Good morning one and all to another exciting day!
Ukraine fires first US-made missile into Russia
Trump Prepared to Declare National Emergency to Initiate Mass Deportations
Sean Duffy Nominated for Secretary of Transportation
Trump’s pick for Energy Secretary argues that fossil fuels are integral to human development
Pentagon Fails 7th Audit in a Row, Unable to Account for $824B Budget
Which Jan. 6 defendants could see pardons?
Appeals Court Cancels Oral Arguments For Fani Willis Disqualification
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Orders Counties Not to Count Undated Ballots
Number of older adults who lost $100,000 or more to fraud has tripled since 2020, FTC says
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
12D Chess: Trump can’t take office if the United States is a smoking pile of nuclear fallout before the inauguration.
Putin is many things, but he is not an idiot. He knows the lame ducks are on their way out, and the dynamic will shift very soon.
I expect he will keep the Crimea, and may have to split the baby on the Donbas to give Ukraine a face saving out. I expect more “autonomy” for the region (Russian administration despite officially staying in Ukraine)
Sigh… this is where my natural verbosity bites me in the butt again. TL;DR for my comment — UCS said it more concisely.
Is it too much to hope for a warning nuke dropped on D.C. before the admin changes hands?
D.C. should be theNWB.
“Hello sir or ma’am. Hopefully ‘sir’.”
😀
I was flipping through the other day and saw that show is still on – I was afraid to watch.
Here’s hoping Putin is pragmatic enough to just tolerate it for a couple of months, knowing OMB is coming in and he’ll be able to talk to someone again (officially… I hope we weren’t stupid/crazy enough to shut down all unofficial channels too because “Russia BAD! Ukraine Graft Trough GOOD!” for the last 3+ years). Yeah, this is a really stupid provocation on PPP’s part — but actually starting full-on-nukes war would be really, really stupid right now.
I’m really curious if this was just PPP going off the reservation on his own, the last gasp of the Vindman brigade or what. Bet any documents on those discussions are classified for the next 200 years like the JFK files.
“last gasp of the Vindman brigade”
This.
I am a bit puzzled why a country that has been invaded shoots back and people are all aghast and consider it a provocation… I mean, if they nuked Moscow, that might be a bit much, but if Mexico was occupying a quarter of the US, would we not shoot at them… in Mexico?
We’ll all just politely forget that the current Ukraine regime was installed in a US-backed color revolution, that its borders are a post war construction, and that, whether we consider it legitimate or not, the occupants of some of the disputed territory at question have voted to vacate the glorious Ukraine’s heroic umbrella of protection, for which they were rewarded with goon squads of actual, unironical, no-shit Nazi brown shirts beating, killing, and intimidating the local, mostly-ethnically-Russian population. And mostly because it’s irrelevant to the real point, which is that the provocation isn’t that the Ukraine is kidnapping its young men to use as cannon fodder in a hopeless war with a foe it has no ability whatsoever to conquer, but that the United States is conducting a proxy war based entirely on US technology, munitions, and intelligence with a nuclear superpower with whom it spent half a century on the brink of nuclear war for no discernible purpose besides protecting the interests of its political oligarchy.
^What Pat said at 9:28
It was the only way they could save democracy!
Putin signs new Russian nuclear doctrine after Biden’s arms decision for Ukraine
Frankly, that’s such a common sense position I’m surprised it wasn’t the “old” doctrine. But I suppose they didn’t want to set hard lines in the past locking them in to scenarios with other nuclear powers (i.e. even if Mexico were egged on by China to attack us in some odd scenario — we’d want the wiggle room to avoid directly going to war with them and launching where setting this as a formal doctrine might not let us…)
Ironic that Russia has already gone there with the use of North Korean troops in Ukraine.
I see “Formal Doctrine” more as warning to the other actors than I do binding law.
And? Is he going to send bombers against the US? Just say “Fuckit” and full MAD ICBM launch?
And? Is he going to send bombers against the US? Just say “Fuckit” and full MAD ICBM launch?
Highly doubtful. But he could be setting up conditions for using tactical nukes against Ukraine.
Unless Russia is doing a lot worse than it looks, I don’t know why it would resort to last-gasp weapons like tactical nukes.
Tonio – the Russians are ultra-legalistic. They have some units of North Koreans operating with them, but only in the Kursk area which is inside Russia proper.
But it will still be Trump’s fault, right?
It already is rhywun, it already is.
If Trump hadn’t been elected, Putin would have never attacked the Ukraine. Hillary would have straightened it all out.
Hillary would have invaded Ukraine first.
What difference at this point does it make?!
The smoking ruins would probably have sucked but at least the plague years would never have happened.
No worries, they’ll get ’em next time! Most private 824 billion dollar organizations get at least 8 tries at passing their financial audits, right?
Court martials for the officers who were supposed to keep track of it.
Isn’t it “courts martial”?
OMG. Trump is going to declare martial law?!
“What the hell are you dopes talking about? Elon hasn’t conquered Mars yet.”
Yes, courts martial, attorneys general, and Vogons prostetnic.
[Snicker] for Rhywun.
Wouldn’t that be more than one court rahter than more than one trial?
“Wouldn’t that be more than one court rahter than more than one trial?”
The usage of “court martial” is all over the place. I see what you’re saying but it’s always “court martial” instead of “military trial.” “Court martialed” instead of “tried.” Etc.
I was proposing different plurals for the venue versus the event.
Shouldn’t that be “courted martial”?
Blame the French: “Word-order changed on the model of French cour martiale“.
Martial is a “postpositive adjective” in this case. So court is the noun getting pluralized. In this sense it’s not the venue but the event.
(…best kind of correct, etc., etc.)
I keep reading marital, scared me to death. I seem to already be living under marital law. Too many rules, too many laws!
Besides the courts martial mentioned — dream world Congress would set their next budget to 0 until they could do proper accounting.
I strongly suspect they do know where all of it went — they just don’t want to tell the civilian “oversight” because some of it went into services and flights for illegal immigrants when it wasn’t supposed to, some went to Ukraine when it wasn’t supposed to, some went to black ops that it wasn’t supposed to, etc.
I know I’m ranting to the choir and all — but Swamp folks thinking they’re the ones in charge regardless of who is elected is a problem overall, and it is manifesting as well in the military apparatchiks thinking civilian oversight is passe (well, they’re all for it …. as long as it is the correct oversight they approve of / their buddies). Rant off.
Open mike comedy hour.
Thanks SDF
The Marine Corps passed. The rest of the military can’t keep up.
“Sir! All twenty four colors are in the box, sir!”
They could build 10 or 12 reactors on the acreage just outside where I live that is presently occupied by wind farms.
Sean Duffy Nominated for Secretary of Transportation
You can do it Duffy Moon!
