Thursday Afternoon Links for Leap Day

by | Feb 29, 2024 | Daily Links | 179 comments

 

GOOD NIGHT, ODY: No, we did not stick the landing as I erroneously reported last week, but Intuitive Machines lunar lander Odysseus is the little robot that could. The root cause of the landing problem was a safety switch for the laser altimeter that was left in safe mode before launch; the backstory of how they pulled off the landing is nothing short of awe inspiring. But the long lunar night is fast approaching and Ody relies on sunlight to keep his batteries charged. They are going to send up code today which will hopefully cause him to phone home once the sun is up again. The big question is whether the electronics survive the cold darkness; unknown if they have heaters for that or how long they could keep that going even on a full charge. (Full disclosure: I own a miniscule amount of LUNR stock, mostly for the bragging rights.)

JUSTIN AMASH ENTERS SENATE RACE IN MICHIGAN: The libertarian fave and former congresscritter is running as a Republican. We wish him well.

HACKERS ATTEMPT TO SHAKE DOWN GEORGIA COURTS, THREATEN TO RELEASE TRUMP DOCS: I’ll just leave this here.

FIRST-EVER FOOTAGE OF HUMPBACK WHALE SEX RAISES AWKWARD QUESTIONS: Both whales were male. One of the whales, they saw, seemed to be in poor health. He was thin, covered in lice, and had a significant injury on his lower jaw, possibly from being hit by a ship. Sounds like pretty much every night downtown where you see skinny, dirty street meat that just wants a place to stay for the night.

FUCK YOUR RENT STABILIZATION, NYC: Business Insider takes on on a whinercoaster ride celebrating “rent stabilization.” [Link to archive because article is registration walled.] “It is frustrating to know that your landlord is continuing to reap those financial benefits of being part of that system when they weren’t necessarily abiding by the rules of that system.” Business Insider fails to explain the financial benefits of being at the city’s mercy for both what you pay in property taxes and what you can charge renters. But some of these renters are learning a hard lesson about the efficiency of municipal government.

IS IT TIME FOR LUNAR LAW? You knew it was coming. The first private lunar lander touches down and two days later the space press is clamoring for regulation. There is already a potential conflict between organizations who want to land scientific instruments they say will only work in cold traps, ie the permanently shadowed craters near the lunar south pole, and organizations which hope to exploit the water resources they expect to find in those craters.

About The Author

Tonio

Tonio

Tonio is a Glibs shitposter, linkstar (Thursday PM, yo), author, and editor. He is also a GlibZoom personality and prankster. Tonio is a big fan of pic-a-nic baskets. His hobbies include salmon fishing, territorial displays, dumpster diving, and posing for wildlife photographers.

179 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    How many space stocks do you own?

    • Tonio

      I own some LUNR (Intuitive Machines) and some RKLB (Rocket Lab).

      SpaceX and Astrobotic, my other two crushes, are both privately held, dammit.

      I’m always on the lookout for a new company doing bold, clever things.

      • R.J.

        The correct answer is “One for the head and hands, another for the feet.”

      • Common Tater

        Thanks, I think Elon has good reasons not to take SpaceX public.

      • tripacer

        No Stoke Space?

    • The Other Kevin

      Can you fire more than 800 rounds per second with one of those?

      • Common Tater

        You just need an 800 round magazine.

      • Tonio

        Rocket Lab does go from 0-800 fps fairly quickly.

      • Bobarian LMD

        But do they bump?

  2. Shpip

    The hacking group responsible for taking down Fulton County’s websites in Georgia is threatening to publish documents from the state’s court system — including ones related to the criminal case against Donald Trump — unless it gets paid a ransom.

    Well, that’s one way to make sure the state complies with discovery.

  3. Common Tater

    “Both whales were male.”

    NTTIAWWT

    • Lackadaisical

      If you read through, there was definitely something wrong with it.

