Thursday Morning Substitute Links

by | Feb 1, 2024 | Daily Links | 320 comments

Good morning, all you wonderful Glibs. If you wonder why you haven’t seen me around in a while, its because my youngest gets up at 4:30 in the morning (since the time change) and I have been a zombie for months. Just this week he’s moved to getting up at 5:15 and its like an extra two hours of sleep. I almost approach feeling human. Sloopy and Banjos are busy doing something today and tomorrow, so we’ll have special guest stars Glibs fill in.

This showed up from a wayback article — Marlon Brando, Photoshop geek and troll.

“Marlon was a closet geek. Well, not even in the closet — he was big into it,” Billups explained. “He was an ace with Photoshop. He would take people’s pictures and put them in places they never were. He’d say, ‘Remember when we were in so-and-so?’ and you’d see people trying to remember that situation.”

I hope the apology was “I’m sorry your children have such worthless parents” – Zuck Sucks Up at Pedo Hearing.

Just remember, everything in the Middle East is Trump’s fault. Pay no attention to the roles Bill and Hillary Clinton played in helping fuck up the place.

“Diplomatic Immunity” — Consul’s kid runs over motorcycle cop.

She seems nice. Not sure how she gets close enough to drug them without an air rifle, but everyone is someone’s type.

 

Have some 90s throwback music to get you started.

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

Brett set out to find America, the real America, the America of strip malls and serial killers, of butthole waxing and kelp smoothies, of cocaine and maggots. He sought it in the most American part of America—Florida: swamp gas and fever dreams, where love arrives on a rickety boat and leaves when it doesn't have the money for its fourth abortion. Oh, where has Brett gone? He’s drinking at the neck of America’s wang, chewing its foreskin and working its shaft. Brett is becoming legend. Brett can never die. Brett can never die. Brett is America, facedown in his own patriotic puke: the red his blood, the white his stomach lining, and the cold, cold blue his gas station slushie, spiked with coconut rum and tetracycline.

320 Comments

  1. SDF-7

    Morning, Brett — nice to see ya.

    Marlon Brando, Photoshop geek and troll.

    You can bet that he was doin’ it for some doll.

  2. UnCivilServant

    “Diplomatic Immunity”

    Worst idea in history.

    Throw the ambassadors down a well.

    • SDF-7

      Israel, being a decent state should withdraw the ambassador and his idiot son — then prosecute the son and send him on a Hamas cleanup mission or three. Immunity in a host country doesn’t mean the country they’re from can’t do anything after all.

      • Rat on a train

        The US can also revoke the diplomatic status and expel the family.

      • Sensei

        You beat me to it.

        I’d boot the whole family out of the country.

      • Sensei

        They are just starting their economic journey. Makes sense…

      • robc

        I have never seen a Georgist online.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Well of course not. They’re single lan advocates.

      • Swiss Servator

        Um…if it was the son of the Ambassador, that would be bigger news…

        FTA “Gil’s father, Eli Gil, is the consul for administration at the Israeli Consulate in Miami.”

    • Swiss Servator

      That might feel good, but what does that have to do with the son of a consul?

  3. SDF-7

    Zuck Sucks Up at Pedo Hearing.

    My son’s at the age he wants to sign up for all kinds of online shit — and the difference between “The site TOC allows minors” (with parental permission) versus “Minors cannot enter into contracts without their parents” is something he just does not understand. He thinks “They’ll let me (because they suck on verification frankly), so it must be okay!”

    And being a teenager, he’s both sneaky and I don’t want to helicopter him.

    So yay. Bring back usenet, I say! Kids today…. grumble bitch moan complain…

    • Nephilium

      /thinks back to the things I was downloading from local BBS’s back then

      Same shit, different year.

      • SDF-7

        Q had to study his PEEK and POKE instructions at least.

      • Nephilium

        I was just thinking the other day about how computer gamers from the 80’s until the late 90’s actually had to understand the computers to get the games running. I remember futzing around with special boot disks, loading specific drivers into high memory and the like. I constantly need to remind myself today, that the younger computer gamers may not have any understanding of what’s going on inside their computers than the average end user.

      • UnCivilServant

        may not have any understanding of what’s going on inside their computers

        What fun is that?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Oh the joys of going in and configuring autoexec.bat and config.sys to utilize HIMEM.sys and EMM386.sys

      • Nephilium

        I was there for the early audio card days. Where not only did you have to hope the game properly coded for the audio card you got, you had to know what it was, as well set the jumpers on the card correctly, and remember what it was set to.

        I remember how happy I was the first time I got an ACTUAL SoundBlaster card, which took care of ~95% of the issues with compatability.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Ah yes SoundBlaster cards! I can’t even remember back in the day where I got the knowledge to mess around with config files, jumpers…I think it was all trial and error and word of mouth until your family got a internet connection.

      • Sensei

        The clone boards were a PITA.

        All the scound cards were really two sounds cards in one. A Midi chip for beeps and boops and a really primitive low resolution DAC. You could combine the two as well.

    • PieInTheSky

      Kids today – nothing some farm labor would not fix.

      • Fourscore

        If it hadn’t been for WW2 we’d still have the Conservation Corps, trees everywhere, no global warming, young men learning how to dig holes, etc.War screws up everything.

      • Suthenboy

        I had a great uncle in the CCC. They planted redbuds all over Monroe, Ruston and Shreveport. A waste of time and money.
        On the other hand, at the time Louisiana was a prairie as the timber industry had gobbled up all of the trees. The CCC replanted enough to return us to a more natural state of vast forests filled with serpents, ticks and chiggers.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Wasn’t it just last week when the left lost their mind over the kid working a cash register?

    • juris imprudent

      Hmm, maybe challenge him to think about it rather than just “everyone is doing it dad”? I don’t envy you.

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

        Yeah, I am so glad my kids is, looks at calendar, 29 today!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Happy birthday to the kid! 🎂

    • The Last American Hero

      My son is the only person I know that uses the internet for what it was intended for – deep dives into obscure topics. It’s almost surreal the stuff he finds on watchmaking, submarines, standard issue military kit over different eras, how to wire a house, etc.

      • kinnath

        I do it all the time.

        However, it is becoming less easy to do so as the Internet is overwhelmed with click bait.

      • UnCivilServant

        The degredation of search engine utility has made it more difficult.

      • Ownbestenemy

        ^^^ This. It is the #1 complaint from Mrs OBE and she is thoroughly convinced that search engines only produce results for what either the people have paid for or what Google et al wants you to believe. She aint wrong.

  4. Toxteth O'Grady

    Yeah, that whole Jerusalem thing. History’s greatest monster.

    Probably the only song to start with “reluctantly”. (Saw them last year: fun show and no politics.)

  5. SDF-7

    everything in the Middle East is Trump’s fault.

    Oh fuck off, MSDNC. Was it perfect? Hell no — but I think PPP and his puppet handlers reversing every Trump policy because OMB, yanking up the price of oil (helping Iran be flush with money for their minions) and giving Iran billions rather reversed some positive trends from the Accords the Trump Admin had going.

