257 Comments

  1. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’
    whats goody

    Heya Banjos- how YOU doin’ ?

    • Banjos

      A little sick and worn out but am doing great. Trying to catch up on a massive to do list post vacation.

      • Ted S.

        That’s what your husband is for.

      • Banjos

        That poor man has been traveling nonstop the day after coming home. He’s more exhausted than I am.

  2. juris imprudent

    Fuck Chuck and spike Mike – cut spending.

    • Rat on a train

      “We’ve come to an agreement to limit the growth in spending to no more than 25% per year.”

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Which is a decrease from 20% per year.

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

      That will happen just as soon as we get competent presidents. Magic 8-ball says “not on the horizon.”

      The spending thing is good as it keeps the D’s from taking advantage from an R unforced error. They never protest when an R is in the catbird seat, and only look like idiots when the D’s can beat them up over this. Sucks, but there it is.

  3. UnCivilServant

    Spending Deal Has Been Reached

    Booo!

    Cut spending.

  4. Nephilium

    I’ve been enjoying that articles asking for Sotomayor to retire, it’s almost like they don’t want another RBG flip.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      If we have learned nothing else we have learned that these people will cling to power until their dying breath, pragmatic concerns be damned.

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

      But what would we do without a wise Latina to guide us?

      • R C Dean

        We’ll be fine. We have Affirmative Action Jackson . I think a Magic Negro should be able to take up the slack from the Wise Latina.

      • dbleagle

        Too bad the Constitution “hamstrings” her ability to occupy two SC seats as the same time.

      • Common Tater

        Justice Lizzo?

  5. Not Adahn

    “I think my experiences as someone who crossdresses have sharpened the skills I use as an intelligence officer,” the anonymous intelligence officer claims, going on to say he is now “more aware of, and hopefully more supportive of, my women colleagues.” He expands on the point, saying that he has a “better appreciation for how it can be uncomfortable to wear women’s clothes sometimes.”

    “I believe my minstrelry gives me greater understanding of and more supportive of, my African brothers.”

    • Not Adahn

      “Sand dancing is hard!”

    • Not Adahn

      “When I crossdress it still distracts people, even though it is professional,”

      AIIIEEEE!

      • Fourscore

        Have we reached peak stupidity? Every day I’m amazed/dumbfounded with some of the unreal world things that pass for normal today. If little Bobby wants to wear his sister’s clothes at home I don’t care. If little Bobby show up at the school bus stop wearing his sister’s clothes I’d expect him to be ridiculed/laughed at and he would run home crying. Seems like peer pressure has been lost or forbidden.

        Waive the requirements for med school (or any other discipline) and watch the failures appear in real life. I hope the kid rotating the tires on my truck is not performing at DEI level. We need to learn the harsh reality of the natural world.

      • cyto

        It it so weird…. they tried this “gender is a social construct” thing back in the 70s. They gave little girls guns and GI Joe’s and gave little boys Barbie and makeup. Even when raised with girl stuff, the boys played shooting games and threw stuff, and the girls played family with GI Joe.

        This communist foundational belief, that all people are not just equal before the law, but are interchangeable cogs that have no innate differences, is oddly persistent. There is absolutely no evidence to support it and a ton of evidence refuting it. Yet it remains the foundation of their ideology.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Because its a pillar to their ideology? Its the wholesale destruction of the individual and you are just one blob.

      • Fourscore

        The ’70s were the beginning of major changes in the military. Now even the Marines are integrating Basic Training.

        The spirit of the bayonet is apparently “not to kill”

      • UnCivilServant

        “Set Bayonets to Stun”

        – Things you’ll never hear on a battlefield

      • juris imprudent

        Communist, yes, but not just them. It is Plato/Rousseau and it is cooked through a large part of Western culture. Real fucking communists are a rare breed, but fucking idiots out to remake society are pretty common.

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

        Communism is a Western thing, and it isn’t surprising that it came out of Plato/Rousseau and their dreamatorium.

      • juris imprudent

        Communism is only an academic discipline at this point.

    • Rat on a train

      I figured it would be more like “Compared to my non-crossdressing peers, I could go undercover in China as either a male or female prostitute.”

    • EvilSheldon

      I don’t see anything wrong with a case officer who likes to wear women’s undies for the kinky thrill sometimes. Compared to some of the shit these cats get up to, a little crossdressing is flat fucking normal.

      But ‘sharpen(ing) the skills (you) use as an intelligence officer?’ Get real…

      • Not Adahn

        I have no problem with that, I have a problem with “my conduct is professional, if it distracts my coworkers, they’re the ones being unprofessional>.”

      • EvilSheldon

        Yup. I would think that if this dude was anything other than a headquarters dweeb, he would understand the value of keeping a low profile.

      • Not Adahn

        Area 8 is a bit of a drive, but it’s the first match I’ve seen that lets the staff shoot it in the same amount of time as paying competitors. How could I turn down that opportunity?

      • Suthenboy

        Low profile.
        Crossdressers, trannies, so on are people trying to be the center of attention. I think spies would try to be the opposite.

  6. Not Adahn

    Where is everyone?

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m in the office.

      They’re installing new keycard readers on the doors and the noise was something awful. I think they finished and I’m basking in the quiet.

    • Drake

      Trying to understand that Epoch news article without signing up.

      • Not Adahn

        I heard the headline, but NPR didn’t go into detail about how it was possible.

      • juris imprudent

        Apparently the SC ruled on an emergency stay – which they lifted, and the 5th Circuit put it back on hold while they hear arguments today (which apparently was part of the SC ruling – kicking it back down).

