A Glibertarians Exclusive – The Deal, Part IV
June 1937, Cedarville, Wisconsin
“Damn good thing we heard that on the radio about them waiting for us at the border.”
“Have to admit, it was the obvious thing for the cops to do,” Ad agreed. “Never for a moment figured that bodyguard or whatever he was could have lived to talk to the cops, with all the lead I blew at him.”
“Bad luck,” Penny agreed.
The Thompson and the shotgun were now in the trunk of Penny’s Ford. It was a dark night, two weeks after the botched robbery, and Ad was steering the Ford down a narrow dirt lane. Penny and Ad’s descriptions were on every light pole, shop window and post office bulletin board in central Wisconsin.
“If we can get out of Wisconsin,” Ad offered, “some of the heat will be off. If we can work our way over to western Minnesota or even North Dakota, we can probably find a place to wetback the border up there, get into Canada.”
“With a whole pile of American money? Don’t you think the Canucks will find that a little suspicious?”
“You got a better idea?”
Penny didn’t have a better idea.
“We’re gonna need gas soon,” Ad reminded Penny, for the fourth time in an hour.
“We can’t exactly buy gas anymore,” Penny replied, again for the fourth time in an hour. “Guy at that last place recognized us, I’m sure of it. Just lucky we got away from there in time.”
“I been thinking about that. If we can find a farm that’s using a tractor, instead of horses, they may have a gas tank. Some of the farmers up this-aways are starting to keep gas tanks on the property for filling up their tractors and trucks.” Ad was suddenly reminded of walking behind two plow horses on his old man’s forty acres in Oklahoma. Wonder if he’s been dusted out yet, like so many of them. Or the bank shut him down. Wonder if they’re even still there? Hell, Grandma might be dead. Nobody’s told me anything.
He forced himself to stop thinking about that. Not like they made any effort to let me know what was going on these last six years.
“We can go about two hundred miles on a tank,” Penny pointed out. “We’ll have to hit up a couple more at least before we get to where we’re going.”
“Maybe. Once we get into Minnesota, folks won’t be looking for us so much. One step at a time, honey. One step at a time. Right now,” he added, “We’ve got to get some sleep. I’m about to drop off.”
A few minutes later, in the dim glow of the headlights, a little bridge over a small creek appeared. There was a dirt trail to the right; Ad drove down the track, finding an unoccupied campsite surrounded by blackberry thickets.
“This will do,” Ad said.
The night was clear and warm. The fugitives spread a tarp from the trunk of the Ford out on the ground and lay down.
“How’s the arm?” Ad wanted to know.
“All right. Still hurts. Clean, though. Doesn’t look like it’s gonna gangrene up or anything,” Penny replied.
Then, exhausted, they slept.
The later morning sun woke Ad. He shook Penny gently. “Penny. Darlin’. Getting on towards noon, looks like.”
Penny opened her eyes. “Sure is.”
“Probably oughtn’t move during the day,” Ad pointed out.
“We’ll stay here, then.”
“Sure wish this whole thing had turned out different,” Ad said sadly.
“Well. It didn’t. Was fun planning it, though.”
“Yeah.” Ad laid back down on the tarp and took Penny’s hand. “It was great, being back on one more deal with you.”
Penny squeezed Ad’s hand. “Yeah. It was.”
They moved out once it was good and dark. A faint sliver of moon showed in the sky. Ad steered the Ford back to the dirt road and across the bridge, and about three miles on they saw what they were looking for.
“Look,” Ad said. It was hard to see in the starlight. “Big place. They got ‘lectricity, looks like; there’s a yard light, but the house lights are all out. Farmers go to sleep early. Looks like they’re doing well. I see a tractor set there by the barn. And a fuel tank! Good thing the farmer ain’t using a Caterpillar, some of the farms I hear are using ‘em.”
“Why would that be bad?” Penny asked.
“They’re Diesel. Tractors run on gasoline, like this here car. OK, here’s what we’ll do. I’ll idle the car in nice and quiet, next to the fuel tank. You get out that side and cover me with the shotgun. I’ll fill the car up. In fact, let’s get both guns out of the trunk. I’ll keep that chopper handy, just in case.”
“All right.”
They retrieved the Thompson and the shotgun from the Ford’s trunk and got back in. Ad put the Ford in low gear and idled up the farm lane, as quietly as he could, up to the gas tank.
