539 Comments

  1. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    Mornin’ Tres & all

    • Tres Cool

      whaddup doh’

      • AlexinCT

        Chubby chicks and crowbars?

  2. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    Mornin’ Banjos!

    I see the GOP is still stupid.

  3. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Donald Trump Sees 40-Point Lead in Hypothetical GOP Primary

    Oh fuck me

      • Sean

        I dumped a bunch of points on melee stuff this week and picked this up.

        Kind of fun mixing it up.

    • Sean

      I’m gonna need a lot of tequila, but OK.

      • Not Adahn

        VR goggles, headphones, and a coofmask spritzed with frankincense and sandalwood.

    • AlexinCT

      If anything, what you should read into this is that most people are picking Trump because they still see him as an outsider and not as a pretender, which unfortunately most republicans are still because they are owned by the machine, and they understand the root of all their problems is coming from the political and bureaucratic class and their selling out to some globalist evil fucking agenda that is supposed to rest us all into a new world order where there will be an international upper class (likely led by China’s princelings) and the rest of us will be their serfs.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        What I get from it is that people are flailing about looking for an alternative but are too ignorant to realize that a huckster like Trump isn’t a solution to the problem. He’s just a giant middle finger to DC.

        But I don’t know what I expect, given that most people can’t identify the problem(s) correctly.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Trump is a vessel into which the right pours their dreams and desires, the fact that he’s really just a ‘90s Clinton Democrat and one of the world’s biggest covid vaccine salesmen be damned.

      • AlexinCT

        Trump is a Trump salesman. Always first & foremost. And, yes, he is a 90s democrat, but that is a better choice than todays political class entities in general whom are all globalist sellouts or become that as soon as they get to D.C. (See Crenshaw). The problem is government and the people that have been fooled into thinking government solves problems. Some are waking up to the fact the root of all their problems is a corrupt bureaucracy that has sold them out so the elite can create a new global order that keeps these elites on top, and the rest of us are going to have to rent, eat bugs, and stay put so the global elites have plenty of servants and no more problems with the fucking unwashed masses polluting their jet setting.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He’s not even a good Trump salesman anymore as much of his base hates the vaccines. He’s straight up out of touch but, yes, he is better than most of the absolutely shitty alternatives.

      • Not an Economist

        You want to know what the self described Elite think of us? Watch the video on this tweet.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Trump is one of the few politicians advocating the Kungflu vaccine but no vax mandates or COVID restrictions for Americans. That sets him apart.

        Plus, Trump is one of the few non-career politicians willing to fight Commies in govt. Rand Paul fights but he’s a career politician.

        Trump ain’t perfect but he was a better President than:
        el Commandente Biden
        Obama
        W. Bush
        Clinton
        H.W. Bush
        Reagan
        Carter
        Ford
        Nixon
        LBJ
        JFK
        Eisenhower
        Truman
        FDR
        Hoover
        Coolidge
        Harding
        Wilson
        Taft
        Roosevelt
        McKinley
        Cleveland
        Harrison
        Arthur
        Garfield
        Hayes
        Grant
        Johnson
        Lincoln
        Buchanan
        Pierce
        Filmore
        Taylor
        Polk
        Tyler
        Harrison
        Van Buren
        Jackson

      • juris imprudent

        Better than Silent Cal? I think not.

        I think you just like Trump’s junior high school boy personality.

      • Fourscore

        Eisenhower may have been a better golfer, so there’s that. He didn’t stir the economy up too much but he fell into the trap of “The Domino Theory” and it was all downhill from there.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        What did Coolidge do/didn’t do that was better than Trump?

        Did he face anti-American factions inside the US gov so determined to corrupt it and destroy it that America is now in Civil War 2.0? He didnt.

        Democrats impeached Trump twice because they had to stop Trump’s rollbacks and leadership to fight. Nobody did that to Coolidge.

        Not that Coolidge wasnt a good president. He was.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        You know many of Trump’s mean tweets were interns, right?

        Trump is an inspirational fighter who clearly wants America to stick around and do well.

        You just havent provided anything substantial to support your position that orange man bad. Its your position. Thanks to Trump fighting you are free to have that opinion publicly.

      • juris imprudent

        I don’t care who did Trump’s tweets – it is retarded communicating to the retarded. It is below what I consider presidential. Hell, I think most of twitter is pretty fucking subhuman.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        But it worked. If you cant admit that, I dont know what to tell you.

        How many times were the Lefties focused on Trump Administration tweets and pouring money and manpower into them, then Trump does a policy move that sneaked past Democrats? Multiple times.

        I think Twitter is garbage. Lefties dont and you can use it against them. Trump and his staffers did that very effectively.

      • juris imprudent

        Trump does a policy move that sneaked past Democrats?

        like what?

        The only thing he got past Dems, was judges – and kudos for that.

        What other policy? What reductions in the size/scope of the federal govt?

      • Rebel Scum

        Better than Silent Cal? I think not.

        Seconded.

      • DEG

        Better than Silent Cal? I think not.

        Yeah, Coolidge was better than Trump.

        I’ll even rank Harding as better than Trump. Harding successfully undid some of the bullshit Wilson did.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        -Trump’s 2 for 1 EO. Bureaucrats had to repeal 2 EOs for every new one.
        -Reduced the direct cost of regulatory compliance by $50 billion, and will reduce costs by an additional $50 billion in FY 2020 alone.
        -Removed nearly 25,000 pages from the Federal Register – more than any other president. The previous administration added over 16,000 pages.
        -Administration policy to deregulate economy led to actual recovery from Great Recession and sustainability thru Democrats trying to nuke the US economy.
        -Got rid of NAFTA
        -Trump’s offer for free trade at G-7 Summit. Free trade, not managed trade. It was rejected by our trading partners.
        -Helped community banks by signing legislation that rolled back costly provisions of Dodd-Frank.
        – Rescinded the previous administration’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, which would have abolished zoning for single-family housing to build low-income, federally subsidized apartments.
        – Issued a final rule on the Fair Housing Act’s disparate impact standard.
        – Eliminated the Waters of the United States Rule and replaced it with the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, providing relief and certainty for farmers and property owners.
        – Repealed the previous administration’s costly fuel economy regulations by finalizing the Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles rule, which will make cars more affordable, and lower the price of new vehicles by an estimated $2,200.
        -Unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and those without a high school diploma all reached record lows.
        – Unemployment for women hit its lowest rate in nearly 70 years.
        – 7 million less people on food stamps.
        – Poverty rates for African Americans and Hispanic Americans reached record lows.
        – The bottom 50 percent of American households saw a 40 percent increase in net worth.
        -Signed an Executive Order on Modernizing the Regulatory Framework for Agricultural Biotechnology Products, which is bringing innovative -new technologies to market in American farming and agriculture.
        -Signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – the largest tax reform package in history.
        -Doubled the standard deduction – making the first $24,000 earned by a married couple completely tax-free.
        -Doubled the child tax credit.
        -Virtually eliminated the unfair Estate Tax, or Death Tax.
        -Cut the business tax rate from 35 percent – the highest in the developed world – all the way down to 21 percent.
        -Small businesses can now deduct 20 percent of their business income.
        -Businesses can now deduct 100 percent of the cost of their capital investments in the year the investment is made.
        ….

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Most Republicans are not looking for an alternative to Trump.

        Trump is the GOP candidate for 2024 or he is just not going to run for whatever reason. No other Republican can beat Trump in a primary and everyone knows it.

        Trump is wiser about utter corruption in the federal govt. Republican voters are pushing out RINOs bit by bit. Trump has gotten Republicans excited about fighting back against Commies and RINOs.

        Trump is the best President in US history for a reason. It would be fun to list all the US Presidents that Trump is better than. While George Washington was a greater President, he never had to deal with the Commie Democrats.

      • db

        Trump is wiser about utter corruption in the federal govt. Republican voters are pushing out RINOs bit by bit. Trump has gotten Republicans excited about fighting back against Commies and RINOs.

        Based on his failure in 2017-2021 to rein in and drain the swamp, he needs to do far more than promise results. He needs to show an actual plan to accomplish it, and show that he has the staff with the capabilities to execute the plan. Absent that, he’s still all noise. I don’t believe he will be able to show that and will try to lean on his personality instead, which failed him the first time. He’s a deal maker, but his enemies won’t deal with him other than to screw him.

        He’s not the right man for the job, and he doesn’t have the capability to build a team that can do it either.

      • AlexinCT

        Based on his failure in 2017-2021 to rein in and drain the swamp, he needs to do far more than promise results.

        I see the problem. You judge one guy’s success fighting the corrupt machine, by himself, and failing because he didn’t realize the machine was all around him, just cause he is the top guy. If anything, I figure the shit that was done should dissuade anyone from the erroneous concept that putting the right person in the WH will do anything but force the corrupt machine from showing its hand. Believing that one guy getting elected will somehow fix things is crazy.

        Right now our options are people that will force the machine to show its hands, covered in blood, and red pill more people vs, letting the machine fuck us over. I think that’s a good enough reason to stick with the asshole that fucks the machine up.

      • db

        Trump’s election was a symptom of people starting to understand how fucked up the machine was. He didn’t have much of an effect on its workings, and in fact, caused it to react to defend itself, seeking more power. His loss in 2020 then allowed the machine to strengthen itself further under the care of an administration that is sympathetic to it.

        Trump did basically no real damage to the machine. I maintain that if he wants to deserve re-election, he needs a real plan to correct the problems, rather than just shouting that there’s a problem over there.

      • CPRM

        He has plans! The Biggest Classiest Plans! But he may change them! Or He might not! You never know. But, and this is what’s really important, he also has other plans. You just don’t know. And he met with all these people. And they said, ‘We love you Donald’, it’s true, it’s true. But he will make it happen, and happen very fast and very soon. You will see. And that’s the thing, nobody sees it, but he does, there are things that…and that’s the other thing, it’s very important, but some people say it’s not, but it really is…

      • juris imprudent

        If he supposedly LEADS the party, then yes, he should drag them along. Reagan did. FDR did.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        db, if Trump did no damage to the Deep State then why does it need to defend itself and continue to do so?

        I dont agree with Trump’s desire to see this process through. I think it’s too late but I cant fault Trump for wanting Americans to step up and fix the system using the system.

        Trump did this is NY business. He used the system to fix the system. For Real estate anyways. New York was a cesspool of crime and dilapidated building in the 1970s and 80s. Good real estate moves by the Trump corp helped New York. Its obviously more complicated than that but Detroit went the other direction.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        CPRM… That strategy by Trump works. He publicly says things that keep Commies busy and then gets something done while they are busy.

        Don’t blame Trump. Blame the game.

        Americans did not care if politicians lied their asses off. So why is Trump suddenly held to some standard that politicians dont follow and many Americans dont expect politicians to follow?

        Because Trump is uncorruptable by the Deep State and special interests.

        The MSM takes what Trump says in a speech, spins it into something its not, and then says Trump lies. I don’t understand how Americans still fall for this Lefty tactic. Lefties hate that Trump speaks in generalities.

        For example, Trump’s comments about his inauguration.

        Before the event, federal and local agencies had prepared for turnout of between 700,000 and 900,000 people.[133][134] Trump predicted that there would be “an unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout” at his inauguration.[135]

        The National Park Service does not publish crowd estimates about events at the National Mall.[136] Overhead imagery[137] and statistics on public transportation ridership from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which operates Metrorail, are therefore used to estimate crowd sizes.[138]

        The WMATA reported that 193,000 passengers rode the Metro before 11 a.m. on the day of Trump’s inauguration, and 570,557 passengers during the entire day, noting that it was lower than the average weekday ridership of 639,000 passengers.[139] USA Today reported on “a notable number” of empty seats along the parade route.[140]
        Inauguration of Donald Trump

        Crowd counting experts cited by The New York Times estimated that about 160,000 people were in the National Mall areas in the hour leading up to Trump’s speech.[141] Crowd science professor Keith Still estimated the total attendance at 300,000 to 600,000 people, or one-third the estimated 1.1 million to 1.8 million people that attended Obama’s 2009 inauguration[3][142][143] – which set a record for the total number of people in the National Mall at any one given time,[144] and which marked the inauguration of the nation’s first African American president.[145][146] CNN provided a gigapixel panorama of the area.[147]

        Nielsen ratings showed that TV viewership of the inauguration in the US was 30.6 million, more than Obama’s second inauguration in 2013 (20.6 million),[148] but less than Obama’s first inauguration in 2009 (38 million) and Reagan’s first in 1981 (42 million).[149] Trump’s inauguration became the most streamed Twitter video during the site’s decade-long history with more than 6.8 million views.[150][151]

        “an unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout”. Is that a lie? Of course not. Its a generality and hopeful statement to get people to go or watch it. Plus he had record setting streaming.

        The MSM and Commies of all stripes spend months trying to call Trump a liar about it.

        I’m open to any supported claim of Trump lying. I just dont default that he’s a liar like I do the MSM.

      • db

        if Trump did no damage to the Deep State then why does it need to defend itself and continue to do so?

        Because it fears exposure and knows it can be damaged. Just not by the likes of him. They allowed him enough room to make big promises while taking advantage of his weaknesses to ensure he couldn’t do the damage he promised to do.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        As the Greek wise man once said, “we’ll see”.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        There is no compromise with Democrats anymore. No Republican can “build a team” that works with Democrats. Those days are gone.

