Saturday Morning Choose Your Own Links

by | Jul 27, 2024 | Daily Links | 202 comments

So it’s a busy weekend here in Glibs Gulch, all honoring our departed Queen and love of my life- besides the usual local crew of WebDom, l0b0t, and me, we have the man-mountain Warty, the enigmatic SugarFree, the Biden-level addled Spud, the always spicy and beauteous Riven, the exceptionally tall JW, the dangerous Swiss, the perpetually drunk Neph, impressively mustachioed db, the Professor and Mary Anne, the voice of the Hat and the Hair; the millionaire and his wife… whatever. Point is, the staff has the weekend off. So Links will be DIY. The only thing I’m providing is background music for them. You all choose the links YOU think we should have and make the most of the teacher being out of the room.

Here’s two VERY different versions of a great Dylan song, which again seem to capture my feelings perfectly.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

202 Comments

  1. Fourscore

    Well, OM, you certainly have a house full or is it a full house? What a crew but certainly not motley!

    You choose.

    • Spudalicious

      No. His house is quiet in peaceful. A bomb went off in mine. And there’s bodies everywhere.

      • Chafed

        It must have been quite an orgy.

      • juris imprudent

        You did note how few women were mentioned.

    • rhywun

      OMG financial improprieties!! DO NOT PANIC!!

      WTF?

    • Don escaped Texas

      too-local

      bunch-o-shootins ain’t really news round here

      but two good old boys’ boat went down in our lagoon yesterday, and only one bobbed back up

      fishermen didn’t shut them out this time: catfish will get on the board

      • DrOtto

        Hopefully not too many guns were lost.

    • DrOtto

      I see one of the businesses they raided was Fuyao
      Glass. I had a windshield installed on one of my cars and saw the manufacturer was Fuyao and then saw “Made in USA” and was confused so I looked into them. Chinese owned, US manufacturing. Then wondered how many kids they sneak in on the 3rd shift. Looks like my usual cynicism may be right.

      • DrOtto

        The other side of my cynicism suggests this is probably a politically motivated raid to get a union endorsement for a certain party.

  2. Fourscore

    You won’t be up a creek with a broken paddle. And good morning, GT!

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, 4(20)!

  3. Sean

    That’s quite the gathering. Watch out for drone strikes.

    • Cunctator

      I let the video run with no sound and read the closed caption lyrics. It was almost like reading an Agile Cyborg post.

    • robodruid

      Let the market decide?
      I do not have the time to play, so i listen to podcasts as i work. I think digital sucks, its to limiting.
      There are other options out there.

      • Grumbletarian

        I’m in a group that’s playing online. It drags so much, even when the group stays together.

      • EvilSheldon

        I don’t love digital compared to in-person play, but my only other option is “Don’t play.” I don’t have any local friends who do TTRPGs.

  4. Pat

    So it’s a busy weekend here in Glibs Gulch, all honoring our departed Queen and love of my life

    Best wishes, and may the occasion be fitting of its object. I’ll hoist a glass of Oak & Eden in honor.

  5. LCDR_Fish

    Some disturbing images out of China this week.

    They hit the flooding material right at the beginning of the show. Gotta wonder if this is getting progressively worse it might finally tip the scales on the “mandate of heaven” concept. Hope it doesn’t impact the civvies too much though.

    • Pat

      Failure is inevitible.

      And we failed to find what you’re looking for.

      Seems about right.

      • Ted S.

        See the next post for why I’m having problems.

    • LCDR_Fish

      Nice. Good weather for it this weekend. My first weekend with working AC here in VA. Got indoor projects to work on before I head to the brewery.

      • rhywun

        My first weekend where I am happy to turn the AC off in a long time.

        I almost forgot the sixties.

      • R C Dean

        Dude, a lot of people can’t remember the sixties.

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

      ON the middle of nowhere?

      ON?

      Really Teds, this is not like you.

      • Ted S.

        I didn’t lug a full computer keyboard up the mountain.

  6. Pat

    Ex-Mueller investigator Peter Strzok reaches settlement with DOJ over anti-Trump texts

    July 26 (UPI) — The Justice Department on Friday settled a lawsuit with former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was fired from the bureau in 2018 over what he claimed was a violation of his privacy.

