Friday Morning Links

by | Dec 6, 2024 | Daily Links | 251 comments

The Lions beat the Packers in a pretty wild game. The F1 season is wrapping up this weekend in the middle east, where McLaren are poised to win the WCC. And the CFP will take shape over the next two days. I got nothing else for sports, aside from mentioning that Chicago sports fans are getting the rawest of raw deals from their teams, as the Blackhawks are so bad they fired their coach yesterday. Get your shit together, Windy City franchises. At least one of you, anyway. Right, on to…the links!

I can’t exactly say I’m shocked. They’re going to do whatever they can to collectively avoid any oversight, scrutiny, or legal repercussions for the entire series of illegality they all engaged in. And the media will call it bravery or some such nonsense.

Oh no, anyway… The whole thing ends when Hamas surrenders and frees the hostages, you assholes.

They’re just making it easier for the US. By the time they get done disarming their own people, we’ll be able to roll in with a couple National Guard platoons and take the whole place over in a weekend.

This is ridiculous. If the numbers are right, then we need to scatter these employees and sell the buildings to the highest bidder.

Can one of you guys fix her? I wish you luck.

Australia is becoming a police state. This is almost as bad as Canada neutering itself.

I don’t care what he does at the church. What I want to see is a motorcade rolling down the Champs-Élysées and going through the Arc de Triomphe like he owns the place. For the lulz.

Boo-hoo, you pussies. Learn to code install solar panels.

Why is this not a bigger story? I guess the principals aren’t very newsworthy to the big outlets. And the motivations certainly don’t fit with the narrative they want to push.

This is good. So of course this rag is painting it as bad. Sorry, but you’re not their parents and their parents need to know what their kids are going through, not be kept in the dark. That used to be considered normal, you psychopaths.

Here we go. Such wonderful music. And so many tracks to choose from. Hope you enjoy those two.

And I hope you enjoy this lovely Friday and weekend, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

251 Comments

  1. SDF-7

    Have to say you’re being rather cheeky with your front page images now, Sloopy.

    Morning! Morning to the rest of ya reprobates as well!

  2. juris imprudent

    CFP wise – if Clemson wins the ACC, does SMU knock Alabama out, or do they get punished for losing their championship game?

    • SDF-7

      Why am I now mentally picturing Winston doing sports links….

      “How do Libertarians justify Alabama’s passing defense? And what’s the True Glibertarian Position on hockey rink beer prices?”

      • Ownbestenemy

        Hockey rink beer should be $1 beer night every night and B level hockey in which no hockey is played, instead it is a rendition of Blood Sport – On Ice

      • Ted S.

        I was thinking of Winston’s Mom doing the sports links.

        Or doing the jocks.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        I remember a biker bar in the college town I grew up in having .25 beer night every Tuesday. For about a month, as it got so out of control.

        Good times.

      • Grummun

        Hockey rink beer should be $1 beer night every night

        And rink beer should be Strohs or Natty Light or Iron City, none of this high-fallutin’ craft beer.

      • Tundra

        It should be Labatt’s. And a buck.

    • sloopyinca

      I think it depends on the score. A close game keeps SMU in. Losing by two scores or more probably locks them out.

  3. SDF-7

    I can’t exactly say I’m shocked.

    Not shocked by their actions — just disappointed by the team fervor and resounding “Meh” from 40 percent of the country. Team Be Ruled has never seemed more apt — “What horrors the King’s Son and the King’s Men do matters not, lest it come to my door — they needs must to rule this land!”

    Now tug the forelock, jackasses.

    • juris imprudent

      Shall I trot out my Huxley quote, again?

      • SDF-7

        No… just accept that my gut instinct is to expect better from humanity apparently.

      • juris imprudent

        I don’t know why you want to be perpetually disappointed.

      • SDF-7

        Dammit, JI — I’m a programmer, not a psychologist.

      • juris imprudent

        Ah! You want to put the slam-head-into-brick-wall outside the loop.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        while {}

      • Chipping Pioneer

        while ()
        {
        Console.WriteLine (“Pedant”);
        }

  4. Shpip

    The shoring up of gun control laws in Canada came after the May 2020 ban of 1,500 makes and models of firearms. Last month, that number grew to more than 2,000 as new models were identified.

    So are the Canuckistanis trying the same whak-a-mole approach that the US did after the ’94 “assault weapons ban,” only to find that manufacturers can change cosmetic features and model numbers faster than the gun grabbers can identify and prohibit them?

    • UnCivilServant

      “This is the new Series 2025B model with sleeker styling and 100% legal features.”

      • Shpip

        When I was traveling through and writing in Central America, it was de rigueur to have a team of bodyguards. The best had a special model of the Browning M2 machine gun (known as a maquina in those parts) called the M2-X. It was chambered in 8mm Mauser and was colloquially known as the “Deuce X.”

        As a writer, I assure you that you soon learned the value of the Deuce X Maquina.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        California had to give up on that, as every maker of AR receiver was changing names on a weekly basis for a while there

      • Gustave Lytton

        Didn’t they go to the opposite where if it’s not on the approved list, you can’t sell/buy it? Except for LEOs.

    • Ted S.

      I reject the term “shoring up”.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      Unstated in the article is that not a single firearm has been confiscated due to the original May 2020 ban. They can pass laws, but they have no capacity whatsoever to enforce them.

    • rhywun

      suggests donating guns to Ukraine

      I don’t think I’ve come across a bigger “fuck you” from a country to its subjects.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        It might be if they were serious people, but they are not.

