Good morning one and all to another wonderous day and to the morning links! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas like I did!
US Debt Surpasses $33 Trillion
Here’s How The Biden Admin Treated Countries Who Kicked Candidates Off The Ballot
Dozens of House retirements complicate Democrats’ bid to reclaim majority
Push for ranked-choice voting is spreading across the U.S., despite bipartisan concerns
Marjorie Taylor Greene Swatted for the 8th Time, this time on Christmas Day
Federal Lawsuit to Overturn Ban On At Home Distilling
New data find fewer men are enrolling in college
Island tries to rely 100% on renewable power grid but it doesn’t work more than 15% of the year
Nike says it will lay off employees as part of $2 billion cost-cutting measures
Disney’s long year of box office blunders
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
Only a fool or a fraud would want Ranked Choice Voting. It produces “winners” no one wants and is harder to audit.
The system now doesn’t produce winners I want, and FPTP inevitably leads to an artificial duopoly.
That’s no reason to go to a worse system.
How is it worse? The auditability is a canard as demonstrated by the last election.
Aside from the increased confusion, even more openings for fraud (even though we’ve gotten to the point where it’s so brazen that it’s close to moot), and a system that elects people no one is happy with even when it’s not full of shenanigans, what else do you need?
Under no category is it better.
It allows for someone who’s actual desire is “Anyone but X” to actually vote that way. And I’m really not certain that a winner who is nobody’s favorite is worse than one who is the Messiah to half the population and a demon to the other.
Just think how little an uncharismatic leader will get done when he has no mandate!
Like now?
What we need is the Thunderdome election system.
You want to be ruled by Fetterlump (and whatever Master he carries around)?
TWO MEN (or women with penises) ENTER! ONE MAN LEAVES…
(Voting never produces a representative governemnt. The only way to actually do that, if it’s your goal is random selection.)
I’m okay with sortition so long as the randomizer is transparent.
IIRC, sortition isn’t actually random. It would need to be random from within the complete citizenry.
FPTP wouldn’t be as big a problem if it actually required candidates to past the post. Instead it allows the candidate with the most votes to win even if that isn’t a majority.
There is nothing artificial about duopoly – there will always be a winning side and a losing side, whether that is two specific parties, or coalitions of many smaller parties.
THUNDERDOME!
Auntie ruled. Thunderdome just kept the proles in check.
Right. She used the dome to solve legal problems and keep her power. Adapt it to deal only with elections, and it takes on a whole new meaning…
It feels like a solution in search of a problem to me, but otherwise I have no strong opinion on it.
I am amused at the Dems’ argument that blacks and browns are too stupid to understand it, though.
Didn’t they assert the same thing about getting ID?
Yes.
Consider, when you’re on the side of Hochul and Andrea Stewart-Cousins, you might be on the wrong side.
Consider that when you have to resort to attempted guilt by association, you know you’ve got no argument.
Changing around the methodology won’t fix anything until and unless we address the fraud problem.
Silly Billy, those two have put a whole lot of time and effort into making their hold on power permanent. I’d bet they have more insights into the system than either of us do, and choose FPTP for a reason.
I don’t have to resort to anything. What argument do you have again? It’s complicated? Because your other “arguments” are non-unique.
Fraud is at least two levels down from the actual problem. The main one is “government power is worth buying” which is compounded by “politicians are self-selected from amongst the most arrogant and corruptible part of the population.”
They don’t want to change systems because the machine is already in place, and why go through the trouble of retooling.
You haven’t made any arguments in favor of a change.
“Change human nature” isn’t a solution.
It’s depolarizing.
Addressing the fraud problem won’t fix anything until we address the administrative state problem.
You won’t be able to do that without addressing the fraud.
I think we’ve seen that it doesn’t matter who wins elections, the country is ruled by the agencies.
I’m sensing a Gordian knot.
A Nietzschean Übermensch needs to take over in a military coup?
An Alexandrian solution?
For that I’ll answer with Huxley: “So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable.”
Alexandrian?
I was leaning more Carthaginian.
Except we live in Carthage.
I don’t live in DC.
The Carthaginian solution was to burn and depopulate the city of Carthage, driving its inhabitants into the desert (well, surrounding farmland), and tell them if they wanted another city, make sure it was 10 miles from the sea and thus incapable of rebuilding its power. The Romans didn’t salt the earth of the entire Carthaginian empire, just its capitol city.
OK, it was an Imperial campaign by Rome to eliminate a rival. I would tend to fear that is exactly what we would get when talking about destroying DC – not freedom from tyranny, just a displacement of it. You know, the old careful what you ask for.
I was considering forming an opinion on it based on who is for and against it because that always works, but the article made it seem like both TEAMS don’t like it.
