365 Comments

  1. Rat on a train

    Please stop the “X, formally known as Twitter” crap.

    • Beau Knott

      +1

    • UnCivilServant

      The problem is the garbage one letter name is too awkard to actually Use.

      • Rat on a train

        But deadnaming is a human rights violation.

      • SDF-7

        Some folX did something?

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Last I heard, y’all neighbors was havin’ sex with the same sex
        I show no love to homo thugs
        Empty out, reload, and blow more slugs
        How you gonna explain fuckin’ a man?
        Even if we squash the beef, I ain’t touchin’ your hand
        I don’t fuck with chumps
        For those that been to jail, that’s the cat with the Kool-Aid on his lips and pumps
        I don’t fuck with neighbors that think they broads

        Forever cancelled after Where the Hood at?

    • SDF-7

      What, you want it to Xpire – or just Xtend the use of the old name before you X-Trek off to a new one?

    • Nephilium

      I don’t think X was ever known as Twitter. Never thought to ask them though.

    • Tundra

      The answer is TwiX.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      It is starting to seem like some kind of 3D marketing chess.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      I saw Txitter just now. How to pronounce, I dunno.

  2. UnCivilServant

    Chevron Deference needs to die. It was bad precedent when it was inked, and only gotten worse since.

    In all things Err in favor of the citizen and against the bureaucracy.

    • juris imprudent

      But, but, but… bureaucrats are edumacated experts!!!

      • UnCivilServant

        *looks around*

        The hell we are.

      • AlexinCT

        They are credentialed morons with really stupid ideas.

      • Chafed

        Alex gets it.

      • juris imprudent

        Welcome to being a class traitor.

    • Don escaped Texas

      isn’t it a zombie, which I stipulate is undead, but when has it been used lately?

      Gorsuch will kill it when it gets within arm’s length

      In all things Err in favor of the citizen and against the destroy funding for unneeded bureaucracy

  3. Lackadaisical

    CAIR are assholes.

    Somewhat respect Israeli actions for telling people to GTFO. Thoughts?

    • UnCivilServant

      Aren’t those CAIR assholes responsible for funelling money to a number of trror organizations?

      • AlexinCT

        You going to get a letter from the media programmers telling you not to refer to them as terrorists but as fighters or resisters, because, you know, the only good people are the murderous evil ones the left loves.

    • Not Adahn

      NPR had an interview with someone in the Israeli government. All of her questions were “why does Israel suck so much,” but the guy specifically called her out for saying both “Hamas should not be attacked when they’re in a civilian population” and “Israel telling civilians to leave the area is a war crime.”

      • Lackadaisical

        That’s retarded.

        The Israelis should absolutely go in and kill all Hamas assholes… Imo, they just need to do so while limiting civilian casualties to the greatest extent possible. Telling people to get out of the way of an imminent battle is not genocide. *Rolls eyes*

        Npr set is just upset there won’t be more dead Palestinians to stand on. Hamas should have been the ones telling people to evacuate, not Israel, but their whole mo is killing Innocents and using them as shields.

      • Beau Knott

        The difference between Israel and Hamas:
        Israel uses its rockets to protect its people.
        Hamas uses its people to protect its rockets.
        /apologies to whoever I lifted this from uncredited

      • hayeksplosives

        That’s a succinct statement, and accurate seemingly,

    • SDF-7

      I’d tend to agree — though I’m a little wondering just where they’re going to go if Israel deals with North Gaza and then has the southern pocket to deal with — because I don’t think Egypt is going to let any of them in.

      Hamas continuing to urge their human shields to stay in place insist it is “Israeli propaganda” pisses me off, of course. In my dream world, Israel would figure out how to make targeted strikes starting at the top of the organization and moving down until they were all gone or ineffective… but obviously a) A lot of their top people are hiding in Syria and Qatar safely leading from behind while inspiring young men to do their killing and dying (always the way… but still despicable) and b) The mass indoctrination of the populace makes me depressingly wary that even removing Hamas as an organization would matter much at this point, much as I would want it to.

      As with everything Middle East – no easy answers. I hope Israel does what it needs to without becoming monsters themselves, and I hope we’re not stupid enough to get any more involved than we already are (and see yesterday — revert the stupid Biden energy policies, get back to energy independence and get the global oil prices down to remove Iran’s funding for this shit is the best way for us to “involve” ourselves).

      Anyway — happy Friday Glibbies. Let’s all hope (and pray if that’s compatible with your world view) the whole “global day of jihad” or whatever Hamas called for blows over quietly. Stay safe if not.

      • Lackadaisical

        Agreed with everything you said. War is never clean, which is why it should be avoided if possible. The middle East just likes to have more wars than others.

      • blighted_non_millenial

        Egypt has a more secure border with Gaza than Israel does.

      • SDF-7

        The cynical side of me says that if Egypt shoots anyone trying to get across, there will be crickets from the media. That presumably helps put things in perspective for the Gaza residents.

      • Chafed

        I think your cynicism is realism.

      • AlexinCT

        I’d tend to agree — though I’m a little wondering just where they’re going to go if Israel deals with North Gaza and then has the southern pocket to deal with — because I don’t think Egypt is going to let any of them in.

        So they will be the ones driven into the sea? How ionic.

      • PutridMeat

        How ionic

        I’d actually prefer that we stay neutral in all this.

      • AlexinCT

        My kingdom for an “r”!

      • SDF-7

        Arrrrrrrr, matey — ye be out on the plank now!

      • Ted S.

        It’s like 10,000 “T”s, when all you need is an “R”?

      • Chafed

        I suspect Israel is telling northern Gazans to flee south because it’s north Gaza that’s going to be pounded. No matter what Israel does, they will be portrayed as monsters. There isn’t anything CAIR, NPR, and their fellow travelers will countenance.

        You are completely right on energy policy. Sadly, there isn’t any chance Biden will do it.

      • Lackadaisical

        ‘No matter what Israel does, they will be portrayed as monsters. There isn’t anything CAIR, NPR, and their fellow travelers will countenance.’

        That is correct, because they want Israel to lose… preferably to lay down and die.

      • R C Dean

        If every Israeli Jew died of natural causes overnight, they would be disappointed. They don’t just want them dead; they want to kill them.

    • "RFK Jr Apologist"

      You respect Israel telling people to leave Gaza, even though they know they can’t leave via land and they won’t let them use the sea.

      It’s amazing how every government lies, except for Israel

      • Not Adahn

        Israel doesn’t control Egypt’s border policy. But the internationally-recognized democratically-elected government next to them has declared war on them.

        Obviously, the EU should pay some of those migration facilitator NGOs to bring the innocent Gazans to Germany for temporary shelter.

      • "RFK Jr Apologist"

        They don’t control their border, but they know it’s closed. They could also stop bombing the corridor, if they actually wanted people to leave

        This war really is becoming right-wing COVID. Lies about infants being decapitated; pretending like 2 million people are all Hamas, and every pretending like it’s ctazy to ever question the government of Israel.

      • AlexinCT

        They don’t control their border, but they know it’s closed. They could also stop bombing the corridor, if they actually wanted people to leave

        From what I have seen the bombing was not to keep people from leaving, but from more weapons and evil fucks coming in. I find that to be a perfect justification to bomb. I have no interest in getting the US involved with this, but at this point I think Israel has the right to liquidate these evil fucks.

      • Not Adahn

        Oddly enough, hamas has (had?) materiel at that border. It’s almost like the minute you say a place should be off-limits to attack, that’s where fighters and equipment get staged.

      • Chafed

        Unpossible! Hamas is known for keeping its military separated from civilians.

      • Not Adahn

        pretending like 2 million people are all Hamas

        Congratulations on discovering a fully-generalizable argument about the horrific nature of every war ever.

      • R C Dean

        I think the decapitated infants story has been corroborated. Not sure if the pix have been released into the wild yet, but you’re welcome to go look for them. I’m certainly not going to.