    Strzok, an FBI veteran who aided in the investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, was fired over text messages he exchanged with former FBI attorney Lisa Page disparaging former President Donald Trump.

    His lawyers on Friday said the U.S. government agreed to pay Strzok $1.2 million.

    • LCDR_Fish

      Yeah, saw this on twitter last night. It’s basically a pay-off. They had no legal rights to any personal material on government issued phones. It’s such a dick move by a politicized agency. Gotta do our part to publicize the duality at least.

      • juris imprudent

        Can’t have the king’s men worrying about being accountable after all.

    • juris imprudent

      Weren’t those govt-issued phones – for official use?

      • LCDR_Fish

        Not sure where we could start – maybe pjmedia and animal at red state – but we gotta start emphasizing that every government “payout” is taxpayer money.

    • rhywun

      Whatever it takes to get Russia! Russia! Russia! back in the news.

  7. Pat

    In exceedingly too-local news, I join you all this morning after a bit of a hiatus on account of finally securing an overnight shift that aligns with my vampiric circadian rhythm. And no sooner did I get my desired shift than I got approached by a recruiter for a job that’s substantially identical but with about 20% better pay, which would afford me the opportunity to either quit my 3rd job and still take home the same amount of money, or continue at my current pace with a nice little increase. However, it’s an indefinite third party contract, which may mean less security. On the other hand, this wasn’t a job I was planning on making career-track anyway. On the other other hand, I got a small lateral promotion along with the shift change, and am due to begin training for another in about 2 weeks. Should I be offered the job with better pay after the interview, I’m in a bit of quandary.

    • LCDR_Fish

      Pray about it?

      • Pat

        I always feel kind of silly doing so, but at least once a week for about 2 years now, I take communion and pray. Wisdom, discernment, guidance, and good judgment are standard askings, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t most likely just rationalizing decisions I’ve already settled upon. It can’t hurt though.

      • LCDR_Fish

        My mentality is that it’s a relationship. It’s a constant conversation every single day. There’s nothing going on in my life that’s not too important to bring before God in prayer – lasting career decisions even moreso. Hope to have a major update soon on my next stage (maybe by next weekend).

      • Pat

        My mentality is that it’s a relationship. It’s a constant conversation every single day.

        Always been a struggle for me, tbh. I love the idea of a pantheistic, “watchmaker” sort of God. A personal God that gives a shit about what job I take? It just feels too trivial. Had I not been raised in Christianity, I’d probably be a deist. Nevertheless, the past year in particular has had some occurrences that are so coincidental I can’t help but suspect there may have been an element of the supernatural. Here’s hoping.

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

      I am not sure how old you are (good to see you, by the way), but if I was in your shoes, and post 45yo, I would stay away from contract work. It might not be the career you wanted, but at that age, it might just be the career you get.

      • Pat

        A regrettable 37. Technically, I’d still be a W2 employee with health insurance, but the company I’d be working for is contracted with General Motors (my current job is basically lead generation for nationwide, and some international, auto dealers). This right here is exactly the contemplation:

        it might just be the career you get

        I’m not necessarily wild about the upward prospects at this company, but there’s a couple of avenues that may be at least somewhat promising longer-term, whereas the higher paying gig would be a bit less certain.

    • rhywun

      Those crazy gangbangers these days.

    • Pat

      A marijuana scavenger hunt?

      Donde esta pot?

  8. juris imprudent

    And round and round we go in the Circle Game [–Joni Mitchell lyrics]

    Only then can the United States hope not only to remain the world’s leader in military technology but also to field that technology in both a timely and cost-efficient manner so as to ensure that our forces have available to them the most effective capabilities when and where they might need them.

    [snort][snicker]BWAHAhahahahahahahaha

    • Pat

      I don’t suffer from yellow fever, but certain very specific Asian women really do it for me. First on the list being one of them.

      • slumbrew

        Rawr.

        More on the LBFM side of the “Asian” spectrum than, say, Han Chinese.

        I approve.

    • Chafed

      You are my kind of therapist, Q.

  9. Sensei

    See what we need are more driver assistance features, alarms and cameras that increase car costs and repairability.

    Or we could stop driving while looking at the phone.

    Girl looking at phone takes flight after hitting my parked trailer.

