Friday Morning Links

by | May 20, 2022 | Daily Links | 427 comments

This is the way.

As I make my journey halfway across this great nation of ours, I have come to the realization that Texas is paradise. Well, at least relative to Louisiana and Mississippi.  Their inexplicably low  65 MPH speed limit on four lane, divided rural highways (not interstates) and their absolutely insane placement of a local cop after every hill or around every curve makes them both awful. Get with the program, you guys. If you want to be a part of the Great Texas Empire when the SHTF, you need to put an end to that retardation.  Get those speed limits up to 75 -80 and have one cop every couple hundred miles. Otherwise, you’re out. On the flip side, I don’t think I dropped below 90 once I hit the Bama state line until I got to the outskirts of Birmingham.  It helped immensely that I was effectively in a DRS train of sports cars for the most part. And boy, was it ever enjoyable.  Anyway, that’s the end of my diatribe.  Time to move on.

Facts

The Celtics thumped the Heat to even the NBA’s ECF. The Lightning sapped the Panthers will to play and moved to a 2-0 series lead. The Blues leveled their series with Colorado in the west.  And across the pond, Everton managed a comeback win that will see them stay in the PL for another season.  But they’re still an embarrassment to that city and their crosstown rivals laugh at them as they deserve.  And that’s it for sports.

Hey, this is actually a pretty good idea. Especially for those of us with kids who sit the damn things down and forget where they put them…just before they proceed to drink less than half a bottle and then leave that somewhere on a table to go flat.

“Why you poisoning me, bitch?”

I knew this was coming. But it’s still enraging. There’s absolutely no benefit whatsoever to kids. And the downsides are massive. Sure, you have a few outliers it may help. But this approval will lead to mandates. And those mandates will lead to mass “immunization”. And that will lead to a fucking gazillion kids with side effects and diminished immune systems. And that will lead to a really shitty future.

So y’all are still running with this story, huh? You do know people aren’t that stupid, don’t you? Oh wait, they are that stupid. So I guess they’ll continue voting in the real culprits and blaming the same bogeyman. I’ll also note that to almost seems as if there’s a vested interest in keeping this war going as long as possible in order to tighten that grip on power. But I’m sure that’s just a hell of a coincidence.

Yeah, we definitely should have shut down those lease auctions. We don’t need any new oil capacity. Nosiree.  Seriously, do the imbeciles running our government not realize this is a lot more likely to fuel a civil war than it is a “green economy”?

This story is stupid. It doesn’t even have a photo of the subordinate so I can make an assessment whether or not the guy deserved a penalty or a promotion.  Do better, NY Post.

A “woman”.

Just hook it to my veins!!! We need as much more of this as can be printed. Perhaps that would end the madness quicker.  Also, the tranny isn’t even making an effort to look like a chick. I bet he hasn’t even cut his balls off yet.

I can assure you that absolutely nothing will happen. Wait, let me clarify: nothing will happen to the cop. The taxpayers, on the other hand, will fork over millions.

That’s some fine engineering work there, boys. Well fucking done.

Leave it to the government to not be able to count. I see they’re blaming the state officials who, last I checked, had nothing at all to do with the exclusively federal matter.  Big shock there.

No it’s not Zeppelin, but it’s still a good song. So that’s how it went for one guy. And here’s how it went for another. You decide if either or both are up to snuff.

Now get out there and have a great day and an even better weekend, my friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

427 Comments

  1. cavalier973

    San Francisco, eh? I guess it will be the leaning tower of sleaz-a

    • Rat on a train

      not pissa?

      • Nephilium

        I’d expect the pissa to be in Bahstan.

    • Zwak, who counted all his blessings, and counted only one.

      The millennial tower.

  2. cavalier973

    Should immigrant population count toward a state’s census for representational purposes?

    • sloopyinca

      Legal immigrants should, in my opinion. They should enjoy all rights and privileges as citizens, with the exception of voting. Therefore they should count.

      • AlexinCT

        How does that attitude help the totalitarian left take control of things?

      • cavalier973

        I am glad for your reply. I was getting a little freaked out; I thought maybe I had slipped into a SugarFree Creepypasta.

        The black, viscous ooze slowly dripping from the bathroom ceiling didn’t help.

      • cavalier973

        I agree; but there should be firm safeguards against non-citizens’ voting.

      • AlexinCT

        Everyone that wants to vote should be allowed to vote! Including the illegal and dead…..

        /team blue

      • juris imprudent

        Everyone that wants to vote Democrat should be allowed to vote!

        Don’t get carried away there bub.

      • Not Adahn

        Naturally, if you oppose the Democratic party you oppose democracy, and only those who support democracy should vote in a democracy. Therefore, ergo, thus logically only Democrats should be allowed to vote QED.

      • EvilSheldon

        I mean, I do oppose democracy…

  3. cavalier973

    Maybe the girlie-man skateboarder will meet a hyena.

  4. cavalier973

    I was disappointed to find out what “motorboarding” meant. I thought it was a modern update of keelhauling.

    Nope.

    “. Billy Crosby, a logistics officer with the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team deployed in Jordan, spent 30 days in the brig for “placing his face between [the junior solider’s] breasts and moving his face from side to side,” in May 2021, according to court documents.”

    The subordinate identifies as female (pronouns: sue/thejerk)

    • AlexinCT

      Suing someone for financial damage for using the wrong pronouns….. The new American dreams.

  5. AlexinCT

    So y’all are still running with this story, huh? You do know people aren’t that stupid, don’t you? Oh wait, they are that stupid.

    They are hoping the people that hear the bullshit are that stupid to believe them…

  6. Sean

    Early links? What is going on around here?

    • AlexinCT

      Sloop is testing your time checking skillz.

  7. AlexinCT

    Yeah, we definitely should have shut down those lease auctions. We don’t need any new oil capacity. Nosiree. Seriously, do the imbeciles running our government not realize this is a lot more likely to fuel a civil war than it is a “green economy”?

    As I commented on another one of the government lies linx, they know exactly what they are doing, they simply hope people are stupid enough to buy whatever lie they tell them to mask the corrupt and evil shit they do…

    If you want to worry about Russia’s influence on America, stop pretending they are dangerous for spending $100K on some social media adds, and focus on the tens of millions they spend helping the green movement destroy our economy and ability to be energy independant.

  8. Tonio

    Some people are experiencing issues with the Glibs website when viewing it from mobile devices. Recent articles don’t appear on the feed. The fix seems to be logging in. You can also use the Next Article controls as a workaround.

    We’re working on this but it may be awhile. And by awhile mean….

    • sloopyinca

      And by awhile mean….

      Rape?

    • Certified Public Asshat

      We demand numbers!

      And thank you!

      • Ted S.

        3.
        11.
        27.
        (i+1).

      • SDF-7

        Next thing you know you’ll be telling Pie to be rational.

      • Nephilium

        So I take it you’re keeping a log?

      • AlexinCT

        How do you diffentiate that? or is it a question of integrating?

      • juris imprudent

        The next thing you’ll be demanding a proof.

      • Swiss Servator

        *continues narrowing gaze*

      • Not Adahn

        I wonder if the gaze asymptotically narrows.

      • Grummun

        I suppose you imagine that you’re being clever.

    • Count Potato

      It’s not just mobile devices. Recent articles don’t appear on the front page until logged in.

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        ^^THIS.

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        (Using Brave browser on Windows 10, BTW…).

  9. Not Adahn

    1. Digging the early lynx.

    2. LA is notorious for targeting drivers with out of state plates.

    3. The cops in AL are vastly more concerned about keeping traffic moving than any other I’ve encountered.

    • UnCivilServant

      I wonder who gets to keep the ticket money in LA versus AL

    • l0b0t

      If an out-of-towner is arrested during Mardi Gras, a common tactic is to set a rather high bail with a court date scheduled many months away. The City of New Orleans would very much prefer to keep the forfeited bail money and not have to pay for a trial.

    • Nephilium

      There’s several suburbs like that in the Cleveland area. One would target out of county plates (unless you drove through frequently enough your car was recognized). That city had a police station that was larger then their library.

      • Gustave Lytton

        County licenses plates are an abomination. One of the few things wrong with Idaho. Liquor and Califucktards are another.

      • Threedoor

        Our ballot initiative process is pretty terrible as well.

  10. juris imprudent

    I’m not sure anything should happen to that cop – the kid was in a stolen vehicle and may have been a suspect in a car-jacking.

  11. WTF

    Leave it to the government to not be able to count. I see they’re blaming the state officials who, last I checked, had nothing at all to do with the exclusively federal matter. Big shock there.

    Oh, they can can count. They undercounted a bunch of Red states and overcounted several Blue states, and it will not be corrected and has already been used for apportionment for representative and electoral college purposes. Odd how these “mistakes” always favor one party.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The Left has made it perfectly clear that the ends justify the means. Anybody who leaves the gloves on at this point is just asking for an ass beating.

      • AlexinCT

        The Left has made it perfectly clear that the ends justify the means.

        Heads they win, tails you lose…

  12. SDF-7

    Morning, Sloopy — I think you just won the “My Life is So Much Cooler Than Yours” award, at least for the month.

    Trying to drive 90 through backwoods Mississippi and ‘Bama seems like a good way to feed the local speed traps. Of which I would expect plenty from the county cops. Sounds like y’all have a real Bandit methodology going on (as in the original movie where Bandit was the distraction for the semi), so more power to you. If you’re going into North Georgia back roads — just watch out for deer, especially in the morning. 😉

    Biggest thing I remember about ‘Bama driving in recent days is that from Talladega to the GA state line, I-20 is in perpetual “construction zones” that they speed trap like hawks. Not enough revenue from the NASCAR fans or something.

    Yeah, we definitely should have shut down those lease auctions. We don’t need any new oil capacity. Nosiree. Seriously, do the imbeciles running our government not realize this is a lot more likely to fuel a civil war than it is a “green economy”?

    “This way they can’t mobilize or have gas for their Molotovs! Win win!” (Alternately — queue up Tonio’s war on Freedom of Movement article)

    I knew this was coming. But it’s still enraging.

