Tuesday Morning Links

by | Jul 2, 2024 | Daily Links | 175 comments

The USMNT just aren’t that good and it’s time to find a new manager. France and Portugal advanced to face each other in the Euros, but neither team looked very good. The Boston Celtics are up for sale. The Astros have reached the lofty height of 2 games above .500. And I can’t think of much else. We’re entering the dog days of summer, friends. So moving on…

What a bunch of assholes. I guess his friendship with Clinton paid off.

Time for the courts to get busy again. Hopefully they will slap down this de facto registration and attempt to chill an exercise of a fundamental right that California is setting up.

If this is true, she has a point. I don’t know if it’s true or if she’s grandstanding, but I do know they need to put the person who actually pulled the trigger in prison.

Whoever green-lighted this has no sense of timing. But I think it shows who this craven woman has always been. And it shows why her husband is still in office rather than laying on the beach enjoying time with his family as he continues his decline.

Speaking of which… The knives are coming out. I wonder if the dollars will stop flowing in, because that will be the deciding factor on how this plays out, in my opinion.

This would be a wild trial. Not sure how it would play out, but the venue would certainly favor the plaintiff.

This woman knows how to fundraise. Because that’s all this is.

And lastly, here’s a really bizarre local story. This is a strange one. I’ll be curious to see what everybody’s thoughts on it are. Personally, I think the dude is a weirdo creep, but I’m not sure how this is a crime.

It’s been ages since I’ve played these guys. They’re a mixed bag. But I always had a soft spot for them. Anyway, enjoy them.

And enjoy this lovely Tuesday, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

175 Comments

  1. AlexinCT

    Time for the courts to get busy again. Hopefully they will slap down this de facto registration and attempt to clii an exercise of a fundamental right that California is setting up.

    I hear the big booty latina has a plan to deal with the evil SCOTUS!

    • rhywun

      You would think a simple question would end this stuff.

      “Is gun control working?”

      • SDF-7

        “We’re disarming more and more of the tax cattle we want to slaughter and allowing more of our brownshirts to run rampant, so yeah! We just need to expand it into the suburbs and rural areas more…

        Wait… is this a live mic? Was I not supposed to answer that?”

      • EvilSheldon

        If the purpose of gun control is to reduce the number of guns in circulation, then gun control is ‘not working’ in the same way that the Grand Canyon is ‘a big hole in the ground.’

      • rhywun

        I thought the intent was to “lower murders” or something. It doesn’t seem to be working.

      • EvilSheldon

        I always thought that the intent was to make AWFLs feel better, but that doesn’t seem to be working either…

  2. Nephilium

    For the AI kiddie porn, pretty sure that’s been decided based on cartoons some guy did years ago that were sexual cartoon of underage characters. He was found guilty of child porn. From memory the rational was that while there were no children hurt in his production of cartoons, it helped to create a demand for the real stuff, which did cause children harm.

    • UnCivilServant

      How?

      Substitute goods reduce demand for expensive/risky goods.

      • Nephilium

        I don’t remember the exact details, and it’s not exactly the type of court case I want to randomly search for based on the terms I know should pull up info on it.

    • SDF-7

      I remember that — thought it was bullshit then, think it (and the AI charge) are bullshit now. If no actual children were involved, only the creation of images — you’re really criminalizing thoughts.

      I’m not sure where I stand on it reducing the demand for the real thing (I would think that given the photo-realistic AI images these days, it might suffice… but for all I know they’ll keep driving to a worse kink). But regardless, I don’t approve of making thoughts or art illegal just because I disagree with them. Touch an actual kid? Jail time is fine (or if we ever figure out an actual therapy since I’m assuming this is a problem with sexual preferences either being twisted by abuse (common) or set too early in their own childhood — but it would have to really work, which nothing currently does that I know of).

      • Nephilium

        I don’t think I believe in the porn drives people to worse kinks argument. That’s the realm of the anti-pornsters and feminists (but I repeat myself). And there’s no evidence (and millions of anecdotal points to the opposite) saying that porn drives people to kinkier porn. I’m mildly sympathetic to the pedos who are keeping their urges in check, and I think if cartoons/AI generated fake porn helps them, I’m not that opposed to it. But I do believe in swift and terrible justice to those who hurt an actual child.

        /looks at local case where a woman killed a three year old for no apparent reasons

      • Fourscore

        What about all the real images floating around on the kids’ telephones? Are the jails big enough to hold all the kid pornographers? Where does art stop and porn begin?

        It’s a quandary. I can’t define it but I know….

      • Pope Jimbo

        I agree. If there isn’t an actual victim, I can’t see LE spending any more time on this. Tell me how this girl was a victim. Sounds like she didn’t even know the pic existed until the cops told her. Mild embarrassment? OK, she should be able to sue in civil court and see how it plays.

        They might want to keep their eyes on him and hassle him if he shows up at a playground all by himself.

      • Pope Jimbo

        What about all the real images floating around on the kids’ telephones

        What are the odds that if the cops had searched the phone of the 17-year old victim they would have found real nudies of her that she had sent to a boyfriend. You know… real child pr0n!

        I may have had a few polaroids back in the day that would have qualified as child pr0n under this definition. Do I need to go register on some lists and add “Former Child Porn Producer” on my email sig?

      • UnCivilServant

        A lot of pron is produced using former children.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        How is it criminalizing thoughts when you take an actual photo of a 17 year old and make her naked with AI? She cannot consent.

        There’s plenty of available adult content one can consume for free.

