Monday Morning Links

by | Dec 16, 2024 | Daily Links | 204 comments

The Bills beat the Lions in a great game. The Steelers lost to Philly while the Ravens won, so the division comes down to next weekend. Across the pond, Man City completely collapsed in the last few minutes and lost to their crosstown rivals. The wheels appear to be coming off for Pep. Now just need the FFP decision to come down and really destroy their season. Liverpool fought for a tough draw with 10 men for most of the game. And that’s pretty much it for sports.

I feel terrible for those poor countries. Imagine them being stuck taking their own people back home. And the “we don’t have the capacity” claim is extra ironic, seeing as all those people were there just a few years ago. The whole piece is a sob story based on the Biden admin actually deporting people and suppositions on what may happen in a couple months to a few years.

This is interesting timing on her part. Gee, I wonder why she is just opening up her mouth now.

This defamation case might be more fun than the ABC one. I can’t wait to see how it ends.

This gets better by the day. The dumbasses didn’t even vet the guy they “freed?”

What did they expect to happen? Oh well, this is just more “flavor of the city” stuff, I guess. Perhaps they can tell people to keep their head down and mind their own business, like they do ion the subways.

They’re gonna be one smaller in a couple weeks. How’s that for some math, you shrill, grifting asshole?

I’m kinda surprised they got through to begin with. Misunderstanding or not, they’re doing this guy a favor by having him take the plates off. Somebody’s gonna fuck that “truck” up.

I want to see peace between these two. They’re both wonderful and the world needs them to get along.

Here’s some girl power. Such a great song. But this one is even better. Just look at Clem go! Amazing. Anyway, enjoy them both.

And enjoy this lovely Monday, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

204 Comments

  1. cavalier973

    Then there’s the video of a father asking his small child if they want to say hi to Piss Jugman, only for the kid to turn away screaming.

  2. Toxteth O'Grady

    Why is The Tide Is High so rarely mentioned these days?

    • slumbrew

      Because it’s a cover? I dunno.

      • Ted S.

        You need a more convincing explanation. Toxteth isn’t the kind of girl who gives up just like that.

      • Chafed

        That and their original music is so much better.

    • Drake

      Because the Blondie version was released 44 years ago?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Least remembered, then.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Because we’re moving on?

  3. Not Adahn

    Does the “excerpt” feature not work anymore? I’d ordinarily assume that I’d fucked it up the last couple of weeks, but it looks like all the posts now just grab the first few lines for the front page.

    • slumbrew

      Yes, temporary issue that Tonio mentioned the other day.

    • Swiss Servator

      We have a number of things being worked on, behind the scenes here at Glib Central.

      Now, if we could get STEVE SMITH to leave the delivery trucks alone…

  4. juris imprudent

    heavily reliant on remittances from the U.S.

    Yeah, there’s the real issue for Central American countries.

    • rhywun

      Yup. I’m surprised they got around to mentioning it, the rest of the article is such a tearjerker.

    • sloopyinca

      I’m kind of shocked that they got “5% of the population of these countries is living illegally in the US” past the editor.

      If we sent 5% of our population to another country without that country’s approval, it’d be called an invasion. When they do it to us, even though there are other countries and thousands of miles between us and them, it’s called “seeking a better life.”

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        That’s a higher percentage of a populace than can usually be called up during war… Geeze.

    • AlexinCT

      Way too many countries are dependent on “remittances” from the US of one kind or another, and these tend to be the ones saying the most shit about how America and Americans are bad…

  5. CPRM

    But then came the anonymous death threats to her and her children and the armed men who showed up at her doorstep threatening to kill her, just like they had killed one of her relatives days earlier.

    Norma, who requested anonymity out of concern for her safety…

    “They can find us in every corner of Honduras,” she said in the migrant processing facility. “We’re praying for God’s protection, because we don’t expect anything from the government.”

    Sounds like she might have been into some shit. I doubt these gangs are out there just searching for random grandmas.

    • slumbrew

      “Norma said she’s unsure of why they were targeted, but she believes it was because the relative who was killed had problems with a gang”

      I suspect she knows more than she’s saying.

  6. R C Dean

    “The documents also found that the reason CNN couldn’t provide financial information was because “its financial condition cannot be disaggregated—at all—from the financial condition of its parent company” Warner Bros. Discovery.”

    WBD is publicly traded. I find it astounding that a public accounting firm signed off on its financials if its subsidiaries can’t be disaggregated.

    “Young’s legal team are now requesting the court enter an order requiring Warner Bros. Discovery’s financial statements to be used for determining a potential punitive damages award and preclude CNN from introducing any evidence or argument based on its net worth.”

    Well, yeah. No way you can claim a subsidiary actually provides a corporate veil protecting the parent if you can’t even come up with financials for the subsidiary.

    • AlexinCT

      Discovery is a bitch for crooks and liars.

    • Sensei

      They can, but assets and liabilities may exist at other levels in the corporate hierarchy that support its operations. It’s a the typical corporate no win situation. I understand the plaintiff’s position and I understand the response to the plaintiffs.

