299 Comments

  1. Not Adahn

    Did the gym notice because of the smell, and was it of rotting or roasting meat?

      • SDF-7

        It was, after all, a truly jerky thing to do.

      • trshmnstr

        It’s sad that we’re raisin our kids that way.

      • Bobarian LMD

        A tan that made The Donald jealous?

    • The Other Kevin

      A woman I know from high school lost a brother because he passed out in a sauna and they left him there overnight. He was literally cooked.

      • Fourscore

        So, a steamed vegetable.

  2. Not Adahn

    Early links! It’s a pre-Thanksgiving Day miracle!

  3. LCDR_Fish

    I agree with Charlie Cooke that Hegseth should be a good choice.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/in-defense-of-pete-hegseth/

    As John notes, it’s rather churlish to describe Hegseth as merely “a guy on TV,” as so many commentators have. He went to Princeton and Harvard. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, winning two bronze stars in the process. He has experience in private enterprise. He’s been a tireless advocate for veterans — and, better still, he’s been one of those tireless advocate for veterans whom veterans actually like. Sure, he’s now on TV. So is Michael Strahan. That doesn’t tell us much about his past.

    The broader arguments I’ve seen made against the pick do not impress me either. Yes, Hegseth is young. But so what? At 44, he’s just three years younger than Barack Obama was when Obama was elected president, and, frankly, he’s done a lot more with his life thus far than Obama had at that point. Moreover, there may actually be a benefit to his youth. The current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, is 71. Trump’s first-term pick, Jim Mattis, was 67 when he took the job. Hegseth is thus a lot closer in age to the average deployed American than either of those men — which, given the apparent disconnect between the rank-and-file and the top brass, and the arrival of the worst recruiting crisis “since the creation of the all-volunteer force,” might not be a bad thing. Yes, he’s something of an outsider. But that’s not always bad, you know. Have we forgotten about the current guy, who lied to President Biden about being hospitalized for four days, who has presided over one disaster after another, and who, despite his insistence to the contrary, has permitted some of the worst progressive ideas to wiggle their way into his tent.

    CNN reports that, when responding to the news yesterday, “one defense official” told the network that “everyone is simply shocked.” If that was supposed to alarm me, it did not. One of the most precious principles that undergirds the United States is that the military must be subordinate to the civil power. Naturally, this does not make everyone within the civil power qualified to be Secretary of Defense. But it should temper any temptation one might have toward prioritizing the preferences and interests of the existing bureaucracy. The president is the commander-in-chief, and the Secretary of Defense serves at his pleasure. If that president wants Pete Hegseth to fill the role — and if Pete Hegseth is duly confirmed by a majority of the Senate (not recess appointed, confirmed) — then Pete Hegseth ought to be Secretary of Defense. Any argument to the contrary should be grounded in more than that the guy once threw an ax on TV.

    • UnCivilServant

      The best selling point for me was that he was a Major, meaning he didn’t have to jump through the political purity tests to make General. The current crop of flag officers need to be flushed. Even if they are not the root of all the problems, they contributed majorly.

    • Rat on a train

      The SecDef should be a woman or somebody who pretends to be a woman. #HerTurn

      • juris imprudent

        I could’ve seen Tulsi as SecDef, but that wouldn’t satisfy the people you are talking about.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Loydina Austin?

    • R C Dean

      Am I the only person who thinks the “recruiting crisis” could be solved by simply shrinking the armed forces to the level required for actual national defense (as opposed to “global power projection”)?

      • UnCivilServant

        There’s over 190 countries out there that we need to be able to beat up simulteneously without resorting to nukes.

      • juris imprudent

        Honestly, that would require concomitant changes to not just force structure but force projection, i.e. we’d have to shut down a lot of overseas facilities. So not as simple as just reducing headcount. I’d also argue that the Goldwater-Nichols impacts need to be re-aligned (getting rid of our military Pro-Consuls – aka Combatant Commands).

      • Pat

        True enough, but in the event that recruiting needed to be scaled for a conflict, even a defensive one, you’d like to have the DoD focusing its efforts and messaging on impetuous young men who like the idea of indiscriminately killing bad guys and blowing shit up, as opposed to totally-not-gay men trapped in female bodies whose primary reason for joining up is getting their estradiol prescription covered.

      • LCDR_Fish

        JI.

        That’s an interesting concept – but it raises issues that need to be discussed and debated in much more depth.

        If we pull out of Korea, we accept that the ROK and presumably Japan and Taiwan will develop nukes. I don’t have an issue with them providing for their self defense, but there are repercussions – and hasty decisions/statements impact more than just the US (and impact the US significantly in secondary/tertiary effects/ripples).

        Similarly, we are making developments in unmanned vessels – ships/aircraft/etc that should result in us being able to modify some of our overseas footprints in size/scope/etc while maintaining some capabilities.

        The COCOM structure is a function that’s worth discussing – although – it makes sense in principle to maintain focused offices, the possibility of shifting them stateside (with tech comms options, etc) should be an option (4th Fleet/SouthCOM has always been in the US).

        This issue arose with the Red Sea Houthi issue the past year – we need to discuss it, but we’re not getting serious alternatives. Constraining international shipping – tragedy of the commons, etc – is a legitimate role for the Navy – whether or not we like it. The decline of US hegemony is a choice, but the likely alternatives are not the sort of thing we have given adequate thought towards philosophically or pragmatically.

      • juris imprudent

        LCDR_Fish, if we are going to secure international shipping routes, then we should be compensated by those who profit most from that. That isn’t us, so it shouldn’t be on the back of the American taxpayers. We did this because it was part of the political bargain on our side of the Cold War – that’s over. Now you get to the problem of Service budget equity – no favoritism to one. If the Navy has a true international role, then it should be funded accordingly – and that pisses off the Army, Air Force and now Cyber and Space commands as well.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        you’d like to have the DoD focusing its efforts and messaging on impetuous young men who like the idea of indiscriminately killing bad guys and blowing shit up, as opposed to totally-not-gay men trapped in female bodies whose primary reason for joining up is getting their estradiol prescription covered.

        I know the other side wants to kill us, but have we tried having a struggle session with them?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        The easy answer to that, JI is to increase docking fees and drayage at US ports. Easy, but not necessarily the best solution. Would creating an international (HA!) fund for the defense of shipping lanes work? Would farming out parts of the job to other large navies (who?) work, and so on.

        No easy answers, at least not ones that keep shipping rates and rates intact.

      • juris imprudent

        increase docking fees and drayage at US ports

        I doubt that would be sufficient, and as a tax – you get less of what you tax…

        No I’m thinking more like Saudi crude shipments, Chinese manufactures, and to be fair – our own food exports.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I’d be for greatly reducing the number of forward deployed troops, but would keep the Combatant Commands. They specialize in the planning for engagements involving their particular piece of the world.

        Their focus should be more toward defense and fomenting diplomatic engagement thru the State Department.

        Fuck Madeleine Albright for the concept of “Coercive Diplomacy”, which has little significant difference from international terrorism.

      • Fatty Bolger

        I think you’d still be left with the issue of not getting the people the military really needs.

    • rhywun

      There is no way that any of Donald’s choices for any position aren’t going to be light years better than Joe’s choices for every position were.

    • Chafed

      That makes sense to me.

  4. Pat

    Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to Lead Department of Government Efficiency

    You know, not that he could possibly do any worse than the current situation, but Musk has made a career burning through tens of billions of dollars of VC/OPM. I’m not sure if he’s necessarily a paragon of efficiency. And something tells me there won’t be many cuts recommended to the Falcon 9 procurement…

    • LCDR_Fish

      DoD has already been using a ton of contractors for “fairly routine” office stuff – no govt benefits, etc. If the contracts were constrained and limited, it might work as interim measures for all other departments/agencies while cutting total numbers in the short term – and then letting the contracts lapse – rather than trying to divest too much up front.

