Open thread 2/11/2025
[Hat tip: commenter “AesopFan.”]
I think the content is quite good, but I don’t think this is really Jordan Peterson reading it – I think it’s an AI-generated version of his voice:
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
I am sitting here, listening to the video. I look over my desk seeing the small wood figure that I got in Panama when I was about 5, next to the vase that I bought in Vienna, next to the figure of a Man on a Camel that I bought in Egypt, next to a crystal vase I bought in Edinburgh, then I look up at the pictures that my Wife bought me of Spitfires, next to pictures I bought in the UK. Yes, my memories everywhere. My wish is that I am carried out of the house I helped to build (that my Dad did the plumbing and wiring in) feet first and hopefully after my loving Wife has gone (she would have a harder time of coping with life if I were to go first, so I don’t think I am being selfish). Then everything can be sold for maybe 10 cents, money going to charities. We have no family, so I really don’t care what he is saying, everything means something to US.
A pretty good start.
(Only several hundreds of billions to go…)
“DOGE Cuts Now Into the Billions: White House;
“Amid Democrats’ pushback, lawsuits, and threats to DOGE employees, the cuts keep coming—including almost $1 billion announced on Feb. 10.”—
https://lists.theepochtimes.com/links/L0SmP0QaG8/HhryKHE6n/Ag2ZT8kzDM52/UkweuRkXbe
File under: Git Along Little DOGEs…
I believe the level of rhetoric on the left is reaching a point, purposefully, of violence. One of the loons I was dealing with this past weekend has a post where there’s a picture of Trump with cities burning in the background and he’s hold a pistol to the head of a bound and gagged Liberty. I tried to find the source of the picture but was unsuccessful.
Second, do a search for Dr Steve Caudle of Tennessee. Apparently he gave a sermon on Sunday calling for violence against Musk and Trump.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sKG-TVktZMU
Bret Baier: “Do you view Vice President JD Vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028?” Trump: “No!”
Well I hope the Vice President knows his place now.
$Billions is pocket change in a multi-$trillion budget. But what’s important is that they are eliminating spending that is harmful to America’s best interests. In that sense it counts double (or more).
Violence is really all they got left…
…since the lies, threats, blackmail, subversion, obfuscation, frame-ups, censorship and hijackings don’t seem to be working as well as they used to…
Ain’t easy bein’ a Democrat these days…
‘fairly easy, barely an inconvenience,
btw did you hear the folks madame bass appointed to oversee reconstruction, were guilty of fraud in hurricane sandy in 2012, hagerty and co
so theft at home, theft abroad, congo
haiti nigeria, all in a days work,
OK…so tell me yer surprised…
“How USAID funded Palestinian Arab terrorism;
“US officials say they clashed with USAID over funding of terror-linked organizations and that the agency actively fought for anti-Israel policies, even after October 7th.”—
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/403738
Looks like Samantha Power, genocide preventer extraordinaire—which is why, NO DOUBT, she’s a huge Hamas supporter—has been rearing her ugly, hateful head again. (In Brazil, too, alas.)
Barry Meislin:
The Power of a bad penny, it jams things up as long as it is in circulation. A feature.
Regarding clutter. I’ve been replacing windows in the house, two last year, three more this summer. The most difficult task was packing up the wife’s fabric, beads, craft and art supplies, so that I could get to the walls in two rooms. And protect things from construction dust and debris.
And of course dealing with my excess tools and such in the most reasonable place for temporary storage of my wife’s things. It was harder than reframing walls, installing windows, siding, drywall, because it dealt with posessions that had meanings, not things. And of course I am not the organized one in the house, Mr. Randomness and Chaos.
This weekend will be another decluttering skirmish in my debris field.
This spring will be dealing with accumulated clothing …. no longer wearable.
1) Beginning of the end for VP Vance? Almost linked to this story from another news source this morning – Trump Doesn’t View JD Vance as His Successor. I was just beginning to give VP Vance another look—since approving of his performance up to this point. Seems President Trump may never get past his The Apprentice series and his role in it; however, it is still way too early to give an answer to such a question. For me – their success is going to depend on how well they treat Ukraine, and if they cave in to Putin’s demands.
