@#9 ... I've never understood the latino community's attraction to Trump. It makes no sense to me. ...

Oh, it's simple.

Candidate Trump promised to help workers.

See, simple.

Unfortunately, once elected, Pres Trump latched on to billionaires instead of workers.

And, what may be quite the surprise to many here on this august forum...

In my Town's election for the top official earlier this week, I voted to leave the current person in place.

Yeah, I voted for a Republican.

Why? Because I see him as doing an excellent job for the town, without the MAGA insanity in his policies.

So I voted to re-elect him for the position.

More from the article ...

...

1

That's how many executive officer seats flipped from blue to red.

Easton swung from a Democratic first selectman to a Republican in an election decided by only six votes that is now headed for a recount.

That was the only town across the entire state where Republicans seized control of local government from Democrats. ...

More from the article ...

... Whether due to the strength of Democratic candidates or backlash against President Donald Trump and national Republicans, the state experienced a blue wave like it's rarely seen before.

Here are some numbers to know.

25

That's how many executive officer seats flipped from red to blue, based on unofficial Election Day results that still must be validated and certified.

Democrats grabbed power of mayor and first selectmen seats in more than two dozen places, from cities like New Britain to small towns like Bethany and from middle-class communities like Ansonia to wealthy ones like Westport.

That total doesn't count an additional three towns (Enfield, Killingly and South Windsor) where Democrats won majorities on local town councils or another town (Putnam) where a mayor recently flipped his affiliation from Republican to Democratic. ...

@#3 ... Pretty early to ground the whole fleet unless they found a significant issue already.

Or maybe it's just an easy way to comply with the flight reductions due to air traffic issues. ...

I'm currently leaning towards the former, rather than the latter.

Grounding a fleet is very significant.

It is not done lightly.

My hope, at this point, is that the fleet was grounded because of unknowns, and not because of knowns.

fwiw, I have a tie-in with Louisville.

I spent my first year out of college in that great city working for a major corporation that employed over 20,000 people.

The city had a great, healthy and happy vibe to it.

And when I went into the countryside on weekend trips, I found the people of Kentucky to be quite great.

Though, in one small town, the local police officer who stopped me for no apparent reason ~recommended~ to me that I get a Kentucky license plate instead of the New York license plate that I had on the car.

This ain't A Good Thing.

@#23 ... "FAA to Cut 10% of Flights Due to Shutdown" ...

More like 20%.

See #11.

And this is going into the Thanksgiving holiday travel season...

@#4 ... Guns keep us safe from clean homes. ...

OK, my neighbor's son one time knocked on my front door.

He is not a white Christian, but a person of color.

The neighbor had just moved in to the adjacent rental property, so I did not know them.

So, this person, who I did not know, knocks on my door. I answer the knocking.

I open the door.

Was the first thing on my mind to shoot him dead?

No. Absolutely not.

I asked him, "what's up?"

He said that lives in the adjacent house and that his cell phone battery is dead and he needs to call his Mom because he cannot find the spare key to his house. Can he use my phone?

I said, sure.

I gave him my phone to use.

I also watched as he subsequently went into the adjacent house.

True story.

@#4 ... Maybe if your beloved Dem party didn't keep filibustering a clean CR ...

Maybe if the Republicans want to stop denying healthcare to Americans ...

@#21 ... If Republicans think it's bad legislation, Republicans should simply repeal it, as the Republican House voted to do 62 times while Obama was President. ...

I disagree.

If the Republicans think it is bad legislation, then they should proffer better legislation.

It's been, what, at least a decade?

Where is the Republican alternative?

@#58 ... Boaz doesn't understand ...

I agree. That current alias just seems to regurgitate what it is told, without any manner of understanding.

It reminds me of a discussion I had with an Exec VP of a D&B Top Ten corporation that I worked for back in the day.

The Exec VP told me that he likes to hire military officers for positions because they just follow orders, without questioning the orders. As he went on to say, i.e., they do what they are told to do.

@#8 ... The word "exodus is thrown around a lot despite the movements being nowhere near that level. ...

Agreed.

...And we're starting to see the initial trends of movement into states like FL and TX reverse themselves as people who moved there find it's not what they were sold. ...

Yeah, it is that "find it's not what they were sold" aspect that seems to be the concern.

