Inside the Extremely Vanilla World of Pete Buttigieg Fanfiction
Thirty-eight-year-old presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg would be winning the election if the election was held on Archive of Our Own, an open-source platform of slightly highbrow user-submitted fanworks from a variety of fandoms. On Archive of Our Own, Buttigieg and husband Chasten Glezman are the stars of user-submitted fanfiction or, more specifically, RPF—real person fiction—which has been popular in fannish circles for decades. In these nearly 70 stories, Buttigieg and Glezman’s relationship is the focus. Some of the RPFs are sincere and sweet, while others are House of Cards rip-offs, with Buttigieg advisor Lis Smith delivering Aaron Sorkin-paced dialogue. And then, of course, are the explicit RPFs, which fantasizes about the intimate details of Buttigieg and Glezman’s relationship. AO3’s chaotic, free-for-all tagging system with phrases like “it was supposed to be smut but then I killed someone” and “i swear this isn’t straight angst, (it’s gay angst) it’s clear to see why Buttigieg, of all the politicians running for president right now, would become fannish fodder. It’s parasocial relationships with politicians arriving at its most obvious endpoint.
I hate to agree with a Jezebel article, but this is sadly true. I read thirty of these with the most promising titles and they are all weaksauce, seriously lacking in the sort of hot man-on-man action fans crave. They barely let the man bust a nut.
Damn you, Trump! They are obviously following his secret orders!
Hindu Nationalist Gangs Roam New Delhi Streets as Deadly Religious Riots in India Kill Dozens
Days of violent clashes between Hindu and Muslim mobs in New Delhi have left as many as two dozen dead and hundreds injured, putting the country on edge. Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi soaked up much of the media spotlight during the American president’s visit this week, but in the background, violence played out in relation to monthslong protests over religion-based citizenship laws. The mood of the capital has been tense since Modi’s Hindu nationalist governing party enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act in December, which allows settled refugees from neighboring countries Pakistan and Bangladesh and nearby Afghanistan fast-track citizenship. The law, however, conspicuously excludes Muslim residents, sparking anger among the some 200 million Muslims living in India. The law also led members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party to muse about undertaking an operation to “verify” Indian Muslims’ status as citizens writ large, a not-so-subtle threat to the country’s largest minority group.
Maria Sharapova Steps Away From The Game
Sharapova retiring is not much of a shock. She probably should have just quit after getting suspended for two years for performance-enhancing drugs.
I always loved to watch her play: the grunting, the insane glaring… oh, the shiver of pleasure I felt.
Her career will always have an asterisk by it. She won five Majors, but how many more would she have won without Serena Williams in her way?
London Doctors Are Accused of Removing a Transgender Man’s Vagina Without His Consent
Two doctors in London have been suspended after performing an irreversible vaginectomy on a transgender man without his consent.
Metro UK reports that the nonconsensual procedure was performed by Drs. Marco Capece and Giulo Garaffa in 2016, at Highgate Private Hospital. The patient, who had begun transitioning in 2013, reportedly consented to a hysterectomy and a metoidioplasty, but did not want his vagina removed. Garaffa reportedly did not check the patient’s medical notes and performed the vaginectomy anyway. Capece is accused of later altering the patient’s consent form to make it look like he wanted the procedure.
Democrats Effectively Demonstrate That There Are Too Many Democratic Candidates Left
CBS MODERATOR MARGARET BRENNAN: Sen. Sanders, your response.
SANDERS: Let us be clear, do we think health care for all, Pete, is some kind of radical communist idea?
(CROSSTALK)
BUTTIGIEG: Well, you brought this up, let’s talk about that.
(CROSSTALK)
SANDERS: Do we think raising the minimum wage to a living wage…
(CROSSTALK)
BUTTIGIEG: I’m happy to respond to the question because this is really important…
(CROSSTALK)
SANDERS: … do we think building the millions of units of affordable housing that we need…
(CROSSTALK)
BUTTIGIEG: If you’re going to ask that rhetorical question, let’s…
(CROSSTALK)
SANDERS: … do we think raising taxes on billionaires is a radical idea?
(CROSSTALK)
BUTTIGIEG: Let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about what’s radical about that plan.
(CROSSTALK)
SANDERS: Do you think criminal justice reform is a radical idea?
(CROSSTALK)
BUTTIGIEG: The things you just named are things…
(CROSSTALK)
SANDERS: Do you think immigration reform? The truth is, Pete…
(CROSSTALK)
BRENNAN: One at a time.
(CROSSTALK)
SANDERS: … the American people support my agenda.
(CROSSTALK)
BUTTIGIEG: The way you’re talking about doing it is radical by…
(CROSSTALK)
SANDERS: That is why I am beating Trump in virtually every poll that is done, and why I will defeat him.
(CROSSTALK)
BUTTIGIEG: We’ve got to open this up. Universal health care, for example…
Yup, that’s the way to have a debate, all right.
India needs the Congress Party back:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_anti-Sikh_riots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emergency_(India)
Its not a big accomplishment, but I picked up four plates and set them down again for the first time since July last year. So that was nice.
Bone china or stoneware?
Bumper plates. Looked like Duplo!
Good job, brother!
“He did not want his vagina removed.”
There’s something you don’t hear every day.
Drama in the ER. Shouting and profanity and stark ravings. Totally awesome. They keep closing our door, tho.
Every time i end up having to go to the ER (which is thankfully rare) I think: You know if it is between dying on the street or at home, or among all these lunatics… I might take my chances at home.
Leon got so sad, dejected, put on his hat and start to run
Runnin’ down the street yellin’ at the top of his lungs, oh yeah
All I want in this life of mine is some good clean fun!
All I want in this life and time is some hit and run!
Good clean fun, you say?
Let me guess, someone made an offhand “our tax dollars at work” comment and you recited John Galt’s speech from heart at the top of your voice?
All 63 pages, yup.
Huh. And here I thought that memorizing The Cremation of Sam McGee in 5th Grade was an accomplishment.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold.
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold.
And the eskimo chicks
That are known for ticks
And odiferous vaginal mold.
