Fill-in Morning Links

by | Jun 6, 2024 | Daily Links | 208 comments

Good morning my friends, you’ll notice that I’m neither Sloopy nor Banjos… and yet, the links must go on. Before we get to them, I’d like to thank everyone who donated. A classier officer of a classier site would have taken the time to drop you a note, but… well, most of you have read my bio blurb. The important thing to take away from this is that thanks to your generous donations, a young Black man with no Soul... wait, different fundraiser. Thanks to your generous donations, this site will continue to operate for at least a year. For those of you who want to make regular contributions, we really are asking for a six-pack of beer a month, which, I was really surprised to find out was like $10 minimum. For all the jokes about absconding for hookers and blow, what will really happen if we have more than 12 months operating expenses at the end of the year, we will donate it to IJ and FIRE (or other institutions work to support individual liberties that you may suggest). Honestly, we’d rather you just gave them that money directly — if you want to make a donation, but we do want you to know that we only operate this website, and any monies beyond making sure we can keep it running for you will be donated to charity. Thank you again for keeping this site open… and now, the links!

“Nice streaming site you got there, be a shame if something happened to it, eh?”

Sigh. The fucking FDA is why we can’t have nice things. Let the PTSD folks do their molly, for the love of Zod.

Looks like it only takes 3 attempts for Boeing to get their QA right. Let’s hope they got the parachute right, too.

80 years ago today, The Longest Day set the stage for America to be ensnared in European scheming forevermore liberate Europe from a government death cult.

Italy still has a hardon for Amanda Knox. Are we still doing ‘phrasing’?

In case your morning coffee didn’t do it for you

Update: SpaceX launching Starship test at 7:50 server time.

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.

208 Comments

  1. SDF-7

    Nice main page pic — though the girl could use a nice lobster. Morning, Brett – thanks for the fill in!

    • Ownbestenemy

      Thats sexy and she has an amazing back (I have a thing for backs)

  2. cavalier973

    Knox’s appearance Wednesday in Florence, in a bid to clear her name “once and for all,” was the first time she had returned to an Italian court since she was freed in 2011. Accompanied by her husband, Christopher Robinson, she showed no visible emotion as the verdict was read aloud.

    Should’ve lain low and avoided making waves.

    • WTF

      Americans should just avoid foreign countries.

      • cavalier973

        I know, right?

        If you want to experience what it’s like in foreign countries, go to Epcot Center, it’s basically the same as traveling overseas, even if a trip to Epcot is a bit more expensive.

      • UnCivilServant

        I do not give Disney money if I can help it. Not until they’ve purged a bunch of people who ruined the company, starting from Iger on down.

      • Rat on a train

        A trip to Europe. Western Europe at least. Maybe Eastern Europe some day. Imagine a trip to Ukraine.

      • Nephilium

        Rat on a train:

        You could always go to Asia instead of Europe too.

    • cavalier973

      One thing she could’ve done that would have avoided unwanted attention: take the surname of her husband.

      “Aren’t you Amanda Knox?”

      “No; I’m Amanda Robinson.”

    • SDF-7

      She’s too tough to do that after being raised in the school of hard Knox.

      • juris imprudent

        Italy still has a hardon

        Can’t understand why she hasn’t given that country the boot.

    • Ted S.

      I’ve always found it interesting how the reaction of the US media has been “How could they possibly find Knox guilty?” while in the British media it’s been “Knox is guilty as sin and how could anybody not come to that conclusion?”

      • Fatty Bolger

        Hard to believe anybody would still think she’s guilty of murder, but I’m sure some do.

        This particular part of the case is a little different, since she was convicted of falsely accusing somebody else of committing the murder, which she did in fact do. Of course, she was abused and pressured into doing it by the police, which was her defense.

      • The Last American Hero

        People still deny that Covid came from a lab and insist it came from a farmers market.

      • EvilSheldon

        Keep in mind that this is Italy. The same country that criminally convicted a bunch of scientists for failing to predict an earthquake. They make our government look serious.

  3. WTF

    The fucking FDA is why we can’t have nice things.

    The FDA has no authority under the constitution. Too bad the constitution’s been a dead letter for quite some time now.

    • juris imprudent

      Spooner smiles from the beyond.

  4. SDF-7

    Let’s hope they got the parachute right, too.

    As stated yesterday, I think Test Flight 2 had a heat shield problem — so that’s where I’m personally nervous. But hopefully it will all go well — I still can’t imagine it will be economically competitive with SpaceX at this point — but I’m sure they have enough Congresscritters in their pocket to secure 30% of contracts “to keep American competition alive” or some such (and the pork trough full in the districts…)

      • Brett L

        Great minds. I dropped an update link in the main post.

