Winston’s Mom Does the Links

by | Nov 7, 2024 | Daily Links | 357 comments

I need a cigarette.

Been working since Tuesday morning. Business suddenly picked up!

Yes Drake. Fox News called Arizona.

Federal prosecutors look to end the witch hunts, because it was always just fuck you that’s why.

New Jersey is almost a swing state? Almost only counts for horseshoes and hand grenades!

Remember when everyone hated Obamacare until it became the norm, now nobody wants to get rid of it because its the norm? Imagine that, except it’s eliminating income taxes. I need another cigarette.

Of course tariffs are still technically bad.

Finally! Krugman on Monday.

Krugman on Wednesday.

Replies as always, are locked.

About The Author

Winston's Mom

Winston's Mom

Biological mother of Winston.

357 Comments

  1. SarumanTheGreat

    Morning from hot and sunny SE PA!

    • Sean

      Howdy, neighbor!

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Hot you say? Trump gets elected and already global warming is killing us all.

  2. Pat

    Federal prosecutors look to end the witch hunts, because it was always just fuck you that’s why.

    Haha, jk. No hard feelings, right?

    • Rat on a train

      Please don’t use the agencies we weaponized against us.

    • Evan from Evansville

      THAT is fucking revealing what we all knew. But damn. To (pretty much) drop this the day after he becomes the Candidate Elect?

      Damn. Not trying to hide anything anymore. All in plain sight, for everyone to hear, and no one will care. Maybe 5% of the pop hears about it? I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not optimistic.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Nah they will CYA and claim they have no authority to prosecute a sitting president or something. Then implore their surrogates that the only means is to once again impeach him.

      • rhywun

        the only means is to once again impeach him

        I’m torn between whether I want the Dems to win the House and waste all their time on another bullshit impeachment or not.

        It could be amusing, but also extremely tedious.

      • Ted S.

        We’re going to get the best of both worlds: Team Red gets a majority, but one so slim we’ll have the same ructions we had over the past two years.

    • Winston's Mom

      You assholes and your puns.

      • Gustave Lytton

        You’d be familiar with assholes by now.

    • Suthenboy

      Smith and handlers are the Fauci’s of the legal system. They have done more damage to the credibility of their field than anyone in our history. What a bunch of banana republic shitweasels. Isn’t the Bar supposed to guard against that very thing?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Only if you were a Republican lawyer in 2021. Otherwise the Bar will find some archaic notion on the virtues or some bullshit

      • rhywun

        Bar associations have been completely skin suited so don’t look there for any sanity.

        examples

      • R C Dean

        Smith isn’t even the A Team. Marc Elias and his co-conspirators are the ones who wrecked our electoral system.

  3. Sensei

    New Jersey is almost a swing state? Almost only counts for horseshoes and hand grenades!

    I shared similar thoughts with my wife when she brought this up. Plus NJ RINOs are absolutely useless.

    • Drake

      New Jersey is a rigged state. The last Governor’s election was blatantly rigged after the polls closed for Murphy.

  4. R C Dean

    “Of course tariffs are still technically bad.”

    All taxes are bad. The only question is, which is the least bad way for the government to raise money. Of course, this question doesn’t come up until you answer the questions, what is the government going to be spending on and how much.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Hence the war cry “No fuck you, cut spending.”

    • Nephilium

      Here in Ohio, there’s been a push (by the Republicans) to get rid of the state income tax and use corporate taxes, sales tax, and extra sales taxes (aka “sin taxes”) as the funding mechanisms. The Democrats fight against this by complaining about deficits and underfunded schools.

    • Pat

      Think tank libertarianism soiling an infinite number of pairs of drawers over fucking tariffs that constitute, what, 1% of federal tax revenue, for the past 8 years while forgetting that the income tax and FICA exist is among the reasons I simply can’t take the ideology/movement seriously anymore.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Dave Smith pointed out how incredibly disappointing it was that Trump wiffed on his eliminating the income tax pledge on Rogan by not explaining how fucking awful income taxes are, but instead moving to how great tariffs are. I can get behind that sentiment, sell eliminating the income tax! It’s hard to get worked up over tariffs one way or the other.

      • juris imprudent

        Can we immediately dismiss the nonsense that you could ever sell the American people on eliminating the income tax? Stop acting like everyone in the country is like us. We are outliers here.

      • Pat

        Eh, somebody had to sell them on the income tax in the first place. It would take moving the Overton window to a different wall, but people get sold on far more preposterous shit every day. Half the county has spent the last 2 years with Ukraine flags on their social media profiles. If they could be sold on that…

        In any case, if you’re going to futilely curse the sky about taxes, you might as well go big instead of tacitly endorsing the worst excesses while straining at the proverbial gnat.

      • Tonio

        JI is correct. On one hand you’ll have ppl whining about their favorite free-stuff programs going away — “what about the [children, poor, parks, etc].” OTOH you’ll have people why are happy to pay a ridiculous part of their income in taxes in order to have the cruel satisfaction that those better off than themselves are paying more.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        A podcast that was listened to 50 millions times may have been a good opportunity to talk about how everyone with a job no longer has to pay income tax because they had the nerve to earn a living.

      • juris imprudent

        Half the county has spent the last 2 years with Ukraine flags on their social media profiles.

        An effortless and meaningless gesture. How many do you think would have those flags if it meant even a chance of being handed a rifle and thrown into that meatgrinder? People love to virtue signal at zero cost. Attach any potential cost to that and watch the signaling fall.

  5. Chipping Pioneer

    Has anyone checked on Robert De Niro?

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      No, he’s outlived his purpose to the Democrats and the Republicans don’t care about him.

    • Gender Traitor

      I’m wondering if you’re going to be able to get a great deal on a Hollywood-area mansion from all the celebs going expat (like they promised!)

      • Suthenboy

        I think the go-to strategy is “I cant leave now, I have to stay and fight!”

    • Suthenboy

      For what purpose? I can think of reasons to and not to look in on the guy.

  6. Ownbestenemy

    Can’t wait for my 20 year old neice to try and scold me.

    Hopefully she realizes Thanksgiving is about her grandpa losing his mind and not the place for airing maniac theories of right-wing Christian extremism.

    • Chafed

      She is obviously confusing Thanksgiving with Festivus.

      • Pat

        I got a lot of problems with you people, and today you’re gonna hear about it!

      • ron73440

        Who’s going to do the feats of strength?

        How about George, George could do it.

        One of my favorite episodes.

      • R.J.

        I can do a few before the old O ring acts up. Can I lift the front end of a small car? Move an unreasonable amount of laundry upstairs for folding? Perhaps I can move two full propane cylinders at once.

  7. PieInTheSky

    The new site landing page is awful and I hate it.

    • Sensei

      “So say we all.”

      • WTF

        Yes, yes we do.

    • PieInTheSky

      The last time I composed an article it was much worse than the olden days. I certainly hope it did not get worse.

