332 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “PayPal is latest to slash 2,000 jobs”

    You would think all these tech companies would have had reason to trim the fat before the economy went to shit.

    • UnCivilServant

      No one is premptive about efficiency.

      • Not Adahn

        Not true. But the ones that are preemptive about it get NPR hit jobs about greedy execs with lines like “X corp sheds jobs even as they made a profit of $Y last year.”

      • Count Potato

        Defund NPR.

      • Not Adahn

        WHYCOME YOU H8 BIG BIRD?

      • AlexinCT

        When times are flush w/ cash the managerial class adds multiple levels of useless management to the process, convinced that getting their IT people to deliver more value is a question of having more managers remind them of the TPS report and the cover page for the TPS reports. When times get lean these people, which spend a large chunk of their day making videos about their expeditions to the cafeteria, the yoga classes, and other such distractions in between the few meetings they force on the worker bees to ask for more TPS report, are the first to be sent to pasture.

        Times are getting lean, and a lot of these management heavy tech companies are scrambling to cut the fluff.

      • Pope Jimbo

        It is all empire building. Managers want to add people under them on the org chart because it makes them feel important.

        When times are good no one squawks because everyone is trying to grow their department. When money dries up, the knives come out.

        It is always nice to have a few sandbag employees you can jettison when budgets shrink. Keeps them from looking at your fat salary.

    • SDF-7

      Yeah… maybe reputation comes into play here. A tech company that starts trimming the fat publicly and cutting down on the wine bars and whatnot looks like a tech company in trouble — so they stop being able to recruit the “super STAH!” developers they target (and probably more importantly take a stock hit / look less appealing to the VC’s / can’t get a bigger tech company to buy them on nice terms unless they find an idiot like Fiorina and they’re Compaq….).

      • Count Potato

        I think that was Hewlett-Packard?

      • SDF-7

        Yup. That it was. I worked there just after it was announced through the merger itself, so kind of my go-to mentally for “crap merger” and “fluff headed saying nothing CEO”.

      • R C Dean

        Do the really talented/productive workers really care about all the time-wasting perks like wine bars, etc., or do they want the latest gear and the most interesting projects to work on? The people who actually use all that stuff are the ones we were laughing at when Twitter fired them as “welp, TikTok chick was no loss to Twitter.”

        Do the money people really care about anything other than ROI? I have a hard time seeing gimlet-eyed portfolio managers basing their decision on who has the phattest perks (other than downgrading those companies).

        I think most of the ridiculous employee perk stuff is a dick-measuring contest between CEOs/HR/DEI staff.

      • Sensei

        That has been my thinking as well.

        However, I think it is generational. I’d really like some honest feedback from people in their 20s to early 30s on how much all of this SWAG and emoting is necessary for job satisfaction.

        It’s utterly foreign to me.

      • Swiss Servator

        I have to admit, when at Teh Big Swiss HQ…I didn’t mind the free wine and beer. But that was for us visiting goofs.

      • Not Adahn

        One of the benefits of working at a company that made wine bottles was the champagne at Christmas.

      • wdalasio

        Do the money people really care about anything other than ROI? I have a hard time seeing gimlet-eyed portfolio managers basing their decision on who has the phattest perks (other than downgrading those companies).

        I don’t know. Ask Sam Bankman-Fried or some of the folks over at FTX.

      • DrOtto

        Fiorina was almost as bad a CEO as Bob Nardelli. At least Nardelli had an excuse, he wasn’t one of the credentialed elite. He was just a 6 Sigma lackey. Fiorina went to all the “right” schools.

    • R.J.

      I shed no tears for PayPal. They took the government line and decided they could steal your money if you did anything contrary to their guidelines. No doubt they were even paid off to do it. May they rot.

      • Chafed

        Seconded

      • Mojeaux

        I wish I had the luxury of not using Paypal, but it’s the most universally used one and that’s how I bill my clients. Besides, SquareUp is no better. I don’t know of another payment processor that does online shops.

      • ron73440

        I use PayPal, I know they hate me, but I have had money stolen from my accounts when I purchased with my debit card online.

        Is there a better option?

    • Rat on a train

      Those $2,500 fines for wrongthink didn’t save those jobs?

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      Nobody wants to be the first to admit the obvious.

      When the dotcom bubble burst, it was Nortel that caved first, to much media coverage. But the rest all followed shortly thereafter, they all knew the gig was up, they just didn’t want to be the face of the slaughter.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      I think rising interest rates are playing a bigger factor in tech layoffs than the overall economy. Other than Amazon, with warehouses full of products that people actually buy, it’s unclear to me what value any of the tech companies actually produce. They survive on cheap debt financed by low interest rates.

      It’s also why I don’t think there is much value in GDP numbers. The laptop class is essentially worthless in terms of producing real value* but have the greatest impact on GDP. I’m thinking a country with a fractional GDP that is heavily centered on industry probably has much stronger economy than a tech-based economy with a GDP several multiples higher.

      *Not to put anyone down and I include myself in this. It is only because of government regulations that there is any demand for my work.

      • juris imprudent

        All of social media delivers eyeballs to advertisers, that’s it. It is the thinnest business model ever known in terms of value proposition. That’s even Google’s business. At least Microsoft actually produces software, and Apple with hardware and software (not that they manufacture any of it of course).

        Other “tech” companies do produce actual products – tech is a very broad sector.

      • Count Potato

        “That’s even Google’s business. ”

        Also, selling data.

      • juris imprudent

        Also, selling datayou.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        This. It was all fun and games until interest rates went up.

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        Yup. Here comes the long overdue pain.

    • wdalasio

      You presume that the goal is maximizing shareholder return. Hell, the Business Roundtable put lie to that assumption a couple of years ago. If managers are focused, instead, on their position in the managerial class, “no frills” and staffing cuts makes you look like a declasse moneygrubber. And how else are you going to get favors from the bureaucracy when you don’t employ their children, friends and favorites?

    • Social Justice is Neither

      You’d think they’d have been able to save all these jobs through the money they were earning by finding their users for wrongthink.

      • Social Justice is Neither

        Fining, not finding. Need coffee.

  2. SDF-7

    The DOJ Has Some Explaining to Do After Video Used to Prosecute Pro-Lifer Is Released

    “Anyone who disagrees with us are domestic terrorists and we’re going to bleed you dry with lawfare.”

    Alternate: “FYTW.”

    • R C Dean

      Narrator: The DOJ will explain nothing, and you will take it and like it.

  3. Count Potato

    ” Planned Parenthood “escort” ”

    Sure, after they expanded their business model to include gender transitions why not? What if some guy has a shrill harpy fetish?

