Eric

Still have four years of NCAA eligibility.

[Eric @trad_dad_]

Would hate to keep a bad idea to yourself share with the nation

[Polymarket @Polymarket]

JUST IN: Gavin Newsom announces he will vote no on California’s billionaire tax measure & instead calls for a "national billionaires’ tax"

[Eric @trad_dad_]

Rookie numbers but point still stands

[Dean Turner @DeanTTraining]

It’s Friday

You know what that means….

MILLIONS OF PEOPLE are about to pull this stunt

They’ve been doing it for years and this weekend won’t be the exception!

DO NOT LET THIS BE YOU

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

40% of fatherhood is walking around the house, turning off lights.

[Eric @trad_dad_]

2 weeks to stop the spread

[Polymarket @Polymarket]

NEW: Google is seeking approval to release up to 32 million “specially treated” mosquitoes in California & Florida to combat disease.

[Eric @trad_dad_]

Ehhh trust the science

[New York Post @nypost]

Common insect repellent now attracts mosquitoes - signaling a 'blood meal' for bugs: study https://t.co/j50RyH4PJI

[J Millus 🇺🇸 @J_Millus_MT]

The aliens are apparently 4 ft tall. Once the head is safely at the taxidermist, I think that whole thing will fit in the smoker.

[Eric @trad_dad_]

What you think @DrPhil

[Polymarket @Polymarket]

JUST IN: Anheuser-Busch CEO says consumers are turning to healthier habits like beer, because it “naturally has protein.”

[Eric @trad_dad_]

Someone commissioned a study for the most obvious outcome.

[CBS News @CBSNews]

Salmon exposed to cocaine in the water swim longer distances than those that go without, according to a study released this week. https://t.co/wneV9NpMyg

[Eric @trad_dad_]

Prison.

[U.S. Department of Justice @TheJusticeDept]

🚨HAPPENING NOW: Justice Department announces indictment against Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC"). Our indictment alleges SPLC secretly funneled MORE THAN $3 MILLION in funds to members of white supremacist and extremist groups.

[Eric @trad_dad_]

Dems overheat the money printer, flood market with cash, inflation. Reps start up tariffs, promise no new wars 😉, inflation. Maybe we cancel politics and we can go back to affording things

[Breaking911 @Breaking911]

Sen. Schumer: "Senate Republicans are choosing to follow Trump and Steven Miller instead of the needs of American families. Throughout reconciliation, Democrats are going to focus on cost and affordability."

[Eric @trad_dad_]

“Are we not already surrounded by a legion of perfectly qualified experts who don't know what the hell they're doing?”

[The Real Mike Rowe @mikeroweworks]

I want to apologize for not responding to any of the 22 thousand comments my last post inspired. I’ve been filming all week and just noticed my observations about Jimmy Kimmel and a former plumber named Markwayne Mullin have gone viral. I've also noticed that many of the comments are from people who genuinely seem to believe that Jimmy wasn’t belittling plumbers at all, but was instead, simply trying to point out that Mullin is not qualified to lead the DHS. Here's a small smattering...

Roger Bicknell...
Mikey stop. Kimmel wasn't making fun of plumbers he was making fun of Mullin.

Rebecca Piatt Gonzalez...
Dearest Mike, it's not anything to do with his being a plumber. It's him NOT being skilled in Homeland Security.

Patrick Wise...
Being a plumber qualifies you to be a plumber. Period. The issue Jimmy and the rest of us at the adult table recognize is that jobs require certain training and experience and being a plumber does not qualify you to be Sec of DHS.

Had Roger, Rebecca, Patrick and all the others who rushed to Jimmy’s Kimmel’s defense actually read what I had written, they would see that I did not suggest - even remotely - that a plumber was inherently qualified to hold a cabinet position. What I said was that being a plumber should not disqualify a person from holding such a position. Big difference. Doctors, lawyers, veterinarians, fireman, and university professors are no more or less qualified to run the DHS than plumbers, electricians, or carpenters – but should they all be dismissed as “unqualified” simply because they made a living in some other vocation?

As I wrote in my original post, credentials and diplomas are great ways to bolster a person’s credibility, especially if we’re talking about mastering a specific skill. I think we can all agree that plumbers, accountants, mechanics, and surgeons should all have to prove themselves competent before hanging out a shingle. But what do their credentials and diplomas have to do with their actual competency? Are we not already surrounded by a legion of perfectly qualified experts who don't know what the hell they're doing? Moreover, what do credentials and experience have to do with wisdom, honesty, common sense, integrity, courage, the ability to lead, or any other virtue we’d like to have in our elected officials?

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to question Mullin’s suitability for this role. But there’s no legitimate reason to disqualify him simply because he used to be a plumber. Just as there was no legitimate reason to dismiss AOC because she used to tend bar. As for the joke itself, here’s an honest question. If Senator Mullin was a retired doctor instead of a retired plumber, do you believe he would have would made the same joke?

