Sunday Morning Purim Links

by | Mar 24, 2024 | Daily Links | 167 comments

I’m sure this was in Gaza, where “2SLGBTQIA+” is Arabic for, “We are an ally!”

It’s PURIM!!!! YAYYYY!!!! We’re supposed to make a lot of noise during services and celebrations at particular points in the reading of the Megillah (the one-scroll version of the Book of Esther), so you’ll pardon the Howard Dean yell to start this. The great thing about this book is that no miracles happen, Yahweh stays out of it, victory is achieved through human effort, intelligence, and guile. Really, it’s the most libertarian book of the Bible. The Cliff’s Notes version is here, and I modestly think it’s worth a read.

It’s not just Purim, it’s a day for birthdays, and they include a guy who was totally metal; a guy for whom a sturm was brewing; a guy who was a real ray of sunshine; the slickest Jew ever; the only person to use the phrase “black bodies” that’s worth paying attention to; the perfect illustration that a great scientist can be a despicable human; a guy who predated Instagram and SnapChat; the first victim of #metoo (TW: not a Wikipedia link); a guy who, in a just world, would be as well known as Disney; his exact opposite; the father of the IRS; the archetypical bad guy; a guy who was pretty good with a tennis ball; the best bass player to ever inhabit a studio; the guy in charge of NPR coverage of Israel; a guy who may be responsible for the greatest 15 minutes or so of American cinema; my favorite post-Roy-Chapman-Andrews paleontologist; a better version of Bill Gates; a woman whose resume was inflated; and an inspiration to all flute players.

Let us bow our heads in Links.

 

The Entitled JAP stereotype writ large.

 

They left off the sixth thing: we’re fucking BROKE.

 

This is my shocked face.

 

I saw this right after my Instagram feed showed me a folk singer ranting about Trump.

 

British tax dollars at work.

 

Global warming update.

 

TBT has been on my mind- yesterday’s Old Guy Music was them doing a cover, today’s is a cover of them.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

167 Comments

  1. SDF-7

    I assume Billy was in a studio at some point…

  2. Ted S.

    a guy for whom a sturm was brewing;

    Not Friedrich Klinger?

    • SDF-7

      Is that the corporal who was wearing a dress to try to get out of the Franco-Prussian war?

  3. Gender Traitor

    a better version of Bill Gates

    Fair or not, I’ve long thought of the two of them as human versions of Pinky and The Brain.

    • SDF-7

      I can’t see Pinky jumping around going “Developers! Developers! Developers!”

      He has too much class for that. (And what would Farfegnugen think, after all?)

    • Gustave Lytton

      That would be Paul Allen (rip). Ballmer is more like the Eric Schmidt of Microsoft.

      *throws chair*

  4. SDF-7

    British tax dollars at work.

    First thought — heaven forbid British theater might mine the plentiful plays of their best playwright.

    Second thought — then step up and either find a genius level playwright with the DIE characteristics you want (so that people will actually want to go to the performances unlike Mein Feministen Struggle, Mark XXVII.

    Third thought — Judging from what British TV programs have made it across the Pond over the last few years, they’re doing their damnedest to make Elizabethan England 90% BIPOC anyway…. so even if it is loosely “Shakespeare” what does it matter?

    • LCDR_Fish

      I’d say the mark of a good play is that a lot of the roles are technically playable regardless of actor – barring specifics like Othello, etc. It also allows nice variations of the presentation and adaptations.

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

        My one beef with what they have been doing – looking at you BBC – is going all in with well thought out historical placement, and then slipping in “actors of color” as if African and Southern Asian people were all over the isles in Elizabethan era England. It makes no sense from a historical point of view, and does pretty serious harm to the people who are now “represented” as it paints some picture of how it is only 20th century bigotry that has kept them from those shores.

        Now, change the setting a la Richard III reimagined in a post-apocalyptic world or MacBeth in New York and it works, but not in a historically accurate depiction of when these plays were written nor the era they recalled when penned.

      • rhywun

        does pretty serious harm

        That’s the point.

