The Astros lost, but so did the Mariners. The lead is at 5 games with 9 to go. And I still don’t feel all that confident. The Brewers clinched their division and the Yankees clinched a playoff spot. Cleveland and Philly should clinch in the next day or so. This strikes me as odd. I’d go so far as to say insane, but the dude did win two rings. I just don’t see him as a HOF QB. And across the pond, the first round of UCL games produces some big wins and some crazy fun games. But the biggest shock of all was Man City playing to a 0-0 draw against Inter. Right, now on to…the links!
We’ve finally solved every serious problem. It really makes me happy to know that we’re able to finally dedicate time to the little stuff. Side note: my 5th grade teacher was a direct descendant of the earlier namesake. I wonder how he would feel about this stupidity.
I guess Meek Mill will have to take his bag of cash back home. And put his 55 gallon barrel of lube back in the closet and/or find a new friend to share it with. (Don’t google “Meek Mill Diddy video.” You’ve been warned.) Not sure what LeBron will do with his maid outfit. Halloween is soon, so he may have a new use for it yet.
They finally did the “he was on our radar” meme! It took em a few days, but I had faith in them. I guess they were too bust in 2019 trying to help undermine the current president to have looked into this freaking loon.
This guy definitely had them under his skin. But not in a good way. Jeez.
I’m somewhat surprised at this outcome. Just because of the location.
Yet the union bosses will ignore their concerns. Their reason for not endorsing the man was comical. Their press release said “no majority support for Harris and no universal support for Trump” was the reason they’re officially sitting it out.
It’s like this guy was auditioning for the UN World Food Programme. I guess he wasn’t connected to enough European bigwigs to have passed.
“You must get everything from the state or you will go to jail.” This guy’s as dumb as he is stupid. And his wife slept with Harvey Weinstein. Twice.
Yass, queen! What a great sound. Such an amazing talent. Enjoy them.
And enjoy this lovely Thursday, dear friends.
We’ve finally solved every serious problem. – well that is good you can all relax a bit
Thanks, Pie!
“You must get everything from the state or you will go to jail.” This guy’s as dumb as he is stupid. And his wife slept with Harvey Weinstein. Twice.
That is not a nice way to talk about a future president of the U.S. His wife made the necessary sacrifice.
On our payroll is probably closer to accurate, but po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
They can get this guy queued up next.
I’m surprised it took him five years to make his move.
They really are playing the long game.
This guy definitely had them under his skin. But not in a good way. Jeez.
To be fair, if your gonna say some people suck, Albanians are a good choice.
Albanians are like the Europeans of Europe.
-Americans
^^^
Yeah…I am guessing the complaint is bullshit.
I’m sure the wage theft is real – and equally sure the same happens at hundreds of restaurants across the city.
As for the “hate” – i.e. the only reason this is “news” – they had a longstanding fued with some Albanians. zOMG stop the presses. 🙄
The Albanian mafia managed to steal the attic space above my wife’s apartment that legally belonged to us in the old country.
My thought — what’d the people the Cherokee pushed out call it? How far back are we going to go (probably just this far back — because the Cherokee haven’t got the group guilt… Apologize for Jackson and not honoring treaties? Sure… but this crap is just posturing.
As to what Clingman would think? Probably something more like this….
Morning, Sloopy. Morning, all… Now we know Sloopy’s a secret The Nanny fanatic…
Same. There is with near 100% certainly they massacred some other tribe there.
Huh. Submit button hit itself.
Guilt and shame for being literally-Hitler adjacent?
Millie Helper! https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0346893/mediaviewer/rm395755520
Spalding Gray, of all people, played a shrink on a half-dozen episodes of The Nanny: for the health insurance, I think.
The Cherokee are the most fecund people on earth. Half the country claims cherokee ancestry, so it’s probably OK to start naming mountains using cherokee names.
I don’t care what they call it. I was there in May and it’s perhaps the ugliest overlook I’ve ever visited. I suggest tearing it down and trying again.
Don’t worry Sloopy, the West Coast Teamsters know what’s correct and right!
My biggest takeaway from that was realizing how good the union is at arm-twisting its members when they are sitting in the same room as their union leaders.
Live voting on town hall: Biden with a small lead
Anonymous voting at home: huge Trump lead
Anonymous voting online: huge Trump lead.
No wonder they prefer every vote on whether or not to unionize be done in person by voice instead of secret ballot.
Who needs a secret ballot? What are you trying to hide?
Are the workers allowed to opt out of pro-union propaganda meetings?
Voting? Nah, card check is all that is needed.
Are the workers allowed to opt out of pro-union propaganda meetings?
Generally, yes. Of course, the union gets the roll of all employees so they can send them material. Then they get a list of all employees who attend the meetings and those who don’t so they can give the no-shows the personal attention they so desperately need in order to see how good the union is for both them and the healthy legs of their spouse and children.
The whole situation is both amusing and full of I-hate-everyone-involved.
I don’t know who I want to “win” but I suspect the rest of us are going to lose in the end.
With a no-scope collat like that, EA should be contacting this guy about a COD sponsorship.
