Saturday Morning Links of Inflation

by | Feb 18, 2023 | Daily Links | 195 comments

Do you know what’s amazing me? Everything in the news is about fucking balloons, so the meme-makers are putting in overtime. WebDom did a roundup last week, and since then, there’s been more of the same. But weirdly, there’s one obvious one they all seem to be neglecting. Remember this dimwitted chunk of stupid performative “art”?

I weep for our future.

But I celebrate birthdays, including a guy with an AAA rating; a guy who pushed the edge of the envelope; the go-to guy for movie roles even heavier than Sydney Greenstreet; the spiritual father of this website; a guy whose breath always smelled like parsley; a guy who was a nutcase but a pretty fine artist; a guy who had a thing for teenagers; a guy who was the echt-Mr. Saturday Night and fell into a truly perfect grift; a chick who made an iconic name by putting her hands out; and my most perfect redhead.

Let’s Link.

 

Fascists study fascism and decide it’s A-OK.

 

Just in case you were one of those silly people who thinks there actually is a difference between Team Red and Team Blue.

 

White supremacist, no doubt.

 

Oh, those wacky Indonesians!

 

Diana Moon Glampers is a role-model.

 

Just here for the headline.

 

Old Guy Music is my near-brush with mainstream country music. But jesus, she is a fucking incredible performer, a latter-day Dolly, with a remarkably distinctive voice. You can skip 60 seconds past the intro.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

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

195 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    Maybe Biden can shoot down a Trump baby balloon?

    • Sean

      Stopping fascism!

  2. Count Potato

    “and my most perfect redhead”

    So born on the same day as John Hughes?

    Although, I’d say there are way better looking redheads.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Definitely, she was more cute (which is fine, preferable even) than hot.

    • slumbrew

      * Angie Everhart waves *

    • Count Potato

      I’m going all in on hot, and picking Laura Richmond.

    • Pat

      For me, it’s Isla Fisher

      • Certified Public Asshat

        This should not be debatable.

    • Ted S.

      Happy birthday Carrot Top?

      • juris imprudent

        Ted with the definitive boner kill.

    • creech

      Cousin Molly is o.k. but the redhead who played Spiderman’s girlfriend is very hawt.

  3. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Re Canada: We investigated ourselves and found that we did nothing wrong.
    Between the authoritarianism and the encouraging of suicide as a means of saving money they hold the blue ribbon for being the shittiest English speaking country right now.

    • Lackadaisical

      Australia and New Zealand waves hello… Britain would too, but they don’t have a loisence.

  4. The Late P Brooks

    “Blow” is just a figure of speech.

  5. Count Potato

    “It’s important to us as conservatives that this carbon tax (the “untax”) be revenue-neutral. If there were a corresponding FICA tax cut, there would be no growth of government. We’d simply be changing what we tax—off income; on carbon pollution.”

    CWAA

  6. Gender Traitor

    a guy with an AAA rating

    ::peruses Wiki profile:: Inventor of the lighted fart?

  7. Pat

    Sorry for the early OT, but I’m about to go to bed and Spiked is killing it as usual

    It’s not ‘far right’ to question Drag Queen Story Hour

    Are you a Nazi sympathiser, or are you a nonce enabler? Because judging by last weekend’s furore over a performance of Drag Queen Story Hour at a London art gallery, those are your only two options.

    On Saturday, Tate Britain hosted a performance from drag queen Sab Samuel. Performing under the name Aida H Dee, Samuel has been touring the UK over the past year with his Drag Queen Story Hour show. The tour has generated a great deal of resistance from parents, many of whom are concerned that it is trying to indoctrinate children into gender ideology.

    In a typical show, Samuel reads his self-published books, such as My First Pride, to children. He does this while in full drag get-up, wearing fake breasts and tight-fitting costumes, which can sometimes make his male sex somewhat obvious.

    Samuel has also recently attracted criticism for publicly lamenting the passing of drag performer Darren Moore. Moore was a convicted child rapist, but Samuel described him as an ‘exuberant human being, taken from the world too early’.

    So there are good reasons for parents to be concerned about Drag Queen Story Hour, but the media have mainly ignored these details. Instead, most coverage of the growing backlash has focussed on the unwelcome presence of Patriotic Alternative (PA), a far-right grouping, which has been accused of leafleting ahead of last weekend’s disorder outside a migrant hotel in Merseyside.

