Thursday Morning Better Late than Never Links

by | Apr 28, 2022 | Daily Links | 412 comments

Chaos. A lack of order and structure. Oopsieness. Squirrels.

 

Our friends at TOS opine as how Jared Polis (D, CO) is the most libertarian governor in the US.

 

Rising consumer prices in Europe.

 

Not just a river in Egypt. Reuters wishes very, very hard that Musk’s Twitter acquisition won’t go through.

 

Documentation that lockdowns didn’t work start to trickle in, will be ignored or explained away.

 

Okay, kids, that’s all I got. Have a great day.

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.

412 Comments

  1. db

    YAY

    • waffles

      Faith in humanity restored. Bless you Tonio. I was having an off day and glibs morning links is a restorer of sanity.

      • Festus

        Morning Glibs means that I stayed up too late and drank too much. Huzzah!

      • Fourscore

        If you’re not laying on the floor passed out you didn’t drink too much.

    • R.J.

      Thank you Tonio!

  2. juris imprudent

    [goes from nervously tapping foot to pumping fist like a Bering Sea crab captain with full pots]

  3. robc

    Polis is running for reelection this year. The other 3 years…not so much.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I was waiting for that article. Reason loves themselves some videogame playing governors, even if they’re adamantly pro-climate agenda and just increased the public school budgets by 9%.

      • robc

        It might be true that Polis is the most libertarian D governor. But if so, that is a damn low bar.

      • Rebel Scum

        just increased the public school budgets by 9%.

        This austerity is killing public schools.

      • robc

        At least a pretty large chunk of that money goes to charter schools in CO.

      • robc

        15% of public school enrollment in CO is in charter schools.

        Not as good as vouchers. Not as good as separation of school and state. But a step in the right direction.

      • Chipwooder

        Also very much a gun grabber

      • db

        Real Libertarians only care about climate change and weed.

      • robc

        Polis is good on weed, mexicans, and ass sex.

      • Pope Jimbo

        What? I thought it was ass weed and mexican sex that were important planks in the LP?

      • Drake

        He sure is – as went through CWP training and looked at various state laws, CO was down there with NJ and CA.

    • PutridMeat

      Funny how ‘abortion rights’ is front and center. Gun rights, nowhere to be seen. And I might quarrel with ‘end to covid overreach’ – to end overreach, you need to have started it. Many governors where much better than Polis on covid.

      Now I can certainly see how a libertarian can be for ‘abortion rights’, but to have it as some sort of metric for being libertarian, not so much. There is a very libertarian case to be made for restricting abortion, and I can see a valid (l) argument on both sides of that issue. Gun rights, not so much. I don’t see a libertarian case for restricting gun rights and someone who does can’t really be in the running for ‘most libertarian governor’.

      That they would keep trying to make the case for Polis being a libertarian speaks to why a large fraction of their ‘customer’ base became disillusioned with them I guess. SPLITTERS!!!!

      • Brawndo

        Obviously when he says “abortion rights” he means the fetus’ right to choose to be aborted or not.

      • kbolino

        They have default-left bias because they are culturally naive. They view the “culture war” as an inherently reactionary phenomenon, and any time the culture moves leftward (which happens continuously) it’s ACKSHEWALLY just organic bottom-up evolution of society, and the right is just a bunch of bitter losers for opposing it.

        This is a fundamental misunderstanding of cultural formation. Most culture of this sort is formed top-down, not bottom-up. “Let’s go Brandon”, while overplayed now, is actually an example of bottom-up cultural formation, as was “All Lives Matter”, and as are many right-leaning memes (this is not an immutable characteristic of the right but a reflection of power dynamics). Yet the same people who insist left-leaning cultural changes are organic and totally not top-down will also countersignal any bottom-up cultural artifacts because the top-down mechanism of culture formation which totally doesn’t exist codes them as reactionary.

        It’s a mental trap. Some people in the trap eventually become self-aware and defend it in its own right but this is rare to find. So “abortion rights” and “open borders” can become the central planks of a party formed around the slogan “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch” and none of the people involved will sit back and think about how their values system seems entirely exogenous to their movement.

  4. LJW

    Ummm what?

    Wait what’s the danger?

    • Sean

      o.O

    • Rebel Scum

      Fake news. Real lezzies are not hot.

      • Chipwooder

        Not in general, no, but there are always exceptions

      • DrOtto

        I know a few.

      • Festus

        “Have you ever played mixed Softball, Joey?” Some lesbians are fire.

    • Surly Knott

      Wasps. WASPS are always the danger.

      • R.J.

        Ah! Now I get it! I am a little slow this morning. Also, that was a yellow jacket.

      • Chipwooder

        What do you have against Blackie Lawless?

    • robc

      “At least both moms are where they belong.”

      • Festus

        ^top comment

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m assuming that makes sense to lesbians.

    • MikeS

      Twitter has ALT-TEXT! Click the little “ALT” button in the lower left. It’s mildly humorous.

      Or don’t. Whatever.

    • Brawndo

      I don’t get it. Is this a joke about who’s going to kill that yellow jacket since there’s no man in the house?

      • SDF-7

        I would assume the bulldog (not appearing in that picture). That’s usually what kills the Jackets every year.

  5. Ted S.

    Lockdowns worked, since they weren’t about stopping the spread of disease.

    • Ted S.

      And any organization with the word “People’s” in it doesn’t represent the people.

    • Rebel Scum

      Word. It depends on what the goal was.

      And anything prefaced with “people’s” is commie horseshit.

  6. juris imprudent

    Our friends? Did we leave someone over there?

    • Tonio

      It’s kind of an in-joke / taunt. TOS once referred to us in a links post as “some of our oldest friends.”

      • Gender Traitor

        Did TOS link to Glibs?? That would be the best thing ever! ?

      • UnCivilServant

        I think it would be impressive if any for profit ‘news’ site linked to us, a mass of volunteer degenerates.

      • SDF-7

        I’d be more than a little nervous that it would get us firmly on some three letter agency radar, frankly.

      • db

        “would get”

        heh-heh-heh

      • MikeS

        Right? I would assume we were on some three letter agency radar before most of the people commenting here did.

      • juris imprudent

        With our luck we’re under surveillance of the USPS.

      • Festus

        Lotsa times but it more like driving past the house where the party was happening and saying “I don’t need friends like that!” and then ugly crying.

      • Fourscore

        “some of our oldest friends.”

        1/2 right

    • Chipwooder

      Well, Gilmore and Ken Schultz went back to them

      • UnCivilServant

        What did we do to drive Gilmore away?

      • Gender Traitor

        Maybe we didn’t dress well enough?

      • Festus

        Hive-mind.

      • kbolino

        The latter stings enough to make the former almost not worth it.

      • kbolino

        Pretend it’s opposite day

  7. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Will anyone tell Europe the age of cheap living is over?

    Having been to Europe multiple times over four decades, it was never cheap.

    • juris imprudent

      Has Klaus got a deal for you!

      • Pope Jimbo

        MISINFORMATION: There is no Santa Klaus giving away free stuff

    • Tonio

      Wait, I was assured you could do Europe on $5 or $10 per day.

      • UnCivilServant

        Only if you’re a military aged male from a middle eastern or north african country

      • Pope Jimbo

        Is that because they don’t have to pay for sex with hookers? They can just assault any woman for free?

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        Or boys.

      • UnCivilServant

        I didn’t know you were a Nimitz fan.

    • Chipwooder

      Prague right around the fall of Communism was. My visit was in the spring of 1990. Got my parents a set of Bohemian crystal champagne flutes for like $10.

      • pistoffnick

        That was around the time that I was there.

        I remember needing a restroom badly at the Prague train station, but the stalls were all coin op and all I had was Italian coins, American bills, and traveler’s checks (remember traveler’s checks?). It was a desperate situation. I think I gave the restroom attendant (an old lady!) a $10 American bill, just so I could drop the boys off at the pool.

      • R.J.

        Boy that sucks. You could have gone all San Francisco and been a trend setter…

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        I’ve learned through harsh experience that you always keep a handy supply of 20- and 50-cent Euro coins on your person should you need to relieve yourself in most of Europe. Although, if’n there’s a chain hotel nearby, you can oftentimes stride purposefully into the lobby (acting like you belong there) and use the lobby bathrooms, which are usually located down a short corridor or blind corner near the front desk. (This trick is not guaranteed to work with older hotels.)

    • Brawndo

      The “Europoor” meme is coming back. Unfortunately we have no room to talk here.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Groceries in the British Isles are cheap to reasonable; dunno why.

