Monday Afternoon Links of Wut?

by | Nov 8, 2021 | Daily Links | 322 comments

Ooops.

Taking a bit of a break from the day, I am looking out at things on the series of tubes… and all I can say is “Wut?!” Here, see what I mean;

  • Skynet is trying to waste the Prime Minister of Iraq. (Note to breathless, paint-huffing TV talking heads – this is what a truly bad reaction to an election loss looks like).
  • Alec Baldwin might as well have been filming in Australia.
  • Switzerland looks like it only has a few people left who aren’t going to kneel before Zod. Used to be a fairly live-and-let-live place, the ol’ CH was.
  • Finally, someone gets to come home.

Shakin’ my head, and going back to work. The comment section is yours.

About The Author

Swiss Servator

Swiss Servator

Currently serving at the pleasure of a Swiss multinational. Previously a Soldier, rugby player, lawyer, bouncer, bartender, substitute teacher, risk manager, and cubicle mushroom. Will work for raclette.

322 Comments

  1. waffles

    Ahhh…the public sector engineering job sent me an offer letter. This complicates things as they are both paying more than I anticipated and I really didn’t expect to hear from them again. The private sector job wants to talk to me again on Thursday afternoon. Plenty of time to go talk to them. I never thought having too many job options would be as stressful as too few.

    Thanks glibs for the encouragement in these trying times.

    • Sean

      Are you getting handshakes at the interviews? They making you mask up?

      • waffles

        Public works interview was mask up until in the office then masks off. Old engineer gave a handshake, young engineer a fist bump.

        I interviewed a young engineer here at current employer, handshake.

        Private job was a ms teams call, in person this week. I expect no mask, handshake. We’ll see.

      • B.P.

        Fist bump!?

      • waffles

        Yeah, at least it wasn’t an elbow bump.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Deep soul kisses or GTFO!

      • rhywun

        I will absolutely refuse to do either of those when a handshake is called for.

      • Sean

        My interviews are no masks and handshakes.

        One weirdo didn’t want to remove his mask. 🙄

      • Jerms

        Easy way to find out who not to hire.

    • DEG

      Best wishes!

      I had two offers when I made my recent switch. It’s a good position to be in.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      It’s stressful, but powerful. Good luck!!

    • Ghostpatzer

      That sounds encouraging. There will always be stress, this is the good kind. Nice to have choices.

  2. Rebel Scum

    Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped unharmed from an armed drone assassination attempt in Baghdad, officials said on Sunday, in an incident that raised tension in Iraq weeks after a general election disputed by Iran-backed militia groups.

    Clearly they learned this from the MAGA insurrectionists.

    • waffles

      Clearly, but holy shit this is wild. Drone warfare where any and all groups that want them can have them is now upon us.

      • WTF

        I think they’re called “hunter seekers”.

      • slumbrew

        HK!

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Using the Biden engineering module I see.

    • waffles

      Nice. Nasty. but nice.

    • Sean

      I’d be pissed.

      • Swiss Servator

        Yes. Yes you would be.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        I don’t know. It depends.

    • Tres Cool

      So the SHTF ?

  3. Rebel Scum

    Alec Baldwin might as well have been filming in Australia.

    The whole thing seems to be poison.

  4. B.P.

    “Alec Baldwin might as well have been filming in Australia.”

    This had better turn out to be a damned good movie.

    • waffles

      I’ll watch it. Just for the memes.

      • juris imprudent

        Critics say they’ve been dying to see it.

      • Spudalicious

        Nothing like a bucket of popcorn and a good shoot ’em up.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I was told it’s going to be a dud, but that could be wrong.

      • The Gunslinger

        Cinematographers also dying to see it.

  5. Rebel Scum

    Organisers claimed the rally attracted 5,000 people, though police estimate between 3,500 and 4,000 were in attendance.

    A lot of holes in that estimate.

    • Spudalicious

      That was a pretty cheesy comment.

  6. The Late P Brooks

    Clearly, but holy shit this is wild. Drone warfare where any and all groups that want them can have them is now upon us.

    This makes me sad.

    Wait- not sad, exactly. What’s that other word, like when you want to laugh and dance around clapping your hands?

    • Bobarian LMD

      Shadenfruede?

  7. Tres Cool

    Hail Confœderatio Helvetica !

      • Tres Cool

        My family is all from Werdenberg.
        Chin up.

    • Ed Wuncler

      Welp, I better buy a used newish car in a year or so.

      And also, fuck the 13 Republicans in the House that voted for this shit for the sake of being bi-partisan. I’ve noticed that bi-partisan shit never increases liberty even if it’s incremental, it usually goes the opposite direction.

      • Urthona

        Wonder how difficult it will be to disable.

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        And what the penalties will be when they discover it’s been disabled.

      • Sensei

        Most new cars have a steering angle sensor. Especially those with electric power steering. (Used by many for fuel economy among other benefits.)

        One of the current arguments is that drunken steering inputs are pretty easy to discern from regular driving and the current system can be made to detect this with minimal cost.

        I’ll believe it when it happens and we don’t read about some ridiculous issue with an “unforeseen” false positive problem.

      • Urthona

        They can simply legislate technology into existence no problem.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Given the number of times those systems in my cars tell me to pay attention when I am paying attention, I’m not looking forward to the drunk driving software update.

      • Urthona

        Mine has a feature which beeps when you leave your lane but on a country road it was going nuts.

        Fortunately I could turn it off.

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        The wife’s outback does that. God, I hate it.

      • ignoreLander

        Mine pops up on the screen every time I start it up “Always pay attention to the rules and regulations of the road while in motion” and then shows a button that says “I Agree”. To which I say aloud every single time F*CK.YOU. and then ignore it for a while and it goes away. I’m not now nor ever will be accountable to a f*cking car.

        Then, when you try to pair your phone to play music, it says “option not available while car is in motion”. Never mind if the person pairing the phone is sitting in the passenger seat while I drive. It makes me do the way more dangerous and inconvenient move of pulling over and putting it in park.

