About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

Wife of sloopy, mother to three bright, curious, and highly active young girls. Perpetually exhausted.

389 Comments

  1. PieInTheSky

    Trump plans border visit in the next couple of weeks. – sometimes if you want a wall you need to build it yourself

    • AlexinCT

      Are minefields out of the question?

      just kidding

      • Rebel Scum

        I’m partial to a moat with sharks with fricken lasers attached to their heads.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      He’s going to spend his time post-presidency just showing up at random spots along the wall with a hard hat and hammer, a la Jimmy Carter.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Ice rink!

      😉

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        (not meant snarkily)

      • Festus

        I meant it! Roads here were glare ice. Warm South wind and rain and then cold front an hour later. North wind blows, tomorrow will be interesting.

  2. PieInTheSky

    Car jackings up 350% in DC. – how does this influence carbon footprint?

    • UnCivilServant

      Carbon Footprint is still a bullshit metric, so not much.

    • AlexinCT

      Do you have to worry about this if all you do is jack hybrids and eclectic cars? You should be given an award for this sort of work, right? Or should we reward those stealing the evil gas guzzlers and forcing the owners to then replace them with a more carbon friendly model? Are we sure the jackings are not part of the green new deal?

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Jacking hybrids and electrics should be easy, at their drivers are beta soy boys.

      • AlexinCT

        Is there a market for selling them out to pimps so they can make them working boys too?

      • Rat on a train

        A bit of a stereotype there. Toyota is putting hybrid drives in more of their vehicles. The prices are down where regulars now buy them.

      • AlexinCT

        Wait, wouldn’t a supposed regular that buys one of these automatically be moved to the soy boy column?

      • Rat on a train

        The days of hybrid smug have been replaced by all-electric smug.

      • AlexinCT

        So the smuggers are going at each other with their smuggness? Nice…

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Hybrid isn’t socially favored anymore. The smug has moved on, not multiplied.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeah, you can get an SUV that gets 40 mpg for 31K from Toyota now. Not a bad thing at all.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Yup. We’re in the market for a minivan, and there are quite a few hybrid options with nearly indistinguishable price. Heck, I think Toyota stopped manufacturing a traditional gas minivan.

        Doesn’t bother me. Our cars are for commuting in suburban traffic, so the lack of top end acceleration doesn’t matter. The cheaper fuel expenses (especially when the break even is only a couple years away) definitely matter.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        How are you enjoying your new Prius?

      • Rat on a train

        I’m considering replacing my Rogue with a hybrid RAV 4.

    • Drake

      Up slightly because I always drive around DC rather than through it when traveling south.

      • Rat on a train

        If you take the east side of the beltway across the Wilson Bridge, you pass through a couple hundred feet of DC while on the bridge. Be sure to bring a gun so you can transport it through DC while giving them the finger.

      • Drake

        I usually take a much wider berth than that. I set out with the GPS destination set for Harrisonburg, VA, then aim myself farther south.

  3. leon

    Yes Tim, the Democrats are hypocrites and liars. Their base clearly does not care.

    • juris imprudent

      Even worse – their base actually LIKES that about Democrats.

      • leon

        True, because it means you totally owned those Neanderthals on the other side

  4. PieInTheSky

    Also the links are finally back at the standard hour

    • Nephilium

      Don’t you mean the Daylight Hour?

      • PieInTheSky

        I mean the links usually come at 15:00 but for the past two weeks they came at 14:00

      • Chipping Pioneer

        I thought you didn’t get up u until sunset?

      • Chipping Pioneer

        I thought you didn’t get up until sunset?

      • db

        Maybe he means the Darkest Hour

      • Nephilium

        I was thinking about making a reference to the Midnight Hour.

      • db

        Thanks, I was thinking of that but somehow totally blanked on which song and artist did that. Total brain fart.

      • C. Anacreon

        Sesame Street in the 80s had a letter “L” Muppet made to look like Billy Idol, who sang “I’m a rebel L, I go luh, luh, luh…”

  5. Festus

    Babar copped a feel and totally rocked it!

  6. Sean

    Oral argument didn’t go well for Shawnee State last fall. Judge Thapar asked then if the university would force a Jewish professor to honor a student’s request to be addressed as “My Fuhrer.”

    LOL.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’ve been saying for a while that the transgender lunacy is about intellectual compulsion.

      If you say to me that you’re gay, I can agree with the statement without compromising my own integrity. You’re describing a behavior.

      But if you have testicles and tell me you’re a woman, I cannot agree with you without voicing a lie. This is an insidious method to get people to compromise their intellectual integrity.

      • juris imprudent

        “There are four lights.”

      • leon

        Yeah, some say it’s not a hill to die on, but if you let them force you to say what you don’t believe, then there will never be a hill to die on.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Once you start knowingly repeating the lie, you’re done. You’ve ceded all authority. You’ve joined the cult.

      • TARDis

        I wouldn’t say joined exactly, more like became the cult’s bitch.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        A distinction without a difference.

      • Rat on a train

        It is standard practice for cults. Start you on accepting a small lie. Build you up to the big lie.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        The bigger the lie, the more they believe.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        That and having that small amount of buy in. The North Koreans knew it seventy years ago and turned servicemen with the same tactics and it still works today. Just getting people to mouth bullshit works to a degree even if they know it’s bullshit and even if it’s compelled.

      • Hank

        “even”?

      • AlexinCT

        This is all part of destroying your ability to use logic, facts, or common sense to argue with insane stupid fuckers demanding things you know will break society and send us back to the stone age. As some wise person pointed out: while the Chinese is telling their men to man up and preparing to take the world economically, militarily, and socially, we in the US are arguing about and canceling Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potatohead.

      • blackjack

        +1 Here son, try on this manbun and learn how to be attracted to trannies!

      • juris imprudent

        I don’t buy the Chinese are clearly going to dominate the world business.

        They don’t handle power transitions well, and Xi won’t live forever. More likely the longer he hangs on, the more he’ll move to quash any challengers to his power, thus creating a bigger vacuum when he goes.

        Second, the demographics suck. There is a reason they want to turn the Uighurs – because they are potentially out-growing the Han.

      • AlexinCT

        I don’t buy the Chinese are clearly going to dominate the world business.

        Why not? The western world has decided to commit ritual suicide. The world the CCP wants (and this goes beyond Xi, BTW) will not be a good one in every sense of the word, but it is one that will happen unless they are opposed by force at this point. The Chinese experiment doesn’t have to work well, or for that matter even work at all for them to take power: the US just has to destroy itself from within as it is doing for the power vacuum to let them waltz into that role.

      • juris imprudent

        The West can commit suicide without China being able to capitalize on that. In fact, given the dependence on exports for the Chinese economy, the worst thing that can happen is the collapse of their export markets.

      • AlexinCT

        You seem to believe they wouldn’t use force to get new markets….

      • juris imprudent

        Force and markets aren’t exactly complementary terms.

      • AlexinCT

        You miss the whole argument against colonialism, I guess?

      • juris imprudent

        China as a colonial occupier? Yeah, that does make me chuckle. It wasn’t that long ago that the Vietnamese kicked the shit out of the PLA.

      • rhywun

        intellectual compulsion

        Which is why the left in general is all over it. Most of them never gave a thought to this stuff until they saw how neatly the doublethought fits into their philosophy.

      • robc

        This is what I figured out a long while back with the gay movement (present company excepted, of course). It never made sense that more gays weren’t libertarian. At some point I clued in it was about intellectual compulsion and not toleration of behavior.

        Apparently supporting people legally screwing whoever they want (with consent) wasn’t good enough. And now the left is expanding it to trans and blm and everything else. Which makes the terf thing funny.

