Monday Morning Links

by | Nov 4, 2024 | Daily Links | 342 comments

I’m not sure what to think of this NFL season. So many teams with high expectations that suck and so many teams that were supposed to suck that are balling out. And now we have the trade deadline approaching, which could really shake things up. Gonna be an interesting second half. Also, Ohio State went to Happy Valley and did what they do at Happy Valley: beat Penn State. Thank God. Across the pond, Liverpool won, while Arsenal and Man City stumbled. It’s gonna be a crazy year at the top of the EPL. And last but not least, since we have some F1 fans out there, Max put on an absolute masterclass in Brazil and won by almost 20 seconds…from 17th on the grid. Possibly the best drive I’ve ever seen, especially in those conditions. The WDC is all but locked up now. Also, Checo’s got to go. And that’s it for sports.

This makes a lot of freaking sense. Plant the stuff somewhere else or just let it die out in exchange for a big jump toward energy independence. Or, shut down the mine to protect something for which there are a ton of other strains around the world. Gee, that’s a toughie.

Oh, no. This is horrible. What a fascist! Thanks for reporting on it. Any word on the Limey politicians flooding the US to help Kamala in the Labour For Harris movement? Or do those actions of a differently aligned NATO member not merit mentioning?

Quincy Jones has passed. What a long and illustrious career this guy had. He will be missed.

This was a great endorsement. So solid that I wouldn’t imagine the Harris campaign is even taking her calls after they got what they wanted from this crazy, 80 I.Q. (at best) woman.

This story ain’t gonna die any time soon. Well, not unless the officials from New York get their hands on it. If that happens, they’ll poison it and then chop its head off to see if it’s dangerous. Scumbags.

This is fascism. I cannot find another term to describe the government’s potential actions here.

If they’re against it, I’m for it even more now. The whole “who will pick out food and mow our lawns?” routine has gotten stale. Not to mention it’s both traacist and incorrect, since we have had a migrant worker program in place for ages, and almost all of the seasonal pickers are participants.

The potato people got this one right first. No, I don’t mean the Irish. They don’t get much of anything right except for Guinness.

This is not a good look for the school. And it’s likely a violation of California whistleblower laws.

Now I hate this asshole even more. This isn’t as bad as him slapping women around or knocking up the nanny. But it’s pretty awful.

I’m confused by this. I had no idea Texas still had some parts of the state that weren’t completely cut from neighboring states. Based on that, this looks like the right decision.

Here’s some darkwave for you. So good… And here’s some more. Enjoy them both.

And enjoy this lovely Monday, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

342 Comments

  1. PieInTheSky

    This makes a lot of freaking sense. Plant the stuff somewhere else or just let it die out in exchange for a big jump toward energy independence. Or, shut down the mine to protect something for which there are a ton of other strains around the world. Gee, that’s a toughie. – look green energy is magic and can be achieved with 0 mining

    • The Other Kevin

      It’s the NIMBY system. They can strip mine, destroy the environment, and use slave labor in another country, as long as we don’t see it on the news.

      • Fourscore

        Here in played out mining country we had big holes in the ground and high hills of overburden. You could pick out the miners ’cause they all had orange cars, not by choice.

        Then the mines dried up. The big holes became deep, clear water lakes with fish of all sorts, including trout. The red hills grew up with trees and became local mountains, where the deer have learned to walk sideways. Now other minerals such as nickel and manganese have been discovered and the NIMBYs don’t want any digging, they’re too young to remember that’s where their grandfathers worked. More than that, many transplants have moved in and believe it was always like it is today. The days of the orange cars have passed.

        /Fourscore remembers

  2. PieInTheSky

    Quincy Jones has passed. What a long and illustrious career this guy had. He will be missed.

    91 is always a good run.

  3. juris imprudent

    Florida woman answer to Lobster girl on the main page?

    • Ownbestenemy

      I’m okay with that

    • creech

      I thought that might be a video from the recent Glibcruise. She’s not one of us?

    • Tundra

      Looks pretty sporty, but she’s eventually gonna take a baseball bat to you and your car.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, that is definitely the vibe I get.

      • Ozymandias

        “…she’s eventually gonna take a baseball bat to you and your car.”

        I say edged weapon, T. Something about chomping on an aluminum can says “edged weapons” to me.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      Yes please.

  4. UnCivilServant

    I don’t want to see an Intel/AMD merger – then we’d get chips that are the worst of both worlds.

    • PieInTheSky

      Until Qualcomm buys both

      • UnCivilServant

        Of the three, Qualcomm is the smallest, and would not have the revenue or leverage to do a buyout of either larger company.

      • sloopyinca

        Neither of the other two have the leverage either. This is being pushed by the government, not one of the principals. Hence the fascism statement.

      • PieInTheSky

        US should annex Taiwan as a state.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Actually…. Not a terrible idea Pie.

      • rhywun

        Actually…. Not a terrible idea Pie.

        I would welcome them and I suspect they might be down with it too.

        China might have other ideas but fuck ’em.

    • SDF-7

      Yeah — that’s my first thought… AMD has their own foibles but their own strengths. Last thing we’d ever want was to fuse the two and force a monopoly on x64.

      How about y’all just keep contracts open for domestic manufacturing only to encourage national security / economic independence and otherwise don’t fuck with the market, jackasses? If Intel keeps screwing up — it is time for competitors to come in and take their market share. That’s how life works and all.

      • juris imprudent

        don’t fuck with the market

        Wha? /various govt experts and outside PhDs

  5. PieInTheSky

    This story ain’t gonna die any time soon. – well it keeps the internet busy at least

    • rhywun

      “When I walked in, [people] recognized my face because I was on the cover of the newspaper. And they just kind of smiled and nodded.

      Maybe they saw your porn site.

      Which is probably booming now.

  6. Tres Cool

    whaddup’ doh

  7. Ted S.

    Trivia: Quincy Jones was born on the same day as Michael Caine, and did the score for the Caine version of “The Italian Job”.

  8. PieInTheSky

    The potato people got this one right first. No, I don’t mean the Irish. They don’t get much of anything right except for Guinness.

    I mean they do have this huge budget surplus they don’t know what to do with. And their overall tax burden is low for Europe.

  9. SDF-7

    Yeah — I’ve harped before on my issues with Max (and the Sky commentators were interestingly saying something similar… that “Road Rage Mode Max” is so damned unnecessary because he has undeniable talent and all), but he’s always been spectacular in the wet (that’s what she said!), especially in Brazil. I don’t remember if it was 2016 or 2017 — but one of his early establishing drives was there as well with similar spectacular dominance.

    Have to give credit where it is due — and yeah, Perez either really needs a very different setup than Max or just doesn’t have it. I still strongly think Hamilton is the same. And poor Alonso complaining about his back after all the bouncing — I feel ya, man…

    Morning, Sloopy! Morning, all — front page made me have to check the byline, I almost expected Brett to be filling in. Very Florida Spring Break College Girl vibe.

    • sloopyinca

      I still don’t understand why the stewards decided to not bother with penalties on the cars that illegally jumped the restart procedure or against Mercedes for breaking a very clear TD on tire pressure changes once tires are mounted.

      €5000 each is half what a driver got recently for saying “fuck” in the team radio. And they issued it hours after the race had ended (for both sets of infractions). I guess the British rules enforcers are more concerned with being British than enforcing the rules.

      • SDF-7

        Thanks for the update — I just watched the race replay where all this was left as “investigated after the race” so didn’t know how it all turned out.

