290 Comments

  1. Beau Knott

    Good morning Banjos!

    • Banjos

      Mornin’

  2. SDF-7

    Don’t mess with a bear with a bo staff / quarterstaff.

    Morning, Banjos!

    • Banjos

      Mornin’

    • db

      (It’s a buck-and-a-quarter quarterstaff)

      • SDF-7

        Damn that inflation!

  3. SDF-7

    Massive cellphone outage

    Honestly surprised this doesn’t happen more often.

    • Nephilium

      Telecom outages happen more frequently than most people know. There’s a lot of redundancy in companies, and lots of changing of routes when problems start.

      • SDF-7

        One would hope — the whole meme of days gone by of “The Internet treats XXX as damage and routes around it” should remain the mantra for network design, after all.

      • UnCivilServant

        The Internet Treats Users as damage and routes around them.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        The government treats citizens as damage and routes around them.

  4. Not Adahn

    You know the lynx are going to be good when they’re posted early. Such enthusiasm!

    • SDF-7

      You know the lynx are going to be good

      So things are going to get catty around here? Surprising coming from such an impeccably dressed rodent.

      • Fourscore

        I’m on the of the tail end of the conversation.

      • ron73440

        You must be feline proud of yourself for not pussy footing around that joke.

  5. SDF-7

    James Biden denied brother met with business associates, said loans from Joe Biden are undocumented

    Also said loans should be given a path to citizenship and that it makes perfect sense for family members with jobs in the private sector with zero background or credentials to be borrowing 6-figure sums from a “public servant” and that yes, it is raining just on your leg…..

    • Not Adahn

      Anyone know what the IRS does if you claim a loan was undocumented? If you’re not a Biden, I mean.

      • Rat on a train

        Claim asylum and wait for the next amnesty.

      • Fourscore

        Their mom taught them to keep 5 years of cash on hand, for emergencies.

      • Rat on a train

        I place it in piles around the house.

      • Not Adahn

        I hear lima bean boxes in the freezer is best.

      • Rat on a train

        Boca Burger boxes are better. You can try stuffing in your underwear if the FBI is at your door.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The Biden family are saints, saints I tell ya!

    • Cunctator

      —” yes, it is raining just on your leg”—

      It doesn’t seem to matter, to a certain segment of the population, what those involved say. They (those involved) have noticed that they can say whatever they want and people will believe it. It defies logic.

      • ron73440

        Noticed this especially during the COVID stupidity.

        No matter how absurd and obviously wrong the policies were, people would twist themselves into pretzels to defend them.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Low status people love to signal obedience.

  6. Not Adahn

    Re: Google hating wypipo.

    Is their product refusing to provide their white customers the same abilities to create images of themselves as their non-whites a violation of federal law?

    • R.J.

      I don;t think so. But it is super annoying and should impact their profitability. Such jackasses.

    • SDF-7

      I’d be really surprised if “public accommodation” stretches that far… but even if it did, that and Asian Americans is the OK Racism these days anyway, so no reasonable prosecutor….

      • R.J.

        Heh. It was already taken down I think. Otherwise I should ask it to produce a photo of Alan Dershowitz eating a sandwich and see what happens…
        Might get a guy in a white hood setting fire to a cross.

      • R.J.

        Yep. Locked down already. I wish I thought of that yesterday.

      • Rat on a train

        Response to “produce a photo of Alan Dershowitz eating a sandwich”

        We are working to improve Gemini’s ability to generate images of people. We expect this feature to return soon and will notify you in release updates when it does.

      • R.J.

        I would have emailed him the photo to him so he could rant about it on the podcast. I have no doubt it would be horribly wrong and insulting.

      • Not Adahn

        Why would custom wedding cakes be one but custom artwork not be?

      • SDF-7

        FYTW.

        Alternately — “Because Google gives us a lot of money and has plenty of Right Thinkers(tm) where that cake shop is a bigoted, racist, xenophobe hater you wrong thinker!”

        You’re right that both of them should be artistic expression (or for that matter that freedom of association shouldn’t be so subsumed in the quest to mold the New Soviet Man PerXn…. but yet, here we are.

      • Not Adahn

        both of them should be artistic expression

        Hold up here —

        At what point does putting up an AI between the vendor and the user negate the vendors rights? Unless we’re going to say an AI has 1A rights.

        We don’t say that a typewriter company or a paintbrush company gets to put restrictions on how they’re used. Or do we? Is just a matter of practicality/unenforceability? This seems at least somewhat analogous to restrictive covenants.

      • SDF-7

        I was thinking more that if the AI is generating from content owned by the AI provider, the AI provider is using AI as a tool to generate artistic expression, same as a paint brush, typewriter, etc.

        If we’re talking about web-scraping for the source then that’s a whole different conversation (at might bleed into ‘inspired by’ versus ‘stolen’) that I’m neither qualified for nor frankly give enough of a shit about at the moment to feel like arguing, sorry.

      • UnCivilServant

        Most, if not all image gneration models are trained with art not owned by the people using it.

      • SDF-7

        …. aaaaaand that gets into the “Fair Use inspiration” versus “copy/scraping” crap then. Not qualified. Don’t give enough of a shit.

        (As a developer, especially not a GUI / Java / Web style developer — my impression of “generative AI” so far is that you might as well google and end up on stackoverflow.com yourself because that’s about what you’re going to get…. and if the training keeps being based on such things, I doubt it will improve.

        Of course — I think calling the current language models and overblown pattern matching “AI” is an insult to the field of AI — but no one asked me about that either.)

