You can read the Day Three report here.
Saturday, July 16th, 2022 was the last day of FreedomFest 2022. Most of the talks I attended were longer form. The afternoon had some quite interesting talks on criminal justice reform and freedom in Latin America. But first, the morning talks.
Politicians’ Panel
Matt Kibbe moderated a panel made up of Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH).
Kibbe started the panel on the topic of inflation.
One of the panel members, I don’t have which in my notes, made a joke that we need a model of corporate greed so that we know when prices go down and up. It will probably work as well as the COVID-19 modeling.
Davidson says to solve inflation we need sound money. It has to be something the government just can’t print. He also pointed out that political risk can lead to an increase in prices. Davidson ended his talk on inflation by saying he thought the first Covid stimulus was justified to mitigate the damage from lockdowns. However, he emphasized that the lockdowns were never justified.
Kibbe brought up baby formula shortages. Lee noted that the shortage was only in the United States. It was a government created shortage. The government has imposed import restrictions, imposed tariffs, imposed aggressive regulations, and distorted the marked with WIC. Lee had worked on the Formula Act in attempt to mitigate some of what the government has done. A watered down version of the bill passed the Senate but is stuck in the House..
The panel moved on to Cryptocurrency. Davidson thinks cryptocurrency acts as a hedge.
Lee started talking about how the legislative process has shifted away from the Legislature. The Legislature has delegated too much rule making authority to the executive. This has caused an explosion in rules and regulations. Sen. Rand Paul introduced a bill changing Congressional oversight of agency rule making. Lee is a cosponser.
Lee also said the temporary suspensions of laws are a problem for a certain set because the citizenry might realize that we don’t need those laws.
Putin and gas came up. Davidson talked about the desire of some, I don’t have who in my notes, to engineer a system of control around money. There is a desire among some in the Federal government to track energy usage. Thankfully, the Green New Deal is dead for now. Davidson finished by pointing out that Europe is in far worse shape than we in the USA are. Remember, this took place in July.
Kibbe brought up the upcoming midterm elections and accountability. Lee thinks the midterms will go very badly for Biden and the Democrats. Davidson says that he thinks American citizens are fed up and are sending better legislators to Washington. But, there are too many bad ones who like big government, and not just in the Democrat side.
Andrew Yang and Larry Sharpe
Andrew Yang gave a brief talk, then Larry Sharpe joined him for a brief panel discussion. I’ll summarize both here so I can get to the interesting stuff from Saturday.
Yang’s talk started with him talking about his background. He is descended from Taiwanese emigrants to America. His involvement in politics came later in life. He was a serial entrepreneur, and he noticed that politicians wanted to protect themselves. Yang noticed that incumbents’ reelection rates are much higher than their approval rates. Yang noticed that the two parties are in cahoots. These things led to his founding of the Forward Party.
When Larry Sharpe joined him, the talk centered on Ranked Choice Voting. Both are fans. Yang is also a fan of term limits and open primaries. Both agree that ballot access is very difficult.
I wasn’t impressed with their attempts to sell any of their solutions beyond making ballot access easier. Government should not be involved in primaries. Voters determine term limits when they decide whether or not to reelect an incumbent. When I compare New Hampshire and Maine, I see libertarians infiltrating the Republican party in New Hampshire, getting elected to office, and making change. Across the border in Maine, Ranked Choice Voting has done nothing for libertarians.
Criminal Justice Reform
I attended a panel discussion on Criminal Justice Reform. David Safavian, Peter Ludica, and Andrew Langer were on the panel. Andrew Langer was the moderator. CPAC sponsored the panel. Unfortunately, I arrived a bit late. I missed the panel introduction, so I’m not sure who answered what question.
One of panelists, I think David, is motivated by the waste of human capital caused by jailing people. This panelist also wants the criminal justice system to preserve human dignity and promote safety while being accountable. This panelist pointed out that government regulation has exploded. He claimed there were three Federal crimes in 1789, 100 in 1889, and approximately 450,000 today. Though he points out a caveat on the modern day number: The Federal government has given up counting Federal crimes.
Another panelist, I think Peter, had spent time as both a public defender and a prosecutor. He had also been a probation officer. He claimed that most prisoners he dealt with had been in foster care.