*Activision
From the UAW story:
What do they care? Not their money — and you’re just a bunch of deplorables anyway. The CCCP can make the golf carts and the African orphans can mine the cobalt and lithium anyway. Just a New Way Forward into the old serfdom… Progress!
Ford also felt like it had pretty good labor relations compared to its domestic peers. It makes more in the US proper as compared to GM and Stellantis who do more in Canada and Mexico. However, Fain decided to make a name for himself and used them as a template for the UAW’s new contract.
He did a bunch of mini-strikes to make to make their strike fund last as long as possible and inflict as much damage as long as possible at the lowest cost on Ford’s F150 plants. It was both brilliant and evil.
After Ford caved GM and Stellantis quickly followed. However, Ford has said it will move more production out of the US as a result. Win!!!!
What, are we out of Haitians already?
Inter fan, but Man City not raining gols puts a smile on my face.
You and every other civilized human being in the world.
Man City is the proof that capitalism is superior to socialism. Fight me!
I’ve hiked through there several times. I will still call it Clingman’s Dome just like everyone still calls the bridge across the Hudson Tappan Zee.
But it’s Jim Thorpe, PA! Explain that!
Sounds vaguely like chimpanzee, and therefore you are racist for forcing me to think about black people any time a primate is mentioned…
If I call it Cuomo, I start thinking really derogatory things about the wops.
Need to balkanize naming like what was done for Jefferson Davis Highway in Virginia. Three different names: fed, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Now let’s rename N****r Mountain!
Name it after Larry Nasser? The asterisks still fit.
Nagger Mountain
High on the east side of the Kullu Valley, sleepy Naggar was once capital of the Kullu kingdom and is perhaps the most charming village in the Kullu valley.
Mt Evans here was renamed Mt Blue Sky. I was there before and after the change. Mountain looked exactly the same to me.
The drive up Mt Evans is beautiful. Highest paved road in the US, I believe.
When you get to the top, there’s a parking lot for the observatory so you can get out and take in the sights. The little white mountain goats look at you quizzically and utterly without fear. They are just not used to humans and have no reason to panic.
Beats the heck out of the over-touristy Pike’s Peak.
Sketchy but fun, for sure!
We were just up there in July. My dog was fascinated with the goats and wanted to play lol.
It’s shut down for a year or two to redo the road. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to be the guy rebuilding the shoulder!
Pike’s Peak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R757lbCEUjQ
(also, if you want a white knuckle drive, Chinook Pass outside Seattle.)
I drive Red Mountain Pass in Colorado now and then. It’s pretty scary.
Speaking of playoffs
Fredericksburg Nationals win Carolina League championship.
It was minor league odd. Game 2 was rained out so they played a double header of 7-inning games.
Doubleheaders in the Carolina League are always seven innings. I guess to save wear and tear on pitchers’ arms.
Huzzah! Mudcats didn’t do so bad this season, lost to the Nationals in the post season. Would love a Mudcats/RiverDogs match up.
Also in baseball, my Motor City Kitties just swept the Royals in KC. Now just 0.5 games out of a playoff spot.
Rugged Falklands landscape was once a lush rainforest, researchers say
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-rugged-falklands-landscape-lush-rainforest.html
A researcher from the University of Southampton (UK) has found evidence that the treeless, rugged, grassland landscape of the Falkland Islands was home to a lush, diverse rainforest up to 30 million years ago.
A study by Dr. Zoë Thomas, leading an international team of scientists, reveals that the South Atlantic archipelago was once covered in cool, wet woodland—similar to the present day rainforests found in Tierra del Fuego, off the tip of South America.
Detailed findings of the research are newly published in the journal Antarctic Science.
Tens of millions of years ago, the climate in the South Atlantic was much warmer and wetter than today, and capable of supporting a rainforest environment. This would have been cooler than tropical rainforests we might typically think of—such as the Amazon rainforest—but still able to support a rich, diverse ecosystem of plant and animal life.
Many of the tree species growing on the Falklands at the time of the Tussac House sample are now extinct, but would have seeded on the islands by being carried on the prevailing westerly winds from rainforests that covered much of the southern hemisphere, including what is now mainland South America.
Scientists can’t be sure what led to the eventual demise of the islands’ rainforest and the transformation to peatlands, but it’s reasonable to speculate it was due to a change in climate and a move to colder and drier conditions.
Damn dinosaurs and the SUVs they love.
Nonsense – humans are to blame somehow. They must’ve pushed the islands out of a temperate zone!
“Scientists can’t be sure what led to the eventual demise of the islands’ rainforest and the transformation to peatlands, but it’s reasonable to speculate it was due to a change in climate and a move to colder and drier conditions.”
Stories like this are always announced with sensationalism followed by lots of chin tugging…how could this be?
Ir reminds me of a spoof headline from way back – “Shocked Scientists discover beavers eat wood!”. No shit.
