Saturday Morning Tales of Baltimore Links

by | May 6, 2023 | Daily Links | 175 comments

Went to B’more for my mom’s 90th birthday party. She’s frail, very frail. But still, her same feisty self. There’s an NP who makes the rounds of her floor. She knows to see Mom last because Mom has the sleeping habits of a teenager- “Up at the crack of noon!”- and gets very cranky if she is awakened before then. In any case, the NP comes in with a fresh nurses’ aide student in tow whom she’s helping to train.

“How are you doing, Carla?”

“Oh, just fine.”

The young aide points to a sculpture Mom keeps in her room, Giacometti’s “Walking Man” (it was in the living room of our house) and asks her about it. Mom replies, “I love that statue. I talk to him a lot when I feel lonely. Every once in a while, he answers back.”

Long pause. “It’s a pity that it doesn’t have a penis.”

The aide looked like she was going to choke. The NP said to her, “I told you that the last visit of the day would be a spicy one.”

And there are some spicy birthdays as well, including the quintessential do-gooder; a major fraud who’s still getting away with it; a guy who I’m sure cheated a black man out of glory; a guy who was always ready with an appropriate bromide; a guy who was a total space case; an essayist whose work made far more sense to me when I was a kid; the greatest football coach until Belichick came along; the greatest commercial spokesman for sparkling wine, ever; the second-greatest (eligible) scientist to never get a Nobel; the greatest baseball player not named Babe Ruth; half of the greatest pure pop band; and a guy who built the best exercise machine in movie history.

Oh yes, we were here for Links, weren’t we?

 

Let the lynching begin!

 

Now, if we can get rid of the Quaker Oats guy, too…

 

Streisand Effect incoming!

 

I’d call it a bad decision, but what do I know?

 

Start with a dishonest headline, go from there.

 

“It’s so crowded, nobody goes there any more.”

 

But this is why they came there.

 

How do you feel about this?

 

I can always tell when I walk into the coffee shop when WebDom is working. The music will almost always be James McMurtry or The Dead South. This was on when I walked in yesterday morning.

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.

175 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    Have you seen the Wire? That place is a shithole!

    • Old Man With Candy

      That literally was the neighborhood I lived in as a kid.

      • Count Potato

        Things were much better back then right after the Civil War.

      • Old Man With Candy

        After?

      • juris imprudent

        You know, when you’re talking about your 90 year old mother, there’s only so far you can stretch the old jokes.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        When I had my driver’s license at 16 I drove 140 all the way into the city to see where it ends. I wanted my mommy.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Yeahhhh… we lived about one or two blocks off 140 (or as locals call it, “Ricer’s Town Rewd”), at Virginia and Waldorf Aves. Burnt down during the ’68 Mild Unpleasantness so it’s a vacant lot now.

      • DrOtto

        Hamsterdam?

  2. Count Potato

    “half of the greatest pure pop band”

    These music opinions keep getting worse.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      That’s something triangle man would say.

  3. Shpip

    Clear majorities of Americans support restrictions affecting transgender children, a Washington Post-KFF poll finds, offering political jet fuel for Republicans in statehouses and Congress who are pushing measures restricting curriculum, sports participation and medical care.

    So Americans draw the line at permanently mutilating children and letting failed boys game the system by participating in girls’ athletics? Very controversial, so bigoted.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Still, as the country engages in a national debate over public policy around gender identity, interviews and other poll findings suggest that many Americans hold complicated and sometimes contradictory views on the subject.

      Lol, what an understatement.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Myron-Hollis Keen, 31, a nonbinary man who lives in East Texas, said knowledge of and access to puberty blockers at a young age would have made a huge difference. Without that medication, Keen developed breasts and now wears a sometimes uncomfortable binder to hide them.

        I mean come on.

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        It’s an outrage that they were forced to physically develop naturally.

      • Count Potato

        “nonbinary man”

      • R C Dean

        With tits, don’t forget.

  4. Grumbletarian

    How do you feel about this?

    That’s a paddlin’

    • Fourscore

      I did my student teaching 45 years ago. It was bad then and it hasn’t gotten any better. After that experience I decided to move along in a different direction.

      Mandatory attendance is a problem. It’s a survival training ground for both teachers and students.

      • Fourscore

        There’s a kid in the background laughing at the episode. What has our world become? I wouldn’t be surprised if the next school shooting would be by a teacher.

