Friday Morning Links

by | Dec 16, 2022 | Daily Links | 329 comments

Good morning my Glibs and Gliberinas! Grab that coffee, wave to that co-worker, and enjoy another lovely day and the links!

 

Retail Sales Declined Sharply in November

 

US Lawmakers Negotiating Over 7,500 ‘Pork-Barrel Spending’ Earmarks Totaling $16 Billion for Spending Bill

 

Witness Testifies Bank Threatened To Withhold Loan If He Didn’t Tweet ‘Climate Change’ Talking Points

 

CDC Quietly Scrubbed Key Firearm Stats After Pressure From Gun Control Activists, Emails Show

 

Citing Firsthand Source, Tucker Reports ‘CIA Was Involved In The Kennedy Assassination’

 

German autopsy study undercuts feds’ dismissal of COVID vax heart inflammation risks

 

Maricopa County’s party-specific voter turnout heat maps raise new election integrity concerns

 

Biden Admin Sues Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey Over Shipping Container Border Wall

 

Texas Governor Seeks Probe of NGOs for Alleged Migrant ‘Illegal Border Crossing’ Assistance

 

Washington Post Announces Layoffs as Video Shows Publisher Fred Ryan Walking Out of Tense Meeting

 

Six Establishment Media Journalists Elon Musk Suspended

 

Documents Reveal Secret Twitter Portal US Government Used to Censor COVID-19 Content

 

Sam Bankman-Fried’s family reportedly called prison to request vegan meals

 

That’s all I got for today.  I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.

About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

Wife of sloopy, mother to three bright, curious, and highly active young girls. Perpetually exhausted.

329 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “Witness Testifies Bank Threatened To Withhold Loan If He Didn’t Tweet ‘Climate Change’ Talking Points”

    This shit is getting out of hand.

    • Fourscore

      My son has done several contract jobs with Bud Brigham. Pays well and my son says Bud is a straight shooter.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s not getting… it’s there.

      The good news is, it’s self-rectifying over the long-term. The bad news is that the process of doing so sucks.

    • Sensei

      Brigham said he then received an email with the bullet points.

      Release the email. I’m all for shedding sunlight on this. But having worked on Wall St. I know what and how stuff like this gets crafted.

      This is getting spun in the other direction. I’m comfortable that he was very much being pressured to go green especially verbally. However, I bet this email with bullet points came in slightly different form. For example.

      We here at CS (you know the folks who are under perpetual regulatory review and declining stock price) want to reach out to all our partners and hope that you will join us in publicly proclaiming:

      1- Gaia is great!
      2- Anybody on Team Red is evil.
      3. etc

    • waffles

      this is incredible to me.

  2. Count Potato

    “Washington Post Announces Layoffs as Video Shows Publisher Fred Ryan Walking Out of Tense Meeting”

    Taylor Lorenz OnlyFans?

    • AlexinCT

      Learn to dildo yourself on screen?

      • SDF-7

        GAH! MY MIND… ZE GOGGLES DO NOTHINK!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      So she’ll accept payment and then dox you?

      • Not Adahn

        She’ll email the invoice to your wife.

      • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

        And some people will pay extra for that.

  3. Count Potato

    “Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann
    Former Vox reporter Aaron Rupar”

    Come on Elon, don’t baleet the lolcows.

    • R.J.

      That’s an interesting reason to suspend them. Doxxing real time location? It must have been a bigger problem than Elon thought.

      • AlexinCT

        They set up and socialized bots to doxx Elon’s family. I think as soon as you start botting that shit you need to go. Do it in real time yourself, so then you can be charged in court when some nutjob acts out on the crazy, and I am fine with it.

      • R.J.

        The more I thought about it, I remembered how the Supreme Court judges were beings stalked that way too. ANTIFA hunted people that way too. Not a good thing.

      • R C Dean

        I suspect Musk wants to stop this before some nut job offs him or his family members, so I doubt he cares whether you are doing it in real time yourself or retweeting those who do. Seeing a nutter who fucked you up getting charged in court is a poor second to not getting fucked up by a nutter.

      • WTF

        Especially since an Antifa asshole used it to follow Elon’s car and jump on the hood thinking he was in it (he wasn’t, but his family was).

    • Count Potato

      “Twitter suspended the accounts that tweeted public tracking information of Musk’s private jet, violating the platform’s rules, which were updated Wednesday.”

      So suicide by cop, basically? They deliberately got suspended so they can make a story about being suspended.

      • rhywun

        Or… they really want some rando to murder Musk and/or his family. I mean, what else is the point.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        The left is projecting whenever any tragedy happens and they blame republicans. I believe they do tat in order to confuse the story before the truth can come out because they always fear its team blue nutjobs doing this shit. And it usually is as soon as the story that was getting constant coverage suddenly just drops off the propaganda machine’s front page effort.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I don’t think they’d care one bit if Musk and his kin were sniffed just as long as they had plausible deniability. The majority of the press are, as they say, scum.

      • SDF-7

        if Musk and his kin were sniffed

        I would think Biden can keep track of Musk through the FAA — doesn’t need the twit-reporters to help.

      • WTF

        “Accuse your opponent of what you are doing to create confusion and to inculcate voters against evidence of your own guilt.”

        – Saul Alinsky

      • Compelled Speechless

        He who smelt it dealt it is more true than we ever realized.

      • Not Adahn

        Stokastic terrizm!

    • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

      The left opened Pandora’s box to get rid of Trump, and now act surprised that the stupidity that once worked for them is getting them in trouble.

      So sad.

  4. Shpip

    CNN statement read, “The impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising.

    Sauce for the goose, etc. “We never thought that our guys would be the ones held accountable!”

    • UnCivilServant

      So, CNN still has a lying problem.

      • AlexinCT

        Still?

      • UnCivilServant

        Mr. Discovery Channel was supposed to do something about them being lying fuckwads.

      • AlexinCT

        LOL!

        Yeah, sure…

        A promise from woke fucks is as reliable as a promise from a crack head that they will quit sucking dick for crack.

      • UnCivilServant

        Don’t know the guy one way or another, so I’m waiting and seeing.

        You, however, embraced a borderline nihilist approach to the world that can’t be good for your mental health.

      • AlexinCT

        My mental health is fine.

        I self medicate with gin.

    • Fourscore

      “We liked it better when the other guy was running things”

    • JasonAZ

      Private company bitches!!! Remember!!! Suck it!

  5. SDF-7

    Citing Firsthand Source, Tucker Reports ‘CIA Was Involved In The Kennedy Assassination’

    Combustum est totum. Sal terram. (Omnia Latine sapientiora sonant!)

