Sunday Morning Bright and Early Links

by | Sep 4, 2022 | Daily Links | 192 comments

Yesterday at a department event, I spent a few minutes slumming it by sitting at a table with the grad students, who gave me a lot of insights into the reality of the engineering and science side of our little school. I asked about a professor at our little school whom I’ve been looking at collaborating with, who is now legend. Apparently, he started bringing his dog to class with him, with the excuse, “She’s an emotional support animal.” Now our little school always wants to be at the cutting edge of progressivism and sensitivity, so of course they would make that accommodation. So no problem for the prof and his dog.

That’s when things took… a turn. It transpires that the emotional support dog has a phobia about people she doesn’t know. A whole classroom of people she didn’t know really got her upset: barking, whining, growling, howling. The next class, the professor had TWO dogs. Yes, the second dog was the emotional support dog for the emotional support dog.

God, I love living here.

Speaking of dogs all the way down, there are a few birthdays today, including one of (((us))) whose work lives on at nearly all college campuses; a weird example of a celebrity musician being an incel; a fascinating guy who blurred scientific boundaries; another one of (((us))) whose work memorably lives on; a guy whose… diction was… famous for random… pauses; a guy who slept with Elizabeth Montgomery; a guy whom everyone thought he was good, but he was just a pretender; a Dr. Phil wannabe (at least Dr. Phil’s money) and might be one of us;  and a guy who don’t play that.

As they say in India, let’s do the needful and get to Links.

 

Remember the videos of German and other European “leaders” actually laughing at Trump when he predicted this? Oops.

 

So the insane waste of money and resources will drag on even longer.

 

I’m sure the apartheid government gave them a fair trial.

 

Unfortunately, he didn’t land on a My Pillow.

 

“Taking money from poor people in rich countries and giving it to rich people in poor countries.”

 

NPR discovers that buying a car involves negotiating and dealership games. Huh, must be something new. Women and minorities hardest hit, of course.

 

“The premise that this is going to make anyone safer is simply as not consistent with any data or experience that we have in the field.” 

 

I can’t remember if I posted this phenomenal cover of a great John Hartford tune (though that’s redundant), so if I did, too bad, here it is again. Molly Tuttle just OWNS this song.

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.

192 Comments

  1. UnCivilServant

    I wake up and you’ve dropped a new set of links already? Who gets up that early?

    • Chafed

      OMWC.

  2. Count Potato

    “The next class, the professor had TWO dogs. Yes, the second dog was the emotional support dog for the emotional support dog.”

    Now you’re just making shit up.

    • Sean

      I completely believe it.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I wish I were. Then again, there’s so much material here to work with. I told the other story about this prof in Zoom last night, so please trust me that the dog story is only the second weirdest thing I heard yesterday.

      • UnCivilServant

        Unless there’s a massive gulf in weirdness between the dog story and the weirdest thing you heard, things sound pretty tame.

      • Gender Traitor

        I’m pretty sure I’m the Little Black Cat’s emotional support human. 🙄 🐱‍👤 Trying to figure out how to parlay that into permission to work from home…even though that would involve forwarding all the CU’s mail to my house, among other inconveniences…

      • Tres Cool

        PO Box. Then again you have to collect that daily,

  3. Count Potato

    “The latest package presented by the German government is the third since Scholz took office in late 2021 to help consumers and companies cope with rapid inflation. The total relief now stands at more than 95 billion euros and will lead to “significant additional expenditures in the federal budget,” the government said on Sunday.

    The figure of 65 billion euros the government unveiled Sunday to deal with the crisis includes contributions from the federal government, states and municipalities. The federal component of the latest plan is about 40 billion euros, a person familiar with the matter said earlier.”

    Worst Chancellor ever.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      He just needed to tell the US State Department to fuck off. Germany would still be a fiscal time bomb, but it wouldn’t be exploding right now.

    • rhywun

      Because inflation isn’t “rapid” enough.

  4. Ted S.

    a guy whom everyone thought he was good, but he was just a pretender;

    Freddie Mercury?

  5. Atanarjuat

    “​​We’re not going to launch until it’s right,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson

    I had totally missed that Biden nominated Nelson to lead NASA. Not someone with a science or engineering or even a management background, but a lifelong politician. Kinda fits with the theme of the rest of the links, looting the corpse of our collapsing empire.

    • Count Potato

      Notice how CNN won’t shut up about this NASA launch, but barely mentions, if at all, when Space X does something?

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t notice a darn thing CNN does or does not do.

      • UnCivilServant

        That tone came out wrong.

        Sorry.

      • Atanarjuat

        This segment brought to you by Boeing.

    • l0b0t

      Bill Nelson, the former Insurance Commissioner for the State of Florida?!? Why?

