About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

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

396 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “Judge approves unsealing documents linking Ghislaine Maxwell to the Clintons.”

    Isn’t that akin to a death sentence?

    • waffles

      Ghislaine Maxwell did not kill herself.

      • rhywun

        Yet.

    • banginglc1

      I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually start taking the Clinton’s down. They’re not really useful anymore. Most people are over them, including other democrats. They won’t necessarily throw them under the bus, but I don’t think anyone is going out of the way to protect them like they used to. They just don’t have the power they once did and have outlived their usefulness.

      Also, I think Chelsea failing to become a real power broker ruins any chance of future influence.

    • Bill Door

      The judge may be committing pro bono suicide.

  2. Count Potato

    “Federal executions have been halted amid review.”

    But like except Ghislaine Maxwell?

    • Rat on a train

      suicides aren’t executions

      • ignoreLander

        suicides aren’t executions

        Unless you’re a “friend” of the Clintons.

  3. hayeksplosives

    Good morning, fellow Liberty lovers.

    • Sean

      Mornin’

    • Tres Cool

      suh’ pimp-juice ?

      How YOU doin’ ?

  4. Nephilium

    So when do we turn San Francisco into a giant walled prison complex? Is it time for a third movie in the Escape from series?

    • waffles

      I say we do the whole state of California. They already have border checkpoints on all major roads across state lines.

    • Timeloose

      I heard that movie franchise was dead?

      • Nephilium

        You heard wrong.

    • Sensei

      My favorite bit of trivia is that rundown NYC was actually St. Louis, MO.

      • Timeloose

        It was probably still easier and cheaper to film in St. Louis. NYC when Escape was made was still pretty shitty, but everyone still had their hands out.

      • Sensei

        Well actual NYC hasn’t changed with regards to everyone having their hands out still.

  5. hayeksplosives

    But if California can’t compel charities yo disclose their donor information, how will the state know how to assign our social credit score or where to send the SWAT team in the middle of the night?

    • Tres Cool

      Ive been told that 4 am (if thats middle of the night for you) is the ideal to perform a forced-entry or “kinetic-police-action” due to circadian rhythms and most people sleeping soundly at that time.

  6. waffles

    40% of San Francisco residents plan on leaving in the next few years.

    The only people who can afford to leave are the taxpayers. A decade ago began the handwringing about techbros and their stupid high salaries bringing stupid economic opportunity. By 2015 it was a fever pitch. Finally they have figured out how to rid themselves of techbros, just make SF unlivable. Turns out if you shit on the street enough you can make people leave. Fuck that place, it would be a paradise if not for the people who live there.

    • Sean

      Burn it all down.

      • Count Potato

        Neutron bomb, then let everyone from Hong Kong move there.

      • Tres Cool

        Why do you want to empty Vancouver ?

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        If you’d ever been to Vancouver, Washington, you’d know why.

      • tripacer

        Juliano’s pizza is great, though.

    • PieInTheSky

      I doubt it people say a lot in polls

      • Tonio

        And there’s a difference between answering a poll question and actually doing something.

      • Nephilium

        Personally, I think the shift of more work to WFH will do more damage to the big cities then anything else. It cuts their tax revenue, lowers the property values (no need for all that empty office space), and makes things better for most of the workers.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        ^^This.

        WFH is a game-changer if it continues to be practised en masse.

      • Not Adahn

        85% of people polled said they’re going to eat healthier and exercise more.

      • Tres Cool

        I had a stats professor that liked to say on a whim, “around 70% of statistics are made up on the spot”.

      • Sensei

        I like to say that coupled with false precision. Sounds even more authoritative.

        It is shown that 72.6% of statistics are false.

      • Not Adahn

        If I were a stats prof, I’d only make that joke if i could follow it up with the results of an actual poll that showed that.

  7. waffles

    When did our benighted leaders and trusted media become so disdainful of the country? It really feels like we are living in an occupied country if you pay too close attention to DC. I think I need to disconnect, touch grass as the kiddos say.

    • rhywun

      When did our benighted leaders and trusted media become so disdainful of the country?

      November 8, 2016.

      • Rat on a train

        The people didn’t live up to their expectations.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh please, this shit has been building for generations. Trump wasn’t even the culmination – just a harbinger of what’s to come.

      • TARDis

        This.

        2016 was just the year they ripped the masks off their smug faces. They couldn’t catch their collectives breaths because of their spittle flecked rage, so they had no choice.

      • rhywun

        Heh I know

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        There is an entire segment of the left that feels that way. They are now in power culturally and governmentally.

  8. Count Potato

    “San Francisco has seen a 753 percent spike in car break-ins and a 75 percent increase in thefts. The unbelievable spike in crime has San Francisco residents, some of the most leftist people in the United States, wishing for the police force back that they defunded and will continue to defund over the course of two years.”

    Maybe they should just go full commie. A Makarov to the back of the head works. Just ask the Clintons.

    • Rat on a train

      I went to hotel conference center in NoVA for a meeting. Multiple cars parked overnight had their wheels stolen. The location is in an upscale office park.

    • Tres Cool

      Ghislaine Maxwell unable to comment.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Reporters found her hanging around, unwilling to speak to them?

      • Tres Cool

        That press conference was a dead-end.

      • juris imprudent

        You don’t appreciate some gallows humor?

      • Rat on a train

        Did she get pilloried for putting up a noose?

      • Animal

        She have information but wouldn’t gibbet up.

      • SDF-7

        She’s at the end of her rope, so the reporters took her statement as a poison pill.

    • banginglc1

      Hmm .. It’s almost like making petty crimes and theft completely unpunishable had unintended consequences. No one could have seen that coming.

  9. waffles

    Supreme Court keeping AZ voting laws in place.

    NPR said this was bad.

  10. Rat on a train

    Minor League Baseball Bailout
    Both our garbage senators are sponsoring a bill to bailout minor league baseball.

    The Minor League Baseball Relief Act, co-sponsored by Warner and fellow Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine; Marsha Blackburn, R–Tenn.; and Richard Blumenthal, D–Conn., would offer clubs relief in the form of Small Business Administration grants totaling 45 percent of their 2019 revenue, with a cap of $10 million. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Minor League Baseball’s 120 affiliated teams didn’t take the field in 2020.

    With the surplus we have in the budget, from how we’ve managed the pandemic and then the money coming from the federal government, I think we’d be well positioned to do something like that

    We could be responsible with that money, but what the hell, it isn’t my money.

    • Agent Cooper

      “With the surplus we have in the budget”

      WTF are they talking about?

      • Rat on a train

        The state didn’t include federal airdrops in the budget.

      • Bill Door

        “With the surplus we have in the budget,” says the fed, as xe pulls the wallet out of Agent Cooper’s pocket.

    • BakedPenguin

      Aren’t most minor league teams owned by the big league teams?

      • The Gunslinger

        I think the big league club pays most of the salaries for players and coaching staff. There is usually a local group that gets the stadium built and handles all the game day staffing and stuff. Not sure who actually owns the minor league teams.

      • Rat on a train

        The Fredericksburg Nationals are owned by Art Silber.

  11. trshmnstr the terrible

    Judge approves unsealing documents linking Ghislaine Maxwell to the Clintons

    I’m so sorry about that judge’s impending suicide.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    After more than 12 years in San Francisco, Stevens recently sold her place and moved to the Palm Springs area.

    Phew.

    • Ownbestenemy

      One shithole to the next. There is not really any difference in policy except maybe a smattering more of the stupid party but as a new resident, I am sure Stevens will change that.

  13. PieInTheSky

    Pinterest to no longer offend its users.

    Perish the thought a fat fuck gets offended. Or loses a bit of weight (I say this as a fat fuck though not lad whale class )

    • waffles

      “lad whale class”

      Did you eat the r you fat fuck?

      • PieInTheSky

        land. typo

      • waffles

        I apologize, that was uncalled for.

      • PieInTheSky

        meh don;t sweat it

      • SDF-7

        Kinky.

      • Ownbestenemy

        waffles is spicy this morning!

  14. Count Potato

    “Garland announced announced last week that the Department of Justice will sue Georgia over its new voting law, S.B. 202, claiming the measure’s voter ID rules violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prevents states from denying or interfering with the rights of Americans to vote on account of their race.”

    Putting aside that makes Garland a racist asshole, there has to be more to it? Plenty of other states also require ID.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Fuck that place, it would be a paradise if not for the people who live there.

    Neutron bomb.

  16. PieInTheSky

    Supreme Court keeping AZ voting laws in place.

