Tonight is exciting and melancholy at once. Exciting because I couldn’t pick a better matchup for the playoffs than Ravens/Steelers, who have had a decades-long blood feud. And I have a new very high end surround audio system set up in my TV room. Melancholy because SP had been a big Steelers fan (until they signed Michael Vick) and this game would have absolutely delighted her. I can imagine her coming out of the kitchen with a large plate full of freshly-made gougeres (her go-to football food), ready to start her usual screaming at the refs and announcers. Well, maybe a bottle of a fine Georgian wine will make me feel less forlorn. Or more- alcohol can be funny that way.
On that depressing note, let’s get to birthdays, mostly because they include a piece of shit statist who has become a fetish-object for the Left; an inadvertent travel agent; a guy who was a master of playing with his organ; a guy who was the object of an absolutely hilarious Bill Cosby monologue; a fine singer-songwriter with the name of an assassin; and a hottie who ought to bring you coffee.
And before I start pre-gaming, I’d better post Links.
“…because I don’t want to get the blame.”
Hold on to your wallets, rich people are gonna need your help.
The Biden Obama team makes ridiculous promises on behalf of other countries.
“We’re the only ones who should be allowed to lie.”
Local news. Welcome to my world.
“Here’s a fact: your country is a crime-infested shithole.”
Happily whoring herself, but not in the good way.
Monte Montgomery isn’t unknown, but he doesn’t seem to get the attention of other guitar masters. So herewith a Hendrix cover that Monte makes his own.
In my not-yet-sufficiently-caffeinated state, I hovered over the first non-birthday link and read “los-angeles-fires-governor…” and got all excited…until I clicked through. 😞
Ha!
Well, maybe it was an inadvertent prophecy.
I thought he had been insisting there WAS no water shortage… 🤔
Just none *he* could be blamed for. If the “locals” didn’t “figure it out”, well that’s not on Sacramento policies! No sirree bob!
And everything I read implied the Chief spoke out of turn (from the Mayor’s perspective.. aka she was relatively honest in an interview), got called on the carpet — thought she was fired and the Mayor frantically back-pedaled. Hence the confusing coverage. I suppose canning the Chief would have made it look like there was substance to the claims of incompetence, so the Mayor is trying to keep thing cordial in public while the wagons are being circled.
Well, I say “Mayor” but judging from the blank stare that would make a cud-chewing bovine resemble Einstein in comparison from the Brit reporter trying to get a response as she flew back from Ghana — I assume “Mayoral Staff”. Bass appears to have the dubious distinction of making Kamala Harris look like a fantastic politician about now.
That airport confrontation was so weird. A simple “I am on the way to a press conference right now, I will address the people of LA then” would have marginally worked.
Also, her staff seemed to allow that to happen
“You can’t fire me! I’m a lesbian!”
She’s probably as beloved to her staff as Kammie is to hers.
Leave aside there is zero reason for an LA mayor to be in Africa for anything other than a personal vacation. None.
I was over on a Liberal Dissenters blog yesterday who’s whole post was about how this has nothing to do with Republicans, and you could watch in the comments people doing every every mental back flip to allow them to keep blaming the R’s and not take responsibility. Sad, it really was.
https://kasparian.substack.com/p/sorry-but-republicans-are-not-responsible
The mere existence of Republicans is the cause of all bad things. They don’t have to be in control to be to blame! There must be a final solution.
Sure, Jan. 🙄
Emanuel Goldstein was a Republican!!!
requires a really futile and stupid gesture
Isn’t equating him with a member of Delta house an un-necessary elevation of his character?
French cheese puffs!
So, why did insurance companies cancel everyone’s homeowner insurance last month?
I expect that land in Malibu is going to be really affordable, for those who have money.
Condolences, and I hope the game and the libations are nothing but joyous.
That was not supposed to be a reply – addressed to the Old Man.
Normal time for renewals (or declining to renew existing policies) and the California Insurance Commission not allowing rate increases so they literally can’t cover the costs when things like this happen is my thought.
Insurers have been refusing new policies / not renewing for over 3 years now in California — I don’t think this was a magical “Quick, we expect a huge fire in a week!” type scenario. Their actuaries doubtless *did* expect a huge fire, but because they were paying attention. And told management that there was no way the premiums could cover it.
Lets be honest – this fire is nothing compared to what is going to happen when the southern end of the San Andreas finally breaks loose.
Now, THAT will be Trump’s fault. Even if it happens within the next week.
I guarantee you there will be people blaming it on climate change.
Or fracking.
You are making me pre-hate the people that will do that.
The California Department of Insurance denied their request to raise their rates.
Insurance companies have lots of Accountants and Actuaries who can access risk and returns. They saw the risks going up without any additional return and decided to exit the market. Hindsight shows them to be 100% correct.
The blame is on the maliciously in people running the state.
Tonight is exciting and melancholy at once. Exciting because I couldn’t pick a better matchup for the playoffs than Ravens/Steelers, who have had a decades-long blood feud.
This is the game that’s streaming-only, isn’t it?
Yup. Amazon Prime.
a piece of shit statist who has become a fetish-object for the Left;
Happy birthday Liz Cheney?
I’ll say this for him — at least it was mutual assured (political in this case) destruction with his opponent — who does seem to be an honest to God, take money from Spain to set up a client state f’ing traitor. Which I suppose makes his opponent the fetish-object for the actual power brokers of the Left?
Morning, Old Man. I don’t drink — but I would happily raise a glass in memoriam for SP today. I didn’t know her anywhere near as well as you (obviously) or several of the rest of y’all… but she was absolutely a joy in her comments here and I certainly feel her absence. On the plus side — while all of the Founding Members are due credit (or blame depending on who is asking, I suppose!) — I do feel she helped fundamentally shape the community, discourse and sense of the site and she lives on with all of us.
