mozz

Sewer lines need to be vented in order not to create a pressure differential that causes problems. There are a couple different approaches, but that shit isn't one of them; it kind of looks like something a plumber just threw in there to solve their immediate problem and then scooted away from free of consequence.

I wouldn't recommend plugging it, as you might be taking away a needed vent from the whole system... the two options I could see would be:

• Hire a plumber to fix the bullshit in more proper fashion
• Replace that rubber hose at the end with a longer hose, and put the open end at the bottom of a bucket that you keep filled with water (either in the sink or on the ground). You're effectively creating a weird custom type of P-trap. It's ghetto but it'll solve the smell problem while still allowing pressure to equalize, I think. You might want to ask your plumber if that would be a sensible solution just to double-check.

Biden could have simply ordered the railroad to accept the union's demands

Ah yes, the "president has a magic wand" theory of governance.

It is, in fact, not quite as simple as I'm trying to make it sound, and there are some things to complain about in what Biden did. Here's a pretty good summary of the "Biden did wrong" thesis.

My take on it is that Biden launched legislation to grant them 7 days of sick leave by law. It passed the house on a party-line vote, and then failed in the senate by 8 votes. When the senate passed an amended version that would grant 1 day of sick leave, what would you want Biden to do? Assuming he doesn't have the ability to just ignore the law and order the rail companies to give the benefits he thinks they should be giving, because we don't have a command economy under the total authority of one person?

Here's a partial summary of what Biden's labor department had done by working the issue after the fuss had died down in the rest of government. It's complicated by the fact that there are multiple companies and multiple unions all with separate agreements, but my overall take is that it looks like he's been trying to balance securing justice for the workers, with what he can get the rest of government to cooperate with, with keeping the economy running and not grinding to a halt.

Honestly, the point of view that he should have let the economy grind to a halt if that's what the people who actually do the work want to have happen, in order to secure some economic justice for themselves, I can understand that. It makes sense to me. Honestly, that is more or less my personal point of view on it. But I think calling him a shockingly anti-union US president because he won't do that is overstating how pro-union people in US politics tend to be.

Clever progression

• Union leadership doesn't always represent their members well (true)
• Union leadership didn't represent their members well in this case (not proven, just asserted)
• They obviously didn't look at what Biden actually did, including some specific things listed in the article, because they wouldn't care about that kind of thing or deal with it as part of their working day (false)
• Republicans are more progressive than Biden (the total-nonsense statement that serves to throw a smokescreen of confusion around any factual discussion surrounding the earlier more coherent statements)

There were 458,900 workers involved in work stoppages in 2023, notably including the even-more-unprecedented-than-the-rail-strike motion picture strike and the autoworkers strike. You can believe, if you want to, that Biden is anti-union and he just overlooked his responsibility to shut down the 458,900 people who did work stoppages in 2023. Personally my feeling is that he shut down the rail strike because it would have a big impact on the rest of the economy, then his labor department kept working the issue and got the workers the sick days they were fighting for in the first place by having the strike.

Is your assertion here that United Steelworkers just fucked up and endorsed a rabidly anti-union candidate because they're not as up to speed on labor issues as you are?

I wonder if Peter Navarro listened to Michael Cohen's testimony. I know Ron Johnson and Pete Sessions did; they were there.

My loyalty to Mr. Trump has cost me everything, my family's happiness, friendships, my law license, my company, my livelihood, my honor, my reputation, and soon my freedom ... So to those who support the President and his rhetoric, as I once did, I pray the country doesn't make the same mistakes that I have made, or pay the heavy price that my family and I are paying.

people hating police, of police brutality

I was alive for Rodney King and the police being found not guilty on everything in the state trial. I remember how shocked and surprised everyone outside the black community was that the police would ever do something like that, and at the confusing idea of even putting a policeman on trial or holding them accountable for anything.

If you watch the early episodes of "Cops," you'll see a policeman who clearly just beat the shit out of someone with nunchuks for trying to run away, until he was on the ground begging for it to stop. Nobody thought it was weird.

Now, if out of 800,000 police officers in the US, there's a single one in any given month that does something fucked up, there's a pretty good chance that everyone in the country will know their name and be able to watch the video of what they did.

of crime

Violent crime is half what it used to be in 1991. There are a few possible explanations but that's what happened.

of hyped-up shit-brained plutocrats thinking they are the saviors of mankind

A self-described socialist with genuinely populist (and wildly popular) ideas came within a hair's breadth of the Democratic presidential nomination. He would almost certainly have won the general election if he won.

And so on

I'm not saying things are perfect. Particularly with climate change looming over us all, you might get your wish. But it's not because good things are impossible.

The Stipa "Flying Barrel" was, it could be plausibly argued, the pioneer of the turbofan engine that powers pretty much all today's big passenger jets.

If I had more faith in the media, I would say that their "we have to cover both sides of every issue" pathology would work in our favor on this issue

However, I believe that there would magically be no need to cover both sides of every issue in this case, because it was always just a smokescreen to justify airing some bullshit that they can't justify in any other way. So depending on the media you might be right yes.

This sounds great. Protestors will come. It'll cement the link between Netanyahu and anyone who feels like sticking up for him in public, damaging that person's reputation. Presumably he will take no questions, but he won't be able to avoid the obvious questions that will arise, and the news coverage.

Let's get him on the first plane and have members of the house GOP meet him at the airport. Sounds great.

It makes your pores tighten up so you get more of a crisp shave. So says the mythology and in my experience it feels better; YMMV of course.

The best kind of political memes are the ones that have a bunch of downvotes, too

Yes

I am distressed by the trend in news of reporting what a new Politico-Ipsos poll shows as if it were highly relevant information

A better way to write this story would be "Only half of Americans believe Donald Trump is guilty even though he clearly is." Fuck it, let him sue for defamation if he can find and pay some lawyers, I'd be happy to prove in court that he is in fact guilty as my way of defending myself.