232 Comments

  1. Rat on a train

    Trump announces External Revenue Service to tax foreign revenues
    The US should tax all foreigners living abroad.

    • R C Dean

      Oh, FFS.

      Although it’s really no different than the terrible change in the law allowing states to charge sales tax on stuff that is just shipped in. Which is terrible.

  2. Chipping Pioneer

    They’re still using the Kavanaugh playbook with Hegseth.

    • R C Dean

      I think what’s different here is (a) Hegseth’s willingness to not go along and (2) some of the (R) Senators finally dropping a testicle and calling out both the ridiculous and the double standards.

      • Not Adahn

        Apparently both sides brought hecklers this time, if the laughing at Lizzy Warren is real.

    • DrOtto

      +1 college rape gang

  3. Not Adahn

    NPR did not comment on the Hegseth hearings, so it must have been a disaster for Team (D).

  4. Chipping Pioneer

    The SEC was unaware that Elon Musk bought Twitter?

      • Not Adahn

        FTA, he took 3 weeks to file the paperwork that had a10 day deadline.

      • UnCivilServant

        So, my instinct was correct.

        Also, the SEC can go stick its head in a toilet.

      • R C Dean

        I would imagine somewhere in the neighborhood of 99% of the time somebody is late in filing those forms, the SEC does nothing.

    • R C Dean

      I recall lots of chatter about Musk buying Twitter long before he made it explicit. Of course, the SEC can’t prove that anybody would have gotten more for the sale of their Twitter stock if he had made the filing.

      • Drake

        Didn’t he pull out of the deal at one point and a court forced him to finish the purchase?

      • Jarflax

        They are bureaucrats and as such they understand the Great Truth. Reality is meaningless, all that matters is process, and the paperwork that proves compliance with process. The fact that he publicly stated he was buying Twitter, that every publication was breathlessly predicting the price, and that the almost universal consensus is that he overpaid substantially is irrelevant.

      • juris imprudent

        ^^^THIS^^^

        Jarflax is wise to the ways of humans in bureaucracies.

      • Sensei

        The SEC is one of many regulators of my employer.

        Oh, the stories I can’t tell.

      • R.J.

        Drake: Yes, he was forced to buy it, at was was considered an inflated rate. Twitter wasn’t worth a nickel dropped in a loaded toilet when Elon was compelled to buy it. The SEC can f*ck off. This is lousy with political interference.

      • Drake

        So this is just a big fuck-you that will probably go away in a couple of weeks.

      • R C Dean

        It’s a land mine for the new SEC Commissioner. If he dismisses this, then the shrieking about how Trump is protecting his buddies will be deafening. If he doesn’t, then it will allow the usual suspects to smear a Trump ally and/or drive a wedge between them.

      • UnCivilServant

        Or, find the laziest, most incompetent staff lawyer to handle it and have the court dismiss the suit.

  5. cavalier973

    Canada Suddenly Says It’ll Buy More US Products After Trump Threatened To Slap It With Tariffs

    Will the Canadians buy more US products, though?

    • cavalier973

      More than 15,000 Canadians died in one year while waiting for health services.

      Should’ve bought American health care.

      • Rat on a train

        How many of those were recommended suicide as a course of treatment?

  6. Ted S.

    Fuck the idea of an “External Revenue Service”.

    • DrOtto

      Drop “Internal” from the current behemoth and refocus their attention.

      • Ted S.

        Fore the lot of them.

  7. Chipping Pioneer

    Re: Canadians dying waiting for Health Care:

    I am shocked that socialism does not work.

    Speaking from the experiences of friends and family members, if you’ve got something acute and urgent, it’s not terrible. But if there’s any ambiguity or if you need a bunch of diagnostics, get your affairs in order.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      I think it mostly comes down to whether the doctor knows the code to bill for it or not.

      • R C Dean

        That’s US health care. In Canada, I think its more the wait times even after everyone agrees its “medically necessary”.

      • Rat on a train

        At least it’s not the UK NHS where they kept people waiting in ambulances to bump up their emergency room stats.

  8. juris imprudent

    Meta cutting 5% of workforce based on performance

    True, you did perform this job really well, but the position itself adds no value.

  9. Pine_Tree

    Good morning Banjos, and thanks for the linx.

    External Revenue Service – gripe incoming: I’m 1000% in favor of repealing the 16th. But this “External Revenue Service” thing grinds my gears because the answer (to lots of issues Trump needs to address) is not in making a New Populist-Sounding Thing. It’s in using the Old Thing that’s already there (Customs). Just dig out the org chart from ~1890. Heck, go to any major old port (Charleston, Savannah, Philadelphia) and the Customs House is THE prominent thing along the old commercial waterfront. Because that’s literally where it happened, from a revenues standpoint.

