Wednesday Morning Links

by | Aug 9, 2023 | Daily Links | 332 comments

Grand slam!

The Astros won in spectacular fashion last night.  Sadly, they’re not gaining any ground on the Rangers, who are playing all the bums in the AL right now. But there’s still time.  Barstool and Penn have gone their separate ways so now Barstool can go back to shitposting and ESPN can get in on the sports book game. And the EPL is opening up their season in a couple days and I think it will be a good one. And that’s it for sports.

Yawn. YAAAAAAAWWWWWWNNNNNNN. Whatever you’re trying to sell, people ain’t buying it. Besides, it’s not even election season yet.

Doesn’t this guy know what state he’s in? He’s acting like laws and public safety matter. And that’s just not how it’s done in the golden state.

“The Deadliest Catch: Florida style.” I wonder if all of it made its way to the station.

It’s a mystery!

Yeah, no shit. Of course we’re likely to never know who it officially is, but I think we all know who it was. But laws are for little people, so nothing will be done.

Is the crash coming? This doesn’t bode well.

On second thought…

Uhhh, save it? It’s fucking destroying it, you idiots.

This shouldn’t be surprising. It is MAGA Country, after all.

Why am I just now hearing about this? The misuses of authority, both in what happened and in the investigation, are hilarious.

How convenient. This seems to happen to her every time a corruption investigation gets going.  She needs to face the hearings or resign.

Here’s an underrated band. Such lovely melodies. And here’s another beauty. Enjoy them both.

 

And enjoy this lovely Wednesday, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

332 Comments

  1. Sean

    Topol says the US can’t afford to delay its Covid-19 vaccine rollout. Coming up behind EG.5 are a crop of variants with tweaks that enable them to bind more tightly to cells, he says, making them even more infectious.

    Go fuck yourself.

    • WTF

      …tweaks that enable them to bind more tightly to cells…

      “Tweaks” – I’m sure completely natural and not engineered at all.

      • rhywun

        Right?! Are they just rubbing our nose in it at this point?

  2. Sean

    $170k to wear brown uniforms? Fuck.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I’m skeptical. Drivers, both OTR and local package, were only making close to $145k if picking up extra work and as a total all in including benefits not take home.

      • Lackadaisical

        Even so, 170k, including the benefits is crazy good for the skills involved.

        I done messed up going to college geeze.

    • Rat on a train

      Minimum wage should be $80/hour.

      • UnCivilServant

        Minimum wage can never be greater than $0

  3. Rebel Scum

    There’s a new coronavirus variant

    Coronavirus is a family of viruses. There is always a new one and always will be because they mutate constantly. It still amazes me that this fearmongering bullshit works. Everyone seems to have lost their layman’s understanding of cold and flu in 2020.

    • sloopyinca

      It only “works” on the bastards who live in perpetual fear and/or want to use it as a means to an end. And that “end” is controlling elections and how people live their lives.

      • Sean

        I’m still seeing people wearing paper masks in public. 🙁

      • Nephilium

        So am I. They’re generally below the nose, or filthy enough that they’re going to cause more issues than they prevent. Make me wonder if these people just keep wearing the same pair of underwear every day.

        “My pants aren’t covered in shit and piss yet, so this pair is still good!”

      • Bob Boberson

        Ironically since moving to Deutschland I have yet to see a single person in a mask. Not one.

      • WTF

        They’re letting you know they are stupid and irrational.

      • rhywun

        There are lots of people in my neighborhood with east Asian roots. They all wore masks during the winter in the Before Times—now they all wear masks year-round.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        I see the most masks in the university town nearby, and Portland.

      • Ownbestenemy

        And the money that flows with these “emergencies”.

  4. Rebel Scum

    A bag of cocaine found in the West Wing last month reportedly may have belonged to someone in the “Biden family orbit” — and the president allegedly knows who it is.

    Everyone knows it’s Hunter.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I thought the scoop said it was not Hunter. My money is on Finn

      • blighted_non_millenial

        If you were or had to associate w/ the Bidens wouldn’t you be coked/drunked/doped/etc. up?

      • DrOtto

        That’s more along the Florida story.

      • Drake

        Not saying other people aren’t using, but only one of them has a history of leaving incriminating evidence laying around.

      • Not Adahn

        Whoever it was, they were fiendishly clever — they managed to remove all prints and microtraces of DNA from the baggie!

      • Not Adahn

        And also hack the records of who had the key to that locker.

      • WTF

        And also erased all of the video surveillance!

      • Not Adahn

        So you’re saying the coke belongs to the master hacker 4chan? Makes sense.

  5. Rebel Scum

    Moody’s cuts credit ratings of ten US banks and warns six more could face a similar fate – but firm insists ‘US banking system is NOT broken’

    So you are saying that the US banking system is broken.

    • WTF

      *Withdraws money from bank and stuffs it in mattress*

    • sloopyinca

      Once Jim Cramer weighs in, we will know the situation is the exact opposite of what he says.

      His silence is making me nervous.

  6. Ownbestenemy

    Day 10 in a row of work. All in effort to knowledge dump.

    This morning was adaptation day, cable pulling and facility wiring and administrative stuff.

    Then off to Kentucky…hopefully…if Spirit can pull their shit together.

    • sloopyinca

      if Spirit can pull their shit together

      You will not make it to Kentucky.

    • blighted_non_millenial

      It’s gonna be different this time…. reaches for hot stove…

  7. rhywun

    UPS drivers’ new $170k per year deal

    Please tell me that’s a mis-print. The article is pay-blocked.

    • Timeloose

      I have to imaging this is the salary and benefits total (salary, insurance, 401K match). If not I need to consider a change in careers.

      • The Other Kevin

        I can’t even walk and I’d consider it.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Can’t see either but it’s all benefits included..so probably 100k salary?

      Same shit when we’d get our benefit readouts in the military….E-5 your equivalent in private sector is 105K/year but monetary was more like 50K

      • Gustave Lytton

        And many/most drivers are working OT every day.

      • Rat on a train

        Luxury accommodations. The finest chili mac. Instructor-led gym classes. World travel. Civilians would pay top dollar.

      • UnCivilServant

        You see, the difference is I am not required to follow orders and am allowed to just walk away.

        /Civilian Privilege.

      • sloopyinca

        “This is pretty sweet. Free clothing. Look at this stuff. Chicks in New York paying top dollar for this garbage.”
        -John Winger (E-1)

      • Not Adahn

        Winger sucks, dude.

      • rhywun

        I don’t think I’ve ever crunched my “benefit” numbers, but I am pretty damn sure it doesn’t come close to $70,000 a year. WTF?

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Yahoo is saying $50k in benefits. Still a lot and I don’t know how they get there. Employers do eat a lot in health insurance costs that you never see because if you did, you might not want health insurance through your employer.

      • blighted_non_millenial

        Wonder if they are also including employer portion of payroll taxes.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Ah good catch. I had an old employer do that to me, received a standard raise but on the statement they provided they included payroll taxes to make it look more generous.

      • R C Dean

        That’s still what their cost of employment is, and you do get a benefit from it (theoretically, assuming SocSec is still around when you retire in more or less its current form).

      • rhywun

        Anyway… it’s nuts.

        I do not understand how a UPS driver gets to be in the top, what, 5%?

      • Nephilium

        From knowing some people who made that climb, it requires several years of absolute shit work of loading trucks as a regular (not seasonal) employee to even be considered for the driver role. Of course, that’s due to the union…

      • rhywun

        LOL silly me, I just assumed they loaded their own trucks.

        It’s been decades since I was in a union – I forgot how they operate.

      • blighted_non_millenial

        I unloaded the brown trucks for a while back in the day. So, the deliveries get loaded overnight/early morning, the driver makes pick ups during they day while they are out delivering and do load that themselves (some routes occasionally got a helper). I unloaded whatever they brought in from like 4-8pm. And, yeah, what Neph said, you had to work for years in the warehouse to get a driving gig. Almost all the warehouse gigs (at least at that time, assume it’s still the same) were part time.

      • juris imprudent

        ALWAYS, which is total bullshit.

