Monday Afternoon Links

by | Mar 20, 2023 | Daily Links | 181 comments

I don’t know if anyone else ever read the Gunslinger Dark Tower as pointed out in comment 1 series, but the baby reminded me disturbingly of the lobstrosities in the 2nd book. We put him down on the beach and he kept crawling towards the water and then going up on his knees and raising his arms when the waves came in. I kept expecting to hear “da-da-chum, da-da-chick”.

Con XiSantis (h/t: HM) walks fine line between the 11th Commandment and “differentiating” himself from OMB.

I hope this guy gets a warm group welcome to prison.

Damn, seems like we oughta let the the Dept of Agriculture handle our borders. Although human migrants tend to be a good bit faster.

Dude’s so rich, he’s getting married for the fifth time. Being able to afford five marriages is definitely a U-shaped distribution. Half of nuthin’ is nuthin’, so if you got nuthin’, you’re not risking much.

The beach we were on got buzzed by a ton of jets, put me in mind of this

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

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

181 Comments

  1. SDF-7

    Re: got buzzed by a ton of jets — I would have expected this.

    I assume that’s King’s Gunslinger series? (Or is that just The Dark Tower’s character?) Either way, never read it… sorry. I would have thought the Baby L was doing the wave, myself.

    • Brett L

      There are certainly no Chinese weather balloons over Cape San Blas, FL. I don’t think I’ve ever seen pairs of hers flying at maybe 5000 feet or lower over the coast every hour of daylight for multiple days in 15 years of going out there.

      • R.J.

        Dang. You were about an hour away. I was in Panama City Beach last week, also watching the jets fly by. I will try to be more neighborly next time I am in FL.

    • rhywun

      Dark Tower is another series I quit out of boredom. Somewhere in the 4th book.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Same here.

      • Tundra

        Yup.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Fourth book was the best one. It was the fifth book’s 10 hour aside about what’s been going on with Father Callahan, who was never mentioned before and barely matters after, where it lost me. That’s what novellas are for asshole.

      • DEG

        “Wizard and Glass”? That was a good one.

      • rhywun

        It was the one that decided a novel-length backstory instead of carrying the main plot forward was something that I would be interested in. I wasn’t.

        I might try again if only because I did actually quite like the story so far.

    • kinnath

      Really?

      JET

      • kinnath
  2. Shpip

    “But I do know this,” he [DeSantis] said. “The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor, and so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety.”

    He ain’t wrong. You can think OMB is a clown and still recognize that he’s getting railroaded.

    • SDF-7

      If it wasn’t for the collective insanity of OMB, I would have expected that to be the majority opinion, frankly. But in the world we live in… almost certainly not. Rule of Law only for friends, Rule of Man for enemies… yay. (sigh)

      • R C Dean

        No, it’s Rule of Man for both friends (who walk) and enemies (who get railroaded).

  3. Lackadaisical

    “Billionaire mogul will marry Ann Lesley Smith, 66, whom he met in September of 2022”

    She works fast.

    • SDF-7

      “Welp… he ain’t getting any younger!”

    • Gender Traitor

      Well, the dude’s 92, which argues against a long engagement.

      • Count Potato

        It also argues against getting married. It’s not like they are going to have kids.

      • Gender Traitor

        There are other reasons to get married.

      • Count Potato

        But at 92?

      • Gender Traitor

        If he’s still healthy and in possession of his mental faculties, why not?

      • Lackadaisical

        I personally don’t see the point, but it’s not my life.

      • Gender Traitor

        He might trust her more than he trusts his kids to make medical or financial decisions on his behalf.

      • Lackadaisical

        Sure, I’m not begrudging either of them their happiness. I appreciate her or his clarity on the situation.

      • hayeksplosives

        Some rich dudes splash out on a new set of golf clubs or a fancy car.

        Why not splash out on a cuddly piece of ass? He’s earned it.

      • Lackadaisical

        Exactly. What else is the point of making all that money?

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Who does he think he is, Henry VIII?

      After the second one, assuming they ended in divorce, what’s the point?

    • Gustave Lytton

      Damn. Didn’t even know he had married and divorced Jerry Hall. Thought he was still with Wendi.

      /out of the loop

  4. Lackadaisical

    If true, alleged child beater is a real piece of work.

