Labor Day (United States) Afternoon Links

by | Sep 4, 2023 | Daily Links | 99 comments

Another Monday, another injury to my poor, beleaguered left eye. Yesterday, I was rolling around on the floor with all four boys, and while the older two distracted me, the youngest whacked me in the eye socket with his kid’s broom. I was a bit teary-eyed. Both from the location of the immediate trauma and the bone-deep satisfaction that the little one may be half-feral and not get enough adult supervision, but he knows how to take advantage of a situation to get his licks in. He’ll be fine.

Let’s see… something else happened. Oh yeah, the Florida State Seminoles managed to shake off LSU (and the refs) to make a statement. I’m unsure whether that statement is only that LSU is barely going to be top 10 in the SEC, much less the country, or something bigger. But man, after about 40 minutes of the old talented-but-undisciplined play that has been their calling card for the 40+ years I’ve been watching them, they just crushed the life out of LSU.

Okay… links:

What is Chinese for “government contractor”?

Checks year on article — German economic problems cause shift to right — in 2023? Could be 1933

This is incredibly geeky, but very cool.

I missed this last night, but the returning SpaceX crew mission capsule was visible as it passed over our house en route to landing off the other coast of Florida.

 

This seems like an appropriate song for a blue-collar holiday.

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.

99 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    “No giant version inside this time.”

    Good.

    Sorry about the eye though.

  2. Common Tater

    “German economic problems cause shift to right”

    What could possibly go wrong?

    • Suthenboy

      Quick! You have a time machine, in 3 seconds answer what you would do with it!

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Befriend young Ted Kazinsky and convince him to run for President?

      • Suthenboy

        General’s Jack Keane and Curtis LeMay heartily approve of this message.

      • Not Adahn

        Marilyn Monroe and Hedy Lamarr. At the same time.

      • Suthenboy

        Femme Fatale fan are we?
        I see Mike has wised up.

      • cyto

        That’s Hedley….

      • MikeS

        Have a long talk with 16 year old me.

      • Common Tater

        Have you ever tried to talk to a teenager? He won’t listen.

      • DEG

        Yep.

        I know I wouldn’t have listened.

  3. Common Tater

    “New research – and a world-first experimental result – display the potential for using quantum technology to explore new designs in material science, drugs or solar energy harvesting.”

    Quantum drugs? So you are high and sober at the same time?

    • Rat on a train

      until you collapse

  4. The Late P Brooks

    Fap fap fap

    Volkswagen hasn’t released any power figures for the ID.GTI, but we can safely assume it will have at least as much as the 223 horsepower that has been promised for the top-spec ID.2. Like the current gasoline-fired GTI, the ID.GTI will get an electronically controlled limited-slip differential to help it find traction and help alter its behavior in switchable dynamic modes. It also has a simulated sound system, which the company says can replicate historic GTIs, including the original 1976 Mk 1 and the 1986 Mk 2 16-valve version.

    ——-

    Another neat detail is the ability to transform the display of the 10.9-inch digital instrument display to a rendered version of the Mk 2 Golf GTI’s instrument pack. A larger 12.9-inch display sits in the center of the dashboard, and as with the face-lifted versions of the larger ID models, Volkswagen is bringing back separate temperature and volume controls rather than integrating them into the bottom of the touchscreen. The concept also has a head-up display for both the driver and front-seat passenger, which is shown projecting performance data high onto the full height of the screen and allowing the passenger to see “lap times that have been completed.” That is a distraction that is hard to imagine making it to a road-legal version.

    Will it have a pretend rev counter and oil pressure gauge? It should have a playing-card-in-bicycle spokes soundtrack.

    • Sean

      NOPE. Yuck!

    • Common Tater

      “It also has a simulated sound system, which the company says can replicate historic GTIs, including the original 1976 Mk 1 and the 1986 Mk 2 16-valve version.”

      Wasn’t that in some stupid movie?

