Tuesday Morning Links of Admonition

“We’re averting our gaze, Lord!”

 

OK you lot! Just because you all have been commenting in goodly numbers, and submitting material like we asked….it doesn’t mean you have any room to slack off! I expect top grade comments, snark a plenty, and everything else that makes this commentariat top grade.

I’ll bet you think you comment well?!

Events – Mary, Queen of Scots got tossed in the clink and abdicated (1567) Gibraltar was de-Spainified (1704) SCOTUS tells Nixon to hand ’em over [tapes] (1974).

Birthdays – Simon Bolivar [who at the end realized he had screwed up – “he who serves a revolution, plows the sea”] (1783) Alexandre Dumas (1802) Amelia Earhart (1897)

Sports – baseball continues, whatever. NFL camps are open, hurrah!

Links:

  1. Which one of you was this? Come on, fess up. Guess it wasn’t a “Judgment Free Zone” – or was he “Gymtimidated”?
  2. Hmmm… disorderly Austrians. You know who else was Austrian and caused disorder?
  3. TREASON! GOING TO COLLECT THOSE 30 PIECES OF…Oh, wrong leaderI wonder if Gerasimov was able to refrain from laughing out loud?
  4. Dronzzz?! Seriously, if they catch the #$%& responsible for this, they should send them to the Brazen Bull.

 

Music – SugarFree brought this up to me a little while back. Now you can listen too.

Comments

462 responses to “Tuesday Morning Links of Admonition”

  1. Old Man With Candy

    Amelia Earhart

    It was a false alarm.

    1. “Alarm not FALSE!!!”

      /Japanese AA gunners

    2. Woman drivers – ammirite?

      1. AlexinCT

        Nods.

  2. Hmmm… disorderly Austrians. You know who else was Austrian and caused disorder?

    I misread that as ‘disorderly Australians’ and went ‘so water is wet’.

    1. egould310

      Speaking of Australians, if you like jingly jangly guitars, check out the Melbourne based radio show “It’s a Jangle Out There”. https://jangleoutthere.wordpress.com/about/

      Dude posts his playlist weekly on his site. No podcast links or anything. Tune in live to hear the show. For me, that’s at 12:01 am Thursday.

      1. Tundra

        I just saw your Husker love from last night. Grant wrote some beauties, too.

        Nevertheless, it will be a Husker/Bob Mould day today!

        1. Chafed

          That’s one of the the best FU songs ever.

    2. I was gonna guess Rudi Gernreich.

  3. >>Man arrested for exercising naked at Planet Fitness gym

    The Warty Dungeon gutters and human remains sluicing system were getting cleaned out.

    1. Warty’s Basement needs to open more locations.

      1. ElspethFlashman

        so, they need to go with a Starbucks business model then?

        1. AlexinCT

          All woke, and soon to go broke?

        2. I think more like Chik-fil-a

          1. Bobarian LMD

            No Homo?

    2. STEVE SMITH ALWAYS EXERCISE NAKED. AND BY EXERCISE, MEAN RAPE HIKERS, NAKED.

  4. Slammer

    Does water help in putting out a Greece fire, or does it make it worse?

    1. Well, Greek fire burns on water, so…

    2. *narrows gaze*

    3. Brett L

      Booo.. Hmm.

    4. Tundra

      *polite applause*

    5. Pope Jimbo

      What confuses me is that I thought Greece was unemployed and broke. So how are they fired? Don’t you need a job first?

      1. AlexinCT

        Everyone gets free shit, including a 13th monthly paycheck, from the government.

  5. Rebel Scum

    A man who stripped naked before working out at a New Hampshire gym told police officers that he thought he was in a “Judgement Free Zone,” before being arrested.

    This is why I only comment while naked.

    1. leonadasiv

      Its what they advertise. Plus, little known fact but nudism is not a lifestyle. In fact most people are born that way.

    2. trshmnstr

      This is why I only comment while naked.

      What’s that little knobby thing? You know, the thing that looks like a penis, but smaller?

      1. ElspethFlashman

        The husband and I were listing alternative terms for “thingy” on a recent road trip (yes, time just flies when you are with us), and it turns out, there’s a lot of them! Wang, dong, knob, etc. etc.

        1. The Sleeper

          You could pass the time faster by singing old beerhall classics such as “A Wizard’s Staff Has A Knob On The End” in the car, too.

        2. I don’t know why, but I’ve always been partial to “wedding tackle” myself. It hearkens back to a simpler time, I feel.

          1. Jarflax

            No one here will judge you for your preferences.

          2. Tejicano

            STEVE SMITH LIKE DOING THE WEDDING TACKEL TOO!

  6. Brett L

    For some reason Corvettes from seized drug money were fine back in the day, but a Dodge Hellcat is apparently a bridge too far. SLD about using seized money to buy shit for the Sheriff’s department but I really don’t see the difference between this and 300 other Sheriff’s vehicles I’ve seen that try to send the message “if you deal drugs, we will come and steal your fucking money because WE are the baddest gang in this county.”

    1. straffinrun

      “Sheriff Conway maintains that this vehicle is an appropriate purchase, especially for an agency with a $92 million budget and the opportunity this vehicle provides in making our roadways safer,” said the office’s spokeswoman, Deputy Shannon Volkodav.

      I’m confused. Is she saying that it’s OK because the budget is too small or too large?

      1. She’s obfuscating, because the Sheriff bought the vehicle for personal use.

        1. straffinrun

          I just want to know how she’s obfuscating.

          1. It reads me me like she accidentally admitted they have too much money.

      2. leonadasiv

        Look we steal lots of money, so we deserve a nice thing or two.

        Cops should only be alowed to buy Pintos

      3. Brett L

        “It’s a drop in the bucket. He has to drive something. Look! Squirrel!”

      4. Pope Jimbo

        Deputy Shannon Volkodav

        The RUSSIANS have taken over our sheriff’s departments! I bet she has met people. Possibly even went to public meetings. Better put her in jail.

      5. Rasilio

        Given that high speed chases pretty much never make anything safer and the only thing a hellcat would be better at than say a standard issue Police Ford Taurus is a high speed chase I would like to see the rationale they used to justify that statement

    2. Tundra

      Sweet car.

    3. Juvenile Bluster

      Part of the issue here seems to be that she was using this as her personal vehicle and incidentally as a police vehicle.

