190 Comments

  1. Shpip

    At issue is an April 2019 executive order issued by King County Executive Dow Constantine, which directed county officials to prohibit fixed base operators on a county airfield near Seattle from servicing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flights used to deport illegal foreign nationals.

    Y’know, if you obstruct local law enforcement when they’re investigating a traffic accident or something, you usually get a ride to jail for your trouble. Do it to the feds, however, and crickets.

    Maybe Dow Constantine needs a 5 AM raid on his house and a few million in legal bills to get his mind right.

    • rhywun

      I have a strong feeling that all of King County Executive Dow Constantine’s extensive blather about how “inclusive” and “affordable” they are is the exact opposite of the truth.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

  2. Shpip

    “For me it was a call to action. A need to get this locked in so I don’t have to live in fear that at any moment some random guy can completely destroy my life,” Ixora said.

    “For me the idea of getting pregnant is worse than death. I’m doing what I can to protect my right to choose. I am choosing me,” she added.

    If only there were ubiquitous, nearly-free methods of preventing pregnancy.

    • Nephilium

      For me it was a call to action.

      To avoid pregnancy, I would think inaction would work a little better.

      • juris imprudent

        You paused to think, she chose action.

      • Fourscore

        I doubt she is seeing much action anyway. That door closed sometime in the past.

      • juris imprudent

        A woman can have as much action as she wants, there are always very indiscriminate men available.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Eden Ixora…creates content for OnlyFans

      The news fell for her monetization of her speech and she just got nationwide attention for something she is not going to do.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Yep. Any advertising and all that.

    • SarumanTheGreat

      DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND??? PREGNANCY IS A DISEASE!!!

      • Nephilium

        Like when you get hit by a bus?

    • R C Dean

      I can think of one universally available, completely free method of preventing pregnancy.

      • Ted S.

        Throwing herself off a cliff?

      • R C Dean

        Also, that.

      • Drake

        If guys would take our advice and stop sticking it in crazy, this wouldn’t be an issue.

    • The Other Kevin

      Is she talking about rape? Like some random guy can rape her and she’d be forced to carry a baby? That almost makes sense, if you hit yourself in the head with a hammer enough times.

      • juris imprudent

        She has that Handmaid fantasy in her head. A hammer might be the only way to get rid of it.

    • Tonio

      I am choosing me

      Yes, yes you are. And under these circumstances that’s a good thing.

      • The Other Kevin

        This is another one of my “briar patch” stories. We should be encouraging this behavior.

  3. SDF-7

    Major News Outlet Tied To First Trump Impeachment Exposed For Taking Huge Funding From State Department

    Certainly raises the question of whether there was some trailblazing into new lands there…..

    • rhywun

      “[government support] is not the norm in journalism in the United States”

      Sure, Jan. 🙄

      • Tonio

        NPR has a rare moment of dead air.

      • Not Adahn

        The local weekly “journalists forum” on WAMC is all-in on government funding to “keep independent media alive.”

    • The Other Kevin

      What percentage of those “omnibus” budgets go to fund off the books shit like this? While I’m hopeful DOGE can unearth some things, I’m expecting them to find a lot of holes where money has disappeared.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Some of those holes are so big, getting near them might be a form of suicide.

        A lot of dark money that very bad people are dependent on.

  4. SDF-7

    Ninth Circuit rules in favor of federal deportation

    I’d settle for just divesting most of the Federal jobs… deporting them seems a bit much.

    (/sarc off) Nice to see the Ninth can recognize the obvious ones… interesting timing on that ruling, I have to say. I can’t really imagine it was planned per se (given how long it takes such cases to wind through the system and all) — but it preemptively takes the wind out of “sanctuary” pols in advance, doesn’t it?

    • LCDR_Fish

      Interesting given that the 9th was the one pre-emptively blocking the “muslim ban” in 2016/2017. Didn’t think the membership had shifted that much the past few years.