I was thinking Sean Duffy Combs.
Duffy Moon, shit that gave me flashbacks to the 1970’s. We used to say that in elementary school in the 70’s and 80’s.
Tiny kid shitty at kick ball at the plate, “You can do it Duffy Moon!”
We could go from power up 99% of the time to 100% of the time. No winter scares. And plenty of power for crypto mining.
I’m excited for that, and happy for Texas and her Glibs. I’m interested in the “advanced nuclear power” mentioned in the article. Hopefully Molten Salt Thorium reactors which require a much smaller footprint, less cooling, etc.
“We’re investing in Cold Fusion!”
Maybe also those mini-reactors I’ve heard rumors of.
Cold fusion is the technology of the future, and it always will be.
ISWYDT
They’re not alone.
Dept of Energy (FERC specfically) says “ya think”?
I read that as a snarky callback to Putin.. 😉
Not for long.
At least the Dept. of Energy divested itself of its old baggage by now. “What a waste!” they cried….
You get a star.
its old baggage
Did Sam Brinton take that too?
pssst… don’t explain the joke, JI!
Obviously I need more coffee, and maybe a horseback ride.
You kids and your silly euphemisms!
National Emergency might work — formally calling it a Foreign Invasion would be better. Started typing out “Get Congress to declare war on the NGOs that way” — then realized that you’d effectively have to declare war on a good chunk of the FedGov of the last administration working hand-in-glove with them. While that’s appealing as anything, blowing this into a full Civil War scenario probably isn’t a good idea either.
So yeah — stick with “Emergency” if that works and shut off all the taps at the Fed, state and local levels (others here in the past have said “No FedGov funds for ‘sanctuary’ state/local — see how long it lasts”, seems like a good plan. I’m pretty sure CA would collapse given they’re already deep in the red budget-wise without leeching off the Fed for MediCal, CHIP, etc.
Meh, I think it’s an abuse of emergency declarations, and I’d be pissed about it if it team blue was pulling the same gambit to, say, fast track asylum claims.
Two questions – Fundimentally, what is the function of an emergency declaration? What qualifies as an Emergency?
+1
I’ll be honest and say that I’m not comfortable with President’s declaring National Emergencies because it’s generally a way to increase their power and piss on our civil liberties. And it would also be a political public relations disaster. The best thing to do is cut off the money spigot to the NGO’s and states that enables this behavior and enforce laws that would make it costly for employers to hire those without documentation.
Do this and you’ll see a mass exodus from this country, and it does it in a way where the Left can’t even pretend to have the higher moral ground.
Congress has delegated certain authority to the executive when a national emergency has been declared.
Near as I can tell, basically whatever the president decides is one. The National Emergencies Act of 1976 is the controlling legislation.
I agree. I think it will backfire.
I would pursue more achievable goals – shut the border, identify violent criminals and escort them out toot sweet, big beautiful wall, etc.
And most importantly, turn off the money spigot to NGOs.
Not the official definition – what do you think should be?
“team blue was pulling the same gambit to, say, fast track asylum claims”
When they changed the rules to allow economic migrants to claim refugee status, I believe they may have done exactly that already.
Not to mention the free pass Joe gave to Venezuela and several others to “asylum” as many as they want no questions asked. WTF was up with that.
Aurora, CO thanks him.
Local news had an article that may touch on this a bit more (it focused specifically on the Springfield Haitians):
Trump border czar warns Temporary Protected Status ‘can end tomorrow’ for Haitians in Ohio
Tbh, I don’t think fedgov should have any ability to declare or define emergencies that arrogate more power to itself, with the sole exception of the military powers granted to the executive as commander in chief. If it’s not dire enough that the president needs to be awakened at 3 AM because there’s ICBMs on the radar, most emergencies should be state-level issues.
We already have 42 active national emergencies. The oldest was declared by Carter. Can we end some of those first?
Ed nails it.
Stop funding this invasion. A strong-arm mass deportation is likely to end badly.
As for the party ending that will only happen when the funding for that is cut.
It is always the money.
There are already enough laws on the books to deal with this. Seize cash from banks that enable it, throw some of the C-suites hiring illegals in jail and take properties from landlords that are renting to them. The problem would solve itself overnight.
As someone (Dean? JI?) has pointed out repeatedly, if the Legislative appropriates the money, the Executive has to spend it as appropriated. Does Trump have the flexibility to cut the NGOs off, if the spending is written into the budget?
I completely agree the NGOs need to be cut off, but will Congress actually do that? I’m guessing, no, there’s too much money slushing through NGOs that benefit individual legislators.
Trump could harness what bureaucracies do best – put up speed bumps and delays. Say, announce that grants to NGOs will need to go through a new process, the NGOs will need to pass an audit on previous spending, the grants will have new oversight and requirements, blah blah. “Revenues delayed are revenues denied” was one of the first things I learned as a brand new lawyer.
Even if the courts rule against him, that’s still a nice long delay. And I think there’s a lot the executive can do to delay these grants that is within its power.
Link to registration-free version of Epoch Times national emergency, mass deportation article.
https://archive.fo/4L3gk
Biden has no idea what year it is, so who is actually making this decision? Not one democrat can come out and question this insane decision?
I thought about it last night. This would have happened whether it was Biden or Kamala. The same unelected people are running the show.
I’m wondering if it would have happened under Donald.
Instead we’re getting Joe’s last fuck you.
Yes and they’re trying to get their last licks in before Trump takes over and likely ends the party.
…and likely ends the party.
The party may have a temporary inconvenience, but it’s far from winding down.
The party may have a temporary inconvenience, but it’s far from winding down.
Point taken.
Nuland and Power haven’t really left since the Obama admin.
What curtain? Behold the great and all powerful Biden!
The old ‘rather rule in hell than serve in heaven’ and ‘become the king of ashes’ sayings are not hyperbole. It would appear that those calling the shots are aiming at that.
What mass deportations will look like (I posted this yesterday):
https://x.com/Lead_Flinger/status/1858238662594744370
Pretty impressive production values.
Hmm…. maybe I’m mis-skimming the article, but I don’t read his quotes that way. Cheap and plentiful energy is integral to human development is what he’s saying. And at the moment, that includes fossil fuels — but I don’t see where he’s “Rah rah only fossil fuels for all eternity!” or anything. Which is the proper position in my opinion. (Who knows… maybe that pulse fusion startup someone linked here a few months (? years? I don’t remember.. it was the one where they initiate a laser pulse on both ends of a chamber such that they meet in the middle and generate fusion conditions if I recall correctly… probably a Thursday Tonio SCIENCE! link) will catch on… Maybe small, modular fission will get worked out… focus on what works for now, pay attention to actual physics and costs instead of trying to sink the Western economies / do “climate justice” / impoverish the peasants and I’ll be happy enough).
