I wasn't expecting to like any of them. But Hegseth might be the most unqualified pick in US history.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
I wasn't expecting to like any of them. But Hegseth might be the most unqualified pick in US history.
and why? Such an important position to put a moron in charge of
Because Fox News is to Trump what Twitter/X is to Elon and cocaine is to Don, Jr.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Damn wtf how can we be moving backwards and listening to a total nut case I bet his parents had him vaccinated no? How many people does this incompetent idiot want to die young I hope the democrats gave the balls to make him fucking sweat at his confirmation hearings!
jesus greets me looks just like me ....
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,435
When do we get to find out what cabinet position he will give to Ted Nugent? Christmas, maybe?
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The Senate Armed Services Committee usually limits who can view these types of background checks. Lawmakers want to see this one. Pete Hegseth, walks with his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, and other members of his entourage at the U.S. Capitol.
Pete Hegseth’s background check would likely move forward on an expedited timeline. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
By Joe Gould
12/19/2024 05:00 AM EST
At least a dozen senators are pushing to see the FBI’s background check on Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled pick for Pentagon chief — a rare move for the committee that oversees his confirmation and a sign the former Fox News host still faces hurdles in the Senate.
Unlike some other committees, the Senate Armed Services usually limits access to these types of background checks to its two lead senators. But pressure is building from both Democrats and Republicans to provide more lawmakers with the ongoing report, whose contents could determine whether Hegseth makes it to the Pentagon.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,435
Some folks are actually OK with this. Weird. Very, very weird.
Trump’s ‘stunningly unqualified’ diplomatic team shapes up at breakneck speed
Trump
is hardly the first US president to introduce miscast nominees, but he
has nominated ambassadors at a rate not recalled in recent memory
They seem an unlikely, almost motley, crew of emissaries.
For
the Bahamas, there is Herschel Walker, a former NFL star whose
fledgling Senate campaign was undone by a string of personal
embarrassments but who now is named to be the next US ambassador to the
small island nation.
To
the plum diplomatic posting of Paris goes Charles Kushner, father of
Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a man the president-elect once pardoned
for a felony conviction that the former Republican New Jersey governor
Chris Christie, an ex-federal prosecutor, called “one of the most
loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.
And
to Greece, once a preserve of seasoned career diplomats, goes Kimberly
Guilfoyle, until recently the romantic partner of Trump’s eldest son,
Donald Trump Jr, and a woman known more for her rumbustious media
profile than her diplomatic acumen.
The trio
are among a flurry of ambassadorial nominees rolled out by Trump in
recent weeks as he rushes to fill his administration at breakneck speed
with envoys who will project his “America First” ideology abroad.
Their
lack of credentials has prompted one experienced foreign policy analyst
to label them a “diplomatic clown car” – and a deliberate affront to
the countries hosting them.
Since last month’s
election triumph, the president-elect has nominated ambassadors at a
rate not recalled in recent memory – including five in a single day this
week.
Some appear conspicuously unschooled in
the diplomatic arts; others have business links which experts say risk
conflicts of interest.
Unlike most countries,
which fill ambassadors’ roles from the ranks of professional diplomats,
it is customary for US presidents to reward allies and financial backers
with ambassadorial jobs – with prize postings like London and Paris
almost always going to friends of the man in the oval office.
But
Trump has broken new ground with the sheer volume of ambassadorial
nominations – and his lack of consideration of their professional
suitability.
“It’s not unusual to see a lot of
political appointee ambassadors named early in a presidency,” said
Dennis Jett, an international relations professor at Pennsylvania State
University and author of a book on the history of US ambassadors.
“But
I don’t recall any president-elect announcing bunches of
ambassadorships like this guy’s doing. They don’t usually dip down into
the ambassadorial ranks until they actually are sitting in the White
House.
“The other remarkable thing is how
stunningly unqualified everyone is. I don’t see anyone there who I
think, ‘Now there’s a highly qualified person.’”
Trump
is hardly the first US president to introduce miscast nominees. Barack
Obama’s chosen envoy to Norway, George Tsunis, withdrew his nomination
in 2014 when a Senate confirmation revealed embarrassing ignorance about the country and its political system. Tsunis was subsequently nominated as ambassador to Greece - where he currently serves - by Joe Biden.
But few presidents have sought to do so in a manner that seems to cock a snook at the polite salons of international diplomacy.
Walker, Kushner and Guilfoyle are not the only apparently unsuited prospective envoys.
