Joemala: Episode 61

by | Mar 9, 2022 | Joemala | 164 comments

It had been a rough day.

They were all rough days, but today particularly so.

She took a drag from the Virginia Slims cigarette smoldering in the ashtray, taking care not to press her lips too hard and lose the lipstick she had so painstakingly applied.

The White House press corps was becoming troublesome. She expected that from Fox, of course, but even the tame lapdog media were starting to snap at her.

She knew Steven Nelson’s domme and was going to make sure he got caned most severely, and stayed locked in chastity for a very long time.

Today, for the first time since getting credentialed, Lynn Sweet had been wanded-down by Secret Service and had to remove her shoes to get into the West Wing. She replayed the security video.

“I’m Lynn Sweet, with the Chicago Sun-Times. I’m in here every day, Henry.”

She took another drag from her cigarette and held it in through the next delicious line.

“Take off your shoes, please, ma’am,” said Henry impassively.

“Anoki, get a twenty from my purse and buy Henry a bottle of of Old Grandad for that.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She finished putting on the last touches on her makeup and leaned back to check herself one last time in the mirror. Perfect.

 

 

“Don’t mind me, ladies,” said a drunken Hunter appearing behind her in the mirror holding a pair of deep green panties to his nose and making loud snorfling noises.

She hissed and started. He was wearing a jockstrap and necktie, and she could see the outline of his penis through the thin fabric of the pouch. Goddammit those were her favorite panties.

“Delicious,” he said, as he lurched out of view accompanied by a half-second of polite applause and laughter.

“I have a last-minute thing for you, ma’am,” said Anoki brandishing a bright yellow sheet of paper that meant it was from Image Management.

“What do the spin doctors say, Anoki?”

“Ma’am? They were before I was born.”

Jen stubbed out her cigarette and blew a lungful of smoke into Anoki’s face.

“The wonks down in Image Management, the real spin doctors.”

“Oh,” she said, her face brightening with the revelation, her small, perfect breasts bobbing ever so slightly in her tailored white blouse.

Jen lusted for the taste of her sweet plum, but there’d be time for that later.

 

Jamarcus Purley, ma’am. They’ve heard chatter on the dark social media that hostile reporters are planning to ask if the administration is going to treat him the same as the January sixth insurrectionists.”

“And what’s their suggested response.”

“‘Be blunt. Dismiss this as a separation of powers issue. The matter is being investigated by the Capitol Police Board and they will make a recommendation to the DOJ once they finish.'”

“That should buy us a couple of weeks, at least. Mitch isn’t going to like this. What else?”

“That’s the only thing not on your tablet, ma’am. Good luck.”

Jen got up from her dressing table and strode down the corridor to the stage entrance of the James Brady Press Briefing room. Time to meet the press.

 

SugarFree is caught up in “Southern Gothic horror survival” LARPing, and was unable to do “Joemala” this week. He asked me to fill-in. I am honored, and hope I have done his series justice. SugarFree will return.

About The Author

Tonio

Tonio

Tonio is a Glibs shitposter, linkstar (Thursday PM, yo), author, and editor. He is also a GlibZoom personality and prankster. Tonio is a big fan of pic-a-nic baskets. His hobbies include salmon fishing, territorial displays, dumpster diving, and posing for wildlife photographers.

164 Comments

  1. Ghostpatzer

    I look forward to the latest installment of Naked Came the Stranger Joemala each Wednesday. Well done, Tonio!

  2. ron73440

    Joemala from Tonio?

    I want my money back.

    “Don’t mind me, ladies,” said a drunken Hunter appearing behind her in the mirror holding a pair of deep green panties to his nose and making loud snorfling noises.

    Seriously though, great job.

    • Fourscore

      I don’t know what snorfling noises are but it made me laugh. It’ll be an SF-Tonio duel of the ball points after this.

      Thanks, Tonio, for filling in.

      • Fourscore

        Maybe an SF-Tonio duo, that would work too.

      • ron73440

        snorfling

        I don’t know if it’s a real word*, but I knew what it meant as soon as I saw it.

