Chit-Chat: The Feels

[Annber03]

7 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

Even if one asks the Doctor about a drug and it does get prescribed to you, chances are good  insurance won’t cover it…

I think about this often at work - I'll hear some of the conversations patients will have with my coworkers when they're coming in to try and figure out their insurance stuff, and they're confused about why their bills are so high or why they got billed for this procedure or that or why their insurance isn't covering some treatment or something.

And I can't help wondering how many of them would support universal healthcare, or how many of them complain about this healthcare insurance stuff while continuing to vote for a party that wants to take away their access to any sort of affortable healthcare. 

Like, the solution to your problems is literally staring you right in the face, people, and yet so many refuse to take it. All because they're afraid someone else might get something they think only they should be allowed to have. 

I do not get it. 

[bluegirl147]

6 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

I think about this often at work - I'll hear some of the conversations patients will have with my coworkers when they're coming in to try and figure out their insurance stuff, and they're confused about why their bills are so high or why they got billed for this procedure or that or why their insurance isn't covering some treatment or something.

And I can't help wondering how many of them would support universal healthcare, or how many of them complain about this healthcare insurance stuff while continuing to vote for a party that wants to take away their access to any sort of affortable healthcare. 

Like, the solution to your problems is literally staring you right in the face, people, and yet so many refuse to take it. All because they're afraid someone else might get something they think only they should be allowed to have. 

I do not get it. 

I think for a lot of people they are willing to fuck themselves if someone else gets fucked harder.  Sure they might lose their Medicaid but some brown person they have never met will be sent back to some country where they might not be safe.  Or some teenage rape victim will be made to continue a pregnancy that will only further her trauma.  Yes there are people that cruel and uncaring.  

 

[tearknee]

5 hours ago, tres bien said:

Every democratic lawmaker that spent one second kissing up to Trump (Fetterman, Eric Adam’s and possibly Gov Polis of CO) knock it the fuck off

Be a Governor Janet Mills (D Maine) who stood up to Trump during a White House governor’s meeting telling him see you in court when he threatened he would cut off federal funding over her noncompliance of his executive order to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports 

Again every female, every member of the LGBTQ community is under threat by a nonsensical king wannabe 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe_Protection_Society

[peacheslatour]

Sorry, I had to.

 

[SoMuchTV]

7 hours ago, tres bien said:

Every democratic lawmaker that spent one second kissing up to Trump (Fetterman, Eric Adam’s and possibly Gov Polis of CO) knock it the fuck off

 

1 hour ago, tearknee said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe_Protection_Society

 

13 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Sorry, I had to.

 

I for one am willing to give @tres bien the benefit of the doubt, given my experience with autocomplete/autocorrect. 

[Dimity]

We are not writing term papers here, I think it's a little out of line to correct others spelling, grammar and punctuation. I know I am horrified by how I have deteriorated in all three of these areas. You all are just lucky you can't see my handwriting. And I used to win prizes at school for that. How are the mighty fallen.

[bluegirl147]

4 minutes ago, Dimity said:

We are not writing term papers here, I think it's a little out of line to correct others spelling, grammar and punctuation. I know I am horrified by how I have deteriorated in all three of these areas. You all are just lucky you can't see my handwriting. And I used to win prizes at school for that. How are the mighty fallen.

I was the copy editor of my school newspaper so I have to refrain from correcting posts here.  Lol

[SoMuchTV]

2 minutes ago, Dimity said:

We are not writing term papers here, I think it's a little out of line to correct others spelling, grammar and punctuation. I know I am horrified by how I have deteriorated in all three of these areas. You all are just lucky you can't see my handwriting. And I used to win prizes at school for that. How are the mighty fallen.

Yeah, mocking published sources claiming expertise when they get something wrong, fair game. Calling out fellow posters when they’re probably posting from their phone and missing autocorrects, not cool. Gently pointing out when someone misuses a  phrase like “should of” or “for all intensive purposes” well I’ll try to bite my tongue…

[tearknee]

29 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

 

 

I for one am willing to give @tres bien the benefit of the doubt, given my experience with autocomplete/autocorrect. 

my tongue was firmly planted in my cheek.

[ProudMary]

Kamala Harris was the recipient of the Chairman's Award at tonight's NAACP Image Awards. She gave a wonderful, inspirational speech. (4:32)

 

[tearknee]

I'm not a nasty person i was being playful. Many of my new friends on here have praised me for my kindness in their PMs. A mean person would have insulted tres but i did not.

[peacheslatour]

14 minutes ago, tearknee said:

my tongue was firmly planted in my cheek.

I totally wasn't throwing shade. It's just an internet cliche, I couldn't resist. ;-)

[Soapy Goddess]

 

 

 

 

22 hours ago, Annber03 said:

It's laughable that you think his claims are to be trusted and believed. 

So where did our 55 billion dollars go?

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Soapy Goddess

[Soapy Goddess]

Sorry, but I'm having trouble posting and replying. It's doubling and tripling replies and I can't "edit" them, so I took a screenshot. Hopefully, this will post okay.

17 hours ago, Notabug said:

As a physician, I need to point out that male circumcision actually significantly decreases the spread of HIV virus through intercourse.  Spending $10 million to circumcise males in a poor country with a high rate of HIV is actually far more cost effective than providing drugs to treat the infection or watching a significant portion of the young adult population die of a preventable disease.  Same reason we gave condoms out in other parts of Africa.  About 10% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is HIV positive.  It's around 13% in Mozambique.

Most of the rest of these descriptions are too vague to comment as to how worthwhile they are.