How is this not the greatest argument in favor of it? If it’s as bipartisan a “moar free shit,” “more foreign warz,” and “moar surveillance state” it’s got to have something going for it.
The problem with RCV is it is essentially parliamentary, and we are not.
…I’m not seeing how this is a problem.
Parliamentary systems do not have our branch division of govt. In parliament, the executive is simply the majority party/coalition, and the bureaucracy is even more permanent than our own. There is nothing better about that than what we have and much of our problem is based on attempting to act like that system rather than our own.
Right. Again, I’m not seeing how increasing the potential divisions between/within the executive and legislative branches is a bad thing.
You aren’t increasing them. There are always only two sides – winning and losing. You ARE sacrificing what are supposed to be structural impediments to the exercise of power – which is not a concern under a parliamentary system.
How is it sacrificing structural impediments? RCV has zero effect on structure. You might even wind up with a nominal party member that disagrees with the party establishment.
RCV doesn’t make the president chosen by the legislature, nor the leg. dissolvable by the exec.
Tell me exactly how RCV improves Congressional representation – which of course only applies to the House.
Tell me exactly how RCV changes the structure of government, or are you abandoning that one?
Tell me exactly WTF you mean by “improving Congressional representation.”
You are advocating RCV – why? What benefit does it bring over FPTP?
I agree on None of the Above, and it being binding. But that makes far more sense in FPTP than in RCV – particularly in district based voting vice state-level or national-level proportional representation (quite characteristic of parliamentary systems).
As for the structural argument, no I’m not leaving that aside, but I am trying to understand why you think RCV is so beneficial.
So, first of all, I’m not advocating for STV, proportional voting or any other systems that assume the political party is the fundamental unit of government. ‘K? K.
I’m ALSO advocating against a system in which parties do not get a ballot line. If that means in blue or red states, the parties wind up putting a supermajority of candidates on the ballot, fine. Heck, that might be even better. What that allows for is demons/messiahs to be properly demonized by the other party while giving the minority at least some mitigation as to how bad their new hated ruler is going to be. Yes, this necessarily means there needs to be low barriers to ballot access. So that novelty and vanity candidates can pad out the list and let les betes noires be buried.
You still have not stated a single benefit, not even a theoretical one. So – why? What good comes from the change?
Maybe stop issuing demands and try rereading? ‘Cause that thing you just wrote is untrue.
I have very little patience today for people who don’t read what I wrote, make shit up out of whole cloth, put words in my mouth, and then think they get to make demands of me.
Heck, that might be even better.
OK, if that’s your best as a benefit.
Until you’re ready to be honest, GFY.
I’ll apologize for being obtuse – I honestly don’t get what you are saying makes this worth it. But I’ll fuck off as it is so obvious to you.
That’s one way to look at it.
The idea behind it is that people would be more likely to vote for the candidate they most liked first. No fear of ‘throwing your vote away’ by not voting for Team Red or Team blue. I can only surmise that people who would be confused by that are idiots. People rank choices all the time, yet somehow doing it for elections would baffle too many people? Maybe those morons shouldn’t be voting at all anyway.
In practice, it appears that people don’t bother with second choices, so lots of voters fall out of the count after round one.
Which D wouldn’t put OMB at the very bottom of the list, with every possible candidate above him?
Of course, RCV would work even better with “this office to remain vacant” as an option.
this office to remain vacant
The ONLY way it would work, but it can’t work that way, because RCV requires discarding that as a lower ranked option.
My own additional stipulation would be – when VACANT wins, all of the candidates are barred from trying again.
Wait, are we getting hung up on the differences between RCV and IRV?
Seriously, THUNDERDOME!
Fight to the death will keep the weasels away.
Or, one vastly stronger weasel gets the crown, and they know it.
Wait, are you actually assuming the voters fill out the entire preference list?
What we’ve seen where it gets implemented is nothing close to that.
We get cases where you have an ideologically lopsided area which the vast majority support one direction of policy, and a minority leans the other way. The contests end up with multiple candidates on the majority side of the divide quibbling over doctrinal minutiae, while the minority side fields only one. Voters fill in maybe one or two preferences and leave the rest blank, so as candidates are culled, their voters drop away too, leaving the singular minority candidate winning with a fraction of the initial participating electorate (ignoring the nonparticipating electorate as we do now).
Honestly, most of my time would be spent figuring out how to fill out the bottom of my ballot to communicate as much scorn as I can.
I’m not certain how this fits with your objections re: human nature.
And that is neither confusing nor fraudulent.
