223 Comments

  1. Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

    F>I>S>T>

    • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

      And now I feel silly, and sad.

      • SDF-7

        At least you have Etiquette, I suppose.

      • Sean

        Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        *runsaway*

      • SDF-7

        I think we should build a big wooden badger….

      • Ted S.

        Where we’re going, we don’t need no stinking badgers!

      • SDF-7
  2. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

  3. SDF-7

    Dem States Are Worried They Can’t Pay Out Retirement Benefits

    Wow… 1) If only everyone had seen this sort of thing coming (unfunded liabilities) for years now and warned them. If only….
    and
    2) I thought a lot of the COVID bailout to the states was to cover some of this, actually. Good to know Newsom at least blew that too. Yay!

    • Trigger Hippie

      I can only assume buying off voters during his recall put a dent in the surplus.

    • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

      Choo-choos. It was to build choo-choos.

    • Fourscore

      Well at least it doesn’t affect social security. That’s in a lock box with my name on it, right? Right?

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘2) I thought a lot of the COVID bailout to the states was to cover some of this, actually. Good to know Newsom at least blew that too. Yay!’

      They already spent it on other stuff, but it did buy a year or two. I’m sure the stock market shitting the bed isn’t helping them either.

    • Brawndo

      Interestingly, residents of Massachusetts got a refund out of the blue a couple months ago for a few hundred dollars because we had a surplus. I was actually surprised they didn’t have some boondoggle or grift it could have gone to instead.

  4. Scruffy Nerfherder

    But antibodies!

    Some of us remember saying that gauging the effectiveness of a vaccine solely based on the magnitude of an antibody response is retarded.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Tetanus is good for you! Just look at that antibody response!

  5. rhywun

    “Enslavers or Confederates”

    Oh, that’s cute. Same diff, right?

    • WTF

      Otherwise know as “Democrats”.

      • juris imprudent

        Democrats don’t even want to own the original Progressives, they’re not about to take ownership of the ancient past.

      • Trigger Hippie

        The be fair, a very healthy percentage of the original Progressives were bible thumping, teetotaling, Republicans.

      • juris imprudent

        Teddy Roosevelt – and that is the Republicans burden to bear. Woodrow Wilson was bible-thumping, constitution-despising, racist and all Democrat.

      • Trigger Hippie

        I was thinking more along the lines of the rank and file. Especially those that supported Prohibition.

      • Drake

        Back when New England WASPs still went to church.

      • Lackadaisical

        Now they’re just WASs I guess.

  6. SDF-7

    Credit Cracks Widen With Distressed Debt Ballooning

    — since we know from 2009 that the Blessed MegaBanks are Too Big To Fail, keep the money presses going whirrrrrr and inflate the currency to the point where multiple trillions are manageable (because that’s a loaf of bread), doesn’t matter what that does to the peasants, after all… they’ll never come near Versailles. (Seriously, ever get the distinct feeling Louis XIV would blush at the crap done today?) Can’t think how else they might be planning to get out of this — other than “whirrr!” FedGov doesn’t have the money to give them this time in actuality. And austerity (aka actually having a budget and trying to get strong economic foundations again) is icky….

    • Rat on a train

      The stimulus wasn’t big enough!

      • R C Dean

        That’s what she* said!

        She, in this case, being Janet Yellen.

      • Lackadaisical

        Yuck!

      • juris imprudent

        You could’ve gone with Krugman just as easily (and twice as snarkily).

  7. juris imprudent

    Guess that judge in the Lake case wasn’t just a squish that hates the truth after all.

    Thompson extended Lake some grace in denying the sanctions, ruling that while she “failed to meet the burden of clear and convincing evidence,” that did not mean that her claims “were, or were not, groundless and presented in bad faith.”

    • WTF

      Well, that’s certainly all the proof I need that he was completely unbiased and fair from start to finish!

      • juris imprudent

        That’s pretty much what we presume of all judges isn’t it. I mean until we have evidence to the contrary. Otherwise a judge is just someone who doesn’t tell me what I want to hear.

      • Trigger Hippie

        ‘…a judge is just someone who doesn’t tell me what I want to hear.’

        Well, anecdotally speaking…yeah.

      • juris imprudent

        Gorsuch is a good example – he doesn’t give the whiny children what they want.

