Monday Morning Links

by | Dec 23, 2024 | Daily Links | 189 comments

BLOWOUT!

The Cowboys played spoiler last night. The playoff picture is shaping up in the AFC, but there’s still a lot of moving parts on the NFC side of the league that should keep the next two weeks interesting. In the CFP playoff first round, the home teams dominated their games.

Sea of orange didn’t survive the third quarter

Especially THE Ohio State Buckeyes, who humiliated the braggadocios fans of the Tennessee Volunteers, who claimed they were gonna take over Columbus and turn out stadium into a home game and blah-blah-blah. Well they were mighty humble along High Street after the game. The ones who actually sat through its all and didn’t bail in the third quarter. But they were at least nice afterward, although that may have been due to them still being in shock. On twitter, they’re not doing as well as the receipts for their shit talking have been coming due. Guess they found out the hard way that they’re not Georgia or Bama from the last decade. Meanwhile, across the pond, Liverpool thumped Spuds on their own turf in what was a very entertaining game. ManUre are reeling. And City have completely collapsed. And that’s it for sports.

Looks like this is gonna actually happen. The results will be interesting.

Apparently the gloves are off. I can’t wait to see the next report, where every Congressperson who paid off staffers and others for sexual abuse comes out. Because I’m sure that’ll be happening now.

This is unbelievable. Not only the depravity of the act, but the indifference shown by everybody else that was there. Shameful.

Was it really that “stunning,” Daily Mail? I wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, I think he’s gonna keep going with these types of things to slide in the more consequential ones for all of his political allies in the coming week.

She needs to just resign. No, I’m not unsympathetic to her situation. I feel as bad for her as I do anybody else in her condition. But she does need to step aside.

I had no idea about this. I can’t wait for the inevitably hilarious plot twist: when the state declares them endangered and starts importing more in.

I wonder if this will ruffle feathers. Or will it result in nothing of consequence, like his basketball moves over the last several years.

I believed I promised this the other day. Well, I’m a man of my word. And here’s another beauty to go with it. Enjoy them both.

And enjoy this lovely Monday, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

189 Comments

  1. Ted S.

    the braggadocios fans of the Tennessee Volunteers

    Someone needs to look in a mirror.

    • sloopyinca

      Someone needs to look in a mirror.

      Yeah. Their fans who thought they were gonna go into Columbus and take down the goalposts after singing Rocky Top endlessly in every bar they went to the night before. I’ve been to plenty of big games home, away, and in bowls, and went out the night before, and I’ve never seen a cockier group of fans in my life. The night before is usually when fans from opposing teams chat amiably about their family and their work and their lives outside of football with strangers. That trip was an endless stream of Gomers sitting down beside me at a bar with a goofy grin on their face inevitably followed up by “we’re gonna beat your ass so bad tomorrow. Y’all ain’t ready for this SEC smoke” then a rousing, if slurred, rendition of some song about living in the boondocks.

      Then at the stadium, I saw about 200 of them challenging the band members who were lining up above the north concourse to come down and fight them. Band members, man. Anyway, they were pretty much all gone by the end of the third quarter. I guess they really did wish they were back on Ol Rocky Top at that moment in their lives. They were sure beelining it there.

      • creech

        I just think tOSU coach convinced his players that they were playing tPSU and not Tennessee.

      • juris imprudent

        Nah, they were cleansing the bitter aftertaste of that loss to Michigan.

  2. SDF-7

    I wasn’t surprised at all.

    I honestly was. Between reading the headline and getting to an actual article my assumption was that he was commuting them to “time served” not just “life without parole” (i.e. letting as many out in the name of “Social Justice” as the staffers could persuade Pudding Brain to sign onto). Funny how his Catholic pro-life beliefs only kick in for Death Row, innit?

    I suppose he’ll have fun jawing to Francis about it on the taxpayer dime over the next few weeks (whenever that trip’s happening).

    Morning, all.

    • rhywun

      Fox is going apeshit – I thought they were being let out or something.

      But yeah, “converting their punishments to life in prison” doesn’t trouble me too much.