      Automation is another issue. They’ve got to figure out how to cut down on the paperwork for a lot of stuff – specifically with the DoD, etc. MS probably knows a lot more about that – but with the calculation systems they use – the legacy computer systems are just insane and they need to make a legitimate transition soon – but do it professionally rather than the BS we’ve seen with ACA, FAFSA, etc the past 10 years.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Meant to include VA as well as DOD.

      • UnCivilServant

        Automated government paperwork is something I have a bit of firsthand experience in.

        Problem 1: The Agency does not want to change. They will fight tooth and nail to keep everything exactly as it is while bitching at every computer issue, and the slightest hiccup in the new system will be touted as proof it’s not fit for purpose.

        Problem 2: The workflow needs to change. It has agglomerated from decades of cruft into a nightmarish maze of processes that no sane person would implement, yet due to Prolbem 1, a replacement system will always end up yoked to the broken workflow to the point of emanding extensive customization and rewriting of code to accommodate the workflow that no sane person would implement.

        Problem 3: Nobody wants to pay for it. Spending money on computers is a waste in the eyes of the agency, especially if that expenditure reduces headcount and thus the prestige and possibly pay of the upper management. So everyone will wave the price tag of the project, which by problems 1 and 2 has dragged on past its planned deadline and ballooned past its original budget as a reason to kill the replacement.

    • juris imprudent

      DOGE is fundamentally wrong. We don’t need, and can’t ever have efficient government – it is an oxymoron.

      • Suthenboy

        The private sector produces. Government does not produce anything. One cannot efficiently produce nothing. You are correct. It is an oxymoron.

      • Rat on a train

        I’ve seen enough end-of-year spending binges to know inefficiency is built into the system.

      • UnCivilServant

        When you’re not allowed to roll over cash on hand and your annual budget will get cut if you don’t spend every dime, the incentive to not be wasteful goes out the window, so you keep expenditures padded just in case.

      • Pat

        There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.

        – Peter Drucker

      • SDF-7

        I have to confess — my first reaction was that it wasn’t real and they were trolling us with “DOGE” as a meme…. Very Elon, though.

        I wish them the best of luck — I expect Congress and the regulators to be screaming, kicking and crying at every step — and given that Congress needs to be on board, my expectations are low.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Yeah, good reminder UCS. University departments buying up stacks of palm pilots and computer books every september.

        Reward departments who spend less than their budget and then start rolling over the balance and cutting the total.

      • R C Dean

        Well, I would rather have 100,000 employees producing nothing at great expense than 1,000,000 employees producing nothing at much greater expense.

      • Pine_Tree

        Well they had to pick something that started with an E, so that’s what he landed on.

        My hope (and suspicion, actually) is that it’s “efficiency” applied at macro level as in “stop doing a bunch of stuff you shouldn’t be doing” as opposed to the more micro function of “do what you’re doing more efficiently”. The former is fine. And the latter doesn’t at all seem to fit with the messages they’ve been sending.

      • juris imprudent

        RC, that’s not a question of efficiency but of sheer stupidity. That’s my point. And by addressing efficiency, they are already off target.

      • juris imprudent

        Well they had to pick something that started with an E

        You’re not wrong – cutesy and catchy is what matters to the mental midget excited by this.

      • R C Dean

        Reducing headcount to achieve the same output is very much efficiency. As is eliminating unnecessary outputs.

        Elon didn’t go into Twitter to get it to do even more censorship with its current staff, you know. I see no reason to believe that the purpose of this “efficiency” push is to get the agencies to crank out a higher output of regulations and enforcement actions with the same staff.

        Many inefficiencies can also be labeled as stupidity, after all.

      • juris imprudent

        the same output

        And this is why efficiency is off target. As Suthen noted – govt produces NOTHING.

      • Ted S.

        Get some loyal IT folks to lock the useless government workers out of their normal workspace and force them to sit with a desktop informing them of the evil of their department. (The EEOC, for example, is there to implement racist hiring quotas and engender racial division.)

        And make them do some sort of click acknowledgement every 10 minutes.

      • Ted S.

        Combine this with a blanket pardon for everyone currently under investigation by the EEOC, and destroy the evidence gathered in the cases since it’s no longer needed.

      • R C Dean

        You’re right, JI. There’s no hope of, or in any event no point to, reducing government headcount or activities.

        The President, through his Secretaries, has no authority to affect what administrative agency employees do or what regulations they promulgate.

      • juris imprudent

        Not what I said RC, is it? The Constitution is quite clear about where federal spending originates. There’s the fucking problem, because of the spineless weasels we put in Congress, not anything to do with the asshole in the White House (and it is always an asshole, as SF assures with the importance of the Presidential shitter).

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        You are correct that we cannot have that, due mainly for the reason you mention.

        But that is no reason not to constantly work at it. And that tension should be what is driving this, and that with out that tension there will ever be growth as opposed to stasis or, at times, real shrinkage.

      • R C Dean

        I wasn’t talking just about spending (although how the money Congress appropriates gets spent is significantly under the Executive’s control). I was talking about what they do, including nothing at all.

        You seem to be getting hung up on the marketing term “efficiency”. I have a suspicion that Trump understands that the marketing wrap doesn’t control the contents of the package.

        While I suspect Musk and Vivek would like to see less spent on the agencies, I think they would be happy to settle on less being done by the agencies, even at the same cost. Remember, Musk wrote some big severance checks to reduce the censorship done by Twitter. Which may seem like the opposite of efficiency, unless you regard what the agencies do as a net negative, in which case reducing the downside of their activities for the same cost is a kind of efficiency.

      • juris imprudent

        RC, as you know there are laws governing the execution of the funding that Congress appropriates. It is not within the purview of the Executive to tinker greatly with that. Reagan wanted a line item veto of the BUDGET, not even appropriations and he did not get it.

        As an example, govt funding of NGOs is not an Executive prerogative even if who actually gets funded is (and as bound by still other law). If we want NGOs to really be non-governmental – then Congress can’t be funding them, even ones we like.

      • Homple

        If government has any useful functions–although people seem to disagree on that assumption–those functions can be performed with more or fewer resources, so there is some concept of efficiency involved.

        Of course if government has no useful functions, it cannot, by definition. be efficient.

      • R C Dean

        JI, I’m just saying that a bureaucracy has a great many tools at its disposal to delay and, shall we say, tweak directives from on high.

        A great many tools. As we saw with the #resistance. Now, the great challenge will be getting the agencies to (not) do things via motivated political appointees. I think there’s scope there on both the rulemaking and the agency activity front.

        We can’t have it both ways – the problem is the agencies don’t answer to Congress, and the problem is only Congress can fix the agencies.

    • R C Dean

      “Musk has made a career burning through tens of billions of dollars of VC/OPM”

      I don’t count it as “burning through” when the companies where it was spent/actually invested are profitable.

      • Pine_Tree

        Or put another way – he’s made a career of getting done what he wanted done – and finding the resources to do it.

        So in this case, if his objective really is to take an axe to lots of waste and regulation, then cool.

      • Pat

        Worth mentioning that Tesla and SpaceX are barely profitable even now, years after consuming all that VC, and mostly due to federal subsidies and government contracting, respectively. Tesla’s first posted annual net profit wasn’t even from selling their federally-subsidized vehicles, it was from carbon credit trading in the retarded states where auto makers have to purchase credits to offset their fleet economy. SpaceX, meanwhile, has only ever turned a profit sporadically on the back of Starlink, which is subsidizing rocket development.

        Now, of course, Musk is accountable to his investors, and they forked over their money freely, so it’s not a direct comparison. But VC-backed entrepreneurs are not exactly famous for their nitpicking frugality.

      • invisible finger

        My hope is Elon and Vivek have the ears of legislators and cabinet members to get law and policy changed.

