227 Comments

  1. SDF-7

    Biden Admin No Longer Talking to Facebook About Removing ‘Foreign Election Interference’ Posts as Censorship Lawsuit Proceeds

    I suspect they’re now talking to a contractor that is talking to Facebook or some convoluted crap.

    Morning, Banjos! Kudos to Dr. Paul as well.

    • Sensei

      Plus the vast majority of the employees there are only too happy to “help”!

  2. SDF-7

    Vanished! House panel chairman says J6 videotapes of witness interviews missing

    That damned cloth wiping anything that might embarrass the Dems is at it again, I see.

    • WTF

      It’s almost like they don’t want the truth to come out.

      • AlexinCT

        Almost?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Us normies in the government:

      I have a data retention period of 45 days. 90% of I know exactly falls under these record dispositions. The other 10% I run through our legal and have them make the determination. Otherwise its on me.

      Congress:
      “I didn’t believe they needed to be kept” even though they are documents used in open Congress, used to impeach a president, used to go after J6 persons (citizens/officials)…yep, you sure didn’t believe they needed to be kept.

      Alas, nothing will happen.

    • Suthenboy

      The whole ‘worse than Pearl Harbor and 911 together insurrection was planned, orchestrated and staged by the FBI.
      Again, 99% of the time things just are what they appear to be.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        And they are desperate to prevent people from finding out they have turned us into a banana republic just so they can steal and keep power.

  3. Not Adahn

    Thomas Massie Calls Out Witness During Weaponization Hearing

    I could have sworn lying to Congress was a crime.

    • SDF-7

      “No reasonable prosecutor” exception probably.

    • prolefeed

      Congresspeople lying to us, OTOH …

    • juris imprudent

      From Ms. Troye’s wiki page:

      After graduating from college, Troye worked for the Republican National Committee. She began a career in national security after the September 11 attacks. She served in the Pentagon as a George W. Bush Administration appointee.

      She is a professional parasite – it is the only existence she knows.

    • R C Dean

      “The witness argued the social media giant must have “flagged [the post] for a reason,” but the lawmaker wondered if there’s ever a “good reason to censor a member of Congress.”

      I would have said, “They did have a reason to censor my account. They were told to by the government.”

  4. "RFK Jr Apologist"

    “JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon Tells Wall Street to Prepare for a Recession”

    Based on what was revealed with the Virgin Island lawsuit, I think it’s fair to add after his name “unrepentant pedophile enabler”.

    I have yet to hear one of the corporate brands virtue signal about how they won’t do business with JP Morgan anymore. Performative pussies

    • AlexinCT

      Bidenomics!

  5. SDF-7

    JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon Tells Wall Street to Prepare for a Recession

    If Wall Street hasn’t seen that coming for at least 2 years now, they should be fired. Of course, with the C* record of most companies, I’d happily take the job for only $2 million a year to fuck up as badly as they do and retire after a couple of years. Beats working for a living.

  6. SDF-7

    Music link maybe should have been this in honor of DeSantis breaking out the poop map on idiot Gavin.

    Unfortunately for DeSantis – I doubt it will move the needle much… those who like him, like him… the ones going Trump in the primary aren’t going to be swayed. The ones for “I love Hillary and you should have to register to use the Internet with the Government!” Nikki… well, I don’t know what the hell they’re thinking at this point…. Maybe “boooobs”? Who knows.

    • R C Dean

      The establishment frantically pushing Haley is actually a point in DeSantis’s favor. They wouldn’t do that if he was in their pocket.

      • rhywun

        Good point.

        This endorsement is hilarious.

      • juris imprudent

        Funny, but then there was this ad link in there…

        Gold, Faith, and Financial Freedom — How A Faith-Based Company Is Transforming Retirement Portfolios

        Which makes me wonder, what kind of audience is that media talking to?

      • The Last American Hero

        Cranky old men that watch Fox News and wear those tactical glasses at the beach.

    • Urthona

      DeSantis would be so much better than Trump.

      alas

      • Drake

        I thought so – until he started his campaign and his money people made him change his tune.

      • Urthona

        What tune did he change to that you don’t care for? Support of Israel?

      • Drake

        The Ukraine.

      • Urthona

        Wasn’t aware of that.

      • Drake

        Tucker (before getting silenced) asked all the candidates questions including about that war. DeSantis came back with a “not in our national interest, not worth hundreds of billions” answer. Then got a talking to and changed his position a few weeks later to basically Nikki Haley’s position.

      • R.J.

        I don’t know if he was honest in supporting the war so much as he really needed to bend over and get campaign dollars. He gave his honest answer to Tucker.

  7. prolefeed

    “Prepare for a recession”?

    More like hiding an ongoing recession.

    • AlexinCT

      The most onerous form of taxation, because it is both hidden and impacts the less well off the hardest, is government created inflation. Fuck the recession, they are currently screwing over the lower middle class by design.

    • The Other Kevin

      Don’t forget, by the standard definition we have been in a recession for a while now. We’re not “officially” in one only because the Biden administration decided to change the definition.

  8. prolefeed

    Actual quote from Newsom during the debate about “banning” pornographic books for young kids: “we don’t completely lie”.

    • mindyourbusiness

      Reminds me of the test to see if some politicians are lying: Are their mouths open and are words coming out?