        Trump’s best accomplishments were to slow further federal creep into Communism, fight Lefties at every turn, not give them what the Commies want. A multi-pronged attack strategy is needed and Americans needed to step up and fight, and cause Lefties and RINOs to out themselves as the lunatic tyrants they are.

        We wouldn’t have Trump without Obama being one of the worst Presidents in US history. The Democrats would not have lost Virginia in 2021 if it werent for Trump being in politics. More and more Americans would not be fighting back if Democrats had continued to play the incremental game.

        As for draining the swamp. Trump never promised to drain it himself. He’s a leader and leaders inspire others to help. Trump has done that masterfully. There are more Republicans and anti-Democrats than ever before. Americans are taking back their local schools, govts, and rights bit by bit.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You really have drunk the Trump Flavor-Aid.

        At some point, you’re going to realize that Trump is a symptom of the problem, not a solution.

        And Trump didn’t drain jack shit. He had an opportunity to hire Macgregor, who would have led the charge in bringing the troops home and deescalating conflicts around the world. Instead, he fucked around with Mattis and even hired that warmongering SOB Bolton on at one point. He didn’t have a clue what he was doing when it came to the agencies and the DOD. They were bragging about how they were keeping troops in Syria and hiding it from him. An effective President would have dealt with that.

        And lest we forget, when Massie demanded that Congress go on record for trillions in COVID spending, Trump pitched a fit. Not exactly a small government thing to do.

        And I say this as someone who voted for him in 2020.

        He’s really good at Twitter though.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Amazing how Macgregor is the voice of reason on warmongering. Just like HR McMaster becoming the very thing he wrote against.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Sorry, but I dont do the cult of personality schtick. Trump serves my purpose just like all politicians.

        Trump announced the withdraw of troops from Afghanistan. Congress specifically made it illegal to use funds for that purpose.
        Congress historically has tried to force presidents to bring troops home. But in the last three years, lawmakers have repeatedly tried to make laws to do the opposite.

        Trump wont give Lefties a weapon against him by breaking the law. Lefties had years to find evidence of actual crimes trump committed. They failed.

        What else you got?

      • Old Man With Candy

        Cough, cough, Coolidge.

        Trump ran up government power and spending just as fast as Obama. He kept us in all of our Forever Wars and covertly stepped some of them up. He continued and expanded the survellance state and the WoD. His sole good move was appointing Gorsuch, who is the best SC justice of my lifetime. Unfortunately, he then nominated a Roberts clone…

        Fuck him, let’s get someone like Massie.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Congress controls the purse. Congress ran veto-proof majorities on budgets during the Trump Administration.

        Should Trump have vetoed the bloated budgets every time anyways? IMO, yes. He did 1+ times.

        Massie is not as good as you think and hes a career politician. He is better than most in Congress IMO. Massie cant get rallied support like Trump can.

      • juris imprudent

        Trump can rally gullible rubes but not Congress-critters. I think I see the problem.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Trump got near unanimous Republican opposition to most Democrat policies, except budgets.

        Republicans get blamed for shutting down govt (supposedly Social Security and Medicare to old people and kids), so I get not wanting to be blamed. Republicans need to fight that Narrative.

        If you think Americans like me are gullible rubes, then that says a lot about what you don’t know.

      • juris imprudent

        I voted for Trump in ’20 – with no pleasure or enthusiasm. Folks that slobber all over his knob – hey, if that makes ya happy, cool – just don’t expect to convince me to do so.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I know you think Orange man bad. Its clear you do. You held your nose to vote for him. Good for you.

        If pointing out all the pros and cons of Trump means you have to go all homophobic, sorry for you. Its illustrates that your position is weak. You dont provide substantial reasons why Trump is bad. I just listed above 50+ reason why he did well.

        I’m not alone. 70+ million Americans like him too. Trump just gets more popular, the more he talks and does good things for America.

      • l0b0t

        Jackson broke the central bankers for almost a century and was the last POTUS to preside over an admin with NO national debt. Eisenhower was the last POTUS to operate under a balanced budget (income equal to or greater than expenditure). I would take the reanimated corpses of either those men over Trump, or anyone else in possible consideration.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        +1 on Ike, he was one of the good ones.

      • Fourscore

        Ike stirred up SouthEast Asia and gave it to Kennedy/Johnson who jumped in even deeper. No virgins there, credit for the budget though. Ike also loved tariffs, price of scotch went way up.

      • kbolino

        Jackson was President under the spoils system, he could literally fire anyone disloyal and replace them with someone loyal. Teddy Roosevelt probably could have repeated his success if not for the Pendleton Act. Certainly no modern President has this kind of power anymore.

        Eisenhower sets the mold for the modern Republican President: designated loser and liberalism’s janitor. He sent the Army to enforce the Supreme Court’s leftism, cucked McCarthy and helped drive out the Birchers, and overall adopted a strategy so “successful” that it kept Congress in Democrats’ hands for another 40 years, allowed LBJ to be outflanked from the left, and Nixon to be outflanked by the deep state-media complex. That he was genuinely good at a bad job in a way no one has been since doesn’t make the job good (see also: Churchill).

      • juris imprudent

        4×20 – Ike said no to bailing the French out (based on the Army’s manpower estimate to do so), and that SOB Taylor got the ear of the Kennedy admin.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Andrew Jackson gleefully led to the slaughter and forced migration of AmerIndians. He also spent that govt surplus on indebted states. In other words a bribe to states that cooperated with his plan. Not that lowering debt was not a good idea. Some debt is not the end of the World. Who has enough cash to buy a new home without a mortgage?

        Eisenhower was a good diplomat, decent general, and okay President. You guys keep mentioning budgets and debt which are controlled by Congress and Presidents only play a side role. Presidents get the credit and blame about American finances and the purse is controlled by Congress. Eisenhower also got America involved into Vietnam. Not that helping the South Vietnamese wasnt the correct move because it involved minimal US investment to contain Communism. If Ike hadnt set the groundwork for that, would JFK and LBJ had such an easy time getting America entangled in Vietnam? Ike also expanded Social Security and other New Deal programs. Ike also sent federalized National Guard troops to forcibly integrate schools. Eisenhower was also a decent President but he bought popularity with New Deal programs.

      • juris imprudent

        Presidents get the credit and blame

        Yep, because the people are morons. That’s why we keep getting the kind of politicians we have.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Paul/Massie or Massie/Paul.

        I’m good with either of those tickets.

    • rhywun

      Right?

      There goes my theory that that half of America doesn’t want that circus again.

    • juris imprudent

      WE MUST HAVE OUR TOP.MAN!

      • Not Adahn

        1 Samuel 8:19

      • Loveconstitution1789

        1 of 3 Branches of govt requires an Executive. That is one person. Per our Constitution.

        TOP MEN was used to describe the Commie ideal of leadership via bureaucratic and “expert” decree.

      • juris imprudent

        You dream of a caudillo, the classic Latin strong-man, one-man rule. Otherwise, you’d talk about what a fuck-up your own Congress-critter is and why you want someone else.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I dont want one-man rule. I love our Constitution and the Constitutional Democratic Republic setup. Im pointing out that your misusing the TOP MAN schtick.

        Georgia had massive Democrat election fraud in Fulton County which directly influenced how fucked up our Jan 2021 Special election for US Senators would be too. Every state had Democrat election fraud. Hopefully Georgia fixed ours to beat the Democrat spread.

        On the bright side, Georgia is getting rid of some RINO career politicians that might otherwise have sat in the Senate for term after term.

      • DEG

        The guys that founded Reopen NH are former state legislators. They were legislators when Republicans held a supermajority in the state legislature and the governor was a Democrat.

        During that time, the Legislature ran the state. If the governor vetoed something, the Legislature overturned the veto. If the governor did something the Legislature didn’t like, the Legislature changed the rules so the governor was boxed in.

        You don’t need an Executive.

        Now… to be fair… getting such a supermajority in the US Congress is going to be hard.

    • CPRM

      [sigh] at least The Hat will be happy to hear the news.

    • Zwak, All dressed up in his ridiculous seersucker suit

      Or, Trump is the only name that anyone really knows. 2024 is a long way off politically, and right now all you are getting is radio chatter.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      So DeSantis isn’t part of the conversation re: GOP nominee anymore?

      Oh wait. I get it. The media is going to pump Trump like they did in 2016 in order to prevent a real & very scary Republican from having a chance.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ???

        If nothing else, Trump is good for ratings.

      • db

        Yep.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Would DeSantis do anything meaningful?

        I doubt it. The bureaucracy runs the government. The only way for meaningful change to is to have a President who is willing and able to take a flamethrower to burn it all down and start over from the rubble with the Constitution in hand

        Trump would do just about the same job in in 2024 as anyone else on the GOP nominee list.

      • juris imprudent

        Congress sets up the mess, we won’t get it fixed until Congress is fixed.

        Which means basically never.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, the fact that Congress abdicates most of its power to faceless bureaucrats (i.e. the deep state) is the major problem here.

      • AlexinCT

        I doubt it. The bureaucracy runs the government.

        This…

        Trump being a shitshow will force the machine to show its hand. I think we still need more of that first, so more people get red pilled to how inept, corrupt, and frankly downright self-serving the bureaucratic machine is, before we finally reach a point where we can force the changes. I want DeSantis once we reach that point, but first we need to really fuck up the machine bad and make it near impossible for it to keep doing what it does, and to do that you need a fucking nutjob like Trump. Of course they can always Kennedy his ass if they get real desperate.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        IDGAF about DeSantis or any other Republican or Democrat or literally any politician. I’m just trying to figure out why his name is suddenly not coming up in election talk. I don’t expect “change” from career politicians.

      • DEG

        DeSantis has been downplaying and dodging questions about whether or not he runs for President in 2024. He talks about his run for re-election as Governor in 2022.

      • DEG

        DeSantis has two things Trump doesn’t have.

        Executive experience in government plus people he can pick from who are both DC outsiders and have experience running government bureaucracies.

    • kbolino

      I see two options for ’24:

      1. Keep Trump. His strengths are: shitposting, frustrating the bureaucracy, keeping foreign leaders on their toes, and upsetting all the right people (“never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake”). Also, his dirty laundry has already been aired and there’s almost certainly none left for the IC/deep state to find. His weaknesses are: all the nominal functions of the Presidency except foreign deal-making and his age. He’s (still) the anti-candidate and the middle finger to the establishment. You vote for him not to affect policy but to reveal and antagonize the structure of the system.

      2. Find someone who will campaign like a moderate but govern like Genghis Khan. Youngkin is making strides in this area, and DeSantis is notable as well. The problem with both of them is that, once they publicly display this tendency at the state level, the jig is up. They’re now campaigning on a record instead of a possibility. Also, if they have any dirty laundry, they better air it and neuter it now, because you better believe the FBI/CIA will discover it and leak it once they start running for real (while still saving some to use against them if they somehow win). This is a vote on policy over symbolism but IMO it’s a bigger gamble: this strategy is more susceptible to being undermined by the three branches (deep state, legislature, courts). Trump’s only victory condition is to try, these guys’ victory condition is to succeed.

      I wouldn’t rule out a fusion of these two strategies but I also can’t say who could really embody it. Rand Paul maybe?

      • Gustave Lytton

        2a. Institutional inertia. The deep state holds the key terrain.

        2b. The scores of minions that a president can appoint, are largely from the same pool and are either already compromised or want to be for future fortunes. Those that are a threat will be pour encourager les autres.

      • Gustave Lytton

        1a. He’s already neutered from shitposting on Twitter. I can see that continuing as he ran for office and even if he was elected. Look at how they went after and defanged his memesters.

      • kbolino

        The tech sector is running on borrowed time and stolen valor. They can’t produce anything truly novel any more. The destruction of social media and other manipulative tech as we know it should be the primary cultural/economic aim of the right (and those parts of the left that can still function outside the media bubble) IMO anyway. A great bubble has emerged, subsidized by the state and obfuscated by the finance industry, which is propping up these dying husks.

        And regardless of that, It is true that shitposting has been hobbled, but the artform can be expressed in other media.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yeah, there was always the snakeoil salesman but it’s been really clear how skinsuited tech has become. Change for changes sake and the impossibility of exponential growth forever being just two symptoms. Really those has been a problem of large business for several decades. The days of just running a money making business with a product catalog that includes old but still in demand models is just anathema to the B school types who want to get in, make a name, and move on.

      • kbolino

        I’d also throw in another weakness of strategy 2: a chameleon can always change its colors. One need only look at the direction the UK Tories have taken as a warning sign.

      • juris imprudent

        Again – the focus on the presidency is a symptom of the problem.

        The fix is going to require a Congress that wants to be responsible. They can fuck over a presidency any time they want.

      • kbolino

        The last time a major change happened it took both, but the Presidency was the leading edge. FDR had to get rid of more Democrats in Congress than Republicans to make the New Deal happen. Obviously Trump does not have FDR’s political machine behind him, and his overtures at peace with Democrats have been childishly rebuked vs. e.g. FDR and LaGuardia.

        An organic leaderless movement won’t replace enough Congresspeople to matter. Trump is not going to be that leader, but we’re probably not ready for it to happen yet, either.

    • Zwak, All dressed up in his ridiculous seersucker suit

      A huge, additional problem re Trump!!!!!!! is that the lovers and the haters are two sides of the same coin. A positive image vs. a negative image, if you will. Both sides are wrong, but neither of them can give up that picture of him, one showing a saint or a sinner.

