Steve Evans, Still Deaf, Still not Dumb

@votevets 'A country's greatest resource is not oil, it's not gold, it's not metals nor minerals mined from the earth. A country's greatest resource is its citizens. Investing in their health and education results in treasures that can't be measured by statistics.' -me

Mother heard her baby's laughter and ran over to see this adorable scene dog teaching her baby to play fetch..🐕🐾👶😊

The Republican-controlled Senate passed a bill to fund TSA without funding ICE, and the Republican-controlled House rejected the measure to fund TSA without funding ICE, so the Republican President just signed an executive order to fund TSA without funding ICE. wsj.com/politics/polic…

Robert Mueller died last night. He was 81 years old. He had a wife who loved him for sixty years. He had two daughters, one of whom he met for the first time in Hawaii, in 1969, on a few hours of military leave, before he got back on the plane and returned to Vietnam. He had grandchildren. He had a faith he practiced quietly, without performance. He had, in the way of men who have seen real things and survived them, a quality that is increasingly rare and increasingly mocked in the country he spent his life serving. He had integrity. And tonight the President of the United States said good! I have been sitting with that word for hours now. Good. One syllable. The thing you say when the coffee is hot or the traffic is moving. The thing a man who has never had to bury anyone, never had to sit in the specific silence of a room where someone is newly absent, reaches for when he wants the world to know he is satisfied. Good. The daughters are crying and the wife is alone in the house and good. I want to speak directly to the Americans reading this. Not the political Americans. Just the human ones. The ones who have lost a father. The ones who know what it is to be in that first hour, when you keep forgetting and then remembering again, when ordinary objects become unbearable, when the world outside the window seems obscene in its indifference. I want to ask you, simply, to hold that feeling for a moment, and then to understand that the man you elected looked at it and typed a single word. Good. This is not a country having a bad day. I need you to understand that. Countries have bad days. Elections go wrong. Leaders disappoint. Institutions bend. But there is a different thing, a rarer and more terrible thing, that happens when the moral center of a place simply gives way. Not dramatically. Not with a single catastrophic event. But quietly, in increments, until one evening a president celebrates the death of an old man whose family is still warm with grief, and enough people find it acceptable that it becomes the weather. Just the weather. That is what is happening. That is what has happened. The world knows. From Tokyo to Oslo, from London to Buenos Aires, people are not angry at America tonight. Anger would mean there was still something to fight for, some remaining faith to be betrayed. What I see, in the reactions from everywhere that is not here, is something older and sadder than anger. It is the look people get when they have waited a long time for someone they love to find their way back, and have finally understood that they are not coming. America is being grieved. Past tense, almost. The idea of it. The thing it represented to people who had nothing else to believe in, who came here with everything they owned in a single bag because they had heard, somehow, across an ocean, that this was the place where decency was written into the walls. That idea is not resting. It is not suspended. It is being buried, in real time, with 7,450 likes before dinner. And the church said nothing. Seventy million people have decided that this man, this specific man who has cheated everyone he has ever made a promise to, who has mocked the disabled and the dead and the grieving, who celebrated tonight while a family wept, is an instrument of God. The pastors who made that bargain did not just trade away their credibility. They traded away the thing that made them worth listening to in the first place. The cross they carry now is a costume. The faith they preach is a loyalty oath with scripture attached. When the history of American Christianity is written, this will be the chapter they skip at seminary. Now I want to talk about the men who stand next to him. Because this is the part that actually breaks my heart. JD Vance is not a bad man. I have to say that, because it is true, and because the truth matters even now, especially now. Marco Rubio is not a bad man. Lindsey Graham is not a bad man. They are idiots, but not bad, as in BAD! These are men with mothers who raised them and children who love them and friends who remember who they were before all of this. They are not monsters. Monsters are simple. Monsters do not cost you anything emotionally because there is nothing in them to mourn. These men are something more painful than monsters. They are men who knew better, and know better still, and will get up tomorrow and do it again. Every small compromise they made had a reason. Every moment they looked the other way had a justification that sounded, at the time, almost reasonable. And now they have arrived here, at a place where a president celebrates the death of an old man and they will find a way, on television, to say nothing that means anything, and they will go home to houses where children who carry their name are waiting, and they will say goodnight, and they will say nothing. Their oldest friends are watching. The ones who knew Rubio when he still believed in something. Who knew Graham when he said, out loud, on the record, that this exact man would destroy the Republican Party and deserve it. Who sat next to Vance and thought here is someone worth knowing. Those friends are not angry tonight. They moved through anger a long time ago. What they feel now is the quiet, irrecoverable sadness of watching someone disappear while still being present. Of watching a person they loved choose, again and again, to become less. That is what cowardice costs. Not the coward. The people who loved him. And in the comments tonight, the followers celebrate. People who ten years ago brought casseroles to grieving neighbours. Who stood in the rain at gravesides and meant the words they said. Who told their children that we do not speak ill of the dead because the dead were someone's beloved. Those people are tonight typing gleeful things about a man whose daughters are not yet done crying. And they feel clean doing it. Righteous. Because somewhere along the way the thing they were given in exchange for their decency was the feeling of belonging to something, and that feeling is very hard to give up even when you can no longer remember what you gave for it. When Trump is gone, they will still be here. Standing in the silence where the noise used to be. Without the permission the crowd gave them. Without the pastor who told them their cruelty was holy. They will be alone with what they said and what they cheered and what they chose to become, and there will be no one left to tell them it was righteous. That morning is coming. Robert Mueller flew across the Pacific on military leave to hold his newborn daughter for a few hours before returning to the war. He came home. He buried his dead with honour. He served presidents of both parties because he understood that the institution was larger than any one man. He told his grandchildren that a lie is the worst thing a person can do, that a reputation once lost cannot be recovered, and he lived that, every day, in the quiet and unglamorous way of people who actually believe what they say. He was the kind of American the world used to point to when it needed to believe the story was true. He died last night. His wife is alone in their house in Georgetown. His daughters are learning what the world is without him in it. And somewhere in the particular hush that falls over a family in the first hours of loss, the most powerful man and the biggest loser on earth sent a message to say he was glad. The world that loved what America was supposed to be is grieving tonight. Not for Robert Mueller only. For the country that produced him and then became this. For the distance between what was promised and what was delivered. For the suspicion, growing quieter and more certain with each passing month, that the America people believed in was always partly a story, and the story is over now, and there is nothing yet to replace it. That is all it needed to be. A man died. His family is broken open with grief. That is all it needed to be. Instead the President said good. And the country that once stood for something looked away 🇺🇸 Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