      • juris imprudent

        I’m working on one now, and yes, it has gotten worse. Damn near intolerable.

    • Pat

      I could do without the tiles for the most recent articles and just the Latest/All Posts list, but I’m not overly perturbed.

      • juris imprudent

        Change for the sake of change is the bane of the morons that code. Don’t change a UI on me that works just because you have an urge.

      • UnCivilServant

        “But then how would managers know we did any work?”

    • PutridMeat

      With ublock origin, I’m able to add a rule to block the top banner (made so much worse by the blinking dancing trump!). Not sure exactly how to read the rules but I think its:

      http://www.glibertarians.com##.et_section_regular.et_pb_section_0.et_pb_section

      With ublock, just right click on the header, block elements, and select the above.

      Can probably be integrated in the JS tools that are circulating about…

      • PutridMeat

        WordPress helpfully added the http tag – that shouldn’t be there.

      • Tonio

        THANK YOU!

    • Ted S.

      At least this time it’s not the GDPR.

  8. PieInTheSky

    Of course tariffs are still technically bad.

    Tariffs are technically bad, but not as disastrous as some lbertarians claim. Also over all there are considerations beyond pure economics. I am against tariffs with friendly or neutral nations, but one must not depend on a hostile nation for critical/strategic goods. This as always opens a can of worms as to what constitute strategic goods. But as military expenses are from a pure economics pov a net negative, they are a needed expense, in some cases so can be tariffs.

    • rhywun

      one must not depend on a hostile nation for critical/strategic goods

      Agreed muchly.

      I am not an economist but I do wonder at the libertarian obsession with this topic.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        It some version of “if we all trade together, there is no reason for war.”

        Which, if you look at Israel right now, that kinda gets blown out of the water.

      • R C Dean

        WWI comprehensively refuted that notion that “When goods cross borders, armies don’t.”

      • rhywun

        I think China stealing all our intelligence and using it to build an army they want to use to take over the world kind of blows it out of the water too.

      • juris imprudent

        Like the Wilsonian idealism, this idealism refuses to concede to human reality.

        As for China, the last time they tried to expand, the Vietnamese kicked their asses.

      • pedantic

        I mean tarriffs seem pretty damn bad to me. Against China, sure I can see the argument, but a 20% tarriff across the board? That seems positively catastrophic a la Smoot-Hawley

    • Drake

      I agree that not all tariffs are bad. Protecting some strategic industry.

      More importantly, they should be used to counter foreign subsidies. If another government is subsidizing an industry and flooding the market, those subsidies should be removed before the goods enter this country.

      • LCDR_Fish

        The ADV China/China Show guys keep pointing out that the CCP companies are able to ship their Temu and other cheap shit for less from China to the US than if you bought it from a local business in the same town as you – due to CCP subsidies, and subsidies that the US gov’t and other western countries offer China since they’re still considered a “developing country” eligible for foreign aid, etc.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      I have been toying with what I call the “No, You” trade policy wherein US trade policy with a given country is a mirror image of that country’s policies towards the US.

      I am sure that something like that has been floated in the past and I am also aware of that it removes all sorts of opportunities for graft and rent seeking so it is a non-starter, but one can dream.

  9. PieInTheSky

    How is the House doing?

    • Sensei

      Still too close to call definitively, but odds favor Team Red.

    • Winston's Mom

      The girls are doing great! Thanks for asking. Plenty of business to go around this week.

      • juris imprudent

        Well, when you can’t fuck the country at large…

      • Chafed

        There must be a bunch of Congress critters who need to get some in before having to spend time with their families over Thanksgiving.

  10. Sensei

    I don’t often agree with Henninger, but his analyses are usually well reasoned. I thought this interesting.

    What Mr. Clyburn and like-minded Democrats missed, and has now cost the party dearly, is that time was running out on that same establishment’s half-century-old political model, which was to make the public believe that its economic interests depend on federal transfer payments.

    Ms. Harris ran on that idea, and its decline, reflected in public opinion about the Biden economic policies, explains in part why she underperformed Mr. Biden’s 2020 results. For liberals, Bidenomics was an apotheosis—and the modern Democratic Party’s last hurrah.

    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-2024-elections-biggest-loser-trump-harris-america-parties-24e4c530?st=ukX6t7&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • juris imprudent

      People noticed that the ones thriving under Democratic policy weren’t people like themselves?

    • rhywun

      economic interests depend on federal transfer payments

      You mean all that money that Republicans aren’t going to touch either…?

      OK maybe welfare but all the rest is sacrosanct.

  11. PieInTheSky

    If Trump kicks the proverbial bucket in office and Vance becomes prez, can he then get two full terms or is he limited to one more full turn. I can off course google this but you people are a sort of chatGPT anyways so I assume you can answer.

    • Rat on a train

      Two terms if Vance serves less than half of Trump’s term otherwise one.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I believe Trump has to put in 2 years if I recall the ‘If Biden kicks it…” conversations.

    • UnCivilServant

      If you serve less than two years finishing out someone else’s term, you can be elected twice. If you serve more than two years of someone else’s term, you only get one more shot.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        This is correct.

        If Trump serves less than 2 years, Vance would be eligible for re-election once. If Trump serves more than 2 years, Vance would be eligible for re-election twice.

        Theoretically we could have a president for 1 day under 10 years if a VP takes over as president 1 day after the 2 year mark.

      • Rat on a train

        Theoretically, someone could be president for more than two terms. The amendment only prohibits being elected more than twice.

    • PieInTheSky

      At this point just bring back the Hohenzollern and ask them to fix things

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Well, we got Winston’s Mom, so the Ho part is taken care of.

      • Homple

        Where is the AfD party in all this confusion?

    • WTF

      German coalition collapses: What comes next?

      They invade Poland?

    • rhywun

      Someone is going to have to hold their nose and form a government with the MegaMAGA Nazis that are growing in popularity.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      This bio:

      Berlin correspondent who has investigated anti-vaxxers and COVID treatment practices, reported on refugee camps and covered warlords’ trials in The Hague. Earlier, he covered Eastern Europe for the Financial Times. He speaks Hungarian, German, French and Dutch.

    • Name's BEAM. *James* BEAM.

      ‘eugyppius’ must be wildly cumming all over himself right about now. The endless opportunities for analysis alone is his wet-dream writ large.

  12. Drake

    Are we supposed to believe a quarter million people voted for Trump – then voted for Ruben Gallego? Does that even pass the laugh test?

      • Drake

        Exactly – the Democrat running against Kari Lake for Senator.

      • Not Adahn

        The guy who invented that sandwich.

      • Drake

        I thought that was the guy in the Bible – before the Hebrews outlawed sandwiches?

      • The Last American Hero

        Lake is that bad.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        I’ve never heard of a Gallego sandwich.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Do the Poles have awesome proficiency badges that you can wear on your Class A’s? No? Well then…

      • Not Adahn

        Well, you usually see them only in the miniaturized versions – Pico de Gallego.