        Yeah sure, I’ll be “old man yelling at cloud” here, but I want my car to go when I press the gas and stop with the brake.

      • WTF

        Yeah, I wonder what happens with some kind of breathalyzer type thing when the designated driver is sober but the passenger is shit-faced.

    • kinnath

      Never buying another new vehicle.

      • Rebel Scum

        Old ones will be made illegal. ///BuildBackBetter

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        Or just have an expiration on the re-licensing of them.

        No one really needs a car more than 20 years old, right? It’s better this way.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I’m lusting after the new Z, but the level of nannyism is appalling in new vehicles.

    • Urthona

      How much is this gonna increase the cars?

      Party of the poor!!

      • Urthona

        cost of

      • Ed Wuncler

        “Come on man, we don’t think of that shit when we are doing something good for your safety.”

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        I was driving in NM with a leftist friend and she was bitching about all the hooptys and beaters on the road because of NM’s lack of state inspections. Yes, I said, it’s terrible that the poors have access to transportation. That shut it down.

      • Ed Wuncler

        Whether it’s intentional or not, the Left despite their protestations that they love the poor, in reality at best they don’t quite understand how the lower classes live and at worst, they hate them.

      • Tonio

        Boom. Excellent.

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        Yep, I have that same conversation with my mom. Every, damn, time.

      • Rebel Scum

        Democrats love the poor. That is why they want to make more of them.

    • Sean

      I feel bad for the Asian drivers.

      (Yeah, I went there.)

      • Tres Cool

        Fine.
        Ill do it.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      If I go back in time, I’m going to kill the founder of MADD in her crib.

      • Nephilium

        You mean Candy Lightner? She isn’t involved with MADD any more, and has spoken out against the organization she started.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Doesn’t matter, it’s like killing Oppenheimer before he built the bomb.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Miles Dyson was a good guy in T2, yet he still made Skynet

    • waffles

      This measure is fucking insane. Bipartisanship is what happens when you get fucked by a Donkey and an Elephant.

      • Don escaped Cancun

        something something Republicans are more freedom-loving something argle bargle

      • Swiss Servator

        STEVE SMITH GO BIPARTISAN ON HIKERS.

    • Chafed

      Assuming the air collection analysis that detects alcohol get turned over to the government, there is one hell of a Fourth Amendment problem built into that law.

      • ignoreLander

        Assuming the air collection analysis that detects alcohol get turned over to the government, there is one hell of a Fourth Amendment problem built into that law.

        Chafed my friend, we’re in the Brave New World of private businesses doing the government’s dirty work. Business points at government and says it’s his fault, he says he’ll fine me!
        Government points as business and says ‘hey it’s not legal for us to do that! Blame business, they’re doing it!

        No one is accountable and therefore no one loses. You know except the hundreds of millions of innocents whose rights are trampled into a thick gooey paste.

      • Chafed

        It was only a few years ago the Supreme Court ruled a warrant is required for a blood draw when DUI is suspected. The game isn’t over yet.

      • ignoreLander

        You know how they got around that? They now keep a judge on call 24 hours a day and now all a cop has to do is radio in and a judge will rubber stamp a warrant.

      • ignoreLander

        Oh I forgot, they call it “No Refusal” and that name pisses me off almost as much as the concept. They’re rubbing it right in your face: don’t want your blood drawn? Tough shit, you have no say in the matter.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      Deleted

    • Tonio

      I hope this becomes a corollary of the Streisand Effect. You try to shut it down, we make it louder.

      Wearing my LGB shirt grocery shopping tomorrow. I’ve gotten nothing but good reax, so far.

      • Tulip

        That’s like me and my socialism kills shirt. I like wearing it to Wegmans

    • Urthona

      I don’t think that’s accurate. I think she was kicked out for screaming profanity.

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        At a hockey game?

        I’d believe kicked out for NOT screaming profanity, maybe.

      • Tres Cool

        “I was at a fight, and a hockey game broke out!”

      • Tonio

        [golf clap]

      • Ghostpatzer

        This^^^

        MSG, 1989 Rangers/Islanders playoffs, sitting in red (lower) section. Beers raining down from blue seats, to a chorus of “Red seats suck!” Strong language was the least of our problems.

      • l0b0t

        At the very first Tampa Bay Lightning game, a hat trick was scored. A lone fan threw his hat into the rink and was promptly ejected by security. Sigh…

    • Ed Wuncler

      I love the reactions on the side.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        I love the reaction of the prosecutors. I can just see the thought bubble. “You weren’t supposed to tell the truth. I don’t care what oaths you took. You were supposed to say what I coached you to say.”

    • Tres Cool

      That prosecutor is about to be Nifong’d I hope.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      Y’all – this is pretty big & damaging. Looking forward to Viva Barnes discussing it on their livestream.

      • l0b0t

        I’ve been glued to Nick Rekieta’s feed all day; today has been an absolute shit sammich for the prosecution.

    • Drake

      It’s even worse than that.

      Throughout his testimony, Grosskreutz also admitted that he was illegally carrying a weapon the night he was shot, that he neglected to mention this weapon in a lawsuit against the City of Kenosha and its police department, and that he judged Rittenhouse’s life to be in danger when he shot and killed Huber.

      Grosskreutz denied that he told his roommate, Jacob Marshall, that his “only regret was not killing the kid,” as Marshall claimed on social media after visiting Grosskreutz in hospital last August. Marshall is set to testify on Wednesday, having been served a subpoena on Monday.

      Grosskreutz just admitted that Rittenhouse shooting Huber was self-defense!

      • slumbrew

        That’s pretty amazing, if accurate.

      • Chafed

        Considering the source, I’ll wait for some more reputable outlet to report it or uncut video to emerge.

      • B.P.

        Any chance this guy is prosecuted for his admitted crimes in the first paragraph?

      • Drake

        If he didn’t get immunity in return for his testimony, he’s dumber than he looks.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yeah. He should be the one on trial for attempted murder and various other riot associated crimes.