Enough wallowing in sentiment… on to your links!
She conceived of and built the original site. And to her dying day was incredibly proud of the community that coalesced.
Bless her, and she should’ve been.
I raise my morning coffee to her. This place is such an achievement.
Happy birthday Brother Jack McDuff?
Happy birthday Charles Manson?
Dieterich Buxtehude.
Happy birthday Jojo Starbuck?
A short video of happenings at the barber shop, by Adam Rose:
https://youtube.com/shorts/mSm-1sTFkHI?si=sOkmL0fSHF9vGBud
I’ve been buzzing my own head since shortly before junior high, but have recently been advised that I would look better with a fade, so I’ve been considering visiting a barber. Maybe I’ll just stick to my routine…
I needed to get my hair cut just after moving but before being fully unpacked, and so went to a barber as I had no idea of where my clippers were. And have been going ever sense. I have become good friends with my barber, it is nice to make small talk with others, get a good feel for what is happening in the community and so on.
All-in-all a plus for a semi-recluse.
This town being the size it is, that’s exactly what I’m afraid of. I’ve been invited to church as well. Which I suppose was inevitable since there’s approximately as many churches as residents here. However, I do realize that too much isolation isn’t good for me.
Even as an inveterate introvert, I was suffering very tangible mental health strain during the lockdowns from the isolation. Humans are inherently social, with just different thresholds for various individuals as to the ideal degree thereof.
#MeToo
but I need the wife to buzz off the neck so it’s a clean line
when I was single I just shaved it all to avoid the barbershop
I can’t find a local barber, few and far between. Even the close ones (15 miles) want an appointment. With the weather so iffy in the winter I’m reluctant to make an appointment. The local guy (10 miles away) is open when his back doesn’t hurt or he isn’t on vacation or his lawn doesn’t need mowing. No appointments anyway. I really need a haircut now but since no one really cares…
I use this here thingy.
There is the Tulsi that had been hiding for the past year or so.
“Don’t worry, I’ll only use it on your political enemies” though will sell it to MAGA
And people thought here she was great because, like RFK Jr., she pissed off Team Biden.
This is the kind of crap that makes me seethe at JI’s “blame the voters” responses. Who in the hell could the voters actually vote for that will tear down this rotten edifice? Because it sure seems like regardless of everything they say or have done prior… once they get anywhere near a position of titular authority for the IC — they roll over and show their belly immediately.
Would voting Team Jackass be any better next time? (Hell no). Vance? (Likely not) The lunatic furries or whomever runs the LP? (Could they find DC if elected?) The Greens? (Finally! A means to crush our enemies!)
I don’t have an answer — but to say that “the electorate wants this” doesn’t seem right either.
“Roll the film…”
[sigh] Yes, they do want it. Enough of them, which is more than us. If you think I’m rejoicing in that you’re dumber than either of us ever thought you could be. I hate the people that vote for both parties. This country is awash in cowardice and stupidity and THAT IS WHY we have the elections we do.
“A handful of people run things” – you see, there’s the stupid on full display and he’s not trying to be funny about it. No one can accept that shit happens because of chaos – nope, someone is in charge, pulling the strings, and all we have to do is get that guy and we can make it all better.
No one panics when things go according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying.
Allow me to make one more point here, painful as it may be to all. We here mostly hate politics, and we’re not fond of organizing – so for all of our complaining, we don’t do jackshit about it. We don’t tear down what is – even when it is corrupt, and we don’t build up anything as an alternative. We aren’t out persuading others (very hard to do), we’re bitching inside our own bubble (all too easy) and then asserting that we aren’t exceptional – that nearly everyone is really just like us. Why? Because you don’t want to admit how isolated you are from the real average American?
People prefer comforting lies to unpleasant truths. The gods of the copybook headings with terror and slaughter return.
Sometimes, though, shit happens because of incompetence, institutional failure, even, occasionally, actual malice.
Saying it’s all down to chaos is too much like shrugging it off and saying there’s nothing anyone can do, so sit back and watch it all burn.
I don’t know that we are exceptional. I agree that our views are not broadly shared. We’re not doing anything the ‘normals’ don’t do as well. There are lots of little bubbles out there, each full of people grumbling in not terribly different terms than us and proposing simplistic solutions that match up to their emotional preferences which will magically solve all the world’s ills. Our particular bubble puts individual liberty as the core value. The leftward ones tend to put equality as the core value. The rightward ones tend to elevate tradition of some sort. Politicians tell various lies to win over various bubbles and get elected if their collection is larger than others.
There unequivocally is a “permanent bureaucracy,” “deep state,” “military-industrial complex,” or however we choose to characterize it, that exerts a larger influence than its number would suggest, whether the reason is nefarious blackmail and assassinations, control of resources, lizard people, the Rothschilds, etc. J. Edgar Hoover’s documented and unambiguous domestic spying and blackmail operations that reached their culmination with the Snowden leaks 3/4 of a century later, for instance, were not the result of a chaotic universe, they were the result of a power mad sack of shit being handed too much authority under the auspices of law and order, and establishing a precedent for abusing that power. Even if a plurality or majority of voters do oppose that sort of thing, once entrenched it doesn’t end until it is put down violently, and there’s very little chance of that happening in a modern state for various reasons, including the stupidity and apathy voters. More than one thing can be true at the same time.