      • juris imprudent

        Here’s the fun part:

        Mexico is also not responsible to accept deportations of anyone beside Mexican citizens. The country said it would not “under any circumstances” accept the return of migrants from the state of Texas, The Associated Press reported.

        Then don’t let them in when they tell you they are going to the U.S.

      • cyto

        Seems like there was a president of the US who had reached such an agreement with Mexico. I wonder what happened?

      • juris imprudent

        He must’ve been some kind of bad man.

      • DrOtto

        Orange you glad he’s gone?

      • R C Dean

        Well, when Mexico’s options are “don’t let them in from other countries to transit Mexico, because they will just pile up at the US border” and “don’t expect your own citizens to get in, because they will just pile up at the US border”. Oh, and “if people start piling up at the US border your baksheesh from the US is going to take a hit”, well, incentives matter.

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

        Do they have ID’s saying what country they came from? No, then they came from Mexico…

    • Rat on a train

      I am here according to the map.

      • Fourscore

        I’m holding the map upside down and north is not at the top. I’m trying to confuse the map. So far I’ve won 1/2 the battle, I’m confused so there’s that.

      • slumbrew

        Wherever you go, there you are.

      • UnCivilServant

        Darn, I’m working on trilocation.

      • cyto

        “I’m here”

        One of my favorite lines, from the animated “The Tick” series.

        The Tick stands heroically, studying a map on the wall in a big box store.

        “Hmmmm….. you are here….. Well old chum, being here is a lot like being lost.”

      • Nephilium

        Wasn’t that when he was in his mindscape? Before he met his mind, which was easily distracted by shiny objects.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Go outside and shake a tree whilst looking at the map.

    • Ted S.

      Some of us work.

      • Swiss Servator

        *Rufus nods approvingly*

    • Grummun

      Workin’.

      What should have been routine data center work has caused a storage array to poop itself. Not my circus, but I’m sitting on the call listening to the frantic recovery effort.

      • UnCivilServant

        The only time we had serious SAN issues was when we tried to fit 150% of the capacity onto the array using compression. The process chewed through disks like crazy. (It was a feature offered by the array but intended for archival rather than transactional data). Eventually the agency was convinced to buy an array big enough for their data and surprise surprise, we stopped having hardware issues.

      • Not Adahn

        we had serious SAN issues

        When the book is bound in leather that has tentacles which are still alive, do not read it!

      • UnCivilServant

        Those are the ones containing the Deep Magic. I wrote a few…

        (More seriously I don’t get how your reference relates to storage area networks)

      • Not Adahn

        SAN was a Call of Cthulu stat. One which every character ran out of before the end of the module.

      • UnCivilServant

        Ah.

        Sanity is for the weak.

      • Grummun

        I’m trying to run a CoC game for my local group. They haven’t really embraced the mindset of “Horror Roleplaying.”

        Me: “You enter a clearing. On the far side of the clearing is the very cabin you saw in your nightmare the previous night. The door hangs open, the interior is shrouded in darkness.”
        Player: “I burn it down.”
        Me: “…. oookay.”

        They are much more used to kicking doors and shooting their problems. I’m going to try them on Pulp Cthulhu, which is a more action-oriented variant of CoC.

      • UnCivilServant

        “Do you hear the voices too?”

        Horror roleplaying? Am I the monster?

  7. R C Dean

    “Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Leader Chuck Schumer Say Spending Deal Has Been Reached”

    No matter my ass was hurting when I got up this morning.

  8. Not Adahn

    So, NPR was shilling (hard!) for Netflix’s Three Body Problem. I was confused because that TV show already exists on Prime. Kudos to whoever managed to sell the rights twice. From Eric “I don’t want to see any more stories about White people” Deggins’ review, the Neflix one is more adapted from/inspired by the books than the Prime one.

    • slumbrew

      I am apparently in the minority of hating that book. The characters could not have been more wooden. Nor do I get people being blown away by the plot, as if it were mind blowing and wholly original.

      • Not Adahn

        I didn’t hate it, but I thought the only one that was good was Death’s End.

        The one thing I found frustrating was a supposedly “hard” sci-fi that relied on (spoiler alert) the Sun acting ike a goddamned radio amplifier. THE SUN DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY! If you’re going to have magic-level ultratech, do not break already established principles of scientific understanding!

      • The Last American Hero

        I thought it was very meh. Only read the first one and had no desire to continue.

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

      Isn’t it by a Chinese author? ‘Cause that might be your reason.

  9. cyto

    How you know they are all in on it….. the RNC did absolutely nothing about the state election problems until Trump took over. Now suddenly they are taking action. Probably way too little and way too late.

    • juris imprudent

      I look forward to the explanations of how there were more votes than eligible residents. Hopefully no one gives me one when they are in range of my fist.

      • Fourscore

        “Well, we’ve changed the definition of eligible residents, that’s why there’s seems to be a little confusion. If I have to explain it would just confuse you, trust me on this”

      • Nephilium

        The number of eligible residents is just an approximation, here, let me show you the model I used to come up with the numbers.

      • Not Adahn

        You need to use indigenous ways of knowing the proper amounts of eligible voters.

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

        Again, we will always need the guidance of the wise Latina.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Another year, now two states removed, I am still getting LA County ballots via mail. Its a mess, they know its a mess and a press conference will be held and they will go back to not giving a shit cause its a big club and we aint in it.

      • R C Dean

        Step one of ballot manufacturing is having an oversupply of registered voters. You are part of their surplus inventory on that front. Lets just hope your registration doesn’t get used to manufacture a ballot, or else you will have broken the law making it illegal for a non-resident to vote.

