Friday Morning Links

by | Apr 19, 2024 | Daily Links | 331 comments

I’m sure something happened in the sports world last night, but I’m on the road and running behind and I don’t have time for it.  So moving on…

“Leftist criminalizes release if public records.” Basically, that’s what’s happening. This guy has abandoned all pretense of fairness.

“Throw money at the meat grinder or it’ll stop working.” Basically, the CIA wants to keep getting people killed and the State Department doesn’t give a shit about diplomacy anymore.

8 year olds, dude. Why aren’t they actually teaching the things kids need to learn? No wonder America’s youth are more retarded every year.

Time to let him go. He’s probably just misunderstood, right Hizzohnor Adams?

Oh well. I’m sure her kid got in there on her merits and the fact that she’s a left-wing congresswoman is a coincidence.

Oh, no! Guess it’s time for the FBI to start shutting down speech it doesn’t like. Because the First Amendment doesn’t count if you’re a foreigner.

Ha! I’m not surprised. Also, they’re ugly.

I know this will be popular. This band always is. And here’s one of their best. Enjoy them both.

And enjoy this Friday and the weekend, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

331 Comments

  1. SDF-7

    but I’m on the road and running behind

    Well, there’s your problem… you should be driving the Porsche or at least some sort of car instead of trying to hoof it on the road, man. 😉

    Morning, Sloopy! Morning all you non-repli-gators (no, didn’t watch that yet… may over the weekend when my wife is very much nowhere near).

  2. UnCivilServant

    Guess it’s time for the FBI to start shutting down speech it doesn’t like.

    I like that formulation better.

    • SDF-7

      Agreed. And the rampant “narrative shaping” done domestically dwarfs anything the Russians might be doing anyway and worries me one hell of a lot more. And that’s being done… by the FBI and CIA and their little puppet friends in the rest of the government, media and NGOs. So extra reason to shut them down (and the rest of the IC).

  3. SDF-7

    This guy has abandoned all pretense of fairness.

    Trying to keep jurors anonymous I can see.

    From here this is what gets me:

    Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche requested to know who the first three witnesses Bragg plans to call testify against the 2024 hopeful. Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor in Bragg’s office, refused to release the names to Trump’s legal team despite admitting that it is something they normally do in other cases.

    That screams “grounds for a mistrial” to me… how precisely is the defense supposed to prepare, assholes?

    “Your honor, my witnesses are Joey, Joey, Joey and Roo!”

    • UnCivilServant

      Both sides are required to identify their witnesses prior to trial. It’s part of the procedure.

      • Ownbestenemy

        15 days prior to trial/hearing in NY. How to make it look like you are trying to just tie up Trump’s campaigning with making it look like you are tying up his campaigning.

    • cavalier973

      I know from “My Cousin Vinny” that the prosecutor *must* give the defense this info.

      • slumbrew

        “It’s called disclosure, ya dickhead!”

    • juris imprudent

      Bragg and the judge drag this charade out for a few weeks, then he declares a mistrial – so the retrial can be scheduled for October.

      • Homple

        Of course the charges are completely legitimate, right? It’s just the courtroom procedures that are defective.

    • Suthenboy

      Arent defendants constitutionally guaranteed protection of their right to confront witnesses against them?
      I am still not clear on exactly what the charges are here. Stormy Daniels has already admitted she and Trump never had sex, so….she and her co-conspirators are being charged with blackmail? He paid for a non-disclosure agreement which is done every day all over the place by countless people?
      What is the criminal behavior here?

      • R C Dean

        Being Trump in public? Aggravated Trumping? Something like that.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Being bad, orange, and a man.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Charges? Well see it was originally a misdemeanor but couldn’t go that route cause statutes of limitations expired and the state of NY once again, for one man, made up rules to elevate that charge somehow, magically, into a felony based on Federal law but still maintain its a state issue.

      • juris imprudent

        Never mind that the payments in question came after the election that it was supposed to influence.

      • Not Adahn

        Falsifying business records in support of a felony.

        They are assuming the existence of said felony. Apparently you can do that in NY.

      • R C Dean

        A federal felony, mind you, for which he has never been charged, much less convicted. You know the judge is in the tank for the prosecution on this one because it wasn’t dismissed immediately.

      • Not Adahn

        Just like NY wrote the law that you can have fraud with no victim, I’m assuming they wrote the law allowing you to charge/convict a crime without having to go through that silly red tape of proving the elements of a crime.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        If they control the legal language all kinds of dumbshittery can be encouraged and even codified. See also: Firearms, particularly where certain serialized parts get you charged like you had a working gun. Just because the legal language bears no resemblance to objective reality doesn’t mean it can’t land someone in the hoosegow for years.

      • Cunctator

        —“They are assuming the existence of said felony.”—

        Bragg even stated that the law say that to elevate to a felony, there must be an specification that the Trump people were acting to cover up another crime. He also stated that the law did not require that he state the underlying crime, but just that he (Bragg) must allege that such a crime existed. He has stated nor charged any underlying crime to elevate charge to a felony.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Constitutionally guaranteed? Please…that stupid old document is for slave owners in powdered wigs and Nazis.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Running for office while orange is a capital offense in NYC.

  4. cavalier973

    “Damage by car wash not covered by warranty.”

    Of course it isn’t.

    • UnCivilServant

      The vehicle seemingly needed a complete reboot, which was triggered by him holding down the two buttons the night before — but required five excruciating hours to complete.

      Five hours to reboot?

      Fire whoever was in charge of that software.

      • Sensei

        Take anything said by “influencers” courting clicks and the MSM also courting clicks with a big grain of salt.

      • UnCivilServant

        Eh, I figure they need to fire a lot of Tesla software development staff, and find someone who’s actually driven a car before to overhaul the UI to include tactile features so you can operate their vehicles with your eyes on the road.

      • Sensei

        The underlying software and systems on Teslas are actually pretty amazingly well thought out.

        Their UI design team is made up of ******* millennials who have never used anything but an iPhone and have no idea that presbyopia is part of the aging process and will impact them as well.

        OTH, it is remarkably well organized and thought out compared to the random menus of **** that the other manufacturers now provide for their same touch screen UI.

      • UnCivilServant

        A car should not have a touch screen.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Your words to the ears of all car manufacturers.

      • DrOtto

        I agree, but my wife disagrees. She would not buy a car without a screen. She then goes on to use her phone for everything that screen does. And this is the problem.

      • Fatty Bolger

        This. Also, none of these things are unusual. No car warranty would cover damage from a car wash. And not washing your car in direct sunlight is common advice for all cars.

    • SDF-7

      Failure to put Cybertruck in Car Wash Mode may result in damage

      Ok… at first I was thinking they didn’t weather seal something (especially when attempting the reboot via the two button ctrl-alt-del equivalent gave a “weird popping sound” that evoked “electrical spark gap”)… but car wash mode? What in the holy hell weird sensor skin mapping is this thing doing and why?

      shrug

      Caveat emptor on some level. This stuff very much screams alpha tester if you buy it… and I despise all the electronics in “normal” modern cars anyway, so I’m likely too biased to really be fair to whatever unholy concoction of computing, sensors and oversized-touch-screens-that-shouldn’t-be-used-while-driving it sounds like this is.

    • Nephilium

      In Tesla’s defense, my Mini Cooper had a bunch of warnings about not going through a car wash if you didn’t know the clearance amounts. They also said that damage from a car wash is not covered.

      • R C Dean

        Wait, your Mini Cooper had a warning about maybe being too big to fit into a car wash?