    • Rat on a train

      Arizona hates cow nuts?

    • juris imprudent

      Some chunk of Trump’s support in ’16 came from Obama voters. Why do you think the American voter is consistent or principled?

  13. PieInTheSky

    Tim Walz had so much potential to pull over young men, but we didnt take advantage of it at all.

    Walz shouldve been on Rogan, every Barstool podcast, hell even explicitly right wing podcasts. He is 100% able to shine in those environments but we didnt do it

    https://x.com/zachp_25/status/1854213466677969328

    • Ownbestenemy

      Maybe next time don’t have 21 year old Tik-Tokers run your campaign thinking that Cardi B and No-Sing Beyonce will carry the day.

    • Nephilium

      The man who appeared to not know how to use his own shotgun, was laughed and mocked away from an outdoorsman event in his own state, and lied nearly as much as Biden about his accomplishments?

      • Not Adahn

        I saw a picture of him with what looked like a 1301. So he apparently likes Berettas and has money.

      • Drake

        The hunting version – yes. Easiest shotgun to load ever.

      • EvilSheldon

        Beretta A400. Yeah, I have to give him (or his handlers) credit for good taste.

      • Not Adahn

        Nono, the A400 was in the video. I saw a separate pic with what looked like a 1301 with the blue receiver.

      • EvilSheldon

        Huh. The 1301 with the blue receiver would have been the Comp model.

        The idea of Tim Walz bumbling his way through a 3-gun match fills me with much mirth. And no small amount of existential horror.

      • Drake

        Some A400 Xcel models have a blue receiver like the Comp Pro. I think that’s what he has.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        If you aren’t shooting a double (SxS preferably) you are either shooting trap (single) or an Ithaca 37.

        Everything else is crap.

      • EvilSheldon

        Ithaca 37s malfunction and break parts with the regularity of the tides, when subjected to high round counts. Americans are good at many things, but when it comes to making reliable shotguns, the guidos have us thoroughly outclassed.

        Also, trap shooters have the highest documented rate of inbreeding among all shotgun sports participants. Seriously, look it up.

    • Pat

      Lol.

    • rhywun

      What color is the sky in that person’s reality?

    • R C Dean

      “Tim Walz had so much potential to pull over young men”

      No, he did not.

      “Easiest shotgun to load ever.”

      Is there a shotgun that’s hard to load?

      • UnCivilServant

        Yes, but they’re muzzleloaders, so if it doesn’t have the built-in funnel like a blunderbus, you risk spilling shot.

      • R C Dean

        See, it’s this kind of reflexive “technically correct is the best kind of correct” pedantry that keeps me coming back.

        Well played, UnCiv.

      • The Last American Hero

        If rumors are true, he may have pulled off a couple of…oh, pulled over votes. Nevermind.

      • Not Adahn

        Load, load fast, or load fast without ripping off your thumbnail?

        Also: Cowboy Action Shooting forbids shotguns with ejectors, so there’re those.

      • EvilSheldon

        Ever try speed-loading a Kel-Tec KSG on the clock?

      • Drake

        Shrugs – I’ve used old pump shotguns with smaller loading ports much more finicky about how the shells are fed.

  14. Nephilium

    So it begins

    “There are dozens of us! DOZENS!”

    • Ownbestenemy

      No self-reflection and realizing they are self-fulling a prophecy.

    • Pat

      iNsuRrEcTIoN!

    • Sean

      REEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

    • Suthenboy

      Hopefully the radical leftists will end up slithering back under their rocks where they belong.

    • rhywun

      I guess there’s still ample time but I’m not getting the sense that an Autumn of Love is imminent. 🤞

      • WTF

        Yeah, the victory was so overwhelming there’s really no point.

      • The Last American Hero

        Hard to say. Chaz/Chop 2 was put down with force, and Inslee called up the guard in case any other antifa fuckers got any ideas. Now that he’s term limited, he found his testicles.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Inslee put it down because it makes him look worse than he already does.

        The people have spoken, and the message is pretty loud.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I believe this is the difference the popular vote makes. They don’t even have that fake metric going for them.

        I also think it’s clear there is no support for that kind of bullshit anymore. Even if there wasn’t support for rioting/rioters before, there was a certain tolerance for it. It seems pretty clear to me that if there was rioting, and if those rioters were thwarted hard, the public would not care at all.

        That, or these idiots actually believe their own snake oil and think Trump is going to send the Army after them to blow them away in the streets.

    • Chafed

      Impotence on display.

      • Beau Knott

        Well, it was a very small and shriveled display…

      • Nephilium

        Beau Knott:

        THEY WERE IN THE POOL! IT WAS COLD!

    • Pat

      Great Value brand Israeli pagers.

      • Not Adahn

        Exploding Dildos was my novelty punk band.

      • Sensei

        + 1 Steely Dan

    • Suthenboy

      These things were intended to go off during shipping or during use? I gotta say Vlad, if you are going to wage some kind of twisted evil war on pussy you aren’t going to win anyone over to your cause.
      Fact is Putin is horrible at PR. Zelenski is such an obvious scam artist / tin-pot dictator type Putin could easily paint himself as the good guy in this and win over the public in the countries propping up Ukraine. Being a tin-pot type himself I guess that never occurred to him. For his ilk the fist is the go-to strategy.

      • LCDR_Fish

        I think intended to go off in the air – hard to put out a Class D magnesium fire on an aircraft over the ocean.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Austin Powers better be careful.

  15. Suthenboy

    I am a little surprised. What is the population of AZ that comes from CA?

    I would ;think Smith is trying to keep from being fitted for an orange jump suit. Who is the orange man now?
    Really, that banana republic thug shitweasel and his handlers should go to jail for what they have done.

    NJ and who else is getting fed up with leftist lunacy? The hard swing left was born to die, its just a little bit overdue.

    Eliminating income taxes? Be still my heart. Also, see my comments at the end of last night’s thread. Regarding those comments I did not elaborate on my stand on VAT taxes that city brought up. Punishing the creation of wealth is evil and stupid; dumber than electric cars.
    Fucking Republican worthless squishes, where is my goddamned Obamacare repeal? I am never going to let that go.

    Given human nature govt seems to be a necessary evil. We have to fund it in some way. The current methods are shit. The best I can come up with for tariffs is a reciprocity policy.

    Krugman? That wormtongue motherfucker is still speaking? Given he is the economic forked tongue for a commie rag that isn’t surprising.

    • Suthenboy

      How? Because no one reads the once greatest scientific periodical anymore. It is nothing but a commie rag. I wouldn’t even line a bird cage with it for fear the bird might look down and accidentally read some of it. The same is true of the other once-greats.

      • cyto

        That one really pissed me off too. I dropped it over 20 years ago, but I had been a subscriber for a good 20 years too.