    It’s also (being the border) literally almost the only part of the country outside of military reservations and Federal courts where the Federal government should be doing much of anything at all, but that’s another gripe.

    • Jarflax

      He’s a populist, not a conservative and certainly not a libertarian. I fully expect to spend the next four years alternating between amusement at his trolling the left, annoyance when he turns on conservatives or libertarians for disloyalty, joy when he kills off some leftist boondoggle, rage when he replaces it with some populist boondoggle, all with a constant undercurrent of despair because he has no actual interest in cutting spending.

      • R C Dean

        Well, look at Nostradamus over there.

      • juris imprudent

        Yep, and the gloating of hard pee-pee’s when the left is wailing and gnashing their teeth (which will be nearly constant).

      • Jarflax

        I will be very happy if I am proven incorrect on this.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        You are right on the money, Jarfax. And this is where both conservatives and libertarians screwed the pooch. If you aren’t willing to go along with him, you will be left in the dust. He came to the Libertarian convention with hands out, and they/we could have gotten good concessions from him, like a cabinet position, major dept. director, a seat at the table. But no, we chose an idiot in a mask.

  10. juris imprudent

    House Passes Bill to Shield K-12 Sports from Transgenderism

    What federal power is this? FYTW?

      • juris imprudent

        It’s the old one-drop rule – if you got one penny of federal money in your state education funding, you is as black as the ace of spades.

    • Nephilium

      Without reading, I’ll guess a clarification on Title IX regarding sex versus gender, and how it applies to athletic programs.

    • Tonio

      Did anyone else notice the tote board in the article?

      YEA: Republican 216, Democrat 2, Total 217

      I’m assuming some type of problem with whatever software does the chyron, but it’s still embarrassing.

  11. rhywun

    But Biden has implemented several policies that can’t be undone with a simple swipe of the new president’s pen.

    I don’t see how that’s possible, unless the Constitution has some sort of pro-Democrat bias I’m not aware of.

    • Nephilium

      The Constitution doesn’t, but the federal courts in Hawaii…

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        We need to give that shit hole back to the British.

      • Suthenboy

        The Federal courts in Hawaii have how many divisions?

      • The Last American Hero

        Two, but they get around on outrigger canoes and surf boards.

    • DrOtto

      “Reality has a left wing bias” – some liberal somewhere -they/them/his/her/xer/xir/xur pronouns

  12. Ted S.

    Also, the Examiner is paywalled now. That, and one of your previous links there had an autoplay video *below* the paywall, but that played anyway so there was no way to turn it off.

    • Nephilium

      Examiner worked for me in my browser, but I’ve got NoScript and ABP pretty well tuned for paywalls. You can always go to a bypass to find your way through.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Look at who’s enacting labor.

  13. Pine_Tree

    Canuckistan: “Hey, if any of you are very bothered by the risk of dying while waiting, then have you considered just offing yourself? We can help!”

  14. Sensei

    The ambassador also gave Trump credit for the creation of Canada’s $1 billion-plus border security and immigration plan: “We have moved really quickly, I’ll be honest, because President Trump focused the mind to put together a full package of improvements.”

    Over something like at least 3 years or possibly more they are spending $900m AND they don’t have the equipment. They were going to look into leasing helicopters. That is designed as a throwaway to make people move on.

    • R C Dean

      “Eventually, we’ll get around to doing something temporary.”

      Yeah, big win there.

  15. Suthenboy

    Just checked. It’s still stupid out there.
    The Biden bunch cant be gone fast enough.
    I dont know the details but I dont like the sound of external taxation and the tariff thing can get out of hand very easily. It all sounds a bit too globalist to me.
    *draws curtains, locks doors, stokes fire*
    I think I will make some mint tea.

    I see a prompt on the home page for brain farts. I think I will bang one out.

  16. Rat on a train

    I thought sedans with spoilers were lame. Today I saw a pickup truck with a spoiler.

      • R C Dean

        I love that idea. I mean, if I had a pickup wouldn’t have one, but I would definitely give a thumbs-up to someone who did.

      • Sean

        I look forward to Ron’s installation write up.

      • ron73440

        I know the SRT-10 trucks with the viper engine had a spoiler, but there is no way I am putting one on mine.

    • rhywun

      I was assigned Urban at birth but now identify as “Rural” lol

      *snort*

    • The Last American Hero

      Poor guy. Now they’re going to have him compete in a deadly game show.

  17. Suthenboy

    SEC: “We hate our jobs”

      • slumbrew

        You’re saying they do nothing, then?

