@RobertGReeve: I'm back from a week at my mom's house and now I'm getting ads for her toothpaste brand, the brand I've been putting in my mouth for a week. We never talked about this brand or googled it or anything like that.
As a privacy tech worker, let me explain why this is happening.
Exxon Mobil Corp., once a global superpower that could bend governments to its will, is locked in a battle against an upstart investor that wants to shake up the oil giant’s board.
The investor, Engine No. 1, has a stake valued at about $50 million, making it a niche player at the $253 billion company. But it has rallied a critical mass of institutional support to do what decades of environmental and shareholder activism never could: put Exxon Mobil on defense.
“There’s never been a campaign like the one at Exxon,” said Andrew Logan, senior director of oil and gas at the sustainable finance group Ceres. “You don’t get endless shots at reforming the Exxon board.”
Exxon Mobil shareholders on Wednesday will vote on whether to install Engine No. 1’s four dissident candidates on the 12-member company board.
my nephew currently has an acceptance to UCSC. His grandparents (my aunt and uncle) are unhappy but they don't understand how difficult it is to get into elite schools nowadays.
My dad who is much more knowledgable stuff like college admissions told the kid he should really consider Cal Poly SLO - he's super interested in computers.
I'm not sure what UCSC's computer science program is like but Cal Poly is good isn't it? I would think it's the best STEM program in the Cal Poly system.
No 3 wants to do kinesiology and then PT. Fullterton has it but UCSC doesn't. I think at UCSC he's doing physiology then onto whatever is required for PT. So we'll see how that goes.
IIRC UCSC has a great computer science program and was one of the first (if not the first) to have a video game design major. But as a meandering student who eventually settled on practicality with a business/Econ degree, I’m probably not the best to ask.
I'm only hearing this discussion 3 parties away - but you know this family is very name brand school oriented. My generation is Stanford, MIT, MIT, Cal, Cal. and then other cousins are Cal x 3, Pomona, UCLA. So the parents don't really "get" that lots of schools are really good and honestly its the student that matters the most.
Cal Poly Pomona might also be as good. The richest guy from my high school went to Cal Poly Pomona and wrote computer games - now he's famous and retired.
You know I always forget about Cal Poly Pomona, as do probably many Californians. Seems like Cal Poly SLO is the more well known one, and also known just by Cal Poly.
Did a college tour in Boston two weekends ago, looking at Northeastern U. That is a beautiful campus. While my kid will say that MIT is choice #1 as lipservice, I know that Northeastern is now the leader in the clubhouse. Bracing for the $80k/year cost.
We are currently in WA, moving to Bay Area in July for wife and my jobs. My current senior is going to Cal this fall. We'll suffer though one year of out of state tuition. 10th grade daughter will ne in Fremont School District this fall and is already eyeing a few CA schools.
our older one is going into her senior year. planning on spending the summer working as camp counselor locally and trying to get all her applications done before school starts.
i think she is applying the Cal, UCLA, and UCSB and UCSD among the UCs
the kids have this app/website at school called Naviance (i just learned about this) that shows scatter charts of GPA vs test scores and who got in (or not) from our HS.
interestingly, NO ONE has gotten into Cal in last 5+ yrs despite some of them being in the "good zone". on the other hand, for similar grades/scores people are getting into UCLA.
it is of course small sample statistics, but at least the sample set is her HS and competitive set.
I was surprised that the kids today have access to tools like that - my high school was so small that we all had a sense of who had gone where, but having actual data is pretty interesting to see if there are any trends for admissions offices.
we knew who got into what school for the two years ahead of us . . . even better than our guidance counsellors did. There was also one college prep counsellor and one for the rest of the school - but honestly the AP kids sort of guided ourselves and then the two classes below us.
They should also list what department/major they applied to. No 3 was the top of his class and got a 36 on the ACT and applied to Cal as an EECS major and didn't get in. Granted, his volunteer/extra curricular were virtually nil. I think if he applied to L&S then he would've had a much better chance of getting in. Also I think it's much much harder to get in as an out of state student.
i think it used to be much harder out-of-state, but i hear that times and rules have changed and the test score thing will add another round of complexity
FS and others (sorry forgot who else) will be happy to hear that No 3 was accepted off the UCSC wait list. Looks like he'll be going there instead of Fullerton.
