Saturday evening Links

by | Dec 7, 2024 | Daily Links | 123 comments

If this young man doesn’t get the Heisman trophy, it will be a travesty. On top of generational talent, he is an exceptional human being.

Yes, heads are exploding all over the world of college football. Especially the Big 12, who got aced out of a top four seed and a bye by little Boise State. And then there’s the SEC. Maybe tOSU will get a bowl game somewhere.

Links?

Times, they’re a changin’.

I have really mixed feeling about this. People are rightfully angry, but summary execution isn’t the answer.

I don’t know enough about the guy to have an opinion. But I hope his marching orders are “kill it dead”.

Yes.

Oh, and Jill is there too. Trump has already taken on the mantle and Joe is relegated to bumbling spoiler for the next five weeks.

The Arabs have figured out soccer is gay, why can’t Europe?

Someone in the gubmint knows who’s behind this. I’m thinking part of it is just DARPA testing out drone swarms.

Okay. That’s good for today. Peace out, Glibbies. Have a great evening.

About The Author

Spudalicious

Spudalicious

Survey says I’m a Paleolibertarian bitches. That means I eat “L”ibertarians for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Soave tastes a little fruity. Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound quite right…

123 Comments

  1. Sensei

    I have really mixed feeling about this. People are rightfully angry, but summary execution isn’t the answer

    Me too. But let’s say it was hypothetically some government employee like Fauci?

    What would the reaction here be? We know that MSM would be canonizing him along with much of the left.

    • Nephilium

      I would blame it on the collapse on the belief that the rule of law exists.

    • Spudalicious

      Yeah, I get it. It’s just not me.

    • rhywun

      No mixed feelings here. The folks quoted in the article are soulless monsters. Giddy at the murder of a stranger who represents an industry they have been trained to hate?

      Fuck. Them.

      • Sensei

        I work and worked in insurance. Got my start in claims.

        I can discuss evil greedy claimants and evil greedy insurers in equal measure.

        In no way do I sanction execution. However with healthcare you don’t have the option to litigate for years while a company denies coverage.

        I understand, but don’t condone the hate.

      • R C Dean

        I’m with you, rhy.

        Unrelated pet peeve: He was not a “healthcare CEO”. He was an insurance CEO.

      • rhywun

        I work in insurance too. Well, the IT side.

        Hate is pointless without evidence. There is no evidence that this guy “deserves” what he got.

        The folks in that article are no different from ignorant racists. It is the same collective spirit.

      • Spudalicious

        It’s not the killing part. That’s pretty easy to condemn. The “fuck it, I’m not helping” is where the quandary comes in.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Agreed, rhy. The collective spirit of vengeance is far too scary, far too much.

        I would be happy if I were contemporary and found out Stalin died. I’d be extra, super-duper happy to hear of Pol Pot’s demise. (Hopefully on a shitter. ‘Pol Pot predictably passing on potty’ would be fun.) But it’d have to be that extreme. I was in Korea when Kim Jong-Un died. We kinda added a few jokes to our weekend bar routine, nothing too special, IIRC. The news was certainly followed, but no outward happiness, which we kinda predicted. It’s true, his son is equally stupid. Meh.

      • Sensei

        Me too Spud.

        It’s the lack of empathy, not the glee that I find disconcerting. It would be the same with Fauci.

      • mock-star

        What does the Venn diagram of “People who are OK with assassinating health insurance CEOs” and “People who celebrated SCOTUS upholding the individual mandate for health insurance” look like?

    • Evan from Evansville

      If one pre-meditates and murders a truly evil person, the resulting death isn’t (really?) the outrage — doling out extrajudicial punishment is. (Should be?)

      ‘If I wanna, I can kill *anyone* I like. So there.’ <– And ya prove you're willing and capable of doing such? Yeah. You've revealed you're no longer allowed in society. (I do wish exile were more possible, these days. The ability to truly go out and start all over again for offenses under whatever-level. "My bad. Gotta call a mulligan on that." Murder 1 ain't close unless you're Hunter.)

      • rhywun

        I do wish exile were more possible

        #metoo

      • UnCivilServant

        You exile someone and you risk them coming back with an army to oust you.

        Better to exterminate their whole clan.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Not only do you risk the exiled coming back and wrecking vengeance, you are implicitly sending that person to do the exact same thing somewhere else, so some other group of people.

        Which neither solves the problem, nor removes your moral culpability.

        There is no easy answer to this problem.

      • R C Dean

        There’s certainly a final answer.