      • SDF-7

        I can’t help but imagine the paperwork if anyone tried to launch a real Orion. Heh.

        Yes, yes — we all know it would only be done in the case of a real emergency (like a planet killer coming our way)… but it is a funny thought as you consider what would happen to all these live views and whatnot these days….

    • SDF-7

      Oh fucking yay…. Boeing still has helium leaks in the propulsion system. Fingers crossed this stuff stays minor and they don’t lose thrusters before de-orbit burns.

      • UnCivilServant

        🤦‍♂️

        I hope the crew made sure their insurance covers “workplace accidents”

      • SDF-7

        Actually thinking about it a few seconds more — I wonder if this is part of why the plan for this flight test includes docking with the ISS. Worst case scenario, if there’s enough of a concern they could leave the crew there and try an unmanned deorbit — then ask Crew Dragon to bring them back, I would hope.

        If they don’t have that as a fallback plan, they aren’t doing their jobs. Even if they didn’t think it would happen.

      • Sensei

        My bet is none of the pressure suits are compatible with SpaceX.

        Doesn’t mean they don’t have some emergency generic sized one they could bring with them.

      • SDF-7

        Crew Dragon could bring up a couple of suits with them, I would think. I don’t think they’re that fitted, are they?

        They have to have plans to act as an emergency lift if there’s an ISS problem after all…

      • Brett L

        I think all ships have a universal docking collar now that fit the ISS and each other.

      • trshmnstr

        Worst case scenario, if there’s enough of a concern they could leave the crew there and try an unmanned deorbit — then ask Crew Dragon to bring them back, I would hope.

        IIRC, they have a spare soyuz up there for that purpose.

    • SDF-7

      Splitters! They should start the Montanan Party of Libertarianism… 😉

    • creech

      If the object of the LP is to use the political soapbox to expose libertarian principles to the voters, then there is nothing wrong with a state party choosing whomever they think will be the most effective (e.g. best speaker, best campaigner, etc.) in doing that in their state. I’ll bet there are a dozen state Democrat parties that wish they could dump Biden/Harris if there were no retribution.

    • trshmnstr

      The comments melted my brain. Enjoy your 1.5%, you oblivious fucks.

  5. SDF-7

    “Nice streaming site you got there, be a shame if something happened to it, eh?”

    Honestly, I’m more surprised this wasn’t already in place than anything else on skimming that article. Canada’s always had a “We must make our own stuff so we aren’t just America’s Hat!” thing with government sponsored content — and I expect their Cuban born PM regime has only made it worse with the “Must include XX% of native blood content!” type stuff.

    I’d tell them to fuck off and send emails to all subscribers extolling the virtues of VPNs… but that tends to be my first instinct when governments try to dictate things to companies that aren’t present in their country. Probably one of a million reasons I should never be a CxO.

    • UnCivilServant

      “If a user connects from Country X, give them a static page telling them how to set up a VPN. Deliver no content”

    • Nephilium

      Except the streaming companies don’t want people using VPN’s to connect, because that can get around geoblocking based on licensing agreements that are different in various countries.

    • R.J.

      “We have to make companies financially support our rotten programming that nobody watches!”

      • R.J.

        Hinestly I would tell them to fuck off too. You know that all the streaming sites have taxes from every nation domestic and foreign. 5% here, 5% there, pretty soon they go out of business supporting all the corrupt governments that want to push their crappy messages.
        Fuuuuuuuuuuck
        Oooooooooooof!

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FzlQwj36lDM

      • Chafed

        It’s barely disguised at this point. If they could produce another Kids In The Hall, they wouldn’t have a problem.

    • Drake

      5% of their revenue, not profit. Is that legal in commie Canada?

      Just put a 5% surcharge on Canadian accounts and direct their complaints to Justin Castro.

      • R.J.

        That doesn’t help services like Tubi and Plex, who live from advertising. They would have to raise advertising rates which could damage their business model.

    • WTF

      Is the Canadian market big enough to worry about, in the global context of commerce? Just tell them to fuck off.

  6. juris imprudent

    liberate Europe from a government death cult

    We are an entirely different kind of hegemon. We are benevolent, and resistance is futile.

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m sorry, but no, the Government death cult of Socialism was never driven from those shores.

      • juris imprudent

        Socialism is as reasonable an endpoint of the Enlightenment as classical liberalism is, and actually more consistent with the deeper Christian tradition (whereas liberalism fits better with Protestantism in general).

      • Nephilium

        juris imprudent:

        That seems like something that could be a very interesting debate, probably not well suited for a couple hour comment section though. I would be interested in where you draw the line between the deeper Christian tradition and general Protestantism.