  5. Shpip

    The industry has also faced federal pressure attacking both supply and demand. The EPA’s power plant rule that was finalized in April requires carbon capture on all existing and new coal plants, but the agency’s own modeling showed that these technologies wouldn’t be deployed on any new plants and only one existing one through 2055.

    Sounds like the EPA is ripe for some more Chevron non-deference.

  6. WTF

    Ontario Town Fined For Refusing To Celebrate Pride Month

    You will wear the ribbon!!

    • slumbrew

      Who doesn’t want to wear the ribbon?!

  7. juris imprudent

    While OCCRP says it was initially funded in 2007

    Ah, W‘s State Department and then Obama and Trump. Not to mention it was Congress appropriating all of those funds.

    • Ownbestenemy

      We don’t mention Congress’ role…ever.

      • WTF

        You can’t expect them to actually read and understand whatever appropriations bill they’re voting for!

      • juris imprudent

        Nope, we just expect a strongman presidency to roll right over Congress. That will set right everything wrong!!!

  8. juris imprudent

    Very good news.

    …a Wisconsin court has approved a subpoena to the massive Democrat fund-raising platform ActBlue, saying it owes an explanation to a Republican whose email identity was used to make liberal donations he did not authorize.

    “Something is not right,” Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad D. Schimel declared as he approved a limited demand for documents and opened a new front into a widening fund-raising probe begun earlier this year by Congress and 19 attorneys general.

    • WTF

      Wait, I know this one: “And nothing will happen.”

      • AlexinCT

        That was my experience 10 plus years ago pointing out I had never made a political donation, let alone some serious money to a bunch of democrats not in my state.. The records disappeared and the usual team blue crooks told me to go away.

  9. juris imprudent

    From ESPN inadvertently giving insight into the doom of Britain…

    Kian Holt, 19, of Medlar-with-Wesham has been charged with a public order offence under S3 Football Offence Act 1991 (tragedy chanting).

    and

    Crystal Palace and England centre-back Marc Guéhi will escape an English Football Association (FA) charge after writing “I love Jesus” on his rainbow-coloured captain’s armband for Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to Newcastle United.

    Doomed, DOOMED I say.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Sigh. What did PopeJimbo do now?

      • slumbrew

        My first thought.

      • The Other Kevin

        He’s in Japan, not South Korea!

        Evan, on the other hand… we’re not sure what kind of sleeper cells he left behind.

      • Ted S.

        More like sleeper kidney stones.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Fear not: My seed is strong. (I will ask remaining agents what’s up.)

        Korea’s response to COVID was utterly fucked and predictable. Will never forget scores of scooter drivers frenetically wheeling about, often on the sidewalk for deliveries, going whatever speed they like … while wearing masks but no helmet.) Folk there will go along with whatever Daddy Gov’t says, frankly. –> US pols dream of having a NoKo neighbor: Just lock up shop and everyone will do what you say out of fear. Once The People are used to it, it becomes the entrenched base state. Ride along for the Greater Good. (Bit Americans won’t ever understand: South Korea is about 95% pure Korean, a homogeneity that kinda-sorta allows for a stronger central government. (Also helps SoKo has 55M people in the size of Indiana. I admit I miss such population density and 24/7/365 stores every 50 feet. Well. I have a car again, so THERE, SoKo.)

      • Evan from Evansville

        Dammit, Ted. Don’t reveal my party trick just yet.

        My sleepers lie in wait. Amongst you. Within you. Extraction remains secret.

      • Gustave Lytton

        He did vacation over on Jeju.

    • rhywun

      “People Power Party”

      That sounds sinister.

      • R C Dean

        Sounds like an opening act on a Parliament Funkadelic tour.

      • ElspethFlashman

        I thought we were the People’s Party of Power?

      • Evan from Evansville

        SPLITTER!!

    • Drake

      I saw that and have no idea who is doing what or why.

    • Drake

      Funny how all this is happening during the alme duck period. Syria heating up, color revolution in Georgia, and now this.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Korean president is also a lame duck. Lost the election and apparently just vetoing everything the opposition has passed – won’t pass a budget and now arbitrarily wants martial law that the opposition also opposes.