    I have no C. familiaris in this fight (that would be cruel) but language used by press keeps annoying me. I also so in a Financial Times I bought in Athens airport to read on the plane to Bucharest this about “voting rights” but never anything about preventing fraud. The idea that there is no such thing as electoral fraud is ridiculously implausible, irrespective of the country. Especially since I do not think there is one EU country with voting as lax as the US. Here voting without an official picture ID would be unthinkable. Mail ballots need to be requested well in advance, and sent following a strict protocol.

    • rhywun

      I think the overall corruption in the US government eclipsed anything imaginable in Europe some years ago. Our voting laws are one of the more visible manifestations of that, and people are starting to wake up to it.

  17. Count Potato

    Good news for Arizona glibs:

    “Arizona residents to see largest tax cut in state history

    The tax cut contained in the budget implements a 2.5% flat tax phased in over three years, beginning on Jan. 1. Arizona’s current progressive income tax contains four tiers that top out at 4.5%.”

    https://justthenews.com/nation/states/arizonans-see-largest-tax-cut-state-history

    • PieInTheSky

      Good news for Arizona glibs – some of them are probably going to waste the extra $$$ on stuff like french wine instead of supporting the local economy

    • Not Adahn

      Just in time for Mr. and Mrs. With Candy to GTFO.

    • Plisade

      More evidence that it’s really Republicans who want to defund the police.

      /sarc

    • Old Man With Candy

      Terminology used by journalists is remarkably misleading. I routinely see it called a “2 billion dollar tax cut” on local news. It isn’t. It’s a tax rate cut. I’ll bet taxes will increase following the rate cut, the opposite of a tax cut. The $2B thing is reported as fact, but what it is is actually a projection made with demonstrably incorrect presumptions.

  18. Rebel Scum

    A federal judge has approved the unsealing of another round of documents related to formerly close Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The highlight of public interest being any evidence financially linking the Clinton Global Initiative and Clinton Foundation to her.

    Ghislaine Maxwell did not kill herself.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Based on my very narrowly focused observations, I think we might be close to a top in real estate prices, “Price reduced” notes are beginning to appear.

    Mostly I’d guess these are people who got too aggressive in their pricing, or people who for other reasons need a quick sale. But things seem to be staying on the market a bit longer.

    What does that mean? I don’t know. Eventually you start running out of people willing and able to pull up stakes.

    • Tundra

      That’s been my observation as well. There are many more homes on the market and even the nice ones are taking weeks to sell instead of hours.

      • Ownbestenemy

        A few weeks ago, houses around here were going within hours at 15-20% over the appraised price. So I think Brooks is right, those that missed the flurry are having to readjust to appraised prices.

        Two houses on the block, both rentals and the owners smartly saw a way out, went within a week at around 475k, which I think one owner picked the house up during the great housing reset as a foreclosure at about 125k.

        Im still sitting pretty cause I stole the house from a desperate seller back in ’17 for 275k when the bank appraised it at 310k. If the lady we bought the house would have said ‘give me a day to think about your offer’ we would have been out of luck as cash buyers were snapping up property left and right at the time.

      • waffles

        If you buy a rental property with a tenant what is the tenant’s right to stay there? I see a lot of listings that say “long term tenant at (below market rental rates) would like to stay”. Do they stay with a new owner? It seems like a bad deal for a prospective buyer.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Not sure. I guess if you set those terms, but the people I know that have had rental properties that they wanted to get out of owning because of the tenants and that was their only way to rid themselves of such people.

      • Tonio

        The sale doesn’t invalidate existing leases. If the tenant isn’t under lease the new owner can give them thirty days notice upon closing. Good luck enforcing that these days.

        That notice may be either a selling point for someone looking for investment property and who would like a stable tenant, or it could be a warning that the new owner might have trouble (incl bad publicity) for ousting a long-term tenant. Rent control may also come into play, I have no experience with that since we don’t do that BS here.

      • waffles

        It’s not rent control but it’s still a bigger headache than I want to deal with. Especially since I don’t want to be a landlord.

      • DEG

        I have a vague memory of the least the last time I rented including a clause on what happened if the landlord sold the property. I cannot remember what it said.

        It’s not just rent control that might come into play, state laws might come into play. NH has, or had, some rental laws that favored tenants. Not to the extent you’d see in MA, but the laws definitely favored tenants more than what I remembered in PA before I left PA.

      • B.P.

        I’m pretty sure the Centers for Disease Control is in charge of the rental market now.

      • Old Man With Candy

        We just spotted a near perfect house for us. Unfortunately, there’s two tenants, and where the place is located, getting them out even after their leases expire will take several years, maybe $50k in legal expenses, and might still not be accomplished. We sadly had to pass.

        Contracts have no meaning.

      • juris imprudent

        No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

        See, doesn’t say anything about the Executive doing it! /progressive textual constitutionalist

    • waffles

      Observed. My sister is trying to sell her postage stamp of a home in Arlington, Mass. that she bought for 500k in 2013. She accepted an offer (850k, 3bedroom, 1.5 bath, 0.1acre) but is getting stalled by the buyer. I think she got a little greedy. But the whole market is greedy so I can’t blame her. For her it was quite a mad rush to get the house to market to take advantage of the feeding frenzy. Good for her I guess.

      Just thinking about the real estate market right now makes me salty as fuck. So much woulda coulda shoulda.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It’ll all come tumbling down pretty quick. Too many 5% and 0% down loans out there, and too many institutional buyers banking on “guaranteed income” rentals out there to avoid another 2008 situation.

      • waffles

        It’s like a dam bursting when it does happen. And everyone knows the dam is invincible up until it bursts. Afterwards, everyone knew it would burst.
        Frustrating.

    • Cy Esquire

      I think the stimulus and tax returns are beginning to run out. It’ll be interesting to see what they think of next.

  20. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    Maybe Pinterest can start running ads for Walmart’s new house brand insulin instead.

    Great song off a great album. Almost 30 fucking years old, though.

    I hope y’all have a great day. Get them before they get you!

    • PieInTheSky

      No one needs 1000 rounds

      • Sean

        I could find that in my couch cushions.

        /American

      • Not Adahn

        Well, not per day — barring really unusual circumstances.

      • TARDis

        You fuzzy foreigners always talking about needs. Pfft. This is about wants! ‘Murica, Hell yeah.

      • db

        No one needs *less than* 1000 rounds

      • DEG

        /glances around ammo stockpile

        Sure.

        You want to buy a bridge?

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Puh-LEEZE.

        Even in Canada, 1,000 rounds is a slack two weekends of practise time at a gun range.

    • Sean

      Weather permitting, I’m taking a couple friends to the range tomorrow.

      • TARDis

        Take some enemies too. They make great moving targets.

      • DEG

        Excellent.

        It looks like this weekend will be a washout in New England. Otherwise I’d spend Independence Day morning at the range.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Nice! I just got 1000 rounds from sgammo, and it was just over $400, shipping and tax included. It was delivered next day, which blew my mind.

      • Sean

        I thought about getting in on that, but didn’t.

        I have a dentist appointment & car service next week.

        *frowny face*

  21. The Late P Brooks

    One shithole to the next. There is not really any difference in policy except maybe a smattering more of the stupid party but as a new resident, I am sure Stevens will change that.

    Just as long as she and the rest of her tribe stay in California, instead of moving to Colorado or Montana or Idaho.

  22. Nephilium

    This may be just enough beer to get Tres through the long weekend.

    And just because I saw it on the shelf yesterday, Little Kings is going classy, with two new flavors: Agave Lime and Blood Orange.

    • Tres Cool

      Cheap beer update! As I excitedly texted to GT yesterday, the beer merchandiser I spoke to was wrong. Or Miller/SAB/InBev (whoever the fuck they are this week) are flushing the last inventory. But my ghetto Kroger’s beer bunker was packed to the rafters yesterday with Milwaukee’s Diet Beast in all forms. 30-pack, 18-pack, 6-16 oz., and my personal favorite, the 24 oz Tall Cans™. In fact, Im on my 3rd right now, cause I nearly cleaned them out.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Your 3rd 24-ouncer?

        Good God, man. Do you ever stop peeing and farting?

    • Timeloose

      Some surprisingly good beers are being made by Genesee theses days. I picked up a fruity ruby redbird like brew for the wife and a dry hopped cream ale beer for myself.

      I would not have considered them, but several people at my favorite beer bar recommended them.

      Great sunny day drinkers.

      https://www.geneseebeer.com/#footer

      • Nephilium

        Yeah, the Genesee Ruby Red Kolsch was surprisingly good (though a bad example of a Kolsch). Local beer bar had it as the special last month, I had biked up there, so took a $3 flyer on a pint of it. I remember when they started their brewhouse series. First one out of the gate was a solid beer, then the next couple were just gods awful.