      • Suthenboy

        “They’ve been making fake noises for years.”

        There is a ‘thats what she said’ joke screaming to get out of that statement.

      • Suthenboy

        Waiting for a response…..waiting….waiting…..
        Jane Fonda glances at her watch and rolls her eyes.

      • Ted S.

        Equip the car with a Wilhelm scream.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I want an Avro Vulcan howl add on pack.

    • Suthenboy

      P Brooks wins the comment of the day.

  5. MikeS

    I don’t see any actual wall in the pic with that story.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      Well, that’s just great!

  6. The Late P Brooks

    Volkswagen should put some old-timey torque steer into their “dynamic system” programming, just for laughs.

    • Sean

      Their limited slip diff is magic.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    But there are growing signs of public disenchantment in the shift to a more sustainable Europe, with a so-called “greenlash” emerging as people feel the cost impacts.

    Sinn suggested there would be political ramifications as a result of the focus on sustainability.

    “There is a backlash clearly … The population is now moving to the right,” Sinn said, referring to the popularity of the right-leaning Alternative for Germany party, which won a district council election for the first time in June.

    “I am not moving to evaluate anything here, but … the policies which were, for ideological reasons, completely overdrawn … Pragmatism is a little bit missing in current policy,” he added.

    Your so-called “pragmatism” is right wing white supremacy, on stilts.

    • Shpip

      Was going to post the same thing.

      I’m reminded of the old Bill Buckley quote: “Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.”

      • creech

        Something the J6 folks maybe should have considered.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    I’m not sure how an economy in ruins qualifies as “sustainable”.

    • Gender Traitor

      Well, I’m sure it can stay ruined for a long, long time.

    • R C Dean

      Entropy is eminently sustainable.

    • Suthenboy

      He should have pretended to be a doctor and offered them free treatments for hysteria.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s sleazy as fuck but it shouldn’t be illegal unless they were being defrauded somehow. Also, not rape.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      Dude just wanted a little pork. Is that so wrong?

    • R C Dean

      Except for the jailed part, anyway.

    • cyto

      I’m pretty sure mustard is the go-to for low calorie condiments too, which makes it even sillier.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    VW should make their E-dubs chuff and fart like the original 1200 cc air cooled motor.

    • Ted S.

      Make your own fart sound effects.

      • Suthenboy

        That is easy for me. Wife has been on a broccoli kick lately.

  10. Suthenboy

    1. The Chinese are worried that evidence of the cadavers of dead slave labor will be unearthed.

    2. The rise of National Socialism and WWII is directly attributable to the crimes committed in the hall of mirrors in 1919. The punishment for Germany caused enormous pain and misery for the average German citizen. It was unwise and unwarranted.
    The right turn in contemporary Germany is for the same reason. People never learn I suppose.

    3. When solar panels approach 100% efficiency I might give them a bit of interest. Might.

    4. From sidebar in article: Profound Consequences for the Climate – Scientists Discover Urea in the Atmosphere
    An excellent example of how the human mind works, though I am sure it wasn’t meant that way. The consequences are profound because they are discovered and may have an effect on the narrative? Because it is just another variable not figured into the AGW models?
    I see that the Milankovitch cycles( #1 factor in variations of earth’s climate) are just now being grudgingly admitted to. Also, I have yet to see any serious attention given to variations in the Sun’s climate as being a root factor.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    Enlightened governance

    Starting September 5, the city will begin enforcing a 2022 law requiring hosts on Airbnb, Vrbo, and other short-term-rental platforms to register with the city. Hosts will have to comply with new rules like a ban on entire-unit rentals, a requirement to stay in-unit with guests, and a reservation cap of two people.

    Failure to comply could result in up to $5,000 in fines per stay, but exemptions exist for certain buildings that are designated for transient lodging.

    The new rules threaten to shutter thousands of short-term rentals and fundamentally redraw what kinds of apartments and homes are used for short-term rentals in New York City. For some hosts, it’s the end of the road, while others see the drawback in competition as their biggest opportunity in a decade.

