Wednesday Afternoon SugarLinks – Leopard Skin Sheets

by | Feb 22, 2023 | Daily Links | 228 comments

Netflix, BBC and ITV set to ‘ban’ corsets from period dramas like Bridgerton over health and safety concerns

Worn to hold and shape the torso to look smaller, the garment dates back to Ancient Greece, but became a fashion staple in the Victorian era, which began in the 1830s.

They’ve been used in many period dramas in recent decades, including Bridgerton, Downton Abbey and Pride and Prejudice adaptations.

But now several networks and streaming services are said to be banning them.

In a move to appease young actors, they will now be allowed to wear their own underwear instead of the restrictive undergarment.

‘The corset is famously restrictive, and many actresses have complained to wardrobe departments about damage, both short-term and long, being done after a long 12 to 14 hour day wearing them on set,’ a source told The Sun.

‘Essentially, there were health and safety concerns about keeping women in a pinching corset for weeks at a time.’

‘Many stars have reported bruising and even breathing problems.’

They added: ‘In today’s increasingly woke world, it’s also not great optics to be encouraging women to have thinner waists.’

‘It may well have been reflective of the time, but broadcasters and streamers want to be seen as progressive.’

The source said this marked a ‘big moment in the history of the period drama.’

If Bridgerton is in danger, I’m fine with it. Although it seems the real issue is period dramas, so if they want to get rid of tea and strumpet soap operas, I’m OK with that as well.


 

Drinking Coke and Pepsi leads to larger testicles, more testosterone: study

A study has revealed how drinking Coca-Cola and Pepsi can lead to larger testicles and higher testosterone levels.

The Northwest Minzu University in China was attempting to determine the impact of carbonated beverages on fertility and sex organs in men.

The study looked at three groups of mice – one that only drank water, another that drank different levels of Coca Cola with another doing the same with Pepsi – over 15 days.

Tests on the rodents included weighing their testicles and drawing blood. They were tested on day one, as well as day five, seven, 10 and 15.

It was quickly discovered that the mice drinking Coke and 100 percent Pepsi, compared to a mixture of Pepsi and water, had a significant change.

For instance, the mice that were given pure Coca-Cola had higher levels of the male hormone compared to the group that drank water.

The study concluded: “Drinking Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola could promote testis development and enhance testosterone secretion [ …] our findings provide the scientific basis for fully understanding carbonated beverages effects and their mechanism on development and reproduction functions of humans, and how they benefit the prevention of prostate dysfunction and cancer.”

[staggers away under the weight of his enormous balls]


 

My husband disappears to Thailand weekly, spends hundreds — he won’t tell me what he’s up to

It sounds like a bad dream. But for one woman it is the very sad reality of her marriage.

A 70-year-old woman has shared on UK television that her husband of almost 50 years “keeps disappearing” to Thailand and sending “hundreds of pounds there monthly”.

Speaking on a segment called Dear Deirdre phone-in on This Morning, the anonymous caller who went by the name ‘Julie’ said he leaves without telling her, and is tight-lipped about where the cash is going.

His response when she inquires where he is going is equally charming. “None of your business,” she says he retorts.

“It’s normally on a Wednesday night he goes,” she said. “I just come home, there’s no note, nothing, passport, gone clothes gone.”

Deirdre strongly urged the caller not to “carry on putting up with this”, slamming the husband’s behavior as “appalling”.

Um.


 

About The Author

SugarFree

SugarFree

Your Resident Narcissistic Misogynist Rape-Culture Apologist

228 Comments

  1. Yusef drives a Kia

    Dr Pepper or GTFO!

  2. Count Potato

    I can’t stand period pieces.

    • SDF-7

      Better than the colon comedies, I suppose.

      • Ted S.

        Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the scene in An Unmarried Woman where Jill Clayburgh is discussing menarche with her therapist. That’s also about the point at which I gave up on the movie.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        💔 🖼 🚶‍♀️

        🙄

    • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

      I love period pieces: Breaker Morant, Gallipoli, A Bridge Too Far, Das Boot. Dangerous Liaisons, Come and See, The Shooting Party, the list goes on.

      • Chipwooder

        Das Boot only in subtitled form, though. I stumbled across the dubbed version once and it annoyed the hell outta me.

