Sunday Morning Post Picking Links Post

by | Aug 20, 2023 | Daily Links | 238 comments

Old Jew not shown.

So, fun day yesterday. NPR Lady and I drove over to Finger Lakes, smoked a bunch of weed, picked blueberries, smoked a bunch of weed, did a wine tasting at one of the better places, smoked a bunch of weed, saw an excellent band playing, smoked a bunch of weed, made dinner, smoked a bunch of weed, then caught her up on cultural literacy by having her watch The Big Lebowski (which she had never seen- what the actual fuck?). Laughed her ass off. She’s a Prog, but a fun Prog.

Birthdays today include the grandson of our best president; the Norman Rockwell of poetry; SugarFree’s muse; an architect who created some of the worst shit ever erected; an author who wrote some of the worst shit ever published; a guy who shared a barber with Marty Allen; a demonstration that in an ugly pool, shit rises; a guy who, in any kind of just universe, would have been our greatest president ever; a delightful guy who set me on the path of my early career in science; a guy who shared a barber with Geert Wilders; perhaps the greatest chef in America; the pioneer of screaming rock; an absolutely brilliant singer/songwriter; a guy who made his fortunes as a punchline; and a woman who made her fortunes as a punchline.

Let’s Link.

 

One more reason to send woodchippers to Ukraine.

 

Why don’t you BUY them, you corrupt freeloader?

 

Die already, you twisted evil fuck.

 

Interesting that they didn’t even once mention that he’s a brain-damaged zombie.

 

Local story with soooo many Italian names. Couldn’t be Mafia because that doesn’t exist, right?

 

This is long but really worth wading through to understand the drivers of current heat trends. If it’s too much for you, here’s a Cliff’s Notes version.

 

Old Guy Music is from a King Crimson spinoff that had a totally different sound than King Crimson. And I’m still convinced that Michael Giles was one of the finest drummers in rock history.

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.

238 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    Natural?

  2. Common Tater

    That reminds me, I have a pint of blueberries in the fridge.

    • Suthenboy

      Blender: one peeled banana, a handful of blueberries, two cups or so of V8 Splash strawberry-kiwi lemonade. Blend. Drink.
      My wonderful wife makes one daily for me. She splits it between us. She adds vodka to hers. I Shirly-Temple mine. No vodka for me…I had to get a new hobby.
      Damned things are delicious.

      • Common Tater

        I have bananas, but no V8 Splash strawberry-kiwi lemonade.

      • Gender Traitor

        Just substitute an equal amount of vodka.

      • Common Tater

        Even I can’t drink a whole pint of vodka.

      • Suthenboy

        Piker.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Frozen banana chunks work even better.

  3. Common Tater

    “And I’m still convinced that Michael Giles was one of the finest drummers in rock history.”

    He was good, but not even the best drummer in KC.

      • Common Tater

        I don’t do YT from here.

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

        Frame by frame.

      • Common Tater

        I’ve seen that line-up play three times, if I remember correctly.

      • dragonbook

        The period when Crimson was fronted by Belew was such a different band that it shouldn’t have been called King Crimson. They basically didn’t even play any of the music composed by earlier incarnations, except for an occasional instrumental.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Fripp disagrees with you.

      • Common Tater

        He also has no rhythm.

      • Shirley Knott

        Fripp disagrees with everyone sooner or later. Usually sooner.
        An odder pairing than Fripp and Toyah I cannot imagine. I liked some of her stuff, but …

    • Ted S.

      Top winds are down to 80, and it’s supposed to weaken a good deal further by the time it passes east of LA 12 hours from now.

    • John Nerfherder

      Thanks for putting that thought in my head.

      Asshole

      • SDF-7

        evil whisper: “Kamala, Pelosi, Gavin, Joe, Hillary and Abrams in a key party orgy!”

        laughs maniacally and runs away…

      • Fourscore

        Now I’m supposed to eat breakfast? That’s not nice, SDF.

    • Rat on a train

      golden [state] showers

    • SDF-7

      Well, I’m personally quite annoyed that all of it looks to be going to the East side of the Central Valley over into Nevada and Utah. Any rain we get is welcome in this boring “sunny and hot” phase of the year.

      Admittedly, that’s because I know by the time fragments make it up here, it will be tropical depression at best, not even storm. Southern California doubtless feels differently, and I don’t blame them.

      • DrOtto

        Tropical depressions are just lower wind speeds. They can stall out and cause serious flooding though. One of the worse flooding events I had seen while living in Houston was a stalled depression. 36 hours of constant, heavy rain.

      • Chafed

        This state is so badly mismanaged. All I ever hear is we are in a drought and need to save water. But when it rains, it’s panic time and we have inadequate water storage

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Not torrential down here so far.

  4. Gender Traitor

    Are you sure she wasn’t just laughing her ass off because of all the weed?

  5. Brawndo

    “The rights of Ukrainian citizens must be guaranteed”

    When you’ve spent the last year living off the welfare of other nations, I can understand why you would be so entitled to think that your people have the “right” to seek refuge in other countries. If you want me to believe they are legit refugees, then maybe they should try going to border countries first. It’s like central and South Americans coming to America going through 5 countries before getting to America. Why not claim refugee status in Mexico? Oh right, it’s the gibs

    • Suthenboy

      Why do you rob banks?

      -Because that is where the money is. -Willie Sutton

      Who wants to live in a shit hole when you can come here and loot the treasury?

      Upon leaving the US to return to Mexico back in the ’70s the Mexican president said “I dont understand why we gave away all of this to the US. It has all of the best roads, hospitals, electric grid…etc. etc.”

  6. John Nerfherder

    Interesting comments on the Curry article concerning Antarctica and tectonic heating under glaciers.