        Not the old standard students rioting in the streets and cops shooting them that we had back in the 80s.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Not the old standard students rioting in the streets and cops shooting them that we had back in the 80s.

        Ah, the good ole days!

  10. rhywun

    “Transgender care for minors”

    Stop that.

    Minors are not “transgender” and what’s being done to them is not “care”.

    • R C Dean

      If you translate, as I do, “transgender” to “fake” (as in “transgender woman” = “fake woman”), then it works. Better, anyway.

    • AlexinCT

      The pedo movement is strong.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Yes.

      There’s no such thing as a trans-kid. That’s an abused kid with parents who should be jailed.

  11. Suthenboy

    Random thought: Wife watching Harry Potter last night. The scene where the master wizard dies has Harry Potter over his body while everyone else, students and teachers standing back respectfully watching Harry mourn. Give him some room, give him this special moment etc.
    What makes Harry so special? He is the protagonist. He is the character the target audience is supposed to sympathize with, the character members of the audience would be if they were in the story. Harry is special. He is more special than any of the other students. The teachers are there for Harry. I get it, it is a common story telling technique. What struck me were the teachers. Why would they stand back and give Harry that special moment? They have much longer friendships and deeper relationships with the dead wizard. He was their friend and colleague more so than Harrys.
    It had such a strong flavor of “Everything is all about me” that it left a bad taste in my mouth.

    I mention this because that seems to be at the root of all of the virtue signaling, the tranny lunacy, women self-sterilizing etc on the left. It makes me think that martyrs are really all about themselves. One of the symptoms I noticed about mentally ill people, no matter what flavor of crazy they are they are every one of them completely self-absorbed. So much so that it burns out people that are really very sympathetic to the mentally ill.
    Women self-sterilizing huh? They aren’t doing that over Trump. They are doing it so that they can be the center of everyone’s attention. I am like…Pontius Pilate? One of the Caesar’s? I forgot who said it – *facepalm* “There is nothing so tiresome as a martyr”.

    We are stuck with at least two generations of Harry Potter’s. God save us.

    • AlexinCT

      What makes Harry so special?

      The author of that drivel, J. K. Rowling, making it so..

      I have nothing against that lady finding a whole bunch of people that think those books of hers are great (even though she never does the R.R. Martin and endlessly describe people’s cocks as South Park immortalized), and respect the supposed joy she brought to many, but I always thought that crap to be lame and trite. They needed some banter about selling Dwarf cocks and having an economy that had a cock merchant.

      • The Last American Hero

        It was a big deal when the house elf was given clothes. You just have to read more carefully.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      This take is almost as weird as those who are obsessed with everything Harry Potter.

      • The Last American Hero

        It’s just as nutty as the Star Wars obsession that some people who are a little older have.

        It’s could be the result of us living in a decadent society where our basic needs are met and there is no great cause to throw our energy into, so people identify with literary heroes to feel a sense of purpose.

        Or it could be that these same people would be burning people at the stake for witchcraft 400 years ago because they need to feel useful and heroic.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        We’ve had literary heroes for a lot longer than the modern, decadent West. Jesus is a literary hero, FFS.

    • rhywun

      To be fair, IIRC Harry rejected the idea that he was “special” many times throughout the series.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I don’t know if rejected is the right term. I think he never understood why he was special and didn’t feel special in some way.

    • EvilSheldon

      Weslyne should have offered to tone down her hair, right after the assistant chief tones down his waistline…

  12. The Other Kevin

    “Liberal Women Are Undergoing Sterilization and Blaming Trump: ‘Election Tied My Hands’”

    More like “Election Tied My Tubes”.

      • dbleagle

        Nope. That is not a Federal crime so Papa biden’s pardon does not apply. The state of Cali can go after him. (Can, but won’t.)

      • juris imprudent

        dbleagle – the Franchise Tax Board will, unless Greaseball reels them in.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Hey TOK, I came up with a new name for your sled team. The Black Hocks! As in Hockey!