      • l0b0t

        He also told police when they first interviewed him that his pistol fell out of his waist band and he no longer had it.

    • Rebel Scum

      Pwnd.

    • kinnath

      Doesn’t matter.

      Lone survivor shot by Kyle Rittenhouse at Kenosha protests testifies he thought he “was going to die”

      A witness at Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial testified Monday that he confronted a rifle-toting Rittenhouse with a gun of his own to try to stop the bloodshed, and thought he was going to die as he closed in on the young man. Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, ended up getting shot and seriously wounded in the arm by Rittenhouse.

      Not all heroes wear capes.

      • kinnath

        Grosskreutz had a gun in has hand, with his arms raised, when Rittenhouse fired, shooting him in the bicep. A prosecutor asked Grosskreutz why he didn’t shoot Rittenhouse.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I’d vote to acquit Kyle on his haircut alone.

      /personal bias

    • Not Adahn

      You will be shocked (shocked!) to hear that NPR is spinning it exactly the opposite.

      Grosskreutz attended the racial justice protest as a volunteer medic when he encountered the vicious racist and only advanced on the racist when he killed a man mere feet from him.

      *plays clip of Grosskreutz saying how he thought he was stopping an active shooter*

      • creech

        Grosskreutz brandishing a gun was in fear of his life so Rittenhouse’s shot at him was attempted murder. Ashli, unarmed, caused a cop to fear his for his life, so cop’s shot is a good one. Justice in America. But wait, cop was hovering over AOC protecting her from being ravished and murdered, so even more good shot.

    • EvilSheldon

      Wow, and I thought that my ex was a skank!

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      STEVE SMITH WELCOME VISITORS AND BY WELCOME MEAN. . .

    • Ted S.

      Missouri loves company!

    • Chafed

      Proctologist convention.

  8. DEG

    Lamp operator and pipe rigger Jason Miller was bitten by a venomous brown recluse while helping wrap up film production after Baldwin shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Oct. 21, Sky News said.

    Brown recluse. Ouch.

    Organisers claimed the rally attracted 5,000 people, though police estimate between 3,500 and 4,000 were in attendance. Speakers addressed the crowd in German, French and Italian on a city square in a largely peaceful demonstration pre-authorised by the authorities.

    Better turn-out than some protests in America. And comments turned off for the article….

    • l0b0t

      Lamp operator (electrician) and pipe rigger (grip) are two different departments with two different unions. If they had one guy doing both they were seriously cutting corners.

      • Spudalicious

        There was a lot of nonunion labor on this shoot. It had been causing rifts within the crew.

  9. Certified Public Asshat

    Congressman Ron Wyden (“PP”) has a hedge fund manager son who is worth $100 million that owns strip clubs and fled to Florida to escape his dad tax policies.— Nancy Pelosi Portfolio Tracker (@NancyTracker) November 8, 2021

    Lol.

    • Sensei

      “Why does he hate us / the American dream so much?!?!?!?!” the Florida-based hedge fund manager wrote. “Reality is: most legislators have never built anything… so I guess it’s easier to mindlessly and haphazardly try and tear stuff down.”

      “Thankfully, I think I can compound faster than my dad and his cronies can confiscate it…” Wyden added.

      Dem Sen. Wyden’s multimillionaire son blasts dad and ‘cronies’ for hating the ‘American dream’

      Thanksgiving must be a hoot in the Wyden household.

      • Ed Wuncler

        Based as fuck.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I feel gross, but I’ll take the side of the hedge fund manager over the senator.

      • Tres Cool

        “I learned it from you, Dad!”

      • slumbrew

        Until hedge fund managers can make rules that wind up with me in a cage/killed by state agents, I’m 100% Team Hedge Fundie

      • Bobarian LMD

        ding ding ding!

      • Chafed

        Wow! Someone has no fucks to give.

    • Gustave Lytton

      That’s senator not Congressman. D-NYC.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    it appears the “critical” drunk driving detection made the “infrastructure” shit sandwich bill.

    Shovel ready.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I can identify as any climate I want.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      We have it too easy. In the past if you couldn’t adapt to the environment. You died.

    • Ted S.

      So, hot flashes.

      • Bobarian LMD

        And swamp ass.

    • juris imprudent

      Was he saying the woman was frigid?

    • Not Adahn

      I remember sconnie docs showing up at a protest writing medical excuses because the protesting teachers had “Walkeritis.”

    • Kwihn T. Senshel

      (Link fail)

      But, ugh, I can’t even with this. Why would you even want to consider hiring white men, anyway? Ewwww.

    • Sean

      Cool link.

    • slumbrew

      Having worked at State Street for a couple of years, it my benchmark for “terrible place to work”, even before that sort of woke nonsense.

      Worst outcome – you win your lawsuit and then you get a job there.

      • Drake

        My first job out of college and the Marines. Worked for them in Quincy ’89 – 91. Not going back.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of “driving while disabled” I saw yesterday New York has made it illegal to sell a used car with non functioning airbags.

    Hook those lethal Takata bags back up, or else.

    Cuomo should be putting up “Miss me yet?” billboards.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I can grok that.

      • Tres Cool

        Stahp.

    • Sean
      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Sold

    • DEG

      It’s a thing in Austria.

      I forget the name of the style. I’ve been in an apartment in Vienna which had the shower in the kitchen. A friend of mine and her then-boyfriend (now husband) lived there. My friend is American, her guy Austrian. He explained it’s an odd Austrian style, but you’ll see it in homes and apartments of a certain vintage.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Were the dungeons for kids in the same period?

      • Tres Cool

        +3 Ariel Castro

        /too soon ?

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      Kramer approves.

      • Fatty Bolger

        “Oh, we never eat in there.”

      • Chafed

        I’m crying. That is unbelievable. What whack job thought that was a good idea?

      • Not Adahn

        Vegan lesbians?

  12. robodruid

    ME & RE filed at work today. Thanks for the kind words of Trash and Ozy.
    I did use the words “smite” and “sacrifice”
    I also put in the RE the comment that if they did not respond with “banana” in my denial I deem they did not read my request.

