Thursday Morning Links

by | Aug 1, 2024 | Daily Links | 221 comments

Girl power, my ass. I’m just kidding. This is absolutely a travesty and I feel sorry for the women being forced to participate in this nonsense. Two weeks from soccer. Four weeks from football. We’re almost there…almost there. Oh, and the Astros stopped their three game skid. Hooray. Now on to the links.

I hope they throw this guy in Gitmo. This has become a trend among leftist nut jobs. If you’ve got twitter, you can (probably) even see Sadbeard doing it in the DC area. I can’t because he blocked me for mocking him over it a couple years ago.

Speaking of Gitmo, there may be a few vacancies soon. I guess we’ll never know since the plea deal has so far been secret, as was the entire process. What a travesty. this should have been tried in an actual court at least a decade ago.

“The President and the White House played no role in this process,” the spokesperson said. “The President has directed his team to consult as appropriate with officials and lawyers at the Department of Defense on this matter.”

That’s just fucking great. Either they’re lying or they really have no idea what’s going on.

Wow, squatters rights in the UK are even worse than here. Why not just act like a King and kick the bum out? Jug-eared pussy.

That’s some fine police work there, Lou. I guess the new head of the SS and the FBI second in command can come back before the Senate and blame local cops again, even though this is literally the primary function of the feds that were on site.

What the fucking fuck? At this point, I think it’s safe to question what the hell our DHS and ICE are actually doing with the money they’re budgeted.

This story, which I’d already forgotten, gets more bizarre by the minute. I guess I’ll wait to see what the next chapter brings.

Good riddance. This shithead gave in to the mob during the Urban Meyer/Zach Smith fiasco (even though Meyer followed University policy to the letter) and gave in to every mob on those California campuses for the last 9 and a half months while Jewish students were harassed, bullied, and treated like second-class citizens.

Then we should expect mass firings and resignations, right? Yeah…riiiiiiight.

Let’s do some more one-hit wonders today. This was a catchy tune. It’s aged fairly well, in my opinion. The video has not. Both song and video have aged well here. Enjoy them both.

And enjoy this lovely Thursday, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

221 Comments

  1. Pat

    I guess we’ll never know since the plea deal has so far been secret, as was the entire process.

    We can find out the terms of the plea deal at the same time we get the Pfizer COVID vaccine data.

    • sloopyinca

      Get in line. I’m still waiting on the Fast & Furious document dump.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Or the JFK document dump

      • Not Adahn

        Roswell?

      • dbleagle

        Vegas shooter videos and report?

  2. Pat

    I guess the new head of the SS and the FBI second in command can come back before the Senate and blame local cops again, even though this is literally the primary function of the feds that were on site.

    I thought the primary function of the feds on site was to make sure the autismo had an unobstructed line of sight and sufficient time to get a shot on target. They don’t make ’em like LHO anymore.

    • sloopyinca

      I should have added “theoretically” to that, I suppose. But yes, what you said is looking more accurate by the day.

      • Suthenboy

        So, the people that swore they would get rid of Trump by any means tried to get rid of Trump?
        Huh.

    • Drake

      I’d like to see the SS explain why they skipped the morning meeting that day with local law enforcement. Seems inexcusable.

      • sloopyinca

        According to the see USSS head, the meeting took place earlier. But there are no recordings or minutes of the meeting available.

      • juris imprudent

        Considering that the presence of just one federal officer tends to mean he is in charge.

      • Drake

        According to everyone else, the meeting took place without any feds.

  3. PieInTheSky

    Girl power, my ass. – the Italian is a bigot and should be banned from the Olympics.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      This probably the only way this madness tapers off. A few public woman beatings might take the shine off the tranny fad.

      • rhywun

        This.

        After the fight, the Algerian Boxing Federation gloated about Khelif’s victory, posting on Facebook: ‘Congratulations to the Algerian boxer Iman Khalif, who responds strongly in the ring and qualifies for the quarterfinals, after defeating the Italian Angelina Carini in less than 46 seconds, effortlessly.’

        I wonder what the reception from Algerian officials would be like if he were fighting as a gay dude.

      • The Gunslinger

        I advocate for Ms Khalif to be made to get in the ring and box the Italian men’s heavyweight boxer.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I’d settle for a man in “her” weight class.

    • PieInTheSky

      also there was a pegging joke to be made in there and I missed it.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Never the pegger, always the peggy?

    • Ted S.

      Gotta love how the Mail makes sure to include a bunch of social media glamour shots.

    • Necron 99

      I still say, “Punch her in the nuts*!”

      *I don’t know if the “transition” included snipping those off.

      • Common Tater

        What transition? That’s a straight up dude.

  4. OBJ FRANKELSON

    Then we should expect mass firings and resignations, right? Yeah…riiiiiiight.

    Oh, you silly billy.

  5. juris imprudent

    I’ll never be on deBoer’s side politically, but he can I appreciate his slide into curmudgeon-hood.