      • R C Dean

        Not sure how the power to pardon someone extends to re-sentencing them, myself. I’ve thought commuting sentences is kinda squirrelly under the pardon power, but I guess it can be justified as a sort of lesser included pardon power.

      • UnCivilServant

        If you have the power to completely forgive a crime and let the offender walk free, I really don’t see any reason why it would make sense to not be able to partially forgive and reduce the sentence.

      • R C Dean

        Hence, commuting a sentence. But he’s sentencing them to life in prison without parole, which is a new sentence, isn’t it?

      • UnCivilServant

        Naw, he’s sentencing them to death by old age instead of lethal injection

      • Suthenboy

        “…he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”
        Reprieves. Ok, I will grudgingly concede that he can grant a reprieve from a death penalty. I do see the value in that.

        One of the mistakes I see people commonly make is to read over the constitution and try to imagine why they wrote that in the context of the time and how it applies today. We are not smarter or more sophisticated today, not more complicated, not special.
        It applies today exactly the same way it did then. The nature of man has not changed one whit and neither has the nature of government.

      • juris imprudent

        Suthen, principles are always oppressive to feelz.

      • R C Dean

        Thanks for enacting my labor, Suthen. “Reprieve” is broader, but and definitely covers commuting a sentence. I guess it can be stretched to issuing a new sentence that is less than the existing sentence, but that still sounds uncomfortably judicial to me. Maybe I’m just splitting hairs between the two flavors of “you will die in prison” here.

    • Drake

      The guy helped start a war for a grift in 2014, expanded it into the world’s biggest money laundering scheme while killing a million people. And who ran on unrestricted abortion on demand. I’m supposed to think he believes in the sanctity of life?

      • Suthenboy

        Yep. This applies to a lot more people than him, but one has to have some nuclear grade suspension of disbelief to think he has any morals or belief system at all. He is a sociopathic power monger. Nothing more.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, I’m reading it mostly as yet another Fuck You to the incoming administration.

  3. SDF-7

    She needs to just resign.

    My read on it is that she can’t resign – she’s not there enough. Someone with power of attorney could maybe do it for her (and certainly should)?

    • R C Dean

      What would the point be? She’s gone in a few weeks, anyway, and there isn’t time for a special election before her (already elected) successor takes his thronelet.

      • Grummun

        What would the point be?

        Principle. I’m somewhat less sympathetic. Dementia doesn’t happen overnight. I guarantee she had lucid moments when she knew she was not completely competent more than six months back.

        Furthermore, there should be some hard words for the people that have been concealing her condition. Of course, with what’s been going on in the White House for four years, hiding one addled Congresswoman from Texas seems like small potatoes.

      • DrOtto

        I don’t know it for sure, but I’ve been told when dementia sets in, you don’t realize it. In other words, if you think you have dementia you don’t have it. So it is quite possible she did not have this realization.

      • Fourscore

        Watching friends and others one can see when changes have happened, in the past tense. If I haven’t seen someone for a couple years I can tell if they are slipping. I know that others are watching me.

        I see physical changes in myself, the mental changes are more subtle, for example I don’t want to do some of the things that I used to enjoy. I don’t fish anymore, both the difficulty of getting the boat plus catching a fish is not so important. I needed encouragement to go deer hunting this year.

        Losing words in conversation seems to be a problem, for me and others. The memory isn’t the same. I’m having to remind my wife of events, etc.

        I could tell Ol’ Joe was in decline when he was running in ’20. It was apparent in his hiding, his gait, his difficulty in speech.

  4. Not Adahn

    The real OU’s fans are always very polite and welcoming to visiting team’s fans everywhere outside the stadium.

    • sloopyinca

      They absolutely are. And their traveling fans are a blast to be with before a game. As are fans of almost every school I’ve visited or seen before a bowl game, most notably Oregon fans. Hell, even Georgia fans and Bama fans have been a lot of fun to be around.

      This experience was otherworldly in its level of stupidity and unwarranted hubris.

      • Not Adahn

        If you ever decide to go to a game in Norman, let me and/or Unreconstructed know.

      • sloopyinca

        That would be great.

  5. juris imprudent

    So Gaetz violated the law and yet was investigated and not charged. So really this is just cheap rumor-mongering from anonymous sources.

