Wednesday Afternoon SugarLinks – Tokyo Calling

by | Nov 29, 2023 | Daily Links | 172 comments

A24 makes some very interesting horror movies, but the new one is so disturbing, I’m not sure I’m up to watching it.


 

This is my favorite of the many cryptid feeds I follow on Tweeter.

<https://twitter.com/creepyacres>

They make these wonderful graphics on cryptid events.


 

Hamas senior official invites Elon Musk to visit Gaza

A Hamas senior official invited U.S. billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday to visit the Palestinian Gaza strip to see the extent of destruction caused by the Israeli bombardment.

“We invite him to visit Gaza to see the extent of the massacres and destruction committed against the people of Gaza, in compliance with the standards of objectivity and credibility,” Hamas’ senior official Osama Hamdan said in a press conference in Beirut.

On Monday, Elon Musk, the social media mogul assailed for his endorsement of an anti-Jewish post, toured the site of the Hamas assault on Israel and declared his commitment to do whatever was necessary to stop the spread of hatred.


 

The Horror of Who Is Still Listening to Trump

[the last three paragraphs]

In this sense, then, asking why nobody learned the lesson of Trump in 2016 is also a galactic category error. Trump in 2016 was a thought experiment: What if we allowed a guy who talks like this to run for and secure the U.S. presidency? Trump in 2023 is a much, much scarier proposition: How many people who once struggled to condone and parse and rationalize the opaque notions floated by a mediocre demagogue can now do so knowing his full intentions and ability to achieve them, without breaking a sweat?

This is not to minimize the important, even existential debates about what Trump can say and how we might level consequences for the things he says that result in violence. I am simply suggesting that Donald Trump is still one mediocre human who could be reduced to global irrelevance were there not an army of folks who not only like what he says, but another set that will also tolerate anything he says simply because they kind of like him now.

If you want to fret about something, it shouldn’t be that former President Donald J. Trump is allowed by the machinery of media and First Amendment law to keep talking. It’s that the pool of people who think what he says is vitally, life-alteringly, and materially important is not just vast, it’s also now incapable of shame.

Allowed? Trump broke these people so utterly.


 

Make sure to have the captions on for the dark lyrics of despair and cultural senescence.

About The Author

SugarFree

SugarFree

Your Resident Narcissistic Misogynist Rape-Culture Apologist

172 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    So there’s not going be a Laura Loomer/Casey DeSantis sex tape? Why am I paying taxes?

    • Aloysious

      We had drunken celebrity blowjobs in the last post.

      Where’s Q?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      There’s got to be an AI program that can manage that for you.

  2. Common Tater

    A24 is great.

    • SDF-7

      I thought that bizarre Marcel movie came out last year though. Some French writer got some bad shrooms, I figured.

  3. Shpip

    The rhetoric is the same, but the intent behind it is clearer than it’s ever been.

    It’s progjection and dog whistles all the way down.

    • Suthenboy

      It will get worse. The histrionics will continue without conveying any actual information.
      “Trump bad!”
      Why is he bad?
      “Because he is evil!”
      Why is he evil?
      “Because he is bad!”

      OK. Take your meds.

  4. Common Tater

    You couldn’t pay me enough to visit Gaza, and I’m not the richest man in world. Maybe Elon could buy it?

  5. Aloysious

    Cryptids rock.

    RAWR.

    I miss COWDOZ.

    • ZARDOZ

      ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. YEE-HAW, Y’ALL. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.

      • Sean

        lulz

      • SDF-7

        I assume he gives the gift of the six shooter. Maybe the coffee grinder style Gatling if you’re really lucky.

        Of course, when the Cowdoz with a pistol meets a Cowdoz with a rifle — the Cowdoz with the pistol… is a dead man.

        (Aim for the heart, Cowdoz… or you’ll never stop him…)

      • Aloysious

        Thank you. That made my week.

  6. Sensei

    Nice music choice!

  7. Swiss Servator

    Venezuelan fairy tales…

    THERE NO SUCH THING AS SPACE SMITH!