  3. Count Potato

    Seeing some ladyboy?

    • Bobarian LMD

      Many ladies-boy.

    • EvilSheldon

      That’s one of the more pleasant possible explanations.

      He’s very likely over there diddling kids.

      • Sean

        You just had to make it weird, didn’t you?

      • Lackadaisical

        Yeah, there are plenty of real women too.

  4. SDF-7

    I feel sorry for the UK Lady… boy, it sure is hard to guess what her husband might be doing on those Thailand trips.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Banging hookers, banging transsexuals, banging kids, or heroin smuggler-none are good.

    • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

      What you did there has been seen by me

      • Spudalicious

        Boo that man.

  5. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Positive: High T and big nuts
    Negative: Diabetes, blindness, and obesity

    I’d rather just use the T gel if it comes to that.

    • SDF-7

      Is that gel that pities the fool?

      • Rat on a train

        I’m so glad for all the “zero” options. Only fatties drink “diet” colas.

      • Spudalicious

        Swiss has teeny, tiny balls. They’re made of tungsten, but they’re very small.

  6. Drake

    How exactly does somebody weigh rodent testicles? And what does that job pay?

    • The Other Kevin

      Unfortunately that was my first thought as well.

    • SDF-7

      Microscale.

      (If the stupid Internal Server errors let me post this for once…)

    • Certified Public Asshat

      All the coke and pepsi you want.

      • Nephilium

        Don’t forget all the rodent testicles!

    • Bobarian LMD

      You think that hard? You ever smelled moth-balls?

      • DrOtto

        I can never get the legs apart

  7. The Late P Brooks

    ‘It may well have been reflective of the time, but broadcasters and streamers want to be seen as progressive.’

    The source said this marked a ‘big moment in the history of the period drama.’

    The moment when they said, “Fuck history”?

    • The Other Kevin

      “Broadcasters and streamers want to be seen as progressive.”
      This is not the winning strategy they think it is.

    • Drake

      So the Polynesian lady playing an English dutchess won’t be wearing historically correct clothing? Oh no!

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Bridgerton is basically a fantasy anyway with so many anachronisms that it doesn’t really matter. But if someone is trying to make an accurate depiction of the times, it’s stupid. That said, I don’t blame actresses for not wanting to wear corsets.

  8. Tonio

    “tea and strumpet soap operas” for the win.

    • Tundra

      Yes, that was inspired.

  9. The Other Kevin

    Sorry to go OT so soon, but I just got a call from the Publishers Clearinghouse prize notification center, and I’ve won $5000 a week for life. So pretty soon I’ll have a lot more free time to hang out here.

      • The Other Kevin

        The robot voice and bad grammar mean it’s real, right?

      • SDF-7

        That’s what the Nigerian prince told me.

      • Ted S.

        Princes who adore you?

      • Sean

        Booo.

      • Fourscore

        I had this guy with a dot accent. Called maybe 4 times, couldn’t understand why a geezer didn’t want the money. I kept telling him to give it to some youngster. He absolutely would not give up, I cursed him, told him I was recording the call, etc. I told him to send the check to my address, which he must have, since I’ve seen the TV winners. On my landline. Annoying as hell.

        I rarely get robo calls on either phone. In fact, I rarely get any calls.

      • The Other Kevin

        Yes. I’ve gotten this one twice. The voice sounds like it was generated by a Commodore 64.

      • SDF-7

        Given the time of year, I’m surprised they haven’t spun back up the “You are potentially being prosecuted by the IRS” ones again.

      • The Other Kevin

        I like the one where it’s a recording of a real woman, and she’s like, “Uh yeah, just following up on that email about the business funding.” As if we know each other.

      • Count Potato

        Ask it to explain black holes.

    • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

      The PCH scams tend to be run out of Africa instead of India (once you start talking to a real person, I mean). They’re harder to mess with than the Indians because they’re far more wary and they don’t connect to your computer like the refund scammers

    • Rat on a train

      They rarely leave voice mails so I have to settle for all the “account frozen” text messages.

    • Mojeaux

      I hang up when I don’t get an immediate response after I say, “Hello?”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Ha! Screwed by his own narcissism (and stupidity).

    • Drake

      We emptied the mental hospitals so they could rule us.

    • R.J.