      • juris imprudent

        Actually, just (last Saturday) put up an article on Nietzsche over on my ‘stack that goes there, in one aspect (equality). A bit more refined then my previous ramblings here on him – but I think that was all essential to getting me to distill down what I put up over there.

  7. juris imprudent

    I’m sure that no member of that FDA panel has absolutely zero financial interest in Big Pharma. They would never allow such a conflict, just like I’m sure they will never say who the eleven are.

    • juris imprudent

      urk – could I have written that any more awkwardly?

      • SDF-7

        Narrator: “Yes, yes you could have.”

  8. cavalier973

    Hey! It’s Ron Paul!

    The New York District Attorney, Soros-backed Alvin Bragg, has been notorious for downgrading felony charges against others to misdemeanor charges. According to a recent article in the Daily Mail, Bragg had downgraded 60 percent of felony cases to lesser charges, resulting in violent criminals being released on the streets and a crime wave across New York City.

    But when it came to Donald Trump, Bragg lurched in the other direction, upgrading what normally would have been misdemeanor charges against anyone else to 34 felony charges against the former president. How can this sudden “about-face” be explained other than politics?

    https://mises.org/power-market/trump-trial-and-our-injustice-system

    • UnCivilServant

      If someone deserved to be victimized by a reoffending felon who got downgraded, it’s Bragg.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I will give Bragg one thing, he delivered on his overt remarks of going after one private citizen.

      • rhywun

        Meh. It’s what the entire establishment wanted so it was gonna happen anyway.

        In a country with actual law and order, he would have been laughed out of court.

      • The Last American Hero

        In a country with actual law and order, he would be removed from office and disbarred over ethics violations.

  9. Ownbestenemy

    It takes 45 minutes for SpaceX to fuel the largest rocket in the world. That is absolutely insane. Granted there is tank farm prep prior, but damn.

    • Brett L

      Watching a channel now that is talking about that. That is a fuckton of chilling and pumping.

      • Ted S.

        Enough with the euphemisms!

      • Fourscore

        Wait! It’s not an EV? WTF is up with that? Does Biden know this?

    • Nephilium

      Just wait until it’s a full electric rocket!

      • SDF-7

        Hmmm… if you get enough shorting lithium batteries together to burn and run hydrogen over it like the lightbulb designs…..

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Related: I watched a youtube video on a liquid lithium, fluoride, hydrogen rocket engine they tested in the late 60s. Incredible specific thrust but too horrifying for the same folks that thought the Orion Project was sensible.

    • R.J.

      Thanks for the reminder. I am going over to that channel now.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Mrs OBE and I are planning on a trip there to watch that beast. Not sure when, but what an amazing achievement.

      • Brett L

        Can’t wait for them to get the Canaveral infrastructure built. You better believe I’ll be there with my boys on the regular.

    • Ownbestenemy

      T -90 secs. Prop load complete.

      • SDF-7

        T-30… no holds.

      • Ownbestenemy

        GO GO GO!

      • Ownbestenemy

        Through max Q, 32 engines lit but still capable.

      • SDF-7

        SuperHeavy apparently is annoyed at not using powers of 2… down to 2^5 engines. Good launch so far though…

      • Ownbestenemy

        Hot staging complete…flip and burn…good God SpaceX…

      • SDF-7

        Staging looks good… I think the booster is doing a splashdown simulated landing (treating the ocean like a pad to make sure it acts right without risking a real pad)….

      • Ownbestenemy

        Jettisoned the hot-stage ring and attempting the simulated ‘catch’. I think they will nail this.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Holy fuck they did it.

      • SDF-7

        Lost another one of the center engines on the landing burn and some debris… but did look vertical and stopped at the water surface, so probably close to a workable landing and certainly would give them more data if they need it. Nice.

  10. juris imprudent

    In news that can only make you smile (from FT)

    Clients have withdrawn a net $40bn from environmental, social and governance (ESG) equity funds this year, according to research from Barclays, the first year that flows have trended negative. Redemptions, which include a record monthly net outflow of about $14bn in April, have been widespread across all main regions.

    • Chafed

      Burn, Blackrock, Burn!

      • Ted S.

        Disco inferno!

  11. cavalier973

    I don’t want to be annoying by continuing to post about the Mercan court verdict, but the blatant and public disregard for Constitutional due process rights seems like a major disruption of the National Myth.

    It is as astonishing and enraging to me as when the Supreme Court said the FedGov can regulate you growing wheat on your own land for your own use, or when the FedGov outlawed owning gold.

    So, I will keep posting, until I am told to stop it, get some help.

