Wednesday Morning Links

by | Mar 16, 2022 | Daily Links | 367 comments

Good morning my Gibs and Gliberinas! And what a lovely day is always is!

 

Senate passes bill to make daylight saving time permanent, thanks for doing something, but I would much prefer the AZ world of just simply not having DST.  I Don’t want the sun rising at 8am in the winter.

 

Senate Votes To Repeal CDC Mask Mandate For Public Transportation

 

Producer Price Index hits 10% increase

 

Federal Reserve expected to hike interest rates this week, you’ll need Volckeresqe interest rates to stop this disaster, but that would cause the house of cards to finally collapse

 

Stagflation Signal: Empire State Manufacturing Survey Turns Negative

 

Saudi Arabia considers accepting yuan for oil sales

 

Migrant encounters at southern border in February surged 63% over last year

 

Putin is a man after my own heart.

 

Romney’s “Treason” Smear of Tulsi Gabbard is False and Noxious, But Now Typifies U.S. Discourse

 

Idaho legislature passes bill banning abortion after six weeks, emulating Texas law

 

She is a national treasure.

 

That’s all I got for this morning.  I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.

About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

Wife of sloopy, mother to three bright, curious, and highly active young girls. Perpetually exhausted.

367 Comments

  1. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

  2. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The Fed is trapped for real this time. I don’t see a way out of the predicament (well one that doesn’t bone ordinary Americans good and hard.)

    • juris imprudent

      What is it about boning ordinary Americans that makes it a predicament, and not an opportunity?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Depends on your perspective.

      • juris imprudent

        Exactly, I’m not sure there is a predicament at all for the elite.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Because you rarely get to pitch, but you always get to catch?

      • juris imprudent

        Managing to break the dollar’s hold on being the world reserve currency puts Biden in a whole ‘nother category.

      • waffles

        He hit all the expected bads in his first 9 months. Now he’s overachieving.

      • Compelled Speechless

        To be fair, the dollar’s position as the world’s reserve currency has been in jeopardy starting long before Biden. The Fed has been practicing the same discretion that Hasbro does when it prints monopoly money to prevent inflation. The complete and utter lack of reasonable leadership and accountability in economics has been a true bipartisan project.

        The real question is, are the people in charge really this stupid or are they trying to cause a collapse that they think they can capitalize on (i.e. be able to introduce a programmable digital currency?)

      • Rebel Scum

        No more Biden Bucks? C’mon, man. Government print and spend policies don’t create – uh – you know the thing.

    • Animal

      Fed Chairman STEVE SMITH?

  3. gbob

    You know it’s going to be a sucky news cycle when Mittens shows up in two different stories. Obama was terrible, but thank the gods below that Romney didn’t win that election.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s weird finding myself thankful that Milquetoast Mitt didn’t win. What an utter piece of crap he turned out to be.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He’s just an older whiter Obama with and R next to his name. If he’d been in charge right after Sandy Hook he would have folded and provided the Reps in the house and senate cover to do the same and, yes, thank God he lost.

      • tarran

        Yep, as governor of MA he signed the law making the ‘assault’ weapons ban permanent.

        I think deep down he knows that most people hold him in contempt, and it bothers him greatly, prompting his increasingly unhinged behavior.

      • R.J.

        He has been handed a list of priorities from the radical wing of the party, and has been told to implement them regardless of cost. He could care lesa, he knows he is a one term president.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I have very little confidence that Biden knows more than what the teleprompter says right now.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ??

        He really is an empty suit.

      • Compelled Speechless

        He’s not a completely empty suit. I imagine the colostomy bag takes up quite a bit of room.

      • Sean

        *face palm*

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He’s a Class A sack of shit.

      • Pope Jimbo

        At this point, I find it easier to reconcile the citizens of Utah’s belief in Mormonism, than their voting in Mittens.

    • Loveconstitution1789

      It was clear what McCain’s and Romney’s true colors were a long time ago. RINOs who are actually Democrats that have been tasked or chosen to destroy the GOP from the inside out. Im sure there are DINOs who are actually Republicans but cannot get elected in Democrat territory, but I cant think of any.

      Its why one of Trump’s greatest feats was getting the Democrat Party to implode. Trump’s appeal to more and more Americans caused a mass exodus from the Democrat Party not seen since Ronald Reagan. The Democrats chose to embrace the few remaining groups like actual Commies and Communist sympathizers to lead the Party of slavery. We now have ample evidence that the Democrat Party is a criminal syndicate and more Americans are fighting back.

      Had McCain or Romney won, they would have extended the political elite lie by decades. Obama showed America that actual Commies are trying to destroy America and you have to pick a side or a side will pick you.

  4. Tonio

    “The other federal party leaders — interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and Green Party parliamentary leader Elizabeth May — have been told they can’t set foot on Russian soil.”

    Their loss.

  5. The Late P Brooks

    The U.S. Senate passed a resolution Tuesday that would end the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) mask mandate for air travel and public transportation.

    So close. Get back to me when it’s The U.S. Senate passed a resolution that would end the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The CDC should be officially renamed the The Flat Earth Society For Public Health

      • Plisade

        Nice!

      • Compelled Speechless

        I think you could sell that shirt and make a mint.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Rand/Massie 2024
        Or flip it, I don’t care.

      • db

        I think Massie is actually a little better in terms of public persona. Rand can be the bulldog in background, and as President of the Senate he’d probably rock.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I like Paul but he’s a little too surly to secure the soccer mom vote.

      • Compelled Speechless

        I like the sound of it. If the last two years have taught you anything, it should be that they don’t care about the rules we setup to prevent them from being tyrants. All sorts of things they did already WERE explicitly illegal and no one has even so much as paid a fine. Write down all the laws you want, they know full well that as long as there’s no one to enforce it, you may as well be writing suggestions on a napkin.

  6. The Late P Brooks

    The Daily Caller contacted the CDC about the vote to which they did not immediately respond.

    Sobbing is a response.

    • Tonio

      I think “immediately” is the key, here. Sometimes news orgs learn about events only a few minutes before airtime.

      OTOH, Greenwald (or someone similar) recently called out a shitbag journo for sitting on something for hours and deliberately contacting the source just before airtime/presstime and reporting that the source did not reply.

    • Sean

      You’re not my supervisor.

    • TARDis

      Not Tittypussy?

    • Rat on a train

      I hope they go with Orangehead.

      • Fatty Bolger

        That’s a dog whistle for Trump supporters.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Obviously. They might as well have him holding up the “okay” hand sign and give him a tee shirt that says “honk”. And klan robes. Because all of these things are exactly the same.

      • juris imprudent

        Yep, just like Jews, Asians and Mexican-Italian Catholics are now welcome in the Klan.

      • TARDis

        Sure. Just make in the shape of a mushroom.

    • rhywun

      Is “FHYIYBHKYJHOXKB6WOSJ3HAZRI” the identity group it belongs to?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Missing the ‘+’ at the end.

    • tripacer

      I assume College McCollegeface is in there somewhere

      • slumbrew

        I was assuming Mascot McMascotface

  7. Rat on a train

    Why it matters: If the legislation clears the House and is signed into law by President Biden, it will mean Americans will no longer have to change their clocks twice a year.

    Which was always an option. Each state could opt out of DST (Arizona, Hawaii).

    • Bobarian LMD

      Indiana used to… Don’t know why they quit.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    I’m sure the “Dissent is not Treason” liberals will be along shortly to give Mittens a severe tutt-tutting

    • Rat on a train

      “Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism” is so 2006.

      • db

        It made a comeback in 2016

      • Rat on a train

        But she lost.

      • db

        Resist!

