Thursday Afternoon Links

by | Apr 25, 2024 | Daily Links | 205 comments

WEST VIRGINIA BIGFOOT FESTIVAL 2024: June 27-29 in Sutton, WV. One of the sponsoring groups is the scary, yet alluring, Jeep Babes WV. Activities include an offroad Bigfoot cruise and hunt, as well as a festival with food trucks, storytellers, and souvenirs. I can neither confirm nor deny whether STEVE SMITH will be a guest speaker.

KATHERINE MAHER’S COLOR REVOLUTION: City Journal does a dive into the background of the embattled NPR kommisar.

FAA TO REQUIRE LANDING LICENSES FOR SPACE VEHICLES: “The Federal Aviation Administration is revising its licensing regulations to prevent a repeat of a situation last year where a spacecraft launched without approvals to return.” Quelle horreur! Not content to just interfere with the front end of the process, the FAA is determined to stick its finger into the back-end. Of course the regulatory agency sees things differently, trumpeting how they are “meeting the demand” for such meddling. (Missing – proof that anyone actually involved wanted this.)

THE MAN WHO KILLED GOOGLE: Blogger Ed Zitron explains it all to you. There are some eye-rolling assertions, but overall a useful read.

YOUR ‘NAD TAP ARTICLE OF THE DAY: Biden wants higher capital gains taxes. The war on prosperity continues apace.

YOUR NOBODY-TO-LIKE-HERE ARTICLE OF THE DAY: Some states are reconsidering laws mandating reporting of child abuse and neglect “saying the result has been too many unfounded reports, and that they disproportionately harm families that are poor, Black, or Indigenous, or have members with disabilities.” Also, “[m]ore than 1 in 3 children in the United States will be the subject of a child abuse and neglect investigation by the time they turn 18.”

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.

205 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    No pics of the jeep babes?

  2. Common Tater

    So what happens if someone is already in space? Sorry, Dave, I can’t do that?

    • The Other Kevin

      Fill out the paperwork online, and wait 30-60 days.

    • Gadfly

      Better to ask forgiveness than beg permission.

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

      Land in [insert other country name here].

    • Bobarian LMD

      A daily fine with accrued interest.

  3. Common Tater

    “Biden wants higher capital gains taxes.”

    CWAA

    • SDF-7

      As has been said many times here — if you wanted to destroy this country, what precisely would you do differently?

      Certainly the PPP admin wants to tank the economy. On the plus side — I don’t think even Congress is dumb enough to do this in an election year. And hopefully it won’t be an issue next year…. so this is just more pandering to the Commies probably.

      • Sean

        Probably.

        >.>

      • hayeksplosives

        Biden doesn’t need to understand investing, incentives, and the economy. He doesn’t personally deal with inflation.

        He gets his money through grift and taking donations from hostile countries.

      • Tonio

        How is your hand doing, hon?

      • hayeksplosives

        Pretty good, thanks. The wrist crush still hurts but the puncture wounds don’t look infected.

        The Augmentin has completely wrecked (temporarily) my digestive system though.

      • Tonio

        Glad to hear you avoided infection. Yeah, major antibiotics will whack your gut microbiota. Hugs.

      • Beau Knott

        Yogurt. Also you might give Biota, available from Amazon, a try. It’s targeted at IBS-D, and took me from 4 x Imodium daily to zero. Your mileage may well vary, but it’s unlikely to hurt.

      • R C Dean

        What makes you think Congress will need to do anything?

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Couple it with zero corporate tax rate and I’m in.

  4. Common Tater

    “disproportionately harm families that are poor, Black, or Indigenous”

    Broken record is broken.

    • hayeksplosives

      So we’re not even going to investigate? CPS doesn’t *have* to take kids away. But investigating reports of abuse sounds pretty reasonable to me.

      • SDF-7

        I’m torn. Obvious and clear abuse? Damned straight it should be reported.

        But on the flip side — CPS is typically a bunch of uninhibited petty tyrants I want nowhere near my house (because they can blow anything out of proportion, take your kids… and you have to prove your innocence instead of guilt to get them back while they’re typically abused in the foster system because there’s more screwed up people there than the folks being investigated). So I would want the reports limited to only obvious and clear abuse.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yes, reform is needed.

        Probably would have to be completely blown up and restarted within the law.

        So it’s never going to happen.

      • juris imprudent

        Can’t be reformed, the incentives within any bureaucracy will always supersede the mission of the bureaucracy. Government simply can’t be effective.

      • Tonio

        ^This. Good call on the foster system.

        Also, the mandatory reporting thing has docs, nurses, teachers, etc, scared shitless.

