Good morning my Glibs and Gliberinas! It’s that wonderful time again to sit down, sip that coffee, bitch about traffic to your coworker and enjoy another lovely day and the links!
Feds borrowing over $5 billion per day as programs face insolvency
More Americans Are Getting Turned Down for Loans, Fed Data Shows
Homes selling near record high again as supply shortage worsens
Jan. 6 Prisoner Takes His Obstruction Charge to the Supreme Court
San Francisco Walgreens resorts to chaining their freezers to stop shoplifters
California bans state-funded travel to Missouri, Nebraska and Wyoming
Ford cuts prices on F-150 Lightning truck
Disney+ Expected to Lose $800 Million This Quarter
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
Is it really borrowing at this point?
We may yet make Weimar the standard of fiscal probity.
Well, all I know is every time I’ve borrowed money they wanted it back.
I guess nobody wanted to buy your vote badly enough.
“California bans state-funded travel to Missouri, Nebraska and Wyoming
The decision is in response to the passage of allegedly “anti-LGBTQ” legislation in these states.”
OFFS, didn’t they do they same thing with Georgia for some other reason?
They’re up to banning 26 states now. It’s hilarious.
Didn’t California do that previously and then figure out it hurt them more than it hurt the other states? Just seems this playbook was tried within the past decade.
That was San Francisco. It’s crazy when San Fran is saner than California.
https://californiaglobe.com/articles/sf-board-of-supervisors-votes-to-end-30-state-travel-ban
Because of course it was. That guy is the gift that keeps on failing upwards and giving.
So, a future governor of California?
Why not? He’s so fabulous he didn’t even have to make a stop at Mayor, like Greaseball did.
President Weiner.
Making Tricky Dick a New Reality!
They’re going to build their own wall to attempt to keep everyone in The People’s Paradise.
Just like back in the days of the USSR? Nice wall, with some guards and all… Cause everyone wanted to jump the fence and go into the soviet backed paradise….
Know your history. It was a defensive wall to keep out fascists. It was in the name.
Cause anyone that isn’t a hardcore marxist has to be a fascist, right?
Never mind that the Communist Party of Germany and the NatSocWorkers Party fished members out of the same pond in ’30s Germany.
Fascism was born when disillusioned marxist realized that the most important requirement of marxism was that the leadership was chosen from those that were 100% dedicated and true believers of marxism (or allegiance to the top man/men), was in direct contradiction and a guaranteed road to failure, because marxism also required centralize control by these people whom would lack expertise to do the job. Being a member of the central planning circle basically would never work because the qualifications most needed to get the job were not expertise, but loyalty. The marxist hated the ex-marxist that realized this and left the cult.
It’s why these two groups hated each other so much,
The ag inspection stations are already in place…
It would be hilarious if they did, and the people who now smuggle humans into the state from Mexico started smuggling people from California to Mexico.
California-to-Texas via Mexico.
Except in limited circumstances, state travel should be banned to 49 states.
Good.
Alienate even more potential voters from considering Newsom.
None of those three laws seem anti-LGBT.
Banning grooming and marxist indoctrination now is considered anti-LGBT cause some reason…
They should declare wokeness a religion and use the RFRA to defend themselves.
Progressivism is a cult.
You are not allowed to challenge any aspect of the dogma, they will banish you if you do, and everyone that they accuse of being a heretic must suffer to prove their lack of fervor or their fealty.
Seems like a goal most states should have – to keep California bureaucrats out.
Slightly related: for the life of me i can’t understand WHY any state would write a law that automatically adopts whatever vehicle emissions “standards” the California legislature enacts – but about a dozen have done so; seems like they are just letting another state write their laws which one would think would not survive a state constitutional challenge.
Because CA gets wider grandfathered latitude to set limits stricter than federal air regulations. Other states can choose CA or fed but can’t make their own. Or it’s an area where the smaller state can’t effectively mandate something they (or the legislature or state bureaucracy) wants to, so hitching to CA is a way to get it. Or set as a time delay so when CA does do it, oh well just existing law.
Disney losing $800 million and writers striking for more money are not compatible. Me thinks California will have a larger homeless population soon.
Go woke. Go broke.
So, Hollywood is losing billions because they have no creativity and simply recycle old properties updated with “THE MESSAGE” for “MODERN AUDIENCES”.
Yeah, seems like a great time to strike.
Absolutely. Writer quality is in the toilet. You want to see good films? Looks for one that was written and directed by the same person. That person took the risk to make the product. Union writers assume no risk for the success or failure of the product.
They’ve moved on from recycling to vandalizing the classics.
https://youtu.be/WURPLvuJ-5I
Snow Ain’t White and the Seven Freaks of Nature
Snow Woke and the Seven Figure Loss.
I, for one, cannot wait to see “Off White, and the Seven Diversity Hires”
And then shitpost about it?
Please do!
They might consider a large homeless population a boon.
More like BaBoon!
I’ll see myself out…
Not just writers… the actors are striking as well.
While everyone complains about things like Secret Invasion using an AI to generate the credit sequence. Instead of the fact it’s a mediocre show that’s trying to put in more twists then the canon of M. Night, and doing it just about as well.
Never even heard of that. Actually, I have the same reaction every time some title comes up recently.
Has anyone considered that there just might be “too much” content?
“ARE YOU ENTERTAINED?”
No. I am not.
Shit, I did screw that up.
Too much low quality and bullshit content, most of it just trite and annoyingly preachy about progressive bullshit, that way too often relies only on CGI to capture attention.
This was supposed to be the new “tentpole” show for the MCU to set up the bad guys going forward (since the actor behind Kang the Conqueror may not be able to continue playing the role). I did see an article with an interview with the CEO of Disney saying they were doing too many shows, and it was having a negative impact as the “creatives” were running out of focus and weren’t able to make quality products.
At least they didn’t keep blaming the audience.
They still misdiagnosed the problem though. The issue isn’t that the creative talent is spread to thin, but that it is more concerned with peddling woke leftist talking points, resulting in dumbassery and mediocre content the people that pay do not want.