      Have a picture of a big, black puck on your jerseys, or, get this, an Oreo. People can call you the Black Honks then!

      • Evan from Evansville

        Solid. I love the idea of a logo with a grizzled player hockin’ a loogie with his stick on the ice. Just add some spit squiggles out of the dude’s mouth.

  13. Common Tater

    “Three women gave evidence at trial of being invited back to an Airbnb the Hawell brothers, David and others were staying at before being sexually assaulted by multiple men in a dark bedroom.

    The incidents took place over two nights the Sydney-based friends stayed in Newcastle, with a jury finding two women were raped on the first evening and another on the second.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14151325/maurice-hawell-gang-rape.html

    Why didn’t they just leave?

    • AlexinCT

      Because it only became rape after they were exposed as sluts?

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Maybe their tubes hands were tied?

    • juris imprudent

      FFS (from embedded link)

      Miss A said she exchanged phone numbers and Snapchat details with Matt and days later sent him naked pictures of herself.

      ‘I still wanted to get to know him,’ she said. ‘He was still cool and funny.’

      Oh yeah, totally normal reaction to rape.

      • Common Tater

        Rape, like racist, is basically a meaningless word at this point.

  14. AlexinCT

    How democrats win elections, even in places they are not the majority: you keep “finding” and counting ballots till team blue wins…

    In Orange County, California, after weeks of counting, the conservative county ended up with five Democrats and one Republican winning US Congress seats.

    That delayed counting shit is a feature of the election rigging machine.

    • Ted S.

      Meanwhile, Ireland held its election with a complicated system of ranked-choice voting and multi-member districts, and got all its counting done in three days.

    • Ozymandias

      JI should be along any minute to tell you how this was completely legit and it’s that the Dems had more voters.
      Everyone knows there’s no cheating in US elections.

      • juris imprudent

        California is perfecting the Chicago model.

    • juris imprudent

      What conservatives live in Orange County anymore? I mean, sure it used to be that, but then California also elected Reagan, twice.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Seems pretty conservative still from listening to Will Swaim and David Bahnsen on Radio Free California – maybe not as much as some of the other surrounding cities. Given that it’s such a large county – I think there are some disparities.

      • Nephilium

        Well, it was conservative (and expensive) enough to drive my niece and her husband to move back to Ohio after a year or so.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Blah blah blah Supreme Court “trans rights” case!

    Jayziss. You’d think fifty million lives are on the line.

  16. PieInTheSky

    In Romanian election drama no one cares about, after calling for a recount the Constitutional Court decided to let the second round of the presidential election to go on as is on Sunday.

    The parliament is a mess with the “nationalist” parties having 32%, the old guard parties having some 37%, center right reformists 13%, Hungarians 7% and other minorities the rest.

  17. Common Tater

    “An Ohio woman who ate a cat in a viral video that fueled rumors of Haitian migrants eating pets was sentenced to one year in prison on Monday, as a judge hit out at her for the gruesome act.

    Allexis Ferrell, 27, was arrested at a housing complex in Canton on August 16, when she was caught on police body camera footage crouching on all fours and biting into a cat.

    Police later determined that Ferrell had smashed the cat’s head with her foot and then began to eat it, according to a police report obtained by the Canton Repository.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14151249/Allexis-Ferrell-ate-cat-Springfield-Haitian-rumors-sentenced.html

    She didn’t even skin and cook it?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s actually a bit of a travesty that she was sentenced to jail. A mental institution is what’s called for here.

      • Nephilium

        You mean one more contained than Ohio?

    • PieInTheSky

      Is that illegal? And what drugs were involved?

    • Jarflax

      Ohio Criminalizes Eating Pussy: News at 11.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Oh man, you’re going down!

      • WTF

        I see we have a pair of cunning linguists here.

  18. Stinky Wizzleteats

    “She told the outlet she is making plans to have a bilateral salpingectomy, which is a procedure to have both of her fallopian tubes removed.”

    She has to destroy her reproductive freedom in order to save it. Hope you don’t regret it when the clock really starts ticking and the realization sets in that pets ain’t quite kids.