OK, but what about millions of dollars going for Iraqi Sesame Street and similar unnecessary expenses? (too numerous to mention)

Edited 23 hours ago by Soapy Goddess

[Annber03]

15 minutes ago, Soapy Goddess said:

No, only criminal illegals. 

 

And yet they're not the only ones being targeted, so again, why aren't you getting upset with the people harassing children of immigrants, regardless of legal status, or immigrants who are here legally, or so on? 

Quote

That's simply not true. How many people (women especially) does it take for libs to show compassion to the families of people killed by criminal illegals? Laken Riley comes to mind.

I'm very sympathetic to people who are victims of violent crimes. I'm just not going to be stupid enough to blame entire ethnic/rracial groups of people for the actions of individuals. Being an immigrant in and of itself doesn't make you more prone to committing violence, you do get that, right? And getting rid of all the immigrants, regardless of legal status, isn't going to magically solve our problems with crime, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a simplistic fool. 

Quote

Where's the compassion for the human beings who don't agree with your views? Or is that only reserved for immigrants?

I'm not going to be compassionate to people who think it's okay to harass, abuse, and deny civil and human rights to people because of their race/ethnicity/gender/sexua orientation. Hope that clears that up for you. 

Quote

Our country belief system used to be based on laws, but obviously libs prefer a lawless society that we're all paying for via our tax dollars. 

...says the person defending a convicted felon who's currently running our country? 

Quote

None of the president's cabinet was on the presidential ballot.

Musk has no business being part of ANY part of our government for any reason. He has no experience in this realm. He has none of the qualifications needed to get a job in this administration. It boggles my mind that you seem to think otherwise, or that his control over such sensitive parts of our govenrment doesn't bother you in the slightest. 

Also, there's the whole Nazi salute thing he did, which, even if he did have government capabilities/was leected, should've been grounds for automatic dismissal and refusal to work with him ever again, but this administration sure loves it some Nazi supporters (which should also terrify the shit out of you, frankly), so unfortunately, he seems to fit in just fine, I guess. 

Edited 22 hours ago by Annber03

[Soapy Goddess]

15 hours ago, Dimity said:

This is what I really wonder about.  I mean in a sense I am on the outside looking in and the fact that Trump lies about everything, all the time, lies, lies and more lies, is just so obvious.  But do those who voted for him not see that?  Or as you suggest they see him as a liar but they don't care?  In a way I'd rather think they believe him because, wow...

 

Except a grown adult who knows someone is lying and doesn't care.

 

[FilmTVGeek80]

8 minutes ago, Soapy Goddess said:

That's simply not true. How many people (women especially) does it take for libs to show compassion to the families of people killed by criminal illegals? Laken Riley comes to mind.

How many times do people have to explain that having compassion for immigrants is not the same as not having compassion for the small minority of people who were victims of illegal immigrants? What happened to them is horrible, but it does not mean that all immigrants are the violent animals that people like the FIC and many conservatives try to portray them as. 

 

13 minutes ago, Soapy Goddess said:

Where's the compassion for the human beings who don't agree with your views? Or is that only reserved for immigrants?

Our country belief system used to be based on laws, but obviously libs prefer a lawless society that we're all paying for via our tax dollars. 

I can ask you the same thing. Where is your compassion for people like the young girl who recently killed herself because she was being harassed by classmates who assumed she was illegal and threatened to call ICE on her and her family? Where is your compassion for the families and children who have been separated thanks to 45's horrific child separation policy?

LOL. I'm sorry, but it is ludicrous to me to have someone who openly defends the FIC all the time to be complaining about Libs wanting a lawless society. You have repeatedly made flippant remarks about Stormy Daniels and how that criminal simply made a bookkeeping error when he tried to hide his hush money payments. It was not a simple bookkeeping error. It was a crime. He was convicted by a juror of his peers, but that doesn't matter to you. He committed a crime by trying to force Georgia officials to "find" thousands of votes. He committed a crime by taking classified material and trying to hide it when the government repeatedly asked him to have it back. He's pardoned a mob of thugs who stormed the capitol and were convicted of crimes. He's committing crimes now by openly defying judges' orders because of many unlawful orders. Please, do not claim to care about law & order when none of that bothers you enough not to defend the felon-in-chief and his criminal enablers. 

[FilmTVGeek80]

12 minutes ago, Soapy Goddess said:

 

There's no point in trying to make it make sense for you because you are someone who chooses to swallow the BS that is being served to you by a moronic unqualified billionaire who has already been caught telling lies about "wasteful spending." Imagine being so brainwashed you wholesale believe every psychotic Tweet from a megalomaniac. And for someone allegedly concerned with wasteful spending, you don't seem to have any issue with the FIC wasting taxpayer dollars on ads patting himself on the back or paying a ridiculous sum of money to Musk and his band of idiot teenagers.

[Soapy Goddess]

11 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

so again, why aren't you getting upset with the people harassing children of immigrants, regardless of legal status, or immigrants who are here legally, or so on? 

That's totally wrong.

12 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Being an immigrant in and of itself doesn't make you more prone to committing violence, you do get that, right?

Please stop patronizing me. All I said was that I'm against criminals coming into our country illegally. And unfortunately, there's no way to know that until the unthinkable happens.

14 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

I'm not going to be compassionate to people who think it's okay to harass, abuse, and deny civil and human rights to people because of their race/ethnicity/gender/sexua orientation.

Again, if they came here legally...in a way that most of our ancestors did, I have no objection whatsoever. Being ethnic, I don't discriminate. 

17 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

...says the person defending a convicted felon who's currently running our country? 

For the 37th time, I am NOT defending anyone's actions. I'm just posting MY "feelings" (or views). I don't expect libs to understand.