    I was really hoping the downsides of the “vax” would be so obvious that they’d give up on further approvals and just call it the Flu Shot equivalent that it is, defaulting back to “It is out there, take it if you think you should”. I still hold that having that be part of my son’s mandatory school shots is one of my lines for moving states — I just hope there’s somewhere to move *to* these days.

    Re: The SF Leaning Tower — I’d be really really nervous if I were in a building (or owned one) near that thing. It really screams that it is going to burn down, fall over and then sink into the swamp ^W bay. Sure as heck wouldn’t rent any space in it — but then again, I wouldn’t be in SF for work or life anyway.

  13. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The $100 million fix involved installing 52 piles 250 feet deep into the bedrock along the sinking north and west sides of the luxury building. But in September 2021 work was abruptly halted after the tower sank another inch over a matter of weeks due to the construction causing an “unintentional removal of excess soil as the piles were installed,” a letter from Hamburger to the homeowners revealed. Some experts said the pause in work came months too late.

    Amateur hour

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The fix, according to Hamburger, was a voluntary retrofit intended to speed the settling along and bring an end to what has now been 7 years of uncertainty — and diminishing property values — for residents. An estimated condo value for one 1,246-square-foot unit in the building peaked at $2 million in 2016 before the sinking was reported; today one 1,517-square-foot unit is on the market for $1.35 million, and has already taken a price cut, as some refer to the building as the “Leaning Tower of Soma.”

      I can hear the lawyers salivating from across the country.

  14. Certified Public Asshat

    Males in skateboarding have higher centers of gravity granting advantages that cannot be removed with hrtThat plus the Q angle differencesSo it's unfair to female athletesYour semantics are not relevant— Tim Pool (@Timcast) May 18, 2022

    I know Tim skates, but I am a little lost on this explanation.

    • Sean

      Q angle

      boobs?

      • Sean

        *googles*

        Never mind.

    • Tonio

      I think it’s based on women in general having larger thighs, hips, and butts than men. But that’s the general population; skating selects for thin body types. So you’re going to have that busty but otherwise skinny woman who torpedoes TP’s statement.

      • sloopyinca

        Wow. Way to be racist against fat girl skaters.

      • Not Adahn

        You mean roller derby womyn?

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I’m thinking too that women perhaps could balance on a skateboard better, but then leaving the board to perform tricks would not suit them. Tony Hawk is like 6’3″, so my first thought that skaters are short and skinny also seems to be wrong.

    • Grummun

      I would have thought lower center of gravity would be more stable and hence advantageous. Unless skating is about using and controlling that instability, and then the more inherently unstable the more possibilities. Perhaps our resident skater (Blackjack?) can explain.

  15. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The attacks keep coming. Yesterday, it was the removal of Tesla’s ESG designation which restricts their access to the biggest capital sources in the country (Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, etc…)

    Today it’s: https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/elon-musk-sexual-assault-spacex-flight-attendant-massage

    SpaceX CEO Elon Musk denied a sexual assault claim from a former flight attendant, whom the company reportedly paid $250,000 as part of a severance agreement in 2018.

    • WTF

      The fact that they are so terrified of the Twitter platform allowing free speech certainly is telling.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        It is much harder for them to pretend to do things democratically when people will know what they really are dong and then will say they don’t want that shit…

        Programming the lemmings is a key part of controlling the serfs. The people in charge definitely do not want to have their power to control diluted or undermined.

      • kbolino

        Turns out “Twitter is a private company” was a total lie

      • Count Potato

        Always was.

      • The Other Kevin

        The timing of all this is transparent as fuck.

    • Not Adahn

      SpaceX flight attndants?

      Like these?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Those are some serious soyboy smiles.

      • Not Adahn

        I’m very tempted to compare their video using trained dogs with the one using trained Japanese schoolgirls.

      • LCDR_Fish

        gonna need a link for that 2nd one.

      • SDF-7

        Huh. I was expecting this.

      • Not Adahn

        That’s fake freefall tho.

      • Not Adahn

        What did they think they could discover with that?

      • AlexinCT

        If cats land on their feet in low or non gravity? Maybe they found some aggressive alien species that is feline coming our way?

      • Threedoor

        Kzin

      • PieInTheSky

        I was thinking of the flight attendants in the fifth element

      • Not Adahn

        I would have expected you to link this.

    • Atanarjuat

      That settles it, let’s get rid of free speech because of this.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Free speech = physical assault.

    • kbolino

      If you ever needed proof that the U.S. is not a plutocracy, just watch as the world’s richest man cannot actually buy his way into power.

    • Rebel Scum

      Musk seems to have made all the right enemies.

    • TARDis

      He said, “Elongate”.

  16. rhywun

    The Lightning sapped the Panthers will to play and moved to a 2-0 series lead.

    C’mon, Panthers. Do the needful.

  17. rhywun

    And that will lead to a fucking gazillion kids with side effects and diminished immune systems.

    All part of the plan.

  18. db

    Hamburger also contested NBC’s reporting that the building is currently at a 28-inch tilt. “Presently, the building tilts about 25-1/2 inches to the west and 8-1/2 inches to the north, as measured at the roof,” Hamburger said via email.

    “Almost certainly he is wrong — no one knows what will actually happen,” Bay Area geotechnical engineer Bob Pyke said of Hamburger’s 2019 assessment, via email, “He was, as usual, guilty of wishful thinking rather than carefully looking into the details.”

    Those are very sensitive statements for Pyke to be making, if he’s at all concerned about his PE license. Direct accusation (at least publicly) of incompetence by one PE about another is generally frowned upon by the professional ethics standards.

    • UnCivilServant

      Oh, just push the building over. It’s San Fransisco, no one will notice a little more trash on the streets.

      • Drake

        Or lash it to the next building over – Idiocracy style.

      • WTF

        Idiocracy certainly seems to be arriving much sooner than predicted.

      • AlexinCT

        It didn’t take 400 years, just 2 generations..

      • juris imprudent

        The movie didn’t account for the public school system.

      • AlexinCT

        It also got the origin of the problem wrong. The movie’s premise was that the problem was going to be the dumb people overbreeding the smart ones, but now we know the real problem isn’t that, but the supposedly smart people being anything but smart, efficient, effective, or capable in any way anymore.

      • DrOtto

        They’re simultaneously using both 1984 and Idiocracy as guides.

      • AlexinCT

        Feels to me that they had to turn 1984 into a “How to” manual because they got fooled into thinking the problem would be the people they looked down on in the movie and real life outpacing their offspring…

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Hamburger also contested NBC’s reporting that the building is currently at a 28-inch tilt. “Presently, the building tilts about 25-1/2 inches to the west and 8-1/2 inches to the north, as measured at the roof,” Hamburger said via email.

      Let’s see… 25.5 squared plus 8.5 squared… Take the square root… And I guess the hamburger is technically correct. It’s only 26.9 inches of tilt. I guess 1.1 inches is very important to him/they/it.

      • db

        yep, that was my thought too, but I was too lazy to do the calculation.

      • Sensei

        That’s what she said!

    • Atanarjuat

      Even in an email? Also do you think this affects the fitness of the building in the event of an earthquake?

  19. PieInTheSky

    65 MPH speed limit on four lane, divided rural highways – hewre the limit on all highways is 130 KPH and it is to damn low

    • PieInTheSky

      Then again my friend in dutchland complains about the low speed limits there. They are higher at night so when he goes on vacation to Spain he leaves at 5AM, so he can get to belgium by 6 AM when the speed limits drop.

      • PieInTheSky

        My friend in dutchland also tells me that when dutch leave the country driving they are considered as a menace as there are some rules that are different from other countries and they are not aware and drive like in dutchland

      • Gustave Lytton

        Huh. Usually here the overnight speed is lower because you can’t see as far. And wildlife don’t give a shit about rules of the road.

    • PieInTheSky

      my friend in deutschland on the other hand floors it usually.

    • sloopyinca

      130 KPH

      Translate this number from gibberish to English, please.

      • PieInTheSky

        And here I though Americans could do simple calculations

      • Not Adahn

        We non-binary users aren’t accustomed to mentally dividing by 16.

      • db

        See above; we can, but we’re too lazy to do so.

      • sloopyinca

        We’re not the ones using some retarded johnny-come-lately units of measure. You’re not gonna enact our labor, metric-boy.

      • Atanarjuat

        Excellent rant. Fuck the metric system. I missed that the first time around. I love how the Youtuber Lindybeige (a British chauvinist) pronounces met-reh with a dismissive over the top French accent.

      • Atanarjuat

        Also, I had this heated argument with a Russian woman (who afterward looked very pleased at my stalwart defense and said “that was fun” – Russians aren’t pussies). Inch tape measures are better for carpentry than decimalized units. What’s the midpoint of a board that’s 24 and 3/8″ wide? 12 and 3/16″, and there’s a mark on the tape for that. What’s the midpoint of a board that’s 35.7cm? Fuck if I know, and there isn’t a tick for it because it’s half of an odd number.

      • Not Adahn

        Lindybeige had an excellent video on why the pre-decimalization currency system was better.

      • PieInTheSky

        Yes leeches are the best remedy for all disease

      • SDF-7

        Must be why we have so many in the CDC and the NIH.

      • AlexinCT

        Don’t forget the ones in government.

      • Rat on a train

        Kilometers are not units of freedom. They only count as three fifths of a mile.

      • Rebel Scum

        *rim shot*

  20. Rebel Scum

    There’s absolutely no benefit whatsoever to kids. And the downsides are massive.

    Bill Gates did say we have to vaccinate in order to solve the population “problem”.

    • PieInTheSky

      I read that as no benefit to have kids…

      • Rebel Scum

        I’m certainly not having children any time soon with all the nonsense going on in the world, which is unfortunate because I’d like to some day.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Been there, thought that. I sorta got over it when I realized that it’s okay to raise “sheltered” kids. They don’t have to be plugged into every mass media fad to have a good childhood. We probably won’t be hanging around families who give their kids iPhone at 10. Our kids already interact with and have formed friendships with kids who are much older and younger than them. As they get older, they’ll be given the skills and opportunities to interact with adults in a professional environment and they will be encouraged to work or be entrepreneurial as early as possible.