        And yeah — that sounds really wussy on the part of the stewards. Merc broke a clear technical directive — I would have expected at least grid spot penalty in the next race plus large team fine (if the drivers weren’t making the call, penalize the team / mechanics not the drivers per se). For Norris and the rest of the lemmings at the start – yeah, that should have been 10 second penalties after the fact all around. I strongly suspect that like John Roberts, the stewards thought it was too big of an impact.. and hey, Max won anyway so Norris didn’t really gain much… so let’s just brush it all under the rug, m’kay?

        But that’s just gut reaction.

  10. rhywun

    Or, shut down the mine to protect something for which there are a ton of other strains around the world.

    In this case, the lithium mine is intended for destructive Green New Deal fantasies. I don’t know if it’s useful for actual energy independence.

    Save the weeds!

    • juris imprudent

      Religious devotion to the holy environment does not allow for any heresy.

  11. SDF-7

    This makes a lot of freaking sense

    The California model of nature conservation — build nothing, anywhere at any time.

    Of course we all know it is because the watermelons are anti-growth and want to collapse the system and all, so no surprises.

    • Tonio

      Those people are called BANANAs – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything. It’s the metastasized form of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard).

      • Evan from Evansville

        Me likey. Will steal.

      • whiz

        Corollary: you also can’t build away from everything because that ruins nature (no good acronym for that).

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      I got mine. Screw the poors and the young looking to buy a home or even find an affordable apartment. They should have been born earlier. Also, I’m compassionate and caring and the media portrays me as such. – Typical California NIMBY

  12. rhywun

    Oh, no. This is horrible. What a fascist!

    I believe the currently fashionable epithet is “Nazi”.

    • juris imprudent

      No, that’s what you call your opponents. Fascism we like is called smart economic policy!

  13. SDF-7

    This was a great endorsement.

    We all know the WAP bloc will slam this race wide open. Even the trains will be run on time.

    • UnCivilServant

      I misread that as “even the trans will run on time”. I guess it was subliminally attached to their party platform, but I still went off the rails.

      • cavalier973

        It isn’t too late to choo-choose to to get back in line.

    • sloopyinca

      Maybe she’ll get a cabinet spot and we’ll finally find out “how pee taste like.”

  14. Grumbletarian

    This is not a good look for the school. And it’s likely a violation of California whistleblower laws.

    Maybe the San Jose players should start refusing to play. Let the one guy try to beat a full team of girls.

    • The Last American Hero

      If they do so, they lose their scholarships and will be kicked off the team. It’s in the letter that started this whole shitshow with the coaching staff.

    • R C Dean

      That is funny. The #NannyHumpers tag is just icing on the cake.

  15. SDF-7

    If they’re against it, I’m for it even more now.

    I’m 100% on board with taking short-term economic pain for long term health as a country (borders, culture, national security, etc.). See prior rants on keeping domestic resource extraction and manufacturing for the same reason. Yeah, it may not be the absolutely most economically efficient thing (as long as trans-oceanic shipping is cheap) — but it is better for countries in the long run and reduces the chance of One World Cabals pushing things behind the limited leviathan megacorps and all.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      One thing that gets missed in all of these calls to look at the world as homoeconomicus, which as been a common theme “over there” and now with our new fascist overlords, is that man isn’t driven only by monetary concerns, but issues such as safety, pride, family, and so on are all equal in many peoples eyes. And unless you take that into account, you will have a populist uprising such as we are seeing in Europe right now and is gaining ground here in the states.

      • rhywun

        Someone tell that to the writers at TOS.

  16. Rufus the Monocled

    The Peanut and Fred story absolutely enrages me.

    Voglia vendetta!

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Yes, ’tis I.

      • Tres Cool

        Get back to work!

      • The Other Kevin

        Rufus is the John Wick of the Glibs. He just wanted to live a quiet life. And then they killed his squirrel.

    • Not Adahn

      Reposting:

      The three arguments I see among the “Peanut is NBD, actually” and what they say about the awful people who espouse them:

      “Das Gesetz ist das Gesetz” = I am a bootlicker and/or worship the state as the supreme deity. Individuals are simply resources.

      “Something bad might have happened” = I am a bootlicker and easily terrified into submission. While this argument is a fully-generalizable e excuse to kill literally anyone, I believe my superiors are going to care for me and only hurt badpeople.

      “LOL, it’s just a stupid rodent, stupids!” = I only give a shit about things that bother me personally.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        #3 is especially evil. Punchable.

  17. juris imprudent

    Nikki Haley says on WSJ that it is better to vote for Trump than Harris. So much for winning the Haley Republicans!

    • sloopyinca

      She’s saying it now because it’s safe.

      • Raven Nation

        And (1) she wants a job in a trump White House; (2) position herself to run again in 2028

      • Certified Public Asshat

        If your team is Vivek, RFK Jr, Tulsi, Elon, possibly Ron Paul, where exactly does Haley fit in?

      • Drake

        Trump despises her. I doubt she’s getting another job in his administration.

      • Gender Traitor

        where exactly does Haley fit in?

        Making sammiches for the team? (Tulsi would like hers with the crusts trimmed off, plz!)

      • creech

        Haley looking to be part of 2028 ticket.

      • Raven Nation

        Not saying she WILL get a job but she WANTS a job. And given the chaos that surrounded a lot of Trump’s picks last time…

      • DEG

        If your team is Vivek, RFK Jr, Tulsi, Elon, possibly Ron Paul, where exactly does Haley fit in?

        Secretary of State.

        Ambassador to UN.

      • DEG

        And I’m not saying she’s a good fit, just that she is a fit.

      • Drake

        I think he learned his lesson about neo-cons. No way does she get a policy making position.

  18. The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

    ‘advocacy group for Native Americans’

    Burn them alive.

    Not the natives, I mean the scoundrels who are always filling lawsuits in their behalf.

    • juris imprudent

      Part of the problem here is granting legitimacy to the bullshit about sacred Indian land.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        “The lawsuit says the mine will harm sites sacred to the Western Shoshone people. That includes Cave Spring, a natural spring less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) away described as “a site of intergenerational transmission of cultural and spiritual knowledge.”

        Ah, the old watering hole defense?

        I agree that the local pub may seem sacred, but unless you actually own title to it…

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      ‘Tiehm’s buckwheat’

      Is this even a real species?

      There was a species of seagrass that was very rare around Florida. Like a ton of projects because you weren’t allowed to harm it.

      With the advent of genetic testing they discovered all examples of the species was actually a clone of a South East Asian seagrass. AKA an invasive species. It’s off the protected list now, but these environmentalists and scientists are so full of it when it comes to extra special species. Every third beetle is some different species of you ask them.

      • juris imprudent

        “Hey, don’t you diss my dissertation!”

      • Tres Cool

        The lesser known member of the Little Rascals.

      • juris imprudent

        The buckwheat family from which this springs appears to be potent at generating unique subspecies. How useful for idiotic application of the ESA.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Hey, if we let any of the 140+ species of the exact same plant go extinct, just think what will happen to the similarly falsely labeled species of butterfly that only feeds on buckwheat.

      • SarumanTheGreat

        Would you feel the same if the feds or their business partners came up to you at your house and said, ‘sorry, but we have to take your land for a project, and oh, by the way, we have to kill you so you can’t complain to anybody?’

        “140+ species of the exact same plant”

        They aren’t.

        The American West is notable for lots and lots of extremely endemic species that recently differentiated when once wide-spread species had their populations become isolated from each other when the terrain started getting warmer and drier 10K years ago (there were once lakes the size of Superior out west; Lahontan, Bonneville, Missoula, all gone now except for tiny scraps like Walker, Pyramid, Great Salt Lake). Once isolated they genetically went their separate ways. Now how does one distinguish one taxon from another, and decide whether it’s a species, subspecies, variety, or simply a one-off sport? I fall back on the lawyerly phrase, ‘it depends’. The botanical community has these little ‘disputes’ going on all the time, with various groups of ‘lumpers’ and ‘splitters’ (people who lump species, people involved with splitting broad species into a multitude of them).

