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atomheartbevo

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by atomheartbevo

  1. Oh yeah, no way that somebody who wants to get between Trump and Musk didn't mention that video to drive and distance Trump from him. ‘It’s a Psyop’: Inside Elon Musk’s Empty Ultimatum - The Atlantic
  2. So the Atlantic has an article up mentioning that Musk’s little directive caused havoc, especially with intelligence agencies whose work is classified, and that the White House made it a voluntary response. There’s now some “daylight” between Musk and the WH as they put it. Guess Trump is mad at him, and now that his directive was muzzled, he will probably be pissed at looking impotent.
  3. Here's the thing: You don't have to have the best to beat Russia. And if our arms industry is kept at bay, Europe and South Korea are going to pick up the slack because they have plenty of fantastic artillery, small arms, and crew-served weapons. We are leaving a shitload of money on the table, and then there's this: So what if they can't buy a $135 million F-35 from us, when for the same cost of a single F-35, they can pick up over 13,000 $1,000 drones. And that is going to be a factor going forward. Ukraine is doing this shit on the fly while under attack, but companies in South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and various European countries are paying extremely close attention. If we fuck around too much and try to stay on the sideline, our arms industry is going to lose a lot of business going forward as it is. It'll be interesting to see how the South Korean/Poland arrangement works out in the long run.
  4. Meanwhile, if Poland got nukes.
  5. And the racism. Don’t forget the racism.
  6. I don't know - I was told Musk didn't have the power to fire people, but his incels are sure as fuck pushing a lot of people out and are going to cause the collapse of not only our national parks, but a lot of other things. The Forest Service is getting gutted as well - Musk has not been happy with them. Good luck to us when the next major forest fire hits.
  7. I'll ask after he's been fired or resigned or whatever, but this line in the article from a week ago above speaks volumes about what's already happening: "Carlsbad Caverns National Park has cancelled its guided tours and announced that in March it will be ending self-guided tours." If there are no guided or self-guided tours, Carlsbad is going to be effectively closed. My kid's scout troop were going to be going through there this summer on their way back from Philmont. and it was on our list to this summer. If they are canceling hundreds of the best camping spots in Yosemite, this is out to punish the NPS and or justify trying to close down parks like that.
  8. This is what's already happening: Layoffs lead to National Parks cutting hours, limiting services National Parks across the country are cutting hours, cancelling cave tours, closing visitor centers and warning of other cutbacks following Trump administration cuts to the federal workforce. Park advocates and fired employees have been predicting those impacts for weeks, but a string of social media posts from park managers made after the Feb. 14 cuts appear to be the first formal acknowledgements. A Facebook post from the tiny Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado announcing service cuts drew more than 10,000 comments. "I think it's going to be a very rough spring," said Cassidy Jones, a former park service ranger who now works for the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association. Among other parks, Saguaro National Park in Tucson announced that it was closing its two visitors centers on Mondays starting Feb. 24. At Yosemite National Park, officials announced they're halting reservations for 577 coveted camping spots this summer. Effigy Mounds in Iowa said it's closing its visitor center two days a week until the summer. Online calendars for reservable tours in some parks show zero availability, a casualty of losing the rangers who led them. Carlsbad Caverns National Park has cancelled its guided tours, and announced that in March it will be ending self-guided tours. Visitors to other parks are also noting staffing problems, including at Grand Canyon National Park, where terminations cut deeply into the employees who staff the entrance stations, leading to long lines last weekend.
  9. Maybe not. We've all seen the video of her chasing his ass down the street.
  10. When I asked Grok (a few posts above your post), it had Putin place of Vance. I'm guessing that Grok will be "fixed" soon as this stuff is going around the socials.