        They may inherit a shit culture in the middle of a civilization ending collapse, but they will be equipped with the tools and skills required to make good lives for themselves in spite of the dysfunction swirling around them.

  21. Atanarjuat

    will lead to a fucking gazillion kids with side effects and diminished immune systems

    And getting kicked off social media if you suggest that kids having heart attacks on soccer fields is a recent phenomenon.

  22. Rebel Scum

    Edoardo Ronzoni inspects a construction site near Milan that he shut down in March as costs for materials skyrocketed. He can’t complete a half-built roundabout at an intersection known for fender-benders because asphalt, cast-iron pipes and concrete are too expensive — prices exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    Uh huh…

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I can certainly believe that steel prices in Europe are rising at least partially because Ukraine’s foundries are off-line.

      That said, most of the explosion in pricing for steel predates the war.

      • Drake

        Just a guess, but it probably takes a fair amount of energy to transport iron and nickel to the plant, heat up and process the raw materials into steel, and then transport it off to a buyer.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Hence why the Russian natural gas import bans are a non-starter. At least for anyone who’s not insane.

      • AlexinCT

        If they didn’t need the natural gas for competing needs – like generating electricity – they would be needing a lot less of that Russian stuff. I have very little sympathy for idiots that destroy their own energy generation and independence, to appease green movements financed by the scum of the earth of all things, making themselves dependent on others with hostile intentions. When you bend over and open your cheeks don’t be surprised if it is seen as an invitation to… You get my concept.

    • Nephilium

      I know two different companies that were planning large expansions since last year. One is a distillery, the other a meadery. Both have had prices jump over 100% from their initial estimates to the past month. Which has put a crimp in their plans.

      • Drake

        Visited a meadery for the first time a few weeks ago. Very enjoyable stuff but also very expensive.

      • Nephilium

        Convince the bees to make more honey then!

        A couple years back, one of the local meaderies (Crafted), started a subscription service. I bought it for the girlfriend one Christmas, and we’ve kept it up since. Every quarter we get six bottles of mead (4 session and 2 still at the level we’re at). She enjoys their dessert and sweeter meads, while I prefer the still ones.

  23. Rebel Scum

    California drivers are grappling with the most expensive gas in the nation, shelling out an average $6.06 per gallon as of Thursday. That could soon be the fate of drivers in the rest of the nation, according to a JPMorgan analyst, who predicts the national average per gallon price could reach $6.20 this summer.

    More for me since my car uses premium. Let’s go, Brandon.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I called over $6 and under $7 about six months ago. I might actually have gotten a prediction right for once.

    • Sean

      Let’s see how that affects elections.

      • juris imprudent

        Suppresses turnout? Which would mean Republicans are to blame!

    • R.J.

      That figured into my latest car decision. I passes on a Challenger with the big block that used premium only.

      • Rebel Scum

        I have a 2015 Civic SI, bought new, that has been paid off for awhile now. It takes premium but still gets good mileage (30+). So the cost of gas will suck but I probably have it better than many people.

      • db

        Don’t forget that you can reduce the amount you pay for gas by filling up more frequently!

      • Nephilium

        2011 Mini Cooper, also paid off for quite a while now. In the shop now for some needed maintenance, and also requires premium. But thankfully it gets good gas mileage.

      • UnCivilServant

        2016 C-Max drinks shitty, low-octane E10 gas, gets 38 mpg most days.

        Not paid off until the end of this year 🙁

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        We went with a plug in hybrid last summer because we could see the gas price issues potentially getting worse with Brandon in office.

        Now I just need to convince my wife that the gas prices are dire enough that we need to stop driving to places that are beyond the EV range of the van.

      • EvilSheldon

        How will you get to the shooting range though?

      • db

        If things keep going the way they’re going, I fear the shooting ranges will come to us this summer.

        People (everyone) need to take a break and settle down/back off. The world is getting too stressed.

      • R.J.

        Can’t throw a rock without bouncing off the front door of a range here.

      • LCDR_Fish

        I wish. Here in VA I can here them testing ordnance on the potomac river almost every day, but at least an hour away from any decent small arms ranges.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I set up a shooting range at my pond. It’s quiet and private. Rifles, shotguns, handguns. Am sitting on some tannerite for post-Halloween pumpkins.

    • The Other Kevin

      A teammate and I came to the realization that they’re making it more expensive for disabled people to participate in sports. Someone needs to put that out there.

  24. SDF-7

    Picture a man. A man who consistently guesses the wrong word. There’s a signpost up ahead — you have now entered, The Chump Zone.
    Daily Quordle 116
    5️⃣8️⃣
    7️⃣3️⃣

    Well… actually I barely stayed out of it today. But it sure felt like I was on a one way trip there due to the upper right.

    • db

      6 3
      7 5

    • MikeS

      Check your Quordle privilege. This is how you barely stay out

      8️⃣7️⃣
      4️⃣9️⃣

      My tied-for-second-longest streak is still alive!

    • whiz

      Daily Quordle 116
      5️⃣7️⃣
      8️⃣4️⃣

      Bleah.

    • TARDis

      That’s not how you Chump. THIS is how you Chump!
      Daily Quordle 116
      7️⃣8️⃣
      ?6️⃣
      quordle.com
      ⬜?⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜??
      ⬜?⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜??⬜ ⬜⬜⬜?⬜
      ⬜?⬜?⬜ ⬜⬜?⬜?
      ⬜??⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
      ⬜??⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
      ????? ⬜⬜⬜?⬜
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ?????

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

    • one true athena

      Daily Quordle 116
      5️⃣7️⃣
      8️⃣3️⃣

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 116
      8️⃣5️⃣
      9️⃣7️⃣

      Close to chump. Close but not there.

      • kinnath

        One of my seed words provided one letter on one word. That’s pretty bad.

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 116
      4️⃣7️⃣
      9️⃣5️⃣

      Fuck you, Quordle!

    • grrizzly

      3️⃣5️⃣
      7️⃣6️⃣

    • db

      holy cow, that’s good.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s freaky.

    • cavalier973

      Already deleted

  25. Rebel Scum

    New problem at San Francisco’s still-sinking Millennium Tower means it may be forever tilting

    The Leaning Tower of ‘Frisco?

    • AlexinCT

      Maybe someone should come up with a solution that involves all the discarded needles and human excrement to prop it up?

  26. Rebel Scum

    The U.S. census estimates it missed more than a half-million Texans during 2020 count

    Convenient.

    Immigrants, people living in poverty and non-English speakers were among the most likely to be missed, yet the crucial count received lackluster promotion by Texas state government.

    Non-citizens don’t count, so…

    • kbolino

      lackluster promotion by Texas state government

      … who runs the U.S. Census again?

      • Not Adahn

        …MasterBlaster?

  27. Rebel Scum

    Meanwhile in downtown Kharkiv Palo Alto…

    A girl was recording video of herself playing a game of tag when a gun battle broke out in East Palo Alto Jack Farrell Park. Children ran for their lives as 33 shots were fired. 4 adults were shot.

    • AlexinCT

      That’s just you being racist for bringing that up..

    • Gustave Lytton

      EPA has been a well known shithole as long as I can remember.

  28. Rebel Scum

    Seems legit.

    Democratic Senators have introduced new gun control legislation that would, among other things, institute a federal license requirement to buy a gun.

    Democratic New Jersey Senators Bod Menendez and Cory Booker, and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced the “Federal Firearm Licensing Act” Thursday. The bill would institute a requirement for gun purchasers to obtain a firearms license through the Department of Justice before buying or receiving a gun. …

    The bill then outlines the procedure for establishing the license under the Department of Justice, directing the attorney general to establish a system for issuing them. In order to be eligible to obtain the license itself, a prospective licensee must first complete a firearms safety course, which includes “a written test, to demonstrate knowledge of applicable firearms laws; and hands-on testing, including firing testing, to demonstrate safe use and sufficient accuracy of a firearm.” After that, the licensee must pass a federal background check and a criminal history; submit proof of identification; fingerprints; and information about the firearm the licensee intends to buy or obtain, including “make, model, and serial number, and the identity of the firearm seller or transferor.”

    I fail to understand what is unclear about “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

    • Rebel Scum

      Under the law, the attorney general would have to approve or deny applications within 30 days, and notify state and local officials of every application. If approved, licenses would be made available at a “designated local office.” Each individual license would be valid to buy one firearm, to be purchased within 30 days of issuance. The licenses would expire five years after the issuance date. The law would also allow the attorney general to deny or revoke the license of anyone he deems “poses a significant danger of bodily injury to self or others by possessing, purchasing, or receiving a firearm.” The bill also includes a provision in which the law would not apply in states that have licensing processes “with substantially similar requirements.”

      In addition, the bill makes it illegal to transfer a gun to any person without first being transferred to a licensed importer, manufacturer, or dealer. It also makes it illegal to sell or transfer a gun to an unlicensed person.

      So many process crimes, so little time.

      • juris imprudent

        All under Commerce? What morons.

    • Rat on a train

      FOS

    • SDF-7

      There really needs to be a constitutional amendment to provide penalties at the organizational and/or personal level for knowingly introducing obviously unconstitutional legislation or executive orders. And make it apply to the states as well. This “Keep throwing obvious crap at the wall and hope we can court shop” or “Infringe on people like crazy and withdraw it if it makes it to the Supremes” (looking at you, New York) is just ridiculous and needs to be clamped down hard. Personal liability is the only thing I can think of that would be a deterrent… it takes too long to wend its way through the courts otherwise.

      (Of course, then we’ll just have all the real crap bills queued up for the Feinstein level nonagenarian Senator of the Times to “sponsor” so the real culprits can hide behind their skirts, because that’s what weasels do.)

    • Not Adahn

      In order to be eligible to obtain a firearm, you must first demonstrate proficiency with a firearm. That’s not a catch-22 at all.