20 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Musk has no business being part of ANY part of our government for any reason. He has no experience in this realm. He has none of the qualifications needed to get a job in this administration. It boggles my mind that you seem to think otherwise, or that his control over such sensitive parts of our govenrment doesn't bother you in the slightest. 

Also, there's the whole Nazi salute thing he did, which, even if he did have government capabilities/was leected, should've been grounds for automatic dismissal and refusal to work with him ever again, but this administration sure loves it some Nazi supporters (which should also terrify the shit out of you, frankly), so unfortunately, he seems to fit in just fine, I guess. 

I don't think anything about Musk. T&M have been transparent with their findings, and unless everything is a total lie, we should believe them until proven otherwise. You know, innocent until proven guilty?

The Nazi thing has been discussed ad nauseum, and I've posted my take on it numerous times.

[Soapy Goddess]

14 minutes ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

How many times do people have to explain that having compassion for immigrants is not the same as not having compassion for the small minority of people who were victims of illegal immigrants? What happened to them is horrible, but it does not mean that all immigrants are the violent animals that people like the FIC and many conservatives try to portray them as. 

 

And I understand that. So tell me, how are we supposed to know who is criminal and who is not unless they are caught and a background check is run on them.

16 minutes ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

I can ask you the same thing. Where is your compassion for people like the young girl who recently killed herself because she was being harassed by classmates who assumed she was illegal and threatened to call ICE on her and her family?

Of course that's horrible. I don't disagree. 

18 minutes ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

It was a crime. He was convicted by a juror of his peers, but that doesn't matter to you. He committed a crime by trying to force Georgia officials to "find" thousands of votes. He committed a crime by taking classified material and trying to hide it when the government repeatedly asked him to have it back. He's pardoned a mob of thugs who stormed the capitol and were convicted of crimes. He's committing crimes now by openly defying judges' orders because of many unlawful orders. Please, do not claim to care about law & order when none of that bothers you enough not to defend the felon-in-chief and his criminal enablers. 

What Hunter Biden did was also a crime. Only difference is that "daddy" pardoned him and his entire family! Wonder why that doesn't seem to bother anyone? IOW, why pardon your entire family if they didn't do anything wrong?

You know nothing about me except for what I post. But I can assure you that I DO care about law & order...which is exactly why I'm against illegal immigration.

And now for the 38th time, I am NOT defending anyone's actions, but my own.

16 minutes ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

There's no point in trying to make it make sense for you because you are someone who chooses to swallow the BS that is being served to you

I could say the same thing for you and the masses here. The media hasn't been giving you all the facts either. Especially the networks. Did you see where CBS edited a 60 minutes piece? If they can do that, what else have they done? All lies, and lies by omission is still a lie that they are serving you with a touch of sugar.

[FilmTVGeek80]

50 minutes ago, Soapy Goddess said:

I don't think anything about Musk. T&M have been transparent with their findings, and unless everything is a total lie, we should believe them until proven otherwise. You know, innocent until proven guilty?

No. They have not been transparent with all of their findings. And they have already been caught in lies about some of their BS claims. Innocent until proven guilty is for the courts, not for us looking at the information we can see and calling a spade a spade. 
 

41 minutes ago, Soapy Goddess said:

And I understand that. So tell me, how are we supposed to know who is criminal and who is not unless they are caught and a background check is run on them.

Of course that's horrible. I don't disagree. 

What Hunter Biden did was also a crime. Only difference is that "daddy" pardoned him and his entire family! Wonder why that doesn't seem to bother anyone? IOW, why pardon your entire family if they didn't do anything wrong?

You know nothing about me except for what I post. But I can assure you that I DO care about law & order...which is exactly why I'm against illegal immigration.

And now for the 38th time, I am NOT defending anyone's actions, but my own.

I could say the same thing for you and the masses here. The media hasn't been giving you all the facts either. Especially the networks. Did you see where CBS edited a 60 minutes piece? If they can do that, what else have they done? All lies, and lies by omission is still a lie that they are serving you with a touch of sugar.

A background check can’t catch everything. Psychos come from all walks all of life. Even someone who came here legally can commit a crime. It doesn’t mean we paint all immigrants as violent animals. 
 

First of all, why is “daddy” in quotes? Biden’s pardons don’t bother me because I understand why they happened. The crimes that Hunter Biden was charged with most likely wouldn’t have resulted in jail time. He had a plea bargain, but conservatives couldn’t let it go. They continued to try and use him to hurt his “daddy.” When you have a sociopath elected to the Oval Office, who has a hit list  with your family’s name on it, yeah, you pardon them. It has nothing to do with them being guilty of anything. The FIC and conservatives don’t care about that. They wanted to go after them no matter what.

Exactly. I can only form an opinion based on the things you post. And based on what you post, you seem to only SELECTIVELY care about law & order, which is why you continually dismiss the crimes 45 was found guilty of and charged with. It’s why you continually ignore - including just now - the laundry list of the FIC and conservative’s crimes. And, I’m sorry, but you can say until you’re blue in the face that you’re not defending anyone’s actions but your posts clearly show otherwise. 
 

I don’t care about 60 Minutes editing an interview because they do that with ALL interviews - including that idiot felon’s interviews. It’s not quite on par with the defamation and lies that Fox, Newsmax, and other conservative “news” organizations have spread. I don’t trust many in the mainstream media anymore, but there are still plenty of trusted sources and Elon Musk’s Twitter feed isn’t one of them. 

[tres bien]

Federal workers are getting emails asking them to explain the work they did last week. Musk says not responding will be taken as a resignation 

[Dimity]

8 minutes ago, tres bien said:

Federal workers are getting emails asking them to explain the work they did last week. Musk says not responding will be taken as a resignation 

This would be bad enough if he were doing this to his own private company (and he has) but this is beyond belief. Where is Congress? Shameful.