        Israel has tried keeping the gloves on with Hamas for decades. It hasn’t worked. How would you suggest they respond? More of what’s failed?

        Wars create humanitarian crises. It’s what they do. Don’t want one? Don’t start a war.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        That story was corroborated by Biden and then it was walked back. Not saying 100% it didn’t happen but it’s looking like it was propaganda.

      • Brawndo

        From what I’ve seen regarding decapitated infants, is a picture of one dead baby, not decapitated, and the only source is IDF and Israeli journalists, so definitely a conflict of interest there. Stinks of “babies being thrown out of incubators” to me.

        Exaggerating atrocities makes me think there are ulterior motives.

      • SDF-7

        Yeah — supposedly there are pictures out, but I have no desire to look at them so I don’t know if any actually back anything up or if it is as you say… but I have to confess my first thought was “The Kaiser’s troops spit babies on their helmets”. Talk about old school if it is propaganda.

      • R C Dean

        The initial report was, I believe, a French journalist. I have seen a report that multiple foreign journalists have verified. Of course, so have American government people, but I don’t count them.

        We know Hamas kills babies. We know Hamas decapitates people. This isn’t a stretch and honestly I don’t know that it makes that much difference if Hamas killed a bunch of babies (which I’m sure they did) and decapitated some, or none.

        Seizing on this as Israeli propaganda just strikes me as odd. Unlike the Palis, who fake the deaths of their children (or provoke their killing), I don’t doubt the kids are dead.

      • B.P.

        I have seen a couple of pictures (didn’t seek them out) of purported babies who were burned. Piles of organized ash. At least they weren’t decapitated. That would be inhumane.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        I doubt 40 babies were decapitated. The kibbutz in question had only about 750 residents, so 40 babies sounds like a lot. 40 babies, infants and young children I can believe. Some of which might have been decapitated.

      • juris imprudent

        internationally-recognized democratically-elected government

        Some indisputably smart guy said something about elections having consequences. I don’t suppose he’d appreciate having that thrown in his face.

      • Lackadaisical

        “You respect Israel telling people to leave Gaza, even though they know they can’t leave via land and they won’t let them use the sea.”
        They said they should leave the northern portion. I don’t pretend to know what Israel’s actual plans are, but I assume this means they plan to invade only the north, at least for now.

        I think it is criminal that the civilian populace essentially cannot truly escape.
        “It’s amazing how every government lies, except for Israel”
        You’ll find that many of my comments on this website are against Israel’s policy towards Gaza.

      • prolefeed

        Looks like both of the quoted arguments are strawman arguments.

        At least one person here IIRC said to kill all the Gazans, which would be a genocide equivalent to, what, a third of a Holocaust?

        Not sure why the assholes combatants who started the war wouldn’t flee south, posing as civilians. Kind of a desperate PR move by the Israeli government, telling its enemy what they intend to do, but laudable that they’re trying to limit civilian casualties.

      • UnCivilServant

        Given past behavior by Hamas, they’d more lickely force more civilians into the north, anticipating an attack there.

        I’d attack in the south in anticipation of such a move, as they’ve so politely clear the civvies out of harms way.

      • SDF-7

        There’s an evil nasty thought (so I’m sure it has occurred to them): Force in more civilians, quietly exfiltrate actual military resources. Keep your fighting capability, maximize your human shields PR.

        I’m going to go watch the puppy and ducklings video a few more times to wash that out of my brain.

    • Drake

      Looking at map of Gaza… which way is out?

      • Sean

        Straight up or down.

      • Brawndo

        6 feet under?

  4. Shpip

    The White House announced in May that the Council on American-Islamic Relations would take part in its “National Strategy to Combat Anti-Semitism.”

    Next up, the administration taps the Southern Poverty Law Center in an effort to improve relations with whites in the Bible Belt.

    • WTF

      The White House taps the KKK to take part in its National Strategy to Combat racism.

      • juris imprudent

        That would offset the Nation of Islam representation (and you know they’d get a seat).

      • Brawndo

        Considering the KKK is mostly feds these days, you aren’t wrong…

    • rhywun

      You have to admire the chutzpah.

      • Chafed

        Terrific turn of a phrase given the participants.

    • Chafed

      Lol.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Arabs are Semites too.

      • hayeksplosives

        Thank you! I’ve always hated the use of the phrase antisemitism, particularly in reference to Arabs who dislike Jews.

        If they mean anti-Jew, say so. Is “antisemitism” supposed to sound more genteel?

  5. Rebel Scum

    another incredible day

    Meh, but it is pay day.

    • UnCivilServant

      Payday was Wotan’s Day. Today is just Friday to me.

      • SDF-7

        At least you aren’t working for just peanuts with that Payday.

    • Rat on a train

      Just timesheet signing day. Payday will be sometime next week, probably Thursday.

  6. Rebel Scum

    Israel drops flyers telling 1.1 million in Northern Gaza to flee ‘immediately’ after giving 24-hour deadline, sparking widespread panic as Palestine warns of ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ and IDF prepares for ground assault

    Mopping up? I still think this is a bad idea.

    • Grumbletarian

      Just start the carpet bombing. I would think if any group understood ‘an eye for an eye,’ it would be muslims.

      • UnCivilServant

        If you’re going to do that, just erase Gaza with nuclear hellfire.

      • AlexinCT

        Radiation is a problem and this solution is a waste of real estate.

      • UnCivilServant

        We have enough data to show that it will be habitable again within a matter of years, and remediation can be taken to contain contaminated soils.

      • juris imprudent

        Everyone forgotten about neutron bombs?

      • SDF-7

        Still a lot of radiation – and I don’t think Israel cares about the structures (which would be the point of neutron bombs).

        Besides it being a bad idea for Israel proper — I don’t think Europe or nearby nations (Arab or otherwise) that Israel might still have a chance of getting back towards the Abraham Accords if/when this gets settled (for now) again would appreciate the fallout.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh I wasn’t advocating.

        For pure irony I like the idea of every Pali male between 15 and 45 getting a tattoo on the face that if seen within Israeli territory would be immediately punishable by death. [Not really advocating that either]

      • Lackadaisical

        I’m not a fan of killing a bunch of kids because their parents are assholes.

      • R C Dean

        For the Israelis, it’s pretty much their kids, or the Pali kids, at this point. Which would you choose?

        I still think invading is a mistake. Just keep the blockade on until a long list of Hamas assholes (and all the hostages) are turned over.

      • Lackadaisical

        I’d choose my own kids of course, but that is a false choice, there are other options. There is a spectrum between letting Hamas get away with killing kids and doing nothing about it and purposefully killing as many innocents as possible in ‘revenge’.

        ‘Just keep the blockade on until a long list of Hamas assholes (and all the hostages) are turned over.’
        I don’t know that this has ever worked. Seems like that has been the policy up until now and it hasn’t worked to smooth things over between the parties.

      • Grumbletarian

        What would Sun Tzu do?

        The West has gotten spoiled on the idea that you can conduct a war in a manner that is both quick and surgical. News flash: you cannot. If you want to lay siege to the Gaza strip so you can take your time picking off leaders one by one you will starve the rest anyway either by your intent to maintain the siege, or due to the actions of their own leaders (who will just blame you anyway), while allowing time for your own people to become frustrated and war weary.

      • UnCivilServant

        What would Sun Tzu do?

        Speed is the essence of war
        – Sun Tzu

      • Lackadaisical

        I agree that it will be bloody and deadly no matter what Israel does, but I think it does have a responsibility to at least try to reduce civilian deaths. It *seems* Israel itself agrees with me, given their actions, which I just praised.

      • R C Dean

        “that is a false choice, there are other options”

        Are there? Hamas has sworn to kill every Jew, and just killed over a thousand. Hamas has also made it impossible to respond without killing civilians, including children. So what’s false about the choice?

