Thursday Morning Links

by | Feb 17, 2022 | Daily Links | 354 comments

It’s good to be the (Egyptian) king.

Liverpool didn’t have their best match, yet they still beat Inter 2-0 on the road. Bayern wasn’t as fortunate as they drew with Salzberg. And they were lucky to have done so.And Jacques Villeneuve managed to qualify for Daytona at the age of 50. Which I think is pretty cool, even if NASCAR isn’t even close to as fun as it used to be when people would sit on their own cooler full of beer, yours truly included, and throw chicken bones at Rusty Wallace as he went into turn 1 at Martinsville. Anyway, that bit of nostalgia is the end of sports for the day.

Asshole.

Ah yes, the Supremacy Clause.Ā The catchall for federal tyranny. Well, read the Second Amendment, you stupid assholes. And tell me what it says shall not be infringed. There’s your supremacy.

Ah yes, federal antitrust laws.Ā The (other) catchall for federal tyranny. Well read the antitrust law, you stupid asshole. And tell me what it says about companies in a competitive marketplace raising prices as their supplies fall below demand. Where’s your antitrust now?

I think I’ve heard of this movie plot.Ā Or maybe I just thought it up. Either way, it’s a pretty stupid ploy to get out of work. Even for a government worker.

I knew those PPP loans were a bad idea.Ā Now they’re getting people killed.

Right, for once.

Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then.Ā Good on her for being a decent human being for the first time I can remember.

Oh no!!!!! This is horrible.Ā Wait a second…I don’t give a shit. I also doubt it’s true.

Play stupid games.Ā Win stupid prizes.

I doubt this goes anywhere, but I applaud the effort.Ā It should be up to the carriers, not the federal government.

Probably my favorite song of theirs.Ā OrĀ perhaps it’s this one.Ā But only when I’m behind the wheel. Anyway, enjoy them both.

And enjoy this Thursday, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

354 Comments

  1. AlexinCT

    Oh no!!!!! This is horrible. Wait a secondā€¦I donā€™t give a shit. I also doubt itā€™s true.

    Yeah, at this point my question really is what the fuck are the really doing that they are so desperate to need you scared about a war that’s not happening?

    • Rat on a train

      The Russians could be moving troops closer for no other reason than to see how we react.

    • Brawndo

      The Ukrainians are less concerned about the Russians invading than the US.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Like most modern conflicts, US is mostly concerned with winning a dick swinging contest. Unfortunately they decided to whip it out in the winter in Siberia.

  2. AlexinCT

    Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes.

    Did they accuse the woke SF parents that recalled them of being racists, sexist, and homophobic yet?

    • juris imprudent

      Bwahahahahaha – bitch is way more insane than that!

      • Not Adahn

        GAAAAAAA!

        I’m very sorry that my words were used in a way that was hurtful to a community that was reeling. I’m very sad that my words were weaponized in that way. And they did cause people pain. During that time, I was listening to many folks and having really hard conversations with people.

        This was about really just stirring up outrage. And I don’t think that’s productive for the Black community. I don’t think it’s productive for the Asian-American community.

        My tweets, what I said, was not racist. My tweets addressed ongoing anti-Black racism at Lowell and throughout SFUSD. Anybody who’s done racial equity work, they understood what I was saying. At the same time, I did not think that having (that) conversation during a time when Asian-Americans were really grieving (was appropriate.)

        If we’re going to talk about what I said, we should be looking at who surfaced what I said and what were their motivations in sharing old tweets about during a time when Asian Americans were going through a lot of fear and pain. If the impact of starting that conversation is more upset, that says a lot about what’s really behind that conversation. And I think this is a part of a larger pattern that we see behind recalls going on nationally.

        I’m not racist, you’re racist! And if anyone’s upset about what I said, the PROVES the person noticing what I said upsets people is racist!

        This really deserves some sort of nonpology award.

      • Nephilium

        Anybody whoā€™s done racial equity work, they understood what I was saying.

        You scum weren’t supposed to understand what I said, but interpret what I meant to say!

      • Festus

        She learned that gibberish while attending public schools.

      • juris imprudent

        Berserkly no doubt.

      • Festus

        “Surfaced what I said.” Who the fuck talks like that?

      • Not Adahn

        I especially like how the result of speech PROVES the intent of the speaker — but only for other people, not her.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Typical

        Postmodernist assholes

      • Nephilium

        Oh, and the best non-apology ever was from Babylon 5.

      • ron73440

        No, this one is better.

        I’ve watched it a hundred times and I still laugh my ass off.

      • Nephilium

        ron73440:

        I stand corrected, I had not seen that one before.

      • WTF

        Holy crap, that was amazing!

      • Rat on a train

        Amazing. I loved the closing. Really, the only thing Chris Brown is guilty of … a felony

      • juris imprudent

        The judge was not amused, and said so (in judge-like terms) when he dismissed the suit with prejudice.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        with a focus on educating voters

        This turn of phrase aggravates me in the same way that hearing twenty-somethings talk about how it’s not their responsibility to educate their elders about issues.

        It’s the presumption of correctness and absolutism. You’re not selling your viewpoint or debating and trying to convince, you’re “educating” the rubes.

        The arrogance built into the statement is mildly enraging.

  3. rhywun

    OrĀ perhaps itā€™s this one.

    You were right the first time.

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      No, it was a trick question. There are no good* Rush songs.

      *merely OK

  4. AlexinCT

    I doubt this goes anywhere, but I applaud the effort. It should be up to the carriers, not the federal government.

    I am certain that if it was up to the carriers most would still find a way to fuck it up.

    • sloopyinca

      But they’d suffer the consequences or reap the benefit of the market’s reaction. The current way it’s done free them of the responsibility of decision-making.

      • juris imprudent

        Sadly this makes many, many people happy – both consumer/voters and businesses.

      • juris imprudent

        Being relieved of the responsibility of decision-making – to be clear.

      • Not Adahn

        Freedom means freedom from having to make decisions!

      • Rat on a train

        Freedom of choice
        Is what you got
        Freedom from choice
        Is what you want

      • AlexinCT

        What they want is freedom from consequences to choices. Especially bad consequences…

      • Festus

        Where’s my light-rail ticket?

      • Pope Jimbo

        But theyā€™d suffer the consequences or reap the benefit of the marketā€™s reaction

        Haaaaaaaahaaaaahaaaaahaaaaaa!

        The airline industry? Those fuckers have never turned a profit. The govt throws more money at them than they do farmers.

        To be fair, that industry is shackled by the govt from the top (FAA) to the bottom (regional councils) so they’ve never been able to operate as a free company. But they are experts at siphoning off tax dollars.

      • Festus

        For the amount that they charge in time, money and Karma, those airlines should offer free lap-dances and pole-strippers on every flight. When I was a kid I didn’t even need to show any form of ID to board a plane. Just the ticket.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Once one of my fellow Marines got so drunk before his flight home that two of us were allowed to carry him onto the plane, strap him into his seat and leave.

        We told the airline people not to worry, he’d be quiet the whole trip and they laughed and said OK.

        Also, remember meeting people at the gate?

      • AlexinCT

        Also, remember meeting people at the gate?

        I do. I also remember the elite complaining about having to make their way through the hoi-pilloi when they left their first class seats back in the days before private jets became all the rage for the elites…

      • ron73440

        Once I and a fellow Sgt were flying from Hawaii to the States, first layover was San Fransisco.

        My buddy misread the boarding pass and we showed up at our gate at takeoff time, not boarding time.

        It is a sinking feeling walking to an empty gate.

        Because we were active duty on orders, they put us on the next flight free of charge, in four hours.

        My buddy took a nap, we’d been drinking in the airport bar a little, I went back to the bar.

        Fire Rock Pale Ale from Kona brewery on draft is a drink of the gods.

        Apparently when I got back to the gate, I was a little loud.

        Got to my seat and passed out, 5 minutes later my buddy woke me up, I was a little disgruntled.