I think it was David that then talked about the history of criminal justice reform. He thinks that a trend of fixing problems started in the 90s. The trend reversed with the “Defund the Police” and BLM movements. Those movements, combined with prosecutors that won’t prosecute, has associated criminal justice reform, in the minds of the general population, with being anti-police and pro-criminal. This panelist thinks a backlash movement he calls “Fry the Litterbug” is building which he thinks will lead to reversing any progress made in criminal justice reform..
Peter said that many prosecutors see overcharging as a good thing. He never overcharged when he was a prosecutor. He thinks overcharging is a due process violation. He also talked about civil asset forfeiture. He thinks civil asset forfeiture is horrible and also a due process violation.
David and Peter talked about trying to get people back into society. They talked about records sealing and expunging. According to one of them, Michigan has laws around this for drug offenses, though treatment is required and a judge has discretion. The mentally ill are tough case. Putting them on the street or into prison is bad. They brought up a program in Miami-Dade County that diverts the mentally ill into getting help. As a side note, one of the panelists said incarcerated people at the State and local level are not on Medicare/Medicaid, their medical care is paid for by State and local taxpayers.
There was talk of classes in prison as a preparation for release. David said the classes are generally useless. And on top of that, state licensing laws generally make things difficult for released prisoners. David had two examples. A prisoner who works as a barber in prison in many states can’t get a barber’s license. California uses prisoners to fight wildfires but until recently ex-prisoners could not be firefighters or EMTs.
There was a little talk of bail reform. Peter thinks judges need more discretion.
One of the panelists talked about Clean Slate laws in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma where, under certain conditions, your record is sealed or expunged.
At the end of the discussion, the panel suggested attendees visit the Conservative Justice Reform page for more information.
Cuba Libre
Daniel di Martino, Martha Bueno, and Jorge Galacia were on a panel about fighting against Socialism in Cuba. The program said Antonella Marty would be the moderator, except the moderator was actually Anna from the Ladies of Liberty Alliance. I don’t remember the moderator’s last name.
Martha started by saying the usual suspects’ attempts to blame the American embargo of Cuba for Cuba’s economic problems is bullshit. Cuba has trading partners. Cuba can’t grow its own food and there are restrictions on fishing. The problem is the regime and its restrictions, not the American embargo.
Daniel talked about Cuba’s interventions abroad. The Cuban government has often interfered in other countries’ affairs. Daniel talked most about Cuban interference in Venezuela. This turned into a side discussion comparing Colombia and Venezuela. Colombia was once poor and had high crime, but now Colombia is turning around. Crime still exists, but it is lower. The country is becoming wealthier. Venezuela under Chavez and Maduro is becoming poor and more dangerous.
Back to Cuba, Martha talked about how wrong-headed American Leftists are about Cuba and Che. Those American leftists that hold up Che as a hero don’t realize Che would probably have them all murdered. She also criticized Black Lives Matter. 30% of Cubans are black, and BLM says nothing about how the Cuban regime crushes them.
Then panel digressed again into Venezuelan matters. Jorge wrapped up this digression with a quip along the lines of, “The Maduro regime is very inclusive. Everyone is included in not having rights.”
Jorge and Daniel then talked about Socialism in US Academia, specifically how so many at American colleges are clueless about socialism in Latin America. Both Jorge and Daniel spent time at American schools. Jorge at the University of North Texas, Daniel in a college in Indiana. According to them, many students think of the Nordic model when they think about Socialism, ignoring that a) the Nordic countries aren’t very Socialistic and b) Cuba and other parts of Latin America are very different. Both agree that it is important to keep pushing against the evils of Socialism and push the good of Capitalism.
Anna asked the panel if there was anything the US could do for Cuba without violating the Non-Aggression Principle? Jorge doesn’t like non-intervention. Other countries won’t abide. He thinks America needs a strong presence, but at the same time, must only help and not do the job. I interpreted “not do the job” as don’t engage in nation-building. Martha thinks the US government just needs to get out of the way. She talked about US government policies, citing one which I did not write down, which makes it hard for Cuban expats to help their family in Cuba. She also thinks Cuba needs guns in private hands.
The panel then took questions from the audience. I only have notes on one question.