    Election year fellatio of the Donkey Ass.

    • juris imprudent

      Yes, clearly Trump’s desire to have us out of Syria is to blame for why we are still in Syria (and Jordan, in order to support whatever we are doing in Syria).

    • Ownbestenemy

      There was a tweet out there from Vets for Democracy (I think) that claimed the three soldiers who needlessly died in Jordon were because of Trump’s action against Iran and specifically that killing of the Iranian general nearly 4 years ago.

    • PieInTheSky

      the article is above average ridiculous.

    • bacon-magic

      I remember when Obama loved him some Iran enough to drop off some petty cash to them to fund their proxy war on us. Good times.

  6. SDF-7

    She seems nice.

    Dating is all a big game to that hunter. She’s darting from one beau to the next!

    • Fourscore

      6th Street, where the action is.

  7. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh

  8. rhywun

    But the hearing ultimately left a huge question unanswered.

    “Don’t we have anything better to do?”

    • juris imprudent

      Wife had the news on this morning – and Lindsay Graham was featured. I damn near puked.

      • Drake

        Let me guess… We should be bombing or invading somewhere.

      • juris imprudent

        No, he was self-righteously pissing on social media execs. He’s the worst thing out of South Carolina to DC since Preston Brooks.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        He wants to invade Meta, X, and whoever owns Tik Tok.

      • juris imprudent

        Lindsay Graham: [whining] Why couldn’t it be Iran?

      • Ted S.

        I heard clips from the German-language news podcast {ÖRF} I listen to in order to practice my German. They had clips from him and Pornfinder General Josh Hawley.

        If somebody hit one of those kids in the head with a hammer, we wouldn’t be dragooning the heads of Craftsman and Harbor Freight for a struggle session.

        For all everyone bitches about bullying, the hearings showed one again hoe the state is the biggest bully of them all, and how using the state to bully people you don’t like is considered virtuous.

  9. rhywun

    “Diplomatic Immunity”

    At least that one has some sort of status in law – unlike “‘asylum seeker’ immunity”.

  10. rhywun

    Have some 90s throwback music to get you started.

    Jesus. A necessary reminder that the 90s maybe weren’t as great as I remember.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      🤨

      While speculating on what the musical link would be, I concluded that ’90s music is a land of contrasts.

    • PieInTheSky

      as I remember – so you did not drink enough in the 90s?

      • R.J.

        1890s?

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I don’t get Cake either (the band, not the dessert).

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        No one wants Cake? Wilford Brimley hardest hit.

      • bacon-magic

        They all want cake. *whirling dervish motions

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

      rhywun’s internal monologue: I Will Survive.

  11. Gustave Lytton

    Diplomatic immunity story and no link to Eight Wonder for the music?

    https://youtu.be/EmBiSqy8ph0

    I’d totally revoke 80’s Patsy Kensit’s diplomatic immunity.

  12. juris imprudent

    The economy is great, and we can make it better. Never change Vox, never change.

    I repeat: The economy is good, and full of things to celebrate. But a good economy and tight labor markets still won’t give us freedom from poverty, homelessness, or insecurity. To achieve those goals, progressives have long advocated for strong direct government action. “There’s this missing economic history around the very idea of freedom,” said economist Mark Paul, author of The Ends of Freedom: Reclaiming America’s Lost Promise of Economic Rights. “We’ve had this long struggle around fighting for economic security, or economic rights, here in the US.”

    • Sensei

      Remain calm. All is well.

      • juris imprudent

        But don’t forget, we haven’t meddled with it enough!!!

    • Not Adahn

      Oshan Jarow is a staff writer with Vox’s Future Perfect, where he focuses on the frontiers of political economy and consciousness studies. He covers topics ranging from guaranteed income and shorter workweeks to meditation and psychedelics.

      His ideas make perfect sense, just as long as you’re really high.

    • UnCivilServant

      I went to a steakhouse this past weekend.

      The failure of a cook turned the beef to shoe leather. I should not be thinking “I could get better results by throwing a steak in the toaster oven”.

      • juris imprudent

        No doubt because the restaurant owner wasn’t paying the cook a living wage.

      • Fourscore

        Cook doesn’t speak American either, that’s why he/she is getting 3rd world wages

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Don’t google toaster oven steak.

      • Nephilium

        Probably depends on what you’re calling a toaster oven. I’ve got one that’s got the convection settings (“Air Roast”/”Air Fry”) and temperature probe. I do pork tenderloins in it on a regular basis and they come out awesome. I could probably get a decent steak out of it, but would prefer my cast iron.

      • kinnath

        Reverse sear.

        This is how I do steaks in the middle of winter.

      • bacon-magic

        ^^^ I do all year round…finish on the grill sometimes.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t understand people’s attachment to cast iron. I’ve never gotten it to even cooperate, let alone be exceptional. That’s even following all the condescending advise snootily thrown my way.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I cannot be convinced anyone can cook eggs in cast iron without them sticking to the pan.

      • Nephilium

        /raises hand

        I’ve done it on a regular basis.

      • Ownbestenemy

        It can be done if you have a proper cast iron pan that hasn’t been neglected.

      • Grosspatzer, Superstar

        A bit of oil goes a long way. Skillet baked eggs with veggies/meats of your choice (I prefer onions and peppers), saute veggies in butter, break eggs, bake at 425 for ~5 minutes. Yum. Cleanup = rinsing cast iron pan with warm water.

      • UnCivilServant

        I last tried it with hamburger to similar results.

        now I want to cook hamburgers again. I had some delicious results. Gotta figure out a bun without the carbs.

      • R C Dean

        I’ve done it for years.

        What cast iron needs is correct maintenance. With that, it is quite cromulent for a wide variety of tasks, and is even fairly non-stick. For some people, I expect cast iron is like what sharpening knives is for me – something I just can’t get the knack of.

      • R C Dean

        UnCiv – try open faced on one of those big mushroom caps.

      • prolefeed

        To RC Dean: I sharpen knives with a gizmo where, before use, you run the knife half a dozen times thru a gizmo with two sharpening slivers in a V trench. Works great.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Just one of those things that people thought was a revelation, “hey, I can cook anything using a heat source!”

        So yes, you can cook a decent steak in a toaster oven. Is it the best, most efficient way of doing so? Probably not.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Cutthroat Kitchen proved that true.

    • Sean

      More for me.

      I don’t really go to “proper” steakhouses that much. I get much better food grilling my own.

      • PieInTheSky

        and you can shoot the steak to tenderize it

      • Sensei

        A properly aged steak is wonderful.

        That’s something that’s difficult to do at home. It requires a means to dry age and getting big cut of meat from a butcher of which you will be cutting down and wasting during the aging.

      • PieInTheSky

        I assume you can purchase already aged meat.

      • Sensei

        Maybe online. Not something readily available even in my affluent area.

        I’ll leave that for other Glibs.

      • juris imprudent

        Wegmans has a whole display case of it, but of course you’ll pay extra.

      • robc

        The local grocery store near me in SC had a nice dry aged section.