    • Evan from Evansville

      The Gnome? I sincerely would be upset. Madness lies that way. I don’t wish ill upon him or his family, health-wise. Besides Fanci +family, the immortality would embolden ‘our’ enemies. Distraction Dust for people to ignore the actual issues I have with Top-Down medical control.

      I don’t find it terribly hard to separate a Man from their Art/Work/ personal life. OJ was a tremendous athlete, perfectly cast in acting roles, and a phenomenal sports businessman. He was also a testosterone-lunatic who brutally murdered his wife with the kids in the house. Both are true and should be remembered. <– True for folk who 'matter,' who influenced society or public figures, $$ Makers, etc. a

      As for the CEO assassin, I gotta admit. Fuck. I'm impressed. I'm a naive virgin in violent crime, but pulling that hit off and being able to disappear in morning Manhattan? Damn. And he pulls it off being young, while cute but unassuming in public? I'm ignorant, but that seems hard as hell to devise, plan and execute. And it's 4+ days and scot free? How much does that cost? (Asking for a friend. (Mossad/similar would also make 'sense.'))

      • rhywun

        Fauci deserves a jail sentence. I am as strongly against execution by a private individual as I am by the government.

    • Ted S.

      One difference is that government has force behind it that even the health insurance companies can’t bring to bear.

      As I like to point out elsewhere when the topic of bullying comes up, the state is the biggest bully of them all. And yet so many people seem suddenly, magically thrilled by bullying when it’s done by the state. Especially if it’s against Icky Class people.

    • DrOtto

      If it’s over claims, I agree; however, I’m still going with old fashioned cheatin’/divorce. He had fairly recently moved out of the house according to exactly one account I have read. Also, his brother’s “no comment” registered as suspect. Yes, I watch a lot of Columbo.

  2. The Late P Brooks

    New O2 sensor is in. I managed to not destroy any connectors or wiring. Put everything back just as it was. Of course, I had to go back to Oreillys to get the correct part. The girl the other day sold me the “downstream” sensor, so the plug was wrong. Apparently they flipflop the connectors so you can’t inadvertently swap them and confuse the ecu.

    I could have waited until there was slush and mud all over the bottom of the car, but I decided to go ahead and do it. now.

    • The Gunslinger

      – “I decided to go ahead and do it. now.”

      Smart. I changed the CVT fluid in the old Prius today. Unfortunately, I didn’t get everything back as it was. Broke a rusty screw that holds the plastic belly pan. There’s plenty of screws and plastic clips though so I left it.

    • DrOtto

      “The girl the other day…” Jesus – I learned that back in 1990 looking for the correct V-belt for a 1977 Impala on the way to spring break. “The girl” is a diversity girl just looking to fuck your shit up in Milwaukee. Ask for the old guy behind the counter.

  3. rhywun

    WWIII started the moment NATO weaponry was used against a country NATO was not previously at war with.

  4. R C Dean

    “Someone in the gubmint knows who’s behind this.”

    That assumes a level of competence that has not recently been on display.

    • rhywun

      “Someone in the gubmint knows who’s behind this.”

      I was thinking the same about the United Health Care guy.

      The murderer escaped on foot, then on a bicycle through Central Park. Either everyone searching for him is uncommonly incompetent or something’s fishy.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Kinda with ya. See my above comments on the difficulty and successful execution: Does Mossad, etc make the ‘most sense?’ Or a cartel hit-man. Many people are furiously writing a script for this. So far, little detail and a fucking interesting story.

      • R C Dean

        Manhattan is a pretty good place to disappear into a crowd.

  5. The Late P Brooks

    I can’t wait to see the coverage of UAW v UAW at the NLRB.

      • kinnath

        First link:

        Employees at the United Auto Workers, the sixth-largest union in America, have gone on strike against the union this week in Manhattan, but you wouldn’t know it from the legacy media’s silence.

        UAW Staff United, which represents hundreds of employees across 34 locals, announced its strike Monday, and Thursday marks the fourth day of picketing in New York City.

        According to UAW Staff United (USU), the strike comes “in response to the bad-faith bargaining committed by the UAW throughout our negotiation process and the retaliatory termination of a union leader.”

      • UnCivilServant

        I see.

        Since the employees of my forced union are represented by the Steelworkers rather than have a misleading name, I thought it was a schism between the leadership and membership rather than a bog standard labor dispute.

        No, I did not follow the links.

      • Gustave Lytton

        It’s funny unions as employers do the same shit they accuse actual companies of doing.

      • DrOtto

        Yeah, the Houston IBEW hired illegals to build their union hall.

    • Nephilium

      Savages? The youths have taken to smuggling in Tullamore Dew from time to time as a change of pace from Fireball.

