267 Comments

  1. SDF-7

    Biden announces sweeping protections for migrant spouses of US citizens staffers once again circumvent Legislative and Judicial branches and attempt to be The Law.

    Of course we all knew and expected it. Yay. Morning, Banjos — Morning all.

    • AlexinCT

      You, our current electorate, suck, because you refuse to let us do what we want. So what that it hurts you unwashed plebes, it is great for us. So we are just going to get ourselves a new electorate so we can keep pretending we care what the people want.

      – Your elites.

  2. SDF-7

    WH press sec blames ‘deepfakes’ for video evidence of lost and confused Joe Biden is completely incompetent moron diversity hire flailing more than Baghdad Bob.

    But again, we all know and expect it at this point.

    • AlexinCT

      They have been doing this forever. The don’t believe your lying eyes, believe what WE tell you shit, is old.

      • WTF

        The sad part is the Democrat’s army of moron supporters do believe them. When the NY Post reported the video of Biden wandering and having to be corraled by the Italian PM, there were dozens of idiots in the comments claiming the video was ‘out of context’ and Biden didn’t really lose focus and wander.

    • Cunctator

      “Karine Jean-Pierre blamed “deep fakes” for videos where Biden appeared confused.”

      The White House should release video that shows the referred to videos were fake. Show us how Biden was very engaged and lucid. This is the same crap that they tried to foist on us just recently. That Biden, in private, was energetic, engaged and participating in all of the White House meetings.

      Like Jon Stewart said, “Show us those videos!”

      • WTF

        It’s racist to expect KJP to provide evidence for her outlandish claims.

      • db

        It would be so simple. It’s not like the White House can’t create a YouTube channel with unedited footage

      • db

        I mean, it could easily be 2 hours a day for an unpaid intern to counter all this “misinformation.” Why does the WH Press Secretary even need to be involved other than to say “please see the actual footage on our channel.”

      • Nephilium

        Why should THEY need to do your research for you?

        /truly hates the concept that providing backup for your claims is outrageous

  3. SDF-7

    House Republicans Probe Alleged Retaliation Against Hunter Biden Whistleblowers

    And this is why (even though the pendulum swinging the other way to bribery for government jobs like I remember supposedly happening in the 1800s) allowing incoming Administrations to fire all these permanent leeches is essential.

    They’ve purged the ranks already, they have their Kommissars in place… they’re visibly persecuting anyone not Of The Body in the Executive and the military… the whistleblowers are just one more case of this. Trump won’t be a new broom — but he’d damned well better sweep clean.

    • AlexinCT

      There is no more dangerous entity to liberty than the unelected and unaccountable bureaucratic machine, now unionized and weaponized, doing whatever it wants to protect its interests and expand its power.

      • juris imprudent

        Sure, but don’t act like this is something new. This has been building for decades.

      • Ownbestenemy

        And the people gleefully gave it to them…one helmet, seatbelt, speed limit, at a time.

      • AlexinCT

        Most people just wanted to be left alone and that in hindsight is a mistake, while those that made the argument of the slippery slope got laughed at. The sad reality is that the only ways to prevent or stop this shit involve bloodshed eventually.

      • SDF-7

        Yeah — that’s why I blame the (possibly well-intentioned to avoid the corruption mentioned, granted… again, I think we’re just seeing what happens when we go too far and allow too much entrenchment) laws passed to ensure “continuity of the bureaucracy” or whatnot — or “prevent political pressure on the core functions of government” or however they couched it.

        Like overly-unionized states… you have to make it possible to fire people, especially when they’re working directly against you and you’re supposed to be setting policy.

      • juris imprudent

        just wanted to be left alone

        Nope. That isn’t most people. Most people are “hey buddy…”. WE are the just-leave-us-alone crowd. We are the few.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Hey buddy, leave me alone.

  4. juris imprudent

    Good morning Banjos! I have to share this link, because I think it might actually support the case for the national divorce in a way I never thought about.

    Another notable feature of late Soviet life was total public cynicism about nearly all institutions. Leon Aron’s brilliant book Roads to the Temple shows just how wretched life in the 1980s had become.

    In the great “return to truth” unleashed by Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost, Soviet citizens were able to pour forth their discontents in letters to a suddenly free press. Some of what they wrote about was specific to the Soviet context—in particular, the revelations about the realities of Soviet history, especially the crimes of the Stalin era. But to reread Russians’ complaints about their lives in the 1980s is to come across more than a few eerie foreshadowings of the American present.

    Perhaps we too dissolve as did the Soviet Union. I imagine some of the states would probably band together, and possibly some borders adjusted (Western MD ain’t staying attached to Baltimore and the DC suburbs). But if it could happen with relatively little bloodshed there – how is it not possible that it couldn’t happen here?

    • Fourscore

      Yeah but…

      Trying to picture what the break up would look like here. Maybe the north of Minnesota could join NoDak, the south Iowa/SoDak. Somehow the Twin City area needs to be isolated politically but not economically. All goods pass through the metro area.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, I wouldn’t expect the Dakotas to stay separate – and besides, they’ll want to carve off the Rez lands.

    • Common Tater

      There is a difference between the Soviet Union breaking up and Russia breaking up. The former is more like the European Union, the latter is more like the U.S.

    • EvilSheldon

      Very interesting read.

      I have to admit that it confirms my pre-existing plans, though. Stay healthy, stay mobile, build and maintain micro-communities, and be able to do something directly useful to other people.

    • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

      A huge part of why the breakup of the USSR was smooth was that it was a conglomeration of many distinct ethnic groups and countries: Uzbeki, Mongol, White Russian, etc. And each of them kind of went their own way, as they weren’t completely dependent on Moscow. You had Russian enclaves all over, but they were just that. Here? We have states, but we don’t have separate ethnic groups as much as Russia did, and there is too much bleeding over between the states. It isn’t like 1860 were there was a distinct split in the country, geographically.

      Now it is a rural/urban split, and that is a real problem. I don’t know how it really breaks down up east, but here in the west, it really seems to be the cities pushing their will on the countryside, with disastrous results. As you well know.

      • juris imprudent

        That ethnic stuff was a legacy of Stalin no less. The exception was Crimea, where the Tatars were expelled and replaced with ethnic Russians. It was after that, that Crimea was absorbed by the Ukrainian SSR.

  5. SDF-7

    House Democrats Back out of White House Ethics Bill

    The three cited concerns that the bill was too overarching and could be unfairly used against the Biden family ahead of the 2024 election.

    Let me guess — they’re trying to write up something to persecute OMB administration flunkies in advance but someone actually had the foresight to realize Cracky and Crew might fall under this too? Ooops….

    What is it with Congress lately trying to write ethics constraints for the other two branches? Hey assholes — how about start with y’all and the exemptions for insider trading? That all of y’all come out multi-millionaires on $200k/yr salaries? That shit? I know, I know… easier for corrupt weasels to distract by pointing at the other corrupt weasels… plus they can play politics! yay!

    • Grumbletarian

      But I’ll bet they’re still all in for any attempt to dictate the ethics of SCOTUS.

    • AlexinCT

      I don’t know how it really breaks down up east, but here in the west, it really seems to be the cities pushing their will on the countryside, with disastrous results. As you well know.

