I just punched for the day with instructions to stay home until further notice.

There are a couple of young enlisted guys that work in the section next to me, one with three kids-the other with two both still in diapers who received their military LES today and it appears that DFAS/DoD is already counting on only providing pay to these guys for 1-8 April as LESs are showing half of a normal paycheck. So now they may be coming into work everyday for free. Knowing what an E-3 and E-4 make I understand they have minimal savings and were under the impression that being in the military they would receive a paycheck every two weeks no matter what, but still jumped their asses for not having savings to even get through a month--myself and our one other senior civilian met with them and the wife of one of our guys who is deployed (who will not receive pay even in a combat environment) and have set up a plan for their spending/bills and our assistance to help them out--if this lasts the three weeks the last one did though we aren't going to be able to help these guys out too much next month though. I feel for them in a big way.

On the plus side they will receive back pay once budget is approved, something that myself and a ton of other federal civilians are not guaranteed.

Stability in federal employment... . I am going to get and whiskey drunk now and spout obscenities at CSPAN for the next few hours.

Yeah, that kind of sounds pointless to pay for when you could just bookmark it and read it later.

I think this aggregates your bookmarked stuff in one place so you are able to find it again and read it at your convenience on your ipad or whatever.

My head hurts.

story about donald trump and sarah palin and some shit

So follow along here... the whole birther thing has been completely and thoroughly debunked. Every right wing wealthy nutjob has had a crack at it, and it turns out he's american.

Equation:
Immense Resources + White-Hot Motivation + 2.5 Years = Ample Opportunity


It is a dead issue. And yet Trump has yelled and screamed that he's still not convinced, as he makes a bid for the republican nomination. So... I know it's some sort of dog whistle thing, some sort of winking affair that is supposed to signal to people who don't want to believe that Obama has actually been the president for 2 years (because... what's the end game at this point of turning up magical new evidence? Do you get a time machine?) that Trump also doesn't want to believe, so you know, vote for him? I get the theory of it, I guess, but not the practice. Can I campaign on a platorm of anti-gravity if I just keep a straight face every time I say it? At what point did we divorce ourselves so completely from reality?

Second question: Why does Palin say she believes Obama was born in Hawaii, and thus is a citizen, and yet say that she's "glad" Trump is investing his vast resources into it? either you are a birther or you aren't, right?

Republicans pandering to the Christian-based fear and bigotry of their base so they can gain the power to appease their corporate overlords at the expense of the country? Hard to believe.

Yeah yeah. But you're not surprised even a little by this particular event? Trump, birtherism... no?


Ok.

I just don't know if I ever want to get to a place where NOTHING surprises me.

I'm plenty surprised that regular citizens in your country are buying it, but not surprised that those venal swine are doing it.

I'm plenty surprised that regular citizens in your country are buying it, but not surprised that those venal swine are doing it.

Here's my thing with birthers - how do you know where you were born? Well, because your parents tell you. If you're like me, you lived there for a very short time, and have never actually been back, but have driven by the exit on the highway approx. 4 times.

But still, when people ask you, you say "Texas" or "Canadia" or "Out back my momma's house in a tent." Now, if lil Barry Sotero was walking around telling people he was born in HIGH-WHY-UH, and his mom, his stepdad, his white grammama from Kansas, or even some folks who knew his mom back in the day heard him, and he was giving the wrong information, they wouldn't all huddle up and say "NO ONE TELL THAT BOY HE WAS BORN IN KENYA/SINGAPORE/A MADRASSA-LAB WHERE THEY GROW TERRORISTS, BECAUSE ONE DAY HE'S GOING TO GROW UP AND RUN FOR PRESIDENT AND WE'LL HAVE TO TRICK 300 MILLION PEOPLE INTO BELIEVING THAT HE WAS BORN IN HIGHWHYUH."

They would correct him. And then he would have been telling people even before he become Barack Obama Soul Brother #1, back when he was smoking L's and scoring blow at Occidental in LA, and he was still telling folks his name was Barry Sotero, and he would have told them he was born in Singapore. And it would be common fucking knowledge.

I know this is more thought than anyone has put into this thing, but it's pretty fucking simple when you think about it.

i'd say about 30% of this country will believe damn near anything.

With Barry it's that (along with irrational vitriol) people want to think they're the victim of some huge coverup because it makes them feel like they matter. The subconscious voice screams "I'm the victim of a grand plot!" which by extension means they're of some measure of importance because why would anyone go to such lengths to dupe me them if they were just a name with an SS#? Another beautiful symptom of how self obsessed we've become as a culture.

Absolutely.