As ambassador to Nato – the military alliance which he has repeatedly disdained in public – Trump has nominated Matt Whitaker, an acting attorney general during his first presidency, whose background is in law enforcement.
For
Turkey – a key Nato ally and a country playing a strategic role in the
political fallout in Syria after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad – he
has tapped his friend, Tom Barrack, a billionaire property magnate who
chaired his 2017 inaugural committee. Barrack was acquitted in
2022 of charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the
United Arab Emirates during the first Trump administration and lying to
the FBI.
Thomas Countryman, a former assistant
secretary of state during Barack Obama’s presidency, said the
nominations raised fears about the quality of US foreign policy in vital
areas, as well as conflicts of interest.
“An unqualified person like Herschel Walker can only do so much damage in the Bahamas,” he said.
“But
at a place like the permanent mission to Nato, having a person with
zero diplomatic experience and almost no managerial experience
negotiating some of the most difficult issues that Europe and the United
States must face together is a recipe not just for misunderstanding,
but for failure to reach the kind of consensus and compromise that
obviously requires.”
On Barrack, he added: “I
think that disentangling the private profit interests of Mr Trump and Mr
Barrack from the professional work that Barrack would need to do in
Ankara will be difficult, not least because of its non-transparency.”
Even
before taking office, Trump has caused disruption by threatening to
impose tariffs on the country’s closest neighbours, Mexico and Canada,
where his rhetoric has provoked shockwaves. The prime minister of
Canada, Justin Trudeau, has faced calls to resign after being accused of
failing to take a tough enough line, as Trump has taunted him by
calling the country “a state” and Trudeau its “governor”.
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Trump’s ‘stunningly unqualified’ diplomatic team shapes up at breakneck speed
Trump
is hardly the first US president to introduce miscast nominees, but he
has nominated ambassadors at a rate not recalled in recent memory
They seem an unlikely, almost motley, crew of emissaries.
For
the Bahamas, there is Herschel Walker, a former NFL star whose
fledgling Senate campaign was undone by a string of personal
embarrassments but who now is named to be the next US ambassador to the
small island nation.
To
the plum diplomatic posting of Paris goes Charles Kushner, father of
Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a man the president-elect once pardoned
for a felony conviction that the former Republican New Jersey governor
Chris Christie, an ex-federal prosecutor, called “one of the most
loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.
And
to Greece, once a preserve of seasoned career diplomats, goes Kimberly
Guilfoyle, until recently the romantic partner of Trump’s eldest son,
Donald Trump Jr, and a woman known more for her rumbustious media
profile than her diplomatic acumen.
The trio
are among a flurry of ambassadorial nominees rolled out by Trump in
recent weeks as he rushes to fill his administration at breakneck speed
with envoys who will project his “America First” ideology abroad.
Their
lack of credentials has prompted one experienced foreign policy analyst
to label them a “diplomatic clown car” – and a deliberate affront to
the countries hosting them.
Since last month’s
election triumph, the president-elect has nominated ambassadors at a
rate not recalled in recent memory – including five in a single day this
week.
Some appear conspicuously unschooled in
the diplomatic arts; others have business links which experts say risk
conflicts of interest.
Unlike most countries,
which fill ambassadors’ roles from the ranks of professional diplomats,
it is customary for US presidents to reward allies and financial backers
with ambassadorial jobs – with prize postings like London and Paris
almost always going to friends of the man in the oval office.
But
Trump has broken new ground with the sheer volume of ambassadorial
nominations – and his lack of consideration of their professional
suitability.
“It’s not unusual to see a lot of
political appointee ambassadors named early in a presidency,” said
Dennis Jett, an international relations professor at Pennsylvania State
University and author of a book on the history of US ambassadors.
“But
I don’t recall any president-elect announcing bunches of
ambassadorships like this guy’s doing. They don’t usually dip down into
the ambassadorial ranks until they actually are sitting in the White
House.
“The other remarkable thing is how
stunningly unqualified everyone is. I don’t see anyone there who I
think, ‘Now there’s a highly qualified person.’”
Trump
is hardly the first US president to introduce miscast nominees. Barack
Obama’s chosen envoy to Norway, George Tsunis, withdrew his nomination
in 2014 when a Senate confirmation revealed embarrassing ignorance about the country and its political system. Tsunis was subsequently nominated as ambassador to Greece - where he currently serves - by Joe Biden.
But few presidents have sought to do so in a manner that seems to cock a snook at the polite salons of international diplomacy.
Walker, Kushner and Guilfoyle are not the only apparently unsuited prospective envoys.