My comment wasn't clear, but that is what I was trying to say. Having lived in fullerton, I don't have to have lived in Santa Cruz to know it is more fun in Santa Cruz.
Apparently he has not made a decision. I'm thinking he wants to play club baseball and get stronger and maybe try to walk on the baseball team. I know he was excited for that. He's got 4 days to decide.
Yeah I know. I think he's really just realizing he's going to miss playing baseball and club baseball would be a way to keep playing. Telling himself he'll workout and work in throwing harder to walk on maybe is just incentive to work out.
heh...yeah don't hold your breath. I think he just wants to keep playing, not make it to the next level. He knows he's not going to play pro. It used to be he wanted to play D2 or D3 and get school partially paid for. Due to Covid, he didn't really play much the last two years so really he wasn't able to play in any showcases or get video for schools.
But, if he really did, I'd be getting tickets right and left.
No 1 applied to Cal, didn't get in, but did get an offer for a full ride at UCSC. He ended up getting into Vandy so he didn't seriously consider it. But one thing his mom suggested, if he really wanted to go to Cal, was to go to UCSC then transfer to Cal. Either way, Cal would've been out of state so it would've cost a lot of money.
I had a couple friends freshman year that were able to transfer after 1-2yrs at UCSC, you just have to crush it in your classes and its apparently its an easy acceptance.
When I was applying was way back when you applied to the system and ranked all the campuses. You could get "redirected" from your first choice. UCSC and Cal had a thing where Cal 1st choicers would get redirected to Santa Cruz with a promise that if they did X (I believe UCSC did not have grades at the time, so it wasn't GPA) they could transfer as juniors. I thought that was cool, though I can't remember if I knew anyone who actually did it.
That happened to my older sister. She applied to Cal, didn't get in but got an offer to attend UCSC instead. She was going to do that but at the 11th hour got a call from Admissions saying she was cleared to go to Cal. That was like in May.
When I applied to Cal I got in directly. Had better SAT scores than she did.
If you get married, your finances are considered separate from your parents. My friend got married in college, and I'm not sure if that directly enabled her to get in-state tuition or if it was just that she was then eligible for more financial aid, but it made a huge difference.
He could've done that if he moved everything to Ca and worked there over the summer. He would be out of state for the first year and then in state for the rest. We would've just had him use his grandparent's address. However, I also did hear that California is making it harder to claim residency for college so maybe it isn't as easy as that now.
WOOHOO GO SLUGGGGSSSSS!!!!! I hope he enjoys his time there and takes advantage of all the fun outdoor activities UCSC has to offer. My two (not surprising now) regrets are not learning to surf and being too lazy to get to the harbor in the morning to do the sailing course (I dropped it after the first two campus classes because I didn't have an easy way to get across town early). The bay is one of the best marine environments in the country and I wish I had spent more time on the water taking advantage of it.
"Our Aquatics program is located at the Slug Recreation Complex East UC Santa Cruz. The program offers swim lessons year-round for swimmers of all levels and ages in addition to health and safety courses, such as Lifeguarding Training and Water Safety Instructor (WSI). No matter the level of skill or interest, there is something for everyone at UC Santa Cruz Aquatics."
It's a beautiful pool/facility and if he's not interested, there are tons of hikes through redwood forests and plenty of beautiful beaches to enjoy where it's too cold to go for a swim w/o a wetsuit. Also at least a dozen different taquerias with delicious mission style burritos.
I want a very simple one (like I bought a Williams one with the cow above the word Williams and I just cut the cow out and put it on the window). So maybe something like this one.
It's supposed to be daily PT. Walking. Stretching. Resistance bands stuff. Today, I finally admitted that I'm not getting it done and I'd be lying to myself if I thought I would miraculously change my habits. I'm going to need to reserve a specific time in the a.m. to get it done (eg, 6 am). My days of waking up naturally are now gone. Boo.
6am boot camp M-F through my gym. 4 weeks with 1 week off. During the week off, I have my bike hooked up to a trainer for indoor rides with with free online spin classes and 10 minute HIIT workouts
I take full advantage of her morning naptime. And it helps that my work schedule is flexible enough in the morning that I can usually hop out for a mid-morning ride.
