First Monday Morning of 2023 Links

by | Jan 2, 2023 | Daily Links | 198 comments

Hey! I’m not Sloopy or Banjos! What’s happening here? I assume Sloopy is just getting out of jail after assaulting either Ryan Day or Uga. It was a rough Saturday for the B1G. I was shocked to find out that not only were the Tampa Bay Bradyneers a .500 team, but that they also… won the NFC South? I have not paid much attention, but dear fluffy Lord. It’s like the ACC down here. And I guess the Vikings and Iggles were resting starters.

I might have maybe strained a muscle in my back on the first workout of 2023. I guess that’s my notice from the Universe that I’m old. I’m not froze up in bed this morning, but I will endeavor not to pick up anything heavier than my two-year old for several days.

I haven’t got a clue about birthdays. It is not my wife’s or my mother’s so I didn’t forget an important one. I think. 

And some links….

Movies have trained me to expect a fireball. Instead he went over like a drunk turtle. 

Florida Man, this is just sad.

Put on the mask and get in the pod, denier. 

If it keeps on rainin’…

I really dig the Plant/Krauss collaboration

 

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

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

198 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    Clearwater? It was the Scientologists.

  2. Count Potato

    “Deputies said Scott showed shop workers a business card that said, “Stephen Scott, United States Air Force, Office of Special Investigations.” He allegedly hand-wrote “special agent” on the card and told employees he was a “special agent.”

    The sheriff’s office reached out to the Office of Special Investigations and learned Scott was previously employed there, but never held the title of “special agent.” His employment ended in 2016.”

    Is that like special olympics?

    • Sean

      That’s one crafty mf’r. 🙄

    • Grosspatzer

      Amateur. The business card should have read, “STEPHEN SMITH, Cascadia, Office of SPECIAL Investigations”.

      • SDF-7

        STEVE SMITH ALWAYS DIG DEEP, BE SURE TO LEAVE NO CREVICE UNEXPLORED WHEN INVESTIGATING.

        AND BY INVESTIGATING, MEAN….

  3. Count Potato

    “Getting exposed to the virus no longer meant that people needed to quarantine, either, as long as they were fully vaccinated and wore a mask.”

    That makes no sense.

    • Count Potato

      “Fullilove, who is Black, has spent her career studying epidemics: first AIDS, then crack, then multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.”

      Fourth sentence.

      • juris imprudent

        Best part – what is the commonality of the “epidemics” she has studied?

      • Sean

        Funding?

      • juris imprudent

        That would be the vector of interest.

      • Rebel Scum

        “who is Black”

        And?

      • Pine_Tree

        I thought “Bernie Goetz” was supposed to come after AIDS and crack.

    • Count Potato

      “The group has noted that resistance to masks is most common among white people: Lucky Tran, who organizes the coalition’s media team, recently tweeted a YouGov survey supporting this, and wrote that “a lot of anti-mask sentiment is deeply embedded in white supremacy.””

      This shit is so tiring.

      • Ted S.

        Shit is dark. Calling this stuff shit is an obvious sign of your white supremacist views.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        The group has noted that resistance to masks is most common among white people

        And then, in the next paragraph:

        “To name it clearly, the CDC’s policies are eugenic,” the Weather Report team wrote, in August.

        Is white people removing themselves from the population a problem or not?

      • Ted S.

        Accusations of racism are nothing more than a rhetorical tool at this point, much like calling someone a fascist.

      • SDF-7

        When they pivoted “White Supremacy” to be “Western Culture” they pulled off the mask. Just commies looking to tear down everything thinking they’ll take over.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Most of them are too stupid to even realize that. They’re fully steeped in the retardation.

      • juris imprudent

        Communism is western culture/philosophy. It is so, so stupid.

      • juris imprudent

        Whites being the most productive class are exhibiting their supremacy and hatred of others by reducing their presence in the workforce.

      • slumbrew

        Whites being the most productive class

        Asians and Indians wave “hi”

      • Grosspatzer

        Asians and Indians wave “hi” “how”.

        FTFY

      • juris imprudent

        Is your sarcasm detector stuck on last year?

      • Rebel Scum

        *people disagree* -> “white-supremacy”

        Besides real white-supremes are all about their head coverings.

      • Michael Malaise

        I’d hate to meet Unlucky Tran.

    • Count Potato

      “Eugenic policies have a long and ugly history, commonly associated with the Nazis, white supremacists, and others who advocate the racial purification of humanity.”

      “and others”

      • Rebel Scum

        Progressives could not be reached for comment.