      • prolefeed

        My tax software asked me if I wanted to register to vote in CA, even though I was filing a state tax return as a non-resident and said I hadn’t set foot in the state all year.

        Almost like when I got a jury summons from the Travis County Sheriff, even though I don’t live in said county, because it turns out part of my post office zip code includes a bit of Austin.

        When I called the sheriff’s office in the county I live in to ask what the hell was going on, they kind of grumpily said Austin tries to rope in people outside their jurisdiction a lot, and oh so carefully implied I might toss the summons without repercussions, without directly saying that on what I assumed was a recorded line.

      • Cunctator

        —“Another year, now two states removed, I am still getting LA County ballots via mail”—

        Piker. I had five. Mine and four people who have never lived at my address. Two of my brothers (one deceased & one living in Nevada) received two ballots each, from another county from where I live.

      • dbleagle

        Four here in Hawaii. I have lived in this house for going on 12 years so it is not like they are recent departures.

        Of course the only solace to take is that this is Hawaii and I can vote for anybody- because it doesn’t matter. The Dem gets our 4 EC votes, just like every election except Nixon 72 and Reagan 84.

    • slumbrew

      New RNC leadership is contributing. Rona was the very model of a modern establishment RINO.

  10. Necron 99

    Morning Banjos. That GIF is nightmare fuel.

    • juris imprudent

      Oh I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

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

      Sexy nightmares, or sad nightmares?

  11. Rufus the Monocled

    That was a good article about Sotomayor. It points directly to the sheer callous mindset and values of the left. Everyone’s expendable in the service of ‘The Party’. If that’s not a commie outlook I don’t know what is.

    Too much weight is being put on the judiciary to ‘solve’ societal and cultural problems. It’s a sing of a weak legislative body refusing to do its job offloading its responsibilities elsewhere.

    • DrOtto

      I suppose you think it’s congress job to draft and pass bills on to the President to sign for passing into law?

      • Rufus the Monocled

        If not that, then what are they good for? Orgies?

  12. Timeloose

    I’m attending a rare concert on a weeknight. I expect to be a bit of a zombie tomorrow morning.

    I think that Ministry, Gary Numan, and Front Line Assembly will be worth it. Great bill for ~$50 and I get to see Uncle Al one last time. I’m most looking forward to seeing Gary Numan again.

    • Nephilium

      I think that tour is (or came through) here as well. My schedule has been a bit packed with concerts of late, with the Slackers being next on the agenda (assuming I can’t convince the girlfriend that we should see the Koffin Kats).

      • Timeloose

        I’m chocked full of music this spring. I have to miss another show this Friday so I can go see Oribital. Orbital is Mrs. Time’s Jam not mine, but she has indulged my industrial music more than any normal human should have to.

      • Nephilium

        I just bought the club shows for Punk Rock Bowling this past weekend. The girlfriend and I will be seeing El Vez and Mac Sabbath, I grabbed a solo ticket for Lagwagon and Karaoke with Guttermouth. I was tempted to pull the trigger for the Suicide Machines or All, but I see the Suicide Machines regularly and the Descendents are headlining one night.

      • Common Tater

        Mac Sabbath?

    • rhywun

      Nice. That early 90’s period of FLA was a big favorite.

    • UnCivilServant

      “You know we don’t serve Duck here.”

      • The Other Kevin

        Two guys are walking down the street. One walks into a bar. The other one ducks.

    • Not Adahn

      First of all, I’ve never known a housebroken duck.

      Second of all, fuck that guy:

      “Can I put her on a leash?” he asked, and the employee said it would be fine.

      At that point, Wood put Wrinkle on an imaginary leash and the duck continued to follow him around the store.

      • Banjos

        glol

      • Gender Traitor

        “Well, you’ve heard of invisible fences, haven’t you?”

    • The Other Kevin

      There is a Buc-ee’s billboard on 94 here in Indiana. It says “Buc-ees 368 miles.” I LOL’d.

      • Not Adahn

        Less than a six hour drive.

      • The Other Kevin

        I think it’s in Tennessee.

      • Tres Cool

        Ill have to look next time Im going north from Cincy, but there used to be a billboard for Bronner’s christmas place in Frankenmuth, MI

        Which is only about 300 miles.

        *if you ever find yourself in the tourist-trap of Frankenmuth, the Zender’s chicken IS worth it.

      • The Other Kevin

        I have seen Bronner’s billboards around here too. It’s a pilgrimage for midwestern old ladies. I have been there once, with some elderly in-laws.

      • Nephilium

        There is one near Ravenna going westbound (unless they’ve moved it) on the turnpike, I seem to recall one on 90 as well. You know, in case you wanted to add an additional 500 miles round trip to go visit.

  13. juris imprudent

    Interesting theory I guess. I mean, the dark-shit universe is ridiculously silly and complex. Why shouldn’t light slow down over time – because it wouldn’t be the perfect measure any more? We can’t observe it over even just a million years, let alone a billion.

    • R C Dean

      How anybody could take dark matter seriously is a bit of a mystery. It was never based on observation, but was crafted solely to plug a hole in a theory.

      Now, that’s a set up for a testable hypothesis, I guess, but when nobody could detect so much as a gram of the stuff, much less a sizable percentage of the mass of the universe, well, hypothesis failed.

      • Not Adahn

        Well, no. It was based on discrepancies in an otherwise extremely good theory. That same theory that predicted gravity waves which we only just detected. You might as well say that Doppler shift was crafter solely to plug a hole in a theory, because that was the same thing — we saw the absorption lines where they shouldn’t be and instead of deciding “well, I guess quantum mechanics is disproven,” they came up with it.

