¡Martes por la tarde, enlaces mexicanos!

by | Feb 15, 2022 | Daily Links | 340 comments

So I set up some LED lights in my son’s room.  He had about 5M worth and helped me wrap it around the door frame.  Then we go to turn it on.

Nothing.

I check the instructions to make sure there was nothing I missed.

Nope. Still nothing.

Made in China used to mean something.  It can’t just be a sales gimmick like “go fuck yourself.”

 

How about a few links?

Mexico has a cultural appropriation law, complete with predictable results.

Stupid Trump, and his stupid avocado trade wars. Whoa, wait a minute…

My first job after I left the AF I came across a coworker from Venezuela.  We hung out a lot in the break room , likely because he noticed I was the same shade.  Incidentally, we spoke once about guns and he had the surprising opinion the AR pattern rifles were outdated and had a preference for the HK G36.  Turns out he immigrated here via Canada.

Possible plot twist:  Bolsonaro talks Putin into not invading [The] Ukraine.


You know how every likes to rag on the Chinese-American Olympians?  Its totally normal in futból.

 

Why not? Have a great Tuesday!

About The Author

mexican sharpshooter

mexican sharpshooter

WARNING: Glibertarians.com contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. https://youtu.be/qiAyX9q4GIQ?t=2m22s

340 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    Well, only three minutes late.

  2. Count Potato

    “A small blouse can take between 30 to 40 hours to make and might sell for as low as 200 pesos (less than $10 USD). For many Indigenous women, their textiles are the main source of income.”

    Put them on the internet?

    • Count Potato

      “The government can ban the sale of the designs, and prosecute, through the attorney general’s office, national and foreign companies that breach agreements or copy cultural heritage items. Penalties range from up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to 4 million pesos (around $200,000 USD).”

      Que?

    • Count Potato

      Ariadna Solis, art historian and PhD candidate at UNAM:

      “Solis explains that Indigenous women, especially when wearing traditional textiles, become highly visible in cities, like Mexico City, which leads to them becoming a target of racism. It is easier, says Solís, for a white woman to wear a waisted cotton blouse “inspired” by these communities’ colorful embroidery, than a heavy, expensive huipil (a traditional loose-fitting tunic worn by Indigenous women), which does not mark the female figure and is hard to wash.

      “When we use these textiles, we are marked by a whole colonial history of violence,” says Solis. “White women add this exotic, colorful part of their lives one day, and by taking off that garment, or even having it on, they never recognize all the degrees of violence that racialized women experience every day.””

      OFFS!!

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m unable to even figure out what they’re claiming.

        So I figure it’s bullshit.

  3. kinnath

    Thanks for the cover gif. I needed that today.

    • Ownbestenemy

      At first I was thinking again? I didn’t want it to become routine, but then the hand hits just the right spot and that thought flutters away.

    • Compelled Speechless

      Viva la ass gif!!!

    • Chipwooder

      It is indeed a top-notch GIF.

  4. Ted S.

    Your son had five million LED lights?

    • Compelled Speechless

      I think he means they’re made by 5M, the Mexican equivalent of 3M. It’s a higher number because of the exchange rate.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Five meters. Its like a yard, but for communists.

      • Rat on a train

        Does Mexico use metric electricity?

      • Spudalicious

        So 16′ in freedom measurement?

      • Animal

        So, just a bit short of a rod.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Disclaimer: I’m in construction so I understand the enormity of what I’m about to say.

        Controversial opinion:

        The metric system is superior to the backwards, arbitrary and non-sensical Imperial system in everyway imaginable and at some point we need to switch over.

        I’ll take your responses off-the-air as I run screaming from the torches and pitchforks.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Pint. A proper serving of beer is a pint.

        Otherwise calculating between measures makes metric much more convenient.

      • db

        Quick, what’s half of a quarter of a centimeter?

        Ok, now, what’s half of a quarter of an inch?

      • Ted S.

        If you have a hole in the wall that’s 5cm by 7cm, how much is it?

        What if you have a hole that’s 1-7/8″ x 2-3/4″?

      • MikeS

        You mean 1.875″ X 2.75″?

      • Zwak, holding the spinal column of JFK wrapped in Marilyn Monroes neglegie

        You can use a ruler?

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        An eighth of a centimeter?

        I can work with measurements in either system and generally can do rough calculations in my head.

        One thing that I am firm on: It is ludicrous that the freezing point of water is anything other than zero.

      • Zwak, holding the spinal column of JFK wrapped in Marilyn Monroes neglegie

        0* is no molecular movement. Anything else is arbitrary.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        Yeah, but it’s not real-world. In the real world I want to know if the moisture falling from the sky is liquid or solid. Is the road going to be icy? Is my plumbing going to be okay?

        If Fahrenheit simply subtracted 32 degrees that would be fine. Water boils at 180F? Fine. But water freezes at zero.

      • ron73440

        When I was a framing carpenter in Okinawa, it was simpler to use metric, because they would just call out a number for the cut length.

        The only downside was we were using 4’X8′ plywood, sso walls were 16″ centered studs.

        We all marked our metric tape measures for 16″.

      • Rat on a train

        arbitrary
        What is a meter? A kilogram? Why is a liter not a cubic meter?

        Metric calculations are easier.

      • Compelled Speechless

        I don’t know all the answers, but apparently every measurement in metric has a basis in nature. For example, a gram is based on the weight for a cubic centimeter of water.

      • Zwak, holding the spinal column of JFK wrapped in Marilyn Monroes neglegie

        How many metric hours do you work?

        By the way, nothing in metric is based on nature. It is all based on a committee. For example, a meter is based on 1/4 of the circumference of the earth. Really, why not the whole circumference? Because then it wouldn’t be close to a yard. No, the metric system is based on everything being arbitrarily assigned to a base-ten scale. But the earth, isn’t.

        (and a gram is now based on Planks constant. Which is a revision centuries after the whole fucking system was created.)

      • Tundra

        Not even remotely controversial. I often used metric in woodworking – it’s easier.

      • Mojeaux

        I wrote a DIYing heroine who used metric measurements. /shilling

      • hayeksplosives

        The practical problem right now is that the machine shops that we outsource fabrication to are all tooled in Imperial, and the machinists are used to dealing in fractions of inches or that charming bastardization known as the “mil” of inches.

        So while all the government customers insist in the contracts that we use metric, in reality it introduces a lot of potential for computational errors when the prototypes and final deliverables are fabricated.

        It’s also amusing to have the customers ask us how big something is, and when we answer in millimeters, they immediately request what it is in inches. Dude, you’re the one who insisted on metric in the first place.

      • Compelled Speechless

        This is why I put in a disclaimer acknowledging the enormity of the proposal. No individual could comprehend all the changes that would have to take place in every single industry. There would be a massive number of problems and I imagine large short term losses in efficiency and money for the calculation errors that would happen alone. All that would be temporary and in the long term, reduce the problems associated with needing to transcribe for things like trading.

      • Zwak, holding the spinal column of JFK wrapped in Marilyn Monroes neglegie

        The reason that most countries were able to switch to metric in the sixties or seventies is that, with a couple of exceptions, none of those countries that changed were actual manufacturing countries. Most of the countries
        using the metric system were in Europe and had gone down the metric rabbit hole in the years after the French revolution. The two exceptions were England and Japan. England switched from Whitworth machine tooling (55* thread pitch) to SAE (60*) around ’60, and when they decided to switch to metric around 70, it damn near killed the manufacturing industry in England, and cause as a secondary effect an intense amount of social unrest as finances took the hit. Japan was already in the process of switching over when they started the eastern side of WWII and were halfway there when they made the final push in ’65. They were also just beginning to become the major manufacturing center they would later become, so there wasn’t nearly as much to change over.

        In the US, we have used USS and then SAE as our base industrial measurements, and both are based on the inch system, usually laid out in .001’s for machining purposes. And, as the largest manufacturing system went the push came, trying to get everyone to replace trillions of dollars of machinery with newer stuff that conformed to a new system, machinery that wasn’t ever common here, especially during a recession? Well, that is a nogo.