Me. Too many games to play, movies I never watched before, shows I never started. Not that I should be spending all of my time doing those things anyway, but there is a backlog to go through before I would need anything new.
One problem, among many, is that there is too much to watch, and the skills involved get watered down to the lowest common denominator just to find enough warm bodies. Add to that the desire to include every woke idea in every piece of scripted product (“a trans ninja 12 year old! Everyone will believe that!”) and they now have to fight the eye rolls from every possible audience member. AI isn’t the problem, they are the problem.
Hadn’t they already given up on the last round of virtue signaling? Or maybe it was just Gov. Greaseball was caught in Florida or something.
Anyway, this is so fucking hilarious. Thanks for keeping America entertained, California.
Regarding home prices. The property across the street from me was listed for sale last week at $615k. With interest rates being what they are I thought it might sit for awhile at that price. It went pending over the weekend.
Was it bought by a company trying to reduce the housing stock?
I doubt it. It’s 4 acres with a pond. Current owners have been there around 30 years.
You might be living in one of the few places where there still is so much demand that this phenom is still happening. In my area (rural People’s republic of CT) there have been more than a dozen properties for sale now for months with no takers.
We are selling out property soon. Because of reasons.
A real estate agent said that with the relatively benign inflation report, interest rates were dropping.
So here we go on maybe converting raw land into something.
Neighbor converting 80 acres to 14 homes, @ 50K/acre. Have been told that it will sell as well.
So bizarre.
https://climatecheck.com/
Be sure to check the new property for climate change!
OFFS!!
Damn, I just realized we have a climate problem, even here in the woods.
Do bears release methane in the woods?
As surely as the water ripples when a duck releases methane.
A day that reaches above 99ºF is considered hot for this location.
Historically, this location had about 7 hot days per year. The projection for 2050 is about 44 hot days per year.
Sounds like some bullshit. 80+ is hot. We have two to three months of temps in the 90s. It’s called summer.
With your amenity to those homes being converted into more homes, those may not sell as well.
Neighbor converting 80 acres to 14 homes, @ 50K/acre. Have been told that it will sell as well.
Maybe.
The “model home” in my neighborhood just went for 1.3MM.
Its nice, has all the possible upgrades and backs to the water (reservior), but its also had about 1 billion people track thru it the last 2 years.
I met the couple that bought it, they seem nice, but I am convinced they are nucking futz.
When we bought our lot, the premium for being on the water was 110k. We bought on the other side of the street. The path to the water is the 3 houses down, we can walk there anytime we want. I was in a neighbors house yesterday, and their view is nice, but not worth an extra 110k (and I think the house designs were more too, because of the back decks/walk out basements, etc.
It it has an asking price in the seven figures or up, it had better come with a demense and villeins.
[narrator] It doesnt. [/narrator]
.27 acres.
5 bed/4 bath, 4795 sq ft.
… That’s too much house for a mere quarter acre.
^^^
Gah! How many stories?
Main floor and finished walkout basement. Its a monster, but it was the model showing every possible feature available, with all the top end upgrades.
Ours is smaller with a 2nd floor and a finished basement.
Jesus, that outa come with a guard tower.
“‘Hallucinogenic’ MUSHROOMS may be to blame for US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, 76, repeatedly bowing to China’s vice premier after she ordered four portions at dinner (but the chef insists they weren’t psychedelic)”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12309311/Hallucinogenic-MUSHROOMS-blame-Treasury-Secretary-Janet-Yellen-76-repeatedly-bowing-Chinas-vice-premier-ordered-four-portions-dinner-chef-insists-werent-psychedelic.html
Or she could just be an idiot?
These fucking idiots always have an excuse….
That’s why our system is imploding. Accountability? For you and I for sure, but for them? Are you fucking nuts?
Or she knows who her real boss is…
Was she giggling the whole time? No? Then BULLSHIT!
Lies. She deliberately counted three like someone told her that was what she was supposed to do.
“San Francisco Walgreens resorts to chaining their freezers to stop shoplifters”
Ain’t progressivism great?
One of the most important aspects of a prosperous society is a serious take on property rights. This shit seems to almost be done, on purpose, in the very places that can’t afford to lose these businesses the most. And the people backing it claim their intention is to address some kind of wrong….
Think about that.
What they need, at this point, is a vestabule that you need to have a $200 deposit to get through.
“More Americans Are Getting Turned Down for Loans, Fed Data Shows”
The only thing that would matter is if they were turned down because they were legitimately considered a loan payback risk. If this was not the reason, then we have a problem.
More military “readiness”.
When sailors run multi-billion dollar, ultra-high tech destroyers or cruisers into other shipping, or ram one of the most expensive and sophisticated submarine into an underwater wall while constantly falling short at other basics of fighting their ship, but keep getting inundated with more DEI shit instead of the real warfighting training, the problem isn’t with readiness as much as with command trying to make sure if there is a conflict these kids get killed.
It is just so weird that all the top brass are parroting this stuff.
Are they blinking in Morse code or something? Cuz I don’t believe any of them believe any of it.
Oh, I am not sure if they believe any of this shit or not rhywun, but they have known since the Obama admin set these standards that it would not only take doing this shit, vigorously, but paying a ton of lip service to it, to get promoted up the higher ranks. These are fucking careerists that care only about their own promotions and fuck the troops, readiness, or any of the reasons a military exists other than as a way for the defense industry to make big bucks.
It’s incompetence and evil leadership all around.
Brown-nosing to the hilt
Every one of them does exactly what is required for the position. There is still graded/merit promotion up to O-5, above that it is political. That is how the system corrupts the people.
And the system keeps producing more of this shit…
Another navigation software upgrade (with no training)?
They were busy making sure all the DEI training requirements were met so their chances for promotions were not negatively impacted…
Remember this the next time the question comes up about whether the troops would follow orders to turn their guns on US citizens. Following directions is what they do. Sure, a couple platoons might disobey and the other 98% would sigh and get to it.
I wouldn’t doubt the political level (in the military) would give the orders; I just don’t think the non-career would be as inclined to follow those orders.