      It’s the same shit..

      The more populous urban areas demand everyone comply with solutions to their problems and their whims.

      The proverbial “One size fits all” solutioning paradigm.

  6. SDF-7

    FBI knew since 2016 Hunter Biden’s team nearly scored $120 million Ukrainian deal while Joe was VP

    I fully expect Alex will cover the obvious explanation for this. (The FBI was already thoroughly corrupt by 2016 in favor of the Jackass wing of the Uniparty).

    • juris imprudent

      Obama succeeded where Nixon failed – that’s what it comes down to.

    • AlexinCT

      Obama weaponized the bureaucratic unelected/unaccountable machine starting back in 2010 when the IRS was sicked on his enemies. It was not an accident he put that commie Brennan in charge of the CIA, and Clapper is worse. That asshole Comey was trying to find a way to avoid the people questioning the decision to just let Clinton walk for clear criminality and botched it.

      The intel agencies like crooked politicians cause they can control them easily, and the logical extension of that is to side with the democrats. After all, the whole thing is a cabal of crime syndicates.

  7. SDF-7

    The Economist Gives Trump 75% Chance of Winning 2024 Election

    After 2022 / Red Wave and the lack of voting reform — I’m believing none of the tea leaf readings, sorry. I only hope for enough momentum through the sheer obvious horrible performance of PPP versus the non-COVID OMB track record for enough to overwhelm the fortification in swing states. We’ll see. Yes, I’m pretty thoroughly black pilled these days.

    • Common Tater

      People suck at predicting the future. Didn’t Hillary have a 90% chance of winning in 2016?

    • WTF

      There’s just no way the machine allows Trump to win. They will do whatever it takes, no matter how obvious, to keep him from the Presidency.

      • juris imprudent

        I agree they don’t want it, but to be so desperate implies he could actually do something as President. He’s already proved he really won’t.

      • db

        One wonders if the obvious tactic of stroking his ego by “dealing” with him could still work.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        A big, beautiful, new FBI building is in play regardless.

      • dbleagle

        db gets it.

  8. SDF-7

    Powerful New Jersey Democrat charged with racketeering

    Joisey? Am I alone in having my first thought be: Just one?

    • AlexinCT

      They have a few democrats that cheated during a democrat primary in Bridgeport elections now in court here in “The People’s Republic of Connecticut”. They are doing their best to downplay this because everyone knows every urban area in CT has the exact same shit going on all the time, but they need to stop the optics for those that demand the shit stop.

      • db

        Yeah, they need to show that “the justice system isn’t rigged” and also stave off populist outrage at political self-dealing.

    • Fourscore

      I saw the headline and thought “Here We Go Again” . Nothing has changed for as long as I can remember.

  9. db

    Powerful New Jersey Democrat charged with racketeering

    The cynic in me assumes that this is a new boss wannabe ejecting the old boss.

    • Drake

      I assumed he crossed Murphy or Obama. My NJ conspiracy guy swears that’s why Menendez is on trial again.

      • AlexinCT

        Obama asked for his 10% and Menendez told him he was no crackhead douche and Obama was not his daddy?

    • R C Dean

      Racketeering? In New Jersey? By Allah, it is the end times.

    • R C Dean

      This whole Houthi Red Sea thing is probably the stupidest on offer at the moment. Either burn them out*, or ignore them. This whole “sit off the coast and play grabass with their drones” bullshit is so obviously pointless.

      *Which definitely includes smacking Iran so hard they don’t get up for a generation.

      • AlexinCT

        There is a lot of money in replacing those expensive missiles….

        The decision makers have been slow walking alternative weapon systems that would deal with drones on the cheap (microwave & laser platforms) for 2 decades siting the lack of need.

        Note we are not doing anything to stop the people firing the missiles, or more importantly, and especially, providing them the missiles…

      • Drake

        I was thinking of the old Warren Zevon song – send the envoy.

        Notice Iran is laying low, signing trade agreements, and letting proxies do the fighting? Their using some of that new income to arm up with new Russian and Chinese missiles while making their own drones. Smacking them around is going to get exponentially harder.

      • Suthenboy

        What Alex says. Why let a good money laundering oper…I mean war go to waste?

      • R C Dean

        “Smacking them around is going to get exponentially harder.”

        Iran has a critical strategic vulnerability – oil refineries. Level those, and their ability to make trouble is severely impaired. I would expect the loss of oil output could be made up elsewhere.

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        This admin already knows it is in poor standing with one of it’s major donor/voter groups, the Muslims. They cannot be seen to go hard on a Muslim country as they will go further in the hole with that group. Hence, playing skeet with drones.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        *Which definitely includes smacking Iran so hard they don’t get up for a generation.

        Operation Praying Mantis II?

    • cavalier973

      How much graft is priced into those $2 million missiles?

      • Sensei

        $1.8m give or take a few hundred thousand.

    • SDF-7

      Having done zero research into the problem granted… but why not leave it to CIWS? Do we really need to down the drones that far out?

      And I’ll repeat my solution for Iran stirring up shit and Russia stirring up shit — tank the price of oil by producing here. That’s what’s feeding a lot of this shit — they have the money to do it (well, and PPP handing them pallets of cash again).

      • EvilSheldon

        You don’t want an armed drone getting to within CIWS range…

      • Drake

        Supposedly the Eisenhower was actually hit by a drone.

      • Common Tater

        Not producing oil here because “climate change” is stupid if we just end up importing it.

      • db

        Eisenhower’s Captain says otherwise

      • Drake

        The Ike Captain failed to dispell doubts when he released a months old video.

  10. db

    The California Exodus May Be Just Beginning

    Take this as a warning, Rest of America. Don’t let those fuckers into your states

    • Drake

      A when the swap out Biden for their oily Governor, take note.

      • AlexinCT

        The new theory is they will swap out Koh-Moh-Loh with the Clinton hag (who knows hot they get the current wino to give up to the other wino), and then 25th Joe, giving us the Hillary presidency whether the people want it or not.

      • R.J.

        Interesting theory. If anything could make Joe Biden’s votes look worse, it would be adding Hillary.

      • R C Dean

        That theory was floated a few years ago. I suspect if there’s anyone who polls worse than Harris, it’s Clinton.

        They are in such a box. Joe is terrible, Kamala is worse, replacing Joe with anyone except her is a disaster with a chunk of their base.

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        Kamalamadingdong is beloved by a certain part of the Dem party: black, educated women. Gavin is loved by another part of the Dem party, California money. Biden is beloved by yet another part of the Dem party, DC.

        Those three will never agree to change course. Michelle isn’t riding a black horse to save them, Hildog isn’t riding a white horse to save them, Gavin can’t come in, as they have all but said a white man will never take the hot seat again, but Biden will keep slobbering away on the throne, as he is already there , and they can all do what they want while he is.

    • SDF-7

      I will again stress that I came from GA to CA and never considered myself Californian. Still pay property taxes here. Don’t lock me out until I can get back here permanently, please!

      • juris imprudent

        As a native of CA, I used to joke that it was the imports that ruined the place – coming for the dream.

