Monday Morning Links

by | Sep 23, 2024 | Daily Links | 232 comments

The Steelers are 3-0! So are a few other teams, but the Steelers are the biggest surprise. Yesterday was a crazy day with a handful of upsets and generally bad football being played in the early window. I was at the pool during the afternoon games. But I did see some of the Chiefs-Falcons game and ass usual, KC got all the breaks. The only surprise on Saturday was USC never figuring out how to stop big run plays from happening against a team without a functional QB. Across the pond, Man City drew at the death after an inordinate amount of injury time in the second half was added. And VfB annihilated Dortmund, a game my good friend was at. Also, the Singapore GP was exactly what it always is: boring as shit. Now on to…the links!

Printer goes BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Stupid McCarthy didn’t even have the balls to use his leverage to get anything conservatives have been clamoring for.

Way to go, lady! I’m just kidding. She’s an idiot. And Loper Bright is gonna eviscerate all of this idiotic overreach once they weave their way through an actual court setting instead of their kangaroo administrative courts.

I’m shocked! OK, actually this is unsurprising. Because we’ve seen it happen on a grand scale before.

Who’s in charge? Certainly not the angry, senile old man.

None of this was a secret. In fact, these people were proud of being there. The only question now is will the government actually do anything about it or let the public know who participated.

Apparently ranking schools on achievement is racist now. (Sorry for the double use of a single source. Nobody else reported on this from what I could find.)

Damn, she sure got around. Should have set up a OnlyFans and monetized it.

What did they expect? They crawled around in god knows what after god knows how many other people crawled around in it. They may as well have been asking barefoot through the bum shit scattered around the Tenderloin.

Does he not know how to look at a map? Or how to drive around downtown late in the evening and see what it’s become? Sorry, but I wouldn’t be caught dead late at night down there. It’s like a zombie apocalypse the last few times we’ve done so. Get HPD to clean it up and the people will return.

I know these guys are polarizing. But I’ll ignore their posturing. And just play a couple of their good ones. Enjoy them both.

And enjoy this lovely Monday, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

232 Comments

  1. AlexinCT

    Printer goes BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Stupid McCarthy didn’t even have the balls to use his leverage to get anything conservatives have been clamoring for.

    Do you wonder if the 3 letter agencies showed him a picture of his house, wife, and kids? Cause he sure went deep state quick as fuck.

    • Drake

      Thomas Massie’s predictions were perfect – some kabuki theater followed by the same old shit. Still funding everything including NGOs. Still handing out $3,800 a month to illegals, still adding about $80k to the national debt every second according to my “1 Mississippi” calculation.
      https://usdebtclock.org/

      • AlexinCT

        At this point they do not have the ability to go back to having a bill for every spending endeavor without exposing the fact the whole system has been hijacked by a cabal of people looting everything before the ship they hit the iceberg with – and then backed up and sped forward to hit it a couple of more times – sinks.

        To these scumbags it is more important to keep their hold on power and ride the disastrous wave they have all but made inevitable. And if you have not caught on to it yet, they want that to happen sooner than later for some reason.

      • juris imprudent

        I think you give them too much credit Alex – they might actually believe that the looting never has to end. At least not while they are alive and able to grab their share. Who cares about it after that?

      • AlexinCT

        Stop making the whole thine even scarier JI!

  2. AlexinCT

    I’m shocked! OK, actually this is unsurprising. Because we’ve seen it happen on a grand scale before.

    Wait so they figured out that if you stop incentivizing something, and especially something bad you don’t want, you get a lot less of it? Get out of here!

    • Rat on a train

      It’s more voodoo economics.

  3. AlexinCT

    Who’s in charge? Certainly not the angry, senile old man.

    The real question is who has been in charge from the beginning. Cause it was not this old guy they occasionally took out for ice cream.

  4. Sean

    37 58? In a row?

    • sloopyinca

      I’m not even supposed to be here today.

      • Fourscore

        Is it cheating if everyone knows the rules going in?

      • AlexinCT

        CALVIN BALL RULES!

  5. Tonio

    Colorado’s Douglas County put up signs telling residents that ‘Handouts Don’t Help’ at intersections and street corners throughout the community

    I’m glad that’s helping, but am actually surprised. We have “don’t give money to people in the median” signs which also have contact info for social service organizations. The idiots continue to ignore those signs, and the “homeless” continue to whine that the SSOs “don’t offer the help they need” (ie, no-questions, no-strings, handouts).

    • rhywun

      I assume they just migrated somewhere friendlier?

  6. Shpip

    The 5-year strategic plan, titled “Together We Rise,” faces funding challenges as COVID-relief funds are drying up. According to the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI), a think tank that tracks policy decisions within the state, CPS currently faces a projected $500 million deficit for the next school year.

    The plan consists of a 47-page document that outlines the district’s priorities and investments starting in 2025-29.

    I think that Chicagoans would be happier if the kids being churned out by the government schools could read and do sums. But somehow that’s not a school district priority.

    • AlexinCT

      People that are actually educated and know how to think instead of just accepting moronic pablum, and especially young people, right now are an existential threat to the machine hell bent on wrecking the country and the world.

    • rhywun

      “COVID-relief funds” 🙄🙄🙄

      Imagine how badly they want another totalitarian world shutdown.

      • AlexinCT

        Oh, it has to be super high. If only so they can have those sex orgy parties while they laugh at the rest of us being locked up at home.

      • R C Dean

        Tucson is about to raise the sales tax to backfill for the clock running out on the short-term emergency COVID funding. Pubsecs are incapable (whether through incompetence or intent) of grasping the concept of temporary funding.

      • AlexinCT

        I think the problem is with too many of the citizens not realizing that to the Pubesec types there is no such thing as a temporary government fund or program, period…

      • Pope Jimbo

        RC:

        Hennepin County (home of Mpls) is going to raise property taxes in 2025 by 5.5% (and raised them 6.5% this year) for exactly the same reason: expiring covid funding.

        The Hennepin County Board on Tuesday approved a 5.5% increase to the 2025 property tax levy, which will raise more than $1 billion in revenue accounting for roughly a third of the overall budget.
         