I am with Juris here. There is no sign that the military at the enlisted level would go all Tienimen on the civilian population. There isn’t enough seperation between classes, ethnicities, and so on to break it up in that manner. China, like the Soviet Union, had too many different points of seperation in the society: language, internal borders, etc, to homogenize the country to the level that the US currently enjoys.
Now, if you started having divisions seperated by race…
Didn’t the British navy historically have some special method of making sailors feel “included”?
Sodomy, rum, and the lash.
The press gang FTW!
I hope “streaming” takes a hit when the dust settles. What a shitty model. “Cut the cord! Everything you used to watch is scattered across a dozen ‘streams’ and you get to pay three times as much for privilege!”
/adjusts onions
The old legacy system where they controlled what was produced and delivered is dying. The old gatekeeping cadre are losing tons of cash from the lack of ability to reliably sell advertisement as people refuse to remain trapped in those old lucrative (for the industry) models. They do not want to adapt. They want to force others to accept the system they like and profit from, or else.
That – and the general quality has dropped significantly. Some of that is probably because everything out of Hollywood has to be woke now. Some it just because the financial model is broken.
If I’m watching prime-time TV now, I usually end up in one of the re-run channels watching something written and produced 25+ years ago. News Radio, Frasier, That 70’s Show, Just Shoot Me, Drew Carey… I find them watchable because they had decent writers who created relatable characters.
Haven’t seen anything like that on network TV in a while. Now actual quality shows are so widely spread across so many platforms, I can’t be bothered to search for those needles in haystacks.
Just for the hell of it a few weeks ago, I sat through ten minutes or so of one of the many CBS crime shows I’d never heard of.
It’s unbelievably bad. I felt like taking the poor actors back in time to see how it’s done.
I have not watched a regular network TV show in decades as well. The quality was just so fucking bad and the preaching so blatant, that I would have considered most of their content against the Geneva convention material. Check that. I DVRed and occasionally watched the Magnum PI reboot. They canceled that recently. So yeah, now I am back to not watching anything on the regular channels again.
The general quality is SO low now that it is more sensible to just buy the episodes of the one or two good shows and not bother subscribing to anything.
That is what I do.
It’s been subdivided to the point that it’s more expensive than cable to keep on top of everything. The only advantages are on demand and no ads.
Not all of them have a no ads options. Then there’s the ad supported ones. I will admit to much preferring the on demand option though for shows, as well as the fact that the majority of streaming services will keep track of what episode you were on (but not all of them for some reason).
I don’t really do “on demand” because I multi-task. “On demand” only makes sense if you put all of your attention on the idiot box which is not something I ever do.
Nah. I’ve got some shows I like to throw on as general background noise (Futurama, American Dad, and the like). I don’t need to pay attention to the shows (as I’ve watched them to death already).
With the content shortage I really should set aside some time to write up the piece I’ve been kicking around about standing up and populating a Plex server.
Much of cable TV has turned into that. I can flip around at almost any time of day and find a marathon of those and other favorites. But yeah, there could be more variety. Someone mentioned “News Radio” for example, I haven’t seen that anywhere.
Amazon Prime or Roku
Was that when Joe Rogan was an actor?
I reference JustWatch when I’m curious where things are available. When I find old items that aren’t available anywhere, they become higher priority for me to get a physical copy to rip to my media server.
@Tater, yes – and he was very good, along with the whole cast, really.
@Neph, neat site, thanks. Was not aware of the “Roku Channel” – I will have to look for that on my tee-vee.
Rewind OTA, I think.
rhywun:
Yeah, I use it frequently (usually to find something for the girlfriend). It gets a bit squirrelly searching for older broadcast television shows at times, but overall it’s got a lot.
😲 Found it.
It’s called “WPIX4” here. Must be new-ish cuz it wasn’t there last time I added some old-people channels to my favorites list.
Nah, it’s not even close to cable. It’s not like you have to subscribe to everything at once. And there are frequent sales and bundle offers.
It is if you want sports.
I like streaming. There is plenty to watch without paid services.
Yep. Ad supported content is the future. Subscription models are a dead end.
I don’t know about that. I think some of the premium stations may be able to keep their subscription models going (HBO, Showtime, Starz, AMC, and the like) as they have a nice backlog of content that is there’s already. What’s interesting is with the MAX changeover, HBO has pulled some shows and shopped them to the ad supported streamers or other streamers.
Hulu appears to be aiming to get to the point to compete directly against Amazon Prime, which appears (to me) to be trying to replace cable with their channel add on options (as well as rentals/digital purchases).
It would also help if the ad supported ones would have someone (or something) put the commercial breaks in the natural breaks that already existed in broadcast shows, or in scene breaks in ones that didn’t. Few things are as jarring as a commercial break coming in the middle of a line of dialog.
“Yep. Ad supported content is the future.”
It was the past also.
“You’ll wonder where the yellow went
When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent”
…. Burma Shave!
“Ad supported content is the future. Subscription models are a dead end.”
I see both continuing. I think the problem is that there are too many channels, so the audience for most shows is tiny.
The bigger problem I see is the subscription services want the producers to take what would be a nice 2-hour movie and turn it into a 13-episode series. The writers guild is trying to take advantage of that.
And it isn’t anything new. The Prisoner was supposed to be six episodes and the producers made McGoohan drag it out to 17 episodes. Maybe the strikes will have the effect of less “make-work” programming and the quality will improve. I can fantasize anyway.
“The Prisoner was supposed to be six episodes and the producers made McGoohan drag it out to 17 episodes.”
A pity… that show ran out of gas, hard, at the very end.
“The bigger problem I see is the subscription services want the producers to take what would be a nice 2-hour movie and turn it into a 13-episode series.”
Yes, the ratio of ideas to time is going down.
Ugh… I tried to watch Invasion on Apple TV this past weekend. The pacing was abominably slow.
Of course, they tried to sell it on “character-driven” instead of plot, but FFS there is no plot and I can only handle so many liberal-favorite stereotypes in one show; obligatory super-smart and capable lesbians, obligatory backwards Christian, obligatory Neo-Nazis, obligatory cheating husband and super-capable wife…
It’s like watching a Stephen King novel.