    • Count Potato

      “What makes this situation all the worse, though, is that the punishment was the prosecution. Houck had to spend thousands of dollars and put his life on the line to defend himself from a malicious hit that was only carried out to push the far-left’s radical pro-abortion agenda. Lawfare has become standard fare for the DOJ, and it’s scary stuff.”

      True, scary, but nothing new.

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        There are no penalties for the DOJ when they pull shit like this, and that’s the problem. At a minimum, the prosecutors should be censured, preferably barred from bringing cases before that court ever again.

      • AlexinCT

        The fact that the machine can not be held accountable when it does criminal shit is precisely why the machine is so in your face with the criminality.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Accountability is for the unconnected, the poor, and various other losers.

      • Social Justice is Neither

        Personally I’d like to see non-refillabe or negotiable penalties to their retirement funds for the truly egregious cases they bring and get sued over and lose. Partial loss of personal benefit plus losses defeated over all personnel, but that’s just a dream.

    • Not Adahn

      I mean if you can run an escort service (for cishet male clients) with Sarah Lawrence undergrads, you can set one up with pretty much any talent pool.

  4. Not Adahn

    Dishonest headline is dishonest.

    The actual Biden quote incudes “going in with American pilots and American crews.”

    Many fine people on both sides indeed.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Yep. Caught that as well.

    • The Last American Hero

      No, instead we’re going to part the 101st 15 feet from the Ukranian border and wait for a stray artillery shell to give us a war. And the larger point in the article is the very valid question of when do we cross the line and be at war should be asked by more than 5 members of Congress.

  5. SDF-7

    Water War Looms in the West: Cailfornia vs. Everyone over Colorado River

    If only California had recognized years back that maybe capturing and storing more water would be a good idea and persuaded the voters to fund it. And then not just sat on the money (probably while they figure out how to divert it to crony “environmental studies” when no one is looking…)

    Or if they’d pursue desal plants or something….

    In other words — maybe in some alternate reality the watermelon death cult of negative growth didn’t take over. I won’t blame neighboring states in the slightest for making CA face the music – maybe they can start wringing water back out of the Delta smelt.

    • waffles

      California shitcanned all their dam and reservoir projects in the 70s and 80s and went into maintenance-only mode. Only recently they have started to pay for it. Anyway, I hope the delta smelt is thriving.

      • waffles

        klamath isn’t really near anything. I wonder where that water even goes. I’d have to do some research but there just aren’t many options to deliver water to southern california.

      • AlexinCT

        R Kelly says he has a program to get people in CA all wet….

      • Gustave Lytton

        It goes to farmers In the Klamath basin and hydro power.

      • waffles

        fair. but it’s a long way from sacramento.

      • juris imprudent

        Hmm, imagine SoCal without any of the water they steal from other places… probably look a lot like the coast down south of the border.

      • Rat on a train

        They don’t plan to stop with Klamath dams. Hetch Hetchy has been on their target list for a long time.

    • rhywun

      Yep, California deliberately did this to itself. It’s all part of the plan.

      • AlexinCT

        When everything is broken and things are so bad people become desperate enough to want some help from anyone, the very people that broke everything – government bureaucracies – can easily sell these desperate people on giving up their freedoms and self determination for false promises of fixing the very shit the government machine breaks on purpose to create that desperation.

      • juris imprudent

        Human beings would have a very different response from a bunch of sheep.

    • pistoffnick

      …watermelon death cult…

      Awesome metal band name

  6. SDF-7

    Massive mask meta-study undermines remaining COVID mandates

    Article of faith challenged — makes no difference to true believers in COVID cult that really, really want everyone to be China.

    • AlexinCT

      Meta studies are bullshit. You start by picking and choosing which studies to look at, and that’s already introducing a bias you can’t control for. That having been said, anyone that trusts any study out there on the Kung Flu – especially from the “experts” – after we saw how politicized this whole thing became, is nuts. Assume the powers that be are lying an have one or more nefarious agenda(s), and you can’t go wrong.

      • Fatty Bolger

        This one was pretty comprehensive, it looks like they used all of the RCT studies available.

      • The Last American Hero

        The 2 Johns Hopkins studies showing masks don’t do shit – one from November 2019, one from spring 2021 – were meta-studies.

  7. SDF-7

    ‘Orning ‘ordles of shame — slow but decent preliminary, main event seed words just didn’t work for me, and subsequent attempts to get working letters didn’t help much either. Goin’ back to Chumpville, Chumpville, Chumpville….

    Daily Duotrigordle #336
    Guesses: 35/37
    Time: 05:04.23
    https://duotrigordle.com/

    Daily Quordle 373
    9️⃣7️⃣
    🟥🟥
    quordle.com

    • rhywun

      Oof, rough one

      Daily Quordle 373
      5️⃣6️⃣
      7️⃣4️⃣

    • Sean

      Daily Quordle 373
      3️⃣4️⃣
      6️⃣7️⃣
      quordle.com

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 373
      5️⃣4️⃣
      8️⃣6️⃣

      meh

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 373
      6️⃣3️⃣
      4️⃣7️⃣

  8. SDF-7

    Thought this was a little interesting this morning — if for nothing else, just how much the US has slipped.

    That said — for the supposed top countries… New Zealand>?!? The Netherlands?!?! I strongly suspect there’s some actions over the last year or two they haven’t taken into account yet…

    • Raven Nation

      If covid was part of their calculation (and a brief interview I listened to with one of the people who put it together – Ryan Murphy maybe?), I don’t know how NZ ends up near the top. Especially considering all the other regulations they have. As I’ve note before, Cato’s fall from grace in the last 5 or 6 years is probably worse than TOS.

  9. Fourscore

    Biden’s decision to send the equivalent of one Ukrainian battalion of tanks contrasts with his decision in March not to send 28 Soviet MiG-29s fighter jets.

    Wait, we have a MIG-29s? Whose side are we on?

    • waffles

      I think it was to have Poland or someone else supply them then we would backfill with American jets. I think sooner or later a similar arrangement will happen again.

    • UnCivilServant

      They were probably Secondhand MiGs when we got them.

      • AlexinCT

        Old East German or Soviet block country hardware. There was a lot of that floating around in Eastern Europe after the fall of the USSR.

      • Michael Malaise

        “We are Secondhand MIGs and we are here to rock you!”

      • juris imprudent

        SMiGma?

    • Pope Jimbo

      MIGga Please!

      We are on Big Weapon’s side. Always have been.

      • Not Adahn

        What’s good for General Motors Dynamics is good for America!

    • The Last American Hero

      Clint Eastwood covered this in a documentary back in the 80’s when he stole that plane.

      • AlexinCT

        Wait, was that the one with that jet you had to talk to in Russian for it to work, or the one with the monkey smacking the fuck out of raciss bikers at traffic lights?

      • MikeS

        No, you had to think in Russian. Way harder.