    • Nephilium

      Why would they want to come here? It’s far too dangerous, I mean a headline in the local paper just last week:

      Ukrainian refugee shocked by guns in U.S., fears for her son’s safety in Northeast Ohio

      As a counterpoint to that, having lived in NE Ohio for my entire life, people generally don’t open carry here (even though it was legal state wide) even in the more rural areas. I’d also point out that there isn’t an army attacking anywhere near NE Ohio from any country right now.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Outside of a gun show or range, I have maybe seen at most, 50 or so people out and about open carry. That is among the following states I have lived in: California, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nevada and now Kentucky.

      • R.J.

        I live in Texas and very occasionally see people open carry.

      • ron73440

        I open carry everywhere in SE VA, but see maybe 3 other people a year doing it at the most.

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        Oregon is an open carry state, and I have seen one person doing it. Most people get that it makes others uncomfortable, and get a CC license if they feel the need.

      • Nephilium

        Thank you all for providing more anecdata for my beliefs and biases.

        I just find it hard to believe that the refugee is seeing more guns here in NEO than in the Ukraine (where per the bit before the paywall, her house was destroyed by a tank).

      • DrOtto

        I have only seen a handful of open carry in TX, and it’s usually in the sticks.

      • ron73440

        Most people get that it makes others uncomfortable, and get a CC license if they feel the need.

        Most people don’t even notice.

        I don’t have a CC license because asking permission to carry grinds my gears.

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        Oh, I get that. I hate asking for permission no matter what the subject. But, it really does make people who aren’t used to firearms uncomfortable, which shouldn’t matter as it is a right. This is one of those issues that really confirm the rural/urban divide; you don’t see it in hard urban cities, and it doesn’t push any buttons in rural areas. In other words, it comes down to the basic split in firearms ownership and laws.

        I don’t carry carry, either open or concealed, mostly as I don’t want too and would rather just remove myself from any situation that I might find myself wanting a gun, even though I own more than a few. By way of example, I found myself in a situation over the weekends travels were I might have wanted one on me, but instead, I pulled up stakes at my own financial cost. I was about to stay in a hotel in Tacoma that I had previously stayed in, and found that the neighborhood had gone down hill, dramatically, and open drug deals were happening right around the parking lot from my room. I simply packed up, got a room at another hotel in a better area, and moved on. It cost me, but I don’t care. Washington is an open carry state, so that wouldn’t have been an issue, but it might have changed other peoples calculus about the situation, which would have affected me, and not in a positive way. But, I am not you, and will not presume to know what you would or would not do in such a position.

      • ron73440

        But, it really does make people who aren’t used to firearms uncomfortable

        I’ve made one person uncomfortable enough that she started yelling at me.

        She claimed to be scared, but I never went up to anything and started a confrontation with someone who scared me.

        I don’t carry carry, either open or concealed, mostly as I don’t want too and would rather just remove myself from any situation that I might find myself wanting a gun

        Getting out of a situation is always the best plan, but that’s not always possible.

      • EvilSheldon

        I don’t think of it as ‘asking permission’ so much as ‘establishing legal cover’. I’ve rolled dirty before and I’m sure I will again.

        Open carry just attracts too much attention from cops, criminals, and other gun owners, and those are three categories of people who I really prefer to manage my interactions with (with a nod to Ron and a few other people.)

        Also, sitting in a bar with a gun on while doing tequila shooters has led to some muttering…

      • EvilSheldon

        Getting out of a situation is always the best plan, but that’s not always possible.

        Quoted for truth, both ways.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Where are you at in the Bluegrass State?

        I’ve been here for 21 years. From Florida before that.

        I’ve seen perhaps 20 people open carry outside of a gun show, and that was immediately after we got constitutional carry laws. We were always an open carry state.

  11. SDF-7

    Connecticut Bar Association Issues Warning To Lawyers Who Speak Out Against Trump’s Prosecution

    Oh, FFS… more of this “Criticism of us means nutjobs might threaten us, therefore your disagreement is violence BIGOT! bullshit.

    I know I was right there with everyone else thinking “Wait until these college morons get out in the real world and find out that crap doesn’t fly” 20 years ago… but no… they keep trying to make the rest of us live on their daycare college campus. Stupidest argument ever, and any adult making it should be promptly sent to the corner for their crayons and pudding.

    • Brochettaward

      Bar associations are nothing more than modern day guilds. They need to die a quick and painful death.,

      • trshmnstr

        Bar associations are nothing more than modern day guilds state-mandated activist organizations.

        Im going through the process of setting up a law firm, and with that comes investigating whether I need an IOLTA account (thankfully I don’t). What’s an IOLTA account? A trust account for client money (i.e. a retainer) where the interest earned doesnt go back to the client, but instead goes to a “public private partnership” NGO for “social justice”.

      • Common Tater

        ““public private partnership” NGO for “social justice””

        So commie horseshit?

        It would make more sense if interest earned went back into the account, because legal costs aren’t immune to inflation.

    • AlexinCT

      Crime syndicates have to act criminal…

    • Suthenboy

      We say “Sham prosecution, kangaroo court” and they explain “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!”

      This will go a long way towards restoring their credibility.

      • AlexinCT

        I routinely ask people that tell me there was no problems with the 2020 elections and the courts said so, why the machine then had to start canceling and punishing people that questioned it for the first time in US history. Every tother time people got to say whatever they wanted and then they were proved wrong (or not). But in the case of the 2020 election, they had to not just censor, but actually resort to punishing those that speak out.

    • Rat on a train

      Dissent is only the highest form of patriotism when Republicans are in charge.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Danger or fear of violence isn’t motivating these people at all, rather it’s a desire to suppress a political opinion that differs from theirs and to facilitate those prosecutions by shutting those who know the law up. The fear of violence is just a red herring.

      • EvilSheldon

        I suspect that the fear of violence is very real to a lot of these people, but it’s a bare, unreasoning fear – not unlike the good churchgoing southerner who sees a black man walking down the street and immediately begins freaking out about his daughter’s chastity.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Maybe you’re correct but it all strikes me as performative more than anything.

      • juris imprudent

        Fear doesn’t tend to be rational, so you’re really just talking about how irrational they are.

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        Their whole lives are performative.

      • EvilSheldon

        JI – Yeah, pretty much. The inability to use reason to (among other things) accurately judge risk, leads to a huge array of negative outcomes. Everything from condemning ones’ self to a lifetime of poverty, to doing time in pound-me-in-the-ass prison.

  12. Brochettaward

    Dry land is not a myth.

    • SDF-7

      That’s a well grounded statement, yes.

      • Fourscore

        Rinse and repeat

    • juris imprudent

      Dry land floats on molten rock.

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        Like a crust of Creme Brule.

      • Ted S.

        Way to misgender that poor crème.

  13. Suthenboy

    Everyone knows what they are doing. I know it, you know it and they know it. They know we know it. They are down to the inevitable defenses of ‘Shut up!’ and ‘Dont believe your lying eyes!’.

    I pulled up the Utoob this morning to listen to music and the ‘random’ feed gave me about 25% of absurd shilling for Biden and Buttigieg? while deriding Trump supporters in the ‘You are so stupid!’ a la Clinton and Maher. Is Buttigieg the ace up their sleeve? It is pretty obvious that Biden is toast and Harris…yikes. He is eminently incompetent, has some DEI points, young, will do as he is told, etc.