    On Saturday, broadcasters showed footage of two angry lines of protestors – the anti-drag protesters and a left-wing counter-protest, which included groups like Stand Up To Racism and was supported by the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP). But this conflict can’t be as easily summarised as caring left-wingers on the one side and fascists on the other. The truth is not so easy to cram into a tweet, headline or banner slogan.

    • Count Potato

      That’s the same thing with almost all political issues. It polarizes until both sides are wrong.

    • rhywun

      Actually, the truth is easy to summarize. The trend was originated and organized by a small number of outspoken Marxists with the explicitly stated goal of destroying “the family”.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      In a typical show, Samuel reads his self-published books, such as My First Pride, to children. He does this while in full drag get-up, wearing fake breasts and tight-fitting costumes, which can sometimes make his male sex somewhat obvious.

      So not Go Dog Go

    • creech

      What’s next, minstrel shows with Whites in blackface exaggerating Black folk stereotypes?

  8. Pat

    The tax incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act are going to deploy a tremendous amount of clean energy in America.

    Doubt

  9. SDF-7

    Morning, all. Thanks for the links (as always), OMWC.

    What’s weird is I swear I hear her voice as if Meghan Trainor were singing country instead of pop.

    • Pat

      It would have cost you nothing to keep that to yourself.

      I get how a middling recording artist like that hits it big on one novelty single, but she’s like a decade and 3 albums into a career of DUDE DOOWOP LMAO.

    • rhywun

      OMG that is heinous.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    After all, what’s there not to like about reducing overall taxation?

    There’s that whole social engineering aspect, for starters.

    • juris imprudent

      A venerable tradition going back to the Whig’s American System.

  11. Pat

    I recall we have a few Built to Spill fanboys amongst our Glib community. Unbeknownst to me, they put out a new album back in September. Doesn’t hit their highest highs, but it’s a better outing than Untethered Moon and the closing track in particular is well worth the price of admission by itself. It’s the pop sensibility and hooks of Keep It Like A Secret, with the prog wankery of Perfect From Now On, and the optimistic melancholy lyricism and delivery of The Weather all in one tune. 7-8/10.

    • rhywun

      *raises hand*

      Noted!

      • Pat

        If I had a nitpick it’d be that they’ve been smothering Doug’s delightfully nasal whine in really wet reverb for the last few albums, and this one continues that. It gets monotonous.

  12. rhywun

    Diana Moon Glampers is a role-model.

    This is not going to end well. It’s almost like that’s the point.

    • Count Potato

      It’s been going on for awhile. I remember reading over a decade ago that schools in California shut down AP classes because they didn’t have enough black students in them.

    • juris imprudent

      Yes and the not end well means a boot on the face and not just the faces of those so richly deserving that.

    • SDF-7

      Not like PPP isn’t trying to keep things stirred up or anything.

      • rhywun

        It is absolutely amazing to me how successful the MSM is at curating his jus’ folks image when it is clear as day that he is a nasty, raging asshole.

      • slumbrew

        And always has been one.

      • Lackadaisical

        What do you mean? That is part of his unity message!

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        The president (my teeth automatically grind when I type that)

        Fuck Biden, but this sentence makes me want to choke the author. It’s basically the equivalent of “literally shaking.”

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        To be fair, in a country of 330M people you probably could find a couple assholes who want to do that.

  13. rhywun

    Just in case you were one of those silly people who thinks there actually is a difference between Team Red and Team Blue.

    They sure are equal-opportunity grifters.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of the female form…

    Last night I caught part of a movie starring Raquel Welch (Hannie Calder). That was the first time I had seen her image in a very long time. I had forgotten what a truly beautiful face she had.

  15. Grosspatzer

    Mornin, Old Man.

    NASA wants to explore Uranus

    The battle with TSA over jurisdiction should be entertaining.

    • juris imprudent

      *rimshot*

      • R C Dean

        Oh, bravo. Well played, indeed.

      • dbleagle

        If NASA explores Uranus with an orbiter and probe it should take care of any Klingons.

    • Grumbletarian

      The TSA deserves to be the butt of all jokes.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    By turning down their thermostats, putting plastic on their windows in the winter, and driving less, they could reduce their exposure to the carbon tax.

    Let them eat cake.

    • Sean

      Bug cakes!

    • rhywun

      turning down their thermostats, putting plastic on their windows in the winter, and driving less

      That brings back memories. All that’s missing is the welfare and food stamps.