        Funny, at the time I blamed Michael Schermer, not knowing that he was getting pushed out by those same kooks.

  16. Pat

    The establishment feels betrayed by the people

    […]The hysteria on display by sections of the legacy media is shared by the rest of the establishment. Judging by the elites’ reaction to the election of Trump in 2016, this rage will soon turn into an anti-populist frenzy. Back in 2016, an essay in the Atlantic stated that: ‘Our most pressing political problem today is that the country abandoned the establishment, not the other way around.’ A Foreign Policy columnist reacting to Brexit earlier that year said it was ‘time for the elites to rise up against the ignorant masses’. Given the scale of Trump’s comeback this time around, the elite’s sense that they’ve been betrayed by the people will likely only intensify.
    _
    This condescending hatred for the disobedient masses runs in parallel with a powerful mood of incomprehension. Those in charge of the legacy media, along with their colleagues in the public and private sector, have no idea why millions of people voted for Trump, as they only talk to people like themselves. To say they are out of touch with the real world would be an understatement. Many in this class really believe they are entitled to the levers of power. The media, in particular, have deluded themselves into believing that they have won the loyalty of virtually everyone, other than incorrigible racists, homophobes and far-right nativists. Now that the majority of American voters have decided to reject their worldview, and stand on the ‘wrong’ side of history, these elites are looking for scapegoats.
    _
    Where ‘white’ Americans have long been blamed for the rise of populism, this time the elites feel especially betrayed by those millions of ethnic-minority voters who opted for Trump. In doing so, they showed they were unwilling to worship at the altar of identity politics. America’s oligarchy expects the automatic loyalty of Hispanic and black voters, in particular. The refusal of significant sections of these groups to vote for the Democratic Party has called into question the tactic of using minorities as election fodder.

    • juris imprudent

      They really are working on hitting the high mark of the pre-Revolution French aristocracy, aren’t they?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Thats the response of people who think the unwashed masses are getting too uppity

      • Nephilium

        I’ve been noticing the majority of the pieces about “why Harris lost” are doubling down on racism, misogyny, and “the Jews” as the only reasons she lost. Few and far between are the pieces breaking down that she was uniquely unqualified, inept, shielded, and worthless.

      • juris imprudent

        uniquely unqualified, inept, shielded, and worthless

        To admit that is to pull the rug from under the entire DEI edifice.

      • Pat

        Few and far between are the pieces breaking down that she was uniquely unqualified, inept, shielded, and worthless.

        Explain to me how Harris was any more uniquely unqualified, inept, shielded, or worthless than Joe Biden? If we accept that 2020 was the cleanest election in history and Uncle Joe legitimately set a record in winning 81 million votes, it’s hard to blame anything other than muh soggy knees for Harris’ loss when we compare the two candidates.

      • Suthenboy

        Exactly my thoughts JI and I have been making that analogy for a couple of years now. Wow.

        Stupid and arrogance have no end. I think there is an old saying about that.

      • Nephilium

        Pat:

        Off the top of my head Biden:

        Successfully ran for a contested seat
        Won a nomination through a primary season
        Had served as Senator and VP previously
        Had his name associated with legislation passed by the Senate (the quality of that is immaterial at this time, look for one legislative victory that Harris had her name associated with).
        Had been in debates several times through his career
        Has dealt with hostile interviewers

        Harris didn’t even get to those low bars.

      • R C Dean

        “Harris didn’t even get to those low bars.”

        Except for serving as Senator and VP.

      • Pat

        Neph,

        Fair enough, I suppose, although not one of those criticisms couldn’t equally apply to Obama in ’08, and some of the major pieces of legislation Biden supported during his storied career are anathema to the modern party. From the mind frame of the Democratic voter, it’s hard to come up with the unique factor that made Harris and Clinton so much more horrendous than the men they who preceded them.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        As I have said before, Harris only got political traction due to her race and gender. She fulfilled a certain class’s need for ornament more that succeeded at any political position. And, in doing this, she constantly failed upward while learning none of the actual skills that successful politicians learn: faking empathy, giving a good speech, turning an interview to their advantage, etc.

        This is why her concession speech was so much better than any of her other speeches; she was relieved to be out of the game she had no idea how to play.

      • EvilSheldon

        “Explain to me how Harris was any more uniquely unqualified, inept, shielded, or worthless than Joe Biden? If we accept that 2020 was the cleanest election in history and Uncle Joe legitimately set a record in winning 81 million votes, it’s hard to blame anything other than muh soggy knees for Harris’ loss when we compare the two candidates.”

        Joe Biden had some accomplishments during his political career. They weren’t particularly significant to my mind, and they certainly weren’t ‘good’, but they did exist.

        Kammy didn’t even have that. Her entire record is an unrelieved cypher, end to end.

      • juris imprudent

        an unrelieved cypher, end to end.

        Barack Obama waves and smiles.

      • B.P.

        “Explain to me how Harris was any more uniquely unqualified, inept, shielded, or worthless than Joe Biden?”

        In 2020, the voters were exhausted by the COVID, the nonstop circus surrounding Trump (much of which was no fault of his own), etc., and wanted normalcy, which the Dems were promising. Sure, let’s elect the boring guy. Whelp, the boring guy turned out to be Old Yeller, and things got progressively shittier.

    • rhywun

      Enh… it’s too soon to read anything major into this stuff. So populism got a slight majority this go-round. It could easily swing right back the other way next time.

      • Suthenboy

        None of this is about the candidates. It is about the lunacy of the leftist ideology beginning to hit too close to home for too many people. It is about nobody gives a fuck about ideology when they cant feed their children.
        When the rubber hits the road every election is about the pocketbook. Leftist cultists dont and never will get that.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        None of this is about the candidates. It is about the lunacy of the leftist ideology beginning to hit too close to home for too many people.

        Agreed. Parents carried Trump through this election. Parents protecting their children from the now wide open for all to see woke ideology. Mothers got tired of the system telling their sons they’re the problem in society, and fathers weren’t going to allow their daughters to be subjected to men taking over women’s spaces, whether that be in the locker room, bathroom, or in athletic competition.

        I absolutely believe, and likely because it was my primary motivation to vote this time around so I may well be projecting here, that the results of this election represent a sound rejection of wokeism by Americans. Now maybe we can again be a beacon in the world and embolden other countries to do the same. There is an appetite for it. I’ve seen vids from around the world, people celebrating Trump’s win. He’s a symbol now. A sign that the world can and needs to destroy wokeism.

    • R C Dean

      I continue to be mystified by how you can be pro-democracy and anti-populist.

      I guess cognitive dissonance is a hell of a drug.

      • juris imprudent

        Democracy is supposed to produce the results I want. Simple, see?

    • Homple

      After the uprising of the 17th of June
      The Secretary of the Writers’ Union
      Had leaflets distributed on the Stalinallee
      Which stated that the people
      Had squandered the confidence of the government
      And could only win it back
      By redoubled work [quotas]. Would it not in that case
      Be simpler for the government
      To dissolve the people
      And elect another?

