274 Comments

  1. WTF

    The Recession Is Now

    Bidenomics, it’s working!

    • The Other Kevin

      Don’t worry, they’ll just change the definition of recession and we won’t be in one!

      • thrakkorzog

        It’s fine we’ll just subtract volatile things from the inflation index. As long as no one pays for gas, food, or rent then inflation is solved.

  2. Shpip

    U.S. funds experienced withdrawals overall, but ESG funds experienced a significantly worse decline than their counterparts, facing four straight quarters of outflows as investors have lost interest due to regulatory scrutiny and concerns about returns.

    Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive. — William F. Buckley, Jr.

    • R.J.

      “I’m ashamed of being part of this conversation,” Fink stated.

      Us too, Fink.

  3. Rat on a train

    Below-replacement fertility means … not enough taxes to pay for entitlements
    Ponzi schemes eventually run out of suckers.

    • juris imprudent

      “A sucker is born every minute” takes on a different connotation.

    • Fourscore

      Pretty elaborate, it’s going to take awhile before his ROI makes it worthwhile, at this point it’s an expensive hobby. I noticed he was using the the gates on the front of his boxes. We’ve never done that but after this year’s experience with robbers we’re going in that direction from the getgo. Thanks, Suthen, interesting

  4. Brawndo

    I’m torn. On one hand, pulling funding for “not condemning Hamas hard enough” is a bitch move. On the other hand, the universities need to be brought down a peg or two.

    • R.J.

      It’s the donor’s money and they can vote with it. Donors have been so hands off for years. I am surprised this didn’t happen earlier when the whole woke thing started. It would have been nice is the whole woke thing was pulled up at the root by donors yanking money.

    • R C Dean

      Maybe less, “not condemning Hamas hard enough”, and more “Way too much celebrating the murder, rape, torture, and abduction of Jews”.

      • WTF

        ^This. It’s the celebrating and promoting massacre and genocide rather than the “not condemning”.

      • prolefeed

        No university seems to be getting in trouble AFAIK for its administrators vigorously exercising their First Amendment rights and saying nothing publicly about the wars in Ukraine or Gaza, on the basis that they are apolitical and sticking strictly to the business of educating kids.

      • slumbrew

        I think maybe it was Moynihan on The Fifth Column who noted that schools did this to themselves – once they started taking public positions on political issues, they now _have_ to take public positions on other issues.

      • Lackadaisical

        Couldn’t happen to a group more deserving of it.

        Play stupid games…

      • Brawndo

        From the article:

        Jon Huntsman Jr., former U.S. ambassador to China and governor of Utah, said in a letter that the Huntsman Foundation would no longer be donating to UPenn after its “silence in the face of reprehensible and historic Hamas evil against the people of Israel”

        I’m aware there are statements and letters blaming Israel, but this is merely “silence.” I’ll say “good morning” to anyone, but if you force me to say it, I’m gonna tell you to go fuck yourself.

      • Grummun

        I don’t see it as them UPenn being “forced” to do anything. Both sides were engaged in a mutually agreeable arrangement. Huntsman decided that a lack of response on UPenn’s part constitutes a revealed preference, and decided he no longer found the arrangement agreeable.

        This is exactly how socially repugnant behavior should be punished in Libertopia: if one party reveals themselves to be racist or sexist or whatever -ist you like, other parties that find that -ism to be objectionable just won’t do business with them.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        This is exactly how socially repugnant behavior should be punished in Libertopia: if one party reveals themselves to be racist or sexist or whatever -ist you like, other parties that find that -ism to be objectionable just won’t do business with them.

        Yep. There used to be a poster on here who I remember going after the Jews because they set up their own JCCs instead of just accepting that 1980s Country Clubs wouldn’t let them in and staying in their place. Damn them for using their money in pursuit of their own interests.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I’ll say “good morning” to anyone, but if you force me to say it, I’m gonna tell you to go fuck yourself.

        It’s hardly force when you have your hand out asking for money. It’s a voluntary transaction. Same as every non-governmental transaction in a free market, those with the money get to make the ask. Those receiving the money are free to accept or reject the terms.

      • R.J.

        I agree it is voluntary. Feels like this was a “last straw” situation with some donors who already had egg on their faces from multiple prior issues. I think the whole “not condemning hard enough” was more a good reason to stop donating and not look like a Scrooge after years of dealing with anti-racism BS. I know I’d be looking for an excuse to cut off the taps and not get bad publicity.

      • Grummun

        I had a similar thought. In the current environment, cutting your donation because you disagree with DEI will get you raked over the coals by the howling class. When you can point to a no-shit atrocity and draw a line, who is for or against, you get some moral high ground as cover.

      • R C Dean

        I honestly don’t think the donors would be pulling out if it wasn’t for the pro-Hamas rallies promoted by the universities (as in, allowed on campus when others aren’t, attended and organized by university staff, etc.). I doubt that, in the absence of those, donors would be pulling funds even if universities weren’t condemning Hamas

      • kinnath

        Yes. My guess is the donors are pissed that the schools remain silent while their students are vocally pro-Hamas.

      • R C Dean

        Not just the students, not by a mile.

      • kinnath

        Ok. I hadn’t been paying attention to the profs, but I assume many/most are pro-Hamas as well.

      • prolefeed

        I doubt that Huntsman would be yanking funding if the school had issued a statement that they strongly support the right of free speech on campus, as that is a core value of their institution, so long as all speakers were non-violent and civil toward those with opposing views, and that disciplinary action would be meted out to those students or professors who violated those core values.

      • kinnath

        Too easy

      • rhywun

        The profs are where the students are learning it from.