        Lowes. Not to be confused with the hardware store (although they were originally one and the same, the hardware and grocery split a long time ago, but both kept the name).

        The Lowes was across the street from a Harris Teeter (read: Kroger) which had better prices in general, but the Lowes was an occassional stop off. Also, the Lowes had a bar in it and drink holders on the shopping cart, so you could have a beer or a glass of wine while you shopped.

      • robc

        And that reminds me, the one thing that bugs me here in Colorado is the absolute crap meat selection in the grocery stores. WTF, its not like their arent ranches all over the place. How the fuck is the meat so bad?

        Lowes and Harris Teeter spoiled me, they were even better than KY, which was far superior to CO.

      • PieInTheSky

        have a beer or a glass of wine while you shopped. – I thought you Americans drive your car when you go shopping.

      • robc

        The day I cant drive after one beer is the day I stop driving.

      • UnCivilServant

        If you want dry-aged beef, my local butcher sells it aged in-store. It is more expensive due to the aforementioned wastage and effort.

      • Nephilium

        Same here. I can knock out a solid steak at home really easily. The girlfriend and I will sometimes hit one up on vacation as a vacation type thing. I do lament that I never got to try the steak tasting menu at one local place that didn’t survive the lockdowns (it was three 6-8 ounce different steaks, grass fed, grain fed, wagyu).

  13. PieInTheSky

    What Is Cultural Appropriation? Why It’s Problematic and How to Avoid It
    Everything you need to know about cultural appropriation, from examples of what it is, to how to be respectful of other cultures

    https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-cultural-appropriation

    Cultural appropriation is a hot topic that has gained significant attention in recent years, though it’s been happening for much longer. But what is cultural appropriation exactly? According to researchers from the University of Huddersfield, UK, it can be described as the taking of elements of a culture in a way that ultimately distorts or misrepresents the culture.

    Cultural appropriation is seen as problematic because it can perpetuate harmful stereotypes, strip cultural elements of their significance, and ignore the history and struggles of the culture from which they are taken.

    In contrast, cultural appreciation (or exchange) is the understanding and respect for a culture that is different from one’s own. It can be a positive experience because it fosters mutual understanding and respect for different cultures and doesn’t rely upon an existing power imbalance between two cultures to achieve its aims.

    • Ted S.

      Minorities appropriating white culture in the form of race awitching stories is totes OK, however.

    • juris imprudent

      Pie wins. I thought the Vox article was stupid, but he one-upped me.

      • rhywun

        Teen Vogue does not cede that prize to anyone.

    • Compelled Speechless

      When I was growing up, this was called “the melting pot” and we were taught it was an unambiguously good thing. It’s a shame that mentality has been sacrificed for the benefit of a tiny number of grifters so they can have a cudgel to undeservedly pummel anyone in their way to the top.

      • rhywun

        Yup, it’s all straight from the Marxist playbook titled “How to Wreck Society” but with class switched for race.

    • ron73440

      Cultural appropriation is seen as problematic because it can perpetuate harmful stereotypes, strip cultural elements of their significance, and ignore the history and struggles of the culture from which they are taken.

      Should have just said: Cultural appropriation is seen as problematic because people are stupid.

      • juris imprudent

        That would be too ambiguous about which people are stupid. Or was that what you intended?

      • ron73440

        Didn’t think of it like that, but both ways work.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Then Facebook marketplace, Ebay, etc would fall under that too right?

      • Nephilium

        There will be an exemption carved out for newspaper want ads (if those even still exist).

      • Sensei

        You could argue that. Amazon mixes its own goods along with third party vendors.

        FB, Ebay and the like are channels for third parties.

        Amazon would likely get around this by having a first party and third party site that doesn’t comingle them. But this would negatively impact its business model.

      • Gustave Lytton

        a first party and third party site that doesn’t comingle them

        Yes, please! Their site has really gotten bad with crap sellers and promoted non results.

        The other hidden problem is they comingle inventory as long as the seller asserts it’s the same ASIN, which has led to knockoffs getting into the product stream and be sent out for other sellers’ orders.

      • trshmnstr

        Hey, don’t knock my SMALDVODY chainsaw! It’s just like a Stihl, except horrible!

      • Sensei

        Heavens yes. This comingling of inventory is a real issue.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Does Amazon actually hold inventory for 3rd Party sellers?

        Or do they send orders to them and they need to print the shipping label and send from their warehouse?

        I have no idea. I worked decades ago for a package consolidator who was part of the Home Shopping Network vendors. The way HSN worked is that they would take an order then send info to the yahoos who were trying to sell their crap. Those guys had to print the shipping label and use HSB boxes to send the product to their buyer.

        HSN didn’t have to pay anything for warehousing a product. The buyers all thought they were getting stuff from HSN because the program was really specific about how it was sent so that the 3rd party seller was hidden. No stealing customers away from HSN!

      • UnCivilServant

        I suspect it’s a mix of both, as some “third party” products are “Fulfilled by Amazon” and show up on the usual prime schedule.

      • R C Dean

        I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Amazon acts as a non-stocking distributor. This intermingling of SKUs or whatever regardless of source is something non-stocking distributors do – “Hey, tell us what SKU you want, and we’ll get it to you” is not something a conduit does, as a conduit is a straight line from a seller to a buyer.

      • Beau Knott

        I sell books through Amazon (in minuscule numbers). Having Amazon warehouse & ship them is an option, but it’s far from cost-effective for me. Or for people selling one or two orders of magnitude more than I do.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Does Amazon actually hold inventory for 3rd Party sellers?

        Yes, this is how they get shit to you in two days.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Are they just warehousing it or acting as the distributor?

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Both.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Every Amazon listing tells you this.

        Ships from: Amazon.com

        Sold by: ABC LOL, LLC

  14. Pope Jimbo

    Speaking of diplomatic kerfuffles…

    Somalia’s shadow ambassador says she was misquoted and the local paper goes to bat for her.

    In the wake of the port deal between the northern region of Somalia and Ethiopia, Omar said in the speech that she’s fielded calls from concerned people who want the United States government to intervene in hopes of nullifying the 50-year agreement.

    Omar’s office pointed to a more accurate translation of her speech posted online. A Star Tribune reporter who speaks Somali listened to the speech and reviewed the transcript, and found it matched Omar’s actual comments. It said:

    “My answer was the U.S. government will do what we tell the U.S. government to do. We as Somalis should have that confidence in ourselves. We live in this country. We pay taxes in this country. It’s a country where one of your own sits in Congress. As long as I’m in Congress no one will take Somalia’s sea. And the United States will not support other people to rob us. Rest assured Minnesotans. The woman you sent to Congress is aware of you and has the same interest as you.”

    The translation now under dispute characterized Omar’s comments this way: “The U.S. government will only do what Somalians in the U.S. tell them to do. They will do what we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders and that is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia together we will protect the interests of Somalia.”

    I’m not sure why her “more accurate” translation is much better. Still seems like a pretty outrageous foreign meddling from someone who always claims she is a US Citizen.