  17. ron73440

    I’ll take, things that never happened for $500 Alex:

    Donovan
    @d0n0vaaaan

    I had a coworker tell me he voted for Tr*mp since he thought Kamala was evil. I mentioned that he voted for a convicted felon (34 counts) and he didn’t believe me. I pulled up an article to show him and he just responded with “I didn’t know that”…

    That’s why we’re here.

    • PieInTheSky

      I assume the did not happen of the year awards have a lot of material these days

      • ron73440

        It seems that way.

        Apparently, all Trump supporters are imbeciles that just need a little knowledge to realize how wrong they are.

      • juris imprudent

        They don’t vote in their own interests! Cause I know their interests better than they do!!!

      • Fourscore

        A year ago at HH my best old friend (and democrat) quietly, out of the blue, whispered to me “Trump is going to jail”. I said “I don’t think so”. We sort of dropped it but it did put a strain on our 80 year friendship.

        Anyway hopefully things are mended without either of us “remembering” .

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Good thing, 4×20, as politics is too small to ruin a friendship over.

      • Ted S.

        Ann-Margret, on the other hand….

    • Nephilium

      And then the scales fell from his eyes, and he fell to his knees to ask for the forgiveness that cannot come from the Progressive faith.

      • Suthenboy

        Wait, what? Smoking is bad for me and I should quit? What the hell? Why has no one told me this before?!”

        I have actually used that one before.

    • Suthenboy

      No, it never happened but its not that far from possible. A lot of people either dont know, forgot, or just dont care because the entire lawfare campaign was very transparently a farce. The political machinations of a banana republic.

    • rhywun

      lol Those “felonies” that were made up out of thin air and would be tossed out of any court not captured by radical leftists?

    • PieInTheSky

      Is there a nominally left wing party in the western world who has not abandoned the working class in favor of fashionable upper middle class midwits?

      • UnCivilServant

        Leftism is a luxury belief. Most people can’t afford the cost.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        What starts as a calling, becomes a business, and ends up a racket.

    • juris imprudent

      His party? When was the last time Bernie was a registered Democrat? His ’16 campaign for their Presidential nomination was about as principled as Trump on the other side.

    • ron73440

      Wow, she’s a model?

      • Ownbestenemy

        As much as Hunter is a painter

      • Suthenboy

        Last week, sure. That girl is NOT going to age well. In a few years she will look like the crypt keeper.

      • Nephilium

        You thought Sugarfree was making that up?

  18. Certified Public Asshat

    you can’t even say you’re moving to canada anymore because they kill depressed people now— frye (@___frye) November 6, 2024

    • cavalier973

      Ouch

      Ha! Ha!

    • Suthenboy

      Yeah? I might have to reconsider my position on the matter here.

  19. PieInTheSky

    𝔹𝕀𝔾 𝕃𝕀𝔹ℝ𝔸 ✨
    @venusianhunty
    California what the FUCK do you mean you voted against RENT CONTROL you fucking IDIOTS

    https://x.com/venusianhunty/status/1854057582090207682

    A scholar of the history of rent control chimes in.

    • UnCivilServant

      Well, they didn’t like the idea of the supply of housing being driven even lower by stupid policies.

    • KSuellington

      As a new landlord, I was very happy that thing got soundly rejected here.

    • UnCivilServant

      Only for the lawyers. The ambulance is going to get sued, have to cover the medical expenses (even their own bill) and the legal fees.

    • Ownbestenemy

      “Filing your taxes is like an annual do-it-yourself assfucking”. Ha.

      • Suthenboy

        See: State laws mandating the carrying of proof of insurance for autos. Mandated by both a State and Insurance companies that keep electronic records cops can access on the spot anywhere, anytime. Talk about a game of ‘gotcha’.
        “These records must be kept on you and you are going to keep them for us.”
        Does the IRS want us to start pulling on that string?

    • R C Dean

      One of the things that baffles me in AZ is that the pro-abortion amendment won by way more than Trump, and got way, way more votes than Lake. So there had to be voters who voted for Trump and Lake, and for the amendment.

      Now, I can see an intellectually consistent argument for voting for Trump (“abortion is a state issue”) and a pro-abortion ballot measure, but Lake (“abortion is murder”) and a pro-abortion ballot measure? I don’t get it at all.

      • juris imprudent

        ♪♫ Feelings, nothing more than feelings ♫

      • rhywun

        Abortion is very popular but is not the most important issue for most people.

      • Fourscore

        Not if you’re not part of the decision making process.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        The ballot in Maricopa Co was four pages long. Voter’s probably TL/DR the parts they weren’t interested.

      • Mojeaux

        Don’t know about AZ. Overturning the abortion ban won here too.

        I would have voted for it because it was way too restrictive. At 6 weeks, a woman has no clue she’s pregnant.

        BUT

        It contains language that allow for transing kids and I don’t want that.

        They got taken to court over the ballot language but won.

        It wasn’t well publicized. I’m not sure people who really really want abortion would turn that down regardless.

    • Pat

      I remember the poverty and lack 8 years ago when the federal government was spending 2 trillion dollars less than it is presently.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        In fairness, that money was worth a whole lot more then.

    • ron73440

      Elon Musk’s ‘crazy’ plan to rip $2 trillion out of America

      I can’t read it (paywall), but the headline makes it sound like he will be taking money from the people, not from the government.

      Honest journalism as always.

      • juris imprudent

        Government is just what we all do together – so yes, taking money away from the government is taking it away from the people!

  20. PieInTheSky

    when america finally gives up its overseas colonies and embraces its destiny as a land empire through the annexation of canada and greenland, the capital should be on the former site of st louis, after the existing city is razed to the ground, renamed, and symbolically refounded

    https://x.com/alicemazzy/status/1854458686435099023

    • cavalier973

      And Mexico. Don’t be racist.

    • UnCivilServant

      Hey! We gave the Phillipines their Independence!

      Or are they saying we should kick Hawaii out of the Union?

    • R C Dean

      Greenland?

      • tarran

        I’m told it’s a bad place to be unemployed.

      • creech

        Grant looked into annexing Dominican Republic sending F. Douglass down there to have a look.

      • Suthenboy

        Cuba was looked at also creech. In both places we sided with Edward Longshanks. “It’s a wonderful place but it is full of ‘insert native population’. “

  21. kinnath

    So who are the most likely Dems to run against a Vance/Gabbard ticket in 2028?

    Is there anyone with a national presence that can run?

    • R C Dean

      Newsom, Shapiro, and Whitmer are pretty much the shortlist, as far as I can tell. Like most governors, they are short on national presence, but many (most?) Presidential candidates are when they start out.

      • kinnath

        Jimmy Who?

    • UnCivilServant

      Probably going to be one of the COVID Tyrant Govs.