      • slumbrew

        My wife does development (i.e., begging for money) for one of the local universities.

        That is precisely what she’s hearing from alums.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        There are also lots of knock-on effects when you start dealing with corporate doners, also. They might be getting a shit-ton of pressure from their people about whom they are donating to, and it starting to move up the ladder.

      • thrakkorzog

        It’s not even that the students are pro- Hamas it’s that the professors and all the DEI staffers are as well.

        The fact that that on the anti-Semitism they suddenly become free speech absolutists reveals their preferences.

      • rhywun

        It’s all part of the post-modern, “colonial settler” horseshit the Marxist professors have been feeding their students for decades. This attack was inevitable, and their response equally inevitable.

  5. SDF-7

    Americans falling behind on auto loan payments at record pace

    I read that as “falling behind their parents” on first glance…. not surprising that my mind thought “Well, of course they are” given that it was my subconscious supplying the color commentary there.

  6. Not Adahn

    Grrrr.

    So, I bought a “reinforced slide stop” for the CZ from Cajun Gun Works, kept it in the range bag as a spare. I broke my original one a few days before Handgun Nats, At said Nats, I discovered that this replacement will NOT lock the slide back on an empty magazine, which doth sucketh greatly. Fortunately, I took the one from my Carry Optics gun and it works as one would expect a factory original part to do so. I contacted CGW to see what was wrong if anything. They confirmed that this part was in fact defective, but that it had been more than 30 days since the time of purchase, so they wouldn’t take it back.

    Fuck Cajun Gun Works right in their ear. From now on, it’s CZ Custom for me.

    • WTF

      That’s a bitch move not standing behind their product.

      • Not Adahn

        It’s a $40 part.

      • Not Adahn

        Not like they’ll be out a ton of cash to replace it with a good one.

      • Suthenboy

        A one dollar part…cost doesn’t matter. They sold a defective part, they should replace it.

        Note for the future….buy a new part, install it and test it.

      • Nephilium

        I would allow for an excuse if they no longer made the current product (or an equivalent replacement).

      • Suthenboy

        I dont think that is the case here.
        I am glad to know this…they are just up the highway a bit from me but I won’t be using them now.

      • Nephilium

        Either do I, just putting in the one exception that I would consider acceptable (especially outside of normal return windows).

        /remembers far too many conversations with people trying to “save’ old computer kit that shouldn’t have been saved.

      • Sean

        Are you saying it’s time for me to finally toss those ide cables in my garage?

      • slumbrew

        You can add them to the milk crate of cables I have in the basement.

      • Sean

        That’s a bitch move not standing behind their product.

        FR.

    • UnCivilServant

      Shouldn’t warranty on defective components be longer than the retail return window?

      • hayeksplosives

        Only if they want repeat business.

        I’m surprised they’d rather piss off a customer (who will likely tell his buddies) than cough up a replacement part free.

      • Suthenboy

        Yep, it’s a freakin’ slide stop FFS.

      • Grummun

        Absolutely it should. Screw those jerks.

    • Sean

      How far past “30 days” ?

      • Not Adahn

        Honestly, no idea. I bought it, dropped it in the range bag. I guess the “proper” thing would have been to have tested it prior to dropping in the range bag.

      • Sean

        Just curious. I’m firmly in the “they did wrong” camp.

      • robodruid

        You could consider a charge back on your credit card.
        Just telling them that you will do that can make them change their mind.

      • DrOtto

        You have a pretty short window in which to do that. I think 30 days from when the statement is due or something. Sounds like it’s definitely been longer than that.

      • Not Adahn

        Yeah, it has been several months. It’s a pretty simple spare part so I assumed (I know, I know,) that it would be fine.

        If I ran it in a limited/open gun, it would be NBD, since those magazines usually have abbreviated followers that won’t lock a slide back either. That’s why I asked if it was intended to lock back the slide in the first place. If they had said “no,” I’d have blamed myself for not reading the description more closely.

  7. PieInTheSky

    Americans falling behind on auto loan payments at record pace – I think zerohedge or something like that reported this on the X days ago fox is slow

    • Not Adahn

      I thought it was pee pee in your Coke, not your beer.

      • thrakkorzog

        Welp, my inner child is saying “told you so.”

    • Rebel Scum

      That must be what happens at the Bud Lite plant.

  8. Brawndo

    “Americans falling behind on auto loan payments at record pace”

    I still blame Obama for this. Cash for Clunkers destroyed the floor of the used car market, and it’s never recovered. Is anyone surprised that people are behind on loan payments when even used cars less than 100k miles are going for more than 15k?

    • DrOtto

      And he’ll gladly take credit for it. CFC was intended to destroy the used car market by literally destroying used cars and the salvage car parts stream that feeds it. That the traded in cars couldn’t be resold or used for salvage parts was telling in the intent. They literally had to seize the engines and then crush/shred everything else that was left so that other people couldn’t keep their cars running using those parts was absolutely intended to push people out of private transportation. It was a war on the poor.

    • juris imprudent

      Funny because the used-car market went through the roof during COVID. I had a dealer that was willing to buy my truck for nearly what I paid for it.

      • thrakkorzog

        I think the push for EVs has made a lot of people really want ICE cars. I have a 15 year old Sentra and get people randomly making offers on it.

      • Ownbestenemy

        My 03 Explorer that I gave to teen#1 has been offered way over blue book by several people.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Do you think that is still impacting the market? I’m sure it made used cars more expensive in the short run, but is it still doing so 15 years later?

      • kinnath

        Yes, it is still terrible.