    • Grumbletarian

      What emerged was the People’s C.D.C.: a ragtag coalition of academics, doctors, activists, and artists who believe that the government has left them to fend for themselves against covid-19. As governments, schools, and businesses have scaled back their covid precautions, the members of the People’s C.D.C. have made it their mission to distribute information about the pandemic—what they see as real information, as opposed to what’s circulated by the actual C.D.C. They believe the C.D.C.’s data and guidelines have been distorted by powerful forces with vested interests in keeping people at work and keeping anxieties about the pandemic down. “The public has a right to a sound reading of the data that’s not influenced by politics and big business,” Fullilove said.

      This would be considered censor-worthy disinformation if their politics were to the right of Lenin.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        The claim is Biden’s CDC is anti-science?

      • Ted S.

        What emerged was the People’s C.D.C.: a ragtag coalition of academics, doctors, activists, and artists

        Because of course.

      • juris imprudent

        This how you SCIENCE!!!

      • Fourscore

        “who believe that the government has left them to fend for themselves”

        If only. The problem is that the government won’t leave the people alone. The True Believers need and want more force, for our own good, of course.

      • Rebel Scum

        “the People’s”

        I.e. Marxist.

      • Chafed

        Bingo!

      • juris imprudent

        Wouldn’t be any better if it was The Populist CDC.

    • Count Potato

      “All the talk about empire-building and capital accumulation—a key component of Marxist economic theory—made me wonder whether “the people” in the People’s C.D.C. are those people. When I asked Wallace this on Zoom, he gruffly denied that the members are all communists. “There’s certainly an edge of Red-baiting on your part,” he said.”

      OFFS!

    • rhywun

      All the talk about empire-building and capital accumulation—a key component of Marxist economic theory—made me wonder whether “the people” in the People’s C.D.C. are those people. When I asked Wallace this on Zoom, he gruffly denied that the members are all communists.

      LOL

      You’re talking to the New Yorker, dude – it’s OK to be out.

    • Rat on a train

      Reads like a bunch of power-hungry socialists upset that the proles won’t follow them.

    • Grumbletarian

      The People’s C.D.C. strongly supports mask mandates, and they have called on federal, state, and local governments to put them back in place, arguing that “the vaccine-only strategy promoted by the CDC is insufficient.”

      And later on…

      The People’s C.D.C. members weren’t willing to talk about what it would take to achieve zero covid cases in the U.S. “It’s not our job to dictate policy,” Thill said.

      Fuck off, asshole.

    • Suthenboy

      Just when you think you have seen the biggest steaming pile of shit possible….

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      No one is in charge of the People’s C.D.C., and no one’s expertise is valued more than anyone else’s.

      This is hilarious. It’s nothing more than random assholes who will not let go of their fear because it gives them power and moral standing.

      To wit:

      The group takes issue with the way that the C.D.C. emphasizes individual choices over collective action; as the current C.D.C. director, Rochelle Walensky, has put it, “Your health is in your hands.” Zoey Thill, a family physician in Brooklyn, who was Zooming in from a room full of potted plants, got heated just thinking about it. “When we say, ‘Do your individual risk assessment and plan accordingly,’ that says to certain people, ‘Stay inside forever—for fucking ever!’ ” she said. “For me, it’s about countering that. It’s about saying, ‘No, that’s not O.K.’ ” The other People’s C.D.C. members threw up emojis in approval: red hearts, clapping hands.

      • rhywun

        Of course – these are the types that want to inflict their neuroses on the rest of us.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ❤❤❤👏👏👏

      • rhywun

        Clapping sounds startle me – finger-snaps, please.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        🙌🙌🙌

      • Gender Traitor

        I gather “jazz hands” have been canceled as insensitive to the blind visually divergent.

      • Count Potato

        I remember when GWB waved at Stevie Wonder.

      • rhywun

        Not to mention cultural appropriation.

      • Grumbletarian

        ::up-twinkles::

      • R C Dean

        “that says to certain people, ‘Stay inside forever—for fucking ever!’ ”

        They are even bad at utilitarianism. Which, given how simplistic utilitarianism is, takes real effort.

    • Rebel Scum

      It is not intended to make sense. You are intended to comply and get jabbed until you die.

  4. SDF-7

    Morning, Brett. Thanks for the non-Florida link. 😉

    Been following the flooding story (for obvious reasons… as far as I know, we’re ok where I am — almost 2 hours south of Sac and haven’t heard about river issues around here. But being in the Central Valley (aka ancient huge inland sea / lake bed… so it doesn’t take much to flood around here… plus the soil where I am at least is dense clay that doesn’t seem to absorb water easily), always have to keep it in mind.

    The things that get me: 1) No one talks about why the levee broke — kind of curious (given past history) if there’s a lack of maintenance of infrastructure there as with so many things. After all, these “atmospheric rivers” don’t come every year, but are frequent enough it isn’t like this was a real surprise. Like mudslides around LA and Santa Clara, Sac knows all the runoff comes together into the river to head towards the bay, so it isn’t shocking or anything.