  17. Grosspatzer

    Old Man Music defies classification – sounds more like dixieland than country to me, not to mention that her outfit would fit right in on Fat Tuesday. Very nice.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I think that’s why she gets put in the Americana cubby- that seems to comprise “Music that isn’t quite country, isn’t quite rock, isn’t quite folk, isn’t quite bluegrass.” Definite Dixieland instrumentation on this one.

    • juris imprudent

      Country version of Lady Gaga? And a trump-bone?

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Lightbulbs are going to come on in dark hallways of Congress. What government, what political party, wouldn’t want to collect a tax itself that otherwise is going to be collected by another country?

    He’s honest, anyway.

    Here’s an idea- instead of “revenue neutral” let’s shoot for “expense neutral” and offset new spending with cuts to old spending, you thieving fuck.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Former Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) served in Congress from 1993-1999 and 2005-2011. He is the executive director of republicEn.org, a growing group of conservatives who care about climate change.

    Yes, yes, sensible bipartisan Republicanism is what this country needs.

  20. SDF-7

    ‘Orning ‘Ordles — Past “Meh” and into “Bleah”.

    Daily Duotrigordle #353
    Guesses: 37/37
    Time: 08:46.17
    https://duotrigordle.com/

    Daily Quordle 390
    9️⃣5️⃣
    6️⃣7️⃣
    quordle.com

    • rhywun

      Three in a row 😮

      Daily Quordle 390
      3️⃣5️⃣
      6️⃣7️⃣

    • Grosspatzer

      Daily Quordle 390
      5️⃣3️⃣
      6️⃣7️⃣
      quordle.com

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 390
      4️⃣5️⃣
      7️⃣6️⃣

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 390
      7️⃣6️⃣
      3️⃣4️⃣

    • rhywun

      Pay-blocked but I caught a couple examples.

      The “ladies and gentlemen” → “folks” thing is straight up Marxist claptrap that’s everywhere now.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        This “I’m going to re-write classic works of literature using language I approve of” is fucking horseshit.

        Why can they not do us and Gaia a favor and off themselves before it’s too late.

        Is our culture really going to be destroyed by a bunch of No-nothing kids in just 1 generation?

  21. Ted S.

    the go-to guy for movie roles even heavier than Sydney Greenstreet;

    Happy birthday Laird Cregar?

    Or maybe a pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr.

  22. Ted S.

    a guy whose breath always smelled like parsley;

    Paul Simon? Or Art Garfunkel?

  23. Ted S.

    and my most perfect redhead.

    I thought Lucille Ball’s birthday was in August.

    • rhywun

      +1 side-eye from Ethel Mertz

    • Count Potato

      She wasn’t a real redhead.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Fuck Youuuuuu!

      • Count Potato

        Go look it up.

      • rhywun

        Yup, and she was open about it on TV. Ethel gave her shit about it a few times.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Nailed it!

  24. The Late P Brooks

    It worked for Stalin

    President Biden responded on Friday to the shooting in rural Mississippi that left six dead, saying it’s “enough” and calling on Congress to “act now” to pass gun reform.

    “Jill and I are mourning for the six killed in today’s violence in Tate County, Mississippi — as we have for far too many Americans,” Biden said in a statement. “We grieve with their families and with Americans nationwide as gun violence claims yet more lives.”

    ——-

    “Enough. We are 48 days into the year and our nation has already suffered at least 73 mass shootings,” Biden wrote. “Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough. Gun violence is an epidemic and Congress must act now.”

    “We need—need—commonsense gun law reforms,” he continued. “That includes requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, fully closing the boyfriend loophole to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, requiring safe storage of guns, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets.”

    Biden has long been a proponent for gun reform.

    If we are ever going to truly subjugate the proles, we must render them defenseless.

    • Grumbletarian

      73 mass shootings in 48 days? Are they counting group photo events and pool tournaments??

      • EvilSheldon

        Pretty much yes.

        Just like the weather balloons and train derailments, it’s yet another media-government coordinated mass panic…

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Of course not a single mention that most of what they’re counting is black on black crime in a handful of cities that already have onerous gun control.

        But it’s definitely rednecks in Kentucky who are the Real Problem™️.

  25. Ted S.

    Diana Moon Glampers is a role-model.

    Paywalled.

    • kinnath

      I fell in love it Gillan in Jumanji.

    • Lackadaisical

      dat side vag tho.