      • cyto

        Dark energy.

        Dark matter is pretty well observed in its gravitational effects. It was first proposed because of the rotation of galaxies (they move too fast and too uniformely), but gravitational lensing allows its gravity to be observed. The bullet galaxy is the famous one… two galaxies colliding and the dark matter has gone right through, being mapped outside of the two galaxies at this point because it doesn’t interact excepting through gravity. MOND is supposed to be an alternative, but I don’t know how that explains the Bullet galaxy.

        Dark energy is just a plugged number to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe.

      • R C Dean

        Well, I have been slightly ensmartened. Although now it sounds like “dark energy” is just a plug for a hole in the theory.

        Sad when you get better info from two commenters on an obscure website than from “science journalism”.

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

        Well, you have a theory, and while that is very good, it doen’t cover all the bases, so you have another theory for that.

        Like turtles, it is theories all the way down. /half joking, but only half.

      • Homple

        Dark matter has joined phlogiston, epicycles, caloric fluid and luminiferous aether in the museum of ideas that were not quite right. I bet lots of cutely named particles end up there, too

      • R C Dean

        *furtively slides half empty bottle of caloric fluid behind monitor*

    • Ownbestenemy

      I believe more that the universe is twice as old as current theories than I do in some unknown dark matter. I mean, it solves a lot of questions without making shit up to fill in the gaps. /not studied on this at all

      • Ownbestenemy

        Or what R C Dean said

    • Not Adahn

      Well, if Dark Matter is silly, why isn’t smooshing together “covarying coupling constants” (is that silly?) with “tired light” (silly or not silly?) doubly silly?

      I mean, photons are not supposed to experience the passage of time, therefore they literally should be incapable of aging.

      NB: often when these things are reported (like MOND) they do often explain one set of anomalous observations better but explain others (conveniently not mentioned in the article) m,uch worse.

      Or alternatively, you are experiencing Gell-Mann amnesia. Science journalismists are usually vastly worse than political journalismists.

      • Nephilium

        I wouldn’t say it was silly, I mostly enjoyed it.

      • The Last American Hero

        The sudden cancellation of the show was rather abrupt, but it was watchable.

      • cyto

        The idea of light experiencing no time is really interesting. It is both emitted and absorbed simultaneously, from its point of view. The CMB photons are simultaneously here, and tens of billions of light years away.

        Hearing about it on some science show with cool graphics is fun… but doing the math and having these odd behaviors just drop out of the math is the best.

      • juris imprudent

        Overall, I don’t expect a random product of evolution on Earth to comprehend the entire history of the Universe. We can invent whatever stories we want – with whatever justifications – but it doesn’t mean we really figure it all out. Believing otherwise is hubris.

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

        To me, who comes from a whole family of scientists of all varieties and flavors, the hubris is in thinking that there is a constant set of rules that, once deducted, will for evermore answer all questions.

    • prolefeed

      It’s a fool’s game to assume the universe behaves according to common sense, since common sense is “this is how I think stuff behaves, based on my perception of events on this tiny bit of rock in an inconceivably huge universe”.

      But, a theory that presumes “almost all the matter in the universe can’t be detected at all, but it’s gotta be there to make our theory work”, seems far more bullshit than “than this thing we can measure and presume is a constant, despite only a single data point of time, might not be a constant after all, thus explaining the observed facts”.

      • creech

        We all should remember God created the universe out of the chaos. And first the politicians created the chaos .

    • juris imprudent

      Sure – that absolves all of the establishment, both parties and the MIC. Milley should’ve been crucified – he and every other general that lied about how effective the ANDF would be.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      They can spin all they want but people don’t fall for that shit anymore for the most part.

      • cyto

        The part that I find interesting is how people *instantly* believe the new line. That thread is full of people who always knew we were at war with Eurasia. This speech was the first time this was said… and now they always knew everything he said. None of what they heard at the time ever existed.

        It really is scary.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’s just Milley the Woke Lardass trying to retcon what actually happened in order to absolve his share of the blame. Screw that guy.

      • prolefeed

        If you start thinking about shit, instead of mindlessly believing the party line, you might come to conclusions that make you a pariah.

        Easier to just go along. My oldest kid, who is whip smart, explicitly told me that years ago.

      • juris imprudent

        people don’t fall for that shit anymore for the most part

        For the most part, most people still do.

        We are a bubble here, we are not normies.

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

        As a proxy, Trump* is currently leading in the polls. Not by much, but by enough for me to say that a plurality does not believe the current thing. Of course, with our current politics, roughly 40% will believe anything that supports their team (and this applies to both sides.

        *being an avatar for Not Going Along With The Current Shit is what Trump is, always and forever more.

    • R C Dean

      Minds changed: 0.

  14. juris imprudent

    Goddamn Mexico – letting Chinese into their country because they are going to cross our border. You can bet there is money changing hands for that.

    But how does the Biden Admin justify granting those Chinese asylum status? Is the admin saying the CCP is a tyrannical govt? Nope, they don’t say that. They do say that China is an enemy – threatening Taiwan; so how do you allow a bunch of possible agents of an enemy into your country?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Don’t worry, the government will be just requesting you be forced into a camp for asking such questions and it isn’t coercion what-so-ever because they asked a newly formed private security firm to do it.

      • juris imprudent

        I can kill an agent of that firm for attempting to coerce me.

    • rhywun

      — How do you allow a bunch of possible agents of an enemy into your country?

      Be an enemy of your country?

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

        Heinrich Garner approves this message.