      1. ChipsnSalsa

        She is always on duty! protect and serve.

        *suppressed snicker*

  7. straffinrun

    Woman accused of axe attacks denies anger

    She said she’d fallen into a “depressive episode” after she cut short a Tinder date believing the woman rejected her because she was transgender.

    Amati told prosecutor Daniel McMahon on Monday that the rejection triggered depression rather than deep anger which he’d suggested contributed to the attacks.

    1. I thought it was the non-trans date who was supposed to get violent when the woman turns out to have a dick.

      1. straffinrun

        I thought they’d use the axe on themselves.

        1. AlexinCT

          I am confused….

          1. straffinrun

            There is more than one way to transition.

        2. Slammer

          There’s an old joke about a boy who walks in on his naked mother and asks, “What’s that between your legs?”

          She says, “Oh, that’s where you Father hit me with axe”

          Boy says, “He must have been really mad, he got you right in the pussy”

    2. ElspethFlashman

      Because who doesn’t have axes, ready to go, around the house?

    3. The Elite Elite

      AXE is an attack on the nose. That stuff smells way too strong.

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        the Wife likes Axe, But we’re Old, so we don’t count

    4. Tejicano

      Now there’s a twist on the crying game.

    5. Pope Jimbo

      after she cut short a Tinder date

      Wait, who and what got chopped with an axe? I’m totally confused now. Is the Tinder date now a trans person too?

    6. See, funny thing, seeing someone walking around a convenience store with an ax would make me nervous, but seeing someone with a holstered gun in a convenience store wouldn’t. I guess an ax held in the hands registers the same to me as someone walking around with a gun drawn in the low ready position. Like, if you’re carrying an ax in your hands as if you’re ready to take a swing, I assume you’re going to do so shortly, and absent wood one comes to certain conclusions.

      1. Jarflax

        I don’t know, I think if they have the ax in their hands and are sporting wood I’d be more nervous

      2. Rasilio

        But what if their axe was propery holstered?

        http://reviewog.com/product/axe-holster/

    7. Gustave Lytton

      A “woman” who believes in giving head on the first date.

    8. Count Potato

      “Amati previously testified she has no memory of attacking the strangers but recalled earlier hearing voices in her head saying “kill and maim” after she smoked cannabis and took what she thought was MDMA.”

    9. That body spray is terrible.

    10. JaimeRoberto

      Heh, cut short.

  8. Leftward Ho, Libertarians!
    Given the sources of the gravest threats to freedom in America, libertarians should ally with the Democrats’ left wing despite its misguided economic rhetoric.

    It is a confusing time for partisan alignments in America. A handful of conservatives have renounced the Republican Party as it degrades into what former Republican Max Boot calls “a white-nationalist party with a conservative fringe.” Libertarians (including “neoliberals,” a label some have tried to reclaim) might similarly find themselves unmoored. The protectionist, militarist, fiscally catastrophic, and, yes, white-nationalist Republicans are no option. But the primary victories of candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, most notably Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset, might rattle those considering the Democrats.

    The gravest threats to liberty in America are deportation and mass incarceration. Immigration serves as an excellent litmus test for whether self-proclaimed libertarians actually believe in individual rights or merely seek the “right to be left alone for themselves and their tribe.” As Bryan Caplan (star of last week’s column) forcefully argues, migration is a fundamental human right, and its treatment as anything less should appall us. The injustices of imprisoning someone for a “crime” that violates nobody’s rights, whether selling marijuana or overstaying a visa — let alone separately imprisoning their child, a practice that continues — demand our immediate attention.

    1. If you want to go join your proggie buddies, go. No one is going to stop you. just leave the label and name tag in the bin by the door.

      1. AlexinCT

        Which label is that? Cause if you for a second buy any of the proggy shit, then you are not true Scotsman libertarian…

    2. straffinrun

      As if being on the opposite side of Max Boot is a bad thing.

    3. Old Man With Candy

      The gravest threats to liberty in America are deportation and mass incarceration.

      Apparently the Forever Wars, warrantless searches, extra-legal confiscation, and drone killing are not the gravest threats.

      1. Not if they’re done against wrongthinkful unpersons.

      2. AlexinCT

        Not to mention the government that feels entitled to use the massive and unjust justice machine to go after its political enemies…

        1. Hey, yeah, wait a second, a weaponized, partisan IRS and FBI doesn’t even get a mention?

          1. It was only used against those icky right-wingers, what are you worried about?

            /prog

    4. Semi-Spartan Dad

      The gravest threats to liberty in America are deportation and mass incarceration

      *Yawn* I realize some glibs feel very strongly about open borders but this doesn’t even crack my top 10. As long it’s restricted to illegal immigrants, probably not on my radar at all.

      Let’s see… getting back to “shall not be infringed” 2nd A, removal of immunity for police, end of asset forfeiture programs, legalization of all drugs, dissolution of all ABC agencies, ending income tax, ending property tax, ending social programs, cutting the military budget extensively, getting the gov out of education from public schools through college, getting rid of the 100 mile warrantless search rule for borders, and restoring the 10th Amendment are all much more pressing concerns, IMHO.

      1. robc

        I support open(ish) borders and it doesnt crack my top 50.

        1. I support closed borders. We haven’t finished assimilating the people who are already here. No need to bring in more an exacerbate the problem.

          1. Old Man With Candy

            Allowing in =/= bringing in.

          2. That does not change my sentiment. We shouldn’t be allowing more in either. We still have to deal with those already here.

          3. Rebel Scum

            I agree. Also to be considered is 1) not all cultures are equal, 2) we live in a democratic system and voting has consequences especially when the powers that be simply ignore the documents that created the gov’t in the first place, and 3) yes, immigrants must assimilate.

          4. Old Man With Candy

            Maybe it’s because I’m a libertarian, but I don’t think we need to “deal with” anyone. Let nature take its course. Our current immigrants are following the pattern of generations before.

          5. AlexinCT

            Maybe it’s because I’m a libertarian, but I don’t think we need to “deal with” anyone.

            When the political class demands to take more of my pay to deal with these people illegally here, I feel compelled to step in and have someone deal with them in a way that stops me from being robbed to buy future votes from them.

          6. Viking1865

            “Allowing in =/= bringing in.”

            Yep. Just look at the difference between the Cubans who cross the Straits in air mattresses vs. the Marielitos.