    • Ted S.

      I’m guessing he ruffled the feathers or the Establishment Class and they’re still a majority on the ethics committee?

      • Not Adahn

        It’s possible he’s just a prick and people hate him for non-political reasons.

      • R C Dean

        Given the raging assholes who are revered icons in Congress, I don’t think being a prick gets you despised there.

      • sloopyinca

        It does if you’re a prick to your colleagues instead of the hoi polloi.

      • Suthenboy

        He openly said on camera that our fake wars, specifically Ukraine, are fake and money laundering operations in those very terms. I was hoping he would get the appt. but after finding out the shady shit he was involved in and the people around him I thought ‘maybe not’.
        Not him, but someone else must have the stones, yes? Who?

    • R C Dean

      “State” law, apparently. Although what is being rumor-mongered (drugs and underage sex) absolutely can be charged federally.

      I have serious doubts the Repubs have the balls to release every sex abuse settlement, much less do the right thing and pass a law that says all such settlements in the future have to be public.

      • Nephilium

        I’ll have some respect for Congress when they stop exempting themselves from the laws they pass.

      • slumbrew

        Agreed, I want to know about every tax dollar spent to settle suits.

      • Suthenboy

        “…do the right thing and pass a law that says all such settlements in the future have to be public.”

        Now do insider trading.

    • Spudalicious

      The Ethics committee deposed the same witnesses as the criminal investigation. The cops found they weren’t credible and dropped the investigation.

  6. Not Adahn

    “As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim,” she said, explaining that the female victim was in a seated position. “The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds.”

    Environmental regs v. Safety regs on flame retardants… FIGHT!

  7. rhywun

    ManUre are reeling. And City have completely collapsed.

    😆

      • rhywun

        The paycheck must be insane.

      • sloopyinca

        Maybe he won’t consider his managerial career complete until he visits places like Borac Banja Luka and Dinamo Minsk on a Conference League Thursday night, and he’s working his way toward making that a reality.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        He signed a new contract on November 22.

  8. Rat on a train

    Fusion is always only a few years away

    Virginia could soon make history as the home of the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant, state officials and private sector leaders announced Tuesday.

    Commonwealth Fusion Systems, or CFS, a fusion power company founded in 2018 in Cambridge, Mass., unveiled plans to build the groundbreaking facility on a 100-acre site at James River Industrial Park in Chesterfield County. The plant, expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 150,000 homes some of the proposed data centers — could be operational by the early 2030s.

      • R C Dean

        The kind where you compress vast sums of government subsidies in overseas bank accounts?

      • robodruid

        Compress $100 dollar bills?

      • SDF-7

        The articles I saw say it is a tokamak design, so magnetic constrictive, I assume. I’m more than a tad skeptical that they’ll reach net power output much less grid capability… but it would be nice if they do.

      • Jarflax

        The last thing I read about the ‘breakthrough’ in fusion was that researchers had managed to produce theoretical net positive energy. Meaning that as long as they ignored various functions they got out more energy than they put in, but the parameters seemed very artificially limited with regard to what inputs they counted and which they ignored, and it wasn’t an actual net positive. If we have progressed from that to commercially viable it has happened much faster than I would have expected.

      • Not Adahn

        @Jarflax: Yes, if you ignore all the support requited for the reaction, it was producing more energy than it consumed. However, the reaction energy was quite a bit less than that required for all the support systems.

        The sun deals with the problem of containment and activation by having an entire stellar masses worth of gravity to provide that. This is trickier to do on this planet.

      • Jarflax

        Does that mean that it is a matter of scale? Or do the ignored inputs scale with the size of the reaction? I had taken the previous success as a hopeful step along the way, but not by any means the final breakthrough needed to make it viable. Is Virginia playing games for PR?

      • The Last American Hero

        Maybe it’s a Reagan/Star Wars/4d Chess thing. Get the Chinese to plough untold sums of cash into the fusion boondoggle.

      • juris imprudent

        state officials and private sector leaders announced

        Only PR? Surely you don’t mean that!

      • Not Adahn

        @Jarflax: The ancillary inputs will scale with the energy output, though I’m not sure at the same rate. It’s possible that one scales with the volume, the other with the surface area, idk.

