About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

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

382 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “Good job, Biden.”

    This, my shocked faced, is.

    • WTF

      And let’s not forget a big shout out to the idiots who actually voted for him.

      • Count Potato

        Kids in cages!

      • juris imprudent

        I was told no one voted for him – it was all done with smoke and mirrors.

      • Agent Cooper

        That’s a little strawmannish.

      • juris imprudent

        I’ll grant that there was clearly more proof of election shenanigans in ’20 than in ’16. But once folks have a narrative, they aren’t inclined to let go of it.

      • zwak

        Pot. Kettle. Black…

      • juris imprudent

        I will blame Trump. He claimed in ’16 that if he lost it was because the election was rigged. He seeded the ground.

      • zwak

        After the Molly Ball/Time article it is clear that it was rigged. But keep the hate alive brochacho.

      • juris imprudent

        The Presidential election. Notice how we aren’t talking about the Blue Wave across all of the down ballot offices. Notice I posted the 47 states that are looking at fixing what went wrong in their own electoral mechanisms.

        You want to cling bitterly to THE DEMS HAVE WON AND NOW RULE FOREVER – you do you. I’ll make fun accordingly.

      • R C Dean

        You want to cling bitterly to THE DEMS HAVE WON AND NOW RULE FOREVER

        We’ll see what happens with HR1. If the Dems go all in, nuke the filibuster, and gut election security nation-wide, I think it will be awhile before anyone else controls the federal government. The Dems could lose the House, or the Senate in 2022, and still control the government through 2024. Remember, the legislature and even the Presidency matters only to the extent the administrative state goes along, and the Dems are in firm control of the 4th branch.

      • zwak

        So, the left admitted to rigging, so far two states, Michigan and Virginia have been found to have acted illegally, Pennsylvania supreme court set the grounds for voter packing and so on. But you build a strawman of Nic Cage proportions that it was trumps fault?

        Just because you have a dick doesn’t mean you have an extra leg to stand on.

      • juris imprudent

        I am painfully aware of how fucked up the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth is. Every single one of the fuckers (that gutted the ‘non-severable’ law) should have their head on a pike across the Susquehanna.

        Although the Democrats litigation attack worked, it turns out the Republicans were also working on one – that did not. So, IMO, fuck them both for that shit.

        For all of the laughter we enjoy at the expense of the rubes still clinging to Russian collusion, some of us get a little testy about our own narratives being the subject of sport.

      • Psycho Effer

        Look at the bright side. This just brings us closer to the whole fucked up system falling apart.

    • straffinrun

      Looks like the rest of the world besides us is going to be forced to have the “Welfare state or open borders?” discussion.

  2. UnCivilServant

    Man finds 15,000 bees in his car after grocery shopping.

    Not the bees…

    Morning, Banjos.

    • UnCivilServant

      “One guy got stung on the lip, and we made fun of him the next morning,” Johnson said.

      • straffinrun

        Johnsons like big lips.

      • AlexinCT

        And nice round mounds?

      • straffinrun

        My Almond Joy now identifies as Mounds. It’s nuts.

      • bacon-magic

        Almond joy has almonds, mounds don’t. (advertising jingles don’t work bruh)

      • bacon-magic

        Close enough.

      • Count Potato

        That wasn’t very nice.

        I’m surprised 15,000 bees only weigh 3.5 lbs.

      • Rat on a train

        Las Cruces? Probably undocumented bees that slipped across the open border. American bees are overweight.

      • robc

        Last year or so, I saw an article where someone tried to rank the weights of FBS school mascots. I am pretty sure GT was last, with the weight of a yellow jacket.

        The tricky ones were trying to figure out the weight of a tide or a hurricane.

      • robc

        Also, does a Demon Deacon weight more or less than a regular deacon?

      • Plinker762

        More. The weight of a regular deacon plus the weight of the demon. It’s science!

      • Rat on a train

        How much does a color weigh? The Stanford Cardinal refers to the color. The tree is a mascot of the band.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        All I know is that the Crimson Tide weighs 120 pounds and has never weighed a pound more than that, you insensitive bastard!

      • Rat on a train

        They used an elephant for Alabama. Don’t feel bad. They used a redwood tree for Stanford.

      • Rat on a train

        It was SB Nation

        They put human mascots at 137 pounds?

        VIRGINIA TECH TURKEY-LIKE BIRD

        A hurricane made of gold is the winner.

      • robc

        Probably only ranking starting with my alma mater and ending with my wife’s.

      • Rat on a train

        Neither of ours are on the list, though my school shares a mascot with a school that is. I don’t believe my wife’s has a mascot.

  3. Count Potato

    “”Workers at a plant in Baltimore manufacturing two coronavirus vaccines accidentally conflated the ingredients several weeks ago, contaminating up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and forcing regulators to delay authorization of the plant’s production lines,” the outlet reported.”

    Maybe make more smaller batches?

    • Don escaped Cancun

      There’s a systematic break-down in their quality system somewhere. It’s important to know that the basic quality systems in place at the firms that build your cars, design avionics software, and provide your pharmaceuticals are perforated with mistakes and outright fraud . . . it’s a paper game, and no one can afford to do it right. Even after tons of data and analysis, many processes rely on the competence, consistency, and attention of individuals . . . the exact opposite of the robustly capable system.

      Any time a firm claims employee error, they are saying that no new issue was found . . . which is tacit admission that the planned control for that risk was not actually affirmative, so their advanced quality process is a sham: they don’t rate severity, detection, or risk correctly or they are incompetent at designing process. Failure must be designed away: you cannot design quality into a process.

      • db

        Well stated. And you’re right that practically no one can or wants to afford to do it right–some products would cost far too much, so risk is accepted. Most consumers don’t know how much risk they accept.

        It’s very frustrating when you see an opportunity for failure to sneak into a process and raise your hand to speak about it and it gets handwaved away–that’s too remote a possibility, those holes in the cheese will never line up because we have good people.

      • Don escaped Cancun

        Of course, we both have done the math and certainly cost in so many failures per million. Sometime, when severity is low, that’s just so much rat shit in the pepper, and who would want to pay for something that goes down okay enough. Sometimes, though, the severity is a big deal (ie, brake failure), and the cost of even one part per million means, globally, that thousands might die.

      • Drake

        This – their work management system allowed defects to be passed along in the process without being detected. The humans making the errors were the people who designed the process.

      • AlexinCT

        Must be a bunch of Six Sigma people…

      • Don escaped Cancun

        I’ve met 20 people who can calculate a CpK.

        I’ve met three people who were thoughtful about what to do with it.

        I routinely win coin-flipping bets with quality hotshots: it’s not about the coin or the odds, it’s all about perception and deployment.

      • Don escaped Cancun

        “Failure must be designed away: you cannot design quality into a process.”

        ugh

        Failure must be designed away . . . YES

        You cannot INSPECT or TRAIN quality into a process.

        LH / RH? left brain / right brain ?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I don’t really miss interacting with quality engineers who thought that using the wrong font on a drawing callout was an important issue. Rare was the one who would actually get out on the line and look for problems as opposed to waiting for the issues to show up in inspection.

      • Don escaped Cancun

        Most quality staff in the firms I’ve been in are essentially inspectors. They are rightfully bitter about the futility of their roles and their corporate impotence. it’s a shame that half as much energy isn’t deployed in designing quality into a product.

        Deming escaped to Japan. I’ve worked for two Japanese firms that didn’t get it, FWIW.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        it’s a shame that half as much energy isn’t deployed in designing quality into a product.

        Shareholders couldn’t give half a shit about such things, so they’ll never be top of mind.

      • Don escaped Cancun

        your shareholders are totally wrong about this value proposition

    • juris imprudent

      Maybe make more smaller batches?

      Artisanal vaccines?

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Single barrel vintage for me.

      • Drake

        Hand-cranked centrifuges!