    JI: One can hope but there is an awful lot of animus out there on both sides.

  14. AlexinCT

    The cabal that Times piece about the machine fortifying the election in 2020 against that Nazi Trump guy and his raciss followers, was a real thing….

    • SDF-7

      Okay… I feel the urge to boop the kittahs noses as much as anyone — but not those kittahs! Good luck keeping that arm, folks.

    • Suthenboy

      Individual social animals associate with other individual social animals so they need to know who they are dealing with. When they greet, especially canines and felines, they sniff each other. Thus nose touching is a thing.
      My dogs often come up to me and touch my nose with their nose and I do the same to them. It is a “I am here and I am friendly” behavior.
      I remember once coming home and getting rushed by 4 dogs. I sat on the floor and they all enthusiastically put their muzzles in my face at once. All of those soft warm muzzles….
      Notice in the vid the cats also mouth the person’s hand…they smell and taste you. I have a dog that is a mouther. If I sit next to him while he is laying on the couch he will often just take my hand in his mouth and just hold it…sometimes falling asleep like that.

    • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

      That is JUST like touching a black woman’s hair.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      I presume those kittehs were recently fed, otherwise, the outcome may have been considerably different.

    • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

      Two stroke motor running total loss ignition, pretty standard small dirt bike set up.

    • Suthenboy

      He reinvented the dump truck? Cool.

  15. Derpetologist

    The best way for Ukraine to force Russia to the negotiating table would be by attacking their oil refineries. Biden and pals don’t want that because it would drive up gas prices (even more) during an election year.

    The next best way would be for the US to drill more and build more oil refineries, thereby increasing the supply and reducing the price. Biden and pals don’t want that either because they want the treehugger and retard vote.

    The majority US ruling class is not interested in winning, preventing, or stopping wars, only profiting from them.

    What a sad spectacle.

    • SDF-7

      I’d say I agree with everything you say and want your newsletter…. but I’m already here. But I 100% agree with you for what it is worth. And it is bloody depressing.

    • Suthenboy

      People have been complaining about war profiteers since the beginning of time. It’s the money. It is always the money.
      I have said before that of late our wars are fake, pretenses for money laundering tax money: War is waged for gain. The only country left worth looting is this one. The wars overseas are fake but the one here on the American people is very real. If you wonder why the pols despise us so much, now you know. It is the same as the grifter’s feelings towards their marks.

      And you just thought you were depressed about it before.

  16. Not Adahn

    So, remember that transwomyn that flashed xer tits at the White House? Well, xe’s being accused of rape. Though the victim’s statement makes me wonder about the credibility.

    “I was incapable of walking the first 10+ times that she [sic] r*ped me,”

    • R C Dean

      Reminds me of the joke about the bear hunter.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I can’t believe a flasher would not obtain consent first.

  17. Drake

    The Celtics won their 18th Championship last night. Weird how much I cared about the 14th, 15th and 16th while not watching a single NBA game this year.

    • R C Dean

      The Lakers/Celtics rivalry was great stuff. My interest in the NBA has also dwindled to nothing. I couldn’t tell you the last time I watched a whole game, or even more than a few minutes of one.

      • trshmnstr

        I can tell you. I have seen exactly 2 games since Ron Artest went into the stands in Detroit. One was by invitation of a law prof to his firm’s suite. One was because it was on TV at an in-law’s house. Neither convinced me that I was missing anything.

    • juris imprudent

      As an old-time Laker fan (but not as long as FourScore), I despised the Celtics winning. Now, meh.

      • Fourscore

        When they moved from “The City of Lakes” I gave up. If I still cared I’d have to a ‘Wolves fan.

    • UnCivilServant

      How many Celts are even on that Team?

      • AlexinCT

        WATCHUTALKINGABOUT, Wills?

    • Certified Public Asshat

      The seasons for every major sport now are way too long. NBA and NHL start in October and end in April, playoffs until mid June. NFL should return to 16 games, but instead going to 18 games which will end season sometime in February. MLB is now March to November. MLS (lol) goes from February to DECEMBER!

      • Certified Public Asshat

        *NFL already ends in February but it keeps getting deeper into the month.

  18. Common Tater

    “The CBA leadership acknowledged that “free speech includes criticism.” The statement, however, claimed that “headlines’ grabbing, baseless allegations” made by public officials against Trump’s prosecution “have no place in the public discourse.””

    So free speech only includes criticism you like.

    • Suthenboy

      They doth protest too much, methinks.

    • The Other Kevin

      Ok that was funny.

  19. SDF-7

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 06/18:
    *23/23 words (+1 bonus word)
    🎯 Perfect accuracy

    I played https://squaredle.com 06/18:
    *38/38 words (+6 bonus words)
    🎯 In the top 13% by accuracy
    🔥 Solve streak: 424

    I don’t remember what the word was — but there was something that should have at least been a bonus that apparently isn’t in the Magic List, dangnabbit. Ah well.

    • Sean

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 06/18:
      *23/23 words (+11 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 3% by bonus words

      I played https://squaredle.com 06/18:
      *38/38 words (+17 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 3% by bonus words
      🔥 Solve streak: 377

      Flanged

  20. Sensei

    Mandarin Leaves a Manhattan Courtroom Lost in Translation
    Trial of Guo Wengui shows how linguistic issues can trip up China-related cases

    https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/mandarin-leaves-a-manhattan-courtroom-lost-in-translation-a0441dd1?st=dmvxt24q1wgigcw&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    There are plenty of speakers here, just few doing legal translation. I’ve a native Mandarin speaker that sits next to me and next to him a native Cantonese speaker fluent in Mandarin. Down another row is a friend from Taiwan who speaks fluent Mandarin. My next door neighbors are Taiwanese. I hear the language daily, it’s not that rare…

    • Common Tater

      Isn’t Mandarin the third most popular language?

      • AlexinCT

        Behind Spanish and Pig Latin?

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Rome wasn’t burned in a day.

  22. R.J.

    TPTB: Are we going to do an all-day open post for the 4th? Asking because I am planning the movie schedule. I can skip that Thursday, gladly.

    • Swiss Servator

      Take the night off, R.J. – I am going to post a couple of things that day, but Glibflick can have a night off!

  23. Common Tater

    “His credit union accidentally sent the dealer a check for $60,517.26, or 60 cents less, but it went unnoticed until November last year when his car was totaled, and his insurer Safe-Guard Products used the discrepancy as an excuse not to pay up.

    ‘The claim was kicked back because the loan amount did not match the contract amount,’ ”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13540983/Driver-60-cent-car-gap-insurance-Safe-Guard.html

    Really?

    • Translucent Chum

      So. My guess is that they need to fight to avoid a precedent of coverage when the amount is not trivial. I’d win the case then settle the claim as normal.

      • Sensei

        It’s not even because it’s precedent setting. It’s because they can unless you either get an attorney or know exactly how to work the system.

        That kind of ludicrous claim is highly unlikely to see a courtroom.

      • Translucent Chum

        Ah. I thought in court already. I’d still friendly deny and then pay as good customer service. Then go after the bank for E&O.

      • Sensei

        An E&O claim for the actual damage of $0.60?

        This is just a reason to deny a claim and hope it goes away.