    You don’t own that.

    • Suthenboy

      “Life, Liberty and Property”. It is real simple but they just could not bring themselves to put that on paper.

    • rhywun

      register with the city

      Sounds like step 1 – where step 2 is taking the housing and filling it with “migrants”.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Or rent to affordable housing grifting orgs. Government agencies have already been buying up motels, decreasing the stock of rooms, and using them for favored clients of their programs.

      • Suthenboy

        Haven’t we seen that movie before?

      • rhywun

        Saw it in Germany a few years ago. I wonder what happened to that old lady they kicked out of her rental.

  12. Common Tater

    “Despite promises to restore free speech, Twitter / X deleted numerous accounts belonging to patriotic youth movement Generation Identity in Germany. The block came a few days after police raids on GI supporters in southern Germany and Switzerland…

    A few days earlier, Elon Musk’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, met with Trump-hating online troll Jonathan Greenblatt of the notorious far left hate group Anti-Defamation League (ADL)…

    Speaking to Junge Freiheit newspaper, Generation Identity spokesman Martin Sellner noted that “How GI is treated is always a good gauge of the overall trajectory. After Musk’s takeover, there was a period of a few months when fewer posts were deleted. Now, directly after a major police raid, there was a concerted banning operation. I expect this clampdown to continue,” Sellner said.

    Generation Identity is a non-violent right-wing youth movement which aims to preserve the cultural heritage of Europe. It has been banned in Austria, France and Germany with no legal justification. French members who sought to protect French borders were jailed on bogus charges of “impersonating an officer.””

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/so-much-free-speech-twitter-shuts-down-generation/

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      You see, here’s the thing about Musk…he either sucks or he’s the worst personnel hirer since Trump brought in Bolton and Barr.

    • Suthenboy

      I guess there is some pressure point under which even the hardest stone crumbles.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    “​​Our administration is determined to preserve affordable housing and cracking down on illegal short term renters are one way we are going to accomplish that aspect,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference in July 2022.

    Needs more rent control.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      He’s going to loosen up code enforcement and zoning laws too, right?

  14. DEG

    Both from the location of the immediate trauma and the bone-deep satisfaction that the little one may be half-feral and not get enough adult supervision, but he knows how to take advantage of a situation to get his licks in. He’ll be fine.

    Yep.

  15. Tres Cool

    Time to get to the airport. Gonna be hot out there- Im going to Texas

    • R.J.

      It’s nice right now. Not too hot. 90s.
      What town?

    • Gender Traitor

      Was hoping for this.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Tragedy on the top floor

    Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc announced Friday that its chief executive, Rosalind Brewer, had resigned the day before. Brewer was the only African-American female CEO to run an S&P 500 company. With so few African-American women ever having gotten to the top of big US companies—other notables include former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns and Mary Winston as interim chief of Bed Bath & Beyond—Brewer’s departure deserves attention. After Burns left Xerox, the Fortune 500 went five years without another African-American female CEO.

    The fact that there are so few at the helm of major companies itself creates a problem: One of the challenges such corporate leaders must overcome is isolation. In US C-suites, many African-American women must confront the reality of being “the only.” Even if others have held senior roles before them, there are so few that it’s unusual to have more than one on a board or executive team at a time. That can leave each one feeling like she’s reinventing the wheel. Whereas Caucasian women have long talked of a ‘glass ceiling,’ the term many African-American women use is a concrete wall. You can’t even see across it. As Ella Bell Smith and Stella Nkomo write in their book Our Separate Ways, they “face special hurdles in the journey to the top and … when they get there, may find corporate America a lonely, hollow, haunted place.”

    Walgreens shareholders are heartbroken.

    • R C Dean

      Well, I expect they are.

      Since half the stock value vanished during her tenure.

      • cyto

        Also not mentioned… bed bath and beyond … bankruptcy…..