      • Nephilium

        From memory, showing aptitude and ability with distilling equipment is a requirement for obtaining a distillery license.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Even though that bill is dead on arrival, DICK Blumenthal should fuck off and stick to falsifying his service record.

      • AlexinCT

        I had that asshole campaign at my gym back when he ran for the first time (I think he might have also used that gym and figured people would be for him since everyone was polite). He came to me while I was on the treadmill with a bunch of people following him. I told him to go fuck himself for being a lying scumbag and that I hope the people that actually died being in Vietnam would be there to greet him before he got his ass kicked downstairs. The gym owner asked me to not do that again cause he didn’t need the visibility even though he agreed.

      • l0b0t

        For extra fun, if distilling alcohol for motor fuel, one is required to denature it the moment it leaves the still. However, one is still required to post a surety bond (cash only) to BATFE in the amount the alcohol would have been taxed if it WERE beverage alcohol.

    • WTF

      Only constitutional rights emanating from penumbras like abortion are absolute. Actual enumerated rights like the second amendment are subject to any all restrictions the government seeks to impose.

      • kbolino

        “When I am weaker than you, I insist that my rights are protected by the Constitution, because that is according to your principles. When I am stronger than you, I deny your rights that are protected by the Constitution, because that is according to my principles”

        (with apologies to Frank Herbert)

    • rhywun

      I’m sure criminals and crazy people will be lining up to register. ?

    • Count Potato

      ““a written test, to demonstrate knowledge of applicable firearms laws; and hands-on testing, including firing testing, to demonstrate safe use and sufficient accuracy of a firearm.” ”

      I doubt the senators could pass that test.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I’d do a comparison to a federal voter registration and licensing, but those fucks would relish the ability to disenfranchise whatever segments they wish.

  29. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Worth a read: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/02/michael-hudson-americas-real-adversaries-are-its-european-and-other-allies.html

    Written just prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    America’s rising pressure on its allies threatens to drive them out of the U.S. orbit. For over 75 years they had little practical alternative to U.S. hegemony. But that is now changing.

    America no longer has the monetary power and seemingly chronic trade and balance-of-payments surplus that enabled it to draw up the world’s trade and investment rules in 1944-45. The threat to U.S. dominance is that China, Russia and Mackinder’s Eurasian World Island heartland are offering better trade and investment opportunities than are available from the United States with its increasingly desperate demand for sacrifices from its NATO and other allies.

    The most glaring example is the U.S. drive to block Germany from authorizing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to obtain Russian gas for the coming cold weather. Angela Merkel agreed with Donald Trump to spend $1 billion building a new LNG port to become more dependent on highly priced U.S. LNG. (The plan was cancelled after the U.S. and German elections changed both leaders.) But Germany has no other way of heating many of its houses and office buildings (or supplying its fertilizer companies) than with Russian gas.

    The only way left for U.S. diplomats to block European purchases is to goad Russia into a military response and then claim that avenging this response outweighs any purely national economic interest. As hawkish Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, explained in a State Department press briefing on January 27: “If Russia invades Ukraine one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”[1]The problem is to create a suitably offensive incident and depict Russia as the aggressor.

    Nuland expressed who was dictating the policies of NATO members succinctly in 2014: “Fuck the EU.” That was said as she told the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine that the State Department was backing the puppet Arseniy Yatsenyuk as Ukrainian prime minister (removed after two years in a corruption scandal), and U.S. political agencies backed the bloody Maidan massacre that ushered in what are now eight years of civil war. The result devastated Ukraine much as U.S. violence had done in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not a policy of world peace or democracy that European voters endorse.

    • AlexinCT

      Europeans tend to look down and be envious of Americans. Especially the ones that had a large amount of their populations migrate here and do better. They can’t stand the fact that in some of these countries with 2 millennia plus of history that a young upstart nation ran circles around them when they still believe they are superior to them.

      • kbolino

        Europe has essentially been America’s backyard since WWI. The evolution of U.S. policy from the Monroe Doctrine to the Marshall Plan has been the shifting of effort and resources away from defending the Americas from European colonialism to instead colonizing the collapsing empires of Europe. As much as Europeans love to tout their peaceful happy social democracies which are so much more advanced than the leftist version of dystopian perpetually 1890s America, all of their ideas for the past seventy or more years have originated in U.S. (and to a lesser extent, British) high society. They’ve been experimental subjects, not sovereign peoples.

      • kbolino

        (lest Europeans find this framing distasteful or offensive: America’s own population has also been subject to the same kinds of experimentation, but since America wasn’t devastated by two world wars, they didn’t have the same opportunity to bake it into our constitutions or legislation as much, and so instead pursued it through somewhat less formal/overt means)

    • PieInTheSky

      But Germany has no other way of heating many of its houses and office buildings (or supplying its fertilizer companies) than with Russian gas. – by choice mostly

      The problem is to create a suitably offensive incident and depict Russia as the aggressor. – poor innocent Russia

      U.S. political agencies backed the bloody Maidan massacre that ushered in what are now eight years of civil war – yes and Russia strongly backed the other side which was twice as corrupt. But that does not matter does it.

      • kbolino

        How does one quantify corruption so clearly?

      • PieInTheSky

        It is obviously a hyperbole to use exact numbers. But if you live through it it, you know.

      • kbolino

        This perception seems to invert across the Dnieper.

      • PieInTheSky

        Across the Dnieper they did not get both sides

      • kbolino

        I have seen zero evidence whatsoever that any significant number of people (enough to affect the mainstream discourse or political actions) in the West, from Seattle to Warsaw, is even remotely interested never mind aware of the “other side”.

      • PieInTheSky

        Warsaw is pretty aware of the other side I would think. That is why they fucking hate the fuckers

      • kbolino

        Yes, I’m sure the Poles daily read both sides’ propaganda and come to a totally neutral, well informed conclusion about things.

        Or maybe they’re Poles living in Poland who have very good reason to despise Russia and oppose its interests. Good for them.

        I, on the other hand, am not Polish. I do not live in Poland. I do not owe the Poles or their interests any more allegiance than Russia’s. My country, however, is behaving like it matters very much.

      • PieInTheSky

        You can off course study the issue, no need to live through it… But it is quite a difference between East and West in the way of corruption. It counts.

      • kbolino

        One could posit that any measure of corruption is just a measure of how effectively consent has been manufactured. No doubt there are category differences between say, the government of Norway and the government of India, but “corruption” is a metric largely built around “us good, them bad”. Which is worse, having to bribe your way to get something done (them) or being forbidden by practically unbribeable officials from getting something done (us)? Similarly, which also is worse, thousands dying in inter-ethnic conflict (them) or thousands dying of drug overdoses (us)? At the very least, there are value judgments embedded in these decisions.

      • PieInTheSky

        but “corruption” is a metric largely built around “us good, them bad”. – uhm no…

        Which is worse, having to bribe your way to get something done (them) or being forbidden by practically unbribeable officials from getting something done (us) – depends what you mean by getting something done. Something done may be starting a business, or it may be stealing your neighbors property. Or selling counterfeit disinfectant to the children’s hospital. bribing your way and actually doing something is one part. Most likely you would be forbidden from doing business of any sort because the guy who controls things does not want competition. For better or worse, you can earn a decent living in the EU if you work at it. Not so much in most of 90s Romania. Or in the Russian sphere of influence now.

        thousands dying in inter-ethnic conflict (them) or thousands dying of drug overdoses (us)? – worse is both, plus a whole bunch of other things.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Which is worse, having to bribe your way to get something done (them) or being forbidden by practically unbribeable officials from getting something done (us)?

        It’s pretty obvious in practice that the first is worst. Just look at US vs. Mexico, for example.

      • kbolino

        No one can dispute that the US/UK/EU is better off materially than most of the rest of the World. The few exceptions are widely known: South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and a handful of others. Even China does not look so good when you take its numbers and turn them into “per capita” instead of gross. But material interest is not the only thing people care about. And increasingly the “good life” the EU etc. are able to offer is coming at a visibly non-material cost. Prioritizing material well-being is itself a value judgment.

        There are lots of cases of medical malpractice, nosocomial infection, and other iatrogenic problems in the US, and yet the country’s healthcare expenditures are the highest in the world. How much of that money is actually necessary to buy competence? If the amount is “not that much”, and comparing to some other places, that seems to be the case, then what exactly is the rest of that money chasing if not a different kind of “corruption”? Yes, ceteris paribus, getting high-grade medical supplies that aren’t tainted is far preferable to the opposite. It’s kind of hard to dispute that. But paying $10k for something that’s no better than what costs $100 elsewhere speaks to a deeper problem than economics alone can explain. Does this make the US more or less corrupt than a place which spends only $10 but has a higher chance of getting tainted supplies?

        The deal the EU offers is likewise appealing to many but not all. I can completely understand why Poles and Romanians, for example, don’t want Russia’s influence to get any closer. That doesn’t mean everybody feels the same way. And saying the difference is down to “corruption” seems to be eliding the other factors involved.

      • PieInTheSky

        But material interest is not the only thing people care about. – most people do. The russian oligarchs certainly lived the good life. And most people want better material conditions.

        Prioritizing material well-being is itself a value judgment. – yes which most people make

        And increasingly the “good life” the EU etc. are able to offer is coming at a visibly non-material cost. – trust me third world poverty has its own non material costs.

      • kbolino

        It’s pretty obvious in practice that the first is worst. Just look at US vs. Mexico, for example.

        I’m not sure this comparison works out so favorably to the US anymore. Mexico’s political system has been stable for a while, many parts of Mexico have seen broad increases in standard of living, and while the cartels pushing back the Mexican police and armed forces in certain places pose a more serious risk to the government’s sovereignty than any the US has seen in a long time, the US has simultaneously abandoned serious policing of several of its major cities. The latter is, of course, much more by choice than the former, but reversing that choice will not come easily. We’re also sitting on the precipice of yet another global financial meltdown, which we’ll have caused again.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Well, try to start a business in Mexico, and get back to me.

      • kbolino

        most people do. The russian oligarchs certainly lived the good life. And most people want better material conditions.