2) Heck of an error message webpage!
Course the format was much better than I could reproduce here__plus they had icons across the top.
I have what was the cheapest Hostinger plan, and got it on a 4-year package. Have no clue how to deal with bot attacks, but maybe Hostinger does – from a Google search: does hostinger prove attacks against bots? (“prove” ?!? was meant to be provide). Maybe they have some suggestions…? Also seems it happened around same time for me yesterday – today being from 12:20 – 1:00.
I think Trump’s comment about VP Vance is appropriate. It is too early to see how he does in his job and he may decide that VP is enough and he wants to do something else in four years.
In addition, one of the errors that the Ds made was to forget the primaries and kept Biden instead of having a competition. Then, they ousted him as their candidate and brought in Harris. I don’t think the Rs and the American people will blindly accept someone’s designation of a successor. We will demand a primary season with debates, touring the nation, giving us their plans, and so on.
If Vance proves to be the best candidate, then Trump can support him.
Excellent clip that says a lot to me personally. When my older brother passed away, I wanted to save as much of his life as possible in the notes and sketches he left behind. Now that my younger brother is also gone, I can see that what my older brother left or what I have of my own isn’t going to be of use to anyone else. It had value because we went through the same experiences, and nobody else had those particular experiences.
Minimalism, though, seems like emptiness to me. If you have a very full life maybe minimalism can be tolerable and preferable, but if not, it’s hard to get rid of the stuff.
It’s not as though the Vice-President is obviously the next intended President. They are chosen for many reasons, usually to broaden the appeal of the ticket to critical states or voter demographics, sometimes for skill in wrangling the Senate.
It’s way too early to talk about the 2028 campaign. We need to push through the next year or two first.
Via Wikipedia:
Either way, it’s a little premature to expect Trump to be openingly throwing support to a supposed “successor” and as such it’s not overly surprising knowing Trump and his way of thinking about things that he would quickly so “No”.
Along with plastic straws I hear that Trump is bringing back incadecent lightbulbs. But this is one area where I think technology has caught up to the needs and desires of the market since now we have LED based lightbulbs that are superior in every way. They’re certainly better than those curly fluorescent light bulbs.
Decluttering has been a focus of our life since 2018. You accumulate a lot of “stuff” in 68 years of marriage.
It was two years ago that I finally let go of my rock-climbing gear. Had not used it in 20 years, but it was so meaningful in my life for many years. It was like a death in the family to let it go. Fortunately, it went to a young man who will use it well.
Donated all my pictures, records of climbs, and mementos from climbs done in the 19056s to the Gary Neptune Mountaineering Museum.
History preserved.
I still have all my flying logbooks, handbooks, and even records of check rides and FAA checks. All neatly stored in a box. So much of mt life in there. Of use to no one. I can’t part with it.
My wife is a pack rat. We have one room in the house full of her things – weavings, sewing, craft work, flower arranging, and more. She’s not ready to part with any of it.
Decluttered, we’re not.
We are currently trying to declutter before our move in June. Some of it has been emotionally draining. And even so, there are things we can’t yet bear to part with. I’ve told our daughters that when we leave this next house, I hope when we die and not before, that they should ship what they want to themselves and then hire an estate sale agent to get rid of the rest.
I have my great-grandfather’s letters home while he served in the Union Army. I have my father’s letters home to his parents from WWII in Europe. I can’t imagine what to do with them, but family feeling makes me unable to throw them away.
Hell is set to be unleashed
76 (?) hostages are left and at least 34 of those are dead. Perfect time to level every remaining building in Gaza…should also destroy every motor vehicle (let’em walk)…
Brilliant speech by vice president Vance on the opportunity of artificial intelligence. The international left is not happy with it, but the rest of the world is.
https://youtu.be/64E9O1Gv99o?si=OdeZzwPVbrTTC__n
If you listen to all of what Trump said, his point was that it’s way too early to talk about the election in 2028
Kate:
Maybe a museum would want the letters. For the WWII ones, perhaps this museum? And for the Civil War letters, perhaps a museum like this, or a historical society?
