Wednesday Morning Links

by | Jan 15, 2020 | Daily Links | 531 comments

You want me to leave through that door? Ok.

The fallout continues from the MLB sign-stealing saga, as the Red Sox manager and team agree to mutually part ways. The Mets manager may be next. People are calling for the Astros World Series to be vacated, which would be a first. But that ain’t happening. Clemson beat Duke basketball, while the Buckeyes righted the ship (a bit), Maryland fell, and Dayton keeps rolling.

Across the pond, Spuds finally broke through to the FA Cup fourth round after a replay. So did Newcastle. ManUre and Wolves play today. And Real Madrid beat crosstown rivals Athletico on penalties to win the Spanish Supercopa…in Saudi Arabia. I’m as confused as you are.

Football is over. This guy is wearing a Red Wings jersey now.

On the ice, 11 games were played with Buffalo, Montreal, Tampa, NYI (nice effort, Detroit), Pittsburgh, Columbus, Chicago (hey, there above .500 and trending up), Winnipeg, Dallas, Edmonton, and Phoenix.  And of course, in true scheduling stupidity fashion, there are a whopping two games slated for tonight.  ::SMDH::

HERO

Original grrrrrrl power chick Joan of Arc was born on this day. She shares it with French playwright Molière, first king of Saudi Arabia Ibn Saud, the Manhattan Project’s Edward Teller, auto designed Jean Bugatti, actor Lloyd Bridges, civil rights champion Martin Luther King Jr, lawyer and Arkancide victim Vince Foster, rocker Ronnie Van Zant, actor Mario Van Peebles, record-holding QB Drew Brees, rapper Pitbull, and boxer Bernard Hopkins.

OK, time to get right to…the links!

Michael Flynn has asked to retract his guilty plea. I wonder if he’ll call all the FBI officials that got caught lying to congress as witnesses to prove just how ridiculous these selective prosecutions have become.

Apparently, this is unsafe.

Damn hippies. But seriously, the funniest bit here was them saying people who started smoking pot at an early age tend to be more impulsive and apt to make rash decisions. Right, because they couldn’t make that connection with any other group of people.

Looks like the Darwin Award will be shared by an entire village this year. Seriously, if you live on a potentially-active volcano…move!

I know it’s just a tweet, but can someone please explain this to me? Please? It’s just weird. I assume it’s one of those “how do you do, fellow kids” moments. But it looks to me like further evidence that the left can’t meme.

They came to the right conclusion but for the wrong reason. How about “if we give preference to anybody based on their group, we may be keeping the taxpayers from getting the best value for their money”? LOL, I’m just kidding. That would be insane!

CPL just can’t catch a break.

Creepy Porn Lawyer just can’t catch a break. Man, you hate to see it.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I wonder how long it’s gonna take for the city government to ban the things now? Because we all know that’s coming.

Oh this is just great!  Looks like global warming is gonna create Sharknado 7: Battle For Space City. Thanks a lot, fossil fuels.

Nothing like good ol’ rock and roll. Hope you enjoy it!

Get out there and get over the hump by having a great day, friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

531 Comments

  1. PieInTheSky

    Damn hippies. But seriously, the funniest bit here was them saying people who started smoking pot at an early age tend to be more impulsive and apt to make rash decisions. Right, because they couldn’t make that connection with any other group of people. – the issue is hippies should not afford a car

    • Swiss Servator

      Thats, like, just your opinion, man…

    • AlmightyJB

      Dave’s not here man

  2. PieInTheSky

    Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I wonder how long it’s gonna take for the city government to ban the things now? Because we all know that’s coming. – meh I used them thing 20 times and never had any issues

    • sloopyinca

      You’re one person and hardly indicative of the greater population. You should be willing to give up your convenience for the greater good and let us prohibit your use of something.
      -various government officials

      • WTF

        “If it saves just one life…”

      • Nephilium

        I’d also hope that Pie has better reflexes then a 69 year old woman.

    • Pope Jimbo

      SCIENCE has shown that they are death traps and need to be banned.

      As the popularity of electric scooters has increased, so has the frequency of scooter-related injuries, including serious ones, according to a study published this week in JAMA Surgery.

      Between 2014 and 2018, the number of people who sought treatment in a U.S. hospital emergency department for an scooter-related injury rose by 222 percent to more than 39,000, while the number who were admitted to the hospital for their injury climbed by 365 percent to nearly 3,300, the study found.

      Most of those increases occurred after 2017, which was the year that rentable, dockless e-scooters were first introduced to U.S. cities. Almost a third of the injuries involved a concussion or other type of trauma to the head, a rate twice as high as that among bicyclists, the study’s authors point out.

      Those pikers should have used 2005 as their base year to really spike those numbers.

    • Not Adahn

      It has not been made public what type of e-scooter the woman was riding.

      Nobody needs more than one type of e-scooter! Only the safest design should be allowed!

  3. PieInTheSky

    Creepy Porn Lawyer just can’t catch a break. Man, you hate to see it. – maybe it is not a good idea to seek the spotlight when you are shady as fuck

    • AlexinCT

      That’s exactly when these sorts of cuntes want the spotlight though, Pie.

  4. PieInTheSky

    I know it’s just a tweet, but can someone please explain this to me? Please? It’s just weird. I assume it’s one of those “how do you do, fellow kids” moments. But it looks to me like further evidence that the left can’t meme. – political social media coordinators are not the brightest of bulbs would be my humble explanation.

    • Swiss Servator

      Slow down there! Commenting at this speed…you might pull a muscle!

      • WTF

        I believe he pulls his muscle every night.

      • PieInTheSky

        I did slow down. I always take a break after the first 3 to 5 comments

  5. Old Man With Candy

    So… which meatball IS Mikey?

    • PieInTheSky

      the low fat low salt one.

    • Q Continuum

      Trick question. He’s actually the Big Gulp slightly out of frame.

    • sloopyinca

      The one out of frame that’s most-likely confused for a steaming pile of dogshit.

    • Fourscore

      Wait, this is our local Mike, right? Sure looks like him. A meathead? Archie was right.

    • Swiss Servator

      The replies are…not favorable to Bloomer.

      • ChipsnSalsa

        I like the pictures of Bloomy with Epstein’s arranger girlfriend.

    • straffinrun

      The one with the fork in it.

      • Sensei

        Nice.

      • straffinrun

        You have good taste in jokes. Did I ever tell you that?

      • Sensei

        I admit to having a weakness for “dag gags” unfortunately.

      • bacon-magic

        That sounds like a category on pornhub

      • Sensei

        That it does.

    • leon

      Pretty sure the account was hacked. Read all the tweets.

      • Rhywun

        Nah, it was a publicity stunt.

      • Jarflax

        Well it got you guys all discussing Bloomer Mike. Not sure that translates to votes but it got buzz.

    • blackjack

      When you sprinkle crack over their heads, you get a lot more crack whores. Who knew?

    • mindyourbusiness

      Isn’t there some kind of law about…something reward something punish?

    • Rhywun

      Newsom dismissed the idea that there is a widespread refusal to accept help if it is offered without barriers.

      “I think that’s bunk,” he said. “The vast majority of people … will jump at the opportunity not to live out in the elements.”

      *head-desk*

      • Gadfly

        “The vast majority of people … will jump at the opportunity not to live out in the elements.”

        Technically correct, but since it is only a tiny minority of people who are homeless, methinks he is missing his own point.

    • Old Man With Candy

      John Urschel was ahead of the curve.

    • RBS

      I’m surprised he continued to play as long as he did.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Ditto.

  6. WTF

    So Great White sharks are in the ocean? How is this news?

    • Old Man With Candy

      Sloopy is more accustomed to big rubber fish.

      • sloopyinca

        Don’t come in here with your anti-Jaws jackassery. Not this early in the morning.

      • Old Man With Candy

        I didn’t spend my childhood eating paint chips and PlayDo, so I recognize a piece of shit movie when I see it.

      • sloopyinca

        You truly are a simple creature.

      • Swiss Servator

        Well, as great a guy as you are….everyone has a weak point or two.

      • Jarflax

        So when Glibertarians falls apart it will be because OMWC jumped the shark?

    • sloopyinca

      They’re heading to Houston to fight the fossil fuel companies who are causing ocean temps to rise.

      • Swiss Servator

        …with lasers. On their heads, right?

      • sloopyinca

        That’s a given. But they’ll also be puking acid out of their mouths. Because global warming has mutated them.

      • JD is Unemployed

        “lasers”

    • WTF

      Top. Men.

      • robc

        Feature, not a bug.

      • invisible finger

        It is a feature. You’d have to be a stupid asshole to think a cheap-ass phone wasn’t going to be subsidized with ads. And being low-income users, the income from the ads is going to be so low that the volume of ads is going to have to be higher.

      • sloopyinca

        +1 episode of “Ow! My Balls!”

    • R C Dean

      From what I have seen, every Android phone comes with pre installed malware.

      • AlexinCT

        Instead of being set up so you can’t change anything and the Apple company tracks every fucking move you make or word you say, even when you think you have disabled it??

      • Sensei

        They had to do that because it gave a raison d’être for a new chip on the latest generation of phones.

        I’m too lazy to look up what the hell it was actually supposed to do however.

      • AlexinCT

        Make it easier for companies like Apple and Google to comply with the wishes of governments like the ChiComms and the Euros….

      • Sensei

        I got curious again.

        The iPhone 11’s U1 chip necessitates constant geolocation checks, Apple says

        Ultra-wideband technology is an industry-standard technology and is subject to international regulatory requirements that require it to be turned off in certain locations… iOS uses Location Services to help determine if iPhone is in these prohibited locations in order to disable ultra-wideband and comply with regulations… The management of ultra-wideband compliance and its use of location data is done entirely on the device, and Apple is not collecting user location data.

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, it’s because of ultra-wideband regulations…

      • Mojeaux

        ^^^That.

        Apple can go pound sand.

    • Mojeaux

      Obama = malware

    • WTF

      I have no idea who those people are.

    • JD is Unemployed

      “That Garner bird’s falsies are a bit of a turn off,” typed the overweight, unkempt dork. He took a sip of lukewarm coffee and thought about Scherzy instead. “Nah,” he muttered to himself, “those abs strike shame into my heart for my own doughy physique; a righteous shame I ought to feel”. He closed the browser tabs and typed all this out in a reply to Pie’s links.

      • Jarflax

        Oh lord are we doing the limited, omniscient, reliable, unreliable 3rd person narrator discussion again?

      • leon

        I was disappointed no one completed the story…

    • Annoyed Nomad

      I saw Nicole Scherzinger perform before she was famous – back in the 90’s when she was at Wright State University. She was one of the leads in “Chicago”. I was dating a WSU professor and remember being impressed with the performance.

    • sloopyinca

      Seriously, fuck those commie bastards.

      • AlexinCT

        I am betting a slew of democrats will tell us how much they wish we were more like China so they could actually take away our guns. I have pointed out to numerous people that Hong Kong would be a far more dangerous and deadly affair for the state actors sent by the ChiComms to kill those opposing their draconian expansion of state power if those people were able to legally own firearms.

      • Enough About Palin

        “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

        There are folks who focus on the militia part but the amendment clearly states “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

      • WTF

        They don’t understand “militia” and “well regulated”, in addition to not understanding sentence structure. The framers defined militia as the whole of the people capable of bearing arms. Well regulated meant “in good working order”, as in, a watch that kept accurate time was said to be well regulated. So it actually says, in modern terms, that the whole of the people capable of bearing arms should be doing so in good working order to ensure a free state. Therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

    • Fourscore

      Well, private ownership in the US would be a serious problem if there was an attempted invasion by a foreign country. With cell phones and facebook the message would travel faster than Paul Revere.

      Same reason some in this country fear the private ownership.

