About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

Wife of sloopy, mother to three bright, curious, and highly active young girls. Perpetually exhausted.

291 Comments

  1. AlexinCT

    As primaries reach midway point, Trump scores big Alabama win but loses again in Georgia

    I have not bought into this thing where people blindly vote for whomever Trump tells them to. I suspect Trump scores wins when he backs people fighting old deep state rinos, and doesn’t otherwise.

    • waffles

      Agreed. I’m not sure what Trump’s influence is, really. It remains to be seen how he returns. I know the legacy media can’t stop talking about him.

      • Tonio

        If, not how. You don’t know what will happen with his health. With anyone else I’d say he had the option to sit back and be kingmaker for the 2024, but I don’t know if his ego will allow him to do that.

      • juris imprudent

        He wants the spotlight, not the credit for turning it on anyone else.

      • Gustave Lytton

        He’s not a very good kingmaker either. His picks suck as hard as his pucks for staff.

      • DEG

        Dr. Oz. Ugh.

    • Drake

      It would be great if he were to back DeSantis, campaign for actual conservatives, and spend the rest of his time campaigning against these assholes.

      Trump’s endorsement probably carries the most weight when there is a crowded field in the primary. That is how dicks like Lindsey Graham survive – too many primary opponents splitting the vote.

  2. Nephilium

    DNC slashes price for photo with Harris at fundraiser due to weak demand

    They’re learning?

    • AlexinCT

      Learning what? That they should put guns to people heads to act like they want these photos and also riffle through their pockets to clean it out to show them whose boss?

      • Nephilium

        A potential link between price, supply, and demand?

      • AlexinCT

        Now you are just talking crazy!

    • WTF

      This administration makes VEEP look like a documentary.

      • Penguin

        Except Selina Meyer was nowhere near as dumb as Kamala.

      • Animal

        I have a great big rock over on the side of my driveway that is nowhere near as dumb as Kamala.

  3. AlexinCT

    Supreme Court rules Maine tuition program violates First Amendment for excluding religious schools

    So much more of this please. The only way to really get them to feel obligated to do anything to make the public education system less toxic, is if people can finally walk away from it with their money, Starve this evil machine to death. It’s what it deserves.

    • Tonio

      The program provides tuition assistance for students without a local public school to attend private institutions – as long as the funding is not used for religious or “sectarian” teaching.

      So, it’s not like you can demand that your county pay the tuition for junior to attend Catholic school, just because. But this does open the door for situations where the government school district is not equipped to handle your special needs kid, but the local Catholic school is.

      • Nephilium

        At least when I was a yute in Catholic schools, it was the other way around. The Catholic schools did not have (at grade school level) honors or much of a special education program at all. However, the public schools did. The high school I went to had honors and AP, but definitely now special education or remedial programs past freshman year. If you couldn’t keep up, or did too poorly on tests you would not be welcome back next semester.

      • db

        My Mom taught at a Catholic school. In the 2010s, the public schools started dumping their special needs schools onto the Catholic schools, who were more than happy to take the extra money even though they didn’t have the resources to handle them. Many of the transfers got placed in the main student population and became disruptive to the learning process.

      • Nephilium

        The grade school I went to has closed as a school, but it appears that the Church is still holding service there.

      • db

        There has been some sort of strange split between my old parish and school. The school now has a different name and is still Catholic, but more associated with the Diocese than the parish. I don’t know the details of why.

      • Rat on a train

        Normally public schools have extra staff for special needs students as they are required to take them. Private schools can reject special needs students.

      • Tonio

        Yeah, using special ed was a bad example. Sorry, less than one cup of coffee in.

        But the point that this will not be the sea change that progs are screeching about this morning still stands. It’s good news, a start, a wedge; but practically effects only a small number of students.

  4. AlexinCT

    Biden Admin Quietly Nukes Trump-Era ‘Transparency’ Initiative Tracking Settlements And Payouts To Left-Wing Activists

    Breaking news: Crime syndicate needs to hide that it is a crime syndicate!

  5. AlexinCT

    Democrats Demand Google Block Search Results For Crisis Pregnancy Centers

    We will tell you what you should believe. Comply or be punished!

  6. WTF

    Fairfax County School Board Votes To Make It A Potential Crime To Call A Boy A Boy

    Because compelled speech is totes constitutional!

    • Tonio

      But it will take a while for this to wend its way through the courts. First you need a good test case…

      • WTF

        Of course, the process is the punishment.

      • AlexinCT

        And it is always about using the punishment against the people to keep them from feeling compelled to interfere to stop the madness.

      • Tonio

        It’s going to take a kid being suspended or expelled, or a teacher getting fired. And if the person on the receiving end of the alleged misgendering is a junior or senior, that person could graduate before the case is fully litigated and the courts will rule that the issue is moot, thus requiring a new test case, etc.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Who are you so wise in the ways of educational process punishment?

  7. The Late P Brooks

    DNC slashes price for photo with Harris at fundraiser due to weak demand

    If they wanted to make some serious money, they would dress her in a clown costume and put her in a carnival dunk tank. Three baseballs for $100k.

    • Grumbletarian

      ::tosses baseball in one hand:: How much to remove the screen between me and Kamala?

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        Red flag!

    • Pope Jimbo

      Does the photo come with a hole cut out of her mouth? Suitable for framing down at the glory hole?

  8. The Late P Brooks

    The Athletic, a sports news website owned by The New York Times, told its staff this week to stick to sports and drop the political activism.

    “We don’t want to stop people from having a voice and expressing themselves,” Paul Fichtenbaum, the publication’s chief content officer, said in a directive. “We just need to keep it from tipping over into the political space.”

    Some employees disagreed. A staffer quickly responded in protest. “What about Black Lives Matter? Is that a social cause? Who will write about athlete protests? What about trans athletes in sports?”