      • The Last American Hero

        I eagerly await the Rise and Fall of the Ashanti Empire series featuring a bunch of wise white advisors lurking around the court.

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

        I am surprised they haven’t made a film version of Things Fall Apart staring Billy Bob Thornton.

      • Cunctator

        I anxiously await the remake of the “Black Panther” movies with White actors in key roles.

    • rhywun

      “A production of Galatea would be welcome, but given that those behind it are already using anachronistic pseudo-religious terms such as ‘cisgender’ suggests that it will be a tedious affair. They evidently believe what they are doing is radical, but virtually all theatre companies today are obsessed with identity and gender, and so this is likely to be just more conformist and insipid propaganda.”

      Sick burn. The Brits do know how to turn a phrase at times.

    • R C Dean

      I saw some idiot wrote an article asking whycome there aren’t any black people in Shogun?

      • Common Tater

        Wow, that is a special kind of stupid.

      • juris imprudent

        Just a black man who has never been to Japan.

  5. SDF-7

    This is my shocked face.

    Did they let Kamala’s daughter pack the lunch bags again?

  6. juris imprudent

    We’re not BROKE – we still have checks in the checkbook!

    And look at what the Republicans got out of this!!!

    Republicans also secured a win with a provision that would effectively ban unofficial flags from being flown at U.S. embassies.

    While it doesn’t specifically mention LGBTQ flags, the language mimics other efforts that have led to bans on Pride flags flying over government buildings.

    Another rider that made it into the final version would also block bans on gas stoves, another win for the GOP.

    • Brochettaward

      My gas stove is worth a few extra trillion in debt, frankly.

      • Brochettaward

        Something tells me that nothing in this bill will even accomplish that and the Dems will be talking about banning gas stoves again in two months.

      • Brochettaward

        Well, maybe a bit longer because it’s an election year and they’ll tone down the crazy.

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

        I don’t think anything would cause my wife to rethink her politics faster than trying to take her gas stove away.

        Literally Pry It From Her Cold Dead Hands.

      • Brochettaward

        We’re in a political climate where alls the Dems have to do is float a really stupid fucking idea and then let the GOP ban it in some monstrosity of a budget deal. They get trillions of dollars a year while the GOP gets…a ban on bans on gas stoves. That probably isn’t anything the Dems couldn’t get around even if they wanted to.

        The GOP would be better off letting the Dems ban gas stoves and letting them reap the consequences because people will vote on shit like that. Let the full stupidity of the Democratic platform take hold and people feel the full consequences of what they voted for.

      • juris imprudent

        I don’t think mine is worth that in debt, but in dead do-gooders – now we’re talkin’.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      That’s all well and good but talk about being thrown scraps from the banquet table.

  7. Plinker762

    Abortions For Some, Miniature American Flags For Others!

    • Tres Cool

      That flag decal wont get you into heaven any more.

  8. juris imprudent

    Speaking of shocked faces, oh who am I kidding, this isn’t a shock at all.

    Nancy Pelosi’s son Paul Pelosi Jr. dodges federal charges for the SEVENTH time after being linked to money laundering and mail fraud scheme involving a San Francisco Flop house

    • Drake

      Nothing to see here, obviously!

  9. juris imprudent

    If there was one American politician I would like to see dead, it is this one.

    • Tres Cool

      Oooh. Thats presents an interesting question.

      Play “fuck, marry, kill” with members of Congress.

      • R C Dean

        *cracks open fresh case of ammo*

        It’ll be a short game.

      • The Other Kevin

        Fuck Thomas Massie, marry Rand Paul, kill the rest.

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

        Marry MTG, Fuck Beobert, Kill James Carville.

        I gotta play it straight.

      • juris imprudent

        Skelator isn’t elected to anything.

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

        No, but he needs to die in a fuckin’ fire no matter what (and I think that getting rid of him would net you half a dozen on that side of the aisle, All Things Considered)

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        Fuck Rand Paul, marry Thomas Massie, kill literally anyone else

      • DrOtto

        Who’s the one what gave a squeezer in a theater?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Boebert?