        *little scared to google it

      • Tonio

        It’s an onomatopoeia, a word that imitates the sound it represents. Like “meow.”

      • Swiss Servator

        I am still checking Urban Dictionary…

      • Bobarian LMD

        duel of the ball points

        Is that like sword fight, or is it more like docking?

  3. DEG

    I am honored, and hope I have done his series justice.

    You did.

    • rhywun

      And it’s great to get a quick look inside the world of Strawberry Pop Tart.

      • ron73440

        I called Psaki “strawberry” while talking to my wife the other day.

        She asked me why I would give her a cute nickname.

        She knew about glibs, but not the glory of SF, so I explained a little and we both agreed that she should never read it.

      • EvilSheldon

        My 77-year-old New Jersey Irish Catholic mother has read some of SugarFree’s work, and she thought it was funny.

        Ask me again how I turned out this way…

      • ron73440

        This is not my wife’s humor.

        We saw a video where a woman asked someone to pretend to be her dead mom, so she could share some news about her new job. The guy laid on the floor like he was dead.

        2 reactions:

        Me: laughing so hard, I had tears coming out of my eyes.

        Her: “WOW, That’s wrong.”

      • Swiss Servator

        Yeah, I would have laughed.

      • Mojeaux

        It is worthy of one raised eyebrow.

      • Swiss Servator

        He could have made clawing motions…”get me out of this coffin!”

      • ron73440
  4. Tundra

    Wow, Tonio!

    You did the Master proud.

    “Ma’am? They were before I was born.”

    Well played.

    • Lackadaisical

      Yeah, I had no idea it wasn’t SF until I got to the end.

  5. CPRM

    1. Why wasn’t I asked to fill in?
    2. I didn’t check my email, maybe I was.
    3. I think these ladies need an anime style design. Someone should get on that…

    • Swiss Servator

      You have your own thing, man.

      Which, whenever the next one is ready…

    • Gustave Lytton

      You can add an Iranian attempt on the Bolton stache subplot now.

      • The Other Kevin

        The Hat & the Hair & the Turban?

  6. Drake

    Steve Nelson? My favorite Patriot when I was a kid.

    • ron73440

      I think Psaki is talking about this guy.

      • Tonio

        Yes. Thanks. That’s the incident that was the backdrop for the story.

  7. slumbrew

    Excellent job, Tonio! Very SugarFree-esque.

  8. pistoffnick the refusnik

    “Be blunt.”

    What you did. Seen.

  9. Fourscore

    The video of Jamarcus was great. We need more of that to realize that the congress critters are just that, nothing special, just congress critters.

  10. LCDR_Fish

    OT…heroes

    https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2022/03/08/destroyer-cant-deploy-because-co-wont-get-covid-vaccine-navy-says/

    It’s a standoff the brass are calling a “manifest national security concern,” according to recent federal court filings.

    The issues stem from a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida late last year alleging servicemembers’ rights are being infringed upon by the COVID vaccine mandate because their religious beliefs prevent them from taking the vaccine.

    Judge Steven D. Merryday issue an order last month banning the Navy and Marine Corps from taking any disciplinary action against the unnamed Navy warship commander and a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel for refusing the vaccine.

    In the process, the case has raised questions about the lines between military good order and discipline, and the legal rights of servicemembers as American citizens.

    Merryday’s injunction is “an extraordinary intrusion upon the inner workings of the military” and has essentially left the Navy short a warship, according to a Feb. 28 filing by the government.

    ….

    But while the government’s filing framed the judge’s order and the commander’s vaccine refusal as impacting the core of American military might, plaintiffs’ attorneys contend the case is ultimately about the rights afforded the plaintiffs under the Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That act bans the government from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion.

    ….

    The Feb. 28 filing alleges that the commander has already disregarded Navy regulations after he “exposed dozens of his crew to COVID-19 when he decided not to test himself after experiencing symptoms.”

    A declaration filed in early February by Brandon states he visited the Navy commander aboard his ship in November and that the ship CO “could barely speak.”