      • UnCivilServant

        My thought is that the wheel spacing might not connect to both channels and then you get dragged by one side, ripping at the axles and tires

      • Nephilium

        Other way around, ground clearance not high enough for the tracks, as well as potentially not being able to pass over some of the items designed to spray the underside of the car.

    • Suthenboy

      How is a car wash any different than driving in a hard rain storm?
      Yeah, I am going to spend my money on this and entrust my and my loved one’s lives to one of these things…..never.

      • SDF-7

        UCS has a point with the rails and the feeder mechanism versus the wheelbase. And I think the article did say the hoops are for “non-touchless” so the scrubbers and whatnot coming down are a little different.

        But I certainly had the same initial thought, especially when it came to weather proofing. One wonders if a hail storm is a problem if it isn’t the rail system that is throwing things off (and if it is… is it alignment thrown off that easily maybe? That seems weak…)

      • R.J.

        It’s more the undercarriage spray which is disastrous to poorly protected electronics I would think. The Cybertruck has the actual batteries as the floor of the car. You read that right. So a pressured spray straight up to clear undercarriage dirt has a very good chance of finding a gap and penetrating a battery.

      • Sensei

        No… The battery is a module that is fully sealed weather tight with special venting on the top side.

        The engineers here aren’t naïve.

      • R.J.

        In a perfect world. The world isn’t perfect. The batteries are the floor, that can become an issue very quickly.

      • Sensei

        And a fuel leaks and catches fire in ICE vehicles. It’s just less cool and generates fewer clicks to talk about.

        “So a pressured spray straight up to clear undercarriage dirt has a very good chance of finding a gap and penetrating a battery.”

        My issue is the FUD with “good chance”. Chance yes. To me “good” means more than 5 to 10%. My WAG would be some fraction of 1% is more realistic. No data to support that.

      • kinnath

        1% is horrific.

        Put a million vehicles on the road, and you are talking about 10,000 failures.

        You need probabilities like 1 in 10-6 or 1 in 10-9 for these kinds of failures.

      • Gustave Lytton

        And a fuel leaks and catches fire in ICE vehicles. It’s just less cool and generates fewer clicks to talk about.

        :Pinto has entered the chat:

      • juris imprudent

        [NBC news drags GM pickup into the chat]

      • Sensei

        + 1 model rocket engine!

    • Sean

      *shrug*

      I’m factory rated to 19″ deep water, but the most I’ve done was drive through a creek.

  5. SDF-7

    Basically, the CIA wants to keep getting people killed and the State Department doesn’t give a shit about diplomacy anymore.

    When did you start writing Biden 2024 campaign ads?

  6. cavalier973

    Is the plethora of Trump trials a situation of “the Streisand Effect” on steroids?

    • B.P.

      Even Barbra Streisand eventually knew to shut up and take the L. These people can’t stop themselves.

  7. SDF-7

    Why aren’t they actually teaching the things kids need to learn?

    “But if ze kids do not know how to properly give respect to ze People’s Commissars, comrade — they will not be able to hold any job. So nothing else truly matters, ja?”

    One of the many downsides to the “everything is political philosophy the leftists espouse”.

    • rhywun

      parents are able to opt their children out of the curriculum

      Obviously they aren’t. Needs to happen or this shit never ends.

  8. Suthenboy

    Holy shit. There is light outside. It has been a tough week.
    I am usually up by. 2-ish. 2 to 4 anyway.
    I was in and out this morning….wake up, realize it is time to make coffee…no I will sleep just a few more minutes. Wake up….repeat.
    I finally roll out of bed and the damned sun is shining. I cant remember the last time I slept this long.

    Ok…read the links…..

  9. Sensei

    Ha! I’m not surprised. Also, they’re ugly.

    We’ve also found something Musk can’t put out a Band-Aid software patch to cover up. Maybe… He could also possibly hire some Ford engineers to come up a solution that will just simply disable the vehicle at the slightest hint of trouble.

    Tesla to Recall 3,878 Cybertrucks Due to Accelerator Pedal Problem
    Federal safety regulator says pedal could dislodge and get trapped, causing vehicle to accelerate unintentionally

    https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/tesla-cybertruck-recall-nhtsa-accelerator-pedal-678c8407?st=1n5ohxyn3yp1kz7&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • Fourscore

      ” He could also possibly hire some Ford engineers”

      Those engineers that designed Model A Fords are getting mighty old but need to be resurrected

  10. SDF-7

    And here’s one of their best.

    Lighting the KK signal, are we? Heh — I do think that’s a good one (the whole wedding album is, really).

    You could light the Q signal even skipping the obvious Girls on Filem with this one.

    • Not Adahn

      I was young enough not to know the Barbarella-Duran Duran connection until I finally got around to watching the movie.

  11. Timeloose

    “A hockey stick-wielding madman whacked a woman in the East Village then seethed “I’m going to f–k you up!” the shaken victim said Thursday”

    Climate activists have gotten more aggressive in pursuing their agenda.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hockey_Stick_and_the_Climate_Wars

    Michael I would expect better behavior from a tenured professor in climatology .

    • SDF-7

      Meh — even if they charge him he’ll skate out of any jail time.

      New York is all pucked up.

      • juris imprudent

        I don’t know, he’s on pretty thin ice with this charge.

      • Fourscore

        Oh, I’m sure he’ll be checked first

      • sloopyinca

        Dude will be out of jail in two minutes.

      • Not Adahn

        I thought slashing was a major if it resulted in injury?

      • juris imprudent

        He was attacking women under 18 years old?

      • Rat on a train

        They will release him after two minutes.

    • Nephilium

      I don’t know Mann, that seems kind of lazy.

    • Suthenboy

      Why would you expect that?

  12. Not Adahn

    He’s probably just misunderstood, right Hizzohnor Adams?

    Clash of stereotypes:

    1. Can’t be a white guy, or they would have described him as a white guy.
    2. Only white guys play hockey.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      I was struggling.

  13. Ownbestenemy

    I see we are just watching a turn-based war between Iran and Israel.

    • Not Adahn

      A see a surprising lack of reporting on exactly what got blow’d up.

    • R C Dean

      Well, as I keep saying about people who are afraid a regional war will break out in the ME:

      There has been a state of war in specifically between Iran (via proxies) and Israel since the 80s. The idea that Israel bombing Iran is going to start a war is ludicrous. It’s like saying the US shouldn’t have sent the Doolittle raid on Japan after Pearl Harbor in case it started a war.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        “It’s like saying the US shouldn’t have sent the Doolittle raid on Japan after Pearl Harbor in case it started a war.”

        By then we already had a declared war, and Japan had signalled that they weren’t going to let up. I would say proxy wars are very different animals. Anyway, Iran’s attack kind of makes that a moot point.

        I still find out relationship with Israel very annoying.

      • Suthenboy

        ’80’s?
        I was thinking 8000’s….BC.

        Leno joke from a few decades back: Archaeologists find new evidence of civilization in ME from 10K BC. They say life there was brutal and violent. My, how things have changed in only 10K years.

  14. R C Dean

    For UnCiv’s question about what to name vat-grown people who have been gene-edited:

    Sounds like a custom job.

    Maybe a Bespoke? Or just a ‘Spoke?

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s an idea.

      I have to write some test dialog and see what does and does not work in context.

      • R C Dean

        “It’s an idea.”

        See, people, that’s how you damn with faint praise.

      • UnCivilServant

        I didn’t want to sound like I was trashing the suggestion, nor like I was guaranteed to use it.

      • R C Dean

        Just funning ya, UnCiv.

    • Not Adahn

      “Bes, you is my genetically optimized woman now.”