        I never said anything contradictory to any of this. Most is not all, and what appears to be beneficial to you is not what appears to be beneficial to everyone. If everything was so obvious and so objective the war never would have happened in the first place, nor the Maidan coups, nor the stupid “no nukes” deal the US pushed on Ukraine, nor the disintegration of the Soviet Union, etc.

      • kbolino

        Well, try to start a business in Mexico, and get back to me.

        Try to hire a fifth employee in the US and see what happens here too. Or get entrapped by an EEO sting. Or get sued by an ex-employee for “sexual harassment” or “racial discrimination”. Most skirt by, and maybe that’s what’s meant by trying to measure all this, but getting randomly fucked is not to my mind so much better than getting predictably fucked.

        Mexico is somewhat worse, yes. The US has no excuse for its own ways of being terrible just because other places are even more terrible.

      • PieInTheSky

        then what exactly is the rest of that money chasing if not a different kind of “corruption” – I certainly did not say it is not corruption. But it is a different type of corruption to the one where your child dies in the hospital due to the fact that the medical equipment is counterfeit crap due to bribes, at a rate much higher than it happens in the US

        But paying $10k for something that’s no better than what costs $100 elsewhere speaks to a deeper problem than economics alone can explain. – yes but you are not dead.

        Does this make the US more or less corrupt than a place which spends only $10 but has a higher chance of getting tainted supplies – if you care about not dying, yes

        The deal the EU offers is likewise appealing to many but not all. I can completely understand why Poles and Romanians, for example, don’t want Russia’s influence to get any closer. That doesn’t mean everybody feels the same way – yes there are plenty of people who are scum, I am well aware

      • kbolino

        yes there are plenty of people who are scum, I am well aware

        There’s a reason the US should not get involved in other people’s conflicts.

        Fuck Teddy Roosevelt, fuck his big stick, and fuck Wilson and FDR too.

      • kbolino

        if you care about not dying, yes

        The existence of medical tourism at the very least proves that there exist those for whom the lower cost outweighs the higher risk.

      • PieInTheSky

        As I said in other places, it is one thing to say “US should not get involved” and another to make apologia for Russia and their model of corruption and influence

      • kbolino

        I am not required to adhere to yours or anyone else’s definition of neutral just because I don’t want my country involved. The sitting President is directly involved in a “not that corrupt” corruption scheme which is part of a nexus of causal factors that led to this war. And much of the money that has been appropriated for this conflict by my country will be used to affect both domestic and international politics. Pretending not to see any of this, or thinking that because Russian “oligarchs” are wealthy therefore I should default to siding with the forces of “liberal democracy” instead, is not in any way in my own interest.

      • AlexinCT

        But Germany has no other way of heating many of its houses and office buildings (or supplying its fertilizer companies) than with Russian gas. – by choice mostly

        Q.E.D.

        They did this to themselves. And I remember some annoying twatter orange guy telling them not to listen to some underage angry creature from Scandinavia screaming “How dare you!” and shut down their nukes, because it would cause them more pains becoming dependent on the country they felt was the most dangerous one in Europe.

        The one thing from this war that might end up being beneficial, is that all the asshats that sold out to the green movement’s idiocy will be forced to accept the reality of that idocy.

      • db

        The one thing from this war that might end up being beneficial, is that all the asshats that sold out to the green movement’s idiocy will be forced to accept the reality of that idocy.

        Well, we’re all forced to accept the reality of that idiocy, but only some of us posess the insight to understand that it *is* idiocy, and its effects.

      • AlexinCT

        Oh, I do not expect the idiots to admit they were wrong at all. In fact, I am willing to bet money they will go back to peddling the same failed bullshit as soon as they think they can get away with it again. That green racket is too lucrative to give up on.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Nobody is claiming that the European energy policies are not idiotic. The German Greens may be the dumbest people on the planet.

        The point being that US motivations here are not concerned with what’s in the best interest of Europe. The premise of the article is that this is about keeping Europe inside the US sphere of influence and if Europeans suffer for it immensely, it doesn’t matter to the United States.

        As far as making the moral decision of who should prevail based on relative levels of corruption, it’s irrelevant. I remain primarily concerned with the corrupting influence my own country exerts and the corrupting influence on my government from being involved in the clusterfuck that is Ukraine. I don’t want my government involved in a Ukrainian civil war and supporting entities who have genocidal tendencies.

      • PieInTheSky

        The point being that US motivations here are not concerned with what’s in the best interest of Europe – Europe’s politicians are not concerned with what’s in the best interest of Europe. so here they and the americans are alike.

        keeping Europe inside the US sphere of influence and if Europeans suffer for it immensely – this is not remotely why the Euros suffer. Certainly as a Romanian being in the US sphere is vastly preferable than the Russian one. I would prefer that no one had a sphere and countries would be left alone, but that is not an option.

        I don’t want my government involved in a Ukrainian civil war and supporting entities who have genocidal tendencies. – that is a valid point without making it seem Russia is not at fault for the Ukraine situation.

      • Swiss Servator

        Careful Pie, you might end up with dioxin in your soup…

      • Not Adahn

        I find it hilarious how ineffective dioxin is. Some ruskie read an EPA report about it’s lethality and tried to use it.

      • Not Adahn

        At least the Bulgarians use actual deadly-to-humans ricin.

      • Not Adahn

        Not to mention the norks and their needles.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Or maybe it was intentionally non lethal.

    • Atanarjuat

      Who benefits from these actions the US took?

      • AlexinCT

        The team blue crime cartel?

    • db

      One of the greatest tragedies in the world, IMO, is that the United States kept looking back at Europe and getting drawn into its conflicts, rather than truly embracing the New World. Imagine if all the efforts spent on trying to fix Europe had been instead invested in developing a strong network of truly free trade and limited government across North and South America. Rather than viewing everything south of the Rio Grande (metaphorically) as potential invaders, we could have been one incredibly stable and powerful nation or alliance, blessed with abundant natural resources, vibrant cultures, and the liberty to make the most of both.

      • juris imprudent

        Well we had to make the world safe for democracy!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        But Europe is so cultured!

  30. Semi-Spartan Dad

    I stumbled across this video of a walkthrough the Azov Military Headquarters.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSKqqw511do&ab_channel=JohnMarkDougan

    You can make up your own mind as to whether it’s staged or real. It’s nothing groundbreaking but just paints a different picture of Azov than what the MSM is showing.

    If real, I’ve been underestimating the extent of the Nazi ethos in Azov. They make the Ayran Brotherhood look like girl scouts. Putin using the term “denazification” wouldn’t be hyperbolic in the least.

    There is some video of American sniper rounds and US military training manuals, but US taxpayers have been funding Azov for years so that shouldn’t be surprising.

    • Drake

      It’s a very weird thing. So they are committed Nazis – okay whatever. I assume that means they shouldn’t like Jews, globalists, and the woke world in general. But they are fighting to the death for a Jewish clown being run woke globalists against a somewhat nationalist Russian army.

      Sure sounds like the KKK teaming up with BLM.

    • PieInTheSky

      Putin using the term “denazification” wouldn’t be hyperbolic in the least. – is Azov was a significant part of Ukraine maybe. As is… Also Putin does not believe the slightest in denazification. It is just propaganda. There are plenty of actual neonazis in Russian and they tend to support Putin

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Also Putin does not believe the slightest in denazification. It is just propaganda.

        *Looks like at an Azov headquarters that resembles a Third Reich building*

        *Reads Pie saying it’s just propaganda*

        I don’t how Putin feels about nazism. But if this video is true, it’s absurd to call it denazifying the Azov as propaganda. The Azov is not a significant part of Ukraine, but had significant operations terrorizing the Donbas region and this what the denazification statement referred too. It’s like if the US had been paying a cartel for years to terrorize a province of Mexico. Absolutely insane.

      • PieInTheSky

        had significant operations terrorizing the Donbas region and this what the denazification statement referred too. – then what was the Russian army doing near Kiev?

        And it is propaganda if it is just a pretext and nothing else.

        It’s like if the US had been paying a cartel for years to terrorize a province of Mexico – well indirectly…

      • R C Dean

        Well, Donbas isn’t part of Russia, so whatever Azov has been up to is an internal Ukrainian matter. Invading other countries over their internal matters seems like a good way to get more invasions and wards.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I’ll repeat my other reply:

        I’m not saying it does. Just providing some alternative sources to the MSM.

        If Mexico announced they would be entering into a military alliance with 30 other countries against the United States and that China would then deploy nukes along the Texas border, do you think the US would be justified in invading Mexico to prevent them from joining an alliance against the US that would place Chinese nukes on the Texas border?

      • Drake

        I’ve used the “imagine Mexico joining the Warsaw PACT in 1985” with people in private conversations. Those old enough to remember the 80s and the Cold War get a far-away look in their eyes.

      • The Last American Hero

        What if the US wanted to annex Cancun for access to the ports?

    • R C Dean

      Still doesn’t justify an invasion.

      • Atanarjuat

        Maybe not, but the Russians do have historical reasons to be leery of Nazi militarism on their western borders.

        And the idea that anyone in the US government (except the small minority of relative peaceniks like Massie or Gabbard) has a leg to stand on when criticizing unjust invasions is ludicrous.

      • PieInTheSky

        Russians do have historical reasons to be leery of Nazi militarism on their western borders. – oh horseshit. the azov were zero real threat to Russia

      • kbolino

        Saddam Hussein also posed no threat to the U.S., and yet…

      • PieInTheSky

        I am unsure what point you are trying to make here. Are you justifying the invasion of Ukraine based on the idea that Irak was justified?

      • kbolino

        It doesn’t matter what the other side thinks of your motives, it only matters if they can stop you. What “justifies” a war is winning: did you achieve your objectives and were they worth achieving? St. Augustine had his own thoughts but the winner still gets to write the history books.

      • Rebel Scum

        I believe it is being used as a justification to take the pro-Russian regions of Ukraine and create a land connection to Crimea.

      • Atanarjuat

        Assuming that’s true, how would you know they would stay zero threat to Russia? There was presumably a point in the past at which the German Nazis could have been seen as zero real threat to Russia. And the Azov Nazis have actively engaged in killing thousands of Russian speaking people already.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I’m not saying it does. Just providing some alternative sources to the MSM.

