close for comfort. They said 100 MPH winds. Just got internet on my desktop back.
Eolirin
@RaflW: If the EU gets its act together and beats back Russia, they’ll present as an alternative to China. I don’t think China can pull off a proper US style hegemony if that happens. They’ll be a major player regardless.
PPCLI
@jonas: approach China as a group? You mean like a big block of US + allies would have done in the Trans Pacific Partnership? Great idea. But somehow it got wrecked. I wonder how?
Jeffro
Bezos v trumpov: rooting for injuries doesn’t BEGIN to describe it…
eclare
@jonas:
If FFOTUS wore sunglasses, he would be an exact replica of Jim Jones. The recent doc by Nat Geo and Hulu is chilling, there are so many similarities.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: Yikes, stay safe!
Citizen Alan
@stinger: I’m 55, and I feel like I’ve been living in “interesting times” for most of my adult life.
tam1MI
That was before we were forcefully reminded that the Presidency is a job for which only White Straight Christian Males need apply.
Jackie
Bezos cracked. Sure didn’t take long:
Soprano2
@Jeffro: None of that is part of his presidential duties, so he could be prosecuted for it after he leaves office.
ArchTeryx
@Matt McIrvin: It won’t last long if nobody is buying our bonds. Zeroing out the income tax will explode the deficit, and that means they either sell bonds or cut the budget. And there isn’t enough budget to cut unless they go after Defense and not just domestic social programs. It’s going to get UGLY.
jonas
@RaflW: Yep — if they get to dictate trade agreements, then they get to dictate a whole lot of other stuff, from technology standards to currency markets.
Jacel
I’m surprised that Sand Hill Cranes are still in the US anywhere this late in the Spring, since they’ve headed North from California weeks ago. Is there season in Florida longer? Or have these birds started giving up on migration, like many Canada Geese?
Professor Bigfoot
@RaflW: For myself, at the end of the day, this is what I will forever hate these stupid sonsabitches for: ensuring that the 21st century will belong to China.
Short sighted hateful 🤬🤬.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: STAY SAFE OUT THERE!
Tornado weather ain’t nothin’ to play with.
(though I have to confess, dumb MF that I am, I’ve literally missed the warning and was listening to music when a tornado passed a few blocks away… another example of what a LUCKY MF I actually am.)
pajaro
@Geminid:
Thank you for the explanation.
artem1s
The Declaration only mentions tax one time.
Most of the complaints in the articles address lack of governance or interference with the colonists who created ways to self govern so they could address the lack of governance. What the founders and the colonists wanted was GOVERNMENT. They didn’t care about taxes as much as they cared about the British interfering with commerce. And the threat of starving to death just so the British could steal all our goods and resources to fund their ongoing religious war with Spain. They wanted to be free of the ongoing chaos and civil strife created by monarchies, popes, and autocrats vying for power.The most natural places to form ‘shadow’ cabinets would be the states forming Third Continental Congress/es to address the lack of governance from the GOP House of Representatives. Of course it would be nice to have CA leading the way on this but looks like we’ll have to mount a recall to get him to focus on the Constitutional Crisis we’re having. Governor Harris anyone?
jonas
@Matt McIrvin: The stupid, it burns. The income tax amendment was passed in the first place because everyone realized making the federal government dependent solely on tariffs and excise taxes wasn’t working. I recall when Al Gore floated the idea of a progressive carbon tax as a partial replacement for payroll taxes and everyone called him nuts and the carbon tax was DOA. But massive consumer product taxes so billionaires can have tax cuts? Full steam ahead!!
Josie
I just had to share with you the good news (//) that I received in an announcement email from Social Security this morning:
I know that you are all excited by the good news and will rush out immediately to share the glad tidings.
ETA: Meanwhile I am counting the days until the 9th to see if I get my promised deposit in the bank.
Betty Cracker
@Jacel: AFAIK, we’ve always had a resident population of Sandhills in Florida. They are joined by northern birds in the winter.
karen gail
@Citizen Alan: I’ve got 20 years on you and feel the same way; only it started when principle announced, “The President has been shot in Dallas.”
prostratedragon
@Professor Bigfoot: Amen! Accomodating to new realities
=/= abandoning all opportunities and obligations.