  15. Suthenboy

    A. I have stopped paying attention to all of the court proceedings against Trump. They completely tossed out rule of law so why bother? They have zero credibility left, why should I pay attention to anything they have to say?
    B.Fuck Ukraine. The dog and pony show starring Russia as the boogey man is getting very tiresome.
    C. there seems to be some confusion about what is going on. It is called demoralization and that word is used for a reason. We need content? I will try to feed those pining for philosophical content despite my shallowing understanding. If I could only get Mrs. Suthenboy to watch TV in the other room. I have a hard enough time already but I cannot think with the goddamned TV on.
    D. Michael Mann is off of his leash?
    E. Daughter? Niece? The whole thing is so confusing.
    F. So the leftist political operatives are trying to both cheat and discredit the election at the same time? Keeping their options open I suppose.
    G. EV’s dont work. Dumbest idea since the square wheel. Convince me otherwise…..

    More coffee is needed.

    • Drake

      120+ years ago there were gas, electric, and steam powered early cars. Electric were the worst and first to get rejected by the market. Viable steam-powered cars lasted for several decades longer.

      • The Last American Hero

        And Microsoft invented the smartphone 10 years before Apple, but the rest of the tech wasn’t there. I guess smartphones were an unworkable idea.

      • UnCivilServant

        Smartphones are an unworkable idea.

        I don’t understand you people.

      • Nephilium

        Was it MS? I seem to recall that Palm (from the old Palm Pilot days) at one point marketed a phone add on (that was cumbersome, expensive, and killed the battery). I know Apple tried to go with the Newton, and then there was the proliferation of digital planners (that appear to have all vanished).

      • Drake

        Electric cars were the Blackberrys of the automobile market.

      • Not Adahn

        I loved my BB.

      • Suthenboy

        Using tech to play a shell game with energy sources and utilization is not an improvement. It is a scam on par with perpetual motion machines. Changing energy forms in a wildly inefficient process to disguise the source is…just dumb.

        The sun is our only viable source of energy at this point. Much of the sun’s energy is stored in the form of hydrocarbons.
        Even more of that energy is stored in the form of more complex non-hydrocarbon atoms. Until we start using that (nuclear) hydrocarbons are our only viable source of energy.

        Cheap available energy is the foundation of human prosperity. Prosperity cuts the legs out from under power hungry evil fucks. Power hungry evil fucks are fully aware of this and are openly attempting to destroy access to cheap available energy. Blow away all of the smoke and that is the heart of the matter.

        *Non-hydrocarbon source energy can be accessed in two ways: the first being directly from controlled release of the decay of complex atoms. Second way is to access the enormous heat stored already released and stored below the earth’s crust. That is, we can drill deep wells, pump a medium down there, grab the heat and pull it back up. A well in a loop, if you will. How about we develop better tech to access that?

      • Suthenboy

        Ugh.
        “The second way is to access the enormous heat already released and stored below the earth’s crust.”
        Where is my editor? I should fire them.

      • Suthenboy

        Just a spit take here: We access the energy stored in the earth. There is enough of it to drive plate tectonics so there is vastly more than we could ever use to power our civilization for all time. Control freaks, malthusians, watermelons etc start gnashing their teeth and screaming that we are fucking up plate tectonics. They demand that we pay them for access to said energy with the goal being self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment with enslavement of the proles being the giant cherry on top.
        Round and round we go….

      • UnCivilServant

        No geothermal tap goes deep enough to impact the mantle. Though there is a saturation point in terms of how much heat you can draw in a practical sense. I’m not sure what the math comes out to, but nuclear is still the best return on investment.

      • Suthenboy

        Check this dude out. We are talking about watermelons and he is trying to be rational.

    • The Last American Hero

      After deducting electricity costs, my net savings on gas was $1,200 this year. After deducting the oil change I don’t need, it’s more. My Y is fast as hell, has a ton of interior space, and all wheel drive.

      Fuck mandates and tax credits for the wealthy, but it’s a sweet ride. As for hauling a trailer on a road trip, I have an suv for that. Yes, golly, it’s almost like there are vehicles made for different things. Don’t haul lumber in a Civic. Don’t use an F350 Superduty as a commuter vehicle that you park in a downtown garage.

      • trshmnstr

        ^^ this.

        I don’t get the EV hate. Yeah, they’re limited in what they can do. So what? The globalist weenies pushing for phasing out ICE vehicles are evil, but EVs are no more stupid than solar panels or windmills. They have their applications, but they’re not for everybody.

        That said, most people I know who have pure EVs love them until they travel more than 150 miles with them. Range anxiety is a real thing. Since I don’t have the budget for a specific travel car, I’ll stick with ICE and hybrid.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s the smug and the mandates.

        “I’m glad you’re happy with your commuter box of hazardous wastes extrated by slave labor, stop condescending at me and don’t ban my car.”

      • juris imprudent

        Not so much the vehicle as the owner.

      • UnCivilServant

        Cars gain reputation by their owners. I can list some brands and you’ll immediately get an image of who’s in the driver seat.

        BMW
        Jaugaur
        Subaru
        Tesla

      • trshmnstr

        Yes but it says nothing (in my mind) about the car itself. BMW cars have a reputation apart from their owners. Tesla cars have a reputation apart from their owners. Etc.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, I own a Subaru and I doubt I conform to the stereotype in your head.

        Though I also own a diesel and think about pussy most of the day.

      • Drake

        This

        It works great in some circumstances and financial situations. But screw your mandates and screw this administration for purposely making gas artificially expensive.

      • sloopyinca

        Have you met the anti-truck cycling zealots yet? They’re loads of fun.

      • UnCivilServant

        cyclists do not belong on roads.

      • Not Adahn

        Coal-rollers do not either.

      • UnCivilServant

        Agreed. I just don’t run into them as often (and good thing too, my bumper wouldn’t handle the impact as well)

      • Nephilium

        NA/UCS:

        Critical Mass:Cyclists::Coal-Roller:Motorist

      • Not Adahn

        Other than kulturkampf, there could be residual/carryover hate from when Tesla’s business model was “take government grants, especially for things they never had a chance of doing.”

      • Sensei

        Trips require a bit of planning, but here in the northeast travel distances (but not times) are shorter.

        I would definitely have range anxiety on non Tesla superchargers.

      • R C Dean

        Yeah. EV’s have a use case – a commuter/errand car. Which isn’t a small use case, although it is somewhat limited by weather (extreme heat and cold). But in this country at least, that means you also will probably want an ICE vehicle.

        I’ve never even been in a Tesla, but from what I’ve seen, I don’t think I would like them because of the giant touchscreen (which I hate) that runs everything (which I would not like at all). That’s just personal preference, though.

      • Suthenboy

        “…EVs are no more stupid than solar panels or windmills. ”

        That is my point.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        I think I only spend ~$1200 a year on gas.

      • UnCivilServant

        Unless I take a road trip, I don’t hit that.

        I spend $40 every three weeks to a month on average these days. Used to be cheaper.

      • SDF-7

        But at least you haven’t had PPP stumble into a Supercharger area for a photo op yet.

        Another way they’re trying to discourage driving gas powered cars!

      • Nephilium

        On gasoline, I’m probably under $500/year. WFH and being in the ‘burbs means not much need for long distance driving (outside of road trips, which I’ve accounted for). I fill my tank up about once every 6-8 weeks.

      • ZWAK will kindle all of the dreams it took a lifetime to destroy

        Sigh. $5200 here. But, my house was much cheaper than in the city, so I got that going for me. Which is nice.