    What shocks me is that big auto seems to cave to DC at every turn, but big telecom seems to convince DC that the blame lies with the human and not the device.

  10. robodruid

    In other news…..
    Our first lawsuit (defamation) filed against those people who have been harassing us.

    Federal one (tribal) imminent.

    • Pat

      OOTL, but best of luck.

      If I never had to speak to a lawyer again for the rest of my life it’d be too soon.

      • trshmnstr

        *walks away, head hung low*

      • Pat

        Lol, I mean professionally, of course. Although I’m living in a house for which a medmal settlement paid about 30%. Everything about a lawsuit fucking sucks.

      • trshmnstr

        Seriously though, I was on a call yesterday with one of my technical clients and with lawyers from a particularly difficult partner org.

        My technical client was talking through some issues and said, out of the blue, “see, now this is why we don’t like doing business with you. Youre obnoxiously difficult to work with.”

        I unsuccessfully tried to hide my smirk.

      • Don escaped Texas

        lawyer

        lawyers, I’ve had a few

        but this latest is the friendliest; I had to call yesterday about a meeting next Wednesday, and he was helpful as could be; hell, I could hear him smiling over the phone………

        because he’s going to bill me a $75 courier fee for the five minutes he spends emailing a document

      • Sensei

        Trashy, I like my house counsel and generally get along fine with them. Most of the time they do work as a partner.

        However after one particularly contentious discussion I said, “I understand why you are being adversarial with me right now, I trust you will be equally as adversarial with our regulator over this issue as well.”

        He shut up after that and realized who his client was.

      • Chafed

        I’m a little hurt.

  11. Sean

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 07/27:
    *19/19 words (+6 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 7% by bonus words

    I played https://squaredle.com 07/27:
    *35/35 words (+8 bonus words)
    📖 In the top 1% by bonus words
    🔥 Solve streak: 387

  12. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    Pretty sure I saw db in his barn last night

    • Chafed

      Real life or a sex dream?

    • rhywun

      More Darwin

      Subway surfing, which involves standing on top of a moving train, has emerged as a dangerous and sometimes deadly trend for thrill-seeking teens in New York City.

      “Emerged” 🙄

      What will those crazy kids think of next.

      • DrOtto

        It’s probably safer to ride on top of the car than in the car.

  13. The Last American Hero

    Still only July, but the Dem candidate for senate is up by 15 points over the republican in so called swing state Michigan.

  14. Q Continuum

    Older article. I can’t tell if this is just another moral panic or if there’s something to it, but I’ve been interested in hikikomori as a culture-bound syndrome for a while and wondered about the possibility of it spreading.

    https://americanmind.org/salvo/lets-stay-in/

    • Pat

      Tbh, I’d basically be a shut in if it wasn’t for my part time local gig, which is basically the sole reason I’ve kept it.

    • Don escaped Texas

      They don’t date; they don’t mate; they don’t work; and they don’t socialize.

      subsidized behavior is the simplest general explanation for what is wrong with everything

      the West is so rich we can afford armies of broken folk with pointless lives

      something iron law something something

    • rhywun

      As a global phenomenon

      Well… seems more a “rich country” phenomenon to me. And just another reflection of the ongoing endumbening.

  15. Pat

    If rhywun’s still around, somehow I missed the release of a new Alvvays album 2 years ago and just now picked it up last week. I know you like shoegaze and jangle pop, so if you haven’t had a chance, give it a listen.

    • rhywun

      👍🏻 I picked it up a few months ago. Really good band.

      • Pat

        I slept on Alvvays until their second album because they were getting so much critical hype, but once I finally relented I was a fanboy from the first 5 seconds of In Undertow.

      • rhywun

        I only found them in Feb. and bought all three albums that day.

        I am more or less immune to “hype”. I only find stuff by word of mouth or sometimes Bandcamp links. Maybe it was one of you lot who mentioned this band.

      • Pat

        I only find stuff by word of mouth or sometimes Bandcamp links.

        Well, that being the case, Islands and Man Man both put out albums in the last couple months as well, if that’s up your alley. Both good records, although not quite up to either band’s peak. On the rare occasions when I actually purchase an album, it’s almost exclusively on Bandcamp, since the artists get a better cut.