As ambassador to Nato – the military alliance which he has repeatedly disdained in public – Trump has nominated Matt Whitaker, an acting attorney general during his first presidency, whose background is in law enforcement.
For
Turkey – a key Nato ally and a country playing a strategic role in the
political fallout in Syria after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad – he
has tapped his friend, Tom Barrack, a billionaire property magnate who
chaired his 2017 inaugural committee. Barrack was acquitted in
2022 of charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the
United Arab Emirates during the first Trump administration and lying to
the FBI.
Thomas Countryman, a former assistant
secretary of state during Barack Obama’s presidency, said the
nominations raised fears about the quality of US foreign policy in vital
areas, as well as conflicts of interest.
“An unqualified person like Herschel Walker can only do so much damage in the Bahamas,” he said.
“But
at a place like the permanent mission to Nato, having a person with
zero diplomatic experience and almost no managerial experience
negotiating some of the most difficult issues that Europe and the United
States must face together is a recipe not just for misunderstanding,
but for failure to reach the kind of consensus and compromise that
obviously requires.”
On Barrack, he added: “I
think that disentangling the private profit interests of Mr Trump and Mr
Barrack from the professional work that Barrack would need to do in
Ankara will be difficult, not least because of its non-transparency.”
Even
before taking office, Trump has caused disruption by threatening to
impose tariffs on the country’s closest neighbours, Mexico and Canada,
where his rhetoric has provoked shockwaves. The prime minister of
Canada, Justin Trudeau, has faced calls to resign after being accused of
failing to take a tough enough line, as Trump has taunted him by
calling the country “a state” and Trudeau its “governor”.
All I can say is don’t visit those countries and find yourself in trouble.
Trump’s ‘stunningly unqualified’ diplomatic team shapes up at breakneck speed
Trump
is hardly the first US president to introduce miscast nominees, but he
has nominated ambassadors at a rate not recalled in recent memory
They seem an unlikely, almost motley, crew of emissaries.
For
the Bahamas, there is Herschel Walker, a former NFL star whose
fledgling Senate campaign was undone by a string of personal
embarrassments but who now is named to be the next US ambassador to the
small island nation.
To
the plum diplomatic posting of Paris goes Charles Kushner, father of
Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a man the president-elect once pardoned
for a felony conviction that the former Republican New Jersey governor
Chris Christie, an ex-federal prosecutor, called “one of the most
loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.
And
to Greece, once a preserve of seasoned career diplomats, goes Kimberly
Guilfoyle, until recently the romantic partner of Trump’s eldest son,
Donald Trump Jr, and a woman known more for her rumbustious media
profile than her diplomatic acumen.
The trio
are among a flurry of ambassadorial nominees rolled out by Trump in
recent weeks as he rushes to fill his administration at breakneck speed
with envoys who will project his “America First” ideology abroad.
Their
lack of credentials has prompted one experienced foreign policy analyst
to label them a “diplomatic clown car” – and a deliberate affront to
the countries hosting them.
Since last month’s
election triumph, the president-elect has nominated ambassadors at a
rate not recalled in recent memory – including five in a single day this
week.
Some appear conspicuously unschooled in
the diplomatic arts; others have business links which experts say risk
conflicts of interest.
Unlike most countries,
which fill ambassadors’ roles from the ranks of professional diplomats,
it is customary for US presidents to reward allies and financial backers
with ambassadorial jobs – with prize postings like London and Paris
almost always going to friends of the man in the oval office.
But
Trump has broken new ground with the sheer volume of ambassadorial
nominations – and his lack of consideration of their professional
suitability.
“It’s not unusual to see a lot of
political appointee ambassadors named early in a presidency,” said
Dennis Jett, an international relations professor at Pennsylvania State
University and author of a book on the history of US ambassadors.
“But
I don’t recall any president-elect announcing bunches of
ambassadorships like this guy’s doing. They don’t usually dip down into
the ambassadorial ranks until they actually are sitting in the White
House.
“The other remarkable thing is how
stunningly unqualified everyone is. I don’t see anyone there who I
think, ‘Now there’s a highly qualified person.’”
Trump
is hardly the first US president to introduce miscast nominees. Barack
Obama’s chosen envoy to Norway, George Tsunis, withdrew his nomination
in 2014 when a Senate confirmation revealed embarrassing ignorance about the country and its political system. Tsunis was subsequently nominated as ambassador to Greece - where he currently serves - by Joe Biden.
But few presidents have sought to do so in a manner that seems to cock a snook at the polite salons of international diplomacy.
