Thursday Afternoon Links

by | Dec 8, 2022 | Daily Links | 208 comments

If you don’t at least twitch rhythmically to this seventies dance track, see your undertaker.

 

 

HOUSE PASSES NDAA, RESCINDS DOJ VAX MANDATE: The House voted on Thursday to pass sweeping legislation that would authorize $858 billion in national defense funding and rescind the US military’s Covid vaccine mandate. The measure passed with wide bipartisan support with a tally of 350 to 80. Next stop, the US Senate.

BRITTNEY GRINER, FREE AT LAST: Our long national nightmare is finally over. The Biden administration orchestrated a prisoner swap with Russia. They released a petty drug smuggler heroic minority sportsball heroine; we gave them back their arms dealer. And remember that Marijuana (and derivative products) are still illegal under US federal laws, and in many US states. Meanwhile, Paul Whelan (who may or may not be a US, UK, Irish, or Canadian spy) continues to languish in a Russian prison.

NERVOUS JOURNO PEPPER-SPRAYS SELF, BLAMES RIGHT-WINGERS: I accidentally pepper-sprayed myself in the face. What’s worse is admitting I feel unsafe in Philadelphia.

OREGON SUPREME COURT SURPRISES: A new, strict gun law in Oregon remains on hold after the state’s high court said it would not grant an emergency motion to overturn a lower court’s ruling.

VIRGINIA GOVERNOR YOUNGKIN TO REFUND (SOME) COVID FINES: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) announced on Tuesday that he plans to reimburse individuals and businesses who paid fines for violating most state COVID-19 restrictions put in place by his Democratic predecessor.

POPULAR LIBERTY HANGOUT GOURMELTZ RAIDED: Virginia Alcohol and Beverage Control raided a Spotsylvania County restaurant Friday morning to execute a search warrant alleging the business has been selling alcohol without a license. This is a result of ongoing fallout from the COVID lockdowns. Please, Virginia peeps, and anyone passing through Fredericksburg, give them some business. (Disclaimer: Gourmeltz has hosted a Glibs meetup and I have spoken briefly with the owner.)

WOKE RESTAURANT REFUSES SERVICE TO SOCON GROUP: Richmond, VA. Metzger Bar and Butchery canceled a reservation for The Family Foundation, citing the group’s stance on abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. Which is totally a different thing than demanding that someone else bake a cake or design a website for a QUILTBAG wedding.

THE ORIGINS OF “GENDER” – AN ACTUAL PRO-PEDO ACADEMIC: John Money believed pedophilia was a harmless sexuality which, when practiced “properly,” led to the child suffering no harm. (This article is disturbing, particularly the Reimer case.)

NEW YORK TIMES JOURNOS STRIKE: I was going to link to the actual NYT article on this since the strikers are requesting that union supporters not access the NYT website during the strike period, but since NYT is paywalled you get NBC’S reporting on the strike.

FIRST US CURRENCY WITH WOMAN’S SIGNATURE ISSUED: Latest in the parade of female firsts comes Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen whose signature will grace the most inflated banknotes in our history. A stunning, brave triumph of form over substance. Hey, Jan, maybe you should actually work on the economy instead of your calligraphy. (This article is nauseating in its sycophancy.)

SHAKE IT, ASTROBOTIC, SHAKE IT: This article about vibration testing of the Peregrine lander inspired my musical link. The Peregrine is supposed to launch in early 2023 and will contain several payloads from both NASA and private companies, as well as a small rover from Carnegie Mellon University.

About The Author

Tonio

Tonio

Tonio is a Glibs shitposter, linkstar (Thursday PM, yo), author, and editor. He is also a GlibZoom personality and prankster. Tonio is a big fan of pic-a-nic baskets. His hobbies include salmon fishing, territorial displays, dumpster diving, and posing for wildlife photographers.

208 Comments

    • The Other Kevin

      That’s it, I’m done for the week. Nothing can top that.

      Also, I’m going to pretend the guy they interview at the end is our own Q.

    • kinnath

      Sign in to watch video.

      not gonna do it.

      • Count Potato

        There is a browser extension that lets you get around that.

      • kinnath

        I will check it out from my home computer later today.

      • PutridMeat

        FreeTube Youtube client, data stored locally, bypass age stuff. One thing youtube does well is tailor suggested videos well, which this doesn’t do so well (at all?), but other than that, very good if you know what you are looking for.