      • rhywun

        Never heard of ’em but sure I’ll take a look.

      • Pat

        Islands is the post-Unicorns project of Nicholas Thorburn, if you’re familiar with The Unicorns. Ironically, he and the songwriter from Man Man (Ryan Katner, dba Honus Honus), put out 2 records together as Mister Heavenly, both of which are great in their own right (they concocted a genre they call “Doom Wop”).

        Also, Alvvays is at least vaguely libertarian:

        Why let the state in our sheets, can’t we do without it?

      • rhywun

        Nope, never heard of any of that 🙂

    • Don escaped Texas

      OT: saw your comment to some silly post of mine where I inevitably included a knock on Texas
      you’re right, of course: there’s so much to love about Texas; I don’t hate it generally even though that’s my pose
      I know The Corner and every inch of 287 well; folks betwixt Fort Worth and Amarillo are generally excellent

      but Dairy Queen is some janqui shit, and the one in Wichita Falls sucks

      good morning

      • Pat

        Wichita Falls was one of the areas I was shopping for properties last year. All told, I’m kind of glad I ended up where I did. Other than my Realtor, I haven’t met a single person who likes this area, but God fucking help me, not only can’t I bring myself to hate it, but I actually like this little pisshole, as well as what I’ve seen of Abilene so far. Our little downtown corridor is so charmingly quaint that I sometimes hike the mile or so up there on my days off and just meander around a bit.

      • R.J.

        I forgive you Don. Every place has its ups and downs.

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

        I lived in Fresno and Merced for about six years all together, and even though the rest of Cali hates that area, I kinda liked it. Very genuine.

    • Suthenboy

      Estimated value 80-160 K.
      As I recall the crew made Evil Dead 1 with weekend beer money.

    • DenverJ

      What’s a “stunt book”?

    • Pat

      Speaking of lawyers, I bet the class action will be epic. Seems to be a strange coinkidink that ever since Intel fired a bunch of its old engineering staff and decided to go all in on DEI, they can’t produce a fucking CPU that isn’t a housefire or ends up losing 20% of its performance to a bug or microcode fix.

      • rhywun

        OMG that fucking article is infuriating.

        Tedious racist bullshit.

    • Don escaped Texas

      charmingly quaint

      if I had a nickel for every lovely story I have from de Leon, Bridgeport, Ranger, Midland, Palo Duro, Palo Pinto……..

      I worked in Graham for one very long year

      the pool scene in The Last Picture Show was shot in Wichita Falls, where Cybill Shepherd proves once again that the greatest things about Texas are from Tennessee

    • Pat

      Ahh, so it wasn’t a winged teleprompter shard after all. Good to know.

    • rhywun

      Several investigations are under way into how the 20-year-old was able to climb onto a rooftop with a clear line of sight to Trump and open fire with an AR-15 rifle.

      Don’t hold your breath, America.

    • EvilSheldon

      To quote SWMNBN, “What difference does it make?”

    • Pat

      Fucking kids was one thing, but racism? CANCELED.

      • Common Tater

        No claims Tyson was fucking kids, just inappropriate communication with a minor.

      • EvilSheldon

        So then, trying to fuck kids but not being able to close the deal?

      • Common Tater

        Not from what I’ve read.

    • rhywun

      Muslim is a race?

      I guess that’s convenient.

      PS. I still think xer partner has a pedo-smile.

  16. Q Continuum

    Good article with nothing really new but a good roll up.

    https://chroniclesmagazine.org/web/left-wing-normies-have-been-radicalized/

    That said, my issue is with the statement “None of this is normal”.

    Actually, it’s completely normal and the way things have been done throughout the overwhelming majority of human history. In fact, *not* using violence to settle political scores and determine a nation’s leadership is so uncommon in history that I’d even say it’s exceptional. Just because it was/has been fashionable for a few decades in a few countries doesn’t mean that it’s the typical way business is done. I suppose it was inevitable given the fact that humans are trash incapable of learning, but I think we’re just in the process of returning to baseline.

    • Suthenboy

      The savages have always been with us. When they cant get what they want (take what they want rather than produce it themselves) by violence they use deception. They are confident enough now in their own strength that they are abandoning deception and using violence.