  5. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Marine: Assist petty and not so petty crime from a favored class through nonprosecution and legally attack those who try to combat the behavior that the state has woefully failed to curb. It’s a sad state of affairs but if a guy aggressively harasses you in public best to wait until he stabs you before you try to defend yourself or others, location dependent to an extent of course.

  6. Sean

    I’m confused. Are jean jackets back in style?

    • Gender Traitor

      I’m even more confused. Did jean jackets ever go out of style??

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        They haven’t been in since Springsteen wore them to bolster his fake working class credentials for the Born in the USA tour I’m afraid.

      • Nephilium

        What’s style?

  7. rhywun

    In one video, he referred to a woman as “yummy” and in another, he is seen asking a female makeup artist if women have “pillow fights” in the restroom.

    OFFS mild sit-com humor is the best they’ve got?

  8. Shpip

    The city is encouraging people to move a couple of blocks up Wood Street to a site where they have built about 100 tiny homes, or “community cabins”, where Wood Street residents can stay up to six months. They have also set up a “safe RV parking” site in East Oakland. Both sites have job placement assistance, meals, help with mental health and other services and programs.

    A well-meaning attempt to help people get back on their feet directed at a population that has no desire to do so. But at least a few social workers have something to do.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Maybe it’s not such a bad idea, I always thought that zoning with the intention of bringing back flophouses was a good idea but this seems like it might be an acceptable approximation.

      • Tonio

        You see, we can’t allow flophouses or low-rent trailer parks operated by private businesses — that’s pandering to the worst capitalist greed and avarice. Now, when government operates equivalent housing their motives are pure.

        Also, not sure why they have a six-month occupancy rule. Do they somehow think these ppl will magically get their shit together after six months and be functional enough to afford an apartment and deal with all the responsibilities (rent on time, utilities, etc) that are required for that?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        If they don’t get their shit together it’s just a sign that they need to hire more $ocial worker$. Quite a grift and, yeah, private business is how it should be handled.

  9. rhywun

    Hundreds of locals in one of San Francisco’s wealthiest counties have been forced to pack up their lives into RVs and trailers after being pushed out of the housing market.

    Why do I smell bullshit?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      More likely out of towers who know they’re lax with enforcement I’d think.

      • rhywun

        Yup. The notion that these are folks who were pushed out of their comfy homes is ridiculous. The housing market around there has been ridiculous for decades.

        There will be a push for the services to be expanded

        This gives the lie.

    • Fourscore

      San Francisco has counties?

      /Looks in an Atlas

      • rhywun

        One is the loneliest number.

      • juris imprudent

        Presuming the editor there failed to insert “adjacent”.

      • rhywun

        It’s the Daily Mail so it’s just as likely they’re completely ignorant of such details.

  10. Gender Traitor

    You go, Carla! 😄 Many happy returns!

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      It’s her truth.

    • Old Man With Candy

      She’s not wrong.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I feel bad for her husbandwife.

    • juris imprudent

      If they continue the regression they’ll be entirely pre-language in what, a couple of years?

    • rhywun

      Guessing something tranny related but what more do they want that SF of all places has not already given to them?

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        That’s the point. They don’t want to be satisfied.

        You cannot please a person who’s personality and social worth is defined by being outraged.

  11. juris imprudent

    Streisand Effect incoming!

    So I take it they aren’t doing enough to damage Tucker as Fox intends?

    • Drake

      Showing that he’s the same nice funny regular guy in real life? Just devastating. He actually acknowledges that the make-op and sound people exist and jokes with them. And white men don’t stomp people on the ground – how racist!

  12. Scruffyy Nerfherder

    It’s always the money.

    https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/when-the-trading-gets-rough-the-pros

    is this “farm to table” scheme actually growing its own viruses?

    is that how so many folks in industry and at NIH suddenly knew and suddenly had just the right gene sequences and plasmids in a matter of days to hatch total new vaccine types at pfizer, moderna, JnJ, and AZ? (note that JnJ was a player in the event 201 game)

    is is because they had also been involved with the wuhan institute of virology?

    it sure seems like the odds on bet.

    daszak, baric, hotez, and the whole merry band of serial passagers were definitely working on just this thing in just that place and they sure went to incredible lengths to deny this and cover it up.

    it’s clear that ecohealth was playing with bat covid and amplifying it/making it human infective. they were doing it in a program that sounded like a bad origin story for a zombie apocalypse comic book. i’ve written reams on that.

    if the tech for the two most profitable vaccines in human history came direct from the lab that made the virus and the cool kids table at davos was able to front run this ahead of even intelligence agencies because many of them knew about or were involved in the project (or just got preferential access once a leak happened), that seems like a thing we need to know.

    the NIH looks neck deep as well.

    that’s well past “we’re buying regulators to make you buy what we sell.”

    that’s something else altogether.