  5. SDF-7

    Oh no, anyway…

    I’d also accept the US pulling out of and defunding the UN, ICC, etc… let the rest of the world yammer and prate on – see how much use they’d be without depending on Uncle Sugar.

    • juris imprudent

      Hmm, if we removed ourselves from the UN, we could remove diplomatic immunity from all of those parasites. Bet that would give them incentive to find another ‘host’.

      • SDF-7

        They could go have a convention in Geneva.

      • UnCivilServant

        No.

        The UN headquarters needs to be on a barge in international waters with no amenities, and the ambassadors are responsible for maintaining the watertightness of the vessel. When it sinks the UN is dissolved.

      • SDF-7

        So you’re saying water is the universal problem solvent?

      • rhywun

        Bet that would give them incentive to find another ‘host’.

        Every once in a while one of the papers runs another article about the hundreds or thousands of unpunished motor vehicle violations those assholes accumulate in the area. They are a menace to society and I am certain their neighbors would be gladly rid of them.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Skinsuit and defund it. Pulling out will work as well as when the USSR boycotted the UN in 1950.

  6. SDF-7

    By the time they get done disarming their own people, we’ll be able to roll in with a couple National Guard platoons and take the whole place over in a weekend.

    I have to wonder if in the Western Territories there aren’t more than a few boating accidents. That’s closer to “frontier” / rural / actually encounter wildlife, right? I wouldn’t think they’d roll over as easily as Ontario or Quebec… so they may have their own options eventually.

    But in any event — if we ship all the blue hairs who claim they want to leave the country and go to Canada up there — that’s their MAD deterrent. No one wants that level of crazy re-integrated into the country… no invasion would be contemplated.

    • LCDR_Fish

      Up there and the Yukon…hard to believe anyone really cares unless the RCMP is actually going house to house for inspections.

  7. Ownbestenemy

    Can one of you guys fix her?

    I can say in my youth I dipped into crazy but nah brah, just nah. That’s how you end up with a Columbian necktie.

  8. Not Adahn

    Can one of you guys fix her? I wish you luck.

    She has good taste in firearms and nice abs.

    • juris imprudent

      Maybe even a Q-worthy rack.

      • AlexinCT

        You have to worry she packed them with C-4….

  9. Ownbestenemy

    I mentioned yesterday we’d get a glimpse if the DNC will have a viable candidate for 2028 and I can firmly say no if The Hogg actually wins the DNC chair.

    One, I’d love to see it happen. It won’t, but would be fantastic for the lulz. Two, Fetterman could emerge if he will just put on a suit every now and then.

    • Not Adahn

      He won’t win. Some elected critter here is running for the seat. He’s claiming to be “an outsider” which makes no sense for a party leader, but I assume that’s a marketing ploy.

    • Shpip

      I assumed he would go away before now. However, his PAC managed to get a couple of its candidates elected this cycle (including the troon from Delaware), so he might have some staying power with the donks.

    • AlexinCT

      I am willing to bet money that team blue would like to kill Fetterman at this point. That is because he has made the contrast between sane people (even those that are still recovering after a stroke) and the moronic inbred shitbags that run the democrat progressive movement, and thus, the democrat party, brutally obvious. The lunatics do not want to accept they have been sidelined and will fight any attempt to move the party towards sanity.

  10. SDF-7

    This is ridiculous.

    As a remote worker, I’m obviously biased towards “Is the work getting done? Yes or no?” If it is — then yeah, that’s a sign that the buildings should be significantly downsized if not sold off. For jobs like Ag outreach — I can see real benefits in having the workers “embedded” in the communities they serve, in fact… without needing to rent office space everywhere.

    And given past studies — I strongly suspect the ones not getting work done weren’t getting work done in the offices either. I don’t expect Elon to care much about this, though — he seems to have that “Everyone must work 80 hour weeks in the office like me!” mentality… results don’t matter per se — if you aren’t there, he’s going to think you’re a slacker. (One of the reasons I respect him, but I suspect I would never last at one of his companies… I’m well past the ‘The Company is my entire existence’ phase of my life.)

    • Ownbestenemy

      And given past studies — I strongly suspect the ones not getting work done weren’t getting work done in the offices either.

      ^^^ This. Should be prime pickings to drop dead weight. Rather than wait 2 weeks to hear back from my logistic personnel on a part I need, they take 4 weeks now. Still weeks too late for something I needed yesterday.

    • juris imprudent

      A pair of articles about DOGE and it’s prospects.

      This has all happened before, and will happen again. Yes, I remember the Grace Commission, and the federal budget at the time stood at less than $2T – which of course is the target we now want to eliminate.

      and

      You usually need a Reichstag’s fire for an enabling act.

      Republicans should seize the opportunity to write a one-time, time-limited blank check for reform and efficiency to the People’s President.

      • SDF-7

        The problem is the quality of folks to manipulate into setting the fire these days.

      • Ted S.

        “The People’s [anything — it doesnt matter what]” is by definition false advertising.

      • juris imprudent

        Ironically enough Ted, tyrants usually claim to rule for The People .

    • Rat on a train

      I recall my time in government space sitting near the feds was annoying because they were yapping all day.

    • invisible finger

      Any work that IS getting done is likely to be work that shouldn’t be done in the first place.

    • Mojeaux

      Note: I have not been in an office since 2003.

      I have been hired as a temp to warm a seat. Yes. Just sit there in the cubicle. But they would not let me bring a book and companies were still using intranets. WTF. Sitting there bored all day, not a soul to talk to because you don’t know anybody (or don’t like anybody). What do these people do to amuse themselves all day without getting in trouble for “not working”?