      • ron73440

        After deducting electricity costs, my net savings on gas was $1,200 this year. After deducting the oil change I don’t need, it’s more. My Y is fast as hell, has a ton of interior space, and all wheel drive.

        How much were the subsidies and tax breaks?

        How much more was the cost of the EV compared to a similar ICE vehicle?

        My boss likes to brag about his Ford Lightning being “free” to charge because he has solar panels, but he is still paying the 20 year loan on those and his truck was really expensive for what it is.

        Not trying to be hostile, just trying to figure out the math.

      • UnCivilServant

        Solar panels do not recover the cost to manufacture over their operational lifetime.

        Their only real utility is for power in places where there is no grid.

        Subsidies distort the perception of value on the panels.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Don’t use an F350 Superduty as a commuter vehicle that you park in a downtown garage.

        Of course not. They go in surface lots, not parking garages.

      • Sensei

        In the “compact car” spots.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Hey! They’re all labeled compact spots.

        (Actual parking lot next to the Sephora here)

      • ZWAK will kindle all of the dreams it took a lifetime to destroy

        Hey, no one said there was a limit to the number of parking spaces you can use at once!

  16. rhywun

    I’m sure her kid got in there on her merits

    inorite?

    Literal commie IIRC from her “X” bio.

    • R C Dean

      I thought that was her brother’s kid?

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Well, since she married her brother(?) porque no los dos?

  17. rhywun

    Russia! Russia! Russia!

    Here we go again.

    • Suthenboy

      A good boogey man never dies no matter how many times you shoot them between the eyes

  18. Not Adahn
    • SDF-7

      Sugarfree should have been kept secret to protect links! 😉 (Just gentle ribbing… I mess up too many to seriously complain)

      Said it before, saying it again — taking people with obvious mental issues and pumping them full of hormones especially in the FtM direction where they suddenly have to deal with the emotions of a lot of testosterone seems like a “Try to create more psycho shooters” recipe to me. And it doesn’t look like I’m wrong from where I’m sitting.

    • trshmnstr

      Is it too late to bring back crucifixion? This Maryland teen seems like the perfect candidate.

  19. OBJ FRANKELSON

    “Throw money at the meat grinder or it’ll stop working.”

    At this point, a negotiated peace is the only realistic way out. Initially, I thought that the collapse of the Putin regime was in the cards. That doesn’t seem to be the case, he seems to be just as secure as ever. I suppose underestimated the pain tolerance of Russians.

    In any case, as the famed philosopher Dave Mustain said, “Peace sells, but who’s buyin’?”

    • R C Dean

      “I suppose I underestimated the pain tolerance of Russians.”

      Well, you wouldn’t be the first.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        One of the great blunders of history.

    • The Last American Hero

      That could be Trump’s campaign slogan “Whadda mean I don’t support your system? I go to court when I have to?”

    • Derpetologist

      The Russians are pretty much the only major military with the guts and/or reckless disregard for human life needed to conduct massed infantry assaults over and over. I don’t think there is a single NATO military that could fight in such a way. The soldiers would mutiny.

      As far an average US infantryperson today, if they were faced with a bayonet charge, I suspect most of them would drop their rifles, piss their pants, and run away. That actually might be a good thing in the long run.

      The US military fought poorly in the early months of the Korean War because training went to shit, and the soldiers were soft.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I would suspect over confidence of field officers too riding high on the hog after Dubbya-Dubbya Two

      • Drake

        The Russians did their thing and took a year or two to get their act together. Now their tactics in this new generation warfare have become fairly sophisticated and take economics as well as the battle itself into consideration. On the ground they seem to coordinate their unlimited artillery with armor and infantry in a slow / almost defensive grind. Their air tactics are the future now.

        The Iranians copied it somewhat with their attack last week. Step 1 – send in the cheap drones with lawn mower engines and try to get the Ukes (or Israelis) to turn on their radars and shoot a couple of $1 million Patriots at the $10k drone. Step 2 – target the radar and / or launchers with ballistic missiles more difficult to intercept.

        Maybe some missiles get through, maybe not. Either way, they spent far less than their foes. I saw a report that the Israelis and we spent $1.2 billion on interceptor missiles. I’d love to know how much the Iranians spent – one tenth that?

        I wonder if Israel used similar tactics on their latest strike.

      • Derpetologist

        Iran has 10x the population of Israel and their military budget is slightly lower, last I checked.

        The are definitely getting more bang for the buck. Same deal with the Russians. They are getting more rubble for the ruble.

        The US spends 10x what Russia does on the military. Who’s the dummy in this scenario?

      • Drake

        Same as always – American taxpayers

      • Gustave Lytton

        The Russians are pretty much the only major military with the guts and/or reckless disregard for human life needed to conduct massed infantry assaults over and over.

        China sez hold my baiju.

      • Derpetologist

        Maybe, but they haven’t anything close to that since 1979, and Vietnam kicked their ass. If they invade Taiwan, it will be a meat grinder, but in the end, they will prevail through sheer numbers.

      • R C Dean

        Much depends on how much of their invasion fleet can stay afloat.

      • juris imprudent

        prevail through sheer numbers

        Maybe true in the pre-One Child era, not quite so sure about that now.

      • Derpetologist

        In China, they say you don’t use good iron to make nails. In other words, people with better options don’t and shouldn’t become soldiers. They still respect and honor their soldiers, but there’s a greater openness about the fact that their purpose is to kill and be killed.

      • UnCivilServant

        No wonder Made in China is a red flag for quality.

        Having made nails, I can safely say that saying in crap. You use bad iron and the nails will fail, causing whatever you built with them to fall apart.

      • juris imprudent

        The demographics of China are the issue – there is no surplus of young men.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m sorry?

        China’s demographics in the military age category have a distinct skew where they have to either capture foreign brides or get them killed off in droves – regardless of how many old folk the country has running around.

      • juris imprudent

        They are running negative population growth, they can’t afford to kill off a large segment of an already declining cohort.

      • UnCivilServant

        Actually, they can – because there’s a large segment of that cohort who isn’t going to breed regardless due to the shortage of women.

      • UnCivilServant

        It doesn’t change their demographic outlook one bit, and that’s a stack of fewer old men with no family to support them in the future.

        The current older generation is already screwed.

      • juris imprudent

        It isn’t just a matter of reproduction, they need their economic productivity.

      • UnCivilServant

        For what? All their existing old people are consigned to work until they keel over, and it’s not like their economy is going to trend upwards again for a good long time.

      • UnCivilServant

        Why would you join the army, which has a non-negligable amount of infantry, if you hate the infantry?

        I just assume infantry is the default for any soldier and the other roles are exceptions.

      • Derpetologist

        The whole point of basic training is to make sure all soldiers can fight as infantry should the need arise. Army infantry only get 4 more weeks of training in addition to the 9 weeks everyone else gets.

      • Drake

        Depends on your ASVAB score and contract. If your scores stink, you can only join with an open contract where you get put wherever they need people.

        Did not know they were putting women with open contracts into combat arms. That’s a recipe for disaster. The commentator is right, they’ll probably never be deployable.

      • UnCivilServant

        Sorry, my ASVAB results said I was a match to Military Intelligence. So I’m not that bright.

      • Derpetologist

        Military Intelligence – everyone’s favorite oxymoron

        I was shown this film as part of my training:

        Military Intelligence and You
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndYhrADsJOw

      • Gustave Lytton

        Fucking split tails with blue cords and tabs. There’s part of the problem right there.

    • Drake

      The pain of those who lost sons is brutal.

      Otherwise, are they feeling much pain? Their economy is growing much faster than ours. Two years ago they had high inflation, now it’s under control and probably lower than ours if the numbers were honest.