      • Trigger Hippie

        I was talking more along the lines of my personal court cases.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Well, ya gotta pay your child support.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Nah, no kiddos for me. Wouldn’t be surprised if I was shooting blanks.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I know, you said you had none.

      • Homple

        “That’s pretty much what we presume of all judges isn’t it.”

        Once upon a time….

      • Suthenboy

        Who is we? You and that frog in your pocket?

        I asked one of my lawyers once “What is the hardest thing about being a lawyer?”

        His answer – “Forcing myself to say ‘Your Honor’. “

    • Grummun

      Or just wants the case to go away.

    • R C Dean

      Good. Still not sure where “clear and convincing” and “intent” came from. I’d be interested in reading a serious account of what the statute says v what the judge required, if anybody know of one.

      • WTF

        And what the actual legal basis was for throwing out 8 of the 10 complaints without even hearing the evidence. And by that I mean the actual law and not just what the judge’s desire was.

      • juris imprudent

        Given you practice law in that state, I’d say you’re the best source for that knowledge.

    • Rebel Scum

      He gets to pretend to be impartial.

    • Lackadaisical

      The idea that she could have been sanctioned after presenting claims, including some actual evidence of election irregularities is ridiculous.

  8. juris imprudent

    Muh precious model!

    Which is to say that Covid-19 would by now have to be the absolutely predominant cause of death in the unvaccinated part of the population – and in countries with low vaccination rates.

    Perhaps our distinguished modelers are so detached from clinical reality that they actually believe in this output, as absurd as it is.

    • Rat on a train

      When models don’t match reality, reality must be wrong.

    • mindyourbusiness

      Now do “climate change”/”global warming”.

      • Lackadaisical

        Agreed,

        This is actually a prevalent problem in all sorts of computer modelling. These tools should be looked at as engineering products, not an oracle.

    • WTF

      GIGO is a thing.

      • Rat on a train

        Start with a spherical cow …

      • rhywun

        Quordle is proof of that.

      • Brawndo

        Good in, good out?

        /s just in case

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The substitution of computer models for good data continues apace.

      When this trend makes it to the engineering field, watch out.

      • juris imprudent

        In case you hadn’t heard.

        Of course the difference is, engineering usually produces actual things that must work, as opposed to academic based modeling.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Systems engineering, of course.

      • juris imprudent

        You don’t fly much I guess? Of course you might also consider the 737 ‘defect’ they built in.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Funny, you mention the exact case of systems engineering failure I was thinking about.

        Complexity comes with a price and that is a perfect example of it. Software is especially prone to the issue. Nobody cares if Microsoft Word has a bug or two, but it tends to matter when the software that nobody fully understands controls your ailerons.

      • kinnath

        From what I have been able to read in the public domain, it appears that key people subverted the systems engineering process to produce the system that failed on the 737Max.

      • AlexinCT

        Boeing was hoping to adopt the Tesla model where customers would pay more for the software version with more security built in….

        Think about that..

  9. Rebel Scum

    Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin diagnosed with ‘serious but curable’ cancer

    What a shame. Yes, I am done being cordial with these destructive, tyrannical Congress-cuntes.

  10. Rebel Scum

    Well before Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) admitted to fabricating key details of his biography, lying about one’s past was a rich political exercise. President Joe Biden got caught boasting about bogus academic credentials, Hillary Clinton made up a sniper attack in Bosnia, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren had to apologize for claiming Native American heritage.

    But Santos has an ‘R’ next to his name. So it’s different.

    • WTF

      ^This, obviously

  11. Rebel Scum

    Three high-profile Democratic governors are struggling to stabilize their states’ retirement programs due to a falling stock market and may have difficulties paying out benefits in the coming years, according to Politico.

    Time for another trillion dollar spending bill to bail them out.

    • SDF-7

      I’m sure Mitch is already working with the Dems on just that. As long as there’s more money for Ukraine in there too… our Top Priority ™ after all.

    • Ted S.

      At this point, I almost want retired government workers starving and living under bridges.

      • Atanarjuat

        It would be one thing if they had worked for their money, but when you hear government workers talk about coming in and watching football and drinking in their workshop you begin to lose sympathy.