      • pistoffnick (370HSSV)

        Ex-mrs. pistoffnick and I did foster care in Kansas for 5 years. Ten Saturdays of classes (with stupid role playing!) and an in-depth house inspection before we could get our license. We certainly didn’t make any money at it (not our motive) and it was not always pleasant. The biological dad of our now adopted daughter accused us of beating her and bleaching her hair. This prompted a deeper investigation of us than when he was investigated (they found traces of cocaine on daughter’s high chair tray).

        It’s a fucked up system. I’m happy we did it, but I happy to not do it ever again. I still stay in contact with some of my foster kids.

  5. bacon-magic

    Sounds a lot like ol’ Katherine Maher is a deep state agent.

    • The Other Kevin

      She’s been in all the organizations that are red flags, is “fighting disinformation”, etc. You are correct.

  6. Common Tater

    That’s a long article. So far it seems the problem is that Google has too many VP’s, and none of them can speak regular English.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, I was hoping for a summary. 🫤

      • Common Tater

        tl;dr: Google is run by a bunch of assholes.

      • hayeksplosives

        The fact that they have to tell their employees “Don’t Be Evil” in the corporate motto is the first clue…

      • Suthenboy

        If you have to tell people….well, we know the rest.

  7. Derpetologist

    I get errors many times I try post criticism of Biden. As I know for a fact NSA has many exploits against WordPress (the software this site uses), I am less inclined to view this as a coincidence. Just before the election, InfoWars produced a documentary called ShadowGate which later got blocked from YouTube. The director of that film, Millie Weaver, later got arrested under unusual circumstances. In the film, a woman who refers to herself as Terpsichore describes NSA’s social media influence operations using sentiment analysis software. I did not work in that section, but everything she said sounded plausible to me.

    COINTELPRO never went away, it just changed methods. No need to physically infiltrate groups when social media and statistics can be used to rile them up.

    ***
    COINTELPRO (a syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert and illegal[1][2] projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations that the FBI perceived as subversive.
    ***

    • bacon-magic

      Biden is a pedophile. (checking your assertion)

      • Derpetologist

        I think they only care if I do it, and my last attempt just now was unsuccessful.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Biden is terrible. Biden sucks. Biden should not be President. Biden should be impeached. Biden is corrupt. Biden is a serial kid sniffer. Biden took inappropriate showers with his daughter. Biden raised a son who slept with his underage niece. Biden is not fit for office. Biden shakes hands with invisible people. Biden is corrupt and laundered bribes though his family.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Guess I’m not on the watch list. Whew.

    • Tonio

      My beamish boy! [passes roll of tinfoil to Derpy]

      • Nephilium

        Damn it… now I’m going to have to look for it.

    • Derpetologist

      I tried just now to post a comment involving a pool chain, a minor, incursion, and the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. No dice. I guess you guys will have to do the criticism of you-know-who.

      God, this is some Stasi-level bullshit.

    • Derpetologist

      Biden is terrible. Biden sucks. Biden should not be President. Biden should be impeached. Biden is corrupt. Biden is a serial kid sniffer. Biden took inappropriate showers with his daughter. Biden raised a son who slept with his underage niece. Biden is not fit for office. Biden shakes hands with invisible people. Biden is corrupt and laundered bribes though his family.

      • Derpetologist

        Huh, it worked when I quoted Fatty Bolger verbatim.

  8. Drake

    Was there ever a color revolution that was a real uprising by the population and not a CIA / State Department operation?

    • Derpetologist

      Does velvet count as a color?

    • Gadfly

      I think most of them probably are real, the State Dept is just throwing gas on the flames. I don’t think you can astroturf dissent in a foreign country at scale, but you can certainly (try to) harness it.

    • Derpetologist

      ***
      Michael McFaul identified seven stages of successful political revolutions common in colour revolutions:[71][72][73][74]

      A semi-autocratic rather than fully autocratic regime
      An unpopular incumbent
      A united and organized opposition
      An ability to quickly drive home the point that voting results were falsified
      Enough independent media to inform citizens about the falsified vote
      A political opposition capable of mobilizing tens of thousands or more demonstrators to protest electoral fraud
      CIA funding
      ***

      ***
      Michael Anthony McFaul (born October 1, 1963)[1] is an American academic and diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014.

      In 2009, McFaul joined the Barack Obama administration as a senior adviser in Washington, D.C., where he was the architect of the so-called “Russian reset” policy.[16]
      ***

      [head desk]

      • Bobarian LMD

        Seven stages, listed in reverse order?

      • Derpetologist

        When Mossadegh was overthrown, money, warm bodies, loudmouth shills, and a ready replacement leader were enough.

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

      The one in Iran that was crushed by the Obama admin?

      • hayeksplosives

        That’s the one that leaped to my mind too.

        Green, I believe it was.

      • Derpetologist

        Yes.