      • Jarflax

        Bully people into signing consent decrees mostly.

      • slumbrew

        At least they keep all the sugar out of their links.

        ISTR the SEC’s track record was terrible when people bit the bullet and actually went to court vs. settling. But the process is the punishment.

      • Jarflax
      • Nephilium

        They were diligent and hard working types in the Wolf of Wall Street and Boiler Room!

    • juris imprudent

      Lady senators: Well then, the rules of war just need to be changed so that women may participate equally!

    • UnCivilServant

      I notice that the testing involved coed squads, novice male squads, experienced male squads, but no exclusively female squads. I want to see the numbers from that last cohort, especially as compared to the control groups.

    • Pine_Tree

      And several times over the course of the article, it uses the word “troubling” for revelations of reality that all of humanity has clearly understood for all of time.

    • Rat on a train

      The service should set standards. Each MOS can have higher, uniform standards. Anyone who passes can serve.
      Of the few females assigned to my C&J company, only one could pass the few standards we had like the 12 mile timed march. We didn’t even have them try the 120 pound ruck march.

      • WTF

        I saw an article saying that Hegseth is no longer saying women can’t serve in combat, he’s now saying women can serve in combat if they pass the same standards as men. Which the idiot journalist didn’t seem to understand basically excludes women from combat.

      • Drake

        In Boot Camp, the Marine Corps weeds out maybe 2% of the men who can’t make standards. Infantry School weeds a few more who can’t hack that level of physicality and send them to cook or truck driver school.

        The just don’t have the will or political cover to weed out the 98% of women who don’t belong in a combat unit.

      • UnCivilServant

        @WTF – Acknowledging that would be to admit to the grand heresy that men and women are different.

      • R C Dean

        “women can serve in combat if they pass the same standards as men”

        Which leaves the door wide open to lowering the standards (for everyone) enough for a lot of women to pass.

      • Rat on a train

        Which leaves the door wide open to lowering the standards (for everyone) enough for a lot of women to pass.
        I noticed the Army 2 mile run standard for a 17-21 male went from 15:54-11:54 under the old APFT to 22:00-13:22 under the new ACFT.
        I haven’t tried the new hand release pushup so I don’t know how the old 42-71 of the APFT and the 10-57 of the ACFT compare, but I assume it is a weaker standard.

      • WTF

        Which leaves the door wide open to lowering the standards (for everyone) enough for a lot of women to pass.

        I’m going to assume Hegseth and Trump will likely raise rather than lower the standards.

  18. Suthenboy

    It is worth noting that the average European still love them some socialist medicine. I suspect at this point they dont know what good medical care is so they dont know any better.

  19. juris imprudent

    This is only funny because of this…

    Caldwell has been banned from all future events at Lincoln Financial Field, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Post, and his employer, BCT Partners — a DEI-focused management consulting firm based in East Brunswick, N.J. — is involved.

  20. Mojeaux

    Mom is the same.

    I got a gold star from my brothers for being the voice of reason in yesterday’s phone altercation with Aunts Selfish Cunts. I didn’t think the other one was, but it appears so.

    I’m not sure my mom is heartbroken so much as surprised they would do this to her, but “it is what it is.” Yeah. but I have to deal with it. She said if she’d known her sister was like that, she never would have lived with her, much less owned property with her.

    PCUNTP got his ass kicked by his boss after we complained and I requested he not round on Mom this morning. They said he has to, but he hasn’t shown up yet and he’s usually here at 7.

    Aunt Selfish Cunt Property Co-Owner is getting sued today. Well, I mean, we’re filing the motion for partition today. I expect her trashy kids to show up any day now and make a trashy public scene.

    It just occurred to me I’ve been dropping the “e” on cunte.

    • Ed Wuncler

      Efff those trashy cousins of yours. Why don’t they pony up some money to help their mother out?

      • Mojeaux

        Well, that’s just it. They have always wanted that house* so they’re perfectly free to cough up the cash, but they either don’t have it or were expecting AuntSC to just get it and I would have nothing to say about it. Mom might fold in the face of Aunt SC’s bullying (my mantra for the past 14 years: “What Susie wants, Susie gets.” Yes, that’s her real name because fuck you, Aunt Susie.), but I won’t.

        *I have no idea why they’re so attached to the house. It’s in rural Missouri, her kids all live in Colorado and California, and they’ve only been here a handful of times. They want a “family home.” WTF. It’s a run-of-the-mill 60s ranch, not some beautifully restored Queen Anne.