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: It’s passed by, now we’ll see what and where the damage is.
ArchTeryx
@Professor Bigfoot: Get an inexpensive weather radio. It will sound loud alert tones when a warning is broadcast. Also, be especially alert for a “Tornado Emergency.” That’s when a large, destructive tornado is confirmed on the ground and headed directly toward a populated area. If you hear a Tornado Emergency GET TO SHELTER IMMEDIATELY!!
Also “radar indicated” tornadoes are still potential tornadoes. Some will drop. some won’t. “Radar indicated” means that the ingredients for tornadoes are all assembled in a particular storm and it could drop one, without warning, at any time, anywhere in the warned area. Please, take all tornado warnings seriously
Someone far better than I compared tornado alerts to Taco Tuesday:
Tornado Watch: All the ingredients for tacos are in the area but none have appeared yet.
Tornado Warning: All the ingredients for tacos are in one place, or tacos have started appearing.
Tornado Emergency: WE’RE HAVING TACOS RIGHT NOW!
Nettoyeur
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t think the numbers allow tariffs to displace the income tax.
But if Trump and the GOP put it in place for a time (it won’t last), we will probably empty the 401K (tax free) and move to Australia (we are dual citizens).
prostratedragon
A “white collar psychopath” has graciously volunteered to have his portrait displayed to the public.
topclimber
@Geminid: OT but maybe you want to add Josh Riley to your look at how our new Dem reps are faring, referenced a few postings back.
I like Riley’s Al Franken staff connection, and his do-gooder legal work. Looks like he’s got long, legit ties to the district as well. Hopefully his funding isn’t from the crypto crowd.
pajaro
@tam1MI:
Apparently, Democratic voters and candidates have been slow to get the memo that only White Male Straight Christians need apply to be President, as they (and we) have only nominated one person for President who fits that bill in the last five Presidential elections.
karen gail
@Professor Bigfoot: I woke in middle of night to house shaking; was so befuddled I forgot that I no longer lived in CA and heading to doorway or outside was not best option. By the time I fully woke I had no idea what had happened, later that day had news on and showed tornado formation and path; seems it formed right over my house and didn’t touch down until about a mile away in marsh.
Across the road neighbor slept through the whole thing; he discovered his dogs had panicked and no idea why until he got to work.
NotMax
@Citizen Alan
The times? Cue Arte Johnson.
//
Eural Joiner
Finance question I’m throwing out there for any knowledgeable people to respond to: my wife and I both have 403(b) accounts we’re supposed to draw on once we turn 59.5. However, there is a provision for liquidating the account for its cash value? Does that mean you just get the total payout (and then have to pay taxes as its income?)…we’re facing a sudden deluge of family illness and financial crisis just as my wife is about to retire this summer. Thinking liquidating her account to keep everyone afloat and then draw on mine in three years. Does that make sense?
Matt McIrvin
@Nettoyeur: Trump has repeatedly said that he thinks it will, and that moving from tariffs to income tax as the means of funding the government was a mistake.
To be clear, he hasn’t yet said explicitly that he’s going to do this. But it’s a thing he keeps musing out loud about, so I think he will try to pull that lever. Numbers do not matter, law does not matter, logic does not matter. And income taxes are such an automatic bugbear to Republicans that I think a lot of the normie Republicans who are turning against him will be awed by it, for a short time.
prostratedragon
A keeper
oldgold
@brendancalling: I think the photo of Whitmer hiding her face behind a folder in the Oval Office put an end to her presidential ambitions.
It might be worse than Dukakis’ infamous tank photo.
reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1jya4dc/gretchen_whitmer_hides_her_face_after_being/?rdt=39746
Suzanne
@oldgold: I thought it was a 3-ring binder, but still….. not a good look.
I’ve been impressed with her otherwise, though, so maybe just a misstep. Plenty of time to see how things go.
zhena gogolia
@Nettoyeur: Well goody for you
tam1MI
And that one person was the only Democrat to have beaten Donald Trump.
cain
@Jeffro:
They are holding on to the hope that Trump is going to turn this country completely white christian male. He has been making those moves. So they love him for that.