    • Shpip

      STEVE SMITH learned how to anal probe from ancient alien cousin.

      By anal probe, mean…

      • R.J.

        That reads like e.e. smith, STEVE SMITH’S poetic cousin.

        soon comes the probe
        in the autumn
        in my ass
        no one will cry tears for my loss

      • Shpip

        Sato Smith-san sez:

        Be still or struggle
        STEVE SMITH anal probe better
        When you wiggle more

  8. Common Tater

    “How many people who once struggled to condone and parse and rationalize the opaque notions floated by a mediocre demagogue can now do so knowing his full intentions and ability to achieve them, without breaking a sweat?”

    That sentence sucks. I had to read it twice.

    • SugarFree

      The poor thing has lost her mind.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    in compliance with the standards of objectivity and credibility

    Rigorous standards, as prescribed by the United Nations?

  10. The Late P Brooks

    I am simply suggesting that Donald Trump is still one mediocre human who could be reduced to global irrelevance were there not an army of folks who not only like what he says, but another set that will also tolerate anything he says simply because they kind of like him now.

    Don’t forget the vast army of people like you who screech in terror as they hang desperately on his every word, and then broadcast his message far and wide. I suspect the left listens to the cartoon villain much more intently than your run of the mill Flyoverstan Republican.

    • The Other Kevin

      By obsessing about him and using every two-bit prosecutor to go after him, they’ve made him into the ultimate martyr. Not to mention censoring and persecuting anyone who even liked one of his tweets (that’s in the news today) – do they really think those supporters are going to give up and declare their love for Big Biden?

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      another set that will also tolerate anything he says simply because they kind of like him now.

      The word you’re looking for is cobelligerent.

      I may not want to get a beer with the guy, but I sure do appreciate the way he makes the people who hate me squirm.

      • R.J.

        There is not a lot of words that rhyme with cobelligerent. I am going to work on that.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Detergent.

        Tokyo Calling
        a new detergent,
        to cobelligerent, cutting our history!

      • Grumbletarian

        Cold refrigerant

      • robc

        He has all the right enemies, but he still destroyed the USFL, so lost my vote forever.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        That makes him a hero in some quarters.

  11. juris imprudent

    From earlier today…

    Gender Traitor on November 29, 2023 at 10:25 am
    Next enviro-crisis: Anthropogenic Plate Tectonics.

    All presentations on this will be given by Rep. Hank Johnson.

      • juris imprudent

        There aren’t enough people (or land for that matter) in the Antipodes!!!

      • SDF-7

        I don’t suppose it has occurred to them that this might actually be a feedback cycle (even if their insanity is true?).

        Glacier melt == more water == widening cracks == earthquakes / volcanic activity == more particulates shot into stratosphere == global cooling == glaciers…. I mean… duh?

      • Suthenboy

        When the Gods are angry they dont fuck around, do they?

      • J. Frank Parnell

        This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep’s bladders eating bugs may be employed to prevent earthquakes.

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      He’d flip over that!

  12. rhywun

    Trump broke these people so utterly.

    And the dripping, elitist contempt. Not to mention the galactic projection.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Biden’s outdone him though, he’s President and not only is he a staggering mediocrity of a human being, the man’s senile. But, yes, everything this yutz claims can be turned around on his guy no problem.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        It can be turned on anyone you don’t like. Replace Trump with Obama, and every sentence works from another point of view.

      • Suthenboy

        Yep, like racial jokes. The butt of the joke can be interchanged at will.

    • SDF-7

      It does all boil down to the existence of those Not of the Body (who they want to eliminate… finally….).

    • R C Dean

      “What if we allowed a guy who talks like this”

      Not what he says. Not what he does. How he talks. About the most superficial thing you could fixate on.

      I recall some hilarious overdubs of him during the first campaign. With an English accent, it’s remarkable how reasonable he sounded.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    they kind of like him now.

    Let’s see: Trump’s Presidency, compared to Biden’s? I certainly have a preference.