      No, he isn’t going to destroy the world. Or the government. He would, and did, run things from his point of view of what works best, how best to communicate, etc. And this allows the extremes tails of the political bell curve to freak the fuck out. Did he do some good things? Sure. Gorsuch, taking his hands off the majority of the economy, enforced the border laws. Did he do some bad/stupid things? Sure. Kavanaugh, not firing Fauci. etc. Take your pick of hobby horses. But, we have set this system up over the years and it will take as much time to tear it down without causing even more destruction than we have now.

      The reality, at least from my point of view, is that Trump is more akin to Carter, and not because Carter sucked. He is a similar weather vein, signaling a change in Vector. His biggest achievement was in showing a vast, untapped group of people that the common man can and should make a difference, that maybe the rule of technocrats isn’t what it has been made out to be.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        A big difference between Carter and Trump is that Trump is a leader. Carter was an empty suit. Carter was so bad that Reagan won all states but HI, WV, MN, GA, MD, RI, and DC.

        Nobody was scared of Carter. Lefties hate Trump.

        The weather vane thing is because Trump used Twatter and other social media back against the Lefties. It was the Chewbacca strategy. Lefties thought/hoped they could destroy Trump and dissenters using social media and it hasnt worked yet.

      • Mojeaux

        I saw very little leadership in Trump’s administration. He continually hired the worst people for the job. He could not gauge talent (possibly his needs), and that is inexcusable in a “leader”.

      • AlexinCT

        When your only options are people that are part of the machine (and your advisors keep telling you those are the only qualified people), you are screwed. The machine created a barrier to entry that makes is near impossible to not be one of them, and thus beholden to their agenda. I think the areas Trump’s hires did decent were the few cases where he put someone there that was not part of the bureaucracy. Those also tended to be the people that got attacked the hardest by the machine.

      • Mojeaux

        and your advisors keep telling you those are the only qualified people

        My point is he hired bad advisors.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        As pointed out, the pool of willing advisors was slim. Then you had the Deep State and Lefties threaten anyone who would help Trump.

        The remainder were the people Trump had to choose from. Only a few out of the hundreds/thousands of Trump Administration staffers blew their anti-Trump cover and were fired. The rest did okay as far as we know.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I will remind folks that Trump had Lefties threaten anyone who wanted to work for the Trump Administration. That was new.

        With those limitations, Trump had numerous RINOs and Neocons who hid their real agendas until hired. It made getting good people in the right positions more difficult than a Hillary or Obama had.

        Trump still got all those judge nominated and various good people. DeVos seemed fairly good.

      • Mojeaux

        So we’re down from GrEaTeSt PrEsIdEnT eVaR!!! to he did a few not-awful things.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I never said Trump was the greatest President ever. The greatest President was probably George Washington. Trump was the best President in US history. He was doing something right because the Democrats House impeached him twice.

        And the standard for best President is low because most contemporary Presidents were corrupt shitbirds.

      • Zwak, All dressed up in his ridiculous seersucker suit

        That wasn’t what I was talking about. Sure, all presidents are leaders, some good some bad. But those two were signs of a change. Carter was a sign of what liberalism was going to look like going forward; not JFK, Truman, or LBJ, but post-Vietnam liberalism. Trump is a sign of what conservativism will look like post-Afganistan.

        Neither of them is a sign of what Libertarianism will look like, Glib or Cosmo.

      • AlexinCT

        I thought that we were already told that Somalia is what libertarianism will look like….

  4. Loveconstitution1789

    In yet another pandemic-related first, Israel is now the number one country in the world for new coronavirus infections per capita, with a daily rate of 0.6 percent of the population testing positive.

    Good thing I didnt get any SARS-COVID-19 experimental non-vaccine, I dont wear mask(s), and Georgia doesnt do lockdowns or state mandated restrictions.

    What do you call an experimental “vaccine” that DOES spike anti-bodies for an unknown short period of time, DOESN’T last very long, and DOESNT provide proven protection you from the immediate variations of the original strain of virus?

    • AlexinCT

      A money making racket for government entities and their buddies in big pharma?

    • Loveconstitution1789

      Plus, evidently nearly 1/3 of American adults say they have not gotten the SARS-COVID-19 vax.

      I havent. Also about 80% of the people I know didnt vax either. Probably about 50% of those got COVID and natural immunity.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      A good grift

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      A treatment, and a currently marginally effective one at that?

      • UnCivilServant

        A treatment, and a currently marginally Negatively effective one at that?

        FIFY

    • rhywun

      C’mon America, test harder & get our numbers up.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        We froze them all rendering them ineffective.

      • Sean

        GF is required to test constantly for work. She tested negative this weekend.

      • UnCivilServant

        I am required to test weekly for work. It’s now taking ten days to get to the loading dock after each order.

        They all come back negative thanks to that early natural immunity.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I noticed today that the Veterans Affairs hospital says that I can get 4 free COVID test kits and my wifes health insurance says that we can get 8 free tests.

        All those “free” tests and numbers are not high enough?

    • robc

      flu vax? Except for the experimental part, it is pretty much the same.

      Crazy that rapidly evolving respiratory viruses can’t be vaccinated against, isnt it?

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Most ADEs occur within 2 weeks of jab. People are counted as unvaccinated until 2 weeks after jab. Convenient, eh?

      (as I understand it, anyway)

    • limey

      I saw a flyer for an “American Truck Driving Experience” recently. I don’t think it includes this part.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Are lot lizards and amphetamines included in the pricing?

      • limey

        You’d think so, but the British equivalents just aren’t the same, except in tooth count.

      • db

        It’s probably more focused on truck stop parking lots and maybe the showers at a Flying J.

  5. The Late P Brooks

    Republican strategist Alex Conant agreed Biden was poised to hamper Democrats contesting competitive districts, particularly among independents, who seem to be tiring of the president.

    Impocerrous!

    • Sean

      Most popular president evar!!!

      • limey

        *President Rogue

      • robc

        I would consider voting Dem if they had the balls to run Tulsi.

        Tulsi vs Trump vs whatever the LP dredges up? I would seriously consider my first ever D vote for Prez (Bush 88 is currently my only R vote).

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Hope you don’t like gun rights.

      • robc

        You would clearly have to combine her with a GOP congress. Duh.

        And Trump isn’t trustworthy on guns either. And the LP candidate? I would hope that wouldn’t be an issue, but who knows?

        Her economics are awful too. But, you know, so are Trumps.

      • robc

        Also, Tulsi never killed the USFL.

      • creech

        LP is likely to dreg up some Mises Caucus true believer in 2024. And fall back to the pre-million vote levels.

      • robc

        So it least someone who wont regret voting for.

        Badnarik still may be the best candidate the LP has ever run.

    • Drake

      CBS made the mistake of asking normal people what they think of Biden’s first year. Not good.

      • creech

        Local NBC news last night managed to find an Asian American woman, patronizing a cheesesteak emporium, who believes Biden has “done an exceptional job.” They are out there and, unfortunately, they are real.

  6. Rat on a train

    Tens of thousands gather in Washington to call for an end to Covid mandates
    The student mandate for in-school masking has ended here thanks to changes in leadership at the state and county. The covidians are panicking. Some have threatened to pull their kids from school, which is their choice.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    I managed to stay awake for that game last night.

    Unlike the clowns in the early game, both of those teams actually wanted to win.

    Hopefully, the Chiefs will win the Super Bowl by ten touchdowns.

  8. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    Good lord my crypto account is in a sad state of affairs

    • Drake

      *Goes over to Gemini for a peek*

      Yikes, mine too. I didn’t put in much thankfully.

    • AlexinCT

      Time to look at when the low happens and then buy in hardcore?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Crypto’s doing so bad McAfee would be driven to kill himself if he hadn’t already killed himself.

      • waffles

        Bitcoin is still positive on the year-over-year but it has broken through so many perceived barrier on the way down that will surely not last. I thought bitcoin was supposed to be decoupled, well that seems to not be the case.

      • Fourscore

        No Bitcoin for me, I’ll lose my money the old fashioned way. If it worked in ’29 it’ll work again.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I’m going long on tulips.

      • Festus

        Bow-chicka-wow-wow!

  9. The Late P Brooks

    “Biden needs to get COVID and inflation under control for Democrats to have any shot in November,” he said.

    *outright prolonged laughter*

    • rhywun

      “Biden needs to get COVID”

      Is how that would be quoted at CNN if the other side said it.

    • AlexinCT

      Considering we are dealing with democrats, what they will do isn’t abandoning the policies that cause the inflationary disasters we are seeing, in favor of new policies that stop and reverse inflation by growing the economy, but because they will NEVER abandon the belief and agenda that government needs to pick the winners & losers, mount a massive propaganda campaign to convince low information morons (their voters) that things are fine.

  10. Loveconstitution1789

    Peter Schweizer’s ‘Red-Handed’ Exposes Communist China’s Silicon Valley Sympathizers

    Are Communist sympathizers, Communists themselves?

    America is really under siege from many sides.

    Commies in tech are:
    Helping govt domestically spy on Americans without govt obtaining 4th Amendment required warrants
    Financially supporting the Communist Democrat Party
    Silencing American dissidents on Section 230 protected platforms
    Corrupting American elections via corruptible electronic voting machines, “friendly” lawsuit settlements for changes to election laws, and giving money to corrupt local election officials
    Trying to aid Communist China and Fascist Russia
    Assisting Communist propaganda outlets to be the norm in America
    ….

    Commies in government are:
    Trying to permanently nuke the US economy
    Trying to destroy American institutions and traditions
    Trying to destroy American religious autonomy
    Trying to transform America youth via low education substance and brainwash them into accepting Communism
    Trying to transform American concept of Rule of Law into Rule of corrupt Commie Democrats
    Trying to weaken the US military
    Trying to aid Communist China and Fascist Russia
    Trying to corrupt elections
    …..

    Pick a side or Civil War 2.0 will pick a side for you.

    • AlexinCT

      These people are not communists. Neither is the CCP. The CCP realized that communism ALWAYS ends up producing the USSR circa 1991. Communism’s biggest and unfixable problem is the conflict created by the need to put people loyal to the marxist agenda and leadership in positions of power of a top down system, which then results in loyalty being the primary qualifier for the job instead of any knowledge or expertise that would humble those that want to do top down ruling. This dichotomy means marxist systems will always implode given time. That’s why old time marxists like Mussolini and Hitler, whom had become disillusioned by marxism, invented fascism. This allows the state to keep control of all things through laws and regulations that allow them to decide which private sector entities win or lose. Fascists love mega monopolies. Controlling a hodgepodge of independent small entities is far harder than controlling a megacorp. Conversely, making a lots of money easily while providing shitty products/services is also easier when you lack competition and can blame government for every problem you have. That’s why the megacorps love helping the Chinese CCP: they are fascists working together to pick winners and losers (they win, we lose).

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        This, Mussolini arguably won WWII in retrospect. The Chinese commie crap is all branding because claiming fascism without some facade is toxic.

      • AlexinCT

        Fascism won the war of socialist systems. The new fascists abandoned their nationalistic focus – and in fact now are rabidly anti-nationalist – and doubled down on the unholy alliance of government and the private sector to come up with this new globalist movement. While the CCP is now a fascist group based on the beliefs and formulations of the first fascist incarnation of old Mussolini & Hitler’s systems, remaining hardcore nationalistic and creating that unholy alliance between government and the elite in the private sector (a problem they solved by putting the children of the government types in charge of the private sector).

        Note that the rest of the western world has adopted a new brand of fascism itself (I call it fascism 3.x). In this new fascism they no longer need the camps or the brutal tactics China’s CCP still uses, but they can just destroy their opponents through the legal system or by simply canceling them (denying them the ability to find work or manage their finances). They are moving towards fascism 4.0: globalization. The sad thing is they are also fine letting the CCP become top dog in this new world as long as THEY stay on top as out mandarinate in this new order…

      • kbolino

        In the immediate aftermath, we see that Mussolini “won” domestic policy, while Trotsky “won” foreign policy. The fusion of these two ideologies, resulting in aggressively imperialistic self-obfuscating corporatism with spiritual characteristics, governs the world (sans North Korea, Eritrea, Venezuela, and Cuba) today.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        No youre right that Fascism is probably the term we should use and is a good way to label this brand of Communism. Americans cant agree that Socialism is bad though. We cant even agree on a definition of Fascism.

        In the end though, the people that control the state want to control all property and YOU. I would rather not quibble over terms we cant agree on and address the problem which are the Socialists/Fascist/Communists/Democrats.

    • juris imprudent

      You ever read about the Spanish Civil War? You should. It doesn’t end well, for anyone.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Franco did OK.

      • juris imprudent

        He’s dead and history shits on him constantly.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Dead of old age in a comfy bed. We should all be so unlucky. As for his reputation, I’d imagine it’ll be rehabilitated to some degree once the WWII days are further behind us.

      • juris imprudent

        Being a stooge of Hitler isn’t ever going to just wear away.

        Just caught an interesting bit on Mysteries of the Abandoned – about the Canfranc train station in the Pyrenees. French and Spanish rail were different gauge, so in the 20s a massive station was built to allow cargo/passenger transfer between the different trains. Opened in ’28 and was shut down in ’37 because of the civil war.

        Anyway, a civil war for the benefit of one fucking person? Not exactly worth it.

      • kbolino

        “Being a stooge of Hitler isn’t ever going to just wear away.”

        That’s Mussolini’s bag, not Franco’s.