      It’s why most of us have no love for either profession within a business, but understand their necessity.

  7. R C Dean

    “And the Minnesota Democrat said that while the pardon ability is part of the Constitution and has a long history that she said wouldn’t be changed, she would advocate for reforms.”

    What a dimwit. How any reform could possibly change the history of pardons already granted, I have no clue. And how she is going to subject the Constitutional power to pardon to some kind of outside review without a Constitutional amendment, I am sure she has no clue.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Watch yourself RC.

      Getting uppity is a good way to end up with one of Special K’s salad combs thrown at you.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      The same way “shall not be infringed” has been ignored.

    • Old Man With Candy

      That is exactly the kind of mom that WebDom is going to be.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Good. Any time my sister or I got some cut or scrape, my mom would say “fresh air is good for it” when we begged for a bandaid.

        Builds character. I tried that with my kids, but Mrs. Holiness accused me of being a monster and babied the kids.

      • sloopyinca

        Good. Any time my sister or I got some cut or scrape, my mom would say “fresh air is good for it” when we begged for a bandaid.

        I can’t tell you how many times I heard “walk it off” and “rub some dirt in it” from my parents while I was growing up. It’s the same thing I tell my kids.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Just told my 8 year-old Japanese grand nephew to rub some dirt on a recent cut.

        All the women were horrified at the thought of actually rubbing dirt on the wound. I took the kid aside and told him that he didn’t actually have to rub dirt on it, but he shouldn’t whine and run to his mom either.

        The worst disaster was when Mrs. Holiness bought a crate of Sponge Bob Band-aids at Costco and our kids were instantly afflicted with thousands of grievous injuries requiring the application of a branded band-aid. It seemed like even a strong breeze would batter the Altar Kids with air molecules so badly they needed a band-aid. Once the Sponge Bob Band-aids were gone (and I had told Mrs. Holiness to never buy anything like that again) the epidemic of injuries mysteriously ended.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Yep, there is a reason my son moved across the country as soon as he graduated college.

        He was tough enough, and, god damn was he sick of our shit.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        “rub some dirt in it”

        Get the Ivermectin in there real good.

      • AlexinCT

        When I was a kid, my parents, as Chris Rocks dad used to say, would respond with a: “Put some Tussin on it!…

        Tussin being short for Robitussin.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Next, you went to the store to pick up some I Don’t Care-Leaves, right?

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        @sloopy

        Me too. But they’re still pussies.

  8. rhywun

    I don’t think I want to know what CNN thinks it’s doing “freeing prisoners”.

    But… it’s fucking Syria. There is no sane course of action there other than to Get The Fuck Out.

    • R C Dean

      CNN knew good and well that he wasn’t a prisoner. The whole thing was certainly staged with CNN’s active participation. It was a cheap grab for clicks and links (which actually worked, only now not the way they probably wanted).

      • AlexinCT

        It’s the middle east. It’s always staged or made up whole cloth out there. At least they didn’t make it look like it was a Jew that ran the prison in Bagdad.

    • sloopyinca

      I don’t think I want to know what CNN thinks it’s doing “freeing prisoners”.

      They’re doing performative bullshit reporting to make themselves look important and to craft a false narrative. This is just like Anderson Cooper standing chest-deep in a ditch full of water while his film crew stand on a dry road to tape him. It’s a lie for effect.

      That said, they don’t even need to make this shit up about Syria. There was enough fucked up shit they could have reported on honestly. And now that reporting, if they even bother telling the truth, will have been tainted by their deliberate fabrication of something. They should be ashamed of themselves.

      • juris imprudent

        Has CNN ever known shame for itself?

  9. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. Wonder how long before Fourscore is priced out of his Hive.

    Small town just down the road from Fourscore is having a “crisis”. During the Rona, tons of rich people moved in and started buying up cabins on the lake and – shudder – building storage barns for their boats, cars and other stuff. The original locals claim to be appalled, but in reality it is just envy. The article says that last year the average house sale was over $1M. Which for that area is insane. I’m sure all the locals are pissed because the Richie Rich’s are wealthier than they are.

    Satterlund doesn’t believe the personal storage units are inherently wrong or bad. “The nickname for this community is ‘Tin City.’ … More and more storage is going up. And not even just storage, but just kind of cheap, pole-type buildings that keep going up,” he said.
     
    He came on board this year with a new city attorney and city administrator. Fresh eyes saw that Crosslake had been allowing personal storage with little planning or zoning involved. The buildings were going up in commercial districts, even though they were residential and for personal use, and the building materials weren’t preserving the city’s Northwoods aesthetic.
     
    The city is now enforcing ordinances and proper land use. It’s considering further regulations like prohibiting water and septic to keep them from becoming overflow guests quarters, or even rentable vacation homes. Satterlund said he’s not aware of people living in them.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I can’t even believe they let a dirty profiteering developer contribute to the story (especially because he makes a pretty good point)

      Developers don’t see the harm, especially since these personal storage buildings grow the tax base by the millions without using any city services like water, sewer or road maintenance because it’s all on private property.
       