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        Same with The Netherlands last time I was there. My SU’s Dutch rellies said it was due to heavy subsidization of agriculture.

        Most EU ag subsidies make their North American equivalents look like amateur hour.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It is axiomatic that both sides must benefit if they are to end the war.

      That’s a non-starter for the idiots at State.

      And it presumes that they even want it to end, which I don’t think they do.

      • cyto

        It is truly weird. It really seems that our government has been trying to goad Russia into war. Right now they seem to be desperately trying to push war in other countries… it is so odd that it would not surprise me to learn that we played a role in “explosions” in Moldova. Everything they are saying and doing just seems so odd.

      • rhywun

        The only thing I can figure is they want Putin out and everything we are seeing is directed at that goal.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They want a few things:

        1) Europe to remain under the US regime’s influence

        2) Russia to be crippled

        3) No real rivals on the world stage

      • Plisade

        I suspect they want to keep making the war spread, so that when it comes time, giving Putin what he actually only wants will look like a bargain, a win-win. I believe the current US admin is duplicitous in this situation, at least it smells that way.

      • kbolino

        They’ve also been trying to foment revolutions in Belarus and Kazakhstan.

      • Brawndo

        And you hint at a huge problem: the fact that the idiots at State think they *are* on a side.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh they’re on a side, with the rest of our MIC/national security apparatuschiks.

    • Drake

      The Professor knows nothing about how stuff actually works in the military and doesn’t understand logistics.

      Sure British and American taxpayers are paying defense contractors to deliver 155mm howitzers to the Ukrainian border. If they were to somehow make it to Ukrainian units in the west without getting destroyed by Russian missiles, the Ukes will need weeks or months of training to use these systems. Then they’ll need an incredible volume of shells to be of any use in combat. Then they can form units and start to maneuver towards Russian units in the east. If they make it that far, they better be well trained because back-track radar and artillery counter-battery fire is a Russian specialty.

      By the time all these “ifs” and “thens” can possibly happen, the Ukrainian army in the east will be long gone.

      • WTF

        That was my thought when reading about all of the artillery, etc. getting delivered to Ukraine – have the Ukes been trained on how to effectively use it all?

      • Drake

        They specifically requested 152mm tubes and ammo.

        We decided to send them 155 pieces that are 3 or 4 decades newer and completely different. It won’t help them, but will be great for our defense contractors. They get paid even if the equipment is blown up 5 minutes after it arrives in the Ukraine.

      • Tundra

        Also a good way for former Soviet republics to get rid of their old crap and replace it with brand-spanking-new stuff.

        Thanks, NATO!

  8. Pope Jimbo

    GARGH!

    Fucking crackheads can find other places to score if their dealer is late/missing/gone! But us? We just have to sit here and jones for morning lynx?

    Another failure of the Biden Administration.

    • ron73440

      It’s not Biden’s fault.

      Obviously it was Putin!

  9. Rebel Scum

    Rising consumer prices in Europe.

    The new abnormal.

    • Fourscore

      Thanks, Jimbo. Nice logo, Walz appreciates all the help you can give him.

      Did I ever tell you about his military career?

      Nah, you always bring the good news, too early for me to revert back to my usual persona

      • Pope Jimbo

        You did tell me about it. Being a well brought up Minnesodan, though, you could start telling me all about it again and I would listen politely.

        Last time I met up with my buddy who ran against him for the governor’s office we argued about that point. Jeff said that since he never served he didn’t feel like he could bring up the issue without being dragged by the media for being a hypocrite. I told him that the media was going to drag him no matter what, he might as well get the info out in front of the voters.

        I guess Walz was also fired from his first job as a teacher back in Illinois. The records are completely sealed and of course the media has no interest in what they might contain.

    • Tundra

      Nice!

      Thanks, Holiness!

  10. The Late P Brooks

    I knew the AM links would go up if I put this in the dead thread.

    More equaler

    For the last several weeks, Americans across the country have struggled to access the new Covid-19 antiviral pill, Pfizer’s Paxlovid. Eligibility was flexible but largely reserved for people “at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19,” according to the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization standards.

    That’s why public health experts were surprised last night when the vice president’s office revealed that the 57-year-old KAMALA HARRIS was taking the antiviral pill after she tested positive yesterday. Harris’ office said she is asymptomatic. And her office didn’t comment on whether she has any underlying health conditions that could make her more susceptible to a bad case of the disease.

    “Why,” asked JONATHAN REINER, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences, “would you give Paxlovid to someone without symptoms?”

    ——-

    “I don’t think it’s unreasonable,” said CELINE GOUNDER, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist who’s also editor-at-large for public health at Kaiser Health News. She said the FDA’s reference to “high risk” for progression to severe disease in its Paxlovid fact sheet suggests a patient can be asymptomatic at time of diagnosis and still be eligible for the drug.

    “We know that the way that presidents, or in this case vice presidents, are treated is not necessarily the way the average person is treated,” added Gounder, who advised the Biden transition on Covid-19. “It’s not just about what is best for that patient – it’s about what’s best for the nation.”

    But medical ethicists argued that the moral rationalization for giving Harris the medication only underscores how unfair the system is.

    Something something heartbeat away from the Presidency.

    Also, medical ethicists should all be locked up in insane asylums, for the benefit of society.

    • Pope Jimbo

      If I was Kamala I’d be very, very nervous about taking any medication.

      She would make an excellent martyr for the Rona Pandemic is she were to mysteriously die. Her tragic death would prove that we still need lockdowns, masking and govt control.

      (Also how much would it be worth to Moderna and their vax business to have Pfizer’s new pill kill someone?)

      • cyto

        Also, also… there are clearly machinations in place at high levels to push Biden out. At the same time there are different factions running hit pieces on Harris.

        Somewhere in that mix are people who definitely didn’t kill a certain trafficker who had dirt on tons of very powerful people.

    • gbob

      Are you crazy?! This is the first time in history our country has figured out a use for the position of Vice President. Medical test subject. Imagine being able to replace bunnies used in makeup testing with a human subject. The possibilities are endless. If we had lost Quayle to testing a new drug, what would have been the loss? Al Gore? His vivisection could have been the first streamed on the internet. Biden could have tested cures for dementia. Let’s encourage this trend!

  11. DrOtto

    I’d have to go back and check, but I think that first pgh was my horoscope for this week.

    • DrOtto

      Or at least it could have been. I have a squirrel in the attic I have to deal with. Fortunately, my parents are down and one of my dad’s hobbies is trapping/killing squirrels.

    • Fourscore

      “Shakes Otto’s Dad’s Hand”

  12. Rebel Scum

    April 27, 2022
    12:06 PM EDT
    Breakingviews: Elon Musk probably won’t buy Twitter

    I think you missed the mark.

    • Tonio

      Crap. Sorry. I was just going through the links feed and just put up the most recently-posted ones. Didn’t check the date stamps, obviously. Good catch.

      • cyto

        That is a heck of a headline for a story based on “Elon Musk never made a peanut brittle company”

      • Pope Jimbo

        I guess that also means that David Hogg won’t be riding to the rescue of the Twitter employees.

        Since his pillow company never materialized (that is about as serious as a peanut brittle company, right?), he too will lose interest in buying Twitter.

      • Rebel Scum

        I meant the author of the piece.

  13. Shpip

    From the Sweden article:

    The U.S., by contrast, had the highest excess mortality rate among all 11 countries in the Kaiser study. We also had a stunning number of COVID deaths—more than 1 million. Our lousy rate is probably due to multiple factors, says Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Our underlying health is worse than most wealthy countries because of our wide wealth gap, high rates of poverty and obesity, spotty access to high-quality health care for the poor, and an aging population.

    Left unmentioned: the incentives, monetary and otherwise, to inflate the COVID death total in the U.S.

    • Q Continuum

      Pretty much all Kung Flu data: GI-GO.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      And let’s not mention the incentives put into place to kill people using remdesivir and ventilators.

      • SDF-7

        And we can’t forget certain high COVID death rate state governors tossing the infected into nursing homes and all….

    • Ted S.

      Which, of course, has nothing to do with excess deaths.

  14. cyto

    Interesting information coming to light due to the Libs of TikTok situation.

    Turns out, Taylor Lorenz is being sued by an agent for “influencers” for defamation. She wrote a hit piece and interfered with her business contacts by telling them (falsely) that she didn’t pay people, leaked nude photos, etc.

    Turns out… she is represented by the agency that all of her clients went to.

    Also turns out… some of those influencers who work for the big agency were getting paid to promote the vaccine. More… she drops a little tidbit, they were getting paid to promote stuff about Ukraine and Russia and other political stuff.