      • juris imprudent

        Mussolini actually was admired by Hitler – having done the fascist thing first. Franco was the latecomer to the party (though give him credit for not joining the others in their suicide pact).

      • kbolino

        And, consequently, Mussolini saw Hitler as an equal partner and ended up played like a fool, while Franco was smarter and recognized Hitler as a dangerous madman best kept at arm’s length.

      • Drake

        Franco denied Hitler’s request to let his troops pass through Spain to attack Gibraltar. (Hitler should have done it anyhow) Arguably cost the Germans the war.

      • kbolino

        It ended about as well as it could have, given where it went. Arguably, the U.S. Civil War is similar: Lincoln wins (bad) but then gets assassinated (good) and the country essentially returns to status quo ante minus slavery.

      • juris imprudent

        How many years was Spain the sick-man of Europe after WWII?

      • kbolino

        Fascism puts spiritual wellbeing above material wellbeing and consequently often fails to deliver the same level of measurable economic success. Pinochet is a notable exception but arguably Chile was such a basketcase before that any ordered system would have been an improvement. Also, while Pinochet died a free man, he didn’t die as leader of Chile.

        I think we will see in a couple decades the limits of the economic liberalization uber alles approach taken by the West. If China or another major power’s mediocrity remains constant while the West slides further into incompetence and degeneracy, the steady-as-she-goes approach will win out.

      • kbolino

        economic liberalization uber alles

        SLD about regulation, regulatory capture, and other dysfunctional dynamics that undermine the “purity” of this approach

      • juris imprudent

        I wouldn’t tend to believe the claims of fascists about what they say they are doing that is beneficial.

      • kbolino

        Fine, I’ll reword it. Francoist Spain and Estado Novo Portugal were the “sick men” of Western Europe because the definition of “sick man” was set by their enemies and it was not their intention to succeed on their enemies’ metrics.

      • juris imprudent

        And the people suffered in both of those. But the leaders prospered. La plus ca change…

      • kbolino

        “plus ca change”

        I don’t know if you’re meaning to be glib (perish the thought!) but if something is universally true then not it’s a point of argument in a comparison. There is always hierarchy and reward accrues up the hierarchy more than down it. Fascists never set out to equalize society, indeed that was one aspect of liberalism and socialism they categorically rejected. “Failing” to deliver on your enemy’s goals is not a strike against your own objectives.

      • juris imprudent

        OK, what “metrics” define success for a fascist state? Let’s be clear about those, and then we can honestly evaluate it. It seems to not be general prosperity. It certainly isn’t individual liberty. Law and order? You alluded to spirituality – okay, and???

      • kbolino

        Of course, the above is a bit of a gloss on what fascism was: there was always a left-wing strain but it never won out (being, arguably, too leftist despite its nationalist character). Once Hitler killed Strasser and Franco expelled the national syndicalists from the Falange, there were no egalitarians around anymore.

      • kbolino

        Fascism (in Iberia, at least) is born as reactionary opposition to liberalism (of both the “classical” and emerging progressive variety) and socialism (of both the “democratic” and Marxist variety) from multiple fronts.

        The national syndicalists wanted worker control of the economy, but only at the national level: thus setting them apart from the internationalists. The traditionalists/Carlists wanted a return of monarchy or at least something monarchical (e.g. Napoleon’s First French Empire). The Catholic authoritarians (important in Spain and Portugal but not so much Italy or Germany) wanted the supremacy of church over state. The Nietzscheans (various other names apply) wanted the end of democracy, which they regarded as debasing society to the lowest common denominator.

        Apart from the national syndicalists, none of them put the economy first. And as I said in the other comment, that faction eventually gets expelled or at least marginalized as fascism evolves. The three remaining broad traditions unite around the suppression of democracy as the governing influence, and the institution in its place of a culture of national vitality. This vitality is not measured in e.g. dollars produced but instead in e.g. children raised with the correct (as the state defines) values. Low crime > high profit. Decent-paying jobs for all > high-paying jobs for some. Men at work, women at home, both prioritizing family over personal ambition. And in the case of the Estado Novo, the maintenance (and ideally expansion) of the empire (this one comes back to bite them in the ass).

        It is a fundamentally different frame of mind than our own. You see some of it expressed in e.g. the United Auto Workers ca. 1970 when they want more factory jobs instead of more efficient cars. But in our own society, the UAW was weaker than the academy, and their own leadership sold them out to get the Clean Air Act passed (the necessity of having clean air being only tangentially related to the bureaucracy created by the bill). The rest is history of course. We view the UAW as entitled villains, and in a global economy, that is an accurate assessment. But to a fascist, or at least someone fash-adjacent, the UAW was in the right and free trade and leftist environmentalism (vs rightist conservationism) were in the wrong.

      • juris imprudent

        So the metric of success is consolidation and perpetuation of themselves in power. By which ironically enough, Pinochet is a failure.

      • kbolino

        You reduce again to a universal truth. Liberal democracy also seeks the consolidation of power and perpetuation of itself. Wither Ukrainian “democracy” against Russian “authoritarianism”?

        But yes, you are correct that the fascists failed. If this national vitality had truly existed, Francoist Spain, Estado Novo Portugal, Pinochet’s Chile, Chiang’s Republic of China, Park’s Republic of Korea, Suharto’s Indonesia, Pre-Mugabe Rhodesia, Apartheid South Africa, etc. would still exist. They don’t. One can argue (and fascist apologists do) that they were undermined from without (primarily by the U.S.-led West). But they still failed, whether by their own metrics or the ultimate metric (survival).

        Whether they should have won is another argument entirely.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Pick a side or Civil War 2.0 will pick a side for you.

      Spoken like a true reactionary.

    • db

      Pick a side or Civil War 2.0 will pick a side for you.

      How about I pick a side that tries to do everything it can to *prevent* a civil war rather than stoking the fires?

      • WTF

        Your opponents aren’t interested in peace, they’re interested in conquest.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        This. I’m all on board with any viable option for peaceful resolution of this intractable worldview conflict. However, what must be recognized is that

        1) this is a worldview conflict, not a policy preference conflict
        2) this conflict is intractable, as neither side will find it acceptable to be ruled by the other side
        3) compromise and middle ground, where it exists, is temporary
        4) good faith engagement on the issues no longer exists. We’re in the favor currying phase now.

        I don’t want violence to happen, but I don’t see any viable off-ramp, short of some once in a millennium statesmanship. The social deconstructionism of the fascists practically eliminates the prospect of some statesman accumulating enough good will to implement a diplomatic solution.

      • robc

        Which movie is about the Virginia farmer who refuses to pick a side in the Civil War? Shenandoah?

    • The Last American Hero

      Civil War 2.0 won’t be fought over communism/fascism vs. liberty. It will be fought over obscure trade regulations, preferred cocktails, regional food preferences and high school dances like the last one.

      • Fourscore

        Miss 3 meals and everyone is a revolutionist

  11. Certified Public Asshat

    WH pushing propaganda to get us into a conflict over Ukraine

    It’s not like they haven’t been pushing for more than 5 years now.

  12. Loveconstitution1789

    Exclusive– Sam Nunberg: Biden Abandoned Ukraine for Cutting Off Hunter

    Interesting take on el Presidente Biden and his handler’s plan in the region.

    The outcome of Ukraine is determined by highest bribe?
    The outcome of Europe vs Russia determined by highest bribe?

    Fascist Russia’s aggressiveness with former USSR territories is based on Russian nationalism that all former Russian territory shall again belong to Mother Russia. Puppet regimes are probably okay with Russia if the populace needs more handling to accept Russian rule.

    Copy and past for Communist China.

    • Loveconstitution1789

      This would make sense with US military being sent to Ukraine. If el Presidente Biden’s handlers wanted to give Ukraine to Russia, there would be zero US involvement. If Ukraine was to be protected, then more US troops and other political pressures on Russia.

      US troops being injured also gives political capital to Democrats as they can spin that into some Americans ignoring the corrupt behavior of Democrats.

    • Drake

      Sure seems like the Ukraine was a lot better off before the CIA staged a revolution there and the Biden’s and McCain’s strip-mined the place.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        They were better off and considering Russia’s past I don’t blame them for being extremely worried and desperate to maintain a buffer. It’s unfortunate for Ukraine but those are the breaks.

    • db

      While Nunberg emphasized that Americans should not have to spill blood to defend Ukraine, he worried that President Biden’s abandonment of the country will encourage China to invade Taiwan — a country and ally that Americans will have to defend if the time comes.

      So, we just need to subsidize a shit-ton of weapons produced and sold by US defense contractors to be sent to Ukraine, in order to escalate the conflict, so that eventually, they’ll have a real justification for spilling American blood.

      When you see you’re driving a train into a tunnel that has been bored 500 yards into a mile-thick mountain, do you pour on more coals to see if you can just punch through?

      • AlexinCT

        It looks like they found a way to pick up the slack caused by the Afghani pullout?

      • db

        Gotta keep that sweet money flowing to the weapons manufacturers, baby.

      • Not Adahn

        While Nunberg emphasized

        I thought the Nunberg defense was proven ineffective.

    • juris imprudent

      Whereas Imperial America has no such ambitions when it comes to ruling the entire fucking world. That you even pay one second of attention to Russia/Ukraine is entirely because of that globalist agenda.

      • AlexinCT

        My one problem with this potential conflict is that the US worked with the Russians to take Ukraine’s nukes away back when. They were able to do this because they promised the Ukrainians that the US would come to defend them should the Russians come a knocking in the future. Now we can simply ignore this promise that was made, and thus make sure every bad actor on this planet will decide they need nukes to protect themselves from others (Us or anyone else), and that our allies come away with the same conclusion. Here comes nuclear proliferation, baby!

      • db

        Taiwan needs nukes!
        South Korea needs nukes!
        Japan needs nukes!
        Argentina needs nukes! –wait, not those guys, they hate our friend. They’re not allowed. We can totally stop that.

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, that’s the problem. At this point I believe the first 3 are going to go ahead and get them, and that is actually a great thing. But then you have Iran, And wait until Somalia says they need them too….

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Maybe only nations that have proven technical proficiency should be allowed to have them.

      • juris imprudent

        Nuclear arms arguments are just gun control arguments scaled up.

      • juris imprudent

        “You fucked up, you trusted us”.

        And thus we will have no national divorce, because neither side will trust the other to have nukes.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The Ukraine elected a moderately pro-Russian government that we helped overthrow in 2014 using actual, no-shit Nazis.

        If you went by the actual will of the people, Kiev would have a closer relationship with Moscow. It’s the arrogant assholes in DC that have pushed this towards a military conflict between the two countries. They think they can permanently neuter Russia by cutting off the Ukraine and Sevastopol from them. It’s insane.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        How were they “no-shit Nazis”? Nazis are National Socialists with a racist edge. Russians and Ukrainians are essentially the same race of people.

        Ukrainians didnt know that Poroshenko was stooge of Putin. They should have since he was in the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine.

        Ukrainians know now and have activated their militias and millions of Ukrainians are learning to fight to defend Ukraine from Russia.

      • juris imprudent

        The problem you are missing is that Ukrainians are not a monolith. There are fractures within the populace there no less than here.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They are known as the Azov Regiment (or Battalion) and are ideological Nazis that participated in the 2014 coup against the elected Ukrainian government.

        After the coup, they were incorporated into the national guard. They’re led by Andriy Biletsky who believes in a “crusade” of “White races” against “Semitic Untermenschen.”

        Nazi enough for you?

      • The Last American Hero

        Every bad actor wants them anyways – nukes are 1/3 of the reason there still is a North Korea. The other 2 being the insane amount of conventional weaponry aimed at Seoul, and the continued food/financial support of the CCP.

        With respect to Ukraine, in the post-Soviet period, there was substantial fear that bad actors would get their hands on nukes from a corrupt and unstable former Soviet Republic on the verge of civil war, so disarming Ukraine wasn’t a crazy thought.

      • Not an Economist

        Hope Groovus and his family will be okay.

      • Festus

        Indeed!

  13. The Late P Brooks

    In the best of hands

    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin briefed President Joe Biden on Saturday about U.S. options for responding if Russia invades Ukraine, as well as options for U.S. military movements in advance of an invasion, according to a defense official and a senior administration official.

    Among the options presented for the U.S. military in advance of an invasion were bomber flights over the region, ship visits into the Black Sea and the moving of troops and some equipment from other parts of Europe into Poland, Romania and other countries neighboring Ukraine.

    We have nothing to worry about.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      If the Black Sea option is on the table, I wonder how Erdogan will react? I’m guessing he’ll stay mostly neutralish, but pretty much side with Pooty. And they still won’t kick Turkey out of NATO (which they should have done long ago, but “MUH INCIRLIK!!1!11!”)

      • Festus

        There is no way that NATO should have admitted Turkey let alone any state bordering the Russian Federation as it stood after 1991.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s long past time to return Asia Minor to the Greeks.

        Free Byzantium!

      • juris imprudent

        Turkey joined NATO in 1952. Same with Greece. You wouldn’t bring in one without the other.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Beat me to it

      • Festus

        Cuban missile crisis ca.1962. American missiles removed from Turkish soil in exchange for the Soviet ones in Cuba. JFK got to stroke his power-boner and Kruschev lived to scheme another day. How ignorant of history do you believe I am?

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Errrrr…Turkey was admitted not long after NATO was chartered

      • Festus

        I’m aware. It was just a silly idea then and maybe a catastrophic idea now.