        Little Kings is a different story entirely. I’m half tempted to pick up an 8 pack of the Blood Orange, but then I would need to drink it.

      • Timeloose

        Old breweries like Genny seem to have issues making beers that taste different from their standards. Ruby Red is a good one, but others I had were not so good.

        Lion Brewery had the same issues when they tried to go brewhouse with their Stegmeier craft brewing series. Some were great others tasted like complete crap.

        https://www.lionbrewery.com/

        They had a winter warmer that was great one year, and the next it was nearly undrinkable. The only ones that were really good were traditionally German recipes they brought back from their pre-prohibition past.

        They have a great porter that is made once a year and a decent black and tan.

  23. PieInTheSky

    there apparently was an explosion at Romania’s largest oil refinery.

    • Tres Cool

      Clearly you need more electric cars and solar power.

    • Not Adahn

      Why does Romania have an oil refinery?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Like our quest for fusion, their pie in the sky *wink* endeavors of a blood factory did not pan out as expected.

      • PieInTheSky

        Well theoretically it is owned bu Kazakhstan. But Romania has several refineries. Old Nick was sure to build plenty.

        Also back until the 70s Romania was quite the oil producer. We still have some

      • Not Adahn

        The things I learn here.

      • Timeloose

        Didn’t Hitler need to take Romainia in order to get access to oil?

      • PieInTheSky

        Romania was the largest European producer of oil in World War II. The oil extracted from Romania was essential for Axis military operations.[1][2] The petrochemical industry near Ploieşti was bombed heavily by American bombers (see Operation Tidal Wave). After the war, a heavy reconstruction and expansion was done under the communist regime. Since then, most of the industry has been privatized.

        Possessing substantial oil refining capacities, Romania is particularly interested in the Central Asia-Europe pipelines and seeks to strengthen its relations with some Arab States of the Persian Gulf. With 10 refineries and an overall refining capacity of approximately 504,000 bbl/d (80,100 m3/d), Romania has the largest refining industry in the region. Romania’s refining capacity far exceeds domestic demand for refined petroleum products, allowing the country to export a wide range of oil products and petrochemicals — such as lubricants, bitumen, and fertilizers — throughout the region.[3]

      • Timeloose

        Thanks for the information Pie.

      • Rat on a train

        Germany didn’t invade Romania. Romania joined the Axis after a coup brought down an isolated country with an unstable government.

      • PieInTheSky

        While this is true I doubt Romania had the choice to remain neutral. It was choose who to join and we were fucked either way. But the leadership at the time preferred Germany to the USSR

      • Rat on a train

        Romania was in a bad place. Their location and resources meant they had to pick a side. A principled stance with the UK would mean invasion with little chance of support.

      • PieInTheSky

        losing land to Russia did a lot to help the local fash get the upper hand anyways

      • Rat on a train

        Note that Germany acted to help resolve those border disputes.

    • Plinker762

      I wonder if it’s like the CCPV, are all deaths when the temperature is above 95f now classified as heat related?

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      Regional news has reported (ruefully, most likely) that heat stroke has claimed more victims in B.C. than the L’il ‘Rona since the beginning of the year.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    By hook or by crook

    On Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance formally indicted the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. Former President Donald Trump himself was not charged.

    To experienced white-collar crime prosecutors, the 15-count indictment felt solid and predictable. Vance is likely looking for additional evidence against Trump. The most important of that evidence would come, in theory, from a Weisselberg guilty plea and subsequent testimony against Trump. But Weisselberg’s indictment alone is unlikely to secure that level of cooperation. Prosecutors undoubtedly shared a draft indictment with Weisselberg’s lawyers before today, and he has so far rebuffed prosecutors’ efforts to flip on his employer. He has pleaded not guilty.

    Weisselberg has apparently calculated that he has little to lose by deferring a decision about cooperating pending a trial and jury verdict against him. He and his lawyers must think they have a decent defense. They may, for example, try to pin blame on Jeffrey McConney, Weisselberg’s lieutenant, who has already testified for Vance’s prosecutors before a grand jury. Or they may think a conviction for tax fraud is unlikely to result in serious prison time.

    So if you were looking to join a ticker tape parade in New York celebrating a Trump indictment, best not to book any flight for a while. “Make no mistake — this is not about the law; this is all about politics,” a spokesperson for the Trump Organization told NBC News in a statement.

    Still, citizens should be reassured by the care that Vance is evidently taking during this investigative process, and there are some tantalizing details in the indictment.

    Our esteemed media. Bloodthirsty cowards cheering for the lions from the cheap seats of the Colosseum.

    • Plisade

      “The most important of that evidence would come, in theory, from a Weisselberg guilty plea and subsequent testimony against Trump. But Weisselberg’s indictment alone is unlikely to secure that level of cooperation.” Therefore, because “he has pleaded not guilty,” he has “rebuffed prosecutors’ efforts to flip on his employer.” /eye roll

      Are the media masters at rhetoric; have they studied the fallacies – not to avoid them, but to use them as trickery? Or are they really this illogical?

      • Rat on a train

        I have seen many articles lamenting that Trump wasn’t indicted. He is so obviously a criminal that we need to continue pursuing him until we find something.

      • juris imprudent

        “…from hell’s heart I stab at thee…”

      • SDF-7

        “No sir! You have Genesis ^W Congress! You can have whatever you….”

        “Full power, DAMN YOU!”

    • B.P.

      Meanwhile Hunter Biden’s laptop continues to barf up risible stuff. They’re rubbing our faces in it again.

      • Rat on a train

        In banana republics, only the enemies of those in power need worry.

      • TARDis

        But you could from trusted advisor to scorned enemy in the blink of an eye.

      • Rat on a train

        Periodic purges are necessary to protect those in power.

  25. Rebel Scum

    To say that San Francisco is in decline would be an understatement. The city that once captured the hearts and minds of everyone who saw it is a shadow of what it once was thanks to skyrocketing crime, rampant drug addiction, and Democrat policies that continue to worsen every problem it has. Now, San Francisco residents are so tired of drowning in the issues that nearly half of them are planning to pack up and leave.

    They’ll move to greener pastures and bring their retarded politics with them.

  26. Count Potato

    “‘Nice to see Facebook going full Stasi’: Facebook asks Republicans if they need ‘support’ for becoming ‘extremists’ and will send same alerts to anyone who has searched ‘key words related to white supremacy’

    Facebook is targeting conservative voices and asking them if they need ‘support’ after being becoming ‘extremist’ in its latest overreach on free speech and censorship which users say is patronizing and offensive.

    Several conservative voices like John Cardillo, House Delegate Nick Freitas and Alex Berenson shared screenshots of the alerts they received on Twitter.

    The alert asked: ‘Are you concerned that someone you know is becoming an extremist? We care about preventing extremism.

    Facebook is identifying the people to target based on ‘key words’ they search that are ‘related to white supremacy’ but they won’t say what those words are or why they think they’re entitled to decide what is extremist and what is not. ”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9749129/Facebook-users-start-receiving-alerts-asking-think-friends-EXTREMIST.html

    OFFS!!!

    • The Last American Hero

      Replies to Facebook with list of people who actively supported overthrowing a sitting President, spread rumors about him being a foreign agent, and made repeatedly false and baseless claims about him.

      Oh, not THAT kind of extremism.

  27. leon

    A word of encouragement and good will to my fellow glibs:

    Last night I was watching an interesting video of someone demonstrating Three Card Monte, and the sight of hand involved. At the end he went into how one should never play the game as not only is the game a scam, but the crowd and event is a con. It plays on our desire to get something from nothing. I commented to my wife that so much of sin (if you’ll allow my religious tone), evil and unhappiness in the world today begin with the desire to get something for nothing.

    Well this morning it also came to me that such is the struggle for liberty. Do not let yourself be brought to unhappiness because of a setback. The fight for freedom is eternal and we can’t expect it to come freely. A lost battle does not signify defeat just as no win is permanent. You have only lost when you give up on the fight.

    Have a great Friday and rest of the weekend!

    • juris imprudent

      Didn’t someone noteworthy say something about eternal vigilance?

    • waffles

      Thanks leon, that’s a good wisdom.

    • Tundra

      Preach, leon!

    • Bill Door

      A Word of Wisdom from leon. :winks:

      • Mojeaux

        It’s too early for that. Go have your coffee.

      • leon

        Lol

  28. Rebel Scum

    Supreme Court keeping AZ voting laws in place.

    The Biden-Harris regime’s Injustice Dept. has a sad.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    It plays on our desire to get something from nothing. I commented to my wife that so much of sin (if you’ll allow my religious tone), evil and unhappiness in the world today begin with the desire to get something for nothing.