[tres bien]

Senator Tina Smith (D MN) “this is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk except he isn’t even the boss he’s just a dick”

[Blergh]

Where are all these untold numbers of military and governmental employees who are getting terminated despite years if not decades of excellent records for not toeing all these zig-zag lines drawn in the sand (including those who aren't #45's favored pigmentation or skin shape) supposed to do to obtain employment to provide for themselves and their loved ones?! 

The private sector, perhaps?

 

Well,  I can vouch that private hospitals (if not other private, non-governmental enterprises) are also being pressured by this administration to disdain  from hiring (and possibly keeping employed) the best qualified and most competent folks of all backgrounds instead of just only hiring those of one skin shape and pigmentation [at the expense of not hiring those better qualified who don't fit this new bill]!

Talk about mega 'if it ain't broke, BREAK it!- to say nothing of massive counterproductive interference  (which I thought conservatives were supposed to disdain).

[tearknee]

This is how I'm feeling about perfume ("musk") running things, but this time J-LS isn't wearing it....

 

8 minutes ago, tres bien said:

Senator Tina Smith (D MN) “this is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk except he isn’t even the boss he’s just a dick”

given such, William Atherton will want something from Elon?

Edited 20 hours ago by tearknee

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, tres bien said:

Federal workers are getting emails asking them to explain the work they did last week. Musk says not responding will be taken as a resignation 

I really hope that the majority of federal employees do some malicious compliance with this directive. Because there is no way that DOGE understands everything federal workers do on a weekly basis and they can't possibly read the contents of those emails in a timely fashion. Bog them down with technical jargon, give an hour by hour breakdown of all 40 working hours, include what you had for lunch and that week's water cooler gossip. The list is endless and the task is the opposite of efficient.

[Spartan Girl]

10 hours ago, ProudMary said:

Kamala Harris was the recipient of the Chairman's Award at tonight's NAACP Image Awards. She gave a wonderful, inspirational speech. (4:32)

 

I needed to hear that this morning.

[Absolom]

Anytime I see "the libs" my eyes roll and my ears start closing.  I know reasonable and rational communication will never be forthcoming.  

After seeing ICE enter our local public library and obviously profiling people to examine them for possible retention or expulsion, my tolerance for the entire Musk government is gone.  Let's talk about waste.  How much needless disruption did they cause and in the end they walked away without a single catch.

[bluegirl147]

5 hours ago, tres bien said:

Federal workers are getting emails asking them to explain the work they did last week. Musk says not responding will be taken as a resignation 

I think that should apply to Musk and his goons.  And while we are at it let's add Trump to the list. And no vague answers.  Detailed explanations with evidence to prove what they are saying. Although with Trump it would be a short list with golf at the top of it 

5 hours ago, tres bien said:

Senator Tina Smith (D MN) “this is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk except he isn’t even the boss he’s just a dick”

Has the right wing outrage apparatus started clutching their pearls over this?  We all know how upset they get with such language.  

[bluegirl147]

 

 

2 hours ago, Absolom said:

 

After seeing ICE enter our local public library and obviously profiling people to examine them for possible retention or expulsion, my tolerance for the entire Musk government is gone.  Let's talk about waste.  How much needless disruption did they cause and in the end they walked away without a single catch.

They think if they find someone great and if all they do is scare and terrorize people it's still a good day.

I keep seeing Lakyn Riley's brough up and what happened to her was a tragedy but what happened to Jocelynn Rojo Carranza was just as much a tragedy. Being bullied and threatened because she had brown skin and was assumed to be an undocumented immigrant is what drove her to take her own life.  And while Riley's loved ones can at least take comfort in the fact her killer was arrested nobody is going to be held accountable for Jocelynn's death. 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by bluegirl147

[tearknee]

40 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

 

 

They think if they find someone great and if all they do is scare and terrorize people it's still a good day.

I keep seeing Lakyn Riley's brough up and what happened to her was a tragedy but what happened to Jocelynn Rojo Carranza was just as much a tragedy. Being bullied and threatened because she had brown skin and was assumed to be an undocumented is what drove her to take her own life.  And while Riley''s loved ones can at least take in the comfort in the fact her killer was arrested nobody is going to be held accountable for Jocelynn's death. 

 

"He may not have done it, but he is responsible"

(i know this so well)

[peacheslatour]

Trump's biggest lies in just his first month in office. CNN Feb. 20, 2025.

 

 

The president’s fictionalized northern neighbor: Before taking office, Trump casually asserted that the Canadian people “like” his idea of Canada becoming the 51st US state. That was the opposite of the truth; the idea is hugely unpopular with the Canadian public. Then, after his inauguration, Trump continued to make stuff up about Canada – at one point posting on social media and then saying out loud that Canada prohibits US banks from doing business there. He added, “Can you believe that?” No doubt some Americans believe it, but it’s false.

Blasting Biden for a program launched under Trump: After the deadly January collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet, Trump blamed Biden administration diversity initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration without providing any evidence any FAA diversity policy had anything to do with the crash. He added in a fictional story about a frantic last-minute Biden push to hire people with significant disabilities as air traffic controllers, failing to explain that this FAA pilot program was actually a years-old initiative launched during his own administration in 2019.

Relentless deception about who pays tariffs: When Trump talked about the tariffs he imposed on Chinese imports in his first presidency, he spoke of how much money “from China” these tariffs generated for the US Treasury. When he talked about the additional tariffs he plans to impose on various other countries during his current presidency, he spoke of a need to “charge them.” At no point did he acknowledge that US importers, not foreign countries, are the ones who pay the actual tariff charges – or that study after study, including one from the federal government’s bipartisan trade commission, found that Americans ended up bearing almost the entire cost of his first-term tariffs on Chinese products.