        The other part that gets left out of the Q values is that not all of the energy output is actually usable. Again, the Sun doesn’t gaf about how to capture the energy being emitted as neutrons. We do.

  9. sloopyinca

    I apologize for the poor job I did with the links today. I do not apologize for my assessment of Vols fans or my music selections though.

    • SDF-7

      Don’t be so hard on yourself, Sloopy — that’s Banjos’s job.

      (Hey… at least it isn’t STEVE SMITH’S job!)

  10. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    It’s unreal that at 13-2, the Vikings are looking at a #5 seed.

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      Gotta say, though – the NFL lucked out with their scheduling so that the final week features Minnesota at Detroit in a winner-takes-division match-up

      • Nephilium

        They were trying with that in the AFC North as well, but the Browns/Ravens game isn’t going to be as impactful.

    • R C Dean

      I dunno if anyone else watched the Cowboys-Bucs last night, but that was a heckuva good game. Some absolutely crushing hits, Baker Mayfield is always fun to watch, came down to an absolute mugging of a runner to save the Cowboys’ win.

      I did notice that when they were talking about how good a job the Bucs did blocking Mika Parsons, every clip they showed had absolutely blatant open-field holding, which was never called.

      • robodruid

        Evidence marker #65907 that i think the NFL is rigged.

      • Mojeaux

        Evidence marker #65907 that i think the NFL is rigged.

        Yes. We the Chiefs write the script.

        Anyway, how’s things over your way?

      • ron73440

        Holding is only a penalty 20% of the time.

    • The Last American Hero

      They barely beat a Seahawks team riddled with injuries because the injured hawks committed a late game facemask.

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        Meh…they’ve handily beat better opponents. I’d say an off day and an away game 🤷‍♀️

        But let’s be clear – the Vikes will not be going to the Super Bowl, as is tradition

      • juris imprudent

        Vikings vs. Bills – one of them finally breaks the hex.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        That’s a lame reason to hate on the Vikings.

    • Drake

      This sounds like a complete reenactment of the 2016 Hillary Russia hoax. Except this time an entire election was cancelled based on bullshit.

      • juris imprudent

        You almost expect to find out that some American hands were in that.

    • PieInTheSky

      I have already explained in a submitted post that should come after the historical post that posts tomorrow. But the second post has not yet been scheduled.

      • rhywun

        I hope it makes more sense than the linked article cuz I can’t follow that shit at all.

      • PieInTheSky

        long story short various parties attempted to siphon votes from various other candidates to various other candidates in the hope of their guy getting in the second round runoff

      • PieInTheSky

        damn i should have said “in nuce” to sound fancier

      • bacon-magic

        We need spoilers…not all of us are immortal like you.

  11. Old Man With Candy

    the indifference shown by everybody else that was there.

    Daniel Penny was a lesson to all.

    • Drake

      Riding the NYC subway daily in probably like a couple years in the brush in Vietnam. Thousand yard stares that can no longer absorb the horror.

    • PutridMeat

      Daniel Penny was a lesson to all.

      Not only understandable, but predictable.

      However, I’d hope that, faced with a similar situation, I’d try to stop an innocent person being burned to death, whatever the consequences might be from a corrupt, malevolent government. But it’s possible I wouldn’t and I hope never to find out.

      • rhywun

        The article doesn’t say anything about people not doing anything to stop it, just after-the-fact resigned weariness.

      • sloopyinca

        I saw some video and people just walked by as she was on fire, including a cop.

    • sloopyinca

      I don’t know, man. I think the myriad reports of people being pushed in front of trains and the endless attacks in the cars being reported on before the Penny episode mean that this has been the norm before he stepped up and stopped one lone crazy.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Well obviously all of those people are bad guys, Daniel Penny choked out a harmless Michael Jackson impersonator.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Last summer I was on the subway in Brooklyn with my wife and daughter, and a was crazy guy at the other end ranting and raving and making me nervous. My Gen Z bleeding heart son said, “What were you worried about? There were plenty of people between you and him. One of them would have stopped him before he got to your end of the car.” Sure, son. Sure.