      • Pine_Tree

        I’m sorry about it all Mo. Have seen or been involved-ish in similar, and the best you can do is what you believe is right for your Mom.

        My history related to the “…attached to the house…” bit, when it’s in rural MO and they’re CO and CA – I would not be surprised if, based on their geographies, they’ve looked at real estate values there and imagined the same numbers are applicable to the MO house. And that they see it as a pile of cash far in excess of what the MO market would really deliver. Had the same kind of thing happen with FL relatives in a hot suburban market thinking GA farmland should be the same $/acre.

      • Jarflax

        If Susie is on the deed as a joint tenant, they were expecting to end up with the house for free when your Mom passed on. Now they are confronted with either having to pony up for your mom’s half or having to move Susie.

      • juris imprudent

        Why don’t they pony up some money to help their mother out?

        Not the inter-generational wealth transfer they are contemplating.

      • R C Dean

        There’s joint tenants, and joint tenants with right of succession. With the former, a deceased joint tenant’s interest passes to their heirs. Either one can lead to ugly family squabbles, of course.

      • Jarflax

        I was taught that there was joint tenancy without survivorship in law school as well, and it may exist in some jurisdictions, but I have never seen anything but JTWROS and TIC, and at least in Ohio the language joint tenants or jointly creates a survivorship. I also cannot mentally come up with any distinction that makes sense requiring adding the third category.

      • Mojeaux

        They are “joint tenants” and not “tenants in common.” There is automatic right of survivorship with “joint tenants,” which yes, I agree (NOW) that was Susie’s KIDS’ doing all along. I don’t think she’s smart enough to plan anything. I think her kids were driving that.

        What I’m confused about is that my mother went along with it. She’s more savvy than that. Either she trusted Susie* or she got hounded into it. She doesn’t remember why she allowed it to be written like that.

        So, there is a mechanism in Missouri called partitioning (as @jarflax said) where a joint tenant with a monetary interest in the property can file to have it chopped up proportionate to monetary stake. When it’s not feasible to do that (e.g., it’s a family home), the property is sold by the court’s “referee” and the money split between the parties.

        That’s what we’re doing.

        *She didn’t have any contact with Susie for decades before they started living together when Susie was widowed. Susie was 16 and ran off with her much-older boyfriend and stayed disappeared for decades. They had only recently reconnected when Susie’s husband died. Then she moved from California to here. THEN Sister #3 joined the party, but she’s technically a renter. She didn’t know Susie as an adult.

    • slumbrew

      So sorry for your troubles, Mojeaux. Crappy relatives are the last thing you need to deal with right now.

    • Tundra

      I’m sorry, Mo. You are a saint for taking the lead on everything.

      I learned a long time ago to never co-own stuff with family or close friends. It always seems to end poorly.

      • Suthenboy

        My Grandfather: “Every partnership ends in a gun fight or a court battle.”

      • R C Dean

        Ye olde rule for business partnerships was that they ended automatically if any partner died, withdrew, etc.

        That didn’t prevent the gunfights or court battles, of course.

      • Mojeaux

        Well, I’m the lead because I’m slightly less awful about this stuff than my brothers, but it’s taking all three of us to put this all together. Also, I live here and they don’t. My husband was slated to be the one doing all the work, because his attention to detail and followup are stellar, but this is so much more involved than a simple reading of a simple will, settling her accounts, and letting Susie sell the house because they can’t maintain it without mom, which is what we anticipated.

        NONE of us was prepared for this.

    • Tonio

      Sorry you’re going through this.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      They need to set up a trust to buy the house, turn it into a museum of sorts, and keep it going that way. Also, they need younger members. That is what is killing a lot of hobbies; they do not appeal to younger people as they are currently run. They need to adapt.

      • slumbrew

        There’s that one 37-year-old chick. Which is shocking.

      • UnCivilServant

        Having had too many of my hobbies go ‘mainstream’ and been forced to hold my tongue at the cringeworthy blather from normies touristing in them, I’m not sure it wouldn’t have been better to just let them wither.

      • slumbrew

        UnCiv as a hipster – “I was into that before it got big, it was so much better before” 🙂

      • Jarflax

        I am picturing UCS in a fedora, drinking an IPA and wincing at the bitterness as he wrote this.

      • UnCivilServant

        No, slum, I am closer to ‘old man yells at cloud’ territory.

        I avoid bringing it up, despite my sadness at the changes because of those stupid fucks who chase obscurity for the sake of being into that thing no one else understands.

        I haven’t moved, and it’s not the “I was here first” part I value, but the actual content that has been forcibly changed to accommodate the newcomers.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        I am a regular attendee at a local “steam up”, and am always shocked to see young people running around and taking part in the festivities. Also, I am one of the younger people there at 53.