    Still this is all she needs to survive. In fact, like Trump, this will help her in the next election.

    • "RFK Jr Apologist"

      The paper forgets to mention that she also made a call to genocide insisting that Somaliland belongs to Somalia. Anyone familiar with that conflict (obviously not an American journalist) knows that’s a provocative statement. But, I guess this is part for the course for the daughter of an illiterate warlord. God knows how much blood her family has on their hands.

  15. PieInTheSky

    UK vs USA | Fish

    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/60q58SYzgfc

    this channel does foods US vs UK and he US always looses so I was right about US food, if the brits are consistently better.

    • robc

      No one in the US eats dishwasher salmon.

      We smoke it in a green egg or on a traeger. Duh.

      • PieInTheSky

        If it is on youtube it must be true.

    • Rat on a train

      I don’t cook all my food in the dishwasher. Sometimes I use the clothes washer.

    • UnCivilServant

      If the channel always favors the UK food, it’s clearly propaganda.

      • juris imprudent

        I was trying to think of a joke about who looks to the UK for good food, but I got nothing.

      • UnCivilServant

        Going by the UK food I had when I was there, there was nothing particularly notable – either good or bad. I suspect they got their reputation during rationing.

      • juris imprudent

        I guess the joke should be that food was the real reason behind the Empire.

      • PieInTheSky

        the standard joke was the quality of their food and the beauty of their women made the English the best sailors.

      • juris imprudent

        Not the rum, sodomy and the lash?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Thats just a normal Friday night GlibZoom

      • ron73440

        Read the biography of Captain James Cook and it was amazing what the sailors would endure just for a chance to go to Tahiti and meet the local women.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Ugh! It IS good, and inexpensive. Very international.

      Americans wouldn’t want to be judged by Boyardee and Lunchables.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Look we won a war to earn the right to make fun of their food!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Heh.

        And spotted dick is perfectly cromulent.

      • UnCivilServant

        American cuisine has a core that is descended from British cuisine.

        Apple Pie is a British dish.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        New England boiled dinner.

        Never mind, undermining my own point.

      • UnCivilServant

        Just because we largely abandoned savory pies in the centuries afterwards doesn’t mean the sweet pies don’t have their ancestry in the colonial dishes brought over from Britain.

      • Not Adahn

        It’s not just that, but the proportions, the function and construction of the crust is completely different. You might as well say that bao, ravioli, gyoza, stromboli and pierogies are all the same thing as pie.

        Besides, early apple pie is a third thing altogether — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4gFHlRE3KM

      • UnCivilServant

        So, you agree that Pizza was invented in New York.

      • Not Adahn

        Maybe. Roman pizza isn’t, but I’ve heard that Neapolitan pizza is.

    • Not Adahn

      Well OF COURSE it didn’t work! He’s using a stupid, underpowered metric UK dishwasher!

  16. robc

    It looks like my article discussed the other day in AM links will be the midday article today.

    Its a little dissappointing, I dont think it will be very rage inducing. I was hoping to piss a few people off, but the way I wrote it, it just didnt happen. I think.

    We shall see.

    • PieInTheSky

      You suck. Also I am planning a rage inducing article and you just want to still my thunder you bastard.

      • robc

        We need plenty, too much agreement and happiness around here.

    • Drake

      I’ll try to work up some anger just for you.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Needs more “no one needs…”

      • robc

        While maybe not in those exact words, there is at least one in the article.

      • Pine_Tree

        “No one needs to worry that I’m gonna bring up that silly SLT thing. I was just pulling y’all’s legs all along.”

        How’d I do?

      • robc

        Not far off actually.

  17. Pope Jimbo

    Local proggie is sure he’s got all the racists painted in a corner.

    How things are – and no, not right at all, but our unfortunate reality – is a young Black man in a hoodie (sadly, attire plays a role, just ask the parents of Trayvon Martin) is already demonized by many in society. The hoodie alone on a Black man is enough to evoke fear. Irrational fear, but fear nonetheless. A young Black man with a hoodie and a gun with an extended magazine puts him squarely in the crosshairs (metaphor intended).

    On the video the young brother, hands cuffed behind his back, states with the brilliance of a constitutional scholar his rights under both Minnesota and federal law. But he also said something that struck me to the core. “This is the second time in six months police have harassed me.”

    Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

    The guy seems confused. He seems sure that black guys open carrying getting hassled by Johnny Law is a travesty that wipippo don’t care about. I bet he’d be really embarrassed to find out that the people who are most upset about black guys with guns getting hassled by cops are the rural white jackpine savages who love their guns.

    *Also, I think you could get him mad if you pointed out that if he replaced mentions of gun rights with voting rights, his argument would have worked perfectly as an Uncle Tom pre-civil war trying to tell the uppity youngsters to shut up and not stir the pot.

    • trshmnstr

      attire plays a role

      Yes, yes it does. When you dress like you’re from a culture known for not respecting rhe lives and rights of innocents and known for lashing out violently at the drop of a hat, you’re going to be treated differently.

      • rhywun

        There is that – but even more, the “hoodie” – which term only came to prominence after its rise as a fashion statement for criminals – is a choice deliberately intended to convey “threat”.

        Whole thing is tedious beyond belief.

      • Nephilium

        Can confirm. Police, security, and drug testing labs treat me very differently with the shaved head than when I had long hair.

    • juris imprudent

      He’s mad at the urban whites – AWFLs – that are his supposed ally.

    • ron73440

      As an Open Carrier, I don’t understand what the cops were thinking.

      If Walmart has a no weapons policy, violating that is not violating the law.

      If once he is told to leave because of their policy, he refuses, then he can be arrested for trespasssing.

      The article makes sure to include the greatest hits:

      When I took my class to obtain my permit to carry, we had a discussion about the pros and cons of open carry. My instructor offered a scenario. He said, universe forbid, if a person was intent on doing harm, say a mass shooter, who do you think that person would shoot first? That shooter would first eliminate all known threats – the person known to have a weapon on them. While some think carrying openly keeps them safe from threats, in actuality, it could invite the threat.

      Not once has this been shown to have happened.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m confused by open carriers. The last one I saw was leaning on a gas station counter in such a way that I could have lifted the revolver from his holster and used it on him before he even noticed. Why let hostile actors know?

      • ron73440

        All of my holsters have a retention snap.

        I also try to be aware of my surroundings, whether I am carrying or not.

        Once I almost punched my wife in the face because she thought it would be funny to sneak up on me and wiggle the handle of my pistol.

        Why let hostile actors know?

        Why have someone attempt to rob you thinking you’re unarmed?

        Most people don’t notice or care.

        Plus in Virginia, I Open Carry without a permit.

      • R C Dean

        Open carry has some advantages:

        (1) Full size handgun is much more of an option.

        (2) Unless you train a lot on drawing from concealed, open carry is faster (and its probably faster no matter how much you train). One thing I have learned is that disentangling your heater from your clothes is a definite issue with (serious) concealed carry, especially when you are stressed or in a big hurry.

        (3) Arguably at least, deterrence.