        The situation is a classic case of greedy crony capitalism bulldozing everything and anything in its path, the excuse always being ‘for the greater good’. The classic example of state capitalism gone nuts is the destruction of the Aral Sea.

        At the very least, the Feds need to be held the same standards they force everyone else to live by, even if it’s presumably to save the world.

        Of course, if they shut down all EV subsidies, the situation would almost certainly go away quickly.

      • juris imprudent

        StG, how about we start with the ESA has zero fucking constitutional basis, then we can skip the botanical nit-picking.

  19. SDF-7

    And it’s likely a violation of California whistleblower laws.

    CA also has some weird clause that you aren’t supposed to be able to discriminate based on political viewpoint either (I strongly suspect it is left from when liberals were standing up to The Man, man!). I suspect it is forgotten about quite often when the politics in question is “icky”… but there’s one heck of a mess in the courts looming if you try to bring “protected class” transgender vs. “political opinion” I would expect.

    I just continue to plan to get out of here as soon as we can manage it and hope Atlanta doesn’t poison the rest of GA too badly any time soon.

    • sloopyinca

      Come to Texas. You’ll even be able to speak your native Californian with all the transplants that have preceded you.

      • UnCivilServant

        Texas weather And Commifornian transplants? No thank you. It was bad enough when it was just Texas weather.

      • sloopyinca

        We got mostly good transplants. And the weather here is fine. You’ve been sold a false narrative by soft-ass northeasterners who can’t handle a real summer.

      • SDF-7

        I already have the house close to my 4×20-range parents in GA, so that’s fairly locked in. Thanks for the gracious invitation all the same! 😉

      • SDF-7

        Oh… and HEY! I’m no native here… I’ve had to work here over the last couple of decades because of where companies that do my kind of work were (I think they’ve all just about fled to other states, so my options are wider… working remote anyway at the moment — so if I can keep that, it shouldn’t matter), but I’m a transplanted-yankee-to-the-south at heart and never wanted to be in this screwball state. Please don’t lump me in with the lunatics.

      • juris imprudent

        can’t handle a real summer

        Much like Phoenix, a period of the year spent almost entirely inside man-made, air-conditioned spaces.

      • juris imprudent

        Please don’t lump me in with the lunatics.

        IMHO the lunatics are mostly transplants or sometimes their off-spring.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Where SPF is coming from, weather wise, makes Texass look like a poorly working refrigerator. I know, I have been there! (three years in Merdead, three years in the ‘No, a dozen in Sac.)

      • rhywun

        You’ve been sold a false narrative by soft-ass northeasterners who can’t handle a real summer.

        My Dallas boss-boss tried that line on me to try to get me there.

        Then I looked at some forecasts and LOLed.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        ‘real summer’

        AKA, the actual opening of the gates of hell.

  20. juris imprudent

    Dems think they are making inroads in rural PA?

    A Trump campaign official said the Democratic rural outreach effort amounts to nothing more than “a nice bunch of nice headlines and some earned media.”

    “Just because [rural voters] get a door-knock or a piece of mail or see 50 million TV ads, it’s not like someone’s going to say, ‘Oh, you know what? Maybe I’m OK with [a wave of undocumented immigration]. Or maybe I’m OK with inflation,’” this person said. “That’s not how this works.”

    • cavalier973

      Comms! Comms!

      Comms about Kamala!

    • SDF-7

      Wow… the left really can’t meme. It is supposed to be distracting the short-attention span types with “SQUIRREL!” like OMB did… not “ELEPHANT!”, guys.

    • Not Adahn

      Trunks out for Kammy.

    • creech

      Elephants are pretty good at blowing aren’t they?

    • The Other Kevin

      That’s in DC. The jokes just write themselves.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Actual rural has 1/4mile driveways, loose dogs, and No Trespassing signs. Only the scammers door knock.

    • Tres Cool

      Please tell me I heard her say “two mirrion dorrar home”.

      Otherwise Im just a bigoted asshole.

      • DEG

        You did.

    • DEG

      Sadly, I think Lily loses.

      • Drake

        How is Jake Sullivan’s wife even a New Hampshire resident?

      • DEG

        She was born and raised in Nashua. She’s part of the Tamposi family. The Tamposi family controls a large real estate company. A little trivia: her parents used to be Republicans. I’m not sure if her parents are still Republicans.

        She went left NH for college. Then she spent a bunch of time in DC and was in the Naval Reserves. She met her husband during this time.

        I think around 2020 or so she started bouncing back and forth between to NH and DC. She was in NH to teach law at both UNH and Dartmouth.

        Goodlander and Sullivan now live in Portsmouth, which is in the other NH Congressional district. She rented her place in Nashua, which is in the district she’s running for, when she filed.

  21. PieInTheSky

    Marx Engels Lenin Institute
    @MarxEngelsLnin
    Across Russia the reputation of Stalin amongst the masses has never been destroyed despite the lies of Khruschev, Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Now there are more statues of Stalin being put up in Russia since the early 1950s and the winds of history are blowing thr garbage of imperialism away.

    https://x.com/MarxEngelsLnin/status/1853084588740157593

    • juris imprudent

      Any other idiotic religious disputes you want us to take note of?

  22. rhywun

    “who will pick out food and mow our lawns?”

    Let’s stop paying Americans to sit on their ass and do drugs and find out.

    • PieInTheSky

      I thought the man of the house show mow his own lawn.

      • UnCivilServant

        Only the hoi polloi do their own landscaping. The hoity toity hire people for that and berate them if a single clipping is left in the wrong place.

      • PieInTheSky

        you sound like a guy with no lawn tbh

      • UnCivilServant

        Of course not. I’m a state worker, I don’t get paid enough to hire someone to take care of one.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Drastically reduce building regulations and let the men build shit again.

  23. PieInTheSky

    Gethin Chamberlain
    @newsandpics
    A man jailed for raping two women writes to a newspaper verbally attacking another woman. He calls her “sad and pathetic”. His views are published and she is asked to comment – in effect, to defend herself against his attack. This is all sorts of wrong.

    https://x.com/newsandpics/status/1853037410189267313

    It is only wrong if one does not know how to calculate the privilege matrix

  24. PieInTheSky

    The Communists
    @CPGBML
    Enemies of the people: Trotskyite filth promoted heavily by our capitalist ruling class to attack the rising tide of the revolutionary and anti imperialist movement of the masses.

    See their disgusting attack on Cde Nicholas Maduro – the same attack as made by Anthony Blinken: that the government is not legitimate, that the PSUV are “suppressing the masses”, that they must be opposed and overthrown.

    This is the poison that lies beneath all their jarring posturing and flouncing about declaring themselves to be building “Total revolution”

    https://x.com/CPGBML/status/1853020527302004816

    The only thing The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) hates more than capitalism and imperialism is The Revolutionary Communist Party of Great Britain

  25. PieInTheSky

    There should be some sort of glibertarian poll about what the state with the best overall weather is

    • UnCivilServant

      That’s absurd. After all, some glibs, like Sloopy, are objectively wrong about what good weather is.

      • Fourscore

        Minnesoda has the worstest weather of anywhere. And the skeeters are big and plentiful. You wouldn’t like it here.

        Factual plus Walz is our hero. That should be enough to keep most sane folks away.

      • UnCivilServant

        I keep looking at Tennessee as a compromise location between policy and climate.

      • Aloysious

        I vote for the State of Denial.