        ***
        During a press conference, President Barack Obama spoke out about Iran and its protesters saying: “My hope and expectation is that we’re going to continue to see the people of Iran have the courage to be able to express their yearning for greater freedoms and a more representative government, understanding that America cannot ultimately dictate what happens inside of Iran any more than it could inside of Egypt.”[125] Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State for the United States, said that the White House “very clearly and directly support[s] the aspirations [of the protesters]”. She also noted the hypocrisy of the Iranian government for supporting the protests and revolution in Egypt, but not allowing peaceful protests within Iran. She added, “We think that there needs to be a commitment to open up the political system in Iran to hear the voices of the opposition and civil society.”[126] In an advance response, the US State Department set up a Persian language Twitter feed the day before in order to allow easier communication by Iran’s Internet users with the outside world.[17] The Department’s first tweet on the feed announced, “US State Dept recognizes historic role of social media among Iranians. We want to join in your conversations.”
        ***

        Obama was a non-interventionist? He was key to the overthrow of the governments of Libya and Yemen. He also tried to overthrow Assad in Syria.

        The Shia are the largest religious bloc in Iran, but they are only about 1/3 of the population. About half of Iranians are atheist, agnostic, or otherwise secular.

        ***
        A 2020 Online Survey by Gamaan found that 8.8% Iranians identifying as Atheist and a large fraction (22.2%) identifying as not following an organized religion and only 40% self identified as Muslims. This has been noted as a transition of Iranians towards secularism.
        ***

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

      • Bobarian LMD

        Something like 30% of Iran’s population are of Azeri descent, rather than Persian.

      • Derpetologist

        Yes, Persians are a slim majority at 60% of the population. The USSR was only about 51% Russian in 1989.

      • hayeksplosives

        Iran’s reproduction rate is well below replacement and still dropping.

        Iran’s population growth rate has declined from 1.62% in 2006 to 1.24% in 2016, and approximately 0.7% in 2021.

        https://www.iranintl.com/en/202403135943

      • prolefeed

        The Iranian government’s fears are well founded, since the list of countries with explosive fertility rates could be semi-accurately described as “most countries in Africa, and the countries surrounding Iran.”

      • Bobarian LMD

        Why do you think it was crushed.

        a real uprising by the population…

        We can’t be having any of that. The natives might get the wrong idea.

      • Drake

        That aborted revolution in Belarus seemed like bs. And the Maidan coup in the Ukraine obviously.

  9. Fatty Bolger

    More than 1 in 3 children in the United States will be the subject of a child abuse and neglect investigation by the time they turn 18

    How could that possibly be true?

      • Fatty Bolger

        I don’t question that there’s some bullshit going on. But that supposed stat seems incredibly unlikely to me.

    • kinnath

      Someone filed a false claim of abuse against my daughter (long story). Child Protective Services was obliged to investigate. So that makes 50% of my grandchildren that were subject to an investigation.

    • Tonio

      That 1/3 figure was quite a staggering claim. I wonder if they meant the subset of poor and BIPOC children.

      • DrOtto

        Since they’re hardest hit, it makes sense to assume the parents are doing the hitting and it needs investigation.

    • Rat on a train

      Then girls go off to college were 1 in 5 will be sexually assaulted. Then 2 in 1 gets uploaded to the internet.

      • R C Dean

        Sounds nearly airtight.

  10. Shpip

    President Biden has formally suggested the highest top capital gains tax rate in over a century.

    According to the proposal, the top marginal rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends would rise to 44.6%.

    Could this be the one time that the Stupid Party stands up on its hind legs, grows a spine, and says “No?”

    • Fatty Bolger

      I don’t think this will fly. Think about it. How do congresscritters make their fortunes?

      • Sean

        Bribes and insider trading.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Especially the latter.

  11. SDF-7

    KATHERINE MAHER’S COLOR REVOLUTION

    It sure seems odd that every executive level weasel in or near Washington seems to have strong CIA connections, doesn’t it?

    Enough to make you break out multiple rolls of tin foil some days.

  12. Fatty Bolger

    Maher certainly has an eyebrow raising resume, but I never considered that she might actually be a spook. But this does sound exactly like the type of person the intelligence services like to recruit:

    After high school, Maher graduated from the Arabic Language Institute’s Arabic Language Intensive Program of The American University in Cairo in 2003, which she recalled as a formative experience that developed her interest in the Middle East.[12] Maher subsequently studied at the Institut français d’études arabes de Damas in Syria and spent time in Lebanon and Tunisia.[2][13][14]

    In 2005, Maher received a bachelor’s degree from New York University in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.[15][16]

    • grrizzly

      Signal has a strong reputation as one of the most reliable messenger apps with default peer-to-peer encryption. Something to communicate with the next Edward Snowden. Maher sits on the board of Signal foundation. Is everything compromised?