    • juris imprudent

      That little blinking light in the corner of your eye? It’s your career-ending-moment indicator.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I am unsure how restricting certain books in schools to certain ages is a cultural purge and will remove voting rights as Newsome states…I guess that is the other part of the ‘don’t completely lie’ lie.

      Where are all the ungovernable demanding they have access to a sex shop under age of 18 to buy pornos (I know, its free on the internet).

      • AlexinCT

        Didn’t the progressives have a massive campaign to ban most literature they deemed racist/homophobic/misogynistic/anti-marxist/educational from schools for the last 20 plus years? Why did they get a pass on that shit?

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

        See, thats Them choosing, not You choosing.

        And They are always morally right!

      • DEG

        Translation: THAT’S DIFFERENT!!!@!1!1!!12311!!!!!

  9. Not Adahn

    Hard-left nihilists who make entertaining videos about wiping out all life recommending ditching social media and going back to chatrooms:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuFlMtZmvY0

  10. Suthenboy

    Highlights in a political debate? There are no highlights. Any given debate between pols could effectively be replaced with a long loop of sad trombone.

    • Not Adahn

      Debates would be much better if each podium was equipped with a knife.

      • UnCivilServant

        Debate participants should be required to answer questions posed by their opponant.

        Just to make things get ugly.

    • juris imprudent

      And leave out the poo-flinging monkeys? I am disappoint.

  11. Suthenboy

    who said “Every now and then an innocent man is wrongfully sent to congress.”
    Good for Paul.

    • juris imprudent

      I think Will Rogers, but it could have been Twain.

  12. juris imprudent

    Once again, contra the bubble belief that the Democrats are a monolith of the left. They’re really about as cohesive and unified as the Republicans – i.e. very much so when in the minority, not at all when in the majority.

    • Not Adahn

      Just because you can find some points of internal disagreement doesn’t mean that they aren’t in fact a monolith when it comes to things like unlimited abortion, absolute and total gun bans, enshrining a racial hierarchy in law, and an ever-expanding State that if not explicitly totalitarian, asymptotically approaches it.

      • juris imprudent

        Ruy seems to have a decent feel for what is electorally acceptable for Americans – which isn’t anywhere near as far left as the progressive clique would like.

        Never mind that what is democratically feasible, on the left or the right, disgusts me no end.

      • Not Adahn

        Not a fan of his “QI is totally appropriate, and if you don’t like it, you just hate PubSec unions” take.

      • Not Adahn

        Nor

        The best way to go after repeat violent offenders is though the enforcement of existing gun laws.

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

        It isn’t whether you are a fan of his, it is, rather, whether he is worth listening to for what the average D is thinking.

      • UnCivilServant

        Never heard of the guy, but my hate for the Union is a result of having been a Steward and seen the inner workings.

        My hate for QI is from a belief that those in authority should be held to a more stringent standard with harsher punishments.

        These are not the same.

      • juris imprudent

        See my second statement there.

      • Not Adahn

        Yeah, but I don’t think that a (D) thinker saying “the tax cattle don’t know what’s good for them” is evidence that the Democratic Party and/or the left isn’t monolithic. I mean, even in NY, registered (D) voters are a minority.

        I think you’re making a category error.

      • juris imprudent

        That’s the joke both within the party and without – that the progressives are anything but a little faction. But they’re sure they are the majority of the whole fucking country! It’s their version of The Libertarian Moment.

      • Not Adahn

        Again though, saying “people who hate the (D)s less than the (R)s disagree with this” is not the same thing as “Democrats disagree with this.”

        Part of the whole philosophy of the Left is that the proletariat needs to be led to the correct conclusion which they’re incapable of reaching on their own. That the proles need to be tricked/lied to in no way means that somehow the people doing the leading secretly share in that disagreement.

      • juris imprudent

        So establishment Republicans are philosophically Left? If that’s your argument, okay.

      • Not Adahn

        So establishment Republicans are philosophically Left? If that’s your argument, okay.

        Do establishment (R)s approve of the Total State? I’m pretty sure there are some GOPe-ers that literally pick their principles based on what’s most likely to get them elected.

        But then again, dragging in (R)s about whether (D)s are monolithic is reminiscent of dragging in people who vote for (D)s as the least-worst option as themselves being (D)s.

      • juris imprudent

        Establishment D’s don’t believe in The Total State. That’s conflating the progressive minority with the whole party again, which is what I am arguing (and showing evidence of) to be a category error.

        I don’t get how we have this vacillation about R’s in our little world here. Somehow they are slightly only a little less bad than D’s, but we somehow at the same time expect them to satisfy our FRINGE beliefs which are way fucking out of bounds for the average Republican voter. This drives me a little nuts.

      • Not Adahn

        Establishment D’s don’t believe in The Total State.

        Re-hee-heally?

        Is there anything (other than (perhaps) the sacred act of abortion) in existence that establishment dems believe is either over-regulated or not subject to regulation in the first place?

        Not that there aren’t GOPe-ers that agree with that, of course.

      • juris imprudent

        I just gave you an example of the issue of crime – where the progressive mantra is pissed on. Sure, go ahead and ignore that to indulge your fantasy of the monolithic left. The progressives play the exact same game with the monolithic (including us of course) right.

        I prefer to stand on ground with a little more solidity than that.