      • Bobarian LMD

        FAKE NEWS; SEA SMITH AIN’T NO WHALE BUT HIM WILL HUMP BACK.

  4. Common Tater

    “”The thing about space is there is very little law.””

    Well, there are also very few people.

    • Common Tater

      “”It’s not a prescription of laws,” Elvis said. “It’s a set of principles.””

      Thank you, thank you, very much.

      • The Other Kevin

        Put together some space laws or I’m gonna karate chop ya.

    • Tonio

      I missed an opportunity here to talk about the Artemis Accords, “a series of non-binding bilateral arrangements between the United States government and other world governments that elaborates on the norms expected to be followed in outer space.”

      Currently, the US, India, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and what appears to be the entire EU are members, as well as some smaller nations unlikely to be landing anything there. China and Russia are conspicuously absent.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      In space no one can hear the lawyers scream.

      • Common Tater

        *moves to space*

      • Bobarian LMD

        I vote for sending all the lawyers to see if we can hear them or not.

    • Mojeaux

      At a women-in-STEM workshop my daughter and I went to, we ran into a girl in law school who was specializing in space law. Apparently, there’s already quite a bit to it. Some of it involves things like how far up do your property rights go (see, western states not allowing you to collect rainwater).

  5. Shpip

    It was documented by photographers Lyle Krannichfeld and Brandi Romano, who first noticed the two whales as they approached their private boat. One of the whales, they saw, seemed to be in poor health. He was thin, covered in lice, and had a significant injury on his lower jaw, possibly from being hit by a ship.

    The second whale, who seemed in excellent physical condition, had his penis extruded for the entire interaction. He repeatedly approached his unwell companion, holding him in place with his pectoral fins, and repeatedly penetrating the genital slit – the opening to the orifice in which the penis is usually concealed – with his own penis.

    Young buck making an older, weaker male his prison bitch (in the open ocean, at that). Someone should tell him that NO MEANS NO!

    • The Other Kevin

      First Biden talks about his sexy times and now this.

    • Compelled Speechless

      I’m going with the younger one was possessed by the ghost of John McAfee (RIP).

  6. juris imprudent

    But some of these renters are learning a hard lesson about the efficiency of municipal government.

    Yeah, govt is doing enough to take care of me. Waaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

    • juris imprudent

      hmm, a not got knotted up

  7. DEG

    In a message posted online Saturday, in both English and Russian, the hacking group called LockBit said the stolen documents “contain a lot of interesting things and Donald Trump’s court cases that could affect the upcoming US election.”

    How long until Anonymous goes after LockBit?

    The hacker that hacked GiveSendGo because of the trucker donations was associated with Anonymous. I found a few articles on him which indicated government actors control Anonymous now.

    • prolefeed

      Who are they trying to get to pay the ransom?

      I suspect this form of transparency might be cheered on by GOPers, unless the hackers are mighty selective about what they’re prepared to release.

    • Tonio

      I remind you that we ask that pr0n observer the thirty minute rule. You should see the main drag in my neighborhood, several garages specializing in vintage cars.

      • DEG

        Hot.

      • Tonio

        And I swear the narrator reminds me of our own R.J.

        Look for the sign in the background reading “putting ugly wheels on expensive cars does not make you a builder.”

  8. JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

    Humpback Mountain

    • Tonio

      [golf clap]

    • Compelled Speechless

      ***Begins eighties movie-style slow clap***

    • bacon-magic

      Thar he blows.

  9. Mojeaux

    I need a new pen name for my paranormal stories (each involving Cinderella’s stepmother, Krampus, menopausal hausfrau vampire, and a warlock of some sort who is also a lawyer). Yes, the demon hunter has my usual pen name on it, but that’s unfortunate. Actually, my current pen name is just unfortunate all the way around.

    I come to the Glib hive mind to give me something better than I’ve got now. Please do not suggest Higginbotham or Snodgrass, Dick or Vajeen.

    • Nephilium

      Karen Blackthorne?