If I was ever elected to anything I’d turn out to be “one of them”. With everyone pulling in different directions any principles would be compromised. It’s why I can’t vote, at least that doesn’t seem to be a compromise, plus elections are always scheduled during deer hunting season. It’s an easy decision.
Pat, fair enough – yes there are institutions. Those all operate to their own benefit and don’t care about the costs to others. They exist regardless of the actual people sitting in the chairs at any given time, which is what the claptrap about “who’s in charge” is about – that’s the difference. You can’t rally a mass movement on the hatred of something impersonal. Even Satan is a singular personality for that purpose and roaring about the evil cabal always gets translated into someone or (((another))).
JI — I can’t persuade you of anything most of the time. I know full well regardless of effort I’m not going to get California to suddenly vote out the morons, many much better people than I have tried. I know my strengths — politics is decidedly not one of them. So voting as I can and bitching as I must is about it at this point.
“A man’s got to know his limitations.”
(Which, by the way, is also my answer to UCS’s painting issue. I don’t get upset at myself for not being amazing at 1:350 ship modeling for this reason as well. Long ago accepted I’m “tolerable at best” and just enjoy what I do when I do it… I know Musk and Vivek and other alpha sorts would call me lazy, settling, etc… but I’ve been around myself to know full well what I have aptitudes for and what I don’t is simply it.)
[Sigh] I again feel stuck in the middle, as y’all seem to be talking past each other, missing the agreement within. JI’s correct that more people want the ‘this’ type of government than ‘we’ do. There are people voting for this shit, and no, they don’t ‘think’ any of it through. However, Pat correctly goes into Hoover’s bullshit ” that reached their culmination with the Snowden leaks 3/4 of a century later, for instance, 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞, they were the result of a power mad sack of shit being handed too much authority…”
Both are true. It’s ‘chaotic’ only in that there is (rarely) a central locus of power ‘controlling’ it all. It’s like evolution: With millions ‘believing’ (Read: supporting via votes) xyz, the ‘natural’ flow of social primates pushes, pulls and arrives at the ‘equilibrium’ of an idea – The most popular (not the ‘best’) idea wins. If just 50.1%, let’s say 70M ppl, believe/vote for something, that idea ‘passes,’ and then inertial support (and lagging polls) keep the policies intact until *another* ~70M push back on it. And! –> Power is not ceded voluntarily. Even without an authority controlling it all, the most popular ideas/mutations gain popularity and power, which wanes within individuals, communities and generations.
JI is correct that people want to believe in a figurehead that controls it all. (See also: Religion.) The flow of power and social structure doesn’t come from a singular brain. While JI calls it “chaos,” it’s really just the locus of power being diffused to a few thousand people through the structure of hundreds of popularity contests, with the winners often getting authority to appoint power to other officials, who also therefore ‘win’ within their professions and in greater society.
I could see myself being like Thomas Massie – putting signs on my door telling every lobbyist there is to go away. Then voting in ways that make me hated by both parties.
Like Massie, I’d accomplish next to nothing. Unlike him, I don’t have the charisma and connections to be reelected.
It’s good to kick through these points; this one is near and dear.
I’m native deplorable: my dad didn’t finish high school; everyone I’m related to has a CDL and a deer stand; I talk half as fast as the next slowest-talking Glib. My people are devoutly steeped in conservativism, thus I was raised…King James and all, and arguing against it remains my life’s challenge. I’ve worked and studied hard and long to avoid being a real average American.
From this energy arises a resistance to reactionary, populist, economically-ignorant trends which dominated my childhood and have risen to national dominance. That’s why I can’t stand apologists for conservatives: I have been wading in that filth for six decades.
I just want to be left alone, but my people have been swayed and shaped into a crusading horde. They would give a stranger the shirt off their back, but they cannot be trusted with your liberty or the keys to the kingdom.
Well said Ev.
Just to illustrate the point in another way — this is exactly why Democrats blame Republicans for problems in political jurisdictions controlled 100% by Democrats. It feeds the stupid fucking people what they want – a scapegoat, rather than have those people logically analyze exactly who was responsible. And it WORKS! [Which I hate more than any other aspect.]
I know full well regardless of effort I’m not going to get California to suddenly vote out the morons, many much better people than I have tried.
Then why be dismayed at the way California goes? What we</strong) (you and I both) would hope for is essentially impossible.
“…this is exactly why Democrats blame Republicans for problems in political jurisdictions controlled 100% by Democrats. It feeds the stupid fucking people what they want – a scapegoat, rather than have those people logically analyze exactly who was responsible.”
Boom. See also: “We, your priests, didn’t cause this with disaster! SATAN!!#!@!” <– It does and did work. Just shift blame and responsibility onto an agreed-upon demon, enemy, or simply — "the Other." Siblings do it all the time. So do students, lovers, spouses and professionals. Hard to grow out of. We all do it to an extent, particularly when the source of our problem is unclear or unknown. Amplify OVER 9,000(!!) when *we* are the source of the problem. We ignore *ourselves* all the time. 'I'm perfect and no one KNOWS IT!' *frump*
We are social primates. Taking blame comes with consequences, and it's not exactly 'natural' to accept it, especially when the consequences extend to one's family and clan. Of course, scapegoats work! They're borderline hardwired into us as a social defense mechanism. It absolutely sucks, and constant vigilance upon Power is necessary. But blame-gaming ain't going away. We're weaselly little creatures, full of reason to fib, lie and omit to our fellow social primates. It's what separates us from the animals. "Except the weasel." (And other non-social primates.) And most people happily go along with it, are too busy to pay attention, or don't give a shit either way.
Good luck with that when and if we get to root causes.