        Jiggle jiggle.

      • Count Potato

        I tried that but I couldn’t get it to bypass age stuff.

      • PutridMeat

        Huh, I just went to youtube, got the age restriction, pasted the link into freetube and it played normally.

        It was purely for science. An empirical examination of the facts. No prurient motives involved.

      • Count Potato

        That link works, but I tried another age restricted link before that didn’t.

      • R.J.

        O think there’s some learnin’ to do. I want to post links that go through a client like that and can be used here. So you still only have to clock and enjoy.

      • rhywun

        I think you can “nsfw” in the URL somewhere, in front of “youtube” maybe? I remember it working.

    • juris imprudent

      That’s impressive. And a woman speaking Dutch is ridiculously sexy in a way that German isn’t.

  1. Count Potato

    “rescind the US military’s Covid vaccine mandate”

    Good.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      “HOUSE PASSES NDAA”

      Bad.

      • Count Potato

        Well, there wasn’t any way they were going to eliminate defense spending.

  2. Count Potato

    “Meanwhile, Paul Whelan (who may or may not be a US, UK, Irish, or Canadian spy) continues to languish in a prison.”

    So do the J6 protesters.

    • Tonio

      Dammit, I meant to write “Russian prison.”

      • Count Potato

        You did. I edited it. I also should have taken out the “a”.

  3. Scruffy Nerfherder

    While the right cynically politicises crime (Fox News slashed its crime coverage in half after the midterm elections), they’re not entirely wrong about the problem. Shootings have surged in Philadelphia since the pandemic. By early August, more than 1,400 people had been shot in the city this year. Gun violence is out of control.

    The right blames this violence on liberals and the movement to defund the police: Philadelphia has a famously progressive district attorney who, they argue, is too easy on criminals. The real reason for all this violence, however, is that Philadelphia has high rates of poverty and easy access to guns. That’s not a winning combination.

    Arwa is a Grade A dipshit. Philly is out of control because the criminals know there aren’t consequences. It ain’t easy access to guns that encourages mobs to loot Wawa’s on a regular basis.

    • Count Potato

      “The real reason for all this violence, however, is that Philadelphia has high rates of poverty and easy access to guns.”

      No, it’s drug prohibition. Same as every other city.

      How easy is it to carry a gun legally in Philadelphia?

      • rhywun

        Ah, the old “I need these 12 cases of laundry detergent to feed my family” chestnut.

        Never gets old.

      • B.P.

        Here’s Rico Soave arguing with his co-host about the Philly gas station owner who hired armed security. Poverty causes looting, you see.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK1XQJ2Bjds

        Or rather, here’s Soave listening to a hide-bound hack who always refuses to concede anything about her ideology. Robby gets to do this every day.

      • rhywun

        YT;DW but this attitude makes me so angry.

        Am I to believe that “being poor” is a perfectly acceptable excuse to steal from others?

        What about all those chumps who decide to better themselves instead of choosing a lifestyle of crime? I have some experience in this matter. Maybe I should give up my job and start robbing banks instead.

      • R.J.

        These are not poor people. These are people who steal to support the next video game or nice pair of sneakers. Also drug addicts who can still function. I have been desperately poor, and never resorted to stealing. Fuck anyone who assumes being poor causes theft. Having a complete lack of morals in a consequence – free environment causes theft.

      • EvilSheldon

        Not hard. PA is in the top half for ease of CCW application.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I’m guessing a not insignificant proportion of Philadelphia gun wielders aren’t going to pass the background check on a CCW.

      • EvilSheldon

        Sure. But the man did say “legally.”

      • Count Potato

        OK, because many cities have their own restrictions.

      • Sean

        PA has statewide preemption.*

        *Don’t ask me about OC in Philly.

    • juris imprudent

      Philly is out of control because the criminals know there aren’t consequences.

      Funny, that’s the same reason cops are out of control too!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        There’s only consequences for those who try to change the system.

    • DrOtto

      That’s funny, back when I was poor, I couldn’t afford a gun, much less ammo.

    • Lackadaisical

      “The right blames this violence on liberals and the movement to defund the police: Philadelphia has a famously progressive district attorney who, they argue, is too easy on criminals. The real reason for all this violence, however, is that Philadelphia has high rates of poverty and easy access to guns. That’s not a winning combination.”

