Saturday Morning Links

by | Mar 5, 2022 | Daily Links | 167 comments

OMWC took his van and his candy on the road this weekend. He’ll be back eventually. The arrest and ankle monitor are just a matter of time. I’m taking my two older boys the middle boy to a Cub Scouts ropes course. The oldest did something to his right quad that has him limping around comically. He is quite demonstrative about his discomfort. Anyhow, this scout pack is… not disciplined. I’m still vacillating between getting all the way involved and helping fix it or just not getting involved.

Huh. I didn’t realize that St. Pete claimed Jack Kerouac strongly enough to have a Friends of Jack Kerouac Society. But it is apparently his centennial. I might try to read Dharma Bums again.

Jesus, this sounds like more of a sausage party than your average libertarian event – A few people I spoke to didn’t want me to mention how many men there were relative to women, even though the Degen Ball had more women in attendance than the Bacon party did. … The next day, I would attend a Women in Blockchain event that was so full the organizers had to start turning people away for fear of violating the fire code; there were more female recruiters than there were job candidates there.

I remember driving by all the downed trees and shit they pushed up from Hurricane Michael in North Florida and thinking it was a fire hazard.

Good times from turn of the century Austin

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

Brett set out to find America, the real America, the America of strip malls and serial killers, of butthole waxing and kelp smoothies, of cocaine and maggots. He sought it in the most American part of America—Florida: swamp gas and fever dreams, where love arrives on a rickety boat and leaves when it doesn't have the money for its fourth abortion. Oh, where has Brett gone? He’s drinking at the neck of America’s wang, chewing its foreskin and working its shaft. Brett is becoming legend. Brett can never die. Brett can never die. Brett is America, facedown in his own patriotic puke: the red his blood, the white his stomach lining, and the cold, cold blue his gas station slushie, spiked with coconut rum and tetracycline.

167 Comments

  1. Scruffy Nerfherder

    *checks Geiger counter*

    Not yet

    Good morning all

  2. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The crypto world is definitely sausage dominated. With the according level of dudebro

    • rhywun

      Unlike every journalist, I fail to see why this is a “problem” that needs to be “solved”, or why it’s even worth mentioning.

      I’m sure there are plenty of girlie conventions and no one is running around bemoaning the lack of dudes.

      • Sensei

        My response to these people is always to ask why nobody is concerned about the lack of men in nursing and primary education.

        I’ve yet to have anybody give an answer. The subject is always changed.

      • SDF-7

        Same here — and have the same problem with the CA law mentioned yesterday about “Half the board must be women (or at least identify as such)”.

        Don’t discourage women in tech? Fine.

        Make a push to not have so much of a frat boy culture at startups (by at the least encouraging folks to say “Not cool, bro!”) – also fine.

        Punish companies or people when women and girls just aren’t that interested in a career path relative to boys? Stupid. Especially since every geeky / STEM / engineering environment I’ve ever been in — the guys would be more than happy to have more girls participating.

      • rhywun

        The politics behind it are ugly.

        It is implied that anything “boys do” is automatically better than anything “girls do”.

      • Ted S.

        I’ve always seen it as boys are the problem and anything they want to do by themselves has to be broken up by putting girls into it.

      • kbolino

        Oversocialization 101

      • Ted S.

        There’s also the idea that “everyobdy knows” so-called toxic masculinity is a thing and a big problem, but suggest that toxic femininity exists — women’s petty backstabbing, gossiping, and reputation destruction — and most people will look at you as if you have three heads.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        But I don’t want to be a pirate!

        Seriously, I can’t think of a subject I could have got a BS in. Geography?

      • kbolino

        Don’t discourage women in tech? Fine.

        Make a push to not have so much of a frat boy culture at startups (by at the least encouraging folks to say “Not cool, bro!”) – also fine.

        What you see as reasonable stopping points are just waypoints to the culture warriors. Software engineering was literally created by a woman, programming was pioneered by a woman, a woman is credited with coining the term “bug”, etc. There has never been an actual need to conquer the established culture to get women involved. And yet, we are constantly intoned that women are being driven away by the environment. It’s a manufactured justification to create a unnecessary solution to a non-existent problem.

  3. The Late P Brooks

    Hong Kong is a clusterfuck, plague-wise, according to CNN. No lessons appear to have been learned.

    • CPRM

      Sure things have changed, they know now that if they protest they can be disappeared.

    • Chafed

      This will not please Chairman Poo.

    • rhywun

      according to CNN

      OK then.