      • SDF-7

        He’s overlaying cropped pictures of adults and photoshopping her head on top. That’s all the AI is really doing, after all. If she was in a glamor shot in a magazine, he cut her head out with scissors and glued it on top of a Playboy spread — that’d be the same thing. All it is is really his imagining that his photo manipulation ends up with a “real” photo (hence, his thoughts).

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Lol, well I guess I am against that too.

    • sloopyinca

      That’s my recollection as well.

  3. AlexinCT

    Whoever green-lighted this has no sense of timing. But I think it shows who this craven woman has always been. And it shows why her husband is still in office rather than laying on the beach enjoying time with his family as he continues his decline.

    I am sure Jill bears guilt when it comes to this sad affair, but I remind you the corruptocracy, and specifically the Obamas and Clintons, wanted this. President “My Butt’s Been Wiped” allowed them to use this fool as a foil while they put the “fundamental change” a.k.a. destruction of the country into overdrive. They are only throwing Joe under the bus because their polls show he can’t win as everyone has wised up to the wrecking of everything, and they think putting a different face on the agenda will gaslight enough people to make the margin of “fortification” viable.

  4. Sean

    I’ll be curious to see what everybody’s thoughts on it are.

    Mildly creepy, very lame, and not worth expending ANY further LE time on it.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Mildly creepy?

      • Sean

        It’s not like he’s a public school teacher grooming 10 year olds.

  5. AlexinCT

    Speaking of which… The knives are coming out. I wonder if the dollars will stop flowing in, because that will be the deciding factor on how this plays out, in my opinion.

    I am far more interested in how they plan to reallocated the donations already made to Biden to someone else. The legality around that shit is insane, and there is no quick or easy way to do that. I am sure they will find numerous illegal ways to do it, so the stakes go even higher on their need to fortify.

    • WTF

      I am sure they will find numerous illegal ways to do it

      Which you can can count on some friendly judge rubber stamping regardless of any actual law.

    • UnCivilServant

      Overpay for advertizing and have the ad agencies buy X from Y who donates Z to new candidate?

    • Tonio

      According to this article they have announced that the funds will go to the Harris campaign.

      That’s an important bellwether that they are even mentioning this.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      I’ve been informed that the Supreme Court has ruled the President can do whatever he wants, up to and including murdering his political opponents, so shuffling some funds around should be no big deal.

  6. Suthenboy

    “…once friendly relationship with Trump…”
    Uh huh. Apparently Epstein was at a Mar a Lago Trump gathering of some sort when one of the waitresses complained directly to Trump that Epstein was hitting on underage girls. Trump personally went and threw the guy off of the property and was barred forever from returning. I dont see that mentioned anywhere in the article.

    No one ever wanted to disarm you, make you unable to defend yourself, for your own good. Never happened, never will. These people have plans for you and I am pretty sure at this point that we all know what those plans are.
    Dont get lost in the weeds. Every gun ‘law’ on the books save the 2A is no law but a crime committed by the state.

    Gun handler did blah didn’t blah blah blah *shakes finger sternly* blah blah blah. Quit shifting the blame. Here is how it works: When a gun is in your hand you and only you are responsible for everything that happens after that. There is no ‘oops’ , no ‘Im sorry’, ‘I didn’t mean to’…no putting it on someone else. YOU and only you are responsible . Baldwin should be in prison. Max for involuntary manslaughter would satisfy me.

    Craven, while an accurate estimate of the Biden family should be ‘depraved’.

    ‘How stupid do they think we are?’
    Supporting leftists? Being leftists? I would say Obama level stupid.

    Hunter seeing for revenge porn? Back to my above comment…depraved.

    AOC is a ridiculously transparent clown. Her performances are purely just that. Who buys that shit?

    The reason child porn is illegal is because it harms children…it does. If the whole image is of a person that does not exist (i.e. victimless) then there is a debate to be had certainly. If part of the image is of a child that does exist I would say yes, the child is harmed. Altering a child’s image to pornography I would say is a crime.
    Yeah, the guy is a serious creep.

    • Pope Jimbo

      AOC’s performances are what make her beloved to her fans. They all think that the only thing you have to do to solve a problem is shriek and wave your hands about it. Somehow things will get fixed.

      Even if things don’t get fixed, you had a good cathartic time yelling about the outrage. And that is all that really counts isn’t it?

      • rhywun

        She is the current face of the Party. Dunno what else there is to say. The base is just as lunatic as she is.

      • AlexinCT

        I actually had a conversation this past weekend with people that told me AOC was so smart and dreamy. I told them they needed to stop doing drugs and move out of mommy’s basement. They got pissed at me.

    • Fourscore

      Great story!

      Seeing young people succeed always gives me hope

      Thanks, Jimbo

  7. SDF-7

    clii an exercise of a fundamental right that California is setting up.

    1) Going to need a definition of “to clii” there, Sloopy… not even sure what word that is if it is a typo. 😉

    2) Skimming the article as is typical — if I had gotten a shotgun early in the pandemic like I considered, or if I ever get guns in California — I’m pretty sure I’d pop for inspection. Never bought before, odds are good I’d shop around a bit – probably get a shotgun and a pistol, likely at different stores based on availability/price, would need ammo, permits, probably a class/mandatory stuff/whatnot with extra because I know I’d need range time (having not shot since high power pellet rifle days of my youth), etc.

    Could easily rack up “large expenditures at multiple gun shops” — and I’d very much bet I’m not alone. So yeah — in the Sacramento tradition, an overly broad law almost certain to only disrupt law abiding citizens. (If they haven’t already, I’m sure they’ll outlaw cash purchases next so you have to be flagged, etc.)

