Spud has arrived for his quarterly visit, and just in time for our traditional New Years Eve. I know this is going to surprise you, but there’s often drinking involved. So we will spend the run-up to the big night doing intense practice. Those livers aren’t going to toughen up by themselves! The twist this year will be the presence of my As-Yet-Not-Nicknamed NPR Prime, who seems to have no problem diving headfirst into alcoholic concoctions. The fact that she’s ethnically Irish with an uber-Irish name is surely a coincidence. Between her and the equally-Irish Spud, (((we))) are badly outnumbered.
Speaking of numbers, birthdays today include a pioneer of Canadian mediocrity; the patriarch of a chemical dynasty; the worst possible combination of talent and pure evil; a guy who, even before Hollywood, truly understood the notion of star power; strong candidate for “smartest human of the 20th century not named Einstein”; everything I hate about what comics became; a guy who knew both sides of being pulled over and hassled by the cops; a woman who opened new channels; the most influential guy in contemporary technology and who was an… unusual person; and a tech innovator whose kernel of an idea probably set the record for making me curse.
Links will also get me cursing.
“We need to prevent the First Amendment from being upheld.”
Some people object when they DO send us their best.
Napoleon wisely observed that sometimes it’s best to stand back and do nothing.
Soy Boy is alarmed. Poor Soy Boy.
“Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself…”
I just can’t watch Blossom Dearie without collapsing into a blubbering mess- she was SP’s favorite and someone whose style on keyboards and vocals was SP’s greatest influence. But you don’t have my baggage, so you can enjoy this unencumbered as the wonderful music that it is.
Dare I say, based?
First Based.
That’s your new nickname!
I thought NPR Prime was her nickname.
That’s more of a serialization, not something distinctive like Tomb Raider or Retread.
I was vaguely aware he is looking for a permanent one but I think ‘NPR Prime’ works fine.
Obstetrgirl?
Nope, she’s not an OB. She’s in charge after the kid is born.
Happy birthday Bryan Adams?
Happy birthday Pablo Escobar?
I was thinking it was going to be DuPont or something — way, way off.
Happy birthday Hedy Lamarr?
That’s Hedley.
DuPont was gunning for it, but his chances went up in smoke after Pat’s selection.
That’s what happens when you buy your first real six string at the 5 and dime. (What can I say? I have a soft spot for some of the poppy rock that’s considered “mediocre” by the purists…. Pop is short for “popular” for a reason! 😉 )
Michael Buble.
You and he both before the corporate influence on the Foundation attempted to dial him back a bit as I understand things (I can’t be bothered to lurk on lkml these days, sorry).
The corporate pressure from the foundation certainly contributed, but his daughter went off to college and became a typical bourgeois campus retard as well, and he’s mentioned how her lecturing has helped him reform. Because the one thing the kernel that runs 2/3 of the world’s internet infrastructure really needs is less meritocracy and more identity politics 🙄️
True enough. Some people are, after all, morons. Or racist. Or racist morons. I don’t think that’s a shocker to anyone here.
That said — the abuse of the tech companies with impossible job listings (so they “can’t find” US workers), contract worker exploitation, etc. over the last few decades makes it a little hard to be in favor of opening up the floodgates so they can insource instead of outsource. If it were only the best and if there was legitimately a tech worker shortage (instead of constant “Company X lays off another 30k, hires cheaper workers” crap), most folks would be fine with it. I’m still fine with making it easier for legitimate talented people who are really looking to come and stay here from whatever nation — but don’t tie it to a company so they can exploit it and don’t lie and say it is because you can’t find talent here (when it, like the “Who will pick the crops?!” crap is really… can’t find at the wages you want to pay instead of negotiating in the labor market and all). Make legal immigration easier and cheaper across the board, not as a sop to the tech VCs.
Rant off.
“Make legal immigration easier and cheaper across the board”
If it was up to me, we would pretty much close off immigration for, say, five years, while we unfuck the mess we have.
I’m such an irredentist that I would also do away with dual citizenship, too. Pick a fucking team, already.
In the end, I am an assimilationist. I don’t think a country can survive with open borders, even though I do believe that libertarian ethics demands it. Of course, it also demands the complete abolition of the state.
Not getting that anytime soon.
I’m with both of you.
