Links of Saturday Morning

by | May 21, 2022 | Daily Links | 234 comments

That right there almost makes all the shit worth it. And yes he blew out his diaper earlier. In other news the car we ordered in January finally arrived. We are the proud owners of a Kia Car-NÉE-val. Mrs. L cringes every time I say it that way.

Russia is letting grain rot! World crisis! How many megatons of corn are turned into denatured alcohol each year?

Boeing finally launches their capsule. Maybe now the Feds will let SpaceX resume testing that big fucker.

Kid music today. From the Danga Zone!

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

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

234 Comments

  1. cavalier973

    “Russia blackmails the world”

    “Black grains the world is more like it, amirite?”

    • Fourscore

      Strange that we can boycott his POL but if they decides what to do with their own product it’s “Starving the World”. I agree that it sounds silly but maybe the people that want to buy it have no money, thanks to the big economic destruction caused by governments shutting down their own economies for reasons known only to politicians.

      • Ted S.

        In a truly free market, the actual growers probably wouldn’t be letting it rot.

      • Rat on a train

        Use the Defense Production Act to force people to grow and sell food.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Also, IIRC ethanol corn isn’t really suitable for human food – maybe animal feedstock. So it’d take the better part of a year to retool things properly.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Or fuel…

        Makes good vodka?

      • Fourscore

        Why not both, although it may not be good for car engines or the body, in too large of quantites

      • Drake

        Also weird that we stole $300 Billion of their Foreign Exchange Reserves and now they don’t want to trade with the west. Are they selfish or something?

      • Atanarjuat

        Of course PutinManBad is selfish, haven’t you heard of the scandal where he has a really long dining room table?

      • Chafed

        Nearly all of Ukraine’s grain gets sold to its near abroad i.e. eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. There is going to be starvation particularly in Africa. The idea they are letting it rot because there are no buyers is ridiculous.

    • rhywun

      “It quite literally provides the poor nations of the world with their daily bread – without which their populations can either starve, riot or overthrow their governments.”

      You need to diversify your grains, nigga.

  2. cavalier973

    “Starliner“?

    Like, it has a 25 hour buffet of dried ice cream and a casino on deck 3?

    • cavalier973

      That extra hour is for continually crossing the international date line

  3. cavalier973

    It’s nice to have this place to myself, even if only for a few minutes.

    ECHO!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      HA HA!

    • Fourscore

      Sometimes you just get lucky, ’73.

      • cavalier973

        And sometimes I have to switch to frosted flakes

      • SDF-7

        Well, they’re only “frosted” after you get “lucky”.

      • cavalier973

        It’s funny, because it’s true

    • SDF-7

      So of us are just too verbose for a quick response.

      • cavalier973

        “I’m not a Sesquipedalian! I was born right here in this country!”

      • Rat on a train

        Can’t respond before I quordle or something.

  4. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Russia blockades Ukraine ports….

    Now do Yemen.

    • Sean

      I don’t want monkey pox.

      • robodruid

        Comrade, monkey pox wants you!

    • Brawndo

      Yemeni’s aren’t white so it doesn’t matter

      • Atanarjuat

        For the 5 minutes that Ukraine was the Current Thing, it was amusing to watch my lefty FB friends pretend to be antiwar after snoozing through Syria, Yemen, Somalia, etc when all of a sudden blue-eyed white kids are dying.

  5. The Late P Brooks

    Vladimir Putin, history’s greatest monster.

    We need some good caricatures of Putin amid the smoldering rubble of the world, devouring babies.

    • cavalier973

      Have him holding a sandwich just out of the reach of a starving orphan

    • SDF-7

      Yeah, I’m sure there are plenty of the Kaiser that can be repurposed. Boy did that propaganda campaign work — the man was no saint, and certainly not the diplomat he thought he was — but 100 years later and most people still think the Imperial German Army acted just like the Nazis.

      • Rat on a train

        He was on the wrong side of the war “to make the world safe for democracy”. If Germany had won the victors would have expanded their empires.

      • juris imprudent

        the victors would have expanded their empires.