The best thing I ever memorized for school was from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, where Mark Antony is speaking to Caesar’s corpse. Anything that starts “Oh pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, that I am meek and gentle with these butchers” and ends with “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war” is much more exciting than most stuff you learn in school.
Except, as a tee shirt I once bought said, “John Galt’s got nothing in Hank Rearden.”
Hank >>>>>> Galt.
Fight me.
nothing ON
ON
ON
not “in”
Well, Ayn Rand’s characters are into odd sexual fetishes.
Meh. Rough sex. Rape by engraved invitation. Not odd or even kinky.
Go on…
I would quote the entire 3 sentences of Dominique and Roark’s interlude, but I’m on my phone.
I read that as “John Galt’s got nothing in Hank’s Rear End.”
I’m going to Hell.
I realized wjat it looked like as soon as I hit post. *headdesk*
No slash fiction happening here.
It sounds like the Pete BootieJug stuff that Mr. Saccharine was looking for.
Yeah, one time I had to go the ER was the night of a college football game. The drunk guy who climbed up on a road sign, fell and had a concussion was hilarious. He kept accusing the nurses of coming on to him.
Like this guy?
https://youtu.be/Cvn0F0LEVNE
My ER visit was waiting so long that the local anesthetic which took forever to get administered wore off before the stitches were inserted, a guy running down the hallway with shit coming out of his ass pursued by a security guard, and the nurse coming around saying ‘oh, I didn’t know you were still here. I wouldn’t have gone to lunch if I’d known’ (was still waiting for the stitches at that point).
I rarely go to the ER, but when I do it’s for things like tearing my knee out and it’s 9:00 pm. I always go to North Memorial because it’s close and its North the kind of hospital known for sowing the arms back on to idiot North Dakota farmers who get their arms ripped off by a combine or some such thing. And are great. The wait is usually reasonably short and the last time I was there, the staff overseeing the waiting room was attentive enough to notice that I was going into shock and immediately wheeled out this armoire filled with heated blankets that they used to cover me up.
I’d think sowing arms would result in their winding up all over the place, not where they belong.
That’s for when you might want an extra arm.
Let me give you a hand, Buddy.
Alas, that only works for teeth, I believe it was.
Last time I had to take my wife, it was like waiting at a Tijuana bus station. When she complains about our healthcare costs, I remind her of that night and the fact that we were probably the only paying customers there.
Our oldest daughter has worked in ERs for fifteen years or so. She’s now an NP in a small community hospital ER in eastern Iowa.
To hear her tell it, what you describe is just a normal Friday or Saturday night in the ER. They have enough meth-heads in the area to keep things interesting.
This is a rural-turned-upper-end-suburban hospital with very few meth-heads around.
I’ve been here many a time, usually late at night, and never had this much entertainment or this long a wait.
Most of her work is vehicle accidents, elderly folks after a fall, or farm accidents. It’s just the weekends that bring the skids and tweaks out.
I’m not a Radical! I just think that we aren’t being evenhanded about Fidel Castro.
Know who else doesn’t get a fair shake from American politicians?
Nancy Pelosi?
Michael J Fox?
Shakes fist at Scruffy. Shakily.
This guy?
Voters?
Shaken Voter Syndrome.
Elvis?
Larry Craig?
The patient, who had begun transitioning in 2013, reportedly consented to a hysterectomy and a metoidioplasty, but did not want his vagina removed.
Stop it, you’re killing me.
I’m morbidly curious about what they do with the removed vaginas. Is there a waiting list like for livers and kidneys?
There’s a schnauzer that waits very patiently under the operating table.
Now that made me laugh.
Schnauzers prefer the ones slathered in peanut butter.
Light on the kibbles heavy on the bits.
Vagina floating in a jar full of formaldehyde.
“The lid is unscrewing itself! RUN, DAMN YOU! RUN!”
Ed Gein II Trans-surgeon boogaloo
How does a vagina get removed? I understand there are interior organs that can be removed. The vagina is an orifice. During a transition, doesn’t it get “filled”, so to speak, to become a penis?
Spackle.
Ouch.
*clamps thighs together*
I’ll concede that socialist/communist ideas are no longer radical ideas.
They’re still horribly bad ideas though.
The great future.
/Gets sent to re-education
Highbrow fanfic? Now there is an oxymoron for you.
I get it. Orangemanbad. Why hasn’t anyone told me this before?
“She won five Majors, but how many more would she have won without Serena Williams in her way?”
The same number I would win with no one in my way. All of ’em.
Do I think instituting the same policies as the USSR is a radical communist idea?
Yeah Bernie. I do. Now fuck off.
FYI/PSA:
MGTD from previous post sold for $19,250. You couldn’t build it for that. You probably couldn’t get a crashed TD donor car for 25k, much less round up the rest of the pieces.
SANDERS: … the American people support my agenda.
No, Granddad, those are just the voices in your head.
I’m morbidly curious about what they do with the removed vaginas. Is there a waiting list like for livers and kidneys?
I hear they make hats out of them.
I think they make toys out of them but for the life of me I cant remember what they are called.
Turtlenecks for chihuahuas
We have our own special kind of DNC fanfic here at glibertarians.com
*chokes back a tinge of vomit*
Great song by a great songwriter.
Is it time to panic about Coronavirus?
You can panic or not at your leasure.
Sure, why not. It is always time to panic about something.
https://media.wired.com/photos/5933b7d05321273fc0f91144/master/w_1024,c_limit/dontpanic_1024.jpg
Do you have your towel?
Buttigieg and husband Chasten Glezman are the stars of user-submitted fanfiction
Given that everyone else still running is old enough to qualify for senior assisted housing, it’s not surprising.
Chasten. Who names their kid that? It’s pretty much a guarantee that he’ll be gay.
I read thirty of these with the most promising titles
For “research”, I’m sure…
Maria Sharapova
*unzips*
I don’t need any performance enhancing drugs, baby.
Rebel, why do you even wear pants?
Dramatic effect.
The same reason theaters have curtains.
I always assumed he just had a zipper, to announce his intentions.
Always buy your esoteric murder weapons on Amazon and use a vehicle with GPS logging.
TW: WP – A retiree was shot in a ‘medieval-style’ crossbow execution. The killer’s Amazon purchase helped give him away.