The audience member thinks the panel is completely wrong about the corruption in Latin America and rigged elections. I don’t have in my notes what the panel said about elections in Latin America, but I remember they thought elections in some Latin American countries, I don’t remember which, were dirty. I’m not certain this person ever asked a question, and instead criticized the panel. The person claimed to be an election observer that had worked in many Latin American countries. I don’t remember which countries, but I remember overlap between the ones he worked in and the ones whose elections the panelists discussed. The audience member thinks these elections are clean and trustworthy. One of the panelists claimed that Venezuelan government employees are required to vote for Regime approved candidates. Sparks flew. The verbal fight between the panel and this audience member took up just about all of the remaining time.
Angela McArdle
Angela McArdle, the new LNC chair, gave a talk called, “How to Win When You Are in the Minority.” I have very little in my notes that is not already in that page.
McArdle wrapped up with a brief Q&A session. Most of what is in my notes centers around her plans to expand LP outreach and training. She thinks opposition to the war in Yemen (remember, this talk was in July) is a good thing for the LP to do.
The End
Angela McArdle’s talk was the last FreedomFest talk I attended.
Next year’s FreedomFest will be in Memphis, TN. I plan to go.
Poll: How obvious is it that I was getting tired of writing these?
That’s the spirit.
🙂
Thank you for taking one for the team. Much appreciated.
You’re welcome!
Heh. Not bad! It held up.
🙂
We could tell by how badly-written the sex scenes were.
Boom-chicka-not-now
I’m not as good as Mojeaux.
You need to practice more.
Did anyone eat the Earthican flag?
You must provide a link to that.
I did it meself!
https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Old_Freebie
https://youtu.be/tmMpi6kM8dM
Not that I saw.
I think you didn’t take notes for Angela McArdle because she gave the same basic advice you would get if you wished to be a successful salesman.
No… I had lots of notes on Angela McArdle’s talk. I stumbled on her blog post while looking for links to information about her for those that don’t know who she is. I read the blog post and said, “I’ll just link to this instead of making sense of my notes.”
Thank you for the write-up, it’s always interesting to hear about what goes on in meetings like that.
You’re welcome!
Agreed! Thank you DEG! I never got to go before. It was wonderful to hear about it.
Also thank you for the write-up. Interesting to see what another collective thinks.
You’re welcome!
https://archive.ph/MkvXW/f439cd29601d6d3b46ffa2d518311acf305e40b1.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/Qu90I/e3a01ede2e965f11d557d1610addc20bf180e54a.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/u2tD8/9e2f74eebbd1cc32d2414b1ee2eb7541380580eb.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/zlBux/351716ced46b83626305bb1865f12b8d4c4f7152.webp
NSFW.
Hello
“I’ll choose door number one!”
Smells fishy in here.
This is relevant to my interests.
Thanks DEG. It’s good to know that there are others working for Freedom, even if we don’t know who or where they are. Sometimes
we get hung up in our own little worlds and start believing that we are the only people able to recognize what the problems are.
Were you able to get anyone to fill out the Glib application form? We can always use more.
You’re welcome!
I didn’t mention glibs to anyone except the group of H&R refugees I was there with.
Glib application form??? I don’t remember filling out any application…
Does that mean I’m not a real Glib? 😟
Think of it like the social contract
Now, I DO distinctly remember signing an antisocial contract. Got it notarized and everything!
Tonio made me sign an application in blood. I never knew whose blood it was.
Well, you claim to be female, and since we know female libertarians don’t exist, I guess not.
OT: PA Supreme Court says don’t count undated ballots
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled that mail-in ballots sent in without the required date on the outer envelope must not be counted, following a lawsuit from the Republican National Committee (RNC).
“The Pennsylvania county boards of elections are hereby ordered to refrain from counting any absentee and mail-in ballots received for the November 8, 2022 general election that are contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes,” the court document announcing the decision states.
Dems furiously start scribbling dates on the outside of ballot envelopes
I am amazed that people are willing to sign their names on the outside of a mail in ballot….
I guess I’m just a clueless deplorable but I still don’t get what is so difficult about appearing in person on election day and reserving absentee ballots for people who actually can’t appear in person.
ID requirements, you have to go possibly after work, you have to put effort into it,……I am sure there are more excuses
“Effort is hard!”
