You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

[BoSoxGal]

The use of the term Lebensraum (living space), which the Nazis used to justify the displacement (extermination, in the case of Jews) of the peoples inhabiting the conquered territories of Eastern Europe, is particularly despicable coming from the mouth of an Israeli trying to justify why Israel has a right to the West Bank.

My sense was that he used it to be provocative while making the point that we have a living space problem on the entire planet at the moment. Isn't he right about that?

Again, the other piece I posted where he dismisses the notion that indictments of Bibi Netanyahu by the World Court are antisemitic seems to provide a better context of his world view and his view as an American Israeli Jew.

This piece on the two state solution also seems to shed light on his general attitude and it doesn't seem Nazi to me, but what do I know? https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/two-sta ... -question/

eta: I guess my question is, when is it okay to reference Nazi verbiage and ideology and when not? Bibi's always calling others Nazis and reminding of Nazi collaboration. Isn't this journalist possibly referencing Nazi ideology to provoke and challenge Israeli policy on West Bank and Palestinians in general? He doesn't seem an adherent to or supporter of the current Israeli government or the policies of war as being currently conducted in Gaza and elsewhere.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I'm with BSG on this one - he used the word in a deliberate attempt to attract attention to his piece: lebensraum will always evoke Hitler. And yes the primary problem of the world and democracy is overpopulation and overuse of resources.

[Bicycle Bill]

Trump has just staged a coup of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, after ousting every member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees that had been appointed by Biden and replacing them with his own choices to fill their positions.   The new trustees, which include such renowned patrons of the arts as White House personnel office director Sergio Gor, chief of staff Susie Wiles, Lee Greenwood (the one-hit wonder best known/remembered for "God Bless the USA", one of Trump's go-to songs during his propaganda rallies), and Usha Vance (wife of the VP), then immediately held a sham vote — for appearance's sake — and agreed to confirm the Orange One's self-elevation as Chairman of the Board, and also agreed to name Richard Grennell (who was Trump's interim director of national intelligence back in 2020) as interim president of the Kennedy Center.

In further news, Trump plans to give Kennedy Center Awards to the afore-mentioned Lee Greenwood, along with Ted Nugent and Kid Rock.  We can also expect the Center to host wrestling matches, teen beauty pageants (he still has a thing for young girls — you know, strolling through the dressing rooms?   And remember what he said about his own daughter!), Trump rallies, and 'Drinkin' with Lincoln' nights.

What's next?   Naming himself Mister Universe, as well as the winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off and the Masters golf championship??   Does anyone else feel vibes that sound a lot like the chronicles of Nero taking the stage to display his acting 'talents' to the Roman populace, or the apocryphal stories of his fiddling while Rome burned??

Frankly, if a sitting president has enough time to dedicate to bullshit such as chairing a performing arts center and golfing every three or four days, maybe it's time to completely abolish the office of POTUS, because quite obviously it's not really important to the running of the country.

-"BB"-

[Sue U]

Does anyone else feel vibes that sound a lot like the chronicles of Nero taking the stage to display his acting 'talents' to the Roman populace, or the apocryphal stories of his fiddling while Rome burned??

More like Caligula, I'd say.

[ex-khobar Andy]

A definite 'Mao swimming down the Yangtze' vibe going on here.

[rubato]

I don’t want similes or metaphors of horrors. I don’t want a richer and more pungent way of describing delusion and fear. I just want it to be over. I just want to know how many buckets and how many shovels and mops we need to clear the muck.

Yrs,
Rubato

[Burning Petard]

Your tax dollars at work. For more than 40 years I have been setting my clocks and various time pieces using the US Naval Observatory as my standard. I even once visited the place, It is also the Vice President's official residence in DC.. The phone number is 202-762-1401. I have even called via landline to a private number in Puerto Rico from here in Delaware, and then called the observatory to see if the distance on phone service made a difference.--it did, of about 2 seconds. This morning I was at a dentists office and I noticed the time on their display was about 4 minutes faster than the time on my wrist watch (which is mechanical, but pretty close.) I concluded that I probably had not been wearing the watch enough lately to keep it wound.