    After a briefing involving dozens of sailors in close quarters on the ship, the Navy commander admitted to his boss that he had a sore throat.

    Brandon ordered him to get a COVID test, and the commander tested positive after telling his boss he had discussed his illness earlier with the ship’s corpsman, according to the declaration.

    The government’s Feb. 28 filing also argued that, even if the court found the CO credible, he can’t lead and crew a warship “given the breach of the relationships with both his commanding officer and his subordinates.”

    A commanding officer can’t enforce orders to his 320-sailor crew if he does not abide by those orders himself, the filing argues.

    “By forcing the Navy to keep in place a commander of a destroyer who has lost the trust of his superior officers and the Navy at large, this Order effectively places a multi-billion-dollar guided missile destroyer out of commission,” defense attorneys wrote.

    A Marine Corps lieutenant colonel tapped to lead a combat logistics battalion puts that service in the same boat, as “failure to follow the lawful policies and standards of her superiors undermines her ability to require her subordinates to follow her policies and standards,” the filing argues.

    “No military can successfully function where courts allow service members to define the terms of their own military service, including which orders they will choose to follow,” the filing states.

    But according to Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel, a religious freedom non-profit representing the plaintiffs, the government is “putting in these histrionic kinds of statements into the record that are completely contrary to the evidence.”

    While Navy leaders have professed lost confidence in the CO, they still sent him and his ship out to sea for two weeks of training, Staver told Navy Times on Monday.

    “When this was filed in court saying the ship is not deployable because they lost confidence in the Commander, the Commander was on board the ship out to sea for two weeks of testing and training for military readiness,” Staver said. “He returned to port last Friday, March 4, after the drills were completed.”

    The government’s insistence that the Navy commander can’t command his ship “reeks of petty retaliation and contempt” of the court’s preliminary injunction banning such retaliation, the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in a March 1 filing.

    “The Navy’s feigned ‘loss of confidence’ in the Commander is patently pretextual and has everything to do with the Commander’s lawful and orderly attempt to obtain judicial relief from an unconstitutional mandate,” the filing states.

    The ship was underway for more than 300 days during the 400 pandemic days when no vaccine was available, the plaintiffs contend, “with no operational impediment.”

    “If there is injury to the Navy from shutting down the Commander’s ship, it is self-inflicted and intentional,” the filing states.

    But Judge Merryday denied the government’s request in a March 3 decision and accused the defense of attempting “to evoke the frightening prospect of a dire national emergency resulting from allegedly reckless and unlawful overreaching by the district judge.”

    Merryday accused the defense of arguing as if the Religious Freedom Reform Act doesn’t apply to military members.

    The commander’s contention that his rights under the act were denied “demands a closer examination, which is readily and reasonably promptly available.”

    “Surely the free exercise rights restored by RFRA are not subject to evisceration or circumnavigation by a notion as subjective and illusory—and, according to the defendants, unreviewable by the judiciary — as a sudden ‘loss of confidence’ by a superior officer who sends a declaration to the court,” Merryday wrote.

    What’s more, the government’s contention that vaccination against COVID maximizes the health and safety of servicemembers is not in dispute, he wrote.

    “The defendants might prefer to argue that question, but the plaintiffs and the court address only the question presented in the RFRA claim,” Merryday’s order states.

    Rather, the question is whether vaccinating the Navy commander and Marine Corps lieutenant colonel over their religious objections is “the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling government interest.”

    “RFRA establishes that explicit test and places the burden of proof on the government,” Merryday wrote. “Proving the obvious, that vaccination is best for ‘the force’ and necessary for ‘the force,’ fails to satisfy the ‘to the person’ test require by RFRA. The military designs to avoid the ‘to the person’ test, but the statute is unflinching.”

    In denying the government’s Feb. 28 motion, Merryday gave both sides until Tuesday to submit a witness and exhibit list as the case continues.

    • Rebel Scum

      Keep banging those war drums.

      • Drake

        The Ruskies and ChiComs are scared now.

    • R C Dean

      Merryday’s injunction is “an extraordinary intrusion upon the inner workings of the military” and has essentially left the Navy short a warship, according to a Feb. 28 filing by the government.