      • Lackadaisical

        The ‘false’ part is that there is an option (which I believe Israel is trying to take) between purposefully killing babies (like Hamas) and doing nothing to punish Hamas. Yes, civilians will probably die, war is evil, but that doesn’t mean making NO effort to avoid some of that evil, or going out of your way to do extra evil.

      • R C Dean

        I don’t see anyone here advocating for the Israelis to “purposefully” target babies. Accepting that some will be killed as “Collateral damage” is not the same as purposefully killing babies. So I think you set up a false dichotomy there.

        The hard part is fighting to win while, as you and I agree, trying to avoid as much evil as you can.

        I was trying to point out that, if Israel takes the position that not one single Pali baby can be killed, they will lose the war and more of their babies will be killed. At some point in every fight to the death, it’s you, or them. Hamas has made this a fight to the death, and has so interpenetrated Pali civilian society there is simply no way not to have Pali civilians killed.

      • prolefeed

        At RC Dean: The Israeli government is NOT saying that innocents will be killed. They’ve got to be acutely aware that there will be massive collateral damage.

        I’m horrified that multiple people above advocated for genocide. The fuck?

      • Tundra

        I’m horrified that multiple people above advocated for genocide. The fuck?

        Why do you think it keeps happening? We think we are rational and logical but we’re apes with cool tools.

        Even if Israel destroys every Hamas cunt and levels Gaza, this is just the beginning. No way it doesn’t spread.

      • prolefeed

        Meant to say a double negative, fucked it up. Take two:

        The Israeli government is not saying that there will be no collateral damage, that no Palestinian babies will be killed.

        The Israelis would suffer a Pyrric victory if they tried to emulate a “Roman Peace” and killed every resident in the Gaza Strip. They would still be surrounded by hostile nations, and could kiss off being treated as allies by the U.S. government.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Hamas’s actions have shown they need be eliminated. Israel’s obligation is to their own citizens, not people of Gaza. The duty of Israel is to remove Hamas from further consideration at the least risk to their own citizens, both military and civilian.

        I don’t see how Hamas can be removed without removing Gaza unless the citizens of Gaza decide to remove Hamas themselves. If not, they should and will be removed alongside Hamas. I suspect Israel with start with the north end of Gaza, and move southward until Egypt has to decide whether or not to open up their border. If not, then tough shit. Same as we nuked Japan into submission rather than sacrificing conscripted American civilians.

        This is an existential fight for Israel. There are no such things as civilians in a total war scenario. Pretending there are is unrealistic. The people of Gaza have their choice. And if the Israelis don’t do the right thing in removing Gaza from the equation, they’ll have brought this on themselves and much worse to come in the future.

      • Grumbletarian

        Me neither, but I’m also not a fan of rewarding assholes who hide behind kids when they’re not out killing other kids.

      • Lackadaisical

        Again, I think there are other options for Israel between indiscriminate violence and capitulation.

        If I wouldn’t accept it from an individual I don’t see why I need to accept bad actions from a state actor.

      • Grumbletarian

        Again, I think there are other options for Israel between indiscriminate violence and capitulation.

        Name some, please. You’ve already said maintaining the blockade wouldn’t work.

      • Not Adahn

        Cycles of violence only stop when all but one of the parties involved are destroyed. Righteous violence is one of the most delicious cocktails ever devised and as long as someone is there to drink it, retaliatory violence continues.

      • Lackadaisical

        A conventional invasion with troops on the ground.
        Bombing military targets rather than levelling the whole place.

      • Chafed

        Aren’t you prejudging the tactics? So far, the Israelis have taken out specific buildings after telling Gazans to get out. That’s not leveling the whole place. If there is a ground invasion, would it really surprise you if Hamas has all kinds of munitions and fighters deeply intertwined with civilians and civil infrastructure?

      • Lackadaisical

        @Chafed, I’m responding the Grumbletarian’s assertion that now is the time to ‘Just start the carpet bombing.’, not actions of Israel up to this point.

        I don’t doubt that military and civilian is intertwined here, which is why I praised Israel telling the civvies to GTFO.

      • AlexinCT

        Your mistake is thinking that kids that are steeped in lies and hatred, by their own parents, are somehow innocent.

      • Lackadaisical

        I don’t even know where to go with this one. Believing lies and having hatred in your heart shouldn’t be a death sentence.

      • AlexinCT

        Choices have consequences. That is life. The parents are to blame, but they have basically created children that can never function in society. It is a tragedy when societies are forced to act on that, but there is no alternative to ignoring it. You can’t fix or ignore this level of broken/evil. How often do we need to be brutally reminded of that?

      • Lackadaisical

        I have a hard time finding a way of converting the unjust killing of thousands to the just killings of millions.

      • AlexinCT

        Rome at one point realized that there was no compromise with Carthage, There was but one solution to avoid an endless cycle of war.

      • Chafed

        No it shouldn’t. It’s also not a pathway to peaceful coexistence.

      • Lackadaisical

        Not to put too fine a point on it, but there is no chance of 100% peaceful coexistence, regardless of the course of action taken. Maybe we could kill all ~2 billion Muslims, but that seems a bit harsh,

      • Raven Nation

        Yeah, I must confess to sharing Lack’s concern here.

        Two thoughts. First, if one was to be consistent with those arguments, then would we also need to round up all the kids who’ve grown up on white supremacist compounds and in militant BLM-type families and execute them or lock them up for life?

        Second, there are instances of “de-programming” (although I’m not sure that’s the correct word. To note one, there was some pretty impressive changes among people on both sides of the Northern Ireland violence who, later in life, changed remarkably. Not all, and not complete, but definite progress. To note a second, despite all its problems, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission did some good work.

      • AlexinCT

        Two thoughts. First, if one was to be consistent with those arguments, then would we also need to round up all the kids who’ve grown up on white supremacist compounds and in militant BLM-type families and execute them or lock them up for life?

        If they start strapping on bombs and killing people they don’t like, my answer would be a definite yes.

        My personal feelings are that people should be allowed to believe whatever lunacy they want as long as those beliefs don’t lead to them causing harm to others. If they off themselves, well that’s on them. But when believe that you should and you start killing others, in as brutally as possible a way, you should get zero tolerance for crossing that line.

      • SDF-7

        I really, really, really don’t want to sound like Hillary — but some sort of deprogramming would be needed in even the best case. “Look kids, Jews don’t drink your blood, kill babies, run the world — and no damned rock or tree is going to call out to you to kill them so the 16th prophet or whatever can show up.”

        I don’t think it would work, I think if Israel tried it would look like concentration camps… and frankly, I don’t know what the hell to do about that aspect of things. And given my areas of expertise — that’s not terribly surprising, frankly.

      • AlexinCT

        I really, really, really don’t want to sound like Hillary — but some sort of deprogramming would be needed in even the best case.

        You can deprogram people that have not been steeped in madness since early childhood and some people are exceptionally enough to from the getgo see that they are being gaslighted and then be given a way out. But the sad reality is most humans, especially if they have spent their entire life steeped in stupidity, will not be able to cope with being told they have other choices.

        Hatred is not easy to put away.

      • "RFK Jr Apologist"

        Yup. Bombs alone kill baddies. Just ask over one million dead Iraqi civilians

      • AlexinCT

        Agreed. Especially sine maybe they preferred the other ways people were brutalized and murdered in that part of the world as the normal course of business,

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        You have to become bigger monsters than the people you’re fighting to beat them, even when you hold all of the cards. Strange arguments to see on a libertarian website and your crack about right wing Covid is getting there but it looks more like the aftermath of 9-11 to me. Emotional reactions make for bad decision making.

      • R C Dean

        Libertarians are good on individual self-defense, but collective self-defense doesn’t fit the worldview. And wars are collective activities. You can either fight them as such, or lose them.