  4. UnCivilServant

    White professor sues college after discovering he makes less than his black counterparts.

    I note that the article only mentioned number of degrees when discussion qualification. No mention of actual industry experience.

    Stop laughing.

    • Nephilium

      The degrees are the industry experience in education.

      • AlexinCT

        Credentials is all that matters. Doing anything intelligent or that creates value, that shit is for suckers.

  5. rhywun

    REVEALED: China’s State Propaganda Group Boasts Control Over Western Think Tanks, ‘Election Integrity’ Groups, And Even Joe Biden’s National Security Team

    Meh – I don’t believe a single word coming out of the CCP but this boast is sneaky because it rings so true.

    • Sean

      It’s not even a little surprising.

    • Tonio

      Inciting violence against east Asians, surely.

    • commodious spittoon

      This is like smacking an obedient dog.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      If you assume that it is in China’s best interest to foment strife in the American political system, this is one way to do it. True or not, it will make waves.

    • AlexinCT

      Watch this and replace the KGB with China’s CCP intelligence apparatus now. The Chinese are even better than the Russians were on this subject. In fact, I will not be surprised at all that we discover someday that the CCP was behind the democrats & US 3 letter beaurocracies attempting to do a soft coup against a president China felt was anathema to their interests (look at a couple of the players: Swallows-well, and Shifty Shiff).

  6. SDF-7

    Hmmm…

    “chemistry professor says he is earning less than black engineering professors”

    ” The filing did not indicate where Lavell’s salary ranked when compared with other chemistry professors in his department”

    Yeah — my instincts are either “troll” or “crap lawsuit” — but I suppose the courts will figure it out. Apples to Apples, sir — not Apples to Oranges.

    Hmm… if Elon had called out needing OS/kernel programmers I’d consider it. Working for SpaceX would give you a real feeling of actually moving forward human progress — and being in TX would certainly get me closer to family back in the East.

    C’mon someone with privileges — we need the Oprah “BEEEES!” gif now for the last story…

    Ah, the return of Aubrey Plaza’s bluegrass clone… Thanks!

    Good morning, Banjos!

    • SDF-7

      Yes! Thank you! (And if Banjos meant to have that in the first place and the site just took forever, full credit ma’am.)

    • rhywun

      “Troll” was my first thought, too.

      Bless his heart.

    • leon

      Yeah, my thought about the “less pay” complaint was “git gud noob”

  7. Count Potato

    “Have you moved over to alt tech yet? There are lots of alternatives out there.”

    One problem with that is the time/money/effort it now takes to find things because so many people have been banned. I think what is needed are standard protocols for social media like there are for web pages, email, etc. Then the providers and client software can be easily be centralized. The main problem is that then the globalists will go after the payment processors and banks.

    • Nephilium

      There have been attempts, but none of them have taken off. What’s the benefit to the person setting up the open source, fully decentralized social media company? Where do they get money to even cover costs?

      And it’s not like people stick to standards anyways, is there even a fully HTML compliant web browser? I seem to recall all the rendering engines have their own little tweaks that change how things are displayed.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t know about decentralized, but Minds is open source.

      • Rat on a train

        Mastodon is decentralized and AGPLv3. Gab is a fork of Mastodon.

      • Count Potato

        “There have been attempts, but none of them have taken off. What’s the benefit to the person setting up the open source, fully decentralized social media company? Where do they get money to even cover costs?”

        There are a bunch of little social media companies, gab, telegram, parler, etc. The issue is that the client has to visit them separately, set up separate accounts, etc.

        “And it’s not like people stick to standards anyways, is there even a fully HTML compliant web browser? I seem to recall all the rendering engines have their own little tweaks that change how things are displayed.”

        That’s not much of an issue, imho, as there are plenty of choices in web browsers.

      • Nephilium

        The end user is not the client. The people buying ads are. That’s the deal across all the social media platforms. This makes it in the social media company (gab, telegram, parler, etc) to get unique logins, so they can sell more expensive ads to people.

        Not really, under the UI, I think there’s basically two engines at this point (Chromium is the big one, and I think Gecko is the other one still kicking around). The illusion of choice wasn’t my point there, it was more that even with standards, they aren’t worth much if people don’t follow them.

      • Nephilium

        /sees missing “interest”

        /leaves the geeky joke hanging there for someone else to make

      • juris imprudent

        That’s the deal across all the social media platforms.

        Transform the business model, disrupt the entire ad-driven media ecosystem.

      • Nephilium

        Great. If you can come up with the new business model that will make a profit, there’s a wide open market for you. Keep in mind that I believe the only “social media” that people have shown that they’re willing to pay for is dating applications (if you consider those social media).

      • juris imprudent

        Not much you can do for people that want to be the product.

      • Count Potato

        “The end user is not the client. The people buying ads are. ”

        You know what I meant.

        “This makes it in the social media company (gab, telegram, parler, etc) to get unique logins, so they can sell more expensive ads to people.”

        That doesn’t seem to be true, since plenty of sites accept logging in through Google or Facebook.

      • Nephilium

        Those same sites that accept Google/Facebook logins are generally not social media sites (most are ecommerce, which make money by selling products), are using the Facebook commenting system, or are serving Google/Facebook ads as their revenue source.

      • Count Potato

        “Those same sites that accept Google/Facebook logins are generally not social media sites”

        That isn’t true. Regardless, you are missing the point here.

      • Nephilium

        Count Potato: I think we’re talking past each other. I would much prefer that there were open systems in place, using open protocols. I don’t think there’s a financial motivation for a company to set up such a thing, and continue to support it though.

      • Count Potato

        OK

      • Agent Cooper

        “REVEALED: Rep. Matt Gaetz ‘paid women via Apple Pay for ecstasy-fueled sex at Florida hotels after being introduced to them by former tax collector Joel Greenberg who met them on a sugar daddy website’”

        I fail to see the problem.

      • Plisade

        He should now cross over to the Libertarian party where that behavior is expected. Problem solved.

    • R C Dean

      Alt social media is still social media. Still a hard pass from me. I made it this long without it *shakes cane*.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    WaPo headline about “The dangers migrants face”.

    They had no choice but to throw those babies over the wall!

    Why, Trump? WHY?

    • Cy Esquire

      “They had no choice but to throw those babies over the wall!”

      How dare you! They’re all engineers and doctors! They would never do such a thing!

  9. rhywun

    I love Facebook stamping its foot like a toddler. Maybe if they hold their breath long enough, Trump will go away.

    • Tonio

      ^This.

  10. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Give the Chinese credit. They realize American intellectuals and media are wholly for sale and are taking advantage of the situation.

    • SDF-7

      For sale? Most of them seem to have considered themselves fellow travelers in the first place and were giving it away.

      • Rat on a train

        Would you refuse money to do what you would do anyway?

      • UnCivilServant

        If the money would create a stressful sense of obligation, potentially. Depends on how much we’re talking.

      • Charlie Suet

        One cannot hope to bribe nor twist –
        Thank God – the US journalist.
        But seeing what the man will do,
        Unbribed, there’s no occasion to.

    • juris imprudent

      They realize American intellectuals and media are wholly for sale and are taking advantage of the situation.

      Bargain shopping? Bulk discounts?

  11. Rebel Scum

    Thousands of tons of steel and heavy equipment stand idle along the country’s southern border as legions of migrants exploit holes in the fence left by President Biden’s decision to halt construction.

    Meanwhile you, subject citizen, are discouraged from travel, are expected to get jabbed with a gene therapy shot and are forced to wear a shame muzzle*.

    *Not me though. I do not participate in virus theater.

  12. AlexinCT

    White professor sues college after discovering he makes less than his black counterparts.

    Was he pissed that he had been feeling all lib guilty and peddling critical race theory only to find out they had double dicked him?