    2) Trying to put my head in the mental space of some of these poor folks who got stuck on CA-99 / Dillard Road. I’ve driven through water over the road before – trying to imagine pushing forward when the water is obviously getting higher and getting to the “current pushing the car” stage instead of backing up. The problem zones definitely have safe zones prior to them… so really wondering if they had traffic backed up behind them or what that they couldn’t do anything but more forward. Glad I’m not in that mess, that’s for sure.

    • Fourscore

      I’m torn between Karen Carpenter and the Mamas and the Papas.

      • SDF-7

        Did you see over the weekend when I believe it was JI who posited metal covers of Carpenters songs? I’m really disappointed I couldn’t find anything for Rainy Days and Mondays — I think that would be a good one. And good morning, 4×20!

    • juris imprudent

      The natural state of California is perfect – no fires, no floods, none of that stuff. It only turned into a disaster when evil white people moved in. It is known.

      • SDF-7

        “They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot”, MAN!

      • juris imprudent

        “Call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye”

        Caught that Bill Burr bit about him buying a gun, and it opens with him talking about how fucked up LA is and how it messes with your mind; one tiny (but perfect) line – it doesn’t even have a water supply.

  5. rhywun

    I might have maybe strained a muscle in my back on the first workout of 2023

    Unless workouts include “lifting a beverage”, back issues can happen all by themselves as I found out to my delight last night. 🙄

    • Sean

      Lift with your knees.

      • rhywun

        It’s hard to balance a glass on my knee.

    • juris imprudent

      I tweaked the shit out of my low back a few months ago, picking up something trivial – with one hand, so NOT heavy, but I was also twisting and pow!

  6. SDF-7

    Put on the mask and get in the pod, denier. 

    — these people infuriate me. Wear the masks forever, use disinfectants and antibiotics like crazy… keep weakening the human immune system and breeding resistant viruses, you morons. Yes, these are tools to use when appropriate — but life… um… finds a way — kind of what it has been doing since two cells existed at the same time and started figuring out how to excrete chemicals to force the other cell away from whatever food it was consuming. Idiots.

    • R C Dean

      “Wear the masks forever, use disinfectants and antibiotics like crazy”

      IOW, the People’s CDC is following the ChiCom party line (quelle surprise, no?).

      And look how that’s working out for the ChiComs. Even when faced with a crystal clear example of their preferred policy failing, they soldier on.

      • Fourscore

        Double up to catch up. Just like a bad run at the casino.

    • Gender Traitor

      keep weakening the human immune system

      I strengthen my immune system by habitually engaging in… “relaxed” housecleaning habits.

      • R C Dean

        As I was fond of telling people during the Plague Years, I keep my immune system stronk like bull with poor personal hygiene.

      • Tres Cool

        Given our warm-snap, the backyard is mud. I think the 9 month old puppy has dragged most of it into my kitchen.

      • SDF-7

        With a wagging tail and a happy puppy bounce in its step, I have no doubt. 🙂

  7. Sean

    Daily Quordle 343
    5️⃣3️⃣
    4️⃣8️⃣
    quordle.com

    • SDF-7

      Nice. The Year of Meh continues on my front.

      Daily Duotrigordle #306
      Guesses: 36/37
      Time: 05:22.20
      https://duotrigordle.com/

      Daily Quordle 343
      5️⃣3️⃣
      6️⃣7️⃣
      quordle.com

    • rhywun

      BR can fuck right off.

      Daily Quordle 343
      4️⃣5️⃣
      3️⃣9️⃣

    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 343
      4️⃣9️⃣
      5️⃣7️⃣

      Blurf

    • Grosspatzer

      Bah.

      Daily Quordle 343
      4️⃣6️⃣
      5️⃣9️⃣
      quordle.com

    • Grummun

      4 6
      5 7

      Total WAG on LR paid off.

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 343
      6️⃣4️⃣
      7️⃣8️⃣

      more blah

  8. Rat on a train

    Fairfax Co. officer broadcasts ‘audio porn’ on police radio

    Fairfax County Police told WTOP that the audio transmission, which occurred around 12:30 a.m. on Jan 1., was on a channel primarily used by dispatchers and first responders.

    “The off-duty officer had his portable radio in the trunk of his car and forgot to turn it off,” the department said in a subsequent news release. “Our investigation revealed that the off-duty officer was listening to ‘audio porn’ over his Bluetooth in his vehicle, which was captured on his activated police radio.”

    A happy beginning to the new year?

    • SDF-7

      I was almost expecting “the officer had his portable radio in the trunk of his car, forgot to turn it off and was checking on the safety and welfare of known sex workers in the area to ensure the services they provide are up to community standards”, honestly.