    • R C Dean

      Many states are pretty big, with widely varying weather. On the same day, it can be pretty damn hot in Southern AZ, and snowing at the Grand Canyon. In TX, you have the godawful swampish heat and humidity of Houston and the high(ish) desert of the Big Bend area.

      • PieInTheSky

        it is complicated is not a valid answer. you need to pick a state.

    • Rat on a train

      Coastal SoCal is the best if you want to schedule an outdoor event years in advance and not worry about inclement weather.

      • rhywun

        I like cooler weather – SF had the perfect weather when I lived there.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Too sunny sometimes though.

      • Rat on a train

        Schedule during June Gloom if you want to avoid sunny weather.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Or May Gray. Too cloudy!

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I mean yeah, the answer is California.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Wait, Hawaii? Damn it Pie.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m confused, neither of those have real winters unless you’re in the mountains.

        They can’t possibly qualify for best weather without a winter.

      • juris imprudent

        UCS – my dad grew up in those real winters, he used to say he loved to see the snow – up on the mountains where he didn’t have to shovel it.

      • SDF-7

        Damned straight. Coastal CA is great if you want to die of boredom. Central Valley is just hot as hell with 2 months of “winter” (read: cold at night and maybe some rain if you’re lucky). I’d say the only part of CA that qualifies as having weather is probably north of Redding — but you might as well just go Oregon then.

        Give me the Southeast around Appalachia any day — cold enough for actual winters, interesting summers (thunderstorms!) but not swampy heat like it is south of the Gnat Line or over in TX/LA, beautiful fall and lovely spring.

        But I’m admittedly biased by just loving the area, I think.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Right, winter sucks.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Ranking the seasons is quite simple, it gets progressively better from the worst season (winter) to the best season (fall).

      • UnCivilServant

        @JI – I am more than familiar with shovelling snow. It’s not a deterrant for me preferring winter over roasting to death in summer.

        @CPA – I feel sorry for you.

      • trshmnstr

        I found the bay area to be underwhelming. Yeah, yeah microclimates. Great. That just means I have to keep a jacket with me when it’s 94 and sunny in Palo alto, because if I go up to San Francisco, it’s 54 and foggy.

        I prefer having all 4 seasons. It’s one big reason why we moved north from TX. They only had two seasons there: summer and early spring.

      • Rat on a train

        I take winter over summer, but maybe because Virginia rarely has harsh winters but regularly has sweat-down-your-spine summers.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        When does UCS go outside anyway?

      • rhywun

        I do like four seasons but the weather in coastal northern California omits both extremes – the lack of hot humid summers might be worth the lack of winter.

      • Trials and Trippelations

        Four seasons is nice, but I have to agree with preferring the Southern California weather especially right on the coast. I lived a bit inland and took my lunch break every day except maybe 2 days.
        Humidity sucks. Even the Appalachian mountains have plenty of humidity in the summer. Dry heat may be a cliche but I found it to be true here in Waco

        I think New England was my worst weather experience (with Maine being the exception) miserably hot and humid summers with most residences only have window unit AC (except for public housing they had central air) and endless snow shoveling. At least Minnesota summers are quite cool with the occasional heat wave

    • sloopyinca

      The place with the perfect weather, if you’re considering the whole year, is West Florida, stretching from Appalachiacola over to Bay St Louis, MS.
      Mild, yet cool, winters. Summers with a nice breeze almost year-round. And a spring and fall that are absolutely perfect.

      • slumbrew

        That encompasses Biloxi, MS which I was assured was Africa-hot. Tarzan couldn’t take that kind of heat.

      • sloopyinca

        You’ve seen one too many Matthew Broderick movies.

      • slumbrew

        I regret nothing.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Ho nothing. Just plain ho.

      • Not Adahn

        It must mean something that Sloopy called it a Matthew Broderick movie instead of a Neil Simon one.

      • slumbrew

        Ho, no, sir.

      • sloopyinca

        I’m a child of the 80s.

    • R.J.

      I can only get so hard.

      • Ted S.

        I’m sorry you can’t get very hard.

    • SDF-7

      Pump it straight into my veins there, Mr. Benz….. (I don’t know if he’s positing this as a good or bad thing… but I know how I’d view it… that sounds like an excellent start!)

      • juris imprudent

        THE ECONOMIC DISLOCATION!!! The good people cast into poverty (because they have nothing to offer legitimate employers)!!!

      • trshmnstr

        One of his comments shows that he believes it to be an untenable thing. He considers such a position a great way to get Ryan Routh’d

    • Trials and Trippelations

      This reminds me of a geopolitics class I was in when the topic was foreign aid. It was way too long ago for me to get the details correct but essentially:

      Professor: how many of you would like to cancel foreign aid?
      *decent number of students said yes*
      Professor: ah but what if I told you foreign aid is goes on to quickly lie about all the wonders of foreign aid
      Now let’s take a pill of who wants to stop foreign aid
      *drastically reduced numbers*
      Professor: I see some of you are just heartless or are not understanding the material

      • UnCivilServant

        “I see you are a mush-brained academian who refuses to understand the material.”

      • Gender Traitor

        Now let’s take a pill of who wants to stop foreign aid

        Oh, great! What color is THAT pill?? There are so many colors I can’t keep track of which is for what!

      • Trials and Trippelations

        It was a Carolina blue pill 😂

    • R.J.

      Old Howard Stern was good. He just went crazy after his divorce.

      • rhywun

        Beth broke his brain.

  26. LCDR_Fish

    Updating my substack lists. Adam Carolla has one now with a weekly podcast with Jay Mohr – exclusively comedy stuff (trying to keep it separate from his other shows). Testing comedy bits and seeing how they can pump concepts up to put on stage. Pretty funny.

    Also subbed to the Triggernometry guys – been enjoying their podcasts a lot.

  27. PieInTheSky

    Time Capsule Tales
    @timecaptales
    You are paired with 100 random humans. If you are better than all of them at something you win a billion dollars. What are you choosing to do?

    https://x.com/timecaptales/status/1853261667053826406

    Romanian wine! Romanians are less than 1 in 100 globally, most don’t know that much about wine; globally most people don;’t know much about wine; and most international people who are wine knowledgeable don’t know much about Romania. I’d say my odds are good.

    • Not Adahn

      Shoot “Smoke and Hope” in production division.

    • Rat on a train

      I’m better at knowing what I am thinking.

      • EvilSheldon

        Tacos?

  28. Not Adahn

    Re: mining on Sacred Native Lands

    1. Move all the Palestinians to CA.

    2. Have them dig the tunnel from CA to whatever needs mining, bypassing all the scared lands, and giving the Palis gainful employment for their valuable skill.

    Win-Win-Win!

    • UnCivilServant

      No, no, no. It’s lose lose lose with that plan.

      If it’s so sacred make the people who think it’s sacred do the digging so they can tell which are the sacred bits and go around. Pay them by the quantity of usable material extracted.

  29. PieInTheSky

    Violent Khalistani’s break into a Hindu temple and start attacking the devotees. Chaos ensues as the people flee the mob.
    This is the famous temple with the 55 foot Hanuman statue, an important figure on Diwali.

    https://x.com/DanielBordmanOG/status/1853136268927897741

    And here I thought Sikhs were nice

    • juris imprudent

      This makes more sense than your Marxist gibberish.

  30. SDF-7

    Preaching to the choir at least when it comes to this place… but nicely laid out and the sort of thing I would have thought would be running through a lot of folks’ heads.

    • Fourscore

      You don’t have to fool all of the people, only half plus 1,

    • Sean

      Ded.

    • rhywun

      LOL

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      She’s just trying to figure out if she has changed her views (but not her values). She doesn’t want to be burdened by the present, in the future.

