@ThatcherShirley

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

If rumours are to be believed I'll be living with a seventh different Prime Minister shortly. If it carries on like this I'm going to stop making the effort to learn their names.

[Washingtonian 🌸 @washingtonian]

Snow much fun! 🐼❄️

Giant Pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao played in the snow at Smithsonian’s National Zoo yesterday🥺

🎥: Smithsonian National Zoo

[NATO @NATO]

Repost to join us in celebrating our Ally 🇫🇮 Finland on their Independence Day!

#WeAreNATO 🤝@FinlandatNATO

[@ThatcherShirley @ThatcherShirley]

@fopminui It looks like a modernist stained glass window. Lovely!

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

The worst person you know is still a better human than this guy

https://t.co/ay318bDVo1

[The War Horse @TheWarHorseNews]

“You know,” my dad said, “the Nazis almost won.” He pointed at me and then said, “Someday you will know why they didn’t.” https://t.co/qmdvJPWnlm

[@ThatcherShirley @ThatcherShirley]

@spectatorindex He’s as full of it as a Christmas turkey…

[Shannon Watts @shannonrwatts]

Elon Musk gets $8 million a day from the government.

Social security recipients get $65 a day from their own savings.

[Amy McGrath @AmyMcGrathKY]

Clearly you are not a combat pilot.

[Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof]

It’s clear from this that the only difference between Steve Witkoff’s and Vladmir Putin’s views on the war in Ukraine is that Putin actually knows the names of all the five Ukrainian regions he wants to keep.

[@ThatcherShirley @ThatcherShirley]

@Motabhai012 @bennyjohnson Hated for all being nepo-baby asshats who aren’t always right, but they’re always sure… 🙄

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

American farm exports were worth $179 billion in 2022

[@ThatcherShirley @ThatcherShirley]

Amazing shot!

[Dave Lyons @insiteimage]

Last night's 12.7% Waxing Crescent Moon setting behind the Air Force Memorial.

#moon #airforcememorial #crescentmoon #nightphotography #arlingtonva @capitalweather @spann #ThePhotoHour #stormhour #nikonusa #NikonD850

[@ThatcherShirley @ThatcherShirley]

@elonmusk And you are an expert in this area given your military service in what country? 🙄 Oh that’s right, you left South Africa so you didn’t have to do military service, then school in Canada, then to the United States on a student Visa but never enrolled in any classes…

[ian bremmer @ianbremmer]

if i were a foreign adversary of the united states, core policies i would support:

1) leaving nato and the un
2) shutting down foreign aid
3) dismantling the professional us bureaucracy
4) removing safeguards for epidemics and disease

[@ThatcherShirley @ThatcherShirley]

@kwrob24 @krassenstein Google Trump Charging Secret Service and there articles from a variety of news outlets. Most are from his previous time in office because this term hasn’t been filed yet.

https://t.co/tgRMz8oL5Z

[@ThatcherShirley @ThatcherShirley]

@kwrob24 @krassenstein Trump also charges the Secret Service and other staff to stay at Mar-a-Largo when he is there. Their room and board are billed to the Federal government, but at higher than Federal government per diem rates allow.

[Al Roker @alroker]

Going into the severe weather and hurricane season, this cannot be good.

The Commerce Department has laid off hundreds of NOAA employees, many with specialized skills who work at one of the world's top climate science and weather forecasting agencies.
Why it matters: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is responsible for providing weather watches and warnings, monitoring and studying Earth's climate, as well as operating weather satellites and protecting marine life.
The layoffs of probationary employees that began Thursday hit soon after cuts at the behest of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency occurred at other climate and environment agencies.
The big picture: NOAA's missions require staff to work around the clock to monitor dangerous weather, earthquakes that could cause tsunamis, and other hazards.
In recent weeks, NOAA's National Weather Service has issued warnings for deadly flooding in Kentucky, heavy snow, frigid temperatures and other hazards across the country.
While NOAA had pushed for public safety exemptions from the layoffs for NWS meteorologists, not all were granted. A congressional aide reported hearing that "some" at NWS were spared but "not many."

[Pastor J @JaredASnyder]

This all seems well and good, but I already see 3 red flags 🚩:

1. Potential Conflict of Interest – Elon Musk being involved in reviewing government spending while also having a team examining the ATC system could raise ethical questions. Even if there’s no direct financial gain for him or SpaceX, it still creates a perception problem. The last thing air traffic modernization needs is political baggage slowing it down.

2. Tech vs. Practicality – SpaceX engineers tend to push for bleeding-edge solutions, which isn’t necessarily bad, but air traffic control isn’t about pushing boundaries—it’s about safety, efficiency, and reliability in a manner that is practical. There’s a real risk that an over-engineered or overly ambitious approach could introduce complexity where simplicity is key. The “must-haves” (like reducing delays, increasing capacity, and improving safety) need to stay decisively separate from “nice-to-haves” (like an overly complex automation system that tries too hard to reduce human oversight).

3. Lack of Pilot Input – This is a HUGE oversight. Controllers exist to assist pilots, and if modernization efforts don’t take pilot input seriously, they’re missing half the equation. Pilots are the ones who interact with the system in real-time, under real pressure. They are the ones who are ultimately responsible/liable for the aircraft, passengers, and cargo. They know what actually works and what doesn’t. Excluding them from the conversation risks implementing changes that look great on paper but don’t work as effectively in practice (if at all).

If the goal is to truly improve ATC, we need a balanced approach: engineers for technical feasibility, controllers for operational experience, and pilots for real-world usability. Right now, it seems like the proposed plan-of-attack leans too much on one side of that equation.

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

So let’s get this straight—Ukraine, a not-too-wealthy country in Eastern Europe, has been fighting a total war for three years against a full-scale invasion by Russia—one of the largest armies in history, with one of the biggest military budgets, vast economic and human resources, and endless Soviet stockpiles.

Despite receiving only limited, carefully rationed, and delayed aid from the West, Ukraine has inflicted a series of heavy defeats on Russia. It has forced Russia to spend months and years fighting for small provincial towns in the Donbas, destroyed 4,000 Russian tanks and around 8,000 IFVs/APCs, and exhausted even Russia’s once-bottomless Soviet reserves—so much so that Moscow is now buying weapons and ammunition from Iran and North Korea.

Western systems like the Patriot have outperformed all expectations, delivering the best results in their operational history.

Ukrainian drones have effectively neutralized the Russian Black Sea Fleet, while almost every night, Ukrainian strikes wipe out Russian oil depots and military factories.

And after three years of total war, Russia—having failed to capture a single regional center or achieve a single one of its objectives—is now coming to the negotiation table.

Yet somehow, there are still people claiming that Ukraine’s use of Western weapons is “ineffective” because its infantry sometimes fires NLAWs like RPGs.

Seriously—you couldn’t make this up if you tried.