Wednesday Morning Excuse For Not Doing Links

by | Jul 7, 2021 | Daily Links | 345 comments

I screwed the pooch today. Banjos birthday last night and a whole day at the beach completely wore us out. Then I couldn’t fall asleep forever and when I finally did, I slept until like five minutes ago.

My bad. Have a great day, friends!

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

345 Comments

  1. The Late P Brooks

    You’re such an inveterate slacker.

    • The Other Kevin

      That’s why we love him so.

    • WTF

      Found during a “welfare check”. So, unconstitutional search.
      Not that the constitution matters anymore.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I instituted a welfare check once in an employee who had Parkinsons. I struggled with that decision because of shit like this.

        I used the county Sheriff and the non-emergency dispatcher asked why I wasnt calling Metro because it was in town limits.

        Said it was the first number I came upon but the real reason which I didnt say was we vote for your boss and there is at least some accountability.

        They were really good actually and called me when they got to the house and it was nothing more than he just forgot he worked that day.

        Still I had held my breath up until that moment that they would get all righteous in just making sure he was okay.

  2. juris imprudent

    Once again, Glibs on the leading edge!

    How did America’s corporate media fare? Well, not so well.

    In fact, the number for the U.S. legacy media crowd is 29 percent. Dead last of the 46 countries. The French, Greeks, Hungarians, Filipinos, Chileans, Argentinians, and Mexicans all have more trust in their press and TV talking heads than Americans have in people like Chris Hayes and Brian Stelter.

    • waffles

      I saw this headline and reasonably think that we’re not last, we’re first. We have extremely good reason to distrust the media. Given what we know, we’d be stupid to trust them.

      • Festus

        Most folk pay no attention at all unless it is local.

  3. waffles

    Good morning! I am just happy to be here honestly. So when do housing prices crash back to Earth?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Right after the bubble pops.

    • Chafed

      That may vary by market. Rates will start rising by late next year. That will moderate prices. Many markets are underbuilt. Those markets won’t crash.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Don’t hold your breath.

  4. zwak

    These are sausage links!

    Happy banjos day, Banjos!

    • Festus

      Hear hear! Links are but a preamble to shit-posting, anyway. No harm, no foul.

  5. Count Potato

    Happy Birthday Banjos!

    • Chafed

      If you insist.

  6. Count Potato

    “Then I couldn’t fall asleep forever”

    Cocaine is a helluva drug.

    • Festus

      I was gonna say “Little Blue Pill” but your explanation is more family friendly.

    • waffles

      Why did the DEA do it?

      • rhywun

        Top story at the Post too

    • Translucent Chum

      Mercenaries? Has anyone seen Christopher Walken lately?

    • invisible finger

      White supremacists strike again.

      • zwak

        No, this is definitely climate change.

    • Chafed

      Haiti has a government?

    • AlexinCT

      Must have told the Clinton Foundation Haiti didn’t need their help again.. Cause their help was the same as the guy that feeds a homeless girl a sammich and a soda when people are looking to score points, then as soon as they are not, pimps her out at $5 until she is so used & abused that putting her out of her misery is a kindness.

    • WTF

      Bender says unnamed sources reported

      That’s all I need to know to know they’re full of shit.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        If the Bender in question also told them to kiss his shiny metal ass, I would be more convinced.

    • Rat on a train

      A decision to cancel a visit to an American cemetery proved controversial. Trump was later reported to have called US soldiers who died in the war “losers” and “suckers”.

      Why are all these sources afraid to come forward? They would be heroes to the media.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That lie again.

        These assholes never stop.

      • Rat on a train

        It’s not a lie if you want it to be true.

      • leon

        In 70 years when no one cares anymore, historians will note that isn’t true. Like they do with “let then eat cake”

      • AlexinCT

        You are far more optimistic than I am.. I suspect that based on the direction we are going “historians” will tell us exactly what Big Brother wants us to believe. Not what is true…

  7. The Late P Brooks

    Morning jibberjabber

    Efforts to expand access to digital skills must be coupled with a complete rethink of the conventional wisdoms that shape corporate hiring practices. For a long time, the way companies hired candidates was based on the job they had, the degree they earned or the people they knew. This needs to change immediately.

    To democratize opportunity and fill the skills gap, we must urgently move to skills-based hiring and invest in ‘new collar jobs’ for workers who have in-demand technology skills but not necessarily a traditional bachelor’s degree.

    As in the past, the advent of powerful new technologies requires a new social contract to ensure more equal access to opportunity.
    Sparked by the Industrial Revolution, reforms such as universal access to education, state-funded education and training programs for workers led to growing prosperity and stronger economic systems.

    The world is now facing a similar opportunity. We have a once-in-a-generation chance to build stronger, more equitable economies. Policies that expand “earn while you learn” apprenticeship programs, make government education grants eligible for students and workers outside the traditional bachelor’s degree path, and let work-study students build career-relevant skills in the private sector are important first steps.

    Throughout history, government has been the driver of innovation. Now more than ever.

    After all, no individual business owner could ever see an opportunity to make his enterprise more efficient and profitable on his own and act on it absent a mighty nudge from Big Nanny.

    Show us the way, Top Men!

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      [hiring] workers who have in-demand technology skills but not necessarily a traditional bachelor’s degree

      The only part of this gibberish that makes any sense.

      • juris imprudent

        Now the appropriate media filter for that (if it were a Republican proposal): Denigrating education!!!

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s impossible to denigrate education at this point, academia has already done that.

      • EvilSheldon

        Skills-based hiring is a great idea. Let companies do their own pre-hire testing and competency screening, instead of offloading those tasks onto increasingly incompetent educational institutions.

      • UnCivilServant

        You would first have to crush ‘disparate impact’ tests for the court. cause the uneven distribution of skills makes them go ‘das rayciss’ when someone holds an objective test and the numbers don’t line up demographically.

      • Rat on a train

        CompTIA will now include intersectional points in their certification tests?

      • robodruid

        As part of the test, demographic info would be collected. Results will be “normalized”

      • kbolino

        I know there’s some kind of truth to this, but actual case law at the Supreme Court level doesn’t back it up. Griggs v. Duke Power holds that aptitude tests are fine, even if they produce disparate impact, as long as they are directly related to job performance. And subsequent cases have generally held that while companies can apply affirmative action they are not required to do so, and they can’t apply it in ways that directly harm people on the basis of race or sex (e.g., you can hire a black person instead of a white person, if both are equally qualified, because he or she is black, but you can’t fire a white person instead of a black person, if both are equally eligible for termination, simply because he or she is white).

        Of course, litigation is expensive, even if it finds in your favor, so most employers being risk-averse is likely part of the picture, but the explanation that the courts are the root cause of this problem is still somewhat lacking.