Average IQ of criminals: 90
There is some co-linearity going on here.
I was going to tell a long story about that but I am eating nachos and my fingers are greasy and nachos getting cold so in the interest of brevity….
D’oh
Criminals that get caught. Just sayin’
^^^^ This
The smarter end of criminals go into white color crime.
and the smartest don’t get caught.
Or politics.
Most pols I’ve met aren’t that bright. Most seem to be failed businessmen, or schoolteachers.
Smarter? Politics? AOC, Jackson Lee, Johnson, say no.
The best criminals are the men behind the throne.
V. Jarrett, Rahm, D. Cheney,
“SANDERS: That is why I am beating Trump in virtually every poll that is done, and why I will defeat him.”
I’ve seen a fair amount of chatter the last couple of days about how well Sanders is polling vs. Trump in the general, and this seems impossible to me. Perhaps I’m the one in the bubble.
And it brings me to a grave dilemma. In its infinite wisdom, my state recently nut-kicked the principle of free association by creating open primaries for unaffiliated voters, of which I am one. I have two ballots in my hand, and I’m tempted to vote for Bernie in the Dem primary, just to help amplify the chaos. But now he’s, like, succeeding and stuff.
Can’t you take a Dem ballot and write in Trump?
Hmmmm….. Well, shoot. There’s no write-in line for the primary, it seems.
The polls worked out super awesome last time.
Hillary has a 97% chance of winning the 2016 election.
I saw where 175,000 people tried to get into a trump rally in the last week or so. Yep, he is a lost cause. Sanders has it in the bag.
Suthen, you should watch RazorFist’s latest rant about the differences in turnout for the various Democrats (esp. Sanders) and Trump. Foul-mouthed, hilarious, and probably spot-on.
The guy likes the sound of his own voice a bit too much for me. I cant sit through his rants. He takes half of an hour to say what could be said in about three sentences.
He and my wife would get along famously.
I know the type. Ask them what time it is and they will explain in great detail how to build a clock.
My daughter can talk for 15 minutes and I can repeat what she said to me in a sentence fragment.
We have the same daughter?
Why use 3 words when 30 work just as well?
Yeah, it’s so much easier to read a blog post than to sit through a video like that.
No time for complacency, ever.
What polls are those?
Here’s some….
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_sanders-6250.html
If that holds true for the general, but ends up being the popular vote, and if California, Washington and New York make the same contribution to that percentage as last time, Trump would probably walk away with more EC votes once again.
Really, pollsters need to start breaking these massively low-vote-efficiency blocks out to get rid of some of the useless information.
The polls of a general public that don’t know even half of what Sanders has planned.
Make certain somebody else gets to 15% and gets some of those sweet sweet delegates, making a brokered convention that little bit more likely.
I’ve seen a fair amount of chatter the last couple of days about how well Sanders is polling vs. Trump in the general, and this seems impossible to me. Perhaps I’m the one in the bubble.
According to the polling averages, Trump consistently gets 45-46% of the vote against any candidate, all of whom out-poll him. Unless there are a lot of shy Trump voters, this election will be a close one (but then again, the last one was close as well, with Trump getting, huh, 46% of the vote). I still think if it’s Sanders v Trump that Sanders will get crushed, but not by nearly as much of a margin as a socialist deserves. His spending plans are so ludicrous that they will demand hiking middle class taxes to work, so a round of commercials hammering that point home (Sanders = $5K pay cut) should make him un-electable.
They just need commercials with video of him saying good things about the USSR and Cuba.
The R/D/I spread in a lot of those polls is laughable, though.
I feel that starts treading close to ‘play stupid games, win stupid prizes’ because, yeah, what if he does win? If too many non-leftists do it as a tactic, it starts to look like the same play the Democrats made to elevate Trump thinking Hillary could beat him easily, and we all know how that turned out.
Exactly.
I look at how Corbyn got trounced in the UK and the Gaia candidate lost in Australia, and I ask myself how can it be that Sanders might actually win in the US?? It beggars belief.
this seems impossible to me.
National poll vs polling by state, perhaps. And the polls are notoriously skewed towards Democrats.
National polls mean jack shit.
The presidential election is 50 state elections. Bernie can’t fucking win in Iowa. I doubt he can win in any of the rust belt states that Trump took away from the dems (or the dems threw away) in the last election.
I further doubt that Bernie can carry all the states that Hillary took.
The Donald will crush Bernie in the electoral college.
I read thirty of these with the most promising titles and they are all weaksauce, seriously lacking in the sort of hot man-on-man action fans crave. They barely let the man bust a nut.
Show them the way. Submit something to that site, and either enlighten them or scare them away. Either way the world will be a better place.
Trump is the first true black President.
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/the-real-betrayal-of-albertans-lifer-politicians-who-wont-tell-them-the-truth/
I guess in the same way that everyone’s days are numbered, the United State’s days are numbered, and the sun’s days are numbered…
Indeed. Every person’s days are numbered, but we don’t run around telling kids they have to plan for their funeral.
They have been saying that since the early 1940’s.
Divestment!
I didn’t realize that Scott Gilmore had his head shoved that far up his ass.
Well he works for Macleans
And I am awaiting Turdeau to cancel that pipeline and give the Indians and the watermelons full veto over any projects. Canadians might be poor and in the dark but at least he is well off and they will vote Liberal.
Even with a minority government Justin can still wreak mayhem.
Where’s Cytotoxic? He though Turdeau was going to be good.
He felt. There was no evidence of thought.
Also he’s got the Bloc and NDP propping him up.
Crazy and Bonkers.
Cytotoxic disappeared and he was stupid to believe that.
Harper bad and Chrétien was the End of History so Libertarian Moment. The Canadian equivalent of Orange Man Bad and Bill Clinton was the End of History so Libertarian Moment.
We are just doing this for your own safety, you rube.
However, it’s a grave mistake to assume people disagree with you because they don’t understand, especially when the subject of gun rights arises.
Yet that’s precisely what one gun-control activist alleges is driving the push to defend our Second Amendment rights.
