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bolverk

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by bolverk

  1. Completely agreed. And, for the record, I've never -- not once -- thought you were hysterical in your warnings. Annoyingly repetitious at times? Sure, but your determination to make your point by beating that dead horse effectively got your point across. Congratulations on that, and I'm not being sarcastic in the least. I've pretty much been exactly where you are since the light came on for me in the early 1990s, recognizing that actual, real-life fascists were taking over the GOP and were a deadly threat to American democracy. Man, it's been a really fucking frustrating 30+ years.
  2. https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/tech-companies/mexican-billionaire-carlos-slim-cuts-ties-with-elon-musk-s-starlink-costing-musk-7-billion-after-controversial-tweet/ar-AA1zWshm
  3. Back to Canada now, here's a piece about the annexation crap. TFG reportedly wants to renegotiate the border, our Great Lakes treaty, kick them out of the Five Eyes, and reconsider cooperation on NORAD. Short article. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/world/canada/trump-trudeau-canada-51st-state.html
  4. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/us/politics/trump-iran-nuclear-deal-letter-khamenei.html?smid=url-share President Trump said he had sent a letter to the Iranian government seeking to negotiate a deal to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. He said the letter was sent Wednesday and addressed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. The White House did not immediately respond to a request to provide the letter or further describe its contents. “There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal,” Mr. Trump told Maria Bartiromo in an interview aired Friday on Fox Business. “I would prefer to make a deal, because I’m not looking to hurt Iran. They’re great people.” The move is a sharp pivot for Mr. Trump, who in 2018 withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal with Iran, unraveling the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama. Iran did not immediately provide a response. In the interview, Mr. Trump described the letter as saying, “I hope you’re going to negotiate because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran.” “If we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” he said, adding: “The other alternative is we have to do something because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. On Thursday, Mr. Trump talked more broadly about his desire to see the world’s countries eliminate their nuclear weapons. He said he hoped to negotiate denuclearization efforts with China and Russia as well. “It would great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
  5. Imagine what they'll do to all the fruity trust fund libs living out in Marfa and the surrounding Trans Pecos.
  6. Wordle 1,357 5/6 ⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛ ⬛🟩⬛⬛🟨 🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 I'd bet there are a lot of other angry 'Severance' watchers. We got tricked! Connections Puzzle #635 🟪🟨🟦🟩 🟨🟦🟦🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1138 6️⃣4️⃣ 5️⃣7️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟨🟨 ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  7. This is not good news. State Dept. Plans to Close Diplomatic Missions and Fire Employees Overseas Gifted link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/us/politics/embassies-consulates-closures.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2E4.TiVj.NdfRqzX6Ob3r&smid=url-share
  8. Now, this is pretty fucking fascinating and grounded in actual, real science based on recent findings.
  9. Sorry, no such luck. It's a vanishingly small chance of 0.004% now. We'll just have to do it ourselves.
  10. She really is a great actress, and you hit the nail on the head. That character is so volatile and unpredictable -- you never know when she's going to blow up. The tension in that house got me feeling like she was gonna blow up any second and murder her aunt.
  11. Payback for their governor standing up to him a few days ago, so he's got to be a dick to her constituents.
  12. Sorry to interrupt the ongoing debate (shouldn't y'all be talking about that stuff in the Democratic Party thread?), AG Bondi is going after the American Bar Association over DEI shit and threatening to revoke its status as the government-sanctioned accreditor of U.S. law schools. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-attorney-general-presses-aba-drop-law-school-dei-rule-or-risk-losing-2025-03-05/
  13. No particular expertise myself, but here's an article from September regarding the topic. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/09/04/space-x-south-texas-environment/ Meat of the article on potential damage: The Federal Aviation Administration was set to hold public hearings in August on SpaceX's proposal to launch its Starship/Super Heavy rocket 25 times per year from Boca Chica. However, the coalition urged the agency to restart its public participation process. In a letter to the FAA, they called for a full environmental impact statement, in English and Spanish, that takes into account all the potentially adverse effects of SpaceX. They also asked for more time for the public to review the reports. “SpaceX is an issue that's constantly changing, that is getting rubber-stamped permits by regulatory agencies that have really broken processes,” said Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network. A spokesperson for SpaceX declined an interview for this story. The FAA, ultimately, postponed the public hearings after the agency became aware of allegations first reported by CNBC that SpaceX violated the Clean Water Act at the Boca Chica Launch Site and was unable to confirm the accuracy of SpaceX’s license application and its draft environmental assessment, according to an agency spokesperson. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality also confirmed that it cited SpaceX for violating regulations. The state reached an agreement with SpaceX to address the issue. The formal agreement is pending approval from the commission or its executive director. SpaceX responded to the allegations in a post on X, stating it was working with the environmental commission to obtain an individual permit for its water deluge system after previously operating under a Texas Multi-Sector General Permit, which regulates the discharge of stormwater used for industry. The company also noted that both TCEQ and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have allowed their operations to continue. The CNBC report also raised concerns about traces of mercury in the non-stormwater discharge. However, SpaceX said there was a typo in the permit application and assured that mercury levels were well below state and federal water quality criteria.