      • juris imprudent

        Let me add, the establishment (D or R) is perfectly content with an overweening state. The only disagreement is on which points of pressure to apply.

      • Not Adahn

        …and you’re back to conflating the consumers of something with the producers.

        Your “example of crime” is NOT that “some behaviors are none of the State’s business” but rather that “these enforcement actions are unpopular, shift to those instead.”

        I have no idea what standing on solid ground is supposed to mean.

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

        It isn’t how big the Progressive faction is, numerically, it is how much influence they have. After Trump won everyone on the left was running for the extremes to show that they were as liberal as can be and part of the resistance ™. And, now that said far left has won a few policy battles, all of which turned out to be disasters for the D’s, the center left is starting to gain ground again.

        And Not Adahn is right, the left in general believes in some form of a strong command gov’t, both economically and socially. R’s do believe in a total state, but not as much of one, and have more members who are susceptible to libertarian ideals, if not on every plank of our party.

      • juris imprudent

        The establishment D’s, and R’s, are pretty much in agreement on crime. The looney left dragged the D’s into an electoral alley and they are going to get mugged there. That’s Texiera’s point.

        Insisting that all D’s are on board is exactly the mental defect that afflicts progressives.

      • juris imprudent

        Yes, progressives – who don’t number that much more than libertarians punch way above their weight. Because they organize.

      • Not Adahn

        Let me restate what I think you’re not understanding about my argument:

        People who vote for Democrats != Democrats.

        Even in New York, most of the votes (D)s receive come from people who do not register as Democrats. They vote against Republicans, or because it’s the socially expected thing to do or it’s the racially authentic thing to do or because their horoscope told them to or whatever reasons they may have. They do NOT have intellectual/philosophical engagement with the Democrat Party platform.

        Therefore, saying that particular policies are unpopular with a chonk of voters that (D)s rely on to stay in power, is not evidence that Democrats qua Democrats disagree on said policy positions.

    • AlexinCT

      The left is about power. the democrats are a monolith on getting, retaining, and abusing power to their own ends. They are good at doing so no matter what differences they had. well, they were until this whole colonizer vs. colonized thing split them between the Jewish state and the Hamas murder culture.

      • juris imprudent

        And you don’t think the right wants power? What are they going to do – not use it? We’re the fucking fringe here. Look at that miserable cunt cited in the Massie bit – she’s proud to call herself a Republican and thinks state censorship is fine, particularly to keep in line those who voted for Trump. Is that what you expect as an ally?

      • AlexinCT

        “,And you don’t think the right wants power?

        There is a difference between wanting it and being willing to do anything and everything, no matter how fucking evil and brutal, to get it and use it. Republicans want power within some rule system, and when they are lucky enough to get it, they do nothing of consequence with it. Democrats on the other hand pursue it with zeal, doing whatever it takes to win it, and when they get it, have zero compunction about abusing it to whatever ends/means they want.

        That distinction is huge.

      • juris imprudent

        they do nothing of consequence with it

        You’ve never heard of Ed Snowden I take it?

        Who the fuck do you think helped set up the surveillance state, courtesy of the Patriot Act?

        That’s the problem with turning a blind right eye on our politics.

      • juris imprudent

        Who’s still rimming the FBI’s ass?

        I could go on and on, but I prefer not to.

      • Suthenboy

        I have to agree with that generally.
        Still, dont let the R’s get around behind you or you will end up on a spit.

    • The Last American Hero

      So, so wrong here. Bernie wants full communism, rando “moderate” house member wants more involvement of government in every sector of the economy. They compromise.

      They have exactly one guy from WV that now and then will go against the grain.

  13. Pope Jimbo

    When Mojeaux visits Minnesoda she just sails on by the Mall of America. Why? She’s heading straight here

    From the moment you walk in the door at Tropes & Trifles, you know you’re in the Twin Cities’ only romance bookstore. There’s a table at the front piled with novels representing the trope of the month, Grumpy to Sunshine. By the cash register, customers can vote for their favorite protagonist archetype by dropping plastic pastel beads into little jars labeled Stern Brunch Daddy, Cinnamon Roll, and Rake. There are bookmarks adorned with erotic sketches and shelves filled with titles like Kiss and Spell, A Lady for a Duke, and A Night to Surrender. At Tropes & Trifles, romance isn’t a guilty pleasure—it’s unapologetically celebrated.

    Tropes & Trifles co-owners Lauren Richards and Caitlin O’Neil are enthusiastic boosters of the genre, and they’ve even co-authored a “Why Read Romance” zine. Richards, who previously worked as a political consultant, is a lifelong bookworm who gravitated to romance books after her mother’s cancer diagnosis.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Or maybe not:

      “One of the interesting things to see is how diversity is expanding in the historical section as well,” adds Richards, mentioning Black historical romance author Beverly Jenkins and Will Forrest, who primarily writes male-male Regency era romance. “It’s important to us to make sure that section is just as diverse as all of the other sections in the store.”

      She also cites the paranormal section as representative of the genre’s diversity, with titles like Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism.

      “I love when an author can write a story in which homophobia doesn’t exist, because it doesn’t take place in the world in which we live,” she says. “They can ignore these constructs of things that exist in our world: homophobia, sexism, all those things.”

      • juris imprudent

        Sooo, all romance is really just a subset of fantasy…

      • rhywun

        Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism

        Somebody needs to take one for the team and read this.