If the power company (PG&E? I know San Diego has a different one, not sure about LA..) didn’t cut the power properly and it was pole sparks… they’ve let them slide and raise rates to slowly “fix” the infrastructure since at least the Camp Fire. At least half the blame should go to Sacramento.
If it was homeless / meth driven — their policies (and $24 billion in *lost* dollars to “fight it” that presumably only went in the pockets of their friends) have hugely increased homelessness and reduced the ways anyone can deal with them. Ditto for crime until very, very recently (and that was voter driven)
If it was gangs to set up looting as some have conjectured — open border policies and crime policies for the win.
Plus housing density policies, forestry policies, etc… before you even get to water reservoirs (which is granted still apt).
All they’ve done has increased the likelihood and likely intensity of these fires — which is why you can’t help but go to “Foreseeable consequences are not unintentional” on some level, but here’s hoping this opens some eyes.
SoCal has two power “companies” – Dept of Water and Power (municipal agency) for L.A. proper and SoCal Edison for the rest. The grid operator for the entire state is yet another component in the puzzle.
Southern California has so many layers of stupidity it’s hard impossible to sift through them all.
Vagrants everywhere who are treated like an endangered species while making a nuance of themselves – including making campfire wherever it strikes their fancy.
Competence and protecting the residents (particularly white ones) de-prioritized at every level of government in favor of DEI and nonsense environmentalism.
It’s malicious incompetence.
It’s malicious incompetence.
Sold, successfully, as good intentions to millions of real voters.
Having driven through both yesterday, I realized I’ve never done any touristy stuff in Virginia or West Virginia.
I should probably plan a future trip to pick up the Virginias, Georgia, and South Carolina, as these are all places I’ve only driven through.
Don’t know which year it will be. This year is off the table, since I’m not sure I’ll have the leave for a road trip the way things are going.
I-81 cuts through a lot of Civil War history, plus of course it follows the Great Wagon Road of the late colonial era.
On the bright side, the subsidized flood insurance on their gulf coast beach homes might help defray some of the costs as well.
She should have just retired quietly and taken up painting, like George W. Bush, and some other retired German politicians.
A 700+ page memoir titled “Freedom”. I can’t even come up with a snark for that.
And translated immediately into 30 languages.
I’m surprised she hasn’t disappeared into a black hole, the irony is that dense.
They let a literal commie run their “center-right 🙄” party for almost two decades – during which time she did everything in her power to run the country into the ground – what the fuck do they expect?
They should be lucky to survive the next few months.
They’re just lucky that the Ampelkoalition fucked things up so badly.
Amazing, the Greens are the one party that doesn’t seem to be getting any backlash. Probably says a whole lot about the state of the establishment German media.
Do the Greens stand for anything anymore that the major parties haven’t already enthusiastically pursued in the last several decades? The can just hide in the shadows.
I like that I’ve already gotten 4 out-of-nowhere emails from GoFundMe to “set up charity for wildfire victims”. Never seen that type of prodding — I have to assume they smell fat fat skim opportunities.
When it comes to Congress — that possibly apocryphal Davy Crockett (I think) story we pass around leaps to mind about now. It isn’t your job, Feds. But 100+ years of sticking their damned noses in to justify more spending will tell them to do it anyway, we know.
Sockdolager
Politifact ruling: mostly false; needs context. Primarily Drumpf’s fault.
Yeah, never mind that the president before Brazil’s version of OMB was actually convicted and imprisoned – he’s just a misunderstood tribune of the people.
Yeah, I’m not sure why Brazil thinks it has the pull to push people around. It really is the 3rd world there.
Prison labor (like many things) definitely has the seed of a good idea in it… learn an actual useful trade, be ready to find work (or funnel through a work program) when you get out, earn some savings / offset the cost of incarceration, etc.
But yeah — very, very easy to exploit. And who-watches-the-watchers indeed. Not like prison systems are known for corruption in the guards and staff already or anything.
Can we shove a few more buzzwords in there?
Another 5″ of snow and it’s lingering. Was supposed to move out of the area last night. Another day of digging out I guess.
We got a half inch dusting or so a few days ago and the fucking post office shut down. I was like… if it worked that way up north where I used to live we’d only get mail for about 7 months of the year.
I think my GA house got about an inch. My nearby parents think they got 2 (at 4×20 range, I don’t blame them for staying indoors and just guesstimating!). I’m just a bit annoyed that the 2 exterior cameras are rated down to 14 in non-Pie-land-on-the-Moon-degrees, it was only in the 20s… but the driveway cam appears to have glitched out… just displays the same 1 second sequence / car going by blur in a loop. That one would have given me some nice wide angle shots of the yard for me to save as a background (since I rarely see snow where I live and all).
First World problems, I know. Don’t mind me… just wanted to vent a tad.
I keep thinking of this old joke when I think of you in your new home
https://jokes.purpee.com/diary-of-a-new-snow-shoveler/
We got a few new inches last night, just to add to the 12-14″ that fell during the week that the weather forecasts kept saying, “Cold, no snow.” Well, they were half right.
Looks like blizzard of the year today, 3 inches to add onto the previous non-existing snow. I may have a chance to run the snow blower tomorrow but I’ll probably just drive through it. As my old girl friend used to say “3 inches ain’t shit”.
Well shucks — that narrows it down even less than one of your “Terrible member of Congress” birthday clues, OMWC.
“Two Alfred University librarians have received a prestigious award from the South Central Regional Library Council”
Please tell me it was this:
https://www.redriderleglamps.com/collections/all-leg-lamps/products/50-deluxe-full-size-leg-lamp
I made it into the second sentence of a Guardian article before having to tap out or die of laughter.