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      Tricia McMillan

      • robc

        Taken, but I am sure you know that.

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        Thing is, there are actual people with that name, so she could freely use it

      • Mojeaux

        Thing is, the one I was going to use is an author’s name. I would like something unique, maybe a little bit sparkly/magic/mysterious.

    • R.J.

      Ooo! A project.

      Adara Bellamira

      Adara: Meaning “fire” in Hebrew.

      Bellamira: Meaning “beautiful and wondrous” in Latin.

      I avoided Belladonna because it is overdone.

      I was looking here:

      https://www.peanut-app.io/blog/gothic-baby-girl-names

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, I really like that!

      • Tonio

        I’m still holding out for Karen Blackthorne.

    • Grummun

      Sarah Schwartz (“Black Sarah” of Gypsy folklore)
      Calliope … something monosyllabic and dramatic … Stark? (muse of epic poetry)
      Alejandra de Costa (random shit)

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      Alfreda Fenchurch

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      Random Dent

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        (all three names I suggested are related to each other in literature)

      • robc

        Yes, they are. Was Random their kid? I never read the 5th…um 6th…um last back. Whatever number it was.

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        Mostly Harmless was good

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        (I actually read Mostly Harmless first because I found it in a free book bin at Georgetown University)

    • trshmnstr

      Dinah Spindler

    • kinnath

      Penny Darling

    • KSuellington

      Persephone Jordan

    • juris imprudent

      Felicia Mee, which can always just be abbreviated as F. Mee.

      • Mojeaux

        My dad told this story, but the more I think about it, the more it stinks of urban legend:

        Dude and his pregnant wife were fighting over what to name their daughter when she was born. They were each getting more and more pissed off. So the day comes and the baby’s born. While the wife’s distracted, the dude fills out the birth cert* form and names her Felicia Anne Rachel Tatum. F.A.R.T.

        *That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.

    • creech

      Myra Cumorah

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

      Helena D’Vorak

    • Rat on a train

      Maire Tamura?

    • Bobarian LMD

      Bob N. Vageen was gonna be my suggestion. I go to penalty box and feel shame.

      • Sean

        I’m partial to Bewbs McGee.

    • bacon-magic

      Spectra Eternity

    • prolefeed

      Mrs. Mojo Rising, from a tune from The Doors.

    • The Hyperbole

      Moe Joe McMojoface

      • Mojeaux

        We have a winner!

    • Grumbletarian

      Rachel Niens

    • PudPaisley

      Stevette Smythe

    • Beau Knott

      Victoria Blanche Smythe. (Or Psmythe; as with any lady, the P is silent)

  10. Lackadaisical

    ‘root cause of the landing problem was a safety switch for the laser altimeter that was left in safe mode before launch’

    That is a lame way to go.

      • Lackadaisical

        Seems my pun didn’t have a leg to stand on. 🙁

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

      Safety Switch Engaged?

      • Sensei

        You know that red remove before flight ribbon…

  11. Lackadaisical

    ‘JUSTIN AMASH ENTERS SENATE RACE IN MICHIGAN’

    That’s great. I can’t agree with his TDS, but there is little doubt in my mind he will be better than the alternatives there.

  12. UnCivilServant

    I’m a bit worried that, because I wrote the AiArt series off the cuff and after reaslizing it was becoming a series, I didn’t come back to rename the earlier articles, Switzy has scheduled just the first article and left the rest of the series on the rack. They work better as a set.

    • Tonio

      I sent him a squirrel-o-gram about this.

  13. Lackadaisical

    ‘The hacking group was shut down by law enforcement earlier this month, but they appear to be back up.’

    How do you ‘shut down’ a hacking group?

    “The group — led by a hacker using the pseudonym LockBitSupp — appeared to become operational again over the weekend after a February 20 law-enforcement raid. A group of agencies, including the FBI and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, took down 34 of its servers and changed its website to a series of messages bragging about the law-enforcement operation. The same day, the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment accusing two Russian nationals of being involved in the group’s hacking operations.”

