Sean Mooney

I think Newsom has a tougher climb because of how California is perceived as a liberal mecca and everything. Maybe in another 4 years it might be a different story in the overall anger towards him but I think he is best served as a cabinet member somewhere and not the top of the ticket. I'd still say an early clubhouse leader should be Josh Shapiro. He is charismatic and he pisses off democrats and Republicans. He drew heat for his support of Israel, and his support of school choice. He helped write bills in support of divesting money from terrorist hiding countries. He was extremely popular in his role as governor even with a mostly Republicans state legislature. And in a poll it was found that he had broad support from all races, education levels, and 34% of Donald Trump supporters in the state.

Fire him....no call for it. Also, lots of schools have social media policies and especially this year were reminding teachers "Don't say anything politically."

I wasn't in love with Buttigeg as a selection mainly because he did not have a real record of being in committees or leadership in his time.

Is there a lot of wokeism in the military? I know people keep saying that but how does it hurt our ability to defend ourselves as a country. Look I- like quite a few- am not signing up to fight in the military. So if a dude wants to give himself boobs and then go shoot a few ISIS members....more power to them.

“Basically, there really is no such thing as — I need to be careful about saying this, because people will really get upset — there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian. There’s not.”

This could go in the concern thread maybe but, I guess a concern would be "I'm worried the news will have so much comedy gold to report on they won't know what to prioritize." Already the leaks have started with some in Trump circles saying that Elon Musk is already starting to wear out his welcome for many as he is becoming almost a comical distraction sliding into transition meetings and giving feedback on all of Trump's personnel decisions. One commenter said "Elon is getting a little big for his britches." That should be easy to find out who said it despite them remaining anonymous. I'm not sure anyone under the age of 60 refers to pants as "britches."

I will always advocate government could be smaller and I think there are places you could most likely find waste and eliminate things. As far as accomplish- I'm not sure. Again- the Department of Education covers a lot of ground from like age 4 on in the educational realm. They deal with early pre k programs for some people. They deal with special education funding in schools. They deal with FAFSA. Title 1 grants (which is money that is very closely monitored and audited). It perhaps could be run more efficiently but I think that requires going into the place and looking at everything and seeing where stuff can be cut. The idea of "Let's just hack it apart and go from there" is idiotic because the roots run deep on it and it is involved on a lot of things related to education and fills a lot of gaps for states.

Yes- I agree that something like Veteran's Affairs would've been better because it is more in line with what he has championed and I think he would've been a valuable asset there. Making him the Secretary of Defense just feels like a huge overreach.

I guess this goes here- The "Uncommitted Movement" wrote a letter on Twitter saying that people aren't supporting Trump, they are recognizing that the Democrats were not helping fight against Israel. So in the final paragraph they say "This requires decisive action. Put an end to the flow of weapons that fuel this cycle of violence. If they do not, the Democratic Party risks straddling our coalition of voters with the ever-increasing weight of a legacy intertwined with endless war and suffering. Now is the time to listen, to reflect, and to forge a path that truly embodies the values we profess to represent-values that resonate deeply with every community feeling unheard and betrayed.” essentially making demands about what the outgoing Presidency should do. The replies to this are hilarious ranging from: "Wait...the argument is "we tanked your election so now you need to do exactly what we say to make it up to us?" Sure." "Congrats, you owned yourselves." and my personal favorite "Why don't you ask Jill Stein for help"

Just for comparison- in 2020 Trump did that press conference a day or two after the election saying it was rigged because he was losing- despite many down ballot Republicans winning. In 2024- he says nothing because he won despite many down ballot Republicans losing in battleground states

He just has to find the handle for "TheHispanicInsurrectionist" on Twitter....give him a minute

I would argue it is incorrectly titled. It does more than people think it does and gutting it, replacing it, or merging it will create a lot of issues that I think people are ignoring because they see Trump doing it. I'm sure there are unnecessary employees there though- root them out.

Ashe Carter worked in the Secretary of Defense Department for 3 years under Bill Clinton as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs and then worked as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. William Cohen served on the Senate Armed Forces Committee. He served on the Governmental Affairs Committee. He was on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He also cowrote bills like the Goldwater-Nichols act..

I've tried to make this point to him numerous times but the Department of Education doesn't necessarily drive curricular decisions. That happens at a state and local level. The DOE handles a lot of big picture ideas and providing equal opportunity funding to states for special education. They handle the FAFSA program which has upwards of a trillion dollars running through it. Moving those into other places is going to create organizational logjams. Also- you have states like North Dakota that spend like 18,500 per pupil on education with 3390 of that coming from federal funding. So now you have a difference to make up. Guess where that comes out of.

Some of the appointments over the past two days don't exactly fill with confidence. Hegseth has a decorated combated history and it's laudable what he does to support veterans but what is his strategic experience when it comes to commanding a military. Noem- what are her qualifications on handling cyber security or border issues or any of that? And Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. If people wanted a two-state solution in the Middle East you can almost kiss that goodbye.