    This all reflects a pitfall that pretty much everyone falls into, but which is particularly hard to avoid when your side of the partisan divide controls most of the media: playing to those within your coalition rather than those who you might be able to drag into it. All of the winking, self-impressed meme politics going on right now are useful if you want to win the day on Bluesky but profoundly useless if you want to herd many of our dumbest voters onto the Democratic party’s pasture. If Harris is going to win, the absolute last thing she should do is to run a meme candidacy like that presided over by Robbie Mook in 2016, where Hillary’s agenda took a back seat to a never-ending procession of glamorous celebrity photo ops and a wince-inducing attempt to make the candidate into America’s cool grandma. In many ways, during the 2016 general election it felt like the primary never ended for the Democrats, the party seemingly certain (as I was) that Trump could not win and Hillary determined to match Barack Obama in inspiring the base, which was simply not what she needed to be focusing on. These strategic mistakes were not the reason that Hillary lost, but they played directly into her biggest weakness, which was how her underlying unpopularity fit squarely into the perception that Democrats came from a different strata of life than swing voters. You can’t fix that by disappearing further up the ass of popular culture. (If you’re over the age of 25 and you catch yourself earnestly discussing whether something is “brat,” please find Jesus. Or heroin. Or Dianetics. Whatever it takes to change your life.)

    • Not Adahn

      I am such a curmudgeon I find FdB dreadfully dull and unoriginal.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, tapped out after a couple paragraphs – and the mourning the lack of mob rule in our system.

      • EvilSheldon

        He’s definitely a latecomer to understanding the problem, but he’s phrased it in some original ways.

      • Not Adahn

        One of the problems with being pre-internet and then being part of the Eternal September/Usenet cohort is you’ve seen a whole hell of a lot that younger generations think they’re inventing.

        I see VERY few original ideas. Even things like “motte and Bailey” are just renamed/popularized variants of well trod ground (Lewis Carrol wrote about it ffs). Probably the most egregious example is the whole “rationalist” crowd thinking that they’re the first people to learn about Bayes’ theorem.

    • Pat

      “Nobody I know voted for Nixon!”

      • PieInTheSky

        I thought your neighbor Michael voted for Nixon.

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

      FDB knows a lot about mental illness, has done a fair amount of research on education, even though I don’t agree with his conclusions, and is a complete naïf about politics. But his biggest sin? He is a blow hard. Seriously, he needs to hire a ruthless editor, and knock about half of that to the trash heap.

      I will admit, I do love the irony of a “communist” who makes his money solely due to the free market, and bought a house in the suburbs from the filthy lucre.

    • Nephilium

      something is “brat,”

      I have just one response to this.

  6. Not Adahn

    So, for anyone who’d been following the USSS hearings, has the following question been asked:

    Who gave the shoot/no shoot order and why are they not here to answer questions about it?

    • Pat

      The chain of command disappeared along with the audio recordings of the radio chatter.

      • Bobarian LMD

        “We were merely advising”

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      I wonder if we will get a detailed timeline of who was doing what, when.

      Given that it seems to be all hands on deck to memory hole the entire thing. I’m guessing that’d be a solid ‘no.’.

      • sloopyinca

        Kind of hard to have a detailed timeline when there are:
        1. No minutes or recordings of the pre-rally briefings by USSS to state and local support units
        2. No records of any comms used that day
        3. No ability for Congress to question Fed employees under oath who were actually there.

        The only people even willing to share info with Congress have been state and local police. And they’re doing so very delicately since the Feds are pressuring them to only cooperate with their official investigation.

    • sloopyinca

      They’re never going to let a single person there that day sit before a committee. It will exclusively be the higher ups in those chairs to act indignant when congresscritters demand people be fired for their incompetence (at best), and to deflect criticism as much as possible to the state and local police onsite.

      • Drake

        Yep – which will just feed the assumption that it was a setup. Purposely left huge gaps in security so Crooks (and maybe others) could get off some shots. Then made sure he was good and dead.

      • sloopyinca

        I was driving all day Tuesday and caught most of the hearing on the radio. All the new head of USSS and the FBI guy did was blame state and local cops, saying that was their job and they failed. And every time someone questioned that narrative with statements from the state/local cops they said they’d have to get back to them.

        They also said they’ve been completely transparent and that anybody who would question them is questioning the loyalty of law enforcement everywhere and they won’t even dignify that with a response.

        Hell, they still haven’t even given Congress the names of the agents there that day or said who was in charge of the operation because it would interfere with their internal investigation. So of course it’s going to look like a giant coverup of…something.

        And to me that “something” is looking more like a deliberate failure than it is incompetence. And they’re gonna go out of the way to lay the blame at the feet of local cops to cover their tracks.

      • R C Dean

        It looks like a cover up because it is a cover up. The only question is whether they are covering up for incompetence on collusion.

        Until Congress grows a testicle and starts putting pubsecs who refuse to cooperate in jail until they do, this won’t change.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Contempt and jail time is only for non-federal employees.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        “…grows a testicle…”

        So we are openly calling for Hitler’s return now!!!!???11!

  7. PieInTheSky

    I have a post drooping today but I may or may not be able to jin the comments much as I have an airplane trip to the land of decent-but-inferior whiskey.

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

      You are going to Scotland?

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

        Oh, wait, they don’t even make passable whiskey, just rancid gasoline.

      • PieInTheSky

        I have been to Scotland beginning of July. Great Malt. Though I do remember there were some troglodytes on this site who had the audacity to suggest Irish is better than Scotch.

      • Nephilium

        PieInTheSky:

        There’s some entertaining history about the rivalry between Irish and Scotch whisk(e)y. Long story short, Irish distillers were proud, ignored a new technology, the Scotch snapped it up (as it was more efficient), Prohibition gutted the Irish distillery market (through loss of sales and lots of counterfeit product being passed off as Irish), Scotch whisky rose to prominence.

      • EvilSheldon

        Irish whisky better than Scotch? Even I wouldn’t sink that low.

      • Nephilium

        EvilSheldon:

        Have you had any of the Midleton before? It’s my default top shelf that I always have on hand.

