Thursday Afternoon Links

by | Apr 18, 2024 | Daily Links | 173 comments

DICKEY BETTS DEAD AT 80: The Ramblin’ Man has left the room. RIP.

THE PANTS-SHITTING CONTINUES APACE: Over at The Daily Beast, Michael Daly opines about how “Trump’s bodega visit should scare the heck out of Democrats.” Last week I covered desperate Democrat outreach to the QUILTBAG++ community. It seems that the Democrats are reluctantly realizing that not all minority votes are belong to them.

YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO RESTITUTION: “San Francisco DA tells ‘victims’ trapped by Gaza protesters on Golden Gate Bridge to contact police for ‘restitution.'” Looks like the institutional left have had enough of ‘mostly peaceful’ protests from the radical wing of their party, or at least realize how coddling the little commie punks isn’t going to do them any favors at the ballot box this November. A civil judgement against the bridge blockers might be uncollectable since LCPs tend not to own real property, and often eschew private vehicle ownership, but hopefully would make their lives more difficult forever.

THE MOST HILARIOUS THING I’VE READ TODAY: Columbia U prez grilled at congressional hearing, unfamiliar with woke terms in guidebook distributed by Columbia’s own School of Social work. Biggest Laff Line: “They don’t know how to spell,” in response to a question about the term “folx.” (h/t: Sensei)

SPACE GHOST GLOBAL LOGISTICS: Not just coast-to-coast, but anywhere on earth. The clever folks at Sierra Space are testing a prototype of their Ghost cargo craft which they envision staging in earth orbit pre-loaded with cargo and delivering it on demand. Ninety minute delivery time to anywhere on the surface of earth, up to 1750 pounds of cargo, landings accurate to within 300 feet. “Hello, Sierra? I need an infantry squad support package delivered to…” Imagine the possibilities for rescue, humanitarian relief, and, of course, military operations.

BUILDING A BETTER LAMPREY – FOR SCIENCE: Your long read for today. TLDR version: Myelin, the sheath surrounding nerve fibers in most vertebrates appears to have originated as RNA of a retroviral infection in an ancestral vertebrate. And not just myelin, “[a]stonishingly, 40 percent of the DNA in mammals consists of remnants of these retroviral infections.” Lampreys, the most primitive vertebrates, do not have myelin sheaths around their nerve fibers. “Final proof[…] would be to introduce the retroviral gene into lampreys and see if they form myelin.”

INFLATABLE SPACE HABITATS, THE SEQUEL: Florida-based startup Max Space is working on inflatable space habitats to achieve more volume to mass than is currently available with hard-shell habitats. This was tried before by the now-defunct Bigelow Aerospace whose inflatable BEAM module is still attached to the ISS.

MEA CULPA: My inbox is overflowing with manuscripts and author queries. I’ll tend to those tomorrow. Apologies to all.

This was originally going to be your tune for today, but in light of breaking news you get it as a bonus track.

About The Author

Tonio

Tonio

Tonio is a Glibs shitposter, linkstar (Thursday PM, yo), author, and editor. He is also a GlibZoom personality and prankster. Tonio is a big fan of pic-a-nic baskets. His hobbies include salmon fishing, territorial displays, dumpster diving, and posing for wildlife photographers.

173 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    “Your linkster takes a day off from hot bear sex and mountain biking to bring you… the links.”

    I don’t know if that sounds worth it?

    • Tonio

      Honor and duty, Tater.

    • juris imprudent

      Sacrifices were made. Tonio, I have time to spare if you want to entrust me with a sliver of Glib authority.

      • Tonio

        I can’t assign admin rights. That’s way above my level of authority, and I like it that way. After decades as a professional sysadmin I’m happy to leave that to others now so I can focus on writer development and my own fiction.

        We’d love to have your contributions (and those from the rest of you heathen scum). You are a solid contributor and one of the few who writes about libertarian and adjacent topics.