    • PieInTheSky

      Ladies there is nothing wrong with anal as contraception. No need to be rash.

      • AlexinCT

        What’s the difference between a microwave and anal sex?

        The microwave does not brown your meat.

    • juris imprudent

      has to destroy her reproductive freedom

      It was the Democratic party running Viet Nam in the time of “we had to destroy this village to save it”, and they’ve been running with destroying democracy to save it, so this is just personalizing the political.

  19. PieInTheSky

    “AI risk” is a leftist issue, because the moral childishness is exactly the same as “climate risk”: AI superintelligence is SO dangerous we need to shut down the tech industry, but not dangerous enough to do anything rude to Chinese spies

    https://x.com/QuasLacrimas/status/1863190873900507455

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Meee meee meee!

    He was a high school biology teacher in Tucson, Ariz. and his students’ near-constant smartphone use was taking a toll on his well-being. So when summer rolled around after his eleventh year in the classroom — he quit.

    “I came to realize that the phone addiction that the students were struggling with was causing severe mental health problems for me, preventing me from being a good husband,” Rutherford said.

    He’s helpless. Helpless, I tell you!

    • R C Dean

      I like that she refers to it as a fun hobby. Strikes me as a healthy outlook on a fashion.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Are you now, or have you ever been…

    He continued to promote Trump’s stolen election theory in the years afterward despite Trump Attorney General William Barr’s assurances that the Justice Department could not find any evidence of widespread fraud claimed by Trump and his allies.

    Patel has called for closing the FBI’s headquarters in Washington, DC, and firing its top ranks. He would transfer the bureau’s leadership authority to FBI outposts in other parts of the country.

    Padilla says those views cross a red line for him.

    “I know how I’m going to vote for someone who believes in conspiracy theories, denies the results of the 2020 election, and then says, ‘I’m going to run the FBI by shutting down FBI headquarters.’ Are you kidding me?” he said.

    Who knows what that guy might investigate?

    • slumbrew

      Oh, suddenly the standard is “widespread” fraud? Because I’m sure it was “there was no fraud”.

      “There is no cannibalism in the British navy, absolutely none…”

      • Gustave Lytton

        Just like there are no illegals registered to vote or actually vote. Oh whoops, there are and they did.

    • The Other Kevin

      These people don’t realize how fortunate they are. If Trump were as much of a dictator as they say, he’d set up his own Disinformation Board to censor lefty social media and “news”, and send the FBI after the clearly corrupt Democrat party.

    • juris imprudent

      In the end, Patel’s nomination will come down to Senate Republicans, not Democrats.

      Bwahahahaha – so everything I said means jackshit because there was never any chance I would vote to affirm ANY Trump appointee.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Yeah. None of this outcry is news. None of them were gonna vote to confirm any of them to begin with. You know….for (D)emocracy!

    • The Other Kevin

      I see the Dems are continuing the gaslighting. Now their position is “The Federal government is super effective, efficient, nonpartisan, and not wasting any money.” Once again, we are called upon to not believe our own eyes.

      • WTF

        Tradition also locates his burial place where the Basilica of Saint Peter was later built, directly beneath the Basilica’s high altar.

        So I’m guessing the rest of that post is also bullshit.

    • slumbrew

      St. Peter’s tomb is under St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City.

      That aside, I’d like to hear the Israeli version of events. “Israel has obliterated” could just as easily be read as “Israel blew up the munitions we were storing…”

  22. Common Tater

    “Behold the Hundreds of Crimes for Which Hunter Biden Just Got Pardoned

    The laptop report’s author, Garret Ziegler, who the Bidens are now suing, lists in a grid more than 53 business crimes from 2011 to 2018. He includes who’s involved, accomplices, venue, and the U.S. statutes broken and which federal law enforcement ignored.

    The laptop lists 40 of the shell companies believed to have been created through which the Biden family and Hunter’s partner received and disbursed money.