      • PieInTheSky

        I have had the Midleton it is very good but not worth the money for my taste

      • Gustave Lytton

        Scotland would be whiskey.

        I think he’s finally visiting Tennessee.

      • EvilSheldon

        Neph – I have! My little brother gave me a bottle of Midleton’s for my birthday a few years ago. It was good, but I agree with Pie here – it’s not worth the ask.

        My house whiskys these days are Tullamore DEW for Irish Coffee and Whisky Sours, Glenmorangie 12 La Santa for beginners, Lagavulin 16 Distillers Edition for Islay fans, and Glendronach 18 for close friends.

      • rhywun

        You know you’re getting old when all the TV commercials are for dick pills and Medicare plans.

      • Bobarian LMD

        And they’re all talking directly to you.

    • Homple

      How about incompetent collusion?

  8. Ted S.

    Urban Meyer is as honest and virtuous as Jim Harbaugh.

    • juris imprudent

      “It’s not wrong when we do it” isn’t just a political slogan.

  9. Pat

    Telling jokes in private can now land you in prison

    We wouldn’t put people in prison for swapping obscene remarks in private, would we? In England, at least, the answer to that question is sadly yes. The High Court confirmed as much last week, in a judgement that ought to worry everyone who believes in liberty.

    Five years ago, seven Metropolitan Police officers shared some very nasty messages in a private WhatsApp group. These included racial slurs, celebrations of rape and jokes about disabled people. Although normally no one would have been any the wiser to these comments, the members of this particular group were unlucky. One of its members was Wayne Couzens, who raped and murdered Sarah Everard in 2021. After Couzens was arrested, the police found the messages on his phone.

    In 2022, two members of the WhatsApp group were prosecuted and convicted under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003. This law makes it a crime to send ‘grossly offensive’ messages over a public-communications system. Each member was sentenced to three months in prison, though both appealed. Last Friday, the convictions and sentences were upheld by the High Court.

    […]

    They argued that Section 127 prohibits the use of a publicly provided service for the ‘transmission of communications which contravene the basic standards of our society’. According to the ruling, private WhatsApp groups fall under a ‘publicly provided service’ because they use the internet – a public network – to transmit messages, even if those messages are themselves private.

    The court admitted that its ruling means that the law could also criminalise a private phone call between two people exchanging, say, racist views. Let that sink in. Even private conversations are now in scope of the speech police.

    • PieInTheSky

      We need mind reading technology so we can jail for bad thoughts.

      England is truly a shithole. Too bad about the beer being so good.

      • Nephilium

        Meh. US beer has surpassed European beer.

      • juris imprudent

        We need mind reading technology so we can jail for bad thoughts.

        The sentence that launched ten thousand leftist boners.

      • PieInTheSky

        lol I had a good laugh

      • rhywun

        I have to keep reminding myself that England is no longer the quaint land I used to see and read about when I was a kid.

        Hell, most of Europe too.

      • Ted S.

        The problem is, it’s still beer.

    • Not Adahn

      Ummm, it WASN’T in private! They were using the public internet!

      I would have a much less severe reaction to punting them from their police jobs, much as I’d have no problem firing any LE who demonstrates scorn for the people they’re policing and/or the concept of rights.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17y2Eke4niU

    • R C Dean

      What was a rapist and murderer doing in a private law enforcement messaging group, anyway?

      Oh, he was a cop. Never mind. Carry on.

    • Homple

      East German joke.

      Erich Honecker, last DDR ruler, is chatting with Erich Mielke, head of the Stasi.

      Honecker: I have a hobby. I collect the jokes people tell about me.

      Mielke: I have a hobby, too. I collect the people who tell the jokes.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      They argued that Section 127 prohibits the use of a publicly provided service for the ‘transmission of communications which contravene the basic standards of our society’.

      Then we should probably jail the media for broadcasting a man beating up on a woman at the Olympics, all the while calling him a her.

      I think that qualifies as contravening the standards of our society.

    • Not Adahn

      Did anyone ever justify why USG considered WNBA chick “wrongfully imprisoned?” What’s the penalty for smuggling the same amount of drugs into the US?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Depends, will the person score any political points for or against your opponent?

      • Urthona

        Wouldn’t be classified as drug smuggling under US law. Not enough.

      • Not Adahn

        So I can bring drugs through customs without getting into trouble? I have extreme difficulty believing that.

      • Urthona

        You’ll be in trouble and perhaps sent back to your home country as a foreigner, but you won’t be imprisoned for smuggling.

  10. Brawndo

    The Italian boxer should have just kicked her opponent in the crotch to prove her point.

    • Not Adahn

      If you’re not going to win, get DQ’s with style!

      • Homple

        For an example, see the Hemingway short story “Fifty Grand”.

      • EvilSheldon

        Hey!

    • Urthona

      yeah. dq’ed either way.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      ‘I wish her to carry on until the end and that she can be happy. I am someone who doesn’t judge anyone. I am not here to give judgements.

      ‘I simply entered the ring to fight and to fight for my dream. It didn’t happen. Evidently, God and my father wanted this and I accept it.

      ‘I am not in the position of saying this is right or wrong. I am not. I did my job as a boxer, entering the ring and fighting. I didn’t manage to, but I am exiting with my head held high and with a broken heart.

      She has no point either.

      • Brawndo

        True. I can’t blame someone for not wanting to stick their neck out into a controversial subject, even if they were victimized by it.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        It’s because she’s afraid to say the unsayable.