    • Ozymandias

      “My name is Ozymandias, and I approve this banana.”

  13. Certified Public Asshat

    We’re finally going to get rid of our nation’s dangerous lead pipes thanks to this infrastructure deal. Every kid in this country will be able to turn on the tap and drink clean water.— President Biden (@POTUS) November 7, 2021

    • Certified Public Asshat

      The cost to replace every lead pipe in the United States is $45-60 billion.BIF only gives $15b. Without BBB, many communities historically denied clean water will continue to be denied.Build Back Better has lead $ for disadvantaged communities. We must keep pushing for BBB.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 7, 2021

      This is not confusing messaging at all.

      • Ed Wuncler

        What the fuck it is with BBB and BIF? Are these jackals trying to pass two monstrosities of a bill to loot the American people?

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        I wonder sometimes if some of them really believe what they’re peddling.

        I mean, someone like me says “there’s no way that a person is capable of tracking and ensuing all that $ goes to where it’s supposed to, so no way would I push this as if I knew”, but maybe others really believe that if they get the money, the solution will just…happen.

        Sure, some are cynical grifters, but all of them? Maybe. Don’t know which is the worse option.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Does nothing about the lead pipes or lead soldered pipes in buildings (which are mostly harmless anyways, but that’s true for the pipes used in water distribution).

    • Suthenboy

      lead pipes are not actually made of lead.
      Some drains and sewer pipes are, but not water supply pipes.
      Assholes.

    • Tres Cool

      Chill. We need more stuff mined from the hands of african kids, and processed in China.
      It balances out like a Re-Dox equation.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That grifting SOB just will not go away.

    • Ghostpatzer

      “Gore declares that technology created by the so called Climate TRACE coalition will monitor greenhouse gas emissions and root out the culprits.”

      Uh-oh. Biden’s in trouble if this tracks methane emissions.

      • Chafed

        So is Gore if it detects his private jet.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    What if we just demolish every structure in America plumbed with lead pipe? Then we can build new.

    Build Back Better.

    Make Bastiat great again.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Putting your bathtub in the kitchen makes perfect sense if you heat the water on the stove.

    • The coolest vaccine-free BEAM in the world™

      Or, uh, slaughter your sacrifices in there . . .

  16. Rebel Scum

    “We are not coming for your guns.”

    The Biden administration in just the past year alone stockpiled the records of more than 54 million U.S. gun owners and is poised to drastically alter gun regulations to ensure that information on Americans who own firearms ultimately ends up in the federal government’s hands, according to internal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

    The ATF in fiscal year 2021 processed 54.7 million out-of-business records, according to an internal ATF document obtained by the Gun Owners of America, a firearms advocacy group, and provided exclusively to the Free Beacon. When a licensed gun store goes out of business, its private records detailing gun transactions become ATF property and are stored at a federal site in West Virginia. This practice allows the federal government to stockpile scores of gun records and has drawn outrage from gun advocacy groups that say the government is using this information to create a national database of gun owners—which has long been prohibited under U.S. law.

    The ATF obtained 53.8 million paper records and another 887,000 electronic records, according to the internal document that outlines ATF actions in fiscal year 2021. Gun activists described this figure as worryingly high and said it contributes to fears that the Biden administration is trying to keep track of all Americans who own firearms, in violation of federal statutes. The procurement of these records by the ATF comes as the Biden administration moves to alter current laws to ensure that gun records are stored in perpetuity. Currently, gun shops can destroy their records after 20 years, thereby preventing the ATF from accessing the information in the future.

    “As if the addition of over 50 million records to an ATF gun registry wasn’t unconstitutional or illegal enough, the Biden administration’s misuse of ‘out-of-business’ records doesn’t end there,” Aidan Johnston, the Gun Owners of America’s director of federal affairs, told the Free Beacon. “Instead of maintaining the right of [licensed firearm dealers] to destroy Firearm Transaction Records after 20 years, buried within Biden’s proposed regulations is a provision that would mean every single Firearm Transaction Record going forward would eventually be sent to ATF’s registry in West Virginia.”

  17. The Late P Brooks

    I mean, someone like me says “there’s no way that a person is capable of tracking and ensuing all that $ goes to where it’s supposed to, so no way would I push this as if I knew”, but maybe others really believe that if they get the money, the solution will just…happen.

    Government money is just like magic pixie dust. It goes where it’s needed, on its own.

  18. Drake

    Rumor has it that Gavin Newsome got Guillain–Barré syndrome from the booster jab.

    • Kwihn T. Senshel

      You think there’s any chance that will be admitted, even if true?

    • KSuellington

      It’s going on 12 days since he last made an appearance, which is a lifetime for that greasy media whore. He ducked out of the climate shindig in Glasgow with no real explanation which was highly weird. That’s his most favorite element, where he can preen his green cred and enjoy the five star accommodations at the taxpayers’ expense. Something is def up.

    • Sensei

      It fits the fact pattern. Perhaps too well however.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      And yet journalists remain remarkably incurious about his whereabouts.

      • Chafed

        So much this. His family matters claim was fine for a few days. Now that we are approaching two weeks, at what point does our *shudder* Lt. Governor take over?

    • grrizzly

      That would be fantastic.

      While some Glibs believe that I want them to die if they are vaccinated that’s actually not true. You are not famous enough to matter. But a famous young healthy person maimed or killed by the vaccine is what’s necessary. I was thinking about professional athletes or young actors. But Gavin Newsome as the poster child of vaccine injury is the best thing that could happen. He looked healthy and young enough.

      • Spudalicious

        There is no better face for the problems with the vaccine than Gavin Newsom. Especially if one side of his sloughs for a month or so, like he had a stroke.

      • Swiss Servator

        That is appalling. I want no innocent young person to die, for someone to score a point. That is shameful.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        I’m sorry but I have to respectfully disagree with you.