Now is the only chance that could happen. The left certainly aren’t interested, nor the country-club right. Trump has four years before the floodgates open wide again.
The left certainly aren’t interested, nor the country-club right.
You just made the case that Congress won’t do anything and Trump can’t.
I’ve been making that case for a long time. (I am a firm believer in Realpolitik.)
Most of the current American-as-the-world’s-septic-tank immigration is being done by granting asylum to every single person who stumbles across the Rio Grande. I don’t think Congress has to do anything to stop that. Not as far as I’d like to go, but a very good start.
Cut off the funding to NGOs, which I am confident can be done administratively at least for a good long time without Congressional action, and self-deportation will go through the roof. Require the NGOs to pass an audit before receiving more money would be a good stopgap. An EO stating that the feds can’t fund indirectly anything they can’t fund directly would put a stop to the de facto welfare-for-illegals programs run by the NGOs, and undoubtedly result in some very interesting court cases.
One of the more humorous aspects to all this is the MSM expecting us to swallow the idea that the hordes of millions are just walking here from all over the world, all on their own. 🙄
Fuck that fucking noise. Thankfully dual passports ain’t going away anytime soon. I may even get a third. Weren’t you talking about moving to Uruguay? I want the freedom to decide and my freedom doesn’t impinge on anyone else’s liberty.
Yeah, those are humorous. Fluent in a dozen languages and able to construct an enterprise system from scratch from start to finish. By yourself.
Yeah. H1-B is corporate indentured servitude.
“smartest human of the 20th century not named Einstein”
Happy Birthday Thomas Sowell?
To be fair, and speaking as a grade-A mediocrity, if H1B holders represent the best we are being sent, then it might be time for a little moratorium on immigration of all types.
To be clear, H1-B isn’t a skills based program, it is a jobs based program. Definitely not the best and brightest only, though I will say they’re usually more skilled than the average person from their home country by a long stretch.
You have to remember that some developing countries have an average IQ of around 85. So even being a 100 IQ person there is pretty significantly better than the average
Ever seen India?
In the sense that installing one should be considered disqualifying in the same way that misspelling your name on a paper IQ test would be.
I only skimmed the article — but it reads that he’s bemoaning what in the US is the GOPe contingent. “Center-right” but happy to go along to get along and having no observable principles besides cocktail party invitations.
They will not be missed.
Without the rational tether of the Mitch McConnells of the world, we will be without a moral anchor in a sea of extremists like Elon Musk.
Old Man reads The Guardian so we don’t have to.
I’m not touching that garbage. But I did get a kick out of this: “the perceived needs of large business interests”. So that’s what Merkel was doing??
For those of you with TCM, today’s Saturday musical at noon ET is Xanadu.
It’s obvious on watching why it was a box office bomb when it was released, but if you’ve never seen it before, it’s a fun disaster.
I’ve never seen it — but I have to confess the ending video with the title tune is more than a little catchy.
Ah, yes – the experience Jeff Lynne leaves off his resume. 😄
Which is a shame, because one of those songs would have been worthy of an Oscar nomination if 1980 weren’t such a strong year for the Original Song category..
I must confess, I DID like “Don’t Walk Away.”
Terrible acting ONJ beside Gene Kelly kicking ass despite being a complete dud.
Clearly trained on a poor model; a real person on the internet would have told him to kill himself.
I thought that it would tell him to have one of the Mario Brothers kill the bully.
Dammit, I thought East Coast drones and higher-than-normal background radiation around New York was our current panic. So behind the times!
“We just can’t understand why increasing government interference in the housing sector and open border policies with giving them free housing has driven up housing prices! We’re flummoxed! Flummoxed, I tell you!”
I have been reliably assured by free market economists that all immigrants, but illegal immigrants in particular, create a self-sustaining positive feedback loop of demand and supply, whereby their wages, even if drastically below present market levels, are immediately spent on goods and services, including housing, leading to an unbridled torrent of capital investment.
Well, the illegals are creating jobs, you know. I’m sure demand for prison guards is through the roof.
“leading to an unbridled torrent of capital investment.”
*Looks at stock market*
They might even be right, but that doesn’t mean it is beneficial to the country at large. Part of that torrent is going right into housing, driving the prices sky high.
whereby their wages
I guess I missed where they were all granted status to work, and that employers have all been willing to hire them on without documentation.