      • The Last American Hero

        According to every dramedy on TV, have sex in the supply closet with a co-worker that you shouldn’t be with but can’t get enough of.

  11. Shpip

    “About 7.30am on Sunday 1 December, police stopped a Lamborghini Huracan on Queensborough Avenue, Hillcrest after noticing it was not bearing a rear number plate. The officer identified the vehicle as being classed as an UHPV however checks on the man’s licence revealed that he did not have the required ‘U’ class license endorsement,” the South Australia Police said in a post on Facebook. The maximum penalty for this first-time offense is $1,625 USD ($2,500 AU).

    It’s a stupid solution to a non-existent problem, but you’d think a guy who can afford a Lambo, Ferrari, etc. could afford the extra forty bucks for a special “rich guy car” license.

    • rhywun

      It also requires these individuals leave features like traction control on at all times.

      I don’t think I have a problem with this part.

      • DrOtto

        Get stuck in the mud once and you might.

      • Tundra

        Lol. If your Lambo is stuck in the mud some bad decisions are already in the rear view mirror.

  12. Ownbestenemy

    Rep. Nancy Mace

    47 and fabulous featuring pink tacos because its on brand

    When the headline disappoints.

    • SDF-7

      Obligatory given that picture.

    • Grummun

      “You know the red dye in that taco is toxic.” /RFKjr

  13. SDF-7

    Australia is becoming a police state.

    Becoming? I thought they went over that edge with their COVID camps, censorship and oppression of anyone trying to protest. Lost all respect for them then.

    • Nephilium

      [regarding spiking the Harris endorsement]It is hard to imagine a more brutal, humiliating, and unprofessional treatment of a paper’s professional staff. Three members of the editorial page resigned in protest and 2,000 readers canceled their subscriptions.

      No… no it really isn’t.

  14. SDF-7

    I don’t care what he does at the church.

    I know it is probably wussy of me — but honestly, I’d like to just see him put in a low-key, “happy to be here” type showing. He isn’t the President (again) yet. He shouldn’t technically be doing diplomacy or purporting to represent the US yet — he’s just a citizen with an interest.

    Yeah, it is more complicated than that because the current gang of incompetent crooks have given up any pretense of pretending they’re doing their jobs… the only people “there” in the Executive Branch are either looting or trying to cover their butts… but until he’s inaugurated, he shouldn’t really be messing with foreign policy overtly. So 20th Century of me….

    • Drake

      In a real for-profit company, I would completely agree with you.

      In all the bloated government bureaucracies that I’m paying for – tough shit.

      • Drake

        Obviously replying to an earlier comment.

    • sloopyinca

      I want him to at least say something like “this might be the last time we see each other” to Macron and note that his government is collapsing right at the time Trump is about to take office again.

      And then roll through the Arc de Triomophe in a Cadillac.

      • B.P.

        Nah. He should be rolling around in a Mercedes Type 770 and posing in the exact same locations in front of the Eiffel Tower that Hitler did, just to send everyone over the edge.

    • The Last American Hero

      I think he should rent a 1930’s Mercedes convertible for the motorcade.

      • B.P.

        Dammit.

  15. SDF-7

    This is good.

    Honestly these groomers should be thanking their astrological manifestations that so far the backlash has been limited to political takeback of school boards and whatnot. Messing with people’s kids and trying to hide it from their parents used to be one thousand percent lamppost territory.

  16. Stinky Wizzleteats

    “preemptive pardons”
    So less likely to see these people jailed for prior acts but more likely to get to the truth because no fifth can be claimed in hearings and whatnot, along with the threat of future perjury and contempt charges if they aren’t forthright. Meh, I’ll take it.

    • Drake

      I can still see them being stripped of their pensions, security details and clearances, and yep – cooperate with the investigations or jail.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Change that or to and.

    • Ownbestenemy

      They will take the contempt charges, probably skate with a friendly DoJ that is still embedded deep within the Government and nothing will happen.

      • sloopyinca

        This.

        If these people get pardoned, they will suffer absolutely no consequences for their actions.

    • juris imprudent

      You can’t be pardoned for future crimes, so contempt of Congress would not be covered.

    • Cunctator

      –“no fifth can be claimed in hearings and whatnot”–

      I am not sure that will be the case.

      Question: “What did you do regarding XX?”
      Answer: “I plead my Fifth Amendment rights no to incriminate myself.”
      Question: “But you have been pardoned and bear no danger of criminal trial.”
      Answer: “My pardon was for federal charges. Some of my actions may or may not have violated various State laws, therefore, I plead my Fifth Amendment rights no to incriminate myself.”

      Off scott free and won’t have to testify to anything.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      An ex Navy diver friend of mine was in Djibouti for a while back in the ‘90s for six months for some reason. According to him it was the worst place he’d been to by far, a true shithole.

      • Ted S.

        KC amd the Sunshine Band have a sad.

      • The Last American Hero

        The crap our sailors put up with…

      • LCDR_Fish

        Pretty sure the base is a lot nicer since then. Got upgraded a lot the last decade or so once they started focusing on pirates during Obama.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Can you be sure he was giving Djibouti a fair shake?

  17. Rat on a train

    Sorry, but you’re not their parents and their parents need to know what their kids are going through, not be kept in the dark.
    Cults normally try to isolate people from family who may save them.

  18. Sensei

    Interesting. I’m not sure I buy it, but interesting.

    Yet Trump’s defense of the dollar is a window into how he thinks the U.S. should exercise its economic power. That power, he argues, has been undercut by its excessive use of financial sanctions that encourage other countries to avoid using the dollar. He thinks tariffs are a more flexible, less harmful way of achieving American foreign policy goals.