      • rhywun

        The left hijacked the gay movement pretty early on. It was already evident in the nineties but by the aughts it was so pervasive that every outfit claiming to represent “gays” was really just another arm of the DNC.

      • robc

        Yes, and that aligns with my timing. In the 90s, it confused me and by the early 2000s I had it figured out.

      • Hank

        “In the 90s, it confused me and by the early 2000s I had it figured out.”

        Phrasing?

      • rhywun

        The question that had robc confused.

      • AlexinCT

        This is thing that really baffled me about the gay movement’s move to the left. I couldn’t think of a group more suited to be libertarian than people that believed consenting adults didn’t need permission to love whom they wanted. The left is totalitarian, and they will change their spots on the fly to suit the totalitarian agenda of the day. I would figure this would worry gay people.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I would figure this would worry gay people.

        Identity groups are more motivated by cheerleading than by long term consequences when viewed en masse. A person can be smart, but people are stupid.

      • juris imprudent

        The Madness of Crowds touches on this – that the whole gender fluidity argument is really contrary to what the gay/lesbian community had used to reach acceptance (that they are born that way – genetic determinism). Murray (gay btw) thinks this is going to fracture that whole alliance – because it literally has to.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Murray (gay btw) thinks this is going to fracture that whole alliance – because it literally has to.

        It comes down to whether the alliance is an independent attempt at advocacy or whether it’s a set of aligned subgroups of the prog-fascist advocacy constellation. The friction has already come to a head in feminist circles, and look what happened. Those who don’t toe the new line (TERFs) get tossed off the bandwagon with a swift boot to the ass.

        Same thing will happen with gays and lesbians. If they don’t toe the new line and stick to the “born with it” worldview, they’ll be pilloried as transphobic and unceremoniously booted. The prep for such a move has already started.

        *too lazy to track down the article about how cis gays are the “white men” of the queer movement*

      • B.P.

        “But if you have testicles and tell me you’re a woman, I cannot agree with you without voicing a lie.”

        It’s not just voicing it. The woke want to force you to actually believe it. “Trans woman are women!” I don’t mind a little white lying out of courtesy and respect. Sure I’ll call you ‘she.’ But you can’t force me to believe you’re female.

    • leon

      That judge isn’t learned in Gary Johnson’s school of liberty.

    • Festus

      It’s compelled speech, the polar opposite of Freedom. Start crafting your dunce-cap.

    • Tonio

      You guys (hope I’m not misgendering anyone) raised some super good points on this. Thanks.

      • AlexinCT

        What was Mao’s title? If I am gonna shitlord, I will go for the title of the person (see, I am woke!) that got the highest body count historically.

      • db

        Chairman?

      • bacon-magic

        Xi/Xir

      • juris imprudent

        Xi is no Mao.

      • juris imprudent

        Or a better pun, Mao was not Xi.

  7. Festus

    I couldn’t finish the Redstate link. Grrr. I’m about done with this. As mentioned in the dead thread, we are aging ourselves prematurely with the mask mandates. You have to crinkle your eyes up to denote a smile. I don’t know about you but my youth is gone. Plus we are are raising a generation of jug-eared children. When I pull my mask down the elastic makes me look like Mike Ehrmentraut. Pimples at 56 are not something that I ever thought to deal with but here we are, in this together. I want to see the faces that I’m speaking with and don’t want everyone to be a fearful stranger anymore.

    • UnCivilServant

      Who are you trying to smile at who is willing to force you to wear a compliance muzzle?

      • Festus

        The Overlords.

      • AlexinCT

        Buy one of those masks with a permanent smile on it bro… And then scowl at the fuckers under there!

      • leon

        Scowling generates worse wrinkles than smiling

      • Festus

        I only need to wear it mostly at work and I like most of those plain folk. I’d be smiling, regardless.

      • blackjack

        It’s just a little curve that helps to straighten things out.

    • Nephilium

      You mean the neck gaiter covering up the bottom three quarters of my face, the sunglasses covering up my eyes, and then the hat to cover the top don’t make me look warm and approachable?

      • Festus

        Everyone has a fixation, Man! Embrace your proclivities.

  8. leon

    Re: the [x thing] is racist, because of tenuous ties.

    Who knew the Genetic Fallacy could be so popular. Though I guess fallacies would be the purview of sophists

    • AlexinCT

      I am following Scott Adam’s example, and going forward identify as black. I am taking it up a notch, and as a lesbian trapped in a man’s body, I will also claim to be gay. And I will be totally serious about it. Let’s see if cancel culture decides they have a problem when most of us just play their game.

      • Rat on a train

        black-hispanic, trans-lesbian? Who can deny?

      • Festus

        Uigher! Please!

  9. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The factual analysis of the Court of Appeals — that Munchel and Eisenhart didn’t actually do anything other than entering the Capitol through an open door where Capitol Police were standing and allowing the crowd to enter — reflects some of the problems which the AP story highlights, i.e., the evidence the government is bringing before the courts doesn’t measure up to the rhetoric used by prosecutors and federal agents in their early comments, both in the courtroom as well as sworn affidavits.

    Sullivan is obviously not the judge in this case.

    • leon

      “doesn’t measure up to the rhetoric used by prosecutors and federal agents in their early comments, both in the courtroom as well as sworn affidavits.”

      You mean they are trying to criminalize an inherently 1st amendment act and so using large rhetoric hoping it will cover up the lack of evidence tying them to any crime.

    • Tonio

      Good call, Scruffy. I was about to quote that paragraph. Also,

      The District of Columbia Court of Appeals reversed the detention order entered against Munchel and Eisenhart and sent the case back to the district court for a new hearing…

      They don’t like to directly overrule trial judges about a trial in progress, which causes the district court judge to lose face. Instead they remand it back to let the judge go through the motions (sorry, Swiss) of having a change of thought all on his own.

      And remember, the process is the punishment. DOJ knows they are doing some dodgy charging and prosecution. As always, they are hoping people will plead out. F*** them so very much on this [NSA: “F***” in a purely rhetorical sense, of course. I do have some standards, after all.]

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I do wish they would start issuing some smackdowns and some judges would be impeached, but I think I’ll buy a lottery ticket instead, my odds are better.

  10. Festus

    Mornin’ Banjos! Love that era of TH! Thanks and thanks for the infuriating links

  11. Rebel Scum

    I’d love not to be involved. Somebody else is supposed to be doing it.

    C’mon man. Immigration laws are completely racist.

  12. AlexinCT

    OK my homies, WTF is this shit about? Was the gov picking on Irish people or doing a homage? Or was it about getting some woman to sing about pipes and then asking her to clean yours?

  13. Certified Public Asshat

    Trans children are perfect exactly as they are.— ACLU (@ACLU) March 27, 2021

    But…?

    • leon

      When pro trans rhetoric meets stupid pithy feel-goodisms, you get hateful anti trans rhetoric.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      LOL

      The ACLU is either trolling or can’t communicate an idea clearly. I’m betting on the latter since they appear to be as dumb as rocks these days.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        They’ve been skinsuited. It’s sad really.

      • R C Dean

        Not really. They’ve always been a leftist front.

    • Tonio

      The kids are alright!

      • Nephilium

        If the kids are united?

      • Ownbestenemy

        And in the hall.

    • R C Dean

      So they are perfect as their biological sex? Because children don’t actually “transition” to anything, at least not while they are children.

  14. Rebel Scum

    The AP has a story out today detailing some of the struggles that the Justice Department is encountering in its efforts to prosecute hundreds of people who were in attendance at the protests in Washington, D.C., on January 6.

    That’s the thing about crimes and actually committing or not committing them.