      • R C Dean

        Did you ask your son “If he does make it this far, are you planning to stop him? How?”

    • Grummun

      I am still laughing at “I will send you to Jesus”

  12. juris imprudent

    Reporting that you won’t get from the mainstream media on Magdeburg. And apparently the guy was as nutty as a whole forest of walnuts.

    • Not Adahn

      Al-Abdulmohsen is a 50 year-old psychiatrist and psychotherapist

      Whacko confirmed.

      • Gustave Lytton

        “I’m the worlds first analyst/terrorist…”

    • Not Adahn

      It’s always going to be very difficult to convince someone that you’re not a secret Muslim as long as taqiyya exists.

      • juris imprudent

        I think when the Saudis are begging for your ass (like they never did OBL), you might just not be on the team anymore.

      • UnCivilServant

        JI, you forget there are bloody schisms within Islam as well.

        Just because this guy was hated by the House of Saud doesn’t mean he actually left Islam.

      • juris imprudent

        House of Saud is the sponsor of one of the bloodiest-minded factions (amongst and against all other Sunnis). And they never accused him of being a Shi’a, nor of being apostate (which is also punishable by death).

      • Jarflax

        The dude was insane. Islam is violent, but not every act of violence is inspired by fanatical Islamic belief.

  13. The Other Kevin

    Good morning! Hope you all were able to take some strategic days off. Guessing most people aren’t working today.

    • Nephilium

      Not me. I’ll be putting in the hours both this week and next. I’m hoping there’s not much going on.

  14. Suthenboy

    Car company merger…whatever. Kill the fucking EV scam. Kill it with fire.

    That we cannot see all ethics reports now flies in the face of our values. Mandate that all of them be available to the public now and always. Also, TERM LIMITS.

    They are not migrants. They are invaders aided and abetted by office holders in the Federal and State governments. That woman was murdered in the most horrible way possible by the Democrats who cooked up and executed this abomination…toss in the evil NGO’s and media as well. The NGO’s should have their water cut off immediately.

    Fostering crime has been the SOP of the left for as long as their has been a left. They are criminals themselves so….

    Granger was asked why she did not resign at the onset of her dementia. She replied “I learned it from Biden”

    Is it really. a dilemma?

    Will it ruffle feathers? He is a Trump pick of course it will.

    I dread my grocery trip today but I better get it out of the way before tomorrow.

    • PieInTheSky

      Kill the fucking EV – now lets not get hasty… EVs need more chips. Think of semiconductor workers bonus!

      • UnCivilServant

        Cars shouldn’t have microchips.

        Digitize something else.

    • juris imprudent

      I’ll disagree about the “ethics reports”. First off, consider the source. Second, we have a justice system – if you can’t prove it beyond a reasonable doubt…

      Congress can expel a member anytime it wants, and the voters can return that person to Congress. Everybody gets to have their say.

  15. Not Adahn

    To make up for my very gloomy (if beautiful) recommendation last Friday, here’s a much happier Whitacre piece written for his alma mater, UNLV.

    Godzilla Eats Las Vegas

  16. Drake

    The AP article makes it sound like because they haven’t made many EVs, Honda needs Nissan. That’s the opposite of the reality.

    Honda make some very good hybrids while Nissan wasted money on all electrics.

    • The Last American Hero

      California, Oregon, and Washington have banned the sales of IC engines. Give it a couple years and a third the states will follow suit. It’s idiocy on a grand scale, but it also is what it is and Honda or any other manufacturer would be foolish not to be ready for the ban.

      • Drake

        I have doubts about other states following. They’ll stand back and watch them drive over the cliff as the aversion to all electric cars grows and California’s electric grid collapse.

      • UnCivilServant

        Those states are not ready for the ban, because it is unrealistic.

      • R C Dean

        Ain’t no ban of ICE sales going to take effect or, if it does, stick.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Honda has discontinued their gas lawn mowers.

      • kinnath

        Honda has discontinued their gas lawn mowers.

        I bought one right after they announced Honda made the announcement. I will need to keep this running as long as possible (or until the world recovers its sanity).