      • Gender Traitor

        l0b1e!!! There you are! Good morning! 😃

      • l0b0t

        Howdy GT! I hope you and TT are doing well. All is well here. I spend my time working at the café or working on our house, so haven’t had time for Glibbing but I miss y’all. It sure is a great deal more fun, sipping coffe and interacting with you fine folk than ripping out cat-urine soaked carpet and linoleum only to discover urine soaked asbestos underneath.

      • Gender Traitor

        Ugh. Yeah, I’m convinced cat urine has more “staying power” than nuclear waste.

      • l0b0t

        Plus, we’re dog-sitting a 3-legged chihuahua for one of the café employees. WebDom’s cat is terrified of it. He peed all over the blankets and floor because he was afraid of running the gauntlet to his litterbox. Sigh…

  6. Ted S.

    including one of (((us))) whose work lives on at nearly all college campuses

    I was hoping for this Zalman.

  7. Atanarjuat

    However, there are state franchise laws across the country that protect independent dealerships — and these laws have made it difficult to disrupt the dealership system and offer consumers potentially a better way of buying a vehicle.

    A V8 political engine
    To be fair to dealerships, they do provide important services. They offer a distribution and service network, which is vital to both manufacturers and car buyers. They offer buyers the ability to check out, test drive, and learn about cars at their facilities, which really do cost a lot when it comes to real estate, inventory, and manpower. If the manufacturer recalls something, there are thousands of local dealerships across the nation there to fix the problem. They also, of course, create tons of jobs in local communities.

    Sure it screws consumers, but jobz! Believe it or not, this isn’t peak NPR. The last time I listened to NPR on purpose — and I am not making this up — it was a reading of a Manhattan woman’s poetry for her dog. *click*

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      If it’s so great, then they’ll survive without the regulatory mandate.

    • Pat

      The nice thing about a car is that it’s got so many windows for the glaziers to replace…

      • Grosspatzer

        LOL.

    • Sensei

      As far I’ve been able to research the laws against direct sales generally bipartisan. I’ve found that a bit surprising as small business protection like this is usually a country club Republican sort of thing.

      Tesla with one hand in our pockets did do some good. One of the things that it did was get the camel’s nose under the tent in breaking dealer franchise laws. It was only able to do this because none of the other manufacturers offered any electric products of any kind of ability and variety. They are still restricted and in something like a third of the states still prohibited.

      For example here in NJ I think they are restricted to 5 or 8 actual facilities that can repair cars.

    • Don escaped Texas

      a Texas car dealer can be open on Saturday or Sunday, but not both

      your weekly reminder that Texas is a poser of a state, not free…indeed, the very cornucopia of hopeless instruments to manage one’s neighbors for most of the the same trite, snotty reasons as any other state

      • DrOtto

        And CarMax sued to try and end the practice (one our many lingering “blue laws”) and TX Supreme court ruled in the state’s favor.

      • R.J.

        So true. Don’t forget the liquor laws too. Or when they “administratively” banned dune buggies for bo good reason. We rank about the midway point on the free state list. We are most certainly not at the top, or even in the top quarter.

      • Pat

        your weekly reminder that Texas is a poser of a state, not free…indeed, the very cornucopia of hopeless instruments to manage one’s neighbors for most of the the same trite, snotty reasons as any other state

        Freedom is both relative and subjective. Where I live we have legal weed, legal hookers, some of the loosest alcohol restrictions in the country, legal gambling, open carry, we can keep exotic pets, no emissions testing, so we can drive around in half century old piece of shit cars belching raw gas fumes, or better still, just drive our ORVs on the county roads and highways, because that’s legal too. No state income tax. Certainly no nefarious Baptists to repress us. On paper, it just doesn’t get too much more “free” than we are. But I can tell you this: Come September 2024 when we’re embroiled in another international pandemic necessitating 24 months of house arrest, mandatory gas masks outdoors, and all-mail-in balloting for 90 days preceding and following election day again, I’m hoping I find myself in an authoritarian theocratic hell hole like Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, Indiana, maybe even Tennessee. Once the novelty of being free to do things you’ll probably never actually do wears off, there are practical tradeoffs that make a much larger difference in your day to day life. Not being able to purchase a car from a dealership on Sunday on account of repressive Baptists who think they might save the non-existent soul of a used car salesman will probably never be something that affects my life. Being chased through the front of a grocery store by some screeching minimum wage cunt because I temporarily had my paper mask pulled down to my chin while talking to my cancer-stricken mother on the phone to ask her a question so that I could get her weekly groceries actually happened and actually did affect my life. Everyone’s different, of course, so the liberties that actually matter to each person are going to vary.