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825222000381

    I conclude that the rate of Antarctica ice basal melting is significantly underestimated: (i) the area with high heat flux is double in size and (ii) the amplitude of the high heat flux anomalies is 20–30% higher than in previous results. Extremely high heat flux (>100 mW/m2) in almost all of West Antarctica, continuing to the South Pole region, and beneath the Lake Vostok region in East Antarctica requires a thin (<70 km) lithosphere and shallow mantle melting, caused by recent geodynamic activity.

    • Fourscore

      So maybe we need more carbon in the air?

      I don’t know, man, but I need cheaper gas to run all my appliances.

    • Suthenboy

      Speaking of the dynamic earth…the poles are moving at a much greater rate today than in th past. So fast that surveyors dont mark the declination on their compasses any more. They have a hotline that they call to get the present locations of the poles hour by hour.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Putin is stealing the North Pole.

    • Rat on a train

      If only there was some lesson from recent history.

      • Grosspatzer

        We have tried to teach our kids to live within their means, and put aside some surplus for rainy days and retirement. Which means they will at some point wind up having their funds confiscated to support their free-speding, debt-ridden peers. Continuing the family tradition.

    • John Nerfherder

      What could possibly go wrong?

      Quite a bit

    • Fatty Bolger

      The most common use by far for HELOC loans is to maintain or improve the property, which maintains or increases the value of the asset. The second most common use is to consolidate debts with a low interest rate. I don’t really see it as a harbinger of doom.

      • Common Tater

        Yes, but you know there are plenty of idiots out there who will borrow money they don’t have just to buy shit.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Well, that’s pretty much every primary mortgage.

      • Fourscore

        Get a second mortgage to repair those things that got run down due to lack of maintenance while yesterday’s money was financing vacations and new cars.

        “It’s the American Way”

        Five years ago I took inventory of what I wanted to do (have done) before I left.

        1. Chain link fence a new spot for a garden. Done, in 2019, best gardening idea I ever had.
        2. Metal roof on all the buildings. Done, started with the cabin, then 2 garages/house, metal building already had a metal roof.
        3. Replace patio slab. Done
        4. Pay off grand kids college loans. Done

        Some interruptions along the way, 2 chimneys torn off by the sliding snow, a slight accident on my part. Other than that just keep on doing what I can do myself. My neighbor is repairing some snow damage today, Serious work but not expensive. I’ll be ready for winter, more or less.

  7. SDF-7

    I picked up Lebowski on sale a while back… I suppose I should get around to watching it at some point. (Real Genius is in the same boat… I know they’re cult classics, I just haven’t been in the mood). Did finally get through Everything Everywhere All At Once — I apparently kept stopping right before it really picks up (for some reason I wasn’t making it to the beginning of the audit). Not bad, not really earthshattering either.

    • Common Tater

      I thought it was way too long.

    • Not Adahn

      I liked it, but thought it was awfully derivative.

    • SDF-7

      I’m not clear if you’re the birthday boy — or if you just celebrate ones you know with a good pipe… so Happy Birthday, GP if it is you… and Happy Birthday, Random Stranger if not. Pipes smell fine as long as I’m not the one smoking them (not a smoker… or a pit grill, for that matter).

    • Gender Traitor

      Ah, yes! It’s YOUR boy, isn’t it? MANY happy returns to him! 🥳🎂

      • Grosspatzer

        Thanks. We enjoyed a pricey dinner together. But today I am celebrating SF’s muse with several of the tobaccos in the Old Ones series.

      • Common Tater

        +1

  8. R C Dean

    Alright, so I scanned Jacqueline Susann’s Wiki. After being hospitalized with cancer:

    “Her last words to [her husband] Mansfield were, “Hey, doll, let’s get the hell out of here.”

    • Ted S.

      I haven’t read the book, but the movie is a hoot.

    • Chafed

      I like her style.

  9. Common Tater

    “Emma Rose, who is one of the world’s most famous transgender porn stars, started by approaching random men at Montreal’s Osheaga Festival and asking them to rate her looks out of ten.

    Dressed in a flirty miniskirt and busty bra that left little to the imagination, the stunning adult performer received high scores from almost all of the Canadian men she spoke to.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11371545/Trans-porn-star-Emma-Rose-flushed-balls-toilet-flight.html

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12415611/Transgender-woman-asks-straight-men-street-want-sleep-answers-shock-you.html

    • Ted S.

      Canadian men have bad taste?

    • Suthenboy

      A gay dude once told me I was the only 100% strait guy he had ever met. I thought of all the guys we knew in common and….Oh shit! Really?
      Yep, he said to me. “You would be surprised what goes on when you aren’t looking.”
      No, I wouldn’t, but I am happier not knowing details.

    • Suthenboy

      I subscribe to the theory of STEVE SMITH himself being blurry explains why all of the videos and photos of him are hard to make out.

  10. Common Tater

    “Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her eight-comrade “squad” of anti-cop lawmakers have shelled out more than $1.2 million in campaign funds on private security since taking office, records show.

    Leading the way is Cori Bush (D-Missouri), who has reported spending more than $730,000 on private security – including $75,000 she funneled to her own husband – and Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), whose $272,000-plus tab includes security upgrades at her district offices….”

    https://nypost.com/2023/08/19/defund-the-police-aoc-squad-spent-1-2m-on-security/

    Typical, just typical.

    • R C Dean

      Anonymous sourcing, nothing in writing. Pass.

      • Rat on a train

        Anonymous sources are the most reliable.

      • Shirley Knott

        Second only to conspiracy theories.

      • Chafed

        And this is a conspiracy theory supported only by anonymous sources.

      • Shirley Knott

        Three conspiracy theorists walk into a bar.
        You can’t convince me that was just a coincidence!