        Allow me to introduce you to Messrs Sykes and Picot (and their bosses Lloyd-George and Clemenceau).

      • Rat on a train

        I’m glad somebody know history.

      • Brawndo

        Those spiky helmets didn’t do them any favors. Unless they were trying to protect themselves from an Italian plumber

      • Chafed

        Thread winner.

  6. cavalier973

    CNN is reporting that Robby Mook is reporting that Hillary knew about, and even started, the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

    #HillaryforPrison is trending on Twitter (started, I believe, by catturd)

    • Gustave Lytton

      CNN still can’t let go of it. Scare quotes around hoax at the bottom and

      There is no evidence to support Musk’s claim that Sussmann or the Clinton campaign peddled information they knew was untrue.

      Also ignored, why the Clinton campaign would even have access to and analysis of Trump’s purported internet traffic. Or of Alfa Bank. It’s like the Nixon administration publicly claiming they have information about Ellsberg’s psychiatric sessions. Not off the record, not anonymous leaks, but publicly discussing those and no one in the press asking why exactly they would have that information.

      • kbolino

        As with anything related to Clinton-mère, it always comes down to: we’re not malicious, we’re just incompetent. She didn’t know the ambassador would get killed, she didn’t know what “(C)” means at the beginning of a paragraph, and she just didn’t know that the lies she paid someone to come up with weren’t true.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        +1 cloth

      • Gustave Lytton

        Meanwhile any allegations about the 2020 elections are called Trump’s lies by CNN. Or anything else they wish to smear him about.

  7. Gender Traitor

    Awww! What a cutie!

    And the baby’s pretty adorable, too! ?

    (Love the “dad glasses!”)

      • rhywun

        Love that album ??

      • Gustave Lytton

        I can’t believe RS deadnamed John Mellencamp.

      • rhywun

        Well, the 2nd album is certainly better, but “terrible”? Oh, it’s Rolling Stone – of course they’re full of shit.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        (The ones from CVS, not Office Depot, that is. Très comfortable, if not especially picturesque.)

      • Gender Traitor

        Haven’t seen those. Are good old scrunchies oo-tray now? ?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I thought scrunchies were ¡Back! I don’t know who exactly makes the phone-cord ones, but you’re sure to run into them.

  8. SDF-7

    Morning Brett — baby snuggles do help make it all worth it. The rare hugs from a teenager when they aren’t trying to get something out of you are nice too.

    Maybe before all the politicians and professional crap stirrers go messing around in other countries and whatnot they should heed the old “It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.” quote. Yeah, yeah — old dead cis-het white dude slave owner. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t right.

    Also this from Sherman — I hadn’t actually heard the long version of it for some reason.

    Both quotes epitomize the political and journalist class that never seem to truly see or experience any outcomes from the crap they push — and think of war like a video game — all grand strategy (Civ) or missile / drone command.

    Anyway — enjoy the snuggles, have a good weekend all. I’m going to go try to find something to do that doesn’t increase my grumpy-old-man (yeah, I know I’m young relatively Fourscore… 😉 ) quotient. Quordle this morning definitely wasn’t that, but I’ll hold off on posting that until later to keep Brett’s responses clean.

    • Ted S.

      Cool song, Chump!

      • SDF-7

        Wasn’t a song, it was a quote. Try this again, Dangnabbit.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Heh. A staple of my summer camp’s songbook.

      • Tres Cool

        That one time at band camp, with the flute ?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        No! At least not me.

      • Gender Traitor

        This one maybe?
        /Presbyterian church youth group

      • Ted S.

        If you want to support their politics….

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Probably more organically compiled, but yeah, that type of thing.

    • Fourscore

      Seems like after the teenagers age out the hugs are more meaningful and more expensive

    • Spartacus

      My mother used to say that it’s important to remember how cute your babies are, because it’s the only thing that keeps you from killing them when they are teenagers.

  9. Not Adahn

    Gotta go shoot, be back later

    Daily Quordle 117
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    • SDF-7

      Well, fine… so much for holding off. 😉
      Daily Quordle 117
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      • trshmnstr the terrible

        *shrug*

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        QuordleBot’s score:
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    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 117
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      20. Not too shabby.

