Saturday Morning Links

by | May 14, 2022 | Daily Links | 247 comments

Last weekend of being The Answer (42). FML, but there’s always a kid in front of me. Or its time to work or sleep. I wouldn’t trade it for much. Maybe a long-term slot in one of those monasteries where everyone has a vow of silence. Am I wrong that your brain freezes at 19-22? After that you have more experience, and your physical body changes, but there’s still that same stupid sumbitch inside my head. Although, I was going to take my kids to a McDonalds about three months ago and some actual 16-19 year old kid got shitty because they wanted him to use the kiosk, and I just grabbed my two older boys and we went somewhere else. Florida (young) man shouting profanity in the McDs is something I don’t need anymore. “Fuck it, we’re going to Chik-Fil-A.”

Imagine how bad off the President must be that the treatment isn’t working. Or maybe they should try young humans instead of young mice (H/T Heroic Mulatto)

I am shocked. Shocked. That poor children learned more at in person schools than remote. Its almost like their parents have priorities (like feeding the kids and paying rent) besides making sure little Johnny gets to the Zoom class.

I don’t recall the BSA offering a Master at Arms merit badge by the time I got there in the ’90s. And I guaran-damn-tee, I’d have gone for it.

I can think of all sorts of fun things do with this tech. (Totally not teledildonics. I regret not following my instinct to get into that field 10 years ago. I’d be Elon rich)

I dunno, I’m a sucker for shit like this.

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.

247 Comments

  1. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Covfefe, Home slice!

  2. Tres Cool

    “I regret not following my instinct to get into that field 10 years ago. I’d be Elon rich”

    Tres Sr’s only stock tip I listened to 20+ years ago….”What the fuck is an Amazon? You’re going to invest your money in some hippie that’s selling old books from his garage? May as well take your cash and set it on fire.”

    • Ted S.

      One word: Plastics.

      • cavalier973

        With the Supremes about to kill abortion, latex might be the smart play.

      • The Last American Hero

        And they make coat hangers out of plastic too, so either way your bet is covered.

    • Fourscore

      I must be your Dad. Having been in the book/record business I failed to understand his concept of inventory. I was thinking warehouses plus the impossibility of inventory accumulation. I was truly behind the curve.

  3. rhywun

    That poor children learned more at in person schools than remote.

    The fallout from that – among many other things – is only just beginning.

    • Chafed

      It’s okay. The colleges are eliminating standardized tests. Right now their is a move afoot to kill the LSAT. The Handicapper General couldn’t be prouder.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        The initial move (accepting GRE in lieu of LSAT) wasn’t horrible. As with all prog infested areas, though, the rot began quickly.

  4. Rat on a train

    Record Jet Suit Mountain Ascent
    3,100ft is not a mountain.

  5. The Late P Brooks

    What the fuck is an Amazon?

    Seriously. He should have named it “Yangtze”.

    • rhywun

      Or Hwang Ho.

      • Tres Cool

        I hate that I dont mind Orinoco.

      • Rat on a train

        I did not know of bardcore music.

      • Tres Cool

        “Hildegard Von Blingin” is a broad Id drink with.

      • rhywun

        Enya is a guilty pleasure.

      • Tres Cool

        I feel the same way about Amy Lee.

        /sobs quietly to self after climax and goes to sleep

      • Rat on a train

        I do have a collection of her albums, Clannad’s and her sister Moya’s.

      • Rat on a train

        Aniron
        Enya singing in elvish.

    • C. Anacreon

      I’ve always thought Amazon was one of the best brand names ever. Because not only does it conjure images of mighty female warriors, but also a huge river, and its flow could be an analogy for moving products to you in a measurable flow. But best was, by adding a little curved arrow under the name, you see that they have everything from A to Z. Really brilliant, and so much better than just about every other company name created in the recent era.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Yeah, I remember seeing that he wanted something that started with an A, and evoked something very big. If you remember, they really pushed the “world’s biggest book store” angle. The fact that it ended with a Z just made it even better.

      • slumbrew

        Amazon ends with Z?

      • MikeS

        The little smile/arrow under the word runs from A to Z

      • slumbrew

        Yes, yes, just being a pedant.

        It’s a pretty good logo.

        But it’s not like the Fed Ex logo – once you see the arrow, you can’t un-see it.

      • MikeS

        Yeah, the FedEx logo is a cool design. It’s almost a little too subtle. I was one of the many that had to have it pointed out to me.

      • slumbrew

        Same – didn’t see it for years, now it’s all I can see when I look at the logo.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Ugh. Well, you know what I meant.

  6. Rufus the Monocled

    My God.

    The FDA.
    Fauci.
    Biden.
    Pharma.
    And the Canadian government.
    Etc.

    It never ends.

    • Tres Cool

      I worked all night. Don’t start your metric shit, Muppet.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Please convert into kilometres. Your comment doesn’t compute.

      • Tres Cool

        Any time I see your gasoline in liters, it makes my ass hurt.

      • Count Potato

        The nozzle is supposed to go into the filler neck of the tank.

      • Chafed

        Good advice.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    I watched the Guy Ritchie Man From UNCLE movie last night. Not bad, not bad.

