Sunday Morning Swingin’ Links

by | Aug 14, 2022 | Daily Links | 238 comments

Mysterious packages started arriving. They piled up quickly. Every time a new one would come, I’d see a slight grin from WebDom, as if she were keeping a funny secret. Yesterday, I found all the packages piled up in my bedroom with a note from her instructing me to open them. Clothing, much clothing, which I found puzzling. She walked in with that knowing almost-smile saying, “Dad, the T-shirt and jeans look was fine when you were with Mom. But now you want to be a himbo and live up to your nickname of Hot Man-Meat. That means you have to dress the part. This is why you got turned down, you just look too old in that getup.”

“But these clothes… leisure suits?”

“They’re coming back in style. Look, this was in fashion when you were young, right?”

“Yes…”

“Well, if you want to look young, you have to wear these. Basic logic.” Her slight smile tightened as if she were trying to hold back laughter. But she assured me, “Look, Dad, I know you’ve been feeling lonely and I am just giddy with delight that this will get you all the women you can possibly handle. Now go try them on, and if they fit, we’ll have you wear one of them down to the bar.”

They fit beautifully, so we chose one, a vivid peach color, though the powder blue was a close runner up. Next Friday night, look out, Ladies, you won’t know what hit you. It’s Hot Man-Meat wrapped in fine fashion. I’d better stock up on personal lube and contraceptives. To be continued in next weekend’s story.

Oh, yes, birthdays. And today’s include the Greatest Manager in Baseball History. Wanna argue? Go ahead. I’ll pull out moments like this and like this. Though pale compared to Earl the Pearl, this is also the birthday of SugarFree’s inspiration; a dentist who didn’t ask if it was safe; a guy whose name should get an asterisk; reputedly the biggest asshole in music (as opposed to Liberace who HAD the biggest asshole in music); someone who used to be funny; another guy who used to be funny; a guy who did much to wreck the Arizona Cardinals; a guy who made basketball fun when it was… fun; and a guy who made a name for himself in football.

On to Links

 

It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around how 1950s and 60s arch-conservatism is now liberalism.

 

Can’t they both lose?

 

Can’t they both lose?

 

Well, this is somewhat good news.

 

Academia has taught me that some grad students are just jerks.

 

If you took all my sympathy and converted it to gasoline, there wouldn’t be enough to run a piss-ant’s gokart around the inside of a Froot Loop.

 

Know what would be fun? Yesterday’s Old Guy Music was The Outlaws doing Freeborn Man. So let’s let Junior Brown step up with his version. HOLY SHIT, this is a clinic on how to play electric guitar.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

238 Comments

  1. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I suppose I should have into academia and written about all the Penthouses and Playboys I yanked it to as a teenager.

    I could have been a doctor!

    • SDF-7

      Nah, you would have gone for a JD. Good at arguing after mastering debate and all.

    • R.J.

      Heck, you could have gotten a government grant to study your own wank!

  2. Trigger Hippie

    *checks GIF* Pseudo Leisure Suit Larry was the most lame drug addict ever.

    I adore WebDom, but goddamn, she’s just fucking with you at this point.

    • SDF-7

      Sidles over and whispers… “shhh… don’t explain the joke!”

      • Trigger Hippie

        Oops!

        Carry on, OMWC! You’ll look fantastic!

      • DEG

        Oops… I guess I should have read the comments first.

        Yeah, yeah, carry on OMWC!

      • juris imprudent

        a vivid peach color

        I think you might really be a lime green kinda guy OMWC.

  3. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

  4. Lackadaisical

    ‘It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around how 1950s and 60s arch-conservatism is now liberalism.’

    The walls are closing in!

    It’s actually more natural for the left to trust the police, right? They want an all powerful state, you need police. The funny part is them believing the witness statements… Where are your piss tapes liberals?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s clear that most of the left didn’t ever have nothing against the police state, they just had an issue with who it was focused against.

      • DEG

        “They’re jackbooted thugs, but they’re our jackbooted thugs!” works well for both sides.

      • SDF-7

        The older I get the more depressingly apparent it is that most people are fine with at least a soft tyranny (or even a hard one) as long as it smites those they perceive as their enemies. Human nature for most of the species, apparently. (One of the many personality traits I just don’t get on a personal level — intellectually I acknowledge it… but as long as what you’re doing doesn’t risk other people’s property directly [aka I have a problem with people setting off fireworks that rocket over the neighborhood in drought conditions because I don’t think setting other folks’ houses on fire is a good idea, not the old “your car is on blocks… it hurts my property values… waaaah..” crap], I couldn’t care less what other people are doing. Maybe it is an introvert thing and there are more of us than we seem.. just inherently not the sort of people who work the political systems, so you’d never know. Extroverts and sociopaths need only apply….

      • juris imprudent

        The older I get the more depressingly apparent it is that most people are fine with at least a soft tyranny (or even a hard one) as long as it smites those they perceive as their enemies.

        ^^^ THIS

        The best part is when they can’t even articulate why someone is their enemy – just sputtering, indignant rage.

        Which reminds me of the MIB line: people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it.

    • juris imprudent

      I laughed when I read about Trump’s “standing order”, but then saw the Obama EO that basically did the same thing. Since that EO was never rescinded…

  5. Gender Traitor

    … leisure suits?”