      • UnCivilServant

        I only briefly mention the controversy in my articles on using AI art generation.

        This was written a while back so I didn’t even know about Google’s biased offering when it was composed.

        On the plus side, Stable Diffusion has no qualms about creating images of white people.

      • Not Adahn

        Google was selling a product that was incapable (by design) of producing art of white people. The “popes” was absolute proof of that since it would be impossible based on the training data for it to produce an example of a brown-skinned woman pope. They were somehow overriding the output and changing it.

        This would be equivalent (imo) to Sony producing a DVD player that would either refuse to play DVDs containing images of black people or race-shift them during the playback.

        I guess a baker that made non-custom picture cakes of only one race (or all but one) would be ok then?

      • Nephilium

        I recall reading that at least several of the courts have said that AI can’t get patents and/or copyrights, as they’re not people.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Just move your business down to Alabama, claim that the AI program you are creating is akin to an embryo and bam! Get your patents!

      • Brawndo

        “Draw whitey” is the new “Bake that cake”

        I love this timeline

    • rhywun

      Re: Google hating wypipo.

      What’d I miss?

      • UnCivilServant

        Google has an AI Art program that goes to extremes to avoid generating images of white people, even to the point of flat out refusing when directly told to do so.

      • rhywun

        Maybe they can try again March 1st.

      • Ownbestenemy

        This is what my wife said when I told her about it. Completely slipped my mind

      • Not Adahn

        …I don’t get it.

      • kinnath

        black

        history

        month

      • Ownbestenemy

        *eyes NA suspiciously* …black history month?

      • Not Adahn

        Ah, I can never remember what month we’re in.

        Next month is “Dunken Irish and cabbage farts month right?

        And there’s Pride Month, but also additional months for each stripe on the flag too, right? Which makes it more that 12 months so we get overlap and carryover into future years.

      • The Last American Hero

        And 2024 is the extra special Black History Month, what with the extra day and all.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Normally BHM counts as 28/31 of a month.

  7. Stinky Wizzleteats

    -Major Real Estate Investor
    Literally every person in NYC at a certain level in that business has something in their past that can creatively be construed to be a violation worthy of civil or criminal sanction and they’d be crazy to not bail. All it takes is onw woman from thirty years ago or a prosecutor with a political grudge and you’re ruined.

    • SDF-7

      “The key is to stay in the good graces of The Party, Comrades!”

      (I wish I was kidding… but that’s really what this amounts to.)

      • Strange Brew

        Gotta get creative when you’re destroying the wreckers. The ends always justify the means when you’re fighting capitalist Nazis.

      • Fourscore

        /Keeps clapping

      • The Last American Hero

        This is literally what the NY Governor implied with her speech the other day. Anyone who thinks the government is anything but an organized crime syndicate needs to read that speech.

    • R C Dean

      What people are overlooking is that the government gets the money. This case has created a financial incentive for these kinds of cases under that asinine law. No political grudge needed. And the government always has a budget hole that needs filling.

      • Nephilium

        Not just the government, per a snippet that was provided, it looks like the court can direct the restitution and damages as they see fit.

      • SDF-7

        It’s good to be a King’s Thief Minion.

      • WTF

        Restitution and damages. Where there is no victim and nobody lost money or anything else of value.

      • rhywun

        Yeah IIRC the money goes straight to her office.

    • DEG

      They’ll stay.

      It’ll be a combination of “the leopard won’t eat my face” and “the money’s too good not to be there.”

  8. SDF-7

    Mortgage Demand Craters as Interest Rates Surge to Highest Level Since Early December

    Every chart / article I’ve seen positively screams “bubble” — they all look like 2008 redux. Add in the interest rates going up spiking demand, China having issues (so less likely to be spreading money out around the globe) last I heard… 2024 is almost certainly going to be a very bumpy ride. If the Jackasses don’t fortify — letting the Stupid Party take the hit for finally admitting the Depression that I personally think most of the actual economy (not Wall Street) has been in may be suitably Evil.

    • R.J.

      There are too many rumors that Biden ids going to roll out his CBDC (Central bank digital currency) also. That would kill a 1/3 of the economy right there, as it is underground. If it is a dumb idea, Biden will do it.

      • Not Adahn

        It’d be a great time to create a business making decorative tokens in precious metals of known weight and composition.

      • R.J.

        This guy will stay busy. I could see paying for goods and services in coins from The Hobbit.

        https://www.shirepost.com/

      • SDF-7

        That all sounds good until you start having to deal with a Loan Sharkey.

      • Pine_Tree

        you win for the obscure reference prize for this morning

      • Not Adahn

        “Sharkey,” from “sharku,” orkish for “old man.”

      • R.J.

        I have seen those for sale. NH has one now.

      • Nephilium

        Are we going towards a Mr. Robot dystopia? I won’t be satisfied until I get my damned burbclaves.

      • tripacer

        Is the talk that with the rollout of CBDC they would quit minting dollars? Wouldn’t that make the dollars in my mattress more valuable? I assume not everyone would voluntarily switch to digital Bidenbux. Or maybe everyone except my drug dealer.

      • R.J.

        Nobody really knows. Which means he will shut off the tap of dollars and demand everybody use his new currency IMMEDIATELY. It will go as well as his other projects, like wars and electric cars and stuff.

      • Fourscore

        Fanni will be caught with her pannies down

      • R.J.

        That is what I am thinking. Too many politicians and people in power want to hide their transactions for a universal CDBC to work. The rebellion will come from all sides.

      • Lackadaisical

        *whoosh*

    • Not Adahn

      If there is a RE crash, I’ll definitely need to get the tax appraisers back here. My evaluation for 2024 is 25% higher than 2023.