    • Count Potato

      Unlike a a cockroach, cats have two paws to use a shift key.

      • R C Dean

        Yeah, I could do without that affectation.

    • R C Dean

      I’ve been following the bad cat since a recce here. Good stuff.

    • Tundra

      Absolutely crazy. I did not know this little tidbit:

      bill gates bought $55 million (with an option for $100mm) of bioNtech stock in september of 2019 right before they suddenly had the intellectual property for the most profitable vaccine in history.

      they were not working on vaccines previously.

      i wonder where they got the tech?

      no one seems to know.

      Farm to table doesn’t seem so far fetched.

    • robodruid

      Does anybody else remember the videos (from zerohedge) that showed Chinese people collapsing as they walked in the Wuhan area?

  13. Tundra

    Good morning, Old Man!

    Mom sounds like a real character. It’s good that she’s staying sharp.

    Those lynx, though. Yikes.

    My gut tells me the marine will be fine. I think it would be exceedingly dangerous to press charges – especially with how bad the city is getting.

    Maybe I’m getting cranky in my old age, but I’ve fucking had it with the homeless encampments. Other than race riots, it’s the surest way to wreck a city. The California I remember as a kid is long gone, unfortunately. It used to be so nice.

    Bah, not gonna let the news o’ the day wreck a beautiful Colorado morning, I’m gonna listen to some more McMurtry and think of something fun to do.

    I hope y’all have a great day!

  14. Not Adahn

    the greatest baseball player not named Babe Ruth

    And by the end of his life he was reduced to selling Oxiclean. Sad.

    • Tundra

      They are going to be at Red Rocks in August but the tickets are stupid expensive. I’ll probably pass.

      • robodruid

        We saw them in Durant Oklahoma at a casino, smallish venue. Very good show.

      • Tres Cool

        Durant Durant ?

      • robodruid

        Duran Duran in Durant.
        should have gotten a t-shirt

      • Count Potato

        “tickets are stupid expensive”

        That seems to be a trend.

  15. Count Potato

    “The University of California at Santa Cruz sent out a letter condemning a pair of recent events that saw students allegedly party for Adolf Hitler’s birthday on April 20.

    The northern California outpost of the state’s university system said that there were multiple anti-semitic and anti-LGBTQ+ incidents reported on or near the campus.

    Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Success Akirah Bradley-Armstrong said in a statement that students were overheard singing happy birthday to Hitler and eating cakes ‘adorned with hateful and horrific symbols.’

    The party was reported to have taken place on campus April 20.

    A second incident was reported on the next day in downtown Santa Cruz off campus when a flier ‘included despicable and degrading claims about Jewish people and LGBTQIA+ people,’ Bradley-Armstrong said.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12052869/UC-Santa-Cruz-students-celebrated-Hitlers-birthday-ate-cakes-adorned-hateful-symbols.html

    It’s possible drugs may have been involved.

    • R C Dean

      A party on 4/20? It could only be for Hitler’s birthday. Students at a serious university like Santa Cruz wouldn’t celebrate anything else on that day.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Did they Krystallnacht anybody? IDGAF then, a peaceful gathering where they ate cake and sang songs sounds like. Probably not the greatest idea in the world though.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        They drew mustaches on the girls, maybe?

    • rhywun

      Do better, California.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Only months ago, the encampment spanned several city blocks under the off-ramp of the 880 interstate in West Oakland. In April, the city started a protracted eviction that swept through and scattered those who were living there. Up until last week, a dozen or so residents remained at the camp in what they called “the Commons”: the heart of a thriving community of outcasts. They saw themselves participating in a radical experiment in how to rethink helping the unhoused.

    Of course they did.

    • R C Dean

      Next up: the tragedy of the Commons.

    • slumbrew

      Capitalism is just a white thing?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Differential taxation to drain white owned businesses in order to fund black owned businesses? By golly, I’m starting to think all this equity stuff is just a scam.