    Yes, what about the hundreds of millions of trans athletes? Who will give them a voice?

    What a bunch of ridiculous nonsense.

    • juris imprudent

      “Oh, so you would be happier working somewhere else? Well, thank you for your notice and we wish you the best.”

  9. The Late P Brooks

    Fairfax County School Board Votes To Make It A Potential Crime To Call A Boy A Boy

    “Who you callin’ BOY, honkey?”

    • AlexinCT

      Party of science being scienced tight there, man…

    • Not Adahn

      HONK-ey?

      Alt-right nazi confirmed.

  10. Sensei

    Good morning!

    Perfect, just perfect.

    A Woke Mandate for the Federal Reserve
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-woke-mandate-for-the-federal-reserve-racial-equity-congress-house-joe-biden-11655659047?st=vsbxdsb0tzgh0pt&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    President Biden recently promised in these pages not to interfere with the Federal Reserve. Yet last week he endorsed a House bill that would add racial equity to the Fed’s dual mandate of price stability and full employment. How does the White House square this contradiction?

    The House bill passed last week 215-207 with little media notice. But it deserves attention because it reveals how the Biden Administration and Democrats plan to politicize monetary policy and financial regulation.

    • AlexinCT

      When you refuse to correctly identify the causes of problems/issues, all so you can peddle marxist bullshit, you should not be allowed to be in charge of anything….

    • Rat on a train

      The Fed’s dual mandate already results in conflicting policies. Let’s add more.

    • The Last American Hero

      How would that even work? I guess if the economy is roaring and wealth disparity is rising then we jack up the interest rates?

  11. Sensei

    Ok, that’s comedy gold!

    I didn’t think we’d reach the “PUPPET SHOW AND KAMALA HARRIS” stage of her vice presidency this soon, but here we are.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    “It turns out that alienating the majority of your customer base is terrible for business,” Shepard said. “You can sort of get away with that when the market is reaching new highs and interest rates are nothing, so you can borrow and make up for the lack of profits.”

    But in today’s environment, with markets tumbling, interest rates rising, and a potential recession looming, “suddenly the luxury of alienating your customer base doesn’t exist anymore.”

    They don’t teach that at the Harvard Business School.

    • AlexinCT

      Marx and his disciples didn’t say any of that shit, so why teach it?

    • SDF-7

      This is the quote I dream of getting in a company wide spam email:

      The cryptocurrency technology company’s new mission statement says that it “will never ask that our employees adopt any specific political ideology as a requirement for our workplace … We recognize that hurt feelings are inevitable in a global organization that is optimizing for team outcomes above individual sentiment. The ideal Krakenite is thick-skinned and well-intentioned.”

      To be fair – my coworkers are actually mostly reasonable about it. There’s a bit of assuming you’re With Them ™ that comes out sometimes (but since a lot of them work in Seattle, no surprise). Most of the actual “You work here, therefore you must think this way!” crap comes down the pike from Corporate — so yeah, never going to see sanity like this I expect.

      • R.J.

        Can’t disclose too much, but I think he hired a bunch if woke jerks instead of passionate crypto enthusiasts like myself.

    • DrOtto

      What part is that – the borrowing to make up for lack of profits?

  13. AlexinCT

    You want to know why they hate that fucking orange guy so much?

    Not because of him saying things like this – “Trump warned Germany of becoming ‘totally dependent’ on Russian energy at the UN in 2018” – but because he is right when he says it.

    Trumps second biggest crime, the first being that he won an election they were sure they had rigged for Hillary, with enough of a margin that they couldn’t reverse the people’s mandate without ending up like we did in 2020 with them censoring and canceling anyone pointing out the whole thing definitely stinks, back when they cared enough about appearances, was to actually be right about how much shit the people in the unaccountable and unelected bureaucratic machine and their partners in politics lied about or purposefully got wrong.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    situations where the government school district is not equipped to handle your special needs kid, but the local Catholic school is.

    Sometimes a sharp whack on the knuckles with a wooden ruler is just what the doctor ordered.

    • AlexinCT

      These days the kiddie diddling happens in the public school system…

      • Not Adahn

        Pretty sure there have always been pedophiles among the pedagogues.

  15. db

    Fairfax County School Board Votes To Make It A Potential Crime To Call A Boy A Boy

    Come on, Virginians…if San Franciscans can expel their woke school board, so can you.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s Fairfax.

    • Not Adahn

      Loudon County is in VA.

      • db

        Is VA!=Virginia?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        No, Loudon County is in MA. Loudoun County is in VA.

        /pedant

        Loudoun County is much more purple than Fairfax. Fairfax is deep state central.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Fairfax is deep state central.

        This

      • R.J.

        Thanks. I am allergic to government and need to avoid such places.

      • DEG

        There’s a Loudon County in TN but none in MA.

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

        There is a London bridge in AZ.

      • db

        So, you’re saying it’s effectively impossible for Virginians to petition their government for redress of grievances?

  16. trshmnstr the terrible

    Daily Quordle 149
    7️⃣6️⃣
    4️⃣5️⃣

    QB
    4 5
    7 6

    • SDF-7

      Got lucky with my first seed word (in honor of being back in GA for a week and a half). Not going to complain about today’s result.

      Daily Quordle 149
      3️⃣2️⃣
      4️⃣5️⃣

      • Grumbletarian

        Wow, and I thought I was going to get the win today. Nice one!

        Daily Quordle 149
        4️⃣3️⃣
        5️⃣6️⃣

      • robc

        Daily Quordle 149
        6️⃣5️⃣
        7️⃣3️⃣

        I was thrilled with my score, until I saw yalls.

      • robc

        Although I wonder if I am going to have low score for bottom right?

      • MikeS

        I wouldn’t be surprised. The only reason I got it is because I had all the letters and it was the only combination that registered as a word.