      In short, the mask is off and the monkeys are off the leash.

    • Don escaped Texas

      guillotines

      I was telling NewWife how the vapidity and frenzy of everything reminded me of die Französische Revolution: mob rule where the innocent and even the best will die by the thousands; seems to happen everywhere eventually: Russia, China….

      I’m outnumbered by a hundred million toothless reactionaries: they shoot well and are pointlessly passionately; now that they united under an identity politics and fueled by a regressive populism, there is no stopping them

      • EvilSheldon

        They don’t shoot all that well.

      • Suthenboy

        “…they shoot well…”

        “No” – Trump

    • rhywun

      Will dive in but I note the pic – someone wondered somewhere why this phenomenon is mostly women.

      • Suthenboy

        It turns out that men and women have different needs and thus different motives and mentalities.

  17. Common Tater

    “Kamala Harris’ pro-Palestinian stepdaughter Ella Emhoff campaigns for step-mom after staying silent during Biden’s run

    In March, Ella Emhoff posted a link to her Instagram calling for donations to the The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The organization has deep ties to terrorism and the Biden administration cut off funding to the program in January after receiving evidence of their complicity in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel.

    Emhoff has also raised cash for “urgent relief for Gaza’s children” — which critics said would find its way into terrorist hands. The presumptive first stepdaughter remains “an active presence in pro-Palestinian circles,” according to the New Republic….

    When she’s not politicking, Emhoff works as an avant-garde model — even making boobs-out appearances at New York Fashion Week in 2022.”

    https://nypost.com/2024/07/27/us-news/vice-president-harris-stepdaughter-joining-in-race-on-instagram/

    How is that person a model?

    • Sensei

      And yet the bulk of NYC’s secular Jews will cheerfully vote Team Blue.

    • rhywun

      To ask the question is to answer it.

    • DrOtto

      Same way Hunter was qualified to sit on the board of Burisma?

    • Pat

      Sometimes the flowers arrange themselves.

    • Don escaped Texas

      it’s such an unforced error

      reminds me of the twist between the frailty of people who can’t be trusted to rule themselves
      and the high-mindedness of elections, where a majority of frail people picks between frail people to rule over them:

      the funny thing about a PFMEA is that people can talk themselves into believing whatever they wish about risk and status; they give the score a number, but it’s mostly just a feeling; after Deming proved to us that we can’t inspect quality into a process almost a century ago, we still let subjective calls lull us into senses of security: Toyota felled by a foe supposedly vanquished so long ago

      • Sensei

        Meanwhile GM would bury this and ride out the warranty and lawsuits.

      • Don escaped Texas

        GM

        confession: I’m driving Chevy trucks for 40 years

        but I helped build Georgetown (1990?), and I bought a Camry from its first year’s production
        I’ve owned at least four white, four-banger, five-speed Toyotas, and they were all infinitely reliable

      • DrOtto

        GM’s modern problems almost always stem from outsourcing and calling it “good enough”. The Chinese and Korean crap GM is foisting on the public is absolute garbage. Most of the actual homegrown stuff is very good. One other issue I see from GM every 20 years though is trying to use zinc in wiring when they need to use copper. My ’96 Roadmaster has a copper lead from the fuse box precisely because the ’94 & ’95s didn’t and had fire related recalls that involved costly replacement of the harness to replace the zinc with copper. Just over 20 years later, Silverado pickups have failing door harnesses because they are using zinc and the replacement uses copper. Learn where you can and should cost cut vs. where you do and shouldn’t.

      • Gustave Lytton

        GM has shit designers and engineers making decisions. If there are two ways to do something, GM will pick the wrong way every time. I hate the POS Chevy at work.

    • R.J.

      OMG. That is bad.

  18. PieInTheSky

    I have to say that in the last week I was impressed by your American lefty media capacity to churn out propaganda. Must be that American productivity. The Scientific American was top shelf stuff.

  19. Common Tater

    “In 2008, then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris appeared on CNN with host Mike Galanos to discuss a proposal that would decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco. During the segment, Harris argued against the proposal, emphasizing the need to protect vulnerable individuals from exploitation.