    Six Establishment Media Journalists Elon Musk Suspended

    I’m on the fence on this one. Some hubbub about someone tracking his private jet flights and a bunch of reporters retweeting that. Given he just had his family’s car (without him in it) stalked, I can see how he’s probably a little touchy on the whole ‘Let’s track Elon’s every move!” aspect… if I cared more, I’d look at how they were reporting on it (i.e. trying to unleash the mob or just that it was going on). But I don’t care that much.

    Sam Bankman-Fried’s family reportedly called prison to request vegan meals

    Bread and water are perfectly vegan, right? Seems straightforward enough.

  6. Shpip

    The lawsuit came after Ducey refused to comply with a demand by the Biden administration to remove containers in the Yuma County area. Arizona officials told the Biden administration that the state would not remove the containers until a permanent barrier is constructed.

    Interesting that the state has basically told the feds to pound sand. Now what happens if the administration finds a tame federal judge to order the state to remove the shipping containers and Arizona says “No.” Does Biden send in the National Guard to… unsecure the border?

    • SDF-7

      That sounds like the most likely scenario, frankly. Because he’s smahrt and wants respect!

      • SDF-7

        Oh… forgot the AZ timeline — my bad. No, the most likely timeline is Governor “She-Who-Hides-In-Basement” takes office and happily tears down every bit of it. She’ll have a protected bunker somewhere… let the rest of the state suffer.

    • rhywun

      I wonder if the MSM is even reporting, like really reporting, the chaos down there.

      NYC gets a couple busloads of Nicaraguans and it makes national news. But are they reporting the thousands pouring into El Paso every day?

      • SDF-7

        “That’s like… flyover country, man… they can just deal with it.”

      • Nephilium

        What’s out there besides some cactus and desert?

    • Fourscore

      Need to put doors on the US side, make homes for the homeless. 2 birds, 1 shipping container.

      • Ted S.

        Is that like Two Girls, One Cup?

    • R.J.

      If Arizona is heavily dependent on federal income redistribution, that is a large stick with which to punish them (highway funds, etc…). And if Arizona is more of a net sender of funds to the federal thieves, then the only thing left is the National Guard.

    • UnCivilServant

      This is why you make your one-liner after killing the bad guy.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      What is known is that JFK hated the CIA and there is decent evidence that he wanted out of Vietnam. The latter point is heavily contested, because it would look very bad for LBJ, but JFK had apparently started the process. https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/galbraith-exit-strategy-vietnam/

      There was ample reason for the DOD/CIA to want him out of the picture. LBJ hated his guts and it’s a hell of a coincidence that Vietnam ramped up almost immediately under LBJ.

      JFK was a piece of shit for other reasons, but he obviously demanded full political control over the MIC and intelligence apparatus. That control died with him.

      • AlexinCT

        I guess this sort of shit is what Schumer was referring to/warning about when he gave that interview where he told the reporter Trump better watch out because pissing off the corruptocracy’s 3 letter intel agencies would have them coming at you a thousand ways from Sunday (like “fortifying your election and raiding the house of an out of office president on bullshit charges).

        I have said this before: I believe that if the machine can’t stop Trump or anyone like him from running again, they will resort to assassination. That machine is evil. Hence my claim nuking D.C. is a good thing.

      • SDF-7

        Well, at this point I don’t think they need to bother with Trump. He seems to be dead set on self-destructing based on the last month or so.

        Anyone who isn’t beholden to the System and how it chooses to run things? Yeah… that’s still most certainly a problem and I don’t have an answer for it. They’re obviously not above much of anything and they have the levers of a colossus to aid them.

      • AlexinCT

        As long as they get to pick the people running in any election they don’t have to fortify it, and they can then go back to pretending to not be downright evil fucks.

      • robodruid

        + 1 list
        +10 Neutrons

      • Atanarjuat

        I just read Roger Stone’s book on LBJ. I’d recommend it. The CIA also hated Kennedy because he withdrew air support from their Bay of Pigs regime change attempt. There is evidence that the CIA paid Mafia figures to train Cuban hitmen to kill Castro, and some of these same people were probably involved with the plot to kill Kennedy. For example, Johnny Rosselli was found dead floating in a barrel shortly before he was supposed to testify in front of the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

      • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

        Eh, JFK was the one who got us into Vietnam and at the time of his death we didn’t have much of a presence there, just “advisors”.

  7. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Facebook started its third-party fact-checking program in 2016, working with fact-checkers from around the world who are certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter to rate and review the accuracy of the content on their platform.

    Imma fact-checker, fact-checkin’ yo facts, check my fact-checkin’ skills, yo.

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m going to guess that IFCN is a far left organization, else Facebook wouldn’t have gone with them.

    • Rat on a train

      In a 2-for-1 deal Poynter will ordain you.

    • PieInTheSky

      fact checking is such bullshit in general, never mind the politics . Everyone is biased. Except me.

    • WTF

      Don’t forget Facebook admitted in court that their “fact checks” are just opinions.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    It’s a slaughterhouse

    China is now facing what is likely the world’s largest COVID surge of the pandemic. China’s public health officials say that possibly 800 million people could be infected with the coronavirus over the next few months. And several models predict that a half million people could die, possibly more.

    ——-

    Epidemiologist Ben Cowling agrees with this prediction. “This surge is going to come very fast, unfortunately. That’s the worst thing,” says Cowling, who’s at the University of Hong Kong. “If it was slower, China would have time to prepare. But this is so fast. In Beijing, there’s already a load of cases and [in] other major cities because it’s spreading so fast.

    Maybe we should send respirators.

    • Sean

      Masks totally work!
      Quarantines totally work!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Send Pence and a few thousand ventilators.

    • SDF-7

      So… infected — with what risk factors? What’s the percentage of the global population annually infected with the standard flus by comparison? Yes, this can have harsher symptoms — but for something like 0.4% of cases or something, right? So yes — that’s a lot of people… because China has a lot of people. But talk to me about actual hospitalizations and deaths, not “infections”.

    • rhywun

      Never change, NPR.

    • Spartacus

      800 million cases, 500,000 deaths = 0.0625% death rate.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, I’m not suitably terrified by those numbers.

  9. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    That’s a heap o’ lynx!

    “Arizona has unlawfully and without authority failed to remove the shipping containers from lands owned by the United States or over which the United States holds easements, thereby damaging the United States,” the lawsuit argues.

    Good. Fuck off, slavers!

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      The argument that the containers being used to keep illegals out are trespassing on federal land is rich. It’s a double extra FYTW.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    Scientists at the China National Health Commission estimate the R number is currently a whopping 16 in China durng this surge. “This is a really high level of transmissibility,” Cowling says. “That’s why China couldn’t keep their zero-COVID policy going. The virus is just too transmissible even for them.”