You vill believe the grosselugen, you vill!!!
Same here. They are still acting like people actually believe any of their lies. They should prefix everything they say with “I wish! I wish! I wish!”
Congratulations to Sloopy on his team’s win. The Final should be a good game.
I am still down 2 bucks.
I hope you mailed it to him in Romanian cash.
Local news. Welcome to my world.
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I can’t help it that you choose to live in a Communist state.
The irony. It burns.
This is the correct response.
Accrington Stanley are at Liverpool: tune in to ESPN+ as third-string Reds destroy a medley of mere mortals from Lancashire
I had it on for a bit but decided on Columbo marathon instead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Presumably you were just about to go back to it — but then there was always just one more thing.
There’s nothing more demoralizing to my painting hobby than seeing the latest crop of golden daemon winning entries. They do the impossible and make me question why I even try.
It doesn’t help that skill improvement is A: gradual, and B: subtle. So I don’t see any ready improvement in my own work, ever.
Lastly, don’t think your paints, they’re too watery already.
Also don’t drink your paints.
Nor think your pants.
Try keeping your very earliest attempts visible while you’re painting. That should improve your chances of seeing your own improvement over time.
my painting area is cluttered as it is. 🙁
drink more whisky while you paint it helps.
Link?
What prompted the comment was this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je68YojKocM
For simple pictures, here’s 2024’s winners: https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-us/articles/9knes7md/golden-demon-2024-winners-revealed-at-spiel-essen/
Alright, found it.
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-us/articles/9knes7md/golden-demon-2024-winners-revealed-at-spiel-essen/
Holy shit.
Im not gonna lie the Tulsi thing hurts. You think that with all the arrows slung at her she would want to do the right thing. Makes me think RFK isnt going to take care of anything important either. Gonna take skittles off the shelf while toddlers get the death jabs.
I never understood why people fell for those two.
Their core principles seem off.
Any tiny gesture of sympathy or agreement coming from someone from the left is seized on as a sign that this person is on our side. The fact that the Democrats have been captured by their far left outliers in recent years leaves people like Gabbard and Kennedy without a home. But that doesn’t mean they are deeply principled with core agreements with the right. It just means that they are the first leftists reaping the whirlwind caused by policies they still support. Trotsky didn’t become a libertarian because Stalin won control of the Party.
To rip off the bad kitty – If you want to see what someone is really made of just put a shiny hat on them.
The party switching used to be antigun but is now progun politician is an opportunist, no doubt. She’s not as bad as most of the others but she’s no savior either.
However, one has to be open to people changing their minds and figuring shit out. I mean I’m pretty sure I’ve had wrong opinions in the past – I really can’t think of any off hand – and have re-thought them and reversed course. And am open to the possibility (probability) that the same will happen in the future.
That said, or on the griping hand, Gabbard has always sort of rubbed me the wrong way (I’d much prefer she rubbed me the right way); Straight out of (and during) high-school and college with a drive to go into political action to ‘make things better for the community’. Red flags abound. Often with that type of personality, the best you can hope for is that their desire to force people into modes of behavior lines up at least partially with good ™ things. Because they usually will force you.
That says nothing about her sincerity – she’s sort of walked the walk after all. But that doesn’t mean she’s not someone to be wary of.
I agree it is disappointing. To modify your position to get a position is sometimes a political necessity but it doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence as far as her principles go.
desire to force people into modes of behavior
Yep, that’s the fatal flaw, even when it seemingly aligns with what we think of as A Good Thing.
My past wrong opinion was that people don’t need to be shepherded like that, but it seems most do.
or on the griping hand
Typo Of The Week.
No, Elon Musk is not an ‘extremist’ threat to the UK
This critique presumes British officialdom is acting in (misguided) good faith. They’re full of shit and they know it but, you know, gotta protect the narrative.
“Mean tweets will kill us all!!!” 😱
Absolutely. Free speech is a mortal threat to authoritarianism.
They are shitting bricks for a good reason. See what Rhywun said.
Rise and shine to a chilly Silicone Saturday morning.
https://archive.is/fgZKi
Number 5 – WOW.
10 was aptly placed.
13 reminds me a little of Rachel Leigh Cook back in the day. I remember being 13 and watching She’s All That on TBS with the volume muted.
Note to The Chive: When you have a photo display do not put ads up over the photo viewing area, idiots.
Now that we’re more than a half hour in
Well, someone has to take care of the jobs Americans don’t want to do anymore. She from Haiti?
The Fires Bailouts: I just knew those crazy rich kids would manage to land on their feet. If those white trash hick people in NC had wanted federal help they’da been born in Cali.
What does the “average” map of Europe look like over the last 2000 years
A French historian (@herodotenet
) took a shot and came up with this map
Roman Croatia, Swedish Finland, Polish Empire and independent Brittany… Here’s a 🧵 on how he came up with this brilliant map
https://x.com/Valen10Francois/status/1878041415130742887
THEY ARE HIDING REAL ROMANIAN HISTORY WE WUZ KINGS
KANGZ
Geez, Pie. Get it right.
Nice try. I read your backgrounder on Romania always getting tossed by empires.
“Washington is determined to oversee the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon by the end of the 60-day ceasefire period”
Is Obama just a garden variety anti-Semite or is his hatred of Israel more woke oppressor-oppressed decolonization cult bullshit?
Yes.
Not wanting to see Israel occupying additional large swaths of neighboring countries doesn’t make one an anti-Semite. From a practical perspective they had more than enough trouble the first time they tried it.
When it’s part of a consistent pattern of supporting “from the river to the sea” sort of rhetoric and groups, both privately and with institutional largess, at some point Occam’s razor points to Jew hatred as the least complex explanation.