    This entire case was always ridiculous. Trump was charged for labeling reimbursement checks to his lawyer as “legal expenses” after the lawyer made a (completely legal) payment to an adult film actress to get her to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Prosecutors argued that the reimbursement payments—which were paid in 2017, after Trump had won the election—were actually campaign expenditures because keeping the alleged affair quiet may have helped the Trump campaign.

    https://mises.org/mises-wire/lesson-trump-conviction

    • SDF-7

      The only thing that makes me feel better about this than Wickard is the expectation that a superior court that hopefully didn’t donate to the Biden campaign and have children working in Biden-adjacent PACs slap it down as the idiocy it is. Wickard won’t die until a sane Court happens and gets a case before it that relates.

    • juris imprudent

      Let me simplify it for you. A large part of this country is perfectly happy with a legal system that gives them the results they want. Zealous adherence to the precepts of the rule of law is an impediment to that, thus, they like Roper (in a Man for All Seasons) would cut down what would be their refuge when the winds change. Because they are too stupid AND shortsighted to ever see that happening.

      • cavalier973

        I don’t disagree, and the reality you describe proves true the statement that the price of liberty is ceaseless vigilance.

        I need to sit my kids down and explain this to them, about why it’s important, and about why people should look past the partisan politics.

      • Chafed

        Sadly true.

    • rhywun

      No prob. It’s a remarkable development in the progress of our country circling the drain.

      And an enlightening lesson in how much damage a corrupt legal system can inflict.

    • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

      In case you haven’t seen it, here is a Yale law prof. breaking the case down and showing how Bragg violated Trumps 6th amendment (due process) rights.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u23t__ysVjU&t=1110s

    • SDF-7

      If the man is rich enough and she’s likely to inherit in short term? Observation says “quite a lot of them — more respectable than OnlyFans”. Look at Hefner in the later years after all.

      • Sensei

        Oh I get it. I just think it’s rather humorous that issue is ignored by more than a few.

      • juris imprudent

        Much as Weinstein’s conquests weren’t using their charms to their advantage as well. It was much more mutual than The Narrative that ultimately prevailed.

      • Suthenboy

        JI: I am in agreement. Someone recently postulated that Weinstein must have run afoul of some unspoken rule of Hollywood to piss off some people badly. It isn’t about the casting couch…that is SOP and has always been the case with that crowd.

      • WTF

        JI, I would be willing to be that a majority of Weinstein’s victims were actually taking part in a business transaction. Which only became problematic after they got what they wanted and MeToo became a social contagion.

  12. Suthenboy

    “…electric rocket…”

    Starring Adriana Chechik?

    I am still confused as to why we do not power all of our vehicles with perpetual motion machines. Wait..perpetual motion machine is a good porn title too.

    Son and I were chuckling about that sort of thing the other day and decided there is no combination of words in the English language that cannot be construed as some kind of sexual euphemism or innuendo. What is that again about ‘meaning comes from context’?

    • SDF-7

      Wankel rotary engine

      (h/t: Monty Python if you’ve never heard it… don’t recall the skit or if it was just an interstitial on an album or something)

    • Nephilium

      Son and I were chuckling about that sort of thing the other day and decided there is no combination of words in the English language that cannot be construed as some kind of sexual euphemism or innuendo.

      Penn and Teller made a joke in one episode of Bullshit about that. Saying that any plural noun can be used to refer to a woman’s breasts.

      • Grummun

        any plural noun

        “Check out the tetrahedrons on that one!”

      • juris imprudent

        “Get a load of those rhinos!” hmm, maybe?

      • Fourscore

        “Wow, get a look at those rinos”

        /Checks the House lady reps

  13. SDF-7

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 06/06:
    *23/23 words (+3 bonus words)
    🎯 Perfect accuracy

    I played https://squaredle.com 06/06:
    *55/55 words (+7 bonus words)
    🎯 In the top 10% by accuracy
    🔥 Solve streak: 396

    • Sean

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 06/06:
      *23/23 words (+8 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 5% by bonus words

      I played https://squaredle.com 06/06:
      *55/55 words (+22 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 2% by bonus words
      🔥 Solve streak: 360

  14. juris imprudent

    I like the Liberal Patriot for getting a perspective on Democrats from inside the ropes. What amuses me most though is how some here, will insist that they know the Democrats better than that.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Good little piece

    • Chafed

      Texiera is an excellent political analyst. Agree or disagree with his preferrred policies, he is willing to see things as they are.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, he now treats the emerging democratic majority (demographics uber alles) about like Fukuyama does the end of history. I can respect being wrong and owning up to it.

      • Chafed

        I have heard him discuss it on several podcasts. I have great respect for him discussing how it went off track. His hypothesis was sound but unfolding events completely derailed it.

    • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

      I don’t like reading Lib. Pat. because I find myself agreeing too much with them, and I feel I am not getting a good picture of the left as it really stands, but as I want it to be.

      • juris imprudent

        You are getting the non-prog perspective, and we here have the tendency to believe that the progs really run the whole show. In numbers, they aren’t all that much more than libertarian-leaning conservatives – they’re just so fucking loud. They really suck the oxygen out of a room.

        I have to laugh, because they believe the bullshit that they are the majority of the Dem party, and even believe they are the majority of the entire country. That’s a delusion that tops the Libertarian Moment(tm).

    • rhywun

      Biden was the prisoner of progressive left

      A rather willing one.

      • juris imprudent

        Assuming he has the wits to understand any of this. The more pertinent question is the people around him.

  15. Chafed

    BrettL understands morning music links. Good choice Brett!

  16. Ownbestenemy

    Starship still alive. Nice and stable, unlike IFT 3 where it was rolling all over the place.

    • SDF-7

      About to start reentry attempt. Commentator should have been told to shut up evoking the Shuttle reentry given Columbia

      • Ownbestenemy

        Looks like they fixed the issue with ice on the thrusters which I think what caused the roll last time.

      • Ownbestenemy

        The plasma shots…how amazing.

      • SDF-7

        Yup… looking good — apparently about 19 minutes of reentry but certainly looking stable.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Passed through max temp on re-entry…still have video…WTF SpaceX. Its great to be excited about human achievements again.

      • SDF-7

        Lost a flap… well, they got more data. I expect vehicle loss is coming.

      • SDF-7

        Well, the plasma sheath died down before the flap completely melted… they might pull it off (and know they’ll have to work on the flap join more). Cross your fingers.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Flap was failing but still have telemetry for the vehicle….and video through all reentry?!

      • Ownbestenemy

        They did it…how? No one knows. But they are going to try and flip and landing burn?! No way…

      • SDF-7

        Heh… that little flap still worked… it actually made it to vertical and a landing burn… Sweet!

  17. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    Italy is the Africa of Europe

    • Nephilium
      • Nephilium

        Stinky Wizzleteats:

        I took the high and classy road. Now say it with me… I’m black and I’m proud.

    • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

      I am sorry, but after Lancia developed the Twin Charged Delta S4, they are both the best designing country of Europe, and the best engineering country.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo0Gk3ltC6Q

  18. juris imprudent

    Good read, but I have problems as usual in invoking Bezmenov.

    First, the decline in Western religious meaning started well before the Bolsheviks ever dreamed of exporting demoralization, let alone were in a place to do so. Second, Gramsci influenced the Frankfurt School but not Stalin (or his successors). Third, Bezmenov purports a hyper-competent bureaucracy that originated this – and that is a bridge much too far for me. It all plays too pat, too convenient and ever so amenable to the John Birch mindset.

    • trshmnstr

      I’m partway through an article on conspiracies. I’ll be interested in your take once it publishes.

    • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

      The issue is that half of the western world believes communism/socialism is the way forward, and that we truly can reach “heaven on earth.” And the corollary to this is that they also believe that any pushback is akin to fascism/totalitarianism.

      • juris imprudent

        Well, you don’t like Warby’s take on it, but I do, and as I said above – socialism is as valid an endpoint of the Enlightenment as classical liberalism is. It is one that relies on the worship of a future (that will never live up to the dreams). Sure, that’s probably a recipe for failure – but the classical liberal tradition has no guarantees for success (and in fact only really works in specific human milieus).

        In a truly dialectic analysis – fascism is indeed the synthesis from the democratic-capitalist thesis and socialist anti-thesis.

  19. Sensei

    Seriously?

    When Noa Khamallah recently tried to pay cash for popcorn and soda at Yankee Stadium, his almighty dollars struck out.

    The stadium’s concession stands no longer take cash. An employee directed him to a kiosk that could convert his greenbacks into plastic. Khamallah, 41 years old, fed $200 into the reverse ATM, which subtracted a $3.50 fee and spat out a debit card with a balance of $196.50.

    https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/paying-cash-fees-reverse-atm-744d1bd6?st=w3ve0b6ykk8xgqd&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • UnCivilServant

      spat out a debit card with a balance of $196.50.

      So, enough for a hot dog and a small beer?

    • Nephilium

      The push for cashless is growing and spreading. I am not a fan.

      For one thing, it’s so much fucking faster and easier to toss some bills on the bar for a drink, rather than handing over a card, deciding if I’m going to be there for more than one round (or gauging how difficult it will be to close out the tab), and then closing the tab.