  8. PieInTheSky

    Cars are, of course, expensive, especially with the supply chain fiasco creating shortages. But it’s more than that. Shopping for cars is not like shopping for most other products. Unlike, say, computers or refrigerators, cars are typically not sold for one standard price. Ten people could go into a dealership and each pay a wildly different amount to buy the same exact vehicle. – not in Europe here if you know to haggle you get a small discount but nothing too significant

    • PieInTheSky

      Not all dealerships engage in this pricing strategy, but many do it aggressively, often with snake oil-style salesmanship, deceptive marketing tactics, hidden fees, and overpriced add-ons, like floor mats, alarm systems, or anti-rust undercoating. Some consumers call the outfits that employ these tactics “stealerships.” – this I suppose is why one shops around… When I buy whisky I always check the price at 3-4 stores and get the best deal

    • PieInTheSky

      But with supply-chain problems creating shortages of new vehicles recently, many dealerships have been charging much more than MSRP. Meanwhile, the dealerships that don’t add markups to MSRP are seeing their inventory depleted quickly, and often have wait times of months or even years for coveted vehicles. – I mean this is economic 101 you put a small price you get a shortage of the goods

    • Sean

      I enjoy new car shopping. At least pre Covid I did.

      I’m planning on getting something new in the next year. If they’re not gonna cut me a good deal, I’m walking away. Someone will to make the sale.

      • UnCivilServant

        I hate dealing with people. Haggling just pushes all my buttons.

      • Pat

        I, too, hate haggling. It’s almost unimaginable just how infinitely stupid I was to major in business management given my temperament.

      • Fourscore

        I haven’t bought a car/truck for a long time but in the before years I liked dealing, I knew they wanted to maximize price while my goals were different. I had learned a lot from my old boss and watching him buy/rent stuff.

        I learned that separating the trade-in from the purchase was important, making the dealer (the salesman) become the buyer, after the negotiations for the new vehicle were done. Also the willingness to ‘walk’ before handshakes were done. If you’re looking at a new vehicle, come in with your demands rather than be persuaded to buy something from inventory that isn’t exactly what you wanted..

        A new car salesman ( a woman) friend said the worst customers were Asians, they would shop and shop dealers for weeks, discussing every detail, back and forth, until the sales people were worn down and would finally deal to get rid of them.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Well, you cleared up a mystery for us yesterday. Now we know where the sign came from!

      • Fourscore

        …A dessert topping and a floor wax…

        Hey, one time you surprised me, too! And thanks for that.

      • Ted S.

        Good car buyers, shitty car drivers?

      • Sean

        I hear many dealerships will do internet sales. I need a person. A single point of contact.

  9. Grosspatzer

    Mornin’, Old Man. If by some miracle my progeny provide grandchildren, I will be using the tale of the emotional support dogs to explain the the concept of infinity to them.

      • Grosspatzer

        That song was 3 minutes long but it seemed like an eternity.

    • Tres Cool

      Call me skeptical, but it seems too much like a photo-op.

    • Gender Traitor

      Thus more directly and obviously demonstrating that it is, in fact, a coal-powered car: Coal provides the miners’ income, which provides their food, which provides their energy, which propels the car forward.

      • Grosspatzer

        Q.E.D. Well done, GT!

      • Gender Traitor

        I science gud! 😁

      • Pat

        It’s a good thing none of them learned to code, or the driver would be sitting there as helplessly as Robby Soave waiting for the burly, semi-frightening, blue collar tow truck driver to come change his tire.

      • Tres Cool

        Wasn’t he also stranded with those teacup-size dust mops he calls dogs ?

        “Any dog under 50 lbs is a cat. And cats are pointless.” -Ron Swanson

    • Pat

      It’s not his fault, it’s the white guilt money what dun it.

      • Grosspatzer

        the group had no infrastructure in place to handle the flood of cash

        Because no bank would consider handling a $90MM account. Racists, they are.

    • rhywun

      LOL grifters eating their own

  10. PieInTheSky

    Bernie Sanders
    @BernieSanders
    On Sunday the Chilean people can vote for a new constitution, replacing the old anti-democratic one written by the dictator Pinochet with a new one guaranteeing rights to health, housing, education, and a habitable planet. I am proud to support this effort.

    https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1566074577511501826

    • rhywun

      A unicorn in every pot.

      Watching the utopia unfold from here is going to be… interesting.

      • DrOtto

        Fast forward to a boarder surge of Chileans escaping poverty for the oppressive US.

      • Chafed

        The new constitution is behind in the polls. It may fail.

    • Shpip

      Well, they had a nice 50-year run. Unfortunately, they’re in for a spell of bad luck.

    • Pat

      On Sunday the Chilean people can vote for a new constitution, replacing the old anti-democratic one written by the dictator Pinochet with a new one guaranteeing rights to health, housing, education, and a habitable planet.