        This is war. Newsome is not some innocent young person, he is the leader of the enemy. If Ho Chi Mihn slipped on a bar of soap in the shower and broke his neck would you be sad? Or, Osama bin Laden? Or Kim Jung Il?

        These people hate us and want to destroy us and our way of life. I would feel no more remorse for the death of Gavin Newsom than I would for the death of a black widow spider in the crib of my daughter.

        Animal is right. They don’t give a shit if we die; why should we care if they do?

      • Drake

        I’m pissed because so many innocent young people are going to because of Newsom.

      • grrizzly

        Why did you stay silent when practically every sports league mandated covid vaccination? The damage has already been done to these innocent young men and women. They have already been sacrificed.

  19. Winston

    Looks like South Africa us on its way to full Zimbabwe status…

    https://unherd.com/2021/11/how-the-anc-destroyed-south-africa/

    And thus the contours of a new and informal cantonal South African state is emerging after 27 years of ANC misrule: self-sufficient and defensive pockets of privilege scattered in the interior and in a coastal arc from the Mozambican border on the Indian Ocean to the Namibian border on the Atlantic. All of this new South Africa is set in a sea of rural and urban poverty presided over by a ghostlike State managed by a collapsed and indifferent bureaucracy and a squabbling and corrupt political class. The old feel-good notions of a non-racial South Africa, Archbishop Tutu’s famous Rainbow Nation, were naïve and are now dead. Cold reality rules.

    Ramaphosa’s election as party leader and President in December 2017, was widely hailed by modernist forces — and particularly big business — as a turning point: after all, they had paid heavily to fund his bid. Sadly, his promised New Dawn turned out to be in every sense a False Dawn.

    You know who else was a corrupt insider supported by big business that made things worse?

    Then President Thabo Mbeki, his successor, sought to impose a sere, technocratic and welfarist vision on his realm, drawn directly from his experiences in Left-wing UK universities. Problem was that while he taught the newly enfranchised all about their rights as modern citizens, he somehow did not get around to talking about their duties. As a result, a boundless sense of entitlement has become an irreducible, damaging and informing fact of South African life, killing initiative and personal agency. Meanwhile, the technocrats who could give content to Mbeki’s vision were leaving state service in droves: victims of his racial affirmative policies.

    Ironic that the horrors of decolonization was mostly adopted from the terrible ideas of their former colonial masters.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Ignore ANC’s leftist and commie ties going back long before they took over but was whitewashed because apartheid was evil.

      (That last part isn’t snark or sarcasm, it was and is evil.)

      • Ed Wuncler

        I think that’s pretty par the course with most African liberation groups. The ones who could fight the “colonists” were given weapons and training by the Soviets while there were a dearth of liberation groups that preached economic liberty and rule of law. It’s a fucking tragedy because South Africa was given a head start in terms of economic development, but the ANC managed to squander all of that in 30 something years.

      • Winston

        Southern Rhodesia was pretty wealthy too…

      • UnCivilServant

        There’s no reason Rhodesia should have had a famine.

      • Chafed

        All true. I find it interesting Mandela didn’t drive it into the ground. He easily could have become the typical plutocrat. It is very much to his credit that he didn’t. It’s terrible that everyone after him wanted their share of the spoils.

      • Gadfly

        The sad fact of the matter is that those best equipped to fight are often the least desirable to rule, while those most desirable to rule are least equipped to fight. Successful fighting often requires the sort of underhanded tactics that turn off people who would make good leaders. In addition to the African examples already provided, I’ll add that the much vaunted French resistance in WWII was so filled with Communists that de Gaulle was worried they would launch a revolution following liberation.

  20. Certified Public Asshat

    Seeing these articles every month now:

    Why the inflation we're seeing now is a good thing https://t.co/WwkvaAinEo— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 8, 2021

    The result of all this was that Americans ended 2020 $13.5 trillion richer than they were at the beginning of the year. Most of that wealth increase went, of course, to the already wealthy. But lower-income households benefited, too. The JP MorganChase Institute found, for instance, that the bottom 25 percent of income earners had 50 percent more in their checking accounts in October 2020 than they did a year earlier. So lots of Americans came into 2021 with money in their pockets. And since then, we’ve seen the sharpest recovery from a recession since World War II, one that’s driven the unemployment rate down to 4.6 percent, and wages up almost 5 percent year-over-year.

    Before there was inflation, the poors had more money in their checking accounts. Fear not.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      JFC

    • Kwihn T. Senshel

      unemployment rate down to 4.6 percent

      Does anyone really believe this is even close to the actual number?

      I suppose when you don’t count those that aren’t actually looking for work, maybe, but sheesh, there isn’t a service business around that (1) hasn’t drastically cut hours, service, or both, and (2) doesn’t have a ‘now hiring’ sign prominently displayed.

      • LJW

        While I’m employed I’ve been looking for a new job. I’ve applied to at least 20 jobs in the last 6 months. Several I was referred to through connections. I’ve received 0 calls and 0 rejection letters. Several job applications that I submitted months ago still say “new” and never updated to under review or rejected. I think this millions of unfilled jobs market is a load of shit.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You need to spice it up. Add some rainbow flags to your resume, or maybe highlight your identity as a one legged neuroatypical Native American pangender who likes pina coladas.

      • pistoffnick

        …and getting caught in the rain.

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        Ya, maybe this is similar to all the COVID data: just can’t tell what’s true and what’s wrong and what’s manipulated.

        Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way challenging your situation as untrue.
        At the same time, every restaurant within driving distance of me has severely reduced hours, staff, and raised prices. Every chain store I walk into barely has enough people to run the place, and most of them have also cut hours.

        Seems like there are fewer people on the job for sure, but then there’s situations like yours that seem to provide a counter-example.

        I certainly am not big-brained enough to figure it out.