    • Tres Cool

      /investigates

  8. The Late P Brooks

    With the Supremes about to kill abortion, latex might be the smart play.

    Don’t be ridiculous. All forms of birth control will be banned. Childless women will be punished for their impertinence and lack of devotion to the Motherland.

    • cavalier973

      Eh. They will probably send all the condoms to Ukraine, anyway.

  9. cavalier973

    “Two days after she made bacon for her family, ‘I looked like I had been in a massive fight. I was almost anaphylactic. My brother rushed me to the urgent care,’ Scott said.

    ‘The aftermath of diagnosis has been a horror show,’ Scott said.”

    Joe Biden’s America, everyone.

    They’re blaming ticks, but it wouldn’t surprise me that a certain popular medical treatment is the true cause of this.

    https://www.westernjournal.com/10-million-americans-may-bizarre-disease-making-allergic-meat-may-not-realize/

    • Ted S.

      The first cases of Alpha-gal syndrome were reported in 2002. What “popular medical treatment” came out just before those?

      • cavalier973

        I did a quick search, but can’t find anything that leaps out at me as, you know, “Oh, *that* medical treatment”.

      • Tres Cool

        Penis enhancement ?

    • Tres Cool

      “You May Not Realize You Have It”

      HOLY SHIT…..

      • Tres Cool

        Im kinda drunk but I did the maths…..say there’s 340M people in the US, and 10M have it.
        Lets see…..10M/340M….add the 1 thing, carry the other.
        ERMAGHERD! 2.9% of Americans. I hope Im in the other 97%.

  10. cavalier973

    I’ve been seeing reports that the World Health Organization is about to be given extra powers to interfere in national affairs, if a health emergency is declared.

    • Sean

      I ain’t even worried about those commie rat fuckers.

    • Chafed

      I thought InfoWars went was silenced?

  11. The Late P Brooks

    Trust is for chumps

    “I do think what happened at the court is tremendously bad,” Thomas said. “I wonder how long we’re going to have these institutions at the rate we’re undermining them, and then I wonder when they’re gone or they are destabilized, what we’ll have as a country — and I don’t think that the prospects are good if we continue to lose them.”

    We must sweep away the detritus of the past, and erect in its place a brave new world of enlightenment.

    • rhywun

      The opinion is not expected to be issued until late June.

      Plenty of time for riot-prep!

      • Sean

        Gotta rent those uhauls, make shields, and schedule brick deliveries.

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      Cambodia nods and smiles.

    • Sean

      What is the best way to start a dumpster fire? Does Antifa have a handbook?

      • Tres Cool
      • Tres Cool

        Employees at work always ask me “you OK?”
        I say “Is 7 up”?

    • l0b0t

      I predict it will be as good as Littlekenny

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Go ahead and secede

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday pledged to use the state’s record-breaking $300 billion budget, including an unprecedented nearly $100 billion surplus, to “future proof” the state from the impacts of a volatile midterm election cycle that he fears will undermine abortion access, gun safety and privacy protections across the country.

    The first-term governor of the nation’s most populous state — and a potential Democratic presidential candidate — used his budget presentation on Friday to prop up his progressive credentials while attacking his rivals in conservative states.

    He trumpeted major increases in spending on health care, education, child care and the environment while also pledging to spend $125 million to make it easier for women to get abortions in California, including those from other states.

    ——-

    California’s projected $97.5 billion budget surplus is unlike anything seen before at the state level and is fueled by soaring tax revenue. It is larger than the entire operating budgets of nearly every other state.

    The unceasing flow of tax money prompted California Republicans — who don’t have enough numbers in the state Legislature to have much influence — to complain about high taxes reducing quality of life.

    “He did not propose any permanent tax relief to deal with a worsening affordability crisis exacerbated by his policies,” said Republican Vince Fong, vice chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. “The Governor may not want to acknowledge it, but California is in crisis and his budget is unsustainable.”

    Newsom said the surging revenues are “a sign of how well a number of people are doing in this economy” and a reflection of the “concentration of wealth and success in the hands of a few.”

    Show the world what Paradise looks like. Redistribute all that wealth and success to the more deserving. Throw off the shackles of capitalism and reimagine society as just and perfectly equitable. You can do it.

    • Sean

      Let’s go loot some Walgreens.

    • rhywun

      a reflection of the “concentration of wealth and success in the hands of a few.”

      Interesting admission of what Democrat policies are designed to achieve, that.

    • kbolino

      I’d love to see a non-media-approved explanation of how exactly the government of the state with the highest emigration rates in the country managed to magically fall into this wondrous surplus.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Failed gas tax repeal?

        (IDHAA)

      • Chafed

        California is heavily dependent on its wealthiest citizens for revenue. When Silicon Valley does well, particularly when lock up periods expire, there is a gusher of revenue. When SV catches a cold, the state gets pneumonia.

      • rhywun

        See also: NY and Wall Street.

      • kbolino

        I guess then the underlying explanation is the massive transfer/inflation of wealth from the bottom to the top that transpired during the “pandemic”.

      • Chafed

        Exactly. Those soaring FAANG stock prices were good for our budget. This year looks like it will be different.

      • R C Dean

        I don’t think its a mystery. Its COVID relief money.

      • Chafed

        That too.

