287 Comments

  1. SDF-7

    The girls into Super Mario Kat now there, Banjos? Good morning to you and the rest of ya happy campers.

    • R.J.

      Super Mario Kat is the best. I like to play as Meowigi.

    • The Other Kevin

      When I first played Wii at a friends house, they had a tradition of naming your avatar with “wii” in in. So Kristwiina, Andwii, etc. I was Kevwii. My middle kid still calls me “Kev wee eye”.

      • Fourscore

        My 61 year old 6’6″ son calls me “Big Daddy”

  2. SDF-7

    Roughly Two Dozen U.S. Colleges Adopt “No-Loan” Policies

    I have no idea how that would work out with “grants and work study” (and family contribution), especially for Princeton of all places… but if it doesn’t involve sucking down renamed government funds… okay, more power to you. If it is just playing a shell game with government money to sneak “free college” under the tent flap… then screw them.

    I can see it for a few kids — but every student? Seems like there just wouldn’t be enough grants….

    • Rat on a train

      Harvard could probably get by skimming the gains from its endowment.

    • Not Adahn

      Juat boost the family contribution. Then the loan responsibility is on the parents. Easy-peasy.

    • The Other Kevin

      It’s a good start. But yes, as long as it isn’t just the government giving people more money.

    • invisible finger

      It’s bullshit. Notice that they aren’t telling prospective students to “go to a 2-year college first to manage your college expense.”

      • R.J.

        I wish that advice was always given. That helps manage expectations too. Kids may decide screw it, after two years and go into the trades. You can do so with a two year degree and little time wasted.

  3. Ownbestenemy

    California’s venture into equity by law, forcing some industries to meet different wage laws, seems like a violation of the 14th Amendment.

    • SDF-7

      14th Amendment.. freedom of association… contract law… the whole concept of “minimum wage” pisses me off in general, but yeah — picking and choosing how particular industries run (hey there “Fast Food Council” you statist pricks) is just overt fascism and tyranny to me.

    • prolefeed

      Except the precedent has already been set, with different minimum wage laws for tipped restaurant employees versus everyone else.

      • SDF-7

        Like qualified immunity and civil forfeiture — just because courts have been fucking insanely stupid in the past doesn’t mean I think they were ever right….

      • robc

        Except not really. If tips dont get them to the real minimum, the restaurant has to make up the difference, so they still have the same minimum wage.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Or states where tips aren’t included in minimum wage at all.

      • Gustave Lytton

        But there exception under federal law too, for the disabled.

  4. Rat on a train

    How about tea and cats instead of coffee and traffic?

      • Rat on a train

        But Germans drink more tea per capita than Americans.

      • UnCivilServant

        Ze rules for ze lynx are zet!

      • rhywun

        I just had a memory flash of a hot tea mix that us kids drank most mornings in Germany. It was wonderful stuff. I don’t drink tea much anymore but I would drink that if I could find it.

        This might be it. It seems to consists of the pellets I remember rather than a powder.

      • R C Dean

        “Less sugar and more fertility – that’s what the fine teas of “Krüger” stands for.”

        Wait, what?

      • rhywun

        lol

      • Rat on a train

        Preparing for the next war?

      • Rat on a train

        I remember powdered tea from my youth. I can’t recall the brand. Now the only powdered tea I’ve seen is matcha.

      • hayeksplosives

        Lipton made it then and now. It’s an ingredient in “Southern Friendship Tea”

    • SDF-7

      Sounds like a British game show hosted by Jimmy Carr or something.

    • Rebel Scum

      Not all of us can work from home.

  5. SDF-7

    The law would apply to clinics with more than 10,000 full-time equivalent employees, county-run facilities with populations over 5 million, and all dialysis clinics.

    Ah, there it is… couldn’t kill cheaper dialysis clinics one way to force more people to hospitals and SEIU-UHW facilities… so we’ll make it too expensive to stay in operation. Fucking asshole union — I guess the healthcare tentacle of that kraken got tired of the teacher’s union tentacle using the assembly to fuck the state up the ass and wanted their turn.

  6. Lachowsky

    Gov. Newsom Raises Minimum Wage for Healthcare Workers to $25, Effective 2026 –

    Like $25 will be worth anything by 2026

    • SDF-7

      Yeah, but I’m sure the SEIU-UHW contracts all specify compensation bands as multiples of the minimum compensation for any worker or somesuch…. so they just lobbied themselves a big fat raise and more union dues to funnel back to the bought Assembly drones.

      • Rat on a train

        Don’t forget to blame those greedy companies when prices increase.

      • Drake

        Or they exit CA.

      • cyto

        This.

        Nobody could stay in any manufacturing business that requires significant volume of unskilled labor… things like packaging, etc. I had some friends in college who tested medical equipment for coronary artery procedures. Totally unskilled, just install a little catheter on a test rig and make sure water squirts from the right holes and nowhere else.

        No way they pay $25 an hour for that if they can pay $12 in another state.

    • robc

      Thats the end of LIV, right? They merge back in next season?

      • Drake

        Uh no. Right now the fight is over world rankings including LIV Players.

        Talor Gooch is ranked 201 in the world and dropped 14 places last week. Bryson DeChambeau is 137th. Preposterous – and a big reason the U.S. got thrashed in the Ryder Cup.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Isn’t The Gooch the guy who used to bully Arnold Drummond? Good to see he turned his life around.

  7. hayeksplosives

    What the heck do they expect Biden to do in Israel? Squint really hard at Hamas? Make a speech on his way to hand money over to Iran?

    Hey, old man, this isn’t America’s war. Stay home.

    https://www.axios.com/2023/10/15/biden-visit-israel-hamas-war-gaza-netanyahu-invite

    Best of luck to Israel on destroying Hamas though, even if it pisses off spoiled university students in the West.

    • R C Dean

      The problem is Israel appears to still be going after Hamas leadership. They’ve been doing that for decades. Its failed. The Gaza cesspit always pukes up more. It’s root and branch time, or more decades of failure.