      “If a person wants to live in their man cave, why does it bother you? What is it? And nobody can ever give me an answer except, ‘Well, we should have a rule that you can’t,’” said Dean Eggena, a business owner and developer in Crosslake for over 50 years.
       
      His partner of 35 years, Cynthia Holden, owns a 20-acre property on the south end of town. The couple developed the site, which sits in an industrial area off the main corridor, into nearly 30 lots of personal storage units with the feel of a neighborhood. That property went from a $30,000 tax value to $3.5 million in four years. Holden set aside an adjacent 60 acres to develop the same way.

      • sloopyinca

        Usually the NIMBYs aren’t the poorer participants of a story. I find the turnabout in this episode fascinating.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Sloopy:

        I’m not surprised at all. Cross Lake is in a big tourist area. Lots of lakes and not many people. I grew up in a near by tourist area that is similar (412 lakes within 25 miles of the town).

        The resentment comes from the fact that all summer rich people come to vacation and everyone makes their money bowing and scraping to get their money.

        What is happening now is that the touristas aren’t going back home when winter comes. Instead they are staying year round and with remote work they are still making a lot more than the old timers. I know in my hometown there is some of this going on too. Locals don’t have the same income levels as the newcomers. So they go from being middle class in a small town to being a poor. Long term things will even out, but right now it sucks.

        It is like in What about Bob when Dreyfuss uses his money to buy the local couple’s dream house out from under them.

      • sloopyinca

        It is like in What about Bob when Dreyfuss uses his money to buy the local couple’s dream house out from under them.

        I had a buddy whose family owned the home two doors down from that house on Smith Mountain Lake.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        “personal storage buildings grow the tax base”

        Not if you don’t get a building permit, they don’t.

    • CPRM

      I don’t recall seeing any of that, must have been a building boom since September.

    • CPRM

      just kind of cheap, pole-type buildings

      That’s why, they should be expensive buildings, better for the tax base.

    • Ted S.

      There’s also the issue of the property taxes getting hiked eventually, as well as the new people trying to impose metropolitan area values that are different from thise of the rest of the state.

      • CPRM

        Those things have already happened, I’m sure. The town has it’s own fake town square already. (built to look old timey, but it’s all new construction.)

    • Tundra

      What I always thought was egregious was one tax rate for the locals and another for the 612ers. My inclination in these instances is to say fuck off, NIMBYs

  10. rhywun

    Felix [sic], like the neighborhood residents interviewed by The Post, said they [sic] largely understand the practice of supplying addicts with clean syringes to avoid the spread of disease — but not in front of the kids.

    Note to Feliz et al.: there are kids everywhere in NYC. Either the practice itself is flawed – and good luck finding a health person willing to admit that on the record – or it isn’t and you have to accept that kids are going to see derelicts shooting up everywhere.

  11. PieInTheSky

    On immigrants and refugees, I do fell story for people stuck in a bad place, but it is clear a handful of first world countries cannot take all of them. And certainly not indiscriminately, because there is a reason they are in a bad place: their countrymen, who would want to move as well and it would get awfully difficult to vet…

    • rhywun

      This is when the left thinks we can “fix” those countries by throwing money at them. Somehow it doesn’t work.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        And the right thinks they can “fix” such countries by invading them. Also doesn’t work.

        The only way to fix them is the correct Glibertarian way.

      • CPRM

        Hookers and Blackjack?

      • AlexinCT

        Someone should tell them the solution is to go back to colonizing all them 3rd world shitholes and see how they take that….

    • R C Dean

      I tell people (well, actually very few) that the reason Mexico isn’t as secure and prosperous as the US isn’t because it is located between the US and Central America. Mexico is the way it is, good and bad, because it’s full of Mexicans.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Papal Bull #3,431

        The English and French colonists pretty much came to make a new life. They were going to stay and build a new colony.

        The Spanish came to extract as much money as they could, then go back to Spain to live the good life with their loot. Short term thinking.

        The cultures reflect these attitudes.

      • Suthenboy

        One cannot overstate the importance of culture. Countries are what the people make them.

        I recently horrified someone by asserting that monotheism fosters an authoritarian mentality. After a few minutes of sputtering he conceded “Jesus, I never thought of it like that before. You are going to have to let me think about that.”

      • Shpip

        “The historian C.H. Haring points out that there are two kinds of colonies. He calls them farm colonies and exploitation colonies. Farm colonies are refuges where Pilgrims, Quakers, and other fruitcakes can go chop down trees and stay out of everybody’s hair. But exploitation colonies are places for wastrel younger sons and sleazed-out nobleman to get rich on gold or slave labor plantations. Farm colonists are interested in forming their own permanent institutions. Exploitation colonists are interested in getting home and spending their money. For this reason New England, Canada, Costa Rica, and parts of Argentina are reasonably nice places, while Mississippi, Jamaica, Mexico and most sections of our hemisphere are shit holes.”

        -P.J. O’Rourke – Holidays in Hell

      • Pope Jimbo

        Shpip:

        I thought I had gotten that fact from some college course, but I know I read Holidays in Hell (several times). Maybe that is where I picked it up?