  11. We were planning on driving to California this summer - we were going to be in El Paso for a wedding and decided we could extend it into a trip since it's closer to our friends in San Diego than it is to Houston, and it would be cool to hit a bunch of the national parks in California and then on the way back (Grand Canyon, etc.) A friend of mine who works in for the National Park Service and who knew of our plans just sent us a message saying that he was told he can be fired or he can resign this week (I'm guessing it's a difference in benefits, but he didn't elaborate). Really sharp dude who is well-educated and well-connected in the business world and won't have a problem finding a job elsewhere - he's one of those types who got bored with the daily grind and changed things up after COVID, and his wife is an attorney with a big firm in California. He's not a park ranger, but he worked with the parks at the 35,000 foot level (I'm being vague on purpose). No idea if he's going to quit or make them fire him and take them to court, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the latter. Anyways, he told us to go ahead and cancel any plans we had for visiting national parks this summer - he said any that weren't outright closed were going to be so understaffed that the number of visitors allowed in would be a fraction of their capacity, and he said it was all very deliberately planned, and the only thing that could stop it would be Congress. I am not going to ask him to elaborate until he is fired or whatever, but I trust him to know what he's talking about when he used the phrase "deliberately planned". Musk has a hard-on for the NPS and some of the other agencies, and he is truly trying to hurt them as badly as he can, and daring Congress to stop him.
  12. Well holy shit, it plays just fine on my Mac using Chrome, without having to copy any client installs from Windows. Just load Chrome, login to a discord account, and click on the link below. You can use either a paid account, or a new free account, or a veteran account that kicked over to Endless Journey for free. And yes, this is approved by the Powers That Be at Broadsword/UO https://retail.classicuo.org/
  13. Up there with Debbie Does Dallas Again, which was, you know, the third movie after the literal third movie, Debbie Does Dallas III: the Final Chapter.
  14. That looks pretty fucking wild.
  15. Hope you all visited Yosemite before now - Musk is sure as hell going to close it down and try and sell it off to his buddies. https://www.sfchronicle.com/outdoors/article/yosemite-protest-job-cuts-20180229.php
  16. Yeah, about Grok. "Name the three most dangerous people to America" Grok: It’s tough to pin down the "three most dangerous" people to America in a definitive way—danger can mean different things depending on the angle: political influence, national security, economic disruption, or societal impact. Based on current trends, discussions, and what’s been on people’s minds in early 2025, here’s a take grounded in what’s out there. First, Donald Trump often tops lists. With his second term just underway as of January 2025, his plans for mass deportations, targeting political foes, and reshaping government—backed by a loyal base and a now-unrestrained online presence—give him real sway to shake things up. Critics point to his past denial of election results and January 6 as proof he can destabilize democracy itself; supporters see him as a threat only to the entrenched elite. Either way, his actions ripple hard. Second, Elon Musk keeps popping up too. By February 2025, his influence via X, his wealth, and his loud anti-regulation, anti-immigrant stances have made him a lightning rod. He’s not just a businessman anymore—he’s shaping narratives with over 200 million followers, pushing policies that could tank economies (like his warnings on U.S. debt), and even nudging Trump’s agenda. Some call him a chaos agent; others say he’s just amplifying what’s already broken. Third, Vladimir Putin rounds it out from the global stage. Russia’s war in Ukraine drags on, and with Assad’s fall in Syria late last year, Putin’s still flexing what’s left of his reach. His cyberattacks, energy plays, and alliances with China and Iran keep the U.S. on edge—think of the "Salt Typhoon" hacking warnings from late 2024. He’s not in America, but his moves hit its interests hard. Why these three? Trump and Musk are domestic wild cards with outsized control over policy and perception, while Putin’s the external force most consistently testing America’s limits. Others like Xi Jinping or Iran’s Khamenei could make the cut too, but Putin’s active disruption stands out now. Still, "dangerous" hinges on what you value—security, stability, or something else. Who do you think should be on this list?
  17. Keeping Lobo's love of 80s SNL alive. Well, at this point pretty much any thread about Pope Francis is probably going to be the "Pope Francis is dying thread for updates and breaking news".
  18. I got one when my first kid was born. It had been decades since I was vaccinated for it - when I was a kid in school, and then I'm pretty sure the Army did it when they filled my arm full of whatever the early 90s version of Bill Gates' 5G vaccine chips there were, but the doc recommended it for rubella when my wife was pregnant and for the measles after the kid was born.
  19. Impressive resume. Voices Superman in an animated series, was in Star Trek for several years, is in The Boys. He and Starlight do music videos
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