        The 5.5% figure will be split between county operations (4.5%) and Hennepin Healthcare (1%). It’s a slightly lower figure than the 6.5% tax hike approved for 2024, which was the largest in years.
         
        Hennepin County Commissioner Kevin Anderson said the county — which has the largest budget in Minnesota outside of the state government — is increasingly strained by inflation and expiring COVID funding.
         
        “We received substantial money with that and were able to do a lot of really amazing things: Supportive housing, programs for broadband availability, and economic and workforce development,” Anderson said in an interview. “Those dollars are expiring and in order to continue that we have to transfer some of that onto property tax.”

        Why don’t h8t3rs like you want the county govt to be able to do really amazing things? (could be worse. Minneapolis says it will raise property taxes 8.1% in 2025 and expect a bigger hike in 2026) That is nearly 20% in hikes for someone in Mpls for those of you keeping score at home.

      • rhywun

        Funding for “supportive housing” can’t be temporary because the bums and drug dealers destroy everything they’re moved into.

      • PutridMeat

        RC: I go out of my way to shop outside of city limits and/or purchase online at a location that has a sophisticated enough algorithm to recognize my actual address is just outside of city limits and don’t add the city tax. Even if it costs me more time and even more money to purchase elsewhere, fuck the city.

        Of course, maybe they expand their ‘taxing district’ so far outside the actual city limits that it’s more of a challenge.

  7. AlexinCT

    Apparently ranking schools on achievement is racist now.

    According to marxist scumbags, any system of merit is racist, homophobic, misogynist, and wrong. Cause practically all commies are life’s massive losers.

    • rhywun

      I had to tap out of the stupid.

      One wonders how the previous dozen five-year plans failed to root out the “structural racism”.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        They failed the same way all quests to find and kill the dragon fail.

        It is hard to kill something that doesn’t exist.

      • Fourscore

        Failure is the norm. Any challenge or divergence would be seen as hypocrisy.

        “This is the way we do it here”

      • SarumanTheGreat

        Structural racism is like Emmanuel Goldstein – it cannot be eliminated, it can never be rooted out. It can only be fought, with other people’s money.

  8. AlexinCT

    Damn, she sure got around. Should have set up a OnlyFans and monetized it.

    She was not punished because she got around. She was punished because she didn’t get around enough. Under marxism, especially if you are a decent looking woman, you need to be putting out a lot more.I bet some CCP big wigs got pissed they didn’t get the “long time” loving.

    • Rat on a train

      “It’s not what the party can do for your pootie. It’s what your pootie can do for the party.”

  9. Drake

    Diddy was running the Hollywood version of Epstein Island. The FBI now has all his recordings and blackmail materials. They will store it right next to the Epstein stuff and use it for their own purposes.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Puffy’s stuff will be filed in an enormous warehouse right next to Indy’s lost ark.

      • AlexinCT

        Don’t forget Epstein’s client list and flight logs from his island…

        Along with all the evidence he collected to blackmail whomever they needed/wanted blackmailed…

    • Suthenboy

      OH, c’mon now, my money is on the Trump shooter tripping over a bedsheet first.

      • AlexinCT

        Speaking of Trump shooters…

        Anyone here hear that congress was briefed by the FBI of about 5 assassination teams being out there trying to kill Trump? Supposedly 3 were foreign entities and 2 were using domestic ones to achieve this. You know what the FBI also said that was not made common knowledge because the media ignored the story? A couple of those teams have MANPADS. That’s surface to air missiles. Now the machine has cover to shoot down Trump’s plane if they can’t have some nutjob shoot him hire someone to do it

      • bacon-magic

        I assumed anybody after Trump wears manpads.

    • Drake

      Kamala was hanging out in the same circles at the same time. Wonder if she’s on some of those tapes.

  10. Shpip

    Congressional leaders announced an agreement Sunday on a short-term spending bill that will fund federal agencies for about three months, averting a possible partial government shutdown when the new budget year begins Oct. 1 and pushing final decisions until after the November election.

    At the very least, Johnson is canny enough to realize that a government “shutdown” (which is, of course, nothing of the sort) would invariably be blamed on Republicans, thus hurting their chances in the upcoming elections. Kick the can sixty days down the road, and hope for the best come the next Congress in January.

    • rhywun

      Yup.

  11. rhywun

    an inordinate amount of injury time in the second half was added

    I’ve been watching local U matches and I now prefer stopping the clock at well-defined times and counting backwards. There’s no justification for what FIFA demands.

    And VfB annihilated Dortmund

    I greatly enjoyed that match. I don’t have much against Dortmund but I have enjoyed the sort-of shake up in the table in recent years.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      In college I ran the scoreboard for the soccer teams. I was yelled at a few times by coaches because I didn’t stop the clock when it should have been, but I was only to stop it once given a signal from the referee. Anyway, agree that the clock situation for counting up is long past it’s usefulness.

      Yesterday however was not an example of inordinate amount of injury time, considering all the time wasting Arsenal were trying to get away with. They did not deserve the draw.

  12. Shpip

    Today in malicious virtue signaling

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — “Paper or plastic” will no longer be a choice at grocery store checkout lines in California under a new law signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that bans all plastic shopping bags.

    California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers could purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly made them reusable and recyclable

    The new measure, approved by state legislators last month, bans all plastic shopping bags starting in 2026. Consumers who don’t bring their own bags will now simply be asked if they want a paper bag.

    • AlexinCT

      And they will charge you 10 to 25 cents (soon to go up too) for that paper bag…

    • rhywun

      I’ve probably mentioned this before but in Germany the “correct” choice was plastic – they really like trees there.

      But it just goes to show what a farce the whole thing is. The real purpose of this stuff is to make your subject dance to your tune.

      • dbleagle

        “Dance my puppet. Dance!”

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I remember when we had the move to plastic bags back in the 80s because that’s what was gonna save the earth.

  13. AlexinCT

    Does he not know how to look at a map? Or how to drive around downtown late in the evening and see what it’s become? Sorry, but I wouldn’t be caught dead late at night down there. It’s like a zombie apocalypse the last few times we’ve done so. Get HPD to clean it up and the people will return.