      • Festus

        Sometimes it seems like you folk don’t even know me! *runs upstairs and slams the door*

      • juris imprudent

        I think your idea is basically right – NATO should have dissolved with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. We could’ve done that by pulling out and just letting European squabbling do the rest.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The creator of the Soviet containment policies and NATO, George Kennan, in 1997.

        “Why, with all the hopeful possibilities engendered by the end of the Cold War, should East-West relations become centered on the question of who would be allied with whom and, by implication, against whom in some fanciful, totally unforeseeable and most improbable future military conflict?”

        “[B]luntly stated…expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era. Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking … ”

      • Festus

        Thanks Scruffy!

    • Plisade

      A family member of mine, Army Intel, is heading to the “Ukraine Area.”

      • db

        Wow, that’s a fortuitous name. Talk about being marked from birth.

      • Not Adahn

        “Nominative Determinism”

      • CPRM

        Well, Army Hammer is not in the Army, and I’ve never seen him with a hammer.

    • Grumbletarian

      Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin briefed President Joe Biden on Saturday about U.S. options for responding if Russia invades Ukraine, as well as options for U.S. military movements in advance of an invasion, according to a defense official and a senior administration official.

      Leaked photo of the briefing material.

      • AlexinCT

        I TAKE AUSTRALIA!

      • The Last American Hero

        What are they gonna due, lock down Russia with COVID restrictions?

      • AlexinCT

        Camps, baby! CAMPS!!

    • Festus

      Lloyd Austin is traitorous.

  14. Festus

    Ya know what makes me happy? Thousands of rigs headed to Ottawa in defiance of mandates – https://youtu.be/Sd5ZLJWQmss Most of them are vaxxed, even.

    • db

      If they’re vaxxed, how is that a defiance of vaccination mandates? I must be missing something.

      • Sean

        They’re less than 6 feet apart?

        *shrug*

      • Pope Jimbo

        Feet?

        You American Shitlord with your non-metric measurements

      • rhywun

        Because the mandates means never-ending jabs now. Plenty of people stuck themselves under the apprehension it was one and done – because, you know, that’s is what they were told.

      • Festus

        Standing with their fellows against the tyranny. They don’t have to do it but they are sick of the bullshit. You today, Me tomorrow, as it were. Even their Union has come out against the membership which should tell you everything you need to know about Teamsters 2.0

  15. Pope Jimbo

    Paging Deadhead! Minnesoda endurance race is totes safe from the Rona

    The Arrowhead 135 — returning this year after being canceled in 2021 amid the pandemic — allows racers to choose whether to ski, bike or run the course between International Falls and Tower. This year’s race begins on Jan. 31.

    Racers have minimal if any outside support along the trail — there are just three checkpoints along the course. And there’s a 60-hour cutoff time — that’s 2 1/2 days — to reach the finish line at Fortune Bay Resort Casino. Racers are on the trail all day and all night.

    Krueger said safety measures are in place this winter as high COVID case counts continue to be a concern in Minnesota.

    “We only accepted vaccinated racers. We changed our accommodations for our gear check and our pre-race meeting to allow for more social distancing,” he said. “We’re going to limit time in the checkpoints … and we are requiring racers to be masked when they’re indoors.”

    As of Saturday, Krueger said 27 racers had dropped out of the field, most of those related to COVID concerns.

    They only accepted 200 entrants to begin with. So they lost 10% because of their theater. (At least I hope it was just the Rona stupidity that counted as “COVID concerns”)

    • AlexinCT

      I thought it was too cold out your way for the Kung Flu to live outdoors?

      • db

        It’s cryopreserved. Minnesota is the home to the Walt Disney of viruses.

      • AlexinCT

        So you guys just froze the virus’ heads?

      • db

        well, the vax only targets the spike protein, so…

      • Pope Jimbo

        Probably?

        If everyone was honest, we’d be admitting that the Rona doesn’t spread outdoors at all. We get spikes in winter, the South gets them in summer because that is when people go inside because of the horrible weather.

        But I’m sure all the Rona Regulations will totes save the lives of those other 73 participants. I bet most of those racers were over 80, obese or immuno-compromised. That is the core demographic of people who like to race in arctic air for hundreds of miles.

      • Not Adahn

        the Rona doesn’t spread outdoors at all.

        From personal experience, I’m pretty sure it does. I started coming down with symptoms more than a week since the last time I was indoors with another human being.

      • Sean

        Maybe you caught it from a deer.

      • AlexinCT

        If you are french kissing them, then yeah, that’s a possibility

      • Not Adahn

        Well, Iorek did lick my face…

      • Pope Jimbo

        Please don’t tell me that you are saying that he shouldn’t be showing affection for his Deerie.

      • Fourscore

        Bambi, Bambi, how I luv ya.

        /In blackface

  16. Certified Public Asshat

    President of El Salvador continues to be based:

    This is Brussels, the administrative center of the European Union.And they dare to say El Salvador is a “dictatorship”? pic.twitter.com/rbpo5783r9— Nayib Bukele ?? (@nayibbukele) January 23, 2022

  17. Festus

    That “Biden as liability” story gives one pause. The last time that a sitting President helped the down-ballot in the midterms was in 2002 when G.W. was ramping up for war with Iraq. Both stupid and evil.

  18. Not Adahn

    NPR actually mentioned vaxport protests overseas. Narrative shift?

  19. Not Adahn

    I have a failure on a Swiss-made MFC. It’s a custom build-to-spec dealio. They have not responded to my request, even though they’ve had all day CH-timewise.

    I am disappointed in the little clockmaking gnomes.

    • Festus

      Who the heck has an hour to spare, KK? Keep them punchy! 😉

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        LOL – the show does break down into bite-size pieces, so you can pause & go back to it without losing too much.

  20. Pope Jimbo

    Has anyone heard from Mojeaux?

    I’m worried about her. I’m not sure I could have survived that game if the Vikings would have been involved.

    Taken for granted is the fact that any Glibs who were Bills supporters are now dead.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      We were all up live commenting the game in Glibfit. AFAIK she and Trigger Hippie are currently rocketing off into outer space together

      • AlexinCT

        Bezo’s cockrocket or some other medium?

    • Festus

      So happy that I divested nearly all interest in professional sports from the portfolio some years ago. I sleep better for it.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I’ve gotten much better at not caring about the stupid VIkings over the years, but in a game like that I know how badly I would have gotten sucked in.

        I still hurt from Favre’s throw across the body against the Saints. I thought that was the year. I ignored them most of the year, but by the end of the season and in the playoffs I thought we were the team with lightening in a bottle.

      • CPRM

        I still LOL at that. You guys were so jealous of us having Favre, but were to weak to deal his Go Big or Go Home style of play. I’d rather have that than Rodgers only attempting to throw 1 pass to a wide receiver that isn’t Devante Adams for an entire game.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I knew what we were getting with Favre, but he still made me believe. He probably won 3 games for the Vikes that year just because he was willing to throw balls into places no sane QB would.

        You could also make a strong case that Adrian Peterson’s fumbles cost them the Saints game.

        * Now we have Kirk Cousins who will eat a sack on the last play of the game rather than risk an interception in the end zone.

      • Drake

        Same here. I watched some of the Green Bay game out of boredom.

        I’m not saying that game was fixed. But if a game was fixed, that is what it would look like.

      • CPRM

        How so? The only part that can be controversial is the fumbles (GB TE catches the ball, takes three steps, it’s a fumble. 2 plays later SF WR catches the ball, takes three steps, it’s not a fumble) but other than killing GB’s momentum had no real impact.

      • Drake

        Just the whole vibe. GB scores easily on their first drive, then their offense just shuts down. Officials help it along towards the end.

      • robc

        Georgia Tech is trying hard to kill the last of my interest in spectator sports.

      • Nephilium

        There’s always this next year for the Browns!

      • TARDis

        Me too, Fes. I just now found out the Chargers moved. I don’t even watch professional ice skating and fisticuffs anymore. Half-heartedly watched the Bucs lose their crap while tossing darts in my basement.

      • CPRM

        When I started on radio in my second stint in college, I had to read sports scores on the air. I came to NBA score with the Oklahoma City Thunder, I stopped on air ,’huh…I did not know there was an NBA team in Oklahoma City…’ after a few more seconds of dead air while I grappled with this new fact I moved on.

    • robc

      I hold her exactly what would happen.

      Keep it within 3, get close, and let Butker do his thing.

      Done, done, and done.

  21. Not Adahn

    In today’s episode of “mongrels use whatever the fuck units we want” I saw a new version of the cleanroom environmental spec. I only remember the first three lines:

    Temp – 22 degC
    RF – 44%
    Vibration – 250uin/s

    I’m particularly fond of using a metric prefix with inches. And expressing vibration as a velocity.

    • Rat on a train

      millimile seems an appropriate measurement

    • db

      Vibration (at least in rotating equipment) can be measured in terms of frequency or amplitude, though. Really big stuff (like the 9,000 hp motors and fans I used to work with) were in “mils”–thousandths of an inch displacement–amplitude units. The smaller you get, the more likely you are to see velocity, or even acceleration units.

      For high speed turbine air compressors you often see displacement units as well, because at a given speed and load, an oil film bearing should operate with the shaft suspended on the film at a particular angular position around the bearing circumference. Same goes for really heavy equipment at relatively low speeds (say, 1200 rpm). In those cases you’re worried more about the indication that the shaft is moving to a position that could cause metal-to-metal contact rather than riding on the oil film, so displacement is really more important than acceleration. But you can always differentiate to get velocity or acceleration from displacement and time.

  22. Grumbletarian

    Re: NFL OT rules.

    I’ll say it: I like them. Some football nobody once said “Defense wins championships”. If you can’t stop the other team, you don’t deserve to win. Period. If neither team can stop the other, then at some point someone will get lucky. That’s how it is. As it is, the rules give each offense a chance if one team’s defense can just keep the other team out of the end zone. If that’s too much to ask, then tough shit. Go home and get better on D in the offseason.

    • WTF

      Then let’s also get rid of some of the rules favoring offense that make playing tough defense so much more difficult.

      • CPRM

        This too.

      • Pope Jimbo

        ^THIS^

        I enjoy watching good defense. Why does the NFL feel that people only want to watch points being scored?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Because most people call a 10-10 game “boring”. I don’t get it. I like defense, too.

      • The Last American Hero

        Many 10-10 games are boring. Not because there is great defense, but because their is very mediocre offense against OK defense.

        An exciting 10-10 game has lots of scoring opportunities that get shut down, and some big offensive plays. It also has the defense rob the offense and come up big when needed.

      • Rat on a train

        A 3-0 game can be enjoyable if it because of good defense not sloppy offense.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        The problem is that “sloppy” offense is usually a product of good defense. For example, Tampa Bay’s offense was “sloppy” for 3 quarters yesterday. However, the reason was obvious. They were thin on the O-line, and Brady wasn’t afforded enough time before LA’s elite pass rush got to him. As a result, most passes were made with unset feet and were inaccurate. The usual tactics for reducing the impact of the pass rush were taken away by how quickly LA accumulated a multi-score lead. Was TB playing like crap, or was LA taking advantage of the superiority of their elite D-line?

        On the other side of the ball, LA was “sloppy” in losing 4 fumbles, but a large amount of that can be attributed to Tampa Bay adjusting tackling style to the riskier arm tackles. The risk-reward played in their favor, with 4 fumbles more than offsetting a few missed/broken tackles. Was LA sloppy, or was TB very successful after a change in defensive tactics?

      • WTF

        Exactly. The talking heads are all bleating about the Buffalo – KC game being “the greatest playoff game EVAR!” but I just thought it sucked that there was hardly any defense and whoever had the last possession was all but guaranteed to win.

      • Pope Jimbo

        The end of that game epitomized what I hate about the NFL today.

        The players are all physical freaks. They are so big and strong. Unfortunately most of them don’t a) understand the game and b) love the game.

        The old timers in the NFL were usually guys who understood the game very well. They also needed second jobs in the offseason because the NFL paid them so little. They were there because the loved playing.

        I’m not sure the old timers would have looked so confused at the end of the game as those two D’s did. Letting a team get 45 yards in 2 plays in 10 seconds is unexcusable.

        That said, I don’t think any old timer team could compete with today’s teams. Just too big and too strong.

      • Mojeaux

        Shall we get off your lawn, Pontiff?

      • Pope Jimbo

        Naw, you are OK. Just don’t slop that “BBQ” sauce on the grass.

      • slumbrew

        I do too, but we’re in the minority; Superbowl LIII (Rams / Patriots – Pats 13, Rams 3) was the lowest-watched Superbowl in 10 years or so. Just an excellent job by both defenses.

      • Grumbletarian

        Works for me. I like the bump and run coverage DBs used to be able to do.

      • Count Potato

        WTF is “pass interference”? That’s like calling pitching baseball “hitting interference”.

      • Mojeaux

        Yeah, I’m not clear on that, either.

        Also, yes. The defense needs to have much more latitude.

        I saw a cartoon (which I wish I had kept) where the offensive line had to lay a mattress under the QB to sack him and still got called for roughing the passer. I get that they don’t want to damage the stars of the show, but still.

      • Grumbletarian

        Did LT get called for a penalty for destroying Joe Theismann’s leg?

      • Grumbletarian

        There needs to be some rules regarding that or DBs will just tackle WRs at the line of scrimmage..

    • CPRM

      Word up.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      What part do you like, that the regular season has different OT rules than the playoffs?

