Tuesday Morning Links

by | Jan 14, 2020 | Daily Links | 651 comments

Sorry, not sad.

Well the CFP final went about as I’d expected. Although I do have to say I was pleasantly surprised that there was a targeting call on an important player and a touchdown got called back on a bad call.  See you next year in Miami, Clemson (I hope).

This. Still. Happened.

The 2017 Work Champion Houston Astros are still the 2017 World Champion Houston Astros regardless of what anybody says. And Barcelona unceremoniously fired their manager…whuch should have surprised nobody. And your hockey winners last night were Montreal, NYR, Philly, St Louis and Washington. And not much else happened at all in the world of sports.

Ladies (Still) Love Cool J

Roman general Marc Antony was born on this day. As were limey bastard Benedict Arnold, actress Faye Dunaway, music legend T-bone Burnett, idiot Maureen Dowd, Madness’s Chas Smash, quality director Steven Soderbergh, Ole Miss’s Shep Smith, Ladies Love Cool J, actor and “activist” Jason Bateman, and football legend Byron Leftwich.

Now it’s time for…the links!

He must have had his money on Clemson.

Hey, this guy sounds like he could join the Dem presidential field. He also has a very short memory.  If he doesn’t run, expect him to get a CNN panel slot soon.

Well then…bye. The queen is all but over this shit, would be my guess.  But at least it pulled attention away from the royals that palled around with noted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein for a while.

Yeah, “reluctantly”. Sure. Hey, I’ve got a good idea: why not, you know, negotiate the next contract so these settlements aren’t on the backs of the taxpayers?

I guess the new logo is dead as well.

Subaru gives in to the rage mob rather than stand its ground. Well, FUCK!

Here’s a unique way to find a wife. I wonder if part of the deal is to become part of the 8-mile high club?

This is climate change. No, seriously.  This will have more of an impact than all the emissions mankind puts out for months. But that won’t sell socialism, so those climateers won’t glom onto it.

Here you go. Hope you enjoy.

Now have a great day, friends!

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

651 Comments

  1. PieInTheSky

    This is climate change. No, seriously. This will have more of an impact than all the emissions mankind puts out for months. But that won’t sell socialism, so those climateers won’t glom onto it. – this is caused by CO2 you know

    • blackjack

      California has caused massive wildfires directly because of it’s climate change legislation. We’ve burdened our utilities with some much mandatory spending they can no longer maintain the regular old wiring to transmit electricity. Now every time it gets windy, the hundred year old wire towers fall down and start huge fires. Each fire emits somewhere near 5-10 years worth of greenhouse gas emissions. The news reports come in separately and no one seems to make the connection. It’s the ultimate irony.

    • Tejicano

      And the brushfires were definitely man-made climate change because, well, most of them were started on purpose by people.

      • bacon-magic

        I was informed yesterday by a prog that the arson stories are fake and exaggerated. A google(prog) search seems to confirm that now. I’m slightly pissed off about that…like 24 arrests mysteriously were swept under the rug.

      • leon

        It’s the first to pop up on Duck Duck Go.

      • robc

        only 24 arsons…over 200 set by people (mostly accidentally).

      • AlexinCT

        You WILL NOT oppose the narrative with facts, you heretic! The cult will not tolerate dissent.

  2. invisible finger

    Who knew Subaru execs lurked here?

    • Jarflax

      May I suggest they rename it the Supreme Ultimate Custom Kit Interactive Tech edition?

      • pan fried wylie

        “Subaru sued for trademark infringement by fake car company in Robocop.”

  3. Count Potato

    “Hey, I’ve got a good idea: why not, you know, negotiate the next contract so these settlements aren’t on the backs of the taxpayers?”

    That’s never going to happen.

    • blackjack

      Take it to the supreme court and let Clarence Thomas decide.

    • Count Potato

      The whole idea of public sector unions is stupid. It’s the government negotiating with itself. Although I don’t know how police, teachers, etc. unions could be banned.

      • Atanarjuat

        Can’t ban public sector unions? Ok, then let’s make those jobs the domain of the private sector.

      • JR Robble Dobbs

        But my roadz!!

      • Count Potato

        I’m against private police and prisons though.

        Private schools are fine.

      • Gadfly

        Although I don’t know how police, teachers, etc. unions could be banned.

        Easy. No one’s entitled to a government job, so simply make it part of any new contract that the employee will not join a union. Or take a different tack, and don’t ever negotiate with the union and fire any employee who strikes or otherwise fails to perform their duties. Then, while technically not banned, the unions will wither and die.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The first fails freedom of association. Second is what many states did up until relatively recently.

      • Gadfly

        Second is what many states did up until relatively recently.

        Then it sounds like we have our solution, if only the politicians wanted it.

      • Gustave Lytton

        They aren’t banned. Government bodies don’t recognize them as a representative of the employees and don’t negotiate with them.

  4. PieInTheSky

    Well the CFP final went about as I’d expected. – I know nothing of this outside the old takes twitter, which shared what I figure to be old takes about people criticizing the winning team on their coach hire. Which brings the question: in US football how important is the coach compared to other sports? Similar more less? Can a great team with a weak coach win a chamnpionshi0p?

    • PieInTheSky

      I also not that the most overused joke on US sports interwebz was people betting everything the tigers win, and then I learned both teams are the tigers and that is nonsense. The loser should change their names next season.

      • Don Escaped Bloomington

        No worries: there are many better names for Clemson in wide use.

      • robc

        Both teams home stadium is also nicknamed “Death Valley”.

    • Nephilium

      It appears to my (mostly) uneducated eyes that coaches have a fairly large impact on football. As an example, you can look at the Browns last season, under Hue, and then under Williams.

    • Drake

      In college football the head coach is more important then any other sport. He has the recruit his team (convince high school players to come to his school) as well as train and gameplan (along with his assistants).

    • sloopyinca

      The head coach is important. The staff of assistants he hires is more important. Orgeron is a good coach. The QB coach that took Burrow’s talents into the stratosphere is phenomenal.

      • PieInTheSky

        What would you say are the odds this guy carries over to the pros?

      • invisible finger

        Odds are always low. The pro game is faster and any QB that begins his pro career with a weak offensive line hardly has a chance.

      • sloopyinca

        I think he’ll do well as long as the Bungles trade down to a good team.

      • PieInTheSky

        Maybe the New York Giants get him thus giving RR Martin the incentive to finish those books, although I still doubt I will read them should they be published.

      • Agent Cooper

        The Giants drafted QB Daniel Jones in the first round last year, so they are not getting Burrow.

      • Jarflax

        His best hope is that the Bungles decide to use the number 1 pick to draft another running back, or possibly a punter. Unfortunately I think they are drafting him and he will be in the concussion protocol in year 1, out of the league in year 4 and suffering neurological illness the rest of his life.

      • Drake

        Orgeron seems better suited to college football. A guy who is very good at recruiting and motivating young men. By the time you get to the pros, that stuff doesn’t much matter.

    • robc

      Chizik won a national title at Auburn, so, yes, a weak coach can win a championship.

  5. Count Potato

    “Subaru claims they had “nothing to do” a NSFW name of one of their models that appeared at an Asian auto show.”

    It’s still ugly. Some ugly can be blamed on government regulations, but not that paint.

  6. The Late P Brooks

    The details of how the young couple will forge a new life separate from the royal family still have to be worked out, the queen added.

    I hear Tim Horton’s is hiring. I’m not sure she’s qualified, though.

    • Fourscore

      I can’t quite picture my adult grand daughters asking my permission to go to Canada or Europe.

      Harry/Meg, you’re 35 years old, you have a child. Grandma only provides the money, if you are truly wanting to leave, give Ol’ Granny a kiss on the cheek and tell ‘er you’ll be back to visit.
      (Like she would really remember)

      • Gadfly

        Grandma only provides the money…

        Interestingly enough, it’s apparently actually Charles (the dad) who provides the money. I read an article where he was threatening to cut them off and it mentioned that each of his sons get 95% of their money from their dad, from the profits from an estate he owns.

      • UnCivilServant

        That would be perfect. Cut them off from all family funds and deny royal assent to any bills from commonwealth realms that would fund them.

        Independant means independant.

      • cyto

        I think their calculation includes this. They plan to start their own branding and probably media presence…. think Kardashians.

        Dunno if Megan plans on having a sex tape stole though.

  7. Rebel Scum

    Several car blogs pointed out the initials spell out the Subaru “F—ks” edition after images of the sedan at an auto show in Singapore were posted online.

    Of course the FUCKS edition is NSFW. They should have stuck with it.

    • invisible finger

      Will be replaced by the Subaru Strap-On Edition

    • blackjack

      Nobody gives one of those cars.

  8. Don Escaped Bloomington

    Officiating cost Clemson about 10

    not that it mattered.

    I’m going to watch it again for detail some non-golf day.

    • PieInTheSky

      It there any major sport left without referee controversy?

      • Drake

        Golf

      • sloopyinca

        The 2010 US Open would disagree. So would 2016’s edition.

        Jeez, I can’t believe that first colossal fuckup was almost ten years ago.

      • sloopyinca

        The EPL is now controversy-free since VAR is working out so well.

      • Rhywun

        LOL

      • robc

        Did you hear the lame excuse some one gave for the lack of the penalty given by VAR in the Everton-Brighton game? While this isn’t official, the speculation is that the ref was new to EPL this year and the VAR official didnt want to overrule him and force him to give a penalty AND red card early in the game. So instead agreed with no foul.

        If so, that is awful. I would rather hope the VAR official just blew it, but it was pretty obvious.

    • Agent Cooper

      “Officiating cost Clemson about 10”

      That’s rich, eh, Sloop?

  9. JR Robble Dobbs

    “Iran said Tuesday that dozens of people had been arrested over the Islamic Republic’s apparently unintentional shooting down of a Ukrainian jetliner last week. The arrests come amid Iranian vows to fully and openly investigate the firing of the surface-to-air missile that downed the plane, killing all 176 people on board.”

    Dozens? I’m sure they’re all guilty.

    • blackjack

      Fair trials are a certainty.

      • leon

        How long till CNN says those trials are more fair than the Senate trial?

      • Tejicano

        Yup. Right after the executions.

    • Count Potato

      It wasn’t “unintentional”. They intended to shoot down that plane. There wasn’t any “crossfire” either.

      • cyto

        I doubt that. I’m sure it was a combination of twitchy equipment with imperfect information being operated by twitch soldiers with imperfect training who were given inadequate orders.

        The reports are that the military wanted the airspace closed and the government (mullahs) overruled that.

        We had something similar happen in the gulf of arabia with our new aegis class ship and its fancy new radar. They determined that a passenger airliner was descending and speeding up heading toward our ships…. so it must be a fighter jet preparing to launch an anti-ship missile. Ooops. This was similarly in a period of heightened tensions.

        What wasn’t an accident….. Russia sending their ship to harass our missile frigate in that same tense environment. They are lucky they didn’t provoke an international incident by getting blown out of the water.

      • R C Dean

        They intended to shoot down that plane.

        Indeed they did. They did not accidentally fire on the plane (“Gosh, Mohammed was getting us some tea and tripped and spilled on the fire control console.”). They probably didn’t intend to shoot down a passenger plane, though.

      • leon

        Yeah. That would be my take. The missile didn’t fire on it’s own

  10. PieInTheSky

    Here’s a unique way to find a wife. I wonder if part of the deal is to become part of the 8-mile high club? – sounds dangerous,

    -You can be as young as 20. – and as old as 22 I assume

    -Enjoying life “to the fullest” is a must. -aka anal

    -And, critically, you should “be someone who wishes for world peace. – every miss world contestant ever

    • Atanarjuat

      Regarding the last point, if he’s looking for some bimbo, I thought most chicks in modeling were already angling to meet a billionaire.

      • PieInTheSky

        There was a famous line in England from some old talk show from the host to a guest

        “But what first, Debbie, attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?”

    • cyto

      8 mile high? Try 250,000 miles high.

      And yes…. dude is a billionaire who is going to the moon. I would be his life partner, if he’d have me. I qualify… I’ve been over 20 for a long, long time. Not a chick, and not gay… but as Bill Murray said, I am willing to learn.

  11. Rebel Scum

    A volcano near the Philippine capital spewed lava into the sky and trembled constantly Tuesday, possibly portending a bigger and more dangerous eruption, as tens of thousands of people fled villages darkened and blanketed by heavy ash.

    Somehow, some way, this is the fault of Bad Orange Man.

    • pan fried wylie

      Lava is orange, nuff said.

  12. Drake

    Xongrats to Coach O.

    • Drake

      I hope the idiots at USC feel stupid for letting him go so they could hire Steve Sarkisian. (I know ir was a couple of ADs ago)

      • robc

        He didnt fit in culturally. He was going to end up at LSU eventually.

      • Drake

        The players loved him and played beyond their talent level for him. The ADs and Administration think they have a culture – they wanted wonderkid football intellectuals – so they hired Lane Kiffin then Sarkisian who fit that profile – and both failed miserably. Clay Helton seems like a poor version of Orgeron.

      • robc

        I think they wanted someone the Boosters would relate to.

        Needless to say, he fits in with LA culture better than L.A. culture.

      • cyto

        nice!

  13. leon

    How does climate change start a volcano?

    • Drake

      Heated up the Magna – duh.

    • PieInTheSky

      The theory is: CO2 melts ice which causes weight change on land and the crust is influenced

      • Fourscore

        Same as the dome in Mpls crashed a few years ago. Global cooling caused that by the accumulation of snow and not enough global warming.

      • straffinrun

        Gaia is gonna be pissed if we drop her souffle.

      • Nephilium

        Then Gaia should lean to fold her batter together and leave the damned stove closed until it’s done.

      • AlexinCT

        The theory is not just easy to disprove, it is proof the fucks that thought it up hope everyone is scientifically illiterate or willing to suck cock if told it is just a pickle for the cause.

    • Tonio

      Xenu coming…

  14. The Late P Brooks

    “As the ultimate decision maker in all this and also the wisest head there with six decades on the throne, the queen is probably the best moderator of the situation,” Tominey said.

    The old buzzard is smarter and tougher than the rest of those mewling nitwits put together. In the good old days, she would have had Meeeeeeeghan on bread and water in the Tower until she got her mind right.

    • Tonio

      Meghan and Harry are important only in their potential to cause embarrassment. He’s sixth in line for the throne so highly unlikely to wear the crown.

      HM may secretly be loving this as they present a new, modern face of royalty without risking anything.

  15. leon

    I actually do think the US government bears some small responsibility to the downing of the plane.

    • sloopyinca

      I don’t. People have agency.

      • leon

        A gang goes around and caps a rival gangs leadership. This escalates and the rival gang ends up blowing up a bus full of civilians on accident. Surely both gangs Have some culpability for creating the environment of escalated tensions. I’m not saying the US government is soeley to blame or even the major guilty party. I’m saying it’s not innocent. What your suggesting is that the entirety of the belicose stance to Iran is legitimate.

      • Count Potato

        Rival gangs are in the same business.

      • tarran

        I want to introduce a concept called materiality.

        A fact is material if the knowledge of it changes a decision you would make from what you would decide if you had remained ignorant of it.

        Should the U. S. not have take military action to defend its embassy from attack had they known that down the road their adversary would shoot down a plane full of civilians?

        What if the shootdown hadn’t been a mistake but a deliberate one? Should they not take military action from fear that their adversary will take reprisals against civilians?

        Personally, though I am opposed to pretty much every aspect of U.S. policy, and believe that the U.S. government actually bears a lion’s share of the blame for the conflict with Iran, I don’t see anything wrong with the killing of Solemani. He was an evil man with the blood of innocents on his hands. He was fomenting wars of aggression.

        The U.S. did everything within its power to not escalate the conflict other than leaving. They killed a major player and a handful of his aides. They held their fire in the retaliatory attack. They closed Iranian airspace to U.S. flagged carriers.

        This is what fighting back while bending over backwards to limit civilian casualties looks like.

        Iran is solely responsible for the ghastly decision to engage in military operations while keeping their airspace open for civilian flights.

      • JR Robble Dobbs

        I had to look that up and it sounds like that specific term applies more to something that is already known. What you are describing is moral luck. Where you can’t base current decisions on what might happen in the future.

    • R C Dean

      Do people who deposit money in banks have some small responsibility for bank robberies?

      • leon

        I see no connection in your example.

      • Jarflax

        Really? I can see disputing its validity but you are blaming us for providing the motivation for their actions which is at least analogous.

      • leon

        The analogy is so strained to almost be a non-sequiter. The argument hinges on the US actions in the middle east, and especially the policy towards iran being totally legitimate. If that’s what RC thinks then i don’t think there is much point in discussing the issue much further.

      • Jarflax

        It is pretty tortured, not quite as tortured as an argument that we bear blame for Iran shooting down the airliner because we made Iran mad, but nonetheless tortured.

    • straffinrun

      The US bears responsibility for fucking around in the Middle East for decades. Even with that being true, you shoot down your own plane when you had the ability to ground passenger flights and that’s all on you. The answer for the US? Leave.

      • Atanarjuat

        Yes, the US has committed countless evil, barbaric acts in the region, sadly, that overshadow this one. Starving children to death en masse doesn’t compare.

      • straffinrun

        It’d be one thing if they picked a side and went for the win. But that’s not what the US did. Iraq is our friend, no Iran is our friend, no the Sunni militias are our friend, no the Shiite militias are our friend. On and on. It’s ludicrous.

      • Tonio

        It’s because we have no clear goals. Previously the goal was to keep the oil flowing, and cheaply. Now the goal is a series of nebulously-defined, often mutually incompatible things like “regional stability,” and “nation-building.”

      • Sean

        Huh. I thought the goal was spending money.

