At this point I almost hope the fork in the road people do get screwed because otherwise they are totally ripping off the tax payers, although it’s not their fault for taking advantage of such a boneheaded scheme cloaked in the guise of “efficiency”.
I’m pretty liberal but I’m also a tax payer and totally appalled to be paying thousands of government workers 7 months of salary not to work. It’s an obscene concept and an insult to tax payers but somehow because this administration proposed it certain people are apparently fine with it. Paying thousands of people for months to do zero work is the same logic that pays farmers NOT to grow crops. It’s gross and as a tax payer I’m outraged!
While the Pentagon spends over $600,000/ year on each of its 145 golf courses Trump dismisses the extremely low cost federal advisory committee for maritime matters. This entire exercise and DOGE has nothing to do with cost cutting as anyone can see.
Maybe there will be enough level heads in the Senate to avoid a shutdown?
Not because the Democrats agree with the Republicans, but because they don’t want to give President Musk and his two Vice Presidents any excuse to shut down more agencies and fire more government employees:
I’ve been to a lot of meetings for NOSAC (National Offshore Safety Advisory Committee). I thought it was pretty good. The advisory committee meetings are open to the general public, not just the committee members. You can get a great idea of what regulations the USCG is considering and what’s going on at IMO. The USCG sometimes asks the committee for industry input on areas they are preparing to issue regulations on. Again, the general public can sign up for task groups they have expertise for. It’s refreshing to see the USCG being open about not having all of the technical knowledge to regulate niche areas. I’ve also seen grass roots groups come to these meetings to try to get USCG attention on areas that need it. Commercial divers were a vocal group at NOSAC meetings trying to get improved safety regulations.
It has always seemed rather obvious to me (who has never sailed on a tank ship, but has worked on tank barges) that: a valve is a valve, a hose is a hose, a gasket is a gasket, a bolt is a bolt, a pump is a pump, and an oil spill is an oil spill.
I see no need for Tankermen PICs to be limited by the vessel’s mode of propulsion (self propelled or not self propelled).
I could understand limitations based upon the number and type of products carried, but not the method of propulsion.
This change was undoubtedly prompted by the Tanker industry which wanted to hire more readily available and cheaper Tankermen from the Tank Barge industry.
I remember “the good old days” when all licensed officers were automatically authorized to act as Tankermen. There was no need to change that.
Seriously?! As someone who once was a newly minted licensed officer, fuck that! There’s no way that new 3rd Engineer Shipeng should have been the Person In Charge of transferring a couple million gallons of Dangerous Liquid Cargo simply by virtue of holding a license.
Some of these rules and regs serve a purpose, and gagging the industry insight to the rule making process is f-ing ignorant.
On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
“And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin.” said Joe Biden on the world stage in front of other foreign presidents & PM’s.
Oh I totally agree that Biden’s cognitive decline was evident as he prepared for the last election. It happens fast, my father is going through almost the same thing though I think he’s a bit more advanced. I also agree that the Democrats made absolutely the right call in choosing an alternative nominee in the Vice President which is a pretty logical and appropriate choice as a last minute replacement. Nominating Biden for another term would indeed have been bad judgement. Choosing an alternative nominee that late was a difficult decision but it was the right call given responsibility of the highest office in the land.
The evidence you present simply proves that Democrats indeed made the right decision with the leadership of the nation in mind, even if it may have ended up costing them the election. That’s the kind of brave decision making I’m more likely to respect rather than just doing what is politically most popular or blindly following the past precedent of nominating the incumbent regardless.
Bull feces. The evidence I easily present with those 3 links dates back years. Calling out to people who has been dead for decades & shaking hand with blank air like someone was there happened in 2022. The same people who you claim made the tough choice after the debate on 27June '24 are the same ones who falsely claimed they spent countless hours with him for days, week & years leading up to the dabate, the whole time preaching he was mentally fit as a fiddle. In May '24 Karine Jean-Pierre said the hardest part of her job was keeping up with Biden because he was so sharp & fast?!? Those people aren’t hard choice making heroes, they’re election fraud scammers. Elderly abusers. No Democrat should talk about a moron in the WH while also claiming they weren’t aware of Joe Bidens mental health crisis until after the one candidate Democrat primary was over & debate night 27, June '24.
So you are saying Harris should have assumed the presidency prior to the election? In actuality I think if she had assumed the presidency she likely would have had a better chance of being elected in the subsequent election having already served.
I do know that dementia is a fairly rapid process and while there may be occasional slip ups the marked changes where you really start to worry can develop quickly. I’ve seen that with my own father. While he had some senior moments four years ago he now doesn’t know what day it is and if left to his own devices would likely wander off with no idea how to get home. He’s still an intelligent man but his short term memory is shot, and he knows it. Thankfully my mom is still totally with it so they have been able to maintain his independence with her care.
I suspect Biden was similar in that there was some senior moments and periodic lapses back in 2020, and then there was a steepening decline as the 2024 election approached. Of course it’s all just conjecture and one would certainly hope that if any President is really impaired to that extent the VP should most definitely assume leadership.
Yes, that is what VP’s are for & I agree it would have likely helped her.
Alzheimers is a horrible disease & I fear it greatly. Sincerest condolences & prayers for your father. I think there’s hope on the horizon but unfortunately it’s for early stages & preventive. We can only hope, be kind & cherish the time we have.
As for Biden, I think his handlers were elderly abusers. And for political commentators & opinions, I really can’t say I trust anyone regarding politics who couldn’t see what my teenage children pointed out to me with Biden on their TicTocs in '22 & '23. I laughed with them, the emperor with no clothes on but actually, it was sad. And those who paraded that naked old man around for personal gain are criminals & the crowd that cheered for it are complicit imo. You picked a bad quote about a moron in the White House while there’s scores of video gaffes on the internet of the last guy making a tragic fool of himself.
I think Trump just wants to fire everyone whose allegiances are unknown.
In his first administration the “deep state” actively resisted change and obstructed him at every turn. And frankly, Trump and his team didn’t know how to work the system.
This time Trump knows how the system works (or doesn’t work), and he has decided to disrupt the deep state at the outset by appointing unconventional loyalists and firing as many deep staters as possible and making the rest of them live in fear of being next. Keeping them too busy worrying about being fired and too understaffed to obstruct his plans. So far, it seems to be working.
Now it’s only blue state attorney generals and liberal judges that are obstructing him. But he and the blue states are “flooding the zone” to the point that the courts cannot keep up with the volume of new cases.
Trump is getting his way on a lot of it.
Maybe I agree with about 1/3rd of what he is doing, disagree with 1/3rd, and don’t know how to feel about the other 1/3rd.