    Why China’s ‘zero COVID’ policy is finally faltering
    GOATS AND SODA
    Why China’s ‘zero COVID’ policy is finally faltering
    On top of that, the virus appears to be spreading faster in China than omicron spread in surges elsewhere, Cowling adds. Last winter, cases doubled in the U.S. every three days or so. “Now in China, the doubling time is like hours,” Cowling says. “Even if you manage to slow it down a bit, it’s still going to be doubling very, very quickly. And so the hospitals are going to come under pressure possibly by the end of this month.”

    And every single infection will be lethal. Soon China will be devoid of human life.

    • Tundra

      With their demographic woes, they are either going to need a war or a better bug to cull the population.

      • Count Potato

        They already have better bug sitting in a lab in Boston.

    • Sean

      Cheap real estate?

      • PieInTheSky

        think of the smell

    • JasonAZ

      Well, we all died from COVID. 3 times for me.

  11. Rat on a train

    House passes bill to improve VA healthcare or not

    The Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care workforce is one step closer to receiving full collective bargaining rights on par with the rest of the federal workforce.

    The House on Thursday passed the VA Employee Fairness Act in a 219-201 vote. The bill, if it passes the Senate, would provide full collective bargaining rights for 100,000 VA doctors, physician assistants, nurses, dentists and chiropractors.

  12. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Stumbled across this. I’m almost tempted to buy it just to document the lies of omission, but I don’t want to underwrite the idiocy.

    https://global.oup.com/academic/product/how-the-south-won-the-civil-war-9780190900908

    While the North prevailed in the Civil War, ending slavery and giving the country a “new birth of freedom,” Heather Cox Richardson argues in this provocative work that democracy’s blood-soaked victory was ephemeral. The system that had sustained the defeated South moved westward and there established a foothold. It was a natural fit. Settlers from the East had for decades been pushing into the West, where the seizure of Mexican lands at the end of the Mexican-American War and treatment of Native Americans cemented racial hierarchies. The South and West equally depended on extractive industries-cotton in the former and mining, cattle, and oil in the latter-giving rise a new birth of white male oligarchy, despite the guarantees provided by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and the economic opportunities afforded by expansion.

    To reveal why this happened, How the South Won the Civil War traces the story of the American paradox, the competing claims of equality and subordination woven into the nation’s fabric and identity. At the nation’s founding, it was the Eastern “yeoman farmer” who galvanized and symbolized the American Revolution. After the Civil War, that mantle was assumed by the Western cowboy, singlehandedly defending his land against barbarians and savages as well as from a rapacious government. New states entered the Union in the late nineteenth century and western and southern leaders found yet more common ground. As resources and people streamed into the West during the New Deal and World War II, the region’s influence grew. “Movement Conservatives,” led by westerners Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan, claimed to embody cowboy individualism and worked with Dixiecrats to embrace the ideology of the Confederacy.

    Richardson’s searing book seizes upon the soul of the country and its ongoing struggle to provide equal opportunity to all. Debunking the myth that the Civil War released the nation from the grip of oligarchy, expunging the sins of the Founding, it reveals how and why the Old South not only survived in the West, but thrived.

    • R C Dean

      Wait, raising crops and livestock are “extractive industries” now?

      I miss the English language, when words meant something.

    • Spartacus

      Well, I guess that explains why California and Oregon are so conservative.

      “Debunking the myth that the Civil War released the nation from the grip of oligarchy…”
      Nice straw man you got there.
      Seriously, has anybody really tried to claim that? Most stuff I’ve read says the opposite, that Lincoln’s wartime trampling over constitutional liberties may have freed the slaves but it also started the country down the long road of more centralized control.

      • dbleagle

        The author is pissed that many of the new western states took, and in some cases still take, the concept of individual liberty seriously.

        AZ had more rejected attempts at statehood than any state. The final occurred in 1912 because the state constitution had the extremely oligarch provision for initiative, referendum, and recall. Twin bills for statehood for AZ and NM hit Taft’s desk and he vetoed AZ because he disliked all three- but especially the recall.

        The Territory removed the provisions, Congress quickly passed the bill again and Taft signed on Feb 14, 1912. Amendments 1,2,3 of the state constitution add the three provisions back.

        During WWI AZ had the highest percentage of non-compliance with the draft and MT was known for the strong presence of the IWW in the western half of the state.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    “The mortality rate in China isn’t going to surpass America’s mortality rate [3%] at this point,” he says. “But China has a really tough winter ahead.”

    Three per cent?

    • AlexinCT

      When your count isn’t people that died FROM the Kung Flu but anyone that died WITH the Kung Flu, yeah. You can easily make it 3% then.

    • whahappan

      Maybe they mean overall mortality rate, not just from COVID.

    • Urthona

      I can’t believe a totalitarian ethnostate’s completely faked mortality rate isn’t going to surpass our completely exaggerated one.

      • Atanarjuat

        Perfect response.

  14. PieInTheSky

    Retail Sales Declined Sharply in November – you should all buy new electric cars.

    • AlexinCT

      I don’t even trust electric trains as toys, why would I spend over $65k on a EV that is nothing but a toy? The engineer in me just can’t.

      • Sean

        I don’t even trust electric trains as toys

        Just when I think the comment section couldn’t get any odder…

      • AlexinCT

        KINK SHAMER!

    • Sean

      I’m gonna buy something by next summer. It ain’t gonna be an electric car.

      • PieInTheSky

        As long as it is a new car with as much electronics as possible

      • Sean

        That’s quite likely.

        Related: My current car can no longer spy on me (3G is defunct). VW will replace the system with new spying cellular abilities for free. Nope. Not gonna do it.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Good for you. Not prudent.

  15. Count Potato

    “The CDC initially stood behind the study in the “defensive gun use” section of its “fast facts” website, but opted to remove the statistics after the previously undisclosed meeting with the gun control advocates on Sept. 15, according to The Reload. “We are planning to update the fact sheet in early 2022 after the release of some new data,” Beth Reimels, Associate Director for Policy, Partnerships, and Strategic Communication at the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention, said in one email.”

    Didn’t the CDC bury a report about defensive gun use back when Obama was President?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Proverbs 4:23, EWV: Keep your heart narrative with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life control.

    • AlexinCT

      They have been working to completely remove the tracking of that data for decades, and it seem they finally got it. Most people have no idea of how often defensive fire arm use stops crime because of the fact the legacy propagandists make sure this information is never shared, so making it impossible to prove defensive fire arm use is a benefit is a must have for the people that need us disarmed to feel comfortable forcing the great reset on us.