      • Gender Traitor

        😆

      • Suthenboy

        So what you are saying is that anonymous sources familiar with the president’s thinking is not good enough for you?

      • Fourscore

        “familiar with the president’s thinking”

        Hehehehee

      • creech

        He thinks?

    • Brawndo

      I live in Massachusetts. I’m ready to be mad all the time again.

  11. Common Tater

    “Ford CEO Jim Farley said he got a “reality check” when he tried to charge his electric car during a road trip across the American West. The incident comes as the Biden administration has spent billions of taxpayer funds to boost electric transportation.

    With windmills in the background, Farley posted a video to X while he was on a trip across the Western United States in which he made the admission that his experience trying to recharge his car was a “really good reality check” to see the challenges his customers are facing on a regular basis.

    Farley said that it took his car 40 minutes to get up to only a 40 percent charge on his car. If he were to be using a gas-powered vehicle, the process of refueling would take a mere fraction of that time in comparison.”

    https://thepostmillennial.com/ford-ceo-hit-with-reality-check-when-trying-to-charge-ev-truck-on-us-road-trip

    No shit.

    • John Nerfherder

      The idea that this is a surprise to him is ridiculous.

      But it does say that Ford is starting to give a little bit of pushback. This would be their way of telling the Feds to lay off.

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

        It isn’t that no one knew this, what it is a very public push back against the Borg.

      • Sean

        Or an attempt for more subsidies.

      • R C Dean

        Ding ding!

        I’m expecting a mandate that every gas station have fast charging stations. With caps, of course, on what they can charge for the, umm, charge.

    • DrOtto

      “We need Uncle Sugar to build us more high speed charging stations! “

      • rhywun

        And it will happen. The budget blowout will be epic.

      • creech

        Once we pay to replace the coming shortage of F-26s, missile batteries and such shipped to the scrap heaps in Ukraine.

    • Suthenboy

      If electric cars were actually viable and you wanted to transition away from fossil fueled cars to electric ones you would begin by substantially beefing up the electric grid, not by mandating the use of electric cars. If, on the other hand y ou wanted to destroy people’s autonomy and freedom of movement you would mandate the manufacture of a product that cant be supplied with the energy to move.

      Ever notice that every single policy the Dems come up with results in. a loss of autonomy, options and rights for the individual Americans? They are all calculated to enslave you. The only explanation that makes any sense to me is that the political class hates us, wants to steal everything we have and then we can all fuck off and die.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Well yes.it’s like plastic bag bans and straw bans. It’s not enough to let individual people decide if they want those things and speak up if they don’t. Everything not prohibited, is mandatory and v.v., is their view.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    The only good President is a dead President.

    • Rat on a train

      How about an undead president?

    • Homple

      You’re right. Then only good President is Calvin Coolidge.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        “How could they tell?”

      • Homple

        Ha!

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

      Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash.

      • Rat on a train

        You forgot cannibalism.

    • Suthenboy

      I cant tell if that is in earnest or in parody.

    • Homple

      That’s a lot of weirded out sheet metal.

    • Suthenboy

      One of the aspects of the Perry Mason original films that I love the most are the cars. See also: Father Brown.

  13. rhywun

    I haven’t seen Lebowski either.

    • John Nerfherder
    • R C Dean

      It just didn’t blow my skirt up. I generally like their movies, but they do have an, I dunno, self-indulgent(?) streak to them sometimes. For me, Lebowski is sort of middle-of-the-pack. I saw it in the theater, but I don’t think I’ve ever rewatched it.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Perhaps an American Withnail and I. Meandering, odd, subtly humorous.

    • Tundra

      It’s among my favorite movies. It gets funnier the more times you watch it.

    • Common Tater

      It’s not great, but worth seeing. No idea why it has this huge cult following where people throw bowling parties and cosplay the characters.

    • KK, Non-Man

      Love Lebowski. It’s just fun. Not sure why people try to find any deep meaning to it. It’s like if you turned a Tarrantino movie into a lighthearted comedic romp.

      • Mojeaux

        Well, I mean, Tarantino movies ARE lighthearted comedic romps. With lots of violence, which is all lighthearted.

      • KK, Non-Man

        Tarantinos are definitely tongue planted firmly in cheek, but I wouldn’t call them lighthearted.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I don’t know how any of those plots get thunk up.

  14. Common Tater

    “Exclusive: Florida Fines Medicaid Providers For Using Tax Dollars To Cover Trans Treatments For Minors

    Though a federal judge recently blocked a new law in Florida that banned transgender surgeries and medications for children, a rule from the Agency for Health Care Administration still required the state’s Medicaid plan providers to deny coverage for all such treatments.”

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-florida-fines-medicaid-providers-for-using-tax-dollars-to-cover-trans-treatments-for-minors

    Stupid judge.

  15. rhywun

    I’m trying to sign into NYS DMV and I get “We have experienced difficulty with your request. Please try later.”

    LOL what kind of operation is UCS running over there?

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

      Same one as in Cali. You have to go to a “provider” to get anything done at the DMV, as the actual building/website is too overrun or constantly needing updating. This is bureaucracy in action; paralysis for the masses, unless you have an inside track or pay extra.

      We have morphed into some weird version of the late Ottoman empire.

      • Common Tater

        Everyone just put their feet up?

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

        Pretty much. And they identify as footstools now! Shitlord.

      • Suthenboy

        I think it is called rigor mortis. Once you get on the road we are on it is inevitable.