So sitting there in the waiting room I picked up my cell phone and noted that it agreed with the time on the wall, so I called the Naval Observatory. It rang a while and then I got an answer. It was close to the Dentist's, so I decided to reset my wrist watch when I got home. It has some complications and resetting it is not simple.

I called the Naval Observatory several times, beginning about 10 after eleven, AM. It rang and rang, but no response. Now, I called at just after noon and my phone said, "Your call did not go through, please call again later." Has Elon Musk killed this federal government service as more cost cutting?

Or is this a reenactment of Ken Nordine's old skit about the 'man who knew what time it is' but observing the President Day holiday?

snailgate.

[BoSoxGal]

Now he's firing FAA probationary hires, despite the horrific crash at DCA just weeks ago and the fact that the FAA has been understaffed since the pandemic and desperately needs more ATCs to keep the flying public safe.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/t ... lane-crash

[Scooter]

The teenage hackers at DOGE are apparently too thick to distinguish the difference between hiring someone on a probationary basis, and putting someone on probation due to poor performance, because so many of the termination letters addressed to the former cited the latter as the reason.

[BoSoxGal]

I hope they all SUE SUE SUE SUE SUE SUE SUE SUE SUE SUE SUE all day long, every day until this BS ends.

[Bicycle Bill]

I beginning to think this is the way Musk is thinking ... and Dementia Donny is going right along with it.

-"BB"-

[Burning Petard]

The highly trained and experienced DOGE continues to shoot itself in the foot.

They could not figure out how to shut down much of the science grants--but they thought they could cripple them by cancelling all 'overhead'
payments.

I have a friend on staff at Syracuse University whose professional and economic success depends on federal grants. He tells me the immediate aftermath is very wide spread and a classic unanticipated consequence. Many jobs have been eliminated by this change. Anti-Trumper and Liberal bias has long been rampant in the universe of grant-dependent scientists. However the reverse is true about the overhead staff. So now DOGE is struggling to walk it back, the way they had to with staff connected to atomic weapons, but it seems to be even a bigger problem because lots more active voters involved. And scientists are learning how to empty their own wastebaskets.

snailgate.

[ex-khobar Andy]

At some point Musk is going to gleefully find out about GSA contracts. And EPA emergency response contracts. I've held both of them.

GSA contracts are typically fixed price for known services. Suppose you make pencils; the feds have approved your process and agreed, yup, you make pretty good pencils at a decent price. "We'll give you a $10 million contact for pencils." And any agency of the federal govt who wants a pencil can order one or a thousand at the agreed price and does not have to go through a lengthy procurement and approval process. And pencil makers up and down the country get a similar NTE (Not to exceed) $10M contract to provide pencils on demand. And everyone knows the feds will use a fraction of the contract value.

I had an emergency response contract with EPA. We gave them a price list for various line items which they approved. Maybe 15 companies around the country had the relevant skills; so we all got $20M contracts. (I don't recall the amount but it was something like that.). By their nature, emergency responses happen who knows where and when so there was of way of knowing who could get on site and had the required skills available at the time. The contract was in place for if and when it was needed. But we all knew that the feds would be likely to use only a small fraction of what they had contracted for.

This is the sort of thing that Musk and his team of kids are going to find. And will think that they are saving $$$$$ for the public purse whereas in fact they are just throwing sand into the gearbox.

[Sue U]

Everything is "waste" when you don't know how anything works.

[Big RR]

Absolutely.

[BoSoxGal]

Everything is "waste" when you don't know how anything works.

Also works for conspiracies too.

[Sue U]

Everything is "waste" when you don't know how anything works.

Also works for conspiracies too.

And magic.

[Scooter]

[BoSoxGal]

The plane was named for Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot who ferried the bomb to Japan. She was lily white, so they had better fix this issue ASAP!

[Scooter]

This is the sort of thing that happens when you hire teenagers who call themselves "Big Balls" to run poorly crafted AI.