    The theory remains untested. Yet Trump’s approach merits serious study, because the current approach is hardly a shining success. Sanctions haven’t yet forced Russia to leave Ukraine, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to cede power, or Iran to give up its nuclear program.

    https://www.wsj.com/economy/trump-international-economic-policy-dollar-tariffs-b5076f65?st=Rh2Z9K&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • juris imprudent

      With Navarro advising him, we aren’t exactly getting sound policy.

    • PieInTheSky

      Sanctions do not work in most cases, for good or bad…

      • Sensei

        100% agree on sanctions. Tariffs have proven economic negative effects as well, but for this price you could possibly more effectively implement foreign policy.

        That’s the theory – not suggesting I believe it.

      • Drake

        Sanctions can have much of the same impact as protectionist sanctions. Keeps capital and industries in the country, sparks more investment in things no longer available abroad. That’s why everyone keeps saying the Russian economy is about to collapse from “overheating”.

      • Ted S.

        +1 broken window

    • Don escaped Memphis

      Trump wants to reduce the trade deficit, which he blames on other countries

      A small-beer essay about random freshman economic principles is trotted out instead of a deep dive the proposed policy itself….why? And then end with enabling a brain-dead characterization of the trade deficit that plays along, blithely, tacitly signally their agreement with those mechanics and irresponsibly allowing uneducated readers to presume that the thing even remotely works the way that Trump’s ejaculations imply that they do….why?

      Trump’s lurches in economics, like pretty much everything else, serve only to underscore how ignorant he is of basic tenants of everything under the sun except reality programming. The challenges to the dollar come chiefly from federal printing presses, the turbocharging of which Mr Trump is already as responsible for as anyone to ever hold office; if he weren’t such a moron, we should think that this is some masterful diversion play: look over there….OVER THERE!…at those guys ruining our economy!….but it’s just more sandbox ravings from the narcissist-in-chief.

      As for currency, no new currency is needed to threaten the dollar: a $$BRIC$$ would take decades to become more useful than the euro or yen already are. That such a move has not already occurred suggests more reasonable perspectives on the situation, but no: let’s pull more red herrings out from under the rassling rink.

  19. PieInTheSky

    In local news, the Constitutional Court just nullified the first round of the election, which is a first in post 1989 history. This cannot be good. And certainly will not strengthen belief in democracy.

    • PieInTheSky

      the court validated the results on Tuesday just to do this now…

      • UnCivilServant

        So, the court invalidated itself and can be safely ignored in all things.

    • Old Man With Candy

      The US State Department released their opinion which boiled down to, “The Romanian people can choose any government they like as long as it’s aligned with us. Otherwise… we turn Nuland loose.”

      • PieInTheSky

        Well I strongly support choosing a government aligned with you

      • Old Man With Candy

        As long as we can have a plentiful supply of Feteasca Neagra. Oh, and the dessert Chardonnay from Murfatlar.

      • PieInTheSky

        the dessert Chardonnay from Murfatlar. – never heard of it. Also Murfatlar has been bankrupt for the last few years they recently came back.

      • Drake

        The South Vietnamese, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and post-Maidan coup Ukrainians are with you! Trust us, nothing can go wrong.

      • Ted S.

        None of the liquor stores around here have Feteasca Neagra.

        And my smartphone’s English keyboard has special characters for Western European languages, but not the Romanian a-breve.

    • PieInTheSky

      Constitutional Court annuls presidential elections two days before runoff between Elena Lasconi and Călin Georgescu. Process to restart amid Russian interference allegations

      The Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) unanimously decided on Friday to annul the presidential elections, according to an official CCR press release. G4Media was the first to report the information, citing official sources. The electoral process to elect Romania’s president will restart from scratch, with the government tasked with setting a new date.

      This means that the elections will be reset entirely, requiring candidates to re-register and go through the validation process again with the Central Electoral Bureau.

      „Under Article 146, letter f of the Constitution, the entire electoral process concerning the election of the President of Romania is annulled,” the press release states. Article 146, letter f specifies that the Constitutional Court ensures compliance with the procedures for electing the President of Romania and confirms the election results.

      https://www.g4media.ro/surse-curtea-constitutionala-a-anulat-turul-1-al-alegerilor-prezidentiale.html

      • juris imprudent

        Appears we have already turned Nuland loose.

      • Drake

        Enjoy your color revolution.

      • PieInTheSky

        this is not remotely a color revolution. But anything that keeps Russian influence away is enjoyable.

      • Drake

        Even if it means destroying your constitutional self-government and making you a vassal state of globalists?

      • PieInTheSky

        we are a vassal state either way. Sovereignty is not an option. Never really was in our history. And every experience with Russia was far worse than the globalists.

      • Drake

        Okay – depressing but realistic.

      • PieInTheSky

        Finland and the Baltics are the same mostly just different powers. We had Ottomans, Poland, Russia, Austro-Hungary. They had Poland, Sweden, Russia, Prussia etc

      • PieInTheSky

        Or Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth to be more accurate

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Time to destroy democracy to save it. Goodbye legitimacy, hello Dark Times for you Romanians.

    • PieInTheSky

      The funny part is that Romanians living abroad have 3 days of voting instead of one and they are currently voting and voting is not yet stopped because while the Court gave a press release there is no official document published via the proper channels so the polling places abroad cannot officially stop the voting,

    • PieInTheSky

      Another fun fact is that the current president’s term expires before the elections are done and it is tricky to extend it

    • rhywun

      The beatings votings will continue until morale improves the correct conclusion is reached.