How about “Shocked scientists discover that the earth is a super dynamic place and every part of it has been dry, underwater, hot, cold, forest covered, bare, here, there, high, low, volcanic, not volcanic, mountain, plain etc, etc. at one time or other. Every form of life we can conceive of and many we cant filling every niche we know and many we dont know has existed. This has happened over and over and over again. The overall climate has been hot, cold, wet, dry, stormy, placid, transitioning warm to cold, transitioning cold to warm and so on, over and over again. Repeat: The earth is an extremely dynamic place. What we see today is only going to be present for the blink of an eye as it is always changing. All of it is driven by the sun, also a very dynamic place.
Shocking.”
Nice rant!
My Chef’s Kitchen Is Full of Trash Items
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/my-chefs-kitchen-is-full-of-trash-items-words-language-speech-industry-f684b6f8?st=7ohoaB&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPZKz8RGeyc
(Six paragraphs constitutes an article?)
The Replacements – Waitress in the Sky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EgPLBzGHAw
Stewardess speaks jive: film at eleven.
“Stewardess speaks jive”
Ha! that is the first thing that popped in my head about one sentence in.
High-grade masks evidence weak, Covid inquiry told
If only there was a consensus of 98% of scientists. That’s how you really get to the truth of scientific matters.
A stronger totem has more protection from bad juju, an no one can say different.
I hope you are getting a piece!
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bonobos-co-founder-andy-dunns-new-startup-aims-to-defeat-social-isolation-d90460e4?st=JTDuVQ&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
there are hearing from my lawyer
Sensei, from what he has said, Pie hasn’t gotten a “piece” in a while.
including blisters and breathing difficulties
The proven hazards of long term mask use (any mask) were completely memory holed.
Remember that guy who “tested” masks by vaping through them? He was DEBUNKED because you know, the big droplets are blocked or something like that.
big droplets are blocked or something like that.
And they are! But that has fuck all to do with the transmission, either as source or sink, of an airborne respiratory virus. Seems to be a common thread in ‘debunking’ and ‘fact checking’ – fact check something that can be superficially associated with the posed question if you don’t think it through and use that false association that you’ve generated in peoples minds to dismiss truth as “mostly false”
The droplets also never made much sense. Everyone is being infected with a highly contagious disease that requires being splatted in the face with droplets?
Have you not seen a zombie movie? They either eat you or throw up on your face and then you become zombified.
It’s not a controversial issue. Security blankets do not work. We wish they did, but that is different than actually working. We have known this since the beginning of time. Security blankets do not under any circumstances, provide security. They do not keep you safe. They have not kept you safe in the past, they dont provide safety today and in the future carrying a security blanket around will not save you.
Ditto for masks.
The fucking scamdemists have already admitted that not one single measure forced on an ignorant and panicked population provided anything but zero effect. We also knew this for more than 100 years before they stirred up the panic. Now they are pretending they never admitted it so they can bring it all back?
These people should burn in hell.
So you’re saying Charles Schultz has been lying to me.?
C’mon, Man, say it ain’t so…
Gavin Newsome’s totally real, not illegal, campaign ads.
https://x.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1836518555648692570
Huge ass tweet, warning
My son who has been “top 3 naughty kids” at his 2 previous schools absolutely thriving after a month at the private gifted school
He’s reading on his own, writing legibly, advanced to a higher level of math, taught himself chess, speaking basic Spanish, regularly imparting science facts & asking increasingly astute questions. There has been nothing but praise for his abilities & temperament when I speak to his teachers
Now, he wasn’t the violent kind of naughty, he was a class clown that experienced acute bouts of frustration & he was bully bait who got physically assaulted by other children on a regular basis. I could see what was happening, he wanted the “cool kids” to like him & the more he tried the more they picked on him. (The irony is he is so much cooler than them, handsome, personable, well spoken, cool skills & interests, nice clothes & toys). His little 5yr old brain simply couldn’t figure out why these kids didn’t like him
He started having anxiety symptoms, chest pains, chronic stomach pains, regular hives rashes, bags under his eyes, refusing to eat. The pediatrician had us testing for everything, even for leukemia
So we were diving off the cliff of “emotional regulation” techniques in coordination with the school, before I realized it all seemed so very wrong (I was dubious from the start tbh but I drank the koolaid for a minute there) & after many meetings with the school counselor I knew we were headed straight for some kind of behavioral disorder diagnoses
Neither of his schools were bad schools. First was a private Montessori, where he talked too much in class, couldn’t resolve to participate in Circle Time & abhorred the learning songs. This was a daily problem. I loved Montessori as a kid, but it clearly was not for him
The second was a very well rated charter with many unique features & programs, mainly in areas his dad is very interested in, so we tried the Dad Option, also a bust
https://x.com/AniseNot/status/1836390693402468653
Euro schools are not really good but I have the impression – no hard data – there is less physical bullying than US schools, I assume it is a cultural thing
Ehhh… Keeping in mind I’m several decades out of school, physical bullying was a thing back then. It was around 4th grade I think the grade school started implementing punishing both parties in a fight instead of determining the instigator and punishing them. To say there was unintended consequences is an understatement.
Unintended?
https://frinkiac.com/caption/S05E18/283949
European children are made of finer clay?
I was bullied once or twice in 7th grade, and never again. Despite being a pretty easy target.