      • UnCivilServant

        Besides, my cash is the “Discretionary Funds” for walking around money. If I’m going to buy something I don’t need, it’s coming out of the cash in my pocket.

      • Nephilium

        UCS:

        I do something similar, but for most things, I’ll pay with card, and shift covering funds from the pocket to another pile when I get home. I get twitchy though when I’m being forced to use a card for an under $10 purchase.

      • UnCivilServant

        With small businesses I don’t charge small purchases because I had a discussion with an owner about the fees charged to the business for payment card processing. It was a fixed price per transaction plus a %. Which means beofre a given value they are losing money if you pay with a card. (The reason a lot of places have or had a minimum purchase value for card payments anyway). The fees vary by processor, so I can’t way what the threshold is (the margins on the product come into play too).

      • The Other Kevin

        It was an easy carry over from COVID. When I go to Blackhawks games they don’t take cash either.

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        I once went to to a “no tip” restaurant, and along with horrible service, when I tried to leave and just laid cash down to cover it with a little left over as I was in a hurry to get out of there, I was verbally castigated by the waitress “you forgot your change, sir!” across the whole place, which is fairly fancy. I just kept walking, shaking my head. Who knows how long it would have taken her to get me my coins.

      • UnCivilServant

        If I wanted French service, I’d go to France.

    • rhywun

      Surprised it’s legal. I know there are initiatives to ban cashless in some places.

      I generally avoid cash because convenient but I am very much against removing the option to use it.

    • The Last American Hero

      So when it says for all debts public and private, they mean most of the time?

      • Nephilium

        For this and ryhwun’s comment above, I think the current jurisprudence on it is that it’s perfectly legal to say that you won’t accept cash, with the thought process being that you haven’t taken on a debt/obligation yet and are agreeing to pay with card before entering into the transaction.

        I just think back to the scene in I Shall Fear No Evil, when the protagonist runs into something similar and uses the all debts public and private argument in a store.

  20. Sensei

    At a price of $700 (plus a mandatory $24 per month for 4G service), that puts Humane’s initial revenue at a maximum of about $7.24 million, not accounting for canceled orders. And yet Humane wants a buyer for north of $1 billion after taking a swing and missing so hard it practically knocked out the umpire.

    TW – originally Gizmodo

    https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/humane-is-said-to-be-seeking-a-1-billion-buyout-after-only-10000-orders-of-its-terrible-ai-pin-134147878.html

  21. Nephilium

    Alright hive mind, this year I managed to beat the storms, birds, deer, and squirrels to quite a bit of mulberries from the tree in my yard. I’ve got over a pound already rinsed and in the fridge, and assuming the weather holds out, will probably be able to get another pound or two off of the tree over the weekend. I’m now trying to figure out what to do with them all.

    Preliminary thoughts are a shrub (sweetened drinking vinegar), a syrup, and potentially a liquor. I could do jelly, but don’t want to deal with the canning (I really want to call it jarring, since they’re not cans). The girlfriend said she had no interest in mulberry ice cream. And I was already contemplating a batch of muffins with some of them.

    Any other suggestions/recommendations?

    • kinnath

      mead

      mead is always the answer

      • Nephilium

        The tree is unfortunately situated in a corner with chain link fences on two sides, so I can’t do the most efficient harvesting method (laying out a drop cloth and shaking the tree), so unless I do a small one gallon batch, I probably won’t have enough for that. I broached the topic of trying to start some cuttings from the tree next year in some other areas of the yard, and she was not opposed. So in a decade or so, there may be enough.

      • The Other Kevin

        Lucky. All our mulberries are covering the driveway having traveled through a bird’s digestive system.

        Mrs. TOK found blackberries for .50 a pint last week. Bought a case and made a bunch of jam. Outside that, I don’t have suggestions. Maybe freeze them?

      • WTF

        I have decent size raspberry bush in my backyard, but the birds get most of the fruit.

    • Drake

      Pie?

      • Nephilium

        Hmmm… my preference is not towards sweet cornbread, but that may be something the girlfriend would be interested in.

        That’s why I’m making the syrup and shrub, to be able to add them to cocktails easily. They’ll also work as a substitute for blackberries for drinks like a bramble.

    • rhywun

      lol it never really occurred to me that “mulberry” is an actual food.

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        I thought it was a street.

      • kinnath

        We had mulberry trees on our property. I cut them all down.

        The berries will ferment on the trees. The birds eat them and get high as a kite. Fun to watch.

        The birds also shit purple crap over everything. Not fun to deal with.

