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Tracking Trump Administration and Cabinet picks


PenelopeWitherspoon

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7 minutes ago, Balcones said:

Yes.  The Laotian Air Force Secretary called Hegseth yesterday and is now de-pledging his Cessna 150 and 15 troops because of the slight.  He did ask if we still plan on sending our multi-million dollar assistance check. 

Great come back. But they don't use Cessnas.

So no quick retort about SOFA's? Or ya think, like the frat boy nominee, they are to be burned after football games.

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16 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

I wish man....

I love the Guam answer. He remembered that one. Did not think about it. Did not consider anything  else, which I would think was a proper answer. Um, well Senator, they are all kind of important, with different roles. For example there is a place on Hawaii, ya know, where the fucking NAVY sails from.

And you can see from his look he is glad he remembered even that one.

Yep. There is our Sec Def.

 

Yeah that really blew me away. Even if Guam is the only right answer, a truly qualified candidate would have certainly said more than that about it. Wowwwwww.

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16 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

Well don't mean shit, but this made me feel better. Enjoy and know there are some adults in the room. And TBH, when you watch Rubio today you see what we expect. Like him or hate him, he knows his shit. Hegseth is a doofus.

 

Sen. Duckworth is an actual got damn hero.  She would be a far better candidate than Hegseth, though I'm not suggesting she should be. She absolutely laid the wood to Hegseth, and summed it all up very well.

Hegseth simply will not answer and/or cannot answer many of the questions being posed to him. That alone should be disqualifying.

 

Edited by wood
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4 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

No, it is not. It is about a dumbass who cannot name ASEAN partners. Basic Sec Def shit. A supply sgt in Pearl can.

He is not ready for the job. I bet you did not watch the Duckworth video did you?

 

100% he didn't fucking watch it.

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19 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

Well don't mean shit, but this made me feel better. Enjoy and know there are some adults in the room. And TBH, when you watch Rubio today you see what we expect. Like him or hate him, he knows his shit. Hegseth is a doofus.

 

I'm not a fan of Rubio, but, if I were a senator, I'd vote to confirm him.  He's clearly qualified, and probably the only Trump pick that is qualified.  Which is why a lot of Trumpkins hate the pick. 

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27 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

I'm not a fan of Rubio, but, if I were a senator, I'd vote to confirm him.  He's clearly qualified, and probably the only Trump pick that is qualified.  Which is why a lot of Trumpkins hate the pick. 

I talk/work with a few State people, active and retired. None of them mind him coming in as Sec State. They think there will be some real policy shifts (not just the crazy trump talk) but they are happy about it.

Yeah, he will get confirmed.

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5 hours ago, Balcones said:

Do we now agree women in the military have different physical/combat standards? 

The tests are the same.  We also have different standards for different ages, all based on average capabilities of men and women of certain ages.  The variance among big and small weak and strong men is taken into account by the average, but age provides a different standard.  Similarly, women are smaller than men in weight and height, so their averages are accounted for by the different standards.

At the passing level, the deadlift difference is 20lbs, power throw is 2m, pushups are the same, 2 mile run is a minute and a half (out of 20).

BFD.

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3 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

The tests are the same.  We also have different standards for different ages, all based on average capabilities of men and women of certain ages.  The variance among big and small weak and strong men is taken into account by the average, but age provides a different standard.  Similarly, women are smaller than men in weight and height, so their averages are accounted for by the different standards.

At the passing level, the deadlift difference is 20lbs, power throw is 2m, pushups are the same, 2 mile run is a minute and a half (out of 20).

BFD.

Maybe Balcony likes his women built like men.

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25 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Maybe Balcony likes his women built like men.

This all goes back to the "conservative" obsession with "standards."  The guy with the best grades from the best school is undoubtedly the best lawyer, or doctor, or whatever.  My experience tells me that standards can only tell you so much and the correlation between top-top and actually best in the field is pretty slim.

What it really is is an ostensibly neutral justification for discriminating in favor of certain groups, primarily white men.

Audie Murphy was 5-5 and 132 give or take when he earned the MOH.

I'll defer to the military types as to combat qualifications.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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1 hour ago, InkaUtexas said:

I talk/work with a few State people, active and retired. None of them mind him coming in as Sec State. They think there will be some real policy shifts (not just the crazy trump talk) but they are happy about it.

Yeah, he will get confirmed.

I thought you meant sec def at first and I was like, damn, we are uber fucked. 