    Sound like what a certain 3 letter agency does in other countries?…. countries like Ukraine….

    https://youtu.be/gNZDolBx648

    • Rebel Scum

      *reports cyto to the Disinformation Governance Board*

      • Drake

        That lady with the lantern jaw is going to make him sorry!

    • Tonio

      Oh, my.

    • juris imprudent

      THE VIEW???? You evil motherfucker.

      • slumbrew

        I am dumber for having watched even that short clip of The View.

      • Nephilium

        It’s the only show that I specifically request the girlfriend to either change the channel or go into another room to watch.

      • R.J.

        Me too. Can’t stand it. Makes my TV feel dirty.

      • rhywun

        Tell me she doesn’t watch The View. My God.

      • Nephilium

        Not regularly thank gods.

      • MikeS

        I’d tell her to watch it at her new boyfriend’s house.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      One result of the disintegration of traditional media and the rise of social media has been that it is less conspicuous for the TLAs to plant stories into the propaganda feed.

      We’re so focused on the obvious collaboration between NYT, CNN, et al and the TLAs that we’re ignoring how they’re using social media to influence the discussion.

      In other words, the TLAs are doing exactly what they accused Russia of doing in 2016.

      • SDF-7

        Well, *that* sounds oddly familiar… almost like they spun up a story of a quid pro quo in Ukraine based on knowledge of a presidential candidate or something…

    • slumbrew

      *Frei’s guest comes on screen*

      Hey, how _you_ doin’?

      • cyto

        Heh… yeah, she was a little out of place with those schlubs. Although, Frie did pretty good for himself.

      • slumbrew

        Frei: “give me your elevator-pitch”

        Her: *talks for 20 minutes straight.*

      • cyto

        I definitely came to understand why her career as an influencer in front of the camera never took off.

  15. db

    8 7
    3 4

    • MikeS

      8️⃣4️⃣
      5️⃣6️⃣

    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 94
      5️⃣3️⃣
      4️⃣6️⃣

      No Chumptown tour for me today.

    • Fatty Bolger

      6️⃣5️⃣
      3️⃣4️⃣

    • db

      Damn, I finally get a decent score and I’m undercut by everyone else, still!

      Nice job, guys!

      • SDF-7

        Not everyone else — at least two of us in Chumptown (see the thread waiting to be reaped by init…)

    • Peter Lorre, contemplating a Crime

      4 6
      & 2

    • Bobarian LMD

      Daily Quordle 94
      8️⃣5️⃣
      3️⃣4️⃣== 20
      quordle.com

    • TARDis

      Daily Quordle 94
      5️⃣6️⃣
      3️⃣4️⃣
      quordle.com
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜? ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
      ⬜⬜?⬜⬜ ⬜⬜?⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜??⬜ ⬜⬜???
      ⬜⬜⬜?⬜ ⬜⬜?⬜?
      ????? ⬜?⬜??
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ?????

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ???⬜⬜ ?⬜?⬜⬜
      ????? ?⬜?⬜?
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ?????
      Starting word was a bust. Random word choice lead me to some else’s starting word.

      • Sean

        I like to change seed words around. Seems boring sticking to the same ones.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, I need to find some new ones. Dude seems to be on to the known strategies, cos I’m not getting any help from the ones I’m using now.

      • cyto

        I have been trying to get all the jeopardy letters …

        I settled on Saute and Choir for a while. Missing the N and the L.

      • cyto

        Daily Quordle 94
        9️⃣5️⃣
        3️⃣4️⃣
        quordle.com
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜? ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
        ⬜⬜?⬜? ⬜⬜?⬜?
        ⬜⬜??⬜ ⬜⬜???
        ⬜⬜⬜?⬜ ⬜⬜?⬜?
        ⬜??⬜? ?????
        ⬜?⬜?? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
        ⬜?⬜?? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
        ⬜?⬜?? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
        ????? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

        ?⬜⬜?? ?⬜⬜⬜?
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜? ⬜?⬜⬜⬜
        ????? ?⬜?⬜?
        ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ?????

        Worked like a champ! Until it didnt.

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        Same score as you, even the same distribution:

        Daily Quordle 94
        8️⃣4️⃣
        6️⃣5️⃣
        quordle.com
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜?⬜⬜
        ⬜⬜?⬜⬜ ⬜??⬜⬜
        ⬜?⬜⬜? ⬜?⬜⬜?
        ⬜??⬜? ?????
        ⬜⬜⬜?⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
        ⬜⬜??⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
        ⬜?⬜?? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
        ????? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

        ⬜⬜?⬜⬜ ⬜⬜?⬜?
        ?⬜⬜⬜⬜ ?⬜⬜⬜⬜
        ??⬜⬜? ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
        ⬜?⬜?? ⬜⬜⬜??
        ?⬜?⬜? ?????
        ????? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 94
      9️⃣8️⃣
      3️⃣4️⃣
      quordle.com
      ⬜⬜?⬜? ⬜⬜??⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
      ⬜⬜??⬜ ⬜⬜???
      ⬜⬜⬜?⬜ ⬜⬜?⬜?
      ⬜??⬜? ⬜????
      ⬜??⬜? ⬜????
      ⬜??⬜? ⬜????
      ⬜??⬜? ?????
      ????? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

      ??⬜?⬜ ?⬜⬜?⬜
      ??⬜⬜? ?⬜⬜⬜?
      ????? ?⬜?⬜?
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ?????

      Fucking rhyming words. Turns a game of skill into a game of chance.

    • Ted S.

      Daily Quordle 94
      ?6️⃣
      3️⃣4️⃣
      quordle.com
      ??⬜⬜? ??⬜⬜?
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
      ⬜⬜??⬜ ⬜⬜???
      ⬜⬜⬜?⬜ ⬜⬜?⬜?
      ⬜??⬜? ⬜????
      ⬜??⬜? ?????
      ⬜?⬜?? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
      ⬜?⬜?? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
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      ?⬜⬜⬜? ?⬜⬜⬜?
      ????? ?⬜?⬜?
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ?????

      Fucking top left. Went through six different letters on my last three guesses.

    • whiz

      Daily Quordle 94
      9️⃣6️⃣
      3️⃣4️⃣
      quordle.com
      ⬜⬜??⬜ ⬜⬜??⬜
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      ⬜⬜⬜?⬜ ⬜⬜?⬜?
      ⬜??⬜? ⬜????
      ⬜??⬜? ?????
      ⬜?⬜?? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
      ⬜???? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
      ????? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

      ⬜⬜??? ⬜⬜⬜?⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜?? ⬜⬜⬜??
      ????? ?⬜?⬜?
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ?????

  16. Festus

    Thank you so much, Sexy Tonio! Our Nation turns its lonely eyes to you! Whoo whoo whoo.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Our underlying health is worse than most wealthy countries because of our wide wealth gap, high rates of poverty and obesity, spotty access to high-quality health care for the poor, and an aging population.

    Right. That’s why we have (had) a huge stockpile of old sick people vulnerable to the disease. Because American health care sucks.

    • slumbrew

      Quiet, you. Obviously it’s because *checks wristband* “America is racist”.

    • Rebel Scum

      because of our wide wealth gap

      *rolls eyes*

      • PutridMeat

        Right, along with high rates of poverty; Is there any data showing a correlation between wealth/poverty and covid mortality? Honest question, I haven’t seen it. I could see why there would be a correlation since poor health can be associated with poverty, not the least reason being government policy on nutrition/food for the last 60 years. But one could also see an anti-correlation depending on e.g. vitamin D levels, since poorer people may have more sun exposure and more robust immune systems from exposure to multiple bugs, maybe enough to offset the harms of a poor diet. Basically, this comes across as the standard phrase boilerplate that any good-think reporter has to put in every piece, without regard to its actual relation, correlation or causative, to the topic at hand.

    • WTF

      Unpossible, Obamacare fixed all of that.

    • kbolino

      Wet streets cause rain

  18. Pope Jimbo

    Last job was with a big German company.

    It was funny how all the Europeans who were working in our offices here in the States would lecture us on how crazy it was to “be chained to your job just to get health care” and also desperately not want to be sent back to a European office because it was so much nicer living here.

    You couldn’t point out to them that the giant levels of taxation they paid for their “free” health care meant they had way less money to spend on things they really wanted. Just calling it free healthcare was all they needed to hear. They truly thought they were getting over on someone and that is what is important.