    And Newsom is somehow supposedly a viable candidate. I weep for the part of the country that thinks so.

    • Tonio

      Cash transactions. Also, remember that AZ and NV are nearby (at least for SoCal).

    • The Last American Hero

      That part of the country would be called a majority of the electoral college.

      If Newsom were put on the ticket at the Dem convention, he would chew Trump up and spit him out. Team Red should have spent the last 4 years building a ballot harvesting machine that would have made the Soviets blush. Instead, the big money backers pulled back from all things Trump-adjacent and turned battle ground states into Blue strongholds.

      Trump has a ceiling and zero ground game. Look at 2021, 2022, 2023. The jig is up.

      I feel sorry for the country, and I feel sorry for the Charlie Browns that think Lucy isn’t going to pull the football out this time.

    • R.J.

      “Large expenditure “ is undefined. $500? $1,000? $5,000? It’s anything they say it is. $5,000 could be two or three guns. Fuck off with that undefined language.

  8. Grumbletarian

    Key Democrat donors threaten to pull plug if Biden doesn’t resign, as furious party insiders reveal ‘worst fears’ about ailing president have now been confirmed: ‘How stupid do they think we are?’

    Very. The answer is ‘very’. But then, you are Democrats, so they’re probably not far off.

    • AlexinCT

      ^^^THIS^^^

    • SDF-7

      At least 4 years of stupid, so yes “very very”. I mean, all the debate did was make it irrefutable that the “cheap fakes” bullcrap was in fact bovine excrement for all to see (and that the lapdog press was complicit in lying about it for years for those not paying attention).

      Biden resigning would be one step. But honestly, all the major media outlets should lose massive readers/viewers — because if it wasn’t obvious that they were lying to your face and being propaganda, it sure was after that. I don’t know how anyone could believe a word out of those liars’ mouths…. but they do, they will and they vote. Sigh.

      • AlexinCT

        If these fuckers were serious, they would 25th Biden right now, and make Koh-Moh-Loh the POTUS. But that would mean their job to side step her will be far more difficult (and believe me, they want to side step her), and they are never about doing the right thing as much as doing the thing that secures their grip on and expansion of the pursuit of power.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, asked and answered.

  9. R C Dean

    “furious party insiders reveal ‘worst fears’ about ailing president have now been confirmed: ‘How stupid do they think we are?’”

    Pretty fucking stupid, I’d say. And apparently not without reason.

    • Grumbletarian

      They were fed lies about Joe’s mental acuity for at least three years, and they were outraged in chorus about Robert Hur’s characterization of PPP as a doddering coot. Now it was put on display in front of the entire country and Doctor Jill is still trying to convince everyone that it was just an off night for Joe, plus he had a sniffle.

      • AlexinCT

        I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I am not buying that a whole bunch of these donors didn’t know Biden was 3 beer cans short of a six pack. I am convinced they knew that Biden was compromised, that Obama and his people were running the show, and that they actually liked that whole setup and wanted it to continue. Their reticence now isn’t about being fooled about Biden’s state so much as their take that Biden will lose the election for sure, and replacing him with some other front man will fool enough of the low info voters to allow them to potentially fortify the election and do 4 more years minimum of Obama’s dismantling of the US as we know it in pursuit of the globalist neutered Amerika.

      • R C Dean

        I think Alex has it about right. Of course they knew he was incompetent/incapable. Everybody did. What was foolish was believing that (i) very few people anywhere didn’t know that and that (ii) they could continue to pretend he wasn’t all the way through the election.

        It’s one thing to hide in your basement during the plague. But that’s not really an option for POTUS. Not to mention that he’s much worse now, and a lot of people are asking “If he got that much worse in the last 4 years, how bad off will he be in 4 more?”

        Not to mention “If he’s not capable of running for President, how is he capable of being President?”

      • The Last American Hero

        Just like I don’t have to outrun a bear, I just have to outrun you – Biden just has to do better than Trump in a few key states. Show me an electoral path to victory, because I ain’t seeing it.

      • B.P.

        Given what Alex/RC say, was throwing Biden into a debate in June a: (1) Better get this over with early, and maybe people will forget about it; and (2) If it turns out to be really bad, it leaves us the potential to pivot to a new candidate? That’s not the best set of options.

      • Drake

        I was genuinely surprised at all the surprise. Only people who were watching events through a totally curated and filtered lens did not know that Biden is gone mentally.

        Live and unedited, CNN tried to help him but couldn’t hide it. The rest of the media is just pretending to be surprised at what they’ve been hiding for years.

      • R C Dean

        “Show me an electoral path to victory, because I ain’t seeing it.”

        Trump wins the same states he won last time, and flips the swing states that he was leading when they closed the counting down on election night. You know, the swing states where he now has a lead in the opinion polls.

        The path isn’t difficult to see. The main obstacle is the same as last time, which is cheating in those same swing states that cheated last time. But there’s your path.

        I would say that the biggest problem isn’t even Trump, it’s the now gone-forever opportunity to fix election security after 2020.

    • EvilSheldon

      I wonder if any of these party insiders know that ‘gullible’ isn’t in the dictionary?

  10. R C Dean

    “This woman knows how to fundraise.”

    Still would.

  11. Pope Jimbo

    Remember our Burglar/Legislator here in Minnesoda? She is back in the news trying to get her case tossed

    Filings Friday from Mitchell’s defense attorneys seek a ruling that “probable cause is absent because Nicole did not intend to commit, nor did she commit, a crime” inside the home. The senator’s stepmother called 911 to report a break-in and police encountered Mitchell when they responded.
     