    • Urthona

      The first three years were ok I guess. When he turned the country over to Fauci and racked up another $8 trillion in spending I was nonplussed.

      • Common Tater

        Hillary would have been even worse.

      • Urthona

        Of course.

      • SDF-7

        And that’s why I really wish DeSantis was catching on better. I like Trump for some of the things he did (foreign policy, energy independence) but his propensity to let the flunkies run amok and let Congress spend is a showstopper for me. And I really don’t think he’ll do better the second time around (because I think he’ll be too busy chasing the laser pointer of whatever / whomever hurt his ego).

        Unfortunately — as bloody always when it comes to politics, it seems I’m decidedly in the minority. I don’t get it, but there it is.

      • Urthona

        Ditto.

        I, of course, have problems with everyone but I would not mind DeSantis.

      • Suthenboy

        Yes you would. There is no savior. We desperately want there to be a good guy who can set things right. There is no such critter.
        DeSantis will screw the pooch just like they all do.
        It is always about choosing the least stinky turd.

      • robc

        the least stinky turd

        Is Badnarik running again, because that is a good description.

      • robc

        blockquote fail, also he died last year.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        This is true. However, things seemed to be skating along at a merely bad level until Commander in Briefs took over. Then the federal mandates started.

        Trump’s 2020 was bad. Biden’s 2021 was the start of the post-legitimacy era.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Trshy gets it. And I think everyone would have fallen into that trap, it was a serious full-court press, with no quarter taken.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Given. sheesh.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    It’s that the pool of people who think what he says is vitally, life-alteringly, and materially important is not just vast, it’s also now incapable of shame.

    There is most definitely a vast pool of people who think what Trump says is vitally, life-alteringly, and materially important, and you are slashing in it right now.

    “Democracy hangs in the balance.”

    Get a fucking grip.

    • Urthona

      I like how the horrific moment is the yelling of a forbidden word and not the beating the shit out of each other part.

      • Nephilium

        It just shows that words are the true violence.

    • Brochettaward

      As much of a lovely little cunt as she comes across as, the white kid started the physical altercation, as well.

      • Brochettaward

        And the walk-out looks like it consists of like 20 students;

        Something tells me this girl wasn’t very popular.

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      As long as Nigger is a magical word, everyone is going to attempt to use its power.

      • Urthona

        Uh oh. Ban for this guy right here.

    • Lackadaisical

      Looks like they both started it… Par for the course in public schools to suspend anyone in a fight.

      • Fourscore

        Serious punishment would be to keep them in school and make them eat the free lunch

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        They amended the constitution of the US to include “…And I eight it!”?

    • rhywun

      “Horrific”

      OFFS

      This story has “we’re not getting the whole picture” written all over it, and is therefore, not worth wasting one second more time on.

    • Mojeaux

      I’ve been thinking about this—I can hardly help it because it’s a local school and all over the news—and I’m thinking they’re both problem children and this is an ongoing feud.

  15. juris imprudent

    The end is near and maybe it will be glorious?

    But Jarkesy, a fringe figure using fringe arguments, is trying to do an end run around the democratic process and win in the Court what right-wing activists have failed to achieve at the ballot box. The Supreme Court should reject this antidemocratic ploy rather than accept the Fifth Circuit’s fake history.

    That’s the LEFT’s tactic motherfuckers – you don’t get to use it!!!

    • creech

      At least three justices will embrace overturning the 5th’s constitutional decision.

    • Brochettaward

      Jarkesy’s most far-reaching constitutional argument is built on the “nondelegation doctrine,” which holds that there may be some limits on the kinds of powers that Congress can give to agencies.

      Pure crazy talk.

      • Lackadaisical

        ‘which holds that there may be some limits on the kinds of powers that Congress can give to agencies.’

        Uh, no one seriously disputes that there ARE limits (not may be…) It’s just the exact outline of those limits that are in question.

      • R C Dean

        How about, delegation is not an enumerated power of Congress, so any attempt to do so exceeds its powers?