      • The Hyperbole

        Today I saw a guy sitting by the gas station where I was filling up, he had a cardboard sign that said he was homeless and looking for work… ‘Please Help’. Not ten feet from him were two other yard signs, one offer up to $17.50 for manufacturing work, the other an unspecified wage but offering sign-on money. The gas station shares a driveway with a Taco Bell, their sign isn’t promoting whatever their new disgusting chalupa/taco/Dorito crust thing is, It is promoting “walk-in interviews every Tuesday”. Across the street is a Subway “Hiring day shift and night manager positions”. I gave the guy 20 bucks and a couple bags of pork rinds, that kind of chutzpah deserve recognition.

      • The coolest vaccine-free BEAM in the world™

        Remember, if you’re employed for even one hour a week, you’re “part-time employed” according to most national statistics agencies (this was certainly true when I was a labour market information analyst for the Canadian government and had to process StatsCan’s monthly employment survey numbers . . . ).

    • Ed Wuncler

      In my econ classes even the Left professors made it clear that inflation wasn’t desirable and that we should do whatever we can to avoid it. Of course wages increased (or so they say) but their money’s buying power decreased. What the fuck man?

    • rhywun

      Most of that wealth increase went, of course, to the already wealthy. But lower-income households benefited, too.

      Something they would have never uttered under Orange.

      Because the reason they benefited was from working, not being showered with our tax dollars.

    • Swiss Servator

      Is the new Winston model of engagement nut kicking strawmen? Get with the times, one note flute.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    lots of Americans came into 2021 with money in their pockets.

    And now- it’s gone.

  22. Tundra

    I hate spiders. My cousin and I were given the job of cleaning out a shed on my great-grandparents’ ranch in CA. We pulled a trough away from the wall and there were a ton of black widows and other nasties behind it. Our solution was to go get torches from the shop and cleanse with fire!

    And yes, I know how beneficial they are. Still hate them.

    • LJW

      I’ll take spiders over mice any day. Had to tear our a basement ceiling that was infested. Literally rained mouse shit on me.

    • Bobarian LMD

      Did you burn down the shed?

      • Tundra

        Of course not!

        We were cautious pyros.

  23. Winston

    https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3155176/goldmans-top-banker-says-many-chinese-ipo-clients?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=share_widget&utm_campaign=3155176

    More than half of Goldman Sachs’s pipeline of Chinese companies pursuing initial public offerings in the US are considering shifting their listings to Hong Kong, amplifying a trend of firms seeking to raise funds closer to home, according to one of its top bankers in Asia.

    The civilizing effects of free trade…

    • Chafed

      Thanks for getting back to your one note. For a moment it looked like you were doing something else.

      Your comment makes no sense. The SEC implemented regs requiring all listed firms to abide by GAAP accounting principles. That requires making financial records available for audit. The CCP won’t allow Chinese firms to abide. Some firms have been delisted. Any Chinese firm that wants to go to market won’t be able to do so in the US. It has nothing to do with free trade.

      • Winston

        I am referring to the fact that this is occurring after the suppression of Hong Kong’s freedom..

      • ignoreLander

        Thanks for getting back to your one note. For a moment it looked like you were doing something else.

        Sweet yumping yiminy I know right? Considering how exhausting it is on the receiving end, I can’t imagine the dull drudgery of cooking it up every day….

  24. Ed Wuncler

    However you feel about Kyle Rittenhouse, I think this case is important due to the fact that it’s going to set the precedent of whether we can defend ourselves from an unruly mob that wants to hurt you and will you be prosecuted from doing so.

    One of the disturbing things about the riots last summer was the view by some on the Left that defending yourself and your property was taboo because that’s the price you have to pay in order defeat white supremacy. While the usual assholes and protestors who parrots this line do so because they can’t think for themselves, the leaders of these movements knew exactly what they were doing. In order to gain power and subjugate a population, you must first take away their ability to defend themselves. They can’t do this by confiscating all of our guns because of that pesky second amendment, so the next best thing to do is make it increasingly painful and cost prohibitive to defend yourself and your property.

    Rittenhouse is being used as an example in order to cower us from defending ourselves against the mob.

    • slumbrew

      Sadly, he’s a flawed example – it’d be a lot better if he had been defending his own property.

      I’m totally cool with him defending someone else’s property, but I’m not sure that’s going to resonate as well with much of America.

      • ignoreLander

        I’m totally cool with him defending someone else’s property, but I’m not sure that’s going to resonate as well with much of America.

        He was defending his life, the ultimate personal property.

        But yeah, you’re right, that’s not how it reads to Jane Soccer Mom.

    • Swiss Servator

      Or go into sniper mode, from longer range…

    • EvilSheldon

      You put your finger right on the reason I don’t have a lot of sympathy for Rittenhouse.

  25. Winston

    https://www.cato-unbound.org/2021/09/30/steven-pittz/some-final-replies-owen-meyer/

    Meyer is certainly right that spiritual freedom might result in destabilization of liberal principles themselves. I rely on the harm principle to protect other citizens from “bad” free spirits, but Meyer understandably raises the concern that free spirits might “undermine society’s commitment—by way of influencing the beliefs of individuals that make up society—to the very principles that support the liberal harm principle.” Meyer has convinced me that I need to think more about this problem, but my initial defense would be an empirical one. In short, while there is no theoretical limit against a free spirit’s destabilization and potential overturning of liberal principles, I just don’t think there is enough spiritual freedom operating in society to completely overturn the power of any widely held principles, including liberal ones. In my view, free spirits destabilize and weaken—perhaps in the end improve—the norms, conventions, and principles that are in favor at any given time, but they very rarely (do they ever?) win the argument in the end.

    This is the sort of stuff that I find very interesting. Pittz talks about how we need Nietzschian free spirits in order to shake up the status quo and be truly free. However he assures us that “society” will prevent these “free-spirits” from engaging in real harm and when the question is raised that these “free-spirits” might decide that liberalism is one of those old-fashioned dogmas that need to be overthrown he insists it just won’t happen…

    • DEG

      I discovered Oglaf from someone here mentioning it. I got their books.

      It’s a good webcomic.

    • Surly Knott

      I love Oglaf.
      This is probably my favorite.