      • EvilSheldon

        I don’t think the Progressives really care about disparate impact. That’s just the smokescreen. Their real fear is losing control over the educational institutions that they use for spawning pools…

      • robodruid

        That would be racist.

      • Spartacus

        But then the companies would have to pay for it themselves, instead of offloading the costs onto colleges (and thence onto students and taxpayers).
        I am cautiously optimistic about the idea of microcredentials as a compromise, mainly because then we (hopefully) won’t keep getting bugged by local companies wanting us to start a new major to train their workers for them.

      • zwak

        But, how much remedial training and specific job skills training do companies do now?

        When I was with ATT, we spent 8 weeks doing specific job training, offsite at a classroom location. That wasn’t cheap, as they had to house half of us, feed us, and so on. fiNot to mention how many people washed out when they hit the field. Add on to that the immolation of the education system as we know it, and many professions are going to go the way of Engineers, where the degree doesn’t get you the PE ring, its time in the office. The degree only shows that you can do an apprenticeship, so why not take the money a first-year grad makes and move it somewhere useful.

    • leon

      “For a long time, the way companies hired candidates was based on the job they had, the degree they earned or the people they knew. This needs to change immediately”

      The who you know will never change. Being a known quantity will help the employer, when making the decision to hire or not.

      • Festus

        Party membership is nearly a prerequisite. Not quite but nearly there.

    • Tonio

      The organizations I’m familiar with haven’t cared about college degrees for IT skills in decades. Cisco CNE or Comp-TIA industry certification is what they care about, and those can be gotten at government community colleges.

      • nw

        I did IT work for about 25 years. I didn’t need a degree. There’s a large enough fraction
        of people who hire that are only interested in what you’ve done. You can acquire the skills
        without a degree, and get a job. Some companies do like certifications.

        Furthermore, based on what I’ve seen, you don’t even actually need the skills. Just
        put bullshit on a resume, post it to dice, then parrot magic buzzwords to the recruiter
        and on the interview and you’ll get a job eventually.

        I’d bet I could teach anyone here enough buzzword bs to get an IT job in about a half-hour.

      • Fourscore

        My daughter’s ex knew all the words but couldn’t produce because of lack of skills/intellect. He could get a job, had about 30 or so within about 15 years but then everyone in the TC knew him and couldn’t keep a Walmart associate job, sweeping or bathrooms or some tech job like that

    • UnCivilServant

      “Taxpayer funded travel! At last!” – capital police.

      • WTF

        Exactly. Notice they are not opening offices in Idaho.

      • Gender Traitor

        But isn’t Idaho full of white supremacists?

      • UnCivilServant

        Yes, it has had an unwelcome influx of progressives.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The new captain was appointed on Jan 8th, probably with explicit instructions to pursue political ends.

      • WTF

        They’re only opening offices in Florida and California. It’s noting but working and traveling to vacation spots on the taxpayer’s dime.

      • Count Potato

        Didn’t they also massively increase their budget?

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Do we not have about fifteen other agencies that are charged with investigating this sort of thing?

      • WTF

        Yeah, but that doesn’t get the Capitol Police brass to California and Florida on the taxpayer’s bill.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Gotta get some of that sweet TDY pay.

      • AlexinCT

        Purity tests FTW! Are you not a marxist? Then you MUST be a white supremacist terrorist!

    • Nephilium

      On the flip side of that, DeWine (Cunte – Ohio) is sending Ohio National Guard Troops down to the Mexican border. Which seems kind of far away from Ohio to really be something we should be worried about here.

    • leon

      Id be interested if De Santis challenged what jurisdiction some city police had in his state?

    • UnCivilServant

      Did the ‘dea’ agents claim to be speaking in english and spanish?

  8. Gender Traitor

    Happy Belated Birthday, Banjos! Yesterday was my oldest sister’s birthday, too! ?

    • WTF

      The constitution created inequality?
      Show your work.

      • AlexinCT

        That right there is white supremacy.. Demanding people actually do real work, I mean..

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Put these two statements together for me and make sense of it:

      “Political scientist Lynne Chandler García said the Constitution brought about ‘inequality’ and that George Washington was a racist. She argued that the history of the U.S. proved that ‘racism has shaped both foreign and domestic policy'”

      “As Garcia wrote in The Washington Post: ‘Cadets, like all military members, take an oath to defend the Constitution with their lives — so it is crucial they have a sensitive understanding of that Constitution.”

      The military is getting way too political for my tastes.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Add the true believers that will put up with this crap to the now disaffected and trained people that found themselves booted out of the service for wrong-think and you have the potential for a really big problem.

      • WTF

        They are prepping the military to take action against US citizens who might resist the new Order.
        *adjusts tinfoil hat

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I don’t know, that seems to be less and less tin foil-ly as time goes along.

      • UnCivilServant

        But simulteneously undermining the ability of the military to perform combat operations seems like an own goal.

      • AlexinCT

        The Soviet military’s biggest problem was the fact that the officers were promoted for political loyalty over actual skill. This is common with any military that exists in nations ruled by power. They compensate for this lack of skill by having lots of bodies to throw away coupled with serious brutality.

      • EvilSheldon

        Perhaps they think that a politically reliable goon squad is all they need to keep the boot on…

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Being politically reliable is far more important if you were planning to use them to fight ‘domestic terrorists.’

      • R C Dean

        But simulteneously undermining the ability of the military to perform combat operations seems like an own goal.

        The mistake Our Masters are making is trying to model our military after, well, most of the militaries on the planet, whose primary job is protecting the government against its subjects. Very few militaries are actually built and run to fight wars.

        This is a mistake because Our Masters also want our military to fight wars, and will scour the globe finding wars for them to fight. As near as I can tell, you can either have a warfighting military, or a domestic suppression military, but not both.

      • AlexinCT

        They are already creating the political officers to make sure the troops are loyal, not to the state, but the people in power, so its only tin-foil-ly if you are not understanding how this plays out historically every time it happened…

      • WTF

        I guess I’m just hoping it’s not really as bad as I think it is. But it’s probably even worse.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I don’t think there’s any doubt that they’re laying the groundwork for that. The left has been progressively more open about their desire to use the military against wrong-thinkers. Anybody remember the calls for drone strikes against the Bundy clan when they occupied a national park building in the middle of nowhere and cleaned up the property?

      • leon

        I’ve seen them bring up that posses comitatus is racist, so they are angling to use it for “law enforcement”

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It makes perfect sense. The FBI is way too small to use as a national police force. The military is the logical choice.

      • waffles

        It’s weird and crazy but feels intentionally so. I am inclined to believe the people making these decisions are evil, not stupid. It makes me sleep better at night.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Not that tin foil when the Joint Chief labels Jan 6 and everyone there as domestic terrorist.