      • Michael Malaise

        God. I saw Firefox at the drive-in and fell asleep. Such a tedious movie.

  10. Sensei

    This appears to have upset all the right people. The funny thing is that it is so ridiculously mild.

    The UNC Echo Chamber Fights Back

    Our editorial on Friday about the University of North Carolina’s effort to create a new school dedicated to free inquiry and open academic discourse has caused a fuss on campus that illustrates why the new school is needed. It seems that faculty grandees are outraged that the UNC board of trustees thought such a school is necessary and didn’t even seek the faculty’s permission.

    The Daily Tar Heel documents the angst in the Chapel Hill faculty lounge in a Jan. 30 story that is unintentionally hilarious in its ivory-tower indignation. The reporter quotes UNC law professor Eric Muller as saying, “I thought: how on Earth? How on Earth could The Wall Street Journal know this.”

    Here on Earth, it’s called journalism.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      UNC jumped the shark years ago. The faculty is completely off leash and the students rule like a Khmer Rouge mob.

      • robc

        Fake classes.

        That the NCAA let that pass is an altogether different problem.

      • robc

        For those who dont know…it wasn’t an NCAA violation because it wasn’t an improper benefit, as the classes were available to regular students too.

        So you can have entirely bogus classes to keep athletes eligible as long as you let a few regular students sign up for it too.

        I am still not sure how UNC kept their accreditation over that, although at least they got a slap on the wrist over it.

      • AlexinCT

        The entire “Studies” curricula is bullshit classes…

      • juris imprudent

        That’s why the athletic scandal had to be given a pass.

      • GozWa

        I’m convinced it’s because ESPN’s CEO at the time was a UNC Alumnus

    • waffles

      It strikes me that if the crime and corruption is massive enough and you are diverting money and power to the right people nothing will happen. By any historical standard this corruption is breathtaking, but no one can take them to task for it.

      • juris imprudent

        So you’re saying we’re teaching those ancient Romans a thing or two?

      • Drake

        We are repeating it. The Republic failed when it became too corrupt. The only solution was an Emperor who could control it from above by executing those who got carried away.

    • AlexinCT

      I can’t see Hunter Biden hiring any young bitchez without the contract pointing out they will need to let him – at a minimum – snort parmesan cheese off their nekked asses…

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      You can extract sex from people? Does that take a special kind of press or do you do a distillation of some sort?

    • Old Man With Candy

      I must admit that I never have extracted sex.

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        I think pressing and sublimation is probably your best option for that.

      • Not Adahn

        I have had dates extract sex from me, however.

  11. AlexinCT

    More Americans live paycheck to paycheck

    I get doing this when you are just starting off in the work force. It’s a reality of life. What kills me is how many people are living paycheck to paycheck after 20 years of working because of terrible decisions. I am convinced that the public school system dropped teaching kids basic civics, economics, home ec, and shop because these skills allowed these kids to quickly become self sufficient adults. The machine doesn’t want people that are self sufficient. They want ignorant people that they can easily manipulate and control.

    BTW, the biggest lie told to young kids today is that they should chase their dreams and go to college for a degree in what they are passionate about, because that’s the path to success. College is an investment. Even if you have rich parents that pay for the whole thing, you are not going to get a return on investment from college unless you come out with a skillset that allows you to make money (someone is willing to pay you to do work).

    • Sensei

      Look man, I had no choice but to put 5 figure vacations on the charge card.

      And those meals out are expensive!

      • AlexinCT

        The fact that there is an agenda by the very people that created the conditions that led to people that make bad choices, continuously, to make it look like the problem isn’t that the people making these bad choices have been done a disservice by the public education system, is frustrating to me. I have empathy for people that are out of luck. My empathy goes to “I don’t give a fuck” level when I find out the problems happen because bad choices continue to be made and encouraged.

      • Tundra

        My kids’ school is on that list. It was one of the criteria when they were looking. Watching my son out in the Real World, one of the perks of where he went is the network. A bunch of people he works with graduated from his school. I doubt that they are any better trained – perhaps they are – but the reputation and networks are definitely valuable.

      • robc

        Mines?

        Mine is on the list too. She is only 1st grade, but my daughters math skills are higher at that age than mine was. So there are at least 2 schools on that list I would be happy with her going to. I would pay out-of-state for my school, or she could stay in-state at Golden.

      • Tundra

        Yes. Very difficult school full of weird kids, but definitely worth a look. I believe our own Q got his PhD there, too.

      • robc

        “Very difficult school full of weird kids”

        Also describes Ga Tech.

        Fun fact: Ga Tech stole our fight song (well, technically, not, our Fight Song is “Up with the White and Gold”, but the other, better known song, which isn’t technically the fight song) from Colorado School of Mines. They stole it from a British drinking song.

        We changed the words.

      • The Last American Hero

        Georgia has a long history with Up with the White as I understand it.

      • Tundra

        Niiiiice.

      • Pine_Tree

        And I think I once heard that we and Navy are the only 2 that identify a foe (UGA and Army, respectively).

      • Pine_Tree

        Or is the other way ’round? I don’t remember. Maybe Army has something about Navy in there.

      • Sensei

        The top school / Ivy network IS the reason you go to these schools.

        You don’t get the same opportunities on Walls St with an English degree from XYZ college that you do from Brown.

        /s guy who worked on Wall St with a guy with a BA from Brown.

      • Michael Malaise

        My alma mater made the list. Although, I chose a field that isn’t probably ideal coming out of that school.

  12. Not Adahn

    So…

    I was expecting a new set of spikes to arrive yesterday. They didn’t. But while checking my porch, I noticed footprints in the snow that hadn’t been there before, which lead me to finding a card taped to my front door from Animal Control.

    Apparently one of my bougie neighbors to the east complained that Lily barks too much.

    I live between an airport and a gun range.

    No citation has been issued yet.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s not about the noise, it’s about lording it over you.

      • Not Adahn

        I have gotten used to having the aloof, yet demanding fluffball around.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      They couldn’t come talk to you about it?

      I have a neighbor who used to have a black lab that she would lock outside at night and he would bark all freaking night long. I just called her repetitively in the middle of the night until she woke up. She wasn’t pleased, but at least brought the dog in.

      • Not Adahn

        That’s the wild thing — this is barking during the day while I’m at work. At night she’s with me.

        She is extremely territorial, so I could believe that she barks when I’m not around to defend the homestead. Joggers and dog-walkers go by occasionally.

      • Sensei

        If you want to figure out if it’s legitimate you could run a recording.

        You can visually compress and graph the sound file and see how many peaks you get while you are at work.

    • Sensei

      I’m more than willing to tolerate a happy barking dog from the neighbors.

      OTH, one jerk two blocks over throws his three dogs outside for over an hour while they howl nonstop.