      • Pat

        30 seconds into an invasion by China Facebook would have its entire US infrastructure broadcasting Chinese propaganda and disabling subversive user accounts.

      • WTF

        So you’re saying Facebook would welcome its new communist overlords?

      • Social Justice is Neither

        In what way would this be new?

    • mindyourbusiness

      Isn’t it nice to know that the Chicom government’s opinion on firearms is right in line with…most of the Democratic candidates?

      • Swiss Servator

        most all of the Democratic candidates?

      • mindyourbusiness

        Swissy, surely there has to be at least one…
        *looks over the field*
        …I stand corrected.

    • JD is Unemployed

      A lot of [citation needed] Bernie Bros and general progressive true believers consciously refer to the ChiCom regime as “fascist”. They’re not wrong, of course, except in their delusion that the two things are absolutely different, and polar opposites.

      • AlexinCT

        One can make the argument that the ChiComms survived and avoided the destructive nature of the usual communist system when they shifted to old style fascism. The difference between communism and fascism, both being collectivist ideologies, is that under communism the leaders actually take full control of everything and then just drive it all into the ground in rapid fashion (see Soviet Union, North Korea, Vietnam, Venezuela). The fascists on the other hand are clever enough to leave industry in the hands of private winners, and retain the power of control in government by holding the power to then pick winners & losers. Both systems were brutal to those that stood in the way of those in power, and the old time versions involved lots of corpses and enslaved/tortured people. The ChicComms now are true old time fascists, and that move allowed them to avoid the misery and inevitable collapse communism always delivers in record time. That being said, old time fascism is also a road to disaster, because the people in charge, over time, will get progressively more inept and stupid, and don’t forget more and more corrupt and inefficient/ineffective, and this will require them to ratchet up the body count and the camps.

        Now if the ChiComms truly want to become enlightened, they can adopt the modern version of fascism practiced by western countries. You do away with the camps and the body count, and just destroy people’s ability to make a living when they piss off those in power, and pretend your system of government is fighting for some kind of justice for the idiots that will lap up any and all criminal activity by those in power as long as they feel it is directed towards those people that they envy (and which they want fleeced as hard as possible to give them reason to feel that being life’s losers isn’t a sign the problem is theirs).

      • Social Justice is Neither

        I think they have gotten into the race with their social credit score. Proggies here salivate over having that level of destructive control.

      • AlexinCT

        That’s the best identifying sign that what you are dealing with is the new fascist movement: the social score..

      • commodious spittoon

        Isn’t it nice that there’s serious debate over which failed, hellish variant of communism American communism will most resemble.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Amen.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The big lie is that fascism and communism are opposite ideologies, when they are simply different implementations of socialism.

        And yes, the Chinese are fascist, right down to the ethnic nationalism.

    • Rebel Scum

      Communist China, which currently has millions of people locked away in concentration camps, said in state-controlled media this week that the Second Amendment is a “serious problem” and that there needs to be “change” in how the American public views “private ownership of guns.”

      *Democrats nod in agreement*

    • Suthenboy

      “Chinese banning of private gun ownership is a serious problem and must change”

      /Me

      There isn’t a ‘FUCK YOU’ big enough or loud enough to respond to these people, however it is nice to know and will come in handy to point out that the gun grabbers here are of like mind with the most repressive regime on earth today.

      • AlexinCT

        The modern left here would see that association not as a the disqualifier or negative thing us Glibs do, Suthen, but as a great and awesome feature, You and I see this as a means to show they are tyrants in waiting: they see it as them pining for something they feel makes their utopia more attainable. That their utopia always devolves into shit (like it has historically everywhere with an expedited schedule), is dismissed by them because they KNOW that they will get it right THIS TIME….

        Pointing out that one of the countries that has been blessed with some of the most incredible natural resource wealth today is a poverty stricken hell hole where the common people ate their pets to survive and are all starving and suffering from some of the highest rates of crime and death, while the inept and corrupt ruling class lives like royalty on expensive food and drink, only results in them getting even more petty in their defense of their progtopian dream.

    • Gadfly

      That’s the best argument I’ve seen in favor of the Second Amendment in a long time.

  7. Neil Peart's Celestial Woodchipper

    Sad that Elizabeth Warren couldn’t bury the hatchet with Bernie.

    • WTF

      No smoke um peace pipe!

    • Q Continuum

      I don’t know why they couldn’t. They are, after all, members of the same tribe.

      • AlexinCT

        Forked Tongues?

    • blackjack

      Let’s axe her why in the next debate.

      • Fourscore

        She bowed to Sanders, she needs to fleche out her attack

    • sloopyinca

      This campaign will end in a trail of tears for both of them once the Dem machine starts pulling levers for Biden.

      • AlexinCT

        So after they got caught rigging it for crooked Hillary in the last election, you are telling me they think the rubes will just shut up and suck the hobo cheese covered cock they will be told to suck when Biden is given the nomination?

      • Jarflax

        Too much firewater make Alex miss point of thread?

      • AlexinCT

        There is no such thing as too much firewater…

      • UnCivilServant

        Well, you could drown in it, or die from alcohol poisoning.

        Those would count as ‘too much’

    • invisible finger

      Warren expects to whomp ‘im with blanket coverage.

    • Plisade

      At least arrow between the candidates would make the debates more fun to watch.

    • Chipwooder

      Sad that Elizabeth Warren couldn’t bury the hatchet with in Bernie.

    • Rebel Scum

      She assumed she would scalp his chances by calling him sexist.

  8. robc

    How does zero deaths equal Darwin Award?

    • PieInTheSky

      It is the 21sty century we do participation trophies now

      • Jarflax

        Legitimate lol.

    • Nephilium

      It could count if they were all sterilized through their own actions as well (most people forget that second category of Darwins).

      • robc

        That is not something volcanos do.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        You’re forgetting the infamous ballcano of 1929. All men in the remote village of Lowhanger were submerged to their thighs in low heat lava that produced second degree burns and cooked all their swimmers.

    • straffinrun

      And they were dirt poor people. They chose a volcanic island over pollution riddled Manila. Who am I to judge that choice.

    • sloopyinca

      200 people died during an explosion there in 1965. And their entire living areas have now been destroyed. They’re certainly tempting fate.

      • robc

        A 4% loss is bad, but with a high enough birthrate, it can be overcome.

      • Jarflax

        Most of us posting here are in a similar situation. Life is tenuous.

      • robc

        1-3 mm here. I think my leaf blower can take care of that.

        Or just wait for the next hurricane to blow it away.

  9. PieInTheSky

    Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) therapy lowers the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in bladder cancer patients

    https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0224433

    this reminded me of this

    Long-term reduction in hyperglycemia in advanced type 1 diabetes: the value of induced aerobic glycolysis with BCG vaccinations

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-018-0062-8

    And that some said that both may have autoimmune elements and that is why the vaccine has some effect…

    • robc

      Hmmm..I wonder if I can convince my doc that I gave bladder cancer?

      • robc

        Have, not gave. That is a horrible gift.

    • PieInTheSky

      I wanted to link that but had the foresight to look in last night threads and found it had already been linked

      • AlexinCT

        What did those that discussed it settle on? I am not on at night and always too late to care, but this sounds like it would make divorces a lot more fun.

      • Rhywun

        It devolved into a battle of Kansas tunes, of course.

      • Not Adahn

        Devolved?

      • Ted S.

        When a problem came along, we whipped it.

      • Rhywun

        Touché.

  10. Rebel Scum

    Gov Blackface To Ban Guns From Capitol Grounds

    The AP spoke with two individuals familiar with the governor’s plans, who say Northam will announce the move at a Wednesday press conference.

    “Fearing a repeat of the deadly violence that engulfed Charlottesville more than two years ago, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam plans to declare a temporary emergency Wednesday banning all weapons, including guns, from Capitol Square ahead of a massive rally planned next week over gun rights.

    That’s according to two state officials who were briefed on the plans but not authorized to speak publicly about them. The governor, a Democrat, plans to announce the plans at a news conference Wednesday afternoon because of credible threats of potential violence and extremism, one official said.”

    What kind of credible threats?

    “One official said Northam decided to ban all guns from the grounds of Capitol Square after receiving reports for weeks about inflammatory online postings by out-of-state pro-gun and militia groups who are promising to attend Monday’s rally.

    The official said the state does not have intelligence that the groups are planning a specific act of violence, but said Northam has grown increasingly concerned about numerous ominous-sounding postings on social media from forces outside Virginia. The official cited one posting that included a photo of an AR-15 and said there are “great sight angles from certain buildings” near Capitol Square.”

    I haven’t seen that posting, but to be blunt, a ban on guns on the capitol grounds wouldn’t prevent someone intent on doing harm from doing so outside of any gun-free zone set up by the governor.

    Gun grabbers don’t really do logic.

    • Q Continuum

      Gun free zones always work. Every time without exception.

      • WTF

        Well, they certainly work to maximize casualties when a deranged shooter shows up.

      • ChipsnSalsa

        We’ve written these laws with UCS’s magic pen so they will always be followed.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Dammit

        Herring is a despicable grandstanding POS

      • l0b0t

        HOLY MACKEREL! What’s next, Drivers License reciprocity because no other state has VA’s stupid Reckless Driving = 15mph over the posted speed limit?

      • Rebel Scum

        I said it before and I’ll say it again. Democrats these days are insane authoritarians that cannot be allowed to have power.

    • Pat

      So the cops and capitol security will be unarmed? Weird flex, but ok.

      • invisible finger

        Caste system, yo.

    • sloopyinca

      I remember going to the House of Delegates and sitting in the gallery with a pistol on my hip.

      How times have changed in that once-great Comminwealth.

    • Agent Cooper

      This is how you get yet another Manassas.

    • Suthenboy

      “Northam has grown increasingly concerned”

      Exactly the point of the second amendment. Wanna tyrant? Do it at your peril. If 20,000 men with rifles show up there demanding his resignation, what’s he gonna do?

      • Mojeaux

        Call in the National Guard. He’s already said he would.

  11. Rebel Scum

    can someone please explain this to me?

    I really can’t.

  12. Fourscore

    Well, private ownership in the US would be a serious problem if there was an attempted invasion by a foreign country. With cell phones and facebook the message would travel faster than Paul Revere.

    Same reason some in this country fear the private ownership.

  13. Rebel Scum

    Man, you hate to see it.

    Actually I find it rather amusing.

    • PieInTheSky

      Déjà vu

      • LJW

        Damn it forgot to hit refresh.

      • straffinrun

        I can never remember what that means.

      • Fourscore

        I’ve seen it before though

      • straffinrun

        You ever have it during ménage à trois?

      • AlexinCT

        Only when the swords cross?…..

      • Not Adahn

        Mais bien sur.

    • WTF

      Seemed like a good idea until her lawyer hired a modern-day Musashi as her champion. And made the husband pay for it.

    • ChipsnSalsa

      Will they have pot in their ass and whoever drops the pot first loses?

    • Q Continuum

      Don’t worry sweetie, the nice men in the white suits will tell your cat when they come to take you away.

      • leon

        Heehee hoho haha

    • Drake

      Did he use the phrase “crazy cat lady” during the dumping?

    • Pat

      I mean, cats do attached to certain people. For weeks after my dad died the poor cat would go to his bedroom and howl her little guts out and go anxiously pace around his old chair. But two thoughts come to mind. If the cat liked your boyfriend more than you, why not let him have the cat? Secondarily… it’s a cat. It’ll get over it.

    • AlexinCT

      That cat eventually will become the object of her rage and it will end up in a pot of boiling water…

    • DrOtto

      He’ll get the message when the other 16 cats move in.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    The meatball talks.

    “You shouldn’t eat spaghetti and meatballs. They’re bad for you. Have a nice salad, instead. And some fresh natural spring water. Hey, what are you doing with that knife and fork? Get away! Noooooooo!”