    • AlexinCT

      The real crime is not wanting to be a serf and doing what the credentialed master class running the country into the ground wants you to do. And the clearest sign that you are one of these kulaks/wreckers, is that you like that Trump guy over the democrats or the establishment team blue douches.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You don’t even have to like him. You just have to reject their insane confabulations.

    • leon

      No. But they have been asked to serve on the Chauvain jury

      • Hank

        Alas, I got a good chuckle out of that one.

    • Agent Cooper

      Of course print media with no photos of said cave.

    • Galt1138

      Mmm. Barbara Hershey.

  15. robc

    Cy Young. We have other baseball birthdays today, but I am just going to let that when set for a second. Cy Freaking Young. “Only” 163 WAR. 511 wins, 749 complete games, 76 shutouts. Oh, and he had 18 saves too.

    I know it was a different era and all. Plenty* of guys went 36-12 with 48 CG at age 25. They all had there arms fall off the next season. Young pitched another 20 years.

    *by plenty, I mean a few.

    Oh, yeah, the other guys. Tommy Holmes, Brian Jordan, Ferris Fain, and Denny McLain. Speaking of above, he went 31-6 with 28 CG at age 24 and was done by age 28.

    At #14 is Tom Hume, who was one of my favorite players in the declining days of the Big Red Machine.

    • robc

      I would like to claim I was drunk when I wrote that post, but, nope. That is me sober. Maybe I would do better if I was drunk.

      Me fail english? That’s unpossible!

    • Pope Jimbo

      Cy Young was pretty good. But he wasn’t no Rube Waddell

      Head to Head = Rube
      Off Season Training = Rube (gator wrestling and professional hunter)
      Strike outs = Rube

      • Agent Cooper

        Do you even Big Train, bro?

  16. Rebel Scum

    Appeals court rules that a Professor cannot be punished for not using transgendered student’s pronouns.

    It is a shame that this even had to be litigated. It is a further shame that the argument had to rely on a religious exemption.

    One person cannot compel speech from another person. The end.

    • Tonio

      Ultimately freedom of religion means freedom of conscience. That’s why I support the 1A rights of the Westboro Baptist nutjobs even though they think I ought to be stoned to death.

      • robc

        To be ludicrously fair to WBC, I think they only “claim” that in order to incite a reaction that allows them to sue and make money. I don’t think they have any beliefs beyond that.

        They will state whatever will get them punched.

      • robc

        On the other hand, that might be even worse.

      • Festus

        There is an irascible wise man that wrote a comic about that very thing… I think he called it “Hey Man, Stop Doing That!”

  17. leon

    The government doesn’t normally need to present witness testimony as part of a detention hearing because as officers of the court, and as official representatives of the Executive Branch, the prosecutors have legal and ethical obligations to not mislead the court about the nature of the evidence

    Thing about those legal obligations is that they are only legal obligations if they were ever held to account for breaking them.

    • juris imprudent

      Sort of like Hunter Biden skating on various gun law violations. Nothing to see here, move along.

  18. AlexinCT

    After reading this shit I now say we desereve an extinction level event. Color blindness is racism? Really?

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      MW jumped the shark years ago, but that’s just Battlestar prep for the coming purges of non-racists in favor of racist anti-racists. Using that definition, a company can fire somebody for supposedly being racist when they espouse color-blindness.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Seeing color is racist as is not seeing color. Heads I win tails you lose.

    • Rat on a train

      Well, I can understand red-green and blue-yellow. I guess white is still distinct with total color blindness. /s

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s all shades of gray.

      • Festus

        350 shades, now.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m tempted to buy a MW dictionary and burn it.

    • rhywun

      “See color”

      We are literally training children to be racists.

      All part of a pattern.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Yup, we all know what’s coming next. Jim Crow 2: Retributive Boogaloo

      • Homple

        Already called the Jim Snow era.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      I was led to believe that the ‘vid is an extinction level event.

    • Rebel Scum

      When everything is racist nothing is.

    • leon

      Websters has gone full bore into becoming _The_ newspeak dictionary. I recommend anyone who values truth drop them from usage.

      • rhywun

        My computer comes with the “New Oxford American Dictionary”. Dunno if they’ve gone woke.

        col·or-blind | ˈkələrblaɪnd | (also British colour-blind)
        adjective
        1 unable to distinguish certain colors, or (rarely in humans) any colors at all. See protanopia.
        2 not influenced by racial prejudice: a color-blind society.

        That’s it LOL. CaNCeL!1!

      • tripacer

        My Webster New World dictionary from 1993 has:

        2 Not influenced by considerations of race

        3 No animal shall sleep in a bed

    • Rat on a train

      The rare moment I would use a twitter account.

  19. Rebel Scum

    Tim Scott: Democrats Used the Filibuster They Say Is Racist Against My Police Bill Last Year

    But the y have good intentions and you’re a house negro, or so I am told.

  20. Tonio

    Yo, Pie – Microsoft chose a massif in Carpathia for my background this morning. Looks beautiful there.

    • PieInTheSky

      I don’t know how Carpathia is defined

      • Tonio

        It’s the land of the car paths, where Subarus drive themselves to die.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        *golf clap*

      • Pope Jimbo

        Wait, I thought Subarus went to the isle of Lesbos to die.

      • AlexinCT

        BAD HOLINESS!

      • Pope Jimbo

        Is it because they had to take a ferry to Lesbos?

      • juris imprudent

        Shouldn’t Subarus die somewhere deep in the Amazon?

      • zwak

        In the Garden of Dead Subarus.

      • db

        It’s like a James Taylor song, if you go there in your mind, you’re there.

        In my mind, I’m goin’ to Transylvania
        Stay out of the sunshine, revel in the moonshine

      • Festus

        So nice!

      • Festus

        I stand at the feet of giants on this site.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      *Howard Hughes nods*

    • Tonio

      To be able to afford awesome heli-skiing in the first place?

  21. Atanarjuat

    The cave was 20 feet long and 3 feet high and dug by the homeless? Those guys weren’t claustrophobic, that’s for sure.

    • Festus

      It was Humping all the way down…

  22. Shpip

    Darn white people and their…

    (shuffles cards)

    tiki drink spirits.

    You might want to get out a pencil for a round of Buzzword Bingo on this one. To wit:

    Companies with direct ties to the legacy of slavery… must share their disproportionate and unjustly earned wealth in order to begin to heal the relationship. Anything less is modern colonialism.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      You will note that they aren’t going after the family wealth that was created. They’re going after the current operations. They want to set up a permanent kickback operation.

    • rhywun

      I don’t even like rum.

      That’s probably racist, too.

    • SugarFree

      Thank you for saving our souls, white lady.

    • Nephilium

      /starts appropriating more Tiki culture

      • Festus

        /lights Tiki torch, remembers that he can’t stomach rum since 14. puts out torch in the toilet.

      • leon

        Tiki Torches are a well-known White Nationalist symbol

      • Sean

        ?

    • B.P.

      I’d better go strip off all of these cotton clothes.

      • Hank

        Search for the controversy over Xinjiang cotton.

  23. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. The circus opens its doors today

    The Limeys are doing a good job of covering it in a fair and low key way.

    Keith Mayes, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s department of African American and African studies, said a conviction was necessary for policing to be reformed.

    “Everything is riding on the outcome of the trial,” he said.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Be prepared to be disappointed Keith, he’s going to get manslaughter.

