Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[lineygoblue]

And by the way, for males to identify as women in Xiden's world, all the male has to do is say that he's a woman trapped in a man's body. That's it.

He doesn't need to have his penis and testicles removed, and a vagina installed. He can keep everything.

All he has to do is say it.

Kamala must be beaming with pride.

[iam416]

Putting Trump's obvious personality problems aside, they started off with the wrong thing. They went after Obamacare first instead of doing Infrastructure or even the Tax Bill. I kinda get why they did it that way, because Congress never wants to handle hot button issues in an election year (2018) but immediately going after something so divisive and the biggest achievement of the Obama-Pelosi era just made already ugly relations worse.

This is also very much a "well you started it" response, but Mitch McConnell before the 2010 midterms effectively said that it was his goal to make Obama a one-term President. Not exactly reaching across the aisle. Divided government since the Clinton years has been highly dysfunctional. The only time either party has made any kind of landmark legislation has been 2003-2007, 2009-2011, and 2017-2019, when one party had complete control.

Not that any of what you say is wrong, but remember -- there were little protests in the streets throughout the country the day after the election. The #Resistance was literally "formed" in November of 2016. There was never -- and I mean never -- a point in time where the Ds were ever going to work with PDJT. And that's what Tom is saying.

So, I've never seen anything like the reaction to PDJT's election -- I mean immediate reaction. Next day. So, I'm not sure the various dysfunctions throughout the past 25 years equate to the instantaneous outrage against PDJT.

All that said -- fuck unity.

[Hannibal]

I can’t wait to see the first 6’10” Stunning and Brave women’s basketball power forward.

[lineygoblue]

I can’t wait to see the first 6’10” Stunning and Brave women’s basketball power forward.

I'm sure the WNBA is thrilled about this EO.

[lineygoblue]

Meanwhile, in the newly-liberated Washington DC, .. new Transportation Secretary nominee Pete Buttygig said that he supports a new federal gas tax increase. This is especially great news for people in Michigan, considering our beloved Governor has already insisted on a 170% gas tax increase. The taxes just keep coming folks!!! Dems have never met a tax increase that they disliked.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/buttigieg-gas-tax-transportation-secretary-hearing

Maybe this is the time to buy into petroleum stocks...

[Hannibal]

TBF it’s child’s play compared to what non fossil fuel energy is going to cost.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Joe signed another 10 EOs this afternoon dealing with the SARS-2 Pandemic. Details contained in the stories in the first rush to the news room are sketchy if not heavily critical of Trump and worthlessly reviewing shit we already know. Pisses me off. I want the nitty gritty. By their nature, the EOs are going to be general guidance like, "improve the CDC's information collection and distribution systems." Well, no shit.

So, Rochelle Walensky, chief of Mass General's Division of Infectious Diseases and professor of medicine at Harvard, will be Biden's designated head of the CDC relieving Richard Redfield. The CDC is huge. There are tons of people working there in ATL. Reportedly it is a disorganized mess with most very intelligent folks doing pretty much their own thing in a disorganized way. Been that way for a while becasue leadership has been weak. The CDC fucked up badly with the first set of guidelines for testing and the roll-out of test kits that were shit. Experts agree that set the US back months and is one of the prime reasons we have 400K deaths and COVID is running wild. That Trump shoved a lot of smart people there telling him what he needed to know and do out of the picture was another.

I'm, watching Walenski. I think ramping up the CDC's role and capacity to track the pandemic and provide guidance to state PH entities on what to do about growing new case numbers is the most important thing right behind getting vaccines into arms. She has no PH experience and running the CDC is a massively more complex undertaking than running Mass General's infectious Disease Division - probably consisting of about 20 folks. The CDC has 10,600 employees earning a staggering total of $1.6b. Here's a wring diagram of the CDC if you want to take a look: https://www.cdc.gov/about/pdf/organi...-org-chart.pdf

Important note about Anthony Fauci. You might think he has some connection to the CDC. He doesn't. He is the Director of the Allergy and Infectious Disease Center a sub unit of the NIH which is a subunit of HHS. He has been appointed as the presidents chief medical advisor for COVID. Given Biden's COVID priorities this is a bit out there organizationally but, Fauci has been maybe the one credible face for COVID in Washington - this, even though he's made some pretty substantial gaffs trying to walk a fine line between his scientific know-how on infectious disease and his attempts to remain politically neutral - "I'm just a scientist ....."

You can't just throw money at the CDC. They already have plenty. It's going to take one hell of a superb manager to get this organization back up to speed. I'm doubtful Walenski can do it but like Harbaugh, I won't count her out just yet. When I was researching this post, I found a Forbes article from Feb, 2020 (not pay-walled) this is highly critical of all the dead weight that failed to get the job done when COVID started being a big story. It's just more proof that left to itself government will just keep growing, unchecked, getting fatter and less effective over time. The CDC is a great example of that. https://www.cdc.gov/about/pdf/organi...-org-chart.pdf

[AlabamAlum]

DSL,

May be too small, but this is your user pic.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Heh. There's like 20,000 versions of Mittens Bernie already

[Dr. Strangelove]

Not that any of what you say is wrong, but remember -- there were little protests in the streets throughout the country the day after the election. The #Resistance was literally "formed" in November of 2016. There was never -- and I mean never -- a point in time where the Ds were ever going to work with PDJT. And that's what Tom is saying.

So, I've never seen anything like the reaction to PDJT's election -- I mean immediate reaction. Next day. So, I'm not sure the various dysfunctions throughout the past 25 years equate to the instantaneous outrage against PDJT.

All that said -- fuck unity.

I'm not going to argue with you that Trump was more loathed by the opposing party than any other President in my lifetime. Maybe Bush was by the end, but that was performative. With Trump it was genuine. You might not agree with this but if Trump had a different personality, I really don't think it would've been as bad. But he was a complete asshole who made it to the top, unbelievably, despite knowing next to nothing about any issues. First embarrassing every major politician in the Republican Party (save McConnell) then embarrassing Hillary. Yeah, when guys like that succeed in life, it drives others nuts. That's not an excuse for going over the top in RESISTANCE talk but I can't pin the dysfunctional relationship on Dems alone, but I know that's not what you or Tom are saying.

[iam416]

Oh, I get that. I’m not necessarily judging those with the reaction you described, just noting it was certainly there and hugely present.

[Dr. Strangelove]

AA

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[Hannibal]

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[CGVT]

When does the socialism kick in. I want some of that Buchanan money so I can go on cruises and shit.

[Jeff Buchanan]

When does the socialism kick in. I want some of that Buchanan money so I can go on cruises and shit.

You have me confused with Optimus Prime. Now, that guy had money. I miss his posts of which, among the many that made sense, were gross displays of his profligacy and affluence.