  9. Not Adahn

    You know, I’m starting to doubt the sincerity of our Hollywood Celebrity betters. I don’t think I’ve seen a single one of them wearing a blue and yellow ribbon. Have you?

    • Festus

      Nope. Mostly licking the CCP’s starfish.

    • Pope Jimbo

      The lack of blue and yellow ribbons is what keeps all those Russian troops in the trenches going.

      “C’mon Boris! Of course we are doing the right thing. You don’t see Mark Ruffalo wearing a ribbon to support Ukraine do you? That should tell you that we are on the right side of history!”

  10. Not Adahn

    I Don’t want the sun rising at 8am in the winter.

    Oh you sweet southern latitude child.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      How long until school schedules/etc shift an hour later eliminating that “extra” hour of afternoon sun?

    • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

      Heh.

      In Edmonton, with Mountain Standard Time in place, the sun rises at 8:48 A.M. on the shortest day of the year, and we go nearly 17 hours without daylight. You go to work in the dark, and come home in the dark.

      I couldn’t care less about “permanent DST.”

  11. Rebel Scum

    Saudi Arabia considers accepting yuan for oil sales

    So it begins.

    • Trigger Hippie

      So we’re going to war with the house of Saud next? I mean isn’t the drive away from the petrodollar the same reason why we toppled Gaddafi?

      • Brawndo

        That’s the most likely real reason. With how much of a joke our military is becoming, it won’t be long before someone tries to do what Gaddafi did, and if we blink, it’s all over. We’ve abused the dollar too much for too long. Not that the yuan is any better

      • Drake

        China, India, and Russia are doing it right now and there isn’t a thing we can do to stop them short of nuclear war. Once that damn has completely collapsed, smaller countries will follow and the dollar may as well be the rupee. Time to see if all that gold supposedly at Fort Knox is real and not leveraged.

      • Compelled Speechless

        I’m sure that dastardly Trump raided Fort Knox so he could plate every toilet at his resorts. That scamp!

      • R C Dean

        Time to see if all that gold supposedly at Fort Knox is real and not leveraged.

        Narrator; Its all leveraged. What’s left of it.

      • waffles

        We’d be fine if that stupid MI6 agent hadn’t stopped Goldfinger from irradiating all the gold back in the 60s.

      • R C Dean

        The open issue, and its one that I gather has been getting some thought since the Big Dump of ’08, is what will replace the dollar as the reserve currency? I don’t have any idea what a plausible candidate would be, but central bankers aren’t stupid, believe it or not. They are absolutely thinking about their backup plan.

        My understanding: Central bank holdings of a reserve currency are basically money that isn’t moving – it has no velocity and doesn’t contribute to inflation in that currency. When they dump their reserve holdings of the dollar, the dollar will begin to inflate – how much, I don’t know. But the reserve currency is a way of exporting inflation. My understanding is that other countries have to buy dollars in amounts necessary to clear their transactions, so as we print more and dollar-denominated prices go up, they have to buy more, increasing their reserves and thus forcing an increase in the amount of their currency – inflation. When we start importing that reserve currency because its being dumped for the new reserve currency, we will be importing the inflation that we previously exported. And we will lose a major buffer against inflation.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Something something chickens something something roost.

        I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve spent almost a century abusing the rest of the world in every possible way and that we’ve only gotten away with it because we’re the biggest of the bullies. I don’t want to be around when that changes.

      • Brawndo

        Thanks for going in depth there, I’m not an expert on the finer details of how all that works, but it explains why we didn’t experience 80% inflation even though we increased the money supply by that much.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Of course. We were always going to go to war with the Sauds next. Our modern military policy is to spend decades arming an ally to the teeth and training them how to topple other governments and then wait for them to step out of line so we can have a decades long entanglement with them that’s only possible because of said arms and training we provided.

      • Brawndo

        I wonder if that means we’ll stop arming them in their genocide in Yemen. Stop laughing!

  12. Festus

    I wanna go to that beach party just so that the girls will trip me up in the sand and puppy love me. I wouldn’t fight back very much.

  13. Not Adahn

    She is a national treasure.

    Does this mean I get to post more youtube clips in response to Philistines that don’t appreciate the voice of the bountiful-breasted nightingale?

    • MikeS

      No.

    • Festus

      Dolly’s voice is an acquired taste, much like Allison Krause. I don’t love Dolly’s music but I do admire her warmth and good-will. She’s stands and delivers. Allison is amazing.

      • hayeksplosives

        I feel that way about Reba. I don’t like country music, but that woman is an awesome person and the pride of Oklahoma.

      • Pine_Tree

        OK, I gotta say something: country’s what I usually listen to, but if Reba comes on (any song), I change the station.

        It’s her voice. Always. The worst thing on the radio.

        The only other voice I 100% turn away from is Chris Stapleton – new guy – super-whiney.

        Zack Brown gets shut down just because I despise the lyrics of every single song he’s ever done.

        There.

      • Pine_Tree

        And Brown’s other thing is that he pronounces “th” as “d” all the time… Sounds trashy.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Chris Stapleton’s voice is growly, not whiney. It’s vocal distortion and it sounds awesome. His is about the only voice in country I really like.

      • Not Adahn

        *Kristin Chenowith looks around for a box to stand on so she can look Reba in the eye*

      • Not Adahn

        Pride of Broken Arrow*

        *honestly there were quite a few hotter and better singers when I was at BAHS.

      • Festus

        Thanks a bunch for making me me cry in my cereal a little. That’s a lovely version of one of my favorite songs.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Good pick. I had to check the roster, it’s super old but Chris Thile shows up (back when Nickel Creek was a thing) so this does qualify as a true all-stars of bluegrass. Also, Bruce Hornsby makes an appearance! He’s one of the most underrated musicians of all time. FIGHT ME!!!

    • Pope Jimbo

      I’ve told the story before, but I don’t have anything original or smart to say so I’ll repeat myself:

      Years ago, Dolly, was going to headline WeFest (big time country rock festival in my hometown of Detroit Lakes, MN). As part of her act she wanted a chorus of local women to back her up on a few songs.

      So her people came to a small town and started forming a chorus. Of course there was all sorts of the usual small town sniping and backstabbing. Mom managed to weedle her way onto the chorus and got to go to all the rehearsals.

      Then the big day came and Dolly’s people cut their mics and played some professional choir through the speakers.

      Local ladies were not amused. If you ever visit my hometown, do not speak nicely about Dolly around older ladies or they will spit at you.

      • Not Adahn

        Were they terrible?

        I never heard a legitimately bad local singing group until I moved north.

        Catholics can’t sing.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I doubt terrible, but I also think that professional singers aren’t going to take chances.

        To me it was funny because I got to listen to my mom harp all summer about who was on the choir and then who wasn’t pulling their weight in rehearsals.

        For it to end with them being props made me laugh (although never around Mom).

  14. The Late P Brooks

    It was completely mindblowing for me to watch so many people fall for the big Punch and Judy show about what a rabid monster Romney was, during that election. The idea of Mitt being anything but a mashed potato sandwich Rockefeller Republican was ludicrous, but people lapped it up like he was the second coming of Andrew Jackson.

    • Plinker762

      But he tied their beloved family dog to a car bumper and dragged it across the country until there was nothing left but the leash. Plus he put women in binders!

      • Compelled Speechless

        BINDERS!!!

        ***Clinches pearls, faints.***

    • juris imprudent

      I seem to recall the Democrats claiming he was a Rockwell Republican.

      • waffles

        He did something terrible to a dog during a family vacation. And he correctly pointed out that 47% of people effectively pay no taxes. I wonder which was considered worse.