I’m sure he has a slew of EOs ready that puts Christianity first.
hoytwillrise
Professor Bigfoot
@ArchTeryx: Oh, I’ve fixed that deficiency now- this was a few years ago— but that time I never considered heading for the basement- heck, my patio doors were open and all I ever perceived was a little breeze.
Until the next day when I went out and saw blue tarps on roofs. 😳
hoytwillrise
NotMax
@Suzanne
Binders full of women?
//
Betty Cracker
@oldgold: LOL, I hadn’t seen that. Definitely not a good look, but I wonder if “Dukakis in a tank” moments are even still a thing now that the media is so fragmented. Anyhoo, I think Whitmer has plenty of time to make a better post-election impression if she has ambitions for higher office.
Gotta confess I don’t know why any half-way decent person wants to be POTUS, in the same way I don’t understand why any rich person keeps chasing money. I lack those genes, apparently.
Central Planning
We’re not a democracy.
We’re a (banana) republic.
cain
@Eolirin: There won’t be any bailout for the car companies this time if they get into that position of bankruptcy.
cain
@Eolirin: Throw in AI programming and new coders won’t know how a computer works!
scribbler
@Jacel: In Wisconsin, we have sandhills that spend every summer here, then travel to either Florida or Texas for winter.
Suzanne
@NotMax: Maybe she’s gonna throw the binder at an intern?
Or was that a stapler?
So many political careers derailed by office supplies.
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: Democrats are not allowed to make mistakes.
cain
@Princess: Also now Canada has leverage against China for exactly those reasons.
StringOnAStick
@Betty Cracker: I have been exclusively doing second and third position chords, backing my husband as his rhythm section for gypsy jazz, but I just can’t get enough of the chord voicings I need with just 4 strings, and that style was built out of guitar, not uke! We are doing a lot of jazz and alt pop/folk plus jazz standards with me on vocals, and I learned a ton from the ukulele that will serve me well on guitar; I’ll likely always play both, but it was time and the tariff BS pushed me to jump now. Plus at my age, if not now, then when?
cain
@jonas:
She needs to understand that anything Trump touches dies. She must have some shitty advisors.
lou
I’ve been thinking a lot about how tariffs killed Argentina, for some reason…
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: Rachel Maddow was saying on her show last night that she’s expecting some “wild pitches” from Trump because he knows the people are against him. Authoritarians can’t afford to let that happen before they’ve fully consolidated power and permanently suppressed the opposition.
Wouldn’t surprise me if he tries the tariff gambit you describe. Who knows what else. I keep coming back to the Birdcage line: “It’s like riding a psychotic horse toward a burning barn.”
oldgold
@Jackie:
“I only hope Bezos doesn’t chicken out again, as he did with the WaPo.”
He already has!
“Amazon said Tuesday it considered displaying import charges on items sold via its site for ultra-discount items, but that the plan “was never approved and not going to happen.””
Socolofi
Ah, waking up to the confirmation that Poilievre lost his own riding is just a chef’s kiss on last night.
What I suspect 99% of you missed unless you watched the CBC coverage was Con MP Jamil Jivani (actual friend of JD Vance, f em both) slam Con Premiere Doug Ford – youtu.be/2A6Eji6Wc3E?si=F5-_gv3zpDYDQ1P9
What this all means:
– Bloc Québécois will be running to help Carney so they have a seat at the table and it isn’t just a coalition of Liberal and NDP.
– PP has to fight to retain his position as leader, and he still won’t be in parliament. Means he can spend his days lobbying grenades without doing anything (which is arguably what he does best) but he pissed off a lot of Conservatives. I suspect that a lot of knives come out however.
– Carney has already set the stage that there will be tough times ahead – everyone gets that. Which means he isn’t planning on walking some thin line hoping his party doesn’t hold a vote of no confidence and call an early election.
– Look at a new emerging G5 or G6 – the G7 minus the US and maybe Italy.
finally, something that occurs given Bessent’s push vs China… a unified EU, plus Canada, plus Mexico, plus JP, TW, & S Korea – may be smart enough to negotiate a better deal than they had pre-Trump in exchange for help w China. Trump will say whatever deal is done is awesome and he’s awesome and MAGA believes him. Everyone else knows this too, and now they see there are things the admin wants.