          7. Old Man With Candy

            Yes.

            I just look at the town where we live (heavily immigrant) and see the results. Hard working people, kids speak English and Spanish with perfect fluency, grandkids can’t even speak Spanish.

            But that’s because they came here and weren’t brought here.

          8. Bob

            What zip code is that?

        2. I’m not an open borders guy but I’m in favor of easy immigration. In other words, I want an immigration policy that lets anyone who has some visible means of support, isn’t on the lam for something that would be a crime in our country, and doesn’t have a violent criminal history become a citizen or get a work visa with a minimum of fuss, but I do want those things to be managed by a government. I think managing national borders is one of the legitimate purposes of a national government, and I don’t think that’s a violation of anyone’s rights. Yes, people have a right to move freely, but they don’t have a right to move freely through my yard, and I believe that if a group of people as a community get together and decide that the land they collectively own and maintain is off-limits to people without permission, that’s fine, too.

          Deportation affects liberty in this country not at all, unless naturalized American citizens are being deported en masse and it’s somehow not making the news. Very few states adhere to the terms of the second amendment, with most carrying laws on the books that are wildly unconstitutional. People can still go to prison for smoking weed. Civil forfeiture is a thing. Eminent domain abuse is a thing. Hate crimes and hate speech are things. There are a whole lot of genuine threats to liberty that are way, way more dire than having the gall to eject people who violate our immigration laws.

          1. AlexinCT

            I’m not an open borders guy but I’m in favor of easy immigration. In other words, I want an immigration policy that lets anyone who has some visible means of support, isn’t on the lam for something that would be a crime in our country, and doesn’t have a violent criminal history become a citizen or get a work visa with a minimum of fuss, but I do want those things to be managed by a government.

            You get my vote for this. Our legal immigration system is broke because it is run by unaccountable bureaucrats that see no value in providing a good service. I however want to make sure we restrict immigration to people coming here for the American dream, and not just to suck at the government’s teat of the massive welfare state the left hopes will buy them permanent power. Fuck that shit.

          2. CPRM

            I think managing national borders is one of the legitimate purposes of a national government

            I agree, but also even if I personally didn’t think so, the constitution gives that job to the government. So if I disagreed with it I would petition to change the constitution, not to just ignore it.

      2. Bob

        I don’t understand how the idea of national property is any different than the idea of corporate property.

        1. trshmnstr

          This. Just because the fed gov grossly abuses it’s power doesn’t mean that it’s legitimate powers should be thrown out with the bathwater.

          1. trshmnstr

            its*

    5. Suthenboy

      “It is a confusing time for partisan alignments in America.”

      Only if you have no principles.

      Good God that is one huge pile of stupid and a perfect example of why the left is doomed.
      Fuck. Off. Slavers.

    6. robc

      The gravest threats to liberty in America are deportation and mass incarceration

      [Citation needed]

      1. Certified Public Asshat

        I guess that’s true if we start deporting legal citizens.

    7. Rebel Scum

      “a white-nationalist party with a conservative fringe.”

      If that’s the case, there are an alarming amount of non-white white-nationalists in the Trump admin.

    8. Scruffy Nerfherder

      If libertarianism wants to die on this hill, they’re going to.

      Unrestricted immigration in of itself is not going to solve any of the violations of liberty in this country, in fact it is probably going to make them worse.

    9. Pope Jimbo

      “migration is a fundamental human right”

      Hmmm….

      Might I suggest that migrating humans have caused more problems in history than any other factor? The steppe tribes were constantly “migrating” because they a) either wanted to grab resources from their weaker neighbors or b) were fleeing their stronger neighbors who wanted to take their shit.

      Economic migration like we see between Mexico and the US is pretty low key (and I think a rather new phenomenon). I am an open-ish border type of guy, but when you call migration a human right, you lose me.

      1. Semi-Spartan Dad

        It’s confusion between positive and negative rights. Passage to leave is a negative right. Passage for entry is a positive right.

        1. Mojeaux

          Passage for entry is a privilege granted.

    10. Rasilio

      The gravest threats to liberty in America are deportation and mass incarceration.

      Um, bullshit.

      I will agree that immigration is nowhere near the threat that Conservatives try to make it out to be and mass incarceration while a problem is not really too much more than a symptom of the Drug war but deporting illegal immigrants is no threat to liberty (while a more open or at least rational immiration policy may be called for the fact of the matter is they broke the law coming here) and Mass Incarceration ranks well below things like hate speech codes, the neo marxist take over of academia and the media, weaponization of regulatory agencies, etc.

      Furthermore even if we agreed that mass incarceration was a direct threat to liberty (as opposed to a symptom of other threats) there is no evidence whatsoever that the left would actually do anything to reduce mass incarceration as they have no interest in actually ending the drug war, merely making pot legal is as far as they are willing to go, and in turn given the power to do so would happily pass laws that create whole new categories of crimes including outlawing gun possession.

      The reality is the left has no issue with mass incarceration, their problem is with who is incarcerated. Make the prison population 85% white and they would see no problem whatsoever with it.

  9. AlexinCT

    I’ll bet you think you comment well?

    Yes, gunny!

    I think I comment well..

    /gulp

    1. +1 This is my rifle This is my gun…

      1. straffinrun

        +5 finger popping Mary Jane rotten crotch.

        1. Tejicano

          Finger-banging, but, whatever

          1. straffinrun

            She’s a virgin in my fantasy.

          2. Tejicano

            Oh, and it’s Suzy Rottencrotch.

            It just happens that I went through boot camp about 8 years after R. Lee Ermy (the actor depicted above as Gunny Hartman) and there hadn’t been much change in the terminology. Most of what he venomously spewed in Full Metal Jacket was something I had heard before – very nostalgic for me.

          3. straffinrun

            At least I got the rotten crotch right. That’s main point, I’m sure.

          4. Chipwooder

            A fair bit of it still hadn’t changed by 2001 when I did my time at Parris Island.

          5. Pope Jimbo

            I was going to comment about how it was Suzy Rottencrotch, so thanks for correcting.

            MCRD in 86. Heard all that shit. And you would never refer to a gunny as Gunny in boot camp. It was “SIR” at all times.

            Full Metal Jacket is still the best movie of boot camp ever. The only unrealistic part was that Pvt Joker didn’t beat the shit out of the fat guy with his billy club the instant he saw him with his weapon (on the last days of boot camp).