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12 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

This all goes back to the "conservative" obsession with "standards."  The guy with the best grades from the best school is undoubtedly the best lawyer, or doctor, or whatever.  My experience tells me that standards can only tell you so much and the correlation between top-top and actually best in the field is pretty slim.

What it really is is an ostensibly neutral justification for discriminating in favor of certain groups, primarily white men.

Audie Murphy was 5-5 and 132 give or take when he earned the MOH.

I'll defer to the military types as to combat qualifications.

I mean, fuck, look at Hegseth.  I bet he aced all the physical fitness tests.  I'll also bet that he's more of Norman Dike than a Dick Winters.

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On 1/15/2025 at 11:45 AM, Teebox said:

The sexual assault / abuse allegations are a feature, not a bug, for getting a cabinet nomination with this fucking guy

This is actually true. Trump wants underlings that he has dirt on.

I’m no longer pissed off about any of this. America deserves all of this.

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15 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

I'm not a fan of Rubio, but, if I were a senator, I'd vote to confirm him.  He's clearly qualified, and probably the only Trump pick that is qualified.  Which is why a lot of Trumpkins hate the pick. 

He may be the only cabinet member to ever publicly question the size of his boss's dick.

 

 

but i will do the research and get back with you.

 

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On 1/14/2025 at 11:40 PM, wood said:

Man I'm got damn fucking sick of hearing the Rs fuck the "Biden administration bungled the exit from Afghanistan" chicken. Un fucking real. That shit was well and truly fucked by Trump before Biden even took over.

It also reflects a general naivete about there being a nice way to do everything. A rapid (ordered by Trump) retreat from an entire country will never be neat and pretty. Recall Saigon:

image.png.ef7e065e796963136b08851ff1f535d2.png    image.png.c309e12a5cb86167e9a184e439bb5fb9.png

 

In many ways, the same situation. Two bloody options: stay and keep bleeding for no discernable gain or leave and allow the chaos consume all in our wake.

I don't recall people using the Viet Nam retreat as political ammunition. There seemed to be an understanding of how the world works.

Now? Not so much. One side will use any occurence to stab it's opponent and they don't mind lying about it from the start.

Another aspect is that the TV press embraces the naivete described above. 

Hoo boy, this Afghanistan campaign is a bloody disaster. Our panel concludes we must get out.

Hoo boy, a lot of bad dooky getting out of Afghanistan, let's go to the panel to hear them talk like there was a nice way to do this. We'll start with Trump's comments....

 

Idiot World Ascendant

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On 1/15/2025 at 5:48 AM, Balcones said:

https://nypost.com/2020/08/18/photos-show-bill-clinton-getting-massage-from-epstein-accuser/

 

 

Former President Bill Clinton grins with clear joy as he gets a massage from a Jeffrey Epstein accuser after a flight on the pedophile’s “Lolita Express” personal jet.

A beaming Bubba was captured in a stunning series of newly unearthed snaps relaxing with a rubdown from Epstein accuser Chauntae Davies, who was also then the pervert’s personal masseuse.

Negged for lying/distortion. From your link:

Quote

The massage took an awkward turn when Davies requested Clinton change positions — using a poor choice of words in light of the former president’s Oval Office sex scandal with intern Monica Lewinsky.

“I’ve got a bad angle, would you mind getting on your knees?” she recalled asking. “I’m not at all sure what came over me.

“For a moment the room fell silent. I couldn’t believe I’d said that. The words just shot out before I realized what I was saying or who I said it to,” wrote Davies in her soon-to-be-released memoir, according to the Daily Mail.

“Then, although his face had turned the color of fire, he laughed. The whole room was laughing too. And, being the good sport he was, he sat down so I could get a better angle.”

Despite the uneasy moment, Davies said, “President Clinton was a perfect gentleman during the trip and I saw absolutely no foul play involving him.”

The group, which also included actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker, visited Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Mozambique and South Africa during the five-day humanitarian jaunt.

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3 hours ago, GenXer said:

This is actually true. Trump wants underlings that he has dirt on.

I’m no longer pissed off about any of this. America deserves all of this.

I understand this sentiment, but we're Americans and we didn't vote to deserve any of this.

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3 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

I mean, fuck, look at Hegseth.  I bet he aced all the physical fitness tests.  I'll also bet that he's more of Norman Dike than a Dick Winters.

Dick Meadows and his buds were some bad MoFo's. Fuckers never looked like we expect. Shit, Dad's first squadron with Charlie looked like a bunch of middle aged European dudes wanting to get into an Abba concert. They were supposed to. Well except for the Samoan dude in the Squadron. Two were what today we would call big.  But these fuckers could smoke you on a 20 mile ruck march with lots of gear, fast rope with the best of them, etc. My dad today at 86 is still in damn good shape. Not big, not roid looking, but hard and stamina of a camel.