        But yeah, that is what I was thinking of when I posted. Although I would argue that Mississippi would need several generations of progress before it could be considered a hellhole.

      • creech

        “The cultures reflect these attitudes.”
        We lament all the time about how American culture, over hundred of years, is changing. So why can’t Mexican culture change for the better?

      • Jarflax

        I’m not sure that claim stands up to scrutiny. There are plenty of polytheistic authoritarian societies in history, and the enlightenment occurred in monotheistic ones. You could argue Athens and Republican Rome as examples of polytheistic but not authoritarian, but Rome became an empire before it became monotheistic, and Sparta was about the most authoritarian society in the western canon.

      • Ed Wuncler

        Culture is everything. I got ripped on because I once made a remark that black activists and groups like BLM are too focused on how the white man treats us and “forms of oppression,” when they should use that money and manpower to lift up the black community and create a culture of independence, accountability, respect for each other and our neighborhoods. It’s not MAGA doing drive-by’s on a group of kids playing in the park on Southside or selling drugs on the street corner. It’s us. But BLM would rather make a fuck load of money and buy mansions instead of actually going into black community and making it a better place to live.

        And it’s very telling that when one of us does well and can leave the hood we do immediately but then complain that the white neighborhood we moved into aren’t accommodating enough and filled with racists.

      • AlexinCT

        So is the argument that since under the marxist cult government is the only god, it’s another example of monotheism?

      • Suthenboy

        Jarflax: Yes, there are plenty of polytheistic authoritarian cultures…perhaps one would argue that religion of whatever flavor is a tool for control. Being primarily herd animals we as a species have a lot of ‘do as you are told’ bred into us. That can be a good or a bad thing.

        Ed: Any collection of humans is going to have bad apples. Race and tribe grifters have always been with us and likely always will be.

        Alex: Yes. The marxist playbook is to destroy every aspect of the existing system and replace it with one that they have total control over. Christianity must go and be replaced with the state. There is no utopia in the formula beyond a selling point to rubes.

  12. Jarflax

    LOL is an abbreviation for “laugh out loud.”

    That is some top quality investigative journalism.

    • juris imprudent

      I had a coworker a few years ago that rechristened that as Lack Of Leadership, so that when we were in some stupid meeting dragging on too long, we could LOL about it.

      • R C Dean

        I recall referring to a number of things coming down from on high as “a steaming pile of leadership”.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Little Old Lady per my mother when I was growing up.

    • Necron 99

      Mom thought it was “lots of love”. Awkward when she said, “Grandma died, LOL.”

    • AlexinCT

      She needs a beating…

  13. The Other Kevin

    When is Nina putting out her new song, “99 Luftdrohnes” ?

    • AlexinCT

      Milli Vanili will beat her to it..

  14. Shpip

    Ever talk to one of those smug lefties (sorry for the redundancy) whose faith in their position is absolute even though it’s easily pointed out that their priors and assumptions are complete bullshit?

    They may have fallen into the Certainty Trap.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Much different than OMWC’s victims. The Van Trapp kids.

    • Suthenboy

      “By questioning and clarifying their own assumptions, instructors can help rebuild trust in the academy.”

      I dont think that is going to work. They are eaten the fuck up with people who ascribe to what amounts to a strategy more than an ideology. That strategy is to destroy trust in institutions of all stripes, including the basis for civilization itself: the nuclear family.
      They shit the bed. The only way to fix it is to purge those evil morons from academia.

  15. Pope Jimbo

    I feel nervous about posting a music link. Feels like I’m getting out of my lane, but I really dug this

    • R C Dean

      That’s hilarious.

      • AlexinCT

        Concur…

    • Timeloose

      Some of my favorites.

      Earth Wind and Fryer!!
      Smashing Dumplings
      Oreo Speedwagon.

    • Timeloose

      For a second I though it was a AI creation. AI, create a metal band with every instrument being played by 1990’s Kirk Windstein of Crowbar.

      https://youtu.be/JB0Syoj5EzY

  16. Pope Jimbo

    The Bills beat the Lions in a great game.

    I am so ready for the Vikes to blow the game tonight against the Bears. Now that they have a chance to catch up to the Lions.

  17. Common Tater

    I’m starting to get annoyed at all these clickbait headlines.

    “Trump Reportedly Looks To Privatize Massive Federal Agency”

    Which agency?

    “Major Media Outlet Forced To Pay $15,000,000 To Trump”

    Which outlet?

    • R C Dean

      “What You Need to Know” is the trope that is just about guaranteed not to get click from me.

      • Sensei

        So much this. Also “react” in any headline is a guaranteed “no read” for me.

      • rhywun

        A NY Post specialty. And this one:

        “I’m a _________. Here’s what you need to know about ___________.”

    • sloopyinca

      But if they tell you all those things in the headline, you’re less likely to click through and be exposed to the 15 Temu ads interspersed with the story.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      At least they aren’t loaded with needless adjectives and adverbs like “falsely” or “perfect” or “hilariously”.

      On the other hand, “CNN hilariously forced to pay $15,000,000 to Trump” would be a perfectly good headline.