      • Swiss Servator

        FTA – Damages were the $18K+ the gap insurer didn’t pay, because of the $.60 error.

        I think any plaintiff lawyer that could scrawl out the words “bad faith” would be all over this, looking for the treble damages…

    • Sensei

      For that kind of F&I outfit. Yes.

      They prey on people who don’t understand the system. Even for people who do understand the system they make them do the calculus of their time is worth the fight.

    • creech

      Somebody committed 34 felony counts of fraudulent journal entries.

  24. cyto

    The greatest advertisement for effective legal counsel, maybe ever.

    The Karen Read trial.

    I recommended this trial a week ago as one of the most bonkers legal proceedings you would ever witness. The allegation is that Ms. Read hit her boyfriend with her car, killing him.

    For the last few weeks the prosecution has paraded witness after witness to tell the jury what happened. Most are police or police affiliated by marriage. They all know how to testify. They all are well rehearsed and sound convincing under direct examination.

    And they all have fallen apart under cross.

    But this week the prosecution finally got to the scientific evidence. They Putin an accident reconstruction expert who played out the scientific facts that would prove damning. He had data from the cars computers that showed that she pulled forward and then accelerated at 75% throttle until she reached nearly 25 miles per hour, hitting her boyfriend, shattering a tail light and a drinking glass, scratching up his arm and flinging him to his final resting place. He even detailed how the data showed the moment of impact, a slight deviation of the steering and a slight slowing.

    Case closed, right?

    Unless you have a high quality defense attorney representing you.

    On cross, this accident reconstruction expert fell apart. It seems he is a former cop who took a class or two. His “reconstruction” begins to look like a “wild-ass guess” under cross. The attorney clearly knows more about accident reconstruction than the expert does. It turns out, he didn’t do any of the calculations necessary to reach his conclusions. Worse, the more the defense digs, the less plausible his results sound.

    Having watched several witnesses, I can confidently state that with an average attorney or a public defender who does the amount of preparation normally afforded a public defender, the defendant would have been convicted in short order, probably getting something close to life.

    But with a high quality defense team, everyone in the legal community seems to agree that she should 100% be acquitted. And the defense has not even presented their case.

    They have systematically discredited every key piece of evidence and every key witness. Even better, testimony and evidence that is not on the critical path was basically left unchallenged. “no questions” was the defense position on several witnesses who played only peripheral roles and did not directly impact their case.

    After weeks of testimony, the prosecution basically has no case at all. Even with a “preponderance of the evidence” standard, they would have a hard time winning. But “beyond a reasonable doubt”? No way.

    Take this lesson. Hire a good attorney. The best you can find. It makes a huge difference in what kind of justice you see.

    • R C Dean

      So you’re saying its a toss-up whether she gets convicted or acquitted?

      • cyto

        Who knows what the jury is doing….

        Anyone who watched the Frontline documentary about the Little Rascals Preschool child abuse cases would never take that bet.

        The prosecution alleged things that unequivocally did not happen, such as a newlywed and pregnant 19 year old employee having sex with the married owner of the preschool in the storefront window of the school on main street at 12:30 during the lunch rush…. Fully naked no less.

        Or dozens of 3 year old kids raped with butcher knives but showing absolutely zero physical evidence of any sexual abuse at all.

        The young lady and her boss both got life in prison.

        The jurors that the documentations interviewed said they did not believe any of the individual allegations. When asked “if you didn’t believe they did any of the things the prosecutors said they did, why did you vote to convict?” they answered, “Well, there was just so much… We felt we had to vote to convict to protect the children”.

        If a jury does not believe a defendant did even ONE of the alleged acts and still votes to convict because there were just so many allegations…. Well….. It sure seems like a scrap shoot.

      • Fatty Bolger

        I’m watching it too, I’d be absolutely shocked if she was convicted.

    • Common Tater

      “The allegation is that Ms. Read hit her boyfriend with her car, killing him.”

      Did she?

      • Suthenboy

        And if not, who did?

      • cyto

        Who knows.

        The defense theory is that he got into a fight with someone at another cop’s house that night (they all are cops and everyone except the defendant and the dead guy are related by blood or marriage). They then engaged in a cover-up to pin it on her.

        Listening to the people present at the house…. The defense attorney sure made that theory sound more likely than not.

        The prosecution has a broken taillight and pieces of that taillight found at the scene.

        But….

        The defense has several witnesses saying they saw her with a “cracked” taillight. And they have video of her Gently hitting a parked car the morning after when backing out. this would explain “cracked.

        Shortly after the car is impounded, the lead investigator who just so happens to be friends with the family in question goes from the car to the scene and finds pieces of taillight. The area had been searched hours earlier, before another several inches of snow fell, and no taillight pieces were found.

        The taillight as it exists now is not ” cracked”. It is completely destroyed. Nobody would call it cracked.

        They sound like they framed her.

        But…. Her backing into him also sounds plausible. Except he has these scratches on his arm…. And his shirt has holes… Like punctures…. The prosecutor says it was either the taillight or getting dragged on the pavement, depending on who is talking. Neither makes sense. But the family at the house had a dog… I think a police dog…. That they got rid of because it was biting people…. And if you look at those holes in the shirt and the parallel scratches on his arm in the forearm and elbow area, it sure does look an awful lot like a dog bite …. Particularly a police dog grabbing at his arm, maybe as he was fighting someone….

        So who knows.

      • Fatty Bolger

        I don’t think so. Definitely not the way the state says happened, their theory is beyond ridiculous. There are multiple witnesses who were looking out the window, coming and going, and a plow driver who drove by. None of them saw any accident happen, or the body sitting on the lawn.

        And there is a very likely possibility that the cops planted evidence, and deleted and manipulated video evidence. And there is evidence that the people in the house were involved in his death somehow. Evidence that only got into the defense’s hands because the FBI was investigating the investigation, and gave it to them. How often does something like that happen?

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        It isn’t weather or not she did, it is weather or not the state can prove it.

        Two totally different things.

    • juris imprudent

      I had a friend who served on a murder case jury in DC. His take was if he ever was going to kill someone, he would be sure to do it in DC. The police and prosecution incompetence were staggering. The jury actually knew what the real story was – the guy was collecting a drug debt, the debtor got violent and the dealer ended up killing him. Had the defendant not taken the stand (to plead self defense) – they would never have figured it out. The convicted on some lesser charge because the case had been so poorly presented. If the defendant had kept his mouth shut, he would’ve been entirely acquitted.

      Take that lesson to heart as well.

    • Not Adahn

      How did she shatter her taillight driving forward?

      • cyto

        She supposedly backed into him, either while making a 3 point turn or on purpose.

        Having dealt with taillights, I found their notion that hitting him on the elbow at 24 mph with the taillight would shatter it into dozens of pieces yet not break (or even bruise) his arm dubious. Taillights are made of tough plastic. It takes a lot to even break them. Cars weigh a lot and have a ton of momentum when moving, so we see them broken when 2 cars hit all the time…. But hitting a soft object like a body at relatively slow speed? Break… Maybe…. But shatter? I don’t know about that. I’m not sure you could take a baseball bat to a Lexus taillight and get that complete level of destruction. And that would be closer to 100mph.

