274 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    Fox should turn off autoplay.

    • Common Tater

      “Justices on the high court ruled 5-4 to grant the administration’s request to lift the stay, in a temporary victory for Trump and his allies.”

      Article doesn’t say which ones

      • cavalier973

        I heard that Roberts joined the 4 who dissented

      • Sean

        I thought I read it was ACB.

      • ron73440

        From an NPR article:

        The vote was 5-to-4, with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the three liberals in dissent.

        ACB, wasn’t she sold as an ultra-conservative?

      • AlexinCT

        I heard that Roberts joined the 4 who dissented

        Don’t we all know Robets is completely owned by the globalist marxist cabal through Norm Eisen?

      • Drake

        ABC has stopped pretending.

      • WTF

        At this point ACB can be relied on to side with the looney leftists, leaving Roberts once again as the swing vote.

      • Common Tater

        “ABC has stopped pretending.”

        It’s typo Tuesaday!

      • Tonio

        Barrett and Kavanaugh are both one-trick ponies. Abortion and executive privilege, respectively. Barrett is disappointingly statist and votes to preserve the status quo. Kavanaugh could be replaced by a coin-flipping machine for non-EP cases, and nothing would change.

      • juris imprudent

        There’s no such thing as a perfect justice. Hell, even Thomas upheld a strip search in a school for a fucking aspirin.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I am unsurprised at ACB. This, not some Handmaiden Tail, was the likely outcome from her background.

      • slumbrew

        Handmaiden Tail

        Giggity.

    • R.J.

      At least on my phone, Brave shuts it down. PC may be a different matter.

      • Common Tater

        Yes, I’m on desktop.

  2. Jarflax

    Mornin’ Banjos

    ***skims links

    Think I’ll crawl back in bed and stay there.

  3. cavalier973

    Trump touts tariffs, and accidentally creates a world of free trade.

    • Common Tater

      I hope so. Not only is the stock market down, prices are already up based on my Amazon browsing.

      • R.J.

        Yep. I bought all I needed for the house early on. I knew that was coming.

      • Common Tater

        I had plans to buy some things back in February. Then my mom was in the hospital for almost two weeks, and died. So then I had to deal with that. I was thinking that things could go up because tariffs, but shopping wasn’t a priority.

        Things that were $200 are now $250.

      • Ted S.

        I went to the liquor store and bought a mixed case of wine last week to beat the tariffs.

        Hope my daily drinkers don’t go up too much.

  4. cavalier973

    The leaders of Colorado need some woodchippin’

    • rhywun

      Penis-slicin’.

    • cavalier973

      I don’t understand why Coloradans put up with it. I’d have moved out long ago.

      Colorado isn’t a state I’d ever love to, though. It is an incredibly beautiful place, but any state that limits your use of water is a place I will try to avoid.

      • cavalier973

        *move to, not love to

      • Nephilium

        Having spent my life where the problem is too much water, not enough, I agree.

      • robc

        Its the same problem any state has with one large city. See also, Illinois.

        Basically, everyone else ignores what comes out of Denver.

      • Ted S.

        Now do New York, Rob.

    • Common Tater

      ““A well-stakeholded bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups, and we don’t ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion,” she quipped…

      “I will call those groups hateful, and I am not the only person who has done so,” Zokaie said. “Some of the groups in opposition to this bill are on a list of hate groups maintained by one of the most well-known civil rights law firms, and yes I will compare that to saying it’s like asking someone working on civil rights legislation to consult with white supremacist groups, and I will do that unapologetically.””

      CWAC

      • Jarflax

        If your group isn’t on a list of hate groups you should be ashamed.

      • rhywun

        “But I hate women and that’s A-OK.”

      • R C Dean

        “well-stakeholded”

        What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

      • slumbrew

        What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

        “Right-thinkers support this”

      • Ted S.

        I’m one of the “stakeholders” in that I could be threatened with pound me in the ass prison if some tranny gets offended by my words. I wasn’t consulted.

      • juris imprudent

        So you want to settle this the old fashioned way, without words, but ending in death.

      • slumbrew

        See my comment, Teds’.

        You’re the wrong kind of stakeholder.

  5. cavalier973

    Kansas, Kentucky, and Wyoming are the three states that banned foreign money in ballot measures.

    • robc

      Ballot measures are barely even a thing in Kentucky.

    • The Last American Hero

      If it was NY, CA, and IL we’d be getting somewhere.

  6. Common Tater

    I love how the left is against guns and for assignations.

    • cavalier973

      “Assignations” or “assassinations”?

      • Rat on a train

        You are assigned to carry out the assassination.

      • Jarflax

        Fun and exciting date activity?

    • Ted S.

      Who isn’t for assignations?

      • slumbrew

        Sweet, sweet assignations.

    • Common Tater

      I need more covefe.

      • Ted S.

        We all do.

      • R C Dean

        So much covfefe you’ll be sick of covfefe?

      • DEG

        #metoo

  7. Grumbletarian

    Colorado: Failing to abuse your child is child abuse.

    • AlexinCT

      There is a cabal with a seriously evil agenda targeting minors…

    • Rat on a train

      CPS: Why isn’t your child trans?

