[turtle]

Sharks in a golf course is really cool! I don't golf, but would think that would be an awesome water hazard if I were a golfer!

[psmith2.0]

If the gators aren’t enough of a hazard. Toss in some cobras too.

[drewprops]

This afternoon Mitch McConnell appeared to have a stroke on camera, during an interview. I know that this might please some folks, based on their opposition to his politics, but I'm hoping his medical incident (whatever it is) proves useful for bringing attention to what we SHOULD do if we see someone experience a similar incident.



...

[chucker]

It doesn't please me, but someone who's 81 shouldn't be working, and especially not in a position of so much power (Senate Minority Leader, and potentially Senate Majority Leader again a year and a half from now!). And yes, that goes for both parties. Biden is too old. Pelosi is too old. Heck, Schumer is going towards too old, too. These people aren't in their mental prime, and they can't relate to younger generations.

[709]

Totally agree. This is one of the few things that is truly a 'both sides' issue. Biden (80) and Trump (77) are both too old to be running in '24. Too many Senators are well past their prime and need to check their ego and step aside - Feinstein is 90 (!!) and at this point her staff is pretty much pulling a Weekend at Bernie's reenactment. Grassley (89) looks like death with makeup on, and even Bernie, as spry as he still appears, is 81. Step down and become a mentor or something there, fuzzball.

Oughta be a law.

Originally Posted by chucker Pelosi is too old. Heck, Schumer is going towards too old, too. These people aren't in their mental prime, and they can't relate to younger generations.

While true, I'm less concerned about the House Reps age. They only have two year terms and it's easier to turn the seat over if necessary. Senators have 6 year terms and it's far more difficult to push the incumbent out, especially if they don't want to go.

Originally Posted by drewprops This afternoon Mitch McConnell appeared to have a stroke on camera, during an interview.

For those who may not have seen it, it's pretty unsettling.

[kieran]

Obvious to everybody but themselves, the top leadership of the US government is all well past actual working age.

Anytime it gets brought up on an actual discussion though, it always comes down to people being ageist.

No, we just want people who actually have all of their mental faculties in check while running a country.

McConnell, Feinstein, Trump, Biden, Pelosi, Grassley, etc.. They should have all been out years ago. Instead, we have two senile white men as the favorites to be the next president.

[PB PM]

No one else but old farts can afford to run for election though. I mean the alternative is someone like Musk…

[chucker]

Originally Posted by kieran Anytime it gets brought up on an actual discussion though, it always comes down to people being ageist.

I mean, to that I say: if it's "ageist" to say that someone in their 70s, 80s, and 90s is both mentally less in their prime and also less in tune with people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, then damn straight I'm ageist.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by chucker It doesn't please me, but someone who's 81 shouldn't be working, and especially not in a position of so much power (Senate Minority Leader, and potentially Senate Majority Leader again a year and a half from now!). And yes, that goes for both parties. Biden is too old. Pelosi is too old. Heck, Schumer is going towards too old, too. These people aren't in their mental prime, and they can't relate to younger generations.

I'm 54 and I can't relate to younger generations, ffs.

But I get your point. I'm not seeking/vying for public office and making decisions that impact millions, either.

My lapses/lack of sound judgement only affects me, really. And I can live with that.

Yeah, some of these relics currently holding gigs decades past their mental prime just isn't right. Or smart.

It isn't "ageist". It's reality/facts. We can't just spend the rest of our time on the planet blindly attaching an "-ism" or "-phobia" to things we disagree with. We've done so for years and what has it solved/improved? We're gonna run out of words to put in front of them, at this rate. Sometimes, reality/real life is just what it is. It's not "anti" anything/anyone. It's just natural, and, yeah, maybe a bit cruel and bittersweet. Call me whatever, but I believe I'm right: a nation this large, powerful, diverse, fractured, etc. probably shouldn't be governed by the same-hued fossilized dust-pooters all sitting in DC. We'd laugh and point if another country did so. All the people mentioned above should be nowhere near the kind of power/control they have. I'm sorry, but most, outside of their day gig, would be just another old person pissing everyone off on the highway, riding 12 miles with the blinker on, reversing on an exit ramp, taking 25 minutes to park, writing a check for groceries with no pen and not knowing which store they're in, loudly farting in the movie theater and airplanes and all the rest.

It isn't an "ism" when it's reality. It's just what it is.

[turtle]

Most of these people remind me of "Simmons" in Liar Lair.