      • Lachowsky

        Not sure they really have been after Hamas until recently.

        https://archive.ph/iPO3z

      • R C Dean

        Interesting. Thanks,

      • kinnath

        Work is blocking archive. Can someone provide a very brief summary?

      • Lachowsky

        Basically –

        There is a lot of evidence that the Israeli government has been backing Hamas for years. Their purpose in doing so was to marginalize the PLO, whose place they took when they became the dominant faction in the GAZA strip. The Israelis wanted them in power because everyone would see them for what they are, a terrorist organization, and that would short circuit any ability for the Israeli government to negotiate an end to the ongoing conflict.

        In Netanyahu’s words,

        “Those who want to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas,”
        “This is part of our strategy, to differentiate between the Palestinians in Gaza and the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria.”

      • waffles

        that’s interesting. pro israel is trying to frame this as propaganda.

      • R.J.

        Yes, time to go Old Testament. Even then it may not work.

      • creech

        What is “root and branch?” Kill all the kids of the leaders, too? Seems like many movies and novels feature some sort of “revenge of the son” plot. Is that just fantasy or does it lead to centuries of hate and revenge and counter-revenge?

      • Necron 99

        Sounds horrible, and biblical.

    • Lachowsky

      What the heck do they expect Biden to do in Israel?

      Pledge his undying fealty to the Israelis. That and guarantee an unlimited stream of money and hardware to them.

      • The Other Kevin

        He’ll tell a relatable story about how some kids knocked down his mailbox one time.

      • Not Adahn

        He knows their pain becasue Beau was killed by a car bomb in Beiruit.

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘even if it pisses off spoiled university students in the West.’

      I think that’s probably the most positive thing that will come out of the whole debacle.

      I guess we must not think that Hamas is much of a threat if we’re willing to send the president to a country at war. Or someone is going to get rid of him.

      • Atanarjuat

        Biden went to Kiev, too. And they faked an air-raid siren to make him look brave.

        Judge Nap keeps saying Biden desperately wants to become a wartime president. I think he just reads what’s in front of him in exchange for ice cream.

    • Rebel Scum

      Squint really hard at Hamas?

      He’s always squinting.

  8. PieInTheSky

    Gov. Newsom Raises Minimum Wage for Healthcare Workers to $25, Effective 2026 – given healthcare workers are essential it should be double that.

    • Rat on a train

      If we valued them they would all be millionaires.

      • juris imprudent

        Hyper-inflation should do the trick.

  9. Rebel Scum

    enjoy another glorious day

    Meh…

  10. Rebel Scum

    Republicans Flip Louisiana Governor Seat

    Louisiana seems like a silly place.

    • Not Adahn

      It is, but fun.

    • Atanarjuat

      Driving on I-10 through there is a trip. Most of the length of the highway it is an elevated bridge because the whole place is submerged.

  11. Lachowsky

    Israel plans to capture Gaza City, destroy Hamas leadership in anticipated ground invasion –

    By the time the dominoes fall The U.S. will be at war with Iran, and the corps of John McCain will will finally be able to rest easy.

    • Not Adahn

      They can turn it over to the blue helmets when they’re done.

  12. PieInTheSky

    I saw this on twitter and automatically read it in my Bad Twitter Writing Advice Voice. But then I got to expounding on why this is such a bad idea.

    ##

    Writing Community

    @writingoutlook Oct 11

    The aim is not to make money, the aim is not to be a best-seller, the aim is to change people’s lives. What do you think?

    ##

    Nope.

    You ain’t changing shit if nobody reads your stuff.

    If people read your stuff you make money.

    We are entertainers, not preachers. Get over yourself.

    https://monsterhunternation.com/2023/10/15/aiming-to-change-peoples-lives/

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m not so egotistical or pretentious enough to think I can pen something lifechanging.

      If you think that of yourself, you’re more likely suffering from cranio-rectal impaction.

      • The Last American Hero

        *Quietly drops domino mask in trash, cancels trip to martial arts monastery in Himalayas.*

      • UnCivilServant

        That monastary is actually a tourist trap.

      • cyto

        Every time I write something that is so perfect it will alter the course of history, the server squirrels eat it.

      • Sensei

        See my post below.

    • Mojeaux

      1. I had a reader who posted that my book had changed her life. I’m quite proud/humbled by that.

      2. I wrote because I couldn’t not. I published because I was desperate to be read.

      3. I would like to make more than monthly candy money. I would like to, in fact, get rich.

  13. Lackadaisical

    In case you have a hard time seeing epoch times links:

    https://archive.ph/hkYuy

    • rhywun

      It doesn’t make sense to me at any point in history.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I figured she was loved by pathetic simps that beat off to watching her do reactions or whatever the hell it is she does as a means to funnel people to her current or future if she doesn’t have one yet OnlyFans page.

    • Not Adahn

      I’m sorry, I’m not into Pokemon.

    • Atanarjuat

      She’s very attractive but I assume her agent paid Youtube to boost her.

      • cyto

        Little kids.

        My youngest daughter was into it a couple of years back. No idea why…. I guess it was because it was like watching videos with a friend.

        So, 8 year old girls and simps.

      • Atanarjuat

        Yeah, my neighbor’s kids would put on DudePerfect on Youtube and just let it autoplay for hours, not really watching it. Sometimes they’d even leave the room. (It’s a channel essentially mocking masculinity and doing trick shots with balls). So a lot of those view numbers are basically false.

    • SDF-7

      Ouch… I mentioned I’d favor accuracy instead of bonus words and you just had to hand me my ass, hmm?

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 10/16:
      22/22 words (+4 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 9% by bonus words

      I played https://squaredle.com 10/16:
      *25/25 words (+3 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 9% by accuracy
      🔥 Solve streak: 24

      • rhywun

        But you got bonus words.