      • robc

        I wasn’t sure it was a word when I played it.

      • Ted S.

        Ditto.

        Daily Quordle 149
        5️⃣4️⃣
        2️⃣6️⃣
        quordle.com
        🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
        🟩⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
        🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

        🟩🟨🟨⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
        ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
        ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
        ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
        ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    • Cannoli

      Daily Quordle 149
      6️⃣3️⃣
      4️⃣5️⃣

    • MikeS

      I towed the lion

      6️⃣4️⃣
      5️⃣7️⃣

    • JG43

      Daily Quordle 149
      9️⃣5️⃣
      🟥4️⃣
      quordle.com

    • one true athena

      Daily Quordle 149
      7️⃣4️⃣
      6️⃣5️⃣

    • Grummun

      7 6
      5 4

    • pistoffnick

      94
      68

    • TARDis

      Daily Quordle 149
      7️⃣2️⃣
      6️⃣5️⃣

    • whiz

      Daily Quordle 149
      5️⃣6️⃣
      7️⃣4️⃣

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 149
      4️⃣7️⃣
      6️⃣5️⃣

      Lay It On The Line

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 149
      5️⃣6️⃣
      4️⃣8️⃣

      Whoops.

    • grrizzly

      Daily Quordle 149
      4️⃣3️⃣
      7️⃣6️⃣

    • Ozymandias

      Started so well..
      Daily Quordle 149
      4️⃣3️⃣
      7️⃣8️⃣
      quordle.com

  17. Ted S.

    That Epoch Times article wants my email address. No dice.

    • AlexinCT

      suckmydick@google,cunt

      • Not Adahn

        Now I want a .cunte email address.

      • UnCivilServant

        How much does a top level domain cost to register?

      • AlexinCT

        Depends..

      • banginglc1

        should we register glibertarians.cunte? fuckoffslavers.cunte?

    • Not Adahn

      You don’t want Falun Gong missionaries stopping by for a visit?

    • db

      Yeah I don’t think they accept e-mail addresses with apostrophes in them.

      • Tonio

        [golf clap]

  18. The Late P Brooks

    In addition to efforts at SpaceX to refocus employees toward company business, Musk is also working to revamp his target acquisition, Twitter, into a more inclusive platform. Last week, he communicated to employees that the platform must be open to all political points of view and that conversations that represent legal free speech, however offensive, should be permitted on Twitter.

    Madness! Anarchy! Chaos!

  19. UnCivilServant

    Question for the better-read members of the Glibertariat – did any of the Post-Howard authors who wrote Conan stories manage to capture the same style and sense of dark adventure as his creator, or did they just take the character and write him their own way. Also, are any of their attempts any good?

    • ron73440

      I’ve read all of Howard’s Conan writings and am still a huge fa

      As far as the other authors, I’ve read a few, but none were memorable for me.

      They weren’t bad, but they were missing something, admittedly this is from a small sample.

      • UnCivilServant

        I see.

        I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth the time to hunt them down to read or not. I’m undecided at the moment.

      • ron73440

        the Hour of the Dragon is one of my favorite books and I have read it many times.

        Some of the elements from it appear in the short stories, but are fleshed out better in a novel.

      • UnCivilServant

        On the flip side, there were elements better fleshed out in the short stories that get abbreviated in the whirlwind tour of the setting and rehash of Conan’s ‘career’ while he went about the process of regaining the throne.

        It all depends on which elements your attention focuses on.

        Though it is the only time I recall him actually visiting Stigia proper in the text.

    • The Last American Hero

      Seconded on Ron’s comments. Howard was one of those writers that seemed to break the rules, and others trying to write like that would just end up with mediocre pulp. But something about it when Howard does it makes it work.

      • UnCivilServant

        Understood.

        It’s annoying when I’ve gone and exhausted the original source material, and there’s nothing left.

    • DEG

      It’s been a long time since I read any of the post-Howard Conan books.

      My vague memory of the ones I read is they’re different from the Howard books but don’t shit on the character. I remember liking the ones I read.

      • ron73440

        They didn’t shit on the character, true and I think they were trying to do him justice, there was just something missing.

        I enjoyed them as well, but none were worth rereading like Howard.

      • UnCivilServant

        So, no fears of the sort of character assassination (intentional or otherwise) to be expected of a modern reinterpretation.

  20. Sensei

    As much as a $75 wallet is ridiculous this thing has been awesome.

    https://distilunion.com/collections/wallets/products/wally-bifold

    As part of our changed working environment I can actually wear jeans to the office. I need a wallet for various cards so a money clip won’t work. And the back pocket of a pair of jeans in NYC may as well have sign that says “take whatever you need” written on it.

    This works amazingly well in a front pocket.

    • Tonio

      Also, keeping your wallet in a front pocket is better for your spine.

      • Drake

        Where do you keep your pocket pistol?

      • AlexinCT

        In my underwear right next to my junk, DUH!

      • EvilSheldon

        In a junk carry holster, where it belongs.

      • MikeS

        ^ this

        Getting rid of my Costanza back pocket wallet nearly cured my sciatica (which it likely caused in the first place)

      • Jerms

        Can I have a piece of hard candy?

    • AlexinCT

      I have a clip, holds my cash, cards, and various IDs, keep it in my front pocket, and like it far better than any wallet.

    • CatchTheCarp

      I bought a minimalist Ridge wallet a few years ago – works great for me as I only carry a few cards. My only gripe is I have broken and replaced the metal money clip twice. I like it because it’s small and fits easily in my front pocket. .

      • rhywun

        I have a cheap minimalist one, there isn’t even a clip. I just fold my bills and stick them in the center pocket. Which was fine until last week my favorite convenience store put on a sign saying 4% surcharge for all credit/debit transactions and now fiddling with cash is going to get annoying again.