        That to me is a green light to Congess that they will turn the military inward if told to do so.

      • Nephilium

        ‘member when this was considered a bad thing in movies.

        /from the long ago times of 1998, and most people probably think it came out after 2001.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Why have I never heard of that movie and I now know what I will be watching today

      • Nephilium

        Ownbestenemy:

        Saw it in the theater when it came out. It’s fairly dark, and doesn’t have too many “good guys” in it.

      • Homple

        That Constitution that you swore to defend? It was written by racists as an excuse do racisms all over the world for 232 years now.

        Just thought you ought to know.

      • leon

        “The military is getting way too political for my tastes.”

        The so called “professionalism” of the Office Corps has dropped that mask.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Flag officers have always been and will always be, for the most part, political creatures.

        Rank and file officers and enlisted not so much.

        A call to arms against US citizens will be met with mutiny. I know people preparing to resign over the vaccine being required.

      • prolefeed

        Will a mutiny happen after they first drive out anyone inclined to revolt against the political officers being installed and “fortified”?

  9. The Late P Brooks

    From trshmnstr’s link:

    Bender writes that Kelly did his best to overcome Trump’s “stunning disregard for history”.

    “Senior officials described his understanding of slavery, Jim Crow, or the Black experience in general post-civil war as vague to nonexistent,” he writes. “But Trump’s indifference to Black history was similar to his disregard for the history of any race, religion or creed.”

    Now let us consider the possibility that Trump’s “disregard for history” might have been due to watching events and their effect on the black community in New York in real time rather than obsessing about the Reconstruction. Crazy, I know.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s currently 1892, this is known.

      • juris imprudent

        Can’t be, the original Progressives were overtly racist and only concerned with improving the white man. It was known that blacks could not be improved.

        Hmmm…

    • Count Potato

      Back in the 80’s he was a hero to the black community.

    • Rat on a train

      senior, unnamed, officials

      • Festus

        It’s The Graudian.

    • kbolino

      Yet another generation obsessing about historical events they didn’t experience, events that were perpetrated by people who are long dead, will surely start producing better social outcomes any day now.

  10. Count Potato

    “New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s gun violence ‘disaster emergency’ has been slammed as ‘political grandstanding’ by opponents because he should be cracking down on criminals rather than weapons manufacturers.

    New York became the first state in the nation to declare gun violence an emergency on Tuesday as Cuomo pointed the finger at the manufacturers of weapons as one of the main reasons behind the spate of shootings and killings that is at its highest level since the early 2000s.

    However, critics have claimed it is ‘political grandstanding’ and that an increase in gun violence has been caused by ‘soft-on-crime’ policies such as the early release of prisoners, treating criminals ‘like victims’ and calls to defund the police.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9762551/New-York-declares-gun-violence-disaster-emergency.html

    No one manufactured guns until last year.

    • Festus

      No one manufactured a virus that killed millions of senior citizens until 2019, either, Smart Guy!

      • Count Potato

        Except 1917, 1929, 1957, 1967, 2003….

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        You left out the Imperial Japanese plans to conduct biological attacks on the West Coast.

  11. juris imprudent

    Completely, 100% not a partisan witch hunt; all resemblance to Benghazi investigation is sheer coincidence.

    Notice that the one question not discussed there is “why did the House & Senate Sgts at Arms refuse the request from the Capitol Police for reinforcement”? Very much like the Republicans never asking – what exactly were we doing in Benghazi?

  12. juris imprudent

    You have to love, and laugh at, the hysteria.

    The Bee couldn’t do it any better…

    Another item seized from Morss was a notebook containing a “Step by Step to Create Hometown Militia,” with steps such as “Ambush” and “Battle Drills” and reminders to “Bring Assault Rifle” and “4 Magazines.”

    • Festus

      Utterly surprised that he didn’t call them “clips”.

      • Rat on a train

        and “assault weapon”. Few people have an assault rifle.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Hitler built the Autobahn. Who doesn’t like roadzz?

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Doc Brown?

    • Rat on a train

      Democrats

    • Spartacus

      Libertarians. Duh.

  14. Scruffy Nerfherder

    “Riot Leader Had ‘Fully Constructed U.S. Capitol Lego Set’ at Home, FBI Says”

    Let me guess, he also had a Lego Death Star pointed at the Capitol Building

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Bah

      @juris

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      What does it mean that I am building an AT-ST walker with my kids?

      • UnCivilServant

        You want to purge cannibal midget furries?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Cooking and eating another species is not cannibalism.

      • UnCivilServant

        You really think they limit their diet to other species?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Although, you’d think they would want to at least field dress a Wookie unless they like the taste of burnt fur

      • Count Potato

        Are your kids white?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        As far as I know. They don’t seem to have very good marksmanship though…

      • Nephilium

        That you weren’t willing to wait for a better set?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I just want the George Castanza figure. A balding lego person strikes me as funny for some reason.

      • Nephilium

        I expect a robust aftermarket for those minifigs.

      • CPRM

        Why is there a Tucker Carlson figure in there?

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        That you glorify stormtroopers you Nazi.

    • l0b0t

      LOL… We have one as well. It’s in what is known as microscale. A tactical sand-table it ain’t.

  15. juris imprudent

    As the United States leaves Afghanistan after 20 years of war, there can be little doubt that we lost the war — or to put it more gently, did not attain our objectives.

    We believed things were possible in Afghanistan — defeat of the Taliban or enabling the Afghan government to stand on its own — that probably were not. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we should have abandoned Afghanistan long ago, given what we knew at the time. It does mean that the strategy could have been better managed to avoid expending resources on objectives that were unlikely to be attained.

    That word, objectives, I do not think it means what you think it does.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Our supposed objectives were to get Bin Laden. Our demonstrated objectives were to spend shit-tons of money in a foreign shithole.

      • WTF

        It should have been a punitive expedition to kill all their leaders and destroy all their shit, with a warning that if they fucked with us again we would be back to do it all over again.
        But that doesn’t provide much opportunity for profit and graft.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Cosigned.

      • Festus

        ^ What WTF said.

      • AlexinCT

        People have forgotten that war is supposed to be brutal and ugly, so it has a final result and people avoid it until it is absolutely necessary. Instead our intellectual mandarinate class has sanitized war so we now allow them to steal trillions instead of billions while wasting time pretending to actually be fighting a war. In the end we always lose because we are mock fighting and not killing everyone and breaking all their shit so they learn never to fuck with us.

      • Chipwooder

        I think it was RE Lee who said “It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it”. Seems applicable here.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        You mean we can’t just parachute in centuries of enlightenment values to a highly tribal society and produce a liberal democratic state?! Say it aint so!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s shocking, isn’t it?

      • Suthenboy

        The drivers of that war stole ~one trillion dollars of US taxpayer money to lose a war in a country whose GNP is somewhere between 7 and 15 billion dollars.

