FAFO

[4thgenheel]

get bent, ken.

 

[BlueSteel]

It was an “Education Stabilization Fund,” and they were given to be used in precisely the way the states are using them.
The time for making arguments that is was wasteful was in 2020. Apparently those arguments were heard and voted on by the house and senate and passed overwhelmingly, and Trump signed it into law.
If this was irresponsible spending, okay. But what is more irresponsible (imo) is granting the money and then pulling the rug out from under the states after they started projects based upon the law that passed.
I also think it is illegal for these funds to be appropriated and then unilaterally canceled by the executive office (but I could be wrong there).

I don't disagree.

 

[ChileG]

I don't disagree.

lol! (Laughing because I assume you are making reference to the “I don’t disagree” thread and your response is funny).

 

[superrific]

I'm open to debate on this, but I must say that what Zen is saying here makes a lot of sense to me. The old-school conservative in me feels like it would be incredibly wasteful for Covid money to be used on things not at all related to Covid. Just saying.

You have to judge wastefulness by its real economic cost. Our popular media and political discourse does a very poor job of defining what waste means and how and why it's bad. Let me illustrate with an example:

1. The federal government suddenly decides to pay $1M to every person. Wasteful? No. Not in itself -- it wouldn't change anything in the economy. It's simply an accounting issue: money that used to be held collectively by the government is now held collectively by the people, though in an individual capacity. Now, if this made the government broke would have a lot of real effects, but that's a different story.

2. The federal government decides to pay $1M to every person who submits a sculpted bust of Donald Trump or Barack Obama to the WH. This is wasteful. Why? Because it requires the expenditure of real resources on things of no value. Labor will be in short supply if people are learning how to sculpt. Minerals could be in short supply, depending on what materials people would use for the busts. So much other stuff could have been done with the time, energy and resources devoted to bust-making.

So the question we want to be asking is: are these Covid funds being used to generate value? Normally, a government program is aligned with specific goals, and if those goals no longer exist, the program is wasteful. For instance, if we have a government program for tracking smallpox, operating it in a world where smallpox has been eradicated would be wasteful (I'm assuming that smallpox is permanently gone, for illustrative purposes). If we have a missile system to shoot down ICBMs, and nobody uses ICBMs any more, that would be wasteful.

But sometimes, government programs aren't so narrowly linked to specific goals. I don't know much about this COVID funding, but it seems that it's being used for general improvements that are salutary in themselves. If we are using COVID money to improve educational infrastructure, that's not wasteful unless we are doing something like gilding an already well equipped classroom. My understanding of public school infrastructure is that it's underfunded in a lot of places. Whatever -- the details aren't important to this more general point: sometimes government programs can have benefits that extend far beyond the initial purpose, and then their existence is justified by a different set of considerations.

A classic example: Radar. It was developed by the UK air force to defend against Nazi aircraft. After the war was over, the UK didn't have any specific use for radar. Does that mean it should have stopped investing in it? I don't think so. Radar is a wonderful technology. The Battle Of Britain spurred its development; but that doesn't mean its use case was so limited. This is a case of the government producing something of broad benefit. This is, by the way, a stylized example for a short msg board post. I know that radar had many military uses in peacetime -- for instance, early warning systems, detection of all sorts, etc. -- but it wasn't a **necessity** the way it was in 1940 and anyway the point here is that radar would be worth continued investment even if its military use vanished.

 

[milom98]

Tots and pears.

As a Kentuckian, I will duly accept your tots and pears. At least there is some nutritional value with those and I do like a good pear.

Anyway, KY got hit hard with all the flooding and water levels in some areas reached places never seen before. Currently on pace for the wettest April on record. So how will the Trump admin, right-wing media and the MAGA crowd find a way to blame the Dems for all these FEMA relief funds denials?

 

[Zoo_View]

As a Kentuckian, I will duly accept your tots and pears. At least there is some nutritional value with those and I do like a good pear.