    • AlexinCT

      When do we hear about Fava beans and a fine Chianti?

  15. Trigger Hippie

    ‘In the new study, which tested participants in a driving simulator, researchers from McLean Hospital in Boston found that sober cannabis users who started using the drug in their teens had more accidents, drove at higher speeds and cruised through more red lights compared to people who had never used marijuana.’

    Odd. Anecdotally speaking, me and every single person I know who smokes now and have done so since we were young people behaved in exactly the opposite fashion.

    • WTF

      Yeah, in my experience the stoners are the ones in the right lane going at least 10 mph under the speed limit.

      • Trigger Hippie

        That’s me. 10 and 2, obeying the law to the letter due to mild paranoia.

      • invisible finger

        10 and 2? You’re doing it wrong unless your car is at least 25 years old.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Oh? Do tell. I mean, I CAN roll a joint while driving using only my knees to steer, but I’ve kinda fallen out of the habit. 😉

      • Q Continuum

        It’s 9 and 3 because of air bags. If you do 10 and 2, your arms will fly into your face and you’ll break your wrists if it deploys.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Huh, good to know. Not that I’m overly worried about it. Despite being a reckless stoner who’s bound to kill an innocent any day now due, I’ve never been in an accident. Hell, I’ve never even had a speeding ticket.

    • Trigger Hippie

      And nevermind the fact it was a fucking simulator. Because real life versus phony consequences for your behavior totally wouldn’t alter the results.

      • l0b0t

        I’ve been searching for the WKRP clip wherein Dr. Johnny Fever is given the simulator test and keeps improving his reaction times as he drinks. No dice.

      • Sensei

        That was one of the better episodes.

    • invisible finger

      Per Bobby Jenks, Boston hospitals are cesspools of incompetence.

    • l0b0t

      My being muggled has nothing to do with my driving. I was a bit of hoon/leadfoot until I had kids; now, I’m a safe and cautious driver. Still muggled all the time though.

    • Q Continuum

      He’s just there for the Yang Gang Bang.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Great, now The Pretenders have earwormed me…

    • PieInTheSky

      Something about when keeping it real goes too far

  16. robc

    Is the sanders campaign guy trying to torpedo his boss or just a tankie?

    • Q Continuum

      I’m thinking the latter. He was imbibing and thought he was with a fellow traveller so he took his opinions off the leash. Don’t be surprised if you find commies amongst the campaign staff of a commie candidate.

    • WTF

      I don’t have a uterus so I’m not allowed to have an opinion.

      Is that how it works? Cool, women are not allowed to have an opinion on men’s issues.

      • Q Continuum

        That’s different because MUH TOKSIK MASKYOOLINITEE.

        Or something.

      • Gadfly

        Is that how it works?

        Indeed. That’s why only active and former military can vote for commander-in-chief. And only business-owners can be hired as regulators.

    • Pat

      “Everybody I know voted for McGovern!”

  17. Rebel Scum

    Democrats Block House Resolution In Support of the Iranian Protestors

    Consideration and a vote on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s resolution was blocked because Democrats advanced the previous question, by a vote of 226-191. The resolution would have condemned the Government of Iran for killing 1,500 Iranian citizens who were protesting their government, as well as condemned the Government of Iran for shooting down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, killing 176 people.

    In addition, the resolution; “(3) condemns the Government of Iran for repeatedly lying to its people and to the world about its responsibility for the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752; (4) calls on the Government of Iran to— (A) refrain from the use of violence; and (B) protect the rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly; and (5) supports the protestors in Iran, their demands for accountability, and their desire for the Government of Iran to respect freedom and human rights.”

    Blocking a resolution that, while symbolic, should be bipartisan and pass with full support is an interesting stategy, Cotton. Let’s see how it plays out.

    • WTF

      What exactly do they think they are achieving here? The Democrats really have gone completely insane.

      • AlexinCT

        ORANGE MAN BAD!!!

    • Trigger Hippie

      Dems have taken the pulse of America, and it’s sending Morse Code that reads: Trump bad, backwards theocracy good.

      • JD is Unemployed

        *smirk* You know that’s fake, right?

        /prog

    • Agent Cooper

      Symbolic bullshit resolutions should always be blocked on the simple principle it is a waste of time/money for the taxpayers.

      • Gadfly

        Counterpoint: symbolic bullshit wastes time that could otherwise be spent harming the citizenry, so we need as much of it as possible. More empty symbolism, less substantive regulation, I say.

      • Agent Cooper

        Hmmm. I’ll take your counterpoint under advisement. I think you are on to something. BTW, today is National Counterpoint Day.

  18. Plisade

    That meatball is tripping me out.

    • WTF

      That meatball is the stuff of nightmares. You’re eating meatballs, and when you stick your fork in it, it starts shrieking in agony, and the next thing you know you’re in a SugarFree story.

      • Nephilium

        IIRC, it was Nightmare on Elm Street V that had the pizza with the screaming pepperoni/meatballs on it.

      • Not Adahn

        I never knew SF was a lesbian. But after the Subaru series, and now this on Bed Death…

    • straffinrun

      Should’ve been on the debate stage.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    ‘In the new study, which tested participants in a driving simulator, researchers from McLean Hospital in Boston found that sober cannabis users who started using the drug in their teens had more accidents, drove at higher speeds and cruised through more red lights compared to people who had never used marijuana.’

    Maybe they thought they were playing Grand Theft Auto. Or maybe people know the differences between real life and simulators, and know the consequences of running a red light are completely different.

  20. l0b0t

    I LOVE today’s musical selection, Sloopy; thanks.

    Fun Fact – The Jug was a real bar in Jacksonville Beach, FL. It was known for clientele composed of the worst combination of North Florida redneck + East Coast beach trash, and for not giving one whit about the ages of those buying 2 pitchers of Bud at a time as long as we tipped well.

    • Chipwooder

      North Florida redneck’s got nuttin on West Florida (aka Floribama) redneck.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Gee, why are more and more young men reluctant to marry nowadays? It’s almost like signing a marriage contract has become a promise for future castration.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The logical progression of all of this will be to outlaw marriage, since it sometimes produces less than desirable outcomes.

    • Pat

      When family laws shift property rights and provide payments directly to women upon divorce, wives have been shown to invest more in quality schooling for their children and in schooling in general. Their leisure time increases and they start working more, decreasing the time they spend on household chores such as cleaning and cooking.

      So financial incentives work? Truly groundbreaking stuff. And luckily this comes at no cost to society since divorced men are nothing but subhuman money factories.

      • Plisade

        The county I got divorced in is pretty friendly to men in family court. I felt like a money factory during the marriage and was able to cut that off via divorce. And got some schadenfreude from the ex’s having to work again. (The kids were already grown by then.) The judge actually admonished the ex and her attorney for all the stupid shit they wanted me to pay for until she or I died. 1.5 years of alimony after 22 years of marriage. Not bad.

      • UnCivilServant

        You mean they didn’t try to make you support her In the lifstyle to which she had become accustomed?

      • Plisade

        Surprisingly, correct.

      • Akira

        You mean they didn’t try to make you support her In the lifstyle to which she had become accustomed?

        That “accustomed to a certain lifestyle” line is absolutely fucking ridiculous.

        I can’t think of any other type of contract where Party A can terminate the contract but force Party B (via government) to continue upholding part of their obligation while Party A has no obligation whatsoever. It’s as absurd as an employee being forced to work 40 hours a week without pay because the employer is “accustomed to a certain work output”.

        Marriage contracts should be private. If you want alimony upon divorce, get it in the contract. I’m not sure what would be done in cases where the couple got married and didn’t specify; perhaps just go to a rule where each spouse gets 50% of assets that were purchased jointly during the period of marriage (so no more ex-wives taking half of the guy’s 401K plan that he built up years before they got married).

  21. Drake

    Now **they** want guns too? Where will it end?

    • Not Adahn

      You’re missing a point on those stars there.

  22. Scruffy Nerfherder

    SJWednesday: Eating Their Own

    Iconic author Stephen King took to Twitter on Tuesday and came dangerously close to traveling in the footsteps of Tim Burton, who defended the lack of non-white actors in his films by saying “Things either call for things, or they don’t,” and, more recently, filmmaker Terry Gilliam, who threw a whole hissy fit over the prospect of Hollywood diversity.

    King got up early in the morning to weigh in on the lack of diversity in this year’s Oscar nominations by tweeting, “As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay. For me, the diversity issue—as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway—did not come up.”

    “That said…” he continues, “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.”

    First off, white people, and especially straight white men, would do well to understand that, in matters pertaining to diversity, “It seems to me…” is pretty irrelevant as they wouldn’t have any real frame of reference. Not having experienced a desire for representation, anything that “seems” to them comes through a lens of privilege. Second, I really don’t understand what he means by “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality.” It almost seems as if King is saying that whiteness represents the default when it comes to artistic quality and that everything else is less than. But, again, it’s a confusing couple of sentences.

    What I do know is that, like me and most of Black Twitter, writer and director Ava DuVernay was here for no parts of King’s flavor of mild, white nonsense when she retweeted the author with her own two cents.

    “When you wake up, meditate, stretch, reach for your phone to check on the world and see a tweet from someone you admire that is so backward and ignorant you want to go back to bed.”

    • Trigger Hippie

      ‘Second, I really don’t understand what he means by “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality.”’

      And that’s why you’ll never be anything more than mediocre.

      • AlexinCT

        Actually, he is basically saying that he doesn’t want diversity to be used in efforts important to him, and that he is OK with it being forced on others, especially when it is things he could give two fucks about (like making his living or getting awards). That’s what makes the pro diversity crowd so fucking evil. They are all for it as long as they are not feeling the negative effects of it.

    • WTF

      I really don’t understand what he means by “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality.” It almost seems as if King is saying that whiteness represents the default when it comes to artistic quality and that everything else is less than.

      No, you dishonest fuck, what he’s saying is skin color is irrelevant, only the quality of the work matters.

      But, again, it’s a confusing couple of sentences.

      Not to anyone with minimal reading comprehension and no ideological axe to grind.

      • JD is Unemployed

        Haha, I posted a similar rant in rhetorical response to one of those CAN’TEVENs yesterday. Stephen King finally showing signs of reason and yet he’s already folding and kowtowing to absurdity once more, only it won’t be enough to save him now. Cancelled!

      • Trigger Hippie

        You’d think a horror writer would have a better grasp on the fickle, vicious nature of mobs.

      • robc

        That is the one sentence of King’s I undetstood. The rest were confusing to me, but that one is clear.

    • PieInTheSky

      quality is a dog whistle for white supremacy

    • Pat

      It almost seems as if King is saying that whiteness represents the default when it comes to artistic quality and that everything else is less than. But, again, it’s a confusing couple of sentences.

      He’s saying that Madea is funny and all, but if you want a fucking Oscar go make the next Citizen Kane. If you want to go circle jerk with people in “your community” then wait til the BET awards and fuck off.

    • sloopyinca

      Stephen King should channel Martin Luther King Jr today and tweet “I have a dream that filmmakers will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their productions.”

      For the lulz.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        In typical leftie fashion, he’s backpedaling and qualifying his statements as fast as he can.

        Unfortunately for him, there is no forgiveness. He’s a useful grievance stepping stone for Twittermongers and will be sacrificed to advance their own social standing in the tribe. The only question is who is going to get to put his scalp on their wall.

      • Mojeaux

        Why is he bothering?

        He’s got fuck-you money and even if all his fans on Twitter stopped buying his books, he’d srill have fuck-you money.

        These people slay me. Give me that kind of stardom and I’mma be on the beach or golf course or somewhere not giving any fucks about Twitter.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Because he wants to matter.