    Mitchell, a first-term lawmaker, has said it is a misunderstanding as she tried to retrieve items belonging to her late father. He died in 2023.

    Sure I broke into the house. But after that, everything was on the up and up!

    • R C Dean

      Of course, those items don’t belong to her late father any more, on account of he’s dead. Unless they were left to her in the will, they belong to her mother. Which makes her defense pretty much a confession of unlawful intent.

  12. rhywun

    The USMNT just aren’t that good and it’s time to find a new manager.

    Lalas et al. tore them all a much-deserved new one. “I feel like I’ve seen this show before, and I tired of it.”

    The problem is they will never get any better as long as much more popular American sports exist.

    See also: the team at Wimbledon yesterday wondering why an American man hasn’t won a major in two decades. Then they shuffled through pics of the top American men and none of them have what it takes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Since they brought Berhalter back he is 7-1-6. Go big and try to woo Mauricio Pochettino.

  13. The Other Kevin

    I love the effect on the feature image. First it’s pale Biden during the debate, then you mouse over and it’s spray-tan Biden from last night. Fun!

    • Tonio

      That effect is automatically applied to all Featured Images.

      • The Other Kevin

        I know, it just worked out so well this time!

    • rhywun

      Heh. You can practically see the spitting and whisper-shouting that are seconds away.

  14. SDF-7

    Looking for motion control exterior floodlights to replace some exterior lighting at my parents’ house while I’m here… and this was in the Q&A section…

    I want to control the floodlights with a light switch and have the motion control work when the light switch is on, but also have the motion control be able to turn on the floodlights when the light switch is off.

    Um…. someone really doesn’t understand electric circuits and how light switches actually work apparently.

    Just so dumb I had to share. Maybe it was AOC now that she’s done marveling over her garbage disposal or something.

    • UnCivilServant

      So… the switch should do nothing?

      • SDF-7

        Apparently… but leaving it on somehow isn’t an option? I report the stupidity, i do not explain it.

    • Nephilium

      What do they want the switch to do? Turn on the lights so the motion sensor turns them off when the switch is on?

    • Tonio

      My interpretation is that this person wants the lights to always come on when motion is detected, but wants the switch to force the lights on.

    • trshmnstr

      I actually have almost that exact setup. It sounds stupid but it works.

      I have cameras in the backyard that detect objects. If they detect a person or an animal, they inform HomeAssistant, which uses a Wi-Fi smart switch to turn on the floodlights for 10 minutes. However, I can override that 10 minute period by manually toggling the switch off. I can also manually turn on the floodlights and there is no timer.

      • SDF-7

        I just have mine (and plan similarly for my parents) to be always on at the switch, and let the motion sensor do what it needs to. Adjusted so it isn’t too crazy — but these are low power / high lumen LEDs so I don’t really care if they come on often. I do try to aim them away from the neighbors’ windows for obvious reasons.

        Judging by how things flip on when cars drive by, most of my neighbors have done similar setups.

    • AlexinCT

      I actually have motion sensitive lights that are on switches. When the switch is off, the lights never come on. Motion or not. Day or night. When I turn the switch on, the lights come on, stay on for the 15 seconds they would, when it detects no motion goes off, until the motion sensor senses movement when it is not daylight, and comes back on. Pretty standard stuff.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    the lapdog press was complicit in lying about it for years

    As they have done since the beginning. They covered up for Wilson and FDR and Kennedy.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      Kennedy was a gimp?

      • SDF-7

        Winston’s Mom have enough silk stockings and chocolate, Swiss?

      • R C Dean

        He was pretty much crippled up with back problems without a massive drug cocktail, so yeah, I dunno about “gimp”, but gimp-adjacent, anyway.

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

        Kennedy just need a shot…

    • SDF-7

      Feminists demanded equality, right? Throw a punch at a man, get a punch back. Sounds equal.

      Oh… but y’all just wanted equality when it empowers you right there, 3rd wave?

      That said, I’d probably have to really feel it before I swung back at a woman (and since I haven’t been in a fight since Jr. High I’m sure I swing like a girl anyway… a flouncy, flouncy girl that never threw a punch in her life). The punch on camera looked more than a little pathetic so I doubt I would have there.

    • AlexinCT

      Bitch, PLEAUZE!

    • Evan from Evansville

      That episode of Seinfeld sure escalated…

  16. Pope Jimbo

    How did this guy get on the bench? Although, given his jurisdiction, I’m sure he’d be re-elected pretty easily.

    A Minnesota district court judge was publicly reprimanded by the Minnesota Board of Judicial Standards after denying several convicted felons the right to vote when issuing probation orders to those felons.
     
    On June 27, Judge Matthew Quinn of Minnesota’s Seventh Judicial District was reprimanded by the Minnesota Board of Judicial Standards (MBJS). According to the Board’s findings, Judge Quinn began issuing probation sentencing orders to convicted felons in October of 2023 which denied those individuals the right to vote.
     
    Prior to July 1, 2023, convicted felons were not given their voting rights back until they completed every part of their criminal sentence, probation included. However, Democrats in control of state government amended state law governing felon voting in 2023. Now, felons who are not incarcerated, but still serving a probation sentence, can vote.
     
    When Judge Quinn issued the probation sentencing orders denying the felons their right to vote, he included in the orders a statement which said Minnesota’s statute about felon-voting was unconstitutional.
     