        We were in San Fransisco, best flight ever.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        I was working for a week in NYC, and on the last night I went out drinking with two girls who I was working with who were also from CA. Well, we didn’t realize that NY bars close two hours later than our’s do, so we left the bar (Jimmies Neutral Corner) at 4 am. And when we got back to the hotel, we ended up drinking more with two Nokia salesmen from Finnland.

        But, we still had one last day to work, before the flight out. And our limo driver took the shit way to Newark airport, and got us there, massively hungover with zero sleep, seconds before the flight. I was the last one through the gate and to board, got to my seat, and just passed out. Woke up in LAX, starving.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Plane tickets for sale in classified ads…

      • Pope Jimbo

        I had a boss who did that. Our company sent him for almost two years to a project in Phoenix. The deal was that he got a flyback every weekend.

        He’d work weekends get OT and sell his tickets to Mpls in the classifieds. He made some serious bank in those two years. Ended up buying his first apartment building with that money.

        The other funny story is that the one time he did fly back (for a wedding or something) he rented his company apartment to a high school kid. He thought the kid was going to bring his girlfriend over for the weekend and fuck. Instead the kid had a rager. The apt. manager was not impressed.

      • Surly Knott

        And you can thank Calvin Coolidge for setting all this in motion.

    • Rat on a train

      It should be up to the carriers, not the federal government.
      Just like intracounty school buses, it is all federal transportation.

    • Drake

      I flew on Monday – it’s all about masks as soon as soon as you get to the airport. But then you have to remove your mask for the TSA security theater.

      If you buy a drink or food in the terminal, you can take off your mask – same on the plane. So it’s really is nothing more than theater.

      • Festus

        I keep mine in my back pocket at work unless someone comes within a 50′ radius. Nobody complains.

  5. Sean

    A Florida woman used money from a pandemic relief loan to hire a hitman to murder a rival who had dated her ex-boyfriend, police said.

    I don’t think that’s allowable for loan forgiveness. Just sayin’.

    • AlexinCT

      It should be…

      Cause Florida woman, dude..

    • UnCivilServant

      Hey, it’s paying the salaries or wages of an employee/contractor.

      • waffles

        Bravo. This is definitely in the spirit of the PPP.

      • Pope Jimbo

        And the job saved was probably one where mask compliance is 100% (and they don’t bitch about it).

  6. juris imprudent

    WRT Russian troop movements and all of the reporting surrounding it, Taibbi has this to say:

    On February 12th, Zelensky addressed the media in a half-sarcastic, half-seething monologue. ā€œI think thereā€™s too much out there about a full-scale war from Russia, and people are even naming dates,ā€ he said, with undisguised contempt directed at the West. ā€œAll this information only creates panic, it doesnā€™t help us.ā€

    Moving from there to salo-thick sarcasm, the former actor and comic made a faux request to reporters for help with the sourcing on the invasion claim. ā€œIf you or anyone else has extra information about the 100% invasion of Russia starting on the 16th, please, give it to us,ā€ he said. Zelensky all but read out an 800 number as he spoke.

    • juris imprudent

      one more tidbit…

      When one of Zelenskyā€™s aides, Mykhailo Podoliak, was forced to make the should-have-been-unnecessary statement that Zelensky through his Facebook post was in fact taking a colossal dump on Western politicians and their media servants, journos huddled, kill-circle style, and came up with a new wrong story to explain his behavior. It was now claimed Zelensky had ā€œwalked backā€ his February 14th words.

      • AlexinCT

        What I keep seeing is that our western leaders are idiots and keep talking out of their asses while others run circles around them…

        But these are the people that tell the unwashed masses they are by reason of their credentialing the ones that should be calling the shot…

      • Not Adahn

        NPR was interviewing some Ukrainian official and was using the exonerative voice in an attempt to put the blame on the Ukrainians. The NPR hack actually said “Americans are hearing that…” with the implication that nobody was doing the telling.

      • juris imprudent

        “You might think that. I couldn’t possibly comment”

      • Festus

        They’re all Strawberry, now.

      • AlexinCT

        Is that because that’s Brandon’s favorite flavor of ice cream?

      • juris imprudent

        Was going more for this.

      • Festus

        Wish that I had watched the original. Life is too short.

    • Drake

      This seems to be theater too. The Russians made their point – The Ukraine won’t be joining NATO. Meanwhile gold and oil are way up, adding vast sums to the Russian economy. American “leaders” are happy because it was a handy excuse to pump $billions more into Ukrainian scams with big kickbacks to them.

      The only losers here are the American taxpayers.

      • waffles

        The only losers here are the American taxpayers.

        Oof, ain’t that the truth.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh, and pay no attention to this whatsoever – we’re importing more Russian petroleum than we ever have. I don’t know how, but I’m quite sure Trump is to blame for that.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Itā€™s revealed that the Russians can take Ukraine any time they want (they can), we wonā€™t do anything meaningful about it (we wonā€™t and we shouldnā€™t), and that the Russians are masters of pulling our strings in a way that makes the heads of our various institutions lose their damn minds (and theyā€™ll continue to do so because we never seem to learn).

      • AlexinCT

        Someone was telling me the other day that the Russians want to take Ukraine – for Trump – and offered the explanation that was because the Russians & Trump have plans to plant information that would paint Biden and the rest of the dnc crime syndicate (my words cause the person giving me this knowledge is a firm believer in the moral superiority of the left) as bad people using Ukraine to launder dirty money.

        I just answered the moron that this definitely was some serious 3D chess on behalf of democrats that are worried the fact that the crook class has been using Ukraine for over 2 decades to launder tax payer cash and steer it into the pockets of inept government bureaucrats and the connected legal and crime syndicate apparatus could come out and are already using a progjection strategy to lay it all at the foot of Russian disinformation and the evil orange man.

        I think the moron had an aneurism or pulled a Biden and pooped his pants.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That’s Democratic Underground levels of stupid.

      • WTF

        This is the kind of thing that convinces me that leftism is a form of mental illness.

      • juris imprudent

        Most political thinking is a mental illness, the left is merely the most malignant.

      • Compelled Speechless

        ??? I’m stealing this.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I’m pretty sure that the Ukrainian and Russian troops could meet up, take off all their clothes and start a huge orgy and if one Ukranian got cornholed by a Ruskie, the media would call that proof of “Russian Aggression”. Or at the least a “minor Russian incursion into Ukrainian territory”

      • Not Adahn

        Do I get to pick the participants?

      • Pope Jimbo

        You know the rules. “In Russia the participants pick you”

    • Drake

      Putin and Scholz hold press conference in Moscow

      Skip to 23 minutes in – you may hear members of the Biden Administration crying in the background, Time for the U.S. to pull back from foreign entanglements.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Scholz appears to be from the Willy Brandt school of detente.

        This is a good thing. If for no other reason, it helps keep us under control.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    Nothing helps replenish inventory like selling your existing stock for less than replacement cost.

    • AlexinCT

      That’s called “Getting ready for a chapter 11 filing”…

      • Festus

        Yup. That’s called not getting dinged for warehousing costs. Get it out.

    • Fourscore

      “Grand Opening” and “Going Out of Business” on the same sign

  8. Not Adahn

    NPR’s long form story this morning was about how Abraham Lincoln was just some passive guy wrt the Emancipation Proclamation, and the real credit for it should got to the escaped slaves that forced him to do it. Bonus points for repatriation of the slaves being “Western colonialism.”

    • slumbrew

      Why do you hate yourself? You don’t have to listen to NPR.

      • Not Adahn

        Most people are idiots. Even more so for media types. Therefore, listening to statist media gives me a warm fuzzy feeling of superiority to those I disagree with politically.

      • waffles

        I listen to NPR (mostly to marketplace as it lines up with my commute but I get the hourly news rundowns).

        I consider myself an amateur kremlinologist.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Uffda. Back when I commuted NPR was better than local commercial radio.

        Yes they can be infuriating when they talk about politics, but sometimes they do a decent job of covering other stories.