Nor how even assuming you bid up the price of the LOW END of the market, that it would have knock on effects above that.
Also, “driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing” is complete and utter bullshit. The vast majority of them are drug addicts and/or mentally ill, and they are deliberately drawn to places that encourage more of the same.
The article is the same commie screed these types cough up on a regular basis. No, you do NOT have a “right” to demand that I shelter you. Fuck off.
Put ’em in a house and they’ll landscape instead of do drugs I tells ya.
They DID put a bunch of ’em in a new building across the street from me. With exactly the results you would expect.
I am somewhat hopeful that the politicians who care so much will learn from this and put an end to the stupidity before their charges completely trash the place but who knows.
You seem to be confused. They put them in a building across the street from you, not across the street from themselves. The only reason you could possibly have for opposing their generosity and magnanimity is [racism|sexism|xenophobia|transphobia].
lol Actually, the building is next door to City Hall.
The bleeding hearts are very earnest here. Also, very, very stupid.
I can watch reality come crashing home out my living room window.
Oof. Welp… I mean, technically I’m sure most of them only work there, and get to go home afterwards, but to be honest, I kind of admire a principled retard.
Also, there is a convention center on the ground floors, a movie theater next door, and there are tourists all over.
It’s going to get spicy.
They’re bringing in food trucks too?! Somebody tell Katherine Mace-Windu or whatever the hell her name is over at The Bad Place.
“strong candidate for “smartest human of the 20th century not named Einstein”
Wait a minute. It’s not my birthday.
You’re correct.
Since we’re past the half-hour mark: For the cat lovers
Cool link, bro!
Works for me. Perhaps you need to be logged in to see the post?
Ah, yes! Gotta be logged in because “adult content.” 😄
Yup. Logged out, couldn’t see the message. Logged back in and it showed up.
Without the right to hate, there is no free speech
The real lie in all of that is that it is only disapproved hate that is forbidden. Two minutes raging against Immanuel Goldstein is never disallowed.
Quality comment…Hiya, shitheads! Just checking to see if the site was still cooking.
Hey, TH! Glad to see you again.
What’s up, man? You retire yet? Or are you still slugging through medical legalities?
Been fully retired for about six months now. Beats working, as they say.
I’m always a bit OOTL, but it feels like it’s been a while. Hope you’re doing alright.
Hey TH!
Howdy
Welcome back! You’ve been missed. I hope all is well, and that you have a happy new year.
Welcome back Trigger.
About time.
Trump has publicly said he opposes the ban, despite supporting one in his first term as president.
“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points,” he claimed at a press conference earlier in December, although a majority of young voters backed his opponent, Kamala Harris.
Shades of “They’re our jackbooted thugs”.
Music is good. RIP SP.
To be fair, every Chinese firm is “linked to the Chinese government”. That is pretty much how it works there. That is, for example, how the CCP managed to steal so much American IP so easily.
Fascisting Tik Tok to an American company seems wrong for some reason but nobody seems to be questioning that.
And by “linked to,” we mean “has to have a representative of the CCP on its board of directors, and the rest of the board will be hand-picked party acolytes, because nobody else is allowed access to capital.” But that tends to be overlooked by the same sort of libertarian retards who have spent 60 years telling us that the US embargo on Cuba is the only thing holding back an economic juggernaut on the island despite its ability to trade with literally every other country on planet earth, and ignoring that there’s no such thing as FDI there, since the government maintains separate currencies for the tourists and the proles.
“Stop spying on the American public! That’s our job!”
-NSA
To be fair, every Chinese firm is “linked to the Chinese government”.
Yep.
My comment is directed at Trump’s change of heart. “Oh, I can use it to my benefit? It’s not so bad now!”
His biggest sin seems to be that he “downplayed humans’ role in climate change” OH MY GOD!
I wonder if he demanded proof or something – because, you know, there isn’t any.
Never change wikipedia.
Well, one change would be nice – can your “Pledge Week(+)” (Speaking of NPR) beg-a-thon be over already? 🙄
Thanks for zeroing in on the comma I left out by mistake. 😛
Didn’t even notice that. Just tired of the current harangue on every Wiki page.
“Filmmaker Adam McKay has speculated that Donald Trump will ban the widely popular Wicked film when he is in office.