      • SDF-7

        Purest happenstance. Often I don’t know why they’re “bonus” when I think they’re normal words. I tend to just find words that make sense to me, which tends to give me accuracy over bonus (because I don’t reach for the really weird ones as much). And sometimes there are some that I swear should be there / allowed (small birds, notwithstanding)… and sometimes I just misremember odd spellings or misdrag (like today). Ah well.

    • Sean

      I played https://squaredle.com 10/16:
      25/25 words (+4 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 40% by bonus words

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 10/16:
      22/22 words (+4 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 9% by bonus words

  14. Rebel Scum

    Israel: We Are Not Negotiating – We Are Destroying Hamas

    I have mixed thoughts on this but I am not sure what else they are supposed to do with such a hostile neighbor.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Get rid of them and move the Palestinian Authority back in and give up the pretense of electoral legitimacy for the Palestinian government. A stronghanded secular collaborator government like that is about the best they can hope for the time being.

    • R.J.

      I don’t blame them. I just don’t think it will be possible to eliminate hostilities. Shoot it up, kill that generation of troops…. Then the next generation gets engaged. It will never end.

      • The Other Kevin

        There are videos out there of Palestinian kids saying they want to group up to be a martyr and kill Jews. That doesn’t just go away.

      • kinnath

        be a martyr

        Making your wish come true . . .

      • Tundra

        And plenty of videos of Israeli kids saying they wanted to grow up and join the IDF so they can kill a bunch of Arabs.

        This is not fixable.

      • WTF

        You have any links for those videos? Because I haven’t seen that; curious if it’s really a thing.

      • Rebel Scum

        I haven’t either. But the conflict goes back to the dawn of Islam. It’s not going to change now.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      I watched Serenity over the weekend. It’s been at least a decade for me, and the wife got to see the Firefly series for the first time. It aged well and still strongly rings with libertarian themes. There was a good line in Serenity: If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to.

      It sounds more like a Sun Tzu strategy. Made me think of the current war and that’s the correct approach for Israel. The ground has got to be removed, either by the Palestinians who are against Hamas or, failing that, by Israel.

      Israel has zero responsibility to the Palestinians. They have a responsibility to their own citizens and to limit the risk to their own people, both military and civilian, at whatever cost to the citizens of an enemy state. Same as for every other country.

      • prolefeed

        Their responsibility to Israeli citizens includes not committing genocide that would turn their only major ally against them. If they glassed Gaza, they would still be entirely surrounded by states full of people who want them and their religion wiped out.

  15. Grummun

    Conservatives Sweep to Victory in New Zealand, Ousting Lockdown Queen Ardern’s Party

    The headlines mention Ardern’s COVID lockdowns but the articles talk about economic reasons for Labor’s defeat. I guess if the economy is the current hot thing, that’s what people are voting on, and the lockdowns are a big part of why the economy sucks. But I’d be happier for New Zealanders if I saw someone from the new governing coalition explicitly repudiate the previous government’s iron fisted authoritarianism.

    • SDF-7

      Considering the articles / discussion over the weekend had the incoming government saying something along the lines of “Of course we’re not going to backtrack on any policies!” I wouldn’t hold out any hope for that. Apparently a slight disagreement in economics is all that separates Kiwi left from “extreme right” these days… they’ll both favor government treating you like an ewe.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      WGAFANZA.

      • juris imprudent

        NZ into the RWC semis while the Aussies slunk home?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      How conservative are the New Zealand conservatives I wonder. That being said, getting rid of the party that Prime Minister Horseface served as the prime representative of has to be at least a marginal improvement.

      • Not Adahn

        How conservative are the New Zealand conservatives I wonder.

        They’re against government-sponsored gender surgery for sheep, and want to ban it entirely for lambs.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        gender surgery for sheep

        Ewe.

    • Lackadaisical

      I think they all enjoyed the lockdowns too much, that was actually popular, as far as I can sus.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Relief from the Tolkien tourists?

  16. Lackadaisical

    ‘expected family contribution’

    That’s how they get you. I remember my expected family contribution was well in excess of the $0 I got.

    Also, are these colleges giving them money for living expenses (beer money), etc? Because that’s where more than half of debt is coming from. All these people with bajillions in loans lived it up during college.

    • Rat on a train

      “I’m not attending for the education. I want the full college experience.”

      • Pine_Tree

        ding ding ding!

        This is one of those phrases that can tell you tremendous amounts in just 2 words.

        If you hear anybody say “college experience”, you can know with near-iron-clad certainty that that person should not be anywhere near anything to do with a college. Not as a student, instructor, staff, parent, anything.

    • rhywun

      I remember my expected family contribution was well in excess of the $0 I got.

      Same here.

  17. PieInTheSky

    Ten times Herodotus was proved right.

    Despite being called a liar, the Father of History was right more often than not, even if archaeology and science has taken a while to catch up.

    Let’s look at ten times he was actually right.

    https://twitter.com/Paracelsus1092/status/1713470705465987433

  18. kinnath

    I love Fiona Apple, but that is one strange video.

    • R.J.

      That’s pretty cool.

  19. kinnath

    Daily Quordle 630
    8️⃣6️⃣
    4️⃣5️⃣

    There’s a rough collection of words.

    • Sean

      Yup.

      Daily Quordle 630
      7️⃣8️⃣
      3️⃣5️⃣
      m-w.com/games/quordle/

    • rhywun

      It’s been a while.

      Jeebus.

      Daily Quordle 630
      9️⃣6️⃣
      3️⃣4️⃣

  20. Grummun

    Israel: We Are Not Negotiating – We Are Destroying Hamas

    “How do you know which ones are VC Hamas?”

    “Easy, the ones that break and run are VC Hamas. The ones that don’t run are well disciplined VC Hamas.”

    • Sensei

      My thoughts as well.

  21. Rebel Scum

    How about arresting the federal agents that are facilitating the invasion?