      • straffinrun

        *Homer Drool* Mmmm, Defense contracts…

      • tarran

        The U.S. does have a goal.

        It’s acting as a mercenary army on behalf of the Saudi monarch.

        Every action the U.S. takes, with the exception of Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, benefits the Saudi king.

        The U.S. policy just looks aimless because we are ignorant of what the king needs.

      • Jarflax

        We are playing the same game England played in Europe from the Armada up to WWI. We use our weight to keep any of the powers in the region from becoming supreme. I don’t think we do it all that well, or that we should be doing it at all, but it is not pure corruption nor is it purely insane.

      • straffinrun

        *That “one thing” would still be wrong. Just saying it would be better.

      • Jarflax

        I disagree, unless the one thing was to conquer the region and hand it to Israel. Putting any of the players on top likely creates the Sixth Caliphate and is a very bad idea.

      • cyto

        Which is a notion that puts the lie to every anti-US chant and complaint.

        If any of what the socialist/progressive/communist activists believe about american imperialist capitalism were true, we would have simply conquered the region and kicked all the robe-wearing nomads to the curb, taking the oil for ourselves and leaving the rest of the region to lie fallow.

    • grrizzly

      Do you think the US government bears some responsibility for the downing of MH17 in 2014 in eastern Ukraine? If the Obama administration and the Western European countries hadn’t interfered* in the Ukrainian affairs in 2013-14, Ukraine wouldn’t have lost control of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine. There wouldn’t have been any “rebels” in eastern Ukraine supported by Russia, they wouldn’t have had any surface-to-air missiles to accidentally shoot down the Malaysian jet.

      *Much more than any country (including RUSSIA!) interfered in the US election in 2016.

    • Gadfly

      The US doesn’t bear any responsibility here. In this entire incident, the US never violated Iranian air space, so the idea that Iran would reasonably expect an American plane in Tehran, which is hundreds of miles from the border, is ridiculous. They claimed they thought it was a missile, but missiles and planes do not fly on similar trajectories. This is gross incompetence, nothing more. If you are trying to claim the US bears responsibility because they killed Soleimani, that’s pulling on a thread that has no end (Soleimani was killed because he killed Americans, he killed Americans because Americans killed Iranians, Americans killed Iranians because Iranians killed Americans, etc.). If the Hatfields and McCoys are having a fued, and one Hatfield kills another Hatfield because the shadows made him jumpy, that’s not the McCoys fault.

    • Drake

      During the Cold War, the Soviets regularly probed U.S. air defenses with possibly nuclear armed bombers – yet somehow we didn’t blast airliners out of the sky every time things got tense.

      • UnCivilServant

        You expect us to hold other people to the standards we hold ourselves? You racist monster@!

  16. Count Potato

    “In 2018, Maezawa announced he purchased not just one, but all of the seats aboard SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket, which is tentatively set to blast off for a week-long trip to the moon in 2023. The amount of money he paid for the lucrative experience was not disclosed, but Musk has said it was “a lot.”

    Even then, Maezawa said he did not want to make the trip alone, which is why he chose to buy all the seats for six to eight artists as part of a project he called “Dear Moon.” An art collector, Maezawa said he wanted to launch filmmakers, painters, architects and sculptors into space with him on the condition that they create interstellar-inspired works upon their return to Earth.”

    I did not want to have such a fantastic experience by myself, that would be a little lonely,” he said. “I don’t like being alone. I want to share these experiences and things with as many people as possible.” Now he has taken the party to another level.”

    I wonder how much it was.

    • blackjack

      How many men have wished to send their wives to outer space, just not when they first met them, of course?

      • invisible finger

        At least Ralph Kramden.

      • Fourscore

        Ralph, the Honeymooners guy?

      • Fourscore

        Always late to the party

    • straffinrun

      You must be “always positive” with a “bright personality.”

      Trapped in a tin can for 2 months with that? I’d go Event Horizon.

      • cyto

        Just a few days. And you would be in space. With a singer/songwriter, dancer, painter, sculptor, poet and a writer. In a ship that has as much interior volume as the International Space Station.

        I’d definitely offer up a handy if he’d let me come along.

    • Tonio

      BOE calculation is about fifty million per seat, so northwards of four hundred million total. This is based on doubling Bigelow aerospace’s posted rates for human access to their proposed commercial space station.

      • Count Potato

        Wow. If he is “only” worth $2B, then $500K is real money. YOLO, I guess.

      • Count Potato

        I mean $500M, not K

    • Rhywun

      Even then, Maezawa said he did not want to make the trip alone, which is why he chose to buy all the seats

      No, he bought all the seats because HE wanted to choose who to go with. Other zillionaires would have bought the other seats if he hadn’t.

      • Mojeaux

        I have an article about employees who serve the wealthy on yachts out in the middle of the ocean. I don’t have the link on my phone, but the upshot was that they pay for privacy where no one can get to them.

      • Fourscore

        MN in the winter…

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        I get that. That’s why for my only vacations, I go camping and/or to Secret Glib Cabin In The Woods. No cell service, no one knows where I’m at.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Hi Ted, didn’t know they let mail bombers have internet access these days.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        I’ve managed to fashion a crude analog computer from an electric tooth brush, a pine cone, and an integrated circuit composed of pencil drawings on recycled piper.

        I need to do the TCPIP conversions in my head, but it lets me stay up to date on Dr. Who torrents.

      • Ted S.

        It took me a while to figure out you were talking about Ted Kaczynski.

      • Jarflax

        You know longer identify that way?

      • Jarflax

        …Ok, I don’t no how I did that.

      • UnCivilServant

        Ted S. would never accept the title of unibomber if he sent out more than one bomb, even to universities.

      • pan fried wylie

        unabomber’

  17. Rebel Scum

    John Kerry is concerned.

    When asked if Trump could “bumble” us into a war with Iran, Kerry said, “Yes, obviously he could I mean he almost did.”

    He continued, “He has obviously not achieved anything with North Korea.”

    He added, “He pulled us out of the Paris agreement. Everybody in the world knows that the evidence of what is happening in terms of climate change facts on the ground is growing and growing and growing with extraordinary danger to the world. Americans are already dying from this in fires, in floods, in storms, in mudslides. And the president is sitting there saying this is a Chinese hoax. So we’re in a very dangerous place. Nuclear arms agreements have been chucked away.”

    “The INF agreement, now START treaty is also at risk,” Kerry continued. “When you start running the list. And what is worse, our president, the president of the United States of America, the leader of the of free world goes to meeting of NATO in England and the leaders of the rest of the world are laughing at him So much so that he picks up his marbles like a kid in a schoolyard and goes home and then starts to just tweet in solitude. We are in a dangerous place, and I think people know it.”

    So much to unpack, so little time.

    • leon

      Something something, foreign entanglements

    • Rebel Scum

      Sure, John.

      He continued, “It really raises extremely serious questions about avoiding the responsibility to engage Congress when you have a calculated program for assassination that you have decided to implement months ahead of time and you haven’t even shared that because of the consequences potentially of going to war. And we literally came to the brink of war based on that decision. I think Congress and the American ever people have every right to be deeply upset over yet again another cover-up from the Trump administration.”

      Next thing you know, Bad Orange Man will be getting us militarily involved in multiple countries, shelling doctors without borders hospitals (among other things), and executing American citizens as part of a kill-list program. That would be awful, wouldn’t it? I mean, could you imagine if a president did that?

      • leon

        “you have a calculated program for assassination that you have decided to implement months ahead of time ”
        He’s right you know. That proscription list has been around for 120 months or so.

      • Fourscore

        . “Everybody in the world knows that…”

        Except the prez. Decision making by consensus. “Well, its the way democracy works”

      • cyto

        Not with John Kerry on the watch. If only he were to be put in some position of power… perhaps in the cabinet?

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Why is this guy still in the news talking?

      He was useless then and he’s useless now.

      This from a guy who thought it was a good idea to bring James Taylor to sing in Paris after a tragedy – I forget which. It looked ridiculous. I don’t know if the French appreciated it (I doubt it because they’re French) but talk about living in a bubble.

    • Count Potato

      “what is worse, our president, the president of the United States of America, the leader of the of free world goes to meeting of NATO in England and the leaders of the rest of the world are laughing at him So much so that he picks up his marbles like a kid in a schoolyard and goes home and then starts to just tweet in solitude”

      What?

      • Rhywun

        This guy makes Trump sound eloquent.

    • PieInTheSky

      Any other president would have started the war directly instead of bumbling into it…

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Even when they ‘declare’ war they bumble into it. See WWI.

        The British and French were bumbling fools shamelessly sacrificing soldiers.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      ‘Obviously not achieved’.

      He’s gone further not with NK but by other objective metrics than any other President including your cocky, inarticulate, pathetic, inept, corrupted, former clown boss.

    • Tonio

      “He has obviously not achieved anything with North Korea.”

      But what US President has? Seriously.

    • Agent Cooper

      Shut up and retire with your wife’s money already.

  18. WTF

    The 2017 Work Champion Houston Astros are still the 2017 World Champion Houston Astros regardless of what anybody says.

    Although this does make suspicious the 2017 ALCS where the Astros could only win at home at not at Yankee stadium.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Wasn’t it true of the Yankees too though?

      • WTF

        No, there is no evidence that the Yankees were stealing signs. So if the Yankees beat the Astros at Yankee Stadium where the Astros can’t steal signs, and the Yankees are not stealing signs, but the Astros win at Houston where they are stealing signs, then what does that imply as to the difference in the outcomes?

      • pan fried wylie

        Is this like when you copy your test off the stupid kid?

    • Agent Cooper

      TREVOR BAUER WAS RIGHT!

    • Fourscore

      In the first picture from yesterday it looked like a power pole in his yard but he lives 20 miles from his nearest neighbor. That’s a long ways to pick up one customer.

      In any case he did some survivaling, its the skills one needs in Alaska

      • Tonio

        It could be for a radio antenna, or a mount for off-grid outdoor lighting.

  19. Old Man With Candy

    This will have more of an impact than all the emissions mankind puts out for months.

    If we’re lucky, this will have a similar effect as Pinatubo and let climate “scientists” reset the baseline.

    • sloopyinca

      Yeah. And I have a 12″ penis.

      • PieInTheSky

        Don’t you mean centimeters?

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        That’s why I like the metric system.

      • leon

        Lincoln Voter here^^^

    • leon

      What are you some denialist conspiracy nut? This is worse than the Holocaust!

    • Tonio

      “Scientists” have already done enough jiggery-pokery with climate data.

      • AlexinCT

        Does jiggery-pokery mean horribly unscientific manipulation to the point of engaging in criminal fraud? Cause the shit these people have been doing to keep peddling this fake problem they want to use to promote marxist causes is downright criminal and as unscientific as it gets. Fuck, even the old church was more scientific about how/why they came up with the earth being flat and being the center of the universe than these watermelons when they peddle their snake oil.

      • Mojeaux

        It’s like “timey wimey stuff.”

  20. Q Continuum

    1) Harry and Megan: TEEEEEEEDIOUS.

    2) I eagerly await how Subaru Horror Theater integrates the FUCKS.

    3) The volcano was caused by a combination of fracking and Bad Orange Man. It’s obvious to those of us who love to fuck science.

    4) Let’s say the average high-class hooker costs $2000. That’s $730,000 per year and I’m pretty sure this guy must’ve dropped 8 figures at least on this space nonsense. So basically he could bang a different high class hooker every day for the next 15-20 years rather than this scheme. What an idiot.

    • Atanarjuat

      There are only so many high end hookers in each town though. You have to factor in travel.

      Anyway, I think he’s trying to meet someone who’s high end interesting and adventurous.

      • PieInTheSky

        On the other hand in many places you can get high end hookers for less than 2000

      • straffinrun

        Yen? Wouldn’t exactly call her “high end”, though.

      • PieInTheSky

        What are you a Romanian highschool physics teacher complaining the unit of measurement is not carried over on every row? It is maintained from the original post.

      • straffinrun

        So you don’t want me to give her your email address?

      • PieInTheSky

        goddamnstupidwordpress

    • Count Potato

      If I had his money, I would spend $800K to bang a Gay Ellis cosplayer on the moon. How many people are in the 225,000 mile high club?

      • PieInTheSky

        that sort of thinking is why you are not a billionaire

      • Count Potato

        No it isn’t. If someone has $2B, then $800K isn’t much.

    • Jarflax

      This guy is going to bang a high end hooker on the moon. He is going to enjoy low g perky titties in a way you will never experience. Your jealousy is unbecoming! I for one celebrate a man who is literally buying himself the first truly out of this world sexual escapade.

  21. Rufus the Monocled

    Boy did they come down hard on the ‘Stros. Poor Hinch though. He wasn’t on board with it but was fired, wile the players were and nothing happens to them – which is too bad. Apparently, twice Manfredd told them to quit it and they ignored him. Add to all the antics with the former ass. GM, Verlander and the reporter along with the cheating, sounds like there’s a culture problem within the organization.

    But spare me the ‘asterisk’ talk about their championship.

    Next up. Cora and the Sawx.

    Interesting what Barca did. Here I was thinking it was silly that Napoli fired Ancelotti in the middle of a CL campaign (which goes to show CL is not the priority -winning a domestic title is) and now Barca does the same and they’re hooked up in the next round. Barca is going to handle Napoli. Gattuso is not a world class coach.

    • JD is Unemployed

      This is the first I’ve read/heard of Hinch not being “on board” with it. Lazily I’ve just gone on what youtube algorithm feeds me in “Jomboy” takes, and excerpts from the Michael Kay show on YES Network – so, extremely Yankees-centric, therefore, maximum worst possible assumptions about any other team (especially in the AL), and gloating (while minimizing or ignoring any of that replay room or Apple watch nonsense – not that it’s in the same league as this). I don’t buy it that just smashing the monitor a couple of times to signal his disagreement was enough. He could have stepped down, no? There were other teams just treading water with mediocre managers that would have snapped him up at that point. He wanted to win, and ultimately he figured sticking around at the birth of some new Astros dynasty was to great an opportunity to pass up. Am I missing something here? Yes, probably a lot. I appreciate he wasn’t comfortable with the cheating but he ultimately went along with it like a good company man. He stayed at his post while the ship was careening toward an inevitable iceberg. MLB has a history of hoping things will just all blow over – no asterisks for the PED cheaters – they don’t want to tarnish the record. Perhaps people will forget? Did they forget about the Black Sox scandal? Did they forget about Pete Rose? As much as I enjoy baseball, and follow MLB, I’ve always been aware, somewhere in the back of my mind, so to speak, that it’s all just a big, corrupt cartel, swindling taxpayers for new stadia (coughcoughRangerscough), or ignoring the next scandal until they can’t ignore it no more.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Heard it on Mad Dog sports.

        I get it. ‘I was against it but following orders’. Good point.

      • Nephilium

        I’ll admit to finding some humor in the stories of players climbing through false ceilings and coming up with innovative ways to doctor the ball before a pitch. It’s interesting to me that the more low tech the method of cheating, the more it’s generally accepted by the fans.

      • Chipwooder

        The Apple Watches were the Sawx, not the Yankees, and the dugout phone thing had nothing to do with sign stealing.

        *Astros

    • AlexinCT

      We already discussed this, didn’t we? With all the “don’t stick it in crazy” to “Maybe once, or twice” retorts and all…

    • Ted S.

      At least it wasn’t about Demi Rose.

    • Mojeaux

      FTA, re Kindle, ebooks

      Squinting closely, I saw there was another motive they carefully kept quiet. Adopting a new device that promised to sweep stuffy old paper and ink out of the way made them feel young. Reading text off a tablet screen made them feel down with the kids, hip with da yoof, not quite as old as they really were.

      Bullshit.

      It’s because you can crank the font up.

      Kids prefer to read paper.

      • Tundra

        Crank the font. Dim the light so as to not piss off the spouse. Carry dozens of books on a compact device.

        That person is a dummy.

      • Pope Jimbo

        In the Olden Days, when I went to Asia on a visit, I would use half my luggage space to haul books. As I finished them, I’d toss them and then my wife could use the freed up space to bring home food. Worked pretty well, except for the few times that I actually finished all my books and had to scramble to find something to read.

        Being able to bring a kindle with hundreds of books is awesome.

      • Mojeaux

        I will amend: Kids read print WHEN they read books. Not a whole lot of that happening anymore.

      • JD is Unemployed

        cRaNk ThA fOnT, yO!
        CrAnK tHa MuThAfUcKiN fOnt!

        See – I’m down wit da youf!

      • Mojeaux

        Also, they misspelled yoots.

      • Not Adahn

        The British teeth interfere with their pronunciation.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        I hate 1) having hundreds of books around that I’ll never read again 2) getting rid of books.

        1’s and 0’s don’t take up much space.

      • Jarflax

        Large font, ability to carry my entire library with me, ability to buy and immediately read the next book in a series when I finish one from my couch, without even having to put down my snack. Nothing to do with keeping up with those annoying kids that won’t git off my lawn.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    I never read anything from WaPo, but based on the headlines which get dredged up by teh googlenooze, those guys apparently exist in a completely separate and discreet reality from mine. The economy sucks. We are an international pariah. the country is falling part (physically and politically).

    We’re one Presidential tweet from seeing the populace rise up as one and storm the White House to remove Horrible Orange Man.

    The Daily Diary of the Deep State Fantasists.

    • Q Continuum

      WaPo, NYT and CNN are basically statist fanfic.

    • PieInTheSky

      Well did you even check you privileged recently?

    • Tonio

      They actually believe our country is going through exactly the same things as did Germany immediately after the Nazis came to power.

      • Jarflax

        Well, from their perspective we are. To a communist the decline in power of the communists was the worst thing about the NAZIs, and Trump has signaled a decline in power to the communists here.