        She can’t come right out and say fuck this bullshit. She’d be pilloried and perhaps even blackballed.

        When she yelled “This is unjust” as she fell to her knees in the ring, is when she let everyone know where she’s at. The rest is what she is and isn’t allowed to say.

  11. rhywun

    This has become a trend among leftist nut jobs.

    Maybe I’m missing something but why is bringing attention to the fact that cops and political officials routinely escape the rules the rest of us have to follow a “leftist trend”…?

    • EvilSheldon

      6/10.

      • dbleagle

        3/10 poor job

  12. Suthenboy

    I have some bits of general advice that I sometimes give out given the situation. One of the best is “Never defer to someone who has nothing to lose by being wrong.”

    ‘Having nothing to lose’ is the modus operandi of government. Worse, one does not defer to government because that is not an option given the tacit approval of enough people and the force granted by them to government. That is the root of every problem in today’s links. It isn’t so much that bad decisions were made, it is that no one will be held accountable for them.

    I have to single out the sicko tranny boys in girls sports. That is not being done because of lack of accountability, poor judgement or. incompetence. That particular problem is pure malice. The point of critical theory is to destroy all institutions and more’s in our culture. To extinguish the candle of the enlightenment. Any institution, in this case organized women’s sports, that builds individual character is being deliberately destroyed and short of pitchforks and rope no one will be held to account.

    • juris imprudent

      See, I’m not so sure that this isn’t the logical outcome of the Enlightenment versus extinguishing it. There certainly is no precedence prior to the Enlightenment that suggests this is a plausible course for a society to go.

      • Beau Knott

        Well, if you ignore the March of Athens through the Aegean, the March of Rome through Europe, the various marches of Buddhism across Asia, the marches of Christianity across Europe, and then the world, maybe.
        Yes, the parallels are not exact, but consider just Christmas and Easter vs the Biblical texts. Or Buddhism in the East.
        Yes, the Enlightenment surely boosted technocracy-as-a-mode-of-being. But it is not unique in shaping culture considered against, e.g., religion. It’s just been far more successful at enabling human thriving. Perfect? Hardly.
        But when you stand amidst the ashes of the Enlightenment, where, then, shall you turn?

      • juris imprudent

        I wasn’t arguing about it being unique in terms of shaping culture or as against religion – it does after all have it’s own belief system; which is why it is in conflict with Christianity (primarily though not exclusively).

        The point is, we aren’t reverting back to some prior form – this is the Enlightenment perhaps unfolding as ab asurdum.

      • Beau Knott

        An article laying out your thoughts on this matter, the chains of logic involved, would be of value.

      • juris imprudent

        Fair enough. Some of my thinking is – the Enlightenment is not some thing frozen in amber (as seems to be a common interpretation), and the seeds of its own contradictions are bound to grow and reach fruition.

    • Suthenboy

      The essence of the enlightenment is embodied in the idea that individuals are ends in themselves, not means to an end. We, as individuals do not serve institutions. Those institutions are created to serve us. (Fuck JFK)
      Individualism necessarily includes personal accountability for one’s actions. I would say that making people immune to the consequences of their actions is a hold over from barbarism where ‘justice’ meant might makes right.

    • rhywun

      Bats are cute unless they get bitey.

      • Not Adahn

        Supposedly it’s dangerous, but we used to pet hibernating bats when we’d go caving. They are amazingly soft.

      • Homple

        Good way to catch rabies.

      • Fourscore

        As a kid I killed many bats in my bedroom. They would wake me up, flying around, I kept a tennis racket beside the bed. It would take several swings but I’d eventually slam one into the wall. On some occasions there would be two or so. Old and poorly built houses have lots of places for them to want to hide.

      • Grummun

        Good way to catch rabies.

        There was a recent minor crisis in Ohio. A group of summer campers (Boy Scouts? don’t recall) were exposed to bats and the local hospitals were scrambling, calling all around the state, to get enough doses of the rabies vaccine.

      • Suthenboy

        Bio 2001: mammalogy
        I got sick of learning about bats and rats…that is 80% of the class.
        Prof on bats – “Always assume every bat has rabies. The disease does not affect them and they pass it around like party favors when they are packed together squabbling over the best spot to roost. ”

        I have no innate fear of bats…rabies is a different story. Get vaccinated and wear protective clothing.

  13. PieInTheSky

    “This Is What Democracy Looks Like”: Chavismo’s Next Phase
    Professor Jodi Dean’s Reflections from Caracas

    https://progressive.international/wire/2024-07-30-this-is-what-democracy-looks-like/en

    Shortly before midnight on 28 July, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that — with 80 percent of the over 20 million votes counted — the trend was irreversible: Nicolás Maduro had been re-elected president of Venezuela.

    According to the CNE, Maduro received 51.2 percent of the vote, while his primary opponent, the little-known Edmundo Gonzales, received 44.02 percent. With that result, it was clear that the Venezuelan majority chose to continue the project of Bolivarian socialism introduced by Hugo Chavez at the end of the nineties. Recognizing the economic turn-around of the last two years and proud of their achievements in building 5.1 million housing units, securing food sovereignty, and deepening communal democracy, Venezuelans re-elected Maduro for a third six-year term.

    • Urthona

      Nice

    • juris imprudent

      OK, you can’t blame X for that – you dug that up all on your own!

      • PieInTheSky

        some one needs to bring some progressive thought to this place.

      • R.J.

        I appreciate it. Look at how the fraud was explained away. And people will buy that.

        Someday you will have to write a post about what it is like to watch mankind fail over and over again through the centuries. Dictating it to Anne Rice is beneath you.