        Local radio now has “libertarian-ish” morning show guys on the conservative talk channel. They completely lost me when King Walz announced lock downs and they were in full Rona panic and pleaded with people to obey the King.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Buncha speech disorders last time I listened, about two decades ago. Thufferin’ thuccotash: Hire the Vocally Handicapped.

      • Rat on a train

        Hire the Vocally Handicapped.
        WMATA does.

      • Not Adahn

        But like? Vocal fry? Isn’t really? An handicap? And neither is? Uptalk?

      • juris imprudent

        You know what is better than NPR?

        Dead fucking silence. Followed by loud traffic noises and heavy construction. NPR might just barely be better than a squadron of jackhammers.

      • AlexinCT

        Listening to NPR is a sign of being into getting fucked by mental abuse…

      • waffles

        Yoooooooo, I am working on this. I swear.

      • Nephilium

        I think I found video of juris imprudent listening to NPR.

      • juris imprudent

        Close, but you missed the commute part.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Fresh Air seems to still have its moments, in transcript form if necessary.

      • Gustave Lytton ????

        Yes they can be infuriating when they talk about politics, but sometimes they do a decent job of covering other stories.

        Gell-Mann Amnesia…

        Would anyone be shocked to discover that Wikipedia deleted the standalone article on it and merged/buried into the Crichton bio?

      • Not Adahn

        Not enough NYT articles about it for it to be WP:NOTABLE

    • Pine_Tree

      did they assign them the blame for the “this doesn’t apply anwhere under US control” part?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Was the suspension of habeas corpus a passive decision as well?

    • The Last American Hero

      My boss was peddling Rona Panic early on and stated she wouldn’t set foot in the office until this was all over. I said, don’t worry, I’ll be going in everyday. She said “well I heard on NPR……” I said “NPR? That’s like Fox News with classical music. Why would you take them seriously?” Awkward silence.

      • Gustave Lytton ????

        They’ve largely ditched the classical music and old school elitist cultural tastes.

  9. Festus

    Nice music choice, Sloop! That album holds a special place in my heart because I saw that tour when I was but a callow lad of fifteen.

    • Festus

      OT- Corporate overlords stripped one of my sites away so that I could concentrate my time on the other one. Huzzah! I don’t have to park amongst the hobos and they just shortened my day by an hour or two. I hated that place. The clients were rude and unthankful. Now I get to spread my seed into a willing partner!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Everything’s coming up Festus! ?

      • Festus

        I feared the worst when I got the unintelligible text message. Poor supervisor just sprays auto-correct at the world. Duck and cover!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Auto-correct, oy. “Here, hijack my typing: what could go wrong?”

      • Ted S.

        Your clients are government-sector workers. Of course they’re rude and ungrateful.

      • Festus

        Oddly enough, Snopes says “Somewhat true but debunked” When I got sick in 2019 my clients at the good site did a fundraiser for me and gave me a shit-ton of money, 5 bucks at a time. No, they are solid folk. We are fond of each other.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    Justice Department lawyers worry that companies may ā€œseek to exploit supply chain disruptions for their own illicit gain,ā€ the department said. And, if thatā€™s the case, the Justice Department and the FBI will prosecute antitrust violations they uncover, the department says.

    Let’s destroy the economy by any means necessary. Then we can replace it with something more to our liking.

    • Fourscore

      Truckers are gonna need subsidized fuel to deliver gas when the government gets finished helping with supply chain problems

      • juris imprudent

        Entire central planning committee keels over from blood loss to boners.

    • Social Justice is Neither

      There is price fixing between competitors that should be discouraged but the way that is written makes it sound like they could be looking at long term supplier agreements too which is a great way to reduce carbon emissions by bringing the economy to a halt and starving large swaths of the population.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    ā€œTemporary supply chain disruptions should not be allowed to conceal illegal conduct,ā€ said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who runs the Justice Departmentā€™s antitrust division. ā€œThe Antitrust Division will not allow companies to collude in order to overcharge consumers under the guise of supply chain disruptions.ā€

    These people have been there all along. Biden just let them off the leash.

    • Pope Jimbo

      People will see prices rising fast and assume it is because of the evil fat cats who are just throwing more gold doubloons into their swimming pools. None of them will think beyond that.

      The DOJ will have no problems convincing the people that there is all sorts of price gouging and collusion going on.

      • AlexinCT

        The vast majority of people will dismiss any explanation/discussion of a problem/issue – from the very small and easy to understand to the most complex and intricate one – if it leaves them feeling dissatisfied emotionally. They prefer some emotional drivel that will give them their heroes to cheer for and their villains to boo and direct hate at over the truth. And our leadership class loves this disconnect and feeds it because it allows them to both hide their ineptitude and keep ripping the productive off at their leisure. I want to blame the evil people taking advantage of this shit, but the people that go along with it have some blame too.

    • sloopyinca

      This shit is insane. There’s no collusion. There’s no antitrust law at play. They just want a scapegoat for the inflation they caused by printing all that money.

      Expect some bullshit indictments as the midterm elections get closer.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Hopefully they get Mueller to come out of retirement. He’s perfect for this job.

      • AlexinCT

        It is all emotional theatre. An appeal to the lowest and basest feelings of jealousy and envy. And the sad thing is that it works wonders with the idiots that follow them.

    • Drake

      Repealing the law of supply and demand. It’s always worked in the past.

      • Fourscore

        That’s just a guide, not a real law

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

        -T. Sowell

      • ron73440

        I used to like Thomas Sowell, but after DEI training, I learned that it is impossible to respect people of a different color than me.

        Who is the real racist?

      • juris imprudent
      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        LOL

      • ron73440

        ā€˜easy for a rich white man to sayā€™

        That should be a rebuttal to anything Obama says.

      • slumbrew

        That’s gold.

        London School of Economics. Best of the best.

      • juris imprudent

        Credit to them – they didn’t just memory hole it. They’re willing to wear the dunce cap for what was egregiously stupid on the part of their reviewer.

      • Fourscore

        Once a person has outed themself as being stupid it pretty hard to overcome

  12. The Late P Brooks

    The NPR hack actually said ā€œAmericans are hearing thatā€¦ā€ with the implication that nobody was doing the telling.

    An unnamed soothsayer, speaking on condition of anonymity because the gods have not authorized him to disclose the future…

  13. Pope Jimbo

    Maybe Omar is a bit worried about her seat. A legit challenger has made noises about running against her.

    Samuels is on the Mpls city council so he has the progressive pedigree. He is also about as sane as you can hope for anyone from Mpls to be. And he has a big city machine working for him.

    Omar might be tacking a bit toward the center (or what she thinks is the center) in order to take some wind out of his sails.

    • Fourscore

      “Sahan Journal is the only independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit digital newsroom dedicated to reporting for immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota. Our diverse staff creates exceptional journalism: coverage that truly represents the changing face of Minnesota and recognizes that democratic engagement and power belong to everyone.”

      Who knew?

    • AlexinCT

      He is also about as sane as you can hope for anyone from Mpls to be.

      So he is just short of Hannibal Lecter crazy, but without any of the character’s charm or smarts?

  14. Pope Jimbo

    So will the price gouging undertakers who are now taking advantage of the huge piles of dead bodies in FL and TX flock to Missouri?

    Without the help of Feds to keep guns from shooting people, surely they have impressive windrows of dead bodies littering their streets. Or are they worried that such a show of avarice will only make them targets of the DOJ anti-trust division?

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Standard legal gambit

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering changes to its mask policy as the pandemic in the US improves, said Director Rochelle Walensky, who hinted at a possible lifting of its recommendation to mask up indoors.

    ——-

    “We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen,” Walensky said.

    If we pull them now, we can dodge a court ruling which would prevent us from bringing them back later.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      We want to give people a break

      Fuck right off with your increase in chocolate rations bullshit! Shut up and go away with your head hung in shame. You have destroyed the public trust in your profession, asshole.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Is mask wearing a big deal or not?

    • Pope Jimbo

      What are the odds that mid-term elections will be moved up to August?