  4. CPRM

    They’re puttin your women in block chains!

    • limey

      Put you all in blockchains!

  5. Sean

    *raises cup of coffee*

    ‘Sup?

    • Nephilium

      Not the temperature yet. Damn it, the low today is supposed to be in the 50’s. Why the fuck is it still just above 40?

      • DrOtto

        My faith in weatherpersons is about the same faith I have in politicians.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Weatherpersons aren’t usually trying to kill me.

      • Nephilium

        Well, we’ve made it to 50. Time to break out the bike… a bit late for breakfast, but still plenty of time to enjoy a lovely ham and brie crepe.

    • kbolino

      Quite a divergence from the top half to the bottom half.

      Never trust neocons.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yep, lots of talking up Zelensky and interventionism.

      • kbolino

        The government hates us and propagandizes the masses into compliance.

        Look, a foreign misadventure quite literally manufactured by the people who run our government, surely we can trust them this time!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I feel bad for my kids, I’ve been ranting way too much lately.

  6. The Late P Brooks

    Kinder. Gentler.

    The IRS on Friday unveiled a new Taxpayer Experience Office as part of a long-term plan to improve customer service issues.

    The office will focus on “all aspects of taxpayer transactions,” working closely with the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the IRS, according to a news release.

    Taxpayers may see near-term boosts to customer call back, payment options, two-way messaging and multilingual services.

    ——-

    “The IRS is committed to customer experiences that meet taxpayers where they are, in the moments that matter most in people’s lives and in a way that delivers the service that the public expects and deserves,” IRS chief taxpayer experience officer Ken Corbin said in a statement.

    They’re your friends, here to help.

    • kbolino

      Adding insult to injury. I am not the IRS’s customer, I am its unconsenting bitch.

      • DrOtto

        But, but, but, it’s called a voluntary tax.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Just don’t call the TEO with any complaints, you might get audited.

    • Fourscore

      IRS reply to me this morning:

      “Thank you for your help in balancing our books”

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      DMV and jury duty got a lot friendlier in the last couple of decades, at least locally.

  7. Sean

    2️⃣7️⃣
    8️⃣9️⃣

    • Ted S.

      76
      54

      (I try to “waste” my first three guesses on words with different letters to get all five vowels and common consonants out there.)

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Dammit, I was wondering where I put that

    • EvilSheldon

      *sighs, goes back to shopping for small pistol primers*

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Yesterday, youtube served me up a video from “engineering explained” about why corn ethanol sucks. That guy annoys the shit out of me but I couldn’t resist. It was all about carbon emissions. Turns out the birth-to-death or dust-to-dust (or whatever they call it) life cycle carbon emissions are net higher than just drilling for oil and burning it as gasoline. He points out the spurious numbers used to justify the rule. Not completely useless, but not once did he mention the corn farmer lobby.

    Maybe he thinks these decisions are made in a vacuum, immune from politics.

    • kbolino

      There’s a feedback loop, at least. The lobby started out small and got bigger because of the policies. And no matter the pre-existence of some lobby, the government shifting industrial production through its infamous nudges creates lots of opportunities to replace less politically useful people with the alternative.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I quit that guy, too many socialist “solutions” for me.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The more interesting thing is that YouTube served up the video.

      It means that the veil of protection has been lifted from the ethanol industry.

      While I’m happy about that, I resent the continuing manipulation.

    • Sensei

      I generally like Engineering Explained. Like many (or perhaps all) engineers he suffers from Top Men Syndrome.

      He lays out his assumptions and framework and will actually respond to criticism about both the assumptions and framework. So he is open to constructive debate and criticism. We need more of this and not less.

    • blackjack

      The research, which was funded in part by the National Wildlife Federation and U.S. Department of Energy, found that ethanol is likely at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions resulting from land use changes to grow corn, along with processing and combustion.

      That’s from Reuters. Seems like a subtle attempt to nudge people towards electric cars. Nobody ever mentions how that energy is produced and how dirty that process is. So, growing corn and burning much cleaner ethanol is horrible for the environment because they use machines to process it, but producing electricity is crystal clean and you should buy a plug in electric? Got it.

      • blackjack

        BTW, all real news always includes the term, ” likely at least” when giving a very specific number like 24%, right?

      • whiz

        It’s possible that that’s the 90 or 95% C.L., even if he doesn’t mention it (DNRTA).

      • R C Dean

        Next up: ethanol powered generators to charge up your electric car.

        You heard it here first. This way, both sets of cronies (corn and green) win. Guess who the loser will be.