Really though, I would agree that many are just holding out because they will die as soon as they retire and have nothing else to do in life. They don't know how to retire so they just die. Or in the case of Feinstein, Weekend at Bernie's is the best representation I've heard. Already dead, just waiting for the body to actually catch up.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by turtle Already dead, just waiting for the body to actually catch up.

I mean, software developers are dead inside at around 27, and then spend the next few decades waiting for the body to realize it.

[kscherer]

I don't want to engage in politics, but I will say this:

If you don't want them there, STOP VOTING FOR THEM!

And like the box of chocolates, that's all I've got to say about that.

[psmith2.0]

Both sides have their die-hard cult-like followers who’ll never not vote for their heroes (or, more realistically, the devil they know). Yeah, we must not be that disgusted/fed up with them. None of these jugheads in Congress are royalty or lifetime appointees. They have to “apply/interview” for the job every few years. America’s HR department keeps extending their contract/re-hiring the clowns. Why, I don’t know. Other than, “politics”: “my guy sucks slightly less than your guy”, “this one broad isn’t as corrupt and full of it as that other one…she gets my vote!” and all that silliness.

They’re all the same, people. Nobody lands a gig in national politics, in DC, without being 45% snake and 35% horseshit artisan. Let’s not kid ourself with lofty notions of decent-hearted Jimmy Stewart/Mr. Smith fighting the good fight or some backwater do-gooder yokel going there and doing anything different than all his predecessors: go along to get along/ sell your soul and play the game as the rules are written. Anyone bucking too hard gets made an example of and will never get a seat at the table. I couldn’t go there, thinking/believing/acting the way I do, and make a dent in anything. They’d chew me up and spit me out by tomorrow afternoon.

Nothing different is going to happen in 2024 than what happened in 2020, 2016, etc., all the “this is the mostimportant election in our lifetime…the stakes have never been higher!” cliches aside.

Ha…wanna bet?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Why does it seem like it is the Navy that has all the spies?. There were the Walkers and then the officer from this past year. Manning wasn't Navy, but was considered to be more of a whistleblower than selling for profit. Or maybe I have blinders because the Navy is where I spent most of my time. I can't think of any other high profile cases involving officers or enlisted other than the Navy. Having visited Army and Air Force bases, it seemed like the Navy had stricter security (aside from the practice that Navy sentry guns are never loaded even if the watch standers do carry the ammunition on their person).

[PB PM]

But, but it's the American dream to sell yourself out to the highest bidder.

[psmith2.0]

Not mine.

Mine is to stay out of prison and to have a slumber party with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (where we’re short one sleeping bag).

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by Anonymous Coward Why does it seem like it is the Navy that has all the spies?. There were the Walkers and then the officer from this past year. Manning wasn't Navy, but was considered to be more of a whistleblower than selling for profit. Or maybe I have blinders because the Navy is where I spent most of my time. I can't think of any other high profile cases involving officers or enlisted other than the Navy. Having visited Army and Air Force bases, it seemed like the Navy had stricter security (aside from the practice that Navy sentry guns are never loaded even if the watch standers do carry the ammunition on their person).

Not to mention Fat Leonard.

[Anonymous Coward]

I had to look that one up. It was after my active duty time when I was busy with studies.

[Frank777]

Our education system is utterly broken, people are sleeping in tents in major cities, and health care is being rationed.

But hey, we've got scientists working on creating improved armor for Iron Man.

[Anonymous Coward]

Daily efforts continue, but the otter known as 841 continues to evade capture.

In other wildlife news, the Florida hunts for invasive Burmese pythons continue.

[Ryan]

I'm on the side of the otter here.

[kscherer]

Why are we worried about this otter? Has it attacked someone, or is it just trying to catch some waves?

[psmith2.0]

He sold some tainted drugs to some kids at a daycare in Arkansas, and then was behind some underage porn shoots (Otter's Box Studios) in L.A. Bad dude, needs caught/locked up.

[PB PM]

Originally Posted by kscherer Why are we worried about this otter? Has it attacked someone, or is it just trying to catch some waves?

Otters must carry dangerous illnesses! We must stamp out this surf board stealing thug ASAP!

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 He sold some tainted drugs to some kids at a daycare in Arkansas, and then was behind some underage porn shoots (Otter's Box Studios) in L.A. Bad dude, needs caught/locked up.

[psmith2.0]

Exactly!

[drewprops]

I am late to the UAP "news" from last week, which had some people talking about there finally being proof of aliens. I have only really seen memes about it, so I need to go poke around - however the latest article I saw about it was that same guy who claims to have found molten droplets on the sea bed.

Extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary proof, etc.

Is there any other real "proof" that I have missed?


...

[kscherer]

No.

But it depends on how you define "proof".

After all, there is "proof" that the Earth is flat, and there is "proof" the we never landed on the moon.

So, knock yourself out.

[psmith2.0]

How it's defined by raging nutballs vs. sane, normal people absolutely factors.

Demented website ramblings of weirdos (flat-earth, no moon landing) isn't "proof" of anything, except in the minds of other lost, hopeless cases buying into the nonsense. Conspiracy types have become my least-favorite/most-hated group of people in the past 1-2 years. When you realize some of the decades-long dickwits they replaced (anyone named "Kennedy", anyone employed by CNN, actors with the last name "Baldwin", etc.), then that's a big statement.

For instance, someone will wish Paul McCartney "happy birthday" on Instagram (how, you may ask, is that weird, political or remotely "Bud Light" in nature...or anything divisive, that everyone wigs out over, etc.?). Because, within seconds, a bunch of jugheads will start up with the whole "Paul died years ago and has been replaced by a double ever since".

Oh, gotcha...a "double" who looks, sings, plays bass, piano, writes and speaks just like the one that supposedly died, huh? Bug off. And their "evidence/proof" is always the most second-grade flunk-out examples of idiocy and moronification (obviously retouched/doctored photos ("In the photo on the left, you can clearly see McCartney's left nostril in 1963 lined up with his fourth eyelash...and now it doesn't!"), sixth-hand accounts of someone who was at the scene and secured Paul's severed head, which was mouthing the lyrics to "Eleanor Rigby", etc.).

I used to entertain these types if I ever ran into them at a bar or wherever. The last time someone started up with any of that usual nonsense, I told them where to go, and what to do to themselves once they arrived, and just walked away. Got no time/patience for immaturity and mental patients and those a little too proud of being both, and they use their arrogance and know-it-allness like some sort of shield (made of tin-foil, of course). You cannot have a normal, rational conversation with these people. God knows I've tried. Yes, "these people"...conspiracy flakes and people off their medication (if they ever took any to begin with).

My life is weird/interesting enough. I don't need the unbalanced, weirdo central casting/cosplayer squad making it more so, in a way I can't control.

Those "chemtrails" assholes are always my favorites. Nothing is ever just what it obvious, naturally is with some of these people. It's always some convoluted, whacked-out "conspiracy" that could never come to be, or endure for years/decades intact. That these people work in medical offices/buildings, drive city busses and subways, scares the hell out of me. "Don't you have to not be crazy to hold certain types of gigs?"

Sorry for the rant...I can't stand this bunch, and the thought of them sharing/stealing my oxygen (which floats above each of us in clear, crystalized cubes the government developed in the 30's, you see...) tends to set me off a little.

[709]

Originally Posted by drewprops I am late to the UAP "news" from last week, which had some people talking about there finally being proof of aliens. I have only really seen memes about it, so I need to go poke around - however the latest article I saw about it was that same guy who claims to have found molten droplets on the sea bed.

The guy that's got his hair on fire about these underwater globules is the same guy who was running around calling Oumuamua (that skinny interstellar rock that zipped through our solar neighborhood 5 years ago) an alien probe and 'probably' a light sail. He seems a little too eager for my taste, but he's got the spirit.

More recently, Congress held a hearing related to UFO/UAP and how they are 'probably' all controlled through Hunter Biden's laptop. Joking about that last bit (a little), but again, the star witness – or 'whistleblower' in this case - was just a tad bit too eager. The previous month he'd spilled some amazing stories about alien craft and non-human-biologics and very secret stuff that he was now blowing the whistle on. Eagerly.

Now I'm not saying that he's lying - far from it - I'm a firm believer in that sort of thing, it's just that I take my reporting with large spoonfuls of kosher salt crystals nowadays. The two military vets that joined him in the hallowed halls at least seemed more credible. One of them being the pilot in that famous 'tic-tac' UFO video that the military released back in 2020.

Originally Posted by drewprops Extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary proof, etc.

Loads of people believe in lots of things with zero proof (often getting away with extraordinarily disgusting and harmful things under that umbrella). I don't see the harm in believing in something that's at the very least possible, let alone probable. Just keep that Diamond Crystal close by.

[Ryan]

“Non human biologics” is too vague a statement for me to take seriously. My dog is a non-human biologic but that doesn’t make him a mystery.