      Based on the last couple years, the Rona should be at a minimum then. If they hold them in November there is a very good chance that the winter Rona wave will be starting up. Can you trust the Statists to keep their fingers off the mandate levers until after the election?

      And don’t try to tell me that it would be impossible to move the election dates. No different that mail in voting and unmanned “drop off” boxes. You get some lefty group to sue the Sec of State and as part of the out of court “settlement” you do whatever they asked. No muss, no legislature, no fuss.

    • ron73440

      Things are definitely changing on the mask front.

      I work on Norfolk Navy Base and did an inspection this week that took me into a bunch of HQ buildings.

      One building the guy made me wear a mask, “because the guy who runs the building is a nazi”.

      Every other building, while everyone I saw was masked, not one word was said to me about my ugly mug flapping in the breeze.

      3 months ago, this would have caused a panic.

      Progress?

      • Nephilium

        Yesterday, for the first time since the beginning of lockdowns, the majority of STAFF at Trader Joe’s was unmasked, as were the majority of people walking around the outdoor shopping area. Even last week, there were more masks then faces.

      • WTF

        This is why they were so desperate to force everyone to get vaxxed, so they could eliminate the control group.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    “If and when we update our guidance, we will communicate that clearly, and it will be based on the data and science,” she added.

    The SCIENCE! and nothing but the SCIENCE!

    • R C Dean

      If and when we update our guidance

      They are still holding out the possibility of permanent mask mandates. I am enjoying them yielding to the pushback in many areas, but holding onto it for children in school. With any luck, that is the holdout that will provoke the most savage reaction from parents, as it becomes transparently clear that they are only forcing children to mask because they are sociopaths.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    The DOJ will have no problems convincing the people that there is all sorts of price gouging and collusion going on.

    PROFITZES! OVER PEEPULZ! BLAAAAAAAARGH!

    • AlexinCT

      It’s never the fault of the government entities that pick the winners & losers in our new fascist system of government. And that’s by design. This way they can blame the private sector for all their mistakes and have the vast majority of the unwashed rubes not know better.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is President Biden’s chief medical adviser, said at Wednesday’s briefing that the country’s health officials are “very carefully” monitoring if they will update policies to require a fourth shot for mRNA vaccines.

    He presented data showing that the protection against severe disease from the Moderna and Pfizer booster shots wanes from around 90% to 78% within four months, which he noted is still a “good” level of protection.

    With cases and hospitalizations on a sharp decline, “vaccination and boosting will be critical in maintaining that downward trajectory,” Fauci said.

    Was away your sins. Repeat as necessary.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Lick my balls shrimp. Iā€™d rather take horse paste.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      I didn’t know the 3rd shot was “required”

    • R C Dean

      the protection against severe disease from the Moderna and Pfizer booster shots wanes from around 90% to 78% within four months

      Anecdata from the front lines:

      Our inpatient COVID census is down by more than half from the Omicron peak. The percentage of vaxxed inpatients has crept up a little, from around 20% to around 25%. No idea how many of those are triple vaxxed. The info I can get says @68% are “fully vaxxed” (whatever that means). There doesn’t seem to be publicly available data on what percentage are boosted.

  19. AlexinCT

    Well, color me fucking totally surprised to find out it was a racket from the getgo:

    Black Lives Matter filings reveal prominent Democratic lawyer Marc Elias and another longtime ally of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have taken on key roles in the charity amid scrutiny over its leadership and finances.

    Elias, best known for his funding of British ex-spy Christopher Steeleā€™s discredited anti-Trump dossier while he served as Clintonā€™s 2016 campaign general counsel, appears to be representing the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation through his recently formed Elias Law Group. BLMā€™s national organization repeatedly lists the Elias firm as one of its addresses and states in its short-year 2020 Form 990 that its books were now in the care of the Elias Law Group.

    Additionally, Minyon Moore, a longtime top ally of both Bill and Hillary Clinton, is now listed as part of BLMā€™s board of directors in the charity’s filings.

    It’s not clear when BLM’s relationships with Elias Law Group and Moore began.

    Black Lives Matter filed a charitable organization registration statement earlier this month with the New Mexico attorney generalā€™s office, listing addresses for BLM in Arizona and Oakland, California, but says BLMā€™s ā€œother addressā€ is ā€œc/o [courtesy of] Elias Law Groupā€ in Washington, D.C.

    Crime syndicate, crime syndicating…

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I saw that development yesterday and even given my cynical outlook, it was flabbergasting.

    • slumbrew

      Yep, thicc. No beef with the pants but I thought that heels on gym floors are a no-no.

      • Not Adahn

        I thought that heels on gym floors are a no-no.

        You just can’t handle a Black woman in a position of power.

      • AlexinCT

        Not at all when they fail at making themselves look whorish. And that applies to all women including the ones with XY chromosomes.

    • Lackadaisical

      If a make coach wore pink leather pants no one would date to make fun of him.

      That’s really what they want us to believe.

      • Shpip

        Exactly. If Big Football School down the street hired, say, Mike Pouncy to be “Player development/ Assistant Recruiting Coordinator” no one would bat an eyelash — they’d applaud the Athletic Association for making a good hire.

        But if Pouncy showed up on the sidelines in an orange tuxedo, complete with top hat and spats, he’d be called out for looking like a clown.

        Don’t want to be called out? Don’t act the fool. Conversely, want to climb the coaching ziggurat? Act, and dress, the part.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Black Lives Matter filings reveal prominent Democratic lawyer Marc Elias and another longtime ally of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have taken on key roles in the charity amid scrutiny over its leadership and finances.

    The Clintons will take BLM under their wing and coach them in the ins and outs of big league Beltway parasitism.

    • Pope Jimbo

      It is like when little start up hits it big. Their growth is so phenomenal that they have to bring in outside help.

      • AlexinCT

        Especially fledgling criminal entities needing professional criminals to help them go to the next level…..

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      I love that BLM seems o have been taken over by old white people LOL

      • R C Dean

        Why not? That’s who has been funding it all along.

        The amateur grifters who were running have been pushed aside for pros. This should surprise no one.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        I’m not surprised (re-reading my post: yep. not surprised) – I’m delighted

  21. Count Potato

    “Good on her for being a decent human being for the first time I can remember.”

    Don’t worry, she’ll regret it.

    • ron73440

      I read the article, and because she has been an unrepentant POS in everything I can remember, I thought I was misreading it, or having a stroke.

      • Urthona

        This has to be fake news.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Like I said above. She’s a) got a potential threat in the primary and b) there is a huge scandal going on that involves a bunch of her henchmen.

        I think she is laying low for a while. But she can’t go cold turkey on twitting. So she (or her handlers more likely) are looking for innocuous things to say.

    • AlexinCT

      The left believes that when they corrupt a product and coopt it to fill it full of bullshit stupidity, it will sooner than later make it impossible for people to get content that isn’t woke and stupid forcing them to accept the indoctrination.

    • Urthona

      Honestly the forced diversity to me is about 1/10th as bad as the scene where they showed the elf catch the arrow in slow-mo.

      That Jackson Hobbit shit is lame. I’m out if it’s full of that ridiculous action.

      • PieInTheSky

        now there’s a fellar who should be canceled

      • AlexinCT

        You trying to score woke points, aren’t you Pie?

      • PieInTheSky

        neah, I get more pussy than I can handle from deontological libertariansim

      • R C Dean

        Let’s get a standing ovation gif for this one. Well played, Pie.

      • ron73440

        Notice, he didn’t say a lot of pussy, just more than he can handle.

      • slumbrew

        Legit LOL.

        Well done, Pie, well done.

      • WTF

        Spot on. If you want a world with diverse characters and woke sensibilities, fucking write your own. Don’t bastardize somebody else’s work.