    The Senate advanced two immigration-related bills on Thursday evening, one of which would allow state police to arrest migrants who cross the southern border.

    Senate Bill 11, sponsored by state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, would create a new state crime for illegally entering Texas from Mexico and authorize state police to arrest violators. A first-time offender could be convicted of a misdemeanor, but the penalty would jump to a felony if the person has a criminal record and has repeatedly entered the country illegally.

    The Senate gave initial approval to SB 11 with a 19-12 vote. The bill needs a final vote in the Senate before it goes to the House.

    • Lackadaisical

      I don’t see how this bill will survive a court challenge, and I’m not sure if in practice you can arrest the vice president.

      • R.J.

        Might not. But it takes a page from the gun grabbers. Make the law, enforce the law until someone comes along to challenge it, then make another law.

      • Lackadaisical

        Every ngo and the Fed gov itself will file temporary restraining orders on Texas before the ink is dry on the bill.

  22. PieInTheSky

    The happy dysfunction of Dover
    Americans will never create communities like the British

    https://unherd.com/2023/10/the-happy-dysfunction-of-dover/

    I had planned on staying in Dover for two nights, but by the time the police came to take John away, it was clear I’d been fooled by decades of tourist board propaganda. Here was a scrappy, poverty-riddled port town struggling to live up to its historical hype.

    From what I’ve seen and heard in my two long walks across England, the English working class is a lot happier, more comfortable in their own skin and content, than the American. They might suffer from many of the same problems, but they seem a lot less angry.

    While there’s a lot of reasons for this, I think the main one is, ironically, that the class system is more calcified. In the US there’s this fantasy that anyone can do anything. The elites peddle this all the time: with enough hard work you can be whatever you want to be. The corollary to that is it’s not ok to be working class. You should always be looking to move on, rather than building your own culture. Divorce your class and be better, you loser!

    In the UK, the knowledge that you are stuck in your class is actually freeing. The attitude shifts from constantly trying to distance yourself from your community to contributing to it. Or at least being happy with it. Because fuck the elites and their scorn. I’m never gonna be them, so I’ll be what my dad was and my dad’s dad was.

    • Pine_Tree

      Well I don’t know enough about the English particulars to actually compare, but in the US, the working (middle) class is also looking at the whole “the elites openly hate you are actively trying to destroy your family, currency, and culture, and replace you with 3rd world dependants to maintain their hold on power” thing.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I don’t think our middle class and the English working class are comparable. Over here I think they’d be the working poor or some such. You know, a person who takes your order at McDonalds or who works as a clerk at a kwik shop.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I gather what they call MC is UMC here.

    • Not Adahn

      In the US there’s this fantasy that anyone can do anything. The elites peddle this all the time: with enough hard work you can be whatever you want to be. ,/bockquote>

      It’s been a while since this guy was in the US. The current thing is “you can be anything you want to be, with the correct government programs, because otherwise the white cisheteropatriarchy will oppress you.”

    • Brawndo

      The Brits really are a beaten people aren’t they…

    • rhywun

      In the UK, the knowledge that you are stuck in your class is actually freeing.

      Fuck off, slaver.

      *clicks link*

      Oh hell no. There is a whole wall of that foolishness?

      • The Last American Hero

        Definitely some shades of the western women that find burquas liberating.

    • SDF-7

      “Be a happy peasant! Don’t strive to interfere with your betters!”

      Fuck you, ya Limey bastard. We kicked you out so we can be whatever we have the ability and ambition to be, it isn’t a fucking fantasy — you can look at the trends over the years of “self made million / billionaire, kids inherit, kids piss it away in 2 generations, cycle repeats”. If anything we have too many kids locked into the Harvard power groups right now, not the other way around. So sod off.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I miss Limey, if he’s out there.

    • Suthenboy

      Know your place and stay in it? Fuck that.
      Early socialists were spouting this horseshit. They are spouting it now. “You will own nothing and be happy about it.”

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        S, my belated condolences about doggo. But 20 is amazing! Especially in a largish dog.

        The longer they live, the more time to get attached to them.

    • WTF

      Shorter version: “Stay in your place and be happy, don’t aspire to anything better, you unwashed peasants.”

    • juris imprudent

      There is a theory that the reason the British Raj endured as long as it did is the two caste systems were so well matched, and it was debatable as to which was the more rigid.

    • Brawndo

      Is this the franchise system at work? Lol

    • Lackadaisical

      That’s just smart business.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Paging Tom Friedman to the Drive Thru window…

    • The Last American Hero

      And neither serves the McRib!

  23. Rebel Scum

    Given the results we get, I don’t really care for democracy myself.

    Scott Pelley: “Does the dysfunction that we’ve seen in Congress increase the danger in the world?”

    Biden smeared millions of Americans.

    Biden replied, “Yes. Look, this is not your father’s Republican Party. Thirty percent of it’s made up of these MAGA Republicans who are maybe– democracy is something I don’t– they don’t look at the same way you and I look at democracy.”

    Also, fuck you, you tyrannical, fake president.

    • Rat on a train

      they don’t look at the same way you and I look at democracy
      mob rule?

      • R.J.

        That feces-laden ball sack need to stop pretending he knows what I think.

    • rhywun

      Fearmongering is all they’ve got left.

    • The Other Kevin

      Wow, the projection. It’s way less your father’s Democrat party. Unfortunately my own father hasn’t gotten the memo.

  24. Grummun

    If anyone has a use (or knows someone, etc) for a functioning Apple IIe Enhanced with dual 5.25″ disk drive and color C.ITOH display, email me at ‘thecow’ at my screen name .com. I have the original Apple disks (DOS 3.3) and a selection of other software. I’d like to get a few bucks out of this*, but I’d be happy with it going to someone who actually has a use for it, even if that use is as a museum piece. There is also a joystick that needs the buttons replaced (I’ve looked, the exact part is still available, if not easily so), and a C.ITOH color dot matrix printer that is probably useless because the color ribbons are no longer available.