      • Tres Cool

        West side kids with too much money, clearly.

      • Ted S.

        Jets or Sharks?

    • Ted S.

      I thought it was the Tosu fans who were the savages.

      • Tres Cool

        YOU SHUT YOUR FILTHY WHORE MOUTH!

        TTUN started it….

      • Ted S.

        I wasn’t talking about Saturday, although you could say Tosu started it by losing.

    • Evan from Evansville

      Dad strongly approves. He, 75, got called out once by a neighbor when he took a daylight shit off the trail. He’s still incensed by her assholery. “If I *coulda* used a toilet, do ya think I’d be doin’ this?!” Anger is a rare emotion for him, and it was great to see it come out over that cunt.

      I’m legit on his side. We also live in Deep Prog-land, where one frequently sees the unintentional shittiness of people who truly believe they’re loving, caring and inclusive to a diverse set of humans. (As long as there’s no Divergent Thought. Deal breaker. Well so was droppin’ a divergent deuce near the trail.)
      We buy big packs of Depends and keep ’em around, in the car and in convenient spots. He seems far too accepting of this reality, but that’s him.

  6. Aloysious

    STEVE SMITH sighting over at Powerline.

    I do believe he is after delicious Christmas cookies.

  7. cavalier973

    Looks like Assad is running for the hills.

    • cavalier973

      Someone I follow on Telegram is saying that Reuters is reporting that Assad has hopped onto a cargo plane, but I can’t find the story on Reuters.

      • R.J.

        *Checks spare bedroom

        He’s not over here.

      • Sensei

        https://www.foxnews.com/world/syrian-insurgents-reach-gates-damascus-threatening-decades-long-assad-regime

        Syria’s state media denied social media rumors that Assad left the country, saying he was performing his duties in Damascus.

        Ok…

        U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday posted on social media that the United States should avoid engaging militarily in Syria. Separately, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser said the Biden administration had no intention of intervening there.

        No money in it Joe?

      • rhywun

        Trump on Saturday posted on social media that the United States should avoid engaging militarily in Syria

        I seem to remember Trump Pt. I dicking around in Syria.

      • Spudalicious

        “I seem to remember Trump Pt. I dicking around in Syria.”

        Trump part one involved the Pentagon ignoring him on a number of things. Telling Assad not to use chemical weapons or else, and then launching 59 ICBMs when they did, was Trump following through.

      • DrOtto

        Was it Syria or Kentucky? There seemed to be confusion.

    • Don escaped Memphis

      Another initiative saw Assad dispatch a senior Christian leader to meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to relay what he sees as an existential threat to Syria’s Christian minority if Islamist rebels prevail, according to other people familiar with the plan. The intention was that Orban, a Trump ally, would convey this danger to the incoming US president, they said.

      https://www.yahoo.com/news/syria-besieged-assad-makes-overtures-183029883.html

      Team Assad expects to still be in business in six weeks?

      • cavalier973

        Trump already said that the US should stay out of it.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’s a valid concern but six weeks does seem a tad optimistic.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Christians, like Jews, have been fucked in Islamist Arab Middle East for a while.

  8. cavalier973

    The plane on which Assad is allegedly flying in made some weird turns, then disappeared off radar.

  9. cavalier973

    Al Jazeera is reporting that:

    The rebels freed some prisoners

    Syrian soldiers are fleeing to Iraq.

  10. cavalier973

    Syrian opposition captures Public Radio and TV building in Damascus: Report
    Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report, citing opposition sources, that the rebels have taken over the Public Radio and TV building in the Syrian capital.

    The Public Radio and TV building is an important, symbolic site in Syria.

    Additionally to being in the heart of Damascus, the building was used to announce new governments during Syria’s era or successive coups in the 1950s and ’60s.

    https://aje.io/pq3n3i?update=3371052

  11. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Yeesh, headchoppers in charge of Syria. Definitely not an improvement. I wonder what made their army fall apart when they fought so hard for all those years and had pretty much won.

  12. cavalier973

    The fall of Homs gives the insurgents control over Syria’s strategic heartland and a key highway crossroads, severing Damascus from the coastal region that is the stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.
    Homs’ capture is also a powerful symbol of the rebel movement’s dramatic comeback in the 13-year-old conflict. Swathes of Homs were destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the army years ago. The fighting ground down the insurgents, who were forced out.
    Hayat Tahrir al-Sham commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the main rebel leader, called the capture of Homs a historic moment and urged fighters not to harm “those who drop their arms”.
    Rebels freed thousands of detainees from the city prison. Security forces left in haste after burning their documents.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syria-rebels-celebrate-captured-homs-set-sights-damascus-2024-12-07/

  13. cavalier973

    From my Telegram buddy:

    First statement of the Syrian Transitional Government:

    O free Syrians,

    “After many years of injustice, tyranny and oppression, and after great sacrifices made by the sons and daughters of this dear homeland, today we inform the great Syrian people and the whole world that Bashar al-Assad’s regime has fallen, and that he has fled the country, leaving behind a legacy of destruction and suffering.