      • Nephilium

        It depends on if they’re talking the cost to the company (things like FICA and SS tax matching), or if they’re talking benefits to the employee (401k match, vacation, health care). The employer paid health care costs are usually fairly hefty (as evidenced by the COBRA applications I received the past several times I shifted positions). If they’re talking about the employee benefits, they’re also probably including all the garbage “benefits” that are rarely used (insurance discounts, 3% off Dell, 5% off some gym, etc).

      • rhywun

        Last time I did COBRA it was like $600 a month. Which means the company was eating less than $500 a month – not all that much.

      • Nephilium

        Just started digging through mine. 2018 was over $600/month, most recent job change (back in March) I believe was over $800/month for COBRA. I’m also on the single plan, instead of the family plan. I would guess that the calculations used for the article are based on a family of 4.

    • Nephilium

      From the article (my adblock and noscript allowed it to load without a paywall):

      After contract negotiations this summer, full-time drivers for UPS saw their salaries boosted from $145,000 to $170,000 annually including benefits, according to data shared by the shipping company on a recent call.

      • Lackadaisical

        So at the end of the deal they’ll be making 104k/yr to drive a truck. Plus some pretty nice benefits (guessing a large past of the additional 70k is pension and healthcare)

  8. Rebel Scum

    My bit was better.

    Holy sh*t Trump just bodied Chris Christie

    “No Christie’s eating right now”

    “Sir please don’t call him a Fat Pig — that’s very disrespectful”

    • Endless Mike

      And Christie reposted it !

  9. John Nerfherder

    Looks like we’re headed straight for a return to vigilante justice and feuding paramilitaries.

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/miacathell/2023/08/09/andy-ngo-antifa-trial-hacker-testimony-n2626762

    At the conclusion of journalist Andy Ngo’s multi-day civil trial against Rose City Antifa, whose far-left militant members brutally beat the investigative reporter when he went undercover to expose Antifa’s extremist activities on the riot-torn streets of Portland, a 12-person jury reached a verdict in the case Tuesday evening, reportedly finding both of the defendants not liable for all claims.

    In closing statements, defense counsel Michelle Burrows told the jurors that not only does she self-identify as an “anti-fascist,” she strongly declared, “I am Antifa,” and insisted upon making herself an “I am Antifa” t-shirt, which the activist attorney said she would wear after the trial. In spite of Antifa’s well-documented history of violence, Burrows told the jury that Antifa’s unfavorable reputation is untrue and depicted the organized militants as activists fighting for social justice and civil rights. “Resistance in this country has never been peaceful,” Burrows argued in defense of Antifa, admitting that Ngo’s tormenters were, in fact, “terrorists.”

    Rather than taking the time to provide evidence as to why the defendants should be free of liability, Burrow instead defended anti-fascism and attacked Ngo’s credibility as a journalist. Burrows also told jurrors that she “will remember each one of their faces.”

    • WTF

      Except the authorities will only punish one side.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Where was the judge in all this?

      • Sean

        Counting their bribe money.

      • juris imprudent

        Jury verdict is what I read.

      • Lackadaisical

        A judge should still control the lawyer. Anything even close to threatening a jury is way beyond the pale in a courtroom.

    • sloopyinca

      The judge even admitted that the jurors were afraid of being doxxed and then went ahead with the deliberations.

      Quick question: in cases like this, can a jury not be placed behind a two-way mirror for their own safety? Or is that a violation of someone’s rights?

      • Drake

        Violates Antifa’s right to intimidate them.

      • Rebel Scum

        Seems to me the jury cannot be impartial if it is subject to intimidation, which I thought was a crime.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        Maxine Walters smiles in Minnesota.

    • Grumbletarian

      Conservatives should be armed at all times now and shoot for center of mass.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Ask Daniel Perry how well that works.

      • WTF

        Like I said, only one side gets punished by the authorities.

      • Rebel Scum

        So you might as well shoot.

      • Grumbletarian

        I’m sure you’d get convicted but in the current three tiered justice system a conservative can expect nothing better at this point.

      • Not Adahn

        Strangers on a Train.

      • DrOtto

        2 to center mass and 1 to the cabeza.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        African style, I see.

    • Rebel Scum

      Resistance in this country has never been peaceful

      More proof that the left gets to do whatever they want and if the right gets a bit rowdy it’s ZOMG TERRORISM.

    • sloopyinca

      I believe the Post Millennial writer covering the trial had her car trashed outside the courthouse and was openly threatened by people in the courtroom as well, with no consequences for their actions.

      We’re entering dangerous times in those cities. My advice is for all sane people to leave them immediately.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        I am guessing the judge is scared shitless, also.

    • rhywun

      …I got nuthin’.

      JFC.

    • R C Dean

      “Burrows also told jurrors that she “will remember each one of their faces.”

      That would get her sanctioned and reported to the bar if it happened in my court. It would also result in me dismissing the jury and ruling from the bench. Guess which way I’d rule.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Yeah, I don’t get how she wasn’t immediately sanctioned by the judge for that. The lawyer said that she’s quitting after this, and that this would be her last case, but she should be disbarred regardless.

    • Aloysious

      “…will remember each one of their faces.”

      That works both ways, sister. Bless your heart.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      The wife made the comment that we are entering sectarian warfare right now, and used Portland as an example. At first I was thinking that this is nothing like Northern Ireland, but the more I think about it, the more I think she is correct. Right now the conservatives are acting like the UDF (protestants) while the Facists are taking the place of the IRA. Not in a specifically political way, but rather the points on the timeline. The Prots were deeply disorganized and really didn’t come around (for certain values of coming around) until a few years into the Troubles. And I am afraid that is what is going to happen, at which point it is going to get REAL ugly.

      • cyto

        Well, the left is certainly trying desperately to *make* this happen. They want it. They need it…. they control the levers of power. Pushback from the right against leftist violence gives them cover for violations of rights on a massive scale. They have been claiming the need to do so for years, but have fallen just shy of having enough political cover. Any *actual* violence from the right would absolutely alter that balance. With cover from the media propaganda machine, they certainly would be able to push things beyond the point of no return before the centrists back out.

    • Rat on a train

      The waning glory days of the wealthy is deemed the “richcession,” where the economy may be growing overall but just doesn’t feel so good anymore for those at the upper echelon. Those with six-figure incomes sometimes report feeling like they need more to be financially comfortable, and even if they’ve continued to win the economy by nature of their riches, they sometimes feel anxious—but that dog won’t hunt these days.

      I love how they celebrate people making $145k getting a big raise as a win for the middle class and then say people who say they are struggling on $100k should stop complaining.

    • Rebel Scum

      Apparently engineering was the wrong line of work for me.

      • rhywun

        See also: software development.

        And yeah, despite Joe’s inflation, $145,000 a year is still already “upper middle class”.

      • Pope Jimbo

        We are in the stage of a big project where half the people are “Hair on Fire” and half the people are “Remain Calm”. In another week everyone’s hair will be on fire.

        Thinking I could work for UPS and have nice calm days seems really, really enticing now.

      • R.J.

        Yeah. They pay better than I get now too. And lots more exercise.

      • cyto

        You have to work your way up. As I understand it, their drivers start in the warehouse and on the loading dock.

        I don’t know how long it takes, but my wife has a friend who is hoping to get a driver job soon… she has been at UPS for 2 years.

        Say it takes 3 years to get to the driver job. 3 years of paid apprenticeship to get to a journeyman job at a solid 6 figure wage seems really appealing. Certainly easier to get and easier money that jobs that pay less….. nursing, entry level lawyer, etc.

        But that level of pay surely means this job description is not long for this world. It is already an automation target, and if they are trying to eliminate minimum wage jobs at McDonald’s using robotic burger flippers, surely they will go after these 6 figure jobs with robotic deliverymen.

    • PieInTheSky

      see unions work

    • waffles

      How does UPS compete against the non-union delivery drivers?

      • PieInTheSky

        better internal processes, better software, more qualified staff

      • cyto

        Barrier to entry. UPS and FedEx and the USPS are the only nation-wide, any address delivery firms, AFAIK. To compete, you have to go all in, with a national network to all corners. DHL competes, but only for corporate, city-to-city type stuff.