/Ballot-fortifying Barbie
No. Fucking. Shit.
I still don’t get what is so difficult about appearing in person on election day and reserving absentee ballots for people who actually can’t appear in person.
#metoo
I remember dealing with a crush of people trying to vote after work and before the polls closed. In the bad old days, there were mechanical voting machines which were expensive and thus not available in large quantities. I remember standing in line for hours.
This led to shenanigans where precincts wouldn’t have enough functioning machines, and late comers would be told it was too late to vote.
The optical scanners where a huge benefit. They were cheap and plentiful, so voting got down to under an hour in most cases.
The side effect of the optical scanners was that a mail-in or absentee ballot became essentially the same thing as a regular ballot.
Powers that be started encouraging more people to vote by making it easier for the old, the infirm, and people that worked non-standard shifts to get absentee or mail-in ballots.
And of course, this led to ease of spoofing a fucking election.
Profit!
I’ve never spent more than ten or fifteen minutes voting, going back decades. Admittedly, I’ve voted maybe every three years since the early nineties but still. I’ve voted then and now, and it’s never been any kind of burden.
Well, I started voting in the 70s. Long lines continued into the late 80s and early 90s in some places that I voted.
The wife and I would take off at lunch and try to vote and get back before our bosses noticed we were gone. Voting after work meant spending an hour or two in line.
Local elections would frequently turn on whether or not certain undesirable precincts had functional voting machines or not on any given election.
Probably some combination of more people voted then plus better equipped voting places now, at least in my area.
Yeah, you can say that for NY at least. I’ve never waited in line more than 10-15 minutes.
Fuck this piece of shit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Keisling
I love seeing images from places like India or countries in Africa where the people are excited to participate. They line up for miles, sometimes barefoot, many desperately poor, and somehow they manage to vote on Election Day.
Yet some fat slob in America can’t manage to get off the couch to vote. Then too bad – we don’t need to send a helicopter to them to pick up their vote. It’s ridiculous.
Not for nothing, but a lot of people get paid to vote there (if my somewhat condescending middle-class in-laws are to be believed). The dying of fingers after voting makes that easy to verify.
Thanks for the write up DEG. Twatter is informing me it is normal for ballot counting to take days after the election. When did this become such a problem to count. Common core?
You’re welcome!
Thanks. DEG! At first I was gonna be pissed at Davidson about the lockdown money printing extravaganza, but then I realized it probably makes no difference at all.
Still, he should have voted no.
You’re welcome!
I agree, he should have vote no.
When Larry Sharpe joined him, the talk centered on Ranked Choice Voting. Both are fans. Yang is also a fan of term limits and open primaries.
Idiots are idiots.
Lee also said the temporary suspensions of laws are a problem for a certain set because the citizenry might realize that we don’t need those laws.
Not just that we don’t need them, but there’s no reason to go along with the pretense. After Gov Shitstain suspended self serve ban multiple times, first for covid then because it was hot out, I’ve stopped playing along. If the state can’t be bothered to pretend, then neither will I. If the pump jockey isn’t hustling over to do it, I’ll do it myself.
I’ve been pumping my own gas since the late 70s or early 80s.
You and most of the rest of the country. That (two?) states mandate it is so damn ridiculous.
Not even two states now. Half the state is no longer covered by it. Diesel and cardlock never have.
Would you really trust a resident of New Jersey to pump their own gas?
Fair point.
Pictured
https://youtu.be/4xwsZ5vC5Oc
Fuck Neil Goldschmidt.
I’m out for the night. I’ll check on this in the morning and respond to any comments/questions then.
There’s no ‘ in Hawaii. Unless you’re a retar’d.
UCS’ Hawai’ian shirts beg to disagree.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OCiadD0qoDA
Anyone see this yet?
That looks really, really good.
I’m sure that it will be horrifying but the story has been told.
Clearly not enough.
The book and original movie were great, but I think this message needs to reach more people. Movies can be really effective.
What I was really looking for is how faithful it was to the book. And that they made the way out to be what it truly was.
True enough. B/W films and dusty old tomes won’t reach the young ones.
No, but it looks great!
That book – auf deutsch – has been on my back burner forever.