    On this historic day, we announce that the forces of the revolution and the opposition have taken over the affairs in the beloved Syria, and we confirm our commitment to build a free, just and democratic country where all citizens are equal without discrimination.

    We pledge before God and before the people the following:
    1. Maintaining the unity and sovereignty of the Syrian territory.
    2. Protection of all citizens and their property, regardless of their affiliation.
    3. Working to restore the state and its institutions on the foundations of freedom and justice.
    4. Strive to achieve total national reconciliation, and return refugees and displaced persons to their homes with security and dignity.
    5. Responsibility for all those who committed crimes against the Syrian people, in accordance with the law and justice.

    We call on the Syrian people to unite and stand together at this historical stage, and we confirm that the new Syria will not be the monopoly of anyone, but a homeland for all.

    Long live free and proud Syria,
    And God’s peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Not good.

    • UnCivilServant

      O free Syrians,

      No such thing, no matter which murderers are in charge.

    • DrOtto

      Crap, I have to beat the dog now before I rightfully claim and eat the oreo?

  14. pan fried wylie

    Where. In the world. Is. Assad San Diego??? *horn riff*

    • cavalier973

      The rebels are claiming that they shot down the plane he was trying to escape on

      • UnCivilServant

        Either produce the body or proof of life.

  15. slumbrew

    Greetings, from Sugarbush!

    I need to thank “Lisa B”, wherever she is, for leaving this AirBnb’s Fire Stick logged into YouTube TV.

    No college ball for me otherwise.

    • rhywun

      “Lisa B”

      Didn’t she have a couple hits in the eighties?

      • rhywun

        lol I don’t know who that is.

        I can’t find the name of the girl from the 80s I thought I was riffing on. Last name “E”?? Oh well.

      • slumbrew

        Shelia E?

      • rhywun

        Shelia E

        Ah, that’s it.

    • R.J.

      Lisa Bonet?

      • slumbrew

        Still would.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        *googles her in 2024*
        Looks a little haggard to be honest, very pretty when she was younger though.

      • R.J.

        Well, slumbrew did use her YouTube TV login. TAANSTAFL.

      • slumbrew

        Hrm, yeah, haggard is apt.

        Still looks like “Angel Heart” era in my head.

  16. cavalier973

    Telegram Dude is saying that Israel has entered the fray.

    • cavalier973

      https://m.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-832419

      Israeli forces reportedly attacked along the Lebanon-Syria border in the town of Qusayr, Syria, Israeli media reported Sunday morning, citing Arab media.
      According to Maariv, Qusayr is the last city before the border with Lebanon, and the main weapons transfer route from Iran through Syria to Hezbollah.
      Its fall would essentially mean the final collapse of the weapons transfer route to Hezbollah.

      • dbleagle

        So the IDF is shutting down another Iran/Hezbollah transfer point. I imagine it is a raid, and they will depart after breaking what they think they must.

  17. creech

    Can we get a comment from Gary Johnson?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      He’s smoking a joint out by the dumpster behind a Circle K in Albuquerque where he’s working the night shift. Go on out there and ask him.

  18. Gustave Lytton

    I think part of the lack of fake mourning for the the UHC CEO is the chump effect. Zero personal accountability, in government or private practice, for fuck ups and failures or wrecking little peoples’ lives. No one commits seppuku, no one falls on their sword, no one resigns because they’re ultimately responsible, no sense of personal honor or shame. And the photos of the CEO come across as a smarmy smug little asshole.

    • Brochettaward

      Honestly, there’s no shame or honor in our society whatsoever. It’s no longer valued. It’s a large aspect of our cultural decline.

    • Mojeaux

      Agreed, but their salaries are part of the resentment. I’m not going to say they do or do not deserve their salaries. I don’t know. But when an insurance company announces it’s going to start nickel-and-diming the little people on anesthesia, you’re pretty sure you know where your money is going.

      Second. They should probably have started a PR campaign on how the government has its hand up the insurance companies’ back. If I were CEO, I’d have started a backburn.

      But third. Many, many people don’t actually know that you cannot be refused care in an ER for inability to pay, so a large swath of the population uses the ER for primary care.