      • AlexinCT

        I don’t see how they even get that to stick. I mean, if they have a real impartial jury. Cause the fact the cop was a total abusive jackass will fall to the wayside of the fact Floyd had already had a similar incident where he swallowed a bunch of drugs to dispose of the evidence and screamed for his mommy. Literally. I can’t see the prosecution’s case not dying an ugly death when this is disclosed and the coroner’s report shows he had enough fentanyl in his to kill a Brontosaurus. Floyd was dead with or without the asshole cops.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      So you have professors calling for a particular outcome because society needs it and the facts of the case are irrelevant.

      Sounds an awful like the inverse of the way things worked 60 years ago. Convictions were required by society to keep blacks in their place and not uppity.

      • db

        Now, *that* is a very good point, and a very inconvenient one for some.

      • juris imprudent

        Not inconvenient at all – equity bitch.

      • WTF

        Well in this case it’s needed to prevent the rioting that an acquittal would bring.

      • Festus

        Heaven forfend that I might leer at a “dusky girl” while out on my perambulations down the thoroughfare come the morn. It’s come to this? Really?

      • Rat on a train

        Lord Kitchener: If these three Australians have to be sacrificed to help bring about a peace conference — a small price to pay.
        Colonel Hamilton: I quite agree sir. Though I doubt the Australians share our enthusiasm.

  24. Drake

    What I think when I see Biden or Harris speaking.

    President in Name Only

    Marionettes being run by an cabal that really hates most of us.

    • AlexinCT

      The real people in charge and the lemmings are content with this though… It’s a lot nicer than some bad orange guy tweeting mean tweets and cock blocking their agenda of selling America out to the CCP so they will stay rich and in power of this new Chinese province once the CCP takes over.

    • Atanarjuat

      This came up over the weekend. Scruffy suggested Susan Rice may be the real power behind the throne.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Wake me up when they install minefields at our border and start machinegunning people trying to get out.

      • The Last American Hero

        *Sets calendar reminder for 2nd term of Harris Administration*

  25. Rebel Scum

    Lying liars lie.

    Republican state legislators engaged in a nationwide effort to rewrite ballot access laws after the highest-turnout, most secure election in history scored their first major achievement Thursday when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a sweeping overhaul package into law that will restrict voter access to absentee ballots and ballot drop boxes.

    In other states, Democrats watched with rising anxiety, knowing their legislatures are next.

    “We’ve been watching Georgia pretty closely, and we knew our legislative Republicans were likely to introduce something as well,” said Michigan state Sen. Stephanie Chang (D), who represents part of Detroit and its southern suburbs.

    The day before Kemp signed Georgia’s legislative package, Michigan Republicans introduced 39 bills meant to change a voting process that resulted in President Biden carrying the state by 154,000 votes in 2020. Among the measures are proposals to limit election officials’ ability to send out absentee ballot applications, require a copy of a voter’s identification when submitting an absentee ballot, and a limit on drop boxes.

    • leon

      after the highest-turnout, most secure election in history

      This election was so secure, but if Trump had gotten a couple thousand more ballots in a few key areas, then it would have been stolen (as stated by Nancy Pelosi, before the election). Fuck out of Here.

    • rhywun

      Narrator: “Drop boxes” are not secure. In any way, shape, or form.

  26. PieInTheSky

    University of Oxford considers scrapping sheet music for being ‘too colonial’ after staff raise concerns about music curriculums’ ‘complicity in white supremacy’ after Black Lives Matter movement

    Professors set to reform music courses to move away from the classic repertoire
    Staff argued curriculum focuses on ‘white European music from slave period’
    It is thought that music writing will also be reformed to be more inclusive

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9410665/University-Oxford-considers-scrapping-sheet-music-colonial.html

    • leon

      Finally, i can listen to Mozart, Bach, Stravinsky, and keep my punk creds!

    • Festus

      I used to shake my head at those that claimed that the Left wants to deconstruct Western Culture. Not so much, anymore.

    • Akira

      They’re going to destroy any cultural/scientific works by wypipo until the Western world collapses into technological backslide and cultural stagnation.

      I know that sounds like some Stormfront shit, but it’s not my fault – the Left has been working hard to validate the once-crazy conspiracy theories of (actual) white supremacists.

  27. Rebel Scum

    An explosive discovery.

    A bomb squad safely deactivated a live Civil War-era piece of ammunition after it was discovered in Maryland last week, NBC News reports.

    A homeowner contacted the state fire marshal after being given what seemed to be an unexploded cannonball that a family member found had near the Monocacy Battlefield in Frederick, about 50 miles west of Baltimore. Officials confirmed that the explosive was live.

    Bomb technicians moved the cannonball to Beaver Creek Quarry in Hagerstown, where they conducted “an emergency disposal,” according to the Maryland State Fire Marshal.

    “As proven today, the finding of military ordnance from the Civil War is not uncommon in Maryland, and these devices pose the same threat as the day they were initially manufactured,” the fire marshal’s office said.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I am going to go out on a limb here and say it was probably one of the Jan 6 ‘insurrectionist’ ancestors that planted it.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Interesting, in the ‘70s a childhood friend of mine dug up a cannonball in his back yard and kept it on his dresser for a decade. When he graduated HS and joined the military he tried to donate it to a local museum who promptly called the police who sent the bomb squad. Damn thing was still live.

  28. Pope Jimbo

    Curious. How many of you yahoos are potential immigrants to Liberland? Did you get the big promotional push for their brochure this weekend?

    • leon

      Sounds like a shithole.

      • rhywun

        That’s the one that’s swampland in the Balkans, right?

        Yeah, pass.

    • Drake

      7 square kilometers? Sounds like I’d have to see my neighbors which is less than ideal.

    • db

      Free Republic of Liberland is a sovereign state located between Croatia and Serbia.

      Sounds stable.

      It is a 7 km² land

      Sounds too much like a city to me. I’m not compatible with urban living.

    • AlexinCT

      Will there be Messican butt seks?

      • TARDis

        Sure, just get the drugs out first, then go at it.

  29. PieInTheSky

    In local news they closed the damn gyms again. Also weekend curfew after 20:00 and all shops need to close by 18

    • Nephilium

      Sorry man.

      Gyms are open at limited capacity here, no curfews, and the governor is not suing to overturn the law that was passed (overriding his veto) to limit his power (90 days from when it passed). After today, the weather should start getting back to spring temperatures instead of hovering around freezing, and I’ve found a brewery that’s ~18 miles from my house that should be a nice destination ride.

      • PieInTheSky

        the weather got nice here as well that magnolia and forsythia in the yard are flowering

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Saucer magnolia – they bloom beautifully for about two days

      • PieInTheSky

        I think it last a week or so…

  30. Pope Jimbo

    King Walz gave his state of the state speech and it was as nauseating as you’d hope for.

    Lot’s of Covid nonsense (“I’ve been running the dials perfectly, don’t let me down now. Keep wearing a mask and hiding”). But the bit that really got my goat was this:

    “We must recognize that inequality isn’t limited to our criminal justice system,” Walz said. “While the wealthiest Minnesotans did well during the pandemic, our students, small businesses, and working families struggled to get by. That is why my proposed state budget aims to level the playing field by supporting working families, helping small businesses stay afloat, and ensuring students catch up on learning.”

    I wonder why students and small businesses had such a hard time? A complete mystery! Couldn’t be that Mr. Dials kept everyone locked down for over a year? But sure, let’s say it was the wealthiest MInnesodans who were behind their woes and that they now need to pay more $$$.

    • Ownbestenemy

      No different than a firefighter that lights their own blazes to rush to the scene and be the savor.

  31. leon

    There is this meme going about that the US lost the War of 1812 (preposterous, i know) because the Canadians burned the Whitehouse and sacked DC. I’m sure that much of America wouldn’t mind losing another war to Canada.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Also given that a mob of unarmed people led by a dude in a silly hat were able to storm the Capitol, I don’t think sacking and burning DC is really that much of an accomplishment.