    • Fourscore

      …and a well dressed Democratic Socialist, I might add.

      Good idea, tax white businesses and chase them away. Something about getting more of what you reward.

    • R C Dean

      Well, the land wasn’t stolen from blacks. Try not to be so incoherent in your next grift.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      Seems like a good way to get yourself shot.

  17. Grummun

    Re: overnight thread, Marina’s parents are both class A shitheels. That is all.

    • Mojeaux

      *spoiler*
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      They get theirs.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Awww… a good olde fashioned morality play!

      • Mojeaux

        I like to think I serve up satisfying justice to everybody (even the good guys). Or at least a good talking-to.

  18. EvilSheldon

    Good morning!

    Today is gonna be a good day. I have plans.

    – Finish this pot of coffee, jump in the shower.
    – Post office, pick up my new club shirt (a gift to myself for finally shedding the last of the Quaren-ten…)
    – Shooting range.
    – BJJ extended drills class at 2pm.
    – Home Depot, pick up the supplies I need to remove my fucked up garbage disposal.
    – Steak!

    This is just about my perfect day. Even the weather is cooperating.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      If it’ll make you even happier I’d like to offer you the opportunity to fix my fucked up garbage disposal. You can even do it for free, I won’t charge you a dime.

      • slumbrew

        I replaced mine about a decade ago. It wasn’t complicated.

        You can do it!

      • EvilSheldon

        Oh, I’m not fixing it. I’m removing it and putting the drainpipe back. I may get a new garbage disposal when I finally remodel the kitchen, but I’ll do without until then.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Changeling your inner AOC

    • Tundra

      That there’s a good day. Although there should be at least two Home Depot trips, if my plumbing adventures are any indication.

      Enjoy!

      • slumbrew

        Can’t ever be just one trip.

    • slumbrew

      I, too, hope to be productive:

      – finish americano
      – CVS for cotton balls
      – apply medicine to dog’s ear with said cotton balls
      – attempt to de-fog at least one of the headlights (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08745K56G)
      – surprise b-day party at a local brewery at 3:30

      We’ll see how that works out.

      • EvilSheldon

        Surprise for you? Happy birthday if so!

      • slumbrew

        Naw, my cool neighbor. I’m tasked with bringing the cookies his wife snuck over yesterday – she figured she’d give the game away if they headed out with a cookie platter in tow.

      • Ownbestenemy

        +1 Americano
        – Getting a quote for a small remodel of kitchen today
        – helping a friend get back on his feet after a divorce by getting some donated furniture
        – harvested some lettuce, mint and scallion. I have more lettuce than I know what to do with.

    • Nephilium

      My productive day is as follows:

      – Meet up with nephews for Free Comic Book Day
      – Swing by the largest candy store in North America with them
      – Meet up with my sister (their mom) to return them to her at a big free play arcade
      – Get some food
      – Swing by a friend’s house to drop off gifts from Viva
      – Get home to start up the Zoom for you lot

      Sun’s out today, we’re supposed to be getting up into the 70’s, so it should be good. If the weather holds out through tomorrow, I may finally be able to get a bike ride in.

      • Nephilium

        Damn. Forgot two things in there.

        – Swing by Lydia’s to get some strudel
        – Package up a half gallon of home fermented sauerkraut

      • Nephilium

        And I still forgot something…

        – Swing by the meadary that’s closing on the 20th to see what they still have in stock

    • Timeloose

      Good morning all.

      I was very productive as hell for my mental well being this morning.

      Coffee, check.
      First motorcycle ride of the season, check.
      Breakfast with my buddies, about to start.
      Wife and MIL planting annuals and pepper plants for my hot sauce, check.
      Cinco de Stinko party later this afternoon

    • R C Dean

      Let’s see:

      Coffee and breakfast done.

      Hit the garage gym
      Make breakfast and lunch for next week
      Get sandwiches and beer from the brewpub.
      Field strip and clean the bullpup.
      Maybe do Mrs. Dean’s loadout for her rifle class next week (1,000 rounds in stripper clips). If not today, tomorrow.
      Very possibly a nap.
      Some light landscaping – need to shore up some trellises with roses and misc. flowering vines.
      Cocktails and NASCAR this evening.

      • R C Dean

        Oh, left out my daily Duo Spanish lesson.

      • slumbrew

        Day 588 of French with only a single streak-freeze used.