They were sold, "no income tax."

But then the found themselves to be faced with property taxes ans insurance costs.

My guess is that the latter were not mentioned in the sales pitch to buy property in Florida.

But then, the sales pitches to buy property in Florida have always been so honest.

.... and Epstein just keeps surfacing, the more they try to hide, lie, and gas light his importance. ...

Yup.

What does Spkr Johnson seem to be so afraid of?

Is he in the Epstein files?

... Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods stated on Friday that hydrocarbons will continue to play a critical role in global energy needs for the foreseeable future. ...

Well, yeah.

I do not disagree.

But, I do have to ask, does that mean that we should not try to move towards alternatives, as his lobbyists seem to be proffering?

I mean, his comments bring to mind for me, someone saying, back in the day, that the horse and buggy will be viable a transportation vehicle for the foreseeable future.

Quelle surprise.

Pres Trump's SCOTUS allows him to not feed Americans.

@#2 ... She was one of the most effective Speakers of the House Dems have had, ...

Yup.

She knew how to build agreement, instead of dictating agreement.

@#4 ... Maybe that $40 billion would have been better spent on America rather than Javi. ...

imo, that's a given.

But then, Sec Bessent's buddies would not have been bailed out for their bad "investments."

imo, of course.

@#6 ... "Ice agents crashing into US citizens then forcibly detaining them.

They don't know how to hold guns. They clearly don't have any training. They obviously aren't following the laws." ...

If that is correct, does it even matter to Pres Trump?

I mean, he likely thinks (OK, I use that word loosely, give me a break here) that those extreme tactics are part of what he wants. And that looks to be the intimidation into silence of those who do not agree with him.

@#4 ... Oh this isn't even about "The Old Farmer's Almanac" that most are familiar with it's about some other "Farmer's Almanac" from Maine. ...

Thanks for that.

From that link in #4...

... ... The Maine-based publication, not to be confused with the even older Old Farmer's Almanac in neighboring New Hampshire, was first printed in 1818. For centuries, it's used a secret formula based on sunspots, planetary positions and lunar cycles to generate long-range weather forecasts. ...

More from the article ...

... But when Watson died this week at the age of 97, his renown as the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA was tarnished by the fact that he had become a persona non grata in the two research fields that he pioneered: molecular biology and genomics.

Watson's penchant for making prejudiced and scientifically unfounded remarks about Black people, women, and others eventually forced even the institution that he had long directed, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, to cut all ties with him in 2019.

This fall from grace was remarkable given the heights he had achieved. In 1953, when he was not yet 25 years old, Watson worked with English researcher Francis Crick to piece together clues from various experiments " including work done by X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin " in order to create the first accurate model of DNA's chemical structure.

"This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest," Watson and Crick wrote in the published report describing their model, in what has to be science's most famous understatement. ...

@#1 ... Those laws allow a person to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to stop what they reasonably believe is an unlawful entry into their dwelling. ...

Is knocking on a door, or ringing a doorbell an unlawful entry?

More from the cited article ...

... The case brings Indiana's castle doctrine laws squarely into play, he said. Those laws allow a person to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to stop what they reasonably believe is an unlawful entry into their dwelling. ...

@#17 ... Obamacare, combined with the fallout from the Bush Bust & Bailout of 2007-2009, bent the inflation trajectory downward ...

Yup.

It changed the second derivative of healthcare inflation from positive to negative.

@#1 ... and that is/was up to the shareholders. Not a shareholder?, then your opinion's meaningless in the scheme of things. ...

I agree 100% that it was up to the shareholders.

I do have a disagreement, however, that my opinion is meaningless in the scheme of things.

My concern "in the scheme" of things" is the out-of-proportion salaries and perks given to CEOS lately while the workers that provide them with that wealth have concerns about putting food on the table.

@#8 ... Eastern Kentucky hearts coal. ...

Yup.

Back in the early 70's I worked in Louisville, Ky. I worked with an Engineer who came from eastern Kentucky. We became friends.

One of the things he told me was that his goal in life was to earn enough money to buy a truck so that he could go back home and drive that truck to carry coal.

And then, there's this ...

@#14 ... Because Elite Democrats took it upon themselves to ignore the other party and ram through a PoS legislation that only helped the insurance companies. ...