      Runner up thought/reaction — I thought cops typically jerked off in their cruisers to the idea of civil forfeiture and other abuses of power. This guy will never get a head in the department now….

      • Michael Malaise

        “Audio porn? No, that was me and my mega super hot sexy deluxe girlfriend going at it in the back seat!”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      We used to call that phone sex.

    • Sean

      lulz

    • juris imprudent

      Not just the radio turned on, but the transmit button mashed down – the dreaded open mic!

      • juris imprudent

        OK, now on second thought, in the trunk and the radio mic was both activated and picked up the car audio – he must’ve been rockin’ that ASMR pretty loud. It’s a shit-ton more likely he thought he was pranking not realizing his radio would be identified as the transmitting device.

      • Brawndo

        Mashed down and glued shut with… fluids?

    • Grosspatzer

      Scroll down a bit and I find this. Surprised it hasn’t been taken down.

      https://wtop.com/weather-news/2023/01/january-warm-stretches-happened-in-dc-area-before/

      So, how common is a five-day consecutive stretch of 60-degree days in the District? It’s happened on five different occasions.

      In January of 1947, 1950, 1967, 1974 and 1998, D.C. had a 5-day streak with high temperatures at or above 60 degrees. Of these years, two were La Nina winters; 1950, 1974, and one (1998) was a Super El Nino winter.

      Fake news, everyone knows Climate Change is to blame.

      • Rat on a train

        Super El Nino
        Does the scale top out at super?

  9. Count Potato

    “The origins of the committee and its work are plain: On January 6, 2021, thousands marched on the Capitol in support of Trump and his conspiratorial and wholly fabricated charge that the Presidential election the previous November had been stolen from him. Demonstrators breached police barricades, broke through windows and doors, and ran through the halls of Congress threatening to exact vengeance on the Vice-President, the Speaker of the House, and other officeholders. Seven people died as a result of the insurrection. About a hundred and fourteen law-enforcement officers were injured.”

    https://www.newyorker.com/news/american-chronicles/the-devastating-new-history-of-the-january-sixth-insurrection

    Seven?

    • Rat on a train

      I wasn’t aware the government killed seven unarmed protestors.

    • Fourscore

      If a 114 law men were injured how many “civilians” were hurt? It must be tough to have your feelings hurt by people calling you ugly names and not being able to respond with at least a night stick parade.

      • Tres Cool

        We always called it “wood shampoo”.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That number will continue to grow for years to come.

      • Ted S.

        Today it’s Camp Lejeune commericals; 20 years from now it’s going to be January 6 commercials.

      • Fourscore

        “Have you or your loved ones had their feelings hurt on Jan 6hth, 2021.?

        You could be a victim of post Post Traumatic Hurt Feelings, (pPTHF) ,for more information call…
        We don’t get paid unless you win”

      • R.J.

        Yes. Every time someone has a car accident or a heart attack for years, if they were at the White House on Jan 6th, it will be added to the death total.

    • juris imprudent

      Große Lügen is a very well proven technique.

    • Spartacus

      “Seven people died as a result of the insurrection. ”
      Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

    • DrOtto

      They’re still recovering bodies almost a year later.

    • R.J.

      I like that it is called “new history” in the title. Because it is new, replacement history for what actually happened.

    • Rebel Scum

      The government killed a few, couple medical issues and a few cops offed themselves. The insurrection narrative remains a lie.

  10. Rufus the Monocled

    RE masks forever. Through a combination of gaslighting, state disinformation and media misinformation they hysterically created a whole new generation of hypochondriacs, gave voice to the mentally ill, normalized isolation and other anti-human behaviours through social engineering, and worsened OCD.

    They messed up people’s brains real good.

    For science.

    And the children.

    And granny.

    • Plinker762

      Now granny gets to die alone because we don’t want her to catch the CCPV while on here death bed.

    • SDF-7

      The cynic in me wants to point out that hypochondriacs would prefer everyone else be controlled (so they don’t “threaten their safety”) and need well regulated infrastructure to function and all.

      Purely coincidental, I’m sure.

  11. Count Potato

    “‘What point do they want to make?’ Saboteurs who took down FOUR electrical substations within 14 miles in Washington state – leaving 30,000 without power on Christmas Day – are ‘sending a message’ claims top cop

    Police in western Washington believe that vandals who attacked four power substations in western Washington on Christmas Day, leaving more than 14,000 without power, were trying to ‘send a message.’

    The incidents were the latest of a series of similar attacks that some believe is the work of right-wing terrorists….

    The Department of Homeland Security officials has warned that extremists have harbored ‘credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020.’…

    Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating if the two attacks in North Carolina were intended to kill the power at a drag queen event.  

    An LGBTQ nonprofit in North Carolina had set up a drag show at the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines on Saturday night around the same time when the electric facilities were targeted with gunfire around 7pm.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11591003/Saboteurs-took-FOUR-electrical-substations-Washington-state-sending-message.html

    Environmentalists?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Antifa

      They like stirring the pot.