      • Nephilium

        They’re not really common here in the suburbs, but if you go up to the islands in the lake during the spring/early summer, the sidewalks are stained purple with the fruit. I apparently have a black mulberry tree (fruits look similar but not quite like blackberries). They bruise easily, can be annoying to harvest, stain everything (for the next month or so, any bird shit on my house/walks will be purple), and ripen over several weeks. Some of the varieties are toxic if the fruit aren’t ripe, but it’s pretty easy to tell the ripe fruits (they fall off with a touch).

        We also have access to black raspberries (which are different than blackberries).

      • rhywun

        I thought it was a street.

        ‘Zactly

  22. R.J.

    What happened at the end of the SpaceX launch? Did the lander make it back down in one piece?

    • trshmnstr

      One piece-ish. It looks like it achieved its goal and soft landed in the ocean. Then it flopped over once power was cut.

      • Ownbestenemy

        One piece-ish I suspect all the streamers will be making that into a shirt. The flap that saved SN29!

    • Ownbestenemy

      Looks like nearly perfect success minus a flap (that became the hero). Video all the way through the atmosphere and plasma…did its belly-flop and then landing burn if we are to believe the telemetry graphic, which it isn’t government, so I believe. Landed the booster and the vehicle. Absolutely amazing.

    • WTF

      What does it say about us that things that were a ridiculous joke a few decades ago, like men in women’s sports, is today’s actual reality?
      Weimar America indeed.

    • Chafed

      I stopped watching the Olympics a long time ago. No regrets.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Election interference

    The Wall Street Journal owes its readers — and the public — better.

    The business broadsheet published and hyped a story Wednesday declaring that “behind closed doors,” President Joe Biden has shown “signs of slipping.” The story questioned Biden’s mental acuity, playing into a GOP-propelled narrative that the 81-year-old president lacks the fitness to hold the nation’s highest office.

    But an examination of the report reveals a glaring problem: Most of the sources reporters Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes relied on were Republicans. In fact, buried in the story, the reporters themselves acknowledged that they had drawn their sweeping conclusion based on GOP sources who, obviously, have an incentive to make comments that will damage Biden’s candidacy.

    Unprecedentedly biased political reporting.

    • kinnath

      Russians. It’s always the Russians.

    • The Other Kevin

      -1 Anonymous source familiar with Biden’s thinking

    • WTF

      We can totally trust the Democrats who say he’s sharp as a tack, in spite of what our lying eyes tell us.

    • rhywun

      “Most” is doing a lot of work there.

      We all know that Democrats were involved too – and it’s obvious that all of them are shitting bricks.

    • juris imprudent

      Wasn’t one of the FusionGPS guys formerly with the WSJ?

  24. B.P.

    I popped over to Google and noticed that their “doodle” (the thing at the top of the page) celebrates someone named Jeanne Cordova who, according to wikipedia, was a famous West Coast lesbian and proud butch. I guess the 80th anniversary of D-Day can take a back seat.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Can’t stop the Narrative B.P.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I mean, born in July ’48, died in Jan ’16 it makes complete sense to not display that instead of anything Jun 6 related at all.

  25. UnCivilServant

    Question about military etiquette – Prior to the DEI days, when a full-bird colonel chose to address a lt colonel by rank, what phasing would they typically use?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Depends on the situation. Announcing the officer to a crowd or dressing them down, most likely the full title. Otherwise colonel so and so is what I always heard but I was in pretend military.

      • Drake

        Same. In meetings (I was a wallflower radio operator in regimental command tent) could just use a first name if he was being informal).

      • Drake

        Richard Marcinko used to joke about being on a first-name basis with his boss.

        “He calls me Dick and I call him Admiral.”

      • Ownbestenemy

        Ya that tracks.

        “OBE go do this”
        “Will do MSgt Eschleman”

      • UnCivilServant

        The scene in my head is DEI XO is ranting about the Undiverse first man on Ganymede, Old school CO reminds her this is not relevant and the exercise was in testing landing protocols.

      • Fourscore

        I knew a lot of guys named “Sarge”.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Twisted words

    Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) was on the defensive on Wednesday as Democrats attacked him for comments he’d made the night before praising Black families under the era of racial segregation in America.

    “During Jim Crow the Black family was together,” Donalds said during a Black GOP outreach event in a gentrifying part of Philadelphia on Tuesday, and criticized decades-old policies from former Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson for promoting a culture of dependence. “During Jim Crow, more Black people were — not just conservative, because Black people always have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively.”

    The remarks prompted a blitz of attacks from Biden allies, including the top House Democrat on Wednesday.

    White liberal Democrats hardest hit.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Hell of a headline there Politico…

      • rhywun

        OMFG!

        Just wow.

    • B.P.