    “They’re coming back in style. Look, this was in fashion when you were young, right?”

    No. Just….no. Maybe I’d buy some ad time on the best damn rock-n-roll station in Cincinnati from you, but other than that, no.

    Of course, I’m obviously not your target age group, since I remember those abominations from the first time around. Maybe they’ll seem fresh, new, & hip to a chick who never saw local commercials for a music & appliance store (glances knowingly at Tres,) a low-budget clothing “staw” (looks again at Tres,) or with somebody who just LOOOOOOOVES to sell carpet (glares at Tres.)

    • Tres Cool

      Remember the Bus Stop? I think they had Roller Disco nights…..
      I know Skateworld did. And Im not proud of it.

      • Gender Traitor

        I vaguely remember the name, but I forget where it was. I don’t remember going roller skating much, if at all – only the occasional ice skating at Icelandia (I think that was the name – at Siebenthaler and Klepinger, IIRC) and the dearly departed Hara Arena (::sniffles::)

      • rhywun

        OMG roller skating was huge all the way into my middle teens and then it completely disappeared.

        Sad!

      • Gender Traitor

        Get yourself a copy of Xanadu and wallow in the nostalgia! All that great music ELO would like to forget they ever did! 😃🎶 And ONJ! ::bows head::

      • Gender Traitor

        ??? Wrong blonde, and she’s not even skating. 🙁

      • Sean

        I logged much skating time at home to this single. Skating and the single are tied together in my brain.

      • SDF-7

        Our was all about Funkytown.

      • Sean

        Yes, roller skating was very big until it wasn’t. And my family was friendly with the local rink owners.

      • rhywun

        I probably spent more time gitting gud at Galaga and Frogger than actually skating.

      • Chafed

        There’s nothing wrong with that!

      • Zwak. And once again, the mall is his Waterloo

        Oh, heck yeah! I remember my friend Greg’s mom driving us all down to the beach skate rink because his sister, Paula, NEEDED to do this.

      • DEG

        Yeah, I remember it being big and then… dying.

      • DEG

        I poked around on the Intertubes. It looks like some folks are trying to resurrect this skating rink near where I grew up.

      • rhywun

        Masks are not required for those that are fully vaccinated.

        Try harder.

      • DEG

        Heh. I saw that and rolled my eyes.

        I also looked at their facebook page. They’re really into Pride events. Even an “all ages Pride” event.

      • Sean

        I just checked, and it seems my childhood rink is still open and running. Wow.

      • SDF-7

        Last time I went through the town I grew up in more than any other (we moved a good bit, so not really a full/true home town) ours looked to still be there too. Warmed the dark black cockles of my ‘eart, it did.

      • rhywun

        Mine is a Home Depot now.

      • rhywun

        It occurs to me… maybe a side-effect of Disco Sucks?

      • DEG

        It survived past disco where I grew up. But… on the other hand… in what was then rural PA (now the Philly suburbs), change comes slow.

      • rhywun

        change comes slow

        Same in Rochester NY.

        *recalls visits home during college and everyone still had a mullet*

      • Tres Cool

        I can remember ice skating with the family at Hara when I was maybe 5. I had skates with double-runners.
        I suppose thats the equivalent of training wheels.

      • Gender Traitor

        I went there with my Blue Bird or Camp Fire Girls troop. Probably could’ve used the double runners, but was likely too old to get away with it without shame.

  6. Trigger Hippie

    ‘Public defender Nathaniel Barone complained that authorities had taken too long to get Matar in front of a judge while leaving him “hooked up to a bench at the state police barracks.”

    “He has that constitutional right of presumed innocence,” Barone added.’

    *J6 detainees nod in solemn agreement*

  7. The Late P Brooks

    It seems unlikely that VA policies will shift to accommodate this new demographic of veterans. If this new psychological health crisis is acknowledged by military or political leaders, policy changes or support for these veterans may be slow or absent. As a consequence, a large swath of veterans may not be able to receive the psychological care that they need.

    Just reach into Uncle Sam’s bottomless pockets.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, we’re going to pay for it one way or another.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    That means you have to dress the part.

    Velour track suits.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      This is the way.

      • hayeksplosives

        I was thinking more of those late 80s/early 90s track suits made of what sounded like rip-stop nylon and were generally mostly white with red and blue trim.

        To be worn with the front zipper down as far as the wearer wanted to show his chest hair. It was a 3-4 year fashion in the States, but it took off in the Eastern Bloc during the collapse of the Soviet Union and continues to this day over there, as far as I can tell from YouTube.

        Add a gold chain necklace, and you got the look!!

    • DrOtto

      Velour was the bomb comfort-wise, but it traps fart smell unlike any other material created by man.

  9. Don escaped Texas

    Brown’s workhorse guit-steel was stolen a couple of years ago, but he only offered a $3k reward. One presumes he simply had another one built.

    His song that sticks in my head is “Highway Patrol.” It seems sympathetic to the ticketing class which seems very odd for a native Texan. Maybe it’s a sendup that is just too subtle for me to understand?

    • Fourscore

      My J. Brown collection is one CD but it gets played a lot.

      What does a thief do with a JB guitar Can’t show it off, can’t sell it, probably unable to play it. I dunno know, man

  10. Zwak. And once again, the mall is his Waterloo

    I have vague memories of my father wearing a powder blue, belted jumpsuit back in the seventies.