      • cyto

        Also…. The pieces of taillight kept getting discovered for the next several days…. And extended for many feet… Maybe 30 or 40 feet. Not sure how that is possible from a 24 mph collision with a person)

        Lots of reasonable doubt available.

      • Fatty Bolger

        And that particular tail light is made of polycarbonate, which is 10 times stronger than the traditional acrylic used, and 250 times stronger than safety glass. No way did it shatter like that in a slow speed impact with a soft body (with no broken bones or bruises below the neck, I might add).

      • Ownbestenemy

        But a Maglite would do the trick!

    • creech

      “Take this lesson. Hire a good attorney. The best you can find.”
      FYI, OMB

  25. ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

    Good times:
    Steve Sailer
    @Steve_Sailer
    ·
    14h
    The Streisand Effect in action:

    I don’t know what Barbra is talking about, but now I want to go look it up in the NY Post:
    Quote
    Barbra Streisand
    @BarbraStreisand
    ·
    16h
    The NY Post is printing lies about President Biden. No other media outlets should amplify its disinformation.

  26. cyto

    The white house press secretary is clearly part of a coordinated gaslighting campaign. Before she made those remarks, a flurry of accounts were saying the exact same thing. It is disinformation. They are deepfakes. It didn’t happen. GOP lies.

    All replying to posts of the video.

    It is pretty bold to reply to a video showing Obama grabbing a frozen Biden by the wrist and leading him offstage with “Obama never lead Biden offstage”.

    • juris imprudent

      It is quite natural for them. These are people that believe a narrative no matter what evidence is put before them. I think we used to call that blind faith. [And I’m not talking the Steve Winwood version]

      • AlexinCT

        These are the people that tell you there are different truths… They have theirs…

        Meaning, “Fuck reality, I will believe whatever I want regardless of how stupid or ridiculous”.

      • Suthenboy

        Demoralized useful idiots. “No matter how much authentic information they have they cannot draw a sensible conclusion.” – Bezmenov

      • mindyourbusiness

        There are people out there who still believe there was no Holocaust, no Rwandan genocide, no Cambodian killing fields (hello, Mr. Chomsky). Human beings apparently have an enormous capacity for self-delusion.

      • The Other Kevin

        Narrative is the key word. That has been the strategy for decades. In most cases it’s worked, but now that things have gone off a cliff it’s becoming harder and harder to push a narrative that completely contradicts reality.

      • juris imprudent

        TOK, narrative isn’t really new. Our whole Founding era is now a narrative. Narratives can be good or bad, they just don’t ever have to be truthful to be effective.

      • trshmnstr

        it’s becoming harder and harder to push a narrative that completely contradicts reality

        I think it’s getting harder to push any narrative, period. People are so bifurcated at this point that they’re liable to go off in any crazy direction just to avoid believing what’s being pushed by the liars at the top.

      • The Other Kevin

        JI and Trashy, I think you are closer to the truth. We’ve always had narrative, but for most of the time our country was on the same page and we all went along with it. But now we have two sides that reflexively reject everything the other side says. That’s both good and bad.

    • The Other Kevin

      It’s funny how the “debunking” is working. As proof these videos are fake, they offer up edited versions with a lot of cuts that make Biden look good. And when you see the whole, unedited version, Biden looks worse.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Take this lesson. Hire a good attorney. The best you can find. It makes a huge difference in what kind of justice you see.

    That;s great advice, but just where and how does one capture this unicorn?

    • Brochettaward

      This. Having looked to hire an attorney in the past, unless you have good referrals it’s tough to know what the hell you are getting.

      • Brochettaward

        And this is intentional. Those wonderful bar associations typically prevent any real metrics from being collected or any honest rating system of lawyers.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    And then the immigration fairy waves her magic wand…

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Pulitzer-worthy journalism

    A US Secret Service member fired their gun while being robbed at gunpoint Saturday night during President Joe Biden’s trip to California for a Hollywood fundraiser.

    The Secret Service member was returning from a work assignment in Tustin, California, and “discharged their service weapon during the incident,” USSS spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement. It is unknown if the Secret Service member hit the suspect, he added.

    “We are thankful that the employee did not sustain any injuries,” Guglielmi said.

    The Tustin Police Department said the attack happened at 9:36 p.m. PT near a residential community, and the suspect stole the Secret Service member’s bag. Officers are now looking for a silver Infiniti FX35, or a similar looking vehicle, police said.

    Biden had returned to his hotel prior to the incident following a star-studded campaign fundraiser in Los Angeles that featured a conversation between him and former President Barack Obama moderated by Jimmy Kimmel. The fundraiser, which raised more than $30 million for Biden’s reelection effort, also included guests George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jason Bateman, Jack Black and Barbra Streisand, among others.

    Jesus wept.

    • juris imprudent

      The agent will no doubt be put on leave for the trauma of discharging their weapon and failing to hit their target. Who knows, could even be permanently disabled.

      • cyto

        “Nobody needs a gun for self defense”….. except this guy, apparently.

    • Suthenboy

      I smell a rat.

      • EvilSheldon

        Almost half of FBI-involved shootings take place when some criminal mistakes Special Agent Feebly for Joe Rando and tries to rob or carjack them. The stats are similar for every other federal police agency that operates mostly in plain clothes. It’s not unusual at all.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The rat part is what the SS agent was doing and where. I doubt they’re picking up hookers just in a Columbia.

    • creech

      “their?”

    • Not Adahn

      How are we supposed to judge without the totality of the circs?

      *bench-presses Morgan Fairchild*

  30. Shpip

    The Atlantic has featured some thumbsucker piece about how horrible it is that wypipo in the leafy suburbs want… peace and quiet.

    In it, the authoress (who is named Xochitl, because of course she is) bemoans leaving the vibrant streets of Brooklyn, where apparently it’s one big street fiesta every day, for the staid campus of Brown University, where she was asked to (gasp) keep it down while her fellow students were, y’know, studying.

    The comments also led to this bit of wisdom.

    In capitalism, poverty is lack of the ability to secure an income.

    This means that poor areas in first world capitalist countries are not filled with cheerful urchins selling newspapers, but with people who have some issue preventing them from being functional wage-earners.

    Typically this has to do with mental health, addiction, or life skills. And it means that poor neighborhoods, in, say, the US, aren’t just filled with broke people, they are filled with people who do antisocial things.

    You cannot fix this by moving resources around.

    • Nephilium

      Typically this has to do with mental health, addiction, or life skills. And it means that poor neighborhoods, in, say, the US, aren’t just filled with broke people, they are filled with people who do antisocial things.

      You cannot fix this by moving resources around.

      Well… yeah. But that’s harder to blame on systemic racism/classism/Islamophobia/sexism/transphobia/%flavor of the day%-ism

    • Suthenboy

      In the culture I grew up with making a spectacle of yourself was considered boorish. After school busing came into effect it was a bit of a culture shock to us. Other cultures are not necessarily that way.
      To this day I consider someone being loud obnoxious. I dont want to hear your shit music. I dont care what you are talking about with your friends.

      My Peruvian step-mother is exactly like the person in the article.

      • mindyourbusiness

        Isn’t it fun to be waiting at a stoplight when some anal orfice pulls up beside you with his windows down and rap music blaring that causes your car to shake? For some reason, I start thinking that a two-stroke bastinado might improve their behavior.