Roger, Rebecca, Patrick...be honest. Do you really think Jimmy would have said to his audience, "So, now we have a DOCTOR in charge of protecting us from terrorism? Hey ��� it worked for Dr. Suess – maybe it’ll work for Markwayne!"

Personally, I don't. Not in a million years. Why? Because no one would have found it funny, that’s why. Even though doctors are no more “qualified” to protect us from terrorists than plumbers are, Jimmy knows that doctors are widely respected in society, and that plumbers are not. He knows that medical degrees and doctorates are aspirational credentials, whereas plumbing certificates are not. The entire premise of his joke was based on a personal bias that he knew his audience shared – a bias that presupposes plumbers are uneducated, one-dimensional workers who never made it to college, and are therefore "unqualified" to do anything but plumb.

Jimmy is entitled to his opinion, along with anyone else who believes that Mullin is unqualified to lead the DHS. The Constitution, however, says otherwise, and so does the Senate. Likewise, reasonable people can disagree as to what is funny and what isn’t. Frankly, I couldn’t care less. What I do care about, is the extraordinary shortage of plumbers and electricians our country is facing, and the longstanding stigmas and stereotypes that continue to discourage people from considering a lucrative career in the skilled trades. Jimmy’s joke – and his audience’s reaction to it – is proof positive that those stigmas and stereotypes are alive and well.

PS. We have a lot of money set aside to help train the next generation of plumbers. Apply for a scholarship at https://t.co/vidLSYXCf6 Who knows? Could be the first step on your road to President..

[The Redheaded libertarian @TRHLofficial]

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”
John 15:18

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

Let me help rephrase for you Bernie.

Need a loan for college so you can party for a semester and drop out? Taxpayers will loan you money for it.

Need an SBA loan for your business ? Taxpayers will guarantee it.

For a house ? Taxpayers will guarantee it. And local gov will give you money for your first down payment !

Get sick or are in an accident and you can’t afford your deductible, insurance company denied prescribed care or are uninsured ?

You are on your own 😤

Let me add Bernie, the one debt not a single one of us will ever pay off till the day we die ? Our health insurance premiums

And before you go in and on about single payer, ask @claudeai to take a look at your proposed Single Payer legislation.

You want the Sec of HHS to run it. You can’t have a political appointee run an apolitical position

And you expect every provider and doctor to accept whatever rate is set by Medicare. Big hospitals don’t know their costs. They couldn’t do a BOM for any procedure. They have negligible transparency.

If they don’t know their costs, and you don’t know their costs, how is it possible for taxpayers, caregivers and patients to get a fair deal ?

And the concept of “every other country does it “ ignores the fact that they all converted decades and decades ago, long before you and your peers allowed the extreme vertical integration we face now.

Which leads to the question. @BernieSanders , why have you not advocated for the Break Up Big Medicine Bill ?

[Ryan, Perdido en TX @RyanLostinTX]

I would also like to pay the salaries of TSA workers, with my tax dollars that I’ve already paid.

[InteractivePolls @IAPolls2022]

CBS News Poll: Do you favor or oppose requiring people to show valid photo ID before they are permitted to vote?

🟢 Favor: 80%
🟤 Oppose: 20%
——
• Dem: 65-35 (+30)
• GOP: 95-5 (+90)
• Indie: 79-21 (+58)
• White: 80-20 (+60)
• Black: 80-20 (+60)
• Hispanic: 77-23 (+55)

YouGov | 3/16-19 | 2,496 A

[litquidity @litcapital]

Imagine being a working class family that just spent 30 years paying off a mortgage for a small one bed, one bath in Astoria and then you pass away and your kids are taxed 50% of the value because they’re deemed “rich” and they’re forced to liquidate the property

[Eric @trad_dad_]

So why is this not law?

[America @america]

REMINDER: Americans support Voter ID regardless of race:

Black Voters: 76%
White voters: 85%
Latino voters: 82%

[Eric @trad_dad_]

Amen to lighter later all year long. Every spring is a reminder to how bad the fall back exercise has been

[Savage @Savageboston]

Also - daylight savings time is absolute bullshit when you have kids.

Just leave it lighter later for the entire year.

[Eric @trad_dad_]

America first…just as soon as we march through the world. 🇺🇸

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Lindsey Graham: "If we get in a fight, I want to win it quick. I'm in Miami. You see this hat? 'Free Cuba.' Stay tuned. The liberation of Cuba is upon us. We're marching through the world. We're clearing out the bad guys. Cuba is next."

[Bridget Phetasy @BridgetPhetasy]

I think about this back and forth with @benshapiro from 2018 a lot. The reason I loathe propaganda like “I regret having kids” is that you can’t know what you don’t know and there is no way to replicate having kids. Ben was right and I only know it because I had a child.