    No man with a PhD. should be allowed to dress themselves.

    • Fourscore

      I had a jump suit, never wore it. My wife bought it for me to go bass fishing in TX. All the pros were wearing them, she figured it was the clothes that made the fisherman.

    • rhywun

      I had a reversible leisure suit when I was around seven years old. Powder blue on one side, darker blue on the other.

      • Zwak. And once again, the mall is his Waterloo

        I remember “satin*” boys’ shirts with rather odd patterns on them, mostly.

        *Polyester.

      • rhywun

        Ugh now I’m remembering those “cowboy” shirts with the patterns around the shoulders that everyone wore.

    • DEG

      My dad had a dark green leisure suit that he wore well into the 80s.

    • Not Adahn

      I wore a powder blue tuxedo (navy lapels) with a ruffled shirt to a wedding in the ’70s.

      • Gender Traitor

        I hope you were in the wedding party and can therefore blame the bride. (Brides be cray-cray, yo!)

      • Not Adahn

        I was.

      • Gender Traitor

        Whew! Then you’re off the hook and deserving of sympathy rather than howls of derisive laughter.

      • UnCivilServant

        He left off the part where he was the wedding planner and the bride just rubber stamped the plans.

        😛

      • Gender Traitor

        NA to groom: “Dude! Trust me! These brown wingtips with your black tux make a statement!”

    • Chafed

      Did your dad work with Rusty Venture?

  11. Fourscore

    Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane, OM

    I knew if I waited long enough I’d be back in style.

    /Goes to garden, carefully undresses the scarecrow

    • juris imprudent

      I believe we can just award this thread to Fourscore.

  12. Scruffy Nerfherder

    “ American casualties in Ukraine are mounting. At the time of writing this, there have been at least two confirmed American deaths. Additionally, two Americans have been captured and are being held as prisoners of war.”

    Two! TWO!

    • Trigger Hippie

      There’s a beggar at the intersection of a highway and main city road(435 and Independence Ave, hiya, Mo!) I see frequently who holds up a sign that reads: “Help me get to Ukraine!”

      Keep in mind this an overweight, middle-aged woman.

      I once asked her what she planned on doing once she got there. She replied:”Fight the Russians!” Sure, Jan.

      Points for creativity but I found it almost as ridiculous as the guy who looks like he’s in in his late 40’s or early 50’s I often see off 63rd and 71 Highway(waves at Mo again) who thinks he deserves monetary support because he’s a Korean War veteran.

      Sure, John.

      • rhywun

        Now I want to watch Falling Down again. It’s been too long.

      • Trigger Hippie

        I’m not paying 85 cents for a 12 once can of Coca-Cola.

        *trashes the local convenience store*

      • Trigger Hippie

        *ounce*

        *pours a second cup of coffe*

      • Trigger Hippie

        coffee…

        Goddammit.

        *walks away*

      • Sean

        Heh.

        You hanging in there?

      • juris imprudent

        Good thing you weren’t complaining about someone else’s typos!

      • Trigger Hippie

        ‘You hanging in there?’

        Not really. Life is Hell and so is death.

        I’ve only received $80 over the last two weeks of labor worked…I’m hungry.

      • Sean

        @TH

        If you want, I can Amazon you a care package. You can message me via the forum or call me. You have my number.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Don’t concern yourself, dude. I’ve been in far more dire straights than this. I’ll survive one way or the other. Hell, I was suffering from legitimate malnutrition about six years ago. Nevermind the homeless stint I visited upon myself in my early twenties. This predicament is mostly my own damn fault. Curse me for assuming the best case scenario. I should have seen it coming. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me… you can’t get fooled again.

        Fool me thrice and I deserve every hardship sent my way.

        I’m a douchebag and this is my well deserved pittance.

        Thank you for the thought though. This community has done more than enough to attempt to help me. I’ll succeed or fail on my own.

      • Sean

        Fair enough, dude. Offer remains open should you change your mind.

        Best wishes on your job hunt too.

      • juris imprudent

        TH, please see forum. Don’t know how to tag people there.

      • rhywun

        “Bus’ up my store!”

      • hayeksplosives

        See “The Man with the Twisted Lip” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

  13. Cowboy

    Disco Stu is workin pro bono!

    Bom dia.

    No good news today, I guess. Other than a provocative author not getting got, which is good I suppose.

    • Fourscore

      Back to the ’60s, Cool, Man. Thanks, Brooks

  14. Grumbletarian

    American casualties in Ukraine are mounting. At the time of writing this, there have been at least two confirmed American deaths.

    Two?! Oh, the humanity!

    • straffinrun

      Tell me about the two deaths first.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    QUESTION AUTHORITY

    Haha, I crack myself up.

    • SDF-7

      WE JUST MEANT YOUR PARENTS AND YOUR CHURCH.

      THE GOVERNMENT AND YOUR TEACHERS, YOU MUST BELIEVE AND CELEBRATE.

      END QUOTE. REPEAT THE LINE.

    • PutridMeat

      The ‘dedication’ to freedom was always a means to an end on the left. Sure, some large part of the base believed it and lived it (and this is not
      limited to left wing movements of course), but for the leadership it was always largely a means to an ends. ‘Question authority’; we take the idea seriously, they don’t – means to an end.