  26. trshmnstr the terrible

    Just got an announcement that the vaccination deadline at my company got pushed to Jan 4th. I’m surprised, as I thought they would be petty about it and leave it at Dec 8th.

    • kinnath

      No movement at megacorp

    • ignoreLander

      Lucky bastard. No movement on my front either. Starting to look like they’re going to hold the line at 12/8. You know, to make it a Merry Christmas for everyone.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      I’m curious what will happen if the courts uphold the injunction and make it permanent? I mean, what will employers do who collected the info? What will the employees do? Will the employers have some kind of liability?

      • Tundra

        Will the employers have some kind of liability?

        I would think so. This is the Brandon Admin’s attempt to ram home something they know goddamn well won’t survive through OSHA.

        Stupid businesses should have said fuck no.

      • ignoreLander

        This is the Brandon Admin’s attempt to ram home something they know goddamn well won’t survive through OSHA.

        Not to put too fine a point on it, but I didn’t notice any sort of repercussions from that whole ‘landlords may not collect rent on their properties’ thing. They are on record as knowing it was illegal, but decided to let it ride until someone put a stop to it.

      • Chafed

        I think there is a group of landlords litigating a Fifth Amendment claim against the feds. We will see how it goes. I realize it won’t make a difference to Brandon & Co. but it may provide a warning in the future.

      • Ozymandias

        It will be made permanent. The vax mandates (both EOs) will be struck down.
        They’re going nowhere now, but they worked.
        Look at how many people caved “in anticipation” of an illegal mandate.
        Look at how many companies jumped on board “voluntarily.”
        The only issue that will remain is the Mil mandate and I’m going to take that as high as I have to if I lose in district court.
        Fucking shot isn’t even licensed.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Wife really wants me to take it to court when I get canned. I really don’t want to get embroiled in that shit.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Ours ignored it because they’re a fed contractor. They upheld the letter of the law and pushed the deadline a month. Notably, they only pushed the exemption deadline 2 weeks. Take from that what you will.

    • DEG

      I’m surprised too.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      They still think it’s a political winner.

      If it’s not painfully obvious already, they believe that it is possible to distract from every other policy disaster by focusing on this wedge issue. They literally have nothing else and Biden is barely sentient.

      • ignoreLander

        This administration doesn’t know when to quit, just keep digging a deeper hole.

        And THAT, my friends, is why we have a Judicial Branch. To stop authoritarian crap like this….

        Le Sigh. These people just don’t understand. There is no consequence for the hole being dug, and there will be no salvation from the Judiciary.

      • rhywun

        They still think it’s a political winner.

        They’re probably right.

        Either that or they should get their money back on a few hundred million dollars worth of propaganda.

    • B.P.

      I assume illegal immigrants will be exempt.

  27. Winston

    https://mobile.twitter.com/David_Mulroney/status/1457663496611577860

    It’s shocking to see how the country is being steadily diminished. Deeply divided. Stripped of its history and symbols. Hostile to belief and believers. Intolerant of dissent. Defined only by its multiplying grievances. Adrift in the world

    One of the big advantages that the woke have is that western liberalism and libertarianism are in fact colonialist ideologies. This site wouldn’t exist if wasn’t for Britush imperialism for example. The Smart People told me that the woke wouldn’t use that against us despite the woke openly saying that for decades..

    • UnCivilServant

      Something about the pink leash just feels out of place. It doesn’t match the bridge or the fur.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        This dog cannot be off leash for a single millisecond

      • UnCivilServant

        But was that the only leash you had?

        /not really criticizing

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Not my dog, not my leash

      • UnCivilServant

        Next you’re going to tell me that it’s not your circus nor your monkeys.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        OMG! SMOOSH

      • Tundra

        Isn’t she awesome?

        We just celebrated one year with her last Friday. She was 10 when we brought her home. She’s got kidney disease and a thryoid issue but she’s perfect.

        She was clearly abused/neglected, but she has had an amazing effect on the family. Even my 14 yo sheepdog loves her!

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Awwwwwwww….I’m a melted puddle over here. I want another dog ASAP. ASAP will probably be ~2 years 🙁

      • Tundra

        Why? Aren’t you WFH?

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        I will be in a rental come June if all goes to plan. Lots of landlords don’t allow pets, and even if they did, it’s too much risk for me, damage-wise.

        BTW, it’s looking like Laramie or Cheyenne. So I’m in for a Rocky Mountain Glibmeet

      • Tundra

        Sweet!

        My landlord was cool with both dogs, because they are old, medium-sized and we pay a lot of rent! There is a pet fee, too.

        I don’t care.

        I like both of those places. Cheyenne probably has more rental options. And bring warm clothes!

      • kinnath

        At pup class last winter, some one had a female bulldog pup with pink collar and leash. Bitch’s name was “Harley”.

      • Gender Traitor

        It takes a dog confident in its badassedness to wear a pink leash.

      • Not Adahn

        Pink leashes and collars are great so people don’t misgender your dog.

        I thought about doing that, but by the time she was ready for her second one, she had already demonstrated her love for mud.

  28. grrizzly

    NBA issues league wide mandate requiring covid-19 booster shots

    The NBA advises all to take the booster shot
    On Sunday the NBA issued a statement advising all players, coaches and referees to receive booster shots against the coronavirus. Special attention was given to individuals who have received the the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. As the pandemic continues to tax both society and sport, the league has been working alongside the National Basketball Players Association to encourage those who received the single dose vaccine more than two months ago to have the booster administered.

    The move comes on the back of an advisory from the league’s public health and infectious disease experts. In addition it is understood that the booster recommendation also was made to those who received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at least six months ago.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      If it knocks off LeBron, it will all have been worth it.

    • ignoreLander

      NBA issues league wide mandate requiring covid-19 booster shots

      The NBA advises all to take the booster shot

      Some mixed messaging going on there.

      • Sensei

        J and J mandate. Advise for others.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        We live in a world where one’s employer keeps track of the shots they get and threatens to fire them if they don’t keep up with the recommended schedule.