      I love this.

    • The Other Kevin

      I really hope this is true.

      • Chafed

        I was thinking the same thing. It looks legit.

    • Sean

      L O L

    • Count Potato

      So he’s been at it since 2018?

      • R C Dean

        Surprising absolutely no one. It’s absurd that he’s only stolen the two he’s been indicted for. I would guess dozens of thefts.

      • rhywun

        A girl needs her variety of outfits.

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        The thrill of wearing something you stole certainly plays into it.

        The dude would be certifiable, if we still had a psychiatric system that functioned.

    • Michael Malaise

      Talk about appropriating culture!

      • rhywun

        LOL this is awesome.

      • Michael Malaise

        The first red dress is a bit different in Sam’s (who knows what the pronoun is) pic than hers, but he could be wearing it backwards or something.

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        It’s backward

    • R C Dean

      Sounds like felony indictment number three on the way.

      The bonus points for stealing from a black fashion designer. 😘

      • Sensei

        I’ll believe it when it happens.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    How exactly does somebody weigh rodent testicles?

    The hard part is putting them back.

  11. Tundra

    Love the Dead Boys.

    Love.

    • B.P.

      Thumbs up.

    • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

      Oh yeah. One of the greats.

    • Timeloose

      Agreed.

  12. Grummun

    tea and strumpet soap operas

    The wife has come around to leaving Downton Abbey run as background noise.

    Every time Mary and Edith are in a scene together, Mary’s line should be “Stick it, Edith” and exit.

    • kinnath
      • Fourscore

        Fourscore remembers…

    • rhywun

      And then you hear a toilet flush off-camera.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      “Stifle yerself, Edith!”

  13. DEG

    In a move to appease young actors, they will now be allowed to wear their own underwear instead of the restrictive undergarment.

    So they really won’t be period dramas anymore?

    • R.J.

      Now it’s just dramas about periods.

      • Sensei

        padded dramas?

      • SDF-7

        Sponsored by Campbell’s tomato soup.

      • Bobarian LMD

        “As the Moon Cycles”

        “Genital Hospital”

        “The Days of the Month”

    • The Other Kevin

      Everyone knows having realistic details to a show doesn’t add anything. They should just let everyone show up in sweat pants and messy pony tails.

    • kinnath

      Not after this pause.

      • R.J.

        Mwahaha! The movies will flow freely after this costume change.

      • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

        Oooh, spicey!

    • Grummun

      We watched Lidia Poet on Netflix. The legal drama is a little Perry Mason-ish but the wardrobe (with corsets) is excellent.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    I made the grievous error of clicking on a Bulwark link from google nooz. A giant steaming pile of words by Cathy Whats-er-name. Then, because I’m a glutton for punishment, I read part of another one, a load of juvenile”snark” about paranoid Trumpalos and their bizarre obsessions about vaccines and immigrants and who knows what else.

    I’d rather read Vox, or the New Republic.

  15. Mojeaux

    OMG this movie is tedious. I don’t mind Scarlett doing what she needs to do to get what she wants, but I hate her little temper tantrums.

    • R.J.

      You know, there is a solution to boring movies for extra credit. You could show up on Thursday and do a code review of “Abar: Black Superman.” Or the week after that is “Dead Ant,” a horror comedy with tons of injuries.

      • Mojeaux

        Sadly, the movies are chosen for you.

        Also, I have to switch my transcription gig from 8p to 7p because of charting software issues after 11p.

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        Permanently or just tonight?!?!?!

      • Mojeaux

        Sadly, likely permanently. I think the charting software undergoes some type of maintenance at 11p, which prevents me from loading up the notes.

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        OMG now my weekends are ruined and I hate everything.

      • Animal

        Well, that makes the weekend Zooms less interesting.

      • R.J.

        I am now sad.

      • DEG

        This is sad.

      • Mojeaux

        *wipes tear*

        Aw, thanks, guys. I’ll see what I can do about scheduling, because the work is just there till it gets done. I am considered part of the “clean-up” crew. But it’s a clinic, not a hospital, so this also might mean I don’t have to work on Saturdays at all.

      • Ted S.

        The code review would spoil the movie.

    • SDF-7

      So frankly, you don’t give a damn?