    Harris was joined by a bisexual sex worker named “Starchild,” who advocated for the legalization of prostitution. During the discussion, Starchild claimed that while seeking re-election, Harris said that she “wanted to be an honorary sex worker.” Harris laughed at the claim but did not respond to it directly.

    According to the Espler Project, a pro-sex work organization, these claims regarding Harris’ comments are accurate. While running for re-election for San Francisco District Attorney in 2007, Harris tried to gain the endorsement of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club and in a public meeting with them described herself as “an honorary sex worker,” they said.”

    https://thepostmillennial.com/kamala-told-harvey-milk-democratic-club-she-wanted-to-be-honorary-sex-worker-report

    Weird flex, but OK?

    • Homple

      Given her rewards for being Willie Brown’s knobwipe, I’d say she’s more than honorary.

    • Suthenboy

      “… joined by a bisexual sex worker named “Starchild…”
      Of course she was.

      Amazing how many stand in the long shadow of Jim Jones.

    • rhywun

      And I thought the mandatory stop for every Democrat to kiss Sharpton’s ring was unseemly.

    • Pat

      So what is everyone drinking?

      My local liquor store owner turned me on to a “basil blast” G&T, which I’ve been preparing with Farmer’s Organic Gin and Fever Tree tonic water. I love basil. I love gin. Highly recommend.

      • PieInTheSky

        Farmer’s Organic – what are ya some sort of hippie?

      • Pat

        what are ya some sort of hippie?

        I literally rolled my eyes reading the label, especially when they proudly announced that hemp oil is one of their botanicals (having spent a few years taking hemp-oil-based tinctures, it tastes like dog shit), but damned if it’s not a solid juniper-forward gin that makes for a nice G&T, and the basil blends nicely.

    • Suthenboy

      Earl Grey.
      My latest hobby is tee-totaling.

    • EvilSheldon

      Trager Brothers Blend 70 full city roast, with a splash of heavy cream.

      • PieInTheSky

        no idea what that is but my default assumption is that American coffee is crap.

      • Suthenboy

        Coffee tastes are very regional here. In general we have the best coffee in the world.

      • PieInTheSky

        In general we have the best coffee in the world – never been so don’t know but gonna call bullshit on that one

      • EvilSheldon

        Pity about Romania – allegedly great coffee, but no Google…

      • Suthenboy

        *smiles and takes a sip*

        Suit yourself.

      • rhywun

        American coffee was crap until the nineties or so.

      • Don escaped Texas

        coffee tastes

        Maxwell House (was a hotel in Nashville) rules the South and is deplorable, but it was a step up when we could afford more than chicory

        I spend a fortune on coffee: what am I running from?

      • Common Tater

        I was drinking Maxwell House this morning.

      • Sensei

        Is chicory in coffee a real coffee?

      • Gustave Lytton

        I’ve switched to MW Columbian. It’s a lot better than many of the small roaster crap.

        I wish I could get good chicory blend here. I’ve tried most of the brands and it just doesn’t taste right when I make it. Used to use it for work coffee when I made thermos every day.

    • slumbrew

      An Arnold Palmer from the place down the street.

  20. PieInTheSky

    This is crazy. Opening your event by replacing Jesus and the disciples at the The Last Supper with men in drag. There are 2.4 billion Christians on earth and apparently the Olympics wanted to declare loudly to all of them, right out of the gate
    NOT WELCOME

    https://x.com/LibertyLockPod/status/1816938415822159951

    I dont much care on the religion angle but just shoving this shit into everything all the time it testing the limits of my tollerance

    • Suthenboy

      They have exceeded mine already. I didn’t give a shit one way or another before. Now I have a burning hatred of them.

      • PieInTheSky

        thing is that I dislike this about myself. But I am left with little choice.

      • Suthenboy

        Why would you dislike that about yourself? I dont dislike people who think differently, people who choose differently than myself. I really dont care if they return the favor and leave me alone.
        Someone constantly rubbing my face in shit and demanding that I agree with them and OBEY, that is a bit different.

      • PieInTheSky

        I dunno I used to think these people are wrong, now I think they are evil and I am somewhat uncomfortable thinking large numbers of people are evil

      • rhywun

        This stopped being about “love” and “tolerance” (what they claim) at least a decade ago.

        It is now about things like “new Soviet man” so you are absolutely right to hate it. I know I do. They used to hide it more cleverly but now it’s just right in your face and they don’t give a shit.