Penny got out of the Ford and walked around to the driver’s side of the Ford, shotgun dangling in her good hand. Ad breathed a sigh of relief; the gas nozzle wasn’t padlocked. He laid the Thomson on the car’s hood, pulled the nozzle off the hook, and put it in the Ford’s tank. The gas began to run into the car.
A shout from the house startled them both. “Hey! You out there! What, you stealing my gas?” The shouter had a thick Scandinavian accent – the farmer.
Penny held up the shotgun, one handed, clumsily, and discharged it in the direction of the house. A flash from the house gave away the farmer’s location on the porch as he returned Penny’s fire. Ad heard her go down as he let go of the gas nozzle and grabbed the Thompson. He aimed at the porch and fired a burst, but another shot from the porch smashed into the gun’s drum magazine, smashing it, and tearing the gun out of his hands. He saw the farmer, advancing on him now, a lever-action rifle in his hands.
“You son of a bitch,” Ad yelled. He scooped up Penny’s shotgun off the ground, pointed it at the farmer.
A bullet smashed into his chest. Somehow, impossibly, he stayed on his feet. He pulled both the shotgun’s triggers, but Penny had already expended both barrels.
Another bullet smashed into him. Ad took one more step, wanting somehow to get to the blasting, crashing thing that had killed him,but a third bullet knocked him to the ground.
He fell facing Penny. In the dim light from the yard, he could see her face, her eyes staring blankly.
“Hell,” he gasped through the blood filling his mouth. “Never even told you I loved you.” Then his world went black.
George Johannsen held his .30-30 on the two fallen bodies. He shouted over his shoulder: “Lena! You still on the phone with the Sheriff?”
“Yah,” his wife called back.
“Tell them these two, I think they are the ones killed that man over Milwaukee way,” he shouted. “Tell them, whatever their deal was, it is done now.”
***
Well I picked up a rose and it poked through my clothes
I followed the winding stream
I heard the deafening noise, I felt transient joys
I know they’re not what they seem
In this earthly domain, full of disappointment and pain
You’ll never see me frown
I owe my heart to you, and that’s sayin’ it true
And I’ll be with you when the deal goes down
See Bob Dylan’s original video, featuring a young and rather delectable Scarlett Johannsen, here.
Well, they wanted to go west.
Remember kids, crime doesn’t pay.
…for the little criminals.
Lots of lessons in this one.
Thanks, Animal! Another fun series.
My step dad was having problems with people stealing gas out of his farm tank – so he filled it with diesel.
…
A week later we found his nephew’s car a mile down the road.
That’s a tidy lil wrap up.
Thanks Animal!
The farmer was a hell of a shot.
If I know my Wisconsin farmers, deer hunter, most likely. Don’t know the range, either.
redactle.com
76 tries 🙁
That one got a big “nope” out of me when someone posted it over the weekend.
#Worldle #94 2/6 (100%)
?????↘️
??????
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr
Dammit!
It is a time suck, and it’s a lot harder than “vegetable, animal or mineral” or 20 questions :/
4 tries on worldle. Knew the region, but, yeah.
What if the object is a fungus?
Or one of these…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mold#:~:text=Slime%20mold%20or%20slime%20mould,considered%20part%20of%20that%20kingdom.
And wow, I just saw that the blue arrows are clues. Doh!
#Worldle #94 1/6 (100%)
??????
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr
No Georgey and Lena joke?
Nice, Animal.
I still have the feeling that Ad loved Penny far more than Penny loved Ad.
For sure. I expected her to kill him when the deal was done.
If she hadn’t gotten shot, that was probably the plan.
Looks like Elon has completed his buyout.
sorry. ot but big news.
It’s more than thirty minutes anyways.
What’s with that awful smell on the wind today?
Around here, on an overcast day such as today, it’s usually the local Cargill plant. (Tres can confirm.)
Sorry. I had burgers and scotch for dinner.
His Washington Post now.
The ‘ree’ing will be tremendous.
reeeeeeeeeeeee….
Wait, what am I ‘reeing’ for?
Does it ever matter?
Yes!
WRONG wrong-thinker. You REEEEEE when you are expected to REEEEEE.
*shoots JI*
I knew you were a spy.
Related.
Source? All I’m seeing are “may be done monday” articles.
Twitter wsj. Not reported by any old fashioned news yet.