  16. Sean

    Daily Quordle 326
    6️⃣7️⃣
    4️⃣5️⃣
    quordle.com

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 326
      4️⃣7️⃣
      6️⃣5️⃣

    • SDF-7

      Daily Duotrigordle #289
      Guesses: 36/37
      Time: 06:40.60
      https://duotrigordle.com/

      Daily Quordle 326
      5️⃣7️⃣
      6️⃣3️⃣
      quordle.com

    • rhywun

      “I’d like to buy an E.”

      Daily Quordle 326
      6️⃣7️⃣
      4️⃣5️⃣

    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 326
      9️⃣5️⃣
      4️⃣8️⃣

    • Jarflax

      Daily Quordle 326
      8️⃣7️⃣
      5️⃣6️⃣
      quordle.com

    • rhywun

      #Worldle #329 3/6 (100%)
      🟩🟩🟨⬜⬜↖️
      🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜↖️
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
      ⭐⭐⭐🪙
      https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

      LOL currency was a pure guess

      • rhywun

        Heh here is one for Pie

        #Statele #9 1/6 (100%)
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
        ⭐⭐⭐🏙️🪙
        https://statele.teuteuf.fr

      • Jarflax

        That game never works for me, it takes multiple tries to get it to accept a guess as input and half the time the buttons simply will not recognize my click

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 326
      6️⃣7️⃣
      4️⃣5️⃣

    • Grummun

      Good day:

      5 4
      3 6

  17. PieInTheSky

    Maricopa County’s party-specific voter turnout heat maps raise new election integrity concerns – denying elections is racist sexist and transphobic. I think glibertarians needs to contact the new york times to fact-check some of these links before they are given to poor innocent Romanians such as myself.

    • AlexinCT

      You ain’t THAT innocent my Romanian friend….

    • Tundra

      That’s really good. Thank you.

    • Not Adahn

      Birds are real, Long Covid isn’t.

      • Sean

        Heh.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Grand finale

    The committee on Wednesday is expected to release its final report, which could include hundreds of pages of findings about the attack and Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy. Committee members will review the highlights of their findings at the Monday meeting.

    All the elephants and lions and clowns will assemble in the center ring for one last extravaganza.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “Now everybody listen to me, we’re going to go out there and subvert democracy.” /Trump 1/6/2020

    • The Other Kevin

      One of the things the Twitter files showed, was something like this:
      Employees: We need to ban Trump!
      Higher ups: He didn’t violate any rules.
      Employees: If you assume when he says this, he really means that, and if you assume when he says this, he actually means that, and it’s a full moon, and you squint your eyes, and tilt your head just right, he’s clearly inciting violence.
      Higher ups: If you put it that way, I guess.

      This is basically the story of January 6.

  19. PieInTheSky

    Nick Gibb shows the power of having the right person in the right place

    https://capx.co/nick-gibb-shows-the-power-of-having-the-right-person-in-the-right-place/

    “If you want to see the impact that one determined person have by being in the right place at the right time, look no further than Schools Minister Nick Gibb.

    It is no exaggeration to say that there are hundreds of thousands more kids in our schools today who can read and thus learn better because of the things Gibb has pushed through since he first became a minister in 2010.

    Among his important achievements was introducing a ‘phonics screening check’ (PSC) for all six-year-olds in 2012, It assesses how well they have progressed with their reading in their early years at school, and whether they may need extra help.

    The progress has been startling. Just 58% of that 2012 cohort were at the expected level, but by 2016 it was over 80%. That’s over 100,000 more kids each year off to a stronger start with their reading.
    He then set about pushing ‘systematic synthetic phonics’ (SSP) as the best way to teach early reading, and used government levers to create an ecosystem of teaching resources and training to support it. ”

    No idea what ‘systematic synthetic phonics’ is but I assume it would not be needed without your ridiculous english spelling.

    • rhywun

      Heh.

      I assume that’s somewhere Brit.

      Here is US we’re going in the opposite direction, in order to ensure that all students remain equitably stupid.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Every once in a while somebody rediscovers the effectiveness of phonics, and everybody acts all surprised.

      • whahappan

        Yep, when my daughter was younger my sister in law sent us her son’s old hooked on phonics material. I wondered why we would need it, didn’t they teach that in school? Apparently they “progressed” to newer and better methods.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Richardson’s searing book seizes upon the soul of the country and its ongoing struggle to provide equal opportunity to all. Debunking the myth that the Civil War released the nation from the grip of oligarchy, expunging the sins of the Founding, it reveals how and why the Old South not only survived in the West, but thrived.

    I’m still stuck on “Cotton is an extractive industry”.

    • UnCivilServant

      Well, you have to intercrop with something fixative or the soil won’t grow cotton anymore.

    • Rat on a train

      It depletes the soil!

    • Rat on a train

      Will the Night Court sequel be good?

      • R.J.

        Is that a rhetorical question?

      • UnCivilServant

        Probably not, but I don’t think it has anything to do with this travesty.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Magic 8Ball says “Hell no!”

    • Not Adahn

      Supposedly Cavil is producing it, so maybe it won’t suck?

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m not optimistic. Now, if Amazon were not in the mix, there might be a chance.

      • Sean

        Cavil is a right winger, right?

      • UnCivilServant

        He’s still getting work in Hollywood, so he’s either a lefty or closetted.

      • Sean

        I might be confusing him with Jim Caviezel…

        *shrug*

      • kinnath

        Superman not Jesus Christ

      • Sean

        All those white guys look alike.

      • Urthona

        same thing

  21. Drake

    Gunman showed up in an Amazon parking lot and starting shooting a guy. It was an Arizona Amazon parking lot, so somebody else immediately drew a gun and killed the shooter. And it looks like the original victim will survive – win – win.

    • Not Adahn

      OMG! Whay hasn’t Bezos banned gunz?

    • PieInTheSky

      If gunz were banned the original shooter would not have had a gunz

    • JasonAZ

      “so somebody else immediately drew a gun and killed the shooter.”

      Sometimes, I’m really proud of my state.

      10 bucks says that Amazon fires the employee that helped because he had a gun on him, against company policy.

  22. DEG

    “CDC is just aligning itself with the gun-control advocacy groups. It’s just saying: ‘we are their tool, and we will do their bidding.’ And that’s not what a government agency should do,” Kleck told The Reload.

    Abolish the CDC.

    An MIT study published in a Nature journal this spring found COVID vaccination was “significantly associated” with a 25% jump in emergency medical services for heart problems in 16-39 year-olds in highly vaccinated Israel.

