TGIF! [DOT 27/12/24

27/12/24 MegMegMcGee 21

Hope everyone had a nice Xmas!

Today in the ‘Finding Out’ stage…

After backing Trump, low-income voters hope he doesn’t slash their benefits
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/12/26/trump-voters-federal-benefits-food

…continues

‘It’s a scary time’: US universities urge international students to return to campus before Trump inauguration
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/26/us/international-students-us-colleges-trump/index.html

Another oopsie

Early indications suggest Russian anti-aircraft system may have downed Azerbaijani jet, US official says. Here’s what we know
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/26/asia/kazakhstan-plane-crash-questions-intl/index.html

Some tips if you’re on the road this holiday season:

Airline customer service agents share their top holiday travel tips
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/airline-customer-service-holiday-travel-tips

I got 17

CNN’s Year in Review News Quiz: 2024
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/12/us/cnn-5-things-news-quiz-year-in-review-2024-sec

Have a great weekend!

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21 Comments

    • i got 12

      mostly getting tripped up by american politics details….

      like…its unreasonable to expect me to remember how many % points trump won by or who the fuck eric adams is….

        • right?

          and that aside…..is cnn aware of just how many american politicians got accused of something or another this year?

          and im supposed to keep track of who they are where they are from and what is?

          holy shit! i barely remember my mothers sisters birthday and they are twins

  2. Not as embarrassing as shooting down your OWN fighter jet while it was in a landing approach to the carrier…

    Unfortunately, it was way more tragic due to the loss of life and the fact that at least the crew of the Hornet could eject.

  3. At this point, I have more sympathy for Hawk Tuah Rug Pull Victims than MAGAts.

    Hell, I feel more for North Korean Soldiers fighting in Russia/Ukraine than I do MAGAts.

    It’s not much, but I do.

    About the only people I feel more contempt/loathing/disdain for than MAGAts are the MSM and their billionaire/CEO buddies because many of the MAGAts don’t have the intellectual capability to reason unlike the MSM and the billionaire class (overwhelmed by greed/ideology.)

    You wanted this because you’re upset about the price of eggs and racism/sexism. It’s not like they know the old saying of “Be careful what you wish for because you might get it.”

    As for the MSM and the 1%ers… well. More’s the pity.

    • Not shocked at all. Judging by the stupid that came from my uncle (mom’s brother) who went full on MAGA in 2016.

      I’m not so delusional about having a classless society (my first painful lessons came at Queens) and then constantly reminded of that at various work places, but I do resent the fact that there are immigrants are trying their damnedest to replicate their social caste systems here in North America (especially the religious and rich types.) My dad ran afoul of Brits trying to do that at his work (he resented them thinking he was just a “wog”).

      I used to believe in the bullshit of meritocracy (because I used to think I was so fucking smart/smug as I thought I would be one of the prime beneficiaries of that AND because of my parents who kept pounding it into my head that my talent will rise above everything else…LOL. It’s one myth that really should have died, but immigrants and we their children really do/did believe in that shit.)

      It’s why I look at Vivek and Melonhead and see the same fucking thing as my uncle. They think that because they’re rich that it makes them “white establishment” just like Trump believes and goes beyond where they came from or the actual color of their skin. When my uncle fell from grace/riches, a lot of that “white establishment” reminded my uncle he was just a lucky ass immigrant from South Korea (I read his lawsuit against his former hospital) but he was too arrogant/delusional to realize that. He still believed that bullshit (mind you this was 8 years ago.)

      I’m not even talking about the regular folks who think that being white is right.

      • Class structure and culture is a huge part of it, but it’s also indentured servitude, which Elmo Apartheid certainly favors. People with H-1B visas are terrified of losing their jobs and being sent home, so they’ll work insane hours for practically fast-food wages to make sure they don’t get sent back. You can see why tech bros and billionaires favor this system. Once again, Elmo is leading us boldly back to the eighteenth century.

        And let’s also point out that Republicans have been trashing, demonizing, and starving American education for decades. It’s not surprising that Bubba doesn’t study engineering — nobody ever told him it might be an option.

        • I hate the H1B visa especially as it doesn’t really get them a green card. Meanwhile rich upper class knobs like Vivek and Rishi are trying their damnedest to shut the door.

          Engineering (my dad used to remind me) was one way that a smart kid from a poor background could rise up. Doctors and lawyers were mean for upper class folks, but professionals like engineers were more middle class.

          Most of my friends who are engineers are from that background (there are two exceptions, but that’s who they are.)

          I find it ironic that Musk pretends he’s an engineer despite only studying a single year as one. He didn’t go through all the hard painful work that every one else who earned the degree did (even a lazy shit like me) but he did that in all the fields he studied. Just a dilettante… an asshole who never dug into his studies (as my dad called guys like him are just “licking the outside of a watermelon” but thinking they’ve earned the title.)

          • Vivek’s rationale includes Steve Urkel, Saved by the Bell, and Boy Meets World. It’s a … head-scratcher, for sure.

            I’m not even joking, by the way. One of Trump’s top underlings apparently spent his formative years watching Nick at Nite. 

             

        • The obvious dumb thing about treating skilled workers like cheap machine parts is they aren’t. An exec can con themselves into believing guys doing basic server maintenace or debugging databases are all replacable at the drop of a hat, but they’re not.

          It’s somewhat similar to the way US execs thought outsourcing was a magic way to increase profits, except they failed to understand the risks in their supply chains. Suddenly it turns out you can’t launch a major new product because a five cent part for a charger is backordered, and everyone assumed the charger would just be there

          These people are terrible systemic thinkers, just like finance execs in 2008, and their messed up understanding of risk makes failures much more likely to be catastrophic.

    • The fundamental problem here is that we actually don’t need everyone to be in highly marketable STEM fields for society to work.

      And yes I say marketable intentionally here.

      We need educated people, regardless of what fields they go into. The butchers at my local meat shop? They’re fucking smart. They’re highly trained. They know more about Missouri cattle and pork than I ever will. Getting certified in AWS CAAS tools won’t help them one bit.

      • Society needs a mix of people in different fields and abilities to function. As we are seeing, life is terrible if only (or alleged) STEM people run the show.

        But we made education a silo.

      • Way back during my reporter days, I was on the education beat, and had to interview the superintendent of schools. He’d just shut down a very successful training program at my old high school that trained kids to work in construction and got them placed in good jobs after high school. He told me that wasn’t the school’s job — they were there to focus on education, not vocational training. He got mad when I suggested that some kids didn’t get much out of math and English class and this was a perfect program for them.

        To my knowledge the program was never reinstated.

    • “Jo” leaves out what happens next, which is that the billionaires they trusted to make the economy boom end up ruining it.

      The new elites have been offering a deal – maybe we’re terrible people, but at least we’ll give you good paying jobs and cheap goods. And unfortunately, a lot of liberals subconciously believe they’ll make good on the deal.

      It’s more likely to be like the Brexiteers or the Russians, where everyone gets terrible people running things into the dirt.

  7. /me wonders if he can start shit on twitter by telling people the us gubment is sanctioning georgia for undermining democracy

    zomg….to do that to your own citizens

    hehehehe

    i identify as chaotic neutral

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