    I work for a company that was told by the city with the largest amount of said employees are in, that since they had given up on several commercial real estate buildings in an effort to reduce their footprint post Kung Flu as less employees came in – like every big corporation in the city that could do so did – that that move had caused a massive deficit in income for the city’s cabal of crooks (guess which team?) to loot, and that if that was not corrected, the city would pass laws massively increasing the taxes for the company.

    Right after that we got a notice we had to spend 3 days in the office from the company. Truth is everyone flees the city as soon as they are done coming in, and they avoid spending money too, because the place is a wreck. There is no fixing that. And crime is not as big of a problem as it is in other big urban areas. But most people just prefer not to be in these cities if they can avoid them.

    • Drake

      I worked in Newark, NJ for a couple of years. You did NOT schedule a meeting anywhere near sundown – people were busy fleeing.

    • rhywun

      Cities are not going to get anyone back downtown as long the Dems keep hating on cops.

      • EvilSheldon

        Eh.

        If you want to explain the whole ‘skyrocketing crime rates’ thing, I don’t think that ACAB is anything other than a very very minor factor.

      • rhywun

        I had in mind things like “defund the police”, “no bail”, and “felonies are now misdemeanors” – thinks that are happening in every blue jurisdiction. If that’s “very very minor” what would you consider major?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        All of those thing, and feeding the homeless while not enforcing public nuisance laws.

      • EvilSheldon

        “I had in mind things like “defund the police”, “no bail”, and “felonies are now misdemeanors” – thinks that are happening in every blue jurisdiction. If that’s “very very minor” what would you consider major?”

        Except for defunding the police (which hasn’t actually happened anywhere to my knowledge), I don’t put any of that stuff under the umbrella of ‘hating cops.’ Not that the progs don’t hate cops, but I think that stuff is all more, ‘Criminals are victims of systemic racism.’ Related, but not the same.

        Of course, the cops aren’t helping matters by being lazy and incompetent.

      • AlexinCT

        Except for defunding the police (which hasn’t actually happened anywhere to my knowledge)

        Maybe I am not cool enough to sense sarcasm/irony/a joke, but just in case

      • rhywun

        Sorry, I was using “hating cops” as a shorthand for all that stuff.

        And “defunding the police” (or more accurately, cutting their funding just because) has absolutely happened in several places. And many more places (like my town) are shorthanded because of low pay and the other factors I mentioned.

    • R C Dean

      Funny how the article points the finger at “walkability, parking spots and design problems”, which somehow weren’t a problem until recently.

  14. rhywun

    “Big Grocery”

    Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah, super low low prices are a bummer.

    Ten minutes later, she pivots to complaining about high prices in brown neighborhoods.

    • Fourscore

      Walz is pathetic but no different than any of the others. Apparently he’s not been able to figure out how to steal enough to retire.

      • AlexinCT

        He should talk to Bernie and Michael Moore. Those two fucks sure as hell made the marxist pablum work well for their bank accounts.

      • Fourscore

        Walz is “moving on up to the Eastside”

        Gets to play with the firststringers for a change

      • Pope Jimbo

        Walz has so many pensions, he won’t be missing any meals.

        Teacher’s pension, Congress pension, Natl Guard pension, Governor pension.

    • rhywun

      I love that playpus photo certain media keep using. 😂🤣

  15. Stinky Wizzleteats

    “Stupid McCarthy”
    Close enough but Johnson’s not so much stupid as playing a role at this point and that role is “legitimate” although ineffective opposition to whatever agenda it is that’s being handed down. He’s team captain for the Washington Generals and knows exactly what he’s doing.

    • juris imprudent

      There is no agenda handed down – this is just the black hole that is DC. Infinite mass with infinite gravitation.

  16. Fourscore

    “Speaker Johnson chose to follow the MAGA way and wasted precious time.”

    Hard to believe politicians saying anything so stupid. Maybe not hard to believe but still. As the deficit (debt) continues to grow and grow Schumer worries about time. One day, one day, everything will change.

    “Surprise, surprise!”

  17. Shpip

    Who has a performative tantrum on X?

    Why, it’s exactly who you think.

    • AlexinCT

      When you can’t run on your record, unless you want people to become aware of how fucking evil the shit you are doing is, you have to run on performative bullshit. Emotions. And the best emotion to use is fear. It works real well with women that feel unprotected and need daddy government to take on that role so they can then tell you how big of a girl boss they are…

  18. rhywun

    It’s like a zombie apocalypse the last few times we’ve done so.

    I thought that was the norm in Texas?

  19. rhywun

    I know these guys are polarizing.

    Early U2 was superb. Later U2 is terrible. I think everyone can agree on that.

    • AlexinCT

      I was not impressed by either. Bono always was a big number two.

    • Fourscore

      I was scratching my head trying to figure out how Eisenhower and Powell figured in…Generational gap

    • Drake

      “Under a Blood Red Sky” still makes its way into my CD player occasionally. Yes, I’m old.

      • rhywun

        That was the first cassette of theirs I bought.

    • Not Adahn

      I like the Euro-dance-pop of post Rattle and Hum U2. But it is definitely a different thing that of Joshua Tree and earlier.

      Rattle and Hum was their worst album.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, it was terrible. I almost gave up on them then but somehow Achtung Baby turned out to be pretty good. But after that I lost interest.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        I really liked Achtung Baby, but I know that cuts against the grain. Earlier stuff was awesome, I don’t think I know any latter stuff.

    • Tundra

      October is still in my rotation.

    • SarumanTheGreat

      ‘Don’t ask me what we want it for,
      If you don’t want to pay some more!’

    • Fourscore

      More regulation, it’s what we need.

      I see the US falling into the same trap. Ban everything! Creativity is a negative!

      Even in the hinterlands every change requires permission and a study.

    • cyto

      Nice breakdown

  20. cyto

    Notice the details. They usually reveal the lie.

    We have seen a ton of that with the various lawfare attacks and dubious nazi rallies.