        We are a conquered people.

    • rhywun

      It’s about time someone did something about the stacks of dead basketball players, coaches, and referees.

    • creech

      Four of the Sixers vaccinated players have already tested positive. None have any symptoms. I wonder what horrors the government is going to cook up for us when eventually 100% of the population tests positive?

    • Ozymandias

      Of course they did. They were the ones who started the Covid panic among major sports leagues, too.
      I no longer find the NBA’s desire to be huge in China, their slurping of CCP cock, and their actions in response to the CP virus to be coincidental.
      But I’ll make a prediction that “Boosters Uber Alles” in the NBA will backfire on them; there will be high profile “ailments” as a result. Watch.

  29. db

    When politicians or military leaders decry “cowardly” attacks, they’re always talking about asymmetric attacks by opponents that they would crush utterly if they presented themselves openly.

    Sure, like all conflict is performed on a level playing field with two equally matched opponents and if you don’t play by the rules that are guaranteed to be slanted in the complainer’s direction, you’re a coward.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      I’m pretty sure that’s what the Brits said about the Americans during the Revolution.

    • EvilSheldon

      Always. If you’re willing to engage in fair play, then victory isn’t important enough to you.

      • Ted S.

        +1 Colonel Blimp

  30. westernsloper

    Thanks for the links Swiss.

    The attack came two days after clashes in Baghdad between government forces and supporters of Iran-backed political parties that lost dozens of parliamentary seats after an Oct. 10 general election. Most of the parties have armed wings.

    Get the fuck out! No Way!

  31. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    If there is a Zoom on Wednesday, I will buy any veteran that attends a drink*, in honor of Veteran’s Day.

    *I’ll send $5 via the electronic payment system of your choice

    • UnCivilServant

      I misread that as ‘Phrenologist’ and wondered when that had come back in vogue.

    • juris imprudent

      How the hell did she not just put a needle in him and drain him, drop by drop?

      • Not Adahn

        You’ve obviously had better luck with phlebotomists than I have.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      How many times have I heard that one?

    • EvilSheldon

      Dude, way to bury the lede:

      “Enright allegedly was obsessed with cutting and ‘blood play,’ and killed Chiklis as a ‘surprise’ for her new boyfriend

      A week earlier, she allegedly tried to convince staff at Planned Parenthood to let her ‘play with’ bones of her aborted fetus…”

      • Count Potato

        I mean who hasn’t done that.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        So, the barrier between SF’s mind and reality has been compromised somehow.

  32. Mojeaux

    In the last week, I have made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, cornbread, lemon sugar cookies, and today, chocolate chip cookies.

    I find that when I am serene, hopeful, and feeling content/joy, I bake.

    • Kwihn T. Senshel

      I am glad for your serenity, and hope it continues.

      • The coolest vaccine-free BEAM in the world™

        ^^THIS.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      ❤️

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I want your Cookies!

      • The coolest vaccine-free BEAM in the world™

        Phrasing?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Not a bit, I’m glad she’s happy,

    • Tundra

      I’m happy for you, Mo. Next time I’m out your way we are gonna have lunch.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes!!!

      • Ozymandias

        Well, I’m not usually one to invite myself, but… I am.
        You’ll have at least three reasons to come to KC and enjoy some real BBQ.
        *Not even from KC, he runs from the room cackling, having ignited a Glibs food war*
        Or maybe we’ll have… pineapple on PIZZA!!!
        *MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!*

      • Mojeaux

        We’ll take him to Bryants, then load him up with povitica and my homemade cookies.

      • Tundra

        I haven’t decided when I will do my road trip. I have a rep based in KC, but they cover KS, MO, NE, IA and part of IL. I have never met some of the guys outside of KC, so I’m considering a driving tour of all four.

        And yes, we will have pineapple on pizza!

      • Mojeaux

        We aren’t exactly a pizza town, although we do have one home-grown pizza place. I cannot vouch for it, as pizza is not my jam.

      • Tundra

        I was kidding. Meat, meat and more meat is the mission! 😉

      • DEG

        I’ll recommend Arthur Bryant’s.

        The company for dinner was good too.

    • DEG

      Excellent.

    • Count Potato

      Good for you 🙂

    • Gender Traitor

      Would you like my recipe for zucchini brownies? ?

      • Mojeaux

        Nope. You said the Z-word. I like my brownies sans Z-word.

      • Tulip

        Yes

      • Gender Traitor

        Can you give me your e-dress? Or can I post a PDF on a Forum message?

      • Tulip

        Forum works.

      • Count Potato

        “zucchini”

  33. The Late P Brooks

    I misread that as ‘Phrenologist’ and wondered when that had come back in vogue.

    We’d be a lot better off if the public health establishment were in the hands of Big Phrenology.

      • Tundra

        That happened a long time ago.

        We were just too busy making our way to notice.

      • Trigger Hippie

        I hear the Baths of Caracalla are spectacular.

      • LJW

        Nope they’re going to come back we need to prog harder with a better spokesman. The Democrat’s will still vote Democrat and we will get screwed again.

  34. Trigger Hippie

    ‘A brown recluse spider had made its home in the “Rust” set and bit lamp operator and pipe rigger Jason Miller while they were closing the set.’

    *Looks at bullet wound sized scar on upper right thigh, recalls limping in pain for a month*

    Yeah, those little fuckers are nasty. I kill them on sight.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      I’ll take a widow bite over a recluse bite. At least with the widow bite, prompt medical attention results in a full recovery.

      • Trigger Hippie

        What did me in was that I didn’t receive immediate medical attention. I had a date with a woman I was really, really into soon after work and was too high on life to notice that I got bit a few hours before while at work. After a long and wonderful night I finally got some sleep then woke up to excruciating pain. I pretty much figured out what was the cause but being the young, dumb, broke, stubborn young man I was, I just rode it out… watching my skin and flesh try to rejuvenate then collapse into a what looked like a quarter sized black pit covered in melted string cheese was interesting.