      • Not Adahn

        MLW popped back in last week, that’s kind of her oeuvre.

      • Not Adahn

        Her “Woke Charmed” reviews were one of my favorite features.

      • juris imprudent

        And look at the toll it took on her!

      • The Other Kevin

        Reviewing books like that would be a fun series here, but I like every one of you and I don’t wish to see any of you suffer that kind of mental and emotional torment.

      • Nephilium

        That sounds like volunteering talk to me!

      • Pope Jimbo

        GAY-RONE-TEE that anyone reading that will end up with hairy palms

      • one true athena

        oooh I am actually tempted.

        So I looked it up on Amazon. list price 10 bucks. USED price is EVEN MORE lmao. CAPITALISM

      • rhywun

        The used book’s pages are infused with patchouli.

      • UnCivilServant

        I was going to go with the more prosaic “It wasn’t very popular, so there was overstock of new, and the people who bought early are trying to recoup their higher initial outlay in the used.”

      • Not Adahn

        You should try here.

        They’re so old school they don’t even have a website.

        ‘Member in the ’70s and ’80s, fantasy stories would start with some kid find a book of real magic in an old bookstore somewhere? This is that bookstore.

        Unfortunately, the last real magic books were picked up in the ’80s.

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, wow. That is lovely.

      • Not Adahn

        It’s an old bank. So the floorplan is different than a typical retail establishment. And they house their rare/expensive books in the vault.

    • Fourscore

      You done good, Jimbo. Even I had to laugh. Babies/little kids are smart

  14. AlexinCT

    During the Obama administration, when the unelected Us government bureaucracy was weaponized, they got used to abusing power willy-nilly and getting away with it. This was possible because the Obama admin actively used lawfare to punish anyone that dared challenge or expose their corruption. The legacy media and nascent social media took notice of the consequences to crossing these crooks, and that allowed the Obama admin and media to keep the narrative that Obama’s admin was/is 100% scandal free when it was just a criminal enterprise. All legacy media gave people the things the government wanted them to believe. Fox News and some others gave people the most extreme opinions that the government would allow them to believe. Then Trump woke people up to the fact it was all bullshit and there was no real news and the machine went into 100% overdrive to gaslight and censor, and they got away with it for a good time (until Elon pissed into their cornflakes by buying Twitter and making a plethora of conspiracy theories end up confirmed truths).

    The damage the loss of the narrative caused them is why they now are desperate to hide the abuses.

    • Rat on a train

      Obama was scandal free. The best the Republicans could come up with was a tan suit.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        TIL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_tan_suit_controversy

        On August 28, 2014, United States President Barack Obama held a live press conference in which he discussed the prospect of escalating the U.S. military response to the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.

        I knew about the meme of the tan suit, but finding out that it was worn when discussing Syria seems too on the nose.

      • creech

        You know who else wore a tan suit?

      • Shpip

        At least one guy who was a better President than Barry.

    • juris imprudent

      No, let’s not consider what came before Obama – he is the source of all evil. And people wonder how we end up where we are.

      • AlexinCT

        What came before Obama was child’s play. Republicans would never have gotten away with shit because the machine would have torpedoed them for it. Even Bill Clinton was limited. Obama’s admin literally used the weaponized federal bureaucracy to target and attack its opponents while punishing anyone tat dared to say this was happening. I am sure Nixon – whom these days I suspect was railroaded by another deep state campaign of lies – was spinning in his grave seeing what Obama’s people not only got away with, but how fucking criminal that enterprise was.

      • Not Adahn

        Republicans would never have gotten away with shit because the machine would have torpedoed them for it.

        This might be true. Obviously, the IRS didn’t bobblehead along with Nixon the way they did Obama. Did the deep state develop a hard partisanship, or did 9/11 have some causative effect?

      • Raven Nation

        Nixon didn’t get railroaded, he managed to screw things up all by himself, although not in the way most people think of Watergate.

        I did read a bunch on this a few years back and here’s my take FWIW. I do not think Nixon authorized the Watergate break in but I do think he created a culture of relative lawlessness in parts of his administration that enabled it. When he complained about things, a lot of his less reputable lieutenants heard “who shall rid me of this turbulent priest.”

        Where Nixon screwed up was the subsequent cover up including serial dishonesty. Should that have been enough to impeach him? I would say yes (while recognizing both double-standards AND the different way the law is applied to different groups). The other thing that was a factor was an odd cultural issue. Nixon swore like a drunken sailor on a lot of the tapes. And that cost him support among some of his core in the 1970s. It probably wouldn’t have the same effect today.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      This is what’s happened under Trudeau. We’re running at about a scandal a week. I’ve lost track. Wiki lists 12 political scandals – most in Canadian history. But it needs to be updated. It can easily be 14. Plus four official ethics violations and several others were under investigation but the ethics commissioner resigned a few months ago getting tired of it all saying Liberals needed to go back and take ethics courses. He hasn’t been replaced. This doesn’t include the obscene stonewalling (and complete lack of transparency – what did you expect from communists?) into things like Chinese election interference and refusing an inquiry into the COVID response.

      Canadians are either ignorant or apathetic to it all. It’s been normalized. Canada is perhaps one of the most corrupt places in the West.

      And don’t get me going on the judiciary.

      • juris imprudent

        See! Canada got all fucked up without Obama’s help.