        As has been said recently, we need content. Unfortunately this need coincided with the sweaty, hairy rites of Spring.

      • juris imprudent

        Alright, whichever PTB that does the assigning – you have a volunteer if you need it. In the meantime, I’ll work up another Nietzsche piece.

      • Shpip

        You can get away with that with a black bear.

        Try that stunt with a brown bear and you’ll likely come to a grizzly end.

      • R.J.

        Those cubs had to grin and bear it.

      • Tonio

        [bear sits on haunches, claps forepaws together happily]

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

        Tonio, he is just pandaing to you.

      • trshmnstr

        This thread is going to polarize the commentariat.

      • bacon-magic

        They’re playing with fire…with their bear hands.

      • juris imprudent

        Sure, sure, bears of color, but what about white bears, huh?

      • Fourscore

        What a Charmin group of bears and so taken by the tourists.

      • Tonio

        I remember touring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as a wee lad, and the other tourists treating the bears like animals in a petting zoo, even to the point of making them beg like a pet dog. Humans tease bears with food, bears become food-aggressive towards humans, bears have to be killed or relocated.

        I’m constantly shocked by the number of ppl who think that wildlife is one handout away from a housepet species domesticated over thousands of generations.

      • R.J.

        “Wildlife is one handout away from a housepet species”

        Well, it works for people.

      • Tonio

        RJ, from the top rope.

      • hayeksplosives

        Oh no you di’in’t!!

      • trshmnstr

        I’m constantly shocked by the number of ppl who think that wildlife is one handout away from a housepet species domesticated over thousands of generations.

        Too much Disney, not enough Animal Planet.

      • juris imprudent

        Some of us even remember Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.

      • R.J.

        Some comedy show did a fantastic parody of that. I don’t have time to find it now, but if I do I will hide it in the Thursday Night TUBI help section like I do all the other secret short films.

      • Sensei

        SNL?

        I remember them capturing a drunk bum.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Carson used to regularly do a Marlin Perkins impression and would have Jim Fowler on regularly with animals.

      • Sensei

        African Wino, from memory.

      • bacon-magic

        Wild Kingdom rocked.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Watched it religiously as a kid.

      • rhywun

        Or the BBC nature shows. Love those until he got super woke lately.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I blame Hanna Barberra. Eh, Boo Boo?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        “Thanks for the snack… but I couldn’t help noticing that you are made of meat and not particularly dangerous looking.”

      • Spudalicious

        Looks like there’s a trouble bruin.

  2. Common Tater

    “It seems that the Democrats are reluctantly realizing that not all minority votes are belong to them.”

    Seems fair. They were against blacks voting in the first place.

  3. Common Tater

    “Looks like the institutional left have had enough of ‘mostly peaceful’ protests from the radical wing of their party, or at least realize how coddling the little commie punks isn’t going to do them any favors at the ballot box this November. ”

    Well, that only works if you elect Biden things will go back to normal.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Who is going to pay the restitution. I bet it’s the taxpayers.

      • kinnath

        I expect there is a system in place that allows the victims of crimes to request restitution from people who are convicted of those crimes. I assume that system is woefully ineffective at actually getting restitution back to the victims of “ordinary” crimes. I expect nothing will happen related to protesters who get arrested and then let right back out onto the street as the ADA decides not to charge the protesters.

    • R C Dean

      I notice the DA didn’t say she planned to do anything herself about the commie punks. Just volunteered the police budget for restitution. Not, say, announce a task force to criminally prosecute them or even just hit them with civil fines.

      “The DA is also weighing charges against the 26 Hamas-supporting activists who were arrested on the bridge but said her office needs more evidence to prosecute.”

      They were arrested on the fucking bridge. How much more evidence do you need?