    Nothing to see here. Move along. The vaccine is safe and effective. Report for reeducation.

    • PieInTheSky

      Abolish the CDC. – but then who will stop people from smoking and such?

  23. PieInTheSky

    A thread on performative anti-Britishness

    https://twitter.com/K_Niemietz/status/1603050521786556417

    “historically, people who were highly critical of their own country were often exceptionally clever people. Kurt Tucholsky, for example, was a brilliant critic of German militarism during and after WW1.

    he trouble is that, once a particular view is associated with clever people, and gets elevated to the status of “the Clever People’s Opinion” – a lot of not-so-clever people will also endorse it.

    But those not-so-clever people will not just imitate the clever people. They’ll go totally overboard.

    So you get a performative anti-Britishness, which is often misunderstood as “self-hatred”.
    It’s anything but. It’s self-aggrandisement.”

    I guess it’s a possibility

    • Jarflax

      I think it is more than a possibility, he is describing the sophomore, and that is going to be the bulk of any ‘edgy’ movement.

  24. PieInTheSky

    Jonah Goldberg
    @JonahDispatch
    Only thing that can prepare you for a freezing cold day in London is a proper English breakfast. How it started, how it ended.

    https://twitter.com/JonahDispatch/status/1603669266645098496

    this is weird the baked beans look very tomatoey compared to most I see. I don’t know if that is a sign they are fancy… the eggs look slightly overcooked, the sausage undercooked

    • Gustave Lytton

      Looks like a hotel breakfast.

      • Not Adahn

        Is that Arby’s hashbrown looking thing a “tattie scone?”

      • Gustave Lytton

        Should be fried bread for a full English.

      • Not Adahn

        Toast is great and all, but if I’m paying someone for breakfast, there better be fried potatoes on the plate.

    • R.J.

      “I like my eggs burnt beyond recognition.”

      • UnCivilServant

        (-.-)

        What are you talking about? Those eggs are Undercooked.

      • R.J.

        “Police called to the scene said they will have to wait for forensic results to determine if the substance found there were once edible eggs. Police chief Wiggums told reporters that ‘Only a monster’ could have done that to eggs.”

      • UnCivilServant

        If you’re not going to hard boil them, an ideal egg should have a solid yolk and some browning on the whites. If you are hard boiling them, the idea egg has a solid, bright yellow yolk.

      • R.J.

        I’m just playing with you.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        an ideal egg should have a solid yolk and some browning on the whites

        So close. The yolk should just barely drip out of the middle. Not quite solid all the way though, but not runny.

      • Gustave Lytton

        idea egg has a solid, bright yellow yolk

        Wrong. YolkFan 16 or GTFO.

      • R.J.

        OnlyYolks.com

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Raw in a glass with a drop of Tabasco is the way to go.

      • Fourscore

        Raw in a glass of beer, Tabasco optional

      • Jarflax

        Eggs are properly cooked by mixing them with flour and other ingredients, then baking them.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      A half-size EB, which is fine. Don’t know how anyone but teens or laborers can eat the whole thing.

    • Gender Traitor

      Re: breakfast, somewhere along the line I created or internalized a weird sort of moral code about what is “acceptable” to eat in the morning. Luckily, if motivated I can readily rationalize my way around it. Thus I’ve decided that the homemade caramel corn a coworker just gave me is essentially breakfast cereal.

      • Jarflax

        That is not rationalization; that is pure reason. Cereal plus sugar is cereal plus sugar. A is A.

      • Mojeaux

        And people scoffed when I made pumpkin pies for my kids for breakfast. Cereal is/was strictly reserved for Christmas morning.

    • Count Potato

      “this is weird the baked beans look very tomatoey compared to most I see”

      English baked beans are less sugar/molasses than U.S. baked beans.

      • PieInTheSky

        the ones I see are English style not US

      • Swiss Servator

        They are probably those miserable Heinz Beans…weak assed tomato sauce. Ugh.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Definitely. Was just thinking about this.

  25. DEG

    Yuck. Looks like the snow is going to change to rain soon. Gotta go clear the driveway before that happens.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s slushing here.

      • Not Adahn

        Moved an inch of slush off the driveway before I left for work.

      • DEG

        Blech.

        I timed my driveway clearing pretty good. I got all the snow off the driveway, away from the hydrant, off my front walk, and partially off the back deck when the snow turned to rain.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    But is she a lesbian?

    But that delay will also mean days, if not weeks, of uncertainty for GOP committees as they begin their stint in the majority. Some of the most important panels, including those charged with tax-writing and border security, won’t be able to prepare bills, tee up hearings, or even hire staff. While some House committees already have uncontested leaders in place, those chairs won’t be able to choose their member lineup or potentially pay staff. The GOP’s subpoena power, too, will be frozen.

    ——-

    In a new video, Gay expressed her excitement and gratitude for being elected president.

    “For me, this role is about harnessing the power of ideas and supporting the people who pursue them,” Gay says. “Few things give me more joy, more energy, than talking to a colleague working in a field that’s new to me or hearing the questions that are on the mind of a new generation of students. These conversations let me see the world with fresh eyes.”

    Born to Haitian immigrants, Gay reminisced on the path her parents paved that led her to pursue a career in academics.

    “They came to the U.S. with very little and put themselves through college while raising our family. They believe that education makes everything possible. Being an academic opened up my world, and helped me achieve a dream I could never imagine.”

    And that’s why we have to destroy the very notion of academic excellence and intellectual integrity.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Her appointment further upholds the university’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). According to the Harvard University website, 15.2% of the admitted class of 2026 identify as African American — an increase from just 12.7% in 2020 — 27.9% identify as Asian American and 12.6% identify as Hispanic or Latino.

    Gay says that as a woman of color and daughter of immigrants, “if my presence in this role affirms someone’s sense of belonging at Harvard, that is a great honor.”

    No conservatives needed.

    • Q Continuum

      Well, conservatives aren’t really people so no need to count them.