      • R C Dean

        “He said, universe forbid, if a person was intent on doing harm, say a mass shooter, who do you think that person would shoot first?”

        Mass shooters show a very clear and consistent pattern – they go where there are no guns. If they see you open carrying, they will go somewhere else. This “hurr durr, open carry makes you a target not a deterrent” claim is, as far as I know, completely baseless. Even someone who isn’t a mass shooter, but is just looking to knock over a convenience store, say – has there ever been a case where they walk in, see someone else with a gun, and shoot them first?

      • ron73440

        No, but there was a Waffle House in either Georgia or Alabama where cops were called on some people sitting in their van.

        They said they were waiting for an open carrier to leave and then they were going to rob the place.

      • rhywun

        Remember Obama’s “The Talk” – this is the same shit.

        And it’s been disproven who knows how many times.

      • rhywun

        Oh yes, the “I have no fucks left to give” article. Fun times.

      • prolefeed

        The conclusions in that article for the most part seem to be in direct contradiction to my personal experience. Granted, my interactions, like everyone, are not with a statistically representative subsample of the general populace.

        I will, however, stipulate that I try to avoid living in places run by liberal politicians. And if politicians in a city are mostly black, it will certainly be a liberal government.

      • Not Adahn

        It’s like the idea that the *ping* of an ejecting clip from a Garand would let the enemy know you had to reload. If you’re close enough to hear that but NOT close enough to be deafened by being on the business end of a .30-06… maybe? In theory?

      • UnCivilServant

        The soldiers believed it enough that some carried empty clips to toss and lure out enemy soldiers. Don’t know if it worked.

      • Not Adahn

        I find the lack of mention of hearing damage in WWII to be kind of interesting. I assume it was part of the “suck it up” mentality. I wonder which was worse — infantry, armor, or the naval gunners. My grandfather did mention the “knee mortar” incident, but that after that they figured out they were for palm trees.

      • Not Adahn

        Also, if I get selected to work Handgun Nationals, I’m going to take advantage on the onsite Garand shop this year.

      • Drake

        The problem with that theory is that soldiers didn’t go into battle alone. Waiting for a guy’s Garand to ping, then moving in for the kill, just gets you shot by the rest of a platoon.

      • Gustave Lytton

        If Walmart has a no weapons policy, violating that is not violating the law.

        Unless the state has a law criminalizing it, like TX and their 30.06 law. Even here, some gun rights advocates insist that you are violating the trespass law if you carry beyond a no carry sign rather than after being specifically asked to leave the premise.

      • ron73440

        I didn’t think about States having laws like that. I assumed if OC was allowed then they wouldn’t be that stupid.

        Like most(all) gun control laws, making it a crime to not notice a weapons prohibited sign is an abomination.

      • Not Adahn

        I don’t know that I’d call that stupid. One of the few legitimate purposes of the state is to back me up on decisions I make on my property.

      • ron73440

        One of the few legitimate purposes of the state is to back me up on decisions I make on my property.

        Hence the trespassing charge.

        It should not be a crime to unknowingly violate a demand to make myself unarmed.

      • Not Adahn

        I think with 30.06 there needs to be clear signage at the entrance.

      • Sean

        I remember seeing little stickers of a Beretta in a circle with a line through it on some store doors and thought “It’s a good thing I don’t carry a Beretta.”

      • robc

        KY law specifies that those gun rights advocates are wrong.

      • ron73440

        some gun rights advocates insist that you are violating the trespass law if you carry beyond a no carry sign rather than after being specifically asked to leave the premise.

        I think some gun rights advocates are not on the actual gun rights side.

    • rhywun

      “the young brother”

      *eyes swivel all the way around multiple times*

    • PieInTheSky

      the pussy is good in Portland?

    • Sensei

      Plastic bag.

      Does he and and the city not care about the environment?

  18. PieInTheSky

    Christopher Nevinson painted this picture of Soho (1924) by sitting himself on a platform high above the London streets. He used a similar composition to depict Fleet Steet in ‘Amongst the Nerves of the World,’ in which the modern city is glimpsed through a gap in the buildings.

    https://twitter.com/ahistoryinart/status/1752455274206507494

    I could paint that

    • Not Adahn

      Protests? I thought they had been selectively bred to be less bitter?

      • PieInTheSky

        peasants do not have access to the fancy education required to understand you should listen to your betters without question.

      • Not Adahn

        I do, there are just so few of them.

      • juris imprudent

        It’s the middle class that believes it has the education to ignore the elite.

      • PieInTheSky

        I am not sure I agree. The middle seem to be the most obedient.

      • Not Adahn

        “If there was hope, it must lie in the proles.”

      • juris imprudent

        That part of the middle class aspires to be elite, but are too stupid to know that they never will be.

      • R.J.

        It’s the comfort level. You get a house and food and a job. In general politics does not bother them much. Once politics becomes significantly more intrusive there would be a response. Nothing so far has been so terrible, in their view.

  19. PieInTheSky

    Neanderthals and humans lived side by side in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago

    Genetic analysis of bone fragments from German archaeological site proves that modern humans reached northern Europe not long after they emerged from Africa

    https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/01/31/neanderthals-and-humans-lived-side-by-side-in-northern-europe-45-000-years-ago

    “This lower-density archaeological signature matches other Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician sites and is best explained by expedient visits of short duration by small, mobile groups of pioneer H. sapiens,” according to one of the papers published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

    “This shows that even these earlier groups of Homo sapiens dispersing across Eurasia already had some capacity to adapt to such harsh climatic conditions,” said Sarah Pederzani, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of La Laguna in Spain, who led the paleoclimate study of the site. “Until recently, it was thought that resilience to cold-climate conditions did not appear until several thousand years later, so this is a fascinating and surprising result.”

    adaptable little buggers, humans.

    • creech

      “modern humans reached northern Europe not long after they emerged from Africa”
      Looks like Neanderthals had a lack of border controls too.

      • kinnath

        Seeking asylum.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Idaho stop FTW.

      Fuck idiot cyclists and their motorized cousins for shitting all over traffic laws. Last week saw a donor cycle decide lane splitting should apply to surface street too.

      • The Last American Hero

        Yes, with all due respect to the cyclists on this site, the fucking bicycle ninjas get what they deserve. Dress in black, get on a bike, slice and weave through rush hour traffic downtown, ignore lights and stop signs, and act all indignant when they nearly get clipped. I have enough to worry about making sure the idiot drivers around me aren’t crashing into me without dealing with cycle terrorists.

      • robc

        That actually applies, in small part, to my upcoming article midday, bring it back up if you get a chance. I agree with you about 99.4%.

      • juris imprudent

        So you are Ivory Pure sure?

      • Grosspatzer, Superstar

        Ivory Snow. +1 Marilyn Chambers.

      • Nephilium

        /looks at my hi-vis cycling kit

        Doesn’t apply to me, and I dislike those people more than most non-cyclists do. The only people worse are the slow roll and critical mass assholes.

      • Not Adahn

        There’s a bike commuter that’s properly blinky-illuminated that I pass every morning on the way to work.