    Dumb. Your tax dollars at work.

    ” It characterized LockBit’s relationship with the FBI as a sort of romantic rivalry and promised that the group would hack more government websites in the future.

    “Personally I will vote for Trump because the situation on the border with Mexico is some kind of nightmare, Biden should retire, he is a puppet,” the message said.”

    I’m starting to like these guys.

    • Nephilium

      They took down their websites! Which is the same thing as destroying all the members, right?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Like, with a cloth?

    • R C Dean

      “took down 34 of its servers and changed its website to a series of messages bragging about the law-enforcement operation”

      That strikes me as more “inconvenience” than “kill shot”.

      “an indictment accusing two Russian nationals”

      Bold, considering the last time the indicted Russians made a court appearance (via their attorneys), I seem to recall DOJ dropped the case.

  14. trshmnstr

    Lol, I just got a text from Nikki Haley’s campaign to vote for her in the Texas primary.

    The problem is that the Texas GOP doesn’t have my number. The Texas democrats do.

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      OMG that’s why I’ve been getting those!! Someone added my # to some lefty list (it seemed to happen right around the time of my last boyfriend breakup…). I have gotten texts from Tim Scott and Nikki Haley, but not DJT. I should have put two and two together

      • R.J.

        Heh. I did too. Gender Traitor convinced me to ask what she was wearing. Now I get phone calls from the campaign.

    • The Other Kevin

      I’m getting a lot of texts from Republicans I don’t know, but not Nikki. So I’m on the R list apparently.

    • juris imprudent

      Keeping your friends close and your enemies closer?

    • R C Dean

      Nuke’ em Nikki has been relying heavily on Democrats to get her the Republican nomination.

      Bold strategy.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    “putting ugly wheels on expensive cars does not make you a builder.”

    Nice.

  16. Common Tater

    “A man in Oregon died after a nurse swapped his fentanyl IV drip with non-sterile tap water, a wrongful death lawsuit brought by his family alleges.

    Horace Wilson, who was 65 at the time of his death, had fallen from a 10-foot ladder and admitted to the hospital on January 27, 2022.

    Physicians performed a splenectomy on Wilson, and from January 29 to February 2, he appeared to improving and had his breathing tube removed.

    But within days of his operation at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, his condition took a ‘turn for the worse,’ which the lawsuit alleges was caused by former nurse Dani Marie Schofield giving him water.

    The tap water reintroduced staphylococcus epidermidis – an infection-causing bacteria – into Wilson’s bloodstream, which, the suit says, ‘became essentially impossible to eradicate.’

    Wilson’s condition deteriorated quickly…

    The hospital contacted the Medford Police Department in December 2023 that they suspected a former employee was involved in stealing fentanyl prescribed to patients, which resulted in some ‘adverse patient outcomes.'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13141671/Oregon-hospital-fentanyl-lawsuit-infection.html

    CWAC

    • UnCivilServant

      If you’re going to be a sadistic bitch and steal his painkillers, at least use sterile saline.

      • Fatty Bolger

        For real. WTF.

      • Sensei

        You think a junkie at that point gives a shit?

      • Lackadaisical

        The problem is that all those things are logged, so she’d have gotten caught doing that.

      • UnCivilServant

        Something tells me it’d be not that difficult to fudge the saline usage on the ward, since it’s not particularly a controlled substance and they go through a shitton of it.

      • Common Tater

        Things such as saline and tape aren’t logged.

  17. Common Tater

    If Michelle Obama runs will she come out as trans?

  18. Common Tater

    “No wonder boys are turning toward conservative beliefs — it’s rebellion against parents’ woke ideology”

    https://nypost.com/2024/02/28/opinion/boys-are-turning-conservative-to-rebel-against-woke-parents/

    “Can Parents Prevent Their Sons From Sliding to the Right?