    And now, maybe China provides an example. The beautiful governor is unmarried and childless.

    “Zhong allegedly used excuses like working overtime and going on business trips to spend time with her subordinates.”

    Now, maybe some of this is down to a language thing where translation messes it up…. but it sure looks like they tacked on a “she had sex with 58 subordinates” just to humiliate her.

    She has no husband. No kids.

    Yet they specifically include that she used “working late” or “i was on a business trip” to excuse her time spent with the dudes.

    To who?

    These are things one says to a spouse to hide an affair. No spouse, no need to explain being out late.

    The tearful video confession and apology is also pretty jarring from a western view.

    • AlexinCT

      Every woman is married to the powerful men in the CCP… Directly or otherwise…

      Perks of totalitarianism that claims it believes in equality…

    • rhywun

      Just keep in mind that everything the CCP says is a lie. Even more so than here.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Banging 58 dudes for years and no kids?

      No wonder King Walz loves China so much. The women there obviously can get abortions reproductive health care for free! What a Utopia!

      • Fourscore

        He did make/take many trips ‘a broad’

  21. Sensei

    And so does the Third Circuit. On her TikTok “For You Page,” 10-year-old Nylah Anderson was shown a “Blackout Challenge” video encouraging the recording of self-asphyxiation. She hanged herself. Her mother sued and the case wound its way to the appeals court, which noted that TikTok’s FYP algorithm “is not immunized by Section 230 because the algorithm is TikTok’s own expressive activity.” The court did suggest a person searching for videos would fall under Section 230. Humans post, AI publishes.

    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/section-230-catches-up-to-ai-technology-artificial-intelligence-policy-5bee3ceb?st=Yr1BSw&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • cyto

      Well, that would be the end of a lot of things……

    • EvilSheldon

      “Airlines usually have strict restrictions involving rodents on board planes in order to prevent electrical wiring being chewed through.”

      *extinguishes torch, puts pitchfork back in the garden shed*

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, the issue with that is this single rodent came out of the catered food.

      • AlexinCT

        OK, I need a new keyboard…

    • rhywun

      Awww. I was waiting for a cat fight. Maybe he edited those out. Those can get really brutal.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Our old tom cat was 2nd toughest in the neighborhood. His ears were pretty tattered up in his old age from fighting.

        The toughest tom in the neighborhood was nearly missing one ear and was blind in one eye from a fight (not mine). It was pretty funny. If we were outside and #1 Tom came sauntering down the street my cat would find a reason to make a semi-dignified retreat back into the house.

        Our tom once went missing for a couple weeks and then one day, came limping back home. We found some deep puncture wounds on his back. Something had obviously grabbed him and tried to make a dinner out of him, but he escaped. Couldn’t figure out what it was (we have coyotes, coons and owls in our neighborhood).

      • AlexinCT

        You should check to make sure you have no people from Haiti or Central west Africa in the hood, your holiness….

  22. PieInTheSky

    Inside Diddy’s debauched star-studded White Parties where drugs were snorted off bodies, topless women cavorted in the pool and little kids were told ‘one day y’all gonna want to come’

    Is there anything wrong with that? I’m sorry I thought this was a libertarian site.

    • Drake

      Not until kids are raped and blackmail tapes are made.

    • AlexinCT

      I bet he learned that shit from these guys….

      • Pope Jimbo

        I was reading snippets of that article in this article that helpfully intersperses clips of NYPD beating up and arresting plebes for not wearing masks or being in a restaurant without a vax passport.

        Make sure to take any blood pressure medications before watching.

        Sadly, I don’t think that even if Trump hadn’t been atrocious on the Rona himself, I don’t think you could make any sort of political hay out of that shit. I think everyone important has decided that we should just move on. “Let’s not quibble about who killed who”.

      • AlexinCT

        I think everyone important has decided that we should just move on. “Let’s not quibble about who killed who”.

        Especially since the plan is to do this shit again. If they do not get us to move on, we might demand guardrails that might make it harder for them to repeat this shit when they want to. Self serving as fuck.

    • R.J.

      Sounds like Friday night Zooms…

    • Nephilium

      The fact they were called White Parties would make them uninclusive, obviously.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I actually had an invite to one of them. But then my dyslexia caused me to jumble up the address and I ended up at the Wong Party.

    • EvilSheldon

      So Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball would be right out, then?

      Maybe if Truman mixed in some (more?) cocaine and forcible sodomy?

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      You’d think he’d have hired better looking “models”.

  23. Pope Jimbo

    The next big bailout?

    More Minnesota nonprofits are facing financial crises than any year since 2020 as many continue to weather rising expenses amid stagnant or declining donations.
     
    Nearly 80% of nonprofits in a new statewide survey reported that they have less than 12 months before they face financial distress — an increase from last year when nearly two-thirds of nonprofits said the same. In 2021 and 2022, about half of nonprofits said they had less than a year before they’d be struggling financially.
     
    The new data, released by the statewide association Thursday, shows the slow recovery of Minnesota’s nonprofit sector from the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, more nonprofits may be hurdling toward a “financial COVID cliff” that experts warned about after extra pandemic-related federal grants ended and charitable giving waned following unprecedented levels of generosity.
     
    “Are we at the COVID cliff or are folks falling off of it?” said Aanestad, who is tracking an uptick in the number of nonprofits going dormant or dissolving this year. “Even one group closing can have a significant impact on people and communities.”

    Who will employ all the rich suburban liberal wine moms if we don’t “invest” more govt money in nonprofits?

    • AlexinCT

      I think the angle on these non-profits nobody has explored is how much of that tax payer lucre they get is being funneled – directly or indirectly – into specific political entities’ campaign coffers or free propaganda for the government entities handing out the lucre?

      • Pope Jimbo

        Alex, it is 100% a cash laundering scheme. The pols funnel grants and shit at the nonprofits who then basically do campaign work for the pols.

        The other thing they do is employ all the wives and ne’er do well kids of the pols. The wives can pretend that they are fierce girl bosses and not just jumped up housewives.

