ProudMary

RE: Immigration Admittedly, my post is predominantly directed toward right-wing forum members who truly may not be aware of this information as RW news sources didn't give this a lot of coverage. Democrats and Republicans acting together in a bipartisan manner doesn't inspire big viewership or lots of clicks, but this was important and flew under the radar for many people. The vast majority of undocumented immigrants coming over the southern border into the US did not enter the country by climbing over barriers or traversing the Rio Grande. No, they waited in lines, sometimes for days or weeks, at US border crossings, asking (legally) for asylum, for refuge from the horrors they had experienced in their home country. (The fact that their home countries in Central America were destabilized by the CIA dating back to the Reagan era is a completely different and horrifying subject.) Many of these immigrants have the right to remain in the US until their asylum case comes before an asylum judge. Unfortunately, cases at asylum courts are backed up for up to six years. Amazingly, a good-sized group of Democratic and Republican Senators--not just one Republican gone rogue, but several--sit down and discuss the issues with the immigration system for close to a year, and actually hammer out a bill, the Border Act of 2024 (S.4361), which involved compromise on both sides. The bill included the hiring of 1,500 additional Border Patrol Agents, which earned the bill the endorsement of US Customs and Border Protection. Also, the bill moved the hearing of asylum cases from the Dept. of Justice to the Dept. of Homeland Security where hundreds of newly hired Asylum Officers would be hearing asylum cases within approximately six months, not six years! Both sides are satisfied, so much so that Mitch McConnell says he believes he can get the bill passed UNANIMOUSLY! Enter Candidate Trump, not yet even GOP Nominee Trump, who tells Sen. McConnell and Speaker Johnson that they'd better not let that bill come to the floor because he needs to be able to campaign on the mess at the border and can't have it seem as if Biden was able to fix it. We could have had a border solution in place, acceptable to both the left and the right, for a year already but for the pernicious interference of Donald Trump.

Rest in peace. This one:

US Governors met with DJT today. The cameras were rolling. Via Acyn's (Meidas Touch) BlueSky account. The link below has a 30 second video clip with more of the interaction. Extortion, live on TV! Gov. Mills: I’ll comply with the state and federal laws Trump: We are the federal law. You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funds. Gov Mills: See you in court https://bsky.app/profile/acyn.bsky.social/post/3lipilq64qt2s

Week 24: 3/5. (M, Tu, Th) YTD: 57/120, 9* (47.5%)

As info, the CDC a few months ago changed its guidelines for the age group that should consider getiing vaccinated against pnuemococcal pneumonia. Previously, it had been recommended for those 65 and older. The new guideline is for 50 and older. While people can make their own decisions about this, you may want to consider getting the pneumonia vaccine earlier in life than you had anticipated, while it is still available to you. RFK Jr. promptly cancels vaccine advisory meeting, pulls flu shot campaign https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/02/rfk-jr-promptly-cancels-vaccine-advisory-meeting-pulls-flu-shot-campaign/

I agree completely. I think they signed Goldschmidt because he accepted a one year deal. I'd bet that Rizzo (and others) were looking for 2-3 years and the Yankees wanted to go after Vladdy in the '25-'26 offseason.

I'm watching the NY v. TB spring training game live. Michael Kay, Jack Curry and Meredith Marakovits have been discussing the facial hair rule change. In addition to showing a clip (see below) from Hal Steinbrenner's presser regarding the change, they added a few other comments they picked up from the clubhouse. Hal specifically spoke with Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton about the long-held (48 years!) policy. He also had conversations with CC Sabathia, Willie Randolph and Ron Guidry. Hal was also concerned that the policy as it stood could impact the decisions of players of interest to the Yankees who might not want to shave their existing beards to come to the Bronx. While Hal mentions that there will be parameters, the only thing that Meredith mentioned was that hair length must still be above the collar. Personally, I like a neatly trimmed beard. I think that management should be very clear on the parameters because there's always going to be someone who pushes the limits and I don't want to be looking at 2004 Johnny Damon! Back to the actual baseball side of things, we just had the first ball/strike challenge, which was lost by the Rays. Each team gets two per game. If the calll goes in the challenging team's favor, they retain that challenge. I'm SO glad to be talking baseball again!

I'm pleased with this decision by the Yankees, however, "well-groomed" need to be well defined.

Let me say that while I thought Joe Biden did a great job naming his Cabinet overall, I was deeply disappointed by the Merrick Garland nomination as Attorney General. While I believed Garland would have done an acceptable job as a moderate Supreme Court Justice, I wanted Biden to name Sally Yates as his AG nominee, but Biden knew that wouldn't be a smooth approval. The GOP would have tied up her confirmation as she already had a history of standing up to Trump while she was acting AG.

The fact that Mitch McConnell never gave Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a Senate hearing was the turning point. The fact that Mitch McConnell said on January 6th that what Trump had done that day was a bridge too far, yet a few weeks later wouldn't get GOP Senators in line to convict him after the House had impeached him, which would have permanently barred Trump from ever holding public office again, puts him (McConnell) at the top of the list for people to blame for the decimation of our nation that we're looking at right now. When McConnell said, "Let the courts decide," he signed the warrant for the end of the US as we know it.

I just called the offices of both of my Republican Senators. I had to feel as if I was doing something, even though I know I'm wasting my time with these two. I can't describe just how upset I am right now.

Just announced. This is directly from the official Medicare website. With very few exceptions, no more telehealth visits for those on Medicare effective April 1st. I am livid and very upset about this. It directly effects a close, elderly family member who is only able to see a specific specialist, 100 miles away, through telehealth. This doctor is vital to their well-being. Also, if you test positive at home for Covid, you were then able through telehealth, to get a Paxlovid prescription. Does this mean Medicare patients now have to physically go to an urgent care? 😠 https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/telehealth

Maybe "a concept of a plan."

I watched it last week and it's wonderful. 😊 I'm very glad that I'm not a voter because I'd have difficulty deciding between Flow and The Wild Robot for Best Animated Feature. They're both excellent films.

Oh, I agree completely. This is--right now--a business decision. I just wanted people to know that if they usually download their book purchase directly to their computer and then transfer it to their Kindle, they won't be able to do it anymore. There's nothing to stop Amazon from deleting books from their platform in the future, though. If you have them only on your Kindle, those books will be gone forever. Considering that WaPo has now bent the knee more than once, it's not too big a stretch to imagine that Bezos would remove books from the Kindle platform if he were asked to do so.