      • Fatty Bolger

        I’ve seen people asking that exact question.

      • Derpetologist

        There’s only one secure telecommunication method and almost nobody uses it.

        If either the device or the encryption is compromised, the system is insecure.

      • Bobarian LMD

        There’s only one secure telecommunication method

        A TA-312 and up to 5 miles of commo wire?

      • Rat on a train

        Damn AKNG always cutting my wire.

      • The Other Kevin

        Two tin cans and string?

      • Derpetologist

        Guess all you want. I’d prefer not to go to prison for revealing the method.

      • Not Adahn

        MKULTRA worked? The CIA has telepaths?

      • Rat on a train

        Close. Psychic imprinting is the only secure method.

      • DrOtto

        A sit down at the Bing?

      • Timeloose

        Fiber to fiber

      • Derpetologist

        Kind of inconvenient for long distances…

  13. Gadfly

    Biden wants higher capital gains taxes. The war on prosperity continues apace.

    Even more troubling, he’s proposed a 25% tax on unrealized capital gains. That with the 44% tax on realized gains seems like a one-two-punch to knock-out investing.

    • SDF-7

      Not that he gives a shit — but that would be completely unconstitutional since unrealized capital gains can’t be considered income and this would therefore be an unapportioned direct tax and all.

      Fuck off and die, commie shitbirds trying to foist this stuff on the country through class envy.

      • hayeksplosives

        They keep talking about Americans having a lot of money in retirement accounts, and they refer to it collectively.

        You know they can’t wait to confiscate and redistribute it.

      • Common Tater

        The Biden administration already changed a bunch of 401K rules.

      • SDF-7

        Yeah, I just expect them to be sneakier about that.

        “Retirement funds have a responsibility to be stable. We’re therefore going to mandate 25% of the fund activity be limited to Treasury bonds!” (Then 40, then 50… etc.)

        Oh, and you aren’t allowed to change that. Or withdraw funds. And we’re mandating contributions….

        Flat out wealth taxes shouldn’t fly comparatively.

      • DEG

        We’re therefore going to mandate 25% of the fund activity be limited to Treasury bonds!”

        This is how it will start.

      • R C Dean

        It’s already been floated, after the last big market meltdown. It’s be back when everybody is panicking after the next one.

      • Sensei

        Just change date and amount of RMDs. Required Minimum Distributions.

      • Tonio

        All of the “billionaire tax cuts” whining you hear from DU, Occupy Democrats, et als, is just battle space preparation for confiscating the wealth of the middle class.

      • Nephilium

        I love that they call them billionaire taxes while saying they’ll only impact people with wealth over $100 million. What’s an order of magnitude between friends comrades?

      • hayeksplosives

        All us kulaks and wreckers are the real problem. We own one more cow than the peasants next door.

      • juris imprudent

        You know they can’t wait to confiscate

        I’ll end up dead when that happens, but I damn sure will be taking some with me.

      • R C Dean

        *loads magazines*

    • Drake

      I am assuming the election in November will be an epic shit show. If it goes sideways but doesn’t get violent, I wonder if people will keep paying federal taxes. That would bring the system down quickly.

      • DEG

        I wonder if people will keep paying federal taxes.

        Tax withholding says hi!

        Sure, you can change it, but how many people know how to do that?

      • Rat on a train

        I once had withholding set to S80.

  14. Common Tater

    “During much of 2011, Maher worked for the National Democratic Institute, a government-funded NGO with deep connections to U.S. intelligence and the Democratic Party’s foreign policy machine.”

    Why the fuck do we have government-funded Non-governmental Organizations?

    • Ted S.

      Because FYTW?

    • Tonio

      Plausible deniability?

    • SDF-7

      Misdirection and Plausible Deniability are what leaps to mind.

      • The Other Kevin

        Yep. They can do what the government *technically* shouldn’t do. And they are all staffed with ex-CIA, FBI, State Department, etc.

    • Sean

      Let me show you my shocked face.

      Look at all those “adults in the room” in DC…

      • SDF-7

        Given we’ve all but officially (just unofficially with the ghouls in Congress crowing about killing Russians through Ukraine) declared war on them… yeah, I would expect anything is on the table. Frankly, I’m more than a little surprised it took this long.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yeah I’m surprised it took so long too.

        They never expect this stuff to come back and get used against them / their party.

        Good thing we haven’t been alienating our allies or at least non-enemy countries. Oh wait…

  15. Tonio

    You lads have done me proud today. You are like Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol to my Sir John Falstaff.

  16. DEG

    to roll back these laws, saying the result has been too many unfounded reports

    Too many unfounded reports? Who could possibly have seen this coming?