      Isn’t there writing from one of/the founder of the ACLU essentially saying “free speech is our means to attack the establishment right now, nothing more” – I can’t be arsed to look it up, tough to search the net, what with one hand on coffee, one on penis this fine Sunday morning. When the powers-that-be are a barrier to your goals, it provides an effective vector of attack, to be discarded when it is no longer useful or actually hinders your progress.

    • DEG

      And he did it all despite being taught by a creationist.

      When Eddie Holmes was at school in the UK, his biology teacher refused to discuss evolution.

      “He was a creationist … he just refused to teach the entire evolution section of the textbook.”

    • Not an Economist

      We still haven’t found an animal with a close cousin to the virus. The closest relative we know about was a virus from bats found in a cave thousands of miles away.

      He claims to have found within a few square meters where the epidemic started. Shouldn’t be that hard to find out what animals were stored there. But he hasn’t said anything about that. His basic claim about the origin of the virus was a bunch of animals stored together. One of them had the original virus, they passed it among themselves and the virus mutated rapidly until at some point it was passed to humans. Personally, I doubt animals that don’t sell are kept around long so the evolution would have to be rapid.

      The guy has figured out where the epidemic started. Not where the virus came from. And his protection of his Fauci from Trump gives no doubt to his political leanings.

  16. DEG

    “Well, if you want to look young, you have to wear these. Basic logic.” Her slight smile tightened as if she were trying to hold back laughter. But she assured me, “Look, Dad, I know you’ve been feeling lonely and I am just giddy with delight that this will get you all the women you can possibly handle. Now go try them on, and if they fit, we’ll have you wear one of them down to the bar.”

    This sounds like a prank.

    “The Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie was taken off a ventilator and able to talk Saturday, a day after he was stabbed as he prepared to give a lecture in upstate New York.

    He survived the attack and a ventilator? What are the odds of that happening?

    Manchester University is now investigating after one of its PhD students published an academic paper about his own masturbation

    Sounds like the real problem here is admitting that many academic papers are just masturbation.

    Old Guy Music is great.

    • Not Adahn

      Seriously, if you stab a septugenarian 15 times and can’t finish the job, you are one of Allah’s shittiest warriors ever.

      • juris imprudent

        I love how he wasn’t even alive at the time of the controversy. Must be the 3rd generation of imbecile.

  17. straffinrun

    How much does this Act suck, and shame us all? Let’s count the ways.

    But I only wanted to go after commies that hated apple pie.

  18. Sean

    PSA: the Muppets take Manhattan is starting on fxx right now.

    • hayeksplosives

      THE BASEBALL DIAMOND!!

      My mother had a piece of an old chandelier that was meant to be the center dangly thing, a roughly spherical clear crystal glass multi-faceted thing, a little smaller than a baseball. She let us kids play with it. We made it part of the Crown Jewels (for heists),, something we found in the mines, etc.

      But my favorite was when it was the Baseball Diamond.

      • Sean

        😃

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Stealing from the government

    The IRS is about to get a big infusion of cash.

    As part of the massive climate and health care bill passed by the House on Friday, the tax collection agency is set to receive $80 billion over the next decade.

    ——-

    Most of the money, though, is for stepped-up enforcement — to help the IRS collect more of the estimated $600 billion in taxes that go unpaid every year, much of it owed by rich people who under-report their income.

    “By beefing up the IRS’s capacity to go after wealthy tax cheats, you’re going to be able to collect at least $400 billion of that over the course of the next ten years, and I suspect substantially more,” said Natasha Sarin, a counselor for tax policy and implementation at the Treasury Department.

    Right. All those hedge fund guys working side jobs for dumpsters filled with twenty dollar bills are going to get their comeuppance this time.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The rich…sure…if you’re a waitress, a yard guy, or a construction worker it might be time to start sweating.

  20. SDF-7

    Bleck.

    Daily Quordle 202
    6️⃣7️⃣
    8️⃣9️⃣
    quordle.com

    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 202
      7️⃣4️⃣
      3️⃣8️⃣

    • Sean

      Daily Quordle 202
      4️⃣5️⃣
      3️⃣7️⃣
      quordle.com

    • Cowboy

      Daily Quordle 202
      5️⃣4️⃣
      2️⃣🟥
      quordle.com

      Started so promising

    • Grosspatzer

      Daily Quordle 202
      4️⃣5️⃣
      3️⃣6️⃣
      quordle.com

    • robc

      Chessle 183 (Normal) 4/6

      🟩🟨🟩⬛🟩⬛
      🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩⬛
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      https://jackli.gg/chessle

    • robc

      Daily Quordle 202
      3️⃣4️⃣
      5️⃣7️⃣

    • JG43

      Daily Quordle 202
      7️⃣6️⃣
      5️⃣9️⃣

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 202
      4️⃣6️⃣
      5️⃣8️⃣

    • whiz

      Daily Quordle 202
      5️⃣6️⃣
      2️⃣7️⃣

    • Grummun

      6 4
      7 8

      LR is kind of a BS word.

  21. robodruid

    So…..
    This morning, in my Jack and jill shower near my “office” i see a snake.
    No euphemisms please.

    No idea how it got there, posted on a ID page on FB.
    Promises of an odd day for sure.