        Up above, you were stating that all of the metric system is based on nature, well, the avoirdupois system is actual nature in use. A bushel of wheat is a bushel (basket). An inch is roughly your thumb, etc. For most of time, that worked perfectly, and when it was no longer accurate enough, it was standardized.

      • Zwak, holding the spinal column of JFK wrapped in Marilyn Monroes neglegie

        Police contracts usually specify that everything needs to be in metric also. When delivery takes place, every time we would be required to explain in real measurements.

      • hayeksplosives

        The practical problem right now is that the machine shops that we outsource fabrication to are all tooled in Imperial, and the machinists are used to dealing in fractions of inches or that charming bastardization known as the “mil” of inches.

        So while all the government customers insist in the contracts that we use metric, in reality it introduces a lot of potential for computational errors when the prototypes and final deliverables are fabricated.

        It’s also amusing to have the customers ask us how big something is, and when we answer in millimeters, they immediately request what it is in inches. Dude, you’re the one who insisted on metric in the first place.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        This is what happens when you try to mix different measuring standards.

      • MikeS

        and the machinists are used to dealing in fractions of inches or that charming bastardization known as the “mil” of inches.

        Those would be some very odd machinists. The measurement of a machinist is a “thou”. As in a thousandth of an inch: 0.001″

      • UnCivilServant

        The mil is 1/1000 of a dollar.

      • MikeS

        For the tolerances your kind of work calls out, they may speak in occasionally in “tenths”, as in one ten-thousandth of an inch: 0.0001″

      • hayeksplosives

        The “mil” is a thousandth of an inch, coming from the Latin “mille”. A “thou” and a “mil” are the same thing.

        Mil is a very normal term in North America.

      • hayeksplosives

        I should have said the mil is the term commonly used in defense, which is my field. Artillery bearings, mortars etc, and military handheld compasses all are marked and called out in mils.

      • Don escaped Texas

        Mil is a very normal term in North America.

        I find it’s more common with older, traditional processes and suspect that established firms with such folk and processes get more defense/classified work than others….so it persists there.

        In my lifetime common, affordable processes have moved from ten mils (0.010″ which I would call “ten thousandths”) to mils to tenths.

        Four decades ago a lifetime of man-hours was spent measuring parts, correcting tools, arguing over tolerances. With the machining tolerances today and the less ambiguous GD&T, common, affordable components are produced basically exactly as the original CAD drew it….with I would estimate two orders of magnitude less effort or error. It is a stunning time to be alive.

      • MikeS

        Wikipedia:

        Usage notes on mil versus thou
        In the United States, mil was once the more common term,[9][10] but as use of the metric system has become more common, thou has replaced mil among most technical users to avoid confusion with millimetres.[9][10][11] Today both terms are used, but in specific contexts one is traditionally preferred over the other.

      • robc

        Wrong. If metric was base 12 instead of base 10, I would agree. That would require changing our entire number system, but that would make it better.
        Being divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6 is better than being divisible by 2 and 5.

        Imperial units have problems, but division is not one of them.

        How many centimeters in a 1/3rd of a meter? How many inches in a third of a yard?

        Check and mate.

        Also, if you switch to base 12, metric time works out.

      • robc

        Also, also, the base units in metric suck.

        Are we using cgs metric or mks metric? And how come neither is using 3 base units? This is what happens when you let the French do these things. The Germans or Swiss would have got it right.

        Or possible some 12 finger Carribeans.

      • robc

        See, for example, Planck units. Germans don’t screw these things up.

      • hayeksplosives

        I am with you on this, robc.

      • DEG

        I knew it would be that video.

      • db

        That’s the point I was trying to make above–the divisibility of the base is the important part. It’s so much easier to divide distances with imperial units.

        It also goes for other important quantities like mass and derived units like speed.

      • Animal

        Sorry, but I’m going to continue measuring distances in chain, and you’ll just have to live with it.

      • Zwak, holding the spinal column of JFK wrapped in Marilyn Monroes neglegie

        Arshins or GTFO!

        (Tatami will be accepted as a substitute standard)

      • Animal

        Bzzt! Tatami is a measure of area, not distance.

        Years ago one of my favorite Kyoto hangouts was a place we called “the Six” as the Japanese name translated, more or less, into “Six Tatami Mats.” And, yes, that’s about how big it was. Total capacity, maybe five, if they were all on good terms.

    • db

      Do you even Latin, bro? 5M is five thousand. Five million would be 5MM.

    • limey

      That took me a second to parse correctly. ‘Mericans using metric throws me for a loop sometimes.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        You have my apologies.

      • limey

        Not at all, Señor Sharpshooter. I hope you get it figured out.

      • hayeksplosives

        When I was living in Stockholm, I watched a lot of BBC. It amused me to see the weatherman pointing at temperature maps in Celsius and wind speeds in km/hr, while at the same time saying verbally what they were in Fahrenheit and mi/hr to the exclusion of what was displayed.

        I can only assume that particular weatherman was making some sort of polite protest.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Or just translating

      • hayeksplosives

        It was all in the Queen’s English, whether written or oral, being a BBC broadcast. The guy just apparently couldn’t bring himself to use anything metric or Celsius.

        The unit of measure known as the stone is semi baffling to me. It’s not 12 pounds, it’s 14 pounds. WTF?

      • grrizzly

        I forgot how many pounds are in one stone probably twenty times.

      • DEG

        Was that before or after the EU forced the Brits to switch to metric?

        I remember reading about more than a bit of pushback against government attempts to force folks to use metric. Many folks just kept on using Imperial units despite the government’s action.

      • Zwak, holding the spinal column of JFK wrapped in Marilyn Monroes neglegie

        Dude, she is younger than me!

        As an aside, I read somewhere the British are not legally allowed to have signage in metric, but they have been abusing this since the Blair admin, at least. There is a small movement afoot to change everything back to miles.

      • DEG

        I thought the push from the EU was in the 90s.

        That’s when I remember reading these stories, and they all had the context of the EU pushing Britain to do something Britain didn’t want to do.

  5. UnCivilServant

    Does that diagram say “insert credit card to turn on lights”?

    • Rat on a train

      Do they give a discount if you go with an annual subscription instead of monthly.

  6. Rat on a train

    Mexico has a cultural appropriation law
    So no Cinco de Mayo this year?

    • UnCivilServant

      Of course not, Cinco De Mayo is a US holiday, not a mexican one

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      PJ died about two decades ago as far as I’m concerned.

      • Chipwooder

        That long ago? I would have said more like 5-10 years.

      • Compelled Speechless

        His son is about 1/3 on good takes with his Reason column. I’m pretty sure that batting average is the leader over there by far currently.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Oops, I’m thinking of JD Tuccille,

      • limey

        I used to like 2-Chili’s pieces. I haven’t been to TOS in such a long time. Is Robby still cranking out the occasional solid article?

      • MikeS

        Is Robby still cranking out the occasional solid article?

        To be sure.*

        *I don’t’ really know, just wanted to say that.

    • Rat on a train

      Did he endorse Hillary in his will?

    • Count Potato

      R.I.P.

    • Tonio

      He was funny, once upon a time.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      Is that Beto’s dad?

    • wdalasio

      O’Rourke’s problem was that he stuck around too long. The pretentions and absurdities that he used to mock became his friends and acquaintances.

      • hayeksplosives

        Well put.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I met him right after the recording of a Wait, Wait where he was a panelist. He was friendly, engaging, and was sincerely delighted that I remembered him from his days at Harry (an obscure Baltimore underground newspaper of my early teens). Everything I could have wanted in a celebrity meeting.

      I cannot count the number of real laughs I got from Reptile and Holidays. RIP, PJ.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        He was hilarious when writing for National Lampoon and did some great non-political articles in Playboy. Never read his books (although I should sometime). I agree, though, that he got a lot more uninteresting when he turned a lot less libertarian.

        RIP, at any rate.

  7. Chipwooder

    My kids got those LED strip lights to line the walls and ceilings in their rooms, too. 3 of 4 strips were good to go, one was a dud.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      What’s up Chipper?