        I have a daughter in the market for a reliable used car. Prices are horrendous.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        I agree it’s still terrible, but I think the cause is largely supply chain issues and the fact that new cars are so damn expensive now. I think the impact of Cash for Clunkers has long passed.

      • kinnath

        I think cash for clunkers is still having an impact. The working poor that used to drive around in rusted out, 20yo vehicles has nothing to choose from. So, they are forced up market. While the new car horseshit prices are driving the upper-middle and middle classes downward into older used cars.

        The squeeze is from both sides.

      • Mojeaux

        This is why I will drop $1,000 every few months on our cars instead of getting something better. Also, we can’t afford a car payment. We spend $15,000 a year on JUST health insurance premiums. We can’t afford jack shit else.

  9. PieInTheSky

    CBP Confirms 2nd-Straight Year for 2 Million Migrant Apprehensions at Southwest Border – keep the young hot chicks and send everyone else back

    • Fourscore

      Seeing some of the pictures I think it’s time to inventory the orphan pool and start replacement.

      • R C Dean

        Personally, I think military-age male orphans are more trouble than they’re worth.

      • DrOtto

        It’s because of how much they eat and jerk off. You can’t mix enough saltpeter into their gruel.

      • UnCivilServant

        swap in cyanide instead.

    • Lackadaisical

      Pie for President!

      We need to get our birth rate up!

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      I like the way you think.

  10. robc

    “Total fertility rates used for the 2020-2025 period are 1.9 for Christian women, 1.6 for the religiously unaffiliated and 2.0 for women of other religions, and these differentials remain stable throughout the projection period.”

    I couldn’t find a more specific breakdown by, say, evangelical christian women, but I think the idea is still there.

      • The Last American Hero

        How much for men that identify as women?

    • R C Dean

      IMO, that’s not the urgent demographic crisis. In the last few years, we have imported around a DFW or a Phoenix of illegals. If I wanted to live in Central America, I’d move there (and I actually might some day). But I’d rather live in America, which requires a society populated by Americans. Right now, Americans are getting squeezed between an un-American ruling class and a non-American lumpenproletariat. Demographics is destiny, and all that.

      • juris imprudent

        I have less fear of the immigrants – we can always go back to the old-school assimilation and they’ll end up fine. It’s the fucking elite that insist on propping themselves up by creating this underclass that I want to rip out of our social fabric.

      • R C Dean

        “we can always go back to the old-school assimilation”

        To do so, of course, requires ripping out the current ruling class entirely. I think the solution more likely to avoid the problems created by mass migration is just to close the fucking border already, and start winnowing out the illegals we have allowed in.

      • juris imprudent

        Elite delenda est

        There will of course be a new elite, but presumably one not so committed to itself that it would destroy the country to preserve itself.

      • rhywun

        To do so, of course, requires ripping out the current ruling class entirely.

        This. That “melting pot” that all our elementary school teachers were so fond of talking about has been thoroughly trashed. It is in direct opposition to the “diversity” dream.

      • Lackadaisical

        RC- the low birth rates exacerbate the problems of immigration.

        Immigrant kids will have that much less contact with American children and thus or culture growing up.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Speaking of demographics, I was looking at Ireland last night. Northern Ireland only surpassed pre famine population in the 1990’s and the Republic of Ireland still hasn’t. NI is also no longer majority or even a plurality Protestant.

    • juris imprudent

      evangelical christian women

      Take out the Mormon and Catholic women, and good lord, what is left?

      • robc

        Evangelical Protestant women are having kids at same rate as the Catholic women.

        I know at my church, we are an outlier with only 1 kid. Three or four is pretty common.

      • rhywun

        And Utah had the steepest decline. Mormons seem to be taking themselves out.

      • prolefeed

        Mormons are still at 3.4 children per woman, way above both the replacement rate and other denominations. A slow reversion toward the mean.

        If they could keep their children from being poached by the infidels, they’d eventually become the dominant faith.

  11. PieInTheSky

    ‘Soft on crime’ Sacramento sparks prostitution boom in Los Angeles – I mean as long as there is no trafficking involved…

    • PieInTheSky

      or link this to my previous comment on migrants

    • rhywun

      An article I read said 95% of them are managed by pimps, who I suspect aren’t checking drivers licenses.

      • slumbrew

        I gotta watch that sometime. My brother loves it.

      • Not Adahn

        Maggie McNeill says that pimps are extremely rare, and that the media lurves to push bogus stories about sexually enslaved women.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        I think there is a huge difference between street walkers, which is essentially what is happening in LA, verses call girls, which are the start of the upper end.

        Last time I saw street walkers, I saw a pimp near by.

      • thrakkorzog

        Pretty sure pimps are inevitable when talking about prostitutes. Whatever moral issues you have with prostitutes, they need security.

        It’s like bouncers at a bar. You have a drunken idiot start shit, you need someone to stop it.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Not just security, but also a bit of an agent, for the call girls at least. I had a… we will just call him a drinking buddy, and he used a call service. And that takes someone to answer the phone, know which girls are working and who is available at that time (this isn’t something you schedule in advance), someone to collect the CC payment (’cause modern world) and, finally, someone to launder that payment.

      • prolefeed

        Pimps aren’t comparable to bouncers, since bouncers are employees, while pimps essentially own the prostitutes and confiscate their earnings and punish those proslaves. who offend that one-sided “contract”. De facto slavers.

      • The Last American Hero

        A cooler, perhaps.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Oh, I thought it meant the politicians are moving to LA.

  12. PieInTheSky

    Seven killed and 25 injured in huge pile up on Louisiana highway – for such a car dependent culture you lot can’t drive

    • UnCivilServant

      Don’t be silly. The vast majority of us haven’t been slain in car accidents.