      • The Hyperbole

        F- I’d like to say Katie Britt but her husbands 6’8″ so I’ll go with Brittany Pettersen, I’m pretty sure I can take her husband, he looks weak.
        M- Pelosi, it’s a no brainer 100 million dollars and she’s probably going to die soon.
        K- Feinstein, killing is immoral, she’s the oldest so one could argue the least immoral one to kill.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Maybe he’d be more sensible if he got what has to be his thyroid problem taken care of. The guy’s eyes look like the judge’s from the end part of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

      • juris imprudent

        I think the increased cerebral pressure is from bottling up whatever conscience he has. It may be spectacular when it blows.

      • mindyourbusiness

        Soon, one hopes…

    • rhywun

      Ponder that he is so horrible that even his colleagues want to fail him up to Senate. (See: Chuck and likely numerous other examples.)

  10. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’
    yo whats goody yo

  11. R C Dean

    “But a week later, the president of the synagogue called to reprimand me for being rude and demanding. Wow, I thought, frustration surging within me. I had reached my limit.”

    Well, I suppose a complete lack of self-awareness is part of the Entitled JAP package.

    • Old Man With Candy

      That was exactly my take. “Had you ever considered that he was right?”

    • Drake

      She sounds insufferable.

      • Brochettaward

        And yet she’s right. There is a near universal expectation that mother’s and children will be catered to and any religion that isn’t adapting to modern expectations is going to die.

        Now, maybe it’s worth it to maintain your integrity as a religion. It is an orthodox faith. It’s for the hardcore believers. But it’s numbers will only continue to dwindle.

      • juris imprudent

        I seem to recall reading that religious denominations that take their faith and tradition seriously are thriving. It is the “modernizers” that are dying off.

      • rhywun

        I felt the same time until I pondered what’s going on with Catholicism in Africa.

        Or what JI just said

      • rhywun

        But yeah, if she was a version of [[[]]] that caters to the needs of women and children I’m sure there is a branch…?

      • Ted S.

        That would be the Heterodox Jews.

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

        You think the saying Three Jews, Four Opinions was rough…

      • Mojeaux

        [[[We]]] don’t have a nursery or kids’ “ministry” for children during the main service. The kids have their Sunday School, but it’s not meant to keep the kids out of the mothers’ hair during the service.

        We are losing numbers to people who get more involved with the woke, and people who don’t feel seen and heard. And then the church tries to extend an olive branch, but it’s too much AND not enough. It alienates those who want total celebration of things the church has preached against (see: gay marriage and fornication of any type, trans, non-adherence to dietary restrictions, etc.) and those who think the church is selling out and straying from God’s word.

        Now, thinking about it, I’m wondering how this applies to marriage and children. These people are generally single well into adulthood. I wonder if marriage young and having children young anchors someone to the church.

        Thing is, in a secular sense, I value the church for its community, which we have partaken of a couple of times in the past 10 years, although we don’t return the favor much.

        Theologically speaking, I’m all in, but see, everyday church teachings just don’t jive with what makes us freaks. We’re starting to sound like evangelicals, which [[[they]]] don’t understand and its theology and jargon are creeping in. No offense to what evangelicals believe, but it is NOT what we believe, and I resent THE FUCKING HELL out of this. (I guess I’m a lot angrier than I thought.)

      • Brochettaward

        What sells in Africa is probably a lot different than what you can sell in the West. But it’s hard to find a women here who has pumped out kids who doesn’t feel she is special and entitled to it. The world must adapt to her whatever she deems in the best interests of herself and her children. Safety culture and all that.

        I have a hard time believing that true hardline faiths are really thriving in the West.

      • Brochettaward

        Though I could see an effect where the few true believers retreat to their orthodox enclaves to escape the trappings of modern bullshit. That would be more a symptom of all religion dying.

      • R C Dean

        Yeah, there’s no detail on just how she asked for the playroom to be reopened. It’s certainly possible to do so nicely, but based on that little bit of self-disclosure, I suspect that is not how she went about it.