  26. PieInTheSky

    So i am at my mom’s and as always in winter biathlon is on tv and they apparently shoot biathlon rifles used today are usually chambered for the .22 LR. Does that bullet kill a man? I assume yes if you hit the throat or eye but probably not torso

    • Grosspatzer

      Asking for a friend?

    • EvilSheldon

      Short answer – a .22LR bullet can absolutely kill a man, depending on where you hit him. That’s true for all bullets, though.

      • PieInTheSky

        Well yes but i assume 50 bmg is more liberal with the area where to hit

      • EvilSheldon

        Yup, high-velocity rifles give you some additional leeway. But the difference in terminal effect between a .22LR and a .45ACP, for example, is surprisingly small. Either one, you hit someone in the heart, they’re probably going to die. You hit them two inches left in the upper lung, they’ll probably be out of the hospital walking around in a few days.

      • Plinker762

        Those things will kill a werewolf.

    • PieInTheSky

      I still think americans should try to be better at biathlon as you are supposed to be shooting people

      • EvilSheldon

        Bruh. We’d be competing with the Finns. We know when we’re outclassed.

      • PieInTheSky

        The norwegians are the best at biathlon men. The french for women

      • juris imprudent

        +2 Boe

      • dbleagle

        They went sissy by changing from military calibers and ranges (100m-600m targets) to .22LR and closer (50m) targets.

        Ashkually it was to simplify establishing events.

        The Nordic countries still hold big bore biathlons,

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I’ve heard said that more people are killed by 22 long rifle in the US every year than any other caliber. I never verified that but it’ll definitely kill you dead.

      • Grosspatzer

        A worthy feast! /takes notes for upcoming celebration

    • PieInTheSky

      brunello di montalcino is not bad wine

    • Old Man With Candy

      Large parts of that look delicious. SP and I used to stuff peppadews with chevre as an appetizer, and it looks like you have something similar.

      • PieInTheSky

        I dont know how to call those peppers except pimento which is what i assume is spanish for pepper

    • PieInTheSky

      One thing that is not identifiable by you in that photo is choux pastry filled with a mix of mushrooms with garlic mayo and herbs

      • PieInTheSky

        There were also deviled eggs which somehow i did not get in the pic

    • PieInTheSky

      They are mild spicy for my taste, spicy for average romanian taste, filled with cream cheese. Its a spanish style thing

  27. The Late P Brooks

    While you’re quibbling about your so called rights, the devil is getting away!

    A former federal judge — who served as an informal adviser to former Vice President Pence — raised doubts about Pence’s reasoning for opposing a subpoena to testify about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

    J. Michael Luttig argued that any constitutional right Pence had to not testify should yield to the process of a criminal investigation.

    Luttig said in a Twitter thread on Friday that whether Pence has protections from needing to testify in certain proceedings from the Constitution’s “speech and debate” clause is an unsettled question.

    “If a Vice President possesses such privileges and protections with respect to this Joint Session, they are few in number and limited in scope,” he wrote.

    Special counsel Jack Smith issued a subpoena to Pence last week as part of his probe into former President Trump’s role in the insurrection. He has vowed to fight against the subpoena — which requests documents and testimony — on the grounds that he should be protected from doing so in the vice president’s capacity as president of the Senate.

    ——-

    The former judge added that if any protections do exist under the speech and debate clause, they would “yield to the demands of criminal process” just as they do for senators and representatives — and as executive privilege protections do for presidents.

    Luttig testified before the House select committee that investigated the insurrection last year about his advice to Pence about the vice president’s role in counting the electoral votes.

    Pence declined to testify before that committee on the grounds that it was partisan-motivated and did not have the authority to investigate.

    Burn the witch.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Redheads are my kryptonite as well. I could barely make it past the second picture.

      • slumbrew

        Good lord. I’ll be in my bunk.

    • Q Continuum

      I wonder who ratted him out.

    • Count Potato

      Pretty sure polygamy is still illegal though.

    • Lackadaisical

      That is a rough 39, but having 3 wives would probably age you.

    • rhywun

      Stunning and brave.

      I’m sure their kids will grow up perfectly well-adjusted.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Air superiority

    Did a superpower showdown provoke the U.S. into using a fighter jet to shoot down a hobbyist group’s research balloon in Canada? That’s the question the public — and the FBI — wants to answer, after the U.S. military shot down several unidentified airborne objects last weekend.