      • juris imprudent

        Oh well, since I’m going to lose my parental rights – I’ll just kill you.

      • Not Adahn

        “For the safety of our public servants, abusive parents will be pre-euthanized prior to removing the transgender child to an affirming environment.”

    • Fourscore

      That’s what good parenting does.

      Why do you have to ruin my day, Jimbo?

      • Pope Jimbo

        Someone needs to keep you grounded 4Score.

  8. AlexinCT

    Colorado House Passes Bill Treating as Child Abuse Dissent From Transgender Orthodoxy

    I am sorry but at this point the LGB crowd needs to step up and fight this shit being done under cover of their name. This is beyond lunacy into obvious attack on parental responsibility if it stops the agenda to abuse people suffering from mental disorders.

    I will reiterate it again: there are no trans kids: there are parents with mental disorders (Munchausen by proxy, for real) being supported by the cabal of adults that wants to legalize pedophilia.

    • Ted S.

      It’s not going to stop until a boy kills his mother for trying to transition him against his will

      It might not stop even then.

      • juris imprudent

        I expect a spate of such killings in the not too distant future.

    • Common Tater

      In this case there was literally no debate.

      “Caldwell noted that the Democrat majority invoked Rule 16, which calls the question and ends debate, leading to a vote. “I believe they did this to silence us because they know how much negative attention this has been getting nationwide,” he said in a video message Sunday.”

      Unfortunately, if there is a debate, it’s two retards fighting, with both sides talking past each other. The right can define “transgender” about as well as the left can define “semi-automatic”.

      • WTF

        The difference being semi-automatics are a real thing. “Transgender” is just made-up bullshit.

      • Jarflax

        Delusion: a false belief or judgment about external reality, held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, occurring especially in mental conditions.

      • Common Tater

        Thank you for proving my point.

      • juris imprudent

        Transgender gets rid of the thing that goes up, which is what makes assault rifles so dangerous!

      • Not Adahn

        *inserts still from Zardoz*

    • rhywun

      There are several sensible non-tranny groups fighting this stuff but they are completely drowned out by the mainstream orgs who are hardcore leftist radicals. *shrug*

      • Common Tater

        Yes, there are Gays Against Groomers, Moms For Liberty, etc., but those are all nazis according to the SPLC. They also have way less money than the formerly pro-gay groups such as the Soros-funded HRC.

      • DrOtto

        Which HRC? Nevermind, they’re both Soros funded.

    • The Last American Hero

      Why would they suddenly turn around and start fight against something they’ve supported?

      Yes, there are a handful that have spoken out, but not a single advocacy group has said enough is enough and 19 out of 20 high profile LBG is all in.

      • Rat on a train

        I’m waiting for the Dire Rat.

      • Rat on a train

        Imagine a Capybara the size of a human. It’s staring right at you …

      • Common Tater

        Capybara are herbivores. Probably no more scary than a cow.

      • Jarflax

        I know a couple ranchers who would tell you that cows are pretty much all assholes.

    • UnCivilServant

      Three is still functionally extinct.

      • WTF

        And they will remain functionally extinct until there are viable breeding pairs that produce viable offspring that breed true as dire wolves.

      • Jarflax

        They are also not dire wolves. They are grey wolves with a handful of dire wolf gene pairs spliced in and a number of other gene edits that are meant to mimic the appearance of dire wolves. It’s interesting, but it is far from restoring the species.

      • UnCivilServant

        How much deviation from Dire is acceptable before they become “true”?

      • Jarflax

        As I understand it they used 15 dire wolf gene pairs total in the recreation. I think asking how much deviation from grey wolf does it take for them to cease being grey wolves is a better question.

      • Nephilium

        UCS:

        The Dire Wolves of Theseus?

      • Jarflax

        The only way to settle this is to build a time machine and go live trap some dire wolves to see if these critters can produce viable fertile offspring with them.

    • AlexinCT

      Just get a vorpal BFG.

    • Drake

      Publicity stunt. Not even close to an actual site wolf.

      • R C Dean

        Indeed. These are genetically edited gray wolves, not dire wolves.

      • Not Adahn

        Like Neph pointed out, how much gene editing is necessary before they become indistinguishable from the OG?

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Like Neph pointed out, how much gene editing is necessary before they become indistinguishable from the OG?

        ^ this. If I’m understanding correctly, they compared the grey wolf code against an actual dire wolf code and then rewrote the mostly similar grey wolf DNA to match the DNA of a dire wolf. These are not merely phenotypic changes as the result of line breeding for desired characteristics. It’s an actual dire wolf. Offspring will breed true dire wolves.

        I started down this line of research 20 years ago (creating chimeric organisms by rewriting DNA), but the technology just wasn’t there at the time and bailed. It’s amazing to see it being achieved now.

        This is a great example about the difference between laboratory-created genetically modified organisms and those modified through traditional line breeding.

      • Urthona

        100% probably required.

        Based on what they said it’s 90%.

        So a hybrid wolf.

    • Common Tater

      Maybe they should put them in some sort of park.

    • The Last American Hero

      There is only one edition. The rest are a copy to get rid of the creator’s author credit, a fanfic variant where everybody can be and do anything, an attempt at a tabletop mmo, and whatever the current knock off is.