    • rhywun

      “I just filled in my mail-in ballot.”

      JFC she can’t even make a show of voting in person on fucking Election Day??

      • kinnath

        No. She wants to normalize mail-in voting. It’s easier to cheat that way.

      • rhywun

        FFS even NY requires an excuse for mail-in.

  31. The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

    ‘But like yo, I really did that s***. Like a b*** was really stripping on poles and all, and I’m here.’

    The perfect endorsement for Harris.

    • Not Adahn

      She’s the crenelated nipples, chick, right?

      • rhywun

        crenelated nipples

        😱

  32. Certified Public Asshat

    The Peculiar Phenomenon of Libertarians Supporting Donald Trump

    Certainly both candidates are dangerous to American liberty, and both will continue to run a government at least as huge and controlling in most respects as the one we have now. But only one has a short-term promise to assault and kidnap and ship out millions of residents who have harmed no one’s life or property, and in doing so destroy huge chunks of America’s productive economy, disrupting the lives of the other millions of legal citizens who hire them, work for them, depend on their services, or rent and sell to them. Only one has major supporters who cheer a masochistic vision of him as a “daddy” righteously punishing a misbehaving nation. That person is, at least as much as Harris, simply not someone who should run the federal government. And that should be especially clear to those who claim fealty to libertarian principles.

    Not a true libertarian if you don’t lose every battle.

    • Not Adahn

      Yeah, only OMB promises to abuse people. Kammy has zero record of actually abusing people. Sure.

      • juris imprudent

        I’m sure the archive over there has them trashing her as CA AG and her love of dope convictions. Consistency? Principle? What are these strange things you inquire of us?

    • trshmnstr

      TOS with a reliably shit take.

      • Tundra

        Brand discipline, at least.

    • Not Adahn

      Being sincerely alarmed about Trump makes you the yokel—a deluded victim of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

      Unironic use of “yokel” as an insult.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      ‘Only one has major supporters who cheer a masochistic vision of him as a “daddy” righteously punishing a misbehaving nation.’

      I honestly didn’t see this take. Compare to the actual ‘momla’ shit out there, and Midwest Daddy or whatever was going on over there on the left with walz. So weird.

      Now, if you said Trump was portrayed as a messianic figure by some, you’d be closer to the truth.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, their support for the status quo of paying millions of Americans to sit on their ass while illegals do the jobs they used to do is a major reason I left.

      I wonder how many of their writers are voting for Harris.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      I knew this was TOS before clicking the link.

  33. creech

    I know we have some Christian Glibs out there. I want to try the following on some of the Fellowship folks (Presbys) who seem to think Harris and the Democrats are on God’s side. “As I understand Jesus’ teachings, his followers are urged to give freely of their goods and time to help the less fortunate. But He never advocates coercion; to help or not is to be freely chosen. So, if I want to give my money to, say, helping a medical clinic in Honduras instead of, say, sending more bombs and rockets to entangle the U.S. further in a war, then Jesus would not approve of your assembling a group of voters to impose your values on me. Demanding that the government take from me, under force of arms, and give to a cause you value, is thwarting Jesus’ will. How is coercive government in keeping with God/Jesus’ path for His children?”

    • Drake

      Why we left a PCUSA church behind to die.

      What is Harris? Hindu, or just a narrasistic atheist? I assume Walz is an atheist. But they are on God’s side – not Trump – a less than perfect Presbyterian, and Vance who seems to be serious about his Catholicism?

    • trshmnstr

      100% will fall on deaf ears. Progressive “christians” (and left leaning Christians in actual Christian churches) either have an impenetrable wall of separation between church and life (i.e. they don’t truly care what rhe Bible has to say about social issues) or they operate under the fiction that “government is us”.

      • Trials and Trippelations

        Exactly so! My wife’s career path trajectory was traditional even maintaining that through seminary but 2016-2022 she went all on in progressive Christianity because that was where leadership, talking heads and even her secular friends led her. Things came to a head in 2020 for us. I am a poor messenger and tried to explain what I saw was wrong about prog Christianity but it wasn’t well received and a tricky time. She actually came around and sees prog Christianity as making God very small (only we can save the world the poor etc, and we can only do it by ensuring such and such world leader or culture is instilled). She’s watched colleagues and church leaders totally implode and spiral into depression because THEY aren’t able to make God’s (prog) world view happen. She actually left her mainline church denomination this summer

      • trshmnstr

        To provide more context… God is not a libertarian. God is a monarchist. It is hard to make libertarian arguments and provide bulletproof scriptural support.

        The Bible speaks more of oppression and justice than of liberty and freedom. It speaks more of wisdom and folly and less of economic advantage and disadvantage. It speaks more of Good and Evil and less of “the greater good” and “threats to democracy”.

        It’s through those terms that arguments need to be made. Making them though modern post-enlightenment verbiage isn’t going to be easily mapped to scripture.

        I do also hold to what I posted before. Most Christians and “christians” I know who vote democrat are not Christian to the same level or in the same way as all the other Christians I know. The few exceptions I can think of are people either compromised by feminism or stuck in the 1970s.

      • Drake

        Trials and Trippelations – that’s great. I’m sure her leaving took courage and caused some suffering for her.

        We have a new Associate Pastor who in his previous church, led them out of the PCUSA to the more Bible based ECO Presbyterian denomination. Said it was the hardest thing he’s ever done. Felt like he had to do it.

    • sloopyinca

      I’m a Christian Glib. It’s a hard one to take a side on, because Jesus wanted nothing at all to do with government or to mix religion with it.
      I personally find it easy to square my religious beliefs with my political ones, and I’d assume most progressives feel the same way.

      But, and this is a big but, Jesus was quite a fan of the NAP and free will. And those are things progressives do not believe in. They believe the state has a right to forcibly redistribute wealth and to compel people to associate with others. And I don’t see how they can square those beliefs with the teachings of Christ.

      • DrOtto

        “…and this is a big but…” *lights the Trey flare*

      • sloopyinca

        They take the “render unto Caesar” teaching as carte blanche authority to control the lives of others. And they preach it from the pulpit of most progressive churches in America. And they also preach that you’re a bad Christian if you don’t ascribe to that belief, if you believe the state is a bad steward of your money, or if you should be able to associate exclusively with people of your choice whether for good or bad reasons.

        It’s particularly vexing that they have embraced the party who is wholly supportive of exterminating children by the millions and now the neocon warmongers who support war around the world nonstop.

      • Rat on a train

        You missed the sermon regarding voting for people to do charity for you?

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I like to think Jesus was coming out strong against fiat currency.

      • The Last American Hero

        I’d take it a step further – being forced or forcing others at gun point to support the poor isn’t being charitable. The charity needs to start and come from within.

        OTOH, Jesus would also tell you to quit griping about taxes and focus on creating God’s kingdom on earth.

      • trshmnstr

        OTOH, Jesus would also tell you to quit griping about taxes and focus on creating God’s kingdom on earth.

        This. There is nothing wrong with having serious beliefs about what is true and how to vote accordingly. There is something wrong with escalating a vote to the end all be all. Christians have been expected to fulfill their duty in much more oppressive circumstances than we could even imagine.

      • PieInTheSky

        Christians have been expected to fulfill their duty in much more oppressive circumstances than we could even imagine. – this in the wrong condition can become tool for perpetual oppression. “You are a Christian, you do not care about oppression, just take whatever comes and do nothing about it” can become the mantra of the rulers

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        “render unto Caesar” doesn’t imply ‘do whatever once you control the government’

        I can only see it as motivated reasoning, but maybe they think the same of my views.