If they want to be an occupying power in the Mideast with hundreds of millions of Muslim Arabs in the surrounding area that’s their business but we fund it and also will be called on to bail them out if things go south. It’s undoable in the long term.
I’m 100% good with letting Israel do Israel on Israel’s dime, but it’s also not as if they woke up one day and decided to march on Beirut, and there’s certain holdovers in our foreign policy establishment who have their own axes to grind.
“We have to do this while protecting people’s rights.” – Translation: “We are going to violate people’s rights.”
I thought the fall of the Barlin wall would bring liberty and prosperity to the East Germans. That is not what happened, is it.
I thought the East Germans exuberantly swarming over the line were happy to be free. They weren’t. They were commies ecstatic about the loot that they could then get their hands on.
The. movie ‘Brazil’ was appropriately named.
The librarian thing – those people eat our food and breath our air. Just think about that for a minute.
CA fires (and everything else the leftists do) – Never attribute malice what can be explained by idiocy? Idiocy doesnt cover this. They mounted an attack on their citizens safety and prosperity from every angle.
*note to Californians – DO NOT COME TO LOUISIANA.
Did I ever tell you how big the mosquitos are here in the summer? At least they don’t bother a person who is shoveling snow. Add a Tim Walz for governor for a trifecta.
Walz is just the inevitable result of having the DFL party. You need mosquitos that only bite Democrats, and that would follow them even if they left the state.
an inadvertent travel agent
Happy Birthday Eddy Money?
You know who else was a travel agent?
Pinochet?
I hope the WordPress servers are in LA.
Excellent answer.
When mom gets old and starts showing signs of mentally slipping it is time for the kids to step up. They have a moral obligation to keep her from harm, to take care of her, right?
England is our mother country. I think you see where this is going.
I agree, but damn, we’ve got our own problems.
It was pure snark. The last thing we need is a German reunion problem. We have enough commies already.
BurmaMyanmar was a bastion of peace and love before that dastardly facebook came along!It’ll always be Burma to me
Around the sea, lickity split — beautiful country… wasn’t it?
Burma’s a warzone.
But spouting off on X surely doesn’t warrant being treated by the British state with the same seriousness as a terror threat. Is Starmer really that frightened of his claims? How insecure and uncertain of itself must the Labour government be to see the owner of Tesla making crass comments about Jess Phillips as a cause of national unrest?
Musk used his billions to install You-Know-Who (a radical right wing puppet) as President of the United States. What malevolent fiend will he foist upon the English?
GOP national security hawks in particular viewed this as problematic, we’re told, fueling renewed doubts about her confirmation prospects. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggested on a WSJ podcast Wednesday that Gabbard should disavow her previous opposition to the 702 program.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) also sent us a statement Thursday night supporting Gabbard’s 702 stance — a key indicator of how the GOP leadership is thinking about her nomination.
“Tulsi Gabbard has assured me in our conversations that she supports Section 702 as recently amended and that she will follow the law and support its reauthorization as DNI,” Cotton said.
——-
There’s also the fact that Gabbard’s foreign policy views are anathema to Republicans, particularly defense hawks. Gabbard isn’t expected to get any Democratic votes, so she can’t afford to lose more than a few Republicans.
Business as usual. How shocking.
GOP national security hawks
Speaking of a faction that can’t be trusted.
The faction is anyone who runs for an office. We have clear restrictions on what they are allowed to do. What we dont have are clear penalties on what happens to them if they stray outside those bounds.
OMWC, we need to know the hardware in the media room! I seem to recall you had home grown speakers with an active crossover.
Have you gone to the dark side like I have with an AVR so as to be able to decode proprietary formats?
This may take a few lines…
Speaker arrangement is Kali LP-6s for surrounds. Quad 988 ESL for front L-R. An indifferent Klipsch as center (this will be the next thing upgraded). Four subs, home-made, 12″ sealed box, Linkwitz Transform equalized to a 2nd order Butterworth at 22Hz alignment. The subs are arrayed on the front and rear walls to enable Waveforming from a Trinnov Altitude 16 A/V processor. Amplification is a mix of Hypex, Purifi, and Orchard.
Sadly, I’m going to have to send the Trinnov back after my review is done (I can keep it if I fork over a five-figure check), but I’ll get a less expensive processor, do some improvised version of Waveforming using a DBA method, and instead of Trinnov’s Optimizer, I have Dirac.
Wow..
I was about to ask about the Trinnov, but you answered in the second paragraph.
I’d like to get something that uses Dirac, but honestly in my small room the Audyssey in my Denon works fine.
I like how your amplification has gone from tubes to Class D!
Room sounds wonderful. How do you listen to music? Mostly two channel / front biased or do use the full array of speakers?
The Trinnov detects the format, so it does surround for Atmos or other immersive-encoded stuff and reverts to stereo plus woofer array for normal HD or UHD stereo sound.
Article.
I’d read that!
I really do wish I had two functioning ears. Not even high-functioning. But with single-sided deafness, (nearly) all spatial perception of sound is gone.
on a completely unrelated note.
I know someone who has tried unsuccessfully to register on the site. Is it currently expected that registration using the… ‘register’ …. button will work? Is there some sort of magical incantation she should try? An email? A passenger pigeon? Morse code? AI?
Complicating it further, Trump is already teeing off on California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and other California Democrats, saying it’s their incompetence that’s led directly to the failure to contain the deadly fires even days after they began.
California should declare war on the Union.
They should secede and take Oregon and Washington with them, maybe we could get a corridor to the Pacific via northern Cali first though.