  12. LCDR_Fish

    Technically speaking Yahweh isn’t named in the book of Esther….but it’s not as though Mordecai and Co were fasting for their own health and not also praying, etc while Esther was preparing to approach Xerxes.

  13. Common Tater

    “Outraged users took to X to express shock on Friday, accusing Instagram of actively censoring and suppressing political discussion in a year already rife with political tensions.”

    Shock?

    • Common Tater

      “People across the political spectrum seemed to believe the change was meant to target their own views: Right-leaning users suggested Meta is attempting to filter “conservative speech only,” while left-leaning users suggested the company is looking to censor pro-Palestinian content related to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.”

      They are both right.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Shock, sure: “Well I didn’t think they’d do that to me!”
        The sad part is that many, probably most on the Meta related platforms, are just fine with suppression as long as it doesn’t happen to them.

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

        Bumper sticker politics is bumper stick politics.

  14. Shpip

    Exhibit A of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos playing unfairly by… outbidding the FedGov and paying top dollar for the best talent.

    SpaceX and Blue Origin LLC are competing to launch satellites and take humans to the moon. They are also paying big salaries to hire so many young and tireless engineers that old-line aerospace employers like Boeing Co. and NASA are finding it harder to fill positions.

    Their private firms also often pay more than established space operations. SpaceX is currently listing starting aerospace engineer positions at $95,000 to $115,000 a year.

    NASA, which follows the federal government’s General Schedule pay scales, offers starting salaries along a range that starts at $54,557 for engineers with bachelor’s degrees, $66,731 for master’s degrees and $73,038 for doctorates at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

    Those two are like Schrödinger’s plutocrat: simultaneously paying their employees starvation wages while out-competing NASA with their exorbitant compensation packages.

    • juris imprudent

      like Boeing Co. and NASA

      Everything within the state, nothing…

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      An easy fix-pay your engineers more you assholes. $56K for an engineer’s starting pay? Good luck getting many people that can get a job someshere else.

      • rhywun

        Right? I know I’m later in my career but that sounds low AF to me.

      • DrOtto

        My daughter, who is just now graduating from a 4 year college degree is eyeing a job with Cintas (restaurant/hospital garments) that starts at $55k a year while in training for the 1st year, so yeah $56k sounds like shit to me. Of course, people who finished last in class need jobs too.

      • R.J.

        Agreed. Those are shit wages for a degree in the sciences. You wouldn’t get anyone talented to stay for that price.

  15. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    I had a wonderful night last night…thanks for the various early bday celebration shots/drinks.

    • hayeksplosives

      🎂🎉🥂

  16. grrizzly

    Ridiculous. They now give away pajamas in Business, not just in First. Too much hassle to change twice in a large cabin.

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      Very cool!!

      • R C Dean

        I’m amazed the filmstrip is even still usable. Hopefully they get it to that archive in Hollywood for preservation, etc.

    • Common Tater

      Wow

  17. Common Tater

    “he Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, had the honor of having U.S. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden give the keynote address during its annual event held at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

    Dr. Biden’s daughter Ashley Biden, whom she shares with the President Of The United States Joe Biden, was also on hand to show support for the non-profit.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13232393/Beverly-Johnson-stuns-minidress-Human-Rights-Campaign-Los-Angeles-Dinner.html

    CWABOA

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      The “undeserved”?

    • Brochettaward

      So much botox…

    • R C Dean

      “Ashley Biden, whom she shares with the President Of The United States Joe Biden”

      Well, that’s not creepy at all.

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

        Yeah, that is one of the weirdest phrasings I have read in a long time.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, my brain locked up there for a bit.

        My guess is it’s a hip new way to de-emphasize trad-kids.

    • juris imprudent

      That is the most non-news piece of bullshit ever.

      • Common Tater

        Tabloids are always running fluff pieces to promote things.

    • rhywun

      Turkish.

      Though “oglu” means “son of”. To be fair, their women are so held down I don’t know what the traditional forms for lady naming are.