      • R C Dean

        Their announced GDP growth for 2023 was 1.2%, so I dunno about “much faster”.

        Before the invasion, the ruble was trading at around 1.4 cents. Now it’s more like 1.1 cents; call it a 30% drop against an inflating currency. I suspect there’s a fair amount of inflation experienced by Russians.

        But yeah, for Russians historically, that’s nothing.

      • SDF-7

        They were too sheepish to once it viewed them as a challenger.

      • Not Adahn

        Acouple believed to have been killed by a rogue ram in Auckland this week wasn’t the first such attack in New Zealand, an expert says

        You’d think kiwis would know rams get jealous when you make a move on their ewes.

      • R.J.

        “They become dangerous.” Replace “become” with “are”

        Also I must make a bad joke: “Built Ram Tough.”

        That is all…

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        “After authorities undertook a risk assessment, the ram was shot dead. The animal also charged at officers when they arrived at the scene. ”

        It’s coming right at me!

      • Fourscore

        So close to Ram-a-Dam too, a real shame

      • Not Adahn

        Yah, the linkage seems to be particualrly sensitive to MERCURY RETROGRADE today.

      • juris imprudent

        Ewe just aren’t having any luck this morning.

  20. SDF-7

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 04/19:
    *19/19 words (+1 bonus word)
    🎯 Perfect accuracy

    I played https://squaredle.com 04/19:
    *59/59 words (+11 bonus words)
    🎯 In the top 12% by accuracy
    🔥 Solve streak: 334

    I continue to disagree with them on some words not being bonus words and at a certain point I just gave up worrying about accuracy today. Still low on the bonus words compared to you overachievers (like Sean), I know.

    • rhywun

      I played https://squaredle.com 04/19:
      59/59 words (+7 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 25% by accuracy
      🔥 Solve streak: 38

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 04/19:
      *19/19 words (+4 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 9% by bonus words

    • Sean

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 04/19:
      *19/19 words (+6 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 4% by bonus words

      I played https://squaredle.com 04/19:
      *59/59 words (+17 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 7% by bonus words
      🔥 Solve streak: 266

  21. Derpetologist

    At one of the schools I interviewed at, the principal told me they have some quiltbag students and I need to use their preferred pronouns. If I end up working there and I get a complaint about misgendering someone, I will respond that I will use their preferred pronouns if they use mine, which are his royal majesty/his excellency. If they can identify as something they’re not, so can I.

    Fortunately, the principal seemed reasonable, when he asked what I thought about politics in the classroom, I said math is apolitical, so… he cut me off right there and said that was the answer he wanted to hear.

    • UnCivilServant

      “Two hundred paid agitators are rioting. Twenty rooftop Koreans are protecting their livelyhood. If each Rooftop Korean shoots three criminals, how many paid agitators are left to whine to the media?”

      • Derpetologist

        Everybody likes fictional teachers who are flamboyant, entertaining, and charismatic. In real life, such teachers are usually reprimanded and fired.

        ***
        In his final years at Garfield, Escalante received threats and hate mail.[10] By 1990, he had lost the math department chairmanship. Escalante’s math enrichment program had grown to more than 400 students. His class sizes had increased to over 50 students in some cases. That was far beyond the 35 student limit set by the teachers’ union, which increased its criticism of Escalante’s work.[10]
        ***

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Escalante

        No good deed goes unpunished. Want an easy life? Be mediocre.

      • UnCivilServant

        Everybody likes fictional teachers who are flamboyant, entertaining, and charismatic

        Speak for yourself, Kemosabe.

      • Derpetologist

        Noted. Just the same, there are many TV shows and movies with such characters. I forget how many awards Dead Poet Society got. At least in that movie, the teacher got fired in the end.

        Do you really like “Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?” teachers?

      • SDF-7

        People mock Ben Stein — but I was able to answer a Macroeconomics final question by remembering the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act from that scene.

      • Raven Nation

        There’s someone who teaches part-time for us who makes Ben Stein (in that movie) look dynamic.

      • DEG

        I saw Ben Stein at FreedomFest 2022.

        He’s…. seen better days.

      • Not Adahn

        Dead Poets Society got that right.

      • Grummun

        I initially read that as “paid alligators”. Strangely my brain didn’t find paid alligators rioting unusual, it wasn’t until I wondered “why are Koreans shooting alligators” that I had to go back and re-read.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Probably was the answer he wanted to hear. Now what’s the answer that’d get you a job?

      • Derpetologist

        He told me to keep in touch, so I’m pretty sure I could get the job with a phone call.

    • rhywun

      misgendering someone

      I’ve thought about this – what would I do? – but I don’t work at a crazy place so it hasn’t come up.

      I do think there is at least one easy way around it – don’t use pronouns. Plus the need to refer to “him” or “her” in front of ze or xir is not a common speech occurrence.

      • Nephilium

        I ran into it a couple jobs ago. They were reasonable people who were transitioning and wanted to blend in. Simple mistakes they would ignore, but (for me at least) it’s like when you don’t remember someone’s name when you’re talking to them. Constantly double checking what you’re about to say so you don’t have to hit that word you don’t know (name)/can’t use (wrong pronoun).

      • R C Dean

        Don’t use pronouns was the instinctive workaround at my former job when one of the alphabet people was being discussed.

        The fact that the alphabet person in question isn’t in the room won’t save you from a wokist filing a complaint.

      • Derpetologist

        It’s a lot like the placebo mask craze. Once enough people submit to the craziness, it gets pretty hard to go your own way.

      • rhywun

        And I will file one right back for workplace harassment. The closer to retirement I get the less of a shit I give.

  22. juris imprudent

    Start stocking up on popcorn NOW! This will be truly must-see TV.

    “Have you heard that the Democratic National Convention is coming to Chicago?” Joe Iosbaker asks the crowd. “Are we going to let ’em come here without a protest? This is Chicago, goddamn it—we’ve got to give them a 1968 kind of welcome.”

    • Not Adahn

      I am trying not to get my hopes up.

      Also, how many of today’s protestors know what 1968 even is?

      • juris imprudent

        True, he better hope they don’t know how the Chicago PD busted a lot of skulls. Today’s radicals would probably piss themselves.

      • Not Adahn

        Considering he said this:

        No! From Chicago to Palestine, protesting is not a crime.”

        He’s pretty unaware.

      • R C Dean

        Odds that he also has no problem with the Garland Archipelago for the J6 protestors?

      • Gender Traitor

        “The number of currently identified genders?”

    • Fourscore

      Only this time the protesters have some fire power, judging from the Jackass statistics

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Who gives a shit what Microsoft says?

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Yes, golly, it’s almost like there are vehicles made for different things. Don’t haul lumber in a Civic. Don’t use an F350 Superduty as a commuter vehicle that you park in a downtown garage.

    Now you’re just being ridiculous.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      ‘Don’t haul lumber in a Civic.’
      Depending on your decision of ‘haul’, you’d be surprised how versatile little cars are.

      I’ve gotten fencing, plywood, 2×4’s, sand, etc. Home from the big box stores using my subcompact.

    • Strange Brew

      I have a 2018 Civic that I’ve used for multiple Home Depot runs. Not ideal, but if you get creative you’d be amazed at the versatility and how much crap you can stuff into it. I’ve thought about getting a beater truck for these sorts of situations, but the cost in California between insurance and registration fees makes it prohibitive. Add this to the ever growing list of reasons I’ll be leaving this shithole state in the future.

  25. Sensei

    Good news. Google has decided to remove politics from the workplace! Right?

