abbyzenn

This war on DEI is just going too far. I swear unless it's a group of white men it's DEI and must be ended. Due to the Presiden'ts DEI directives, The U.S. Marine Band (known as The President's Own) has cancelled a concert called the Equity Arc Wind Symphony featuring high school musicans of color who competed for spots to perform and have been practicin for months for the performance. Then today I read about a program that lets children who can't walk/stand due to various diseases using harness like things to be able to stand/dance. However the program may have to close since they are losing their grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Because this particular program is for underserviced communities NEA considers it DEI. Maybe Trump could consider forgoing one of his weekend trips to Florida and contribute the money to this program - sure just as soon as pigs can fly. Meanwhile, as Trump continues to rage at federal workers as incompetent and inefficient he ignores the incompetence and inefficiency of Musk and his merry band of men who continually post "savings" that are found to be false (sometimes by inflated numbers, sometimes listing contracts that ended years ago, sometimes combination of both). And how efficient is it to fire and then have to rehire workers when you find out what they actually do? Or fire workers who are actually paid by user fees? Or fire workers whose job it is to actually find fraud? How long will it be before Trump gives bailouts to farmers hurt by the new tarriffs like he did last time?

I thought this was a pretty good episode - especially in light of how many recently have been boring, stupid and/or terrible. When did Jimmy's daughter get so old? Wasn't she a preschooler when Brina died? Enjoyed the the father - daughter relationship.

I thought the AI generated Trump Gaza thing was a joke - I finally saw the full video on (I think) either Stephen Cobert or Jimmy Kimmel. Trump sunk to a new low when he retweeted this. Nice way to inflame an already bad situation. And now with this Andrew Tate stuff - there truly isn't anything too low to sink to for Trump. Taking bets on how soon the Tates show up for dinner at Marlago.

I actually didn't mind the couple LA to London. It was good to see someone stick to their budget - that 3rd place was certainly roomier than the other two but I can see why they didn't take it. I thought it the place the took they could put a daybed/sofa bed in that dinning area, it was certainly a large area. I don't think he said what kind of job he gave up in LA nor did he say what he was doing in London other than a "freelance" job so it might not be that much money. Funny how they talked about his parents so much but other than her mentioning her family background she never mentioned her family.

I too really liked the Ormewood part of the episode. It was hilarious how Ariana kept demonstrating her expertise in a wide range of stuff. I've never heard of her - she did a good job in this episode. It certainly made a nice change from the seriousness of Will's part of the episode.

Just watched last night's (Monday Feb 24) Daily Show and highly recommend it. John Stewart was on fire (and ended up accidently cutting his hand) talking about the ridiculousness of what Doge is doing - villifying federal employees and indiscriminatingly firing them isn't solving waste, fraud and abuse (unless you think such being a federal employee is a waste). He talked about if they were really serious about finding waste/fraud/abue they'd be looking at the subsidies the gas companies get ($3 billion - which I think if we fired every federal employee wouldn't be saving anywhere near that), subsidies drug companies get, the carried interest loophole for hedge fund managers, the money the military is spending on planes/subs/carriers when the next war will be fought with drones, etc. I'll offer my own pet peeve - farm subsidies. He showed some of the recent CPAC meeting and how those speakers described federal emploiyees was just sickening. As I've noted before I'm a retired federal employee (as was my Dad who was also retired military - so yes I grew up as a military brat) so that may color by feelings a bit, I'm also annoyed at how gleeful Musk, Trump and company describe these firings.

Wasn't expecting that bit with Angel - it took a second for me to realize what Reacher had done. Agree that "hiding" Angel was really sloppily done. I think it was halfway thru this episode I realized I've read the book - which should have hit me sooner since I think I've read all up to when Lee Child started writing with his brother (?). But I seem to only remember things as a scene unfolds.

I just read an article yesteray about Clinton and his plan to end wasteful spending. For 6 months there was a deep look at agencies to determine was programs were about, how they worked, etc. After that over 300,000 federal jobs were eliminated - not all at one time but mainly thru attrition. That is how you determine waste, fraud, abuse - not this random pulling numbers out of a hat as Musk and company are doing. And as I've said before he's just making up so many numbers (ie the condoms/Gaza story) that he numbers can't be relied upon. Another example: he's stated they've saved $8 billion cancelling an ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement). Turns out the contract was for $8 Million and of that $2 million has been spent so that most that was "saved" was $6 million - a far cry from $8 billion. How is it saving money to willy nilly fire federal employees and then have to rehire them when you find out what they actuall do??? See Nuclear Security, Food Safety, Bird-Flue recent stories - all examples of Doge's incompetence. As is Rubio says that some of the USAID functions/programs need to continue - he'll determine after looking into them, etc. As I stated in an earliler post what one person thinks is waste someone else may think isn't. I think waste is spent flying Trump up and down to Florida, the super bowl and parading around the track at Daytona. He says federal workers need to get back to the office because they're not really "working" at home but going out to play golf. Well his office is the Oval office in the White House. Let's see at least a 10% cut in his travel expenses. As for Musk - wasn't he once an "illegal"? Coming here on a student visa but dropping out and working which isn't allowed. Supposedy Trump and company are disappointed at the number of daily arrests not meeting their goals. Well if your plan is to go door to door or stopping peope willy/nilly at shopping malls (as what happened to a friend of my sister-in-law) it will take a lot of time, effort and money to reach your goals. Why haven't they gone to big farms or meat packing plants? (the answer to that is rather easy). But hey let's spend $2 million for an advertising campaign (run by a Trump crony) telling people not to come here illegally. I do worry - my sister-in-law is Cambodian and here on a green card. It took over a year for her to get a visa to come here and at that my Dad and I had to sponsor her. I worry about my 16 and 17 year old nephews who are half Cambodian, born in Thailand (where my brother was serving in the Peace Corps) so their birth certificates don't prove their American citizens