  20. Shpip

    Well, this is an interesting twist

    UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was facing a lawsuit accusing him and other executives of insider trading related to an ongoing Justice Department investigation before he was fatally shot outside a New York City hotel on Wednesday.

    Thompson, 50, was one of three UnitedHealth Group executives named in a class action lawsuit filed in May that accused them of dumping millions of dollars worth of stock while the company was the subject of a federal antitrust investigation, which investors say wasn’t immediately disclosed to shareholders.

    Nearly $25 billion in shareholder value was erased once the investigation was publicly revealed in February. Thompson was able to sell off more than $15 million of his own UnitedHealth shares before the value dropped, however, the suit states.

    Maybe the shooter was some wannabe Wall Street punter who lost his shirt. Ties in with the message left on the shell casings, too.

    • PieInTheSky

      I am trying to think what would get me to murder someone in the street… But I guess almost anyone can be pushed to that

      • Ted S.

        Someone trying to take your tuica away?

    • Sensei

      Without trying to start some long rant. Stock sales for C-Suite are only allowed at specific times and need to be approved by the General Counsel’s office.

      Sure on penny stocks this is a real possibility. On Fortune 1000 companies it is extremely uncommon. Usually it is plaintiff attorneys and chipper FedGov employees trying to make a name for themselves that play this game on Fortune 1000 companies.

      I’ve no love for the claim department of any insurer, but this claim is BS until proven otherwise.

      • Gustave Lytton

        If UHC wasn’t the subject to a federal investigation, I’d say that would be bigger news. Any insurance company associated with CMS is going to get hit more frequently than Heidi Fleiss’ girls.

    • AlexinCT

      Would not be surprised we find out way down the line the killing was an inside job by someone that wanted this guy out of the way or silenced in the corporate high level world of criminal shit.

  21. PieInTheSky

    The results of a new large-scale international educational assessment just came out.

    This one focuses on student mathematics and science achievement and, once again, America came in near the top of the chart!

    https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1864412480677576816

    Romania is not that shabby either

    • Rat on a train

      I love how Belgium is divided by region.

    • AlexinCT

      Yeah, without seeing the methodology and their actual data, I will never trust any of these things. We live in an age where practically everything is bullshit for a reason.

    • Old Man With Candy

      MLB has a death wish.

      • invisible finger

        Exactly. Or Manfred is auditioning for running the Savannah Bananas.

    • Nephilium

      I have yet to hear anyone (other than the people in the story) praise this or even say anything positive about this. It’s just so much stupidity and raises so many questions about how it would even work.

      • Ted S.

        Almost as bad as a Super League in European football.

    • UnCivilServant

      How about instead of doing this we get rid of the DH position. If you want to bat, you also have to play defense.

      • Don escaped Memphis

        natural tension as the central tenet of sport? heresy!

      • CatchTheCarp

        Agree, the DH still holds the top spot in my ranking of stupid MLB rule changes.

    • Rat on a train

      Next up, no batting order. Always put you best hitter at bat and your best runners on bases.

      • Don escaped Memphis

        I’ve critiqued this over and over in these pages for years; without a natural and central tenet to the game such as UCS posits, there is no reason why a side should not be composed of an infinite array of players:
        a fresh pitcher takes the mound at every need
        eight fielding experts who also never bat
        one or two world-class batsmen who face all the pitches
        three sprinters who sub onto first whenever a batsman there arrives

        we want to see the best, the best I say, at every position!!!!!1!

      • Gustave Lytton

        Replace with Designated Everything. It can be conducted by players wearing the Demolition Man VR setup.

    • Gender Traitor

      Blasphemy! Next thing you know they’ll switch to aluminum bats and they will be dead to me!

  22. Old Man With Candy

    Last day of classes, and I have a steady stream of students marching through my office trying to weasel me into increasing their grades.

    “I’m a simple man with simple wants. $100 per point.”

    • Sensei

      Plus 10% for the big guy!

      • AlexinCT

        If they are nice looking ladies other payment options are considered?

    • PieInTheSky

      I had a professor in university who was open to increasing grades. I give you a problem now on the blackboard and if you solve it I increase your grade. When hearing this most students declined.

      • Nephilium

        Was there even a threat of decreasing the grade if they got it wrong?

      • PieInTheSky

        If you got it extremely wrong yes 🙂

    • SDF-7

      They’re going to be so disappointed when they find out they’re too old to offer you sexual favors.

      • AlexinCT

        Guess my advice lacked this perspective…

    • Shpip

      Since it’s college and they’ve aged out of OMWC’s preferred cohort, I expected this response.

      • AlexinCT

        Well these days we know why Spacey didn’t fall for that proposal…

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      As my high school math teacher said, “I’m not giving you anything. You are getting what you deserve.”

  23. PieInTheSky

    ‘As a non-Jewish lecturer at a major university, I can confirm that British academia is structurally racist against Jews. The penny finally dropped as I was second-marking a piece of undergraduate writing in which Jews were openly compared to scurrying vermin, spreading disease.
    ‘The student’s illiterate use of grammar, nonsensical punctuation and mixed metaphors would surely have embarrassed Goebbels. But Hitler’s arch propagandist would just as surely have approved of the spirit of the piece. Not that this was a uniquely awful specimen of the kind of “work” I’ve had to face as first and second marker of a large cohort of students since the horror of October 7.
    ‘A different piece, produced by a student in the same year group, accused its readers, in the foulest language, of complicity with “genocide” and of “sleeping” while the IDF killed innocent civilians for target practice.
    ‘The obvious Jew-hatred of these pieces of writing were one thing. But then there were the comments of the first academic who had marked them, which praised the “Jews-as-vermin” piece as a moving indictment of Israeli “colonisation” that displayed a fine philosophical turn of phrase and a carefulness of language. As for the “genocide” piece, my colleague reassured the student that his message was deeply important…’

    https://x.com/JakeWSimons/status/1864720100147769735

    • juris imprudent

      South Asia has its revenge on Britain.