      Yes, and that just change din the few years. Used to be no ghettos in philly.

      • Zwak, who taser's the chimp with the razor.

        “Famously Progressive DA” and “all this violence.”

        Huh. Whoda thought.

  4. Count Potato

    “I feel unsafe in Philadelphia.”

    Tbf, most people would.

  5. kinnath
    • Tonio

      Yes better audio, but I like the energy and costumes of the live version.

      • juris imprudent

        Speaking of live version, the wife and I saw him a number of years back in San Diego. The wife and her friend kept saying “just close your eyes”, because KC hasn’t aged well – though he can still belt out that song.

      • R.J.

        I forgive him. Aging is not kind.

      • pistoffnick

        Aging is not kind.

        /looks at self in mirror. Notices an extra inch of forehead that was not there last year.

      • Animal

        Aging is not kind.

        If that ain’t the understatement of the year, it will do until a better one comes along.

  6. Count Potato

    “alleging the business has been selling alcohol without a license. This is a result of ongoing fallout from the COVID lockdowns.”

    They can’t punish them for one thing, so they are making something else up?

    • Drake

      “We secretly revoked a bs license because you challenged our authority”

  7. KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

    COVID vacks news – good

    Youngkin fines – goodish

    Everything else – bad

    I would love to give Gourmeltz more of my bidness, but I hope to not be that close to the DC metro for a very very very very very very long time

    • Tonio

      NYT Strike – Meh. Nobody to like there.

      Astrobotics – Neutral. While much of what NASA does is not an essential function of government, this is far less expensive and less of a boondoggle than Artemis.

      • Count Potato

        They should have an ass contest in zero gravity.

      • juris imprudent

        Speaking of NASA, and of course Nazis.

        “The simple fact is that the Moon-landing program was run by a bunch of ex-Nazis,” the film’s co-writer Jez Butterworth told Empire. “How ‘ex’ they are is the question. And it gets up Indy’s nose…”

      • Tonio

        Why yes, yes it was. Both the US and the Soviets built their space programs at least partially around the Nazi V2 program. This is not some type of earth-shattering revelation.

        I’m reminded of Tom Lehrer’s song about Werner von Braun:

        Call him a Nazi, He won’t even frown.
        “Nazi, schmazi, says Werner von Braun.

      • Sensei

        I always used to say the USSR had more of the captured Nazis and as a result had the head start on payload lift.

      • Rat on a train

        “Our Nazis were better than their Nazis”

      • B.P.

        There was a movie about Werner’s life called I Aim at the Stars. Someone retorted, “But sometimes he hits London.” (Mort Saul was always credited, but wiki says otherwise.)

      • juris imprudent

        This is not some type of earth-shattering revelation.

        It seems it might be to those under the age of say 40, maybe 50.

      • Mojeaux

        Still laughing about Alyssa Milano angrily denouncing her Tesla in favor of Volkswagen.

        Orly?

    • Drake

      I drive through VA sometimes, but usually much farther west. If I ever decide to punish myself and take the coastal route, I’ll be there.

      • juris imprudent

        The Shenandoah really is a lovely drive.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        It’d be nice if Gourmeltz could be picked up and moved 4 hours or so to the West.

      • Drake

        Yes

      • Rat on a train

        No

      • Tonio

        LMK. I’m roughly an hour south of there and can meet you.

      • Rat on a train

        I’m 10 minutes away if we’re gathering.

  8. Count Potato

    “Which is totally a different thing than demanding that someone else bake a cake or design a website for a QUILTBAG wedding.”

    True.

    I remember some chicken restaurant refused to serve Trump’s secretary.

    There was also the whole “Republicans shouldn’t be allowed to eat in peace as long as there are kids in cages” thing.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Good old Maxine was at the forefront of that one.

      • Count Potato

        Also, daddy money feminist Jessica Valenti.

    • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

      I’m going to have to put in a good 10 hours on Saturday, probably. So I hope you all are ready to get ass-flatteningly drunk* with me Saturday night

      *IDK what that means, I just made it up in my head and it sounded about right

      • Count Potato

        Well, I’m for drinking, but against flat asses.

      • Drake

        Who’s ass will be flattened?