      • AlexinCT

        Crime syndicate will commit and is committing crimes, then…

    • R C Dean

      “Nearly 80% of nonprofits in a new statewide survey reported that they have less than 12 months before they face financial distress — an increase from last year when nearly two-thirds of nonprofits said the same.”

      So a year ago 2/3s of them said they had less than a year. Why do I suspect that every one of those 2/3s is still around a year later, and saying the same thing?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        “Going Out of Business Sale, now in our 5th year!”

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        80% is a good start.

    • Fourscore

      I apparently worked for a few unintentional non profits along the way. They weren’t laundering any money or anything else.

      • Fourscore

        “Going Out of Business Sale, now in our 5th year!”

        Grand Opening and Going Out of Business on the same sign.

    • juris imprudent

      amid stagnant or declining donations

      How was this not a daily ray of sunshine?

      • R C Dean

        No surprise, with the exodus of people with money leaving the state.

  24. UnCivilServant

    😖

    Neighbors and their trash are causing me problems again.

    A: They decided that the best place to put their old fast food garbage was not in a can, but to tuck them in behind my cans.

    B: They put a bunch of crap at the curb that is not covered under normal trash collection – 2 TVs and a Fish tank. By being close to the property line this netted me a nastygram from the city.

    • AlexinCT

      You need to call up Ving Rhames’ character from Pulp Fiction and ask him where you can get help to work over said neighbors from of those pipe hitting.. erm, brothers, he called up to deal with the gimp’s basement owners…

    • R.J.

      I just put out 16 30 gallons bags of junk+boxes and a chair. I am now prepared to move. So I sympathize. Everything is on my property though. And this is the only time I have done that in 17 years.
      Maybe they are moving too?

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s an apartment building with rotating tenants. There’s aways somebody moving in or out.

      • Fourscore

        That’s what you get from living on the West side. Constant new neighbors

  25. The Other Kevin

    The Mrs. started out with a Tough Mudder and now does a few Spartan races a year. She avoids the “covered in mud” races these days, and thankfully hasn’t had any problems with bacteria. Besides all the people, some of those races are held near cow pastures, and that runoff gets into the water.

    • The Last American Hero

      As a tough mudder veteran myself, it doesn’t surprise me.

      I got mud in places I didn’t know existed. Fortunately no infections.

      I would recommend these sorts of races for fellow glibs. We may need these skills when it comes time to escape the camps.

      • The Other Kevin

        Mrs. TOK is training to the the Bataan Death March memorial. This weekend she went up and down the Indiana dunes for 5 or 6 hours carrying 30 pounds. In the pouring rain. These are the times not being able to walk isn’t so bad 🙂

      • trshmnstr

        I did one years and years ago. It wasn’t as intense as some of these ones sound. You got a bit of mud on you, you got grass stains from head to toe, and you wanted to have extra towels handy if you cared about your car’s upholstery. It was a 5k that was on par with doing a 15k trail run as far as dirtiness goes.

        I saw video of one the other day where people were army crawling through sticky mud under an electric net with probes dangling down. Sounds miserable to me.

    • AlexinCT

      Probably because he fears someone doing it to them in the future?

    • PieInTheSky

      Meh it was quite targeted at known combatants though not randomly

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Oh cool, I was wondering what the guy who said the Hunter Biden laptop story is fake thought about the pagers.

    • B.P.

      Whelp, okay. Back to missiles, then.

  26. Not Adahn

    Something has been bothering me about the 2nd Trump Assassination attempt story. The USSS is scouting ahead, sees a rifle barrel sticking out of the bushed and immediately opens fire. On what? Did xey just mag dump into a bush? I mean, I can see how you wouldn’t want to give a hidden armed opponent a heads up that you’ve spotted them, but is this really how you’re supposed to do things?

    • R.J.

      There must be missing details.

    • AlexinCT

      It’s SOP for the USSS to open fire first when they identify a potential threat and ask questions later (which is why the USSS not shooting the guy on the roof during the first attempt was such a thing). The agent identified a riffle barrel and opened fire. I am far, far, more concerned with the fact that the specific location this nutjob set up to take the shot was well known to the USSS as a spot paparazzi used to get close and take pics of Trump in particular and other celebs in general, and ignored the site during their preliminary sweep. More interesting to me is that there were no paparazzi there during that lengthy time, even though the court was supposedly closed, but with trump in town, since the current claim is Routh was there for about 12 hrs or so.

      • Not Adahn

        My point is, what was the target? Did xey just aim center-of-bush and hope to get a lucky hit on anything that might have been downrange (hoping it was a malefactor?)

      • cyto

        The lack of details in the official account is kind of surprising.

        Sure, saw gun, started shooting. Chase ensued.

        But… what else happened at that moment. No call-out to have someone move in from the other side of the fence? No drone surveillance? A nice video drone is less than a grand. Seems like it would be useful in these situations.

        Lots of questions.

        Not as many as the first attempt…. but lots of questions

    • R.J.

      Ha!
      When in Rome…

    • Homple

      I would feel welcome there.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I’m still struggling with the Japanese “Cash is King” attitude. The only other place I’ve been that is this averse to taking plastic is western NoDak (and they are probably that way because they don’t have electricity or phone lines out there).

      I’ve had to put things back at several stores because I didn’t have any cash and that is all they took. The worse part of it is how mortified and sorry the clerk is for me. Makes it hard to get my Rage on when they are genuinely sorry and polite.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Damn, we need that attitude to money here in the US. I hate plastic, makes me spend too much.

      • Sensei

        Don’t forget a change purse for the 8 ounces of coins you will need to carry.

        At this point my understanding was most places took some kind of plastic cash. Were you at a 100 yen store or similar?

      • Pope Jimbo

        Sensei: The 100 yen shop was fine. One was a bar (luckily the wife was nearby with cash). The others were small mom/pop stores that I happened to pop into (especially in Osaka’s Koreatown mall). The ones that only took cash were almost pop up stores.

        Yeah, I hear you about the coin purse. I feel like a total homo for carrying one around, but there really isn’t any other option.