    • Homple

      Perhaps because the guy is talking about engineering, not politics. The fact that the material balance defeats the stated purpose of the subsidy is a good enough start.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    I am not the IRS’s customer, I am its unconsenting bitch.

    “Look, I’d like to help you out, but I need that money for myself. You understand, don’t you?”

    • Nephilium

      “Fuck you. Pay me.”

      The Mob IRS

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Smackable face. Three years between offense and sentencing??

    • rhywun

      Meanwhile around here a psychopath home invasion murderer just got 23 years. I guess it’s better than nothing but who wants to be around when that guy gets out?

      • Sensei

        So a premeditated murder gets less time than accidentally killing three people.

        That’s the criminal justice system right there…

      • Chafed

        Are you sure it was accidental? The story says he got high, drove his car, and passed out. That sounds reckless to me.

      • DrOtto

        Jesus that was quick. I remember just 2 years ago when home invaders were regarded as heros.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Wait… 2 yrs ago? Didnt the cops just shoot an innocent guy on his sofa 2 weeks ago?

    • Chafed

      The addict was convicted of three counts of aggravated manslaughter. He may have been lucky to dodge a murder charge. It’s terrible 3 innocent people are dead. It’s a shame he wasted his life. I’m not upset by the sentence.

      • Sensei

        I’m not losing sleep over it either.

        I’m just wondering if that’s is the best we can do. It very well may be exactly that, sadly. I’m not suggesting some save the world plan or solution is possible.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    I generally like Engineering Explained. Like many (or perhaps all) engineers he suffers from Top Men Syndrome.

    I think my complaints have mostly to do with mannerisms. I am probably not his target audience.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    The more interesting thing is that YouTube served up the video.

    Yes. I watched it partly to see if there was some sort of “But we should do it anyway!” gotcha at the end.

    He has no noticeable objection to the base presumption that carbon is killing us all, but at least he seems capable of identifying illogical fake solutions when he sees them.

    • Sensei

      He’s an automotive engineer.

      His more interesting stuff is when he just deals with purely automotive engineering topics.

    • Homple

      “…but at least he seems capable of identifying illogical fake solutions when he sees them.”

      An attitude that’s rare these days.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Appy polly loggies

    SpaceX’s Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that Starlink was told by some governments to block Russian news sources.

    Musk said on Twitter: “Starlink has been told by some governments (not Ukraine) to block Russian news sources.”

    “We will not do so unless at gunpoint,” he added. “Sorry to be a free speech absolutist.”

    ——-

    On Friday, the CEO warned Starlink systems could be “targeted” in Ukraine and advised people to use it with caution as the system “is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine,” Insider reported.

    Musk said in another tweet, minutes before announcing that it would not block Russia’s news outlets: “SpaceX reprioritized to cyber defense & overcoming signal jamming.”

    Free speech absolutism is not the worst thing to be guilty of.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Go Elon go!

  13. The Late P Brooks

    His more interesting stuff is when he just deals with purely automotive engineering topics.

    Maybe I’ll give him another chance when something interesting rolls around.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Left behind

    In President Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress, in 2021, he pledged to root out systemic racism and to advance efforts to create a more equitable country. He said that the United States had “seen the knee of injustice on the neck of Black Americans” and declared that “now is our opportunity to make some real progress.”

    Roughly one year later, Biden returned to Capitol Hill to again address Congress. This time, those issues were not the focus.

    “From a president who said that he would make race equity a linchpin of his administration, he didn’t mention it,” Cliff Albright, a cofounder of the group Black Voters Matter, said on a panel with other progressives who were responding to Biden’s State of the Union address.

    “I don’t think he said ‘race’ or even the word ‘Black’ once, even when he was talking about the first Black woman potential Supreme Court justice who he nominated. If you look at the transcript of the speech, he doesn’t use the word anywhere in the speech,” Albright added.

    The never ending tragedy of life as a race griefer.

    • rhywun

      I read that as ‘grifter’. Still works.

    • Chafed

      Why would Biden talk about race again when he solved all the problems during his first year?

    • Grumbletarian

      Linchpin???!?!?!? SO TRIGGERED RIGHT NOW!!!

    • Tres Cool

      I dunno. Is catwoman going to shit in a box in the house ?

      • Chafed

        Do you want her too?

      • Festus

        Genuine LOL!

    • Nephilium

      Depends on if you know Wonder Woman’s weakness or not…

      • SDF-7

        Unlike her creator — not really into that.