          6. Pope Jimbo

            BTW Chip, I didn’t realize you were a WM.

          7. Chipwooder

            WM?? Um, was that a joke or did you actually think I’m female?

            The other part of the FMJ boot camp scenes that felt off was the fact that Hartmann is their main tormentor. He’s the SDI, he’s supposed to be the tough-love “daddy” figure. The green belt DIs are the ones recruits are really afraid of, the SDI is who comes and rescues you after they’ve been quarterdecking you forever.

          8. Pope Jimbo

            Everyone knows only WM’s come out of Parris Island, Chip.

            Real Marines come out of San Diego.

            And yeah, the green belt DI’s were the terrors.

            The guy in the rack below me was the company scribe. We’d laugh every morning, because you could pick out the times that they were going to thrash you for whatever reason. There would be 15 minutes that were blank between one activity and and the next. You could be sure that they’d call a crooked cadence or some shit and then make you bend and thrust for 15 minutes because you couldn’t march.

          9. Chipwooder

            Hah! I was the scribe, for the simple reason that on day one they asked “Who’s been to college?” and I was the only guy who was dumb enough to raise his hand. Got stuck with being the house mouse for a while too, which also sucked. Anyway, yeah, I knew too. The training schedule I used to make their daily notecards would have blocks of time marked “DI Time”, which it didn’t take long to figure out meant the allotted time for smoking recruits.

            Forgot you Minnesoda boys went to Hollywood.

            Being the scribe did have one perk – I made the firewatch roster, so I never had it in the middle of the night. Always either first watch or last watch, so my sleep didn’t get interrupted.

            Worst quarterdeck thing we had was something our kill hat called “helmet drills”. You’d put your helmet on the deck right-side up, and get into a pushup position with the crown of the helmet on your chest, then put your arms behind your back so all your weight was on the helmet. Hold that for a while and it hurts like hell…..and then you’d get on your back and do leg lifts for the real agony. Rinse and repeat a few dozen times. Sgt. Vargas was fucking diabolical – I’ve never met anyone else who ever had to do those fucking things.

          10. AlexinCT

            That crotch rot because of lack of good sue then?

          11. straffinrun

            I’ve got a theory on the correlation between age and vagina maintenance. It might not be suitable for submission here, though.

  10. The Elite Elite

    TW: Salon. Historian Rick Shenkman on Donald Trump: “All the worst things in American history piled together.” Some fair, unbiased questions from Salon to this guy about Trump.

    Considering that the United States has only been a full democracy (under the law) for approximately 50 years, since the civil rights movement, is the white backlash that Trump represents in many ways just a return to the norm in America?

    Donald Trump is a contemporary version of George Wallace in many ways.

    Donald Trump has little to no respect for or understanding of America’s democratic norms and traditions. He appears to lack basic human decency and seems to relish embarrassing the United States globally. His personal and moral failings also include his racism, sexism, misogyny, bigotry, cruelty and willful ignorance. Yet, Trump has an almost unbreakable hold over his followers. How do you explain this?

    Let’s entertain a scenario where Mueller presents irrefutable, obvious, watertight evidence that Trump and his allies colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election. Furthermore, let’s also assume that subsequently more and more prominent Republicans begin to publicly condemn Donald Trump. Trump will say he is the victim of a “witch hunt” and that it’s all “fake news.” Given that he leads a political cult, won’t his followers just become even more devoted?

    Donald Trump and the Republicans keep gutting the social safety net — which actually hurts Trump’s most loyal “white working class” voters — yet he remains popular by ginning up anti-black and anti-brown racism and prejudice.

    Totally fair, unbiased type questions.

    1. Old Man With Candy

      Let’s entertain a scenario where Mueller presents irrefutable, obvious, watertight evidence that Trump and his allies colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election.

      Let’s entertain a scenario where the speed of light can be exceeded, Scarlett Johanssen orally services the Glibertarian commenters regularly, and unicorns shit gold bricks.

      1. straffinrun

        You’d still have explain what the hell “colluded” entails.

        1. Old Man With Candy

          OK, she’s skipping you.

          1. straffinrun

            I always get lost in translation.

          2. I don’t blame you, the Roads there are horribly organized.

        2. Pope Jimbo

          It means that you didn’t stop the Russian government from engaging in activities to “hack” our election. This includes the following activities (that you as a private citizen didn’t do)

          1) Run a security audit of the DNC IT infrastructure and force Podesta to change his password
          2) Parachute into the Kremlin and challenge Putin to a knife fight if he didn’t shut down his govt agency that was posting mean stuff on FB
          3) Tweet out corrections to every bit of fake news posted on FB
          4) Demand that your name not even be placed on the ballot because you aren’t worthy to be on the same ballot as Herself.

          1. AlexinCT

            The unpardonable crime committed by Putin that has finally made the left go bonkers about the Red menace was that the Russians, after hacking the DNC servers, had the temerity to expose the corruption in the DNC and the collusion with Clinton, not just to steal the primaries, but to try and rig the election against Trump. That is the crime the left feels is unpardonable.

            The whole Russian election interference story was nothing but a ploy to distract from the fact that after Trump won an election they were certain had been rigged in Clinton’s favor, hoping they could stall any investigation that would expose the blatant criminal activities the Obama deep state had been engaged in against their political enemies, and the weaponizing of government that went on, in the hopes of handing Crooked Hilary that weapon, long enough to regain power in congress and block any further investigation into Black Jesus’s crime syndicate.

      2. AlexinCT

        Far more likely to happen than this witch hunt finding any real evidence of a crime that was actually done by the democrats somehow being Trump’s fault.

      3. Brett L

        Its like the old joke about the economist on the desert island: “Assume a can opener”.

      4. Pope Jimbo

        I guess with FTL speeds, you could theoretically travel back in time to a point where Scarlett Johanssen servicing you orally would be exciting for you.

      5. Well let’s at least entertain item number two, yeah. At a minimum.

      6. Enough About Palin

        That would be the “Lost in Translation” Scarlett Johanssen, right?

        1. R C Dean

          Ghost in the Shell Scarlett is also acceptable.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      That’s some bad historing right there.

    3. IntraveneousWoodChipper

      The US is not and has never been “fully democratic” you fucking twat!!! It was literally designed to avoid that.