        I suppose Amazon is perfectly positioned to offer a competing service. They go to every address, I think. And they surely aren’t paying their drivers anything approaching this contract.

  10. Rebel Scum

    It’s just a problem of messaging.

    CNN’s Jake Tapper: “I feel like I’ve been noting this for three years — President Biden is out there heralding such and such, and the American people disapprove overwhelmingly! Three years in, we’re still having this conversation!”

    The right-wing media cabal is preventing the people from learning how amazing Uncle Joe’s economy is.

    • WTF

      Those fascist fuckers need to stop looking at their grocery bills and fuel costs and start believing in the bounty bestowed by Uncle Joe!!

    • The Other Kevin

      I hope they keep it up. “You people are too stupid to realize how good you have it” is a great way to get votes.

      • WTF

        They’ll just have to “fortify” a little harder.

      • dbleagle

        Fortification Junction what’s your function?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        cooking up votes and stopping all recounts?

    • Ownbestenemy

      They just haven’t found the right propaganda trigger. I suspect arresting a bunch of GOP politicians and then their donors will do the trick.

      • cyto

        I suspect that this snarky response is more prescient than snarky.

  11. Grummun

    Golden Brown reminds me strongly of The Holliies, tracks like Bus Stop, not Long Cool Woman.

  12. rhywun

    Love today’s 🎵

    Big favorites.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      Yeah, the Stranglers have always been at the top of the list, ever since I first heard Peaches.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuT5KUA7iaY

  13. R.J.

    When state officials sue state officials, do they disappear up each other’s asses?

    On a serious note the losers here are taxpayers. This could be a new grift.

  14. Rebel Scum

    On second thought…

    I have a package for her.

    • Nephilium

      Already there’s rumblings that Issue 1 will be back on the ballot “soon”.

    • sloopyinca

      Any state constitutional amendment should require more than a simple majority. Direct democracy is the mob.

      • Not Adahn

        “Consent of the governed” my ass.

      • WTF

        Feature, not bug.

      • Rat on a train

        Some people like mob rule as long as they think they can control the mob.

      • prolefeed

        Mrs Prole and I were talking to my mother in law yesterday while driving. She lives in Ohio, and of course voted against the notion that more than 50.0001% of the voters ought to agree before changing fundamental rights. My mild objections about how this could go wrong fell on deaf ears.

    • rhywun

      a brazen effort by extremists in the state legislature to undermine citizen-initiated amendments

      LOL that’s breathtakingly, shamelessly mendacious.

  15. John Nerfherder

    One is left to wonder if this was “discovered” to put a dent in Newsom’s perfectly coiffed hair.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/newsom-funded-chinese-covid-lab-known-bidens-fda

    The discovery last month of a Chinese COVID biolab in California shocked the nation, but likely came as no surprise to the state’s Democrat governor, Gavin Newsom.

    He helped fund it.

    The now-notorious secret facility, which contained a massive stockpile of “infectious agents,” including coronavirus, and nearly a thousand dead lab mice and vials of unidentified biological fluids, also likely came as no surprise to the Biden administration.

    The FDA last year issued a recall warning for nearly 54,000 COVID rapid tests manufactured by the company that owned the lab.

    Fresno County officials discovered the “unlicensed laboratory” in a warehouse owned by Prestige Biotech, which has ties to multiple Chinese pharmaceutical firms and a president who lives in China and can only be reached by email.

    The company’s CCP links extend to Barry Zhang, who is listed as Prestige BioTech’s registered agent by the Nevada secretary of state. Zhang reportedly was a leader of the Chinese-American Society of CPAs and its work with China’s United Front espionage and propaganda network.

    The founder of the law firm representing Prestige BioTech, Michael M Lin, is reportedly “a regular sponsor of CCP’s United Front events in Nevada.”

    • Rebel Scum

      You could say the same about every US military intervention.

      • John Nerfherder

        I’ll put money on it that the US will fund and arm al Qaeda to stage attacks in Niger now.

        Just like they did in Yemen.

    • Drake

      Niger sounds just as stable as the Ukraine after the coup we arranged.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      So Wagner is like Victoria Nuland.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      Wait, I though Wagner was the good guy, after that “coup” in Russia?

      • Drake

        Al Queda are the good guys now? Because they are attacking the guys who don’t want to be a French colony?

  16. PieInTheSky

    Texas woman injured after hawk drops snake on her

    A Texas woman was attacked by a hawk and a snake at the same time after the bird – which eats snakes – accidentally dropped the wriggling serpent on her.

    Peggy Jones, 64, was mowing her lawn last month when a passing hawk dropped a snake on her before swooping down to angrily try to reclaim its meal.

    The snake wrapped itself around her arm and began striking her face as the bird sunk its talons deep into her flesh.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66446697

    Texas is soft. A Florida would have bitten the hawks head off.

    • Sean

      That’s quite unlucky.

      • Not Adahn

        That’s some The Tower level shit right there.

    • Necron 99

      Also known as “Tuesday” in Australia.

    • cyto

      How does the BBC get that story?

  17. PieInTheSky

    “The Deadliest Catch: Florida style.” I wonder if all of it made its way to the station.

    I assume the 70 pounds that were reported all made it.

    • Lackadaisical

      Cop 1: I can’t believe we found 70 pounds of cocaine
      Cop 2: yeah, 50 pounds is a lot.
      Cop three at ours conference: officers discovered a record breaking 10 pounds of cocaine today
      At evidence locker: here are those 5 pounds of cocaine

      Couldn’t find the sketch…

      • Rat on a train

        Evidence officer: Here is your receipt for 1 pound of cocaine.

  18. John Nerfherder

    The entire federal apparatus is one huge grift.

    https://twitter.com/Project_Veritas/status/1689048983858024448

    BREAKING: Former Biden Transition Official Andrew Lorenzen-Strait Describes His “Corrupt Bargain” Scheme; Brokering Massive $2 Billion Immigration Contracts with Federal Government

    “There’s a much easier way to earn $2 Billion than caring for 80,000 kids…”

    • Drake

      Collecting the money and not really caring for 80,000 kids sounds easier.

      • PutridMeat

        At least Bender Rodriquez actually started caring for his charges.

    • PieInTheSky

      Only federal?

  19. UnCivilServant

    The UPS contract discussion made me look at the recently ratified contract from my union.

    Apparently, we are trying to bankrupt the state. Aside from the highest set of raises I’ve ever seen (three years of 3%), the restructuring of nonpensionable payments and added one-time payments multiplied across the membership is brutally expensive. I’ve never previously been eligable for any of those nonpensionable payments, now I would be.

    I’m guessing there will be some tax hikes coming up to deal with the ongoing budget shortfalls from chasing the productive classes out of the state.

    • sloopyinca

      They may as well try to pass an exit tax like CA did. That might be the only way they can increase revenues without getting too much pushback from the people who can’t, or don’t want to, escape.

      • Nephilium

        I’m waiting for at least one city/state to float the idea of government employees not paying taxes, and having it be pitched as a cost saving move. “If these city/state worker’s didn’t have to pay local taxes, that would save us money as they would just get the %x% percent in their checks, and we wouldn’t have to process it.”

      • Fourscore

        And would stimulate the economy with a multiplier effect.

        /Not a Nobel Prize Winner

  20. Rebel Scum

    Brutal.

    Megan Rapinoe Gets New Job With Galactic Empire Training Stormtroopers To Shoot

    • Pope Jimbo

      At publishing time, Rapinoe was already in hot water with imperial leadership as she demanded to be paid as much as Darth Vader.

  21. DrOtto

    “…would upend the lives of many homeless people.” Hahahahahaha. They’re lives are so on track now. Enforcing camping bans will throw them in turmoil.

    • DrOtto

      I’m so sick of these articles that treat homelessness like the problem, and not simply a symptom. Affordable housing is not the answer to severe addiction and mental illness. Putting a bum in a house isn’t going to magically transform him into a responsible and productive citizen.