Rank choice is an abomination. It destroys the concept of One Person, One Vote, does noting to increase accountability in the electoral process, is even more open for cheating, both on the front end and on the back end, and does not allow for actual political agendas to be compared and analyzed by the voting public, it only allows for “someone” to be inserted into a position, not a competitive juxtaposition of ideologies.
It is a technocratic response to what is essentially a philosophical problem.
It destroys the concept of One Person, One Vote
No it doesn’t. Each time votes are counted, your is counted no more than once.
does noting to increase accountability in the electoral process
I’ve not heard RCV being touted as a way to increase accountability.
is even more open for cheating, both on the front end and on the back end
How so, given that mail-in voting already exists?
does not allow for actual political agendas to be compared and analyzed by the voting public, it only allows for “someone” to be inserted into a position, not a competitive juxtaposition of ideologies.
Again, I’ve not seen anyone say this is a strength of RCV.
RCV is the shiny – it’s what we don’t have, therefore it must be better than what we do have.
That pretty much nails it.
$33T? It was about one war funding package short of $34T as of the 21st.
Look, when you owe that much, no one really knows how deep in debt you are.
I guess they will soon tell us that pun about “When you owe the bank $10K the bank owns you, but when you owe the bank $100billion you own the bank” shit soon. Except in this case “The bank” is the US tax payer.
Yeah, bebt clock shows $33.948 T.
“debt” even
US Debt Surpasses $33 Trillion
Can I have a million?
Have you recently crossed the border from Mexico into Texas?
Or are you willing to kick back 10% to the Big Guy?
In Malaysia they just accuse the opposition candidate of being gay – boom, straight to pris.
New data find fewer men are enrolling in college – good men are dumb and stinky poopy heads anyways fuck men all my homies hate men
That’s definitely part of it. In the past meeting girls at college was a powerful motivator for men who didn’t take their academics that seriously and I suppose for those who did now that I think about it. With all the dating apps and the fact that pursuing a college woman in person can get you hauled in front of a tribunal if you say the wrong thing it’s no wonder fewer and fewer guys want any part of it although that’s only a partial explanation.
And that’s just part of the problem, namely, that males are treated like untermenschen throughout the entire K – Ph.D. education system.
And dominant culture in general. I saw probably half a dozen girl empowerment “you go girl” commercials, and I can’t remember ever seeing such a message aimed at boys.
Err, “Yesterday, I saw . . . “
“Men are defective women/The Y chromosome is a deformed X”
Men are the white people of sexes.
Have I got the substack for you! Not even a small sample of the DERP on offer there (unless you have full PPE on).
SWATting: To be become the target of some sack of shit who tries repeatedly to proxy murder you via 911 would be an absolute nightmare. I normally don’t want tougher sentencing for just about anything but this is just straight up attempted murder and should be treated as such for anyone who tries it.
Death threats are the worst thing that can happen to someone ESPECIALLY to a woman. Unless she’s an R of course.
The most powerful nation in the world will be unable to locate people making potentially dangerous prank phone calls, but can hunt down anyone in the wrong place on Jan 6.
Seth Rich looks up and asks “what?”
I’m certainly not going to argue that point (that SWATters should be treated as attempted murderers, because that’s clearly the intent) — but it would be nice if some revisit of the paramilitary, everything-must-be-solved-with-a-special-forces-wannabe-SWAT-group would happen as well. When a 911 call about a supposed suicide or gun use in a house evokes a “storm the house as if you’re in Fallujah!” from the police force — something is wrong with that.
I’d agree with that too. It’s amazing more people haven’t been shot in these situations really.
Also, putting SWAT teams on the hook for doors they kick in would be nice.
For Greene, her local PD knows the deal and just sends a patrol car over to make sure she’s okay. The rest of us wouldn’t get that courtesy, particularly as the people calling it in make it sound like the kind of situation SWAT was designed for – hostages or a mass shooter.
But is it really attempted murder when its aimed at subhuman filth like *spit* Republicans?
“you have to be human to be a homosexual.”
Nike says it will lay off employees as part of $2 billion cost-cutting measures – can I blame Lebron James? I kinda wanna
Naw, it’s those sweat shop workers wanting $0.15/hour
That was my first thought — “What, the Chinese slave workers are getting too pricey there, Nike?” Assholes.
Laying him off would get them a lot closer to their goal than some office drones.
But they think he is so dreamy…
I wonder how much of each.
Maybe men, especially those not going to follow a STEM, accounting/economics, or medicine route, look at how much college will cost them, what value it will produce (near nothing), and unless they have family money to come out clean, choose alternatives? Shit, a trades program even costs $40K these days! But it is a far better deal than college is for people that want to actually learn a valuable skill and are not enrolling in one of the degrees I mentioned.