    • Gadfly

      The economy sucks.

      This one is the most brazen. We’re literally in one of the best economies most Americans have ever experienced, and probably ever will experience (due to structural problems + likely getting a socials Pres sometime in the near future), yet they make this claim?

  23. Q Continuum

    Titty Tuesday is ready to fly you to space.

    http://archive.li/crV6I

    And by “fly you to space” I mean break your spirit, send you spiraling into depression and joining a monastery.

    • Atanarjuat

      Depressed about being single? Visit Costa Rica. The women are friendly and if that’s not enough, go to the Zona Roja.

      • Nephilium

        The company I work for has an office in Costa Rica. How do they feel about guest workers?

      • Atanarjuat

        No idea, I was just a tourist but everyone was nice to me. Probably be happy to have you there spending money.

      • Nephilium

        My parents went down there a couple years back. I was more joking about the concept of (if I get moved out of my current role) pushing for a transfer down there. We actually just got a team member who’s working out of that office. The AM is trying to plan travel to get all of us in the same location for a week or so in the next month.

      • Jarflax

        I have a great client who has been going down there constantly for several years and planning to retire down there. According to her the expats have insanely distorted the real estate market lately and it is reminiscent of 2006. Prices have been doubling every year, the expat population is now around 1 million (out of 5 million total), etc. It may be too late to enjoy Costa Rica.

      • Q Continuum

        I was thinking more about after they dump your sorry ass and leave you penniless.

      • Florida Man

        I’m going in March…with my wife.

      • Count Potato

        So three way?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The place you’re looking for is the Hotel Del Rey.

        Take antibiotics and lots of prophylactics.

  24. Rufus the Monocled

    On Meghan and Harry. Great, those two nitwits are gonna spend time in Canada? Nothing bores me more than Royal trash talk. Especially those two.

    • leon

      She’s trying to use it to get him on the throne.

      • Mojeaux

        I don’t think she’s that smart and I don’t think that’s what she wants.

        I have sensed a distinct EEWWW vibe from her regarding the royal family.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        You mean her towards them or vice-versa?

        Personally, they’re both ew but she’s worse. Wouldn’t surprise me if she’s using him for something.

      • Mojeaux

        Her towards them. “Eww icky smelly old people in icky smelly old houses.”

        Then decided she could act happy for a couple of years befote going back to LA, where it’s all shiny and new and hep.

        Because she’s an ACK-tor.

        Yeah, no, honey, you’re not. Go back to class.

      • wdalasio

        I give the marriage seven years. Three if Trump doesn’t get re-elected. She needs to establish U.S. residency before she can peg Harry in divorce court.

      • Mojeaux

        I gave them 8, but somewhere between 5 and 10 so she can make it look good.

        He’s in love.

        She is not.

      • Not Adahn

        divorce court.

        *sovereign immunity waves hello*

      • UnCivilServant

        Harry isn’t the soverign, and there may be some treaties about enforcing court orders between the two countries, I’m not 100%.

      • UnCivilServant

        What would be really funny is if she does try it and finds out Harry has no money of his own, so she ends up paying him alimony.

      • wdalasio

        finds out Harry has no money of his own

        My understanding is that he’s got about $40 million from his mother’s family.

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s chump change for a hollywood golddigger.

      • Tonio

        He’s sixth in line. Even if Charles dies early or abdicates she’d have to kill his brother and his three children.

    • Drake

      his morning some idiot was on the new claiming he didn’t want all the attention of being a royal. He didn’t address my follow-up question – “then why did he marry an attention-whoring American actress?”

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Meanwhile they both said they want to use their fame for good works. He leveraged his Royalty fame to create the Invictus games before he met that girl.

        Yeh, weak.

  25. PieInTheSky

    A university is to hire 20 of its own students to challenge language on campus that could be seen as racist.

    The University of Sheffield is to pay students to tackle so-called “microaggressions” – which it describes as “subtle but offensive comments”.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/education-51098539

    The sad thing is back in the day snitching for the Uni would have made one a pariah, these days…

    • leon

      I bet they hired a bunch of crackers.

    • leon

      Would this be flagged? All the students hired for this job are collaborators completely fine with unbridled police power who will want to suck big brothers cock as he lines them against the wall.

      • Nephilium

        Of course, it assumes the genitals and pronouns for big brother. And it’s missing an apostrophe.

      • Jarflax

        It is racist to call a big brother it, also dangerous.

    • straffinrun

      It gives examples of what it means by microaggression – such as:

      “Stop making everything a race issue”
      “Why are you searching for things to be offended about?”
      “Where are you really from?”
      “I don’t want to hear about your holiday to South Africa. It’s nowhere near where I’m from”
      “Being compared to black celebrities that I look nothing like”

      Barf.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        “Why are you searching for things to be offended about?”

        Context be damned.

      • Drake

        “This is a math class, can we just talk about math?”

      • Rhywun

        ?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The Chinese did something similar during the Cultural Revolution

    • Rufus the Monocled

      I know one thing. If a student snitched like that….let’s just say crutches would be needed.

      • pan fried wylie

        Snutches get crutches…errr, wait

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Rufus (telling joke to stranger in class): And then he said, ‘sum ting wong!’

      Laughs pounding desk.

      Dead silence in class room.

      Rufus whisked away.

      Anyway, here in Quebec, on the campus of UQAM it is FORBIDDEN to speak English. I know two girls, one a friend and the other American who are forced to speak French. Which makes me wonder why are they so spineless and even go there?

    • Agent Cooper

      And they all get a free red sash!

  26. The Late P Brooks

    The University of Sheffield is to pay students to tackle so-called “microaggressions” – which it describes as “subtle but offensive comments”.

    Dunce caps for everyone!

  27. Rebel Scum

    I guess you are going to have to wait awhile.

    British newspaper The Daily Mail reports that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry plan to move from Canada to Los Angeles. However, this is a long-term plan because they do not want to live in America as long as Donald Trump is president.

    “It’s by no means an immediate thing but there is a long-term plan to end up back in the US with a second home in Canada, where they will also spend a great deal of time,” a friend of “the Sussexes” reportedly told the newspaper. “The couple used the words North America in their statement about where they planned to live deliberately. It doesn’t pin them down to any one place.”

    LA, like Chicago, is MAGA Country. It is known.

    • Atanarjuat

      We want to back away from the Royal limelight, and humbly pursue a private life in… Los Angeles.

    • Drake

      Mexico is part of North America. So is Bermuda and most of the Caribbean islands. Sounds better than Canada in January.

      • Gadfly

        Bermuda is also British territory, so it sounds like a real missed opportunity to me.

      • Drake

        Are Antigua and Barbados still part of the Commonwealth or whatever they call the empire now?

      • Gadfly

        Yes, so that too would be a better option than Canada. But Bermuda is still part of the nation itself, not just a Commonwealth member, so I think that would be my choice if I were in their shoes.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    If pigs had wings, they’d be eagles

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that the victims of the Ukrainian airliner shot down in Iran would still be alive if the recent escalation of tensions in the region had not happened, according to a transcript of an interview with Global News TV.

    The U.S. killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in a Jan. 3 drone strike prompted Iran to launch a missile attack on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops on Jan. 8, hours before the passenger jet was shot down. All 176 aboard were killed, including 57 Canadians.

    “I think if there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families,” Trudeau said in the interview.

    If Columbus hadn’t discovered America (shush, you mob) we wouldn’t be in this mess.

    • leon

      If solemani had not been killed they would still be alive.

      • straffinrun

        You could go back a lot longer than that for some real butterfly effect. I’m thinking 1953.

      • Gadfly

        Or 1941. The 1953 coup was just a deposition of Parliament and return of power to the king, who had been installed in the previous 1941 coup when the Allies ousted a pro-Axis king so that they could secure Iran for supply lines to the USSR.

      • R C Dean

        If the mullahs hadn’t taken over 40 years ago, they’d still be alive.

        Chasing remote “causation” is afools’s game. “But-for” causes are nearly infinite; it’s proximate causation that matters. Iran popping an airliner was not even remotely foreseeable when we greased Soleimani.

      • leon

        Chasing remote “causation” is afools’s game

        Embassy Attack/riots is on December 31.
        Solemani is killed on Jan 3.
        Plane downed on 8 Jan.

        So 3 days is totally legit, but 5 days is just so remote, that’s like the dark ages. You’re right i’m a fool for thinking that anything five days ago could have any impact on today.

      • Ozymandias

        No, you’re a fool for trying to pin the downing of an Iranian Airbus that left an Iranian airfield just minutes before on our killing an Iranian General who ran terrorist proxies for Iran and was in Iraq with known dirtbags who helped smoke the US embassy just days prior. THAT is what makes you a fool in this case. Sorry.

        I can’t fathom how you ignore all of the failures that have to occur for a shootdown of a passenger jet that took off from an Iranian airfield and instead claim that the US killing of an Iranian General justifies it at all. Let’s ask this question: do you believe Iran was at all responsible for our shootdown of its plane by the USS Vincennes? Did their attacks on US forces and international shipping in that region have some factor to play? IOW, are you at least consistent in the application of your ‘principle,’ even if I disagree with it.

        If you are, that’s at least consistent, even if I disagree that we let military folks rely upon the same defense that seems to go for cops: “well, I was all jumpy ‘cuz shit that I’m supposed to be trained for was actually going on and BadOrangeMan made me scared so I shot.”

      • Ozymandias

        Excuse me, Ukranian airbus.

      • R C Dean

        We are fully responsible for killing Soleimani, as a direct response to the embassy attack. I would even be willing to say that the embassy attack is the proximate cause of us killing him, as in, I don’t think we would have done it without the embassy attack. I’m pretty sure that put him on our hit list, or at the very least put him at the top.

        We are not responsible for the airliner, which was a fuckup by Iran in responding to Soleimani’s killing. There’s no way to say it was a proximate cause of the Iran shooting down the airliner.

      • R C Dean

        I don’t blame Al Quaeda for the Patriot Act, which was a direct response to their attack. Why would I blame us for the airliner, which wasn’t even a direct response to our attack?

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Perhaps, but that doesn’t give any blame/culpability to America. The only scenario I can think of America having any blame would be if an American bomber was shadowing the airliner to use it as a human shield. That wasn’t the case. Iran has agency and is responsible for their own actions.

      • leon

        When did i say Iran doesn’t have Agency? I’m not saying they aren’t culpable. I just don’t see how someone else fucking up absolves other people of their responsibility for creating situations where shit goes wrong. The whole line of argument depends on the United States being morally innocent on their own and it isn’t. If Solemani had not been killed, then the chances of all those people living is highly likely. Everyone wants to pin this on Iran like it’s some huge crime that they committed, but if you take a look at the situation of what happened want to absolve the US from any guilt in what occurred, as if the US government is pure as the driven snow.

      • Not Adahn

        I just don’t see how someone else fucking up absolves other people of their responsibility for creating situations where shit goes wrong.

        Without some sort of limit to this reasoning, you end up with Wickard v. Filburn. I’m not saying you don’t have such a limiting principle, but you haven’t articulated it.

        Jodi Foster responsible for Reagan’s second term? Yes or no. Why?

      • leon

        Thats a fair point.

        I think there have been a lot of fair points made about how forseeable this is and how much the Iranians fucked up in shooting down the plane. They fucked up on procedures, and it shouldn’t have happened.

        I guess what is sticking in my craw a bit is that the US has been very bellicose towards Iran (and yes Vice Versa) and that has culminated in this whole situation.

        I’m not sure where to draw the line, and maybe there isn’t. I still feel like continuing on a policy of hostility bears some responsibility for civilian casualties.

      • R C Dean

        I still feel like continuing on a policy of hostility bears some responsibility for civilian casualties.

        If we pull out and Iran ramps up their killing in Iraq again, would we be responsible for that?

        I’ve spent a lot of my career looking at causation and responsibility, and my sense is that cutting off the chain of causation for purposes of assigning responsibility is always a good idea.

        Which is not the same as trying to learn about the remote/indirect effects of what you do so that you can minimize the bad knock-on effects in the future.

        The latter is good. The former is what people trying to avoid responsibility do.

      • kinnath

        The US is not responsible for Iran shooting down a jet. End of fucking story.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        When the Vincennes event happened, we didn’t let them blame that shit on Iran.

      • l0b0t

        HOLY MACKEREL! Throughout the entirety of this fooferall, I was looking for comparisons to the Vincennes. I have seen exactly two, and they have both been on this website. Does no one else remember it?

      • UnCivilServant

        I was 6. I didn’t pay attention to such things at that age.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Ahem

        The Pentagon initially denied the Iranian claim that the U.S. has shot down the airliner, and declared that information from the fleet indicated it had shot down an attacking Iranian F14, but within hours confirmed it shot down the Airbus.[33] According to the U.S. government, USS Vincennes mistakenly identified the airliner as an attacking military fighter and misidentified its flight profile as being similar to that of an F-14A Tomcat during an attack run; however, the cruiser’s Aegis Combat System recorded the plane’s flight plan as climbing (not descending as in an attack run) at the time of the incident.[28]


        The Fogarty report also stated, “Iran must share the responsibility for the tragedy by hazarding one of their civilian airliners by allowing it to fly a relatively low altitude air route in close proximity to hostilities that had been ongoing”.[10]

      • Gustave Lytton

        There’s also the difference between the aircraft was taking off from one of Iran’s own airports. It would be more akin to NORAD shooting down an aircraft taking off from Dulles. And then blaming the North Koreans.

      • AlexinCT

        Do you think Iran will pay the Ukrainian and the Iranian families affected like the US was forced to when we shot down their aircraft? My guess is not.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I didn’t say you wrote Iran doesn’t have agency. I’m just stating that Iran has agency and is responsible for their own actions, not the United States.

        We are each responsible for own actions, even in stressful situations of others making. How an individual person or even nation responds to such situations can and should be used in judgement of them.

        The US didn’t use the airliner as a human shield for a bombing run or try to trick them into shooting it down for negative press. There’s no universe where we can hold the US responsible for even the smallest amount of blame for it.

      • invisible finger

        “If Solemani had not been killed”

        Seems like you’re cherry-picking an endpoint to make your argument sound better.

      • Jarflax

        Let me be more blunt about this. I am delighted we killed Soleimani. He was a legitimate target, and an extremely deserving one and to my mind your argument is as nonsensical as blaming the LA prosecutor’s office for Squeaky Fromme’s trying to kill Ford.

  29. PieInTheSky

    A reminder that @ewarren
    and @BernieSanders
    respect each other more than you respect half your friends, and, while friends do sometimes fight, they know, as you should, that oligarchy is the disease we all have to focus on, and democracy the cure.

    https://twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/1216928064422187008

    • leon

      I’m sure there were people who said the same about Trotsky and Stalin too

  30. Tundra

    Hiya Sloop!

    Thanks for the lynx.

    The Subaru is hideous, FUCK is too nice for that thing.

    Really, the only person I feel sorry for in the whole Meghan/Harry drama is the baby. That kid has no chance.

    Great song choice! if that doesn’t make you happier, there’s something terribly wrong.

    • PieInTheSky

      That kid has no chance. – I mean he has a bunch of assassinations to arrange but he has a chance to still get the throne

      • Pope Jimbo

        So what you are saying is that they are going to NA so that the kid can be secretly trained by Auntie Hillary?

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Canada said on Monday that Iran had signaled that Canadian investigators would take an active role in the probe of the crash, which Iran said at the weekend had been caused by a missile it fired in a “disastrous mistake.”

    Trudeau went on to say, “Sore-y for the inconvenience, eh.”

    • Drake

      What is there to investigate? They already carted off all the pieces of the plane shredded by shrapnel and bulldozed the crash site.

      • AlexinCT

        That bulldozing shit was definitely not an attempt to cover the fact they had shot their own plane down – thinking it was a missile when it started heading in a certain direction and the morons watching the track didn’t realize it was going up, and not down – and only ended up forced to admit they did shoot it down when the Pentagon, and several others in the area, I add, offered to share radar data showing Iran shooting down the plane….

  32. The Late P Brooks

    We want to back away from the Royal limelight, and humbly pursue a private life in… Los Angeles.

    Nothing says “jes’ folks” like cruising Sunset Boulevard in your armored Range Rover, trailed by an SAS security detail.

    • PieInTheSky

      SAS security detail. – fuck that waste of SAS resources.

    • Tonio

      Also, it would probably be US Secret Service since he’s not a head of state.

      • l0b0t

        Urge to kill, rising! Just kidding Preet. Seriously though, my tax money will be used to protect a filthy, usurping Kraut?!? To arms! To arms, good people of the United States!

      • Gustave Lytton

        And that’s probably why they wouldn’t move to LA with Trump as President. He’s could well likely say the US government isn’t going to spend taxpayer dollars to protect two millionaires on an extended vacation, rather than going along with the usual this is how things are done.

    • R C Dean

      OK, they lose any claim to royal property other than what is already fully in their name. Which I understand is probably not a small sum.

      They lose any claim to services provided to royals, like security, unless they pay for it out of their own pocket. Also, they lose their titles. I mean, they want to lead a private life, right?

      Anything else is just grifting and leeching.

  33. Rebel Scum

    So it begins.

    The Senate Judiciary Committee meeting was supposed to begin at 8 a.m., but was delayed more than an hour thanks to the long lines to get in the doors of the capitol. New rules banning the lawful carrying of firearms in the capitol and office buildings led to new security measures, which in turn led to lengthy delays and annoyed staffers and citizens. Meanwhile, some Democrat staffers were apparently able to bypass the required security.

    After folks cleared the long security line, they were then told that Democrats were requiring an equal number of supporters and opponents of the gun bills to be seated in the committee room, despite the fact that those opposed to the bills far outnumbered gun control supporters. …

    As for this morning’s hearing, Democrats passed a number of gun control bills out of the Judiciary Committee, though not without some modifications.