      • Not Adahn

        “tumblr, the RPG!”

      • Nephilium

        Not Adahn:

        I saw an article recently talking about Gen Z latching onto the one social media site that wasn’t destroyed by Millennials. The one they picked?

        Tumblr.

      • Not Adahn

        It would be difficult to destroy tumblr, this is true.

      • DEG

        BECMI, 1st, and 2nd edition are OK. Everything else is junk.

    • Tonio

      I haven’t watched the video but if the text description is correct it sounds like the type of thing the left would condemn if anyone else were doing it. No MAGA or red apparel is totes legit, as is the sign and marching. But the after-the-fact test is complete bullshit. Imagine if a fast food worker had to pass a test after their first shift in order to get paid for said shift. I hope more of these people come forward and that this story gains traction.

      • AlexinCT

        That is a great point you made Tonio: when the left does it, no matter how criminal or evil, it is for the cause, so it is OK. Anyone else doing something they regularly do is however a Nazi.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        They are on “the right side of history” or somesuch BS.

        This idea, that history “bends to the left” is what gives the far left emotional cover for hypocrisy in things like this.

    • Akira

      The US regime pays protesters in other countries all the time when they don’t like the faction in charge; it’s no big stretch to find out they’d do it here.

    • UnCivilServant

      You’re a mean one, Mr Ted.

  9. juris imprudent

    OK, this is it, the ultimate expression of voter stupidity. Speaking to AOC as a prospective Democratic leader…

    There are certainly some encouraging signs. Last cycle, for instance, her congressional district swung rightward at the presidential level by more than almost any other. Yet, she did better than most New York Democrats up and down the ballot in her deep-blue district, thanks at least in part to support from working-class voters who also voted for Trump.

    What kind of moron votes for AOC and Trump? A NYC moron apparently. Idiocracy isn’t about the future at all.

    • AlexinCT

      One can argue the movie’s premise that it would take a few centuries for humanity to go stupid was incorrect as it took less than a couple of decades and an orange guy pissing all over the marxists and their agendas to get there…

      • juris imprudent

        Somehow voters in NYC voted for both the orange ogre and AOC. You can’t explain that – it defies all explanation.

      • AlexinCT

        Attacks on the system from both ends? The abuse orange guy attacks one end, and the batshit crazy marxist bartender big booty latina attacks from the other?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        They are both populists, of one sort or another, JI.

        How effective they are at the games they are playing is left up to you, and everyone else, to decide.

      • Akira

        @alexinCT:

        “big booty”

        [citation needed]

    • Common Tater

      She’s cute and has big tits.

      • Common Tater

        Have you ever seen the cover of Cosmopolitan? It’s not just men.

    • R.J.

      It was about the future when it was released. We are living it now.

    • DEG

      What kind of moron votes for AOC and Trump?

      I poked around on the Intertubes. I remember when she was first elected, she came under some fire for not taking care of constituents like her predecessor did. Poking around, it looks like she has started taking care of constituent services. So, yeah, I can see folks splitting a ticket for her and Trump.

    • juris imprudent

      I know that you know in your heart that transgender people are no different from you or anybody else.

      Wrong toots, I’m not deluded about my identity. You are. You can have that penis removed (which you likely have not done), but you still aren’t a woman.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        You have the dignity that should be afforded to all human beings, God loves you, and you’re mentally ill-no more a woman than you are a dog.

      • Tonio

        “I know that you know in your heart…”

        That’s either incredibly smug, or incredibly delusional. Even more delusional than his belief that he’s a woman. It’s understandable as a coping mechanism.

    • Jarflax

      Having one delusion does not necessitate having others. Nor does it make one evil or stupid any more than having depression, or a physical defect does.

    • DrOtto

      Good example of trans’ing the gay away.

      • Common Tater

        Possibly, as she is a Christian who describes herself as being a “flamer” before she transitioned. Although her speech and mannerisms do seem like someone who had gender dysphoria. I’m good at this, like Tonio can hear chest hair.

    • ron73440

      I don’t think this story is going to get much attention, since a pretty Christian trans woman doesn’t fit the the left or the right.

      “pretty”

      gonna have to disagree with you there, no amount of make up can make that not be a dude.

      • R C Dean

        I had just seen a still of him before. Watching the video, he’s a lot more masculine than he looks in the still.

      • SarumanTheGreat

        Photoshopping?

    • Common Tater

      When did she express this alleged delusion? Yes, there are leftist trans people (and even leftist non-trans people) who claim to be the opposite sex, but most trans people don’t. Most trans people aren’t that political, or want to announce to the world that they are trans. The few trans people who are, and not leftist ideologues, such as Blaire White or Buck Angel openly and repeatedly admit that they are not the opposite sex.

      • WTF

        Then what is “trans” actually supposed to mean? Because that makes no sense.

      • The Last American Hero

        I guess you haven’t been to Seattle, where the entire LGBT population is one to two steps away at most from full blown marxist revolution.

        It’s very much a team thing. Since team conservative wasn’t on board with gay marriage, therefore they support the left’s policies on everything from education to taxes to trade to wars to transing the kids to trains because whacha gonna do, vote Republican?