  4. Sensei

    THE MOST HILARIOUS THING I’VE READ TODAY: Columbia U prez grilled at congressional hearing, unfamiliar with woke terms in guidebook distributed by Columbia’s own School of Social work. Biggest Laff Line: “They don’t know how to spell,” in response to a question about the term “folx.” (h/t: Sensei)

    My pleasure. Funny about this afternoon’s coincidental timing on this too.

    https://nypost.com/2024/04/18/us-news/nypd-cops-enter-columbia-after-university-warns-anti-israel-protesters-to-clear-out/

    • R.J.

      “Remember who started this? Hamas, that terrorist group,” he added. “We pay a lot of money to come here and we should feel safe and protected.”

      First part, correct. Second part, grow a spine.

      • juris imprudent

        You saying taint much difference between mother and daughter?

      • hayeksplosives

        Alolz

      • kinnath

        privileged cunt

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

        That is all just Hirsi. Not admissible in court.

      • Contrarian P

        It sounds like she was suspended for refusing to vacate property that wasn’t hers when she was told to do it. Maybe it’s not intentional by the writers, but I can’t understand why “Daughter of Ilhan Omar suspended by Columbia for trespassing” wouldn’t be obvious. Especially when the whole gripe of these people is “stolen land”. They certainly have no problem with occupying land that isn’t theirs.

      • R.J.

        *Golf clap

        My hand are getting tired from all the golf claps tonight.

      • R C Dean

        Wouldn’t she be Omar’s niece as well as her daughter?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        slap L
        slap R
        GOTO 10

    • Common Tater

      Looks like the NY Post buried the story. It was on the front page this morning.

      • Sensei

        NYP is an evening paper. So that means it was from yesterday.

  5. juris imprudent

    Democrats are reluctantly realizing other things too.

    By any reasonable standard of feasibility, I’d make that flat-out impossible. That’s one reason why Democrats, and left parties generally, will eventually have to become energy realists. However much they wish it not to be so, grand energy transitions take time—many, many decades. Absent drastically lowered living standards and/or radical social disruption, this transition will be no different.

    • Shpip

      Absent drastically lowered living standards and/or radical social disruption

      That’s a price the elites are willing for the proles to bear.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, and it isn’t going to win them the votes they need to implement it – that’s the author’s point. But of course we know that the votes, just like the points on Who’s Line, don’t really matter.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Britain discovers that passing legislation does not, in fact, cause the physical world to change.

      Here are some of the problems identified in the report that came out earlier today. The first is, sadly, that the U.K. doesn’t have enough ships:

      The UK lacks the ships needed to build offshore wind turbines and even if that were solved, would be unable to connect them to the shore because it cannot produce enough high voltage cables, according to the study.

      Or enough high voltage cables. More:

      For solar farms, it warned that the UK was also incapable of supplying enough switchgear and transformers, as well as cables.

      Until now, no one, apparently, had figured this out. Britain doesn’t have the workers it needs to go green, either:

      Disastrous shortages of skilled labour are also a factor. The report warned: “All renewables sectors face skills-related constraints. Shortages are particularly acute for design and commissioning engineers, project managers, and installation technicians.”

      • Shpip

        Disastrous shortages of skilled labour are also a factor. The report warned: “All renewables sectors face skills-related constraints. Shortages are particularly acute for design and commissioning engineers, project managers, and installation technicians.”

        Fortunately for the UK, there’s a NEET solution to this: round up the layabouts and press them into His Majesty’s Electric Company. Some youths will find that they’re quite good at this, others will be shocked when they discover that they aren’t.

      • Mojeaux

        Press gangs #FTW!

    • rhywun

      IOW reality bites

  6. DEG

    DICKEY BETTS DEAD AT 80: The Ramblin’ Man has left the room. RIP.

    RIP.

    Columbia University’s president was grilled during a tense House hearing Wednesday about a glossary of woke terms distributed to students that included the words “Ashkenormativity” and “folx” — leading her to suggest at one point that administrators at the Ivy League institution “don’t know how to spell.”

    Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) asked Minouche Shafik whether she could enlighten the House Education and Workforce Committee about the bewildering glossary of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)-related words highlighted by the university’s School of Social Work.