      • Nephilium

        It will be an unsupervised Zoom, as the girlfriend and I have plans all weekend. Friday is the Tremont Walkabout, Saturday is an Ugly Sweater Christmas Beer Crawl. There’s only 9 stops, so we may stop at a brewery that’s doing multiple variant releases of their Christmas Ale that same day (and get pizza), Sunday meeting up with the niece for brunch and then to watch the Browns game.

    • rhywun

      I just found out I was going to lose 4 days off (I thought I only had carry-over days left). Boss said try to use them so I was like sure, and I booked 3 of them. That leaves me with 6 days to finish this project that realistically needs at least two more months. Everybody knows it ain’t happening so I’m not stressing out.

  9. Count Potato

    Not to defend John Money, but I wouldn’t say he invented gender.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      The word gender was in quotes.

      • Count Potato

        There are bunch of people who blame him for inventing gender transitioning. Which he didn’t do.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Now you are switching arguments, but sure he didn’t invent gender transitioning. He did transition an infant though.

      • Count Potato

        Well, that’s what they are implying by “gender”.

    • WTF

      He invented the idea of gender fluidity separate from biological sex.

      • Count Potato

        He didn’t.

      • WTF

        Reading the article made it seem like he provided the basis for the current madness.

      • Count Potato

        Well, he definitely was a contributor to making it madness.

  10. UnCivilServant

    If I recall correctly, at some point they jammed the legacy media cartel protection act into the NDAA, was that removed, or is it still in?

  11. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Ah yes, John Money, that perverted psychopathic piece of shit.

    There was another person at Hopkins whose name I can’t remember right now who acted as a check on Money’s frequent recommendations for sex change surgery. Hopkins got rid of him a few years ago (he was quite old) and replaced him with a sex change advocate who has no issue with treating twelve year olds.

    I think it’s safe to say while Hopkins greatly benefits from its med school reputation, it has become a stain on the country. It’s total lack of morals and ethics in multiple fields is quite astounding.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      And Money was notorious for inventing bullshit psychological word salads. He was a leader in the postmodern trend towards utter meaninglessness of everything. The Left eats that shit up like socialites at a modern art museum pretending to understand what the blank canvas means.

      Money also developed a view of “Concepts of Determinism” which, transcultural, transhistorical, and universal, all people have in common, sexologically or otherwise.[23] These include pairbondage, troopbondage, abidance, ycleptance, foredoomance, with these coping strategies: adhibition (engagement), inhibition, explication. Money suggested that the concept of “threshold”[24] – the release or inhibition of sexual (or other) behavior – is most useful for sex research as a substitute for any concept of motivation. Moreover, it confers the distinct advantage of having continuity and unity to what would otherwise be a highly disparate and varied field of research. It also allows for the classification of sexual behavior. For Money, the concept of threshold has great value because of the wide spectrum to which it applies. “It allows one to think developmentally or longitudinally, in terms of stages or experiences that are programmed serially, or hierarchically, or cybernetically (i.e. regulated by mutual feedback).”[22]

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Now that I think about it, he’s like the pedophile psychologist version of Derrida.

      • rhywun

        “Kiff, I have a sexy disease. Tell everyone what it is.”

        “Sigh. Sexlexia.”

  12. Rebel Scum

    My dog is the size of a large rat so he doesn’t really deter bad guys – unless the bad guys are scared of rats. Anyway, I had gone out to the garden to test the spray – I’m not a complete idiot, I didn’t want to inhale that stuff in a confined space – and managed to get some droplets on my face. At first it was kind of pleasant. A nice little tingle. An exhilarating Philly facial. Then it started getting painful. Then I rubbed my eyes and …. yikes! 0/10 do not recommend.

    I beg to differ. Perhaps you should test out a pistol…

    Philadelphia has high rates of poverty and easy access to guns. That’s not a winning combination.

    The poors are getting guns from gun shops and shooting each other?

    • The Other Kevin

      Yes. And this only happened recently. Up until a few years ago, there were no guns in Philly and nobody was poor.

      • Sean

        Decades of Democrat control.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Definitely the fault of Republicans, just like in Baltimore, San Francisco, and Chicago

    • Tonio

      Do we really trust this person with a for-real pistol? Can you imagine her in training class being all like “I just want to fire a warning shot.” She probably actually thinks that you just walk into a gun store, plop your money down, and walk out with a pistol five minutes later. This is the type of person Byrna was created to appeal to.