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Experts are saying things

    Although China and Russia deny it, experts say they are beginning to see how Beijing’s and Moscow’s strategy of selling or donating their vaccines abroad is greasing the wheels of their international relationships and allowing them to expand their influence throughout the world.

    It’s a development that should cause grave concern for the United States and other democracies, according to former U.S. ambassadors and other ex-diplomats.

    What rankles these observers is not that China and Russia are winning at vaccine diplomacy, it’s that the U.S. and others aren’t even in the game yet. Washington and its allies have instead chosen to prioritize their domestic populations, keeping most doses at home and causing resentment abroad.

    That evil bastard Trump and his America-First-ism! We’re giving the world away.

    • rhywun

      vaccine diplomacy

      ?

  14. Rebel Scum

    People working at a plant making two different COVID-19 vaccines mistakenly conflated the ingredients, ruining 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the New York Times.

    Didn’t they also manage to fuck up baby powder or something once?

    • Rat on a train

      Talc is carcinogenic. At least some lawyers were able to convince a jury that it is.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Don’t snort it.

        Or don’t be that old guy in the gym who applies talc to his ballsack like he’s dusting his corn fields.

      • Count Potato

        Does he shave them first, or does his nutsack look like a homeless Santa Claus?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s downright fucking disturbing.

      • straffinrun

        For weeks, they were sending out the slow motion Biden/Kamala walking through the white house videos and now they have gone full gag order. It’s weird.

    • Rat on a train

      Bob! Hey, Bob! You’re standing 2 inches too close to Katie. Move a little to your left.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      There is a still of this movie somewhere, not on this site but: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108071 , of an entire country house staff, including Maggie Smith, wearing masks. I can’t find it and should press on now anyway.

    • Timeloose

      Is it my imagination or is Kamala’s chair closer to the front by just a little bit.

      • Trigger Hippie

        I was just about to say that. It’s subtle but yeah, looks like it. Could just be the camera angle.

        *shrugs*

      • The Hyperbole

        If the tiles are straight and in line with the camera (as they look to be) it appears that Kamala is facing straight into the camera where Joe is aimed to the right of the photographer. The front most leg of their chairs are in roughly the same spot ( A few inches from the intersection) but the rear front leg (from the camera’s point of view) of kamalas chair is much farther forward than Joe’s.

      • juris imprudent

        OCD confirmed.

    • R C Dean

      What is the point of a group portrait with everyone’s face covered?

      • Sean

        I’m gonna go with propaganda on this one.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      The flag flying highest in this pic is Virtue Island.

  15. Rebel Scum

    New, bombshell admissions over China’s influence in both the United States and Europe link organizations such as the Berggruen Institute with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Berggruen Institute first rose to national attention after co-founding the “Transition Integrity Project” which advised on how Joe Biden could seize power on the back of an ostensible Trump victory.

    With “the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics”. That’s a storybook man!

  16. EvilSheldon

    “Have you moved over to alt tech yet? There are lots of alternatives out there.”

    My chosen alternative is “Nothing.”

    It’s pretty awesome, you should try it.

    Oh, and Happy Friday!

    • Rat on a train

      Happy Friday. I told my wife I wanted to check out the match. She now wants to go. Still don’t know when would be a good time.

      • EvilSheldon

        Cool! You can drop me a note in the Forum if you’d like to meet up, either at Fredericksburg or another local match.

        Sadly, Gourmeltz is closed this Sunday, so that’s out. I’m thinking about making a special trip down on Saturday…

      • UnCivilServant

        I assume they’ll be open monday?

      • EvilSheldon

        Tuesday. They’re always closed Mondays.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s not happy friday, it’s Good Friday.

      • Tundra

        Super Bowl weekend of Christian holidays.

      • AlexinCT

        Are we allowed to eat stuff that smells like fish but tastes like chicken?

      • Rat on a train

        I thought smell went away with the coronapocalypse.

      • AlexinCT

        My sense of smell was not affected by the Kung Flu.

      • juris imprudent

        Happy is good.

      • pistoffnick

        A REAL curmudgeon wouldn’t be happy if he was happy!

      • UnCivilServant

        It seems I have tought you nothing.

        Nothing!

  17. The Late P Brooks

    I don’t believe it

    The FBI has questioned several women who claim they were paid to sleep with Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and his friends in drug-fueled trysts, according to a report on Thursday.

    The interviews were conducted as part of the federal probe into the Republican congressman, which focuses on his alleged ties to several women who were recruited online for sex and paid for their services, the New York Times reported.

    Receipts from CashApp and Apple Pay that the Times reviewed reportedly showed payments from Gaetz to one of the women, who told pals the money was in exchange for sex.

    Congressmen actually pay for sex? I rate this false.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      If he paid his bills, I have no issue with it.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        He sounded fairly libertarian. Oh well.

    • DrOtto

      Anything drug-fueled is going to be fun till the headache the next day. This guy is done as a Republican, but he seems to have the chops for the Libertarian party.

  18. Rebel Scum

    Facebook removed a video of an interview with former President Trump conducted by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, saying any content “in the voice of Donald Trump” would be scrubbed from the social media platform.

    That’s not Stalinist/Orwellian or anything…

    • straffinrun

      He should mime a video.

      • Surly Knott

        Interpretive dance would be funnier.

      • juris imprudent

        [golf claps]

  19. leon

    It’s not a conspiracy to believe politicians are corrupt and so will sell themselves to the highest bidder, that the most able to pull that kind of money will be foreign governments.

  20. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    I’m watching the sun come up over the mountains in Terlingua, TX and lamenting that I have to go back to the “real” world.

    A few days without much media and a lot of nature was just what the doctor ordered.

    What did I miss?

    • Nephilium

      Money printer is about to burst into flames.

      More stupid laws have been proposed.

      Media hyped up several nutbags shooting people.

      Baseball started.

      In good news, one of my local fancy cocktail bars has announced they’re reopening on April 5th. Which just happens to be a bit before my birthday…

    • juris imprudent

      Isn’t the chili cook-off in the fall there? Is there another reason anyone goes to Terlingua?

      • Tundra

        Yeah, I saw a sign for it. Behind Tolbert’s apparently.

        I came to hike Bid Bend. Fucking amazing place.

      • juris imprudent

        So I have heard, just never was inclined to make that detour on my travels.

      • Tundra

        Completely worth the PITA to get here. I’ve not seen such varied terrain like it before. Just gorgeous.

        Also, buying tamales and crafts from some nice Mexican peeps across the Rio Grande was hilarious. They wade across, set out their wares and trust people on the US side to not steal. It appears to work.

        Capitalism > stupid government rules!

  21. Rebel Scum

    “Then he turned back and looked and like was, ‘Holy cow,’” Jesse Johnson, an off-duty firefighter and paramedic whose hobby is beekeeping, said of the man’s reaction in an interview on Wednesday. “He called 911 because he didn’t know what to do.”

    Someone discovered what all the buzz was about.

    • UnCivilServant

      That was baad even by our standards.and we swarm to pun threads in order to drone on and on.

    • DrOtto

      Just bee quiet lest you draw a narrowed gaze.

      • Surly Knott

        Narrowed gazes can cause hives, it is known.

  22. robc

    Baseball birthdays rock today:

    Luke Appling, HoF, 77.1 WAR
    Don Sutton, HoF, 66.7
    Reggie Smith, 64.6
    Tommy Bond, 60.9

    That is a strong top 4, but thats not all!

    Billy Pierce, 53.4
    Hughie Jennings, HoF, 42.3
    Bobby Avila, 28.4
    Jon Lieber, 24.2

  23. robc

    Fly out to Colorado tomorrow. 2 days vacation in the mountains, then onto Ft Collins to finalize housing for the move this summer.

  24. Rebel Scum

    Mr. Gorbachev Biden, tear down this wall racist highway!