Economically speaking, energy is exactly like any other resource. When it gets scarce enough, prices increase; the increased prices attract market entrants and new capital; economies of scale reduce costs, margins fall, competition reduces prices, inefficient producers get driven out of the market, and the most economically efficient resource displaces the less economically efficient resource. But waiting for basic fucking economics to work takes too long when you’re a psychopathic power junkie or one of their brain damaged doomsday cult disciples.
“Economically speaking, energy is exactly like any other resource.”
I would agree with you in general terms. The issue of market corrections is that there is a FAT thumb on the scale regarding energy.
When capital flowed in, the government blocked the investments by pulling permits away and cancelling drilling permits and leases. If the market had been ALLOWED to respond, I don’t think we would be in the energy situation we are in.
True, of course. It’s actually rather humorous that fossil fuels are still so economically competitive even when their extraction has been stymied to the maximum extent possible, the alternatives are being generously subsidized, and we’ve ostensibly passed Peak Oil at least a dozen times within my lifetime. But even in a completely unregulated market, yeah, sure, we’ll run out of that resource at some point, it will get more expensive as the available supply diminishes, and that will drive the shift to alternatives.
“I don’t see where he’s “Rah rah only fossil fuels for all eternity!” or anything”
I don’t read the headline as saying that, myself. It’s easily read as “for the time being, fossil fuels, etc.”
https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/trumps-choice-for-energy-secretary-is-a-fracking-booster-and-climate-skeptic-c94ed844?st=q2aW4j&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
As I recall around half of all petroleum production isn’t even burned for power usage. You wonder what the morons all think their cell phone cases are made of?
Or the batteries, tires and bodies of their EVs.
Question for the various Bar Associations: If you cannot prevent your members from destroying the credibility of the courts what do we need you for? What is your purpose?
“Siphoning off membership fees, gatekeeping our profession so we keep numbers down and fees up, providing one stop shopping for lobbying, corruption and graft…. What did you think our purpose was?!?”
Mostly their purpose these days is advancing DEI.
Honestly, I don’t get the big hullabaloo over US missiles being fired into Russia. Ukraine is at war with Russia, which generally means they get to attack inside Russia. Ukraine has been attacking sites in Russia for years. Ukraine actually has troops in Russia, in Kursk. The US has been supplying Ukraine with weapons. How does this all not add up to US weapons being used in Russia?
Is the problem that the US has stupidly said it has to approve targets in Russia, so it has some responsibility for those targets getting hit.?
From what I can gather the issue seems to be these weapons can hit deep inside Russia, instead of just few miles inside Russia, which makes it worse because…..reasons?
Sounds like just the ATACMS missiles and some European equivalents. The Russians have been able to shoot down some but not all of them in the past.
Zelensky was asking for crazy shit like Tomahawks so he could blow up the Kremlin and start WWIII.
The real problem is we aren’t “giving” them to the Ukraine. Our techs set them up, program the targeting, and do everything short of pushing the launch button (if that).
So the USA is more or less launching those missiles against Russia?
Jesus Titty-fucking Christ
Yes. These are sophisticated systems, not RPGs.
Hopefully SDF is right and Putin is patient and smart enough to just wait out the next couple of months for the Biden regime to be gone.
Putin is generally smart and patient (mostly). Although invading Ukraine in the first place was neither smart nor patient, so, why take the (unnecessary) risk?
Can the Ukrainians fire the missiles without US assistance? I thought that’s why we had “consultants” on the ground there, to actually operate and maintain the batteries.
Never served in the military, never fired a missile, asking out of actual ignorance.
Nope. Don’t have the training and we aren’t sharing the programming with those crooks.
Everything I recall reading (zero personal knowledge here, sorry) is that the guidance of said missiles only works with active US satnav / targeting. So it isn’t just that we handed the missiles to Ukraine, we have to be in active support for them to be used that far away or something.
Theoretically, if San Diego county, CA declared independence from the United States to rejoin Mexico, and Mexico and the United States declared war on each other over the disputed territory, and after a serious of skirmishes with no decisive victory (suspend some disbelief with me) Mexico appealed to Russia for assistance with guided munitions capable of reaching Castle Air Force Base, I suspect that even with the useless tits currently running our military, we’d be at the very least threatening direct military action against Russia. If the ukes were putting in purchase orders to Raytheon like any other customer, then good luck and god bless. When they’re taking gratis American military technology that acts as a force multiplier the likes of which they couldn’t lay their hands on in the next century otherwise and using it to strike within Russia outside of the territories currently in dispute, then by what criteria is the United states not at war with Russia other than being too nutless to actually declare it?
Proper proxy warfare requires two countries to be patsies for the players that don’t want to directly engage. At the moment we are giving more casus belli then existed prior to our entry into WWI.
By providing Ukraine with weaponry, the US has already provided Russian with a casus belli. I just don’t see how “this will go X miles into Russia” is a casus belli when “this will go X minus miles into Russia” isn’t. For that matter, I don’t see how attacking on Russian soil is a big game changer at all. The casus belli is arming Ukraine.
This hasn’t been a proper proxy war since Russian troops crossed the border to kick it off, because Russia doesn’t have a patsy, just the US.
US involvement in the use of ATACMS is even less direct involvement than the actual Russian pilots flying Russian fighters in Korea and Vietnam. Those wars involved Americans and Russians killing each other directly.
Don’t get me wrong. The US involvement in this war is monumentally stupid, but I guess I’m just not seeing the ATACMS issue as much more than a nuance of a colossal idiocy.
Fair enough, and I see your point, but it’s surely an incremental provocation pushing the conflict deeper into Russia. Call it the elasticity of war, maybe. There’s always a “this far, and no further” point.
The Democrats decided Joe Biden was incompetent to stand for reelection, but sharp enough to launch missiles into the heartland of a nuclear superpower.
It’s an interesting Trump trade. Given the disruption on the auto industry it makes it tough for me to figure out if it’s good or bad. It definitely a sign that people to continue to spend way more than they should, however…
Wall Street Is Bullish on Car Loans Despite Rising Delinquencies
Sales of auto bonds are up sharply from last year
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/wall-street-is-bullish-on-car-loans-despite-rising-delinquencies-5f0f1ec4?st=dJ6aev&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
I have no idea what I’m going to do if one of my current cars croaks. I can’t imagine spending what was until relatively recently a mortgage loan on an instantly depreciating asset like that. I expect I’d hope to find something relatively decent in the used market.
And I need to start thinking about it anyway with a son approaching driving age. Thanks again Obama and crew for making cheap decent cars less common. Assholes.
We have a couple of aging cars too. Hoping that there are some good deals next Spring after tax season.