      No, the Navy has left the Navy short a warship, by being petty little bitches. There is absolutely no reason that ship can’t sail with an unvaxxed commander. Amazing, I know, but the Navy managed to get by with unvaxxed commanders are almost its entire existence.

    • Gustave Lytton

      loss of confidence’ by a superior officer

      ‘He won’t questioningly do what we tell him to do! Wah, wah!’

    • Gustave Lytton

      “No military can successfully function where courts allow service members to define the terms of their own military service, including which orders they will choose to follow,”

      The post WWII trials become more and more mere victor’s justice rather than moral principles.

  11. Dr. Fronkensteen

    SugarFree is caught up in “Southern Gothic horror survival” LARPing,

    Strange way to say he’s on gimp duty in an Anne Rice Vampire Lestat / Sleeping Beauty themed dungeon.

    • Mojeaux

      I LOLd

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      Do you mean “Two Minutes to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?”

  12. EvilSheldon

    That was very solid.

  13. The Hyperbole

    Tonio, I didn’t catch that you wrote this until the end and it never crossed my mind that it wasn’t SF while reading so I’d say you dun gud.

    • Sean

      Same here.

      • hayeksplosives

        Me too.

        Well done.

      • Not Adahn

        +1 more

      • SandMan

        Me 3.

    • The Other Kevin

      Me too. It wasn’t one of the most retch-inducing ones, but at this point Jen and her daily bullshit have become retch-inducing on their own.

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      This. Top-flight /fic.

  14. juris imprudent

    accompanied by a half-second of polite applause and laughter.

    The White House has a laugh track?

    • slumbrew

      That’s established canon for Joemala.

      • juris imprudent

        Rather like breaching the fourth wall.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Unwanted penetration.

      • Compelled Speechless

        I’d breach Strawberry’s fourth wall, if you know what I’m saying….actually I’m not even sure what I’m saying.

    • Suthenboy

      You didn’t know that?

      • juris imprudent

        Look, the JFK sex tunnels were believable, you know what I’m sayin’?

      • Suthenboy

        And a laugh track for Joe, Kamala and Strawberry isn’t?

      • Tonio

        Is it for all of them? Hunter was the only one I was sure about.

      • kinnath

        I just recall Hunter having a laugh-track

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      Is, not has.

      • juris imprudent

        Winner!

  15. WTF

    Jen lusted for the taste of her sweet plum, but there’d be time for that later.

    Big shoes to fill, Tonio, but you’ve done a fine job.
    Bravo!

  16. slumbrew

    Huh. It’s 39 degrees and snowing.

    • Ghostpatzer

      Water is compensating for global warming by slowly adjusting its’ freezing point upward. Science!

      • slumbrew

        That’s just good science.

      • WTF

        The science has changed!!

      • rhywun

        The sciences switched!!

    • Suthenboy

      Sounds more tolerable than here. 44, heavy overcast and nearly 100% humidity. It sucks the heat right out of you.
      Yesterday was 38 and intermittent heavy and pissing rain.

      *tosses another log on the fire

      • Animal

        27 and snowing like hell here right now. Supposed to get 5-8″ in the Susitna Valley between here and Talkeetna in the next 48 hours.

  17. Suthenboy

    I see Strawberry Poptart is trying to convince everyone that they are going to clean up the mess they made but it is all Putin’s fault. It is always those dastardly Russians.
    They are still going to get their asses handed to them in Nov.

    • Ghostpatzer

      They are still going to get their asses handed to them in Nov.

      Sure hope so. But not particularly confident that anything will be fixed soon.

      • Suthenboy

        Oh no, the R’s will win. Nothing will be fixed. I am still waiting for my obumble care repeal. I am still waiting for my state’s constitutional carry law.

      • WTF

        The R’s really are worthless shits, but they are much less destructive to the nation’s wellbeing than the D’s.

      • Suthenboy

        You are correct but are good men doing nothing really good men? Standing by while savages take a sledge hammer to the country does not make them innocent. They would only be less destructive if they firmly held the reins of power.