  31. SDF-7

    Speaking of California — if other states / Canada / Mexico had more sense they’d be prepping modern ports with new freight lines to prepare to deal with all the traffic that used to go to LA or whatnot. Because the rail industry is going to be out of California entirely if that crap goes through. Morons.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Say, what’s that giant lump under the rug?

    Attorneys fighting over the release of documents involving a 2023 Nashville elementary school shooting pleaded with a judge Monday to finally issue a ruling settling the matter, their request taking on a more desperate tone amid the recent publication of leaked records about the shooter.

    It was the latest hearing in a lengthy legal battle over whether the investigative file and other records from the Covenant School massacre — where six people, including three children, were killed — should be released under Tennessee’s public records law. A group of Covenant School parents have joined the lawsuit, arguing none of the documents should ever be released because they could inspire copycats and retraumatize their children.

    Yet even as officials have kept the documents hidden from public view, two prominent rounds of evidence about the shooter’s writings have been leaked to media outlets.

    Most recently, The Tennessee Star published dozens of stories based on allegedly 80 pages of the Covenant shooter’s writings provided by an unnamed source. The publication is among the plaintiffs suing for access to the records.

    If we don’t talk about it, no one will know? The “copycat” is out of the sack.

    I don’t think the children are the ones they’re afraid of traumatizing.

    • cyto

      Interesting that when Louder with Crowder got leaked documents written by the killer, they launched an investigation and promised to prosecute those involved (presumably including Crowder).

      No such pronouncements seemed to be forthcoming when it was the local paper.

      • Ownbestenemy

        They are going after the journalist who published the pages that were leaked too.

        Michael Patrick Leahy, editor and owner of The Tennessee Star, is facing potential imprisonment if he does not reveal the source who leaked the manifesto of Audrey Hale, the Covenant School shooter. Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles – a local Nashville trial judge – scheduled Leahy for a “show cause hearing” on Monday, June 17, following his publication of the leaked documents.

        Not many sources on it, but here is one…
        https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/06/17/dei-judge-demands-reporter-reveal-source-for-trans-shooter-manifesto/

      • cyto

        Yeesh. They really are willing to take it to the mattresses under orders from the FBI to keep the …. What did they call it? Totems….. Secret.

        Wild how far they will go for a narrative.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    The shooter who killed three 9-year-old children and three adults at Covenant, a private Christian school, left behind at least 20 journals, a suicide note and an unpublished memoir, according to court filings.

    The city of Nashville has argued it doesn’t have to release the documents during an active police investigation. The plaintiffs have countered there is no meaningful criminal investigation underway since the shooter, Audrey Hale, was killed by police.

    A few pages of one journal were leaked to a conservative commentator who posted them online in November. Police say the shooter may have been a transgender man, which has been a point of focus for conservative media personalities.

    Sometimes people do things. It’s best to just let sleeping dogs lie.

  34. Sensei

    Good luck CA Glibs!

    The U.S. House last week held a hearing on the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) plan that would ban locomotives that are 23 years or older from running in the state after 2029, pending approval from the Environmental Protection Agency. Passenger trains would also have to operate in a “zero emission” configuration by 2030 and long-distance freight trains by 2035.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-zero-emission-train-rule-electric-vehicles-chuck-baker-d6ad400a?st=6cpe22z4lzryeqc&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

      • Ownbestenemy

        If they could survive eating their own excrement, they would.

        Good to see ya Tundra

      • Tundra

        You as well, OBE!

    • Ownbestenemy

      I have nothing. I had a bunch of stuff written, but it is just nothing. Wall it off, stop delivering goods to the state.

      • Sensei

        You can’t even mentally escape with yoga either. They’ve got their priorities straight.

        San Diego has turned yoga on its head—recasting instructors into outlaws, park rangers into yoga police and pushing the practice from serenity into war.

        Park rangers arrived unannounced at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park on a recent day to keep instructors and students from taking their familiar pose atop the bluffs overlooking the Pacific.

        https://www.wsj.com/us-news/yoga-san-diego-outdoor-class-crackdown-1b1aa291?st=4o37epuck2wyc4v&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

      • Suthenboy

        Gettin’ what they voted for. Fuck them and fuck California.

  35. The Other Kevin

    I don’t know how the hell they let this happen, but there’s a bipartisan panel looking into the origin of COVID happening now. Rand Paul himself is introducing some of the witnesses. https://x.com/SenRandPaul/status/1803067823402492083

    • Tundra

      Yay! We’ll finally get the truth about COVID just in time for the weaponized monkeypox outbreak!

      • The Other Kevin

        It’s Bird Flu, Tundra. Try to keep up. 🙂

      • Tundra

        How about attack monkeys with bird flu?

      • The Other Kevin

        That’s just the kind of out of the box thinking we need. You’ve got a great future at NIAID.

      • Common Tater

        Gretchen Whitmer has flying monkeys.

    • The Other Kevin

      Rand Paul has been working towards this for years and he’s having a field day. Love it.

  36. Suthenboy

    I was taught a zillion cautionary tales relating to power, institutions and human nature growing up. When I see the awful shit playing out in front of my eyes, of which we are drowning in these days my first instinct is ‘They didn’t know this would happen? They didn’t see this coming? Who is stupid enough to let that happen? They should know better’. Then I realize not everyone was taught that stuff.

    • Suthenboy

      I strongly suspect that the ‘it could never happen here’ attitude was specific to a short period of time and place. With the examples of the authoritarian regimes of the 20th century right in front of our noses we had a daily dose of ‘what not to do’.
      With the dissolution of the USSR we dont have that so much anymore.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    And this is intentional. Those wonderful bar associations typically prevent any real metrics from being collected or any honest rating system of lawyers.

    If I recall correctly, the AMA sued Angie’s List when they tried to create a medical services category.

  38. cyto

    On the “editing to make Biden look good” front, I just was presented with a fundraising pitch by the old man himself.

    Maybe a dozen edits in the short clip. He doesn’t even complete a whole sentence before they cut. They stitched it together 1 phrase at a time.

    Super weird.

    Someone else mentioned this about a statement the WH pit out a few months back…. Now I can’t help noticing. They do this a lot. I have never seen this with a politician before.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I think its a choice by some of his younger Tik-Tok/YT advisors. A lot of those are quick cuts, so I think they are trying to mimic that feel. Or he mumbles too much. Who knows.

  39. Certified Public Asshat

    A story:

    I won't vote for anyone that doesn't believe climate change is real — Mark Cuban (@mcuban) June 17, 2024

    *everyone points out private jets and ocean properties*

    It's not ocean front. But it's got a great ocean view. Now tell me about property insurance along coast lines. How is that business going in Florida ? How happy are homeowners about their property insurance costs. Why do you think it's gotten so expensive ?…— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) June 18, 2024

    It’s a great view, but it’s not too close, you know?

    • The Other Kevin

      The man’s a genius. He’s calculated how much the water will rise, and in 20 years that property will be right on the beach.

    • Suthenboy

      “I wont vote for anyone that doesnt buy into the biggest scam in human history.”

      Okay Mark. I have an idea, how about you stay away from voting altogether.

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        “I wont vote for anyone that buy intomake me money on the biggest scam in human history.”