    • Rat on a train

      Daily Quordle 117
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    • Grosspatzer

      I’ll take a 22.

      Daily Quordle 117
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      • TARDis

        #metoo
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    • Grummun

      6 3
      5 7

    • Trigger Hippie

      4 6
      2 Just ahead of me

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Hey, TH! Hanging in there? OK if not.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Rent caught up. Gas bill paid and service restored. Electric bill paid. Phone bill paid. Water bill paid.

        I don’t come remotely close to deserving the generosity you people have shown me but I sure as hell appreciate it.

        Thank you for your concern and the help of everyone else here; financially and mentally. As I’ve said before: Y’all are my family and I love all deeply.

    • whiz

      Daily Quordle 117
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      Back in the groove again.

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 117
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      Meh.

    • MikeS

      @Hype; I have the in-laws coming over today. You’re going to have to cover for me today. I’ll take over tomorrow.

      • The Hyperbole

        But I was going to day drink today. Fine I’ll do it. Note to self – Never rely on a Sub-Canadian.

      • MikeS

        What do you think I’ll be doing?

      • MikeS

        That’s hilarious. ??

        But no. No.

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 117
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      • Ozymandias

        Daily Quordle 117
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        Proud of my top right guess, given what letters I had at the time.

      • Ozymandias

        Excuse me – top left.

    • one true athena

      Daily Quordle 117
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    • grrizzly

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  10. Sean

    Later.

    • cavalier973

      Are you in New Jersey, now?

  11. The Late P Brooks

    Presidential do-something-ism

    President Biden on Saturday passed a bill intended to expand access to baby formula for certain families amid a shortage in the United States after Congress passed the legislation earlier this week.

    Biden signed the Access to Baby Formula Act of 2022 while in Seoul during a four-day trip to Asia.

    Does it de-fund and abolish the FDA?

    • Grumbletarian

      Guaranteeing access to baby formula is one of those explicit powers granted to the federal government by the Constitution, yup yup.

    • Fourscore

      Biden Magic will see the costs of baby formula go up, thus limiting the market, poor people complain (and right fully so) and then are subsidized. The Smash-Grabbers find a lucrative side line and the only way to get the product is to shop the flea markets

    • Gustave Lytton

      The bill was passed by Congress Wednesday. Biden didn’t leave until Thursday. Why didn’t he sign it before he left? Or when he returned? Signing a bill while on a trip smacks of yet another cut rate stage prop distraction.

      • Tres Cool

        + needs more harrumph

    • Brawndo

      The bill *intends* to ameliorate the formula shortage, but what does it actually do? Will it actually do that?

      Everything I read about it is about WIC access to formula, but formula is nearly impossible to get even if you are willing to pay for it without gov assistance.

      • Grumbletarian

        The magic of Bidenomics will simply cause formula to appear on shelves, non-believer!

      • Count Potato

        I read $23M of the $28M goes to raising salaries.

      • Fourscore

        Babies don’t vote (yet) AFAIK

  12. Ted S.

    Daily Quordle 117
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  13. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of CNN, I was perusing the headlines at google news a few minutes ago, and was struck by the notion that William Randolph Hearst would have been proud to have CNN in his stable of mudslinging political agitators and propagandists.

    • cavalier973

      They should make a movie. “CNNizen Kane”

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        “Dear Wheeler: You provide the prose poems. I’ll provide the war.”

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Clicked too soon-

    Didn’t somebody at CNN just say they wanted to shift their focus away from opinion and “analysis” in the direction of factual reportage? I guess that program is still in the development phase.

    • cavalier973

      It will probably be aborted

      • Tres Cool

        But only in certain states.

      • Chafed

        ?

      • Rat on a train

        Don’t worry. You company will pay for your travel to a state where you can receive approved propaganda.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    As with anything related to Clinton-mère, it always comes down to: we’re not malicious, we’re just incompetent. She didn’t know the ambassador would get killed, she didn’t know what “(C)” means at the beginning of a paragraph, and she just didn’t know that the lies she paid someone to come up with weren’t true.