      • prolefeed

        A large chunk of the populace, including many elected officials, think that the only limit on powers that can be delegated by Congress is whether they can muster enough votes, or sneak stuff thru that they can’t get by voting. They think the Constitution is a dead document that bad people use as an excuse to hold up implementing good stuff.

        Possibly a majority of the populace.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Constitution is a dead document that bad people use as an excuse to hold up implementing good stuff.

        It’s important to note that this is a two pronged approach. They simultaneously delegitimize the Constitution while also skinsuiting it. They win either way. Either they kill any remaining fidelity to the document or they so mangle the document that the remaining fidelity is actually to their ideals instead.

        I say this in present tense, but it mostly happened and succeeded a century ago. There are very few parts of the Constitution that made it through Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, and the Civil Rights Era unscathed.

      • Brochettaward

        Originalism’s ideology was born in sin; recent scholarship has argued that originalism first emerged to defend segregation following the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

        I don’t think this is a game the progressives want to play.

      • juris imprudent

        No they seriously think they can blame today’s Republicans for all past bad Democratic acts. Look at the dipshit mayor of Chicago.

    • rhywun

      LOL the breathless hyperbole is just beginning.

      This shit is a huge source of the left’s power and they are NOT gonna let it go easily.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      The right-wing legal movement’s target is the “administrative state”—the agencies and institutions that set standards for safety in the workplace, limit environmental hazards and damage, and impose rules on financial markets to ensure their stability and basic fairness, among many other important things.

      My God, what sort of monster would oppose those things?

    • Grumbletarian

      Without independence, adjudicators would be beholden to the politicians who oversee agencies. Unscrupulous presidents would use agencies to punish their opponents and reward their allies.

      Obama’s IRS has entered the chat.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    The first three years were ok I guess. When he turned the country over to Fauci and racked up another $8 trillion in spending I was nonplussed.

    Well, yeah, that part was kind of tough to take. But it’s not like he announced his specific intent to destroy the economy on day one, like Biden.

    Shutting down the Keystone pipeline and declaring open war on fossil fuels was problematic.

    • Urthona

      Hey. I’m with you on the lesser of two evils thing.

      But also a big fan of the guy I am not.

      • The Other Kevin

        I know nobody who voted for Trump who hangs on his every word like the writer claims. At this point they pretty much admit he’s not perfect, and kind of an asshole who shoots his mouth off too much. But they support him because Biden is wrecking this country and using the government to go after his political opponents.

        All Biden had to do was an ok job running the country, and just move on from Trump. But as SF said, Trump broke them.

      • B.P.

        I remember when Biden was going to be the calm, reassuring adult ushering us back to a sense of normalcy. Then the radicals in his party captured him.

      • R.J.

        He was captured already. The very first debate he announced his intent to crush the oil and gas industry, turn off the pipeline, and basically wreck our economy. He was absolutely open about all the evil shit he planned to do. And people voted for their own destruction.

      • Urthona

        Yes. This.

      • hayeksplosives

        With the help of a very compliant MSM to deemphasize his pronouncements on what he planned to do to the economy and instead emphasize what a steady, gentlemanly leader he is.

      • Gender Traitor

        emphasize fantasize what a steady, gentlemanly leader he is.

      • juris imprudent

        Some Voters: This is your platform?
        Biden: Yes. And I am not Donald Trump.
        Some Voters: OK, you got mine.

    • kinnath

      Think about Hillary controlling SCOTUS.

      That’s what was important about Trump. The rest was a mixed bag of good and bad. The disaster occurred when the notorious germaphobe was given an epidemic to manage.

      • Urthona

        indeed.

        He could’ve picked even better justices though.

      • kinnath

        Yes. They were not great picks.

        But we know how Garland turned out.

        And we’ve seen what Biden did.

        So, Trump’s justices are the best we could hope for.

      • R.J.

        I don’t think you could armchair quarterback that one. He had to really thread the needle to get in what he got.

      • kinnath

        Replacing RBG with a young Catholic with 7 kids was sublime.

    • rhywun

      There is not a hypothetical electable president who wasn’t going to sell the country down the river to that fucking asshole Fauci.