    A military spokesperson tells NPR it’s their understanding that the FBI has spoken to the hobbyist group in question — the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, based just north of Chicago — in an apparent attempt to determine whether their small balloon might have inadvertently caused a big ruckus.

    ——-

    The Biden administration said on Friday that it cannot confirm any reports potentially identifying the objects that were shot down, citing ongoing investigations.

    Shoot first, think afterwards.

    • Lackadaisical

      “She explained: “I’ve always loved sex but my ex-boyfriends have always been quite tame and things in the bedroom had been ‘vanilla’.”

      She’s a super freak, super freak. Super freaky.

      https://youtu.be/QYHxGBH6o4M

  29. The Late P Brooks

    I still think americans should try to be better at biathlon as you are supposed to be shooting people

    Americans want to shoot from a heated moving vehicle. Cross country skis are for chumps.

    • Sean

      I would accept shooting from a snowmobile as well.

  30. Lackadaisical

    “Those of us on the EcoRight who support a carbon tax have set our sights on worldwide action on climate change. We celebrate the deployment of clean energy in America, and we hope that early adoption here might lead to cost reductions that make clean energy technologies affordable around the globe. ”

    Globalists gonna global? In what way are you ‘right-wing’ of you embrace this position?

  31. Count Potato

    “Trans teacher with Z-size prosthetic breasts dresses as man outside of school, neighbor says

    A Canadian teacher who made international headlines for wearing gigantic prosthetic breasts rarely wears them outside of school — raising questions about whether the vulgar costume is just an act.

    While parents have raged about transgender teacher Kayla Lemieux being allowed to wear Z-cup prosthetics in front of students, the shop teacher was spotted ditching the controversial fetishistic fashion after work and stepping out in public dressed as a man.

    “He wears prosthetic breasts extremely infrequently,” a resident of Lemieux’s apartment complex told The Post.

    “He puts the breasts on to teach, occasionally when he goes for a walk or when the cops visit.””

    https://nypost.com/2023/02/17/kayla-lemieux-ditches-her-z-size-breasts-outside-the-classroom/

    Did anyone think this person was actually trans?

    • Lackadaisical

      😂

      Either way it’s ridiculous, feel sorry for the kids, but whatever, this is the world we live in.

      • juris imprudent

        You know, it isn’t even that asshole that makes me want to Maxwell’s silver hammer a person (or two) – it is the whole chain of management above that ‘guy’: principal, superintendent, school board. It only would’ve taken one of them to take accountability and they are all chicken-shits that don’t deserve to hold their jobs and maybe not even their lives.

      • Lackadaisical

        Exactly.

        Just like I would be hard pressed to be upset at the crazy homeless so much as the people enabling them.

    • rhywun

      No. I figured from the start it was him trolling his superiors. And like J.I. points out below, none of them will do anything about it because DEI.

  32. Tundra

    Good morning, Old Man!

    The WSJ article pisses me off more than it probably should. No doubt honors classes are just as loaded with shit as the rest, but dragging kids down for some fictitious “equity” seems pretty goddamn evil.

    I’ve very glad to be a year or so away from both kids being out of the system forever.

    What’s everyone doing today?

    • Old Man With Candy

      I’m headed up to Lockport for a tasting of Buffalo Escarpment Cabernet Francs with ten years of age on them.

      • PieInTheSky

        On a romanian wine group on facebook there were recently many complaints about loire valley cabernet franc because it was not as intense as the respective people.thought cab franc should be

      • Old Man With Candy

        They would truly hate Finger Lakes Cab Franc- it’s like Loire but even more so. This will be my first try at Buffalo Escarpment CF, which I do not expect will be darker or more alcoholic (cool climate).

        It still bothers me that no-one here has planted Feteasca Neagra. It would do really well here, I think

      • Tundra

        Nice! Sounds like a good use of Saturday.

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘No doubt honors classes are just as loaded with shit as the rest, but dragging kids down for some fictitious “equity” seems pretty goddamn evil.’

      Didn’t used to be so bad, I can’t imagine having to go to an ‘inner city school’ that doesn’t even have an honors program to give the nerds a break from the constant chaos and distraction of the little evil shits they have to spend all day with otherwise. This is how school shootings happen.

    • Gender Traitor

      Back when I had delusions of becoming a teacher, I attended a lecture where the speaker posed the question, “When you have two vessels, one with a gallon of capacity and the other with a cup of capacity, how do you treat them equally?” His answer: you fill them both full.