Oh, okay. I don’t actually use the site, I just get amused at the drama regarding the site (but not the drama on the site)
Nice surprise ending, totally unexpected. Don’t mess with old guys with a Winchester. Life can end abruptly,
“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. Gang aft a-gley”
Thanks, Animal
Nice story Animal.
At least they got what they had coming to them.
Awwww.
That’s great!
d’awwww
My Australian Shepard would have eaten both pieces as soon as she got the go ahead.
My Aussie and my mutt make their treats last long so they can play with them. Seems the ultimate win is to distract the other and manage to possess both treats for a time.
Excellent, as ever, Animal.
“Also tell ’em the car’s done too! City slickers put a buncha kerosene in their gas tank!”
Very good Animal!
My mind was rolling through some dialog/narration and I was unsure of whether using the slang ‘mug’ for a face was appropriate. So I went looking for when it originated, and can’t seem to find any good dating on that.
Anyone know?
From etymonline.com…
a person’s mouth or face,” 1708, possibly an extended sense of mug (n.1), based on the old drinking mugs shaped like grotesque faces, popular in England from 17c. Sense of “portrait or photograph in police records” had emerged by 1873.
When the notorious “Shaver Good” and his accomplices were arrested, and the robbery of several houses and stores fastened upon them, Good said, with all apparent sincerity, “I have travelled every city in the United States for the last seventeen years, and was never collared before, and I would not have been now, but for that ‘mug’ of mine that sticks in your gallery. [“Annual Report of the Chief of Police for 1873,” Boston, Mass.]
Hence mug-shot (by 1950). Meaning “stupid or incompetent person, dupe, fool, sucker” is by 1851 in thieves’ slang; hence “a person” generally (especially “a criminal”), by 1890. Mug’s game “foolish, thankless, or unprofitable activity” is by 1890.
So, colonial to modern. I guess that’s why it sounded wrong.
Thank you.
Points to Sean’s avatar.
??
For whatever it’s worth:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/mug
mug (n.1)
“small, cylindrical drinking vessel, often with a handle,” 1560s, “bowl, pot, jug,” of unknown origin, perhaps from Scandinavian (compare Swedish mugg “earthen cup, jug,” Norwegian mugge “pitcher, open can for warm drinks”), or Low German mokke, mukke “mug,” also of unknown origin. Hence mug-hunter (1883) “one who enters sporting contests solely to win prizes” (frequently in the form of engraved cups), a term of contempt.
mug (n.2)
“a person’s mouth or face,” 1708, possibly an extended sense of mug (n.1), based on the old drinking mugs shaped like grotesque faces, popular in England from 17c. Sense of “portrait or photograph in police records” had emerged by 1873.
too slow . . . .
I still appreciate it.
Thank you.
you are welcome
Why else should one enter sporting competitions? To feed one’s ego?
For the spiti of competition
/someone with more money than they can spend.
Fun fact, the story idea I was mulling over was about a landless knight trying to break into the tournament circuit to earn a living and getting into a rivalry with a prince who took affront that the knight was ugly (not helped by the knight’s early occupation being unarmed combat sports where he got a broken nose)
*spirit
IIRC, you were entitled to the armor and horse of someone you defeated in a joust.
I’m sure James Cagney used it in at least one of his many movies.
Also: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=bowery+boys%2C+mugsy&atb=v198-1&ia=web
Go fish.
In a major victory, a court has ruled in our favor to hold Donald Trump in contempt of court.
Donald Trump must pay $10,000 per day for every day that he continues to defy the court’s order to turn over documents to my office.
Today, justice prevailed.
Our investigation into Donald Trump and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings will continue undeterred because no one is above the law.
Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.
THEY GOT HIM! THEY FINALLY GOT HIM!
“Convicted criminal Donald Trump”
I guess Tish can book that vacay to the Caribbean now.
What happened to the prosecutors quitting because they didn’t have a case?
Still curious what the pretext is for this.
Orange Man Bad?
That was Manhattan DA I believe, this is NY State AG.
US Attorney for SDNY? It’s so hard to keep track of all the people prosecuting him.
Who specifically campaigned on “getting” him and somehow was not only elected but allowed to keep her law license.
Thanks
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) is poised to agree a sale to Elon Musk for around $43 billion in cash, the price the CEO of Tesla has called his “best and final” offer for the social media company, people familiar with the matter said.
Twitter may announce the $54.20-per-share deal later on Monday once its board has met to recommend the transaction to Twitter shareholders, the sources said, adding it was still possible the deal could collapse at the last minute.