      • PutridMeat

        It’s the usual 0th order thinking.

        Observation: People with a college degree earn more.
        Conclusion: Heavily incentivize and subsidize college.

        Observation: Homeowners are more financially stable.
        Conclusion: Heavily incentivize and subsidize college.

        And on and on… Sometimes people seem incapable of correctly identifying cause and effect and in fact often seem to invert them at a rate higher than random chance. I’m sure there’s some evolutionary explanation of how human beings behave and that it doesn’t scale well to large modern societies. And it doesn’t hurt that the ‘conclusion’ phase often involves lots of opportunity for grift and amassing power.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        People tend to see causation on this issue to be whatever specifically benefits them financially while spinning their own gain as the humane solution. In the end it works out to be neither a solution nor humane.

      • Rat on a train

        Want to bet $1?

  22. Sensei

    The report also found that a growing number of 401(k) participants are initiating withdrawals from their plans. The number of participants taking hardship distributions increased 36% year-over-year, following increases in Q11 this year. In addition, the percent of participants borrowing from their workplace plan in Q2 also increased (2.5%, up from 1.9% in Q1).

    https://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/content/newsroom/press-releases/2023/08/bofa-report-finds-average-401-k–balances-up-nearly-10–in-2023-.html

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘following increases in Q11 this year. ‘

      It’s been a long year.

      • Sensei

        I’m assuming that’s a footnote that didn’t survive the cut and paste. But yeah – it has been a long quarter.

    • UnCivilServant

      Is that really a Hobby? I thought it was more of a lifestyle.

      • R.J.

        All of those other hobbies are lifestyle too. All the things are lifestyle!

      • UnCivilServant

        Nope, that would render the word meaningless.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Where is that avatar from? I’ve seen it elsewhere.

    • The Last American Hero

      You know who else liked to paint?

  23. Rebel Scum

    My guns identify as air horns.

    Amid a surge in crime in Oakland, California, police have advised residents to use air horns to alert neighbors to intruders and add security bars to their doors and windows.

    • Sean

      *nods*

      A .357 makes an excellent air horn.

    • Drake

      Nothing says California style like making your house look like a jail.

      • Grummun

        Oakland, Johannesburg, whichever.

      • John Nerfherder

        It makes it feel more like Central America to the immigrants. It’s a welcoming action.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        So, build walls around your house with Broken Glass imbedded in the top?

    • Fourscore

      Every father has had those moments but some kids take longer to grow up. Teenagers and teenage is hell.

      I’m still waiting for my Corvette, my Dad didn’t give me one, I’m waiting on my kids to surprise me.

      Hope it’s an automatic though, I like being shiftless

    • The Other Kevin

      That horse left the barn years ago. This whole “We should follow decorum and hope the Dems follow our example” is a loser.

    • WTF

      That right there is why the Dems feel safe doing whatever the fuck they want because they know the GOPe will never have the stones to respond in kind.
      Fucking pathetic losers.

      • Grumbletarian

        And when they rarely do (see: No filibusters for SCOTUS nominees anymore) the left is comically aghast and appalled.

      • John Nerfherder

        In McConnell’s case it has nothing to do having stones. He supports the regime as it is.

      • The Gunslinger

        Yup, it’s Globetrotters and Generals.

      • The Other Kevin

        It’s like watching Biff knock on George McFly’s head, and George saying “Now, Biff…”

      • cyto

        if openly taking bribes is not impeachment-worthy, and *asking* about someone taking bribes *is* impeachment-worthy…. just exactly where are we?

    • robc

      Impeachment ought to be rare

      Disagree…I can come up with a reason to impreach every President, with the possible exception of William Henry Harrison.

      • UnCivilServant

        Look harder, Ham Sandwich.

  24. The Other Kevin

    Kids these days are lame. I got my kid a laptop for college yesterday and she hasn’t even opened the box. I’d have had that thing booted up in the car.

    • UnCivilServant

      Take it back. “Since you’re not using it”

    • Pope Jimbo

      I think I was in my 30’s before I had a “new” computer. And I’ve been doing software stuff since I was 25 or so.

      I remember how excited I was to go through the whole setup process. It was a Sony Vaio.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I have passed on the knowledge and joy of going through BIOS settings and then Windows settings with Teen#1. He now has secured (as much as one can in Windows) all his friends computers.

    • The Other Kevin

      Ok she’s next to me trying it out right now. I’m jealous. My work computer is an HP, this is a newer HP 2 in 1 laptop and it’s sweet.

    • R.J.

      I had a new computer once. Then the daughter came along. Now it’s used PCs for me.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      Thats how my wife is. I get a package in the mail, and, even in my 50s, I am tearing that open. She will let it sit for a few days, “Oh, I know what is in there.”

      I just do not get it.

      • Nephilium

        The girlfriend doesn’t even track packages. So I’ll randomly find boxes/packages on doors to my house and have to ask how long it was there.

      • Mojeaux

        I have a Temu (craft supplies) order coming today. It’s like fucking Christmas Eve in my office, watching for the mailman to come around at … 3p. Just in case he’s early.

    • Mojeaux

      When we got married, I got a new computer delivered while I was at work. It was my husband’s day off. When I got home, it was all set up and running and he was so proud he could do something for me. I have very rarely been that pissed at him.

      • Common Tater

        It sounds like he meant well.

      • Mojeaux

        He did, but he was also itching to get his hands on it. He pretty much learned not to mess with my computers/computer-adjacent problems unless I specifically asked for help. He assumed I was not as tech savvy as I really am.

      • cyto

        Go easy. He probably just wanted to play with the new toys (and help his honey).

        I’ll give you the bog-standard advice. Guys are dumb. Like, a lot dumber than you think.

        There. That’s it.

        How does that apply? Well, you have a layered interpretation that ends with “he assumed I was not as tech savvy as I really am”, implying a level of disrespect conveyed by his actions.

        Yeah… guys arent’ that smart.

        No, really. We are way, way more linear than that.

        rather than “Hey, my wife can’t properly set this up, let me do it for her”, it is far more likely that he went “Ooooh! Shiny new toy! I bet she’ll be so happy if I have it all set up and ready when she gets back!”.

        Thinking forward and backward is asking a lot for a dude. Thinking forward and backward and sussing out an implied disrespect? Yeah… .i mean… possible? But really? Dudes ain’t that smart.

      • Sean

        L O L

  25. Rebel Scum

    Arrest everyone that ever advised Bad Orange Man.

    “Well, I think that the odds of seeing this superseding indictment in the January 6th case against Donald Trump are low. And, that’s because it’s clear that the prosecution wants that to go to trial, and they want a trial date, and they want it to be before the election rr even before the Republican nomination. But, what we could see is to your point, the co-conspirators, I think it’s highly likely that some, if not all, will be indicted. In fact, in a separate case.”

  26. Sensei

    Satire a Casualty as Arab Nations Clamp Down on Free Speech
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/satire-a-casualty-as-arab-nations-clamp-down-on-free-speech-5705dd73?st=odtpv54vutekzfc&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    These guys are good.

    It has published sardonic stories about a joint Saudi-Turkish “counter-journalism agreement,” a British-French team of crocodiles patrolling the English Channel looking for migrant boats, and an Israeli offer to help the Syrian government bomb Syrian cities.

    But it was AlHudood’s coverage earlier this summer of a royal wedding that seemed to be the final straw in Jordan. It published a series of stories pillorying Jordan’s royal family for spending so much on the wedding when millions in the country struggle with poverty.

    • cyto

      There was a time when one could draw a distinction between this and the US media landscape.

  27. Not Adahn

    According to this:

    https://www.greenpointcidery.com/my-ciders

    Their “Simon” is made by letting some apple juice sit around until wild yeast established itself, then bottling. I was expecting it to be tart to the point of unpleasantness, like a lambic, but it’s really good.

    So now I am wondering “how the fuck does anyone make BAD cider if this exists?” The obvious answer is that whatever yeasts live around that particular cidery are more suitable than in other places. I am really looking forward to the “First Edition,” which is a ridiculously complicated multi-step, multi-fruit, multi-yeast process.