I don’t read German, but I really liked the English translation.
I think I was supposed to read it in a German class in college. I can’t think of why else I have a copy on my bookshelf.
Yes, Mrs. Whiz and I really enjoyed it. Enjoy is maybe not the right word, for obvious reasons, but you know what I mean.
No butterfly scene in the trailer. Interesting.
WWI seems to be the trendy war film
There was some talk about it on the RealTimeHistory discord. RealTimeHistory is the group behind The Great War channel. Folks over there point out there is a lot of ahistorical stuff in the movie and drops important character development. People over there like it, but think it will be overrated.
I’m woefully behind re: the posts but I pose an honest query for you lot. Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” has been a persistent earworm for the last few weeks but it has now been overtaken by some strange Dan Hill/Christopher Cross hybrid. What the fuck is wrong with me? Am I in Hell’s elevator?
Here. Maybe this will help.
Doesn’t match the era. Needs more Tony Orlando or Helen Reddy. A solid “C'”, MikeS.
Geese Festus, he never promised you a rose garden.
(😉)
Well now I’m gonna flounce off in my brand new roller skates to the sugar shack!
That reminds me
Wonderfully used in this.
https://youtu.be/j3plj_Xplus
I beg your pardon?
https://youtu.be/F6z0Cv4PYvs
No fair! That was a decent tune.
I CAN HELP!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yKw8j7GLSdw
Was expecting
https://youtu.be/tBBw1MEOMWI
#metoo
I’m not that competent!
No. This is a good song.
Why does this remind me of our discussion of expressing beaver anal glands for vanilla flavoring?
“Muskrat Sally and Muskrat Sam,
Expressing vanilla from their anal glands…”
You. Are. Awesome.
I have had that “Lump” song from Sugar Free stuck in my head for weeks. I had to do something to banish it!
It’s been running a discordant second since then. I really don’t like satirical songs or bands that play that way. OK, we get it. You play with three strings. Very amusing. Fuck off and move on.
Yacht rock is the actual new counter culture.
I’m surprised the EU hasn’t mandated that all tv remotes must have the same layouts. Or the same with microwave keypads. How e euroweenies survive such differences? Thanks god they no longer have to decide which
dildo to shove up their assconnector to plug into their phones.After 2020, I tried to envision a mail-in/absentee ballot system that would both protect the privacy of the voter and provide security to prevent spoofing ballots. I was going to write it up for Glibs, but I was too pissed about the election and was in a bad mood.
So here is the Cliff’s Notes version. There is a ballot with no identifiable information on the voter. This ballot goes into a privacy envelope that has a unique QR code associated with the voter that requested the ballot. The privacy envelope goes into a transport envelope that has a unique QR code associated with the election office that sent out the ballot.
Transport envelopes come into a “drop box” that prints a new unique QR code on the envelope that identifies where and when the ballot was dropped off. This is communicated to the back office that keeps records on how many ballots are dropped off and where they are dropped off. The transport envelopes remain unopened until counting day.
On counting day, the transport envelopes are scanned and the data is sent to the back office to be reconciled with all the ballots that have been received.
The transport envelopes are taken to a new room, and opened. All transport envelopes are archived until the election has been verify and all legal challenges are over. The privacy envelopes are sent through a scanner/printer that records the receipt of the privacy envelope and prints a new QR code that says it has been logged into the system.
The privacy envelopes are taken to a new room and opened. All privacy envelopes are archived until the election has been verify and all legal challenges are over. The ballots are run through a scanner/printer. The vote is recorded and the ballot is printed with a QR code that says what the vote was, when it was tabulated, which machine was used to count the vote, and what location the machine was at.
The counted ballots are archived until the election has been verify and all legal challenges are over.
Every time a recount occurs, a new QR code is printed on the ballot that says what the vote was, when it was tabulated, which machine was used to count the vote, and what location the machine was at. This should prevent recounting the same ballot many times or new ballots showing up that weren’t counted on election day.
At the end of the day, the number of ballots, privacy envelopes, and transport envelopes should be the same.
All privacy envelopes can be reconciled against the voter that asked for the ballot — the envelope is separated from the ballot before counting the ballot. Should protect the privacy of the voter.
All transport envelopes can be reconciled against the election offices that supplied the ballots.