    • Rebel Scum

      That campaign failed but it was a loss to the British Empire, not Canada. And we ultimately won the war.

      • Hank

        Well, the text of the treaty was kind of a tie, but the Battle of New Orleans kept the British out of the Southwest where they could have worked mischief.

      • Bobarian LMD

        The Battle of New Orleans happened a month after the war was actually over. Nobody in Louisiana knew that though.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Keith Mayes, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s department of African American and African studies, said a conviction was necessary for policing to be reformed.

    Sentence first. Trial afterward.

    • Drake

      Imagine wanting to study all things African, then deciding that Minnesota was the place to do it.

      • PieInTheSky

        Not Africa Africa off course, the idea of Africa

      • Pope Jimbo

        Especially now that Kirby and Prince are gone, amirite?

      • juris imprudent

        In Toto perhaps?

  33. Festus

    I’m out. Kitteh needs his meds and namesake needs food. Good tidings to all!

  34. leon

    I was just thinking about what a mendacious evil woman AOC is, particularly around her comments about the BLM riots (“Protests are supposed to make people uncomforatble”) vs her reacation to the capitol Hill riot (OMG, Ted Cruz tried to have me murdered). In short, its okay for my minions to put you in fear for your life, as long as i get to keep feeling safe.

    • The Other Kevin

      The left has completely mastered the art of twisting words to meet their ends. They’ve been doing it for years. At this point it’s such a habit they don’t even think twice about it.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        As if! ugh!

    • AlexinCT

      When they came after her instead of the people she feels are deplorable, then they really proved they were deserving of the death penalty…

  35. PieInTheSky

    got a spam email at work

    Join Blaser Swisslube at our Lunch + Learn webinar

    That sounds iffy

    • AlexinCT

      Jiffy, you mean? Like in Jiffy Lube…

      • SugarFree

        SwissyLube

      • AlexinCT

        Will this require some narrowed gazez?

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Today, in counterfactuals-

    That idiot Birx is running around saying the Cartoon Villain killed hundreds of thousands with his ineptitude and refusal to go into this-dial-goes-to-ELEVEN! Chicken Little mode.

    What if Birx, et al, are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands by locking down and enforcing mask use last spring and summer, when sunshine and outdoors exposure to a weakened virus could have accelerated the acquisition of herd immunity?

    • Rebel Scum

      Isn’t Birx the dishonest cunte that said “we are counting every death ‘with’ covid as a death ‘of’ covdi”?

      • Pope Jimbo

        She’s also the one who pushed the “Don’t eat Thanksgiving with your family” and then traveled to Deleware to eat Thanksgiving dinner with 3 generations of her family.

        Another example of public health officials saying one thing and then acting in a completely different way. If Covid really was a huge danger, she wouldn’t have gone to that dinner. But she knew it wasn’t really that dangerous. The rubes though, need to be kept down on the farm.

      • AlexinCT

        The elite kept the whole shitshow going after it became clear the Kung Flu, despite being engineered as a bio weapon was like all things made in China, crappy, because that way they could keep the rabble locked up and they themselves able to live normally.

      • R C Dean

        I have about 90+% confidence it was made in a lab. I doubt it was (primarily?) a bio-weapon – its just a terrible approach for one, for one thing.

        Since Dr. Fauci himself outsourced and arranged funding for the “gain-of-function” research being done at the lab, which would produce precisely this kind of virus, Everyone Who Matters has zero interest in confirming if it was made in the lab.

      • Akira

        She’s also the one who pushed the “Don’t eat Thanksgiving with your family” and then traveled to Deleware to eat Thanksgiving dinner with 3 generations of her family.

        There’s almost a pattern… The more zealous someone is about the COVID restrictions, the more likely they are to break them. Seems like most of these Branch Covidians just throw on a face diaper and proceed to do whatever they want – going to restaurants, visiting elderly relatives, travelling all over the country, etc.

        And it’s your right to do those things, but you’re a fucked up person if you do them while lecturing everyone else about how they need to give them up.

  37. The Other Kevin

    There’s this talk of a mileage tax going around. Hopefully it’s just talk, and there would be too much resistance to make it work. But in the event they pass it, I’ve decided to break my FB silence and and thank all the Biden voters for supporting a party that taxes disabled people for driving to participate in adaptive sports.

    • leon

      Taxing disabled people is the price we pay to live in a society without OMB.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Your super heavy van stuffed with wheelchairs, crutches and iron lungs put way more wear and tear on our roads Kev. It is only right that you pay your fair share.

    • B.P.

      I remember when the Left had a civil libertarian wing that would’ve freaked out over the idea that everyone in the country is going to have their comings and goings tracked by GPS by the federal government.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Those people have tasted the vanilla ice cream flavored shit and decided they like it.

  38. Rebel Scum

    Will someone rid us of this child-abusing garden gnome?

    Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan to issue, as my colleague Andrew Malcolm termed it – the virus “marching orders” for the week.

    One of the items Fauci touched on was that he thought children should continue to wear masks when they’re playing with other children.

    “The children can clearly wind up getting infected,” Fauci said. “When the children go out into the community, you want them to continue to wear masks when they’re interacting with groups or multiple households.”

    But he then said he thought it was “conceivable that will be possible” that kids could go to camp or playgrounds this summer. That with vaccination rates at 3 to 3.5 million a day and lower infection rates there could be more “flexibility” in the summer “with things like camps.”

      • Ownbestenemy

        I had a death cult gathering yesterday. Family from California and the teens had friends over all day. It was instinctual though stemming from my Neanderthal way of thinking.

        It was also why I was in such a great mood yesterday. Breaking bread, sharing drink, talking, laughing…these people like Brix and Fauci can fuck right off.

    • Sean

      Yeah, no.

      Neighborhood kids are outdoors and playing maskless.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I really dislike watching videos where real people get hurt by thugs.

      When the video of Fauci getting sucker punched by some kid hits youtube, I’m putting it on loop.

    • Pope Jimbo

      How long did the hotel owner’s wife nag him about that fuckup?

      • The Other Kevin

        It was neigh a year before they were divorced.

      • PieInTheSky

        jesus that is old. Elgin rarely updates these days

    • leon

      Fact Check: Dante died in 1321. Shakespear was born in 1564. The sun moves a bout .0007 light years every year, around the Galactic Disk. 300 years is not enough to even cover 1 light year. We rate this as “Pants on Fire” false.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    One of the items Fauci touched on was that he thought children should continue to wear masks when they’re playing with other children.

    “The children can clearly wind up getting infected,” Fauci said. “When the children go out into the community, you want them to continue to wear masks when they’re interacting with groups or multiple households.”

    But he then said he thought it was “conceivable that will be possible” that kids could go to camp or playgrounds this summer. That with vaccination rates at 3 to 3.5 million a day and lower infection rates there could be more “flexibility” in the summer “with things like camps.”

    That fucking senile quack makes less sense than a faith healer with a basket full of snakes. Why why why does anybody listen to him?

  40. Rebel Scum

    The intention is to continue the new abnormal.

    Joe Biden is fully vaccinated and he’s still walking around with two masks on.

    Here he is today. This hurts vaccination efforts as he’s making it seem life will not go back to normal. It’s also anti-science.

    • leon

      Things won’t go back to normal. Joe promised it and look at all the other promises he made to get elected.

  41. Ownbestenemy

    Musk is hopeful for SN11 to go up today. TFRs in place, road closures scheduled for 12pm CST.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTA0GTgFn5E

    Light that candle and get it out of the way for the next steps.