A drop from 74% to 41% is indeed significant but the time frame of “in over a decade” renders it useless as an indicator of urgency.
The beclowning of academia was well underway more than a decade ago. My own exposure disabused me of the notion that any significant proportion of people who stuck in academia know anything. (As a student you wanted classes taught by the adjuncts with day jobs in industry and avoided Full Professors like the plague).
Today, I get annoyed whenever HR or the Civil Service process wants to put any weight on credentials. That piece of paper in of itself says nothing about the candidate for a job.
If you want to reverse such an opinion – academia needs a purge of parasites.
It was well underway in the 80s when I was an undergrad. Coming of age in the Reagan era, we just laughed at and ignored the liberal college administration like we were in an old school comedy movie.
My Dad (Yale class of ’63) visited one parents’ weekend. We went to the chapel and heard a nonsense sermon about what a good guy Dan Ortega is. Dad laughed loud enough to be heard throughout the church. I tried to apologize to him about the nutty chaplain, but told. A story about hearing the same sermon about Castro back in the early 69s.
Hmm. My phone auto corrected the crap out of that.
Can confirm. Colleges have been rotten with leftism for generations now.
Another institution that needs to delenda est.
You used to have dept. that, individually, were unaffected by this problem, but that has changed in the last 10-20 years. Ag, engineering, were both fairly conservative at all but the most useless Uni’s, as they had to have real world answers to questions and this kept them grounded. But, there have been some odd but massively destructive changes in academia, namely that the professors in many no longer are required to be academic advisors.
In other words, they no longer need to have industry connections that relate directly to student needs. This allows them to stew in the hot house environment of the school without the tempering effect of seeing the in-and-out of what the degree means in the industry, and the industries reaction to shenanigans at the school.
In the 90s, the Business school at USC was extremely conservative. I’m going to guess that is no longer the case.
Making “Official” State Foods | Upper Peninsula
https://youtube.com/shorts/uv_NYvc3J-4?si=cdf5Uz8AZuN6VgPr
I contend that the “official” food of the UP is the pasty. (Rhymes with “nasty” rather than “tasty,” but it’s tasty, not nasty.)
Possibly NSFW, and WTF Thailand?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHZXtQS20EE
Yes, it’s MSNBC, but the stench of desperation is palpable, even over the Internet.
♪♫ Taylor Swift to the rescue, Taylor Swift to the rescue ♫
“According to one estimate from QuestionPro Research, Swifties spend approximately $93 million per show on everything from tickets to travel, lodging, food, and merchandise. By the end of the tour that will amount to a $5.7 billion jolt to the US economy. “
I’m getting pretty tired of the idea that shifting purely discretionary spending from one recipient to another is somehow an economic boon.
They would have burned all that money otherwise.
I like a good chunk of her music and am sure she’s a solid businesswoman and all…
but that meme about how she’s built her entire career on picking men poorly leaps to mind — I’m really not sure her endorsement would turn the tide.
More seriously — I also think the type of rabid fan of hers who might be swayed by an endorsement — is almost certainly on the lib track anyway. Since she’s made her politics very clear for years (after more wisely in my opinion keeping things quiet during her country start and transition to pop), I doubt there are all that many fans on the fence just waiting for her to name a candidate, after all. They either like her music and ignore her politics — or are already fully on board regardless.
Oh, that was her? I vaguely remember that.
Not a fan of any sort, obviously.
She felt she had to expose her politics when accused of being a closet Trump supporter.
From what I can see, having Tay-tay associate with your team is . . . not productive.
Right, Mojeaux?
ouch
inorite?
I ran across this yesterday, which I thought was hilarious. “You know what? Her uterus is aching. … And she wants a baby. … And she wants to breed with that big ol’ Kelce boy … ”
ded
Oh JFC.
I want off.
Said every man who dated her.
Weren’t the Swifies supposed to quickly dispose of Mellie in Argentina?
Not a great
planday — but oh well.I played https://squaredle.com/xp 12/26:
*24/24 words (+3 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 14% by accuracy
I played https://squaredle.com 12/26:
*30/30 words (+3 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 7% by accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 156
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 12/26:
24/24 words (+8 bonus words)
📖 In the top 21% by bonus words
I played https://squaredle.com 12/26:
*30/30 words (+4 bonus words)
⏱️ In the top 16% by speed
🔥 Solve streak: 93
“Work” is strictly KTLO this week and I’m still stuck in the warm up round.
More silly ways of altering the legislature:
-Turn the Capitol into a museum, all congressional “meetings” are online only.
-Make the voting buttons 500 degrees Fahrenheit. This would require a legislative dress code of “no gloves” of course.