    *contemplates the monumental absurdity of Hillary Clinton in southern belle mode, coquettishly batting her eyes and saying, “Little ol’ me? Why, I had no idea!”*

      • Brawndo

        Hot sauce Hillary!

    • juris imprudent

      It’s a little easier if you picture her more like Tony Perkins dressed up as mother – since that’s more the underlying character.

  16. cavalier973

    Have a good day, chums.

    This person who claims to be the boss o’ me keeps threatening to set me on fire (I don’t remember the exact phrasing) if I don’t get off my phone and get to work.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Biden Magic will see the costs of baby formula go up, thus limiting the market, poor people complain (and right fully so) and then are subsidized. The Smash-Grabbers find a lucrative side line and the only way to get the product is to shop the flea markets

    Baby formula will replace laundry soap as the preferred form of ghetto scrip.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Biden on Wednesday invoked the Defense Production Act to require suppliers to “direct needed resources to infant formula manufacturers before any other customer who may have ordered that good.”

    The White House also announced the first flights would take place this weekend under its “Operation Fly Formula” to deliver roughly 1.5 million bottles worth of formula from Switzerland to Indiana for distribution.

    Good grief. What this nation needs more than anything right now is more vacuous grandstanding.

    • rhywun

      I wonder which nation we are going to groveling to during the next toilet paper shortage.

    • Gender Traitor

      “Operation Fly Formula” to deliver roughly 1.5 million bottles worth of formula from Switzerland to Indiana for distribution.

      Please give!

    • DrOtto

      Indiana is just going to smuggle guns to Chicago in those cans.

      • Chafed

        Stop giving Lightfoot ideas.

      • cavalier973

        I have an idea for a “Smokey and the Bandit “ reboot

      • Grumbletarian

        ? There’s a firearms embargo, but there’s gang wars in Chicago.
        We gotta get them armed no matter what is takes!
        ?

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Entangling alliances? We haz

    It’s not the first time there’s talks of kicking Turkey out of the alliance.

    The idea was first suggested in 2016 when Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan cracked down on the opposition after a failed coup. It was then brought up again in 2019 when Turkey invaded northeastern Syria. NATO allies reacted with horror and concern at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country, with Sweden and Finland imposing sanctions on Ankara that are still in place.

    At the time, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham suggested Turkey’s membership in NATO should have been suspended, if Turkish troops attacked the Kurdish forces who had helped the U.S. destroy the ISIS Caliphate.

    But the North Atlantic Treaty regulating NATO does not have an option to suspend or even expel members. But there’s the possibility to do something to the same effect when a member state persistently violates the principles contained in the pact—by failing to safeguard the freedom of its people, the country’s democracy and the rule of law. In that case, NATO members can unanimously decide to stop assisting that ally.

    But would NATO go as far in response to Turkey’s refusal to approve Finland and Sweden’s bid for membership?

    American historian and University of Michigan Professor of Political Science Ronald Grigor Suny thinks that it’s highly unlikely NATO would take such a drastic move that would completely alienate such a strategic ally.

    “Turkey has played an amazing strong hand all through the Cold War and at present because of its geographical location,” Suny told Newsweek. “So its placement in Istanbul along the straits in Anatolia, south of Russia and north of the Middle East, has made it far more important a strategic partner than a lot of states of greater population or greater importance in other ways.”

    What a shitshow.

  20. Grosspatzer

    Congrats on the new arrival, Brett! That is one cute kid. Takes after Mom?

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Suny thinks Erdoğan is well aware of the value Turkey brings to the alliance and is playing this card to obtain something out of Finland and Sweden’s membership.

    Inconceivable!

  22. l0b0t

    These moderns are so short-sighted. The Nordic nations should be encouraged to invade Turkey, so as to establish Varangian Byzantium and give the wicked Musselmen what for.

    • Grosspatzer

      Norsemen wouldn’t establish anything, just rape, pillage, and go home after improving the genetic diversity of the local population.

      • Brawndo

        Have you seen Turkish women?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Uhh, when was Tarran last seen, SOW?

      • Grosspatzer

        Yes. Yes I have. That is why the Lord in His infinite wisdom gave us mead.