    “You can’t cheat an honest man.”

    • Tres Cool

      But “there’s a sucker born every minute”.

      • juris imprudent

        And “no one ever went broke underestimating the American public”.

      • Rat on a train

        Do you want to make some money ad-wrapping your car?

      • SDF-7

        Now I’ll have to go re-watch Rounders this weekend… “Listen, here’s the thing. If you can’t spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.”

    • Tulip

      It’s not true where I live. I know because I found a bunch of old receipts.

      • Sean

        It’s non-stop lies. Everything they peddle is the exact opposite of the truth.

      • leon

        I don’t know my chocolate ration was increased.

      • BakedPenguin

        From 5 ounces a week to 80 grams a week, comrade!

    • Tulip

      Someone with a Twitter account should tweet this at Pelosi with the phrase ‘not even crumbs’. But, I’m not getting a Twitter account to do it.

    • Agent Cooper

      I’m more upset about the fucking puns.

      • DEG

        I hope the puns use birth control or else Swiss might never have a normal gaze again.

    • Rebel Scum

      Horseshit.

    • Cy Esquire

      We’re doing a 15lb brisket and some brats. It is very much holy shit not a little bit cheaper.

      • Nephilium

        But did you price out a properly sourced vegan alternative? I’m sure that would be much cheaper than that (tasty delicious) murder you’re planning on cooking.

    • WTF

      The “Biden economic plan” consists of taking credit for the lockdowns ending and the economies of various states re-opening, while implementing stifling regulations and taxes and spending us into an inflationary spiral.

  30. Hyperion

    “40% of San Francisco residents plan on leaving in the next few years.”

    Your new neighbors. Ensuring that every 800 sq ft unlivable dump in your neighborhood will go on sale for 1.5 million dollars and you’ll get loony leftists in every elected office. Good times.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Nah, it’s the realists and conservative leaning (for San Fran) who’ll bolt and a lot of them will bolt to elsewhere in Cali.

      • Hyperion

        Wishful thinking. It’s the most loony lefties who will flee and they’ll all move to Boise and Charlotte and turn those into shitholes.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        They’re here causing cookie cutter houses to be built in subdivisions for $2.4M (oh, but the finishes are immaculate I’m sure ?)

        They have changed the culture here in negative ways, too. Getting more and more of that impatient coastal asshole vibe by the day.

      • Hyperion

        Oh, and, there ain’t no conservatives or even any sane people in San Fran.

      • juris imprudent

        True, they left years ago.

      • DEG

        In San Francisco proper? Yeah, I think you’re right.

        In the Bay Area outside of San Francisco? I can think of a few former coworkers who are conservative and whose relatives are conservative there. I also know of some folks from H&R, some of which came over here some of which did not, who are there too.

      • Old Man With Candy

        I got out about 15 years ago and miss it terribly. But “it” doesn’t exist any more.

      • DEG

        Re-reading what I wrote, I should have proofread what I wrote.

    • The Last American Hero

      If true, 2022 may be the time to start buying real estate in SF. Those views and that weather ain’t going anywhere.

      • Hyperion

        Neither are the batshit crazy progs who run the place.

  31. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Time to build a wall around San Fran a la Escape from New York. Once the productive class leaves it’s going to be nothing but vagrants, the people who earn a living taking care of vagrants, and the people who are crazy enough to not care about the vagrants. It’s incredible how far into the toilet that city has managed to go.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Celebrity defendants also have committed followers who may find themselves on juries. With Trump, the danger of a true believer who slips into the jury box is certainly real.

    We despise in others what we hate most about ourselves.

    This mope, given the opportunity, would acquit Hillary Clinton of any crime, no matter how heinous, no matter how well documented and ironclad the evidence, merely because she is who she is. Naturally, the mouthbreathers in Trump-tasia can only be expected to do the same.

    • Tres Cool

      But…it was Her Turn!

      • Hyperion

        Still her turn. The next few rounds of not legally elected democrat potuses are going to be like a perpetual weekend at Bernies.

      • juris imprudent

        Hillary Stassen!

  33. Rebel Scum

    This State is going to hell in a handbasket.

    Virginia imposes new transgender rules on schools:

    – Eliminate gender-based practices
    – End gender-based homecoming/prom court
    – Cancel events like “Father-Daughter Dances”
    – Overnight lodging for field trips based on gender identity, not biological sex.

    • PieInTheSky

      Overnight lodging for field trips based on gender identity, not biological sex. – why split by gender identity and not just give up splitting by gender?

      • Hyperion

        It won’t be fair until every child has a 40 year old pedophile in their bunk.

      • TARDis

        Why can’t my 19 year old identify as a 21 year old and go to the bottle shop for me?

      • PieInTheSky

        do you trust the 19 year old with your bottles?

      • DEG

        Pie has a good point here.

      • TARDis

        Sure. He’s allowed to drink at home. He just doesn’t.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Man, the males that identify as female attracted females are going to get so much tail.

      • Not Adahn

        “All band members, drama and debate club participants identify as lesbians. Let’s celebrate this diversity!”

  34. Hyperion

    “The high court rejected a challenge by Democrats on the measure, dealing a blow to voting rights election fraud advocates”

    • Not Adahn

      STEVE SMITH GIVE KNOCKOUT ARGUMENT, AND BY AGRUMENT MEAN…..

  35. Hyperion

    “SCOTUS decision on Arizona voter rules could mean trouble for DOJ suit against Georgia”

    Why can’t we legalize election fraud, it ain’t fair!

  36. OBJ FRANKELSON

    What is the consensus (consensus, libertarians… lol) regarding the death penalty around these parts?

    I tend to come down against it. My reasoning is that if the justice system is constituted of fallible humans that may or may not have an interest in actual justice. I do not want to have these inherently fallible systems making mistakes they can’t at least attempt to make right.

    • PieInTheSky

      Against. There is no way the state is capable of executing the guilty and only the guilty. And one should limit the state’s ability to kill anyways. Because who knows what constitutes as guilty.

      • Tres Cool

        I agree. Too many crooked cops want a solid arrest record. Too many (elected) prosecutors want a solid conviction record (Mike Nifong). Sooner or later, an innocent person or persons (Rosenbergs) are gonna fry.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Ethel and Julius? Because they sure as fuck weren’t innocent.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Against-the state is incompetent, corrupt, and malicious and can’t be trusted for the unimportant stuff much less for something like that.

      • Not Adahn

        ^this

      • Pope Jimbo

        Yup. I have no moral qualms about executing people guilty of terrible crimes. I just don’t think that the state can do that job. I’d rather let monsters rot in prison to make sure we don’t kill some innocent people.

    • leon

      It’s a policy I Senate with myself. I don’t find the “Murder is bad so don’t murder murderers” convincing. If killing in self-defense is ok, then I don’t see killing a murderer after the fact as particularly evil in of itself (due process of course). I agree with you that such a system is a lot of power in very fallible hands.

      But I also think it’s fundamentally unjust to have victims pay for the eternal upkeep of those who victimized them. Prison and confinment should be limited, and I’m a fan of banishment. You can go along, but don’t ever come back or we will kill you.

    • juris imprudent

      The state is not a moral agent, nor is it particularly or reliably competent, and I think those two things matter, a lot. I’d be more comfortable with the decision/execution of sentence left in the hands of those who had a stake in the victim’s life.

    • Rat on a train

      Even if it exists, it should not be used as punishment for past acts. It has to be used in defense of life to prevent future acts. Confinement should be sufficient for that cause, so it should only be for people that can’t be stopped from killing in prison.

    • SDF-7

      Personally, I’m torn by a combination of distrust of the processes and being Catholic versus the very self evident fact that (in the words of Texas) some folk just need killing.

      What tips me over is that even when there is a death penalty, with the lawsuits, appeals and all the other garbage thrown in for the last 40+ years, it economically seems better to just let them live, preferably in Gen Pop so you get rid of the added expense of special Death Row ness (which I’m sure the prison guard unions milk for all it is worth…).

    • DEG

      Against it.

      I have no problem with killing in self-defense, which the death penalty is not.

    • Agent Cooper

      Against. The State is not competent enough to determine who lives and who dies (outside of emergency uses — which as we have seen are routinely abused)

    • R C Dean

      In principle? I can live with it.

      As currently applied? Its proof that the state can fuck up the one thing it is best at – killing people.

    • BakedPenguin

      I was re-reading a Sherlock Holmes story and came across this (paraphrasing)

      Watson: So what do you think his chances are?
      Holmes: I’m not sure, I think the evidence against him is a little thin.
      Watson: Many men have been hung for less.
      Holmes: True, and many men have been wrongfully hanged.