    It sounds like she doesn’t have a Master’s degree from Columbia University.

    • trshmnstr

      the bewildering glossary of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)-related words highlighted by the university’s School of Social Work.

      My employer does monthly DEI brown bag lunches. As I was figuring out what popped into my inbox, I saw a link to the company’s “inclusion glossary”. I was almost curious enough to click, but I enjoy my brain cells too much.

      • R C Dean

        My brain cells cause me no end of trouble. I am in the middle of a long war of attrition against them.

  7. Drake

    Down page in the Daily Beast article – quoting Alvin Bragg’s fake crime statistics. When you downgrade crimes from felonies to misdemeanors or ignore them altogether, crime stats look great.

  8. Shpip

    And not just myelin, “[a]stonishingly, 40 percent of the DNA in mammals consists of remnants of these retroviral infections.”

    Maybe that was the plan behind the coof shots all along? Make humans better, one mRNA mutation at a time? Keep the best, cull the rest?

    /dons AlexinCT hat

    • trshmnstr

      “[a]stonishingly, 40 percent of the DNA in mammals consists of remnants of these retroviral infections.”

      This strikes me as the genetic biology equivalent of finding a notch on a tooth and fabricating an entire cuisine for an ancient culture from it.

      • Tonio

        Hey, PhDs in Anthropology have been granted for less specious blatherings.

      • Ted S.

        Congratulations, Dr. Tonio!

    • Nephilium

      FEV doesn’t work that way.

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

      lord of the flies level stuff

      • Fourscore

        Suspended kids have no place to go so they come back to school and roam the hallways.

        Seems strange that the parents of the kid that shot up the school got put to trial. Maybe the parents of these thugs ought to suffer some consequences, like paying the hospital bills of the injured.

        Kids in Chicago are playing cowboy with real guns and their parents walk away.

      • kinnath

        Shockingly, the article never mentions of race of the attacker and victim.

      • Homple

        It’s not shocking at all. There’s no reason to mention the race of the attacker or the victim–anyone can make a very accurate guess from the headline.

      • Compelled Speechless

        The guess you made was 100% accurate.

      • Suthenboy

        No reason at all….unless it were the other way about.

  10. Common Tater

    “Hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus have activated their Floor Action Response Team, also known as FART, to carefully monitor for any surprise resolutions aimed at sabotaging them, a source familiar with the move told The Post.

    FART entails Freedom Caucus members taking turns on the lookout for unannounced resolutions that congressional leadership could pass via unanimous consent to sidestep any hurdles from rabble-rousers.”

    https://nypost.com/2024/04/18/us-news/freedom-caucus-deploys-fart-group-amid-republican-tensions/

    Really?

    • trshmnstr

      Is the senate equivalent SHART?

      • Tonio

        You people are knocking it out of the park today, I tells ya.

    • juris imprudent

      The difference is this FART is seeking out what stinks.

    • juris imprudent

      C’mon guys, this is what we do – we spend and then we complain about what DC does. You guys don’t really WANT to cut spending, do you?

      • Fourscore

        Cut the other guys spending but leave my stuff alone

  11. Common Tater

    “Grieving families of the Covenant Christian School shooter’s six victims have claimed they own copyright of the full handwritten confession of the killer.

    They are arguing before a Nashville judge that the confession, and other documents, should never be publicly released because no good can come from it.

    The families’ claims comes as both city police and the FBI fight to stop the confession, and potentially information about mysterious notes and numbers found on Hale’s body, from being made public.

    Audrey Hale, 28, was a transgender artist, who identified as a male named Aiden, shot her way into the Tennessee elementary school in March 2023, killing three adults and three nine-year-olds, before responding officers killed her.

    Following the shooting, Nashville’s Metropolitan Police Chief John Drake said his force had recovered the shooter’s manifesto, as well as hand-drawn maps in her car, and said they would eventually be made public.