    In an email referenced in the Board’s findings, Judge Quinn explained his reasoning in part by saying the felon-voting statute is unconstitutional because it violates the Minnesota Constitution’s voter eligibility clause in Article 7, Section 1. Further, the judge said he took an oath to protect and defend the Minnesota Constitution, not state statutes.

    I think that there definitely should be a path for a convicted felon to get their voting rights back. I’m not sure if I think that there is anything wrong with expecting them to serve out their entire sentence first. I’m not 100% in the tank on that though. I’d want to know how long the probation was on average.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Three years ago, Judge Quinn was reprimanded for expressing his feelings regarding political candidates in violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct. According to that reprimand, Quinn was photographed wearing a Make American Great Again (MAGA) hat and driving a boat on the Mississippi River as a part of the “Trump Boat Parade” in September of 2020.
       
      Additionally, the Board’s reprimand said Quinn “liked” Donald Trump’s Facebook page, social media posts by Donald Trump, and other social media posts which expressed opposition to Joe Biden during the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election.

      His real sin.

      • AlexinCT

        Minnesoda needs better zampolits.

    • AlexinCT

      Same way Sotomayor got on the SCOTUS?

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Did Ramblin Joe make a speech last night?

    • The Other Kevin

      Yes. It was 4 minutes long. He showed up noticeably, um, orange. Definitely a spray tan. He did the old “democracy is at stake the Supreme Court is biased, no president is above the law” BS, then turned and shuffled away. Answered no questions. I think they wanted to show the world he’s not as bad as we think, but in the end it just produced a ton of memes.

  18. Common Tater

    “Shoffner is accused of using an AI program on his phone to alter a picture of a 17-year-old by removing her clothing. After the photo was altered, officials say the image depicted the 17-year-old’s face, but her body was completely naked from the neck down.”

    I wouldn’t equate that with making child pornagraphy. 17 is old for a pdf file.

  19. AlexinCT

    She is next in line..

    Man, losing control of Twitter/X must really, really irk the criminal cabal that was gaslighting the country.

    • The Other Kevin

      That part of the debate pissed me off. Trump’s answer for abortion was that his supreme court sent it down to the states, who are making their own decision the way “everyone” wants it. Biden’s rebuttal was “He’s going to sign a national ban.” Trump was clearly ready to say “I JUST SAID THE OPPOSITE OF THAT” when they cut his mike.

      • SDF-7

        The teleprompter doesn’t care what my opponent actually says. End of Line. Do not read this section. No, seriously. Stop it, Mr. President. I’m leaving this here to remind you to stop reading this.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    I see the media are delightedly reporting the impending onslaught of Superstorm Beryl.

  21. AlexinCT

    A warning for the people peddling a wealth tax on unrealized gains here in the US. Team blue’s crime syndicate controls practically all institutions except for the SCOTUS, and that has been the only reason so far the US is not a full out third world banana republic (yet?).

    Taxing people on unrealized gains is insane. Especially when the system will not reimburse them for any loses. The governments that have used their socialist systems to create a system where we now have privatized gains and socialized losses – by ripping off tax payers and transferring wealth to these protected entities – seem hell bent on fixing the broken system because giving up on the power to pick winners and losers is a non starter to these cuntes.

    • cyto

      Taxing unrealized gains is the end of private ownership.

      It is also the end of new businesses.

      SpaceX would not exist. Tesla would not exist. Sam Walton never could have created Walmart. No Amazon or Whole foods.

      From whatever the start date is, those large public companies will be the last companies in the US.

      All small businesses will go under. No more local auto repair shop. No more local contractors or roofers or electric supply companies.

      • WTF

        Of course since such a tax is not apportioned, it would likely be struck down as unconstitutional by the current court.

      • EvilSheldon

        The entire point of unrealized gains is, “You pay what we say you pay, and there’s no objective quantity that you can use as recourse.”

  22. Sensei

    With comparable sales stagnant, Tractor Supply’s growth will have to come from new stores. Because of demographic trends and Tractor Supply’s own priorities in recent years, those will be in more-diverse exurbs, which demographically are growing very fast, rather than redder, rural regions.

    Sure, the key to future growth is pandering to libs in exurbs. It’s the only way. It’s not like Chik fil A has a line out the door during lunchtime in Manhattan while keeping to its business model.

    Tractor Supply’s DEI reversal to appease right-wing critics could fracture its surprisingly diverse ‘exurban’ customer base

    Also zero quantification of the number of lost liberal customers.

    • cyto

      The only DEI carrot and stick is institutional investors. If your business does not need them, you can probably escape, unless they decide to squeeze you out of the banking system.

    • SDF-7

      Only possible reply

      I’ll take my clothes off / it will be shameless / ‘cuz everyone knows, that’s how you get famous

    • AlexinCT

      Like this tragic event will make the people infected by leftism realize the conundrum of their beliefs.

    • Grumbletarian

      The swarthy faces of white supremacy.

    • EvilSheldon

      It’s extremely dangerous to to think that everyone you interact with is going to act like a highly-cultured middle-class suburban liberal. I’m sorry to be an asshole, but a chipped tooth and some bruises are cheap payment for that lesson – I know people who have paid a lot more…

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Only the best voodoo and imaginary numbers

    U.S. District Judge James Cain, Jr. sided with the states, granting a preliminary injunction that puts the Biden administration’s delay on hold.

    It was unlikely, however, that any of the projects would be on a fast track for consideration as the U.S. Department of Energy said late Monday that it disagreed with the court’s ruling and was evaluating its next steps. The White House also voiced disappointment.