      Sums it up for me.

    • Old Man With Candy

      In theory, for. There are people who should be eliminated.

      Practically, against, seeing what our judicial system is in reality.

      • Mojeaux

        ^^^That.

      • Animal

        This. ^

    • Swiss Servator

      I still want John Wayne Gacy executed.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      I’m for it because at least in California nobody is ever executed even when sentenced to death. Without the death penalty on the books the do-gooders would go after life in prison next like they did in the 70s. However, I fully understand the objections to the death penalty expressed by other commenters.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    What this country needs is more show trials of prominent wrongthinkers.

    • SDF-7

      “… and we’ll get them, good and hard?”

  38. Rebel Scum

    There is this thing I like to call “Do it anyway because ‘Murica”, especially considering the circumstances of the holiday…

    Noem said the celebration was brought back by President Donald Trump after President Barack Obama took it away for environmental concerns, and now Biden is canceling it again without providing an explanation.

    “[W]e had the fireworks at Mount Rushmore for years,” Noem outlined. “It wasn’t until President Obama came into office that they took it away. He made the decision to pull it based on environmental concerns, so as soon as I became governor, even I wasn’t even sworn in yet, I had a conversation with President Trump and said, ‘Would you ever help us get back our celebration at America’s monument, the one that recognizes the importance of our founding fathers, that celebrates our independence and freedoms?’ And he said, ‘You want fireworks, and you want me to help you?’ And I said, ‘Yes,’ and he said, ‘I’ll do it.’ Took us a year and a half to do all of the environmental studies, to do the back burning necessary to protect the area from fire danger, and we did every single requirement that was laid out in the protocols to get the celebration back.”

    • Gustave Lytton

      The fuckers around here are finally getting their wish to ban fireworks around here due to “fire danger” (not seeing it as dry as the level would indicate, there’s been a gross overreaction to a fluke event last year, and the fire restrictions have ratcheted tighter over the years), after media stoked concerns first for pets and then for veterans failed to achieve the goal.

  39. Hyperion

    Who can be the first to guess what the source of this POS headline is?

    “Supreme Court Deals Blow to American Democracy “

    • Tres Cool

      Martha Stewart Living ?

      • Agent Cooper

        Martha has been on the inside. Martha is no bleeding-heart progressive.

    • juris imprudent

      Teen Vogue?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Sadly, that is actually kinda plausible. Teen Vogue went woke a while back.

    • Rat on a train

      Every journalist on the JournoList?

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Bang Bus?

      • EvilSheldon

        Barely Legal was my guess. Is that even still around?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I think Uncle Joe’s credit card is still being charged for that.

    • SDF-7

      The CIA Times? They’d be worried about the Court cutting into their sales of blow, after all.

    • juris imprudent

      High Times?

    • leon

      Obviously CNN

      Or MSNBC

    • Old Man With Candy

      When I hear “deals blow,” I think of cocaine purchases.

    • Hyperion

      Come on, not one of you guessed CNN?

      • leon

        Am I invisible to you?

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        It’s a super-power.
        Embrace it.

      • Hyperion

        I guess not since I just saw your reply.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Crumbling

    Seven months before the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., the condominium association board and residents were still sparring over expensive repairs needed in their building.

    A 2018 engineering report warned of “major structural damage” and a construction error in the building. The structural slab was deteriorating; it was flat instead of sloped. Water couldn’t drain properly and pooled on the surface. The concrete began to crumble, and support columns rusted.

    ——-

    New documents obtained by NPR reveal the board and residents were shown an urgent PowerPoint presentation from the property manager dated November 10-11, 2020. The language was stark. One slide explained in bold, uppercase lettering: WHY WE HAVE TO DO ALL THIS NOW.

    Another warned, “This Will Be Expensive No Matter What Choices We Make. The main expenses by far are related to items that are not cosmetic or even seen: concrete, roof, generator room, fire wall.”

    The 2018 price tag to fix the building’s problems was estimated at $9 million. But by 2020, those figures blossomed to more than $12 million. The board wanted to take out a $15 million line of credit to begin the repairs. Condo residents would have to pay their share, about $100,000 each.

    Quick, get some 2 x 4s and shore up the narrative!

    • juris imprudent

      NO! NO! It was climate change goddammit – rising oceans, raging Gaia! How DARE YOU attribute this to shoddy construction/maintenance.

    • WTF

      Let the blamestorming begin!

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      Quick, find the nearest Republican to blame! It was DeSantis that done it.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Bailer-Outer-in-Chief

    President Biden visited Florida on Thursday to meet privately with families whose loved ones were in the 12-story Champlain Towers South condo when it collapsed.

    Biden also met with first responders to thank them for their rescue work. Search and rescue efforts paused for 14 hours on Thursday because of structural concerns. So far, 145 people are still unaccounted for, while 18 people have been confirmed dead.

    During a briefing with local and state officials, Biden said the federal government would pick up 100% of the costs associated with the response to the building collapse. “I think I have the power and will know shortly to be able to pick up 100% of the costs of the county and the state. I’m quite sure I can do that,” Biden said.

    There is no problem which cannot be solved, no tragedy which cannot be consoled, by the gift of a giant pile of somebody else’s money.

    • SDF-7

      This would be a requirement to prove they read, understand and would comply with as a condition of holding any federal position in a just world.

      • Bill Door

        That was the story I thought of as I read the post and before I saw your comment.

    • Rat on a train

      Hey federal government, the local pool needs fixing. Can you send some money?

  42. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. The Boogie Smith shooting continues to pay dividends

    The woman with him held a press conference and claimed that Boogie didn’t have a gun, but was shot when he held up his phone to try to stream the encounter. I know surprise, surprise, right? Who wouldn’t believe a gal that was hanging out with Boogie?

    However, this came up in the story:

    Rodne added: “The BCA has informed us that they also failed to take gunshot residue tests from the body of Mr. Smith. (His body) was washed by the Hennepin County medical examiner before these tests were conducted.”

    In response, the BCA said Thursday night that the agency didn’t request such testing because it would not provide conclusive evidence. Because guns were fired from inside and outside Smith’s vehicle in close proximity, any testing would be inconclusive.

    As for the medical examiner’s office, the BCA said forensic pathologists only performs gunshot residue testing at the request of law enforcement.

    Sorry, but that seems fishy as fuck. Any smart people here know if there is a shred of truth to what the cops are saying?

    • Tres Cool

      “If you want to capture a boogie, you attack from the back”

      -Parliament

      (or not…cant remember where I heard it)

    • leon

      Yeah. “Mistakes” always benefit the corrupt. Since cops are always preaching “ignorance of the law is no excuse” I won’t mind prosecuting every “oversight” by cops as intentional cover-ups.

      • Surly Knott

        The conflict between “ignorance of the law is no excuse” and mens rea never fails to astound me.

      • kbolino

        “Ignorance of the law is no excuse” is just code for “the only error is not to have power”

    • EvilSheldon

      Gunshot residue testing is just this side of voodoo science, but it can be exculpatory. If someone tests positive for GSR, they may have fired a gun, or they may have just been nearby when someone else fired one.

      But if they come up negative for GSR, then it’s pretty cut and dry that they didn’t do any shooting.

      That, of course, is why the cops didn’t request a GSR assay.

      • Pope Jimbo

        That is what I was thinking too. The cops explanation doesn’t make sense. If anything, the Boogie Bois should be the ones worried about Smith’s hands being tainted by the residue from cop guns.

        When I read that, my thought was “Fuck, the protesters are going to be right. The cops did get trigger happy and are trying to cover it up”

      • Timeloose

        10 year old Time used to sing this song and still has the ear worm return occasionally.

        “put a lemonade stand in your butt, put a rock n roll band in your butt’

    • juris imprudent

      Because guns were fired from inside and outside Smith’s vehicle

      Well, unless cops were inside the vehicle shooting, I think there’s something conclusive there.

  43. Timeloose

    For you science and technology types. Here is a new and honestly exciting discovery of a method of creating atomic level ferroelectric effect that is switchable. It likely years away from creating any practical devices in the lab, but it is a really cool concept.

    Memory down to a atomic level in a basic material that is not difficult to create, Hexagonal Boron Nitride.

    https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1798525

    • waffles

      Does this imply it could be used to create logic gates that are smaller than our current silicon tech?

      • Timeloose

        Very much smaller. Potentially 2 atoms could make a logic bit. In reality it would need to be multiple redundant bits to prevent a cosmic ray from flipping a bit. Most memory bits are millions of atoms.

        It is like spintronics however, they are years away from anything practical.

      • waffles

        Still exciting to imagine gates so small a single proton can flip a bit. Thanks!