I *really* need to get current on my maintenance on my ’06 Elantra. The paint was failing when I bought it, which I don’t care about cosmetically, but there’s a couple small rust spots I have to at least sand and prime for functional reasons. I just hit 91k a week or so ago so it’s due for a bunch of fluid changes that I have to consult my manual to remember. I paid $5,500 for it in 2013 when it had 72k miles, which was a hose job even back then on account of Obama destroying the used market 5 years prior. To replace it with another car at its current mileage, let alone 72k, would run me a bare minimum $10,000 – $12,000. It’s fucking insane.
I do lead generation for auto dealers for my primary job. Seeing what people are financing boggles my mind. 8-12% interest with subprime credit and they’re getting preapproval offers on 5-7 year old used vehicles kissing that 100k mark and priced in the $20-30,000 range.
The used market is back to relatively sane. Just avoid anything with an iPad glued to the dash and you’ll be ok.
We have a 2015 Camry for my wife. We bought it at 24k miles and it’s now at 150k but it drives just like when we got it 7 years ago.
If I had to replace it I would think long and hard about getting a low mile 2016 or 2017 Camry to replace it.
I hope to never own a COVID-19 era car (2020 through now essentially).
If you like car prices, you’re gonna love home prices!
Of a bigger concern than prices (cars should be for transportation, not as an asset) is the inability of many/most manufacturers to produce reliable working cars.
It’s easy to get a bond deal oversubscribed by how you price it. In fact, the way those deals are sold is they are initially offered at “too-high” rate, and then what amounts to a reverse auction is held. “20x oversubscribed” means little to nothing. What were the final deal terms is what matters.
That’s understood. You use it as a sign for the direction of pricing of future deals.
If approved by the Senate, Trump’s pick for Energy Secretary, Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright, will be the first time the Department of Energy has had an executive in the energy industry lead it. In a statement on X, Wright said he’s “honored and grateful” for the opportunity.
I’m sure the mainstream press will deride Wright as “an oil industry flack” and a “climate denier.”
Others are more optimistic.
Tbh, I’m not that much more psyched about industry capture of the regulatory apparatus than NGO capture of the regulatory apparatus. But such is the risk of technocracy. It’s too bad there’s no alternatives, like deregulating industries and leaving it to courts and civil law to mitigate excesses.
I think this is a fight between which segment of the industry will capture the apparat. The big bois have it now, this is the medium size companies making their play.
Multiple injuries are feared after a car was driven into a crowd of people outside a primary school in China’s souther Hunan province.
There are no details of casualties yet but state media said “several students and adults were injured and fell to the ground”, and several people are in hospital.
The driver of the vehicle – identified as a white SUV – was caught by parents and school security officers and handed over to police.
This is the third attack on a crowd in China in a week, and it has fuelled concerns about public safety.
“About a dozen people were hit, some of them seriously, but luckily the ambulance came very quickly,” Mr Zhu, a parent of one of the children at the school, told the BBC.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dl8yey0l8o
false flags?
The China Show has posted a ton of these videos of different similar incidents from the last few months.
Mostly frustration due to a lack of feedback options for government overreach, no mental health support options, no social safety net, etc, etc. A lot like some of the kindergarten stabbing sprees they have every few years.
https://www.youtube.com/live/r73xrw311vk?si=nruUMDnSUsZY4MSP A whole series of incidents mapped out. Mostly scrubbed from internal social media by now.
ah ok so even worse than the BBC reports
that youtube is difficult to watch for me.
I blame Asian drivers.
Comment *Relevant
I remember that clip from way back
Prior to joining Fox News Media, Duffy served nearly nine years as a U.S. congressman representing the people of Wisconsin’s Seventh Congressional District, the state’s largest district. During his time in office, he was on the Financial Services Committee and served as the chairman of the Sub-Committee on Insurance and Housing. Previously, he was the district attorney of Ashland County, Wisconsin, where he dedicated resources to prosecuting child sex crimes. Working together with law enforcement, he established Ashland County as one of the first counties in the state to investigate and prosecute child internet sex crimes.
Is this more qualified than Petey B?
If he is influential in getting the Highway Trust fund to expire then at least that’s a win.
And Petey B was probably one of Biden’s most competent appointees *shudders*
And somewhat less Bond-villain evil than most of the others.
French prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation after actress Judith Godrèche filed a complaint against film director Benoît Jacquot accusing him of historical rape.
Ms Godrèche, 51, accuses Mr Jacquot, 77, of raping her when she was 14 in 1986 and of subsequent offences in a relationship lasting into the 1990s.
The complaint was lodged on Tuesday, her lawyer told AFP news agency.
Mr Jacquot has said he “firmly” denies her “allegations and accusations”.
Speaking on French radio on Thursday, Ms Godrèche also made allegations about another well known French director, Jacques Doillon, that date back to when she was 15. He too has vehemently denied the actress’s accusations, according to his lawyer.
In the early part of her career, Ms Godrèche was known for her roles in two films made by Benoît Jacquot, The Beggars (1987) and The Disenchanted (1990).
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68223976
on the one hand these 40 year old allegations are tough to prove. On the other, french directors and young girls in the 80s is not exactly unbelievable.
What, he directed a Netflix adaptation of literally any historical event?
Worse.
My Lady Jane.
🙂
Is historical rape where you wear Victorian dress during the act?
Go on…
do all people involved need to the dress?
*Twirls mustache
That is pretty impressive. Had a long-term ongoing romantic and professional relationship with her rapist.
That seems reasonable.
She does have the crazy eyes.
This is amazing. Also she needs to look in a mirror because that’s how most of us feel about Team Blue too.
How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world.
TW – look at the source.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/17/how-to-survive-the-broligarchy-20-lessons-for-the-post-truth-world-donald-trump
Protect your private life. The broligarchy doesn’t want you to have one. – look who discovered privacy
Listen to women of colour. – no.
If yOu hAVe nOtHiNg To HiDE YoU hAvE NoTHinG tO FeAR
Most of this stuff, I’ve been doing myself (in response to the media-academic-technocrat complex) for the past twenty years. I’m sure that Carole feels very smart and empowered now that she’s copied the work of actual smart people…
Bravo, Sheldon. I feel the same way.
Yes. Because the progressives are funny, smart, and can handle jokes with the best of them.
and space is for icky nerds anyway
JFC I want that time back.
When someone tells you who they are, believe them
Absolutely. Like when someone says they want to come for your guns, your gas stove, your cars, when they say they want to remake America into a Socialist state, we should take them at their word.
Any man who feels the need to build a rocket is not overconfident about his masculinity
The “any object which must be aerodynamic for performance reasons is actually a phallic object” argument was tedious and absurd when I first heard it in the ’90s. It is not clever, it does not reveal some deep psychological truth about men.