  23. TARDis

    the value Turkey brings to the alliance

    A staging point for invasion or short/medium range nukes?

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Listen to the man. Him heap smart.

    Climate change is such an overwhelming and systemic problem, it’s easy to feel there’s nothing one individual can do to fight it.

    But Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates gave some concrete suggestions in an online question and answer session on Reddit on Thursday.

    Buy climate-friendly products to help drive costs down
    As a consumer, if you opt to buy more expensive products that contribute less carbon emissions, it may feel like a drop in the bucket. But if enough people buy those products, it will drive demand, leading to larger scale and pushing down the price of those climate conscious options, he said.

    “As green products come out like electric cars or synthetic meat or heat pumps for home heating/cooling they will cost a bit extra. By buying these products you drive scaling up which will lead to lower prices so ‘green premiums’ are reduced,” Gates said on Reddit.

    I, for one, don’t fly to Davos to glad-hand a bunch of tinpot wannabe dictators.

    I’m doing my part.

    • Grosspatzer

      “As green products come out like electric cars or synthetic meat or heat pumps”

      Bill’s really rocking those euphemisms.

    • Atanarjuat

      He’s an expert on all things sciencey.

    • TARDis

      I call on the USAF to do it’s part to combat climate change… by shooting down all private jets. The USN can do it’s part by sinking all yachts.

    • Chafed

      Because he got so much right about covid.

      • DrOtto

        They got the reaction they wanted and got to sterilize a bunch of people in the process. He got exactly what he wanted out covid, even though he knew it was bullshit.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Come back, Steve Jobs?

    • rhywun

      The wealthy need to show the poors the way. Before we have to force them.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Curious to know what Bill Gates monthly utility payment looks like.

      Sanctimonious twat.

      • Fourscore

        Corporate write off maybe, so it’s free and not a problem.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    In addition to supporting new green industries, individuals can help combat climate change by influencing the companies where they work and voting for elected officials who will prioritize climate policies, Gates said.

    In his Reddit answer, Gates linked to a 2021 blog post which excerpted a chapter from his book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” where he emphasized importance of voting, which, unlike buying green products, does not require spending money.

    What are the odds this vapid cretin could survive a week on his own in the wilds of Flyoverstan?

  26. l0b0t

    Kickin’ like Bruce Lee’s Chinese Connection

    Daily Quordle 117
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  27. Sensei

    WASHINGTON — In a sign of growing concern among federal health officials about the spread of new coronavirus infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now saying that all people 50 or older should get a second booster shot if at least four months have passed since their first booster dose.

    Step right up…

  28. The Late P Brooks

    It’s impossible to ignore that Gates is one of the wealthiest people in the world, and with his big homes and private jets, he’s a heavy carbon emitter, and he acknowledges that. He said in his 2021 blog post that he offsets his emissions and considers his investment in climate innovations an antidote of sorts to his high emissions.

    Your sins can be absolved, too. Pay the priests on the way out.

    • R C Dean

      “He offsets his emissions”

      How, exactly? What are his total annual carbon emissions, and exactly how much carbon is removed from the atmosphere by these offsets?

      Show your work.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Eh, I got yer high emissions right here. ?

      • Trigger Hippie

        How much natural resources were used to build his homes and businesses? How much carbon was released by those people to create said businesses and homes? How many working class people did it require to construct them? How much of the money he payed those people go towards paying for basic utilities? How much did those people spend to purchase food created by “non sustainable” practices?

        Until he buys a small plot of land, builds a mud hut and becomes a sustenance farmer he can piss off.

  29. juris imprudent

    This may become the textbook definition of too clever by half.

    In putting Mook on the stand, the defense wanted an assertion from the highest official in the Clinton campaign that the campaign would not have approved Sussmann’s bringing the information to the FBI. Mook delivered, and further elaborated that Hillary Clinton herself approved the leak to the media. This supports the defense theme that the Clinton campaign wanted the Trump–Russia collusion narrative to be a media-driven story, not an FBI investigation.