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Why, you’ve got it all wrong, Mojo. Scahlett is just high-spirited and vivacious.

      • Mojeaux

        Right?!

      • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

        Frankly, Toxteth, I don’t give a damn.

    • Mojeaux

      Okay I got my list of injuries. I’ll be damned if I sit through another hour of that drivel.

    • Aloysious

      For the title of the Most Unwatchable Movie of all Time. Ever. nothing beats, IMHO, Ordinary People(1980?).

      I’d rather watch My Dinner with Andre.

      • kinnath

        Ordinary People was a great movie.

      • Mojeaux

        *gets popcorn*

      • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

        Gotta go with Kinnath here.

      • Ted S.

        And you’ve gone and pissed off Dr. Chet.

      • R.J.

        Is this a hold my beer moment? I mean… I can show you some movies that require sedation and restraints to finish.

      • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

        But don’t people pay extra for those… films?

  16. The Late P Brooks

    I can’t wait for the BBC series about the plucky Indian girl who grew up in the slums of Delhi and overcame her status as an outcast to become Prime Minister of England and win the Battle of Britain.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Churchill was Indian?
      Who knew?
      Tall Cans!

  17. The Late P Brooks

    OMG this movie is tedious. I don’t mind Scarlett doing what she needs to do to get what she wants, but I hate her little temper tantrums.

    She deserves to be pampered, and waited on hand and foot.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Idiot status confirmed

    • R C Dean

      Wow. An ur-Karen in the wild. The shovel was a nice touch.

    • Animal

      According to those assholes, most of Alaska is a feed desert.

      • The Other Kevin

        I’d imaging most swanky neighborhoods are food deserts.

    • rhywun

      Oh God the writing is so tediously pompous to boot.

    • Rat on a train

      They have me in a food desert but not my sister. I can get groceries at 7 stores within 6 miles. She has to drive 12 miles to the closest.

  18. DEG

    Sununu’s NH approval spikes

    Would becoming a national candidate running for the White House hurt Gov. Chris Sununu at home? Not according to the latest poll from the UNH Survey Center. In fact, quite the opposite.

    Since December, when talk of a Sununu presidential race first began, Sununu’s net approval has nearly tripled, from +13 to +36.

    • Bobarian LMD

      Anything to get him to leave?

      • R C Dean

        My thought exactly.

  19. B.P.

    “My husband disappears to Thailand weekly, spends hundreds — he won’t tell me what he’s up to”

    I get my kicks above the waistline sunshine.

    • The Other Kevin

      Man who go through airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok.

  20. DEG

    NH Dem party official calls gay Republican a homophobe

    Full disclosure: At the risk of doxxing myself, I did a little work for Tim Baxter’s US House campaign. I had no idea he is gay.

    The New Hampshire Democratic Party’s top communications person took to Twitter to smear former GOP state Rep. Tim Baxter as an “anti-LGBTQ, Christian nationalist nut job.”

    The problem is that Baxter, who gained national attention running a pro-liberty campaign for U.S. Congress last year, is openly gay.

    In response to an NHJournal story about Baxter and fellow 2022 congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt working to win leadership positions in the New Hampshire Young Republicans (NHYR), state Democratic Party communications director Colin Booth tweeted, “Just what every young person wants, to be associated with a bunch of anti-LGBTQ, Christian nationalist nut jobs.”

    • SDF-7

      Look, if Larry Elder can be the “face of white supremacy”, I’m sure he can be the poster boy for homophobia.

    • Drake

      Well, he would know?

    • rhywun

      “Homophobe” now equals “anyone who doesn’t enthusiastically support the most nutjob positions advanced by the radical activist set”.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Ditto “far/extreme right wing opinion.”

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Ready to run

    Utah’s Sen. Mitt Romney threw some shade at Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s call for a “national divorce” to divide up the country by Republican and Democratic states.

    “I think Abraham Lincoln dealt with that kind of insanity,” Romney said as he briefly met with reporters after meeting with Utah lawmakers on Tuesday. “We’re not going to divide the country. It’s united we stand and divided we fall.”

    Greene on Monday called for the United States to “separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government.”

    Mitt- the bipartisan healer this nation needs.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      I’ll agree to the divorce only if the Northeast gets Mitt.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      We want to separate from you too Mitt.