      • rhywun

        As long as we agree that asshole drivers get what they deserve.

      • Sensei

        It’s also zero fun being a pedestrian.

        And the “immigrants” on the electric bikes…

      • Pope Jimbo

        I love to cycle when I can and I take no offense. I think it should almost be required to run over any cyclist after dark who has no lights (no reflectors are not enough) on themselves.

      • Pope Jimbo

        My biggest problem cycling, though, is keeping OMWC from stealing my bike. That’s the bastard that should be wearing an ankle monitor, if not at least some reflective tape.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Can’t really argue with you there. If you are riding at night, wearing black is a dumb idea.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        I think an Idaho stop requires the cyclist to make sure the intersection is clear. The fact that the cyclist got hit indicates the intersection was not clear.

    • rhywun

      Welcome to a low-trust country.

      [subway theft] rose again to 13.3 percent during the last quarter of 2023.
      The problem is even worse on the city bus system, where nearly half of riders board without paying, stats show.

      That is fucking insane. I remember when criminals used to get arrested and sometimes even do time.

  20. Suthenboy

    I remember seeing an interview with some dude that visited Brando. Brando offered him some chocolate chip cookies. He said they were very bitter. He remarked about it and Brando said “Yeah, I know. Those aren’t chocolate chips. I made them with my own shit.”
    Troll indeed.

    Platform for others? Publisher? Hmmmm.
    Censor and get your ass chewed. Dont censor and get. your ass chewed. If you are going to get your ass chewed it is better to do it without getting in bed with the Devil.
    STOP CENSORING.

    Someone needs to do for that kid what his asshole daddy should have done years ago. Thus, someone needs to do it for daddy as well.
    Despite incidences like this diplomatic immunity is vital. If one of these trashbags does something too egregious, ask their country to revoke the immunity so you can prosecute. If they refuse, expel their diplomats.

    I have found that not stepping out on your wife helps you avoid a lot of sketchy types and situations like that.

    Bill and Hillary? Yeah. How about the role Obama played? What of Biden has done? Role…as in they are 100% responsible for the shit mess in the ME? Evil fuckers.
    Under Trump peace was breaking out all over the ME. Once again WaPo outdoes themselves with mendacity.

    • R C Dean

      “Once again WaPo outdoes themselves with mendacity.”

      Well, their motto is “Democracy dies in derpness”.

    • UnCivilServant

      In such an incident, Brando should have been murdered, and I would have acquitted.

      You do not even joke about adulterated food, let alone do it.

      • ron73440

        agree 100% UCS.

      • Suthenboy

        Being such a troll, who knows if he actually did it or not?

      • UnCivilServant

        The remark alone would have made it justfied homicide – if the anecdote even happened.

      • Pine_Tree

        Hear, hear.

        Would not consider that to be murder.

  21. juris imprudent

    Apparently some Democrats aren’t in on the fortification scheme. They’re actually still worried about Biden losing.

    Biden should instead heed the words of veteran Democratic pollster, Stan Greenberg, who recently wrote in an op-ed article titled “Joe Biden will have to dump the elite if he wants to beat Trump”:

    Donald Trump locked up the Republican nomination last week, and President Biden’s campaign faces an uphill struggle to defeat him. He needs to rediscover “blue-collar Joe” and break out of the elite bubble.

    Trump is running an effective campaign that has deepened support among working-class voters in the primaries and the general election. He has shown he understands how angry people are about spiking prices, elites growing richer, rising violent crime and a flood of refugees.

    Biden’s approval rating, meanwhile, is stuck below 40 per cent….Yet the White House, pundits and progressive commentators are all trapped in the same elite bubble that keeps them from seeing what is happening to most Americans.

  22. Cowboy

    150 comments and it’s barely 845. I’m never going to catch up at this rate

  23. Fatty Bolger

    I’m old enough to remember when TV was ruining our children, not social media. Now apparently TV is fine, even though there is more TV available than ever. Well we whipped TV, we can whip social media too!

    • PieInTheSky

      TV and social media are not the same. Just because someone cried wolf in the past does not mean there are no wolves. People too often dismiss concerns with this was said about something completely different in the past.

      • Fatty Bolger

        The complaints about it are very much the same. It’s addicting, it’s taking their focus from more important things, it’s warping their world view, it’s affecting their mental state, it’s stopping them from going going outside and getting exercise, it’s making them buy things, it’s stunting their development, it turns them into zombies, it makes them mimic bad behaviors they see, it’s destroying their innocence, etc.

        For the most part it just looks like the latest moral panic to me.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I think the only thing different is the accessibility and near constant use. TV was limited whereas schools have given up and nearly all kids in class are constantly on some sort of social media.

      • R C Dean

        Well, were those complaints wrong? Especially considering the decline in fitness, social cohesion, etc. that has occurred in generations raised since TV became ubiquitous. I doubt anyone here really thinks that raising a generation with their faces glued to screens since toddlerhood is a net benefit, after all.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, they are not wrong.

        “Moral panics” tend to have some – aften a lot – of truth to them.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Yes, they were wrong in thinking government legislation or interference was any kind of solution, or a good idea at all. That still holds true. Time will march on, new technologies will be developed, and the social media panic will be seen as a quaint relic from the past.

    • trshmnstr

      Now apparently TV is fine

      It’s not. It’s just that the worst aspects of the boob tube are amplified in social media, and we no longer have any living generation that remembers what things were like pre TV.

      • kinnath

        Back in the day, parents would yell at their kids to go outside and play instead of watching TV.

        Now parents are arrested for neglect if their kids are unsupervised at the local park. So, give the kids a cell phone and dark hole to hide in.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Biden’s approval rating, meanwhile, is stuck below 40 per cent….Yet the White House, pundits and progressive commentators are all trapped in the same elite bubble that keeps them from seeing what is happening to most Americans.

    When Taylor Swift is shown jumping up and down in a supar bowl skybox wearing a Biden/Harris jersey, the election will be in the bag.

    • juris imprudent

      I’m not sure who’s the dumber for believing that.

      • R C Dean

        I eagerly await all the internet commentary after the Super Bowl, with those pushing the “Taylor Swift is a PsyOp” line admitting they were completely wrong, because she did not, in fact, endorse Biden during or after the game.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I am sure it will be “We did it folks, we forced her not to…”

      • juris imprudent

        Proving that it isn’t just the left huffing their own farts.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    True heroism

    Kathaleen McCormick, the soft-spoken, even-keeled head of the Court of Chancery in Delaware — the state in which many of the nation’s biggest businesses are incorporated — struck down Musk’s 2018 Tesla pay package on Tuesday, siding with a shareholder who’d challenged it as excessive.

    The ruling, which is almost certain to face an appeal, could take a serious bite out of Musk’s personal fortune, potentially wiping out more than $51 billion in assets. (Of course, even then he’d still be the third richest person on the planet, according to Bloomberg.)

    The outcome of Musk’s pay package dispute is the latest instance of a towering, brash business leader getting put in his place by the one institution powerful enough to do so: US courts.