        “I did this!”

    • rhywun

      Yeah, I haven’t used a back pocket in decades.

    • waffles

      Mud huts collapse, tragic. It looks like much of the structures in the nation are simply incapable of resisting an earthquake.

      • Not Adahn

        Goddamn libertarians preventing common sense building codes!

  21. Not Adahn

    Well, even if gas was $7/gal, it’d be cheaper to drive from Houston to Talladega than fly.

    • AlexinCT

      Gas at $7 you say? I raise!

      • Not Adahn

        The most annoying part about this is they are allocating two days to change the stages. It’ll be bad enough having two days with nothing to do*, but they’d better pay for those hotel rooms for that time.

        *I’m sure if I had enough money I could have a great time, but alas.

    • SDF-7

      And that’s exactly what they want. Because they’re neo-marxists always looking for the next revolution.. and they think they’ll come out on top. (I think they picked the wrong country to push to this point, but hopefully we won’t find out).

    • Gustave Lytton

      Geezus H, is that Congress or an elementary school hallway?

  22. Drake

    Tucker spent a lot of time last night mocking Steven Cobert. Not just for sending a crew into the Capitol Building to commit the exact crime the Jan. 6th “Insurgents” are accused of, but also for his false claim that he is a comedian.

    • AlexinCT

      That last one is the real crime. Colbert is anything but funny.

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, that was not just cringeworthy, it was downright fucking creepy evil totalitarian programming shit.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It should follow him to his grave.

      • rhywun

        Tucker showed that, and another one with Colbert dressed in black and shedding crocodile tears because he was so upset at the “insurrection”. Laff riot!

      • Gustave Lytton

        Colbert is a fan of obsolete minicomputers? Burn him at the stake!

      • db

        If misinformation were a crime he’d be doing life in the clink.

    • MikeS

      Huh. Their ally on the inside is the same Rep whose CoS has been defacing MTG’s posters in the Longworth Building. Where’s my shocked face?

      • MikeS

        Oh…yeah, Tucker talks about it.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Matt Corridoni, a spokesman for Auchincloss, said Tuesday night he believed the order was unnecessary because Hysom has no intention of interacting with the congresswoman.

    “Tim has never had direct contact with the congresswoman, nor does he plan to in the future. The order is unnecessary and nothing more than political theater,” he said.

    On Monday, Corridoni confirmed that Hysom had affixed stickers to posters outside Greene’s office that declared there are just two genders, male and female, because he felt the poster’s messages were “bullying.” The spokesman said he did not believe Hysom’s actions violated any laws and that the request to prosecutors to file charges in an arrest warrant was “ridiculous.”

    Interact with her? Something tells me he’s terrified of her. He’d probably piss his pants if she got on an elevator he was in.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Crybully

    • SDF-7

      He’d probably piss his pants if she got on an elevator he was in.

      So not only is the Swamp like bad High School Politics 2.0 — now we find out it is fanfic for German sheisse porn?

  24. AlexinCT

    This shit is fiction. There is no way this dumbass bitch is able to plan anything when she isn’t able to pull of anything that doesn’t involve sucking off someone for favors.

    • Drake

      That did make me laugh.

    • Rat on a train

      Coming to a theater near you, 20 January 2023.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Joe could care less. I’m sure The DR Jill is behind any plan to keep Kamala from ousting Joe.

  25. rhywun

    I see the world is still dangerously stupid. Finally I can move on with my day.

    • SDF-7

      Opera. F’ing. Clap.

      Very nice.

    • db

      They’re still heading up. Why would anyone want an ARM when rates are still relatively low? Just refinance later if we ever get back on track.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        As the head of my BU just said, everybody thinks this is ‘just a blip caused by supply chain issues. We’ ll get back on track as supply chain sorts itself out’

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        He obviously hasn’t spoken to anyone in manufacturing and distribution.

      • robc

        Or remembers the days when a 6% mortgage was historically low.

      • rhywun

        OFFS!

      • Penguin

        Damn, Hammurabi’s lender made out pretty well. No wonder he had to demand all those talents of gold from subject states.

      • UnCivilServant

        Most of those loans were not made to the general public. They were made to a small number of people in highly speculative businesses – high risk, high reward ventures. Given the rate of default (due to the caravan being slaughtered, or the war bein lost for example) you needed to cover the losses with those who did succeed.

      • db

        Talk about heads-up-asses

    • juris imprudent

      WCPGW?

    • Grumbletarian

      Looking forward to buying a foreclosed property relatively cheap in a few years.

  26. Dr. Fronkensteen

    Daily Quordle 149
    5️⃣4️⃣
    6️⃣7️⃣
    quordle.com

  27. Scruffy Nerfherder

    NATO continues to poke the hornet’s nest. These crazy fuckers want a broader war.

    https://news.antiwar.com/2022/06/20/russia-demands-lithuania-lifts-ban-on-transit-of-goods-to-kaliningrad/

    The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday demanded that Lithuania lift all restrictions on the shipment of goods to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.

    Lithuania announced last week that it was banning the transport of sanctioned goods through its territory to Kaliningrad, which the governor of the Russian enclave estimates will impact 50% of all goods that are transported to the territory by rail. The Russian Foreign Ministry said if these restrictions aren’t lifted, Moscow will retaliate.

    “If the transit of goods between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of Russia through Lithuania is not fully restored, Russia reserves the right to take action to protect its national interests,” the Ministry said after summoning Virginija Umbrasene, Lithuania’s Charge d’Affaires in Russia.

    • Drake

      It’s fucking nuts. Nothing anyone in NATO could do would prevent Russia from wiping Lithuania off the map. Maybe, theoretically (highly doubtful) NATO could win a conventional war against Russia that would recreate Lithuania after years of fighting.