    Google wasn’t the place “to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics,” Pichai wrote in an email announcing a restructuring of the company’s devices and mobile software divisions. “This is too important a moment as a company for us to be distracted,” he said.

    https://www.wsj.com/tech/google-fires-28-employees-for-protesting-companys-cloud-deal-with-israel-382f4a50?st=f9j062aj9m56pih&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • Not Adahn

      That’s a lot of drag shows.

    • juris imprudent

      Taking such a loss would thwart his plan to rack up credit-card points buying the gold and quickly reselling it.

      Fuck that idiot.

    • kinnath

      Gold is not an investment. It is a hedge against hyper-inflation.

      • UnCivilServant

        I want to get some gold coins to toss in with a collection of silver and just hoard it like a dragon.

      • R.J.

        That is fun. I recommend it.

      • R C Dean

        Concur.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Until a merry band of home invaders, err adventurers, slay you and liberate it. Forsooth, the XP earned along with the swag doth be too much temptation to beith ignored.

      • Nephilium

        Well, it’ll depend on how many GP are there as to how much XP the adventurers would receive.

      • Sensei

        Being semantic a hedge is generally considered and investment.

        They can be physical like gold or real estate or a financial instrument like a stock or bond.

        I think a better way to express that would be you should not look to gold to be source of long term appreciation. I don’t know that’s factually correct or not, however.

      • kinnath

        point taken

  26. Fourscore

    Wow, snowing those giant flakes that we haven’t seen all winter! Won’t last long, be over in a couple minutes.

    • Fourscore

      Snow is over…

  27. The Late P Brooks

    I watched a youtube by one of those F1 news and gossip places. About the ’26 engine and chassis rules. Those guys have really disappeared up their own assholes.One of these days they’re going to look up from their computers and wonder why nobody but sponsors and guests comes to the races anymore.

    I’d rather watch this

    • UnCivilServant

      I still stand by my idea of the Bootlegger 500 race – there are no design requirements and no set track, you just have to get the best gallons per hour from the still to the speakeasy. (with different categories for cars trucks and semis) with some revenuers trying to intercept racers along the way.

      • SDF-7

        My idea is something like that.

        Night time moonshine race for NASCAR. Block off some set of back road state highways from Atlanta to Knoxville or something. Preferably winding and mountainous.

        1/4 of the cars are flagged as “revenuers” Others are “bootleggers”. Bootleggers have to make it to Knoxville at night with no lights. Revenuers have to bump tag all the bootleggers they can.

        Cars have to be bought off the lot and can then be modified.

        Bring back the Old School racing.

    • SDF-7

      At least they lump F2 and F3 in with the streaming subscription nowadays. Those races are still pretty good.

      And I don’t mind the hyper-focus on sensors/computers/engineering — the “net zero” push annoys me. I don’t give a rats ass if one sport actually isn’t carbon neutral guys — and I’m pretty sure your average Pacific Rim volcano dwarfs anything you do. So if Euroweenies want to cripple their economies, fine… but you can let one thing be.

      (I’m also suspicious of the cost cap because I’d rather their engine designers be unleashed… but that’s just me….)

      • ron73440

        the “net zero” push annoys me

        The NHL has a similar thing.

        If they were really concerned about carbon, they would have to shut down.

        I’m pretty sure it takes a lot of electricity to maintain an ice patch, particularly once April and May get here.

    • SDF-7

      They should have pushed the Fallout 4 next-gen update today instead of the 25th!

      • UnCivilServant

        What are they breaking now?

      • SDF-7

        All the existing mods probably. No one knows for sure — it sounds like it is going to end up being underwhelming to me.

        I just assume they’ll at some point (if not in this patch) get the Creation Club the same as what they did to Skyrim last year (and what I think 76 already uses) so they have a common code base for their store.

      • Nephilium

        From my understanding, the patch is better graphics/performance on next gen consoles, as well as to remove the splash screen before launch to make the game run better on a Steam Deck.

        With the rage from the show still running through me, I decided to try playing FO4 again. Again I HATE the removal of skills and the new “perk” system, the prevalence of power armor, and the shitty dialog options.

      • Sean

        I was getting great/usable legendary drops in my early levels, but the past 20 or so have been crappy.

        *sad trombone*

      • UnCivilServant

        Just because you hit the jackpot the first time out doesn’t mean you’re going to keep doing so.

        In fact, the odds are against it.

      • UnCivilServant

        Unrelated, am I the only one actually annoyed by the ‘Endless’ trait?

        I have a compulsion to reload, and it just won’t.

      • Sean

        I think it’s only fun on the double barrel.

    • UnCivilServant

      Lobsterbacks?

      Get the muskets.

    • UnCivilServant

      Unrelated – is there a good way to scoop up a lot of New England history in a weekend without getting bogged down in crowds?

      I’ve realized I haven’t touristed in the region and they’re just across the river.

      • DEG

        On a weekend?

        It’s been a while since I’ve been to touristy stuff in the area. On the weekend you’re going to have crowds.

      • UnCivilServant

        I just don’t want to burn leave if I can avoid it.

      • UnCivilServant

        You forgot your bullets!

    • R C Dean

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Whittemore

      On April 19, 1775, British forces were returning to Boston from the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the opening engagements of the war. On their march they were continually shot at by American militiamen.

      Whittemore was in his fields when he spotted an approaching British relief brigade under Earl Percy, sent to assist the retreat. Whittemore loaded his musket and ambushed the British grenadiers of the 47th Regiment of Foot from behind a nearby stone wall, killing one soldier. He then drew his dueling pistols, killed a second grenadier and mortally wounded a third. By the time Whittemore had fired his third shot, a British detachment had reached his position; Whittemore drew his sword and attacked. He was subsequently shot in the face, bayoneted numerous times, and left for dead in a pool of blood. He was found by colonial forces, trying to load his musket to resume the fight. He was taken to Dr. Cotton Tufts of Medford, who perceived no hope for his survival. However, Whittemore recovered and lived another 18 years until dying of natural causes at the age of 98.

      • UnCivilServant

        another 18 years until dying of natural causes at the age of 98.

        Way to bury the lede that the guy was 80 at the time.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        What’s 80 in old timey years? Has to be at least 125.

    • R C Dean

      The Brits went out and back on what is now Massachusetts Avenue. For a year I lived a couple of blocks from Mass Ave, uphill from it on kind of a bench in a hillside. I remember thinking the odds had to be pretty good that there were colonials in my neighborhood taking potshots at the redcoats.

      • DEG

        And modern folks in that neighborhood would be cheering the Redcoats on.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Comply with the authoritay.

      • R C Dean

        I was in Arlington. The neighborhood was still pretty blue collar/normie at the time. But it’s been a long time.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Being semantic a hedge is generally considered and investment.

    I was just reading a thing yesterday in which somebody was bemoaning the tendency of some Americans to “save rather than “invest”.

    • Sensei

      Typical financial marketing or journalism.

      I’d be happy if Americans actually did simply “save”. Many dissave.

      I’m assuming they’d like to people do more than just put money in a checking and/or savings account.

    • Rat on a train

      Investing is when the government spends your money.

    • prolefeed

      Physical objects, such as gold or houses, protect against massive currency devaluation. Some if these have the potential to produce profits, unlike gold or silver.

      • R C Dean

        Gold and silver can absolutely produce dollar-denominated profits. If you buy at $1100 and sell at $2000, you have made $900 (although the real purchasing power of that $2000 may be about the same as the $1100 you started with) The reason they are traditionally not called investments is they don’t produce income, unlike stocks (dividends), bonds (interest), and even real estate, which at least has the potential to be leased out. But capital gains? Sure, they can do that if you use a currency as your benchmark.