  17. juris imprudent

    Slated thinking

    It also willingly allows the far right to dictate the terms of a culture war that Democrats can only resolve with surrender.

    You started the war, you could ask for peace. But nooooooo….

    Republicans have an extraordinarily efficient and effective propaganda apparatus, which is able to turn a single, seemingly random incident (or word) into a national news story and outrage generator in a matter of hours. The left has no such operation; the idea of getting down into the muck with Republican culture-war operatives is too distasteful of a prospect to seriously consider. And that needs to change. Winning the culture war doesn’t mean cutting off left-wing nonprofits and academics and letting them twist in the wind. It means going on the attack by identifying and highlighting toxic positions that are de rigueur inside the GOP’s completely batshit advocacy and state legislative universes and tying Republican candidates and officials to them.

    So it’s going to get worse people, much worse, as the new Lost Cause.

    • rhywun

      The left has no such operation

      LOL. I guess in bizzarro world, history ended in 2007.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, funny how they can just vaporize the Obama years like they never happened. Or argue that MSNBC isn’t ALREADY a radical left media outlet.

      • Jarflax

        That wasn’t Culture War, that was rightthink winning hearts and minds. Culture war is when wrongthink pushes back against rightthink touching kids.

      • R C Dean

        The DemOp propaganda complex didn’t exactly close up shop when Obama left office.

      • juris imprudent

        Never mind the censorship project that may be Obama’s greatest legacy!

    • Ted S.

      The projection is, as always, exceedingly strong here.

  18. PieInTheSky

    I wonder if this will ruffle feathers. – but does he want to be ambassador? does he have time? he has business to run

    • R C Dean

      Unfortunate use of “they” to refer to a single person.

      • PieInTheSky

        Malice is often pronoun trolling even has em in his bio

      • Jarflax

        I hate the pronoun game as much as anyone, but lawyers have been using they in the singular long before they in the plural made this an issue.

        BEFORE ME, a NOTARY PUBLIC in and for said COUNTY and STATE, personally appeared the above-named …., who acknowledged to me that they executed the same.

        It saved the potential embarrassment of leaving a he when the signor was a she or vice versa, and is better than he/she.

      • R C Dean

        Yeah, I guess there’s not a good alternative when the sex of the person isn’t known. But in this case, it was.

      • kinnath

        Using “they” instead of “he/she” for an unknown third person has been common practice for some time.

        And this ends as soon as you know who that third person is. Continuing to use “they” for a known third person is horseshit.

      • Mojeaux

        When is “all y’all” going to make its way into legal jargon?

  19. UnCivilServant

    🤬 ligament in my finger.

    Of course having the doctor check it out did tell me it’s not torn, but the examination stressed it in ways it hadn’t for some time, so now it hurts worse.

    • PieInTheSky

      I hope it is not your ehm spanking the monkey hand

      • Old Man With Candy

        It’s his signaling to Asian drivers finger.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Catalina Island was not meant to have hundreds of North America’s largest mammals trampling across its landscape. Bison aren’t native to Catalina Island, the broader Channel Islands chain, or even the coastal region of mainland California. Such invasive or nonnative species threaten ecosystems across California and beyond but are particularly damaging on islands like Catalina, which often have endemic species found only on that island and are geographically isolated.

    Bison (which were named the national mammal of the U.S. in 2016) are unbelievably huge, with male bison reaching up to 2,000 pounds and 6 feet tall, and female bison weighing in at 1,000 pounds with a height of 4 to 5 feet. They’re herbivores, which means foraging for up to 11 hours a day for grasses and plants to sustain their massive size. On Catalina Island, this has brought overgrazing and damage to the island’s native flora.

    Was this written by a high school sophomore for a class project?

    • Jarflax

      The idea of invasive species seems a very religious one, not scientific. It comes across as “God wanted the following animals and plants to live in this place, and no others!” Animals move; plant seeds spread, when they find a place they can thrive they thrive. It’s not a static system.

      • The Last American Hero

        And by “find a place they can thrive” that also means they will die out if they go into a place they aren’t meant to be.

        That being said, fuck the Asian Carp and what they are doing to the Great Lakes.