    Now, both city police and the FBI say the material shouldn’t be released because the information could damage any potential investigation.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13323557/Nashville-Audrey-Hale-transgender-school-shooter-manifesto.html

    Neither of those arguments make sense.

    • juris imprudent

      Potential investigation? OF WHAT?

      • Contrarian P

        Of you for wanting to read it. I mean, obviously.

      • juris imprudent

        How dare I notice evidence that not every trans-person is an angel?

      • Fatty Bolger

        Yep. Clearly a bullshit reason, so the true one is something else.

      • R C Dean

        I keep waiting for somebody to ask him that. We know who did it. We, well, you, even know why she did it. What, exactly are you investigating, especially more than a year after the actual event?

        The copyright argument is (technically) interesting, since the shooter’s family gave her estate to the victim’s families. Whether the manifesto itself is actually copyrighted (did the killer intend for it to be?), exactly who and how the right to control its distribution are exercised, and I’m sure a myriad other issues are utterly unresolved. Regardless, I’m pretty sure that “it’s copyrighted” isn’t an exception to FOIA.

      • Common Tater

        “The copyright argument is (technically) interesting, since the shooter’s family gave her estate to the victim’s families. ”

        I did not know that. So the argument makes some sense.

    • trshmnstr

      Tangentially related, and one of my hobby horses…. why do we never hear about the dark corners of the internet where these losers hang out getting blown up by the Intel agencies or by Anonymous or 4chan or law enforcement?

      Find every place where the loser had an account, dox the shit out of everybody who encouraged them, and expose every one of them to microscopic scrutiny to find criminal activity.

      • Compelled Speechless

        So you’re okay with them doing that when (not if) a Glib snaps and all of our dark jokes are taken horribly out of context , manipulatively edited and plastered all over the media?

        The person who pulls the trigger is the only one who needs to go down. The impulse to turn every crime into a RICO case where anyone on Reddit that ever made a woodchipper joke to someone who snapped can be held liable is one of the most dangerous suggestions I’ve ever heard. You’re better than this Trashy.

      • Don escaped Texas

        his is just a reactionary, conservative stance, not a moral failing; I don’t recall his ever asserting that he is libertarian

        I have made very similar points here and generally got shouted down; action and speech are clearly very different things for me, but it’s just one of those situations where outcomes are so overwhelming that some can’t stand on process. I prefer the extreme and narrow and let the pieces fall where they may, but my philosophizing has been repeatedly met with “that ship has sailed” or “you’re living in a fantasy world.”

      • Compelled Speechless

        This isn’t even about the morality of it. My point is that giving that power to any law enforcement agency would be stupid since there is a 100% chance it would be abused and weaponized. They were handing out twenty year sentences like candy on the most absurd interpretation of Sarbanes-Oxley. Could you imagine what they’d do if you explicitly told them they can round up anyone that ever interacted with a violent criminal online if their statements could be even vaguely interpreted as “encouraging violence?”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Having a nontrans kid with you in public when you’re a celebrity is about as passe as wearing nondesigner clothes as a celebrity. Their poor kids are fashion accessories who get mindfucked at an early age into a very bad decision.

      • rhywun

        It was funny when AbFab did gay infant accessorizing in the nineties. Not so funny now.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I thought Edina fetishized her mixed-race grandkid. But pqn los dos.

      • rhywun

        Could be. Dammit.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      “You have a vegan cat too neat!”

      Why can’t these people go back to purse puppies.

    • Compelled Speechless

      Hollywood could not be running out of money and relevance at a better time.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Fun with numbers

    Climate change will reduce future global income by about 19% in the next 25 years compared to a fictional world that’s not warming, with the poorest areas and those least responsible for heating the atmosphere taking the biggest monetary hit, a new study said.

    Climate change’s economic bite in how much people make is already locked in at about $38 trillion a year by 2049, according to Wednesday’s study in the journal Nature by researchers at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. By 2100 the financial cost could hit twice what previous studies estimate.