I keep seeing people ask about the 25th Amendment. Guys. His entire Cabinet is walking around in shoes that don’t fit because they’re scared to take them off. The 25th is never happening.

@Acyn @songpinganq

🚨BREAKING: The "Board of Peace" launches its first war....

Some pretty shocking acknowledgments from House Republicans in this piece: Basically, Republicans admit the Tony Gonzales situation is “ugly” and “horrible,” but say Mike Johnson has to “let it slide” to preserve the majority. ms.now/news/republica…

On Valentine’s Day 36 years ago, at the request of Carl Sagan, NASA turned Voyager 1's camera back toward home for one last look. From 3.7 billion miles away, it captured this: a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. Here is how Carl Sagan beautifully described it: “Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor, and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

The last level..🐕🐾😅

One day God came to Adam for a brief discussion.  "I've got some good news and some bad news,  God said.  Adam looked thoughtfully at his maker and replied, "Please give me the good news first."  Smiling, God explained, "I've created two new organs for you. One is called a brain. This organ will allow you to be very intelligent, create new things, and carry on productive conversations with Eve. The other organ is called a penis. It will allow you to reproduce your intelligent life form and begin populating the planet. Eve will be very pleased that you are now equipped with this organ as she will be able to conceive children."  Adam, very excited, exclaimed, "These are great and wonderful gifts you have given me. What could possibly be bad news after such great tidings?”  God then looked at Adam and said, "The bad news is I only gave you enough blood to operate one of these organs at a time."