    The appeal of a grievance-based identity makes it hard to convince straight white boys that they in fact have plenty going for them, and that they have no reason to feel aggrieved. Doing this convincing, whether it’s in the classroom or at the dinner table, requires a light touch. It’s very easy, and very satisfying, to be doctrinaire — social media encourages and rewards it. I think many of us adults are so entrenched in social-media political discourse that it feels dangerously transgressive to allow a teen to articulate beliefs we disagree with at our dinner tables. When you spend your days reading infographics reminding you that being silent means being on the side of the oppressor, having a flesh-and-blood oppressor-in-training eating your spaghetti and meatballs can feel like a waking nightmare. But coming down too hard risks playing right into the paranoid hands of masculinist discourses of male disempowerment….

    Social media has poached our brains in an incredibly lame way. I suspect that progressive-leaning white parents’ own anxiety about our reputations plays a part in our conversations with our teenage sons, and they can feel it. Teenagers are more attuned to vanity and artifice than any other species, so try to hide your own at your peril. When my voice raises as I start lecturing a teen about why he needs to recognize the importance of the history of Indigenous people rather than simply appropriate all the slang he’s learned from Reservation Dogs? He clocks that, and I wonder what it makes him think. I hope he files it away as something that’s probably true, rather than stacking it alongside a growing pile of reasons why white kids can’t seem to get anything right.”

    https://www.thecut.com/article/can-we-keep-our-sons-from-conservative-politics.html

    She sounds insufferable.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s not only that, but the role of men in conservative society is not as the scapegoat source of all ills. It’s a worldview where there is a fulfilling purpose available besides being the target of abuse and discrimination.

      • R.J.

        Also kids tend to be the opposite of their parents. General rule of thumb.

      • trshmnstr

        I think that’s a characteristic of our culture, not a universal thing. I don’t see too many Amish going crazy when they turn 18. Some, yes, but not an appreciable number.

        Woody Wilson described it best when talking about the education system. “we want them to be as unlike their fathers as possible.”

    • Lackadaisical

      What a total asshole.

      If this is even a thing(no evidence of it that I know of), I am glad that white kids are rejecting being the fucking boogey man of society.

      • R.J.

        Anecdotally yes. The 12-13 year olds I have met all hate the DEI shit.

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

        Outside true believers (school system, ivory tower, activist circles) it is pretty well hated across the board.

        But I think you can see the problem.

    • Sensei

      Wow.

    • trshmnstr

      When you spend your days reading infographics reminding you that being silent means being on the side of the oppressor

      What a horrible life that must be.

      • prolefeed

        Seems like, by that logic, trying to silence her teenage son makes her an oppressor trying to teach her son to be on the side of the oppressors.

        Doubt she gets that irony.

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

        One of the cornerstones of the whole ethos is that black people can’t be racist, because racism = bigotry plus power. But if you point out Obama fits that description, the blank looks you get, followed by denial would be precious if they were self aware.

    • trshmnstr

      I hope he files it away as something that’s probably true, rather than stacking it alongside a growing pile of reasons why white kids can’t seem to get anything right.

      You missed the most likely result. He files it away as a reason why, once he finds a trad wife and has 6 kids, he’ll avoid inviting you to his family’s Thanksgiving dinner.

    • KSuellington

      Progs very much still want to see themselves as countercultural renegades but they are not. They are the establishment now. Any rebelling will be against their bullshit, just-so narratives and pieties.

      • prolefeed

        She talks about “enforcing ideological ground rules”. Yeah, that’s not gonna trigger rebellious behavior at all.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Oh happy days are surely ahead for this lady. Did it say how old her boys were?

      The two Altar Boys and Mrs. Holiness both went through some rough patches as the boys went through the Dumb Years between 16 – 20. Mrs. Holiness could not figure out what happened to her nice boys who used to listen to her.

      Who were these louts who constantly rolled their eyes at her and didn’t listen to her at all?