-Each congresscritter gets one vote. Per session.
-In order to prevent nepotism, all government officials must be spayed or neutered. There would still be vast amounts of people running for office.
I definitely agree with keeping the critters at home with their constituents.
The whole of DC (the public buildings, anyway) should be turned into a museum.
“This would require a legislative dress code of “no gloves” of course. ”
UCS hardest hit?
This is the one time I am in favor of WFH.
I like Romanian Christmas food but too much pig fat
How long is your Christmas? NPR ran a piece about how the Ukrainians are super-awesome because they’ve switched to Christmas on the Gregorian calendar, making them our European bothers now.
“our European bothers”
I thought that was the French.
Do the French really bother anyone? Seems like a minor annoyance more than anything.
Why aren’t evangelicals demanding war with Russian to defend the true date of Christmas?
Ugh… I’m still not that into you, Z.
How long is your Christmas? ehm one day
Apparently the Dutchies celebrate Christmas on the 25th and 26th. But give presents earlier on a different holiday.
i think it is rather silly that we keep Christmas on the Gregorian but Easter on the old school
Eh, Easter makes sense if you tie it to the scheduling of (((Passover))).
Also, Easter candy is out on the shelves.
before the ehm troubles… different Christmas was good for local tourism the mountains. They got Romanians tourists for our Christmas an Ukrainian and Russians a few weeks later which meant the various hotels were full both times
Gregorian and Julian Easter are often different dates.
Are you asking about Long Pig Fat?
The real problem isn’t electable politicians. The problem we have is that we used to use the “strong mayor” model, but now use the “weak mayor” model. The city manager is the one who does all the work, but in this case, the city manager is unelected federal agencies that push whatever the WEF and other elitist cults tell them to (we’re not coming for your stoves). Sometimes the mouthpiece in charge is for this (Biden) and sometimes against (Trump) – but neither could/did do a damn thing to stop them.
This is a HUGE part of the problem, but it goes, in my opinion, back a step from that; roughly half the population thinks that gov’t is a source of wisdom and knows best, and the other half thinks gov’t is destructive and at best a necessary evil.
And until that is resolved, we are going to have problems like this.
So, we ended up discussing faith a bit yesterday and here is a terrific read on that subject.
I do disagree with him that we have seen the triumph of Nietzschean will – yet another poor interpretation of what the man wrote. It is the collapse of the Enlightenment detente, such as it ever existed, between reason and faith. It is faith that he sought when he finally confronted his ultimate fear, and I do have to agree that faith assuages fear when reason does not. That does not answer why we have such fear in the first place.
I finished The Fall of the House of Usher. At the time, I enjoyed it, but I keep thinking about more things wrong with it as time passes.
Are the rest made by that person as choc-a-bloc with lefty screeds as this one was?
The Poe story? I don’t think much of leftism would show up in that.
It’s an 8 episode series loosely based on various Poe tales. Apparently the group that made it previously also made other series which a friend told me were better.
In this series, the Ushers are a Sackler expy, The Devil is responsible for the Kochs, Bush, Nixon, et al. At various times, the Sacklers go off on straw capitalist rants about how society is the real victim and they’re just giving the people what they want.
Oh, TV. I don’t watch TV.
I watched The Haunting of Hill House, and Midnight Mass (unfortunately not based on the F Paul Wilson novel) I liked them both, they weren’t not great but didn’t suck. I don’t remember much lefty screeding but I have the uncanny ability to miss all that stuff and simply take movies, books, etc as they are. Someone (CPRM?) claimed the vampire one fucked up the Catholic liturgy but I wouldn’t know as I’m not catholic.
Oh. Was I not supposed to be doing that?
I have to laugh at these hold over laws. You can go out and cut off your privates, modify your body beyond recognition, and a multitude of other things but distill alcohol? To the stocks!
“A former high school student in Florida demanded that the co-founder of conservative action group Moms For Liberty resign from the school board – not because she had a threesome, but rather because she was ‘terrible’ at her job.
Bridget Ziegler, a close ally of Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, and a strong voice against LGBTQ rights, was forced on December 12 to sit through an excruciating meeting of the Sarasota County school board, on which she sits.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12900545/bridget-ziegler-moms-liberty-florida-threesome-Zander-Moricz.html
“The GOP heavyweight’s wife sat stone-faced throughout the school board meeting, and was confronted by Zander Moricz, a former class president at Pine View School, who is now at Harvard….
Moricz, who now runs a nonprofit aimed at encouraging young people to get involved in politics, is a plaintiff in the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ lawsuit against DeSantis and the state of Florida.