Insiders will make huge bucks on drop boxes and scanner/printers.
I’m sure the idea is full of holes. Have fun with it. Anyone that is still around.
Denier!
The election of 2020 defines rational explanation.
I drove to my second site that evening fairly gleeful. When I took a break 3 hours later and heard that counting had stopped in the swing states I knew the fix was in.
This seems simpler:
https://search.brave.com/images?q=purple+finger+voting&source=web&img=4
Seriously though, you are falling into the trap. Stop over-thinking it. One person, one vote, show your ID at the polling station and remote/early voting should be only allowed for legitimate reasons. Canada is fucked but our elections seem to run pretty fair and square (so far as we know). Shame about the eastern time zones swinging them before the polls close out here.
We are never going back to in-person voting for all people in all elections.
And was just an engineer falling into the trap of “I can fix this”.
I know, Friend.
Sure it could.
And was just an engineer falling into the trap of “I can fix this”.
Someone will build a better idiot. Or better fraudster.
I like it. Maybe no identifying information on the outer transport envelope until the ballot package is logged. Ultimately its up to the counters not to be underhanded and not use their access to control systems to subvert the system. Or make the stakes so minor that it doesn’t matter who gets elected.
Meanwhile, the inner “privacy” envelope has steadily morphed from an actual envelope, to an open 3/4 envelope, and now has been eliminated entirely. Progress.
There key things that I wanted the system to be able to verify:
— Every mail-in/absentee ballot that was sent out was returned or not returned. Likewise every ballot the is turned in can be traced back to its source.
— Every ballot received was counted, and no ballot was counted multiple times.
— Every counted ballot has a permanent record of what the machine said it counted when the ballot was scanned.
Throw in the need to ensure the privacy of voters, you wind up with multiple layers of envelopes printed with a confirmation when the envelope was received and enter.
I also envisioned a voter being able to log into a website and see the time, date, and location where his or her privacy envelope was scanned into the system. This does not mean the ballot was properly counted, merely that the ballot made it to a secure location preferably with independent observers present.
Add a blockchain with private keys to the vote and you could theoretically track your vote securely
The engineer says there is an answer to every problem.
The political class doesn’t want to fix the problem. The “problem” is their own private solution to controlling the outcome of the election.
The only way it gets fixed is if there is enough graft in the manufacturing, delivery, installation, and operation of the high-tech voting systems to justify some collection of bigwigs working to squash the political resistance at the local level.
Too many levels to stop malfeasance. One more level here, one more level there. You need to remember that the people trying to fuck you in the ass are probably two or three steps ahead of you because it is just in their nature.
Somewhere the identity of the voter has to be available on the mail in ballot. That, alone, gives a fraudster the opportunity to learn how that voter is registered and mishandle the ballot if that voter is not registered in the favored party. If everyone was a registered “independent”, that might close the loophole. But then something would have to be done about party primary elections unless, like a few states, any registered voter is allowed to choose which party’s primary to vote in.
This is how we do it in Missouri. I was always terribly confused by “registered XParty.” Like, what? We don’t register our party affiliation. Then I started voting and went “Ohhhhhhhhh, I get it now.”
Nope. The ballot has no identifying information.
The privacy envelope has a code that ties the envelope to a request for a mail-in ballot which must have some connection at the back office to the request coming from a registered voter. The privacy envelope is not viewable until it is removed from the transport envelope in a secured location.
The transport envelope is the only thing that is viewable outside of secured locations. That still needs to be anonymized so that the only identifiable information is where the envelope originated. Mail-in ballots could be traceable to a post office where it entered the system. This is a weak spot. So, I assume that “no postage” would be required and that POs would need a separate machine to mark the envelop when it enters the system instead of the standard cancelled postage.
So nothing on the ballot links back to a person? Or that it isn’t evident to normal eyes laid upon it?
NoDak is the only state in union that does not have voter registration. Not sure if that’s good or bad. Haven’t thought much about it. Just throwing it out there as a point to discuss.
I’ve thought about it enough to think it’s good. Why the hell should you have to register as a voter of one of the state approved parties? Primaries are party line, but otherwise party affiliation doesn’t come into pay.
Davidson says to solve inflation we need sound money. It has to be something the government just can’t print.