Tuesday morning - 5:45am Group Bike ride 30km at 30kph
Wednesday morning - Weight Lifting Class (6 weeks concentrating on one lift, have done deadlifts, front and back squats, cleans, current: strict press)
Thursday - HIIT circuit training
Friday - Spin
Saturday - Spin or bike ride depending on the weather
Sunday - driving range - after a gigantic spin out at the golf course - I shot 125+ when I'm usually a 95-105 golfer, I decided I need to break down and actually learn how to hit my irons correctly. Hired a golf coach - she's a Chinese woman who went to Orlando at age 13, then went to App State to play golf, but had to move back to China for family reasons. She misses the US, she tells me.
My ankles have been very bad, but I'm going to try to get running again soon.
mine are a new adventure every time because once i get a little north of home and the roads open up a bit, there are an infinite number of possibilities and lengths
It's usually the same for a year then either Shanghai's ever changing road construction or some other reason they change the route. It used to be one big ride, but it's now split between a 36+ group and a 28-32 group. The Saturday ride is also a regular route, but the group that runs it also often has weekend trips that I will occasionally join.
Biden asks for the resignation of 4 Trump appointees from the Commission of Fine Arts who pushed the "Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again" executive office (ie, everything neo-classical Trump bullshit): Stephen Spandle - the architect behind the neo-classical White House Tennis Pavillion, Perry Guillot - the landscape architect who gutted the White House rose garden to Melania's wishes, Chas Fagan - a sculptor who specializes in Americana and GOP statues, and Justin Shubow - a lawyer who has no previous art background before becoming the CFA Chairman. Only Fagan resigned. The rest will be terminated.
FIL really wants his new home to be trumpian in appearance. Of course, he doesn't straight out say it, but right now there is a fight between MIL and FIL as to how much faux gold paint there should be on everything.
A package with a threat and white powder shows up at Rand Paul's house. Guess who Paul blames for inspiring the threat? Nope. Guess again. No. Guess again. No. Keep trying. I'll be right here waiting for you.
I mainly think people for polarizing reasons either want, or really do not want this to be true. But that's irrelevant to whether or not it is true.
"The source of the coronavirus that has left more than 3 million people dead around the world remains a mystery. But in recent months the idea that it emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — once dismissed as a ridiculous conspiracy theory — has gained new credence.
How and why did this happen? For one, efforts to discover a natural source of the virus have failed. Second, early efforts to spotlight a lab leak often got mixed up with speculation that the virus was deliberately created as a bioweapon. That made it easier for many scientists to dismiss the lab scenario as tin-hat nonsense. But a lack of transparency by China and renewed attention to the activities of the Wuhan lab have led some scientists to say they were too quick to discount a possible link at first."
I really hope it's not true, because if it is, the odds of my getting assaulted for looking Chinese go up. It was bad enough pre-pandemic. Back in the 1980s, a co-worker yelled at me because the Chinese government was treating tigers badly.
I completely understand your concerns re: harassment. I think that the prior administration was so incompetent in their overall response to the pandemic, it was easy to dismiss their claims as self-serving.
The possibility this came out of a lab rather than a zoonotic origin makes drumpf's lack of rapid response, including his dismantling of the pandemic response mechanism, all that worse. If something comes from nature, the argument that no one could have seen it coming is at least plausible. If it comes from a lab, that argument is gone.
A country like the Republic of China, which has far less resources, access, and clout to scout out pandemics like this were far better prepared despite the disadvantage of easier transmission and far greater population density.
https://twitter.com/RobertGReeve/status/1397032784703655938?s=20
@RobertGReeve: I'm back from a week at my mom's house and now I'm getting ads for her toothpaste brand, the brand I've been putting in my mouth for a week. We never talked about this brand or googled it or anything like that.
As a privacy tech worker, let me explain why this is happening.
Interesting development; non-ideological argument:
Exxon Mobil Corp., once a global superpower that could bend governments to its will, is locked in a battle against an upstart investor that wants to shake up the oil giant’s board.
The investor, Engine No. 1, has a stake valued at about $50 million, making it a niche player at the $253 billion company. But it has rallied a critical mass of institutional support to do what decades of environmental and shareholder activism never could: put Exxon Mobil on defense.
“There’s never been a campaign like the one at Exxon,” said Andrew Logan, senior director of oil and gas at the sustainable finance group Ceres. “You don’t get endless shots at reforming the Exxon board.”