      • Don escaped Texas

        exactly

        I don’t think there are any good answers or judgments to be passed in a timeless land/race war, and I bring you this opinion from acreage stolen from the Chickasaw fair and square: might makes right, and that will prove out in Palestine no matter what I think of today’s details. If a stand-off could be achieved with the fewest deaths, I’d like that. All the rest is just news du jour that I wish none of my tax dollars had helped generate.

        Stateside, talk is just talk and college kids are just stupid, but anyone who attacks an innocent individual should be put down like a bad dog. An America where a man can’t defend himself is a weird place; it is astounding that many Americans are happy to have helped deliver such a predicament. Again, I should like to see order restored with the fewest deaths.

      • Pine_Tree

        I think the line is “nations are not people”, and I think I read it here.

        It’s complicated.

      • kinnath

        A state is not people. A nation is a collection of people with a common heritage/culture. A states does not equal a nation.

      • Pine_Tree

        Fine, say “states” then. I agree with you on what a nation is. Was literally quoting something from memory.

      • Pine_Tree

        Now, reading my own comment, I suspect it doesn’t come across in the way I meant it.

        I’m NOT saying the today-popular thing of “you have to make sure to only harm the state, not its people”.

        Because that’s impossible to do perfectly. A state that aggresses has to get crushed. It’s each state’s job to separate its civilians from its military actions so that they are separable in the event of conflict. When one deliberately doesn’t (using your people to protect your weapons), then it’s on them. If you get it, you get it.

      • kinnath

        It’s all good 😉

    • Homple

      “Mopping up? I still think this is a bad idea.”

      Any good ideas?

      • "RFK Jr Apologist"

        No

      • AlexinCT

        The British empire controlled that part of the world with a small army because they had a very effective way of dealing with the occasional flare up of the Jihadis.

      • Lackadaisical

        Bribing the elites in a country to side with them, and then subverting local governance in favor of British priorities?

      • AlexinCT

        No. They went in and cleaned house.

      • SDF-7

        Sounds rather Saudi of them.

      • WTF

        The Brits at that time were willing and able to engage in brutal punitive expeditions to kill all their leaders and break all their stuff if the natives got restless, and made it clear it would happen all over again if the new leaders tried anything.

      • juris imprudent

        The Brits controlled it when the locals were all poor and dumb. After the locals got control of the oil money, they were no longer poor.

  7. Shpip

    The 2.3 million people living in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip are densely packed into a sliver of land that is just 25 miles long and 7 miles wide which is already largely without power and where hospitals are overwhelmed.

    They’re going to be even more densely packed when a third of that is reduced to rubble. Oh well, they made their bed…

  8. Rebel Scum

    Steve Scalise withdraws from House Speaker’s race

    Rs jumped the gun with that nomination.

    • Rat on a train

      dodged a bullet?

      • SDF-7

        They tried lobbing him out there as a real softball for the caucus but struck out.

      • Homple

        I liked that one.

  9. Rebel Scum

    Echoes of Afghanistan? Biden faces criticism for lack of U.S. evacuation operation in Israel

    It’s kindof amazing that they are literally doing nothing. But keep paying your taxes. The government cares about you.

    • Lackadaisical

      The one justification for worldwide taxation on Americans, completely debunked. What a useless administration.

      • Chafed

        Glad to find something to agree on this morning.

  10. Rebel Scum

    Points for thinking outside the box I suppose.

    Stunning video produced by Hamas.

    They are openly mocking the West.

    They used a $100 million water pipeline project paid for by the EU, and turned the pipe into Missiles to launch at Israel.

    But keep sending them humanitarian aid.

    • Grummun

      So what Hamas is saying is that everything is effectively “dual-use”. So interdicting dual-use products leaves Gaza with … nothing.

      • AlexinCT

        I feel compelled to remind people that entities like Hamas have repeatedly made the point that they will win this war against Israel because Israelis (and all westerners) love their children too much to use them as weapons, while they have no compunction sending their own children to die to kill the infidels and Jews.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      And the EU didn’t do any follow up to see where the money was going?

      • AlexinCT

        You are assuming they were not well aware of were it went and totally cool with that being the case.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        I guess hiring the 3 Moes Auditing Company to track the money was a mistake.

  11. Shpip

    “Write-in responses showed that consumers continued to be preoccupied with rising prices in general, and for groceries and gasoline in particular. Consumers also expressed concerns about the political situation and higher interest rates,” Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board, said in a statement.

    Those darn rubes, believing their own lying eyes instead of the numbers that the government conjures up for them.

  12. Rebel Scum

    Enemies of democracy don’t deserve legal defense.

    The three-page search warrant doesn’t indicate how the fundraising might violate Michigan law, and it comes after Nessel’s office sought to prevent the public release of search warrant documents in another high-profile investigation in Ingham County. The search warrant in the elector cases says the details “will assist with the ongoing investigation” into election law forgery, forgery of a public record, conspiracy, and uttering and publishing.

    According to a report from Howard Shock, special agent for the Attorney General’s Criminal Investigation Division, he began investigating the fundraising efforts of the false electors on July 20 to “determine if it was lawful.”

    • SDF-7

      Close enough to Canada to think they can use the same tactics as Castreau used on the Freedom Convoy is the first thought. Insanity.

    • AlexinCT

      And who do the people making this claim are going to be the ones to define the enemies of democracy, huh?

    • juris imprudent

      uttering and publishing

      Nope. No First Amendment issues involved there. None whatsoever.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Still confused how its “fake”. Were these people elected at the fall convention and sent to the SOS? Then they aren’t fake. They can submit their votes to the SOS who can choose to either toss em in the bin or certify their electoral votes. Nothing was violated in terms of these 16 electors. The real crime is the State going after them.

      • Rebel Scum

        It’s not fake. Alternate electors have always been a thing.

  13. Not Adahn

    Lol, NPR raging at Elon again this morning.

    Specifically cheering on the EU’ lawsuit and lamenting that now, when there’s so much misinformation and hate speech that he laid off so many censors when “such expertise is needed most.”

    • AlexinCT

      Heh, had a conversation just the other day with an idiot trying to virtue signal their green bonafides that told me he loved his tesla but hated Elon because he was an enemy of democracy and unity, because he would not fight misinformation/disinformation and hate speech. He was pissed when I told him he should have kept quiet and not confirmed to me how dumb he was by making such idiotic cultish claims. While he was freaking out I asked him who decided what misinformation, disinformation, or hate speech was, because the only way I would trust that shit was if I got to do it. And I would defensively not trust the system if it was run by someone as dumb as him.

      • Not Adahn

        Brian Sicknick.
        Nick Sandman.
        Kyle Rittenhouse.
        Daniel Dorn.

        ad infinitum.

  14. DrOtto

    To be fair, CAIR probably knows a lot about anti-semitism.

    • Not Adahn

      That is one of their areas of expertise.

  15. Shpip

    Here in Big College Town, most of the news fodder is whatever nonsense the kampus krazies have ginned up recently. But once in a while, an authentic Florida Woman shows up, and she never fails to entertain or disappoint.

    • Drake

      Jessica Maria Hord, 41…

      Yikes. Those 41 hard years.

      • Lackadaisical

        Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

      • Tres Cool

        “…she said she was trying to “break into the car to try and hide from the devil.”

        Can’t really argue with that.

  16. R.J.

    “The IRS said in early September that a sea change was taking place in every aspect of its operations following a top-to-bottom review of its enforcement efforts and after Congress allocated an additional $60 billion to the tax agency.”

    Collect $60 billion from Government to increase theft efforts
    Pull $30 billion from Microsoft.
    Profit!

  17. SDF-7

    Well, if we’re going to bring up Florida universities… nice statement from Sasse on campus protests (if it hasn’t already been linked here 20 times).

    • rhywun

      I’d rather a world where one is not expected to release a “statement” about something, or anything.