Walker, Kushner and Guilfoyle are not the only apparently unsuited prospective envoys.
As ambassador to Nato – the military alliance which he has repeatedly disdained in public – Trump has nominated Matt Whitaker, an acting attorney general during his first presidency, whose background is in law enforcement.
For
Turkey – a key Nato ally and a country playing a strategic role in the
political fallout in Syria after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad – he
has tapped his friend, Tom Barrack, a billionaire property magnate who
chaired his 2017 inaugural committee. Barrack was acquitted in
2022 of charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the
United Arab Emirates during the first Trump administration and lying to
the FBI.
Thomas Countryman, a former assistant
secretary of state during Barack Obama’s presidency, said the
nominations raised fears about the quality of US foreign policy in vital
areas, as well as conflicts of interest.
“An unqualified person like Herschel Walker can only do so much damage in the Bahamas,” he said.
“But
at a place like the permanent mission to Nato, having a person with
zero diplomatic experience and almost no managerial experience
negotiating some of the most difficult issues that Europe and the United
States must face together is a recipe not just for misunderstanding,
but for failure to reach the kind of consensus and compromise that
obviously requires.”
On Barrack, he added: “I
think that disentangling the private profit interests of Mr Trump and Mr
Barrack from the professional work that Barrack would need to do in
Ankara will be difficult, not least because of its non-transparency.”
Even
before taking office, Trump has caused disruption by threatening to
impose tariffs on the country’s closest neighbours, Mexico and Canada,
where his rhetoric has provoked shockwaves. The prime minister of
Canada, Justin Trudeau, has faced calls to resign after being accused of
failing to take a tough enough line, as Trump has taunted him by
calling the country “a state” and Trudeau its “governor”.
All I can say is don’t visit those countries and find yourself in trouble.
I guess going to the Bahamas just once will have to do. Oh well, it was too bloody humid there anyway!
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
Choccoloccotide
A grass shack nailed to a pinewood floor Posts: 1,236
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,435
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
"Try to not spook the horse."
-Neil Young
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,435
edited December 2024
Gotta love it, right? 45 picks a guy who stuffs bear heads in his vehicle and believes in chem trails. I wonder if he will find the cure to the next viral outbreak by using a Ouija board?
Chemtrail conspiracy theories: why RFK Jr is watching the skies
Belief
in a supposed US government plot linked to aircraft condensation trails
has been boosted by confusion over proposals to geoengineer a response
to the climate crisis
A
conspiracy theory that airplanes are leaving nefarious “chemtrails” in
their wake due to a sinister government plot has been given fresh
impetus in the US amid a swirl of concerns and confusion about proposals
to geoengineer a response to the climate crisis.
State legislation to ban what some lawmakers call chemtrails has been pushed forward in Tennessee and, most recently, Florida.
Meanwhile, Robert F Kennedy, who has expressed interest in the
conspiracy theory on social media and his podcast, is set to be at the
heart of Donald Trump’s new administration following his nomination as health secretary.
“We are going to stop this crime,” Kennedy, who is known for his contrarian stances on vaccines and offshore wind farms, wrote about chemtrails on X in August.
The former Democrat turned Trump ally said on his podcast last year
that it was “kind of frightening to think that somebody may be putting
large amounts of bioavailable aluminum into the environment, spraying it
in microscopic particulates from airplanes”.
Believers of the chemtrails conspiracy theory
contend that the white lines traced in the sky behind aircraft contain
toxic chemicals that are released to achieve a devious end, such as mass
sterilization or mind control.
This theory,
which has no evidence to support it, has been put forward at various
times since the 1990s despite being repeatedly debunked. Now, scientists
are faced with a resurgent focus on chemtrails amid a related, more
substantive, debate over whether actual modifications to the Earth’s
atmosphere should be made in a desperate attempt to slow global heating.
Interest
in chemtrails “bubbles up every once in a while and the hurricanes and
weather modification kind of brings it up to the floor again”, said
David Fahey, director of the chemical sciences laboratory at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), in reference to
two recent major hurricanes – Helene and Milton – that some figures,
including Republicans, claimed were somehow steered by the federal government’s meddling with the weather.
“The
misinformation is abundant,” said Fahey, who has spent several decades,
on and off, fielding questions about chemtrails. There was no
orchestrated weather modification conducted by Noaa, Fahey said, and
even experimenting with such a thing would be a “big step for our agency
and one that we are not quite prepared to do at the moment, and maybe
our agency shouldn’t do it”.
Are chemtrails real?