  14. That plant is located in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma (pop. 44,000), which voted 79% for TFG. I see a leap of leopards coming their way. FAFO
  15. Two memes and a good post.
  16. Senators Call for Investigation of Acting U.S. Attorney in Washington Democrats wrote to the D.C. bar association that Ed Martin, President Trump’s nominee for one of the most important U.S. attorney’s offices, “abused” his power to threaten opponents. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are asking the District of Columbia’s bar association to investigate Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in the capital, saying that he had “abused” prosecutorial power to threaten his political opponents. In a letter to the bar association on Thursday, the senators, led by Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s top Democrat, also accused Mr. Martin of violating professional standards by refusing to recuse himself from a case involving a Capitol rioter he privately represented and dismissing charges against the man. Mr. Martin, a Missouri Republican who has used social media to threaten critics of President Trump and Elon Musk, has upended one of the most important U.S. attorney’s offices in the country. He has purged nonpolitical career staff involved in the investigations of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and at times directly interceded in prosecutorial decision-making. “Mr. Martin has abused his position in several ways,” Mr. Durbin wrote, referring his complaint to the bar association’s office of disciplinary counsel, the body that recommended the disbarment of Rudolph W. Giuliani over false claims he made in lawsuits after the 2020 election. “Mr. Martin’s conduct not only speaks to his fitness as a lawyer,” added Mr. Durbin, who signed the letter with nine other Democrats, but “his activities are part of a broader course of conduct by President Trump and his allies to undermine the traditional independence of Department of Justice investigations and prosecutions and the rule of law.” A spokesman for Mr. Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Trump has nominated Mr. Martin, who also promoted his false claims about the 2020 election, to be the permanent U.S. attorney in Washington. But Mr. Martin’s targeting of opponents, while in sync with the president’s demands for retribution, has alienated some Senate Republicans and could complicate his chances of confirmation. A date for his confirmation hearings has not been set. Democrats cited several examples of Mr. Martin’s conduct that they said violated professional standards, including his decision to dismiss charges against Joseph Padilla, a former client of Mr. Martin’s who had already been convicted. In the letter, Democrats said Mr. Martin was officially listed as Mr. Padilla’s lawyer at the time he was moving to dismiss the charges against him. They also referred to a similar instance, in which Mr. Martin recused himself from a case involving a member of the Proud Boys weeks after he had been sworn in as the interim U.S. attorney. In the letter, the senators claimed that those steps violated bar rules in Washington intended to prevent federal prosecutors from taking action that could benefit or harm clients they once represented. They also cited Mr. Martin’s bombastic posts on social media. Some were threats against the law firm representing Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Mr. Trump. Others involved Mr. Martin’s creation of Operation Whirlwind, an internal investigation into Democrats who made statements that Mr. Trump’s allies claim were intended to incite violence. Mr. Martin is “using the threat of prosecution to intimidate government employees and chill the speech of private citizens,” the Democrats wrote. Mr. Martin quietly pushed in recent days to present evidence against Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, to a federal grand jury over comments he made in 2020 about Supreme Court justices, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Mr. Schumer apologized for the statement, saying it was overheated rhetoric and not a call for violence. Justice Department officials rebuffed Mr. Martin’s unusual request, and the five-year period during which Mr. Schumer might have been prosecuted lapsed on Tuesday. Late last month, Mr. Martin demoted several top prosecutors involved in Capitol riot prosecutions to low-level positions handling minor crimes. Earlier this week, more than 50 former prosecutors who worked in the U.S. attorney’s office drafted an open letter calling for the Senate to reject Mr. Martin’s nomination, saying he was “unworthy” of the position. Mr. Martin threatened the dean of Georgetown University’s law school this week with an investigation if it did not immediately scrap all diversity and inclusion initiatives, according to a person familiar with the matter. The letter was reported earlier by Post Millennial, a conservative website. Chief among Mr. Martin’s defenders is the president, who had demanded that his appointees in the Justice Department exact vengeance against anyone directly involved in the prosecutions of him or his allies. “Since Inauguration Day, Ed has been doing a great job as Interim U.S. Attorney, fighting tirelessly to restore Law and Order, and make our Nation’s Capital Safe and Beautiful Again,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media last month in announcing his intention to nominate Mr. Martin for the permanent job. “He will get the job done.”
  17. Fairly long piece, but it includes quotes from business people and Republican politicians who refuse to go on record, which obviously furthers the point. Also, Republicans are cowards. Yes, I know that's a redundant statement. ‘People Are Going Silent’: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves People say they are intimidated by online attacks from the president, concerned about harm to their businesses or worried about the safety of their families. The silence grows louder every day. Fired federal workers who are worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name. University presidents fearing that millions of dollars in federal funding could disappear are holding their fire. Chief executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute. Even longtime Republican hawks on Capitol Hill, stunned by President Trump’s revisionist history that Ukraine is to blame for its invasion by Russia, and his Oval Office blowup at President Volodymyr Zelensky, have either muzzled themselves, tiptoed up to criticism without naming Mr. Trump or completely reversed their positions. More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond. People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say they are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies and frightened for the safety of their families. Politicians fear banishment by a party remade in Mr. Trump’s image and the prospect of primary opponents financed by Mr. Musk, the president’s all-powerful partner and the world’s richest man. “When you see important societal actors — be it university presidents, media outlets, C.E.O.s, mayors, governors — changing their behavior in order to avoid the wrath of the government, that’s a sign that we’ve crossed the line into some form of authoritarianism,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard and the co-author of the influential 2018 book “How Democracies Die.” cont'd:
  18. https://archive.is/ebjlu
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