        Juris is correct.

  16. wdalasio

    Belated Happy Birthday, Banjos!

  17. leon

    Man the Jan 6 stuff just keeps giving. I eagerly anticipate the whataboutism in 2022 when ANTIFA raids the Capitol because the GOP took back the house.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Did you see the open border lobby equate States sending law enforcement to Texas as ‘insurrection’?

      Yeah they will milk it until the coin flips

      • leon

        Insurrection and sedition are the new buzz word. Racist is worn out, and they don’t care about just getting their enemies shamed in public, they want to put real targets in their back and sic law enforcement on them.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Nah, they will be too busy beating up people that don’t want their daughters to see male penises in changing rooms.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        *female penises

      • juris imprudent

        Look Jack, that wasn’t the HOLY TEMPLE OF DEMOCRACY that the US Capitol is, got it?

      • Rat on a train

        They took over to restore democracy, not subvert it.

  18. Ownbestenemy

    My wife says happy b-day as hers was yesterday also.

    • Festus

      Key Party!

  19. Festus

    My theory about these mass re-openings of civil society is this. The lever pullers got the cowed populace that they always wanted with these bullshit lock-downs so they stopped ratcheting forward. They have broken the collective will of the people. Do you know how many times I’ve walked into a store and everyone is talking about how wonderful it is not to wear the muzzle? This is Soma. They did it once, it worked and they sure as shit will do it again.

    • AlexinCT

      Trail run…

    • creech

      I’d rather hear people talking about how wonderful it is not to wear masks than hearing Karen opining that everyone should keep wearing masks as long as 2 year olds can’t be vaccinated.

      • Festus

        Of course! Can you imagine being so pleased about the boot lifting off your neck a little even two years ago? I can’t.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Simps gonna simp.

    • Festus

      I totally dated a stripper once. It had nothing to do with the cocaine provided and was more about my good looks and winning personality!

      • Fourscore

        I caught on when the $20 went to $30 just for me, something about having to endure the laughs of her friends.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Rich uncle bequeaths trillions- how do you spend it?

    Governors and lawmakers, who months ago thought they would be making deep cuts to their budgets, are instead facing the very unusual problem of how to spend bundles of money. These state leaders, emboldened by the brighter tax revenues and the hundreds of billions of dollars provided by the federal government, are launching transportation projects, cutting stimulus checks and even paying down debt.

    “No one would have ever dreamed that we would have this kind of funding,” said New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat whose state just enacted a budget with a multibillion-dollar surplus.

    That’s not to say the needs weren’t significant, or that every state has since seen the same surge in revenue. All incurred massive costs from the pandemic, and the need for social programs only increased as the poorest Americans were hit the hardest.

    But from coast to coast, governors and lawmakers who were preparing to make difficult, politically-challenging moves are now faced with a surprise windfall. This is leading to partisan and intraparty feuds in statehouses over what to spend the cash on, and when, and setting up kitchen-table debates over what’s more important: Spending money now to boost the economy or saving for future problems.

    It’s not really money, so saving it is pointless.

    SPEND! SPEND! SPEND!

    • Rat on a train

      Create new programs that will require annual funding.

    • WTF

      “Covid relief” was nothing more than a massive bailout to blue state governments so they could avoid paying the price for their mismanagement at the expense of federal taxpayers.

      • zwak

        This guy gets it.

  21. juris imprudent

    So here is something interesting I shared with a friend, trying to figure it out. This website purports to be local news, yet the language is clearly of non-native English speakers writing the articles in English (sort of). The friend mentioned he had just read an article about exactly this – foreign sources attempting to imitate American based news.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      In a note to all Republicans late Tuesday, Second House Republican Steve Scallis said the selection panel could pursue a party agenda when investigating the siege by supporters of former President Donald Trump. It’s expensive, “he said, urging members to vote against the resolution. So far, Scallis and McCarthy haven’t said whether Republicans will join.

      That’s pretty sloppy propaganda.

      • juris imprudent

        Every article exhibits that. I suppose they may refine their language eventually – which would then be more worrisome.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Either AI written or foreign intel for sure

      Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Caliph,

      • Akira

        Either those things, or they outsourced their copywriting to an extremely cheap “content mill” that allows foreigners to write without proving basic English competency. There are a lot of places where you can buy a 500-word article for a dollar or less, but it’s cranked out by some Indian dude living in a shack. They’re usually used for SEO purposes.

  22. wdalasio

    The left has been progressively more open about their desire to use the military against wrong-thinkers.

    If they do, they’d better do it quickly. My impression is that the U.S. military is setting itself up for an embarrassing loss. I mean, we’re running into problems because our Navy can’t master basic navigation (No, I probably couldn’t do it either. Only I’m not trained and specifically tasked with doing just that.). If we lose a war (and I’m not talking about gray areas like Iraq or Afghanistan. I mean an outright embarrassment.), what happens to the stature of our military, domestically? One of the major advantages of bringing in the generals is that the U.S. military enjoys tremendous prestige domestically. Take that away and they still have a lot of power. But, I suspect that they wouldn’t quite enjoy so much legitimacy. Especially if they’re carrying out orders against Americans that other Americans actually know.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Our enemies would be stupid to stop us when we’re making such huge mistakes.

      • juris imprudent

        ^THIS

    • EvilSheldon

      And on the other hand, a lot of the actual shooters are getting out of the military while they can, and are looking to hook up with people who share their interests and values.

      • Chipwooder

        What, they aren’t sticking around for slideshows calling them horrible racists, and the monthlong DOD celebration of trannies?

    • juris imprudent

      I love the pretzel logic that swearing to defend the Constitution – and actually holding to that oath – is a sign of extremism.

      • The Other Kevin

        The American flag is also a sign of extremism.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Yeah, I have been hearing more and more stories of ships running aground.

      • CPRM

        It’s Climate Change wut dun it.

    • Count Potato

      “Don’t shit in the pool” is the most sensible thing the CDC has said all year.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s funny because it’s true.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Give them a week and Fauci will go on TV saying that shitting in pools is now the approved method. They only said don’t shit in pools because they were worried that the public wasn’t ready to accept shitting in pools

      • Chipwooder

        “We only told you not to shit in pools so that the medical community had enough shit for themselves”

      • EvilSheldon

        I need to see what 77grn. OTM match 556 is going for nowadays. That stuff was always stupid expensive, maybe it hasn’t changed much…

    • Festus

      But I don’t wanna be an ant…

    • juris imprudent

      Holy shit indeed.

    • Raven Nation

      The last one is kind of bizarre, that is “checks and balances underpinning our democracies must not be forgotten,” considering about half of the first seven carried implicit or explicit rejections of said checks and balances.