There is a lot of wisdom in this video. In 2021, at least 2 years earlier than we anticipated we sold our home that we thought we would live in “forever”. It was perfect for us and entertaining (which we did A LOT of over the years) and had excellent storage so there was a great deal to part with, as we moved everything to 2 small spaces, one is Southern California and one in Northern California. We gave away at least 1/3 of what we owned and the truth is, we still have too much as evidenced by boxes in the storage beneath our Northern California apartment, that is below the main living space. It’s true about it being an ongoing process. When we retire in 2 years, I figure at least 1/2 my wardrobe will go. And all this in our present home–hmmm. Our children could only take some things. What amazed me was how little value there was in “giving to charity”. Take a look at how much revenue is generated by Storage businesses. We truly are a nation of excess. When we were young, we had all cast-offs at the beginning. Our things that went out with the trash (office furniture) we would have loved. Different times. What surprised me most was how comfortable we were in letting things go. There really is freedom in it. We do not miss our “perfect” home at all, despite no pool/spa, garden, pizza oven, private guest quarters, luxury kitchen etc. etc. That was a lot of time and money to upkeep. Now we close the door of our condo and go up north to be with our grands, or when working here, spend our free time with the 2 grands nearby. At the time of purging I thought of our children and what a blessing to them that we were dealing with this. But as stated in the video, it is an ongoing process. Still much to do and consider.
Thanks, Neo. I’ll see if that museum in Richmond wants Union memorabilia. When we moved here, decades ago, we drove up to the Petersburg battlefield. Everything is digitized. The park service guy was able to find the record of where my great-grandfather (whose name I knew) was wounded, and to direct us to the spot.
Former archivist here.
Kate: letters are gold, especially in the digital age of ephemeral texts. Don’t throw them out. Contact a local museum, a national museum, or the special collections department at a local college or university. Many special collections departments specialize in the Civil War, WWI, and WWII and are very interested in contemporaneous first-hand accounts. Even if your letters don’t fit their collecting profile, they can point you to better prospects.
J.J.: consider donating your flight logbooks and other materials to an aviation museum. Just one example:
https://navalaviationmuseum.org/
And here’s another that’s not too far from where I am now:
https://southernmuseumofflight.org/
Thanks for the suggestions, Hubert.
I’ll query them and see.
“…. from climbs done in the 19056s to the……..”
Drat. Should be: “…from climbs done in the 1950s…..”
Maybe EKO knows more than he/she/it is getting credit for…
Terrified staff left hysterical as ‘well drilled’ DOGE nerds storm hyper ‘woke’ Department of Education
This may be my favorite part – ‘Rep. Maxine Waters of California demanded the individual blocking her access to reveal his name, but he refused.’
‘Whars Valerie Jarrett when she needs here!
The truth of Barack Obama’s hopelessly-delayed $830 million DEI nightmare of a presidential library that may never be built
OK – ‘Thars Obama’s beloved Valerie!
Speaking of Samantha Power…she seems to have run up against some resistance…courtesy of the DOGE boys…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doge-investigating-feds-whose-net-worths-have-exploded-after-samantha-power-bombshell
When my parents died, my sisters and I actually cared a great deal about their ‘stuff’…books, letters, photos, movies, etc, my mom’s artworks, a few items of furniture and decorative items. Couldn’t keep it all but kept a lot of it. My father, who had attended an American Indian school as a teenager (his father taught there) and had several Indian friends, had a lot of Indian-related books, and I was happy that I was able to give some of them to a friend who is part Seneca and has become more interested in the history of her tribe.
Couldn’t give away the National Geographic collection, though.
This reminds me of the movie The Accountant. Let’s see if Power’s million in book royalties comes from the tax payer via grants to libraries that then bought her book.
The monetary Power of the bad penny. Screws up nations with bankrupt ideas and makes bank on it.