Anyway, KY got hit hard with all the flooding and water levels in some areas reached places never seen before. Currently on pace for the wettest April on record. So how will the Trump admin, right-wing media and the MAGA crowd find a way to blame the Dems for all these FEMA relief funds denials?

Local MAGAts, Trumplicans, Republicans, and non-voting anti-government types will say, “See….they, the government, aren’t here….as always……they’re spending money on themselves and f*gs and q***rs and those trans freaks…….and on furriners…..if they’d let Trump be Trump, we’d see some serious help. Instead, the gubmint is stopping Trump from helping us. Nancy Pelosi, that AOC, and that black guy with the funny name (Hakeem Jeffries). Give Trump the power and you’ll see things get fixed!”

 

[altmin]

Capito urges RFK Jr. to bring back NIOSH employees to support coal industry

Senator Shelley Moore Capito wrote a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. regarding the recent National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) layoffs in Morgantown.

www.wdtv.com

Senator Shelley Moore Capito wrote a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. regarding the recent National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) layoffs in Morgantown.

In the letter, Capito highlighted the role NIOSH plays in the West Virginia coal industry. She said the work at NIOSH is critical to the health and wellbeing of West Virginia coal miners and requested that the administration bring back the programs and employees.

 

[UNCatTech]

This is the free part of an article written by Rod Dreher: 'Cry More, Libs' is not a strategy. from the free press substack.

Earlier this month in Washington, the Heritage Foundation hosted a screening of the first episode of the Angel Studios documentary series Live Not By Lies, based on my 2020 bestseller of the same name. It’s a film, and a book, about the perils of “soft totalitarianism” and it features the warnings anti-communist dissidents from the Soviet bloc have for the West today. I invited some good friends from all over to come to D.C. for the event. They sat in the audience listening to another friend, Vice President J.D. Vance, give a fulsome and very personal introduction.

My heart was bursting. I’ve wanted this man—the only politician in whom I have ever believed fully—to be president ever since he rose to fame following a viral interview he did with me in 2016. J.D. is the real deal, and I admire him almost without bounds. Vain as I am, it thrilled me that my friends were there to hear his words.

One of them sat in the audience, filled with affection for the vice president, and proud of her vote for him and Donald Trump.

The very next day was Trump’s “Liberation Day,” when he announced radical global tariffs. A week later, that same friend was facing the total destruction of her small business.

She depends entirely on imported raw materials from Latin America, which suddenly cost 30 to 40 percent more, and for which there are no U.S. suppliers. Her orders dried up overnight. “These are pretty much luxury goods, the kind of thing that people cut out first when times are hard,” she told me. “I’m going to be ruined. How am I going to support my kids?”

She supports Trump’s approach to China, but why on earth punish the whole world—and people like her—for the sake of resetting trade relations with Beijing? It’s a great question. I have no answers.

This divorced single mom, in her distress, was now cursing the same administration she voted for and, only days before, whose VP she had cheered on...

More, it's ok if it impacted others, but I don't like it impacting me.

 

[ColdBlueSteel]

Do you think at all before you post, or is it purely a gut reaction?

Ha! ZZLP TDS much?

 

[StrangePackage]

Ha! ZZLP TDS much?

K

 

[Geisterfahrer]

This is the free part of an article written by Rod Dreher: 'Cry More, Libs' is not a strategy. from the free press substack.

Earlier this month in Washington, the Heritage Foundation hosted a screening of the first episode of the Angel Studios documentary series Live Not By Lies, based on my 2020 bestseller of the same name. It’s a film, and a book, about the perils of “soft totalitarianism” and it features the warnings anti-communist dissidents from the Soviet bloc have for the West today. I invited some good friends from all over to come to D.C. for the event. They sat in the audience listening to another friend, Vice President J.D. Vance, give a fulsome and very personal introduction.