  17. Shpip

    Last year I wrote an article about coleus.

    While usually grown in North America as an annual, it is occasionally a perennial in its native southeast Asia and Australia. Somehow, I managed to get three of my coleus from last year to survive the winter, and they’re growing steadily again now.

    I don’t know why this makes me happy… but it does.

  18. Tonio

    Also, in too-local news, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney has withdrawn from the race for the Democrat nomination for Governor of Virginia. That leaves loathsome swamp-creature, and ex-CIA employee, and current congresscritter Abigail Spanberger as the presumptive nominee.

  19. Sensei

    Sorry Tonio, that Google article is unreadable.

    I quit half way through after getting the gist.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Yeah, I had to tap out on that one as well.

      • Sensei

        I get the feeling the author doesnt like MBAs…

    • Tonio

      Sorry, I didn’t read the whole thing (much like many commenters). The dirty little secret of Glibs links posts is that some of the links are developed by the links post authors, others are pulled from the secret Glibs editors links suggestions chat room. I develop most of the space-related links both for my links posts, and the links posts of other linksters. Neph and Riven develop a majority of the video games links. And so on.

      Also, the Morning Linksters have a much wider selection since they can choose from anything submitted from 3:00 PM – 7:00 AM server time (sixteen hours, yo). PM linksters only have dibs on things submitted 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM.

      Lucky to have links at all, you is. Lucky to have ’em.

      • Common Tater

        I read the whole thing.

      • Sensei

        It was a criticism of the writer and not your selection as a link.

        I always try to actually read all the links posted.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      And here I thought it was because like straight men who die younger than straight women it was because they were married to women.

    • rhywun

      100% agreed.

  20. Fatty Bolger

    “Lesbian women die 20 percent younger” – Maybe. Could be a bullshit stat. Who knows.

    “due to stress of ‘toxic’ social stigma” – Unlikely IMO, and unprovable, regardless.

    • R C Dean

      20% younger would be an average lifespan that is 15 years shorter – dead in their early sixties rather than late seventies.

      I find this extremely unlikely.

      To the extent it is true, I suspect that there are lifestyle things going on that aren’t exclusive to lesbians, but that would shorten anybody’s life.

    • Sensei

      Perfect. Love the logo too.

    • Sensei

      Reminds me what was the film that had the tiny dog doing the Nazi salute?

      • Derpetologist

        Count Dankula was his YouTube name. He got charged with a hate crime and fined, if I remember correctly.

        Scotland the Brave? Pfft.

      • Sensei

        That’s it!

      • Bobarian LMD

        Didn’t some British Twitter personality get unpersoned and hate-crimed for a long period of time for posting something like that?

      • Bobarian LMD

        What Derpy said.

    • bacon-magic

      They should take that show on a world tour…hit all the pro-Palestine hot spots.

    • Common Tater

      “The encounter, which unfolded at a “Queer Storytime for Palestine” event organized by the Valley Families for Palestine group in Amherst”

      That’s just a big bowl of wrong.

      • R C Dean

        Who the fuck would take their kid to that?

        Talk about child abuse.

    • Tonio

      Useful idiots.

  21. Derpetologist

    What it’s like to be me for the past 3 years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3poKUuvtyM

    2.5 years ago, I was stopped at a traffic light behind a white van with painted windows. The driver got out, opened up the rear doors and pointed inside Vanna White style as if to tell me “see, it’s not a surveillance van”. Not that NSA/FBI uses such things these days.

    • R C Dean

      Damn, Derpy, you must have really pissed off the NSA. How big is the unit that is assigned to surveilling/harassing ex-employees, anyway?

      • Derpetologist

        Some NSA director joked that the agency has between 30,000 and 7 billion employees when asked how many people worked there. NSA cyber has about 2,000 people, as per this NPR article: https://www.npr.org/2019/09/26/763545811/how-the-u-s-hacked-isis

        Those guys don’t do domestic stuff though.

        As for NSA’s in-house Stasi, I suspect there probably about 1,000 of them plus whatever agents FBI can spare.

        Among other things, I know what codes NSA has and hasn’t broken which means I also know what codes they can and can’t break. Foreign governments would pay me millions of dollars for this info, not that I need the money, nor would I ever commit treason.

        When in protest I threw my phone at the NSA building I used to work in 7 months after I caught them red-handed as they spied on me, here is the message I wanted to send:

        1. I know what you’re doing.

        2. I don’t like it.

        3. I’m not afraid of you.

        4. Fuck around and find out.

        https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2023/12/nsa-protest.html

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Next thing you know, ol’ Jed’s a millionaire.

    We need a Beverly Hillbillies remake.

    Granny: Jed! Jed! Thet thar feller is wearin’ a DRESS! Fetch me mah shotgun!