    • Plisade

      I don’t understand this, but am wondering, is there a better way to store memory than ones and zeroes, on or off? Could a memory location not have, say, 4 possible states to choose from?

      • SDF-7

        Yes.

        Binary has been easier in a lot of cases — but I think flash memory’s MLC is (as the name states) multi-level.

      • Timeloose

        They are making quantum logic in the lab as well. The details of how these work are frankly beyond my current level of understanding. I would need to refresh and take a few more quantum physics classes.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        That is what they are trying to do with quantum computing, where there can be three states for a bit. I think they have been making some progress but the main obstacle is storage. They can read the particle spin states but the means to store that information has not been figured out yet.

        (This is my layman’s take, feel free to jump in real science glibs)

      • Plisade

        Cool! Thanks all.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    “We’ve all been working in tandem from the moment we got the news of the collapse of the building,” Biden said, praising state and local officials for working across the aisle to speed along the search and rescue process.

    “We cut through the bureaucracy. One order I gave the federal folks was no bureaucracy, just cut through it. Get to whatever they need,” he said. “Not done often, but necessary here, in my view.”

    Of course. That’s what good daddies do.

    • R C Dean

      We cut through the bureaucracy.

      We did not get rid of it, reform it, make it redundant or unnecessary. Oh, no. Without a hidebound bureaucracy as a foil, these kinds of photo ops to buff up a politician’s image wouldn’t be possible, so we leave the underlying problem unsolved. As we are wont to do.

  45. PieInTheSky

    Ancient people throughout Western Eurasia built surprisingly wide-ranging trading networks as far back as the Bronze Age, new research shows. Judging by the systems of weights in use throughout the area, these networks formed self-regulating markets without the need for centralized authority.

    “With the results of our statistical analysis and experimental tests, it is now possible to prove the long-held hypothesis that free entrepreneurship was already a primary driver of the world economy even as early as the Bronze Age,” explains Professor Lorenz Rahmstorf from the Institute for Prehistory and Early History, University of Göttingen

    https://www.zmescience.com/science/ancient-weights-organic-standardization-826373/

    • leon

      Do you need more proof of white man’s evil? They invented unregulated capitalism millenia ago!!!

      • juris imprudent

        You could twist it even a little further – capitalism is responsible for the rise of the white man.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      I have always said that letting the commies describe capitalism as if it were some new innovation is wrongheaded. For as long as there have been people they have been trading goods and services for mutual benefit.

      • Nephilium

        People? Shit… there’s evidence of some primates trading treats for access to female primates.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Nice! Do they insult each other by saying, “Your Mom is a two banana whore!”

      • Nephilium

        A quick read on it.

      • Timeloose

        If they don’t they should. That’s a good insult, its confusing while being offensive.

        Shit heel and shit bird are favorites of mine.

      • kbolino

        I think you have a point, but one should also be careful not to motte-and-bailey capitalism.

        In Marx’s time, the vestiges of medieval feudalism were still hanging around, mostly in the form of the aristocracy, which still held significant, though visibly declining, power in Western Europe. The system he called capitalism was the emerging sociopolitical and economic order that was slowly replacing the older feudal order (after Marx, the two World Wars greatly accelerated the process). Today, we might call what emerged neoliberalism (somewhere, Gilmore winces): the fascistic combination of state and market power to deliver a welfare state and keep the peasants in line, while also providing some measure of liberalism and opportunity, if only for appearance’s sake at times. This is a distinct system from what came before (though perhaps more distinct in form than function), but both systems relied heavily upon the exchange of goods and services. It’s just that they wouldn’t both be called capitalism, the opinions of really stupid Marxists (tankies) notwithstanding.

      • R C Dean

        My take:

        Capitalism is just mature free markets. Over time, surplus value accumulates and can be redeployed as a fungible thing; this redeployed fungible surplus value is called “capital”. This occurs to some degree in almost every agricultural society (and even in pre-agricultural societies). As the surplus value acccumulates/compounds/accelerates, social and economic systems are created that accommodate it. These are called “capitalism”, but might better be called “marketism”, as they reflect the emergence of previously subsidiary dynamics as the primary dynamic of the society.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        So, if I have this correctly, there should be an acknowledgement that the advent of the nation-state and all of its trappings (monetary policy, central banking etc.) when making this argument?

  46. DEG

    The Daily Mail recently announced a breakthrough in unsealing documents related to the case, Presiding Judge Loretta Preseka ruled that the “dozens more documents” about Maxwell’s various dealings will be made public within the next two weeks.

    Sadly, I expect this will be a nothingburger.

    • R C Dean

      They have had ample time to “fortify” those documents.

      Anyone want to bet that Clinton and misc. other Dems who have been photographed or otherwise documented as part of his circle will be absent, and to everyone’s surprise, Trump was a regular customer?

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Romania was in a bad place.

    Europe?

    • PieInTheSky

      In 1940 europe was a bad place to be

  48. leon

    Found out that this year Mein Kampf vegans part of the public domain. So y’all Nazis can go write your fan fictions free of worry from Hitler’s estate.

    • waffles

      Mein Kamp Vegans is a shitty band name

      • Pope Jimbo

        No way. That name is tUber-cool

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Folk-Metal band name?

      • leon

        I’ve been lied to!!!

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        My German language skills are in a terrible state of repair, which is why, when I heard that a scholarly annotated/commented version was published in German in 2016, I didn’t buy a copy. I’d love to have an English translation with all that work included. Mein Kampf isn’t just unreadable because Hitler was a crappy writer — it was also unreadable because there’s just too many references sprinkled throughout the text to obscure historical/cultural/mythological info/ideas/memes that most readers wouldn’t have a clue about.

    • Nephilium

      I thought portions of Mein Kampf were put into the public domain a while ago as a taking from the estate.

      /too lazy (and too much work to finish) to research that right now.

      • leon

        It was written in 1925 and this year works from then entered public domain. It might have already been in public domain, but it certainly is now.

        Just like a bunch of fascists to rain on my joke.

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Joe Biden, Man of Peace, Healer of Nations

    U.S. military leaves Bagram Airfield in major step in Biden’s Afghan withdrawal

    That warmonger Trump would never have done such a thing.

    • leon

      Well he didn’t. I give Trump no credit when he caved every time. He was a spineless coward. I’ll give Biden credit for doing it. Still think he’s going to try to start something new.

      • kbolino

        I won’t give anyone any credit because this is the millionth time we’ve “withdrawn”. I’ll believe we’ve left when our last man out is jumping onto a helicopter rope like Saigon in 1975.

      • leon

        That’s fair.

      • ruodberht

        Weird. Obama campaigned on purposely surging in Afghanistan. So Biden was vice for one of the big reasons we’re still there.

        :kermit sipping tea:

      • leon

        He misses points on purity of heart. I don’t think he wanted to do it, and obit did it for selfish reasons. But if it gets done, I’m not going to spit on it just cause Biden did what Trump would not.

    • Rebel Scum

      Biden’s Afghan withdrawal

      You mean Trump’s that Biden delayed, violating the terms established by the Trump admin. that will cause the Taliban to not hold to their end of the deal.

      • The Last American Hero

        Like they were going to hold up their end of the deal if we withdrew on time?

  50. Not Adahn

    The rabbit was munching in a patch of thyme that I’m using as ground cover this morning.

    Awfully polite for him to pre-season like that.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Must be a young rabbit. An older wiser one wouldn’t do that. Sage rabbits know to keep out of the herb garden.

      • SDF-7

        Polite applause. 🙂

      • EvilSheldon

        Boooooo.

      • juris imprudent

        Eyes wide open eye roll. [just to pre-pair the next contra reaction]

  51. Pope Jimbo

    Good Minnesoda news! A modest civil asset forfeiture reform passed the legislature.

    Pretty modest too. Can’t take cars, can’t confiscate under $1500. It isn’t the simple complete repeal that should happen. I can’t decide if it is better to have this reform, or to wait until you can repeal the entire abomination. I worry that this reform will take the pressure off. Without sad sack stories, the thieves will be able to continue robbing bigger fish.

    Jason Flohrs, state director of the conservative Americans for Prosperity, also welcomed the changes.

    “For decades, Minnesota’s forfeiture laws violated our constitutional right to due process,” Flohrs said. “We’re pleased to finally see movement that will refocus use of civil forfeiture on the assets and profits of large-scale criminal enterprises, while limiting its disproportionate use against those in low-income communities.”

    Fuck Flohrs in the neck. Once again the Institute for Justice gets it (and makes me glad I give them money every year)

    Lee McGrath, senior legislative counsel for the Institute for Justice, supported an alternative proposal to eliminate civil forfeiture completely.