      • AlexinCT

        That requires creativity. It’s easier to just colonize someone else’s good work and bastardize and ruin that…

      • Compelled Speechless

        Plus this is a way to make sure your megaphone gets in the faces of the casual fans will at least give it a try before realizing what they love has been completely skin suited. They don’t expect to get everyone, they just need to get a few with each property they steal. They also remove one more sanctuary from the world where you can hide from politics. Remember, they believe literally everything is politics and they won’t stop until everyone is forced to see the world that way too.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Babylon Bee nails it

      Legless – A blonde elf warrior with one leg who bravely shows Middle-Earth that differently abled people can fight too!

  22. Lackadaisical

    “Ah yes, the Supremacy Clause. The catchall for federal tyranny. Well, read the Second Amendment, you stupid assholes. And tell me what it says shall not be infringed. Thereā€™s your supremacy”

    I thought it was well established that the fed gov cannot commandeer state resources?

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Primitive anti-SCIENCE! superstition

    A federal judge in Georgia has temporarily blocked the U.S. military from enforcing its Covid-19 vaccination mandate against an Air Force officer seeking a religious exemption.

    The order was handed down a month after the unnamed officer, who is a Christian, filed a lawsuit alleging that the mandate violates her religious beliefs.

    The suit says the officer ā€œsincerely believes that receiving a vaccine that was derived from or tested on aborted fetal tissue in its development would violate her conscience and is contrary to her faith.ā€ It goes on to note that she believes that to inject her body with a ā€œnovel substance of unknown long-term effectsā€ would violate her belief that her ā€œbody is the temple of the Holy Spirit.ā€

    If only she would surrender herself to the Leviathan, the One True Lord and Savior.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    In his ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Tilman E. Self III said the military did not offer much in response to the officerā€™s arguments that the vaccination requirement substantially burdens her free exercise of religion.

    ā€œAnd, how could they?ā€ he wrote. ā€œVery few scenarios paint a bleaker picture than giving up your livelihood in order to follow your religious beliefs.ā€

    Where were you two years ago, judge baby?

  25. ron73440

    Today is my wife’s birhtday, I continued my annual tradition of sending her this.

    She gave me a dirty look, so I told her, the important thing is that it makes me laugh.

    • AlexinCT

      You ever hear of Lorena Bobbit?

      • ron73440

        You ever hear of Lorena Bobbit?

        “ARE YOU LAUGHING NOW?!?!?”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Better late than never.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Whoops, misthread. My bad.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Self noted that the Air Force has rejected 99.76 percent of all religious accommodation requests. It had denied all of them up until the last two weeks, when it approved nine, he said.

    ā€œWith such a marked record disfavoring religious accommodation requests, the Court easily finds that the Air Forceā€™s process to protect religious rights is both illusory and insincere,ā€ he wrote. ā€œIn short, itā€™s just ā€˜theater.ā€™ā€

    The sinners must be cast out.

    • Pope Jimbo

      And wasn’t it the AF that was in so much trouble just a while ago for proselytizing the troops? Yes it was. Guess they got the right religion this time.

      * This quote made me laugh:

      A team from Yale Divinity School visited the Air Force Academy last summer during basic training. Professor Kristen Leslie was disturbed by what she saw. Evangelical Christianity was present in ways she didn’t expect. Leslie says her team watched a young woman involved in an exercise high up on ropes.

      Professor KRISTEN LESLIE (Yale Divinity School): And she was scared and was not able to move, and so the other cadets in a way to cheer her on were trying to support her but yelling very evangelical, `Jesus will be with you. Jesus will save you,’ and that struck us as odd as a way to motivate someone in an environment that is not intended to be a religious environment.

      As a non-believer, even I know that anyone from the Yale Divinity School can be safely ignored when it comes to questions about religion. I’m also laughing because they managed to also not get the idea that those cadets were being sarcastic when invoking Jesus.

      Is there anything more worthless than a chaplain in the military? Maybe in actual combat they do good. When I served they were nothing more than worthless.

      • Fourscore

        Jesus Sarge, you want me to climb the tower and change the light bulbs?

        Sometimes we need a comma or not

  27. wdalasio

    What I keep seeing is that our western leaders are idiots and keep talking out of their asses while others run circles around themā€¦

    They’re still trying to prop up their delusion that they’re the smartest guys in the room. They still think that, somehow or other, they’re going to BS the Ukraine out of Russia’s sphere of influence and into their own. Without a fight. I think it’s starting to dawn on Zelensky that that isn’t happening. That the Russians are prepared to fight over this. And if the fecal matter hits the oscillating cooling system, he’s going to be on his own. As far as I can tell (and I’ve no doubt it’s dawned on Zelensky and the Ukrainians), Putin doesn’t really even want the Ukraine, only for it to not be a pain in his rear end. But, the neocons and the progressive imperialists can’t accept that outcome because it would mean their scheming isn’t the be-all and end-all of geopolitics and their ability to extract tribute due to unused American military power is limited.

    • PieInTheSky

      Theyā€™re still trying to prop up their delusion that theyā€™re the smartest guys in the room – or they are stooges and know it but need to keep appearances

  28. PieInTheSky

    Well, read the Second Amendment, you stupid assholes. And tell me what it says shall not be infringed – have you people never heard that language evolves in time? properly regulated to death is not infringed.

    • juris imprudent

      …and all the sinners saints.

      [So Malice is really just a plagiarist?]

    • Not Adahn

      Mick Jagger beat him to it.

  29. hayeksplosives

    I am in an emergency room in Livermore CA. Apparently Iā€™ve been here all night. I have no idea what happened, nor do the doctors.

    They did blood tests and found that I had alcohol (duh) but not nearly enough to account for why I (this part is retold to me) I fell down in the parking lot and was then transported to the local ER.

    I have been asked a lot of weird questions

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      OMG WTF…hope you are OK!

    • wdalasio

      Hate to say it, is there any chance you were “slipped a mickey”?

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        That would explain some unexplained passing out for sure…

      • hayeksplosives

        It did happen to me about 20 years ago when I was thin and attractive. Fortunately the bartender was suspicious of the guy at the bar, and he waved my coworker over. My coworker was pretty much Reacher in build, so he deposited me safely into my hotel room.

        I had zero recall. Weirdest feeling Iā€™d ever had.

        BTW, that roofie experience was at DisneyWorld.

      • PieInTheSky

        Tom Cruise Reacher or Amazon Reacher ?

      • hayeksplosives

        Amazon Reacher.

        Cruise couldnā€™t lift my left leg.

      • hayeksplosives

        Amazon Reacher.

        Cruise couldnā€™t lift my left leg.

      • PieInTheSky

        you can say that again

      • Not Adahn

        Alan Ritchson has a sad.

      • slumbrew

        Ritchson was a great interview on Carolla a couple weeks back.

    • wdalasio

      Obviously, I hope you’re okay and everything turns out well.

    • ron73440

      That’s scary.

      Hope you’re OK.

    • Sean

      Oh, that’s weird. I hope you’re OK.

    • Urthona

      wtf?

    • Not Adahn

      I have been asked a lot of weird questions

      Like, “who’s spleen is this in your purse?” “Why is this bock making a high=pitched whine?” “Do you know where this voice giving a countdown is coming from and can you make it stop?” “Could you please stop levitating?”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Shit. Sorry to hear that.

    • Festus

      Gah! Be careful Hayek. My balance is all fucked up and Judi had to help me around yesterday. I’m like a toddler. I’m going to start running around with my arms over my head. Haha! Who has the baby-head bow, Tres!

    • PieInTheSky

      get well soon and hope you can still have alcohol from now on

      also you can blame the vaxx

    • Trigger Hippie

      Good God!

    • hayeksplosives

      Thanks. The docs are chalking it up to epilepsy.

      Iā€™m not convinced.

      I wish Iā€™d never got the ā€œboosterā€ shot. I havenā€™t felt well since then.

    • Sensei

      Damn. Feel better!

    • tarran

      Oh man! I hope it turns out to be nothing serious!

    • Pope Jimbo

      Uffda. Get better.

    • Count Potato

      Yikes!

      Hope you are feeling better soon.

    • slumbrew

      More than a little scary! Glad you’re OK.