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        Turkish is a gender neutral language so “oğlu” applies to everyone.

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        (although the gender neutrality doesn’t super apply in this case because there’s obviously a word for “daughter”, but both women and men use oğlu names, much like Brits and Americans use son names)

  18. The Late P Brooks

    The package could increase detention capacity from 34,000 to 42,000 beds and provide funds for up to 22,000 Border Patrol agents, Johnson said in a statement after the bill’s text was unveiled. It would also cut funding to nongovernmental organizations that “incentivize illegal immigration,” per the Speaker.

    I’m sure that will be rectified in the dead of night, if it’s even true.

    • juris imprudent

      Now that’s actually a Republican win, so of course it wasn’t cited as such.

    • R C Dean

      “This year, we gave $8,000,000,000 to NGOs for illegals. This budget cuts that amount to $7,999,999,995. Happy now?”

      • rhywun

        More like cuts it $8,000,111,111 after inflation.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of ranting liberals- this was in something I linked yesterday:

    Jonathan Blaine, a freelance software engineer in Vermont and an ACP subscriber, pins the blame on certain Republicans that he says would rather hurt working-class people than give Biden a political victory.

    “You guys seem to promote that you’re for the working-class people, but realistically, the working-class people are the ones that you’re screwing over most of the time,” Blaine said, speaking directly to GOP lawmakers. “You’re taking ACP away from the farmers that can check the local produce prices and be able to reasonably negotiate their prices with retailers. You’re removing disabled people’s ability to fill their prescriptions online.”

    Lawmakers are likely to feel voters’ wrath in November if the ACP falls apart, Blaine added.

    He called it “sickening” that lawmakers keep removing these benefits for poorer Americans from legislation “left and right.”

    “But the fact that you sit there and smile to our faces trying to say you’re for the working class? You’re for the poor? You’re for the less fortunate? It’s absolute bulls**t,” he added. “And most of us see right through your bulls**t, and that is why you’re losing seats.”

    Where do they find these people? Is there some sort of progressive outrage talent agency the media can call when they need a quote about how unfair the world is?

    • Brochettaward

      No government benefit can ever go away no matter what.

    • juris imprudent

      He’s a working man, just like digging coal or laboring on a production line.

      • Gustave Lytton

        A self described software engineer who qualifies for broadband welfare. Right.

        Same with those “farmers”.

      • Brochettaward

        Freelance = code for unemployed or unemployable.

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

      I am pretty seeped in politics, and usually know the various acronyms, but I had to look that one up.

      Tells you how important it is.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    “This year, we gave $8,000,000,000 to NGOs for illegals. This budget cuts that amount to $7,999,999,995. Happy now?”

    Exactly. These poor hard working humanitarians will now be expected to fetch their own lunch because there won’t be a paid intern to do it!

  21. The Other Kevin

    Good morning! Mrs. TOK did the roller derby last night and her team won. She got most valuable blocker for hittin all the bitchez.

    • cavalier973

      Sounds like fun.

    • Gender Traitor

      You go, Mrs. TOK!

    • Ted S.

      Bitches get stitches?

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      YAS

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Noted Constitutional scholar opines

    “I actually think that there is risk in not seizing these assets and the open window that exists in him trying to secure these funds through other means,” she said. “We’ve seen a lot of interesting transactions happening with Truth Social and other means. And there’s a very real risk of political corruption.”

    ——-

    Ocasio-Cortez emphasized Sunday that Trump should be treated the same as anyone else regarding whether his assets should be seized.

    “I think Attorney General James has been handling this case with tremendous skill. It’s ultimately up to her determination, but it is my belief that all people should be treated equally under the law. And if that seizure of assets would be pursued to any other American then Donald Trump should be treated the same,” she said.

    We should just lock him up as a national security risk. That’s what Woodrow Wilson would do.

    • R C Dean

      “And if that seizure of assets would be pursued to any other American then Donald Trump should be treated the same,”

      Of course, James said that this was only for Trump and nobody else needs to worry.