        If there is one thing Elon understands it’s how to collect gobs of data- which is what concerns me.

      • The Last American Hero

        How much of those company’s budgets are tied up in R&D?

        Amazon had the same issues, but if you look at how much money they were plowing into R&D, many of their businesses were actually profitable but putting the earnings back into research rather than bottom line profits or dividends.

    • invisible finger

      Most of the inefficiencies are due to policy and the law. Elon et al will not have the power to change much of it. Computers in and of themselves are a tool that can be abused. The NSA for example. Be careful what you wish for.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Good point…that a lot of the computer issues we have are due to congressional statutes for specific purposes/development/etc that they don’t understand. If folks can pinpoint some of those issues for revision/deletion/etc going forward, that would probably help. Especially vice getting more unaccountable bureaucrats the power to do that – post-Chevron, that should be easier.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        One area that he can help in, and needs to be radically addressed posthast, is in identifying were the losses occurre and getting that information to the public, via X. And X has shown itself to be massively greater at spreading real (or fake) news to people without gatekeepers when not being held back by gov’t censorship.

        This, in turn, can put pressure on elected reps and senators to cut useless shit (dept. of killing beagles, etc.) from gov’t.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Hold on there Cochise. Musk might have some decent instincts after all

      Elon Musk has laid off more than 6,000 people at Twitter since taking over the company, he told the BBC in a rare interview late Tuesday.

      Musk was quoted as saying in the interview that the social media platform now has only 1,500 employees, down from under 8,000 who were employed at the time of his acquisition. The reduction equates to roughly 80% of the company’s staff.

      \

      Maybe because Twitter was his own money and not VC money?

      • invisible finger

        It’s his private company and he can set policy and control the board of directors. He won’t have that luxury with the feds but my hope is the mood will be similar to abortion so that more of stupid shit becomes state policy rather than federal policy/law. Let commiefornia tax themselves into third world status if they want.

      • Pat

        Maybe because Twitter was his own money and not VC money?

        Fair point, but also, I think Twitter was also a personal vendetta of sorts. Hopefully DOGE will be as well.

      • R C Dean

        I believe Musk has co-investors in Twitter. I’m not sure anybody (but them) knows how much of the $44BB was Musk’s personal money and how much was OPM.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I’m not convinced that Musk buying Twitter was anything more than a charity project. A way to carve out a space for everyone to speak, and not as a means to have Twitter further fill his coffers.

        Profitability is needed to survive in the long run, and I’m sure he wants that, but what was absolutely necessary was the small bit of breathing room to speak freely his buying Twitter provided.

    • Brawndo

      Musk heading DOGE is a bad idea I think. The second he cuts something that regulates one of his businesses, it’ll be the scandal of the century, and your average low-engagement voter will probably see it as such too.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Except it’s not an actual government position.

        It’s an outside entity that advises the White House (one that I’m sure will be immediately scrapped after Trump). It’s window dressing as marketing. Musk was going to advise Trump anyways. This is a way to keep the connection real, without introducing the problems of having Musk actually be a government employee.

  5. Pat

    John Ratcliffe Picked for CIA Director

    I momentarily confused John Ratcliffe and John Ratzenberger. I was about to congratulate Trump on his best pick yet.

      • SDF-7

        At the least we’d finally find out all the conspiracy details if we get him hanging out in a Boston bar.

    • Chafed

      That would have been terrific.

  6. Not Adahn

    I’m on https://thecmp.org/ ‘s mailing list since I’ve shot there a couple of times.

    You can still buy surplus M1s there and you used to be able to buy surplus, US-made M1911s. But those all sold out. So the federal government has decided to sell Turkish made replicas instead. ‘Cause I guess money is important.

    If the point of the US Civilian Marksmanship Program is to have a yeomanry, shouldn’t they be offering M17s?

    • UnCivilServant

      If I’m going to buy a 1911, there are plenty of US arms makers who can sell me one. I don’t need a Turkish version. I don’t like the Turks, they did the Romans dirty.

      • Not Adahn

        The Turkish ones are a third of the price of the US made ones. You can get cheap Filipino ones, and they’re US-adjacent.

      • UnCivilServant

        On principle I prefer to support onshored industry.

        Except cars made in Detroit – fuck the UAW.

    • Gustave Lytton

      At the very least selling the clapped out M9’s being replaced.

      Also M16’s (and M14’s) no longer being used.

  7. Pat

    Melania Trump Has One Very Good Reason Why She’s Snubbing Jill Biden

    Because Jill Biden is a total cunt?

    • Not Adahn

      According to the article, so was Mike.

      • Rat on a train

        *shocked face*

      • Pope Jimbo

        Remember when she met with Michelle Obama in 2016? Melania graciously offered Obama a large Tiffany frame as a gift, something an ungrateful Michelle consistently complained about because it supposedly broke protocol.

        During an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show, Mrs. Obama whined, “I mean, this is like a state visit, so they tell you that you’re going to do this, they’re going to stand here.”

        “Never before do you get this gift, so I’m sort of like OK. … What am I supposed to do with this gift?” she said.

        I remember watching Melania and Big Mike meet in 2017 live. The look on Big Mike’s face when Melania gave her a present is great. To find out that she’s still miffed about it. She had to hold it for 14 seconds before Barak takes it and gives it to a flunky. Can you even imagine?

      • rhywun

        I can excuse the hot-take reaction but yeah, bitching about it to the media? Trash.

  8. Pat

    Jack Smith Spent $50M Trying to Prosecute Trump

    Certainly not a record-setting contribution to the Harris campaign, but not exactly chump change either.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      The Harris campaign? I thought that was a gift to Trumps team, what with mugshots and railroads being hot this year.

  9. Evan from Evansville

    At work for an hour+ and Indy is a fun town. If I tanned, Id go there for fun. Questions were I still Managing Editor of something.

    Business first, which The (tanned) Dead have goin for em.

  10. juris imprudent

    The obvious problem with Hegseth is he has never done the proper time at one or more of Lockheed, Boeing, GD.

    • Pat

      Trump was such an ineffectual putz the first time around that I don’t have the highest hopes for anything meaningfully changing, but I still maintain that glimmer that perhaps the entrenched bureaucracy sufficiently bruised his fragile ego that he goes completely scorched earth. The entrenched bureaucracy will return like a fucking hydra 8 seconds after he leaves office anyway, but even just watching them squirm for the next 4 years would be exquisite.

      • Drake

        See the Vivek interview I linked. There is a chance that some great things might happen.

  11. juris imprudent

    How much of Dent’s wealth is laid into his prediction? What does he win if he’s right and lose if he’s wrong?

    • Chafed

      Good question. He’s been a doomsayer as long as I can remember.

    • Ted S.

      What does Winston’s Mommy have to say about Dent?

      • Gustave Lytton

        $20 is $20, same as downtown.

  12. Suthenboy

    Morning all. Do we have any idea who might get AG?
    As already discussed I would like to see an in-depth RICO investigation into the network of NGO’s. Antifa, BLM, any Soros funded groups and the moles they have planted into govt. positions – particularly the DA’s running cover for the rest of those listed. This shit has to be scrubbed from the face of the earth.

    • juris imprudent

      Ken Paxton would literally make heads explode. That said, I’m not sure he’d really be that good a pick.

    • Pine_Tree

      RICO investigation is an OK start. I’m hoping for a sure-enough Congress-enacted Declaration of War on the NGOs.

      • juris imprudent

        Please, no declarations – just cut off the money.

      • UnCivilServant

        Given the results of various declarations of ‘war on’ in the past seventy years, you’d end up with More and Bigger NGOs with a war on NGOs.

      • invisible finger

        JI has it right. Just do it and let the other side claim that war was declared on them.

      • Pine_Tree

        I mean the real kind. Like 12/8/41. For facilitating an invasion of the continental United States. For depredations of the rights of Americans. Etc.