    SB 12 and SB 70, both dealing with requiring background checks on all private transfers of firearms, were combined into one bill going forward, and the measure was modified so that it only applies to private sales, not private transfers. Gun control advocates were not pleased, according to the Virginia Shooting Sports Association.

    Meanwhile SB 16, Sen. Dick Saslaw’s sweeping gun, magazine, and suppressor ban, was struck from the record, which means there will be no further action on the bill. Instead, Democrats will focus their efforts on HB 961, a slightly modified version of Saslaw’s legislation that “allows” gun owners to maintain possession of their banned firearms if they register them with the Virginia State Police. The ban on magazines that can accept more than 10 rounds, as well as lawfully purchased suppressors, remains in the House version of the so-called “assault firearms” bill.

    The Senate Judiciary Committee also approved SB 69, which imposes a gun rationing scheme on the state, forbidding most gun owners from purchasing more than one handgun per month.

    All of these are sure to reduce violent crime and will in no way damage the ability of the innocent to defend themselves, I’m sure.

    • leon

      Notice how all the measures taken by the Democrats would be cast as affronts to democracy if Republican legislators did this.

      • Mojeaux

        I think at this point, that’s just a given.

        Rs would never be able to do what Ds get away with.

      • leon

        Sure but this is from a Pro-Gun stance. I get trying to not come of unhinged, it just gets me annoyed that Democrats have a free pass to steamroll opposition with no peep from anyone about how it is just as anti-democratic as anything the republicans will do.

    • Rebel Scum

      Also, I would like to point out that I heard recently that of Gov Blackface’s 1000 deaths to “gun-violence” each year, 2/3 are suicides, which holds to the national average. I know, I know. *shocked face*.

      • Drake

        Well he’s trying to make sure the next thousand aren’t. (They’ll be from firefights with gun-seizing cops)

  34. Mojeaux

    England DID survive Henry VI, so I guess it’ll survive a B-list Hollywood tart controlling the 6th in line to the throne with her magical hoo-hoo.

    I feel like Harry has more feelz for Hollywood than Hollywood has for him.

    • Tonio

      Oh, that’s good.

    • PieInTheSky

      The local saying goes : not with a stolen dick

    • Mojeaux

      “WHY WON’T ANYBODY HIRE ME?!?!?!”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Doesn’t look like 90% to me, more like 85%

      /autistic off

    • Q Continuum

      Who am I kidding? Would.

      Only if she had no way to track me down afterward though.

  35. wdalasio

    Last night’s discussion got me to thinking about the U.K. monarchy. I do not approve of the idea of monarchy, even constitutional monarchy, at all. However, just because I don’t approve of the notion, that doesn’t mean that I can’t recognize a certain internal consistency or internal logic that affords it some advantages when implemented well.

    So, what is the case for constitutional monarchy?

    Well, for the sake of simplicity, let’s go with the form currently enjoyed. In that system, the monarch serves as a figurehead for a democratically elected government. The normal assessment of such an arrangement is that such monarchs are wildly overpaid welfare cases. And there can be a point there, up to a point. But, it assumes the role of figurehead has no job within the political system. That isn’t the case, if the monarchy is doing its job right.

    The important distinction to understand is that between the head of the government and the head of state. The head of the government is the person responsible for the ongoing execution of the government. It’s the guy “in charge” of whatever it is the government is doing. The head of state is something different. The head of state is the person who performs a symbolic and ceremonial role of embodying the body politic and reflecting their hopes and aspirations.

    Now, I certainly don’t particularly cotton to the idea of the state anointing anyone the embodiment of my goals or my nationhood. But, I’m also not so foolish as to pretend that it’s something that is not common to all governments. As much as I might wish, people don’t look at governments as simply an institution within society tasked with a distinct function and purpose. They look upon government as the reflection of the society it governs. And, so, they assign someone in the government this role. In a constitutional monarchy, it is the figurehead monarch. In many European republics, it’s the office of president, distinct from that of chancellor or prime minister. Or, in our government, it is the head of the government itself (That’s why you’ll hear people referring to presidents they disapprove of as “unpresidential” or why we expect First Ladies to take up causes.). No matter the arrangement, you always seem to have someone assigned the role of head of state. Even your local mayor coming out to cut the ribbon on a new business or welcome home the local basketball team from the regional finals is playing the role of head of state.

    And it’s here that I think you can justify the notion of a constitutional monarch. There’s an inherent danger in investing the person with the full power of the government at his or her disposal the moral authority conferred by the role of head of state. When you challenge the head of the government in such cases, you set yourself up against symbolic and ceremonial embodiment of your society. Setting the role aside from the head of government short-circuits this. Your disagreement can be with the government while still maintaining your loyalty to the society it’s part of, as represented by the monarch.

    It’s here that the hereditary, rather than democratic, nature of the monarchy can have an advantage. An elected office is going to be a political office. If the very point of the monarch is to depoliticize loyalty to the nation, there’s an inherent risk in making the office one dependent on politics to attain. If you have someone filling the role of head of state, you need everyone, regardless of political party or faith or extraction, seeing them as their reflection. You could probably just as easily accomplish the same thing with a random drawing to fill the role. But, then you’d have the difficulty of trying to inculcate whoever fills the role with the behaviors that are necessary for the role to work properly.

    Because, properly executed, it is a job. The head of state is expected to act as national cheerleader, national coach, national therapist, and national spokesperson. And they have to do that for all of the country. As a result, in public, at least, they don’t really get to be “their own person”. They’re the reflection of the country as a whole. And, to take sides within that country is to alienate those that disagree. A prime minister can have his opinions on the issues of the day. He or she represents the prevailing political majority. But, the role of the monarch, of a head of state, is to transcend those controversies.

    It’s here, I think that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have botched things up. Implicit in their expressed wish was the desire to retain, and even capitalize on, the moral authority of their role within the monarchy without the restriction of the role’s nature. But, you can’t be “a real life princess” for the next Disney+ television movie without expending the capital that has been invested in the role. And you don’t get to give the country woke lectures without leaving much of the country wondering why they should give a tinker’s damn what exactly you might have to say on pretty much anything.

    • Suthenboy

      If someone disappeared who would you notice first?

      1)Royalty – never notice
      2)Politicians – never notice
      3)doctors, lawyers, engineers – might be years before you notice
      4)grocer – notice within a week
      5) garbage man – you would notice in a day or two at the most
      6) the guys that keep the water and electricity on – you would notice in five minutes

      Just a little perspective.

      • wdalasio

        In and of itself, it’s not terribly interesting. It does make a good jumping off point for exploring more interesting issues.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        How many days a week do they pick up the garbage where you live? It would take me a week to notice the garbage man is missing.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      The normal assessment of such an arrangement is that such monarchs are wildly overpaid welfare cases. And there can be a point there, up to a point. But, it assumes the role of figurehead has no job within the political system.

      I’d say that’s the entire point. They are wildly overpaid welfare cases. I’ve heard the argument that it’s not welfare because more revenue is brought in from tourism than is spent. I might be able to go with that, but that would make them entertainers/actors about on par with the Kardashians, though I don’t think the British version is nearly as successful.

      Because, properly executed, it is a job. The head of state is expected to act as national cheerleader, national coach, national therapist, and national spokesperson. And they have to do that for all of the country

      I don’t know about this one. It’s an interesting take, but I think that’s a made up job that could be done away overnight without anyone missing it. Much like personal life coaches.

      • wdalasio

        I think that’s a made up job that could be done away overnight without anyone missing it.

        But, that’s just it. It wouldn’t be done away with. You’d just have some other figure, whether a president or, in the U.K., the prime minister doing the same thing.

        My point is that the role of head of state doesn’t go away, as much as reasonable people wish it might. It goes to something that is a challenge for libertarianism or limited government, in general. People look to the government as an ersatz parental figure.

      • Mojeaux

        People need sometjing to worship. In lieu of a monarchy, they will worship Kardashians or Chococolate Jesi.

      • Suthenboy

        “….it’s not welfare because more revenue is brought in from tourism than is spent.”

        I keep hearing that about college football yet for some unexplained reason those programs/stadiums always seem to need taxpayer money to keep afloat.

      • Ozymandias

        I’ve written (and even lectured professionally) about this and no one ever seems to listen. From time immemorial sport has required subsidy. And when I say “sport,” I’m talking about the spectator kind. Because there really isn’t that much revenue in it. I know, people will flip out and disagree, but you can only make money via (1) attendance – and you can only put so many asses in the seats on a certain frequency. It really isn’t much at all; (2) merchandise – a decent revenue stream ONCE you’ve actually gotten enough people to do the sport and attract sufficient fans who will buy it, but that takes a LOONNNGG time to get there and from all examples I know of, sport needed massive taxpayer subsidy to get to that point; (3) TV deals are really just another combo form of tickets/merch but the only way that works for the major sports is via Congresssional giveaway (NFL) or bad court decision (MLB antitrust exemption). Seven out of 10 NFL stadiums are subsidized by taxpayers, and every major sport relies upon the govt looking the other way on the enforcement of laws that keep out competition. Sport has required tax to support it as far back as we have records of sport (including the original olympics). It’s also had agents, and steroids, and chicanery, so none of the modern things (including what the Astros did) is in any way ‘new.’ They’re just variations on themes that have been in sport forever.

      • Jarflax

        Panem et circenses pay for themselves in rebellions deferred.

      • Ozymandias

        From the perspective of the ruling class, certainly.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Why should a libertarian be opposed to someone wanting to change jobs?

      Outside of that, I think this whole thing is stupid and not worthy of attention.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I’m with Scruffy. It is interesting for about 5 seconds because they are such clueless ingrates. But no more interesting than the idiocy of the offspring of some celebrity. Silliness all the way down.

      • Fourscore

        If I go out on my deck with a cup of coffee and shout “I am the King” and no one hears and/or no one cares, am I really the king?

        /Clueless Ingrate/

      • Pope Jimbo

        Big talker!

        I’m assuming your wife is off traveling when you try such a bold experiment?

  36. The Late P Brooks

    I have sensed a distinct EEWWW vibe from her regarding the royal family.

    Maybe she should have thought of that sooner.

    It’ll be okay. On Sundays, after brunch, they can take the kid for a walk at the dog park, once the area has been swept for threats peasants, and a perimeter established.

    • Mojeaux

      Maybe she should have thought of that sooner.

      Dude, she got a sugar daddy who’s not going to go broke. She knew she’d have to put up with them for a while before she broke his cod over her knee and got back to LA as soon as she could.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        She played along as long as it was necessary to land the big fish, and now has put his sorry ass in dry dock until she gets her wish and forces the entire family to change the way things worked. She truly is a spoiled little princess.

      • Mojeaux

        OTOH!

        I admire her drive and vague ruthlessness.

        She went big AND she’s going to go home with her trophy.

        What bigger fish could she have landed? She’s a fucking duchess.

        +1 female cunning

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      I would find it an interesting challenge to do things the RF’s way. The art collection alone might make up for pheasant shooting and having to be around Prince Andrew.

      • Jarflax

        She’s a Hollywood actress. She has been on all fours in front of worse than Andrew.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Heh. If I were me, not if I were her.

      • Suthenboy

        Jarflax gets it.

  37. Suthenboy

    “Iran says U.S. bears blame for Iranian forces shooting down plane”

    Of course they do. Try some more shit mullahs and we will be to blame for shooting a missile up your ass.

    • AlexinCT

      My bet is that they are going to hold off for a while before they try anymore shit. Like until there is another cock-sucking democrat that will just bend over and take it like Obama did.

  38. JD is Unemployed

    Pfft, handjob? How pedestrian. You’d think they’d at least have upped the spice a little bit for today’s audiences. Well, I’m linking to the story so I suppose a handjob was enough to spread the publicity virus.

  39. PieInTheSky

    “The bongs cost £500,000… but we’re working up a plan so that people can bung a bob for a Big Ben bong”

    Boris Johnson says “we need to restore the clapper, in order to bong Big Ben on Brexit night, and that is expensive”

    https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1217000076264050688

    • Count Potato

      I can make him a bong out of a soda bottle for few bucks.

      • Not Adahn

        Nobody has the lung capacity to make a bong out of Big Ben.

  40. Rebel Scum

    If we remove the dead/inactive from the voter rolls how are we supposed to continue to find boxes of ballots until Democrats win?

    An Ozaukee County judge found the state Elections Commission and three of its members in contempt of court Monday, saying they had flouted his December order to remove thousands of people from Wisconsin’s voter rolls.

    “I can’t be any clearer than this,” Judge Paul Malloy said. “They need to follow my order.” …

    Jacobs said she believes Malloy’s initial findings were incorrect and she does not want to begin taking people off the rolls even though she’s been found in contempt of court.

    “If we are going to treat voting as the central component of our democracy, we need to be far less cavalier about taking people off the rolls,” she said.

    • leon

      THE JUDICIARY HAS BEEN REPLACED BY TRUMP NAZI SCUM!!! DON’T COMPLY!

    • Suthenboy

      When she uses the word ‘democracy’ I don’t think she means what we think she means.

      • AlexinCT

        She means exactly what she thinks she means: democracy means democrats win/are in charge, no matter what the will of the unwashed masses doing the voting might fucking be…

    • Tonio

      “They need to follow my order.” Pathetic. The judge has the power to haul them in on contempt warrants and keep them locked up until they do comply.

    • Q Continuum

      Throw the motherfuckers in jail.

    • wdalasio

      And the judge is giving them a $250 per day fine. While they jurisdiction shop for a favorable appeal.

      Put the bastards in the local jail. You’ll see how quickly they change their tune. Of course, the judge is probably just making noise that he knows won’t be too inconvenient.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Wisconsin allows you to register the same day of the election at the polls. All you need is a valid state issued ID card with your current address. Even if you are registered, you would need to provide a state issued ID card before voting because Wisconsin has a racist Voter ID law.

      So even if they purged EVERYONE from the rolls, no one would be prevented from voting. The lines would be longer, but everyone could vote.

      This is simply about not getting tripped up by the numbers when they start stuffing ballot boxes. They don’t want to get caught tallying 1000 votes in some precinct when there are only 800 registered voters after the purge.

      When all this voter fraud malarky started years ago, I thought that it was an overblown fear. However, seeing how hard the Dems fight any minor restriction on voter rolls or voter ID, I now think it happens way more than anyone thinks.

      • Ozymandias

        THIS^^^^

        The best example – and it is an absolute museum-quality piece of voter fraud – was when Jill Stein demanded a recount during the last election. Remember that? Pepperidge Farm remembers!

        FTA:

        Voting machines in more than one-third of all Detroit precincts registered more votes than they should have during last month’s presidential election, according to Wayne County records prepared at the request of The Detroit News.

        Detailed reports from the office of Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett show optical scanners at 248 of the city’s 662 precincts, or 37 percent, tabulated more ballots than the number of voters tallied by workers in the poll books.

        AND… wait for it, the money shot…

        The problems were the worst in Detroit, where discrepancies meant officials couldn’t recount votes in 392 precincts, or nearly 60 percent. And two-thirds of those precincts had too many votes.

        “There’s always going to be small problems to some degree, but we didn’t expect the degree of problem we saw in Detroit. This isn’t normal,” said Krista Haroutunian, chairwoman of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers.

      • Gustave Lytton

        There’s no voter fraud!

        (Because we keep ignoring any evidence and refuse to investigate)

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Philadelphia is definitely in the running for most corrupt election process.

        No Democrat is ever going to lose in the city, so their only rationale for even having the election is to skew the statewide results.

      • Suthenboy

        Voter fraud is a myth!

        /Reason writer

  41. JD is Unemployed

    I just posted a comment that seems not to have materialized. Moderation purgatory?

    • Mojeaux

      More than 2 links?

      • JD is Unemployed

        Just the one. It was about a handjob on TV, so really I was just being a pawn in a viral marketing campaign.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    “This is a math class, can we just talk about math?”

    “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

    *sucks thumb, snuggles blanky*

    • Mojeaux

      Seriously. These people aren’t in math class, WTF?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      This is the interesting part.

      Smollett is not the only one on the hook. Foxx, Smollett’s apparent ally who let him skate, seems to be feeling the heat and has retained outside legal counsel. Foxx hired a lawyer to represent her personal interests and also brought in a former chief judge to respond to Webb’s inquiries about the state’s attorney’s office. This latter problem is costing taxpayers a significant amount: the lawyer is being paid (at a rate of $250 to $375 an hour) with public funds. Foxx is running for reelection but faces three Democratic opponents in a March primary.

      • AlexinCT

        Wake me up when someone points out Michelle Obama was involved in this racket and she needs to do some penance…

  43. Timeloose

    This is climate change. No, seriously. This will have more of an impact than all the emissions mankind puts out for months. But that won’t sell socialism, so those climateers won’t glom onto it.

    Guess where Timeloose is supposed to be next week? Guess I’ll be at home or buying an extra checked bag for the emergency survival kit, dust masks, water, and batteries.

  44. "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EONdqhbX0AAz3yw.jpg:large

    “Reforming the FISA Process” with all the most notorious Russia Hoaxers.

    Julian Sanchez is on the panel with Andrew McCabe and Adam Serwer. Jesus Christ. Sanchez is a “civil liberties” analyst at CATO and also regularly deep throats the FBI. The alternative that wasn’t and never will be.

    • Chipwooder

      It’s a real horse race as to who is more of a fake libertarian cunt between Sanchez and Will Wilkinson.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        They’re both covered in FBI jizz, so it is tough

    • grrizzly

      Andrew Weissmann is on the panel, too. He wrote the Mueller report.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Weissman?

        Jesus Christ, that guy is nothing but dirty tricks and barely legal methods.