  15. Certified Public Asshat

    3. ‘Shame on you!’: Newsom forcefully corrects DeSantis on pronunciation of ‘Kamala Harris’

    I’ve listened to the video 3 times now, and I cannot distinguish between Ron’s pronunciation and Gavin’s.

    • R.J.

      I think it’s KAmala vs. KaMAla. Why I care is beyond me. But I remember this useless fact.

    • rhywun

      The stress is different. She is on record pronouncing it both ways herself.

      And that’s some of Gavin’s famed “appeal”? JFC what a tiresome bully.

    • creech

      Maybe Gavin’s heard it whispered intimately by the lady herself?

      • Beau Knott

        Lady? I thought we were talking about Kamala Harris.

      • juris imprudent

        Wouldn’t that sound like “gurgle-gurgle-slurp”?

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

      it’s KaMAlaMAdingdong. Shame on you!

      • Fourscore

        Kammie, for those close friends

  16. Shpip

    Challenge accepted!

    This year’s Christmas party is gonna be lit, as the kids say.

    • Suthenboy

      Gatorken? Turgator? What does one call that thing?

      *Gator meat is very rich. If you eat what you would consider a normal sized serving of meat you will start feeling queasy.*

  17. Rufus the Monocled

    Watched a couple of clips of De Santis-Newsom. Boy, De Santis was on the attack.

    All I’m gonna say is lock/shutdowns had little to no impact on mortality but the trade-offs were a catastrophe.

    How anyone can defend the restrictions is beyond me. Anti-science….and anti-human. And that’s right, the elites keep their kids in school, kept their businesses open and even got vaccine exemptions.

    They did a study here showing – ta-dah! – vaccine passports had no impact on uptake in Quebec and Ontario. Two Covid Gulag provinces. No shit. That’s because passports were more politically motivated and punitive than scientific.

  18. DrOtto

    I’m confused, why is DeSantis debating Newsome? Are either of them running for governor of the other’s state or something?

    • Certified Public Asshat

      He wanted to win at least one debate.

      *swallows black pill*

      I still think President Newsome is a real possibility at some point.

      • rhywun

        Oh, absolutely. He’s been groomed his whole life for this. It will happen, one way or another.

        It does not even matter that he has all the appeal of a mentally challenged used car salesman.

      • The Last American Hero

        2028, unless Joe croaks and then it’s 2024

      • juris imprudent

        If Joe croaks before the elections, the Dems will have a total meltdown. Kamala will scream that she is the rightful heir. Gavin the Usurper will tear the party apart because he is a white male. There will be a run on popcorn like you’ve never seen.

    • kinnath

      Two wanna-be’s that have no chance of uprooting the most likely candidates in 2024 using each other to position themselves for 2028.

      • kinnath

        And free fucking air time.

    • Not Adahn

      2028 Campaign season is underway.

    • Urthona

      Not more pointless than any other debate.

      Interesting to watch the two state models go at one another. DeSantis destroyed him.

      • R.J.

        It shows how crazy some people are that Gruesome Newsom was adored so much by the libs. I will want to analyze news reports on it later. Fox as usual, finds that people hated Newsom. CNN of course, loved him.

      • Urthona

        Newsom I don’t get.

        To even make a point, he has to stretch the truth every time.

        He’s gross to me.

      • R.J.

        He is very gross.

      • Ownbestenemy

        What was his reasoning on why it was okay for him and his buddies to dine at French Laundry again? Thats right, “Im sorry” like that ridiculous B.P PR video after the oil spill. People were being handcuffed for breaking his edicts and he just gets to say “My bad”.

        Then again, California rejected the recall and love the whip apparently. He is (probably correctly too) expecting the rest of the nation to enjoy it too.

      • Urthona

        There was no defense of that. .

        In fact, his defense was to try and argue that DeSantis was a lock down governor too.

        That’s an astonishing admission of being very wrong there.

      • DEG

        Apropos Remy.

        DeSantis initially locked down Florida, but unlike every other lockdown governor, he came out saying the lockdowns were wrong and reversed course. Even the early openers like Kemp and Polis (both of whom, if I remember correctly, opened Georgia and Colorado earlier than DeSantis opened Florida) said nothing against lockdowns.

      • Urthona

        Right. It was too recent to try gaslighting.

        We all saw the grim reaper on the Florida beaches guy.

        And we all know they wound up with the same age-adjusted covid death rate as California.

      • B.P.

        The excuse from the media at the time was that the folks dining at the French Laundry are a “sophisticated crowd” who all had taken the vaccine, unlike the low-bred know-nothings who would dine at Chik-fil-A and spread the disease. This was during that period when they were still pushing the idea that the vaccine stopped the spread.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I think you are misremembering. Incident was Nov 6 2020, vaccines were not approved until Dec 11. The excuse he gave was ‘it was mostly outside’ until photos dropped that it wasn’t and then fell back on “my bad”. All the while he was preparing to unless in a few weeks tighter restrictions on restaurants.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yes and that gala where AOC wore that dress…all the help masked, the elite, free to be. Many examples and the people just shrug and utter ‘at this point what difference does it make’ rather than grabbing their pitchforks and torches.

      • The Last American Hero

        They will enjoy the whip.

        Exhibit A, 2020
        Exhibit B, 2021
        Exhibit C, 2022 elections

      • Suthenboy

        Wife watched a bit of the debate and said “The only time he did not lie was when he refused to answer a question”.