    Based on that, the defense hopes the jurors will say to themselves, “Gee, maybe Sussmann wasn’t representing the Clinton campaign after all.”

    • R C Dean

      Not that it matters, because DC jury, but:

      (1) Mook just testified that Hillary knew about and approved the distribution of the Russia collusion hoax.

      (2) Mook did not testify that Hillary knew nothing about Sussmann going to the FBI.

      (3) Sussmann frickin’ billed Hillary for going to the FBI. So she knew he went.

      (4) If he got this information as part of his representation of the Hillary campaign, it was privileged. Taking it to the FBI without the consent of his client is a breach of that privilege. So, his defense apparently is that he breaks his client’s trust and violates their privilege by taking their information to the cops? Sure you wanna go with that?

      • Chafed

        Item 2 is really the key. As for 4, after that DOJ attorney who altered an email submitted to the FISA court was not sanctioned by the bar, it appears Sussman has nothing to worry about.

      • Gustave Lytton

        3) did he personally bill Hillary or was it to the campaign, which will say they got thousands of invoice and wage requests and did not know the specific details others than Mook claimed it was campaign related.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Yesterday, the topic of Frank Sinatra movies came up. I just remembered this one.
    Not especially well known, but as I recall it was pretty good.

  31. Atanarjuat

    I got so obliterated last night I apparently spilled vodka everywhere and passed out on a pile of folded laundry on my couch. Now I have to take my son for a preplanned bike ride with a splitting headache. I think I need to lay off for a while.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Vodka is a laundry deodorant*, so you’re grand! But maybe yeah.

      *srsly, costumers’ trick in spray bottles, apparently

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      And scarf some aspirin a/o candy?

    • Trigger Hippie

      Pedialyte, dude.

      • R.J.

        Didn’t he get threatened by gangsters for that?

  32. Sensei

    Boeing. The lobbying company that makes airplanes and rockets.

    However, Boeing will not, in the short term, be able to tap into any non-NASA business as SpaceX has, launching two missions of private citizens to orbit in the past year. For one, Boeing’s vehicle is considerably more expensive. In 2019, the NASA inspector general estimated that NASA is paying $90 million for each Starliner seat while a seat on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon costs $55 million.

    In addition, Boeing does not have access to the rockets needed to fly Starliner missions beyond what NASA requires. Currently, the spacecraft launches on top of an Atlas 5 rocket built by United Launch Alliance. But the Atlas 5 is propelled by Russian-built RD-180 engines. In 2016, Congress decided to require that RD-180s be phased out. Boeing has enough Atlas 5 rockets to fulfill its obligations to NASA — the crewed test flight and six operational flights — but no more.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/science/starliner-boeing-nasa-dock.html

  33. Mojeaux

    Love that song.

    • Chafed

      Nothing says prison tattoo like one right below the eye.

  34. Count Potato

    “Elon Musk tweets that he’ll give YouTube co-founder a horse if he touches his ‘wiener’ after mockingly dubbing claims he sexually harassed private jet stewardess then paid her $250K hush money ‘Elongate'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10839355/Elon-Musk-tweets-hell-ex-YouTube-CEO-horse-touches-wiener.html

    “Tesla stock is down almost 45% since January as the one-time golden child of Wall Street plummets amid owner Elon Musk’s outing as Republican, his sexual harassment scandal and Twitter dalliance”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10839291/Tesla-stock-45-January.html

    • rhywun

      outing as Republican

      O.F.F.S.

    • The Last American Hero

      How else is a well off white girl going to score intersectionality points when all she has going for her is “no penis”? She can’t change her race or how much her parents earn.

    • Chafed

      Let’s hope so.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Whoops

    Harley’s statement, posted on Thursday to the company’s website, is short and sweet. This does not appear to be a supply chain issue, like what we’ve seen impacting automakers for months now, but rather a problem with a piece of equipment that Harley purchases from a third-party supplier. Harley’s statement in its entirety:

    Yesterday, Harley-Davidson, Inc. (“Harley-Davidson”) (NYSE:HOG) took the decision to suspend all vehicle assembly and shipments (excluding LiveWire) for a two-week period. This decision, taken out of an abundance of caution, is based on information provided by a third-party supplier to Harley-Davidson late on Tuesday (5/17) concerning a regulatory compliance matter relating to the supplier’s component part.