      • kbolino

        And he correctly pointed out that 47% of people effectively pay no taxes. I wonder which was considered worse.

        Then spent the rest of the election cycle apologizing for it.

        There really is no going back from 2016. The execrable Republicans who came before look so much worse now than they did then.

      • Bobarian LMD

        All you needed to beat Obumbles that year was to run against the ACA.

        So the Stupid Party selected the architect of that excrement to represent them.

      • Tonio

        They transported the dog in a carrier strapped to the top of a vehicle.

      • Festus

        Like dogs don’t stick their head out the window in Dem’s cars…

      • Plisade

        “While digging into his back story…”

        Hmmm…

      • juris imprudent

        George Lincoln Rockwell

      • l0b0t

        HA! That was my first thought as well. I figured it was an oblique NAZI accusation. https://youtu.be/y2BdVyy6hXo

    • waffles

      I would vote for the second coming of Andrew Jackson but I don’t think the environment that produced Old Hickory exists anymore.

    • Festus

      A mashed potato sammich doesn’t sound too bad. Depends on the toppings.

      • Bobarian LMD

        This particular sandwich would only allow for margarine on wonder-bread.

    • Ted S.

      Joe Biden literally said Mittens wanted to put black people in chains, but somehow, Trump was the undignified one.

      • kbolino

        Kayfabe

      • Not Adahn

        And wimmen in binders!

    • Rebel Scum

      like he was the second coming of Andrew Jackson

      If only…

      • Not Adahn

        Yeah nah, he was a vile, authoritarian, racist POS.

        /Oklahoman

  15. Plinker762

    We have both kinds of music, rock and roll.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Saudi Arabia considers accepting yuan for oil sales

    Oil for caviar will work.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    All you DST haters should just move to the equator.

  18. Rebel Scum

    The Russian foreign ministry announced Tuesday it has added Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Defence Minister Anita Anand to what it calls its “black list,” banning them from entering Russia.

    Heh…

    Putin is a man after my own heart.

    Russian asset! Treason!

    • Pope Jimbo

      I saw a tweet last night in regards to banning Brandeau. It was something like “Good luck with that, he is a master of disguise”

      • Compelled Speechless

        Right? He’s been disguised as someone who should be taken seriously for years now and hardly anyone has figured it out.

  19. waffles

    Senate Votes To Repeal CDC Mask Mandate For Public Transportation

    How do you repeal something that isn’t a law?

    • juris imprudent

      Resolution – you know, like the stuff they proclaim in the name of the Senate.

    • blackjack

      We’re subject to federal prosecution if we violate that non-law at my work. We’ve been all masks and anti-social distancing for the whole two years. We’re like the test case for how well these policies actually worked. Pretty much all of the vaccinated people got the ‘vid anyway. Unvaxxed little ‘ole me did not. That’s how well this has all worked. Yet I still have to wear a mask all day when I’m at work. My poor kid is in the only remaining school district which still requires masks, also.

      • Festus

        I get called in nearly weekly to wave my magic wand around. Mind you, I just pretend to do it.

      • Compelled Speechless

        You’re lucky. No one asks me to wave my magic wand around and when I do, I usually end up in handcuffs. The workers at my local water park are such prudes.

    • DEG

      The CDC order derives from a law Congress passed. I haven’t read Paul’s legislation, but I doubt it repeals the law the CDC used to issue the mask order.

  20. Rebel Scum

    The Founders limited “treason” in the Constitution due to grave concerns it would be weaponized to criminalize dissent: exactly how the term is now routinely used.

    Disagreement with the regime is treason. Duh.

    We have to make sure we are promoting western values here.

    • hayeksplosives

      By “Western” you mean Pelosi’s San Francisco, I can only assume.

  21. hayeksplosives

    Ownbestenemy, please guide my flight safely out of Las Vegas this morning.

    Delta 1634.

    I am soooo ready for this mask charade to be done. I thought I had one of my “unmasks” in my purse but did not. So I am wearing a beautifully embroidered but stifling one I had in a side pocket in my purse.

    On the upside, Sin City airport allows serving alcohol early (unlike prude airports that insist on 9 am, neverminf the fact that most people are crossing time zones anyway) so I got a quick double shot of Cuervo Gold, no training wheels.

    I’ve got enough miles and the plane is empty enough that I have a first class upgrade.

    Nap time!!

    • Festus

      I get the feeling that if we ever met IRL you would be leading me around like a dog on a leash and I might like it.

    • db

      Tailwinds!

      • hayeksplosives

        ?

      • db

        I just checked…mostly crosswinds at altitude along your route, so not much help. Your surface winds look relatively calm.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Air stalker!

      • Ownbestenemy

        I already set up that flight to be the only one tracked…muahahahaha

    • Nephilium

      Which airports don’t serve alcohol until after 09:00? That’s one thing I don’t think I’ve ever encountered in an airport. I have had to suffer in Midway post 22:00 due to a flight delay, which meant all the bars were closed.

      • l0b0t

        I seem to recall all the food/bev concessionaires at Ft. Lauderdale International were closed from 9pm – 9am. I do have a secret, forbidden love for vending machine (the olde timey kind that drops a cardboard cup) hot tea; so I was good to go.

    • Ownbestenemy

      ! Have a safe flight

      • hayeksplosives

        THNAX!

        Made it to Salt Lake City. Waiting to board the final leg to OKC.

        To be picked up by my niece who has blue dyed hair. Maybe Uber is the way to go…

      • Ownbestenemy

        They have directs to OKC…we take them all the time. Oh you wanted points and upgrades!

    • Pope Jimbo

      One of my favorite things from the Lockdown Era was the fact that Minnesoda closed every bar EXCEPT the ones at the airport.

      Yup, nothing says SCIENCE like determining that bars are deadly, unless you know it is serving people who are about to get onto a plane and spread all over the country.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Headline for a New Yorker story I won’t be reading:

    “Cornel West Sees a Spiritual Decay in the Culture”

    Fuck off griefer.

    • hayeksplosives

      I want to put all these idiots into a hunting and gathering culture for 4 weeks and ask them what is important.

      But I’m not a slaver.

      • Bobarian LMD

        In 4 weeks, there’d only be one fat one left.

        Which is probably for the best.

    • kbolino

      More accurate headline:

      “After spending most of his life enabling and championing spiritual decay, in his dotage, Cornel West now finds the results concerning”

      • invisible finger

        Did another institution hire him after Harvard canned his non-revenue-generating ass?

      • kbolino

        Wiki sez Union Theological Seminary took him in

      • Brawndo

        My thought exactly, but you put them much more eloquently

  23. Trigger Hippie

    ‘Yet each of them was repeatedly and vocally accused of treason and being a Kremlin apologist if not an outright asset merely for advocating such intrinsically rational perspectives, ones long deemed mainstream in Washington until about three weeks ago, when they instantly became taboo.’

    …intrinsically rational perspectives, ones long deemed mainstream in Washington until about three weeks ago, when they instantly became taboo.

    *recalls masking theatre*

    Seems like there’s a lot of that going around recently.

    • Festus

      They are breaking the chains. They honestly believe that.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Decades of research showing flimsy cloth masks do next to nothing to stop the spread or protect against disease suddenly mean nothing. Wear this mask or you can’t participate in society.

        We are not technically at war with Russia and even Obama was reasonable enough to see that getting into a war, even a proxy one, was a very bad idea in regards to Ukraine and Russia. Now the slightest criticisms about American actions that may have brought this all to a head is treasonous.

        Breaking the chains of law and reason…this is starting to scare me a little.

      • Bobarian LMD

        They are breaking the chains.