    • Ted S.

      Will anybody have the courage to primary him?

    • rhywun

      It’s united we stand and divided we fall.

      Except it looks like we’re headed for “united we fall”.

      • The Other Kevin

        If he knows a way to unite with the woke mob I’m all ears.

      • R C Dean

        Oh, he’s united with the woke mob, so I think he knows how.

  22. Drake

    The contrast between Biden stumbling around Europe talking war and Trump showing up in East Palestine to help people with his own money is incredibly revealing.

    Our elite haven’t cared about middle America for a long time. But now they can’t be bothered to pretend to care. In a way it’s more proof that we are never voting our way out of this than any election records. They are completely untethered from the reality of life for most of us.

    • kinnath

      Trump showing up in East Palestine to help people with his own money

      I saw Trump was there, but didn’t read the articles.

      • The Other Kevin

        So far he brought some truck loads of water and bought a bunch of McDonald’s for police and firefighters.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        But it’s Trump brand water!

        (I didn’t know such a thing existed.)

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      My personal experience with some of those I went to college with is that they openly disdain rural residents. They will tolerate the rednecks if the bubbas vote the correct way, but other than that they don’t give a shit if they live or die.

      It was startling at first, but now I’ve come to expect it from them.

      • rhywun

        It’s more than just rednecks, it’s the entire middle class everywhere too.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        The open economic warfare being waged against the middle class confirms.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Can confirm.

        When I went to grad school, I was appalled at just how much the faculty and TAs disdained students that weren’t from Lexington or Louisville.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        There’s a comedian who has been in SF for decades now, Will Durst. One of his jokes is something like, “I’m originally from Ohio, America’s Heartland. They call it the heartland because there’s no brain there.” The joke gets lots of laughter from the SF crowd, but it exemplifies the attitude you are talking about.

      • Pope Jimbo

        The only yokels that the Dems don’t openly sneer at are the farmers in Iowa.

        They kiss the ass of those Iowegians because they want to win the Iowa Caucus so bad. Now that Iowa doesn’t start the shit show anymore, I’m sure that they will show their true colors soon and start shitting on the corn farmers.

        Of course, those farmers are heavily involved in the Ethanol Scam so they might stay in the good graces of the Dems. Gotta love a program that pays welfare to the farmers to grow a crop solely for a product that is mandated and subsidized.

      • R C Dean

        Mandated, subsidized, damages engines, and reduces fuel efficiency.

      • Fourscore

        Yeah but other than that I don’t see any problems

  23. The Late P Brooks

    The villain, revealed

    Donald Trump’s visit to the site of a toxic train derailment in Ohio is offering a political opening to battered Biden administration officials — by calling new attention to the former president’s record of rolling back regulations on both rail safety and hazardous chemicals.

    Trump’s administration withdrew an Obama-era proposal to require faster brakes on trains carrying highly flammable materials, ended regular rail safety audits of railroads, and mothballed a pending rule requiring freight trains to have at least two crew members. He also placed a veteran of the chemical industry in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s chemical safety office, where she made industry-friendly changes to how the agency studied health risks.

    These actions have mostly been a matter of Trump-era trivia amid the furor over the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, which has brought fierce GOP criticism of the response by Biden appointees such as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. But Trump’s Ohio trip on Wednesday is provoking new scrutiny of his own track record — a development that some in the Biden administration were privately welcoming.

    Other Trump critics were more blunt in dismissing the motives behind his visit.

    “It’s clear that it’s a political stunt,” said former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican and former member of Congress who led DOT during President Barack Obama’s first term. “If he wants to visit, he’s a citizen. But clearly his regulations and the elimination of them, and no emphasis on safety, is going to be pointed out.”

    Buttigieg took his own veiled shot at Trump — though not by name — when answering a POLITICO reporter’s question about the tension between Trump’s rail safety record and his criticisms of the Biden administration.

    He took away the magic spells which would have prevented the catastrophe.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      This junior high clique mentality is so fucking exhausting.

    • rhywun

      I’m assuming the railroads were free to implement whatever extra security precautions they deemed necessary…?

      • R C Dean

        Nyet. Everything not mandatory is prohibited, comrade.

    • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

      Because there was never a spill of toxic materials during 0bamas two terms.

      F’n retards.