Exxon Mobil shareholders on Wednesday will vote on whether to install Engine No. 1’s four dissident candidates on the 12-member company board.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/25/tiny-player-big-oil-defense-490744
DBD college update
my nephew currently has an acceptance to UCSC. His grandparents (my aunt and uncle) are unhappy but they don't understand how difficult it is to get into elite schools nowadays.
My dad who is much more knowledgable stuff like college admissions told the kid he should really consider Cal Poly SLO - he's super interested in computers.
I'm not sure what UCSC's computer science program is like but Cal Poly is good isn't it? I would think it's the best STEM program in the Cal Poly system.
No 3 wants to do kinesiology and then PT. Fullterton has it but UCSC doesn't. I think at UCSC he's doing physiology then onto whatever is required for PT. So we'll see how that goes.
IIRC UCSC has a great computer science program and was one of the first (if not the first) to have a video game design major. But as a meandering student who eventually settled on practicality with a business/Econ degree, I’m probably not the best to ask.
I'm only hearing this discussion 3 parties away - but you know this family is very name brand school oriented. My generation is Stanford, MIT, MIT, Cal, Cal. and then other cousins are Cal x 3, Pomona, UCLA. So the parents don't really "get" that lots of schools are really good and honestly its the student that matters the most.
Cal Poly Pomona might also be as good. The richest guy from my high school went to Cal Poly Pomona and wrote computer games - now he's famous and retired.
You know I always forget about Cal Poly Pomona, as do probably many Californians. Seems like Cal Poly SLO is the more well known one, and also known just by Cal Poly.
I think this is a north south divide. Cal Poly Pomona is known as Cal Poly in LA/So Cal.
UCSC IS AN ELITE SCHOOL, HOW DARE YOU!!!!!
Did a college tour in Boston two weekends ago, looking at Northeastern U. That is a beautiful campus. While my kid will say that MIT is choice #1 as lipservice, I know that Northeastern is now the leader in the clubhouse. Bracing for the $80k/year cost.
Yeah, my brother just went through three years of one at Wesleyan and one at Boston University. I can't imagine that kind of outlay all at once.
to be fair, unless you go to an in-state public university, the cost is $60-80k for everything it seems ...
We are currently in WA, moving to Bay Area in July for wife and my jobs. My current senior is going to Cal this fall. We'll suffer though one year of out of state tuition. 10th grade daughter will ne in Fremont School District this fall and is already eyeing a few CA schools.
pre-college update.
our older one is going into her senior year. planning on spending the summer working as camp counselor locally and trying to get all her applications done before school starts.
i think she is applying the Cal, UCLA, and UCSB and UCSD among the UCs
the kids have this app/website at school called Naviance (i just learned about this) that shows scatter charts of GPA vs test scores and who got in (or not) from our HS.
interestingly, NO ONE has gotten into Cal in last 5+ yrs despite some of them being in the "good zone". on the other hand, for similar grades/scores people are getting into UCLA.
it is of course small sample statistics, but at least the sample set is her HS and competitive set.
I was surprised that the kids today have access to tools like that - my high school was so small that we all had a sense of who had gone where, but having actual data is pretty interesting to see if there are any trends for admissions offices.
we knew who got into what school for the two years ahead of us . . . even better than our guidance counsellors did. There was also one college prep counsellor and one for the rest of the school - but honestly the AP kids sort of guided ourselves and then the two classes below us.
They should also list what department/major they applied to. No 3 was the top of his class and got a 36 on the ACT and applied to Cal as an EECS major and didn't get in. Granted, his volunteer/extra curricular were virtually nil. I think if he applied to L&S then he would've had a much better chance of getting in. Also I think it's much much harder to get in as an out of state student.
i think it used to be much harder out-of-state, but i hear that times and rules have changed and the test score thing will add another round of complexity
FS and others (sorry forgot who else) will be happy to hear that No 3 was accepted off the UCSC wait list. Looks like he'll be going there instead of Fullerton.
Santa Cruz >>>>>>>> Fullerton, even if CSUF is a really good school (though still not as good as UCSC).
I also feel like it's more fun living in Santa Cruz than Fullerton (without ever having been to Fullerton).
My comment wasn't clear, but that is what I was trying to say. Having lived in fullerton, I don't have to have lived in Santa Cruz to know it is more fun in Santa Cruz.