”Linda Brundage, the executive director of the Michigan Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, told Stateside that she thinks much of the outrage about gun control legislation stems from a misunderstanding about what those laws would do.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that it’s so divisive. And what that suggests to me is people are not talking to one another,” she said. “The gun industry is selling fear so that people believe they must be armed. Again, nobody wants to take away guns.””‘
Brundage argues that red flag laws aren’t about taking away people’s guns but about “safety.”
”“And it seems like, you know, this effort in Michigan, at this present time, is designed to prevent the passage of this legislation, these kinds of legislations. And from our perspective, that’s unfortunate because we know they will save lives.””
And, again, that’s demonstrably false.
HOUSE BILL NO. 4497
We didn’t think you’d check…
Again, nobody wants to take away guns
Even most of her brethren don’t parrot this bullshit anymore.
We don’t want to take them away… but we’re definitely never going to give them back.
we know they will save lives
That’s a lie worthy of Goebbels or St Ralph the Liar.
Save lives…
“Again, nobody wants to take away guns.”
Back to that? They already took off the mask and admitted explicitly that (we knew all along) that is exactly what they want to do.
Gun grabbers lie. Every word is calculated to deceive.
Again, no one wants you to be unable to defend yourself for your own good.
Utter horseshit.
Brundage argues that red flag laws aren’t about taking away people’s guns but about “safety.”
Red flag laws are literally about taking away people’s guns. That’s literally the heart of those laws.
Also, just for a bonus round, you know who else claimed their actions were all about “safety”?
Volvo?
Your mom?
Well, everybody’s mom.
She’s advertising. ‘Nobody wants to take away your guns,’ is a catch phrase. Everybody involved in the discussion knows that it’s bullshit. It doesn’t have to be true to be effective.
Ass Wednesday is supported by viewers like you.
http://archive.is/Idmf2
I’ll see your asses and raise you one ball.
yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas….
Two doctors in London have been suspended after performing an irreversible vaginectomy on a transgender man without his consent.
Am I the only person who has to stop and think about transitioning from what to what when they hear this jargon? Perhaps more importantly, why would you want to “transition to a man” and keep your vagina? So you can go f**k yourself? It just sounds like like the doctor gave “him” a freebie.
I’d fuck me.
Jus’ sayin’.
Are you tucking when you say it, though?
Okay, Buffalo Bill.
Is there anyone you wouldn’t?
You’re not dealing with rational people. I don’t understand why any doctor would risk their livelihoods in order to provide optional services to someone who is probably clinically insane.
It’s NHS, it was free ayway.
You know, I was thinking about the “Caronavirus” tweet and a fascinating thought just occurred to me:
What if former commenter “John” was just Donald Trump this entire time?
The hilarity of the Oval Office banter as John/DJT berates staffers for doing something dumb in his mind would be overtake Aaron Sorkin’s writing.
You’re smarter than this GL. You just wants gays to think you’re cool. You don’t really believe what you think you believe!
*hangs head down while trying to stifle laughter*
Right? He should shut up before he embarrasses himself any further.
I’m disappointed. I thought you were smarter than that.
Pretty sure this John (not kidding)
https://www.deseret.com/2019/9/18/20859319/donald-trump-2020-immigration-israel-brett-kavanaugh-obamacare-republican
Kluge? Is he related to the billionaire Kluges?
There’s a lot of Kluges around, but I guess it’s possible.
The Kluges in Charlottesville are more likely to be related to Werner Kluge.
Are there? I guess I didn’t know that because the only Kluges I’ve ever heard of are the fabulously wealthy ones, mainly because of the Aboriginal art museum named after him at UVA.
He didn’t call the reporter a halfwit.
That’s what I remember as well.
Why I support Trump — and resent the elites trying to destroy him
That’s definitely him. There’s even a picture of him.
“John Kluge is an attorney living in Washington. He served in the US Army for nine years, including two deployments in Iraq and Kuwait.”
That’s the one. John would always challenge anyone’s ME expertise.
Their taste in women didn’t line up. Maybe John is the Presidential shitter-twitter proofer?
Read that last word as “poofer”.
It’s spelled “fluffer.”
“What if former commenter “John” was just Donald Trump this entire time?”
Well they’re both lousy spellers, so there’s that.
Bernie Vows To Rebuild Berlin Wall
Joe Biden Claims He Is Only Human Left On Earth Not Killed By Gun Violence
I assume Bernie will continue building a wall on the southern border – to keep us in.
Joe Biden Claims He Is Only Human Left On Earth Not Killed By Gun Violence
The sad thing is that the satire site had to go this extreme just to stay more than an order of magnitude above what he actually said.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/26/sustainable-vagina-revolution-underway-beware-homemade-tampons
Is every opinion writer at The Grauniad completely nucking futs?
Yes.
You should read David Thompson’s blog, and not just for the takedowns of Guardian nonsense.
I played Golf in Kingman, at a Private course today, Beautiful Scenery, 5000 ft elevation, had a blast,
Where’s that Pin at?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/JELfpiaedSYUNMwT8
“How not to be seen”
Vox shills for sacred high Mandarinate
Billionaire and presidential candidate Tom Steyer thinks the problem with Congress is that its members have too much experience.
At Tuesday’s debate, Steyer pressed his proposal to impose term limits on lawmakers. “I am for term limits of 12 years for every congressperson and senator,” Steyer said, pointing out that term limits would “get rid of Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz.”
——-
Constitutional limits aside, term limits are the sort of reform that may seem intuitive to many voters, but that is widely rejected by political scientists and others who’ve studied their impact closely. As Dartmouth government professor Brendan Nyhan said of Steyer, “few politicians have worked so hard or spent so much to, in effect, troll an entire scientific field.”
A 2006 report from the National Conference of State Legislatures examined states with term-limited lawmakers. It determined that term limits tend to increase the influence of lobbyists and lead to a “decline in civility” that “reduced legislators’ willingness and ability to compromise and engage in consensus building.”
Term-limited lawmakers, the NCSL explained, “have less time to get to know and trust one another” and “are less collegial and less likely to bond with their peers, particularly those from across the aisle.”