    The note that LiveWire electric models are excluded hints at a serious problem specific to Harley’s gasoline-powered motorcycles. The mention of a “regulatory compliance matter” would seem to point toward a problem with an emissions-related device. When reached by Jalopnik, Harley-Davidon did not offer any further comment on the matter.

    Those things’ll kill ya.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Voting is compulsory for adult citizens and 92% of registered voters cast ballots at the last election.

      You will endorse the regime.

    • Fatty Bolger

      We’re suffering economically, so let’s put the irrational greenies in charge to make it even worse. Brilliant.

    • rhywun

      It’s helpful that the various flavors of leftism get to combine and fuck you over even harder than just one party would.

  36. Count Potato

    Today in everything is Gamergate:

    “The narrative of the trial has been shaped in part by what appears to be, according to multiple researchers, an army of bots spreading rhetoric favorable to Depp. One researcher found more bots favorable to Heard, but said most of those bots were from third-party apps trying to capitalize on the trial; meanwhile, they found the highest pro-Depp bot post was shared nearly 20,000 times. The work of those bots has been further amplified by “men’s rights activists” — the part of the far-right-leaning extremist “manosphere” that seems to have decided discrediting Amber Heard is the key to destroying every woman who accuses men of abuse or domestic violence….

    The Depp-Heard trial has refined the Gamergate playbook in a way that will haunt us for years to come. It has proven to extremists that if you rally around the right beloved public figure or institution, blanket them in a protective sphere of outrage and misinformation, and weaponize fandom culture — already so prone to ideological radicalization and irrational groupthink — you can successfully push whatever media narrative you want into the mainstream.”

    https://twitter.com/voxdotcom/status/1527695735591952384

    https://www.vox.com/culture/23131538/johnny-depp-amber-heard-tiktok-snl-extremism

    • Count Potato

      Then there is this thread:

      “I feel like calling Gamergate “Gamergate” relegates it to the domain of gaming, when really it was the kickoff of basically all the awful things in media, social media, culture, tech, and business that are still going on today….”

      https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1527669493203337216

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Well she’s a horrible human being who would happily load people into freight cars for their own good.

        And the whole thing we see now with issues like “free speech” and “medical freedom” being weaponized by fascists? During Gamergate, it was “ethics in gaming journalism.” GG taught them how to play the media by hiding really hideous movements behind a facade of respectability.

        Perhaps if the Left hadn’t politicized everyfuckingthing, there wouldn’t be a reactionary backlash. Or did they not think all those calls to make “The Personal The Political” and to rant at Uncle Steve at the Thanksgiving dinner table to not have any impact on broader society?

        Assholes. All of them. Just self-righteous assholes that can’t leave anybody or anything alone.

      • juris imprudent

        Or did they not think

        Nope, they don’t think at all. If they screech emotionally at you, you are to fall on your face and confess your sins.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Studying mis/disinformation, cognitive security, mediated communication, & crises.

        WTF is cognitive security? And why does it give me the urge to go check all my mags to make sure they’re loaded?

      • Count Potato

        Apparently, it’s applying AI to computer security, but I doubt that’s what she means.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Far right extremists are just jumping at the chance to defend Hollywood leftist Johnny Depp. Makes sense.

  37. LCDR_Fish

    Got to gourmeltz a few min early. Plenty of seating this early.

  38. Sensei

    For a change the cop isn’t lying.

    “In the meantime, this stop is being formally reviewed to ensure there were no policy violations and legally reviewed to ensure no applicable law was followed. ”

    https://www.libertyso.org/official-statement/

    • juris imprudent

      This was part of an interdiction detail on the interstate.

      War on Drugs baby.

    • R C Dean

      legally reviewed to ensure no applicable law was followed

      Hey! Get out of my confidential files!

  39. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The perverts seem to be asking for it.

    A school board director in Washington state plans to host a “Queer Youth Open Mic Night” at a sex shop she owns and has invited all children aged “0 to 18 years old” to attend.