    Just days before McCormick’s ruling in Delaware, a New York jury ordered former President Donald Trump to pay $86 million in damages to a woman that a prior jury established Trump sexually assaulted in the 1990s. In the same week, Vince McMahon, the longtime head of World Wrestling Entertainment who for years managed to dodge and deflect allegations of sexual misconduct, resigned as executive chairman following a lawsuit from one his former employees accusing him of sex-trafficking and abuse. McMahon has denied the allegations.

    ——-

    While McCormick didn’t have to issue a final decision Twitter case, her preliminary rulings suggested she wasn’t going to be cowed by Musk’s towering profile, Talley says.

    “We’ve got this Delaware judge who says, ‘You know what? The rules that apply to everyone apply to you too.’” Talley said. “I think that’s service to the profession. And it’s not one that is well compensated — Katie McCormick is not earning $55 billion for her work.”

    Save us from the robber barons!

    • robc

      [insert cs lewis quotation here]

    • robc

      But also, I have no idea what the Delaware law on pay packages for executives says, so no idea if this was a good decision or not. Nothing I have seen actually discusses that issue.

      • R C Dean

        As ever, much turns out consistency. How many very highly paid executives of companies losing money or at a minimum declining in profitably did the courts go back overturn their pay? What’s that you say? Nearly none of them? Well, Musk has made a lot of money for Tesla shareholders, and he gets his pay whacked. It’s difficult to see how this is a good and proper application of the rules against executives taking advantage of shareholders.

    • Brochettaward

      There’s a blatant lie in the article about Trump. I’m going to guess there’s nothing of value said about Musk, either.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Hocus pocus

    Germany is now set to join the likes of the U.S., Britain, and Portugal in piloting a shorter workweek.

    The program, which is set to start on Feb. 1, will last six months—the same as its peers’ experiments—and will include hundreds of employees across 45 participating companies, Dale Whelehan, CEO at Auckland, New Zealand–based 4 Day Week Global, the nonprofit leading the pilot, told Fortune.

    The program follows a 100:80:100 principle, wherein participating companies stick to 100% of pay for 80% of the time while, in theory, achieving 100% output.

    “This is essentially a human resource transformation project and it is a productivity intervention. Organizations are really struggling to grapple with improving their productivity or output of their businesses’ performance—that’s because they’re fundamentally missing the foundation of a business which is run by its people,” Whelehan said.

    Why not three days’ work for six days’ pay?

    • robc

      When I worked for a Swiss national lab, the standard Swiss government week was 42.5 hrs.

      You were expected to put in 8.5 hrs of work per weekday.

      There is a reason Switzerland is richer than most of Europe.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I remember having to tell an Indian contractor who had just moved to Minnesoda from NYC that an 8 hour day here was from 8am to 5pm. Lunch was not billable.

        He was outraged. He even called some of his buddies back in NYC and told them what was going on.

    • The Last American Hero

      I’ll see that and raise you 2 days’ work for 8 days’ pay.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ll offer you two days pay for eight days work.

      • juris imprudent

        Old Soviet joke – they pretend to pay us, we pretend to work.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I can see now why the Euroweenies are so mad. Expecting them to work 80% of the time? That is unbearable!! Especially during August. Everyone knows that August is when everyone goes on vacation at the same time.

      The one guy who gets stuck working during August won’t actually help. He’ll just tell you that the person who can help you is on vacation and there is nothing he can do.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    The debate surrounding working hours in Germany is a contentious one—an overwhelming 73% of Germans are in favor of cutting the workweek short while receiving the same wage.

    No shit, Shirley?

  28. The Late P Brooks

    But also, I have no idea what the Delaware law on pay packages for executives says, so no idea if this was a good decision or not. Nothing I have seen actually discusses that issue.

    As far as I can tell, there was nothing intrinsically illegal about the compensation package. The argument revolves around Musk’s capture and enslavement of the board of directors. And envy.

    • kinnath

      The argument revolves around Musk’s capture and enslavement of the board of directors.

      That’s what I got from the article yesterday. Shareholders sued because they believed the board was not protecting the interest of the shareholders. Which is a legitimate reason to complain.

      The article furthers states that Tesla hit all the internal growth estimates. So, it appears to me the compliant is not valid.

      The judge, however, is clearly grandstanding and should be flogged in public.

      • R C Dean

        Another issue, apparently, was that the internal growth goals were shared with Tesla’s bankers, but not the public. Which is a completely normal thing in publicly traded companies. The SEC rules make it a dangerous thing indeed to release “too much” info “too early” to the public, but big financial backers are going to want to see that stuff, even if it means they can’t trade on it.

        I am by no means an expert on DE corporate law, but this ruling strikes me as crap. We’ll see what happens on appeal. I’ll keep an eye out on the white shoe law firm white papers and see what they say (although even if they think it’s crap, they won’t say so in so many words).

      • kinnath

        but this ruling strikes me as crap.

        I see two possible options here. First, the judge knows it’s crap. But is taking an opportunity to grandstand know it will be overruled on appeal. Second, the judge is actually stupid and believes this horseshit. I am on this fence, which of these is the worst case.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Germany has seen productivity slide in recent years as a result of poor infrastructure investment—so could a shorter week help address that concern? Maybe not, Schäfer said. He thinks it can be hard to gauge productivity improvements from a short program involving voluntary participants.

    There has been no shortage of misguided “investment” in energy infrastructure. That could be having an effect.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, nice dodge. Their industry is about to completely tank because of idiot pols listening to idiot “activists”.

      They will get their shorter work week because they are no longer capable of producing anything of value. But it won’t be 100%.

    • UnCivilServant

      Got tired of the “wood for sheep” jokes?

    • Nephilium

      They’re just prepping for the new version coming out.

    • R.J.

      Maybe. Regardless the name of the site is hilarious. “The Conversation.” It should be renamed “The Struggle.”

    • UnCivilServant

      I just noticed that your youtube link was on making crumpets.

      • Not Adahn

        Don’t know how that got added — my best friend sent me that, I’ll be trying it this weekend.

      • UnCivilServant

        Let us know how they turn out

      • Ownbestenemy

        They look good.

      • Not Adahn

        I rarely get real crumpets, but yeah they’re pretty amazing.

  30. Brochettaward

    In the future, Firsters will have immunity for all acts taken against the seconders.

  31. Sean

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 02/01:
    *20/20 words (+8 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 1% by bonus words

    I played https://squaredle.com 02/01:
    *48/48 words (+8 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 32% by bonus words
    🔥 Solve streak: 130

    • R C Dean

      They had to be baked on something. Why didn’t the renter know his pals were in his own backyard? Why didn’t his pals just leave when he locked them out? Who sleeps for what, two-three days straight through? If it was just booze, WI would be littered with frozen corpses every winter. It wasn’t just booze.

      • Mojeaux

        r/KC says fentanyl. Body temp goes up, you go outside, you pass out, you hit hypothermia, you never wake up in time to notice you were locked out much less get help or go home.

    • Pope Jimbo

      If the door wasn’t locked, gawkers would have come in and seen Kelce and Swift macking on the couch.