    I reduced one guy to an absolute rage by insisting that taxation is theft. He couldn’t accept that the govt taking money from people (or throwing them in jail) is the very definition of theft.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      There was a Danish Glib, who’s handle I can’t recall, but he wrote a great article for this site about how living in Denmark was just blah. They have their basic needs met, but it’s difficult to attain a higher standard of living and subsequently no real ambition or hunger among the populace. Like goldfish existing in a well maintained tank.

      Maybe it wasn’t Denmark but some socialist European nation.

      • juris imprudent

        I first heard that kind of story from an American who was a dedicated socialist and went to live there. Exactly what he saw after a few years. This was all a long, long time ago.

      • Fourscore

        Garrison Keillor came back.

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        Exactly what he saw after a few years.

        Slow learner. I got there by the end of week three of my very first visit to Europe (combined France/Germany trip), and the SU looked at me and said “What took you so long?”

        She was always the brains of our partnership.

      • Animal

        Just Holger, I think. I actually met him a few times, when I was working back east. Mrs. Animal and I met him, Number 6 and a couple other East Coast Glibs at a huge gun show in Philly.

    • UnCivilServant

      I gave up arguing over government provided healthcare with foreigners after a guy in the same conversation both metioned that he’d learned how to sew his own lacerations shut after he couldn’t get into their equivalent of an emergency room to get professional care and used the argument “what if someone doesn’t have $60” when I mentioned that was all it cost me to get a same day foot x-ray.

      • Festus

        Socialized medicine has its benefits but one size fits all health care is a disaster. I’ll die at home before I ever enter another hospital. You are treated by the staff not by what your ailment is but what they deem the underlying cause. Smokers and drinkers are persona non grata. Mind you, I did get scanned to hell and back, blood drawn, two visits with the doctor and it cost me nothing out of pocket. Whether all of that “Free” treatment does any good remains to be seen. I’ll hedge my bets. Hate it.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Abused by nurses, IIRC. Is there much or any private care near you?

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        Festus is in north-central B.C. (IIRC, Prince George), so there’s certainly some stuff in the Lower Mainland, but it’s a hike. I’ve availed myself of private clinics in the Lower Main twice, both times for procedures that had lengthy wait-lists in the public system (30 and 8 months for knee arthroscopy and inguinal hernia, respectively). The wait times here are so bad (and every province is different) that my relatives in France were appalled when they heard about it, and told me to just come see them and do a little medical tourism next time I needed some procedure. France has a hybrid system, with “public” single-payer care for baseline health services, plus an endless list of options that you pay for if’n you want faster/better services.

    • SDF-7

      I’m actually in full agreement on the “chained to your job for health care” issue, I just strongly disagree on the solution.

      I think the Fed needs to quit distorting the insurance market. Stop incentivizing employers to provide the insurance / programs — incentivize HSAs / FSAs instead, let employees decide who manages theirs, what health plans (if we want to deal with group rates), etc. Go back to clear billing up front so patients can actually decide on what they’re doing as much as possible, especially for routine / primary care. Which also means, stop subsidizing Medicare by intentionally paying significantly under the market to providers, knowing that the non-Medicare population get charged more to cover the cost. (Talk about a hidden tax).

      Of course, the “ER care has to be provided, no questions — which means “irregular migration” folks use it as primary health care” issue would still be there — that’s a whole other ball of financial wax. But in general, I really want to see where employees can put the money in a plan of their choice that goes with them across jobs — HSAs seem a good model for it currently (other than the employer choosing the health insurance tied with the HSA, you just get to transfer funds to your ‘new’ HSA when you change jobs from what I can tell… but maybe I’m wrong), hence that’s my current thinking.

      • Pope Jimbo

        My old business partner’s brother never had health insurance because he was self-employed and thought it was just too expensive.

        I got to hear multiple stories about him getting insane discounts when he did need various treatments because he’d negotiate with the docs. He’d tell them, I don’t have any insurance, but I do have cash. What does it really take.

        Once he had surgery and paid the anathesiologist $500 cash, a nurse $300 and the surgeon $2K for a procedure that would have charged insurance something like $15K.

        I agree with your main point that the biggest problem right now is that the market is so fucked with regulations.

      • robc

        Some companies pay their employees to schedule surgery at the Oklahoma surgery center than operates entirely that way.

        “We will fly you to okc, put you up in a hotel, and pay for your surgery if you schedule it with them instead of thru insurance.”

        Our system is broken, but single payer would be worse.

      • juris imprudent

        Don’t be ridiculous – there is NOTHING that other people’s money can’t solve. You just need more of other people’s money.

        Narrator: Insurance is other people’s money too.

      • Pope Jimbo

        We have friends (wives are all close, us husbands are cordial) who decided that they still wanted kids, so they needed to get Hubby’s vasectomy reversed.

        His wife runs their house with an iron fist and she is … frugal. So instead of going to a local doc, she found somewhere in Arkansas that did the reversadictomy for half price. Away he went and got the procedure done there.

        My wife was telling me all of this and got mad because by the end of the story I was rolling around on the floor laughing.

        *The operation was successful. After 10 years. So they got saddled with an oopsie baby when they were much older than they expected to be.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        LOL. When I got my vasectomy, the urologist made me sign about five forms stating that I wouldn’t sue if my wife changed her mind about wanting more kids. (Or I suppose if I decided to get a new, younger version)

        I told him that it was of no concern in my case, the wife wouldn’t let me anyway near her without the vasectomy and opting for the younger version would get me killed.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Heh, after I told mine that we had already had 4 kids, he pretty much dropped all “what-if” discussion and said let’s get you scheduled right away.

        Though, there was some awkwardness when he called back to let me know the first attempt apparently didn’t take. Second try was on the house.

      • Pope Jimbo

        After two kids, I called to get snipped. Sure they said, but before we schedule the surgery you have to go to a counseling session. There is one this Thursday.

        That Thursday came around and I got stuck in a meeting with a client, so I skipped it. I called back to reschedule and they said, “we normally schedule that counseling session every six weeks. The next one would have been Thanksgiving so we canceled it. After that it would have been Christmas so we canceled that, so we’ll put you in the one scheduled for mid-February.”

        My third kid was born in September. I’ll let you do the math. Turns out that he was a true blessing. Even grumpy old Fourscore would admit that the Youngest is a nice kid.

        * The counseling session was a brochure that said you won’t be able to have kids after this surgery and watching a video from the ’70s where every stereotype was shown (the black guy was happy to hear he’d still be able to have sex after getting snipped).

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Aw heck, not that one. Nearish but not exactly.

      • Pine_Tree

        Anesthesia didn’t work for me. Sometimes I’m that way.

        Found out when the scalpel started. Decided I’d just use the opportunity to display some grit. 2x. 0.375″ slices in the sack are no fun. The plumbing work is no big deal compared to that.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        oblig for SSD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkzG9RZBERE

        Fortunately the wife looks after the rugrats, but I can appreciate the iron on the grilled cheese and stapling the blanket.

      • Fourscore

        …and they had the cleanest pool in town….

      • Dr Mossy Lawn

        Please no HSA/FSA mandates. Just give me equal tax treatment. I can save money on my own, I don’t need to have a separate account that I have to manage, and that costs me a monthly maintenance fee, all to “officially” deduct. I had a high deductible, HSA plan for a couple of years, it was a pain, and I went pack to PPO coverage. I understand some people just can’t save, so they need the feds or the Healthcare industry to withhold their money. They can sign up for that option, don’t make it mandatory.

        Just pure equal treatment, 100% deductible, no 2% limit.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        We wouldn’t need HSAs or FSAs if we got rid of income tax.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Insurance is an issue that would quickly sort itself out if healthcare wasn’t run as a monopoly. Healthcare being operated as a guild is the major issue.

        If someone has a chronic condition requiring a $10k medication every other month, they are forced to go through the healthcare system and this essentially requires insurance. Instead people should have agency to buy their own medication, without a prescription, through an overseas pharmacy for pennies on the dollar.

        Or you could see someone who apprenticed without acquiring the MD after their name. Buy antibiotics OTC when your kids have pinkeye. Get rid of mandatory licensing for health care workers and make everything OTC. Then health insurance would revert back to its intended purpose.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        This

        We effectively have socialized healthcare already (as evidenced by the last two years of perverse incentives).

      • R.J.

        Correct. And sad. As has been said before, the level of power only goes one way. It never goes back.

      • Nephilium

        You can track the company provided health care back to that asshole Nixon. Wage and Price controls meant that companies had to find another way to compete and find ways to attract talent.

      • db

        It goes even further back, to FDR.

      • robc

        Wrong asshole president, it was FDR. He froze wages and companies used benefits, such as health care, to give workers raises.

        Of course, it ramped up under Nixon, so you weren’t entirely wrong.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        ¡los dos!