        And because he’s tied in with the Hollywood complex. I imagine that’s where most of his friends are, and they’re probably prone to severing relations with non-politically acceptable acquaintances.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Money can’t buy happiness. The praise of your in-group does. And I don’t mean this derisively. In fact, is a major tenant of most world religions.

      • invisible finger

        Appropriation = racism.

    • Rebel Scum

      First off, white people, and especially straight white men, would do well to understand that

      Shut up, you deluded, racist cunte.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      He has to say that or Maria will beat the shit out of him.

    • AlexinCT

      By that logic we should not oppose the election of any woman, even one that wants to kill off the entire human race or fuck over the only the people she doesn’t like. Fuck the people that make stupid demands like this.

    • straffinrun

      White Knighting for a Red skin.

    • Pat

      Yeah, fuck that Obama guy amirite?

    • Rufus the Monocled

      People understand Warren put this out. A woman who has a bit of a problem with the truth. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was pulled out of context. Stupid commie fuck as he is Sanders.

      • WTF

        I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a complete lie put out by the Warren campaign, because she is really that awful and dishonest.

      • straffinrun

        Absolutely this. She’s John Lovitz without the charm.

      • Nephilium

        You mean Jon Lovitz?

        And never forget.

      • Rebel Scum

        ^

        +1 Liawatha

      • leon

        Yeah in a he said she said with Warren, there is plenty of evidence that Warren is a lying piece of shit who will say what she needs to to get elected. If Bernie was a killer he would hit back with that.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        “If Bernie was a killer”

        Oh man do I see a movie in that.

        Some Red propaganda biopic even.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I call your derp:

      Still thinking about the Warren-Bernie squabble and I have a question to people who have accused Warren of lying: isn’t the lesson of #metoo and the last few years that we believe women and don’t call them liars?— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 14, 2020

      <script async

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Some lesson.

      • WTF

        No, the lesson is we believe evidence, you stupid cunte.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    First off, white people, and especially straight white men, would do well to understand that, in matters pertaining to diversity, “It seems to me…” is pretty irrelevant as they wouldn’t have any real frame of reference.

    My imaginary problems aren’t the same as yours? You must be a Nazi.

    • leon

      Even though this would let the Democratic counties do what they want and leave the Republican ones alone, this will be opposed be the key because they won’t get to impose the will on those dirty rural Republicans!!

      • Rebel Scum

        ^ Yup. They mean to rule, not govern.

    • robc

      I suggested that a few weeks back.

      • Drake

        Well, the state was created to let Republicans escape from slave-owning proto-Klansmen like Governor Blackface.

    • Chipwooder

      Since my county undoubtedly would not make it into West Virginia 2.0, my solution will continue to be forcing Maryland to annex Fairfax, Loudon, and Prince William counties.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        This guy gets it.

      • Drake

        My county would vote to leave NJ and join PA in a landslide.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Don’t exempt Bush from that criticism. That stupid fucker laid the groundwork for all of this.

      • AlexinCT

        Team red should be reminded that many of us pointed out that while they thought their idiot would make sure the abusive system put in play was not being abused , the first time the other team got power, we would be looking at serious potential for abuses, yes. But I am far more pissed at them for actually letting team blue do this shit over the last 8 years, because they figured as long as team blue was using it to protect the deep state, they were OK as well. It was not until they realized team blue statists used it against them as well that they finally realized this shit was evil. My hope/wish is that they eventually get rid of this shit, but I am not sure these fucking asshats can give up the power the corrupted system they put in play provides them.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The move comes a week after prosecutors shifted their strategy, telling the judge Flynn deserves up to six months in prison and withdrawing their 2018 request that he receive no jail time because of the “serious nature of the defendant’s offense, his apparent failure to accept responsibility, his failure to complete his cooperation in [the Virginia Case] and the need to promote respect for the law and adequately deter such criminal conduct.”

      That’s pure brinkmanship on the part of the prosecutors. They’re protecting their own.

      • AlexinCT

        This case,m from the very start, has been about punishing Flynn for daring to tell the world Obama’s Iran deal was a piece of shit (the emperor has no clothes) and to make sure everyone in the deep state knows to never fuck with the top top men. It morphed into a desperate attempt to keep Flynn unable to tell people how fucking evil what was done to him is, and to protect the criminals that are still committing crimes to keep this shitshow against Flynn going. I am worried that unless a lot of these people end up doing hard time for this shit, we have lost our republic. I have for the longest time felt our legal system was a joke and corrupt, and now I am certain of it. And it only can and will get worse.

      • WTF

        Our republic was lost some time ago. It’s just becoming more obvious now.

      • Jarflax

        It is still a republic, the actual electorate has just been shrunk and you and I are no longer enfranchised.

  24. Rufus the Monocled

    Re the Habs. Do you know something we don’t know? They play tonight. I think there’s a fix in!

    • PieInTheSky

      I always have to google what Habs means

      • Rufus the Monocled

        And what do you get?

      • PieInTheSky

        Some figure skating team from Canadia

      • Rufus the Monocled

        These days? That’s an appropriate description.

        Long gone are the days of Robinson, Gainey, Nilan, Kordic, Ludwig, Green, Walter, Chelios, Muller, Keane, McPhee, Skrudland etc. where the team had bite and balls.

        Now everyone is a fairy.

      • Chipwooder

        John Kordic was a piece of shit.

      • Tundra

        Nauseated?

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Tundra is still nauseated that Lawton never worked out.

      • Tundra

        That and stealing Bobby Smith.

        Fuckers.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    And the VA legislature is about to give their Attorney General the power to pull all reciprocity agreements.

    Commerce Clause, to the rescue!

    Haha, I crack myself up.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      The full faith and credit clause, right?

      How hilarious is it going to be when Democrats pass a DOMA-style gun law?

      • Gadfly

        I would respect them more if they felt the need to.

    • Pat

      In reality, Shudu, who has 196,000 followers on Instagram, is more painting than person. She’s a 3-D digital animation made by an Englishman named Cameron-James Wilson, who bills his creation as “the world’s first digital supermodel.”

      Old news

      • Trigger Hippie

        This better be that shitty Pacino movie…

        Yep!

  26. Rufus the Monocled

    Damn hippies. Well, did Fred ever let Shaggy drive The Mystery Machine?

    • UnCivilServant

      From the looks of it, I’d wager Shaggy owns the mystery machine, but lost his license, so he doesn’t drive it.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Shaggy was the mechanic. As evidenced by the damn van breaking down all the time.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        I’d believe Velma or Scooby as mechanics before him.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Nah, Velma and Scooby were too busy playing with a jar of peanut butter.

      • Agent Cooper

        I once had an idea for a live-action Scooby-Doo movie (before they actually made them) and I cast John Leguizamo as Velma.

    • Drake

      Fred likes to send Shaggy and Scooby off to investigate the haunted basement or attic while he investigates the bedrooms with the girls.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Daphne: Where’s your ascott Fred?

        Fred nervous grin.

        Velma: Again? Really? How many times do we have to repeat: Investigate not fornicate?

        Apparition appears. Hands ascot and her g-tring. to Fred. Blows him a kiss but there’s no wind.

        Apparition: You forgot something, Freaky Freddy. This one is to remember me by.

        Scooby notices a penis. Looks at camera.

        Scooby: Ruh roh?

        Laugh track.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    It almost seems as if King is saying that whiteness represents the default when it comes to artistic quality and that everything else is less than.

    Some other guy named King had an opinion on that whole “quality of character vs color of skin” business, as well, but he was a notorious white supremacist, too, I guess.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      It’s amazing to me how much people are offended by someone who is offended by drag queen story hour.

      Can churches hold bible readings in publicly funded libraries? I really don’t know, but that seems to be the most comparable analogy.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s fairly simple. Sexualizing little kids is fine when the left does it.

      • JD is Unemployed

        I happen to think much of progressivism, in it’s myriad forms, tends toward a cult, and particularly the activist gender-benders, who don’t have science on their side – at least not real science. The DSM is a joke, so easily morphing with zeitgeist. It effectively is a religion, given the way that so much is a matter of faith no matter how much one claims to “FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE” or selectively cite sympathetic “academics”. Destroy all heretics!

        Does the separation of church and state apply to this garbage?

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Can churches hold bible readings in publicly funded libraries?

        Yes, within the same constraints as any other organization (IE probably can’t light a shit load of candles or speak through a bull horn).

    • Raven Nation

      “Twitter is broken,” Christensen said in a tweet before deactivating his Twitter account. “It’s for ad hominem attacks & pile-ons, not real discourse. And it’s aided and abetted by the media.”

      Yeah, because Twitter started off as a forum for discourse.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I want to believe.

  28. Scruffy Nerfherder

    SJWednesday: Two Wrongs For Every White

    Do you ever feel like anti-racism talk generalizes all white people?

    As children, we learned that “two wrongs don’t make a right,” and that’s pretty fair to say in most scenarios. But as Kat Blaque points out, “racism isn’t child’s play” – so we need a more mature strategy to talk about it.

    Find out why this “two wrongs” comparison just doesn’t work when it comes to racism, and you’ll have a better understanding of what’s really going on next time you come across criticism of white supremacy.

    • Pat

      Special pleading. Because it really is different when we do it!

    • JD is Unemployed

      It’s a lucrative industry, peddling this TRUE BELIEVER shit. I wonder if they have any notion of how moronic they are.

    • Tres Cool

      Two wrongs dont make a right, but two Wrights can make an airplane.

      • Gender Traitor

        Represent! #DaytonRawks

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Ban it

    But while apps such as Grindr, Tinder, Hinge and The League make no promises of endless love, U.S. national security officials warn users there is one thing that really may last forever: their data.

    “I think most American, most people, don’t realize how much data your phone is generating about you and your life every single day,” said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice.

    When NBC News showed Demers the kind of data collected by dating apps — everything from drug use to preferred sexual position — he said he feared that the information could be weaponized by individuals and even foreign intelligence agencies.

    “There’s a lot of information there in the app that you’re voluntarily turning over,” he said. “Some of it you know you’re doing, some of it maybe you don’t realize.”

    Demers said an individual’s personal information on a dating app is the type of data a foreign intelligence service “would want to paint a picture of your life.”

    “If I’m starting a lure operation, for instance,” he said, “I can find the kind of person I think that you will like and I will have them approach you.” He added that an app user could even be approached with threats of blackmail.

    A top concern for the Justice Department is the popular dating app Grindr, which advertises itself as the “largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people.”

    The app is owned by the Chinese gaming company Kunlun Tech. Foreign ownership matters when it comes to the type of information that may wind up in government hands.

    That doesn’t sound paranoid, at all.

    I think these people watch too many bad movies.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m imagining a warehouse full of Chinese peasants reviewing the Grindr selections of Republican Congressmen from Alabama.

    • Pat

      It’s a national security risk in the same way that every other data harvesting surveillance capitalist pile of shit is a national security risk. Which isn’t to say it isn’t a potential national security risk, just that the rabbit isn’t going back in the hat, and the outrage seems a bit selective.

      • leon

        No one would right swipe John Demers

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      The Russians…errr…the Chinese have hacked dating apps! They’re going to be radicalized with memes!

      • Not Adahn

        I’m having difficulty finding the Chinese character for “Kek.”

      • Sensei

    • Ted S.

      It could also be weaponized by US intelligence agencies.

  30. Private Chipperbot

    (nice effort, Detroit)

    Yeah. That was awful. I know it’s not the coach’s fault, but they have to can Blashill now. They aren’t even competing. You can’t get blown out by a team that played the night before and were blown out themselves.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Back to the Dead Things eh?

    • Tundra

      Hahaha!

      Welcome to the party, pal! At least you guys aren’t pretending you’re a tweak away from contending.

      McIndoe posted this the other day.

      Seems legit.

      At least you got to watch some of the best hockey in a generation. I’ve been stuck with bland for 20 years!