      Fourth. Medicare. No, not Medicaid. Medicare. Everything about it, from regulation to record-keeping to billing to price caps to the fact that the Medicare rolls aren’t going down by much. I don’t know what the margin is, but I bet it’s in the negatives.

      Fifth. These guys lobbied for Obamacare, thinking they’d hit the lottery and now, well … not so much.

      All that said, some people just need killin’. This guy wasn’t one of them.

      • Brochettaward

        He’s generic Healthcare CEO guy. That’s enough for some segments of the population on the right and left.

        But it wouldn’t surprise me if he, in fact, did need killin’ in his own right.

      • Suthenboy

        The whole situation is fucked up. I started thinking of some ways to improve it until I read the line by the hacker dweeb who wont help find the killer justifying it by referencing how awful our ‘privatized healthcare’ is.
        I give up. Shoot ’em all.

      • DrOtto

        I’ll say it – this is where I differ from most libertarians, CEOs are overpaid as fuck. Their salaries are approved by boards, shareholders allegedly oversee the boards, but in reality, it’s mostly BlackRock and Vanguard rubber stamping decisions to reward right-thought. See Elon Musk’s most recent decision against his board approved salary (which I also didn’t think he deserved, but wasn’t a shareholder). I don’t think execution is the answer, but if you go above, I also think it’s good old fashioned divorce that is the culprit in this.

      • cavalier973

        I caught that “privatization” comment, as well, and thought about how health care in the USA was always government-provided until Reagan.

        (I guess Reagan; who else would have turned lovely government health care over to the merciless private sector?)

      • Suthenboy

        I always try to get to the root of the problem.
        We have developed amazing capability with regards to our health and longevity. Sadly it is extraordinarily expensive. We simply do not have enough wealth to pay for the full range of our medical capability for everyone. Why we cannot afford it- Too many people? Too much wealth squandered? Limited growth ideology? That is one of those problems where everyone can see the problem and the solution but no one wants to do it.
        When the reaper comes for someone or their loved one they want to blame everyone else. Remember the Obamacare elderly couple in CA a few years back? “We want everyone to have health insurance, we just didnt know we were going to have to pay for it!”

      • Suthenboy

        I got distracted…of course. Dogs pawing at me to go out so I forgot to add Bastiat: The state is the great fiction by which everyone seeks to I’ve at the expense of everyone else.
        It is worth pointing out that the nature of man assures that the worst kinds of grifters spin that fiction to their advantage.

        We really are just monkeys with silly clothes.

      • DrOtto

        @Suthen – I view health insurance much how I view automotive emissions, we took care of the bulk of the problem years ago, now we are spending exponentially more to get exponentially less back.

      • Ted S.

        Another part of the problem is government and its sycophants displacing the source of the problem from the government (at least, the government’s share of the problem).

        We see the same thing in the wacky idea believed by way too many people that “greedflation” is a thing. Another place is in the amount of hate ginned up for landlords, and the way in which the same groups still agitate for rent control even though it’s been an utter disaster everywhere it’s been tried.

  19. DrOtto

    Well, I just put a bid on a Cadillac car I don’t need, but would love to have. Wish me luck.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Luck.

      You are gonna need it.

    • Tres Cool

      If its a Northstar at or approaching 100K miles, plan on investing in head bolts and studs.

  20. Suthenboy

    A little while back I put my table saw on the back porch to cut some parts for three sets of steps I was putting in. Two were wooden, one concrete.
    When I turned the saw on it sounded….bad. I turned it off. When the saw quit spinning I heard ‘tik’tik’tik’. I looked down and there was a ball bearing bouncing past my foot. So, until I unchoke on the price and buy a new saw hand tools it is.
    I am currently making a photo frame for my wife. I dont mind the hand tools, in fact I like them but the going sure is slow. I see it as a chance to re-learn patience.
    Good morning all. More coffee is needed.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Pull the motor and slap in new bearings. Much cheaper.

      • Suthenboy

        I shall explore this today. I want a better saw. The one I have is a cheapo. I want one that is….you know…square. The one I have is off by 1 degree in every direction no matter what you do to it. It is good enough for framing work for small projects so I will repair it if I can.

    • Ted S.

      I blame Trump.

    • Sean

      Duct tape.

  21. Tres Cool

    suh’ fam
    yo whats goody yo

    TALL SABBATH CANS!

      • Sean

        Sirens stopped.

        *shrug*

    • Tres Cool

      That made me think of this.

      • Sean

        Nice!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Good god, shooting a pizza guy and walking around with the pizza boxes? Stupid doesn’t even begin to describe it.