    • rhywun

      Blech I need a shower after reading a couple paragraphs of that.

  14. robodruid

    WRT assassination attempt…

    Does Trump realize he was setup? How will that change his plans?

    • cyto

      Anyone who looks at that pac-man shaped security zone that specifically excludes the high ground with a direct line of site to the speakers podium and doesn’t immediately suspect a setup is completely brain dead.

      • mindyourbusiness

        Put someone with sniper experience on the podium before the event, have him check out the sight lines, post guards/counter-snipers in the appropriate places. And then, bring another person up and have them re-check those observations.

        Was this done? And if not, why not?

  15. DrOtto

    I’m much more OK with terrorists targeting Quantico than I am another World Trade Center incident. Bring your fight to those you have beef with and I’ll respect you more.

  16. Richard

    Greetings from my family cottage in North Nowhere Vermont:

    https://www.ourherald.com/articles/on-the-road-to-camp-randolph/

    https://www.ourherald.com/articles/a-visit-to-camp-randolph/

    It’s my brother’s annual two week sojourn and I came up to overlap the stay of a favorite Aunt. My mother is also here.

    So far the evenings have been the four of us on the cottage porch trying to cool down after the typical Summer heat and humidity. The cooling down process is assisted by refreshing drinks ending up (for my Aunt and me) with wee drams of the Water of Life. She brought a 1.75 liter bottle of Johnnie Walker Black and I brought a bottle of The Macallan 12 which at $100 is the most expensive bottle of liquor available in Vermont, at least at my small town’s tiny State liquor store.

    I’ve been exercising my restraint. My mother is a died-in-the-wool Progressive Vermonter and my brother is, in my humble opinion, unaware that he’s confused. He hates Donald Trump and is contemptuous of the bearers of MAGA caps, which means he’s going to have to exercise some restraint himself this evening when we go to a County Fair demolition derby.

    But he also hates the new stadium being constructed for the Buffalo Bills football team with the assistance of $1B of New York State money. He has not yet made the connection between his (political) team and what they do. I don’t think he ever will.

    But the time I was most quiet was when the discussion turned to the Late Great Pandemic. The number of immunization shots was not mentioned because it didn’t need to be. They’re all fully up-to-date. But the number of test-positive infections was mentioned and was two or three per. I literally had nothing to say on either subject. I thought my silence was conspicuous but by that point we were all lubricated enough that I don’t think they noticed.

    • Sensei

      Funny enough all the people I know who had COVID had the most amount of shots.

      • R C Dean

        After the first round of boosters, it seemed like anybody I talked to at the hospital where I worked who had a nasty case of COVID was fully boosted. Naturally, their thought was “Thank God I was boosted or it would have been even worse!”.

      • Urthona

        I had the original vaccination and I get it once a year.

        Multiple kids in various activities.

        But the vaccine is the only reason I’m not dead 6 times over and In thankful for that.

      • juris imprudent

        Too bad you couldn’t sell them on a COVID repelling rock.

      • Ted S.

        To be fair, part of it is that they’re still testing.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Barely testing; now they just analyze wastewater. Seriously might as well crack some eggs in a bowl and divine this shit.

      • Ted S.

        I meant the people getting multiple “infections” are the ones taking the rapid tests over and over.

        The only time I took covid tests was when my dad was in the rehab facility for his hip fracture and it was required for visiting him.

    • juris imprudent

      Stadium stupidity tends to be very bi-partisan. Youngkin was all in on that in VA.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        I have a hard time picturing Trump turning down an opportunity to build a stadium. A big, big, beautiful stadium.

      • Sensei

        With jobs, lots of good jobs for good people doing good things for good people.

    • Mojeaux the Lazy Yenta

      He has not yet made the connection between his (political) team and what they do.

      They never do. This is The Problem.

      • Fourscore

        The Republican team isn’t aware either.

        Trump trying to buy old people’s votes by not taxing SS. Not a thought that the problem is SS.

        If 35 T debt isn’t a problem how much is a problem?

      • juris imprudent

        Trump knows how to clean up unmanageable debt – bankruptcy!

      • Mojeaux the Lazy Yenta

        Trump knows how to clean up unmanageable debt – bankruptcy!

        The original Too Big To Fail.

    • Gustave Lytton

      which at $100 is the most expensive bottle of liquor available in Vermont, at least at my small town’s tiny State liquor store

      😢

      • juris imprudent

        The VT Liquor Commissars are saving the people from the ruthless exploitation of expensive liquors! Only the commissars will suffer to indulge.

    • Ted S.

      Note again the metacontext that of course it’s acceptable for lefties to insert politics everywhere and into anything, but not OK for non-leftists to do so.

  17. cyto

    The IOC needs to be more transparent on the women’s boxing controversy. As far as I can tell, the original source of the “these 2 boxers are men” story is a statement by the head of the IBA. The statement does not specify which boxers, and several were disqualified during that event.

    Here is an autotranslated version of the original story with the statement.

    MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. The International Boxing Association (IBA) leadership has excluded athletes who tried to pass themselves off as women from the list of participants in the Women’s World Championship in India. This was announced to TASS on Saturday by the organization’s president Umar Kremlev.

    The Women’s World Championships are taking place in New Delhi from March 15 to 26.

    “Based on the results of DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to deceive their colleagues and pretended to be women. Based on the results of the tests, it was proven that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from the competition,” Kremlev said.

    • cyto

      Several years ago there was an African runner with a similar controversy. She tested high for testosterone, but insisted that she was not taking testosterone.