      • AlexinCT

        They mean that checks and balances to make sure nobody can reverse them destroying the republic and getting the change they want, not things to prevent them from getting what they want…

    • EvilSheldon

      I mean, everyone in the media-educational complex is telling them how brilliant and brave they are. Why would they want to hide it?

    • leon

      No one wants to take away your stuff. Come-on.

      I avoid reading YouTube comments, but read the pinned comment if you want to get a bunch of stuff like that followed by, of course we have to take your stuff to save the planet.

    • Chipwooder

      100% pure evil

    • Animal

      Fuck.

      Off.

      Slaver.

      • PieInTheSky

        Were it only that easy to get them to fuck off

  23. Pope Jimbo

    I got the notice from GoDaddy yesterday that they are “upgrading” me to Office 365 email. Sure it doesn’t have a catch all account and isn’t free, but man things will be cool.

    I remember hearing other people chatting about this before. Anyone want to enact my labor and tell me what registrar with free email all the cool kids migrated to?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Protonmail

      Limited storage though

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I have my custom domain through domains.com, I think. It’s hooked up to my paid ProtonMail account. I’m happy with that setup.

  24. Festus

    So far as Afghanistan goes we should have followed the Canadian method. Kidnap the tribal children, deny them their culture and let Christians bum-fuck them instead. Worked a charm here!

    • Tres Cool

      +1 Métis status

  25. The Late P Brooks

    HooooOOOOOooooly shit. They’re not even hiding it anymore.

    Just as long as I have my Victory Beer and a generous chocolate ration.

    • Aloysious

      It’s doubleplusgood, brother.

  26. creech

    Local newspaper today: 1) educator says “equity” only means each school kid is given the tools they need to learn. 2) AP headline is “Hunt for Attackers still on Six months after Jan. 6th.”
    The latter article goes into how FBI is encouraging informers to rat out friends and acquaintances who attended the “insurrection.” No mention, of course, on the elusive person who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt.

    • leon

      I like how it’s always “deadly” insurrection, when we know who was killed was killed by cops.

    • leon

      “educator says “equity” only means each school kid is given the tools they need to learn.”

      This is the education equivalent of “no one wants to take your guns”

  27. Sensei

    Cyberbullying Insurance Is Here. Do You Need It?

    Doesn’t the adage go the answer to a question asked in the title of an article is always, “no”.

    Premiums and coverage amounts for cyber-risk policies vary, but for a monthly premium of about $5, families can get coverage of up to $10,000 under Chubb’s cyberprotection plan, while a monthly premium of about $20 can get families coverage of up to $100,000.

    Best part is that it is crazy expensive for the limits offered. And I’m guessing making a claim is going to be as easy as filing for permanent long term full disability,

    • PieInTheSky

      Cyber bullying inc is a good business to start

      • Nephilium

        Don’t fuck with Chubb.

  28. Pope Jimbo

    I’m very torn about this new Minnesoda law

    State leaders hope to put a halt once and for all to incidents of lunch shaming in Minnesota schools by making clear which actions will not be tolerated when students fall behind on lunch payments.

    No pulling back of meals, no affixing of stickers or pins, and certainly no in-your-face throwaways.

    The details are part of a new state education finance bill passed last week that put a finer point on 2014 legislation saying schools could not “demean or stigmatize” students over unpaid lunch debts.

    I don’t think the kids should be shamed or demeaned. I do think parents should pay their lunch payments.

    It irritates me when people use kids like this as a shield. No one wants to dump on these kids, but why should the parents not have to pay their bills?

    • AlexinCT

      Funny how many things that used to encourage people to do the right thing out of shame now suddenly result in more of the bad things cause the shame factor has been removed… It’s almost like there is some correlation between action and reaction that people miss..

      • Fourscore

        I think Anoka schools were using some sort of card for all students, so no one knew who was paying and who got the free lunches, according to my grand kids. (They were on the free loader list)

    • l0b0t

      NYC answered that problem, actually it was the stigma of receiving subsidized lunch, by making school lunches and breakfasts free for all students (breakfasts are also available all Summer long).

      • Rat on a train

        Right now, anyone can swing by a local school for a week’s worth of food. No requirements for kids enrolled, no requirement that you live in the district. Just show up and get your free shit.

      • rhywun

        It was never a stigma in my day. But kids were a lot poorer back then.

        I don’t see poor kids any more. I see kids with nice cell phones and clothes more expensive that anything I own.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Guarantee if you talk to the parents they say they are poor. Priorities don’t exist to these people.

    • Festus

      Yeah, pretty mean-spirited to make sport of the poor kid that has holes in his socks. So far as the parents? They should feel the shame.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Nevada pretty much opened up ‘free lunch’ to everyone. Regardless of income.

      It is retarded but makes more sense than picking and choosing based on the poverty limits of $70,000 or what ever the ridiculous line was.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Rights created or saved

    The Biden administration plans to issue a new rule to protect the rights of farmers who raise cows, chickens and hogs against the country’s largest meat processors as part of a plan to encourage more competition in the agriculture sector.

    The new rule that will make it easier for farmers to sue companies they contract with over unfair, discriminatory or deceptive practices is one of several steps that the White House plans to announce in the next few days. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also expected to tighten the definition of what it means for meat to be labeled a “Product of USA” to exclude when animals are raised in other countries and simply processed in the United States.

    Some farmer advocacy groups have pressed for these changes for several years but Congress and the meat processing industry have resisted change. A USDA official familiar with the White House’s plan said an executive order is expected to be announced this week that will clear the way for the new rules.

    The regulation will make it easier for farmers to bring complaints under the Packers and Stockyards Act and is similar to one the Trump administration killed four years ago. That rule was first proposed in 2010.

    ——-

    Chicken and pork producers, for example, often must enter long-term contracts with companies such as Tyson Foods and Pilgrim’s Pride that farmers say lock them into deals that fix their compensation at unprofitably low levels and force them deep into debt.

    Previously, major meat companies have defended the system as fair; it calls for farmers to provide barns and labor to raise chickens while the companies provide chicks, feed and expertise. The North American Meat Institute, which represents meat processors, said the proposed rule would likely encourage “costly, specious lawsuits.”

    But Bill Bullard, who leads a trade group representing farmers and ranchers, said the change should better protect individuals in their dealings with the four major meat companies, which together control roughly 70 percent of U.S. beef production.

    It’s slavery, is what it is.

    I wonder h0w Tyson and Smithfield got so big. Must have been that unregulated Wild West Kkkapitalism I have been hearing so much about.

  30. Count Potato

    “Biden’s new dilemma: How to slash housing costs for low-income borrowers

    A long-awaited Supreme Court decision last month gave President Joe Biden the ability to remove the Trump-era leader of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and he wasted no time.