No. The white plumes seen from the rear of aircraft
are more aptly called condensation trails, or contrails. They are
essentially condensed water vapor from a plane’s exhaust that, in cold
air temperatures at high altitudes, form as ice crystals that look like
visible clouds.
A survey of leading atmospheric scientists in 2016
found there was no evidence of a secret spraying program that would
form these contrails. This research led to backlash from conspiracy
theorists, with Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist who led the study,
saying that he received death threats.
“I felt
like it was a risk to my personal safety,” he said. “People have bought
into this false narrative. We’re now seeing a worrying resurgence of
conspiracy theories in general, from chemtrails to vaccines. There’s a
detachment from facts and rational analysis.”
More at link.
*************************
NOTICE THIS:
We’re now seeing a worrying resurgence of
conspiracy theories in general, from chemtrails to vaccines. There’s a
detachment from facts and rational analysis.”
Beautiful! America detaches from reality! Stay tuned for more lunacy!
Post edited by brianlux on
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Comments
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
fuck yeah Polio!
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
”only the best people, folks, only the best people.”
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Instill confidence? Yes, it does! I am confident 47 will screw up everything in his path. Way to go, MAGAs!
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
https://www.wabe.org/trump-taps-georgia-football-legend-former-senate-candidate-herschel-walker-as-us-ambassador-to-bahamas/
😂😂 yeah sure
The Senate Armed Services Committee usually limits who can view these types of background checks. Lawmakers want to see this one.
Pete Hegseth, walks with his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, and other members of his entourage at the U.S. Capitol.
Pete Hegseth’s background check would likely move forward on an expedited timeline. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
By Joe Gould
12/19/2024 05:00 AM EST
At least a dozen senators are pushing to see the FBI’s background check on Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled pick for Pentagon chief — a rare move for the committee that oversees his confirmation and a sign the former Fox News host still faces hurdles in the Senate.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Trump’s ‘stunningly unqualified’ diplomatic team shapes up at breakneck speed
Trump is hardly the first US president to introduce miscast nominees, but he has nominated ambassadors at a rate not recalled in recent memory
They seem an unlikely, almost motley, crew of emissaries.
For the Bahamas, there is Herschel Walker, a former NFL star whose fledgling Senate campaign was undone by a string of personal embarrassments but who now is named to be the next US ambassador to the small island nation.
To the plum diplomatic posting of Paris goes Charles Kushner, father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a man the president-elect once pardoned for a felony conviction that the former Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie, an ex-federal prosecutor, called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.
And to Greece, once a preserve of seasoned career diplomats, goes Kimberly Guilfoyle, until recently the romantic partner of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, and a woman known more for her rumbustious media profile than her diplomatic acumen.
The trio are among a flurry of ambassadorial nominees rolled out by Trump in recent weeks as he rushes to fill his administration at breakneck speed with envoys who will project his “America First” ideology abroad.
Their lack of credentials has prompted one experienced foreign policy analyst to label them a “diplomatic clown car” – and a deliberate affront to the countries hosting them.
Since last month’s election triumph, the president-elect has nominated ambassadors at a rate not recalled in recent memory – including five in a single day this week.
Some appear conspicuously unschooled in the diplomatic arts; others have business links which experts say risk conflicts of interest.
Unlike most countries, which fill ambassadors’ roles from the ranks of professional diplomats, it is customary for US presidents to reward allies and financial backers with ambassadorial jobs – with prize postings like London and Paris almost always going to friends of the man in the oval office.
But Trump has broken new ground with the sheer volume of ambassadorial nominations – and his lack of consideration of their professional suitability.
“It’s not unusual to see a lot of political appointee ambassadors named early in a presidency,” said Dennis Jett, an international relations professor at Pennsylvania State University and author of a book on the history of US ambassadors.
“But I don’t recall any president-elect announcing bunches of ambassadorships like this guy’s doing. They don’t usually dip down into the ambassadorial ranks until they actually are sitting in the White House.
“The other remarkable thing is how stunningly unqualified everyone is. I don’t see anyone there who I think, ‘Now there’s a highly qualified person.’”
Trump is hardly the first US president to introduce miscast nominees. Barack Obama’s chosen envoy to Norway, George Tsunis, withdrew his nomination in 2014 when a Senate confirmation revealed embarrassing ignorance about the country and its political system. Tsunis was subsequently nominated as ambassador to Greece - where he currently serves - by Joe Biden.
But few presidents have sought to do so in a manner that seems to cock a snook at the polite salons of international diplomacy.