      • PieInTheSky

        yet.

  13. PieInTheSky

    Mathematicians are coming under pressure to “decolonise mathematics”. But what could this even mean?

    In our new paper, posted today on the maths Arxiv, we review the literature on decolonising mathematics to find out

    The common theme we found is that we should teach mathematics and science are just “one way of knowing” which should not be seen as superior to other such as faith and tradition. Many authors we studied go much further and even claim that maths and science were created to oppress

    When I explained this postmodern view to colleagues, many of them thought I was exaggerating. To them the postmodern view was so absurd they struggled to believe anyone would put it forward. This is what motivated me to systematically review the literature.

    A lot of people conflate decolonisation with trying to support racial minorities in your teaching. But you can do the latter without believing that science is an example of western European cultural hegemony.

    https://twitter.com/johnarmstrong5/status/1716415820488651112

    • UnCivilServant

      Who is this moron and why are they still talking?

      • PieInTheSky

        what makes you thing the guy is a moron?

      • UnCivilServant

        I made the mistake of reading their statement.

      • PieInTheSky

        it is not a statement as much as a review of statements by others

      • Not Adahn

        I believe that guy is critiquing, not endorsing.

    • rhywun

      But what could this even mean?

      It means the universities have been fully captured by the worst sort of anti-intellectual, Marxist scum. I hope we put a stop to it before the bodies pile up this time.

      • Lackadaisical

        I think we’re already past the tipping point.

        We’re hiring and firing based on race, this is inevitable to cause more human misery and resources are misallocated as a result.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        It’s worse than I realized at my own work. I was told I had to include a DEI candidate (based on last names… which is insulting and racist in and of itself) in final interview stages and our head recruiter confided to me that she gets raked over the coals in a special DEI audit when white candidates (male or female) are hired.

        I had a separate conversation with the woman in legal in charge of navigating staff conflicts. She let slip that she’s holding the line so far, but is getting heavy pressure to put her thumb on the scale for DEI employees in any conflict.

      • slumbrew

        JFC, that’s bad

      • Lackadaisical

        How else do you get to hiring 94% non-white in the s&p100?

      • UnCivilServant

        We have a process galvanized into being through legislation and litigation over a century.

        They haven’t been able to shoehorn in Current Day policies to the hiring side.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Yeah, without going into details, I have seen some of that in more than a few of my “acquaintances” work.

      • Mojeaux

        There’s a former news anchor here (white) who’s suing the station for discrimination. She applied for a promotion, and was told point blank that she was the wrong minority.

      • rhywun

        That’s terrifying.

      • prolefeed

        Pressuring hiring staff to make explicitly racist hiring decisions seems … illegal and unconstitutional and creating a hostile workforce environment.

        I’d tell them to put those orders in writing.

  14. Sean

    I played https://squaredle.com 10/24:
    31/31 words (+5 bonus words)
    🎯 In the top 45% by accuracy
    🔥 Solve streak: 2

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 10/24:
    22/22 words (+7 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 5% by bonus words

    • kinnath

      Morning quordle. Fuck the upper right word.

    • rhywun

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 10/24:
      22/22 words (+3 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 21% by accuracy

      I played https://squaredle.com 10/24:
      31/31 words (+7 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 15% by accuracy
      🔥 Solve streak: 37

    • SDF-7

      I really sucked today — stared at the main one with half the words for way too long, had to resort to revealing letters to make progress.

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 10/24:
      *22/22 words (+1 bonus word)
      🎯 Perfect accuracy

      I played https://squaredle.com 10/24:
      31/31 words (+3 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 11% by accuracy
      🔥 Solve streak: 65

      • rhywun

        had to resort to revealing letters to make progress

        Welcome to my every day.

  15. PieInTheSky

    Jihad means “struggle”. A Muslim’s spiritual struggle to avoid sin and be a better human and avoid evil, to do good. Therefore tens of thousands were performing Jihad in the peaceful protest. It can also have a war context. Let’s not just focus on one person at a fringe protest.

    https://twitter.com/adilray/status/1716352565107925182

    You know who else had a struggle?

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Chinese dissidents?

    • Grumbletarian

      Everyone STEVE SMITH meets?

    • rhywun

      Well, converting the rest of the world to their religion by sword and slaughtering the rest is part of what they consider to be “doing good” so yeah, it’s all bound together.

    • R C Dean

      I’m no expert, but I’m deeply suspicious that “jihad means an internal struggle to be a good person” is eyewash for the non-Islamic rubes.

      My understanding is that one of the key differences between Christianity and Islam is that Christians believe virtue consists of resisting temptation, while Muslims believe virtue consists of eliminating temptation, such as by putting their women in sacks. It is impossible, I think, to be a good Muslim while living side-by-side with temptation or even with non-Muslims. Again, no expert, but the Koran and commentaries are full of “not tolerating non-Muslims unless they are subordinate/dominated/servile” and “convert by the sword as needed”. Islam is very focused on external offenses, whether they be non-believers or just the temptations of the material world, not internal virtue.

      • PieInTheSky

        look man I was just doing a You know who else joke not deep analysis

      • Fatty Bolger

        Well, it does mean that, it’s similar to the idea of wrestling with your inner demons. Does that describe what the protestors were doing? Nah.

      • R C Dean

        At most, it also means inner struggle. It most definitely (also) means subdue and/or convert and/or kill non-Muslims.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Yeah, I should have been clearer on that. It does *also* mean that.

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      The first reply says it without saying it; when there are multiple interpretations they will cover the spectrum of thought in that field. And while you might have some Muslims who are of that line of thought, self improvement, many more are going to take the more traditional line, which is war, mainly by fault of Islam being a very conservative religion.