      • UnCivilServant

        No, Jarflax, Beer sucks, especially hoppy beer.

        My current hat is a Gibsons’ Bakery baseball cap. I only wear it in bad weather, like rain or sunshine.

      • R C Dean

        And a 16 year old, who specifically calls out that a lot of the clubs aren’t really open to young ‘uns.

        Which just baffles me. I thought hobbyists, being people and all, loved the opportunity to blather on at length at, err, I mean pass on their knowledge to, newbies.

      • UnCivilServant

        @RC – you find two categories of Oldbeards in any given hobby – one is the mentor type who encourage new members and give advice. The other is the closed gate guard who have their friend group and don’t want anyone to disrupt the dynamic of decades.

    • EvilSheldon

      That brings me back a bit. My uncle Ed had, for a while back in the late 80’s, the third-largest private model train layout in the United States. The photos from the Pacific Southern club look exactly like his basement – the memorabilia, the obsessive detail, and certainly the endless problems with having enough space…

  21. Suthenboy

    Many, maybe most people, as they approach the end of life begin to question if they have wasted their life or not. I am guessing Carlton Pate III, no matter what else he did in life, did not have that question.

  22. Suthenboy

    I have been hearing a lot about women and the military lately.

    A. Call me a dinosaur if you want but it is a man’s place to defend women and children. Cowards send women to do their fighting for them. Anyone can argue what they like but I will not budge on this. Women do not belong in combat.

    B. Rules of war? War is what happens when the rules have been exhausted. War is the absence of rules. There are no such things as ‘war crimes’.
    War is the ugliest, worst thing that people can do. It should only ever be a last, last resort. However, when the gloves come off, they are off. Fucking around and playing games is how we end up with ‘forever wars’. It is bullshit.

    • WTF

      ^this. If it’s important enough to go to war over, it’s important enough to go all out and do whatever is necessary to destroy your enemy’s will to ever continue the fight.

      • Ownbestenemy

        From Barry Goldwater lips to this site’s eyes.

    • Pine_Tree

      Well I was about to write pretty much that.

      Short version of my take on A): In a sense, the Whole. Point. Of. Civilization. is to make sure that the women and children do not see combat. If you’re in an existential fight, then yes it has come to that, but that in itself is a failure. And if you’re hankering for it, that’s a failure in a whole ‘nother sense.

      • UnCivilServant

        In Africa, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, child soldiers have proven particular effective as adult troops have been hesitant to simply gun them down.

        Of course, I would not call the groups who employed them ‘civilized’ by any stretch of the imagination.

  23. juris imprudent

    More ultra-processed goodness…

    There was a reason I looked up potato chips first. On a bag of potato chips, the ingredients are listed as: potatoes, oil, salt. Those are the exact same ingredients as in the potato dish in my super-healthy meal last night. Could I really have been eating “ultraprocessed food”? I’m now starting to understand how 73% of an American diet can be “ultraprocessed.”

    • WTF

      Another term without a consistent and sensible definition.

      • UnCivilServant

        You could define it such that the mere act of chewing counts as processing.

    • Suthenboy

      Magical thinking arises when we have problems that we cannot control and nowhere is that more evident than things regarding our health. Food weirdness is more common than pig tracks.

    • Ownbestenemy

      the category of “ultraprocessed foods” is completely meaningless as a guide

      To us yes. To companies looking to cash in on governmental regulations that will squash the little guys while they fleece the public, it makes perfect sense as a category.

    • Tundra

      Jesus Christ. Eat whatever the fuck you want, but read the ingredient lists once in awhile. This autistic obsession over a definition is so fucking tedious.

      Your health is entirely on you. I don’t want RFK to ban a fucking thing, but I’d sure like him to destroy the nutrition guidance that mean that everyone in the military, in schools, at hospitals and on welfare is getting dogshit food.

      • The Other Kevin

        I had a conversation about this with my SIL who is an NP. Here we have a program called WIC (women, infants, and children) where they give single moms food. There’s 2% milk, but it’s almost all breakfast cereal and carb-heavy foods. It’s sickening.

      • Sensei

        WIC was designed as an agricultural subsidy.

      • PieInTheSky

        Eat whatever the fuck you want – I thought the glibertarian way was don;t eat fat fuck foods.

      • juris imprudent

        Ag subsidy and MORAL enforcement (cash can be used for sinful things).

      • Tundra

        TOK:

        Take a gander at the ingredient list of baby formula.