ESPN is even saying that it is a matter of when, not if, they go to their own service. They make less and less each year from being bundled.
ESPN is the biggest chunk of most people’s cable bills, so yeah that makes sense.
I had ESPN+ for a while… it was nice until they doubled the price. I can see it doubling a few more times before the dust settles there.
It will more than double when it includes ESPN/2/etc.
I assume the etc would include the SECN and ACCN.
CNN and the other uncancelable “news” channels are also part of that charge. May explain why they are content to put out low-rated propaganda.
And people thought the era of Network was bad because of ratings.
Battle of the Network Stars!
I loved that show.
https://youtu.be/tA5jrGEeyXM
This was better
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0f1Ywnjq0A
Damn – bringing back memories of Lynda Carter running in a tank top. I think that’s how puberty started for me.
Back when I had cable I would have loved for them not to be bundled in basic cable.
Yes, which is why lots of people “cut the cord”, to specifically avoid paying for things like ESPN that they didnt use.
But think of the value! You pay less than $1 per channel. It would be more per channel if you only paid for what you watched.
I think its the best model. I can add or drop services whenever I want and don’t have to subsidize ESPN or cable news propaganda.
And no commercials. Streaming services are much cheaper than cable for me ($35/month for 3 major channels), but I’d gladly pay more just to not have to watch commercials. I can’t watch cable tv even when its free (like in a hotel).
Hotel cable was once a bonus. You got all the paid channels. Now I hate it because it is all scheduled.
So true. These days we rarely even use the hotel TV’s any more. Though I usually spend a few minutes fixing the TV settings and correcting the aspect ratio. My little gift to the hundreds of guests who come after me.
If they want to make guests happy, they should figure out how to provide ad-free YouTube on hotel TV’s. That would be very popular.
Same here. Commercials for anything other than live sports is a deal breaker for me. I watched the entire Bosch series on Prime, but not the new one because they put it on Freevee.
And like you said, it’s not expensive unless you have some weird compulsion to have every service at once. I sign up and drop them as necessary, it’s super easy.
we need blockchain involved or something
Female recruit considered resigning after being forced to shower with trans women with full male genitalia
First go full mixed showers.
Second, just because you have a bonus hole does not mean you just get to complain. I swear menstruators / non-men complain to much.
I am with Pie!
Bonus hole people complain too much…
Starship Troopers ftw.
Government efficiency and responsible behavior on display.
The auditing agency urged headquarters to consider consolidating or dumping space and to even consider joining with other agencies to share space.
But many rejected that advice. “One official said their leadership is reluctant to share headquarters space with other agencies because it could lower their perceived standing as a cabinet-level agency,” said the audit report.
rice bowls and egos
rice bowls and egos
IOW, completely normal human behavior in bureaucracies.
Art Buchwald wrote a classic piece on this subject decades ago. Which I cannot find online.
Half to 90% of federal agency HQs empty, billions wasted – hire more people tom fill em up
You either work for government and are looking to get a big promotion, or you are an evil man, Pie…
You can find lots of them on the street. They might need a little cleaning-up to make them cube-presentable.
Daily Quordle 540
8️⃣5️⃣
4️⃣7️⃣
m-w.com/games/quordle/
#waffle543 4/5
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🔥 streak: 163
🏆 #wafflemaster
wafflegame.net
Lets make sure people that suspect something dirty is going on here can never get the facts. Ever since that asshole Comey told people they read Hillary Clinton’s mind, and despite the fact they had so many incidents of evidence destroying and clearly criminal intent, felt no prosecutor would consider the case worthy because.. Well, because democrat deep state approved candidate. We have been looking at the legal system simply becoming banana republic-esque.
Three tired legal system. The powerful and those connected to them, the serfs, and the enemy of the powerful. And team members cheer this on, because team.
“Tired legal system”
Might be a typo, essentially correct.
Tired, tiered… Same shit these days.
Reversion to mean.
Mark Ruffalo
@MarkRuffalo
When your home burns, floods, or is destroyed in an extreme climate weather event, when someone in your family dies from heat waves, or when crops fail and people starve—come for these three people: Wael Sawan (Shell CEO), Darren Woods (Exxon CEO), and Patrick Pouyanne (TotalEnergies CEO). They knew what was coming and did it to you anyway. Sue them, shame them, heckle them, despise them. These are choices. They are to blame, not society.
https://twitter.com/MarkRuffalo/status/1680964702317232130
those bastards keep burning millions of barrels of oil for no reason. Also Saudi Aramco and Petrobras and Pemex and Rosneft do not exist.
Ruffalo is a fucking idiot.
Never forget he referred to the pedophile racist that Rittenhouse shot first as Jo-Jo.
That’s it Ruffalo. Make yourself unemployable.
I feel that way about most of Hollywood.
I would know as little as I care about what that man thinks, if it wasn’t shoved in my face. Thanks Pie.
much obliged
hmmm wait I did not mean to say that
They are to blame, not society.
Thank God, I was worried I had autonomy.
There is no proof that burning fossil fuels causes any of those things.
But idiots gotta idiot, I guess.
What was the fuel bill for The Avengers?
Pssst. Nobody tell him what’s in fertilizer.
“When the Dutch and Irish Governments destroy farming…no, wait, I didn’t mean that!”
I just saw your post from yesterday, I wish you a peaceful ending to whomever had to go hospice.
New television special: Some guy named Mark Ruffalo spends a single day not using/consuming anything that contains fossil fuels.
Dead after the first episode.
This fuckery is by design.
“Changes to a popular 401(K) tax deduction are set to hit millions of high-earning Americans from next year.
Workers over the aged of 50 are entitled to make catch-up contributions to their 401(K)s worth up to $7,500 this year. The annual cap on all contributions is $30,000.
But from 2024, those earning over $145,000 will no longer be able to put these catch-up payments into a traditional 401(K). ”
The progressives feel it is unfair that people like me decided to make sure I could retire without depending on government handouts of money they stole from the productive (for however long that ponzi scheme survives), and are closing that loop hole a little bit at the time. In the name of fairness or some such shit.