The Big Short director wrote on X Monday that the film starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo was released at a time when the United States ‘has never been more right wing and propagandized’.
‘On a pure storytelling level Wicked Part 1 is right up there as one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made,’ he wrote, before naming other films he placed into that category like Bridge on the River Kwai, The Sound of Music and The Hunger Games.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14231055/Adam-McKay-Donald-Trump-ban-Wicked.html
Severe TDS requires being a narcissist.
In 3-5 years, so it could be Trump or not. Anyway, far enough out that you can’t ever remember to come back and humiliate me for being an idiot!
McKay was a writer for SNL when it abandoned comedy.
It’s equally likely he knows that stink pickle is going to bomb like a Palestinian pager and is engaging in a little preemptive CYA, like the dumb bitch that directed the all-lesbian Charlie’s Angels reboot with the action choreography done by the same team that worked on Golden Girls.
It’s already doing numbers.
Ahh, my bad, I thought he was talking about the sequel. Although I’m fairly surprised the first installment is pulling big crowds. Who knew America was itching for a film version of the shitty stage adaptation of the shitty revisionist bastardization of a century and a quarter old novel that was turned into a lavish Hollywood production that almost no one under 40 has seen.
Pat:
I’m with you. With the massive marketing push (across everything) I was figuring it would be another crash and burn.
But I’m also aware that I do not represent the average consumer.
Every movie he named was not written directly for the screen.
“Initially fearing her clients would be ‘incel-type men… coming to her flat and having creepy sex’ with her, Smith says she ‘queered her up a bit,’ designing a doll with feminist ideals and a mission to teach consent.
‘Often, I find myself taking control by directing the client to get undressed, to come sit on the bed next to me (Kokeshi), to touch my arms, the little dip of my collar bone, or to smell my hair,’ she says.
‘I mention lube is important and say, “Yes, you can touch me there, thank you for asking.” I reward consent and make it a point to bring up how important consent is, even in this context.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14202047/inside-world-ai-sex-doll-brothel-one-big-difference.html
Women will never achieve equality until some guy is #metoo’d by a toaster.
sudo anal
to smell my hair
Angling for the Biden demographic eh?
‘Filmmaker Adam McKay has speculated that Donald Trump will ban the widely popular Wicked film when he is in office.’
Lol, wut? How? The American president has no power over what films studios release. Da fuk is he blathering about?
“Millions of over privileged, affluent progressive women may be radicalized into becoming… progressive…?…By the Power of GraySkull, ban it!”
In his defense, he probably thinks it was alright to ban the Hillary movie.
“Pro-Luigi Mangione vandals defaced the exterior of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s former Upper East Side mansion this week with the three words the accused United Healthcare CEO murderer scratched on to the bullets he used to kill his target: “Deny, defend, depose.”
Red spray paint was used to deface the East 71st Street home’s gilded façade with the phrases “Free Luigi” and “They Fear The People.”
Across the front door, the goons scribbled the three words now synonymous with Mangione’s name: “Deny, defend, depose.””
https://nypost.com/2024/12/28/us-news/pro-luigi-mangione-punks-vandalize-jeffrey-epsteins-former-nyc-mansion-deny-defend-depose/
What does Epstein have to do with medical insurance?
The issue is never the issue, the issue is the revolution.
I wonder how long before the overlap between “Kill the elite pedophiles!” lefties and the NAMBLA “MAPs are an oppressed minority!” lefties starts to become awkward.
““Kill the elite pedophiles!” lefties”
I think that’s mostly on the right.
I’m assuming the Epstein-vandals here were lefties given their solidarity with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s dimwitted young successor, although it’s just as likely they’re just retards who didn’t give it any further consideration than “Epstein bad.”
Yeah, this is just Antifa pivoting their murderous support from Hamas to this guy. They’re probably even reusing their “smash capitalism!” placards from every other recent “action”.
Same fucking crowd every time.
/looks at progressive Jews
It’ll be a while.
Rebels without a clue
*outright, prolonged laughter*
Homelessness and a percieved “affordable housing shortage” are 2 completely different issues. I assure you, anyone with a $3,000 a month crack/smack habit can afford a mortgage, they are just prioritizing differently based on their perceived needs. It gets tiring when supposed “experts” confound the 2 issues.