      Dog owners need to have some consideration too. Some do and some don’t.

      It’s part of the reason my next property is going to have a bit of distance between the neighbors.

      • robc

        One acre per foot of dog.

      • UnCivilServant

        Unless you get a dog who’s a mutant or maimed, that’ll always be four acres.

      • robc

        Seems reasonable to me.

      • juris imprudent

        Yappy little dogs can be worse than large quiet ones.

      • Hyperion

        Neutering the owners is the correct solution.

      • Hyperion

        I had a neighbor who every time he would let his dog outside, the thing would bark non-stop until he put it back inside. After that, the dog would continue barking non-stop for hours even after he put it back inside, for hours on end. I could hear it if I would go outside on my deck. I don’t know what happened to it because I never hear it any longer. I suspect that other neighbors complained about it because the dog was very loud, it was not a small dog. The problem here is that the owners do not know how to properly train their pet to not bark at nothing all of the time.

      • juris imprudent

        bark at nothing all of the time

        So, a Newfoundland?

      • rhywun

        There are a bunch of dogs in my apartment building. Remarkably, all of them seem to be well-trained.

        It’s the fucking small children that drive me nuts. How it is even possible to scream and fight and tumble around the room for 8 to 10 hours straight is a mystery to me.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Sorry to hear the trouble with the neighbor. Lily is a Great Pyrenees right?

      My two GPs are 8 months old now and bark constantly during the night. I initially tried to train them out of it, but ultimately decided that they’re just going to need to bark to protect the property and farm animals. My neighbor across the street has dog that barks all night too, and he likes that my dogs are on alert (he’s had problems with theft and predators). Some of the other neighbors further away may not like it if they can hear, but I’m zoned agricultural so it comes with the territory.

      The GPs are interesting. Completely different from my GSDs. I have a couple contractors here working and the GSDs watch them while the GPs are friendly. But when one of the contractors gently pushed a goat off a board, the male GP started growling and put himself between the contractor and the goat. He’s been real friendly with the guy for a couple weeks but instantly went into guard mode when he thought the goat was being threatened. That’s the dog’s job and it was cool to watch those instincts kick in.

      • Not Adahn

        Yup.

        She definitely barks when there is a legitimate guard-dog reason to bark. She also barks when she’s complaining about something. Otherwise, she’s silent. The people that know her from the dog park and hikes think she’s the most relaxed, easy-going animal around.

      • Michael Malaise

        We have 3 dogs. The only one who growls if she hears something is the Bichon/Shih Tzu mix. Like, a 12 pound dog. The 45 pound Puggle and the 90 pound English Cream Retriever don’t give a shit to protect us. (Although the Puggle and little one bark whenever a dog or jogger goes by and they can see them)

    • Pope Jimbo

      We have a neighbor who called the cops on almost everyone who had a dog. He actually came over and told my wife he’d be calling the cops if our mutt kept barking. I went over and had some stern words about ever talking to my wife again. I also told him that he had better have some proof because the mutt wasn’t much of a barker and there was no way he could be considered a nuisance.

      After a couple years, the cops were getting tired of responding to his complaints. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when the cops went to someone’s house because of his complaint only to be told that their dog had passed away a few weeks ago. At that point the cops had a talk with the guy and explained that he better just stop.

      The asshole still lives in our neighborhood. Still mostly a pariah here. He is the worst scofflaw about fireworks every 4th of July. Many of us neighbors have talked about how tempting it would be to call the cops on him for that. But we all agree that would make us a bunch of assholes like him.

  13. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

  14. AlexinCT

    The DOJ Has Some Explaining to Do After Video Used to Prosecute Pro-Lifer Is Released

    The DOJ is too busy prosecuting the enemies of the powerful to care about real crime. Especially since they are the ones committing most of the real crimes themselves.

    • Hyperion

      and they won’t be doing any explaining

    • AlexinCT

      A happy ending would have been a bunch of these idiots ending up pushing up fucking daisies….

      • SDF-7

        If you give a duck a vegan… he’ll develop a taste for human blood!

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      Ended too soon.

  15. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    Government Awards Family Of Woman Decapitated At Arches National Park $10,000,000 In Lawsuit

    Weird story. Even weirder that the lawsuit was for $270M. Do they just pull numbers out of their asses?

    Water War Looms in the West: Cailfornia vs. Everyone over Colorado River

    Gosh, it sure would have been nice to capture some of that rain we heard about endlessly. Dumb fucks.

    • Hyperion

      “Do they just pull numbers out of their asses?”

      Yes. Did you expect them to do real math? Math is hard, pulling numbers out of ass, not so much.

  16. Raven Nation

    Fox News is about to go into joy mode: they’re reporting that an Iranian on the terror watch list has been caught at the southern border.

    • AlexinCT

      Was it that luggage stealing freak that headed the Biden nukular department?

    • rhywun

      I’d heard that dozens have been captured and the MSM doesn’t seem to give a shit.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeah but this guy’s IRANIAN!!!

      • juris imprudent

        Bill Kristol ejaculates – finally our Iranian war!

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        You jest, but it’s an open question whether the GOP will go for Iran or China first.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        The flailing around a declining empire does to suppress its rivals is not pretty.

  17. Sensei

    I keep seeing headlines about Alec Baldwin officially being charged.

    The problem is I keep hearing his name in my head being pronounced by the Kim Jong Il character in “Team America”.

    • AlexinCT

      Hanz Brix…

      You breaking my ballz, Hans. You breaking my ballz…

      • dbleagle

        I’m so ronely…

    • R C Dean

      What’s odd is, I swear he shot someone else (camera operator?) too, but I have not seen any charges for that.

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        The charges include the dude who got shot but survived.

      • Not Adahn

        HE DID NOT SHOOT THE DEPUTY!

    • Tundra

      Wow. What a stud.

      Thanks, Holiness. That was a good one!

      • Michael Malaise

        At least if he falls out of the boat he’ll …

        That dude is awesome. Helps put so many things into perspective.

      • Fourscore

        I’d like to take him fishing but he’d kick my butt and embarrass me too much.

        Thanks, Jimbo, I’ll try to remember Clay when I complain out loud.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of journalism- what the fuck is “Hamilton 68”? Is it a person? An account? A file? A program?

    Come on, you stupid motherfuckers at the Federalist, how about tossing in a sentence to clue in all the poor saps who don’t immerse themselves in this inside baseball crap 24 hours a day.

    • Not Adahn

      It’s an “anti-disinformation org” that was used by all the “factcheckers” to “prove” that anything pro-Trump or anti-Fauci was a Russian disinfo operation.