Looks like I picked the right time to retire!
Eh, just put the $7,500 into t-bills for time being.
Will that trans into real money at some point?
US dollars identify as real money.
¿Que? That would not be equivalent.
“By preventing transgender individuals from participating in sports aligned with their gender identity, or by denying them access to critical healthcare, these legislative actions directly contradict the values of inclusivity and diversity,” Bonta said. “As mandated by AB 1887, we are, thus, compelled to impose restrictions on state-funded travel to Missouri, Nebraska, and Wyoming in response to their discriminatory laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community.”
That’s nice. Run along, now.
It would be hilarious for some legislature to state “In order to secure our state from the locust plague of California government stooges, we pass the following law keeping people with dicks out of female locker rooms.”
To enable swarm navigation in the wild, researchers develop miniature but fully #autonomous #drones with a trajectory planner that can function in a timely and accurate manner based on limited information from onboard #sensors.
Video source: Fei Gao / Zhejiang University
https://twitter.com/WevolverApp/status/1681204832021934080
Earlier this month, Oxfam proposed a 90% tax on the “windfall profits” that they claimed 722 of the world’s largest companies had made.
Turns out the definition of “windfall” is surprising. Quick thread.
https://twitter.com/DanNeidle/status/1681230741965791232
To governments any money they didn’t get to take from you is a windfall profit…
Disney can suck it, they have been working hard to ruin that company and they’ve almost achieved what they wanted. Even as a kid, I never much cared for Disney. Gimme Looney Tunes, now those were cartoons.
As long as the theme parks print money they will wokestream.
About that…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/disney-ceo-responds-disney-world-attendance-implosion
Comparison to pre COVID levels? Or to Disneyland?
Then there’s the proxy of using ride waits to estimate overall attendance. Is it really that static, despite line skipping passes and other smoothing tools?
I love the tacit admission that Disney isn’t as competitive as it used to be.
And if the proxy measure of wait times is no bueno, why doesn’t Disney just tell us actual attendance? As ever, it’s the dog that didn’t bark – those actual numbers must suck pretty hard if Disney isn’t touting them.
This! Other than some of the old live-action movies, I always thought Disney was crap.
I’ve been a huge Disney fan since I was little. The parks, the shows, all of it. But I’m happy to see them lose money. They’ve been putting out increasingly shitty products and raising prices for decades now. There needed to be a correction. They haven’t hit bottom yet, but I hope that eventually they’ll bleed enough cash to realize they need to get back to their roots. They had an amazing business model and pissed it all away.
https://twitter.com/ptrain67/status/1604143546411651074
twitter community notes be wild
OMG!
lol right?
Bitch had it coming?
Taking the Titanic as an analogy, I think we are well into the “looting the bar” phase.
They are taking all the silverware and any real valuables not bolted down or too heavy to carry to the life boats they plan to use to make THEIR escape. There is no room for anyone else but them and their loot.
Earlier this month, Oxfam proposed a 90% tax on the “windfall profits” that they claimed 722 of the world’s largest companies had made.
Turns out the definition of “windfall” is surprising.
I doubt it.
I am entirely certain I will not be surprised.
10% over last year.
Giada World Full show | Miami swim week 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA-UT1OQAvo
Gone to the Promised Land
A U.S. service member crossed into North Korea and was believed to be in the custody of the country’s forces, a U.S. official told CBS News on Tuesday. The United Nations Command, which operates the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, first said Tuesday that an unidentified U.S. national had crossed the border.
The U.S. official told CBS News the troop in question was being escorted back to the United States for disciplinary reasons, but after going through airport security, they somehow returned and managed to join the border tour.
“A U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” U.N. Command said in its statement earlier. “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident.”
I’m sure the Norks will welcome him with open arms.
The U.S. Congressional Budget Office released a report earlier this year projecting the national debt will be nearly twice as large as the U.S. economy in 30 years.
That’s optimistic.
Cut that time frame in half. Look at how fast the total expenditures exploded. None of the experts 20 years ago would have predicted those numbers. Maybe Ron Paul.
The border incident on Tuesday came as the U.S. military confirmed the arrival in a South Korean port of the nuclear-armed submarine USS Kentucky. The visit was the first by a U.S. nuclear submarine to South Korea in four decades, and while it was announced in advance, North Korea was likely to claim it as another American provocation.
Nothing to worry about. there are grownups running our foreign policy now.
That’s one of the things you can’t really deny about Trump. They bitched and moaned about him meeting with NK, but during his entire term they were in the background and nothing to worry about.
Good morning, Banjos!
I’m afraid the prospect of Hollywood collapsing doesn’t fill me with sorrow.
More like this.
We’re way better off with smaller content creators who produce things that are original and don’t just check things off a woke checklist.
Housing prices reigniting as supply shortage squeezes buyers
You will own nothing and be “happy” because organizations like Blackrock are buying up all the properties.
https://www.trutv.com/shows/tacoma-fd
Tacoma FD new season starts Thursday. 🙂
Missouri: Men can’t compete against women.
Also Missouri to California: Who are you again?
Streaming confuses and frightens me. I got most of the streaming services plus cable because I wanted a nice selection when I’m cross stitching. Now there’s so much I a) have analysis paralysis and b) I can’t remember which shows are on which service and I don’t get invested in any one show enough to remember that I was watching them and return to them. I like that if I want to watch a movie, I just google to find out where it is and I can go there. Roku has so many ads it’s worthless. Often I end up flipping through channels on cable. I’m thinking of getting rid of services, but my fam is not a fan of that. I swear I’m spending $50/month on just streaming.
@Timeloose, I’m sorry for your loss.
@robodruid, I’m sorry for your loss, too.
We are at the point we want to cancel things too. We have basic cable and subscribe to Disney+ and Netflix. But still can’t watch everything we want. When you pay the bills every month and see $25or $30 for multiple subscriptions, it adds up fast.
Related: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g3cW2DS7KPE
California bans state-funded travel to Missouri, Nebraska and Wyoming
I assume this is because these states don’t want to trans children and kill babies up to, during and after birth.