      • SDF-7

        Yeah — I had to look up the law and do the math in 2023 when it suddenly bounced up.

        Turns out, the whole “can only grow by X amount per year has a neat clause that says if the market dips and you’re down for several years — the appraisal can spring back as long as it is within Y% applied every year based on the initial purchase price / appraisal. Had to plug things into Excel to see how the max increases worked out, but it was right within bounds.

    • robc

      [insert Scott Sumner screed that bubbles dont exist]

      I disagree with him, but I do think they are much rarer than most people think.

      • SDF-7

        I suppose it depends how you define bubble for such an argument to be even vaguely credible.

        The idea that the market might dramatically overcorrect (because a mass of people see an opportunity and all go for it, then others pile on when they see the direction, etc.) producing sections where the price-to-value ratio is way out of whack seems more like “Able to observe human history” to me… and that’s all a bubble represents from where I sit.

        Shrug. Not an economist. Don’t even play one on TV after staying in a Holiday Inn Express.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Supply is still low. If only there was a market.

    • The Other Kevin

      I think we may be in a Depression as well. By the “old” standard, how long have we been in a recession?

      • ron73440

        I still haven’t heard a good explanation for why we are not currently in a recession.

      • Lackadaisical

        currently? we have positive economic growth for several quarters now. Was there a recession last year or so? Yes.

      • ron73440

        I haven’t been paying attention, I guess.

        Biden isn’t doing a good enough job at informing us about this positive growth.

        Currently is growth being inflated by government spending?

        This doesn’t seem like a normal recovery from a recessionary period.

        I am kind of amazed that they got away with blatantly changing the definition and all the corporate media went along with it.

      • Lackadaisical

        well it isn’t a normal recovery, because no one can admit we even had a recession.

        Worth pointing out that without govt spending increases we’d have been in a (definitionally) serious depression, but GDP=G+I+S

    • Lackadaisical

      I’ve been thinking that housing would crash for the past 2 years, but it hasn’t. Similarly with stocks, I just don’t get why PE is so out of whack. Just too much $$$ in the system afaik.

      • R C Dean

        Interest rates are still below historic norms. Our economy is based on debt, indeed our money is actually debt, and money is still cheap by historic norms, which props up asset prices. The current lack of a stock market decline seems to be based mostly on traders who are convinced that rates are going to come down this year, pretty quickly. These guys are not in the business of making bad bets, so we’ll see of the political pressure to save the regime is enough to force the Fed to cut rates.

      • Lackadaisical

        Agree with all you’ve said. I’ve been surprised that going to 5% rates hasn’t tanked everything because people and businesses are so leveraged…

        I’m just along for the ride. *shrug*

  9. SDF-7

    KFC Is Closing Stores in Chicago Now

    Who can compete with Subway for the overnight MAGA country rush after all?

    • R.J.

      The answer is always Taco Bell.

      • SDF-7

        Only once you figure out the three seashells.

      • R.J.

        Those are easy. Everybody knows about the three seashells.

      • Fourscore

        Well, not everyone.

        /Looks in the mirror.

        “Why am I always the last one to know?”

      • R.J.

        Sounds like I need to add Demolition Man to a movie night!

    • SDF-7

      Sounds like a Japanese train-based anime to me…

      LEVEL 700 ULTRA CONDUCTOR MAGIC!!!

    • PieInTheSky

      Didn’t know about this but seems theres a lot to do before available

  10. db

    50,000 seems light. I didn’t notice the cell phone outage until I got to work and my boss asked me about it.

    There’s no way only 50k customers were affected. But whatncan you expect from the Daily Fail?

    • Nephilium

      I have some more details on the cell outage. The 50,000 number was taken from DownDetector, which… isn’t exactly the point of that site. There wasn’t a carrier outage, this was an outage caused by a vendor pushing out an update that broke functionality. They pushed out a fix shortly after, so if you’re still having problems, and have an Android phone, check for updates.

      • UnCivilServant

        Over the air updates were a bad idea from day 1.

      • DrOtto

        Stupid question- how do I check for updates? I actively avoid them when possible.

      • Nephilium

        There are no stupid questions, just inquisitive idiots. 🙂

        Go to the play store, click on the icon with your image in the upper right corner, click on Manage apps & devices, and then you should see a section that includes a section for application updates (it may say All apps up to date, you can tap into that, and force a check for updates there).

      • DrOtto

        Worked like a charm, thanks!

      • Nephilium

        Glad it helped. I’ve also been hearing rumblings of a potential unrelated issue with ATT, so there may be an actual outage going on as well.

        Hasn’t effected the people I support, so I haven’t dug too deeply into it.

      • kinnath

        My phone showed no service when I got up this morning. Restarting the phone was enough to solve the problem.

        I have Android on AT&T.

      • db

        My work iphone is still fucked

      • Nephilium

        It would be interesting to find out that Apple pushed out a similar update that borked the same stack on the phones.

        /passes out tin foil

      • Ownbestenemy

        I won’t know until the government IT overlords allow an update to be pushed to my work phone. WiFi only it seems for it.

    • UnCivilServant

      So, exterminating the Gazans is on the table?

      • Drake

        They won’t kill them all. They’ll send a million or two over here as refugees because they’re too dangerous to live near Israel but okay for your neighborhood.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        We have seen how they treat their own home, but I’m sure it will be fine.

    • PieInTheSky

      we need to take the phrase Final Solution back

      • SDF-7

        Y’all just want a final solution so you can have a final countdown to it.