    Biden’s mention of the Claiborne Expressway thrilled New Orleans activist Amy Stelly who has worked to destroy the highway.

    “I’m floored,” she said to the Washington Post. “I’m thrilled to hear President Biden would call out the Claiborne Expressway as a racist highway.”

    The White House fact sheet plans $20 billion to “reconnect neighborhoods” suffering from current infrastructure and make sure all new projects “advance racial equity and environmental justice.”

    The concept of the injustice of racist infrastructure continues spreading throughout the Biden administration as they work towards racial equity across government.

    “Black and brown neighborhoods have been disproportionately divided by highway projects or left isolated by the lack of adequate transit and transportation resources,” Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote on social media in December, promising to focus energy on “righting these wrongs.”

    • WTF

      Because it’s cheaper to enact eminent domain in poor neighborhoods. So I guess now the plan is to run highway projects through upscale neighborhoods? I bet that will go over well with their donors.

    • Count Potato

      “racial equity and environmental justice”

      Regular people, even if they are Democrats, must be getting tired of this shit.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Minnesota has the legendary Rondo neighborhood that we are told was destroyed by racists when they were building the interstates.

      The problem is that if you look at maps, I-94 went through the Rondo neighborhood because it was directly in between St. Paul and Minneapolis. I doubt that even a rich, white neighborhood would have escaped being bulldozed. I’ll grant to the activists that the black home owners in Rondo probably got screwed in what the govt paid them because of the prevailing racism, but the idea that their neighborhood was destroyed simply because of the White Man’s devilment is absurd.

      • db

        It’s yet another example of the evil and injustice of eminent domain abuse, probably magnified by racism, but there’s no need to go to the racism part–there’s plenty of injustice there in the first place.

        Looking past the core injustice to the contributions of the racist element only obscures the root problem. Take away the power of eminent domain (or at least severely curtail it) and the ability of racists to exert power over others is diminished. Same with policing problems.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ???

      • db

        Thanks. Why don’t more people get this? I’ve had this argument so many times and it’s like they are permanently wired to think that they should be ruled over, and that the world would be just fine if there were nice overlords who could wield their power benevolently, not like those nasty people we don’t agree with.

      • Pope Jimbo

        In this case, eminent domain was reasonable. (If you think building the interstate was the right thing to do).

        Building a new interstate system will require you to knock down some neighborhoods. Building the interstate to take the shortest distance between the two cities in the area is the right thing to do.

        But in general, I completely agree that eminent domain is a bad thing and should be used as little as possible.

    • Count Potato

      CWAA

    • Pope Jimbo

      We need to stop paying for security for these jerks.

      They aren’t really in any danger.

      Having to protect themselves will also a) make them less willing to go on camera just to get their face out there and b) maybe make them rethink their position on the 2A.

  25. Count Potato

    “Jill Biden pranked her staff, the Secret Service and reporters traveling with her on her plane, dressing as a flight attendant and serving ice cream bars in a disguise so good no one recognized her.

    The 69-year-old first lady, famed for her love of pranks and practical jokes, was flying home from California to Washington DC on Thursday.

    As food was being served to the press pool, a flight attendant with short black hair wearing a black pants suit, black face mask and a name badge reading Jasmine walked through the staff, Secret Service and press cabins passing out Dove ice cream bars.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9429473/Jill-Biden-plays-April-Fools-Day-prank-flight-dressing-flight-attendant.html

    Yeah, OK, sure.

    • EvilSheldon

      I can believe this. Pranksters and practical jokers are invariably assholes.

    • straffinrun

      I’d believe it if Joe did it. And it was April 2nd.

    • Agent Cooper

      ” so good no one recognized her”

      Or they were nice enough to not recognize her on purpose?

      • straffinrun

        Honestly, I have no idea what she looks like.

      • AlexinCT

        I would recognize her if I was staring down at the top of her head….

      • Count Potato

        Or didn’t want to get fired.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I’d hope that was the case. Given the insane amount of security we surround these assholes with, you would think that the Secret Service goons who are supposed to be protecting her would be suspicious if an unknown flight attendant showed up on the flight.

        Or maybe they didn’t recognize her and were secretly hoping she was an assassin who was there to eliminate Dr. Jill?

      • leon

        I could see the headlines: first lady dies in April fool’s gone wrong

      • Pope Jimbo

        Even better would be when Joe miraculously “recovers” after Dr. Jill is gone. Becomes sharp as a tack and no longer dodders around.

        Of course, the downside is that a reinvigorated Joe would go on a hair smelling spree that would shame Ted Kennedy.

    • rhywun

      Heartwarming. *swoon*

    • Agent Cooper

      WILL THE JOY NEVER END?

      • TARDis

        “Soon enough.” *Cackles*

        /Commie-La

    • Rebel Scum

      a disguise so good no one recognized her … black face mask

      Uh huh…

      And this swooning makes me want to vomit.

    • R C Dean

      Credit where credit is due:

      Nice gams.

    • Trigger Hippie

      ‘on TRANS VISIBLITY DAY???? u got some nerve

      — julia (@chasethesparks) March 31, 2021’

      Seems like it’s been TRANS VISIBILITY DAY for a fucking year straight now…

    • WTF

      Herd to feel bad for her since she’s part of the mob that went after J.K. Rowling.

    • Agent Cooper

      Who had raving lefty Paulson as the latest Rowling on your bingo card? I didn’t.

    • Pope Jimbo

      When is the day we celebrate gender fluid people who are dedicated to logically proving things?

      You know… Trans Substantiation Day

      • WTF

        Nice, a pun fitting for Good Friday.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Another TERF has been outed

    • rhywun

      Stop the world. I want to get off.

  26. Rebel Scum

    Justin Trudeau Castro?

    Let me emphasize, Trudeau says, “travelers will…have to wait for up to three days at an approved hotel for their test results, at their own expense, which is expected to be more than $2,000 (US$1,500).”

    This is a typical Cass Sunstein evil nudge tactic (See: Getting Nudged, Real Hard). You provide options that really block out options. A $2,000 additional hotel bill to enter the country is, of course, prohibitive to many. So this “option” really blocks you from entering the country or leaving the country for a short trip. This is how Sunstein designs “options” and really “nudges” people in the direction of authoritarian government desires. Trudeau is really closing the border for all except the well-to-do.

    Pure evil, but what do you expect from the son of Fidel Castro?

    The resemblance is striking.

    • robc

      Someone needs to do a dna test. I don’t know if it mattes, but it would be hilarious.

    • Drake

      I’ve always thought he’s Castro’s kid.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    They’re the smart ones

    The suburbs used to belong to the Republican Party. But those days are gone.

    Driven by demographic change and increasing diversity, the political leanings of the suburbs have shifted. In many areas, those shifts accelerated in recent years, because a large number of suburban voters disliked Donald Trump. On top of that, a lot of them are turned off by a GOP that has fully embraced Trump-style populism and grievance, and an eagerness to put culture wars front and center.

    The question for Republicans and Democrats alike, then, is whether suburban voters move at all back into the GOP tent, with Trump no longer on the ballot.

    Political strategist Sarah Longwell — a lifelong Republican, but one of the key figures in the so-called “Never Trump” movement — describes the shift that’s occurred in party coalitions as a trade.

    She says the GOP is “trading what have historically been some of their key voters, which are college-educated voters in the suburbs. And they’re trading them for white working-class voters in more rural and exurban areas without college degrees.”

    ——-

    Preate Havey says she thinks Trump’s absence from next year’s ballot will help Republicans do better in the suburbs in those statewide races. Her hope is that moderate voters — including Republicans and independents who just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Trump — will be open minded in 2022.

    “Now that they don’t have Trump, who people voted against because they didn’t like him as a person — he’s gone now,” she says, “and so people are actually looking at issues now and things that affect them on a day-to-day basis.”