      • AlexinCT

        So a misinformation department? Meaning it was about misinforming/disinforming people…

    • creech

      “Any one NATO soldier can lick five of those Russian girly men and draftees.” Jeff Davis, 1861

  19. Count Potato

    “More than any other institution, sport showcases the cultural system of binary sex difference and makes it appear natural. Even people who, on all other fronts, believe in women’s equality to men, find themselves compelled by the argument that men are athletically superior to women….

    Although the practice of questioning the gender of successful sportswomen occurred throughout the early 1900s, it was not until 1950 and 1968 respectively that World Athletics, (formerly IAAF) and the International Olympics Committee instituted so-called gender verification processes. These formal “sex controls” were intended to ensure adherence to cultural norms regarding binary sex difference and female inferiority. This surveillance began with subjecting women athletes to genital inspection via “nude parades,” was followed by testing sportswomen’s DNA to exclude those with “male” chromosomes, and, most recently, for only those women who appear “suspiciously masculine” to measure their hormone levels. Each of these tests is scientifically flawed: decades of gender verification testing by sports authorities have only proven that sex is not binary but instead expansive. While the practice began with track and field, gender verification extended to several Olympics sports including canoeing, gymnastics, fencing, field hockey, rowing, swimming, volleyball, handball, and luge. In effect, there is hardly a sport in which women are not subjected to this dehumanizing and unscientific practice.

    The gender ideology which frames the claim that women’s sports require protection from so-called male pretenders is also a racialized ideology. After all, today’s sporting environments are an outgrowth of the European colonial project that positioned sport as part of a “civilizing” project that was white supremacist and hetero-patriarchal at its core. We see this colonial gender ideology in the heightened attention directed at sportswomen from the Global South who are accused of being too athletically powerful, too “masculine” in appearance, to qualify for female eligibility. Prominent examples are South Africa’s Caster Semenya, India’s Dutee Chand, and Uganda’s Annet Negessa, athletes who were subjected to sex testing because they do not embody Western feminine ideals. To our knowledge, this level of surveillance has not been directed at women from the Global North, except if they are transwomen.”

    https://thesocietypages.org/engagingsports/2022/12/09/the-problem-with-sex-segregated-sport/

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      You have a Y chromosome? Sorry, you’re not eligible.
      See? Easy peasy.

      • rhywun

        CoLoNiAlISt!!1!

      • Certified Public Asshat

        “male” chromosome

    • Raven Nation

      East Germany waves hi!

      Also, Semenya (I think this is the one I read about) is out of the norm for this kind of thing. She’s biologically female, has never claimed to be other than that, but her body produces out of the norm levels of testosterone.

      • juris imprudent

        How dare she not conform!

    • Trigger Hippie

      Okay, sure. Let’s make all sports sex inclusive. Just don’t go crying when all sports are dominated, if not exclusively participated in, by men. Does the author want to exclude all women from competitive sports? Because that’s that would happen short of a genger/sex quota.

      • Count Potato

        I’m thinking yes, because lefties hate sports.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    According to my model, you shouldn’t even be here


    In a closed-door negotiation last week over the fate of the Colorado River, representatives from California’s powerful water districts proposed modeling what the basin’s future would look like if some of the West’s biggest cities – including Phoenix and Las Vegas – were cut off from the river’s water supply, three people familiar with the talks told CNN.

    ——-

    California was proposing following the “law of the river,” which gives farmers in major agricultural districts first dibs on water because they have a priority claim established before other districts’ rights – including Californian cities like Los Angeles, which receives around half of its water from the Colorado River.

    The eye-popping suggestion was met with strong and immediate pushback from other state officials at the negotiating table, the people familiar with the discussions said.

    To be sure, we’re not REALLY proposing to cut you guys off without a drop. But just for fun, let’s just consider a theoretical “what if”.

    • juris imprudent

      Now this is a teachable moment for all of the morons prattling on about Democracy! If we solve this democratically, California fucks over everyone else with a claim to that water.

  21. Ownbestenemy

    Slow walking the information that the FBI did go searching your premises is easy to do when you have a compliant media machine. I don’t even care about the documents, I care that half the country is okay with this “Its different when we do it”

    • juris imprudent

      Also no warrant, no SWAT, no 30+ agents and no media in tow.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Oh and covering up right before an election. But a phone call…to another head of state! Hang em! Jesus its all so tiresome.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Being tiresome is the point.

        That we are constantly bombarded with stupidity is how they break us down. It’s designed to break one’s will to resist.

  22. PieInTheSky

    I got nothin

    • Tundra

      Except our undying admiration.

      Mornin’ Pie!

    • Old Man With Candy

      Not even a bottle of wine for me?

      Commie asshole.

      • PieInTheSky

        well its not my fault you country does not allow wine shipments

      • Not Adahn

        That’s not true. I’ve been buying wines from a UK company (vintages from my sibling’s birth years) and have had no issues with delivery.

  23. KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

    Last week I had a terrible tooth ache so I used a crapton of Crest Clinical strength mouth wash. And now the underside of my tongue is burned & sore.

    So that’s fun.

    • Old Man With Candy

      The RV repairman might have something for that. You could ask.

      • Q Continuum

        Did he fix the cable?

      • EvilSheldon

        Don’t be fatuous, Q.

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        Nah.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Ah, I see you’re not familiar with TH’s patented Whiskey-Coke Paste Tooth Ache Aid! Now with Vicodin!

      • AlexinCT

        Da Fuq?

        Someone hit her with a bat in the mouth while doing some weird sex act?

      • Ownbestenemy

        No the forced gagging and subsequent stomach acid eating away enamel…

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, I don’t get that forced gagging shit….

    • PieInTheSky

      what is the use of mouth wash for a tooth ache?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Dislodge/disinfect in hopes its surface related and not inner tooth?

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        Correct

      • PieInTheSky

        It can not be related to the surface of the tooth I would think. Maybe the gum.

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        Between the mouth wash, brushing, and salt water rinse, it seems to have worked.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Surface meant item lodged between two teeth and/or gums, you are correct Pie. /husband of former dental assistant.

    • R.J.

      Use hydrogen peroxide as a mouthwash. Very effective on toothaches.

    • Tundra

      That’s great and horribly depressing at the same time.

    • Michael Malaise

      Scroll down for Greta Thunberg retweets.

      I mean, I give the guy credit, he seems to like his urban densities to be aesthetically pleasing, but he’s a control freak who hates people having the freedom to choose where and how they live.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      Hell, McCaul has South Sudan a priority. South fucking Sudan with an annual per capita income of $100 could fall to the terrorists and endanger AMERIKUH.

      You can’t even parody this shit anymore.

    • PieInTheSky

      what is the age limit for 3 time in one night is the question.

    • Pope Jimbo

      You have to realize the guy is going to sober up at some point.