My heart was bursting. I’ve wanted this man—the only politician in whom I have ever believed fully—to be president ever since he rose to fame following a viral interview he did with me in 2016. J.D. is the real deal, and I admire him almost without bounds. Vain as I am, it thrilled me that my friends were there to hear his words.

One of them sat in the audience, filled with affection for the vice president, and proud of her vote for him and Donald Trump.

The very next day was Trump’s “Liberation Day,” when he announced radical global tariffs. A week later, that same friend was facing the total destruction of her small business.

She depends entirely on imported raw materials from Latin America, which suddenly cost 30 to 40 percent more, and for which there are no U.S. suppliers. Her orders dried up overnight. “These are pretty much luxury goods, the kind of thing that people cut out first when times are hard,” she told me. “I’m going to be ruined. How am I going to support my kids?”

She supports Trump’s approach to China, but why on earth punish the whole world—and people like her—for the sake of resetting trade relations with Beijing? It’s a great question. I have no answers.

This divorced single mom, in her distress, was now cursing the same administration she voted for and, only days before, whose VP she had cheered on...

More, it's ok if it impacted others, but I don't like it impacting me.

Rod Dreher sucks. He barely conceals his fascism.

 

[Mulberry Heel]

This is the free part of an article written by Rod Dreher: 'Cry More, Libs' is not a strategy. from the free press substack.

Earlier this month in Washington, the Heritage Foundation hosted a screening of the first episode of the Angel Studios documentary series Live Not By Lies, based on my 2020 bestseller of the same name. It’s a film, and a book, about the perils of “soft totalitarianism” and it features the warnings anti-communist dissidents from the Soviet bloc have for the West today. I invited some good friends from all over to come to D.C. for the event. They sat in the audience listening to another friend, Vice President J.D. Vance, give a fulsome and very personal introduction.

My heart was bursting. I’ve wanted this man—the only politician in whom I have ever believed fully—to be president ever since he rose to fame following a viral interview he did with me in 2016. J.D. is the real deal, and I admire him almost without bounds. Vain as I am, it thrilled me that my friends were there to hear his words.

One of them sat in the audience, filled with affection for the vice president, and proud of her vote for him and Donald Trump.

The very next day was Trump’s “Liberation Day,” when he announced radical global tariffs. A week later, that same friend was facing the total destruction of her small business.

She depends entirely on imported raw materials from Latin America, which suddenly cost 30 to 40 percent more, and for which there are no U.S. suppliers. Her orders dried up overnight. “These are pretty much luxury goods, the kind of thing that people cut out first when times are hard,” she told me. “I’m going to be ruined. How am I going to support my kids?”

She supports Trump’s approach to China, but why on earth punish the whole world—and people like her—for the sake of resetting trade relations with Beijing? It’s a great question. I have no answers.

This divorced single mom, in her distress, was now cursing the same administration she voted for and, only days before, whose VP she had cheered on...

More, it's ok if it impacted others, but I don't like it impacting me.

So this guy thinks that JD Freaking Vance is "the only politician in whom I've ever believed fully" and should be president, and that Vance "is the real deal" and he admires him "almost without bounds?" LOL. Great judgment in people you've got there, dude. Vance is nothing more than another far-right toady who's willing to say or do whatever he thinks will get him up the next rung of the political ladder. He's no different from Tom Cotton or Ted Cruz or Ron DeSantis or any other GOP brown-noser and authoritarian, other than he has a billionaire high tech plutocrat bankrolling his rise to power, although the others have certainly developed their own sources of dark money for their campaigns.

 

[ColdBlueSteel]

K

K what? You miss the searing irony?

 

[ColdBlueSteel]

So this guy thinks that JD Freaking Vance is "the only politician in whom I've ever believed fully" and should be president, and that Vance "is the real deal" and he admires him "almost without bounds?" LOL. Great judgment in people you've got there, dude. Vance is nothing more than another far-right toady who's willing to say or do whatever he thinks will get him up the next rung of the political ladder. He's no different from Tom Cotton or Ted Cruz or Ron DeSantis or any other GOP brown-noser and authoritarian, other than he has a billionaire high tech plutocrat bankrolling his rise to power, although the others have certainly developed their own sources of dark money for their campaigns.