      That house was their secret love nest.

      • R.J.

        Heh. More likely as his buddies got more and more whacked on drugs they got crazy and he kicked them out. Then everyone passed out. D-E-D dead.

  32. UnCivilServant

    Can soldering fumes be filtered out, or just vented?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Just vent them, you aren’t doing industrial work.

      • UnCivilServant

        My workbench isn’t near a convenient window, and this time of year there isn’t convenient weather for venting.

    • Not Adahn

      They can be filtered. Exactly what you’d need to do it, I’d have to check.

      • Not Adahn

        I’ve filtered airborne organotin with permangante/carbon filters. No idea if those are out there on the consumer market.

      • UnCivilServant

        Is This anything like the filters you used?

      • Not Adahn

        Yes. Obviously smaller. but same concept. You’ll need an FFU though.

      • UnCivilServant

        I was getting annoyed as even when I was holding my breath, the airflow around my workbench seemed to be “send fumes directly at face”. I did my best not to inhale that, but I doubt it was clear when the visible vapors were gone.

    • Common Tater

      Yes, they make desktop fume extractors. I have a Hakko 493.

  33. Suthenboy

    “I’m old enough to remember when TV was ruining our children”

    Note of interest: never heard anyone talk about it but I noticed that prior to TV being common people from one area to another, either large or small distances apart, had noticeably different accents/dialects and verbal patterns.
    As TV became more ubiquitous that changed quite a bit. Our language has become much more uniform. Those differences still exist but they are orders of magnitude smaller.

    • Nephilium

      It’s brought up quite a bit with the internet and various subcultures. It used to be (as an example) you would have an LA punk scene, a Berkley punk scene, a NY punk scene, a DC punk scene, etc. and they would all have some different tells, signals, stylistic choices…. Now, with information being spread nearly instantly, that gets a lot more homogenized.

      • juris imprudent

        Nothing like homogenized non-conformity.

      • ron73440

        When I joined the Marine Corps, I still had my jean jacket with Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Black Sabbath, and other patches on it.

        I remember one guy said that I must be from the east coast with that jacket.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Europe still has a lot of dialects. My wife’s family lives only about 10 miles from the center of the capitol city, and sometimes she has to translate from their dialect to the official language so I can understand. Go to the next town, and it’s yet another dialect.

    • R C Dean

      Too bad it was a Repub dinner so Swalwell wasn’t there. Because that just begs for somebody to hoist a cheek and let one rip.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Musk has made a lot of money for Tesla shareholders, and he gets his pay whacked. It’s difficult to see how this is a good and proper application of the rules against executives taking advantage of shareholders.

    If this were a case of clawing back cash compensation from a chief executive who was looting the treasury as the firm went under, it would make (more) sense. If it were about “reasonable” compensation for some random caretaker puked up by an executive search committee, instead of the founder and driving force behind pretty much everything, it might make more sense.

    • juris imprudent

      They gots to teach that uppity African his proper place.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Can soldering fumes be filtered out, or just vented?

    If you’ve got room, try putting a fan on the table to draw the fumes away. I’m thinking about giving that a try for the flux core welder; that stuff is smoky. How bad it is for you, I don’t know, but it makes it hard to see the weld.

    • R.J.

      Unless you spend a ton on a filter it will work about as well as the above stovetop fan and filter combos that blow bacon grease onto your ceiling. If you don’t have a window handy, you can always run a pipe to a fan in another room to help pull out the smoke. Are you soldering that much lately? I generally find it takes over 30 minutes of non-stop soldering to get a big smelly cloud. I worry less about 5 minutes here and there.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Here you go.

    I just need to draw the smoke from the flux core welding wire away from the work, so I can see the joint. I’m not welding in the house.

    • R.J.

      That’s what orphans with newspaper fans are for. That’s even cheaper.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Ultra MAGA radicals will stop at nothing


    In the lead-up to the South Carolina primary, a conservative group is eyeing the state as a valuable testing ground for messages opposing the US Food and Drug Administration’s proposed menthol cigarette ban, something they hope will chip away at President Joe Biden’s Black vote.

    The Liberty Policy Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, plans on launching an aggressive ad campaign in South Carolina to see whether it can sway some public opinion against Biden and Democrats, according to a Republican strategist working with the group.

    The ads rolled out on digital platforms Wednesday morning.

    The ad campaign is targeting three groups, the strategist said: African Americans who disapprove of Biden and think he has been ineffective as president, small business owners and young Americans who lean independent.

    They will sacrifice millions of helpless ignorant black people hooked on deadly menthol cigarettes, in pursuit of their depraved attempt to destroy democracy.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Biden has yet to decide on whether to approve the FDA’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes, which health advocates say would save hundreds of thousands of Black lives, but which could also be unpopular with some Black voters.

    Menthol cigarettes are the preferred cigarette among many Black smokers after the tobacco industry heavily marketed menthols in the Black community for decades. Menthol cigarettes continue to be widely available and priced cheaper in Black communities, according to the nonprofit advocacy group, The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

    Industrial murder.

    • rhywun

      priced cheaper in Black communities

      lolwhat

      Bullshit.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Other groups, such as the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus, support the proposed menthol cigarette ban.

    In a report issued on Wednesday, the American Lung Association called for the Biden administration to act “swiftly” on the proposed ban.

    “Menthol cigarettes make it both easier to start and harder to quit by reducing the harshness of the smoke and cooling the throat,” notes the association’s annual State of Tobacco Control report. Researchers estimate that a regulation banning menthol cigarettes would save about 654,000 lives over the next 40 years, especially those of Black smokers, who are disproportionately more likely to smoke menthols.

    They should force cigarette makers to flavor their product with rat poison. That will reduce smoking.

    • creech

      For once,(((they))) weren’t alleged to be the masterminds.

    • Suthenboy

      C’mon BB, up your game. How is this any different than the story we read yesterday by some space cadet lefty alleging the same in earnest….well alleged as earnestly as any lie can be.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Who’s on trial here?

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has no plans to step down from the Georgia election subversion case over allegations she’s having an affair with her lead prosecutor, a decision driven in part over concern that her departure would effectively end the case against Donald Trump and his multiple defendants, sources familiar with the thinking inside the DA’s office told CNN.

    The sprawling racketeering case still has no trial date, and Willis and her team are keenly aware that the window to go to trial before the 2024 election is rapidly shrinking. Any change in the team handling the prosecution would likely delay the proceedings, and it’s unclear if another prosecutor in Georgia would even be inclined to take up the case, given its political and legal challenges.

    Willis has faced immense public scrutiny since allegations first surfaced that she has benefitted financially from a romantic relationship with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade. Despite calls by some legal experts to recuse herself from the case to protect its integrity, she is not expected to do so, the sources told CNN.

    She’s a genuine visionary and a hero. She’s saving democracy from authoritarianism.

    • prolefeed

      She’s saving democracy by disenfranchising wrong thinkers who might vote for someone who will end democracy, by getting a majority of votes from people who do not understand that democracy means voting for Democrats.