    • Tres Cool

      Just wait till NA casts your horrible-scope.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    “Imagine IRS agents descending upon America like a swarm of locusts,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warned in an interview with Fox Business. “And by the way, these IRS agents aren’t there to go after billionaires. They’re there to go after you. They’re there to go after your small business. They’re there to go after your family.”

    Both Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig – who was appointed by former President Trump – insist the additional enforcement efforts will target the wealthy, not middle-class taxpayers.

    “Let’s be very clear about what these resources are and are not doing,” Sarin said. “These resources are not raising audits on any small business or any household that makes under $400,000 a year.”

    Big fish. Not minnows. Because there are so many Scrooge McDucks out there. Millions and millions of them.

    Of course, this makes a lot more sense than simplifying the tax code.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      They’ll probably adhere to the idea of auditing the wealthy for a while, several years, until the expanded budget and agency becomes entrenched in the eyes of the public, then watch the downward creep begin. It’s the classic foot in the door move.

      • Drake

        With all the new agents, every millionaire could probably get his/her own personal agent.

      • juris imprudent

        There’s supposedly almost 3 million households with $400k+ incomes. So about 30-35 files per agent – which is probably an intolerable workload.

      • Drake

        I was thinking people who actually make in excess of $1mil. But 30 cases a year doesn’t sound like a lot of you do a little triage up front.

      • juris imprudent

        Do you comprehend how much time a federal employee must spend in mandatory training and meetings? Why there is barely 10 minutes a day for whatever tasks attach to their nominal job.

      • Drake

        No, I don’t. That kind of horror can break a mind if you gaze upon it for too long.

      • juris imprudent

        I think you just explained my immunity to SF‘s worst.

      • Lackadaisical

        Meh, while excessive it is no more than 1 month of work, even if you sandbag it and have some sort of cert you need to maintain.

        Maybe IRS is different, but I doubt it.

      • Timeloose

        You are also assuming that there are no other agents already working on this group.

        I’m guessing there are at least 2X that many agents already employed.

      • Timeloose

        I was wrong. There are around 80K IRS employees. There are some attempts to indicate that they will not just be hiring agents, but customer service and administration. I’m sure this is true to some degree, but the baked in assumption is that the IRS needs to be bigger not smaller.

      • Gender Traitor

        ::reads “IRS” and “customer service” in the same comment. Brain breaks::

      • UnCivilServant

        Auditors are IRS customer service agents.

      • Surly Knott

        GT — that’s ‘service’ in the veterinary sense. The IRS will service its customers as the bull services the cow. Or, more likely, as Steve Smith services campers.

      • Gender Traitor

        Or are their “customers” the politicians on whose behalf they strong-arm the money out of the citizenry?

      • TARDis

        And on this timely discussion, I just got a letter from our friends at the IRS stating our income from our 401 distributions in 2020 was under-reported and and did not match what our institutions reported. OFFS. It says right on the form it was a Cares Distribution.

    • juris imprudent

      Simplifying the tax code would kill jobs – why do you hate people having jobs Brooks?

      • straffinrun

        Simplifying the theft code doesn’t improve it much.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Now I want to watch Falling Down again. It’s been too long.

    I don’t think I have ever watched that movie from beginning to end. I probably should.

    • juris imprudent

      Well that’s one way of deconstructing it.

    • rhywun

      Do it. It’s so good.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Wealthy people have more opportunities to avoid taxes. Their income sources are often less transparent. And they can hire lawyers and accountants to sidestep the IRS, which is frequently outgunned.

    “This has been a David and Goliath battle for far too long,” Sarin said. “We’re finally giving the IRS the tools it needs to be able to meaningfully police [tax] evasion at the top of the [income] distribution.”

    Sarin argued that stepped-up enforcement will not only enable the IRS to collect more money for the government, but also make for a fairer tax system.

    LOOPHOLES!

    Just give all your money to the collective. They know how to put it to good use.

    • Sean

      Start auditing congress. It’ll be a fucking gold mine.

      • juris imprudent

        You can bet they are as exempt as the presidential staff is on handling classified documents.

      • Sean

        Taking bribes is easier than filing reports.

    • rhywun

      they can hire lawyers and accountants to sidestep the IRS

      OFFS.

      So they’re admitting that the little guy gets fucked over.

  25. Brawndo

    Who knew that fighting a uniformed army would be different from fighting a stone age insurgency?

    • Drake

      Anyone who actually paid attention to their training during the Cold War. Most of us are getting too old (and too wise) to be playing light infantry against Russian armor these days.

  26. juris imprudent

    Looks like I’m out 8 grand on a flake contractor.

    • Sean

      That fucking blows. Court time?

      • juris imprudent

        That’s what I’m trying to decide – next step. Either he is jammed up and I’m willing to help him, or he’s ripping me off and I want to hurt him. Not much in between.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Ugh. In VA or PA?

      • juris imprudent

        VA – where we are an absentee client.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Let him know that your next step is to go to the state corporation commission. That gives you one level of escalation prior to going to court.

      • juris imprudent

        Already looked him up (he has an LLC) he filed to make it inactive.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Oh joy…

  27. Count Potato

    “The Espionage Act Gets An Instant Makeover
    A law reviled by liberalism ten minutes ago is now Savior to All”

    Anyone have a non-paywalled version?