      • CPRM

        The only part that is different is that in the play-offs it can’t end in a tie. Kind of needs to be that for the play-offs, otherwise they can’t go forward.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I understand, but it is still inconsistent.

      • CPRM

        Well, that’s the unions fault, someone might get an owie if you play too long during the regular season.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      The game was won on the coin flip. Both defenses were gassed after a frenetic 4th quarter. The actual drive and score was a formality, and would’ve been equally perfunctory if the Bills had won the toss.

      That’s what’s annoying. The coin toss decided the outcome. If OT was structured where both gassed defenses were a liability, great! As it was, only the coin toss loser’s gassed defense was a liability.

      • rhywun

        This. What it boils down to is that the OT was not a fair test of both teams offense and defense.

      • Grumbletarian

        People had a point when a first drive field goal could win it. Now, not so much. If your defense can’t stop the other offense from driving the length of the field, tough shit.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Nope.

        The OT rules are fine. They made a tweak to require a TD to end the game instead of a FG which was good. Now the rules are fine.

        I’d be interested in the numbers, but I think most OT games are NOT decided in the first drive. I think that a lot of them are just FG or nothing.

        And if the D is too gassed to stop anyone, how is a college type OT better? Just have to watch both D’s (that are gassed) give up points until what? One offense gets so bored that they leave?

      • Festus

        Yup.

      • creech

        But wouldn’t that situation give one of the gassed defenses time to recover while its offense was on the field? Both gassed defenses can’t be out there are the same time. Maybe have a five minute break before starting overtime would work?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Yes and no. It’s not like another 5 minutes is going to make a defense fresh again. Incremental improvement. I don’t think you can make it exactly even Steven, but as it is, the coin flip is the primary determinant of who wins the game.

        As I wrote in the night thread last night, I’m in favor of an 8 point mercy rule in OT. As soon as a team accumulates an 8+ point lead, game over.

      • CPRM

        Statistically, it’s still a coin flip even with the coin flip:

        “In the NFL, 52.7 percent of teams winning the overtime coin toss (and receiving) win the game at some point in overtime, according to Ross Tucker of SiriusXM NFL Radio. In college football, the team that wins the coin toss (and defers) wins 54.9 percent of the time.”

        “If the rule is changed to assure both teams a possession, the team winning the coin toss still would have a huge advantage. It would defer so it could see what it had to match to stay in the game or what it had to do to win the game.”

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I’m highly skeptical of that star (it’s an article that links to an article that links to a tweet that states it as fact without support). Interestingly, the “source” article also cites data that from 2011-2019, 5/8 of the playoff overtime games were decided by an opening drive touchdown.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Taiwan needs nukes!
    South Korea needs nukes!
    Japan needs nukes!
    Argentina needs nukes! –wait, not those guys, they hate our friend. They’re not allowed. We can totally stop that.

    History repeats

    • Rebel Scum

      Grope Ukrainian tits?

      • The Last American Hero

        Nancy A nods.

    • Jerms

      Hey Q just saw in last nites thread you had asked me about the ostarine I was taking. So far Im not impressed. Been taking it for about a month, hitting gym pretty hard and dont see any muscle or strength gains. Was expecting a lot when I read up on these SARMS and saw comparisons to anabolic steroids. When I was a young man I did a few cycles and there is no comparison. 2 weeks of regular steroids and to feel and see a huge difference in strength and body composition. Gonna up my dose for the second month and see what happens.

  24. Rebel Scum

    And what an absolutely fantastic day it always is!

    Meh.

    • Festus

      Depends upon the time of day. I’m usually pretty jovial in the morning but it’s the afternoons that kill me dead.

  25. Festus

    Mornin’ Banjos! I like that tune and them three girls sure are purty!

  26. Rufus the Monocled

    /lifts head gingerly.

    Is Justin dead yet?

    • Festus

      He’ll bury us all, as was fortold.

    • R.J.

      Bieber? No. That was just a movie.

    • juris imprudent

      I wouldn’t know, I’m busy at work.

  27. Rebel Scum

    Donald Trump Sees 40-Point Lead in Hypothetical GOP Primary

    Clearly the GOP is a party of extremists that must be dealt with as terrorists.

  28. Rebel Scum

    WH pushing propaganda to get us into a conflict over Ukraine

    The *admin needs a war to distract from everything else.

  29. Old Man With Candy

    SP: We have the world’s most intelligent dog.
    Me: How so?
    SP: She apparently wrote your name in the snow during the night.

    • AlexinCT

      HAH HAHA!

    • Festus

      OMWC’s name is spelled “Asterisk Circle Dots”? I thought that my Parents were Way-out, man…

    • Pope Jimbo

      Well I hope that the handwriting matched Wonder Dog’s. Not the handwriting of that slutty poodle down the street.

    • Tres Cool

      Your name is “Dot” ?

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Never mind OT- I want the referees’ flow-destroying ten minute game delays for frame by frame analysis of replay video abolished.

    One replay at live action speed. If the call on the field was plainly wrong, change it. Otherwise, play on.

    Exhibit A: the Rams goal line fumble.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Your definition of fun and mine seem to differ.

    • AlexinCT

      MY EYES!! MY EYES!!

    • Urthona

      I think I saw Neovagina back in 94.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        no,that was just Hole,

      • Grumbletarian

        LOL

      • The Other Kevin

        They were in the Chicago leg of the Lilith Fair.

      • Festus

        Hopefully just in the knee-pit.

  31. Rebel Scum

    Ukraine slams Biden for withdrawing embassy staff as president considers sending up to 50,000 troops, warships and aircraft to NATO allies in the Baltics and Eastern Europe as fears grow over Russian invasion

    I guess we are overdue for a major European conflict.

    • The Last American Hero

      Look, our bold actions in SE Europe in the 90’s boosted Bill Clinton’s popularity. Joe is just taking a page from Bill’s playbook.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Time to bomb the Chinese embassy then?

    • Urthona

      Should be illegal for him to do so imo.

  32. Rebel Scum

    Tens of thousands gather in Washington to call for an end to Covid mandates

    Fascist insurrectionists.

    • juris imprudent

      Fascists for freedom!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      For simplicity, I now assume that all elementary school teachers are totalitarian assholes.

      • Festus

        Nah, just a little dull.

    • Pope Jimbo

      How much trouble if you sent your kid to picture day with an Al Jolson inspired Rona mask?

    • Not Adahn

      Yeah, their doodles aren’t wearing masks.

  33. Yusef drives a Kia

    I hate shoveling snow with a bad back, at least it’s powder,
    Hiowdy Glibs!

  34. UnCivilServant

    I hate it when shipping companies claim “A delivery attempt was made” when I’ve been sitting not ten feet from the damn door the whole time.

    No, no attempt was made. You didn’t stop by, you didn’t ring the doorbell, you didn’t knock. Hell you could just leave the damn box in the same spot you have for tha past half dozen.

    Stop lying.

    • Rat on a train

      Let me go review the recordings from the cameras. Nope, you bastards are lying.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Maybe it’s a new guy who tried to deliver it down the street. I’m Whatever Street N and I get that all the time even though my address is clearly marked. I’m even on good terms with my neighbor on the south side because sometimes they just leave the package at the wrong address.

      • l0b0t

        Amazon’s partners (FedEx, UPS, DHL, LaserShip, and USPS) almost never leave our packages on our porch; we always have to visit neighbors to retrieve them. Amazon’s own (new) fleet ALWAYS hits our porch and takes pictures of the package and porch that get sent to us to confirm delivery. They seem to have addressed whatever problems they were having here. Amazon even brought back their same day delivery for NYC on many items. The 1 hour delivery for NYC has not come back since the pandemic started.

      • Rat on a train

        I haven’t had problems with packages (Amazon, UPS, Fedex). It’s the USPS that periodically delivers mail to my address for a house on another street in a different community a mile away. The only connection is our numbers share the last 3 digits.

    • WTF

      Yeah, that shit grinds my gears too. I’ve had a couple of Amazon orders suddenly get canceled because “Undeliverable, attempted delivery unsuccessful”..
      Motherfuckers, I work from home, I’m here all day, and you’ve left literally hundreds of other deliveries at the door.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      We get a bunch of off-by-N errors here. In the dark, you can’t see the street numbers until you’re most the way up the sidewalk. Some of the Amazon goons don’t want to walk the extra 10 paces back down the sidewalk when they realize they’re at the wrong house.

      • R C Dean

        In the dark, you can’t see the street numbers until you’re most the way up the sidewalk.

        I saw this nifty new technology – a handheld, battery operated device that throws a beam of light. I know, will wonders never cease, right?

        They should look into getting some of those.

  35. The Other Kevin

    Snow’s coming down hard today. Be careful out there Glibs, those snow storms can be silent but deadly.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      the roads are Slick! and lots of powder blowing around, Stay Home!
      /already went to work and back

  36. LJW

    “Donald Trump Sees 40-Point Lead in Hypothetical GOP Primary”

    So 4 more years of another Democrat president.

  37. l0b0t

    I’m about to take the subway for the first time since 2013. I have to schlepp to downtown Brooklyn to visit the food stamp office. Pray for l0b0t.

    • PieInTheSky

      mind the gap

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      Dogspeed

    • Festus

      Well fuck that shit! says I.

  38. Pope Jimbo

    Unscientific Minnesoda GOP bastards

    Minnesota Republicans are turning to natural immunity from COVID-19 as a way to push back on vaccine mandates, arguing that hospitals, businesses and public institutions should consider past infection in exempting some from requirements.

    The idea is gaining traction in Republican-led legislatures around the country, despite pushback from public heath officials who say protection from infection varies dramatically from case to case. Studies show vaccines can cut the risk of infection even for those who have recovered from the virus.

    Vax Jabs are a floor polish and a dessert topping!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “varies dramatically”
      Huh, just like with the vaccines…

    • Rebel Scum

      exempting some from requirements

      No one should be “required”.

  39. Rebel Scum

    She seems nice.

    Karen the Faucist lost her marbles at Defeat the Mandates DC today. SAD!

    • AlexinCT

      Can you imagine having to have a relationship with that?

      • Pope Jimbo

        Someone should have tweaked her by pointing out that her moccasins were totes cultural appropriation.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        The Blair Witchlike children’s handprints on the side of the van is also a nice touch.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Could you imagine being married to that? Suicide or emigration would be the only outs.

      • juris imprudent

        I think you underestimate the plausibility of a justifiable homicide defense.

  40. Mojeaux

    13 seconds, motherfuckers. “What is how much time do you not allow Mahomes to have?”

    “When things are grim, be the Grim Reaper.”

    Still don’t like OT rules, though. I think a whole quarter should be played.

    • PieInTheSky

      I lost 2 goddamn dollars

    • WTF

      At the very least both offenses should be able to have a possession.

      • Rebel Scum

        ^

      • Mojeaux

        I don’t understand how that would work, to guarantee each team a possession unless the defense does its job on the first possession as is the point of the rule now. They won’t get it unless they can stop the other team from scoring, which…is no different than now.

        To me, the only way to guarantee both teams a possession is to play a whole new quarter.

      • Grumbletarian

        If the game is in overtime, both offenses have had their chances.

      • R C Dean

        I’d probably prefer that both offenses get the ball in OT, but this is very true. The Bills can’t really cry, because they had the lead with 13 seconds left, and lost it. Doesn’t sound like a championship team, to me.

        Its like my attitude toward bad calls late in the game. Those are gonna happen. If your lead can’t survive a bad call, you should have done better.

  41. wdalasio

    How about I pick a side that tries to do everything it can to *prevent* a civil war rather than stoking the fires?

    I completely agree on this. The only question is “how?” A return to a robust federalism might do it. But, I very strongly doubt that the progressives would go along with it. National divorce?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      At this point, barring a nuclear exchange, the tipping point will be the collapse of the dollar.

      • juris imprudent

        Yep, economic collapse will shut up the culture war bullshit. Ain’t no one gonna have time for that nonsense.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It won’t shut it up, it’ll entrench it. Rather than it being generic rhetoric about privilege and inclusion and equity, it’ll be “whitey is why you can’t feed your kids”. That tactic has worked every time it has been tried.

      • juris imprudent

        The culture war is about whitey against whitey. And as you said – worldviews, i.e. religion.

      • juris imprudent

        The whole thing is a product of prosperity and boredom.

        Take away prosperity and fill everyone’s time with the struggle to stay afloat – all of the idiot SJW stuff is out the window.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        The whole thing is a product of prosperity and boredom.

        I don’t think so. It’s an intentional division of our population, frequently by class and rural vs. urban. The apparent SJW claptrap is idiotic on the surface, the fracture lines underneath are real. I think stressing those fault lines will just make the differences stronger, as trsh notes.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It will be interesting to see how people align themselves. The typical SJW will be helpless in a situation of economic and social upheaval. They’re going to have to pick allies in order to survive.

      • Mojeaux

        class and rural vs. urban.

        Middle- and upper-middle classes and urbanites have more time and more money than rural. The poor urbanites don’t have more money, but they have time to agitate.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Take away prosperity and fill everyone’s time with the struggle to stay afloat – all of the idiot SJW stuff is out the window.

        I’m trying to think of any situation where economic collapse healed racial/class/social tensions. Maybe examples exist, but none are coming to mind.

      • juris imprudent

        But these aren’t racial, etc. tensions. They are quasi-religious. Those don’t ever heal – they just scab over.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Look on the bright side, the stress of managing your money will go out the window either way.