    • Rat on a train

      California’s projected $97.5 billion budget surplus is unlike anything seen before at the state level and is fueled by soaring tax revenue
      Including tax revenue from federal taxpayers who funded stimulus spending to states and municipalities.

    • whiz

      He should spend the money to build more continuous power plants to avoid the inevitable brownouts.

      • Rat on a train

        People don’t need power during warm nights.

  13. Rat on a train

    Florida church to hold ‘pride conference’ with drag show for high schoolers

    The program for the conference includes a drag show “from some of our local drag queens,” several presentations on mental health issues for gay and transgender individuals, a presentation on “sexuality and science” by an evolutionary biologist, a presentation on “inclusive sex education” by a representative from Planned Parenthood, and a presentation on political activism and advocacy.

    It a secular denomination, the United Church of Christ.

    • Sean

      More like a sexular denomination.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      A church in Naples, Florida, will host a “youth pride conference” next week for children ages 12 to 18 that will include a drag show and a presentation on political activism.

      That’s the real travesty.

      • rhywun

        You’d think they get enough of that during the school day.

      • Chafed

        Can there ever be enough? I don’t know how you stay gay without government and church support.

      • Rat on a train

        private charities?

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Newsom’s budget presentation comes as the state is in the throes of a deepening drought and as state energy officials warn of possible power shortages during the summer when air conditioning is at its peak.

    The governor has called for people to cut their water use by 15%, but consumption went up dramatically in March. Newsom wants to spend more money to encourage conservation, provide loans to struggling drinking water systems and boost water recycling. It includes $75 million for grants to farms and businesses hurt by drought.

    Meanwhile, he’s calling for $5 billion to create a 5,000-megawatt “strategic reserve” of energy to help the state avoid blackouts. One megawatt can power 750 to 1,000 homes.

    Newsom’s budget document included limited details on how that reserve would be built, but he has indicated he’s open to the possibility of keeping the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility online past its planned closure in 2025, as well as some gas-fired power plants that are set to retire.

    Just as long as gender affirming medical treatments are free and readily available, who cares if you have clean socks?

    • Ted S.

      Meanwhile, he’s calling for $5 billion to create a 5,000-megawatt “strategic reserve” of energy to help the state avoid blackouts.

      So, giant flywheels?

      • Chafed

        That’s actually an excellent question. I’m sure Newsom will follow the science.

    • rhywun

      In 2014, 67 percent of California voters approved Proposition 1 to fund water storage projects. Eight years later, not a single project has begun construction. Meanwhile, in Southern California, a proposed desalination plant in Huntington Beach that could produce 60,000 acre-feet per year of freshwater from the ocean has been held up by a mostly hostile bureaucracy and litigation for over 20 years.

      We must do something. Throwing more money at the problem is something.

      • Rat on a train

        But the historic achievements of earlier generations of Californians to supply this new civilization with enough water to thrive have not been matched in recent years.

        California is focused on its magic choo-choo. They can deal with lesser concerns when that is complete.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Another project that will never finish.

      • Chafed

        When did you become our governor?

      • C. Anacreon

        The only major water effort in the last 20 years was a proposal to drain the Hetch Hetchy reservoir near Yosemite, which supplies almost all of San Francisco’s water, to restore its scenic beauty. Because California has plenty of warer, but a lack of beautiful mountain valleys? (There are countless beautiful mountain vistas in the state, with most parks barely visited as it is). Thankfully it failed, but the fact it got that far was disturbing.

      • Gustave Lytton

        As if the drained reservoir would look just like an Ansel Adams photo.

      • slumbrew

        Dude from that de-sal project called into Carolla the other day (hoping for some citizen support at a Coastal Commission meeting).

        25 years. $100 million spent. Still not done with the permitting.

        The dude started on the project when he was in his 20’s. His two young sons were on an early brochure; one is a senior in college and the other is in his 30s now.

        This last Coastal Commission permit is supposed to be the final hurdle.

        *checks*

        Oh, and of course they rejected it.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        The sad part is that we’re going to have to take in the refugees when this BS inevitably bites them in the ass.

    • Rat on a train

      It’s the big one!

      • hayeksplosives

        I’m coming, Elizabeth!

  15. The Late P Brooks
    • trshmnstr the terrible

      *sigh*

      Of course they challenge the prog-fascist idiocy with their own form of idiocy. Stupid party doing stupid party things.

      • kbolino

        Unless and until Texas can single-handedly disband BlackRock or dissolve the NYSE, I don’t see how this qualifies as “stupid”. There might be particular tactics which would be more effective, but reminding the companies that their cozy relationship with the Federales does not necessarily translate into a cozy relationship with the state governments seems like a fair power play to me.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I’d rather them do something like banning special tax treatment for companies that censor people, akin to the Disney kerfuffle. I don’t like putting laws on the books that further beat the dead horse that is freedom of association.

      • kbolino

        Freedom of association is for individuals, not government-NGO-corporate hegemonic hybrids.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Fair point. It feels like a heads they win, tails we lose situation.

      • Chafed

        Trashy gets it.