 

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On 1/15/2025 at 8:55 AM, Pig Bellmont said:

Republicans who supposedly support our military want the pentagon headed by someone who never ran an organization of more than 100 people and bankrupted a Vets organization while showing up to work drunk. It’s insane that this comically unqualified Fox weekend host was nominated in the first place 

 

On 1/15/2025 at 3:15 PM, tx 3 putt said:

watching some confirmation clips, we are very very beyond fucked 

 

20 hours ago, wood said:

Sen. Duckworth is an actual got damn hero.  She would be a far better candidate than Hegseth, though I'm not suggesting she should be. She absolutely laid the wood to Hegseth, and summed it all up very well.

Hegseth simply will not answer and/or cannot answer many of the questions being posed to him. That alone should be disqualifying.

 

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I'll just leave this here.

Kennedy Sought to Stop Covid Vaccinations 6 Months After Rollout

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. petitioned the F.D.A. to revoke authorization of the shots at a time when they were in high demand and considered life-saving.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/health/rfk-jr-covid-vaccines.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20250117&instance_id=145067&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=85443288&segment_id=188562&user_id=4e9e16be52747e3e506dff5c6a450a53

Quote

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to lead the nation’s health agencies, formally asked the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the authorization of all Covid vaccines during a deadly phase of the pandemic when thousands of Americans were still dying every week.

Mr. Kennedy filed a petition with the F.D.A. in May 2021 demanding that officials rescind authorization for the shots and refrain from approving any Covid vaccine in the future.

Just six months earlier, Mr. Trump had declared the Covid vaccines a miracle. At the time Mr. Kennedy filed the petition, half of American adults were receiving their shots. Schools were reopening and churches were filling.

Estimates had begun to show that the rapid rollout of Covid vaccines had already saved about 140,000 lives in the United States.

The petition was filed on behalf of the nonprofit that Mr. Kennedy founded and led, Children’s Health Defense. It claimed that the risks of the vaccines outweighed the benefits and that the vaccines weren’t necessary because good treatments were available, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, which had already been deemed ineffective against the virus.

The petition received little notice when it was filed. Mr. Kennedy was then on the fringes of the public health establishment, and the agency denied it within months. Public health experts told about the filing said it was shocking.

John Moore, a professor of immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, called Mr. Kennedy’s request to the F.D.A. “an appalling error of judgment.” Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, likened having Mr. Kennedy lead the federal health agencies to “putting a flat earther in charge of NASA.”

Dr. Robert Califf, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, described Mr. Kennedy’s effort to halt the use of Covid vaccines as a “massive error.”

Mr. Kennedy’s transition spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment, but has said recently that he does not want to take vaccines away.

Asked in November by an NBC reporter about his general opposition to Covid vaccines — and whether he would have stopped authorization — Mr. Kennedy said he was concerned that the vaccines did not prevent transmission of the virus.

“I wouldn’t have directly blocked it,” he said. “I would have made sure that we had the best science, and there was no effort to do that at that time.”

Mr. Kennedy’s early opposition to Covid vaccines has alarmed public health experts, many of whom contend that it should disqualify him from overseeing health agencies with the power to authorize, monitor and allocate funding for millions of vaccines each year.

They are also concerned about how he might handle a possible bird flu pandemic, which could necessitate a rapid deployment of vaccines.

As Mr. Kennedy prepares for his confirmation hearings before two Senate committees, he and his allies have insisted that he is not anti-vaccine.

In fact, in mid-2023, he told a House panel that he had taken all recommended vaccines — except for the Covid immunization.

At his confirmation hearings, he’ll most likely face scrutiny of his broader statements on vaccines, including that the polio vaccine cost more lives than it saved.

Mr. Trump has stepped forward in recent weeks to defend Mr. Kennedy after The New York Times reported that one of Mr. Kennedy’s lawyers had previously petitioned the F.D.A. to revoke approval or pause distribution of several polio vaccines over safety concerns.

“I think he’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” Mr. Trump said last month.

After the Times report, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kennedy expressed their support for the polio vaccine.

If confirmed by the Senate as secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, Mr. Kennedy would assume oversight of $8 billion in funding for the Vaccines for Children program and would have the authority to appoint new members to a panel that makes influential vaccine recommendations to states.