It’s not the only way that reality was very different from what is portrayed in TV shows and movies.
7th grade for me too. I remember his name, and if I ever come across him, I will be hard pressed not to take a 2×4 to the back of his skull.
Reading comprehension is way down today. I thought you said “I was bullied once or twice in 7th grade, and never again. Despite being pretty.”
Obligatory.
De rigueur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwaI_DXCDw
(The irony is he is so much cooler than them, handsome, personable, well spoken, cool skills & interests, nice clothes & toys)
I don’t think the kid is the source of all of ‘his’ problems.
Connecticut baby-shower guest on early Sex and the City: “My son is a god, and I tell him so daily.”
Depends on the school and locale, I suspect. In the city I grew up, there were schools where there were fights literally every week (Rogers, North Central), some of which ended up devolving into knifings, and then schools where a fight was so rare as to be newsworthy.
Yeah, it’s possible my school (a small “magnet” school) was an outlier. The big compressive high schools in my city were more known for violence than my school was.
“comprehensive”, even
NEW: Nearly 100,000 Swing State Voters Potentially Received Wrong Ballots Due to ‘Administrative Issue,’ Election Officials Say
https://x.com/ElectionWiz/status/1836730290577764855
eh only the counting matters, in the end
The vampire isn’t wrong.
Our country is more corrupt than his!
*waves tiny USA flag*
I wonder what was “wrong” with them – missing Trump, say?
Possibly not pre filled out for the Aldi Obama.
“no majority support for Harris and no universal support for Trump”
That’s not a double standard at all.
I changed my mind – Trump won the debate. Can’t remember a single meaningless thing Harris said. Meanwhile “Eating the Cats” is being performed live and has changed the immigration debate.
https://x.com/TheKiffness/status/1836675203486896315
She did the cunty vice principal scowl and lied about very fine people. That’s not a win?
The grimaces looked weak and defensive to me. Although my ballot choices inverted would nearly always be good bets.
Reporter this morning on news: Harris shows a lead in the polls in Nevada?Pennsylvania? (they talked about both at the same time so I cant remember which).
Reporter goes to gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores etc and can only find one person who supports Harris.
It is almost starting to look like poll results are pure bullshit propaganda.
*Remembering Biden saying outright he was not worried about what people thought because they had the biggest voter fraud scheme in history. Then that just disappeared like he never said it.
The focus groups all showed independents moving to Trump after the debate, yet somehow Harris is picking up ground in the swing states?
Bullshit.
Scholars in support of the Moraes Brazil decision against X
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/09/scholars-in-support-of-the-moraes-brazil-decision-against-x.html
Signed by Acemoglu, Zucman, Varoufakis, Cory Doctorow, Morozov, Mazzucato, Piketty, and many others. Somehow no one is talking about this petition and its embrace of censorship?
Ah Cory Doctorow winner of multiple Prometheus Award for libertarian SciFi
Doctorow, like Scalzi, has written some really libertarian-themed things. But they’re total statists IRL.
Doctorow is an outright communist.
I haven’t read him but I’m reminded of Stephen King.
His books are full of characters who behave in ways he completely rejects in real life.
Honestly, I hope that’s true of a lot of authors. Stephen R. Donaldson certainly leaps to mind first….
lol I did not have in mind the characters who behave like assholes.
Speaking of the Prometheus Award, I read 2024 nominee “Theft of Fire” while on vacation and enjoyed the hell out of it.
3 chapter preview – https://read.bookfunnel.com/read/h6gjdipcpw
Neat. Will check out.
Want something new. I have been reading The Expanse series for like two or three years now and I am still only on book six (?). I just don’t have the time/inclination to plow through books like I used to – not since I quit smoke breaks and don’t commute.
I had a couple of 6 hour flights to fill; on the way out I finished “The Captive’s War” – start of a new series by the Expanse guys.
“Theft of Fire” was way more of a page turner. Looking forward to the next ones (5 total planned, I believe).
I am sooooo far behind on all my favorite authors it sickens me.
No reading Olympics medals for you!
Nor mini pan pizzas.
Bruh, I feel you.
I’m hoping that the Glibcruise provides some nice uninterrupted reading opportunities…
Homesteaders shouldn’t depend on power tools.
If you want to be truly self-sufficient and/or prepared for an emergency, you cannot rely on machines that constantly need fuel, oil, and replacement parts you can’t produce yourself.
https://x.com/RedVelesov/status/1834645710060368095
lol at the community note
Irony of posting about how to live primitively on X.
Prepare for a collapse by burning all your time up on tedious manual tasks.
Of course, on the list of replacement parts you can’t produce yourself is . . . hand tools.
What, your land doesn’t have coal and metal deposits you could use to forge tools?
I have a whole shelf on the apocalypse bookcase, dedicated to books and manuals on building machine tools from core components.
I have the foxfire series in the attic somewhere. Rats have probably gnawed on them.
yeah, I caught that before scrolling down. Dude never sawed anything in his life.
Missing: “It is also vitally important to dress period correct.”