      The realy disreputable part of all of this is that Donald is still bragging about his performance during that period.

      • juris imprudent

        First off, Fauci took advantage of Trump’s incompetence, and Obama to his credit shut down the funding of GoF research. Second, Trump was deer in the headlights, and I think any number of people could’ve handled it better, and kept Fauci from becoming the front man. Trump’s other problem was swinging as he did to whatever someone told him last – first he downplayed it too much, then when he ran from that, it was to allow his subordinates to take the lead, and he never got them back in line.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Oh, Hell, Regan got caught in that little homonculus’ headlights re AIDS. Trump didn’t stand a chance. And it seems that Obama’s “shutting down GoF” worked about as well as anything in his presidency.

      • juris imprudent

        In his administration yes, it did. The money went out under Trump. I would think that Fauci actually didn’t have legit authority to do that, which is another point swept under the rug.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Apparently it wasn’t a complete ban apparently, just a 3-year moratorium while “experts” assessed the risks.

        https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-lifts-moratorium-on-funding-controversial-high-risk-virus-research/

        DECEMBER 19, 2017
        The federal government announced on Tuesday that it is lifting a three-year moratorium on funding controversial research that involves genetically altering viruses in ways that could make them more contagious, more deadly, or both—and that critics say risks triggering a catastrophic pandemic.

        lol stupid critics, they need to listen to the experts.

        Anyways, good news is they continued to fund much of the research anyways:

        Collins, who announced the new policy, told reporters that 21 proposed studies were “paused” when the moratorium was imposed. But 10 were eventually funded through a case-by-case exemption process. The new policy, Collins told reporters, is “just a way of regularizing the process” of approving studies that enhance the transmissibility or virulence of viruses. He said he does not see the policy as “a particularly significant change.”

      • rhywun

        I think any number of people could’ve handled it better, and kept Fauci from becoming the front man

        Humbly disagree.

        Note, I said “electable”.

      • DEG

        Trump brought in Atlas too late, didn’t listen to him, and didn’t back him up.

        Fauci was the front man, but behind the scenes was Birx. Birx did the heavy lifting behind the scenes. She went around to the governors to convince them to lockdown and go with whatever screwed up restriction the Fauci/Birx/Redfield troika backed at that point. And Pence supporting the Troika. I suspect, based on a few things Atlas said in his book, is that Kushner also had his own agenda that didn’t always line up with Trump.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Without the benefit of hindsight, the initial decisions are understandable. It’d be like having some foreign policy crisis, and the Joint Chiefs are unanimously recommending a targeted nuclear strike. It’s going to take a while to untangle what’s going on there.

        That said, Trump’s fault was his same fault he exhibited his whole presidency. He was too reliant on his experts, too slow to pivot away from them when they went off script, and he has too much of an ego to admit failure, change course, and learn from it.

      • DEG

        The initial decisions to lock down were never understandable.

      • B.P.

        I didn’t think much of COVID at first, and figured the response was an overreaction. I shrugged at two weeks to flatten the curve, naively thinking that was it. I stocked up on booze. Soon after, cities were taking down basketball rims and filling skate parks with sand. I knew then that it was insane.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I give some grace on “two weeks to flatten the curve”. He had a room full of experts saying “we can keep this from going full epidemic with 14 days of sacrifice” and he bought it. However, day 15 is when Trump’s culpability starts to increase dramatically, in my opinion.

        Frankly, I’m likely to be sitting out this next election. As much as I want Biden out of there, Trump burned a lot of goodwill in 2020 and I’m not interested in lending legitimacy to an electoral system that, at very best, operates in a way that is indistinguishable from fraud.

      • R C Dean

        What trshy said.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Of course, when the Cowdoz with a pistol meets a Cowdoz with a rifle — the Cowdoz with the pistol… is a dead man.

    Whatever you do, don’t laugh at the mule.

  18. Shpip

    Well, this sucks.