      • AlexinCT

        Is it that when the British elite have self inflicted this shit on their people?

    • Not Adahn

      NPR ran a story about (((armed drones))) flying into houses and shooting old ladies for sport.

  24. PieInTheSky

    The Globe and Mail
    @globeandmail
    ‘51st state’? No. But what about a common North American labour market?

    Anthony Koch
    @Anthony__Koch
    If Canada and the US were to have a common labour market the brain drain from Canada would be so insanely severe we would never recover.

    The only reason Canada is able to retain any talent at all is that the US is extremely difficult to immigrate to (legally).

    https://x.com/Anthony__Koch/status/1864775559567249899

    why would people move to Murdermetika when they can live in beautiful Canadia ?

    • Nephilium

      Do they realize that we don’t have socialized medicine here (yet)?

      • Rat on a train

        Don’t forget the extermination camps that will open next year.

      • Rat on a train

        Don’t forget the extermination camps that will open next year.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Someone hit reset on Rat, he’s glitching again.

  25. PieInTheSky

    also, statistically speaking, what are the chances Charlize Theron adopts 2 boys (as infants, years apart) from Africa and BOTH of them are trans

    that’s ACTUAL LUNACY

    people in Hollywood don’t see an issue with this?? you don’t have idk even some BASIC QUESTIONS

    the photo below is from 2018—the article mentioned that “the second child hasn’t explicitly stated their gender identity yet, i guess we’ll see” LOL

    google or ask your favorite AI bot about Charlize’s kids today—they both “identify” as girls

    there’s a People magazine article from March 2024 that refers to Charlize and her “2 daughters” and makes no mention at all that they’re trans… mostly just discusses what it’s like to be a single white lady raising 2 “African American girls” lmfao

    bonkers

    totally fucking bonkers

    https://x.com/wildbarestepf/status/1864454445867913327

    • UnCivilServant

      The children were always props to her, even before the trans abuse. She should be in jail.

      • Jarflax

        Hey, she bought adopted those accessories kids, of course she is going to modify them to fit today’s outfit.

    • rhywun

      Wikipedia only reveals the actual sex of one of them but a quotation from her strongly implies that she has indeed used both of them as props.

      Stunning and brave!

    • Certified Public Asshat

      How are these transgirls from Africa identifying as American girls and not traditional African?

      • AlexinCT

        Some day, when both kids have spent years dealing with drug problems and therapy, they might realize the cause of their problem.

      • Grumbletarian

        The cause of their problems will be Republican bigotry, I’ll bet.

    • Gustave Lytton

      “Hey, we haven’t remade Mommy Dearest in a while!”

      • Not Adahn

        “No… plastic… hangers! They break down and poison the environment!”

  26. The Late P Brooks

    They fear that Trump and his allies, who have boasted of enemies lists and exacting “retribution,” could launch investigations that would be reputationally and financially costly for their targets even if they don’t result in prosecutions.

    What goes around comes around.

    • Ted S.

      The progjectuon is strong here.

    • Don escaped Memphis

      yes: that is precisely why it wrongheaded

      it’s utterly unAmerican garbage to tolerate the idea that the elected should be pursuing anything other than policy, anything other than organizing government to pursue wide, principle American interests instead of small personal agenda points

      it is TOO Glib to laugh about our culture of freedom being displaced a series of despotic urges

      • EvilSheldon

        There’s no reason (save a really dim view of human nature) to think it couldn’t be both.

      • AlexinCT

        The elite are still pissed at the unwashed masses for daring to give them the message that the elite are fucking stupid and evil in basically every way that counts, and that we have had enough of them fucking us over to virtue signal to each other.

      • Raven Nation

        I tend to lean toward this view.

        What about people who actually broke the law – would you prosecute them? Maybe depend on how egregious the crime was? I’d have a tendency to fire any civil servants who broke CS rules. Maybe court-martial Milley based on his own statements.

  27. rhywun

    Boo-hoo, you pussies.

    I made it through a couple paragraphs of that hilariously overblown concern trolling.

    Soon-Shiong, who once fashioned himself as a Black Lives Matter-supporting vaccine proponent

    Maybe he learned that Black Lives Matter is a Marxist front group bent on destroying the family and “smashing the system” and came to his fucking senses.

    • AlexinCT

      I thought most people not suffering from progressivism had figured that shit out by now…

  28. rhywun

    That used to be considered normal, you psychopaths.

    I didn’t read the whole thing but I didn’t see an explanation of how refusing to hide kids’ pronoun play from their parents or refusing to allow dudes in girls bathrooms is “ultra-conservative Christian” or “anti-ABCDEF”.

    I can only conclude that this newspapers is comically biased in a certain political persuasion.

  29. Ownbestenemy

    So it wasn’t just Rogan of which Harris wanted to control the environment. Apparently the “Call Her Daddy” bit was not done in that persons studio but rather in a mock up (think the mini White House bullshit set) that reportedly cost $100K.

    Ya know, if it appears to look like you laundered money, you laundered money.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    F1- George Russell is a pathetic little pussy.

    • PieInTheSky

      But I am sure he is getting plenty of it.

  31. Tundra

    Good morning!

    Safe European Home might be my favorite Clash song. Definitely top 3.