Boeing has what we call “a problem”.
https://www.wsj.com/business/boeing-furloughs-white-collar-workers-as-strike-worsens-cash-crunch-2c37ca8d?st=7KGAKh&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
“The jet maker will furlough affected employees for one week out of every four weeks for the duration of the walkout, Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg wrote in a memo to employees Wednesday.”
It’s not complicated. If your religion pushes the totalitarian message that all truth and revelation converges on one god, single-point political authority hierarchies seem natural and the whole apparatus of political totalitarianism is easier to establish and maintain.
Conversely, if your polytheism tells you that there are multiple paths to spiritual insight – that nobody has a monopoly on divine truth – you’re equipped to be more skeptical of single-point authority hierarchies.
It’s even better when inventing new gods as needed is an accepted part of the tradition. This is actually rather common in polytheisms.
None of this is just theoretical. A pattern we see over and over in the evolution of religions associated with empires is a shift from polytheism to henotheism to monotheism, with the power of the one God being increasingly identified with and legitimizing the absolute power of the one emperor.
In fact, the first religion to invent totalitarian monotheism – Zoroastrianism – seems to have evolved that doctrine explicitly in order to function as a mechanism of absolute political control to be wielded by the god-emperor of Persia.
It’s a really short straight path from there through Christianity and Islam to Marxism. Yes, thousands of years, but almost no psychological difference at all.
It’s harder for you to see this because you live after the Enlightenment broke and humbled Christianity. But the totalitarian potential is still there, ready reassert itself when conditions permit.
https://x.com/esrtweet/status/1836374657991127201
I think this has a bunch of wrong assumptions. polytheism does not always say there are more paths, and totalitarianism has been present all over the world. Marxism may be a heresy of a heresy of a heresy of Christianity though.
ESR is sorta channeling Nietzsche. Zarathustra was specifically aimed at Zoroastrianism (since it is presumably the oldest).
The failure in this analysis is the caste system of India and the polytheism dominant there. Maybe not “totalitarian”, but certainly no less rigid.
Yeah, I suspect there is a rabbit hole of self-confirming definitions underneath that article. I don’t think it would be at all difficult to come up with a long list of polytheistic absolute monarchies of various flavors, up to and including the Roman Empire.
Just come out and say you hate religion because you are a libertine.
I hate religion because I’m a libertine.
What do I win?
*hands ES a soccer participation trophy*
One 55-gallon drum of lube.
STEVE SMITH WILL BRING PRIZE.
“What are the three things you’d bring with you if you were exiled to a desert island?”
“A soccer participation trophy, a 55-gallon drum of lube, and STEVE SMITH.”
Historically illiterate codswallop for the most part. Totalitarianism is the norm across cultures and societies since we have meaningful records regardless of religious tradition or lack thereof.
It’s remarkably fortunate – providential, perhaps, if that’s your persuasion – that Marx was a raving edgelord atheist, because his critique of capitalism is lifted straight from St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, St. Ambrose of Milan and the Didache, with appropriate adaptations to 19th century industrial society. If he’d embraced Christianity instead of insisting on a new post-religious materialist dialectic, capitalism would be a footnote in 19th and 20th century history.
I’d like to think that it would just be another flavor of Christianity that somehow evolves to the point where the Bible is an afterthought. Would be interesting to see if it would have been as successful as fomenting revolt in countries if it was a religion. It does also lead to the question if it would have stopped the offshoots of Marxism or if they would have been seen as splinter groups.
That’s the scary bit though: it would have been a 2nd century revivalist movement, not a bastardization of historical Christianity. Economically, the early Christian church was, in the most charitable possible characterization, “communalist,” and the early church fathers, drawing on the teachings of Christ, despised the rich. Lending at interest wasn’t even permissible until the 19th century when the church realized the divine power of compounding on the colossal pile of cash and assets on which it was sitting.
Unquestionably it would have in the West. The reason the proletarian revolutions never took off is because too many of the proles nursed aspirations of upward mobility (‘false consciousness’ of course), and the Enlightenment had made that sort of ambition acceptable. The intelligentsia of Marx’s era had been long since de-Christianized, but it hadn’t quite died out among the proles. An eat the rich religious revival, by which the proles’ piety is pitted against the avarice of the bourgeoisie, would likely have been much more successful than “You’re too stupid to know what’s good for you, just trust me, everything is so terrible and unfair!”
Pat – the Cathar heresy (reaching back to the early Church for inspiration) was put down, brutally, by the princes of Catholicism. Capitalism, and hence Marxism, are enormously dependent on the intellectual ferment of the Reformation. That same Reformation is the at the core of our modern notions of individualism and liberalism.
True enough, but the church’s warmaking capacity in the 19th century was wholly inadequate to suppress a revival of religious communism as a political movement, and after its loss of power in the West, there’s a good chance it would have embraced some, eh, “reforms,” if you will.
Pat:
I’m well aware of the actual socialism of the early Christians/Catholics. It was something that was brought up and discussed frequently through Catholic school, especially by the more conservative teachers just to point out how and why it failed.