        If Mexico announced they would be entering into a military alliance with 30 other countries against the United States and that China would then deploy nukes along the Texas border, do you think the US would be justified in invading Mexico to prevent them from joining an alliance against the US that would place Chinese nukes on the Texas border?

      • PieInTheSky

        do you think the US would be justified in invading Mexico to prevent them from joining an alliance against the US that would place Chinese nukes on the Texas border – no

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        That’s fair and consistent.

        I disagree and wonder how many Americans who are against Russia’s actions would be in favor of invading Mexico in the above scenario.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Almost all of them. I bet if DC wanted to do so, it could drum up support for an invasion of Mexico even under our current state of things.

      • PieInTheSky

        My view is you should have taken all of it in the 19th century. All the way to the Panama canal. The after you built the thing there would be no need to build a wall. Also I cannot understand how you let Canada be a thing.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You do have a point about Canada.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        To some extent, we tried to take Central America

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(filibuster)

        William Walker (May 8, 1824 – September 12, 1860) was an American physician, lawyer, journalist and mercenary who organized several private military expeditions into Mexico and Central America with the intention of occupying the local nations and establishing slave-hold colonies, an enterprise then known as “filibustering”. Walker usurped the presidency of Nicaragua in July 1856 at the request of Liberal Democratic Party of Nicaragua and ruled until May 1, 1857,[1] when he was forced out[2] of the presidency and the country by a coalition of Central American armies. He returned in an attempt to re-establish his control of the region, but was captured and executed by the government of Honduras in 1860 while escaping the Costa Rican army after being defeated by General Cañas in the battles of Rivas and Santa Rosa.

        The Costa Ricans I worked with made certain to educate me about our little foray into their country.

      • Swiss Servator

        ” who organized several private military expeditions ”

        Our?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        My understanding is that Walker had the tacit approval of Franklin Pierce and the support of several Southern states at the time even though he operated as a private army.

        That is, until he pissed off Vanderbilt who turned the Pierce administration against him.

    • Atanarjuat

      What a clown. Resulted in some funny memes though.

      https://twitter.com/Garibaldi2022/status/1518228272525590528

      Reporter: was that an airstrike?

      Nance: yes–came from a ship

      500 lb bomb
      *smells air*
      came from the southeast
      fired from 173 degree azimuth
      *tastes dirt*
      by a guy named Greg
      *squints*
      wife just left him

      • Swiss Servator

        We had a guy like that at our base in AF – every time the rockets came in, he was running to the TOC with his camera…”I know crater analysis!”

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Colorado ski area bathroom stall, circa 1971:

    Here I sit, buns a-flexin’

    givin’ birth to another Texan

  32. Atanarjuat

    This is a few days old, but US takes control of Afghan embassy, consulates in NY, CA

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has taken control of Afghanistan’s embassy in Washington and the country’s consulates in New York and Beverly Hills, California, the State Department said Tuesday.

    The State Department said that it had assumed “sole responsibility” for the security and maintenance of the diplomatic missions effective on Monday and would bar anyone from entering them without its permission until further notice.

    The move came after the department determined that the embassy and consulates had “formally ceased conducting diplomatic and consular activities in the United States” at noon on May 16.

    The U.S. does not recognize the new Taliban government in Afghanistan, which took power last year after the withdrawal of American and allied troops, and does not have formal diplomatic relations with the country.

    I wonder what group of armed men the State Dept used to enforce this. At this stage of the empire’s collapse they might have their own swat team by now. This action comes across as the pathetic, weak tantrum of a losing party.

    It’s kind of like those maps of Ukraine that still show Crimea as part of the country. At some point you have to be an adult and recognize the reality of who controls the territory. We don’t print maps showing north Georgia as the Cherokee Nation anymore.

  33. juris imprudent

    And you thought pineapple on pizza was bad.

    For me, after everything I endured, the Champions League was just the pineapple on top of the cake.

    • db

      Have you never experienced the ambrosia that is Pineapple Upside-Down Cake?

    • rhywun

      With your club having been stolen by the UK government, I would imagine a lot of players want to jump that ship right about now.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, I loved that bit about the govt being concerned about the legality of the sale, after the extra-legal seizure of the club to begin with.

      • robc

        Rebooting has worked pretty well for Rangers, so whats the worst that could happen?

      • rhywun

        They become successful again?

      • robc

        Ummm…3rd isn’t successful?

      • rhywun

        Ugh, are they? Blech.

        Paying zero attention.

  34. Pope Jimbo

    Daily Ray of Sunshine

    * Special one. Today is 30 years together for my wife and I.

    • UnCivilServant

      So, she never got around to trading up?

      Congratulations.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Nope. I guess even after she earned that green card the hard way, she was too tired to go find someone better.

      • AlexinCT

        I am sure you had something to do with that.. Congaratz.

      • Fourscore

        Congrats to Mrs Jimbo, you should take her to a wilderness cabin and and see if she can find what she’s looking for, ticks included, no extra charge.

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        . . . she earned that green card the hard way . . .

        BOW-CHICKA-WOW-WOW  CHICKA-CHICKA-WOW-WOW

    • db

      Congratulations!

    • PieInTheSky

      I thought the pope only had mistresses… But cheers to going against doctrine for so long

    • Gender Traitor

      She’s obviously a saint. ?

      Mazel tov!

    • Swiss Servator

      Excellent – mine in on Monday.

      Should we both get “I Survived…” T-Shirts?

      • Pope Jimbo

        When my parents had their 30th, my dad – the ex-PO – said, “Shit, even without good behavior, I’d be getting out of prison if I had just killed her”. He thought it was pretty funny, she didn’t.

    • Sensei

      おめでとう!

      私たちの結婚記念日は土曜日です。

    • MikeS

      Nice! Go make it a dirty thirty, tiger!

    • pistoffnick

      Today is 30 years together for my wife and I.

      Attaboy!

    • Count Potato

      Congrats!

    • DEG

      Congratulations!

    • TARDis

      Congrats. Hope you get some time off for good bad behavior.

  35. robc

    So, is everyone else getting here thru the backdoor also?

    Or is the front page working for some of you?

    • db

      works for me

      • robc

        I still have Thursday afternoon link as last post on main page. I even shift reloaded multiple times.

    • Nephilium

      The main landing page does not appear to be updating unless you log in. It is being worked on.

    • rhywun

      No back door for me.

      • PieInTheSky

        phrasing

      • AlexinCT

        I hear ya, but I am with em..

    • Sensei

      Are we not doing phrasing?

    • juris imprudent

      STEVE SMITH GET THRU BACKDOOR, FRONTDOOR, UPSTAIRS WINDOW!

      • AlexinCT

        Word to yo motha!

      • Compelled Speechless

        STEVE SMITH MAKE NEW NEW HOLES IF HE GETS BORED OF THOSE.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Jimbo’s anniversary is up one thread ^

    • MikeS

      Where’s HM when you need him.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Democratic New Jersey Senators Bod Menendez and Cory Booker, and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced the “Federal Firearm Licensing Act” Thursday. The bill would institute a requirement for gun purchasers to obtain a firearms license through the Department of Justice before buying or receiving a gun. …

    Reciprocity! That’s what people want, right?

    • creech

      Coming soon – “Free Speech licenses.”

  37. waffles

    I just want to thank you all for being such a constant source of entertainment, education, and sanity. I was thinking about how I happened upon TOS 15 years ago and so many of you are still commenting today. It’s a comforting thing in a chaotic world. Thank you glibs.

    • Nephilium

      Trying to explain to the girlfriend how long I’ve been talking with you lot in comments on websites made me realize how long I’ve “known” some of you. So far none of those that she’s met has scared (or scarred) her too badly.

      • robc

        **challenge accepted**

      • Ownbestenemy

        Then the wife and I have failed

    • Pope Jimbo

      Yup. I heard about TOS listening to a Penn Jillette FM radio episode years ago (had to be in the mid ’00s).

      Coming here? Tundra blabbed and told me about the Glibbening, so you have him to thank for that.

      • Fourscore

        I was a long time subscriber to the paper TOS but as the slide began I was leaving it anyway. Saw the beginning talk, saw the fruition and lurked for a long time before getting my feet wet. It’s been a great ride, met a few, now look forward to meeting many more in Sep. Cabin is open and empty for those looking for a quiet repose.

  38. Rebel Scum

    No muskets, bows/arrows or javelins for you.*

    There are two intersecting crises facing our nation right now – military-style weapons and domestic terrorism.

    We can no longer look away. We are directly addressing the deadly threat that this is.

    *Because, historically, those are all military weapons**.

    **Every weapon is.

    • The Other Kevin

      “Pay attention to these made-up crises, not the actual crises that you are actually experiencing in your life right now.”

    • WTF

      *puts on tinfoil hat*

      Am I crazy to think that there is a possibility that the FBI had this guy in their back pocket (there were plenty of signs and threats before he acted) and “motivated” him to go off when needed? The timing seems a little convenient, and of course they couldn’t use the NYC subway shooting, because wrong narrative and all. Maybe I’m just too suspicious/cynical, but “wacky conspiracy theories” seem to keep being revealed as the truth.

      *removes tinfoil hat*

      • Rebel Scum

        Well, the two guys with pickup trucks that threatened to bomb something in DC that were obviously glowies (the latter having swastikas etched into his upholstery because that makes sense…) didn’t work. So they needed something with a little more zaz (and blood…).

      • rhywun

        I have no doubt this guy was on their radar.

        And the FBI is clearly on the side that wants to end our little experiment.

        So… no, not a crazy idea at all.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Youtube has been bombarding me with gun grabber commercials. In one of them some Sandyhook parent was going on and on about how there is no need for these weapons in a civilized society. The guy was stumbling through his lines (he was worse than Brandon reading off the teleprompter) but he kept hitting the word civilized.

      I wanted to yell at him, “you know why we have a civilized society, because we have the means to protect ourselves from the barbarians and tyrants”.