    “We remain committed to informing our decisions with the best available economic and environmental analysis, underpinned by sound science,” White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said in an email to The Associated Press.

    President Joe Biden in January decided his administration would delay consideration of new natural gas export terminals in the United States, even as gas shipments to Europe and Asia soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The move aligned the Democrat with environmentalists who fear an increase in exports — in the form of liquefied natural gas, or LNG — is locking in potentially catastrophic planet-warming emissions.

    Who cares if our Euro allies have heat or electricity? We have an electorate to appease.

  24. Ownbestenemy

    So AI guy…how did LE get tipped off? Sharing the image or did the software he used have a part in it?

    • cyto

      Good question.

      It would be horrifying if a prompt to an AI service could be a felony.

      “Hey, ChatGPT… draw a Simpsons fanfic Manga”

      • Ownbestenemy

        Missed in article…someone ‘saw’ it on the phone.

        Obviously more questions. Where did the person obtain the photo? What if photo was obtained from an adult dating site or OnlyFans etc where the assumption is the person is 18 or older.

        Creep for sure…arrested? No

      • EvilSheldon

        It amazes me that anyone lets anyone else touch their phone.

      • Grummun

        Recent versions of iOS analyses photos to flag stuff that could be porn. Apple claims it all happens on your phone and the results are not communicated back to Apple.

        Would Apple tell you if the FBI had leaned on them to report possible kiddy porn? I don’t know. I recall a story from a while back that Best Buy’s Geek Squad routinely scanned hard drives of machines brought in for service, and reported any kiddy porn they found.

        I don’t know anything about Android, but I would think Google would be more inclined to rat out users than Apple.

  25. Common Tater

    “WATERTOWN, Wis. — A Dane County Circuit Court judge who once said people who steal from big-box stores shouldn’t be prosecuted ruled that disabled Wisconsin voters can request and download electronic ballots, a change that could cause election-administration problems in the battleground state this November.

    Judge Everett Mitchell, who also serves as a pastor in Madison and ran for state Supreme Court last year — losing in a four-way primary — issued a temporary injunction last week covering the Nov. 5 election, effectively modifying a portion of the election-administration landscape in a state that struggled with absentee-ballot tabulation in the last presidential election.”

    https://nypost.com/2024/07/02/us-news/wisconsin-absentee-voting-law-changed-months-before-election/

    • Ownbestenemy

      Curious how many of these ‘self-identified’ persons are actually incapacitated enough to where they cannot vote.

      • SDF-7

        I suspect the same criteria as “welfare disability” to maximize the government dependent voting pool. But that’s just my cynicism.

    • Grumbletarian

      Good thing. Now all those dead people in Wisconsin can self-report as disabled and get ballots delivered to the same PO box. Totes convenient.

    • R C Dean

      I’m trying to figure out how someone can be so disabled they can’t open the mail, fill out a ballot, and mail it, but can operate a computer well enough to navigate to a site, log in, download a form, print it, fill it out, and mail it.

      • Ownbestenemy

        That was the essence of my comment. This will be rolled into the same arguments as ‘voter id’ requirements.

    • The Last American Hero

      But Trump is totally going to win those swing states, baby.

      Sorry to go all black pill lately, but shit like this is why.

      • trshmnstr

        Yup.

        I have a hard time nailing down exactly how much fraud there is, but shit like this speaks to there being more than enough to overcome a modest lead.

      • rhywun

        We know more about the rampant fraud in places like Sudan than we do about the rampant fraud in the US because nobody is allowed to look.

      • R C Dean

        If your point is that the Dems can and will manufacture enough ballots to guarantee a Biden victory, I think you’re not being unreasonable.

        If your point is that there is no way Trump can get enough actual votes to win, I think that’s, well, not as reasonable.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    The environmental group Evergreen Action was among those to criticize Cain’s ruling, alleging that the judge was “bending the law to hand the oil industry a win.”

    “Pause or no pause, the science is clear: No sound analysis that accounts for the climate and environmental hard inflicted by LNG exports could possibly determine that these deadly facilities are in the public interest,” Craig Segall, the group’s vice president, said.

    Blasphemy. The wages of sin is death.

    • Grumbletarian

      Inexpensive and abundant energy sources are not in the public interest.

      sin,
      Watermelons

    • rhywun

      the science is clear

      stop it, you’re killing me

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Royal edict

    The Biden administration will propose long-awaited rules Tuesday to protect workers from extreme heat, amid a sweltering summer that many scientists expect to be one of the hottest ever recorded.

    ——-

    The proposal marks a milestone for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which for decades ignored calls to implement heat safety regulations as high temperatures killed an estimated 815 workers between 1992 and 2017 and seriously injured some 70,000 more, according to federal estimates.

    Climate change has turbocharged extreme heat, with temperature records already being smashed this summer in New England, leading to a spike in emergency room visits and killing a construction worker who collapsed on the job in Rhode Island last week.

    But the regulation faces an uncertain future. Trump has pledged to roll back portions of Biden’s climate change agenda while casting doubt on the scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels is driving up global temperatures. That could leave the heat rules in the hands of voters in the November election.

    If Trump wins, millions will die.

    • Mojeaux

      If Trump wins, millions will die.

      Cull the herd!

      • AlexinCT

        Funny how they seem to always end up projecting the things they desire to do or are actually doing on their enemies when they engage in fear hypnosis to scare the low info people to vote for the, huh?

    • Grumbletarian

      For the sake of democracy we can’t let voters decide things.