    • UnCivilServant

      There is a reason regular production dropped the randomness of wild yeast for cultivated strains once we isolated the yeasties.

      • Not Adahn

        What I find interesting is that some yeasts seem to eat sugars, but don’t eat the flavor compounds. The Simon definitely tastes of apples. But the yeasts that Argus (in Austin) uses completely changes the flavor of the final product to the point where if you didn’t know it was cider you’d think it was wine.

      • cyto

        When I was about 12, we bought two 1 gallon jugs of apple cider at an apple festival in the Appalachian mountains near Gatlinburg. They were repurposed milk jugs with a hole melted in the top with a small nail. One was bubbling out of that hole all the way home. They had sat out for who knows how long at the festival, and then sat in a hot car for hours after we bought it.

        After a couple of hours on the way home, I got thirsty and poured some in a cup. It was fizzy. The little bubbles tingled. I had a few cups. Delicious! And I got my first buzz. Still the best alcohol high I ever experienced.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        As Shakespear said in Richard II “Be there no yeast that has no touch of pity.” “But I am no yeast, and therefor have none.”

        Tart, indeed.

    • Nephilium

      There’s a lot to be said about the local biome when it comes to spontaneous fermentation. There are people out there harvesting wild yeast from near fruit trees/plants and then testing them to see if there’s any viable strains. Same as the people who are trying to harvest remnants from ancient pottery and the like.

      • robc

        Some yeast history that I am sure Neph knows, but I think might be interesting to some others of you, but I am responding to Neph because it leads into a question for him…

        So, lager yeast is a hybrid yeast between ale yeast and another yeast. For a long time it was unknown where the other yeast was from. It was discovered about 20ish years ago in South America, apparently it hitched a ride on some spanish galleons to europe from which it travelled to Germany where it finally created the hybrid, which started being used in the early 1800s.

        The question…do you know if anyone has managed to make any interesting beers from the SA yeast alone? I was wondering if you are aware of any attempts. Surely someone has done it.

      • Nephilium

        None that pop to mind immediately. I know that most of South/Central American brewing tradition was brought over by the Germans, but I recall reading some stories in the before times about locally owned breweries going back to traditions popping up through South/Central America which would be my first guess for who would go that route. The other issue is that over 200 years, that original yeast would have mutated quite a bit (one of the reasons I dislike the “brewed with 2000 year old yeast” on historical ales).

      • robc

        Dogfish Head made a chicha. They had employees chewing grain all day long while working at their desks.

      • robc

        AFAIK, there is no brewing tradition with that SA yeast. It was found in sugar balls growing on trees. It wasn’t used in chicha, for example.

  28. Pope Jimbo

    We’re so cool that a black transgender city council person is about to get voted out of office for not being progressive enough.

    The “progressive enough” question may very well be the test that defines whether she can keep her seat.

    Jenkins considered her answer. “I don’t know,” she replied. “Is Ward 8 post-racial?

    “I am a Black, transgender woman,” Jenkins explained. “I see a lot of signs in my ward that say, Black Lives Matter, Love is Love, Everyone’s welcome — all of these things. And yet as a Black woman, my voice is criticized and/or minimized.”

    Which is why Jenkins chafed at the “progressive enough” challenge. It wasn’t just because I, a white journalist, was asking a blunt question. She said there’s something “colorblind” about the question, and to the broader test she faces with Minneapolis voters. In Jenkins’ view, any assessment that finds her progressive credentials lacking ignores a track record of fighting for equity — and also erases her unique experience as an “intersectional” elected official.

    • WTF

      And yet as a Black woman, my voice is criticized and/or minimized.

      She seems to really believe that “her” superficial characteristics should make any criticism off-limits.

      What a sick society we have become.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Takes two to tango: It wasn’t just because I, a white journalist, was asking a blunt question

        The journalo is just as bad when it comes to factoring in superficial characteristics.

    • Suthenboy

      “…fighting for equality…” always looks like someone trying to put out a grease fire with water.

  29. Rebel Scum

    Democratic Party dogma is just evidence based policy.

    Republicans show again because they’re not a party, they are a dime store front for a terrorist organization at this point called MAGA, you basically see that the Republicans over and over and over again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. …

    I wish more people would turn out in general elections and get rid of the legislatures that do this, but this is another example of an organization that’s no longer a party and operates more like a cult and a religious cult than an actual representation of policy preferences of the people.

    • WTF

      The Progjection is strong.

  30. Rebel Scum

    Impartial purveyor of justice.

    Not only did Chutkan decide against scheduling the hearing for when Trump’s attorneys could both be there, she did so after asking them when they were available. Why bother asking, then?

    If the Biden administration is looking to at least even just pretend that Trump is getting a fair trial, they are doing a pretty poor job. Legal analysts from across the political spectrum have raised concerns that Trump cannot get a fair trial in the District of Columbia, or with this judge, and it would seem that that’s the narrative the DOJ is looking to promote.

    Drumpf should feel lucky that he is even allowed legal council.

    • The Other Kevin

      Look at how many charges they’ve brought against him. Do they do that to innocent people? Of course not.

      • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

        No mention that none of them have held water.

        But Trump is the bad guy…

  31. The Late P Brooks

    I wish more people would turn out in general elections and get rid of the legislatures that do this, but this is another example of an organization that’s no longer a party and operates more like a cult and a religious cult than an actual representation of policy preferences of the people.

    But what if the voters vote for the wrong cult?

  32. PieInTheSky

    ‘I Didn’t Kill My Wife!’ — An Oral History of ‘The Fugitive’
    There was no finished script or even an ending and a key cast member became fatally ill during the production. Three decades after the release of the landmark Hollywood thriller, the cast and crew look back at the film’s chaotic creation and reflect on the legacy of the instant classic that almost fell apart

    https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/the-fugitive-movie-oral-history-cast-director-1234789685/

    When Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert sat down at the end of 1993 to pick their 10 favorite movies of the year, they largely selected prestige, Oscar-bait films like The Piano, The Age of Innocence, The Joy Luck Club, and Schindler’s List. They skipped nearly all of the big multiplex hits of the year, including Jurassic Park, Sleepless in Seattle, and Mrs. Doubtfire, making an exception only for The Fugitive. It’s an honor they didn’t give to Die Hard in 1988, The Terminator in 1984, Aliens in 1986, or many other great action movies of the VHS era.

    • UnCivilServant

      Film Critics are Movie Snobs, more at 11.

  33. Stinky Wizzleteats

    UPS drivers make 170K per year? You gotta be fucking kidding me, I mean holy shit!

    • kinnath

      From the yahoo link:

      Prior to the new deal, the company said drivers earned about $95,000 in pay annually on average or about $42 an hour, and another $50,000 in benefits.

  34. Rebel Scum

    Show me the man, I’ll invent the crime.

    In a closed-door interview on Monday with Bernard Kerik, investigators asked multiple questions about the Save America PAC’s enormous fundraising haul in the weeks between Election Day and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to Kerik’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, who was present for the interview and shared details with POLITICO.

    “It’s a laser focus from Election Day to Jan. 6,” Parlatore said.

    The special counsel has long been thought to be scrutinizing whether Trump or his PAC violated federal laws by raising money off claims of voter fraud they knew were false. Last week’s indictment of Trump, on charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, did not include any allegations of financial crime.

    • WTF

      So, fundraising off of bullshit is now a crime?

  35. The Late P Brooks

    That 170k isn’t all cash compensation, but they still do okay.

    • R.J.

      That’s still way more than I make all-in. Way more. And I am a white collar professional. Clearly I need to get in on some grift.

  36. R C Dean

    Wow. Political fundraising off of “false” claims is now a federal felony? They’ll have to build a whole new courthouse, and prison, just for that.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Joe Biden will be arrested for continually claiming that Trump called the Nazis in Charlottesville “good people”?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Biden’s pronouncements are Truth by definition you heathen.

    • Not Adahn

      it’s like 10,000 accelerators when all you need is a brake.

  37. Rebel Scum

    No, you are a right-wing domestic terrorist that needs to be sent to camp.