    “Our analysis shows that climate change will cause massive economic damages within the next 25 years in almost all countries around the world, also in highly-developed ones such as Germany and the U.S., with a projected median income reduction of 11% each and France with 13%,” said study co-author Leonie Wenz, a climate scientist and economist.

    According to our model, our model is correct.

    Yes, yes, of course. The cost of inaction is a billion times more than the paltry cost of completely upending the energy economy worldwide.

    • juris imprudent

      I will accept their 30 year projections when their forecast for the next 5 years is dead-on accurate.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Complete nonsense. In fact, I bet you could easily make a case that the opposite is true.

      • R C Dean

        I suspect that actually achieving “Net Zero” in the next 25 years would reduce global income by a lot more than 19%.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      “compared to a fictional world that’s not warming”

      I wonder if that fictional world has accounted for the costs of getting to no warming, or if it it just magically is not warming. I suspect it’s the latter.

    • Compelled Speechless

      “Our analysis shows that climate change will cause massive economic damages within the next 25 years in almost all countries around the world”

      Yeah for the same reason COVID caused massive economic damages. Because the fuckfaces who run things massively exaggerated a threat and instituted emergency policies that would launder public money to a small cadre of billionaire political donors and massively increase their own power while the rest of us get treated like Winston’s mom at a WEF conference.

  13. Bobarian LMD

    Bob got good news today. I was recently diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in my stomach, which they found when I had a kidney stone. Had surgery to have it removed around last Thanksgiving. Surgery was complicated (gutted me like a fish), but successful, however the biopsy showed an “intermediate growth rate” so the put me on medication and said I’d need re-occurring scans to check for further growth.

    Had my first scan, and it came back with what the radiologist identified as another larger tumor. So I have been a little freaked out and pretty numb over the news. My regular oncologist was concerned and sent me back to the oncology surgeon.

    Took two weeks to get back to see him, but I saw him this morning. He asked a lot of questions and then went and actually looked at the scans of the “tumor”.

    Came back into the office and said “Oh that’s just the sponge we left in there. Nothing to worry about.”

    I had no idea how stressed I was over the situation until he told me that. I almost cried.

    Now I probably need to go kick that radiologist in the yarbles.

    He then explained that when they had to cut some of my spleen, they had to leave a ‘cellulose sponge’ that would prevent bleeding and would be absorbed by my body as healing progresses.

      • Fourscore

        Good to hear, Bob, at first read I thought, “Oh no, another invasion to recover the sponge”

        All’s well at your residence.

    • Common Tater

      Good you don’t need more surgery to remove the sponge.

    • Sensei

      Damn. Until the end I thought the sponge was accidental. Amazing how specialist docs fail to communicate.

      Feel better!

    • bacon-magic

      Sucks you had to absorb all that anxiety.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Typical libertarian. Acting all tough, but really just a sponge on society.

      Super glad to hear you are gonna be all right!

    • Beau Knott

      I’m glad things turned out well!
      I share Sensei’s dismay/amazement at the poor communication across all the doctors, et. al., involved.
      We should be doing so much better.

      • R C Dean

        I’m not amazed at all.

      • Beau Knott

        Of course, you worked in that world. Most of the rest of us encounter it between 1 and single-digit n times. My friend was diagnosed with jaw cancer, by his dentist, on May 23. He finally got the PET scan at the end of July/beginning of August. He died the morning of Aug. 16, before treatment beyond removal of the tumor in/on the jaw even began.
        That Bob’s case turned out as it did is a blessing. Still, how does the radiologist not know a lump of cellulose sponge was left in place and should be taken into account when reading the scans?

      • Sensei

        I posed the same question to Mrs. Sensei, RN. She suggested the radiologist was likely unfamiliar with that surgical technique of leaving the sponge. She as expected of a nurse also unhappy with the treatment.

    • DEG

      This is good news.

      Best wishes on your recovery.