  17. rhywun

    German economic problems cause shift to right

    That article sure went to great pains to avoid saying “this is intentional”.

  18. kinnath

    Thank You for the unedited version of Money for Nothing.

  19. Brochettaward

    When it comes to Firsting, the spirit is often ready, but the flesh is sore and bruised.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Try 41st, nimrod

      • Brochettaward

        Firstging is a young man’s game so I wouldn’t expect an old seconder like you to comprehend.

  20. cyto

    Florida State beats the #4 Tigers (per ESPN) like a red-headed stepchild and Florida State moves to #9. Meanwhile, Oklahoma beats Arkansas state and vaults up 7 spots to number 4.

    I am beginning to suspect that ESPN doesn’t know what they are doing…..

    • cyto

      The reason i noticed this is because of the teams down around number 20. My Tar Heels were #22, and a 14 point win that wasn’t remotely that close in a game with a 2.5 point line against an SEC opponent in South Carolina with a big name QB that is coming off of back to back top 10 wins against Tennessee and Clemson to end the year last year moved them up 1 spot to #21.

      Now, it just so happens that I watched the Miami game…. a very workmanlike beat-down of Miami (OH). Not that impressive. They moved to #20.

      Just ahead of them? UCF. UCF looked dominant in their blowout win. But they played Kent State.

      And Just behind those? Auburn, at #22 beat U-Mass 59-14.

      Meanwhile, curb-stomping the team that ESPN had a cover story on the day of the game (they are poised to win the Natty this year) is barely top 10 material. Yet somehow whipping Arkansas State makes you the #4 team in the country??

      And Utah beating Florida somehow drops them 4 spots…..

      This is the Power Rankings, supposedly scientific and better than other systems.

      Yeah, they don’t know what they are doing.

      • cyto

        Oh, and beating the 2nd place team from last year and getting all that attention vaulted Colorado up 31 spots….. to number 71.

        Just ahead of the UAB Blazers and just behind the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

        No Deon, I don’t think they believe.

        And I don’t think they know what they are doing.

      • cyto

        Oh, and those TCU horned frogs? The ones that Neon’s boy lit up for 500 yards passing? They fell 17 spots, all the way to number 36. After losing to what was the number 102 team (now 71).

        Yeah, ESPN has not one clue what they are doing.

  21. cyto

    I wonder…. how much of those German economic problems can be traced back to energy prices and the destruction of a key pipeline?

    • westernsloper

      Ssshhhhhhhhhh…….We don’t talk about that.

  22. Sensei

    Kim Jong-un and Putin Plan to Meet in Russia to Discuss Weapons

    By… train, naturally.

    In a rare foray from his country, Mr. Kim would travel from Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, probably by armored train, to Vladivostok, on the east coast of Russia, where he would meet with Mr. Putin, the officials said. Mr. Kim could possibly go to Moscow, though that is not certain.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/04/us/politics/putin-kim-meeting-russia-north-korea-weapons.html

    • rhywun

      As if pushing Russia into the arms of China wasn’t bad enough.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Why naturally? Like trains can’t derail? Or are you referring to leftists love affair with rail?

      • Sensei

        He doesn’t trust his crappy old Russian airplane not to fall out of the sky.

      • DEG

        This.

        It’s also a family tradition. His father and grandfather would only travel by train.

      • Suthenboy

        He is referring, I think, to Englishmen sneaking around on trains with one of these: https://woodandshop.com/woodworking-hand-tool-buying-guide-hand-drills-braces-bits/

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_and_Mannerheim_recording
        In addition to the Finnish recording an English spy had drilled a hole in the car’s wall and made his own recording. In it Hitler is heard pleading with Mannerheim to ally with Germany against Russia because the Russians could already produce 100K trucks per year and would soon wash over Europe like a tidal wave. That is my piss-poor memory anyway.