    Jed: Now, Granny…

    • Bobarian LMD

      Cousin Jethrine

      Now considered a hate crime.

      • hayeksplosives

        I thought it was called stunning and brave.

        I’m so behind.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    “Now this war will just continue.”

    That guy wants to steal food out of the mouths of American children.

  24. Derpetologist

    If there was one time in Biden’s life where he should have talked tough, it was right before Russia invaded. Instead, he said he wouldn’t respond to a “minor incursion”. Those 2 words have now cost the US about $160 billion and led to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

    • Bobarian LMD

      We will fight those Cossack Bastards down to the very last drop of Ukrainian blood!

      • Derpetologist

        Fear the pool chain of Fightin’ Middle Class Joe…

      • Derpetologist

        ***
        “I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do.”
        ***

        [head desk]

  25. Pope Jimbo

    Minneapolis gives away $150K of taxpayer money.

    The Minneapolis City Council on Thursday signed off on a $150,000 settlement with Donald Williams, an eyewitness to George Floyd’s murder who claims the experience caused him PTSD.

    Williams, 35, filed a lawsuit against the city last spring, alleging that he was assaulted by police on the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue while trying to intervene in Floyd’s arrest.

    He was outside Cup Foods corner store the evening of May 25, 2020, when he saw then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 ½ minutes as Floyd begged for his life.

    Chauvin looked directly at Williams, grabbed a canister of chemical spray from his duty belt and began shaking it toward him and other bystanders expressing concern for Floyd’s welfare, according to the lawsuit. He was so vocal that Officer Tou Thao stepped toward him and placed a hand on Williams’ chest.

    As a result of the since-convicted officers’ actions, Williams said he feared for his safety and endured pain, suffering, humiliation, embarrassment and medical expenses.

    • Pope Jimbo

      You want proof that he was traumatized? St. George’s ghost has turned him into a criminal!

      In the aftermath of the trial, Williams told the Star Tribune that he struggled to process the trauma associated with being a bystander in the most famous case of American police brutality in modern times.

      “I look to my left, I see George Floyd,” he said in 2021. “I look to my right, I see George Floyd. I look somewhere else and it’s like I’m always remembering.”

      Since then, he has had several run-ins with the law himself. Most appear to stem from sudden outbursts of anger that escalated to violence.

      Last May, he was charged in Olmsted County with three counts of misdemeanor assault and one count of disorderly conduct. Five months later, he was charged in Hennepin County with disorderly conduct and property damage. In that case, he’s accused of punching through the window of a school door in Eden Prairie. Charges say that staff heard Williams make comments about choking people out because school policy prohibited him from entering the building, requiring him to wait outside until his child was released.

      He was convicted of violating a domestic abuse no contact order in 2023. Prior felony charges accusing him of choking his girlfriend outside the Minnesota State Fair and threatening responding officers were ultimately dismissed.

      • rhywun

        sudden outbursts of anger that escalated to violence

        No way.

    • Suthenboy

      “Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 ½ minutes as Floyd begged for his life.”

      It gets worse from there. I dont think a single word of that is true.
      Bets on how long that 150K lasts?

  26. Derpetologist

    It’s very easy for me to imagine a meeting like this about me:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diLYbt4AEzY

    All the more so since a sergeant I thought was my friend lied about in me court under oath by saying I was dishonorably discharged. It was the first sentence of her statement. Lying under oath is a crime called perjury and it is a felony. I proved this to the judge with documents, but he took no action on account of it except to ask if I wanted them placed in the case record. As they were originals and I didn’t have copies, I took them back. When I went in the courthouse, the guard asked me if I was a lawyer. i guess I looked good in a suit that day.

    • cavalier973

      Do you read anonymous conservative’s blog?

      • Derpetologist

        Acoustic weapons are real.

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

        ***
        A long-range acoustic device (LRAD) produces a 30 degree cone of audible sound in frequencies within the human hearing spectrum (20 Hz – 20 kHz). An LRAD was used by the crew of the cruise ship Seabourn Spirit in 2005 to deter pirates who chased and attacked the ship.[3] More commonly this device and others of similar design have been used to disperse protesters and rioters in crowd control efforts. A similar system is called a “magnetic acoustic device”.[4]
        ***

        I’m pretty sure I got shot with one early in the morning back in October of 2021. A lot of weird things happened that day. My phone malfunctioned for the first time in 9 years when I tried to call my parents, I heard the country song Jolene in Klingon at Chipotle, and my car got stolen only to turn up the next day at the nearby convenience store I frequented at the time. None of my expensive welding gear was stolen from it. When a cop came to take a report, I explained what happened and mentioned that my car had mechanical locks, and it was only a few minutes between when I parked it and when it went missing. The cop said “huh, sounds like a hacker did it.”