Asked Max Muncy about his latest extension, one of many team-friendly deals he has signed w/ the Dodgers since they gave him a second chance after he was released by the A's in 2017. He knows he left money on the table, but he wouldn't be OK leaving and watching the Dodgers win:

"Whatever Lou Gehrig does in the future doesn't count. He has had fourteen great seasons, and I mean great. If I could have only ten of them, I'd be satisfied. Here's a fellow who has lasted 'til he's thirty-six, and only this morning I was wondering, and me twenty-four, how long I'll last. Say, if I could go ten more years, 'til I'm thirty-four, I'd be glad to call it a career. Lou Gehrig welcomed me with open arms, he made the transition very easy. It was his will and desire and character that drove us to all those pennants and you couldn't help but try to emulate the man. He never did say very much about himself. He didn't feel sorry about himself. He was not a natural crowd pleaser I was proud to have him as a teammate. He was the greatest hitter I ever saw. He was my Hero too!" Joe DiMaggio. "Italian-Americans in New York had not been in much of a flag-waving mood prior to Joe DiMaggio's arrival. By the All-Star break, the rookie had established himself as a wonderful player, .358, 10 HR, 60 RBI, fully justifying all the acclaim. But Lou Gehrig was even better, .399, 20 HR, 61 RBI. Lou Gehrig was leading the league in nearly every category, including invisibility." "Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig". Jonathan Eig.

@DerrickEvans4WV Dude, you need to sit ALL the way down.

🚨 JUST IN: Growing calls from Americans to send Team USA athletes home from the Winter Olympics in Italy if they disparage the United States on the world stage.

Finally he made it.. 💪

#Utterly_useless_facts 😊 1. When you say "a, e, i, o, u" your mouth gets smaller with each vowel you say. 2. You don't really wash your hands; They actually wash each other while you stand there and watch. (Imagine) 3. If a man says you're ugly, he's being mean. If a woman says you're ugly, she's envious. If a little kid says you're ugly, you're ugly. 4. Things are not on fire. Fire is on things. 5. When you say 'forward' or 'backwards', your lips move in those directions. (yes, just like that) 6. The word 'Australia' has three A's, all of which look the same but are pronounced differently. 7. If You Rip a Hole in a Net, There Are Actually Fewer Holes in It than there were before. 8. This sentence "All the faith he had had had had no effect on the outcome of his life." is actually correct. 9. Sometimes you have to sing the whole alphabet in your head just to find the next letter. 10. The latest scientific research has shown that you can travel on an aeroplane without announcing it on Social media. 11. What's more dangerous than running with scissors? Falling on them (imagine). 12.Lazy fact #1725402648207549 You are too lazy to read that number 13. “Dammit I'm Mad " backwards is still "Dammit I'm Mad". 14. Nothing is behind Your Back. it is always in front of your back. 15. Most of the time, the people who tell you to calm down are the same people who made you angry in the first place. 16. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia It's not fun to say, but ironically, this is the medical term for the fear of long words. 🤣🤣

Where’s the outrage?