  31. The Late P Brooks

    It’s a national security risk in the same way that every other data harvesting surveillance capitalist pile of shit is a national security risk. Which isn’t to say it isn’t a potential national security risk, just that the rabbit isn’t going back in the hat, and the outrage seems a bit selective.

    Yes. Meanwhile, the DoJ is trying to armtwist Apple into unlocking another phone.

    • leon

      I’m so sorry this is happening to people in the left.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      “Vince Vaughn, who recently appeared on an ethno-nationalist podcast dubbed “The Tom Woods Show”, has recently gained the ire of Twitter for being cordial with President Trump.”

      • Raven Nation

        Ethno-nationalist? Woods?

        That phrase alone is enough to discount the accuracy of the entire story.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        I made that up. I’m just joking.

      • Raven Nation

        I see.

      • leon

        You missed TGAs article yesterday in the comments.

      • Raven Nation

        Ahh; yes I’ve missed a lot lately.

  32. Rufus the Monocled

    Anyone else starting to see an uptick in hydrogen fuel cells for cars articles from friends in their inboxes?

    Battery hasn’t even proven itself and they’re already moving on to cell?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Fuel cells were originally supposed to take over before batteries became popular.

      Trouble is that the fuel cells are hellishly expensive to manufacture and safe, broad-scale hydrogen distribution is next to impossible.

      • Tundra

        Well, then. I guess we need something inexpensive, efficient and plentiful to power our Gaia-rapers, huh?

        If only such a substance existed.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Mr. Fusion?

      • Tundra

        Yes, but not with that fucking Delorean.

        With this.

      • Mad Scientist

        Right? Ideally, it would be something that used available atmospheric gases as half the fuel so there would be no problems with cost or distribution.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        When I was working at NASA, fuel cells where the new hotness. I can’t tell you how many times I heard the following conversation per week:

        “Yeah, but how do you store the hydrogen in a car that is going to get in a crash?”
        “Well, we store gasoline in a car.”
        “YEAH BUT NOT UNDER PRESSURE!!!!”

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The natural gas trucks are an interesting analog for that. They’re typically rated at 3000 psi and the tanks can expand more than a half inch in diameter when refueled.

        But hydrogen tanks are even higher, I think 5000 psi is typical.

        The weight of the tank alone poses efficiency issues as the tank walls have to be of significant thickness to handle the pressure.

        And refueling stations become monstrosities with all sorts of safety concerns. Nevermind the power required to pressurize the tank that high.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Plus, IIRC, doesn’t hydrogen diffuse out of the tanks, meaning long-term storage is basically impossible?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I believer there is diffusion into the tanks that are constructed from composite materials. I don’t know what that means for the long term reliability of the tank material, but strapping a 5000 psi (minimum) compressed gas tank to my ass and waiting for someone to hit it from behind doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.

      • Not Adahn

        “Long term storage” isn’t really needed.

      • Tundra

        *sigh*

        Remind me again, what the hell is wrong with gasoline and diesel?

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Harder to source than hydrogen precursor.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s sooo nineteenth century.

  33. Tundra

    The Wild are really bad, granted, but the guy that everyone loves to hate really is a special player.

    I’s game since November and he does this.

    Poor Donato still has no idea where his jock is.

    Enjoy, Pens fans. You have a really good team.

    • Chipwooder

      He’s an incredible player……and still a massive cunt.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      He’s pure awesome. Always was.

      On and off the ice as I’ve said many times. Lol.

  34. "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

    “I know it’s just a tweet, but can someone please explain this to me?”

    Anyone who thinks Bloomberg was ever going to be president is dumber than a meatball?

    • leon

      The Twitter also said that Bloomberg can hold 10 D sized batteries in his mouth at once.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        Somehow this talent doesn’t surprise me

      • straffinrun

        As long as they are encased in rubber?

      • straffinrun

        BTW. I get your point yesterday about the airliner. Can’t blame the US for Iran being incompetent fools, but, yeah, we have set some things in motion that wouldn’t be happening otherwise. Just look at how the US basically taking out Qadaffi turned out.

      • leon

        Thanks. It was a good discussion all around.

  35. UnCivilServant

    I just…

    I just don’t get people.

    Why are some people just so unwilling to learn things, even when it will make their job easier?

    Our operators have worked with the batch management software for over a decade, yet have staunchly refused to absorb any information about how it works or common problems. If it’s not their day to day tasks, they outright refuse to learn anything about it, even if it would help them in the future.

    • leon

      This amazes me too. Every job I’ve had had had opportunities to get new skills or learn more and I get surprised when a large chunk have no desire to do so.

      • AlexinCT

        I am here for the fucking paycheck, not to have to actually work, brah…

        /fucking soon to be unemployed douches

    • AlexinCT

      Why the fuck doesn’t this computer/software do what I WANT it to do?

      Well, that’s cause computers & software usually do exactly and ONLY what you TELL them to do.

      The problem is practically always between the seat and the keyboard.

      • UnCivilServant

        In this casse, the problem is with a particular piece of network software prone to breaking. It’s exacerbated by the people who need to file the incident not bothering to learn the basic information needed to get it fixed.

    • Nephilium

      It could be worse, you could deal with people who think they know how the system work and are amazingly, shockingly wrong on a regular basis.

      Wrong User: “I can’t get into my VM, maybe the system is having an issue.”

      Me: “There’s no failed logins on your VM box, but I see that there’s a shared mailbox on your phone that’s locked, and I just unlocked it. Did you pick up the line before trying to log in?”

      WU: “Yes. It’s locked again.”

      Me: “No failed logins on your box yet, but the shared mailbox is locked again.”

      WU: “This is probably system wide. Should I call in a P1 ticket?”

      Me: “No, I just rebooted your phone.” (this resets the actively selected line, his line was the first one on the phone). “Try it now.”

      WU: “That fixed it. But you’re going to look into the system issue right?”

      Me: “Sure thing.”

  36. The Late P Brooks

    “Chinese law requires a Chinese company to share any information that it has with the Chinese government if it’s asked for that information for national security reasons,” Demers said. “The other thing we know is that China is a top-down authoritarian country. So law or no law, if your future livelihood as a business depends on the government’s happiness with the way you behave, you’re gonna turn over that information.”

    “Gee, I wish we had one o’ them Doomsday Machines.”

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      “Chinese law requires a Chinese company to share any information that it has with the Chinese government if it’s asked for that information for national security reasons”

      We all know that this doesn’t happen in the West.

      • leon

        That’s different!!! We’re trying to catch dangerous criminals!

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        I was going to say, smudge out the word China and replace it with Washington DC, and it still rings true.

  37. Pope Jimbo

    Why can’t wipipo keep their hands off the hair of non-whites?

    One of the country’s leading tribal advocates says she was left “humiliated” by an experience with a TSA agent at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

    Tara Houska says she was going through security at the Twin Cities airport when a TSA agent said she needed pat down Houska’s braids.

    “She pulled them behind my shoulders, laughed & said ‘giddyup!’ as she snapped my braids like reins,” Houska tweeted on Monday.

    “My hair is part of my spirit. I am a Native woman. I am angry, humiliated. Your ‘fun’ hurt.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      One of the country’s leading tribal advocates

      The opening statement leads me to believe it’s bullshit, even if I have an extremely low opinion of TSA agents.

    • Chipwooder

      “She pulled them behind my shoulders, laughed & said ‘giddyup!’ as she snapped my braids like reins,” Houska tweeted on Monday.

      Yeah, I don’t believe this at all.

      • Pope Jimbo

        You heartless bastard. Everyone knows that the natural reaction of people who have been humiliated by TSA is to tweet about it long after the fact. Only a monster would expect a victim to ask to speak with a manager or contact TSA with details of when and who did it.

        The TSA meanwhile has said it’s aware of the allegations and is trying to determine when and where the incident occurred so it can investigate.

        “We regret to hear that you had a bad experience at the the security checkpoint,” TSA said in a tweet to Houska, asking her to get in touch so it can gather more details.

        It is like you don’t even want to “start a discussion”.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Climate justice organizer, startup founder, front-end developer, UX designer, fantasy writer, speculative fiction reader, yuzu grower, Seattleite.

        I believe the bolded words.

      • UnCivilServant

        I believe they live in Seattle. They sound like it.

      • RAHeinlein

        I’m calling bullshit – no Minnesotan would say that. At-best she would have received a stern stare and an “ok”

        “When I informed the middle-aged blonde woman who had casually used her authority to dehumanize and disrespect me, she said “Well it was just in fun, I’m sorry. Your hair is lovely.””

        BTW – I have a special place in my heart for the MSP TSA after they man-handled my then 10-year old because his cargo jeans set-off the body scanner.

      • Agent Cooper

        Deutsch? So she’s a race traitor, too? ; )

      • Not Adahn

        (((Rebecca)))

    • Agent Cooper

      Nothing sadder than Government-on-Government violence.

  38. Pat

    This was probably covered like a week ago but I just ran across it.

    Ring Fired Employees for Watching Customer Videos

    Amazon-owned home security camera company Ring has fired employees for improperly accessing Ring users’ video data, according to a letter the company wrote to Senators and obtained by Motherboard.

    The news highlights a risk across many different tech companies: employees may abuse access granted as part of their jobs to look at customer data or information. In Ring’s case this data can be particularly sensitive though, as customers often put the cameras inside their home.

    “We are aware of incidents discussed below where employees violated our policies,” the letter from Ring, dated January 6, reads. “Over the last four years, Ring has received four complaints or inquiries regarding a team member’s access to Ring video data,” it continues. Ring explains that although each of these people were authorized to view video data, their attempted access went beyond what they needed to access for their job.

    It’s a good thing this technology is making our homes so smart since the occupants are so fucking stupid.

    • leon

      Meh I’ve got one for my front door.

      • Pat

        Well… shit. I, uh, didn’t mean you, of course.

      • Agent Cooper

        Your front stoop is boring.

  39. Chipwooder

    Had a talk with my dad last night. Grandpa’s going to be letting go of this world soon and moving on to the next. He’s had a helluva rough time recently – fractured his hip last year and then was in an accident on Thanksgiving that left him bloody with a fractured vertebrae in his neck. He’s been bedridden ever since and now is getting bed sores. As Dad said, his quality of life is pretty much nil at this point. He’s going to stop dialysis, so it’ll just be a matter of time. He’s 96, so he certainly has lived more than a full life…..and yet it’s extremely hard to accept. He’s been my only grandparent for almost 30 years, as constant a part of life as the sun. It’s very strange to think that I’ll never go back to that house again, a house I spent so much time at as a kid and have so many happy memories of.

    I guess I expected to be more sanguine about it given his age, but letting go of my daydreams of him recovering and being himself again is rather depressing.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      Sorry to hear that

    • straffinrun

      Sorry, Chip.

    • Tundra

      Sorry, man. I was 31 when I lost my Gramps and I can absolutely relate. I still miss that dude every day.

      Good luck. Do his obit or eulogy if you can. It’s very helpful.

      • Chipwooder

        I imagine my dad is going to do the eulogy. He’s a terrific speaker. Everyone loved the one he did at my grandmother’s funeral. He’s much more composed at these things – I was given a reading to do at my uncle’s memorial service a few years ago, and I turned into a blubbery mess and couldn’t even finish the verse.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Uffda. Sorry to hear that Chip.

    • invisible finger

      “my daydreams of him recovering and being himself again is rather depressing.”

      That’s the hardest part. Eventually your good memories will be recalled more than this, but it takes some time. Hang in there, you’ll get through it.

    • l0b0t

      That’s rough news indeed. Sorry, mate.

    • Mojeaux

      I am so sorry.

    • Sean

      Sorry Chip.

    • Sensei

      Sorry Chip.

    • Gender Traitor

      I can empathize. I was closer to my maternal grandfather than I was to my father. Letting go of that constancy is a hard rite of passage.