      • AlexinCT

        The sad thing is that is precisely it. Low information people think when these crooks talk about democracy they are talking about the people and the will of the people. Nothing could be further from the truth. When these crooks invoke “muh democracy” they are talking about the unelected, unaccountable, bloated, and politically militarized & radicalized institutions they control, and from which they derive their power. When they say they are protecting democracy, they mean they are protecting the criminal cabal. The fucking people be damned.

    • AlexinCT

      Team blue has had no serious wins since they passed Obamacare. And that quickly turned into its own horrible shitshow. And when I am talking about wins, I don’t mean I gaslighting people about how awesome Bidenomics is. Making stupid claims that more people have become employed (after a scandemic that caused massive unemployed, and the majority going to part-time or government jobs) than any other time in US history. Gaslighting low info people into believing that inflation that is destroying their financial security is all in their heads. or other such bullshit stories that contradict reality. Getting people to believe a lie eventually becomes a loss, as people realize the thing is a lie. You can’t turn the things these people are doing to benefit their globalist agenda into wins as the American people just always lose out.

      But team blue has mastered the strategy of using fear to keep voters in line. Abortion, racism, homophobia, misogyny, transphobia, and now democracy stealing all are being used to pray idiots that quickly can be scared. Sure we have done suaqt to help you – in fact most of what we have done has devastated your lives – but those other people are SCARY/EBIL!!! So vote for us… OR ELSE!1!!eleventy

      • R C Dean

        I would count the passage of the Green New Deal, retitled the Inflation Reduction Act, as a pretty big win.

    • slumbrew

      “Climate change has turbocharged extreme heat, with temperature records already being smashed this summer in New England…”

      Meanwhile, in New England:

      Today’s high: 75
      Historic avg: 81
      Record: 98

      • Ownbestenemy

        I always found it funny when a 100+ year record is broken and people flip out without batting an eye that it was just as or hotter before oil consumption…hence the century old records.

      • Grumbletarian

        Yeah, but a couple of weeks ago it was over a hundred degrees! (Note: This sort of thing happens from time to time in a New England summer, but NEVER MIND THAT!)

      • slumbrew

        Look at this clear trend!

        Rank Temp Date
        1 98 07/02/1963
        2 96 07/02/1955
        – 96 07/02/1941
        – 96 07/02/1911
        – 96 07/02/1878
        6 95 07/02/1901
        – 95 07/02/1887
        8 94 07/02/2002
        9 93 07/02/1958
        – 93 07/02/1956

      • R C Dean

        I wish I had kept it, but there was a headline here that the monsoon is likely to be drier than average this year. The second paragraph of the actual story was that there was a 40% chance the monsoon would be drier than average this year.

        It’s actually an intentional misinformation/psyop technique. gato malo laid out in his Substack recently.

  28. rhywun

    They’re a mixed bag.

    They are heinous. Shame on you.

  29. cyto

    This Fulton County YSL RICO trial is completely nuts.

    2 weeks back, a lead defense attorney alleged that the judge held an ex parte meeting with the prosecution and a sworn witness who intended to plead the fifth. He claimed to have information that the judge and prosecutor conspired to intimidate the witness into testifying with threats of many, many years in prison, promising not to prosecute him if he lies on the stand, and several other crazy allegations.

    Upon hearing these demands for transcripts of the meeting and the recusal of the judge for a hearing on a mistral, the judge refused to hear the motion and instead demanded to know how they found out, eventually throwing the attorney in jail for not divulging his source.

    • cyto

      After a trip the the state Supreme Court by the defense, the judge has released the transcripts. And…. every word is true. They conspired together hand in glove. The meeting made it clear that the prosecution and the judge knew that the witness would plead the 5th on the stand and put him up anyway.

      They threatened indefinite prison through multiple trials (this on against 1/3 of the defendants has lasted 18 months and could go another 2 years, per the prosecutor, so maybe 10-15 years in prison)

      I know the judge usually leans toward the prosecution… but dang.

      The details are much worse than this poor summary.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Lemme guess…and nothing else happened. Sounds like an immediate mistrial to me.

      • AlexinCT

        The system isn’t failing: it is broke beyond repair because so many have decided to just use it to further their attempts to plunder the wealth and punish the others they dislike.

        Progressivism, or whatever the fuck these marxists call what they are, is an evil thing because you can justify anything to reach utopia…

    • Ownbestenemy

      Ya any new news on that?

      • cyto

        Huge news yesterday

        Judge caved and the recusal hearing is assigned to another judge.

        I cannot imagine that an objective court would fail to declare a mistrial at the end of this process, with jeopardy attached because of prosecutorial misconduct.

        But I also cannot imagine a court declaring a mistrial in an 18 month old trial of what appears to be a violent gang.

    • EvilSheldon

      Yves Saint Laurent?

      • cyto

        Remember a case from years and years ago where prosecutors used rap lyrics to prove that a rap group was actually a murderous gang?

        Yeah, that is this case.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Must be a real piss poor case the State is presenting then. This is where our system of justice is playing out at least correctly.

      • EvilSheldon

        I’m fucking with you, cyto. I do remember the case.

        The image of Yves Saint Laurent leading a gang of murderous fashion designers does make me giggle a little bit.

    • Ted S.

      I though Yves Saint-Laurent died years ago.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Sudden interest in cracking down

    The U.S. and Panama signed an agreement on Monday that will allow American officials to help the Panamanian government deport migrants who cross the Darién Gap, a once-impenetrable jungle that has become a popular transit point for those traveling to the U.S. southern border.