    Poll watcher from 2020 Michigan.

    It’s completely normal that in 20h time period the counted duplicate ballots were casted ONLY for one candidate, which happened to be Biden.

    It’s completely normal for poll workers to change challenged ballots to a straight Democrat ticket by filling up the ballots by themselves.

    It’s completely normal to add votes from the same batch multiple times.

    It’s completely normal to have poll center boarded up and not allowing GOP poll watches back in.

    If you say that all looks like an election fraud you are conspiracy theorist.

  38. Pope Jimbo

    We need to put a stop to First Ladies doing anything other than vacuuming the White House.

    First Lady Jill Biden, senior administration officials, school district heads and technology company executives will convene at the White House Tuesday to kick off a new cybersecurity defense initiative as schools increasingly fall victim to crippling ransomware attacks.

    The Education Department will launch a coordinating council to provide formal collaboration between government officials and district leaders to help schools strengthen their cybersecurity capabilities in the face of attacks that have closed campuses and exposed highly sensitive student and educator information online. The effort was announced by senior Biden administration officials on a press call Sunday evening.

    The initiative got $200M from the FCC. I’m sure that will be mostly eaten up just covering the costs of these meetings and setting up the internal organization for this effort.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Several technology companies have also committed to offer schools “free and low-cost resources.” Amazon Web Services pledged to provide $20 million for a K-12 cyber grant program, free security training and incident response help. Meanwhile, Cloudflare will offer free cybersecurity tools to small districts with 2,500 or fewer students.

      Because obviously, the best approach to security is to put all your data into the cloud.

      • WTF

        Because obviously, the best approach to security is to put all your data into the cloudon to someone else’s computer.

    • Pope Jimbo

      No matter how much you spend on school security, you are doomed to fail. Not when you have employees who will send $500K to a different back account when a random email asks them to.

      The FOX 9 Investigators obtained internal financial records, which reveal a fraudulent payment of $503,488 which was supposed to go to Stahl Construction Company.

      Stahl Construction is an independent contractor that has done previous construction work for MPS. While the relationship with the contractor is legitimate, the April payment was made to a fraudulent bank account located almost a thousand miles away in upstate New York.

      According to police records, the fraud suspect sent an email to the MPS finance department requesting to change bank account information on file for the legitimate contractor. The email originated from a fake address while pretending to be the legitimate contractor.

      • John Nerfherder

        Those emails come through all the damn time.

        How much of an effing moron do you have to be to follow through?

      • Pope Jimbo

        One MPS finance worker blamed pandemic work conditions as one possible factor, telling investigators she believed school officials did not initially catch the error “due to everyone working from home and employees and departments not contacting each other for verification.”

        So they are basically admitting that their employees are such utter morons that they have to be kept under constant supervision.

        “Sharon, I see you typing on your keyboard. What are you doing?”

    • John Nerfherder

      Civilization should come with a warning.

      DO NOT ENABLE THE PSYCHOPATHS

    • Trigger Hippie

      Religious fanatics come in many forms.

    • Not Adahn

      He compares himself to a SOIAF character. But of course he does.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I doubt covid is the only thing he controls about her. This seems like a win for her.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      Best reply

      Matt Walsh
      @MattWalshBlog
      ·
      17h
      Thank you for sharing your story. So many members of my family aren’t taking COVID seriously. My wife won’t wear a mask so I abandoned her on a desert island in the Pacific. The kids don’t understand because they are also COVID deniers.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Question:

    Didn’t “woke” originate as a self-descriptor by the sjw set? As in, “awakened” to the cruel oppression and indelible racism of American culture?

    • The Other Kevin

      Yes. The first time I heard it was a viral video of some kid crying and reading a poem about “I am woke”. It was all white guilt, and it was just the beginning.

    • Not Adahn

      Yes. More specifically the racial justice faction. But then the White Devils stole it, like they stole everything else.

      • Nephilium

        It’s unfair how all of the terms the left/progressive/liberal/woke/socialists/communists/etc select (or steal) for themselves always get used against them. It shows how insidious and evil the other guys are.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Presuming those weapons systems will actually be a game changer that wins Ukraine the war maybe but they won’t and that guy knows that of course.

      • John Nerfherder

        The only way to avoid escalation is to escalate. This is known.

      • WTF

        War is Peace! Freedom is slavery!

    • Pope Jimbo

      You know if they would have asked this crazy person to do a pregnancy test before the operation they would have screamed bloody murder about not having their life choices respected.

      Now every dude is going to have to piss on a stick before they can get a vasectomy just to appease the trans mob.

  40. Common Tater

    ” Brand Biden and the troubling transfers: Newly released bank records show how $20M poured into crack addict Hunter’s shell company from corrupt oligarchs in Russia, Kazakhstan, & Ukraine while Joe was VP”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12387113/The-20-MILLION-foreign-cash-Biden-family-Russian-oligarchs-3-5-million-Hunters-shell-company-142-000-Kazakh-oligarch-Joes-son-used-buy-Porsche-revealed-new-bank-records.html

    Nothing to see here.

    • WTF

      Yet Biden will still somehow get 82 million votes in the next election.

    • Rebel Scum

      We have to concentrate on Bad Orange Man, who is bad and orange and a danger to Democracy.

    • The Other Kevin

      There could be an actual gun, with smoke coming out of the barrel, and they’d still say “There’s no smoking gun”.

      • Common Tater

        There was an actual non-smoking gun.

  41. John Nerfherder

    And in “News to Nobody” category

    https://twitter.com/danjmcnamara/status/1689027719416225792

    WeWork Raises ‘Substantial Doubt’ About Staying in Business
    @business

    WeWork said there’s “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue operating, citing sustained losses and canceled memberships to its office spaces. Its shares declined more than 14% in extended trading.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    History lesson

    That AP Psychology has even been caught in the crosshairs of the “Don’t Say Gay” law may surprise many Florida parents. When the controversial legislation, officially titled the Parental Rights in Education Act, was first proposed in 2022, it only pertained to classroom instruction for students in kindergarten through third grade.

    That narrow designation helped inoculate the bill against much of the criticism directed at it. What normal person would think discussions of sexuality were appropriate for second graders, the bill’s defenders liked to dramatically ask. “It’s basically saying for our younger students, do you really want them being taught about sex?” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis contended, a rationale that struck some Americans, no matter their politics, as reasonable.

    Yet critics recognized that Florida’s restrictive legislation wasn’t really intended for only its youngest students. Instead, as some educators and LGBTQ activists contended, it was the opening wedge of a broader assault on LGBTQ rights and public education in the state.

    In April, that plan became clearer when the Florida State Board of Education expanded its ban on instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity through the 12th grade. The bill sold to Florida voters as a sensible measure to ensure kindergartners wouldn’t hear about sex in the classroom would now prevent high school seniors from being able to learn about the psychobiological basis of human sexuality — and possibly also from earning college credit for such coursework.

    Those darn Republicans, always expanding the scope of government power.

    • PieInTheSky

      Kids need to stop wasting time with that math shit and learn to eat ass properly

    • Common Tater

      ““Don’t Say Gay” law”

      So. Fucking. Tiring.

    • Endless Mike

      The swimsuits were certainly thinn

  43. Rebel Scum

    NAGA, please.

    “In terms of changing the name Redskins, the Native American community was never asked how they felt about it,” [NAGA’s President of Global Impact Campaigns, Healy] Baumgardner said. “Once again, we are met by closed doors and no open dialogue with the Commanders leadership or the executives.”

    In its three-page letter, NAGA cites lawsuits, polls and general sentiment supporting their argument that Native Americans do not find “Redskin” to be a derogatory term. To close its message, the organization punctuated its meeting invitation by threatening to push for a boycott if their requests continued to go unheard.

    Should we need to encourage a national boycott similar to what happened with Anheuser Busch which is now down $27 billion (note, not one brick thrown, not one highway blocked, not one bridge burned) – WE WILL DO JUST THAT,” the letter reads.

    You will think what white, leftist Karens want you to think and you will like it.