    • Not Adahn

      It’s getting to the point where if I ever get a phone call from my parent’s number and it’s not at the “normal” call-to-visit time I panic a bit.

      • Akira

        I get a bit worried too when I call my dad (77 years old) and he doesn’t answer. Every single time he’s just been working in the garage (he still gets around, does a lot of mechanical tinkering, carpentry, and motorcycle riding) but at his age there’s that little thought in the back of my mind that maybe he collapsed from a stroke or something. Not likely though since he lives an exceedingly healthy lifestyle and his father made it to 94.

        Enjoy them while they’re here, I suppose.

    • AlexinCT

      As we grow wiser, we will find that first our elders, and eventually our peers, will be taking that step into the beyond. It will not only hurt because of the loss, but because it remind us of our own mortality. Having lost my parents in the last 3 years, and my mother passing just last month, my takeaway is that we should enjoy life and the people in it while we have them around, but that not all loss is bad. When someone’s quality of life has become zero or negative, it is selfish to not want them to move on.

    • Fourscore

      Chip, its hard to lose someone we love. Your grandfather is losing dozens of those (you) that he loves. As the time approaches the release from the physical pain he is suffering make the loss more bearable to those of us still here.

      Hold the memories dear, remember the good times and be happy that you had him for so long.

      My sister-in-law went to hospice yesterday, she has been in a care facility for 8 years. She is still coherent, someone from her family is with her around the clock.

    • Akira

      My condolences, Chip. It’s hard for everyone concerned when a person has to decide how long they want to live vs. how they want to live.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Property is theft, ch 3,906

    Two homeless mothers in Oakland, California who were occupying an vacant residence owned by a development company were evicted Tuesday morning, after hundreds in the community protested Monday to support their fight for affordable housing.

    Dominique Walker and Sameerah Karim, members of the local activist collective Moms 4 Housing, were confronted by Alameda County Sheriff deputies early Tuesday, who forced open the door of the home they had been occupying since November.

    Walker and Karim, both Oakland locals who work full time, moved into the home after they said they could not find affordable housing in Oakland for their families.

    “There are four times as many empty homes in Oakland as there are homeless people,” Karim said at a press conference outside the home in November. “Why should anyone, especially children, sleep on the street while perfectly good homes sit empty?”

    I linked a story about this not long ago. The nerve of those kkkraven kkkapitalist investors. Buying property for investment purposes instead of just throwing open the doors to any random hard luck passer-by.

    “What do we want? Your stuff. When do we want it? NOW!”

    • AlexinCT

      Social justice is about people that make bad choices with serious negative consequences and also lazy and envious people having a means to punish those that are successful (especially those that did it through hard work and making good choices, because these people make them look bad) and taking away their shit. Cause misery not only loves company, but people that always will fall short like it best that others are brought down to their level. Live and let live, is an evil idea to these social justice fucks.

      BTW, has anyone pointed out there are so many people that can’t afford housing because of the role played by government in making it impossible to provide housing and competition that would bring the prices down? or is pointing that out grounds for your argument to be automatically dismissed by the rent seekers?

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Social justice is about people that make bad choices with not suffering from the concomitant serious negative consequences

  41. Pope Jimbo

    I can’t believe you guys aren”t mocking Special K’s “Aleppo” moment. The local radio station was having fun with the sound bite during my ride in this morning.

    Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) was answering a question about what to say to people who think women cannot win elections when she forgot the name of the female governor of Kansas.

    • LJW

      Relating to Laura Kelly, we need to get Kobach out of this state. He keeps getting Democrats elected. He’s running for Senate now, I hope he loses in the primary.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Doing the job Public Enemy Number One won’t do

    New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo authorized the deployment of 115 National Guard members to Puerto Rico and arrived on the island for a visit Tuesday as aftershocks continue to jolt the US territory.

    The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority said power has been restored to 99% of its customers. But nearly 5,000 people are still living in shelters, according to Secretary of State Elmer Roman, CNN affiliate WIPR reported.
    Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard one week ago, after a 6.4 magnitude quake shook the island, killing at least one person, destroying homes and leaving most utility customers in the dark.

    “Our point is going to be, anybody we can help,” Cuomo told reporters before leaving New York on Tuesday. “In terms of health resources, mental health resources, structural engineers, power supply, emergency responses — that’s the purpose of this visit.

    I should have realized Puerto Rico was a territory of New York.

    • UnCivilServant

      To be fair, there’s probably more Puerto Ricans in New York than Puerto Rico.

      • Chipwooder

        I don’t know about all of Puerto Rico, but there are more Puerto Ricans in NYC than in San Juan.

      • Not Adahn

        And Irish than Dublin and Jews than Tel Aviv.

      • UnCivilServant

        Tel Aviv was only founded in 1909, so NYC was a Jewish City long before that city

      • Not Adahn

        Hmmm. Does that mean there are more Brazilians in NYC than in Brasilia?

      • Not Adahn

        Wikipedia sez no.

      • UnCivilServant

        NYC is not known for it’s brazilians, it is known for its jews and puerto ricans.

      • R C Dean

        NYC is not known for it’s brazilians

        Umm, what kind of brazilian are we talking about here, anyway?

      • Not Adahn

        How many zeros are there in a brazillian?

  43. sloopyinca

    I may have been overzealous in mocking those Filipino people living in an active volcano. But still, you’ve gotta GTFO when given a chance. They’re effectively squatting on the land anyway. Why not squat on the next island over?

    • AlexinCT

      The view isn’t as nice?

    • AlexinCT

      You got to admit that if you had a force comprised of meth-heads that are fucking powerful enough to fight off 15 LEOs while still yanking their crank (meaning one hand is always busy), you have one heck of a special ops team there…

  44. The Late P Brooks

    We’ll teach you a lesson

    “Our country’s experiment with debt-financed education went terribly wrong,” Warren wrote in a statement. “Instead of getting ahead, millions of student loan borrowers are barely treading water.”

    43 million student borrowers owe the U.S. government $1.5 trillion, according to the U.S. Department of Education. And until now, the department has only offered student loan forgiveness or cancellation to borrowers who meet certain criteria.

    “Maybe it’s because they’ve been working in a public service position or because they become disabled or because they’re saying that their school fundamentally cheated them,” says Eileen Connor, legal director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.

    “Those pathways exist. And I think what Sen. Warren’s proposal is pointing out is that there’s also this freestanding power that the secretary of education has to cancel debts, not for those reasons, but really for any reason at all.”

    Connor wrote an analysis that found Warren’s pitch is both lawful and permissible.

    Of course she did. Everybody knows the American Presidency is an elective dictatorship. As part of the inauguration, they give the new President a magical pen and phone set, with the Presidential Seal.

    • Rebel Scum

      the American Presidency is an elective dictatorship

      Democrats are allowed to rule with the mighty pen and phone. Republicans are not allowed to govern, let alone repeal edicts of former Democrat presidents.

      • AlexinCT

        Republicans are NOT allowed to be elected. They should run, and do so poorly so the enlightened people can have a good laugh at their expense and call them rubes and idiots, then lose gracefully and disappear. Beating a crooked democrat in a rigged election is grounds for the enlightened people to resort any and all means, especially more criminal activity, to reverse said tragic event.

    • RAHeinlein

      Interesting fact about this debt – over 40% of borrowers didn’t complete their degree. I live in a University town, there are now a myriad of ways to simply live off the student loans. The online courses make it even easier – get a check, live at home, stay enrolled at-least through the next disbursement.

      • AlexinCT

        Too many really unqualified people are allowed to loan huge sums of money to attend schools they are unprepared to attend, where they then study really worthless fields of no or little value to prospective employment, and end up with (or without) degrees that will never allow them to pay back the loans they needed to do that stupid shit. But nobody complains that the problem is that our lower education system instead of teaching these kids how the real world works, tell them to go chase their dreams (which usually is about traveling & partying for 7 years while avoiding learning anything of value, because that takes work) and the institutions of higher learning then take advantage of this idiocy to provide loans they know these retards will never be able to pay back, because of the worthless field of study these kids end up pursuing, and remain immunized from the consequences because of the rigged system their friends in government created for them.

        But the fuckers that straddled us with this shit now want to be the ones allowed to “solve” the problem, not by rolling back the broken system they implemented, but by forcing people that do the right thing to foot the bill for the stupid system and the stupid people that are fucked by the stupid system.

      • Mad Scientist

        Just let student loans be subject to bankruptcy and half the problem will be solved.

      • UnCivilServant

        It would be – if private banks were still involved in student loans.

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, for whom, though?

        If they do this, it upsets the rigged market they have, so they will find a way to straddle tax payers with the bill. There is no way the left will undermine the system in place now that allows the primary education machine to switch back to teaching people valuable skills instead of indoctrinating them to be lefty cuntes. And there is now way they will undermine the rigged secondary system we have now that also serves to make a lot of money for people that do nothing but create more leftist idiots.

      • R C Dean

        Private lenders have an incentive to avoid issuing loans to people who are a bankruptcy risk, when the loans aren’t backed by a government guarantee. They lose money on loans discharged in bankruptcy when they can’t get the government to make them good.

        The government has no such incentive. The only workable solution to this is getting rid of government loans and guarantees.

      • RAHeinlein

        Yep. It’s not about education, it’s about funding a bloated public sector and their pension system.

      • Fourscore

        It starts in high school.

        Counselor: “So, have you decided on which college you’d like to attend?”
        Mom: “My son goes to the University”
        Dad: What’s your major? Stick with the STEMs and you’ll be able to find a job.”
        Buddies: “Whoohee ! We’re gonna have some good times, live off campus, drink a little beer. Just don’t sign up for an 8 o’clock class and no hard stuff”

  45. Rebel Scum

    Coming soon to a state near you.

    In New Zealand, where they just implemented a gun “buyback” program, aka confiscation, which resulted in 56,000 of more than one million guns turned in, an activist is wondering what caused police to raid his suburban home filled with his wife and three young children.

    “Half a dozen armed police officers swarmed in the front door (holstered sidearms only) as several more ran around the sides of the house. They later called for more backup as the house was larger than your average state-house drug lab. I got the impression that they’d never had to raid a middle-class suburban house like mine before. Everyone on the property was detained, read their rights, and questioned separately. I opted to call a lawyer who advised me to refuse to answer any questions.”

    What were the police looking for? A magazine for a “.22RL lever action rifle. Blued metal, brown wooden stock.” He provided a photo of it:

    “I have uploaded to my website an image of my .22 calibre lever-action rifle, a low- calibre replica of the famous 19th century cowboy gun (“the gun that won the west”). If this bill is passed, this gun will become a prohibited firearm as the tubular magazine holds the industry standard of 15 cartridges. My .22 calibre semi-automatic would likely remain legal as it uses 10 cartridge detachable magazines. This is just one small example of how bad this bill is.”

    “The officer told me I had posted about it online, which I had—in my public written submission against the Firearms Amendment Act passed last year. That submission was shared on several blogs and social media. I had used the firearm as an example to prove the legislation was not targeting “military style assault weapons” as the media, prime minister, and her cabinet repeated ad nauseum. The vast majority of firearms affected by the legislation were just like mine.”

    • sloopyinca

      I love that the compliance rate has been ~5% and they’re calling it a win.
      They know they’ll never pull off much higher than that without actively storming homes. And that’s New Zealand, not Texas or Wyoming or West Virginia. A 5% compliance rate here would be about what I’d expect. And those people will be from states with registration and a buyback program where they can monetize their state-registered gun and use that to buy one on the black market and keep it off the books.

      The grabbers simply don’t know how poorly their pitch is gonna go over, do they?

      • Mad Scientist

        I don’t believe they are interested in getting “guns off the streets” so much as they are interested in created a bunch of new criminals.

