Saturday Morning Mr. Potatohead Links

by | Nov 4, 2023 | Daily Links | 79 comments

Spud is back in town and the cattle are nervous. Kaiser gave his editorial opinion- walked into the house, walked over to the expensive couch, lifted his leg and… I didn’t have the heart to tell Spud that I had already done the same thing before he got there. WebDom as well. Despite the unorthodox christening of the furniture, we still managed to polish off a couple 750ml bottles of spoiled grape juice (for Pie: a Beaujolais Blanc from J-M Brun and a single-vineyard Riesling from Forge, one of the great producers in this area).

Birthdays today include a guy who never met me; a guy who could actually outdrink Errol Flynn; the voice everyone trusted but shouldn’t have; a guy whose mind was always in the sewer; a guy who was killed by a nerd wearing a dress; a TV actress who always seemed cold; no joke here, one of the true greats of country and proto-Americana; the only First Lady who actually killed a man; a very under-rated photographer who was… creative; the finest rack on TV other than Bullwinkle; a guy of whom Justin Tucker could do a remarkable imitation; and SP’s favorite football player.

I guess it’s time to link…

 

Surprise, surprise, Hamas uses ambulances for troop transport. Now here’s the fun part: look closely at the pic of the ambulance. THAT’S A FUCKING HORSE UNDER IT!

 

Israel really has to keep Progs from immigrating.

 

The Squad threatens to support Trump.

 

This is what happens when you fight Elon Musk.

 

I love the opportunism in the legal profession.

 

One more reason for the US to stay the fuck out of Ukraine, the Middle East, and everywhere else Team Blue wants war.

 

The Old Man says that the only thing better than The Dead South is The Dead South doing a cover of a Trampled By Turtles classic.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

79 Comments

  1. R.J.

    Spud looks like he needs a shower in the top picture. Is that from sitting on the couch?

    • Old Man With Candy

      He made a career out of developing butt callouses.

      • juris imprudent

        He has some timing, showing up after the leaves have come down.

  2. Ted S.

    the only First Lady who actually killed a man;

    Didn’t the first Mrs. Biden kill multiple people in a car crash?

    • DEG

      Yes, and Joe claimed the other driver, a truck driver, was at fault and drunk.

      The truck driver was not drunk. Joe Biden’s wife ran a stop sign.

  3. DEG

    Old Guy Music is good.

  4. rhywun

    Gotta motor.

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/04:
    *19/19 words (+1 bonus word)
    🎯 In the top 16% by accuracy

    I played https://squaredle.com 11/04:
    *23/23 words (+2 bonus words)
    🎯 In the top 4% by accuracy
    🔥 Solve streak: 48

    • Ted S.

      I played https://squaredle.com 11/04:
      *23/23 words (+5 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 4% by accuracy

    • Sean

      How very.

      I played https://squaredle.com 11/04:
      *23/23 words (+3 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 8% by accuracy

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/04:
      *19/19 words (+3 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 18% by bonus words

      • rhywun

        +3 Heathers

    • Ghostpatzer

      I played https://squaredle.com 11/04:
      *23/23 words (+2 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 15% by accuracy

    • SDF-7

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/04:
      *19/19 words (+1 bonus word)
      🎯 Perfect accuracy

      I played https://squaredle.com 11/04:
      *23/23 words (+2 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 4% by accuracy
      🔥 Solve streak: 81

    • Rat on a train

      I would like to buy an ‘E’.

  5. PieInTheSky

    What is the official glibertarian view on how long sausage lasts in a -20C freezer? Internet says 1 2 months i have some 10 months that dont smell rotten can I still eat it properly cooked?

    • Sean

      *shrug*

      I wouldn’t have a problem with it.

    • The Other Kevin

      Frozen? I’d say a year. More so if it’s vacuum packed.

    • CPRM

      a properly cured sausage can last more than 2 months hanging at room temperature.

    • DrOtto

      I go a year. Freezer burn is the bigger risk, and that isn’t much of a risk.

      • slumbrew

        Concurred.

  6. Homple

    “a guy whose mind was always in the sewer”

    Joseph Bazalgette?

    • Suthenboy

      I guessed Jeremy Bentham.

      • Homple

        I first thought of John Snow, but he correlated the cholera outbreak with contaminated wells. It was several others who started the sewer project.