      • UnCivilServant

        The whole “You must pay the insanely punitive judgement before you can appeal” has got to be a due process violation.

      • R C Dean

        It’s actually very common. Technically, you have to post a bond for it. I don’t know what that costs, but I would expect it to cost around 10% of the judgment.

      • rhywun

        They will figure out a way to make it – coincidentally! – cost one dollar more than Donald can conceivably gather up.

      • Don escaped Texas

        eh? being found liable was due process

        it’s baseless, partisan bullshit, but that is the process; a decision was rendered

        taking his shit from him without the kangaroo ruling would be a due process violation

        the problem is the process; Mr Trump is garbage, but his persecution/prosecution is even worse, and I’d be shocked if this isn’t overturned at least in part

      • UnCivilServant

        The appeals are part of the process, and being able to mandate an impossible payment within an impossible timeframe in order to file that appeal just says “You get no review”.

        And no kangaroo court can be said to have provided due process.

      • Don escaped Texas

        you’re correct….

        morally, about the second part: I already made that point

        but you just don’t get the rest of it

      • UnCivilServant

        If the process is wrong, It violates the requirements outlined for it.

        I get what you are trying to assert, we just disagree.

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

        And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

        Matthew 7-3

      • cyto

        To underline the Kangaroo-ness, the same prosecutor intervened to protect an investor who actually defrauded a bank on a real estate loan last week… they overstated the value of the property and cant pay back the loan… the bank wants to foreclose and the DA is suing to stop them.

        One guess who is close to the DA.

      • Grumbletarian

        Link to this, please?

    • Brochettaward

      I’d imagine that even most billionaires would have a hard time scrounging up $454 million in cash to pay to the state of NY in a matter of a, what, a month?

      • R C Dean

        Especially when they are barred from using any NY bank or insurer to post the bond. One of the big insurance companies said they would post it, but then a couple days later backed out, even. Nothing to see here . . . .

    • Fourscore

      Trump’s Little Black Book of Revenge keeps adding more and more names. He’ll have trouble remembering who is who when it comes time to retaliate.

      • Brochettaward

        And that’s why I think people who believe they’re going to allow a free and fair election are incredibly naive.

        They’ve killed presidents in the past, but people think that cheating is somehow beyond them?

    • Common Tater

      “it is my belief that all people should be treated equally under the law”

      LOL

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Mostly

    Although there are thousands of mountain lions in California, they’re rarely seen by humans. “They are reclusive and solitary animals, mostly avoiding people when possible,” CDFW says on its website. “A person is one thousand times more likely to be struck by lightning than attacked by a mountain lion,” the agency adds. About 50 verified attacks have been recorded by CDFW since 1890. Six of them were fatal; if verified, Saturday’s would be the seventh.

    If you see one, offer him a sandwich. They like that.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      And a whole lotta lumps. 🫖

    • creech

      You need a wife or girlfriend who’s willing to make you a sammich.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Especially when they are barred from using any NY bank or insurer to post the bond. One of the big insurance companies said they would post it, but then a couple days later backed out, even. Nothing to see here . . . .

    There’s also that pesky issue of the court-appointed “overseer” who is required to be a participant in the negotiations. That is sure to streamline the process.

  25. Raven Nation

    “the best bass player to ever inhabit a studio”

    Hadn’t heard of her until I watched The Wrecking Crew. Excellent documentary.

  26. cyto

    I have been busy the last few days and have not seen any regular news, but my X feed was full of news from the terror attack in Moscow. Particularly notable was the video of a Russian military (special forces?) group arresting 4 suspects in a car headed towards Ukraine or Belarus.

    In one video a soldier cut off the ear of one of the men and shoved it in his mouth.

    My question….

    How did the US media cover this? Did they cover it at all?

    Also… Russia is just different. They posted that to the internet and then put the knife up for auction.

    • Brochettaward

      When people wonder why Africa is turning away from the US with regards to counterterrorism efforts on the continent, look no further than the above.