    *I’ve not yet tried to sell it online, mostly because I would have to go to eBay to get the kind of visibility I think would be necessary.

    • R.J.

      Well, well. I think eBay may be the place to sell that for a healthy profit. I had a very similar setup in the day.

    • Seguin

      That was a nice story. Really brightened my morning – thanks Sensei.

  25. Rebel Scum

    Curious how we used to have those things.

    Everything Biden says he wants to accomplish by running again — stabilizing the Middle East, uniting Europe, deterring Putin — was already done when he came into office, thanks to President Trump.

    Biden’s policies and weakness ruined it all.

    • R C Dean

      “Bad luck.”

      • Rat on a train

        The media hasn’t helped with how much harder they’ve been with Biden than they were with Trump.

      • juris imprudent

        “This is what they actually believe”

  26. Lachowsky
    • PieInTheSky

      That is indeed a word.

      • Not Adahn

        “Home of the Red Man.”

      • Rat on a train

        Oklahoma is OK.

      • Not Adahn

        Truly a humble place

      • Not Adahn

        The moral is: Never mow your lawn without a spotter.

      • SDF-7

        Ooooooklahoma… where the wheel comes right under the plane…..

    • Rebel Scum

      That link ain’t gonna fly.

      • Fourscore

        just wing it!

    • Grummun

      Recent Pfizer commercial I saw, paraphrasing: “What your problem is, we’ve got a vaccine for that!”

      Fuck those chiseling shitheels.

      • Grummun

        Whatever*

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Martha Stewart is promoting that crap on radio ads now.

      • Atanarjuat

        A myocarditis vaccine would come in handy.

    • Rat on a train

      We don’t get the same results without government force.

    • SDF-7

      I want Fauci and these assmongers in prison preferably — but I’ll take their financials going into the toilet and hopefully reverting into obscurity because no one trusts them or wants their crap.

    • The Other Kevin

      They already made their once in a lifetime profits. But it is encouraging that the shots they tried to force 100% compliance on are now at 2%.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    “We have a moral obligation to make sure our low- and moderate-income families know that college is the best investment you’ll make in yourself,” Hurd said.

    You might want to take a long hard look at your curriculum before you say that.

    • WTF

      The skilled trades are a much better path for low and moderate-income families. Many trade organizations have apprenticeship programs to address the labor shortage in skilled trades, and you can make great money without any debt.

      • Pine_Tree

        You’ve just explained precisely why the proggie gov’t and academic elites hate that idea.

        There are a few facets to it, but interrupting all that, especially for low- and moderate-income families, is the goal.

      • Lachowsky

        I am dying to hire skilled electrical techs right now. We pay well too. With a couple years training and a couple years at the CC, I can offer a low 6 figure job in a low cost of living part of the country.

      • Mojeaux

        I’ve tried to get my kids into the trades, but neither one bit. At least XX is driving a forklift and can get work anywhere.

        XY got a bunch of grants from a specific school, so he’s getting his GEs there. He’ll be going to Missouri State next fall, fully paid by grants.

        My husband and I can’t pay for college anyway, but my parents couldn’t pay for mine, so I did. I lived at home for half of it, though.

      • Gustave Lytton

        There’s a lot of trade schools/apprenticeship programs that will happily saddle you with as much debt as you can’t borrow.

  28. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    Fiona is so cool. Great song and video!

    I’m sure this week will bring a bunch of fresh horrors, but I just got an email that my ground beed order is on the way, so I’m off to a good start!

    • Tundra

      Beef, even.

      • SDF-7

        I thought you were getting a head start on the bug eating from us and that was the Cool Kids(tm) term for ground beetles masquerading as beef or something.

      • Tundra

        The only bugs I will ever eat are lobsters.

      • Atanarjuat

        I thought perhaps Tundra had ordered a relic.

      • SDF-7

        It would have been a venerable choice, certainly.

      • Fourscore

        Deer season in 3 weeks. We may or may not be eating venison this fall.

      • Tundra

        The boy is on day three of his elk hunt. So far they haven’t seen one, but he did shoot a badger.

  29. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Unless it’s the hard sciences or engineering that investment may be dubious at best.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      How are people supposed to wank with that shitty background music?

  30. Rebel Scum

    Everything is fine, here, now. How are you?

    “Jake, how was your assessment [that ‘the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades’] so off the mark?”

    Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan: No it wasn’t

  31. The Other Kevin

    It might be time to dig out my “Ayatollah Assahollah” t-shirt again.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Mine’s in a trunk under a Cabbagepatch doll and a Nuke the Whales poster.

  32. Ownbestenemy

    Schumer is instructing relevant committee heads to prepare an aid package that will be ready “within the next few weeks.”

    We’re not waiting for the House,” he says.

    Schumer says he believes he will think about October 7 “every day for the rest of my life, just as I think about 9/11 every day for the rest of my life.”

    Fuck off

      • SDF-7

        “Israel is a rich country. I think they can afford to do most things.”

        If the Speaker situation in the House is resolved next week, Paul is concerned Congress will exploit the nascent war to goad lawmakers into funding Washington’s other proxies.

        “The rumor is they’re going to put Ukraine aid with Israel aid with Taiwan aid, and so God knows how big this thing will be,” he said.

        “It’s like a $50 billion-dollar bill, all outside the spending caps they passed two months ago and makes a mockery that we really have any rules or fiscal restraint over here.”

        Dammit, Rand — I’d already vote for you if you ever ran for President (and could get votes given the state of the Stupid Party much less the Evil one) — you don’t have to keep selling me, man.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Just keep Rand away from Ben Shapiro, he might get attacked again with that kind of talk.

    • invisible finger

      His thoughts go only as far as “Cha-ching!”

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Biden replied, “Yes. Look, this is not your father’s Republican Party. Thirty percent of it’s made up of these MAGA Republicans who are maybe– democracy is something I don’t– they don’t look at the same way you and I look at democracy.”