    • R C Dean

      And the lawyer appointed to oversee the “reforms” is on the record that he doesn’t see any problems.

      At this point, I don’t see any other conclusion other than the FISA court is complicit.

  45. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Tard Tuesday: What In Tardation?

    A conversation with my trump coworkers last night at work
    I walk in lunch room around 02:00.My union trump supporting misguided brethren are woofing down sandwiches and slopping down soup. And they have fox on I shut tv off hey we we’re watching that I heard from them.

    I replied not in the mood to hear any facist tv propaganda. They are as sick and mental over at Fox as your orange yam in the White House. That got em going me stroking them calling their dear leader mental actually I enjoy it getting them wound up.

    Teb – I said look fellas he’s completely mental. He needs psychiatric help and after 2020 he will get it.

    Trump supporters – what do you mean after 2020

    Teb – I said after the SDNY charges him with and after he’s convicted. He will receive psych help in New York State prison system. Then I looked at a true union brother a fine teamster a good democrat a vet as I am we have known each other probably since 93 when we both worked at Preston 151 trucking. I winked and said. You know if I would have took that change operations back in 2010 and went to buffalo to work. My tax dollars would be helping orange anus get mental help once he’s in New York State prison.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      “union trump supporting misguided brethren”

      I don’t think anything aggravates Democrats more than the fact that Trump wins private unionized households. They wanted to cancel the AFL-CIO after Trumka met cordially with the president several times and even forced Pelosi to pass the NAFTA revision (which is also shit, so I’m not praising the policies that they like about Trump).

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They actually believe he’s going to prison on trumped up charges from Letitia James, that’s what gets me. They’ve become completely venal and petty.

      • AlexinCT

        If they don’t manage to hang him based on whatever faked charges they can concoct, they will have to possible do some soul searching which might cause serious fucking damage to their fragile egos. Leftist are so invested in their identity and their belief that they are the noble ones and what they believe is right, that anything that even forces them to rethink their superiority is too big of a threat to tolerate. and they have no qualms doing whatever evil is necessary to safeguard their ivory tower.

    • Rebel Scum

      not in the mood to hear any facist tv propaganda

      Then you’d better stay away from CNN.

      I shut tv off hey we we’re watching that I heard from them

      So you are an asshole. Also, your grammar and writing composition is terrible.

      • Suthenboy

        “your grammar and writing composition is terrible.”

        A reflection of their thought processes.

    • Tonio

      “after the SDNY charges him with and after he’s convicted. He will receive psych help in New York State prison system”

      Um…bullshit.

      SDNY is generally the (federal) Southern District of New York, which is the area of jurisdiction of both a US Attorney (Preet’s old shop, probably the public corruption unit) and a US District court (which includes the notoriously humorless Judge Forrest of the Woodchipper Incident). As a federal prisoner he would most likely do time in a federal correctional institute. Sorry union guy.

    • A Leap at the Wheel

      He seems like a really pleasant person to me. Has a lot going on in his life – respect for his peers, a humble life lived according to simple values, carries himself with dignity.

  46. "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

    https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1216914083192229890

    Vince Vaughan talking to President Trump.

    Maybe he’s telling the president “You got to listen to this Tom Woods guy. He’s got a podcast.” He was just on the show about a month back.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Dude, she got a sugar daddy who’s not going to go broke. She knew she’d have to put up with them for a while before she broke his cod over her knee and got back to LA as soon as she could.

    No wonder I’m broke. Being a scheming, manipulative gold digger sounds like a lot of work.

    • Mojeaux

      My dad used to say that if you marry for money it’ll be the hardest work you’d ever do.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        My grandma used to say that it’s just as easy to love a rich girl.

      • UnCivilServant

        Your grandma was a lesbian?

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        Hm, I never thought of it that way. I thought it was just advice she gave my dad before he married a poor girl.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        But then she was born and raised in San Francisco, so, maybe…

    • Suthenboy

      Far better to be left in peace and just pay your bills.

      Sci-Fi movie the other day….

      Supervillian: “I am going to take the world!”

      Me: “and do what with it? ‘Be in charge!’? Everyone else’s fuck ups, needs, wants etc will run your life. When you are in charge of the world, the world is in charge of you. Your phone rings day and night from people wanting stuff. Scurry here, scurry there, fix this, fix that, hand out favors….Fuck that.
      Go away. I just want to be left alone.”

      • wdalasio

        Reminds me of one of my favorite lines from Gilligan’s Island:

        Guest character: “How would you like to rule the world?!”
        Mr. Howell: “I’d rather buy it and hire someone to run it for me.”

  48. Nephilium

    With the change to my company’s vacation policy, European vacation for me and the girlfriend is on for this summer (otherwise I won’t have enough vacation to do it in the foreseeable future). Current plan is a round trip ticket to Reykjavik as the flight out and the flight home (from where we are, they’re cheap). From Reykjavik, a one way ticket into Brussels, spend some time in Belgium, then take a train down into northern Germany, then either a one way flight back to Reykjavik or go into Amsterdam for a couple of days and then fly back to Reykjavik.

    Current timeline is end of June to mid July. Any suggestions, warnings, meeting up with any of those of you stuck in the EU are welcome.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Buy it with a card that has travel insurance and will cover separate tickets.

      Really, look around at the usual flight deals website, unless Iceland is a destination. Pricing to Europe on a round trip is often sub $500 if you can deal with basic economy or LCC and you’re protected on a misconnect. Also, WOW went tits up and IcelandAir pricing isn’t as low as it used to be.

      Ex: https://www.theflightdeal.com/2020/01/13/american-philadelphia-madrid-spain-323-basic-economy-463-regular-economy-roundtrip-including-all-taxes/

      • UnCivilServant

        I keep debating visiting iceland as a destanation.

        But that involves going through airport security.

      • Nephilium

        Appreciate that. But the flights to Iceland are still showing as ~$500 round trip from CLE (through United right now with a stop in Jersey). From there you can get one way flights for less then $200 to the places we’re looking at going. A quick search for CLE to Brussels round trip put it at ~$1,200 for the round trip (and around $1,400 for Madrid).

  49. Warty

    Life is a beautiful adventure and too beautiful to describe, so make sure to notice it.

    Someday yoga pants will be out of fashion.

    That is all.

    • Drake

      That will be a mixed blessing.

      • Q Continuum

        High quality yoga pants can make all but the flabbiest, fattest asses look appealing.

      • Drake

        Maybe I’m seeing low quality ones at the gym – or she’s been sitting on gravel for a few hours.

      • AlexinCT

        Cottage cheese look?

        Yuck…

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      “Someday yoga pants will be out of fashion.”

      That’s just depressing.

      But, then I remind myself that in the early 2000’s having the straps from your thong sticking out of your pants was all the rage and that was replaced by yoga pants. And yoga pants are better. So maybe girls walking around in lingerie will become the new rage or something.

      • The Other Kevin

        Everything is cyclical so find the worst fashion trend from the last 60 years and chances are they will be next.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Benneton it is.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Shoulder pads and female androgyny?

    • Rhywun

      Someday yoga pants will be out of fashion.

      That’s what I said about tatts and hair gel. Fifteen years ago.

      • commodious spittoon

        They’ll replace skinny jeans for hipster men.

      • Timeloose

        Men wearing skinny jeans just provide proof that you don’t squat.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        In the future, people will use astroglide for hair gel. And it will be the most successful addition to the bar scene since beer nuts.

      • Not Adahn

        If breakdancing couldn’t make that happen, nothing will.

  50. Drake

    Michael Bloomberg – asshole.

    “It may true, I wasn’t there, I don’t know the facts, that somebody in the congregation had their own gun and killed the person who murdered two other people,” he said. “But it’s the job of law enforcement to, uh, have guns and to decide when to shoot.” He continued, “You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Mikey’s not average, you see.

    • Suthenboy

      “But it’s the job of law enforcement to, uh, have guns and to decide when to shoot.”

      No, it’s not. This is not even remotely accurate. It is the responsibility of every individual to decide when to shoot when their own or another’s life is in imminent danger. Also, you cant have your cake and eat it too…The SC ruled the police have no duty to protect.

      “You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”

      Actually I do and I see it all the time where I live. We also have one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

      Gun violence is not a gun problem. It is a cultural problem…but we aren’t allowed to say that.

      • Q Continuum

        Police carry guns to protect themselves, not you.

      • Not Adahn

        Police carry guns to protect themselves, not you. shoot lesser life forms.

      • Jarflax

        Decide? I guess if you base the decision on the “Was I even slightly nervous?” test it is still a decision.

    • Q Continuum

      “These damn Deplorables are supposed to just die while waiting for the professionals to arrive! Who do these serfs think they are?!”

    • Rebel Scum

      Bloomer is willing to sacrifice all the additional people that likely would have been killed had the congregants been disarmed and made to wait for law enforcement to set up a perimeter and wait to pick up the bodies after in order to satisfy his religious adversity to the plebs having any means of self defense. All the while he travels with armed security. That is all you need to know here.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Two words – Pulse nightclub

      • leon

        Trumps words of hate towards LGBTQ+ people caused that.

      • Suthenboy

        Notice he is saying “Ok, an armed ordinary person put a stop to a slaughter but we don’t want that, we don’t want ordinary people carrying guns because there might be a slaughter”

        Or something. Really the essence of his position is ‘Bow down and don’t you even think about resisting’.

    • Chipwooder

      “Look, what you need to do is let your heavily armed personal security detail take care of situations like that.”

  51. Mojeaux

    So it appears I must take an inventory of an entire house and calculate its yard sale/pawn shop value.

    ????

    • Tonio

      Ugh. Ever’ting worth a nickel.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Uffda. Years ago my wife wanted to do a garage sale because one of her friends had one and cleared a couple hundred bucks. I flatly refused. I told her to go help her other friend who was also going to have a garage sale and then we’d talk.

      After one day of the garage sale, she was over it. She realized that having jerks show up at your house to hassle you for nickels just wasn’t worth it.

      I’ve sold a few things on Craig’s List, but for the most part, I just put things in CL’s Free category and let the vultures swoop in and cart everything off.

      • Mojeaux

        When I want to get rid of stuff I just take it to the thrift store. It is not worth the pencil lead to write it on the schedule A.

        We get most of our stuff at the thrift store because my son destroys everything. It’s not like we have anything of worth except electronics and even then, those were bought with gift cards years ago.

      • Mojeaux

        I hit reply too soon.

        I am going to go on CL and FB and find equivalent items and get those prices.

        I buy lots of things that we need on FB and CL. Got XX a nearly new mattress for $75 and XY a captain’s bed for $100 and a dresser for $25 or something ridiculous.

        Fact is every time I buy something on CL or FB, I end up selling it (when I’m finished with it) for a profit.

      • Agent Cooper

        nearly new mattress

        Cannot do that.

      • Mojeaux

        Her current mattress was 30 years old and affecting her health quite a bit and given our financial constraints I couldn’t afford a new one.

      • UnCivilServant

        When I try to envision a 30 yhear old mattress, my mind comes back with a sheet.

      • Fourscore

        I finally was allowed to share in Mrs Jimbo’s gift but only a couple of the fantastic dumplings. Mrs Fourscore doesn’t want me to get used to someone else’s cooking. Thanks, Jimbo, and thank your wife, I take back some of the things I said about you.

      • Pope Jimbo

        The things my wife could have accomplished if we weren’t a package deal.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I’m just glad you got a few. Next time I’m bribing you, I’ll make sure there are two bags of my wife’s mandu. And you only need to report one bag to the authorities.

        Years ago I got a lot of garlic scapes from my aunt (who was growing garlic just for the bulbs). I got home from work the next day and my wife and her buddies had eaten them all. When I mildly suggested that I really liked garlic scapes and would have enjoyed a few, she got a totally innocent look on her face and said “Really? I had no idea you liked those. I’m so sorry”. She kept a straight face for all of about 10 seconds before she started giggling.

    • Sean

      My gf has just started using a local silent auction business to get rid of DeadAunt’s stuff.

      She drops stuff off and it’s their problem. She goes back a month later and gets money & whatever may not have sold.

      • Mojeaux

        I kinda like the thrill of negotiating and getting something for my stuff I would have otherwise donated.

        It’s fun.

        Also I write good ads and it’s fun to get emails telling me they don’t want my stuff but I brightened theirbday.

      • Sean

        it’s fun to get emails telling me they don’t want my stuff but I brightened theirbday

        That’s pretty cool.

    • Drake

      When my wife redecorated the family room, we donated the old furniture to a store the local Methodist church runs. They came and picked up the furniture and gave us a form to write it off on our taxes. Seemed a lot less hassle than trying to sell the stuff.

      • Mojeaux

        The stuff I donate is not worth the time it takes to calculate and write off.

        The stuff I sell has value. E.g., 2 years ago I was clearing out my cross stitch supplies stash. I had patterns tjat are considered vintage, but I was always going to get to them “someday.”

        I put those puppies on eBay and netting almost $1,000. You never know. I knew they were valuable but I didn’t know HOW valuable.

        I declutter on a regular basis because I don’t like stuff. It’s why I’m so irritated that XY is a hoarder.

      • Drake

        Nice – an extra $k is always welcome.

  52. leon

    With Regards to the whole Iran Affair i found this interesting when looking up dates, the following are articles from the guardian printed 3 days apart.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/31/iraq-riots-embassy-expose-america-weaker-fewer-options

    The mobbing of a US embassy has historically served as an emblem of America in decline, so the scenes around the embattled mission in Baghdad are a fitting end to the decade.

    Then: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/03/baghdad-airport-iraq-attack-deaths-iran-us-tensions

    The US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, said Trump had “tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox”. His fellow Democratic hopefuls Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders warned the attack could spark a disastrous new war in the Middle East.

    both of these articles were written by the same author.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The mobbing of a US embassy has historically served as an emblem of America in decline

      Yes, America declined terribly in the decades after Vietnam, so much so their major global opposition collapsed.

      • commodious spittoon

        THAT WASN’T REAL OPPOSITION!!

    • Q Continuum

      To read the Grauniad and take it seriously requires a level of brainwashing that would make Orwell blush.

    • The Other Kevin

      This is what you get when the premise of every article is “everything Trump does is bad.”

    • Suthenboy

      Before or after Iran essentially said ‘Uncle!’?

      It’s gonna be a landslide.

      • Mojeaux

        The progs really do not understand why the People of Walmart won’t just settle down and be ruled like good serfs.

      • AlexinCT

        And they have plans to punish said people for not complying too…

  53. The Other Kevin

    No one needs six kinds of seats on a space rocket when there are people starving.

    • AlexinCT

      You joke, but I am waiting for someone to make this exact comment in earnest…

  54. The Late P Brooks

    Well, that was interesting. CNN (don’t ask) just ran a piece about some American who has been imprisoned for undisclosed reasons in Egypt since 2012 or so has died, and it appears to have been Public Enemy Number One’s fault.

    Bad Orange Man is Bad.

    • Not Adahn

      NPR said the deceased had been on a hunger strike.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        Right. And Trump is anti-union. Why would he support a strike? If anything he probably wanted the guy to die more after hearing about the strike. How many more times are you going to make excuses for the man?

        – Brian “Bag of Dicks” Stelter

      • Q Continuum

        Still Trump’s fault.

  55. "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

    “How Vince Vaughan Has Embraced the Alt-Right”

    FTA:

    “Vince Vaughan caused a stir on social media last night after pictures of him conversing with President Trump went viral. While many were not surprised to learn that the Republican Vaughan had been cordial with the president, others pointed out that this was only Vaughan’s most recent flirtation with the alt-right.

    “Vince claims that he is a libertarian, but recently he was a guest on a notorious Nazi podcast dubbed “The Tom Woods Show” said current chair of the Libertarian Party, Nick Sarwark. “Woods” Sarwark went on to say, referring to the host of “The Tom Woods Show” “is not a libertarian, but is instead an ethno-state proponent. When he could be talking about great gains for liberty, such as states funding gender transition surgeries, Mr. Woods instead chooses to spread disinformation by attacking the FBI, the CIA, or the foreign policy establishment more generally.”

    Others within libertarian circles have also noticed Vaughan’s political evolution and have been alarmed.

    “He was a Ron Paul guy” said Reason Magazine writer, Nick Gillespie over the phone “I never understood his affinity for Dr. Paul’s brand of Nazisim, but he’s firmly associated himself with that. Paul doesn’t even own a leather jacket, so I’m not even sure why people confuse him as a libertarian.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      My sarcometer is twitching, but only slightly.

      • Rebel Scum

        ^

    • leon

      LOL. You should write more articles like this for an actual piece, not just a comment.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        I would read this as a weekly feature.

    • Timeloose

      Nice twist at the end. You had me for a second.

    • Urthona

      Nice

    • straffinrun

      Bravo.

    • ChipsnSalsa

      copy-paste. Off to the Bee. Keep writing TGA, I’m going to be famous!

  56. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I get a daily update of open local government purchase orders for a variety of things. Today one caught my eye:

    Breading & Gestation Pens at Southampton Agribusiness

    Must be a chicken nugget ranch.

    • Not Adahn

      chicken nugget ranch

      Nevada brothel specializing in women who’ve had a lot of plastic surgery?

  57. The Late P Brooks

    I guess the Mustang from Bullit sold for about three and a half million bucks, the other day. Did Lou Reed buy it?

  58. Chipwooder

    Let a Bernie Sanders field organizaer clear the CIA propaganda from your minds so you can learn how the gulags weren’t that bad, really. You have to be a special kind of idiot, even by leftard standards, to prattle on about the “living wage” of the gulag.

    TW: James O’Keefe video.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Political field organizers are a particularly stupid lot in general.