    • Gender Traitor

      Bob got good news today.

      So now we can call you SpongeBob?

      Congrats!

      • R.J.

        *Golf clap

        Also very glad you are well.

      • trshmnstr

        Unfortunately “SpongeBob Smallspleen” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue.

        Congrats on cancer free status!

      • Pope Jimbo

        Nice!

        Just hope he stays away from Krabby Patty now that he has a clean bill of health.

    • Shpip

      Helluva roundabout way to find out that you’re spongeworthy.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Damn your nimble fingers.

      • Ted S.

        I see who doesn’t click on the links.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        You were too subtle.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      So you are saying you are sponge-worthy?

    • Sean

      Yay, Bob!

    • Don escaped Texas

      found when I had a kidney stone

      same exact thing with my best friend three months ago

      very best wishes

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

      Dude.

      Seriously, dude.

    • Compelled Speechless

      Congrats. Now you can just soak up the good vibes.

    • R.J.

      Oh, fuck off. What happened to that guy?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Nothing happened, he just became secure enough in his position to tell the Republican voters to eat a dick. IOW he was lying when he said he was against that stuff.

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        He had one – one – classified briefing and changed his mind on the entire national security apparatus.

        He must be as dirty as a worm in a leech field.

        “You wouldn’t want anyone to see these pics of you fucking this wombat, would you?”

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Whoa whoa whoa, I don’t like the guy at all but let’s not go jumping the gun by condemning wombat sex just yet.

      • Compelled Speechless

        That briefing was so convincing that he went from thinking the whole thing needed to be torn down to thinking that even a single reform is just too much to consider.

        He would only go up in my estimation if he got caught fucking a wombat. I think we can all agree that wombats are the third sexiest land mammal.

      • juris imprudent

        It isn’t his fault – it’s that damn Speaker’s lectern. That’s why it couldn’t be let loose on the country and everyone associated with J6 has to be punished – they nearly took the great source of power from it’s proper place!

      • Pope Jimbo

        Wouldn’t it have been True Justice if those evil MAGA protestors had managed to bring the Speaker’s Lectern back to their cave and ended up with their faces melting when they tried to harness the power of it?

      • Compelled Speechless

        What happened? I suspect he partied a little bit too hard at P. Diddy’s or took a free flight from Epstein. Someone has some footage on him.

        Or he’s just a lying shit weasel politician.

  14. Pope Jimbo

    The one teacher that the union won’t defend.

    A former math teacher at Minneapolis South High School says she was fired after she spoke out to school administrators and the entire school board about safety concerns she and other teachers have for themselves, students and staff.

    Becka Thompson, who was fired on Friday, addressed the school board on Tuesday with some strong assertions.

    “I am here to ask you to believe me when I tell you there’s a cancerous rot running right down the middle of this organization,” Thompson said.

    In a January letter to the principal at South High School and school board members, Thompson told them she personally witnessed a student assault staff members and reported it to the principal but said that information was not sent to the school district.

    Because Thompson is not a tenured teacher, she said she is not sure if the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers can or will appeal her firing.

    • Sensei

      I’ve been assured that teacher’s unions are all about the children and not about teachers.

      • Bobarian LMD

        They’d be more concerned about the kids if they would keep current on their union dues.

  15. rhywun

    introduce the retroviral gene into lampreys

    Nice knowing y’all.

    • Sensei

      Japan hardest hit by new kaijuu.

      • Gustave Lytton

        As long as they don’t have those stupid singing fairies.

    • Fourscore

      Someone forgot to take the staples out of her nose. Should see a real doctor

      • R.J.

        I think that’s a hot dog, not a bun. Those puberty suppressors do a number on the body.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      She? wants to know the pronouns of her clients’ support animals.

      OFFS

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      You’re a FOLX therapist who should be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.