      That was a long time ago. 🙁

      • EvilSheldon

        The idea that some vessels are larger than others, no doubt filled someone with frothing rage…

    • rhywun

      The WSJ article pisses me off more than it probably should.

      #metoo

      And don’t think the likes of Putin and Pooh aren’t laughing their asses off at us.

    • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

      Dog park, some shopping, work on a shop project (lathe setup), basically chill while I am unsupervised (wife is out of town).

  33. The Late P Brooks

    The WSJ article pisses me off more than it probably should. No doubt honors classes are just as loaded with shit as the rest, but dragging kids down for some fictitious “equity” seems pretty goddamn evil.

    Your so called meritocracy is evil and unfair. We must embrace the equity of a mass unmarked grave if we want to be truly free.

  34. Certified Public Asshat

    Effective March 20, 2023, only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method. Other accounts can use an authentication app or security key for 2FA. Learn more here:https://t.co/wnT9Vuwh5n— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 18, 2023

    And how did Twitter users react to this? By losing their minds of course.

    • PieInTheSky

      Whatever happens to twitter the process is fun

    • slumbrew

      Good. Text messages are terrible for 2FA.

  35. Certified Public Asshat

    Context might be needed. Some trans girl in the UK was stabbed to death. There appears to be no evidence it was related to them being trans, but they are trans, so of course it is a hate crime. #sayhername was being used because, well I don’t know why but then an intersectional car crash happenned because it’s a dead white girl using a hashtag reserved for black women.

    Vaush weighs in:

    The idea that trans and black activists are somehow competing for attention is some Dave Chapelle fed op bullshit. This baseless fear gets thrown around CONSTANTLY and it is NEVER substantiated. STOP looking for excuses to fight with each other— Vaush (@VaushV) February 16, 2023

    • PieInTheSky

      What is a Vaush

      • Certified Public Asshat

        A less successful Hasan, but still makes way too much money playing video games while talking about socialism.

    • rhywun

      Trans Lives Matter

      intersectional car crash

      My next hit album.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Booming

    Mayor Eric Adams has cut a $4.4 billion deal with New York City’s largest civilian employees union — which was an early backer of his campaign for City Hall — that includes more than 16% in total pay hikes over nearly five and half years and allows some employees to work remotely.

    The tentative agreement with DC 37 and its 90,000 municipal workers is retroactive, beginning on May 26, 2021, and expires on Nov. 6, 2026. The total $4.4 billion value of the contract will be paid from city taxpayer coffers and by tapping labor reserves for the duration.

    The deal — which must be approved by the union’s rank and file — includes wage increases of 3% for each of the first four years of the contract and 3.25% in the final year.

    The compounded increase comes to 16.21% for the duration of the contract. It also includes a sweetener to woo rank-and-file members to approve the deal — a $3,000 “ratification” bonus that is pensionable.

    Justice at last. Those poor overworked and underpaid civilians will finally be able to afford an extra scrap of bread or two.

    • rhywun

      Nice. I remember those.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    And don’t think the likes of Putin and Pooh aren’t laughing their asses off at us.

    But where will Pooh send his most promising students, now that America has destroyed its educational institutions?

    I have no idea how many Russians have been attending American universities.

    • rhywun

      Pooh’s students are only here to steal intel. I’m sure there are fine universities in China for book-learnin’.

    • Gender Traitor

      Oh my.

    • PieInTheSky

      The big cake is Meringue dark chocolate roast walnuts and sour cherries preserved in gin

      • robc

        I love cake. I love nuts. You know what I don’t love?

        My wife would love that though. I would pick off the nuts and eat them separate and hope they aren’t throughout the cake too.

      • PieInTheSky

        The nuts are not inside only on top

      • PieInTheSky

        The sour cherries are also inside

  38. R.J.

    Time for the cats to get their shots and claws clipped. Sitting at the vets.

    • Gender Traitor

      Both at the same time? You’re very brave.

      Did they howl in harmony in the car all the way there? 😖🙀🙀

      • R.J.

        The little one was totally quiet. Bigger one meowed some. It does make it more difficult to drive.

      • Gender Traitor

        Ours are fine when they get there – very chill. They just reeeeeeally don’t like going bye-bye in the car.

    • PieInTheSky

      As girl with the dogs says when grooming cats, first you disarm your opponent

      • R.J.

        I am hoping to get some hints. Home claw clipping has been a total failure.