Although if No. 3 went to Fullerton, I would have encouraged you all to have him rent a room at a house my father rents out near the campus.
Apparently he has not made a decision. I'm thinking he wants to play club baseball and get stronger and maybe try to walk on the baseball team. I know he was excited for that. He's got 4 days to decide.
CSUF is a big time program
Yeah I know. I think he's really just realizing he's going to miss playing baseball and club baseball would be a way to keep playing. Telling himself he'll workout and work in throwing harder to walk on maybe is just incentive to work out.
How many tickets are you going to get for the DBD section for his MLB debut?
heh...yeah don't hold your breath. I think he just wants to keep playing, not make it to the next level. He knows he's not going to play pro. It used to be he wanted to play D2 or D3 and get school partially paid for. Due to Covid, he didn't really play much the last two years so really he wasn't able to play in any showcases or get video for schools.
But, if he really did, I'd be getting tickets right and left.
My son enjoyed his time there, only thing I thought was funny, as an avid mountain biker - he left his bike here.
I could see lots of good trails there.
So many trails/jumps in the hills above College 9/10 and Merrill/Crown
UCSC was one of my "wish list" destinations for grad school because they are particularly good at Astronomy.
didnt get in, so it didnt matter ...
No 1 applied to Cal, didn't get in, but did get an offer for a full ride at UCSC. He ended up getting into Vandy so he didn't seriously consider it. But one thing his mom suggested, if he really wanted to go to Cal, was to go to UCSC then transfer to Cal. Either way, Cal would've been out of state so it would've cost a lot of money.
I had a couple friends freshman year that were able to transfer after 1-2yrs at UCSC, you just have to crush it in your classes and its apparently its an easy acceptance.
The lady friend started at UCSB and transferred to Cal after her sophomore year
I know that No 3 has no interest in going to Cal.
When I was applying was way back when you applied to the system and ranked all the campuses. You could get "redirected" from your first choice. UCSC and Cal had a thing where Cal 1st choicers would get redirected to Santa Cruz with a promise that if they did X (I believe UCSC did not have grades at the time, so it wasn't GPA) they could transfer as juniors. I thought that was cool, though I can't remember if I knew anyone who actually did it.
We have grades now and have since (redacted) as to not age anyone ;-)
That happened to my older sister. She applied to Cal, didn't get in but got an offer to attend UCSC instead. She was going to do that but at the 11th hour got a call from Admissions saying she was cleared to go to Cal. That was like in May.
When I applied to Cal I got in directly. Had better SAT scores than she did.
what is the deal w/ living there for a year and getting residency? is that still a thing?
That ended when I was in school - which was a long long long time ago. It's now 3 years.
If you get married, your finances are considered separate from your parents. My friend got married in college, and I'm not sure if that directly enabled her to get in-state tuition or if it was just that she was then eligible for more financial aid, but it made a huge difference.
He could've done that if he moved everything to Ca and worked there over the summer. He would be out of state for the first year and then in state for the rest. We would've just had him use his grandparent's address. However, I also did hear that California is making it harder to claim residency for college so maybe it isn't as easy as that now.
i dont think my teaching gig at Cal gets me any tuition breaks either
WOOHOO GO SLUGGGGSSSSS!!!!! I hope he enjoys his time there and takes advantage of all the fun outdoor activities UCSC has to offer. My two (not surprising now) regrets are not learning to surf and being too lazy to get to the harbor in the morning to do the sailing course (I dropped it after the first two campus classes because I didn't have an easy way to get across town early). The bay is one of the best marine environments in the country and I wish I had spent more time on the water taking advantage of it.
Unfortunately doesn't really know how to swim so I think surfing and sailing would be out of the question.
https://recreation.ucsc.edu/aquatics/index.html
"Our Aquatics program is located at the Slug Recreation Complex East UC Santa Cruz. The program offers swim lessons year-round for swimmers of all levels and ages in addition to health and safety courses, such as Lifeguarding Training and Water Safety Instructor (WSI). No matter the level of skill or interest, there is something for everyone at UC Santa Cruz Aquatics."
Oh...that's a good idea. Maybe I can get him to do this.
It's a beautiful pool/facility and if he's not interested, there are tons of hikes through redwood forests and plenty of beautiful beaches to enjoy where it's too cold to go for a swim w/o a wetsuit. Also at least a dozen different taquerias with delicious mission style burritos.