    • Pope Jimbo

      No, no, no! You maniacs don’t know what you are talking about. You don’t stop funding of NGO’s. What us enlightened folx in Minnesoda do is subsidize their legal fees so they can lobby the legislature more efficiently!

      A year-old state law is helping to bring new voices before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, and advocates and officials hope its impact will grow as more organizations learn about its existence.
       
      Since 2007, small nonprofits have been able to seek financial compensation to help pay for expert testimony they provide in utility rate cases. State lawmakers last year expanded the concept to cover a broader range of cases, including utility pilot programs, infrastructure projects, and performance measures.

       
      Since the law took effect in May 2023, the commission has authorized $124,318 in payments to four organizations, including two groups — Community Power and Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light — that had never before requested or received compensation for expert testimony. The other recipients were the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota and Energy CENTS Coalition, which advocates for low-income ratepayers.

      The only problem I see is that we aren’t giving these noble people more money!

    • Fourscore

      Good story but somewhere along the line the cutie had to be fed, probably by hand.

      I had an orphaned lamb like that (and a dog that bonded), back when I was about 16. The lamb had to sleep in the barn though.

    • Tundra

      I think I just got diabetes.

      • Drake

        Cooperation would be helpful but not the only option.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh? Are we suggesting that EOs rule all? Or are you going to play the part of Roper here?

      • Drake

        Watch

      • juris imprudent

        Vivek is wrong about Chevron impact.

      • R C Dean

        Congress can set direction and appropriate (or not) money. The President can control* what reps are written and what the agency employees do (down to and including sitting at home without access to agency computers or facilities, as long as they draw paychecks). So there is quite a bit the President and his political appointees can do. If they have the will to do so.

        Congress can pass laws saying “write rules for X”. When those rules are written (including never) and what they say are up to the Executive. Congress can appropriate X dollars for an agency. If those dollars are spent paying salaries to people who have no ability to do anything because they have been given no-work or make-work assignments, well, that’s not up to Congress, either.

      • R C Dean

        *We’ve been complaining for years about how much power Congress has surrendered to the Executive. What’s the Iron Law? Oh yeah:

        Me today, you tomorrow.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Actually, they should be given computers at home. They need to log in every 5 minutes to check productivity. And the computer needs to automatically log them out at 4 minute intervals. The point being they cannot just go on vaca while on the gov’t teat, but need to sit there and be “productive.” At least until they quit.

      • juris imprudent

        ZWAK, the better part of my last two years of federal contract support were spent at home with a work computer, next to the one I am using now and commenting on here. Don’t you threaten me with a good time!

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Oh, I know what you are saying, I just think they need to log in every five minutes with a new, randomly generated number. That way they have to stay home and cannot go wandering around during work hours and get a second job away from home while collecting that G money. Yes, I know they could do WFH BS jobs such as you did, but we cannot account for everything.

      • The Last American Hero

        Make a bunch of DOT employees play Desert Bus for 8 hours a day.

    • Pat

      In spite of bathing in anti-Trump hysteria like a Turk in a schvitz, that’s still an alarmingly self-aware take from Rolling Stone.

    • Drake

      Lots of suggestions of paper ballots, single day voting, and audit trails. Dems still in power ignore those suggestions.

    • Nephilium

      Is this the Starlink conspiracy theory or a different one?

      • juris imprudent

        It’s one of several discussed.

    • rhywun

      Weird to see Rolling Stone of all the r-tarted leftist press remark on this stuff.

  13. Pope Jimbo

    Violent Left-Wing Groups Begin Recruiting for Trump’s Inauguration

    I hope they hire this guy to wander around DC during the innauguration

    I can’t tell if he is a southpaw and just a big guy with not a lot of skill, or if he just never had to use his right because the punks just kept falling to his leading jabs. In either case, I keep watching and laughing.

    • Drake

      Three Proud Boys went to jail for exactly that.

    • DrOtto

      He’s saving the rights for a real threat.

  14. The Other Kevin

    “Violent Left-Wing Groups Begin Recruiting for Trump’s Inauguration”

    I don’t think this will go well for them. People are tired of the lefty bullshit. If Trump rounds them up the Dems will cry but that’s it. And it will be yet another reminder of how the Dems are out of touch.

    • Pope Jimbo

      DC courts will probably have judges lecture the jurors about the glories of jury nullification when they give instructions to them in the upcoming Antifa Riot trials. And I bet they all get released from jail with $0 bail pending those trials.

    • rhywun

      “Dust off your pussy hats, ladies and analogues!”

      • Not Adahn

        “Dust off your pussy hats, ladies and analogues!”

        I thought they were taking them out of service until… oh you said pussy hats!

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        They are dusty because they are out of service.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      I think that now that more people are paying attention, the NGOs aren’t quite as willing and/or able to fund Arson Inc.

      • The Other Kevin

        Agreed. We know how the game is played, and the “news” no longer controls the narrative like it did.

      • rhywun

        Good point. Twixxer alone is going to be game-changer.

    • WTF

      Bring back water cannons and rubber bullets and beanbag shotgun rounds. With real ammo held in reserve if needed.

    • Nephilium

      There has been the one march, the one screaming at the Lake, and one batch of [idiotic] “Free Gaza/Congo/Haiti/etc” graffiti on a college (Case Western Reserve University). The first two attracted dozens, and there have already been arrests for the graffiti. It did lead to a complaint that entertained me from the (banned from campus) Pro-Hamas organization, “These people were arrested without talking to their lawyers!”

      Yes, you can be arrested without talking to a lawyer. You can even be interviewed by the cops without a lawyer. You have to remember it’s always Shut the Fuck Up Fridays and demand your lawyer.

  15. rhywun

    “The Bidens are disgusting”

    lol True

  16. Pat

    Did trans help Trump to victory?

    MAGA hats off to Trump, he’s certainly a politician with chutzpah. He is a man born into a level of privilege that would make a Saudi princeling blush. And yet he managed to seem more relatable, more a ‘man of the people’, than his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris. This was most pithily summed up in his genius campaign slogan: ‘Harris is for they / them. President Trump is for you.’
    _
    The Trump victory is not so much a sign of his political nous as of the pitiful failure of his opposition. The Democrats had clearly banked on women’s support, yanking on the abortion chain to pull them into line at every opportunity. But it now seems that Roe vs Wade barely figured as a point of interest in the exit polls. Only around 11 per cent of Americans saw abortion as a top priority – slightly higher than climate change. Of course, it was always going to be difficult for the Democrats to fight for reproductive rights when they can’t even say with certainty what a woman is. And this is where their problem lies.
    _
    While it would be too simplistic to say it was ‘trans wot lost it’, concerns about ideological indoctrination in schools, attacks on free speech and sex-change surgeries for minors certainly played a part in the Democrats’ defeat. After all, of all the left’s major talking points, from Gaza to climate change, the trans issue stands out as the easiest for the right to knock down. This is because, to understand what CO2 does to the atmosphere, it helps to have a degree or two in the field. But to understand that a man can’t change into a woman, one only needs to be compos mentis. And why would anyone vote for a politician who is prepared to lie about sex, something so basic even dogs understand it?

    • Pope Jimbo

      If Trump beating Clinton and Harris doesn’t make the Dems change their minds about the unfairness of women competing with men nothing will.

    • Nephilium

      Most of the analysis I’ve read was that the most effective pro-Trump commercial was the series that went over the Harris positions on trans issues (paying for prisoners to transition, trans athletes on women’s teams, trans women in locker rooms/bathrooms, etc.) and ended with “Harris is for They/Them! Trump is for You!”

      I saw a few of those commercials, they were really well done, with interviews with Harris backing up the statements, showing her saying the exact thing they were, and focusing on the swim team trans woman, the government official who was stealing luggage, and other media sensations like that as the images.