At the time Mr. Kennedy challenged the Covid vaccines, some of his objections touched on wider concerns about their rapid development. Emergency-use authorization — a preliminary form of approval — for immunizations was unusual. Others argued that a public health emergency dictated a speedier rollout.

Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health, said it would be reasonable to debate whether Covid vaccines should have been subject to additional study.

But she profoundly disagreed with Mr. Kennedy’s views, saying that “the idea that in early 2021 that you could be saying that people over the age of 65 don’t need Covid vaccines — that’s just nuts.”

Vaccines have rare side effects, and there have been cases of injury from the Covid shots. Government officials weigh the harms against the potential to save lives. An estimate released in early 2024 found that the Covid vaccines and mitigation measures saved about 800,000 lives in the United States.

Another study found that in late 2021 and 2022, Covid death rates among unvaccinated people were 14 times the rates of those who had received a Covid booster shot. Researchers also estimated that from May 2021 through September 2022, more than 230,000 deaths could have been prevented among people who declined initial Covid inoculations.

From the start of the Covid vaccine campaign, Mr. Kennedy’s view that the Covid vaccines were dangerous put him at odds with Mr. Trump, whose Operation Warp Speed to develop the vaccines was one of his policy triumphs. And Mr. Kennedy went on a concerted campaign against the vaccine.

Mr. Kennedy told Louisiana lawmakers in late 2021 that the Covid vaccine was the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”

He has remained a plaintiff in a lawsuit against President Biden and others, contesting efforts by government officials to limit his ability to suggest on social media that Covid vaccines were not safe.

In January 2021, Mr. Kennedy suggested on Facebook that the death of the baseball legend Hank Aaron, 86, was related to a Covid vaccine he had received 17 days earlier. It was “part of a wave of suspicious deaths” following Covid vaccines, he claimed. A doctor who was vaccinated alongside Mr. Aaron and the county medical examiner dismissed the claim.

In May, when Mr. Kennedy petitioned the F.D.A. to “immediately remove Covid vaccines from the market,” he was joined by Dr. Meryl Nass, a member of the Children’s Health Defense scientific advisory board and a physician in Maine.

Her medical license was initially suspended on an emergency basis in early 2022 for prescribing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to patients with severe cases of Covid, including one who was intubated, Maine medical board records show.

She later sued the board, claiming that it retaliated against her for exercising her right to free speech. The case is pending.

In 2022, Mr. Kennedy and others filed a lawsuit against the F.D.A. on behalf of Children’s Health Defense and parents who said they were concerned that their children would be given Covid vaccines without their knowledge or consent. The amended lawsuit, filed in July 2022, sought a court order requesting that the agency reconsider granting authorization for Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines for children.

A Texas appeals court dismissed the case in early 2024, concurring with a lower court that the plaintiffs did not face a “concrete or imminent” risk of harm. In June, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

Mr. Kennedy also sent letters to the F.D.A. threatening legal action if vaccine authorizations for children were granted.

Covid vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna for infants and children 6 months to 11 years old remain in use under emergency authorization, according to the F.D.A. Spokesmen for Pfizer and for Moderna said the companies are pursuing full approval for all ages.

Mr. Kennedy claimed in the censorship case that top Biden administration officials had coerced social media platforms to silence him, mostly during the summer of 2021. At the time, vaccine rates were stalling. People who were not vaccinated began to die at higher rates. Some who died were young; their loved ones said they were confused by conflicting messages on social media — or regretted that they had not gotten the vaccine.

Records in the lawsuit outline a briefing that summer with Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary at the time, and Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, both of whom criticized social media companies for allowing the spread of misinformation that was influencing people against vaccination.

“And we can’t wait longer for them to take aggressive action because it’s costing people their lives,” Dr. Murthy said on July 15, 2021.

Mr. Biden expressed outrage the following day, telling reporters that social media companies that hosted vaccine misinformation were “killing people.”

In legal filings, Mr. Kennedy said that he had been named one of the “Disinformation Dozen” by a prominent advocacy group — and that he was one of the people the White House was targeting. Exhibits in the lawsuit show that White House officials leaned on social media companies to take down misinformation.

Within a month, a senior Facebook executive reported to Dr. Murthy that it had removed a number of pages or groups, including Mr. Kennedy’s, court records show.

The Supreme Court dismissed an associated case last summer, and an appeals court dismissed Mr. Kennedy’s case late last year. Lawyers representing Mr. Kennedy and others are still working on obtaining depositions of about 30 people, mostly Biden administration officials.

 

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