    • The Last American Hero

      I’m sure Bob Dylan will write a tribute song. Maybe be Michael B Jordan can play him in the movie.

  5. Count Potato

    “But I do know this,” he said. “The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor, and so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety.”

    “But the real victims are ordinary New Yorkers, ordinary Americans and all these different jurisdictions that they get victimized every day because of the reckless political agenda that the Soros DAs bring to their job,” DeSantis said. “They ignore crime and they empower criminals, and that hurts people, hurts a lot of people every single day.”

    He’s right, but what to do about it? It would take a massive effort to shatter all their kneecaps ant tie them to anthills in Minecraft.

    • SDF-7

      Within his own state he’s fired at least one, right? So I’d say that would be what he has in mind — if they won’t do their job, kick them out by whatever legal means is appropriate (recall / governor / courts — depends on the state, I expect).

      Of course, here in CA there’s zero chance of any of that happening. I expect it really isn’t very different in NY either. One party states instead of uniparty states.

      • Lackadaisical

        “Within his own state he’s fired at least one, right? ”

        Yup, which I absolutely agreed with.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      If it wasn’t politically advantageous the DA up there wouldn’t be trying to bring his lameass case. The people who voted for the guy are getting just what they wanted.

      • The Last American Hero

        If the people in East Oregon want Obama tried as a criminal for going after the Bundt’s do the get to see him in handcuffs?

      • juris imprudent

        Pendleton isn’t exactly New York City.

    • Lackadaisical

      “in Minecraft.”

      Legit lol.

    • Rat on a train

      Now I want ants in Minecraft.

  6. DEG

    I don’t know if anyone else ever read the Gunslinger series, but the baby reminded me disturbingly of the lobstrosities in the 2nd book. We put him down on the beach and he kept crawling towards the water and then going up on his knees and raising his arms when the waves came in. I kept expecting to hear “da-da-chum, da-da-chick”.

    Yes, I read the series. I have a vague memory of the lobstrosities.

  7. Count Potato

    “If you stumble on these creatures, federal authorities recommend contacting a local state department of agriculture or a local branch of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.”

    It’s only a matter of time.

    • SDF-7

      Kind of a harsh write up of Brett’s kid, I think.

      • Brett L

        But not entirely unfair.

  8. DEG

    “I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love – but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy,” Murdoch, 92, said of his new fiancee, Ann Lesley Smith, 66, whose late husband was Chester Smith, a country singer as well as radio and TV executive.

    I’m certain she loves him very much.

    • SDF-7

      I expect she has millions of reasons to, yeah.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Considering how old he is and his worth I’d consider marrying the guy. No kissing on the lips though.

      • Lackadaisical

        Just don’t let the balls touch and you’re golden.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    In a story which I cannot seem to find now, people are finding out that an electric car is likely to get totaled by the insurance company if there is the slightest indication of damage to the battery pack. Teslas are particularly susceptible because the battery packs on some models are structural components.

    So much for the “circular economics” of EVs.

    • kinnath

      EVs are a clusterfuck.

      The serve a purpose in a niche for high-performance sports cars or for daily commuters.

      Their economics will always be a failure.

      • Sensei

        More than a niche.

        82m out of128m units of housing are single family.

        Cut that down for urban housing with no off street parking and I bet you still get 50%. How much of that 50% needs more than 200 miles of range a day.

        That said the unsubsidized economics are ludicrous.

      • R C Dean

        As one of two cars, sure, if they weren’t overpriced even with subsidies. As an only car, only if you never plan to use it to go further than half its range.

        A question: how long do they hold a charge? I’m wondering what you might find after you leave it in an airport parking lot for a week.

      • The Last American Hero

        Tesla says 3 months unless weather conditions are extreme.

      • Sensei

        If you shut them down fully with no remote shit they lose 1 or 2% a week.

        To your question below there is a ton of FUD on battery life and replacement.

        My car is warranted for 8 years and 70% capacity.

        Right now it is 3 years old low mileage and 5% degraded. In salt belt states it will rust to death at the same rate as the battery.

      • R C Dean

        Thanks.

      • R C Dean

        There’s also the value proposition on the back end. How long til the battery needs to be replaced, and what will that cost? What’s the resale value on a 5 year old EV?