      Good Lord, where do they find find all these boot-licking pseudo-historian types willing to abase themselves for five minutes of fame?!

    4. Suthenboy

      More baseless assertions from a lying commie shitweasel. Keep it up boys, I am sure you will win this time.

    5. Rebel Scum

      United States has only been a full democracy

      The US is a Constitutional Republic NOT a democracy. And hopefully it never will be.

      His personal and moral failings also include his racism, sexism, misogyny, bigotry, cruelty and willful ignorance. Yet, Trump has an almost unbreakable hold over his followers.

      But enough about Barry. And seriously, they really need to cite this shit about Trump. Because I haven’t seen it. He is bombastic, self-important/promoting blowhard, but what politician isn’t?

      Let’s entertain a scenario where Mueller…

      Let’s not.

  11. Mustang

    I hope that guy wiped down the equipment before he used it. Gyms are breeding grounds for some nasty stuff.

    1. AlexinCT

      Don’t go ass to workbench?

      1. NEVER go ass to workbench!

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Man arrested for exercising naked at Planet Fitness gym

    I think we had this discussion yesterday.

    1. Wait that was you? Did you make bail? Or are you posting from a cell?

      1. Pope Jimbo

        If it was Brooksie, he’s going to jail.

        His only defense would be to enter Planet Fitness’ own marketing materials into evidence. We all know Brooksie is incapable of directly submitting something like that.

        PB: Your honor, I’d like to enter evidence into my trial the Planet Fitness marketing materials they gave me
        Judge: Ok, give them to the clerk
        PB: Not how I roll your honor. I’ll start by quoting Planet Fitness and then add my own commentary
        Judge: Um, that isn’t how it works
        PB: When I quote that biased statement to the appeals court, you are going to look bad Judge.

  13. Rebel Scum

    Austrian family steal Swiss taxi and crash into parked boat

    Austrian Family > Florida Man

    You know who else was Austrian and caused disorder?

    Franz Ferdinand?

    1. We would also accept Franz Klammer.

    2. straffinrun

      The series T-800?

    3. Tundra

      Falco, goddammit. The answer is always Falco.

      1. Rebel Scum

        I thought the answer was always Hitler.

      2. Mad Scientist

        Rock me, Amadeus!

      3. Also accepted.

    4. Tom Hulce, I mean, Mozart?

      1. The Theranos woman.

    1. Brett L

      I like this article because its essence is that gender equality should include a place for sociopathic liars and con-artists who are female.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      What a load of shit.

      Homes is simply a con artist, the fact that she has a vagina has nothing to do with it.

      1. What confounds them, apparently, is that they can’t deflect blame to some man or excuse it away by some mitigating factor.

    3. Chipwooder

      So—how to understand Elizabeth Holmes? Is there a feminist framework for reading her that takes into account her gender and singular experience as a beginning chemical engineer and self-made female billionaire that doesn’t absolve her of traditional moral responsibility—or, worse, agency?

      If my eyes rolled any further, they’d fall out of my skull.

      1. A Leap at the Wheel

        Point of order, she has neither a degree in chemical engineering, or to my understanding, ever done any actual productive work in the chemical engineering field.

    4. ron73440

      I loved this sentence:

      She’s not Imelda Marcos or Ivanka Trump or Kellyanne Conway.

      Puts all three of them on the same level and makes Holmes sound not as bad.

      1. Kellyanne Conway should be a hero to women. She orchestrated the largest political upset of our lifetimes (and possibly ever).

        1. Tulip

          I know, right! And half the time they criticize how she looks, because, you know, sexism is bad.

    5. Rasilio

      So—how to understand Elizabeth Holmes? Is there a feminist framework for reading her that takes into account her gender and singular experience as a beginning chemical engineer and self-made female billionaire that doesn’t absolve her of traditional moral responsibility—or, worse, agency?

      No dumbass there isn’t because feminism has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

      Holmes is nothing new, there have been con women like her around for decades the only thing that is new is that the world has changes so that there was a huge market of rubes desperate to show their progressive virtue and back a woman lead stem project, and desperate for that project to succeed and therefore reinforce their worldview that all that was keeping women from great achievements in STEM was the Patriarchy. So a beautiful young smart and confident woman coming along with promises of world changing technology and the barest hints of competence behind her was too much of a good thing. Silicone valley willingly turned a blind eye to the warning signs and traditional due diligence and bought into the Fairy Tale they so desperately wanted to be true. That and that alone is what allowed Holmes to get as far as she did with the Scam.

      As for Holmes herself. As I said, she was little more than a common con woman, that said until I see evidence to the contrary I will give her some credit in that it seems likely that at some level she actually believed her own bullshit so in addition to conning her marks she was also at some level blind to the fact that she was doing so because she herself believed in that same fairy tale and probably even today believes that given enough time they would have gotten the technology right. If I had to guess she has a whole list of people that she is going to blame for the failure of the product, all men of course, because after all she is a smart talented womyn (hear her roar) who can accomplish anything she sets her mind to and anything that gets in the way of that success is clearly the fault of the patriarchy. How could it be otherwise, they have told her this all her life.

      1. R C Dean

        I think conning sick people into getting bad diagnoses so you can live out your Steve Jobs LARPing fantasy should be a sentence enhancer, at the least.

        1. Rasilio

          Oh yeah I don’t think anything absolves her of guilt in the least, it is just that I think she believed her own bullshit and I think it was in part the Feminist Fairy Tale that allowed her to believe her own bullshit so thoroughly

  14. Changing Teen Sex Trends

    According to the 2017 YRBS, the prevalence of young people reporting that they’d had sexual intercourse in their lives was as follows:

    3 percent of kids 13 years or younger
    20 percent of high school freshman
    36 percent of sophomores
    47 percent of juniors
    57 percent of seniors

    Across all ages, the prevalence of having sex was higher among kids who reported they are heterosexual (39 percent) or gay, lesbian and bisexual (48 percent) than for students who were unsure about their sexual identity (28 percent).

    1. The Elite Elite

      Unless you haven’t hit puberty, how do you not know your sexual identity? I remember knowing pretty much right away what I found attractive.

      1. trshmnstr

        It’s almost like they’ve been indoctrinated to ignore blatantly obvious reality in favor of the latest prog claptrap

      2. Suzanne Hanrahan: Well, I’ve been sleeping with women. Are you shocked?

        Reggie Dunlop: No.