    There are multiple Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS) reports from 2011 in which millions of dollars were red-flagged by JP Morgan Chase Bank to the feds because the series of transactions (some to foreign prostitutes) smacked of money laundering or other illegal activity.

    Hunter’s laptop showed he had violated federal human trafficking laws for transporting hookers across state lines for the purpose of having sex….”

    https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2024/12/02/what-crimes-did-hunter-biden-get-aw-n4934767

    Cocaine is a helluva drug.

    • PieInTheSky

      Cocaine is a helluva drug. – also expensive if you want the good stuff. As are the young ladies of negotiable affection. It does not do for a Biden to get low quality cooch. So money be needed.

      • slumbrew

        The good new is “no” – the pardon doesn’t cover civil lawsuits.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Isn’t the pardon for anything between 2014-2024? 2011 would be outside of that unless the statute of limitations expired.

  23. PieInTheSky

    Daniel Hannan
    @DanielJHannan
    Your regular reminder that, had the world followed France and built nuclear reactors half a century ago, there would now be no rows about decarbonisation, no IPCC, no Greta Thunberg marches.
    The whole problem was created by the green movement.

    https://x.com/DanielJHannan/status/1863927963814666406

    Oh, there would still be Greta Thunberg marches. They would just be about something else.

  24. Common Tater

    “The transgender surgery industry is projected to reach a $5 billion value by the end of the decade, and the medical industry doesn’t want to give up that cash cow, no matter how harmful the “treatments” are. Unfortunately, at least 16 states (including some that are considered red) are ready and willing to lavish taxpayer money on the trans-ing of youth, encouraging the woke fantasy that a person can alter his biological sex through medications and genital mutilation. Under the Biden-Harris administration, transgender “interventions” went up 60% across 15 states.

    The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) filed public records requests and on Dec. 2 revealed their findings — namely, that 16 states spent over $165 million on “gender transition services” through medical assistance and state insurance programs. Disturbingly, a whopping $45 million of that was spent on transitioning minors 17 years old or younger. How is that not government-funded grooming and child abuse?

    Among the “treatments” covered by the states were puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries to remove or “add” body parts. The records DCNF obtained covered the time period between January 2018 and September 2023. Among the state programs that covered the “treatments” is the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which receives Medicaid —i.e., federal and state — funding. DCNF used International Classification of Diseases codes to identify the funding of transgender procedures….”

    https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2024/12/02/states-spent-45m-on-trans-ing-minors-2018-2023-n4934773

    Not included is all the money schools and NGO’s spend.

    • PieInTheSky

      Heinlein’s Crazy Years are coming I can feel it

    • The Other Kevin

      That’s an awful lot of money to spend on procedures that are not at all effective.

      • juris imprudent

        It may postpone the suicide (due to untreated mental illness).

      • Common Tater

        In most of these cases, suicide is just a bullshit scare tactic.

      • juris imprudent

        Given the suicide rate of post-treatment people, it is arguable that the treatment is worse than the ‘disease’.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Make California Great Again

    Opening day ceremonies at the Capitol, marked by celebratory galas and oaths of office, shifted to announcements of legislation to fund future lawsuits against the Trump administration and protect abortion access. But humbled by the results of the November election, in which Republicans made small gains in both houses of the legislature, Democratic leaders vowed to renew their focus on increasing affordability.

    “Our constituents told us two very important things in November,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) said.

    “First, they continue to believe deeply in California’s values of tolerance, of equality and of human rights,” said Rivas, who was reelected on a party-line vote to the Assembly’s top post. “But second, our constituents — they don’t feel that the state of California is working for them.”

    Rivas pushed lawmakers to focus their energy on ideas to reduce the price of housing, household goods, and the cost of starting a business. The speaker said he would enforce that focus by limiting the number of bills each member is allowed to introduce over the course of the two-year session from 50 to 35.

    “Our task this session is urgent, and it’s clear: we must chart a new path forward and renew the California Dream by focusing on affordability,” Rivas said.

    Try repealing two laws for every new law proposed.