      • Chipwooder

        Howdy. How’s tricks? Life done been busy, so I’ve been scarce.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Trying not to hate everyone too much.

        Otherwise, just being middle-aged.

        Maybe they’re the same thing.

      • Chipwooder

        A battle I usually don’t do well with. My misanthropy only grows with age.

      • Tonio

        Welcome back.

      • Chipwooder

        Thanks! How ya been?

      • Tonio

        Doing good, thanks.

      • Chipwooder

        I live in Mechanicsville now. If you or Scruffy ever find your way up around here, let me know. Would love to have lunch with you guys again sometime and there are a few surprisingly good lunch spots locally.

      • ron73440

        There is a meetup on Feb 26th in Fredericksburg at Gourmeltz.

      • Chipwooder

        Hmmmm…I tihnk my daughter’s pinewood derby is that day. If not, I’ll be there.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Ya’ll need to come out to the southwestern part of the state.

  8. Shpip

    It was only in 1997 that the U.S. lifted a ban on Mexican avocados that had been in place since 1914 to prevent a range of weevils, scabs and pests from entering U.S. orchards.

    The large avocado seed weevil (Heilipus lauri) has been largely controlled, leaving only the diminutive seed weevil as a potential threat, and a minor one at that. In this case, as in most, it was imperative to choose the lesser of two weevils.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The Royal Navy approves of this joke.

      • Shpip

        My sense of humor used to be pretty juvenile, but it’s been Maturin over time.

      • Compelled Speechless

        You shouldn’t have picked that one, it’s a bit rotten.

      • Ted S.

        Swiss is disturbed by the banality of weevils.

  9. juris imprudent

    OT/for TPTB – looks like my next installment isn’t going to make today, apologies for creating a scheduling hole, and for disappointing my audience. I’ll make up for it.

    • Lackadaisical

      Just the worst.

      J/K hope everything is alright and thanks for doing what you do.

      • juris imprudent

        All is well, just had a week’s vacation and didn’t push it far enough along before leaving.

    • Tonio

      Thanks. We have something scheduled.

    • UnCivilServant

      “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      The walls are closing in.

      • The Gunslinger

        They got the Clintons for sure this time. And nothing else happened.

      • hayeksplosives

        No reasonable prosecutor…

    • Compelled Speechless

      You’d think the press would know by now that she’s not going to answer any questions that aren’t slipped to her ahead of time.

      • UnCivilServant

        The ambush interview is not about getting answers, but about getting them on tape not answering. “What are you hiding?”

  10. Semi-Spartan Dad

    So I set up some LED lights in my son’s room. He had about 5M worth and helped me wrap it around the door frame.

    LED tape? Make sure you’re soldering connections with heat shrink wrap instead of using the plastic connectors. I ran ~10 meters above and below the kitchen cabinets a few months ago. Worked perfectly. If you’re using the connectors, that might be your issue instead of the tape.

    The big box stores sell tape under a 3rd party name that I think Armacost makes, but the specs are much worse than than what you get buying Armacost. It’s a lot cheaper on Amazon though than direct from manufacturer.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I plan to return these to Amazon, and use the proceeds to pick up a decent lighting strip from Home Despot.

    • The Other Kevin

      Work like the Devil, meaning he’ll lower gas prices to $0.10 a gallon, then BAN ALL CARS.

    • rhywun

      He’s never had a real job, has he?

      Oh and as usual I’ll take “Shit That Never Happened” for a thousand, Alex.

  11. kinnath

    From the book of faces: Dear Bloomers, it’s official: a Bloom County animated series is in the works.

    It’s about 30 years too late. I expect it will be totally woke.

    • UnCivilServant

      What on earth is ‘Bloom County’?

      • kinnath

        One of the best comic strips ever produced — 30+ years ago.

      • SDF-7

        Think Doonesbury — only funny.

      • Lackadaisical

        You know, I never realized there was a difference until today.

      • UnCivilServant

        So, one of those I learned to habitually skip as a child because they made no sense?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Bill the Cat — Ack thbbft!

        And Opus the Penguin.

      • UnCivilServant

        So, yes, one of those I learned to skip because they made no sense.

        Why did they insist on shoving them into the space with children’s content?

      • kinnath

        Back then, topical/political comics geared at adults appeared with all the other strips. Segregating them out to other pages was actually a bad thing. They needed to be where teens could find them as they grew up.

      • UnCivilServant

        I read fewer comics as I became a teen, and those that I’d learned to ignore at a young age got less attention than even the Ads. I’d stopped completely be the time I started thinking about politics.

      • kinnath

        Bill the Cat was explicitly a criticism of Garfield.

      • Bobarian LMD

        It was no Calvin and Hobbes.

      • Nephilium

        Done by local (to me) legendary recluse Bill Watterson. In the long ago, he used to wander through the book stores (that should give an idea of how long ago), and surreptitiously autograph random collections of Calvin and Hobbes books on the shelves. Rumor is that he stopped when several of the book stores started to recognize him, follow him, then pull the books off that were signed to mark up.

      • juris imprudent

        Far Side >> Calvin and Hobbes >> Dilbert >> Bloom County

      • kinnath

        Early Dilbert belongs in that list.

        Dilbert has been terrible for more than a decade.

      • juris imprudent

        Probably been longer than that since I read it regularly.

      • Zwak, holding the spinal column of JFK wrapped in Marilyn Monroes neglegie

        Needs more Pogo, but essentially correct.

      • Nephilium

        At one point I was stuck in a hotel with a Mary Kay convention (me and two of my coworkers were there for work). They kept trying to sell the group of us cosmetics, ignoring our slovenly IT appearance. We were finally able to get free by using the line from Attack of the Mary Kay Commandos, “Look… even their Uzis are pink!”

      • Tonio

        Ack, Pthtbbbb!

    • Sean

      It’s about 30 years too late. I expect it will be totally woke.

      Probably right. 🙁

    • DEG

      I tried reading the resurrected Bloom County.

      I was really happy to see it come back.

      And then… the neverending TDS and pro-Lil Rona Panic bullshit.

      • Chipwooder

        I assumed it would be like that so I’ve never looked at it. I prefer to have pleasant memories of the orginal.

      • db

        I was so terribly disappointed that Breathed went in for the establishment lines after all the years he spent satirizing them.

      • Compelled Speechless

        It’s been really pathetic to watch everyone who used to be edgy just become establishment schills. Rage Against Everyone Against the Machine anyone?

    • Sensei

      It will make Doonesbury seem balanced.

    • The Other Kevin

      Beavis and Butthead would like a word.

      • Compelled Speechless

        I didn’t watch it. Please don’t tell me Mike Judge has gone woke. I don’t think I can take it.

    • kinnath

      https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/bloom-county-animated-fox-berkeley-breathed-1235182440/amp/?fbclid=IwAR1-UQ1SVnBiV2nmjqgf36EQtaLhgTOuVBbnt0EazSjgeXx_T9myFmqoDww

      Just like the strip, the TV version of “Bloom County” will center “on a collapsed lawyer, a lobotomized cat and a penguin in briefs and fruit headwear living in the world’s last boarding house in the world’s most forgotten place deep in the dandelion wilds of FlyWayWayOver country. To wit, today’s America at a glance.”

      Steve Dallas can’t exist in the modern world. I don’t see how this can work.

      “At the end of ‘Alien,’ we watched cuddly Sigourney Weaver go down for a long peaceful snooze in cryogenic hyper-sleep after getting chased around by a saliva-spewing maniac, only to be wakened decades later into a world stuffed with far worse,” Breathed said in a statement. “Fox and I have done the identical thing to Opus and the rest of the Bloom County gang, may they forgive us.”

      Breathed will be executive producer. Maybe he can make it worthwhile. But, I am prepared to be disappointed.

  12. DEG

    To fight back against the plagiarism and dispossession of Indigenous art, Mexico has approved a law meant to protect and safeguard the cultural heritage of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities. It recognizes the collective right to intellectual property of these communities, calls for the creation of a National Registry of Cultural Heritage, and allows the government to prosecute theft of a cultural work. On the surface, it’s a bold step toward dealing with cultural appropriation and remedying some of the ways these communities continue to be marginalized.