      • Ghostpatzer

        I am still waiting for my obumble care repeal

        Oh, come over to NJ, we’re real good with rebates. Gov. Murphy (D, Goldman Sachs) just signed a “property tax relief” bill which will provide UP TO SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS in rebates to households earning less that $250K. Doesn’t help much if you live here.

        Narrator: Grosspatzer pays double the average for this jurisdiction.

      • UnCivilServant

        NY has an ongoing program where the Department of Tax and Finance mails you a check as a rebate on property taxes on certain eligable homes. It used to be in the regular tax filings, but someone went “we need this program to look like we’re mailing them free money” and moved to the mail the checks version. It’s basically a backdoor subsidty of localities from the general fund. Since those who qulaify are homeowners they generally also pay income tax, so it’s just their own money being shuffled around again.

      • Ted S.

        It’s worse than that; you have to apply for the STAR tax credit. You don’t just get to declare it on your return.

      • Sensei

        Hello from Essex County!

        I pay over 2x our rate as well.

    • Tundra

      Who cares? The fucking opposition party is busily bipartisaning another massive spending bill.

      • Gustave Lytton

        And “force” Joe to stand up against Russian aggression by becoming an outright party to the conflict.

  18. Tundra

    How the hell does Ukraine have multiple bioweapons labs?

    Actually, I think I know the answer.

    • slumbrew

      They never said Ukraine has multiple bioweapons labs.

      They said there were multiple bioweapons labs in Ukraine.

      • Tundra

        Ah, yes. Important clarification.

    • Suthenboy

      I wonder who he used to launder that money.

    • R C Dean

      The Narrative:

      “There are no bioweapons labs in Ukraine, and it would be terrible if they fell into the Russians’ hands.”

      • juris imprudent

        This timeline really sucks.

      • The Other Kevin

        From the people who brought you, “Masks don’t work, and make sure you save some for health care workers.”

  19. Tulip

    If you have anything to include in what are we reading, send me a message through the forum. Thanks. Submissions close Saturday.

    • Tundra

      Can’t I just leave them as a response to your comment? ?

    • UnCivilServant

      Does this include regular Glibs?

      • Tulip

        Yes

      • pistoffnick the refusnik

        Unleaded only.

      • juris imprudent

        Well I guess that lets me out.

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      Did you get mine, Tulip?

      • Tulip

        Yes, thank you.

    • Tonio

      There is a new WAWR topic in the forum in the Reading section, created per Tulip’s request. Thanks.

  20. Sean
    • Tundra

      Holy shit!

      Also neat.

      • The Other Kevin

        That is cool. A long time ago, in one of my art classes, I had a fellow student who was elderly and legally blind. She could only see things right in front of her face. She’d paint miniature paintings, and enter them in miniature painting contests, and win.

  21. Suthenboy

    It just occurred to me…Hillary sold our Uranium to the Ruskies…I wouldn’t be surprised if Creepy Joe does not sell the oil leases he forbids American companies to the Chinese.

    • hayeksplosives

      I was thinking of the Clinton uranium deal just yesterday.

      Bill and Hilary are traitors for selling our missile technology to the ChiComs during Bill’s presidency. I was stunned to be one of only a few people who were outraged by that.

  22. kinnath

    Leaving on vacation tomorrow. Will be driving south in to a snow storm. I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about southern folk that don’t know how to drive in snow.

  23. Not Adahn

    “I get to the Senate, the building where I worked for five years. I still had the keys to my office,” he told the outlet. “I get in there. I get into the office, and I can’t breathe. I’m on shrooms in an office where white people touch my hair and do racist s**t.”

    Purley added that he walked into Feinstein’s office, which “triggered a screaming white noise sound. I had only been in her actual office like twice in five years, and I couldn’t figure out how to turn off the white noise sound. It was giving me so much anxiety because it sounded like when the cops show up. So then I was like, f*** it. I just gotta do something for 10 minutes, and I can finally leave. So I’d brought my Bose speaker. I used her bathroom, then I go sit at her desk. I turn on my speaker and start the music. I start smoking that joint, an afghani, a heavy indica, because I knew I needed to be calm. I thought about how special my mom and black women would feel seeing me dance to [DeBarge’s 1982 hit “I Like It”] in particular, in a space where they aren’t welcome at all. Then I started the video.”