There is a minority of people who become homeless due to bad circumstances and then get stuck in a doom spiral where they can’t afford to climb out, but having spent some time in direct contact with the problem – one of my dad’s friends having rebooted himself in his 40s as a “homeless rights advocate” after finally obtaining a degree in social work after 12 (yes, 12) years – the vast majority are either, as you said, drug addicts suffering the consequences of bad choices, or people with some form or other of what we euphemistically call “mental illness.”
I’ve habitually supported homeless shelters and temporary housing providers that primarily work with families, kids, and battered women, even with the understanding that some portion of it is getting squandered, but the masters of the universe who think we’re perpetually one public park full of
insulated Home Depot sheds“tiny homes” for “the unhoused” from solving homelessness are high level morons.Yeah, I’ve been one small step short of “on the street” several times in my life both in childhood and adulthood. I do recognize that shit happens.
But like Otto says there, the grifter class deliberately conflates multiple issues for reasons. And it pisses me off.
My town is rather expensive (by design, natch) but that’s not the cause of its homeless problem. The cause of its homeless problem is coddling drug addicts and attracting them from all over the region.
My compassion has run out on this particular issue. Wanna sleep in public park and use heroin all day? OK fine. But you better not litter, take a shit on the sidewalk, aggressively panhandle or step out of line one iota or you’re off to jail. If you’re violent, you’re off to jail and we’ll throw away the key. If you’re schizophrenic or some other flavor of crazy and refuse to take your meds, you’re off to a padded cell with an IV drip of Haldol for the rest of your miserable life.
Fuck the pseudo-“compassion” we have right now. And yeah, none of this sounds particularly libertarian, but the hands-off approach has failed so spectacularly we’re in for a backlash.
And one other thing: no more Narcan carrying cops or public shoot-em-up stations. If you’re dumb enough to get addicted to a deadly drug, become homeless as a result and then OD; I’d prefer you die in the gutter so we can feed you to livestock and be done with you.
I’ve had it myself.
The people who claim to “care” just keep making the problems worse. It’s almost like they don’t actually care.
And no harm reduction which is little more than providing the tools to continue that addition.
“Safe injection sites” are of a different character than Narcan. I don’t necessarily think there should be a requirement that imposes any liability on a cop or anyone else to assist a drug addict with OD, but it’s pretty safe and readily available, so anyone who desires to should be able to keep and dispense it (just like the drugs it counteracts). Individuals interacting as such.
“A violent teen with an extensive criminal history has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a 14-year-old boy, tying him to a tree, and disembowling him at a park in Everett, WA, a city located just north of Seattle. The suspect was released from custody by a Seattle judge just two weeks prior to the alleged offense despite the prosecutor’s objections.
Millorz Canales, 17, of Snohomish County, has been charged with first-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping, and robbery. He has been accused of luring the victim to Lions Park on December 17, repeatedly stabbing him, cutting out his organs, and leaving the victim to die while hanging from a tree, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by the Snohomish County Prosecutors Office.
Prosecutors also charged his alleged co-accomplice Hayden Lusebrink, 17, of Snohomish County, with the same charges. The 14-year-old victim was able to untie himself and ran to the nearest house, where the homeowner called 911, Komo News reported.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/gang-affiliated-teen-kidnaps-14-year-old-ties-him-to-tree-disembowels-him-2-weeks-after-seattle-judge-released-suspect-from-custody-prosecutors
Not attempted murder?
That was my first thought as well. “No, it’s OK, he wasn’t trying to kill him, he just wanted to eat his small colon.”
JFC!
“Boston University (BU) is set to offer a graduate level course that features the topics of “trans saints” as well as “gender fluid angels.” The course, generally named “Medieval Trans Studies,” earns credit for a Ph.D. in English.
The Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences will teach the “Medieval Trans Studies” course in the upcoming semester, as first reported by Campus Reform. During the course, graduate level students will learn about “the deep histories of transgender embodiment” using text sources from the Middle Ages.
“Expect to read about alchemical hermaphrodites, genderfluid angels, Ethiopian eunuchs, trans saints, sex workers, and genderqueer monks,” the course description said. “We will consider together how these medieval texts speak to the historical, theoretical, and political concerns that animate contemporary trans studies.””
https://thepostmillennial.com/boston-university-offers-medieval-trans-studies-course-highlighting-trans-saints-genderfluid-angels
WTF?