      • trshmnstr

        can become tool for perpetual oppression

        True. That’s where the Ned Flanders wing of the faith has fallen down. They’ve cucked away their culture, and now watch on impotently as their daughters whore themselves out on OF, and the state primes their sons to wear dresses and compete in women’s sports.

        Being “winsome” is fine when dealing with disagreements within the fold. It’s incredibly corrosive when dealing with incompatible worldviews.

      • juris imprudent

        square those beliefs with the teachings of Christ

        Just ignore all of the warnings of C.S. Lewis.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      If you start by believing team [R or B] is good, you will find a way to wrap your religion around it.

      Just the same as many Jews will look at Trump and no matter what will vote Dem, and other Jews will look at Harris and vote Repub.

    • Trials and Trippelations

      As a self professed Christian anarchist you highlight one of the main points. Certainly, Jesus calls us to help the poor. Nothing he states says it should be coercively. In fact it makes us stand out culturally to be called to do so.
      Paul states in one of his letters in regards to morality that Christians should be holding themselves to a high moral standard (compared to the Roman culture) and trying to force Christian morality on to non-Christian’s would have no meaning. So forcing people to provide welfare would not make them Christian. There would be a disconnect between the action and the reason, which could make non-Christians bristle (Christians told me I have to pay taxes to help people but all I see are welfare queens. This Jesus guy sucks).

      • trshmnstr

        There would be a disconnect between the action and the reason

        There’s a disconnect on the material level, and also at the spiritual level. God doesn’t much care for our deeds as deeds alone. He compared them to the cleanliness of a used tampon.*

        There is a spiritual reality undergirding charity. It’s an outpouring of a generous spirit. Getting cash extracted on a paystub and paid to NGOs for activism cuts that generous spirit off, even for the limited good that is accomplished.

        *technically a “dirty” rag, where dirty is a euphemism for period blood.

      • Trials and Trippelations

        Yes. That’s something my wife would speak to about prog church and their tailspin.
        Everything is WE where WE are the (prog) Christians only. God is this Diest figure just hanging out impotently and apathetically

      • juris imprudent

        just hanging out impotently and apathetically

        Nietzsche nods knowingly.

    • The Other Kevin

      The Biden/Harris admin has prosecuted abortion protesters for simply praying in front of a clinic. Do you need to know more than that?

      • sloopyinca

        Hear! Hear!

      • rhywun

        No, they were interrupting a sacrament.

        /if they were being honest

    • Tundra

      I think it’s the wrong question. Jesus never set out to build a state or a nation. He is the Church.

      This is why the concept of Christian Nationalism (whatever the hell that means) leaves me cold. The state is always there. The challenge is to deal with that fact while trying to live as Christ.

      • trshmnstr

        Christian nationalism makes sense given the doctrines of those who hold it. Postmillennials who believe that we are called to establish God’s kingdom on earth before Christ’s second coming need to have a mechanism by which to do so.

        I think there are some fundamental questions that the Christian nationalists ask that should make the pietists uncomfortable, but I struggle to get fully on board the Christian nationalist bandwagon.

      • juris imprudent

        C’mon, you should expect nothing in this life if all you live for is the next one.

      • Drake

        He did build a Kingdom.

    • Pine_Tree

      OPC here. Everything in quotes sounds perfectly fine. OPC/RPCNA/etc. and to a lesser extent PCA are often quite libertarian.

      However, as mentioned already, PCUSA is a whole ‘nother animal. I wish I didn’t have to put it this way, but for about a century (see Fundamentalist/Modernist controversy, and Machen in particular), it has devolved into something not generally considered a gospel-believing church.

      • creech

        To be honest, I’ve not heard a PCUSA pastor preach, from pulpit, support of any coercive legislation or candidate.
        I’ve heard them call for equity, inclusion, and social justice without definition. It is in personal conversations or church organizations (e.g. “Help the Homeless”) that I’ve encountered congregants who scoff at anyone who isn’t a Democrat, or say how important it is to tax the wealthy or forgive student loans or have the county feed the “food insecure.” I’ve yet to forcefully question their understanding of Christ’s admonitions and wonder if I’d become the “turd in the punchbowl” by doing so.

      • Drake

        I was at a PCA church once where the pastor gave an awesome sermon against worshipping the state.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Sounds like a lot of what has been happening in the Lutheran church. And, I would bet, what has been happening in denominations and faiths across a bitterly divided country.

      • Trials and Trippelations

        “ Sounds like a lot of what has been happening in the Lutheran church”

        Elca is toast. The new hijacked reconstitution is just DEI wet dreams. The constitution convention has changed the elca’s life span from 10 years to 3.
        Learning how the sausage is made via my wife being a now former elca pastor has been beyond revolting.

        Not sure how the Missouri synod is doing

      • trshmnstr

        Not sure how the Missouri synod is doing

        Last I checked, they’re just trucking along. No major attempts to hijack it for leftist purposes. I don’t think they’re particularly growing, but they may be getting some ELCA castoff churches.

  34. The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

    ‘Seen by many as victims of an overreaching state government, the couple have become local heroes.’

    I mean, it is new York. Calling porn stars heroes might be a step too far. Especially considering:

    ‘Gofundme page for P’nut has raised more than $132,000.’

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      The Go-fud me page has nothing to do with P-nut and the states over reach. Nor does the presence of an Onlyfans page.

      The over-reach is the only important part.

    • R.J.

      Watch that page be cancelled in real time this week. My bet is made.

  35. PieInTheSky

    60 Minutes
    @60Minutes
    “I’m actually not super interested in having a whole lot of money,” says Ozempic researcher Lotte Knudsen. “It doesn’t look like it’s making people happy, right?… I like to pay my taxes.”

    https://x.com/60Minutes/status/1853242427370250497

    @_smarttakes_
    A woman wearing a Burberry coat, a Louis Vuitton backpack and a Hermes scarf talking about shes not interested in money……. Yeah ok.

    • Gustave Lytton

      “I just can’t give this stuff away!l

    • slumbrew

      “I’m actually not super interested in having a whole lot of money” is the sort of thing only ever uttered by someone who already has plenty of money.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        The key is how much money she already has.

        She’s just a modest millionaire, not a fat cat billionaire. Soak the rich (people with more than me).

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        “The struggle is real.”

  36. DEG

    Semfor reports the United States Commerce Department is looking at different ways to bail Intel out.

    How about not bailing Intel out?

    • Drake

      This. How can they have that share of the market and need help?

      • UnCivilServant

        If you habitually spend more than you earn, you end up in financial trouble.

      • juris imprudent

        Hearst didn’t have financial problems from drops in income, the SOB spent like he was the federal govt.

    • PieInTheSky

      It is a too big to fail strategic company, like say Boeing. It cannot be allowed to fail. They could restructure but that would give the idea politicians don;t care about jerbz.

      It is rather amusing how a year ago Intel was announcing tens of billions of investments in fabs around the world.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Obviously, they need to make sure there are coding jobs for displaced mine workers.

      • juris imprudent

        If they’d let the damn lithium mine open up there would be jobs for displaced coders!

    • R.J.

      On down the page was an article for a model who got in trouble for a fake “bikini-clad hurricane forecast” which sounded hilarious.

  37. DrOtto

    Stop early voting. Make election day a national holiday. If you can’t be assed to cast your vote on election day, tough beans. The only mail in voting is for active duty military. This next week is going to be a shit show, all by design.

    • PieInTheSky

      In Europe election day is as far as I know almost always Sunday. There is no early voting. And you absolutely need a picture ID to vote. These is why it amuses me that the local midwits always keep the Democratic Party line when it comes to USistani elections

      • rhywun

        I’m surprised more of Europe hasn’t adopted American-style racial politics and used it as an excuse for the left to implement the election cheating schemes that are common here.