        Also, the budget of SNAP is like 110 billion. Fucking 10 percent of the money goes to Coca Cola and other beverage companies. Just absurd.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Old school WIC was severely limited back when I was on it in the military with two youngins. Milk, cheese, cereal, frozen juices and eggs. That was it. Things you could technically get by with feeding kids for a couple of weeks while you float checks.

      • The Other Kevin

        Tundra, we talked about baby formula too. Breast feeding is so much better for kids, and it’s insane how much money it saves. Should be a no-brainer for a poor mom. But it’s not at all encouraged.

      • The Last American Hero

        WIC is to get single moms and their children calories to avoid starvation. Carb-heavy, calorie dense foods are the optimum delivery vehicle for that purpose.

      • Mojeaux

        I get irritated with the pro-breastfeeding mafia.

        My milk never came in. Neither did my mom’s. Or her mom’s. Or half my maternal girl cousins.

        A wetnurse was a thing for a reason.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I am with Mojeaux here. First wife never could produce and the little she did, she couldn’t deal with the child latching on. Is it better? Of course. Is it always feasible? Nope.

        Like a lot of things, it should be encouraged and then given an alternative since we aren’t in the 1000s anymore and we want babies to live.

      • PieInTheSky

        my mom had milk but it was not nutritious enough so I got breastfed and some bottle supplements. Here we have a government payed commercial here on the radio saying “exclusively breastfeeding is essential for a healthy child”. It is not essential, and exclusively would lead do undernourishment for some kids. It is advisable if possible, but it is not the end of the world. I would recommend breastfeeding to whomever can do that, but alternatives are perfectly valid.

    • Jarflax

      Processed food kills! You should wander the Earth picking fruits and vegetables and eating them raw! It is the path to immortality. Or possibly a nasty parasitic infection.

    • Nephilium

      I am now trying to figure out a way to break down potatoes into a slurry that could be shaped into chips and fried without using any other ingredients.

      • Sean

        100% potato Pringles?

      • UnCivilServant

        You would at least need water, as there’s not enough liquid in a potato to naturally make a slurry.

      • juris imprudent

        Double processing – adding the water to make the slurry and then removing the water to hold the chip shape!!!

    • rhywun

      As to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — if there is one Trump cabinet pick whom I would be happy to see not confirmed, he would be it.

      Great minds think alike. Dude is a crackpot, and necessarily (just) on food.

      • slumbrew

        An authoritarian crack pot

      • WTF

        But think of the entertainment value.

    • PieInTheSky

      I am contrarian on this one as I think ultraprocessed has a meaning and it is bad, though I admit you cannot give a 100% precise definition. But significant quantities of refined carbs and fats make something ultraprocessed. Also, potato chips are bad for you. So are potato crisps.

      • Tundra

        To me it’s the ingredients, not the processing per se. There is no question that refined carbs and sugar are devastating for *most* people. For most of us our metabolic health is fucking horrible. There are many causes, of course, but nutrition is the primary thing. And unfortunately it’s an N=1 situation.

        And sure, moderate consumption of shitty foods isn’t the end of the world *if* you are already metabolically healthy.

      • PieInTheSky

        I also include refined oils in that. The combo is the worse. Very palatable low satiety response.

      • Tundra

        Pie:

        Spot on. I’m not sure what it will take to get people to see this. Every time they put people on a SAD vs real diet, the frankenfood group consumes like 1000 more calories a day than the people eating sufficient protein, sufficient fat and lower carb.

    • juris imprudent

      On some shit I would imagine we are sub 1 percent hereabouts.

      I don’t think the good doctor made a case for a pre-emptive pardon – not for Fauci or for any other case.

    • Suthenboy

      I have given up. The whole cootie bug scam brought out so much idiocy and criminal behavior in so many people that I have no hope that anyone will ever pay a price for it.
      Who still thinks humans are intelligent critters? I certainly dont.

    • Suthenboy

      Also: blanket and preemptive pardons are nonsense. A pardon should be for a specific person regarding a specific crime that has been prosecuted – i.e. to undo a conviction.

      • juris imprudent

        Isn’t it ironic that the pre-emptive pardon precedent that this all leans on is Nixon.

      • Suthenboy

        If power is granted to government, any power whatsoever, it is a certainty that govt will abuse that power.

    • Ownbestenemy

      i’d like to know how redfield, then head of CDC and who seemed not to buy a whole lot of this was so effectively flipped. somewhere in here is a serious set of influence that has not yet been revealed.

      Yeah…who or what agency was turning the screws so to speak for the near unison about-face would be interesting to know and would never see the light of day.

      • Tundra

        It always looks a lot like blackmail to me. And I’m not talking about sex scandals or anything so pedestrian. If you think about the many ways the blob can wreck your life, It’s not shocking to me that these people cave.