    • db

      Wow! Hope you get better soon. Don’t let them snow you.

    • Lackadaisical

      Jabbed?

      I hope you feel better soon. You’ll be in my prayers.

    • Compelled Speechless

      That’s horrifying. Keep us up to date and let us know what happened if they can piece it together. Best wishes.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Contingency plans

    The White House dispatched two officials to Saudi Arabia this week to press the kingdom to pump more oil as fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine cause energy prices to rise, a potentiality President Joe Biden warned about in a speech on Tuesday could get worse if Russia attacks.

    National Security Council Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and the State Department’s energy envoy, Amos Hochstein, were in Riyadh on Wednesday, a senior US official confirmed to CNN, attempting to shore up the relationship more broadly but also to discuss with Saudi officials how to stabilize markets amid soaring gas prices and fears of a Russian invasion.

    Why isn’t he sending that diplomatic heavy hitter, Kamala?

    You can’t help wondering what they’re prepared to give away to the Saudis.

    • WTF

      Or, you know, we could just go back to producing more of our own oil. Like we did with orangemanbad.

  31. Festus

    They are breaking. Who thought that a bunch of rednecks would bring tyranny to its knees? The only question remaining is “What about next time”? This can’t end.

    • Sean

      They are breaking.

      They might be, but they’re sure as shit gonna punish some of those rednecks in the process.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        The one thing the left is really good at is exacting revenge on those that expose them or piss them off. They are truly evil fuckers when it comes to anyone that gets in their way exposing them for the vile entities they are.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      Anything new from overnight/this morning? Last I heard was the cops were planning some sort of operation last night. Ottawalks didn’t find any evidence of increased police activity ~11pm last night.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    They did blood tests and found that I had alcohol (duh) but not nearly enough to account for why I (this part is retold to me) I fell down in the parking lot and was then transported to the local ER.

    Eek. How’s your head?

    • hayeksplosives

      Fine! I have zero bruises, zero pain.

      I just want to get out of here now.

  33. robc

    So the mayor of SF supported the recall. Good. He/she should appoint 3 Asian-American parents to the board. That will freak out the other 4 board members.

    • R C Dean

      He/she should appoint 3 Asian-American parents to the board.

      “Now the board looks more like our community.”

    • KSuellington

      The mayor identifies as a she and she may be about to do exactly that. Sheā€™s, of course, a proggie, but at the least those appointed will not be radicals like the three that were ditched. The entire school board would have been tossed, but the rest havenā€™t served long enough to qualify for that, so thatā€™s why only the three were recalled. Like I said below, when you get 79% of voters to go for or against anything that is significant. Even Ess Eff is getting tired of the woke shit.

      • R C Dean

        at the least those appointed will not be radicals like the three that were ditched

        That would be the smart thing to do. Whether that’s what the mayor will do remains to be seen.

      • Shpip

        In a too-local anecdote, a lady who lives nearby ran for the school board in my Big College Town and won. Problem was, she ran for a district that she didn’t live in, contra state statutes.

        So Governor DeSantis removed her to much hue and cry from her supporters, and, proving that he has a sense of humor (or just loves to stick his thumb in the eye of progressives), replaced her with an evangelical minister’s wife who home-schooled her kids.

    • Not Adahn

      Since they get to hand-pick whatever slots are available, I’d assume they’d support as many recalls as they have favors to fulfil.

      • KSuellington

        Thatā€™s the first recall Iā€™ve seen that had support of the mayor.

      • KSuellington

        Although she is also supporting the upcoming recall of our DA, which I am fine with as she is going to appoint someone to finish his term that will be a bit more willing to prosecute property crime.

      • Compelled Speechless

        That’s a good one. I fell out of my chair laughing. You might get someone who is a willing to have tougher rhetoric, but someone that’s actually going to dig them out of the hole they dug? I don’t see it happening. The aesthetics of the cops taking down people that look like the “good guys” (died hair, sexually ambiguous, POCs) will collapse any politician immediately in that city. The whole place is in a paradoxical trance where they’re convinced the sinners are saints. They probably need an 80’s style NYC crackdown to restore sanity and no one has the stomach for it. I’m the one suggesting it and I know I don’t.

    • PieInTheSky

      I am waiting for someone to gift me one

    • Fourscore

      Oh boy, not another problem. I’m too old for this shit.

    • Shpip

      I had my eye on a new 911 GT3, but decided to get one of these instead.

      Problem is, the price of a six-cylinder GT4 was around $80k when the article was written, and is hovering in the $110k region now. So I’m holding off for now.

      • KSuellington

        Damn, that would be a beast of a car, sharp looking to boot. Hope you get your wish.

        One month to go till F1 kicks off, looking forward to seeing how the car redesign will effect the racing this year.

  34. PieInTheSky

    Members of the Behavioural Insights Team and other such ā€˜nudgeā€™ units around the world need to pay a social cost for the last two years. Itā€™s not like we donā€™t know who they are. They need to be motivated to hide what they do and who they work for, because people should spit on the street in front of them when they are recognised. They want a ā€˜new normalā€™? Ok then, lets give them the new normal they deserve.

    ā€“ A Chatham House Rule remark by a certain journalist in the last week at a rather bad tempered event. The room was filled with a mixture of nodding heads and a few looks of establishment horror. People are starting to realise they really do have have to pick a side.

    https://www.samizdata.net/2022/02/samizdata-quote-of-the-day-1565/

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Seeing Cass Sunstein’s head on a pike would give me a smile.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Agreed. I don’t know who that is, but you had me at warmonger.

    • Festus

      At last!

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Sheep gaze into mirror

    The daily spectacle along Wellington Street also appears to have battered the collective psyche of Canada, a country generally not known for bruising ideological brawls and flag-waving displays of political partisanship.

    The time-honored tradition of Canadians making nice appears to have gone out the window as protesters vent their ire, often in vulgar language, at Trudeau, who is regularly denounced as a dictator in all but name. Posters depict Trudeau as the illegitimate son of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, among other characterizations.

    Residents and others seem genuinely astonished that a descent to this level of discourse ā€” accompanied by a rowdy blockade labeled a ā€œcarnival of chaosā€ by one lawmaker ā€” could have happened in Canada. They wonder when and how the daily disruptions on the streets will end.

    ā€œDoes anyone know what the hell is going on anymore?ā€ columnist Kelly Egan wrote Tuesday in the Ottawa Sun. ā€œMonday certainly had the feel of the city, the province, maybe the country, going madly off in all directions.ā€

    Stop resisting!

    • Festus

      Sadly, no.

    • R C Dean

      Reality has penetrated their bubble.

      They are Not Pleased.

  36. PieInTheSky

    Research Spotlight: Resistance training boosts your antioxidant system more than vitamin D supplementation
    Research Spotlight articles share concise breakdowns of interesting studies. The study reviewed is “Elastic resistance training is more effective than vitamin D3 supplementation in reducing oxidative stress and strengthen antioxidant enzymes in healthy men” by Kalvandi et al. (2021)

    https://www.strongerbyscience.com/research-spotlight-vitamin-d/

  37. The Late P Brooks

    The effect of what authorities call the ā€œoccupationā€ has been viewed by some as something akin to what many in the United States felt when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 ā€” though not deadly or anywhere near as violent. Some outraged Canadians see a kind of cross-border metastasis of U.S.-style crass politics ā€” a notion amplified when conservatives like Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson, the Fox news host, heap praise on the protesters.

    The horror. The HORROR.

    • WTF

      The death and violence on January 6 was perpetrated by the authorities.

    • kbolino

      Politics is when we control your life and you’re supposed to sit there and take it quietly like a good peasant.

  38. Festus

    I’m out, Dear Ones. Hope that your day turns out even better than mine! If you are listening lolbot, let us know how things are going, right and/or wrong. We think about you even if you don’t think about us.