Already done and published in 1977.
https://archive.org/details/ecotopia00erne
The prequel was published in 1983. And yes, the “good guys” used nuclear blackmail.
Baja America.
What remains unclear is the extent to which Trump’s feud with Newsom — combined with his infamous penchant for retribution — will affect the congressional debate over wildfire aid.
“Infamous penchant for retribution” could also be interpreted as “holding people to account for their actions”.
But what do I know?
They cited examples? It is infamous because they accuse him so often.
I remember how, during his first term, he jailed his political opponents and used novel legal construction to prosecute his former political adversary for imaginary crimes.
All of those years Hillary rotted in prison. [how I wish]
Andrew Tate is a douchebag clown, but whenever an outlet says something “runs on hate” my bullshit-o-meter immediately goes off.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/andrew-tates-new-bruv-party-34436430
I notice that there is significant overlap between people that want to censor hate and people that support a rape/murder/death cult in the Middle East.
maybe we could get a corridor to the Pacific via northern Cali first though.
Once we have annexed British Columbia we won’t need it.
So our choices for port cities are San Francisco or Vancouver?
Politically/socially, oof.
Russell Brand
@rustyrockets
Before you dismiss @Cobratate
for some of the wild things he’s said on the internet (which I myself have also done!), you better understand that independent media is changing the world quicker than the old institutions of power can fathom.
It is inevitable that independent media alliances will shape and even form new political power. Don’t rule anything out anymore.
Ben Sixsmith
@BDSixsmith
Before you dismiss Tate as a disingenuous opportunist with a highly questionable history of sexual adventurism, consider that he bears comparison with *checks notes* Brand.
https://x.com/BDSixsmith/status/1877620406435094980
what do I need to know?
I’m assuming the poster wouldn’t have drifted to “sexual adventurism” if there were more meat on the bone
both men change their political tune as fits and both were accused of sexual assault. allegedly.
What exactly is a Ben Sixsmith, other than say a very punchable face?
a conservative englishman who lives in Poland and drinks lots of Tyskie
He attacked poor Bill Kristol as well recently, not just Brand
https://x.com/BDSixsmith/status/1878083037457453197
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Well if he attacked Bill Kristol he’s not all bad.
Brand has been pretty open about his lifestyle before cleaning up and eventually becoming a Christian.
Tate’s accusations and history are darker although nothing proven in court.
The usual leftist have gone after both because of their rhetoric.
eventually becoming a Christian. – riiiight
He sure seemed serious about it. I have no way of judging it.
Haven’t heard and don’t care about the Christian aspect, but Brand’s impressed me. Haven’t listened in a while, but what I heard the last few years were certainly intelligent and he seemed to have long thought or is very understanding of current socio-political bullshit.
Drug drug/sex stuff seems to be Distraction Dust to shoo people away. Who cares about drugs, and the criminal sexual allegations are kinda spotty. Suthen + others nailed it: #MeToo killed the reputability of sexual allegations. That’s fucking sick and tragic. But I can’t help that my brain doesn’t respond to those allegations the same way they used to.
Thanks modern feminists. I’m sure you’ll be proud of your accomplishment.
Conversation
Old England in Colour
@englandincolour
Standing room only at this unknown London working class pub, c1898.
https://x.com/englandincolour/status/1876569583227699460
Old England in Colour
@englandincolour
Cats meat sellers sold mostly horse meat rendered down from horses slaughtered once they were too old or sick to work and bulked out with other meat.
https://x.com/englandincolour/status/1876207182854623421
I read that as “cat meat”, and it took on a whole different meaning.
I’d rather eat cat meat I think.
Brutal.
https://babylonbee.com/news/nation-gets-preview-of-gavin-newsom-presidency
Damn!
https://babylonbee.com/news/song-at-funeral-comforts-everyone-by-telling-them-theres-no-heaven-religion-is-a-lie-and-everything-is-ultimately-meaningless
The problem is that the question ‘what does it all mean?’ is nonsense. People think things have to have a meaning because we have such a strong sense of ‘meaning’. The universe is not us. There is no meaning in existence in the sense that people are asking.
Of course that means that the statement the Bee is snarking is also nonsense.
Melting planet
The 2024 record comes on the heels of 2023, which was itself a record-smasher.
In some ways, the extreme hot temperatures from the past two years are not surprising at all, says Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies: an increasingly hot planet is the well-forecasted outcome of burning vast amounts of fossil fuels.
But in other respects, the heat was surprising, because it was even more extreme than he and many other scientists expected and models had predicted.
It was partway through 2023 when scientists started looking at temperature data with alarm.
“When it started getting weird was around June and July of the summer,” says Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist with the organization Berkeley Earth. July 2023 crushed all previous heat records from that month. Then August beat records by even more. “And then September was, as I said at the time, gobsmacking bananas—” nearly a full degree Fahrenheit above previous records, an enormous margin.
Mercy me.
whatever you say Romania was hot as balls in 2023 and 2024 the hottest years of my lifetime at least.
Have you repented and given up all fossil fuels? You are the cause of the problem, you might as well be part of the solution.
I keep my house at 18C in winter snd drive very little. But you can have my AC from my hot dead hands
Summer was hot? STOP THE PRESSES!
If the temperature keeps increasing at the rate it did from March to July, humans will be extinct by December!
No, sinner. HOTTEST IN HUMAN HISTORY!
I love how they slipped that into the URL but not the article itself.
The Gods are angry. Doom is upon us. Sacrifices must be made.
Oldest scam in the world.
n total, 2023 ended up at least nearly 1.5 C (2.7 F) degrees above pre-industrial temperatures.
