Recent Comments

1. 2 days ago on Prickly City

   From the “About” tab above.

   “Prickly City offers a conservative perspective on political and social events within an ongoing storyline.”

2. 4 days ago on FoxTrot Classics

   Fool’s Mate”

   Takes 2 moves for Black, 3 moves for White.

3. 4 days ago on Prickly City

   Early in Cleveland’s second term the United States sank into the most severe economic depression the country had yet experienced.

   Cleveland believed that the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890—which required the secretary of the treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver each month—had eroded confidence in the stability of the currency and was thus at the root of the nation’s economic troubles.

   He called Congress into special session and, over considerable opposition from Southern and Western members of his own party, forced the repeal of the act.

   Yet the depression only worsened, and Cleveland’s negative view of government began to diminish his popularity.

   Apart from assuring a sound—i.e., gold-backed—currency, he insisted the government could do nothing to alleviate the suffering of the many thousands of people who had lost jobs, homes, and farms.

   His popularity sank even lower when—distraught over the diminishing quantity of gold in the treasury—he negotiated with a syndicate of bankers headed by John Pierpont Morgan to sell government bonds abroad for gold.

   The deal succeeded in replenishing the government’s gold supply, but the alliance between the president and one of the era’s leading “robber barons” intensified the feeling that Cleveland had lost touch with ordinary Americans.

   That the president cared more about the interests of big business than those of ordinary Americans seemed manifest in Cleveland’s handling of the Pullman Strike in 1894.

   Cleveland sent federal troops to Chicago to quell violence at George M. Pullman’s railroad car facility, despite the objections of Illinois Gov. John P. Altgeld.

   The strike was broken within a week, and the president received the plaudits of the business community. However, he had severed whatever support he still had in the ranks of labour.

   ~

   Britannica

   Grover Cleveland

4. 5 days ago on Prickly City

   Guessing you’re referring to the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025”.

   ~

   Led by the long-established Heritage Foundation think tank and fueled by former Trump administration officials, the far-reaching effort is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president’s second term — or any candidate who aligns with their ideals and can defeat President Joe Biden in 2024.

   With a nearly 1,000-page “Project 2025” handbook and an “army” of Americans, the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers.

   “We need to flood the zone with conservatives,” said Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project and a former Trump administration official who speaks with historical flourish about the undertaking.

   ✁

   The goal is to avoid the pitfalls of Trump’s first years in office, when the Republican president’s team was ill-prepared, his Cabinet nominees had trouble winning Senate confirmation and policies were met with resistance — by lawmakers, government workers and even Trump’s own appointees who refused to bend or break protocol, or in some cases violate laws, to achieve his goals.

   ✁

   Much of the new president’s agenda would be accomplished by reinstating what’s called Schedule F — a Trump-era executive order that would reclassify tens of thousands of the 2 million federal employees as essentially at-will workers who could more easily be fired.

   ✁

   Experts argue Schedule F would create chaos in the civil service, which was overhauled during President Jimmy Carter’s administration in an attempt to ensure a professional workforce and end political bias dating from 19th century patronage.

   As it now stands, just 4,000 members of the federal workforce are considered political appointees ✁

   ~

   PBS

   Conservatives aim to restructure U.S. government and replace it with Trump’s vision

5. 7 days ago on Prickly City

   Since your profile indicates that you speak / understand multiple languages, I’m guessing that you may not be from the U.S.

   This comic is based in the American (U.S., probably Arizona) Southwest.

   So this comic is (most probably) alluding to Trump / Biden.

6. 7 days ago on Prickly City

   …from the depths of the COVID pandemic, and despite the gross mismanagement of the previous U.S. administration, America has recovered more rapidly than the other advanced economies of the G7.

   This recovery has included job growth that has broken records and the sound management of inflation—which was associated chiefly with the pandemic-caused supply chain squeezes and corporate profiteering linked to those supply chain problems.

   ✁

   There may have been mini-eras that are generally viewed more positively in hindsight during that period—but the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package was the biggest such piece of legislation since the Eisenhower years.

   The Inflation Reduction Act was the biggest investment in combating climate change and in green growth in U.S. history.

   The CHIPs and Science Act will help make America less dependent on foreign sources for vital technologies while ensuring we remain the world’s leader in critical technologies.

   The American Rescue Plan lifted millions out of poverty and helped millions more rebound from the consequences of the pandemic’s devastation.

   At the same time, this administration looks more like the American people—all of them—than any in our history. And it has brought more diversity to our courts than any of its predecessors.

   President Biden and his administration and their allies on Capitol Hill deserve recognition for these accomplishments. What they have achieved has truly been remarkable. But the credit is hardly theirs alone.

   ~

   Daily Beast

   America’s In Much Better Shape (at Home and Abroad) Than You Probably Think

7. 8 days ago on PreTeena

   At this point, Jeri really doesn’t want him to call.

   (The “redirect” is away from her phone.)

8. 9 days ago on Rabbits Against Magic

   08/28/19

   The controversy went viral on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. That day, Obama had prepared to hold a press conference to address the nation on ISIS and Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. However, it was his outfit that ended up sending commentators and social media users into a frenzy at the time.

   The fashion choice from the president came with great surprise then given his, and other politicians’, propensity toward darker suits.

   ✁

   Analytics pulled at the time showed that there were more than 4,000 tweets posted during the 2014 press conference about Obama’s suit. A number of popular viral puns also sprung from the moment, including “The Audacity of Taupe,” and a large number of memes.

   However, ✁ there were a number of critics of the president who said the suit was inappropriate for the occasion.

   Longtime Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said at the time that the suit showed a “lack of seriousness” taken by the president, saying: “There’s no way I don’t think any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday.”

   “ISIS is watching,” he continued. “If you were the head of ISIS, if you were Baghdadi, if you were anyone in the ISIS, would you come away from yesterday afraid of the United States?"

   “Would you be afraid that the United States was going to use all its power to crush ISIS? Or would you think here’s a person who’s going to go out and do a few fundraisers over the Labor Day weekend?”

   Other critics asked what message the president was trying to send with the suit.

   Fox Business commentator Lou Dobbs said then that he thought the suit was “shocking to a lot of people” and asked on Twitter, “What message is the President trying to send?”

   Now, five years later, droves of people are taking to social media to recognize what some have referred to as a “simpler time” when juxtaposed with some of the latest scandals of the current administration.

   ~

   The Hill

   Obama’s tan suit controversy hits 5-year anniversary

9. 10 days ago on Rabbits Against Magic

   In an irate letter to the White House, Kevin McCarthy and other congressional Republicans have demanded that President Biden reveal why they are impeaching him.

   The letter claims that, after Republicans announced their impeachment inquiry, “the White House has stubbornly refused to provide us with any reasons for our doing so.”

   The Republicans go on to demand that Biden reveal the rationale for his ouster “immediately, or face the consequences.”

   “The American people are waiting, Mr. President, for you to explain to us why we are impeaching you,” the letter concludes. “Your silence will not be forgiven.”

   ~

   — The Borowitz Report (Satire)

10. 11 days ago on Wondermark

    In this case: “Everything in Moderation.” might be the best option. . .