  18. R.J.

    Piss Jugman should be the name of a Glibs member. Fantastic name.

    • Shpip

      A college football blog that I followed (Every Day Should Be Saturday) had a member who noticed that the Clemson sideline mascot had rather oversized eyes with small pupils.

      Thus was born Eightball the Tiger.

      Perpetually recreationally enhanced, Eightball provided overexcited, hilarious commentary on all kinds of subjects.

      Someone who’s smarter and funnier than me should give this a stab with Piss Jug Man. Add a bit of life to the commentariat.

      Maybe draw the line at a live stream, though.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Merry Christmas, suckers

    Biden and Harris, along with their spouses, in remarks at the Democratic National Committee holiday reception sought to buck up key donors who the Democratic Party needs to stay committed as it tries to pick up the pieces. Republicans scored a decisive victory taking the White House and Senate while maintaining control of the House in an election where donors of all political stripes spent about $4.7 billion.

    “We all get knocked down. My dad would say when you get knocked down, you just got to get up,” Biden said. “The measure of a person or a party is how fast they get back up.”

    Harris, who stepped in as the party’s presidential nominee after Biden ended his campaign in July following his disastrous debate performance, praised donors for putting their time — and checkbooks — into backing her and Democrats that they believed in.

    Don’t forget to give generously on your way out.

    • pistoffnick (370HSSV)

      …when you get knocked down, you just got to get up…

      He drinks a whiskey drink
      He drinks a Vodka drink
      He drinks a Lager drink
      He drinks a cider drink
      He sings the songs that remind him of the good times
      He sings the songs that remind him of the better times

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5uWRjFsGc

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        (O, Nicky boyyyy 🎶)

      • Ted S.

        She gets knocked up, but she goes down again….

    • The Other Kevin

      “urge them to stay engaged after tough loss to Trump”

      Now’s not the time to close your checkbooks.

  20. Sensei

    This makes a point I wish was made more.

    Drones and the Cost of Lost Trust

    The loss of public trust in U.S. institutions is well-chronicled, and for an example of its cost consider the national mini-panic over unidentified aerial objects. No one in America seems to believe what anyone in authority says about them, and unproven claims are filling the vacuum.

    Thousands of Americans who aren’t cranks have seen drones or what they think are drones overhead. New Jersey of all places is a hotbed of sightings, for reasons no one has been able to explain. But sightings have occurred across the Northeast, as well as in California. Military facilities and critical infrastructure sites seem to be targets, if the eyewitnesses are right.

    Yet no one in Washington seems to be able to convincingly explain the sightings.

    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/drones-and-the-cost-of-lost-trust-ufos-government-swarm-new-jersey-3bc5e936?st=wZ89SK&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • Nephilium

      News is reporting that drones have been reported in the Dayton area over the Air Force base as well.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Yeah…I saw that the airspace was actually shut down. Which seems nuts. Drones are unmanned so there is no legal issue with shooting them down militarily – even in the US – if there’s a threat. Which would presumably mean that they’re not non-military otherwise we do have assets that should be used to keep them out of military airspace….unless they’re not being fielded or permitted?

    • rhywun

      FFS, it’s obviously FedGov up to something. And they’re not talking.

    • Suthenboy

      Geeez. Confusion and telling a hundred incongruent lies to destroy trust in institutions is right out of the marxist playbook.
      The drone thing is being done deliberately. The Biden admin and deep state, if you want to call it that, are using the same strategy with the drone thing they used with the Chinese spy balloons.
      These people cant be gone soon enough.

      -another part of the strategy is to deplete as much capital as possible. See: green new deal money being hurriedly passed out by the shipload.
      Remember Steven Chu? He complained that his job consisted entirely of writing checks all day long….shoveling money down a bottomless pit as fast and hard as he could.

    • WTF

      On the radio this AM heard that the drones are Intelligence agencies scouring for radiation, due to a credible threat of some type. Not sure how much credence to give it.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Biden said that he intended to remain engaged with party politics once he leaves office on Jan. 20. He also predicted that he expected Harris would remain a central character in the party’s future.

    “You’re not going anywhere kid. We aren’t letting you,” Biden said to Harris.

    That should fire up the troops.

    • creech

      Sounds like the b.s. said at retirement parties. “You were a valuable team member and we will be sure to call on you in retirement when we need your expertise on a problem.” [Never hear from them again.] Remember that the graveyard is full of “indispensable people” and Joe is about to join them.

      • R C Dean

        I actually did get a few calls after I retired. They mostly started with some variation of “What the fuck were you thinking?”

    • cyto

      Isn’t she the one who set up that gadfly reporter to be attacked and arrested by her security detail?

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Yes.

    • juris imprudent

      To promise those cheques would have added billions more to an already bloated federal deficit, Freeland having already signaled that it could be much larger than the $40 billion limit she promised last year. Observers have even mused the deficit could go up to $60 billion.

      Poor Canada, can’t even run a decent deficit like a real player.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Those drones belong to county planning and zoning departments looking for unpermitted property improvements.

      • Ted S.

        Infrared heat-detecting drones.