      • R C Dean

        Unfortunately, they have to work around the CDA’s immunity (as applied). There’s no question in my mind that the socials have crossed the line from platform to publisher, but the federales don’t see it that way. I would prefer a much narrower definition of platform. Once exposed to defamation suits for the content they allow/publish, they will run toward being true platforms again. But states can’t do that, so . . . .

        Given that, what better option did Texas have? Maybe go after the TOS as a contract of adhesion, and allow lawsuits for interfering with people’s posts on that basis somehow?

      • Chafed

        I agree with the first part of your comment. They have become publishers. That’s where to fight the battle.

    • Count Potato

      “”Texas’s law makes it illegal for any social media platform with 50 million or more US monthly users to “block, ban, remove, deplatform, demonetize, de-boost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to, or otherwise discriminate against expression.””

      Without exception?

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Oops. Another tag mishap.

  17. Sean

    Daily Quordle 110
    6️⃣4️⃣
    5️⃣7️⃣
    quordle.com

    • SDF-7

      Daily Quordle 110
      4️⃣5️⃣
      6️⃣7️⃣

    • whiz

      Daily Quordle 110
      6️⃣5️⃣
      4️⃣7️⃣
      quordle.com
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    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 110
      4️⃣5️⃣
      6️⃣8️⃣

    • grrizzly

      3️⃣6️⃣
      7️⃣8️⃣

  18. The Late P Brooks

    several presentations on mental health issues for gay and transgender individuals

    How many of those “presentations” are about just living your life on your own terms, without feeling compelled to shove it in other people’s faces and demand their enthusiastic support and affirmation?

    • Chafed

      I’ll take none for $200.

      • TARDis

        We’ve come along way from “Stay out of my bedroom!”, haven’t we?

  19. l0b0t

    Good morning you wonderful people.

    Feh…

    Daily Quordle 110
    3️⃣8️⃣
    7️⃣5️⃣
    quordle.com
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  20. DrOtto

    Regarding the jet suit – Sherpa’s union hardest hit.

    • Rat on a train

      No need to make it a federal case. A lynch mob should be able to take care of it.

      • hayeksplosives

        Ignoring them would be the worst form of punishment for them.

    • hayeksplosives

      Is it now grammatically correct to say “Theyvis out of their damned mind”?

      Because I’m not going to use plural with these idiots.

      • hayeksplosives

        “They is”

        Grrr

      • Chafed

        Should be they are. Where is Ted’S when you need him?

      • Ted S.

        I’d have to say it should be “They are” as well. After all, the Queen says “We are not amused”, not one of the the singular forms of the verb.

      • R C Dean

        When the Queen speaks in the plural like that, she is speaking ex cathedra, so to speak. Not as an individual, but as the embodiment of the realm.

      • Chafed

        So is HS.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      All of this is going to come to blows and blood.

      The lunatics running the school systems and CPS will not stop.

  21. Count Potato

    “At least 17 people were shot in downtown Milwaukee Friday night, just blocks away from Fiserv Forum, where thousands of fans attended a Milwaukee Bucks’ playoff game only a few hours earlier.

    Milwaukee Police say the shooting occurred on Water Street just after 11pm, and the victims of the shooting range in age from 15 to 47 years old. They are all expected to survive, according to WTMJ…

    Ten people have already been taken into custody for the shooting, and nine guns have been recovered from the scene.

    The names of the suspects, and a possible motive have not yet been released.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10816145/At-17-people-injured-shot-outside-Milwaukee-Bucks-game.html

    Wisconsin sounds like shithole. I used to think it was mostly cows.

    • Ted S.

      CPRM will tell you that’s Milwaukee, not Wisconsin.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Maybe it’s all the socialist mayors, Mr. Fournier.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        “We’re not worthy!”

    • Ted S.

      Niinistö and Marin are just puppets installed by an American-backed coup. Why else would they support NATO membership?

      Niinistö survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami by climbing a utility pole with his son. Also, on the day he won election to his first term as president, a big snow storm hit southern Finland, and the next morning, there’s the President-Elect shoveling his own driveway.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “ President Niinistö commented: ‘The conversation was direct and straight-forward and it was conducted without aggravations. Avoiding tensions was considered important’

      He repeated his concern about the human cost of the war in Ukraine and stressed the importance of a peace deal.”

      Too bad the US and the organization you’re joining aren’t on board with that idea.

      • Rebel Scum

        ^

    • rhywun

      Party like it’s 1939!

    • Rebel Scum

      The escalation to nuclear holocaust continues apace.

  22. Scruffy Nerfherder

    They didn’t have a Master At Arms badge in the eighties. I wonder when they dropped it.

    I would have gone for it. We had unofficial badges in hatchet throwing and explosives in our troop. It was the Rambo era of Boy Scouts.

    • l0b0t

      I was kicked out of Cub Scouts in the 1970s for taking the Lord’s name in vain. A boy dropped his hot dog in the dirt, picked it up and proceeded to eat it without wiping or rinsing it off. I said “Oh my God, that’s gross” and the packmaster called my mom to take me home. My argument that “God” is NOT the Lord’s name fell upon deaf ears.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s also not a true violation of the third commandment. Taking the Lord’s name in vain means to make a false oath using his name, cursing his name, or claiming visions in his name.

        About what I would expect from a Bible thumper though. They were the Woke of yesteryear.