Ziegler was instrumental in crafting the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, which prevents the discussion of LGBTQ issues from kindergarten through to third grade, and only in limited ways with older students. Critics such as Moricz say it is a bid to erase gay people from society.
Moricz in 2022 accused administrators at his school of censorship after he was told not to reference his activism or sexuality in his graduation speech.
He referred to sexuality, in his address, by the euphemism ‘curly hair’.”
First David Hogg, and now this.
Freud would have field day with that one.
I, for one, am glad my professional career drew to a close (just) before my credential became so devalued.
And, concurrently, as Harvard has turned it’s rep into a bon fire.
Another phrase that has been rendered meaningless by the left in recent years.
Young Zander would’ve never known he was gay without proper elementary school encouragement.
The groomers: “You should try it! You might like it!”
Well this whole BS sure cuts against the old “born this way”.
“Zander” wouldn’t be enough?
“Rotten Tomatoes crowns the best 10 TV shows of 2023…but how many have YOU watched?”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12881199/Rotten-Tomatoes-crowns-best-10-TV-shows-2023-watched.html
0
Just Reservation Dogs. It got a little weird but whatever.
#3 got lots of promotion on a cable channel I watch.
Never heard of any of the rest.
/down with “streaming”
Reacher is fun.
I haven’t watched S2 of Invincible, but I liked S1, even if it was kind of unoriginal.
I attempted to watch Cunk on Earth but was unable to make it through the first episode.
Invincible just had a “twist” I guess in season one but it’s hardly that bold a show.
Blue Eye Samurai had an excellent twist, though I really don’t see how it can be made into a second season with the way it ended.
Hmm I haven’t about that too much, but parts of the main character’s story I think are still untold.
Sure, I just don’t know how Mizu is going to resolve anything in London, since her main strategy won’t work so well there.
I’m not done. No spoilers please.
I noticed none of the female superheroes have boobs.
What kinnath said about no spoilers for Blue Eye Samurai.
I have found it mildly amusing that the heroine is passing as male (and there’s no “yay trans”), but only because the society is so incredibly chauvinistic (the old adviser telling the princess she has two paths in life – wife, or whore).
I had no idea about this.
Looking at the cast seems like cultural appropriation!
But as a white man im not sure what to do.
I don’t know enough of Japanese history to know if it’s set in an actual time period or not.
-Definitely set between Tokugawa and Perry
But, there is still caste mobility? And no daisho?
I’ve never seen it, I was just looking at the pictures in the DM.
It does seem to be a trend, though. Look at the new Lara Croft or Lola Bunny compared to the past versions.
Apparently Blizzard has reduced the size and curvature of Tracer’s ass.
There’s the bizarrely racist situation wherein one’s fighting ability is directly proportional to how white you are.
I’ve seen a few of those and those are not the best shows of 2023. On the other hand, I’m too lazy today to do a list.
C’mon, Urthona. Do a post. Swiss needs content. Do you want to make Swiss cry?
OK, don’t answer that.
I’ve seen one of those (Reacher). Most of the rest I’ve never even heard of.
According to one estimate from QuestionPro Research, Swifties spend approximately $93 million per show on everything from tickets to travel, lodging, food, and merchandise. By the end of the tour that will amount to a $5.7 billion jolt to the US economy.
Unless these people print their own money, I don’t see how that can be true.
All of that money would’ve just been stuffed in their mattresses.
It isn’t that the money would be stuffed in a mattress, rather, it is what it can be turned too. If, instead of being spent on concerts and other frippery, it was spent on organizing and that sort of frippery, then the money, by the power of fungibility, would be turned to good.
Also, 93 million represents how large that group of possible voters is, along with the amount of disposable income that is unaffected by the Biden economy.
Good point, if by disposable income you mean credit card debt.
Same phenomon that Gov. Youngkin bragged about in Virginia if the ice hockey/basketball arena was moved out of DC: “it will create 30,000 jobs.”. Aside from the non-sensical number created, what about the number of jobs lost where the arena used to be? Concept of “net” seems to elude the proponents of any project or those gushing about how wonderful some new policy will be.
VA triumphs over DC and MD – who cares about them?
Counterpoint: DC isn’t Virginia and he isn’t the governor of DC. Ergo, fuck DC.
Yeah – why TF would Youngkin give a crap about DC?
The pertinent issue is he’s lying about the jobs and benefits of SPORTS PALACE!!!
I bet most of however many VA jobs are created will come out of the hides of other VA employers whose employees will quit. Again, concept of “net.”
Oh yes.
The job thing is always a scam.
Stop with that, Youngkin is pandering to the fuck DC and MD chauvinism. Yay State!!!
Seems we may see the fall of Christianity in my lifetime.
https://twitter.com/CTmagazine/status/1739044026911769026
LOL I heard about that.