    I got to meet and converse with Tim on several occasions, and even sorta became his unofficial docent-at-large and drinking buddy in Big College Town for a time when he was here for research or a book tour. He was just as funny in person as he was in print. My life is richer for that.

    Resquiat in pace, pal.

    Unsolicited advice to the Glibertariat: go to your local lending library and check out Florida Roadkill and Hammerhead Ranch Hotel. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be laughing out loud and clamoring for the next twenty novels.

    • creech

      Dave Barry has a number of hilarious Florida Man novels too.

      • Urthona

        I’ve read at least one of those and it was good. But I’m A Barry fan.

      • Shpip

        Yep, take the zaniness of Carl Hiaasen and add in the guffaw induction of Barry and you have Tim Dorsey.

        I’m pretty sure all of them got their material from just scanning the wire feeds at their respective newspapers for Florida Man stories.

      • Urthona

        Interesting . thanks for the tip

      • robc

        I have never read any Barry novels, but had a number of his books from the 80s/90s era.

        For some reason, his one serious chapter in Dave Barry Does Japan has always stood out.

    • prolefeed

      Bought the first one off Thriftbooks.

  19. SDF-7

    Oh joy — another moron believing that what their country needs is a short, victorious war.

    This will doubtless end well and I’m sure the PPP admin won’t try to stick our fingers in it (out of misplaced statesmanship, love of socialist comrades or whatnot…).

    • Suthenboy

      They want the gold. They had the oil and fucked that up royally. What makes them think they will do any better with an even lower profit margin resource?
      Who goes to war with a nation where 99% of the population spends all of their time drinking, smoking pot and screwing? I would be surprised if the country could field a single competent soldier.

      • Urthona

        Also they’re communist so everything will break and every troop will steal and defect.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        And the finest bikini waxes!

  20. SDF-7

    Gavin tries to look more presidential… I’d like to think the rest of the country isn’t as gullible as CA voters seem to have been. (Not that Biden isn’t trying too with his “bribe the youth vote” student loan crap today…)

    • R.J.

      Nope. People are damn stupid.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      Seems pretty straightforward.

      1) Kick the homeless off of state-owned land and into the cities
      2) Give the cities money
      3)
      4) No more homeless

    • rhywun

      move 10,000 homeless individuals into housing

      LOL

      My town tried some of that – the cops are called over there every day. A couple weeks ago there were two arsons in the same night.

      IOW this is nothing new – just the same old leftist fantasizing.

  21. Raven Nation

    “It’s that the pool of people who think what he says is vitally, life-alteringly, and materially important is not just vast, it’s also now incapable of shame.”

    But, enough about Obama’s followers.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    It’s a mystery

    The public charging network is not reliable enough and not growing fast enough to keep up with the number of new EVs hitting the road, says Elizabeth Krear, vice president of electric vehicle practice at J.D. Power. One in five charging attempts fails.

    ——-

    Then there’s the price challenge. EVs generally cost thousands more than their gas-powered versions. Tesla price cuts have brought prices down to the point where premium EVs are now on par with gas-powered counterparts, when measured by total ownership costs, according to J.D. Power. But at the mass market level, gas-powered models are still cheaper.

    Government intervention complicates the picture. On the one hand, the federal government is encouraging the transition to battery-powered transportation by offering up to a $7,500 tax credit for purchases of qualifying EVs, and nearly 20 states offer additional tax breaks. On the other hand, it could force the technology on reluctant consumers, sparking a backlash. As things stand now, emission standards under the Biden administration means automakers effectively will be required to ensure that two-thirds of their new car sales are EVs by 2032.

    “Silly,” says Ashley Nunes, director for federal policy at the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental research organization based in Oakland, California. “Many of these automakers will effectively be forced to underprice their EVs by offering huge discounts and price cuts just to comply with the standard that the administration has put out. But that is a one-way ticket to bankruptcy.”

    Instead, government should incentivize a competition among manufacturers, he says. “We need a space race, if you will, for the cheap electric car – not just an electric car that consumers can buy but an electric car that they want to buy.”