Walker, Kushner and Guilfoyle are not the only apparently unsuited prospective envoys.
As ambassador to Nato – the military alliance which he has repeatedly disdained in public – Trump has nominated Matt Whitaker, an acting attorney general during his first presidency, whose background is in law enforcement.
For Turkey – a key Nato ally and a country playing a strategic role in the political fallout in Syria after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad – he has tapped his friend, Tom Barrack, a billionaire property magnate who chaired his 2017 inaugural committee. Barrack was acquitted in 2022 of charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates during the first Trump administration and lying to the FBI.
Thomas Countryman, a former assistant secretary of state during Barack Obama’s presidency, said the nominations raised fears about the quality of US foreign policy in vital areas, as well as conflicts of interest.
“An unqualified person like Herschel Walker can only do so much damage in the Bahamas,” he said.
“But at a place like the permanent mission to Nato, having a person with zero diplomatic experience and almost no managerial experience negotiating some of the most difficult issues that Europe and the United States must face together is a recipe not just for misunderstanding, but for failure to reach the kind of consensus and compromise that obviously requires.”
On Barrack, he added: “I think that disentangling the private profit interests of Mr Trump and Mr Barrack from the professional work that Barrack would need to do in Ankara will be difficult, not least because of its non-transparency.”
Even before taking office, Trump has caused disruption by threatening to impose tariffs on the country’s closest neighbours, Mexico and Canada, where his rhetoric has provoked shockwaves. The prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, has faced calls to resign after being accused of failing to take a tough enough line, as Trump has taunted him by calling the country “a state” and Trudeau its “governor”.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
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I guess going to the Bahamas just once will have to do. Oh well, it was too bloody humid there anyway!
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Chemtrail conspiracy theories: why RFK Jr is watching the skies
Belief in a supposed US government plot linked to aircraft condensation trails has been boosted by confusion over proposals to geoengineer a response to the climate crisis
A conspiracy theory that airplanes are leaving nefarious “chemtrails” in their wake due to a sinister government plot has been given fresh impetus in the US amid a swirl of concerns and confusion about proposals to geoengineer a response to the climate crisis.
State legislation to ban what some lawmakers call chemtrails has been pushed forward in Tennessee and, most recently, Florida. Meanwhile, Robert F Kennedy, who has expressed interest in the conspiracy theory on social media and his podcast, is set to be at the heart of Donald Trump’s new administration following his nomination as health secretary.
“We are going to stop this crime,” Kennedy, who is known for his contrarian stances on vaccines and offshore wind farms, wrote about chemtrails on X in August. The former Democrat turned Trump ally said on his podcast last year that it was “kind of frightening to think that somebody may be putting large amounts of bioavailable aluminum into the environment, spraying it in microscopic particulates from airplanes”.
Believers of the chemtrails conspiracy theory contend that the white lines traced in the sky behind aircraft contain toxic chemicals that are released to achieve a devious end, such as mass sterilization or mind control.
This theory, which has no evidence to support it, has been put forward at various times since the 1990s despite being repeatedly debunked. Now, scientists are faced with a resurgent focus on chemtrails amid a related, more substantive, debate over whether actual modifications to the Earth’s atmosphere should be made in a desperate attempt to slow global heating.
Interest in chemtrails “bubbles up every once in a while and the hurricanes and weather modification kind of brings it up to the floor again”, said David Fahey, director of the chemical sciences laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), in reference to two recent major hurricanes – Helene and Milton – that some figures, including Republicans, claimed were somehow steered by the federal government’s meddling with the weather.
“The misinformation is abundant,” said Fahey, who has spent several decades, on and off, fielding questions about chemtrails. There was no orchestrated weather modification conducted by Noaa, Fahey said, and even experimenting with such a thing would be a “big step for our agency and one that we are not quite prepared to do at the moment, and maybe our agency shouldn’t do it”.
Are chemtrails real?
No. The white plumes seen from the rear of aircraft are more aptly called condensation trails, or contrails. They are essentially condensed water vapor from a plane’s exhaust that, in cold air temperatures at high altitudes, form as ice crystals that look like visible clouds.A survey of leading atmospheric scientists in 2016 found there was no evidence of a secret spraying program that would form these contrails. This research led to backlash from conspiracy theorists, with Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist who led the study, saying that he received death threats.
“I felt like it was a risk to my personal safety,” he said. “People have bought into this false narrative. We’re now seeing a worrying resurgence of conspiracy theories in general, from chemtrails to vaccines. There’s a detachment from facts and rational analysis.”
More at link.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"