    President Joe Biden’s move to fire the top U.S. mortgage regulator is triggering calls from fellow Democrats to use the agency to expand access to loans for lower-income people, who have struggled to buy homes since the financial crisis.”

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/05/biden-housing-dilemma-low-income-497921

    What could possibly go wrong?

    • Festus

      :Rocky voice: “Not again!”

    • PieInTheSky

      What could possibly go wrong? – no way to tell something like this was never tried in the history of humanity

    • juris imprudent

      Expanding lending to people that can’t afford housing – truly a problem we have never confronted before. Thankfully we have Top.Men on this and we can trust that they will come up with a solution that has no negative side effects.

  31. PieInTheSky

    Which policies will catalyze the post-pandemic economic recovery? @noahpinion
    recommends that the government should actively participate, especially by reforming and expanding immigration, reshoring critical supply chains, and upgrading infrastructure.

    https://twitter.com/SethiClarity/status/1412537088923344906

    low taxes and low regulations are apparently relics of a bygone era

    • leon

      Your suggestion could do a lot to reshore supply chains.

  32. Pope Jimbo

    Finally Minneapolis is addressing important issues

    “I don’t know how to talk about what it’s like to live on ‘Columbus Avenue’ without standing on a soapbox talking about everything that is wrong with colonization,” Quito Ziegler said at the Oyate Avenue information sharing and community meeting in Minneapolis.

    ‘Oyate Avenue’ is the name that a group of community members would like to change ‘Columbus Avenue’ to. ‘Oyate’ was given to them by Makoce Ikikcupi, a land recovery project based in Minnesota. It simply, means “the people”.

    The group of community members heading the place-based initiative identify themselves as white-settlers from varied linages who live or have lived along “so-called Columbus Ave”.

    • Chipwooder

      If only the street names had been decolonized, St. George Floyd would still be with us.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    the government should actively participate, especially by reforming and expanding immigration, reshoring critical supply chains, and upgrading infrastructure.

    STRONGER TOGETHER

    • juris imprudent

      Like many small sticks, bundled tightly together.

  34. Count Potato

    “Lockdowns were a gift to Big Business designed to kill small biz….

    While Walmart and Target continue to beat earnings expectations, small businesses struggle to survive. Nearly two-thirds of them are hitting only half or less of their pre-lockdown monthly revenue levels, according to Alignable’s June Road to Recovery report.

    Then there are the businesses that never recovered at all. The Biden administration recently projected that more than 400,000 small businesses have closed permanently, but that’s likely a massive underestimate: Already by June 2020, the Hamilton Project had counted 400,000 closures. ­Opportunity ­Insights data, meanwhile, show that by the end of May 2021, there were 38.9 percent fewer small businesses open ­nationwide than at the outset of 2020.

    Small business forms the US economy’s backbone, accounting for more than 99 percent of all business entities, and before 2020, around half of growth domestic product and jobs.

    And these businesses bore the brunt of lockdowns. The Alignable report found that 37 percent of small businesses couldn’t pay their rent in full and on time. Millions of small-business owners have six-to-seven-figure debt liability, much of it personally guaranteed….”

    https://nypost.com/2021/07/05/lockdowns-were-a-gift-to-big-biz-designed-to-kill-small-biz/

    • banginglc1

      Small business forms the US economy’s backbone,

      I’m all for small businesses and fully understand how much big business uses government to hurt them and put them at an unfair disadvantage. But people stop acting like big business isn’t the actual backbone of the economy? Big Business is important too.

    • PieInTheSky

      A business which can’t pay the rent and a living wage while being locked down should not exist

    • PieInTheSky

      Also there is absolutely no need for rappel to have double p.

      • juris imprudent

        Take it up with the French.

      • PieInTheSky

        I did not realize they are your boss. I will escalate.

  35. Pope Jimbo

    Black cop in Minneapolis sues because his black boss demoted him

    A former senior Minneapolis police official stripped of his rank after publicly questioning the MPD’s hiring practices has sued the city, alleging that the move was part of a pattern of discrimination he endured as an outspoken Black officer pushing for change within the mostly white department.

    Art Knight, who dropped from the rank of deputy chief to lieutenant, contends in the lawsuit that he was demoted as retaliation after he “continued to tell the truth about hiring and recruitment policies that have a disparate impact on minorities who want to become police officers.”

    Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who is also Black, removed Knight from his position last October, the same day as an article appeared in the Star Tribune, in which Knight was quoted as saying that unless the MPD changed its tactics to recruit, train and promote, it would continue to “get the same old white boys.”

    • PieInTheSky

      good graft if you can get it

    • CPRM

      Green Bay is in the middle of hiring a new Police Chief. There are 4 finalists. 2 from Green Bay, 1 from Milwaukee and 1 from…Portland, OR. Fucksake. Good thing I don’t spend as much time there as I used to.

  36. Chipwooder

    Here’s one of the dumbest things you can read today.

    The cause of all this was a massive, stubborn “heat dome” that parked itself on top of the region and refused to move. As you know, it is not possible to definitively attribute any specific weird, unprecedented weather event to climate change. But a pattern of increasingly frequent, weird, unprecedented weather events is precisely what climate scientists warned us about.

    They also warned about other catastrophic phenomena. According to the Yale School of the Environment, sea level in the Miami area has risen by a foot since 1900 — with most of the increase taking place since the Champlain Towers complex in Surfside, Fla., was built 40 years ago. It is possible, perhaps likely, that some design or construction flaw led to the building’s shocking collapse. But greater-than-anticipated exposure to the corrosive effects of intrusive seawater certainly did not improve the building’s structural integrity, and could have diminished it.

    “It’s not possible to blame these things on ‘climate change’, but watch as I blame these things on ‘climate change’!”

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Papiere, bitte

    • CPRM

      Fingerprints! #SCIENCE!

      Yet it also became clear, over time, that fingerprinting wasn’t as rock solid as boosters would suggest. Police experts would often proclaim in court that “no two people have identical prints”—even though this had never been proven, or even carefully studied. (It’s still not proven.)

      Although that idea was plausible, “people just asserted it,” Mnookin notes; they were eager to claim the infallibility of science. Yet quite apart from these scientific claims, police fingerprinting was also simply prone to error and sloppy work.

      • R C Dean

        Isn’t proving “no two people have identical prints” impossible?

      • kbolino

        Practically speaking, yes. But that’s still confusing the map and the terrain. A fingerprint is assessed for evidentiary purposes against limited-resolution imperfect copies, whether they be stored in ink or RAM. It’s almost certainly the case that no two people in real life have physically identical prints, but that doesn’t mean their prints are guaranteed to be distinguishable by humans or computers.

    • nw

      Not much of a threat to *my* freedom, and I wasn’t under the impression
      that the Germans had much freedom to be threatened.