    • KSuellington

      The electorate just chewed up and spit out one (transplant) Californian, please take Newsom from us and do the same. Unless the next four years are an unmitigated disaster I think Vance will smoke his greasy ass.

      • rhywun

        Greasy has been bred for the presidency his entire life. He seems to have a reality distortion field that can hide what an asshole he is from suggestible people like Democrats and squishes. He will be a challenging opponent.

    • The Last American Hero

      Whitmer. She is catnip to the gentler sex, and a wet dream for the socialist wing of the party.

      • cavalier973

        She will kidnap their hearts.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Oh Lord, please let’s not talk about the next Presidential election for at least a couple years.

      • kinnath

        The election cycle begins the day after a lame duck president is elected.

        Those are the rules.

    • KSuellington

      I signed up for an X account a few weeks back as a thank you to Musk for his generous donation to make it a free speech platform. Also, because I got tired of getting redirected when I searched a link there. It’s been pretty hilarious to see the meltdowns on it over the past day. It is making the left’s reaction to 2016 look measured.

      • Mojeaux

        What I find funny is the more self-aware amongst Team Blue are shocked that they were living in a bubble all this time with Reddit, FB, and Insta. They thought Kamala had it in the bag and Trumpsters were outliers and retards. So they went to X, which they thought was the bubble, and found a manifestation of the real world.

      • KSuellington

        I just recently started going on Reddit to follow some of the dual sport/dirt bike stuff as I was doing some research before and after buying one. Going to the start page there made me look at some of the politics stuff. Oh man, talk about a bubble. They were in some serious delusion land pre election and now it looks like exactly how you’d expect, very little introspection. I must say, I am very much enjoying this Trump win, even s I remain highly ambivalent about the man himself. Just happy we dodged a bullet there and if he can do a few good things and keep the left in disarray for a few years that will be a success for me.

    • Tundra

      Boom.

      My son and his buddies all went repub.

      • Mojeaux

        I don’t know how XY voted.

        XX came home from work yesterday and said, as per usual, “How are you?”

        I said, “A LOT better than I was yesterday!”

        She said, “Oh, yeah!”

        I mean, really, that could mean anything, but I’m taking it as agreement with the choice.

    • cyto

      Even funnier…. the Antifa types and their fellow travelers can’t see who *actually* looks like the Hitler Youth.

      • R C Dean

        Antifa is very consciously modeled on the Communist blackshirts, who were fighting (literally) the Nazi brownshirts.

      • juris imprudent

        The bitter antagonism of small differences.

      • rhywun

        Antifa is very consciously modeled on the Communist blackshirts, who were fighting (literally) the Nazi brownshirts.

        Yeah, their whole spiel is a century out-of-date. It’d be comical if they weren’t such violent assholes.

  22. Sensei

    “One campaign was running on values and the future and really connecting with people,” he said. “The other was running on fear and division and hatred. And it’s rough to frame it like that because that means my values are also in the minority. And that’s scary.”

    “Look Dave, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over”

    With Trump win, Democrats ask anxious questions about America
    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/with-trump-win-democrats-ask-anxious-questions-about-their-neighbors-country-2024-11-07/

    It took 5 of Reuters’ top writers to come up with this article.

    • cyto

      Right from the top, authors think the progressive left has “liberal values”.

      • Sensei

        Shame nobody will listen.

      • kinnath

        The list at the end is a repudiation of the entire Democratic Party platform.

      • Homple

        The Democrats have been relentlessly hostile to every one of the bullet points at the end of the article. If they do change their attitude, it will take a generation of so to do it.

        Note that he said, “here’s an idea to start with: have every Democrat ostentatiously say they subscribe to the following principles.”

        He didn’t say believe these principles, just talk like you believe them. That’s not likely to work anymore.

      • Fourscore

        Kinnath

        Sounds almost libertarian

    • rhywun

      One campaign was running on values and the future and really connecting with people,” he said. “The other was running on fear and division and hatred.

      By all means, don’t let reality intrude on your fantasies.

      • Nephilium

        Calling your opponents Nazis and fascists is just tough love Rhywun.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Democrats fear their liberal values are now a minority among Americans

      Your downfall was assuming they were in the majority.

      • KSuellington

        The Dems ditched liberal values for progressive ones.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Which side was which?

  23. Mojeaux

    Sixx A.M. is objectively better than Mötley Crüe. There. I said it. And I’ll say it in front of Chafed, too.

    • Tundra

      Sobriety and 30 years of practice can yield good results

      • Mojeaux

        Also, a singer who can actually sing.

    • Pat

      Cock rock is cock rock.

  24. Ownbestenemy

    Well the Onion was actually funny for once in the past decade.

    • cyto

      Solid 5 out of 10.

      Well played, Onion.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Little did they know their brand of politics would be the one calling all Latinos racist.

      • cyto

        Hahaha… funnier than the Onion

    • rhywun

      “The car scene lost a young King. You put NYC back on the map in a positive perspective. You gave our scene the respect we needed. Not just known for idiotic takeovers. You’ve gained the respect of many, and that will live on as your legacy. Rest easy, you will never be forgotten,” one comment read.

      OFFS!!

  25. robc

    Baseball birthdays (I havent done this in a long, long while):

    HoFer Jim Kaat 50.5 war
    Active player Sonny Gray 32.0
    Little Brother Joe Niekro 29.7

    It is an all pitcher day.

    • robc

      Kaat had 16 homers, 106 rbis, and 5 stolen bases in roughly the equivalent of 2 seasons of at bats. Yeah, his batting average was .186, but a little bit of pop for a non-hitter.

      • Tundra

        True story: Back in the 80’s I went on a Boundary Waters trip and Kaat was one of the dudes in the group. Great guy.

  26. cavalier973

    I went back and looked at Suthenboy’s discussions on taxes. Highly recommend.

    Tariffs: as a form of revenue generation, tariffs are superior to the invasive and manipulative income tax. Usually, though, their purpose is to limit competition from foreign producers, and this seems to be Trump’s idea. Competition is a key component to the free market.

    It isn’t politically feasible, but a lump sum tax would probably be the best method of funding a government, if government funding is necessary. “Everybody pays the same amount.”

    An even more hardcore version of this would be to divvy up the total Federal budget by the number of citizens above a certain age, and send everybody a bill.

    • R.J.

      I think a lot about the idea of limiting competition from foreign countries. I think when tariffs were discussed when I was in college,, the theory was all the countries would be on its same level playing field. You didn’t have something like a China, which was producing goods that could undercut even the lowest salaries in other industrialized countries. So I’ll be curious to see how this plays out.

      • Pat

        Labor cost arbitrage is a normal part of international trade and comparative advantage, made all the more relevant by our interconnected world. The interesting twist in our modern economy is that we pass piles of regulations domestically that drive up the cost of labor, ostensibly out of our magnanimous concern for the environment, the worker, safety, tHe ChILdReN of course, and then rather than live with the economic consequences of that magnanimity, we simply purchase goods from countries operating under the brutal conditions that were too uncivilized for our own society.