      • MikeS

        Akshully, it was FDR. ?

      • Nephilium

        Fine everyone, I’ll go to the box and feel shame.

        And dislike FDR even more.

      • R.J.

        I think it is fair to say that between those two presidents our healthcare became well and truly fucked. Now everybody shake it off and get back on the field.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Don’t forget LBJ!

      • The Hyperbole

        I’m hearing it was FDR not RMN

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Something about HMOs and perhaps ERISA?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Once in the socialized system, you can’t comprehend how it would work otherwise, primarily because the alternative to socialism is the chaos of the market and chaos cannot be planned.

      This is particularly true for Germans who need to have a plan.

      • cyto

        Once it is socialized, then “the health ministry saved my kid when she had lukemia” and “the Healthcare ministry saved me when I was in a car accident, and it only cost me $100”.

        It is a self fulfilling prophesy of a sort.

    • db

      I had a colleague many years ago, from the UK, who would complain frequently about the shittly level of care that his dad was getting for his heart condition back home. But in the next breath, if anyone talked shit about the NHS, he would be defending it like a firebrand as a provider of health care to the downtrodden.

      The cognitive dissonance was palpable.

      • db

        Like, he would denounce the long waiting times to get an appointment, even in acute situations, the perfunctory exams and cookie-cutter diagnoses/treatments given by doctors, and the constant decline of service. But the NHS was the best thing ever, not like our dirty profit-driven market in the US (and this was back in the early ’00s, when our system was still a little less broken than it is now).

      • Pope Jimbo

        You mean like the stories about Minnesodans taking buses up to Friendly Manitoba to buy cheap, cheap pills? Next to the stories about patients from Canada flooding the Mayo in Rochester because they can’t wait to get knee/hip replacements from their “free” health care system?

        My Japanese sister-in-law came to us and paid for a consultation at the Mayo on her own because her free Japanese doctors had given her so many conflicting prognosis’s about her cancer. She had lost faith that any of the doctors she had seen knew what they were talking about so she visited the Mayo. The good news was that the Mayo’s advice lined up with her most recent doc in Japan so she didn’t have to fight the system too much when she got back.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        How did he explain Harley Street then? or was that just for Botox and plastic surgery?

  19. The Late P Brooks

    The more extensive study of the two, published last September, was used as ammunition to support school mask mandates—even though children had been excluded from the study. The study found that masks failed to prevent 90 percent of infections; only the elderly benefited modestly. Ashley Styczynski, one of the principal investigators, said “further study” was needed to know if masks provide any protection to kids.

    But it LOOKS like we’re doing something.

    • Plisade

      At a recent business meeting, one of the upper mgmt females was gushing over Zelensky, saying how all the women in America thinks he’s so brave and manly and hot, followed by some cheerleading for Ukraine and demonizing of Putin.

      That reminded me of a female friend who felt likewise about Cuomo a la his response to Covid at the onset, how he was doing things, and that we needed more strong leaders like him.

      “Doing something” appears to work very well for some demographics, and blinds them (or gives them an excuse to turn a blind eye) to results and other options.

      • cyto

        I think there is more to it than that. There is a herd mentality at play. It isn’t just her personal opinion. Her opinion is formed in a cauldron of similar opinions. He is hot because she believes other people think he is hot.

        This is why the Cuomo love burned so hot and died so easily and quickly.

      • Plisade

        Agreed.

      • rhywun

        There is a herd mentality at play.

        Very much so.

        Just like those Uke flag icons didn’t just up and decorate everyone’s bylines by themselves.

      • Drake

        He looks coked up in a lot of his videos. Maybe chicks dig that.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He’s a fairly average looking slightly paunchy dude who ran his mouth about joining NATO and maybe acquiring some nukes and got his country invaded. What’s not to like?

      • Rebel Scum

        Luckily Zelenzky is doing something. He is an actor pretending to be president of Ukraine trying to get the US/NATO further involved in a proxy war with Russia and eventually a direct war with Russia.

  20. cyto

    Your wife is hot!

    We have these billboards for HVAC service around here. Huge “YOUR WIFE IS HOT!” as the attention grabber, then “call acme air conditioning” as the info line.

    Anyone else have those ads?

    • slumbrew

      Yep, there’s on on I-95 in CT for a pool company (I think).

    • Peter Lorre, contemplating a Crime

      Sounds like good advertising, If you don’t tune up your A/C she will be hot, all over your ass!

    • Pope Jimbo

      Not since they closed down BackPage.com.

      To be honest, I miss the second income.

    • The Other Kevin

      Yep, we have those on 94 in Indiana.

    • Plisade

      Saw this shirt on a dude in the grocery store:

      To Do List:
      Your Mom

      • MikeS

        ALOL

      • slumbrew

        I just LOL’d.

        Yep, half a century in, still finding mom jokes funny.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Ghost of Christmas past

    Hillary Clinton on Wednesday injected partisan politics to the funeral of diplomat Madeleine Albright, the nation’s first female secretary of state, saying “fascism” could dominate the United States if “dictators and demagogues” aren’t stopped — taking a clear swipe at former President Donald Trump and his allies.

    Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, lost to Trump in a shocking upset and her attacks generally are welcomed by Republicans who describe her as an embittered and base-rallying foe.

    ——-

    Trump, 75, is openly teasing a possible 2024 bid after losing the 2020 election to President Biden. Clinton’s mention of the halls of the capital was an apparent reference to last year’s Capitol siege by Trump supporters who disrupted certification of Biden’s victory.

    Save us, Hillary!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      If you want to know how the US actually thinks about Ukrainians, just refer to Albright’s attitude towards starving Iraqi children in the 90’s. They’re just pawns and cannon fodder for their greater game.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        500K dead via sanctions? Totes worth it.
        Hopefully St.Peter has that video and doesn’t let her through.

      • Swiss Servator

        I keep hearing that number, I just never see any proof…

      • slumbrew

        Who you gonna believe, The Lancet or your lying eyes?

      • Tundra

        Well, Madeline certainly didn’t quibble with the number. Say it’s half or a quarter of that. Cool then?

        These fucking people are monsters and sanctions are evil.

      • Grosspatzer

        500K is probably bullshit. But when confronted with that number in the interview, Albright didn’t blink an eye, which leads me to believe she would have been totes OK with that number if it were for real.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Other than Albright herself not disputing it?

        The number was based on a 1999 UNICEF study on infant mortality in the southern half of Iraq from 91 to 99.

    • Rebel Scum

      saying “fascism” could dominate the United States if “dictators and demagogues” aren’t stopped

      We are fortunate that witch was stopped. It is nice to have her acknowledge it too.

      taking a clear swipe at former President Donald Trump and his allies.

      I distinctly recall his inaugural speech having the recurring theme of dissolution of power from DC. But Trump is/was the “fascist”.

      • juris imprudent

        Fascism is against democracy, and democracy as we all know means Democrats in power.

  22. robc

    Fun CO election fact:

    In 2020, while voting in Biden and a bunch of Dems, voters lowered state income tax rate from 4.63% to 4.55%. However, due to TABOR limits, it was only 4.50% in 2021. This year, another initiative would lower it from 4.55% to 4.4%. However, it doesn’t appear to change the TABOR rate, so any excess (which probably won’t happen for a while anyway) would come in the form of sales tax relief.

    Any excess revenue currently is first refunded to cities for senior/disabled property tax relief, then lowering the income tax to 4.5%, then sales tax relief. All 3 are happening in 2021. Since this new initiative doesn’t lower the TABOR rate, only the 1st and 3rd could be used in future years.

  23. The Other Kevin

    I’ve been thinking of this Ministry of Misinformation thing. One thing they mentioned was all the misinformation targeted at Hispanics. I’m sure that has to do with recent polls showing Hispanics going Republican. They still can’t fathom that their policies are so screwed up even their loyal base are abandoning them. No, it must be in the messaging. Someone must be brainwashing those stupid minorities, and they just need to be better informed. If that’s their plan I think it will backfire.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      They still can’t fathom that their policies are so screwed up even their loyal base are abandoning them. No, it must be in the messaging.

      I think they fathom it just fine. They just think they’re not lying hard enough.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Got to be border and immigration related. Saying there’s a border crisis will be a no no.

    • Drake

      I have trouble believing they are that naïve. It’s simply another vehicle to put out propaganda. In their dreams, it will eventually have real authority to arrest people for saying forbidden things NKVD style.

      That square-chinned woman we made fun of spent a lot of time “fortifying” elections in the Ukraine. She isn’t a brainwashed sophomore, she’s a deep-state operative with no illusions (or morals).