Even if it doesn’t go through it will be a popcorn worthy event.
Horrible, horrible freedom!
Surprise
So how did this happen?
For one, companies rebuilt their inventories in the final three months of last year, which boosted economic activity. But this petered out in the first quarter of 2022, according to economists from Action Economics.
The quarter also began with the Omicron wave of the coronavirus, surging infections and renewed restrictions aimed at containing the virus. While the effects were short-lived, the longer-term impact is only now becoming apparent.
Americans also had soaring prices to worry about, not to mention Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that sent gas prices through the roof. In March, retail sales data from the Census Bureau showed that overall sales were only boosted by spending at gas stations, where sales jumped nearly 9%.
It’s stressing an important point: So far, US consumers are still spending freely, but much of that appears down to ubiquitously higher prices rather than increased consumption.
There’s a word for that.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that sent gas prices through the roof
Yeah, that’s why gas prices are so high.
Pay no attention to the price rises before the war!
Or before even the rumors of war.
PUTIN!
There’s a word for that.
Corporate greed?
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that sent gas prices through the roof
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the climate change of world events. There is nothing it can’t do.
Donald Trump must pay $10,000 per day for every day that he continues to defy the court’s order to turn over documents to my office.
And, of course, these requests are highly specific, based on clearly delineated pertinence to particular events.
It’s always possible that the requests were for records that don’t exist – like the highly detailed plans to conduct criminal operations.
Serious legal question… Is that actually a litigation tactic?
If you believe Alex Jones’ lawyers, that was what the Sandy Hook plaintiffs did. It’s only likely to work if you have a judge that hates the subpoenaed party as much as the plaintiff does. In this case, with Trump – I’d give that pretty fair odds.
Interesting. Thanks.
Looks like Trump’s attorney is claiming he doesn’t have the documents the Trump Organization has them. IANAL but I’d think the subpoena’s would cover both the person and his companies, maybe the AG didn’t file them right or maybe it’s a dodge on Trumps part. Either way, Meh. Live by the corrupt system die by the corrupt system.
Shouldn’t there be a specific crime?
Or is there and I just didn’t see it?
Fraud, specifically lying about property values for tax and loan purposes.
New York uses self-valuation for tax purposes? Here the county sends an assessment. Similarly, when I took out a secured loan, the lender hired a third party assessor.
I don’t know about loans but taxes are based on the city’s assessment.
Yeah, since Trump properties would be paying taxes to both the State and Cities of NY (and potentially Yonkers), I can’t imagine they aren’t all officially assessed and such assessments being public knowledge.
So they need the subpoena to find evidence of the crime they’re accusing him of? It’s been a while, but aren’t you supposed to have evidence in order to get one in the first place?
New Yorkers the key thing to note here is that parking summons CAN be canceled after they are written.
FBI agent on stakeout parked in a Queens bus stop roughs up, handcuffs traffic agent for writing ticket
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-fbi-agent-attacks-tea-agent-queens-20220423-7pmsyipmlvco5kfwbcxji43mvi-story.html
“The FBI agent used the device to somehow cancel his ticket, with a void slip popping out of the ticket printing device on Dipu’s belt.”
It’s like a miracle!
Imagine my surprise.
Why not? Are NYC’s traffic laws written with a “does not apply to feds” clause? I’m guessing not, since they made him pay the ticket.
In the sidebar of that article, the video playing says of Macron:
The 44 year old centrist beat the far-right Le Pen.
They are always “Centrists” and any one who disagrees must be “far-right”.
Centrist? Center of the far left perhaps…
Another key note “Dipu said he wouldn’t have ticketed the vehicle if he knew the driver was a federal law enforcement agent, but was unaware of the situation until after the summons was written.”
Oh, they get to do whatever they want.
Missed it by that much. I was also laughting at Dipu and Diu..I mean..you can’t make that up for names.
Narrator: That is not what the FBI does.
When the King’s men tussle with the Governors’ men.
Is making a commotion on stakeout part of the FBI SOP?
Let the hit pieces… BEGIN!
https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-elon-musk-ruthlessly-fired-anyone-who-disagreed-spacex-report-2021-8
‘ruthlessly’ maintained its culture…I am sure there are articles on the ‘ruthless’ firings of people at big tech who don’t share the politics, let alone the vision of the company.
How is James Damore doing these days, anyway?