    Now do BLM, antifa and Democratic Socialism, you lying fuck.

    • Rebel Scum

      People who want any actual semblance of limited government and refraining from sticking our collective dicks into every foreign quagmire on the planet are a threat to democracy.

    • cyto

      Look… MAGA oppose rigged elections. BLM and Antifa oppose free speech and secure elections.

      They both oppose things

    • Gustave Lytton

      Democracy means throwing your political opponents in reeducation camps.

    • Suthenboy

      It appears that page does not exist

  34. Rebel Scum

    I guess you were not listening.

    I was out at the Palestinian march in Chicago –
    I’ll tell you what I didn’t hear –
    – I didn’t hear death to Israel –
    – I didn’t hear death to Jews –
    – I didn’t hear people celebrating the murders of Israeli civilians .
    What I DID hear is – we must free Palestine from a brutal occupation – people concerned for their loved ones, in a hell zone, stuck without food, water and power. Deep anguish over people being told to leave and bombed as they left.

    Curiously, they were getting those things from – wait for it – Israel…

    • SDF-7

      I’d be completely amazed if not a single change of “From the River to the Sea” was uttered there, and not so completely amazed if Mr. Cusack didn’t appreciate its implications.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        He didn’t appreciate Better Off Dead, so why listen.

      • rhywun

        “From the River to the Sea”

        I don’t know about Chicago but at the protests I saw clips of, they were holding up freaking signs reading that.

        I suspect that, as always, Mr. Cusack is a lying sack of shit.

      • juris imprudent

        Acting isn’t really lying, it’s just delivering the lines you’re given with conviction.

    • WTF

      we must free Palestine from a brutal occupation
      And by “Palestine” they mean “Israel”. So that statement is the functional equivalent of “death to Israel”, “death to Jews”, etc.

    • Nephilium

      Surprisingly, the NFL did a “We Stand with Israel” moment before the game on Sunday.

      • Rebel Scum

        I didn’t watch any games. But that is a change from the “muh-racism” bs they’ve had for awhile.

      • Nephilium

        Don’t know if it was included in the broadcast or not, but at the stadium they put it up on the jumbotron and did a moment of silence. The racism BS is still there, as the end zones for the Browns did say “It Takes All of Us” on one side and “End Racism” at the other. Thankfully, most of the players on the Browns just go with the team’s name on the back of the helmet.

      • rhywun

        I saw it on TV a couple times.

  35. Tundra

    The Triumph of the Apocalyptics

    If for years, you have asked the question “Where does this end?” we now have our answer, which seems inevitable in retrospect: war. We are looking at the deaths of innocents and probably this as just the beginning. The lockdowns broke not only the old moral codes and agreed-upon limits to state power. It broke the human personality and spirit the whole world over. It gave rise to a bloodlust that was barely beneath the surface.

    States went crazy in bullying and dividing their citizens. It happened nearly everywhere but Israel was a leading case in point, as Brownstone has pointed out repeatedly. The citizenry has never been more divided and the state never more distracted from security concerns. The delicate peace was shattered in shocking ways on October 8, 2023 in a ghastly attack that revealed the worst security failure in the vulnerable state in its history.

    That incident then encouraged and further unleashed the apocalyptics, whole peoples determined to take the next step in the dehumanization of the population and the use of appalling means of doing the unthinkable: extermination, a word now thrown around as if it is fine and normal to speak this way. This conflict has now reached further into the politics of every country and down to every civic association, communities of intellectuals, and personal friendship. As Schmitt might have loved – and what Bret Weinstein calls Goliath (the unity of administrative state, media, corporate power, and elite tech platforms) surely celebrates – everyone is being turned into the category of friend and enemy.

    Buckle up, kids.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Tainting the jury pool is our job

    On Monday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, presiding over the prosecution alleging former President Donald Trump interfered in the 2020 presidential election, will conduct a hearing to determine whether she should order limitations on Trump’s speech to prevent him from endangering witnesses, prosecutors and judges and to stop him from tainting future jury pools. On one hand, this hearing is extraordinary: It could result in a so-called gag order on a political party’s likely presidential nominee. On the other hand, this kind of hearing is regularly conducted in courts throughout the U.S. when defendants on pretrial release engage in conduct detrimental to the fair and orderly administration of justice.

    Stop it. You’re killing me.

    • Ownbestenemy

      …when defendants on pretrial release engage in conduct detrimental to the fair and orderly administration of justice.

      DA offices are the real detriment to fair and orderly administration of justice. If they gag him, I suspect the DA will become the most leakiest of leaky leakers.

      • juris imprudent

        [insert driver’s license picture of Pastafarian]

    • Rebel Scum

      limitations on Trump’s speech

      He should ignore every single one.

      endangering witnesses, prosecutors and judges

      How dare he criticize the corrupt system.

      stop him from tainting future jury pools

      Can’t have anyone on the jury that is insufficiently anti-Trump.

  37. Sensei

    What an idiot. The approver gave him a chance to walk it back and claim it was a mistake. Also from another article if this guys spent 8 years as an analyst he was never going to make as a banker.

    Citi banker who lied about expensing partner’s meals loses tribunal
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/10/16/citi-banker-fired-expensing-partner-lunch-lying/

    Mr Fekete claimed that the amounts expensed were well within the bank’s €100 (£87) a day allowance and replied by email saying: “I was on the business trip by myself and that I had 2 coffees as they were very small.”

    The senior manager questioned his response, saying: “The receipt appears to have two sandwiches, two coffees, and another drink… Are you advising that this was all consumed by you?”

    Definitely worth making yourself unemployable.

    • Pine_Tree

      Yeah I’ve been an approver on expense reports for years. I get how work travel goes, and have happily pushed back when somebody has something wrong. And everybody gets it, and makes the adjustment, and nobody cares. We are pretty liberal around the edges, as long as nobody abuses anything.