        Europe. :eyeroll:

      • Lackadaisical

        thanks, saved me having to look it up.

      • Nephilium

        +1 Porch Monkey For Life

      • Tres Cool

        If you freeze the right frame, Elias has “porch monkey in training” on his shirt

    • The Other Kevin

      Holy crap that is bad. I don’t think a big “reset” button with the wrong word printed on it will help this time.

  11. PieInTheSky

    Graphic Content: How red tape is fuelling the cost of living crisis

    https://iea.org.uk/publications/graphic-content-how-red-tape-is-fuelling-the-cost-of-living-crisis/

    Red tape significantly contributes to the higher cost of living in the United Kingdom.

    The Consumer Price Index increased by 80% between 2000 and 2023. However, there is significant price variability across sectors, with prices of many goods having decreased due to competitive markets and innovation.

    Sectors with extensive state intervention, such as electricity, housing, and childcare, have seen the most rapid price increases due in part to excessive regulation and distortionary subsidies.

    Overregulation can hinder innovation, damage economic growth, and disproportionately affect lower-income households, contributing to increased poverty rates and inequality.

    Factors beyond regulation, like international trade dynamics and Baumol’s cost disease, also influence price changes but don’t fully explain the scale of price increases in certain sectors.

    Reducing regulatory burdens in areas like housing, energy, and financial services could lower business costs, increase supply, and ultimately reduce consumer prices.

    Sounds like far right crazy talk to me

    • Lackadaisical

      The amount of paper work to get shit done is crazy.

  12. Drake

    Student debt isn’t being wiped out. It’s being transferred to those of us suckers who pay taxes.

  13. PieInTheSky

    DHS spent millions on surveillance of anarchists in Portland to “only amass a giant file of who’s canceling whom on Twitter”

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/k0uwaf/dhs_spent_millions_on_surveillance_of_anarchists

    Key-points from the lessons for future organizers:

    DHS failure in PDX is that they treated the protest as a “top-down hierarchical insurrection while flouting every guideline in the counter-insurgency manual”

    Organizing happens on-the-ground and IRL, not online

    Organizing are decentralized and autonomous, and most of the time they were affinity groups, as Sarah Jeong puts it, “they all operate in what seems to be a chaotic maelstrom of willing hands”

    Feds trying to decode Twitter flame-war is pretty interesting way to waste your tax money

    • SDF-7

      Given what I expect goes on in CHOP/CHAZ/your-local-Antifa I really expected that sentence to end with “… who’s fucking whom behind someone else’s back.”

      Stereotypical of me, I’m sure.

      • Not Adahn

        You don’t remember how Occupy Wall Street had a written rape protocol that combined “never tell the police or media” with “restorative justice?”

  14. PieInTheSky

    Fashion underwear sexy lingerie, walking runway, hot but no naked models 2023/2024

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVxs_Rv9a-s

    What is the Official Glibertarian Position on Polish underwear models?

    • db

      Doggy

    • bacon-magic

      With or without the Kielbasa?

  15. PieInTheSky

    Victorian railway boss Edward Watkin tried to build a channel tunnel in part because he had a mistress in Paris and actually began boring in 1881 but his plans ‘were pounced on by the press as likely to facilitate a continental invasion’ (Underground Overground by Andrew Martin)

    https://twitter.com/edwest/status/1760330993204875302

    • Not Adahn

      Question: did the French media have an equivalent panic, or did they take it for granted the Brits dod not want to invade them?

      • UnCivilServant

        France was still trying to piece together its Third Republic in 1881, having recently lost its shit after being overrun by the Prussians a decade before.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Given the timing, it’s possible that they feared invasion by someone other than the Fr3nch.

    • creech

      Seems to me a tunnel invasion would be a heck easier to defend against.

      • Not Adahn

        + 0 leaf clover

  16. Certified Public Asshat

    16-year-old nonbinary student Nex Benedict’s death was not caused by injuries from school fight: police

    When asked what led to the fight, the teen said they were harassed at school.

    “They had been bullying me and my friends and I got tired of it so I poured some water on them and all 3 came after me. School did not report it and is probably going to getting sued,” one of the texts said.

    She (IDC) didn’t do anything! They still won’t say how she died though.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Pouring things on people tends to get them worked up no doubt.

      • Sean

        What about sugar?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I prefer Pyromania.

      • The Gunslinger

        This opinion seems designed to lead to Hysteria.

      • Nephilium

        What leads to Anesthesia?

      • Not Adahn

        Especially chicks.

    • Not Adahn

      “At this time, any further comments on the cause of death are currently pending until toxicology results and other ancillary testing results are received,” police said. “The official autopsy report will be available at a later date.”

      • ron73440

        The actual autopsy results don’t matter.

        The narrative will be that she was killed for being non-binary, just another example of widespread anti-LGBTQ violence.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        My bad. The story always seemed fishy to me and it seems as though we’re slowly getting to the conclusion that she died of an overdose (?). Still, the police are correct to not speculate what did cause death even if they ruled out the fight injuries.

    • cavalier973

      Poor kid.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Was there more than one dead? The story keeps saying “they”. Speak English, dammit.

      • Lackadaisical

        Time to burn the country down and start over.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Using modern day Biden as a yardstick maybe he was surprised that they were coherent.

      • The Other Kevin

        It is really striking when you watch old videos of him. Yes he was a corrupt asshole back then too, but he could string together a sentence.

    • Lackadaisical

      I believe he plagiarized that, or at least had a better script writer at that time.

      I’ve been getting old clips of Nixon opining on various topics in my youtube suggestions lately- he’s 10x smarter sounding and considered than any politician alive today.