    • leon

      “People were actually paid a living wage in the gulags”

      Yeah bro… I’m against taking the CIA’s word for things but that doesn’t mean jump down and believe everything Pravda tells you.

      • AlexinCT

        “People were actually paid a living wage in the gulags”

        They got plenty of exercise, bread & water, and the occasional disciplinary action to correct their wrong-think…

      • Jarflax

        And all the ones that survived were clearly compensated with a living wage or they would have died like the other ones.

    • Suthenboy

      “‘Expect violent reaction’ for speech. If Bernie doesn’t get nomination “Milwaukee will burn”

      Yeah? I was. going to vote Bernie but now that you point that out….

      • Suthenboy

        I thought this was going to be a bombshell? Thiis is just another fruit loop berniebro prattling on about their crazy nonsense.

  59. "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

    Tulsi Gabbard ?

    “I also met with @BernieSanders before announcing my candidacy. We had a nice one-on-one conversation and I informed him that I would be running for President. In that meeting, he showed me the greatest respect and encouragement, just as he always has.”

    ^ This right here is going to send the NYT editorial page into a fucking rage. I look forward to the articles “The Hidden Misogyny Behind Tulsi Gabbard’s Campaign”. Remember she has now called out two female media darlings: Warren and Hamala Harris

    • straffinrun

      Really? They’ve done a pretty good job of icing out Tulsi. She’s at 1%(?) in the dem field, not in the debates. I hope this makes a dent in the liar Warren’s campaign, but outside us political junkies I doubt anybody will notice.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        The NYT will notice. If it’s on Twitter that means a journalist will see it.

      • straffinrun

        ‘‘Tis true the NYT seems to hate Tulsi more than Trump if that’s possible.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        Two reasons.

        (1) Tulsi refused to endorse Clinton in 2016 and resigned from her role in the DNC citing the fact that the DNC had favored Clinton over Bernie.

        (2) Tulsi met with Trump’s transition team shortly after his election to persuade him to end our involvement in Syria.

        (3) Tulsi was very critical of the NYT’s messiah while he was in office. It was forgivable in the moment, but after the election of Trump it became blasphemy

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        Errr…*three* reasons

      • AlexinCT

        I thought you were just doing proggie count for effect, brah…

    • Drake

      I haven’t paid much attention to their policy proposals. Are her ideas any different than Bernie’s in any significant way?

  60. PieInTheSky

    If you’re in the area this year, check out the Museum of Neoliberalism in Lewisham. London. It’s a tiny little space used creatively to tell the tale of how market fundamentalism is ultimately killing us.

    https://twitter.com/ShellyAsquith/status/1216397541421584384

      • UnCivilServant

        libertarian marxist

        does not compute.

      • PieInTheSky

        libertarians were commies before Ayn Friedman stoles the wordz

      • Jarflax

        Sorry but your Romanian to English Dictionary is misleading you. Anarchist and libertarian are not actually synonyms.

      • Jarflax

        Also how dedicated a commie do you have to be to idolize the guy who was such a pariah even among commies that he ended up as the European ally of China because no one else would talk to him?

      • Chipwooder

        Jesus H. Christ, there are actually people in 2020 who go around praising….Enver Hoxha???????

        There are just a whole lot of people out there who need killin’.

      • R C Dean

        a libertarian marxist

        And we thought libertarian women were mythical.

    • Rhywun

      market fundamentalism

      ??

    • PieInTheSky

      Socialists aren’t looking for some charismatic leader to follow to Marx’s class-free money-free future society. Leaders have deceived in the past, and will do so again, so socialists put their trust in principles, knowing that these will not betray them.

      https://twitter.com/OfficialSPGB/status/1217101331057475586

      • Suthenboy

        I guess envy could be construed as a principle. Somehow.

  61. ttyrant

    Work has kept me busy lately, so this comment is a bit dated, but having now been in the Twin Cities for both a Twins first-round pummeling and a meek Vikings playoff exit, I feel I am now a True Minnesotan.

    Of course, as a lapsed Bears fan and a still-enthusiastic White Sox fan, I cant really throw stones here. I will say that the reactions at the bars where I watched the games were pretty amusing. I dont think I saw anyone genuinely pissed off about the losses. I suppose I’m more used to Bears losses and the post-game rants of Ed OBradovich and Doug Buffone.

  62. The Late P Brooks

    “People were actually paid a living wage in the gulags”

    Room and board, in a free and fair exchange for labor.

    Jeepers, you guys are a bunch of nitpickers.

    • A Leap at the Wheel

      Puts the daddy issues right out front huh? That’s a nice public service announcement.

    • Chipwooder

      They’re never going to shut up about Little Women, are they?

      • Not Adahn

        Please be a troll, please be a troll

        Elias Higham

        @EliasJHigham
        21h21 hours ago
        More
        Replying to @1followernodad
        That’s one of the things I really liked about Little Women: it’s a war movie in a way as well. Just focused on how like 90% of the population experiences war, which is depravation and hardship and not knowing if your loved ones will make it home, instead of the actual fighting.

      • leon

        Women are the most affected by War.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      “Why do people continue to talk about the seminal tragedy of the 20th Century that defined the world we live in today?” She asked

    • Suthenboy

      Shorter Sophia: “I am a raging Oikophobe”

      Also: “I like cats”

  63. The Late P Brooks

    The ineffable burden of progressivism

    “1917” is a movie that perfectly fits President Donald Trump’s agenda, even if the filmmakers did not intend for that.

    I take no joy in criticizing “1917.” Directed and co-written by Sam Mendes, the film is well acted by stars George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman, beautifully shot by cinematographer Roger Deakins and tells a harrowing story of heroism and survival that makes it a solid entry in the genre of war films. There is a beauty to the simplicity of its plot: Two men have to trek across a dangerous terrain in order to save the lives of 1,600 others, and time is a factor. From the sole perspective of the filmmaking craft, “1917” is worth a watch.

    Yet as I watched it, I felt very uneasy — not for aesthetic reasons, but for moral ones. “1917,” as its title indicates for the historically well-informed, is a World War I picture. Any film set during that conflict has a responsibility to account for the horrors of nationalism, much as a film that takes place during the Civil War must deal with slavery, and one that occurs during World War II must acknowledge fascism.

    Unlike the Civil War and World War II, though, World War I did not have one side that was clearly right and another that was clearly wrong. While the Union and Allies were far from perfect, the former had the moral advantage of opposing a rebellion motivated by racist pro-slavery sentiment while the latter were literally crusading against Nazis. World War I, by contrast, was a global conflagration in which nationalism was the spark. Nationalism is any ideology that focuses on promoting the interests of a particular nation, usually with the goal of maintaining that nation’s sovereignty over its geographic homeland, keeping it free from the influence of those defined as outside its “nation” and/or expanding its power on the world stage through imperialism. It seduces good men and women by calling on them to be “patriotic,” and allows less innocent individuals to rationalize immoral actions using the same mental lens. (As the English writer Samuel Johnson put it, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”)

    Indefatigable politicization of every fucking thing?

    We’ve got that.

    • Mojeaux

      They don’t have anything else to talk about.

      Theu are not interesting people and they don’t say interesting things and so they have to scratch for topics.

      There’s no there there doesn’t seem to register.

    • A Leap at the Wheel

      Any film set during that conflict has a responsibility to account for the horrors of nationalism

      STOP NOT CARING ABOUT THINGS I CARE ABOUT ON THE INTERNET DAD!

    • Rebel Scum

      The War Between the State and WWII are slightly more complicated than that. And not everything need to be politicized to your modern sentiments. Sometimes a war movie is just a war movie.

    • R C Dean

      Any film set during that conflict has a responsibility to account for the horrors of nationalism,

      No, it does not. If democracy dies in darkness, art dies in politics.

    • Jarflax

      “1917,” as its title indicates for the historically well-informed

      If knowing that makes one well informed, anyone is is not well informed is a freaking moron who should be stripped of the franchise.

    • leon

      Unlike the Civil War and World War II, though, World War I did not have one side that was clearly right and another that was clearly wrong.

      I’m not saying that such a war has never happened, but the way the author tosses this out as “These wars were clearly a struggle of Good vs Evil” is telling.

      To wit: WWII was a war fought by Democratic Fascists and Communists on one side and the German Fascists on the other. While i would argue that one of those groups is undoubtedly better than the others, that doesn’t make it necessarily good vs evil.

      As for the Civil War, look up when slavery was abolished in the Union.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        The good vs evil narrative is very valuable in teaching small children history. My second grader came home last week and proudly announced that she knew why the civil war started (slavery). Given that she’s in second grade, I nodded gravely and patted her head. Some people advance beyond the second grade level of understanding. Some just want their head patted.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        Imagine believing that any war could be divided as “right” versus “wrong”. It takes a child-like grasp of history to believe that

    • Agent Cooper

      “Any film set during that conflict has a responsibility to account for”

      Uh, no it does not.

  64. l0b0t

    Sorry for venting.

    So, after 15 years and 2 kids (9yo. daughter, 6 yo. son) wifey has decided that she is no longer in love with me. She wants me to move out, but stay close by so I can still shuttle the kids to and from school, fix their breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and help them with their homework. (Wifey works from 6:30am – 5:30 pm as a public school teacher so can not participate in day time parenting). I can’t afford to live in NYC by myself (frankly, I don’t think she can either) but I am enraged and terrified about the prospect of my losing my kids. I just want to go to sleep and never wake up. Thank you all for tolerating me and for provinding the only place on the internet where I don’t feel alone and crazy.

    • Mojeaux

      DO NOT MOVE OUT!!!!!

      WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT MOVE OUT!!!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        THIS

        Speak to a good divorce attorney before taking ANY kind of action. There will be repercussions to every choice you make at this point, and do not, under any circumstances, assume that your wife has good intentions.

        It’s sad, but heartbroken spouses get taken to the cleaners during this phase of the divorce. You’re blindsided, but she’s been thinking about it for a while and has a plan.

        I’m sorry man. Good luck.

    • A Leap at the Wheel

      Jesus dude. My families prayers are with you.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Uffda. I’m with Leap on the sympathy train.

    • Mojeaux

      Now that I have panicked and said my piece, I’m sorry this is happening.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      I am so sorry to hear this. This is honestly my biggest fear. I don’t know what to say. If I lived anywhere near NYC I’d offer to get you drunk, but I suspect weed would probably be more helpful.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        Like it or not, you’re in my prayers

      • wdalasio

        l0b0t,

        I’m not sure if you drink or not. But, there are a few of us in NYC if you’d like to have a few.

    • UnCivilServant

      Vent whenever you want. You don’t need to appologise. While never actually in that position, I can empathise. I don’t have any real suggestions on action, but can offer moral support.

    • AlexinCT

      I am sorry to hear this man. This stuff is never easy, and it will not just be disruptive, but you will be worrying about your kids. There might be even a desire to try and go the extra mile to prove to your ex she made a mistake. Forget that all. Look out for yourself and your kids. Being nice to her will not get her back. This sucks, but unless you want to wake up one day in the future and realize you were “had”, stay focused.

      And I am sure you don’t see it now, but it gets better.

    • Drake

      That absolutely sucks.
      We had our ups and downs but bailing out of the marriage while the kids were young was never an option considered. I think it unfortunate that it has become culturally acceptable. It will probably require expensive lawyers to bring her back to reality.

      Maybe a negotiated settlement rather than court? My brother started going through that – which forced his wife to face some unpleasant realities on what it was going to do to her lifestyle – probably why they reconciled,

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        I’m not really all that down with the notion that love is the basis for a marriage to begin with. I’ve loved people before that I certainly would never have started a family with

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        As I get older, I’m coming around to this notion as well. It is nice, but neither necessary nor sufficient.

      • Drake

        It’s nice place to start, but once kids show up you are a team for 18 years unless something goes wildly wrong. (At least that’s the way I viewed it)

        Had a boss once who got divorced when her youngest went off to college. It was a very amicable “mission accomplished” separation.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I have several friends who have had this happen. Once the kids were gone, they parted ways. A few of them were amicable. A few were heartbreaking because only one of them wanted to be done.

      • AlexinCT

        Maybe a negotiated settlement rather than court? My brother started going through that – which forced his wife to face some unpleasant realities on what it was going to do to her lifestyle – probably why they reconciled,

        Negotiated settlements work only if both sides are working in earnest to separate equitably. When I was getting divorced the best advise I got was to tell my ex we were going to switch the deals she was proposing, so she got what she was offering me, and I got what she wanted. When I did this there was no hesitation at all in her response, and she immediately told me “No way”. Dead giveaway that the deal was unfair. I got a lawyer 5 mins after she gave me that answer and made sure I was not screwed over as well as being out of the marriage as fast as the law allowed it. I had to get downright nasty to make sure she would not fuck me over (especially since my kid was angry at her).

        One other piece of advice is to make sure you are NEVER alone with her again until after your divorce is final. Some women have no qualms filing a police report – falsely – so they can get better treatment in court where the law is no-fault divorces (think NY is one of these states). There are 2 exemptions: spousal abuse and infidelity in marriages over 12 years (at least in the People’s Republic of CT), and women often will do this to get even more preferential treatment.

      • Drake

        They had some kind of legal counselor they were negotiating through – it wasn’t just the two of them throwing out proposals. The counselor new the rules (for MA) on how things would get divided up in actual court. Partly an effort to save money on lawyers and partly an effort to make it amicable.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Mediation? Collaborative divorce?

      • R C Dean

        Mediation (which is what this sounds like) is mandatory before divorce in some states. This is an excellent idea, even if it isn’t mandatory. Finding one you both trust would be essential, but it could save a lot of headaches.

        Mediation is surprisingly effective – its basically a facilitated negotiation, with a good mediator providing a reality check to both sides.

        One other piece of advice is to make sure you are NEVER alone with her again until after your divorce is final.

        Although this is contrary to not leaving until there is a deal, I suspect a tactical retreat might not be a bad thing. Before you do anything, you need to lawyer up, though. Call in sick and spend the day getting a start on that, would probably be the best thing you can do immediately.

        You might also write down what she said (and what you said) while its still fresh. Could be useful later, and in any event writing things down can help you process and distance yourself from them.

      • ChipsnSalsa

        Terrible situation and I am sorry that this is happening.

        You might also write down what she said (and what you said) while its still fresh. Could be useful later, and in any event writing things down can help you process and distance yourself from them.

        I like this advice. keeping things straight is difficult in the best of circumstances and much more so in emotional situations.

    • R C Dean

      That really blows, l0bot.

      From a purely tactical perspective, Mojeaux is right. You are not her servant, and do not have to accede to her every demand. Sounds like she wants to make a fundamental change to her life without bearing any of the burden. This cries out for a negotiated solution, which is not the same as doing what she demands. I hope you stay until there is a mutually acceptable arrangement.

    • Mojeaux

      “in love”

      “In love” is to sucker you into the relationship. A good first baby is to sucker you into a second.

      History, trust, and common goals are more important than “in love,” which is transient by design.

      Unfortunately, you can’t change someone else’s mind but reality might. Make a chore chart. Make a financial responsibility chart. Act like she’s an anmoying roommate you’re putting up with and asking for her half of the light bill.

      Just don’t move out.

      • Raston Bot

        word.

        i heard Mojeaux once hit a man with a rolling pin.. just to watch em die.

      • UnCivilServant

        *hides marble rolling pin*

      • Mojeaux

        LIES!!!!!

        *ahem*

        Yes. Lies. Fabrications. Fibs. Big fibs. The biggest fibs. I have NEVER killed a man with a rolling pin.

      • UnCivilServant

        It was a typewriter roller.

      • Mojeaux

        *dumps typewriter in the river*

        What typewriter? I don’t have a typewriter.

      • R C Dean

        I have NEVER killed a man with a rolling pin.

        Suspiciously specific.

    • PieInTheSky

      I have no good advice to give but sorry…

    • Sensei

      I’d echo what others have said. Absolutely sorry to read.

    • Sean

      Damn dude. That’s harsh.

      Very sorry to hear it.

    • Akira

      Sorry to hear that, man. Stay strong and listen to the advice from Glibs who know about this stuff.

    • Ozymandias

      I’ve done some “family law” – including my own divorce – but internet legal advice won’t help you. It’s really hard right now, but understand that no matter how bad it gets or seems, it will get better. I know that’s hard, but believe me when I say this (as someone who didn’t get to see or talk to his daughters for a couple of years) – you’ll come through it and the kids are old enough to know that you love them. Just focus on that and, as others said, you have to start looking out for yourself. It is not easy to balance your needs vs. the kids in times like these, especially if/when they are the primary lever that motivates behavior and both parties know it. That’s why they get used in almost all (but the most unusually amicable) of divorces.

      Hang in there, Brother.

    • l0b0t

      Thank you very much to all of you. Y’all’s acknowledgement that I am a human who exists and matters in this world is perhaps more helpful than you realize. I have a headache from weeping (bloody pathetic) so I’m gonna take some Advil and and eat some bacon.

      • Not Adahn

        We can also help disappear a body if it comes to that.

      • Ozymandias

        Shhhhhhhh!!!!
        (Jeebus, NA, ixnay on isappearing-day… for right now)

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Just say your brother in law is pouring the foundation for a parking garage next week and leave it at that. He already said he’s from NYC.

      • AlexinCT

        Do not feel bad for becoming emotional about this. You are the one that got blindsided. Just get your shit together and make sure you do what is right for you and your kids.

      • Ozymandias

        Focus on the now, I0b0t. And ? is a good place to start!
        Seriously, start with some self-care. And don’t beat yourself up for your feelings at any given moment – just understand they’re not permanent and it’s okay to feel all of the things you are likely to feel in the coming days and weeks.
        It’s a storm in your life and it passes and you will remain.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Would you feel less of a friend who was in this situation and wept with angry and grief? I wouldn’t. It means they are human. It is the appropriate reaction. Shortly, the proper action will be to collect yourself and take the steps needed to ensure the best outcomes for your children, yourself, and even your current wife (in that order).