    • Brett L

      So they’re the modern day equivalent of Fieros?

      • R.J.

        At least Fieros are remembered somewhat fondly now. EVs for the most part will be trash, looked upon worse than old LCD handheld games by Tiger Electronics at the Goodwill.

      • Sensei

        + 1 Iron Duke!

        Also in typical GM fashion the finally put a 5 speed, V6 and proper suspension in the Fiero GT and promptly killed it after two years of releasing the car it always should have been.

      • R.J.

        I remember seeing that V6, final year car on display at a local movie theater. It was fantastic.

      • Drake

        I was behind a Fiero in good shape last weekend. I was pretty excited. A cool concept executed terribly until (supposedly) it’s last year of production.

      • Sean

        My coworker is a Fiero nut.

    • Nephilium

      I actually rode in a Tesla Saturday afternoon. My Uber home was one. Nice guy, we chatted while driving. He said he hasn’t experienced more than about a 10% loss in range during cold weather here (admittedly, it was a relatively mild one), although the back seat gull wing door just hung when I walked up to the car. Apparently the sensors to avoid it whacking someone get more sensitive when it’s cold out (it was ~30 F).

  10. Swiss Servator

    “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair…”

    Heh.

    • Timeloose

      Well played sir. Pointing out the witch hunt, while making a moral point about your rival.

    • Rat on a train

      They are standing ready for another opportunity to swim in taxpayer money.

    • Lackadaisical

      Translation: we already engineered the next plandemic and will be releasing the biological contagion soon.

    • creech

      Who?

    • R C Dean

      Looks like she aged out, got a career-ending facial tattoo, and had a mental break.

      What has she done/who is she? No clue.

  11. Sensei

    Honestly, for some mid-level 4 year old car with moderate front end damage you can quickly total out a car.

    Ultrasonic sensors, radar sensor, broken front windscreen, realign camera for lane keeping, radiator and AC compressor, million dollar EPA mandated refrigerant, and two $1k LED super spiffy headlights later you are totaled out.

    • Lackadaisical

      Is that what’s in a mid level car nowadays?

      People are getting carried away.

      • Sensei

        You can’t get a 5 star insurance rating on a random shitbox without the full “safety suite” and that means a bazillion fucking sensors including a camera.

      • Lackadaisical

        Per below, seems all the shit isn’t saving any lives.

        Lane assist sounds like the dumbest thing ever to waste money on.

      • R C Dean

        Yup. Turned mine off a half hour after leaving the dealer. It’s a fucking hazard, is what it is. DON’T MESS WITH MY STEERING WHEEL, YA RETARDS!

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Emergency Braking is 10x worse. At least you can turn down/turn off the lane assist.

      • Count Potato

        I blame the government.

  12. Sensei

    You still have to respect Musk. TW – Top. Men. (aka Ars Technica)

    The SpaceX steamroller has shifted into a higher gear this year

    Friday’s launch of the two SES satellites was, overall, SpaceX’s 19th orbital mission for the calendar year. As of today, the company is launching a Falcon rocket every 4.1 days and remains on pace to launch approximately 90 rockets before the end of 2023.

    To put this into perspective, a decade ago, the United States launched an average of 15 to 20 orbital rockets a year. In 2022, the United States recorded its most launches in any calendar year, ever, with 78 orbital flights. This year, barring a catastrophic accident with the Falcon 9 booster, that number will easily get into triple digits. The all-time record for orbital launches in a single year is held by the Soviet Union, with 101, in 1982.

    • R C Dean

      SpaceX is currently launching as many or more rockets than the rest of the world combined. Not sure about tonnage.

  13. Timeloose

    The Reverend is such a good act to see live. Last year he played at a small club in my area. Got to meet and talk to the man for a few minutes and Jimbo for a few hours. Both great musicians and class acts.

  14. Ownbestenemy

    I wish there was a “I am a technician” button on IT Support requests. I don’t need to go through the first 10 pages of your T/S list you have in front of you, I have already done it. The docking station gets all wonky if I go mobile and then plug back in…if I power cycle the docking station, it clears up. Send me a new docking station.

    “Well sir, first have you tried rebooting your computer….” Oh FFS

    • Compelled Speechless

      How about we just get an “I’m not fucking retarded” button. I may not be a technician, but if I’m reaching out to tech support, you can bet your ass I have already tried everything I can think of to avoid dealing with them in the first place.