Still not great to be the US though. :(
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Fixed.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
Effortless perfection, of course.
jonas
Pretty much. Despite the fact that some social media platforms, like YouTube, have given expert creators who actually do explain things really well — I’m thinking of content like Wired’s _____ Support series or Timothy Snyder’s Ukraine lectures — a platform to educate people. Of course most of the time people just use social media to watch sportsball highlights or someone trip and fall face-forward into a cake. Which is why we’re where we’re at. Or worse, fall into an algorithm that just feeds them radical bullshit and woo.
Matt McIrvin
@twbrandt: The UAW has been reflexively protectionist for as long as I can remember–back in the 70s and 80s it manifested in gross and racist ways, and it made me perhaps more suspicious of trade protectionism than I should have been. But they probably figure that to retain their support base they can’t not be for this.
lowtechcyclist
@UncleEbeneezer:
Before Biden dropped out, I was thinking of them as Kamala’s main rivals for 2028. Now I’m thinking Pritzker, or maybe Van Hollen if he throws his hat into the ring.
brendancalling
@StringOnAStick: I pre-purchased my running shoes for later this year, because they go up from $140 to $250.
At least my senator, John Fetterman, understands that the Port of Philadelphia is one of the busiest in the country, never mind the rail and trucking hubs in our fair city. Fetterman is DEFINITELY on the case, as (checks notes) “bombing Iran” is crucial to mutually beneficial trade agreements.
lowtechcyclist
@BlueGuitarist:
I hope there’s one for May 8, the 80th anniversary of the last time we defeated the fascists.
stinger
@jonas: And The Felon does what he can to punish states whose governors have been “mean” to him. If she thinks Michigan is going to be hit especially hard by tariffs, I just can’t blame her for sucking up a little bit.
Betty Cracker
@Socolofi: I’m guessing from context that “riding” in Canadian politics is similar to U.S. congressional districts? I hope the name has some romantic frontier origin story, like the area was the distance a representative could ride on a horse in a day or some such. ;-)
Nettoyeur
@zhena gogolia:
No thanks for the snark.
Family reasons. Wife’s grandparents emigrated from Russia to US because if the 1905 and 1917 revolutions. Those that stayed behind ended up shot in ditches in 1941, all that is left is Russian postcards. Wife’s German mother was part Jewish, sent as teenager to slave labor, escaped during Dresden fire raid, married American post war. Yesterday the White House press rep said they were open to arresting Supreme Court judges, tends to make one wary. Don’t want to leave, but contingency plans…..
Chief Oshkosh
@sixthdoctor: I would LOVE it if those fucking morons continued to pick a fight with Amazon because I don’t see them winning.
OTOH, I am not sure that this is anything more than posturing on both sides. We’ll see.
stinger
@NotMax:
Must be universal, as it started happening for me a week or so ago. So annoying.
sab
@Eural Joiner: 403(b)s grow tax free, amd once you take it out you won’t have time to replenish it as a tax deferred account even if you live another 30 years. You really don’t want to pull it out now.
brendancalling
@Harrison Wesley: never ever quit bass. Ever.
Soprano2
So, that gnarly storm that came through here is headed toward St. Louis. If it’s still as intense as it was when it came through here, it’s dangerous! The 100 mph winds are bad. My manager said on his way to work he saw a bunch of trees down and the power was out in a big swath of the city. Lucky for me, my bar appears to be unscathed.
brendancalling
@Citizen Alan: 55 in a few months, and same feeling.
Citizen Alan
There’s a part of me that thinks that, if the worst happens, I’ll be okay because I am capable of “passing.” I am a white 55yo male, aro-ace but not actively gay, and while I haven’t set foot in a church in nearly 20 years, I remember enough to make the right mouth noises about how I’ve repented of my sins and let Jesus back into my heart. All I would have to do is join an Evangelical Church and find some woman I could tolerate living with to marry (with the quiet understanding that we would never have sex), and I would probably be fine.
I only see two obstacles. Or rather one thing I know is an obstacle, and one thing I hope is an obstacle. I hope I would have too much self-respect to live a lie 24/7 for the rest of my life. I know I can’t spend the rest of the month, let alone the rest of my life, nodding along with bigots and morons, which I think I would have to do to be welcomed into an Evangelical church. At my age, my tolerance for utter stupidity is almost completely exhausted, to the point that I won’t stay in a room where a conservative is talking politics.