        My vote against Diana would be solely on the basis of her being the equivalent of “Woman of Steel, Man of Kleenex” — do a good job and she would crush men’s heads like sparrow’s eggs between thighs (with apologies to our old friend Zangeif).

        Other than that, Selena is the blooming epitome of High Maintenance and seems likely to be a bit of a bunny boiler — given that and that she’d almost always find you and be able to break into your house — definitely would prefer to date Diana of the two.

        But I’m much more of a Firestorm fan — so give me Senator Lorraine Reilly anyway if I’m somehow transported into DC (and single, obviously…)

      • Nephilium

        If you haven’t watched the Boys on Amazon, they have a scene with that situation in it.

        Besides, Black Cat is the better cat burglar anti-hero. No love for Black Canary or Zatanna on the DC side?

    • Raven Nation

      That’s a bad day. There’s something, disturbing (?), about watching people die in real time.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The video was posted by Ihor Lutsenko and shared by the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff Facebook page.

        Not just for puppy pictures anymore.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Twitter is effectively a regime propaganda outlet now.

        They’ll allow other viewpoints so long as they does not violate the interests of the US government.

      • R C Dean

        I’m all for the Russian military getting a bloody nose in Ukraine, and ideally having to leave without accomplishing any of Putin’s objectives (something about getting more of what you reward and less of what you punish).

        But I’m not real excited about watching exactly what that bloody nose means. And I’m not sure why I can watch WWII documentaries with real-time footage of planes getting shot down, etc. without the same qualms. Exactly what all this says about me as a person, I’m not sure.

      • Mojeaux

        Because you know the outcome and your side won. I daresay if you were rooting for the other side, you wouldn’t watch as many WWII documentaries.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      That’s gotta sting,

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Not for long

    • Festus

      Yay? Am I supposed to clap like a seal now? Lots of our fellow citizens are. Fuck me. Fuck me dead.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The ghouls are very much alive and out in public these days.

      • Festus

        I don’t know what sort of helo that was but rest assured, at least two young men will never get to hug their Mothers again.

      • Chafed

        Nor assist in a war on a civilian population.

      • Festus

        You miss my meaning. it’s all bad. I don’t have a side.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Do I clap when I watch our boys shoot down a kamikaze in 1945? No – but is there any reason not to?

      • Festus

        You serve, I do not. Human suffering is the universal condition. Life ain’t a team sport so fuck off with that nonsense. Nobody knows what is really happening in Ukraine.

  15. Scruffy Nerfherder

    We care so much about the Ukrainians that we won’t try diplomacy to end the hostilities.

    https://news.antiwar.com/2022/03/04/the-us-is-not-trying-high-level-diplomacy-to-end-the-fighting-in-ukraine/

    On Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was ready to do what’s necessary to end the fighting in Ukraine, but that doesn’t appear to apply to high-level diplomacy.

    The Pentagon said Friday that top US military leaders haven’t spoken with their Russian counterparts since Russia’s attack on Ukraine began.

    Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said neither Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin nor Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley have spoken with Russian military officials. “I’m not aware of any other senior leaders here at the Department of Defense,” he said.

    In recent days, the US and Russian militaries set up a deconfliction line to held avoid miscalculations that could lead to wider escalations. But Kirby said the line is at the “lower operational level.”

    When the Russian attack on Ukraine first happened, President Biden said he had “no plans” to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the White House reaffirmed on Thursday.

    • rhywun

      Side-linked:

      Zelensky Slams ‘Weak’ NATO for Not Imposing No-Fly Zone Over Ukraine

      “All the people who will die starting from this day will also die because of you. Because of your weakness, because of your disunity,” Zelensky added.

      Dude. Really?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Zelensky is a fool of the worst kind.

        If a no-fly zone were implemented by NATO, there would shortly be no Ukrainians left, or anybody else.

      • Gustave Lytton

        No one intended in July 1914 to go to war, as they kept making decisions to increase stakes and conflict.

    • Ghostpatzer

      Why try to work things out when you have all these neat toys you’ve been itching to try out?

      I hadn’t visited that site in years until earlier this week. I can’t imagine what spurred me to do so. Something in the water, I guess.

      • Festus

        Flouride?

    • Gustave Lytton

      said neither Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin nor Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley have spoken with Russian military officials

      As much as I’d like to shit on Milley, maybe it’s better right now if he wasn’t calling up his Russian counterpart and promising to let him know before hand if Biden decides to nuke Russia.