San Francisco Walgreens NOW resorts to CHAINING their freezers to stop shoplifters in crime-riddled city swiping pizza and ice cream 20 times a day – as another branch completely boards up its windows
Frozen food reparations, man. Chaining the freezers is white-supremacy.
I’d start closing Walgreens locations when it comes to that point.
I think the old Service Merchandise model would work best. Pick what you want on a menu, pay, and then get your items from a conveyor belt.
I’ve already seen several stories hit my newsfeed about bringing back automats.
There is definitely a point where it’s not worth keeping a store open. But then they’ll be bitching about “food deserts” or something.
Are buffalo wings the best American food?
damn wordpress
https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1681283174675124226
They are pretty good. Are they actually an American invention?
They are. If it wasn’t for a drunken snack request late at the Anchor bar, chicken wings would still be considered waste and set aside for stock and the like.
I’ve heard that was apocryphal like so many such stories but who knows anymore.
I’ve been there and the wings are good for non-gourmet.
https://www.history.com/shows/the-food-that-built-america/season-4/episode-3
I love that show.
The ones at Gourmeltz were among the best that I have ever had.
So, about the writers’ and actors’ strike:
What the studios need to do is violate the SAG and throw open the gates to new writers. “You can write what you want and we’ll greenlight it for production.” To actors: “We’ll take the ones without SAG cards.” That way the support industry can keep working, Hollyweird puts out different crap and maybe get some non-crap, and n00bs get a shot.
Scabs #FTW!
I remember previous strikes’ response was to remake older shows/movies. Given that’s the current main business model, maybe they can go back to original content as a strikebreaker.
Just give the good people everything they want
Perfect! How many of the daily daytime soaps do you think you can keep going on your own?
I read a Harlequin once where the heroine was a soap writer and she was stuck in a cabin with the hero for some reason (probably snow, as per protocol). It disgusted him that she would insist on watching soaps every day, and it amused her so much she didn’t tell him she was the head writer for it for a long time.
I don’t think anybody would like the direction I would take a soap, which is to a conclusion.
The whole purpose of a soup opera is perpetuity. It’s a multigenerational saga for selling ads to soap companies.
Subplots can conclude, but the show must go on.
That … was my point.
My mother listened to them on the radio, 15 minute segments.
Some radio shows made the transfer to TV fairly well, some didn’t.
Likewise some radio actors, I’m sure. (i.e. “face made for radio.)
I have a face for radio and a voice for mime.
World’s most successful radio mime!
Grownups doing grownup stuff
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he has been told he is a target in the Jan. 6 criminal investigation by special counsel Jack Smith.
Trump is the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Smith already has criminally charged Trump with about three dozen counts related to retaining classified documents when he left the White House.
Trump also suggested he may soon face indictment for the Jan. 6 probe, which is focused on Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. Trump posted his statement on his Truth Social account.
Maybe they can charge him with parading without a license, or littering.
Littering and ?… littering and ?… littering and ?…
Ooh! Ooh! I know this one! And creating a nuisance! 😃
An 18-year-old military recruit forced to shower with biological males as part of the Biden administration’s transgender policies is complaining about being placed in an “extremely uncomfortable position.”
You better tolerate stunning and brave female penises, bigot.
Women to MtFs: Welcome to the fold!
MtFs to women: Run, bitches. Hide. We own your spaces now and we will follow you wherever you go to forcibly penetrate you with our lady dicks.
I cannot express how infuriating this is to some of us.
It baffles me how all those women always complaining about the patriarchy coming after them are 100% supporting this assault on being female…
Kind of like how it baffles me why so many women act as if the right to murder their offspring is how they show they are equal to men.
The Bee nailed it when they did an article about Drew Barrymore showing how far women had come by kneeling in front of a man.
She didn’t even have a ring!
I don’t see either of those being true. There are some “Welcome to the fold!” women, but there are many, perhaps the majority who aren’t. The “forcibly penetrate you with our lady dicks” are men, mostly convicted of sex offenses, claiming they are trans to go to women’s prison.
The problem is not recognizing the difference between people who are merely identify as trans and those who actually are. Both sides are guilty. On the left you have people saying “You are whatever you say you are!” Which is absurd. On the right, you have people using idiotic nonsense language such as “trans-identified male”.
Okay, given the proliferation of the epithet TERF! and the few women I’ve seen actually protesting this invasion (bonus points for not getting hammered for doing so), it’s safe to say the majority of leftist screaming women are welcoming MtFs to the fold of womanhood. I have seen no evidence that women who protest this are welcome into the tent of the conversation.
Secondly, “I’m going to penetrate you with my lady dick” is a metaphor for actual, physical rape of a woman, i.e., the invasion of MtFs into women’s spaces, pushing women out, is, in fact, cultural rape.
Thirdly, I’mma pull the woman card. I am deeply, DEEEPLY offended by these people coming into MY spaces, acting like they have a right to be there just because they claim to be women. NO YOU FUCKING DO NOT. If you can pass and act like a decent human being, sure, I’m not going to judge because you just want to be left alone enough to care to pass. Most of these people do not care about passing. They just want celebration because they say, “I identify as female” AND THEY ARE GETTING IT.
So from my point of view, it very much is an invasion and, if you will, a metaphorical rape of womanhood and its female-only spaces.
“it’s safe to say the majority of leftist screaming women are welcoming MtFs to the fold of womanhood”
Majority of leftists, yes.
“If you can pass and act like a decent human being, sure, I’m not going to judge because you just want to be left alone enough to care to pass. Most of these people do not care about passing. ”
I think actual MTF who do care about passing outnumber the transtrenders, but the transtrenders get most of the attention in the news. “Trans Woman Peed At Starbucks And Nothing Else Happened” isn’t much of a story.
I disagree. The trenders are by far the majority by at least several orders of magnitude. The number of actual dysphorics is a rounding error, as it is an exceedingly rare condition. The moment it became a way to get attention and approbation, swarms of people who are not actual dysphorics jumped on the bandwagon, swamping those who are legitimately in need of mental heath treatments for their ailment.