      * Anyone know if it costs the gun grabbers more if you watch the entire commercial?

  39. The Other Kevin

    Ah Sloop, once again you’ve managed to find a song I used to love but had been memory holed. Thanks and have a great day.

  40. robc

    For sloopy, a post on an Everton board last night:

    if that shower of cunts had our trophy cabinet, they’d struggle for 20,000 for home games. We’re the originals and the best. Koppites are Gobshites!
    Every fucking one of them!

    28 years ago, approximately this week, Everton was on the verge of relegation and down 2-0 at halftime to Wimbledon (who, coincidentally, played their home games in Crystal Palace’s stadium). They scored 3 in the second half to survive. It was the first Everton game I ever saw, and the crowd being packed and loud and supporting a bad team at the end of a bad season made me a fan. It is pretty much the opposite of bandwagoning.

    Yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PgnIh7oooE

    • Not Adahn

      shower of cunts

      Ah, the London music scene in the ’70s, how I miss it so.

      • robc

        Did they open for the Sex Pistols?

    • Nephilium

      Can I interest you in a seat cheering on the Browns?

      • robc

        No thank you, Everton, Cincinnati Reds, and Georgia Tech Football/Basketball are more than enough misery.

        I like my teams to have at least a chance.

      • robc

        However, this is why American sports need relegation/promotion.

        I could see Cleveland celebrating the Browns not getting sent down about like that.

      • juris imprudent

        Then again, seeing Cleveland get knocked around in the Big10 would be amusing itself.

      • Nephilium

        Hell, we celebrated our 0-16 season with a parade. The theme was “It can’t possibly get worse”.

        I think you would have a better chance of getting relegation/promotion to happen in baseball then football, considering the colleges are the minor leagues for the NFL.

      • robc

        Yep. But that would require freeing the minor leagues, which short of a court order….

        Basketball, for cost reasons, would be doable. Lower level basketball leagues would be cheap and easy to run.

        But we can’t even get MLS/USL to get relegation/promotion in soccer.

        I said when it started, I wouldn’t follow MLS until relegation was part of it.

      • Swiss Servator

        My favorite, at the parade, was the woman holding the sign that read “They Tried”.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    *Because, historically, those are all military weapons**.

    No shit, Shirley.

    See, also: rocks, sticks and thumbs

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      One might think that any overtly political action by the FBI would result in calls for its immediate dissolution by the offended political party.

      But that would be sane.

      • kbolino

        The Hatch Act is used only to go after unpopular and/or disposable people. When almost the entirety of an agency (and certainly all of those in “leadership positions”) feels the same way, the Hatch Act might as well be the “Go For It, Champ” Act.

      • juris imprudent

        You wouldn’t want to be rude to someone you might run into at a cocktail party!

    • wdalasio

      After the last six years or so, Republicans should want the FBI scattered to the four winds, their headquarters razed and the ground salted so nothing ever grows there again. And, to be fair, a surprising number of them are starting to wake up to it. But, we all know what’s going to happen when the GOP gets enough power to actually do anything about it, we’ll all be treated to “Those are just the actions of a few Washington DC bureaucrats and don’t reflect at all on the brave men and women selflessly serving to protect the American people…blah…blah…blah”.

      And, at some point, if they’re not willing to do anything to put a stop to it, maybe they deserve it.

      • AlexinCT

        After the last six years or so, Republicans should want the FBI scattered to the four winds, their headquarters razed and the ground salted so nothing ever grows there again.

        How many of them do nothing because the FBI has some guy that likes to wear dresses that has movie clips of these republicans with a goat or donkey?

      • juris imprudent

        The ghost of J. Edgar masturbates furiously.

      • wdalasio

        Sadly, that isn’t even necessary. For a lot of people on the right, the magic words “law enforcement”, like the magic word “Russia” strangely negate their ability for critical thinking or even their own interest.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Unexpectedly

    China is quietly ramping up purchases of oil from Russia at bargain prices, according to shipping data and oil traders who spoke to Reuters, filling the vacuum left by Western buyers backing away from business with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February.

    The move by the world’s biggest oil importer comes a month after it initially cut back on Russian supplies, for fear of appearing to openly support Moscow and potentially expose its state oil giants to sanctions.

    China’s seaborne Russian oil imports will jump to a near-record 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, up from 750,000 bpd in the first quarter and 800,000 bpd in 2021, according to an estimate by Vortexa Analytics.

    Will Joe jawbone the Chinese into submission?

    • The Other Kevin

      He’s the smartest and most qualified the Dems have to offer. We’re in good hands.

    • rhywun

      for fear of appearing to openly support Moscow

      I can’t imagine why.

      China’s been getting away with a hell of lot worse than that for decades and nobody gives shit.

  43. Sean

    #LazyPost.

    With a twist ending!

  44. The Late P Brooks

    A thing of beauty is a joy forever

    Mercedes-Benz confirmed on Thursday that it recently sold the world’s most expensive car. A very rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz SLR coupe that had been kept in the German automaker’s collection was sold to a private owner for €135 million, the equivalent of $142 million. That price makes it the most expensive car known to ever have been sold, according to Hagerty, a company that tracks collector car values.

    Money from the sale will be used to establish the Mercedes-Benz Fund, a global scholarship fund, Mercedes said in an announcement.
    The previous record sale price for a car was reportedly $70 million paid in 2018 for a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO.

    The Mercedes that was sold was one of only two 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe prototypes. The 67-year-old cars were named for Mercedes’ chief engineer at the time, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, and are claimed to have a top speed of 186 mph It was sold at a closed invitation-only auction at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart on May 5. The auction was held in cooperation with auto auction company RM Sotheby’s.

    Better than sitting on a pile of cash.

    • PieInTheSky

      You can’t drive something like that though . Think of the safety. You could die.

      • Sensei

        And yet we still sell motorcycles.

        Current developed country motor vehicle regs have 100s of pounds of steel for safety, design constraints on heights, pedestrian safety requirements and airbags aplenty among many other things.

      • PieInTheSky

        And yet we still sell motorcycles. – well you shouldn’t

      • Sensei

        Exactly. Bicycles or public transportation only.

      • PieInTheSky

        also roller skates but not those inline ones

      • pistoffnick

        And yet we still sell motorcycles. – well you shouldn’t

        Free yourself from the cage, Pie.

        There is no better feeling than a lovely lady leaning forward against your back, her arms wrapped arm your torso, both of you leaning synchronized through the curves, 600cc’s of power between your legs. Rear brake, front brake, hit the apex, release both brakes, roll the power on, setup for the next curve…

        It’s sex on two wheels.

      • pistoffnick

        Is it hot in here?

    • db

      From Mercedes-Benz’s official site:

      Using this value to drive change: The proceeds will be used to establish a worldwide “Mercedes-Benz Fund” that will provide educational and research scholarships in the areas of environmental science and decarbonization for young people.

      • whiz

        I think if you decarbonize a person, they die.

    • creech

      You know who else rode around in a Mercedes?

    • EvilSheldon

      That’s what I love about the Bee. They don’t mind taking a swipe at their own people.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    The Humpty Dumpty Investment Index

    Tesla Inc.’s removal this week from an industry benchmark index is raising new questions about what ESG actually means to investors.

    The strategy, widely seen as favoring industries ostensibly interested in sustainability (of the environmental, social and governance sort), started about two decades ago as a way to protect investors from risks tied to things like global warming, labor violations and discrimination. Since then, it’s morphed into a $35 trillion industry that’s allowed millions of investors to feel as though they’re “doing good.” And now people are confused about what ESG is really supposed to achieve.

    “The market continues to conflate ESG with sustainability, and you’re certainly seeing that play out here,” said Rob Du Boff, senior ESG analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “Our ETF team likes to note Tesla is the ultimate Rorschach test for ESG investors.”

    While many would agree few automakers have done more than Elon Musk’s company in the global shift away from fossil fuels, Tesla’s management and workplace issues have been at times problematic. So much so that S&P Dow Jones Indices, while acknowledging Tesla’s environmental prowess, nevertheless decided to remove the electric vehicle maker from the S&P 500 ESG Index over safety and labor issues.

    “How can a company whose self-declared mission is to ‘accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy’ not make the cut in an ESG index?” wrote Margaret Dorn, senior director and head of ESG indexes for S&P Dow Jones in North America, in a blog post. Answering her own question, she said “there are many reasons,” including that Tesla “has fallen behind its peers when examined through a wider ESG lens.”

    It means exactly what we say it means, at the time we say it.

    • juris imprudent

      My investment adviser asked me about my ESG concerns. I said avoiding anything to do with ESG was fine and to concentrate solely on return on investment.

      • db

        My sole concern is making a profit. If a company issues a press release about how they’re “investing” in a bunch of ESG score-optimizing woo-woo, they’re out of consideration.

        Similarly, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), which is the largest/most prominent health insurance org in our area, constantly is advertising how much money they give to local charities and social causes. Excuse me, but I’d prefer to know that they’re spending their money on, say, medical research and treatment, rather than dumping it into BS non-profits in the area.

        It seems to me like they’re losing track of the singe reason they’re supposed to exist, much like corporations that put their investors’ profits second behind social issues.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        15byears since the start of the last recession. People have simply forgotten what it feels like to be in lean times. This is why I’m suspicious that the impending downturn may be a big one. Lots of misallocation to correct.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Are you sure you can’t use an Inverse ESG rule for investment? Avoid the top ESG companies and focus on the evil companies?

        My gut tells me that any company that has the time and resources to invest in ESG compliance is a company that has too much deadwood being employed.

      • Sensei

        You used to be able to do so, but the larger players have gamed the system.

        So, for example, Boeing and Airbus have gamed ESG rating requirements from many rating groups to qualify.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      ESG is a way for the big finance players to enforce compliance and to eliminate threats to their system.

      Since your ESG rating is directly tied to your ability to raise money from the big equity firms, they can use it to lock you out of the biggest sources of capital around.

      • The Other Kevin

        Yes. It’s a way to make sure you’re in the club and you play by their rules. Companies with great ESG ratings include Nike (who uses slave labor in China) and weapons manufacturers.