Shared today by Bev Perry in the Expand Dem Values in the House and Senate Facebook group. I need to say something that's been bothering me for a while, and I'm saying it as a Marine Corps veteran who leans center-right. This isn't partisan. This is observation. We've slow-faded into accepting militarized police as normal, and nobody seems to notice or care. Even as a USMC pilot, I went through six months of infantry training as an officer before flight school. I've worn the gear. The helmet, the tactical vest, the whole kit. And I can tell you from experience, it changes you. There's a psychological shift that happens when you strap that stuff on. You feel different. You carry yourself different. You start seeing the environment differently. In the Marine Corps, that shift was appropriate because it's a combat culture and organization. But these are American streets. American citizens. And we've got law enforcement dressed like they're kicking down doors in Fallujah to serve warrants in suburbia. What happend to high standards and real policing tactics? Think Adam-12...Officers Reed and Malloy. Crisp uniforms. A revolver. A baton. High standards and professionalism. They looked like public servants because they were public servants. They de-escalated. They talked to people. They were part of the community. Now? Tactical gear, beards, ball caps, Oakley sunglasses, sleeve tattoos, and a tactical kit that would make special operators jealous. And we've turned it into a fetish. We celebrate it. We assume that because someone looks hard, they must be a professional. They're not. I loved the Marine Corps. But I'll be honest, I was also blinded by it for a while. Mission first. Unit over everything. And that mentality made sense in that context. But law enforcement doesn't get that critical examination. "Back the Blue" has become a shield against accountability. A blanket assumption that a badge plus gun equals hero. That tactical gear equals competence. It doesn't. Most people who join law enforcement aren't special operators. They're average people who desperately want to belong to something bigger than themselves. I understand that impulse deeply, it's why I joined the Marines. But wanting to belong doesn't make you qualified. Looking the part doesn't mean you can perform under pressure. And wrapping yourself in warrior aesthetics doesn't make you a warrior. Old school law enforcement represented something. Standards. Bearing. Discipline. Professionalism that was demonstrated, not costumed. A revolver and a baton meant you had to rely on your training, your words, your judgment, not overwhelming firepower. What I see now in law enforcement is the costume without the culture. The gear without the training. The authority without the accountability. Are there good people in law enforcement? Of course. I know some personally. But this reflexive "law enforcement can do no wrong" mentality is lazy, dangerous, and intellectually dishonest. A woman is dead. And before we sort ourselves into teams and start assigning blame, maybe we should ask harder questions: Why do we accept a militarized police force as normal? Why do we assume tactical gear equals tactical competence? Why have we let "Back the Blue" become a substitute for actual standards? I wore the uniform. I went through the training. I know what that gear does to your head. It shouldn't be normalized on American streets against American citizens. And we shouldn't pretend everyone wearing it is qualified to carry it. The fact that he called her a “fucking bitch” after he shot her three times should be a huge red flag for all of us.

@SecWar Dear Secretary of DEFENSE, You are a coward hiding behind Trump's skirt. You don't have the balls or courage to stand in Captain Kelly's boots, let alone have standing to admonish his 1st Amendment right to free speech. You are an embarrassment to those who served patriotically

Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline. As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice. Therefore, in response to Senator Mark Kelly’s seditious statements — and his pattern of reckless misconduct — the Department of War is taking administrative action against Captain Mark E. Kelly, USN (Ret). The department has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings under 10 U.S.C. § 1370(f), with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay. To ensure this action, the Secretary of War has also issued a formal Letter of Censure, which outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct. This Censure is a necessary process step, and will be placed in Captain Kelly’s official and permanent military personnel file. Captain Kelly has been provided notice of the basis for this action and has thirty days to submit a response. The retirement grade determination process directed by Secretary Hegseth will be completed within forty five days. Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action. These actions are based on Captain Kelly's public statements from June through December 2025 in which he characterized lawful military operations as illegal and counseled members of the Armed Forces to refuse lawful orders. This conduct was seditious in nature and violated Articles 133 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to which Captain Kelly remains subject as a retired officer receiving pay.

There’ll always be an England… from an unidentified newspaper How I lost my Teeth I was in my local pub last night enjoying a nice cold pint of beer when this butt-ugly bird came up to me, slapped me the back and said, “How about giving me your number, handsome?” I looked at her and asked “Do you have a pen?” Sure!” she said. “Well,” I said, “you better get back to it before the farmer notices you’re missing.” My dental surgery is this Monday.

Harry Carry was calling a game and in the 3rd inning the camera showed a man and a woman kissing. In the 5th inning the camera showed them again. In the 7th and 8th inning it showed them kissing again. So finally, in the 9th inning after the camera showed the two of them kissing again and Harry Caray uttered those words! "Folks, I think I figured it out. He kisses her on the strikes and she kisses him on the balls!" Originally from Ol' Diz!!