    Under the joint initiative, U.S. immigration officials will train and provide assistance to Panamanian authorities to help them carry out more deportations of migrants heading north. In recent years, Panama has reported record numbers of crossings along the roadless Darién jungle, including over half a million in 2023 alone.

    The Department of Homeland Security will be dispatching officials who have experience screening asylum claims and deporting migrants to Panama so they can assist their Panamanian counterparts on the ground. Using State Department funds, the U.S. will also help Panama build up its deportation infrastructure.

    Sounds like a scam.

    • Drake

      Are they deporting them to the U.S?

  31. The Late P Brooks

    “As the United States continues to secure our borders and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain, we are grateful for our partnership with Panama to manage the historic levels of migration across the Western Hemisphere,” Mayorkas said in a statement.

    Mulino has vowed to take a tough stance against migrant arrivals in Panama, pledging to “close” the Darién Gap and accusing international aid workers of facilitating illegal migration.

    Shocked. SHOCKED, I tell you.

  32. Ownbestenemy

    Shouldn’t both the immunity case and Chevron case be an actual cheering moment for the ‘stop Trump’ crowd? If he wins, he is handcuffed like they want.

    • AlexinCT

      They would much prefer to keep the ability to abuse the power and then use it to prevent Trump from winning. After all, losing the power is what is more damaging to them.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      That would imply that they are capable of foreseeing obvious second/third-order consequences. Everything from Harry Reid’s abolishment of the Judicial Filibuster on has demonstrated that this is very much not the case.

    • The Other Kevin

      I put something to that effect on Twitter yesterday. The immunity case actually protects Biden, should Trump win.

      But I have noticed for years that political partisans (usually more the Dems) are extremely short sighted and and are working under the assumption that once their party gains power, they will hold onto it forever.

    • Suthenboy

      The nearly endless list of concepts they cannot grasp includes some kind of law or other that states “You today, me tomorrow”
      I ask again, how stupid does one have to be to be a leftist/socialist/marxist?

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Where’s Avery Brundage when you need him?

    Transgender and nonbinary middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz ran the second fastest time ever of any American in the women’s 1500-meter race at the U.S. Olympic Trials Sunday, qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

    Hiltz, who uses they/them pronouns, charged ahead of Elle St. Pierre and Emily Mackay in the final stretch of the race, finishing with a time of 3:55:33, a trials record. All of the top eight finishers set a new personal best time, according to OutSports. Paris will mark Hiltz’s Olympic debut.

    In a post-race interview with NBC Sports, Hiltz, 29, said the race had significance beyond their personal accomplishment.

    “This is bigger than just me. It’s the last day of Pride Month. … I wanted to run this one for my community,” they said. “All the LGBT folks, yeah, you guys brought me home that last hundred [meters]. I could just feel the love and support.”

    Whatever.

    • slumbrew

      And the Olympics continue their slide into irrelevancy…

    • The Other Kevin

      These trans athletes are amazing, smashing past women’s previous limits. It’s like we have a new generation of super women.

      • slumbrew

        It’s weird how breaking records is correlated with being trans. Woman’s records, anyway.

        The trans women must just work harder.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Wait until the AND1 tier basketball players figure out they are only a skirt and a tube of lipstick away from dominating the WNBA.

    • Common Tater

      “Transgender and nonbinary”

      Pick one. Is this person female? If they are male, no idea how they are competing against women without even claiming to be one.

    • Suthenboy

      The pendulum swings…but after sanity is restored what can be done to make whole the women cheated by these lunatic pretenders and the evil people that enabled them? What of the unknowable numbers of women who are being robbed of their prime because they are too disheartened to compete?

  34. The Late P Brooks

    World Athletics, which oversees international track and field competition, adopted a policy last year that bars all trans women athletes who went through male puberty from competing in female track and field categories. Trans men are allowed to compete in male categories if they have satisfactory signed declarations of their gender identities.

    World Athletics’ policy doesn’t specifically mention athletes who are nonbinary, meaning those who identify as neither exclusively male nor exclusively female. However, nonbinary competitors who were assigned female at birth are generally allowed to compete in female categories if they haven’t received hormone therapy.

    What a fucking joke.

    • Common Tater

      “However, nonbinary competitors who were assigned female at birth are generally allowed to compete in female categories if they haven’t received hormone therapy.”

      That makes sense. Sports should be segregated by sex, not gender.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Quinn was among at least 186 out LGBTQ athletes who competed at the Tokyo Games, according to OutSports. Hiltz hasn’t been the only LGBTQ athlete to qualify for the Paris Olympics so far. Timo Cavelius of Germany will be the first out gay man to compete in Olympic judo, according to OutSports.

    Good for him. There is absolutely no reason gay athletes should not be allowed to participate, against members of their own sex.

    • slumbrew

      100% agreed.

      Greco-roman wrestling is already pretty gay anyway, so they should just embrace it.

  36. creech

    No caption contest on the photo of Hunter pointing something out to Joe?
    “Look, Dad, there’s a little girl whose hair you haven’t sniffed yet.”

    • slumbrew

      *insert Michael Scott cringing gif here*

      • Suthenboy

        Oh, c’mon. She would totally run away with the election if…ugh. Never mind.
        She makes The Hildebeest look genuinely warm and cuddly.

    • Suthenboy

      “…especially not to a fellow ___?___” ?
      Did she say ‘bison’?

  37. The Late P Brooks

    What’ll it be everyone? Freedom and equality, or extremism?

    Give me extremism, or give me death.