    Who knows? Maybe the dummies who fell for the media’s style-over-substance full court press in favor of Biden will see the extent of their self-inflicted wounds and start tossing the Democrats overboard.

    • juris imprudent

      Can’t happen, the Democrats have cemented themselves into FULL CONTROL. Never mind that 47 states are looking at enacting election law fixes to last year’s fiasco.

    • WTF

      Anyone who who voted for Biden doesn’t have the self awareness or capacity for reflection to change.

    • Trigger Hippie

      ‘On top of that, a lot of them are turned off by a GOP that has fully embraced Trump-style populism and grievance, and an eagerness to put culture wars front and center.’

      Yes, it’s the GOP that has been pushing grievance and culture wars nonstop ad nauseum, it is known.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, that made me spit figurative coffee.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Is that really true? It seems to me that most were turned off by his obnoxious style, not be what he actually did.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Driven by demographic change and increasing diversity

      They mean to say “driven by the increasing number of the college brainwashed, desperate to prove their virtue”

    • AlexinCT

      Wishful thinking on your part. These people are cultists. They could be sold into ass rape slavery by the democrats and they would still vote for them again after complaining. After the whole Russiagate revelation, anyone that still is a democrat is there because they are a cultist. When your political party lies and uses you that way, and you still stay, you deserve your black eyes and sore ass.

    • kbolino

      Trump was the first Republican in as long as I can fucking remember who didn’t give a shit about the culture war. He didn’t care about abortion really, he certainly didn’t care about divorce or infidelity or bastardry, he didn’t care about gays, and he only cared about the trannies vis-a-vis the military. His pot-and-drugs stance was meh, but even that was a slight improvement over his drug-using-drug-warrior predecessors. So they shifted the culture war to be about whatever he did care about. And they just straight-up lied about him.

      The suburbs are full of mushy-headed social-climbing backstabbing assholes. But hey, they put a nice face on it, and it would just be gauche to say what they really think out loud.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Surely only God would know anyway.

    • WTF

      You see shit like that, and you think “why bother getting vaccinated?” The commie cough isn’t particularly dangerous to the vast majority of people, and getting vaccinated changes nothing regarding masks and restrictions.

  28. Pope Jimbo

    The bee story is just a teaser to get Fourscore to come back and comment right?

    • juris imprudent

      We are all pollen for his return.

      • WTF

        It will create quite a buzz when he’s back.

      • Nephilium

        I figured you would wax more poetic about it.

      • Pope Jimbo

        His stamena is incredible.

        I’ve been swamped this week and haven’t called for an update. Should rectify that today.

      • Gustave Lytton

        *pictures 4X chasing scantily clad nurses around hospital speeded up while Yakety Sax plays*

      • Aloysious

        I’m glad I’m not the only person thinking along those lines.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Raising up the poor and oppressed

    President Joe Biden has requested that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona prepare a report on the president’s legal authority to cancel up to $50,000 in student debt per borrower, White House chief of staff Ron Klain said in an interview on Thursday with Politico.

    “Hopefully we’ll see that in the next few weeks,” Klain said of the memo. “And then he’ll look at that legal authority, he’ll look at the policy issues around that and he’ll make a decision.”

    On the campaign trail, Biden said he supported $10,000 in student loan forgiveness, but he is under mounting pressure from members of the Democratic Party, advocates and borrowers to go further by canceling $50,000 per person and to do so through executive action.

    And then the Loan Fairy waved her magic wand, and they all lived happily ever after.

    • Agent Cooper

      Welcome to CHUMPLAND.

    • juris imprudent

      Except for the income tax to be paid on forgiven debt – or does his EO cancel that too?

      • Nephilium

        I thought Congress updated that law last year to exclude student debt forgiveness from taxes.

      • leon

        They did, in preparation for this

      • juris imprudent

        AND FUCKING MCCONNELL WENT ALONG WITH THAT?

    • WTF

      That’s easy, he has no legal authority to do any such thing.
      Not that it will stop him.

    • littleruttiger

      Executive actions, perfectly fine when my party is in charge, unconstitutional when the other party is.
      The idea that the president could just decide to cancel loans, and people would be ok with that, and think he actually has that power, is mind boggling.

      Student loans just enrage me – I took some out, I knew what I was doing, knew I’d have to pay them back. Everyone knows the deal. Why should anyone pay for someone else’s schooling?

      I don’t know the comparative numbers, but all the tradesmen, farmers, retail workers, etc. who never went to college, or heck, all the poor people of color in urban areas, how is this even politically feasible?

      • leon

        Because the GOP are feckless morons who wouldn’t know how to message to those groups, even if they cared about them.

      • littleruttiger

        Yes, they are, they really, really are

      • EvilSheldon

        Tradesmen and farmers and retail workers and PoCs don’t have much money, and thus don’t get a voice in politics.

        The idea that Democracy leads to equality of political influence is one of the great old Big Lies. Nevertheless, it’s deeply rooted in our cultural DNA.

      • littleruttiger

        Agree with the above, and with Count Potato below – it’s something that “should” never even get off the ground, but here we are, I guess

    • Count Potato

      People don’t realize that’s just giving tax money to the banks.

    • Pope Jimbo

      So, asking for a friend…..

      Does a kid need to have this debt already? Or could a guy have his kids pile up $50K going forward and still get in on this?

      *looks at catalog for new fishing boat*

      • littleruttiger

        Send the entire family!

  30. Rebel Scum

    Dishonest, mendacious cunte is dishonest, mendacious and a cunte.

    During a discussion about the Georgia law, the MSNBC “Deadline” host said, “Let’s be clear about why all eyes are on sports, and all eyes are on corporate America because the Republican Party is a failed state. The Republican Party does not believe in access to voting rights. They’re taking a lie that led to a deadly insurrection and using that lie to roll back access to the polls. I’m old enough to remember when Republicans liked people to mail in their ballots. That’s not today’s Republican Party. ”

    I’m sure this language will not lead anywhere bad.

    • Rebel Scum

      Apple believes it ought to be easier than ever for every eligible citizen to exercise the right to vote.

      And how might we ensure this? You say it is racist to try.

    • creech

      Didn’t someone compare the Georgia voting bill to what Joe Biden’s Delaware voting laws are and find that Delaware’s are more stringent?

      • leon

        If there’s a politican who knows anything about racist laws, it would be Jim Crow Joe

  31. Sean
    • PieInTheSky

      no idea what that is but should be banned

    • SDF-7

      Near ancestor to the Colonial Marines’ weapon from Aliens possibly?

      • UnCivilServant

        Those are just vismodded Tommy guns.

      • UnCivilServant

        Today I leanred that John Connor’s foster mother was actually Vasquez.

    • db

      That’s amazing. SBR with a can and an underslung DD. I have wanted to build an SBR like Zoe’s “Mare’s Leg” from Firefly.

      • Count Potato

        If you buy it as a handgun, it’s not an SBR. I think a couple of the Italian companies that make cowboy action guns make them.

      • db

        I didn’t know Winchester made them as handguns. hmm…

      • Sean

        Henry does them too.

      • db

        Thanks! Drooling over that brass receiver with a .45 Colt chamber. Although, maybe .44 Mag would be ok too.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Needs a grip for the 203 without a mag.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Yes, it’s the GOP that has been pushing grievance and culture wars nonstop ad nauseum, it is known.

    The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been stringing up transsexuals and POCs like Christmas decorations. They’re everywhere.

    • creech

      I wondered why the turkey vultures seemed so fat and happy this spring.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Except for the income tax to be paid on forgiven debt – or does his EO cancel that too?

    What do you think?

    • juris imprudent

      That would fail in the courts in a heartbeat. I say – DO IT Joe! DO IT!

  34. juris imprudent

    Speaking of Biden and fucking EOs.

    Among the topics discussed, according to attendees, were “ghost guns”, pushing the DOJ to bring more cases against firearms dealers and manufacturers, limiting exemptions for private sales from background check rules, and alerting local law enforcement when someone fails a federal background check.