      • Pope Jimbo

        Don’t beat yourself up dude. You’re one of us whether you like it or not.

        This place was a great place for me to vent a few things when my mom was in hospice last year.

    • Raston Bot

      deep breath. shoulders back. head held high.

      and document everything.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Shit, I’m sorry to hear that I0b0T.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      I too am so sorry to hear that.

      Talk to one of these people, if only one of their associates: https://aaml.org/page/findalawyer

    • Jarflax

      Sympathy brother, but get a good lawyer right now, before you do anything else, and listen to that lawyer.

    • Mojeaux

      Ozy mentioned self-care.

      Go get a massage. For reals. 90 minutes amd you’ll be sore as hell and sobbing like a baby but it’ll be worth it.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Oh, and don’t vent too much to your lawyer, because that gets expensive. The firm might have referrals for therapists (still pricey but much cheaper).

    • wdalasio

      Cripes! That sucks! I can’t give you much in the way of good advice that others here haven’t. But, you have my sympathies. Find a good attorney and make sure you have every iota of your and her life documented. And don’t share any documentation with her that hasn’t been cleared through the lawyers.

      Your partner is now, effectively, your biggest adversary. Whether you choose to be adversarial or not.

    • gbob

      Jesus, man. I know it’s late so you may not read this, but…

      I have a number of friends who got divorced. Many of whom are still paying their ex-wives a decade later. I, on the other hand, had an “easy” divorce. Thing is, it wasn’t “easy”. I had to work hard for it.

      First off, take it from me, it gets better. That’s a cliche, but only because it’s true. As much as the divorce cost me, my life is greatly improved as a result. Not worth the toll it took on my son, but he turned out fine. Hell, as much as it hurt me at the time, if I was still married I’m sure that I would be spending my days wrapping my lips around some cold steel. Instead I have love, and a decade of good memories. I wasn’t expecting that when the process started.

      What worked for me was two things. Poker and George Washington. Seriously. Playing poker for a living (during a bad year when I told my wife I was working a bartending job. Only time I ever lied to her, but I needed income) taught me how to hide my feelings, and taught me the importance of making the other person think that they won the evening, even though you’re the one who cashed in the most chips. As for Washington? The man lost every single battle until he won the war.

      It’s about victory conditions. Pick your own. It could be time with your children. It could be to make her pay. It could be financial. It could be pride. I realized that I couldn’t have all of them, so I had to choose. The only thing I gave a damn about was being able to be a father, and giving myself some room to rebuild my life. I could lose every battle, and as long as she thought that she was winning, I would achieve my strategic goals.

      So, the big key to it is to keep your calm. DO NOT FIGHT. Don’t make snarky comments. Don’t try to make her feel bad. Don’t look for fucking closure, or any other stupid thing people get emotional over. This is a year long process, and you have time to unpack shit later.

      Document everything. Where you go, what you spend money on, and record every single conversation you have with her until the deal is settled. If you mess up, her word in court is going to count more than yours.

      Try to avoid dating until it’s resolved. I messed up on this one. After years of a dead bedroom, I dove headfirst into making my life the kind of Roman orgy that would make Calligula blush. Bad mistake. I almost cost myself the deal.

      Me, I was happy to give up things like the house, car, electronics, etc in the short run, because it doesn’t take a financial wiz to realize that paying alimony and child support for a decade is a losing proposition. Instead, not only did I give up what I had, I paid for EVERYTHING my child did during the separation. This would come in handy during the negotiation period.

      Absolutely get a lawyer, but be ready to ignore his advice. He wants an adversarial process by nature. You may not want to. Instead, having the appearance of a lawyer made my ex more cautious, and acted as a stick to make her accept some carrots.

      Also, accept the fact that because of the children, she’s going to be in your life for a very long time. Even though my son is twenty, my ex still is over at family gatherings, and the holidays.

      Finally, keep your yap shut. Everything you say or do will be used against you.

      Take the high road at all times…it gives you a better strategic position to eventually crush your foe.

      Good luck. We’re pulling for you.

      • Mojeaux

        Excellent advice. I’m sorry you had to go through it to be able to give it, though.

      • l0b0t

        Thank you.

  65. The Late P Brooks

    One of that conflict’s most powerful leaders, Kaiser Wilhelm II, identified as a German nationalist. He thought of himself as brilliant but has been more accurately described as having “viewed other people in instrumental terms, was a compulsive liar, and seemed to have a limited understanding of cause and effect.” His bumbling in foreign affairs laid the foundations that helped culminate in that global conflict, in no small part because he was averse to listening to advisers with more knowledge than himself.

    In other words, he was a proto-Donald Trump.

    Stop it. You’re killing me.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      Assigning sole blame for WWI on the Kaiser is stupid and ahistorical. Comparing a contemporary political figure to one from the past is delusional

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s astoundingly stupid and ignorant of the broader political/diplomatic climate of the time.

    • Raven Nation

      “Kaiser Wilhelm II, identified as a German nationalist.”

      You know who else identified as a nationalist in 1914?

      Pretty much everybody except the Comintern.

      • Jarflax

        Pedant, the Comintern was 5 years away in 1914. There was some Frenchy silliness before 1919 but that is when the Comintern was created.

    • Akira

      viewed other people in instrumental terms, was a compulsive liar, and seemed to have a limited understanding of cause and effect.

      Yes, Trump and the Kaiser are the only politicians in history who exhibited these traits. Case closed.

  66. The Late P Brooks

    I just want to go to sleep and never wake up. Thank you all for tolerating me and for provinding the only place on the internet where I don’t feel alone and crazy.

    Holy shit, man. Hang in there.

  67. The Late P Brooks

    Even the 2017 superhero film “Wonder Woman,” which was primarily set during World War I, implicitly acknowledged the absurdity of that conflict when the protagonist confronted the Greek god of war Ares. (Director Patty Jenkins admitted in an interview that “We are in a very WWI world today with nationalism and how it would take very little to start a global conflict.”)</em.

    Wut?

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      The irony is that nationalism was both the cause and the victor of WWI. I know that splitting up the Ottoman and Hapsburg empires is inconvenient to the whole “nationalism bad” mantra, but it happened, much like Wilson’s nationalistic “Fourteen Points” program which was blatant ethno-nationalism

      • Raven Nation

        “Wilson and his fourteen points bore me. Even God only had ten commandments.”

        /French politician

    • R C Dean

      “OK, guys, we’re in the middle of a movie that is supposed to be a real-time journey by a couple of guys through one of the most brutal battlefields in WWI. Larding it up with politics is obviously essential, because people always argue about or make trenchant comments about the political scene when they are dodging shellfire and seeing their comrades butchered by machine guns.”

  68. robc

    Spanish soccer is weird…Barcelona fires their manager while in 1st place.

    Well…okay.

    • leon

      That is the best time to fire him. Then you’ll get all the best talent trying to get into the prestigious spot. It ensures you get the very best coach, and all the competition drives the price down.

      If you fired him when you were at the bottom then only a few nobodies would try to get to be your coach and they would charge too much.

      • robc

        For Barca, the bottom would be 2nd? 3rd?

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Since 2000 they have 4 seasons finishing outside first or second. Shameful stuff.

        And there are crazy people who think La Liga is a good league.

  69. AlexinCT

    Even old time Obama people are now that orange man is not just evil, but so cunning, that his evil ways have made it likely Iran’s ruling junta might be in serious danger of going the way of the Dodo bird. I remind everyone that Obama’s strategy was to give these fuckers pallets of cash which promptly allowed the monsters in charge to buy off the mounting resistance against their rule for a long while as well as giving them freedom to promote more chaos in the ME, and and to peddle a deal that basically kicked the Iranian nuke problem down the road (at least that was what they were hoping).

    I just hope orange man is smart enough to avoid any demands we go do nation building there if those evil fucks lose power.

    • Ozymandias

      The first thing I said to my wife when she mentioned the protests in Iran was how funny it would be if the mullahs and that whole regime collapsed under DRUMPF!!!! All of the entrenched foreign policy EXPERTS assholes couldn’t do it for the last 40 years, and here comes Inspector Clouseau to solve the case!! I fucking love it. Oh, how sweet it would be. I told her that’s what he reminds me of – or the American version of Mr. Bean.

      The elites can’t stop telling us how simultaneously EVIL and STOOOOPID he is, from Krugman on the economy to the entire State Dept. on foreign policy, and yet he seems to just roll along and rack up successes. I’ll be honest, I’ve never thought he was particularly bright, BUT it’s hard to argue against the guy’s record. Regardless, I don’t care if he’s Clouseau or not, I really would love to see Iran topple while he’s in office just because of how it would puncture that bureaucratic, elitist, smug-fuck patina of “we know better than the proles” that permeates DC.

      • AlexinCT

        Trump keeps doing shit like this, and exposing in the process how corrupt and inept our elite credentialed ruling class is, which is why they are hell bent on destroying him. Nothing threatens them more than people realizing they are not just inept and corrupt, but are lying when they claim there is no alternative (Obama telling us we could not drill ourselves out of high oil prices, that the economy would never grow above 1 or 2 percent, that his plan would not just lower healthcare costs but let us keep our plans and doctors, and so on) to their way.

        This would drive the already fucking nuts crowd into suicidal/homicidal rage, I suspect.

      • R C Dean

        This would drive the already fucking nuts crowd into suicidal/homicidal rage, I suspect.

        *checks ammo supply, places order*

        OK.

    • Pope Jimbo

      If the theocrats fall in Iran, it is going to be bad. Real bad.

      It is like arguing with your wife, the worst thing you can do is be proven to be right. That is the one unforgivable sin. If Trump’s foreign policy turns out to topple Iran, there are going to be a lot of temper tantrums.

      And a lot of columns that will talk about how Trump is reaping the rewards of Obama’s work. (Think of how they talked about the economy).

      • Ozymandias

        Oh, I know they will. And jus like Krugman on the economy and the Deep State on foreign policy, I believe it will help crater their credibility even more. Everyone who isn’t a complete nitwit hack in the thrall of TEAM! politics knows that Obama can’t take credit for the economy currently. People will engage in all kinds of self-delusion and deception, but the Media’s breathless attempts to retcon what’s happening has helped destroy their credibility, IMO.

        Trump “winning” BIGLY in Iran would be just another nail in the coffin. Trying to spin it as Obama’s Jedi Mind Trick from years ago by giving them pallets of cash, while Trump has torn up our deal with Iran, and got them to shoot down their own citizens, will require some otherworldly levels of cognitive dissonance. It will only further cement the notion to reasonable people that the elites have lost their fucking minds, will lie about anything, and aren’t to be trusted. Which would all be a bonus on top of the fact that Iran’s shitty regime will have collapsed.

      • leon

        And a lot of columns that will talk about how Trump is reaping the rewards of Obama’s work. (Think of how they talked about the economy).

        By entirely repudiating his policy? I might be foolish, but even that seems strained to me.

      • UnCivilServant

        If Obama hadn’t suppressed the economy so well, it couldn’t have rebounded as fast!

      • AlexinCT

        They are doing that for the economy as UCS points out, and people are buying it and actually repeating it. when you tell them Trump rolled back all the shit Obama did by fiat using his pen, they consider him using a pen to roll that all back illegal AND still claim the economy is good because of Obama. A few even had the temerity to say Trumps actions would result in an eventual economic slump. Of course, they were pissed when I asked them if this was their way of prepping us for when democrats came into power and rolled the system back to the state where government got to choose winners & losers and the economic policies to do that made growth anemic or negative.

      • R C Dean

        You can’t reason with irrational people.

      • AlexinCT

        PLANTS CRAVE BRAWNDO BECAUSE IT HAS ELECTROLYTES!

      • kbolino

        Trump rolled back all the shit Obama did by fiat using his pen

        Only some of it, actually. The courts have frustated most attempts by this administration to change the policies implemented by the last administration. Despite their being clear and nearly universal precedent that administrative actions are subject to Presidential prerogative up until about January 20, 2017, suddenly the courts discovered all sorts of new reasons why the head honcho of the executive branch is not actually in charge of said branch.

      • R C Dean

        The courts who made those rulings will come to their senses when the President is a Democrat, I am sure.

      • kbolino

        Well, in a manner of speaking. They’ll just deny everyone standing again like they did under Obama. That’s another thing that has weirdly materialized lately, suddenly civic interest groups have standing to sue the government again.

      • kbolino

        In fact, the courts have even frustrated attempts by the Trump administration to stop policy changes from taking effect during his term if they can find some reason, no matter how picayune, to question his motives or adherence to procedure. Never mind that previous Presidents got to create those procedures in the first place, often by repudiating or altering procedures of their predecessors, now they are set in stone.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Oh, it will be strained to the max for anyone who isn’t drinking TEAM KOOLAID, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be a lot of people trying their best to do it.

        All they are doing is giving cover to the team hacks. If someone writes something – no matter how convoluted – others will simply say “Nobel Prize winning economist says ….” and then move on. They won’t actually discuss what that esteemed person wrote, they will just say that a super credentialed person also thinks that Obama was the cat’s meow.

      • AlexinCT

        One of the things I despise the most is the people that appeal to credentialed authority to make their case. “But an expert said X”, to me, is an immediate red flag. Fucking “experts” tend to be full of shit and practically always when dealing with politics, have an agenda. I actually had a real big fight with a lady I was dating when she got mad that i wouldn’t accept what she was telling me, even after she told me this person was an expert in some field, and told her I wanted to look at both the inherent potential bias of the “expert” AND at the actual information to make sure the expert was not just peddling political shit. She couldn’t conceive of me not just accepting “expert” talking points.

        BTW, when I went and researched the expert she quoted I found their claim was bullshit. The expert was being hyper partisan AND saying exactly the opposite of what the data/facts showed. She was even more pissed when I showed her that. As our Pope pointed out: If you get in an argument with a woman, there will be hell to pay, and it will be even worse if you are right.

      • Rebel Scum

        She was even more pissed when I showed her that.

        I have experienced this because I refuse to concede just for the sake of conceding. When I have taken the time to prove that she is demonstrably and patently wrong on something, she is seething, but just stops talking and gives up. On occasion I have even heard the words “Okay, you are right.”. Small victory but I get the cold shoulder for awhile after. The lady usually avoids such conversations now.

      • Jarflax

        Rebel don’t argue with Mojeaux, she’s a woman.

      • Mojeaux

        Excellent use of the Kafkatrap! Bravo!

        *wild applause*

      • Mojeaux

        If you get in an argument with a woman, there will be hell to pay, and it will be even worse if you are right.

        If you get in an argument with a man and he is demonstrably false even after you prove it, he will sulk and pout and never call you again because he can’t handle a woman was right.

      • Mojeaux

        If you get in an argument with a woman, there will be hell to pay, and it will be even worse if you are right.

        If you get in argument with your significant other (or father) and he is demonstrably false, he will get drunk and verbally and emotionally abuse you and may even smack you across the room. You may not even get a tearful apology the next day AND he will remember it for the next time you are right.

      • Mojeaux

        If you get in an argument with a woman, there will be hell to pay, and it will be even worse if you are right.

        If you respect your husband as the head of the household and he makes stupid decisions that lead your family to ruin and won’t listen to a word of wiser counsel you have and only after the family is in tatters admits he was wrong, well… Your life is in the shitter.

      • Mojeaux

        Shall I continue?

    • Raston Bot

      “So you take the removal of Soleimani, you take the accidental downing of the civilian aircraft coupled with the amount of popular unrest — the needle towards possible collapse of a regime has to be something that people think about. It’s probably not politically correct to talk about it, but you have to think about it.”

      how is it not PC to discuss Iran’s collapse?

      • Pope Jimbo

        Because the collapse of Iran would lead to 1000 Trump tweets gloating about it (and probably a national address on TV) and that is the absolute most un-PC thing ever. You could have the NEA grant David Duke 8 hours of airtime a day on NPR and it wouldn’t be as offensive as Trump gloating.

  70. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of jingoistic right wingers

    The Seattle City Council banned most political spending by “foreign-influenced corporations” Monday in an effort to prevent international influence in city elections.

    The legislation would prevent corporations with a single non-U.S. investor holding at least 1 percent ownership, or two or more holding at least 5 percent ownership from contributing to directly to Seattle candidates, to political races or through PACs, The Seattle Times reported. Companies that have a non-U.S. investor making decisions on its U.S. political activities will also be prevented from political spending.

    The bill is designed to close a loophole after foreign individuals and foreign entities are already forbidden from giving political donations for U.S. elections, Council President M. Lorena González, who drafted the bill, said in her statement.

    A spokeswoman for Mayor Jenny Durkan Kamaria Hightower said in a statement obtained by The Hill that while the bill will most likely face legal opposition, the mayor backs the legislation and “agrees that we need to continue to take steps to ensure transparency in our elections.”

    I’d say, “One more cobblestone laid on the road to Hell,” but I am unable to delude myself about good intentions.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      This is the epitome of xenophobe. But, they have “right thought” so I won’t hold my breath waiting for people to call the Seattle City Council out

      • R C Dean

        I’m surprised they allow corporations to contribute to campaigns at all. Many states ban it outright, as do the feds for federal candidates. PACs were created as a reaction to these bans.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Looks to me like they also want to keep the furiners from contributing to PACs too.

    • Not Adahn

      The legislation would prevent corporations with a single non-U.S. investor holding at least 1 percent ownership, or two or more holding at least 5 percent ownership

      Someone want to accountancy-splain this to me? How is it possible to have two people owning 5% but neither one owning more than 1%?