      • Jarflax

        Dysphoria is a delusion. The belief that one is in the wrong body is at odds with reality. Understand that I am not arguing that this delusion makes the sufferer evil or even more broken than many other mental illnesses imply.

      • Common Tater

        Actually, the Democrats weren’t for gay marriage either. Both Obama and Clinton during the 2008 primary said that marriage was between a man and a woman (back when they could define those things), as did all the Democrats in the Senate. Gay marriage was illegal in most deep blue states. No one wanted to vote for it because black people. So they waited on the Supreme Court.

      • Common Tater

        “Dysphoria is a delusion. The belief that one is in the wrong body is at odds with reality.”

        Dysphoria is a profound negative sense, so it’s comparable to, and often accompanied by, affective disorders such as anxiety or depression.

        A physiological basis of gender dysphoria is neurological dimorphism. Brains can be sorted into male and female. So there not only can, but should be based on how genetics work, male people with female brains. We would know way more about it, if feminists didn’t throw a tantrum over scientists researching the sex differences between brains.

      • Jarflax

        It is not clear to me that you would have female brains in male bodies absent some sort of intersex genetic defect, and I do not consider intersex situations to be in the array of conditions that constitute transgenderism. I freely admit I am a layperson, but I think it is an important distinction to make.

        My issue with our current way of looking at this (other than the issues arising with children) is that we have politically decided that this one category of mental illness should be treated by attempting to modify physical reality to match the mental map rather than, as with other mental illnesses, trying to help the sufferer deal with physical reality in the best way possible for them.

      • Common Tater

        Sexual dimorphism has a bimodal distribution. So you have two statistical groups of non-reproductive traits where the graph looks like a bra from the 50’s. So it’s not some “intersex genetic defect” when males have some typically female trait, or vice-versa. Sydney Watson is much taller and has lower eyebrows than Ben Shapiro. Jillian Micheals looks like she has larger hands than Donald Trump. This applies to neurology as well. There are women who are color blind or schizophrenic.

      • Jarflax

        That seems to me to be you moving the goalposts. Of course the male and female distribution curves of traits will have overlap, but the claim that one has a male or female brain is not saying one has some traits that are more common with the other sex. The idea of being a man in a woman’s body is more than saying you are a somewhat masculine woman. It is saying you have a man’s brain, which I am only willing to concede is a thing if you can show me a direct sex link to some structural difference. Show me something akin to the pelvic differentiation between sexes in the brain and I will agree it represents a male or female brain. Then show me someone who is otherwise male with a female brain by that distinction and I will grant your point entirely. I will still say that the treatment should emphasize psychological treatment rather than surgical, because the surgery is harmful, irreversible, and frequently ineffective in reconciling the issue.

    • Ted S.

      If they’re heading to BK, they can have it their way.

    • juris imprudent

      The modern audience doesn’t want big, noisy motorcycles anyway, right?

    • Pope Jimbo

      HD also has a problem selling to youngsters. Their bikes are only being bought by rich old people. Dentists who want to pretend that they are “rebels” and bad asses.

      The kids a) can’t afford a HD and b) don’t want to be seen on a boomer bike.

      • Sensei

        Hence the reason for the embrace of all things woke. It will make all the young kids like us.

        The youngest generations can’t drive a manual transmission auto and the rates of young people getting driver’s licenses are declining. HD needs to take a lesson from luxury goods like mechanical watches and the like.

        I don’t have a good solution for them particularly with the regulatory environment they face unlike other luxury goods. I’d probably shop it to somebody and make it a boutique division of a broader power sports company. But that gave us AMF which was a disaster.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Downsize and embrace the customer base is the only answer. Middle aged dentist money is just as green as a 25 year olds.

      • Sensei

        Problem is those dentists age out. You need to replace them with new cohorts.

      • The Last American Hero

        Hey now, I like the faux biker crowd. They’ve filled many a bar that my band has played at, and you don’t have to worry about anybody getting shot or stabbed in the parking lot.

      • Dr Mossy Lawn

        Another problem is that motorcycles are extremely durable goods. The HD buying era peaked 20+ years ago and all of those bikes still run fine. My 2002 HD needed a shaft seal replacement. My friends 95 Dresser runs fine. HD already went to the lifestyle and boutique trend, and all of the motorcycles were SVO (Performance). Their market is saturated, there is no reason to buy a new one, they are stuck.
        They are rolling lifestyle statements, and nostalgia. They are in no way good motorcycles.

      • Pope Jimbo

        8 years ago, I worked on a project with HD to connect their bikes to the internet.

        HD knows all about their looming issues with kids. Their solution was to put in a cellular module that would connect the bike and rider to … Facebook.

        Yes, their big idea was to “add social media” to their bikes. Because the kids love Facebook right?

        It was a super painful project. The HD people demanded that even demos comply with their huge style guide for web sites. More than one time the team was chastised for using the wrong logo image on a demo page. Or color. Fuck, we were just happy that the demo actually received bike information.

      • Ted S.

        I want to be on the road with bikers doing the social media thing.

    • Common Tater

      The other thing is that HD aren’t objectively good motorcycles. They are not economical fuel-efficient transportation (like Japanese commuter bikes), nice touring bikes (like BMW), or high-performance racers.