  15. Stinky Wizzleteats

    “Biden’s Top Intelligence Agency Says Crossdressing Makes Man ‘Better Intelligence Officer”

    Well it worked for grandpa Simpson so why not?
    https://youtu.be/15whS2EUz28?si=pe4aIj-JpGBoAEcS

    • R C Dean

      So now we can say “crossdressing” again?

      • rhywun

        I saw a reference to “transvestite” the other day and it felt like being transported back to the age of speakeasies and flappers.

      • Not Adahn

        Aces!

      • Tres Cool

        Bully!

  16. Rufus the Monocled

    I really have come to believe Marxists are in the system in both the USA and Canada. They’ve always been there. Now they’ve sprung into action because they’ve amassed enough of an army of useful idiots.

    Change my mind?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Things have gone downhill ever since the Marxists and the neocons and the neolibs all realized they have more in common than they previously realized, that’s for damn sure.

      • R C Dean

        Well, the neocons started as Marxists, so . . . .

        The whole Russia is the debil thing is basically a bunch of Trotskyites relitigating Stalin’s takeover of the Soviet Union.

      • Drake

        It is remarkable how many Trotskyists have made their way into the State Department and / or the Kagan Cult.

      • R C Dean

        Commies have a very keen appreciation for the levers of power and how to manipulate them in a bureaucracy. It’s basically about 80% of what they argue about internally, as near as I can tell.

      • Tres Cool

        Trotsky?

        I thought it was Clodagh Rogers.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Interesting. What do you mean exactly? Trotskyites in Ukraine? In the IU.S. government? Are we posting to the fact Trotsky lost and was murdered and so his faction continues to exist today and seek retribution?

      • The Last American Hero

        I think it’s more the “real communism hasn’t been tried/the USSR wasn’t real communism” crowd than a Trotsky cult.

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

        I think Trotsky is the martyred saint of that crowd, and proof they are right! /sarc

      • R C Dean

        I have been under the impression that the founders/leading lights of neo-conism were (former?) Trotskyites. Also, that for neocons the Big Bad is and will be Russia.

    • Drake

      Purging them from the institutions would take a French Revolution style effort – when they went town to town with a guillotine on wheels.

      • R C Dean

        *subscribes to newsletter*

      • juris imprudent

        How’s France done ever after that? As WHOPPR put it “interesting game, the only winning move is to not play”.

      • Drake

        There revolution went into a sort of pre-commie phase and the purges were an attempt to kill off anyone who didn’t support it – particularly clergy. It was, of course, a disaster.

        It won’t happen here. A collapse and much bloodier civil war seems far more likely.

    • juris imprudent

      Look, everyone that is an intellectual heir of the Frankfurt School is not a Marxist. They don’t give a shit about dialectical materialism and proletarian revolution. All they want is to destroy what is present and claim whatever power they can. Gee, how long have humans been doing that? They’re fucking Jacobins far more than they are Marxists. They are barbarians to Roman civilization. American Progressives were misguided morons from the get-go, but it wasn’t until the New Left that they adopted any Marxist tropes, and for the most part they’ve shed them in favor of other stupid stories of oppression.

  17. Pope Jimbo

    You’d have to have a heart of stone to not laugh at this story.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Jeez, toughen up kid.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      I giggled and snickered. Uncontrollably.

    • The Other Kevin

      We babysit my 11 month old niece a few days a week. I’m good at making her laugh (I have a long standing reputation as the silly uncle). That laugh is the best sound in the world.

      • Mojeaux

        Baby giggles are awesome. So are baby feet.

  18. Pope Jimbo

    What do you mean we need customers? Minneapolis/St. Paul school districts are in for a bad time because all the kids left.

    As Minnesota schools set their budgets for the upcoming academic year, many are facing shortfalls. Districts say the deficits are triggered by inflation, costs associated with new legislative requirements and a looming fiscal cliff as pandemic funds are set to expire in September.

    In Minneapolis and St. Paul, though, plunging enrollment over decades has created a much deeper problem. Minnesota’s school funding system is based on a per-pupil formula, which means when kids choose to learn elsewhere, the thousands of dollars in state and federal funds that go with them is spent elsewhere.

    Minneapolis school board members on Tuesday will meet to talk about how to close a $110 million deficit. It’s a situation that makes it extremely difficult to cut costs fast enough as kids leave and don’t come back.

    Huh. Who’d a thunk that staying closed in the pandemic far longer than the surrounding districts would end up being a bad thing.

    Also not mentioned is that the St. Paul teachers just ended a strike. Maybe the administration should have taken that opportunity to pare down the employment rolls?

    • Fourscore

      I thought Cambodians and Somalis had big families or are those kids being home schooled too?

  19. Shpip

    On this date in 2020, I bought 24 double-size rolls of toilet paper and four ounces of cannabis. I’m not a hoarder — this was just for shits and giggles.

    In a similar vein, I decided to start a Glibs NCAA bracket challenge. No entry fee or prize money involved — this is just for bragging rights.

    Contest is at https://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/mens-basketball-bracket/group/104582/invitation?key=4ddf351751ad53b5 Password: Glibertarians

    Entries close at 12:15 EDT on Thursday 3/21, so don’t lollygag.

  20. Sensei

    Today’s new word “trichologist”.

    Reavey, a ​​trichologist (hair and scalp expert), says Act+Acre spent more than two years developing its showerhead with engineers. She says she got the idea when she was stuck in Mexico during the pandemic, and noticed her hair becoming more brittle.

    Status Showerheads—Yes, That’s Now a Thing
    Companies are touting splashy filtered fixtures for better hair and skin. Cue the spray of fighting: Rival brands launch attack ads at each other.

    https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/filtered-showerhead-hair-skin-jolie-3030f146?st=hd06d40epqivx9e&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Too complicated, I’ll keep using my full bucket attached to a swivel with a string tied to it thank you very much.