      I think the rubicon is crossed with mandatory ID in the first place.
      Putting biometrics on it isn’t much more intrusive than it is already.

  37. DEG

    Happy Birthday Banjos!

    PA State Senator buries relative “killed by gun violence”, and the usual suspects call for “gun safety laws”

    Lennora Mahmoud quietly bent over in the midafternoon heat, gingerly grabbed two fistfuls of earth, and sprinkled them over the ground where a bouquet of red roses lay and her 21-year-old son, Salahaldin, had just been laid to rest.

    His body was buried in Upper Darby by family and friends — scores of them — who took turns shoveling dirt onto the grave while mourning Mahmoud, one of two young men fatally shot during a July 4 cookout in West Philadelphia.

    Among those mourning Mahmoud was Sharif Street, the state senator who hours earlier on Tuesday stood with other lawmakers in the shadow of City Hall in what’s become a familiar scene: public officials and community advocates standing together after tragedy and calling for stronger gun-safety laws.

    This time, tragedy hit Street’s own family. Mahmoud, who was starting his own business and was described as “always smiling,” was the cousin of Street’s wife, April. The couple said Mahmoud was like a nephew to them.

    • Chipwooder

      It took three people to write that?

      • DEG

        Grifting is tough work.

    • Akira

      one of two young men fatally shot during a July 4 cookout in West Philadelphia.

      I understand that his mother is scared, but we need to focus on the guys who were making trouble in that neighborhood.

      • PieInTheSky

        booo

      • Count Potato

        LOLOLOL

    • wdalasio

      shot during a July 4 cookout in West Philadelphia

      A tragedy, admittedly. But, a tragedy of “gun safety laws”? Almost certainly not. Unless West Philadelphia has seen some sort of renaissance since I left the Philadelphia area, it’s a ghetto. The people killing other young men in these neighborhoods aren’t otherwise responsible, law-abiding types. As a result, more draconian gun laws very likely would have had no effect on whether Mahmoud got killed. It only would have made life miserable for responsible, law-abiding gun owners.

  38. DEG

    Carla Sands joins PA Senate Race

    Carla Sands, the former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, launched a campaign for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, with an opening video emphasizing her “Christian values” and ties to former President Donald Trump.
    “The radical left isn’t looking out for you,” Sands says in the video. “Every child should have access to an outstanding education. That’s why I will stand up to woke culture, censorship, and critical race theory.”
    While Sands until recently lived in one of Los Angeles’ most exclusive neighborhoods, the video points to her childhood in Cumberland County, near Harrisburg, and depicts her amid sweeping farmland as she stresses her support for farmers and Pennsylvania’s energy economy.
    “This is where Carla grew up and helped raise her brothers and sisters to have the Christian values and the servant’s heart her parents instilled in her,” a narrator says. The video prominently includes photos of her with Trump in the Oval Office and concludes with a vow to “put Pennsylvania first.”

    • PieInTheSky

      What is strange is for such and old publication they only seem to get 2 retweets and 3 likes for each thing they post

  39. DEG

    Nashua, NH women deny affiliation with Proud Boys

    Two Nashua women who are considering running for the school board said they have been wrongly accused of a connection to the political far right, after a photo circulated on social media of them in a group of parents that included a man in a Proud Boys T-shirt.
    Allison Dyer and Alicia Houston said Tuesday they are not affiliated in any way with the neo-fascist group, and that the man “photobombed” them.
    State Rep. Debra Stevens, D-Nashua, shared the image several times on social media, condemning Houston and Dyer for “hateful and destructive” values.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Why do I suspect that ‘Proud Boys Tee-Shirt’ means, ‘Vaguely Patriotic Tee-Shirt’

      *Looks at article*

      I hate being right about these things.

      • CPRM

        It’s YELLOW! YELLOW!

      • DEG

        Yeah, I suspect this is a set-up.

      • Sean

        The only one in a mask…hmmmm…

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah…its a yellow shirt. The connection comes from the hand gesture. I am going with DEG…setup

    • leon

      Neo fascist?

  40. DEG

    You mean Orange Man Bad being gone doesn’t fix everything?

    President Joe Biden routinely praises his Canadian counterpart in the warmest manner, as American chief executives – with one recent exception – have done for decades. And U.S. officials go out of their way to stress the shared vision that unites the two trading partners.
    But less has changed in the U.S.-Canada trade relationship than some expected when Biden defeated former president Donald Trump, promising an end to his abrasive “America First” policies and celebrating the virtues of alliances.
    Almost six months into the Biden administration, the United States and Canada are at odds over a range of trade policies, undermining the harmonious message both sides stress in public.

    • The Other Kevin

      He warmly praises his Canadian counterpart, but the first thing he did was to cancel a major pipeline project. I’m not so sure about that “shared vision” thing.

    • leon

      ” promising an end to his abrasive “America First” policies and celebrating the virtues of alliances”

      You know who else had an America first attitude and was suspicious of alliances

  41. leon

    Fox News:

    “Veterans demand Joe Biden take action for Afghan allies.”

    Yes, but ignore the Swiss Servators, and Ozzy’s and other glib vets who are adamantly against it. Stay evil Fox.

    • Rat on a train

      We aren’t proper veterans.

  42. rhywun

    Is it just me or are recent events more derpily depressing than usual…?

    Muh country – seriously, WTF?

    • leon

      Oddly the liberty movement is replete with people who are willing to do the demoralizing for their enemies.

      It helps to limit news intake even from friendly sources. They always have to be on the next story and bad news sells.

      • wdalasio

        It helps to limit news intake even from friendly sources. They always have to be on the next story and bad news sells.

        If some of those friendly sources weren’t celebrating or excusing the bad news, it might help.

    • PieInTheSky

      It is just you. You were too optimistic in your youth.

    • Count Potato

      It’s not just you.

  43. PieInTheSky

    If you were given $10,000 cash on the condition that it could only be spent on fun stuff AND you had to spend it all in the next 24 hours, what would you spend it on?

    Whiske

    • Rat on a train

      electronics

      • rhywun

        Yup. A kick-ass computer and accessories.

    • Chipwooder

      A jet ski

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Guns and ammo

      • R C Dean

        Prolly this.

    • CPRM

      Is it cash, untraceable cash?

    • l0b0t

      3 pounds of really good weed. Split that into 1360 gram portions and sling those at $25 each. That $10,000 turns into $34,000.

    • Animal

      I could use a new ATV.

    • EvilSheldon

      A few cases of ammo, a new guitar, two new computer monitors, and some custom-made sex stuff.

    • Akira

      Lumber.

      I have fun building stuff out of it, and it’s fucking absurdly expensive right now.