I’m

So this guy thinks that JD Freaking Vance is "the only politician in whom I've ever believed fully" and should be president, and that Vance "is the real deal" and he admires him "almost without bounds?" LOL. Great judgment in people you've got there, dude. Vance is nothing more than another far-right toady who's willing to say or do whatever he thinks will get him up the next rung of the political ladder. He's no different from Tom Cotton or Ted Cruz or Ron DeSantis or any other GOP brown-noser and authoritarian, other than he has a billionaire high tech plutocrat bankrolling his rise to power, although the others have certainly developed their own sources of dark money for their campaigns.

Dean Phillips is a viable candidate who isn’t a toady that will do whatever it takes to get up the political ladder…oh wait… looks like not being a toady was a disqualifier

 

[Mulberry Heel]

I’m

Dean Phillips is a viable candidate who isn’t a toady that will do whatever it takes to get up the political ladder…oh wait… looks like not being a toady was a disqualifier

What on Earth are you talking about? Is Phillips the current VP or a Trump toady? Did Phillips raise (or support raising) tariffs that are putting one of his supporters out of business? Whatever point you're trying to make is rather bizarre given the point of the article.

 

[BlueSteel]

This is the free part of an article written by Rod Dreher: 'Cry More, Libs' is not a strategy. from the free press substack.

Earlier this month in Washington, the Heritage Foundation hosted a screening of the first episode of the Angel Studios documentary series Live Not By Lies, based on my 2020 bestseller of the same name. It’s a film, and a book, about the perils of “soft totalitarianism” and it features the warnings anti-communist dissidents from the Soviet bloc have for the West today. I invited some good friends from all over to come to D.C. for the event. They sat in the audience listening to another friend, Vice President J.D. Vance, give a fulsome and very personal introduction.

My heart was bursting. I’ve wanted this man—the only politician in whom I have ever believed fully—to be president ever since he rose to fame following a viral interview he did with me in 2016. J.D. is the real deal, and I admire him almost without bounds. Vain as I am, it thrilled me that my friends were there to hear his words.

One of them sat in the audience, filled with affection for the vice president, and proud of her vote for him and Donald Trump.

The very next day was Trump’s “Liberation Day,” when he announced radical global tariffs. A week later, that same friend was facing the total destruction of her small business.

She depends entirely on imported raw materials from Latin America, which suddenly cost 30 to 40 percent more, and for which there are no U.S. suppliers. Her orders dried up overnight. “These are pretty much luxury goods, the kind of thing that people cut out first when times are hard,” she told me. “I’m going to be ruined. How am I going to support my kids?”

She supports Trump’s approach to China, but why on earth punish the whole world—and people like her—for the sake of resetting trade relations with Beijing? It’s a great question. I have no answers.

This divorced single mom, in her distress, was now cursing the same administration she voted for and, only days before, whose VP she had cheered on...

More, it's ok if it impacted others, but I don't like it impacting me.

So, she’s a drug dealer?

 

[BlueSteel]

Ha! ZZLP TDS much?

The Daily Show is coming to ZZL?!? I freaking LOVE Jon Stewart!

 

[SmilingJack]

Kinda long but funny how such macho men love make up wearing leaders. Repressed men love to bash the trans/gay community while sporting their personal chubby in the cargo pants adoring Trump and Vance.

 

[superrific]

Rod Dreher sucks. He barely conceals his fascism.

Here's the snippet for that article:

"These are difficult days for people like me: Americans who back the Trump administration for its determination to fight back against establishment tyrannies, but who are now troubled by its excesses."

Yeah, sure. Nobody even knows what that bullshit means. This is a guy who willingly moved to Hungary to be an Orbanist.

 

[Centerpiece]

First they came for the media
....after that we don't know what happened.
( I'm not sure who said this )