      No matter how many times I had to explain to her that all young men go through several years of abject stupidity. Of course, they don’t think of themselves as dumb. They are convinced they know it all.

      Why shouldn’t they? They are in great shape. No chronic aches or pains. Surrounded by attractive young ladies all day without having to be creepy. That must be because they are so smart.

      Countless fights spent sending Mrs. Holiness to one corner and an Altar Boy to the other. Trying to explain to both of them that all this could be avoided pretty easily.

      I can’t even imagine how much worse it would be with a woman who thinks like that.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    They took down their websites! Which is the same thing as destroying all the members, right?

    Just like when you put all your porn and those sexts to and from your mistress in the trash. They’re gone forever. The divorce attorneys will never know.

    • Nephilium
  20. R.J.

    Sleet is coming down in TX. All this needs to go Northwest to the fire zone.

    • Rat on a train

      Dick Cheney has always been selfish with his weather control device.

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

      Between the space lasers and controlling the weather, (((we))) have fallen down on the job.

  21. The Other Kevin

    Fasten your seatbelts, this is what you’ll be reading about tomorrow. Biden and Trump are both at the border. Well, Trump is at the border, Biden is “near” the border, and it’s going exactly as you’d expect. But now I remember how I can’t stand Trump’s rambling on and on.

    • Bobarian LMD

      The other two weekly meals involve Sam being force-fed protein by his concerned cell-mate, who is totally looking out for his welfare?

      • R.J.

        *Standing ovation

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        OMG LOL

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

        Not to mention making sure he gets extra salad every night.

        Then again, it sounds like he is having a whale of a time.

    • R C Dean

      If they really do give an autism discount on sentencing, I expect to see an outbreak of adult-onset autism.

      • R.J.

        Libertarians excluded, or course. We oppose the goals of our commie overlords.

  22. rhywun

    Link to archive because article is registration walled

    That archive website doesn’t work on my machine. I don’t know if it’s an adblocker thing but I could get around it.

    But if it’s Business Insider I can at least assume that the quoted parts are the opposite of reality so there’s that at least.

    Business Insider fails to explain the financial benefits of being at the city’s mercy for both what you pay in property taxes and what you can charge renters.

    Pssst. There aren’t any. Building owners there are just cogs who process rental applications.

    • Sensei

      My pihole doesn’t like that site, but my ublock config works.

      It’s likely one of the lists you are using. Or just whitelist it.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    The appeal of a grievance-based identity makes it hard to convince straight white boys that they in fact have plenty going for them, and that they have no reason to feel aggrieved.

    *guffaws, slaps knee*

  24. prolefeed

    In response to Zwak’s comment on the dead thread, “Escape is not the answer [to authoritarian government]”

    Actually, escape is IMO about three-fourths of practical ways to increase personal liberty. Vote with your fuckin’ feet.

    The most tangible thing I’ve ever done for liberty is I moved my firm okole outta Hawaii and moved to Austin. Second thing? Moved outta Austin proper to the exurbs. In retrospect, moving to Florida would have been better yet.

    Somewhere way down the list? Being a state LP Chair. Dunno if I personally convinced anyone to be less statist, flailing around herding cats like that.

    • R.J.

      Next time we get together you’ll have to tell me about the whole state LP chair thing. I thought about doing something like that post-retirement.

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

      I think you proved me right: moved my firm okole outta Hawaii and moved to Austin. Second thing? Moved outta Austin proper to the exurbs. In retrospect, moving to Florida would have been better yet.

      In other words: you had to keep moving, as the Borg kept after you. Is what you have done the right thing on a personal level? Absolutely. But my point was that the Borg is always going to grow, and it will take over the frontier, forcing you to either constantly flee, or bend the knee.

      Or, fight back. Good on you for LP chair, but, the party needs an overhaul (and , yes, I am a member). Trying to, as you say “herd cats” is no fun, but outside of a few branches, The LP has been either skin suited, or taken over by autists. We are a decent sized voting block, and need to use that to our advantage, As opposed to being black pilled out of doing anything.