      • wdalasio

        I think quite the opposite. I think a collapse of the dollar / economic collapse would push things into an out-and-out civil war. I think everyone on both sides would be gearing up to take the collapse out on those other guys. I think we’ve arrived at the point where a lot of people are viewing other people as “useless mouths to feed” and a lot of people are seeing the problem with other people as “they won’t just shut up and do as they’re told”. I don’t think a massive rise in adversity is going to cool those resentments and brewing hatreds.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        But who wins?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Nobody

        Well, maybe the Amish.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I live in Amish country

      • Nephilium

        /starts growing the beard out more

      • juris imprudent

        Nope. All of the stupid BS from the Democrats is predicated on milking the tax cattle. Dry up that milk and they got nothing.

      • wdalasio

        Do you think they’re not going to respond by trying to milk those cattle a hell of a lot harder?

      • juris imprudent

        You watch what happens in California on the next economic downturn. Because the state tax system is so progressive, when high incomes catch a cold, the state gets pneumonia. Well, they’ve killed off the middle-class there, so they can’t broaden out the taxes. It’s just the rich and the poor. And the poor aren’t paying.

      • wdalasio

        Tipping point to civil war? Probably.

        The question, to me, though, is how do we not get there?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Too late.

        When you allow massive election fraud by Democrats, you cant have fair elections. Without fair elections where your side could win, whats the point of this Union? Arrest the Commies in America for treason against the US Constitution and ship them to China, Cuba, North Korea, or Russia. The Lefties clearly dont want the US Constitution to be the foundation of America, so there is no compromise anymore.

        If we cant even agree that the US Constitution is the supreme law, then what else is there to talk about.

        When corrupt mismanaged govt tries to take everything you have to buy loyalty to Communism, some people say enough is enough. That is when the bloodletting starts. Rule of Law keeps us from using Rule of THE STRONGER Man.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Lefties dont seem to understand the US Constitution protects them. When they destroy the US Constitution, there is nothing protecting them.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        If we cant even agree that the US Constitution is the supreme law, then what else is there to talk about.

        As I mentioned elsewhere, we’re past the point of good faith discussion. Everything now is about posturing to seize more channels of power.

        This is why “we” are losing. Too many constitutionalists are whinging about the rule of law while the fascists are busy skinsuiting corporation after corporation, school after school, and non-profit after non-profit.

    • Mojeaux

      I noped out right quick. After last night, my heart can’t take it.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Here it comes

    The Los Angeles Unified School District is prohibiting students from wearing only cloth face masks on campus as the country grapples with a continued surge of COVID-19 infections driven by the omicron variant.

    The district announced updated guidance on Friday requiring students to wear “well-fitting, non-cloth masks with a nose wire” both indoors and outdoors. Employees will have to wear surgical grade masks or higher.

    Students and employees will be able to get masks from the district if they need them.

    “Our in-school [coronavirus infection] rates have dropped but we are continuing to be diligent and agile in creating the safest learning environment,” district spokesperson Shannon Haber told the Los Angeles Times.

    The new policy takes effect on Monday, the newspaper reported.

    According to public health experts, the cloth masks common at the beginning of the pandemic may no longer be enough to prevent you from catching the highly contagious omicron variant. Instead, officials recommend an N95 or a similar high-filtration respirator for increased protection from the virus.

    We have been wrong all along. That’s why you should listen to us.

    • AlexinCT

      What’s the definition of insanity again?

      • PieInTheSky

        believing there are only 2 genders

      • AlexinCT

        Damn, you just won the internets today, dude…

      • Nephilium

        Denying the SCIENCE?

    • Grumbletarian

      N95 masks on everyone will make for an even lovelier yearbook.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Employees will have to wear surgical grade masks or higher.

      N95s apparently won’t work unless you have a good seal around the face (or so I am told).

      Has anyone every seen a surgical mask without two big gaps on the sides because of the inability to seal around the mouth?

    • Rebel Scum

      When in doubt, double down.

      It is beyond pitchfork time for the parents. Do better.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    The idea is gaining traction in Republican-led legislatures around the country, despite pushback from public heath officials who say protection from infection varies dramatically from case to case.

    No kidding. Now do “risk of infection”.

  44. Derpetologist

    Howdy. Nothing special to report, just wanted to say hello. Been busy with other things for the past few months.

    For all the Nihongo glibs, I present this parody of the Battle Hymn of the Republic:

    I hate these classes – Imperial Japanese Parody of Battle Hymn of The Republic
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeyfBurShd4

    The lyrics are comedy gold. Speaking of which, if you have a headline suggestion, maybe I can write a parody with it.

    • PieInTheSky

      new phone who this?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Hey Derpy. Long time no see.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Was thinking about you. Mike Rowe was bragging about a welder making six figures (aerospace welder) and the wife is asking why I don’t quit my job and career to go after that.

      https://youtu.be/sfFDa4LY5mA

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Sup Derpy!

    • Mojeaux

      Derpy! I was thinking about you the other day. How goes welding in Wyoming? (That could be a country song.)

      • Festus

        In the gloaming, in the gloaming, Derpy in Wyoming.

  45. slumbrew

    Wife is in a tizzy because someone we had dinner with on Saturday just had a positive home test. Joy.

    TBF, we’re supposed to go to her mom’s on Sunday to help mom out after she has (minor) knee surgery on Tuesday.

    But still, my wife is going to be spinning out, I suspect, despite her _just_ taking a PCR test at work.

    • PieInTheSky

      having negative covid test makes me feel like I have been sick for nothing

    • Pope Jimbo

      I feel for you brother.

      We had a third (or maybe fourth) hand “exposure” just before we went on our trip. Two weeks later, my wife is still worried that we are in danger.

  46. Rebel Scum

    Doubtful.

    Newt Gingrich said this morning that people serving on the J6 Committee are going to go to jail if Republicans take over Congress after the next election.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      That’d mess up their ability to unnecessarily investigate and frame their political opponents when they get power. Not gonna happen.

    • Festus

      That’s a load of bullshit.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    I’m about to take the subway for the first time since 2013.

    Keep away from the edge of the platform.

    • R C Dean

      Yup. Head on a swivel. Stay frosty.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Howdy.

    Howdy.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Howdy.

      • Rebel Scum

        Ahoy!

  49. Rebel Scum

    I, for one, am shocked.

    CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Friday announced the definition of fully vaccinated is being changed to include the Covid booster shot.

    “And what we are really working to do is pivot the language to make sure that everybody is as up to date with their Covid-19 vaccines and they personally could be based on when they got their last vaccine,” Walensky said.

    She continued, “So importantly right now, we are pivoting our language, we really want to make sure people are up to date. That means if you recently got your second dose, you are not eligible for a booster, you’re up to date. If you are eligible for a booster and you haven’t gotten it, YOU’RE NOT UP TO DATE and you need to get your booster in order to be up to date.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      As the COVID regime is collapsing in other countries, we’re doubling down.

      These people are evil.

    • juris imprudent

      I’ll consider taking another shot, as soon as you admit you lied to me about the first one.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, that’s a No from me, dawg.

    • R C Dean

      “Fully vaccinated” is now a legal term. If they really do use that magic language, then where there are vax mandates, they will include the booster. Walensky is careful not to use the magic language. Yet. This is a trial balloon, battlespace prep.

      I wonder if they will be able to push that over the line. Opposition is growing.

  50. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    After discovering a whole host of legal eagles on the Youtubes because of Rittenhouse, I’ve come to the conclusion the only one that I can stomach is Rekieta. The rest are a combo of a) douchebag and b) boring. Nierman (Good Lawgic) is especially irritating.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Sounds like law practice in general. Law attracts a large number of douchebags and personality deficient lumps.

    • db

      I’d agree, with the exception of Andrew Branca. He’s smart and funny. He does have a tendency to get into unnecessary arguments.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Cop-fellator Branca? No, thanks.

      • db

        I don’t know that I’d characterize him as a cop fellator. I think it’s fair to say he has a bias in favor of law enforcement, but I think his analyses are driven more by logic and knowledge of the law than by that bias.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        He’s gone after Malice twice now and got owned both times. He can be disregarded.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        He’s convinced cops won’t enforce any anti-2A laws. LOL. What a dick.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        LOL is right.

      • db

        That’s interesting, I hadn’t heard him say anything about that.

      • Ownbestenemy

        That reads like a lawyer that can point to specific laws/regulations that prohibit officers but fail to realize that the real world doesn’t operate like that.

        Similar to a design choice by an engineer versus a technician that will be fixing it and the end user that is using it. The concept doesn’t always flow perfectly.

      • slumbrew

        no one said fascist

        you’re sundowning and remembering storming Normandy as a teen

        That’s the way to convince people who are more or less on your side – childish insults (“hurr-durr, you’re old”)

      • db

        I don’t know a whole lot about Malice, but I think I know enough not to base my opinion of another person’s worth based on what Malice says about them on Twitter.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        The “law of self defense” guy picks fights on twitter and eventually falls to “hey, why is he after me, I have fewer followers?”

      • juris imprudent

        That was really good. They extended the deal they are in court claiming is discriminatory. I love his puzzlement. As though they were really fighting over a principle.

    • Rebel Scum

      Rekeita is good. I also like that Canadian fellow.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    Los Angeles recorded more than 39,000 new COVID cases on Saturday amid its highest spike in cases so far during the pandemic over the last couple weeks, though deaths remained far below what they were last winter.

    The country’s second-largest school system also requires weekly COVID-19 testing of all students and employees, and they must present a negative test to come onto campus.

    Just as long as they demonstrate no inclination or ability to think for themselves. That would be disastrous.

    • Rebel Scum

      Critical thinking is sedition. Just trust the experts.

  52. PieInTheSky

    ☭ Lucha (he/him) ☭ DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!
    @luchaliberation
    Marxism-Leninism-Maoism embodies a qualitative leap from Marxism-Leninism to a more advanced, higher-developed, ideological stage. To be socialists today necessarily demands that we be Marxist-Leninist-Maoists.

    https://twitter.com/luchaliberation/status/1485273605814554625

      • AlexinCT

        MOAR DEAD PEOPLEZ!

    • kbolino

      Mao Zedong is a brutal schemer whose only accomplishment is a body count next to Chiang Kai-shek and Deng Xiaoping.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That appears to be his appeal.

      • kbolino

        Mao apologists are like Stalin apologists or Pol Pot apologists, in reality, they would be put up against the wall and shot, but yet simp for them anyway.

      • kbolino

        Clarification: What I was saying is that Deng (ideologically) and Chiang (martially) created modern China. Mao is just a co-conspirator/antagonist who takes far too much credit.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        I was in China just after Deng died. The atmosphere was creepy. They broadcast footage of his widow dumping his ashes out of an airplane over and over and over.

      • kbolino

        Creepy but probably at least somewhat sincere. China at Deng’s death is an emerging world power; China at Mao’s death was on the brink of another civil war.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    So importantly right now, we are pivoting our language

    I’ll give you something to pivot on.

  54. PieInTheSky

    Danny Bate
    @DannyBate4
    Two brilliant Old English compound words:

    ealusċop ~ ‘ale-poet’
    glēoman ~ ‘entertainer’ (literally ‘glee-man’)

    These two appear together in a law against any priest who “oferdruncen lufiġe” (‘may love to overdrink’) or becomes “glīman oððe ealasċop” (‘a jester or an ale-poet’).

    https://twitter.com/DannyBate4/status/1485343691418095623

    • Swiss Servator

      So, the modern version of Ale-poet would be a Karaoke singer, right?

  55. The Late P Brooks

    How about some clear thinking about what is to be gained or lost?

    Fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are growing, as the military buildup at the border shows no sign of dissipating and crisis talks remain at an impasse.

    As the U.S. and U.K. respond with threats of sanctions and more, and withdraw diplomatic staff from their embassies in Kyiv, analysts are questioning whether the West can actually deter Russia, and just how far Western allies are willing to go to defend the country.

    “While Russia continues to send additional troops and weaponry to the Ukraine border, there seem to be some divisions among the Western allies about how to respond,” Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy and Middle East and North Africa research at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note Sunday evening.

    Let’s just stick to empty-headed posturing and bluster.

    • Drake

      It’s all so stupid. We could no more stop Russia from biting off a piece of eastern Ukraine than they could stop the U.S. from annexing Tijuana.

      Maybe it’s time for the CIA to retire the whole “color revolution” act. It’s getting old.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        What happened in Kazakhstan a couple of weeks ago may have convinced Putin this is inevitable and needed. We’ll find out soon enough I think.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That would mean arrogant twats like Victoria Nuland and her husband, Robert Kagan, don’t get to implement their insane plan to neuter Russia permanently by encircling them with pro-Western militaries.

        To date, I’ve heard no reason why any of this was ever necessary. Particularly since we started this effort over two decades ago when Russia was zero threat to anyone outside of their status as a failed state and the instability that brings.

        It seems to be a global vanity project for the DC nomenklatura.

      • Drake

        It’s fucking idiotic. The commie-globalists in western governments just want revenge for the Russians giving up on communism and reverting to nationalism. A rational foreign policy would have been working to pull Russia into closer ties with the West as a counterweight to Chinese expansion.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        It’s like they want to recreate the conditions that brought Hitler to power. The USSR collapsed. Economy was miserable. Rapid cultural changes, often seen as degenerate. Bring in a strongman. Let’s poke and prod him so he can show his people that they are victims of a global conspiracy. That will be great.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Divide and conquer.

        If the World is relatively peaceful and trading steadily to become wealthier, why do we need these large militaries and lots of bureaucrats?