    • PieInTheSky

      no one needs incorporeal guns

    • leon

      How can an EO not be undone?

      • Sean

        They sign it with permanent markers. Duh.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Democrat EOs are permanent like DACA.

    • commodious spittoon

      So… how ’bout that Romania these days? Or Poland? We need an anticommunist refuge, America is terminal.

      • PieInTheSky

        … how ’bout that Romania – looks out window… still a shithole

      • rhywun

        LOLOL

      • Sean

        Well…you have cookies. How bad could it be?

      • UnCivilServant

        Pie doesn’t like sweet things, since he mistakes American food for sugary.

    • PieInTheSky

      I did not know Gavin McInnes was still around

  35. The Late P Brooks

    From Juris’ link:

    The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has said more than 30% of the illegal weapons it has confiscated in some areas of California are ghost guns.

    Weaselly verbiage is weaselly.

    I’m sure there are enterprising gang members (and non-gang entrepreneurs) capable of building guns for sale using 80% receivers. How many guns are we talking about? Ten? Fifty?

    What makes this a viable option? It’s a mystery.

    • Plinker762

      “Some areas”, like one block?

    • juris imprudent

      I’m betting the area they were confiscated from was one guy’s garage.

  36. Rebel Scum

    Just in time for me to cancel my account.

    Hulu has announced it will stream the planned docuseries adaptation of the New York Times‘ “1619 Project,” the controversial and widely discredited series of articles that sought to establish 1619 — the year the first slaves came to America — as the true founding of the United States. …

    The streaming service, Hulu, which is majority owned by the Walt Disney Co., didn’t announced a premiere date for the series in its press release on Thursday. Shoshana Guy will serve as showrunner while Roger Ross Williams, who won an Oscar for the short documentary film Music by Prudence, will direct the first episode, produce, and oversee the Hulu series. …

    “Our most cherished ideals and achievements cannot be understood without acknowledging both systemic racism and the contributions of Black Americans. And this isn’t just about the past — Black people are still fighting against both the legacy of this racism and its current incarnation,” he said.

    1) Nice racist word choice, bruh.
    2) Only in the minds of modern marxists who are playing a nefarious game of divide and conquer.

    • Charlie Suet

      Racial impossibilism is kind of fascinating (and annoying). In the same way that impossibilist Marxists dismissed the efforts of social reformers, racial impossibilists effectively deprecate the race-related reforms of everyone who came before them. But the latter don’t do it openly, and people don’t seem to want to point it out.

      The idiot Nikole Hannah Jones co-opts the name of Ida B Wells but effectively denies that Wells had any meaningful impact by claiming that modern black Americans still live with the legacy of (what she imagines to be) the early history of the US.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Strait

    • Pope Jimbo

      Given their smiles, I’d guess a hound’s tooth jacket?

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Police say the deadly shootings at spas in the Atlanta area and a supermarket in Boulder were carried out by suspects using legally-purchased firearms.

    Biden has said the administration is exploring whether he has the authority to take action on firearms made using 3D printers as well as on imported guns.

    Nice bait and switch.

    Modern logic: If A, then rhinoceros.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Smith and Wesson approves this message

  38. PieInTheSky

    Laphroaig 10 CS is impossible to find in Romania and I don’t get why no one imports it

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That sounds like a nerve gas

      • Surly Knott

        Comes from drinking it while eating haggis.

  39. l0b0t

    Hey Toxteth, 2 thoughts from the last thread. First, Kliban is the greatest cartoonist; my parents had all of his books and a very nice anthology of his Playboy work. That sort of stuff was a tremendous influence on me.
    Also, the best WKRP episode is the one where the terrorists blow up the transmission tower and Johnny Fever thinks it’s the Phone Cops from Ma Bell come to arrest him for breaking a telephone.

    • Gender Traitor

      I always admired the way WKRP handled the ’79 Cincinnati Who concert incident. I’m at work – could someone enact my labor and find a clip?

      • l0b0t

        How about the whole series? I also have The New WKRP (1991 – 1993) if anyone is interested.

  40. leon

    Can’t get compromise in Congress? Who needs them? Get an EO from EO Joe and you can enact your favorite unpopular legislation.

    • juris imprudent

      EO Joe? Can we buy that as an action figure? [yes that is a fat, hanging curveball right over the center of the plate]

      • db

        A Real American Zero

      • Sean

        Packaged with a set of airplane stairs.

  41. PieInTheSky

    It’s Black people like Tony Sewell who allow for the violence inflicted on Black people in this cuntry to persist.

    Agent of white supremacy.

    The government know *exactly* who to appoint in order to get the results they desire.

    This isn’t a new dynamic. Slave owners would often appoint slaves to oversee everybody else and in fact the overseers tended to be more violent with the powers they were allowed.

    https://twitter.com/kelechnekoff/status/1377244466021535744

    You damn americans exported your race traitor blacks to the UK

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “We can’t or won’t argue the evidence for the findings, so we’ll just revert to ad hominem.”

      Is it wrong of me to want these people to DIAF?

    • PieInTheSky

      how miserly… make it 20 and maybe we start talkin

    • leon

      AOC knows that Joe is a pushover and all they have to do is ask for the moon to get the world.

      • juris imprudent

        Maybe she’ll promise to stand next to him so he can sniff her hair?

  42. The Other Kevin

    I see Biden’s fool proof strategy of just doing the opposite of Trump is going great.

    We have a friend who retired from the USAF and for some reason (insanity?) he joined the border patrol last year. Now he’s done with training and telling us horror stories about what he’s going to deal with.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    A talking point in every pot

    President Biden’s sweeping $2 trillion jobs and infrastructure plan also aims to deploy more than $5 billion to support community-based violence prevention programs.

    Gun violence prevention advocates are heralding the proposed funding, which is included in the measure Biden introduced in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, saying it would be a historic investment in urban communities.

    “This could truly be transformative to the neighborhoods and the communities where these dollars are invested in,” said Greg Jackson of the group Community Justice Action Fund. “We feel really confident that once these dollars are applied, and these programs — many of which have been working for decades — are properly resourced, they’ll be able to turn the tide on this cycle of violence.”

    During his campaign, Biden had promised to devote $900 million over eight years to fund evidence-based community violence prevention efforts in 40 cities across the country. As a candidate, he described gun violence as a public health epidemic. Black and brown gun violence prevention advocates pressed Biden to do more.

    Susan Rice, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told NPR that the administration decided to increase its funding commitment for these programs “because the epidemic of violence, in our cities particularly, is horrific and growing.”

    They’re going to prevent violence. Who could be against that?

    All you have to do is throw the money magic fairy dust in the general direction of your problem and it disappears.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Corruption and graft, it’s what’s for dinner.

    • Timeloose

      I’ve found any program with theses buzz words in the description are intended to reward the faithful not help anyone.

      “evidence-based” -> usually there is no evidence to be found, but it will employ a great deal of “Blank Science” degree holders from Non Gov organizations for years.

      “Community Based” -> No one in the community wants this, but it will employ a great deal of social workers and Non Gov organizations for years.

      If the efforts don’t work, then we just didn’t have enough funding or commitment.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ???

        Also see the infamous BOA mortgage fraud settlement with the DOJ which should have resulted in multiple politicians hanging from lampposts

      • Gustave Lytton

        Fraud settlement is correct.

    • Rebel Scum

      “because the epidemic of violence, in our cities particularly, is horrific and growing.”

      Hm. I wonder what has changed lately. Not to mention that is where the violence mostly is anyway, and most of the violence is gang related.

      • rhywun

        Democratic mayors and governors were voted out en masse?

    • creech

      “because the epidemic of violence, in our cities particularly, is horrific and growing.”
      Admission that the Democratic Party has failed in these cities and voters should take notice.

