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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

What does that have to do w/ the payroll tax?

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Reposted by Kath

Millions of Americans literally bet their life that RFK Jr, a complete crackpot, knew science better than the CDC and Jonas Salk and just about every living doctor

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Yes. The answer to both the alternatives in your austin is "yes."

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Payroll tax: Soc sec taxes about 6% of everyone's wage up to the payroll cap. If you're paid less than the payroll cap, that's 6% on your entire wage. If you're paid more, that's 6% of *part* of your wage. Raising the payroll cap means higher-income people pay 6% on a larger share of their wage. 2/2

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Either we tax the richer people in the workforce at as high a level as poorer people in the workforce, or we eviscerate the benefits those people are in track to receive after they retire. The Boomers are already past retirement age. (If my post doesn't make sense to you, see below). 1/

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Hegseth-caused death & injury is substantially higher than I expected, while death & injury caused by RFK Jr is still primarily from before he was an Administration official. As an Admin official, I'm not sure RFK Jr has (yet) caused more death & injury than Hegseth.

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I wasn't originally counting Musk because he was never a Cabinet appointee. But after what DOGE did here & overseas, I decided he should be included in the damage ranking after all.

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No, I'm rating Trump Administration Officials, in terms of damage done (measured particularly but not exclusively in terms of dead & wounded).

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I'm not sure I understand the applicability of your comment....

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We could always raise the income cap on payroll taxes....

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That was supposed to say "how much *nanny* state is good?"

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The *way* we hold those arguments will look different, now that we've seen what we've seen. Happening here. In the US. 2/2

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Ah. Well, yes, when all this (gestures vaguely) is over (shrugs vaguely), we'll get to go back to policy arguments over our old policy differences (how much many state is good? how regulated do we want our capitalism? what should be federal or state responsibility?). But not the same. 1/

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Seems unlikely. I say this as someone only a few months older than Tom. I am continually stunned by the youth of nearly everyone posting on this site. Also, remember that Tom was following politics in a highly informed way at a much younger age than most of us were when we started learning about it.

John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Reposted by Kath

get yourself a cat that enforces a minimum number of daily bed hugs. it's incredibly good for your stress levels

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Knowing a little bit about history, I expected RFK Jr to quickly rack up the worst outcomes of all Trump's appointees. I was wrong. So far, Musk (without even a confirmed appointment post) seems worst, followed by Hegseth, w/ RFK Jr trailing behind them.

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Because the US Senate doesn't appoint these people. POTUS does, "w/ the advice & consent of the Senate." Now why in the wonderful wide green earth the US Senate *consented* to these appointments is an investing good question for which there is no rational answer.

Alagai 🇺🇲🇺🇦 @alagai.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Yes, but I'm still waiting for people to view the Confederate Battle Flag that way....

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Reposted by Kath

When is this paper due?

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Kath @kathmarval.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Can confirm. Somehow I ended up on some Republican lists along w/ the imminent Democratic lists I seem to be on. The Republican texts tend to be worse, on an individual basis. I just don't get so many of them (because, well, I'm not a Republican).

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Reposted by Kath

Dan Kaszeta FRHistS @dankaszeta.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Ok, I’m going to explain a basic fact that some tragically online simpletons on here don’t seem to understand:

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Reposted by Kath

Seeadler @seeadler.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

MY GOD: A USE-CASE FOR AI

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Seeadler @seeadler.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Well, not all that low carb given the pie crust part but as to all the rest of it - yup, yes, yup.

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Reposted by Kath

In one corner, @dankaszeta.bsky.social, an internationally ackowledged expert on chemical agents and their effects, especially in open-air and crowd scenarios; in the other, someone who doesn't know the difference between "exposition" and "exposure." Listen to Dan, people.

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All, yes. Definitely raccoons, foxes, coyotes, & the like. And bats. Welcome bats - they're good for the neighborhood - but don't touch them & call the Health Depot if you find one inside your house (especially in a room where people sleep). That's in US. Things are different in UK.

All mammals can get rabies. The ones you need to worry about are a) bats, & b) mammals that have a good chance of surviving a fight w/ another rabid animal, including (especially?) across species. So you probably needn't freak out about rabbits, but *definitely* avoid encounters w/ raccoons.

Just said this but not so clearly as you did. You're correct.

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Nobody in federal govt ever succeeded one iota in transferring *state* power to local govts. In my state local govts are "political subdivisions" & the state govt is constantly passing laws to undo local city ordinances. Usually right after making speeches praising state power vs federal power.

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OK, granted, Joe Biden was in the Senate in 1982 (1st use of the term in the media according to Wikipedia), but no. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_czar

en.wikipedia.org

Drug czar - Wikipedia

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You feel "oppression." You feel "injustice." You feel "racism." You feel "autocracy." Maybe you feel "oligarchy." Maybe you feel "impunity" or "warmonger" or "military-industrial complex." Maybe you feel "demogogue." Or "incompetence" (one of my favorites). Not all bad govts are fascist.

Michele Dostert @micheledostert.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Reposted by Kath

1. Cheney was a good SecDef to GHWB. 2. I abhor, detest, and despise everything Cheney did as VP. The Iraq war mendacity still boils my blood. 3. At the end, he (and Liz) faced down their party and stood for the Constitution, and the country. That took REAL COURAGE. People are complicated.

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Kath @kathmarval.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Alternate version: Why do the children put beans up their noses / When the one thing we tell them they must not do / Is put beans up their noses?

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Kath @kathmarval.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

A jingle my mother taught us in childhood: Why do the children put beans in their ears / When the one thing we tell them they must not do / Is put beans in their ears?

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I'm also a bit puzzled about how you get pneumonic transmission from spilling a liquid on yourself but IANAD nor a disease researcher so I don't know about that stuff. 3/3

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I'm a bit puzzled that this woman died since she must have known she'd been exposed, so she should have been able to get treatment immediately. 2/

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It's not that bad; plague (caused by a bacterium) is treatable w/ antibiotics. Bubonic transmission is much less deadly than pneumonic transmission. It happens in the US naturally because of our prairie dog reservoir. 1/

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I was very fortunate that my infant's teeth came in with the two uppers in the center & the two lowers just outside the center. When he was a newborn his gums felt so hard & sharp I started referring to us as Bessie the Cow & her son Fang.

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Also, we do get cases in the US. Generally not from laboratories, but from prairie dogs.

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Well, yes. Along w/ a LOT of other medieval killers. Thank you Alexander Fleming. Also thank you Edward Jenner (nothing to do w/ plague, but another dreadful scourge). Thank you for our lives.