  39. PieInTheSky

    Turkey ā€“ circling the drain with a gold grab
    Mr Ed Ā· Asian affairs Ā· Balkans Ā· Economics, Business & Globalization Ā· European affairs Ā· Media & Journalism Ā· Political Economy

    Little noticed in the UK media, reports from a financial vlogger Joe Blogs (that is his handle) on Turkey tells us that the government is ā€˜askingā€™ citizens to hand over their gold and foreign currency, at a time of 50% inflation, but citizens will get Lira in return. There are 30,000 gold shops in Turkey and five major refineries. Do not worry that Erdogan is a (not so) covert Islamist, he is first and foremost a Keynesian.

    The Turkish government is not simply standing by and watching as the Lira inflates away, the government has cut tax on food from 8% to 1%, and this in the context of a currency crisis, the lira falling 44% in 2021 against foreign currencies. So they know that cutting taxes eases burdens on people. Unfortunately, AtatĆ¼rkā€™s doctrine of ā€˜statismā€˜ lingers, with lots of Turks employed by the State.

    https://www.samizdata.net/2022/02/turkey-circling-the-drain-with-a-gold-grab/

    • R C Dean

      The great thing about gold (real gold, the kind you can hold in your hand) is, it is really hard to find. It doesn’t sit in a relatively small handful of banks. It is stashed in people’s homes. And nothing makes the people who have it more determined to hang onto it than somebody demanding they hand it over.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Lead by example, you bloodthirsty shithead.

      Oh, that’s right, you’d piss yourself and run away crying if a real thug eyed you sideways.

  40. KSuellington

    The SF school board recall was nice to see even though my kids donā€™t go to a government school here. I thought it was a slam dunk as the local Dems including the mayor got behind it as they saw the writing on the wall, but it was good to see the North Korea like number of 79% voting to get rid of the head bitch and close to that for the two others. You donā€™t often see a 79% vote for or against something or someone. I think our DA is feeling a wee bit less secure in his job this week. His recall is in June and I think it will easily go through. Despite AOC flapping her yapper this week about Texas turning blue, I think the Donks are in for a reckoning. I have no illusions that Ess Eff or California is going to turn Elephant, but I think the Dems becoming the minority party for a decade or so is a serious reality that they may not be able to fortify their way out of. While the Republicans are certainly not libertarians, the party in 2022 is certainly not moving in the direction of the neocons, which I will take as a positive.

    • R C Dean

      I think the Donks are in for a reckoning.

      I sure hope so. But I worry about the short memories of the voters, and the ease with which they are distracted.

      There is also the problem that the Team Blue fundraising wing of the UniParty getting the crap kicked out of them will be taken as validation by the Team Red fundraising wing.

      • KSuellington

        Voters memories are indeed short, but political party preferences are often deeply engrained. Even a fair portion of so called independents typically vote almost exclusively for one party. Breaking those preferences is not easy. I know many people that by all rights should in no way be registered Dems by how they view issues of the day and yet they are, mostly because it is cultural rather than political. Moving a number of people from one party to another doesnā€™t often happen, but I think we are starting to see it here. And yes, while I mostly agree about the uniparty, at this particular point in time the Dems are far more anti liberty in almost all aspects than Team Red. The goal should be an Overton window movement, where the Dems are forced to correct their drift to the hard left. I see indications of that and hope that is what will happen over the next decade. Iā€™m generally an optimist by nature tho.

      • juris imprudent

        I’ve been non-partisan for decades. I usually vote for Republicans even though they are useless IMO. Useless is better than what the Democrats are.

      • KSuellington

        Pretty much my feeling on it, JI. I do think the percentage of truly non partisan (that would vote either way depending) is fairly small.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    The Ottawa police chief, Peter Sloly, resigned Tuesday in what was widely seen as a result of his botched response to the protests ā€” even as authorities were able to break up similar, albeit smaller, blockades along the Canadian-U.S. border without violence or mass arrests. Additional provincial and Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been deployed to aid the Ottawa police, and officials have set up a joint command center.

    How law enforcement will proceed to end the blockade remains unknown. Authorities estimate that there are about 150 protesters present each night, and about 360 vehicles parked in the downtown core.

    Officials are hopeful that many protesters will leave voluntarily, but they have made clear that police will act before this weekend ā€” when hundreds of revelers are expected to join the blockade, amid barbecues, DJ-curated musical presentations and other live attractions. Wellington Street has seen raucous partying each weekend since the demonstrations kicked off.

    But Parliament Hill may soon be declared a ā€œno goā€ zone, Marco Mendicino, Canadaā€™s public safety minister, told reporters Tuesday, and those refusing to leave could face fines and jail time.

    ā€œNo one wants to see another weekend like the last three on Wellington Street,ā€ Mendicino said. ā€œIā€™m assured by my discussions with police that they fully appreciate that. We now depend on them to do the job.ā€

    Freedom. Horrible, horrible freedom.

    The only cure: Peace Through Superior Firepower. They had their chance to surrender.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      Awww yeah. Best L they have posted other than the AOC “protesting is supposed to cause discomfort” one.

  42. db

    @Neph

    I had to go to the grocery store this morning. Just as I walked in, I was accosted by a table full of boxes of paczki, which I had never had, and only heard about from you recently.

    So I bought a box.

    Quite good.

    • Nephilium

      So tasty… so unhealthy.

      Local shop has planned a big celebration on March 1st, starting at 05:00 Eastern, and going all day. They’re planning on making 70,000 paczki, Fat Heads will be there pouring beer and making cocktails, and there will be live bands and DJ’s. They’ve already got the order form up.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, says the way many protesters frame their calls for freedom renders the word meaningless ā€” and what they’re really asking for is a shift in government policy that could potentially have a negative impact on others.

    “When they’re yelling they care so much about their freedom, they’re taking freedoms away from other people who don’t have the same kind of agency and choice that they do,” he said.

    You know what? If my freedom comes at the expense of some faceless government apparatchik’s “freedom” to control my every thought and deed, I’m okay with that.

    Seriously.

    • ron73440

      When theyā€™re yelling they care so much about their freedom, theyā€™re taking freedoms away from other people who donā€™t have the same kind of agency and choice that they do,ā€

      Freedom is slavery.

      It is known.

    • kbolino

      Canadians: Canada is a real country
      Trudeau: TRUMP!

  44. Count Potato

    EXCLUSIVE: Showdown in Ottawa looms: Police hand out notices to evacuate as DailyMail.com goes inside the tented nerve center where 200 volunteers keep the Freedom Convoy in top shape with hot meals, saunas and massages”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10520353/Showdown-Ottawa-looms-Police-hand-notices-evacuate.html

    “Outrage as Trudeau’s justice minister compares Freedom Convoy donations to ‘terrorist financing’, says donors are part of ‘pro-Trump movement’ and threatens to FREEZE their bank accounts”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10523525/Trudeaus-justice-minister-compares-Freedom-Convoy-donations-terrorist-financing.html

    “justice”

    • Raven Nation

      Radio NZ “broke” a big story yesterday. One of the protestors who met with an opposition member of parliament is a member of a Japanese institute that supports commercial whaling. Seriously, that was the story. Somehow that discredits the whole movement I guess.

      • kbolino

        There are Japanese organizations that wish to overturn the “Peace Constitution”, reinstate the emperor as divine ruler, and renew the creation of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”.

        By comparison, eating whale meat is pretty tame.

    • kbolino

      GIGO

    • R C Dean

      OK, sure. Meaningless graphic is meaningless.

      Now do the total amount of materials it would take to build those panels (and the necessary battery backups and grid reworking), compared to the available resources. Don’t forget to throw in cost estimates.

    • AlexinCT

      Mark Elias helping out the cause in the name of the Clinton crime syndicate…

    • Urthona

      Not gonna happen now.

      • Sensei

        You can’t make this shit up.

    • AlexinCT

      When your idea of sex is molded by porn, your standards are low to non-existent. When it is molded by pulp fiction and Hallmark movies, you your expectations will be too high.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        When your idea of sex is molded by porn, your standards are low to non-existent.

        ???