        I am somewhat uncomfortable thinking large numbers of people are evil

        Yeah… but it’s clearly true.

      • Suthenboy

        That sums it up nicely.
        Yes, large numbers of people are evil. I am not bothered by that, just puzzled as to why they would choose to be that way.
        A natural symptom of being herd animals?

      • Beau Knott

        Bad Cat has a few things to say about this.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Sometimes people sitting at a table are just people sitting at a table.

      • Suthenboy

        It’s not the sitting at the table part. It is the ‘people’ part. What kinds of people are they and what do they want? What are they going to do? Eat? Fine. Murder? Not fine.

    • Don escaped Texas

      reasons to like France

      I like France, but, in fairness, I’ve never spent more than a week at a stretch there

  21. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    My gentleman caller is supposed to be here in 45 minutes! 😬

    • PieInTheSky

      make sure the barrel of lube is in the right place

    • Don escaped Texas

      hope and good company are everything

      best wishes

      NewWife just made sausage and biscuits

  22. EvilSheldon

    So I find myself at loose ends today. My only plans involve vacuuming the apartment and calling a few more HVAC guys.

    Maybe I’ll go for a short hike this afternoon. I’ve kinda been out of that habit since I picked up BJJ.
    Or I could start the next book on the intake pile.

    First things first though, I’m going out for a bagel. Everything’s more in focus after a bagel.

    • Sensei

      Can you get a real bagel?

      When my son lived in PA he used to stock up and freeze them when he visited here.

      • EvilSheldon

        Probably not as good as NY or NJ, but we do okay. Lots of the tribe in and around DC.

      • Pat

        I have a buddy in Long Island who goes out every morning at 5 AM sharp (6 AM EST) for a bagel run. Not my thing, but I respect the process.

  23. Sensei

    I like that our local realizes the difference between a realtor and a Realtor.

    NJ man gets life in prison after being found guilty for second time in murder of Realtor

      • DrOtto

        “…its strict Code of Ethics.” Which reads in its entirety – we will only sell the right house to the right person, and the right house is the one that you are standing in and trying to sell at that moment.

    • rhywun

      It was never “cool to be drunk” in Germany. That is an American and British thing.

      Plus, Guardian so I don’t believe a word of any of it.

      • Pat

        so the yuts are not just retarded woke socialists, they are also lame

        Not to brag or anything, but about 3 weeks ago I got absolutely shitfaced at the home of my on-again off-again girlfriend’s co-worker and had to spend $200 to pay for cleaning of their couch I unconsciously puked on.

      • Don escaped Texas

        $200

        paying your way is cool

        wanna be the next Fed chair?

      • Pat

        wanna be the next Fed chair?

        I literally couldn’t do any worse.

    • Suthenboy

      Retarded woke socialists exist to destroy. Love, Joy, beauty, humor, peace, hope, imagination, exceptionalism…everything good must perish. Thus is the nature of Satan.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    I just saw a photo of Emhoff’s “daughter”. Yeah, okay.

  25. PieInTheSky

    More Births
    @MoreBirths
    ·
    Jul 25
    Why Poland’s Birthrate is Collapsing
    Poland’s fertility will be just 1.1 births per woman in 2024, among the lowest in the world. This in a Catholic country with strict laws against abortion.
    Why is fertility in 🇵🇱 so low and what can we learn?
    🧵,

    Poland’s fertility collapse is thus driven by several factors: an obsession with work and economic success that is competing with family formation, a housing shortage that is exacerbated by a refugee crisis and a loss of Poland’s traditional Catholic faith among young people. On top of this, recent policy moves by the conservative government may have been too heavy-handed and led a negative attitude toward family formation among young women.

    https://x.com/MoreBirths/status/1816241080615985662

    • Pat

      The fecund Polaks should just move to Hungary and take advantage of the subsidies for reproducing.

      • PieInTheSky

        hungary’s fertility tanked by 17% this year to the dismay of Orban fetishists

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Fact checkers to the rescue

    Vance’s using “cat lady” as a dig at Harris “expresses hostility for women in public office by implying they should be at home” with children, said Fiona Probyn-Rapsey, a professor at the University of Wollongong in Australia who authored a chapter about “crazy cat ladies” in the nonfiction book “Animaladies.”