        The good thing about the dollar being so strong is that those little plastic 1yen coins are worth less than a penny so I don’t feel bad about losing them. I have learned, though, not to try just leaving them in the change tray when I am using self-checkout because some earnest Japanese person (either a clerk or another shopper) will chase you down to make sure you take it.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Meh. I saw several Japanese only signs when I was in Okinawa in the late ’80s. No one was offended. In fact it was nice knowing right at the beginning that you wouldn’t be welcome. Let’s face it Okinawa was basically a big prison colony for US Servicemen and there were enough incidents of complete asshole Americans doing bad things, that you couldn’t really blame the locals for not being thrilled about having a bunch of young, drunk jarheads come into your establishment.

        From what I remember a large majority of the “Japanese Only” bars were hostess bars and the proprietors were tired of Americans not grokking that it wasn’t a brothel. You bought the expensive drinks just so the pretty girl would sit with you and laugh and giggle. Nothing else was going to happen.

      • Pope Jimbo

        My favorite sign in Asia was in Pohang, Korea. A small clothing shop had a sign that said “Welcome Marines! Even Jungle Brother Marines. Even though sometimes you steal” which was accompanied with a horrible racial cartoon of a Jungle Brother.

        It was so, so, so badly done that it ended up not being offensive. I bet every dark green Marine who was in Pohang during Team Spirit 88 had a picture taken in front of that store.

      • Evan from Evansville

        “Jungle Brother Marines” is just too damn funny. Would photograph.

        Daejeon had a few bars that required an ID for weiguks — to check we WEREN’T soldiers, teachers more than welcome. They LOVE white folk. Being a black teacher was rare and a bit of a cultural gamble. Much better now, on that front. My last ex there, The Saint, and her “coloured” friends never ever mentioned any Korean nastiness, nor did I see any.

    • rhywun

      I choose to believe the OP was being sarcastic.

  27. Tundra

    So are a few other teams, but the Steelers are the biggest surprise.

    Not to me. The Vikings going 3-0 after beating the shit out of SF and Houston, all while Darnold is setting Vikings record is pretty damn surprising.

    Also, I got Hep C from reading that Diddy article.

    • PieInTheSky

      I think that is totally curable these days

      • R.J.

        Diddy has Hep C+. It compiles in your system faster.

    • AlexinCT

      You know they will choke in the playoffs…

      • Pope Jimbo

        The only way the Vikes choke this year is if I decide to come back to the states.

        I was not in Minnesoda for either of the Twins championships. I was living in a foreign country both times (Okinawa and Memphis, TN).

        Then in ’98, I was working in Tokyo for most of the season. I came back for the playoffs and was sure that I was going to watch them win the Super Bowl.

        How much do you think the Vikes will pay me to stay here in Kobe? Should I go with their first offer, or spend a bit of money on plane ticket home and jinx a game or two just to demonstrate my powers? That would drive up my price.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I was watching the Vikes replay today while working and I was stunned too.

      The wins they have have been convincing too. It isn’t like a couple years ago when they kept lucking out. They seem pretty good on both sides of the ball.

      Maybe a big part of being a great QB is to have HOF receivers to throw to? The Texans looked down right Vikingish in their refusal to change their defense to double cover Jefferson. “Our D isn’t going to change! We’ll stay in zone and allow Jefferson to get off the line free because that is just what we do”.

      Also our Packer Recycling Program looks like it is working well this year with Aaron Jones.

      • Tundra

        Sure, but Addison is out and JJ left the SF game and it didn’t matter. Pretty balanced team. And the defense is obviously giving the opponents fits. I know they’ll come back to earth, but it’s been some unusually entertaining football.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Yeah I am not surprised that the Steelers are playing good defense while barely scoring enough points to win. Also not exactly impressed with wins against Atlanta, Denver, and Chargers (mildly impressed).

    • R C Dean

      The Cowboys mostly looked like ass, again.

      Something about giving the QB a massive contract just sucks the life out of a team. It’s happened time and again.

  28. PieInTheSky

    Capitalism allows people who fear scarcity to hoard, therefore creating scarcity.

    https://x.com/SAVoltolin/status/1837899999914398064

    oh there was hoarding in communism, hoarders were often shamed on national TV. Why a fellow was once caught with 10 bottles of cooking oil and 20kg of flour in the pantry. without these people there would be plenty for everyone

    • AlexinCT

      Capitalism allows people who fear scarcity to hoard, therefore creating scarcity.

      Shorter marxism: gimme your fucking shit said the grasshopper to the ants.

    • Fourscore

      Shades of WW2 and rationing. Everyone (almost) had a go to person. I was too young to understand the nuances but rationing for poor people like Fourscores was more of an inconvenience.

    • cyto

      Remember when the FBI threatened the Nashville police to keep them from releasing the trans shooter manifesto, lest it inspire hate and copycats?

      Seems like that is only standard procedure sometimes.

      • Drake

        Yep – They just put a bounty on Trump.

      • Sean

        I remember!

  29. cyto

    You know how everyone said they would remember this come election time? Yeah, they don’t seem to be remembering all that much.

    https://x.com/SirBylHolte/status/1837973798710399251?s=19

    We shall see. But I am pretty astonished at the ease with which the press can move the populace to forget.

    60 people run down at a Christmas parade.

    Largest mass shooting in US history at a country music concert in Vegas

    Multiple trans or queen mass shooters

    Not one, but two assassination attempts.

    Framing political opponents for crimes

    Spying on political opponents

    Lock downs and riots supported by the progressives at the same time

    Vaccine mandates – even if you already had covid

    The list is long, the insanity is deep. And it is all forgotten.

    Amazing how just a couple of months ago Trump angrily shouting Fight, blood scattered across his face, fist in the air was a decisive moment and the election was over.

    Now? I’m not sure that ever even happened. And we for sure don’t know how many FBI informants were talking to the shooter.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Cellphones and social media have digitally lobotomized a hell of a lot of people. You get so inundated with news nowadays that it’s damn near impossible to hold it all in your memory.

    • PieInTheSky

      sorry I spaced out half way through you post what re you saying?