    • AlexinCT

      BOO-TEE-CALL…

  24. PieInTheSky

    In the 1970s, North Korea ordered 1,000 Volvo cars from Sweden. The cars were shipped & delivered but North Korea just didn’t bother paying & ignored the invoice. Till this day the bill remains unpaid making it the largest car theft in history.

    https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1620622392300298242

    • Tundra

      Dumb Swedes. Trusting the Commies to pay their bills.

      • Raven Nation

        TBF, the Swedish government in the 1970s was pretty close to being dumb commies.

    • Pine_Tree

      Not really the same thing, but something it made me think of: If you go on Google Maps and look at Dobbins ARB in Marietta, GA, you can see ~8 old tan C-130s that (iirc) Iran bought before the revolution. The Lockheed plant is adjacent to the base, so when the order got hung up with the revolution, they shoved them aside and they’re still there. Look down near the S edge of the base at the end of the old N-S runway that’s now a hangar/taxiway.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Scholarship

    The exclusion of an African American history course as “woke culture” by the Florida administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis should set off alarm bells within the Black community. That’s because the politics of the educational system has long been a contentious topic for a people still needing to recover from the effects of slavery and Jim Crow.

    Understand that the infrastructure of Black education was devised on the fly during the Civil War era by the same powers that oppressed them. By the 1930s, critics such as the historian Carter G. Woodson questioned the effects of such curriculums in “The Mis-Education of the Negro.” The designation of February as a safe space to learn about precious moments in Black history is one of his contributions.

    As America begins a month of revisiting its racial past, events in Florida should be a reminder of the fragile nature of recent inclusive educational reforms. And it indicates a continuing need for alternative ways to introduce forgotten heritage — and perhaps in no area more than Black political history.

    Rather than depicting achievements in state creation and governance, the education system tends to render Black political history as overly dependent on other groups and restricted to America. In response to such teachings, scholars such as the late historian Jacob Carruthers, in the 1999 work “Intellectual Warfare,” advocated for easily accessible materials of learning to counterbalance miseducation.

    For educators in Florida, as well as other states under contest, it seems an appropriate moment to revisit this idea. One alternative is the creation of an online Black political history calendar with social media outreach, screensavers apps — and a print version capable of being shared through Bluetooth technology.

    Screen savers will heal us. Maybe a gif of Jesse Jackson in a little black dress crossing the Delaware to attend a Drag Queen Story Hour and Costume Ball.

    • Michael Malaise

      You think Jesse would do that? I don’t.

  26. Pope Jimbo

    Nothing left to cut

    Changing the state flag is getting another look at the Capitol this year — previous efforts have failed. A proposal in a large state government budget bill subject to end-of-session negotiations would create a 16-member commission to recommend a new seal and flag. The legislature would have to adopt the new designs by May 2023.

    DFL Rep. Mike Freiberg, who is sponsoring the bill, said the imagery on the seal — which is on the flag — needs reimagination. It depicts a Native American riding on horseback into the distance as a white farmer tills the land, which has racist undertones, he said.

    “It has a very clear connotation,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s a fair representation of Minnesota history, the diagram that’s on the seal. It wasn’t designed with input from the people it depicts on it, and I think that’s a real problem.”

    I wish the journalo had written down how much of a budget that 16 person commission was going to get. Also, if you want a flag you like, go take over some land of your own and declare your new state and unveil your pretty flag.

    • Tundra
    • Pine_Tree

      If they follow the Land-O’-Lakes butter example that I know all the proggies love, then wouldn’t they just fix it by getting rid of the Indian?

      • Fourscore

        Nah, change positions. Indian doing the plowing while Whitey sits on his horse. Sounds fair and easy.

  27. PieInTheSky

    To “oppose Stalin” means to oppose collectivization of agriculture and expropriation of Kulaks in the USSR.

    To “oppose Stalin” means to oppose industrialization and central planning in the USSR.

    To “oppose Stalin” means to oppose the crushing of fascism by the USSR.

    CURIOUS!🤔

    https://twitter.com/sovietstern/status/1620524776627515393

    tankie tweet of the day

    • UnCivilServant

      To Oppose Stalin means to oppose starving to death by the millions.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      The false choice is the favorite logical fallacy of pretty much everyone, including Sean Hannity.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      It’s ridiculous. I buy trucks for equipment delivery and it’s a pain in the ass to get a regular cab with an eight foot bed anymore.

      And we won’t talk about Chevy with their stupid jacked up suspension that makes loading difficult at best and compromises the stability of the truck under heavy tow loads.

      • Sensei

        But it looks cool!

      • Tundra

        I have the Super Crew and a 6.5 foot bed. Fucking thing doesn’t fit in the garage.

        Sure rides nice, though.

      • Sean

        And all those cunts camp out in the left hand lanes.

        *grrrrrrr*

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Scruffy, any idea on what’s a good price for a used mini backhoe in decent condition? Any brand recommendations? I need something just strong enough push sharpened 8′ long 6” diameter wood posts into the ground and dig holes no deeper than 6 feet. So something in the 10-20 hp range I believe would work okay.

        I’m seeing $30k in listings, but that seems a bit high? I’m going to rent for a bit, but I’m thinking I’m right at that dividing line between renting and it making sense to buy at some point. So am starting to check it out.

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        There’s nothing inexpensive at the moment. There used to be a brand called Allmand which was fantastic, but they dropped their mini-backhoe line to much dismay.

        I would stay away from Terramite. Pretty much all of the other options are compact tractors with backhoe options: Mahindra, John Deere, Kubota, etc…

        Kubota is always a safe bet, but always expensive. I’ll see if there are any auction results on them in the past few months.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Thanks, that’s helpful. I was looking at something like the U10 or U16 Kubota brand.

        I looked into putting a 3 pt adapted backhoe attachment on my compact tractor. It’s looking like around $10k, which would be cheaper, but I think it may be too much for the tractor to safely handle. And then needing to constantly switch it out. I figured it’d be worth it to spend a bit more and get a mini-backhoe.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Comparing standard cabs with short and long beds to crew cabs with short beds. You can still get a standard cab with a long bed in 2023.

      • R.J.

        Oh yes. Most of them go to corporate customers. There are tons though. Oil towns you’ll see lots of white standard cab full length bed trucks.

      • juris imprudent

        I have a crew cab with a long bed.

        And of course I have a tiny dick.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Hawt.

    • SDF-7

      I miss El Camino’s — don’t need a full on truck, fine with a car-style cab, but like to have the option to have actual cargo capacity.

      • Fourscore

        Me too. Especially the AC/heat components. Full size but only 1/2 the space to heat and cool. I do like the F-150s too, with a crew cab but I rarely need a bigger box. I had a ’99 with an extended cab and an 8 foot box but really only big enough for 1 adult in the back seat. That truck is still alive and well in Fairbanks, AK.