        ***
        Woolams was known as a bit of a practical joker. While flying the still unknown experimental P-59 jet airplane, he would join formation with unsuspecting pilots flying propeller-driven fighters and to their surprise, wave at them while wearing a gorilla mask, bowler hat, and cigar, and then fly away leaving them behind.[6][7]
        ***

        Yeah, I think something like that happened. It was an effort to gaslight and discredit me, and it escalated from there.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    The fact that they have to tell their employees “Don’t Be Evil” in the corporate motto is the first clue…

    More like “Try not to get caught being evil.”

  28. Derpetologist

    The psychiatrist I met at the VA today used to be Farsi linguist in the Army. What a strange coincidence.

  29. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    SPACE LINK!!

  30. The Late P Brooks

    I get the feeling the author doesnt like MBAs…

    You can’t be wrong all the time.

  31. Pope Jimbo

    Local proggie web site has a piece on the Gentlewoman Burglar/Senator. The takeaway is that the DFL’s work is just too darn important to let a little thing like criminal Senator stop them.

    Besides, she hasn’t been convicted and she said she was there to look in on her step-mom who has Alzheimer’s. She’s a saint!

    The arresting officers did have body cameras, and that footage could clear up any discrepancies or show evidence not cited in the criminal complaint. And Mitchell’s attorney has also indicated there’s more to the story.

    But by Wednesday it started to become evident that Mitchell and the Senate DFL majority were going to try to stick it out — at least through the end of the regular session. Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy on Tuesday called the behavior out of character for Mitchell and said she deserved due process.

    All that makes it likely that the DFL will try to keep their governing majority in the Senate, which means Mitchell has to stay and Mitchell has to vote.

    “She is a duly elected member of this body … she’s elected to represent the people of the district that sent her here and they deserve her representation,” Murphy said. “While this is an issue that is heartbreaking and troubling, we do have work to do before we adjourn on May 20.”

    • Pope Jimbo

      That didn’t take long. The other shoe has dropped

      At 4:45 a.m. Monday in Detroit Lakes, a 911 caller now identified as Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s stepmother said “Somebody has broken into my house… and they just ran down into the basement,” according to a 911 transcript obtained by KARE 11 News through a data practices request.

      “I don’t know if he’s breaking out the back window or what,” the caller continued.

      “Did you get a good look at him at all?” dispatcher Joe Robbins asked.

      “No, it was completely dark. I tripped over ’em. Ah, he was on the floor next to my bed. He ran downstairs into my basement.”

      Mitchell, a DFL state lawmaker from Woodbury, is charged with first-degree burglary. According to the criminal complaint, responding officers found her in the basement wearing all-black with a flashlight covered by a black sock.

      I’m not going to sugar coat it, the 911 transcript doesn’t do the Senator’s claim of she was simply doing a wellness check any favors.

      • Fourscore

        I find it commendable that Mitchell had the aforethought and didn’t want to scare her stepmother with a day time wellness check.

        Happens a lot around here, especially in the winter. If there are no tracks in the snow or the driveway hasn’t been plowed after a snow often someone will take that as a reason to make a check on a cabin. You may be surprised at what the the wellness people find. Fearing the worst they will have to use force to get inside to insure no harm has come to the owners/inhabitants.

    • Sensei

      +1 George Santos

      • prolefeed

        Technically, that’s -1 George Santos, because the stupid party doesn’t get that their opponents will stop at nothing to win.

    • Not Adahn

      Mitchell told officers she was trying to take some of the ashes of her deceased father as well as some items of sentimental value.

      Steal back what was wrongfully taken from her, of helping her poor mother?

      • Pope Jimbo

        “Lady, Ash Wednesday was weeks ago!”

      • R C Dean

        Isn’t that pretty much a confession to burglary? You know, going into someone else’s house to take stuff without their permission?

        Not to mention inconsistent with her other story that she was just there for a wellness check?

      • Sensei

        Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

  32. The Late P Brooks

    What keeps central bankers awake at night

    Slowing economic growth combined with rising inflation is known as stagflation. It’s among the ugliest terms to central bankers.

    To be fair, one GDP report isn’t necessarily indicative of a trend. And on top of that, Thursday’s data is subject to two subsequent revisions, which could end up showing the economy isn’t slowing as much or at all. But even if the data doesn’t change, the US is by far better positioned than the UK and Germany, where high inflation is coupled with nearly nonexistent GDP growth.

    Still, the latest US GDP report isn’t a pleasant sign for the Fed — or investors, as evidenced by Thursday’s US stock market selloff.

    Maybe they should have tried to do something to prevent it, instead of financing an insane amount of spending.

    • hayeksplosives

      I am currently reading Paul Johnson’s “History of the American People.”