      • R C Dean

        I seem to recall buyback events where people were front-running the pubsecs and buying decent guns off of people waiting in line.

      • Fourscore

        …and turning in pieces/broken junk for cash…

  46. Suthenboy

    Isoroku Yamamoto – “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”

    Communist China- “Private Ownership Of Guns’ In U.S. ‘Serious Problem,’ Must ‘Change ”

    American gun grabbers agree.

    • leon

      Why don’t we ship them off to there.

  47. Sensei

    Bloomberg didn’t need to travel all the way to Minnesota to meet farmers. There are plenty of them in upstate New York. But the billionaire, having just recently discovered the existence of both Minnesota and farmers, was eager to impress the media with his common touch. And be photographed in the general vicinity of farm equipment while remaining completely clueless about farm country.

    Michael Bloomberg Discovers America is Bigger Than New York

    • Drake

      You mean New York doesn’t end at the Hudson?

    • Tundra

      Later in Akron, he would tell an audience, “I just came from a farm, a soybean farm, in the coldest place — you have no idea how cold it is out there.” It was 9 degrees. In other words, winter.

      Lol.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Good thing he stuck to southern Minnesoda. Imagine if he had went to a sugar beet farm in Thief River Falls up in the NW corner of Minnesoda. Boy would he have quite the deal to tell the folks back home.

  48. Rebel Scum

    Cocaine Mitch

    “House Democrats’ case cannot simultaneously be so robust that it was enough to impeach in the first place, but also so weak that the Senate needs to go fishing. If the existing case is strong, there’s no need for the judge and the jury to re-open the investigation. If the existing case is weak, House Democrats should not have impeached in the first place.”

    “We heard over and over that the House case, on its own, was totally damning and convincing. That’s what they were saying a few days ago. Clearly a majority of the House felt it was sufficient to impeach. And a number of Senate Democrats were happy to pre-judge the case publicly and suggest the House had proven enough for removal.

    But now, Madame President, all of a sudden, the story has reversed. Now, we hardly know anything. Now, the investigation is just beginning. Now, what the House has produced is so weak that they’re calling their own investigation a ‘cover-up’.

    Who would be the author of this cover-up? Chairman Schiff?”

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Suthen- it’s good to see you haven’t been washed away.

  50. Tonio

    RE: The planned Jan 20 pro Second Amendment march in Richmond — The Mother of All Buffalo Jumps

    I like this guy’s analysis. Thanks to Drake whose link above to another Bracken article led me here.

    • leon

      The tragedy is that you have Antifa marching around waving hammer and sickles and the media potrays them as somehow morally superior to the charlotsville marchers.

      • Tonio

        It’s because they are anti-fascist, leon. How can you be against people who risk their lives to protest against fascism?

      • AlexinCT

        Red shirts >>>>> Brown shirts!

      • leon

        Shit…. I didn’t realize…. erm. I hope that they don’t think i’m a fascist. Clearly… with that new evidence… erm. Obviously they are moraly superior to everyone. Like every white supremacist who stormed the beach at Normandy.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Spot on.

      Even if nobody is seriously injured on January 20, some percentage of the Second Amendment crowd (or anti-gun trolls posing as such in order to discredit them) will show up wearing camouflage while waving long guns, Confederate battle flags, and, as in Charlottesville, even some Nazi swastika flags. No matter what the VCDL intends, this fringe element will become the national media image of the entire event. And trust me, these morons and bad actors will show up in Richmond. Believe it or not, there is actually a lunatic element that considers Charlottesville to have been a victory for the far right, “because now everybody knows we’re here to fight!” (The same could be said about Pickett’s Charge and Custer’s Last Stand. “Moral victories.” Yeah, right.)

      These attention-seeking media whores and social-collapse “accelerationists” will never miss an opportunity to strut and preen for a national television audience. They will be in Richmond first, up front with their banners, and the mainstream media cameras will give them the national spotlight and face-time that they crave like needle junkies crave dope. Remember Charlottesville, and the many Confederate battle flags, and a few Nazi flags. Remember their torchlight march through the university. The VCDL Lobby Day organizers can decry them and beg them not to come to Richmond, but come they will. The Neo-Nazis and other “accelerationists” are locked in a twisted symbiotic relationship with the leftist media. Like it or not, camo-clad yahoos waving Confederate “stars and bars” and even Nazi flags will become the national image of the Second Amendment (2A) movement. The yellow Gadsden “Don’t Tread On Me” flag will forever be associated with the Confederate and Nazi flags. And this is the best case scenario!

      • Not Adahn

        The argument proves too much.

        If this is really true, it just means “never protest anything that the MSM likes,” which is remarkably similar to “bend over and take it, but you can try applying some more lube if nobody is looking.”

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Are you saying that the media will not use the presence of the basement-dwelling crying Nazis like Chris Cantwell as an effort to discredit the entirety of the protest?

        Or are you arguing that it is still a good idea to protest in spite of this?

        If it’s the latter, I agree.

      • Not Adahn

        The latter. But borepatch is saying the former. The article is basically “be quiet and hope nobody notices you’re a badthinker — if you are too loud they’ll just ban guns faster.”

      • Rebel Scum

        The article lays out scenarios that I find plausible. But I am still left thinking the way you say. If no one was to show up to protest and voice an opinion the legislature would get to say that the proposals are obviously popular so lets pass them with haste*. It is a kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.

        *Because explicit constitutional prohibitions on such laws be damned.

      • Tonio

        Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

      • Drake

        It’s a tough call. I think the organizing groups are really trying to get people to behave – and are also very wary of the local cops pulling shit like Charlottesville (herding a crowd into an Antifa ambush). They will probably stop these guys and try to get them to not act like idiots.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      He makes some good points but ceding the public demonstration angle to the left isn’t a good idea.

      • Rebel Scum

        Freedom of speech and to peaceably assemble is only allowed for leftists. Otherwise it is hate-speech, which is obviously not protected by 1A.

      • Drake

        It’s tough win your opposition controls the cops and the media and a violent band of thugs who will attack.

    • R C Dean

      He admits the laws will be in place for years, and is betting on the courts or the voters to get rid of them. Which seems like a pair of really weak reeds to me.

      I struggle with pre-admitting defeat, as he has, for any public demonstration against the progressives. But I can’t argue with his projections.

      Hard to avoid the conclusion that this is a lost cause. Hasta la vista, right to keep and bear arms.

      And no, I don’t think the sanctuary movement will stand up under pressure. It relies on pubsecs doing the right thing, and I don’t think they will under the slightest pressure from the state. And the state will apply pressure.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        All they have to do is deprive the localities and various sherrif’s depts of funds and they’ll fold. The few that that don’t will be made examples of.

      • Not Adahn

        Maybe, or maybe not. Has SCOTUS ever had do deal with a dispute between a state and a municipality inside the state over constitutional interpretation?

      • Tonio

        SCOTUS tries to stay the fuck out of interpreting state constitutions, prudently leaving that to the Supreme Courts of the several states. You’d have to raise some sort of federal issue to get the federal courts involved.

      • Not Adahn

        State says: “Enforce this law.”
        Sheriff says: “No, 2a.”

        That doesn’t make it Federal under that whole preemption thingy?

      • invisible finger

        “Hard to avoid the conclusion that this is a lost cause. Hasta la vista, right to keep and bear arms.”

        Prohibition doesn’t work. Guns aren’t going away, 2A or no 2A. What 2A does is keep the number of murders down; take it away and gun violence will trend upward.

      • Gadfly

        I struggle with pre-admitting defeat, as he has, for any public demonstration against the progressives. But I can’t argue with his projections.

        In all honesty, this is why, as much as it might pain individualists to admit, mass movements benefit from having an identifiable leader. An organized group with a hierarchy and a leader can more easily steer the conversation than a mass of like-minded individuals operating independently. The propagandists will still try to paint such group as badly as possible, but with a leader contradicting them they are less likely to succeed.

    • wdalasio

      I’ve been thinking about the situation in Virginia lately. In a very real way, it’s reminiscent of what I see as the major problem with getting rid of the Electoral College. It’s a recipe for rural areas and the exurbs to be, effectively, ruled over by the metropolitan centers. I tend to have the same answer. The best solution I can muster is some mechanism to allow for the peaceful and orderly secession of counties from states. In theory, if a bunch of Virginia counties were really unhappy with being ruled by a permanent electoral majority from the D.C. suburbs, they should have the option of simply leaving or re-aligning with West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky or North Carolina. This would allow the NoVa population to implement their policies without hindrance from the rural populations and the rural populations to enjoy alternative policies which suit them.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Interesting link, thanks.

    • AlexinCT

      How ill Iran accomplish this when the country hit hardest by the shenanigans of the ME oil states in the past now has become a net oil exporter because of fracking? And remember that if they manage to make prices go up, that will be a money/employment boon for our oil industry (unless the watermelons get their way and shut our brown energy sector down like they want, of course). the only people hurt by high prices will be the Euros that still need oil from these shitholes.

      • Hammercorps

        Absolutely it’s good for the oil industry (which I hope to be part of), but I think that in the short term it could cause a spike in gas prices, which may cause public opinion to turn against Trump. Depending on if/when Iran threatens the Strait. Regardless, it may lead to more intervention calls in the Persian Gulf, which is unfortunate.

      • Juvenile Bluster

        From what I was told by someone masochistic enough to watch the debate last night, the consensus was basically “We’ll go to war with Iran, just not for the selfish reasons Orange Man is.” Some things never change. There will always be more intervention calls in the Persian Gulf and the government will always listen.

      • AlexinCT

        I think we would do a lot better in the US when it comes to gas prices (at least if this is an attempt to do short term harm to affect an election outcome, and not something sustainable), than the people that hope this actually happens, because it somehow magically helps their cause. And shouldn’t we be accusing anyone pining for this scenario of wanting to really interfere with our elections? There is far more of an argument to be made that this is actual interference than the fake Russia shit we were subjected to for 3 years plus.

      • R C Dean

        I think I saw that something like 5% of the world’s oil goes through the Straits of Hormuz. Oil is trading at roughly $60/barrel now. Would a total blockade cause a 60% spike in oil prices? Dunno.

        How long would the blockade last? Not long. A number of countries have naval presences there, all to protect shipping and especially tankers. I don’t see Iran’s “navy” lasting long, and if they starting taking pot shots at foreign navies with land-based missiles, I don’t see those lasting long either.

      • Hammercorps

        It’s closer to 25% of the world’s oil. Definitely won’t be closed long, or even at all. It depends on how much noise Iran makes. I find it unlikely they’d actually try to close it, but sometimes threats are all it takes.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      This reads like most NRA newsletters.

      Otherwise yes, the markets are fickle but the US is now a net exporter of oil/gas and more capacity is coming online by the day. Its something to consider but I don’t think Iran is going to be able to close the straights for long enough to matter.

      • AlexinCT

        I point out that even 5 years ago, what happened in the last month would have driven the prices to record highs. The market didn’t even fucking blink. Neither when we killed the terrorist master mind nor when Iran fired off some unguided rockets that hit nothing of value (after telling us they were coming to make sure there was not a real serious consequence to this action) and shot down a civilian aircraft. The talk about WWIII didn’t do anything either. The good old days where these people could drive the prices up by doing some minor shit are gone. Even big shit don’t faze the market no more. Thank the US oil production & fracking industry that managed to make us a net exporter despite the massive efforts by the Obama administration to kill them.

  51. Juvenile Bluster

    Bernie supporters have made #NeverWarren the #2 trending thing on Twitter in the US.

    This is hilarious.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      It’s now #1. Trending alongside it is #WarrenIsASnake

      • Rebel Scum

        Lol.

    • leon

      If you want to find some of the dumbest self absorbed people: watch a TED talk.

      • Fatty Bolger

        I’ll watch the ones that are just comedians and magicians doing their thing. The others tend to leave me with sprained eyes due to excessive rolling.