    • R C Dean

      because the epidemic of violence, in our Democrat-run cities with strong gun control laws particularly, is horrific and growing.

      Funny, that.

  44. straffinrun

    Baby born with three penises

    Alas, it seems that the boy’s potential future as the world’s first three-pronged porn star was nipped in the bud: As three willy’s additional phalluses didn’t have urethras — the tube that urine passes through — doctors decided to surgically remove those two.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The least they could is graft the other two onto the remaining one.

      • straffinrun

        Polish cannon. Good idea.

      • Tres Cool

        When I was born, around the same time so was another baby that had the defect of not having eyelids. My circumcised foreskin went to a plastic surgeon to create new eyelids. Years passed, and I learned it was a success for him, but he was left a touch cock-eyed.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I laughed, but I hated myself for it.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        At least he can’t ever complain that he can’t see dick.

      • Cy Esquire

        “We’ve got you little bro.”

        *doctor fist bumps baby*

    • AlexinCT

      Quit gendering Xer!

    • creech

      Only STEVE SMITH need three penises.

    • R C Dean

      “Dammit, I had plans for those!”

    • juris imprudent

      He still only had two hands – that meant someone was going to get left out.

  45. Tejicano

    https://news.clearancejobs.com/2021/03/31/army-combat-fitness-disaster-units-refusing-to-take-test-medics-bailing/

    The Army is taking a couple years to introduce its new physical fitness test and – Ho-lee Faaq! – what a hot mess. While I agree with the Army that they really, really need to focus on physical fitness more what they are implementing and how they’re doing it is a train wreck in slow motion.

    First, the six events they are requiring every soldier to become proficient in each require very specific, practiced movements to excel at. Three of them require somewhat specialized equipment – meaning it is difficult if not impossible to prepare on your own. Take a look:

    1 – Strength Dead-Lift (140-340 pounds)
    2 – Standing Power Throw (10-pound medicine ball)
    3 – Hand-Release Push-Ups
    4 – Sprint-Drag-Carry (sprint, drag a 90 pound sled, and then lateral shuffle then carry two 40-pound kettlebells)
    5 – Leg Tuck (hanging from a pull-up bar, pull yourself up and bring your knees or thighs to your elbows) or planks (2:09 to 4:20 minutes)
    6 – Two-Mile Run (minimum: 13:30 minutes, to maximum: 21:00 minutes)

    It’s easy to see thousands of soldiers injuring themselves doing the deadlifts, the hand-release push-ups, and the sled drag. How is a 95 lb woman supposed to drag a 90 lb sled – or carry two 40 lb kettlebells? I can also imagine a few hundred soldiers falling off the bar onto their back attempting to do the Leg Tuck.

    Yeah, supposedly giving them all about a year and a half to prepare “should” be enough. But knowing how little focus a lot of the non-combat units put on anything physical I will bet that a significant number of soldiers will show up at the test next year with next to zero preparation. Especially in the reserve units where each individual soldier will be expected to prepare on their own. BTDT.

    • juris imprudent

      They’re going to need to exempt their cyber ‘warriors’ too – maybe have a test for physical endurance of sitting in a chair for hours.

    • Gustave Lytton

      How is a 95 lb woman supposed to drag a 90 lb sled 190lb male loaded with another 40lb of gear under fire?

      What really isn’t being said.

    • leon

      Especially in the reserve units where each individual soldier will be expected to prepare on their own.

      The whole test was designed around a concept of an Army where soldiers have available access to equipment to train on it. For many Reservists/Guardsmen, this is not the case.

    • AlexinCT

      The political class is making sure that the military is completely broken so they can justify the coming surrender to the CCP.

    • creech

      How do any of these exercises weed out those soldiers inclined to vote Republican?

      • rhywun

        They were already weeded out by an earlier test.

    • l0b0t

      “Push-ups, sit-ups, two mile run; we do PT just for fun. Make it hurt drill sergeant; make it hurt!”

      Those run times seem very slow. 21 minutes seems like walking speed.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        My sorry ass could do two miles in 21 minutes

    • R C Dean

      Mrs. Dean does these, except possibly for the hand-release pushups. Admittedly, she hasn’t done the sled in several months (since she stopped going to the gym). Of course, she is probably in the top 1% of women (and not even women of her age) for fitness.

      What bothers me is how easy some of the minimum are. 140 pound deadlift? The first time I ever did deadlifts, which was all of 4 months ago, I could do 180 with not-terrible form. Two miles in 21 minutes? I can walk it that fast, and I’m old and out of shape.

      A 2 minute hang is not that easy.

    • Drake

      Just a one deadlift max? With a hex bar like the woman in the photo? Most of the guys who lift will max it or come close. Men and women who don’t lift will hurt themselves.

  46. limey

    Say what you want about Trump, but I miss his big tent conservatism. Socons are really taking over again and the splintering is very real. Reflexive culture warrior moral panickers who are clutching their pearls over gay Satan sneakers as if that is the cultural crisis befalling the West and America are every bit as fucking Wuhan broken arrow bat feces insane as the Democrats.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      It belies how impotent they are. Conservatives believe that they’re under lockdown by a tyrannical government and just had an election stolen from them, and that’s what they focus on?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I dunno which word I was going for there, but belies wasn’t it.

      • limey

        I get ya. Demonstrates, is evidence of, illustrates, illuminates.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I think my brain was going for “betrays”, but I lost the word in the ether.

    • rhywun

      Meh, I’m not so worried about the so-cons. It’s the faux-conservative swamp creatures infesting DC we have to worry about. You know, the ones who’ve been letting the Democrats walk all over them for the last fifty years.

      • limey

        Hehe. I’m convinced that the only serious readership they have is from the sort of acute personality disorder that’s overly concerned with convincing themselves they are “centrist” or “balanced”, “common sense”, etc.

      • rhywun

        If that person calls himself a conservative, yes.

      • limey

        Them too. I believe VDH even refered to them as “libertarians” the other day, because “globalism” (as opposed to a protectionist position, I suppose). I’m not going to venture a value judgement there without considerable unpacking of the issues. Oh well, noone bats a 1.000. I do think the evolution of the pure free market embrace of “free trade” to something that has finally had to reckon with the China problem is interesting. See Russ Roberts, but then I’m not totally up to speed with his current thinking, I just know that he’s someone who has touched on this. All the progress made in the beefsteak diplomacy of Deng Xiaoping and George Schulz now evaporated in the birth of a new red terror.

  47. Agent Cooper

    On a video call. One of the participants from my agency has his onscreen name as Matt “Florida Man” Gaetz.

    Now, I could give a shit about Gaetz. He’s a politico/grifter.

    But SUPER PROFESSIONAL, right?

    • Nephilium

      Are they in their 20’s? I get annoyed when I see one of my coworkers include the words “Awesome” or “LOL” in an e-mail, or using multiple exclamation points after a statement.

      • Agent Cooper

        It was just an internal review, so it wasn’t a big deal. No clients. But it’s just sophomoric to me.

        It’s fine to have your personal political views. But I mean, really.

        I’m sure I would get dinged for being “Sleepy” Joe Biden on a call.

      • UnCivilServant

        I get annoyed when I see one of my coworkers include the words “Awesome” or “LOL” in an e-mail, or using multiple exclamation points after a statement.

        Inorite!!!?!

      • Nephilium

        Yeah, this is like, a totally unique issue!!!

  48. Rebel Scum

    Word.

    This argument rests on the proposition that the media always know the truth. But they don’t, as his own network’s coverage of the bogus — and implausible — Russia collusion tale illustrates. Not to mention the media’s reporting of early Covid 19 advice that turned out wrong.

    Obviously if one side says the White House is made of powdered milk, and the other disagrees, we can safely ignore the milk claim. But political disputes are rarely so cut and dried. So we report what both sides are saying and let viewers and readers make up their own minds.