      There were insistances that she take a gender test.

      I think it turned out that she was some form of intersex – with female parts but also internal testes? Not entirely sure about that.

      The supporters of the Algerian boxer are claiming something similar. She has hyperandrony which results in high testosterone, but is a female from birth.

      The lack of clear communication from officials on this is leading to some pretty nasty results. Either way, they should just say what is happening.

      • Urthona

        the x and y chromosome thing should be a pretty clear cutoff tough

        But yes it’s worth noting that the boxer is not transgender and maybe our early nut kicking jokes done apply

      • Nephilium

        Urthona:

        Fine.

        “I don’t know you! That’s my purse!”

    • Mojeaux the Lazy Yenta

      Of all the things they could’ve tried the transgender thing on, it’d be boxing. 🙄

      • PieInTheSky

        Rugby would have been better

    • Not Adahn

      “Somebody scaring you isn’t worth killing over!”

    • juris imprudent

      Knife vs. machete? Light rail stations must be interesting places in Minnesoda.

    • Drake

      Retreat all the way out of Minnesota.

    • kinnath

      This is what I was taught when I got my non-resident MN permit to carry 5+ years ago.

      Was the court just saying “we really mean it”, because this should not be new.

    • Gustave Lytton

      No duty to lie back and think of Minnedsoda?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Is repositioning your stance to square yourself to the threat considered an attempted retreat? “Your honor, as I began to retreat, there was no other option”.

      • Fourscore

        “People confronted with danger must try to find a way to safety before brandishing a weapon in preparation of self-defense,”

        “I don’t have many options to find but I accidentally had a 357 in my pocket, your honor.”

        Seriously though, there’s not a lot of ways for geezers to move to safety unless one uses the Bernie Goetz method.

      • Ownbestenemy

        It is just a repackaged notion of “Shouldn’t have been wearing a short skirt then”.

    • The Last American Hero

      Is this what they mean by Minnesota nice?

    • R C Dean

      Duty to retreat is horseshit. It may be, and often is, the smart thing to do, but the notion that you should always back away from a clear and present threat is taking the position that you have a moral obligation to cede power to an aggressor.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Yesterday I logged in to my bank account to pay my AmEx bill. I was denied access: outdated browser. To be honest, the only real surprise is that it took this long. I guess I’m going to have to fire up the Windows desktop machine which I have not used in about three years. First I have to review the procedure for blocking updates. Otherwise it will probably go on a prolonged update binge.

    I blame Mojeaux.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I didn’t realize your ancient browser is why you cannot do threading.

    • rhywun

      If you’re going online, you probably want those updates. Unless you have your own up-to-date firewall and anti-virus stuff.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Why is Trump so obsessed by Harris’ racial provenance?

    The questions for the coming days and weeks are more fraught. What will Trump – a leader of the racist “birther” conspiracy movement against former President Barack Obama and someone who saw “very fine people” among the neo-Nazis and White supremacists who marched on Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 – say or do if Harris maintains or even accelerates the momentum driving her candidacy.

    Harris – the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother who was raised in Oakland and attended a historically Black university – would be the first woman, the first woman of color, the first Black woman and the first Indian American elected president if she triumphs in November.

    Why can’t he see her purely in terms of her character and competence, instead of this weird fixation on meaningless superficial genetic characteristics?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Was he a ‘leader’ of the birther nonsense?

      “very fine people” – well…I guess even if it has been proven and even your Golden Calf of Fact Checking had to admit it, sure, run it some more.

      I am getting a very Bro vibe from all those firsts.

    • PieInTheSky

      Truly a mistery

      • Urthona

        They were beautiful, these gorillas in the mistery.

    • The Other Kevin

      I was on the fence about this, until I heard it this way: Democrats are all about identity politics, and she’s portraying herself as different things depending on her audience. That’s a fair criticism.

      • Urthona

        “Trump falsely claims Harris recently became black”

        Headline from about 15 different news sources yesterday missing that he was joking about her racial opportunism.

        Still, though, Trump has decided to wing each and every interview without preparation. This could be so much easier.

      • Drake

        I think it hilarious that the Jamaican side of her family owned a plantation with slaves. The more they talk about her racial makeup, the worse it makes her look.

      • Sean

        Headline from about 15 different news sources yesterday missing that he was joking about her racial opportunism.

        And in the clip I saw, he got some laughs out of it.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah clearly was highlighting how she was Indian-American when campaigning for Senate and now is Indo-Jamacian-Southern-Mexican(Pretty sure she will throw that in at some point)-Jewish-Hmong

        Also, I think it was a good move. To stereotype here a bit, but from the black people in my tiny circle, they are very in your face and don’t like no punk bitch.

    • Gustave Lytton

      a leader of the racist “birther” conspiracy movement

      The movement started by the Clinton campaign?

    • Homple

      The reason for Kamala’s current position is precisely her superficial genetic characteristics.

      The writer agrees by calling her “the first woman of color, the first Black woman and the first Indian American elected president if she triumphs in November.”

      Trump himself could not make it any clearer.

      • Urthona

        “Trump himself could not make it any clearer.”

        Gonna have to strongly disagree with this statement.

      • rhywun

        All true but only certain people are allowed to talk about it.

        Like everything else in American politics.

      • R C Dean

        The thing is, the trick about identity politics is that identities are necessarily mutually exclusive. Your racial or ethnic identity’s purpose is to distinguish you from people who don’t have that identity. Saying she is both Indian and black is simply admitting that her claimed identities are actually superficial and opportunistic.