        A book called “The Ghost Map” is an interesting read about London, cholera and sewers.

      • slumbrew

        I guessed correctly.

        Rare for me, with the Old Man’s links.

  7. PieInTheSky

    finally we got some rain. it was about time. Still yesterday I went outside at 9PM wearing only a t-shirt in fucking November. weird ass-weather

    • Ted S.

      You went out wearing no pants?

      • Ted S.

        It was also only about 283 kelvins here yesterday, but that was enough to do a nice walk in shorts and a hoodie.

      • R.J.

        Creatures of the Night do not need your silly mortal pants.

        My job is done here, I am continuing my road trip.

    • Suthenboy

      No one complained about your lack of pants?

  8. juris imprudent

    a guy who never met me

    Howard Cosell is doing links today?

  9. juris imprudent

    Not sure which Penn & Teller show this belongs on, Fool Us or Bullshit. The issue isn’t the ballots themselves – it is who is casting them.

    To combat rampant disinformation and public distrust in elections, a bipartisan group of politicians is advocating for a radical form of transparency: post all cast ballots online.

  10. R.J.

    OT: Swiss and others interested:
    Mad Heidi is now available to rent for $1.99 streaming on most streaming services. We are on the countdown to having it free streaming.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZBNuoxjmaI

    • CPRM

      Outlaw Johnny Black comes out on DVD Dec 13. I’ve got it pre-ordered.

  11. juris imprudent

    We will see what happens when both sides play the same game.

    Republicans across the country are looking to snag wins in state and federal elections in 2023 and 2024, and they’re embracing early and absentee voting like never before to do it.

    But the party’s base also becomes increasingly skeptical of election security and results, namely the 2020 presidential election, leading to intensifying calls for “election integrity.”

    • The Last American Hero

      Then the party’s base needs to step up or continue getting stepped on.

    • Chafed

      2 and 3 are hot. 4 frightens me.

  12. Brawndo

    “American men have escaped mandatory military service for two generations because millions of their patriotic brothers and sisters were willing to serve voluntarily, with thousands of them laying down their lives for their country.”

    Umm, no I think it’s because we haven’t had any real enemies.

    • TARDis

      Oh we have plenty of real enemies. Many are all already inside the gates starting shit elsewhere to distract us.

      • Brawndo

        Right, I should have been more specific. The real enemies we do have also happen to control our military.

  13. PieInTheSky

    Cats eyes glow because they have a special layer in their eyes called the tapetum lucidum, which acts like a mirror, bouncing incoming light back through the retina and giving them better night vision.

    Watch this!

    https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1720537510541979681

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan on Friday accused President Joe Biden of supporting a Palestinian “genocide” and warned that Americans will remember when he’s up for reelection next year how he responded to the Israel-Hamas war.

    Will they all vote for Cornell West?

    • Chafed

      Didn’t he already drop out?

  15. Gender Traitor

    Got to the BMV when they opened at 8 a.m. to grudgingly submit to the state for the sake of driving on their ROADZ!!! Driver’s license (finally the so-called Real ID in case I’m forced to fly commercially) and plates both renewed in under 20 minutes.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Our local DMV is like that. Never crowded, helpful people, you can get stuff done quickly.

      Go to the city and it’s a very different story.

      I love rural living.

    • mikey

      “Real ID”? You mean like Joe gives all those “asylum seekers” so he can fly them all over the country?

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Republicans across the country are looking to snag wins in state and federal elections in 2023 and 2024, and they’re embracing early and absentee voting like never before to do it.

    And will the Democrats applaud the “unprecedented level of voter participation” or will they cry foul?

    • R C Dean

      Unless they embrace illegal ballot harvesting and somehow get control of ballot counting in large urban precincts, I doubt it will make much difference.

      It’s not just that you can get (some) more legitimate votes through junk mail voting. It’s that junk mail voting blows open any pretense at election security and allows rampant fraud. Should anyone care to commit it. Of course, why would anybody cheat, what with the stakes being so low?

      • juris imprudent

        The difference in PA in ’20 was not in the urban centers, where the traditional Dem control resides. As I recall from looking at it, Trump actually outperformed his ’16 results in Philly. It was literally in the swing districts in the suburbs.

      • creech

        Yeah, the message in the burbs was essentially “only high school dropouts would vote for Trump.”