    “The House DFL… watered it down, will claim that they have solved the problem,” McGrath said. “And what will happen is that it will require two or three or four years of state auditor reports to prove how weak this bill is.”

  52. Pope Jimbo

    Question for the car guys….

    What do you think about Pontiac Safari 6000’s? Might be an opportunity to buy one for cheap (has low miles).

    • Timeloose

      Drain it and put in fresh oil and gas ant it will probably still start. Those old GM v6 2.8 and 3.8L engines were tanks.

      The smell might be a problem. You could sawzall the roof off and make it a field car.

    • tripacer

      My guess is idiot kids driving on a frozen lake that wasn’t as frozen as they thought.

    • R C Dean

      ‘Holy buckets, there’s a car sitting down there,’”

      Without checking any further, I knew this was Minnesoda. Possibly upstate Wisconsin.

      If for some reason you want to do a complete restomod on an ugly station wagon, maybe.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Afghanistan’s district administrator for Bagram, Darwaish Raufi, told The Associated Press that the American departure happened overnight without coordination with local officials, and as a result early Friday dozens of looters stormed through the unprotected gates.

    The U.S. toppled the Taliban in 2001 after the group sheltered Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda and the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. The U.S.-led international mission was once full of promise, with armies and governments from around the world coming together in the wake of the attack on the United States and pledging a brighter future for the war-torn country.

    Nearly 20 years and billions of dollars in civilian and military aid later, some have questioned whether Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest and most violent countries, is better off.

    ——-

    The country ranks among the worst places in the world to be born a female, with high infant and maternal mortality rates. Millions of children, in particular girls, do not attend school, and the country’s government is widely considered to be rife with corruption.

    But many in Afghanistan and the international community see a return of the Taliban as catastrophic for Afghan women, under militant rule some were banned from attending school and others whipped and stoned for adultery. In the last two decades, a generation of Afghan women and girls flooded into schools, and many in urban centers have been able to go to work outside the home.

    They’re turning the corner. We can’t leave now! All our Good Works will have been for naught.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Forgot what podcast I heard it on, but they pointed out that when neocons were in power we had to stay in Afghanistan to stop muslim radicals. Now that the wokesters are in power we have to stay there to protect the women.

      No matter who is in power, we have to stay there. The only thing that changes is the reason we have to stay there.

      • juris imprudent

        Vital American Interests.

    • R C Dean

      billions of dollars in civilian and military aid later

      Isn’t that more like hundreds of billions?

      The best description of Afghanistan I have seen is “a hole in the map where there isn’t a country”.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    No matter who is in power, we have to stay there. The only thing that changes is the reason we have to stay there.

    Sunk costs. If we leave, al those lives, all that money, all the hard work, sweat and tears will be wasted.

    Why do you want to waste all our Good Intentions?

    • creech

      Well, if they had only listened to those who wanted to get out years ago, the “sunk costs and wasted lives” would have been far fewer.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Time to short?

    Amazon on Thursday added two new entries to its vaunted “leadership principles,” a list of more than a dozen business philosophies meant to guide employee decisions and goals.

    Many of Amazon’s leadership principles have existed since the company’s earliest days, such as “Customer Obsession” and “Invent and Simplify,” and are the foundation of its corporate culture. The newest additions possess a distinctly different tone, adopting the theme of prominent criticisms that have been levied against the company.

    The first, “Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer,” calls on leaders to “work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment.”

    It’s in line with what CEO Jeff Bezos laid out in his final letter to shareholders earlier this year, wherein he acknowledged Amazon needs to do a better job for employees. Amazon has faced routine criticism from employees who say it has cultivated a brutal workplace culture, with tensions rising to a head in April amid a failed unionization vote at one of its Alabama warehouses.

    Another addition, “Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility,” highlights how Amazon’s status as the world’s largest online retailer and cloud computing company brings with it new challenges.

    “We started in a garage, but we’re not there anymore,” the new principle states. “We are big, we impact the world, and we are far from perfect. We must be humble and thoughtful about even the secondary effects of our actions.”

    “We repent us of our sins.”

    • SDF-7

      Yeah, that sounds a lot like “We’ve forced out the founder who actually cared — now let’s run this puppy into the dirt like the rest of the businesses we ruin!”. (HP post Bill and Dave is leaping to mind, but that’s probably personal bias.)

    • ruodberht

      Is that anything like Google’s “Don’t Be Evil”? If you have to consciously remind yourself not to be evil, you might be pretty fucking evil.

    • R C Dean

      “leadership principles,” a list of more than a dozen business philosophies

      If everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority.

      • Akira

        If everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority.

        #Triggered

        My previous manager was notorious for telling us that “everything” is a priority. The workload was absurd, and one employee asked “what should be our number one priority right now?” (as a nice way to say “you give us too much fucking work”) she said “everything”.

        Oh, so if everything is of equal priority – number one – then I can just work on whatever I want, right? Wrong. The thing you chose to work on is always the incorrect thing even though everything is supposedly top priority.

  56. PieInTheSky

    “if you’re trying to predict people’s opinions using both income and education, education almost always crushes income. As a rule, income effects are education effects in disguise…PhDs who drive taxis think like other PhDs, not other taxi drivers.”

    https://mobile.twitter.com/robkhenderson/status/1410965515821068289

    • Not Adahn

      And by “education,” they mean “socialization.”

      • SDF-7

        I was thinking by “education” they mean “indoctrination”, but whatever….

      • R C Dean

        Beat me to it. Rephrased that way, its a tautology.

      • kbolino

        One is the seen, the other the unseen. A PhD is relatively tangible (literally so for the diploma on the wall), the environment that raised us all to believe it’s a good thing to have a PhD is like water to a fish.

      • EvilSheldon

        It’s possible to outrun the culture that you were brought up in, but it takes a shitload of hard work over a big chunk of one’s life, with no guarantee of a tangible upside.

        Which is why things like cultural appropriation should be celebrated.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    Tail Wags Dog, ch 7,206

    The NFL fined the Washington Football Team $10 million as a result of an investigation into the team’s culture, including allegations of sexual harassment and other workplace misconduct, the league announced Thursday. The money will be donated to charity.

    “The Commissioner concluded that for many years the workplace environment at the Washington Football Team, both generally and particularly for women, was highly unprofessional,” the NFL said in a statement. “Bullying and intimidation frequently took place and many described the culture as one of fear, and numerous female employees reported having experienced sexual harassment and a general lack of respect in the workplace.”

    “Ownership and senior management paid little or no attention to these issues. In some instances, senior executives engaged in inappropriate conduct themselves, including use of demeaning language and public embarrassment. This set the tone for the organization and led to key executives believing that disrespectful behavior and more serious misconduct was acceptable in the workplace.”

    The league also said it found evidence of inadequate human resources staff and procedures to report and address issues, in addition to “widely reported fear of retaliation.”

    Needs more HR diversity and sensitivity police. Get rid of some coaches if you have to. They don’t enrich the culture of the organization.

  58. Agent Cooper

    I was always taught to love your country, not necessarily your government.

    The modern Democratic party seems to think it’s the other way around.

    • kbolino

      The modern Democratic Party loves neither, being only sycophants for power. The party’s masters know damn well that their rank-and-file control all the levels of government, with the possible and limited exceptions of very rural county employees, beat cops, and lower-rank enlisteds (all of whom are disposable to them), but any paeans to government itself are entirely contextual. They don’t want merely to govern, they want to rule, and moreover it is their divine right to do so. Government is a vehicle to that end, but hardly the only one; academia, the press, mass media, quangos, and major corporations are all parked in the same garage for them.

  59. KSuellington

    I have no doubt that 40% of people who live in SF would like to move in the next years. How many will do so is a different matter. Of that 40%, maybe about 39% are not from here originally. Whatever the percentage that actually do move to another place, I would bet my house that a corresponding percentage will move in, plus a few more percent. There is scant chance that the population here will be less in five or ten years. It ain’t happening. Of the percentage that move here, the majority will be foreigners, with China, India, and Central America being the countries (and region) that the new arrivals come from. Of the Americans that move here, the vast majority will be from the Northeast and Chicago. This has been the trend already here for decades and it will continue. There are very few of us natives left here, the transplants have largely run this place for a long time now.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      The population in SF is pretty transient anyway. I wonder what percent moves out in any given year only to be replaced by others.

  60. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of Independence Day hot dogs- I noticed not long ago my faves, Nathan’s are about 25% more expensive than they were a year ago.

    • Timeloose

      Beef dogs likely. Nathan’s and Hebrew National Beef have been pricey.

  61. Mojeaux

    Today, my oldest child becomes an “adult”.