      Sounds vaguely familiar

  11. The Late P Brooks

    “BLM leader is accused of pilfering $10M from the organization by local chapters who say he used it like ‘personal piggy bank’ in explosive lawsuit”

    And he’ll never have the personal integrity (or the balls) to jump off a building to atone.

  12. KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

    Tulip’s martinis just about killed me last night. Holy fuck.

    • Tres Cool

      If I had a dollar for everytime I came to morning consciousness with a scorching hangover, in a piss, stale-beer, and vomit-soaked RV…..

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        I want to know why I still smell puke, even after taking a shower & sitting outside.

      • Tres Cool

        Its likely still seared into your sinus cavities.

  13. PieInTheSky

    Stockholm’s ‘Housing for All’ Is Now Just for the Few

    Soaring demand for rent-controlled housing in the Swedish capital has left many residents at the mercy of an expensive, sometimes dangerous sublet market.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-03/stockholm-s-rent-controlled-housing-guarantee-has-a-catch

    “When Ida Jonsson woke up on her 18th birthday, her first act as an adult — before voting or getting a drink — was to participate in a ritual for many Stockholm natives: signing up on the city’s lengthy waiting list for public housing.

    Now 25, Jonsson only moved into her apartment a year ago. And she counts herself as fortunate: Not everyone is as well informed as her on the urgency of signing up for a rent-controlled apartment as soon as legally possible.

    Jonsson was able to tap into a somewhat unknown resource in Stockholm: The city government offers a batch of apartments reserved specifically for younger people in the city.

    It was through this strategy that Jonsson, after years of subletting, finally secured what some consider a unicorn in Stockholm — a 27 square-meter (290 square-foot) rent-controlled apartment in the middle of Stockholm’s historic Old Town, where picturesque 17th century buildings are placed around cobblestoned squares. Jonsson’s monthly rent is only 3,500 kronor ($329) — a fraction of what such a one-bedroom flat would fetch on the subletting market. ”

    Beyond the standard rent control don’t work thing, this seems just so sad to me if one’s main aspiration in life seems to be a 27 square meter government subsidized apartment. Also libertariqnism has no chance with these people.

    • rhywun

      You mean living off the government teat is not something to aspire to?! SMDH.

    • The Last American Hero

      It does when they see their counterparts in a freer place enjoying a much higher standard of living.

  14. Shpip

    Global warming is the existential crisis facing the world

    Show your work.

    and Pakistan is ground zero

    Last I checked, Pakistan isn’t in danger of disappearing beneath the waves, the way Manhattan did in 2015.

    – yet we have contributed less than 1% to [greenhouse gas] emissions.

    Because your economy is, in a word, paleolithic. Get crackin’ on building stuff. Might I suggest infrastructure to help move water downhill?

  15. The Late P Brooks

    On Sunday the Chilean people can vote for a new constitution, replacing the old anti-democratic one written by the dictator Pinochet with a new one guaranteeing rights to health, housing, education, and a habitable planet. I am proud to support this effort.

    Wasn’t it modeled after ours?

    So many of them have been.

    • rhywun

      I’m sure Bernie thinks ours is whatever loaded definition he uses for “anti-democratic”, too.

      • Pat

        I mean, he wouldn’t be wrong. It’s a fairly anti-democratic document, as one might expect, considering the original form of government outlined by the US constitution was supposed to be a representative federal republic.

      • rhywun

        Yup but his definition of “democratic” probably means “free shit for everybody”.

  16. PieInTheSky

    I saw the first episode of the rings if power. It was complete shit.

    • The Hyperbole

      Meh, seemed perfectly cromulent to me I’ll more than likely watch the next episode.

      • PieInTheSky

        The lore was shit, the dialogue bad, the acting mediocre, the production values not good enough to make it up and the plot was weak

      • Pat

        I’m shocked. The movies were so riveting, after all…

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Beyond the standard rent control don’t work thing, this seems just so sad to me if one’s main aspiration in life seems to be a 27 square meter government subsidized apartment. Also libertariqnism has no chance with these people.

    “When I grow up, I want to live in a closet.”

    • Fourscore

      My cabin is 500 SF, it’s crowded with 2 people. 1 person is OK if one has few personal belongings.

    • Chafed

      I don’t see what could go wrong.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    I haven’t bought a car in a long long time. And it shows. I think I bought a car from a dealer once or twice.

    Now I am contemplating going to a dealer in Idaho Falls to check out a Hyundai Tiburon. It kind of looks to me like a modernized version of a CRX; you know, heavier, and with a bunch of features (like an automatic transnission) I don’t want or need. But I have a road trip coming up. The memorial service for my mom and dad, in Ohio. The Honda is in dry dock, and I don’t want to put the miles on the 914, despite the fact that it is surprisingly comfortable on long drives.