      • l0b0t

        In retrospect, it was so counterproductive. I was raised an atheist, but had been attending Christian schools because Dade County public schools were terrible; I was leaning agnostic and nominally receptive to the Semitic monotheism but that incident really soured me on organized religion and created a bitter anti-theist for many, many years.

      • rhywun

        Wow. I would not have lasted five minutes. I’m glad mom didn’t try to force that crap on me.

    • Count Potato

      Was there a punji trap badge?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        No, but snipe hunting and pyrotechnics were definitely on the list.

      • Brett L

        I’m sure scouts in my troop had experience, even if not officially recognized

      • The Last American Hero

        There’s only about 3 that weren’t really replaced – Master at Arms, Rabbit Raising, and Machinery.

        Most of the others changed names or merged with other similar badges.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    The origins of Texas’s law, HB 20, lie in the longstanding Republican criticism that tech platforms discriminate politically against conservative users, a charge the companies have denied and which platform moderation researchers say there is little systemic evidence to support.
    The law, which seeks to address the perceived imbalance, was blocked in December by a district court judge who ruled it was unconstitutional under the First Amendment. That decision came months after a similar law, in Florida, was also blocked for the same reason.

    But that all changed this week, when in oral arguments at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a three-judge panel confused social media platforms with internet service providers; disputed that Facebook and Twitter are websites; and expressed surprise that a service such as Twitter could “just decide” what content appears on its platform as a matter of course.

    ——-

    The appeals court has not provided a written opinion explaining the decision, and it did not offer the tech advocacy groups who challenged the law time to seek an appeal.
    “Apparently, they do not think this is disruptive or something,” said Harold Feld, a senior vice president and communications lawyer at the consumer group Public Knowledge.
    Whatever happens next, legal experts appear convinced that the outcome will be chaos.

    If you exert editorial control over the content on your “service” you become something other than an open medium of communication? That’s pretty hard to understand.

    • R C Dean

      a three-judge panel confused social media platforms with internet service providers; disputed that Facebook and Twitter are websites; and expressed surprise that a service such as Twitter could “just decide” what content appears on its platform as a matter of course

      The appeals court has not provided a written opinion

      They can tell all that without a written opinion? Impressive.

  24. rhywun

    Asshoe.

    #Worldle #113 X/6 (79%)
    ????⬜➡️
    ????⬜↙️
    ??⬜⬜⬜↖️
    ???⬜⬜⬆️
    ????⬜⬇️
    ????⬜↙️
    https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

      • rhywun

        Nerd.

      • The Hyperbole

        Meh, pictures are easy
        #Worldle #113 1/6 (100%)
        ??????
        https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

        Globle is where it’s at
        ? May 14, 2022 ?
        ? 5 | Avg. Guesses: 6.69
        ⬜⬜⬜?????
        ? = 9

        #globle

    • Rat on a train

      #Worldle #113 4/6 (100%)
      ?⬛⬛⬛⬛➡️
      ???⬛⬛⬅️
      ????⬛↖️
      ??????

    • Chafed

      Biden is known his personnel decisions. See VP Harris.

    • Rebel Scum

      That’s hilarious considering it was always going to fail and it was turned against them in 5 seconds.

      Hopefully the Biden Branding Bureau continues to brand for the regimes opposition.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    One option for tech platforms is to halt all algorithmic content filtering or ranking entirely. While it’s tempting to imagine all social media looking like the clean, reverse-chronological feed you can actually find on Twitter today (if you know where to look), that is merely the best-case scenario and not the likeliest one, according to Daphne Keller, a platform liability expert at Stanford University.

    The reality might look more like email before the advent of spam filters. Because algorithms would be prohibited from removing or down-ranking material, social media platforms would have to host spam, porn, or hate speech indiscriminately — an “unmoderated garbage dump,” as Keller described it in a tweet.

    Freedom is an ugly thing.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Moderate your own feed.

      • R C Dean

        Yeah, this is not that hard.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      according to Daphne Keller, a platform liability expert at Stanford University. first person in the author’s black book that has a title and can be relied upon to say whatever stupid opinion the author wants to push

    • kbolino

      Daphne Keller, a platform liability expert at Stanford University

      A very serious person with a very real job the mere existence of which totally does not indicate that the universities should be dissolved.

      The reality might look more like email before the advent of spam filters.

      Sounds like good old malicious compliance to me.

      • R C Dean

        Wouldn’t you expect the platform liability expert to be a law professor?

    • Gustave Lytton

      reality might look more like email before the advent of spam filters

      I’d settle for that. Unlike the author, I was around and remember what that was like.

      *adjusts onions*

  26. Yusef drives a Kia

    I’m starting to see this everywhere,
    “The Hill has removed its comment section, as there are many other forums for readers to participate in the conversation. We invite you to join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Yes, join the AI moderated forums on Facebook and Twitter where your comments get evaluated against an array of social credit standards and flagged as such.

    • kbolino

      Most publications these days are vanity projects. They don’t care about engaging with an organic audience. Those of us who’ve been here since the early days experienced this first hand when we left H&R. Now, “engaging” with a curated “audience”, that’s a different story.