        Suzanne Hanrahan: Did you ever wanna sleep with a man?

        Reggie Dunlop: No.

        Suzanne Hanrahan: Never?

        Reggie Dunlop: No. I don’t blame you though Suzanne, I mean, well see, women’s bodies are beautiful. But men’s bodies, see I see ’em everywhere you know, in the locker rooms, their cocks all over the place and everything…

        Suzanne Hanrahan: Do you wanna know how it happened?

        Reggie Dunlop: Huh? No, that’s OK.

        1. Tundra

          “Hey Hanrahan! Hanrahan! Hanrahan – Suzanne sucks pussy! Hey Hanrahan she’s a dyke! I know, I know! She’s a lesbian, a lesbian, a lesbian!”

          1. Chipwooder

            It was a bullshit goal!

          2. ElspethFlashman

            I love that movie. I have a law school friend named Hanrahan, and I always want to shout at him, but I won’t, at least not in polite society.

          3. Tundra

            Add it to the list of great movies that could never be made today.

            Joyless scolds wreck everything.

          4. Chipwooder

            My allergy to dese fucking fans has rey-turned!

      3. Pope Jimbo

        Pre-puberty, I don’t think any normal kid even thinks about what they find attractive in any person. But these fucking weirdos seem determined to make young kids think about their sexual identity at insanely young ages.

        A coworker and I were just discussing the joyful freedom boys who haven’t hit puberty have. They are totally focused on fun things like sports, hunting, fishing, hitting things with sticks, and just generally running around. They don’t give a shit about girls or what girls think about them.

        My old neighbors had a cutie of a daughter who was a few months younger than my son. She always wanted to play with him but he didn’t want anything to do with her because “she just wants to do girl stuff”. Unfortunately she moved away before they hit puberty so I couldn’t see that situation totally flip on him.

        1. AlexinCT

          Our society has been sexualizing kids at a younger and younger age, and I suspect there is a nefarious agenda behind that, which puts what is going on right now – as crazy as it is – into perspective.

        2. Brett L

          hitting things with sticks

          I wonder what part of our evolution is served by “what happens if I hit this with a stick?” I guess the part where you learn how to run from bees, wasps, snakes, and bigger males.

          1. Pope Jimbo

            We are descended from the cave guys who were willing to go out and poke mega-fauna with pointy sticks in the hopes that if they brought back meat, they’d get laid.

            Cave guys who weren’t into hitting shit with sticks (or thinking through the consequences of hitting large things with sticks) didn’t get to propagate their genes.

          2. ElspethFlashman

            I heard this in action today when I dropped the kiddo at his camp bus stop. Six year old talking to the counselor: do we have suction cups for the archery arrows, or large, flat heads on the arrows? Because I want large, flat heads. His dad (interrupting before the counselor can answer): “yes, but we don’t point them at anyone.”

        3. Enough About Palin

          I was attracted to women at age five. and interacting sexually at nine. True story.

      4. Gadfly

        In addition to people who’ve been indoctrinated into doubt like trshmnstr mentions, it also probably accounts for people who are bi but near the ends of the spectrum – i.e. they really like one sex but kinda sorta also like the other. That could cause doubt in young people as to what identity they actually want to land in.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    “Sheriff Conway maintains that this vehicle is an appropriate purchase, especially for an agency with a $92 million budget and the opportunity this vehicle provides in making our roadways safer,” said the office’s spokeswoman, Deputy Shannon Volkodav.

    If a cop kills himself in that thing, it might make the roads safer.

    1. straffinrun

      Make them drive Gremlins. The name would fit.

      1. Chipwooder

        I’ve got the theme music from the movie stuck in my head now

        1. Nephilium

          You son of a bitch.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    The protectionist, militarist, fiscally catastrophic, and, yes, white-nationalist Republicans are no option.

    Is that you, Krugabe?

  17. Is it the birthday of Dumas père or fils?

  18. The Late P Brooks

    The injustices of imprisoning someone for a “crime” that violates nobody’s rights, whether selling marijuana or overstaying a visa — let alone separately imprisoning their child, a practice that continues — demand our immediate attention.

    And voting for some Democrat is supposed to fix any of that? That makes less sense than throwing virgins into a volcano.

    1. trshmnstr

      I’m sorry, but overstaying a visa is a contract violation and is completely different than selling pot, which is just an “icky” contract that is fulfilled.

    2. Suthenboy

      Well see, none of that was happening when the Chocolate Jesus held the reins.

      1. commodious spittoon

        In the sense that nobody would report on it and none of the people rabidly protesting it would care.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Donald Trump has little to no respect for or understanding of America’s democratic norms and traditions. He appears to lack basic human decency and seems to relish embarrassing the United States globally. His personal and moral failings also include his racism, sexism, misogyny, bigotry, cruelty and willful ignorance. Yet, Trump has an almost unbreakable hold over his followers. How do you explain this?

    He’s a WITCH.

    1. IntraveneousWoodChipper

      ANd WhAT dO We buRn BesidEs wITCHes?!

      MORE WITCHES!

  20. AI can be sexist and racist — it’s time to make it fair
    Computer scientists must identify sources of bias, de-bias training data and develop artificial-intelligence algorithms that are robust to skews in the data

    When Google Translate converts news articles written in Spanish into English, phrases referring to women often become ‘he said’ or ‘he wrote’. Software designed to warn people using Nikon cameras when the person they are photographing seems to be blinking tends to interpret Asians as always blinking. Word embedding, a popular algorithm used to process and analyse large amounts of natural-language data, characterizes European American names as pleasant and African American ones as unpleasant.

    These are just a few of the many examples uncovered so far of artificial intelligence (AI) applications systematically discriminating against specific populations.

    Biased decision-making is hardly unique to AI, but as many researchers have noted1, the growing scope of AI makes it particularly important to address. Indeed, the ubiquitous nature of the problem means that we need systematic solutions. Here we map out several possible strategies.

    1. Software designed to warn people using Nikon cameras when the person they are photographing seems to be blinking tends to interpret Asians as always blinking

      So the Japanese think Asians are squinting?

    2. straffinrun

      This is the equivalence of feeding AI lead paint chips.

      1. AlexinCT

        Garbage in, garbage out…

        Computer’s & Programming 101.

        But hey, let’s inject the SJW madness into this and it will be totes cool.

        Fucking idiots that hate reality is what we are dealing with.