      • EvilSheldon

        In Europe, they don’t need to cheat.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        @rhywun

        They don’t need to, since the electorate is sufficiently left wing.

      • Drake

        In places like Moldova and Georgia, ex-pat votes from abroad are the preferred cheat.

        Why let people who chose to leave still vote (or pretend that’s who is voting)?

      • PieInTheSky

        Why let people who chose to leave still vote (or pretend that’s who is voting) – well it is standard practice to let people working abroad vote, many of them plan to return not all leave permanently, and they are a source of money for the country cause they send back to their families. And I doubt there is much pretending. The is little reason to think the expats would vote with the pro Russia side. Which get 97% of the vote in some regions, which is not considered suspicious at all.

    • rhywun

      all by design

      This. And if you complain about it, you’re racist – the go-to excuse for shutting down any opinion to the right of Lenin.

      Sometimes I hate my country.

      • The Other Kevin

        There have been issues with voting going back to Bush v Gore. There has been plenty of time and opportunity to fix things. The only explanation is they don’t WANT to fix things.

      • rhywun

        The only explanation is they don’t WANT to fix things.

        I think the old GOP is that way.

        The “populist” version seems to be moving in a different direction. Maybe.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Florida fixed their shit, now super right wing.

      • Drake

        Ohio too. As soon as the rolls and counting got cleaned up, they both went from swing states to deep red.

    • Gustave Lytton

      No absentee ballots for military either. Sorry, not sorry.

    • The Other Kevin

      I just learned that in France, if a person can’t make it to vote, they can legally designate a person to vote for them. Kind of like a power of attorney. That seems like a cool idea.

      • UnCivilServant

        Sounds like a paradise for ballot harvesting.

      • The Other Kevin

        I don’t think so. In the US an activist and just show up at a nursing home to “help” everyone vote. To designate a proxy, I would assume there would be a more involved process.

  38. PieInTheSky

    Ron Rule
    @ronrule
    If you are a libertarian and plan on voting for Chase instead of Trump, you can no longer claim it’s because you’re principled.

    The actions Trump will take as President will get us more of what we want than any candidate in modern history, and even Ron Paul sees it.

    If you can’t see that, you don’t want liberty. You’re just a contrarian.

    https://x.com/ronrule/status/1852656267010916584

    CityHOCKEYUte
    @bryanth2o
    Tariffs are like the most counter ideal to libertarianism. The plan to tariff goods from entire countries is even further from basic libertarian beliefs. Programs that cost most than the benefit they produce (for example, drug testing for food stamps) are also counter. The idea of deporting several million people would be more expensive than the “benefit” from it. By a serious factor.

    Now one can have different notions on tariffs, but saying the most counter ideal to libertarianism is silly. Economics matters a lot, but not 100% is economics.

    I would say free speech, free association, self defense, property and suite of basic negative rights are more important than tariffs

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Economics, while very important to me, is not the most important aspect of why I am a libertarian. Freedom, in all of its forms, is the most important, and one could very easily look at the tariffs as being a hedge against being trapped by another nations views of freedom, which in almost every case is more prohibitive than US views on freedom.

      In other words, I do not want to rely on another nations views on firearms if they were the sole manufacturers when we are the ones with the 2nd amendment.

    • Gustave Lytton

      But muh ballot access!

    • kinnath

      I’m not voting for Trump because I think he promotes libertarian ideals. I am voting for him because I fucking loathe the democratic party and want to see them punished.

      • Raven Nation

        Is Iowa actually a toss up, or is that wishful thinking by the media?

      • kinnath

        I can’t believe that Iowa is a toss up.

        My fear is the media is just generating cover for the grossly obvious cheating that is going to occur in the swing states.

      • The Last American Hero

        It’s about as realistic as the “Trump flips NY” bullshit. Yes, someone did a poll, and even after making adjustments, those were the results. However, you can also roll dice a bunch of times and keep coming up snake eyes. That doesn’t mean that 2 is the most likely combination.

      • trshmnstr

        Is Iowa actually a toss up, or is that wishful thinking by the media?

        The poll used to gin up that narrative is hot garbage. n=808, statistical margin of error =3.4 points, actual margin of error = much higher.

      • whiz

        There also was an Emerson poll that came out at the same time that had Trump up by 10%. That’s probably closer to the truth.

        Fun fact: the previous Iowa poll had Trump up by 4% — I was part of that one.

    • SarumanTheGreat

      “Tariffs are like the most counter ideal to libertarianism”

      The tariffs OMB imposed were on a regime that specializes in theft, intellectual and otherwise, to undercut international competitors. Americans were not hit in the pocketbook because the Chinese lowered their prices after tariffs so they wouldn’t lose market share.

      • juris imprudent

        They couldn’t have stolen half of the IP they have if it hadn’t been for the greed of the companies that went there.

      • UnCivilServant

        Yeah, victims of fraud and theft are not always squeaky clean exemplars of virtue.

        That doesn’t mitigate the crime.

  39. Rat on a train

    US federal debt could hit $36T by election day. Can we get to $37T by inauguration day?

    • Tundra

      I think easily. We just added 500B in just a few short weeks.

    • PieInTheSky

      Can I have 100 million?

      • Suthenboy

        Sure, why not? Everyone else seems to be getting it.
        Food, electricity, gasoline, shoes, shelter? Not so much.

    • creech

      Can we get to $37T by inauguration day? Sure, all we need is Zelensky to make another visit or two with hat in hand.

      • Rat on a train

        Since Nyu York has fallen, it’s more important than ever that the US give Ukraine whatever it needs.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    US federal debt could hit $36T by election day. Can we get to $37T by inauguration day?

    We’ve still got checks!

  41. R.J.

    I really hate the time change. If Trump does get in, I hope he kills the whole concept.

    • kinnath

      No DST?

      • Not Adahn

        Shift all US time zones forward by 30 minutes. Keep it permanent. Delight in the rheeing of the eurotards.

        /Solomon

      • trshmnstr

        Not Adahn/Broken Clock 2024!

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Apologies, from a Cato guy:

        Yes. When we make standard time permanent, we will adjust time zones too. Several major US cities are in the wrong zone. pic.twitter.com/SbqFJZUZVD— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) November 3, 2024

        Also apologies for my first comment violating the 3 links rule.

    • PieInTheSky

      also put the entire country in the Central Time Zone (CT)

      • Rat on a train

        UTC for all. Replace zones of different clock settings with zones of different operating hours.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Just like India!

        Progress!

      • rhywun

        And China.

      • creech

        Let’s go back to pre-standard time zones. Then Amtrak can arrange things so that all their trains arrive on time!

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Instead of calling them tariffs, call them port accessibility fees, because we are the Sea Police.

  43. slumbrew

    I’m having my 25-year-old furnace replaced and the gents have a radio going, which I don’t mind.

    However, they’ve got some contemporary hits station on and I fear the music is actually making me dumber for hearing it.

    • Rat on a train

      Only approved candidates should be allowed on ballots.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      You can think what you want, as long as you pull the correct lever in the ballot box.

  44. PieInTheSky

    Students today might not realize this, but college used to be hard. Back in the day, getting straight As didn’t mean you turned in your homework on time, it meant you were genuinely brilliant.

    https://x.com/benlandautaylor/status/1853113247081369836

  45. UnCivilServant

    Is it too early to just go home and get drunk?

    Dealing with people is getting to me today.

    • PieInTheSky

      I thought you did not get drunk.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t.

        Today is just that bad.

      • PieInTheSky

        you need a bigger sword.

      • R.J.

        Sorry to hear it. I find sequestering in a dark room by myself for an hour to be more beneficial. And affordable.