    Should be interesting.

    • Gender Traitor

      I’m sorry that’s the reason for your trip. What part of Ohio, if you don’t mind my asking?

      • Pat

        My condolences as well.

        For a one-off trip, it may be worth considering just renting a vehicle.

    • Fourscore

      You’ll be passing by , if you need a spot to RON we can handle that

  19. Tres Cool

    Great Flaming Clots of Bloody Mother Mary!
    Not only did she get that surgery, but now Rebel Wilson turned homo?

    I was hoping I had a chance.

    • Pat

      Being caught stepping out with a heterosexual partner in Hollywood is like wearing white after labor day.

  20. Sean

    Daily Quordle 223
    6️⃣5️⃣
    8️⃣7️⃣
    quordle.com

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 223
      6️⃣4️⃣
      8️⃣7️⃣

      Moar coffee

      • Grummun

        Yesterday:

        6 8
        5 4

        Today

        8 6
        7 X

        I am most vexed.

    • JG43

      Daily Quordle 223
      8️⃣5️⃣
      7️⃣6️⃣
      quordle.com
      I guess Dr. Seuss picked the words today

    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 223
      7️⃣5️⃣
      8️⃣4️⃣

    • Pat

      Daily Quordle 223
      9️⃣3️⃣
      6️⃣8️⃣

      Well, that sucked.

    • Grosspatzer

      Boo.

      Daily Quordle 223
      9️⃣6️⃣
      8️⃣4️⃣
      quordle.com

    • whiz

      Daily Quordle 223
      7️⃣4️⃣
      5️⃣8️⃣

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of- aren’t there a couple of Hyundai fans here, like Mojeaux? Or was that Kia?

    • DrOtto

      Hyundai and Kia are basically the same powertrains. Just the styling differs. I get them confused to the point of having went to the wrong dealership for a part, but it didn’t matter, the dealership had the part I needed once I identified the engine year/size.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Kias are cooler!

  22. PieInTheSky

    Padlocked ‘vampire’ grave found in Poland with sickle over neck

    https://www.heritagedaily.com/2022/09/padlocked-vampire-grave-found-in-poland-with-sickle-around-the-neck/144586?amp

    Archaeologists found the burial near Bydgoszcz, a city in northern Poland. An anthropological study revealed that she had protruding front teeth, suggesting that her appearance may have led superstitious locals in the 17th century to brand her a witch or vampire. In fear of her ascension, a sickle was placed around her neck, while a padlock was tied to the toe on the left foot.

    if vampire that would have totally worked

    • Tres Cool

      Ive had a few beers. Im not even going to try and pronounce “near Bydgoszcz”.

  23. robc

    Daily Quordle 223
    9️⃣7️⃣
    6️⃣4️⃣
    quordle.com

    That was…annoying.

    • Sean

      Lil bit.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Up around Ashland. The Point of Origin.

    • Gender Traitor

      Ah – roughly halfway between Neph’s and Teh Hype’s territories, I believe. However you end up traveling, I wish you a safe, trouble-free trip!

    • Tres Cool

      I know a place you can crash for the night. Drop in here, and Ill give you directions to GT’s house.

      • Fourscore

        See my post above

  25. Don escaped Texas

    Gentle on my Mind

    John Hartford was, amongst many other things, a licensed river boat captain.

    If I haven’t said it in a week: songwriters are the bomb. I know hundreds of great singers; I know dozens of solid musicians; but I only know a few people with anything worth saying who know how to say it.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    For a one-off trip, it may be worth considering just renting a vehicle.

    Maybe so, but rentals have gotten absurdly expensive. I can buy something low-volume like the Tiburon and not worry too much about selling it off in the future.

  27. Pat

    Who’s really threatening American democracy?

    There were many striking things about that weird Joe Biden speech the other night. First and foremost, it was a spectacular failure of optics, something the political class from which Biden hails is supposedly so brilliant at. For some reason, Biden and his team decided he should address the American people in front of an Independence Hall in Philadelphia – birthplace of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution – illuminated in blood-red lighting: a peculiarly Nuremberg-esque aesthetic given his subject – as we’ll come on to – was the supposedly proto-fascistic threat posed by Trumpist right-wingers. But the speech was also a spectacular display of brassneck – a tirade against authoritarianism that only underlined the ‘respectable’ authoritarianism that Biden himself has helped usher in.

    Building on his recent shameful comments about the supposed ‘semi-fascism’ of former president Trump and his supporters, Biden cast the modern Republican Party in his speech as a threat to America itself. ‘Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic’, he thundered. ‘Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans’, he kindly conceded. ‘But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.’ Given 74million people voted for Trump in 2020 – the second-highest number of Americans to ever vote for a presidential candidate, just behind Biden in that same election – one wonders who does or does not count as a MAGA Republican. Still, the effect was to make Hillary Clinton’s infamous ‘basket of deplorables’ comment look cute by comparison. Biden essentially cast vast swathes of the American public as domestic terrorists.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    ‘But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.’