    • R C Dean

      Not mentioned – exactly which regulations would have prevented this.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    The EPA formally put the rail company on the hook Tuesday for covering all costs of the clean up, which the railroad had already pledged to do.

    Can they just do that?

    Haha, you’re right. Never mind.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      It does appear that the railroad is at fault, so they should be on the hook.

      • R C Dean

        Many things appear so, until investigations are conducted and evidence collected.

        Don’t get me wrong – I’d be surprised if this wasn’t the railroad’s fault, but a decree that they shall pay seems premature.

    • KSuellington

      The railroad should be covering the costs if they caused it.

      • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

        I wonder what the second order issues were, though? Did the state or fed mandate some stupid procedure that resulted in this accident? Did they not take care of some issue on their end?

        I get them not wanting to go too far down that street, but it needs to be done, especially if they are claiming that some bit of deregulation was done by the previous admin to cause this.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        I’m sure the railroad will sue if there are other issues.

    • creech

      “Can they just do that?”
      How many divisions and F-16s can Norfolk Southern call on?

    • Sensei

      They were cleaning it up. They said they were willing to clean it up.

      FedGov took over as they are allowed to do and in turn ordered them to clean it up.

      This way FedGov can do something as well as micromanage the process. It’s semantics and power.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    If the railroads had been on strike that train would never have derailed.

    I haven’t been hearing too much about that “keep working” order. I wonder why.

    *Not that I think a new contract would have done fuck all to prevent this.

  26. ttyrant

    I almost hate to ask, but is there even a sliver of an argument for the constitutionality of the federal government aiding another country fighting a war?

    • Animal

      I almost hate to ask, but is there even a sliver of an argument for the constitutionality of the federal government aiding another country fighting a war most of the shit the Imperial government has been doing since about 1860?

    • Tundra

      What’s “constitutionality?” Sounds commie to me!

      More importantly, how are your beautiful wife and baby?

  27. The Late P Brooks

    One senior administration official, granted anonymity to speak freely because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Biden’s appointees are “supporting people in East Palestine” while Trump and other Republicans “see the people there as political props.”

    “Trump’s visit validates that this is all about politics for him and Republicans who have been quick to criticize and bizarrely blame Secretary Pete yet are the same people who have done Norfolk Southern’s bidding on rolling back major safety requirements,” said the official. “Trump more than anyone.”

    Cut it the fuck out.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    It does appear that the railroad is at fault, so they should be on the hook.

    I’m certainly not going to argue with that, but I can’t help thinking there is some established legal structure to govern cleanup and restitution other than edicts from the White House.

    • Michael Malaise

      DeWine and Shapiro mutually decided to burn off the chemicals, which was probably a bad idea? Not sure what other potential efforts may have been since I have no idea how to clean up toxic chemical spills.

      • rhywun

        I have no idea how to clean up toxic chemical spills.

        That’s because you’re not a senior administration official granted anonymity to speak freely because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

  29. Pope Jimbo

    On today’s episode of Square That Circle: Reconciling “Voter ID laws are Racist” with “We need a Driver’s Licenses For All law so illegal undocumented immigrants can drive legally”

    A proposal to let immigrants in the country without authorization apply for driver’s licenses and state IDs is on its way to the governor’s desk after the Minnesota Senate passed the bill early Wednesday.

    On a 34-31 party-line vote, the Senate approved the measure after hours of debate. Democrats in the chamber supported the bill, while Republicans opposed it and sought unsuccessfully to amend it.

    At the Capitol, hundreds of supporters hoisted signs and urged senators to approve the bill as they entered the Senate chamber Tuesday night. They also shared stories of how not having licenses affected family members or friends and led to their deportations.

    “Our state regressed 20 years ago and stripped our fellow Minnesotans of the ability to drive to work, to school and to their faith communities safely and without fear,” said Veena Iyer, Immigrant Law Center Minnesota’s executive director. “Today, the Minnesota Senate has the power to, and I believe will, return to Minnesota history and restore driver’s licenses for all.”

    I’m pretty pro-immigrant, but shit like this makes me grind my teeth.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Gov. Tim Walz has said he supports the bill and will sign it into law when it reaches his desk. Applicants would still have to pass written and behind-the-wheel tests to be eligible for a license.