    • Lackadaisical

      For real? That’s amazing you were a state chair.

      That said, Florida is pretty good. 🙂

  25. The Late P Brooks

    The phrase “The appeal of a grievance-based identity” is pretty revealing.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    On my jaunt to the grocery store a while ago, I noticed gasoline is up some more. I’d say it’s up $.80/gallon in the past 5 or 6 weeks.

    Transitory and insignificant.

    • Sean

      You should have an EV.

      • Sensei

        Good news is that in some places in CA the electric rates are so crazy expensive that it’s actually cheaper per mile with gasoline. Folks in a Tesla subreddit were bitching about it.

        Unforeseeable… What with the forced conversion to everything electric and no incentive and regulatory pushback to anything that isn’t “green” generation.

      • prolefeed

        In a state with $6 a gallon gas? Wow.

    • prolefeed

      I noticed today prices at an HEB plant nursery have doubled since Cap’n PP took over. 3% inflation reported by the feds? Please.

    • grrizzly

      Gas prices got slightly lower here in the same time period.

    • Fourscore

      Podunkville Qwik Stop increase of 20 cents over night. 3.20 @ gal.now..

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Unforeseeable… What with the forced conversion to everything electric and no incentive and regulatory pushback to anything that isn’t “green” generation.

    Just wait ’til they blow up the hydroelectric dams in the northwest, in the name of fish justice.

    • R.J.

      I still can’t believe that is happening.

      • Suthenboy

        It is? How did I miss it?
        Or are you referring to the converting of everything to stupid?

  28. The Late P Brooks

    The Atlantic wants us to stop “glorifying self-immolation”.

    Who, pray tell, are they referring to? Vietnamese buddhists?

    • R.J.

      Please do glorify it! Join your fallen comrade in immolation!

      I will be over here with some marshmallows.

    • R C Dean

      I’m resisting the thought that the more nitwits can be pushed over the edge to self-immolation, the better off we will all be.

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      I’m a libertarian…if mass amounts of leftists want to self-immolate, who am I to stop them? 😉

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Are burning leftists considered a renewable energy source?

      • Sensei

        But it releases CO2 unfortunately.

      • Social Justice is Neither

        But they’re green, or at least they progressed to be.

    • Ted S.

      If they want to barbecue themselves….

    • Pope Jimbo

      Trump should come out and condemn setting yourself on fire. For any reason.

      The only problem with that is that the resulting fires would fast forward global warming by 50 years. The country would be blazing with proggies who would never do anything Trump says.

      • creech

        Maybe he should just tell them they were forbidden to move out of the country?

  29. Derpetologist

    Regarding Pie’s excellent post, in the 2016 election, the Libertarian candidate got about 1% of the vote, which is the best performance the party has had since it was founded in 1980.

    For comparison, about 2% of US adults believe the earth is flat. So one could say that rather being the communism of the right, libertarianism is the flat earth theory of politics, only less popular.

    On a related note, 41 states allow write-in candidates. Please consider voting for me. I can’t possibly be any worse than whomever it is you don’t want to win.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Hunting them for sport

    Under a bill advancing in the Arizona Legislature, a property owner would be able to kill or threaten to kill people who cross their property to illegally enter the U.S.

    Although the bill does not mention immigrants, its sponsor, Republican Rep. Justin Heap, said in a committee hearing that his bill was intended to close a loophole to assist ranchers who may witness someone trespassing any section of their land, not just within a mile of their home.

    ——-

    The proposal has drawn fierce opposition in the state, where in the past hard-line immigration laws have galvanized opponents, particularly Latinos, to beat back the laws and help erode the Republican grip in the state.