    Or the government could fuck off and let the market handle it. Oh, wait it did, 100 years ago, when multiple electric car companies went belly up trying to compete with internal combustion vehicles.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Unforeseen events could change the EV calculus: a battery breakthrough, for example, or a huge hike in gasoline prices. For the moment, though, it looks as though automakers will face years of steady but less-than-spectacular growth in EV sales.

    “I’m not doom and gloom,” says Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights for Cox Automotive, an automotive services and technology provider. “This is a huge transition, and it’s so complex. It’s a change in lifestyle.” By 2030, she forecasts, EVs will account for close to half of new cars sold in the U.S.

    Unless a not-insane person gets elected President and undoes the ridiculous imaginary “zero-emission” EPA rules which are the sole motivation for such a rapid and radical change.

    • Suthenboy

      I know that when I am making long-term plans for the secure future of my family and country I count on unforeseen events and
      artificial price hikes to make practical, proven systems economically unfeasible.
      Also, wishes, shits and unicorn farts.

      • juris imprudent

        Of those three things you can actually hold one in your hand.

      • Suthenboy

        I am gonna guess that guy is not getting laid any time soon.

  24. hayeksplosives

    The way I remember 2016, these were things people liked about voting for Trump:

    1) Not Hillary
    2) Trump wasn’t an America apologist like Obama, who began his own presidency with a World Apology Tour
    3) The message “Make America Great Again” had broad appeal, and sounded positive, not tearing anyone down
    4) Trump didn’t seem to be beholden to mega donors. He barely spent a dime because his publicity was free
    5) Trump whipped libs into a frenzy, and he whipped MSM into a frenzy. People don’t like journalists much, so this was fun to watch
    6) a vote for Trump was a big “Eff You” to the establishment
    7) voting for the same old same old hasn’t been working; let’s try something else’

    Trump made good on some of his promises (undoing executive orders that prevented growth, clipping the wings of the EPA), and less so on others.

    I do think he can’t recapture the “magic” in 2024, and he screwed up Covid. But Republicans would do well to recognize the things that people liked about Trump.

    • creech

      Even COVID lockdown lovers criticize Trump for his response, so he gets little love from anyone on that issue.

    • R.J.

      Hmmm… My thoughts:
      Recapturing the magic involves reversing Biden’s energy mandates and giving us back energy independence. Also forcing Europe to pay their way and get the F off our gravy train. That would be magic enough for me.
      Four years of Trump would mean Hillary would be too decrepit to run.The democrats have literally no one in the wings. Just trash. Republicans have Vivek, DeSantis, and others who could give a good run, and would most likely be good presidents. Trump will have to preside over this last gasp of “go along, get along” republicans one last time, then we may have some real conservatives in 2028.

      • juris imprudent

        then we may have some real conservatives in 2028.

        Optimist? I think he’s been hitting the ‘shrooms.

    • juris imprudent

      World Apology Tour

      And picking up his Peace Prize.

    • juris imprudent

      Make America Great Again

      Empty nostalgia and cheap patriotism – not that it isn’t effective, but it doesn’t speak well to people who buy it.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        To be fair, sloganeering has been standard fare in politics for millennia. It’s effective because 60%+ of voters vote based on some combination of charisma, marketing and/or TEAM. A slogan really gets them riled up to go pull that lever good and hard.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, I don’t like people that fall for that, and there are a lot of people I don’t like (not limited to one side of the aisle).

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I’m not going to chase it down tonight, but I’ve linked to a study on voter motivations done in the 60s. If you’re under any illusion that people are thoughtful with their votes, that study will shatter it. IIRC, more people were classified as having no intelligible reason for their choices than were classified as voting on the policies and positions of the candidates.

      • hayeksplosives

        That’s why I hate “get out the vote” campaigns, mail-in ballots, or anything that encourages “just vote!” As a virtue in itself.

        If you can’t be arsed to go to a polling place and pull the lever, odds are you won’t be a thoughtful voter.

      • rhywun

        no intelligible reason for their choices

        I’d bet 90% of it is hereditary.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Funnily enough, that was a separate category. The unintelligible category was for “they wrote words on the survey page, but they didn’t convey any meaningful thought.”