      The bonus round will be explaining why minorities can’t fill out a voter registration card, but can somehow pass a written driver’s license test. One is racist because it is so hard.

      • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

        No, no, no. See, it is the Blaq’s that cannot do this, not the latinx’s.

        Please, get your approved racisms right.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Minneapolis Town is full of Somalis and other East African illegals. We are very diverse when it comes to our illegal population. We don’t limit ourselves to just the latinX.

    • rhywun

      shit like this makes me grind my teeth

      Is it the grandiose pomposity that always accompanies such exclamations?

      Or the recognition that it’s all self-serving claptrap?

      • Pope Jimbo

        What gets me is the umbrage that they take when you don’t think that lawbreakers should have the red carpet rolled out for them.

        I have dealt with ICE when my wife was getting her green card/citizenship. I hate those evil fuckers as much as anyone. I’m completely down with reforming our immigration laws and gutting ICE. I’m totes on your side.

        But subsidizing the shit out of people who are breaking the law is crazy. And then getting mad when you tell them to do the work to change policies and laws. Not just reward bad behavior.

      • rhywun

        Oh absolutely. To take one recent example, I am NOT happy that my tax dollars are going to room and board for all the illegals that Texas sends our way. In nice hotels that used to house tourists and businesspeople before the city and state decimated those industries.

  30. Pope Jimbo

    Time for a Golden Oldie: FOOD DESERTS!!!! OMG!!!!

    The Aldi on Lowry and Penn avenues in north Minneapolis closed on Feb. 12, leaving the neighborhood with only one major and two independent grocery stores.

    The remaining stores aren’t in locations as accessible as Aldi, which was right on the bus line. They are also not at the same price point, something the community will definitely notice.

    What was already a food desert with four grocery stores for 70,000 people has now been exacerbated. Access to basic needs are now more pronounced with the Walgreens at West Broadway and North Lyndale avenues closing on Feb. 22.

    The north Minneapolis Aldi was uniquely accessible because of its location close to public transit, said Eric Moran, an eight-year resident of the Northside and frequent shopper of that Aldi.

    The company cited “the inability to renovate the store to accommodate larger product range and current lease term expiring,” as a reason for the closure, an Aldi spokesperson wrote in an email to MinnPost.

    There is also some vague references to there being a lot of crime at that store too.

    Good to see an old time proggie hobby horse rolled out. Food deserts are far more fun to read about than the Ukraine.

    • creech

      I don’t understand. We “know” greedy capitalists rip off consumers with high prices for groceries. And “community activists” believe they can run things better than some neo-Nazi German food chain, right? So progressive rich folks ought to be flocking to set up a new store, run by said activists, to show the world how socialist, worker run grocery stores can succeed.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      It doesn’t fucking matter anymore. DC is going full Cultural Revolution and they will not be deterred.

      • R C Dean

        “It doesn’t fucking matter anymore.”

        So much this. Even if you can get a court to bestir itself to issue an order, by the time this shit gets stopped it’s been years, and much damage has been done.

        I’m getting to the point where, if I have to live under a racist government, I’d like it to be racist in my favor.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Pretty sure the courts will say that no one has standing to sue. That seems to be the SOP now.

      So since the courts didn’t strike it down, it is legal. Suck on that nerd.

    • rhywun

      “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

    • rhywun

      “protecting the public from algorithmic discrimination”

      Yup, that absolutely means exactly what they’re being accused of.

  31. Count Potato

    “America’s lonely (male) hearts club: Record 63% of men in their 20s are single – almost double the number of women – with end of traditional masculine roles, porn and COVID blamed for stark rise

    Experts put the disparity down to some women dating each other – with research suggesting bisexual women make up a large share of the young-adult queer community – as well as many also dating older men.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11781425/More-60-men-20s-single-compared-just-30-women.html

    • Pope Jimbo

      Before I blamed pr0n and the Rona, I’d blame:

      1) Milk surplus, no pressure to buy your own cow
      2) Danger of #MeToo bullshit
      3) Having to listen to young women tell you how they are totes equal in everything
      4) Did those researchers assume the gender of their test subjects?

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        I’d blame the incredible surplus of intolerable college-indoctrinated leftist women. Who would want to marry those crazy bitches?