      • EvilSheldon

        I’ll give her some credit for actually testing her pepper spray. Most people don’t.

        So points for mindset, but points off for intelligence – most pepper spray companies make inert training units.

      • Rebel Scum

        I was thinking that Charles Darwin would sort things out.

    • Nephilium

      Everyone knows how cheap guns and ammo are, I mean they get handed out like business cards, right?

      • juris imprudent

        +1 Michael Moore lie

      • Mojeaux

        He’s a blind squirrel looking at a stopped clock. He knew Trump was going to win and why, and he tried to tell “his people,” but they shunned him.

    • Cowboy

      “I’m not a complete idiot….parts of me are missing!”

  13. Ted S.

    FIRST US CURRENCY WITH WOMAN’S SIGNATURE ISSUED:

    Sorry, but US currency is countersigned by the Treasurer of the United States, a post that has been held by women since 1949.

    • UnCivilServant

      The Ministry of Truth has reviewed this assertion and deemed it FALSE!

      The US was still using metallic-backed paper notes back then, not Currency.

    • Homple

      Ivy Baker Priest (September 7, 1905 – June 23, 1975) was an American politician who served as Treasurer of the United States from 1953 to 1961. Her signature was on bills when I was a kid.

    • Lackadaisical

      wait… what,

      So they’re just blatantly telling lies again? Jesus.

  14. juris imprudent

    rescind the US military’s Covid vaccine mandate

    The lefty covidians will whine like Alex about this caving in to the dark side.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Let’s go to the Fountain of Derp for commentary.

      https://democraticunderground.com/10143005142

      the same antivax people at fox and in congress are vaccinated but they are working for russia, so undermining U.S. troops in any way assists putin.

      • Rebel Scum

        Seems to me that mRNA clotshots undermine the troops. And since when do leftists care about the troops?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They hold out in hopes that the troops will murder their political opposition.

      • juris imprudent

        It’s to save democracy!

      • The Last American Hero

        And by hold out you of course mean “are correct in knowing that”.

  15. Rebel Scum

    selling alcohol without a license.

    The. horror.

  16. rhywun

    I accidentally pepper-sprayed myself in the face. What’s worse is admitting I feel unsafe in Philadelphia.

    That whole thing is so hilariously over-the-top peak Guardian I could only SMDH in awe.

    • Count Potato

      Did you ever read their give us money because climate change thing?

      • rhywun

        I think I glanced at that once.

        They are so ridiculous it makes you wonder if it’s all an elaborate ruse.

  17. Rebel Scum

    LGBTQ+ rights.

    The alphabet people have the same rights as everyone else.

    • UnCivilServant

      More, as far as I can tell.

  18. Rebel Scum

    John Money believed pedophilia was a harmless sexuality which, when practiced “properly,” led to the child suffering no harm.

    Interesting. When pedophiles get beaten within an inch of their life for molesting children there is justifiable suffering and harm.

  19. Rebel Scum

    A stunning, brave triumph of form over substance.

    Women are excellent at spending money.

  20. Rebel Scum

    This is how it starts.

    In a major breakthrough for genetic research, scientists have recovered what is by far the oldest DNA to date. The 2-million-year-old DNA reveals an unprecedented glimpse of a unique Ice Age ecosystem that existed long ago, while also offering an eerie preview of our own future in a warming world, reports a new study.

    The discovery of this lost world is based on environmental eDNA (eDNA), a mishmash of genetic detritus that represents an entire habitat, extracted from Kap København Formation, a fossil bed that sits in a polar desert in Northern Greenland. The frozen landscape and mineral conditions at the site contributed to the unrivaled preservation of this genetic material, which is a full million years older than the next oldest DNA, found in a mammoth tooth.

  21. The Other Kevin

    I read the other day about how the Democrat party is “disciplined”. So unlike the Republicans, who fight over Trump candidates vs. non-Trump candidates, you can count on the Dems to always circle the wagons around all of their candidates, regardless of how corrupt or batshit crazy. And you dare not speak against the party line, otherwise you are ostracized and cancelled. I think people like Money take advantage of this. They can push the Overton window as far as they want, be it straight up socialism, transgenderism, even pedophilia, and as long as it’s done within the party, the leadership and the rank and file will just go along with it.