    • juris imprudent

      The gist is this is a terrible law that was largely ignored for a long time but has been revived in the worst possible way in the Obama and Trump administrations. On the other hand, this is adding Trump to a list of martyrs for free speech – Ellsberg, Assange, Snowden that he doesn’t really merit.

      • Drake

        Do they have argue in court that PRESIDENT Trump took those files without declaring the declassified? Seems like a stretch to prove that negative.

      • Q Continuum

        Exactly. The President has original classification authority; meaning he can classify and declassify material at will. The burden of proof is on the prosecution to, as you stated, prove the negative; seems frankly impossible. This looks like another rope-a-dope own goal.

      • juris imprudent

        There is a process for declassification – naturally Trump didn’t come close to following it. However, his “standing order” (which I doubt is written down anywhere) does seem to fall with the friendly confines of EO 13526 (Obama’s update to W’s EO on presidential exemption to mishandling classified material). So the argument HAS to be that the Espionage Act over-rules the EO and I wouldn’t care to be the lawyer saying so.

      • Ownbestenemy

        There is some debate on that process. If a president is talking with another foreign leader and mentions anything or zips his lip, they are classifying/declassifying on the fly.

        Of course, taking materials and then claiming that merely possessing them is part of that process might be harder to put a legal pin in it.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Sick burn

    Amid all the Republican outrage and threats over the FBI seizure of purloined government documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound is a tricky little question: Why did an ex-president known for his aversion to reading even need access to about two-dozen boxes of documents that belonged to the federal government and reportedly contained top secret material?

    Trump has long been known to get bored easily and neither has the time nor patience to pore through thick folios of written materials. His preferred information medium is television, where people talk and big headlines scroll across the bottom of the screen.

    When it came to sitting through morning national security and intelligence briefings at the White House, aides say Trump quickly lost interest. “He didn’t process information in any conventional sense,” wrote Michael Wolff, author of multiple books on Trump. “He didn’t read. He didn’t really even skim. Some believed that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-literate.”

    Trump reportedly walked out in the middle of his national security briefings or canceled them altogether. Aides began boiling down his briefings to visuals and graphs. He would interrupt briefers telling him about spies and foreign military movements by asking, “Who’s winning?” Even after officials actively sought to “dumb down” his briefings to keep his attention, his mind drifted elsewhere, according to accounts in The Washington Post, The New York Times, New York magazine and The Atlantic.

    And all the trained seals clap in unison.

    • straffinrun

      Quoting Wolff. These people have zero shame.

    • rhywun

      *masturbates furiously*

      • Q Continuum

        Are you planning on writing a scholarly article?

      • rhywun

        I’ll do it for $50,000 or so. I’m easy.

    • Q Continuum

      LULZ tRuMp Iz So StOoPiD jUsT lIkE hIs SuPpOrTeRz!!!

    • hayeksplosives

      I take my time to scrutinize reports and their basis when I’m on my own in a quiet room. When I’m in a meeting with someone “presenting”, I know they have an angle, and if I suspect it’s a dubious one, I absolutely will interrupt and tell them “if you get near a point, make it.” Or ask pointed questions if I know they are trying to manipulate me with half truths. I have shooed people from my office.

      These “allegations” against Trump do not make me think less of him.

      My main problem with Trump was his choice of staffers and advisors. His instinct for BS was great against lefties, but flattery obstructed those instincts when it came to his flattering entourage.

      • juris imprudent

        I think you just explained Navarro’s presence for all 4 years.

      • Don escaped Texas

        Trump reportedly walked out in the middle of his national security briefings or canceled them altogether.

        I don’t actually know if his behavior is documented: I never cared enough to pursue it. If it is true, it would certain weigh as a mark against him on my books.

        A manager’s job is to process, prioritize, and enable. What has struck me odd about presidents is their inability to delegate thoughtfully. If Trump sat through a few of these briefings and thought them a poor use of his time, I’d have zero problem with his announcing same and then simply assigning the management of all that to the Secretary of Defense or whomever who was charged to make the calls and who would elevate only marginal calls. For my money, something like these meetings is a presidential priority and the sort of thing a man ought not run for president if he doesn’t look forward to 1460 of such. As president, I think I’d take them on as part of a priority portfolio that included State and Homeland; the rest of Cabinet would be assigned to the VP. Same thing for meetings and press releases: every agency should manage on their own; we shouldn’t have presidents announcing piddly stuff and taking chickenshit meetings; if someone is in charge of inoculation or hurricanes, for example, the president need not drive those bandwagons for them.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The presidents largely aren’t running the show. Their staff, their staff’s staffers, their volitivas consultants, the department’s and agencies staffers are filling the diaries. Plus bureaucratic inertia that things must be done a certain way, like national security briefings. More royal figurehead than one man working machine.

        I wonder why the reasons for cancelling were, and how many were because he didn’t want to do them. My guess, more than a few were he was sick or unavailable at the scheduled time such as due to traveling.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Wtf?

        *political consultants

      • juris imprudent

        I think Trump’s inclination is to run a lean organization – a fundamental misunderstanding about the enterprise (executive office) we was now in charge of.

    • rhywun

      Remember when The Simpsons could get away with an episode where a committee of eggheads turns the town to shit? It was a more innocent age.

  29. hayeksplosives

    Asterix was a great comic!!

    • rhywun

      Indeed.

  30. Q Continuum

    “How was a description of the author masturbating to the images of young boys peer reviewed and published?”