    What could possibly go wrong? They had the best of intentions!

    • UnCivilServant

      Best of intentions? Like “New grift for the lawyers”?

    • Bobarian LMD

      Does this mean I can’t paint an Aztec Broad with big tits on to the hood of a ’65 Impala?

      • UnCivilServant

        Just don’t drive it south of the border.

      • Count Potato

        Better than painting an impala on a Pontiac Aztek.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Maybe they deserve Turdeau

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I would vote for Bieber over Trudeau, without knowing anything about what he thinks politcally.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Probably hard to be much worse?

    • rhywun

      I’d rather have a Bill Shatner donut.

  13. SDF-7

    This just in — Krugman is a moron. Winston’s Mom shocked… shocked, I say!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      In one sense he is correct.

      Krugman, protestations aside, doesn’t give a shit about poor people. Therefore the BLM protests didn’t hurt anybody by his estimation.

      The truckers however, have more of an impact on the laptop class by causing shortages of cake, therefore they are evil.

      • Chipwooder

        “The delivery of my Nespresso capsules is delayed! GODDAMNED TRUCKERS!”

      • SDF-7

        Of course he wants cake…. they all want cake….

      • kbolino

        It is simpler and baser than that:

        Friend-Enemy Distinction

        Krugman is protected. Even if the BLM protests were to impact his neighborhood or his bank account, they are on the friend side. Even if the anti-mandate protests weren’t to impact him in any way (and they won’t), they are on the enemy side.

        There is no further depth here to be found.

  14. The Late P Brooks
    • Surly Knott

      Thank you! One of my favorites.
      Joe’s uncle taught my Aristotle class /boring trivia

  15. Chipwooder

    You know how every likes to rag on the Chinese-American Olympians? Its totally normal in futból.

    You see this with Italy in sports like baseball and hockey frequently because Italian citizenship laws are fairly expansive if you had an Italian immigrant grandfather or great-grandfather. I could apply for Italian citizenship if I wanted to.

    Mike Piazza played for Italy in the World Baseball Classic, for example.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      I used to sail against a couple of guys who competed for Taiwan in the Olympics, because that’s where their dad was from. There’s no way they would have made it to the Olympics representing the US. In that situation, I don’t really have a problem with it.

    • grrizzly

      Representing a different country is very common in sports. Whining about Eileen Gu is pathetic.

      The US also benefits from it.
      The 36-year-old Canada native who gained U.S. citizenship just two months ago captured gold in the Olympic debut of monobob after a dominating performance on the sliding track.

      • Chipwooder

        I do think it’s a little different when you’re choosing to represent an abhorrent government like China, but it’s nothing I get worked up over either.

      • grrizzly

        These days I find the regimes in Canada and America only slightly less abhorrent.

      • Chipwooder

        Very true, though much as we suck, Canada going full Stasi puts them well in front of us.

  16. JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

    While out hiking this weekend there were two young woke chicks walking behind me. They were probably from UC Berkeley. “Blah, blah, blah, problematic…It’s not Gen Z’s responsibility to educate the older generations. That’s a totally valid opinion, but blah blah blah problematic… blah blah blah queer theory…” As we passed through a fence I held the gate open for them and smacked one of them on the ass and asked “Who’s your patriarch?” OK, I didn’t, but I should have.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Didn’t hold the gate, I hope. “Oops, am I clumsy!”

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        Oh I did hold the gate. I wanted to get a good look at them. I also was kind of hoping to provoke a comment from them about not needing a man to hold the gate for them, but no such luck. They actually gave me a cheerful smile and a thank you.

      • Chipwooder

        This reminds me – someone on Twitter put up a video of himself on some kind of video chat thing (I’m guessing it was a first meeting from a dating app or something) where he’s chatting amiably with a smiling woman……until he says “Why thank you, miss” when she says something complimentary. At that point, she starts shrieking hysterically about how could he say such a thing. It was surreal.

      • Zwak, holding the spinal column of JFK wrapped in Marilyn Monroes neglegie

        A simple “Patriarchy at work, ma’am.” would do perfectly.

    • UnCivilServant

      You should have put them out of our misery.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s not Gen Z’s responsibility to educate the older generations

      This particular attitude really ticks me off.

      They are simultaneously claiming the right to apply unspoken standards to others and declaring that they are under no moral obligation to defend those standards in debate.

      It’s an almost perfect expression of elitist condescension and ignorance.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        The attitude bothers me too, but on the other hand, at that age I think a lot of us thought that our parents, and by extension their generation, were stoopid. It’s amazing how much smarter my parents got as I got older.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Of course, but I never claimed the moral authority to not have to explain or defend my positions. That’s arrogance beyond belief, and a recipe for totalitarianism.

      • Spudalicious

        “How about you children stick you ignorance right in the pucker?”

      • Compelled Speechless

        The word you’re looking for is zealotry. To believe one’s own bullshit to the point where you think it’s self apparent and any thinking to the contrary is heresy.

      • juris imprudent

        Hubris baby – and so utterly unearned and undeserving. You really should have some reason to have that much self regard.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It’s the culmination of self-esteem curricula and participation trophies.

      • Compelled Speechless

        In a way. They’ve been rewarded for laziness and mediocrity in every other area. There’s open hostility towards people for excelling at anything. Intellectually they get pats on the back for conformity and admonished for critical, independent thought. Welcome to a world run by reactionaries and grievance mongers.

      • juris imprudent

        Of course now we go back to who did that rewarding. They didn’t fuck themselves up.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        ^^ correct.

        I’ll give you a hint. It wasn’t actually their parents that fucked them up, except in that they fed these poor kids into the meat grinder.

      • KSuellington

        Absolutely.

        It most certainly merits a spanking. Hopefully they were keeping those asses in shape.

      • wdalasio

        It’s not Gen Z’s responsibility to educate the older generations

        Sweetie, have you ever seen someone die? Someone you care about. And not, heard second hand, actually been there and seen it? Watched them slip away and know there’s not a damned thing you can do about it?

        Have you ever had to support anyone else? Hell, have you ever even had to support yourself? Have you ever been in a position where if you don’t come through you won’t eat and, worse still, someone you love won’t eat?

        How many books have you read that you weren’t assigned by a professor or a teacher?

        How many people over thirty do you talk to on any given day? And, no, your parents and professors don’t count.

        How many people who work with their hands can you count as friends?

        Have you ever been the victim of a violent crime? Been arrested?

        Face it. You’re a child. A child with an exceedingly high opinion of herself. I very much doubt you’ve lived enough life yet to be able to “educate” me on much of anything. It might seem like I’m treating you as an equal. I’m not. I’m indulging you because I believe that statements, opinions and arguments stand on their merits. But, don’t think for a minute that I’m doing so because I even consider you my peer.

      • Tundra

        *hits print*

        Perfection.

      • Compelled Speechless

        I got a little weepy reading that. Thank you.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Nice

      • MikeS

        That’s pretty damned awesome. Needs to go viral.

    • KSuellington

      I think a lot of the Glibs are really missing the point of JR’s little story and I’m a bit disappointed. Whether their silly little spoon fed boilerplate lefty sentiments had any merit is not the issue here. Did their asses have any resemblance to the Gif at the top of this page or not?

      • juris imprudent

        Well, they were out hiking, so that says something positive for their asses, though obviously not remarkable enough that JR saw fit to comment on them and instead was mildly surprised by their manners. I think we can very safely rule out any substantial resemblance to the Gif.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        I was with my wife, so I couldn’t really stare at their asses. I guess I could have, but I have more to fear from my wife than I did from those two. That said, it was a pretty strenuous hike, so they were in pretty good shape.

      • MikeS

        Hawt

      • KSuellington

        Hehheh. Right on, understandable indeed.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    to prevent a range of weevils, scabs and pests from entering U.S. orchards.

    That sounds racist. Somebody gotta pick dem apples.