    And again, the confusion of cause and effect. Trump is merely the locus of a pre-existing dissatisfaction on the part of a a large and I believe growing segment of the population, a dissatisfaction which is intensified daily by Biden administration policies and ill advised insults and taunts such as were on display in that speech.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    NPR headline:

    Quiet quitting, real quitting, unionizing — what else are American workers up to?

    Doing their goddam jobs?

    I crack myself up.

    • rhywun

      Quiet quitting.

      Two years after woke Coke and woke church and woke kindergarten, here we are. No one feels safe or comfortable talking to anyone. Meeting co-workers for a drink after hours is now one of the most dangerous things you can do.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Labor oppression not seen since the Gilded Age

    The pandemic left workplaces reimagined and workers changed. The number of job openings right now outnumbers people looking for work by almost two-to-one.

    Last year saw a record exodus of workers, and companies say they are still struggling to hire. Millions have re-evaluated what type of work they were willing to do for what type of pay or benefits and in what type of environment.

    On Labor Day, here’s a snapshot of what’s happening with American workers.

    ——-

    While millions quit, others have felt emboldened to fight for change.

    From baristas to warehouse staff to frontline nurses, more workers are filing charges of unfair labor practices against their employers or staging walkouts and strikes. They’re demanding not just higher wages, but improvements to safety and wellbeing: longer breaks, more paid leave, more control over their schedules.

    ——-

    Only about 10% of U.S. workers belonged to a union as of early 2022. At the same time, the level of public support for unions has been growing for over a decade.

    This summer, 71% of Americans told Gallup they approve of unions, a level not seen since 1965. Labor experts say support is even higher with younger people, potentially growing a new generation of organizers.

    Ragged and starving, the workers of America have finally had enough.

    • Plinker762

      It’s easy to approve of unions when you have never experienced one.

      • rhywun

        I’m sensing a BS poll.

    • Pat

      This is one of those areas where I’ve metamorphosed quite a bit in the time I’ve been gone. No, it’s not child labor, but Amazon warehouse wagies having to piss in a bucket to hit their efficiency quotas bringing cheap Chinese shit made by children and slaves straight to our doorsteps so that Bezos can afford to buy more influence in D.C. to prolong national arrest indefinitely or maybe build another giant clock into the side of a mountain is pretty much bullshit, and I’m not going to lose any sleep or shed any tears if the wagies successfully unionize despite Bezos’ attempts to get their mail-in ballots thrown out while he spends hundreds of millions of dollars in direct donations and in-kind contributions from his propaganda outlet to ensure that any attempt to impose the same restrictions on our national elections are defeated in court. Big Capital can’t shut the fuck up about “stakeholder capitalism”. Well, good. Choke on it.

      • rhywun

        having to piss in a bucket to hit their efficiency quotas

        I’d like to see evidence of that (OK, not really but you get my drift) first.

        There are already break laws and such for hourly workers so I’m very skeptical.

      • Pat

        Nevertheless, there’s at least multiple anecdotes about similar conditions in their warehouses. I’m certain labor activists are exaggerating how bad the conditions are, and I’m equally certain that Amazon lies continuously and has lost the benefit of the doubt from me.

      • The Last American Hero

        Good thing the UPS unionized drivers don’t deliver to the sticks.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        There’s a sentence I wouldn’t want to diagram.

      • Pat

        Same. I actually erased it and was going to start over, but I liked the cadence that way in my head so I said to hell with it.

      • whiz

        Next up: Pat vs. AlexinCT in a convoluted sentence showdown!

  31. DrOtto

    Dealerships are predatory, I would have never guessed. This certainly is a new development. What’s even better is they make the dealership out as if it’s inherently white. As a white guy, one of my last purchases was at a Hispanic owned dealership and the salesman was Hispanic and his boss was black and had neck tatoos and this was a Chevy branded lot, not a corner lot. These guys were not hep to the program to know that they should automatically give me a deal because I was white. I had to negotiate, leave and then negotiate some more over the phone and finally ask for a confirmation e-mail of final pricing before I would return. Fun fact, e-mail constitutes a written agreement. I had to spell that out on a car I flew in to purchase in AZ where the price suddenly went up $1,000 or so.

    • UnCivilServant

      This is why you should build your own cars.

    • Gender Traitor

      …they make the dealership out as if it’s inherently white.

      I kinda miss Mel Farr.

      • The Last American Hero

        Superstar.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Horrific insensitivity

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said rape victims in the state can prevent pregnancies by using emergency contraception pills such as Plan B, The Dallas Morning News reported Friday.