      • The Other Kevin

        I suppose it could be both. You have useful idiots like Biden, Pelosi, AOC, etc. thinking they’re doing a great job and it’s a messaging problem, and you have deep state players ready to take advantage of the naive politicians.

  24. Rebel Scum

    Unpossible.

    Congresswoman Maxine Waters isolating after testing positive for COVID-19.

    Keep telling me how well the vax, mask, and, in your case, face shield works.

    • Drake

      Keep telling me how deadly the virus is, then disappointing me.

      • MikeS

        *snigger*

      • juris imprudent

        [insert one Mal Reynolds rendered speechless gif]

      • MikeS

        I always thought that gif was Richard Castle.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Just a daily reminder that they want to punish me for not getting the shot and claiming I am the unclean dirty one. They all can fuck off

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I bet she is happy with the protection the vaccine has provided her.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    I’ve been thinking of this Ministry of Misinformation thing. One thing they mentioned was all the misinformation targeted at Hispanics. I’m sure that has to do with recent polls showing Hispanics going Republican.

    Build the fence!

  26. Rebel Scum

    The judge is hawt.

    Deputies protecting Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz had to pull him aside and surround him after members of a jury pool became potentially threatening.

    • slumbrew

      Dang, yes she is.

      Ah, was gonna say “that’s the second hot FL judge I’ve seen” but it’s the same one

      • Shpip

        Y’all should have checked out Florida’s current AG back when she was on the bench.

        Talk about ardor in the court!

      • slumbrew
    • B.P.

      Why is Cruz wearing 1980s glasses?

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Confidence level

    Dr. Anthony Fauci has decided not to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday amid concerns about Covid, a senior administration official confirmed to NBC News.

    Fauci, 81, President Joe Biden’s top Covid adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The New York Times on Tuesday that he decided not to go to the dinner “because of my individual assessment of my personal risk.” His decision was first reported by CNN.

    Biden, 79, and first lady Jill Biden, 70, plan to attend the event at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, the first time the event has been held since 2019 because of the pandemic.

    White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the president will not be there for the dinner portion of the night’s festivities, and that he may wear a mask when he’s not giving remarks.

    Good thing they’ve had all their shots. Otherwise they’d really have to worry.

    • Rebel Scum

      Gotta keep that virus narrative rolling.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Nice mix of vaccine/booster hesitancy thrown in.

      • Ownbestenemy

        All part of his continual flip-flopping. “Pandemic phase is over”….hours later “Just kidding”. People follow this person’s every word.

    • Chipwooder

      “he may wear a mask when he’s not giving remarks.”

      This kind of silliness has never made the slightest bit of sense to me. Either wear it or don’t wear it. What’s the point otherwise? It reminds me of our county school board meetings where they were going to vote on making the kids wear masks. Every asshole who spoke in favor of continued forced masking wore a mask to the podium, took it off to speak, and then put it back on. The virus, you see, is considerate enough to not infect people while they’re giving a statement.

      • Pope Jimbo

        The mask is so you can’t see the muzzle that the Easter Bunny strapped on Joe.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Makes sense right? As long as Joe only removes his mask and is separated by 6 feet and less than 15 minutes he is fine! We did this shit every day when they made us wear masks at a FedGov facility.

      • B.P.

        I was in a meeting the other day where a woman came into a conference room wearing a mask, sat down at the table between two colleagues, took off the mask and ate a breakfast bar for five minutes while discussing matters of the day, and put the mask back on after finishing the food. I thought that sort of thing was reserved for airplanes.

    • Gustave Lytton

      he decided not to go to the dinner “because of my individual assessment of my personal riskmy invitation got overlooked or lost in the mail.”

    • Pope Jimbo

      The big controversy is when Joe and Jack Palance get into a pushup contest after Jack forgets to use DOCTOR when talking about Jill.

      Joe will be heard yelling “Put my wife’s honorific in your damn mouth!”

    • Raven Nation

      “because of my individual assessment of my personal risk.”

      Hmm, perhaps that could have been everyone’s choice two years ago…

      • B.P.

        Ding ding ding!

  28. Rebel Scum

    What of women in countries like, say, Iraq?

    “The angels better be wearing their best pins, and putting on their dancing shoes, because if as Madeleine believed there’s a special place in Hell for women who don’t support other women, they haven’t seen anyone like her yet.”

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Biden isn’t even going to stick around for the actual dinner part of the correspondents’ dinner. I guess they couldn’t get anybody to act as Presidential Food Taster.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I read that as Presidential Food Tater.

      And it felt like an apt description of Joe.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Are you predicting a Stelter Administration in the future?

      • juris imprudent

        Not even Idiocracy would go that far.

  30. Rebel Scum

    Nevermind that it is Congress that must disqualify her.

    .@RepMTG was never tried or convicted of insurrection. She has had no due process with the accusation of insurrection. Therefore, she should stay on the ballot. Close and shut case. If this court rules otherwise, it will be overturned. They are doing this to distract.

    • juris imprudent

      Uh, how about the voters deciding?

      • Ownbestenemy

        That is a dangerous path juris…think of the mayhem if people engage in their political future. For their own good and safety, we need to decide for them.

  31. Tundra

    You forgot to ask him about guns and crushing small business, Reason.

    You mendacious cunts.

    • Drake

      I’m sure it’s there in the comments, but yeah. It became too much bother reading that shit just to disagree with them.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      BUT HE LIKES VIDEOGAMES!

      Dude…

      • Pope Jimbo

        You know that the video game he plays/likes is Call of Duty: Swalwell?

        You nuke white supremacists and bang Chinese commie spies.

      • juris imprudent

        …and he’s cool with weed!

  32. Rebel Scum

    Just make sure there are rules.

    “I see that we need to make two big changes. The first one is we need a wealth tax in America. Let’s talk about how Elon’s purchase here was subsidized by tens of millions of people who have paid their taxes every year. The second part is we need rules of the road for big tech. But ultimately, what all of this boils down to is power. Who’s going to have the power in our country? Are we going to make these decisions as a democracy, or is this going to be Elon Musk all by himself off in a room, a bazillionaire who just plays by his own set of rules, and that’s really what’s at stake here.”

    I don’t disagree. And Twitter is a private company, or so I am told.

    • slumbrew

      Elon’s purchase here was subsidized by tens of millions of people who have paid their taxes every year.

      She’s such a hateful harpy. Dude paid more in taxes in a single year than any American, ever. But, nope, gimme gimme gimme.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I heard he paid the equivalent of the entire UN budget.

      • slumbrew

        He paid ~ $11 billion. UN budget is around $3.2 billion.

        The latter could just be set on fire with similar results.

        (the money, that is. I’m not advocating setting the UN on fire, Preet).

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Oh well, ‘s what I get for flicking through AM radio.

      • Rebel Scum

        I’m not advocating setting the UN on fire

        Make sure the building is empty.

      • Ownbestenemy

        The only tax that politicians care about is personal income tax cause that affects the most people and easiest to pin the ‘didn’t pay taxes’ on people. I blame Greenspan for saying that bullshit through regarding him and his secretary.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        A lot of people also just got a share of $44 billion.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Who’s going to have the power in our country?

      I think I remember reading something once by someone that went something like “of the people, for the people, by the people”. So I think the people and not the government should have the power. Or is that crazy talk?

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Are we going to make these decisions as a democracy, or is this going to be Elon Musk all by himself off in a room, a bazillionaire who just plays by his own set of rules, and that’s really what’s at stake here.”

      The quiet part was said out loud. Yeah, euphemisms were used, but that pull quote is a bald faced defense of fascism. Mussolini would be proud.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ??

      • kbolino

        Oligarchic rather than fascistic

    • The Other Kevin

      She was totally fine with the big tech bazillionaires who fortified the election in her party’s favor. Now all of a sudden this one needs to be reigned in.

      People see how transparent this is, right? RIGHT?

    • Plisade

      “Are we going to make these decisions as a democracy”?

      Well, we should make them as a constitutional republic, but the hard work’s already been done… “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech”.

    • Raven Nation

      Trump: we need to strongly regulate or shut down social media platforms; May, 2020

      Warren: we need rules of the road for big tech; April, 2022

      Trump/Warren 2024!!

      • Rebel Scum

        I think the team red thing was just enforcing section 230.

    • rhywun

      But ultimately, what all of this boils down to is power.

      *shrug*

      She already has vastly more power than Elon, and will continue to do so until she’s voted out or dies.

      • juris imprudent

        But she lusts for more. Shelob will not be denied.