    • Compelled Speechless

      The insect world is not sending us their best. Some, I assume are good pests.

  18. Drake

    Well, the original AR was designed in the 50’s… The G36 is probably a better military rifle – and a very nicely dressed up AR-18.

    • Sensei

      It’s German.

      I’m sure it’s a pleasure to shoot, but is it needlessly complicated and difficult to service?

      • Tonio

        [Golf klatschen]

      • juris imprudent

        The Thompson would like a word or two with you.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        You just described my ex-wife.

    • db

      Meh. There are some good reasons the AR is ubiquitous. The most complicated part of the entire rifle is the bolt/barrel extension. Probably the hardest part to machine is the barrel extension–it requires a broach or a shaper. I don’t think there’s a single other part I can think of that couldn’t be machined with a lathe and a milling machine. The cam pin slot in the bolt carrier is easily milled by an experienced machinist. The heat treating is probably pretty simple. Headspacing is done by adjusting the barrel thread shoulder and threading/pinning the extension on to match a given bolt.

      The lack of reciprocating mass off-bore-axis because of the direct gas impingement lends to exceptional accuracy potential and simple recoil forces.

      • Drake

        That accuracy potential does set (well made) ARs apart. Most militaries don’t really about accuracy past 200 yards.

    • EvilSheldon

      The G36 is a good tool for drawing out posuers. The less someone knows about shooting, the cooler they generally think the G36 is.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        +1 factory optics losing zero because the frame melted.

  19. DEG

    NH judge rejects lawsuit against gun store.

    Superior Court Judge David Ruoff ruled against two Manchester police officers injured in a 2016 shooting in a lawsuit the officers brought against a Derry gun store.

    “This is absolutely a great day for gun rights in New Hampshire,” said Sean List, the attorney for Chester Arms in Derry.

    Manchester officers Ryan Hardy and Matthew O’Connor were reportedly shot by Ian Macpherson in May 2016 when they tried to question him about a gas station armed robbery. Hardy was shot in the face and torso; O’Connor was treated for a gunshot wound to the leg, according to the Associated Press. Both officers have since returned to active duty.

    The officers brought a lawsuit against Chester Arms, the store where MacPherson bought his .40 caliber Smith and Wesson. They also sued the New Hampshire Department of Safety, claiming that the mentally ill MacPherson, who has a history of domestic violence, should never have been sold the gun in the first place.

    • UnCivilServant

      Any punitive sanctions for bringing the frivolous suit in the first place? Like disbarrment for their lawyer?

      • DEG

        HAH!

        That’s a good one.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Apocalypse porn

    A new report provides an alarming forecast for the US: Sea level will rise as much in the next 30 years as it did in the past 100 — increasing the frequency of high-tide flooding, pushing storm surge to the extreme and inundating vulnerable coastal infrastructure with saltwater.

    The interagency report, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows how scientists are increasingly confident that US coasts will see another 10 to 12 inches of sea level rise by 2050.

    The implications of that forecast are enormous.

    So terrifying.

    *goes back to watching ass slap gif*

    • Chipwooder

      Which is why wealthy people continue to buy beachfront property.

      • Sensei

        + 1 maskless Obama at beach home in Hawaii while surrounded by masked construction workers.

      • Chipwooder

        That motherfucker tore down Robin’s Nest! As if I needed more reason to hate him.

      • MikeS

        ^ this ^

    • rhywun

      Hilariously bullshit predictions aside, they might consider going after China who is by far the worst polluter, I mean if you want to follow their tenuous logic to its natural conclusion. And by 2050 it might be Africa. Have at it, NOAA.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      A new report provides an alarming forecast for the US: Sea level will rise as much in the next 30 years as it did in the past 100

      Want me to believe you? Sell all your things, put all the money in escrow, and go continue your climate evangelism with the fervor that it deserves. On Feb 15, 2052, the money will be released from escrow. If the sea levels have risen as much as they did between Feb 15, 1922 and now, you get to keep your money. One iota less, and I get it.

      • KSuellington

        If they did that they wouldn’t be able to buy the beachfront house they really want right now. They are so selfless that they don’t want some other poor unfortunate soul to buy it and have it flood within a decade or two.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    “Decades ago, powerful storms were what typically caused coastal flooding,” NOAA reports. Today, due to sea level rise, “even common wind events and seasonal high tides regularly cause [high-tide flooding] within coastal communities, affecting homes and businesses, overloading stormwater and wastewater systems, infiltrating coastal groundwater aquifers with saltwater, and stressing coastal wetlands and estuarine ecosystems.”

    Did those “affected coastal communities” mentioned even exist, decades ago?

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      “In Miami, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina, the frequency ballooned from two days in 2000 to five to 10 days in 2020.” I’m sure those numbers aren’t cherry picked. No need to show a chart with the frequency by year. And of course, no need to clarify whether it was 5 days, 10 days, or something in between in 2020. Given that it was only 2 years ago, how could they possibly know what the actual number was? Heck, it could have been 25 days.

      • Compelled Speechless

        They can’t keep an accurate count of the days because those damn anti-vaxxers have set science back centuries. Science is like Santa Clause, it only works if everyone believes in it really really hard.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        Good point. And Arabic numbers are white supremacy.

  22. Tundra

    The .gif that keeps on giving!

    Thanks Señor!

    Made in China used to mean something. It can’t just be a sales gimmick like “go fuck yourself.”

    Sure it can.

    Is the G36 less tedious to clean than an AR?

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to replace the whole rifle when it gets dirty

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I don’t know. Turns out they are illegal to import thanks to the administration of that rabid left winger, George HW Bush.

    • db

      Who cleans an AR?

      • Chipwooder

        Marines who are being punished.

      • ron73440

        I almost got in a fight with my Staff Sargent(E-6) when I was a Corporal(E-4) over that.

        I was the armory ustodian and we were cleaning weapons.

        He came in to inspect and was turning every weapon away, showing them dirty Q-tips.

        I saw him rubbing the Q-tips on a spot of dirt or something he had placed on the wall.

        CWAA

      • Drake

        Not even – it’s a compulsion embedded deep in my tiny brain by the Corps. If I fire any gun I own, even just a few times, it’s getting cleaned as soon as I get home.

      • Swiss Servator

        Me, quite often, in Afghanistan and Iraq…

    • EvilSheldon

      How the fuck is the AR tedious to clean?

      Field strip down to the upper/lower/BCG, punch the bore with a wet patch, scrub any big chunks of dirt or carbon off the bolt and bolt extension, spray out the lower with Gun Scrubbers, dry patch down the bore, re-lube, re-assemble. It literally takes five minutes.

      • Sean

        Almost five times longer than it takes to clean and lube an AK!

      • UnCivilServant

        Does not compute.

        You don’t just kick the bolt open and resume firing?

      • EvilSheldon

        It also takes longer to service and maintain an M1A2 Abrams versus a T-72, and for the same reason.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Disinfo machine

    U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a conservative financial news website with a significant American readership of amplifying Kremlin propaganda and alleged five media outlets targeting Ukrainians have taken direction from Russian spies.

    The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia.

    Zero Hedge denied the claims and said it tries to “publish a wide spectrum of views that cover both sides of a given story.” In a response posted online Tuesday morning, the website said it “has never worked, collaborated or cooperated with Russia, nor are there any links to spy agencies.”

    The officials briefed The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence sources. It was the latest effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to release U.S. intelligence findings about Russian activity involving Ukraine as part of a concerted push to expose and influence the moves of Russian President Vladimir Putin. U.S. officials previously accused Putin of planning a “false-flag” operation to create a pretext for a new invasion of Ukraine and detailed what they believe are final-stage Russian preparations for an assault.

    Anonymous sources imply treason. We report, you decide.

    • The Other Kevin

      They publish stories counter to the narrative. That’s all you need to know.

    • kbolino

      The officials briefed The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence sources.

      There is a meme that goes to the effect:

      A: [Outlandish Claim]
      B: Source?
      A: I made it up

      This is, unironically, how the government-media complex operate nowadays.