      • Nephilium

        The problem is that the retards are the ones who are the most insistent that they aren’t morons and know what they’re talking about. They’re also the worst people to support because they’ll report issues “that happen all the time”. When you ask for a specific time/example, it’s always “all the time” or “I don’t have time to note every single time I have a problem”.

        We’re not asking for all of them, just one single concrete example.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      One size fits all, dude. It’s equity.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Nah, equity is “back of the line whitey. We’re upgrading the Black IT infrastructure first”

      • The Last American Hero

        How about a No I don’t want cake/yes i always want cake button.

    • Pope Jimbo

      In the past, I have amused the person I’m talking to by pretty much reciting his process to him.

      I’ve opened the network tab, I’ve selected my network adapter, now I’ve gone into the advanced tab and reset my DNS name servers…”

      The good IT support people will then say, “well let’s just skip ahead to checking ….” The bad ones will get miffed and insist on going through the process and spending the right amount of time on each step. “I don’t think you really changed your IP and rebooted already”.

      • Nephilium

        Yep. If I trust you did what you told me, I’ll skip ahead. If I ask you to do something that takes at least 5 minutes, and you tell me it’s done in 15 seconds, I’m going to put in an extra step that I know will force that first step to be done correctly.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Ya people do tend to believe they know more than they do, so I do understand the steps in place. I guess if I got a level of detail in the ticket (which I did) on to what I have tried and the issue is easily reproduced and they ‘work around’ I employed, should have led him to start off at the ‘lets check the firmware’ section, not rebooting my computer.

      • Lackadaisical

        I’ve had the restart fix my issue, even though it’s already restarted it before.

        I was heading every minute of it because the help desk guy was probably thinking I was an idiot.

      • Nephilium

        I’ve complied, even on the idiotic things (such as clearing cache and cookies in an incognito/private/porn mode window), and just made sure to bring it up when the issue eventually got to the next tier, and documented it in the notes I sent in. There’s always a chance I may learn a new trick, it’s happened a couple of times. I will put my foot down on destructive items that have no chance of correcting the issue (building a new Outlook profile in the desktop application when the same issue is reflected in a web client connecting to the same profile).

      • Raven Nation

        When I worked in corporate, if something went wrong, I’d call the help desk and say, “I’m having X problem and I’ve already turned my computer off and turned it back on.” There would a ten-second silence then, “OK, sir, I’ll escalate your question to Level 2 support.”

    • Gustave Lytton

      I’ve had to wipe the egg off my face more than once when the stupid suggestion or check the help desk offered actually fixed the problem.

      • R C Dean

        I’ve had more than one convo with tech support end with me saying “Well, now I feel like an idiot. Thanks.”

    • Lackadaisical

      At risk of not serving the needs of the ruling class.

      • Compelled Speechless

        You spelled whims wrong.

      • Lackadaisical

        They’re deluded enough to think their whims are real needs.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Even these assholes are about to learn the very real difference between needs and whims. I wish I could take more pleasure in the failure of SVB and Signature, watching the chattering class take a sledgehammer to the knees, but I know they’ll insulate themselves from the destruction they wrought as much as possible and pass the suffering onto us.

      • R C Dean

        They already have. Their pockets have been refilled with your money. Thanks, sucker!

      • rhywun

        These are the same people pushing the “electric” is cheaper than “gas” lie.

    • rhywun

      putting retirement savings ‘at risk’ by getting rid of social and environmental factors

      Because that makes any kind of sense. 🙄

    • Sean

      I blame all those motherfuckers in the left hand lanes, slowing me down.

    • Compelled Speechless

      To keep up the regular growth of the regulatory/technocratic state regardless of it’s effectiveness towards it’s stated goals?

    • Sensei

      So that you can get drunk, text while driving and have 50/50 chance the cars “safety suite” saves your ass.

      I’m not sure what the right answer is, but using a phone and driving and causing injury or death needs some kind of consequences.

      I’m all for Darwin taking these assholes out in single vehicle accidents. However, insured drivers pay for that too.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Ignore the small stuff and massively increase the consequences for everything else. Stop giving soccer moms a ticket for doing 6 over, and start throwing the book at assholes who blow through a red light, can’t keep a lane, or don’t bother giving proper space between them and the cars around them.