      Weird how the news organizations ignore the fact that we are on the cusp of WWIII in both Europe and Asia.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I don’t understand how Lithuania thinks this is going to play out for them. If it goes hot, Lithuania disappears.

        NATO leadership obviously doesn’t give a shit.

      • rhywun

        I guess everyone just assumes the US has their back. Foreign entanglements FTW.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m thinking the regime in Lithuania is trying to extort something from Russia, gambling that they’ll pay a smaller bribe to avoid an expansion of the war.

      • Drake

        Going all-in with a pair of 2’s.

      • juris imprudent

        Hey, those other deuces could appear in the flop!

      • PieInTheSky

        Maybe, theoretically (highly doubtful) NATO could win a conventional war against Russia – two weeks give or take if no nukes involved

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        if no nukes involved

        I think I see a problem.

      • PieInTheSky

        Well conventional war was the phrase used

      • Drake

        Really Napoleon? Our Army has been turned into SWAT over the past 20 years. They haven’t fought without air superiority since the early days of WWII. Most of the Cold War U.S. Army in Europe was cut or shipped home 30 years ago. Training today is focused on respecting pronouns.

        Russia is grinding the 2nd biggest and 2nd best army in Europe down to nothing with a small piece of their army. No offense to the 38k people in the Romanian Army, but they wouldn’t make it through the Ukraine and into Russia.

      • PieInTheSky

        Romania does not matter and i dont claim it does. Ukraine second best army in europe is highly doubtful. Winning a war does not imply going deep into russia just keeping them away.

      • Drake

        As somebody once said – Russia is never as strong or as weak as they appear.

      • Swiss Servator

        You seem to get downright touchy when anyone speaks poorly of The Reformed And Victorious Motherland Army… and their Wagner Group adjuncts, Chechen hangers on, Syrian recruits, et al. Small piece indeed.

        I would lay odds that if the 1st Armored Division lined up, they would only stop when the fuel was short. Or they ran out of rounds exploding T-80s. The Poles would heartily join in, as they have been warning us for a decade that the Russians would be back, and they have been arming, rather than turning into flab, like the Germans.

      • Drake

        One problem is that the First Armored Division is in Texas. Problem 2 is they really would be taking losses from the air, artillery, and ground based anti-tank systems every bit as good as our own. Problem 3 – the one that gets me the most – we really aren’t ready for that.

        I am not pro-Russian at all. I was actually in the Marines during the Cold War and trained to fight them in that kind of high-intensity battlefield. Then I was in a National Guard Armor unit that was designed to be a heavy follow-on force in a European war, Until they took away our tanks and turned us into heavily armed police.

        While we were being cops in the Middle East, Russia really did rebuild their military capability.

    • db

      This either hasn’t been thought through at all, or it has been thought through and decided upon as a good way to provoke a Russian action against Lithuania meant to trigger Nato’s mutual defense clause

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Now that I have burned your house down, here’s a trash bag to wear as a raincoat

    President Joe Biden will call on Congress in a speech Wednesday to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes until the end of September, senior administration officials said, framing the move as necessary to provide relief to American consumers but itself not enough to resolve the problem of surging energy prices.

    Biden will also call on states to take steps removing their own taxes on gas and diesel. And he’ll tell oil refining companies to increase their capacity ahead of their planned meeting this week with administration officials.

    Combined, the senior administration officials claimed, the steps Biden will call for could reduce the price per gallon of gas by $1. Yet that figure relies on a number of steps entirely out of the President’s control — not least of which is convincing a skeptical Congress to approve his plan.

    And when it doesn’t pass, they’ll blame the Republicans.

    • ron73440

      As long as they can be seen as “doing something” without going against the green leap forward, they are satisfied.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Reason hardest hit.

    • Nephilium

      Fuck it, let the Republicans pass the gas tax holiday (hopefully with some wording that ties the tax going back into effect to an external factor such as the price of oil). No games, no balancing the tax cut with money from anywhere else. Kneecap that attack on them.

      It’s not like anyone thinks taxes actually pay for anything anymore…

    • Pope Jimbo

      Fine. You reduce the cost of gas by $1/gal. What about all the upkeep/maintenance that money was supposed to pay for?

      LOL. Who am I kidding? They didn’t use that money for that upkeep in the first place. Well maybe a few bike trails will be canceled because of the lack of a gas tax, but that is it.

      • db

        All the oil companies’ “excess profits” are supposed to go into reducing price now.

        Don’t even think about what happens when maintenance stops and capital replacements are put on hold…

    • db

      And he’ll tell oil refining companies to increase their capacity

      That’s not how that works, you useless fucker who has never held a real job in anything, much less a productive manufacturing concern.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I have an uncle who spent 40+ years working at a Koch refinery and it is interesting talking to him about this stuff.

        Basically, every politician who talks about this stuff knows nothing about the actual process of refining. I have to admit that even I am amazed at the nuances of the process that he brings up.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        These are multi-billion dollar plants that are supplied by multi-billion dollar well and logistics systems. The idea that a layman, particularly a politician, has any clue as to the operating requirements of such is beyond ridiculous.

        The oil industry is an extremely mature business with incredibly developed processes.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Yeah but, refine harder man.

      • Fatty Bolger

        I mean, the plants cost billions, and can take a decade to build, you’d think that might clue them in on it not being a simple process.

      • AlexinCT

        Why would any investing entity spend the time and money to start the horrible process to build a plant when the government will immediately go back to shutting any of these down as soon as they have distracted the usual idiots from the pain they are inflicting and the damage they are doing to our economy?

      • Fatty Bolger

        Yeah, there’s zero incentive to build anything new. The best you can hope for is to restore and expand existing plants, but then you still have the same questions of whether it will be worth it.