      • The Last American Hero

        But how else do you break the silence?

      • UnCivilServant

        Why do you want to break things?!

  18. Rebel Scum

    Is that what that means?

    This is currently happening at the University of Washington.

    “There is only one solution. Intifada Revolution.”

    It’s insane how many college students are waving Palestinian flags while calling for genocide against Jews.

    • AlexinCT

      These people are cult members that believe there is no consequences to their opinion (because there have not been any so far). Someone should tell them they will not be getting employment with anyone sane and see how this shit changes quick.

      • Lackadaisical

        Note, that they want OTHER people to do all the fighting and dying.

      • AlexinCT

        The cult members are cult members as long as someone else does the difficult shit. See the whole “sanctuary city” shitshow for what reality really looks like when they have to bear consequences of the causes they support.

    • rhywun

      It’s a lifestyle for most of those idiots. You can be sure the audience is thick with commies, too. For whatever reason, the two topics always go hand in hand.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        Marxism makes not just for strange evil bedfellows, but for real stupid shit.

  19. Shpip

    Some of the latest Nobel Prizes have been announced, and the one for Medicine / Physiology is a doozy:

    The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman “for their discoveries concerning base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19

    FWIW, neither Jonas Salk nor Albert Sabin won the Nobel for their contributions toward the polio vaccine that actually worked.

      • R.J.

        She won a prize for that? All she did was replace ass-busting competitiveness with “greedy” and point out that women have babies. May she fail to see a rapidly advancing city bus.

      • DrOtto

        Not on topic, per se, but on topic in regards to your comment – have you ever noticed in movies when a bus or truck or train strikes someone, it just blares it’s horn on continues on like nothing just happened?

      • rhywun

        To preface this article, I don’t believe there should be a Nobel prize in economics

        If you can write down obvious knowledge and pass that off as “research” well… I’m going to have to agree with that statement.

      • Lackadaisical

        ‘ Is continuity and working long hours the most important thing in a business?’

        In multi-million and billion-dollar projects, it IS an important thing. Switching staff on complicated issues is very bad, delays projects and kills budgets.

        ‘ But certainly, they can perform at the level they did before taking that motherhood pause. And with added years of wisdom and the skills gained in hardcore parenthood, she’ll catch up.’

        I know my skills don’t get rusty at all after 10 years of not using them. And as difficult as parenting children cna be, that isn’t the same as becoming a technical expert in an area of law, engineering or similar skilled profession.

      • Suthenboy

        Greedy work.
        *ponders for a moment*
        Who the fuck could even come up with that shit? The left is getting exponentially more stoopider. In the past heir sophistry did not have such transparent oxymorons, did it?
        Also, it seems to me being awarded a Nobel prize these days is the ultimate insult.

      • juris imprudent

        transparent oxymorons

        From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs ring any bells?

      • rhywun

        OFFS!!

    • PutridMeat

      I believe the award is specifically for the invention/refinement/insertion of pseudo-uridine which stabilizes the rna and makes it long lived, not the vaccine itself nor the underlying techniques to generate mrna ‘vaccines’. Of course that means you’re being recognized for doing the thing that makes the mrna long lived and stable, giving it plenty of time to get to every system in the body and turn your own cells into little cyto-toxic spike protein factories. So anyway, the technique is pretty neat/cool – not Nobel worthy in my opinion, but since it’s tacked onto the Covid-19 vaccines, they can boost the ‘vaccines’ without having to draw too much attention to the history of mrna vaccines.

      Why someone thought it was a good idea to base you ‘vaccine’ on the cytotoxic aspect of the virus, I’ll never understand. Once that decision was made, making it stable – a necessity for it to have any hope of working – was a huge mistake; actually everything downstream of that decision was a huge mistake.

  20. Sean

    I played https://squaredle.com 10/13:
    64/64 words (+16 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 37% by bonus words
    🔥 Solve streak: 4

    #waffleroyale156 5/5

    ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩⭐🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜

    wafflegame.net/royale

    • SDF-7

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 10/13:
      *20/20 words (+4 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 15% by accuracy

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 10/13:
      *20/20 words (+4 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 15% by accuracy

      Not a great plan day, frankly.

      • SDF-7

        Argh… and I mangled the copy. gorram stupid idiot today…

        I played https://squaredle.com 10/13:
        64/64 words (+12 bonus words)
        🎯 In the top 28% by accuracy
        🔥 Solve streak: 19

      • rhywun

        Ugh I unlocked the last hints and I’m still stuck at 49/64.

      • rhywun

        Good grief… I played https://squaredle.com 10/13:
        64/64 words (+23 bonus words)
        📖 In the top 13% by bonus words
        🔥 Solve streak: 19

  21. Rebel Scum

    Shut up, Mike.

    Pence was responding to Trump’s comments during a speech in Florida on Wednesday, where he called Hezbollah “smart” and criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Pence said, “This is no time for the former president or any other American leader to be sending any message other than America stands with Israel.”

    He continued, “Hezbollah aren’t smart, they’re evil. The former president also said when Russia invaded Ukraine in a similar, unprovoked, unconscionable invasion a year-and-a-half ago, he said Vladimir Putin was a genius. I will tell you that all the blame here lies at the feet of Hamas and the Russian military in these unprovoked invasions. They need to be held to account. America need to stand as leader of the free world and as arsenal of the democracy.”

    Both of those things can be true. Besides you are lying about the context.

    • R.J.

      Maybe 3 people saw that speech.

      • AlexinCT

        Too many.

      • R.J.

        It was /sarc. That crazy lib yesterday said only three people would see him support Hamas, pretty much the whole world saw it. Although I agree with the sentiment. Pence should be running a toll booth, the only time anyone should see him is wen he makes change.

      • SDF-7

        “Please clap” vibes.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The thing about Pence is, you see, the man’s a retard who can’t fathom nuance and can’t think his way out of a paper bag.

    • Rat on a train

      We is smart. Our enemies be stupid.

  22. AlexinCT

    Miami fourth-grade teacher is under fire for showing horror film ‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’ in class

    Wait, Xi has a movie?

    • UnCivilServant

      Winnie the Pooh fell into the public domain – but not Tigger or Pooh’s red shirt, as those came later.

      We need to shorten copyright to something sane.

      • juris imprudent

        You mean like for limited times is supposed to mean something?

      • SDF-7

        Yeah… am I misremembering a Court ruling or did they actually say something along the lines of “Lifetime of the Universe – 1 is still limited“? I’m firmly in the “long enough to earn some money on it or your family if you die, not your whole life – much less 100+ years afterwards, and definitely not forever for corporations” camp.

      • kinnath

        I have no problem with lengthy copyright so long as it came with increasingly large annuity payments to keep it in force (similar to patents). If Disney wants to cough up 9 figures every year to hold the copyright on Mickey until the Sun dies, that’s OK with me.

      • UnCivilServant

        Nope.

        No Corporate ownership of copyright.

        No personal copyright longer than lifetime or 24 years from creation of the work, whichever is shorter.

      • SDF-7

        I sympathize with that viewpoint — but if you view copyright ownership as a resource an individual acquires for a limited time from the government — why would we limit the right of the individual to either join with others or lease their resource to a corporation (like patents) to profit from it? Free association, contract law, etc. implies to me it needs to stay allowed — just no extension because of transfer.

        Kinnath’s solution amuses me as well… it might even work.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t like any solution which leads to a lot of cash flowing into a bureaucracy.

        If a corporation wants to lease a copyright from the creator, so be it. If the creator wants to give them free license because he has stake in the company, so be it. I just want an actual human and not a legal fiction attached to something like that.

      • kinnath

        There are two separate problems: 1) fix copyright; 2) fix government.

        I only addressed the first.

      • UnCivilServant

        I disagree. That results in a confuding amount of uncertainty as to what is and is not in the public domain, more litigation, and more bureaucracy. That doesn’t add up to a fix.