      • juris imprudent

        What’s even more mind-blowing was how Obama played the “80s called and want their foreign policy back” and the leap now to Democrats treating Russians like Birchers did (just without calling them communists).

    • Rebel Scum

      Needs more red lines.

  56. Rebel Scum

    This is still happening.

    Taiwan on Sunday reported the largest incursion since October by China’s air force in its air defense zone, with the island’s defense ministry saying Taiwanese fighters scrambled to warn away 39 aircraft in the latest uptick in tensions.

    Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained for more than a year of repeated missions by China’s air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.

    Taiwan calls China’s repeated nearby military activities “grey zone” warfare, designed to both wear out Taiwan’s forces by making them repeatedly scramble, and also to test Taiwan’s responses.

    The latest Chinese mission included 34 fighters plus four electronic warfare aircraft and a single bomber, the Taiwan ministry said.

    • Urthona

      So are Russia and China the axis?

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Interesting article in the WSJ not too long ago about how apathetic the population and military of Taiwan is about a Chinese invasion. According to the article, neither really cares about the threat and thinks the US will be there to rescue if actually needed.

      On the flipside, I’ve been reading about how 1/3 of Ukraine is prepare to resist a Russian invasion through guerilla tactics. Quite the contrast in narratives and am not sure if either represents reality.

  57. Rebel Scum

    Dishonest cunte is dishonest and cuntey.

    A former Speaker of the House is threatening jail time for members of Congress who are investigating the violent January 6 attack on our Capitol and our Constitution.

    This is what it looks like when the rule of law unravels.

    As if you people give a rats ass about anything to do with constitutionally limited government. I hope you are scared.

  58. Sensei

    Newark flight turns back after passengers refuse to leave business class

    Insert (((comments))) here.

    I’m not sure who I dislike more in this story. The jackassess that wouldn’t leave the business class seats they didn’t pay for or the airline whose only solution to the issue was to turn the plane around and inconvenience everyone else on the flight. Welcome to post 9/11 post COVID flying.

    • Urthona

      Although what if they had given in? Would that encourage future squatting?

      • Rat on a train

        Arrest at destination? Ban from future flights?

      • Not Adahn

        Yup. Theft of services charges + permaban.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Too simple a solution.

        Got to make it difficult for everybody, otherwise what’s the point?

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      One word. Ejection seats.

  59. The Late P Brooks

    John Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told CNBC on Monday that he thinks the West must “push back hard against Kremlin aggression” — and to do it sooner rather than later.

    “We’ve tried appeasement with Putin. We tried it in 2008 when he went into Georgia, and suffered almost no consequences. We tried it with Crimea, where he also suffered almost no consequences,” he said.

    Herbst said that U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposed framework if Russia escalates in Ukraine — additional sanctions, sending weapons to Ukraine and the deployment of more NATO forces to Russia’s border — was reasonable, but “not sufficiently active.”

    “Let’s you and him fight.”

    Fuck you, you bloodthirsty parasite.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      We tried it with Crimea

      It’s not like Sevastopol hasn’t been under Russian control for over two centuries or anything like that.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      We could try loosening restrictions on domestic energy production, but I guess that’s out of the question for some reason.

    • juris imprudent

      Putin is about as likely to “suffer consequences” as you are asshole. Lots of other people will suffer, but not you, or him.

  60. DEG

    Mornin’

    This morning was a decent gym day. I came back to find out I won a rifle on GunBroker. Work is getting off to a nice start.

    I don’t know how I got on Helios Press’ mailing list, but somehow I did. This morning I received a mail announcing a kickstarter on a book about Cuban cigars.

  61. Rebel Scum

    “I’m a moron.”

    At the “Defeat The Mandates” Rally counter-protesters were there to defend “the science”.

    A woman who shares she’s dealing with a vaccine injury says she’s waiting to heal so she can get her booster.

    • Ownbestenemy

      She is, but she has been told over and over that this is normal and she is speaking to normalize it.

    • Sean

      ROFLMAO.

  62. l0b0t

    I’m happy to report that despite the PA system constantly reminding us, I’m not the only unmasked person on this train. There are 5 of us scofflaws in this roughly 20 person car.

    • Sensei

      Just avoid the subway.

      The crazies have now moved into Manhattan which means at this point they may be forced to acknowledge the problem. However, acutally dealing with the homeless won’t be the solution. My expectation is a$1bn dollar or more multiyear program to put up barriers and make trains run late.

      Man pushed onto subway tracks in Lower Manhattan

      • rhywun

        Meh, we’re still nowhere close to the levels of violence and crime that was normal as late as the late nineties when I arrived here.

        By all means it’s worth discussion but the amount of panic coming out of the media is a little excessive IMHO.

      • Sensei

        True enough. I came in the early 90s.

        However, that crime was generally robbery. In this case it’s just craziness. Which means it’s more random and during daytime.

    • rhywun

      Which train?

      • l0b0t

        A from Rockaway Beach to Hoyt Schemerhorn. Phone hasn’t list signal at all yet.

      • rhywun

        Interesting. The last time I took the subway (early summer) the only unmasked were the types you don’t want to look in the eye.

  63. Mojeaux

    Just put in a ginormous bid for a ginormous ebook project. Fingers crossed.

    • Festus

      Yay!

      • Festus

        Do well!

    • PieInTheSky

      you should make an NFT of your ginormous bid and sell that as well

    • DEG

      Good luck!

    • rhywun

      ??

  64. hayeksplosives

    This friggin biological warfare u leashed by China is taking its toll.

    My entire team is at home sick this week. The ones who bothered getting tested are all COVID positive. Fortunately they are all young and will very likely bounce back immediately.

    But the contagiousness of this thing is downright alarming, and we are losing a lot of money and schedule right now.

    • Urthona

      You’ll all be immune for like a year shortly though. at least.

    • Sean

      You should have worn yer mask!

      • hayeksplosives

        Very funny, Karen.

        In all seriousness, I did stay home last week because I knew if I went out I’d likely transmit it to others. My husband seems to be about 2-3 days behind me but has the exact same illness.

        Many stores here in town ran out of bench depth and options and just closed their doors for the week.

        If the Chinese CP didn’t do this on purpose this time, by God they sure have the template for bringing us to our knees next time.

      • Ownbestenemy

        This is why I am torn between “stay home if you are sick/suck it up/its just a sniffle” thought versus “stay home, really” Because I believe that if we were doing this for the past 100 years what we are doing now, it would look the same.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        If the Chinese CP didn’t do this on purpose this time, by God they sure have the template for bringing us to our knees next time.

        My dad has been saying the exact same thing since April 2020. You don’t even need all that sophisticated of a bio weapons program. Just graft some proteins onto a cold virus and do the rest of the job through your propaganda arm.

  65. creech

    Just talked to a buddy who is friends with a Philly baseball sportscaster. Said sportscaster thinks football should adopt the baseball extra inning rules.
    Away team goes on offense first. Then home team gets their chance at offense (and always gets last chance if away team scores). Play on until
    home team can’t match score by away team or beats their score.

    • CPRM

      So…whats the free base now for football?

      • creech

        Starting at the 30 yard line instead?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      During my visit, I saw some customers shake hands with their waiter, as if to say: “Thanks, I’ll have some germs for dessert,” Josh Freed writes.

      These people are mentally broken (not the Floridians).

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I was going to post that quote…glad they put it at the top, saved me the trouble of reading further.

    • rhywun

      Auto-launch video = immediate banishment

      But I like how it starts with an admission that he wants freedom.
      Sounds like he can’t handle it.

  66. Sensei

    Connecticut father accused of launching racist tirade in smoothie shop

    I understand why he was upset, but the reaction was way over the top.

    From a work related perspective he can find another shop, but I’m guessing he is going to lose a ton of AUM. The financial impact for him is a going to be much greater than anything the state can likely do to him.

    • Count Potato

      “Remorseful Merrill Lynch banker who was arrested and fired for racist, drink-throwing tirade at smoothie store worker reveals his son, 17, stopped breathing and collapsed after staff ‘prepped his drink with peanut butter despite being asked not to’

      A Merrill Lynch VP arrested and fired after branding a smoothie shop worker an ‘immigrant loser’ said he was ‘out of his mind with fear’ after staff sickened his allergic son by using peanuts in a smoothie – despite him asking them not to.

      James Iannazzo, 48, was arrested on charges of intimidation based on bias, breach of peace and criminal trespass Saturday after his fit of rage at Robeks on 2061 Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield, Connecticut, was caught in video. He was also filmed hurling the drink at the smoothie shop worker named Gianna Miranda.

      He was also fired from his job as a vice president of wealth management at Merrill Lynch – where he had worked since 1995 – after the clip was widely-shared.”

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10433581/Connecticut-man-arrested-filmed-going-racist-tirade-Robeks-smoothie-store.html

      It sounds like everyone in the story was wrong. Although if someone’s negligence almost kills a member of someone’s family, a bit of ruckus and name-calling isn’t much of an overreaction.

      • Sensei

        Depends how the drink was “tossed”. If it was actually tossed at a person that works there that should qualify as assault.

        The hate crime part is tougher. I don’t think the assault came about because of race, despite the slurs.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I often say that since racism is defined as you believing that your race is better than all other races, most insults that are racial in nature are words that are designed to get a rise out of the target. Not that the insulter really believes their race is better than the race of the insultee.

        Effectively saying something you dont really mean in the heat of chest beating to elicit a chest beating by the other party.

      • kbolino

        Proper result: all charges except “breach of peace” dropped, sentence is a small fine and some community service

      • Sensei

        The work related fall out from this will be tough to overcome. He’s essentially self employed. When you are forced to change shops you lose lots of assets. Add to that the headlines here and you are going to lose clients as well. So that’s a twofer.

      • kbolino

        There’s a part of me that is being nudged towards French-style employment (under which system he would not have been fired), but it requires keeping EU sellouts like Macron out of power, so it’s a fragile ecosystem.

      • rhywun

        So, it sounds like “immigrant loser” was the extent of the “racism” – which led to widespread media attention because “racism”, and to job loss because of the attention to the “racism”.

        I’m wondering if the same reaction – minus the “racism” – would have led to ruining his life.

      • slumbrew

        I was wondering about that as well – the “racism” was just “immigrant loser”? What if the guy was an Irish immigrant? Would that be racist?

        Narrator: it’s all racism

  67. Festus

    Whelp, I need to bow out. Last night was one of the most physically trying at the job chores that I’ve ever encountered. I just want to sit up and drink more beers with you wonderful people but a paycheck is a paycheck. Good tidings to every last God-forsaken one of you and know that in your hearts, I lurve all of you at least a little. Even you, Hype.

  68. CPRM

    Swissy, I plan to drop some stuff tonight, so keep an eye out.

    • rhywun

      It depends on how ruthless DA Tish becomes when she starts angling for the job for real. After she’s done taking down Trump and Wall Street, of course.

    • Pope Jimbo

      be caught in some lesbian sex scandal?

      Sounds like a fishy accusation to make

    • TARDis

      I miss the old soothing spikes in crime.

    • rhywun

      “NO RADIO” signs

      • slumbrew

        I remember people carefully checking to make sure that any bags left in the car had their contents fully visible, so nobody would smash a window in case there was anything valuable in there.

        Heck, I remember windows smashed and luggage stolen regularly.

    • Rebel Scum

      That’s just part of city living. – Seth Rogan

  69. The Late P Brooks

    It’s a mystery

    What’s driving the spike in air rage incidents?

    ——-

    The surge in problem flyers is causing headaches for carriers, passengers and airline employees.

    “Unfortunately I’ve been able to see two of these in person and it’s very unnerving. When somebody freaks out on an airliner, there’s no 911 to call, nobody’s coming to your aid, it’s scary,” said Andrew Thomas, associate professor of marketing and international business at the University of Akron.

    ——-

    “It’s been very, very difficult for flight attendants. This has been the most troubling and the most stressful time in the course of my career and I think really in the course of all of aviation,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents around 50,000 flight attendants across over a dozen airlines, including United, Spirit and Frontier.

    In an attempt to curb the wave of violent passenger incidents the FAA launched a zero-tolerance policy. The agency can propose fines up to $37,000 per violation for passengers who engage in unruly behavior.

    So what impact is the rise in chaotic and sometimes violent behavior aboard planes having on the nation’s carriers and flight crews?

    In a rational universe, the airlines would all go broke and those stewardesses would find new careers giving handjobs in truck stop bathrooms.

    • rhywun

      Surely they can come up with some means of making flying even more unpleasant.

    • R C Dean

      the FAA launched a zero-tolerance policy. The agency can propose fines up to $37,000 per violation for passengers who engage in unruly behavior.

      I’d be interested to read the statutory grant of authority to the FAA that allows that.

      And what are the consequences for refusal to pay? If they include arrest and jail, do we really want administrative agencies to impose new criminal laws?

      • juris imprudent

        Hmm, what constitutional power was involved in that again?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Article F, Clause Y, Section T, Subsection W. which amends the “What are you going to do about it now” Accords that were ushered in during Reconstruction.

  70. Rebel Scum

    Something sprouting off in Brussels.

    Videos captured by RT France journalist Charles Baudry show police officers in riot gear blocking streets with barricades and deploying water cannons to disperse the crowds.

  71. Rebel Scum

    Not the Bee.

    CNN’s @brianstelter visits a classroom in New York where students are learning how to spot and avoid being misled by misinformation.