      • The Other Kevin

        And then a bunch of other sites write their own stories based on the Associated Press story, and this is presented as evidence it’s true because it was reported by “multiple sources”.

      • kbolino

        Manufacturing Consent the Easy Way

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Hey now, Chomsky voted for Biden.

      • kbolino

        Chomsky is an object lesson that Marxists, no matter how they may occasionally be right, should never be trusted.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Zero Hedge has been sharply critical of Biden and posted stories about allegations of wrongdoing by his son Hunter. While perhaps best known for its coverage of markets and finance, the website also covers politics with a conservative bent.

    In its response online, the website accused the AP of publishing a “bizarre hit piece” and said government officials were trying to distract from “our views of the current dismal US economic situation.”

    Alt right extremism. Somebody should pull the plug on them.

    • Compelled Speechless

      I wonder who hosts them. It’s not like other companies that go against the narrative haven’t been unpersoned.

  25. DEG

    Another GiveSendGo hack

    The new leak, which reportedly came after GiveSendGo was targeted by hackers, also includes “a full 2.5 GB MySQL database dump, source code for their Bitbucket repo, information from their customer service systems” as well as limited credit card data from donors.

    • kbolino

      A couple years from now, on a quiet page of whatever passes for a news medium by then, it will be announced in bland boilerplate that recently declassified/leaked documents indicate this individuals currently or formerly affiliated with government intelligence agencies may have participated or advised in these actions.

      And nothing else will happen.

    • Count Potato

      Yikes!

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      The left doesn’t play nice when you threaten their power.

  26. grrizzly

    CTH is taking a victory lap.

    Yesterday, Zero Hedge ran a CTH article detailing the fabricated ruse from the White House. Today the AP said Zero Hedge was promoting propaganda from Russia. Also today, White House has to pretend to take their victory lap early. Go Figure.

    Yes, you can thank me in the comments section for saving Ukraine from the United States CIA construct and averting war. [ LOL ] But seriously, that inflated sense of CTH importance is less silly than Biden’s claims today. That’s how stupid this entire thing has been.

    • kbolino

      It’s amazing how Putin manages to find exactly the people the establishment want to crush before they even announce their intentions.

      • grrizzly

        How did you the US know that the “invasion” was planned for February 16? They had some idea when the joint Russian/Belarusian military drills were supposed to end.

      • kbolino

        Intelligence work, like police work, is difficult and demands some risk-taking and self-sacrifice. It’s far easier to sit in an office and send emails all day. Since you do occasionally need to justify your paycheck, just make some shit up from time to time.

    • Swiss Servator

      That was the 10th …anyone hear from him lately??!

      • ron73440

        I’m a little behind on my podcasts.

      • Sean

        He had a Newsweek op ed piece drop yesterday.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    A couple years from now, on a quiet page of whatever passes for a news medium by then, it will be announced in bland boilerplate that recently declassified/leaked documents indicate this individuals currently or formerly affiliated with government intelligence agencies may have participated or advised in these actions.

    Via a government mandated back door.

  28. cyto

    Ok, confession time. I watched Look Up today.

    I was not going to watch it. It looked like crap. And preachy crap at that. But somebody told me it was great and spot on. They thought since I was a science guy I would love it.

    I suspected that it was a political screed, based on the trailer. I did not even know the topic, but I could see the players.

    So I watched it. I expected a movie about a killer comment and a stupid story about stopping the comment and how incompetent politicians (portrayed as being only Republicans) were corrupt and unable to handle it.

    And I had heard bad things elsewhere.

    So I started watching it. It wasn’t great. But it wasn’t as bad as I had feared either. They were clearly setting up an attack on Trump. But they were taking pains to show that the president in the movie was a Democrat. They showed pictures of her with Bill Clinton and Hollywood notables.

    It was a thin veneer, but at least they were pretending to be party neutral and simply doing a hit piece against generic political animals.

    So it was all prepared to come here and report that it wasn’t good but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I figured.

    Oh, how I was wrong..

    • cyto

      About halfway in the thinly veiled allegory about global warming dropped the veil. They just started screaming “hey, this is really about global warming”.

      And they completely dropped the pretext that they were being politically neutral in their lampooning of politicians. It became nakedly the worst caricature of Trump you can imagine.

      She appointed her son as chief of staff… And in the cringiest of cringy moments he tells a full stadium how hot his mom is and how if she wasn’t his mom he would totally hit that. I get where the joke comes from. I was alive then. It’s only been a couple of years. But damn, this was badly done.

      I spent the entire second half of the movie going “This is what they Actually Believe”!!

      It was so cringe-inducing. They have absolutely no understanding of their political opposition at all. They have no idea who Republicans are, who Republican politicians are, what they believe, or why people support the politicians. These people clearly believe that everyone is actually a socialist Democrat at heart and it is only if you are lied to by evil corporations that you would ever support a Republican.

      I’ve never really witnessed a movie like this. It started out as a fairly dumb disaster movie. Then it went past the Clinton era wag the dog movie and got more preteen than any movie I’ve ever seen in my entire life by the end. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse. I have never seen anything so smug in my entire life. I have never seen anything so hyperbolic either. But I don’t think they were being hyperbolic. I think they really believe that all life on earth is going to end, and end very soon, because of global warming. And that any minute now it is going to be too late to do anything about it .

      They even had a storyline about technology saving the day that was an allegory to prove that technological advancement can never save us.

      If you have not seen it, you made the right choice. It is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in my life. Although, I will say that for a movie that was written by college sophomores who were basically phoning it in on anything except for the preaching, there were some pretty good performances. In an absolutely s*** role, I thought that Jennifer Lawrence was really good at playing a reasonably bad character. And Leonardo DiCaprio also had some really strong moments in a really badly written role.

      All of which kind of makes it all worse. You can tell that this was a passion project for all the people involved. There’s kind of a who’s who around it. Lots of cameos. And they completely miss the irony of everything involved. Something about being competent at your craft and making a movie that is so over the top preachy and so aggressively bad just makes everything worse. It isn’t like it was an accident, it’s bad on purpose.

      So don’t go see it, I guess is my bottom line. You really don’t need that aggravation.

      And that should be true even if you agree with the base premise that global warming is a serious issue that needs to be addressed by all of the nations of the world.

      • Compelled Speechless

        So in summary, it’s EXACTLY what I thought it was. Adam McKay may be the most smug, self-righteous, self congratulatory dickbag in Hollywood. That’s some stiff competition.

      • rhywun

        They have absolutely no understanding of their political opposition at all.

        Sounds a lot like the lazy political “commentary” The Simpsons and Family Guy have been peddling for decades.

      • kbolino

        Political understanding of the “other side” is asymmetric because, as a general rule, the left dominates the culture. So your average righty has at least been exposed to the left’s ideas, if only because it’s nearly impossible to avoid them completely (Ted Kaczynski’s strategy notwithstanding). Whereas, your average lefty is mostly unfamiliar with anything that comes organically from the opposition, because he will never seek it out. To the extent uncontrolled exposure occurs, it will be at family dinners and the like, where the level of honesty is variable and the level of mutual understanding is modulated by alcohol and resentment.

        The bit about “corporations” is pure projection, of course. What is CNN or Disney? But the left’s narrative need not match reality. Indeed, it shapes reality. Such is the power of dominating the culture. You don’t need to be realistic. “Reality has a well-known liberal bias” is an irony so rich only perhaps Orwell himself could have thought of it first.

      • cyto

        Actually, they accidentally tiptoed up around the truth a few times. But they were so married to their ideas that the right is corporate America and the left is pure and righteous completely destroyed any chance they had of having an actual point.

    • cyto

      Killer comet. Comet, Google. Please fix auto correct.

      • UnCivilServant

        “”I Prefer it my way.”

        /Lord of War

  29. The Late P Brooks

    The empire strikes back

    Adam Andrzejewski, founder of OpenTheBooks.com and a frequent guest contributor to Zero Hedge (who most certainly does not get his talking points from the KGB), and who was also – until very recently – a contributor to Forbes, told Tucker Carlson on Monday that he was terminated from the magazine over his coverage of NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.