When someone tells you who they are, believe them
Absolutely. Like when someone says they want to come for your guns, your gas stove, your cars, when they say they want to remake America into a Socialist state, we should take them at their word.
I immediately thought the same.
“Journalists, publishers, writers, academics are always in the first wave. Doctors, teachers, accountants will be next.”
Surprisingly good take on censorship during COVID. Oh wait, looks like she does need that mirror.
This exact same pattern may be found for almost every trendy jargon term from academia.
It starts as an obscure proprietary concept on the Marxist far-left fringes of the professoriate. Then from about 2015 onward, it’s everywhere.
1. Starting around 2000, the academy shifted hard-left. With this shift, low-rigor ideological dreck from the Critical Theory fringe became the dominant perspective.
2. Journalism followed academia in adopting & promoting the same concepts.
https://x.com/PhilWMagness/status/1858566831990014375
this has been said before but all the buzzwords exploded almost at one. I blame Trump.
I wonder what the vertical scale is supposed to be measuring…?
I had assumed percent of total words published
https://books.google.com/ngrams/info
“What the y-axis shows is this: of all the bigrams contained in our sample of books written in English and published in the United States, what percentage of them are …”
If everything goes to hell, it does sound like the Republic of Texas will be pretty cool.
Republic of Texas will be conquered in two days by the Portland Expeditionary Force
They will never make it past the first nuclear-powered Buc-Ees.
Part of the problem here is with “cargo cult complexity”. Intelligent people convince themselves that norms and principles like “The police should not interrogate journalists over their opinions” are unsophisticated & therefore inadequate *because they are simple & straightforward*.
Because the ex-BBC midwits have a high opinion of themselves, they are always straining unpersuasively for some Smart Take which sets them apart from the despised Stupid Conservatives, rather than just trying to be truthful.
Theodore Dalrymple has a good line about this, roughly that the obvious or intuitive truth is a threat to an intellectual clerisy who feel that their status depends on their role as uncoverer of obscure meanings & significances.
https://x.com/niall_gooch/status/1858776439568367953
good thing in Merry Olde you do not need the broligarchy to have the police come at your door for a non crime tweet which offended someone.
Niall is overthinking it. The core tenet of progressive thought is, ‘The rules do not apply to me because of who I am.’
Yeah, they’re perpetual midwit college freshman who’ve just learnt some moderately counter-intuitive truth like, say, the 100 prisoners problem in probability, and think that not only must it extrapolate to everything, but that they’re elite thinkers for having comprehended it once it was explained to them, as if every person who parked their ass in the same seat in the lecture hall for the past 20 years, from the English lit major to the architect to the lawyer to the physician, didn’t hear the exact same thing.
Friendless Churches
@friendschurches
Once at the heart of a lively settlement, St Mary’s, Tal-y-Llyn now stands alone amongst the fields, its village wiped out by the Black Death in the 14th century.
https://x.com/friendschurches/status/1858427455515639830
Legal issues can sometimes get nuts.
What happens when someone builds a house on your property by mistake?
Well, in this case, the people who built the house sue you.
Yeah, this lady owned a residential lot in Hawaii. A developer group accidentally built a house on her lot. They then sued her.
Here is what the court had to say about that:
https://youtu.be/Ntxd2jsszi0?si=aaWkDfyJWiXXwgbe
A surprisingly good outcome. What kind of mental fucking midget property developer doesn’t spend $5,000 on a survey before building a structure on a piece of land they don’t own?
THAT is a half-million-dollar house????? (Yes, I know it’s Hawaii, but our upscale mcmansion HOA tract housing isn’t that expensive.)
The court filings reveal that the lot is valued at about $500k and the structure supposedly $300k
….
So how they got to $500k is questionable.
The property was bought in a tax foreclosure auction for a low price. Presumably the other one was too. So I imagine there are issues with the neighborhood.
Hitler – an anti-capitalist revolutionary? The NSDAP leader never saw himself as right wing
To this day, Hitler is categorised as having had a right-wing extremist worldview. Now, decades after its original publication, a book that challenges the classification of Hitler’s political ideology is attracting growing interest and is available in a new edition. Rainer Zitelmann’s highly acclaimed study Hitler. Selbstverständnis eines Revolutionärs (in English: Hitler’s National Socialism) reveals that Hitler did not identify as either right- or left-wing, but rather as an anti-capitalist revolutionary who had nothing but contempt for bourgeois and conservative interests. He placed great emphasis on social issues and equal opportunities and, as he got older, even expressed admiration for the Soviet planned economy.
Zitelmann’s book sets itself apart from other historians’ works in several respects. Firstly, it distinguishes very carefully between the Hitler of the 1920s, the 1930s, and the 1940s. Other authors tend to take a broad-brush approach to Hitler’s worldview from 1919 onward, as if the leader of the NSDAP had a single coherent worldview from the very beginning. This is not true. Rainer Zitelmann identifies several shifts and developments in Hitler’s way of thinking, right up to the last years of his life.
Secondly, Zitelmann’s assessment of Adolf Hitler is sober and objective, never passing judgement. For understandable reasons, many scholars still struggle to maintain such a neutral, non-judgmental stance when evaluating one of the greatest criminals in human history. However, the clear separation of factual analysis from personal opinion enhances the academic rigor of the book and avoids falling into the same trap as other Hitler biographers, many of whom draw hasty conclusions based on moral judgements. Furthermore, Zitelmann succeeds at all times in clearly detaching his study from his own (then left-wing) political convictions. (Today, Zitelmann is a member of Germany’s Free Democrat Party (FDP) and a supporter of classical liberalism.)
https://iea.org.uk/hitler-an-anti-capitalist-revolutionary-the-nsdap-leader-never-saw-himself-as-right-wing/
He was a socialist authoritarian, just like nearly all the other communist/socialist tyrants.
There is some evidence he started out as a commie (in Bavaria).
He probably soured on that club and decided to oppose them while keeping most of the platform.
From what I gather, Hitler’s politics/policies were frequently incoherent. As near as I can tell without having done a deep dive, it was based on “the will of the people” (always a favorite of collectivists/authoritarians((thanks, French Revolution!)) leavened with Aryan racialism that focused a lot of hostility on the mercantile class because Jews.
Interesting, though, to see a sober review of them.
You know you lived in a pre-internet world if you know who this is.
Arthur Frommer, who changed travel with his guidebooks, has died at 95
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/19/nx-s1-5196063/arthur-frommer-dies-obituary
Do you feel that?
We are experiencing an astrological transit today that has not occurred since December of 1778 — yes, the year 1778
Beginning tomorrow Pluto enters Aquarius for the first time in 246 years
The planet of life, death, transformation is about to shake the world!
https://x.com/PeytonElroy/status/1858603294954057789
When you call it the dwarf planet of life, death, and transformation it sounds substantially less intimidating.