Such lawmakers often do not have enough time to learn how the legislature works or to master difficult policy issues. And they can’t turn to senior colleagues to give them this information because there are no senior colleagues. That “forces term-limited legislators to rely on lobbyists for information,” because lobbyists are able to spend years mastering legislative process and developing institutional memory about recurring policy debates.
Yes, the legislature is a higher plane of existence. Only the most devoted members of the cult, having a lifelong familiarity with the arcana of the sacred spellcasting should be allowed entry. Otherwise, chaos.
Perhaps that just means the government is too powerful and complicated.
Yeah, I don’t want them “master[ing] difficult policy issues”.
I am sure it is just coincidence but his list of ‘get rid of’ only includes republicans.
Mary Kiffmeyer is a Minnesoda hack politician. She was Sec of State when I met her. Her favorite thing was to ask consultants to write RFP’s for various projects (that is what I was helping on), then once the proposals were received she wouldn’t act on them.
Now she’s a local state pol, but her ideas are as stupid as ever.
I am actually very sympathetic to not honoring DST at all. I just have no idea why jumping ahead by an hour makes any sense. Why not just let businesses change their hours of operation if they want?
Florida’s legislature passed that last year, though it would need to be approved by federal law before happening.
I really don’t care either way, but I’d love to stick to one all year.
It’s nice not having to dick around with your clocks. Loved that when I lived in Arizona.
It is nice,
I read that as “it’s nice not having a dick”
I’d love to see DST get tanked and never have to mess with clocks too. It just irritates me that for some reason she thinks we need to mandate by law that we all set our clocks ahead by one hour.
Why not just vote to not mess with clocks? Then let people mess around with their work schedules however they want?
I might be overly sensitive because I know what a dim bulb she is and saw her waste shit tons of taxpayer money on stupid meetings.
I’d rather have the excess daylight after dinner.
Both New York and Massachusetts can move to the Atlantic time zone. No summer time. In other words, keep the current daylight savings time in the winter.
Eat dinner earlier.
I would like for saving time to be in and standard time to be out.
^^^^ you’ve got my vote, Mojo
Concerning Sharapova, this is almost NSFW.
It’s why I love her.
My bunk.
I’ll be in it.
My favorite Sharapova moment.
That was great!
Stupid on the part of the fans, though. Elite competitors love the hate. A good friend of mine said he loved away games more because the heckling and booing got him way more fired up than cheers.
Heh. She had an unusual style beyond the grunting too.
RE: Maria Sharapova.
If there were any justice in the world she’d follow up her tennis career with a career in porn.
She’s got the soundtrack down.
She’s faking it.
The promised Shika article has arrived. Ornage-man bad because Hindus and Muslims are fighting in the streets. All Trump’s fault, nothing at all to do with the worst holocaust in history.
She’s so predictable.
I remember she was pulling the same stuff about Obama and Zuckerberg meeting Modi at the same Reason was supporting opening up Cuba.
For me, her arrival was the turning point of TOS.
Did she get there before Weigel?
Gender-Neutral U.S. Passports Could Be Coming Soon
Interestingly enough, my passport is already gender-neutral: it has the field for “sex”–not “gender.”
So we have to give the feds more access to our State records to fly domestically, but we are making passports less informative? How about we go back to no papers needed for anything except voting?
You’re going to be one of the ones that refuse to have the microchip implanted under the skin on your forehead when it comes to that aren’t you?
I want mine in the top joint of my left pinky finger. I promise I have no intention of making a Yakuza apology.
Need some arguments over the merits/demerits of government recognition of gender identity….
Think of how much fun you would have traveling to enlightened countries (like the Middle East) with that super special snow flake gender designation. I’d bet the Saudis would roll out the rich carpet for the brave man who identifies as a woman.
As if “X” (unspecified) will satiate those clamoring for this.
And I’m sure this will never be an issue entering other countries…
These people are narcissistic egomaniac drama queens.
NOTHING will make them happy but constant adulation.
I argue that even constant adulation wouldn’t sate them. They get their dopamine from being a victim; I’m not even going to speculate on the psychopathology of requiring the feeling of oppression to experience pleasure, but I’m pretty sure it’s crippling.
Even if they received the constant adulation they think they want, they’d shift the goalposts again to reclaim victimhood.
The only appropriate response is merciless mockery followed by “Shut the fuck up you freak.”
I actually feel bad for them because they’re damaged for the most part but that doesn’t mean they should be coddled. We don’t indulge schizophrenics who think they’re Napoleon even though they’re demonstrably not and we shouldn’t indulge them.
It is an experiment designed to answer the eternal question: are straight people OK?
https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2020/feb/26/netflix-love-is-blind-experiment-straight-heterosexual-marriage
Oops
A)Reality shows are fucking idiotic
B)Guardian articles are worse
Yes, we all know that the full LGBTQ+ spectrum is inherently more emotionally stable than cishets.
I’ll bet this writer weighed in on the recent BBC tradwife controversy with some Nazi epithets..
Uh, what kind of BBC was that?
Destruction of the family was and is a key component of Marxist revolution.
“Unbearably heterosexual”
You poor dear.
Rhywun – I don’t know how do you put up with most Glibs…
thicc?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8044195/Demi-Roses-pink-bikini-barely-contain-ample-assets-enjoys-sun-kissed-bike-ride.html
Did she boil it?
Thicc.
chonky
As cartoonish as she is, not saying I wouldn’t wanna take a ride on her.
Yep, but she is definitely a hobbit, dude.
Racist.
Omar is being challenged by at least eight candidates, and one of them — a foreign-born refugee from Iraq — had a simple, elegant response to her identity crisis.
“I am an American,” wrote Republican Dalia al-Aqidi, a former Iraqi refugee who hopes to replace Omar in representing Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District.
“That’s why I’m running for Congress,” al-Aqidi added. …
“As an American citizen, my duty is to defend my country and my duty is to stand up to her hatred and racism that she’s spreading within her community, within the country, and even worldwide,” al-Aqidi said. “Ilhan Omar is harming every American with her hatred, her standing against what we believe in, [and] against our own Constitution.” …
“I came to the U.S. more than 25 years ago. So, basically, I’m not a refugee anymore. I’m not an Iraqi anymore. I’m an American. Period,” she said on “Fox & Friends.”