      • juris imprudent

        Bureaucrats are timid creatures, so intimidating them isn’t as big a deal as you might think. Those that rise to the highest ranks understand that.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Especially if they got folders dropped in front of them with things like “global die off event” or something akin to that, that some doctors/scientist were trying to say was going to happen. Or say, a real chat with Fauci on the realities of what NIH was actually doing and the potential for something truly nasty to emerge.

        I don’t think blackmail. I think no different than the ICs that gave Team Bush a bunch of fake info to get what they wanted.

      • Tundra

        Maybe, but I seem to remember them going after Flynn’s kid pretty aggressively. I know that if someone threatened my family I would probably play ball.

    • Raven Nation

      Doesn’t a pardon start with a presumption of guilt? I know bad kitty argues that people would see it as Biden protecting Fauci but, still, “if he’s done nothing wrong why pardon him.”

      The one way I’d see a pardon working would be to tie it to full confession and disclosure.

    • Tundra

      That’s a good point. End the subsidies and a good number of these problems go away on their own.

      It kills me that they are still flogging the salt and saturated fat thing.

      • slumbrew

        Do you want people to get fat, Tundra?! It’s got “fat” right in the name!!!

      • Tundra

        Is it ironic that trans fats actually do harm?

      • Ownbestenemy

        A little too ironic, don’t you think?

      • Suthenboy

        I remember when girls were eating potatoes and avoiding meat to keep from getting fat.
        See my comment above on magical thinking.

        Suthenboy’s magical diet, guaranteed to work every time : eat moderate amounts of food then get off of your ass and get exercise.

        *I just ate a ham sandwich and as soon as the rain slacks off I am going to stack firewood. I am 5’9″ and weigh 155 lbs.

      • Suthenboy

        I would add that what is listed on the ingredients is not the same as what is there after cooking which is not the same as what your body absorbs after digestion.
        The biggest factor regarding your health and lifespan is your genes. There is no magical clam that lives in a secret place over the rainbow that will make you younger, make your dick bigger, grow your hair back, make you smarter or cure diabetes.
        We just spent a million years evolving around an open fire. Second hand smoke does not harm you one whit. First hand smoke probably doesnt affect people much as long as it is moderate. Again, genes. The vast majority of people who get lung cancer have never smoked a cigarette in their lives.
        Dont eat poison and try not to step in front of a bus. That is really about the best we can do. Also, prosperity prolongs life so stop giving your money to snake oil salesmen.

    • rhywun

      This must be part of that “inflation reduction” I keep hearing about.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    UNQUALIFIED

    Sen. Tammy Duckworth, grilling President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary over whether he had the “breadth and depth of knowledge” needed to lead international negotiations, asked Pete Hegseth if could name one member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, describe what type of agreement the U.S. had with the countries and how many nations were in the bloc.

    Hegseth responded at the heated Senate confirmation hearing that he couldn’t tell Duckworth the exact number of ASEAN nations, but that “I know we have allies in South Korea and Japan in AUKUS (a pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.) with Australia.”

    “None of those three countries are in ASEAN,” responded Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois. “I suggest you do a little homework.”

    Game, set, match.

    The Secretary of Defense has no staff to provide him with briefings as needed.

      • UnCivilServant

        What was the last treaty the Senate ratified?

        Honest question, I don’t know.

      • UnCivilServant

        Oh, internet says it was the revised version of NAFTA from 2018.

    • PieInTheSky

      how much is a duck worth in the US?

      • Suthenboy

        Same as downtown apparently.

      • Jarflax

        One witch

    • creech

      Duckworth is Armed Services Committee and, as such, she should be able to recite chapter and verse of the current state of the Chinese navy – type of ships, how many at sea, how many in construction, etc. – without reference to her notes or briefings by her staff? I doubt there is a higher level bureaucrat or c.e.o. in America who doesn’t have to rely on binders of information in order to answer “gotcha” questions. How many times did Karine have to say “we’ll get back to you” even with her supposed knowledge of Biden’s every waking thought?

      • juris imprudent

        Psaki could’ve circled back several times around the circumference of the earth.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    If you eat food all your life, you will die. Stop eating and cheat the Reaper.

    • PieInTheSky

      calorie restriction may have some health benefits. Especially if you are on the SAD

  26. The Other Kevin

    Lots of confirmation hearings happening now:

    John Ratcliffe, CIA
    Pam Bondi, AG
    Marco Rubio, SOS

    • PieInTheSky

      I am due tomorrow myself

      • The Other Kevin

        Good luck Pie. Those Dems can be insufferable.