Do try harder.

For starters, Pres Trump's Republican party looks to be representative of the "elites," not the Democrats.

And, as a follow-up, if what the Democrats have been proposing regarding healthcare for the non-wealthy over the years is so bad, why has the only Republican response been to not provide healthcare support for those who need it?

For example ...

...
Candidate Trump on healthcare:

May 21, 2015
I'm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.

Sept 25, 2015
Everybody's got to be covered.

Feb 17, 2016
We're going to have great plans. They're going to be much less expensive and they're going to be much better.

Oct 25, 2016
You're going to have such great healthcare at a tiny fraction of the cost, and it is going to be so easy.

Nov 13, 2016
It will be better healthcare, much better for less money. Not a bad combination.

...

That was about ten years ago, yet we still have not seen any manner of a healthcare plan from Pres Trump.

Is it the meat packers?

Or is it a reduced supply of cattle?

Cattle Inventory Continues Contraction (February 2025)
https://www.fb.org/market-intel/cattle-inventory-continues-contraction

... USDA's January Cattle Inventory report shed some much-needed light on the state of the cattle industry in the United States. ...

According to the report, all cattle and calves in the United States on Jan. 1, 2025, totaled 86.7 million head, down about 1% from 87.2 million in 2024. The inventory, along with nearly all other estimates in the report, fell within the range of analyst estimates. The decrease, while smaller than last year, indicates continued contraction in the U.S. cattle herd.

...

More from the article ...

... The probe shows the Trump administration is seeking to tackle high food prices that have outpaced inflation. The Department of Justice is already probing whether egg producers conspired to inflate the price of eggs.

Beef prices set records in 2025 after a years-long drought burned up pasture lands and hiked feeding costs for cattle, forcing ranchers to slash the nation's herd to the smallest level in nearly 75 years. Consumer demand has remained generally strong despite high prices.

"I have asked the DOJ to immediately begin an investigation into the Meat Packing Companies who are driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, without naming companies.

Ranchers have long complained about consolidation in the packing industry, where Tyson Foods,Cargill, JBS USA and National Beef Packing Company slaughter about 80% of U.S. grain-fattened cattle that are made into steaks, beef roasts and other cuts of meat.

Cargill declined to comment. Spokespeople for the other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. ...

@#12 ... Not sure why they don't shut down private jets first. ...

Because that would affect the uber-wealthy.

Duh.

@#56 ... It's not that interesting. ...

Yeah, I think it is.

... To assume all Jews must love Israel is an absurd concept. ...

I didn't refer to "all Jews." I mentioned that NYC has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.

And, fwiw, from what I've seen on the local TV, Mr Cuomo got 60-70% of the Jewish vote.

So, why does the greatest Country on the planet seem to be unable to provide healthcare to its citizens?

Is this the "Golden Age" that Pres Trump says the Country is in?

@#7 ... Republicans own the shutdown now. ...

Yup.

@#15 ... Incomprehensible lyrics ...

Song lyrics are often like poetry.

Not saying directly what is meant, but painting the frame in which to build the picture.

@#54 ... "A liberal populist who opposes israel won! ...

That's quite interesting.

NYC has the largest Jewish population outside Israel.

And Mayor-elect Mamdani seems to have won, approximately 30-40% of their votes, based upon exit polling.

@#3 ... On balance, the filibuster does more to help the GOP than the Dems. ...

It looks that way.

Which may be why the Senate Republicans are not obeying Pres Trump's commands to them.

That is, The Senate Republicans probably see Pres Trump's command for a tactical transaction lacking any manner of longer-term strategic benefit to Republicans.

The bi-partisan bill that Pres Biden was willing to sign significantly tightened up the required needed to apply for asylum.

I agree, that the asylum requirements were being abused, with potential asylum-seekers being coached along their way into the US, telling them what to say to the agents they talked with at the border.

It was all set for bi-partisan approval by Congress, until candidate Trump commanded Republicans to reject it.

So, it seems Pres Trump and the Republicans were against the reform of our asylum laws?

Why?

@#1 ... President Donald Trump has responded to voters' growing concerns by insisting the economy is actually experiencing a "golden age." ...

Perhaps a "golden age" for his billionaire buddies.

But for the workers who keep the great Country running, how is this a "golden age?"