    • Festus

      The war-boner is out, glistening in the cold light of day. It’s getting a two-hander from the right and the left. I can’t believe how many people want this to happen. I suppose if your plan was to reduce the Human population to 500 million this is the brass ring.

    • Brawndo

      Putin is a fool if he thinks a promise by Biden to not bring Ukraine into NATO will hold. After Bush Senior left office, his promise to not expand NATO was ignored by every president since. Putin would need to get something more ironclad, maybe a treaty passed by the Senate? I dunno, my civics is rusty.

      • Festus

        Wasn’t there something in old dusty piece of parchment about Congress deciding these issues? Must have been a fever dream.

      • Chafed

        And Ukraine was a fool to believe our security guarantee when they gave up their nukes.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    On Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was ready to do what’s necessary to end the fighting in Ukraine, but that doesn’t appear to apply to high-level diplomacy.

    We sent them a ransom note. What more do they want?

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Depends on if you know Wonder Woman’s weakness or not…

    Does it involve tying her up and tickling her?

    Asking for a friend.

    • Nephilium

      Partially correct. Her original comic weakness was being tied up by a man. The creator of Wonder Woman had an interesting private life.

      • SDF-7

        Throupling with a dominatrix is much more interesting to some folks, yes. 😉

      • Festus

        Fourthpling? Fifthpling? Is there one where the guys that draw the short straw have to do armpits?

      • Ghostpatzer

        Armpits are difficult if you have a short straw.

      • R C Dean

        I’ll take your word for it.

  18. Festus

    OT but good on my spirit animal calling out Campion and Cumberbitch.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Her original comic weakness was being tied up by a man. The creator of Wonder Woman had an interesting private life.

    Long ago, I saw part of an episode of that Wonder Woman teevee show. She had somehow or other been captured and tied up, and was squirming and wriggling around quite vigorously trying to free herself, and it sank through my incredibly dense skull that there were more likely than not people out there in teeveeland frenziedly beating their meat while watching her.

    • Festus

      Dude. That show first aired when I was 12 years old. You bet your bottom dollar there were “bathroom breaks” taken.

      • Festus

        I’ve always wondered if girls had that much of a heightened sex drive. When I was 13 I was afraid that I would yank the thing right off. The shame was another matter altogether.

    • Chafed

      Lol. That didn’t occur to me until you pointed it out.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Old and busted. Wake me when they have a blue haired transgender two-spirit furry grabbing a gun.

      • EvilSheldon

        Do not ever google ‘furries with guns’.

        Seriously, I’m telling you this for your own safety.

      • Chafed

        I appreciate the warning.

      • pistoffnick the refusnik

        I aint skeert!

        *DDGoes*

        meh, I’ve seen worse.

  20. Ownbestenemy

    Remember the last hero we praised that fought the Russians invasion? That didn’t turn out well but here we are again

    • R C Dean

      Remember the last hero we praised that fought the Russians invasion?

      Simho Haya?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Heh, but Finns are not real people.

    • Chafed

      What have you got against Rambo?

    • rhywun

      I doubt we’ll ever get the whole story.

  21. Tundra

    Good morning, Brett!

    Anyhow, this scout pack is… not disciplined.

    We tried the Cub scouts once. It was fucking chaos. Bad enough that when my son asked to quit I suspended my normal rule of ‘no quitting mid-season’ and we bailed out.

    • Ownbestenemy

      We thought we found one for the boys years ago. Looked disciplined, respected tradition, etc. Turned out the pack leader was someone who couldn’t cut it in the marines and treated the kids as if he was a drill instructor. We bounced.

  22. Scruffy Nerfherder

    LP of PA state convention is underway. There were some shenanigans at the last one as the Sarwark brigade held off the Mises Caucus revolution.

    Doesn’t look like that’s going to work this time around. As I understand it, the MC has 2/3rds of the voting attendees this year.

    • Grumbletarian

      Good. Sarwark and the other mewling woketarians can fuck off.

    • creech

      Some predict the MC will destroy the LP as a viable political force. On the other hand, how would one know?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That’s the joke of it all. The LP is currently run like a club for losers.

        Coincidentally, there is talk that Sarwark is paid to be a spoiler, along with that guy Meeks who stripped down naked at the LP National Convention in 2016. It wouldn’t surprise me.

  23. Festus

    These buttplugs pushing for a no-fly-zone don’t seem to realize that it is a defacto declaration of war. It’s coming from the hawks on both sides. You guys need to sweep them aside.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Yep and Putin has come out and said do it and we are at war.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I honestly don’t think they’re going to do that. Talk from some of my military friends is that even in a conventional war, NATO would be fucked. The US is bled after 20 years of counterinsurgency and not equipped for a major land war, and NATO forces are a joke.