Never mind that every culture drew Jesus to look just like them.
If he can walk on water, and heck, come back from being dead, he can shape change too, right?
Obligatory?
That movie is truly educational…
It should be a must watch in schools.
I mean technically from a continental perspective. Haha.
Dollars aside, her cultural impact might be just as significant. There are now ten college courses decided to the study of Swiftology — including one at Harvard.
Oh.
Is that more than the number of courses on Gagaology? Probably more than the number of courses on Beyoncology, ’cause structural racism.
SCIENCE!!!!!!!
I can’t imagine why men are losing interest in college.
I can…
The massive amount of hairy ugly women with an attitude and hostility towards civilization. That and the fact the cost is practically always not worth the return outside STEM, economics, and medicine.
Is the cost worth it in economics? Not convinced. Accounting maybe.
Pretty obvious looking at today’s world nobody values macroeconomics at least.
In academia? Where the only serious research involves thousands of data points questionable statistical analysis and concludes more spending is the answer?
Ok yes. Any bullshit degree works in the academia pyramid scheme though. If you want to go into Academia, I would of course highly recommend college.
Realistically an Ivy MBA pre Jew hating times was really only useful for the connections you made there and the doors it opened.
When I got my MBA at at a non Ivy institution in the last century I foolishly assumed it was for what they taught.
I went to a mid tier Ivy for Cognitive and Computer Science and it was mostly a waste. Nowadays it would be much more so.
If anyone asks me about going to a top school, I usually say “if you’re going into business or politics”.
I squandered much of my time there not making useful enough connections.
I almost went to an Ivy but didn’t. Probably good in the end cuz I don’t schmooze very well.
The vast majority of my professors in b school were Ivy PhDs.
They all can’t work at an Ivy so they go one level down. At the time I had no idea how the academia racket worked.
Same as English profs at a flagship state school. All Ivy grads, not enough Ivy jobs.
“I squandered much of my time there not making useful enough connections.”
Same here, kind of. Although the kind of career I would have had based on those connections, I would have hated.
But I’d have more money. Maybe a lot more. But not enough to make up for the hollow shell of a human being I would be.
All three of the above comments are why this place is so great.
“Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes appeared to tear up during Monday’s loss”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-12900169/Taylor-Swift-friend-Brittany-Mahomes-Chiefs-Travis-Kelce.html
There is no crying in baseball!
And, of particular interest to the Biden campaign, nearly half of all Swifties are millennials — a segment of the electorate with whom Biden is struggling. For a candidate who needs young female voters and suburban-dwelling women to get him across the finish line in 2024, who could be a better spokeswoman?
The crucial “undecided AWFL” vote. All those young suburban bi-curious art majors are sitting on the fence, waiting for someone they idolize to tell them what to think.
What’s at stake, 95% Biden instead of 90%?
My teenage daughters love Swift but could barely name the president.
There’s of course no way when they hit 18 they would vote for the particularly odious Trump but most would not.
Speaking of women (of the fictional sort)… I was watching an old movie a couple of nights ago, which featured the “type”. This individual typified a particular dramatic character largely but not exclusively female, who is so determinedly and obdurately stupid, and so intent on placing herself and those around her in unnecessary danger that I, as observer, cannot comprehend how it could be that none of the other characters in the film has taken her aside and administered prolonged, methodical and repeated beatings.
Which movie was that? Something like The Devil wears Prada?
Another day in NYC that ends in “y”.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/18q6u8g/impatient_idiot_oc/
Ah, Queens.
They cut off the beat-down that looks like was about to form.
I know. It ends before the fun starts.
I want to know who these guys are voting for.
Da fuq?
This is what is wrong with our culture. Men should be risking life and/or dismemberment for the Glory of Rome!
I don’t remember seeing this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKfNOAP9H4E
Why can’t they be like that all of the time?
Hallelujah
Minimum-wage workers in 22 states are going to see more money in their paychecks in the new year.
Those increases will affect an estimated 9.9 million workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which estimates that those bumped wages will add up to an additional $6.95 billion in pay.
In addition to those 22 states, 38 cities and counties will also increase their minimum wages above state minimums on Jan. 1.
According to the Department of Labor, 20 states will maintain the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Show me somebody who actually works for $7.25/hr. I’ll be over here, waiting.
Talk about scrutinizing an asshole.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12900881/Chinese-chess-champion-STRIPPED-title-prize-money-confiscated-victory-celebration-ended-DEFECATING-hotel-bath-faces-claims-cheated-using-anal-beads.html
How are authorities privy to any of this? I don’t think I want to know.
Sounds like they are dumping all the problems on one guy. Plus ca Chang.