      And it isn’t war by Geneva convention standards.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    “I’m ashamed of being part of this conversation,” Fink stated.

    Sure, Larry. How much money did you lose personally?

    • slumbrew

      “I’m ashamed you rubes aren’t on board with this” is what he meant.

  17. PieInTheSky

    Another classic from the Civil Service job board. Would you like to lead trade negotiations between Switzerland and the UK? Do you have an expert knowledge of global trade and diplomacy? Would you like to be paid many times less than those skills are worth?

    https://twitter.com/rcolvile/status/1716770148349075758

    Should be easy. Go libertarian. Wanna free trade? Sure! Deal !

    • UnCivilServant

      Total embargo of trade, except cheese. No tariffs on cheese.

    • slumbrew

      Would you like to be paid many times less than those skills are worth?

      You’d think an expert on trade would understand how markets work.

      Those skills are worth what someone will pay for them.

      • Suthenboy

        Why would you think that?

      • slumbrew

        Price discovery?

      • Lackadaisical

        Whenever I see postings for jobs in Europe the salaries are a joke.

      • Sensei

        Keep in mind reducing your US salary by your healthcare and 401(k) costs.

      • robc

        You also have to adjust for relative tax rates.

    • Gender Traitor

      Apparently not the CHIEF Chief Negotiator. Probably only in charge of cuckoo clocks.

  18. Rebel Scum

    CBP Confirms 2nd-Straight Year for 2 Million Migrant Apprehensions at Southwest Border

    I’m sure this is sustainable and not a country comiting suicide.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    I guess the “proper” thing would have been to have tested it prior to dropping in the range bag.

    Well, yeah. I have been guilty of similar errors, a couple of times, so I can’t rag. Pre-order parts, and throw them on the shelf until I get around to doing the job, and find a problem too late.

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      We have all been there, and, frankly, this is what separates Pro’s from Amateurs. They either have accounts/sponsors big enough that it isn’t an issue, or they have devised plans to make it so it isn’t an issue.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    When you see an impenetrable wall of fog ahead, speed up.

    • Rat on a train

      You want to get through it as fast as possible to limit the duration of risk.

    • Gustave Lytton

      And turn your headlights off.

      • Rat on a train

        What? No high beams?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      She’s always been a bought and paid for neocon bomb them there and bring them here neocon retard, no smoking the reefer required.

      • Rebel Scum

        I just don’t understand how anyone could think it is a good idea to import millions of people that are completely incompatible with anything Americana. Of course, the feds are doing that anyway right now.

    • WTF

      Importing Hamas? What could possibly go wrong?

      • Lackadaisical

        Nothing for them, just one more crisis that can be exploited once it backfires spectacularly.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Sean’s breakfast?

      • Fourscore

        Light on the bacon for Sean

        “More bacon, Mom”

      • R.J.

        Somebody is stealing Sean’s gig.

      • Sean

        I’m pretty sure that pic originates from a sigforum.com member.

    • UnCivilServant

      No thank you.

      Too carby.

      • slumbrew

        Noooooooope.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        So, not spicy enough? Or, do you need a different sauce?

      • Suthenboy

        Those are cutworms or also called hornworms. They are the caterpillars for the Luna moth. They specialize in tomatoes. Tomato is a nightshade. While the fruit is not poisonous the leaves certainly are. Those caterpillars are stuffed full of chewed up tomato leaves so I am gonna take a pass on that.

      • Gender Traitor

        Thanks, but did you really need that reason not to eat them?

      • Sean

        😂🤣

    • slumbrew

      Fuck yeah.

      Maybe lose the potatoes.

    • Sean

      Grocery store has been selling tomahawk pork chops. Why?

      • slumbrew

        Local steakhouse sells those. They look damn tasty.

      • Not Adahn

        Tomahawk ALL the meats!

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        A new FoodTV show: TomahawkCHOPPED!

        So Braves, s

      • Aloysious

        Diversity, equity, inclusion.

  21. Rebel Scum

    Thou shall not question the religion of peace.

    As Americans, we must come together and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred.

    I have said repeatedly that I will not be silent in the face of hate.

    We must be unequivocal: There is no place in America for hate against anyone.

    Except the extremist, ultra-MAGA terrorists among us.

    • rhywun

      There is no place in America for hate against anyone.

      Meaningless flapdoodle. But yes, revealing for what it leaves out.

      • cyto

        The best part was that this was the white house spokespersons response to “what are you doing about rising anti Semitic attacks?”

        “We are fighting Islamophobia and the rise of violence against Muslims”

        The CIA playbook of fomenting discord and pushing false narratives via repetition should be completely untenable at this point.

        Instead we are learning just how stupid people are in large groups.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        In groups? Half the population out there is pretty stupid all on their own.

      • rhywun

        “We are fighting Islamophobia and the rise of violence against Muslims”

        Almost word-for-word what George fucking Bush said immediately after 9/11.

        There useless, the fookin’ lot of them.

      • rhywun

        “they’re”, even

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      And conservative Catholics, gun owners, crypto traders, Elon Musk, pedo dislikers, and people who drive pickups with more than four cylinders.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Fog of war

    The Times is far from alone in relaying the claims of interested parties as facts. Other news outlets also cited Hamas, which governs Gaza, in their coverage of the hospital explosion. In its initial dispatch, Reuters called the blast an “Israeli air strike,” citing Gaza officials. The AP cited the “Health Ministry” in its headline.