        You know, I remember Bill Clinton saying 20 years ago that changing regulations to encourage the building of refineries was a waste of time to address high gas prices, because it would take 10 years for them to have an effect. Then 10 years later, Obama said the exact same thing. Now here we are after another 10 years, and Biden is crying and blaming oil companies for not having enough refining capacity.

      • juris imprudent

        So we can enjoy this kind of success?

        Jimmy Carter, for example, declared a national crisis in 1979 and proposed legislation to create “this nation’s first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.”

      • db

        Jimmy Carter was a nuclear engineer. How he managed to be so pathetically stupid on energy policy is amazing.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        A unmitigated belief that progress can be forced.

      • rhywun

        OFFS

      • db

        I wrote this in the overnight thread:

        If this keeps on, the US oil industry in 10 years will look like Venezuela’s after Chavez: rotting equipment, production failures, safety problems, and diminished and demoralized workforce.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        👆👆👆

        Regime uncertainty is going to kill it.

      • juris imprudent

        Most recently developed refinery – 1976. Hell, Venezuela’s may be of more recent vintage (though subject to lesser maintenance efforts).

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        “Just tell Scotty to turn the engines up to 105%”

        /Biden

    • Brawndo

      Wow, the government finally proposes a bill with a sunset clause built in. Libertarian Moment, right guys?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Also in Minnesota, you will reiterate the tenets of the faith in order to get your teaching license.

      https://alphanews.org/commentary-state-to-require-teachers-to-demonstrate-marxist-worldview-to-obtain-license/

      The Minnesota teacher licensing board is called the Professional Educators Licensing and Standards Board or PELSB. Each board member was appointed by Gov. Tim Walz and PELSB is fast tracking new teacher licensing requirements.

      The new standards will embed basic Marxist principles and practices such as critical race theory, fluid sexual identity, and gender politics into all Minnesota schools.

      Standard Marxist practices and dogma divide people into opposing groups so that students and teachers must view themselves not as individuals, but as members of groups —oppressor groups or oppressed groups, and oppressed groups must be liberated from the exploitation of their oppressors.

      When formally adopted, the new requirements must be met to become or remain licensed to teach in Minnesota, including teaching in Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) from pre-natal on, and Adult Basic Education. Since nonpublic schools generally hire licensed teachers, these standards will apply to them as well.

      • rhywun

        Wow.

      • db

        The people who win at Marxism identify with the oppressor group; the losers identify with the oppressed and spend their efforts in useless signaling while they effectively support the oppressors, which are actually the Marxist leaders, not the opponents of Marxism.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    The steps amount to Biden’s latest attempt to show he’s taking initiative in reducing fuel prices as Americans grow more frustrated by the financial burden. White House officials had been considering a gas tax holiday for months, but held off until now in part because of concerns at how it might be received in Congress.

    Optics uber alles.

    Don’t bother to pretend he actually gives a shit.

    *This just occurred to me: everybody who gets a solicitation to any Democrat’s campaign should write, “Sorry, I spent all my extra money at the gas station” on it and send it back.

    • Tonio

      In Virginia, Democrats in the legislature defeated a gas tax holiday. Bet they feel silly now.

      • AlexinCT

        Why would they? They can just blame republicans and the idiots will believe them.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Don’t even need to do that. Blame evil oil companies and their profit gouging.

    • rhywun

      held off until now in part because of concerns at how it might be received in Congress

      Couldn’t have anything to do with letting it be fresh in voter’s minds in a few months.

  30. Drake

    The news trickling out of Uvalde keeps getting worse. It doesn’t matter now because the shooting – whether organized by feds or just a wildly bad series of coincidences – has served it’s purpose for driving new gun legislation.

    Officer husband of slain Uvalde teacher was detained, had gun taken away after trying to save wife

    Texas DPS director said Eva Mireles told her husband she ‘had been shot and was dying’

    She bled out while the cops in charge did nothing, ever. The Border Patrol cops who finally ended it were ignoring the local cops’ orders.

    • Sensei

      The blue wall is likely to crumble. But this will be declared a one off.

      “And what happened to him, is he tried to move forward into the hallway,” McCraw said. “He was detained and they took his gun away from him and escorted him off the scene.”

      • AlexinCT

        If you needed any more effective advertisement for the 2A right to self protection, it is the fact that the authorities that the people that want to disarm the public tell us will then protect us once they make us sheep, are this inefficient and self-serving.

    • MikeS

      So they knew, without a doubt, that at least one person was alive and bleeding out and did nothing. I’m honestly surprised there hasn’t been violence of some kind directed at the police department.

  31. Tonio

    Conservative homo attacked for pointing out that Kamala Harris did indeed fellate her way to the top.

    • Pope Jimbo

      fellate her way to the top

      Everyone knows that the top is for the bottoms and resent any chick who horns in on the action.

    • AlexinCT

      You are not a real homo unless you bow to the left’s shibboleths.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      To be fair, I think the fellatio only got her to the first step on the ladder.

      • AlexinCT

        You implying she provided other services to get up the other rungs of said ladder? Someone get a crowbar just in case Tres reads this!

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Republicans widely oppose lifting the gax tax. Even some Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have been cool on the idea. And in the past, senior Democrats — including President Barack Obama on the campaign trail in 2008 — have cast a gas tax holiday as a “gimmick.”

    Yet facing growing anger and the start of the summer driving season, Biden determined that even small steps bordering on symbolic are worth taking.

    I think the word you’re looking for is “shambolic”.

    • ron73440

      Whats the symbology there?

  33. The Late P Brooks

    I asked the other day- are the oil companies’ egregious profits rising as a percent of total revenues, or just nominally rising as the result of inflated prices?

    Inquiring minds, and all that…

    • AlexinCT

      That’s the wrong question. As the quote from Sowell that I often give points out says, people’s reasoning has nothing to do with logic, facts, or reason itself, as how often the spurious appeals to emotion work better. The left knows they can make the oil industry the villain, and most idiots will just accept it.