They’ve been latched onto the “Jesus was queer and had a harem of 12 sweaty men” thing for 40 years now. Matthew 19:12 was pretty ripe for the plucking in service of [current sexual thing].
Your Masshole tax dollars at work.
BU is private. There is a state funded grant for tuition assistance, and I’m not sure how much money is there, but otherwise BU receives no state funding. Any government funding comes from research grants from the Feds.
So it’s *all* of our tax dollars at work!
Yeah, the rot goes way beyond whatever tax dollars happen to be feeding it.
Yep.
Even better, when the Omicron variant of Lil Rona was circulating, researchers at a Federally funded BU lab engaged in a little gain of function research to make a variant of Lil Rona. The variant turned out to be more deadly to mice but less deadly to humans.
The usual suspects said this isn’t technically gain of function research because the variant produced was less deadly to humans.
“A 22-year-old pizza delivery driver, Brianna Alvelo, has been arrested in Kissimmee, Florida, after allegedly stabbing a pregnant woman 14 times following a dispute over a $2 tip.
The altercation began when the victim, staying at the Riviera Motel with her boyfriend and 5-year-old daughter, ordered a pizza totaling $33.10.
She handed Alvelo $50, expecting change, but was informed that the delivery service did not provide change.
After searching for smaller bills, the victim managed to tip Alvelo $2, which reportedly displeased the delivery driver.
Alvelo reportedly “rolled her eyes and walked away without saying anything,” according to Scottish Sun.
Later that night, Alvelo returned to the motel with a masked male accomplice armed with a firearm. They forced their way into the room, with the accomplice ordering the boyfriend into the bathroom.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/12/pizza-delivery-driver-brianna-alvelo-arrested-stabbing-pregnant/
When keeping it real goes too far.
Another case that has me questioning my opposition to the death penalty….
See, also, the Everett WA case above.
There’s nothing wrong with death penalty being applied at the moment of the crime, by the intended victim. Just sayin’…
*scrolls up*
*vomits*
Talk about holding a grudge. She came back later that night, after rounding up some muscle.
Hey, there was a $50 bill just begging to be taken.
“As-Yet-Not-Nicknamed NPR Prime”
When in doubt, go with “Sugar Tits”.
https://archive.is/KfMDp
Silicone Saturday.
I suspect we can do better. I asked our resident writing pro, Mojeaux, to help me with a suggestion.
“ULTRA-NPR”
Calico Jack it is!
Is she of more pulchritudinous posterior or bathykolpian bust?
#8 has that late aughts Keira Knightley heroin chic thing happening. Stick a fork in Pat…
Vagina and female penis night instead?
https://thepostmillennial.com/bay-area-restaurant-closes-after-gender-discrimination-lawsuit-over-ladies-night
You can find a judge to screw up anything. What a mess. I fully support ladies nights, it’s a great ploy to get single women in a bar to meet single men.
https://youtu.be/bLnUJQut-kc
In saner times, sure.
In present day? All bets are off. Turnabout is fair play. Etc. etc.
Kinda surprised that didn’t happen sooner even under federal antidiscrimination law, tbh.
a tech innovator whose kernel of an idea probably set the record for making me curse
Happy birthday Avie Tevanian!
Happy birthday Eugene Funk
The whole “cElL fOnZ mEsS uP tHuH aYvEeYoNiKz!” excuse was always bullshit; the main reason was to keep people from having annoying conversations on their phones all flight. Which is pretty amusing by itself anyway since at cruising altitude the chances of getting a signal are almost nil.
https://www.popsci.com/science/is-airplane-mode-necessary/
Do we really have to ask?
If it was pitched as such it would probably enjoy broader support, if anything.
Thinking back, I’ve never actually carried a cell phone onto a plane. Things have changed a bit in the last 19 years.
“If you’re schizophrenic or some other flavor of crazy and refuse to take your meds, you’re off to a padded cell with an IV drip of Haldol for the rest of your miserable life.”
A huge problem is when disagreeing with the government is considered a flavor of crazy.
In a perfect world, everyone who worked on and approved this would be sized up for a lamppost. I’d settle for expelled from govt employment and forever banished from any remuneration via tax dollars (no matter how extensively laundered).