      • cyto

        Grow room improvements….

      • Suthenboy

        Surely they are aware of the hubbub going on. Why dont they just say ‘Hey guys, relax, it’s just us.’

        Also, why go dark whenever someone approaches to investigate?

  23. Sensei

    Posting this for Neph and others might be interested in Khan’s parting gift at the FTC.

    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/an-unfond-farewell-to-lina-khan-fabbf799?st=ag3WtX&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    The FTC lawsuit filed Thursday against Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits is a classic Khan job. She has resurrected the dormant 1936 Robinson-Patman Act to sue the nation’s largest liquor distributor for alleged illegal price discrimination. The FTC hasn’t litigated a claim under this law for more than 30 years.

    • cyto

      With regulatory agencies being constituatively a pain in the ass, it is hard to parse out exactly when… but it seems to me that this new level of weaponization started with Obama.

      His first act was to use TARP to steal GM from investors and give it to the UAW instead of buying up home loan portfolios as the law intended. In the process he threatened to use regulatory agencies against investors if they didn’t forgive $30 billion in secured debt.

      Then Operation Choke Point just made it explicit.

      Fast forward to today…. they just openly talk about targeting political enemies. This is bonkers. You can’t have a legitimate republic like this.

      And being so blatant about sabotaging things on the way out. I know, also an Obama thing, but not with bad public policy like starting random wars all over the place.

      • Ed Wuncler

        I pondered this the other day when Senator Waren said that the CEO of UH kind of deserved his fate. If someone (presumably who was a “right-winger”) was the victim of the weaponization of our government and was debanked shot the official who approved this shit, would the Left then celebrate the guy despite being victimized?

        I don’t think so and that’s the crux of it all. The Left absolutely hates the Second Amendment because it gives the average pleb a chance to defend themselves not only against aggressive groups or individuals but also the government if they cross some boundary. Imagine if we didn’t have the amendment? They could declare (which they already do in some ways) certain speech and opinions being harmful and therefore should be defended with up to using violence to counter it.

        Anyway, I’m just rambling.

    • Nephilium

      There’s much worse out there in the way of distribution deals. In some states, once a brewery signs with a distributor, they have no legal way to end the relationship, it’s fully in the hands of the distributor (Illinois was one that was well known for this). So if you sign with a bad distributor, they can store product improperly, deliver out of code product to retail stores, decide to sit on it, or various other ways of causing harm to the brewery.

      As for the Kroger’s/Albertson’s merger, I did see one headline that asked “With the merger stopped, will this cause food prices to drop?”

  24. cyto

    Speaking of LoL = Lack of Leadership…

    The other day we were discussing things they don’t teach in school but should, like banking, investing, saving, using debt properly…

    Another thing that people are woefully unprepared for is running a meeting. People who can run meetings are as rare as hen’s teeth.

    I thought I was pretty good at running meetings. I do a good job of fostering input and free thinking and building consensus. I even do reasonably good at keeping things on task most of the time.

    Then I met someone who really has talent. My old CEO was truly gifted. Everything moved fast, everything was high level and on point. He sought input and made extremely quick and clear decisions.

    American business would operate so much more efficiently if everyone in management knew how to run a meeting like that.

    • R C Dean

      For awhile, I would decline meeting invitations (not one-on-ones, but group meetings) unless they sent me an agenda first.

      Astoundingly, I still didn’t get agendas for at least half these meetings. I eventually gave up. My attempt at structured output (minutes/notes distributed to all attendees showing to-dos/assignments, responsible people and deadlines was an even bigger failure.

      • R C Dean

        Oh, I was somewhat successful in keeping down the number of looky-loos, mostly by going around the table and asking people “why are you here?”.

      • Sensei

        Sure – and it’s all discoverable! Cool we know exactly who to depose and over what.

        Just kidding!

      • cyto

        “Why are you here?”

        I went through that phase once. We had just done another round of rapid expansion related to an IPO and had brought on a team of project managers. Since they live for meetings, meetings proliferate.

        So I began dropping in and asking that question. Why is meeting?

        I am a big believer in face to face meetings. But some of these were so superfluous. I managed to impose my style on the team and really got things moving well with that strategy.

        Too bad I didn’t know how to get the CEO style out there.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I used to work with a PM who was excellent on doing that (also used to be the company standard). Now I have a PM who can’t get forward movement yet still thinks the project is going well. No clear timelines, no status, no minutes. Oh, but he throws out current business and pop jargon like candy at a parade. And somehow he got the board to fund this project. Work is work, I guess.

      • R C Dean

        “Why is meeting?”

        I hope you said it exactly that way.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        RC, it failed because those people do not want action items, to do lists, deadlines or any of that.

        They want to sit and schmooze, have a nice title, direct others who do nothing, and so on. There has been so much money sloshing around that the easiest way to deal with a problem was throw cash at it, and hope it would go away. And part of that is promoting people who should never have been there to start with. And now you have too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

      • rhywun

        I don’t book a meeting without an agenda. That’s just rude.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        One of my old companies had a rule: No agenda, no meeting. I’ve tried to live by that ever since.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        My wife lovingly refers to it as “No agenda, no attenda.”