      • juris imprudent

        countries operating under the brutal conditions that were too uncivilized for our own society

        Progs: out of sight, out of mind – so our consciences are clear as a mountain stream (in one of our wilderness preserves)

      • Fourscore

        China is beginning to see the debt problem of building stuff that no one can afford with someone else’s money.

        Laws of Economics work the same for everyone. Politicians never change.

      • Suthenboy

        Pat: In other words hypocrisy and virtue signaling. Agreed. As someone pointed out earlier virtue signaling is a luxury activity. The trouble with it in this area is those who can afford it are forcing it on those who cant.

        BTW any honest person with a middling intellect can make a hell of an argument that all of those, or most of those regulations are clearly outside of the powers granted to government. The lot of them should be piled up and doused with gasoline followed by a match…with great ceremony on national television prime time.

      • Suthenboy

        Doc: I read that as ‘Triffid dilemma’. I thought that’s not a dilemma and started thinking of a Roundup joke….
        Also looked up the movie and I see there are two remakes, one as recent as 2009. Why did I not know this? I read reviews. Apparently the latest iteration is a hot mess not worth the time. It was totally proggied. I will have to rewatch the ’81 version.
        Seems relevant given it is Thursday.

    • Suthenboy

      Thank you cavalier973.
      I was hoping someone could suggest a way to make taxation more of a voluntary affair. Citizens pay taxes on things that they want. Sales taxes are the closest thing to that that I know of. Perhaps a national sales tax but with some way to make the spending of it more targeted? I dont know.
      I know this: The amount of taxes we pay now are orders of magnitude too high and the system is used as a tool for control. It is, in every way possible, an anathema to liberty. As Obama was so kind to point out: “It’s not about revenue, it is a fairness issue.”

      This issue, like all such cultural and governmental issues has been struggled with before. Every possible system has been tried at one time or other and eventually the drawbacks became intolerable.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Didn’t a few states pass laws that require their EC votes to go to the popular vote winner? The excuses they find to not do that should be good for a few laughs.

      • Nephilium

        If it’s the standard compact I’ve seen, it doesn’t go into effect until enough states have passed it to get to 270 electoral votes.

      • kinnath

        The EC compact goes into effect when enough states sign the compact so that a majority of the EC are covered by the compact.

        At this point, multiple states have signed on, but not enough to deliver a majority of the EC.

        So, it’s all posturing at this point.

      • Suthenboy

        ‘…enough states have passed it to get to 270 electoral votes……rig elections in a couple of counties in each swing state….’

        Of course that is their plan. Champions of democracy they are.

    • Homple

      The Democrats will never get rid of the Electoral College. With it, they only have to rig elections in a couple of counties in each swing state. without it, they have to rig elections everywhere.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Krugabe at the Barricades. They should turn that into a musical.

    • cavalier973

      Thanks!

      Looks like Washington 4 is GOP versus GOP.

      Which means that the GOP needs to win at least 8 other seats to keep control of the House.

      They lead in 11 (counting WA 4)

      • Ted S.

        That doesn’t list all the undeclared races. If you go to https://apnews.com/projects/election-results-2024/ and click on the House link in the banner, look for the pink and light blue squares for the undeclared races.

        Team Red have been declared the winners in 206 seats, and currently lead in 18 others.

      • Ted S.

        The seats are one each in AK, CO, IA, NE, and WA; three each in AZ and PA; and seven in CA.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    I don’t even bother to think about this stuff anymore, but the worst thing about the income tax is how it has been used as a means of social engineering. I actually favor a “gross receipts tax” as less distortionary. You pay your (tiny) slice and you’re done. No incentives, no penalties, no distortion.

    • Homple

      Every clause in the tax code is a favor or punishment to somebody. That’s why politicians and lobbyists cherish it.

    • Pat

      Nearly any other tax would be less distortionary than the income tax. A “gross receipts tax” would be something closer to an excise tax of the type that SCOTUS suggested would be acceptable when it struck down an income tax as an unapportioned direct tax in 1895, before the 16th authorized an unapportioned direct income tax.

    • juris imprudent

      You’re no expert so you can’t possibly understand how glorious social engineering is! [The rice paper thin veneer over reward your friends and punish your enemies.]

  29. Translucent Chum

    Is the Flat Tax dead and gone? I never see it floated anymore.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      No, I believe FICA is still intact.

      • juris imprudent

        And as regressive as ever.

  30. Certified Public Asshat

    Your dad has a rocket that can help: Elon Musk’s estranged trans daughter Vivian, 20, announces she’s fleeing the country

    ‘I’ve thought this for a while, but yesterday confirmed it for me,’ she wrote. ‘I don’t see my future being in the United States.

    ‘Even if he’s only in office for four years, even if the anti-trans regulations magically don’t happen, the people who willingly voted this in are not going anywhere anytime soon.’

    What country is going to become the trans capital?

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Iran I think.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Sayonara asshole.

    • KSuellington

      She should move to Thailand.

    • Pat

      I remember all of the tranny burnings from 2016 to 2020. Pharmacists being murdered for filling estradiol prescriptions.

    • Not Adahn

      Thailand, if the stories I hear are true.

      • Not Adahn

        Oh wait, never mind. Thailand is only interested in passable, hot ladyboys.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Thailand was the obvious pick, but our trans expats will be demanding free surgeries. Can Thailand accommodate this request?

      • Mojeaux

        I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine.

    • EvilSheldon

      Good luck! Let us know how you’re settling in wherever you end up! Try to stay away from the IV drugs, and remember to always make the trick wear a rubber!

  31. The Late P Brooks

    First line of Sendei’s link:

    In anxious conversations across the U.S. on Wednesday, many Democrats were struggling to understand what led their neighbors to vote Republican Donald Trump back into the White House.

    I don’t know if I’ll be able to get through it. I’ll have a laugh-induced belly ache, for certain.

    • creech

      And I’ll struggle to understand why my county gave Kommiela a 10 point victory.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Every clause in the tax code is a favor or punishment to somebody. That’s why politicians and lobbyists cherish it.

    Precisely. They’ll abolish the EPA and NLRB before they relinquish the tax code.

    • Fourscore

      And it doesn’t stop when you earn it. You get taxed when you spend it, even the small municipalities have figured out how to get a piece.

      In days long ago there were some places that had lower sales taxes or cigarette taxes, etc. A trip across the bridge could save money.

      Canadians can still cross over and buy gas and tax free clothes in MN.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    What country is going to become the trans capital?

    I hear the Darien gap is nice.

    • Mojeaux

      I thought that was taken by Thailand.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Transdnistra. Duh.

  34. Sensei

    Wow… The reason Team Blue lost was poor marketing by Janet Yellen.