I can see a church started in the name of Marxism going in several different ways. Would it reject a rigid hierarchy, or would it strictly define one? Would it evolve through internal strife, or calcify with splinter groups breaking off later on?
Would be an interesting idea for some alt-history stories.
Poor ESR. Sidelined by the leftist tech bros.
“Supporters of Donald Trump say they’ve suffered from mysterious eye injuries after sitting behind him at his rally in Tucson last week.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13867101/Mystery-Trump-supporters-experience-odd-medical-condition-Arizona-rally.html
If it’s not bullshit, what could have caused it?
Lasers. ISTR you can still get eye damage from non-visible lasers.
There was (pretty severe) skin irritation and I want to say breathing problems, as well, and the eye damage sounds more like some kind of chemical (pepper spray-ish). It’s been pretty persistent as well.
Worse eye damage. There’s no pupil contraction reflex with lasers that don’t operate in visible wavelengths.
I saw that in the local news. From the video I saw, it doesn’t look like bullshit. A number of people on stage sitting in one group have similar complaints (and they are pretty severe). Even people in a group on the other side of the stage didn’t have anything. I don’t think it’s bullshit, it’s very strange, and nobody has any idea what could have caused it (that I have seen).
Obvious first thought — was personal pepper / bear spray allowed through security? If not — was there a member of security around that area so equipped? And has anyone checked for leaks?
Second tin-foil thought… failed chlorine gas attempt? (Check under the bleachers?) Given all the other stupid attempts and all…
But I think first thought / simplest explanation will turn out to be the case.
Only if the Left really, really can’t meme will they fail to have something about OMB visiting a restaurant with a hot pepper challenge earlier in the day and the affected folks directly to his rear (as it were)….
Donald ate at Taco Bell and was a little gassy.
OMG… I read like the first 20% and I realized it’s a novel. It’s not paywalled for me, but maybe my read articles at The Atlantic has reset.
The Insurrectionists Next Door
Ashli Babbitt’s mother and the wife of a notorious January 6 rioter are at the center of a new mythology on the right. They are also my neighbors.
By Hanna Rosin
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/10/jan-6-capitol-attack-ashli-babbitt-dc-residents/679563/
Rosin is (((AWFL)))
“One online campaign group named One Million Moms were so appalled by it they launched a specific campaign against it to get it removed from their screens.
The disgusted campaigners labelled the commercial as ‘highly inappropriate’ and are petitioning for the ‘vulgar’ marketing campaign to be cancelled.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13866297/Wild-Willies-controversial-panty-dropper-commercial.html
CWABOA
Fine. Can we also drop the ad with that tatted-up chick shaving her bikini area?
And the ad for a whole-body deodorant that starts with “Your undercarriage smell like an old barn?”
I am with you on that. Hate it.
Wild Willies is undoubtedly rightly ashamed, and will refund all of the additional orders they got as a result of this added free publicity…
^^THIS^^
Thanks, Karens!
The most notable symptom of the real new pandemic turns out to be a stick up the ass. There is a lot of that going around these days.
“While incarcerated at the Correctional Industrial Facility in Madison, Cordellioné began identifying as transgender and started taking synthetic estrogen and an anti-androgen spironolactone, which stops male hormones from working, according to Reduxx.
Cordellioné has requested surgery that would build her a vagina, as well as providing breast implants, a brow lift and reduction, a tummy tuck, gluteal implants, a uterus transplant, hair removal, and wigs, according to Reduxx.
Despite the requests, Young is only demanding an orchiectomy, which removes the testicles, and a vaginoplasty, which constructs a vagina.
Cordellioné is also involved in another lawsuit, as she identifies as Muslim and has sued for being denied a hijab by the prison chaplain.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13865593/Deep-red-state-pay-transgender-baby-murderers-male-female-surgery.html
OFFS!
I’m sure some of the other inmates would be happy to help with that orchiectomy.
I fervently hope that someday the country will look back on this period of time and wonder how in the everloving fuck was everybody so goddamn batshit insane.
“Dr. Jay Varma sat by the side of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio for the whole of the Covid-19 pandemic, delivering instructions to New Yorkers during every morning’s 10 am press briefing. He told us to stay inside, to not see friends, to not go to church—that was an order from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office—he told us to stay away from parks, wear masks, and ordered us all to get vaccinated. But what was Dr Varma doing that whole time? While schools were shut down and people lost their jobs and sirens blared all day and night? He was taking drugs and having sex parties with his friends….”
https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-new-york-citys-covid-czar-attended-drug-fueled-pandemic-sex-parties-while-forcing-new-yorkers-to-stay-home-mandating-vaccine
CWAA
All together now….
The Versailles courtiers and the Ancient Greeks and Romans could only have dreamed of these levels of decadence without consequence.
The courtiers of Versailles ended up with consequences. Only those who died before they could be guillotined escaped them.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I managed quite well without it. Oh, he’s a raging asshole but it was very easy to avoid the worst of the totalitarianism.
Oppose ALL renaming in the US.
Every single instance of it is Proggie year-zero revolution stuff.
Every. One.
Locally, I’ve not had a single personal even question me dropping my fandom for the Cleveland Guardians due to the name change. It’s an accepted thing up here.