  44. Count Potato

    “Trump to sue Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey: report

    Former President Donald Trump, who was kicked off Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms earlier this year, will reportedly announce class-action lawsuits Wednesday against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

    Trump is expected to announced the news at an 11 a.m. ET press conference, Axios reported.

    The legal effort will be supported by the America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit formed earlier this year by alumni of the Trump administration…”

    https://nypost.com/2021/07/07/donald-trump-to-sue-mark-zuckerberg-jack-dorsey-report/

  45. Count Potato

    “CNN just aired a lengthy report from Elle Reeve (@elspethreeve) that mocked parents protesting Critical Race Theory, saying they’ve been indoctrinated by Fox News “propaganda.” Note the tone she uses w/ parents vs. CRT teachers.”

    https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1412746190098251784

    • Chipwooder

      Fun fact: when Elspeth Reeve was young and worked for the New Republic 15 years ago, she got them to hire her husband, then in the army, to write an “Iraq diary” under a pseudonym. He, of course, made up a bunch of ridiculously over-the-top stuff, and if I’m not mistaken the entire affair got Franklin Foer fired as editor of TNR.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        If you’re as ugly as Elspeth Reeve, you’ve got to lie a little to get ahead in this world.

    • B.P.

      Leftist robots reading talking points: Nobody is teaching critical race theory to kids. It’s an obscure graduate school thing.

      National Education Association: Don’t you dare take critical race theory away from public schools.

    • kbolino

      Calling everyone Hitler didn’t work, let’s try Mussolini.

      • Ownbestenemy

        All these references to terrible people and everyone under 30 is thinking…who?

      • waffles

        I’m sad that I’m no longer under 30

      • Rat on a train

        It is more difficult to chalk a number on the ceiling than on the floor.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That dipshit doesn’t have a clue about Mussolini beyond what she’s been told to say.

      • kbolino

        The less anyone knows, the better the effect of the accusation. It is not meant to inform or to critique, only to dismiss. Tomorrow, it will be a different accusation, and the fact that the accusations taken together are inconsistent, incoherent, or self-defeating is irrelevant.

      • B.P.

        She got her monsters mixed up. Hitler’s guys wore brown shirts, and Mussolini’s wore black.

    • wdalasio

      It looks like Mussolini’s Italy, the brown shirts…

      Brown shirts? Mussolini’s Italy? Let me guess…they proceeded to bomb Pearl Harbor?

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Black shirts would be too close to Antifa’s fashion. Might cause people to question what’s under the label.

    • R C Dean

      Mussolini’s followers were blackshirts, not brownshirts. It was Germany where the fascists wore brown and the commies wore black.

      Mussolini’s “March on Rome” involved no violence against the Capitol. It was a show of force only, not an actual attack on the government. Although, given the constant street clashes between the blackshirts and the commies and anarchists, I’m sure there was some violence.

      Mussolini did not overthrow the government, he took it over.

      Mussolini’s politics did have a racial component, but its probably nearly word for word something the critical race theorists would nod in agreement with. The world is made up of struggle between the races, but his view of race was oddly cultural, not genetic.

      She managed to get three, maybe three and a half, out of four things wrong.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Doesn’t matter if wrong because she knows it will be folded into a narrative and spread wide.

    • Chipwooder

      I’m willing to wager that she has no idea that Mussolini was a committed socialist.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I have only fallen for one sucker bet in my life. Nice try chip..nice try.

  46. PieInTheSky

    Switzerland is shutting down all three of its nuclear power plants, which provide a third of its energy generation.

    There are no plans to replace them with renewable energy because their political system has too many veto points to build anything.

    https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1412364529976098816

    If I was living in rural Switzerland I would not want fucking windmills in my view tbh

    • R C Dean

      Disappointing.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      So we’re getting rid of a zero emission power source to replace it with what exactly?

      • Sean

        Candles.

      • Ownbestenemy

        At their rate of wanting the human population to be living in caves, candles will be banned also — too much toxic chemicals and it could lead to eating meat…

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Eating meat. Donner party style.

      • R C Dean

        Candles emit CO2 when they burn. Verboten, kameraden.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Not more than 6 months ago my thought was they wanted a new Dark Ages. Now I am leaning more to a Year Zero and a renewal and rebirth of humanity in their god’s image.

      • wdalasio

        My guess is probably coal or natural gas. The only difference is that it will be generated elsewhere and sold to the Swiss. That said, the French may have some capacity to spare.

      • rhywun

        Natgas from Russia.

        Just like Germany.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Yes the handlers’ tactics of having him shout down and claim those are ‘negative questions’ is odd. I am assuming because there are other media members that are not from their approved lists present asking questions from a predetermined pool.

      • B.P.

        “Okay Mr. President. We have written all the answers to the questions you’ll be fielding on these note cards. If someone asks a question that is not on a note card, or you can’t find the right note card, just start yelling.”

      • Ownbestenemy

        Probably word for word.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Demented man lashes out at people. Not really news.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Maybe. I think he believes he is Obama Reborn and is wondering why some news agencies are asking all these questions about policy, administration goals, etc and not just stick to his dogs, ice cream and how pretty Jill is.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Just in case an Icon Bronco wasn’t expensive enough.

    Coyote-Engined 1979 Ford Bronco Sells for $213,000

    I love it, but not at this price.

    Two hunnert grand, for a Bronco II?

    Who’d a thunk it?

    *If I were going to educate myself on the intricacies of a “modern” engine, it would definitely be the DOHC Ford, and not the GM LS. Pushrods? In the 21st century? C’mon, man.

    • Sensei

      Those pushrods make for a more compact engine however.

      Naturally GM, though pushed to do so thanks to the green lobby, managed to screw up the LS with cylinder deactivation.

      • R C Dean

        Can the cylinder deactivation be deactivated?

      • Sensei

        With some aftermarket parts. Yes. If I recall the cam has to come out however to install them.

        You also need to reflash the ECM which in CARB states can sometimes be problematic.

        I think I remember reading about a software only solution. It will stop the deactivation and lower your chance of issues, but the failure prone parts remain in the motor and still can shit the bed.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Those pushrods make for a more compact engine however.

    Lower CG, too. But- high revving howl!

  49. Ownbestenemy

    I watched the Tomorrow War. I wouldn’t say it was Independence Day level fun but still fun.

    Some info, not really big spoilers: Devoid of most politics except a small portion and even then, no mention of cause. There was a moment about noncommittal government figures and then when things go right it was their plan all along that was nice dig.

    Like many type-cast actors, seeing Chris Pratt as something other than a loveable goofball took a couple of minutes to get used to as I was expecting some snarky quip after he was told something. Also, since all the professional critics are shitting on it and the user scores are in the 80s/90s, I believe they put out a decent movie that was just fun to watch.

    • prolefeed

      It was full of plot holes, and the showdown with the Final Boss was entirely predictable.