      Now the latest round of warharkery is talk about cyber-attacks against Russian interests, that scares me simply because the perceived cost of entry is low, but it is still an act of war and can escalate tit-for-tat quite easily. The stupid is running rampant right now.

      • R C Dean

        Talk from some of my military friends is that even in a conventional war, NATO would be fucked.

        Against just Russia? I doubt that. We are watching a significant fraction of Russia’s military performing, well, below expectations (caveat – its possible they are pulling their punches). Russia’s economy is around, I think, 1/20th the size of the EU and the US economies combined (going from memory here). Russia’s military has apparently always had logistical . . . challenges. The US and the EU are not the military powers they once were, true, but I think very much turns on where the war would be fought – an invasion by either side would be difficult to win, but I think Russia would have little to no hope of defeating NATO outside of Russia.

        Assuming, of course, the crazies are kept away from the nukes.

        A no-fly zone would almost certainly result in NATO and Russian forces firing on each other. Its arguable whether declaring one is an act of war, or even having one the other side respects, but it would take a miracle for a no-fly zone over Ukraine to be respected by Russia.

      • dbleagle

        We are not currently organized for ground combat against mechanized forces in Europe. From a materiel perspective we are too light v. heavy brigades, not enough artillery, insufficient munitions, no real military logistics tail, merchant marine is mainly hypothetical, insufficient EW capabilities, and POMCUS is almost entirely closed. Training wise our forces spent an entire generation focusing on a fighting insurgents which is almost 120 degrees out from fighting massed heavy forces. The army in recent years has started to relearn how to fight but is nowhere near trained as it was when the wall came down in 1989. The marines will be useless in Europe. This is not an army v marine thing. The marines are totally focused on a littoral fight in the Pacific. They got rid of 100% of their tanks, around half of their already insufficient artillery, and are dropping some of their few infantry regiments.

        The good part about this is that it should soften some of the warboners in Congress and the biden Administration.

  24. Mojeaux

    *sigh* I ordered some hobby supplies, but forgot to change my address with the company, so they are out there floating around somewhere now …

    • Fourscore

      If I see them, Mojo, you’ll be the first one I’ll call.

    • Grumbletarian

      I did that last week with a gaming computer I ordered off of Newegg. Hadn’t shopped on the site on over a decade, so I didn’t think to update my address. Fortunately my parents still live in the area, so they were able to pick it up when it arrived at my old place and ship it to me.

      I felt like an idiot.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Hahaha

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah. He is picking his side and he is a grifter but I’d be okay with him as CTO of Libertipia

  25. Gustave Lytton

    Prediction on how long before the FDA starts cracking down on iodine tablets?

    • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

      I’m just surprised at how damned expensive they are.

  26. Ted S.

    I’m taking my two older boys the middle boy to a Cub Scouts ropes course. The oldest did something to his right quad that has him limping around comically. He is quite demonstrative about his discomfort. Anyhow, this scout pack is… not disciplined. I’m still vacillating between getting all the way involved and helping fix it or just not getting involved

    Get Creosote Achilles to teach the ropes course.

    • Chafed

      Finally, something useful will be taught in boy scouts.

      • Festus

        *flaps wrist* I thought it was how to scout for boys!

    • Festus

      Shades of “The Meaning of Life”

  27. Festus

    There seems to be three different categories of health care professionals. The Autist, the Woe-is-me and the Ebullient. I have met all three this week. I gotta say, once my scan was done I felt like tipping the tech 20 beans just for being so fucking pleasant. I told her so, too. People skills. Some folk have them, some folk don’t.

  28. Festus

    From the dead thread “I will drink 3000 beers and I will drink 3000 more just to be the man that’s passed oot cold upon ye floor!”

  29. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    First hangover in many moons this morning. But I had a great evening, so possibly worth it.

    • Festus

      Was he hung, too? Inquiring minds and such whatnot.

  30. creech

    “All the people who will die starting from this day will also die because of you. Because of your weakness, because of your disunity,”
    Die because of our weakness? I think not, Mr. Zelensky. There are at least 4 million Ukrainian men capable of military service.
    If you feared Russia (and weren’t weak and counting on others) Ukraine would have been armed to the teeth and the Ruskies wouldn’t even think of invading.
    Don’t blame others for your own failures.