    • AlexinCT

      How do you say “Go away, BAITING!” in new lib speak?

    • Sensei

      “That will FEED two birds with one stone”

      Unreal…

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        one scone, which is worse
        It’s the pussification of language.

    • Michael Malaise

      We’re going to launch sounds too much like we’re going to lunch.

  28. Ownbestenemy

    Our maintenance backend systems such as logistics, logging, etc are all separate systems that do not talk to each other and the ones that do talk to each other don’t share relevant information. One are of study when I was younger that I wanted to get into was Computer Information Systems for this exact reason. An integrated maintenance logging system would save me hours on the day from going to all these systems to accomplish a single task.

    I should be able to log my work, order parts and the parts I did change, will be updated with current serial numbers cause we have a field spare tracking system in place.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      Who did Eliza Bleu?

    • AlexinCT

      Asking for Q…

      Do we get t see her tits?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Female-right wing grifter-supposedly sex trafficked-actually just regrets past actions IMHO
      It’s all pretty simple to anyone with two eyes and half a brain.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It meant as a slam on you, more for the right wingers who fell for her schtick.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        “Not” meant as a slam on you. Jeez…

    • Not Adahn

      Is she Bunny Bleu’s daughter?

      • juris imprudent

        More like granddaughter you’d have to think.

    • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

      Elon Musk faps to Eliza Bleu every day.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    It’s ridiculous. I buy trucks for equipment delivery and it’s a pain in the ass to get a regular cab with an eight foot bed anymore.

    My full size mid-80s four wheel drive GMC pickup looks like some sort of minitruck next to a new Ford of Chevy, but the bed is twice as long.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Is it even possible to get a nonextended cab longbed anymore?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Forty two freaking Gs? Holy shit!
        (I haven’t priced new trucks lately)

      • Tundra

        The only things worse are used trucks.

      • pistoffnick

        Have you priced eggs lately? Everything is ridiculous.

      • MikeS

        Loaded 1 ton diesels can go over 100K

      • Certified Public Asshat

        *squints*

        Is that a long bed?

    • Timeloose

      The cool kids are all buying square body 1970-1990’s Pick Ups and fixing them up. The prices are ridiculous. I do like the size of the Ranger and Colorados, they are similar in size and stature to the 1980’s pickups, but the beds are tiny.

      • ron73440

        I’m definitely not a cool kid, but plan on hanging on to my 2001 like grim death.

      • Mojeaux

        #metoo

  30. Fatty Bolger

    The team added 11 new randomized controlled trials and “cluster-RCTs,” which randomize groups of subjects rather than individuals, to its prior review from November 2020, for a total of 78 studies. The additions included COVID pandemic trials: two from Mexico and one each from England, Norway, Denmark and Bangladesh, the latter two well known internationally.

    The Danish study had trouble finding a major journal willing to publish its controversial findings that wearing surgical masks had no statistically significant effect on infection rates, even among those who claimed to wear them “exactly as instructed.”

    Note the part about the Danish study having problems getting published. What I found looking into this before is that dozens of RCT’s were started specifically looking at mask effectiveness against COVID, but most were stopped when they weren’t getting the results they needed.

    • PieInTheSky

      Well if they don’t give the right results they are not the right studies, because how could the right studies not give the right results. SO they should be stopped.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    The false choice is the favorite logical fallacy of pretty much everyone, including Sean Hannity.

    If you don’t wholeheartedly embrace the concept of black queerness, you’re a racist who wants to wipe out any trace of the black man’s contribution to history and culture.

    • Sean

      That’s F’N gay.

      • PieInTheSky

        was that a pun

      • UnCivilServant

        Is that the pistol that identifies as a rifle?

      • SDF-7

        I thought that was Lee Van Cleef’s contraption in For a Few Dollars More.

    • EvilSheldon

      For the ~$900 a Rugged Obsidian 45 silencer runs, funboy here could have afforded a decent concealment holster and a wardrobe that doesn’t make him look like a bum, and have enough left over for Chinese takeout…

      • ron73440

        A hoodie, jeans and work boots, while open carrying?

        I resemble that remark!

        I’ve had dizzy spells the last couple days, but it was nice to see you, Rat and DEG on Sunday.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Is it even possible to get a nonextended cab longbed anymore?

    I suspect you’d have to special order one, and wait a very long time. I can’t remember seeing a new single cab long bed truck on a dealer’s lot since Cash for Clunkers.

    According toGustave’s link, Ford still makes one.

    • AlexinCT

      Unless it is a couple of old guys in robes dancing together to a slow tune, it is criminal behavior!

  33. Brochettaward

    FIRSTALLUJAH

    FIRSTALLUJAH

    FIRSTALLUJAH

    • MikeS

      You’re welcome.

  34. Sensei

    FBI search President Biden’s home in Delaware

    The FBI has not commented on the search. As it was consensual, no search warrant was sought.

    Here’s hoping this time his staff was able to fully clean up everything before the FBI showed up.

    • Brochettaward

      You are assuming that the FBI wasn’t there to clean things up. They confiscated some more classified material in Hunter’s old bedroom along with some crackpipes he left behind and another hard drive filled with kiddie porn.

      • Sensei

        Didn’t they wind up with the pistol he threw away too?

      • AlexinCT

        Did they find the various bodies of kids that were sexually abused before/after being murdered but that wouldn’t make Sam Harris change his mind that the Bidens were nicer people than that evil orange guy?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Its cool, they are cooperating. Slow walking with an incurious media is working and not even calling out the BS spouted by diversity hire and it is old news.

      • Ownbestenemy

        And just how many homes does the “man of the people, good ol Joe” just have? What a fucking life that guy lives on the public dole.

  35. Not Adahn

    I played too much Battletech back in the day. Every time I see “RCT” I think “Regimental Combat Team.”

    And that the FedCom civil war was a stupid fake rebalancing by the devs.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s all gone downhill since.

      I do not understand the people why have writing lore for them.

      • Not Adahn

        That was the first game I was aware of that had a dynamic universe. The whole Wolf’s Dragoons -> Clan Invasion was done really well.

      • UnCivilServant

        Everything about the Clans bugged me as breaking suspension of disbelief.

        Still love me my MadCats, and don’t dare deadname them.

        My favorite quip is still “Spent 300 years building a warrior culture – lost to the Phone company.”

      • UnCivilServant

        To clarify, the socialist command economies and MechWarrior centric culture would not have developed the ClanTech level of advancement. Their high water mark should have been SLDF relics, and they should have been more IS than the IS in terms of keeping the old stuff limping along.

      • Nephilium

        I could see the Clans being able to maintain the same level of tech, but not advancing. As they were doing ritualized combat between the clans instead of the scorched earth campaigns that were the start of the IS wars.