        They’re just trying to figure out where to put the new ones.

  24. Sean

    3 7
    6 5

    • Grumbletarian

      3 6
      5 4

      • MikeS

        OK, I’ll play.

        9 X
        4 6

        I’ll get better!

      • Sean

        🙂

      • Not Adahn

        I N
        X S

    • Tulip

      I have no idea what this means and I’m a little afraid to ask.

      • db

        quordle.com

      • Rat on a train

        I thought it was some new political compass crap.

      • Nephilium

        Numbers station broadcasts is my interpretation.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Hey! I am sure I made that inference a week ago. *kicks rocks*

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Nice

    • Festus

      I like her.

    • MikeS

      LOL

      • slumbrew

        The first comment is on the money.

      • Tundra

        He ain’t wrong.

      • MikeS

        Yup.

    • db

      I like you

      • Rat on a train

        You’re not like the other people.

    • UnCivilServant

      No wonder they’re having trouble.

  25. Rebel Scum

    Ignorant/dishonest bigot says ignorant/dishonest bigoted things.

    PBS NewsHour panelist Jonathan Capehart asserts state-level GOP leaders are playing to conservative bigots: “if their constituents aren’t white, male, cisgender, heterosexual — it seems like they have no room for anyone like that in their states.”

    • kbolino

      The purpose of the lie is to push elected Republicans leftward. Recall the Buckley-Vidal exchange. Vidal knows damn well Buckley is not a fascist, but says it anyway. Buckley gets assmad because, after all, wasn’t it he who purged the “fascists” (Birchers)? But the postwar consensus is long gone, though many do not realize it yet, and this tactic will be less and less effective over time.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yes. I think the realization is upon a significant portion of the populace that bending to the tactics of shaming does not work. A reactionary phase is afoot.

        The only question is how the Democrats will handle it. How desperate are they?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Deplatforming, calls for financial cancellation, and jailing would be my guesses.

      • Rat on a train

        It is more difficult to shame using labels that have been diluted to the point of being meaningless. There is little shame in being called a bigot by somebody who calls everyone a bigot.

      • Festus

        Vidal was an ass-fucking Commie but he got under Buckley’s skin, but good. I find it amusing.

      • kbolino

        “Let them fight”

    • juris imprudent

      Is that how he explains the VA Lt. Gov. and AG? Perhaps he needs to say that to their faces.

      • kbolino

        This tactic too will lose effectiveness over time. CRT-ism is the natural successor ideology to MLK-ism, and is itself already being replaced by some new thing. The outgroup will always be the outgroup no matter how “diverse” it gets. Silly rabbit, did you think the rules of Calvinball were actually going to be allowed to benefit anyone other than Calvin?

      • juris imprudent

        These children aren’t as clever as Calvin.

      • Compelled Speechless

        They don’t need to be clever. They just need to be effective and tenacious.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Tenacious is an understatement. The Lefties will NEVER stop.

    • db

      A friend of mine took a cheap Model 1 Sales upper and fired 5000-ish rounds through it without cleaning. Not a single malfunction.

    • EvilSheldon

      Yup.

      ARs are incredibly reliable.

    • Drake

      First comment for the win. That’s exactly what my M16 looked like after using a blank-firing-adapter. A thick beautiful coating of carbon that the Drill Instructors expected to magically disappear 5 minutes after we got back to the barracks.

  26. Rebel Scum

    Ok, groomer.

    The only people I know who have an unhealthy obsession with “innocence” and “purity” are sex fascists.

    • Not Adahn

      sex fascist

      Huh. I thought my Punk band was pretty obscure.

    • Sean

      Replies were pretty decent.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Another sequel

    Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson is retiring after five years on the job.

    Howard Schultz will return as interim CEO, once again taking the helm of the company he elevated into a global brand while the company searches for a long term successor. This will be his third tenure as the coffee giant’s chief executive.

    ——-

    Schultz, 68, said in a statement he previously had no plans to return to the company. He served as CEO from 1986 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2017. He also weighed a potential run for president ahead of the 2020 elections.

    “When you love something, you have a deep sense of responsibility to help when called. Although I did not plan to return to Starbucks, I know the company must transform once again to meet a new and exciting future where all of our stakeholders mutually flourish,” Schultz said in a statement. “With the backdrop of COVID recovery and global unrest, its critical we set the table for a courageous reimagining and reinvention of the future Starbucks experience for our partners and customers.”

    I can hardly wait.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Not roasting their beans to the point of scorch would be a good start for a courageous reimagining.

      • invisible finger

        Just be glad he doesn’t run a steak house.

      • juris imprudent

        He’d have Trump as a customer.

    • Trigger Hippie

      My future Starbucks experience will be the same as my prior ones; non-existent.

    • kbolino

      This utopian gobbledygook brought to you by our “stock market” aka institutionalized gerontocracy.

    • Sean

      I would hang them in the work place.

  28. Rebel Scum

    They see me trollin’.

    Russia has imposed “retaliatory sanctions” against President Biden, a number of his top administration officials, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Biden’s son Hunter Biden amid its ongoing war with Ukraine.

    According to Russian state-owned news agency Tass, the Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday imposed “personal sanctions against representatives of the U.S. leadership and persons associated with them.”

    The sanctions, according to the report, were imposed “in response to a series of unprecedented sanctions prohibiting, among other things, entry into the United States for top officials of the Russian Federation.”

    • The Other Kevin

      Hunter Biden hardest hit.

  29. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Nancy Pelosi, losing it or just drunk?
    https://youtu.be/5GtcxOQqG1M

    Painful to watch…how oh how do these people manage to maintain power?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s the Soviet Union in the 80’s all over again, except this time we’re the decrepit geriatric kleptocrats.

      • Festus

        Hang on! I’m not completely broken and I don’t want anything from you.

      • db

        Konstantin Chernyenko says hi

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        How much longer before Biden just drops dead? He can’t be far from it.

      • db

        Kane Tanaka says hi

    • Festus

      Note the stiff-legged, clenchy-fist walk. Seems like our Dems have found something to unite the Party.

      • juris imprudent

        Ibogaine?

    • The Other Kevin

      They maintain power because they and their buddies in the party set it up that way.

    • slumbrew

      My mother graduated college with Nancy – speaking from personal experience, some people just aren’t that sharp anymore at 80+, unlike our beloved Fourscore.

  30. Rebel Scum

    The Senate passed a measure that would make daylight saving time permanent across the U.S.

    Meaning we stay on the time we are on now so it is dark just before 6pm on the shortest days instead of just before 5pm?

    • Festus

      I give no fucks so long as it stays the same forever.

    • R C Dean

      But the important thing is, it stays dark after 8:00 am on the shortest days. At least up north, anyway.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of spiritual/cultural decay…

    It seems to me a foundation of optimism and progress is an absolute necessity for a successful society. Once upon a time, America looked and moved forward. Now we have succumbed (thanks to people like Cornell West and too many others to name) to self-destructive internecine warfare and fragmentation. We have become the biggest bucket of crabs the world has ever seen.

    We had better find a way to get back on track.

    • Festus

      The kow-towing to the mandates have broken our society. We are never getting any of that freedom back. It’s done like dinner.

    • kbolino

      Much long-term structural damage has been smuggled under the guise of “progress”. I agree that an aspirational mindset is necessary, but so many of our best minds get laid low by crabs masquerading as “concerned citizens”.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      We just aren’t optimistic enough about how much they hate us and want us dead.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Note the stiff-legged, clenchy-fist walk.

    Trying desperately to get to a bathroom before it’s too late?

  33. Rebel Scum

    “Free democracies must resist Putinesque authoritarianism”, or something…

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a report recommending an increased focus on scanning the social media accounts of its employees in order to detect “extremism.”