    • juris imprudent

      And I remember Will Rogers’ joke about “I don’t belong to an organized political party, I’m a Democrat”.

    • creech

      “the leadership and the rank and file will just go along with it.”
      Also include the voters in places like Pennsylvania.

      • juris imprudent

        Even here, some Shapiro voters abandoned Fetterlump.

  22. Rebel Scum

    Well, shit.

    ‘It looks like the messenger RNA IS transferring from the vaccinated to the unvaccinated’ ~ Dr Peter McCullough

    I’m trying to remain pure blood.

    • kinnath

      How many end-of-the-world stories start out this way?

      We are fucked.

    • The Other Kevin

      First reply: Probably we need a lockdown for the vaccinated people until we can figure out what the hell is going on.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      McCullough is speculating here. I thought it was an unwise move on his part.

      It’s worth studying however.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Is this sort of like when the real hard in the paint anti-vaxxers talked about vaccine shedding?

      • Count Potato

        I read about drinking white pine needle tea to protect against spike proteins from the vaccinated.

    • rhywun

      Say what now? How is that even possible, unless you get a blood transfusion or something.

      • Lackadaisical

        It was detected in breast milk. (actually I remember hearing about this long ago)

        I wonder if it is in saliva/ other bodily fluids.

      • rhywun

        Why do I feel like I’m living in a bad dystopian science-fiction movie.

  23. prolefeed

    Our HOA Board took an “advisory” survey of new amenities the residents might want – no price tags indicated. Only one thing got barely above 50% of the vote – new hiking trails.

    So the Board put to a vote among the households whether to charge every household a special one time assessment of $300 for a pickleball / basketball court – one of the many proposed amenities to fail to get a majority vote in the survey.

    My wife was going off on the damned pickleball court, raising inadvertantly libertarian arguments against the HOA Board trying to take money from us for something we don’t want.

    When I pointed out that her presumably voting a hard-left slate of candidates every election was endorsing the opposite of her “taxation is theft” rant, she said, “Well, that’s different.”

    • Certified Public Asshat

      “Well, that’s different.”

      Ok, go on…

      • juris imprudent

        No, that is what they honestly believe!

    • Rat on a train

      Hopefully they vote for what we want to do so we can blame them.

    • Raven Nation

      Into the valley of death rode prolefeed.

      • juris imprudent

        He keeps this kind of thing up and he won’t be near any valley of any kind.

      • slumbrew

        *golf clap*

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Of course the hard left is only going to tax the rich. Who as we all know are not paying their fair share. Otherwise they would no longer be rich. The HOA is going after your money. See that’s different.

    • Mojeaux

      The question really is how to get people out of the “Well, that’s different,” mindset.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh that’s easy – just get them to give up their faith. Because that’s what it is. It isn’t anything they ever reasoned themselves into. It is beautiful, irrational, belief.

    • LJW

      The city converted tennis courts by my parents house to pickleball, can’t be a coincidence nearby homes have gone on the market in droves. The noise is unbearable. Our neighborhood has a pickleball court, can’t wait for the fad to die and the HOA comes at us with fees to replace it.

      • Count Potato

        I don’t even know what pickleball is.

      • rhywun

        It’s like ping pong on a tennis court.

      • The Last American Hero

        Boomers fucking love it.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    According to my model…

    Strategists at JPMorgan led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou decided to examine a scenario in which the Fed would take its benchmark rate to 6.5% during the second half of 2023. They noted that the JPMorgan economics team assigns a 28% likelihood to that scenario, so it’s within the realm of possibility, even though the rates market only assigns a 10% probability to that outcome.

    In discussions with clients, the strategists said, that scenario is widely perceived as the Armageddon scenario. “After all, the last time the Fed funds rate was at 6.5% was in 2000 and that level of policy rates was followed by very heavy losses for risk markets at the time,” they said.

    6.5% probably wouldn’t even be a positive real rate.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Of course the hard left is only going to tax the rich.

    Liker those plunderers selling $600+ worth of stuff on Etsy and ebay.

    You sold a bunch of stuff like Grandma’s cast iron Dutch oven for more than you ever imagined, and now you’ve got a 1099 to figure out what to do with.

    • juris imprudent

      The rich are very sneaky – hiding their multi-million dollar transactions in $1000 increments, but we’ve got ’em now!