      • LCDR_Fish

        There were some twitter posts showing maps how gerrymandering has broken up a few conservative majority areas and weakening some pretty large areas.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Not surprising. A lot of politicians are chameleon opportunists. If the GOP is the route to power, they’ll be the staunchest Republican. If it’s a Democrat district, likewise. If it changes, they switch parties.

      • juris imprudent

        I mostly go by the fact that California has spent years, maybe even decades, hollowing out the middle class in the state.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Legislation announced Monday would ready the state for potential legal battles with the federal government over issues such as immigration, reproductive rights and environmental regulations by setting aside $25 million for anticipated legal costs. A companion measure would allocate $500,000 for lawyers to immediately begin preparing cases.

    “While we always hope to collaborate with our federal partners, California will be ready to vigorously defend our interests and values from any unlawful action by the incoming Trump Administration,” said Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), who authored both bills.

    Immediately begin preparing cases? Based on what? rumors and speculation? Gavin’s poll numbers?

    • PieInTheSky

      Immediately begin preparing cases? Based on what? – $500,000. have you not payed attention?

      • R C Dean

        “Payed”.

        You’re doing this on purpose, just because you know it grinds my gears, aren’t you?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Fucking Reddit grammar.

    • WTF

      You gotta love how actually enforcing federal law becomes “unlawful action”. It’s just lies and gaslighting all the way down.

    • PieInTheSky

      where does LG stand on the South Korean martial law?

  27. PieInTheSky

    X vs Bluesky: The economics of the social media war

    I have never been on Bluesky, but I already hate it. The fast growth of this new social media platform seems to be primarily driven by the most annoying and irritating characters on X. But that is also precisely the reason why I believe that Bluesky is more than a passing fad: it has the potential to lastingly change the social media landscape, and even if Bluesky itself does not do that, a platform quite like it will.

    Let’s remember how, a little over two years ago, Elon Musk’s takeover of X (formerly Twitter) triggered a debate about the market power of social media platforms, and the appropriate policy responses. Musk’s critics argued that social media platforms were essentially the public square of the 2020s, and that they should be run accordingly – not as the personal plaything or vanity project of a billionaire. They should, at the very least, be heavily regulated by the state, and better still, taken into public ownership.

    https://capx.co/x-vs-bluesky-the-economics-of-the-social-media-war/

    • AlexinCT

      Blue Sky is X for the pedo community.

    • Common Tater

      “They should, at the very least, be heavily regulated by the state, and better still, taken into public ownership.”

      No.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      How will Blue Sky resist bloating their offices with DEI groups and avoid the fate of Twitter pre-Musk?

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Revised numbers

    President-elect Donald Trump got very close to a majority of the vote in this presidential election, but not quite. It is not exactly the “unprecedented and powerful mandate” Trump claimed on election night.

    In fact, this year’s popular-vote margin is the second-closest since 1968 and still tightening. It shows just how closely divided the country is politically, and that any shift to the right is marginal.

    Every vote is sacred.

    • juris imprudent

      It is not exactly the “unprecedented and powerful mandate” Trump claimed on election night.

      Which just shows how empty and worthless that statement was, is and ever will be.

    • The Other Kevin

      Whew, that was a close one. Now we can keep pushing the narrative that a small percentage of white supremacists usurped the government against the will of the majority.

    • EvilSheldon

      I mean, does anyone really believe any of the numbers posted since the day after the election?

    • B.P.

      “…and still tightening.”

      The election was a fucking month ago.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    With 96% of the vote in, Trump has, according to the Associated Press, 49.97% to Vice President Harris’ 48.36%, or 76.9 million votes to 74.4 million. (The U.S. Election Atlas has a higher raw vote total and a slightly narrower margin, 49.78% to 48.23, or 77.1 million votes to 74.7 million.)

    It’s the highest percentage Trump has received in his three runs at the presidency. (He got just less than 46% in 2016 and less than 47% in 2020.) Votes are still being counted, including provisional and overseas ballots across the country.