    • DrOtto

      Entertaining
      Squishy
      Goodness

      • Jarflax

        Embarrassing
        Silicone
        Glut

  28. DrOtto

    Re defensive use of gun stats – 2.5 mil is likely low. I have personally used my gun to defuse several situations that never even made a call to police. 2 times while working in parking lots of apartments where someone came up and made it clear I was in “their” territory, but that maybe giving them money could sort it out, just the simple grabbing of the “wrong” box, opening it to reveal my gun and saying, “oh, that’s not what I was looking for” got them on their way real quick. Once when forced to pursue my own hit and run suspect because the Austin Police Dept refused dispatch a car because I caught the guy. “Now you can self-report” was all 911 would tell me (I guess technically a call to the police was made, but their response is why I feel I have to carry). Another time a guy accused me of trying to hit him with my car because we both wanted the same middle turn lane from opposite directions and he couldn’t be assed to use his turn signal. He pulled in behind me and was approaching with a bat and I pulled my gun out and yelled to him that “I’d rethink what you’re doing, you’re not in Chicago anymore” since I saw Illinois plates on the car. And finally, a road rage incident in which some drunk was randomly trying to make people get out of their car and help push his disabled car. He had started pounding on my window and threatening me while stuck at a red light after I told him there was a polite way to ask for help. Again, a pistol changes a man’s attitude.

    • AlexinCT

      People sure as hell remember their manners if there are consequences not to do that…

  29. UnCivilServant

    Is 1050F hot enough to serve as a soldering iron?

    I don’t know if I ordered the wrong thing, or if they shipped the wrong thing, but I opened a box I had sitting around for a while and it turned out to be a ‘woodburning kit’ instead of the soldering iron I thought they hadn’t shipped yet.

    • db

      Probably, but what you should really pay attention to is the power rating. What you need really depends on the type of things you are soldering together.

      • UnCivilServant

        30 watts.

        The project I’d initially planned to work on was swapping out dim incandescents from a magnifying visor for LEDs, but that project has been mooted.

    • R.J.

      Heh. I have a hot glue gun from Ryobi that only has one temperature – Liquefy. It turns solid hot glue sticks into rivulets of sticky pain if it stays on to long. Great for giant foot long hot glue seams. Terrible for detail work.

      Maybe you can use it for giant solder pads on high current circuits?

    • pistoffnick

      I usually run my soldering iron at work at 850 – 900 degrees. That is hot enough to melt the solder quickly, but not so hot that the strain gauge wire burns my fingers.

      It’s also hot enough to burn chin whiskers.
      /axe me how I know

    • Count Potato

      For electronics 700°F is the most common temp.

      • db

        He should have done it in secret, but, he couldn’t have made a shitload of money off his Youtube channel doing it.

    • pistoffnick

      Yes, but I like his videos. He does some very interesting projects.

    • Tundra

      Very nice.

      • Fourscore

        I could use that kid, does he have his own chainsaw. Thanks, Jimbo

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Unconscionable war on legal immigration

    The centerpiece of former President Donald Trump’s immigration plan — the infamous wall on the border with Mexico — never came to pass. But the physical wall was never the only component of his war on immigrants. He and his staff still managed to erect an intangible dam of sorts at the border, constructed out of a slew of policies meant to hinder, discourage and otherwise bottleneck the progress of hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking to legally settle in the United States.

    Since Joe Biden took office, his administration has been faced with a choice: Dismantle the blockages Trump erected in favor of either a new system or the pre-Trump status quo; or maintain the dam out of fear of what would happen if it came down. That this has even been a question for Biden and other Democrats shows that Trump’s most lasting policy legacy was his assault on legal immigration.

    Trump and his main immigration policy adviser, Stephen Miller, spent four years crafting as many ways as possible to limit immigration, from the so-called “Muslim travel ban” to the “Remain in Mexico” policy. Under the latter, applicants for asylum in the U.S. — which is protected under domestic and international law — were forced to await their immigration court hearings in Mexico rather than the United States.

    Apparently, not allowing millions of “asylum seekers” to enter unchallenged constitutes a virtual ban on legal immigration.

    • rhywun

      seeking to legally settle

      lolwut

    • PieInTheSky

      the effective altruists will be disappoint

    • Certified Public Asshat

      YWCA is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.

      Wut.

      • AlexinCT

        I thought it was a place for butch womenz to go find each other….

    • Spartacus

      Lower in the thread: Matt Yglesias shows that he has never heard of “unlisted number”.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      $267M to PP. Wow.

      The non-profit sector is absolutely stacked with some of the worst characters known to mankind, their primary job being to convince rich people to give them money. And lots of it.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The comments are a treasure trove of stupid.

  31. prolefeed

    Had another “That’s Different TM” moment with my wife concerning the SCOTUS case on whether the CO government violated the constitution by ordering conservative bakers to decorate cakes with messages the bakers found offensive.

    Me: “This isn’t about rights. The “right” to order someone to parrot offensive speech, with the government punishing dissenters, is a direct First Amendment violation.”

    Mrs. P : “It’s not about about free speech. It’s about stopping hate speech against gays.”

    Me: “The term ‘hate speech’ is being defined to mean ‘speech I disagree with.’ If a conservative went into a Colorado bakery and ordered a liberal baker to decorate a cake celebrating overturning Roe. Vs Wade, the baker would refuse, and the government wouldn’t lift a finger to defend the “right” of a conservative to celebrate what they believe is the end of murdering some unborn babies.”

    Mrs P: “That’s different.”

    Me : “How? They’re both about whether you can make a baker put icing and whatnot on a cake to convey a message, regardless of the political message. The CO government is spending millions of dollars defending only one specific political viwwpoint on these cakes.”

    Mrs P: “That’s different. Let’s talk about something else.”

    And that’s Orwellian “crimestop” in action.

    • AlexinCT

      Did she get mad at you? My ex-girlfriend used to get furious when she realized her argument was based on the emotional programming from the left and absolutely illogical and ask me to change the subject too.

    • Nephilium

      An even easier hole is that hate speech is free speech.

      Assuming you have a comfortable couch.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Mrs. P : “It’s not about about free speech. It’s about stopping hate speech against gays.”

      *Thinks about argument, lays down on couch with ice bag on forehead*

    • Gender Traitor

      Why do you guys marry these women?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Hey trashy! Hope you and family are doing well!

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Hey OBE! Same to you! Happy Kwanzaa, Merry Hanukkah, Festive Saturnalia, and a Blessed Christmas to you!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      As usual, the Left will ignore the Musk’s complaints and cast the situation in the light most favorable to their desires.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Democracy dies in litigation

    An Oregon judge handed guns rights advocates a victory Thursday and placed a new, voter-approved ban on high-capacity magazines that was intended to curtail mass shootings on hold until questions about its constitutionality can be decided.

    Harney County Judge Robert Raschio released the written ruling after a lengthy court hearing earlier this week in which attorneys for gun rights groups sought a preliminary injunction to stop the narrowly passed ban on magazines of more than 10 rounds.

    “That the large capacity magazine bans promote public safety is mere speculation,” Raschio wrote. “The court cannot sustain restraint on a constitutional right on mere speculation that the restriction could promote public safety.”

    But non profit advocacy groups proposed it, and voters approved it.