      • kbolino

        “The woke are more correct than the mainstream”

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Mea maxima culpa

    Harvard outlined several next steps it said it would take in an attempt to atone for its involvement in the slave trade, including monetary reparations for Black and Indigenous students who are descendants of enslaved persons in the U.S.

    “The profound harm caused by the university’s entanglements with slavery and its legacies cannot be valued in monetary terms alone,” the study said. “Nevertheless, financial expenditures are a necessary predicate to and foundation for redress.”

    The Legacy of Slavery Fund will be kept in an endowment “strategically invested to support implementation of these recommendations,” the report said.

    Only the finest sackcloth and ashes, in school colors.

    • juris imprudent

      Maybe they could apologize to Roland Fryer.

  34. Rebel Scum

    I was hoping for warrior sturgeon.

    Russia has deployed trained dolphins during its invasion of Ukraine to protect a Black Sea naval base, USNI News has learned.

    The Russian Navy has placed two dolphin pens at the entrance to Sevastopol harbor, sheltered just inside a sea wall. The pens were moved there in February, around the time of the invasion of Ukraine, according to a review of satellite imagery.

    Sevastopol is the Russian Navy’s most significant naval base in the Black Sea. The dolphins may be tasked with counter-diver operations — a traditional role both the U.S. and Russia have trained marine mammals for. This could prevent Ukrainian special operations forces from infiltrating the harbor underwater to sabotage warships.

    But I guess dolphin rape can work.

    • Shpip

      The dolphins were last seen swimming as fast as they could toward western Europe, saying “Так долго и спасибо за все рыбы!”

      You might think it impossible to figure out what a dolphin is saying, but I used to have long conversations with one when I was a grad student in coastal Florida.

      We just clicked.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    The quiet part was said out loud. Yeah, euphemisms were used, but that pull quote is a bald faced defense of fascism. Mussolini would be proud.

    “You don’t own that.”

    • Ownbestenemy

      “You didn’t build that”

      • Pope Jimbo

        Well OK, you did build that, but We can Build It Back Better.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Think of the incentives!

      If we let super rich billionaires go out and have a blast with their money all the smart kids will want to emulate them. We’ll end up with space companies, new car companies and space rockets.

      If we let our democracy (aka Liz Warren) decide what is best, all our smart kids will spend all their time figuring out how to kiss ass so they can climb the political ladder and become a Senator (or even better the head of a Fed Agency).

      • slumbrew

        it’s crazy that all these vapors are over Musk buying Twitter. It’s Twitter! if it disappeared tomorrow, nothing bad would happen.

      • Nephilium
      • slumbrew

        Are you sure we don’t share the same feed-reader?

      • Nephilium

        Our tastes in websites appears to be inline.

        /realizes he hasn’t checked on the BOFH in over a year now.

      • slumbrew

        Along those lines, have you ever read the acknowledgments for the Scsh Reference Manual.

      • Nephilium

        I had not. Thank you for that.

  36. Rebel Scum

    Men don’t produce semen. Testicles produce semen.

    The Dept of Education held a training for teachers to learn how to be inclusive of tran and non-binary K-12 students.

    This trans teacher says he teaches inclusive language like not everyone who produces eggs is a woman.

    The official U.S. Dept of Ed is promoting these ideas.

    I produce eggs too…by frying them in a skillet.

    • Ownbestenemy

      It still amazes me that less than what? 5% of the population is driving this…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Victimhood culture is going to be hard to get rid of. It’s a decadence that has set in and will not let go willingly.

        My guess is that it goes away all at once in a spate of bloodletting, which is unfortunate.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Its going to be even worse when the current crop of 11 year olds are old enough and they decide to start a family and a doctor says “Um…no but if you pay us $50,000 we can create one in a surrogate or a lab”.

      • Sean

        My guess is that it goes away all at once in a spate of bloodletting,

        ZARDOZ will be pleased.

      • R.J.

        Well, the penis IS evil…

      • Ownbestenemy

        Only when attached to a normie. Penises on boys that say they are women are okay.

      • ZARDOZ

        ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. … ZARDOZ MUST COGITATE ON THIS ONE. ZARDOZ IS INCLINED TO CONDEMN ALL PENISES AS EVIL, FOR THEY SHOOT SEEDS THAT CREATE NEW LIFE. BUT ZARDOZ WILL CONSULT THE VORTEX ON THIS. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.

      • Urthona

        Holy crap. Young people think 1 in 5 are transgender?

        lol

      • Ownbestenemy

        FOMO is real and incentives matter.

      • Nephilium

        People are bad at math.

        As an example, did you know in the standard office, approximately 40% of sick days are taken on Mondays and Fridays?

      • Urthona

        Another one that shocked me is that young people think blacks represent half of the population, rather than closer to 10%.

        But looking at tv and movies I can kinda see that.

      • hayeksplosives

        I could also see it being affected by living in cities, where neighborhoods tend to cluster by ethnic or other identity.

      • R.J.

        Now do “Percent of People who Own an Electric Car”
        Have we reached 3% yet? Considering the entire world will be electric in ten years?

      • Pope Jimbo

        Never underestimate the power of the AAMCO lobby.

      • rhywun

        The people driving this are a small handful of trans agitators plus massive armies of woke lefties who don’t want to be left out of the latest hotness.

        I shudder to think what the next hotness is going to be.

      • slumbrew

        The whole edifice behind the gay rights movement was just sitting around after they (rightfully) won. Had to pivot to something else. They’ll need to pivot again should they “win” on trans issues.

        It will be both more stupid and more horrible than we can imagine.

      • slumbrew

        Oh, right – it’ll be normalizing pedophiles. They’re already working on it. Oh, sorry, that’s ‘minor-attracted persons’ now.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I shudder to think what the next hotness is going to be.

        Pedo and polygamy. Maybe bestiality.

        More predictably, the traditional nuclear family will become more actively disfavored. It won’t be indirectly attacked in the name of inclusiveness, it will be shamed like White is right now.

      • slumbrew

        Pedo and polygamy. Maybe bestiality.

        I’m fine with one of those things. I have less than zero interest in polygamy but not my place to tell other, consenting adults they may not do so.

        No idea how they’d handle a legal polygamous marriage come tax season, short of entirely doing away with the MFJ vs. single filer distinction.

      • juris imprudent

        Which is why I Support the Current Thing is just so perfect.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    It still amazes me that less than what? 5% of the population is driving this…

    I think you dropped your decimal point.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Wait are you saying periods are important when talking about Trans Community Issues?

      I can’t even

    • Peter Lorre, contemplating a Crime

      .01% is more honest,

      • juris imprudent

        Of actual transgender folks, yes; of the people who feel the need to crusade and virtue signal incessantly – 5% is probably about right.

    • rhywun

      One can make the argument that the number doesn’t matter; that they deserve the same rights as everyone else.

      The problem as I see it is that they are asking for “rights” that don’t exist.

      • Ownbestenemy

        True rhywun. I would champion their ability to be treated as any other citizen but they are asking me to rewrite biological facts to fit their narrative and they can go suck a trannies dick for that.

      • rhywun

        Something about sucking a dick
        just feels queer to me though

        Quite possibly the best sentence on the internet to date.

      • ron73440

        I’ve seen that before, and I keep thinking it has to be fake.

        But then I remember some of the other QUILTBAG idiocy I have seen, and I’m not so sure.

  38. Rebel Scum

    This will fix inflation.

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that President Biden is getting closer to canceling up to $50,000 in student loan debt for borrowers through executive action.

    “I’ll keep urging the president to take this important step. And I say to my colleagues, I think the president is moving in our direction,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “My talks with him and his staff have been very fruitful over the last little while and I am hopeful that he will do the right thing. We’re getting closer.”

    The Biden administration extended the moratorium on federal student loan payments earlier this month through the end of August.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      As Biden gets closer to forgiving student debt, trashy gets closer to shifting his retirement savings out of 401ks and IRAs and into less traceable means.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Don’t forget to pick up some grad school brochures as well!

    • Urthona

      I’ve seen some talk from Republicans about how they’re going to fight this and every single idea proposed needs to be employed. This is beyond evil.

    • Grosspatzer

      I’ll bet the cancellation of that debt will include a provision to remunerate the loan providers from the infinite supply of helicopter money. If you really want to cancel student debt, all you need to do is allow those loans to be discharged through bankruptcy. Not sure how the current system works, is fedgov holding those loans now, or are they still on the balance sheets of the banks?

      • UnCivilServant

        According to their congressional testimony (whatever weight you want to give that) the banks are out of the loan business.

        From ym own experience, the loans end up in the hands of government debt aggregators pretty quickly.