Trump certainly picked a great crew to fill positions this time around. No question. And that includes the man he chose to TAKE HIS PLACE in the event he dies in office or is disabled before his 4 year term ends. Trump’s instant reflexive answer was an emphatic “No!” followed by a couple of qualifiers about it being 4 years away, there are lots of good candidates, yada yada yada. Sorry, but that is Trump, a man who sees anyone as smart or smarter than him, and especially someone with a distinct following, as a potential rival. It’s instinct. He can’t help it. And it’s one of the reasons he was unable to keep a loyal team together last time around.
I’m not worried about JD getting his feelings hurt with that off the cuff stupid remark. If anyone doesn’t have a fragile ego, it’s JD Vance. You don’t grow up in poverty with an addict mother, one abusive “father” after another, jump out of a moving car to save your life when your heroin addict mother tries to kill herself and you, get through 4 years as a lowly enlisted man in the Marine Corps, risk your life in a hell zone in Iraq, and end up with a thin skin.
And yes Bob Wilson, his AI speech was brilliant, as was his delivery.
Update on T-Mobile expands free satellite phone service beta with SpaceX Starlink
I moved to T-Mobile a year ago after reading about them working on getting phone service to dead-zones and/or “areas without cell service”.
Verizon had worked great here until they forced me into a 4G phone, and then only WiFi-Calling connecting to my internet worked for the phone here. WiFi-Calling is fine, but I want my durn phone to be independent—as in with its own reliable connection. Why did my phone work fine before 4G & then 5G? Why did my 4G Verizon phone not work unless it was connected (WiFi-Calling) to my 4G Verizon LTE Home Internet?
T-Mobile 5G pretty much doesn’t work here either…spots around my acre can get a weak 4G signal, but only WiFi-Calling works inside. Anyway, I have enrolled for the Starlink beta, but haven’t got it yet:
This article had info on pricing this time:
I signed up before March 1 of last year, but haven’t gotten the service yet—maybe they mean March 1 of this year. If I can get the final product at the $10 a month discount I may get it…puts phone bill around $55 after tax. May test it for a month or two at the full $15 a month price, and then cut back to my $40 Ole Folks plan before tax.
“the unbearable realization that time is moving forward whether you like it or not”
Unbearable?
Only if we cling to what was and refuse to see a larger purpose to the reality of birth, life and death. To see the passage of time as unbearable is to disparage the present with its challenges and yes, gifts. As each stage of life has its particular challenges and gifts. The price we pay for wisdom is the sacrifices paid during our callow youth. “You’re not the only one who’s made mistakes, but they’re the only things that you can truly call your own.” Billy Joel
At 36 I understood with clarity the basics of what was truly important for me. At 66 I realized much that at 36 I saw but ‘through a glass darkly’. Now at 76 I look back at a life of successes and failures with realization that when above all we are true to ourselves, we can not but live our life any other way. Whether I have but days or decades left, its in appreciating whatever gifts lie ahead, wherein contentment lies.
Link roundup: How the past envisaged our present, jet engine turbine blades and single-crystal casting (interestingly not referred to as ‘tech’ by the media), the influence of graphic design and aesthetics on the credibility of political communications, the attacks on Churchill–from the Right.
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/73205.html
The Other Chuck:
I also see it as Trump saying it’s not his place to choose a successor, that time and the voters will tell.
Re: Vance
It is a four year audition, not a three week one. He might be the incumbent by then.
Trump’s instant reflexive answer was an emphatic “No!” followed by a couple of qualifiers about it being 4 years away, there are lots of good candidates, yada yada yada. Sorry, but that is Trump, a man who sees anyone as smart or smarter than him, and especially someone with a distinct following, as a potential rival. It’s instinct. He can’t help it.
The Other Chuck:
Trump has a Trump-sized ego. No question.
Nonetheless, I would argue his response was exactly right for a savvy manager at any level.
No subordinate gets anointed. No subordinate gets to coast. No subordinate gets to think above his station and plot against his superior.
Trump saw enough of that the first time around.
Everyone has to bring their A game and may the best win Trump’s favor.