      • juris imprudent

        I’d say DeSantis only looks good in comparison to Newsom – not that he’s good on his own.

      • creech

        Fox, I suppose, had to cover this “debate” because of Hannity. However, it did serve to take Fox away from their seemingly 24/7 annoying coverage of “more hostages released” and “Israel/Hamas war.”

  19. The Other Kevin

    I like watching those Massie clips. He was personally censored so he’s got skin in the game.

    The Blackhawks got their asses handed to them, and that debate doesn’t sound too exciting. Guess going to bed early was a good choice.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Are they gonna squander the Bedard pick? The Penguins messed up the Crosby-Malkin-Letang generation. Shoulda done much better.

      • Urthona

        The Pen undeservedly got 3 top picks and still had to spend years building a team.

        One dude doesn’t mean shit in hockey. They’re going to need to spend years on this.

        Take a look the Oilers as well who also got multiple top picks.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Yup. But they could have kept insulating those three players in Pitt. better than they have.

        The Hawks didn’t exactly handle Towes and Kane well either.

        And there are whispers McDavid doesn’t have the killer instinct.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Toews.

      • Urthona

        Don’t Toews me bro

      • Urthona

        I think McDavid is injured this year, but the team as a whole refuses to play defense. That comes from the forwards too and the culture. They refuse to back check. If this miss a chance, a glorious chance is coming the other way because absolutely no forward is gonna get back to cover.

        Their goaltender was obviously subpar but they’re gonna keep throwing goalies to the wolves.

      • The Other Kevin

        I think we’ll know in a few years. The Blackhawks won three cups because they had such a deep team, and that came from consistently drafting good players. Kane, Toews, Seabrook, Crawford, Shaw, Keith, were all drafted. Only after that did they sign Hossa and Sharp. While they suck now, they are currently putting an emphasis on drafting players. They have some promising young players on the team now, with a bunch still playing college hockey. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

      • Urthona

        Buckle in because I believe this was the start of a true rebuild but at least Hawks fans get to watch Bedard.

      • creech

        Violins from Flyers fans. Flyers have squandered everything since 1976.

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

      Speaking of hokey, has anyone seen or heard from Tundra lately?

      • The Other Kevin

        I miss his input here. But I text him every few days. He’s fine, just taking a mental break from current events. Not sure if he’s coming back, but he is ok.

  20. Sean

    I played https://squaredle.com 12/01:
    65/65 words (+22 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 16% by bonus words
    🔥 Solve streak: 5

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 12/01:
    *18/18 words (+6 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 23% by bonus words

    • Raven Nation

      I played https://squaredle.com 12/01:
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      🎯 In the top 9% by accuracy
      🔥 Solve streak: 42

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 12/01:
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    • rhywun

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 12/01:
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      🎯 In the top 43% by accuracy

      I played https://squaredle.com 12/01:
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      🔥 Solve streak: 92

    • SDF-7

      F’ing hell… I’ve been stuck on the last 6 words for an hour, just can’t see it. I’m on vacation, so gorram it — I’m not going to resort to hints! Y’all rock, I suck in short.

      • Raven Nation

        Took me way longer than it should have to get the last 9-10.

      • SDF-7

        Apparently, bitching about it was up my neurons or something. Yay?

        I played https://squaredle.com/xp 12/01:
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        🎯 Perfect accuracy

        I played https://squaredle.com 12/01:
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        🎯 In the top 11% by accuracy
        🔥 Solve streak: 124

    • Rat on a train

      I played https://squaredle.com 12/01:
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  21. The Late P Brooks

    A peek behind the curtain

    U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said Montana’s TikTok ban “oversteps state power” and “likely violates the First Amendment.”

    Molloy wrote that though officials in Montana have defended the law as an attempt to protect consumers in the state, there is “little doubt that Montana’s legislature and Attorney General were more interested in targeting China’s ostensible role in TikTok than with protecting Montana consumers,” the judge wrote.

    Montana, as a state, does not have authority over foreign affairs, Molloy said, but even still, he found the national security case presented against TikTok unconvincing, writing that if anything the Montana law had a “pervasive undertone of anti-Chinese sentiment.”

    Do they have special mind reading classes in Judge School?

    • Urthona

      I guess I’m gonna have to be the only glib here who pretty much agrees with them that a government should not have the power to ban TikTok.

      • Ownbestenemy

        *raises hand* I agree the government, State or Federal, has no constitutional authority to ban it. They can ban it from their government issued phones for sure, but not from the general public.

      • Urthona

        coolio and the gang

      • R.J.

        Agreed. You are not the only one. My general comment is “Stop banning shit.” 100% with you and Ownbestenemy.

      • Nephilium

        Right here with you lot as well.

      • Urthona

        looks like i was completely wrong on my snap judgment again.

      • juris imprudent

        It’s because of the contingent that hates the CCP so passionately.

      • SDF-7

        I don’t think so. I hate the CCP probably about as much as anyone – but yes, it isn’t the government (any level) job to block them outside of their own equipment (for obvious security reasons).

        I’m fine with spending a little money getting the message out that it is a terrible, horrible idea. Yes, that raises the whole “Should government put a thumb on the scale of political conversations” but 1) That ship has long since sailed and 2) I do think there’s a national security element here of not letting the Chinese suck up data (“That’s OUR job” says the NSA…) and turn the young into even more mushbrains than the Dept. of Ed lackeys do.