      • Rat on a train

        There were a few that read newspapers or hung out in the cafeteria all day. We were an analyst shop yet they didn’t produce a report while I was there. You couldn’t fire them for being unproductive. The agency played musical reorganizations to shift the known dead weight around until they slipped up by doing something that could get you fired within a year of the event.

      • AlexinCT

        If watching porn only got them a warning, what was the threshold to get them fired? Did you need to find some dead kid that had been raped repeatedly under their desk? Or did you have to find out they voted for someone with an (R) next to their name?

      • Rat on a train

        Time card fraud was the only reason I say in action. You don’t have to work but you better be onsite.

      • Fourscore

        “There you go again”

        Oh, “Almost”. Whew………….

    • juris imprudent

      another trillion

      I think you’re missing an ‘s’ there.

      • UnCivilServant

        Another’s Trillion?

      • Brawndo

        Lol

      • AlexinCT

        Isn’t that always what it comes down to when “government” pays for things?

  12. Rebel Scum

    A new peer-reviewed study is raising concerns that a third dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may actually worsen immune response against COVID-19, creating waves in both mainstream and heterodox COVID circles.

    *shocked face*

  13. Rebel Scum

    Exclusive: A Washington Post investigation of more than 400 artworks in the U.S. Capitol building found that nearly one-third honor enslavers or Confederates.

    *faints*

    • R C Dean

      I’m betting it’s closer to 100% “enslavers”, myself, seeing as they are all members of our Ruling Class.

    • rhywun

      Well, that just invalidates this whole experiment! Tear it all down and replace it with mob rule. This time it will work.

      • Rat on a train

        Mob rule is bad. There needs to be a revolutionary vanguard to guide the mob to utopia and defend against the counterrevolutionaries.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’m particularly fond of this quote.

        Attention, must be devoted principally to raising the workers to the level of revolutionaries; it is not at all our task to descend to the level of the “working masses.” – Lenin

        He showed his disdain for the masses quite often.

      • slumbrew

        The peasants are revolting!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        “Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem as a class to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.”

      • Brawndo

        “moral responsibility” is a luxury that the bourgeois can afford, not the working masses that have to do what it takes to survive. You would think Marxists would understand that

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I guess you don’t recognize The Importance of Being Earnest when you hear it.

      • juris imprudent

        It’s funny that you reference Wilde, since his vision of socialism is actually the most prevalent one (and not anything relevant to Marx).

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I just think his inversions (?) were wise. Work is the curse of the drinking classes, etc.

    • EvilSheldon

      It’s amazing. The lack of long-term sectarian strife post-Civil war is one of the greatest miracles in modern geopolitics. And the progs want to throw it all away, because they can’t stand not having someone to screech at.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You can’t sustain a revolution without a Devil to rail against.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yep.

        Also, the next civil war will not take prisoners. The winners will be doing fuck you parades through the losers for the next three hundred years like the Orangemen.

      • AlexinCT

        How are you going to get 100% of people to say “Sure., lets try communism. It sounds swell!” if more than half of the population remembers what communism wrought? If you wipe history you don’t want people to know about, especially when you do it under the pretense of getting rid of things that were “bad”, you can have a whole crop of morons that don’t know better fall for it all over again..

      • AlexinCT

        The reason so many people misunderstand so many issues is not that these issues are so complex, but that people do not want a factual or analytical explanation that leaves them emotionally unsatisfied. They want villains to hate and heroes to cheer – and they don’t want explanations that fail to give them that.” – Thomas Sowell

      • juris imprudent

        Therein is the value of sport for a civilized society – they can apply all that passion to the pursuit of the utterly trivial. Not that we do, but we could.

    • Michael Malaise

      I wonder if she’ll resign writing for the WASHINGTON Post?

      • juris imprudent

        I’m sure you could fill all four tires on your car to proper pressure from what is contained between her ears.

  14. DEG

    “Courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency,” Gorsuch wrote. “We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.”

    He’s not wrong.

    Most state and local retirement systems lost money in 2022, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the country’s largest public pension, which lost nearly $30 billion, according to Politico. Some of the blame lies with the three governors’ predecessors, who failed to adequately fund the retirement systems while in office, Politico reported.

    We can’t blame that those pension funds are schemes that can never work. No.. no.. .no…

    Bail out incoming!