Slugs!
Now I've got to go find a good banana slug decal for the car. Maybe I'll have the Williams Eph riding the Banana slug.
My current one:
https://slugstore.ucsc.edu/ePOS?form=shared3/gm/merch.html&item_number=i4345&cat=26&store=721&design=baytree
heh...thats great. maybe I'll get that for his car.
I want a very simple one (like I bought a Williams one with the cow above the word Williams and I just cut the cow out and put it on the window). So maybe something like this one.
https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/Sammy-the-slug-by-lovelylesie/62794171.EJUG5
Routine
I workout 5x week, hour & 20, 45 minutes on the bike, the rest on core exercises & stretches.
45 minutes on an indoor bike, or a bike ride?
Indoor, it's just easier, and I want to be warm when I'm doing the stretches.
It's supposed to be daily PT. Walking. Stretching. Resistance bands stuff. Today, I finally admitted that I'm not getting it done and I'd be lying to myself if I thought I would miraculously change my habits. I'm going to need to reserve a specific time in the a.m. to get it done (eg, 6 am). My days of waking up naturally are now gone. Boo.
I would never do it if I had to get up early, start at 6:00PM.
6am boot camp M-F through my gym. 4 weeks with 1 week off. During the week off, I have my bike hooked up to a trainer for indoor rides with with free online spin classes and 10 minute HIIT workouts
In non-recovering times, 2-4mi run 4-5x per week, surfing 1-3x per week and in this week will start incorporating 3-4 days of weights
Walk 5 miles a day 5 times a week (2 days off). Lift weights in the evening.
More an addiction than a routine - run every day. Haven't missed a day since Feb. 2020 when things closed down.
M-F: ~12 mile ride on a mix of tarmac, gravel, and dirt roads/paths (usually 4 times during the week, schedule/weather permitting)
Sat/Sun: same ride but with an additional 45-60 minute detour in the middle on some single track trails in the woods.
Most days when I can't get out on the bike: ~20 minutes of weights in the basement
I'm genuinely impressed that you're able to maintain that with a babby in the house
I take full advantage of her morning naptime. And it helps that my work schedule is flexible enough in the morning that I can usually hop out for a mid-morning ride.
kids naptime is the best for a 1-2 hour bike ride. i did that for many years when the kids were young
Tuesday morning - 5:45am Group Bike ride 30km at 30kph
Wednesday morning - Weight Lifting Class (6 weeks concentrating on one lift, have done deadlifts, front and back squats, cleans, current: strict press)
Thursday - HIIT circuit training
Friday - Spin
Saturday - Spin or bike ride depending on the weather
Sunday - driving range - after a gigantic spin out at the golf course - I shot 125+ when I'm usually a 95-105 golfer, I decided I need to break down and actually learn how to hit my irons correctly. Hired a golf coach - she's a Chinese woman who went to Orlando at age 13, then went to App State to play golf, but had to move back to China for family reasons. She misses the US, she tells me.
My ankles have been very bad, but I'm going to try to get running again soon.
you have quite a variety
is your group ride a pretty consistent route?
mine are a new adventure every time because once i get a little north of home and the roads open up a bit, there are an infinite number of possibilities and lengths
It's usually the same for a year then either Shanghai's ever changing road construction or some other reason they change the route. It used to be one big ride, but it's now split between a 36+ group and a 28-32 group. The Saturday ride is also a regular route, but the group that runs it also often has weekend trips that I will occasionally join.
my cycling centric routine, when i am not "broken"
Mon - rest day (just like the Grand Tours)
Tue/Thu - intervals outdoors. usually something like 5x8min with increasingly shorter recovery over time and higher power thresholds
Wed/Fri - Soul Cycle
Sat/Sun - solo or group ride about 50-80km depending on family stuff
DBD Test Kitchen
Crissy Tiegen's creamy tumeric pasta is actually really good.
Mrs Bk97 has a couple of her cookbooks and there's some good food in there.