    • The Last American Hero

      And we’re going to have a bunch of education majors pass this knowledge along?

      • cyto

        Good point

      • cyto

        Although, I will say that teaching is a skill in it’s own right.

        I had a guy who came in on the help desk and I worked him into being a DBA in QA. He was a mediocre programmer, but he was a fantastic trainer. He didn’t even need to fully understand the material.

        I would give him a lesson on how a new feature worked, and how we wanted people to use it… he would go away, make screen shots and create handouts and do the training the next morning. People had great retention. The guy was just a natural at it.

        Too bad you can’t make any money that way.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Winters vs. Sobel in Band of Brothers.

    • R C Dean

      I learned about how to run formal board committee meetings from a committee I was on tasked with making recommendations for payments on large, government-insured malpractice claims. We would have between 12 and 20 cases, probably, to get through in a meeting, and we were generally done by the time lunch was over. The guy running that meeting just did an excellent job. Not including making sure the meeting materials were good and distributed in advance, it was about 90% having a motion on the floor and limiting discussion to the motion itself. Some meetings will have more informational topics not needing action, but even there, the chair has to keep the members under control and on topic. There’s definitely an art to it, but it’s not black magic, either.

    • Ed Wuncler

      In my current role, we have meetings only twice a week and the people at the meeting are the floor supervisors, the CSR Manager, myself and boss (finance), and the plant manager. The Plant Manager runs these meetings and despite not having some fancy ass college degree and came up from working on the floor to his current position, he is efficient as the Germans and always keeps us on topic. And if there’s a decision that needs to be made it is made at that meeting unless it’s the rare of occasion of us looking more into something like a giant ass capital project.

      This guy could give some of my old bosses a masterclass on how meetings ought to be ran.

      • cyto

        Isn’t it a joy to work in an environment like that? So efficient, no time for bullshit to get floated.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    We’d ignore this stuff, except millions of people might believe it. That’s the world we live in. And sorry to say, the reason isn’t merely the result of conspiracists or crackpots who will exploit doubt for attention.

    Now do catastrophic climate change.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    But the larger need is for a government Americans can trust.

    That train has sailed.

  27. Common Tater

    “‘In September of 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, changed the rules so that drones could fly at night,’ Mayorkas said.

    ‘And that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk.’

    The FAA already imposes restrictions on nighttime operations. Most drones are not allowed to fly at night unless they are equipped with anti-collision lights that are visible for at least 3 miles”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14196337/Biden-Administration-reason-drone-sightings-New-Jersey.html

    But all of a sudden, and in only one place?

    • R C Dean

      And in large, coordinated groups? And much larger drones than the typically available hobby drones?

      Lie better, government.

    • cyto

      I still haven’t seen anything convincing. Mostly pictures of planes and stars and planets, mostly out of focus. A few drones… maybe even a couple of military drones. Maybe not. But they all have lights, so they surely aren’t from some foreign power launching them from the sea.

      My bet is still on a social panic.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I’d say a bit of both. Similar to a yearly Red Flag exercise in Nevada.
        Increase in flights and military toys led to annual calls of ‘mysterious’ lights always.

        My guess initial reports accurate from skywatchers and then socials took off and now whoever is possibly doing drone ops has a perfect cover among the chaff

    • Not Adahn

      FAA, changed the rules so that drones could fly at night,’ Mayorkas said.

      ‘And that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk.’

      Our cabinet secretaries, leddies and gennelmen.

      • Ownbestenemy

        We are following the same path of information as they did on the not-in-anyway-spy balloon.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Who is selling the drones? Maybe there is only one person selling them so equipped, and thus they are all around that area.

    • R C Dean

      If almost half of the young ‘uns are getting their news from a ChiCom psy op, we are well and truly buggered.

    • rhywun

      I know I’m old because I don’t fucking get why anyone would visit that trash.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Loss of trust in ‘news’ and a makeup influencer or someone who has ‘followers’ has more sway than a nightly newscaster.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Adding to what OBE said, it is in a format they are used too. If you are already scrolling to do anything entertainment wise, it is just natural to scroll for news.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      What percentage gets its news from GlibTalk?

    • R C Dean

      “Implications” is interesting. The legal requirement of “informed” consent requires that the patient be informed of the risks and benefits of the proposed treatment and alternatives, not just the implications of the proposed treatment.

      • Sensei

        Since it’s “robust” they must be “informed”!

      • R C Dean

        I just doubt that “If you don’t cut your dick off, you’ll kill yourself” really qualifies as informing the patient of the risks and benefits, etc.

      • cyto

        Funny how at odds that statement is with the reporting over the last few years. At least as far as hormones go, they seem to be easier than getting a Z-pack.

    • cyto

      I might need some help navigating that sentence….

    • R C Dean

      Did they ever figure out who blew up that dam in Ukraine?

    • cyto

      Literally making stuff up. This is “died with covid” level data analysis

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Debunked

    Presidents love to claim they have a “mandate” after winning an election.