    • SDF-7

      No, he isn’t. It would certainly help if a certain administration followed the laws that were in place already, though…. so pointing out that the states and the Congress need to set policy seems more than a little pointless. They did — the current elites just don’t care. (That Congress should use the power of the purse until the Executive actually enforces the laws as written is obviously too much to hope for).

      • WTF

        The obvious remedy for a president who refuses to faithfully execute the laws is impeachment and removal. But of course that will never happen.

      • Rat on a train

        Impeachment is easy. It’s the new norm when the White House and the House of Representatives are controlled by different parties. Removal, well that is difficult for the same reason impeachment is easy. It is a political act.

      • Brawndo

        I’m not sure we’ve had a president that viewed his job as simply enforcing the law since Eisenhower.

      • juris imprudent

        the current elites just don’t care

        Neither do the current plebs (otherwise we wouldn’t have so many Congresscritters re-elected).

      • AlexinCT

        I disagree. I surmise the plebes care quite a bit, but they don’t count the reelection votes.

      • juris imprudent

        Those who care are a tiny fraction of the electorate. Most voters are quite content to vote for whatever team-creature is put before them, and from those, we get the Congress-critters we have.

        As disgusting as Lump is, would Oz have really been someone doing our bidding?

      • AlexinCT

        Honestly, I am under no illusion that Oz would have done anyone’s bidding, and especially not that of the people, but the issue for me was whether voters were so trapped in their bubbles that they would actually choose a vegetable over a moron. Team blue plays to win. You could put up a fucking turd as their candidate, and they would find enough people to count and pronounce that turd the winner. The lesson there isn’t that a better candidate on the other side would have made a difference as so many prognosticate.

        BTW and IMO, even DeSantis would have lost in PA in this election cycle. Not because the voters would have chosen him the clear winner, but because of the people fortifying and counting the votes. Just like happened to Lake in AZ.

      • Rat on a train

        Congress gets low approval ratings but members get high approvals. It’s all the other districts that vote for bad reps.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      The people who assumed a steady 8% (IIRC) return?

  15. SDF-7

    ‘Orning ‘ordles — LR can die in a fire… multiple possibilities, none of which were ruled out by any of the other words. Grumblebitchmoancomplain…

    I suppose Chump Town expected its Dictator For Life to show back up at some point anyway. Really need to fix Ms. Johnston’s pothole… she needs a better place to store her cannabis.

    Daily Duotrigordle #302
    Guesses: 36/37
    Time: 04:42.21
    https://duotrigordle.com/

    Daily Quordle 339
    5️⃣7️⃣
    6️⃣🟥
    quordle.com

    • Sean

      Daily Quordle 339
      7️⃣3️⃣
      5️⃣8️⃣
      quordle.com

      Meh.

      • The Hyperbole

        What’s your chump-free streak up to?

      • Sean

        I don’t think I’ve chumped on Quordle since the daily round ups stopped. I don’t play every day anymore either.

        Stats on this PC only says I have a streak of 44 games. *shrug*

        #waffle342 5/5

        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
        🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩
        🟩🟩⭐🟩🟩
        🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        🔥 streak: 61
        🥇 #wafflegoldteam
        wafflegame.net

    • Grummun

      7 3
      4 8

      No likey TL.

    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 339
      6️⃣4️⃣
      5️⃣7️⃣

      Not bad today.

    • rhywun

      “Meh.”

      Daily Quordle 339
      7️⃣3️⃣
      5️⃣8️⃣

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 339
      8️⃣4️⃣
      5️⃣7️⃣

    • Grosspatzer

      Daily Quordle 339
      6️⃣3️⃣
      4️⃣9️⃣
      quordle.com

  16. Rebel Scum

    Trick question. The interest and debt can never be paid off at this point.

    $100 billion to Ukraine. Let’s put that in perspective.

    That’s more than $200 million this year from each Congressional district.

    What could your congressman have done for your district with $200 million?

    How long will the kids in your district be paying interest on this debt?

    • juris imprudent

      Ya’know that opens up an interesting perspective, since not all districts produce the same amount of tax revenue to feed the beast. So really, CA, NY and the other highest income states (voting blue mostly) are the ones disproportionately funding this.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        As those districts are also disproportionately funded by the expansion of the money supply, I’d say that’s fair.