        1. Gustave Lytton

          Need a new language. SHISP Shit Processor.

      2. leonadasiv

        It’s our most effective weapon against the machines.

  21. Tundra

    Those pics from Greece are brutal. I’m comfortable with drone-striking the fuckers who started the fires.

  22. Yusef drives a Kia

    Why do they assume We are Peaceful people? The NAP isn’t a suicide pact, and at least ’round here, there are plenty of guns, and We know Why The 2A was created…………….

    1. We know Why The 2A was created

      To protect the National Guard’s Muskets!

      /progic

      1. robc

        Homer: Lisa, if I didn’t have this gun, the king of England could walk right in here and start pushing you around.

        [Homer starts pushing Lisa around]

        Homer: D’you want that? Huh? Do ya?

        Lisa: No…

    2. robc

      Re: thread last night.

      over the the civilized parts of Ky, we don’t spread our seed around all willy-nilly. We stick to screwing our cousins.

      [My family tree doesn’t have nearly enough branches]

      1. Chipwooder

        One of the unexpected pitfalls of doing some family genealogy has been discovering that marrying first cousins wasn’t unusual in my family if you go back four or five generations.

        1. robc

          four or five generations

          Yeah, 4 or 5. That’s what I am going with too. It was 4 or 5 generations back. Gotcha.

          1. Chipwooder

            Most recent example I found was one pair of great-great grandparents. It was backwoods Georgia in the 1870s, everyone was doing it then!!

          2. robc

            First cousins are actually way back in mine too. I only have to go back 2 generations though for something close. My great-uncle (so not my direct line, but still my family) married his 3rd and 5th cousin (they were cousins on both sides of their families). She didn’t have to change her last name.

        2. That wasn’t too unusual a hundred or so years ago. I mean, not exactly the norm, but it certainly wasn’t unheard of at any rung of the social ladder. Many a blue-blooded family had at least one pair of first cousins who married. After all, if you run in a small social circle and spend most of your time with the same people, your dating pool is limited.

          1. Rasilio

            This. In a world where transportation is limited, time consuming, difficult, and dangerous most people never travel more than a few dozen miles from the place of their birth and never meet more than a few thousand people total in their lives. Now of those few thousand how many are going to be of roughly the correct age and correct sex to be potential mates?

      2. Yusef drives a Kia

        Hey, She was Japanese, so at least a distant Cousin…

  23. Jarflax

    So you want snark Swiss? You’re a Chicagoan aren’t you? I have some snark for you! I just got back from a 10 day vacation. (which was awesome by the way) across the northern plains and into the mountain west. Wyoming is heaven on earth, Montana and South Dakota are beautiful, Idaho has some great spots, North Dakota is a bit dull but the folk were very friendly, all in all it was a deeply relaxing experience even with 4600 miles of driving in a week and a half. So what am I snarky about you ask?

    Illinois/Chicagoland toll road theory. Every other toll road, with variable tolls based on where you enter and exit, I have driven has the sense to give you a ticket as you enter and charge you as you leave. Only Chicagoland has the brilliant plan of making you pull over every 5 minutes to pay the next $1.50 installment of the toll. I get that locals have the ipass thing, but that is not a local road, it’s the direct route from I 90 back to the east. Also naming all your highways, rest areas etc. after crooked politicians is just tacky.

    1. straffinrun

      Chicago would issue payday municipal bonds if they could. Come to think of it, that may not be a bad idea.

    2. AlexinCT

      If they let you wait to pay past multiple toll spots, they would have to charge you a VIG, cause nobody lets you “borrow” money for free.

  24. straffinrun

    ‘Unite the Right’ anniversary: White nationalists want to rally in D.C. — and Charlottesville

    Kessler said this year’s rally will focus on “white civil rights” – what he sees as limited rights for white people, particularly surrounding free speech. Only American and Confederate flags will be allowed at the D.C. event, Kessler said; no neo-Nazi paraphernalia.

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      If these things didn’t get media attention there’d be about 15 losers “protesting” into the wind, nobody would listen or really care about what they had to say, and life would go on.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        This.

        The left needs their boogeyman and they’re going to facilitate his existence.

      2. Chipwooder

        Yup. If the media hadn’t chosen him to be their white nationalist boogyman, no one would know who the hell Richard Spencer is.

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          I still don’t know him, and I still don’t care

        2. straffinrun

          Yes, that is why they do it. We know why the media does it, they know we know that’s why they do it, everybody knows that’s why they do it. It’s part of the Kabuki play we’re mired in. It’s Groundhog Day without the humor.

          1. Tejicano

            It’s more like Groundhog day where he ends up getting blind drunk and can’t remember what happened the day before. Every day just starts out with a massive hangover and no direction.

    2. Bob

      I don’t see how that’s substantially different from what blacks, Hispanics, Jews etc. do with plenty of support from the media.

    3. Rebel Scum

      Only American and Confederate flags will be allowed at the D.C. event

      I know when I’m not wanted.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Ultimately, though, the greatest upside to an alliance with the left lies in its anti-establishment streak. Candidates who, like Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez, refuse corporate and super PAC donations, are less beholden to the “iron triangles” — comprising government agencies, the contractors who extract inordinate profits or regulatory capture from them, and policymakers who rely on the latter’s donations and pass such pork-barrel funding — that drain public funds and ossify bad policies. And in direct-action anarchist brilliance, DSA activists heckled Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen at a Mexican restaurant — and, one day later, the administration announced an end to the family separation policy.

    So, on that inspiring note, let’s suspend disagreement on marginal tax rates. Let’s bring together everyone who agrees that people who weaponize state power to enrich themselves or rip families apart should not blissfully carry on at Mexican restaurants. I’ll give it to Nader, that old libertarian-progressive rabble-rouser: That alliance does sound unstoppable.

    You’d pretty much have to be a Harvard student to write something that stupid.

    1. slumbrew

      Let’s bring together everyone who agrees that people who weaponize state power to enrich themselves or rip families apart should not blissfully carry on at Mexican restaurants

      Yes, let’s instead empower people who will weaponize state power to confiscate the wealth of productive citizens and punish them for the slightest wrongthink.

      The one comment on that article is gold.

    2. Old Man With Candy

      Ralph Nader- libertarian.

      smdh

  26. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I think it’s worth revisiting Gillespie’s brain aneurysm from yesterday.