      • rhywun

        I gave up after the first try. They were not gonna let it happen, at all.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    WANT

    I suspect the price will climb substantially, despite it being a beater by the high standards of the prissy douchebags in the BaT comments.

    • Tundra

      Love it.

      I really dig BaT, but the commenters are fucking tedious.

    • dbleagle

      The rich girl in my high school had the same model. Well she had it until she hit a mesquite at high speed returning from a kegger in the desert. German construction saved all the occupants.

      Mommy and daddy gave her a replacement Gremlin.

  40. Mojeaux

    I am sitting in my recliner crochetingan afghan. I want to watch TV, but I’m in a state of analysis paralysis. What to watch???? So. Many. Choices. Hit me.

    • R.J.

      MeTV has westerns on. My go to for partially watching.

    • Tundra

      Pretty In Pink

    • Ted S.

      If you’ve got FXM, Shirley MacLaine in What a Way to Go is a lot of fun.

  41. Fourscore

    I’m late today but I finished the extortion paper work this morning. I made less (not earned less but fewer dollars). I get a few bucks back for a change. So income was less but luckily had inflation to absorb any excess. Turbo tax is my friend.

    Free at last, free at last, ’til next year anyway

    • Count Potato

      Better than waiting until April.

    • slumbrew

      I’ve got a date with TurboTax later this afternoon. And probably tomorrow.

      • Mojeaux

        My April 15 date with TT will likely get put off till October unless XX wants to file early. There’s a provision for non-minor children who live with you, who contribute much less to the household than they consume, so she and I have to work on this together. I’m not sure if her paying 1/4 of the rent and utilities and her own car insurance and food qualify for her providing for herself or not, since she can’t afford to live on her own (or with a roommate) anywhere else. A tax conundrum. XY is yet another tax conundrum, neither of which I have dealt with before. I’ll have to research these things more in-depth and getting through IRS rules hurts my brain folds.

      • Fourscore

        You get a 3 day procrastination period this year, Moj. I missed Trey et al last night, ’cause I was working for the government but I caught up this morning. Some surprises in there. The religion direction was sort of familiar, in a sort of personal way.

        Thanks, very interesting, now to wait another week

  42. Count Potato

    I keep getting little blood blisters on my fingers. I wonder what is causing it?

    • PieInTheSky

      Your onlyfans subscription?

      • Count Potato

        You should have a better answer on anything blood related.

  43. kinnath

    Five lovely days trapped in 9-hour customer meetings. One of the customers was kind enough to share a respiratory bug with me. So the weekend is shot as well. The only good news is that it wasn’t covid.

    • Tundra

      Sorry, kinnath.

      Maybe some mead would help?

    • Fourscore

      I’m just getting over a cold but only really felt tired for a day. Cough and sneeze gone, a little nasal stuff yet. Hope you’re better by Monday, Kinnath

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Mommy and daddy gave her a replacement Gremlin.

    A clear violation of the Eighth Amendment.

    • dbleagle

      Yep. Even the guy driving the used Pacer made fun of her. But she still drove the Gremlin because ugly wheels still beat no wheels back in the 1970s.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Ours are fine when they get there – very chill. They just reeeeeeally don’t like going bye-bye in the car.

    This reminds me of an in-car video I saw somewhere (youtube probably). It looked like southern California; the Hollywood Freeway or similar. This car is bombing along in traffic, and there is a cat stretched out on the dash, soaking up rays, completely oblivious to the whole riding-in-a-car thing.

    • Gender Traitor

      Obviously not a real cat – clearly one of the many space aliens that disguise themselves as cats. They’re usually better at not blowing their cover.

  46. robc

    Everyone at bottom of epl, except Leeds, got a big result today.

    Southampton, Bournemouth, Everton all win. Forest drew with Man City.

    I guess I should wait for Southampton to go final.

    • robc

      13. Nottingham Forest 25 pts
      14. Leicester City* 24
      15. Wolverhampton 23
      16. Everton 21
      17. Bournemouth 21
      ——————————————–
      18. West Ham* 20
      19. Leeds 19
      20. Southampton 18

      * play tomorrow
      Dotted line is relegation zone.

      That is crazy tight.

    • Ted S.

      Fuck Man City and their repeated violations of the Financial Fair Play rules.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Yep. Even the guy driving the used Pacer made fun of her. But she still drove the Gremlin because ugly wheels still beat no wheels back in the 1970s.

    In high school, one of the girls in my class had a 1970-ish Opel, and not the cool one. Nobody refused to ride in it.