Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalOn the naming of children
It does seem that a lot of babies these days are getting horrible names that aren't even names---Brynlee, Gunner, and so on. But there is a trend toward the old names, which I think is a good thing, so long as they aren't being misspelled in an attempt to appear "trendy". However, at my church, you would swear that to hear the moms call their little ones, you'd swear you had wandered into a grandparents' convention! The children are, for some reason, almost all girls, and the under-fives have among them Evelyn, Evangeline, Cassandra, William, Conan, Fern, and Emma. The outlier is Vukh, which is a Serbian name meaning "wolf". He may have a hard time when he goes to school. The newest baby, Fern's sister, is Eula(!). Maybe she's named for a grandmother. That one kind of blew me away....
House Republicans caved -- and changed the politics of government shutdowns
In March 2025, 10 Senate Democrats voted to advance a government funding bill and avoid a government shutdown. Responding to furious Democratic voters who felt betrayed, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “a shutdown would be 10 or 20 times worse.” Six months later, seven Democrats and independent Sen. Angus King voted to end a 40-day stalemate. Had the shutdown continued, Sen. Tim Kaine, one of those seven, argued, “I do not believe Republicans would have conceded on health care.”
What a difference a few months make.
The House of Representatives suddenly passed a bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, ending a 76-day funding standoff. The legislation funds all of DHS with two exceptions: Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol. Instead, Republicans will fund ICE and CBP separately through the budget reconciliation process, without the cover of Democratic votes.
After federal immigration agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this year, Democrats refused to fund ICE without reforms, and they demanded the agency’s funding be dealt with separately from the rest of DHS. In late March, Senate Republicans gave up on waiting for a handful of Democrats to end the filibuster, and they passed by unanimous consent a partial funding bill splitting off ICE, as Democrats demanded. The House dragged its feet for almost a month after that, but gave in Thursday and meekly passed the bill in a voice vote. “Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered,” Schumer crowed.
For the first time, the side precipitating a government shutdown neither had to cave in the end nor suffer a backlash for holding out. It seems that, at least for now, the politics of shutdowns have fundamentally changed.
https://www.ms.now/news/house-republicans-dhs-ice-funding
How about that, Chuckles?
Three dead in suspected virus outbreak on Atlantic cruise ship
Three people have died after a suspected hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship sailing in the Atlantic Ocean, the World Health Organization (WHO) has told the BBC.
One case of hantavirus has been confirmed, with five more suspected cases under investigation, it said. One British national aged 69 is in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The outbreak was reported aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, which was travelling from Argentina to Cape Verde.
Hantavirus infections are usually linked to environmental exposure, such as contact with urine or faeces from infected rodents, but in rare cases can spread between people, leading to severe respiratory illness.
Foster Mohale, a spokesperson for South Africa's health ministry, earlier told the BBC that at least two people had died.
The MV Hondius is run by Dutch-based tour company Oceanwide Expeditions
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0294829ndo
Dutch ships are usually sparkling clean, so this may be a human spread outbreak
Dem Star Reveals How He Got Scott Jennings to Explode on Air
The young progressive commentator who caused Scott Jennings to melt down during a live CNN segment has revealed how he got under the MAGA pundit’s skin.
MeidasTouch podcaster and commentator Adam Mockler said President Donald Trump’s unpopular war with Iran has his network news defenders like Jennings on edge—to the point they are apparently willing to go as far as hurling f-bombs.
“I know Scott Jennings tantrum got all the attention yesterday, but I want to talk a little bit about what I said that got him so mad,” Mockler, 23, wrote. “The bottom line is: Trump’s war with Iran has failed. This has made it mentally strenuous for MAGA operators to defend it on TV.”
Jennings’ tantrum came during a segment of CNN’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip on Thursday that featured Mockler.
(snip)
During the Thursday segment, Jennings remarked that Mockler had “the attention span of a gnat” for criticizing the eight weeks the conflict has lasted so far.
Mockler replied by pointing out Jennings had resorted to personal attacks instead of propping up the benefits of going to war. He then asked him to name a political concession Iran has made to the U.S., gesturing with his hands.
“Get your f---ing hand out of my face, first of all!” Jennings snapped back.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dem-star-adam-mockler-reveals-how-he-got-scott-jennings-to-explode-on-air/
They got nothing, so they resort to personal attacks.
Video shows 'massive, fiery' explosion as police respond to home
A fiery explosion at a home in New York City left multiple people injured, including several officers who were responding to a domestic dispute and were flung into the air in the blast, police said.
New York Police Department officers responded to the house in Queens at about 2:42 a.m. local time on April 30 after receiving a 911 call that a resident's family member, 50-year-old Anroop Parasaram, arrived intoxicated and armed with a knife. NYPD Assistant Chief Christopher McIntosh said home security footage showed Parasaram forcing his way to the basement apartment where his wife, daughter and two grandchildren lived, carrying garbage bags filled with canisters with an unknown substance.
His daughter and grandchildren managed to flee to safety while he began "threatening" the remaining victim with a knife, who was also able to safely leave the apartment, McIntosh said.
Officers were responding and at the front door when the "massive, fiery" explosion erupted at 2:57 a.m., McIntosh said. Officers were knocked off their feet or thrown into the air, he said. Some were flung into the gate at the front of the home, he said. Eight were treated for minor burns and one had a laceration to his head that required stitches, McIntosh said.
"I want to be clear. We got very lucky today. This could have turned out really differently," McIntosh said.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/05/01/explosion-new-york-city-police-injuries-queens/89887204007/?tbref=hp
Sounds like this guy was not only intoxicated, he was downright CRAZY!