“That was not only a record, it was a record by a record-breaking margin,” Schmidt says.
HOCKEY STICK!
Known from the historical record of accurate measurements captured during pre-industrial times.
But some other researchers are poking around another pollution-focused possibility. Sulfate pollution levels in China have dropped precipitously since 2013, driven by new air pollution policy in the country. With less pollution, there are fewer nuclei on which water droplets aggregate to form clouds—and therefore fewer clouds, both over land and the ocean downwind, researchers hypothesize.
The key question, Schmidt says, is understanding whether the cloud changes are part of natural variation—something like El Niño, an effect that will revert on its own—or a deeper, fundamental change brought on by human-caused climate change..
But either way, the heat impacts, though meaningful, pale in comparison to the climate damage done by burning fossil fuels, Dessler says.
“Don’t get distracted by year-to-year variability,” he says. “As long as we’re dumping greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, the climate’s going to get warmer. And that’s going to have enormous impacts on people’s lives.”
SCIENCE!
Talk about a desperate search for validation of your established conclusions. It would never occur to them to ask if the human role in climate cycles might not be as powerful as they claim.
it Is BASic phYsICs
They have literally no proof of the thesis that is central to their entire pile of horseshit.
It is astonishing how much power has been accumulated by their friends over this hoax.
Preposterous hogwash
Within a day of wildfires igniting in Los Angeles, right-wing media and influencers began blaming the scale of the destruction on efforts to reduce systemic social inequality, notably diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Billionaire Elon Musk helped circulate screenshots of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s four-year-old ‘racial equity action plan,’ writing “They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes.”
The city’s fire chief, a 22-year veteran firefighter, happens to be the first woman and openly gay person in that role. The chief, her fire department and the city government quickly became targets in right-wing media.
“When you focus your government on diversity, equity, inclusion, LGBTQ pet projects, and you are captured by environmentalists, we have been warning for years that you are worried about abstractions, but you can’t do the basic stuff,” Charlie Kirk, founder of the Trump-aligned nonprofit Turning Point USA, said on his podcast this week. He’s one of many critics amplifying what’s become a common refrain on the right when all kinds of disasters and tragic events hit, including the Baltimore bridge collapse last March and the Secret Service’s performance during the attempted assassination of now President-elect Donald Trump over the summer.
Desist from this pointless and shameful finger pointing. Join hands and sing the praises of these noble public servants.
happens to be
Is that a result of DEI or not? If DEI had no bearing, then this person obviously rose on their merits. If not…
What someone really needs to do is transplain to the wildfires that they should identify as something else.
Commentary on leading, national news stories is a tried and true way for partisan media figures to drive engagement online. But stoking anger about diversity efforts in particular is also shorthand for a much larger story, said Ian Haney López, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the author “Dog Whistle Politics.”
“The story is something like this: We as a society used to hire on the basis of competence and meritocracy. But that system has been hijacked by powerful minorities,” he told NPR.
“Again and again, we see these efforts to trigger people’s latent resentments against groups that historically have been socially marginalized, socially reviled in terms that do not embrace a blatant direct bigotry, but that instead seek to clothe themselves in some form of neutrality or even a commitment to fairness or excellence.”
Pandering to emotionalism and resentment? That’s our job.
Beasley says there are many legitimate discussions these fires should raise about climate change, firefighting budgets, water management, housing development, insurance and outdated infrastructure.
“No fire agency is going to sacrifice training and fundamental fire control and fundamental operations at the expense of DEI training,” said Beasley, who said diverse teams are better at tackling complex challenges, working under pressure and fostering community trust during emergencies.
Obligatory recitation of the catechism.
Pâté en Croûte in a Two-star Michelin French restaurant with Giuliano Sperandio and Grant Waller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw8IBCISpL0
In case no. one sees it – earlier JI said “GOP national security hawks – speaking of factions that cant be trusted.”
I say that is all pols. What we dont have are penalties, aside from losing office, for the pols that violate that trust.
I see where an attempt to remedy that is in congress now but I am not sure what to think of it. Some in congress are attempting to have victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens sue the FedGov for inviting or facilitating the illegals. I am not sure that is the best approach. The example they are using to sell it is the Laken Riley family. Her killer was a known criminal, he was known as an illegal, was arrested and released and even transported around the country. I agree that someone should pay and pay dearly. Going after the US taxpayer may not be the best approach as it still does nothing to deter government actors individually.
Thoughts?
Obstacle #1 a considerable number of Democrats voted against the Riley bill. They will fight tooth and nail against anyone trying to make government actors responsible for their “good intentions and sense of compassion.”
Lex Luthor in the flesh
Fresh from pouring his money and energies into helping Donald Trump win reelection, Elon Musk has trained his sights on Europe, setting off alarm bells among politicians across the continent.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive has endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany, demanded the release of jailed U.K. anti-Islam extremist Tommy Robinson and called British Prime Minister Keir Starmer an evil tyrant who should be in prison.
Many European politicians have been left concerned by the attention. Musk’s feed on his social network X is dotted with abusive language — labeling politicians “stupid cretin” and “sniveling cowards” — as well as retweets of far-right and anti-immigrant accounts.
Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communication at Loughborough University, said Musk is using X “a bit like an old-style newspaper mogul,” to promulgate his political views.
Next stop, world domination.
abusive language — labeling politicians “stupid cretin” and “sniveling cowards”
Oh NO! He fails to respect their authority.
Perhaps Musk could be a libertarian after all.
The biggest problem with Musk is….he is right. That is why they want to shut him up. If he was spouting nonsense no one would pay attention.