Not even with a hyphen? Total. Bigot.
Some new Omar allegations that even I hadn’t heard of before.
I really like Sharipova and will miss her. Quite a good essay, too!
I haven’t listened to Robyn Hitchcock in ages. I will rectify that this afternoon.
Thanks, SF!
She has sensational legs
If she had DDs, she would asymptotically approach perfection.
Yes. And I’m happy to read that she intends to keep them that way!
Bloomberg’s tiny erection springs into action!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/seven-dead-including-shooter-in-rampage-at-molson-coors/ar-BB10reA8?ocid=spartanntp
Modern Communications was supposed to make us free…
Nothing makes us free. Slavery is the default human condition.
Modern Communications was supposed to be filled with libertarians agitating for libertarian goals.
It might be, but libertarians, and people who don’t want to be slaves in general, are vastly outnumbered.
No it wasn’t. It wan’t ‘supposed’ to do anything because it evolved organically and is not a single thing with a single origin. Individual components were invented, generally to make money for the inventors, but possibly in some cases out of a desire to improve communications, but I doubt you can find any inventor who specifically claimed his invention would make us free.
Read what I posted from James Mill below. And don’t deny that libertarian embrace of the internet hoped that Twitter and Facebook would be full of libertarians complaining about every government action which would convince the pols to become libertarian to save their hides.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Declaration_of_the_Independence_of_Cyberspace
And what part of the internet did he invent?
And what I am denying is that taking comments someone made and then acting as though you were defrauded because they were not entirely correct makes sense.
Many many things have been said, most of them were not entirely correct. In the case you are focussed on, the comments aren’t even that far off. There is no doubt that the internet has made it more possible for individuals to communicate their thoughts. Do you think Asange and Snowden could have let the world know the extent of the Government spying before the internet? The fact that it didn’t magically destroy all barriers to freedome and destroy over reaching Government doesn’t devalue what it did do. You seem to have trouble accepting the idea that things happen incrementally and are not guaranteed to happen.
Actually I am critical of all those who think stuff is guaranteed to happen.
We know, because you won’t. fucking. shut. up. about. it.
Jarflax, I agree.
There’s something about any imputation of plans, of “it was supposed to”, that suggest the same ‘men of system’ approaches that we argue against when it pops up in economics. But it happens in culture, too. You don’t plan it, you don’t predict it’s effects, much better than random guessing.
Read 70s and 80s dystopian science fiction and look at all they got wrong. Wrong both in terms of missed new technologies that in retrospect should have been obvious, but also what they kept.
Exactly, you want to decide what event X meant? Wait 500 years and MAYBE you can evaluate it accurately. Out of evil can come good and out of good can come evil. All of us tend to wax overly optimistic about things we like and overly pessimistic about things we dislike. I absolutely include myself in this criticism btw, I look at things and see the “fall of Rome’ presaged in every idiot left wing program. Yet, in many areas we are more free and much more prosperous than when I was growing up. On the other hand we are less free in other ways. Who knows what will happen next? In 1980 was anyone seriously predicting taht the US would become a net fuel exporter? and that oil prices would drop so low that major oil based economies would collapse?
the Milwaukee campus of Molson Coors
Where I should have gone to college.
https://mises.org/library/james-mill-and-libertarian-class-analysis
Rothbard on James Mill
Interesting how modern libertarian really isn’t different from Mill on this aspect: once we move into cities we will be free of aristocracy and support laissez faire since only rural landowners support statism. Free Trade will make us libertarian since big government will be able to put up tariffs. Technology will make us libertarian since big government will be able to privilege certain corporations.
Ah, there is that need for education again.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2020/02/26/libertarian-columnist-uses-mean-trump-tweet-to-explain-why-shed-prefer-a-socialist-like-bernie-sanders/
Bernie won’t have to trash media outlets because he’ll nationalize them.
Also libertarians supporting commies because they are part of the right social class. Oof
Gilmored. DOH
I miss that guy.
Uffda, when you’ve lost Jennifer Rubin you’ve lost the race.
Why is it that the supposed token conservative on WaPo’s payroll is so worried about the Dems?
Has Rubin ever said anything remotely conservative?
She was in the tank for the Republicans during Bush 2’s presidency. She was unreadable then too.
Ironically, The Intercept is running a story that should bolster Special K’s creds with moderates, but will absolutely sink her with the Dem primary voters.
The story details a couple instances in which some judge tried to go easy on an immigrant so that they wouldn’t face deportation, but then Special K (as County Attorney) got involved and got the immigrants well and truly fucked.
One case, I might be sympathetic to (guy got rung up on MJ charges), but the other case was an immigrant who was defrauding the welfare system. I’m pretty much sympathetic to more immigration, but if you come here and start working the welfare system I don’t have much time to cry when you get deported.
No one will heed her advice anyway, outside of the Bill Krystol and Max Boot types she’s loathed by all.
Anyone taking bets on how Trump’s going to beclown himself at his CDC press conference?
“We have this under control bigly. No international travel and definitely no entry for the slants. We’re gonna build a big beautiful pile of antibiotics and China will pay for it.”
He’s going to say he’s heard great things about Cuba’s medical system and he wants to enlist their doctors in the fight against coronavirus?
It would take having visible signs of Covid-19 infection during the press conference to top the Iranians.
I would not bet on that. Trump can be boringly presidential when he feels like it (infrequent as it may be), and discussing the coronavirus in a formalized setting feels like it might be one of those times. But you never know, and I guess that’s where betting can be fun, betting on something unpredictable. But I prefer a sure thing.
Maybe he’ll crack a joke about Elizabeth Warren’s family history with smallpox.
Pelosi finally throws in the towel.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/484699-pelosi-confirms-that-shed-be-comfortable-with-sanders-at-top-of-ticket
Sorry Nancy, the radicals own your party now.
20 Years ago, she was the clown-far-left of the party.
I’d imagine her district is collectively orgasming over the prospect of a Sanders candidacy. She needs to get in line with that fact.
The progressives always think they are riding the tiger to victory, but in the end the tiger always wins.
So much for “Pelosi and Schumer will rein in Sanders”.
I recall similar arguments about McGovern in 1972.