    Yet Hamas is much more than that. It is deemed by the U.S. and the European Union to be a terrorist organization. Indeed, it just unleashed the most deadly attack in Israeli history, with more than 1,400 people dead, and more than 200 people taken hostage.

    And Hamas is the source of much of the information — and misinformation — about events in Gaza. Last week, for example, a Hamas spokesman denied in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep that militants from the group had slaughtered hundreds of civilians at a music concert in the Israeli desert, despite accounts by survivors, Israeli officials and journalists for major news outlets. (Inskeep pointedly noted that the attackers did kill civilians.)

    ——-

    The audiences’ perceptions of media outlets’ fairness determine how much trust they have – not just in the veracity of specific coverage but the independence of their journalists. Speed may matter a lot to readers, viewers and listeners. Accuracy and fairness still matter more, especially when stakes are so high.

    NPR thumbsucker; journalisming is hard, especially with a bunch of nitpickers looking over your shoulder.

    • cyto

      They still haven’t done their mea culpa over Trump…. rather they double down.

      • juris imprudent

        They have reassured the consumers of their brand of media – we do the hard work, so you can trust us.

      • Not Adahn

        “We don’t report facts, we tell stories!”

    • Common Tater

      “citing Gaza officials”

      I see the problem here.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    The CIA playbook of fomenting discord and pushing false narratives via repetition should be completely untenable at this point.

    I’m pretty sure “divide and conquer” pre-dates the CIA.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      We become one body; the enemy being separated into ten parts. We attack the divided ten with the united one. We are many, the enemy is few, and in superiority of numbers there is economy of strength.

      Sun Tzu “The Art of War”

  24. Rebel Scum

    Surely you can provide examples.

    “What is [Biden’s] level of concern right now about a potential rise of antisemitism?”

    KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: “Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim have endured a disproportionate number of hate-fueled attacks”

    • Suthenboy

      Potential rise. It is only a potential so no worries.

    • rhywun

      They just can’t help themselves. I never knew how deep the rot is.

      • juris imprudent

        I don’t mind so much that they delude themselves, but I mind a great deal that they expect me to buy into those delusions.

    • Common Tater

      “Those damn Jews blew up the World Trade Center.”

  25. DEG

    Gaetz said every candidate agreed to release the full Jan. 6th Capitol security footage to the public.

    I’ll believe it when I see it.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Return of “Putin at death’s door” stories

    The Kremlin on Tuesday denied a report that President Vladimir Putin was ill, and laughed off persistent rumours that he used body doubles to cover for him in public appearances.

    “Everything is fine with him, this is absolutely another fake,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about an unsourced report by a Russian Telegram channel, picked up by some Western media, that the president had suffered a serious health episode on Sunday evening.

    The spokesman laughed in response to a further question about body doubles, and denied that Putin had any.

    “This belongs to the category of absurd information hoaxes that a whole series of media discuss with enviable tenacity. This evokes nothing but a smile,” Peskov said.

    Putin, a judo enthusiast who has long cultivated an “action man” image, turned 71 on Oct. 7. He maintains an intensive schedule of meetings and public appearances, many of them televised.

    Haven’t heard any rumors about Putin’s health lately.

    • Fourscore

      Like an old Western movie

      “Sure is quiet out there”

      “Yeah, too quiet”

    • Rebel Scum

      e used body doubles to cover for him in public appearances.

      I guess Russia does better than Brandon’s testicle chin mask.

    • The Other Kevin

      Remember back in the 80’s, when the USSR would have an old shitty leader and he’d have a cold for 6 months, then they’d announce he died? If only that would happen here.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Last time we gave you a contract, you stole a bunch of tax returns and leaked them to the media.

    It was just that one guy, and he was doing his patriotic duty. It’s not like we’re going to sell Joe’s returns. Nobody would buy them, anyway.

  28. Lackadaisical

    “Population rate decline in the US triggers economic alarms from experts”

    It’s not just the frogs that are being made gay.

    • Trials and Trippelations

      Yea my wife already noticed a narrative came on her Facebook a month ago of several articles essentially saying “JK gen Z” actually marriage and having kids is a good thing.
      Progs finally reaping what they’ve been sowing for decades and discovering that welfare babies won’t be enough to keep them in power as Mormons, Hispanics, and evangelicals actually have kids

      • Q Continuum

        If the rest of the world is any indication, the fertility decline is irreversible.

      • Lackadaisical

        It’s all the plastics, seed oils and other endocrine disruptors.

      • rhywun

        It’s reversible but I don’t think a lot of women want to hear how that happens.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Stop using birth control?

      • prolefeed

        No such thing as “irreversible” for this topic.

  29. hayeksplosives

    Well I slept badly last night. Was happy to turn in early at 9:30, but then woke up at 11PM due to shortness of breath.

    No amount of coughing brought relief, so I checked SP02, and it was 88%, so I set up the nebulizer and did a couple of ampules, which brought me up to 94 so I went back to bed.

    Fitful sleep since then. SP02 is 91%. I’ve missed a lot of work lately so I really wanted to go in today, but now I’m thinking I should probably head to urgent care and see if I can get some steroids and a Zpack.

    Sigh. It started as a simple cold but now I think it’s a secondary infection. Yay, Autumn!

    • PutridMeat

      Do you supplement vitamin D? Or eat lots of eggs? I would guess that, in the PNW and with your job description, you’re not getting a lot of sun exposure, so without supplementation or robust dietary sources, you’re deficient (in D, not in general!). Critical to immune function and might help avoid/mitigate primary and secondary infections. I think most places can do a blood test for D levels as well.

      • cyto

        15 minutes of direct sunlight is worth a whole bottle of supplements.

        So naked lunch in the back yard is the best cure for vitamin D deficiency.