  29. robc

    Today is final rest day in Candidates Chess tourney. Two rounds to go.

    Four participants can still win it.

    Nepomniachtchi, Gukesh, and Nakamura tied at 7.5 pts
    Caruana at 7.

    Saturday Nepo plays Nakamura.
    Sunday Nakamura plays Gukesh and Caruana plays Nepo.

    Gukesh has the white pieces vs Firoujza saturday, so Nepo knows he will be going for a win.
    Nepo may need to push for a win with white saturday because winning with black vs Caruana wont be easy.
    Nakamura will be happy with a draw, and go for the win with white on Sunday.

    Nakamura hasn’t had a draw in the 2nd half. 4 wins and 1 loss, including 3 wins in a row. He is playing lower tiers lines to get crazy sharp positions.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    I’m assuming they’d like to people do more than just put money in a checking and/or savings account.

    In a world where bitcoin is deemed an investment…

  31. Gustave Lytton

    8 year olds, dude. Why aren’t they actually teaching the things kids need to learn? No wonder America’s youth are more retarded every year.

    “Give me the boy until 7 and i will show you the man”

    -Jesuits

  32. UnCivilServant

    Local rag. Two adjacent headlines.

    New York set to crack down on organized retail theft

    New York officials could close up to five prisons this year

    • UnCivilServant

      Likely a relative, though maybe an unfortunate (noe former) friend’s.

    • SDF-7

      Thought I saw a headline stating it was the girlfriend’s baby (not his was the implication).

      I had no desire to read further…. I can hate humanity in general and sick fucks in particular just fine without details some days.

    • Sensei

      Once again Mr. Tater finds an article I will not click on.

      • R C Dean

        He has a gift for posting stories that make me think “Yep. Death penalty.”

      • trshmnstr

        My thought, too. There is a glut of stories today where my thought was “I wouldn’t complain if the offender somehow didn’t survive to trial under suspicious circumstances”

      • juris imprudent

        Every time I have myself convinced that the death penalty is a bad idea, someone pops up that just screams to be killed.

      • Fourscore

        Harm to a child is an automatic decision maker for me.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Yuck

    • Suthenboy

      What does ‘military veteran’ have to do with anything? Why is that mentioned?

      • Fourscore

        Questionable hero status?

      • Pine_Tree

        Guilt by association. Doesn’t it reinforce their readers’ “here’s a MAGA bad guy” thing?

    • Fatty Bolger

      Woodchipper. Slow setting. Feet first.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Out: Kabuki theater
      In: Kabuki war

      Iran’s strike was also performative.

      • Drake

        Yes. “Air Defense” is just an aspiration in these days of cheap drones and accurate ballistic missiles.

      • Sensei

        Nice. I’ll remember that.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Saving the planet


    In a sweeping win for climate and environmental advocates, the Biden administration on Friday finalized a rule to ban fossil fuel drilling on nearly half of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, alongside other major conservation actions.

    The Interior Department will block oil drilling on over 13 million acres in the Western Arctic, including about 40% of the land of the NPR-A – a remote area that is home to protected animal species including polar bears and caribou.

    The reserve is more than 23 million acres of public land and an underground emergency oil supply for the US Navy that was designated in the early 1920s. More recently, it’s become the site of the ConocoPhillips-owned Willow project, a controversial oil drilling venture in the Arctic.

    When the Biden administration approved Willow in March 2023, it sparked intense backlash among young people on social media, as well as environmental and climate groups. Friday’s action could improve President Joe Biden’s approval among young voters.

    Flailing around in a panic like a drowning man.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Are fewer jobs and higher commodities prices what the young people are into now? Kids these days, I swear.

    • Fourscore

      Check with the young Alaskans for a second opinion, Joe.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Some Alaska Natives are critical of the drilling ban across such a significant swath of the NPR-A. It has proved controversial with Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation, as well as Alaska Native groups who say they depend on the tax revenue from oil drilling to fund schools and basic services.

    The final rule “does not reflect our communities’ wishes,” said Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat President Nagruk Harcharek, adding the move “will hurt the very residents the federal government purports to help by rolling back years of progress, impoverishing our communities, and imperiling our Iñupiaq culture.”

    What a bunch of ultra-MAGA whiners.

    • Sean

      “Fuck Alaska!”

      -Gropey Joe

    • SDF-7

      Well, you know the Doctor sure doesn’t.

  35. Derpetologist

    Huzzah! Zoom interview required a phone call for audio, but it went well. They want to do another one because the principal really wants to speak with me.
    There is light of gainful employment at the end of the tunnel.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Interior Sec. Deb Haaland said the administration’s Alaska conservation announcements “underscore our commitment to ensure that places too special to develop remain intact for the communities and species that rely on them.”

    In a statement, Haaland added the move would be big step to safeguard “the way of life for the Indigenous people who have called this special place home since time immemorial.”

    We’re saving those people from themselves. A life of 21st century comfort and ease is not suitable for them. We must preserve their primitive ways, whether they like it or not. Hunting seals with whalebone spears is so much better than working in a warm office.

    • rhywun

      “time immemorial”

      OK, then.

    • Drake

      Great news – you get to be poor forever!

    • Pope Jimbo

      Bet those noble indigenous folx if given full autonomy to do whatever they wanted with that land would build a casino.

    • juris imprudent

      Hunting seals

      Forbidden by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. And don’t even think about killing a whale.

      You may be Indigenous, but you are human, and not an endangered species.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Meanwhile, back on campus

    The Biden administration on Friday will announce changes to Title IX, expanding protections for LGBTQ+ and pregnant students while overhauling controversial Trump-era guidance around how schools should handle sexual assault cases.

    “Our nation’s educational institutions should be places where we not only accept differences, but celebrate them – places that root out hate and promote inclusion, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because our systems and institutions are richer for it,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said on a call Thursday previewing the changes to Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination at federally funded schools.

    The final rule – which is slated to take effect on August 1 – requires schools to protect students from all sex discrimination, including sexual violence and sex-based harassment, expanding that definition to include discrimination based on pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions like childbirth, termination of pregnancy, or recovery from pregnancy.

    The rule also prohibits discrimination “based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics in federally funded education programs,” according to a fact sheet shared with CNN Thursday, formalizing a previously proposed rule from the administration that would strengthen Title IX protections for transgender students.

    ——-

    Per the administration fact sheet, Friday’s rule prohibits “all forms of sex-based harassment, including sexual violence and unwelcome sex-based conduct that creates a hostile environment by limiting or denying a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from a school’s education program or activity.”

    Also rolled back- Trump era innocent-until-proven-guilty rules.

    He’ll have those kids’ votes for sure.

    • rhywun

      celebrate them

      Fuck.
      You.

      I will celebrate what I want to, asshole.

  38. Sensei

    Priceless.

    To begin with, she lives — where else — in progressive Park Slope in Brooklyn. Maher and her husband, lawyer Ashutosh Upreti, who wed in August 2023, bought the three-bedroom brownstone for $2.7 million last fall.

    Maher’s LinkedIn ticks off every possible far-left box: stints at Wikimedia, the World Economic Forum, Stanford University, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council and UNICEF, as well as forays into high finance at HSBC and the World Bank, prior to joining NPR in January.

    The Elizabeth Warren fan’s X account reveals references calling Donald Trump a “deranged racist sociopath” and a dream in which Maher and Vice-President Kamala Harris were “sampling and comparing nuts and baklava on roadside stands.”