    • Common Tater

      I learned that word from that Kubrick Tom Cruise movie.

    • Fourscore

      Well, I can attest that the shower water has turned my hair white. For many years I had dark brown hair but daily showers caused it to go salt/pepper to finally salt.

      • Beau Knott

        Hah. It eroded mine away!

      • R.J.

        It’s the fluoride in the water.
        *Nods
        *Adjusts foil cap

  21. Sean

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 03/20:
    *18/18 words (+7 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 2% by bonus words

    I played https://squaredle.com 03/20:
    *33/33 words (+8 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 4% by bonus words
    🔥 Solve streak: 178

  22. Pope Jimbo

    Minnesoda one step closer to finally be able to watch men win all the powerlifting medals.

    The Minnesota Court of Appeals has found that discrimination against athletes based on gender identity violates the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

    In a ruling released Monday, the court announced it is sending the case of a transgender woman who was denied entry into USA Powerlifting (USAPL) competitions back to a district court to determine whether she was rejected because she is transgender. However, the Appeals Court justices ruled the lower court erred when granting judgement in favor of JayCee Cooper, a powerlifter who was banned from competing in women’s competitions.

    What is sad is that I know several women who are good athletes and old school feminists who all hate this but are afraid to say anything. They seem to think that if they oppose men playing women’s sports, that the next step will be a ban on abortion and then they will have to stay in the kitchen making sandwiches.

    I don’t get it either, but they are all willing to dummy up for The Cause.

    • The Other Kevin

      That is sad. Mrs. TOK has done powerlifting comps from time to time. If you look at the records for men vs women in the same age group and weight class, it’s not even close. It would be really easy for a male to smash every one of those records and a women would never win them back.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Why not identify as a smaller woman too? Some of those heavyweight records can still be tough.

        I identify as a 105lb. woman. That should make being the all time record holder pretty easy.

      • Fourscore

        Well, if you show up at HH wearing a skirt there may be a few guys, some not married maybe, that may be making a play. Make a sandwich and you’ll spark a lot of attention.

      • R.J.

        a GOOD sandwich.

      • slumbrew

        https://boysvswomen.com/

        Track and field & swimming, high-school boys vs. female Olympians.

        The results will surprise nobody here.

      • The Last American Hero

        We need to eliminate women’s sports and just have sports for 5 years (enough to encompass an Olympic cycle). It’s the only thing that will end this madness.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Have a bunch of high school all stars join the WNBA and destroy the league.

    • Not Adahn

      I choose to believe that was a deliberate callback to one of the classics.

      • Fatty Bolger

        It is, it says so right in the article. lol

  23. Sensei

    AIG – naturally… And Chubb (nee ACE) with Evan who learned it from his dad!

    The insurers say the owners should have done more to grab planes before they were seized. And they are arguing in court filings that the U.S.’s support for Ukraine means that it is, in effect, at war with Russia. That would void some claims.

    Russia Seized 400 Foreign-Owned Jets. Then an Epic Insurance Fight Began.
    https://www.wsj.com/finance/russia-seized-400-foreign-owned-jets-then-an-epic-insurance-fight-began-194c1ded?st=fma4lljuh76q9v7&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • cyto

      Perfectly foreseeable consequence of seizing “oligarch” assets. If stealing boats was OK, then stealing planes is OK.

    • Drake

      A similar thing going on in Russia over seized yachts?

      Back in the days when we did diplomacy, could probably have worked out a deal.

      • juris imprudent

        Diplomacy isn’t near as much fun as moralistic preening.

      • The Other Kevin

        If there’s money to be made, someone will figure out how to do it.

      • Drake

        I’d kick in a few dollars for her pest removal fund.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’s in fucking NYC. There’s got to be a local Italian “social club” where they could hire an eviction team.

      • R C Dean

        The problem is, once you do that, they own you because you are now a criminal co-conspirator.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Right? It’s like they never watched The Sopranos.

      • Drake

        Only work where the Justice system was more corrupt and less fair than the mafia?

    • R C Dean

      At some point, people are just going to decide their best option is to get the insurance money, and start burning these places down.

      Easy to blame the fire on the squatters, too.

      • Drake

        In states with ‘stand your ground’ laws there would be a different solution once the owner got inside.

      • EvilSheldon

        Unlikely. SYG isn’t going to immunize you from provoking a confrontation, especially when the court has decided that the squatters also have the legal right to be on the property.

        If you’re considering a direct action solution, you’re going to have to do it without getting caught. Not that I would ever suggest something like that…

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Too easy to accidentally kill someone doing that. No one wants a manslaughter rap or whatever you’d be likely to get.

      • R C Dean

        “Damn squatters burned my house down. Why are you arresting me?”

        Yeah, the whole getting-away-with-it is an important part of the plan.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Devolution of society on schedule

    “Vigilantes”

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Let joy be unrestrained

    New York Attorney General Letitia James could soon start seizing some of Donald Trump’s properties if the former president cannot come up with a $464 million bond in his civil fraud case.

    On Monday, Trump’s lawyers filed a document in court saying they are unable to secure the bond amount, which has increased from $454 million because of interest, in the civil fraud case brought by James.

    “The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude,” Trump’s lawyers said. “Despite scouring the market, we have been unsuccessful in our efforts to obtain a bond for the Judgment Amount for Defendants for the simple reason that obtaining an appeal bond for $464 million is a practical impossibility under the circumstances presented.”