    Among the examples of “extremism” cited by DHS are: a belief that fraud occurred in the 2020 election, and objections to current coronavirus policies.

    From the DHS report, obtained by Reclaim The Net:

    A March 2021 unclassified threat assessment prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Department of Justice, and DHS, noted that domestic violent extremists “who are motivated by a range of ideologies and galvanized by recent political and societal events in the United States pose an elevated threat to the Homeland in 2021.” The assessment pointed to newer “sociopolitical developments such as narratives of fraud in the recent general election, the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol, conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conspiracy theories promoting violence” that “will almost certainly spur some [domestic violent extremists] [sic] to try to engage in violence this year.”

  34. Ownbestenemy

    So listened to Z’s impassioned speech to his piggy bank and soon to be blood bank this morning. All the patriotic stirrings – Pearl Harbor, 9/11, I have a Dream references….then a sad video of his people with music…we are going to war aren’t we?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Only if we’re much stupider than even I think we are.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The DOD doesn’t appear to want any involvement, but State wants to prolong the pain for Russia as long as possible, regardless of the costs to the Ukrainian people.

      There’s a theory running around that Zelensky has been guaranteed a nice retirement in the West for complying with our wishes. It appears that the people of the USA don’t really get a say in anything anyway. We’re just along for the ride.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        We’ll fight to the last drop of Ukrainian blood.

    • The Other Kevin

      This is giving me a bad case of deja ju.

      • The Other Kevin

        Or even deja vu.

      • rhywun

        It’s always the ju’s, isn’t it.

      • Not Adahn

        and their stupid bees.

      • juris imprudent

        Well at least it wasn’t bad deja ju ju.

      • Drake

        A war on the other side of the planet with no clear objectives and no ties to our national interests, . That part sure sounds familiar.

        Fighting against a nuclear-armed first-world power in their own backyard is a new and exciting aspect.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Especially when it has been reported, although I would suspect if true, that one of the MPs suggested lobbing a nuke at us to send a message.

      • R C Dean

        A strong contender for (((typo))) of the month, maybe even the year.

    • Rebel Scum

      Nuclear holocaust is a key part of the Great Reset.

      • juris imprudent

        NOT ENOUGH PEASANTS TO EXPLOIT!!!

      • Not Adahn

        More than a harem and a domestic staff is a waste.

      • TARDis

        At least when the bugs mutate they’ll have some actual meat on them for barbecuing.

        :Trying to stay positive until it’s time to start drinking.

      • Nephilium

        Time to start drinking?

        You do realize it’s St. Practice day, right?

      • TARDis

        No, I did not. Thanks for reminding me. But then, maybe everyday is St,Practice day for me.

    • kbolino

      The corollary to “but you are lynching negroes” is “won’t you help us stop the negroes from getting lynched?”

      The price of America’s global cultural influence now includes the population being openly manipulated by foreigners who watch our movies.

    • Ownbestenemy

      He asked for planes, equipment, ‘no fly zone’, sanctions on our own companies that still do business with Russia or have companies in Russia, wants us to sanction all of their politicians….

      All I can say is no. Just no. You tried to spin some bullshit with your own people to live life normally and see? He isn’t invading…and now you are spinning a new web of bullshit.

    • invisible finger

      Does he not know that several US dem-controlled cities have statues of Lenin still standing? The US Left loves communist Russia, they just pay lip service to not liking Putin.

      • Drake

        The Left never forgave Russia for giving up on communism.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Keep your eyes on the prize

    Pfizer and BioNTech announced Tuesday that they asked U.S. regulators to authorize a second Covid-19 vaccine booster for people 65 and older.

    ——-

    More than 66 percent of Americans ages 65 and older who are eligible for a booster have received one, according to data from the CDC.

    If the additional Pfizer booster is authorized, it’s unclear if every eligible person who wants a second booster will be able to get one — the U.S. government currently only has enough doses for immunocompromised people to seek a fourth shot, a senior administration official said Tuesday.

    Health experts have said that additional shots will likely be needed, though it is still unclear when and how often.

    Barbie always needs a new wardrobe, no matter what the season.

    • The Other Kevin

      Man that gravy train’s drying up quick, isn’t it?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s far worse than that. The trial data is coming out now and it is not good.

        I would say there’s a reason that we haven’t seen Ozy lately. He’s probably got his hands full.

      • Trigger Hippie

        We spoke briefly via email around the end of January. He had a change in his professional life and is probably busy dealing with that. Couldn’t really say for certain.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Minus their stretching of that age group, yeah…its ugly.

      • Festus

        I’m old. I don’t care overmuch. Grand-daughter #1 fed a perfect pass to her Center that won the game last Saturday. More of that, less of this. My job is gone at the end of April. I just want a ray of hope for the young ones. I can fade away pretty easily. I’ve run my race.

  36. Rebel Scum

    I, for one, am shocked.

    Antibodies to the novel coronavirus have been discovered in blood samples dating from September 2019 in Europe, prior to the supposed outbreak in Wuhan, China, marking an “enormous” change in how the government response to the virus should be viewed, a leading medical professor said.

    Commenting on the discovery, Stanford medical professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya noted that stored blood samples from September and November 2019 tested in France and Italy displayed COVID-19 antibodies, disqualifying initial media reporting that a Wuhan wet market had been the source of the global outbreak of the virus.

    “The implications are enormous,” Bhattacharya said, highlighting that since the virus was in the population “long before the official start date, it was too late to stop the disease from spreading across the earth.”

    “We have wasted 2 years on lockdowns for nothing,” he charged.

    Time is never wasted when you’re getting wasted a crisis is not being wasted.

    • Festus

      Judi had it in November 2019. She works in an airport. I’ve still not had it.

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        For me, it was probably October 2019 in northern Italy; weirdest “cold” I’ve had in my life. The symptoms cleared before I got on a plane to go home.

    • juris imprudent

      He is a wrong-thinker and must be ignored. /sponsors of The Official and Only Narrative

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Among the examples of “extremism” cited by DHS are: a belief that fraud occurred in the 2020 election, and objections to current coronavirus policies.

    They left off “insufficiently intense participation in the Two Minutes’ Hate”.

  38. Rebel Scum

    Fuck off, you dishonest, sanctimonious cunte.

    Senator Mitt Romney, of Utah, offered more than 200 Republican donors a stark message on the fragility of American democracy during private remarks on Monday night at a fundraiser in Northern Virginia.

    According to five attendees, Romney told the crowd that he has a chart in his Senate office tracing the history of civilizations over the past 4,000 years. He said it is a reminder of how they can rise and collapse, and of how unusual American democracy is in global history.

    From the Mongol Empire to the Roman Empire, Romney said, autocracy is the chart’s “default setting,” with authoritarian leaders at every turn.

    • kbolino

      Let’s get a measure of “American democracy”, shall we?

      There are only a handful of out-and-out absolute monarchies left on Earth: Brunei, Eswatini (Swaziland), Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the Vatican. Every other country at least pretends to be a democracy of some sort. This is a drastic change from 1776 and it’s almost entirely due to the U.S.

      And when it comes to “American democracy”, such as it is, you get strange quirks like the E.U. sanctioning Poland because it’s not democracying hard enough, meanwhile Poland is one of the few countries that’s actually serious about fighting Russia and has also been accepting large numbers of Ukrainian refugees.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Democracy, democracy, democracy…..

      Say it enough and mob rule starts to sound like a good idea.

    • Pine_Tree

      So there are at least 200 “Republican donors” who would PAY to be somewhere with Mittens? Nuts.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Thats down a lot from 2012. Hopefully someday it will be zero.