    In Texas, abortions are banned and do not include exceptions for rape or incest.

    Late last month, a so-called “trigger law” went into effect following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade earlier this year. The trigger law makes it a felony to perform an abortion in the state with narrow exceptions when the pregnant person’s life is at risk.

    “We want to support those victims, but also those victims can access health care immediately, as well as to report it,” Abbott told The Dallas Morning News and KXAS-TV’s “Lone Star Politics” in a segment obtained by the Morning News that will air on Sunday.

    “By accessing health care immediately, they can get the Plan B pill that can prevent a pregnancy from occurring in the first place,” he added.

    But what if you don’t know you were raped until four or five months later?

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Theoretically possible. If the woman was roofied or used drugs and alcohol and passed out in the wrong place.

      • Pat

        If it takes more than one cycle of the moon for a birthing person to realize they’re pregnant, the abortion should be compulsory.

  33. Mustang

    Nailed my final interviews and accepted their job offer before the day was over. Have to thank the Lord here because I don’t deserve the gifts I’ve been given during this transition. Talk about a weight lifted. Even the crazy news hasn’t had any effect on my mood, thank goodness.

    • Sensei

      Congrats!

      Funny I did a double take reading “transition” in a context other than recent demonstrations of child abuse.

      • Ted S.

        How did you read “nailed”?

      • Sensei

        He said interviews and not interviewers.

        Not that I’d judge…

      • Mustang

        “Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?”

      • Mustang

        Understandable these days.

    • Count Potato

      Go you!

    • Gender Traitor

      O Frabjous Day! 😃

    • Fourscore

      Good to hear, M. We all need some good news from time to time. Your good news is good news.

      • Mustang

        Thanks all. It’s a complete career/industry change for me, so this is definitely going to be interesting but I’m excited to start something totally new.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Man, I know that feeling!

    • Pat

      Nice! Give ’em hell, Pike.

    • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

      Congrats!

  34. Count Potato

    “Washington Post doesn’t care if the person who called in a bomb threat to a children’s hospital is caught. They don’t care to investigate elective surgeries being done on kids. They are more concerned with smearing me.”

    https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1566258963867394062

    “The growing worries about violence have prompted raging debate inside Twitter over whether the Libs of TikTok account should be suspended.”

    https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1565837216445759488

    • Count Potato

      “LIBS OF TIKTOK: Mainstream media isn’t mad about gender surgeries on teens, they’re mad you found out….

      Well it didn’t take long for media to come after me for exposing these practices. NBC, for one, believed the hospital, and slammed me and others for having done the reporting at all. NPR and WaPo came out with articles claiming my recording was out of context and misinformation. They claimed the people I spoke with didn’t know and the hospital said they don’t do hysterectomies so it must not be true. A hospital would never ever lie, right? NPR, WaPo, trans activists, and other bluecheckers straight up asked Twitter to suspend me for this dangerous misinformation.

      Two weeks ago it appeared they were against gender affirming hysterectomies on minors, this week they made their position clear. They are for it and just don’t want anyone knowing about it. Young girls are having their uteruses carved out and the media’s top concern is that people will find out. So they called for my suspension. A few short years ago, a journalist’s job was to research content, information, and leads to bring important news stories to the population. How times have changed. Now they just run cover for the Leftist agenda and silence those who dare oppose them. Thanks to their friends in Big Tech, they can call for their opposition to be censored.”

      https://humanevents.com/2022/08/30/libs-of-tiktok-mainstream-media-isnt-mad-about-gender-surgeries-on-teens-theyre-mad-you-found-out/

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        All bad things are due to Russia, it is known.

      • Mustang

        Claim: Libs of Tik Tok amplifies Russian agents.

        Twitter commentator talks about Libs of Tik Tok amplifying Russian agents.

        Libs of Tik Tok reposts commentator, thus outing commentator as Russian agent.

        Check. Mate.

      • rhywun

        the anti-gay culture wars that she is stoking

        You know what’s actually “anti-gay”? Convincing kids that stunting their growth and/or mutilating their sex organs is the preferable alternative to the gay.

      • Count Potato

        MAKE AMERICA GAY AGAIN

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Nailed my final interviews and accepted their job offer before the day was over. Have to thank the Lord here because I don’t deserve the gifts I’ve been given during this transition. Talk about a weight lifted. Even the crazy news hasn’t had any effect on my mood, thank goodness.

    Sweet.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Too many consonants in that first name to be trustworthy.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Those Irish. (Pronounced Sheeve? KSue, help!)

      • rhywun

        Sheeve or Shee-(guttural sound) or maybe just Shee. A lot of that junk is silent in the modern language.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        And Galla-her, probably.