        It’s starting to click a bit. A fluent friend just pointed me to The News In Slow French podcast that I need to check out (Spanish version too)

      • R C Dean

        Ooh. Cool. Will look up.

        My streak is up to 144. Some of those were single lessons, and one streak freeze.

      • one true athena

        Oh thanks! I’m on day 302 for french. Liz340226 for any othe Duo friends.

    • The Last American Hero

      Insinkerator has a lifetime guarantee. Call the number on the old unit and they will send you a new one.

    • Mojeaux

      “productive”

      What is this word, please?

    • Count Potato

      “Finish this pot of coffee, jump in the shower.”

      So you are saying you are going to piss in the shower?

      • slumbrew

        In part…

    • Old Man With Candy

      Mowing the lawn.
      Seeing a band.
      Plowing an NPR Lady.

      • slumbrew

        Giggity.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        Mowing AND plowing I guess you are a farmer now!

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      Uhm, what is the agenda?
      . pot of coffee.
      .drive to old barn clear-out to look for stuff.
      .woodworkers estate sale on the coast.
      .two gunshops I haven’t been too in a while.
      .date night with wife.

    • kinnath

      Heading out in an hour or so to pour home brew at a charity fundraiser / beer festival.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    The three-acre parcel of land the camp was located on is owned by the city, who plan to develop it into 170 units of affordable housing by 2027 or 2028.

    Details on how affordable the 170 units will be are scarce. Half the units will be for rent, the other half will be for sale, according to a fact sheet shared by the city. Officials say they plan to make the housing affordable to households ranging from extremely low income to moderate income. At least 13 units will be earmarked for homeless households, six units for formerly homeless veterans and seven for youth exiting the foster care system who are at high risk of becoming homeless, according to the sheet.

    Built at a cost of $500 per square foot, most likely.

    • rhywun

      Plus extra for “services”.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    In the days before the final eviction, residents had tried to stay in their shelters in the hopes they wouldn’t get bulldozed. Speaking to the Guardian through a 10ft fence because the city was restricting journalists’ access to 15-minute increments, Moose explained why he wasn’t just picking up and moving: “I believed in what we were doing here. I actually felt like I was an effective contributor to a community, to a group of people who otherwise never would have had their needs properly assessed or properly addressed. They probably would have been floating around the system for years.”

    Moose was interrupted by someone warning his shelter may be demolished next. He darted across the encampment back to his two-story home, built by hand out of a prefab metal shed on a foundation of old tires, with several extensions made up of pallets, tarpaulins and various construction materials that had been dumped on Wood Street over the years.

    Somebody should hire that guy as a butler. Or an architect.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    In the final days of the encampment, some residents were moving to the RV site, some to the cabins, some hired a forklift and transported several of their makeshift houses out of the encampment and over to the north end of Wood Street. They hoped they wouldn’t be immediately evicted from there too.

    !!!!!

  22. Ownbestenemy

    Teen #1 picked up a job at Harbor Frieght. Now one more to get a job.

    • Tundra

      Woohoo!

      I made both my kids do stints in retail. I’m not sure there is a better way to learn to navigate the bizarre world of human behavior.

      • Nephilium

        Fast food.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I did my first stint at Play It Again Sports. Loved it and it was two birds with one stone. It was a job and I could supply my hockey habit.

        I actually would love to run a sports store.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Most Americans support anti-trans policies favored by GOP, poll shows

    We need common sense democracy regulation.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Most Americans don’t believe it’s even possible to be a gender that differs from that assigned at birth.

    [insert expostulation of aggrieved consternation]

    • KSuellington

      I have said it before , but gender is almost always assigned at conception, not birth.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Swing by Lydia’s to get some strudel

    Is that what the hep cats are calling it now? These euphemisms…

    • Nephilium

      No euphemism, just an 80+ year old family owned bakery.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    First, don’t make eye contact

    Since Jordan Neely was strangled to death on the subway this week, social media has been awash with New Yorkers discussing how they would react to a person who appears to be in a medical or mental health crisis. Gothamist spoke to mental health workers and advocates about how they would respond in this type of situation – and what members of the public can do to keep situations from ending in tragedy.

    Their responses highlighted some of the challenges these scenarios present and the limitations of New York City resources. And while there was no consensus on the right approach to take, they all urged compassion.

    Remember, they all want cake.