Funny, a century and a half ago, it was the establishment pushing to retain a fixed (more or less) monetary system.
Elon and his Cabal are going to corner the silver market!
The new PM of Britain is pushing a centralized currency. He’s backed by the G7 and the World Bank. Social credit scores here we come. Wheeeeee!
Oh yeah, he’s a “Schwaby” just like the rest of those traitorous fuck-wads.
I don’t anything about that guy except IIRC he fell into money and lost to that chick they just rid of. But he’s supposedly glib AF so maybe he’ll stick around.
Love these, Deg. Can’t go in person, so summary mucho appreciated.
Hey, straff, what’s your newest/latest/preferred Twitter @?
Still Vanilla rice balls.
At quick glance, I saw something about Vanilla Ice.
Thanks!
The sandman calls. Good night to all.
‘night
I know nothing about Maine, but ranked choice voting would help GA. It might or might not help the LP, but it would save the state a ton of money on runoffs.
The LP is a pipe dream, much like the PPoC here. Vote your wallet and your ethics. Own The Libs!
but ranked choice voting would help GA. It might or might not help the LP, but it would save the state a ton of money on runoffs.
Dropping runoffs accomplishes the same thing.
It does, in terms of money, but runoffs/ranked choice kills off the “wasted vote” argument. That is a good enough reason to do ranked choice, IMO. It may or may not benefit libertarians, but it sure as hell can’t hurt.
Wasted vote is bullshit. Run better candidates. Run better campaigns. Do a better job picking winnable offices. All three are things libertarians in NH have done, along with infiltrating the Republican party, and I see very little of from libertarians elsewhere.
Honeymoon didn’t last long. And Trump is still banned.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Musk has been making the right noises but so far with respect to Twitter I’m unimpressed as he appears to be folding to the advertisers and/or his financial backers. Maybe he’ll do the right thing though.
Why do I keep featuring Paul Pelosi and “Dave” in their underoos with UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ playing? Is it just me?
Hammer me Madly!
Voters determine term limits when they decide whether or not to reelect an incumbent. – voters are morons though so a bit of change here and there in the parliament is good even if forced though…
mornin glibbies
*waves*
“Voters are morons” – So? Still not a reason to impose term limits.
It is a reason to remove the people who count the votes.
sure it is stops some asshole from getting to embedded in the swamp.
politicians are like diapers and all that
The asshole still gets embedded in the swamp.
Good morning to all you Gliberati.
Mornin!
Hey y’all.
Internal Server errors. Grrr.
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/world-series-phillies-shutout-astros-7-0-in-game-3/
Sportsball.
I’d almost forgotten they were still playing, as I don’t care about either team. My only reaction to this – I suspect Sloopy may be in a bad mood today.
https://www.pennlive.com/life/2022/11/the-haines-shoe-house-is-now-available-to-rent-how-you-can-stay-the-night.html
Pass.
I like quirky houses. They should go with a bit more of a modern look though, looks like a shoe a 1940s librarian would wear.
Good Morning
I seem to be up way to early today.
Hope everyone has a great day.
I have to work.
😒
I have to work and from 10am to 330 pm I have 5.5hrs of meetings on my calendar. This would be bad enough but there’s also an hour of free space in two half hour blocks in that same time frame.
Sounds like my yesterday.
“Sorry, this was the only time everyone was available.”
Gee, I wonder why that is. It couldn’t be that there are too many useless meetings or anything.
What was implied was that I have meetings that overlap in addition to being crammed into the second half of my day.
The saddest part is I’m really only upset that I don’t get to go home on time and am stuck in the office until the last of them wraps up.
I got caught off-guard yesterday, thinking my quarterly meeting was an hour later than it was, so I ended up having to scarf down my leftover Chinese bourbon chicken (which I’ve decided, since it doesn’t seem to be Szechuan, must be Cajuan) during the meeting. Thank goodness, for once, for Zoom meetings and muted microphones!
“my leftover Chinese bourbon chicken”
Fake news. Bourbon is made in Kentucky.
Well, it came from a Chinese restaurant, and the gal who waited on us spoke some furrun language to a coworker. Them serving bourbon chicken is clearly a blatant case of cultural appropriation.
But it DID taste good.