    • Sensei

      That’s not true! I’ve been assured this by a letter to the editor to the WSJ

      ‘ESG’ Is About Information, Not Imposition

      Mr. Oaks states that ESG is a “qualitative view” that “depends entirely on the beliefs of whoever constructs it,” but the opposite is true.

    • WTF

      Shorter ESG: SOUTH AFRICAN WHITE MAN BAD!!!111!!!!!

    • Fatty Bolger

      has fallen behind its peers when examined through a wider ESG leftist lens

      • rhywun

        This. It’s just a sign of another domain having been skin-suited by the left.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Dorn focused on social and governance factors at the company, which had a negative impact on its overall ESG score. She singled out two events centered around allegations of racial discrimination and poor working conditions at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, as well as its handling of a U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation after multiple deaths and injuries were linked to its “autopilot” function.

    Academics like Todd Cort of Yale University agree with Dorn. The S&P methodology focuses on corporate performance, and Tesla’s “management systems and controls are still pretty undeveloped” relative to industry leaders, he said.

    You can’t run a business without relying on systems of governance developed by academic researchers. That’s just crazy. People will think you only care about money Selling products and services for a profit makes you a robber baron.

    • Pope Jimbo

      They don’t have a HR manual that dwarfs the Encyclopedia Britannica. How can they do anything correctly?

      If you tell me that you let managers make their own decisions on how to treat their underlings and that those decisions might be influenced by the performance of the underlings I’m gonna need a fainting couch.

      • Fourscore

        Whoa there, you’re beginning to sound like a sort of freedom apologist. Next thing is you will be letting them work from home without someone looking over their shoulder to see if they punched in on time.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    My investment adviser asked me about my ESG concerns. I said avoiding anything to do with ESG was fine and to concentrate solely on return on investment.

    “I’m focused on guns, oil and tobacco. Does that count?”

    • Nephilium

      Unfortunately, VICEX hasn’t been doing well recently.

  48. AlexinCT
    • WTF

      I disagree. I think the destruction is deliberate, to allow them to usher in the glorious globalist reset over the ashes and wreckage of Western civilization.

      • The Other Kevin

        At the top, yes. But the useful idiots have bought into our Green Future.

    • db

      I like that the 1st or 2nd reply is exactly what I was goint to post here. Mr. Heinlein rarely got it wrong.

    • Sensei

      That Heinlein quote is one of my favorites.

      Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

      This is known as “bad luck.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      As was mentioned on a Tom Woods episode this week, the Left is really good at taking moderate not-particularly-principled conservatives and turning them into rabid reactionaries. There is going to be a price to pay for their attempts to silence and/or destroy all cultural opposition.

  49. UnCivilServant

    *understated monotone*
    Woot.
    */understated monotone*

    We finally fixed the damn application.

    • Gender Traitor

      ::breaks into happy dance::

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Since your ESG rating is directly tied to your ability to raise money from the big equity firms, they can use it to lock you out of the biggest sources of capital around.,/em>

    It seems as if that would create an opportunity for some truly adventurous venture capital.

  51. Ozymandias

    Daily Quordle 116
    6️⃣5️⃣
    7️⃣4️⃣
    quordle.com

    Whiz – I hope you know I’ve been teasing you about “DUMPY LOINS” because I love the word combos you came up with. CARET or CARES is a great starter and then I go from there based on what pops.

    • whiz

      No problem. Actually, mine have not done so well the last 10 days or so. If Quordle doesn’t use plural words, I need to adjust for that and see what pops out. Or if I can lay my hands on the allowed Quordle list, that would make it even better.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    Journalism lives

    A recent study has audited Joe Biden’s Twitter followers to determine whether or not they are in fact real followers. The results have left the world stunned as everyone discovered half of his followers are somehow real people.

    “11 million of Biden’s followers are real? That seems high,” said Mike Vanders, a social media analyst. “The American people can’t even follow what he has to say, much less follow him on Twitter.”

    According to sources, most experts had estimated that maybe a dozen or so of the President’s followers were real and that the remaining 22 million were all fake accounts designed to make Biden look good.

    Define “real”.

    • db

      Probably a lot of them follow the account because it’s part of their jobs, and a lot just to be informed of what he’s saying. “followers” don’t necessarily equal “fans.” People who generally disagree with him and need to know about his public statements have to follow regardless of their opinion of him, his job performance, or his policy proposals.

  53. Semi-Spartan Dad

    Related to the ESG discussion:

    Mayonnaise With a Mission: Do Consumers Want Household Products to Serve a Social Cause?
    Unilever tests the proposition with a push to bring purpose to its 400 brands. So far, investors aren’t encouraged.
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/unilever-purpose-marketing-social-cause-11653050052

    Ads for Hellmann’s once focused on taste, spreadability and ingredients. Now the brand is on a mission to curb food waste—part of Unilever PLC’s UL push to give each of its 400 brands a social or environmental purpose. A Hellmann’s Super Bowl spot this year showed former New England Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo tackling people on the verge of throwing out food.

    The brands-with-purpose strategy has become a centerpiece for Unilever since Alan Jope took over as chief executive in 2019. The Scottish marketeer defines purpose as having a point of view on issues important to the planet or society. He has said the U.K.-based company could sell brands for which it can’t identify a mission.

    How’s it going so far? Unilever’s share price and sales growth has lagged behind those of rivals Nestle SA, L’Oréal SA and Procter & Gamble Co. in recent years.

    “A company which feels it has to define the purpose of Hellmann’s mayonnaise has in our view clearly lost the plot,” Terry Smith, chief executive of Fundsmith, one of Unilever’s largest shareholders, wrote in his annual letter to investors in January. Unilever, he added, “is obsessed with publicly displaying sustainability credentials at the expense of focusing on the fundamentals of the business.”

    Good thing we’re a Duke’s household.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      As I have stated before, this isn’t about the consumer. It’s about pleasing the major equity firms and retaining access to their capital.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      If they start serving a social purpose, people will buy less of their goods, thereby cutting down on food waste. And profits.

      • Translucent Chum

        What is their Raisin d’etre?

    • pistoffnick

      Uhhhh, et tu, Hellmann’s?

      I guess I need to start making my own from scratch.

      • Gender Traitor

        It’ll be artisanal! ?

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      On the one hand, I can pay a company that hates me for mass produced, adulterated products. On the other hand, I can do the inconvenient thing and make my own fresh, high quality product and keep the money I would’ve otherwise given to said hateful company.

      Convenience is the enemy. Learn new skill, devote some time to DIYing this stuff. We can’t opt out of government, but we can opt out of these shit corporations.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    A few billion here, a few billion there…

    The US Department of Energy is announcing a massive investment in direct air carbon removal projects, in hopes of kickstarting an industry that energy experts say is critical to getting the country’s planet-warming emissions under control.

    Direct air carbon removal projects are like giant vacuum cleaners that suck planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air and lock it away. They use chemicals to remove the gas from the air and store it in rocks deep underground or put it to use in materials like concrete.
    Nature can do this on its own — forests, bogs and oceans all suck carbon out of the atmosphere — but not nearly fast enough to keep pace with human fossil fuel emissions. Experts tell CNN these giant, carbon-removing machines are the next frontier to bring CO2 levels down.

    The Department of Energy on Thursday is releasing a notice of intent for developers for four direct air capture hubs — each capable of removing over a million tons of CO2 per year — using $3.5 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law. Removing 1 million tons of CO2 per year is equivalent to taking around 200,000 gas-powered cars off the road.

    We should be spending at least that much to investigate ghosts and other supernatural apparitions.

    You know… SCIENCE!

    • Drake

      Let’s jump-start a new ice age!

    • db

      Direct air carbon removal projects are like giant vacuum cleaners that suck planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air and lock it away. They use chemicals to remove the gas from the air and store it

      Shouldn’t the US Forestry Service be doing this?

    • db

      This is going to be a massive jobs boondoggle and will keep many chemical engineers employed for as long as the government can keep dumping money on this particular fire.

      • R.J.

        That is the correct assessment of this project. The only thing it will ever hoover up is dollars.

      • Not Adahn

        Pish tosh. There will be successful demos widely reported in the media!

        By the way, did you hear about the major milestone achieved in fusion power production?

      • db

        This?

        Sadly, scihub doesn’t have it yet.

    • creech

      Burying plastics in landfills also “stores carbon away” for long periods of time. Yet this is deemed “harmful” and legislation seeks to ban it.

      • Rebel Scum

        Also there is a plastic-eating enzyme (or something) now. So the plastic pollution problem is solved. Someone needs to tell the green weenies.

      • db

        Ask them what the products of reaction of the biodegradation of plastics (or any organic matter).

    • Rebel Scum

      Direct air carbon removal projects are like giant vacuum cleaners that suck planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air and lock it away.

      Sure. Remove the fundamental building block of life (which is already at historically low levels) from the atmosphere. What could go wrong?

    • kbolino

      Meanwhile I get love letters from the power company telling me to turn my thermostat “down” to 68.

      It was never set that high to begin with!

    • Rebel Scum

      Lizard person confirmed.

      • TARDis

        Second!

    • TARDis

      Lizard status confirmed.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      This might be the worst thing she has ever done.

    • KSuellington

      At this point through my work I have been in the houses and apartments of north of 30k people. There is an unusually strong correlation between how much I see wasted energy (lights left on, heat on super high with windows or doors open) and how many environmental messages I can note around the home.

    • Plisade

      “Nobody gave a shit when I told them I’m an idiot, so here’s proof.”

    • Not Adahn

      Shouldn’t she be out doxing someone?

  55. DEG

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday signed off on booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.

    Barf.

  56. Ted S.

    Daily Quordle 116
    7️⃣4️⃣
    5️⃣8️⃣
    quordle.com
    ⬜⬜?⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜??
    ⬜⬜?⬜⬜ ?⬜?⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜?⬜⬜ ????⬜
    ⬜⬜?⬜⬜ ?????
    ⬜?⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
    ?⬜?⬜? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
    ????? ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

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