Ironically, the name change has caused an upswing in Chief Wahoo gear being worn out and about, and especially to games. Lots of people still have gear, and there’s plenty of bootleg Wahoo stuff going around now that there’s no legal venue to purchase any. Wahoo had generally been phased out by even the fandom up until the announcement of the name change (as part of an agreement to host the All Star game). For several years, the only place to get any licensed Wahoo gear was at the team shop at the stadium (the girlfriend has a shirt she got there with Mickey Mouse wearing a Wahoo).
One of my favorite renaming fiascos:
Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis was renamed Bde Maka Ska. But the lake happens to sit on Calhoun Parkway, which obviously cannot be easily renamed. The consequence is this lovely piece of dissonance.
Fuck the renaming. Not one in a million Minne residents could even tell you who Calhoun was.
Bonus points for making it impossible to pronounce.
Yeah, that one was ridiculous.
As you may know, Tundra, Squaw Lake north of Emily, had to be renamed. Became Little Emily. Original, huh?
When the state forced jurisdictions to change the name of Jefferson Davis Highway or they will do it for them, Caroline County said fuck it. We’re officially naming it U.S. Route 1.
Original, huh?
These people are so retarded it’s not even any fun to dunk on them.
Not Florida. Surprising. Also, understandable.
Would-be passenger who attacked Arizona TSA agent over apple juice gets 4 months in prison
https://nypost.com/2024/09/19/us-news/arizona-woman-who-attacked-tsa-agent-over-apple-juice-gets-four-years-in-prison/
Florida Man would have been over orange juice?
Learn journalism?
Tech Jobs Have Dried Up—and Aren’t Coming Back Soon
Employment for software engineers has cooled as resources shift toward developing artificial intelligence
https://www.wsj.com/tech/tech-jobs-artificial-intelligence-cce22393?st=y1kePx&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
That said the WSJ doesn’t do well because with the first paragraph:
Ahh, yes marketing. The most tech of tech jobs.
I remember hearing how the cloud was going to eliminate all of the IT jobs 20 years ago…
Before the cloud it was offshoring.
Turns out, 3 cheap employees somewhere else are not a drop in replacement for one more-highly-paid good employee
Pictured.
I bailed early but didn’t see any mention of the armies of talent in eastern Europe et al. that seem to be filling a lot of those entry-level jobs that “disappeared”.
Ironically, the name change has caused an upswing in Chief Wahoo gear being worn out and about, and especially to games. Lots of people still have gear, and there’s plenty of bootleg Wahoo stuff going around now that there’s no legal venue to purchase any.
Nice. I have wondered about that. Are they going after people for violating the trademark they no longer use?
Likely. But these are the street vendors and the like, so a little harder to serve with a trademark infringement case. Especially when the stock changes, and there’s no clear name/business identity there. The established places, just make references, with a single feather being a standard symbol.
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 09/19:
*23/23 words (+12 bonus words)
📖 In the top 1% by bonus words
I played https://squaredle.com 09/19:
*31/31 words (+17 bonus words)
📖 In the top 12% by bonus words
🔥 Solve streak: 625
dropping my fandom for the Cleveland Guardians due to the name change.
Who wants to root for a team named after some crappy socialist newspaper from Limeyland?
Such a shithole
The health system in the U.S. is failing, a startling new report finds.
The U.S. ranks as the worst performer among 10 developed nations in critical areas of health care, including preventing deaths, access (mainly because of high cost) and guaranteeing quality treatment for everyone, regardless of gender, income or geographic location, according to the report, published Thursday by The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group.
Based on the new findings, people in the U.S. die the youngest and experience the most avoidable deaths, even though the country spends nearly twice as much — about 18% of gross domestic product — on health care than any other nation ranked.
We’re going to have to put up fences to keep people from fleeing.
Let’s talk to Canadians and Limeys about how that’s working out.
Until we go back to a retail system this will never work. Also, burn Big Food and Big Pharma to the ground.
Preach on!
who can provide counsel and advice
STOP RESISTING!!!
This.
*snips rant*
Hmm, why would costs be high in a third party payer system?
“Startling”. 🙄
Been hearing the exact same my entire life from all sides.
I was given to believe that Obamacare fixed all of these problems.
So, they’re saying Obamacare was a dismal failure?
“No other country in the world expects patients and families to pay as much out of pocket for essential health care as they do in the U.S.,” Dr. Joseph Betancourt, the president of The Commonwealth Fund, said on a call Wednesday discussing the new findings.
Ironically, the steep price people pay doesn’t guarantee superior care.
</em?
No kidding. How do you even find a doctor who isn't a cargo cult idiot? The doctors' union has done everything possible to shield their members from qualitative assessment.
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/about-us
Yes, why would we ever expect people to pay to improve their health?
$200/mo in streaming services, sure, but $200 a couple times a year for blood work is just barbaric.
How do you even find a doctor who isn’t a cargo cult idiot?
I would take a look through here first:
https://covid19criticalcare.com/providers/
Operation Grim Beeper. Snort.