  39. Not Adahn

    Local news: there’s a “high tech” VT company working on a smell-o-vision attachment for Metaverse goggles.

    Every dollar spent there is a dollar not going into lobbying.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I remember reading an old interview with the Coen Brothers where they talked about getting their start. They shot some pr0n to help pay bills for their equipment.

      They said that the smell was insanely bad. So maybe that is one technology that won’t be popular?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Great minds and all that?

    • Bobarian LMD

      Good way to ruin the Metaverse porn experience.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    “We have wasted 2 years on lockdowns for nothing,” he charged.

    You poor, deluded man. The psychological experiment was a huge success. It was never about fighting illness.

  41. Festus

    Good morning and good night, my lovely people. I need to sleep for at least 6 more weeks. Best to you!

  42. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    Thank you for the lynx and the pretty beach girls.

    I wish I was on the beach right now, riding out the storm with a book and a drink.

    • Plisade

      “I wish I was on the beach right now, riding out the storm with a book and a drink.”

      You and me both. Soon, very soon. The days are warming!!! Florida is calling.

    • The Other Kevin

      I was on the beach with a book and a drink just a month ago. It was every bit as good as you can imagine.

      • Nephilium

        Next month I’ll be in a parking lot walking among classic cars, greasers, and listening to live music. I may spend some time sitting at the pool with a “fancy” drink.

    • juris imprudent

      That about counteracts Whiskey Lullaby.

    • pistoffnick the refusnik

      Ha! Nice!

  43. PieInTheSky

    the fact that the company is expecting me to actually work a lot for my wage is turning me to socialism.

    • slumbrew

      The nerve.

    • R C Dean

      As I keep telling people, “The only problem with a high-paying job is that sooner or later, they expect you to actually earn it.”

  44. B.P.

    Okay, I need to clear up something of the utmost importance from yesterday’s morning lynx. The Buffalo Bills did not create the no-huddle offense. The Cincinnati Bengals did under Sam Wyche. As I recall it, the Bengals met the Bills in the AFC championship in the late 80s, using the no-huddle offense to secure victory. They’d been using it all season. Bills’ head coach Marv Levy pouted and whined about it, claiming it was cheating. The next year Levy adopted the no-huddle offense and somehow got credit for inventing it.

    • juris imprudent

      Wicky-wacky-wyche?

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Slumlord with a smile?

    Amazon said Tuesday it will spend more than $120 million to build affordable-housing units close to transit stations near Seattle and Washington, D.C, the latest example of a tech company trying to address the affordable housing crisis critics say the industry has exacerbated.

    Amazon said it is working with Sound Transit and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to construct a total of 1,060 homes near four public transit sites. The Washington state sites are in SeaTac and Bellevue. The other sites are Maryland in the cities of New Carrollton and College Park.

    I love how they just toss these stories out there. Is Amazon just going to donate these “homes” to deserving members of the underhoused communities?

    • R C Dean

      Oddly, no mention of the subsidies they will receive.

    • Brawndo

      Amazon is exacerbating the housing crisis?

      Oh. Critics say they are, so must be true.

  46. Rebel Scum

    Drumpfler so stoopid.

    Former President Donald Trump admitted he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin was only trying to ‘negotiate’ when he sent troops to the Ukraine border and was ‘surprised’ when the Kremlin leader actually invaded the country.

    ‘I’m surprised — I’m surprised. I thought he was negotiating when he sent his troops to the border. I thought he was negotiating,’ Trump told the Washington Examiner during a Tuesday evening phone interview from his Mar-a-Lago estate. ‘I thought it was a tough way to negotiate but a smart way to negotiate.’

    Trump, who seemingly developed a close working relationship with Moscow during his presidency, said Putin has ‘very much changed’ since the pair last worked together.

    ‘I figured he was going to make a good deal like everybody else does with the United States and the other people they tend to deal with — you know, like every trade deal. We’ve never made a good trade deal until I came along,’ Trump said. ‘And then he went in — and I think he’s changed. I think he’s changed. It’s a very sad thing for the world. He’s very much changed.’

    • Ownbestenemy

      Trump, who seemingly developed a close working relationship with Moscow during his presidency – had to slip that line in there.

      • juris imprudent

        Other than nice things to say about Putin, the actual administration policy was pretty damn hardline. But only words and tweets matter to these idiotfucks.

    • Pine_Tree

      Well, the fact that Trump is the one saying this is neither here nor there, but that “setting up to negotiate” thing is what I have thought all along.

      I think Putin wanted regional hegemony (his guy in Ukraine) and a little territorial “reconquista”, and the West was so intent on making “Russia Russia Russia!” the story (Covid, honk, Joemala’s inherent ineptitude, etc.) that he got pushed into the more-violent option to try to save face.

      Nearly EVERY strategic move wants to get its aims through bluffing and shows of force, while actually avoiding open conflict. Same here.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Like in mid February when we were pushing and pushing that Russia was going to invade and Ukraine was posting TikToks on how beautiful the day is and there is no invasion like America said there would be. I have a feeling we played both sides, again, and now we are where we have been for much of the 20th and 21st century.

      • R C Dean

        that “setting up to negotiate” thing is what I have thought all along

        Same here. Putin miscalculated that one, badly. And, to be fair, Putin threatening yet a third violation of another nation’s territory and sovereignty is not a good setup for a negotiation of any kind. Negotiations produce deals. Deals only matter if you think the other side will stick to it. Putin has shown that he won’t. Was he really only after recognition of the status quo, as he has claimed? I seriously doubt it, because nobody invades another country to maintain the status quo (unless, I suppose, the other country is a credible threat and is showing unmistakable signs of aggression toward you, neither of which is true of Ukraine). The conflict between Ukraine and Russia probably became insoluble by diplomatic means when Putin seized Ukrainian territory.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        unless, I suppose, the other country is a credible threat and is showing unmistakable signs of aggression toward you, neither of which is true of Ukraine

        Debatable. Ukraine joining NATO would instantly transform the country into a credible threat and would be considered an unmistakable sign of aggression against Russia.

      • R C Dean

        and is showing unmistakable signs of aggression

        This bit seems to be missing. As far as I know, Ukraine has only shown agression against the “breakaway” provinces, which are not part of Russia.

        Don’t get me wrong – I think adding Ukraine to NATO would be really stupid. But as a casus belli for a full-on invasion? It seems pretty weak to me. At any point, has NATO been set up to invade and conquer Russia? Is it even capable of doing so now? Russia doesn’t seem to grasp that the only existential threat to it is nuclear war. And they clearly are willing to invade other countries that are in no way justifiable as a pre-emptive strike to prevent an invasion of Russia. I just don’t think that’s really why he did it. I think he did it because (a) he wants to reintegrate Ukraine into a Greater Russian Co-Prosperity Sphere and (b) he thought the US and EU were too weak to do anythig about it.

        Honestly, I think the Chinese are far more likely to try to seize Russian territory than NATO – China loves them some natural resources, which Russia has in spades in Siberia. Now, of course, China is making all kinds of deals for that, so perversely, the sanctions from the West are securing Russia’s border with China.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I think it’s very reasonable for a country to consider it an act of aggression for it’s neighbor to join a military alliance against it. We would do the same if China started recruiting Mexico and Canada to join in an alliance against the United States.

        I can’t imagine any Russian leader letting Ukraine join NATO without doing everything possible to stop it.

      • Tundra

        100%. If China built a military base in Ottawa we’d lose our shit.