  17. DrOtto

    I can read the links but can’t call/text. Looks like link 1 was pertinent to my situation this morning.

    • Nephilium

      If you’ve got an Android phone, check for updates.

      • DrOtto

        How do I do that?

      • R C Dean

        “Siri, check for updates”?

      • Nephilium

        Don’t you mean Alexa? Or Cortana?

      • R C Dean

        *whoosh*

      • Nephilium

        Right back at you. 🙂

        Siri – Apple
        Alexa – Amazon
        Cortana – Microsoft

        For Android, the correct phrase would be “Ok, Google”.

      • UnCivilServant

        No, it’s “If you let this crap run on your systems, you’re an idiot and need to delete it”

      • PieInTheSky

        hangin’s too good for the like o that guy

      • R.J.

        “Fled to Romania”

        Hmmmm…..

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘On Wednesday, Carney again granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, agreeing that Rundo and Boman were being selectively prosecuted while “far-left extremist groups” were not.’

      You can get your charges tossed on that basis?

      Trump (and tons of other righties) has a crazy good case for appeal then.

      • Lackadaisical

        Also, Rundo sounds like a very brown last name for a white supremacist. I bet Gemini AI would even draw an accurate picture of him.

  18. Sean

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 02/22:
    *19/19 words (+6 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 3% by bonus words

    I played https://squaredle.com 02/22:
    53/53 words (+21 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 5% by bonus words
    🔥 Solve streak: 151

  19. PieInTheSky

    Whale song mystery solved by scientists

    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68358414

    Scientists have worked out how some of the largest whales in the ocean produce their haunting and complex songs.

    Humpbacks and other baleen whales have evolved a specialised “voice box” that enables them to sing underwater.

    The discovery, published in the journal Nature, has also revealed why the noise we make in the ocean is so disruptive for these ocean giants.

    Whale song is restricted to a narrow frequency that overlaps with the noise produced by ships.

    • cavalier973

      Whale songs can be heard from space.

    • pistoffnick

      Yeah, but what are they trying to say?

      • cavalier973

        “I’m pulling my business out of New York.”

      • Lackadaisical

        exactly. This is a better question.

    • Lackadaisical

      I love this. Farmers digging in the dirt trying to live another day and make it to heaven don’t have time for identity politics.

    • Lackadaisical

      Also, they were clearly Polish.

    • PieInTheSky

      this is in su rrction!!!

    • The Other Kevin

      I’m surprised at how this is playing out. Texas is patrolling and putting up barriers, and I don’t see Biden putting up a fight anymore. I have read stories where the illegals know to go to the people with the green shirts (border patrol) because they’ll be let in, and stay away from the brown shirts (Texas national guard) because they’ll be sent back.

      • Pine_Tree

        Biden can’t make the argument that “I’m doing a great job”, so they’re just going silent, keeping the invasion going, and quietly waiting for some ugly event they can blame on Texas. Then they’ll be trumpeting it, and accusing Texas of cruelty and inhumanity.

      • Lackadaisical

        Maybe some (fake) pictures of people getting whipped. Anything will do with this media class.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Or photos (staged) of people crawling through razor wire

      • Lackadaisical

        Cages!!!!!

      • one true athena

        The traffickers/coyotes/NGOs also already adapted and coming in thru AZ and Cali more because of course blue states aren’t doing anything.

    • PieInTheSky

      people complain about meaningless woke AI, when the US still shows it’s systemic racism every day prosecuting innocent strong black women.

      • ron73440

        Her “defense” was to lash out at the council for being black and attacking a black woman.

        I wish I was making that up, but here’s a quote:

        You all should be ashamed of yourselves because you all are black. You all are black! And you all sitting up here beating and attacking a black woman that’s in power

        She seems nice.

    • Sean

      She should replace CommaLA.

      She’s perfect.

    • R C Dean

      I particularly enjoyed the part where the FBI got dozens of complaints before they opened an investigation.

      • R.J.

        It takes a village….

      • Ownbestenemy

        Was she also the mayor that told her black constituents to not complain cause she was a black person in power? Or was that a different petty dictator?

      • Not Adahn

        Each accusation against her is only 3/5 as serious.

      • R.J.

        Thank you for playing the Comment of the Day. You are currently in the #1 position! Good luck!

    • The Other Kevin

      One of those “morning zoo” radio shows in Chicago is having a blast airing interviews someone did with her. At one point the reporter asks about trips she made to Vegas on the public dime. She denied that. Then he asked, “So you didn’t go to Vegas?” and her answer was “Ummmm…”

    • Lackadaisical

      They’re not sending their best, well maybe they are. What an aptly named town.

      • Lackadaisical

        Christ, just saw the tv interviews, some serious third world level corruption she’s trying to pull off. I feel bad for the business owners (all black!).

        I wonder what it feels like to be too corrupt for Illinois.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    In his decision, Carney wrote “there seems to be little doubt” that Rundo and Boman, or members of their group, engaged in criminal violence. “But they cannot be selected for prosecution because of their repugnant speech and beliefs over those who committed the same violence with the goal of disrupting political events,” Carney wrote.

    But disturbing the peace isn’t a very sexy win on a prosecutor’s resume.

  21. The Other Kevin

    It’s nice to see some backlash happening. That’s encouraging. I really think Biden and the MSM pushing the narrative of the “amazing economy” is going to be really bad for them.

    • The Last American Hero

      It will until November, then he will magically get more votes than anyone ever.

      • ron73440

        +1 mysterious broken pipe.