  16. Suthenboy

    Links:

    1. I am not up on the subtleties of law, statesmanship, govt. etc. so imagine my surprise to learn that Zelenski, president of the Ukraine formulates foreign and domestic policy for Israel. That must be a pretty good gig. Zelensky can demand money and arms from half of the planet at will and make policy for other nations.
    *I would bet a dollar to a doughnut that sometime in the future we will learn that Zelensky is liquidating all of it and tucking it away somewhere for himself. What a piece of cheese that guy is.

    2. Zelensky is in the business of taking in money, not doling it out. I am guessing Zelensky is asking for more drones. I cant read the NYT. Paywalled, blocked, demanding my personal info etc. before I can read their drivel. I am not giving money or info to those commie shitbirds. To all those out there who hack up some nonsense and then make demands like that….Go fuck. yourselves.

    3. Someone recently said to me that Biden is worse than Carter and Obama. I advised them to look back and pay closer attention to the things Carter did. It is kinda of a toss-up.

    4. Fetterlump, in my mind, is the perfect example of where the left wants to take this country. He is literally a drooling, brain damaged moron…and a puppet being controlled by the guys behind the curtains. Reminds me of someone else….
    I find it hard to believe that the guy was legitimately elected.

    3, I got nuthin’.

    4. It is nearly impossible to unpack all of the problems with the AGW assertion here. I will simply point out that working backwards from a desired conclusion to observations in support of it is not the work of scientists. It is the work of grifters.
    The earth is a very dynamic place. The AGW crowd assumes a large number of factors are constants when in fact they are variables. Again, not the work of scientists, it is the sloppy work of con artists. They are playing on weaknesses in human nature to suck people in – the tactics of grifters.
    I have been saying for decades that the whole thing is a lie. Like any lie it borrows selectively from truth. Reasonable people would often get a bit uncomfortable and cautiously stay on the fence. It seems to me that now the game has become so transparent that no one should be on the fence any longer.
    AGW has all of the earmarks of a scam because….it is a scam. It is that simple.

    • R C Dean

      For me, the moment when everyone should have wised up to AGW was many years ago when the Brits deleted the raw historical data after “correcting” it. And, of course, not keeping a record of the “corrections”. Their excuse: they just ran out of room on their hard drive, darn it.

      An absolutely cardinal sin. And the climate “scientists” one and all had no problem with it. Any who might have objected were drummed out.

      • John Nerfherder

        👆👆👆

        All of the available data is “adjusted”.

        This is how modern science works.

      • Homple

        Yeah, data. When I took physics courses 57 years ago, the lab instructors had to sign our experiment data sheets so we couldn’t fudge anything. We were required to turn in the signed sheets with our writeups. And now, real scientists just fiddle with data, then “lose” it.

      • SDF-7

        “Real scientists” : “And who gets all the grants, man? SHOW ME THE MONEY!”

      • rhywun

        And next year there will be no unusual events and not one of the fucking assholes will apologize for all the shameless fearmongering.

      • Gender Traitor

        They’ll just redefine “unusual” to fit the data.

      • Suthenboy

        Red flags as far as the eye can see. It is a scam. Even Bailey over at TOS should be convinced by now. I would to look and see but I refuse to give TOS any clicks.

    • DrOtto

      Dr. Oz. That’s how Fetterlump got elected.

      • Homple

        Even Pennsylvania is not stupid enough to prefer a brain damaged hobo to a candidate with all his faculties intact. Yes, Oz is a quack and a grifter, but Congress is full of quacks and grifters. Grifting and quackery have never been disqualifiers for public office.

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

        Ballot stuffing is how Fetterman’s Lump got elected. OZ did surprisingly well, considering.

    • Gustave Lytton

      #4 drooling morons is becoming more common, or less hidden. On both sides of the aisle

      #4(2) it’s not just weakness, it’s playing into the morally empty vacuum of people that have largely turned their backs on traditional organized religion but are puzzled why their lives are empty and devoid of meaning.

    • creech

      The Lump got twice his margin of victory from those who voted by mail before his embarrassing flop of a debate.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Palpable desperation

    Prominent conservative legal scholars are increasingly raising a constitutional argument that 2024 Republican candidate Donald Trump should be barred from the presidency because of his actions to overturn the previous presidential election result.

    The latest salvo came Saturday in The Atlantic magazine, from liberal law professor Laurence Tribe and J. Michael Luttig, the former federal appellate judge and prominent conservative who’s become a strong critic of Trump’s actions after the election.

    Not all in the legal community agree – and what the scholars are proposing would need to be tested in court.

    Yet Luttig and Tribe’s writings capture a conversation about the Constitution and the 2021 insurrection that is likely to grow heading into the 2024 election season.

    They and others base their arguments on a reading of part of the 14th Amendment, a post-Civil War provision that excludes from future office anyone who, previously, as a sworn-in public official, “engaged in insurrection or rebellion … or [had] given aid or comfort to the enemies” of the government.

    The pair write: “Having thought long and deeply about the text, history, and purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment’s disqualification clause for much of our professional careers, both of us concluded some years ago that, in fact, a conviction would be beside the point.

    It’s like watching a horror movie. They are frantically grasping at straws trying to find a way to stop the monster before it’s too late.

    • SDF-7

      Just imagine how pissed off Robert E. Lee must be in the after life… “You mean all I needed to do was get a Sioux shaman with a buffalo hat into the Capitol in our name and stand at the Speaker’s podium? And we win? What is this crap… J. K. Rowling Rules for Revolution?”

      In other words… insurrection, my ass. And as such, the rest of their argument is irrelevant.

    • John Nerfherder

      Prominent conservative legal scholars

      Yet Luttig and Tribe’s writings

      Anyone who cowrites a single fucking word with Larry Tribe cannot describe themselves as conservative, unless conservative now means “give the commies everything they want.”