Perhaps she doesn’t want some molotov cocktail-chucking street Bolshevik to burn her estate down.
Pressing business
Lawmakers took a historic vote on Wednesday when the House of Representatives passed legislation to make lynching a federal crime.
The House passed HR 35, anti-lynching legislation introduced by Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, called the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. Fourteen-year-old Till was brutally murdered in a racist attack in Mississippi in 1955, an event that drew national attention to the atrocities and violence that African Americans have faced in the United States and became a civil rights rallying cry.
The measure passed with broad, bipartisan support in a 410-4 vote. Independent Rep. Justin Amash voted against the bill along with three Republicans: Thomas Massie, Ted Yoho, and Louie Gohmert.
Yoho told CNN that he voted against the measure because the bill is an “overreach of the federal government” and tramples on state’s rights.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on the floor ahead of the vote in support of the measure, saying, “Today Congress has an opportunity to acknowledge its responsibility for its historic failure to confront and end the horror of lynching in America.”
Next up- charge Public Enemy Number One.
I’m sure libertarianism.org is happy.
Also how do they define “lynching”?
And doesn’t Nancy really mean “Democrats” since they were the ones who opposed it?
It’s about time. Murder wasn’t illegal in this country until now.
Also, fuck states’ rights. They have powers. People have rights.
So, and I’m guessing this is the reasoning behind Amash and Massie’s “No” votes, how is this within the purview of things the feds are allowed to regulate under the constitution (yeah, yeah, I know, interstate commerce)?
Also, is this really a problem? Murder’s illegal everywhere, far as I know. Is there an epedemic of people being lynched and not being charged in modern America?
Oh for crying out loud. Seriously? Maybe next week they can pass a law against the Atlantic Slave Trade?
In Trump’s Amerikkka, there are roving lynch gangs everywhere. Are you living under a rock?
Seems like this would be covered under murder one.
But making it a federal crime tells everyone we’re super-serious about stamping it out.
Why do you hate AUSAs?
They need dead bodies to stand on too!
Congress, tackling the pressing political issues of 1955 in 2020.
The Senate bill, called the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act, makes lynching a federal crime by establishing it as a new criminal civil rights violation. The legislation would amend federal civil rights law to explicitly include provisions on lynching.
It passed the Senate last year by a unanimous vote and was sponsored by the Senate’s three black members: Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
A senior Democratic aide told CNN on Monday that the House bill would be amended to carry the language of the Senate bill, but would keep the House’s title in honor of Till.
Since the bills still have different titles and numbers, additional action will be necessary in one of the two chambers before the legislation can go to the President’s desk, and the Senate is expected to next take up the House-passed legislation.
Golly, I wonder what sort of easter eggs they’ll plant in it during reconciliation.
I would like to point out that end-runs around Double Jeopardy were created thanks to concerns about lynching and racist cops. Food for thought.
Oh and Posse Comitatus was passed by disgruntled Confederates after Reconstruction…
I don’t have a problem with Posse Comitatus. The military should not have any law enforcement job.
Broad bipartisan support for making being mean to kittens a Federal Crime!
What cooperation!
And BTW: when was the last time someone was legitimately lynched in the way they’re suggesting?
Probably James Byrd in ’98. And the killers got away with it because there was no federal law.
Oh, wait, of the three people involved, all were convicted of murder, two were sentenced to death (and have since been executed) and one to LWOP.
Before that it was probably in the mid 1960s.
1981
Yeah, was about to come in and say I’d researched it and found the previous one was in 1981 (three people involved, all convicted of murder, two serving life in prison and one executed).
Before that, it was 1975 (a Polish Jew, murdered by black teenagers who wanted a white victim).
Before that, it was 1964.
But only because he was killed in a blue state. If he had been killed in a red state, like Texas, all those good old boy sheriffs and prosecutors would have thrown them a parade and given them the key to the city.
Jussie Smollett?
Ironically he did get away with it on a local level due to political interference.
Funny, the only people likely to get lynched these days are politicians.
Lynchings have gone high tech since 1991.
Which explains the timing of the law. They expect to steal the presidential election and of course Trump supporters will act violently
Idiots. I’m running on a pro-lunching platform.
So will “lynching” be so broadly defined to mean any sort violence between people of different races?
No, the direction of the violence will be determinative.
Yes – but calling names and making faces will be considered lynching.
Well, I just assumed that…
So what does he have in place of the vagina?
Nothing? Like a Ken doll?
Lots of things going on with Mr Mojeaux’s lungs, most chronic and one acute infection, so heavy antibiotics. Will have to see a pulmonologist ASAP to find out what’s going on. Not cancer.
Yikes. No history of pneumonia, etc?
Good luck, Mo.
Check that. He’s been dx’d with pneumonia as the acute thingie. Still don’t know what tje chronic thing is.
Sorry. Best wishes for rapid positive resolutions!
That sucks. Hopefully the antibiotics knocks out that infection.
Sorry. Good luck.
Geez Mojeaux, you don’t need another plate in the air.
Well for the most part Mr Mojeaux can take care of his own business (except his back hurts too much to drive right now) and infection is transient, so this is kind of low on my totem pole.
Hope he has a speedy recovery!
Thanks for the good wishes all. The ER was a hoot and I got to tell my “It just slipped in. Twice.” story.
Whew! Pardon me for being dense, but are they keeping him at least overnight? And most important, have they given him enough good stuff that he’s comfortable?
No, he’s home. They might have kept him just to get the pulmonologist on call (I got the sense that was what the doc WANTED to do), but the hospital is at max capacity. He’s going to see the specialist tomorrow (I think).
In other news, XX TD has her first real shift at Walmart today. She was excited, but we’ll see how she comes home after 4 hours solid on her feet. She did want to stay until 10:45 (that’s the limit for minors), but I capped her at 9:00. She needs to get used to it before pulling almost 7-hour shifts.
And lastly, I am told sriracha does not belong in orange chicken.
Let me clarify: She had training at Walmart today, which was going to be about 20 minutes, but her boss said she could stay and work as long as she wanted until 10:45.
It’s not like she can just waltz in and out whenever she feels like it. She doesn’t have set shifts yet.