    • Agent Cooper

      I once attended a Theodore lecture. It was needlessly formal.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        You know why…

      • Juvenile Bluster

        You ever hear that quote about how nobody’s gone broke betting on the stupidity of the American public?

        It’s not just true of the *American* public.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    Another moronic WaPo headline, this time about how Booker’s exit makes the Democratic field “less diverse”.

    No, it doesn’t. Booker was saying all the same idiotic things the rest of the mugs were saying. As much or little as it hurts to say it, if Biden keeled over and was forced to drop out, that would actually make the field less diverse.

    • leon

      Stupid rube. Only skin color and vaginas matter when it comes to diversity.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Yeah, they aren’t interested in the diversity of ideas. It’s race uber alles for them.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Diversity is about looking different while thinking the same. All boys bouncing balls in time. All girls skipping rope in time. It is for the best.

        Signed, ᎥᎿ

  53. AlexinCT

    Another moronic WaPo headline, this time about how Booker’s exit makes the Democratic field “less diverse”.

    Wasn’t there a meme showing the picture of the remaining team blue field of candidates saying that the remake of that dumb movie Cocoon sucked?

  54. robc

    How bad would western va joining wva kill the Dems, re: electoral college? Wouldnt be good.

    • R C Dean

      They’d keep the most heavily populated parts of Virginia, an thus a fair number of EC votes. Assuming West Virginia stays Repub, I doubt it would be more than a handful of votes. Not good, but not terrible.

      A redrawing of state lines is an interesting option to outright secession. Could be way-station, or could be a substitute. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is any mechanism for it, or even any concept of a mechanism.

      • robc

        Article 4, Section 3, Part 1:

        New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

        It needs approval of WV, VA, and congress.

      • UnCivilServant

        I seem to recall that WV was created without the consent of VA.

      • robc

        VA wasn’t in the United States at the time.

      • robc

        The Yankees claim whichever way is convenient. If the south never left the union, then there was no reason for “reconstruction”.

      • UnCivilServant

        There was no need for reconstruction, that was an illegal state of affairs.

  55. R C Dean

    Somebody asked the other day who won the Cold War. With a no-kidding Commie a front-runner for the Democrat nomination, its hard to say it was us.

  56. Trigger Hippie

    Mongo just made the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    MSNBC business channel is concerned

    Every budget cycle, members of Congress solemnly promise to better fund the Internal Revenue Service so it can do its job of collecting taxes and serving the taxpayer. And once again, Congress has done the opposite.

    According to an analysis by Robert Weinberger of the Tax Policy Center, the fiscal 2020 budget Congress passed last month continues the inflation-adjusted decline in IRS funding over the past 20 years.

    Overall funding to the IRS was $11.5 billion, up 1.8% from the previous year. But when inflation is factored in, the budget represents a reduction — and almost all of the added funding will go to a mandated pay increase for existing staffers. In total, IRS funding has declined by more than 20% since 2010, factoring for inflation.

    ——-

    In preparing the 2020 IRS budget, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin promised to “deliver a customer experience comparable to the best financial institutions in the world,” emphasizing taxpayer services. But compliance offers the best return for American taxpayers. Estimates show that every dollar invested in the IRS generates at least $4 in added revenue, by chasing down uncollected taxes. The current “tax gap” — the difference between taxes theoretically owed and taxes collected — is now estimated at about $380 billion, according to the IRS itself.

    What’s more, a lack of funding and poor technology means the IRS is increasingly prone to cybersecurity threats and identity fraud.

    “The IRS remains a deeply challenged agency with reduced resources,” Weinberger said. “It’s playing catch up in halting tax shelters and income shifting to tax havens, at a high risk of filing season glitches affecting over 155 million individual taxpayers.”

    You know what would really help boost compliance? Higher rates and a wealth tax.

    • Akira

      Tax collection would be a hell of a lot simpler and compliance a lot better if we replaced the entire tax code with a flat head tax or even Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. It’s a fucking mess collecting all taxes owed when there are hundreds of different kinds of taxes with Byzantine rules for when they apply.

  58. The Late P Brooks

    You ever hear that quote about how nobody’s gone broke betting on the stupidity of the American public?

    That was Rutherford B Hayes.

  59. The Late P Brooks

    Mongo just made the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

    Excellent. It’s about time.

    Speaking of which- I saw the “live reveal” for Jimmy Johnson the other day. Who was that guy who came in to do the announcement? He’s fucking giant. He makes Howie Long look like some junior high kid.

    • Pope Jimbo

      He was a good player, but until Jim Marshall gets in the Hall, the whole thing is a sham.

      Records

      Most seasons played by a defensive player: 20 (tied with Darrell Green and Junior Seau)
      Most complete seasons played by a defensive player: 20
      Most consecutive games played by a defensive player: 282
      Most consecutive regular season games played by a defensive player: 270
      Most consecutive game starts by a defensive player: 270
      Most consecutive regular season starts played by a defensive player: 270
      Most fumbles recovered: 30
      Most opponents’s fumbles recovered: 29
      Most yardage lost on a fumble recovery: 66

      Also played in 4 Super Bowls.

      • R C Dean

        Marshall is famous for his “wrong-way run”, for a game during which he recovered a fumble and returned it 66 yards in the wrong direction and into his own end zone, resulting in a safety.

        Oh. That Jim Marshall.

      • Pope Jimbo

        They still won that game. Because Marshall has a strip/sack that Carl Eller recovered and ran in for a TD.

      • R C Dean

        When one of your records is on the blooper reel because you scored for the other team, its hard to vote you into the Hall.

        I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve it. I’m just saying I think that’s probably a big reason why.

      • robc

        For some weird reason, I always confuse Jim Marshall and Alan Page.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I actually think that our long time sports journalo is such a colossal jerk and is constantly lobbying for those guys that it backfires on them. Anyone who has to sit through Sid Hartman going on and on about a player probably vows to never vote for that guy ever.

        Which is ironic because I bet when Sid Harman croaks he will be inducted into 3 HOF’s. And not just for his writing. He was GM for the Minnepolis Lakers and was the guy who made them the world champs. He also had a big role in getting the Twins to move to Minnesoda from DC.

    • CPRM

      David Baker, head of the hall of fame.

    • Agent Cooper

      Randy Gradishar robbed again.

      • Agent Cooper

        There have been 10 linebackers in NFL history who have 20+ career interceptions, 10+ fumble recoveries and 7+ Pro Bowl selections.

        Of those 10, eight are on the NFL 100.

        Of those 10, nine were inducted into the Hall of Fame within two years of eligibility. Two mother-effing years.

        The one who isn’t enshrined?

        Randy Gradishar.

  60. The Late P Brooks

    CNN headline:

    Russians hack energy company that played major role in Trump Ukraine scandal

    What an… interesting… formulation.

    • R C Dean

      Well, since there were no scandals during the Obama administration, the VP’s son collecting a million a year in a no-show job in a country for which his father was in charge of foreign policy isn’t a scandal. So the only scandal in view is Trump’s.

  61. KSuellington

    |Newsom dismissed the idea that there is a widespread refusal to accept help if it is offered without barriers.

    “I think that’s bunk,” he said. “The vast majority of people … will jump at the opportunity not to live out in the elements.”

    Greaseball Gav is not totally wrong here. The vast majority of people don’t want to sleep outdoors all the time and suck on a crack pipe. But there is a minority that most certainly want to, or at least where they sleep is not of primary concern as they have more pressing matters to deal with. “Help if it is offered without barriers.” That there is the key. Sure, if you want to give housing away provided by people that work and pay taxes then you will get many takers. Especially if you don’t put up barriers like “you can’t smoke crack” or “ “no passing out in a stupor in your own piss in the hallway”.

    • R C Dean

      Other barriers to be removed:

      Rules against theft and assault.
      Requiring people to provide their own food, water, and clothing.
      Requiring people not to vandalize or destroy their housing.

      • KSuellington

        Those are absolutely the barriers that we are really talking about, of course no politician is ever going to mention those (at least any one here).
        Some months back I was working on some gates for a church right in the heart of the Loin. At one point I counted 12 people actively smoking crack twenty feet of me and my van. It was the 16th of the month so the crack was flowing. I talked for a while to the church director who knew pretty much all of them, the regulars who hung out all day and got high and drank and smoked cigarettes and chatted and fought. When I mentioned something about homeless she said, “oh no, these people all have places. Most of them live at [address mentioned] but some live at [other address two blocks further]. We have created here the perfect environment to attract as many enthusiasts of this lifestyle as possible; all drugs are decriminalized here, there is plenty of free shit, behavior that would not be tolerated anywhere else is tolerated, there are plenty of people with money to beg from or steal from, the weather is suitable to hang outside for most of the year comfortably.

  62. Pope Jimbo

    Get your miracle product now!

    We have been in the urine business
    a long time, but we always get excited when we discover
    a new use for this incredibly renewable resource!

  63. CPRM

    Vince Vaughn spotted with Orange Man Bad, cancellation coming soon? Also, if he starts showing up more with him that would give me a lot of audio clips to work with, could be a whole lot of drug/alcohol/sex and cuss words headed to the Hat and Hair universe.

  64. The Late P Brooks

    David Baker, head of the hall of fame.

    Thanks, CPRM.

    Interesting.

  65. Rebel Scum

    And people say Trump is nuts.

    Reporters asked Duterte on Monday if and when he planned to visit affected citizens.

    “I was warned by my doctor to be careful [about the ashfall],” Duterte said in his native Filipino language, according to the Asian outlet Coconuts. “I’ll eat that ash, and I’ll even pee on Taal, that damned [volcano].”

    Rappler, a Philippine news organization, added the context that Duterte showed reporters his inhaler while explaining why doctors advised him not to visit locations near the volcano.

    “I’ve been warned by my doctor to be careful because this device cannot control the ashes. After many years of smoking, my lungs are affected,” he reportedly said.

  66. Pope Jimbo

    This is how you SCIENCE

    People have been telling me that cum gets rid of zits since I was sixteen years old. I remember my best friend Caroline saying, “It works. Look at me, I always get it on my face and I don’t have any zits.” She also insisted that if she didn’t have a boyfriend after a while she would break out. The verdict was that swallowing it was pretty good but nothing got rid of zits like getting it on your face. After years of standing by said rules I have decided to rent a tractor trailer and call a big, gigantic, heaping, six-thousand-million ton pile of bullshit on that school of thought. To prove it, my good friends Nick and Lisa put cum on one side of their face and moisturizer on the other FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH. That’s right, every day Nick would summon some jizz and Lisa’s live-in boyfriend would do the same and they would both apply, compare, and contrast. At the end of every week they would take a Polaroid of the progress and summarize the differences between both cheeks. The verdict? You can’t see cum in Polaroids.

    The logging of the results is pretty funny.

  67. The Late P Brooks

    Russian hackers hiding under every bed, Russian hackers lurking in every closet

    It is unclear what information the hackers sought or how deeply Burisma may have been compromised. A cybersecurity expert speaking to CNN about the situation said this was likely not the first time Russian operators have hacked Burisma, adding that Russian hackers are very aggressive in their cyberefforts inside Ukraine.
    But in light of Burisma’s role in the unfolding political saga — in which Trump pushed Ukrainian officials to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, who had served on Burisma’s board — the probing of the company’s systems closely resembles Russian efforts in 2016 to destabilize the US election.
    “The timing of the GRU’s campaign in relation to the 2020 U.S. elections raises the spectre that this is an early warning of what we have anticipated since the successful cyberattacks undertaken during the 2016 U.S. elections,” said the report.

    One thing we can be sure of, democracy will be forever tainted by the blight of Bad Orange Man.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Burisma is now a tragic figure of a company, another victim of Vladimir Putin and Trump.

      I cannot parody this anymore.