      • SDF-7

        Its always about pot around libertarians! 😉

    • SDF-7

      Because Heaven knows the easiest way to disrupt a drag event you don’t approve of is to cut power to multiple counties by attacking multiple substations and all.

      Love that the FBI is investigating based on random Twitter feedback — of course, we now have confirmation that said twits are probably on their payroll anyway.

      • juris imprudent

        Self licking ice cream cone!

    • Rebel Scum

      “Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating if the two attacks in North Carolina were intended to kill the power at a drag queen event.”

      How is this possibly relevant? If this was the goal they would just cut the power at the building.

      • Ownbestenemy

        It’s not. Any thinking person can see that but we aren’t dealing with thinking people anymore. We are in early stages of Idiocracy

  12. Lackadaisical

    “If it keeps on rainin’…”

    More historic drought for Cali I see.

    • SDF-7

      Don’t worry — I’m sure they’ll flush plenty down river for the Delta Smelt such that they can keep usage restrictions in place.

      Does raise the thought — how much of this is making it over the Sierra Nevadas to the Colorado? Lake Mead going to be okay for the short term again?

      • juris imprudent

        Mead is going to take more than 1 good year, it needs 3 or 4 minimum.

      • Lackadaisical

        That is true. It is a huge reservoir.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    I remember when the New Yorker was a magazine for smart people.

  14. DrOtto

    I don’t listen to Led Zeppelin near as much as I used to, but when “When the Levee Breaks” comes on, I don’t turn it. That’s a great song.

  15. Count Potato

    “Time Running Out for Father Trying to Stop Medical Castration of 10-Year-Old Son

    On December 20th, he received an email saying that his ex-wife, a former pediatrician named Anne Georgulas, had already moved the two boys out of Texas and to Los Angeles County, California. Younger had previously driven to the boys’ home in Texas to check if they still lived there so he could send them Christmas gifts.

    “The house was empty was dark,” he recalled. “All the security cameras had been removed. There was no furniture in the house that I could see. So I’m pretty sure she moved away before that, but just notified me until later.”

    The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to take the case, but time is fast running out as California’s Senate Bill 107, a so-called transgender sanctuary law that would end his protection under Texas law, will go into effect on January 1st. In Texas, sexually transitioning children is illegal and considered a form of child abuse….

    Younger alleges that his ex-wife groomed his son by dressing him as a girl from the age of two, while Georgulas claims that her son identifies as a female named Luna. Younger says his son is comfortable with his identity as a boy and does not wish to transition.”

    https://www.humanevents.com/2022/12/29/time-running-out-for-father-trying-to-stop-medical-castration-of-10-year-old-son

    • Lackadaisical

      So… how do interstate custody battles go?

      I believe states used ot have agreements about this, but I am guessing all the tranny shit has changed that in some respects?

    • Rat on a train

      I look forward to every state passing laws saying they will not honor warrants and other judicial proceedings from other states.

      • SDF-7

        Don’t worry — only the states doing it for wrongthink will be slapped down by the courts, I’m sure.

    • SDF-7

      2032 headline: 20 year old snaps, kills mother in “bizarre random attack”.

      The celebration of mental illness (I consider the mother such in this case) is going to have severe consequences for society in the next ten to twenty years. Again, cynical me would posit “Feature, not bug”…

      • rhywun

        It is a feature and the ringleaders behind this stuff aren’t shy about saying so.

    • R C Dean

      I wonder if their custody arrangements allow her to move without notifying the father and the court.

      I’m pretty sure the CA trans law overrides any other law in the state, including family law interstate agreements.

      And “former” pediatrician is a big red flag for . . . Something. Not sure what, but it’s not good.

      • Ownbestenemy

        “Texas 301st District Court bench, ruled in September that Georgulas had the right to move her children anywhere in the United States.”

        Seems it didn’t matter what their custody agreement stated cause the courts said that. In which we spent a goddam year to get a move away for my wife and step son.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    I made it almost two paragraphs into that masks article. Huffing enamel reducer would be a better use of my time, and leave me with less long term brain damage.

    • juris imprudent

      You deny Black Science!

  17. The Late P Brooks

    On the google news, this morning, there is a BBC story about the Ukraine war which is illustrated with a picture of a computer keyboard.

    A nod to all the keyboard generals out there?

    • Rat on a train

      They are more active than armchair generals.

    • Rat on a train

      The people of NY want this. They don’t want the angels of government being poached by corrupt private businesses.

  18. Rebel Scum

    “A man was accused of impersonating a U.S. Air Force “special agent” at a Madeira Beach smoke shop.”

    That ain’t gonna fly.