Huh. I would have guess since March 1969.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarius/Let_the_Sunshine_In
The QuikTrip 1/2 mile east of my house sold a $1M lottery ticket.
Not to my husband.
Not to my husband – as far as you know
Well. I mean. Not wrong.
You have nothing to worry about unless he tells you to pack your bags.
He’s won chunks of money before. I think the biggest was $1000 or something. He used it to upgrade my cubic zirconia to a diamond.
I usually find out about these at tax time because of the 1099. Don’t talk to me about this before I do taxes? Big blowout argument.
Anyway, he’s been a bit bummed because it was THISCLOSE.
So, he tells me last night that if he had won, he wouldn’t inform me of it until he got me to the lottery ticket office to pick it up. I told him this would make me unhappy. Like, enragingly unhappy. There is a proper order of lottery winning: Safe deposit box, a month’s wait, a lawyer and financial planner with a solid plan, and THEN go pick it up.
My reaction surprised him a bit. I’m like, Dude. Srsly? Then I asked him how much he spent on lottery tickets and he was cagey. When pressed, he said, “I don’t ask how much you spend on crafts, books, and music, do I?” Well. Then. Okay.
Get back to work
With fewer people in the office, the cost of excess federal office space has become a concern. Last year, the Government Accountability Office concluded that 17 of the 24 largest federal agencies used on average only 25% of their office space.
For the Education Department, which is at the top of Musk and Ramaswamy’s list for elimination, the use rate was even lower, at 16%.
As of August, 98% of Education Department employees were eligible to work from home and more than half were working remotely, according to the OMB. One of the agencies with the lowest office use rates, only 9%, was the federal government’s human resources agency, the Office of Personnel Management.
Simon said allowing some workers to partially work from home helps the federal government recruit and retain a talented workforce that, despite lower pay, has to compete with the private sector.
I haven’t heard that old canard in ages.
I think the guiding question needs to be, “Is this worth bankrupting the country over?” If not, bye.
They’re pushing for a pay increase.
Rebecca Hall: I ‘Regret’ Apologizing for Working with Woody Allen
“I don’t think that we should be the ones who are doing judge and jury on this,” Hall, who appeared in two Allen films, said six years after publicly denouncing the director.
https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/rebecca-hall-regrets-apologizing-working-with-woody-allen-1235066929/
pull out detailed illustrated diagram showing the difference between wifeslop, guychow, foidslop, and guyslop
https://x.com/uncledoomer/status/1858361275534729603
I am saving that one
Agreed, that’s a keeper.
That was more family-friendly than I was expecting.
Agreed. Though guyslop is more teenslop IMO.
+ 1 arrested development case
A Russian Nostradamus has issued a chilling warning about Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion as she claims an ‘extremely dangerous period is coming’.
Speaking to Kremlin-backed newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets, psychic Kazhetta Akhmetzhanova said the war will eventually come to an end – but it will get worse before it gets better.
Akhmetzhanova has competed on Battle of Psychics and has correctly predicted several tsunamis around the world in the past.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14100141/Russian-Nostradamus-issues-warning-extremely-dangerous-period-makes-ominous-Ukraine-war-prediction.html
Why would I care what a Russian version of a failed poet predicts?
Jews and gay people should hide their identity in parts of the German capital with large Arab populations, Berlin’s police chief has warned
https://x.com/Telegraph/status/1858642193616941256
Small price to pay for diversity
The restaurant scene is lit.
And while Berlin is a one-party leftist (SPD) town, you can be sure the other party (CDU/CSU) has no objections – hell, Merkel was all-in.
Another reason they’re trying to ban that Nazi party they all hate.
But the restaurants!
Damn your nimble fingers!
There should be no arabs in Germany.
Imagine speaking absolutely broken Japanese that you will have no idea is broken, but it will be in your own voice!
Microsoft will soon let you clone your voice for Teams meetings
https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/19/soon-microsoft-will-let-teams-meeting-attendees-clone-their-voices/
I’d much rather have the voice on such a meeting NOT be my own.
That’s not creepy at all.
Wow, This is about more than games. They have lots of anime, manga and popular novel content. This about Sony buying more content full stop.
Exclusive: Sony is in talks to buy media powerhouse behind ‘Elden Ring’
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/sony-talks-buy-media-powerhouse-behind-elden-ring-sources-say-2024-11-19/
But this thin client is… different… really!
Microsoft debuts $350 computer that runs Windows from the cloud
https://www.axios.com/2024/11/19/microsoft-350-computer-windows-cloud
Well, you’re supposed to own the server for a thin clint. This just completely embeds you into their ecosystem with less than zero control.
It’ll be a hit this time, for sure!
I was expecting WebTV
Pat – Web TV was how I got my parents on the – at the time – WWW!
After that set of training wheels they bought a PC and the Web TV went to my grandmother. It was only replaced when it got so clunky that it wouldn’t take photo attachments over some crazy small size. She couldn’t see baby pictures of my now 25 year old son.
You know, I remember when moving from terminals to personal computers was the next big thing, only to watch as we shifted to “thin clients” (don’t call them terminals!) running Citrix, to switch back to personal computers due to problems, only to watch the move go back to “the cloud”.
You don’t even need that much, it seems people are convinced every fucking application in the world should be run through a web browser instead of a lightweight dedicated program.
I think the moral of the story is the CxOs either responsible for IT or Security both think removing all options from their workers to enforce how they think work should be done is an ever present urge. That they don’t know the ins and outs of every single role and often ignore really vital workflows to try to force that square peg into the round hole is the counter-force.
My favorite is when they try to pitch you on their wonderful, cross-platform NATIVE program, and you find out it’s an Electron app…
SDF-7:
Yes, I too have survived an SAP implementation.
Whenever I hear the word ‘workflow’ come out of a users’ mouth, I know I’m going to hear some epic cringe. Recent examples of ‘vital workflows’ I’ve had to unfuck include the confidential work product stored on an internet-facing Sharepoint page with public read access, and the C-suiter needing to recover important emails that he had stored in the OneDrive second-stage recycle bin (to bypass storage quota settings on OneDrive, natch.)
EvilSheldon:
One of the most cruft filled “workflows” I’ve ever seen was for a group several companies back. They were the ones reconciling driver logs, which used to be faxed in and then manually checked. They eventually moved onto scanning the faxed documents in and saving them on a shared drive to keep them instead of filing cabinets. Where things got bad is when the fax was changed from a physical fax to a fax to e-mail solution. The group would take the PDF’s of the logs, print them out, scan them in, and then save them to the shared drive.