      It also helps to treat most media outlets as though they are vanity projects. The goal is not to report on interesting stories, the goal is to create an alternate reality and enforce preference falsification.

      • kbolino

        pretend I proofread that better

      • Rat on a train

        The reader is supposed to take orders, not question the narrative.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    At least one justice, the conservative Clarence Thomas, has previously expressed interest in hearing a case that might allow the Court to rule on the issue of platform liability. A case involving HB 20 would present a ripe opportunity. If that happens, it’s not a stretch to say that decades of First Amendment precedent may suddenly be on the line.
    A fundamental question at the heart of the case is whether the state of Texas — a government entity — is forcing social media companies to host speech with HB 20.

    This concept of “government-compelled speech” has long been held unconstitutional under the First Amendment. But a Supreme Court ruling upholding HB 20 may throw that longstanding precedent into doubt. Historic decisions that deal with compelled speech and protections for editorial curation might be substantially narrowed if not overruled in that scenario, said Kosseff.

    Compelled speech? Is that anything like “Bake that cake, or else”?

    Haha, right. That’s totally different.

    • R C Dean

      And she falls right into the trap. Whose speech is being compelled by the Texas law? Not the person who authored the post. So if speech is being compelled, it can only be the platform’s speech. But if its their speech, they are liable for defamation, no? The point of platforms and service providers is that they are (supposed to be) conduits for other’s speech, nothing more. Like the phone companies can’t be sued for what people say on the phone, because its not the phone company’s speech. Newspapers, on the other hand, everything in a newspaper is the newspaper’s speech (including letters to the editor, because the newspaper makes the editorial decision which ones they will publish). Are the social media platforms exercising enough editorial discretion to be more like a newspaper than a phone company? I think the answer is pretty clearly yes.

  28. Sean

    #waffle113 4/5

    ?????
    ?⭐?⭐?
    ?????
    ?⭐?⭐?
    ?????

    ? streak: 12
    ? #waffleelite
    wafflegame.net

    • Chafed

      Too much of a good thing. I’ll wait for your GlibFit links.

      • slumbrew

        That’s more like it.

      • Chafed

        You get me. You really, really get me.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Spontaneous grassroots activism

    High school students nationwide staged walkouts on Thursday to protest for abortion rights after a draft Supreme Court opinion was leaked, showing a potential decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

    Students across the country from Denver, Salt Lake City, New York City, and more, staged walkouts on Thursday in support of abortion rights in response to the leaked Supreme Court decision.

    No justice no geometry.

    • Q Continuum

      Translation: A handful of kids walked out because they actually care about the issue, more kids walked out because they wanted an excuse to play hooky and the majority rolled their eyes and stayed in class.

      • kbolino

        Don’t forget the number one reason lefty guys engage in performative “activism”: to get laid.

      • TARDis

        It’s like modern day Disco.

      • Rat on a train

        Students at two Spotsylvania high schools walk out of class in support of abortion access

        Massaponax senior Sydney Walczak organized the walkout at her school, which took place at 10 a.m. She said that about 20 students participated in the 20-minute event.

        “Right at 10:20, we went back inside. I’m really proud of the maturity of my peers,” she said. “Everyone was sharing their opinions and thoughts, which is a beautiful thing.”

        So about 1% skipped the last 20 minutes of a non-core class. That will show the man.

    • rhywun

      A.K.A. “extra credit”

    • Rebel Scum

      “Kids our age care about our rights,” McCarey said. “Even at 14, up to 18, 19 years old, we don’t want to sit back and just watch this happen.”

      Gotta teach them early to not have any responsibility.

      “I don’t understand why men, who will never experience the pain of giving birth, the pain of period cramps, nor the pain of breastfeeding, think they can choose the outcome of the most difficult decision a woman can make,” one student said, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

      I don’t understand why you can’t accept the biological circumstances of your birth.

      Abortion-rights protesters wave flags during a demonstration outside of the U.S. Supreme Court,

      Appropriation of the Gadsden flag is a nice touch.

      • Q Continuum

        “I don’t understand why men, who will never experience the pain of giving birth, the pain of period cramps, nor the pain of breastfeeding, think they can choose the outcome of the most difficult decision a woman can make”

        How about the rights of fathers who have zero say whatsoever if their erstwhile paramour decides to get an abortion without even telling them? They might actually want to raise a child? They might find a capricious and cheap approach to human life abhorrent? Fuck ’em. It’s just toxic masculinity anyway.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Or be indebted for the next 26 years to a choice they have no control over.

      • Rebel Scum

        Fathers get no say, but the still have to pay.

      • R C Dean

        I don’t understand why men, who will never experience the pain of giving birth

        Oh, so now men can’t get pregnant, etc.? So unwoke.

      • The Last American Hero

        I don’t understand why women, who never have to worry about getting drafted, have any say in deciding if the country goes to war or selecting the leaders that can institute a draft.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    The students held signs reading “Not Your Uterus, Not Your Opinion,” among other pro-choice slogans.

    One student at iSchool said that the right to have an abortion is very important to her.

    “It’s so dangerous to not have the right to have an abortion, especially in drastic circumstances,” said Castle Bloodgood. “So this is important to me.”

    I wonder if those signs were produced by professional graphic artists on behalf of DNC subsidiaries.