      Good book so far. Just got through the American Revolution and it’s on to Hamilton and his Central Bank.

    • kinnath

      I remember stagflation. > 20% misery index. Inflation above 10% and unemployment above 10%.

      They are fucking with the numbers now to show things are less bad than they really are. We are getting back into the ballpark of 1970s numbers in reality.

      • R.J.

        Yes, somewhere there is a site maintaining the real numbers before Team Biden revised them.

      • kinnath

        During peak covid inflation, I believe the 1980s formula was showing like 18% inflation. The worst I’ve ever experienced.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    There are certainly eerie parallels to the 1970s, with heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and rising oil prices, but many economists feel the US is nowhere near the situation it faced then. Even at its recent peak, inflation was well below the high of that decade of nearly 12%. At the current pace, prices are rising even more slowly when compared to the 1970s.

    But the growing consensus among economists and investment strategists is that the days of the Goldilocks economy, where inflation was coming down without slowing GDP, are numbered.

    We just need to break some more windows.

    • Rat on a train

      What would the inflation rate be if today’s inflation rate used the 70’s definition or the 70’s inflation rate used today’s definition?

    • Nephilium

      Joe’s just trying to make the world more like he remembers it. See how dangerous nostalgia can be?

    • Grumbletarian

      Can we get a few more printing presses going, people? The economy’s in trouble!

    • R.J.

      Oh Lord.

    • juris imprudent

      Finally, the damage wrought by the AOL-TimeWarner merger can be redressed!

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      I’m resurrected!

  34. Derpetologist

    How Governments Try To Control People! with NSA Whistle-blower BILL BINNEY!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtAKzd8OuGo

    After I suspect I got shot with an acoustic weapon, I kept seeing YouTube ads from the fast food chain Sonic which advertised a drink called a Blast.

    Ha ha, NSA.

    Not.

    ***
    Sonic Blast is a milkshake made out of rich vanilla ice cream1. It is a customizable drink that allows you to choose your own choice of toppings including candy, cookies, and more.
    ***

    • R.J.

      The Halloween Sonic Blast is pretty good. Fatty R.J. likes it.

      • R.J.

        Also pull my finger. I’ll give you a Sonic Blast.

    • R.J.

      OMG I remember that crazy lady. Michelle Herczeg.

      • hayeksplosives

        You’d think they screen these agents a little more carefully.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        With the current people in charge I’m guessing they got just what they were looking for.

      • R.J.

        She was 110% screw ball crazy, got her case thrown out of court, left in disgrace. What kind of stupid muppet would hire that to protect our politicians? Trump may be better off without the Secret Service now.
        Also now that this story got out, the Secret Service is fucked. Every evil Tom Dick and Harry is going to know they are compromised.

      • Sensei

        According to RealClearPolitics, Herczeg arrived at Joint Base Andrews Monday morning and began deleting apps off of a male agent’s personal cell phone before becoming more irate.

        The outlet reported that Herczeg began mumbling to herself, hiding behind curtains and throwing menstrual pads and other items at another agent, telling her colleagues they were “going to burn in hell and needed to listen to God.”

    • Evan from Evansville

      This just keeps getting better. I’d love to dream they selected her to ‘guard’ Harris specifically *because* of her sketchy history. I’d pay to see that.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      The California woman who bought the Big Island lot for $22,000 at a tax auction told the court that she felt no monetary value could compensate her for the loss and that the lot lined up with astrological coordinates.

      Well there you go, it’s irreplaceable.

  35. Sensei

    Funny that…

    G.M.’s spokeswoman had told me that this data collection happened only to people who turned on OnStar, its connected services plan, and enrolled in Smart Driver, a gamified program that offers feedback and digital badges for good driving, either at the time of purchase or via their vehicle’s mobile app.

    That wasn’t us — and I had checked to be sure. In mid-January, again while reporting, I had connected our car to the MyChevrolet app to see if we were enrolled in Smart Driver. The app said we weren’t, and thus we had no access to any information about how we drove.

    But in April, when we found out our driving had been tracked, my husband signed into a browser-based version of his account page, on GM.com, which said our car was enrolled in “OnStar Smart Driver+.” G.M. says this discrepancy between the app and the website was the result of “a bug” that affected a “small population” of customers. That group got the worst possible version of Smart Driver: We couldn’t get insights into our driving, but insurance companies could.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/technology/general-motors-spying-driver-data-consent.html

    Our bug, but your problem.

  36. Evan from Evansville

    Hrm. I’m being reminded I moved to Thailand this week, five years ago. My birthday is this Sunday, sharing it with Jessica Alba and the execution of Mussolini.

    I got a goofy feeling of ‘The Incident was five years ago.’ Certainly a Writing Tingle, but I HIGHLY doubt I’ll be getting one out by then.