When I asked why they didn’t just save the PDF’s that were already attached to the e-mail, they said they couldn’t do that, as it wasn’t their process.
It took them at least a year until that got changed.
Sweet drunken Enkidu…
EvilSheldon’s Third Law of Systems Administration – Most IT problems are personnel problems in an IT-flavored wrapper. This is why the IT manager should have org-wide firing authority. Not hiring, just firing.
@Mr Ilium, that was a process already in place at the state for PDFs into FileNet.
Don’t start me ranting on how we’ve regressed to renting someone else’s mainframe and just have prettier terminals, Sensei…
That said — while I still don’t understand why you’d want your company’s data on other people servers to harvest (or their AI bot to run on your machines to harvest and spew back to their servers for that matter) just to save a few IT bucks at the cost of potentially everything that distinguishes your company and all…. for folks like HR or marketing that are doing 100% of their work in MS365 (which is really web apps and cloud based anyway) – the data is in the cloud, the application is in the cloud… might as well present the OS from the cloud and just stream the desktop video, I suppose. Anyone doing work with local stuff should get a real machine – I would expect most of the folks who would be buying this were already using Azure remote VMs (or whatever they call it these days) already, just with fatter clients to display the streamed desktop.
For people who thought their Chromebook was too powerful and customizable.
Seems just like a 3278 terminal attached to an IBM 370.
Bring back SNA while you’re at it.
30-min window today for SpaceX 6th IFT starting at 4pm CST. Second booster catch possible today and additional tests in space expected. Just an iteration test it seems. The 7th IFT sounds a bit more interesting once we get to that as it includes a bunch of upgrades.
Can’t wait!
This is the biggest thing happening…. well, second biggest now that woke is on the ropes… but still
Word has it that if Starship performs well, they will try to do a catch on the orbiter next time. Which would be amazing, of course.
Shotwell predicts 200 launches across 2025 and 2026. So they seem to think they are pretty close.
Apropos of nothing, I found out recently that Vistaprint can do poster printing. After about 6 fruitless months trying to find a source for a large format print of the Warren Bolster uncrested wave photo that served as the album cover to Ride’s album Nowhere, I decided to take a $50.85 risk and see what kind of result I’d get uploading the album art with some whitespace for aspect ratio correction. It just arrived about 15 minutes ago, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. Despite the resolution of the original image being only ~1800×1800, it’s a remarkably clear print. I sprung for the few extra bucks for their premium glossy stock, which has a great thickness and finish. After I get the whitespace trimmed off, it’ll be a perfect 24″ x 24″ square, ready to be mounted in the frame that I am presently ordering from Amazon.
So, in the unlikely event anyone else here is as obsessive and autistic as I am, and in need of a custom printed poster to appease their troubled mind, Vistaprint comes highly recommended.
…in the unlikely event anyone else here is as obsessive and autistic as I am…
Challenge accepted!
Yes. They’ve been offering that for many years. I’ve done my display printing with VistaPrint for fifteen years.
This being the first thing I’ve hung on a wall since middle school, I doubt it will come up again, but I’m definitely pleased with how it came out.
This is the original album cover scan
And the print
It’s just about perfectly color true to the original, my lighting just sucks.
Amazing album 👍
One of my top 10 for sure. And while I usually don’t give a shit about album art (I actually used to strip it out of my MP3s in ye olde file sharing days), not only do I love that photograph, but it captures the tone of the album perfectly.
Saved by MMT
Modern monetary theory fooled Washington’s elite because its message was seductive: If there’s any slack in the economy and the government prints and spends in its own currency, policymakers don’t need to worry about price hikes.
The years 2020-2024 provided an unambiguous test of this theory. The answer: It’s bunk. Consumer price inflation peaked at 9 percent during the summer of 2022. Central bankers were late to the game to tighten, even adopting the modern monetary theory talking point about “transitory” inflation for a brief but critical moment in early 2021. Elected Democrats scrambled to minimize the role their profligacy had played in forcibly raising the cost of living, culminating in Harris’s grocery store price control proposal as the centerpiece of her economic platform.
The flawed narratives of “transitory” inflation and “greedflation” can be viewed as desperate spin attempts in the face of obvious economic reality. Fed officials should have predicted the consequences of keeping money growth above economic growth for so long.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris should have recognized that continued fiscal follies would pressure the Fed to embrace money mischief, and that price controls simply made the administration look economically illiterate and out of touch. This rhetoric began as a convenient political argument for stimulus spending, then morphed into an act of self-deception on the part of the Harris campaign.
As election day exit polling revealed, the electorate repudiated the modern monetary theory narrative. Americans are fed up with over-credentialed experts inventing new reasons to ignore basic economics. The laptop class has only itself to blame for elevating these fringe theories, thereby facilitating Trump’s electoral comeback.
They make Trump look sane.
Everyone knew MMT was bullshit, they just thought they could kick the can down the road further.
Piketty’s living in a cardboard box now, right? Right?
No. No no no. A thousand times no. Not a single one of the fucking clowns pushing that shit ever thought it was legitimate. Don’t diminish their evil and irresponsibility by ascribing anything less than villainous intentions. It was garbage. They knew it was garbage. They sold it to people they hoped (correctly, unfortunately) were too stupid to know any better.
I’m sure this will happen before the Trump administration happens and will not be contested.
Google could be forced to sell Chrome in a big antitrust crackdown
https://qz.com/google-chrome-sale-doj-antitrust-crackdown-regulators-1851702546
Meh, Microsoft still had to pay tribute for bundling Internet Explorer with Windows in the ’90s. Of course, Google learned from that mistake and cozied up to the government right from the get go.
Ironically, without Google pumping it full of cash via its default search partnership, which it’s been doing for well over a decade for the express purpose of fending off antitrust actions, Firefox is likely dead, and with it the only full-featured independent web rendering engine.
Firefox dug its own grave.
But I get your point and concern.
What, you mean doubling CEO pay (for the 3rd time in 5 years) amid diminishing revenues while laying off 30% of your engineers isn’t a good move?
WebKit’s still viable, of course, but nearly inseparable from Apple. Unfortunately, the GTK port decided it needs its own computing cluster since the move to GTK4.
Good and hard
Trigger Warning: Bill Press
But there’s a more important reason why Gaetz and company, no matter how crazy, should be confirmed. Because that’s what the American people voted for. They knew what they were getting in Donald Trump: A second term built on revenge against his political opponents, carried out by sycophants who are loyal to nobody or nothing but him. That’s what he promised. That’s what they wanted. That’s what they got. Who are we to stand in their way?