      • R C Dean

        I dunno, Jarflax. Natural migration is one thing. Being shipped by people, especially to an area there is no way they could get to naturally, is not. We have some serious problems in Tucson with “invasive” grasses from Africa, for crying out loud, that were brought in for landscaping.

      • Jarflax

        I think we need to experiment more with deliberate introduction of species to new habitats before we judge. I propose that we introduce wolverines to the MSNBC studios to study this idea in a controlled environment.

      • Mojeaux

        Saw a little thing last night about non-native carp being dumped into a couple of ponds and it spread everywhere, leaving death and destruction in its wake. There’s a whole electrified canal to keep them from getting into the great lakes.

        Also, kudzu.

        Some of these introductions seemed to be “Oh, here’s a quick and easy solution to a problem we have!” “Oh, shit, what did we do?”

        Anyway, people say cats are an invasive species. Hrmph.

      • juris imprudent

        In case you didn’t know who is responsible for kudzu in the U.S. – none other than our federal government.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes, I knew that about the kudzu. They’ve introduced other shit too. Other governments have introduced non-native species to their own countries with the same result.

    • DrOtto

      And what if they all gather on one side of the island at the same time? It could tip!

      • Jarflax

        If Catalina capsizes from cattle it might catalyze the ocean!

      • Grumbletarian

        That would be a catastrophe!

  21. Wood Chipped Wednesday

    If we’re continuing the sports talks this morning: I’m exhausted by my Miami Marlins.

    We have traded every single glimmer of hope in the last 1.5 years. For a bunch of nobody 18 yr olds in Single A who won’t contribute for 5 years minimum.
    Very frustrating. I like the vision, just not the execution.

    • creech

      All the Marlins need is for MLB to put an expansion team in Havana and create an instant rivalry. Marlins vs. Sugar Kings would be a huge draw.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    the indifference shown by everybody else that was there.

    Daniel Penny served his purpose.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    The idea of invasive species seems a very religious one, not scientific. It comes across as “God wanted the following animals and plants to live in this place, and no others!” Animals move; plant seeds spread, when they find a place they can thrive they thrive. It’s not a static system.

    They’re just self-appointed zookeepers, pretending to know what’s best.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Catalina needs a wolf pack or two. That’ll restore the balance of nature.

    • The Last American Hero

      What if thy just got a couple of white men with their guns? I heard that was what wiped out the Buffalo in the U.S.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Republicans have an extraordinarily efficient and effective propaganda apparatus

    Wheeeee!

    • R C Dean

      “Perhaps a future upgrade would involve some kind of small apartment-spanning railway for the delivery of ice-cold cans to designated stations.”

      Pneumatic tubes.

      • Grummun

        Pneumatic tubes.

        That sounds like a Diet Coke fountain delivery mechanism.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Left-wing billionaires generally seem to prefer running for president or cutting giant checks to super PACs than getting in the weeds. But they would have much greater impact if they created a parallel set of institutions to compete with the right. Maybe one of them should buy MSNBC (along with a slew of local TV broadcasters) and turn it into the left’s Fox News, and another should bankroll progressive magazines and think tanks and dramatically increase the number of people working for them as well as the reach of their ideas.

    This clown has apparently never herd of Laurene Powell Jobs. Or Steve Bezos.

    • R C Dean

      “MSNBC (along with a slew of local TV broadcasters) and turn it into the left’s Fox News”

      Wow. Just, wow.

      • Jarflax

        I am trying to imagine what you could change on MSNBC to make it more of a left propaganda outfit. Add a hammer and sickle to the logo?

      • R C Dean

        Thinking about it, the nuance here may be that the current media ecosystem is more of a DemOp partisan ecosystem, not an ideologically leftist one. Think Bernie Sanders being tossed overboard in the 2016 primary. A leftist media ecosystem would have gone nuts. The DemOp system applauded.

      • Jarflax

        That’s a fair point

  27. The Late P Brooks

    But there are a few, like Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings or philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who might have the entrepreneurial spirit and backbone needed to reimagine the Democratic information universe and write gigantic blank checks without obsessing over whether the think tanks and media outlets they are funding are too extreme. But someone needs to convince them, and other likeminded lefty plutocrats, to build an infrastructure that can be used not just during but also between election cycles—a generously funded, internally coherent ecosystem that employs the Democrats’ vast activist and intellectual base not as a punching bag but as the vanguard of a confident social-democratic and multiracial coalition of the future.