    ——-

    The former president has until March 25 to come up with the bond amount or James could begin seizing some of his assets and properties.

    Land of the free, they said.

    Home of the brave, they said.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s legally sanctioned mass theft.

    • kinnath

      I had always assumed that a billionaire would be immune from this level of persecution. It is horrifying just how wrong I was.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I think Trump had made that assumption too. An expensive lesson to learn no doubt.

      • R C Dean

        This level of persecution is completely unprecedented, so I don’t blame him for not seeing it coming.

      • Fourscore

        The Charlie Brown of billionaires

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

        Best. Comment. Ever.

      • Tres Cool

        Even billion$ don’t matter when you have the full weight and might of the Imperial Federal Government (deep state) coming after you.

    • juris imprudent

      All he has to do is overstate the value of the properties securing the bond! Problem solved.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    If Trump were half the monster they say he is, Letitia James would have stumbled into the path of a subway train by now.

    • Tres Cool

      C’mon now. He’s a monster but he’s certainly no Clinton.

    • creech

      No friendly connections with any of the Five Families?

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Today, in institutionalized hate

    Republicans said they are trying to guard against programs that “deepen divisions,” but Black Democrats called it an effort to roll back affirmative action programs that welcome and encourage diversity.

    The bill says schools, universities and state agencies cannot require students, employees and contractors to attend classes and training sessions “that advocates for or requires assent” to what the bill lists as eight “divisive concepts.” The list of banned concepts includes that “any individual should accept, acknowledge, affirm, or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity, or a need to apologize on the basis of his or her race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.”

    The bill also would attempt to prohibit transgender people on college campuses from using multiple occupancy restrooms that correspond with their current gender identity.

    They’re bringing back Jim Crow. Whites Only drinking fountains are just around the corner.

    • Pope Jimbo

      My grandkids will look on today’s bathrooms with their “Men” and “Women” signs with the same revulsion we look at those “White” and “Colored” fountain signs.

      • R C Dean

        Your grandkids are going to look at today’s bathrooms and marvel at the wonder of indoor plumbing, at the rate we’re going.

      • UnCivilServant

        “Those evil prerevs actually wasted water removing the holy earth from their bodies”

      • creech

        Yes, they’ll be peeing and crapping in the bushes because there’s no competent people to run the sanitation system.

  28. slumbrew

    Hey R C Dean

    You got some love in The Fifth Column comments the other day, including from Welch, talking about the (old) Reason comment section:

    https://wethefifth.substack.com/p/firehose-84-did-we-really-mostly/comments

    sbminbkk Mar 17
    Absolutely. I learned a great deal from the comment section. I’m sure Matt mighy agree, often the comment section was superior to the post in content and insight. Matt, did you guys ever meet commentor R.C. Dean? He should have been a contributor. Smart, insightful cat.

    Matt Welch Mar 17
    R.C. Dean was great. I used to love the comments. Haven’t read them hardly at all since … 2015?

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Went downhill after the woodchipper controversy.

      Um, no.

    • Fatty Bolger

      I’m sure Matt mighy agree, often the comment section was superior to the post in content and insight.

      Huh. I wonder when that changed, and why? Ah, well, some mysteries were never meant to be solved.

    • Pope Jimbo

      That is some bullshit. No offense RC, but I had like three or four official Hat Tips and I get no love from Welch?

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

        Don’t you mean “just the hat tip?”

      • Nephilium

        He who gets their reward in official Hat Tips have already received their bounty, those who labor without getting recognition will be rewarded in the end.

    • R C Dean

      Great. Now I feel like I need to take a shower.

      And, ya know, if you find your own comment section unreadable, that should lead you to question some things.

      • slumbrew

        TBF, he’s been editor-at-large for quite a while now – largely ceremonial. Reason hasn’t been “his” in years.

  29. Pope Jimbo

    More bad news for Minneapolis: Home property values fell for the first time in a decade. But it could be worse, commercial property values fell even more!

    Of course that means that Downtown which shouldered over half the city tax burden, won’t be able to keep it up. Meaning higher taxes on the home owners. Wonder if anyone will hold King Walz culpable for his pandemic edicts for this?

    Why it matters: The burden of who pays for city services has been shifting gradually toward homeowners since the onset of the pandemic and rise in remote work.

    Homeowners’ tax capacity was 47.4% in 2020. That number has climbed to 51.6% this year.
    “Residential properties will bear a greater burden of taxes in payable 2025 than they did in payable 2024,” city assessor Rebecca Malmquist told a city committee Monday.

    What’s happening: Downtown office towers aren’t worth nearly as much as they were when people worked in person five days a week. Commercial values fell a whopping 13% between 2023 and 2024, according to the city assessor’s annual report.

    Case in point: The city’s tallest skyscraper, IDS Center, had an assessed value of $319 million in 2021. It’s now down to $194 million.

    This is just the beginning, I fear. How many owners are going to walk away from those downtown office buildings if their value has gone down that much? I know the city has already bought one office building (maybe another?) to try to stop the vicious cycle of people leaving.

    • Nephilium

      The commercial real estate market is well past due for a collapse. I’m not looking forward to it happening.

      • R C Dean

        I’ve been hearing that the banks and private equity lenders are extending loans past maturity. They’d rather eat the way-below-market interest rate than take the loss on a foreclosure (and possibly starting the overt collapse of CRE).

        I wonder how long they can avoid recognizing the loss on lower value property even if they extend the loans. I’m no accountant, of course. But even carrying the low interest loans has got to be beating up their financials.

      • creech

        Would you rather repo a beat to shit car or let the debtor keep making regular, smaller payments?