    • Grumbletarian

      The pair write: “Having thought long and deeply about the text, history, and purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment’s disqualification clause for much of our professional careers, both of us concluded some years ago that, in fact, a conviction would be beside the point.

      Yes, according to our interpretation of the Constitution, due process is unconstitutional. In that case I hereby declare that expressing one’s intent to run for office as a Democrat is an act of insurrection, rendering any such person ineligible for office.

    • Suthenboy

      The Dems and the Never-Trumpers have never argued in good faith. Why would they start now?
      The more they shovel horse shit the more staid the pro-trumpets get in their resolve and anger.
      Keep poking the bear, stupid motherfuckers.

  18. DrOtto

    Spoiler alert! – the only person in the Buffalo story without an Italian name is dead. Irish surname on that lass. Does it count as a hate crime?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        That’s been on HBO a lot lately.

  19. rhywun

    Why don’t you BUY them, you corrupt freeloader?

    Just so you know, the NYT is playing games with the unwashed again. The link goes to an article about drones instead of the one hinted at in the URL and the tab title.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    For me, the moment when everyone should have wised up to AGW was many years ago when the Brits deleted the raw historical data after “correcting” it. And, of course, not keeping a record of the “corrections”. Their excuse: they just ran out of room on their hard drive, darn it.

    But- we have all the data we need to declare this the hottest July in a bazillion years.

    • SDF-7

      Alternate take on that: https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/08/19/desantis-makes-listless-vessels-comment-that-sends-team-trump-into-orbit-n2162823

      I agree with him, frankly. If “conservatism” means echoing whatever Trump tweets on the toilet in the morning — it means nothing and has no foundation to stand when the guy keels over (which won’t be that far in the future). There have to be underlying principles (like limited government (hah!), fiscal sanity (ha ha ha!), etc…)

      • Rebel Scum

        The current political situation is that the government is pulling out all the stops to prevent the people from ever again having any say over it. DeSantis is hurting, not helping.

    • rhywun

      I still don’t know why he didn’t wait for Hurricane Donald to blow away before running.

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

        That is what I have been saying. Trump is gonna suck all the air out the room, so just consentrate on taking the Senate and keeping the house.

        But, alas.

      • Common Tater

        It doesn’t make sense. He should have waited another four years.

      • Grumbletarian

        Four years from now people wouldn’t remember how much of an outlier he was regarding Covid restrictions. He’s unfortunately gone too far “anti-Trump” to draw enough Trump supporters to him.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Because politicians are largely power hungry psychopathic narcissists. Four years is too long.

        Besides, just like modern corporate leadership, if you hang around, you have to live with your decisions and promises.

    • Homple

      At least he didn’t refer to 71,000,000 voters as a basket of deplorables.

      • creech

        According to Hillary, it is only half of those who are deplorables. The rest are probably only delusional.

      • Homple

        Thanks, I had forgotten the “half” part.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Just imagine how pissed off Robert E. Lee must be in the after life… “You mean all I needed to do was get a Sioux shaman with a buffalo hat into the Capitol in our name and stand at the Speaker’s podium? And we win? What is this crap… J. K. Rowling Rules for Revolution?”

    Capture the strike>flag podium.

    • Rebel Scum

      Davis should have listened to Jackson.

      • creech

        It is likely he did, but Jackson was mortally wounded before he and Lee could put the plan into operation.

  22. rhywun

    owner of Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club in Cheektowaga

    Amused that what “organized crime” still exists in Buffalo has apparently followed its practitioners out to the lower-middle to middle class suburbs.

    • Suthenboy

      Around here the mafia families made their money in crime and used it to send their children to school.
      They are all doctors and lawyers now.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    <

  24. Fatty Bolger

    Biden brokers historic peace deal.

    No, not Russia/Ukraine, silly. For that war the money printer still goes “brrrrrrrr”.

    But thank goodness Trump isn’t president, or we’d still be at war with these two countries.

    • rhywun

      Who is president matters, folks. These things just don’t happen. This is because of the decades of experience and wisdom of President Biden.

      I can’t decide if parody or not.

    • Homple

      A peace deal between two countries which haven’t been fighting for 78 years. We take what we can get, I guess.

      • Gustave Lytton

        It’s not even a peace deal, which has been in place for decades. It’s increasing military cooperation in the form of i dunno what, an agreement? It’s not a treaty.

      • Homple

        Anything for a positive headline.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Baude and Paulsen also noted that Trump’s “overall course of conduct disqualifies him” from eligibility as a candidate, regardless of whether he is convicted of criminal charges related to the 2020 election – which he now faces in Georgia state court and in federal court – or whether he is held liable in a major civil conspiracy lawsuit related to the attack.

    “If the public record is accurate, the case is not even close. He is no longer eligible to the office of Presidency,” the law review article said.

    The pair also looked at the historical intentions of this section of the 14th Amendment, which barred Confederates after the Civil War from holding office again.

    “Not since the Civil War has there been so serious a threat to the foundations of the American constitutional republic,” Baude and Paulsen wrote about the Capitol attack and Trump’s illegitimate attempt to hold on to power.

    They note that more people died and were injured as a result of the January 6, 2021, attack than in the 1861 Battle of Fort Sumter that began the Civil War.

    “Overall course of conduct”?

    WE HATES HIM!

    • Rebel Scum

      There is no context to be explored there…

      But the federal government (after manipulating the SC militia into firing the “first shot”…) used that as an excuse to mount an invasion of the Commonwealth of Virginia and wage a total war against it’s own citizens. Imagine what it will do now.

      The American experiment ended in 1861.

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

      Let’s see: US citizen, Born in the US, over 35 years old, and has lived here is whole life.

      Those are the things needed to be president. Not some Dem litmus test.