      But lie to me and it’s all over. You’re asking to be crushed.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Company card and expense reports still make me nervous, even after years of doing it. Too many stories of people getting canned over dipshit things like filling their own car for non-work travel or buying kids’ presents with the supposed intention to pay it back before it’s due (there’s controls in place to prevent direct personal payments). I receipt everything, even the incidental things that fall under the required limit. I’d rather not have any question mark as to what I’m doing.

      • kinnath

        Too many stories of people getting canned over dipshit things like filling their own car for non-work travel or buying kids’ presents with the supposed intention to pay it back before it’s due

        stupid is a stupid does.

  38. The Other Kevin

    Looks like there’s a real schism about Israel between the far, far left (BLM) and the the Democrat leadership, and even major media in some cases. People tend to have a hierarchy of what they believe, and it seems Jewish >> socialist. I’m watching this very curiously.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    And yet, since then Trump has heaped a veritable haystack of threats on the legal system’s back. Most recently, as he entered a Manhattan courtroom last Monday to attend the trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case against him, his sons and the Trump Organization, Trump stated, “You ought to go after this attorney general.” He did not specify who should “go after” James, but we need only recall how his supporters reacted to his directive to “stop the steal” on Jan. 6 to see how dangerous such a call is.

    So far the courts have treated Trump with kid gloves. Will the courts continue to leave him free to endanger witnesses and poison jury pools? Or will they begin treating him the way they tend to treat those without power, wealth and influence and hold him accountable for his extraordinarily dangerous and damaging rhetoric? Our criminal justice system is being tested — now it must rise to the challenge.

    With all due respect, go fall out of a high window.

    • Rebel Scum

      veritable haystack of threats

      In the vein of “what comes around goes around.” Fuck you, you dishonest cunte.

      but we need only recall how his supporters reacted to his directive to “stop the steal”

      To peacefully and patriotically protest?

      So far the courts have treated Trump with kid gloves

      Sure…

      • juris imprudent

        Seditious conspiracy – they only got sentenced to many years in prison, instead of death for treason. How much more leniency can you ask for?

    • cyto

      I too hate thinking about where we would be without him.

      • Rat on a train

        There would be more cackling.

      • Mojeaux

        Yeah, half that tweet’s not wrong.

      • Fourscore

        ”I too hate thinking”

        Me too

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Give us a wink…

    • Rebel Scum

      most critical presidencies

      For deliberately destroying America.

      I hate to think where we’d be without him.

      Before convid, the Trump years were good.

      Writer. Lesbian. Texan. Veteran. Hoya. She. |Rep: @lynnjohnstonlit | @GUPolitics | @CFR_org
      | cmclymer@gmail.com | subscribe: http://charlotteclymer.substack.com #BLM

      Not the Bee?

    • B.P.

      There’s an alternative scenario where the executive branch is making worse choices than they are now?

      • Rat on a train

        Biden funnels money through Russian and Hamas instead?

    • Atanarjuat

      Sure, all the other elections were meaningless contests over who is the lesser of two evils, but this next one is the most important ever.

  40. Rebel Scum

    I don’t get why Americans care about people that hate them.

    GREENSBORO — Hundreds of demonstrators carrying signs and waving Palestinian flags lined a busy stretch of Wendover Avenue on Friday as conflict continues in the Middle East.

    The chants of “No peace on stolen land” almost drowned out the sounds of passing cars on one of the city’s busiest roads.

    “What we’ve seen this week is an everyday reality for the Palestinian people,” said Maitha Ali, one of the event’s organizers and of Palestinian descent, as the crowd swelled to about 400.

    Define “stolen”. It was the Jew’s land. Then it was conquered by several other people, including but not limited to the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and several Islamic empires*.

    *The last of which specifically set it aside for a Jewish state following the Great War.

    • cyto

      Greensboro???? Oh for crying out loud.

      • Pine_Tree

        UNCG. Bet there ain’t many townies involved.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s Phillistine land.

      • Rat on a train

        As a descendent of Adam I claim all land.

      • WTF

        Damn Jews stole it from the Philistines after the exodus!

    • Tundra

      BLM/antifa psy ops. Distractions.

  41. KSuellington

    Don’t know if it’s been discussed much here, but not only did New Zealand reject Ms Lockdown’s party, but that next door in shrimp on the barbieland, they soundly rejected the “it belongs to them, let’s give it back” measure that would have created an unelected council of woke aborigines to gain the ability to reject or approval any and all legislation there. Supposedly it had the full backing of the media and elite and yet fell 60/40.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/10/14/aussie-deplorables-have-struck-a-blow-against-identity-politics/

    • Rat on a train

      “We just want equality.”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      An unelected council the elites could dole out graft to in exchange for approval or rejection of laws as they see fit? I bet they were for it alright.

    • R.J.

      Every time I hear some prick say “vote on the right side of history” I want to load every weapon in the house.

      • Rebel Scum

        the right side of history

        As I used to tell the dyed-in-the-wool former gf, I am on the right side of history.

      • juris imprudent

        load every weapon

        Hmm, my inclination is growing toward unloading, with purposeful fire.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    American greatness

    With his vehement support for Israel and repeated personal contacts with Netanyahu after the Hamas attacks, Biden laid the ground for Israel to defend itself. But he also created political room for the US to seek to constrain the worst impacts of what is expected to be a ruthless Israeli operation in Gaza and to try to keep longer-term regional peace efforts alive. Given the complexity of the situation and the trauma the Hamas assault created in Israel, it’s not certain that the president’s balancing act is sustainable. But he has to try, since a major war in the Middle East would stretch US resources even further as Washington maintains a multibillion-dollar lifeline for Ukraine, and could foster an impression of global chaos that could harm Biden’s reelection bid next year.

    The president said in his interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday that the US could support both Israel and Ukraine and that it had no choice but to intervene because “we are the essential nation.”