      • UnCivilServant

        My problem is that I’m in the office today, where sequestration isn’t available unless I leave.

  46. PieInTheSky

    When Kamal wins you should mark the occasion by sending Pie o bottle of high quality bourbon. On the other hand should Trump win, you should send Pie a bottle of good rye.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Just following in the footsteps of his Gypsy forbears in begging. 😉

      • PieInTheSky

        because it is the right thing to do in such circumstances.

  47. Sensei

    If you’d like to waste 15 minutes I’ve got the channel for you!

    Good example:
    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TXX0uTZKntQ

    It would appear he’s set up a motion camera on 15 MPH turn that really is a proper 15 MPH turn depending on the vehicle and road conditions. It’s a perfect example of what happens when you mark every turn as 15 MPH.

    https://www.youtube.com/@TheOGTurn

      • Tundra

        So annoying. Most of the snow ones I watched could have been mitigated with better tires. The low rolling resistance all season shit tires that are on most new cars are useless. Either upgrade or buy snows. Ugh.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Maybe just learn to drive on snow and ice. I’ve rarely run into any issues using shitty tires on crap cars through many years of winter driving, so long as I was being careful.

    • PieInTheSky

      Are these cameras GDPR compliant?

  48. PieInTheSky

    Vincent Geloso
    @VincentGeloso
    This book is nearing completion. America was a lean and mean egalitarian machine between 1870 and 1910 and the machine began breaking apart after WW1.

    I am 80% done now!

    Table of contents attached

    #econtwitter
    #econhist

    https://x.com/VincentGeloso/status/1852441437415395498

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Melting down

    “German politics seem to have become a train crash in slow motion. The German government has just entered a new stage of a slow burning political crisis that could be the last step before the eventual collapse of the governing coalition,” Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING, said in a note on Monday.

    Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, noted that the three coalition partners have been acting “as if they were preparing to campaign against each other soon.”

    For example, Scholz held a meeting with industry leaders last week but did not invite his party’s coalition partners, which prompted the FDP to call its own separate gathering without the SPD.

    Separately, the Green party’s Robert Habeck, who is Germany’s economy minister, proposed a policy plan to stimulate business investment that was criticized by the FDP.

    They could start by tearing up their “green energy” suicide pact.

    • rhywun

      That ridiculous coalition only exists because nobody will touch the growing Trumpy party with a 10 meter pole.

      • UnCivilServant

        10 meter pole.

        Oh no! Rhy is infected with Metric!

        Get the flamethrower!

  50. SDF-7

    Someone at work just posted this with a “FYI for anyone who wants to avoid crossing picket lines” — so now I’m having to really resist (because work is a big tech company, so guess what the dominant screeching would be…) I’m really, really having to resist a “Oh no….. anyway…” reply.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    I just assumed that new Iowa poll showing Kamala with a “stunning lead” was conducted on the campus of Grinnell College.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    It’s a perfect example of what happens when you mark every turn as 15 MPH.

    Or when people who drive the same road at the same speed every day come daydreaming around a low grip corner in bad weather.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Most of the snow ones I watched could have been mitigated with better tires. The low rolling resistance all season shit tires that are on most new cars are useless.

    Don’t forget the compound. Most new tires seem to be made of plastic, to go 100k miles.

    *I also had a set of killer high performance Dunlops on one of my 2002s. You could barely even get it moving if there was snow on the pavement. That was when it had twin side draft Webers, so it didn’t want to run when the temp was below 40.

    • Sensei

      Yes. The OEM tire on my Tesla is an all season that is like plastic. It’s the only way to get reasonable tire life with a vehicle that has this much torque and weight.

      Honestly, they work for my local use, but I’d put on snows if I needed to drive more to get to work. You just need to use some common sense about how you drive.

      My first car was an E30 with performance tires that I didn’t realize were useless in the snow. It certainly gave me lots of practice controlling oversteer. After that I could drive anything.

    • Dr Mossy Lawn

      When I bought a used Range Rover sport, the 1st winter, it was slipping and sliding at 25MPH… The Mercedes sedan I had before was much better in the snow. When it came time to replace the tires due to wear, I found that they had put on summer performance tires, not reasonable multi season ones. I have been using using Continental DWS tires ever since, and they provide much better snow/rain traction.
      The newer rover has CrossContact LX tires, as it weighs more, they were fine in the first winter.
      The pure summer tires on the convertible won’t allow me to leave the driveway if there is any snow on the ground.

      • Sean

        Continental DWS

        My preferred choice for the GTI.

    • Rat on a train

      But EVs have a lower TCO.

    • Sensei

      They also borked used values for lots of Tesla owners by flooding the market.

      It was hard not laugh at these people who felt like they financed an appreciating vehicle and nothing bad was going to happen.

  54. Ted S.

    https://thenationonlineng.net/equatorial-guineas-financial-crime-boss-baltasar-ebang-engonga-caught-in-s3x-scandal/

    Baltasar Ebang Engonga, Director General of Equatorial Guinea’s National Financial Investigation Agency (ANIF), has been exposed in one of the country’s largest s3x scandals.

    During an investigation by the country’s security authorities for alleged fraud, over 300 tapes of Baltasar, showing encounters with multiple women, including some married were recovered and circulating online.

    The videos reportedly include encounters with high-profile individuals, such as his brother’s wife, his cousin and the sister of the President of Equatorial Guinea.

    Engonga didn’t kill himself.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      More like Engorga, Amirite?

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Stupid political stuff

    Retailers are facing a tough equation as they head into the all-important holiday shopping season — this time over DEI initiatives.

    Companies are bracing for blowback related to policies around diversity, equity and inclusion and are hoping to avoid alienating customers who may deem the brands too woke – or not woke enough. Some are tapping outside advisors for advice on how to avoid criticism, while others are opting out of public events on the topic as backlash against equity and inclusion programs grows in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.

    CNBC spoke with a number of retail industry insiders, strategists and staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to do so candidly.

    “There’s a clear sentiment in the retail community that nobody wants to get Tractor Supply’d,” said one retail industry insider, referring to that company’s decision to walk back a series of DEI initiatives after conservative activist Robby Starbuck criticized the policies online.

    “Retailers left to their own devices would like to be very proactive on DEI,” said the person. “But now they don’t want any of their views to be public because they want to be able to sell stuff to everybody, and it’s become such a stupid political issue.”

    I’ll bet they would. How about taking a truly principled stand, like “We don’t care what you think or do, we’ll provide the products you need and want.”

    • PieInTheSky

      totally a non-political issue, it only became political cause bad people.

    • Rat on a train

      We sell a product not an ideology …

      • juris imprudent

        Most brands want to sell their image, and how that makes you the consumer of that brand someone with status.

    • rhywun

      Retailers left to their own devices would like to be very proactive on DEI

      lol Delusional.

      • PieInTheSky

        by this they mean some critical studies HR nutjob. I doubts most shareholders want this,.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        I also doubt most employees want it.

  56. The Late P Brooks

    As the stock slid 4% in premarket trading to $3.10, investors are left with one takeaway: Hertz is in for a tough slog.

    I have had some pretty good results buying stocks on the “52 week low” list, but I’ll pass on that one.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    The retail industry’s concerns over DEI come after a number of high-profile, consumer-facing companies – including Lowe’s,
    Tractor Supply, Ford and Molson Coors – walked back some of their equity and inclusion policies in recent months. The changes included ending sponsorships for Pride festivals and cutting ties with the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

    Of course these same trained seals would be frantically flapping their flippers and tooting their horns if the story was about companies severing ties with anybody they could smear as “right wing extremists”, like Elon Musk.