And yeah, that, what UCS said.
Except they’re the screaming ones, the ones driving this train. I don’t see any effective counter-attack in social media and corporations.
Wait til you get a real taste of the big green weenie.
Like the back seat of a Volkswagon?
Comparing Uranus’ Ariel, Titania, Oberon and Umbriel to the icy moons of other gas giants suggests they too have underground oceans:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022JE007432
They would be very deep ‘relict’ oceans with ammonia antifreeze keeping them liquid.
https://twitter.com/ToughSf/status/1681272615040610308
When do you think I can pay $250,000 to go down in a submersible and see these oceans?
To get a sense of just how much animosity is flying around Hollywood these days, watch how Ron Perlman responded to a report that the studios aimed to prolong a strike long enough for writers to lose their homes.
Is this why Snow White, a character from Germanic folklore that is supposed the be black-haired and extremely fair-skinned, is now Cuban with purple hair and the dwarves are now Antifa?
complaining about being placed in an “extremely uncomfortable position.”
Just wait ’til the shooting starts.
Ford cuts prices on F-150 Lightning truck
They had a winning formula but instead decided to fix what wasn’t broken.
To some extent, it’s the EPA forcing their hand. The CAFE standards have gotten idiotic.
It’s the same reason you can’t have a small truck anymore. The gas mileage requirements are directly related to the footprint of the vehicle. Bigger is the only way to get a low enough requirement that you can actually achieve it and even then they’re being forced to extremes.
By design, of course.
Also the reason we can’t have imports.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
Somebody should make a show about writers on a picket line saying clever and witty stuff.
It would be a five minute show.
Are you suggesting the crap on tv and in movies was actually written by “writers?” Like “journalists,” that word has been corrupted.
According to Nature, ex-CIA spooks who have run dark money disinfo campaigns for the Democratic Party and now scour the internet for disfavored opinions to censor are “scientists.”
https://twitter.com/lwoodhouse/status/1680972138856202240
Cut the grass this morning. It was low 70s at the time but I still was drenched with sweat. Also, there appears to be some sort of underground bee hive in my back yard. That’ll be fun to get rid of.
Jacobin
@jacobin
Studying the writings of Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservatism, reveals something important: that right-wing intellectual thought is little more than a series of dressed-up defenses of conventional social relations and traditional hierarchies.
https://twitter.com/jacobin/status/1680366639764877312
What are you doing reading Jacobin? Your time would be better spent watching Hollywood movies.
This sounds like progjection by someone that either never really read that asshole Marx (and got all their knowledge from bullshit propaganda), read it and never understood any of what Marx was really about, or read Marx, understood it was not just murderous evil intent on destroying man under the guise of a quest to create some fiction of heaven on earth, but downright evil, and just wants to see the world burn out of spite.
Take it to the bank
The Biden administration Friday said it would forgive $39 billion of student debt for 804,000 borrowers, many of whom may be wondering if the action will meet the same doom as the forgiveness plan killed by the Supreme Court last month.
Student loan experts think this one is likely to survive.
“Undoubtedly you’ll see some legal complaints,” said Mark Kantrowitz, a higher education expert. “But they won’t go anywhere.”
Higher education expert: that’s a noble calling if ever there was one.
Someone should interview the prospective recipients of this tax payer largess to buy votes, and see what the percentage of these people when asked how they would use the money, say they will go on vacation and party with it…
New🧵: @konrad_muzyka
, @RALee85
, @KofmanMichael
,& I spent some time this month visiting the frontlines in Ukraine to gain new insights into the ongoing counteroffensive & the war overall. Here are some general observations.
https://twitter.com/HoansSolo/status/1681240456754077697
right-wing intellectual thought is little more than a series of dressed-up defenses of conventional social relations and traditional hierarchies.
And left wing intellectual thought is nothing but envy and resentment in a frilly dress of feigned empathy.
The progressive cult is based on the appeal to humanities basest feelings of envy/greed, promising the creation of a new man and heaven on earth, while delivering hell on earth for those that don’t end up on the mountain of bodies these ‘revolutions” always demand as part of the journey to the never reachable utopia.
I guess mounting legal challenges is a crime now.
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously dismissed a longshot bid by former President Donald Trump to quash the special grand jury report that recommended criminal charges in the Fulton County district attorney’s probe of Georgia’s 2020 election.
The state Supreme Court also rejected Trump’s request that it bar Fulton DA Fani Willis from continuing to oversee the criminal investigation.
The ruling came weeks before Willis is expected to seek indictments in the probe of efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over him in the Peach State.
So far, no one has been criminally charged in the investigation. And the identities of more than a dozen people who the special grand jury recommended be prosecuted remain secret.
Good to know that telling my kids to, say, “find my car keys” is the same as “go steal me a car.”
https://www.chewboom.com/2023/07/16/hostess-introduces-new-ding-dongs-x-twinkies-mashups/
Really?
Everything is trans these days.
Drag is non-sexual!
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1681092876313214976
LET US GROOM THEM KIDS ALREADY!
Is there anything the left touches that doesn’t turn to shit? Up to a few years ago, drag used to be a niche form of entertainment. I know people who used to go to the shows for fun. Are those performers happy that it’s turned into simulated sex in front of kids?
The old-school drag performers are not. But they’ve been sidelined in favor of the new, improved “Drag Is For Kids” group.
Drag as a sexual display for adults is as far as I’m concerned, on par with strip clubs and the sort. It’s there, it’s not for kids, nobody really cares.
Drag as tolerance training for little kids is just pedophilia on full display and is going to end badly for somebody.
Back in the day I went to numerous drag shows, and it wasn’t even particularly sexual. It was just dudes, who never claimed to be anything but dudes, dressed in clownish outfits conducting runway struts, gameshow-style quizzes and such, etc. Everything was campy and over the top, and much fun was had. The other, more serious, style was song and dance, folks doing pretty good Donna Summer impersonations, etc.
There was a lot of sexual innuendo but perhaps yeah, they were not as sexual as what they are doing in front of children during the day now.