    Maher had stints at Wikimedia, the World Economic Forum, Stanford University, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council and UNICEF, as well as forays into high finance at HSBC and the World Bank.

    Maher’s meet-cute with her husband, as described in a New York Times “Vows” column after their wedding, happened at a friend’s “interdenominational seder” in San Francisco’s Mission District in April 2019.

    https://nypost.com/2024/04/18/us-news/npr-ceo-katherine-mahers-life-is-like-a-woke-elite-bingo-card/

    • juris imprudent

      WEF and CFR are far-left? Really? Where would that put a Trotskyite tankie – since that person would have no use at all for either of those.

      • Not Adahn

        The WEF believes in centrally-planned internationally coordinated economies, so… yes?

      • juris imprudent

        Oh okay, so far-left has nothing to do with communism and overthrowing capitalism or pretty much anything Marx wrote about. The things I learn here.

      • Not Adahn

        When the state dictates what, when and how you’re going to do with the means of production, your nominal ownership of it doesn’t make the government non-lefty.

      • Suthenboy

        Labels, for this reason, are kinda useless.
        Let us divide ideologies into something a bit clearer as each side has variants and painting either with broad brushes creates confusion.
        A. Ideologies that see individuals as ends in themselves; i.e. institutions serve the individual
        B. Ideologies that see individuals as means to ends; i.e. individuals exist to serve those institutions

        That should clear things up a bit.

    • rhywun

      the ultimate woke-elite bingo card

      lolright? It is impressive.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    The Trump-era changes received significant backlash from victim advocacy groups, which argued the regulations would discourage survivors from reporting sexual assault and harassment. Under the Trump rules, colleges and universities are required to hold live hearings with cross-examinations of both parties. Then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos argued that guidance issued under the Obama administration had denied due process to those accused of harassment or assault and the new rules would give more rights to those accused.

    The new rule will allow investigators or decisionmakers to assess parties’ credibility in either a live hearing, as mandated under the Trump administration, or during an individual meeting with a party or witness and with questions proposed by each party in lieu of cross examination.

    See? It’s just like due process, but without any of that icky uncomfortable “confronting your accuser and witnesses against you” stuff.

    • juris imprudent

      No, no, none of that adversarial process stuff (like cross examination) – you are accused and you must confess. No one would accuse you if you weren’t guilty.

    • rhywun

      I can’t believe it took Joe from Scranton three years to get around to this. Oh well, so much damage to undo probably even still.

    • Suthenboy

      Witch hunts, invasions and epic catastrophes tend to weed out the best individuals that societies have. The worst tend to survive and over time, and not much of that, the values of the worst individuals become that societies norm, sometimes to the point of being institutionalized.
      That is what we are seeing here today with the rise of leftist influence. We have not had an invasion, not really, nor a holomodor so I am not sure what precipitated it.

      • rhywun

        Inattention? The left is always “on”. Most people aren’t.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Maher’s LinkedIn ticks off every possible far-left box: stints at Wikimedia, the World Economic Forum, Stanford University, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council and UNICEF, as well as forays into high finance at HSBC and the World Bank, prior to joining NPR in January.

    “It’s like a demon’s resume.”

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Bet those noble indigenous folx if given full autonomy to do whatever they wanted with that land would build a casino.

    With a giant airstrip attached, so the marks can get there in ease and comfort.

    • Fourscore

      And a plush hotel to insure their creature comforts while they’re relaxing at the casino.

    • Suthenboy

      I like the line “They didn’t call him Mad Anthony for nuthin’.”

    • Fourscore

      Bayonet training, circa 1966:

      “What’s the spirit of the bayonet?””

      “THE SPIRIT OF THE BAYONET IS TO KILL, SIR”

      Shouted in unison by 200 Infantry OCS candidates

      • juris imprudent

        1966 – that’s like ancient history.

      • Gustave Lytton

        “Kill kill kill with cold blue steel.

        What makes the green grass grow?

        Blood blood blood makes the green grass grow.”

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Rush job

    The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs.

    Moving fast is critical, CIA Director Bill Burns said Thursday, warning that without additional aid from the U.S., Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year.

    Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said, “We would like very much to be able to rush the security assistance in the volumes we think they need to be able to be successful.”

    If about $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country gets the green light, “we have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move material very quickly,” Ryder told reporters Thursday. “We can move within days.”

    When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.

  43. Common Tater

    “The Biden administration rolled out new protections for LGBTQ+ students Friday without addressing Republican-backed bans on transgender athletes participating in women’s sports.

    The administration originally planned to include a new policy forbidding schools from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes, but that provision was put on hold.

    The delay is widely seen as a political maneuver during an election year in which Republicans have rallied around these bans.

    The rights of LGBTQ+ students will be protected by federal law and victims of campus sexual assault will gain new safeguards under the rules finalized Friday by the Biden administration.

    The new provisions are part of a revised Title IX regulation issued by the Education Department, fulfilling a campaign pledge by President Joe Biden.

    Biden had promised to dismantle rules created by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who added new protections for students accused of sexual misconduct.

    Biden is officially undoing the sexual assault rules put in place by his predecessor and current election-year opponent, former President Donald Trump.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13327935/president-joe-biden-lgbtq-student-protections.html

    So it makes things less fair for both men and women.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      There were plenty of things to worry about in school back in the day but being railroaded for sex crimes wasn’t really one of them thank God.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    As the war in Ukraine has dragged on, the U.S. began to send increasingly larger, more lethal and more expensive systems to the warfront. They included entire air defense systems, armored vehicles, sophisticated missiles — even Abrams tanks.

    Those systems cost more to replace, so the military — in particular, the Army — went deeper into debt. Compounding that, the military in some cases opted to replace older systems sent to Ukraine with pricier, higher-tech ones at home.

    [insert exclamation of astonishment]

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Forbidden by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. And don’t even think about killing a whale.

    I believe you’ll find the indigenous peoples to be exempt from such impediments to the practice of their cultural traditions.

    • juris imprudent

      Only courtesy of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act!

  46. Common Tater

    “Students at a Utah middle school staged a walkout to protest their peers who identified as ‘furries’ – people who dress up in costumes of animals – scratching and biting classmates.

    The hours-long protest took place outside Mt. Nebo Middle School in Payson, Utah, on Wednesday. It was triggered by a petition demanding a stricter dress code, with some middle schoolers reported the offending students were physically attacking other people.

    A ‘furry’ is anyone with a strong interest in anthropomorphic animals. Enthusiasts often don full-body animal costumes and gather at ‘furry’ conventions.

    The allegations from inside Mt. Nebo Middle School drew condemnation from members of the costumed community themselves.

    ‘It’s crazy that it’s escalated to this point where these kids are being so distracting to their peers that their peers want to stage a walkout,’ a furry identified as ‘Strudel’ told ABC 4 in Utah.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13325059/Mt-Nebo-School-Utah-furries-protest-walkout-controversy.html

    WTF??

    • Mojeaux

      XX told me about the furries at her school back several years ago. I said, “Does everybody know it’s a sexual fetish?” She said yes. She was so done with it all by the time she was a sophomore.

      • R.J.

        Same experience here with kids I know in school. All this bizzaro woke crap is going to cause a hard boomerang back from school-age kids. The vast majority hate this crap.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Gen. Randy George, chief of staff of the Army, said the branch wouldn’t have enough money to bring home troops serving in Europe or to train units in the U.S.

    Did they also offer their resignations, effective immediately?

    Haha, just kidding. I crack myself up.

  48. Mojeaux

    I find that states banning the use of phones while driving, while also ignoring the touch screen bullshit, is kind of hitting the iceberg.