    The 2000 election was decided by just 0.51 percentage points with then-Vice President Al Gore winning the popular vote but losing in the Electoral College to George W. Bush. The 2024 margin may very well get slightly closer, as the provisional ballots have favored Harris and they are coming from blue states like California, Oregon and New York.

    It ain’t over until the fat lady votes. They’ll drag Harris to the finish line or bust a gut trying.

  30. Sensei

    It appears Pakistan consulted with the state of CA for how destroy electricity markets.

    Consuming 320 kilowatt-hours of electricity in a month in the eastern city of Lahore—enough to power a couple of fans, a handful of lights and a small fridge—costs a household $60, even at the discounted rate charged to low-volume consumers. Pakistan’s per capita income is $125 a month.

    https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/pakistan-energy-debt-china-8cfcee3d?st=RADmTf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

  31. PieInTheSky

    Bricktop_NAFO
    @Bricktop_NAFO
    A-10 Warthogs of the U.S. Air Force have been flying strafing runs against the Iraqi Shia militia columns that entered Syria and were heading toward Damascus to link up with Assad’s forces and fight against Turkish-backed rebels.

    Extremely high casualties reported.

    eigenrobot
    @eigenrobot
    i dont think we have any idea what we’re trying to accomplish here but im glad everyone is having fun and no ones getting hurt

    https://x.com/eigenrobot/status/1863728695971811768

    • PieInTheSky

      Although reading more it appears fake. Never mind.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Of course, U.S. presidential elections are not decided by the popular vote; they are decided by the Electoral College. And on that score, Trump had a fairly wide 312 to 226 Electoral College victory, the widest since 2012.

    I guess that means Trump won. But that doesn’t mean he gets to do what he wants. That’s not fair.

  33. LCDR_Fish

    Anyone looking for another fun time waster on their phone (albeit pretty big), I’m having fun with Girls Frontline 2: Exilium which just opened today. One of those gacha games where each character represents a specific firearm.

    • EvilSheldon

      I feel like I’m being transported in time back to college…

  34. ElspethFlashman

    We went through three receptionists this year. Odd to me. The new one is great (although super young). Maybe because she used to be a resident-advisor at a youth home (read: last chance at independent living for teens who got kicked out of residential foster homes.) Anyhoo, we get a tiny bit of “slow” weeks before the holidays and then it gets really crazy! Like new cases raining from the sky. Which is good (because new $$) but bad because it’s exhausting and overwhelming.

      • Nephilium

        “All I Want for Christmas, is Her”

      • ElspethFlashman

        My favorite (that’s sarcastic) new client calls are the ones made by — not the client — but a parent, sister, or current girlfriend. Ok, let’s start with a big red flag _before_ you even meet an attorney.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Oh boy! That’s like a parent trying to run a kid’s job interview.

    • R.J.

      I can only imagine. In addition to economic pressures, now you have the return of TDS.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Something something starving children

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday lost his bid to get his 2018 CEO pay package reinstated when a Delaware judge upheld her prior ruling that the compensation plan was improperly granted.

    The package, worth about $56 billion, was the largest compensation plan in U.S. history for a public company executive. Tesla said in a post on social media platform X, which Musk owns, that it plans to appeal the ruling. Musk, in a separate X post, called the ruling “absolute corruption.”

    In January, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick voided the pay plan, ruling that Musk had individually “controlled Tesla” and dictated the terms of his compensation to a board that didn’t fairly negotiate. She called the process leading to approval of that pay plan “deeply flawed.”

    It’s good to have a judge decide these things. Otherwise it would be chaos.

    • juris imprudent

      dictated the terms of his compensation to a board that didn’t fairly negotiate

      Now do the Chicago Teachers Association and the new board that Mayor Johnson installed.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    “Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here,” McCormick wrote in her opinion Monday. “Were the court to condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments, lawsuits would become interminable.”

    As part of Monday’s opinion, McCormick approved a $345 million attorney fee award for the lawyers who successfully sued on behalf of Tesla shareholders in order to void Musk’s pay plan.

    Sure, why not? A job well done.

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