        That probably will have all the potency of the idiotic anti-vape campaigns, granted.

      • rhywun

        China is doing way worse things that have national security implications than hoovering up the personal data of narcissistic tweens.

        And most of those things, like all the IP theft, sailed decades ago.

      • juris imprudent

        idiotic anti-vape campaigns

        Exactly why the safest and smartest course of govt action to just STFU. Leave all the persuasion to private actors/groups (without any govt funding).

      • rhywun

        dittoes

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

        And add me to the list of “not your job, gov’t”.

      • DEG

        Wait a minute… there are folks here that agree on something?

      • Not Adahn

        Of course. Deep dish pizza is universally loved.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Way to break the unity DEG. Screw it, I am for governmental bans!

      • juris imprudent

        Toilet paper – over or under?

      • Ownbestenemy

        On top of the tank cause no one is arsed to replace the roll.

      • UnCivilServant

        Those silly hangers are less convenient that having the roll on the corner of the sink.

        The tank is even worse because I’d have to twist around to find it and probably knock it behind the toilet.

      • Not Adahn

        Really? There are several borderline anarchists here yanno.

      • Urthona

        I think we can all agree I’m the one true glib.

      • R.J.

        You are definitely a member of the Legion of Green Glib Avatars.

      • Nephilium

        Pretty sure there are quite a few that passed the borderline quite a while ago (and asked who’s authority designated that border anyways).

    • rhywun

      This schtick equating Israelis with Nazis got beyond tiresome about four or five intifadas ago.

      • Not Adahn

        He’s totes not antisemitic. He just disagrees with the foreign policy of the current Israeli government under the leadership of Netanyahu.

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

        And That is what this boils down too.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Let’s roll up our sleeves and work together

    His effort already faces an uphill battle. A coalition of farmers, mayors, and environmentalists have all criticized the project for potential impacts to sensitive habitats and agricultural businesses, along with concerns about the security of nearby Travis Air Force Base. The Sierra Club, a leading environmentalist group, dubbed California Forever a “hostile takeover” this week.

    “They’re not trying to listen to the community. This is a sales pitch,” said Aiden Mayhood, a 22-year-old resident of nearby Rio Vista, before the town hall in Vallejo.

    Further roiling the waters, Flannery is suing a group of Solano landowners for allegedly colluding to inflate their property values. The Sramek-led company is seeking at least $510 million in damages. The landowners deny wrongdoing.

    Sramek accused his critics of opposing new housing developments in the region regardless of who is behind the project.

    “The people who don’t like this project for ideological reasons have tried to weaponize the fact that this was bought in secret,” he said. “There is nothing nefarious about it.”

    Them stupid hicks don’t want Paradise handed to them on a platter? They don’t know what’s best for them.

    • Not Adahn

      Sramek accused his critics of opposing new housing developments in the region regardless of who is behind the project.

      Yes, and?

      • R.J.

        Everybody in California hates everyone else, and wants to keep each other down. That must be so tiresome. If a bunch of tech bros want to build a city, let them! If they have the money to try and prove if a 15 minute city will work, let them!

      • rhywun

        Everyone with a hobby horse has been given a bullhorn and victim cred.

        It’s so nauseating.

  23. Shpip

    HG Wells. If he had weighed just a little less at birth, we would’ve been AU Wells.

    That’s comedy gold, I tell ya!

    • Urthona

      That’s both a dad joke and an extremely nerdy joke at the same time.

      I approve.

  24. B.P.

    “DeSantis and Newsom’s debate highlights”

    I caught a little bit of this on the radio while driving around. There was a lot of DeSants/Newsom/Hannity all talking at once. Newsom told some absurd whoppers. For instance, I didn’t know that California taxes are really low.

    • UnCivilServant

      Well of course the taxes are really low – they let you keep some of your money instead of taking it all.

      See! Government Generosity.

      • juris imprudent

        Look, the top California income tax rate is not anywhere near the federal rate, so THERE!!!

    • SDF-7

      I didn’t watch the thing — but I suspect there was some weasel wording there.

      Either he was citing property taxes (because Prop 13 keeps things lower than the thieves would wish), or it is a side effect that California has gotten really good at aiming the tax bill at a minority of the voters to ensure their supermajority can keep electoral support while hiking taxes (the perpetual “millionaire” and capital gains routes mostly). After all — why not vote for tax increases you’re not paying apparently….

      • juris imprudent

        The CA income tax is the most progressive in the country, and when those high incomes dip in a recession, the state takes a huge hit financially. It’s like fucking the crazy woman – when it’s great, it’s great and when the comeuppance comes, oh shit.

      • Raven Nation

        I live in flyover country. Guy I knew a few years back who moved from CA said his state & property taxes were higher here than in CA. BUT, the various regulations & approvals in CA made buying a house a more expensive exercise (and yes, single anecdote more than 10 years old).

  25. The Late P Brooks

    I guess I’m gonna have to be the only glib here who pretty much agrees with them that a government should not have the power to ban TikTok.

    I know nothing about tiktok; what it is, what it does, how people use it, or how data hazardous to “national security” could be distilled from it.