    Andrzejewski, who recently made headlines with his investigative reporting that Fauci was the highest paid employee in the entire US Federal government, described how he was targeted for being critical of Dr. Anthony Fauci and exposing his yearly earnings.

    “The National Institutes of Health’s six top executives wrote an e-mail to myself and Randall Lane, the top content officer at Forbes. It was couched as a corrections e-mail, but there were no substantial corrections and they quibbled about small things in my column. But that was the excuse Forbes used to cancel it,” Andrzejewski said.

    He explained that within 24 hours of the email, he received a call that told him he was barred from publishing any additional material regarding Fauci.

    “You are mistaken, young man. Not only is the emperor fully clothed, his new suit is beautifully resplendent.”

    • cyto

      Wow, that is an astonishing story.

      Something even more astonishing?

      None of these people think that it is going to happen to them next. You would think that the entire fourth estate would be up in arms over this kind of thing. But they aren’t. They quietly cheer it on. Confident in the knowledge that they are on the good side of the ledger and have nothing to worry about.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Corporate Media
      Government
      Non-profits
      Schools
      Publicly funded science
      Social Media and other big tech

      They’re all compromised. They’re all completely and irreparably compromised. They will lie to your face. They will self-police to make sure their lies are not contradicted. They will destroy you when you try to expose their lies. They will destroy your family if you are too hard of a target.

      They have no morals. They have no shame. They have one thing. A lust for power and the ability to lord that power over the naysayers.

      • rhywun

        I marvel that Tucker is still employed. The other day he referenced Trudy’s parentage and I almost blew vodka.

        Fox is Fox, but they are definitely corporate media.

      • Compelled Speechless

        When you put it like that, it sounds like the Soviets won after all.

      • kbolino

        It is more useful and more accurate to recognize that the list you made is the government. That formal entity called “the government”, while still large, lumbering, and dangerous, is only part of the system. Obviously the exact composition can change over time (our glorious “living constitution” in action), but delusions like “it’s a private company!” should be discarded whenever it becomes apparent that an organization is acting as though it were just one organ of a larger organism (if it waddles and quacks, it’s probably a duck).

  30. limey

    Sometimes it’s sobering to be reminded just how many genuine white racists there are out there. It makes it all the more tragic when you see that just used as a slur against people who are nothing of the sort like the truckers. I’m kind of in a bubble here at glibs, and have so much to complain about and rebut from “the left” and the identarian garbage they spout that I forget that here in the UK the pushback against said identarian garbage is an ugly mirror image of it.

    I guess “judge a man by the content of his character” really is a dying idea.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Yup. Go hang out in the comments of a popular Gab post for a while. Turns out the neo-Nazis never really went away.

      • kbolino

        I guess “judge a man by the content of his character” really is a dying idea.

        This idea and its delinquent cousin, postmodernism, are in the hands of power, only ever merely tools used to deconstruct.

        Rules for judging friends don’t really apply to enemies.

      • kbolino

        Not sure how this ended up here, was meant as a reply to limey.

    • juris imprudent

      pushback against said identarian garbage is an ugly mirror image of it

      Not all that surprising, the same end of the IQ distribution feeds both.

      • limey

        I wonder if it’s not necessarily correlated with IQ so much as it is with shared pathologies.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Probably a bit of both. I think the pathologies are partly born from stupidity. Midwits tend to lack the brain power required for the kind of serious inquiry, logic and interpretation used in critical thought. Enough of them just need to get together and reassure each other they they’re really smart and there’s no need to question either their premises or conclusions and they’re satisfied. Being right isn’t about being factually correct, it’s about getting nodding approval from the tribe.

        It’s true that both the woke and their mirror image are terrifying in their backwards racial ideologies and they may have similar IQ distributions, but there’s a massive difference in the number that are allowed to publicly espouse those views and still be allowed in polite society. One group gets to be treated as righteous warriors for equity (whatever the fuck that means) and the other isn’t allowed to leave their caves (I would say rightly.)

      • kbolino

        N.B. a midwit is someone who has above-average intelligence but believes him/her-self to have superlative intelligence

      • kbolino

        The dirty secret is that it’s both ends of the IQ distribution.

        For the most part, it’s only people in the middle (which is technically 90–110 but the actual “middle” is somewhat relative to class; e.g., for white collar jobs, the mean is 115 and so “the middle” is about 105–125) openly believe in nice ideas and harmonious coexistence.

      • kbolino

        I should say, it’s only people in the middle who sincerely believe those things. Highly intelligent people will say it openly but for them it’s more of a facade than sincere belief.

    • cyto

      “this changes everything”

      Holy crap, that is brilliant.

      • Bobarian LMD

        My response when I first saw the headline.

    • limey

      Was his performance enhanced? I think it counts as performance-enhancing for gangster rap.

    • db

      So it’s just another Dogg smokes joint story.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Good to know morale preening on social media is more important than their own child’s health for some people. JFTDCORFC.

    • grrizzly

      Did the religious attitude toward vaccines emerge in November 2020 or was it always like this? I’m completely baffled by this. I used to be in favor of vaccines but never thought too much about them: they are mostly for kids.

      • Compelled Speechless

        There’s been a stigma to “anti-vaxxers” for quite a while. See Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy crusading against them like idiots 10-15 years ago. Or at least I assumed at the time. I hate that the people that want to hold you down and inject you with this crap try to lump you in with those people. It’s infuriating that the same people that insist on the insanely long and expensive process for pharmaceutical approvals even if they could be saving lives during the trials can turn around and hand wave that legitimately scientific process for this entirely novel vaccine type (that the inventor has publicly says has potentially major long term consequences) for a virus that kills 0.1-0.2% of the people that get it. The simple fact is that you cannot state scientifically that it’s “safe and effective”. By your own standards, that is impossible to know and believing that is religious thinking.

      • kbolino

        There’s been a stigma to “anti-vaxxers” for quite a while

        Can attest. Had a discussion in 2018 or 2019 with my coworker/supervisor (contractual situation) where he very clearly believed vaccination was an unalloyed good and anyone who refused it was a mouthbreather.

  31. Trigger Hippie

    For God’s sake, somebody please rid me of this earworm. I actually rather enjoy the tune but it’s been two goddamn weeks now. Give me the Spice Girls, Yanni, DJ Irene, Chicago, Poppy, Rush, anything but this song:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LVhJy-CR64Q

    • juris imprudent

      That’s not an earworm, which means it’s coming from inside your head.

      • Trigger Hippie

        I…Uh…Yeah…

    • robc

      Sing “All Good People” by YES. Line lengths are longer than brain buffer size.

      You are welcome.

      • Trigger Hippie

        You saucey shithead…ha!

        As an aside: I’m deeply sorry to hear about your mother. You’re in my thoughts.

      • MikeS

        Thanks TH. I appreciate that.

        Enjoy the new earworm. 🙂

    • KSuellington

      Only one funky ass bass line can take the place of another in your head. Let’s totally switch the genre up and add some hilarious lyrics. It’s Science.

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7P6N8r1kUTM

      • KSuellington

        That would also qualify!

      • Trigger Hippie

        Indeed! Good find, Tundra!

      • Trigger Hippie

        Great stuff!

        Fun Fact: I saw them at a rave in Chicago in an airplane hangar in 2001 along with Bad Boy Bill, Paul Oakenfold, AK1200, DJ Icey, Paul Van Dyke, and a slew of other popular late 90’s/early 00’s techno (painting a broad brush with that term) and hip-hop artists. A crowd of at least 7k strong, and I’m *candy-flipping* less than an hour after entrance.

        *rolling on Molly while eating acid*

        Around the end of DU’s set on the main stage everything crashed on my brain and body. I had a few bottles of water on me so security let me be after I showed them that I wasn’t an immediate medical concern, just really high. I recuperated my senses long enough to dance along to The Humpty Dance, make out with a cute, skinny Asian girl, then everything went black…one of the best shows I’ve ever been to.

      • KSuellington

        Hahah. Awesome tale. Ah the joys of MDMA. I’ve never been brave enough to combine it with acid, it’s so good on its own.