    Yes, really.

    Jenn Mason, a member of the Bellingham Public Schools board of directors, will hold the June 1st event at her WinkWink Boutique in Bellingham.

    “Come share and hold space for this celebration and stage for young queer voices in our community,” states a Facebook post advertising the event, encouraging all children aged “0 to 18 years old” to attend.

    Mason’s WinkWink sex shop asserts, “We believe that normalizing, accepting and affirming all bodies, identities and gender experiences is an inherently political act. Pleasure is our revolution.”

    Mason also offers “sex coaching” to help couples achieve orgasms and advertises how she can help clients in “pleasing yourself or a partner.”

    https://summit.news/2022/05/20/school-board-director-plans-queer-night-for-children-hosted-inside-sex-shop/

    • Count Potato

      At this point they are just trolling.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They should be concerned about what they’re going to hook on their line.

    • juris imprudent

      is an inherently political act. Pleasure is our revolution.

      Sure thing groomer.

  40. Fourscore

    Would a celebration of straightness be an acceptable platform?

    “We’re hosting a heterosexual coming out party down at the local club. Almost everyone welcome”

    • The Last American Hero

      No, just like all-white fraternities, dorms, or virtual belonging communities in the workplace.

    • Tundra

      Wonderful.

      Thanks!

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Testing, testing…

    • rhywun

      This thing is on.

      • Ted S.

        Is it the thing that goes up?

    • Ted S.

      I’m guessing the site was down again?

      Dirdnt notice, since I’m busy with real life.

  42. Gender Traitor

    So…

    This my review of Lipton Citrus iced green tea.

    Light, not too sweet, with almost enough slight tartness. Just the thing for a hot, humid, not-quite-summer day.

    • Gender Traitor

      Whaddaya think? Too much review? Not enough tangent?

      • Ted S.

        I didn’t sine on to drink iced green tea.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Second one, throw in a digression on Tranquility Base and link it to drinking iced tea there. Done and done.

      • Gender Traitor

        I’ll save that for my review of International Delight Mocha Light iced coffee.

      • Chafed

        Just the right amount of tangent.

      • rhywun

        Well, what’s the rating?

      • Gender Traitor

        7 out of 4.

        Math is hard!

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Not enough tangent?

    Needz moar gender justice.

    • Gender Traitor

      As far as I’m concerned, gender justice would be not having to shave my legs.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    I’m busy with real life.

    I used to have one of those, I think.

  45. Chafed

    Did MS get drunk on his beer of the week?

    • Swiss Servator

      It was mistimed…it is up now.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    gender justice would be not having to shave my legs.

    When I was in high school (1971 thereabouts) the older sister of one of my friends was home from college (I forget where she went), and she came to the lake in her bikini one afternoon when we were there. She only shaved her legs to an inch or two above her knees, because that’s all people could see when she was wearing her waitress uniform. It was weird at first, but it made perfect sense. She was blonde, so the hair on her thighs was pale and downy and almost invisible except when the sun hit it. It probably helped prepare me for the militant sisterhood faction at Colorado College, which featured a few girls with legs hairier than mine.

    And it definitely didn’t interfere with my lurid and highly specific fantasies about her. she was a BABE.

  47. Evan from Evansville

    Terrible, Terrible. Fuck.
    My fucked up life continues to further fucked. In hospit w a fucking broken femur. Some asshole punched me and I fell.
    Nightmarish pain. indescribable. Fuuuuuck this shit.

    Terrible, Terrible. Fuck.
    My fucked up life continues to further fucked. In hospit w a fucking broken femur. Some asshole punched me and I fell.
    Nightmarish pain. indescribable. Fuuuuuck this shit.

    Gets worse. Fracture is near my titanium hip. There is a small, but reas, possibility that I’ll need a replacement. VERY small chance, but real. Gotta be assessed on Mon.

    I hate all of this. I was supposed to play goodbye show on Sat and this was on Fri. This is not the goodbye I wanted, and I’ll have to stay here longer. Can’t travel w my life w a hurt femur.

    FUCK.

    A go fund me will be created soon.