  42. AlexinCT

    Looks like the boat that had blocked the Suez canal is finally dislodged and we still have no idea why the whole incident happened…

    • leon

      You know who else dislodged from the Red Sea?

    • Pope Jimbo

      The crew wasn’t paying attention. Instead of sailing they were engaged in an impromptu music making episode. Yup a jam session gone wrong.

      • Ownbestenemy

        This is why you don’t hire former US Navy midshipmen.

    • juris imprudent

      They should rename that ship the Kidney Stone.

  43. Shpip

    Today in One-Hit Wonder History:

    Robert Tepper was born in New Jersey in 1950, but moved to New York in his twenties to become a songwriter. There, he met Benny Mardones, and the two co-wrote Mardones’ hit ballad (and creepy wedding reception staple in the 80s-90s) Into the Night.

    A few years later, Tepper moved to El Lay and signed with Scotti Brothers Records, whose other acts included Survivor and “Weird Al” Yankovic. One of Tepper’s songs caught the ear of Sylvester Stallone, who put it in both Rocky IV and Cobra. While technically not a “training montage” piece, the single No Easy Way Out gets lumped in with them. Tepper’s only song to ever chart, it hit its peak at #22 on this date in 1986.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    I had a death cult gathering yesterday. Family from California and the teens had friends over all day. It was instinctual though stemming from my Neanderthal way of thinking.

    It was also why I was in such a great mood yesterday. Breaking bread, sharing drink, talking, laughing…these people like Brix and Fauci can fuck right off.

    Nice. A grand time was had by all, I hope.

    • PieInTheSky

      bread is not paleo like Neanderthals

  45. Rebel Scum

    Feel free to fuck off.

    I grew up a hunter and served as an Army Ranger.

    I didn’t take my deer hunting rifle to Afghanistan, nor did I take my assault rifle deer hunting.

    Don’t be fooled by the gun lobby. The type of gun matters.

    Weapons of war have no place in our communities.

    I guess I need to hand over my Brown Bess, seeing as it is literally a “weapon of war”.

    • leon

      The military has a problem with old retired officers needing to fuck off and shut up.

      • Rat on a train

        The military has a problem with people that hate the military but join for the benefits. “I joined for the GI Bill not for war!”

    • AlexinCT

      This person may have been an army ranger (I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they were NOT), but I bet my ass they are a power grabbing leftist first.

      • juris imprudent

        He apparently served after graduating at UW-Madison in 2002 – what the hell, he was ROTC there? And claims to have made CPT in only 4 years, as he separated in 2006. That shit don’t add up.

      • B.P.

        I’m so pleased he made his way to Colorado.

      • Ozymandias

        That’s how it works now, JI. O-3 used to take about 5 years (or more) when I was a Lieutenant, but they intentionally started bringing all of those “gates” downward. The goal was to save money by making sure that we didn’t have broke-ass Majors hanging around from the 12-13 year mark until 20 when they missed their 2 looks for O-5, but still made it into sanctuary. My year-group was the leading edge of that policy, so It’s quite possible he made Captain right before he got out.

    • The Other Kevin

      This is another propaganda pattern that I see a lot. “I’m a former (type of person you respect). Even *I* agree with (word for word talking point you have seen 1000 times).”

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It’s a flavor of expertism. Very similar to “Dr. Zumante Agadashian-Wallis, professor of sociology and Afro-Memetic studies at East New Hampshire State Community University and Grill, says “not so fast.” Puppies may be cute and cuddly, but, according to Dr. Agadashian-Wallis, they’re a symbol of the colonialist patriarchy and should be drowned at every opportunity. Many on Twitter agree with her expert opinion.”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      What’s he think about Mini-14s I wonder.

    • Drake

      What a lying asshole. Lot’s of people hunt with AR’s and semi-autos these days. That’s why there has been the proliferation of AR compatible cartridges like .350 Legend – so people can hunt with them.

      And here’s a gun-reviewer taking an average hunting rifle through the same accuracy course he tests combat rifles. It does better than most.

      • EvilSheldon

        As I stated before, my AR is not intended for hunting. It’s meant for defending myself against criminals. I’m not giving up the most effective means of defense because some asshole politician prefers easy prey.

        That said, I have killed a few deer with my AR, mostly as an experiment. It works fine – better than some other guns, as my 11.5″ AR is at present the only silenced rifle in my inventory.

      • Akira

        That said, I have killed a few deer with my AR

        It always cracks me up when people talk about how it’s absurd overkill to hunt deer with an AR-15 when the .223 is on the smaller end of typical deer hunting cartridges. Didn’t some dipshit politician say that “you can’t hunt with an AR-15, you’d blow the animal to smithereens and there would be nothing left to eat!”

        It also betrays a lack of firearms knowledge since anyone who owns an AR-15 would know that it’s a modular weapons platform and it can be easily modified by the user to serve just about any function.

      • Rat on a train

        They either lack firearms knowledge or wish to exploit other people’s lack of firearms knowledge.

      • Richard

        The AR is *the* coyote hunting firearm around these parts.

    • Rat on a train

      nor did I take my assault rifle deer hunting

      The Army tends to restrict use of their weapons. You can’t go to the arms room to check out weapons for personal use. (speaking as a former unit armorer)

      • R C Dean

        nor did I take my assault rifle deer hunting

        In many states. .223 is not legal for deer hunting. On the theory that its underpowered. Which its really not, but that’s why.

      • Swiss Servator

        I think it was 1983, a guy checked out an M1911 from his Guard unit near Chicago and went and held up 2 gas stations with it. Things got a bit tighter after that.

      • Rat on a train

        I don’t recall that incident. By the time I was armorer, no checkout without approval from the CO, XO or 1SG. Of course, as a 20-year-old junior enlisted, I had access to 4 M60, 60 M16, 10 M1911 and a company’s basic load at any time. Someone always has root.

    • Suthenboy

      “I am a gun owner and even I think….”

      blah blah blah where have I heard that horseshit before? Go fuck yourself cupcake.

    • Suthenboy

      A friend of mine dropped a 175lb buck with his .17 WMR. Right between the eyes and dropped it in its tracks.
      .223 shoots damned hard for a twenty two. It is more than enough power to bag a deer.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    This may be the most un-self-aware headline I’ll see today:

    Inside Myanmnar’s Army: They See Protestors as Criminals

    -The New York Times

    !!!!!!!!!

    You know who else sees protestors as criminals?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Pervez Musharraf?

    • AlexinCT

      The irony and these people. Can’t they see it?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        They can see it. They do see it. They don’t care.

      • AlexinCT

        One set of rules for thee…..

    • PieInTheSky

      I say we rename it to Burma who’s with me?

      • pistoffnick

        Are your whiskers
        When you wake
        Tougher than
        A two-bit steak?
        Try
        Burma-Shave

      • AlexinCT

        Say that again….

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I’m gonna blame the squirrels, and not an attempt to edit mid-submit because I missed on a word.

    • rhywun

      LOL

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Hey- these are OUR political props, go get your own!

    Meanwhile, the woman in the video can be seen positioning herself in front of Cruz’s camera while asking him to “please be respectful” of the immigrants inside the facility where he is recording.

    “Please respect the rules sir, and give the people dignity and respect,” the woman says. “Full heartedly I ask you, please respect the people. This is not a zoo, sir, please don’t treat the people as such.”

    Cruz then continues by stating that the facility is a “dangerous” place, and accuses the Biden administration of covering up the conditions that immigrants are subject to.

    Not a zoo. Har dee fucking har.

    ps- Don’t feed the animals.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      She’s right, it’s not a zoo. It’s a prison and a very badly run one at that. The idea that they didn’t want him to film because of the dignity of the detainees is fucking laughable.