        Of course, that is 100% pipe dream. Never gonna happen.

      • Pope Jimbo

        This weekend I saw a driver get pulled over by a state trooper for yammering on his phone. Totally deserved it to. The guy tailgated me, then slowed way down, then tailgated again. Finally wove in and around traffic with no blinker. Finally caught up with the state trooper but was so busy talking on his cell phone that he didn’t bother hiding hit. Trooper pulled him over in about 10 seconds.

    • Lackadaisical

      “Martin blamed America’s increasingly dangerous roads on ‘stress, social isolation and substance misuse’ brought about by the pandemic that continues even as the outbreak wanes. ”

      Shocked to find myself agreeing.

      • Compelled Speechless

        I sound like a broken record, but again, foreseeable consequences are not unintended consequences. Everyone who tried to warn about these very real consequences was treated like a pariah.

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        To be fair, a lot of the pushers of these policies are blithering idiots.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Blithering idiots whose job is allegedly to foresee possible consequences of any chosen action and steer clear of destructive policies. Instead they bet the house on stopping a disease that kills a fraction of 1% of the people that got it, and shrugged their shoulders about anything past first-degree consequences. We don’t need a national divorce just because we no longer fundamentally agree on what our basic foundational principles should be, we need it because Hunter Biden with all of his gambling, hooker banging, coke fueled deal-making is a microcosm of our whole ruling class. You don’t stay married to someone like that an expect that you’re not going to go right off the cliff with them in the end.

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        I’m not disagreeing with you.

      • Nephilium

        Blithering Idiot you say? Don’t mind if I do.

        (Just recently saw this back on the shelf again).

      • Compelled Speechless

        At 11.1% ABV, they mean it.

      • Tundra

        Yep. The baseline of underlying stress is pretty amazing.

      • R C Dean

        No, mostly not brought about by the pandemic. Brought about by the response to the pandemic.

      • slumbrew

        That is a huge pet peeve of mine.

        “Because of the pandemic…”

        NO! “Because of the government-imposed pandemic restrictions…”

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        Panicdemic, folks, panicdemic. Also acceptable is covidiocy.

    • Rat on a train

      Regulators need jobs?

    • Drake

      When I was going back to work in an office after covid, I do think many people completely forgot how to drive.

      • Rat on a train

        Around here they didn’t forget. They never knew.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Well when the cops can’t hunt for people “Driving While Black” those drivers will eventually crash and die. So that 22% increase would have just been racist cop shootings in the past.

    • Nephilium

      Fuck their stupid “alcohol related” stats right in the ass.

      Especially in the jurisdictions that are trying to stomp down on ridesharing.

    • Compelled Speechless

      Why wasn’t this filed under “ray of sunshine”?

      • Pope Jimbo

        That is awesome.

  15. Pope Jimbo

    Minnesoda has a $17B surplus. In addition to all the wonderful things that our legislators are slobbering over to spend it on, they also might rebate some of that money to us taxpayers. But HOLD ON!!!! Economists worry that tax rebates could fuel inflation

    In debates at the state Capitol about proposed rebate checks for Minnesotans, the talking points are mostly around using them to help residents cope with high inflation.

    But could the infusion of cash in people’s bank accounts also make inflation worse, or at least, a little harder to bring back down?

    Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari has said it has given him pause as states in the region, including Minnesota, consider using a portion of their significant budget surpluses to distribute rebate checks to residents.

    “As a taxpayer, that sounds pretty good to me,” he said earlier this month at an event in Sioux Falls, S.D. “But as a monetary policy maker, that sounds like more stimulus. And that’s putting more money in people’s pockets to go out and spend on airplane tickets and food and buying things.”

    Heaven forbid those ignorant rubes get their grubby hands back on their money and spend it on funnel cakes at the local tractor pull.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      Put that cash in America’s money hole

    • Pope Jimbo

      When U.S. inflation surged to the highest level in four decades last year, economists offered many explanations. For one, they noted COVID-related lockdowns led to supply chain bottlenecks that hampered some products’ availability. The war in Ukraine exacerbated some of those issues.

      At the same time, consumer demand came roaring back as Americans, flush with savings, started spending more and shifting their purchases away from services to goods.