Our Crumbling Democracy
Biden asks for the resignation of 4 Trump appointees from the Commission of Fine Arts who pushed the "Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again" executive office (ie, everything neo-classical Trump bullshit): Stephen Spandle - the architect behind the neo-classical White House Tennis Pavillion, Perry Guillot - the landscape architect who gutted the White House rose garden to Melania's wishes, Chas Fagan - a sculptor who specializes in Americana and GOP statues, and Justin Shubow - a lawyer who has no previous art background before becoming the CFA Chairman. Only Fagan resigned. The rest will be terminated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/biben-ousts-fine-arts-commission-members/2021/05/25/840066f6-bd64-11eb-b26e-53663e6be6ff_story.html
FIL really wants his new home to be trumpian in appearance. Of course, he doesn't straight out say it, but right now there is a fight between MIL and FIL as to how much faux gold paint there should be on everything.
Latest Reuters/Ipsos Poll: More than half of Republicans think DJT is the legitimate president and 62% think the election was stolen from him.
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2021-05/Ipsos%20Reuters%20Topline%20Write%20up-%20The%20Big%20Lie%20-%2017%20May%20thru%2019%20May%202021.pdf
lock them up
DHS' Office of Inspector General (the oversight of the DHS):
DHS intentionally separated over 5,500 kids from their families, of which 1k are still not reunited. Meanwhile, Kirstjen Nielsen lied about it.
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2021-05/OIG-21-36-May21.pdf
I think we all suspected as much, but still: those motherfuckers
GOP in US Senate to filibuster the 1/6 Commission.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/555184-filibuster-fight-looms-over-jan-6-commission
Make 'em talk.
GOP House Leader McCarthy condemns MTG equating mask-wearing to the holocaust - by blaming anti-Semitic Democrats. Wut?
https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1397191456876601353
Ben Shapiro: Who shat in my pants?
https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1397161868695846914
A package with a threat and white powder shows up at Rand Paul's house. Guess who Paul blames for inspiring the threat? Nope. Guess again. No. Guess again. No. Keep trying. I'll be right here waiting for you.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/24/suspicious-package-rand-paul-490640
I'm with Richard.
Shouldn't being Paul's assailant as many drinks as he can consume make the threat of violence lower?
George Soros?
I would have never guessed - and I've never heard of him.
heh
Today in Covid-19
I mainly think people for polarizing reasons either want, or really do not want this to be true. But that's irrelevant to whether or not it is true.
"The source of the coronavirus that has left more than 3 million people dead around the world remains a mystery. But in recent months the idea that it emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — once dismissed as a ridiculous conspiracy theory — has gained new credence.
How and why did this happen? For one, efforts to discover a natural source of the virus have failed. Second, early efforts to spotlight a lab leak often got mixed up with speculation that the virus was deliberately created as a bioweapon. That made it easier for many scientists to dismiss the lab scenario as tin-hat nonsense. But a lack of transparency by China and renewed attention to the activities of the Wuhan lab have led some scientists to say they were too quick to discount a possible link at first."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/25/timeline-how-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-suddenly-became-credible/
I really hope it's not true, because if it is, the odds of my getting assaulted for looking Chinese go up. It was bad enough pre-pandemic. Back in the 1980s, a co-worker yelled at me because the Chinese government was treating tigers badly.
I completely understand your concerns re: harassment. I think that the prior administration was so incompetent in their overall response to the pandemic, it was easy to dismiss their claims as self-serving.
Thanks for the link to that interesting information
The possibility this came out of a lab rather than a zoonotic origin makes drumpf's lack of rapid response, including his dismantling of the pandemic response mechanism, all that worse. If something comes from nature, the argument that no one could have seen it coming is at least plausible. If it comes from a lab, that argument is gone.
A country like the Republic of China, which has far less resources, access, and clout to scout out pandemics like this were far better prepared despite the disadvantage of easier transmission and far greater population density.
Well, being a dictatorship rather helps in this arena, ya think?
I don't see how that is relevant to the comparison between the Republic of China and the United States.
Ah, wrong China
Pro
A's drop 4-2 snoozer to the Mariners. I am going to tomorrow's game, third base line, 17th row.
Aaron Rodgers finally breaks silence on Packers drama, gets directly asked about reported trade demands
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/aaron-rodgers-finally-breaks-silence-on-packers-drama-gets-directly-asked-about-reported-trade-demands/
Other College
College football staff picks: Potential upsets in 2021 season include rough start for Steve Sarkisian at Texas
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-staff-picks-potential-upsets-in-2021-season-include-rough-start-for-steve-sarkisian-at-texas/
Cal
Go Bears!!!