I need to hire some more people. I hate meeting new people.
*sigh*
No sense of adventure?
When did you last interview? It’s not an adventure, it’s two people trying to figure out to what extent the other is bullshitting them while maintaining a facade of honesty.
I’m trying to figure out if I should be offended by that.
“To what extent” allows for the possibility of complete honesty all the way to pure scam.
I was being sarcastic…
I do have not interviewed for more than 4 years now. The last one I did I talked about here. HR overrode my recommendation for the young girl from the CT state college because they wanted to hire the smart guy from Harvard for the bragging points. They ignored my warning that guy was a spoiled narcissist that lacked the right motivation and that he would quickly leave the company for greener pastures. About 6 weeks after he had started working for the company, I found a SCM checkin into our Github implementation from a month before, where his checkin message read “Fuck this bullshit company, fuck my asshole idiot manager, and fuck the people working here that are all douchebags, I am gone to work at a real software company, bitches!”. When I reported this to his manager, they investigated and found the guy had not been into work for a month – the company was still paying him – and HR got mad at me, but I had the warning submitted to them in writing, so they couldn’t deny it. I told them to fuck off and have other people waste time with interviewing if they will then also desperately try to blame the interviewer for their mistake.
Why would you brag about hiring someone from a substandard school like Harvard? I mean, they produce politicians, not programmers.
‘Choice between two harms:’ DC Council delays COVID-19 vaccination requirements for students
I did not realize DC had so many Republicans.
“Some” students? Which ones get a pass now?
Looks like there is a 44% rate of “non-compliance” for the clot shot, and 24% for the standard vaccinations. Probably locking out the 23%. Maybe some journalist could actually ask a question to elicit the answer.
They are wondering if the request for amnesty won’t be honored, and forcing the poors to take a deadly jab might come back to harm them…
Good morning, RoaT, Sean, U, ‘bodru, and somewhere upthread, Lack, who doubts my existence!
Got a good start on month-end stuff, yesterday’s meeting (for which there’s no particular rush for the minutes, since it’s quarterly) mercifully lasted only one hour, and late this afternoon I FINALLY get my rescheduled hair appointment! An OK day in store, all in all.
So, no bride o’frank’n’stein look then?
I certainly hope not. It would be a bit late to have a holiday-based excuse for it, and as far as I know, there isn’t an Eastern Orthodox Halloween coming up on any calendar.
It’s the day of the dead today….
Veterans Day?
Good morning, RoaT, Sean, U, ‘bodru, GT and Lack (somewhere upthread)
Another day of fun and friends, fun or friends. Good to see everyone. Coffee? It’s fresh.
Good morning, 4(20)! ::raises travel mug:: How’s everything up in your territory?
Morning.
Apparently Egg Nog is back on the store shelves again. Didn’t buy any.
Raises can of Diet Dr. Pepper.
Mornin’, reprobates!
Another day in paradise. Got my “invitation” to mandatory Insider Trading and fraud prevention training yesterday. I don’t feel like working today, perfect timing.
Mrs. Patzer finds ways to get that stuff done ASAP. I drag it out as much as possible.
Good morning, ‘patzie! If the training is mandatory, isn’t it more of a subpoena than an invitation?
That reminds me – I have some useless-to-me training modules that are allegedly due Friday. At least, they’re mind-numbingly easy to plod through. 🙄
The best mandatory trainings as the ones I can leave running in the background while I work.
They never change the content anyway.
Ours are all online/interactive, with quizzes at the end. For some of these painfully-obvious “sales training” modules, I’ve been known to play one second of each video segment (it won’t let you skip them entirely,) then get 100% on the quiz.
Some of ours are like that, I can still click through them. In fact, they’re not actually graded, so I don’t even have to learn the answers.
Ours are state-of-the-art, no skipping at all. They are pulling out all the stops to decrease productivity.
If they started doing that, I’d break the learning management system (one of the applications I support is the one they run the mandatory trainings on).
“Oops.”
Mandatory training is so the company can basically tell the person suing them it’s the employee’s stupidity/fault, so take it up with them, cause the company did what was needed to meet regulatory compliance….
Mornin’ all.
Off the to gym.
Mornin’, and thanks for the write-up.
You’re welcome!