    • R C Dean

      Howsabout New Yorkers recounting their stories of being assaulted or threatened by crazy homeless people, and how people should deal with that? Anything on the socials about that?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Everyone’s an expert until they get mugged

      • Ownbestenemy

        Head on a swivel people…head on a swivel

      • Grumbletarian

        That poor man had to witness the murder of his own grandmother!

        /proglodyte apologists

      • Drake

        Judging from the number of NY plates I see in the Carolinas and last week in Florida, I can guess how many of them are dealing with it.

      • R C Dean

        By colonizing the benighted hinterlands?

        Seriously, legalizing pepper spray in NYC (pretty sure it’s illegal) would probably be a good start.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Sure, compassion while being pushed onto the tracks or punched in the face or stabbed.
      Fuck. Off. I wonder how many of these fine advocates actually have to deal with these people in an uncontrolled environment.

    • rhywun

      First, don’t make eye contact

      Exactly this.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Imagine an alternate universe where Bernie Goetz was presented with a key to the city.

  27. Mojeaux

    @limey, I just saw your comment on the last post. THANK YOU!!!

    • limey

      🙂👍

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Experts say it’s untrue that people with mental illness are disproportionately likely to be violent to others.

    “Most people with mental health conditions are no more likely to be violent than anyone else,” and “only 3% to 5% of violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness,” according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Media studies — from places like Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins — convey how the media’s overemphasis on the connection between violent acts and serious mental illness can lead to prejudice against people with those conditions.

    That’s fine. What about mentally ill people who are, in the moment, behaving in an erratic and aggressively threatening manner? What do the numbers look like for them?

    • rhywun

      How about accounting for time & place? Because in certain times and places – like the one in question – the exact opposite is true and is glaringly obvious to everyone.

  29. Brochettaward

    Due to continued pregnancy related growth, and not any issues related to gender expression, I have started to wear dresses on some days. I find them incredibly…freeing. The comfort is a godsend.

  30. Ownbestenemy

    Call me doubtful on this story.

    Students celebrate Hitler’s birthday with cake and songs, California university says

    So no pictures or video in an age where everything is recorded by kids

    • KSuellington

      There’s a reason there are no pics, descriptions or videos and it’s likely because if it happened it was likely not the cultural/racial group that the school would prefer to catch doing that sort of thing. If I had to wager it would be The UCSC for Palestine or something of the like.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Back to that WaPo “gender” article:

    And some Americans have become more conservative on these questions as Republicans have seized the issue and worked to promote new restrictions.

    Holy fuck. Could they state that any more dishonestly?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Republicans seize!

      • rhywun

        -1 pounce

      • Gustave Lytton

        Businesses screening out ex-felons has no rational basis at all…

      • Tundra

        Fuck me.

        He’d been arrested in July 2020 and faced 13 felony counts, including five kidnapping charges, for multiple incidents in May-July of that year, according to Maricopa County Superior Court records. He pleaded guilty to three charges in June 2021, and the other charges were dismissed.

        I’m seeing a trend here.

  32. Tres Cool

    “Are jean jackets back in style?”

    Always en vogue for a certain culture.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Canadian tuxedo?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Yes

      • Scruffyy Nerfherder

        Stick with it until his comments on democracy and national security.

      • Tundra

        Refreshingly honest, I guess.

        Scum.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Stick with it until his comments on democracy and national security.

    Pass.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    One step closer to a walkable undriveable city

    The Biden administration on Friday cleared New York’s congestion pricing plan to move forward, approving an environmental review that suffered such significant delays many doubted the first-in-the-nation tolling system would ever happen.

    The Federal Highway Administration issued a letter approving the New York Metropolitan Transportation’s Authority environmental assessment and issued a draft “Finding of No Significant Impact” that will now be up for public review for 30 days, according to a copy of the letter obtained by POLITICO.

    The news means the agency has been given the green light to start charging drivers entering central Manhattan at peak times in an effort to cut down on gridlock.

    MTA officials have said they would need almost a year to set up the new tolling infrastructure once it obtains federal approval, putting it on track to meet its current target of launching congestion pricing in the second quarter of 2024.

    A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul said the finding “is a critical step that will allow our Environmental Assessment to be publicly available for anyone to read, and we will continue to work with our partners to move congestion pricing forward.”

    How will they do this in an equitable manner?

    • rhywun

      Hey, those MTA retirement pensions won’t pad themselves.