    • Rebel Scum

      There was a gun rights event at my university once. All opposed to carry on campus had professionally printed signs. All in favor made their own.

    • Fatty Bolger

      the Ancient Greek’s views on penis size as they believed smaller appendages were better

      Maybe it had something to do with certain Ancient Greek sexual proclivities.

      • C. Anacreon

        Ancient Greek men didn’t travel much, because they found it difficult to leave their brothers behind.

      • The Last American Hero

        -1 getting penetrated at the Hot Gates.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Lock her up

    New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tested positive for COVID-19 with moderate symptoms, her office said in a statement on Saturday.

    She will not be in parliament for the government’s emissions reduction plan on Monday and the budget on Thursday, but “travel arrangements for her trade mission to the United States are unaffected at this stage,” the statement said.

    Ardern had been symptomatic since Friday evening, returning a weak positive at night and a clear positive on Saturday morning on a rapid antigen test, it said.

    She has been in isolation since Sunday, when her partner Clarke Gayford tested positive, it said.

    Due to the positive test, Ardern will be required to isolate until the morning of May 21, undertaking what duties she can remotely.

    Poor thing.

    • kbolino

      her partner Clarke Gayford

      Legit LOL

    • Rebel Scum

      She has been in isolation since Sunday

      At covid camp, presumably. Or is that just for the plebs?

  32. Q Continuum

    “Trump had the courage to identify problems and crises afflicting everyday Americans at a time ‘when few others would.'”

    https://amac.us/its-not-just-the-economy-stupid/

    And here we have the most succinct summation of Trump’s enduring popularity; he was willing to stand up and say “you know how the Establishment has been telling you you’re wet because it’s raining? it’s actually piss”. Yes, he’s abrasive, and a phony, and a buffoon and a general disaster, but he did stand up and actually fight for issues people know instinctively are right. The fact of the matter is that it shouldn’t be difficult to win on cultural issues given how insane the other side has become. Arguing against 9 month abortions and anal sex training for 6 year-olds and explicit racial/ethnic quotas in hiring is not challenging, someone just has to be ok with being dragged through the mud. Fortunately, there seems to be a new generation coming up that realizes they’re going to be called bigots no matter what so you might as well do the right thing. Altering your strategy to please your enemy is retarded.

    • kbolino

      Altering your strategy to please your enemy is retarded.

      It’s not just the enemy. It’s also the “mushy middle”. The average politician, and this includes some Democrats as well as most Republicans, doesn’t want to hear the tut-tutting of the mushy middle. But the reality is that victory is sexy, even ephemeral victory, and preference falsification/cascade can be exposed remarkably easily. You’re not going to win everyone over, as for some the apparently feigned preference is actually sincere, but that doesn’t matter. If you spend your time worried about what people who are easily convinced think of you, you are just ceding the job of convincing them to someone else (and that’s where the enemy comes in).

    • Rebel Scum

      he was willing to stand up and say “you know how the Establishment has been telling you you’re wet because it’s raining? it’s actually piss

      I recall his inaugural speech having repeated themes of dissolution of power from DC and the establishment. But, you know, Donald is “muh-fascisms”.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Once you cede the boundaries of the game to your opponent, you’ve already lost.

      This RvW leak may be lesson. Many called the Republican party stupid for continuing to engage in abortion politics. But that’s just allowing the Democrats to dictate your strategy. In hindsight following the leak, it appears that overturning RvW and engaging on a state level may be very favorable to Republicans. A different case from something like continuing to push pot prohibition, which the populace is overwhelming against.

  33. hayeksplosives

    Harvard wants to get rid of grading, many other universities want to get rid of incoming grades and standardized tests.

    At some point, you’ll have to be driving a car, or riding a train, etc, designed by uproots of unknown skill, reviewed by Social Justice boards, across bridges designed by diversity champions.

    What could go wrong? After all, calculus is some racist exclusionary device, not science. Diversity is SCIENCE!!

    • Urthona

      Does Harvard really want to get rid of grading? How will they punish students who don’t show up for class or do assignments?

      • kbolino

        Well, for one thing, only the whites and Asians will be punished. NAMs will not have to attend. As for how they track and punish them, they’ll probably just keep lists.

        This is what equity means, it’s what translating that stupid image of the ballpark with the boxes and the kids of different heights into reality looks like.

      • kbolino

        In case you haven’t seen it, the image I’m referring to is at the top of this Medium dreck. Speaking of the latter, apparently (as early as 2018 no less), even that vision of “equity” is problematic.

      • hayeksplosives

        What I get out of that picture and all its variations is “Go buy a fucking ticket if you want to see the game, you freeloaders.”

      • kbolino

        Never forget that they’re on the side of entropy, decay, and the end of civilization. Stolen bases (appropriate metaphor) abound.

      • hayeksplosives

        Funny that lefty academics wholly accept survival-of-the-fittest theory (appropriately so) in nature but reject it completely regarding humans or corporations or even forms of human governance.

      • hayeksplosives

        True, but I prefer the one where they saw the legs off the tallest guy and he’s on bloody stumps.

      • hayeksplosives

        I heard it on the radio so I can’t find the exact quotes, but yeah, they’re saying that grading has a negative impact on students. They tried to say “minorities hardest hit” without actually saying it.