      • cyto

        Hahahaha

    • rhywun

      Here in Minnesota, Walz forced this on us. I could not see my doctors, go to a pharmacy, go to the ER, hospital or radiology without a mask a covid passport and at least 2 vaccines

      Geez, even NY/C wasn’t that bad. Nothing stopped me from doing any of that.

      • Fourscore

        I think that was exaggerated. We went about our regular routines, except no funerals,. Had to wear a mask at the clinic, etc, but the family doc didn’t say a word if we took our masks off. Walmart no questions, most places not a problem. OTOH we’re rural with mostly sane people.

        I was in the hospital as a patient, no vaccine, no mask, nurses wore theirs. I had to wear a mask when I left my room for therapy. I was not in a position to argue but I did tease the mask wearers, most agreed.

        My neighbor, an emergency room nurse, quit her job rather than take the vaccine.

  30. PieInTheSky

    British beer drinkers, face the truth: a pint is too big, a half is too small – all hail the two-thirds measure
    Elle Hunt

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/22/britain-beer-drink-pint-half-two-thirds

    see in very warm climate a pint might be big because it get warm before you finish it. But for most time in England that is not a problem especially since cask ales are not that cold to start with. Those one liter mugs in Bavaria are definitely too big.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “Prof Theresa Marteau, concluded that the change – which led to nearly 10% less beer being sold and consumed – could reduce the impact of alcohol-related harm.”

      More social engineering bullshit aimed at tricking people into behaviors (or abstentions) they normally wouldn’t engage in. Professor Marteau can get fucked.

      • cyto

        Hey, bars! Implement this change which will reduce sales by 10%!

      • Ted S.

        How do we reduce the impact of government-induced harm?

      • R C Dean

        Remember when a soi-disant libertarian was pushing the “nudge” method of behavior modification? Can’t recall his name, but this is what it looks like.

        I’m betting that 10% reduction is patrons going to other bars that don’t short their customers.

      • B.P.

        Cass Sunstein is the ‘nudge’ guy.

  31. Common Tater

    “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is investigating a possible lawsuit against sexting New York magazine writer Olivia Nuzzi — who allegedly “bombarded him with increasingly pornographic photos and videos” while tricking him into unblocking her numbers, according to a mutual friend.

    Kennedy, 70, has hired security expert Gavin de Becker to probe the saga because he is allegedly pursuing civil — and potentially criminal — litigation against the 31-year-old star political reporter, according to Jessica Read Kraus, who knows them both.

    “This had nothing to do with romance,” de Becker said of the sordid saga. “He was being chased by porn.””

    https://nypost.com/2024/09/23/us-news/olivia-nuzzi-bombarded-rfk-jr-with-increasingly-pornographic-messages-mutual-friend/

    https://jessicareedkraus.substack.com/p/the-talented-ms-nuzzi

    Where does journalist fall on the hot/crazy matrix?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Jaw too prominent, check for Adam’s apple.

    • EvilSheldon

      “…security expert Gavin de Becker…”

      For fucks’ sake.

    • cyto

      Reason writers seem to be firmly in the “she is being slandered by Kennedy and you know they really had an affair” camp.

      Meanwhile, people who were there are were close to the situation (HouseInHabit) tell a different story.

      As above… details matter.

      How did this come to light? Her magazine said they were ordering an independent investigation into a romantic relationship between their writer and Kennedy.

      Details.

      Why would a magazine do that? What is the allegation? How does that impact the magazine?

      She wrote a hit-piece on Kennedy. Not a fluff article.

      So who is being targeted? A writer? Or an important political figure?

      Why make an announcement? You didn’t investigate yet. So why head out to the public with it?

      Details matter.

  32. Tundra

    Who’s in charge? Certainly not the angry, senile old man.

    Wow. Four more months until the inauguration? No way, José

  33. Common Tater

    “A heartbroken Colorado father whose son ended his own life with a cheap substance, readily available online, that was delivered to their home is leading the charge to get the substance banned nationwide in high, concentrated dosages used for suicide…

    The 17-year-old ingested the sodium nitrite, a chemical compound mainly used for food preservation that can be fatal for humans in high concentrations, the day after it arrived. But it appears he regretted taking it, and reached out to his family that he needed to go to the hospital “immediately.”

    He died in the ambulance….

    Brown later discovered his son had been part of a depraved online forum where people encourage others to commit suicide, where he believes Bennett learned about sodium nitrite.”

    https://nypost.com/2024/09/23/us-news/grieving-dad-fighting-to-ban-deadly-substance-his-son-bought-online-for-just-13-that-was-the-price-of-my-sons-life/

    Sure, let’s ban every possible way a person can commit suicide.

    • Sensei

      No home made cured meats!

      Boar’s Head should be the only company that makes them! Oh, wait…

    • R.J.

      Jeez. Maybe get your kid some help earlier before he tries to kill himself with food preservatives?

      • Tundra

        This. Be a parent, ffs.

    • PieInTheSky

      As harsh as this may sound people overcome with grief are not the best makers of policy

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s sad and all but the last thing we need is to start banning more shit. Life’s inherently risky, especially if you’re suicidal.

    • pistoffnick (370HSSV)

      …sodium nitrite…

      Ban celery!

    • Ted S.

      If your son walked into a river like Virginia Woolf, would you call for the banning of water?

      • Sean

        Mandatory water wings!

  34. PieInTheSky

    Since 1990, France has built more motorway than the entirety we have in the UK. None of this has cost the French government a centime – private companies fronted the capital, and those driving pay for them through tolls. And their top speed limit is 11mph higher!

    https://x.com/bswud/status/1838161616505905237

    Romanians on the interwebs are very upset at toll highways when they go on vacation and tend to be very against them/ i always thought it should be default myself. It is difficult for town streets but for long distance highways it works. Then again France still has massive taxation for welfare bullshit so it is not like the tolls reduced taxes…

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      It’s a pain in the ass stopping to pay the toll, and even worse when for some reason they don’t accept your credit card and nobody on the help line speaks English, but the roads are in great condition.

      • trshmnstr

        I stopped in NE Oklahoma one time and the lady looked at me weird. “you can just go through the scanners”.