      • Sensei

        Part of the reason for my “toy” comment and the luxury watch comparison.

  10. Pope Jimbo

    Minnesoda. Always a poor man’s California.

    In fact, Monday’s report is the 4th major review produced by OLA, the in-house watchdog for Minnesota state agencies. Southwest LRT, also known as the METRO Green Line Extension, is 14.5 miles long and will connect the downtown centers of Eden Prairie, Hopkins, St. Louis Park and Minneapolis when it is completed.
     
    What is new is that the Met Council, whose members are appointed by the governor and are in charge of fostering strategic growth within the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area, is steadfast about when the project will be completed.
     
    Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle testified before lawmakers at a Legislative Audit Commission hearing Monday that the extension would be open to riders by 2027 and will stick to its 2024 revised cost projection of $2.86 billion. The original cost estimate, made in 2011, was $1.25 billion for a light rail line that would open in 2018.

    The Met Council president pinky swears that they won’t spend money willy-nilly anymore. That they will be careful from now on.

    • juris imprudent

      Isn’t growth bad, always? Is that what “strategic” means there – making static (or decay) sound like growth?

      • Jarflax

        Depends, economic growth is always evil, growth in regulatory control and the size of the bureaucracy is always good, growth in population is good as long as the increase is people from hostile cultures who are in no way pressured to assimilate.

    • Ted S.

      Monday’s report is the 4th major review produced by OLA

      Did SVEN produce a report too?

    • The Last American Hero

      Cali without the coastline or the sunshine. They are sooo screwed.

  11. juris imprudent

    TW: NPR

    Each brought years of experience to their roles. Each was removed from their position soon after President Trump signed two executive orders ending diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) efforts in the federal government.

    The simple fact they HAD been DEI indicates that as employees, they were useless, no matter what slot they are currently sitting in.

    • Rat on a train

      The experience gained over years of grifting was lost.

    • R C Dean

      “Each brought years of experience to their roles.”

      Which is no guarantee that the results of their efforts were beneficial to Americans.

      • Jarflax

        Mengele was quite experienced

      • juris imprudent

        None of them had been in the private sector, where actual results are expected.*

        * funny line years ago, and still somewhat accurate, but in reality, the private sector has almost as much bloat and only purges it when the bottom line absolutely demands doing so

      • The Last American Hero

        That’s true about the bloat, but the fact that there is a line and that there is competition that enforces at least some level of productivity vs no line and no competition still makes a world of difference.

      • Akira

        “vs no line and no competition still makes a world of difference.”

        Not to mention the immensely powerful public sector labor unions that make some of the biggest political donations in an effort to ensure that the government personnel ranks just grow and grow. It’s their entire business model.

    • ron73440

      I skimmed it, but this caught my eye:

      Sherrell Pyatt began her federal career a decade ago with a job at the U.S. Postal Service, where four generations of her family have served.

      Love the “served” for the U.S. Postal Service.

  12. Jarflax

    I am doing my continuing ed to maintain my license despite having retired. Every single course I have taken so far, regardless of the topic, has spent at least 20% of the time gushing about how wonderful AI research and drafting is. The current guy is saying that not using it should be seen as malpractice because it is clearly a failure to use one’s best efforts…

    It’s good to have confirmation that retiring as soon as I could was wise.

    • Jarflax

      Aaaand he is now talking about the Green Pledge… Dick the Butcher was right.

      • Rat on a train

        Has he done a land acknowledgement yet?

      • Jarflax

        No, but he is talking about AI having ethnic biases now…

      • Rat on a train

        AI can’t get the Irish right.

    • Sensei

      AI is the new new thing. We will see what happens when things settle.

      It’s been oddly useful for me studying Japanese. I can ask it to use a specific piece of grammar and give me examples. The reverse is handy when helping my Japanese friends learn English.

      In the legal profession I can see it making some inroads.

      • Jarflax

        It probably is quite useful in languages, that’s its niche. The issue with it in legal research is that it has been known to make up cases to support the position it was told to find support for, and lawyers are 1. lazy and 2. often harried and have been known to not go back through and check the results manually.

      • Sensei

        Older models made really bad grammar mistakes. The new models are much, much better.

        The hallucinations (fictional citations) are a big issue with me as well. As I noted to Swiss below my GC uses it, but more on contracts. You can train it on a bunch of existing contracts and have it generate permutations.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I’m on the fence on AI. I think some things it is good at. Other things… ?

        The big factor is what happens when they start charging for AI at levels that actually cover their costs. Last number I heard was MicroSoft spent $5B to make $3B.

        My guess is that if they start charging enough to sustain itself, a lot of AI users will check out.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Or mine the voluntarily provided inputs and results.

    • Swiss Servator

      Interesting – I am taking mine now for IL – the courses the ILARDC has up are very cautious about AI. “A fine tool, but here are a good dozen ways it can get you hauled in to be standing tall before the Man.”

      • Sensei

        A lot of my GC’s office are using to summarize existing contracts according to them.

        I don’t use it much for work related stuff. Partly because I don’t have the corporate account my legal folk do so I can throw any internal or PII into it.