A wild exaggeration of the increase in autism rates: Trump keeps flirting with, though not explicitly endorsing, the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that childhood vaccines cause autism – and in a social media post in early February, he inflated the extent of the increase in the known prevalence of autism over the last two decades. “20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000. NOW IT’S 1 in 34,” Trump wrote. “WOW! Something’s really wrong.” Aside from the fact that experts say the increase in autism diagnoses (to 1 in 36 children by age 8 in 2020) likely has to do with greater awareness of the symptoms and improved screening practices, public statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the known prevalence in 2004 was 1 in 125 children, not “1 in 10,000.” That’s a pretty big difference.

China’s (non-)operation of the Panama Canal: Much of Trump’s lying is ad-libbed. Some of it, however, is planned in advance. Some of it, however, is written into his prepared speeches. He said in his inaugural address in January: “Above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”

This would have been a good line if China was actually operating the Panama Canal. It isn’t; Panama is, though Trump could have raised legitimate questions about China’s influence in the area.

Trump’s invented dominance with “the youth vote”: Trump said some accurate things while touting his victory in the 2024 election, such as the fact that he swept all seven swing states. But in keeping with his longstanding practice of exaggerating even legitimate accomplishments, he also kept sprinkling in a claim that wasn’t even close to correct – an assertion that he won the youth vote “by 36 points.” In fact, exit polls show he lost the youth vote to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Even if these polls were off, there’s no basis for the claim that he won the youth vote by 36.

 

Wrong. As the International Olympic Committee repeatedly noted during the Olympics, when Trump and others made such claims, neither champion had transitioned; both were born as female and have always competed in women’s events. Even the discredited boxing authority that controversially disqualified the women from a 2023 competition, vaguely claiming a test had found they had unfair competitive advantages, did not allege they had transitioned.

The president’s fictionalized northern neighbor: Before taking office, Trump casually asserted that the Canadian people “like” his idea of Canada becoming the 51st US state. That was the opposite of the truth; the idea is hugely unpopular with the Canadian public. Then, after his inauguration, Trump continued to make stuff up about Canada – at one point posting on social media and then saying out loud that Canada prohibits US banks from doing business there. He added, “Can you believe that?” No doubt some Americans believe it, but it’s false.

Blasting Biden for a program launched under Trump: After the deadly January collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet, Trump blamed Biden administration diversity initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration without providing any evidence any FAA diversity policy had anything to do with the crash. He added in a fictional story about a frantic last-minute Biden push to hire people with significant disabilities as air traffic controllers, failing to explain that this FAA pilot program was actually a years-old initiative launched during his own administration in 2019.

Relentless deception about who pays tariffs: When Trump talked about the tariffs he imposed on Chinese imports in his first presidency, he spoke of how much money “from China” these tariffs generated for the US Treasury. When he talked about the additional tariffs he plans to impose on various other countries during his current presidency, he spoke of a need to “charge them.” At no point did he acknowledge that US importers, not foreign countries, are the ones who pay the actual tariff charges – or that study after study, including one from the federal government’s bipartisan trade commission, found that Americans ended up bearing almost the entire cost of his first-term tariffs on Chinese products.

A wild exaggeration of the increase in autism rates: Trump keeps flirting with, though not explicitly endorsing, the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that childhood vaccines cause autism – and in a social media post in early February, he inflated the extent of the increase in the known prevalence of autism over the last two decades. “20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000. NOW IT’S 1 in 34,” Trump wrote. “WOW! Something’s really wrong.” Aside from the fact that experts say the increase in autism diagnoses (to 1 in 36 children by age 8 in 2020) likely has to do with greater awareness of the symptoms and improved screening practices, public statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the known prevalence in 2004 was 1 in 125 children, not “1 in 10,000.” That’s a pretty big difference.

China’s (non-)operation of the Panama Canal: Much of Trump’s lying is ad-libbed. Some of it, however, is planned in advance. Some of it, however, is written into his prepared speeches. He said in his inaugural address in January: “Above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”

This would have been a good line if China was actually operating the Panama Canal. It isn’t; Panama is, though Trump could have raised legitimate questions about China’s influence in the area.

Trump’s invented dominance with “the youth vote”: Trump said some accurate things while touting his victory in the 2024 election, such as the fact that he swept all seven swing states. But in keeping with his longstanding practice of exaggerating even legitimate accomplishments, he also kept sprinkling in a claim that wasn’t even close to correct – an assertion that he won the youth vote “by 36 points.” In fact, exit polls show he lost the youth vote to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Even if these polls were off, there’s no basis for the claim that he won the youth vote by 36.

[ProudMary]

7 hours ago, Soapy Goddess said:

So tell me, how are we supposed to know who is criminal and who is not unless they are caught and a background check is run on them.

Well, the US would be a year or so into being able to accomplish important things like this had then-candidate Trump not stopped then-Leader McConnell and Speaker Johnson from bringing the bipartisan Border Act of 2024 (S.4361) to the floor for a vote.

This was a bill that had been hammered out over the course of a year by a truly bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic Senators that would have provided 1,500 additional Border Patrol Agents, which led to the endorsement of Customs and Border Protection. It also would have provided for hundreds of new Asylum Agents to process asylum cases within months, instead of the years it currently takes to process them and decide if the immigrants actually do qualify for asylum. 

Despite the fact that Leader McConnell said he anticipated UNANIMOUS approval of the Border Bill, Candidate Trump forbade McConnell from bringing the bill to the floor because he needed the mess at the border to continue through to the November election so he could campaign on it.