        I’ve known more than a few guys who fucked up their marriages by bringing expectations from porn into the bedroom. Quite a few got into a situation where wifey wasn’t cutting it because they had so dulled their senses to regular, plain sex.

    • kbolino

      Straight men rating women’s attractiveness: symmetrical distribution centered around the midpoint
      Straight men rating their own attractiveness: symmetrical distribution centered around the midpoint
      Straight women rating men’s attractiveness: asymmetrical distribution skewed towards lower numbers
      Straight women rating their own attractiveness: asymmetrical distribution skewed towards higher numbers

      Something, something, expectations, something, reality

      • PieInTheSky

        That was a trick. In fact, there is no such thing as men and women it is all a social construct. Just like the concept of female orgasm. a Myth.

    • Not Adahn

      I can’t believe nobody else has stepped up.

      *Ahem*

      They only surveyed women who haven’t met me.

      • Lackadaisical

        They didn’t want to bias the results any lower.

  45. Sensei

    Republicans (and crazy libertarians) in major metropolitan areas have no idea what you are talking about.

    ‘The brand is so toxic’: Dems fear extinction in rural US

    The partyā€™s brand is so toxic in the small towns 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh that some liberals have removed bumper stickers and yard signs and refuse to acknowledge their party affiliation publicly. These Democrats are used to being outnumbered by the local Republican majority, but as their numbers continue to dwindle, the few that remain are feeling increasingly isolated and unwelcome in their own communities.

    • kbolino

      “Every action has an equal but opposite reaction”

    • slumbrew

      feeling increasingly isolated and unwelcome in their own communities.

      Boo-fucking-hoo.

      Let me tell you about being anything other than an outspoken leftist where I live…

      • Sensei

        A game I used to play during national elections in NYC was to see how many Republican buttons and signs and the like I would see on people and stores and the like.

        It was easily 20 to 1 if not more Team Blue to Team Red. During Trump v Biden I don’t believe in NYC I saw a single Trump political button on a single person, but too many Biden buttons to count.

    • R C Dean

      When you escalate politics into a battle of moral absolutes, what do you expect to happen?

    • PieInTheSky

      fuck em

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      the few that remain are feeling increasingly isolated and unwelcome in their own communities.

      Good. Maybe you’ll feel a bit of shame at being amoral busybodies. You’ll probably not change your ways, but I’m glad you’re growing a healthy fear of opening your mouth and meddling in other people’s business.

      • juris imprudent

        AMORAL? We will have you know that we are the most moral and the whole problem is the lousy morality of all of the rest of yoU!

  46. db

    I missed this when it came out last Friday, but here’s an article comparing the COVID response and especially Fauci to what Eisenhower predicted in his Farewell Address.

    I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and it’s good to see others doing the same. Just about everyone knows the term “military-industrial complex” and that it is something to be concerned about. Many know it originated (or at least was popularized) by Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell address at the end of his presidency. What fewer (by far) people know (but most here probably do) is that Eisenhower also warned strongly against the “Scientific-Industrial Complex,” which he saw as nearly, if not just as, dangerous to free society in the US.

    The flow of money from government to institutions and researchers clearly affects what topics get studied and how much, and certainly has the potential to influence the outcome of studies, presumably in the direction of the benefactors/patrons of those studies. Passing the money through the government has been viewed as somehow purifying by the large majority of people who pay attention, but it is exactly the opposite.

    • kbolino

      The state/formal government as the nexus of the X-industrial complexes was more accurate in Eisenhower’s day but not so much today. The state is the long arm, but not the driving force. Ideas and prerogatives initiate upstream of the formal government and pass down to it via the academy and media. But (qua-)NGOs/nonprofits and large corporations carry out the same prerogatives in parallel (at differing rates of uptake). Arguably, in the trio of NGO/nonprofit, state, and business, the first leads, the second follows not far behind, and the third lags but eventually catches up.

      • db

        It definitely has become more complicated over time. In my view, this is partly because institutions other than the government have become beholden to political agendas to a degree they either weren’t in Eisenhower’s time, or their influence at the time was not strong enough to merit taking them over. As those institutions have become more powerful (precisely because of the flow of Federal research funding to them), they become targets themselves.

      • kbolino

        I think this still centralizes the state more than is correct. Can you identify the political agenda which did this? Where did that agenda originate?

        As an example, LBJ was ousted not by “the right” but by the left leading to many disaffected Democrats voting for Nixon. Nevertheless, LBJ was probably the most powerful President since FDR. If the state is central as the nexus of power, how did he lose?

      • juris imprudent

        The money that sustains the NGOs/non-profits flows due to govt policy (or direct spending). Symbiosis for the win.

    • R C Dean

      The flow of money from government to institutions and researchers clearly affects what topics get studied and how much

      As I was just pointing out to someone earlier this week w/r/t global warming, people respond to incentives, and say what they are paid to say. When all the grantmakers want to hear that “global warming will be the end of the world”, it is inevitable that the climatologists will churn out models and “studies” confirming that global warming will be the end of the world.

      • kbolino

        That is iteration 0. By iteration 2 or 3 nobody even recognizes that they’ve been psyopped by yesterday’s incentives and instead becomes true believers of what was once a cynical power play.

    • db

      linky no work

      • PieInTheSky

        twitter issue I think cannot load anything from the author otherwise link should be fine

      • db

        can you load Sensei’s link below? I’m getting the same error for both yours and his.

    • R C Dean

      “Something went wrong. Try reloading.”

      Seems apropos.

    • Drake

      Great way to start another ice age. Or, flip it around and you can fry people like ants with a magnifying glass.

    • db

      Weird; this one also doesn’t work for me

      • PieInTheSky

        click on the the on haul that should work

      • db

        sorry, I don’t understand that

      • PieInTheSky

        Typo try on haul comment 61 šŸ™‚

    • db

      Dude, I don’t want to watch that. Ladyparts are very distracting during work meetings.

  47. PieInTheSky

    twitter may be down. this could be the end of life as we now it

    • db

      Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch!

    • Not Adahn

      How will journalismists write stories?

  48. hayeksplosives

    Woot! They discharged me from the ER.

    Apparently the Sp O2 meter on my finger was malfunctioning so they thought I was hypoxic. After I went the the restroom and had coherent conversations with the nurses and doctors, they figured Iā€™m good to go and retested the oxygen with a different device.

    I hate modern medicine sometimes.

    • Count Potato

      Good to hear, glad you are alright.

    • R.J.

      Glad you are out. Is everything OK?

    • ron73440

      Good, stop doing that!

    • grrizzly

      Glad you’re doing better.

  49. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    Some group at the Ottawa convoy is running their internet via a generator & Starlink. Smart move. I wouldn’t be surprised is Castreau tried to shut down internet access around the neighborhood.

  50. Pope Jimbo

    Daily Ray of Sunshine

    My dad and his brother shot an owl when they were kids. They winged it and then felt bad about what they had done so they brought it back home and nursed it back to health. The owl stuck around and was pleasant to everyone except my gramma.

    The other story they had about the owl was the time it was roosting on the clothesline in the back yard and the big tom cat they owned was coming back from a night on the town and decided it would grab the dumb bird. Dad said the fight was witnessed from the breakfast table and was epic. In the end both the owl and the cat decided that detente was the best policy and left each other alone.

  51. MikeS

    What’s the difference between a cop and a bullet?
    .
    .
    .
    .
    When a bullet kills someone you know it’s been fired.

    • kbolino

      Cops don’t kill people, cops show up and people die from indirect actions.

  52. Count Potato

    Twitter is down, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, the dead rising from the grave, white guys playing cornerback, Paul Krugman is absolutely right, mass hysteria!

    • Not Adahn

      In fantasyland, it would be a retributive hacking from GiveSendGo.

  53. Drake

    Covid data will not be published over concerns it’s misrepresented correctly interpreted by anti-vaxxers

    The UK was one of the most transparent places for medical data.

    • rhywun

      ?

    • Tres Cool

      She’s wearing a really good bra there, but I did my own fact checking.

      Mostly true.

      We need a definitive answer from Q.