      • Mojeaux

        we’ve got ’em now!

        Boy, howdy!

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Antiquated notions


    One emotion that I have not seen Bankman-Fried talking about is shame. There is a significant difference between the two states: feeling embarrassed turns on the worry that we have accidentally revealed some unattractive or negative aspect of ourselves to the outside world. Feeling ashamed, meanwhile, involves the unpleasant recognition that we have done something morally wrong or reprehensible.

    Bankman-Fried’s feelings of embarrassment are worries about image rather than wrongdoing, and are therefore morally neutral. If he were talking about feeling ashamed, this would indicate he was taking some kind of moral responsibility for what he has done. Instead, his claims of embarrassment are simply a kind of emotional virtue-signalling, without any of the heavy moral baggage that comes with taking accountability.

    “Shame is connected with a sense that what one does, or did, or what one is . . . threatens the values that one is attached to,” Fabrice Teroni, professor of philosophy at the University of Geneva and co-author of In Defense of Shame, tells me. “Embarrassment comes out as a more superficial emotion, and definitely not a moral emotion.”

    Not only does Bankman-Fried appear to be lacking in shame; he seems almost contemptuous towards those who feel complex moral emotions. In some leaked Twitter messages between him and Vox journalist Kelsey Piper, he criticises former colleagues: “Gary is scared, Nishad is ashamed and guilty”. He also tells Piper that those overseeing FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings are “trying to burn it all to the ground out of shame”. Luckily for his own conscience, “the world is never so black and white”.

    Shame is an emotion reserved to humans capable of introspection and self-awareness.

  27. Mojeaux

    I need audiobook ideas. Nonfiction, preferably self-help. Hit me.

    • Tundra

      Can you maybe narrow a little bit?

      Health? Spirituality? Bomb-building?

    • Ted S.

      Is there an audiobook of 1520 Main?

      • Mojeaux

        No, sorry. I can’t afford to get any of my books made into audiobooks, and I personally can’t record it because I sound like a 12yo redneck who ate a dictionary.

      • The Last American Hero

        I heard the Hat and Hair are available at a reasonable price.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Skynet in your classroom

    The emergence of artificial intelligence chatbots that can complete students’ assignments will lead to a crisis in learning, forcing educators to rethink schooling entirely, a former teacher said.

    “The introduction of new artificial intelligence technologies into schools that enables students to auto-generate essays has the capacity to blow up our entire writing education curriculum,” Peter Laffin, founder of Crush the College Essay and writing coach, told Fox News. “It may make us have to rethink it from the ground up, and that might ultimately be a good thing.”

    Last week, tech company OpenAI unveiled an AI chatbot, ChatGPT, which has stunned users with its advanced functions. The language model can automatically generate school essays for any grade level, answer open-ended analytical questions, draft marketing pitches, write jokes, poems and even computer code.

    If the AI can do that, what do we need teachers for?

    • Sean

      Can the AI groom the students?

      • LJW

        Ultimately there’s still a human behind the the creation of the AI, and odds are that creator is a leftist. So yes, yes it can.

      • juris imprudent

        “Dave, can I tell you something…”

      • MikeS

        “Dave, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?”

      • R.J.

        “Women have pee pees, Dave”

      • MikeS

        “It’s not a toomah, Dave!”

      • juris imprudent

        Talk about making HAL go crazy.

    • R.J.

      Excellent point.

      • R.J.

        I am looking forward to CatBots myself. Warm, affectionate, and not clawing apart all of your possessions all the time.

      • slumbrew
      • R.J.

        Exactly like that.

  29. Rat on a train

    Email from Virginia Department of Veterans Services

    It’s hard to believe that despite being home to one of the largest percentages of women veterans in the United States, Virginia does not have a specialty license plate honoring women veterans. More than 107,000 women veterans call Virginia home, and that number is growing. …

    When do we get a Glib veterans plate?

    • LJW

      A car with no plate and a bumper sticker that says taxation is theft.

      • Tundra

        10/10

        Would laugh again.

  30. Tundra

    If you don’t at least twitch rhythmically to this seventies dance track, see your undertaker.

    Getting drunk and bingeing on Soul Train is about the perfect evening. Thanks, Tonio!