    The Constitution is just a fucking piece of paper.

    • Gustave Lytton

      There this dipshittity reasoning by the gun grabbers that because defensive gun use uses less than X rounds much of the time, you only need X rounds period. And then saying that because “large capacity” magazines are used in “mass” shootings, regardless of rounds fired, they should be banned. I’d bet the majority of defensive gun use at this point involves a magazine over 10 rounds. I’d also bet a majority of mass shootings occur in gun free zones. Not that the lying hacks parroting the talking points would stop lying on behalf of the gun grabbers.

  33. PieInTheSky

    It’s a Barbie world and we’re all just living in it.
    Get your first look at the teaser trailer for Greta Gerwig’s #BarbieMovie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
    Only in theaters July 21st!

    https://twitter.com/Fandango/status/1603754815469031425

    yeah thats shit

    • Ownbestenemy

      Started out promising with no coded language for girls

    • Urthona

      I assume the movie is supposed to be funny.

    • Nephilium
      • Ownbestenemy

        Excellent choice

    • Plisade

      Is it just me or is that opening scene pro-abortion?

  34. Ownbestenemy

    Vacation has begun. Happy times for all. Good morning glibbies

    • rhywun

      Vacation has begun.

      #dittoes

      I’m thinking of doing some work today… while no one can bother me. Or if they try I can just ignore them.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah I almost brought home some work to do while unencumbered by my normal duties but thought….planes will still fly so why bother.

  35. The Other Kevin

    As dumb and cringy as it seemed, Trump sold all those NFT’s and made $4.5 million in less than 24 hours.

    • Ownbestenemy

      PT Barnum nods in approval.

    • kinnath

      You can fool all the people some of the time; and you can fool some of the people all the time; and that’s sufficient for most purposes.

    • Urthona

      Well ok.

      I guess I shouldn’t have called the scheme dumb then.

      • The Other Kevin

        It can still be cringy, and one can still roll one’s eyes, but if his purpose was to make money, it was extremely effective.

      • Urthona

        But I thought it overall dumb too because I didn’t think it would benefit his campaign in anyway Could be wrong there.

    • AlexinCT

      How many were bought by the Chinese interests that usually overpay for Hunter Biden’s art? My guess is zero…

      • Ownbestenemy

        I’m sure a slew of articles that Russians bought them will flood the market

      • AlexinCT

        Selling out to the CCP no biggie, fake selling out to Russia is criminal and panic inducing!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Oy…

      But if the Democrats can constantly pump out memoirs that nobody reads and are just a method to funnel money back to the pols, then whatever…

    • Not Adahn

      To me, that shows that his current team completely misunderstood how meme magic works.

  36. Certified Public Asshat

    Obama, Bush, and Clinton are working for the poor & disadvantaged in their various ways. Trump is selling $99 trading cards. And running for president. Ain't that America, something to see.— Stephen King (@StephenKing) December 15, 2022

    The scariest thing he has ever written, being poor and those three show up to help.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Haiti says hi.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Go home King, you’re crazy.

    • Raven Nation

      I guess W has been rehabilitated.

    • rhywun

      How is it possible to remain so ignorant for so long? JFC.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Willful ignorance insulates the mind from having to handle the fact your heros are just as shitty as Neo Hitler

    • WTF

      Obama, Bush, and Clinton are working for the poor & disadvantaged in their various ways.

      Show your work, dipshit.

    • creech

      “Obama, Bush, and Clinton are working for the poor & disadvantaged”
      Sure they are. Their own families. Remember how poor each was when the respective Big Guys left the White House?

    • Rebel Scum

      You were supposed to land like a dainty butterfly but you wrecked a taxpayer-owned plane.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      He was falling at a pretty good clip when his ejection seat hit the pavement.

      • Gustave Lytton

        0-0 ejection seats FTW.

    • Urthona

      He should have to do chores until he pays the value of that plane back.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Lockheed doesn’t mind.

      • pistoffnick

        Crunch all you want, we’ll make more!

    • AlexinCT

      VSTOL landings are hard shit…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That forward motion got him.

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, they practice that because these aircraft usually are landing on a moving vessel at sea, but in this case his forward movement resulted in a bounce of the unyielding runway and after that it was all game over.

      • Drake

        Why most countries gave up on the concept. Also why it probably would have been cheaper and better to just design a whole different plane for the Marines if they really wanted it.

    • R.J.

      Holy crap! That makes three big aviation accidents in DFW in the past few months. What is going on?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        What was the third? The Addison airshow, this one, but I’m not aware of a third.

        I almost took my family to the Addison airshow. I was very close to bailing on the Indian princess campout (it was rather cold that weekend) and going to the airshow instead. I’m glad we weren’t there to witness all that.

      • R.J.

        A small plane crashed a few days ago on the main road going through Carrollton.

      • AlexinCT

        I heard that it is now considered that the smaller plane at the airshow ran into an illegal drone, lost control, and slammed into the WW2 bomber. That’s got to result in some kind of criminal investigation…

      • UnCivilServant

        Why the hell would you fly your drone in an area where you know airplanes are flying unless you’re trying to kill people?

      • kinnath

        1) people who don’t know the hazard they are creating

        2) people who don’t give a fuck that they are creating a hazard

        3) various combinations of 1) and 2)

      • Pine_Tree

        I’ve heard that but my spidey-senses are saying the drone thing is a red herring.

        Looked to me like the Airacobra (wasn’t it?) pilot just lost situational awareness wrt the Fort. Which is very sad and tragic and I get the need for folks to come up with some other explanation. And nefarious illegal private drones are a good pop one. But I’m afraid it’s probably pilot error.

      • Urthona

        Agreed

      • Ownbestenemy

        Agreed it appears loss of spacial awareness and possible miscommunication are culprits in that tragic accident

    • Sensei

      And you get watch!

    • DEG

      It’ll buff out.

  37. Muzzled Woodchipper

    From WaPo layoffs:

    “This behavior is unacceptable from any leader, but especially the leader of a news organization whose core values include transparency and accountability[.]”

    Objection. Assumes facts without evidence.

    • AlexinCT

      In fact, the exact opposite is in evidence.

  38. Rebel Scum

    And it only costed billions of fake dollars.

    WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to pass a one-week stopgap bill to temporarily avert a government shutdown as congressional leaders finish work on a full-year government funding package.

    The vote was 71-19, extending the funding deadline to Dec. 23.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    As dumb and cringy as it seemed, Trump sold all those NFT’s and made $4.5 million in less than 24 hours.

    Never give a sucker an even break.