      While divided on how big a role it played in driving up inflation, many also pointed to President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan as a contributing factor in fueling more demand. The federal legislation, passed in March 2021, included $1,400 checks for many Americans, enhanced jobless benefits and billions in aid to state and local governments.

      A complete mystery why the rubes screwed things up by spending all their “flush” money on shit and driving up inflation.

      • Compelled Speechless

        The economic lessons of the last two weeks are clear.
        1) Nothing is the fault of the federal government or the private bank that funnels them unlimited cash to spend on god-knows what (just ignore the fact that the legislators voting yes on our bi-annual multi-trillion dollar emergency bills neither read nor write them.)
        2) Banks making obviously risky and unwise bets and never accounting for the likely scenario where artificially low interest rates raising is super rad. This kind of gambling is for real equity. VCs and bankers would never say that insincerely just to get access to free cash. No really!
        3) Inflation could be controlled if the government in it’s infinite wisdom guided where every dollar went. It’s people wasting their savings on all the goods that they used to be able to buy without market failures 3 years ago that is causing all the problems.

      • creech

        What do you mean “shit?’. Around here, the luxury mall had lines out the door at Gucci and Lois Vuitton. Oh, right, they were spending on shit.

      • Rat on a train

        I saw those videos of lines of people out the door carrying whatever they could steal.

      • Ted S.

        To be fair, Lois Vuitton is shit….

    • B.P.

      Now do reparations, Mr. Kashkari.

    • Fatty Bolger

      “As a taxpayer, that sounds pretty good to me,” he said earlier this month at an event in Sioux Falls, S.D. “But as a monetary policy maker, that sounds like more stimulus. And that’s putting more money in people’s pockets to go out and spend on airplane tickets and food and buying things.”

      Yes, we wouldn’t want people to have food. That’s bad policy.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Only politicians should have discretionary cash for vote buying and handing fat government contracts to lobbyists. Everyone else should have breadlines. Just the way the Founders envisioned it.

      • Lackadaisical

        Their logic only works if they annoy that the multiplier effect is high for everyday people than government pork.

      • Lackadaisical

        Annoy=admit

    • R C Dean

      I don’t think inflation cares if it’s spent by people or by the state.

      Of course, I suppose paying down MN’s debt is not even on the table. That would be the least inflationary use of the cash. They could just about pay all of it off.

  16. Pope Jimbo

    It is also interesting that even with a $17B surplus, a record number of cities are pursuing sales tax hikes

    Local cities need to get legislative approval to put proposed tax hikes on the ballot in Minnesoda. This year all the big cities have proposed hikes and are bugging the state legislature to give them the green light.

    I guess we weren’t robbed of enough money, so we need to be taxed more.

    Last legislative session, this process of securing legislative approval ended in gridlock. That’s one big reason behind the record number of proposals at the Capitol this year: Carlson said most local sales tax pitches had won bipartisan support but did not pass after the Legislature adjourned without approving broader spending bills. Many of those same cities are back this year.

    But Carlson also suspects the November 2022 election showed local governments that this hassle can be worth it. In 2021, the Legislature green-lit nearly two dozen sales tax proposals for the ballot. Of the 20 that went to the ballot the next year, 18 won approval from the voters.

    “That fact garnered a lot of attention from cities to say, ‘Hey, we’re hearing a lot from our property taxpayers about high property taxes,’” Carlson said in an interview. “Voters seem willing to vote for a sales tax to fund some of these projects rather than put it on the property tax rolls.”

    A third option might be to not raise any tax rates and just cut spending?

  17. Tundra

    Hi Brett!

    I did not get to do this last week.

    I get to do that now. And I miss not being able to because I was too busy building sand castles and retrieving the kids when they got crushed by a wave.

    Although sending them to the bar is pretty cool, too. Hmm.

    Why the hell would someone keep a giant snail as a pet? Eating them, sure, but what fun is it to cuddle up with a snail and watch hockey? People are weird.

    The Reverend isn’t weird, though. Just fantastic!

    • Compelled Speechless

      I was going back through conversations I missed over the weekend and saw that you watched “The Lives of Others”. Glad you liked it. Share it with everyone you know.

      • Tundra

        It was so good. I really appreciate the recco and I have already passed it along.