  31. R.J.

    OT: Loaded up the latest emulator handheld with games. Somehow I broke over 127 GB of games. I think the Sega CDs, combined with PlayStation 1 were way more than expected. I may have to jump to a 256 GB SD card…

    • Sean

      Holy crap.

      • R.J.

        It’s the best organized collection I have done yet. I am quite pleased.

      • Sean

        I might have half that.

      • R.J.

        At some point we should talk in the forum. So few people have game emulation as a hobby.

      • Sean

        My poor Retro pie setup sits downstairs. Unloved for quite some time.

      • rhywun

        Most of the retro games I’ve played turned out to be not as good as I remembered.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve found I have a very low tolerance for the old graphics compared to when I had no choice in the matter.

      • Seguin

        I think I like setting up the emulators more than actually playing them. I’m building one for a friend right now (just designing a case for it…it’s an OG Raspi) with Sega Genesis and older games.

        I do enjoy Castlevania Bloodlines on it. As well as Shining Force.

  32. J. Frank Parnell

    FIRST US CURRENCY WITH WOMAN’S SIGNATURE ISSUED

    So is that why a dollar is only worth 70 cents now?

    • R.J.

      Technically, it is worth 4 cents.

      • R.J.

        I ISSS NEEEEERD

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      *golf clap*

    • juris imprudent

      I guess they didn’t take notice of FB scraping data from tax prep sites.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Hell, the Twitter app collects geolocation data and markets it to everybody.

    • Tundra

      Lol.

      Or maybe it’s crazy fuckers probing the obviously vulnerable grid.

      Dipshits.

    • juris imprudent

      Yeah sure. This would actually be a more intelligent tactic for Extinction Rebellion, so we can scratch them from the list.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Portland officials

      My go-to officials for fair and balanced hot-takes.

    • rhywun

      A right-winger ate my homework.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Hot on the trail of the real culprits

    The new management for bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has reportedly hired a team of financial forensic investigators to track down the billions of dollars worth of missing customer crypto.

    Financial advisory company AlixPartners was chosen for the task and is led by former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief accountant Matt Jacques, according to a Dec. 7 report from the Wall Street Journal.

    It is understood that the forensics firm will be tasked with conducting “asset-tracing” to identify and recover the missing digital assets and will complement the restructuring work being undertaken by FTX.

    On Nov. 11, hackers drained wallets owned by FTX and FTX.US of over $450 million worth of assets.

    Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried claimed in an interview recorded on Nov. 16 with crypto blogger Tiffany Fong that he was close to finding who the hacker was and that he had “narrowed it down to eight people,” believing it was “either an ex-employee or somewhere someone installed malware on an ex-employee’s computer.”

    Hackers. Right.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Spare me,

      If SBF doesn’t end up in a prison, you can be assured that the entirety of out financial system is now wholly and completely corrupt.

      • R.J.

        The dude is just going to die suddenly. No reason. I’m surprised he will even get to testify in front of congress. I think the only reason he will be allowed to live long enough to testify is so he can say “Look what a moron I am! Regulate the industry into the ground so this won’t happen again!” Then he will collapse in a parking lot, a few hours later.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Every one of those fuckers he gave money to should be forced to cough it up in recompense to depositors of FTX.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        That’s a lot of money and some of those folks who lost their shirts are both powerful and shady. If he doesn’t go to prison someone will have him killed.

      • mikey

        He’ll be fine. He’s Crazy Aunt Maxine’s bestie.

      • mikey

        SF. You don’t have to thank me for this next Wednesday.

    • R.J.

      Hey. Democrats can be hackers too, you know.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Maybe SBF and OJ can team up and travel the US in a van solving crimes.

      • R.J.

        I would pay to see that as a show. At the end of every episode (in which they failed to solve any crime) the pair would shrug, say “Nobody’s perfect” and drive off into the sunset.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeah, it’d be a hell of a reality show, maybe throw in the girl who looks like a misshapen muppet as the mutual love interest.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      On Nov. 11, hackers drained wallets owned by FTX and FTX.US of over $450 million worth of assets.

      And when did FTX start backdooring money to Alameda Research? I know it was well prior to that.

  34. Zwak, who taser's the chimp with the razor.

    As of this PM, Oregon background check was at 37K.

  35. Penguin

    If you don’t at least twitch rhythmically to this seventies dance track, see your undertaker.

    I like the Klingon saxophone player.