    In case anyone thinks Astrid, Sorrestro or Kayleighburrow were too over the top.

    • Not Adahn

      He actually believes his own bullshit:

      He added to the outlet that he was passed over for promotion twice because his supervisors said he didn’t write well enough.

      “I had gone to the chief of staff twice because I told them that the way they write alienates black people,” Purley told the outlet. “I mean, I studied English and African American studies — I know what the f*** I’m talking about. They said it’s not my role to tell us what or how to write. It’s my role to reflect the senator’s voice. They kept telling me I work at the pleasure of the senator.”

      • The Other Kevin

        Hello chickens, welcome back home and enjoy your roosting.

      • juris imprudent

        They kept telling me I work at the pleasure of the senator.

        Says a man that never wants to work a day of gainful employment in his life.

    • Not Adahn

      “nobody should be upset when a nazi dies.”

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘Pujols then walked around the counter and asked Cook not to call him that slur again, but when Cook did, Pujols punched him in the jaw, according to the station. ‘

      I have a weird feeling this went down slightly differently.

    • Ted S.

      I assume they said to make certain the tires are properly inflated?

      • Sensei

        And for some Glibs junk in the trunk isn’t open for debate.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    hope I have done his series justice. SugarFree will return.

    I didn’t even realize it wasn’t SF until I saw that at the end. I’d say you did quite well.

    • MikeS

      #metoo

    • juris imprudent

      I saw Tonio posted right up top but thought that maybe SF was just indisposed, which he was as it turns out.

      Very well done Tonio!

  25. Rebel Scum

    They’d probably be at war every month for a week or so.

    Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has suggested Russia and Ukraine would not be at war if they were run by women.

    Sandberg told CNBC that if half the world was run by women, she believes the world would be “safer” and “much more prosperous.”

    • The Other Kevin

      When Clinton was secretary of state there weren’t any wars or anything, right?

      • ron73440

        She also didn’t say she would implement a no fly zone over Syria, while Russia was flying there, that would be crazy talk.

      • Drake

        Khaddafi nods.

    • Ghostpatzer

      Sandberg told CNBC that if half the world was run by women, she believes the world would be “safer” and “much more prosperous.”

      Safer? Sheryl must identify as XY, since xe has clearly never experienced teenage girl turf wars.

    • R C Dean

      Catherine the Great, Elizabeth I, Lakshmi Bai, and Joan of Arc would like a word.

    • hayeksplosives

      Female President of Country A calls Female President of Country B:

      “Why the hell did you drop bombs on us today??!”

      “If you don’t already know, then I’m certainly not going to tell you!”

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Also- that necktie and jockstrap image seems “oddly specific” as the kids like to say.

      • Tonio

        Thanks again. I had seen that somewhere but couldn’t find it for the article.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has suggested Russia and Ukraine would not be at war if they were run by women.

    “By women”

    Not specific individuals with demonstrable skills and known personal behavior traits and qualities. Stick figures with boobs. Self-propelled vaginas.

    • ron73440

      Only women understand this:

      Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country, Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine, so basically that’s wrong

      • Suthenboy

        The brain trust that is our VP.
        I dont know about you but that puts my mind at ease.

      • Rebel Scum

        so basically that’s wrong

        The US would never violate the sovereignty of another country.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    It’s “oddly specific” alright.

    I’ll take your word for it.

    I ain’t clicking that.

    • ron73440

      +1 “We came, we saw, he died.”

      • juris imprudent

        And The Cackle before Kamala.

  29. Rebel Scum

    Almost like it’s sabotage.

    The entire Biden Presidency:

    1. Cause a problem
    2. Deny there’s a problem
    3. Finally admit there’s a problem, but blame someone else.

    Rinse and repeat

    Pres. Biden asked what can be done about skyrocketing gas prices: “Can’t do much right now. Russia is responsible.”