        Fixed it for you.

  40. Derpetologist

    Passed my first CDL written test today. No charge either because I’m a veteran. Yay me and Florida, the meth lab of democracy. 2 more written tests and driving test to go, I think. The wheels on the bus go round and round.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of “deepfakes”-

    Somebody needs to do one of those old-timey film clips of a still photo of Biden with what is obviously somebody else’s mouth superimposed on it.

    • The Other Kevin

      “Clutch Biden”. I like it.

    • Fourscore

      Could AI do Biden making sense? Is it that advanced? I don’t think so.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    they offer up edited versions with a lot of cuts that make Biden look good.

    Now I have an image in my head of Joe Biden as a ransom note, composed of words cut from different magazines.

  43. ron73440

    Chris Murphy 🟧

    Yesterday I gave a difficult speech in the Senate.

    The final reports are in on the Uvalde tragedy. 376 armed officers were outside that classroom. For one hour and 17 minutes. And they did nothing.

    Final proof that more guns in our schools will not keep our kids safe.

    Is this guy functionally retarded?

    https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1803045012738887688

    • AlexinCT

      Yes. I have met this asshat, and calling him retarded is appropriate.

    • Common Tater

      JFC

  44. The Late P Brooks

    The spice money must flow

    That difference stems from a longstanding convention: FEMA responds to natural disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes — disasters with major and obvious damage to physical infrastructure. But the agency has not historically responded to extreme heat. Now, a coalition of environmental nonprofits, labor unions, health professionals and environmental justice groups is asking the agency to change that. In a petition filed Monday, the coalition asks FEMA to add extreme heat and wildfire smoke to the list of disasters to which they respond.

    Where’s my ticket on the gravy train?

  45. Sensei

    Our daughter is on trend. According to Fortune Business Insights, a market-research firm, the global reusable water bottle market, valued at $10.05 billion in 2023, is projected to reach $10.52 billion this year and $15.61 billion by 2032.

    Nothing cracks me up like looking at some Lululemon wearing women with a reusable beverage container bigger than her head walking down the sidewalk as slowly as possible.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/were-carrying-too-much-water-ea19ed56?st=w92zn4klvfmdg6l&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

  46. Gustave Lytton

    migrant spouses

    My favorite headline of the married illegals was ‘undocumented immigrant spouses’ where it was unclear whether the undocumented part applied to their immigration (illegal entry) or their marriage. The answer is yes, of course.

  47. Q Continuum

    “WH press sec blames ‘deepfakes’ for video evidence of lost and confused Joe Bide”

    That is laughably desperate.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    WSJ thinks I’m a robot.

    • Q Continuum

      You mean you’re not?

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Theoretically, FEMA could respond to a heat emergency without a change in language in the Stafford Act, according to FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargues. “There’s nothing specific in the Stafford Act that precludes a declaration for extreme heat,” he wrote in an email.

    Everything not prohibited is mandatory.

    • juris imprudent

      Fleeing the heat in central PA for the Blue Ridge – and supposed to get a well drilled so we have reliable water. Check in with ya’ll later.

      • ZWAK came for the two-fisted tentacle-fighting, stayed for the crushing existential nihilism.

        Well, isn’t that nice… SATAN!!!!

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, not so fast there JI – well guy texts me as I am literally pulling out of the driveway: running behind, probably won’t get to you this week.

        +1 confused dog who thought she was going on a road trip

      • Fourscore

        Overbooked, weather, employee problems, truck broke down.

        It’s always something. Here, locally, drillers want to do 2 wells a day, 3 if they are close together.

        My neighbor is a driller but only in non-freezing weather. Has a house in Fiji off season.

    • AlexinCT

      Sampling the local cuisine!

  50. creech

    Oooh, I see I have a 1pm in person meeting with staffers from Sen. Fetterlump and Sen. Casey’s offices. Issue at hand: why a cemetery owner can legally bar all visitors to his cemetery , even to honor the military veterans of the United States who are buried there. Let’s see how wishy-washy the Senators are prepared to be.

    • Sensei

      With the new Lump anything is possible.

    • juris imprudent

      Interesting. VA law is cemeteries can be completely surrounded by private property and you cannot deny access. [Lots of small plots around our Blue Ridge place – none on our own property.]

      • Suthenboy

        Louisiana the same. We have a cemetery on some of our property. Why would I ever deny anyone access? I have told the guy that keeps up the plots if he gets tired of it or too old or whatever I will gladly keep it up myself. Why would I keep people out of there? They are family for fuck’s sake.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Is it private property? What are the visiting terms they were buried under? Easement?

      • creech

        Private property. 100 year old cemetery abandoned by an AME congregation in 1920s. In 50s or 60s, the adjoining land owner simply took the property over, bulldozed the church, uprooted remaining headstones and planted an orchard. In 1977, he sold the parcel (1/2 acre) to current owner via quit claim. Current owner knew he was buying an historic cemetery property, but denies any attempts to erect headstones for the 14 U.S. Colored Troops buried there. There appears to be no Federal law that requires him to allow U.S. veterans to be honored.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    War on tax cheats

    President Biden is putting forward new rules to go after wealthy tax cheats as the battle on how to tax the economy sizzles ahead of the election.

    The new rules target businesses designated as partnerships, which have proliferated over the past decade as tax havens and have been the object of an entirely new IRS department within the agency’s large business and international division.

    The Treasury Department estimated the new rules would generate $50 billion over the next decade, a fraction of the roughly $700 billion that the government is owed but fails to collect each year.

    “Treasury and the IRS are focused on addressing high-end tax abuse from all angles, and the proposed rules released today will increase tax fairness and reduce the deficit,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a Friday statement.

    Specifically, the new rules target an accounting practice known as “basis shifting” whereby nested legal entities belonging to a single owner can transfer assets among themselves to remove them from higher tax designations and into lower ones.

    They’re stealing from the government! Joe Biden needs that money to save democracy.

    • Not Adahn

      “The ec0onomy sizzles”

      Excellent subliminal/NLP propaganda there.

    • ron73440

      proposed rules released today will increase tax fairness and reduce the deficit,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a Friday statement.

      Two lies for the price of one.

    • creech

      Not too clear an explanation as Feds don’t generally tax assets. One tactic used to escape State taxes is to have a patent or trademark held by a partnership in a low tax state, and have another partnership in a high tax state pay a royalty for use of the patent, said royalty then becomes a tax deduction in high tax state. I guess if the patent or trade was held overseas by a company in, say, Mauritius, it could be lowering Federal taxes. Sounds like a tactic that might be used by Kennedy clan or the Kerry’s Heinz empire.

    • Sean

      5 billion a year? Chump change.

    • Suthenboy

      I feel bad for that girl. Her breakdown was obviously a crack-up from too much pressure, stress, anxiety.

    • Not Adahn

      It’s unclear who is behind the placement of the monoliths. A New Mexico artist collective claimed responsibility years ago.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    “I’m going to keep fighting like hell to make it fair. Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 will pay an additional penny in federal taxes,” Biden said at the last State of the Union address.

    “The last administration enacted a $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the very wealthy and the biggest corporations and exploded the federal deficit. They added more to the national debt than in any presidential term in American history,” he said.

    Okay, President Fiscal Responsibility.