Figured this would get some play here (and honestly didn't see if it did or not already. It may be in one of the 4000 threads seafoam starts that no one cares about). But Maureen Dowd took Democrats to task in the New York Times over the weekend in this op-ed. I posted some highlights below: https://archive.ph/WBxGx As I said the other day- the best thing that can come out of this is that Democrats look at their own internal policies and figure out once again how they can be a driving force for blue collar America so we have two functional parties pitching ideas. I- along with many- may not fully love Trump's ideas- but the GOP has a semblance of a plan to rally behind.

No worries I don't think I ever really defended the tranny stuff or "we don't know what a woman is" and honestly I think that stuff is silly. I teach- we go through trainings on it- so I am sympathetic to it in some respects because I can see how someone is wrestling with something that I am never going to fully understand but I also always think to myself "Man the world is going to make fun of you." But honestly- I don't care about it to the level of anger that some people rise to it. Like for some people (like League Champion/Maximum Overkill) it feels like a personal vendetta which I just do not understand. I guess for me a lot of it falls into the category as some of this stuff where I think "It doesn't affect me, I don't care" I am critical of some of the stuff here that liberals say but I'm one comment of 20 against that person whereas the other way I'm one comment of 3. The latter is always going to stand out more. And I'm far more attack mode against some of those people on the right because some of them- not all- spend so much time saying "You're a pedophile" and other garbage like that. I have no respect for people like that and I won't engage them in a friendly manner in any way. If realtim decides to start bringing that smoke at me- he will get lit up too. I've said this before and I'll say it again. I generally like you. We may differ on things at times but I appreciate the fact that you will actually try to engage a conversation with something resembling a coherent argument. Others (like Old Maid) disagreed with me on that but I hold firm to those beliefs. You aren't someone spamming up threads, you aren't in here just dropping in Twitter links and passing that off as an argument, you aren't just popping in to name call and run away, and you aren't just popping in with non sequitur BS. You are big on the weird "glory hole" stuff at times but it should be noted that has been toned way back as of late. You are better than some of the people here who associate with you more politically.

Me posting that quote was in reference to me saying "I criticize the right because it is heavily right here, but if it were heavily left I'd criticize them. " I wasn't implying it was the right that wanted that. As to the second paragraph- I've made no bones about it, I am not a supporter of Donald Trump and I think the Republican party ultimately will be worse off years from now because of the cult of personality he's created. But I'm still mostly conservative even if I have switched to being a registered Independent. I still believe that government could stand to be smaller. I still firmly support the death penalty. I still mostly support the second amendment even if I think there could be some more done there. I strongly believe there should be work requirements for welfare, SNAP/food stamps. However, I'm a little more left on social issues and obviously being a teacher the Democrats are better for the occupation I have. And yet I still will vote Republican on some things even with education in play. I didn't abandon my beliefs because of one person. The fact that some of the more MAGA posters here are dipsh!ts in their ways of thinking doesn't change my political views. And one can be critical of people even if they overlap on issues. I hated the Tea Party numbskulls back in like 2010-2012 because they offered no ideas for anything. I mock the far left liberals for how over the top and sissyish they are. I mean these people get upset about a joke from a standup comic. I think that is equally as stupid as someone getting all pissy because Disney made Ariel black now....who could possibly care that much? And I've been very critical of people on the left here and elsewhere. And hell I've been saying for months now how bad Kamala's campaign was running. Either way too- I post on another message board that is very liberal based and when I told them last Monday night- "You know Trump is going to win because Kamala has run a bad campaign and people only care about the economy" World War III broke out and they were calling me a raging conservative. People's biases about other's extend only as far as they are willing to look.

I was fully expecting it to be Joy Behar or something. And yes Alba and Hewitt are criminally low Looking further into that list- Karen Gillan at 148? Mandy Moore at 143? Sarah Wayne Callies at 141? Heather Graham at 125? I'd fight the maker of this list over that. Even today- she was in a movie called Suitable Flesh last year which is a horror movie based on an H.P. Lovecraft story. She gets topless in it and still looks great even at like 53. Also, I mean if we are talking all time- she was Rollergirl...

I'd still think Johansson today is underrepresented on that list. Gal Gadot shouldn't be #1 if for nothing but putting that god awful cover of "Imagine" into the world during COVID times

Scarlett Johansson is too low on that list. So are Charlize Theron and Mila Kunis

I highlighted the bolded part. I said- this is amusing, I assume you see why. You chose to write a lot of words being critical of me (unless we are back to you pretending I am putting myself into it all) when you could've said "I'm not sure, why is it amusing?" An adult thing to do would've been to admit wrong or ask for clarification.

You quoted something that is about someone being an expert reading something that is wrong about the scenario and called it by the wrong name.

You are talking about the Gell-Mann effect which was coined by Michael Crichton of course. And since you are invoking it I assume you know what it is and how it relates to amnesia related stuff in reading. Then you refer to it by a different name which is amusing.

Eh...being a d!ck to someone because they are a d!ck doesn't make you a better person.