    • tarran

      Their profits have to be falling.

      Think about it as a producer. You only ramp up production if it’s going to increase your profits. You may be compelled to offer a lower per unit price to move the additional product, but if the extra income from those additional units makes up for the lower profit per unit, the exercise is profitable.

      Oil companies were willing to sell gas to us at less than $2.00 a gallon. Therefore, the increased prices due to the smaller supply on the market must translate to lost profits,

  34. pistoffnick

    /RANT ON

    The “safety department”* never informed me that there was an issue with my lab’s crane. If it is dangerous to use (it’s not), shouldn’t you inform the people who use it everyday?

    * “safety” is in quotes because they are the worst offenders. They regularly walk right past my flashing lights, the orange cones, and the warning signs telling them that a test in going on.

    /RANT OFF

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Safety departments largely exist only to self-justify

      • db

        I could do my standard safety rant again but maybe I’ll just write an article I can link to in the future.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’ve got a few stories about a particle accelerator facility. One in particular concerns their 12 page application for a daily permit to use a hand power tool.

      • MikeS

        Ours is on a gloves kick. Sent out a tailgate talk saying that gloves must be worn for all tasks (she was smart informed enough to say the rule is the opposite around rotating tools/machines). And she means always; hammering a nail into a wall to hang a picture and lifting a box of copier paper are two of the stupider examples she gave.

      • MikeS

        Hmmm. I’ve never seen her and UCS in the same room…

      • UnCivilServant

        We’ve met in person. You know I am not a woman, nor do I have employment as a safety officer.

      • Pope Jimbo

        It would be just like a crafty NY chick to hire some out of work dude to pretend to be UCS to pull a fast one on the NoDak rubes.

        You can’t be too careful around a NoDak after he has spent a winter in his sod hut. He’s got loving on his mind!

      • AlexinCT

        hand power tool.

        Euphemism for vibrator?

      • Brawndo

        Yup. My division just created a position for it and now they’re passing out PPE we don’t need for our departments “just in case corporate says you need it.”

        Ironically, the guy in charge of safety used to be the 5-S guy who’s job it was to make sure we don’t have clutter in our departments.

      • juris imprudent

        No irony in that at all – just more stupid make work.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Officer husband of slain Uvalde teacher was detained, had gun taken away after trying to save wife

    Is that the guy who borrowed a shotgun from his barber and headed for the school?

    I’m surprised they haven’t charged them with some sort of “illegal transfer” crime (yet).

    • AlexinCT

      That’s gonna happen soon so they can dissuade people from taking matters into their own hands when the authorities simply dilly-dally.

    • ron73440

      Is that the guy who borrowed a shotgun from his barber and headed for the school?

      That guy is the BP that actually ended shooter, IIRC.

      • Drake

        I’m not sure if that story is real. The pictures of the guy ending it have him holding an M4.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The barber supplied shotgun is real but it was a BORTAC team that entered and ended it according to the latest version.

      • juris imprudent

        I’m not sure we’ve gotten a fully reliable accounting of events there yet.

      • ron73440

        I’m not sure we’ve gotten a fully reliable accounting of events there yet.

        Probably never will, I’m surprised they haven’t done a better job keeping all this suppressed.

      • Drake

        They desperately trying to block the release of all the videos from that day.

      • juris imprudent

        Hey, it’s worked for Congress (Jan 6th)!

    • Gustave Lytton

      No, the one above was a school district officer.

      Shocking that a border patrol officer doesn’t off duty carry, but not entirely surprising just like police firearms proficiency in general.

      • Sensei

        He still may, but having a long arm if possible seems reasonable too.

  36. Scruffy Nerfherder

    This is the big question, and tells you everything you need to know about the state of SCIENCE.

    https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/why-cant-we-find-anyone-who-will

    You’d think we could get someone who works in any capacity at any of these organizations below to challenge me or any of my colleagues to a recorded debate on a neutral platform:

    the medical community (universities, hospitals, healthcare facilities)

    the HHS government agencies: CDC, FDA, NIH

    the US government including Congress

    the mainstream media

    State or local government

    Companies who require vaccine mandates

    Local health officials

    Mainstream social networks including Twitter, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn

    Fact checkers

    The Gates Foundation

    Bill Gates

    The Rockefeller Foundation

    Any drug companies

    Any medical boards especially the American Board of Internal Medicine (they refused a debate offer from Senator Ron Johnson so they will not be held publicly accountable for their actions)

    Medical journals

    • Gustave Lytton

      If no one wants to waste time debating a flat earth kook, must mean they are right by default.

      • tarran

        If belief in a flat earth was held by > 5% of the population and was leading to millions of unnecessary deaths, then debating a flat earth kook wouldn’t be a waste of time.

        Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman was willing to spend an hour of his day to watch a painter demonstrate a color mixing process that the painter claimed would produce a certain color and that Feynman was confident would not. As it turned out, the painter was wasting Feynman’s time; his technique failed when put to the test.

        Feynman didn’t consider it a waste of his time, because he was very excited at the prospect that he might be wrong, and that he would learn something from the kook he encountered at a diner over lunch.

        This crap that progressives have of saying “the debate is over and we won so shut up denier” is destructive. 99% of the time, it’s not that the other side are kooks, but that the progressives are the kooks who are afraid of debate.

      • UnCivilServant

        Got more details on what was mixed and what color they were trying to produce versus what it turned out as?

      • tarran

        Not off the cuff. It’s in one of his autobiographies.

      • ron73440

        Feynman’s books should be required reading.

      • tarran

        Word!

      • Gustave Lytton

        I agree but the reverse argument that “they won’t engage with me so I must be right” is just as wrong. This guy comes off like the guy Buzz Aldrin punched out.