      • juris imprudent

        For me, the best ad was the one with Harris clips, first talking about the state of the economy now and how bad it is, interspersed with her praising “Bidenomics”.

      • Nephilium

        JI:

        I saw that one, and that one was good as well, especially (at least the versions I saw) were nearly all non-white families talking about how bad the economy was. I don’t recall any anti-Trump/pro-Harris ads that even seemed effective. The closest was probably the one linking Trump to “Billionaires” with pictures of him with Musk while Harris was going to stand up for the “Middle Class”/”Working Class”/”Little Guy”. That had the issue that Musk (in general) has a positive image (I think) and at the same time they were running those was when Harris was doing the campaign events with the various celebrities (such as Opera) which kind of undercuts the message.

      • rhywun

        Harris was going to stand up for the “Middle Class”/”Working Class”/”Little Guy”

        That one was so patently false I couldn’t believe they had the chutzpah to air it.

      • juris imprudent

        ding! ding! ding!

        You just can’t get more false and in your face then that!

    • rhywun

      Only around 11 per cent of Americans saw abortion as a top priority

      Huh – a welcome surprise.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Probably because the gals realized how unflattering those Handmaid cosplay dresses were and decided that they didn’t want to protest anymore.

        Or they realized that there really isn’t going to be an outright ban on abortion.

      • rhywun

        Or they realized that there really isn’t going to be an outright ban on abortion.

        Despite the non-stop squawking from the media and other radicals.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Only around 11 per cent of Americans saw abortion as a top priority – slightly higher than climate change.

      Lol, the issue that will kill all of us is still under abortion.

  17. Fourscore

    “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government project.” Ronald Reagan

    DOGE for the win!

    • Pope Jimbo

      The Twins stadium tax is set to expire, but they are already squawking about needing to extend it because it is also paying for youth sports and extended library hours.

      If we let the tax sunset, kids won’t be able to play or read!!!!

      • Fourscore

        Hope they keep only in the blue 7 county metro area. Maybe a little carve out for certain parts of Maple Grove

      • Chafed

        Let Antifa burn down the stadium. Problem solved.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Uffda. It wasn’t even the 7 county metro area. It was just Hennepin county. Fuckers. I’m still bitter about that weasel Mike Opat sneaking that turd past the taxpayers.

      • Ted S.

        Let them pay for it with the revenue from electronic pull-tabs.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Amazingly the pull tabs are working super great. I don’t get gambling, so I have no idea why these pull tabs are so popular. I also oppose public funding for stadiums on principle. However, I’m much less outraged by something I can easily avoid as opposed to the sales tax that I can’t realistically avoid.

        Thanks to a tax bill signed by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in May, U.S. Bank Stadium — the Vikings’ $1.1 billion home since 2016 — will be paid off by the end of this month, according to the Star Tribune’s Rochelle Olson.
         
        $377 million in outstanding bonds that were scheduled to be paid off in 2046 will instead be paid off 23 years ahead of schedule, saving Minnesota taxpayers $226 million in interest.
         
        The main source of tax revenue that allowed this to happen? Electronic pull-tabs, which were legalized in the state in 2012. Over the years, e-tab revenue soared past the amount bookmarked for annual debt payments, making this a possibility.

  18. juris imprudent

    Here is what is wrong about Vivek’s take on Chevron (in the Tucker interview). It did not assert that all federal regulation is unconstitutional (as he said). What was over-ruled was the presumption that the govt was right about the regulation when the issue was in court – that was Chevron deference.

    The SC has not even eliminated administrative law judges (which ARE unconstitutional) though they’ve picked at the edges a little.

    Also, I will praise Mitch McConnell for one thing – our current Supreme Court line-up. You would not have that without him.

    • trshmnstr

      the govt was right about the regulation statute when the issue was in court – that was Chevron deference.

      Chevron was about statutory language. Auer is about regulatory language.

      • juris imprudent

        Thanks for the clarification, but isn’t the issue if the regulation is consistent with statutory language/intent? The Chevron presumption was “if the govt says it is”.

      • trshmnstr

        if the regulation is consistent with statutory language/intent? The Chevron presumption was “if the govt says it is”.

        Yes, regulation or other agency action.

        I just wanted to make clear that Chevron didn’t fix everything. The drafter of the regulation still gets the benefit of the doubt in regards to the regulation itself under Auer. IMO, that’s ass backwards. Ambiguity should be construed against the drafter like it is in contract law.

    • R C Dean

      I think the case eliminating Chevron deference is over-rated. Any judge that wants to go along with the agency interpretation of a statute is still free to do so.

      • juris imprudent

        Right, and that is where I think Vivek is misdirected at best and dishonest at worst.

      • trshmnstr

        In a longer form interview he had (maybe Tucker?), he explained that he’s relying heavily on SCOTUS giving them the wins they need to accomplish their goals. He presumes that SCOTUS is amenable to a major cleansing of the bureaucratic state.

      • juris imprudent

        There are 3 votes yes to that, 3 votes no and 3 maybes.

    • Gustave Lytton

      ALJs need to be renamed back to hearings officials. That they’re some sort of judicial personage is bullshit. When they work for the agency they’re supposedly adjudicating is even more bullshit.

  19. Sensei

    Because your typical Team Blue woman has no other ways in which to social signal…

    From feminist pink pussy hats to the red “Make America Great Again” caps that have endured since Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, this country’s divisive political climate has spawned more controversial accessories than “Project Runway.” So when Trump defeated Kamala Harris in last week’s election, some women who voted for Harris were quick to create a new symbol of solidarity: a blue bracelet.

    https://www.wsj.com/style/fashion/democrats-blue-bracelets-kamala-harris-donald-trump-election-tiktok-803a8111?st=HEZsE9&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • rhywun

      Blue handcuffs would be more appropriate.

      • Sensei

        Nice!

    • Nephilium

      It’s the loss of the Haiti route what did it!

      • SDF-7

        They had to give it a shot.

      • Not Adahn

        I thought the whole point of Spirit is it would charge less by giving up amenities like “no GSWs.”

      • UnCivilServant

        I thought the copper jackets are an upcharge.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      The government prefers this over letting them merge with Jet Blue.

  20. Not Adahn

    I’m going to keep my mouth shut during my next training, but holy hell the “science” in it is just godawful.

    Interestingly enough, they’ve protected the course materials so I can’t download or copy from them. I could screenshot it to show you what this travesty is but that would be too much work.

      • Not Adahn

        Yeah, but then I’d need to upload it here and post a link to the media library, and that seems excessive for glibly bitching about morons.

      • Nephilium

        If it’s being displayed in a browser, there are other ways too.

  21. The Other Kevin

    I’m a little disappointed in Trump’s picks. I don’t see many potential Hat and Hair characters yet.

    • rhywun

      I’m just delighted the show will go on for another four years.

    • SDF-7

      You can’t see the DOGE doge chiming in?

      “Woof! Disband the FDA!”

      “Noooo! They’ll change the Diet Coke formula again if we aren’t watching them and Donald will go off the rails!”

  22. The Late P Brooks

    “Jill Biden isn’t someone Melania needs to meet,” the source added.

    So say we all.

  23. UnCivilServant

    I passed my performance evaluation with flying colors.

    Darnit.

    Maybe I should stop doing work…

  24. The Late P Brooks

    “And I think that’s the big risk here, that Trump maybe seems to be a good thing to get the economy going,” he continued, “but if he cuts government spending, I’d say that’s going to start a slowdown that will build on itself.”

    That speed wobble will go away if you stand on the gas.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      With you.

      However, I imagine that drastic (but necessary, so we’re clear) cuts will actually hurt in the short term, and it will be emphatically overemphasized by TMITE as inevitable calamity (especially for women and BIPOC, 🙄).

      Part of our problem as a people is our squishyness. We all say we want X, but few are willing to make the sacrifices necessary, even temporary ones, to allow real change to happen.