        Logic.

      • PutridMeat

        If you go the naked route, lunch is the best time; but at 40 deg N, even at solar zenith, you might not get enough in northern latitudes during fall and winter months, so it’s really important to get a dietary source – 15 minutes of direct sunlight at 40 deg N in December almost certainly will NOT get you the required D production. Ancestors living in northern latitudes typically ate lots of fatty fish, which is a great source; of course now one has to worry a bit about consuming too much fatty fish with other compounds stored in their fat. So supplementation might actually be the best route to go. Mind you, this is coming from someone in the ‘expensive pee’ camp of supplementation, but modern lifestyles may make our evolutionary adaptations somewhat moot.

        An interesting paper on factors going into factors that go into endogenous vitamin D production via sunlight.

      • Not Adahn

        But you have to make sure it gets to your taint.

      • Lackadaisical

        ‘you’re deficient (in D’

        I thought she had a boyfriend?

      • PutridMeat

        I wanted to insert a ‘you need D’ joke, but figured I’d play the straight man. I had faith someone would step up to the plate and deliver.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      91% is not good either. See a doctor.

      • PutridMeat

        Yeah, in case it wasn’t obvious – popping vitamin D at the point of 91% O2 would be irrelevant. In the moment, time to see a doctor. The vitamin D is more an avenue of a potential preventative, long term mitigation so you’re less susceptible to infections progressing to the point were the doc is your only option.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yeah after a little more napping, I’m going to get up and go to the local urgent care. Likely a z-pack and a week of steroids will do the trick .

    • Common Tater

      I hope you are feeling better.

  30. Not Adahn

    In today’s “is this actually happening?” news:

    One of my techs came up to me saying “I’ve heard you’re an astrologer. Is it true that the reason my girlfriend broke up with me is she’s a Gemini?”

    My TECHNICIAN. I’m not sure if the question or the decision to ask it reflects worse on him. Maybe I’m overlooking the opportunity to have some entertainment. I could probably write up a JBI and have him perform a preventative exorcism on some of the equipment.

    • UnCivilServant

      … “No, that’s not why.”

      Also, how did this news get out? Is your Tech a lurker?

      • Not Adahn

        …I have no idea. However my technician corps is a staggeringly efficient dirt-digging and gossip machine. They figured out that one of them had successfully hidden an MD and four negligent homicide convictions from HR.

      • Gender Traitor

        One of your technicians is a very bad doctor??

      • Not Adahn

        Was.

        Faked some testing data that led directly to incorrect dosages of drugs given and four dead.

    • PieInTheSky

      Seems you are making excuses for not knowing the answer

      • Not Adahn

        The actual answer is they’ve been together since college and when he started making “lets get married” noises it jarred her out of her complacent boredom.

      • PieInTheSky

        give him a big raise so he is a better marriage prospect

      • Not Adahn

        Why should I give a raise to a guy so incompetent he can’t even cast his own horoscope?

    • Sean

      Maybe I’m overlooking the opportunity to have some entertainment.

      ^^

      • Lackadaisical

        So much this^

    • Ownbestenemy

      “No that’s not the reason, the reason is I am sleeping with her”

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Am I bid two cents?

    In his statement, Obama warned that a growing humanitarian crisis is underway in the region, citing Israel’s move to cut off crucial supplies to Gaza in the wake of the attacks, which he warned could put support for Israel at risk.

    “The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis; it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region,” he wrote.

    Obama concluded his statement by urging people to reject antisemitic, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiments. He also recognized Israel has “every right to exist,” but Palestinians have “also lived in disputed territories for generations.”

    “But if we care about keeping open the possibility of peace, security and dignity for future generations of Israeli and Palestinian children — as well as for our own children — then it falls upon all of us to at least make the effort to model, in our own words and actions, the kind of world we want them to inherit,” he concluded.

    Just trying to help.

    • WTF

      further harden Palestinian attitudes

      What, are they going to want to wipe the Jews from the face of the earth even harder?
      And it’s a good thing we made sure humanitarian aid was getting through to the Japanese and Germans during WWII.
      Fucking idiocy.

      • rhywun

        Israel is required to live up to standards that no other country, including the US, has to. It really is that simple.

    • Rebel Scum

      disputed territories for generations

      That area has been conquered and reconquered repeatedly throughout history.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Is it true that the reason my girlfriend broke up with me is she’s a Gemini?

    “It’s not her. It’s you.”

    • Not Adahn

      She had been having “weird dreams” and determined that she was actually a lesbian.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    She had been having “weird dreams” and determined that she was actually a lesbian.

    “I think we I should start sleeping with other people.”

    • Not Adahn

      I did give him a minor amount of shit for not inviting his gf to bring another woman home.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Heh. My HR director wife would have a conniption at you saying that.

        Proceed

        (back when I worded for the phone company in the Bay Area, I had a lot of co-workers from Oakland. And one day when we were having a group meeting about working in the home of someone handicapped, I stood up to say “I have been in this situation before, and it really is not that difficult. No different than a Raiders fan” The booing was immense and mixed with great laughter. My wife was horrified when I relayed this too her.)

  34. The Late P Brooks

    I don’t work for you, you work for me

    General Motors (GM.N) on Tuesday withdrew its 2023 profit outlook just ahead of a new United Auto Workers walkout at one of its most profitable factories.

    With the UAW clash throttling revenue and profits, Chief Executive Mary Barra told investors the automaker will slow its electric vehicle strategy to put profits ahead of sales targets.

    United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain ordered a walkout at the automaker’s Arlington, Texas, factory, which builds highly profitable Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Suburban and other large SUVs. The move came less than four hours after GM posted better-than-expected third quarter results.