(Yeah, yeah, I know. Not all Evangelical churches are like that, and some are decent and progressive. But don’t lie to yourself and pretend that the “good Christians” aren’t on the same pogrom list as the rest of us, no matter how far down they are.)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@NotMax: One of would think “no” but this is Trump, so maybe?
Soprano2
@karen gail: I was born in 1961, so I feel that too. I think the best time period of my life for everything was the 1990’s. The economy was good, the scandals were stupid and mostly irrelevant, and we had relative peace.
Soprano2
@ArchTeryx: I hate those “radar indicated” tornadoes. They go crazy over them, and they rarely actually come to the ground. This one was a sighted tornado north of Springfield. My manager sent me a picture of it – he lives about 1/4 mile from where it touched down!
prostratedragon
@Betty Cracker:
Seems many people are considering what his flailings (first fail, then flail) might look like.
Tom Sullivan at digby’s surveys some conjectures about
Emptywheel writes that his failure to make “deals” regarding Harvard, Ukraine, and foreign trade puts him in a situation of narcissistic injury which may lead him to retaliate against someone or other.
Citizen Alan
@Professor Bigfoot: It’s worse. If a Democrat doesn’t make a mistake, the media and the GOP will fabricate them out of whole cloth.
zhena gogolia
@Nettoyeur: Yeah, I have a family history too. But I’m stuck here.
Baud
At this rate, we’re not going to have any perfect people left.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I was excited about the Amazon news regarding tariffs rasing prices. But It stems from “Punchbowl News.” Okay. I’ll believe it when I see it. When is BJ going to start a rumor that gets picked up the White House?
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Jeffro: it might also reflect people fleeing the evangelical label because of this president’s corruption. The number of self identified republicans are certainly down from November. Either that, or these folks are proselytizing something entirely different than the Gospel.
Citizen Alan
@lowtechcyclist: I would really, really like Pritzker if he weren’t so rich. At this point, my belief that great wealth is invariably morally corrosive is so ingrained in me that it rises to the level of a religious tenet. I just don’t think I can trust any billionaire to be a good guy, and I can’t look at Pritzker without instinctively thinking he’s got some awful moral skeletons in his closet.
prostratedragon
@lowtechcyclist: All these signal anniversaries coming up will be good opportunities to highlight what those badtards are throwing to the trash.
stinger
@Baud: We’ll always have you!
lowtechcyclist
@RaflW:
I for one am ready to welcome our new Chinese overlords. At least they take global warming seriously. Might be our best hope for the world to be mostly livable in the 22nd century.
Baud
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
Gospel comes from old English Godspel which means “good news.”
Evangelical Trump supports believe in faspel, which means “fake news.”
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: I feel like I can like many/most of our politicos, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to think that all of them are great presidential candidates. There’s a lot of superficial stuff that nonetheless matters, and I want to see how they sort of intersect with “the national mood”.
Citizen Alan
Can someone post a link to the post from a few days back where people were listing items that we should consider buying before the tariffs kick in? I can’t find it.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: Born in 1957 here; and what I remember of the ‘90s was the whole “full employment” thing. That, like (ahem) a year ago every business had a “help wanted” sign out, and Black men without college degrees, always the last to be hired/first to be fired were actually getting jobs.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I’m looking forward to better quality take out.
jonas
@twbrandt: My sense is that the UAW thought it could come out in favor of tariffs in principle right away to get on Trump’s good side, and then prevail on him to make them more effectively targeted or something. Instead, Trump is just continuing to blow shit up with no rhyme or reason whatsoever and American auto workers will be some of the worst affected. At least the guys in Michigan will continue to have some union protections when the layoffs come. All those guys down in right-to-work states like Alabama are just boned. But that’s what they’ve repeatedly voted for, so the violin I have to play for them is pretty damn small.
brendancalling
@Nettoyeur: GF and I are looking at Canada, Mexico, and various South American countries.
Professor Bigfoot
@jonas: I’m wondering when Americans are going to understand that there’s no point in trying to appease Trump, he’s always going to turn on you?
“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal” could have been written about that mango MF.
frosty
@brendancalling: Yeah, Fetterman should STFU if he’s just going to say stupid stuff.