“niche form of entertainment”
So were minstrel shows. But White folks lampooning Blacks is no longer tolerated, but Males lampooning Women is tolerated and celebrated.
Art
https://twitter.com/JebraFaushay/status/1680705777437122561
At least it is not some guy dressed as clownish version of a woman beating his meat..
No.
In the past I’ve attempted to defend modern art. I was wrong.
Create beauty or gtfo.
For hilarity, I took my kids to the Hirshhorn at the Smithsonian.
Besides the obligatory “You can’t sit in that chair because it’s art” discussion, I just told them to watch the other visitors because that’s the joke. Watch them try to figure out “What it all means” and signal to each other how smart and cultured they are while the artist is making bank on their gullibility.
That ship sailed about a century ago.
You’re going to have to have a reverse march through the institutions to get back there.
Fine art.
It’s not loading, all I get is a red rectangle.
/deliberately obtuse.
WORD!
EXCEL!
Reactionary bigots.
How did a party with almost no power in California manage to achieve a political win?
In part by employing simplistic, fear-based messaging that exploited the divide between progressive and moderate Democrats on criminal justice reform. Social media posts amplifying the bill’s failure suggested Democrats are soft on crime, especially related to children.
Their arguments in favor of the bill also carried a whiff of the far-right GOP conspiracy theory related to Democrats and pedophilia.
How dare you accuse the groomer party of being pedos or sympathetic to pedos.
If that’s right-wing, then count me in. Child sex-traffickers can go straight to the chair as far as I’m concerned.
How trannies took over the Democratic Party
Headline: “Is [insert Biden program] legal? We searched high and low throughout America’s elite institutions until we came up with an expert who says yes.”
When people get tired off bullshit…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/golf/article-12310851/Jon-Rahm-hints-throw-Just-Stop-Oil-protestors-course-Open-Masters-champion-insists-reputation-dont-catch-bad-hole.html
Don’t let anyone film you doing that.
Also electrical zip ties are really good for keeping morons strapped to signposts off the road.
Just leave them there, put a locked chainlink fence around them and little detour signs. After 6-8 hours haul their asses off to jail with no food/water
A headline you would expect to be in the Babylon Bee but is not: Soros-Funded DA Facing Recall Says Families of Murder Victims Are Unable to ‘Appreciate the Work we Do’.
Crimes against humanity
E-mails shared with CNN by the Texas Department of Public Safety detail a trooper-medic expressing concerns to a supervisor over the “in humane [sic]” treatment of migrants along the border in Eagle Pass, Texas.
The trooper writes in the e-mail that they “were given orders to push the people back into the water to go to Mexico” and were also ordered not to give water to the migrants.
The e-mail is a report of weekly events and operational concerns from June 24 to July 1 while the officer worked as a trooper-medic. The e-mail was first reported by the Houston Chronicle on Monday.
——-
On another shift, the medics said they found about 120 people camping out – including nursing babies and other young children – exhausted, hungry and tired after a day when the temperature reached 108 degrees in the shade. The medics questioned an order to push them back to the river toward Mexico as they thought it was “not the correct thing to do” and one that could have led to a risk of drowning. They were told to leave the area, the trooper wrote in the e-mail.
The trooper medics contacted their superiors while on duty and again in writing, calling for changes to the latest Operation Lone Star policies brought in by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“I believe we a have stepped over a line into the in humane [sic]. We need to operate it correctly in the eyes of God,” the trooper said. “We need to operate it correctly in the eyes of God. We need to recognize that these are people who are made in the image of God and need to be treated as such.”
Maybe we should start rounding up the NGOs and nonprofits encouraging these people to come, and charge them with RICO violations.
The sad truth:
We have fed the bears so long, they have come to expect it. They demand we enact our labor and save them. I don’t like pushing back people who are dehydrated and tired either, but we must. That is the only way this endless migration stops.
“The medics questioned an order to push them back to the river toward Mexico as they thought it was “not the correct thing to do” and one that could have led to a risk of drowning.”
The river that they just walked across?
In recent years, migrants have resorted to increasingly risky – and often fatal – paths to evade detection and enter the US. Immigrant rights advocates point to policies that have made it more difficult for migrants to seek refuge in the US, CNN previously reported.
This made my head hurt.
The goalposts have been shifted to the surface of Mars.
Art
Another art
Nature sucks
A woman was gored by a bison after she turned around to walk away from it in Yellowstone National Park, officials said.
It was the first goring reported in 2023, Yellowstone officials said in a news release. The last reported incident was June 28, 2022.
The 47-year-old woman from Phoenix was walking with another person in a field in front of the Lake Lodge near Yellowstone Lake when they saw two bison, officials said. They turned to walk away, and one of the bison charged and gored the woman.
Officials aren’t sure how close they were to the bison when it charged. The woman’s chest and abdomen were seriously injured, and she was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, officials said. Park rangers did not disclose her condition.
Officials warned that animals in the park are unpredictable and dangerous to approach.
“When an animal is near a campsite, trail, boardwalk, parking lot, or in a developed area, give it space,” officials said. “Stay more than 25 yards away from all large animals — bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose, and coyotes — and at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves. If need be, turn around and go the other way to avoid interacting with a wild animal in proximity.”
How did he get her in the chest if her back was turned?
It’s a lot of noise when a bison charges. She might have turned around to see what all the racket was.
Obligatory:
“A moose once bit my sister…
No realli! She was Karving her initials on the moose with the sharpened end of an interspace toothbrush given her by Svenge—her brother-in-law— an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian movies: “The Hot Hands of an Oslo Dentist”, “Fillings of Passion”, “The Huge Molars of Horst Nordfink”…
Mynd you, moose bites Kan be pretti nasti…”
“Bison have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal,” park rangers said. “They are unpredictable and can run three times faster than humans.”
What kind of retard looks at one of those things and says, “ooh, I should go pet it”?
Another thing Disney has to answer for. The same people who think power comes from the outlet and food comes from the store also think that wild animals the size of small cars are just pets you haven’t met yet.
Magnus’s brain is freaking scary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5BnJvhSryc