    • Urthona

      I don’t.

      His opponent is Trump.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Today, in race based drama queenery

    A trial is set to be held Thursday to determine if a Black high school student in Texas can continue being punished by his district for refusing to change his hairstyle, which he and his family say is protected by a new state law that prohibits race-based hair discrimination.

    At issue is whether Darryl George’s monthslong punishment for violating his Houston-area school district’s dress code policy limiting the length of boys’ hair violates the CROWN Act.

    The bench trial is being held before state District Judge Chap Cain III in Anahuac after the Barbers Hill school district filed a lawsuit seeking clarification of the new law. The trial was scheduled to last one day, with Cain expected to issue a decision soon after its conclusion.

    The whole thing is so stupid it’s unbelievable. At this point I wouldn’t feel bad if his “natural African” hair got snagged and dragged him into a band saw.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “Barbers Hill school district”
      What are the odds?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Very high if you start off that we are living in a simulation.

    • The Last American Hero

      I’ll take “Yet another thing that privatizing education could fix in about 1 minute for $200, Ken”.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    George, an 18-year-old junior, has not been in his regular classroom at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu since Aug. 31. Instead he has either been serving in-school suspension or spending time in an off-site disciplinary program.

    18 year old junior? Quite the academic standout.

    • R C Dean

      Yeah, something tells me this isn’t the first time he has not been in his regular classroom.

  24. Not Adahn

    Important news

    PITTSTOWN, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is still cleaning up plastic pellets that spilled into the Hoosic River after a train derailment on Feb. 7 in Pittstown.

    Officials said the pellets have traveled about 18 miles downstream. Some have also ended up in the Hudson River.

    Crews are using drones and other equipment to remove the pellets from the rivers and to prevent them from spreading further. The DEC does not believe the pellets are harmful to wildlife.

    Anyone who comes across a pellet can put it in the trash.

    When they had a derailment of a shipment of young hens, the cleanup of the pullet spill was much quicker.

    • The Gunslinger

      Eggsactly what I was thinking.

  25. Beau Knott

    Cue Steve Urkel voice “Did I do that?

    • R.J.

      That’s pretty cool. Taking tree harvesting to a new level of fun.

  26. The Last American Hero

    There should only be about 4-5 cabinet offices. Everything else needs to be eliminated or put under one of the 4-5

    Phase I:
    State – includes trade, OMB
    War – includes the VA, DHS, DNI, Science and Tech
    Treasury – includes commerce, labor, SBA
    Atty Gen
    Interior – includes Agriculture, HHS, Transportation, EPA

    Scrapheap – HUD, Energy

    Phase II: Significantly scale back the scope of the undersecretary agencies to a shell of their former selves, eliminate Labor, SBA.
    Phase III: Keep cutting spending, forcing more consolidation. Privatize MC and SS.

    • Pine_Tree

      War and Navy should be separate, Cabinet-level departments. There are really good reasons the Founders did it that way.

      Otherwise a good start.

    • Drake

      I’d cross our or severely curtail many of the categories like Labor and HHS.

    • Urthona

      Also, everyone should have a pony.

  27. Lackadaisical

    ‘Gavin Newsom Successfully Turned a $97B Record Surplus Into a $73B Deficit in Less Than two Years’

    There is no such thing as enough Money when you have a Spending problem.

    Also, wasn’t the Surplus due to some mixture of COVID funds and onshoring of corporate profits due to Trump’s tax breaks?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Nearly every entity of government is running massive deficits cause FedGov shut off the COVID monies and every entity was factoring it in on their baseline budget.

      • R C Dean

        Yup. Tucson is having a conniption because they’re about to run out of COVID money to spend on illegals. The only possible solutions are:

        (A) cut spending that benefits citizens or

        (B) beg the feds for more money to spend on illegals.

      • R C Dean

        And, of course, Republican Failure Theater continues at the state legislature. Allofasudden (now that they know the Dem Gov will veto), the Repubs are passing bills on the border and election security. Couldn’t be arsed to do it when they had a Repub Gov who would have signed it (probably).

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Tragic loss of devoted public servants

    McCarthy recently hinted that the retirements are a desire of GOP figures like Good and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who both made his life incredibly difficult when he wielded the speaker’s gavel and were instrumental to his removal as speaker.

    The Californian declined to run for reelection after his ouster and resigned from the House in December 2023, over a year before his term was set to end in January 2025.

    “It’s unfortunate because you think of the brain trust you are losing. I blame a lot of the ‘crazy eights’ led by Gaetz,” McCarthy told CNN. “They want to make this place dysfunctional to try to wear people out. It’s very sad.”

    “It makes it more difficult for getting people to run in the current climate,” he added.

    However, Good dismissed concerns about congressional turnover, even as Republicans control the House, albeit narrowly.

    “Brain drain? Why don’t you survey the country and see if there is any brain to drain in Congress,” he told CNN. “Congress has a 20% approval rating. Most of what we do to the country is bad.”

    How will we manage to do the country’s business?

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘Brain drain’ can only happen if you have a brain to begin with.

    • Q Continuum

      McCarthy training for his post-retirement gig as the Republican pinata on CNN I see.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Who needs Congress?

    The Biden administration on Wednesday will issue multiple cybersecurity directives aimed at shoring up vulnerabilities at US maritime ports that could be exploited by hackers and addressing security risks from Chinese-made cranes, according to senior US officials.

    Administration officials also plan to invest more than $20 billion over the next five years in new port infrastructure, including cranes built in the US that officials say will present less of a cybersecurity and counterintelligence risk.