    “[T]he beauty is that we won by so much. The mandate was massive,” President-elect Donald Trump said of his 2024 presidential victory in an interview with Time magazine that was published Thursday after being named its “Person of the Year.”

    That claim echoes what Trump said during his victory speech last month.

    “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” he said.

    In the Time interview, Trump even boasted, “Somebody had 129 years in terms of the overall mandate.” Trump indeed handily won in the Electoral College, but his 312 electoral votes and 49.7% in the popular vote are nowhere near the most in 129 years. His electoral vote tally is the highest since 2012 when former President Barack Obama won 332.

    Just because you won an election, don’t think you can initiate radical changes to existing policies. Who do you think you are, a Democrat?

    • cyto

      Elections no longer have consequences?

    • R C Dean

      Here’s where the delayed counting bites the Dems in the ass. The vast majority of late ballots (I’m not 100% willing to call them votes) were for Dems, but the narrative was set, as it generally is, in the days after the election, when Trump’s margin was much bigger.

      • cyto

        I hope they manage to push through some kind of national “true the vote” law. Set some time limits, create a standard for chain of custody and audits. Stuff like that.

        The current system that allows voting to go on for weeks or even months and uses unattended cardboard boxes to collect unverifiable ballots is unworkable.

    • Suthenboy

      mandate = ‘he made me do it’

  29. KSuellington

    Perusing the news Saturday morning I saw that CNN clip of “finding” the poor tortured prisoner and thought it looked like some seriously fake shit. The guy got up from under a blanket when they roused him with a perfectly clean jacket and trimmed beard and (bit of) hair. He looked like he could have been in a department store shopping 5minutes before. Once again they beclown themselves.

    • Sean

      Once again they beclown themselves.

      They never stop.

  30. Suthenboy

    Had a long discussion with a business owner who says it has gotten to the point where it is cheaper to ignore the law and do what needs to be done, asking forgiveness later…if you have the right connections. Between regulations, taxes, permits, inspections etc on all government levels trying to do anything is wildly prohibitively expensive both with money and time.
    He and some friends opened a hamburger franchise…it took 3 years and 5 million bucks. Four years later they had to shutter the place.
    My question to him “You were going to make 5 million back selling Hamburgers? Why didnt you just keep the 5 mil in an index fund and let it make a profit now?”

    Banana republic indeed.

    • R C Dean

      “it is cheaper to ignore the law and do what needs to be done, asking forgiveness later”

      As somebody pointed out, any law that is enforced with a fine is really “legal, for a price”.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    “They have given us a mandate for action on COVID, the economy, climate change, systemic racism,” Biden said after winning election four years ago.

    That’s why the voters repudiated your “leadership” as soon as they got the chance.

    • Common Tater

      Half those things don’t exist.

      • Suthenboy

        Three out of four is not half, silly.

      • cyto

        Yeah, but 2 out of 3 aint bad….

  32. Sensei

    Yes, let the adults figure things out first.

    “The three parties involved are Ukraine, Russia and the United States. The initial stages of the negotiations, however, should be between the United States and Russia. It goes without saying that certain aspects of an eventual agreement will require Ukraine’s full assent, and that without this assent a settlement isn’t possible.”

    FP couldn’t be more condescending.

    https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/16/ukraine-russia-negotiations-war-keep-out-trump-united-states/

    • Gustave Lytton

      Just hold a G8 summit again and have a round table negotiation with Russia sitting at the foot.

    • cyto

      Aside from the pretext stop….

      Other than being a toy.What is the point of making your glock fire automatic?

      There just really is no way that this would make it more lethal or a weapon of mass destruction.

      • Suthenboy

        They are animists.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    To whom do we make out the check?

    American officials have been in direct contact with the terrorist-designated rebel group that led the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday.

    Blinken, speaking at a news conference in Jordan, was the first U.S. official to publicly confirm contacts between the Biden administration and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which led a coalition of armed opposition groups that drove Assad from power and into asylum in Russia last weekend.

    Along with counterparts from eight Arab nations and Turkey and senior officials from the European Union and United Nations, Blinken signed off on a set of principles meant to guide Syria’s transition to a peaceful, nonsectarian and inclusive country.

    Another incipient mini-California sprouts in the Middle East.

    • R C Dean

      Yes, I am sure under the benevolent governance of ISIS, Syria will become a peaceful, nonsectarian and inclusive country.

      • cyto

        The CIA sure did kick this operation into overdrive. Once they found out that Trump was going to be in power.

        I wonder if they are even going to bother going to Congress before they commit us to spending a few $100 billion.

    • Suthenboy

      Are they going house to house machine-gunning christians and jews and whoever else they hate yet?

      • cyto

        If my feed on x is anything to go by, there, certainly has been some of that.

  34. Suthenboy

    Dont the Ruskies have a naval base in syria? Is this the Obama Clinton crowd stirring shit with Russia/fucking Trump ?

    • cyto

      I think they have a bunch of bases in Syria.

      Had?

      I have not seen very much reporting on the Russian reaction to all of this, which is surprising since they will post Vladimir Putin’s reaction to just about anything.

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