      Think Covid. We could never have taken Sweden’s route, even though it’s proven to be have been a much better alternative than the route we did take. This is the same, even though it’s exactly what we need.

  25. The Other Kevin

    We had another crazy prog encounter yesterday. A woman who used to be on Mrs. TOK’s derby team has been messaging her. Sounds like she is going through a divorce, and perhaps the husband was abusive and doing stalker things. She wants to get stronger and learn some self-defense. Sounds like a good plan.

    Then she said she wants to move out of the country because of Trump, and wants to get stronger to smash the patriarchy. Mrs. TOK got uncomfortable and stopped responding. Mrs. TOK tries to stay out of political discussions as much as possible, and for some reason all her lefty friends think that her silence means she agrees with them.

    • Drake

      Should we be on the lookout for super-soldier on roller skates hunting us down?

      • The Last American Hero

        Nothing a handful of pea gravel can’t stop.

      • The Other Kevin

        Pea gravel, railroad tracks, or a sticky floor would do it.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      “She wants to get stronger and learn some self-defense.” I read somewhere that women more women are signing up for self-defense classes because Trump won. The funny thing is, I think most guys who voted for Trump have no problem with women learning self defense. It’s a great idea. Just drop the pretense.

      • The Other Kevin

        Someone told me recently that learning martial arts will turn a person conservative. There is no DEI or equity, you and you alone have to put in the work, and after that you have less tolerance for people who want something for nothing.

    • KSuellington

      “ wants to get stronger to smash the patriarchy.”

      More squats should do it.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    How many medals does he have on his chest?

    President-elect Donald Trump stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world by nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary, tapping someone largely inexperienced and untested on the global stage to take over the world’s largest and most powerful military.

    The news was met with bewilderment and worry among many in Washington as Trump passed on a number of established national security heavy-hitters and chose an Army National Guard officer well known in conservative circles as a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

    While some Republican lawmakers had a muted response to the announcement, others called his combat experience an asset or said he was “tremendously capable.”

    Hegseth’s choice could bring sweeping changes to the military. He has made it clear on his show and in interviews that, like Trump, he is opposed to “woke” programs that promote equity and inclusion. He also has questioned the role of women in combat and advocated pardoning service members charged with war crimes.

    How are his guerilla knife fighting skills? He’ll need them to navigate the halls of the Pentagon.

    • UnCivilServant

      Flame throwers and nerve gas work better at clearing the halls. I doubt they all have the proper protective equipment proficiency after the new DEI standards got rolled out.

    • The Other Kevin

      I will bet within 6 months the recruiting problem starts to improve. Just no longer demonizing the “stupid rednecks in flyover country” will go a long way.

    • rhywun

      If AP is alarmed, then it must be the right choice.

      • The Other Kevin

        I love how they call him a “Fox News host” and completely ignore everything else he’s done.

      • Not Adahn

        He didn’t even have a single star! How can you lead the pentagon if you’re not thoroughly immersed and captured by its political culture?

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Since then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter opened all combat roles to women in 2016, women have successfully passed the military’s grueling tests to become Green Berets and Army Rangers, and the Naval Special Warfare’s test to serve as a combatant-craft crewman — the boat operators who transport Navy SEALs and conduct their own classified missions at sea.

    Demi Moore did it.

    • Drake

      Don’t believe your lying eyes – it really happened we swear.

    • R C Dean

      I think they meant “ the military’s formerly grueling tests”.

      • Pine_Tree

        Well the tests are still grueling, but the definition of a “pass” has become much, much more fluid.

      • LCDR_Fish

        I’ve watched some of the new marine fitness tests (while stuck on base). A lot of crawling, dragging team-mates, etc. Makes me sore just watching them (at 43). I was happy with running, situps and pushups. Now I tend towards biking, push ups and plank.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The Army was instituting a more mobility and strength-oriented test as I was retiring, I heard that they scrapped it (or Army-wide institution of it, at any rate, grunts the various other pipe hitters will still have it to some degree or another) in favor of something like the old APFT. Turns out that 2 minutes of push-ups and sit-ups and a 2-mile run is a halfway decent baseline fitness measure and remarkably easy and cheap to implement.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Military officials said the choice came out of the blue. A senior military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said Hegseth’s selection is raising concerns about whether he has the practical experience to manage a large department with an enormous budget.

    He wasn’t om our list. What if he starts asking a bunch of questions?

    • Gustave Lytton

      senior military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media

      This shit needs to end. Either public sourcing or STFU.

      A fucking private would get his shit torn up if he left for the bar without authorization.

      • Raven Nation

        If they really are a SMO, then their concern suggests to me this is a good pick.

    • KSuellington

      That is awesome. From Justine Bateman’s feed too, didn’t know she wasn’t a Hollywood lefty.

  29. Common Tater

    ““She ain’t going,” a source familiar with Melania’s decision told The Post. “Jill Biden’s husband authorized the FBI snooping through her underwear drawer. The Bidens are disgusting,” the source said.”

    They aren’t even good perverts. The used panties are in the hamper.

    • Not Adahn

      Wearing your enemies panties allows you to steal their power!

      /Sam Brinton

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        A new version of capture the flag!

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Well, stealing a lectern makes you the Speaker of the House so this would naturally follow.

  30. Common Tater

    “Power lesbian Corey Burke murders her father with an ice axe in Election Night meltdown at Seattle home

    A Blue Origin employee married to a prominent trans author has been accused of killing her elderly father with an ice axe on Election Night.

    Corey Burke, 33, allegedly struck, stabbed and strangled her father, 67-year-old Timothy Burke, in a fatal attack at her $800,000 Seattle home on November 5.

    Burke, a training manager at Jeff Bezos’ rockets and spacecraft company, confessed to killing her father after he refused to turn off the lights, according to charging documents seen by DailyMail.com.

    After emerging from the house with blood ‘dripping’ down her face, she confessed to police that she ‘freaked out,’ claiming there was ‘something important about Election Day.'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14073763/corey-burke-jeff-bezos-murders-father-timothy-election-night-meltdown.html

    Power lesbian?

      • Not Adahn

        Two-stroke engine.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Squats.

    • EvilSheldon

      I mean, I know what a power bottom is…probably not the same thing though.

      • Sensei

        Who hasn’t been upset at some point with xer father?

      • Gustave Lytton

        “You brought me into this world, I’ll take you out!”

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Muh vendetta!

    Special counsel Jack Smith and his team plan to resign before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a source familiar with the matter said.

    Smith’s office has been evaluating the best path for winding down its work on the two outstanding federal criminal cases against Trump, as the Justice Department’s longstanding position is that it cannot charge a sitting president with a crime.

    He needs a sword to fall on.

  32. kinnath

    From Slate (no link needed)

    Well, the intra-Democratic meltdown over Kamala Harris’ loss was not put to rest by my eloquent piece from last week, it turns out. The meltdown is continuing and will do so until morale improves—which could be as soon as January, when Donald Trump takes office and begins bearing the brunt of everyone in the United States being mad about everything.

    As hostile as the discourse is at times, though, its themes can provide some insight into what kinds of candidates might be appealing to Democrats in future election cycles. Especially the 2028 presidential primary, which is the main thing the party should concern itself with for the next four years. (That’s a joke.)

    And when you step back to consider all of the varied lessons being drawn, in their totality, a surprising conclusion presents itself. Which is that New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the polarizing Squad leftist who is only 35 years old, might already have an opening to be the front-runner for the 2028 nomination .

    AOC is the best chance they have to win back young men.

    • Nephilium

      Just because they all want to date her, right?

    • R C Dean

      Pretty sure the Dems already have the simp vote locked up.

    • rhywun

      😂🤣

      Greasy Gavin is gonna cut a bitch first.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Emperor Oleaginous the first, thank you!