    The UAW’s move to shut down one of GM’s most profitable plants will push the weekly cost of the union’s strikes well above the $200 million-a-week rate GM executives outlined for investors earlier Tuesday.

    GM’s third quarter results beat expectations. Fain pointed to that as a cause for the UAW to increase pressure on the company to improve its contract offer, which currently includes a 23% wage increase over 4-1/2 years.

    They can all die together.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    “It’s time GM workers, and the whole working class, get their fair share,” Fain said in a statement Tuesday.

    Eat shit and die, $350k/year commie.

    • R C Dean

      Let’s see, bankruptcy divided by union members equals, carry the one, . . . Zip, zero, nada.

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      Mmm… Union President Salary vs. CEO salary. Why do we only hear about one of those, in relation to Income Inequality?

      Oh, right.

    • DEG

      Hong Kong’s gun laws were oppressive long before the ChiComs took over.

  36. Not Adahn

    Ah, my ion chromatograph is throwing my second favorite* diagnostic message. It tries to list every alarm it receives, but if there’re too many for it to deal with it just says “too many errors.”

    *my favorite diagnostic messages is on my Japanese made quartz oven: “Find broken part and fix it.”

    • Sensei

      お願いします!

    • R C Dean

      How does your ion chromatograph know your prostate is swollen and spongy?

      Wait, don’t answer that.

    • rhywun

      +2 lols

    • Common Tater

      “Find broken part and fix it.”

      Sounds like solid advice.

      • cyto

        Definitely better than “Error 4823”, which, when searched out with some difficulty decodes to “an error occurred”.

        Or my other favorite “unspecified error”.

        Thanks for the help,guys.

  37. Common Tater

    “EXCLUSIVE: Danny Masterson is expelled from Scientology and declared a ‘suppressive person’ – requiring members, including wife Bijou Phillips, to cut all ties with actor

    But even with the expulsion, the church still maintains that Masterson is innocent of all charges, according to insiders.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12662063/Danny-Masterson-expelled-Scientology-declared-Suppressive-Person.html

    So then what did he do to get kicked out?

    • Common Tater

      “Augustine and his wife Karen de la Carriere are both former members of the Church of Scientology. They joined protests outside the church on Saturday”

      WTF is up with her face?

      • slumbrew

        You can’t fool me, that’s a RealDoll

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Juggernaut

    By 2030, transportation and electricity around the world will be far greener than it is today, according to the latest forecast from the International Energy Agency. Imagine 10 times more electric vehicles on the road. Renewables make up half of the world’s electricity mix. Solar panels alone generate more electricity globally than the entire US power sector does today.

    That’s the picture the International Energy Agency (IEA) paints in the World Energy Outlook it published today, which is based on governments’ current energy policies. The IEA was established to help safeguard global energy supplies after the 1970s oil crisis. Now, shoring up energy systems means bringing renewables online to prevent more extreme climate change — especially as climate-fueled disasters like heatwaves and storms increasingly threaten power grids across the world.

    “The transition to clean energy is happening worldwide and it’s unstoppable. It’s not a question of ‘if’, it’s just a matter of ‘how soon’ — and the sooner the better for all of us,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said in a press release.

    Magic rainbow puppy happy land, here we come!

    • R.J.

      Oh, it’s completely stoppable. In fact, it will stop itself when it runs out of money.

    • Sean

      I can’t wait. 🙄

  39. Mojeaux

    Tuesday is (psycho)therapy day. Yesterday I wasn’t feeling it because I’m still too mad about a thing to unpack it further. This morning I had weird dreams that made me feel even worse, and I’m still mad about the thing, so I canceled therapy. Usually I see therapy as an ongoing procedure but today I hit a wall.

    • cyto

      Do not hit the wall. This is terrible therapy. Bad for wall. Bad for hand.

      Don’t ask how I know.

      Also bad therapy technique: kick the chair. Bad for chair. Bad for foot.

      Also don’t ask how I know.

      • Sean

        I have a coworker who kicked a traffic cone in anger, the cone was over a solid object. It was a poor decision.

  40. cyto

    On topic of breakups above….my 16 year old is about to experience his first.

    They gave been together about 18 months,which might as well be a million years at that age.

    They are both super sweet. She was kinda clingy until this school year started. Mom and dad noticed the difference.

    Then the homecoming dance. She decided to drink for the first time. Drank all of the drink in the world. Many shots.

    Boy ended up playing babysitter to a puking mess at the after party. I decoded the drama unfolding as friends kept calling to get me to let boy spend night with friends. Teenagers are terrible liars.

    Boy did good. Didn’t drink. Didn’t do something regrettable. Protected girl.

    Her mom was effusive as we poured what was left of her puking mess into her car.

    Boy was frustrated but forgiving. Girl was distant.

    She’s not sure she wants to “be in a relationship” now.

    Boy has mostly figured out what that means. Girl is doing the “pay attention to me and treat me the same way while I go back and forth between being with you and not being with you” thing.

    This is our first time around the horn on this subject. I’m surprised they lasted anywhere close to this long….but I hate to see him hurt. And I hate to see this derail all of the progress he made the last several months since COVID destroyed his drive.

    He finally said something to Mom last night after they spent the evening at a bonfire and she alternated ignoring him with demanding to know where he was. She advised just doing his own thing and hanging out with his own friends for a while.

    I hate it for him. She is going to do the “string him along until I find someone else and then have a big fight about it” teenage thing. He is too sweet.

    Wish I could do an effective knowledge dump. It is so easy to see the path from a distance. Impossible when standing on it.