      • Tres Cool

        Does anyone have the link to Hitler Reacts to late links from TOS ?

        That was good stuff. Kinda like how The Onion was entertaining once.

  23. Sensei

    More paywalled NYT. It doesn’t disappoint in non mask wearing Nazi comments.

    Steve Harwell, Former Smash Mouth Lead Singer, Dies at 56

    In August 2020, while many parts of the country were still under major restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, Smash Mouth appeared at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, a huge annual event in South Dakota, and performed before thousands of fans — very few of whom, according to reports and videos of the event, were wearing masks or taking any precautions…

    In 2021, Mr. Harwell left the band and retired from performing after a live show in upstate New York during which he was seen slurring his words, using profanity and apparently giving a Nazi salute.

    Dude sounds like he had substance abuse and mental issues.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/04/arts/music/steve-harwell-smash-mouth-all-star-dead.html

    • cyto

      Who reports that stuff in an obit?

      NYT is asshoe

    • rhywun

      Didn’t I read he had liver failure or some shit after a life of hard drinking?

      He must have been a wrong-thinker for them to slander him in that manner. Stay classy, The New York Times.

    • Suthenboy

      “…the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, a huge annual event in South Dakota, and performed before thousands of fans — very few of whom, according to reports and videos of the event, were wearing masks or taking any precautions…”

      I heard that hundreds of millions died after that.

      After seeing The Turtle have one of his episodes I cant discount stroke as one cause of that kind of behavior. I worked with a woman who would do that. When an MRI was finally done on her her brain looked like a Forth of July fireworks show. Many mini-strokes for years until one finally got her.

      • Sensei

        He died of liver failure.

      • Suthenboy

        Ahhh. That is easy to do but I dont recommend it.

      • Tres Cool

        Once when I was working in Dalton, GA I popped in a McD’s. The young lady at the counter had a absence seizure just like the Turtle. I witnessed her pissing herself.
        Once she snapped out of it I told the manager “you need to call 911- this bitch just seized” They told her to go home.
        I said “Im getting out of here before you put that broad on the road.”

      • Suthenboy

        That is pretty cold-hearted. Go home? Weighing a hamburger over a woman’s life? Fuuuuuuck.

        When I saw the Turtle footage I said about the same – “Why won’t those gutless bastards CALL AN AMBULANCE?”
        Better yet they should have scooped the old turd up and rushed him to the hospital themselves.

      • Ted S.

        The young lady at the counter had a absence seizure just like the Turtle. I witnessed her pissing herself.

        You were turned on by it, weren’t you?

      • Tres Cool

        Wassersport isnt my thing. And she was a tiny indian-ish (dot not feather) gal.
        Also not my thing.

  24. Tres Cool

    …or not
    Due to unforeseen circumstances (I didn’t get there in time to check a bag- which contains stuff TSA wont let me take on the plane like tools for work. And a pint of booze. And my 30 year old Gerber pocketknife I refuse to leave behind) I get to leave in the morning. Im working outside of Dallas, but if there were any female glibs nearby, Id show them around.

    Oh, and its supposed to be somewhere in the 100’s all week. No doubt when I leave it will drop to something more temperate.

  25. JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

    When I was in elementary school, for show and tell one of my classmates brought a piece of the Great Wall of China that her father had “requisitioned” when he was in the merchant marines (Greek or American, not sure which). These days Biden would have had her and her father extradited to China.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    In August 2020, while many parts of the country were still under major restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, Smash Mouth appeared at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, a huge annual event in South Dakota, and performed before thousands of fans — very few of whom, according to reports and videos of the event, were wearing masks or taking any precautions…

    That pins down cause of death.

    • Suthenboy

      What? No Lou Reed references? At least he will always be there for us.

  27. KK, Non-Man

    Looks like Elon may have another tranche of Twitter/X Files, this time related to the ADL. LOL

  28. westernsloper

    Anyone else listen to Oliver Anthony on Rogan? I am half way through.