    • Grumbletarian

      Replying to
      @TJMoe28
      and
      @RepThomasMassie
      I’m CURIOUS.
      Did you complain about the Tax Cuts passed by GWB & DJT? They never reduced spending, so the level of debt soared.
      I’ll take a tax and spend Democrat over a tax cut and spend Repugnance party every day of the week.

      No, shitheel, you’ll take a tax someone else and spend Democrat. I’m quite positive you think your own taxes are either high enough, or too high. Or are you mailing some of your paycheck to the Ukraine yourself?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        “There’s two things I want, I cant have both of them so I’ll take neither.” – Dumbass

  17. The Late P Brooks

    “We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.”

    Stop it. You’re killing me.

    • juris imprudent

      And people say conservatives can’t do comedy.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Banks say their wider credit models are proving robust so far, but they’ve begun setting aside more money for missed payments, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

    Loan-loss provisions at systematically important banks surged 75% in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, a clear indication that they are bracing for payment issues and defaults.

    Most economists forecast a moderate slump over the next year. A deep recession, however, could cause significant credit issues because the global financial system is “vastly over-leveraged,” according to Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp.

    I have an image in my head of screaming panic-stricken bankers desperately battling for a seat in the lifeboat.

    • Gustave Lytton

      the global financial system is “vastly over-leveraged,”

      Pepperidge Farms remembers when the point of downturns was to reduce such rot.

      • juris imprudent

        But, but that’s mean.

      • wdalasio

        More importantly, the rot is usually connected.

  19. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I’ll take things that didn’t happen for $1,000,000, Alex.

    https://democraticunderground.com/100217503571

    Need prayers: Update
    Husband tested positive today. Had the phone apt at 1. Going to pharmacy to pick up the Paxlovid.

    Need prayers.

    We were exposed to COVID from the trump lovers who recited the pledge at Christmas lunch. My stroke patient husband has symptoms. Could use the positive vibes.

    • EvilSheldon

      Wrong category. It should be in ‘Things I Don’t Care About.’

    • Grummun

      pick up the Paxlovid

      “…after making sure the life insurance is paid up, and bumped up the coverage.”

      Seriously, who the fuck is still taking Paxlovid?

      • juris imprudent

        DU denizens apparently – not that big a surprise is it?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Dr. Drew?

    • Trigger Hippie

      Yeah, an impromptu and voluntarily reciting of the pledge by grown adults during, well, anything, isn’t a thing.

      • juris imprudent

        Every fire company meeting opens with a prayer and the pledge, and we be mostly grown adults.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Really? That’s just bizarre. Especially the pledge. Honestly never heard of or seen anybody do that my entire adult life.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I think if it’s part of the customs, it isn’t bizarre. If impromptu, then I can see being off putting.

      • juris imprudent

        Small town life dude.

      • Bob Boberson

        My Dads gun club opens every meeting with the pledge. As a kid I didn’t think much of it because, we’ll, I was a kid and did it autonomically in hometown. In hindsight it was….weird.

      • Trigger Hippie

        I think the pledge is fucking creepy. There, I said it.

      • juris imprudent

        Given it’s heritage, I can understand that

      • Michael Malaise

        I agree with it being creepy.

      • Not Adahn

        Yup. Kinda creeps me out.

        Happens at some matches too.

      • Bob Boberson

        Fudds man, Fudds

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The pledge of allegiance at Christmas lunch? Yeah, bullshit…and even if that did happen how do they know that for sure? I assume everybody there was breathing.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Its a variation of a different story running around about going to a family Chtistmad dinner and the Trump side of family got in a circle and said the pledge of allegiance.

        And I believe it stems from an actual event where a family was messing with a new member of the family or new girlfriend.

    • Raven Nation

      And if your husband was that high risk what were you doing in a social setting?

      • Trigger Hippie

        “Hey, shut up.”

        /Screen Rant Pitch Meeting writer

      • AlexinCT

        She either one of those evil fucks that was praying he would get sick and die so she could virtue signal and score big points with her team, or she is one of those people that feel the world must inconvenience itself to adapt to her dilemma, cause it is not her responsibility to avoid risk…

    • Lackadaisical

      …and then everyone clapped?

      • juris imprudent

        You would think those evil Trumpers would’ve walked up to him and coughed in his face.

      • Lackadaisical

        It is known that saying prayers and singing the anthem produce much more viral shedding than yelling leftwing slogans.