I remember pulling 40 hour weeks in my mom’s office during HS summer breaks – those days were sooooo long OMG.
Yeah, I was working 40-hour weeks in the summer at 16 or 17, I can’t remember. I had a small stint at a restaurant but that killed me. I could not stand on my feet that long.
At least I got to sit on my ass all day.
But yeah, in my 20s I was doing 40 hours on my feet and hoo-boy it got rough, especially since it was mostly standing in one spot.
Glad to hear he’s home! Hope he can indeed see that specialist pronto.
In other – and completely inconsequential – news, I finally got my Valentine’s Day gift from Mr. GT. (It arrived today from China and has been, I’m assured, sanitized for my protection.) It’s a simple, plain gold-colored bangle bracelet, but engraved on the inside…
I thought you would appreciate the sentiment. : )
OMG ??????
That’s solid.
No sriracha . Use red pepper flakes
The recipe I was shopping with said sriracha AND red pepper flakes.
Orange chicken requires sublimity, not a nut-punch. Cayenne, Aleppo pepper flakes, or some mild Indian pepper flakes, or even some Italian flakes, will work wonders. I’ve also used Korean pepper flakes with success. The trick is to use a light hand when adding the heat. The other trick? The less “character” the peppers have, the better (that makes cayenne, the “tofu” of pepper flakes, possibly the preferred choice for this recipe). You need some heat, but no distractions from the orange. Once you’ve dialed the basic recipe in, GO NUTS! ;-)
A great modification? Make orange beef. Oh. Em. Gee.
I hope he gets well soon. I’ll say a prayer for him.
Thanks, Count!
Mo! Dumb to say, but you have my prayers.
It’s not dumb to say, and we will take all the prayers we can get.
Back to Robyn Hitchcock ,his album Eye was released by my hometown’s own Twin/Tone Records.
Yes, I know you DGAF, but do listen to the record. It’s quite good.
I have Globe of Frogs somewhere. Good stuff.
Oh man, that brings back memories. A college girlfriend was really into RH and that was her favorite song.
I haven’t thought about her in a long time. A Q-girl from Wisconsin. Awesome.
Thanks, Rhy!
Four hours in California and we’re ready to head back home.
Your patience is commendable. The last time I flew into LAX, I wanted to nuke the Greater Los Angeles Basin by the time I’d driven out of the airport.
There were some moments driving through Sacramento that a tactical nuke might have been considered, and that wasn’t even rush hour.
Isn’t California just one long traffic jam from Sacramento to San Diego?
It’s all explained here.
All the money they were going to spend on wider highways was spent instead on an imaginary train.
The last time I was in LA I was with someone who was giving a talk there on a Weds. and then giving it in Vegas on the following Saturday, so we rented a car and drove. I love road trips but driving out of LA the scenery seeems to consist of hours of endless ranch houses sitting on scrub lots. It got so that I was rooting for a new builder to have built the next 20 mile wide subdivision. just so the scenery would change from red roofs to green.
That is exactly how I remember thebdrive from LA to San Diego. Throw in road construction.
Q the Elephant.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9AqxxcF5JV/?igshid=10uhc8b0eanuz
LOL
That elephant gets it.
https://twitter.com/fightdenial/status/1232137946083381248
OFFS!
My commute is 20 minutes one way. I have to rage quite my favorite radio station about twice a day when a Bloomberg commercial comes on.
Sometimes democracy is a birthright
Sometimes it’s a gift.
And sometimes it’s a fight.
FUCK YOU MIKE!
handle checks out.
It’s now changed to tailor it to the station.
Hello KFAN listeners.
Do you feel like the blahblahblah…
FUCK OFF MIKE!
Am I being naive to think that Bloomer’s carpet bombing ad campaign is likely to backfire because even normies will get so f’ing sick of them that they’ll vote a collective “HELL to the no”?
Yes, normies don’t pay attention to ads.
I’m watching Romesh Ponnuru interview Ivanka about paid family leave. She is obviously very intelligent and well-prepared in making her arguments in support of it, and it strikes me as a sign of the times that this is an issue being argued most articulately from a conservative platform.
As someone who calls himself a libertarian it seems pretty difficult to move away from my principled position of “FUCK YOU, CUT SPENDING!”, which I feel is the only feasible option, but I’m British so what do I care?
Ivanka seems like the more intelligent and articulate ’90s Dem presidential candidate that never existed.
Ps – Perhaps my beautifully nuanced style of understatement is too subtle for Glibs, so just to remove any doubt, let me restate in no uncertain terms for the record, FUCK YOU, CUT SPENDING.
It’s not a spending issue, it’s a regulation issue, innit?
Yeah, but where does the money come from? I’m certain it would never pass in the house without some provision for federal subsidies (not just tax relief) to cover it. I’m way off?
I dunno but I’ve never heard of such plans presented with an accompanying subsidy. My understanding is that the cost will be passed to the consumer.
You’re right. I’m way off base on this, not that I agree with it either way. I’m just wrong in thinking it would go that way. I get some silly ideas sometimes.
Sen. Joni presented a plan using SS to pay – if you use the leave, delay SS by the same amount of time.
Plus since the Gov’t is the largest employer any regulation that costs employers money…
Paid family leave should be determined only by individual companies (duh).
Ivanka is hot, but she knows shit about small business. It would kill us.
Which is why hiring a newly married, late 20s chick is gonna scare the shit out out of a lot of small companies.
Unintended consequences are a drag.
Yeah. I’d guess we’re all on the same page regarding this, as a matter of principle. I suppose what struck me more was not the subject of the arguments but the fact that I was hearing someone speak articulately in support of socialist/paternalistic policy, which I don’t recall hearing in a long time, the Democratic party being what it is now and all.
I’ve given the matter precisely zero thought and even less actual data analysis, but what about allowing parents to deduct time missed off their taxes? If a new mom has six weeks leave through work, and decides to take another two months, then the family only pays 5/6ths of the taxes due that year?
Standard Libertarian Disclaimer here, but if we’re going to have a tax policy that isn’t a head tax or a poll tax or an excise tax, it should be a policy which encourages the formation of productive families, rather than subsidizing bastard children.