      • rhywun

        Also, not tried and executed for the high treason that Biden has committed.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Luttig and Tribe acknowledge the question of Trump appearing on ballots in 2024 might ultimately have to be decided by the Supreme Court.

    “The process that will play out over the coming year could give rise to momentary social unrest and even violence. But so could the failure to engage in this constitutionally mandated process,” Luttig and Tribe write.

    If it’s war you want…

    No price is too high to keep Trump out of the election. We’ll disenfranchise half the country in the name of democracy. We’ll burn the place down.

    • John Nerfherder

      Tribe absolutely would.

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

        “We had to burn the village to save it.”

  27. John Nerfherder

    Hey, we sterilized you with an experimental vaccine, but it’s a good thing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/08/17/20-year-low-for-baby-born-in-england-good-news-for-planet/

    Britain’s top demographics expert has said the falling number of babies born in Britain is a “good thing” after new data showed the number of births had hit a 20-year low.

    Professor Sarah Harper CBE, founder and director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and a former government adviser, said falling birth rates in the West were “good for… our planet”.

    If the trend holds, the millennials are going to be eating cat food in the old age.

    • rhywun

      JFC the utter evil is breathtaking. They’re not even hiding it anymore.

    • Sean

      They deserve it.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      NHS managers recently suppressed whistleblowing of a multiple murderess nurse.

      • rhywun

        Will any voters come to the obvious conclusion…

  28. PieInTheSky

    how do you know these obscure chemists

  29. PieInTheSky

    This is long but really worth wading through to understand the drivers of current heat trends. If it’s too much for you, here’s a Cliff’s Notes version.

    THIS SUMMER SUCK AND I HATE IT

  30. The Late P Brooks

    A peek behind the curtain

    The case has long been defined by politics, including for Biden’s own lawyers. During the private negotiations with prosecutors, the documents show, Biden’s lawyers often invoked the case’s extraordinary political undercurrents. They made clear to prosecutors that they thought pressure from congressional Republicans was improperly shaping the investigation. They name-dropped Donald Trump, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and the failed prosecution of a lawyer for Hillary Clinton. They argued that bringing the case would destroy the Justice Department’s reputation.

    And they said a trial of the president’s son would create political and constitutional chaos by pitting the president himself against his own Justice Department.

    “This of all cases justifies neither the spectacle of a sitting President testifying at a criminal trial nor the potential for a resulting Constitutional crisis,” Clark wrote.

    Clark’s letter and the other documents were shared with POLITICO by a person with knowledge of the communications between the Justice Department and Biden’s legal team.

    The documents provide a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at how the two sides came to the brink of a plea deal. But after a judge asked a few simple questions at a hearing last month about the details, it started to fray. And in the weeks after, the whole thing unraveled. Now the prosecutor overseeing the probe has been made a special counsel and says the case is headed to trial. And Clark has stopped representing the president’s son, saying he instead expects to be a witness.

    Clark declined to comment for this article. Spokespeople for the Justice Department, the White House and Biden’s legal team also declined to comment.

    Gosh, I wonder which side leaked that.

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

      Hey, Tundra. I read that NYT article about the racist Instagram account, mostly as that was my mothers high school where it happened (and I almost bought my grandfathers house there). But, Jesus, not a single adult acted like a damn adult. Just get the kid to take responsibility for pulling the girls hair, as there was video proof of that, and tell everyone to grow up. The phone isn’t shool property, he has first amendment rights, and you just have to buck up sometimes and accept that some kids are gonna be assholes. But, man did they screw the pooch.

      • Tundra

        I agree with you. Those kids have zero chance.

  31. DEG

    Crystal Quinn, 37, a former exotic dancer,

    That’s an OK stripper name.

    Old Guy Music is good.

  32. Common Tater

    “Allow me to share some more tidbits that might paint a clearer, nastier picture for you. Ramaswamy is currently campaigning across New Hampshire on a platform of “10 commandments” that include “God is real,” “There are two genders,” “Human flourishing requires fossil fuels,” and “The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.” Where do we begin, really, except to say that pretty much all of this is scientifically wrong—all the more embarrassing coming from a “biotech” entrepreneur. That, and worship of the “nuclear family” is essentially just a dog whistle for queerphobia and upholding the same ~traditional family values~ that enable domestic abuse and even teen pregnancy.

    Just earlier this month, Ramaswamy went viral for a tweet dunking on Al Sharpton by comparing the Jan. 6 insurrection to the American Revolution. He wants to redirect U.S. troops in Ukraine to the U.S.-Mexico border. He doesn’t support a federal abortion ban but says “abortion is a form of murder” (nope!) and wholeheartedly embraces the state bans that are driving up maternal mortality rates. And despite his campaign’s attempts at populist messaging, he spent his college years at Ivy Leagues parroting all the usual inane, right-wing “free speech” talking points. It was on campus that he also developed the libertarian rap persona “Da Vek,” and the fact that he does not have a rap career but is instead running a far-right presidential campaign only bolsters my theory that many fascists are just failed artists.”

    https://jezebel.com/alright-who-is-vivek-ramaswamy-and-do-we-need-to-take-1850751973

    In case you were wondering, Jezebel is still retarded. Not that you were wondering.

    • creech

      “Many fascists….”. Maybe not wrong: Clinton thought he was great on sax. (no, not a misspelling) and Barrack thinks he’s a great singer.

      • rhywun

        They are so clever. But the Hitler slot is already taken for this election, Jez.

    • rhywun

      (nope!)

      Yep!

    • John Nerfherder

      The former Alabama beauty queen

      I think I see the problem.

    • Ted S.

      Or for Tonio, don’t stick it in crazy boys.

  33. KK, Non-Man

    Tonio introduced us to his man last night on Zoom. So I know he’s real. As for NPR lady, it’s anyone’s guess.