      • Pat

        When I first started listening to Beoga I checked out the album credits on Discogs, as one does, and ran across the name Niamh Dunne. Kind of a weird looking name, but nothing I’d have thought was unpronounceable. Surely it would be “Nim” or “Neem” or something like that. Months later when I was watching one of their live performances and YouTube and the bandleader introduced her as “Neeve” I felt pretty stupid.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Internet fame and social points

    • one true athena

      Money. Some of these clinics are extremely well funded by donors and pharma. The activism-social credit is a bonus, but all these ghouls are making big bucks.

      I just caught a week twitter suspension for pointing out the gravy train. .

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        That’s okay.

        I got told I’d engaged in “targeted harassment” a few days ago because I made a joke that nobody should make a drinking game out of Dark Brandon’s Thursday night speech, because they’d probably die of alcohol poisoning. In order to get out of jail I had to delete the offending Tweet, amongst other things. I told ’em to go fuck themselves.

        The real reason I was suspended was because I was guilty of the crime of lèse-majesté. Twitter’s pathetic. I hope Musk wildly screws them over in open court.

      • rhywun

        It’s more than pathetic – it and its friends are an arm of the deep state and the proof is starting to come out.

      • Count Potato

        Um, “think”

      • MikeS

        In at least two districts, the activists at Lurie Children’s Hospital also recommended that teachers offer a series of sexually explicit resources to children as young as 11. At the end of the “Beyond Binary” presentation circulated to teachers in District 75 and District 120, the hospital recommended a “Binder Exchange Program” to assist teenage girls in binding their breasts, a “kid friendly website for gender affirming gear,” which sells items such as artificial penis “packers” and female-to-male “trans masc pump[s],” and an “LGBTQ friendly sex shop for teens” that sells a range of “dildos,” “vibrators,” “harnesses,” “anal toys,” “trans-friendly toys,” and “kink & BDSM” equipment. The links include graphic descriptions of sadomasochism, bondage, pornography, and transgressive sex.

        And all of this has become normalized in what? Five years? Less than ten. It’s mindboggling.

      • MikeS

        Wow. Evil.

      • Pat

        Remember when the tobacco companies were literally Hitler for marketing cigarettes using Joe Camel because children might be lured in by the cartoon mascot?

      • MikeS

        And Spuds McKenzie was marketing beer to kids.

        Simpler times.

  36. Ownbestenemy

    Took out the generously supplied by NVEnergy thermostat that the previous owner bought into. Replaced with one that has no wifi chip (took it apart to make sure). I am sure I will get a notice “Dear customer, we have been unable to ping your thermostat, we have dispatched a crew to make sure you are in compliance”

    • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

      Excellent.

      IoT inside private homes that are controlled by external actors are the biggest single threat to privacy right now.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Why do you hate America? Are you some kind of racist?

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        Why do you hate America?

        Isn’t this like climbing Everest?

        Are you some kind of racist?

        Sure, let’s go with that.

      • Ted S.

        Worse: he’s Canadian.

      • Ownbestenemy

        My grill is the only appliance I can control from my phone and really it’s for monitoring probe temps on long cooks.

      • Pat

        It boggles my mind that people actually pay money to a company for the privilege of having a device in their home to surreptitiously collect every noise, every utterance, every word, then send that collected data over completely unsecured web protocols to a server farm to be analyzed by a massive network of computers to sell them shit they don’t need. Nielsen used to actually pay people to put a spy device in their home and monitor what TV channels they watched.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Took out the generously supplied by NVEnergy thermostat that the previous owner bought into. Replaced with one that has no wifi chip (took it apart to make sure). I am sure I will get a notice “Dear customer, we have been unable to ping your thermostat, we have dispatched a crew to make sure you are in compliance”

    Pertinent

  38. The Late P Brooks

    You know what’s actually “anti-gay”? Convincing kids that stunting their growth and/or mutilating their sex organs is the preferable alternative to the gay.

    Honestly, I don’t even comprehend how all this idiocy works, but what could possibly constitute “gender tyranny” nore than telling a young child his/her physical attributes must conform to specific patterns of behavior?

    “Be yourself.”

    Not on our watch, say the gender police.

    • Plinker762

      We reject society’s rules — and demand you follow ours

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Modern boilerplate “apology”:

    “I’m sorry. I’m not sorry I did it. I’m sorry I got caught.”

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Addendum to above:

    …patterns of behavior which in all likelihood are temporary.

  41. Yusef drives a Kia

    Its time to play the game! Enjoy the day friends and fellow
    Troublemakers
    🕳🦎🍻

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Blah blah blah The links include graphic descriptions of sadomasochism, bondage, pornography, and transgressive sex.

    WTF does that mean? Choking? Hitting? Forcible rape?

    • Count Potato

      Butt stuff?

    • Ted S.

      PIV.