      • leon

        They are really used to doing the “You are a bad person” moral grandstanding, whenever they are trying to save face. Luckily, fewer and fewer people are buying that shit.

  48. leon

    I know it’s been asked a million times, but any other reputable sites for recieving the gift of Zardoz? grabagun is almost completely out.

    • EvilSheldon

      Just to be clear, are you looking for the gun or the penis? You usually can’t get them both at the same place.

    • Sean

      Buds gun shop? Gunbroker?

      Whatcha looking for?

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      https://gun.deals/

      Put the Mfr number in and it’ll show you all the major sites that have the gift of Zardoz in stock along with prices.

    • EvilSheldon

      Brownells is generally good about keeping inventory up

    • EvilSheldon

      Brownells is usually pretty good about keeping their inventory up to date.

    • leon

      Thanks guys (and gals)! Having a few more sites to check will be good.

  49. leon

    :sigh: I do like Michael Malice, but something i don’t like is the “ends Justify the means” takes that i have been seeing slowly creep into things. see this: https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/1376546340650487808

    Also listening to Dave Smith and his view that “He’ll support whatever leads to more liberty”, and even said he is machiavellian when it comes to liberty (this was re: voting) . This is something i ardently am opposed to.

    • CPRM

      Most people who do political talk/video are stupid as shit. They’re chasing trends, that’s how you get popular in those fields.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      In the long view, he’s not wrong. The real question is when that threshold has actually been crossed.

      It’s a difficult question for men of principle.

      • Mojeaux

        So I’ve been watching The Expanse. I’m almost through Season 5.

        A significant demographic living in the asteroid belt is being exploited for Earth’s and Mars’s benefit. When they rebel, their water and air are cut off/rationed, just enough to keep them alive. So up rises a charismatic asshole to lead the “Belters” to independence.

        He is an asshole and he is charismatic. He’s narcissistic to the core and wants glory. He’s killing millions of people. But he’s getting the job done. No one can really argue that the Belters need their independence and to stop being exploited. He is presented as an immoral person who is RIGHT. There have been at least 2 monologues that argue that bad men get good results and may even take a bad man to get the good results.

        I’m starting to see the wisdom of that stance. Men of principle won’t do what unprincipled (charismatic narcissistic gloryhounds) will do to get what they want. Eggs must be broken.

      • CPRM

        No one can really argue that the Belters need their independence and to stop being exploited.

        Then…why? If no one can argue it, then they must be fine. OH, you mean the writers weren’t smart enough to write a character that could justify their use of violence because they don’t actually grasp the concepts they are trying to write and reverted to strongman tactics, ‘for the better good’…

      • Mojeaux

        I want to know what revolution happens without people dying and/or being harmed.

      • CPRM

        That’s not the point I was making at all. It is about the philosophical underpinnings of a revolution. This is where most TV writers suck. Revolution…because, we like these characters!

        To be honest, I couldn’t make it through the first 3 episodes of the expanse. It was a muddled mess of revolutionary fantasy without a philosophical underpinning beyond, them guys bad, these guys good. And your description of:

        No one can really argue that the Belters need their independence and to stop being exploited.

        After 5 seasons or whatever kind of belabors that point.

      • Mojeaux

        That’s not the point I was making at all.

        You made no point whatsoever. You said, “rItErS sUcK!!1”

        It is about the philosophical underpinnings of a revolution.

        Then what are they?

        To be honest, I couldn’t make it through the first 3 episodes of the expanse.

        Then you MUST know exactly what I’m talking about.

      • CPRM

        Then what are they?

        I don’t know, that’s why I’m ‘Durher TehWrtrs sk!1!!’.

        What exactly are the philosophical underpinnings of the opposing sides? Why can they not conform coexist? What makes one better than the other? Since you’re whatever seasons in, you should be able to answer, since yes, I gave up after 3 episodes and you are the one telling me it’s good because the philosophical underpinnings of why the ‘Belters’ deserve independence still hasn’t been espoused by a single character, apparently.

      • Mojeaux

        the philosophical underpinnings of why the ‘Belters’ deserve independence still hasn’t been espoused by a single character, apparently.

        Fuck off.

      • CPRM

        I’m fine if you like it, if you can’t explain the world, that’s fine if you enjoy it. just don’t try tell me it is anything other than schlock with concepts you like while ignoring the problems. That’s fine, I like a lot of schlock, but I never decree it high philosophical art.

      • Mojeaux

        if you can’t explain the world

        I can.

        I just won’t.

        You are not arguing in good faith. You’re just angrily/bitterly attacking me/it/them/whoever.

      • R C Dean

        What exactly are the philosophical underpinnings of the opposing sides?

        I would guess the vast majority of people on either side of a revolution couldn’t tell you. Not having Rand-esque excursions while telling a story isn’t a bad thing.

        When they rebel, their water and air are cut off/rationed, just enough to keep them alive.

        Pretty much exactly the same basis for many revolts/revolutions. Too many people are staring death in the face every day due to an oppressive government.

        Why do the Belters deserve independence? Because everyone deserves a government that doesn’t try to keep them on the edge of death in order to keep them in line. This isn’t hard.

      • Mojeaux

        Why do the Belters deserve independence? Because everyone deserves a government that doesn’t try to keep them on the edge of death in order to keep them in line. This isn’t hard.

        I don’t know if you’re watching this, but it’s even worse than that.

        There is access to other solar systems with habitable planets to which the Belters want to escape. It’s a new frontier, the wild west.

        Earth and Mars governments are actively keeping them from finding their freedom elsewhere, on pain of being shot down if they venture past the gate.

      • Mojeaux

        In fact, Mars/Earth (can’t remember which) sent an envoy to one Belter-colonized alien planet (outside our solar system) on a “scientific” mission for the underlying purpose of wiping them out to make an example of what happens to Belters who leave our solar system.

      • Swiss Servator

        The Velvet Revolution, The Rose Revolution, The Orange Revolution, etc.

        I don’t remember piles of Czechs or Slovaks or Slovenes or Estonians or Latvians or Lithuanians or Poles or East Germans or Bulgars or Moldovans.

      • R C Dean

        I don’t know if you’re watching this, but it’s even worse than that.

        Haven’t gotten that far.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        To be fair, I thought they did a good job of presenting the inners’s motivations. They feel entitled to the resources because they supported the expansion into the belt. They fear the belters as being subhuman savages who only communicate via violence. They treat the belters much the same way that the coastal elites in the US treat flyover hicks.

      • Mojeaux

        good job of presenting the inners’s motivations

        Which are pretty loathsome. They won’t even let them go seek out worlds beyond the rings, essentially keeping them hostage in the Belt. That was the trigger.

        Marco, while being glorious eye candy, has that nasty charisma that binds tribes, but he couldn’t do it without Mars’s help.

        Tangentially: Like it or not Mars and the Belt are always going to be dependent on Earth or an Earth-like planet (e.g., Ilus).

        Also tangentially: I want to grow up to be as lovely as Chrisjen when I’m that age.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Chrisjen is one of my favorite characters. The only thing I don’t love about her development is the tempering of her ruthlessness. In season one she was torturing belters, and now she’s infallible and pure as the wind driven snow.

        I actually find the plot line where the inners block off the Stargate (I don’t care what people say, it’s a stargate) to be the first big step into portraying inners as objective villains. I think that something akin to a manipulated space race (where belters are given free reign over the portals, but their ships mysteriously blow up when they go in certain portals, to later find out that the UN shoved an assload of probes through all of the portals at the beginning and mined the entrances to the interesting ones) would’ve been more in character.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Any constitution that isn’t backed by the citizenry it applies to is a worthless piece of paper is his view I believe and he’s right. As far as adhering to principles while you’re getting curbstomped, I’m open to discussion there too. Remember though, he’s also an attention whore and a Twitter gadfly so who knows what he really thinks.