        I don’t know why, but we’ve been fucking with Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

      • R C Dean

        Russia will ever have the memory of WWII feeding its paranoia. Of course, Russia also fed the movement for Ukraine to join NATO with its aggression against Ukraine. While we are tracing mis-steps on the way to the current dumpster fire, Russia has certainly made its share. I still think the big picture is Russia wants to establish itself as a regional power based solely on force and coercion – they certainly don’t have the economy to do it any other way.

        I hear you about NATO on Russia’s doorstep. Russia should have done its part to avoid that becoming a real possibility, as should we. But no matter the status of the chatter, I don’t think that possibility justifies the (further) invasion of Ukraine. This is what tit for tat escalation looks like – Russia crosses the border and seizes territory, Ukraine guns up and looks for big friends, Russia supports to a significant degree, if not engineers, the secession of Ukrainian territory, etc. Russia escalates, Ukraine escalates, the next thing you know, Kiev is getting shelled even though Ukraine initiated no aggression.

      • R C Dean

        If China built a military base in Ottawa we’d lose our shit.

        And if we seized a Canadian province and engineered the secession of two more, Canada would have every reason to look for allies who could put a stop to it.

        The best way to avoid tit for tat escalation is to not start it.

      • Tundra

        So after being warned – repeatedly – by the most experienced foreign policy fuckos that expanding NATO was a terrible idea. And being told by the Russians that NATO in Ukraine was a red line, we fucking did it anyway.

        I’m not smart enough to suss out all the history and fuckery, but I am tired of my government.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Another country joining an Alliance is NOT considered casus belli for your nation to invade them.

        Definitely not in the 21st or 20th Century.

        Some Russian dipshit is demanding America return Alaska and Fort Ross to Russia. This is the kind of people America and the World are dealing with. COVID lockdowns must not have done Russia govt types any favors in the delusion department.

        Now Russians wants property that was sold fair and square to America and Russians accepted that money? Fuck Russia.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Tundra, I dont think America is “fucking with Russia”.

        Case in point, I was stationed on a US Navy Command ship stationed in Italy. It had a barge with top secret comms and other material inside. Russian officers were onboard and worked inside that barge. I was not allowed in that barge TO DO WORK ON THE BARGE without an escort. Explain how that was “fucking with Russia”?

        America largely ignored Russian violence/coup operations in Georgia, Chechnya, Belarus, Syria. This was Russian aggression where self-defense was never the casus belli. Explain how that is “fucking with Russia”?

        If you actually mean America is trying to discourage Putin from thinking he can do whatever he wants, then I guess America was never fucked with by Russia.

        As for China building a base in Canada, good. Let the Canadians finally admit who they like better- China. Makes it easier to steal military secrets from China if they were that close to the USA.

        Ukraine does not want to be part of Russia and fuck Russia for trying to force them. I support any American support short of US troops to help Ukraine.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Russia has now caused normally “neutral” nations to consider joining NATO, NATO nations like Germany to up defense spending to 2% GDP, and takes away any plausible deniability for Putin’s Novichok and Polonium attacks.

        Furthermore, Ukraine might rally enough troops and wreck Russian units so badly that Ukraine takes back Donbass region from the pro-Russian traitors that wanted to break away to Russia.

        As I said, Russia is a paper tiger and this military blunder by Russia proves my point.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      We’ve never made a good trade deal until I came along,’ Trump said. ‘And then he went in — and I think he’s changed. I think he’s changed. It’s a very sad thing for the world. He’s very much changed.’

      Or it’s not Putin who’s changed but rather America. Rightly or wrongly, world leaders don’t have much to fear from America as long they stay out of NATO countries. China has been watching and I’m leaning towards slightly probable that Taiwan will be hit next.

      I was watching a video where a guy tracked China flyovers in Taiwan airspace. After these increased a few years ago, Trump sent some naval group through the Straight as a show of force and flyovers immediately dropped. Apparently, Biden did the same in late 2021 and the Chinese responded by amping up their flyovers to all time highs. If China is going to pull the trigger, there’s never been a better time for it than now.

      • juris imprudent

        Trump had that crank Navarro as his chief trade advisor. He doesn’t understand a fucking thing about foreign trade.

  47. Evan from Evansville

    I am having problems with the authorities. I am officially detained. I….don’t even know what to type. I will escape through my old-fashioned means. And jeremy brett as Holmes will likely be involved.

    • DEG

      Sorry. Talk to your lawyer!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ??

    • Ownbestenemy

      Shut the f* up and get that lawyer. Stop posting here or anywhere.

      • slumbrew

        Very much this. It’s “Shut The Fuck Up Friday Wednesday”. Only talk to your lawyer.

  48. DEG

    Tom Woods’ latest: Was Hitler a Socialist?

    Rainer Zitelmann, author of the new book Hitler’s National Socialism, discusses Hitler’s views of society, economics, and politics.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It really seems stupid to have to reargue this over and over, but the Left is functionally retarded and/or liars.

      • juris imprudent

        The guy who literally wrote the book on fascism being an ex-communist? No, that has nothing to do with anything!

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It’s like they have a Hayekumen for detecting and hiding unfavorable facts.

  49. Rebel Scum

    America’s back, baby.

    In a March 14 letter, the National Park Service informed the South Dakota Department of Tourism that a request for a permit to put on the fireworks display was denied. “After careful consideration, the NPS has determined that we are unable to grant your request for this permit to hold a special event with fireworks at the Memorial,” the letter stated.

    “Based on the information provided in the application, we have determined that multiple such criteria are present for the requested event, each of which would be independently sufficient to deny the request for a permit.”

    The Park Service said concerns over wildfires and opposition from Native American tribes were the chief factors in its decision. The letter stated that “fireworks are viewed by multiple Tribes as an adverse effect to the traditional cultural landscape” and cited a Tribal Cultural Survey conducted in May 2021 that found there was “ample opposition from the Tribes” to the last fireworks display, which took pace in 2020.

    There is a little thing I like to call “do it anyway”. Seems the American thing to do here would be to bite your thumb at the *administration and dare them to do something about it.

  50. Pope Jimbo

    More reason to hate SalesForce. SalesForce will cough up GOP documents to the Jan 6 Committee.

    Salesforce, a vendor that holds sensitive financial data and records of the Republican National Committee, has informed party leaders that it will begin producing documents to the Jan. 6 select committee imminently unless a court intervenes.

    The party sued the select committee last week, revealing that the panel had subpoenaed Salesforce in February and contending that the scope of the subpoena was so broad that it amounted to an illegitimate incursion on political rivals. The select committee dismissed that notion, emphasizing that it is pursuing evidence that the RNC’s post-election email deluge in 2020 — often coordinated with the Trump campaign —helped spur distrust in the results and contributed to the atmosphere that preceded the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Spurring distrust? I need to read the Constitution again to figure out exactly where that is a crime and why Congress has any authority in the matter.

    • Pope Jimbo

      If only Congress put half as much energy into investigating corruption – which also spurs distrust – as they do the silly riot on 1/6.

      For example, you know the son of the sitting president selling art.

    • juris imprudent

      I can help – it’s the FYTW clause!

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      This is why people need to strongly distrust cloud based services. Without e2e encryption in place, they can dump/leak/whatever all of your private info at their leisure.

      • Pope Jimbo

        If I was in the GOP, I sure would be seeding that data with documents that proved that Liz Cheney was corrupt as hell.

      • juris imprudent

        You mean you’d say she is a legit Repub and not a RINO?

      • EvilSheldon

        It never ceases to amaze me. Rule #1 of security is that you can’t secure what you don’t own.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Yep. To borrow a Blockchain cliche, “not your key, not your crypto”.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      As if I needed another reason. I never saw the utility in that POS platform.

