Worth a repost

 

Say his name!

CATO just can't help themselves.  They hate Trump.  They hate most everything he does and they blog about it constantly.  That's fine, they have that right.  Now, however, they've found something they like.  The US has pulled out of the World Health Organization (WHO).  The US was its largest funder and CATO thinks that leaving is a good thing (Editorial comment: I agree with them).

As a quick experiment I did the following on the article page.  CTRL-F Trump.

They just can't give him credit, even when he does something they like.  It's pathological.

https://www.cato.org/blog/guess-whos-gone

Garbage Service

That's garbage, a quality modifier, not garbage, a type of service modifier.

I have internet through Comcast.  Xfinity.  Perfectly happy with it.  However, the Seahawks are in the playoffs and although I don't usually watch sports, I thought I might.  Best way to watch the games seems to be to add a TV plan to my internet service through Xfinity (Comcast).  After messing around on the internet for a while and having to switch browsers just to get the Xfinity site to work, I'm told that I can't add TV without changing my internet, because I'm on an old plan.  

But they'll change my plan to TV AND internet for just $160 a month.  That's exactly what it would cost to just sell me the damn TV package on top of my current internet.  Except that they are making me change my "plan" and therefore there are no guarantees that my price won't go up later when I cancel the TV, which I eventually will since I don't watch that much.

What a load of crap.  Verizon and Comcast have done this to me so many times, and checking around over the years, so does everyone else.  

Just add the damn TV and take my money.

Now I'm ranting on the internet while I wait for the Online Chat customer service rep to tell me my options.  The rep's name is Tushar.  Any thoughts on where Tushar might be based?  Not Tushar's fault.  Tushar might be a very nice person who is limited by what Comcast tells him or her what can be done.  It's bullshit, though.  I just want to watch a bit of TV in exchange for money.

Anyway, all done ranting and all done trying to add TV.  I left them 0/10 ratings and a long comment, for what it's worth.  I'm sure they don't care about one negative feedback, but maybe if they get enough they'll start to.

House Appropriations

 I know, it seems futile sometimes, but if you do nothing, you can't complain too much.  I'll be sending this to Speaker Johnson since my Rep is a Democrat (Washington state) and the only reason he might vote against this would be because it doesn't spend enough.

The details of specific spending line items are from Oilfield Rando's tweet thread on X, link here:

https://x.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/2005812870462718349

 

To:        House Speaker Mike Johnson

H-232, The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515

 

Subject: Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies appropriations bill, 2026

 

Dear Speaker Johnson,

 

I have been reading some of the details of this bill on X, specifically as analyzed by a poster going by the name of @Oilfield_Rando.  This bill is horrible.  It contains billions of dollars for programs that are in direct opposition to the work that President Trump has been doing.  Many of these have been in the news and are planks of the conservative agenda, and yet are being refunded or expanded in this bill.

 

A few quick examples:

• ·       National Endowment for the Arts/Humanities
• ·       National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism
• ·       Improving Access to Available Benefits (directing people towards more welfare)
• ·       $5,000,000 for migrant and seasonal worker programs
• ·       $60,000,000 for foreign labor certifications
• ·       Training for Diversity in healthcare workforce
• ·       $65,000,000 for Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community health
• ·       $10,000,000 for Climate Change “slush fund”
• ·       $100,000,000 for the National Institute for Health (NIH) grants
• ·       $12,500,000 for Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention (anti-gun studies)
• ·       $4.3/$5.6 million (House/Senate) Refugee and Entrant Assistance (giving foreigners welfare)
• ·       Increased funding for Child Care Block Grants (do you read the news?)
• ·       $45/$71 million (House/Senate) for Office of Minority Health

Speaker Johnson, I could go on but I’m assuming that you know what is in the bill.  We elected President Trump and conservatives in the last election to deal with the out of control spending that Washington politicians have foisted on us.  Every one of these programs is funded by hard working American taxpayers, either currently or through increased borrowing.  This is destroying our future and our economy.  Please pull this bill and remove the hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful spending and fraud potential.

 

I understand that this is only one of seven (?) appropriations bills moving forward and I appreciate your efforts to return to regular order by passing appropriations bills, but this is an opportunity to fix some of the issues that past governments have created, by eliminating these wasteful, unconstitutional, and fraudulent programs.

 

If you wish to have a staffer (or read yourself) the full list as posted on Twitter/X, here is the link.

 

https://x.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/2005812870462718349

 

I also understand that I am not a resident of your District, but since I am in a district in Washington state that is represented by a Democrat, there is really no point in my writing him.  The Democrats will vote for more spending and more programs, and any communications with them result in platitudes concerning their appreciation for our input, while continuing their profligate ways.  Consequently, I’m sending this to you, as Speaker of the House and the one most likely to be able to do anything about this bill and the underlying problems I’ve outlined above.

 

                                                                                      Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

Seen in a comments section:

 Sad when Israel is more pro-America than Minnesota.

One company experiences a network outage and half the internet is down (at least here in the PNW)?

 Can't  look at OldNFO, The Aviationist, X, or Instapundit this morning (ones I've tried so far).  A few other websites have loaded just fine.

Isn't that special.

Cloudflare is currently experiencing a global network outage causing widespread internal server errors, affecting numerous websites including X, OpenAI, Spotify, and Letterboxd, with the issue impacting users in Seattle and other regions. The company confirmed the problem, stating it is investigating an issue that has led to "widespread 500 errors, Cloudflare Dashboard and API also failing"  , with services beginning to recover as of 1:16 PM ET.

• The outage began around 11:30 a.m. UK time (approximately 6:30 a.m. ET) on November 18, 2025, with users across the globe, including Seattle, encountering "internal server error on Cloudflare's network" messages.

• Cloudflare reported that the issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented, with Cloudflare Access and WARP services recovering.

• Affected websites, including X and ChatGPT, displayed error messages instructing users to "try again in a few minutes".

• The outage has also impacted monitoring tools like Downdetector, which relies on Cloudflare and was itself intermittently unavailable, highlighting the cascading effect of the failure.

• As of the latest update, Cloudflare acknowledges that users may still experience elevated error rates while the full resolution is being finalized.

An observation after No Kings

Benito Mussolini's philosophy of government was  "Tutto nello Stato, niente fuori dello Stato, niente contro lo Stato"

"everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state"

The left holds rallies and calls them "No Kings", but when they are in power, no one is allowed to do anything not approved by them. No guns, no freedom of religion (for Christians and Jews, anyway), limits of free speech, limits of the type of toilet, lightbulb, car you can buy. Mandated medical care for the flu, but no restrictions allowed on abortion, including for your teenage daughters.  You have no say in the choices your children make, and will have them taken away if you promote the wrong ideals to them.  The state runs every single thing when they are making the decisions.