‘ruthless’ firings
Musk is figuratively literally the
TrumpHitlerPutin of the tech world.I ruthlessly don’t click on any link to Business Insider.
rhywun pounces…on the scroll wheel.
Don’t try and make me like the subsidy-sucking taxmuncher.
Assuming that’s true, I have a question:
Did the line worker’s proposed solution actually work?
It was discussed in the book below. From memory his solution was tried and tested prior to him discussing it with Musk. It didn’t fix the issue it just made it work temporarily.
Who knows? The article doesn’t say.
It’s not like the article could have used the book below to provide the whole story.
That would be what we call actual journalism.
It’s not like he has a squeaky clean reputation. Like any successful business founder he burned more than few friends and bridges building his companies.
Poorly written, but informative:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Play:_Tesla,_Elon_Musk,_and_the_Bet_of_the_Century
LOL
Our culture is so superior that I cannot fathom why the US is quickly turning into a shithole.
Most of the people on book went on record.
Salty tears incoming: Twitter has been sold to Elon Musk!
https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-twitter-set-accept-musks-best-final-offer-sources-2022-04-25/
NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) – Elon Musk clinched a deal to buy Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) for $44 billion cash on Monday in a transaction that will shift control of the social media platform populated by millions of users and global leaders to the world’s richest person.
It is a seminal moment for the 16-year-old company that emerged as one of the world’s most influential public squares and now faces a string of challenges.
Discussions over the deal, which last week appeared uncertain, accelerated over the weekend after Musk wooed Twitter shareholders with financing details of his offer.
CNN reporting Twitter sold as well.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/25/twitter-accepts-elon-musks-buyout-deal.html
Twitter plans to release its first quarter fiscal year 2022 results before market open on April 28, 2022. In light of the pending transaction announced today, Twitter will not hold a corresponding conference call.
Twitter Employees Union stages a walkout? Sudden conflagration in all the server rooms simultaneously? Overnight repeal of Section 230?
I am suspecting some disgruntled engineers to muck up the algorithms cause I know that is a target.
Ooooh! Congress declares twitter a public utility and nationalizes it!
Hmm… My current gig involves working with Twitter data. I wonder if they will be hiring after the mass exodus.
there’s about to a mass explosion of active users actually
Mass exodus of bots from the comments? I check Massie’s account on occasion, and the replies cannot possibly be from actual human beings.
You underestimate the stupidity of many actual human beings.
If Musk would just tweet “apres moi, le deluge”, I would buy one of his cars.
I was hoping for “Le Tweet, c’est moi,” but yours works too.
Trying to post a link to a Fox story, but I keep getting 500 errors.
In short, he is quoted as saying free speech is critical to democracy, and he is planning on adding features and making the algorithm open source.
Trust The Bee to bring it.
All of a sudden, loud cries of “the market has no other alternative!” have popped up.
Antitrust violashunz!
I think GeoCities is ripe for a comeback.
Nobody needs more than sixteen bits of color.
While the Twitterverse goes insane, we just offered up another 700 billion. This time to NATO partners and Ukraine.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/04/25/u-s-secretaries-of-state-and-defense-visit-ukraine-pledge-military-aid/
A quick reminder, we do not have an FY22 budget and are operating on a continuing resolution.
sorry…millon. Never mind, thats pocket change.
Whatever the cost, the ‘Big Guy’ has to save Hunter’s only source of income. And Hunter is just a poor starving artist. Why do y’all hate artists and poor people?
I am just bad today, I forgot we passed a budget too.
I’m not sure how I pass a budget if I have no money and am trillions in debt. Some accounting tricknology I guess. Fuck democracy, run the US as a corporation and we are all shareholders in a company in which the board has beyond fucked up their fudiciary responsibility. Fire them all, elect new ones with $0 salaries.
Fire them all
Out of a cannon? Into the sun? I need details, dammit!
A budget is not an appropriation.
Well, it’s official, the most evil supervillain in history now owns Twitter, which was the only entity capable of saving our democracy, which is now doomed.
Relevant
This is…. briliant?
Massless on a plane!
Then shouldn’t you ride for free?
Maybe he’s no longer Catholic?
I’m thinking that may be a private plane, judging by the coat hanger at the back. I’ve never seen one like that in a commercial airliner.
I have. Can’t remember which one. United Airbus maybe? Most planes with a first/business cabin up front have either that or a closer for hanging coats. Fly in the pointy section more. 😉
Swissy to the Twitter comment section, stat!