    A new executive order from President Joe Biden will require US ships and port facilities to report cyberattacks, while giving the Coast Guard greater authority to inspect or control ships that “present a known or a suspected cyber threat,” Rear Adm. John Vann, head of the Coast Guard Cyber Command, told reporters in a call previewing the directives.

    President Pen-and-Checkbook strikes again.

    • Ownbestenemy

      The pitfalls of omnibus bills and the slush funds they fill.

    • Lackadaisical

      I clicked because ‘how bad can it be?’ fuck you.

      thats how bad. jesus. christ. it is worse than SF.

  30. prolefeed

    Got a new puppy from the Fort Worth animal “shelter”. Turns out this puppy loves to chew … everything. A bit concerned about what Mrs. Prole’s ridiculously nice furniture will look like if dog is left unchecked.

    A pooping machine to boot.

    Right now treating him like an outdoor dog, since mild spring weather in the 70s and 80s, but that seems unsustainable when the 100 degree weather hits in summer.

    • Not Adahn

      I had outdoor dogs in TX. Shade and plenty of water.

      • Lackadaisical

        ^this.

        All dogs belong outside, just do it responsibly.

    • Gender Traitor

      You didn’t mention whether electrical cords were among Puppy’s chew toys of choice, but if so, cheap and/or old garden hose can be cut to desired lengths, slit down one side, and wrapped around exposed cords. Years ago the Rev. GT and I did that because of our litter-trained, run-of-the-house rabbit.

      • ron73440

        When our Aussie was a pup she chewed through a plugged in cord.

        I don’t know how she didn’t kill herself.

      • Lackadaisical

        because 120 is idiot proof, unlike 240.

    • R C Dean

      Sounds like a completely typical puppy to me. What kind did you adopt (as near as you can tell)?

      • prolefeed

        The employees at the kill shelter said their best guess is he’s a mutt mix of American Stratfordshire (sp?) terrier and … something. Maybe some pit bull? Black with touches of white around paws and under the muzzle, short hair, short ears flopped forward at the tips. Affectionate and tons of energy.

      • R C Dean

        American Staffordshire Terriers are the large version of pit bulls. I had AmStaffs for over 20 years before we downsized to British Staffordshire Terriers, which are about half the size.

        Chew toys, my friend. All the chew toys.

        And just wait until the digging the starts. Bull for chewing, Terrier for digging. We joke about how drunk the guys must have been when they thought “Hey, let’s cross bulldogs and terriers. What could possibly go wrong?”

        Just the nicest, friendliest dogs. Dumb as can be, in my experience. Stubborn as a stone, too. Wouldn’t want to be without one around the house.

      • ron73440

        And just wait until the digging the starts.

        My Husky has done so much digging that my wife’s friend thought we had a groundhog infestation.

        So many holes.

      • R C Dean

        Oh, and walks. You’re going to want to walk him down at least once a day. They do love to pull, and holy crap are they good at it. We found that a gentle leader type collar was a good option.

        It sounds like I keep slagging on pits, but I really do like them. Look at it this way: the personality makes up for all the rest, by a mile.

      • ron73440

        Did you try a pinch collar? Or do they have the wrong temperment?

        We trained my rottweiler on one and my 100-pound wife and 50-pound kid could both walk him with ease.

    • Lackadaisical

      Good palate cleanser after your last link, you are forgiven.

      • Lackadaisical

        Time to start shopping at kroger.

    • Lackadaisical

      Dumbest man on earth finally realizes the truth. News at 11.

      Anyone still ‘believing’ the Russian collusion allegations from 2016 are people with religious conviction.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    She’s a doctor, you know

    Jill Biden on Wednesday announced $100 million in federal funding for research and development into women’s health as part of a new White House initiative that she is heading up.

    ——-

    Biden has said women don’t know enough about their health because the research historically has been underfunded and lacking. The White House initiative aims to change the approach to and increase funding for women’s health research.

    The $100 million will be used to invest early in “life-changing” work being done by women’s health researchers and startup companies that cannot get private support, Biden said.

    Women are a mystery to SCIENCE.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Did they define women? Cause I am sure this is just a grant for child mutilation.

    • R C Dean

      Could someone point me to the clause in the Constitution making the First Lady an officer of the federal government with the authority to oversee spending hundreds of millions of dollars?

      “women don’t know enough about their health because the research historically has been underfunded and lacking”

      Oh, FFS. I’d be interested to see an honest accounting of research spending over the last 20 years on men’s health issues v women’s health issues. I’d be genuinely shocked if it wasn’t skewed toward women’s health.

      • Lackadaisical

        Yeah, I don’t believe it at all.

        My wife is a feminist and she often parrots this, yet women live a billion years longer than men. If the genderqueer squad was at all logically consistent this would be obvious proof of bias against men in the medical system.

        I’m not holding my breath.

    • Drake

      “Populism” = giving Republican voters what they actually want. Mike will work diligently to make sure that never happens.

      • Lackadaisical

        That is a great definition, I’m going to start using that.

    • R.J.

      He just looks like an old GI Joe with that helmet hair. So bizarre. Also he is a Bush-era doofues.

  32. robc

    Georgetown University was a ROI calculator for colleges, I think it is about 2 years out of date, but close enought. I sorted by 30 year NPV and eliminated all schools that don’t play FBS football. The top 10 is:

    1. Stanford
    2. Georgia Tech
    3. Duke
    4. Notre Dame
    5. USC
    6. Vanderbilt
    7. Boston College
    8. Northwestern
    9. Rice
    10. Cal

    Only 2 surprises, Cal is that low and USC is that high. I guess Berkeley has too high a percent of majors that are a prerequisite for working at Starbucks.