    • Mojeaux

      Was watching football woth my Dude. Sorry I missed that, though. He didn’t run away screaming???

      • KK, Non-Man

        Unlike most people that are roped into the Zoom against their will, he was quite self-assured and friendly. And handsome.

  34. KK, Non-Man

    When the Peanut Man kicks the bucket, I’m pretty sure that will result in a day off for me.

  35. KK, Non-Man

    There are dueling livestreaming planespotters at LAX right now, standing right next to each other. Each one is talking louder and louder as time goes on. LOL

  36. Common Tater

    “Victim of Barnes & Noble ‘sniffer’ blasts repeated catch and release: ‘He is unfit for society’

    Sex offender Calese Crowder caught on TikTok stalking women at California Barnes & Noble

    The repeat offender has been in and out of police custody since at least 2005, records show. He served time in state prison on burglary and robbery charges and on Tuesday pleaded no contest to peeping and prowling. He was freed from custody hours later despite a 60-day jail sentence under California’s laws.

    Calese Crowder in a Facebook photo. The 37-year-old repeat offender was arrested for a 42nd time in Glendale, Calif., for allegedly failing to register as a sex offender. Despite appearing in a pair of creepy TikTok videos in which he followed women around a Burbank Barnes & Noble, he has not been charged with a crime in those incidents.

    He was arrested Friday after allegedly peeping into a family’s house, where there were children inside, Aug. 6. He was also released earlier this year partway through a one-year jail sentence for indecent exposure in Santa Clarita.”

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/victim-of-barnes-noble-sniffer-blasts-repeated-catch-and-release-he-is-unfit-for-society

    Yet, feminists are leftists who keep voting for this.

  37. dragonbook

    The first King Crimson album really was all because of Ian McDonald and Michael Giles. Robert Fripp’s contribution was the weakest. Micheal Giles’ body of work is too small to call him one of the greatest rock drummers ever, but he certainly did have the potential to become one. The other original Crims all went on to successful careers (Fripp continuing in Crimson, Lake in ELP, McDonaled in Foreigner), but Giles just dropped out.

  38. cyto

    The article about old people experimenting with weed is just plain silly. In the 70’s everyone smoked weed. Not each and every single person… I mean, I didn’t smoke… But near as makes no difference. In my graduating class I thought there were two of us who didn’t, but then I found out that the nerdy,used to be home schooled girl actually got high and lost her virginity at senior prom.

    So “people who were in their teens and twenties in the 70s are trying pot” is not really much of a revelation.

    • Tundra

      Yes. All of my friends did (’80s). It was just a normal part of growing up.

      I’m probably the oddity out here as I don’t use it any more.

    • Ted S.

      I’ve never smoked pot.

    • Homple

      After pot was legalized up here in Cascadia, several of my old acquaintances tried some commercial stuff. Turns out the new product has more kick than the southern Minnesota ditch weed of their youth. It hammered them in a large manner.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Stuff and nonsense

    In a groundbreaking legal decision, a Montana judge last week ruled in favor of young people who had accused state officials of violating their constitutional rights by promoting fossil fuels.

    In a 103-page court order, Judge Kathy Seeley of the first judicial district court, affirmed the plaintiffs’ claim that a stable climate is included in a right to a “clean and healthful environment”, guaranteed in the state’s constitution.

    She also found a provision in Montana’s Environmental Policy Act, which prohibited the state from considering climate impacts when permitting energy projects, to be unconstitutional.

    I want each of those kids to sign a pledge to never eat a banana or drink a cup of coffee, or eat crab legs, because none of those things are native to Montana and the carbon emissions required to get them onto a table in Missoula violates the rights of every Montana citizen.

    • rhywun

      The taxpayers deserve their money back from all the time wasted on that frivolous bullshit.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    But the Montana ruling did not merely affirm that climate change is real or human-caused: it specifically confirmed it is caused by fossil fuel usage and that every additional ton of greenhouse gas pollution warms the planet.

    “Judge Seeley obviously really understood not only the issues of law, but the very complex scientific issues surrounding the climate crisis,” Melissa Hornbein, an attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center who represented the plaintiffs, said on Monday.

    The strength of the order, said Gerrard, could make it the “final nail in the coffin of any efforts to advance climate denial in the courtroom”.

    That judge who agrees with me is really smart!

    • rhywun

      it specifically confirmed it is caused by fossil fuel usage

      OFFS 🤣😂

  41. Animal

    For those who are interested: On Monday the 21st, I’ll be on the Vic Porcelli Show at 11:05 EDT, 10:05 CDT and so on, on NewsTalkSTL radio, talking about a “variety of current topics.” There should be an online listening gizmo here.

    Looking forward to this, should be great fun, and furthers my nefarious spreading of (G)libertarian thought.

    • Tundra

      Congrats!

      • Common Tater

        +1

  42. Common Tater

    “Hillary Clinton and her powerful media affiliates seem to have co-opted the title of my book, “The Weaponization of Loneliness,” for the purpose of repackaging their propagandistic narrative against Trump voters and freedom of speech. In her recent conversation with Rachel Maddow, Clinton spoke of “the weaponization of loneliness” to vilify those who disagree with her, portraying them as villains responsible for the crisis of America’s polarization and loneliness epidemic. The springboard for that interview was Clinton’s recent 3500-word essay in the Atlantic, headlined “The Weaponization of Loneliness.”

    Most of Clinton’s interview with Maddow was a giddy chit chat over the latest rollout of indictments against President Trump. Clinton interjected the term “weaponization of loneliness” to blame her usual suspects of deliberately sowing all of the division and distrust America is experiencing. Her article is a cataloged enemies list that includes anyone skeptical of the handling of the 2020 elections and anyone who doesn’t blindly trust our institutions and government.”

    https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/19/morabido-hillary-clinton-atlantic-playbook-censorship-loneliness/

    CWAC

    • KK, Non-Man

      loneliness epidemic

      These people need to STFU.