Hence, we are still dealing with the same immigration issues that could have been ameliorated over the past twelve months were it not for Donald Trump's interference. 

As Congress actually did the work and arrived at a viable solution acceptable to both sides, at this point, the entire mess is on Donald Trump.

[Lugal]

6 hours ago, Blergh said:

Where are all these untold numbers of military and governmental employees who are getting terminated despite years if not decades of excellent records for not toeing all these zig-zag lines drawn in the sand (including those who aren't #45's favored pigmentation or skin shape) supposed to do to obtain employment to provide for themselves and their loved ones?! 

The private sector, perhaps?

Exactly.  Especially since they are out of a job and may be desperate enough to work for lower pay, that will help push down wages.  All part of the plan.

[peacheslatour]

From Yahoo News, Feb. 20, 2025.

 

The owner of a white supremacist account on X has reportedly been unmasked as a Dallas-area prosecutor who represents Immigrations and Customs Enforcement at court.

James “Jim” Joseph Rodden, 44, an assistant chief counsel for ICE who represents the agency in immigration hearings in the Dallas area, appears to be behind the account, which regularly shares racist and anti-immigrant takes, the Texas Observer reported.

“America is a White nation founded by Whites,” the account GlomarResponder wrote to its 17,000 followers last month.

“All blacks are foreign to my people, dumb f---,” said a post from September.

In other posts, GlomarResponder described himself as a “fascist” and said the freedom of association had been abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The newspaper confirmed his identity by comparing information shared by the account with federal court records and other public records, information from private data broker sites, open-source investigation tools, other social media profiles and interviews, and courtroom hearings.

“’Migrants’ are all criminals,” he wrote in August. “Nobody is proposing feeding migrants into tree shredders. Yet,” he added.

[krankydoodle]

7 hours ago, Soapy Goddess said:

I could say the same thing for you and the masses here. The media hasn't been giving you all the facts either. Especially the networks. Did you see where CBS edited a 60 minutes piece? If they can do that, what else have they done? All lies, and lies by omission is still a lie that they are serving you with a touch of sugar.

I've asked before but if you aren't getting news from 'the media,' then where are you getting it from?

On that subject, though: Newsmax and Fox News quietly back AP over White House ban — after celebrating it on air

Quote

Over on Newsmax, which subscribes to the AP and publishes its articles on the network’s website, the channel’s MAGA-boosting hosts chastised the Associated Press while cheering Trump on for banning the wire service.

[bluegirl147]

44 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

From Yahoo News, Feb. 20, 2025.

 

The owner of a white supremacist account on X has reportedly been unmasked as a Dallas-area prosecutor who represents Immigrations and Customs Enforcement at court.

James “Jim” Joseph Rodden, 44, an assistant chief counsel for ICE who represents the agency in immigration hearings in the Dallas area, appears to be behind the account, which regularly shares racist and anti-immigrant takes, the Texas Observer reported.

“America is a White nation founded by Whites,” the account GlomarResponder wrote to its 17,000 followers last month.

“All blacks are foreign to my people, dumb f---,” said a post from September.

In other posts, GlomarResponder described himself as a “fascist” and said the freedom of association had been abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The newspaper confirmed his identity by comparing information shared by the account with federal court records and other public records, information from private data broker sites, open-source investigation tools, other social media profiles and interviews, and courtroom hearings.

“’Migrants’ are all criminals,” he wrote in August. “Nobody is proposing feeding migrants into tree shredders. Yet,” he added.

Remember when this would result in immediate termination?  Now the Federalist Society will probably recommend him for a federal judgeship. 

42 minutes ago, krankydoodle said:

I've asked before but if you aren't getting news from 'the media,' then where are you getting it from?

On that subject, though: Newsmax and Fox News quietly back AP over White House ban — after celebrating it on air

Of course they are doing it quietly. They don't want to poke the bear.  Remember when presidents were afraid of the press?  Now the press is afraid of the president.

[Makai]

10 hours ago, Annber03 said:

And yet they're not the only ones being targeted, so again, why aren't you getting upset with the people harassing children of immigrants, regardless of legal status, or immigrants who are here legally, or so on? 

Thank you! They are also often taking a detain now, ask questions later approach. 

I decided this weekend to start carrying around a copy of birth certificate so that I can easily prove I am a citizen. I can not believe to has come to the point that I have to worry about this shit. I am a second generation American on one side and fifth-ish on the other side. There are zero issues with my citizenship but my particular phenotypic expression makes me the kind of ethnically ambiguous that is frequently mistaken for Hispanic and I live an area of California with a high undocumented population. 

I know with absolute certainty that if I happened to be in a place with an ICE raid or happened upon an immigration checkpoint I would be assumed to be a potential illegal. It has happened. I have seen an immigration official look at me with suspicion and ask where I was really from. Fortunately for me, this was well before the current climate and my very white mother was in the car with me. I was in my mid-twenties at the time and can’t even imagine the level of fear children are facing in these circumstances.

So, I will be carrying proof of citizenship with me always. I am looking into getting my passport renewed. I will not be setting foot in a red state for the foreseeable future. 

Edited 12 hours ago by Makai

[PRgal]

The Toronto Star says people in Ontario don't really care about the election on Thursday.  It's probably going to have the lowest turnout, like, ever (IMHO)...

Meanwhile, in Germany, the Christian Democrats are heading towards a victory.  What's scary is that the far right party isn't that far behind.

[Makai]

8 hours ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

Biden’s pardons don’t bother me because I understand why they happened.

Any outrage I might have felt at Hunter Biden being pardoned was cut off by knowing that Trump pardoned his son-in-law’s father. It was ground to dust by the same individual being named the Ambassador to France. And it was set on fire when Trump pardoned the people who attempted to overthrow our government and kill the sitting Vice President. 