      • juris imprudent

        a lot of cash flowing into a bureaucracy

        In this case it is a bureaucracy that exists to enforce a property right. Seems almost like a user fee.

  23. SDF-7

    Maybe there’s an innocent reason for it (went for F1 last weekend, stayed long?) but this does look odd….

    • UnCivilServant

      Must have overloaded the work proxies, because it won’t load.

    • Tundra

      Awwww.

    • Nephilium

      You want cute?

      The Cleveland Metroparks has partnered up with Netflix to present the Baby Animal Cam which is live Thursdays from 1400-1600 (Eastern I presume).

    • Tundra

      Boom

    • EvilSheldon

      I don’t normally carry a spare magazine, but I have one today (and a few extras in the car.)

      Also some extra medical gear.

      • Don escaped Texas

        #MeToo

      • Sensei

        With state permission.

      • Don escaped Texas

        fair enough

        I would go rogue if I could, but pretty much everything is legal here in the 16th of the states (carefully overlooking a few years when we were on strike that might affect seniority). I can’t drink in a bar while carrying, but that’s about it: maybe I should acquire a LAW or an M60?

      • Rebel Scum

        I forgot to put any fishing rods in my car and am not carrying (no CC..) but I doubt anything would happen where I commute/work. And company policy unfortunately leaves employees to be sitting ducks. That said, I guarantee there are certain people carrying in the office.

      • UnCivilServant

        I do have a fishing rod in my car… but I wouldn’t eat any fish that came out of waterways around here.

      • WTF

        Same here. I don’t normally carry spare mags, but today I’m carrying 2 along with extra first aid supplies in vehicle.

    • Rebel Scum

      This is the United States of America, so I’ll just be enjoying my day as usual.

      Outside. In my hood.

      With extra ammo

      *bald eagle call*

      • UnCivilServant

        Fun fact, the call often used over footage of Bald Eagles is in fact that of the Red-tailed Hawk, because the noise the Bald Eagle makes is not very Majestic.

      • Rebel Scum

        Interesting.

    • The Other Kevin

      There is a big outdoor trick or treat event in my town today. I’m a bit worried, but I also know that I see people open carrying around here all the time. I even know a lot of women who are always concealed carrying.

  24. Sensei

    Welcome to NYC – ground zero in more ways than one.

    NYPD orders all cops to report in uniform after ex-Hamas chief calls for global protests
    https://nypost.com/2023/10/12/nypd-orders-all-officers-to-duty-after-hamas-call-for-global-protests/

    Happy to be working at home today. Nothing more fun than seeing the national guard and NYPD with “black scary rifles – short version with the thing that goes up” all over Penn Station.

    Tensions on College Campuses Mount Over Violence in Middle East
    https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/tensions-on-college-campuses-mount-over-violence-in-middle-east-610799ae?st=plh9dzoh0kos0xi&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    At Columbia University in New York on Wednesday night, police charged a 19-year-old female student with hitting a male student with a wooden stick after he confronted her as she ripped down posters advertising a rally supporting Israel, according to a New York Police Department report and the Columbia student newspaper.

    • R C Dean

      Wait, hitting a male student with a wooden stick is its own crime? Its not just plain old assault?

      Makes me wonder what they actually charged her with. Probably disorderly conduct or some penny-ante misdemeanor.

    • Rebel Scum

      It’s really strange that the left supports a culture that is actually misogynistic/patriarchal to point that women basically have no rights and kills alphabet people.

      • Beau Knott

        Not entirely. The left sees themselves as saviors, as uplifters of (some of) the benighted. Thus, they need future targets for their efforts.
        That they are blind to the virtually certain outcome, well, that’s the left all over. Dreams and fantasies over outcomes any day, every day,

  25. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    I hope you have a fantastic day

    • Suthenboy

      Nick Drama could have saved himself a lot of time by stopping after the first two sentences.

    • Lackadaisical

      The interest rate government is borrowing at is going to rise for a long, long time, as long term debt we were lucky enough to take out at near-0% is getting renewed.

      25 trillion. Jesus…

    • Suthenboy

      Foreseeable consequences….

  26. Suthenboy

    Good God. Looking over the news.

    It appears to me that the time for talking is over.

      • UnCivilServant

        Wait – he’s not dead?

      • juris imprudent

        Unseemly long life, middle European heritage… hmmm.

      • Rebel Scum

        Europe welcoming tons of immigrants was a mistake.

        Correct.

  27. AlexinCT
    • Drake

      Just means they are hopelessly behind their recruiting goals because they alienated their primary source of quality recruits – white men from the south and midwest.

      • R.J.

        It’s not going to work. The government burned that bridge very well. Never have I seen such stupidity as in this current administration.

    • juris imprudent

      Like Rome, our citizenry is too decadent to fight, so I’d imagine a whole lot of those illegal immigrants in the prime age bracket are going to be offered citizenship via service (which will anchor all of their relations too).

      • Drake

        Like Rome, it will just delay the inevitable.

      • UnCivilServant

        Like Rome, it will just delay the inevitable accellerate the decay and firestall corrective action past the point of viability.

      • kinnath

        One of my good friends describes himself as “Dominican by birth, American by choice”. The Marines were his path to citizenship. I would welcome a million more like him.

      • juris imprudent

        He is of another era, sadly.

      • rhywun

        Would you like to know more?

    • The Other Kevin

      The military has a Disney problem. Going woke to appease a small number of very loud activists who never use your product (or enlist), at the expense of alienating the ones who pay your bills (enlist).

      • Pine_Tree

        From a son who is in there… my impression is that the officer ranks are very, very heavily filled with wokester kommisars. Not 100%, but a tremendous amount nonetheless. And appeasing the activists, because the political wokeness is greater as you move up, is THE #1 priority – all else be damned. The lower ranks (and the prospective enlistees) have of course figured it out.

  28. AlexinCT

    When I read this, I wondered how many other times this professor got away with doing this shit, only it was done based racial bullshit and hatred of honkeys.

    BTW, when you hear the word “colonizer” leveled at someone or something, you should see this as an effort to justify not just violence, but extermination of those accused.

    • Suthenboy

      As I said already, the time for talking is over. A person like that cannot, under any circumstances, be reasoned with.

    • WTF

      “Suspended” Meaning he’ll be back when the hubbub dies down.

  29. Sensei

    How about another kick in the ****.

    Earlier this week, civic and human-rights groups, citing contacts inside China, claimed roughly 500 to 600 imprisoned North Koreans were forcibly sent back to their home country. On Friday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said many North Koreans appeared to have been repatriated from three northeastern Chinese provinces but couldn’t confirm how many.

    https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/china-appears-to-have-repatriated-north-koreans-despite-international-pressure-3b0e99df?st=n9rw5jmjczmsmys&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘Hundreds are believed to have been forcibly sent back to the Kim Jong Un regime, where they likely face imprisonment and abuse, experts say’

      Understatement of the year?

      • Sensei

        They’re experts!

  30. B.P.

    Did any of y’all get any nice gifts for International Day of Jihad?

    • Mojeaux

      A sweet sweet hijab.

      • Tres Cool

        And I figured you for more of a niqab kinda gal.

    • UnCivilServant

      Just this ticking box. I threw it out.

    • AlexinCT

      I heard Mia Khalifa is looking for employment… Maybe I can get her to let me play Crusader with her…

      • Tres Cool

        Sword at the ready?

      • AlexinCT

        I am coming on with a lance…

    • Sensei

      Pre-attack scheduled work at home day?

    • The Other Kevin

      My wife and I are both going commando.

    • Rebel Scum

      Bacon.

    • SDF-7

      What an explosive announcement…. I must have missed that we’ve figured out long term hydrogen transport and storage and all (well, beyond the simple “bond the hydrogen to some carbon atoms… maybe a few oxygen… you know, hydrocarbons…..” anyway).