  16. Pope Jimbo

    Well, the cops have gone too far with their latest jackboot actions

    How could we have overlooked the Omar angle? Questioning President Shafik yesterday, Omar somehow omitted to mention that daughter Isra Hirsi is participating in the pro-Hamas work on campus at Columbia. Shouldn’t Omar have mentioned that? We only learned of Hirsi’s work via her disclosure on X of her suspension from Barnard this morning. The rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the rotten tree.

    Obviously this is retaliation for her mother’s courageous stance on the issue!

    • Pope Jimbo

      <test

      • R.J.

        I see your test, and raise you a poke.

  17. Grumbletarian

    Florida-based startup Max Space is working on inflatable space habitats to achieve more volume to mass than is currently available with hard-shell habitats.

    Appropriate theme music.

    • juris imprudent

      Not disappointed.

      Strangely enough, Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky features inflatable space habitats.

  18. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    That’s some good space news today! I’m guessing, based on human history, the in-orbit delivery system won’t be used for peaceful purposes, at least initially.

    • slumbrew

      Ninety minute delivery time to anywhere on the surface of earth, up to 1750 pounds of cargo, landings warhead accurate to within 300 feet.

    • Urthona

      It’ll mostly be used for UberEats.

    • Suthenboy

      I think we can already do that militarily but with a lot more accuracy.

  19. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    Also, space bouncy castles! Finally a bouncy castle for the differently-sized adults!

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      That’s funny!

  20. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    Lady part warning:

    First visit from Aunt Flo in 8 months. Fuck this shit. Fucking fuck.

    • Mojeaux

      Haven’t seen that bitch since 2011.

      Condolences.

    • Pope Jimbo

      <english-accent>That’s bloody terrible!</english-accent>

  21. Don escaped Texas

    @RCDean

    read the tactical first aid stuff: kewl and thank you

    I was married to TICU FirstWife, PhD for over 20 years and learned a bit; she cut her teeth at the Memphis “Med,” west TN’s Level 1 trauma center, 1.8 GSW/day, a place she preferred to call the Gun&Knife Show.

    Anyhoo, for us boy scouts most of first aid is warm soapy water and wait for the ambulance; hurry cases and ABC and all that are the only time you really must get dirty and serious…only happened to me once (first guy at car wreck). During Wilderness First Aid training I learned the other axis of intervention: if it’s going to be a day before the helicopter dusts you off to civilization, you get deeper into things than if a bus were just four minutes away.

    So I figure I’m about a First Aider, Fourth Class® now that I’ve taken every course a dozen times: a bit better to have me around than not.

    thanks again

    • R C Dean

      Update coming on that in my next post (probably next week). Online training and gear resources!

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Industrial policy never gets old

    President Joe Biden suggested to cheering, unionized steelworkers on Wednesday that his administration would thwart the acquisition of U.S. Steel by a Japanese company, and he called for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel, seeking to use trade policy to win over working-class votes in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

    The Democratic president’s pitch comes as Donald Trump, his likely Republican opponent, tries to chart a path back to the White House with tough-on-China rhetoric and steep tariff proposals of his own.

    During a visit to the Pittsburgh headquarters of United Steelworkers, Biden said U.S. Steel “has been an iconic American company for more than a century and it should remain totally American.”

    Put your money on the table, gramps.

    • Don escaped Texas

      more than a century

      you know, like
      Lehman Brothers
      General Motors
      Chrysler
      Texaco

    • trshmnstr

      U.S. Steel “has been an iconic American company

      I interviewed there in undergrad. I’ve never felt less welcome in a place than I did wearing a suit and tie at US Steel.

  23. R.J.

    I just grabbed a game on the Switch. It’s called “Placid Plastic Duck.”
    It really is just plastic ducks floating in a pool. Occasionally something happens, like one duck gets swept down a slide. There isn’t really any controls beyond adjusting your camera.

  24. Derpetologist

    The elephant one was the not. Congrats to the winners. I just went on a 4 mile walk that turned into a 6 mile walk. 2 more miles, and I’d have gained the power to win rap battles.