  40. Not Adahn

    NPR ran a story about how the ammo shortage is harming Alaska Native Peoples. While the main point of the article was how cute and adorable Native Peoples are living off the land like their ancestors, they did include that the “surge of gun ownership” was making the price of shotgun shells too high.

    • UnCivilServant

      So, we should remove the regulatory barriers to the manufacture and sale of ammunition.

    • Urthona

      Yeah but is there a shortage of spears with bone tips? No? Then they should be fine.

  41. Rebel Scum

    So be sure to get another booster.

    The omicron subvariants that have become dominant in recent months present a serious threat to the effectiveness of the new boosters, render antibody treatments ineffective and could cause a surge of breakthrough infections, according to a new study.

    The BQ.1, BQ.1.1, XBB and XBB.1 omicron subvariants are the most immune evasive variants of Covid-19 to date, according to scientists affiliated with Columbia University and the University of Michigan. These variants, taken together, are currently causing 72% of new infections in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    It’s almost like respiratory illnesses mutate constantly.

    • rhywun

      Whack-a-molecule

    • Sensei

      No way…

  42. The Late P Brooks

    NPR ran a story about how the ammo shortage is harming Alaska Native Peoples. While the main point of the article was how cute and adorable Native Peoples are living off the land like their ancestors, they did include that the “surge of gun ownership” was making the price of shotgun shells too high.

    The esquimaux don’t get free shotgun shells from the BIA?

    • creech

      I’m sure there’s room for an NPR correspondent or two to quit their job and join those cute and adorable Native Peoples and their lifestyle. How many do? I once asked an Amish man how many English join up after expressing, as tourists, how beautiful and unhurried and 19th century were the ways of the Amish. “None.”

      • Urthona

        lol yup.

        See my bone tipped spears joke above.

  43. Rebel Scum

    Go fuck yourself and your stupid, historically illiterate narrative.

    Speaking during a gathering of almost all African leaders in Washington DC – the first since Barack Obama convened a summit in 2014 – Biden expressed regret for the past, but insisted: ‘The United States is all in on Africa’s future.’

    During a White House dinner honoring African leaders and their spouses, Biden addressed what he called America’s ‘original sin’ – the enslavement of millions of people – and honored their descendants and the broader African diaspora community in the United States.

    ‘Our people lie at the heart of the deep and profound connection that forever binds Africa and the United States together,’ he said.

    ‘We remember the stolen men and women and children were brought to our shores in chains, subjected to unimaginable cruelty.’

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      If Obama were pro-industrialization of Africa, anti-Green, anti-ECB, etc… you might be able to believe him.

      As it stands, he’s just a shill for the powers that be. His job is to sell it to the suckers.

    • creech

      I wonder how many of the African leaders have ever apologized for being descendants of the tribal warriors who rounded up and sold off other Africans to the slave traders?

      • Ownbestenemy

        White colonialism made them do it!

      • Urthona

        Also, Africa right this very moment has more slavery than the United States had at its peak.

      • UnCivilServant

        In absolute number of slaves, relative free:slave ratios, absolute number of slaveowners, ratio of slaveowners per capita, or which combination of the above?

  44. The Late P Brooks

    That forward motion got him.

    Could he have been doing touch-and-goes? It looks like he’s down, and then the back comes up up and over.

    Or maybe he pushed the wrong button as he was trying to shut it down.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Looks like he was picking up forward speed as he approached the tarmac. Almost certainly pilot error.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It looks like he bounced it, tried to kill power to settle it, and only killed the front fan instead of both.

      • Urthona

        I think he just got distracted by his kid whining and actually mashed ‘e’ for “eject” on his keyboard. Story of my life.

  45. Lackadaisical

    ‘US Lawmakers Negotiating Over 7,500 ‘Pork-Barrel Spending’ Earmarks Totaling $16 Billion for Spending Bill’

    Chump change, how much have we sent to Ukraine again?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Who knows?

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Come back, Shane Trump!

    The town hall blow-up could be dismissed as just a random bad day in the office if viewed in isolation. But much of 2022 has been a nightmare for Ryan, who has held his job since 2014, when Post owner Jeff Bezos hired him. After years of Post growth, expansion and profits, the tide has turned against Ryan’s paper. In late August, the New York Times reported that the Post was on track to lose money this year after previous profitability. It has lost 500,000 subscribers since the Biden inauguration, down from a high of 3 million, and digital ad revenue is off, too, according to the Wall Street Journal.

    Everybody in the “legitimate” media should be throwing money at TRUMP ’24. It’s their best chance at survival.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    This is unexpected: in that Politico piece about the WaPo, there is (was- now it’s gone) an ad (I know, I know) for something to treat “hyper-pigmentation” featuring a very attractive light skinned black woman.

    Skin lighteners are still a thing? That stuff must come in a plain brown wrapper.

    • Atanarjuat

      I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t go broke selling the stuff in India.

      • Lackadaisical

        It’s almost like other cultures are allowed to do what they want regardless of ignorant white people.

      • Atanarjuat

        I hung out with a young Indian woman a few times while she was working here in the US. She told me she wanted to bring me back to India and have light-skinned babies with me, but she’d have to fight off all the other women who would also want me for my light skin.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Should have told her there’s enough to go around.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Hmmmm, how hard is it to emigrate to India? Just curious…I’m so light skinned I’m practically translucent.

      • kinnath

        Annual vacations.

        Immigration officer: Business or pleasure?

        kinnath: Yes.

      • Rat on a train

        My Filipino MIL was happy when she was told I’m white.

    • Urthona

      The most popular cosmetic surgery in far east Asia is still the double eyelid surgery. To make the eyes look “white”.

    • Mojeaux

      See: “Desi skin lightening”

      It is very much a thing amongst Indians (dot).

      And speaking of hair straightening: I wish women would learn how to deal with their curls. They look so much better au naturel than with straightened hair. Before about a year ago, I would’ve said “black women,” but now, what really brings me to this, is trying to learn how to deal with my own curls after, you know, 54 years of doin it rong. So many gorgeous women brought down by a flat-iron or pure ignernce.

      • Gender Traitor

        Jack?

      • Mojeaux

        Absolutely.

      • rhywun

        Oh hell yes. My Hero.

  48. Lackadaisical

    “Sam Bankman-Fried’s family reportedly called prison to request vegan meals”

    Never trust a vegan. 😛

    • Rat on a train

      He can’t be a vegan. He hasn’t mentioned being a vegan in every statement he makes.

      • Urthona

        He could be smarter than he looks. Even smarter if he asks for a kosher meal.

        Anything to not get the standard meal.

      • R.J.

        Hahahahaha!

    • Ownbestenemy

      Gotta placate the kids at home