Boddhisatva

DOGE plugged a server into somewhere in the OPM, allowing them to send mail as OPM

Illegally, plugged in a server. Don't forget the 'illegally'.

According to (The National Institute of Health Library of Medicine)[https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3234451/] you are possibly correct. It most likely jumped to people from hunting bush meat, but it's possible it could also have made the jump to people in a livestock setting where someone was raising monkeys for sale as pets or lab animals. Getting bit by an infected animal could be enough to transmit the virus.

How humans acquired the ape precursors of HIV-1 groups M, N, O, and P is not known; however, based on the biology of these viruses, transmission must have occurred through cutaneous or mucous membrane exposure to infected ape blood and/or body fluids. Such exposures occur most commonly in the context of bushmeat hunting (Peeters et al. 2002).

Then you are fairly young or just don't remember clearly. It is/was called Godwin's Law and originally hit the internet in 1991 as , or as it was better known in those days the World Wide Web. GL stated that, “As an online discussion continues, the probability of a comparison to Hitler or to Nazis approaches one.” It later became used to suggest that anyone who draws such a comparison in such a discussion has lost the argument.

Here's an entertaining article from 2018 about GL over the years from none other than it's originator, Mike Godwin.

Godwin's Law in the Age of Trump

Not that much of a mystery, really. Putin has had Donnie's nuts in a vise since the 80s.

Yes, knitting needles. We should still be blaming the maniac rather than bitching that the little old lady didn't do enough.

Amazing, I thought they'd be ghosting ~~they're~~ their constituents by now.

Edit: I am so ashamed of myself.

Budget bills are not subject to filibuster. There's not a lot they can do to stop this.

From Budget Reconciliation Explainer

Executive Summary

In the 119th Congress, Republicans might use reconciliation to push through their policy goals.

What is “reconciliation”?

Reconciliation is a tool – a special process – that makes legislation easier to pass in the Senate.

How is it different from a regular bill?

Instead of needing 60 votes, a reconciliation bill only needs a simple majority in the Senate.

People really need to stop blaming the Democrats for not stopping the Republicans for doing evil shit. When an axe-wielding maniac starts killing college co-eds, do you blame the maniac or do you blame the little old lady across the street for not stopping the maniac with her knitting needles. And yes, the Dems are for the most part a bunch of useless little, old ladies because that's who got elected. Don't like it? Get more people to vote in the primaries for more pols like AOC and Bernie Sanders. Assuming we ever have any more elections.

i wonder if some of those DINOs dont care about getting re-elected.

Always a possibility when companies can offer ex-politicians cushy lobbying jobs once they're out of office.

While I am sick to death of posters that keep taking it out an the Dems for not managing to stop the Republican's evil, I would like to know why they didn't filibuster. It's my understanding that they could have done so and held up the approval for an indefinite amount of time. That would have made the news and they could have gone on the talk show circuit harping on everything wrong with this and other nominees.

he spoke up against a polio denier

Because he had polio. This is completely normal Republican behavior. They don't give a shit about stuff unless it affects them personally.

I did a little more research and I think that the Federal Highway Administration has to approve the tolls. This is from the fhwa.dot.gov website.

Under Title 23 of the United States Code (Highways), there is a general prohibition on the imposition of tolls on Federal-aid highways. However, Title 23 and other statutes have also carved out certain exceptions to this general prohibition through special programs. These programs allow tolling to generate revenue to support highway construction activities and/or enable the use of road pricing for congestion management. If Federal funds have been used or will be used on the highway, then the public authority responsible for the facility must qualify for toll authority under one of these Federal toll programs.

If the tolls are on any roads that used, or will use, federal funds, then FHWA has to approve them. The existing tolls you mentioned are still approved, but the new tolls for congestion management are not now (thanks to Trump).

Trump clearly has dirt on them, plus, if they oppose hime in anyway, they will at minimum get primaried. At worst they'll get murdered by some MAGAt 2nd amendment zealot. They're all terrified.