    • Michael Malaise

      Actually used Trump instead of TPG? False flag. Sad!

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Mike Scott, a portfolio manager at Man GLG, said that “markets seem to be expecting a soft landing in the U.S. that may not happen. The leveraged loan market is something that we’re monitoring as well.”

    *outright, prolonged laughter*

  21. Scruffy Nerfherder

    This guy…

    In an address to Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in 10 months of the war, his country has helped the West “find itself again” and provided a “historic opportunity.”

    “In 10 months of this year, we helped everyone. We helped the West find itself again, return to the global arena and feel how much the West prevails. No one in the West is afraid of Russia anymore and will never be,” Zelensky said, according to his presidential website.

    Zelensky said Ukraine helped Europe and that now some traditionally neutral European countries are reconsidering the policy. “We helped Europe and most of the world feel that being neutral now is, pardon me, immoral,” he said.

    The Ukrainian leader said that his country has given “each of our partners a unique and very important feeling and a historic opportunity — to be a winner together with Ukraine.”

    https://news.antiwar.com/2022/12/28/zelensky-says-ukraine-has-helped-the-west-find-itself/

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      And I think we’ve found Soros’s true spiritual heir.

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and CEO of the US investment management company Blackrock, Larry Fink, held a video meeting on Wednesday and agreed to coordinate the reconstruction of Ukraine.

    • Drake

      He has laid bare the evil and corruption at the heart of every western government. They gladly sacrificed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians so they could steal $billions from their own taxpayers. There will be a special place in hell for the neo-cons.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’ll be the nicest part with very fine houses though because those cocksuckers are getting rich(er).

    • Rebel Scum

      Zelensky said Ukraine helped Europe

      By laundering money for the elite?

    • Gustave Lytton

      I’d give anything to hang a picture of Diem on his bedroom wall.

      • Homple

        Ha! I’m so old I remember when Diem was”The George Washington of Southeast Asia”.

  22. Lackadaisical

    ‘”To avoid action being taken against your license, it is your obligation to ensure that minors are prohibited from attending the Drag Fans drag show,” wrote Melanie Griffin, secretary of DBPR.”

    If the regulatory state is to exist, restricting minors form adult activities is an acceptable use of it.

    Went out last night with the wife for some line dancing (she didn’t like it) and to a local brewery, sat outside ad watched the stars. It felt good to breathe free.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I get the idea that you don’t like the idea of three year olds stuffing dollar bills into a forty year old man’s g string. What are you, some kind of bigot?

    • Michael Malaise

      Actually I could care less about using the state to prevent stupid parents from being stupid.

    • Lackadaisical

      One and done.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Ayup. The rest look like implants

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      On par, children have always been sufficiently sociopathic to serve as revolutionaries. That’s why we used to spend a lot of effort socializing them and telling them to shut up and listen to their elders.

      • AlexinCT

        During Mao’s record setting body count revolution, all the brutal beatings & killings were done by the youth. Especially against the elders. The less life experience you have the easier it is to goad you into believing shit those with more experience would see through immediately.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Just out of curiosity, did the constitution specifically allow “slavery” or is that activist spin? I don’t have a problem with involuntary servitude to a reasonable degree as punishment for some crimes.

      • juris imprudent

        In the spring of 2020, Schott, then 21, was in Buis Michaux’s class considering a final project. The last third of the semester of the class is dedicated to focusing on the consequences of mass incarceration — the U.S. incarcerates more people per capita than any other country — and Schott was interested in taking on the slavery exception in Oregon’s constitution. Approved in 1857, the constitution banned slavery and involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime. The same loophole is in the 13th Amendment, passed by Congress in 1865.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The long term goal is eliminate incarceration or any other punishment for a crime.

      • AlexinCT

        If I recall correctly, the constitution was not written as a laundry list of what was allowed or not (like that EU craptastic thing), but as a clear framework to limit what the powers/responsibility of government were. Specifically what the feds could do (and definitely couldn’t do) and what otherwise was the responsibility of the states. People have forgotten that, because today too many people think government is there to solve their problems instead of realizing every problem they have can be traced back to shit government did.

      • Michael Malaise

        The Constitution has guaranteed the government we have today.

    • Michael Malaise

      Don’t trust anyone under 30.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        But the over-30s don’t know what’s cool!