        The slow walk of lost tech and tech advancement annoyed me, but it was a feature of the entire universe (and provided an incentive to release new books, and to do balance tweaking that fit lore).

  36. The Late P Brooks

    bruh you ain’t blastin anyone when it takes two days to draw your piece

    Draw, podnur

    • AlexinCT

      The AI just KNEW they were playing childish word games?

      • Rat on a train

        Do woodcocks nest in pussy willow?

    • AlexinCT

      I bet the people that did that live paycheck to paycheck….

  37. Scruffyy Nerfherder

    Who would be worse than Fauci at NIAID?

    This guy: https://thebulletin.org/2023/01/viral-spread-peter-hotez-on-the-increase-of-anti-science-aggression-on-social-media

    I would say social media is a major weapon of choice for spreading disinformation. But remember, we have to get to those who are generating content. Social media is an important vehicle, but it’s not the only one. I think we probably should stop calling it misinformation, disinformation or infodemic. We should call it for what it is, which is anti-science aggression, because it is a killing force. What we realized is that the science aggression is taking lives in the United States on an unprecedented scale.

    Who’s on the short list for the position?

    https://www.healio.com/news/infectious-disease/20221123/seeking-exceptional-candidates-nih-posts-job-ad-to-replace-fauci

    That guy.

    • EvilSheldon

      I actually know that guy. He’s regarded by the actual clinicians in the field as a complete lightweight.

      • juris imprudent

        So, politically perfect!

      • ron73440

        He’s regarded by the actual clinicians in the field as a complete lightweight.

        Someone who will do as they’re told and not think too hard.

        In other words: PERFECT!

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        He’s a piece of work, that’s for sure. His own daughter is autistic and he has made it his life’s mission to go after anyone who claims a vaccine-autism link.

      • ron73440

        I think if I ever met jenny McArthy, I owe her an apology.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Huzzah

    President Joe Biden arrived in Manhattan Tuesday to deliver a message that elected leaders in New York and New Jersey have waited more than a decade to hear — the Gateway Program to improve the century-old rail link under the Hudson River is finally full steam ahead.

    ——-

    Tuesday’s event offered Biden, and his Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, an opportunity to celebrate tangible wins from the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law after a tumultuous few months of air travel meltdowns, supply chain woes and a narrowly averted rail strike that threatened to sink the economy. Biden also stopped in Maryland Monday to celebrate more than $6 billion in upgrades for the aging Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel.

    But the president’s visit Tuesday was particularly symbolic for the New York and New Jersey politicians in attendance who have witnessed the $16 billion endeavor suffer several delays over the years. Biden’s trip showed that after repeated setbacks, the critical infrastructure project finally has federal backing— even if it’s still years in the making.

    “All told, this is one of the biggest and most consequential projects in the country,” Biden said at an event in a 30-track rail yard in front of commuter trains emblazoned with the presidential seal. “But it’s going to take time. It’s a multibillion effort between the states and the federal government. But we finally have the money and we’re going to get it done, I promise you.”

    Just in time to be completely unnecessary.

    • Sensei

      It was and remains needed.

      NY and NJ should be paying for it not the rest of the US. OTH, I shouldn’t be forced to put ethanol in my fuel. So I’m not feeling bad that Iowa has to open it wallet either…

      • rhywun

        It is needed but holy shit the graft is going to be even more epic than the current title holder, East Side Access.

      • creech

        Really needed? I read somewhere that the old Pennsylvania Railroad used to run more trains through the existing tunnels than are currently using it.
        And with signaling equipment that was far less sophisticated than today’s computerized stuff.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m assuming the tunnel is in a state of structural disrepair, given the tract record of maintenence the state has.

        I’m also assuming that the actual fix should cost less than a fraction of what they’re going to flush away, and whatever gets slapped in there will fail within a year.

      • rhywun

        It’s needed because it’s so old. Subject to floods, falling apart, etc.

    • juris imprudent

      woo woo

  39. Ownbestenemy

    Ooo, a position in Greensboro just opened up. That is tempting.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    I miss El Camino’s — don’t need a full on truck, fine with a car-style cab, but like to have the option to have actual cargo capacity.

    It’s your lucky day

    I want one, but not that much.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    It was and remains needed.

    By the time it’s finished and open for business, Manhattan will be underwater.

    • juris imprudent

      Does that mean NJ will get an enema?

    • Sensei

      And we will all be paying for that through FEMA and Federal Flood Insurance as well.

      • rhywun

        All ur money are belong to us.

  42. Fourscore

    “But the president’s visit Tuesday was particularly symbolic for the New York and New Jersey politicians in attendance”

    Makes the pols look good while Ol’ Fourscore gets to pay for it.

    • creech

      Funny, isn’t it, that such presidential political stunts aren’t labelled as such.

  43. Scruffyy Nerfherder

    Word of advice, if you try to skip out on a bill for damaged rental equipment, make sure you’re not operating as a contractor without a license or a registration with the state corporation commission.

    It kind of puts you in a bad negotiating position.

    • UnCivilServant

      I can’t say I’ve ever skipped out on a bill.

      I take it someone broke your gear and doesn’t want to pay?

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        Pretty much

  44. The Late P Brooks

    It’s no big deal- nobody uses copper for anything anymore

    The Biden administration has blocked a controversial proposed gold and copper mine in Alaska in order to protect the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

    ——-

    EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters that the agency had determined that discharges that would come from the proposed mining would have “unacceptable adverse effects” on salmon fishery areas.

    “As a source of food and jobs and a means of preserving sacred indigenous customs and practices, Bristol Bay supports the livelihoods of so many,” he added. “This final action demonstrates the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to safeguarding our nation’s indispensable natural resources.”

    Specifically, the EPA’s action prohibits the certain waters from being used as disposal sites for mine waste and prohibits future proposals to mine the Pebble deposit that would have similar environmental impacts.

    The company behind the mine, the Pebble Limited Partnership, threatened a lawsuit over the EPA’s action.

    “Unfortunately, the Biden EPA continues to ignore fair and due process in favor of politics. This preemptive action against Pebble is not supported legally, technically, or environmentally. As such, the next step will likely be to take legal action to fight this injustice,” said CEO John Shively in a written statement .

    Sacred indigenous customs like filing lawsuits.

  45. R.J.

    There was almost a shooting war over the Colorado river between California, and other states previously. I cannot remember the time frame. I’m sure some of our better historians here can talk about it. Honestly, I would love to see California roasted anyway right now. Fuckers keep growing their population, not doing a damn thing to store water, and then demanding more water from the river. Then California government turns around and blame fucking climate change for the low river levels.

    • UnCivilServant

      Cut off the aqueducts, make california a desert again.