        Poking away at her history of claiming the Indian identity is a good way of pointing out to black people that she ain’t one of them, and when she claims to be, she is trying to con them. “Geez, if you’re going to run on your racial identity, seems like you should pick a team, already” isn’t a bad way to point up the essential phoniness of Harris, which is her fundamental weakness.

  20. Gustave Lytton

    I hope they throw this guy in Gitmo. This has become a trend among leftist nut jobs.

    On the other hand, apparently king’s men are the main “victims” because they can ignore the license plate law with impunity.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I think Sensei said it best yesterday, I think. I am conflicted.

      Screw you Government, do some old fashioned police work and you know, call the license plate in if you suspect the vehicle and/or passenger of something. Screw you Government for skirting laws. I guess I am not conflicted, my anger clearly has a target.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    The candidate, addressing a historically Black sorority event in Houston hours after Trump comments on the panel, ticked off her usual talking points from the top. Then, with a wry smile, she pivoted to her highly anticipated rejoinder.

    “This afternoon,” she said, pausing to let the buzz heighten, “Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists and it was the same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect. Let me just say, the American people deserve better.”

    She continued, “The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth. A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us. They are an essential source of our strength.”

    Moments later, Harris was back on message, warning of a “full-on attack on hard fought hard won fundamental freedoms and rights” by Trump-aligned Republicans, who have danced around questions but not uniformly rejected a federal abortion ban. (Trump has said the decision, per the 2022 Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, should be made by the states.)

    He’ll put you back in chains.

    We must be united and resolute in our hatred of Trump and all things MAGA.

    • Homple

      Next thing you know she will be a poor little black girl on a school bus.

      • creech

        A bus that segregationists, like Joe Biden, protested against driving to a white school.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Harris supporters, led by a handful of potential running mates, praised the tone and content of her response.

    “This guy (Trump) is a homophobe, a xenophobe, he’s a racist and misogynist. But here was just a perfect example of it for the American public to see,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker told CNN’s Anderson Cooper late Wednesday. Harris “doesn’t need to take him on directly. The rest of us can see it for ourselves and we’re going to talk about it.”

    Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, one of the leading contenders to be her vice presidential pick, told reporters on Capitol Hill that Trump’s comments in Chicago were those ”of a desperate, scared old man who is, over the last week, especially, is having his butt kicked by an experienced prosecutor.”

    “He’s done this before, he’s not going to change,” Kelly said of Trump. “Pretty obvious to me why he’s doing this.”

    Her white knights will defend her to the death.

  23. Gustave Lytton

    So the other day, there was a quote from the International Energy agency about air industry not meeting climate change goals and buried in the many things they should/could do was “demand reduction”. These fuckers are opening talking about rationing or restricted air travel to the right people.

    (Why TF is there even a need for an international energy agency? Kill it now)

  24. The Late P Brooks

    I think it hilarious that the Jamaican side of her family owned a plantation with slaves. The more they talk about her racial makeup, the worse it makes her look.

    Just imagine the squeals of outrage if some white journalist AMBUSHES her with a question about that. I can’t wait.

    • kinnath

      Lead with “Are you proud of your family heritage on the Jamaican side?”

    • Ownbestenemy

      Is it POUNCED then AMBUSHED or vice-versa?

    • creech

      Guess what — everyone of us is descended from both slaves and slaveholders.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Good news, everyone!

    Ukraine has received its first batch of long-awaited American-made F-16 fighter jets that will help the country fight back against Russia’s superior air power, according to news reports.

    A top advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Mykhailo Podolyak, said he would neither confirm nor deny Ukraine had received the F-16s. Other Ukrainian officials were similarly tight-lipped.

    However, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on X, quote, “F-16s in Ukraine. Another impossible thing turned out to be totally possible.”

    The tide will turn, Shirley. Victory is in our grasp.

    • Sensei

      Ahh, sorry Ukraine. All our F-16 spare parts are going to Israel because of the impending hot war with Iran.

    • Sean

      I’m sure some scrapper will be happy finding the wreckage.

    • slumbrew

      “Annnd, they’re gone”

    • Rat on a train

      Nyu York is saved!

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine says it needs more than 100 of the US-made aircraft to effectively counter Russia, which has a well over 1,000 of its own fighter jets.

    Sure, why not? It don’t cost nothin’.

    • creech

      First one was delivered this week. Odds on how long it will last? Ukrainian pilots just trained will probably be going up against ace Russky pilots.

  27. Not Adahn

    Has anyone else seen this update to the Tehran kablooie?

    https://archive.is/PNN3a

    • Sensei

      When bad things happen to good people.

    • juris imprudent

      Oh, so not a missile/drone after all?

      • Not Adahn

        More or less badass for Mossad to sneak in and plant bombs?

        Of course, why would Mossad have an easier time than a rival Arab group?

      • The Other Kevin

        More badass. How would they know 2 months in advance he’d be put in that guest house? Either that was decided ahead of time and they found out, or someone inside put him there. Or maybe he’d already been staying there?

      • kinnath

        My guess is that they knew it was a safe house and waited for a high value target to show up.

      • R C Dean

        Wasn’t he banging his mistress there? So, yeah, I think it was set up well in advance so when he did show up, they could pull the trigger.

        Makes you wonder how many other buildings in Tehran have been prepped in a similar way.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Hmm. Seems like a nice pretense to ramp up the war…

      • Drake

        If Israel wanted peace, they wouldn’t have killed the two guys to negotiate it with this week.