    “We’re the United States of America for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history – not in the world, in the history of the world,” Biden said. “We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense.” He added: “And if we don’t, who does?”

    Who’s living in the past now?

    • B.P.

      Tell me more about this “international defense.”

      • Lachowsky

        All the borders of every country in the world are sacred and must not be violated. The USA is here to make sure that is so.

      • WTF

        All the borders of every country in the world are sacred and must not be violated. *

        *Southern US border not included

      • Gustave Lytton

        Also, any breakaway region that has internationalist sympathy: sout Sudan, Kosovo, East Timor. Not Catalonia.

    • Rebel Scum

      the US could support both Israel and Ukraine

      Only one of these is relevant to us. And it’s not Ukraine.

      the most powerful nation in the history – not in the world, in the history of the world

      Not since you wokeified the military.

      international defense

      What now? The USG’s responsibility is to the people of the US, i.e. national defense.

      • juris imprudent

        We’re the greatest Jack! We have NO LIMITS.

        And Joe, you’re a little old for that Icarus bullshit.

      • Lackadaisical

        ‘Only one of these is relevant to us. And it’s not Ukraine.’

        Why is Israel more relevant to us than Ukraine?

      • Lachowsky

        its not. just some people think it should be.

    • WTF

      Before Obama and then Biden degraded the military (and the economy), it might have been true.
      Now? Not so much.

      • Sean

        Not since you wokeified the military.

        I saw some sad Army recruiting commercials this weekend.

      • juris imprudent

        I know the fashion here is to only complain about Democratic presidents, and maybe a bit about Congress – but the issues with our military run much longer and deeper than one or two administrations.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Biden’s effort to rush more aid to both nations is being complicated by chaos in the House of Representatives, which is paralyzed by the divided Republican Party’s failure to elect a new speaker. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted Sunday that the US had to send Israel the support it needed to defend itself. The New York Democrat said a delegation he was leading to Tel Aviv – which also includes Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah – was rushed to a shelter after an air-raid alert.

    Will Schumer be delivering pallets of cash donated by private citizens?

    • Gustave Lytton

      So playing tourist with mittens? How many American citizens are still unable to leave Israel?

  44. Rebel Scum

    Iran is angling for the final showdown (i.e. getting glassed) that they desire.

    Iranian leaders on Sunday issued stark warnings that the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza could trigger a “wider war” in the Middle East unless Israel curbs its retaliatory measures against Hamas.

    Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian each said that if Israeli forces don’t halt their “crimes” against civilians in Gaza, Iran could be drawn into the conflict, state-run media reported.

    Meanwhile, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the United States is working feverishly to avoid a spread of the war but could not rule out Iran intervening either directly or through its allies, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he will again visit Israel on Monday.

    • WTF

      It’s almost like they don’t realize Israel has nukes.

      • juris imprudent

        But Allah would never allow the Jews to destroy his blessed people!

    • Rebel Scum

      That’s quite a finale.

      • Tundra

        Whoa.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Middle East shuttle mission shows that the United States, despite its efforts to extricate itself from the region, is still uniquely positioned to influence Israel as well as key Arab power brokers at a moment of deep peril – and still willing to take on the task of projecting leadership in the Middle East, in spite of the domestic turmoil in Washington.

    I’m sure MBS is just hanging on our every word.

    • Rebel Scum

      despite its efforts to extricate itself from the region

      LOL…oh, wait. You were serious.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Demons assail us


    A favorite of former President Donald Trump and darling of the party’s rabble-rousing base, Jordan’s path to the U.S. government’s third-highest office is by no means certain in a House Republican conference riven by conflict following the ouster two weeks ago of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. To win, Jordan will need support from nearly every House Republican, having few votes to spare in a chamber they only narrowly control.

    Should Jordan succeed, it would help cement the far right’s takeover of the Republican Party and trigger fresh conflict with Democrats over the size and scope of government. But a Jordan speakership would also come with baggage that could present a challenge to Republicans as they labor to hold their House majority in next year’s election, an effort that will likely hinge on drawing support from moderate voters in swing districts.

    Some members of Congress — including some in his own party — label Jordan an extremist unworthy of the speakership, pointing to his active role in Trump’s bid to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election, as well as his refusal to honor a congressional subpoena about the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol. Further in his past, Jordan continues to be questioned over his alleged knowledge of sexual abuse in the wrestling program at Ohio State University — accusations he adamantly denies.

    Former Rep. Liz Cheney, who helped lead the Jan. 6 investigation and was ousted from GOP leadership by conservatives, has warned that giving Jordan the gavel could even pose a threat to democracy itself.

    “If the Republicans decide that Jim Jordan should be the speaker of the House,” Cheney said during a recent speech, “there would no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution.”

    Once upon a time, questions regarding the size and scope of government were considered legitimate political debate. Now, any suggestion of reducing government spending is open treason. And. of course, we all know Liz cheney is the go-to authority on all matters Constitutional.

    The Abyss beckons.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Liz should go hunting with her dad.

    • Sean

      Eat more steak.

      We have several of Maria’s cook books.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Jordan was the founding chairman in 2015 of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative hardliners who eventually pressured Boehner to step aside. More than eight years later, members of the group were instrumental in McCarthy’s removal, a stunning outcome testament to the group’s outsized power.

    Freedom Caucus? With a name like that hose people obviously hate democracy.

  48. Gustave Lytton

    Anyone else have their company leadership commenting on Israel? New idiot leftist is tying themselves in knots trying to express compassion while hitting all of bog standard talking points (actually used allyship, but not in the political sense). Hilarious and out of touch.

  49. R.J.

    To all the TX Glibs out there: Trashy is coming to DFW this coming week, the 18th -25th. Anyone up for an impromptu meetup?

    • Seguin

      I’ll ask the waifu.

      • R.J.

        Excellent. Anyone know where to find Urthona?