      • UnCivilServant

        When I was buying a house, the mortgage guy from the bank did say something that stuck with me. “We’d rather have your money than your house”

    • EvilSheldon

      What the hell is MySpace?

    • R.J.

      Hahahahaha! Excellent reference to a long dead social media site. May Facebook follow soon!

    • Pope Jimbo

      Classic post merger bullshit.

      The wrong culture got hold of the levers of power and decided to piss away the business of the conquered company.

  30. Sensei

    When the Democratic Machine in NJ can’t get its way it makes national news.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/20/new-jersey-ballot-design-00147936

    It really doesn’t matter that Kim is more liberal than Murphy to me. I just want to see former Republican Murphy lose as she is preferred by the machine. Either one will vote lockstep with Team Blue in the Senate.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Bureaucratic fabulism

    Just seven countries met World Health Organization guidelines for air pollution last year, as continued reliance on fossil fuels and climate change repercussions continue to dog human health, according to a report published Tuesday by IQAir, a Swiss air quality-monitoring company.

    Bangladesh, Pakistan and India had the most polluted air, with levels of particle pollution at least 10 times what the World Health Organization suggests, the company said. More than 92% of the countries and regions analyzed exceeded guidelines for particulate pollution, including the U.S.

    ——-

    The analysis shows how air pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels is combining with other factors, like wildfires influenced by climate change, to stress human health worldwide. While some regions, such as western Europe, are seeing pollution improve as their economies electrify, others are seeing measures of air quality backslide. It’s a global problem even for countries reducing emissions because air pollution doesn’t stay within national borders, the report authors wrote.

    There oughtta be a law.

    • R C Dean

      The places with the most polluted air, and with high particulate pollution, burn wood and dung rather than fossil fuels to create that pollution, you know. More fossil fuel use would improve their air quality.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    In some parts of the U.S., wildfire smoke is reversing decades of air quality improvements as a result of the Clean Air Act, according to research led by Stanford University researchers, which was published last year in the scientific journal Nature.

    On average, Americans inhaled more wildfire smoke in 2023 than in any other year on record, the Stanford researchers found.

    Wildfire smoke can penetrate deep into the lungs and circulate in the bloodstream. Exposure to smoke can increase the risk of asthma, lung cancer and other chronic lung problems. Research has associated wildfire smoke with preterm birth and pregnancy loss.

    Ban oxygen. That will put a stop to all that combustion and we’ll all live forever.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Maybe Pfizer has a vax to help prevent asthma caused by wild fires?

    • Not Adahn

      Without oxygen, you can’t make carbon dioxide! Win-win!

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Ominous

    It’s worth looking at what else was in that Trump speech, apart from the “bloodbath” passage. As Axios reported, it opened with an announcer telling the crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated Jan. 6 hostages.” The speakers then played what is now a regular feature of Trump events, an alternative rendition of the national anthem recorded by the so-called J6 Prison choir. Trump referred to the January 6 defendants as “amazing people” and “hostages” whom he will help when elected. Trump has in effect created a patriotic cult around the January 6 coup attempt.

    Axios also notes that Trump’s speech was full of “insults, obscenities, and dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants.” About migrants, Trump said, “In some cases, they’re not people, in my opinion.” Along with his earlier comments about immigrants’ “poisoning the blood of our country,” the new remarks can only be interpreted as eliminationist in intent. It is the classic language of fascist bigotry.

    The ”bloodbath” comment has to be seen not in isolation but as one more ingredient in a toxic mix. If Trump were a normal politician who didn’t exalt defendants who attacked the Capitol and who didn’t speak of migrants as less than human, then one might be justified in a charitable interpretation that sees “bloodbath” as only a lurid economic metaphor. But in the context of the fascist bile of Trump’s entire speech, the “bloodbath” metaphor takes on a more ominous tone.

    If Trump is elected, Kristallnacht and the death camps will look like a love and brotherhood jamboree.

    • prolefeed

      Translation of last paragraph: If Biden had said exactly the same words, I’d praise him. But he’s not Literally Hitler.

    • R C Dean

      Here’s hoping he’s serious about helping the J6ers. I’m skeptical he will do so, especially in a timely manner. The right thing to do would be to immediately pardon all of them, suspend or fire where possible every prosecutor involved, and launch a civil rights investigation into the prosecutions. But, Trump, so who knows?

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Humiliating defeat

    Donald Trump suffered a blow in Tuesday’s primary in Florida, a state he only narrowly won in the 2020 presidential election, after thousands of Republicans refused to vote for him.

    While the former president won the primary with 910,857 votes, 81.2 percent of the overall share, some 197,000 people, or 17.8 percent, voted for either Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis, despite both candidates having dropped out of the race.

    The results suggest the former president is losing support in Florida compared with the previous election in 2020. That year, he won about 94 percent of the state vote in the primary.

    He didn’t get 99% of a largely meaningless vote, therefor his campaign is going down in flames.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Was there anyone else in the primary in 2020? Was the Florida governor on the ballot in 2020?

    • R C Dean

      It is known that somebody who doesn’t vote for the eventual nominee in the primary never votes for him in the general.

    • creech

      Columnist Steven Roberts is citing a Quinnipac poll today that claims 37% of the Haley voters in the primaries will be voting for Biden. Even if the real number is 15%, can Trump afford to keep pissing off those GOP voters who clutch pearls?

      • R C Dean

        There’s absolutely nothing Trump can do to win over the pearl-clutchers of any political persuasion. If he loses (or “loses”), we’ll never know if that’s why, because we can no longer trust our electoral system to tell us how many valid votes the candidates got, as opposed to how many ballots were counted for each candidate.