    But Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, doesn’t fit the part of the stereotypical “cat lady.” She’s married, for one, and has two stepchildren. She’s a politician and therefore a public figure, not a shut-in. And as far as we know, she doesn’t own any cats.

    “It’s a sexist framing for child-free women, but more importantly, it doesn’t seem to matter if she has children or not,” Probyn-Rapsey told CNN. “It’s a tool in the misogynist’s tool box — an attempt to exclude women from the public sphere and imply that her contributions to political life come at the cost of family, or, as Vance is implying, the whole nation.”

    “My mother? Lemme tell you about my mother…”

    • Gustave Lytton

      Not denying that a) Harris doesn’t have children and b) childless people are wired differently.

    • slumbrew

      That one, in particular, was driven by release of their new headphones.

      They would have had to delay releasing those in order to get the software redesign correct. Probably a mistake to link those two major projects but they not have been able to make the headphones work with the old software.

      • Sensei

        Yup. I’ve followed this fiasco as a business case study.

        You have a premium product with a fiercely loyal following that completely pissed off its users and professional AV firms to release a pair of headphones to please Wall St.

        It was also incredibly arrogant when called out by the users.

        Fuck them. (Not the users, management)

    • Pat

      The hardware equivalent of “We’ll fix it in post…”

  27. The Late P Brooks

    The desperate yearning of the suburban salvationist

    “I stood there in the crowd and I just looked around and I thought: I haven’t seen this since 2008. The energy level was off the charts,” Sinicki said. “I had a group of young women around me who had never been to one of these before. And as soon as the vice president came out they were just screaming. It’s as if she was a rock star.”

    ——-

    Almost overnight, the vice president has eclipsed the president. Videos and memes of Harris are everywhere.

    “We’ve all gone from doom scrolling to hope scrolling,” said Katie Paris, the founder of Red Wine and Blue – a group with about 500,000 members that organizes suburban women around reproductive freedom and pushing back on book bans, among other issues.

    “That feels good. I know I shouldn’t be looking at TikTok before I go to bed at night anyway. But before it wasn’t very good for my mental health – and now I feel like I can kind of make an excuse for it,” she said. ”It’s like joy is back in town.”

    The personality cultists will always be with us.

    • Gustave Lytton

      *Living Colour nods sagely*

      • Common Tater

        “Red Wine and Blue – a group with about 500,000 members that organizes suburban women around reproductive freedom”

        Can we get them all in one place at the same time?

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Generational shift

    — “ Brats for Harris.” “ We need a Kamalanomenon. ” “ Gen Z feels the Kamalove.”

    In the days since President Joe Biden exited the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, Gen Z voters jumped to social media to share coconut tree and “brat summer” memes — reflecting a stark shift in tone for a generation that’s voiced feeling left behind by the Democratic party.

    Youth-led progressive organizations have warned for months that Biden had a problem with young voters, pleading with the president to work more closely with them to refocus on the issues most important to younger generations or risk losing their votes. With Biden out of the race, many of these young leaders are now hoping Harris can overcome his faltering support among Gen Z and harness a new explosion of energy among young voters.

    Since Sunday, statements have poured out from youth-led organizations across the country, including in Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, California, Minnesota, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as leaders thanked Biden for stepping aside and celebrated the opportunity to organize around a new candidate. On Friday, a coalition of 17 youth-led groups endorsed Harris.

    What “issues important to young progressives” has Biden failed to pursue? Abortion, college debt cancellation, the cult of global doom…. What the fuck else is there?

    • Pat

      The issue is never the issue; the issue is always the revolution.

      Same as it ever was

    • Gdragon

      “Kamalanomenon”

      This stupid portmanteau doesn’t make a lick of sense. “Kamala” sounds nothing like the letters (“phe”) that it is replacing.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    “This changes everything,” said Zo Tobi, director of donor organizing for the national youth organizing group Movement Voter Project, when he heard the news that Biden was dropping out of the race and endorsing Harris. “The world as it is suddenly shifted into the world as it could be.”

    Okay, Robespierre.

    • Gender Traitor

      Yeah, yeah. “Unburdened by what has been.” 🙄