      • Tundra

        Nice.

        She’s absurdly beautiful

  43. cyto

    This week in aggrevating hubris, SGU edition.

    I tried to listen to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe this morning while making breakfast and getting ready. As per usual, the first half hour is all politics while trying to pretend that they studiously avoid politics and only follow science.

    So, after the requisite climate change segment, they did a bit on a study of “the youth” and their attitudes about science and follow science denier influencers on social media. The specific example was Joe Rogan. This devolved into a discussion of rampant disinformation in the US and how to combat it. The specific examples? Vaccines and Covid.

    Their hero of combating misinformation? Fauci.

    This is where you insert the Star Trek Picard clip, “The sheer, fucking hubris!!”

    They proceeded to discuss “there seems to be this one party that is hostile to science” in the context of not making science a partisan issue.

    No mention of the vast array of disinformation and censorship from the government on the topic of covid. Nope… misinformation is the crazy, right-wing neo-Nazi Joe Rogan (previously a self identified left-democrat) and horse paste. This from the group that personally ran a story about how cloth masks do nothing to prevent the spelread of upper respiratory viruses prior to covid and then spent the entirety of the pandemic and every opportunity since saying that the science is settled and you should just wear a mask.

    Auuuuhggghhh!

    The ability of people to just slide into the role of an NPC in a dystopian novel is astonishing. I get arguing from ignorance… but when you ignore your own personal history, you really can’t claim ordinary ignorance.

    I didn’t make it through the episode. If I want simple-minded political propaganda with a double dose of arrogant self-congratulatory rhetoric, I’ll put on Rachel Maddow.

    • cyto

      Oh, they annoyed me so much that I forgot the real nugget that I wanted to highlight. After all of that misinformation talk, they were talking about the Maui fires. Their angle? Crazy right wing conspiracy theorists are saying it was space lasers.

      Now, there is something here. I saw that being “covered” in several places. I didn’t see anyone seriously claiming to believe it, but i did see a lot of people claiming that other people believe it.

      Shocking that in an environment where you are discussing disinformation, you wouldn’t notice that heavy coverage of a kooky conspiracy theory that nobody actually believes might be a form of misinformation itself.

      I mean, if you wanted to distract from government ineptitude and fears about displacing the existing residents of the area, pointing at someone saying it was indeed a government conspiracy – with space lasers!! – would indeed serve to preempt any serious look at forces behind the disaster and recovery that are not related to global warming or wind.

      • cyto

        A “logical fallacy” that they speak about regularly on the SGU.

      • John Nerfherder

        It’s never stopped them from using it.

      • John Nerfherder

        See also: QAnon

    • John Nerfherder

      I gave up on the “skeptic” crowd a long time ago. Most of them are avowedly religious and openly worship the State. Non-believers are heretics and apostates.

      To watch them bitch and whine about woke when they have their own retarded shibboleths of climate change and vaccines is too much for me to take.

      • cyto

        You are pretty much describing the discussion. Particularly their newest member of the tribe, who is quite passionate about fealty to the state.

      • John Nerfherder

        All things good, like Tang, came from government spending.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    I didn’t make it through the episode. If I want simple-minded political propaganda with a double dose of arrogant self-congratulatory rhetoric, I’ll put on Rachel Maddow.

    If you look up “smarmy” in the dictionary, there should be a photo of Rachel Maddow.

  45. Gender Traitor

    IFLA appears to be stuck in “Pending.” Anybody about with WordPress-fu who can post it?

    • Mojeaux

      Done.

      • Gender Traitor

        Thanks a bunch! I was JUST starting to text you moments ago! 😄

      • Mojeaux

        Feel free to text me any time for any/no reason!

  46. John Nerfherder

    Now we know why the Fargo shooter wasn’t getting much press.

    https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1692970959769059741

    Barakat, a Syrian asylum seeker who moved to the U.S. in 2012, also shot a woman fleeing the scene before being shot and killed by Officer Zach Robinson.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Quiet little getaway

    President Joe Biden, his wife Jill, son Hunter and other family members have arrived at Lake Tahoe for a week of August vacation, and they are staying at a home rented from billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer.

    The Bidens arrived late on Friday in the Glenbrook community on the eastern shore of the lake, on the Nevada side. Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, own the home but are not present.

    It’s an unassuming little net zero respite from the hustle and bustle of the modern world, I’m sure.

    • cyto

      Golf. It is a golf event. Not sure why autocorrect went for gold, but that probably applies in this case too.

    • Homple

      What’s with all the portrait format videos these days? I keep wondering why half the scene is effectively cropped out.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Why am I reluctant to accept this at face value?

    A woman who owns two clothing stores in California was shot and killed by a man who made derogatory comments about the pride flag hanging outside her business.

    The fatal shooting happened Friday night in Lake Arrowhead, CA … with law enforcement saying the suspect shot the shop owner, Lauri Carelton, because he didn’t like the rainbow flag outside her clothing store.

    Lauri owns the Mag.Pi store in Lake Arrowhead and another in Studio City … and she’s been a top fashion designer in Los Angeles for decades.

    The San Bernardino County Sheriff says deputies arrived at the scene of Friday’s shooting to find Lauri suffering from a gunshot wound … and paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

    The sheriff says the killer, armed with a handgun, fled on foot and he was tracked down about a mile away from the store … with deputies shooting and killing him.

    It sounds perfectly believable. Hate crimes happen every day. The world is awash with ultra right wing homophobic bigotry.