    I also cannot see a one in ten bazillion chance of actually banning or blocking it as a practical matter. I just found the judge’s reasoning curious. He looked deep into their souls.

    • Urthona

      Gotcha

      It’s always racism.

      • R.J.

        “Glasshopper: What is the sound of one hand crapping?”

        “…”

  26. Pope Jimbo

    Oh the humanity! News deserts is the new hawtness, but we don’t have them in Minnesoda. So disappointed.

    Minnesota remains free of “news deserts,” despite a steep drop in the number of newspapers publishing across the state.

    Driving the news: All 87 counties have at least one news outlet, and most have two or more, according to a new report from researchers at Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative.

      • Not Adahn

        Huh. I have some disagreements with Jefferson, but he was a smart man.

    • Ownbestenemy

      The world was probably better off with news deserts than it is today without them.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Neocolonialist anarchy

    Princess Washington, who is mayor pro-tem of Suisun City, is also the chair of the Solano County chapter of the Sierra Club, and she excoriated the moves by California Forever’s Flannery Associates as “a hostile takeover” of county land.

    “Over the past 30 years, the Bay Area has lost more than 217,000 acres of [agricultural] land to development,” Washington said, per ABC 7. “This is land we cannot get back once it’s developed.”

    ——-

    The backers are Silicon Valley billionaires, including venture capitalists Michael Moritz and Marc Andreessen, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Laurene Powell Jobs, among others.

    The intent, they say, is to build tens of thousands of new homes and create a sustainable, walkable city.

    Washington had more harsh words for the project, as KPIX reports, saying, “This is a new form of neocolonialism, the sheer audacity of what money can buy.”

    And KPIX spoke to one of the attendees of the press conference, seventh-generation Rio Vista resident Aiden Mayhood. (Rio Vista lies just east of the proposed new city, at the eastern edge of Solano County, along the Sacramento River Delta.)

    “I live in Rio Vista and we’re only a town of 10,000 people,” Mayhood tells the station. “We have 700 acres of [empty] land [that’s] residentially zoned. There’s nothing happening there. Go to places like that.”

    The backers of California Forever, and its visionary Jan Sramek, seem to want to create a city out of whole cloth for their own reasons. Washington tells KPIX that it’s a means to skirt local development controls. “The reality is it’s easier to have a blank slate than to color within the lines and that’s why this happened,” Washington says.

    This great nation and this great state were founded on the bedrock principle that no one should be allowed to color outside the lines. Uncounted lives were laid down to defend the established bureaucratic order.

    Nice work, Princess, now I almost want to see the techbros’ Emerald City rise from the ashes of your know-nothing contrarianism.

    • SDF-7

      Yeah — this from the people that are constantly throttling water to Agriculture and increasing regulations left and right.

      The number of former dairies, former orchards, etc. out where I live compared to when we move here is pretty impressive. So what exactly else are they supposed to do with said land, dumbass?

      • R.J.

        Beat me to it. Lose it to what, weeds? California has done great at running agriculture out of business. I am so glad I went and then left that shitty state. My stay was brief. Not brief enough.

      • Rat on a train

        Keep it undeveloped while complaining about the lack of development.

    • juris imprudent

      I just want to bitchslap Princess until she never says “neo-colonial” again, unless it is to describe a house.

      • UnCivilServant

        Wait, that’s the stupid bint’s actual name?

      • B.P.

        Various versions of “settler/colonist” are new entrants on the list of words that are supposed to be argument-enders.

      • UnCivilServant

        I take them as an admission that the speaker has lost and has no grounds to base an argument on.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Meanwhile, down at the Luddite Jamboree


    King Charles III told world leaders Friday that the warning signs of the climate crisis are being ignored and that the world is heading for “dangerous uncharted territory,” with devastating consequences for lives and livelihoods.

    Delivering an opening address to delegates at the World Climate Action Summit, part of the COP28 summit in Dubai, the King said he prayed “with all my heart that COP28 will be a critical turning point towards genuine transformational action.”

    “Some important progress has been made but it worries me greatly that we remain so dreadfully far off track,” he said, adding, “we are taking the natural world outside balanced norms and limits and into dangerous uncharted territory.”

    I’m not saying he’s out of touch, but I wouldn’t ask him to organize a church social.

    • Fourscore

      “the warning signs of the climate crisis are being ignored”

      We’re running out of crises. Soon there will be shortage

      • R.J.

        We are dreadfully off track on generating crises.

    • creech

      On the other hand, it is good to hear that the “Royals” are going to start flying coach to whatever speech, shindig, castle, hunting preserve, enclave, fund raiser, or ribbon cutting they are expected to do to “earn” their keep.

    • rhywun

      I thought he was supposed to lay off the politics after his ascension. You know, like his mom.

      CWAA

      • Not Adahn

        Remember when all life in the Gulf of Mexico was wiped out forever by BP?

      • UnCivilServant

        I remember in the wake of the Exxon Valdez incident an article in National Geographic about how the beaches which had not been treated by the cleanup efforts had recovered fully – while the ones that had been scoured to remove the oil were still all but sterile wastelands.

        This was clearly before the rot of more recent decades when such an article would be unthinkable to the rightthinkful crowd.

  29. Raven Nation

    Everton FC launch formal appeal against points deduction: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/67591673

    My 2 cents: the appeal board will make a 5 point deduction with 5 more suspended.