    Pray for me.

    • SDF-7

      Oh Lord — bless this, Thy spawn of Mojeaux, that with it You may speed up Walmart checkup lines, in Thy mercy.

      (And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs, and the sloths and the orangutangs…. all on rollback.)

      Or in an alternate universe of snark — so “Blessings.” instead of “Curses”, Mojeaux-jojo? (Just Another Manic Mojo is still one of my favorite shorts of all time…)

      • Mojeaux

        I have not seen that one and it doesn’t seem to be available on YouTube (granted, I didn’t go past the first page). I’ll have to find it.

    • DEG

      Happy Birthday to her!

      Based on what you’ve said about her, I think she’ll be fine.

      • Mojeaux

        She got sent to the back of the house at Walmart, at a $3/hour raise. She will miss dairy, which she loves, but she stays there until she has someone to train and then gets them trained. The raise goes into effect anyway. The girl does love her manual labor, where she can switch her brain off. I’m hoping she’ll learn how to drive the forklift and somehow get certified.

    • KSuellington

      Right on, congrats. She sounds like she is on the right track.

      Here’s a cool (relatively) new album that I heard the other day from a band that you like.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7e1su04gfs

      • Mojeaux

        Ooooh, thank you!!!

    • PieInTheSky

      congrats on making it this far. I shall refrain from my customary joke about getting a green card the hard way

      • R C Dean

        On the internet, everyone thinks you’re a Russian bride?

    • kinnath

      Congratulations.

      • Mojeaux

        Thanks.

        It really only means I can keep a child alive for 18 years.

      • kinnath

        An employed, functional adult is a huge accomplishment in today’s environment.

        Give yourself some credit.

        One of my grandkids (number 3 of 4) graduated from high school this year. #1 and #2 have jobs. Not sure if #3 is going to work or to school at this point.

      • R C Dean

        What kinnath said.

      • Mojeaux

        Thanks.

        My brother told me straight up his kids are aimless. 20 and 21, still living at home, barely working (part-time, I think), not going to school, not knowing what they want to be. He was very down about this.

        My kid is somewhere in between aimless and ambitious. She just loves her job because it helps her cope with her ADHD, and she has no plans to change anytime soon. She hates school, so she knows for sure that’s out of the question. I sort of wish she had more ambition, but she’s not aimless, either.

        I envy her in so many ways. I was so much less mature at that age than she is. I was 18 with the social and life skills of an 11yo. OTOH, I knew I was going to college, so I had a four-year safety net to still be a child.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Considering how completely idiotic some teenagers (particularly boys) can be, that’s no small accomplishment.

      • Mojeaux

        Thanks.

        I posted that on FB before I thought, then remembered that a very close friend of mine’s oldest son died at 17 as a passenger in a car driven by another reckless 17-yo boy. I deleted that tout suite.

    • Animal

      I hear ya. Last March our oldest granddaughter became an adult. It’s a lot funnier when we’re watching her mother freak out.

      • Mojeaux

        I think I’m just quietly freaking out. If she’s home or at work, I know where she is, but now she’s got a car and we told her she could come and go as she pleased, so she’s out and about a lot. Every time I hear sirens my heart beats a little faster.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        As I implied above, the odds for late-teen girls are probably orders of magnitude better than for boys the same age (it is, after all, why insurance companies, informed by their own actuaries, give much better insurance rates to females than to males under the age of 25 or thereabouts). I’m sure “tax deduction XX” will be fine.

      • Mojeaux

        My mind tells me this and says “calm down”. My heart does not want to discuss it.

        I know what *I* did at that age and I was a daredevil (right up till I got pregnant and that tendency died a quick death).

        Sadly, I can no longer deduct her after this year. She’s barely over the 6-month mark, so I told her she better not claim herself on her 2021 tax return.

      • TARDis

        It will pass over time. My daughter comes and goes as she pleases. She has also taken several road trips and flights. She’s usually in a group when traveling out of state or camping.

  62. Stinky Wizzleteats

    A nice summary of the Cosby trial shitshow via Razorfist:

    https://youtu.be/lJvijmbWOvk

    Maybe guilty, maybe not, but the guy was railroaded it seems.

    • DEG

      I’ve always thought Cosby’s prosecution was political.

      Thomas Sowell, Larry Elder, and Walter Williams can be ignored. They aren’t widely known.

      Bill Cosby on the other hand? He’s too big to ignore, and once he started talking about how the black community needed to look inward to find the source of its problems instead of blaming Whitey, Cosby became a target. Can’t threaten the shakedown artists’ gig.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Sounds like that was at least part of it for sure, abetted by judicial and prosecutorial misconduct that’d get them disbarred at the least in a fair world.

  63. The Late P Brooks

    Owner Dan Snyder said in a statement that he takes responsibility for the issues in the team’s workplace and agrees with the league’s decisions. Tanya Snyder, his wife and newly named co-CEO of the team, will take over day-to-day team operations, while Dan Snyder will “concentrate on a new stadium plan and other matters.”

    “It is now clear that the culture was not what it should be, but I did not realize the extent of the problems or my role in allowing that culture to develop and continue,” Dan Snyder said in his statement. “I know that as the owner, I am ultimately responsible for the workplace.”

    Ostentatious repentance, Sackcloth and ashes. Public self-flagellation. That’s what real leaders do.

    • juris imprudent

      a new stadium plan

      STEVE SMITH ENLISTED AS FINANCIAL CONSULTANT FOR STADIUM

    • DEG

      The Chive is selling gold bars? Whoa.

      Bonus: Angela White is in the gallery.

    • ignoreLander

      Massive explosion like that and only one killed and four wounded? Miracle

  64. The Late P Brooks

    Rhetorical Question time:

    Why do our neo-Malthusian overlords pretend to grieve when “hundreds” die from heat prostration, or hundreds of thousands die from a new virus?

    I guess it must have something to do with the “wrong people” snuffing it.

    • PieInTheSky

      nono it is just good publicity. The People are morons, you must always keep this in mind

    • Timeloose

      It’s a tragedy, why waste it. You got to find a way to exploit it to gain more control.

  65. R C Dean

    Eventful night in the hospital. The overnight report from the House Supervisor casually drops this little gem:

    TPD apprehended triple murder suspect in Unit [redacted] w/ SWAT.

    No clue if he was a patient, an employee, or what.

    Of interest:

    We had a bump in COVID in June (all the way from 8 patients to 17, and now back down to 11). We realized that it peaked two weeks after Memorial Day. AZ was wide open for Memorial Day, so I think its safe to say that’s the worst it could get, and this thing is freaking over.

    Naturally, the federal state of emergency remains in place, because its just too damn useful.

  66. hayeksplosives

    Facebook dragged up a “‘memory “ from 2011 that on this day I posted:

    The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.
    –Hilaire Belloc

  67. Pope Jimbo

    I don’t get the fascination with the condo collapse. It is bad, but I can’t believe people are still talking nationally about it and why Biden gives a shit is beyond me.

    Is it because they want people to think Desantis and falling buildings? Distract from the Biden administration failures?

    I just don’t get it.

    • R C Dean

      The DemOp Complex is desperate for any distraction from the dumpster fire that is DC. I don’t think there’s much more to it than that.

      • Mojeaux

        Do you really think the DemOp Complex thinks Washington is a dumpster fire? They know what they’re doing and have always had an end game and it’s coming to pass.

        They just didn’t have a good grasp on how many deplorables there really are.

      • R C Dean

        I do. Things are not going as they expected. They have to scramble constantly and ludicrously to cover up/distract. They have power by a fingernail and can feel 2022 breathing down their neck; in order to hold power through the midterms (when traditionally the party in power takes a hit) is to either (a) knock it out of the park politically or (b) ramp up the cheating. Their best shot at ramping up the cheating just died in the Senate. So they are looking at an obviously failing Presidency, a shitshow in the Congress they control, and they think “dumpster fire, gotta distract”.

    • SDF-7

      Embrace the power of AND. 😉

    • Hyperion

      Biden has to save Florida and democracy. Right now it’s trapped in a reign of terror by the next orange bad man, DeSantis. DeSantis hates democracy and wants granny to die and women and color folk put back into chains. Or something like that.

      • leon

        When Desantis is dethroned, we’ll learn how we can now be at peace and unity because the bad Florida man is gone.

      • Hyperion

        Sorry that you guys will need to have another pandemic, for your own good, if that’s what it takes to save you from new bad orange man.

    • Agent Cooper

      Are the fences still up in DC?

      • R C Dean

        I believe at least some of them are. Visiting the Capitol is still restricted.

  68. Agent Cooper

    Are we sure Jack Ma is alive?