    • Rat on a train

      aim high

    • SDF-7

      Are you saying it should have been plane that he was fibbing, or just going out on a wing with your opinions? For all you know, he’s at the tail end of a pilot program, after all.

  19. Tres Cool

    Lifestyle update- I’m off work tonight, 3 beers in, and Jugsy has never seen “Johnny Dangerously”.
    Time to get cozy on the couch.

    • SDF-7

      Solid movie night. Enjoy, Jugsy. (And “Enjoy Jugsy” — there’s one case where the comma works either way!)

  20. Rebel Scum

    “The Case for Wearing Masks Forever
    A ragtag coalition of public-health activists believe that America’s pandemic restrictions are too lax—and they say they have the science to prove it.”

    Nah, fuck off.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    When I was a kid, and we went to Ohio to see the grandparents, there was this road through the creek bottom to the farm with marker posts calibrated in feet. For years and years, I’d see those things and think, vaguely, “That’s weird.”

    And then one summer it rained about a foot in fourteen hours or some such thing, and when we went down there to look at the giant lake which had formed, the water was up to the four foot mark.

  22. Rebel Scum

    “from Saturday’s atmospheric river”

    What?

    • SDF-7

      That’s what they’ve been calling the fronts that roll in from the Pacific during the winter and dump a lot of precipitation on the West Coast for a while now (because they’re big enough it is like a river being dumped or something, I think).

      https://www.noaa.gov/stories/what-are-atmospheric-rivers

      “Autumn / winter storm fronts” just isn’t as sexy for meteorologists probably (hey… we never did find out if P Brooks got his 6 inches or not…)

      • Rebel Scum

        So it’s some new climate change term intended to scare people.

    • R C Dean

      I SAID, “FROM SATURDAY’S ATMOSPHERIC RIVER”.

      • SDF-7

        Heh… I laughed.

      • Grummun

        ::points at teeth::

        “THE BLESS-ING!”

  23. The Late P Brooks

    I look forward to every state passing laws saying they will not honor warrants and other judicial proceedings from other states.

    Isn’t that how the FBI came to be? To sweep aside all hose pesky “jurisdictional” roadblocks to bringing the hammer of justice down?

    • SDF-7

      Never has this clip seemed more appropriate for the Hammer of FedGov justice…

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Institutional suicide

    Brendan Buck, a communications consultant who previously worked for former Speakers John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), said in The New York Times op-ed that the “usual pageantry” and “fleeting” hope that the incoming Congress will be better than the last could be “immediately dashed” if the House fails to choose a Speaker on the first ballot.

    Buck said a “small band of Republican misfits” have pledged to vote against McCarthy for the speakership, and only five Republican votes against him are needed to deny him the role. He said McCarthy should do “all within reason” to secure the votes he needs to win on the first ballot.

    “Otherwise, a self-serving power play by a small group of Republicans threatens to make a mockery of the institution and further cement the notion that the party is not prepared to lead,” Buck wrote.

    Good grief.

    “We need to go back to the good old days of John Boehner’s statesmanlike leadership” is not really a compelling argument, as far as I’m concerned.

    • SDF-7

      On that topic — I wouldn’t be holding my breath: https://redstate.com/joesquire/2023/01/02/even-after-making-concessions-kevin-mccarthy-goes-from-5-holdouts-to-14-n682220

      And it isn’t like Congress has given a rat’s flea ridden behind about their low approval ratings in the past anyway. McCarthy is lucky that though he seems a total squish, there really isn’t anyone in a position to credibly challenge him, so I expect he’ll get it eventually anyway and move on to the disappointing everyone phase of things. Yay.

    • R.J.

      Fuck your pageantry. Cut spending, size and scope of the government. That will not be pretty.

      • PieInTheSky

        Cut spending, size and scope of the government. – right after giving each person a free unicorn

      • R.J.

        Agreed.

    • juris imprudent

      I don’t want the institution to commit suicide – just all those inside the institution.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    He said the House would allow members to make speeches in favor of a candidate if McCarthy does not win on the first ballot, which he said could “unleash a circus” in which GOP opponents to McCarthy question his fitness for the job on the floor.

    Buck also predicted the Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who is mounting a bid against McCarthy, would not win the leadership role and instead another Republican would be elected if McCarthy fails.

    “But the agitators’ objective isn’t to win the speakership for one of their own; it is to weaken Mr. McCarthy or whoever emerges as the next speaker of the House. The embarrassment indeed may be the point,” Buck wrote.

    Oddly enough, he does not name these “rogue” Republicans, or even hint at their presumed legislative end goals.

    • juris imprudent

      In fairness, not to Buck but to the party, this is a lack of discipline. Frankly I expect a party to be able to hold it’s members accountable (which is what this faction wants with regard to the Speaker); but it works both ways. You work out your issues in private and then you line up. Anyone who violates confidence is punished; Pelosi ran the Democrats as a tighter ship than anyone (in the House) seems to be able to do with the Republicans (though McConnell does in the Senate).