Didn't recognize any Brokenwood actors. Only actor I recognized was the guy who played Kai on NCIS Hawaii - he's actually from New Zealand.

Just available on Acorn is A Remarkable Place to Die. I watched the first episode and enjoyed it. The show is from New Zealand and takes place in Queenstown so of course the scenery is gorgeous. There's 4 ninety minute episodes.

It's clear with the latest rounds of throwing government workers out of work that there is no thought, consideration, or knowledge as to what those workers do. Gee wouldn't the name National Nuclear Security Amin give you some clue? I'm so glad that cost cutting efforts don't affect the president. Good use of tax dollars to attend super bowl, Daytona and golf. How many visits to Mar-la-go since the inaugaration? Three? And Doge has spend $17 million in 3 weeks - how much are they paying Musk's merry band of men and for that matter how many merry men are there and are there any women or would that be DEI? And why do the merry men need to look at the personal taxpayer data at IRS? How does this help them decide who to fire? Oh wait a minute they don't need any thought process as to who to fire - so again why do they need access to this data? How hard did Hegseth have to search to come up with someone named Bragg so that he could rename Ft. Bragg again. I wish someone could give a good reason why any US Army base should have been named after someone who had actually fought against the US Army. Or after someone who was a lousy general.

I was quite disappointed and didn't like the episode - half way thru I was only half way paying attention.

I watched what said it was a new episode (called something like Love in Brisbane and Amsterdam) and was surprised that there aren't any comments about it. I fast forwarded thru the Brisbane (the guy was really annoying and Brisbane isn't of interest to me) so only really watched the Amsterdam portion although I can't stand Sarah but I do like looking at Amsterdam. It was a woman, 42, looking for a husband in Amsterdam. After watching it I googled the woman and found the show was actually from 2024 and was discussed here then. But I'll give an update - the woman is Tara Reid's sister. She quit her job in NYC and said she was into plants as medicinal healing and wanted to study that. So she's no longer in Amsterdam but did study there and is now a "certified psychedelics facilitator." I hope this type of thing - packaging 2 older shows with a theme - doesn't become a thing.

Although Musk has said there's so much corruption/fraud I don't think he hasn't really given any actual examples. Nor has any one been charged with fraud nor has it been stated that there's investigations initiated. To actually discover corruption/fraud takes more investigation than saying X amount of money was spent. Regarding waste - what one person might consider waste another person might not consider it waste. At this point I don't believe anything Musk says on what's being found. I think he's finally had to admit there that was no $50 million (then raised to 100 million) of condoms going to Gaza. IF he's actually finding fraud/waste there's no need to exaggerate. Another point to make is how much Congress is at fault for all this - after all they're the ones that allot the money AND make the laws. The federal employees are just carrying out these laws - they're not making the laws. This whole issue with NY Mayor Adams shows corruption will be tolerated by Trump if it's of benefit to him.

Since Congress is responsible for each agency's funding I'd say they've been derelict in their duties. I didn't work for USAID nor do I know anyone that did but it looks to me as if it does do some good. I still think stopping everything and throwing almost all staff out of work and then as Rubio has said taking a look at the programs and deciding what should be continued is the wrong way to do things. Trump cares so much about fraud that he pardoned a man who at the time (and maybe still) was considered to have committed the biggest medicare fraud. This is small potatoes but since this administration is so hot on waste it's been reported that Hegseth is moving into a house on a military base for which over $137000 has been spent refurbishing it including $50,000 for "emergency painting." $50,000 for painting????? And how wasteful is it to offer feds to stop working now but pay them until September? Of course it will be shocking if they actually get paid until September. How much money is going to be wasted investigating the investigators? Should no one have investigated the actions of Jan 6? Is it now okay to destroy property and attack policemen? Just like it's okay for the President to take classified documents with him despite the law? And when asked to return them refuse to do so and try to hide them. How was trying to get those documents back persecuting him????? And this admin cares so much about us little guys that they're going to abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Between this and action Bondi is taking over at Justice it's going to be free reign for businesses. But on the positive side Trump is able to find the time to be chairman of the Kennedy Center (any bets there will be a name change soon) and establish a task force to take on the "war against Christians."