      American military is not going to be allowed to do the sorts of things viewed as necessary to stamp out terrorism. Russian mercenaries will do whatever the fuck they think it takes.

      Do I need another rant on how if you are going to fight a war, you should fucking fight it and stop the moral preening?

      • juris imprudent

        What don’t YOU understand about messianic do-gooderness? We are God’s chosen country!!!

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Today, in mental health

    Vice President Kamala Harris toured on Saturday the bloodstained classroom building where the 2018 Parkland high school massacre happened, then announced a program to assist states that have laws allowing police to temporarily seize guns from people judges have found to be dangerous.

    Harris saw bullet-pocked walls and floors still covered in dried blood and broken glass left behind from the Feb. 14, 2018, attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 14 students and three staff members and wounded 17.

    The halls and classrooms inside the three-story structure remain strewn with shoes left behind by fleeing students and wilted Valentine’s Day flowers and balloons. Textbooks, laptop computers, snacks and papers remain on desks. She was told about each victim who died.

    “Frozen in time,” Harris said repeatedly about what she saw. She was accompanied on the tour by victims’ family members, some of them pushing for more spending on school safety and others for stronger gun laws.

    Wallow in your grief and fear. Turn the world into a giant museum of failure.

    • cyto

      My kids frequently have events at that school. I have been there to judge debate competitions several times.

      They plan to tear the building down. Not sure what is taking so long.

      But parents demanding more spending on school safety would be silly. The entire county has put a fence around every campus. Schools have a security office you have to pass through to enter. You have to show ID to get into the security office, then you have to wear a photo badge (sticker) to even go to a parent teacher conference. And you can’t just walk to a classroom or the library, you must be escorted. There is a school resource officer on every campus, all the time.

      All volunteers are fingerprinted and background checked…. and still have to be accompanied by school personnel.

      The campuses have full camera coverage.

      In many ways it is overkill security theater. As a vetted volunteer at MSD high school for a debate competition, they made us wait in a line to be checked one at a time and print badges out (we used to have permanent badges for the year) so it took an hour to get through the line. Then, a few minutes later another event started arriving and hundreds of parents got guest stickers with no ID and walked right past.

      In any event, some wacko with a bag of guns could easily defeat all this security. Being willing to kill and not worrying about getting caught makes “absolute security” a pipe dream.

      • Ted S.

        I believe the three biggest mass murders in US history were carried out with:

        Airplanes (9/11)
        Fertilizer (Timothy McVeigh)
        Gasoline (The Happy Land nightclub)

        Lock down a school that much, and some nutter (or group of nutters) could block the exits and burn a lot of people inside. Have none of these people seen the movie Heathers?

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve never even heard of that movie, so I can’t say it’s surprising that someone else might not have watched it.

        The “We must do something” crowd has never been much in terms of deep thinking, so the agenda-driven exploit their impulses.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        WMDS-ism figures in that movie, but emotionally, not logistically.

      • juris imprudent

        Bath school bombing in Michigan, oh in 1927. 44 dead.

      • Ted S.

        Piker. The Happy Land fire killed 87.

      • juris imprudent

        Fine. The Tuskegee Experiment.

      • rhywun

        So school shooting are down 95%, right? By roughly the amount of all that theater that didn’t exist when I was school-shooter age?

    • Common Tater

      Six years and they haven’t cleaned up the building?

  28. The Late P Brooks

    The building was preserved so his jury could tour it. It has loomed over the 3,600-student school from behind a temporary fence since the school reopened two weeks after the shooting. It is scheduled to be demolished this summer. No replacement plan has been announced.

    Put a temple to your death cult there, so people can make sacrifices and leave offerings.

    • cyto

      I didn’t understand this about the world trade center, and I don’t get it here.

      • rhywun

        There is fuck-you value in carrying on and/or rebuilding exactly as before. But most people have been chickenshitted into prolonging the pain for some reason that is completely foreign to me.

    • DrOtto

      These are the ancient Indian burial grounds of the future.