    • hayeksplosives

      “How will they do this in an equitable manner?”

      Easy. You own a car in Manhattan? Clearly cis-white-male privilege. Access DENIED!!

      Somebody dust off Kurt Russell. Might need him in the Escape from New York remake.

  35. KSuellington

    | Hundreds of locals in one of San Francisco’s wealthiest counties have been forced to pack up their lives into RVs and trailers after being pushed out of the housing market.

    San Francisco has one county and it is not Marin Co. I know that typically the homeless industrial complex gives the title of “local” to anyone who has lived for a month at an area address. I imagine the percentage who were born or grew up in the area is fairly small. The area that they are squatting in is in Novato, which is by far the most middle and working class part of Marin. There’s a reason they are allowed to do it there and not most other parts. As Rhy noted above, the housing prices in Marin have been extremely high for decades now, so they weren’t really priced out of the market.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    “Governor Hochul is committed to implementing congestion pricing to reduce traffic, improve air quality, and support our public transit system,” John Lindsay, a spokesperson for Hochul, said in a statement. “We’ve worked closely with partners across government and with community members over the last four years to develop a plan that will achieve these goals.”

    We’ll herd those infernal tax cattle back onto the subway, one way or another.

    *John Lindsay? Any relation?

    • rhywun

      John Lindsay? Any relation?

      I was wondering about that too.

      We’ll herd those infernal tax cattle back onto the subway, one way or another.

      Some of that, but the bigger issue is that the subway et al. have been disconnected from the market for many decades, such that it is not politically possible to charge what it actually costs because racism!. Plus it’s a gravy train for all the union flacks who reward their patrons at the ballot box.

  37. kinnath

    Daily Quordle 467
    4️⃣7️⃣
    3️⃣5️⃣

    • rhywun

      Feh.

      Daily Quordle 467
      6️⃣9️⃣
      7️⃣3️⃣

  38. The Late P Brooks

    The public transit authority hasn’t determined how much to charge drivers, but has considered fares ranging from $9 to $23 for passenger vehicles and between $12 and $82 for trucks. The scenarios contemplate different combinations of potential discounts, credits and exemptions.

    No shit, Shirley?

  39. Count Potato

    This is a long shot, but does anyone know where I can find the video of The Blaire White Project “Ben Shapiro Can’t Stop Being Anti-Freedom” 24 April? It looks like the YouTube was taken down (I’m guessing because she talks about showing off her new gun). I can find the audio, but can’t find the video.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Insufferable interference

    Paxton’s announcement also comes after a week of tense protests at the state Capitol in Austin over two bills that would ban transition-related care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for minors. The bills would also bar public funds from covering the treatments or from going to hospitals or health care professionals who provide the treatments.

    None of those things even happen, but we cannot permit them to be restricted in any way.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    What would Stirling Moss do?

    Famed Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton will wear a rainbow-adorned helmet this weekend in support of the LGBTQ community’s battle against legislation it has deemed as hostile.

    Hamilton, a long-time supporter of LGBTQ rights, didn’t call out any specific legislation in Florida, where the “Don’t Say Gay” education law and a proposed measure against drag performances have drawn fire from civil rights advocates.

    “I did hear and have read about some of the decisions that have been made in government here and I do not agree with it and I do not support it,” the British racer told reporters ahead of the Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix.

    “I really do continue to stand with the LGBTQ community and I’m wearing a rainbow flag on my helmet this weekend,” he continued. “I just really want to continue to support the community here and let them know I stand with them and I hope they continue to fight against it.”

    Whatever. Knock yourself out.

    • slumbrew

      Now call out Saudi Arabia, you fucking coward.

  42. hayeksplosives

    “offering political jet fuel for Republicans in statehouses and Congress who are pushing measures restricting curriculum, sports participation and medical care.”

    Oh, give me a fucking break

    Your kid is not being denied any curriculum beyond cumpulsory drag book readings. Your kid can absolutely participate in sports–in his/her physical gender. Medical “care”? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

    • R C Dean

      Not explained: How this can be political jet fuel unless a good chunk of the voters want it. I’m so old, I can remember “Muh democracy!” as the rallying cry for the *checks notes* progressives.

  43. Brochettaward

    Will I ever rejoin the panted world, you may ask? That, I do not know. But I do know that when I wear the dress, I feel free. I feel a softer side that I did not know existed in a Firster.