      • Chipwooder

        This. I’d probably be a monk if I were in my twenties today. Your odds of finding a normal young woman seem fairly remote.

    • Tundra

      That’s pretty sad.

    • rhywun

      OFFS! Ladies play-acting gay in their 20’s are not part of the “young-adult queer community”.

      Also, cut this shit out with trying to mainstream “queer”.

    • juris imprudent

      Revealed versus expressed preferences. Balance that self-reporting by asking the gender of the last 3 people you had sex with.

      • R C Dean

        Sex =/= long-term relationship. Having sex =/= not single.

        There are just so many ways that study can be complete bullshit that I’m confident that it is, in fact, complete bullshit.

    • R C Dean

      Think they got a big enough truck?

  32. Scruffyy Nerfherder

    The warmongering continues apace.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/gop-house-foreign-affairs-chair-says-momentum-growing-jets-ukraine

    The crazy motherfuckers do not care what the American people want.

    I’ll note that Biden went to Poland. Probably because if we do supply jets they will have to be operated out of there with NATO operators as Ukraine does not have pilots, runways, or ground crews. The SOBs are going to push us into full-blown conflict. Graham is out there talking insanity.

    Don’t worry about provoking Putin, worry about beating him. And I’ve never been more optimistic about winning this war in Ukraine than I am right now. I see solidarity across the aisle in America and across the seas.

    • rhywun

      The crazy motherfuckers do not care what the American people want.

      I’m not seeing any pushback from anyone that the current administration gives a shit about.

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        The college educated white liberals are completely delusional. And the Boomer-Cons ain’t far behind.

  33. creech

    You people who know aircraft: what’s the over/under on # of days Ukrainian fighter jets would survive against well-trained Russian pilots?

    • Tundra

      See Scruffy’s comment. It ain’t gonna be Ukes driving.

  34. Tonio

    What? You want mid-week zoomies? Well, we have your mid-week zoomies right here. The zoomsday device will trigger itself at 20:00 ET tonight. This is an autonomous, self-hosting GlibZoom, and all the decisions of that Zoom…

  35. Scruffyy Nerfherder

    Tumor, it’s what’s for dinner…

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-02-07/lab-grown-meat-has-bigger-challenges-than-the-fda

    Some of the companies call their products cultured meat, or cultivated meat, or cell-cultured meat. All of them stress the M-word. “This is meat,” Upside Foods Inc. Chief Executive Officer Uma Valeti said at an industry conference a little more than a year ago. “Calling it anything else, I think, is going to be misleading.” On a cellular level, alternative protein advocates say, it’s no different. And that’s 99.9% true.

    The big honking asterisk is that normal meat cells don’t just keep dividing forever. To get the cell cultures to grow at rates big enough to power a business, several companies, including the Big Three, are quietly using what are called immortalized cells, something most people have never eaten intentionally. Immortalized cells are a staple of medical research, but they are, technically speaking, precancerous and can be, in some cases, fully cancerous.

    • juris imprudent

      So Soylent Blue is… LUMP!!!

      • rhywun

        Oh fuck… he’s going to feed the planet with that thing, isn’t he.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      My firm conviction is that it is precisely because we are so tribalist that we need an open, cosmopolitan world. If we did not regularly meet and communicate and exchange with individuals from other groups, they would forever remain the mysterious, dangerous outgroup, the barbarians at the gates.

      Welcome to modern America

      • juris imprudent

        That’s one point I’m going to write – the cosmos won’t even know when the barbarians are at the gate.

      • R C Dean

        What gates?

        Oh, the ones in front of their gated communities? Oh, they’ll be very particular about who gets through those.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      It is odd since Hannity is perpetually concerned we aren’t at war with enough countries.

      • Tundra

        I’m perplexed. When the Cathedral allows something to see the light of day there is always a reason.

      • R C Dean

        A civil war would be the ultimate war-boner, no? Finally, they can just machine gun the deplorables into pits.

    • Tundra

      So much for Kirby’s assertion that we will never really know what it was. Fuckhead.

    • R C Dean

      We still fly U-2s?

      • Sensei

        All the time.

    • Shirley Knott

      Indeed it is!

    • Tundra

      *clicks over to Bring A Trailer*

    • slumbrew

      One word: “no”.