      • Jarflax

        To be fair, the classes I have taken have acknowledged those risks as well and it is possible that I am shifting to the Boomer side of Gen X to grumble about those damn kids and their computers on this issue.

      • R.J.

        Exactly. It lies. Trust and verify should be the rule. Or just use your own superior mind.

    • slumbrew

      Love it

    • AlexinCT

      BANZAAAIII!

    • Pope Jimbo

      Fuck! I would have filled up a suitcase of those as presents if I had known about them.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Some One Piece cards, some cat toys and some little LED rockets you shoot up into the sky with a sling shot.

  13. EvilSheldon

    I’m stockpiling ammo, Kathy. Me. I just bought 2,000 rounds of 9mm Luger, and I plan to shoot it all before the end of the month. The next order will be for 20,000 rounds, and you (and Chase Visa) can gag on my ass if they don’t like it.

    • Not Adahn

      Eh, if you’re going to shoot it in a month, it’s not really “stockpiling.”

      USPSA and SCSA matches this weekend!

      • Not Adahn

        Meant to include: There’s something that always bugged me the way that SCSA matches were so ammo-consuming for so little shooting effort.

      • EvilSheldon

        That is fair. I’d like to stockpile more ammo, but I chew through it fast enough that it’s financially difficult.

        SCSA is a big ammo churn, especially if you shoot more than one gun in a match. It’s fun though. And since all the heat is in the rimfire divisions, you can mitigate the ammo cost a little…

      • Not Adahn

        I need to mount that red dot on my P322 for that reason. No reason I can’t do that tonight, I guess.

    • PieInTheSky

      Luger – NAZI!!!!!!!!!!

      • Not Adahn

        I do find it interesting that the US gives credit to the cartridge inventor, whereas the eurolanders just go by a committee’s naming convention.

      • UnCivilServant

        Be redundant – 9x19mm Luger Parabellum NATO.

      • Jarflax

        I propose .380 long to get it into freedom units.

      • Common Tater

        357 Auto

      • Not Adahn

        You mean 9x33mmR?

      • Not Adahn

        D’oh! My bad.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Weak. OG luger is 7.65mm, like mine.

  14. robc

    Some third hand knowledge I have (with a bit of my own interpretation): If you are a hypothetical therapist treating eating disorders, guess what, you have a lot of transgender patients. And you are supposed to treat one as a treatable mental illness and ignore the other, even though they are really the same freakin’ thing. Same root causes and everything.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Yep, body dysmorphia and both are manifestations of the same issue.

    • KSuellington

      I’ve noted that for a while and haven’t seen it explored very much, that trangenderism (which Apple says is not a real word) is just one type of body dysmorphia. It is not accepted practice anywhere that I know of to “affirm” eating disorders, and aside from fringe clinics in places like Spain, those suffering from belief that their limbs should be cut off are not generally recommended amputations. Ultimately, I see a great deal of the transgender craze to be somewhat like the extreme cosmetic surgery fad that came about over the past few decades.

    • The Other Kevin

      We had this conversation with one of our kid’s therapists years ago. She agreed that transgenderism is indeed body dysmorphia and essentially the same as an eating disorder, and that’s how she would treat it. But her hands were tied because society has decided it’s acceptable, and the governing bodies of psychology have decided to not see it as a mental disorder.

    • Ted S.

      I remember when cutting was a thing.

      Replaced by tats, and now body dysmorphia.

    • slumbrew

      Slow-motion accident.

      “Surely they’re not going to keep going backwards…”

    • DEG

      Havertown. I thought it looked familiar.

  15. Sensei

    The fact that Harvard’s borrowing costs are lower than it’s investing costs and return on it endowment suggest we continue to have a problem here.

    https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/4/8/april-2025-bond-sale/

    Mentioned in the article is that they issued $450m in non-taxable capital bonds earlier. Nice to know that FedGov and MA underwrites that too!

    • Gustave Lytton

      “callous cruelty with which DOJ leadership is treating dedicated public servants.”

      Where’s Sean’s avatar pic?

      • UnCivilServant

        Where are the arrests? Where are the prosecutions? Where are the executions for treason/espionage?

    • Common Tater

      ““It should alarm all Americans that the leadership of the Department of Justice appears to value political loyalty above the fair and responsible administration of justice,” said Liz Oyer, who has said she was fired last month after refusing to recommend that the gun rights of actor Mel Gibson, a supporter of President Donald Trump’s, be restored.”

      Oh come on, he was in four movies called “Lethal Weapon”.

      • EvilSheldon

        I’ve forgotten – why was Mel a prohibited possessor in the first place? Felon, coke head, just generally nuts?

      • Nephilium

        EvilSheldon:

        Probably tied to the drunk driving, anti-Jew ranting, “Sugartits” incident.

      • slumbrew

        “domestic violence” charges (conviction?)

      • Common Tater

        From what I can tell it was misdemeanor domestic violence.

  16. UnCivilServant

    🤬

    We open a ticket because half our servers are down, and the Service Desk route it to… US.

    No, you stupid shits, send it to the Datacenter folks!

    • Rat on a train

      Open a ticket about a Service Desk error.

    • Dr Mossy Lawn

      We regret the error, we will soon have the other half down as well.