    • MikeS

      This woman is why the word “cunt” got invented.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Is college worth it? Of course!

    Between sky-high costs and hefty student loan debt, more students and their families are questioning the value of a college degree.

    While about 81% of college-bound juniors and seniors still see college as a worthwhile investment, only 42% of families feel confident about covering the cost, according to a report by Sallie Mae.

    As a result, a growing number are opting out entirely. The number of undergraduates enrolled in college is now down 5.1% compared to two years ago, according to a separate report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center — a loss of nearly 1 million students.

    In fact, getting a diploma is almost always worth it in the long run, according to “The College Payoff,” a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

    “Trust us.”

    • MikeS

      In fact, getting a diploma is almost always worth it in the long run, according to “The College Payoff,” a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

      No shame.

      • kbolino

        I 100% support student debt cancellation if every dollar is cancelled for the borrower is taken from the university that accepted the payment.

      • hayeksplosives

        That would be fair. But you know the unis will keep the sweet cash and the taxpayer will absorb the loan.

      • MikeS

        #metoo

      • KSuellington

        Make student loan debt dischargeable in bankruptcy and a whole lot of problems with universities would go away.

      • MikeS

        Wait. It’s not? I don’t know much about bankruptcy…how many other debts are not dischargeable?

      • kinnath

        No. Too many bad actors. Borrow big, get a degree, live for a while, declare bankruptcy. The solution is actually worse though in light of schools and government pushing kids to borrow more than they can pay back in their lifetime with no recourse to wipe it out.

      • MikeS

        I can’t decide where I stand on bankruptcy. What’s the libertarian take? I know it can literally be a life changing event for some people, but boy have I seen it abused by business owners as a way to wipe the slate clean on their incompetence.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Bankruptcy isn’t a single thing. There are multiple types and they accomplish different things.

        I have my Lizzie Warren authored Bankruptcy and Consumer Law textbook around here somewhere…

      • KSuellington

        It is one of the few debts that are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. I’d bet universities would slightly rethink what they were offering if student debt could be wiped clean in bankruptcy.

      • cyto

        The problem was that they guaranteed super low rates for something that would pay back over many years from someone extremely young (with nothing to lose)

        So….

        Accrue 200k in debt for law school or med school, declare bankruptcy… Done and done.

        So…

        Either rates have to go way, way up to cover it… (Which was the reason they had to subsidize the rates and provide loan guarantees in the first place), or they have to stop people from discharging the loan.

        This resulted in millions of people with degrees in “studies” that are worthless in the job market and hence millions of pissed gen y and millennials with 250k in loans and a job as a Barista.

        This resulted in the political power behind loan forgiveness.

      • cyto

        Just like complaints about redlining resulted in guarantees for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Which resulted in loads of cheap mortgages that were not properly vetted (lest you be accused of racism).

        This, combined with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements for mark to market pricing gave you the market collapse of ’08 (which cost me more money than I shall have made in the entirety of the rest of my life… So thanks for that).

        As they say… Libertarianism happens to you …

  33. hayeksplosives

    MikeS, in case you didn’t see my reply above, you are incorrect in your assumption of what a “mil” is. A mil is the same thing as a thou, 1/1000 of an inch.

    The term mil comes from the Latin word for thousand, “mille”. Mil is the common term in the US military (and thus by NATO allies). Artillery bearings and military compasses are marked in mils and called out in mils. The terminology is commonly used by machinists filling defense orders.

    So there is nothing “odd” about my machinists at all.

    • MikeS

      I know exactly what a mil is. And I guess I can maybe see machinists who do a lot of government work saying “mil” instead of “thou”, but the vast majority of machinists say “thou”.

      And if your machinists work in fractions, they are indeed odd.

      • hayeksplosives

        Fractions come into play when stock materials are available in fractions, so pretty often.

        And then there is the joy of specifying the thickness of copper traces and planes on printed circuit boards. That thickness is called out in fractions of ounces, not incredibly intuitive.

        From PCBuniverse.com:

        The most common unit of measure for the copper thickness on a printed circuit board is ounces (oz). But how thick is that? It’s the resulting thickness when 1 oz of copper is pressed flat and spread evenly over a one square foot area. This equals 1.37 mils (1.37 thousandths of an inch).

        (Note that website defines the thickness in mils, not thous.)

      • MikeS

        Copy/paste from above: Wikipedia:

        Usage notes on mil versus thou
        In the United States, mil was once the more common term,[9][10] but as use of the metric system has become more common, thou has replaced mil among most technical users to avoid confusion with millimetres.[9][10][11] Today both terms are used, but in specific contexts one is traditionally preferred over the other.

        And buying stock in fractions (and don’t forget gage!) does not mean they are working in fractions down on the floor. They are quickly and easily converted to decimal.

        Your work involves a very specialized area of machining. I’m speaking about general machining terminology. We’re speaking two different dialects of the same language.

      • hayeksplosives

        It sounds pretty industry-specific. Probably generational too. The retired Navy guys who became our in-house machinists were definitely fans of mil. And fractions!

        Guys who are going straight to CNC as part of their machinist training probably are more amenable to using metric anyway.

        Hole diameters are still most often called out in fractions of inches, because the standard mil-spec switches, bulbs, connectors are available with diameters in fractions.

        Now that I’m in the wonderful world of linear accelerators, every conceivable measuring system is used.

      • MikeS

        Sure, drills, endmills, and other tooling are routinely called by their fractional size when they’re 16ths or 32nds up to 1/2. Or, in the case of drills, they could be called by their number or letter, too. But like I said, that is all converted on the floor, because the calipers and micrometers they use to measure are decimal inches.

        I didn’t mean fractions don’t exist, but decimal inches is the way machinists measure the parts they are making…regardless if they speak in thous or mils. After creating and measuring a 1/2″ hole, an machinist isn’t going to say “it’s a half inch!”. He’ll say, “nutted it! 500 thou (mil) exactly!”

      • hayeksplosives

        He’ll say, “nutted it! 500 thou (mil) exactly!”

        And you say my machinists are odd. ?

        The first calipers I used (granted, it was defense) were the analog dial type where you had to count the number of spins and then add on the final partial spin. Then vernier calipers. No decimal conversion.

        To this day analog vs. digital seems to be a matter of personal preference.

      • MikeS

        “Nutted” is a very technical term! ?

        For my home business I have a dial caliper and a digital caliper. I gravitate to the digital, just for quickness of reading.

        I also have a Vernier micrometer set. I don’t have to use them often (most of the work I do the tolerances are well within the accuracy of a caliper), so every time I do there is a quick relearning process. It’s a scale that makes total sense…once you can wrap your head around it.

      • hayeksplosives

        Oh, yeah: the other industry that uses mils is electric power, in which large cable diameters are specified in the delightful “circular mil” which in turn gives rise to the kcmil, pronounced “Kay see mil” meaning a thousand circular mils.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        Once you get past 0000 gauge gets pretty unwieldy.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yeah, I’m not aware of “aught” being used past 4, as you mention.

        I’ve never seen a metric alternative to the circular mil, but maybe it’s out there somewhere ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      • MikeS

        In Central Steel and Wire’s conversion chart they go up to 000000 gage, but I have no idea how common it is in real life. I suspect not very.

    • hayeksplosives

      I think it’s the crunchy exoskeleton that cracks and then out “pops” the squishy innards. Ick.

      I imagine long ago our ancestors saw an animal get hit by lightning and figured out that the resultant smell was pretty appealing. Cooked meat smells good. Cooked bugs, eh, I’m skeptical.

      • MikeS

        I think it’s the crunchy exoskeleton that cracks and then out “pops” the squishy innards. Ick.

        That’s certainly it for me.

        *shivers in disgust*

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        I don’t know. That sounds like eating a warm M&M.

      • cyto

        I wonder if it was the opposite order… Using fire to sanitize spoiled meat, on purpose or by accident, making it safer, which resulted in an accomodation to find the cooked variant more appealing. Also, cuts down on parasites, which are a pretty big deal for most human populations.