Edited 12 hours ago by Makai

[ProudMary]

From Senator Chris Murphy's (D-CT) Xitter account:

Bringing the Republican tax cut down to the "How will it affect me?" level, here's a despicably clear graphic. Let's call it "Reverse Robin Hood." 😠

 

[Makai]

6 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

From Senator Chris Murphy's (D-CT) Xitter account:

Bringing the Republican tax cut down to the "How will it affect me?" level, here's a despicably clear graphic. Let's call it "Reverse Robin Hood." 😠

 

Fuck!

[JustHereForFood]

2 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Trump's biggest lies in just his first month in office. CNN Feb. 20, 2025.

 

 

The president’s fictionalized northern neighbor: Before taking office, Trump casually asserted that the Canadian people “like” his idea of Canada becoming the 51st US state. That was the opposite of the truth; the idea is hugely unpopular with the Canadian public. Then, after his inauguration, Trump continued to make stuff up about Canada – at one point posting on social media and then saying out loud that Canada prohibits US banks from doing business there. He added, “Can you believe that?” No doubt some Americans believe it, but it’s false.

Blasting Biden for a program launched under Trump: After the deadly January collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet, Trump blamed Biden administration diversity initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration without providing any evidence any FAA diversity policy had anything to do with the crash. He added in a fictional story about a frantic last-minute Biden push to hire people with significant disabilities as air traffic controllers, failing to explain that this FAA pilot program was actually a years-old initiative launched during his own administration in 2019.

Relentless deception about who pays tariffs: When Trump talked about the tariffs he imposed on Chinese imports in his first presidency, he spoke of how much money “from China” these tariffs generated for the US Treasury. When he talked about the additional tariffs he plans to impose on various other countries during his current presidency, he spoke of a need to “charge them.” At no point did he acknowledge that US importers, not foreign countries, are the ones who pay the actual tariff charges – or that study after study, including one from the federal government’s bipartisan trade commission, found that Americans ended up bearing almost the entire cost of his first-term tariffs on Chinese products.

A wild exaggeration of the increase in autism rates: Trump keeps flirting with, though not explicitly endorsing, the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that childhood vaccines cause autism – and in a social media post in early February, he inflated the extent of the increase in the known prevalence of autism over the last two decades. “20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000. NOW IT’S 1 in 34,” Trump wrote. “WOW! Something’s really wrong.” Aside from the fact that experts say the increase in autism diagnoses (to 1 in 36 children by age 8 in 2020) likely has to do with greater awareness of the symptoms and improved screening practices, public statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the known prevalence in 2004 was 1 in 125 children, not “1 in 10,000.” That’s a pretty big difference.

China’s (non-)operation of the Panama Canal: Much of Trump’s lying is ad-libbed. Some of it, however, is planned in advance. Some of it, however, is written into his prepared speeches. He said in his inaugural address in January: “Above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”

This would have been a good line if China was actually operating the Panama Canal. It isn’t; Panama is, though Trump could have raised legitimate questions about China’s influence in the area.

Trump’s invented dominance with “the youth vote”: Trump said some accurate things while touting his victory in the 2024 election, such as the fact that he swept all seven swing states. But in keeping with his longstanding practice of exaggerating even legitimate accomplishments, he also kept sprinkling in a claim that wasn’t even close to correct – an assertion that he won the youth vote “by 36 points.” In fact, exit polls show he lost the youth vote to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Even if these polls were off, there’s no basis for the claim that he won the youth vote by 36.

 

Wrong. As the International Olympic Committee repeatedly noted during the Olympics, when Trump and others made such claims, neither champion had transitioned; both were born as female and have always competed in women’s events. Even the discredited boxing authority that controversially disqualified the women from a 2023 competition, vaguely claiming a test had found they had unfair competitive advantages, did not allege they had transitioned.

The president’s fictionalized northern neighbor: Before taking office, Trump casually asserted that the Canadian people “like” his idea of Canada becoming the 51st US state. That was the opposite of the truth; the idea is hugely unpopular with the Canadian public. Then, after his inauguration, Trump continued to make stuff up about Canada – at one point posting on social media and then saying out loud that Canada prohibits US banks from doing business there. He added, “Can you believe that?” No doubt some Americans believe it, but it’s false.

Blasting Biden for a program launched under Trump: After the deadly January collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet, Trump blamed Biden administration diversity initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration without providing any evidence any FAA diversity policy had anything to do with the crash. He added in a fictional story about a frantic last-minute Biden push to hire people with significant disabilities as air traffic controllers, failing to explain that this FAA pilot program was actually a years-old initiative launched during his own administration in 2019.

Relentless deception about who pays tariffs: When Trump talked about the tariffs he imposed on Chinese imports in his first presidency, he spoke of how much money “from China” these tariffs generated for the US Treasury. When he talked about the additional tariffs he plans to impose on various other countries during his current presidency, he spoke of a need to “charge them.” At no point did he acknowledge that US importers, not foreign countries, are the ones who pay the actual tariff charges – or that study after study, including one from the federal government’s bipartisan trade commission, found that Americans ended up bearing almost the entire cost of his first-term tariffs on Chinese products.

A wild exaggeration of the increase in autism rates: Trump keeps flirting with, though not explicitly endorsing, the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that childhood vaccines cause autism – and in a social media post in early February, he inflated the extent of the increase in the known prevalence of autism over the last two decades. “20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000. NOW IT’S 1 in 34,” Trump wrote. “WOW! Something’s really wrong.” Aside from the fact that experts say the increase in autism diagnoses (to 1 in 36 children by age 8 in 2020) likely has to do with greater awareness of the symptoms and improved screening practices, public statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the known prevalence in 2004 was 1 in 125 children, not “1 in 10,000.” That’s a pretty big difference.