Thursday’s report also listed solutions to the country’s health care problems, including lowering the cost of care and expanding access to coverage.
“The shortcomings of the United States are clear from this international analysis, but so are the opportunities for change,” said Reginald Williams II, vice president of the International Health Policy and Practice Innovations program at The Commonwealth Fund.
And then the Medicine Fairy waved her magic wand, and they all lived happily ever after.
But they had the best of intentions!
How Pediatricians Created the Peanut Allergy Epidemic
https://www.wsj.com/health/how-pediatricians-created-the-peanut-allergy-epidemic-952831c4?st=Kxttoh&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
“Hi, my name is Chase, and I’ll be your waiter. Does anyone at the table have a nut allergy?”
My two Johns Hopkins students from Africa, Asonganyi Aminkeng and Faith Magwenzi, looked at each other, perplexed. “What is it with the peanut allergies here?” Asonganyi asked me. “Ever since I landed at JFK from Cameroon, I noticed a food apartheid—food packages either read ‘Contains Tree Nuts’ or ‘Contains No Tree Nuts.’” He told me that even on his connecting flight to Baltimore, the flight attendant had made an announcement: “We have someone on the plane with a peanut allergy, so please try not to eat peanuts.”
“What’s going on here?” Asonganyi asked. “We have no peanut allergies in Africa.”
I looked at them and smiled. “In Egypt, where my family is from, we don’t have peanut allergies either,” I said. “Welcome to America.”
I know people now realize that lack of exposure early on leads to the allergies; can adults slowly overcome the allergy by exposure or there are some sort of age where it’s too late?
There are some people that argue for that for other allergens and some people wind up dead or hospitalized for anaphylaxis. I don’t know about peanuts.
From my minimal reading it seems like the developing immune system is critical. For example I read a study that having at least two cats in the house growing up lead to a reduction cat allergies in adults.
There are treatments for people with allergies that will allow them to tolerate them. I know it’s been done specifically with peanut allergies. There’s also a fairly substantial group of kids that outgrow their peanut allergy as well.
Spoonful of local honey may or may not help with local allergies but you’ll feel better none the less.
Not a word about vaccines, huh?
I wonder which country has the highest number of shots on the childhood vax schedule…
Funny that! My wife said her doc who is all in on vaccines made no mention to her about a COVID booster.
To me that’s a big tell.
“not only because everyone is covered and can see a doctor when they need to, but because they have a long-standing health care provider who can provide counsel and advice and treatment and prevention of common conditions.”
That was particularly precious. What bizarroland fantasy world is he living in?
Have any of you read Mark Manson? My friend who does cataloging at MSU got to do “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” and passed the title & description along when I expressed interest.
He has a more recent book, “Everything is F*cked.” I’ve got both books on hold at the local library.
Curious about others’s reactions.
I download some of his podcasts. But then I just end up listening to Carvey and Spade, or Carolla.
What Happens When a Hospital Vaccine Injures You?
This is a horror show.
We have this weird conditioning now where people think vaccines aren’t risky. Even 40 years ago everyone recognized it was a risk and reward proposition. Worth the risk to not get polio in 1955 – probably. Worth the risk for most of the stuff on the latest schedule – no.
“FBI and other US intelligence agencies revealed that Iran attempted to share stolen material it had hacked from the Donald Trump campaign with people who worked on the Biden-Harris campaign and is continuing to send material to media outlets. Trump slammed Kamala Harris in response, saying “She and her campaign were illegally spying on me.”
The FBI announced in a joint statement with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), “Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails.””
https://thepostmillennial.com/trump-slams-harris-for-illegally-spying-on-him-after-fbi-reveals-iran-tried-to-share-hacked-material-with-her-campaign
If I were Iran, I’d prefer Harris to Trump.
Safe and effective
Americans can now renew their passports online, bypassing a cumbersome mail-in paper application process that often caused delays.
The State Department announced Wednesday that its online renewal system is now fully operational, after testing in pilot programs, and available to adult passport holders whose passport has expired within the past five years or will expire in the coming year. It is not available for the renewal of children’s passports, for first-time passport applicants for renewal applicants who live outside the United States or for expedited applications.
“By offering this online alternative to the traditional paper application process, the Department is embracing digital transformation to offer the most efficient and convenient passport renewal experience possible,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
,/em>
Why do I assume there will soon be a story about millions of passport applications being hacked?
What a shell Scientific American has become.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-what-the-manosphere-gets-wrong-about-cuckoldry/
I don’t want to say they’re not worse now… because of course that’s ridiculous, but…
..
I used Scientific American for reports in school throughout middle school, high school, and college in the 80s and 90s.
I recall just about every bit of science I had to use has turned out to be nonsense.
So, to be fair, it’s not like they were ever right before.
At some point, the (social) scientific method became the systematic torture of data until it confessed the desired conclusion.
a baseless moral panic that harms both women and science
Obviously.
Besides providing a more accurate picture of human behavior, paying more attention to variation can serve as an antidote to the nefarious co-optation of knowledge that feeds the online underbelly of Internet pseudoscience.
Believe all crackpot theories.