I feel a lot better about Van Hollen and Alsobrooks watching out for the Port of Baltimore. They took a big hit with the Key Bridge collapse. They don’t need to lose a bunch of shipping now.
Belafon
@Soprano2: As with most complex things, you either put up with false positives or you put up with missing actual positives.
Belafon
@Citizen Alan: We know that was true of FDR.
Baud
@stinger:
I won’t let you down.
Trollhattan
Reason #1 to promote EVs would be living in any of these metros.
Texas has a Pasadena?
Citizen Alan
@brendancalling: I’m staying put, I think. I don’t think I can get citizenship in any other country without several $million in the bank which I simply don’t have and don’t expect to get. And honestly, if California falls to the fascists, I don’t think any other nation on earth would be safer.
scav
@Belafon: Ah yes, we can certainly deliver to you a 99% accurate warning of a tornado hitting your actual building! It will come within seconds of its arrival. Plus or minus.
Prometheus Shrugged
@lowtechcyclist: Not sure how you arrive at this conclusion, unless it’s purely sarcastic. (Can’t tell after the first line of your post). As a single country, China emits more CO2 per year than the entire ocean can absorb. They are also responsible for egregious overfishing in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and rampant deforestation throughout SE Asia and Africa. So not exactly noble stewards of the environment.
Soprano2
@Belafon: I know, but you don’t have to listen to the sirens. I’ve lived here forever, I’m pretty blase about it.
Belafon
@Trollhattan: And London, Paris, and Palestine,
Belafon
@Soprano2: As a Texan, I was taught the sirens meant you run outside to look.
lowtechcyclist
@Prometheus Shrugged:
They’ve got four times as many people as the U.S., and probably a lot of people in their rural areas are still burning wood for fuel. But AFAICT, they’re doing their best to change course. But with a billion and a half people, overnight transformations aren’t gonna happen, even with centralized rule. (Mao tried that, and we know how it worked out. So do they, obviously.)
Elizabelle
@Citizen Alan: It was a WaterGirl thread.
Something Practical.
Re what to stock up on, etc.
Eural Joiner
@sab: thanks for the feedback…our calculation is we can liquidate hers and take care of everyone comfortably and then draw from mine when I turn 59.5 vs. we don’t touch hers and struggle (really really struggle) financially for three years and then draw from both. I get the financial impact, but the quality of life is just…you can’t get those years back!
cain
@Citizen Alan: Since Christians have allowed their religion to be co-opted by conmen and sex abusers. I’m not really extending much grace to them or I guess to ourselves since we allowed a dictator to takeover
Trollhattan
@lowtechcyclist:
One of their critical areas is concrete manufacture (cement, specifically), which is very CO2 intensive. Research in reducing concrete-sourced CO2 is ongoing but not yet employed on a meaningful scale.
Soprano2
@Belafon: That’s what they mean here, too. LOL
artem1s
@Jackie:
So the costs go up on everything and customers can’t tell which vendors are passing on tariffs and which are price gouging. That’s gonna go over well.
Professor Bigfoot
@cain:
Fair Economist
@lou: That article is way off, blaming Peron for policies started 20 years before he came to power. Tariffs started going up in the 1910’s and peaked in the 1930’s, causing a precipitous drop in trade, completed before he came to power. International trade actually *increased* under Peron, and then fell even further afterwards. latinaer.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s40503-017-0050-9
Prometheus Shrugged
@lowtechcyclist: Emissions have been, and are still, dominated by coal fired electricity plants. The recent tilt towards decarbonization in China was probably mostly spurred by the need to do something about the horribly unhealthy air quality in the cities. (And then, most recently, from the desire to dominate the clean tech industries.) Don’t get me wrong–any step, for whatever reasons, towards decarbonization, is inherently a good thing. My colleagues have been arguing for years that the way to circumvent the per capita emissions stalemate (that you alluded to) is to leverage the actual geopolitical interests of countries like China and India. It’s just that for the Chinese government, the attitudes to the global environment seem (at least in my observations) to be antithetical to the sustainable environmentalists in the US.
George
@sab: Democrats in Congress care. The Republicans, currently in the majority of Congress, don’t.