      • R.J.

        IT’S LIBERATION DAY, GO PLAY GOLF. YOU ARE FREED FROM THE TYRANNY OF YOUR SERVERS.

      • Dr Mossy Lawn

        The NY/NJ IT staff of the financial I worked at would have a golf outing every Columbus day. The market and the branches were closed, and we warned people do not have an IT issue that day.

        I did get a call one year, that they “said” was very important. I would get to them in about an hour when we were back in the clubhouse. They ask for my manager, so I handed the cell phone over, and he said that we would get to them in about an hour.

  17. The Other Kevin

    Stocks are +1200 this morning, gas prices are creeping down this week, and I’m seeing some positive articles about the tariffs.

    I have accepted the fact that humans are bad at making predictions, especially about the future. So I’m resigned to being an observer. We’ll see how it goes.

    • Common Tater

      “I have accepted the fact that humans are bad at making predictions, especially about the future.”

      LOL

      True, although I can definitely understand why people are nervous now — stocks went down, and prices went up.

    • slumbrew

      So I’m resigned to being an observer. We’ll see how it goes.

      That sounds positively stoic, TOK.

      I drank the Bogleheads kool-aid awhile ago, so I’m in “keep doing what you do” mode. Maybe have to rebalance at some point (I _did_ rebalance into more bonds last year, which felt a little weird with the market doing well, but I’m glad I did).

    • Urthona

      Stocks are creeping back up a little because it looks like tariff moron Navarro (who should be in a padded cell) may have lost some favor to Bessent who wants to negotiate free trade with some countries.

    • Rat on a train

      My retirement account is above where it was a year ago. Gas is almost under $3 again. I need some bad news.

      • Jarflax

        My retirement account is above where it was a year ago. Gas is almost under $3 again. I need some bad news.

        Every second you get closer to death.

        Happy to help.

      • Urthona

        “Retirement” huh? Sounds made up.

      • DEG

        Last time I went grocery shopping, eggs were slightly cheaper but everything else was the same or higher price. We’ll see what it looks like when I shop later this week.

  18. PutridMeat

    Stocks are +1200 this morning

    So you’re saying I missed the bottom?

    It might actually be time to move some back into the market (beyond retirement funds) as interest rates no longer make sense for any large amount of cash.

    • Jarflax

      Maybe, or maybe this is a false recovery based on overly optimistic analysis of how quickly deals will be made. I suspect we’ll see another wave of selling in the next week or two. But even at today’s prices I suspect you’ll see significant gains by years end.

      • Jarflax

        Disclaimer, I am at best an amateur and I have made some really boneheaded moves in the past including the recent past so if you do anything based on what I think you are probably screwed.

      • Urthona

        Nah I think you might be right.

        And the people saying yesterday the stock market doesn’t matter will flip back to that it does.

    • Nephilium

      Dead cats do bounce if you throw them hard enough.

  19. Jarflax

    I vaguely recall that someone here did custom computer builds either as a favor to someone else, or possibly as a side hustle. Anyone remember who that was? I may be in the market soon and my eyesight and dexterity make me loathe to try to build one myself.

    • Sensei

      The assembly isn’t the problem. It’s the BIOS setup, software install, driver installation, updates and configuration side that makes me hate building new PCs.

      I will admit the old eyes do make it more difficult.

      • Rat on a train

        It’s not the days when you had to deal with jumpers and non-oriented connections. Stick something in the wrong way or set the wrong jumper and the magic smoke escaped.

    • Nephilium

      I don’t do it for others (OK, I did one for my nephews a couple years back, that was just slotting in a new hard drive to my old machine), but do it for myself. I highly recommend PC Part Picker for compatibility checks. I’ll also say I’m a huge fan of the Antec bottom mount power supply cases (especially when paired with an Antec modular power supply).

  20. Sensei

    The country is in the best of hands.

    Goldberg’s email was forwarded to then Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes, who then copied and pasted the content of the email – including the signature block with Goldberg’s phone number – into a text message that he sent to Waltz, so that he could be briefed on the forthcoming story.

    Waltz did not ultimately call Goldberg, the people said, but in an extraordinary twist, inadvertently ended up saving Goldberg’s number in his iPhone – under the contact card for Hughes, now the spokesperson for the national security council.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/06/signal-group-chat-leak-how-it-happened

  21. slumbrew

    My new co-worker, Swastika, is e-mailing me.

    I will never get used to their name.

    • PieInTheSky

      that name needs an apostrophe

    • Nephilium

      There’s a person on my team who goes by Neph in the real world. It’s very disconcerting to see e-mails with that in it in my work environment. I need to keep reminding myself that they (very likely) don’t know about this place. 🙂

      • Akira

        I’ve seen a number of co-workers and customers named Steve Smith, so there’s that.

    • Common Tater

      They spell it with a “w”?

    • slumbrew

      Yes, “Swastika”.

      I wonder if it gets awkward when my other co-worker, Stalin, runs into them.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Who are you gonna believe?

    “Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,” Musk, Trump’s top campaign donor, wrote on X, the social media platform he owns.

    “Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Musk wrote in another post.

    Musk should fire Navarro.