A jail death shocked an Alabama town. The sheriff remains in power.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/03/08/alabama-jail-death-police-brutality-mental-illness/88867411007/On a brisk December morning in Walker County, Alabama, the temperature in Sheriff Nick Smith’s office is a welcome shelter from the cold.
After ushering a reporter inside, Smith tilts his head back and peers across his desk, where papers are folded and arranged with geometric precision. He proffers a stack of printouts he says will prove his innocence — his lack of culpability.
Down a flight of stairs from where Smith sits, into a chill that grows with every step, Anthony "Tony" Mitchell slowly froze to death in a concrete cell in January 2023. About 100 feet from the sheriff’s immaculate enclave, jailers who worked for Smith jeered as Mitchell shivered in his own waste, court records show.
A short walk from that cell, where the floor of the sheriff’s office forms the ceiling of the Walker County Jail, a group of guards beat a man until one of their uniforms was soaked with his blood, according to court records. Nearby, deputies bribed a prisoner to serve as their enforcer. In the infirmary down the hall, jailers pummeled a man so hard they broke bones.
Three years later, none of it has come back on Smith. He struts calmly through the spaces where these things occurred, proudly pointing out the improvements he has made. Cameras over here. Monitors to track inmates’ breathing over there. Supplies stacked in the bare cell where Mitchell once lay dying. As Smith walks, he has a habit of taking hold of the lapels of his Army-green vest, shrugging it forward in a muted facsimile of The Fonz.
_______
Pretty typical of Alabummer and all those southern states. I'd like to secede from them, please.
Americans' disapproval of the war in Iran reaches Vietnam-era levels, poll finds
During Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s contentious appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, one of the many issues that led to partisan clashes was the question of public support for the war with Iran. For much of the hearing, that meant watching him accuse Democratic officials of “clouding the mind” of Americans by saying things he disagrees with.
But in one especially memorable exchange with Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, the Pentagon chief stopped making excuses for the war’s unpopularity and started saying the war actually enjoys broad public backing.
“I believe we do have the support of the American people,” he told the senator, adding, “The American people are quite smart. They understand and see through spin.”
As it turns out, the second part of that quote was a lot more accurate than the first.
Over the last several decades, there’s been a relatively consistent trend in U.S. public opinion: Americans tend to broadly support military conflicts at the outset, but attitudes turn negative as wars drag on. The war in Iran is unusual in that it was unpopular at the outset and, two months later, it enjoys even less support, Hegseth’s claims to the contrary notwithstanding. The Washington Post reported on its latest national survey:
(snip)
Just two months after Donald Trump launched operations in Iran, 61% of Americans believe the mission was a mistake. George W. Bush’s war in Iraq reached similar levels of opposition, but it took three years, not two months.
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/americans-disapproval-iran-war-poll-hegseth
Gee, ya think?
Gov. Pritzker urges criminal investigations of federal immigration agents after Illinois panel releases report
A state commission scrutinizing the Chicago-area immigration crackdown this past fall sent its findings to law enforcement Tuesday, with some members and Gov. JB Pritzker pushing for investigations they said could lead to criminal charges against federal agents involved in violent episodes during the notorious Operation Midway Blitz raids.
Since the 64-day crackdown, some advocates have been disappointed at what they see as a lack of accountability for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents who repeatedly used force against immigrants, U.S. citizens, protesters, journalists and neighborhood residents, including in the killing of Silverio Villegas González in September and the shooting of Marimar Martínez in October.
Pritzker last fall tasked the Illinois Accountability Commission with fact-finding about the sweeping Chicago-area raids for posterity, the public eye and potential future law enforcement actions, but the panel itself has no direct law enforcement power.
“The referral is not intended to say, you must prosecute. It is a set of evidence that they should be investigating,” Pritzker said.
He compared the report to a person approaching the police with an accusation or evidence.
“You would expect that the police, and then perhaps the state’s attorney, would then pursue that. You should expect that. … Obviously, some of us have opinions about whether somebody should be prosecuted or not, but I am not a judge,” he said.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/04/30/illinois-accountability-report-completed-midway-blitz/
A little more cutious than Tim Walz...
So there's this new passport coming out this year
Meant to "inspire patriotism". It has Shitler's portrait on it. I'm getting a passport. Do I have to get hone with this damnable image, or is it optional and can I get one without it? I do NOT want to drag that hideous visage around the world with me.
Pete Hegseth denies Iran war is a 'quagmire' as cost to US hits estimated $25bn
Pete Hegseth has denied that the US-Israel war on Iran is “a quagmire” and claimed critics of the operation posed a greater threat to the US than Iran itself, as he came under pressure to set out Washington’s strategy for the conflict.
Appearing before the House armed services committee alongside Gen Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, the US defense secretary asked lawmakers to approve a $1.5tn budget in military spending – and then described some of them as “the biggest challenge” to the war effort.
“The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he declared. These remarks did not appear in prepared written statement submitted to the committee.
Two months into a conflict that Donald Trump predicted would last four to six weeks, Hegseth invoked the US’s long and painful deployments in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan – wars he previously criticized bitterly – as a benchmark for endurance. The war against Iran, he said, was “an existential fight for the safety of the American people”, and the administration was “proud of this undertaking”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/29/pete-hegseth-denies-iran-war-is-a-quagmire-as-estimated-us-cost-so-far-hits-25bn
The picture of him with his mouth open laughing is perfect backpfeifengesicht! (Y'all should know what THAT means!)
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayHome country: USA currently
Current location: Virginia
Member since: Wed Jun 1, 2011, 07:34 PM
Number of posts: 14,547