      • Not Adahn

        Since literally every “peace plan” starts off with “Leave Hamas in power, give them everything they want to rebuild, then Israel gets some corpses back” why the fuck would they want that?

        You get more of what you reward, less of what you punish.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I was dropping that Iran had every reason to off this guy on their own in their own guarded palace.

      • WTF

        If Israel wanted peace, they wouldn’t have killed the two guys to negotiate it with this week.

        If Israel wants peace the only way to get it is to kill all of Hamas’ leaders and completely destroy Hamas’ will to fight.
        This was a good start.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Listen to the experts, you ignorant baboons

    Vermont is flooding. Not just yesterday, two weeks ago and a year before that, but experts say the state could see catastrophic events like these for the foreseeable future.

    Climate change is fueling stronger, more persistent storms and the state’s infrastructure is feeling the effects in villages along the Green Mountains’ rivers and streams, which carry a huge amount of water.

    ——-

    Extreme flooding conditions like these are often the result of random, short-term natural weather patterns heightened by long-term, human-caused climate change.

    With climate change, storms are forming in a warmer atmosphere, making extreme rainfall a more frequent reality. The additional warming that scientists predict is coming will only make it worse, with the Northeast U.S. among the regions vulnerable to heavier rains in the future.

    ——-

    A study last year in the journal Climate Change found that extreme precipitation in the Northeast will increase 52% by the end of the century. One of the study’s authors, Jonathan Winter, an associate professor of geography at Dartmouth College, also took part in research that found there had been a 50% increase in extreme precipitation events from 1996 to 2014.

    Angry gods must be placated. Sacrifices must be made.

    • rhywun

      So the authors are rushing to China to tell them to stop building so many coal plants, right?

    • Richard

      This morning 90% of the Google News articles with the “Vermont” keyword were about flooding. The hype is going to make the state government spend tons of money litigating this:

      https://www.npr.org/2024/06/08/nx-s1-4992065/a-law-in-vermont-makes-fossil-fuel-company-pay-for-damages-from-climate-change

      I foresee it going to the Vermont Supreme Court which will rule that yes, in fact, the state does have the authority to fine/tax fossil fuel companies. Then I foresee the fossil fuel companies pulling out of the state when they appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Vermont has more than 7,000 miles (11,300 kilometers) of rivers amid rural roads that wind past sweeping vistas and treasured ski resorts. Its residents are scattered down dirt roads that run miles into the wilderness, many with streams flowing through their property to bigger rivers. Big mountains give way to deep valleys with rivers and streams throughout.

    Vermont is a third world country. Send in the Peace Corps.

    • Sensei

      Maybe see if Canada wants it so the people there can have free healthcare?

  30. grrizzly

    WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich Is Free
    Release of 32-year-old American from Russia secured as part of largest East-West prisoner swap since Cold War

    Russia freed wrongly convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as part of the largest and most complex East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, in which he and more than a dozen others jailed by the Kremlin were exchanged for Russians held in the U.S. and Europe, including a convicted murderer.

    Gershkovich and other Americans left Russian aircraft moments ago at an airport in Turkey’s capital, Ankara. Russia had kept the 32-year-old behind bars for more than a year on a false allegation of espionage. It sentenced him in a hurried and secret three-day trial to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

    Moscow also released former Marine Paul Whelan, journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British-Russian dissident and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, sentenced to 25 years in prison on treason-related charges. Russia also released a number of political dissidents.

    The sweeping deal involved 24 prisoners and at least six countries, and came together after months of negotiations at the highest levels of governments in the U.S., Russia and Germany, whose prisoner, Russian hit man Vadim Krasikov, emerged as the linchpin to the arrangement.

    I’m happy that Gershkovich is free but “wrongly convicted” and “a false allegation of espionage” are a bit too much. The main job of the US media domestically is to disseminate the narrative concocted by the US intelligence community. But their foreign correspondent would never engage in investigative reporting that’s barely distinguishable from spying in a hostile country that the US is de facto at war.

    • Sensei

      Serious question. How many “credentialed” Russian journalists working for a major media outlet in Russia has the U.S. arrested?

      By background I’m actually sympathetic to some of the stuff Russia has had to deal with, but by my readings in English this was straight up state sponsored extortion.

      • grrizzly

        The closest comparison to Gershkovich is not a Russian journalist but Julian Assange whom the US and UK governments deprived of freedom for more than a decade. As for Gershkovich, here is some information about what he was reporting about.

      • WTF

        I think it’s pretty much a certainty that the CIA was using Gershkovich as an asset. The Russians knew it, and the wanted their guys back so they grabbed ours to set up an exchange. This shit’s been going on for decades.

      • Sensei

        There is the rub. Guilty or not he was valuable as means to a prisoner exchange.

    • creech

      A spy or not? I don’t think we can completely rely on his “I’m not a spy” or the U.S. Government’s “He’s not a spy” narrative. Just because he is a legitimate “journalist”, we can’t assume he is telling the truth.

      • WTF

        He may not be a member of the CIA, but I bet the CIA was using him as a convenient asset.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Probably. All the incentives are there for particular “marginalized” groups to cash in their victim bucks.

      Bur on the off chance that is is genuine it seems like a bad idea structure our society based on what assholes do.

    • Not Adahn

      “In MAGA country, Love wins fag!”

  31. Necron 99

    [blockquote]One of the customers declined to leave a tip, instead writing the word “f-g” on the tip line.[/blockquote]

    Someone needs a fig leaf to cover their shame?