  29. Common Tater

    “Liberal state declares war on small farmers and homesteaders: War on food is spreading in U.S. through land-use restrictions, geoengineering and waves of propaganda

    The owner of Yanasa Ama Ranch shared a 20-minute video explaining what is going on in Oregon as bureaucrats erroneously classify small family farms and homesteads as “concentrated animal feeding operations,” or CAFOs, in order to shut them down. Any feeding area that has a concrete, rock or gravel floor falls into this category, which would include most small dairy or egg farms…

    “The state of Oregon has effectively shut down small farms and market gardens on a large scale, and they’re actually sending out cease-and-desist letters to farms and they’re using satellite technology to find their victims and send them these letters that say you can’t operate.””

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/liberal-state-declares-war-small-farmers-homesteaders-war/

  30. UnCivilServant

    In an impulse buy, I bought a “ham pie” at the butcher yesterday. It was in a sealed aluminum and cardboard deli container, so I couldn’t see what it looked like.

    It was a quiche. But honestly, I can’t complain about ham and cheese quiche.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Chump change

    President Joe Biden mocked Donald Trump on Wednesday over his difficulty in obtaining a bond to allow him to appeal a New York civil court judgment amounting to $454 million.

    ——-

    Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Dallas, Texas, Biden joked that a man had come up to him to discuss his heavy debts.

    He said: “Just the other day this defeated looking man came up to me and said: ‘Mr. President I need your help. I’m in crushing debt. I’m completely wiped out.'”

    Biden said he then responded: “Donald, I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”

    The audience, of around 100 people, then burst out laughing, according to a report by Mail Online.

    And then he announced another 15 billion dollar giveaway.

    • Brochettaward

      This is why I roll my eyes when good old Don Escaped Texas mockingly posts the Gofundme for this. Of the many ridiculous reasons people donate to politicians, this one would be valid. They’ve engaged in lawfare against him in an attempt to break and make an example of him. Yea, he’s a billionaire. Or hundred millionaire. Whatever he is, he should be able to stay that. Not be punished because he dared to enter politics as an outsider.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    But honestly, I can’t complain about ham and cheese quiche.

    That sounds tasty.

    • UnCivilServant

      It is. I still have three meals worth, it started the size of an actual pie.

    • Brochettaward

      Sabrina the Meth-addled Witch.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    There is fuck-you value in carrying on and/or rebuilding exactly as before. But most people have been chickenshitted into prolonging the pain for some reason that is completely foreign to me.

    Meanwhile, they have erected a monument and celebration of evil which makes any bronze statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest on horseback look pathetic in comparison.

  34. Common Tater

    “Christine Blasey Ford has a new book out called “One Way Back,” and she’s hit the media circuit to promote it. As she peddles the book, she’s back to peddling her allegations about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Ford had attempted to stop Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court in 2018 with accusations that he had raped her at a party when they were both teenagers. ”

    https://thepostmillennial.com/brett-kavanaugh-accuser-christine-blasey-ford-doubles-down-on-rape-allegations-in-new-memoir

    CWAC

    • Common Tater

      “She received a round of applause from the audience, though Behar shamed the men in the crowd who did not cheer for the woman who suffered after making false allegations and then doubling down on those allegations in a memoir.”

      • juris imprudent

        Well, Behar certainly knows what it is to be a shameless cunt.

    • Brochettaward

      I don’t think she actually accused him of rape. Rape would have produced some evidence. She accused him of an attempted sexual assault which is difficult to prove even without the passage of so much time.

      Bitch can’t even show she’s ever been in the same house as Kavanaugh.

    • creech

      Sounds like this slander ought to be worth at least $80 million.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Biden went on to argue Trump bears responsibility to the irregular migrant crisis on the southern border as he opposed a bipartisan Senate bill aimed at tightening immigration restrictions and providing additional aid to American allies including Ukraine. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to support the legislation saying it would be “dead on arrival” in the House.

    They’re calling it an “irregular migrant crisis” now? That bill was all about “tightening” restrictions. What a brazen lie.

    • juris imprudent

      Irregular? Sure, it was backed up for four years.