    • EvilSheldon

      I doubt it matters much who they run, just so long as they clean out all the zoomer Tik-Tok furry artists who were running the last one…

    • Not Adahn

      The DM didn’t mention or decode the Hebrew he’s wearing.

    • The Other Kevin

      That guy’s going to be very popular with the enlisted guys. Which is great.

    • EvilSheldon

      Hmmm, Q Fix. Dude has good taste in rifles, not so much in ink.

    • Gustave Lytton

      started adorning his body with tattoos only recently

      Great, another mentally ill narcissist. What DoD needs to a return to no visible tatts policy and start kicking out the nutjobs who think inking up their body makes them into tuff guys.

      • Gustave Lytton

        And he can’t ascribe the ink to youthful indiscretion, either. 🤦‍♂️

        /tattoo regret

      • EvilSheldon

        Although I do think that tattoos are generally tacky and should be socially discouraged, ‘mentally ill narcissist’ is going a bit far.

      • Not Adahn

        Ok boomer.

      • LCDR_Fish

        His tats wouldn’t be visible in a dress uniform (or a suit). I’ve seen a lot of sailors with hand tattoos lately. Of course, if they’re deck seamen, the finger/knuckle tattoos and stars are pretty popular a la “master and commander”.

      • EvilSheldon

        An Army guy with ‘H O L D F A S T’ on his knuckles is still cringe as fuck though.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Shit isn’t going to end until a spade is called a spade.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The tattoo prohibition on anything that can be visible when in a dress uniform was dropped circa 2005 (turns out having bodies to people three plus theaters was more important than if they were inked up) and, at least in the Army didn’t come back.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Before Trump’s re-election last week, Smith and his team had continued moving forward in their election interference case against Trump. After Trump’s victory, however, a federal judge overseeing the case agreed to give the special counsel’s office until Dec. 2 to decide how to proceed.

    He should be charged and prosecuted for misuse of government resources.

  34. Common Tater

    “A CIA official has been charged with leaking Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran for a missile attack last year.

    Asif W. Rahman was indicted last week in Virginia and was arrested on Tuesday in Cambodia, as reported by The New York Times.

    He was taken to Guam to face federal charges – two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.

    Rahman is accused of leaking documents that included highly classified information and detailed interpretations of satellite imagery that gave insight into a possible Israeli strike in Iran.

    The documents reportedly began circulating last month on Telegram.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14077833/CIA-official-charged-leaking-Israel-plans-against-Iran.html

      • LCDR_Fish

        Even 15 years ago…contracting at federal agencies…kinda weirded me out seeing some of the other folks in the agency with clearances. The security clearance paperwork asks if you’ve ever been a member of – or supported a terrorist organization. There are a lot of Muslim Student Associations on college campuses and quite a few of them were funded by CAIR or partnered with other organizations (un-indicted co-conspirator terrorist orgs)….I’d say the same thing now with the CCP Confucius Institutes or other similar programs.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I took my HSK 1 test at the local CI. They need moar honeypots, imo.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Don’t for get to hold your breath until you turn blue

    We wanted to let readers know that we will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X (formerly Twitter). We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere.

    This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism. The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.

    Also, throw your oatmeal on the floor and bang your spoon on the high chair.

    • R.J.

      Hah! Let’s pull the real meaning out of it:
      “We are tired of having community notes tear our carefully crafted editorials to shreds. We only want to post where we can remain unchallenged.”

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        All of this.

        It looks like Elon buying Twitter made the cleanup a self-selective process. All the trash is willingly leaving for MASTODON! Let them have their own bubble. It only means they’ll further insulate themselves from the rest of the real world.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Genocide

    Transgender youth in the United States have been flooding crisis hotlines since the election of Donald Trump, who made anti-transgender themes central to his campaign. Many teens worry about how their lives could change once he takes office.

    During his presidential bid, Trump pledged to impose wide-ranging restrictions and roll back civil rights protections for transgender students. And his administration can swiftly start work on one major change: It can exclude transgender students from Title IX protections, which affect school policies on students’ use of pronouns, bathrooms and locker rooms.

    ——-

    Opposition to transgender rights was a focal point of Trump’s campaign: Republican ads attacking political opponents over transgender or LGBTQ+ issues have aired over 290,000 times on network TV since March 2023, according to data from the media tracking firm AdImpact.

    The messaging may have resonated with many Americans. More than half of voters overall — and the vast majority of Trump supporters — said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide.

    They keep using that term “gender rights”. Forcing others to celebrate and financially sponsor mental illness is not a right, it’s power.

    • R C Dean

      I like how “support for transgender rights has gone too far” is “anti-transgender”. If you don’t submit to every demand . . . .

      I’ve been saying people need to be careful about the whole “You are either with us or against us” thing. There are two ways that can go, after all.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Any criticism at all is “anti-X.” Particularly perfectly reasonable criticism.

        Trans is a big deal for the left. It’s the one way that wypeepo can be redeemed in their cult. They see the world as very black and white. Everyone is either an oppressor or the oppressed, with everything neatly lined up into those categories.

        Bad:
        Whites
        Men in general, but specifically white men

        Good:
        Literally everyone else unless you’ve been ideologically captured by “white supremacy”

        In the Woke Cult there is no redemption for white people. They’re inherently bad based on immutable characteristics, and they had to find a way for “allies” to be assimilated and differentiated from your normal, bad white people. Rachel Dolezal tried “identifying as black”, which did not work. Apparently we can’t change color. So they tried the next thing on the list, which was “changing” sex, accompanied by horseshit gender theory. That one stuck. It’s also why so many so-called transgender people, particular those who’ve “transitioned” are white (with most coming from middle class or better homes). It’s why young white girls are so susceptible to “transitioning” (and in groups!). They need social approval. They need to be seen as a “good person” on social media, and so seek to transmutate into something more socially acceptable than an evil white person in your circle.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Many teens worry about how their lives could change once he takes office.

      1. There’s no such thing as a transgender teen. There are a very scant few cases of legit intersex, but the rarity is almost incomprehensibly small. If you consider yourself a transgender teen, it’s because you’ve been fed lies for an extended period, you’re a fashion accessory for your crazy ass mother, or you have some serious mental health issues. In any case, they are still the boys and girls they were born as, only damaged by taking hormone blockers or having had your shit removed.

      2. All teens will be better off once gender ideology is strangled, burned, then nuked from orbit just to be sure it’s fucking dead.

      • Ed Wuncler

        There’s this lady who is a friend of someone I went to college with who is gnashing her teeth that her son who is queer and trans is now worried for his safety after Trump’s election. I so bad wanted to write that perhaps she should get her son some counseling and perhaps not go forward with mutilating his mind and mind with this nonsense.

        Like if you’re an adult and want to transition, go for it but there is a special kind of evil that enables a parent to go along with allowing their child to chemically castrate themselves because they have a mental illness and want to be seen as progressive.

      • Ed Wuncler

        mutilating his mind and mind with this nonsense = Mind and body

      • Common Tater

        “There are a very scant few cases of legit intersex, but the rarity is almost incomprehensibly small.”

        It’s around 1 in 5,000.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Parents like that should be jailed.

        I’d be jailed for allowing my sons to do much less dangerous things to themselves than irreversibly changing their body chemistry. A woman was recently arrested for her son walking a whole mile home from school, yet those who allow their children to poison themselves and mutilate their bodies for social approval are heralded as heroes.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        @CT

        Much more prevalent than I thought. But that still means my kid’s school, a small private school of less than 300 HS students with a lofty price tag, could be nearly 20x larger and only have 1 (mathematically speaking). Yet there are no fewer than a dozen students there who are mentally ill claim to be transgender. These kids are poisoned, and that’s with only 1 year of a DEI-based curriculum (which was quickly dropped once parents discovered what was happening in the throes of COVID and rioting nationwide). Social media did the rest. It’s fucking poison.