      • The Last American Hero

        Lots of questions about being pro daylight savings and the state of the nation’s blood banks.

    • The Other Kevin

      Wow, Dept. of Energy too. They really do want to hit the ground running.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      I keep getting emails from GOA about Bondi. They point out that she is not a 2nd Amendment supporter. The email this morning pointed out that she was on the wrong side of the Zimmerman case, for example.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I give it a 6 on the trolling scale.

      • slumbrew

        Poe’s Law

      • Suthenboy

        Troll

      • PieInTheSky

        I don’t think it is Poe’s Law I read is as an obvious joke.

    • Suthenboy

      There is a reason we have so many ethnic restaurants and a reason some ethnics are more popular even if some of those foods have been americanized.
      Some cultures get food more than others do.

      • PieInTheSky

        Some cultures get food more than others do – so Oregon >> Louisiana got it.

      • Ownbestenemy

        This is how a new screenplay is born. The Cajun Vampire Hunter Chronicles

      • PieInTheSky

        look I remember reading on serious eats in 2015 that Portland is the best food city in America.

  27. PieInTheSky

    In opposition to conservatives and christian values, I have seem more and more on the more alt-right side of European X people saying that Christianity is a Jew religion from the middle east and the true European religion should be old school paganism.

    • Suthenboy

      In other news ‘People are monkeys’.

      • UnCivilServant

        Only if you dogmatically follow philogenetic cladistics.

        More precicely, we are hominid apes, which are a subset of the ape clade which is a subset of the monkey clade.

  28. PieInTheSky

    Square profile picture
    The Telegraph
    @Telegraph
    Sir Keir Starmer has made fresh concessions in his race to hand over the Chagos Islands before Donald Trump takes power, Mauritius has suggested

    Jack Montgomery
    @JackBMontgomery
    Can you imagine Denmark negotiating over Greenland like this?

    Trump: “What will you take for Greenland?”

    🇩🇰: “We can pay *you* to take it, many millions annually.”

    DJT: “Um, OK. Can you pay nine billion up front instead?”

    🇩🇰: “…You drive a hard bargain, but it’s a deal.”

    I have to admit, whenever I believe England cannot get more retarded, things like this appear.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Doesn’t a pardon start with a presumption of guilt? I know bad kitty argues that people would see it as Biden protecting Fauci but, still, “if he’s done nothing wrong why pardon him.”

    The one way I’d see a pardon working would be to tie it to full confession and disclosure.

    I like it. Shave his head and make him crawl naked through the streets loudly confessing his sins and begging for forgiveness while his victims pelt him with horse turds and cobblestones.

    • The Last American Hero

      That would be justice, but I would settle for the guy to be turned into a national laughing stock.

  30. PieInTheSky

    “Breast feeding is so much better for kids, and it’s insane how much money it saves”

    “Roman urbanites stopped breastfeeding their infants around 2 years of age, in line with medical advice at the time (they trusted the science), whilst rural Romans continued past the 2 years mark. Based on carbon/nitrogen isotopes in teeth.”

    https://x.com/Paracelsus1092/status/1879184888240455817

    • PieInTheSky

      this was meant as a reply…

  31. The Other Kevin

    Seems appropriate that this showed up on a Wednesday:

    “MAGA: Trump is Making Diet Coke Great Again! President Trump was presented with the first-ever Presidential Commemorative Inaugural Diet Coke bottle by James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company.”

    https://x.com/amuse/status/1879555666547020097

      • UnCivilServant

        I should have phrased that better, it was meant to be a sympathy post rather than a flippant one.

        Sorry.

      • PieInTheSky

        These are situations when I suppose it is good to not be an alcohol drinker cause I would probably hit the whisky hard.

      • Mojeaux

        No, it’s fine. There is some black humor to be had here. Gearing up for a fight is one thing. Gearing up for a fight with people you thought loved your mother is an entirely different thing.

        This WILL make its way into a book. Maybe a memoir. Aunt Susie Is A Cunte, by Pissed-Off Niece

    • Tundra

      Have you been outside at all? Sometimes walking away for a bit can help.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    GOTCHA!

    Donald Trump will aim to end the war in Ukraine within 100 days of re-entering the White House, the president-elect’s pick for special peace envoy has said.

    It followed Mr Trump, who had previously pledged he could solve the conflict within 24 hours, backtracking on that idea when he confirmed during a press conference talks would not begin until after his inauguration on January 20.

    Trump lied to the American people. Commence impeachment proceedings.

    • UnCivilServant

      Step 1 – Seize Zelinskyy and force him to testify against his laundering partners.

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