    • The Other Kevin

      If this is how “adults” act I think we should go back to the children.

    • Suthenboy

      I have been a part of this discussion group both here and at TOS for almost 15? years. It is not unexpected for these things to happen. We dont have a lot of spring chickens around here. We have lost some good people. Here is hoping this isn’t going to be that. I have grown rather fond of SP and she has my most heartfelt well-wishes.
      Expected or not, when it happens it cuts deep.

  30. db

    I swear, Tonio, I didn’t even notice that you had written this and, a couple of sentences in, was reading it in your voice.

    Great work!

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Headline I just saw:

    “Great resignation driven by workers who say they were fed up with being broke”

    *outright, prolonged laughter*

    Hold on to your hats, suckers.

  32. R.J.

    Excellent work Tonio! I always enjoy your work. A man of many talents.

  33. Gustave Lytton

    Let’s lie to your face and see if you notice
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-invasion-turns-ukraines-local-politicians-into-resistance-leaders-11646762857?st=z80v684fuxhcve8&reflink=share_mobilewebshare

    Starting with the opening pcicture. Governor is in militarish clothing but he’s got colorful socks because he’s cool. And is in no danger because he’s got his shoes off, he’s in his office, talking on his cell phone. Things you wouldn’t do if there wasn’t an imminent danger.

    And then assertions, without evidence, that Ukraine is a democracy. With appointed regional governors and mayors who rule like masters over their cities. And ignore any prewar reports of repressing opposition. Nope, it’s democracy.

    They’re also telling the truth, because they say so.

    • Compelled Speechless

      We kept the architects of all the Middle East wars in their positions, didn’t even give them so much as a slap on the wrist, and we now expect them to be honest with us this time? Why? What lesson did they learn? That no matter how much you screw up (charitable) or outright lie (not so charitable) to trick people into supporting your mass murder campaigns you get to keep your jobs or get promoted (and likely get some hush hush kickbacks from military contractors). Why would we expect them to behave even one iota differently than they did 20 years ago to lie us into those cluster fucks?

      There is no place where the evidence that politics breaks brains is more apparent than in the military industrial complex. You have handed over the power to kill people on a large scale and if they do so, they’ll personally profit. If it turns out your wrong, there’s no punishment for you, no matter the death toll. We just saw the same thing with the COVID regime. We setup a system that gives the actors every last incentive to behave as monsters and tell them they have no responsibility or culpability in the outcomes. Yet if you point this out to people, you are the one that’s called a lunatic.

    • ron73440

      felt like a power play

      Because it was one.

      FYTW: all the justification they need.

    • Ted S.

      They’re all going to say they were molested, too, aren’t they?

    • ron73440

      While supporters of permitless carry say Hoosiers shouldn’t have to ask permission in order to exercise a constitutional right, opponents worry about the safety implications of ditching a permitting system.

      According to an Everytown for Gun Safety report, states with more firearm restrictions see less gun violence. Those rankings take into consideration whether or not a state has a permit requirement, among other gun-related laws.

      They’re just selfish and don’t want people to be safe.

      TMITE

      • Rebel Scum

        states with more firearm restrictions see less gun violence

        Assumes facts not in evidence.

      • slumbrew

        “According to an Everytown for Gun Safety…”

        I could have stopped reading right there – you know whatever comes next is bullshit.

    • The Other Kevin

      I’m sure Illinois will come up with some way to blame this for their gun violence.

    • Compelled Speechless

      That joke could apply to literally anything in politics. “If it’s bad, it’s someone else’s fault and I was helpless to stop it, if it’s good it was all me and I deserve a statue and a really expensive park or building named after me. My four year old uses precisely the same logic. We really are lorded over by a bunch evil preschoolers.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    According to an Everytown for Gun Safety report, states with more firearm restrictions see less gun violence.

    Illinois, for instance.

    • Sean

      *points to NJ*

      *points to CA*

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      What in the hell for anyway?

      Does anyone actually think that will make a difference there?