        During the “pandemic” they replaced A-F grading with “emergency satisfactory” and “emergency unsatisfactory” —-I shit you not. But that’s over now so they’re debating whether to back to A-F or do away with that icky ranking stuff altogether.

        https://thebestschools.org/magazine/eliminating-grading-system-college-pros-cons/

      • hayeksplosives

        The “they” I refer to above with “emergency satisfactory “ rating is literally Harvard. They really did do that.

      • Q Continuum

        That’s pathetic.

      • hayeksplosives

        I’d be pretty pissed if I’d gotten into Harvard on my merits and then worked my ass off my freshman year for good grades, then Plandemic forced everyone home and slapped an “Emergency Satisfactory” grade on everyone, regardless of skill, discipline, drive, etc.

        Did they mail home participation diplomas too? Would there be a summa cum laude designation for Plandemic years??

      • rhywun

        The NYC school district did something similar.

        They are going to graduate more functionally illiterate students than ever. So it is only natural for colleges to drop all standards and let them in. The gravy train won’t roll itself.

    • Rebel Scum

      designed by uproots of unknown skill, reviewed by Social Justice boards, across bridges designed by diversity champions.

      Diversity
      Inclusion
      Equity

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The grifters made a serious error when they allowed the useful idiots to be in charge of anything.

      • kbolino

        Lowering standards really is a slippery slope because the next generation is not only less competent than its predecessor but also doesn’t even understand what competence looks like or why it would matter (except resentfully).

        Before DEI and EEO there were other movements, poorly remembered and somewhat unrecognizable to us today, that pushed for equalization of people and the leveling of hierarchy. Before LGBTQ, before indigenous rights, before civil rights, before women’s lib, before suffragettes, and before even the abolition of slavery, there have been those who want to tear down what works because it (rightfully) excludes their worthless asses.

      • Chafed

        Commies?

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of living in the past

    President Biden has leaned into his support for organized labor, ramping up his engagements with organizers as Democrats worry they could lose more blue collar workers to the GOP in the midterms.

    Biden, who pledged to be the most pro-union president in U.S. history, hosted union organizers from Amazon and Starbucks at the White House recently and has been visiting with major union leadership out in the states.

    Biden visited the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) conference in Chicago in May, lending the even the characteristics of a campaign rally.

    Biden took shots at Republicans for not supporting the middle class and touted policies he’s implemented that the White House says will help working families.

    Win the union vote, and you can’t lose?

    When did “middle class” get redefined as “union members”? No wonder people talk about the shrinking middle class.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Poor Joe is mentally stuck in the past.

    • hayeksplosives

      The part I love is that the blue collar union types look at the blue haired xe/xer types as the utter insanity that they are.

      That’s why a lot of the rust belt went for the Don; they liked his message of red-blooded America and more manufacturing (even though Trump couldn’t wave a wand to make it happen, and probably never intended to. He did get rid of some EPA obstacles, I’ll grant him that.)

    • Rebel Scum

      Biden took shots at Republicans for not supporting the middle class and touted policies he’s implemented that the White House says will help working families.

      Doing everything you can to increase energy costs, food costs, and creating shortages from a supply chain disaster is just what working families need.

      • Animal

        You’re seeing a lot of big “Fuck Joe Biden” flags and signs up here right now.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I’d like to make up some “You did this, Dem voters!” stickers.

  35. Rebel Scum

    When you’ve lost Bezos…

    The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead. Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection.

  36. Rebel Scum

    It’s bad enough trying to fund my own habit(s).

    Pelosi is opening a liquor store in the House where Members can buy alcohol with their taxpayer-funded MRAs.

    All while Americans are struggling to pay for food? Outrageous.

    The important thing is that the proles from the other districts support the needs of their betters in District 1.

    • Fatty Bolger

      The parasite class telling everybody this is the new normal, get used to it. Yet another echo of the 70’s.

    • hayeksplosives

      Remember how close the late 70s came to declaring communism the answer, thanks in large part to Carter?

      We need not Reagan, but someone similar in optimistic rhetoric. Rhetoric does actually matter because society needs confidence and optimism.

    • Ted S.

      Paywalled.

  37. Count Potato

    “BREAKING: A federal judge has blocked part of an Alabama law that makes it a felony to give gender-affirming puberty blockers and hormones to transgender minors.”

    https://twitter.com/AP/status/1525337330793467905

    Lots of stupid in the replies.

    • cavalier973

      It’s gonna go transwar any day now. Pronouns = killor/be killed

  38. cavalier973

    By the way, Happy Independence Day to Israel.

    I guess they celebrated yesterday, or maybe will tomorrow—meaning tonight at sunset.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(Israel)

    Isaiah 66:8 (NIV)
    Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.

    • Ted S.

      Nope. They celebrate it according to the Hebrew calendar, with the anniversary being last week.

      (Since Israel Radio’s English-language program is one of the podcasts I listen to, I was wondering why you were a week late to this.)

      • cavalier973

        That reminds me: happy Chinese New Year!

  39. Mojeaux

    Fuck you people. I hate you all.

    4️⃣6️⃣
    8️⃣?