    • WTF

      Most thinking people understand that naming sports teams after American Indians is not an insult but rather an homage to their warrior culture.

      • Nephilium

        /sheds a single tear looking at Jacobs Field

    • Trigger Hippie

      As far as I understand it the term Redskin originated among Native Americans as a catchall/self identifier to distinguish themselves from whites and wasn’t perceived as a derogatory word until fairly recently and even then only by a few native activists and clueless white progressives.

      • Pope Jimbo

        native activists

        AIM = Assholes In Moccasins

        Was told that by an Ojibwe classmate back in the ’80s.

    • Gender Traitor

      As I’ve mentioned, when Miami U of OH’s teams were “Redskins,” the U had good relations with the Miami tribe. Some lucky guy was always named “Chief Miami” and learned authentic tribal dances from the Miamis, then performed them in authentic costume at games.

      Now they’re the Redhawks. Just another damn bird mascot. 😒

    • Grummun

      No no no Indians were totally against the name Redskins, I saw a panel of gen-u-ine Indians on Jon Stewart who looked very upset about it.

  44. Sean

    Daily Quordle 562
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    m-w.com/games/quordle/

    #waffle565 4/5

    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    🔥 streak: 179
    🏆 #wafflemaster
    wafflegame.net

  45. kinnath

    Daily Quordle 562
    7️⃣4️⃣
    6️⃣5️⃣

    boring

    • kinnath

      #waffle565 4/5

      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩
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      🔥 streak: 181
      🏆 #wafflemaster
      wafflegame.net

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Uncle Tony, of the eponymous garage, shares a few thoughts on EVs

    It’s so cute when he says, “Let the people choose.”

    • John Nerfherder

      He’s attempting to run away from his political problems, but he’s not so little.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    “In terms of changing the name Redskins, the Native American community was never asked how they felt about it,” [NAGA’s President of Global Impact Campaigns, Healy] Baumgardner said. “Once again, we are met by closed doors and no open dialogue with the Commanders leadership or the executives.”

    Who cares what they think about being erased from the culture?

    • Not Adahn

      Land-O-Lakes approves of this message.

      • Trigger Hippie

        The decision to change the logo by keeping the land and removing the Indian truly was priceless.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      👍

      (Whatever happened to “Leonardo”, anyway?)

    • Endless Mike

      That’s a better deal than my credit card company offers me.

    • Pope Jimbo

      How long before the IRS climbs up their ass and makes them “prove” that they reported all their revenue?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Inland Revenue, so not a domestic problem. (Where is Limey, anyway?)

    • robc

      There is a very good restaurant in Ft Collins that is cash only. They claim (I assume truthfully) that they donate the saved credit card fees to charity.

      https://fortcollinscreperiebakery.com/

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Cue circus calliope

    A court-ordered muzzle could be imminent for Trump, after the current GOP front-runner appeared to declare that he’s “coming after” those he views as responsible for his myriad legal challenges. Prosecutors brought the comments to a judge’s attention last week, calling for Trump to be ordered to keep any evidence prosecutors turn over to his defense team away from public view.

    But Trump said Tuesday that he didn’t care, calling the charges against him “bullshit” and accusing President Joe Biden of “weaponizing” the Justice Department to take out a political rival.

    “They don’t want me to speak about a rigged election. They don’t want me to speak about it. Whereas I have freedom of speech, First Amendment,” Trump said. Biden, Trump claimed, is “forcing me nevertheless to spend time and money away from the campaign trial in order to fight bogus, made-up accusations and charges.”

    “I’m sorry I won’t be able to go to Iowa today, I won’t be able to go to New Hampshire today because I’m sitting in a courtroom on bullshit,” Trump said to the crowd, eliciting cheers and chants of “bullshit.”

    Bread and circus world.

    • Sean

      Are you not entertained?

      • Not Adahn

        Eh, I’m more into strippers than gladiators.

    • Drake

      Will the Republicans join in the fun and try to remove him from ballots as soon as the Dems get him into a cell?

      • Not Adahn

        *checks star charts*

        Yes.

    • The Other Kevin

      There are some questioning how this would prevent Trump from winning, and here’s the answer. By tying up his resources with these trials, and now imposing a gag order, they’re hoping to torpedo his campaign. Ironic, though, because Biden won while hiding in a basement and avoiding saying anything.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, I think there is literally nothing they can do to stop him short of execution for treason.

      • The Last American Hero

        And having the press carry water for him nonstop while supported by all legacy media and universities not named Hillsdale.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Trump should start wearing all black with a mask and claim he’s part of antifa. That way the judge couldn’t rule against any intimidation tactics he might engage in.

      • rhywun

        lol

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Summon the choir- I would preach to them


    President Joe Biden is traveling west this week on a mission to ramp up excitement for an agenda that – so far – is yielding little political upside.

    The four-day swing, focused on the economy and climate, is part of a broader effort by the White House to better translate Biden’s accomplishments to a populace that remains mostly sour on his record and to spark passion among Democrats, some of whom remain apprehensive about a second Biden term.

    Motivating key constituencies – including young voters animated by climate issues – will prove critical for Biden as the 2024 election ramps up. Enthusiasm for Biden among Democrats remains soft, according to polls, even as the party lines up behind his reelection bid.

    Stupid plebs, how can they not see the awesome beneficent majesty of the philosopher king Biden?

    • The Other Kevin

      “Enthusiasm for Biden among Democrats remains soft”
      You can spin it this way, but there is no damn way anyone who identifies as a Democrat is going to vote for Trump. His handlers don’t give a shit about votes, they will just fortify the election. This hard turn to the green has always been part of the agenda.

  50. prolefeed

    Saw the Barbie movie with Mrs Prole last night – I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Funny and witty and smart.

    • Common Tater

      All the reviews I’ve seen make it sound awful.

      • kinnath

        https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/barbie

        Audience Score: 84% (Verified Ratings)

        Critical Drinker and his cohort said it was blatantly anti-men with zero redeeming qualities.

        My interpretation is that it is a well crafted movie that you love or hate depending upon whether or not you agree with the message. Sort of like Birth of a Nation. Brilliant movie with a terrible message.

    • UnCivilServant

      *applies software patch to prolefeed’s brain*

      Download the latest talking points already.

    • Mojeaux

      XX was despairing. I posted here that she was despairing. @Pat said something profound and I screenshot it and sent it to XX. She got her happy ass to a late-night showing of Barbie immediately, and felt much better. I haven’t seen it yet (I intend to wait until it’s streaming), but it put a spring in my kid’s step, so I’m good. Thank you, @Pat!

  51. The Late P Brooks

    Despite the frustration from some climate activists, the president’s focus this week is on selling what he has done to usher in historic climate investments.

    Speaking in an interview with The Weather Channel taped Tuesday, Biden sought to underscore what steps he’s taken to curb emissions and boost clean energy. But, in a telling signal of the pressure he’s under to do more, Biden also falsely claimed he has already declared a national emergency on the climate crisis.

    “I’ve already done that,” Biden said when asked whether he intends to declare a climate emergency. “We’ve conserved more land, we’ve rejoined the Paris Climate Accords, we’ve passed the $368 billion climate control facility. We’re moving. It is the existential threat to humanity.”

    While Biden has taken a series of significant legislative and executive steps to combat climate change, he has stopped short of declaring a national emergency, which would unlock sweeping new federal authorities and funds to combat the climate crisis. Climate activists have called on Biden since the earliest days of his presidency to declare a national emergency.

    Speaking of existential threats, have you talked to your goons at the State Department lately?

    • The Other Kevin

      If I were a betting man, I’d put money on declaring a state of emergency for the “climate crisis” to be the next conspiracy theory that comes true.

      • Rebel Scum

        You already had your training with the convid lockdowns. Speaking of that, if they can’t scare people with the climate bs they will just declare another pandemic. One wonders what bug they will release this time.

    • rhywun

      the pressure he’s under to do more

      From grifters holding out their hands?

      The American people have already had a taste of what this hoax is doing to their wallets and I think it’s safe to say they are not applying any pressure to “do more”.