      But it should be clear to everyone that nobody is to be trusted anymore and that the DNC is very willing to do anything to preserve their power.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I think people need to realize that any technology company of any size has been thoroughly corrupted. It’s not just a few HR lackeys driving a diversity message. The companies were built on dirty money. They are owned by dirty shareholder. They are controlled by dirty executives. They hire dirty vendors. They court dirty customers, including FedGov. Even the smaller, purpose-guided groups are corrupted. Mozilla is a mess. DDG is going woke. More and more small companies are being leaned on by ESG focused venture firms. Often they’re easy enough to sniff out, but not always. The rot is everywhere.

      • Sean

        The rot is everywhere.

        That does not give me happy thoughts.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Salesforce is a POS platform. The genius of it is that it is built to support an ungodly amount of consultants.

        SF starts out so cheap that people get sucked in. It sort of does stuff and people think they are almost at the finish line. So they bring in consultants to tweak things. At the end of the day they have paid through the nose to the horde of consultants. But what are you going to do? Pay Oracle or SAP millions up front?

        SF consultants are even lower than SharePoint consultants if you ask me, but they can make some serious $$.

    • Rebel Scum

      Banana republics got nothing on us.

    • creech

      Maybe the GOP should hand Pelosi and Schumer a list of the activities of the DNC, and prominent Dems, that the GOP will “investigate” the next time the GOP controls Congress?
      Tit for Tat, and all’s fair in love and politics, and all that stuff. Maybe if Hunter and Hillary and Mr. Pelosi and the other vultures in the Democratic Party were subject to these kangaroo courts, a better class of thieves would appear in both parties.

      • Rebel Scum

        As if they have the stones (or desire…) for that.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Or allies in companies that would just hand it over with a statement “unless the courts stop us…”

  51. PieInTheSky

    Stupid English spelling I never know if transferred has two f or two r

    • Pope Jimbo

      Those words are easy. The ones I have trouble with are “gabbroic” or “kabbala”

      You know 2 b or not 2 b

    • juris imprudent

      The f has two preceding consonants – I can’t think of any word with that kind of spelling where the trailing consonant would be doubled on account of an ‘er’ or ‘ed’. Perhaps a real grammar Nazi will correct that?

    • Not Adahn

      Doubling the final consonant before -ing but not -ed never made any sense to me.

      • PieInTheSky

        I don’t really have rules in mind when thinking english spelling just memory

  52. The Late P Brooks

    We are deeply saddened, et c

    Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the husband of Kamala Harris, has tested positive for COVID-19, according to the vice president’s office.

    “Earlier today, the Second Gentleman tested positive for COVID-19,” Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary for the vice president, said in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, the Vice President will not participate in tonight’s event [on Equal Pay Day]. The Vice President tested negative for COVID-19 today and will continue to test.”

    *lowers flag to half staff*

    • juris imprudent

      *lowers flag to half staff*

      Finally, a problem Kamala can fix.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    More reason to hate SalesForce

    That guy is such a preening sanctimonious douchebag; how could you not?

    • juris imprudent

      I think that might be the guy that slow-rolled my brother for work he did on the bastard’s Palm Springs mansion.

  54. Sean

    https://www.givesendgo.com/FreedomConvoy2022

    **The Canadian government has criminalized the receiving of funds from the Freedom Convoy 2022 campaign and now are trying to seize the funds to redistribute. In order to protect our Givers and the intended purposes of their gifts, all donations not already transferred to the recipients of the Freedom Convoy 2022 campaign will be refunded automatically, no refund requests necessary.

    • Rebel Scum

      Western values of slavery freedom and demockracy…

  55. R C Dean

    Good news:

    Biden withdrew the nomination of the Marxist who wants to cut the fossil fuel industry out of the financial system. She’s also a big supporter of the odious “ESG” fad in corporate governance. Once again, Manchin and Sinema put the knife in. I am beyond pleasantly surprised by Sinema.

    • Not Adahn

      Massie/Sinema 2024?

  56. The Late P Brooks

    Cost-Accountant-in-Chief

    President Joe Biden is using his bully pulpit to call out the tendency for gasoline prices to go up like a rocket when oil spikes, but only drop like a feather when crude crashes.

    Biden fired off a tweet Wednesday morning highlighting the painfully slow decline in gasoline prices in a bid to draw scrutiny to a decades-long trend that critics say hurts consumers by failing to pass savings along to drivers.

    “Oil prices are decreasing, gas prices should too,” Biden said on Twitter. “Last time oil was $96 a barrel, gas was $3.62 a gallon. Now it’s $4.31. Oil and gas companies shouldn’t pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans.”

    If only we couid be more like Venezuela.

  57. DEG

    Some bills Reopen NH is interested in passed the NH House. They go on to the Senate. The bills:

    HB 1606, making the vaccine registry opt in
    HB 1208, prohibiting a parent’s refusal to vaccinate a child pursuant to an order of the state or federal government to be used as a basis for terminating parental rights.
    HB 1431, establishing the parental bill of rights.
    HB 1131, relative to facial covering policies for schools.This bill prohibits public schools from creating policies that force students or members of the public to wear masks.
    HB 1241, prohibiting a school district from mandating a COVID-19 vaccination for school attendance.

    • DEG

      More news, from a NRA-ILA e-mail:

      Yesterday, the New Hampshire House held floor votes on two anti-gun bills. Thanks to the strong support of NRA members and Second Amendment supporters, both bills were defeated and will not move forward this session. NRA would like to thank all of those Representatives who defended the Second Amendment for law-abiding citizens in the Granite State.

      House Bill 1096 would have imposed bans on the open carry of firearms within 100 feet of a polling place. These arbitrary bans are simply anti-gun virtue signaling that only affect law-abiding citizens, dictating how they must exercise a constitutional right, while doing nothing to improve public safety.

      House Bill 1668 would have required background checks for the commercial sale of firearms, already mandated under federal law. This duplicative and unnecessary legislation is simply a first-attempt to enact so-called “universal background checks” for the purchase of firearms in New Hampshire. The bill would do nothing to improve public safety and its effectiveness would depend on requiring gun registration.

    • rhywun

      Fun times ahead.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      As a final thought, this isn’t about left vs. right. Conservatives and Liberals, Progressives and Populists have all moved the system in one direction:

      This is where basic knowledge of late 19th and early 20th century social movements in the West is very helpful. It is about left v. right, but not today. It’s about the progressives winning massive support in both parties in that historical time frame. Republicans were the first progressives, and that rot has never quite been kept under control. Democrats were infected a generation later, but without the religious undertones.

      The single biggest piece of the puzzle is understanding that progressives are technocrats, both in the narrow definition of government control by so-called experts, as well as the broader definition of turning away from individual choice in favor of authority driven society.

      This impulse exists in both parties. The differences are in the goals, not so much the methods.

    • MikeS

      For those who didn’t go all the way through that TwitThread, the solution sounds interesting. Would love to hear opinions on it from our tech savvy Glibs.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I was waiting and waiting for the Blockchain proposal to drop. It finally did a couple pages in.

        Blockchain has strengths in the a priori control aspect. It’s very hard to undo what is done on a Blockchain.

        Blockchain is massively weak on the post hoc social consequences aspect. One false step, and you’re doxxed.

        I don’t care about having a big megaphone to talk through. I care about the message I put through the megaphone not being used to destroy my life in 5 years when I get on somebody’s shit list.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Anyone have the CEO of Pfizer’s travel schedule? How much of a reward would a guy get for turning in a drug dealer that big?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Im sure he stands near the corner of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on a monthly basis.

  58. Evan from Evansville

    Hello.