      • R C Dean

        Incompetent drafting. Should have said “with 5% or more foreign ownership, or one foreign owner holding 1% or more”.

        What will get exciting is when they start trying to trace indirect ownership.

      • Not Adahn

        That makes more sense. I anticipated it was going to be one of those weird jargon things like the EPA’s definition of a “solid waste” (which can be a solid, liquid, or gas).

      • UnCivilServant

        The ‘or more’ puts a cap on when you get past five foreign investors.

    • Agent Cooper

      “Jenny Durkan Kamaria Hightower”

      How does that fit on a campaign button?

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      So the New York Times is out?

    • R C Dean

      we need to continue to take steps to ensure transparency in our elections

      Does that include transparency about how you are maintaining your voter rolls?

  71. The Late P Brooks

    She wants me to move out, but stay close by so I can still shuttle the kids to and from school, fix their breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and help them with their homework. (Wifey works from 6:30am – 5:30 pm as a public school teacher so can not participate in day time parenting).

    I am the least qualified person here, when it comes to advice on this topic, but don’t let her turn you into some sort of houseboy/nanny.

    That is utterly unacceptable on any level.

    • R C Dean

      And they reflexively lied that the dog was off leash.

      If I was walking my dog and somebody shot him, I would return fire.

      • Not Adahn

        If the dog is on a leash, then by shooting at mu dog, they are by definition shooting at me. Therefore return fire is justified.

  72. leon

    So after reading ya’lls comments I’ll update my language/qualify what my argument about the possible culpability of the US government regarding the downing of the Airline.

    I don’t think the US i directly responsible. That is silly. It was the Iranian Government and the terrible choices they made that led to the tragedy. My argument is that American Policy towards Iran, helped lead to a situation where this could happen. I don’t think policy makers can so easily be absolved of results of the implementation of their policy, but I’m curious as to what ya’ll think.

    For example:

    Is the US Government at least somewhat responsible for the lives ruined by sending people to jail over the Drug War?
    Is the US Government at least somewhat responsible for the deaths caused by the cartels?
    Is the US Government at least somewhat responsible for deaths of people unable to get experimental Drugs?
    Is the US Government at least somewhat responsible for Slave Markets in Libya reappearing?

    • invisible finger

      Yes Yes Yes No

      • leon

        Why?

      • invisible finger

        I consider the citizens to be the government. Perhaps I am extremely naiive.

        The first 3 are matters of actual legislation. Voters supported this shit. You could maybe argue the FDA is making its own policy against the wishes of the voters, but if the courts are going to support FDA policy as law, laws can be enacted to counter this.

        The 4th is the uncontrolled US Deep State acting without oversight. We actually have a POTUS now trying to put some oversight on deep state activity – which suggests voters want the deep state curbed. – and the internal resistance to it has been beyond my expectation. Maybe the voter majority is razor thin, but as it stands right now the deep state operates against the wishes of the people and therefore should be treated as rogues and traitors.

      • R C Dean

        I consider the citizens to be the government. Perhaps I am extremely naiive.

        You are. I am a citizen, and not in any way part of the government. It is an organization of which I am not a member.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      If people believe that us stationing troops in Saudi Arabia was at least in part responsible for some of the blow back that led to 9/11, then I don’t know how they can dispute your contention

    • R C Dean

      Excellent questions, leon. I’ve got gut reactions, but these get right at some of the ambiguities and are a nice way to test principles.

      Gut reactions:

      Yes. The government passed the laws and jailed those people. On the other side, people chose to break those laws, but in my book those laws are illegitimate and breaking an illegitimate law should not be a crime. Still, there is an assumption of the risk that people knowingly took.

      No. It may have been foreseeable, but the government did not organize the cartels. But it challenges the “Foreseeable consequences are not unintended” principle, as it was foreseeable.

      Yes. The government banned those drugs. Are these deaths more remote than the cartel killings? I would say they are, because there was it was compliance with the government’s demands that led to the deaths, not violating those commands.

      No. I don’t even think those were reasonably foreseeable, although chaos after Libya was rendered effectively an anarchy/warlord “state” definitely was.

      • leon

        Thanks. Yeah I’m not sure where i draw the line. I think part of it is that we are dealing with something nebulous (“responsibility”) and it’s hard for me to pin down what i think about that.

        For me:

        Yes. The Government making a law forbidding a practice that ought not be forbidden cannot be absolved of the horrors it inflicts on people to enforce it.

        I agree with you on the Drug Cartels. Certainly the murderers are responsible for the murders, but then again most of those would never have been in the situation if that situation hadn’t been created by the Government in the first place.

        Yes. Absolutely, though, you could make the argument that the companies might bear some blame too for following the laws… And i’m not sure how i feel about that.

        This one i’m not sure. This exact result was probably not foreseeable. But at the same time the US had no business toppling Libya. It almost seems like (Bad analogy warning) a person blowing up a building (that they didn’t own and wasn’t scheduled for demolition) and when it topples and kills a kid saying “We had checked and thought no one was inside, no one could have foreseen it”. So maybe not directly responsible for the exact outcome, but at the same time so reckless that maybe it doesn’t matter.

      • invisible finger

        The thing about Libya is that just because we don’t like slavery, maybe the majority of Libyans like the idea and the market is speaking.

    • Not Adahn

      Yes.

      No. The fact that the US creates a black market does not mean that the participants in that market necessarily have to engage in murderous behavior. For example, there are vast numbers of independent prostitutes that manage to work alongside/compete with each other without killing. Ditto labor, pirated videos, knockoff handbags, etc.

      Yes.

      No. The USG has no responsibility in Libya at all.

      • kbolino

        I disagree on the last point. The USG has some responsibility in Libya for the anarchy, as we took military action against its government that led to its collapse, and then in order to bolster a certain someone’s “smart foreign policy” credentials, we didn’t stick around or otherwise help clean up the mess. While I think punitive expeditions can be useful, there was nothing (at the time) to punish Gaddafi for, and there was no defined end state that our punishment was meant to achieve.

        However, the open-air slave markets are neither an intended nor foreseeable consequence of these actions. It does make for a cautionary table about the actions we took, but the slavers are the ones with agency there.

    • Ozymandias

      leon – the problem is you’re still struggling to compare apples to airplanes.

      In the case of the killing of Soleimani, he was a legit target, notwithstanding all of the twittersphere hacks lying about it.

      The War on Drugs is unconstitutional. So that’s a direct “Fuck yeah.” It’s not even comparable to the shooting of the airliner by Iran.
      The second one is tougher: we know Prohibition causes violence because of the inability to use banks (thus requiring huge cash transactions and ‘private’ security) and one cannot resort to legal process for disputes, but I’m going to have to say that this is more of a push. One chooses to go into the illicit drug trade and one certainly chooses to kill others. I can’t put that on the govt even when I know the policy is wrong.
      Number three I’ll say “yes” to and again, wonder what this has to do with the Iranians shooting down an airliner.
      Four is tougher because while we absolutely should not have fucked around in Libya, that seems quite a bit more attenuated.

      I think it would help you to read some of Judge Learned Hand’s decision on the related subject of when we cut off the responsibility for one’s actions in tort law. I believe it is Carroll Towing, but there were some others, IIRC. JarFlax has somewhat touched on this with the notion of “proximate cause” and it is a staple discussion of law schools – perhaps one of the few things that they give sufficient philosophical and legal discussion to. At least we did at my school.

      • leon

        I think it would help you to read some of Judge Learned Hand’s decision on the related subject of when we cut off the responsibility for one’s actions in tort law. I believe it is Carroll Towing, but there were some others, IIRC. JarFlax has somewhat touched on this with the notion of “proximate cause” and it is a staple discussion of law schools – perhaps one of the few things that they give sufficient philosophical and legal discussion to. At least we did at my school.

        I’ll Look it up and give it a read.

        Number three I’ll say “yes” to and again, wonder what this has to do with the Iranians shooting down an airliner.

        It has nothing to do with it. My question is at what point do policy makers get to be washed clean of consequences (intended/unintended/foreseeable/unforeseeable) of policy. Do you think that it should be treated like Torts?

      • Ozymandias

        Tort law comes from the french word for “wrong” – to be wrong in French is “avoir tort.” By definition it is nothing more (nor less) than “a civil wrong for which the law recognizes a remedy.” The really interesting part of it is the underlying “why” – why should the law recognize a remedy for X, whatever that may be? Carroll Towing involved a tug that broke its moorings and fucked up some other boats and the question as to “should the owner have to pay” and the related “for exactly what” involve the kinds of questions we’re engaging in WRT the Iranians shooting down the airliner. How far does the causal chain of responsibility extend? What about supervening and intervening causes?

        I’m not even sure I agree with the final outcome in Carroll – it’s been decades since I read it – but I think what struck me about Hand is that he’s asking the right questions, at least. I seem to recall him spending some time on those kinds of questions and they helped me in my own thinking about the related issues of responsibility and when we – as in, “society” can and should assign responsibility for consequences of individual actions. Because at some level, just by virtue of all living on the same round planet, you can find “causality” everywhere and impute it to everyone. (See, e.g. Climate Change and/or all of the bullshit ‘environmental regulations’ from banning straws to single use plastics and on and on.) The modern Progs have learned how to turn this completely to their advantage and its why WE ALL HAVE TO SUCK SHIT because they say so; they do this by using a complete horseshit extension of “responsibility” out to everyone and now that’s why we have to have the Green New Deal (as one example).

        Having some sense of where the line of causation/responsibility must be cut off in order for us to live a sane existence is a big part of tort law, when you get right down to it.

    • robc

      7
      3
      10
      3
      1

      Your 4 questions plus the plane getting shot down as the 5th. 10 pt scale, I didnt put the plane at a zero.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Good questions. I initially went Yes, No, Yes, No.

      On reflection though, I think the cartel one might be Yes in light of Fast and Furious. If the US government is knowingly arming the cartels, then they bear some responsible for the deaths caused by those weapons.

    • Gadfly

      I think the answers depend on how you define “responsible”. If in a moral sense, then I’d answer yes, no, yes, no. If in a cause/effect sense, well, it’s all yes, but it’s also meaningless. In a cause/effect sense I’m responsible if I get robbed because I chose to make a lot of money (it’s the foreseeable consequence, after all), but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do it, since I’m not at all responsible in the moral sense.

    • Jarflax

      Is the US Government at least somewhat responsible for the lives ruined by sending people to jail over the Drug War?

      Absolutely, for every single person prosecuted under Federal Law. The States are responsible for those jailed under State Law.

      Is the US Government at least somewhat responsible for the deaths caused by the cartels?

      To a limited extent because the Cartels can only exist due to prohibition, but even narco-trafficantes have agency so their choices are intervening and superseding.

      Is the US Government at least somewhat responsible for deaths of people unable to get experimental Drugs?

      Completely. They directly prohibit access, and take elaborate measures to prevent it.

      Is the US Government at least somewhat responsible for Slave Markets in Libya reappearing?

      No. The anarchy that allowed them is attributable to the Government, but the individual crimes are not.

  73. UnCivilServant

    Huh.

    Mine-sniffing Giant Rats.

    Now there’s something I never suspected existed.

    • Mojeaux

      Oh yeah. I think I saw that on some Hostory or Discovery channel thing.

    • l0b0t

      Do you REALLY want Skaven? I’m pretty sure that’s how you get Skaven. Or, maybe you need warpstone… who knows.

  74. "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/liberal-methodists-toss-out-the-africans/

    “Liberal Methodists Toss Out The Africans”

    FTA:

    “The United Methodist Church is united no more. The nation’s second largest Protestant denomination announced on January 3 that it had approved a plan to allow theologically conservative “traditionalist” Methodists who reject same-sex marriage and LGBT+ clergy to form their own denomination.”

    And

    “At the last General Conference in March 2019, delegates rejected two proposals, one permitting LGBT+ weddings and clergy for the entire Church and the other allowing each conference (the Methodist equivalent of a Catholic or Anglican diocese) to decide for itself. Instead they approved the “Traditional Plan.” This not only upheld the UMC’s longstanding ban on gay marriage and clergy, but also threatened to defrock any clergy who defied it.

    So if the traditionalists are in the majority, why is it that they will have to throw out their UMC stationary? And why is the UMC so often labeled as part of the American liberal mainline? The answer to the first question, according to Ryan Danker, a professor of Methodist Studies at Wesley Theological Seminary, is that the traditionalists “want a flexible and non-bureaucratic movement” and are eager to ditch the UMC’s “top-heavy” bureaucracy. The answer to the second is that the UMC is not an entirely American denomination. Liberal Methodism is indeed dominant in America, but over the last two decades, Methodism—along with other forms of Christianity—has been growing explosively in Africa. In 2010, the American Spectator estimated that, while the American UMC conferences were losing 1,000 members a week, the theologically conservative overseas conferences were set to contribute 40 percent of the delegates at the 2012 General Conference. The American Methodists introduced a proposal that would have sidelined the Africans from voting on matters that would have affected the American conferences, but it was rejected.”

    And…oh boy

    “Immediately, the vitriol began to fly. One liberal minister compared the Traditional Plan to a “virus” that would cross the ocean and “make the American church very sick,” in what appears to be an attempt to draw a theological parallel to the racist Ebola panic of 2014. NPR reported that several of the African delegates expressed resentment over the condescending tone of their progressive American counterparts, attributing it to a colonialist attitude.

    Believe it or not, this is actually not the first time that traditionalist African Christians have become entangled in the messy divorce of a U.S. mainline denomination. In his book A Plague on Both Their Houses, Christopher Craig Brittain explains how some conservative Episcopalians, feeling marginalized by the increasingly liberal policies of the national church, began to look to the global south, especially Africa, for reassurance that “the majority of the Anglican world was on their side.” This led to a “re-alignment” movement that culminated in 2009 with the founding of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) under the leadership of Archbishop Robert Duncan, the deposed former Episcopal bishop of Pittsburgh. Duncan allied the ACNA closely with the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a coalition of conservative Anglican churches located in the global south.

    Many Episcopalians sneered at this alliance. One Episcopal priest accused the schismatics of opportunistically “piggy back[ing] on the African people.”

    • leon

      So if the traditionalists are in the majority, why is it that they will have to throw out their UMC stationary?

      Cause White Liberals shouldn’t have to leave. That is something for those people from that continent.

    • Not Adahn

      Because the people treating the UMC as their own personal book club/political chatroom/socializing hangout want to pretend that they are the Real Christians here. My sister is getting more involved with Church Inc., and she was raving about the new church she got a job with (as a music minister). “They are so progressive, they were the first church to have a black preacher!”

      I did not stare t here blankly until she realized what she had said. I try to not start the fights in my family.

    • kbolino

      the racist Ebola panic of 2014

      The outbreak ended up killing over 11,000 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. The most common and effective response by West African nations to contain the virus was to close borders, limit movement, and otherwise implement quarantine and sanitary cordon procedures. I guess they didn’t get the memo that they’re racist.

    • AlexinCT

      HEPL!

      ?Calling edit faerie…

  75. wdalasio

    Any film set during that conflict has a responsibility to account for the horrors of nationalism

    Honestly, I think the role of nationalism in World War I is pretty grossly overrated. Remember, the Kaiser, the Tsar and George V were cousins. Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were multi-ethnic conglomerations. What people usually mean by nationalism as a cause for WWI is the fact that the balance of power system was ill-suited to the emergence of Germany as a nation-state and the pressures for the breakdown of the multi-ethnic conglomerations along ethnic and nationalist lines. But, it was hardly the nationalistic pressures in that drove the war, but the breakdown of the multi-ethnic conglomerations. Am I missing something?

  76. l0b0t

    Glass half full! So in my purging, cleaning, and inventorying zeal I’ve found items I forgot I even owned. To whit, 1 Mossberg 500 Mariner .12 gauge in stainless steel. I haven’t laid eyes upon this piece in close to 20 years but promptly lost it to the choppy waters of Jamaica Bay. Oh well.

    • wdalasio

      but promptly lost it to the choppy waters of Jamaica Bay.

      Oh, man! My sympathies.

  77. Pope Jimbo

    It is more important than ever to go back to our 2004 roots. Only by doing so can we help de-escalate tensions in the ME.

    You’re going to get together with friends for a Super Sunday party anyhow, why not turn it into a peace rally? Follow this simple guide to making it into a Masturbate For Peace wank-a-thon. Whether you pound your pud for the Patriots, or pet your pussy for the Panthers, you can combine the excitement of the Super Sunday with the thrill of masturbating for peace.

    Since this is no run-of-the-mill Super Sunday party, some careful planning and forethought are necessary to avoid any potential misunderstandings and to make it safe for all participants. Here’s our step-by-step guide:

    Although Super Sunday parties are usually free-for-alls, due to the nature of this gathering, we recommend that you don’t invite coworkers or neighbors, unless you are on very close terms with them

    So true.

    • MikeS

      So you’ll be doing more petting than usual? Meow.

  78. The Late P Brooks

    you can combine the excitement of the Super Sunday with the thrill of masturbating for peace.

    Oh.

  79. The Late P Brooks

    It’s too late for this, but….

    re- “Iran shoots down airliner”

    Party A does something to piss off Party B.

    Party B retaliates.

    Party A, consequently on “high alert” shoots his wife when she gets up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water.

    Whom do we blame?

    • Jarflax

      The wife.

      • ron73440

        ^^DING DING DING, we have a winner!

  80. The Late P Brooks

    And that’s why… something or other.

    • Mojeaux

      One shouldn’t generalize?

      I agree.

      • leon

        Maybe you shouldn’t generalize, but what makes you so certain that extends to the rest of humanity?

      • Mojeaux

        The word “shouldn’t” covers my butt.

        It’s human nature and very often useful. After all, stereotypes exist for a reason.

      • ron73440

        Only a Sith deals in absolutes.