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I was thinking of a different study that had the hereditary component broken out from the “unintelligible” component, but the linked article shows enough to prove the broader point. Roughly 1 in 10 approach politics from the perspective of ideas.

        The vast majority are TEAM players, vote a referendum on the economy/society, or have no intelligible motivation behind their vote.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        “I like the way he says Cuber.”

        I didn’t catch the 2016 RNC except the last night of it, with “I am your voice.” I thought, holy crud, he might just take this.

      • hayeksplosives

        I know it’s just words, but they are words that Obama wouldn’t have said. It was like Trump was saying it’s ok to be American.

      • rhywun

        Have to agree that Trump was not actively anti-American the way Obama, and to a somewhat lesser extent Biden, are.

      • hayeksplosives

        I know it’s just words, but they are words that Obama wouldn’t have said. It was like Trump was saying it’s ok to be American.

  25. mock-star

    In the AM links, there was a link to blinged out Beretta Tomcat. I would caution anyone to stay away. I own a non-bling version, and somehow, someway, Beretta made .32acp painful to shoot. Couple this with the far too small beavertail leading to frequent slide bite, and the Tomcat just doesnt see much range time – thus the Tomcat doesnt see much carry time.

    • R.J.

      My dad had a .38 with that same design. Absolutely miserable to shoot. My brother has it now and it never comes out of the box.

      • Suthenboy

        I have one.
        *rubs 20 yo scar on inside of thumb*

  26. KK, Non-Man

    Where would you rather spend a day doing tourist stuff: Copenhagen or Oslo?

    • R.J.

      From the last links, all the cars in Norway now are electric and so fuck them because I am a hillbilly.
      So Copenhagen.

    • Lackadaisical

      Beer is $10/pint in Oslo, so Copenhagen I guess

      • Urthona

        I’m sure Copenhagen is not far off.

  27. KK, Non-Man

    I got the car lined up to put on the trailer tomorrow. Not leaving til Saturday but there’s 80% rain chance for Friday. I’m trying to become one with my anxiety. It will be good to get back to the misfits and rednecks back at home base.

    • R.J.

      Are you in Washington?

      • KK, Non-Man

        No – Appalachia

      • R.J.

        Still more pleasant than DFW.

  28. kinnath

    Israel vs Hamas online game

    Paul Chato being sensible and not particularly funny. Weird what the world is coming to.

    • Suthenboy

      If I had seen what I am seeing today 20 years ago I would think I was hallucinating and probably locked away in an asylum.

  29. Suthenboy

    In case anyone has not overspent their gun budget I will drop this here.
    I am told they are very reliable and accurate. I am guessing introductory price, hikes to come later. I still kick myself for not buying Benelli shotguns when they hit the market for $250.

    https://www.sportsmansoutdoorsuperstore.com/products2.cfm/ID/283854

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The Turks make good 1911s, no doubt.

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      I have one, and I only keep it as my father built it. Even its designer upgraded it to the true masterpiece, the Hi Power, which I also have, and will not part with.

      Also, gun budget has gone to upgrading a Smith Model 15 to a Colt Officers Model Match.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    At this point, I desperately want Trump to be re-elected, just for the mass suicides.

    • B.P.

      If he is re-elected, cities will burn.

      I did not vote for him in 2016, but I may never again laugh as hard and as long as I did staying up late into election night watching the media coverage.

      • juris imprudent

        Must… resist…. voting…… for Trump.

      • R C Dean

        “If he is re-elected, cities will burn.”

        You don’t have to sell me on it.

      • rhywun

        Allow me to interject with the idea that “cities burning” is not a good thing.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Certainly not, but I do wonder if it’s inevitable at this point. Much like an economic crash, it could become worse the longer it takes to happen.

        We have 3-4 generations of people who have been taught that the reason they’re stuck in a shit culture in a shit neighborhood in a shit economy is solely because of racial animus. That doesn’t go away overnight.