    • Ed Wuncler

      Like I said the other night, I didn’t really give much thought to the trans issue until they started fucking around with our children, allowing transitioned women to play in biological women sports, and trying to erase women with terms such as birthing person or other bullshit. Live your life but when you are trying to force me and others to ignore biology and common sense, you can go to hell.

      • EvilSheldon

        The people I object to in the trans movement, mostly are not trans.

  37. Sensei

    Ahh, perfect. Another software fix band aid for defective hardware.

    To fix the issue, dealers will install a new transmission control module software free of charge and GM will provide a special coverage program for repairing transmissions identified as containing a defective control valve.

    GM to recall more than 461,000 vehicles over transmission issues, NHTSA says

    https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/gm-recall-more-than-461000-vehicles-over-transmission-issues-nhtsa-says-2024-11-13/

    • Tundra

      I got 250K miles out of the boring old 5.3 V8 and 4 speed tranny. Of course that was a 2003 Tahoe. After 2007 they went to absolute shit.

      Fucking software fixes aren’t.

    • Gustave Lytton

      GM also asked its dealers to immediately stop the delivery of the affected vehicles.

      This doesn’t make sense, the latest year mentioned was 2022MY.

    • Not Adahn

      The most interesting thing about that story is that everyone seemed to understand which party was on which side of the killing pet squirrel issue.

      • The Other Kevin

        Add it to the list. The Dems are now the party of big banks, big pharma, war, censorship, and killing your pets.

      • Ed Wuncler

        What COVID taught me was that most people who believe that they would have stood up against authoritarianism and punched the actual Nazis in their faces or join a resistance movement would have most likely been the assholes who called the Gestapo and told them that they heard someone in the Van Meep’s attic.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    The transmission control valve on the impacted vehicles may fail causing the rear wheels to lock up, the NHTSA said, which would increase the risk of a crash.

    It never did that in the simulator!

  39. creech

    How many people really object to someone, a biological man, parading around in slinky women’s dresses or as Napoleon or even in a Civil War uniform? And if an adult wants to chop off and re-arrange their equipment, then let them. As long as it isn’t on my dime, or they are hitting me, or taking my stuff. And no one- straight, queer, confused, etc. – has any “right” to do so.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      This. As an adult, do what you want.

      But keep your ridiculously dystopian “ideas” (not to mention stupid and anti-science) about the fluidity of gender in the fucking faculty lounges where this shit belongs. It simply looks to me like a political capturing operation. Fill the kids up with lies against their parents’ will, and tell them how only progressives care about their wellbeing.

      It’s fucking evil.

    • trshmnstr

      How many people really object to someone, a biological man, parading around in slinky women’s dresses

      Plenty. I think you’re immersed in libertine circles too much if you’ve not encountered that.

      Most people aren’t gonna raise a stink until their wives or their kids are forced to interact with the person in an intimate setting, or until they’re forced to bend the knee to the tranny movement.

      I’m not these people’s parent. I’m not going to try to fix whatever is broken inside of them. However, I am going to treat them the same way I treat any other mentally unstable person. Namely, they will have zero access to my family, and I refuse to participate in a grammatical pissing match with them.

      • creech

        Sure, some folks will object to seeing someone like that walking down the street minding their own business.
        If someone wants to be-clown themselves that way, I can tolerate it while still being judgemental. When they start demanding your compliance with their larping, then a line has been crossed.

      • Ed Wuncler

        My daughter will be going to the public school next year and while I haven’t heard anything out of the ordinary, I made it clear to my wife (who is liberal and more sympathetic to the whole trans issue than me) that if I even get a whiff of that shit, I’m pulling her out and sending her to St. Dominic.

      • trshmnstr

        I think a lot of people draw the line a little bit earlier. This is where I’ve seen a lot of folks abandon libertarian thinking and go more reactionary.

        To paraphrase their concern (a concern that I share, in part), if the liberal order results in us NAPing right into the destruction of culture, family, and virtue, then maybe the liberal order isn’t all that valuable.

        The line for many folks seems to be roughly at public accommodation. They seem to be settling on “A dude in a dress can live unmolested somewhere else, but he’s not welcome in my community.”

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Trashie:

        I think your analysis is right. But can’t this also be said about virtually all forms of social deviance everywhere? Not wanting “weirdos” around is not a trans-specific issue, nor is it specific to “normies.” Even social deviants don’t always want other forms of social deviancy in their circles.

  40. Gustave Lytton

    Our idiot IT dept “cloudifyed” (outsourced) our data center across the country and discovered there were latency issues. Duh.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I have a soft spot for 7&I because their atms allowed foreign cards, unlike some others.

      Also, conbini in general are better than Canadian (or US) versions.

      • LCDR_Fish

        7/11 in Singapore were awesome even though most of them were tiny.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Deadly

    It looks like the next EPA head will likely be Lee Zeldin, a former New York Congressman and failed gubernatorial candidate, and he’s already promising policy moves that would make the air dirtier and increase health and fuel costs for Americans.

    ——-

    While we don’t know what specific regulations he intends to target, it is likely that there would be sweeping and/or scattershot actions to reduce the progress of the last four years. Regulations implemented by the EPA under President Biden will save Americans $250B/year in health and energy costs and save 200k lives in total.

    Rolling back those regulations, as Zeldin has said he wants to do, would cost Americans money in the form of higher health and fuel costs, and would cause more death.

    The reason these rollbacks would cause more death and higher costs is because they would increase air pollution, which is a major driver of death and disease and a major drain on economic productivity. The rollbacks would also increase costs because the targeted regulations are focused on efficiency, and reducing efficiency means higher energy costs for the nation in total.

    Beat that tin drum, little wind-up monkey.

    • Ed Wuncler

      “…and he’s already promising policy moves that would make the air dirtier and increase health and fuel costs for Americans. While we don’t know what specific regulations he intends to target, it is likely that there would be sweeping and/or scattershot actions to reduce the progress of the last four years.”

      We don’t know if the initiatives that the Biden Administration implemented are working nor do we know what this Zeldin guy will do but we know it will kill us. What a bunch of hacks.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I noticed that too.

        Is this what the wailing of women and children looks like?

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Based on the election and people’s stated preferences (CC was near the bottom of the priority list), this ineffectual watermelon will be met with “sorrynotsorry.”

    • SarumanTheGreat

      Facts assumed without evidence.

  42. Gustave Lytton

    Thank you whoever posted the HWFO link yesterday. Scary the reasoning matched my own.

    • EvilSheldon

      You’re welcome!

  43. tarran

    An observation I have shared in the past:

    The EPA serves the same purpose in the United States that the muttawii do in islamic societies (where they are often known by names like Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice). And, just as the muttaween forced girls trying to escape a burning dorm building back into the flames because they were fleeing in immodest dress, the EPA is full of people who would gladly see you die rather than to allow you to transgress the superstitiously based strictures that they believe protect us from the wrath of their vengeful earth goddess.

  44. Drake

    Thune is the new Senate Majority Leader because they the stupid backstabbing party.

    In 2 years I’ll be voting against both my Republican Senators.

    • Urthona

      Eh. Rick Scott kinda blows.

    • SarumanTheGreat

      I have read that Trump putting Noem in his administration is a lure to get Thune to run for governor, as he has family back home and his wife is tired of DC.

      • Urthona

        Hopefully that will happen Thuner rather than later.

      • Drake

        Nice!

    • Urthona

      Here’s the thing:

      If Trump intends to pass another $8 trillion spending bill and tariffs I hope the Senate doesn’t work with him.

      If he intends to really cut the government, it hope it does.

      He has been a Trump critic in the past. Big deal. so have I. So has JD Vance. so has Marco Rubio.

      Let’s see what happens.

    • Fatty Bolger

      All three choices were pretty bad.

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