——-
Will they create chaos? Absolutely. Under Gaetz, the FBI will be gutted. Those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 will be released from prison. Under Gabbard, our allies will no longer share intelligence with the U.S., making us more vulnerable to foreign and domestic attacks. Under Hegseth, the Pentagon’s top generals will be sent packing and troops will be patrolling American cities. Under Kennedy, the world’s best scientists and doctors will be fired and, without vaccines, we could well face a deadly measles outbreak.
Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be painful and people are going to get hurt. But that’s no reason to reject Gaetz and company. Again, this is what the American people wanted: sheer chaos. So bring it on, and the uglier, the better.
Then let the reckoning begin in 2026.
He doesn’t even credit Mencken.
Trump will be such a disaster no one will vote Republican for a thousand years.
Yeah — and this is who Team Jackass currently thinks is a good idea in 2028.
Love the fellating of Our Scientific Betters there… the whole pandemic and bullshit “vax” and censorship of anyone who didn’t agree really screamed “Top Scientists!” to people, you vacuum enhanced penis pump of a pundit…
Most of the rest of it is “Yeah, sounds good.” Especially the part about letting out the folks imprisoned for 4 years now without trials in a lot of cases. Since the winning side doesn’t see a riot as an insurrection and all.
I could easily see them going with a Shapiro/Whitmer ticket – two swing state governors. Shapiro is going to emerge in another four years with a very strong “he gets things done in a bipartisan way” message as he has to deal with a state house that has only a one seat majority for his party and a senate controlled by the Republicans. He will skate to re-election as governor in 2026, and plenty of Dems think Harris could have carried Penna. at least if she had picked him over Walz.
Those are some confident predictions. I wonder what kind of track record this guy has? Did he predict Trump winning?
Stop, I can only get so hard.
Who doesn’t want a 9,000 lbs unloaded $100k pick up truck?
2025 GMC Sierra EV Denali’s Weight May Not Be Worth It
TW – Jalopnik.
https://jalopnik.com/2025-gmc-sierra-ev-denali-s-weight-may-not-be-worth-it-1851700920
8,987 lbs
Sheeeyit…no thanks.
Are you suggesting if you drive it that it will be over 9k lbs?
We’ll know we’re in real trouble when they start expressing EV weights in units of “World War II Destroyer”.
There’s a lot of stuff the Sierra EV Denali has going for it: Clever packaging, a class-leading range, a nearly price appropriate interior and solid tech. But its driving experience is downright disappointing, and a lot of that has to do with how goddamn heavy it is, among other things. A lot of engineering has to go into making a vehicle this heavy even vaguely OK to drive, but sometimes the laws of physics are just too much to overcome.
Nobody gives a hoot about the “driving experience” as long as it has a giant state of the art infotainment system.
Unless it has “watts to freedom” I’m not interested.
https://www.gmc.com/support/vehicle/driving-safety/ev-driving/watts-to-freedom
(They share the same vehicle architecture and many components. Not sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it uses some of the same motors.)
All I want in an “infotainment system”: USB-A plug to interface with (as standard as these things get these days — and you want to be able to use whatever cord is appropriate for your phone), interface with “next/prev, volume, mute” type toggles on the steering wheel, maybe an API interface for it to use a built in mic and the speakers to do hands-free calling (first because I thought that was pretty common from the phone side and second because I know people like to do it).
What I do not want: Any indexing of tracks or perusal of phone data by the car. Any personal data sent over cellular to the manufacturer. Locking into some proprietary crap that will be obsolete in 3 years so you can’t use it. The security system so tied to the OEM radio and you can’t change out the sound system in 20 years (looking at you, GM). Big stupid screen that’s just going to be in the way / unusable while driving (seriously… what’s the point of those besides letting a passenger watch a movie and distracting the driver??!)
GM doubles down on cutting Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
Despite customer demand for Apple and Google’s offerings, GM believes its in-house infotainment software can stand on its own.
https://www.autoblog.com/news/gm-doubles-down-on-cutting-apple-carplay-and-android-auto
I get their point and concerns, but it’s not going to work. It’s GM not Apple.
Phones are getting pretty big. All I need is bluetooth or a USB to play music and a mount for a phone to serve as GPS, etc…
Some Chinese made cars, plus most Polaris products went this way and it is adequate without building in a screen that will be dead in 10 years. It’s a good model.
I have a 12 year old head unit with a 3.5 mm line in jack, through which I play music straight off the 3.5 mm line out/headphone jack on my Lineage OS’d Motorola One 5G Ace with no Google apps, APIs, or integrations. I didn’t purchase the optional Bluetooth dongle for hands free calling, because I’m more likely to have a sinkhole open up and swallow my car than someone call me while I’m driving. Sometimes I worry the ECUs may be broadcasting over the FM antennae *adjusts tin foil hat*
Actually I wouldn’t want it at any price after reading the narrative.
While I’ve thought about upgrading my transportation a little I still can’t figure out how to use my Consumer Cellular phone. One thing at a time, I guess.
Unless it has “watts to freedom” I’m not interested.
Just the thing to impress the kids in the Jack in the Box drive up window.
If you can’t roll coal at the drive through this is the next best thing!
Burnouts in the Dairy Queen parking lot or it didn’t happen.
On the issue of immigrants and illegal flights.
Last night I learned that Laken Riley’s killer was in Manhattan and had committed a bunch of crimes but was released, then “requested” a humanitarian flight to Georgia.
So the US government flew him there, where he subsequently attacked Laken for 18 minutes as she fought for her life before he bashed her skull in with a rock.
I hadn’t really followed the case much, but damn, that is a lot of fail, and a lot more of it falls on the administration and fellow democrats than I thought.
I don’t think we can call it a “fail” when it’s on purpose.
It’s the “system” nobody can be blamed.
https://gothamist.com/news/nypd-says-attacker-stabbed-3-people-killing-2-in-violent-manhattan-spree-monday
“Predictable consequences are not unintended.”
It’s all part of the war.
I hadn’t really followed the case much, but damn, that is a lot of fail, and a lot more of it falls on the administration and fellow democrats than I thought.
Let’s not condemn the whole program over one little slipup.
Actually I wouldn’t want it at any price after reading the narrative.
While I’ve thought about upgrading my transportation a little I still can’t figure out how to use my Consumer Cellular phone. One thing at a time, I guess.
Discrimination
Rep. Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, said on Monday that she will be introducing a measure to ban transgender women from using biological women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol.
Her announcement comes as Rep.-elect Sarah McBride prepares to take office as the first transgender person elected to Congress.
The resolution, which is expected to be filed Monday night, would amend the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives in order to prohibit members, officers and employees from using facilities that are currently designated for the opposite biological sex.
“The sanctity of protecting women and standing up against the Left’s systematic erasure of biological women starts here in the nation’s Capitol,” Mace wrote in a statement.
Get your popcorn.
I guess it should depend on whether or not Rep. McBride had the snip or not.