      • ron73440

        I agree, but the problem is it’s not just this guy they won’t debate.

        If Fauci was so concerned with Rogan’s “disinformation” and knew he had the facts on his side, it would have been easy to embarrass him on his own podcast by debating him.

        Why didn’t he?

        I think we all know why.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Kirsch has offered significant sums to engage in debate and has offered to bring Robert Malone and established dissident scientists to the events.

        This isn’t a kook theory, it’s a direct challenge to the totalitarian propaganda line by people with credibility. Kirsch is exposing the lie at the root of the modern scientific establishment, namely that they believe in the robust debate that the scientific process requires.

        For that matter, the universities have shown everyone their ass on this as well.

        Yes, Kirsch is abrasive, but the situation requires it.

      • juris imprudent

        Everyone in the Cathedral already know how the Ehrlich-Simon wager went down. No one is going to repeat Ehrlich’s mistake.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Only 35% of Americans are opting for more than 2 doses.

      That’s a huge problem, no matter which point of view you have.

      I see that as good though.

      • PieInTheSky

        Whatever would.make anyone belive the booster does anything? Maybe 7 months ago i would understamd…

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s an article of faith.

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s a disgustingly high number of people getting reinjected with poison.

      • Sean

        ^^ This.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        35% of people are disgusting. Sounds about right.

      • The Hyperbole

        Sounds pretty low to me.

      • MikeS

        35% are only disgusting. The rest are worse.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Some economists also say that the savings passed along to consumers could be minimal as retailers simply raise the base price of gas to make up the difference.

    “Whatever you thought of the merits of a gas tax holiday in February, it is a worse idea now,” Jason Furman, a senior economic official in Obama’s administration, wrote on Twitter. “Refineries are even more constrained now so supply is nearly fully inelastic. Most of the 18.4 cent reduction would be pocketed by industry — with maybe a few cents passed on to consumers.”

    Robber barons!

    If Jason Furman says it, you know it’s true.

    • tarran

      It’s almost as if prices are set by the price consumers are willing to pay to clear the market!

  38. Certified Public Asshat

    Bimbos and the Backlash: Patriarchal dependence is not anti-capitalist

    An anti-feminist backlash is in full swing, and the latest iteration is the reemergence of the bimbo — this time as a self-styled socialist.

    #BimboTok is just one of the growing corners of backlash social media disguised as leftism, where female independence, women having any sort of authority or power, and feminism itself is deemed painfully uncool, while assessing women based on their physical attractiveness, deferring to men, and exchanging one’s conventional attractiveness and sex for financial support from men is the height of empowerment and a rejection of capitalist demands.

    Yes, this is anti-feminism, even if it’s coming from some version of the left, and even if it’s cast as a joke.

    Jill Filipovic is now on substack getting a whopping two comments per post.

  39. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    Fairfax County School Board Votes To Make It A Potential Crime To Call A Boy A Boy

    See ya, suckers!

  40. DEG

    In an indication that corporate progressivism may be reaching its high-water mark, CEOs for the first time are pushing back against activist employees, in some cases going so far as to fire them rather than steer their companies into the mire of “woke” politics.

    I read the whole article. The companies mentioned that are pushing back against the woke are small potatoes. They don’t matter.

  41. Animal

    And then there were three.

    This, I’m guessing, just improves the odds that we’ll send Sarah Palin to Congress. That will make a lot of lefty heads explode, which can only be a good thing.

    • creech

      Is Sarah still every conservative man’s wet dream? Maybe Sarah and AOC can wye for title ‘Best Hooters in Congress?”

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Petroleum refineries are icky. Let the Chinese build them.

  43. Gustave Lytton

    Carhartt hates their customers. They changed the country of origin yet again and subtly changed their dungaree pants. Fuck you assholes, do you not use your own products? The hem on the slash pockets is doubled so pocket clips do not slide on easily. The pockets themselves are shallower with larger openings (so stuff falls out). And that’s what I’ve found so far.

    • Animal

      Duluth Trading, baby.

    • PieInTheSky

      This is why you buy gucci

  44. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    Thanks for the lynx! I enjoyed the anti-wokeness in companies one, but I suspect eradicating it will be a challenge.

    Some employees disagreed. A staffer quickly responded in protest. “What about Black Lives Matter? Is that a social cause? Who will write about athlete protests? What about trans athletes in sports?”

    Go fuck yourself. This is why I cancelled my subscription back in early 2020. So much space devoted to such dull-ass topics.

    Have a great day, people!

  45. Rat on a train

    Without comment on the winner, I don’t like that the winner for VA-7 only received 28.95% of the vote. Virginia needs runoffs when no candidate gets a majority.

    • Penguin

      Yeah, just get a far-away picture of Justin Trudeau looking on longingly.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, President Z does not strike me as a very friendly fellow. He’s probably thinking, “Get your paws off me, fag.”

  46. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    In order to alleviate some panic, I think I will take a weekend and fly back to DC in August to handle any household business I couldn’t get done before I leave.

    Two more sleeps.

    • db

      Good idea. If you can defer some steps to get gone with less stress now, do it!

    • Tundra

      Yeah, the “holy fuck what have I done?!?” thing is real.

      But it fades. Good luck and enjoy your new life.

    • Gender Traitor

      Deep, cleansing breaths. Keep your eyes on the prize.

  47. Sensei

    “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

    https://nypost.com/2022/06/21/snowflake-mountain-spoiled-gen-zers-stranded-in-the-wild/

    New Netflix reality series “Snowflake Mountain” features a group of delicate, immature 20-somethings who party hard, can’t hold down jobs and still live with their parents. These “snowflakes” — which the show defines as young people who are “overly emotional, easily offended and dramatic” — are sent into the wilderness, in an effort to push them into growing up.