      • leon

        My complaint isn’t even about Malice, as i understand his argument that the constitution and think it’s valid. A Paper doesn’t guarentee anything, only people wiling to stand up on principles are going to stop something. My complaint is with the comment by Kelly. Reducing everything to power, reeks a lot of “If i can get away with it, then fine”. The Ends end up just becoming means to justify the means.

        As far as adhering to principles while you’re getting curbstomped,

        We could have a discussion, though I’m curious what setup you would have where your principle is being violated while being curbstomped.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    My regular internet service is back up and running. For a while, I was coming to you via Android wifi hotspot voodoo. It’s kinda handy to have that backup option.

  51. Sean
    • leon

      Does it matter if you translate incoherence exactly? it might actually be easier for those interpreters.

    • CPRM

      ‘You think your job is hard, try milking a TV show from 25 years ago by espousing things that win you political points!’ #Baio!HaHeHEYesSir!

      • Sean

        Hey! He was great on that episode of Psych.

        Damn, that was 14 years ago?

        Actually Sorbo’s IMDB page looks like he’s working.

      • CPRM

        You’re working your way to second site Bestie behind Gustave, since Digby left.

  52. Nephilium

    Work just sent out an e-mail with the message that vacation can wait until after you get your vaccination.

    No… it really can’t you dicks, the accrued vacation hours that were originally supposed to go away at the end of last year are going away at the end of this year. And I’m going to take every one of them.

    • Ownbestenemy

      At least you don’t get the glorious Voicemails from Secretary Pete like I get to enjoy.

    • Sean

      Well, that’s retarded.

      Coworker had a bad reaction to his first shot. I’m waiting to see if he forgoes the second. He’s not even covid scared, his wife coerced him into it.

      • Chipwooder

        Sounds like my dad. Mom and my sister badgered him until he got the shot just so they’d leave him alone.

    • CPRM

      <a href="https://youtu.be/IQtw-sINTYc&quot; title="But…but…you're bleck! not vaccinated!” target=”_blank” >But…but…you’re bleck! not vaccinated!

      • Chipwooder

        The blonde chick in LW2 was fiiiiiiiiiiiine

    • rhywun

      Say what??

      Did you tell them that what you do on your vacation is none of their goddamn business?

      My work has said they have no plans to force it on anyone.

      • Nephilium

        It was a generic message that was sent out by HR. Two vacations already taken this year, planning at least two more for this year.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        These companies need to get their HR to heel. Legal is gonna have a lot of headaches if HR keeps spouting off as they’re wont to do these days.

      • Galt1138

        “Legal is gonna have a lot of headaches if HR keeps spouting off as they’re wont to do these days.”

        This, so much this. “inclusion training” “Unconscious bias training.” Many HR departments are very close to telling hiring managers to break the law in order to have “Diversity.”

        Mark my words, there are going to be a LOT of lawsuits due to the infection that is “Theory” seeping into HR departments.

    • The Last American Hero

      I’m replying that since wholeheartedly embrace the DEI initiative, I refuse to get a vaccine until every BIPOC has had theirs. Why should I continue to exercise my white cishetero colonial privilege while there is an unvaccinated minority? It’s literally murder.

      Make hr lady regret her own decision to get the shot, rub their own nose in their bigotry, and have an anti racist defense for not going with the program. The NPR crowd will be left speechless.

      • Rat on a train

        I’m with you. I figure I should be near the bottom of the list because of all my privilege. Let me know when everyone else has their shot.

  53. trshmnstr the terrible

    I put up a topic in the forum tracking how various companies are reacting now that the mask mandate has been lifted in TX. If anybody has additional data points (companies requiring or not requiring masks in mask optional jurisdictions), please add them to the thread, and I’ll try to keep the main post updated.

  54. Stillhunter

    blackjack on March 29, 2021 at 6:12 am
    Wood routers run much higher speeds than milling machines. You might remove the metal, but your finish is gonna suck and you’ll kill the endmill in the process. Plus, you have very little control of a router, which is fine on soft wood but not so much on hard steel.”

    AR receivers are aluminum. The routers recommended have adjustable speeds. I haven’t done it, but thousands have with acceptable results.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    It’s for your own good

    The Biden administration is working on creating a set of standards for people to prove they’ve been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to an administration official.
    The official said they’re currently working with a range of companies on the standards, including non-profits and tech companies, adding that they are likely still weeks away from being finalized, the official said.
    Multiple government agencies are engaged in conversations and planning, coordinated by the White House, as this kind of system will play a role in multiple aspects of life, including potentially the workforce, another senior administration official told CNN.

    We would never use this information to punish or ostracize anyone, but we need to know whose side you’re on.

    • Mojeaux

      I need to figure out how to make unofficial things look official.

    • rhywun

      The official said they’re currently working with a range of companies on the standards

      Who doesn’t get the warm and fuzzies from yet another “public-private partnership”…?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Translation from two-years in the future: Its a private company and the BoR does not apply to them.

      • Sean

        Suddenly, $.80 – $1 per round seems reasonable.

  56. The Late P Brooks

    I need to figure out how to make unofficial things look official.

    Put an eagle on it.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    I just had an inspiration. I want one of these with the swastika swapped out for a peace sign.

  58. Ownbestenemy

    Remember, these folks decide the airworthiness of any airplane you get on:

    “FAA inspector unable to reach Starbase in time for launch today. Postponed to no earlier than tomorrow.” – Musk

    • leon

      When you have a monopoly, you get to be an asshole to everyone.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I really shouldn’t knock flight standards cause they are supremely understaffed, given that as a regulatory body and the main mission of the FAA is the safety of flight, is the scarier part.

      • leon

        That is the fundamental form of the government regulatory body. If the Private Firm is a profit maximizing enterprise, the Government Regulatory Body is a Revenue maximizing body. The surest way for them to do that is to do a bad job at their stated mission, and then blame underfunding.

    • CPRM

      The flight today was only comped for coach, tomorrow he can get first class. He’s got a budget, if you don’t use it you lose. #baselinebudgetingFTW!

    • sarcasmic

      If Huffy built an airplane would you fly in it?

  59. The Late P Brooks

    Translation from two-years in the future: Its a private company and the BoR does not apply to them.

    It’s a non-profit, run by the former head of Homeland Security. Why don’t you trust them?

  60. The Late P Brooks

    Slurp slurp slurp

    Results showed that 72 percent of respondents approve of the steps Biden’s administration has taken to manage the ongoing implications of COVID-19, with the remaining 28 percent conversely noting disapproval in responses to the same question.

    Biden’s handling of the U.S. vaccine rollout earned support from a slightly wider margin of survey participants, with 75 percent saying they approve of his administration’s effort on that front specifically.

    Implementing an effective and equitable federal response to COVID-19 was among the presidential administration’s top priorities when Biden took office this past January. The president originally established a goal to administer 100 million vaccine doses during his first 100 days in the White House, but surpassed the milestone more than a month ahead of schedule. Biden amended the target number last week, and now aims to administer 200 million shots cumulatively before the start of May.

    So shall it be written. So shall we believe.

    • Suthenboy

      Who buys this shit?

    • Spartacus

      What has he actually done? “Yep, that’s a vaccine alright. Go ahead and roll it out.”
      Has he really done anything that any other government (including none at all ) would not have done?

    • UnCivilServant

      The wind grounded it, the moon ungrounded it.

    • Rat on a train

      I knew I should have crammed more in there.