      At least the article didn’t claim the hydrogen was an energy source – but rather a storage alternative for “excess” wind/solar/whatnot. No mention of conversion or loss rates, of course.

      • UnCivilServant

        How about we store the hydrogen in giant alluminized baloons which we then use to transport people from place to place! To make them more areodynamic, we can shape the baloon like Salamis and call them Zeppellinis.

      • juris imprudent

        Ironic that you should allude to this.

        On the dark and stormy night of October 4, 1930, the giant British rigid airship R101 plowed nose-first into a farm field in northern France and burst into flames. Forty-eight members of the airship’s crew of fifty-four perished in the conflagration, making the disaster even deadlier than the Hindenburg catastrophe seven years later. Among the dead was Secretary of State for Air Lord Christopher Birdwood Thomson, the architect of and chief evangelist for Britain’s ill-fated rigid airship program. Largely forgotten today, the R101 disaster has much to tell us about how industrial policy gets made—and how it can go horribly wrong.

      • UnCivilServant

        R101 isn’t as famous because there isn’t a film reel of it burning with live commentary.

    • Suthenboy

      Brilliant! At least the combustion of hydrogen does not produce any greenhouse gases….oh, wait….

  31. Rebel Scum

    I don’t think Egypt wants them.

    “We support safe passage for civilians. Civilians are not to blame for what Hamas has done. They didn’t do anything wrong, and we continue to support safe passage,” Kirby says during a press briefing.

    He acknowledges that the countries have not yet secured said safe passage but are still working to secure such a humanitarian corridor.

    “Civilians are protected under the laws of armed conflict, and they should be given every opportunity to avoid the fighting,” Kirby says.

    Israel is open to a possible corridor to Egypt, Channel 12 news reports.

    • R C Dean

      Now, sort the noncombatants from the combatants in the exodus from Gaza. Easy-peasy.

      • WTF

        Drive all of them into Egypt and lock the gates.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    President Joe Biden and Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy Jennifer Granholm will on Friday announce seven regional “hydrogen hubs” which are, collectively,

    terrorist magnets.

  33. Tundra

    Our pals in Qatar just weighed in.

    Time to revisit that whole “energy independence” thing, I think. Fuck you, 81 million voters.

    Fuck you.

      • SDF-7

        Nobody gave a shit when I mentioned that like an hour ago. Sigh.

      • Sensei

        Sorry missed it.

    • SDF-7

      I know I’m protectionist and all and atypical around here — but this sort of shit is why I’m fully on board with national energy, manufacturing and food self-sustainability wherever possible and if that requires government incentives / intervention to keep knowledgebases intact, etc… so be it. Watch for and manage corruption (because of course it will happen with government protection/subsidy/intervention) — but you have to be able to assume the world order will go to shit and you’ll have nothing but yourselves at some point.

      I’d really love to flip Qatar the bird at this point — thanks again, Brandon you fuck-face.

      • Drake

        Qatar, Israel, Palestine, the Ukraine, Iran, Syria…

        I cannot muster a bit of care about any of them. They’d probably solve their own problems better without us.

      • Suthenboy

        ….or not….I dont care.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        They would and some of problems are there because of us and for the problems that don’t it provides the corrupt powers that be with a scapegoat. We should stay the hell out.

      • The Other Kevin

        Being independent in terms of resources gives a country a massive advantage when dealing with other countries. “Do whatever you want, I have plenty of my own gas/food/technology” provides tons of leverage. But the globalists in charge see that as a bad thing.

      • Drake

        For reference look at Russia shrugging at the sanctions that are supposed to hurt them but are driving the EU into recession instead.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yep and Putin was well aware. Didn’t he write a thesis on just that?

      • R C Dean

        The Russian economy isn’t doing that great, either. The ruble is down, call it 50%, since the invasion. Sanctions do damage, just not mainly to their “targets”. it’s like when the kid in Pulp Fiction shoots at the two hit men.

      • Don escaped Texas

        Being independent

        I don’t disagree generally.

        Thing is, there’s no globalist cabal causing the situation: markets moved us here, and only government intervention can undo that at whatever cost in efficiency and freedoms.

        Second, the important energy, oil and coal, are fungible, as is the cash it is paid for: some frictions and sloshing around in markets may indeed arise in some short run, but no amount of regulatory effort can create more than inconvenience before despots somewhere need money: they don’t want their oil, they want our cash and the toys it can buy, so they are selling sooner or later into a trough from which we all drink. It’s like the grain embargo: Russia just bought from someone else, and the US sold to someone else, and somehow in that global balloon squeezing, the grain oozed into all the same old places more or less sooner or later.

        Lastly, we don’t need to insure below the slab: a fire won’t burn up the lot, just the house, and probably not all of it. I’m not thrilled at the prospect of, say, 40% reductions in anything, but we could restore and onshore a lot of the marginal capacity when we need to. Lots to worry about in military and microchips: as an engineer with decades of industrial experience, I wouldn’t undersell those risks; but I do think we could grind through it all in unpleasant but very American ways like we did the Depression and WW2.

    • Trials and Trippelations

      Managed to get some $3.05 gas before the big spike

      • The Last American Hero

        Ours was $5 before shit went down in Israel.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    The hydrogen hubs that use natural gas to produce hydrogen will use carbon capture technology, senior administration officials said. The hydrogen hubs that use renewable clean energy will use a combination of new, clean energy sources and some will use existing sources of clean energy at the region.

    Also, the hydrogen tax credit included in the Inflation Reduction Act will be a key component to the economic viability of these hubs. The guidance on how that tax credit will be adjudicated is not yet out yet, but is expected by the end of the year.

    Get back to me when there is a net increase of usable energy from one of these boondoggles. You know, energy out greater than energy in.

    • Suthenboy

      It is called ‘oil’.

    • Sensei

      I do. They also had that truck decorating their studio.

    • WTF

      In America they are called Tacomas.

  35. Sensei

    This is “awesome” on so many levels.

    “He’s a linchpin in a corrupt system that is about making cases and making money,” Dudley said.

    “When cases are made everyone wins,” he added. “The narcos get lower sentences and get to keep some proceeds, the prosecutors and agents get promotions, and the lawyers rake in the money. The only loser is Lady Justice.”

    https://fortune.com/2023/10/11/fbi-investigation-dea-snitch-miami-white-powder-bar-drugs-cocaine/

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Down the page at the MSNBC Business Channel site, there is a headline about DoJ suing ebay for selling “rolling coal devices”. What took them so long?

    • UnCivilServant

      On one hand, I dislike emissions standards on principle.

      On the other hand, do you have to be an asshole?

      • UnCivilServant

        *”you” being the generic coal roller, not Brooks. Unless he engages in such activity.

      • Sensei

        I’m not a fan at all, but there are various degrees of “coal rolling”.

        You can get lots more power with a diesel by running rich, but with diminishing returns. So some of these devices simply increased power beyond EPA particulate limits. Others were smoke generation devices.

        Naturally by FedGov and MSM standards there can be no distinction.

      • UnCivilServant

        My complaint is with intentionally producing smoke for the sake of laying smoke on others.

      • ron73440

        Mine puts out a puff of black smoke when I shift, but I despise people that just blow out smoke to look “cool”.

    • Drake

      They never heard of Vietnam?

  37. prolefeed

    Succinctly: The Jews in Israel have … history. A “solution” to the Palestinian problem that was “final” … soooo not happening.

  38. Sensei

    Wow. I’m wondering if he wasn’t wearing a vest or they had something more than a handgun.

    The officers approached the suspects who proceeded to open fire. One of the officers was shot multiple times in the torso and the other was shot in the arm.

    Philly never fails to disappoint.

    Officer killed in shooting at Philadelphia International Airport; second officer wounded
    https://www.fox29.com/news/officer-killed-in-shooting-at-philadelphia-international-airport-second-officer-wounded

  39. The Late P Brooks

    I watched this movie the other night. I thought it was quite good.