        I only had a Texas toll tag, but evidently there’s a reciprocation agreement between the two toll authorities. More of them need to do that. (and Oklahoma needs to put out signs with the compatible toll tags!)

  35. PieInTheSky

    Albania is in the process of creating a liberal Muslim microstate, PM Edi Rama announced.

    The planned “Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order” would become the world’s smallest nation, a Vatican-style sovereign enclave controlling territory about a quarter the size of Vatican City.

    The new state would allow alcohol, permit women to wear what they want and impose no lifestyle rules, reflecting the tolerant practices of the Bektashi Order, a Shiite Sufi group.

    Rama said the aim of the new state is to promote a tolerant version of Islam.

    The enclave would be located within Albania’s capital, Tirana.

    https://x.com/kos_data/status/1837486215672594583

    • UnCivilServant

      Tomorrow, a Jihad will wipe it off the map again.

      • R.J.

        Yep.

    • cyto

      Sounds great…. if there isn’t a hoard of fencing and concertina wire somewhere.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Cucked Christianity has been tried and is currently failing and it won’t work for Islam either.

    • cyto

      I hope they thoroughly investigated the disposal of potable water ….

      (SpaceX sarcasm)

  36. cyto

    This one qualifies as an old-school nut punch.

    17 year old kid does a robbery and gets in a fight at McDonalds. Gets an 18 month sentence.

    Still in jail 18 years later, with no release in sight. Some outlawed form of sentencing where you have to prove you are not a threat before you are released.

    If he wasn’t irredeemable before, he probably is now.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/ipp-sentence-luke-ings-mcdonalds-prison-b2601321.html

    • PieInTheSky

      didn’t England let out all sorts of violent criminals out of jail lately because it was overcrowded?

      • EvilSheldon

        Yes, they called it the Good Friday Accords.

    • rhywun

      WTF.

      let out all sorts of violent criminals out of jail lately because it was overcrowded

      Bill Deblasio did this too – but not because the current prisons were overcrowded, instead because he wanted to close Rikers and replace it with smaller prisons so he was getting ahead of the game. Like most American commies, he believes there are “too many” of the “wrong kind” of people imprisoned.

  37. The Other Kevin

    I had some good conversations with my youngest kid last week during her visit. It’s way different when they’re grown up and independent. I found out she likes to watch Charlie Kirk videos where he goes to colleges and talks to kids. I didn’t point her in that direction, so it’s comforting to know she’s finding this stuff on her own. She and her husband are also getting their absentee ballots taken care of.

    • Ted S.

      Wait until they find out they’ve already voted TEAM BLUE 20 times each.

  38. PieInTheSky

    an 8-year old girl in Ohio drove herself 25 minutes to Target, spent $400 and was drinking a Frappuccino when she got caught.

    She’s probably grounded for a while but as soon as she’s free, I’m investing in whatever she does next

    https://x.com/pitdesi/status/1837637586426515703

    • Ted S.

      Kid had the bad taste to buy a frappucino.

    • Sean

      She’s too good for a Walmart?

  39. UnCivilServant

    Fun fact – Electrical meters just slot in.

    • PieInTheSky

      kinky

  40. PieInTheSky

    people are reposting this comic. whats enjoyable from my perspective is over the years ive seen it used 100% both ways: people who think the joke is that someone would take ridiculous alternative sources seriously, and people who think the joke is that those are the good sources

    https://x.com/owenbroadcast/status/1837881463745737073

    • UnCivilServant

      Those sources are all on thsi site, and then some.

    • Suthenboy

      I am gonna go with the latter.
      Define ‘reputable sources’
      Sources in the joke vs mainstream media, ‘scientists’, politicians and other flavors of professional liars?

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Send more money

    The provision echoes a commitment agreed by nations last year at the U.N. climate conference in Dubai. At the time, not everyone was happy with the final agreement. Critics of the deal said it lacked a clear path toward phasing out fossil fuels and pointed out a “litany of loopholes” in the final text.

    While Sunday’s pact outlines 56 broad actions to address the world’s biggest challenges, the U.N. said “follow-up action” is needed to ensure that the commitments are followed through.

    If only we had a global socialist dictatorship to formulate these policies and ruthlessly enforce them.

    • Sean

      I thought we already did.

    • Suthenboy

      I would prefer a plan on phasing out the use of oxygen by climate activists and watermelon pols.

    • The Other Kevin

      This is all so predictable. You will have western countries voluntarily hobble themselves by “going green”, meanwhile countries like Ching and Russia will use any and all sources of energy including fossil fuels and nuclear, and dominate the rest of the world going forward.

      • rhywun

        And the amazing part is how much of the west is perfectly OK will all of this.

      • R C Dean

        I wonder what the overlap is in the Venn diagram for “Supports Net Zero” and “China and Russia are our mortal enemies”.

      • Suthenboy

        Net zero….I love that term. Shit, all we have to do is employ our perpetual motion machines. Bam! Problem solved.

      • AlexinCT

        And the amazing part is how much of the west is perfectly OK will all of this.

        I have a fear that is because they all think that when the globalist world actually rolls around, they will magically somehow ended on top and not so China’s CCP, Russia’s government, or some other cabal that also sees the benefit of a globalist world with the population reduced to some 2 billion and living in the new feudalist order and isn’t playing their game…

  42. Common Tater

    “Macklemore chanted ‘f*** America’ on Saturday while performing in Seattle at a charity festival to benefit Palestinian refugees.

    The 41-year-old Seattle native hit the stage at the Palestine Will Live Forever Festival in support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees and encouraged people to ‘straight up’ join the chant, according to an article on Sunday by TMZ.

    The rapper told the audience he wasn’t going to stop them if they did and then said, ‘F*** America’ as the audience erupted into cheers.

    Macklemore, real name Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, has been highly critical of United States foreign policy as the war between Israel and Hamas has intensified.

    He released a protest song in May 2024 titled Hind’s Hall in support of the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13880077/macklemore-leads-anti-America-chant-charity-concert-Seattle-benefit-Palestinian-refugees.html

    Remember the “Macklemore has joined ISIS” meme?