    Completely unsurprising given the state of peer-review and journal credibility.

    • Lackadaisical

      It is shocking how long this has been going on.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Rhetoric of mass destruction

    Whether the Truth Social account with Shiffer’s name belonged to him has not yet been confirmed. But extremism experts and some federal law enforcement officials said the Cincinnati incident demonstrates the potential harm that can come from the kind of violent rhetoric that has been circulating online in the wake of the FBI’s search at Mar-a-Lago.

    “The online trail left by the individual who engaged in that attack illustrates vividly how this type [of] rhetoric can motivate individuals toward real-world violence,” said Jared Holt, a senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

    Holt told Yahoo News that he’s “observed high levels of apocalyptic, violent and conspiratorial rhetoric present in online pro-Trump communities following the search, contributing to a general environment of rage that is not dissimilar to the lead-up to the Capitol riot.

    “Similarly to that period,” Holt said, “these expressions of anger are happening in plain sight online and being regurgitated by powerful Trump supporters in government and media.”

    Minutes after Florida Politics first reported Monday evening that the FBI had executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, Trump, who was in New York City at the time, took to Truth Social to announce that his “beautiful home” and private club in Palm Beach, Fla., was “currently under siege, raided and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.”

    In a lengthy statement, the former president went on to decry the search and declare, without evidence, that he was the victim of “prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by the Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”

    Arise, robot army, the rebellion is at hand!

    • juris imprudent

      Whether the Truth Social account with Shiffer’s name belonged to him has not yet been confirmed.

      Call me cynical, but until that is proven beyond a reasonable doubt – I have no interest in the rest of the speculation, as I could just as easily speculate about this being a bloody (with him being dead and unable to talk) false flag.

    • Q Continuum

      The evidence, of course, being “have you been paying attention to the outside world for the past 5 years?”

    • Ownbestenemy

      Ah..so dude packs up weapons and heads out to SCOTUS residence after a leak on Roe and politicians and media start stirring the pot and it’s “motive and reason is myatery” but this one they find a direct link? Color me surprised.

  32. Q Continuum

    “two Americans have been captured and are being held as prisoners of war”

    Play stupid games…

    • Lackadaisical

      They’re lucky not to have been executed immediately. Though I’m sure Russia will have fun using them as bargaining chips.

  33. Not Adahn

    There’s an old snaggle-toothed guy that shoots the action pistol matches with absolutely gorgeous firearms. Original High Power, original Python (both with bluing you could get lost in) that sort of thing. Yesterday he wore a short sleeved shirt and he has a Yoda tattoo on one forearm and a cartoon rabbit on the other (looks like a rabbit version of Yakko, whoever that would be). I was not expecting that.

    • UnCivilServant

      Just goes to show, tattoos are a bad idea.

      • Lackadaisical

        Indeed.

    • Seguin

      Oswald the Rabbit?

  34. KK the Ignorant Slut

    Lloyd, the guy I trained dogs with for many years, wanted to go to this Moroccan restaurant. So I pick him up and he was wearing a powder blue belted safari-style leisure suit with several chonky turquoise rings and a turquoise necklace.

    • KK the Ignorant Slut

      (I should note he was older than our oldest Glibs. He was wearing his business dinner attire from back when he was a salesman for Bath Iron Works)

      • Gender Traitor

        How long ago was this dinner?

        (And was it a date??)

      • KK the Ignorant Slut

        About 10 years ago. Not a date LOL

    • Old Man With Candy

      I almost went with the powder blue. Do you think it would be a better choice? I was worried that it might not be optimal for my skin tone.

      • KK the Ignorant Slut

        It’s more about the cut. If the powder blue was in the safari-style, then you missed an opportunity for major poontang.

      • Gender Traitor

        Have WebDom help you through the “Color Me Beautiful” quiz so you can definitively determine your “season.”

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        My mom had that book.

        My palette is warm colors, speaking of 70s. Yuck, just no.

      • Gender Traitor

        Went through a group session in one of my college dorms. (Freshman year? Can’t recall exactly.) Kinda confounded the presenter as to my specific season – hair color suggested one season, skin tone another. But the initial step – which looks better with your skin tone? The orange drape or the purple one? – was pretty obvious. The orange one looked hideous on me.

      • Seguin

        You should go with avocado green. White chicks love avocados.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Ari Lightman, professor of digital media and marketing at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, said the violent rhetoric stemming from the Mar-a-Lago raid is just the latest escalation of an extreme polarization on the right that has been on the rise since at least 2008, with the election of former President Barack Obama.

    Lightman told Yahoo News that while talk of a new civil war is “really troubling,” perhaps more troubling is the rhetoric from lawmakers and right-wing media figures eroding public trust in all government institutions, whether the FBI or the public school system.

    This lack of trust, he said, fuels extremism and perpetuates the notion that “the only way through this is not through discussion or debate, it’s through violence.”

    As we all know, the Biden administration has done everything conceivable to keep lines of communication open, in order to engage in honest debate on meaningful issues.

    • rhywun

      perhaps more troubling is the rhetoric from lawmakers and right-wing media figures eroding public trust in all government institutions

      OFFS.

      Wake me up when the “violent rhetoric” turns into street riots and setting government buildings on fire, and when Republicans are paying the bail on their shock troops.