That’s the messaging that we need to use. Normies hear “Congress doesn’t care” and they aren’t bright enough to understand who controls Congress and who is in the minority.
We have to spell it out for the normies, every damned time.
catclub
@Eural Joiner:
My sympathies, I assume you have looked at 403b forums – they all hate them – for good reason.
for instance: 403bwise.org/education/bad-403b
Doc Sardonic
@George: Normies hear and see that Congress is ineffectual, is gridlocked, doesn’t care etc. due to media framing. It is always Congress fails to pass (insert bill here), not Republican controlled Congress, unless Democrats are in the majority then they use majority related framing.
UncleEbeneezer
@StringOnAStick: I have a Guild semi-hollow arriving today! I’ve never played a Taylor (or Martin) that I didn’t love. So I’d feel very comfortable buying one that I’ve never touched as long as I’ve heard it and seen good pix.
Eural Joiner
@catclub: thanks for the resource!!!
sab
@George: Good point. I agree.
Ruckus
Any other vets that use the VA on here?
And/Or have old fartitus?
Had an 2 appointments at the VA yesterday but the VA had screwed up a tad but the doc I needed to see said she had another vet at the same time. So she said that she had an opening today because someone had canceled. As I’m retired my schedule is just a tad open these days.
Drove down to the facility but could not find it, it has been a hell of a long time since I drove there because I can take a train to almost the front door and a bus the last mile or so. But of course it’s been a rather long time since I drove the 55 miles there. I could not find it, not in any way shape or form, my phone couldn’t find the directions in maps. IOW I spent damn near an entire day driving around LA. And of course missed the open appointment. Can anyone else say pissed the hell off? Or is it just me? shitforbrains cut the employees at the VA down a lot. And it’s affecting vets. A damn lot. FUCKING JACKASS SHITFORBRAINS.
And that’s being extremely unkind to jackasses.
sab
@Ruckus: My sister waited for six mo ths for a social security appointment to change her status from principal recipient to spouse. She got to the appointment and they told her she couldverify her identiry with them but she would have to go home and do it on line.
Fortunately shE has a computer and could do ot on line.
All this stuff that used to work is now broken. I want to whip or slap or whatever to those young muskrats who broke things, at Trump’s behest.
Ruckus
@sab:
A lot/ALL is directly SHITFORBRAINS doing.
The VA lost a lot of employees. Among many other Federal programs. After I returned from all that fun and games, I called the VA to at least attempt another appointment. I got one, a month away. I’ll survive just fine but this appointment was at the request of one of my docs, as I said, there was a problem with appointments and it is a direct result of the let go employees, you know, the people that make the government actually work.
I wonder how many other citizens are having problems caused directly by shitforbrains? I’d bet it is a very unreasonable percentage of the population.
This is SHITFORBRAINS fault. Him and him alone. OK the idiots that voted for him as well.
This is supposed to be a democracy, not a shit brained monarchy.
Ruckus
@sab:
I want to get a Real ID to replace my drivers license and have to go to the CA DMV to make it happen. I was going to drive there, it’s about 8 miles away. I AM TAKING THE FREAKING BUS. I’ll have to walk the last 2 blocks but one of my neighbors wants to buy my car and I am now extremely willing to do this NOW. I believe I’ve said this before, this getting old shit is getting old. But then that is the reality of life…. At least I’ve had and am still having one, had a cousin that made 6 months. I was the youngest in my family, I am, as of 3 years ago the only one left and am the oldest of the extended family. All aunts, uncles, one cousin gone.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Any half way decent human would be far, far better than the shit show we see every damn day. (I’m still just a tad upset about – well most everything at the moment) This world has it’s flaws and we as humans cause a lot of them but damn, it doesn’t have to be this bad. Those rich fucks that pay higher taxes – they are still freaking rich. Those of us who work for 60 years and put often hard earned money into the government really, really, really should be pissed at the djt admirers that seemingly thought (such as it is…) that he’d make it to even the worst of the worst – and that he has made a world record for worst of the worst. Do those dipshits have any idea what an actual working federal government is? And the answer is HELL NO – they have no idea. Gotta give them credit, they do know how to screw it up extremely badly. If only that was what a few hundred million humans needed. That they took oaths to not do, OK maybe turning it into shit IS ALL THEY KNOW.