China’s (non-)operation of the Panama Canal: Much of Trump’s lying is ad-libbed. Some of it, however, is planned in advance. Some of it, however, is written into his prepared speeches. He said in his inaugural address in January: “Above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”

This would have been a good line if China was actually operating the Panama Canal. It isn’t; Panama is, though Trump could have raised legitimate questions about China’s influence in the area.

Trump’s invented dominance with “the youth vote”: Trump said some accurate things while touting his victory in the 2024 election, such as the fact that he swept all seven swing states. But in keeping with his longstanding practice of exaggerating even legitimate accomplishments, he also kept sprinkling in a claim that wasn’t even close to correct – an assertion that he won the youth vote “by 36 points.” In fact, exit polls show he lost the youth vote to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Even if these polls were off, there’s no basis for the claim that he won the youth vote by 36.

If you're collecting a list of lies he told, here's another: he claimed that president Zelensky's approval ratings in Ukraine are 4%, which is directly from Russia's propaganda. It's actually around 63% which is (unsurprisingly) higher than Trump's.

 

[peacheslatour]

20 minutes ago, Makai said:

Any outrage I might have felt at Hunter Biden being pardoned was cut off by knowing that Trump pardoned his son-in-law’s father. It was ground to dust by the same individual being named the Ambassador to France. And it was set on fire when Trump pardoned the people who attempted to overthrow our government and kill the sitting Vice President. 

And then there's this. From NPR Feb. 20, 2025-

The Department of Justice has widened the scope of President Trump's pardons for Jan. 6 riot defendants to include separate but related gun charges. The charges stemmed from FBI searches executed during the sprawling investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, which allegedly turned up evidence of other crimes not directly connected to the Capitol breach.

In legal filings this week, federal prosecutors asked judges to dismiss cases against two former Jan. 6 defendants, who had both faced federal gun charges.

This week's legal filings represent a more expansive understanding of Trump's Jan. 6 pardons than was initially clear. Trump's order, which he issued on his first day in office, gave clemency for "offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol" on Jan. 6.

Immediately after Trump's pardons — which included defendants who violently assaulted police officers and those with long criminal records — the Department of Justice appeared to stand by the separate gun charges. That was then. 

Costianes and Ball are not the only Jan. 6 defendants who have faced ongoing legal problems. A Jan. 6 defendant from North Carolina, for example, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of "Production of Child Pornography" and "Possession of Child Pornography," stemming from the search of his residence as part of the Capitol riot investigation. It's unclear how broadly the Trump administration will interpret the pardons going forward.

 

 

[kittykat]

Cowards.  Absolute cowards.  And these Republicans who voted this down are the ones who likely represent the poorest and most impoverished people who are suffering badly and they do not think about them.  Not even one thought.  And yet they keep getting voted in despite them pushing measures that go against what their own constituents need.  I just don't get it.  Is it ignorance, stubbornness, both?  Do these people hate Democrats so much or have they gone so far down the Newsmax rabbit hole?

And with regards to crime brought on by undocumented immigrants.  It's true that they should be brought to justice but I get really tired of what I believe to be selective outrage on this issue.  Yes crime happens but immigrants aren't the only one committing the crimes. People can get riled up all they want when a person is murdered by an immigrant and then be completely silent over the thousands of women and children murdered over the years by legal citizens through domestic violence whether it's husbands, fathers, boyfriends nooooo can't bring up any of that. 

And when a case like that becomes high profile on the media it's usually: 1) the victims are white, middle class; 2) the perpetrators are non white; 3) the perpetrator is a woman; 4) all of the above. And yes there are outlier examples but the media has followed a typical pattern here for years.  It's why "missing white woman syndrome" became a viral phrase. And if an affluent white male does get brought to justice, it's usually on point #1 (Scott Peterson to name one example). I just get tired of the selective outrage over the crime argument.

Edited 12 hours ago by kittykat

[JustHereForFood]

33 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Meanwhile, in Germany, the Christian Democrats are heading towards a victory.  What's scary is that the far right party isn't that far behind.

If anyone doubts how decades of socialism and the absence of democracy can fuck up people for generations to come, one only needs to look at the correlation between the support for AfD and the line formerly separating West and East Germany...

[bluegirl147]

30 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

From Senator Chris Murphy's (D-CT) Xitter account:

Bringing the Republican tax cut down to the "How will it affect me?" level, here's a despicably clear graphic. Let's call it "Reverse Robin Hood." 😠

 

It has always been about money. When there is a Republican president they always want to cut taxes for the rich.   The only recent one who didn't GHWB lost reelection.  The trickle down never works unless it's all of us peasants getting pissed on by the Republican politicians who don't give a fuck about us.  

[tearknee]

20 minutes ago, JustHereForFood said:

If anyone doubts how decades of socialism and the absence of democracy can fuck up people for generations to come, one only needs to look at the correlation between the support for AfD and the line formerly separating West and East Germany...

Worse - people on tumblr are advocating that Germans vote for Die Linke - the old SED in a previous life - but they are fascists too. Marxian socialism is fascism in a red coat.

 

[Bastet]

10 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Being an immigrant in and of itself doesn't make you more prone to committing violence,

Less, actually.  As was stated the last time this particular type of bigotry was tossed out here, studies consistently reveal immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than those born in the U.S.  While the felon's administration has scrubbed that fact from the National Institute of Justice website, our government used to provide its residents with that information.  It is, thankfully, still widely available elsewhere.  Here is a direct link to one of the most extensive studies, from Stanford.