  23. The Late P Brooks

    In an address to Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in 10 months of the war, his country has helped the West “find itself again” and provided a “historic opportunity.”

    They all ant to be Moses parting the sea and leading their tribe to the Promised Land.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and CEO of the US investment management company Blackrock, Larry Fink, held a video meeting on Wednesday and agreed to coordinate the reconstruction of Ukraine.

    That’s where the real money is.

    • rhywun

      My god, with that blank slate imagine what Klaus & Friends can come with!

    • AlexinCT

      Trillions were sent to Afghanistan/Iraq to rebuild there…. There was nothing really built in either country, and most of the money just disappeared. First Iraq went away. Then Afghanistan went away…

      Yay!, now we have Ukraine to rebuild….

      • juris imprudent

        Karzai is living a splendid life, somewhere (and likely a lot better than the shithole that spawned him).

  25. The Late P Brooks

    I have no illusions anymore that moronic children in this country would think twice about kicking off a new Cultural Revolution.

    We need another Children’s Crusade.

    • R C Dean

      We need more helicopters, is what we need.

  26. Timeloose

    Hello and good morning Glibs.

    I found out yesterday that a friend of mine I’m used to visiting on Christmas night had a stroke Christmas morning at 47 years old. We usually catch up when she comes into town for Christmas and walk over to her dad’s house after returning from our family’s for the evening.

    So far this year in my circle of friends and acquaintances:

    49 year old woman who is not overweight and very active had a brain aneurism
    45 year old man who is relatively healthy had a stroke
    47 year old woman who is pretty un-healthy diabetic (under not over weight, smokes, and still drinks daily) has a stroke – this one is not completely unexpected

    For those with more “experience” than I, am I just that age where the defects in people start to manifest, especially if they are living a hard life?

    What’s the bathtub curve for people look like?

    • AlexinCT

      For those with more “experience” than I, am I just that age where the defects in people start to manifest, especially if they are living a hard life?

      Yes. And sadly, you will be seeing more of this as you keep aging until you reach an age where the first thing you and the other survivors will discuss whenever you talk is who just kicked the bucket.

      • Timeloose

        I just looked up actuarial life tables for death probability by age and sex. Looks like it’s a pretty exponential trend from 45 – 85. Not that that is surprising. Looking at a LOG scale of the same data and there is not any unusual bumps once you get past 45. Males spike up in mortality from 10-24, then the rate of change slows until 45.

        https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, that looks right… I still remember how creepy it always was when I chatted with my parents when they were in their sixties, then seventies and later, and for my mom, the first thing she wanted to share was which people in her circle had recently died. Now I am old enough to see the logic behind that as it seems to be the game all the elderly play.

      • creech

        You’d rather hear tales of their orgies at The Villages?

      • slumbrew

        *hurk*

        I’m not gonna want to hear about that even when I’m that age.

      • AlexinCT

        Heh, my dad did tell me all those old widows were desperately looking for some man meat, and didn’t care who they could get it from…

      • Fourscore

        No, that’s the second thing, after the doctor and meds discussion but before the sleep and bathroom discussion.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Pallets of hundred dollar bills choppered in to Ukraine.

    Meanwhile, if you sold your dad’s ’67 Camaro which has been cluttering up your garage since he died, you’d better be damn sure you account for it on your 1040.

    • Sean

      I have a co-worker who was completely oblivious to the new $600 rule and all the new agents they want to hire. Just had that convo this week.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Luckily there is a delay in that reporting requirement. Until how long, who knows.

  28. Rebel Scum

    But why did this take a lawsuit? ///rhetorical

    In a settlement with Judicial Watch, officials revealed that 441,083 outdated registrants were removed from the city’s voter rolls in February 2022 — 82,802 in Bronx County, 128,093 in Kings County, 145,891 in New York County, 66,010 in Queens County, and 18,287 in Richmond County. …

    The settlement ensures that the city’s voter rolls will be cleaned up every odd-numbered year after a federal election. In 2023 and 2025, officials said they would notify Judicial Watch sometime before the month of April with lists of outdated registrants who are removed from voter rolls during the prior two years.

    • rhywun

      Seems like there should be an easy way to end the need for this permanently but I just can’t imagine what it is!

      /Voter-roll Barbie

    • Ownbestenemy

      Accountability is the enemy of Bureaucracy

  29. Rebel Scum

    Go fuck yourself.