  18. Scruffyy Nerfherder

    OMG the Trumpalos are pissed about DeSantis’s mild potshot at him.

    • Compelled Speechless

      As much as TDS bothers me, anti-Trumpers are not entirely wrong about the Trump true believers. A great many of them really are thin-skinned morons.

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        It’s classic Trump. DeSantis is an obstacle to his goal, therefore Ron becomes the Devil. Ron kicks it back at him a little bit and the Trumpers go apoplectic.

        It’s annoying at best.

      • Compelled Speechless

        It’s strange to watch the corporate media and Trump spin the “Ron is the Devil” narrative together. I think at this point, they’re definitely more scared of DeSantis. I think all but the most loyal Trump zealots realized he’s run out of usefulness politically. I can’t imagine he would be any less of a disappointment on draining the swamp the second go around. I’m also not convinced DeSantis wouldn’t turn out to be just another establishment hack swinging the rubber stamp for the ruling class.

      • Tres Cool

        I mean he did (allegedly) poke his dick in that dumpster fire of silicon and daddy-issues.

      • Tres Cool

        And by that I meant Stormee Daniels. Ive seen her work on “creampie” and even that couldnt raise my crabbed organ enough to salute the Ukraine flag.
        Ive seen a woman get filled with boar semem that that held my attention long the her getting blasted by half of the Congo.

        Congo? Wait…the should name it “DONG-o”

      • Compelled Speechless

        Do I even want to ask how much you’ve had to drink? Not enough is always an acceptable answer.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        You have a way with words.

      • Tundra

        You have a way with words.

        It’s breathtaking, really.

      • slumbrew

        Do I even want to ask how much you’ve had to drink?

        All of it. He has consumed all of it.

      • Nephilium

        All of it. He has consumed all of it.

        /hurries off to check the basement and fridge

      • juris imprudent

        The media is purely schizophrenic about Trump – they hate him but they desperately need him, which makes them hate him even more. So they do what they must to keep him going – which then only feeds his ego even more.

      • Not Adahn

        You kinda have to be a moron to pick a modern politician as a hero.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Yeah, you’d have to be a real Leslie Knope. Am I the only person who watched Parks and Rec and saw her as the villain the entire time? She’s the embodiment of that CS Lewis quote about benevolent dictators.

      • rhywun

        Am I the only person who watched Parks and Rec and saw her as the villain the entire time?

        No.

        I am fairly impressed how they mostly kept politics out of the show despite her obvious Hilldawg worship.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Strawman apocalypse

    The White House plans to lean on its own administration’s analysis of the Freedom Caucus budget to back up its claims.

    While House Republicans’ official budget has yet to be released, the White House is latching onto the proposal that represents the views of the House GOP’s most right-leaning members. The budget proposes, among other provisions, capping discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels for a decade.

    In order to deflect criticism from Biden’s budget proposal, the White House will argue against some imaginary Republican proposals they conjured up out of thin air.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Capping discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels for a decade would be a good start.

      • rhywun

        The way mandatory spending is going, there won’t be anything left to spend on discretionary in a decade.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Why the hell would someone keep a giant snail as a pet? Eating them, sure, but what fun is it to cuddle up with a snail and watch hockey? People are weird.

    Maybe he was going to turn them loose in the everglades, for the snail kites.

  21. Tres Cool

    Say she’s a Soros plant.

    Count Potato on March 20, 2023 at 3:13 pm
    It also argues against getting married. It’s not like they are going to have kids.

    She marrying him, or he’s marrying her….or they were both directed to marry to fulfill the Globalist Media Agenda and she gets everything.
    Im kinda drunk and Ill add a couple more layers to my hat.

  22. Aloysious

    That’s one odd palm tree.

    • slumbrew

      It’s called Peyronie’s disease and it’s a legitimate medical issue!

  23. The Gunslinger

    I read the Dark Tower series. Some of the books I enjoyed more than others. Some I had to push through to the end to finish the series.

    • Ted S.

      They should call it a success, not a try, since you’ve actually succeeded in scoring.

    • rhywun

      In other football… I read a report of COL-GEE – holy cow sounds like I missed a good one.

  24. R C Dean

    “I don’t know if anyone else ever read the Gunslinger Dark Tower”

    I listened to the whole thing driving to deer hunting, and sitting in my blind.