    • Fourscore

      Double WTF, funny though.

      “You ain’t taking my baby’s daddy unless you be taking me”

  26. The Late P Brooks

    NOT FAIR! LOOPHOLES!

    While one of Trump’s main businesses was found guilty of criminal tax fraud earlier this month, Trump himself has so far not been accused of doing anything illegal with his taxes and personal accounting.

    But that’s raising more urgent questions about the fairness of the U.S. tax code and tax regulations, which number in the millions of words and in the case of Trump proved effectively unenforceable.

    Advocates for tax reform say that a shift in mindset is needed, that a flawed conception of taxation as punitive and economically destructive is what allows for the sort of serial tax avoidance on display in the Trump tax returns.

    “With the release of Donald Trump’s tax returns we have learned that he did not pay any federal income taxes [in some years],” Frank Clemente, director of tax advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness, said in a statement to The Hill.

    Clemente said that Trump’s tax avoidance was made possible by “a loophole-ridden tax system in need of fundamental change.”

    What these people really want is a way to cross reference the tax rolls against Santa’s Naughty or Nice list.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Amazingly the fundamental change they want isn’t to simplify the tax code 🙄

      • Grumbletarian

        No, they want to weaponize the tax code.

      • juris imprudent

        Show me the man and I’ll show you the tax-bill. – L. Beria, IRS Commissioner

    • rhywun

      If he lost income, what is he supposed to be paying taxes on?

      /deliberately obtuse

      • juris imprudent

        No one in capitalism ever loses money.

        This is what they actually believe.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    In an apparent violation of IRS policy, which mandates that presidents receive regular audits, U.S. tax collectors were not auditing Trump on an annual basis, according to the Ways and Means Committee report released last week.

    The reason for that isn’t clear, but the complexity of Trump’s financial situation and the tax laws that enable it may have been to be too much for the IRS to handle with resources dedicated to it.

    Nobody understands it.

    They keep harping on this, but they don’t say whether Obama or Bush were actually audited.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Yep if this was their true oversight goal, they would have yanked all presidential audits that the IRS has done but I am guessing records disposition is 7-10 years. I’m too lazy to go dig that up.

    • creech

      If failure violates IRS policy, then someone is going to be dismissed, right?

      • Ownbestenemy

        I spit out my coffee to that

  28. PieInTheSky

    The Leninist Lawyer☭🏳️‍🌈🇨🇺🇨🇳🇻🇳🇱🇦🇰🇵🇵🇸
    @LovelyLeninist
    Would any followers be interested in a thread about my studies in Cuba as an American? I have some pictures and feel like Cuba needs some hype right now.

    https://twitter.com/LovelyLeninist/status/1609709267514171395

    • Fourscore

      …and well educated…

      Proud to be an American

    • Rebel Scum

      I prefer “Chalk Demon”.

    • Grumbletarian

      “And yes, a TV is a fucking necessity.”

      I might consider that bitch getting run over by a train to be a necessity.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    But a structural discrepancy in the U.S. tax system between the way workers and business owners are taxed means that this new money for law enforcement might not be as effective as more legal reforms.

    “Under the current system, American workers pay virtually all their tax bills while many top earners avoid paying billions in the taxes they owe by exploiting the system,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in 2021.

    “At the core of the problem is a discrepancy in the ways types of income are reported to the IRS: opaque income sources frequently avoid scrutiny while wages and federal benefits are typically subject to nearly full compliance. This two-tiered tax system is unfair and deprives the country of resources to fund core priorities,” she said.

    A 99.7% tax rate across the board wouldn’t be enough to fund all the bullshit, you insipid lying homunculus.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking in November, Fred Goldberg, who was IRS Commissioner under George H.W. Bush, said that simplifying the U.S. tax code has long been a moonshot for lawmakers.

    “That’s been the holy grail for 40 years,” he said.

    We’ve been saying that for forty years. Why don’t you take us seriously?

    • R C Dean

      “We’ll get to it right after we get this fusion energy thing sorted out.”

  31. Rebel Scum

    Fuck off and die in a ditch, you fearmongering cunte.

    To be clear— #XBB15 is by far the “worst of both worlds” in terms of both existing immunity escape & binding to ACE2 receptor—allowing it enhanced ability infect human cells. This is why it is nicknamed “The Kraken” by @TRyanGregory – and called a super variant. Be vigilant.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I cannot stand “to be clear…”

  32. PieInTheSky

    Running Out of People
    Defusing the Conservative Party’s demographic bomb

    https://takequarter.substack.com/p/running-out-of-people

    “Historically, young voters have been left-leaning, and become right-leaning as they got older. The Tories appear to have stress-tested this theory to the point where the elastic has snapped: asked to drift rightwards at increasingly extreme rates, millennial voters have stopped doing so altogether.”