    • rhywun

      unlock sweeping new federal authorities and funds to combat the climate crisis

      JFC you mean this grift gets even worse than it already is?!

      We are so fucking doomed.

  52. Common Tater

    “Family arrives at holiday Airbnb to find almost every surface covered with ‘insane’ rules: ‘Is this a museum?’

    Most of the rules warned renters against touching fragile property – including a supposedly 10,000-year-old room divider that would ‘break’ if looked at the wrong way.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-12387623/Family-arrives-holiday-Airbnb-surface-covered-insane-rules-museum.html

    Eight thousand years ago, that one guy with a lathe was very popular.

    • UnCivilServant

      That is not a 10,000 year old object.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    In Arizona on Tuesday, Biden designated nearly a million acres near the Grand Canyon as a national monument, protecting them from uranium mining. He’s also touting the manufacturing and jobs gains made under the Inflation Reduction Act, which included a historic $370 billion toward combatting climate change.

    Speaking as he made the designation, Biden acknowledged there is “more work ahead” to combat climate change, including wildfires, droughts, and extreme heat. He pointed to what he called “unprecedented” actions toward climate and conservation, including the Inflation Reduction Act and its savings on energy, job creation, and other provisions.

    “These are investments in our planet, our people, and America itself,” Biden said of the Inflation Reduction Act, warning that “some MAGA extremists in Congress are trying to undo it all” but that he “won’t let that happen.”

    As we all know, a ban on uranium mining is the surest shortest path to unlimited clean energy. As for those MAGA extremists, we are doing everything we can to criminalize political dissent.

    • Ownbestenemy

      MAGA extremists must still be trending in their focus groups.

  54. Common Tater

    “A Texas elementary school teacher has been fired after she shared a slew of ‘racist’ posts on social media – including one saying she ‘enjoys being racist’ and another complaining about her sister dating a white man.

    The teacher, named as Danielle Allen, 29, lost her job after the Mesquite Independent School District says it became aware of ‘alarming, racist’ remarks she shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    ‘As of this morning, the employee is no longer a part of the Mesquite ISD organization and is not eligible for rehire,’ the school authority said Tuesday.

    The school system slammed her for the ‘highly offensive’ posts, which also saw her brag about believing her job was ‘safe’ because she didn’t ‘directly wish harm on ALL white people.’

    The educator also allegedly self-described as a ‘Black Supremacist’ on her X profile, however the account has since been removed or deleted.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12387803/Texas-elementary-school-teacher-self-professed-black-supremacist-FIRED-joking-killing-sisters-white-boyfriend-enjoy-racist.html

    She seems nice.

    • Mojeaux

      ‘They told me to delete the post, but my job is safe since I did not directly wish harm on ALL White people,’ she said. ‘They laughed and told me to watch what I say, and I’ll be good to go.’

      No, she thought her job would be safe because she’s a black woman.

      • R.J.

        Mesquite TX is outskirts of DFW and very conservative and Spanish. I can’t believe she lasted that long. What a lovely person. At least she publicly identified herself so she could be removed.

    • cyto

      I kinda feel bad for these people. They are horribly corrupt, and have been feeding at the trough of graft for most of their lives… but the level of corruption in our country is so great right now that the hangers-on can wheel this old lady out and use her to keep getting their beaks wet – and not even bother pretending that they are doing anything else.

      I weep for her, and for our country. Our president clearly has zero power in the current government…. he basically says as much all the time: “they won’t let me say..” “They told me to say….”

      The decline has been astonishing. It isn’t that long ago that Bush was lampooned as being a puppet because people thought his Veep, Dick Cheney, was the true power in the administration.

      Now? We have a declining dementia patient as President, and astonishingly nobody would even remotely suggest that his veep is the power behind the throne. Chick talks like a 5th grade C student giving a book report. “The president is a person who leads. The leader of our country is called the president. The president is Joe Biden. Joe Biden leads the country because Joe Biden is the president….”

      Someone handed Dan Quayle a card with potato spelled with the arcane (but correct) alternate spelling “potatoe”, and he never recovered. Yet people pretend that this special needs student is a “strong female leader”.

      It all is so far beyond what is even plausible, I have a hard time coming up with any justification for it. It almost seems more rational to claim that it isn’t real and is proof that we are living in a simulation.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Even as Biden presides over the largest investment in combating climate change in US history, few Americans say in polls they know much about the law that contains the funding, the Inflation Reduction Act. The Washington Post-UMD poll found 71% of Americans have heard “little” or “nothing at all” about the legislation one year after its enactment.

    They should have called it the Pollution Reduction Act. Or maybe the Joe Biden is the Savior of the World Act

    • The Other Kevin

      “few Americans say in polls they know much about the law that contains the funding”

      I’d call that a big win for the Dems, because the more people know where all that money is going, the less they’ll think favorably of it.

      • cyto

        They shoveled out about $8 trillion in “bonus spending” and not even any of the congress critters have a clue as to where the money is going. Not reading the legislation was kind of a badge of honor.

  56. The Late P Brooks

    Who will lead our next generation of imbeciles?

    As David Hogg underwent his own political evolution, he witnessed a generation of young people find their political voice.

    “For every year of Trump’s presidency, I think there was a new chapter of a social movement that was born,” the 23-year-old gun control activist told NPR, “whether it was the Women’s March, March for Our Lives, the environmental movement, or the movement for Black Lives.”

    Now, as the organizers that cut their teeth on those movements become eligible to run for office, Hogg wants to support their campaigns. He is launching Leaders We Deserve, a hybrid political action committee backing candidates under 35 years old running for federal office and under 30 years old running for state office.

    The group — which plans to primarily focus on state-level races and a smaller number of congressional matchups — will target open, Democratic-held seats in the upcoming 2024 primary season.

    Out of the road, MAGA extremists! A new era of peace and harmony and prosperity is coming.

    • Rebel Scum

      Hopefully this goes over as well as his pillow company.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    Hogg: We’re looking for candidates that represent our generation, not just demographically, but also ideologically. The belief that we need to ensure that we stop school shootings and protect kids and not the special interests of the NRA, for example, that we need to protect our planet and not the profits of the oil and gas industry. And we’re looking especially for – basically, the cream of the crop of young people from the recent social movements that came up during Trump’s presidency. To look for them now that they’re starting to graduate college or the first class of those activists are starting to graduate college or becoming eligible to run for office and trying to pick them and say, you know, we would like to help you run for office, we’ll supply you with all of the resources that you need and help basically coach you and hold your hand to get there, which is kind of the gap that’s in the space right now, for at least young people at the state legislative level.

    No shit, Shirley? You want a new generation of lockstep anti-capitalist progressive reformers who will tear down the institutions and culture which made this the best most successful and powerful nation on earth?

    [insert expostulation of surprise]

    • Rebel Scum

      candidates that represent our generation

      I.e. ignorant morons.

    • cyto

      Well of course they have……

      Why does the propaganda machine participate in this? How can they live with themselves, covering this sort of thing up? I get it… $2 billion isn’t as much money as it used to be… but you would think that at least a couple of NYT reporters would try to expose something like this.

  58. The Late P Brooks

    candidates that represent our generation

    Not actually representative of the generation’s a broad spectrum of political or economic theory, mind you. That would be bad.

  59. robc

    Chess World Cup Rnd 4 update. Rnd 4 continues tomorrow with possible tiebreakers on Friday.

    Vincent Keymer (2690) upsets Magnus Carlsen (2835). Magnus will have to win tomorrow to force tiebreaker.
    *Hikaru Nakamura (2787) draws with Praggnanandhaa (2690)
    *Fabiano Caruana (2782) draws with *Ray Robson (2689)
    Ian Nepomniachtchi (2779) draws with Nihal Sarin (2688)
    Alexey Sarana (2685) defeats *Wesley So (2769)
    Leinier Dominguez Perez (2739) draws with Radoslaw Wojtaszek (2676)

    Winners advance to rnd of 16. * means American.

    Keymer is a young German, one of the best junior players. He is 19. He was pressuring Magnus the whole game and then Magnus blundered, and it gave Keymer the edge to force a victory.