    Sean Penn calls the Unvaccinated “criminals”:

    “They should stay at home. Not go to work. Not have a job.”

    • Ownbestenemy

      Back to pushing that are they?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Have another booster, Sean. Please.

    • Trigger Hippie

      I’ll do my part by not going out to watch or spend money on his films.

    • R.J.

      What a sad little penis.

    • Grummun

      Hey Sean what do you call a guy that leaves a gun in the trunk of his car to be stolen?

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Sean Penn calls the Unvaccinated “criminals”

    That’s nice.

  31. Toxteth O'Grady

    Thanks to whoever recommended the Sideways commentary, if you’re here.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Luckily there is a delay in that reporting requirement. Until how long, who knows.

    They won’t send the 1099 (yet) but you still have a tax liability, you tax-shirking billionaire.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Meanwhile, down in the lunchroom, the seventh fifth graders are going at it hammer and tongs

    Environmental activist Greta Thunberg and controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate traded barbs on Twitter Wednesday in an exchange that went viral.

    Tate, who has gained notoriety for his frequent misogynistic comments, instigated the tiff by tagging Thunberg in a tweet about his 33 cars and their pollution-causing emissions.

    “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions,” he requested of the 19-year-old activist.

    Thunberg shot back with a scathing diss.

    “yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalld–kenergy@getalife.com,” she replied in a quote tweet.

    “How dare you?!” was all the self-described “success coach” came back with.

    Many commenters reveled in the take-down of the influencer.

    “This may well be the greatest tweet of all time,” George Conway tweeted.

    So pwned, dude.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I thought it was funny. I am guessing she didn’t write it, but not bad

    • Rebel Scum

      “You own 33 cars. Greta owns 1 Andrew Tate,” one Twitter user replied.

      That’s not how I take it.

    • Fourscore

      Post office delivers an enormous amount of advertising than most people throw away or wrap the fish guts in before throwing away. Amazon delivers stuff that people actually want and are willing to pay for.

  34. Bob Boberson

    Apropos of nothing:

    The discussion of sociopathic children up thread got me thinking about Dances with Waterworld Avatar 2, which the wife wanted to go see last night. Overall it was just kinda meh. Entertaining but utterly forgettable. Cool cgi and action sequences, inane storyline. Woke in the sense that the first one was woke (colonialism BAD) but no idiotic tranny characters worked into the plot or other such nonsense.

    I do wonder about the whole portrayal of humanity as utterly unsympathetic and the complete lack of introspection about their wholesale slaughter in the movie. Is this conditioning for the utes? Mercy is portrayed as a weakness more or less….

    • R.J.

      Bro and I were talking about it. 250 million spent to make an utterly average film, with antagonists who had a completely unrealistic attitude towards fellow creatures. Very poor scriptwriting. Bringing back the dead bad guy from the first movie? What, are those scriptwriters five years old?

      • Bob Boberson

        It really was nonsense from start to finish. My wife loved the first one but she agreed with me in the lobby that the story was a complete mess. I do wonder if the script writers just take notes as their kids play action figures on the floor.

      • Bob Boberson

        Cringiest Moment for me:

        The water smurfs acting like Mowri warriors when they got mad. Most imagination is mimicry in one form or another but at least put a little effort into it.

    • juris imprudent

      The Way of Water and there was NO GENDER FLUIDITY?

      I am disappoint.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Greta vs Tate:

    There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

    Oscar Wilde

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Time has expired

    The January 6 committee is withdrawing its subpoena of former President Donald Trump before Democrats lose control of the House and the new Republican majority dissolves the panel.

    “In light of the imminent end of our investigation, the Select Committee can no longer pursue the specific information covered by the subpoena,” January 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote on Wednesday to Trump’s lawyer, according to CNN.

    The Republicans should subpoena him and let him ramble.

  37. hayeksplosives

    I’m reading a great book by historian Dan Jones called “Powers and Thrones” about the “Middle Ages”.

    I happen to be in a chapter called Merchants, covering the evolution of a merchant class in the 12-14th centuries, and how “Pax Mongolia” was a key part of it. Good stuff.

    I have liked all of his books so far. (Not to be mistaken for Dan Brown of “Illuminati around Every Corner” fiction.)