    “Starting with Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury position has typically been filled by people with financial expertise and with the political skills to sell a message to the American public and members of Congress, even when conditions weren’t perfect,” says Cembalest.

    “You could not go anywhere in the 1990s without seeing, hearing or reading Bob Rubin on the achievements of the Clinton Presidency. The same goes for Don Regan and James Baker during the Reagan Presidency, and for Tim Geithner whose work on recapitalizing and restoring faith in the U.S. banking system was a hallmark of Obama’s Presidency when Obama ran for a second term.”

    Where was Janet Yellen, he wondered. He charted Google Trends data to show that Yellen had a smaller media profile than even Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s treasury secretary, who was largely unknown to the public before joining the administration.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/yellen-was-no-hamilton-why-one-jpmorgan-strategist-blames-treasury-chief-for-harris-loss-a0459329

    • Fatty Bolger

      Typical. It’s always the messaging and never the substance when the left loses.

      • UnCivilServant

        “Our ideas can’t be wrong, we’re just not convincing those microbrained knuckle-draggers of our superior ideas!”

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      um, yes.

    • UnCivilServant

      Shouldn’t ambassadors be, you know, diplomatic?

    • Q Continuum

      Expel his ass.

  35. Fatty Bolger

    Of course getting rid of the income tax is a long shot, but at least getting it into public discourse as a realistic option we should consider is a good place to start.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Right, and Trump brought it up himself! He should and can explain why it needs to go.

    • juris imprudent

      Or it’s a good way to convince people you’re a nutcase.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Of all the wild shit Trump has said, this is what irks you the most?

      • Fatty Bolger

        A nutcase, or a libertarian. But I repeat myself.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    All that noble work, for naught

    Justice Department officials have been evaluating how to wind down the two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office to comply with long-standing department policy that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted, two people familiar with the matter tell NBC News.

    ——-

    Now that Trump will become president again, DOJ officials see no room to pursue either criminal case against him — and no point in continuing to litigate them in the weeks before he takes office, the people said.

    “Sensible, inevitable and unfortunate,” said former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg, an NBC News contributor.

    Just as long as Garland is cleaning out his desk.

  37. robc

    I have a preference on preferred tax format, I wonder what it could be?

    • cavalier973

      Does it derive from Henry George?

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m going with “Nonsensical and immoral”

    • Gustave Lytton

      Tax on new drivers?

      🔰

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Maybe you could even write a couple articles about it.

  38. cavalier973

    As he often points out, Kennedy is a litigator who for over twenty years has been suing the agencies and big pharma. When lawyers prosecute one of these lawsuits, we must read hundreds or thousands of emails, study dense and arcane internal reports, interview friendly witnesses, depose hostile witnesses and agency experts, and then boil all those petabytes of information down into a form that a judge or lay jury can easily understand.
    In other words, to win a lawsuit against a government agency or giant pharmaceutical company, the lead lawyer must become a subject matter expert himself. How else can we hope to spar with the professional experts we call to the stand?
    This means that Robert Kennedy has, through the requirements of his job, become a subject matter expert in our dysfunctional agencies and their too-cozy relationships with big pharma and the big food industry giants that have captured them

    https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/supercharged-thursday-november-7?r=d0r3d&utm_medium=ios

  39. The Late P Brooks

    The Georgia election interference case against Trump remains tied up on appeals over ethical issues surrounding the district attorney.

    Call me crazy, but that seems like a compelling basis for summary dismissal.

    • R.J.

      Feels like GenX is who keeps the lights on at most companies now, so that makes sense.

  40. JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

    It’s not Lobster Girl or Mexican Volleyball Chicas, but that Anne Bancroft gif ain’t too shabby.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Right, and Trump brought it up himself! He should and can explain why it needs to go.

    But doing away with the income tax would only benefit billionaires like Trump and Musk. They must be made to pay for their success.

    • R.J.

      Bravo. That is hilarious!

    • Not Adahn

      I’d imagine the chronic malnutrition retards the development of the Norkinas, so can you blame them?

  42. Ownbestenemy

    I think it is a 25/25/50 split of the social media ‘reactions’ between performative, content farming and actually hysterically insane about Trump win.

  43. The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

    RE: Krugman

    ‘Urban hellscape. People don’t dare leave their apartments’

    I’m not even sure if he’s being serious or not.

    • EvilSheldon

      Oh, he’s serious. Posting photos of the toniest neighborhoods in his shithole cities has always been a pastime of his.

  44. cavalier973

    Also, for those who are pro-abortion and are surprised that more women voted for Trump this time than last time, pay attention.

    Several states enacted pro-abortion measures (or, ended strict anti-abortion laws).That means that they can have it both ways. They can vote for Trump (and the GOP nationally) for whatever reasons they deem right, and still vote for abortion.

    I’m anti-abortion, so I don’t like these new laws, but I understand that Trump won because he made abortion to be no longer a Federal issue, and people who are anti-abortion, like me, can work against it politically within our own states.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Yep and I wonder how much of that messaging was JD and his interview with Rogan (if there were any on the fence folks at that point). They discussed it in about the most rational manner two dudes could being its abortion and we were told to sit down and shut up about it from the man’s perspective.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      ‘I’m anti-abortion, so I don’t like these new laws, but I understand that Trump won because he made abortion to be no longer a Federal issue, and people who are anti-abortion, like me, can work against it politically within our own states.’

      I didn’t follow all the state measures, but it sounds like there were 7-8 ballot measures and 3 of them failed. (Florida, NoDak? and Nebraska). Are any of them worse than the status quo ante the overturning of Roe v. Wade?

      • cavalier973

        That’s a good question. I didn’t look into them, just scanned some headlines.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    They gave it their best shot

    The Manhattan judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s “hush money” criminal trial is expected to announce next week if the president-elect’s historic felony conviction will still stand.

    Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan had already delayed sentencing by more than four months to come after the election — and gave himself until next Tuesday to decide if the conviction should be tossed.

    Trump’s overwhelming election win will further embolden his legal team “to make sure that sentencing never happens,” CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid noted late Wednesday.

    “Here, they’re going to argue to the judge that the sentencing should never happen because now that Trump is president-elect,” Reid noted.

    “They will say that he is entitled to the same constitutional protections as a sitting president and should be protected from state actors, and in this case, state prosecutors.”

    Everybody knows the whole thing was just an attempt to keep Trump out of the White House. You win some, you lose some.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      ‘and gave himself until next Tuesday to decide if the conviction should be tossed.’

      Totally what one would do if they were confident their legal reasoning was strong.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    I have a preference on preferred tax format, I wonder what it could be?

    You go to the Sheriff of Nottingham’s office, spin a wheel, and write a check for whatever number comes up? Kind of like roulette, in reverse.

    • Drake

      Is Drew Carey the Sheriff?

  47. R.J.

    I am just not feeling it today. I can’t take time off until tomorrow so I shall just gripe here.

  48. Rat on a train

    Где все?