    So thanks!

    • PieInTheSky

      Real men dont have favourite songs

      • Tundra

        Unreal men do, though.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Fools’ errand

    Non-defense discretionary spending has already been dialed back, standing at the lowest level in modern history as a percentage of GDP, according to Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi.

    That’s why Zandi said he’s skeptical that focusing on government efficiency could generate even $200 billion a year in annual savings, let alone $2 trillion. (Musk said in October that he could cut at least $2 trillion, but he didn’t specify if he meant annually or over a period of time).

    “I’m all for efforts to improve the efficiency of government,” Zandi said. “But there’s no game-changing 60-yard touchdown pass here. It will be a lot of one- or two-yard runs.”

    Nothing left to cut. The government budget is lean and efficient.

    • rhywun

      lowest level in modern history as a percentage of GDP

      lol Horseshit.

      Identify anything unconstitutional the feds are doing and stop funding it. Two trillion is just the tip of the iceberg.

    • slumbrew

      …. as a percentage of GDP…

      I hate that formulation – it implies that the GDP rightfully belongs to the government.

      If GDP doubled why should the DOD suddenly have an 2 trillion dollar budget instead of their existing measly 1 trillion dollar budget?

      • R C Dean

        Not to mention government spending is counted as GDP. Government spending as a percentage of GDP is pretty much a self-licking ice cream cone.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    There’s a way, though it’s not always legal, for the president to defy Congress and just refuse to spend money lawmakers have allocated. It’s called impoundment.

    “My threat level for DOGE’s recommendations making it through Congress is relatively low,” said Bobby Kogan, the senior director for federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning policy research group. “My threat level for them doing some things illegally, unilaterally, is incredibly high.”

    rump has repeatedly said he would challenge the Nixon-era law that curtailed the president’s ability to block funding for projects approved by Congress. The DOGE bros are also on board, writing in their op-ed that they believe the Supreme Court would likely side with Trump.

    I’m sure Congress would be happy to defend their omnibus continuing resolutions, line by line, dollar by dollar.

    • Ed Wuncler

      What I hope Trump does (but probably won’t do) is when Congress sends him an omnibus bill, he rejects it immediately, have his staff and DOGE look through the bill, and then point what bullshit the bill has especially the outrageous stuff like trans education in some Middle Eastern country or sending a trillion bucks to Ukraine while the folks in North Carolina gets squat.

      • LCDR_Fish

        DOGE is the perfect opportunity to get back to proper departmental appropriations bills.

      • Drake

        Yes. Send it back redlined while releasing it all on X. See who complains.

    • rhywun

      I got the hell out of there exactly because of shit like this.

      You cannot win in the current climate. Oh, this guy might be acquitted. But there will be riots and there will be absolutely nothing done to reduce the chances of violently deranged lunatics making life miserable (or ending it).

      All because of racist “oppressed/oppressor” bullshit. Innocent people die from it rather frequently and nobody gives a shit.

      • Tundra

        I’ll never forget the summer of love. Watching my favorite city go to shit was a profound time in my life.

        I hope we can take it all back some day.

    • Nephilium

      Tundra,

      Been meaning to thank you for bringing that substack to my attention. Been a subscriber for a while now.

      • Tundra

        My pleasure. I’m glad you dig it as much as I do.

    • Gustave Lytton

      back in the 90’s, most US cities from NYC to SF to chicago to minneapolis were well and truly safe, nice places to live, places you could park a car or go for a walk at night.

      And back in the 70’s or 80’s, there were no go areas or places you didn’t stop after dark.

      • Tundra

        Yep, but that’s the point. If there is a will to fix things it can be done.

    • EvilSheldon

      Couple of interesting points there.

  34. Mojeaux

    WordPress needs to have its rectum pulled out and put in a meatgrinder still attached.

    • UnCivilServant

      You’re going too easy on it.

    • PieInTheSky

      Tell us how you really feel

    • slumbrew

      😀

      • SDF-7

        There are times I swear whoever makes the regulations / nomenclature for football is a 13 year old boy just laughing his ass off in a dark room.

    • rhywun

      LOL!

    • Mojeaux

      ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

      Baseball does this too. “Took him deep!” Orly.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Hockey isn’t too far off “It just slipped through the five hole”

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Good versus evil

    If Kennedy were keen to improve our health, he could encourage people to consume more fresh fruit and vegetables. But that’s not the way his mind works. For him, this isn’t really even about health. It’s a battle of good versus evil. He sees himself as a knight errant, but unfortunately, his “cures” involve reversing some of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in history: pasteurization, vaccines, and the scientific method of determining truth.

    For Trump to nominate such a dangerous man for such a key position is a mockery of leadership. It’s possible that neither knows how to distinguish fact from fiction, but to the degree that Trump knows Kennedy is a kook and nominated him as part of a larger project to destroy trust in everything, it’s depraved.

    Bobby is a crazy man who thinks he’s saving the world. Everybody knows the Medical Industrial Complex has a spotless record and nothing but the purest motives.

    • Tundra

      I was wrong about so goddamn many health-related things I’m comfortable with a little overcorrection.

      Bobby may not be correct on all counts, but the simple fact is that the vaccine programs are completely out of control and need an overhaul, our food system is broken, the government-led nutrition “guidance” is killing people and the pharmaceutical industry would make Mengele blush.

      Mona the dumb cunt may feel free to go fuck herself.

      • slumbrew

        My issue with Kennedy is that he’s an authoritarian at heart.

        https://reason.com/2014/10/01/activist-robert-kennedy-jr-denies-he-wan/

        He wished there were a law to “punish” people who are skeptical of or deny global warming.