    • juris imprudent

      So it will be a lot of fun when that debt is forgiven and all of those folks owe tax on that as income; since you can be sure that there is no change in tax law.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I’m 90% positive they included a piece in the last Covid bill that made any student loan forgiveness as part of executive action tax free through something like 2025. The Progs couldn’t quite swing getting actual student loan forgiveness in the bill, but they got the groundwork laid for future executive action.

    • rhywun

      Raise your hand if you think it’s going to stop at $50,000.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Priorities

    “The White House is hamstrung by the Venn diagram of Manchin and Sinema asks,” said a person familiar with Manchin and White House dynamics.

    Currently, informal reconciliation talks center on three major areas: climate change, prescription drug reform and deficit reduction. While the White House has yet to acknowledge other social spending elements have been moved off the table, multiple people familiar with the talks said President Joe Biden’s ambitions on child and elder care are all but dead.

    Deficit reduction?

    *guffaws, slaps knee*

  40. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    Hooray for negative GDP growth!

    • Ownbestenemy

      Negative GDP growth is positive news that the economy is strong /WH and their propagandist media

    • Urthona

      Doesn’t “negative GDP growth” mean recession? I forget the rules.

      Is the media allowed to say recession with a Democrat in power?

      • juris imprudent

        Two consecutive quarters.

      • Rebel Scum

        “Transitory”

      • Ownbestenemy

        Technically will need a second consecutive quarter to be negative growth to declare a recession

      • UnCivilServant

        Yeah, technically.

        But it still feels like we’ve been in a recession for eighteen months already

      • Swiss Servator

        Only if you blame Putin, Trump or Covid.

  41. Rebel Scum

    All your children are belonging to us.

    Biden to teachers: “They’re not somebody else’s children. They’re yours when you’re in the classroom.”

    I am just going to come out and say it. The Dems are commufascists.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Those are fighting words.

      • Count Potato

        It takes a village to brainwash your children.

    • Urthona

      I positively loathe Joe Biden and the education bureaucracy… but honestly? That statement is a proverbial “nothing burger”.

      I mean deep down we know Democrats think they own our kids and are assholes, but … meh. Probably not exactly what his doofus speechwriter meant that day.

      • Ownbestenemy

        In any other time I believe you are correct. It is something teachers all say “my children” blah blah. However, when it is being shown how you are teaching and what you are teaching, coupled with the DHS threatening parents, etc….it isn’t a nothing-burger.

    • kbolino

      It’s just a restatement of in loco parentis. The problem isn’t that they get to act like parents for 6 hours a day so much as that parents can’t vet them or hold them accountable.

  42. Rebel Scum

    It’s going to be ironic when actions of NATO lead to cause WWIII nuclear holocaust decades after the Cold War ended.

    • Swiss Servator

      Poor Russia, they have no choice… it is like an amoeba running into something, it can only react.

      • Rebel Scum

        I know you are on a “Russia bad, NATO good” bent. But it takes two to tango.

        I am on Team America and I just wish our government was.

      • kbolino

        ^

        I don’t want Russia to win, I want NATO to lose.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I am more concerned with the massing of weapons in that area and what happens when this ends…we all ready know we aren’t asking for them back.

      • Swiss Servator

        Show me one place I have said “NATO good” – go on. I will wait. Hint: You won’t find anything except me saying NATO should have disbanded after the Warsaw Pact did.

        I am just weary of The Z Squad cheering an asshole aggressor.

      • Swiss Servator

        You may also find me mocking the Bundeswehr.

  43. Count Potato

    “Are right-wingers really unaware of the irony of saying they are champions of free speech and then celebrating a law called, “Don’t SAY Gay”? The law they cheer on the most is literally the most against free speech. Irony wept, for there were no more worlds left to conquer.”

    https://twitter.com/cenkuygur/status/1519055112261365760

    CWAA

    • Ownbestenemy

      Well there is no such law and actually the irony is we welcome you to continue to say the most idiotic thing possible. Thanks for playing.

    • Rebel Scum

      Cenk “Armenian Genocide” Uygur is the most dishonest and/or stupidest person in media.

    • Grosspatzer

      My memory ain’t what it used to be, but IIRC it was not the “free speech champions” who came up with “Don’t say gay” to describe a law which said no such thing.

    • rhywun

      It’s nice that Twitter is still letting the functionally illiterate post.

  44. B.P.

    “Our friends at TOS opine as how Jared Polis (D, CO) is the most libertarian governor in the US.”

    What is Polis really into? Universal preschool. Climate change/solar energy/electric vehicles. Thwarting the local oil and gas industry.

    Libertarian moment!

    • creech

      The article had plenty of “on the other hand” about Polis. If he is the “most libertarian” governor, I shudder to think what you folks in other states have. (Gauleiter Wolf’s term is, thankfully, coming to an end.)

  45. Count Potato

    Speaking of cocaine…..

    “”We find strong evidence of political bias on Twitter, but not as many think: (1) it is conservative rather than liberal bias, and (2) it results from user interactions (and abuse) rather than platform algorithms.” Wen Chen et al in Nature Communications.”

    https://twitter.com/josephmenn/status/1519406314127953921

    • Ownbestenemy

      Twitter is the new Vast Right Wing Conspiracy apparently.

    • Tundra

      Yes, of course. That’s why every regime blue check has been hemorrhaging followers while the opposition is picking them up in huge numbers.

      • Ownbestenemy

        People like TRHL who were banned suddenly and magically allowed back on or people that are appealing their suspensions are actually getting responses now is all part of the evil conservative bias.

    • Urthona

      I don’t have that much time to delve into the study, but I wonder how they decide what “moderate” content is vs “far right”. Seems suspect.

      Most importantly, I question their logic. Why is conservative “biased” towards conservatives because it tends to show conservatives less moderate content?

      Their logic seems to be because rights can curate their feeds more selectively the platform is “biased”. That’s not what people mean when they say the platform is “biased”. What they mean is the platform itself is banning conservative content disproportionately.

      • kbolino

        Missed the news feed aspect. The graph is laughable though. They code as negative anything which is left-wing, and yet apparently there’s no such thing as a left-wing news source, since there’s basically no negative values on the graphs.

        No True Leftism strikes again, or “Vox and Slate are centrist” (even though “centrism” gets almost no engagement whatsoever)

    • kbolino

      Looking at the study cursorily:

      – At the end of the period, Center Left had more followers than Center Right and Left had more followers than Right. OMG MUH RIGHT-WING BIAS

      – Twitter ghettoizes right-wing content so finding that the latter is in an “echo chamber” is just proving that the platform’s own policies are working as designed

      – “The right-wing is full of bots” — the study authors literally injected bots into the ecosystem to run your experiment. There are a dozen (or more) well-funded NGOs and government agencies conducting operations around “countering far-right extremism”, are they also not using bots?

      – “Exposure to low-credibility content” — the most gameable metric of them all; Hunter’s Laptop and Wuhan Lab were “low credibility”

      • Urthona

        ” “Exposure to low-credibility content” — the most gameable metric of them all; Hunter’s Laptop and Wuhan Lab were “low credibility””

        Definitely.

      • kbolino

        The “low-credibility sources” thing, which I’ve seen pop up in other “studies”, is just “Nobody I Know Voted for Nixon” masquerading as empiricism

      • Urthona

        Yeah. Is it “low-credibility” to consume Pelosi’s statement today that “there is no evidence” reducing gas taxes would help consumers? An obviously false claim. What about the other week’s claim that evil corporations are colluding to cause inflation?

        “Low-credibility” just means whatever the government and their media apologists don’t agree with.

  46. Ownbestenemy

    I heard a theory about the sudden changes in Twitter that people are noting. It isn’t a coverup of bad policy it is management and right-thinkers saying “You want to see what an uncontrolled Twitter looks like? We will show you how bad it is!” and opened the floodgates.

    • Urthona

      Honestly the growth in conservative followers is just because Elon Musk bought the platform.

      The decline in left wingers turned out to be — in fact — a Twitter rounding change.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Im speaking to the sudden suspension lifts and unbanning. Unless those people have been lying and not really banned just left the platform or created alt accounts leaving their others to die.

      • Urthona

        I was not aware of suspension lifts and unbanning happening.

    • slumbrew

      Great pick right off the bat – always thought that was a bizarre solo.

      • juris imprudent

        Where did Cinnamon Girl rate?

    • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

      Heh. #19 is the kind of solo I always imagine when I think of “Heavy/Death Metal.” It’s just so archetypal.

    • Sensei

      Cool!

    • MikeS

      Cool! ????