      • B.P.

        Major institutions become corrupted and screw up every major decision, but the real problem is that people are complaining about it.

    • Sean

      Thicc.

    • rhywun

      the reality star stole the thrown from previous winner Rachel

      It’s cute that they’re trying.

      • Gender Traitor

        Journalismed by a Columbia grad?

      • rhywun

        They probably throw that stuff in on purpose, to make it more convincingly low-brow.

      • juris imprudent

        Well they wouldn’t say she held the crone.

    • Lackadaisical

      “God, I used to have my lips done and whereas now, I have it done like Botox but it’s dead subtle so you can’t really tell, it’s more about enhancing what I’ve already got.”

      Derp. Yes, she’s all natural boys.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    A weapon discharged

    FBI testing of the gun used in the fatal shooting on the movie set of “Rust” found that the weapon handled by actor Alec Baldwin could not be fired without pulling the trigger while the gun was cocked, according to a newly released forensics report.

    Baldwin had the gun while rehearsing a scene of the Western film at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico in October when a shot fired, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.

    In December, Baldwin told ABC News he never pulled the trigger of the gun that shot Hutchins. “The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin said.

    Baldwin, in that interview, also described cocking the gun as he talked through the scene with Hutchins. “So then I said to her, ‘Now in this scene, I’m going to the gun.’ And I said, ‘Do you want to see that?’ And she said, ‘Yes.’ So I take the gun and I start to cock the gun. I’m not going to pull the trigger.”

    “Are you sure that thing’s not loaded?”

    • R C Dean

      “a shot fired”

      Ah. A cop gun that fires itself. I guess this is a Baldwin-involved shooting, then.

      • rhywun

        Long Island is not sending us their best. Some, I assume, are good.

      • Chafed

        Billie Baldwin?

      • Not an Economist

        If Baldwin was an average joe he would spend some time in jail. Since he isn’t, I’m expecting a short time on probation at worst.

      • Gustave Lytton

        No one was convicted over the Twilight Zone deaths. Unless Baldwin intentionally placed live rounds prior to starting, I doubt he’ll get even probation.

    • db

      I handle guns very frequently and I have a severe aversion to pointing them anywhere near another person. Also, it’s really difficult to miss the fact that a revolver’s loaded if you even glance at it. So many safeguards had to fail to get that situation to the point of killing a person and wounding another. I can’t understand the people who want to exonerate Baldwin because of the armorer’s incompetence, or people who want to absolve the armorer because Baldwin failed to check the gun personally.

      I think they both (and possibly others) have to take blame for this. If anything, I think Baldwin’s more to blame because he actually held and fired the gun and had the last chance to check if it was empty, as well as pointed it at other people. The armorer didn’t do her job properly, the assistant director didn’t do the job properly, and Baldwin didn’t do the job properly.

      No way can the blame here be placed only on one person. But the blame cannot be reduced by spreading it around, and neither should the consequences be.

    • Lackadaisical

      A real mystery, someone call scooby-doo.

    • juris imprudent

      A magistrate judge, elected by the District judges (the actual presidential appointees, confirmed by the Senate).

    • Gustave Lytton

      I would imagine that Epstein had more than one lawyer and this one wasn’t even the lead.

  37. Count Potato

    “Today’s children are 30% less aerobically fit than their parents were at their age, a new study found.

    The study points to climate change and rising temperatures adversely affecting childhood obesity, as children spend less time exercising outdoors.”

    https://twitter.com/CBSMornings/status/1558555239170674688

    Now, this mf went to Columbia.

    • rhywun

      OFFS!

    • Gender Traitor

      Because that’s the only possible reason kids don’t play outdoors as much as earlier generations. 🙄

      • juris imprudent

        Helicopter parents cause climate change!!!

  38. The Late P Brooks

    i just ordered a new roku (from roku’s website). What a pain in the ass. But now they have captured my credit card. I should have ordered from Amazon.

    • R.J.

      Interesting. Did they auto-assign it to your Roku to pay for movies or something? If so I would think you could delete it as a payment method.
      Also yes, go buy one at Target or Amazon or something next time. This sounds like something new.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Because that’s the only possible reason kids don’t play outdoors as much as earlier generations.

    Global warming causes helicopter parenting and strangerdanger! paranoia.

    • Urthona

      Not mentioned in article: the continental US has not seen any temperature rise in the past 50 years.

      • R.J.

        Look, Texas in the 1979s and 1980s was fucking hot. Usually over 100 by July 4th, just like this year. We played outside because there were no video games.

    • juris imprudent

      I see I should’ve scrolled down, dammit.

      • juris imprudent

        Or actually we can argue about cause and effect.

      • Gender Traitor

        That’s the only reason Brooksie does that – just to screw us up!

  40. DrOtto

    Why aren’t they calling them mercenaries?

    • Gender Traitor

      “But that just sounds so….mercenary! These are noble self-sacrificing warriors fighting for all that is good and holy!”

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Did they auto-assign it to your Roku to pay for movies or something?

    Why, yes. Yes, they did. After my attempt to “purchase as guest” failed twice, I signed in.

    I’m not driving to Idaho Falls to get one at Best Buy, that’s for sure.

    Oh, well.It was a website special offer- ten bucks off the roku express 4k; I have a nagging suspicion my current roku stick is about to fail.