      If you take notice that the Jews bravely banded together and fought the Germans at the Warsaw Ghetto, you are pro-Holocaust.

    • juris imprudent

      “Don’t you listen to the crazy n****r, he doesn’t care for you like we do.”

  27. The Late P Brooks

    One woman in the front of the audience said Democrats have “tricked us into getting rid of our men.”

    “We need our men back,” said Roslyn Ross Williams, who works with the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity. “Many of us have bought the lies.”

    Trump and his surrogates are making a push on Black voter outreach as polling suggests larger shares of Black voters are winnable for the GOP this cycle. A recent New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer poll of five key swing states found more than 20 percent of Black voters in swing states are open to voting for the presumptive Republican nominee in the fall.

    Terrifying. The plantation needs taller fences.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Menace to society

    The New York City Police Department is preparing to revoke former President Donald Trump’s license to carry a gun, a senior police official told CNN.

    Trump’s New York concealed carry license was quietly suspended on April 1, 2023, following his indictment on criminal charges in New York, the official said.

    Two of the three pistols he was licensed to carry were turned over to the NYPD on March 31, 2023, and a third gun listed on Trump’s license “was lawfully moved to Florida,” the person added.

    After Trump was convicted of 34 felonies on May 30, 2024, he could be in violation of multiple state and federal laws if he still possesses that third gun in Florida. CNN has reached out to representatives of Trump to determine whether he still has a gun in Florida.

    Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is a federal crime.

    He should just say he gave it to Barron.

    • B.P.

      Setting the stage for Trump to be convicted of a firearms violation before Hunter Biden.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Is the CNN the official snitch news affiliate now?

      • juris imprudent

        Completely Notorious Nothingness?

    • Sean

      It’s all so tedious.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Two of the three pistols he was licensed to carry were turned over to the NYPD

    WTF?

  30. Mojeaux

    On the Twits, I saw a “convo with Meta’s AI” about transwomen. The person had posted, “Transwomen are men” at the bot, and the bot immediately started preaching the “correct” doctrine.

    This is one HUGE reason I bailed out of that job with the company working for FB.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Elliott Page is just as much a man as Harrison Ford (or insert hunk here if he doesn’t do it for you) in his prime, it is known.

      • UnCivilServant

        She barely competes with SoyBoys, and loses out to them because technically they have a Y chromosome.

      • Nephilium

        I’m half waiting for the earlier movies/series Page did to be delisted. I mean she (at the time) was in the ultimate horror/thriller for OMWC.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, expect to see AI being touted as “the science” when it’s really doing nothing more than regurgitating what its woke programmers have been feeding it.

  31. Sensei

    TOKYO (AP) — Called “Tokyo Futari Story,” the city hall’s new initiative is just that: An effort to create couples, “futari,” in a country where it is increasingly common to be “hitori,” or alone.

    We are one line in and I hate the reporting. Japanese, similar to Chinese and other languages, has PITA counter words for all kinds of things, Similar to the way we’d say “a pair of socks” as opposed to “two socks”. “Futari” means “two people” and “hitori” means “one person”. Nothing more and nothing less.

    Tokyo City Hall is developing a dating app to encourage marriage and childbirth

    https://apnews.com/article/dating-births-marriage-japan-technology-42b2685cb0bea35a69ca3318c3af48c7

  32. The Late P Brooks

    The suspension and pending revocation of his carry license suggests that he maintained his license the entire time of his presidency and after, until he was charged with multiple felonies for falsifying business records in March 2023.

    Pawn of the NRA.

    I wonder what was in Teddy Roosevelt’s White House gun cabinet.

    • UnCivilServant

      Gave? You mean she wasn’t even selling them?

    • UnCivilServant

      *looks at picture*

      EGADS!

    • Nephilium

      That’s a rough 26, and are they a midget?

    • rhywun

      LOL saw that this morning.

      She looka likea man

  33. The Late P Brooks

    MUlligan

    Former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict may indeed be hurting him in the polls, according to data published Wednesday.

    In a redo of a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, Trump’s three-point edge over President Joe Biden before the jury rendered its verdict shrank to just one point when respondents were quizzed after the decision.

    That’s not what we were looking for. Let’s try again.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      What’s the margin of error on that one?

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Trump became the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes on Thursday for falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. A 12-person jury delivered a unanimous verdict, ending the six-week trial.

    Trump has said he plans to appeal the verdict but has meanwhile used it to attack the criminal justice system and raise money. His campaign said it collected $141 million in May, with nearly 38 percent coming soon after the verdict.

    Does New York have one of those laws prohibiting a criminal from financially benefitting from his crimes? maybe Letitia can go after those ill gotten gains in his campaign fund.