Who is pushing this “cheated by using anal beads” trope?
Yeah, I thought I’d seen that before.
Bring out the pretzel logic.
The cost of living, however, has skyrocketed.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index, a dollar in 2023 can buy roughly 70% of what it could buy in 2009.
And over the past year, inflation, and the rising cost of virtually everything — from housing to groceries — has forced many Americans to deplete their savings and go deeper into debt.
While the U.S. economy is proving to be robust in terms of retail sales, strong job numbers and a slowing rate of inflation, those who earn minimum wage have had a harder time paying rent, and buying essential household goods, including groceries.
The economy is robust, but workers are starving. All those millions and millions of minimum wage workers, who are stuck like indentured servants in jobs they can never leave.
“Life is hard!”
/minimum-wage Barbie
The other day I saw a TV report on how ‘shameful” and embarrassing it is that Republicans refuse to raise the Penna. Minimum above $7.25. Naturally, the reporter made no effort to find even one person making only minimum wage.
Most recently, Senate Democrats introduced the Raise the Wage Act of 2023 in July. If passed, it would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour by 2028.
Maybe they should try not destroying buying power.
Haha, I crack myself up.
“An elderly couple has used the same, century-old appliance to drill, vacuum, mince meet, process food, peel vegetables and grind coffee since their wedding day in 1976 — and it has yet to give out.
Mary and Ivor Waite, from Halesowen, West Midlands, swear by their 98-year-old Piccolo, a piece of German-made machinery manufactured between 1925 and 1930 for use in cramped housing, which they received as a present from Ivor’s aunt.”
https://nypost.com/2023/12/26/lifestyle/we-use-a-98-year-old-vacuum-cleaner-its-also-a-food-processor-veggie-peeler-drill-and-more/
“The appliance – seen as something of a ‘space-age’ device when it was made in 1925 – is a vacuum, a paint sprayer, a coffee grinder and a food processor, all rolled into one. To achieve the different functions, there are a range of attachments that all plug into one self-standing central motor, which is then connected to the mains. These also include a floor buffer, a metal grinder, a sander, a meat mincer, a carpet shampoo nozzle and a wire brush.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3376810/The-90-year-old-gadget-grinds-coffee-vacuums-minces-meat-Grandmother-reveals-multi-purpose-German-appliance-helps-task.html
You know what else was made in Germany?
PAL Commodore 64s?
I think Rhywun said it succinctly and the best about 2020 and elections since.
If those happened elsewhere, our own State Department would protest. The conditions of those elections violate our own standards for foreign elections.
There was an excellent, point-by-point article listing each way we violate our own standards but I lost it. 🙁
No talent ass clown:
https://twitter.com/GovofCoEspanol/status/1739073585149325399
JFC. How can anyone not be offended by that?
Why do you hate the most libertarian governor in the country, Dean?
What am I ‘spose to be offended about?
I managed to not say Feliz Navidad to the staff at the local cantina instead sticking with Merry Christmas.
I really hate that song.
Every 7eleven cashier and wWalmart shopping cart wrangler deserves a fair living wage. $100,00 per annum should do it. For dignity and justice.
“A self-proclaimed “ecosexual” took nature loving to the extreme after becoming infatuated with an oak tree — which she says fills her with “erotic energy.”
“There was an eroticism with something so big and so old holding my back,” Sonja Semyonova, 45, told SWNS of her forest fetish…
The naturalist’s connection continued to grow stronger like a piece of oak until summer 2021, when she started developing erotic feelings for the mighty hardwood.
Describing her sappy romantic yearnings, Semyonova said she loves the “feeling of being tiny and supported by something so solid” and “the feeling of not being able to fall.”
https://nypost.com/2023/12/26/lifestyle/ecosexual-woman-claims-shes-in-love-with-oak-tree/
There’s a “wood” joke in there somewhere.
“Wood knot.”
You can’t say she has a stick up her ass, or can you?
In where?
“Tampons and sanitary napkins are now available in men’s bathrooms at the Canadian Parliament under a new policy from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that requires all federally regulated employers — including airports and military bases — to offer free menstrual products in all washrooms, regardless of gender noted on the door.”
https://nypost.com/2023/12/26/news/tampons-now-offered-in-canadian-parliament-mens-bathrooms/
OFFS!!
He might make it so Rufus won’t have to work!
https://www.ubiworks.ca/guaranteed-livable-basic-income
OK, if anyone can use any bathroom they want, meaning men can use the women’s room, why do you need women-only products in the men’s room? Can’t the men just hit up the women’s room if they have blood coming out of an orifice?
Apparently Calgary is owned by Arby’s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Calgary