    Commies cannot survive on their own merits. They need wealthy patrons.

    • R C Dean

      “a generously funded, internally coherent ecosystem that employs the Democrats’ vast activist and intellectual base”

      Wow. Just, wow.

      • Grumbletarian

        Intellectual titans like Michael Moore, Cenk Uygher, and Taylor Lorentz. Those wrongthinker troglodytes would be no match.

      • Mojeaux

        I’ll give Michael Moore some credit. He knew why people wanted to vote for Trump back in 2016 and he warned his compatriots, but they excommunicated him for wrongthink. I guess he’s done his penance.

  28. Not Adahn

    So, I just got back a piece of furniture that I’d been letting my former housemate use for the past decade. It’s a small dresser that I’m putting in the guest room. The top either needs refinishing (which would mean refinishing the entire thing) or covering. I was thinking of a carpet runner of something like that, but all the ones I can find online are 2′ wide, and the dresser is only 14.75″ deep. I’m absolute shit at making things look good, so I don’t want to have to cut something down on the long edge.

    Any ideas?

      • UnCivilServant

        I immediately notice two things about that picture – one, that table is more attractive than the runner; two – the dishes are on the wood rather than the runner, making it decorative rather than protective.

      • Not Adahn

        Thanks! I was sure there was probably a name I didn’t know.

      • Mojeaux

        I’m not really sure where I said a table runner’s purpose was to be protective.

        “Table runner” is the right nomenclature for a cheap interim solution to Not Adahn’s problem.

      • UnCivilServant

        @Mo – If it’s decorative, shouldn’t it look better than the table?

        That is a gorgeous table.

      • Mojeaux

        De gustibus.

        I found one that wasn’t all frilly and girly.

      • Not Adahn

        Ordered!

      • ElspethFlashman

        You can also pick up vintage hankies or hand -embroidered dresser scarves. Good size for the space you are looking to cover.

    • R C Dean

      Some Victorian (and later) furniture had stone (typically marble) tops. You might able to get one cut to size for relatively cheap from the offcuts of a countertop install. Depending on the dresser, you might be able to replace the top, or just set it on top of the current wood top.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to work toward a merger that would form the world’s third-largest automaker by sales, as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels.

    You left out “completely voluntary and enthusiastic”. You could also toss in something about a quest for increased efficiency and affordability.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    I keep thinking about Dyson. They are extremely good with electric motors and systems. As I recall, they spent a few years researching and prototyping electric cars and abandoned the idea as an infeasible money pit.

    • kinnath

      EVs are glorified golf carts. They are well suited to certain niche applications. However, every attempt to turn EVs into a general purpose vehicle is destined to fail.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of golf carts

    Robot Cantina’s new project: “gasoline battery” hybrid.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Auto Crime. Destroying a beautiful Renault like that.

      They should be taken behind the woodshed and given a 9mm lobotomy.

      • Seguin

        IIRC it didn’t have an engine. That being said, the engine of a Renault 10 is like the worst bit. I think also he’s not doing anything that can’t be reversed.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    More crazy talk

    Manchin criticized the party’s progressive members and argued they are out of touch with Americans.

    “This country is not going left,” he said.

    As Democrats recover from their brutal election losses, some are pointing fingers at what went wrong and how their messaging could resonate with voters more.

    Many argue that the party became out of touch with the reality of what Americans want and Republicans were able to speak to the desires of voters.

    All these stupid right wingers deny the true nature of American democracy. Power to the people, man.

    • R C Dean

      They just don’t want to consider that their messaging was widespread and effective. Their messaging op is fine. The possibility that the problem is the content of what they are messaging is just unthinkable.

      • Gustave Lytton

        +1 Waltz post mortem

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Destroying a beautiful Renault like that.

    You slay me.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    the problem is the content of what they are messaging is just unthinkable.

    They’re selling what Americans SHOULD want. The unwashed peasants are too stupid to understand that.

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