  17. LCDR_Fish

    Looking back at a few comments from the last few days – the more I see via sources like ADV China/The China Show (good video podcasts on Friday youtube), the less I’m concerned about China and tech. The AI demos they build for foreign and domestic audiences are hot trash tech demos mostly stolen from western companies. Even the ones from the biggest companies – ie Huawei. Their brand new Huawei “5G” phone is using a stolen Samsung chipset that’s over 2 years old and has a tendency towards overheating – that’s why they’re trying to ban Iphones in gov’t buildings etc – trying to promote their domestic stuff that folks don’t want. Every tech thing they try and do is dis-proven pretty quickly – whether it’s the recent room temperature superconductor testing or their attempts to build homegrown GPUs. See also their ridiculous electric cars and scooters that are just hot trash.

    I’d be more concerned for Taiwan as China weakens economically, etc – they’re more likely to try something crazy as a last gasp before they lose all capability.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Another latebreaking China story they discussed: https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/cnn-exclusive-chinese-jet-fired-flares-close-to-submarine-hunting-helicopter-in-south-china-sea-canadian-navy-says-1.6629936

        The incident was the second of two encounters the Ottawa’s helicopter had with Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy J-11 fighter jets over international waters on October 29, which saw the fighters get as close as 100 feet from the helicopter, Millen told CNN in an interview aboard the warship.

        He said that Canada and other nations have seen Chinese aircraft get close to fixed-wing aircraft on numerous occasions, but it was rare to see such action taken against a helicopter.

        The first incident was over international waters outside of 34 miles from the Paracel Island chain in the northern part of the South China Sea. The second was also over international waters outside of 23 miles from the Paracels. The warship was operating in international waters 100 miles (160 kilometres) east of the Paracels at the time.

        The Canadian helicopter was searching for a previously detected submarine when the incidents occurred, officers aboard the Ottawa said.

        Millen said he was piloting the Canadian helicopter earlier in the day, when Chinese J-11s intercepted it at close range while it flew straight and level at 3,000 feet above the water back toward the Ottawa, a signal to that it had no hostile intent.

        In that earlier encounter, Millen said the Chinese fighters flew in circles around his helicopter.

        “When the intercepting aircraft was closer and closer, at a certain point it became unsafe,” he said.

        His helicopter experienced turbulence coming off the Chinese jets, also posing a danger to the copter, Millen said.

        “I certainly am not as comfortable as you can be based on the fragility of the rotor system,” he said.

        Millen said he ended that encounter by descending to 200 feet, an area where the helicopter can operate but is “very uncomfortable for fast air fighter jets.”

        The Canadian air force major said his military’s air crews train on how to respond to such intercepts as occurred on Sunday and will continue to fly over the international waters of the South China Sea.

        Asked about the interception at a regular press briefing on Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin replied: “I’m not aware of the situation you mentioned.”

        “We have reiterated many times our firm position on Canadian warplanes conducting reconnaissance near China’s territorial airspace,” he told reporters. “We hope Canada will refrain from its inappropriate behaviour to avoid the situation from becoming more complicated.”

        CNN has also reached to China’s Defence Ministry for comment.

        China claims historic jurisdiction over almost the entirety of the vast South China Sea, and since 2014 has built up tiny reefs and sandbars into artificial islands heavily fortified with missiles, runways and weapons systems – sparking outcry from the other claimants. The Paracels, called the Xisha Islands by China, are in the northern part of the South China Sea, east of Da Nang, Vietnam, and south of China’s Hainan Island.

        The 1.3-million-square-mile waterway is vital to international trade, with an estimated third of global shipping worth trillions of dollars passing through each year. It’s also home to vast fertile fishing grounds upon which many lives and livelihoods depend.

        In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea. China has ignored the ruling.

      • Q Continuum

        “China has ignored the ruling.”

        International court just as useless as the UN; in fact often worse than nothing.

      • LCDR_Fish

        True to a point – the question is how to realistically go about these extra-territorial claims and the hostility China exhibits to all their neighbors.

    • rhywun

      I keep hearing China is a “house of cards”. Been waiting for it to fall for nigh on two decades now.

      But yeah… if and when it happens, it won’t be pretty.

    • R C Dean

      More Tres-approved than thicc, perhaps.

    • juris imprudent

      Does THICC also imply thick-headed?