    • robc

      And the next 10, for Sloopy’s benefit:

      Michigan, Maryland, Virginia Tech, UCLA, Illinois, Virginia, BYU, Wake Forest, Washington, Texas.

      2 publics in first 10, 8 in second 10.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      I wonder what they use for the cost. Do they include student aid? For Cal are they using in-state tuition?

  33. The Late P Brooks

    “We will build a health care system that puts women and their lived experiences at its center,” she said. “Where no woman or girl has to hear that ‘it’s all in your head,’ or, ‘it’s just stress.’” Where women aren’t just an after-thought, but a first-thought. Where women don’t just survive with chronic conditions, but lead long and healthy lives.”

    ——-

    The White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research is led by Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council.

    Urgent necessity is the hallmark of this administration.

    • R C Dean

      “Where no woman or girl has to hear that ‘it’s all in your head,’ or, ‘it’s just stress.’”

      But what if it is?

      ” Where women aren’t just an after-thought, but a first-thought.“

      I think that got solved some time ago. I see all kinds of women’s health centers, but not a single men’s health center.

  34. pan fried wylie

    The guy who fined Trump looks like he couldn’t have an affair with a bowl of oatmeal.

    Does fucking a bowl of oatmeal every day also lead to dementia, or just when you eat it?

    • R.J.

      I think so. Also it leads to unsightly oatmeal chunks in the pubes.

      • Ted S.

        Hawt.

    • Nephilium

      It’s an early warning for dementia, you know you have it when you do one, and then the other.

      • Not Adahn

        NO KINK SHAMING!

  35. Common Tater

    “A security breach at a smart camera company allowed 13,000 customers to peak into other users’ homes, it has been revealed.

    Wyze cameras, which are sold by retailers such as Amazon and Walmart confirmed customers had seen thumbnail images from cameras that did not belong to them. Some were also able to view video footage.

    It comes amidst widespread privacy fears over popular doorbell and home surveillance cameras which prompted the Amazon-owned Ring Doorbell to announce it would no longer share footage with police departments.

    Wyze – which sells camera for as little as $20 – said the breach was sparked by an outage on Friday with its AWS cloud service that took down its devices for several hours. It did not specify which models were affected.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/consumer/article-13110359/How-smart-camera-company-devices-sold-Walmart-Amazon-allowed-13-000-customers-peak-users-homes.html

    I think these products are insecure to make it easier for the government to hack.

    • R.J.

      All that should be on a local server. Isn’t Trashy going to write an article about that?

      • Common Tater

        Most people aren’t that computer savvy or willing to make the effort.

    • Lackadaisical

      “I think these products are insecure to make it easier for the government to hack.”

      I mean, that is part of US law, so yes?

  36. Common Tater

    “A 6′ tall, bearded trans basketballer arrogantly slams a young girl to the ground…. she collapses in agony. RILEY GAINES hits back: We used to call this domestic abuse – so why are we now calling it ‘sport’?”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13110927/A-6-tall-bearded-trans-basketballer-arrogantly-slams-young-girl-ground-collapses-agony-RILEY-GAINES-hits-used-call-domestic-abuse-calling-sport.html

    This story would work much better if they didn’t blur out the players faces for no good reason.

    • R.J.

      It wasn’t that dramatic.

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘young girl’?

      They’re both in high school, fuck off. Also, they’re in Mass they probably agree with this. Absolutely no f’s given. Women sports and title 9 are dumb anyway.

    • R C Dean

      How can he owe money for medical bills? If he’s in custody, the state is responsible for his medical care. If he’s not in custody, doesn’t everybody have coverage now under ObamaCare, one way or another?

    • Not Adahn

      Damn, they make prisoners pay for their own medical care? Harsh.

      • Lackadaisical

        when will GFM remove his fund raiser?

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Fear level rising

    Any significant restriction on asylum would face formidable legal and operational hurdles. Still, issuing an executive order designed to curb illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border could be seen as an important political message from Mr. Biden ahead of the 2024 election. Border policy is one of Mr. Biden’s worst-polling issues, with multiple polls showing a majority of Americans disapproving of his handling of immigration.

    The executive order would also cement a dramatic immigration policy pivot by Mr. Biden, who vowed to “restore” the U.S. asylum system soon after taking office in 2021. After record levels of migrant apprehensions along the southern border in the past three years and growing discontent in Democratic-led cities receiving migrants, Mr. Biden’s administration has embraced some restrictions on asylum.

    There seems to be a lot of concern about Joe’s future, these days. It would be a terrible shame to see such a great man put out to pasture in the prime of his life.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    All dogs belong outside, just do it responsibly.

    Which includes training it not to bark all the doo dah day.

  39. Lackadaisical

    You’re supposed to dirnk breakfats stout for breakfats, rgiht?

    • R C Dean

      Sounds like you’ve already had a couple.

      • Lackadaisical

        Just having fun. 😉

  40. The Late P Brooks

    In a statement, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said Republican lawmakers “chose to put partisan politics ahead of our national security.”

    “No executive action, no matter how aggressive, can deliver the significant policy reforms and additional resources Congress can provide and that Republicans rejected,” Fernández Hernández added. “We continue to call on Speaker Johnson and House Republicans to pass the bipartisan deal to secure the border. ”

    We’re going to need at least another half trillion dollars to really expedite all those asylum claims and properly provide services and support.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    More stories about Biden’s dog biting Secret Service agents. One of them should have taken the dog out back and turned him into fertilizer for the rose garden.