        He walked that back to “just” wanting to yank the business license of those companies he deemed insufficiently on board the climate train.

        He’s still that guy.

      • Tundra

        Sure, but he’s not gonna have any power to do anything about it. If he can make a dent in this health crisis that’s good enough for me.

    • slumbrew

      “part of a larger project to destroy trust in everything”

      He’s not the one destroying trust. It’s been pissed away by the institutions themselves.

      • AlexinCT

        The fuckers that have wrecked it all have one strategy they have relied on persistently to deflect: blame everyone else for what they are doing and the consequences of what they are doing.

        Hopefully, like the other shit they used (calling people racist, homophobic, misogynists, blah blah blah phobic) getting stale, this one will real soon as well. Then it will be fun to watch them squirm.

  36. Suthenboy

    So, as the west races towards totalitarianism the leftists complain about the world turning to shit.
    We are drowning in lunacy.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Enshitification vs enpussification.

    • AlexinCT

      It’s basically the end result of the belief held by the morons that have replaced old time religion with the new one where government is god, said god will give them utopia on earth through marxism, and all the lazy losers will just live large and in charge mooching off the ones they demand work for free. The fact they also want to murder 86% of the planets population and create a new aristocracy in this feudal system is accepted by these morons because they all think they will not be the ones being culled and that they will be part of the aristocracy and not the serfs.

      Fucking stupid people.

  37. Tundra

    Hockey guys, what the fuck is going on with the Rangers?

    https://archive.fo/fg0fM

    • ron73440

      The Penguins have been sucking so bad, I haven’t been paying much attention.

      That being said, I was never impressed with Trouba.

      Last year in the playoffs, he was demoted and was playing badly.

      Part of my Trouba hate is from him knocking Sid and Rakell out of the playoffs the last time the Pens made it.

      • Tundra

        I haven’t seen many games from your side of the country, so all I know of Trouba is that he really hits well.

        Is Sid gonna leave?

      • ron73440

        I haven’t seen many games from your side of the country, so all I know of Trouba is that he really hits well.

        Is Sid gonna leave?

        Trouba looks for the big hit and people get by him.

        I don’t think Siid, Malkin, or Letang are going anywhere, but the way they were playing earlier had me doubting that.

        The last 5 games, they look like they remembered how to play hockey.

    • Ted S.

      Eh, fuck the Rangers.

      • ron73440

        Eh, fuck the Rangers.

        Always this.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    What I hope Trump does (but probably won’t do) is when Congress sends him an omnibus bill, he rejects it immediately

    This, exactly. Stamp it “TL;DR” and send it right back to them.

    • Ed Wuncler

      He’s like the Jim Cramer of Economics. Whatever he writes or advocates, you do the opposite.

    • Ted S.

      Winston’s Mom hardest hit.

      • R.J.

        Yeah! That could kill a whole column.
        Granted he will retire and still never stop talking.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Just like Iwo Jima

    Protesters took to the US Capitol bathrooms across from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office on Thursday to protest the recently enacted policy banning trans people from accessing bathrooms that align with their gender identity. Just a day after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that may upend gender-affirming care for children and adults across the United States, dozens of trans people and their allies raised banners demanding Congress “stop pissing on our rights” and urging supporters to “flush bathroom bigotry.”

    “It was important to show up in a radically defiant way and let the world know, and let our electeds know, that we are not going to allow this disrespect and this disregard for our lives,” Raquel Willis, co-founder of Gender Liberation Movement and one of the organizers of the demonstration, told Mother Jones. “Trans folks deserve access to the restroom like anyone else.”

    Organizers said about 15 people were arrested for crowding and obstructing, including Willis and Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower who leaked troves of classified government records about Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks. According to The 19th, Capitol police threatened protesters with sexual misconduct charges, although a Gender Liberation Movement spokesperson said no such charges were filed.

    I hope they super glued their asses to the toilet seats.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    I guess the Trump election pushed him over the edge.

    I assume he fled to Canada the morning after Trump was declared the winner. He could still file his stories by dog sled from his secure refuge in Moose Jaw.

    • Sensei

      He’s feeling more comfortable there as they continue confiscating more guns.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Hold out to convict or hold out to acquit I wonder. Also, I cannot believe we allow a main charge and a lessor charge to be ran simultaneously for jurors to pick and choose.

      • R C Dean

        I look forward to the appellate court’s reasoning as to why the prosecutor referring to him throughout the trial as “the white man” wasn’t prejudicial.

    • Ed Wuncler

      What bothers me about this whole trial is that it was the result of the Left trying “fix” our criminal justice system by not prosecuting crimes because more people of color are arrested at higher rates. But yet their policies have hurt those who they say they care about and when you point this out to them, they immediately reach into their bag of bullshit terms and will call you a racist or classist.

      People like the prosecutor in this case has blood on her hands. She willingly pursues a policy that she knows destroys communities along with diminishing law and order all for the sake of fulfilling her ideological preferences. In a just society this lady would at best be disbarred and at worst walking the plank, but chances are she’ll continue to prosecute those who don’t fit into her neat ideological bubble without any sort of consequences at all while leaving a wake of destruction.

      • Sensei

        Yup… I get the history with law enforcement and prosecution with minorities, but this doesn’t fix that and makes it worse.

    • Urthona

      Let’s get a mistrial.

    • R.J.

      “Slap Therapy” sounds like something we would make up as a joke.

    • Urthona

      This is a Monty Python sketch or something.

      • WTF
    • WTF

      In the immortal words of Ron White, you can’t fix stupid.