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Muh environment

    The massive funding cut proposed by the GOP has virtually no chance of becoming law in this year’s budget but marks a starting point in negotiations for Republicans as they look to negotiate with Democrats in the Senate on funding the government.

    Republicans want every city in America to look like New Delhi.

    • rhywun

      It additionally seeks to defund the EPA’s efforts to curtail toxic pollution and planet-warming emissions, preventing the agency from using funding to enforce its rules on power plants.

      LOL totally not biased

  19. Mojeaux

    Why didn’t I have a book like this for all the other shit I had to take?

  20. The Late P Brooks

    In addition to the top-line EPA cuts, the GOP bill would also rescind provisions from the climate, tax and health care bill that Democrats passed last year. It targets funding aimed at helping underserved communities combat climate change and pollution.

    Genocide.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Ongoing saga

    Trump attorney Christopher Kise hasn’t given up on the possibility of having the former president’s New York bank fraud trial thrown out.

    Kise’s new strategy seems to be threatening to have the case declared a mistrial over complaints—mostly stemming from Trump—that New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s law clerk is biased, reported Forbes.

    At the end of the trial day on Thursday, Kise raised objections to note passing between the judge and his legal aide, whom Trump’s attorneys have referred to as a “secretary,” implying that she was “co-judging” the trial. That was enough to set off Engoron, who pounded on his bench while threatening to expand the gag order against the former president to his entire legal team in light of the remarks.

    ——-

    Come Friday morning, however, Kise was back to reiterating his explosive remarks.

    “The entire country, if not the world, is watching this proceeding,” Kise said, according to The Daily Beast. “And the U.S. heretofore has been a model for integrity and impartiality in the judicial system, since its founding. Nothing in here should create any appearance that the adherence to those principles has wavered … Yes, as a judge you’re entitled to receive [assistance], but from someone who has potentially demonstrable bias … and the manner in which that has taken place, we at least have to make a record.”

    Sore losers.

    • Suthenboy

      Jeebus, these fucking people. Ooooga booooga booooga….go fuck yourself.

    • Chafed

      Fuck.That.Nonsense.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Reality intrudes

    “This is a pretty brutal space,” said Mercedez-Benz CFO Harald Wilhelm, as quoted by Reuters. “I can hardly imagine the current status quo is fully sustainable for everybody.”

    Japanese automakers seem to agree. This week, Honda announced that it was abandoning its plans to release a lineup of smaller, sub $30,000 EVs — which would’ve been a much-needed boon to buyers searching for a cheaper vehicle in a pricey market.

    “After studying this for a year, we decided that this would be difficult as a business, so at the moment we are ending development of an affordable EV,” Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told Bloomberg in an interview.

    Chairman of Toyota Motor Akio Toyoda said that with the drop in demand for EVs in the US, the industry is having a reckoning about the technology.

    “People are finally seeing reality,” Toyoda said, as quoted by The Wall Street Journal. He went on to suggest that EVs were not the only way of reaching carbon-neutral goals.

    ——-

    All told, it’s too soon to sound the death knell on the tech — but it’s worrying that it’s the automakers themselves that are doing the doomsaying.

    Clap harder. Tinkerbell is having range anxiety.

    • DrOtto

      If you look at EVs as a performance niche, they make sense and get a similar slice of the sales pie. You can’t expect to sell everyone on your performance model though (unless you are Ferrari or Lamborghini).

      • Common Tater

        An electric sports car sounds dangerous. You can’t feel or hear how fast you are going.

      • Mojeaux

        This.

      • slumbrew

        It’s the failure mode that still keeps me from considering one – you run out of gas, you’re a gas-can away from being back on the road.

        You run out of juice, you need a tow-truck.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    If you look at EVs as a performance niche, they make sense and get a similar slice of the sales pie. You can’t expect to sell everyone on your performance model though (unless you are Ferrari or Lamborghini).

    But cars, electrified or not, shouldn’t be fun. They should be utilitarian appliances; a (temporarily) necessary evil until we get the drone castes into their pod cities.

    • slumbrew

      Just hit reload if you get an error – they have “anti-hotlinking” enabled but if you hit reload the Referer (sic) header should be blank & it’ll let you load it.

      (‘Referer’ was misspelled in the original RFC, so decades later it’s still the ‘correct’ spelling of the header)