    • R.J.

      Uxoricide. I have learned a new term.

    • kinnath

      Bless his heart

  40. The Late P Brooks

    not Brooks. Unless he engages in such activity.

    I despise diesels in any tune. Why do you think I jumped in my time machine and pushed Rudolph overboard?

    • Mojeaux

      What’s wrong with diesels?

    • ron73440

      My truck is awesome.

      A big diesel that can get up and go is a lot of fun to row through the gears.

      • Mojeaux

        Said it before and say it again: Dream car == Ram truck with diesel, manual transmission, not dually.

      • Tres Cool

        As much as I love the CTD, my current employer is a fan of GMC, with our fleet being mostly 1-ton DMAX with the Allison transmission.
        They can move surprisingly well.

      • ron73440

        The newer ones put out a lot of horsepower, even with the emissions crap on them.

        I never plan to give up my pre-emissions truck, it doesn’t even have an EGR or catlytic converter.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    You can get lots more power with a diesel by running rich, but with diminishing returns. So some of these devices simply increased power beyond EPA particulate limits. Others were smoke generation devices.

    And those dieselgate VWs ran better and made more power (and got better mileage) as I recall) for a negligible increase in a laboratory emissions number.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    My complaint is with intentionally producing smoke for the sake of laying smoke on others.

    Foul smelling smoke.

    • Tundra

      Agreed.

      There was an old carbureted Bronco at the stoplight next to me the other day. The absolute sweetest of smells!

      • Sensei

        Funny just yesterday in NYC an older Harley went by and was treated to the smell of a rich running gasoline motor.

        I’d forgotten that smell!

      • Tundra

        It smells of freedom and a happier time.

      • R C Dean

        The best, though, you are vanishingly unlikely to smell ever again:

        Carbureted, burning leaded gas.

      • ron73440

        I do miss the smell of my 1973 Charger with a built 440 and an Edelbrock 800 4 barrel.

        That would be the one vehicle I would trade my truck for.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I don’t care if people who do that spend the rest of their free time volunteering at soup kitchens and helping little old ladies across the street: they’re assholes.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      That it was a feckless bluff with nothing to back it up was obvious.

    • Sean

      Looks like a great way to collect a lot of cellular data intel.

    • Suthenboy

      The idiots in Europe learned nothing from the Reconquista?
      How is that going for Sweden?

  43. The Late P Brooks

    I was walking down the sidewalk in Livingston one summer day, and a guy went by in an beautiful old (pre-copped-off-tail) Alfa spyder. I swear he was running Sunoco Cam 2 race gas. It smelled just like an SCCA National race paddock for a minute.

    • Seguin

      Awesome. I actually prefer the one right after that, with the docked tail, but a cool Alfa nonetheless.

  44. Sensei

    “The first rule would require institutional money managers with large short positions to file a new SEC form detailing their bets at the end of each month. The agency would then aggregate the data and publish it for the market. The positions and identities of individual funds wouldn’t be published, but investors would get a new window into which companies are being shorted.”

    Whereas a long position is in no way a “bet” on the stock appreciating.

    https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/hedge-funds-would-have-to-tell-sec-which-companies-they-sell-short-under-new-rules-65447480?st=ih34b0nlvzna669&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • robc

      Not disagreeing with anything you said, but why?

      Short positions are already known, its easy to access info.

      For example, the short ratio for T (AT&T) is 1.62%. It took 2 seconds with google to find.

      • Sensei

        I’m not an expert as I only worked the long only side of things and not on trading.

        That short interest comes from the brokerages. In this case they want to make hedge funds directly report their interests in more granular and/or timely matter to the SEC.

        Our benevolent masters there would than anonymize and report that short interest. So you’d have two short interest metrics. The professional short interest and the market wide short interest as reported by the brokers.

  45. Don escaped Texas

    good boys and good ol’ boys are ready

    I’m generally not interested in identity politics, especially that of my own demographic, but this is kinda funny

    • Tundra

      Nice.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Rambunctious Party

    But it is unclear whether Jordan, a right-wing firebrand who chairs the Judiciary Committee, could succeed where Scalise failed — getting the 217 votes needed to secure the job.

    “HELL NO,” Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., wrote in a text message about whether she would back Jordan.

    Asked whether she could count five “Never Jordan” votes, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., replied: “There’s probably five ‘Never Everybodys’ — that’s the problem.”

    Maybe you idiots should try to focus on what your jobs should be, instead of trying to be everything to everyone. Not everything is the government’s reswponsibility. I know that’s a hard concept to grasp.

    • R.J.

      A lot of the right people hate him. This means he must be better than the average go along/get along repub.

    • Don escaped Texas

      probably five ‘Never Everybodys’

      That’s funny,

      but it shouldn’t be that there’s no obvious man to point to. Reading Gätz’s critique of McCarthy and the House’s issues, I found I didn’t disagree with much he said; how is it that there isn’t that sort of small government focus coming from someone who isn’t a clown. I’m open to the possibility that there is a grownup somewhere in the House: who is it and why is no one nominating him?

      • juris imprudent

        Massie, but apparently he won’t play the stupid games necessary to be a serious political player.

  47. Common Tater

    “The woman, who goes by the name EquanaB on TikTok, revealed in a video [warning: graphic language] that she met up with her date at Fontaine’s Oyster House in Atlanta. She proceeded to order four dozen oysters and noisily knocked them back during the dinner – that’s where it all started to go wrong.

    While waiting for her date to come out of the bathroom, the woman was angered to learn that he had left the restaurant – in apparent disgust over her insatiable appetite for shellfish.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12625191/48-oysters-date-Atlanta-restaurant.html

    Classy.

    • UnCivilServant

      Four Dozen?

      I bet her date simply didn’t want that bill, and she wasn’t worth the hassle.

      • SDF-7

        The article states that he asked her out for drinks and she proceeded to tear through the food menu like that. He offered in a subsequent text to cover her drinks tab, but that’s all.

        I can see where he’s coming from — I probably would have politely found a reason to leave, paid the bill and informed her it wouldn’t work out and chalked it up to education. And thanked my lucky stars that she revealed her egotism and rudeness right off the bat.

      • UnCivilServant

        I didn’t read the article. From the summation alone I knew better than to follow the link.

    • ron73440

      EquanaB on TikTok

      I’d say it went wrong when the guy went on a date with a plastic person.

      Doesn’t it bother the younger guys that all of these women look exactly the same?

      Excuse me while I adjust the onion on my belt.

  48. Rebel Scum

    They need their human shields.

    Hamas has called on Palestinians to stay in their homes after Israel issued sweeping evacuation orders for almost half of Gaza’s more than 2.3 million people ahead of an expected ground offensive.

    The Hamas authority for refugee affairs today told residents in the north of the territory to “remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation”.

  49. Seguin

    Just thinking this: this is the would be a good opportunity to bring back Letters of Marque. Offer them for every known Hamas member. No financial reward, just donations to your organization and whatever military material you can take from them and sell. You’d have to be careful with the contract terms to minimize depredations on the innocent, but state violence I think is worse for that.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of turbodiesel trucks, I want the one that sounds exactly like a toilet flushing on the 1-2 shift. I think it’s a Ford. I wonder how many millions of dollars they spent to make that happen.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    Just thinking this: this is the would be a good opportunity to bring back Letters of Marque. Offer them for every known Hamas member. No financial reward, just donations to your organization and whatever military material you can take from them and sell. You’d have to be careful with the contract terms to minimize depredations on the innocent, but state violence I think is worse for that.

    Can I rent an A10 from Hertz?

    • Seguin

      I’m sorry, we don’t have one on the lot. We can put you into a nice FMA Pucara for a nice discount, though!

    • Sean

      I saw a newer Vette yesterdy with the license plate “A10 PLT”.