    • juris imprudent

      Must be some old dude yelling at clouds.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Hume, of course, is ignoring the elephant in the room, which is that most of the media isn’t ignoring one side in some good faith effort to filter out extremism, but instead is trying trying sculpt public opinion by actively selecting the agenda, filtering the info provided, and lending an air of authority or scorn to the appropriate parties based on a desired outcome.

      • Akira

        Seems like what the media does is present their preferred narrative, then show you the craziest, stupidest opposing viewpoint they can possibly find, and pretend that everyone must be either one or the other.

        Pizzagate is a complete fabrication, and if you say there was anything suspicious there at all, you’re a crazy Qanon wackjob.

        The COVID measures are wise regulations that are saving lives every day, and if you don’t believe it then you’re one of those people who think that the pathogen literally doesn’t exist.

        The COVID vaccine is completely safe and very effective, and if you disagree then you must think that Bill Gates put a microchip in there.

      • Grummun

        And has been since St. Cronkite.

    • Agent Cooper

      The responses about Russian collusion are hilarious.

  49. PieInTheSky

    in local news of the i cant believe i am reading this shit variety, there is an actual bill before parliament to encourage increasing birth rates that wants to set an extra 7% income tax on people who are not married by 35. what the fuck?

    • leon

      I see they are taking the “Menace to Society” route.

    • Sean

      Marriage=babies?

      Bit of a leap there, isn’t it?

      • Nephilium

        So do single mothers get out of the tax? I could see that increasing the dating pool.

    • PieInTheSky

      this was an April fools thing in the local news wanted to see if anyone here believes it…

      • juris imprudent

        There is nothing implausible at all about idiots in power thinking they can and should use taxes for social engineering.

      • rhywun

        It’s totally believable. Germany was giving increasingly higher tax breaks for every extra kid you had when I lived there decades ago.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Smells like… industrial policy!

    As part of an ongoing review into critical supply chains, the Biden administration is considering requesting that supply chains undergo “stress tests” of hypothetical scenarios and suggesting that companies stockpile certain critical inventory, according to two senior administration officials and two people familiar with the review.

    “The idea of making sure that companies have a better sense of their own supply chain vulnerabilities is clearly one of the things involved in the process,” said a senior administration official who declined to be identified because the review was neither complete nor public.

    Government agencies meet weekly to discuss the issue and have not reached any final conclusions about which recommendations to issue. A first report focused on semiconductors, critical minerals, high capacity batteries and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is due June 4; a broader-based review will be conducted in the year to follow.

    A White House spokesperson said the outcome of the review will be shared soon and pointed to $50 billion in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposal related to monitoring and safeguarding domestic industrial capacity.

    What could possibly go wrong? We’re talking about ideas with a proven historical track record, to be instituted by the brightest people on the planet.

    Self-interested capitalists cannot be trusted to act in the best interests of Society the government. Everybody knows this.

    • juris imprudent

      Government wants to bring it’s keen sense of efficiency into the private sphere.

  51. Rebel Scum

    Oh, deer.

    A school bus driver and several students in Powhatan County were left reeling after a deer crashed through the windshield of their bus Thursday morning.

    Just after 7 a.m. on April 1, a school bus was traveling north on Route 13 when a deer crashed through its front window.

    Powhatan County Public Schools Interim Transportation Director Brian Bartlett tells 8News that the driver was traveling in a 45 mph zone when the deer came out on his left and “jumped in the air right about the time he hit it.”

    The deer broke through the windshield and landed in one of the front seats of the bus on top of a student. The animal then rolled over into the aisle and tried to find its footing. The bus driver carefully stopped the bus and opened the doors to let the frightened animal escape.

    • Akira

      Holy shit. If done like that, they’re just a core exercise, and a rather weak one.

    • EvilSheldon

      Yes. And yes.

  52. Hank

    ‘WAUKEGAN, Ill. — Latino leaders and community members spoke out against the Waukegan School Board’s proposal to rename Thomas Jefferson Middle School after former President Barack Obama….

    ‘“Today, I want to urge the board to drop the names of Barack and Michelle Obama from consideration,” said Oscar Arias, a graduate of Waukegan Public Schools and resident. “Barack Obama’s presidency is filled with hostility against the immigrant community.”’

    https://wgntv.com/news/waukegans-latino-community-slams-renaming-middle-school-after-obama/

    • juris imprudent

      “9-11 what’s your emergency?”

      “I’m reporting a major collision in the intersectionality of Black and Latino.”

  53. Tundra

    My wife is finally acknowledging that the Cathedral is bullshit. She asked me this morning about a news app that would give her more viewpoints. Anyone have any suggestions? I only do websites.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Honest answer: doesn’t exist. There may be some that curate from a larger group of sources, but there’s nothing out there that’s gonna give a well balanced mix unless you go for something that’s generic like a rss feed reader and assemble your own list.

      The unspoken alternative is to just shut off the national gossip feed.

      • Akira

        Honest answer: doesn’t exist.

        ^ The sad truth.

        However, if you just know what the biases of each network are, you can usually get a pretty good picture of what’s going on. And honestly, I think the most important thing is to recognize the various tricks they use to push their preferred narrative… Lies of omission, double standards, links to sources that don’t back up the statement, cherry picking data, unsupported premises, etc. Read some sales/persuasion/marketing books and it becomes much easier to recognize when you’re being fed a line of bullshit.

      • db

        That’s a great way to sell more marketing books…

    • The Other Kevin

      My wife has been asking this for months.

    • Agent Cooper

      The simple truth is to not trust 100% in anything you hear. Always be skeptical.

      • Hank

        Yeah, right.

      • Plinker762

        I’m not sure if I saw what you did there.

        The thread is dead but I just had to do it.

  54. Rebel Scum

    Heh.

    TMZ
    @TMZ

    Joe Biden Slams Texas Rangers For No Capacity Limit At Stadium, ‘It’s A Mistake’

    ————

    Donald Trump Jr.
    @DonaldJTrumpJr

    Now he should do the Capacity limits in his Kid Cages at the border.
    I’m sorry it’s a dem admin… child migrant detention facility.

    • Agent Cooper

      If we could get the kids to fight one another for citizenship in a gladiator ring, then we would really have something.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    “This administration is undertaking the first ever whole of government approach to build resilient, diverse, and secure supply chains and meet President Biden’s commitment to ensure that all Americans have access to critical goods and services in the time of crisis,” the spokesperson said.

    Why am I overcome with dread and foreboding?

    • db

      Sounds like rationing

      • Sean

        Buy more toilet paper.

    • R C Dean

      the first ever whole of government approach to build resilient, diverse, and secure supply chains

      Just ignore the innumerable historical examples. Oh, wait, you’re a flak, you don’t need to ignore them because you are wholly ignorant of them.

      • db

        This is kind of like LCDR_Fish’s GKC link yesterday–they write a whole lot of euphemistic words which the elite nod along with but, when boiled down, mean more of a command economy and planning for rationing schemes.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Perspicacity?

    • rhywun

      America is getting what it deserves, good and hard.

      • R C Dean

        Unfortunately, I’m also getting what America deserves, good and hard.

    • limey

      My main question has to be, when is it not a “time of crisis” of one sort or another? There are so many that you think they might even be able to finally let a few of them go to waste, and still have enough crisis capital to shit out full bore totalitarian crazy at maximum capacity.

  56. Atreides

    “This quality control process identified one batch of drug substance that did not meet quality standards at Emergent Biosolutions, a site not yet authorized to manufacture drug substance for our COVID-19 vaccine. This batch was never advanced to the filling and finishing stages of our manufacturing process,” Johnson & Johnson said in a statement.

    I’ve been hoping to see what our own Ozymandias might have to say about the involvement of Emergent Biosolutions (formerly BioPort) in the COVID vaccine.