  23. PieInTheSky

    Why didn’t anyone speak out during the Salem witch trials, given how incredibly fake they were?

    The first two “witches” accused by the roleplaying girls were the obvious suspects: women of questionable repute on the fringes of society. The third was a (reluctant) insider who could be controlled, a slave of the cunning village minister who was father and uncle to two accusers.

    Their next choice was very shrewd. The fourth person the “afflicted girls” accused was a highly religious and respectable woman who had publicly expressed skepticism of their ridiculous bullshit. She was immediately arrested and imprisoned.

    Genuine belief would do for most; preference falsification would keep the rest quiet.

    After the skeptic, the next “witch” accused and imprisoned was an elderly church lady of spotless reputation. And the same day, a four-year-old girl. She went to prison too. At that point, the accusers knew they could get away with anything.

    https://x.com/literalbanana/status/1907498621265940563

  24. The Late P Brooks

    My new co-worker, Swastika

    “it’s Swah-STEE-kah. Totally different.”

    • Jarflax

      Swastika Hakenkreuz, named to be a tenured professor at Columbia.

    • EvilSheldon

      Odd, I’m neither exhausted, nor frightened of dying old and homeless. Maybe something about me is different…

    • UnCivilServant

      em dash should not exist. Delete it.

      • Jarflax

        Wait, there is something old fashioned you hate?

    • Gustave Lytton

      Huh. Apparently I’m an LLM.

      • Jarflax

        I didn’t even know you were a lawyer

    • Ted S.

      I hate the kinetic captioning much more.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Days earlier, Musk in a since-deleted X post said Navarro “ain’t built s—.” In a separate post, Musk questioned Navarro’s credentials, writing, “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing.”

    That’s hard to argue with.

  26. PieInTheSky

    Are you a utilitarian, aiming to maximize overall wellbeing, or a Kantian, motivated by absolute duties regardless of the consequences?

    A new twin study suggests our moral leanings may be partially written in our DNA, report

    https://x.com/koenfucius/status/1909484103558111482

    I am still uncertain how maximize overall wellbeing can be in any way objectively defined and measured.

    • Jarflax

      Partially written… Well yes, I suspect that there is some degree of genetic determinism, if only in having the capacity for moral thought.

    • slumbrew

      The water jet thing is nice. The people on the other side can just get fucked, I guess.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Give him a whack on the nose with a rolled-up Wall Street Journal

    With uncertainty emanating from DC, some on Wall Street say it’s time to send an unambiguous message to the president and his team: Don’t buy the dip.

    Stocks are cheaper than they were a week ago, so it’s only natural investors may take a break from the sell-off and load up on some bargain assets. But going into dip-buying mode risks rewarding Trump for playing chicken with the global economy. Like training a puppy, you sometimes need a negative correction if you want it to stop peeing on the rug.

    ”We need this market to crash — to keep the pressure on the administration,” Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, told my colleague Matt Egan on Monday. That is a frankly shocking comment from an analyst as prominent as Yardeni, who also happens to have a Ph.D in economics from Yale.

    Bring back business as usual!

    • ron73440

      Days earlier, Musk in a since-deleted X post said Navarro “ain’t built s—.” In a separate post, Musk questioned Navarro’s credentials, writing, “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing.”

      Apparently neither is one from Yale:

      That is a frankly shocking comment from an analyst as prominent as Yardeni, who also happens to have a Ph.D in economics from Yale.

    • EvilSheldon

      ”We need this market to crash — to keep the pressure on the administration,…”

      This really should kill off the lie that the Left’s opposition to the administration is somehow motivated by anything other than petty spite.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    TW: Rolling Stone

    Everybody hates him

    Millions of Americans flooded into the streets this past Saturday, April 5, to protest president Donald Trump; his Department of Government Efficiency hatchetman Elon Musk; the GOP’s agenda to pay for tax cuts for the richest with cuts to Medicaid; preposterous cuts to science, heath, and education; Trump’s mistreatment of trans kids and immigrants; as well Trump’s tariff blitz which is decimating their retirement accounts.

    The “Hands Off” protests drew massive crowds to streets of blue cities including New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. But large demonstrations also erupted in smaller red-state urban centers, like Salt Lake City, Utah, and Missoula, Montana, as well as in hundreds of conservative communities across America from Flower Mound, Texas, to Tupelo, Mississippi.

    An anti-Trump protest in Missoula? No fuckling way!

    • Urthona

      I know it’s the Rolling Stone, but are those cuts they mention even in the realm of reality?

      I wish they were.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    I wonder if it gets awkward when my other co-worker, Stalin, runs into them.

    They should have a non-aggression pact.

  30. Mojeaux

    At the lawyer to sign personal agreement between Mom and Cunty Aunt Susie.

    I had a job interview that seems to have gone well.

    I’ve written strongly worded emails to 2 different merchants.

    I did some things on my mom’s to-do list.

    Cleared out my email mostly.

    All in all, a good time is so far being had by all.

    I’ve mostly

    • UnCivilServant

      Glad to hear things have started going well.

      I was tempted to snark on your mostly complete comment… I’m sorry.

    • ron73440

      You mostly finished her comment.

      Glad to hear things are going better, especially with CAS.