    “More worrying for the Tories is the fact that zoomers are like millennials, but even more so. In the mid-to-late 2010s there was a fleeting hope among some on the right that the popularity of politically incorrect YouTubers would translate to an anti-‘SJW’ backlash among zoomers. But no. Just as they drink even less than the already-sober millennials, and have even less sex than the already-abstinent millennials, zoomers vote Tory even less than the already-socialist millennials.”

    “Meaningful planning reform, turbocharged housebuilding, and tackling runaway state pension spending (perhaps by targeting support at less well-off pensioners) would all help restore intergenerational fairness, and improve the economic situation of young people and the country as a whole. But too little attention has been paid towards developing a marketable economic appeal that convinces at least some young voters ”
    yeah England is going socialist and there aint nothing to stop it

    • PieInTheSky

      ” The underpinning principle of wokeness is that Western society – its culture, traditions, institutions, and prosperity – is built on racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia; and is designed to perpetuate that bigoted oppression. If it has another principle, it’s that all inequality is the product of systemic oppression and social conditioning. How can you reconcile that with any potential form of conservative or right-of-centre politics?”

      • rhywun

        How insightful. I am convinced.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Here are two watercolours Turner painted of Durham Cathedral – one when he was 26, one when he was 60…

    Turner was a freaking GENIUS.

  34. PieInTheSky

    Does Xi Jinping have a new speechwriter? Less boasting about the CCP and a more humble tone. Starting with this uncharacteristic sentence:
    “The Chinese economy has remained the 2nd largest in the world”

    https://twitter.com/kenmoriyasu/status/1609224729449336833

  35. Rebel Scum

    Good lord…

    The Commanders’ unveiling of their new mascot, Major Tuddy, didn’t go exactly according to plan on Sunday. Washington showed off its new mascot, a pig wearing a military helmet, in a very dramatic video posted to Twitter.

    The term Hogs has been a part of Washington’s history since the 1980s, when the team’s stout offensive line was nicknamed the “The Hogs” after a reference by then-offensive line coach Joe Bugel. Casual fans online aren’t the only ones taking issue with the name, though.

    There was nothing wrong with the team being the Redskins. You broke what didn’t need fixing and you’re still breaking it.

    • juris imprudent

      Snyder can write a book about it after he sells the team, A Million Little Pieces. This time, the true story.

    • SDF-7

      So… the Washington DC Pork Troughs? They really really want to rub the rest of the country’s noses in this, don’t they?

    • R C Dean

      “a pig wearing a military helmet”

      OK, which one of you did that, and how did you get it past the bosses?

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

    Wilton. Son of a bitch. My wife used to get picked up by the school bus there to go into Elk Grove for high school.

    Man, that is fucked.

  37. Rebel Scum

    You’ll get what you voted for good and hard.

    Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been sworn in as the new president of Brazil – the third time he has held the country’s highest office.

    The veteran left-wing politician, known widely as Lula, also led the country between 2003 and 2010 – and defeated Jair Bolsonaro in October’s poll.

    In his first speech, Lula vowed to rebuild a country in “terrible ruins”.

    He decried the policies of his predecessor, who went to the US on Friday to avoid the handover ceremony.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Washington showed off its new mascot, a pig wearing a military helmet, in a very dramatic video posted to Twitter.

    Washington WarPigs? Now we’re getting somewhere.

    • juris imprudent

      Now, to license the music rights.

  39. juris imprudent

    Before transitioning, McLaughlin was in a relationship with girlfriend Beverly Guenther. McLaughlin would show up at the suburban St. Louis office where the 45-year-old Guenther worked, sometimes hiding inside the building, according to court records. Guenther obtained a restraining order, and police officers occasionally escorted her to her car after work.

    Guenther’s neighbors called police the night of Nov. 20, 2003, when she failed to return home. Officers went to the office building, where they found a broken knife handle near her car and a trail of blood. A day later, McLaughlin led police to a location near the Mississippi River in St. Louis, where the body had been dumped.

    That’s one hell of a relationship.

    There is no known case of an openly transgender inmate being executed in the U.S. before, according to the anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center. A friend in prison says she saw McLaughlin’s personality blossom during her gender transition.

    I bet personality wasn’t the only thing that blossomed in prison.

    Hell, in general I oppose the death penalty, despite seeing so many people that just need to die so badly. This is one of those fuckers that really tests my devotion to principle.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    There is no known case of an openly transgender inmate being executed in the U.S. before, according to the anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center.

    Get back to me when they want to execute somebody specifically because they is transgender, and not for some unrelated crime like murder.