    It comes as an Arizona rancher, George Kelly, faces trial next month on second-degree murder charges in the January 2023 shooting death of Gabriel Cuen-Butimea, who had entered the country illegally and was found dead on Kelly’s property. Kelly has pleaded not guilty and said he only fired warning shots.

    Rep. Analise Ortiz, a Phoenix-area Democrat, called the bill disgusting and inhumane and would allow “open season on migrants”.

    “It’s terrifying. It would give people free rein to execute somebody and it would broaden extrajudicial killings,” Ortiz told NBC News. “This is part of a broader anti-immigrant movement that we’ve seen coming from the right, which aims to dehumanize and vilify people who are coming to this country seeking asylum.”

    Are you allowed to bait them in, or shoot them from blinds near water holes?

    • Pope Jimbo

      You don’t want to pursue them with coon hounds?

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

      You just can’t put out a salt lick.

  31. pistoffnick

    …leap day…

    Why does Glib “ALeap at the Wheel” get his own day?

    • Pope Jimbo

      Doggone it. Leap is good enough he should get at least a week and not just a day

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee spokesperson Abhi Rahman said the approval of the Arizona bill would mean the GOP is “one step closer to legalizing murder.”

    I, uh….

    What if we just think of it as an extremely late stage abortion?

    • Urthona

      Part of me goes “yeah!” at this but honestly it is probably a bad idea. Although I would enjoy some heads exploding over its passage. haha.

      • R.J.

        “ I would enjoy some heads exploding…”
        That requires one of the evil black guns…
        RHEEEEEEEEEEEE!

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

        I think Brooks is on to something: change a little bit of language, inserting abortion in place of shoot, and watch the fire works.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    President Joe Biden was scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday, making a stop in Brownsville, Texas, where migrant arrivals have eased. Former President Donald Trump also planned to be in Texas on Thursday, but was to be in Eagle Pass, where Texas has taken over a state park and has been staging its own immigration enforcement.

    Outrageous! Harrrumph.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      How dare the State of Texas take over a Texas State Park!

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Part of me goes “yeah!” at this but honestly it is probably a bad idea. Although I would enjoy some heads exploding over its passage. haha.

    I’m going to go out on a limb and predict there will be no wholesale slaughter of trespassers. And not because the governess has vowed to veto the bill.

    • Urthona

      I doubt it would.

      I actually don’t have a problem with the morals of it although I could see someone saying “but i told him to leave my property” any time they needed a murder defense.

      • R.J.

        It will happen. It will also be rare.

      • Urthona

        I don’t think it will increase murder, but it would increase skeezy attempts to defend murderers.

      • Sean

        Get off my lawn!

        Bang bang.

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

      Man, that is sad all the way around.

      • Mojeaux

        Yeah. Usually, I’m like, “Dude, I’m sorry for what happened, but you signed up for that,” but the process server sure didn’t AND it was a simple eviction. Like, wtf.

  35. Pope Jimbo

    Of course they were two males fucking. If you wanted straight whale sex, you need to watch for Humpfront whales.

    * and watch out for the sperm whales. They are totes the trannies of the sea

  36. Q Continuum

    “Sounds like pretty much every night downtown where you see skinny, dirty street meat that just wants a place to stay for the night.”

    Any port in a storm.

  37. Common Tater

    Today, in shit you already knew.

    “At long last, first son Hunter Biden affirmed during his Wednesday impeachment inquiry deposition that his father, Joe, was “the big guy” referenced in an email about a business deal with a Chinese state-linked energy firm that yielded millions for Biden family members and other associates, more than three years after The Post broke the story — but rejected the notion that the president was ever penciled in for a 10% stake.”

    https://nypost.com/2024/02/29/us-news/hunter-biden-acknowledged-joe-was-the-big-guy-in-5m-china-deal/

    “Scientist claims ‘smoking gun’ evidence COVID-19 intentionally created by researchers in Chinese lab”

    https://nypost.com/2024/02/29/world-news/scientists-may-have-started-the-covid-pandemic-article/