In a perfect world, the people who perpetrated a decade and a half of warrantless spying and then blatantly lied about it in congressional testimony would have already been swinging from a lamp post as a warning to the fuck hats that would eventually become CISA.
I have to admit, as a younger lad, I went along with the whole “First of all, there’s no way the government even has the technology to do that, and even if they did, you really think they’re going to waste those resources spying on your emails to your grandma?” bullshit that everyone trying to cover for the feds was peddling. And then the Snowden leaks came out. I ended up with considerable egg on my face with some of my political interlocutors of that era. And then… nothing else happened. Faced with the incontrovertible evidence that the government had been collecting bulk data without a warrant and lying about it since the Patriot Act, the collective reaction was “Haha, yeah, so what? I don’t care if my FBI agent sees my scat porn LOL!” The astonishing lack of any expectation of privacy among people under 30 is just mind boggling to me.
Winning ticket for $1.22 billion lottery jackpot sold in California, Mega Millions says
They’re partying n Sacramento.
It gets crazier. CISA documented that it deprecated the study of Jay Bhattacharya from May 2020 that showed that Covid was far more widespread and less dangerous than the CDC was claiming, thus driving down the Infection Fatality Rate within the range of a bad flu. This was at a time when it was widely assumed to be the black death. CISA weighed in to say that the study was faulty and tore down posts about it.
*feigns surprise*
Race to the bottom
There are many reasons why health insurance goes a shorter distance in the U.S. than anywhere else. But we often overlook two key factors: anti-competitive practices by hospitals and a doctor shortage deliberately engineered decades ago.
The first problem is that hospitals in the U.S. do not compete for patients with respect to price.
——-
Throughout the late 20th century, again and again, the American Medical Association, the doctors’ lobby, claimed that the U.S was “on the verge of a serious oversupply of physicians.” They demanded in 1997 that the U.S. train fewer physicians (as many as 20 percent fewer), and — training jobs for medical school graduates — declined or remained flat from 1970 to 2010 even though medical students became more competitive and far more qualified.
This is worth reiterating: There are more qualified medical students willing to become physicians than ever. But the American Medical Association asked our government to stop training them by fiat, like a cartel.
Open market competition in health care? That’s crazy.
I got called a lunatic for pointing this out over at Reason something like 15 years ago now. Boy do I hate being right all the time.
Legit LOL.
https://archive.fo/dZO7Q
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/28/bidens-lonely-battle-to-sell-american-democracy/
Yearning for the good old days
The US hasn’t learned lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic that it could use to mitigate the threat of pathogens like H5N1 bird flu that keep showing signs of their own pandemic potential, health experts told CNN Friday.
“We kind of have our head in the sand about how widespread this is from the zoonotic standpoint, from the animal-to-human standpoint,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator under President Donald Trump, said on “CNN Newsroom” with Pamela Brown.
——
That the H5N1 virus has already spread so rapidly among cattle, though, suggests “the USDA has basically dropped the ball, big-time,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, in an interview with CNN Friday. “I think it was out of fear to protect the industry. And they thought it was going to burn out, and it didn’t.”
Osterholm also said the US and others around the world should have done more to examine lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, and to accelerate work improving flu vaccines.
If they say so…
Rhy said, “His biggest sin seems to be that he “downplayed humans’ role in climate change” OH MY GOD!”
Somewhere a while back I found the stat that 95% of the CO2 in the lower atmosphere was from natural sources. I’ve noticed that this doesn’t seem to be the easiest information to find (and I realize it is probably a guess) but if there was a true desire to find the truth we would be able to easily find such figures and the reasoning given behind them. It is never mentioned for some reason, so it makes me think that number is probably fairly accurate.
Looking at the cycles of ice ages and warm periods we are exactly where we should expect to be. In about 2-5K years the earth will be ice-free. In another 30K years we will have a mile of ice over Wisconsin. The climate is driven by the sun. The gods are not angry. Sacrificing prosperity and liberty wont change anything.
The reason the global warming assertion has all of the earmarks of a scam is because…..it’s a scam.
Just to cap it off —–> Electric cars are a war on freedom of movement. The whole scheme of electric vehicles will never work. Large scale transport, heavy equipment etc will never work.
The ocean of bullshit we are barely treading in is wide and deep.
A mile of ice over Manhattan would be a feature, not a bug.