    Totalitarians professing communism killed millions of people, but this analogy is flawed. Hitler was the leader of Nazism, Stalin the leader of…Stalinism, not communism.

    Which was in response to J Peterson…

    The former is the cause of 100 million deaths, at minimum; the latter the reason for living standards that are improving at an unprecedented rate everywhere in the world. And no, we can’t separate it from the horrors of Stalinism, any more than we can separate Nazism from Hitler.

    1. robc

      And Pol Pot was potism?

      1. ::takes a puff:: I never thought of that, man.

    2. AlexinCT

      Gillespie is a fucking cunt.

    3. straffinrun

      Can we separate Hitler from racism then?

      1. Well at least the trains ran on time!

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Didn’t he invent anti-Semitism?

        1. Naw, that was something that’s been around since Babylonian times.

          1. Scruffy Nerfherder

            So what you’re saying is that Hitler wasn’t the real anti-Semite…

            /Gillespie

      1. straffinrun
        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          ^ 6 months of Cold and Starvation, what joy!

        2. Old Man With Candy

          I thought that we may have a new champion until I saw the date.

          1. straffinrun

            You just read it, so it would still be the stupidest thing you read this week.

            /Cliff Claven

        3. Count Potato

          Hayek made a similar argument, that serfs had more free time than industrial workers.

          1. Rasilio

            Well they probably did have more free time that industrial workers in the 1880’s.

            However they Do not have anywhere near as much free time as any worker in the west does today.

            What that moronic article that started this whole “Medieval Serfs only worked about half a year” BS missed is that the working days they are counting are only considering the days of service owed their lord, in essence they count the serfs “taxes”. All of the remaining days of the year and hours of the day when not working on behalf of the lord, yeah those were filled working to try and ensure that they had enough food for the upcoming winter and all of the other resources they needed to survive.

            The reality is the average peasant in medieval Europe worked about 1000 hours a year in service to their lord and another 15000 – 2000 hours a year meeting their basis subsistence needs

          2. dorvinion

            @Rasilio

            If we consider modern governments as equivalent to the feudal Lords, the combined effective tax rate between State, Local, Federal taxes nearly takes the same 1000 hours to pay.

            I don’t know where I’m going with this, but it seems like governments change, but the theft stays the same.

          3. Rasilio

            Well it went down for a long time but yeah in the west it has come back to roughly the same level. The thing that has changed is you now only need to work for about another 800 – 900 hours a year to be able to live in relative wealth compared to the serf needing to work 2000 hours to barely survive

          4. dorvinion

            I think its a misinterpretation.

            The time they had free from working for their Lord (that is, working to pay the rent to the Lord) was spent working for themselves to ensure that they didn’t starve or freeze to death over the winter, in addition to the ordinary chores of keeping up a home, cooking, sanitation, child-rearing.

            Today, for those of us who do work for someone else, our work for that someone else provides us the means to acquire with little effort almost everything we need to not starve or freeze to death.

    4. Chipwooder

      You know, I’m regretting ever giving Nick Gillespie the benefit of the doubt in the past. That is a deeply stupid comment. What the fuck WAS Stalinism, Nick? On what was it based? What influenced it? What texts did it hold sacred? For that matter, what was the name of the party for which he served as General Secretary for thirty years?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Besides which, Nazism and Communism have the same fundamental principles, just applied in a different manner. Hitler and Stalin are the flip sides of the same coin stamped from collectivist metal.

        (I’m probably going to regret that strained metaphor)

        1. AlexinCT

          That’s precisely why these two ideologies hate each other so much. Also why the left has spent so much effort trying to create the confounded idea that fascism is right wing rather than just another version of an evil totalitarian leftist collectivist brain fart.

          1. Gadfly

            At the time, fascism represented the extreme center, not the extreme right (monarchists, traditionalists, capitalists) or the extreme left (communists, anarchists). Its whole selling point was that it was supposedly a synthesis of the best of both the left and right. It is quite clearly left-wing from an American perspective, but not from a European perspective.

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            “Worst of both worlds” seems apropos.

          3. Gadfly

            “Worst of both worlds” seems apropos.

            Indeed.

      2. Suthenboy

        Communism is an ideology formulated specifically for the purpose of facilitating totalitarianism. There is no communism separate and apart from the various flavors of its manifestations. Socialism/communism is about central control and command and mandatory compliance. You cant take that out of it any more than you can get the flour out of the cake.

      3. Nephilium

        Was it the State Capitalism party?

        1. Chipwooder

          No, it was The REAL Communism Has Never Been Tried Party.

    5. Suthenboy

      A large percentage of people calling themselves libertarian are closet pinkos. You can smell it on them a mile away. One of the best things Trump has done is cause these snakes to come out of the grass.

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        I’m not a Pinko!

        1. Whatever, Tulpa.

    6. Rufus the Monocled

      Yeh that was, um, retarded.

      1. straffinrun

        That’s good. So was this one.

    7. wdalasio

      Hitler was the leader of Nazism, Stalin the leader of…Stalinism, not communism.

      So, Gillespie would be cool with Nazism ran by the right Top Men?

  27. Slammer

    My favorite new Nolan Chart

    1. slumbrew

      Bravo.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Totalitarians professing communism killed millions of people, but this analogy is flawed.

    Those people were all gonna die, anyway, so… what’s the big deal?

    1. AlexinCT

      Whitewashing the evils of communism. That’s the only means to an end that the progs have in their quiver. Cause the problem isn’t how evil and dehumanizing that ideology is, but that the evil capitalists have undermined Progtopian efforts.

      Fuck them all with a rust chainsaw.

  29. Waterfall Insurance

    A masterclass in projection and lack of self awareness. https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2018/07/23/james-gunns-firing-sets-a-worrying-precedent

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      My God. The idiots in the comments.

      smdh.

    2. Nephilium

      That story kept popping up in my newsfeed. I’ve managed to avoid reading the article. And the hordes have now targeted Dan Harmon. Thankfully, Adult Swim does not have any family friendly image to maintain, so we should still get the next 70 Rick and Morty episodes.

    3. leonadasiv

      That whole article seems to amount to “But Trump and neo-nazis!”. Me today you tomorrow mother fucker.

  30. Tundra

    For racing fans, I saw an interesting movie on the plane the other day.

    Ferrari: Race To Immortality

    It focused on the team Ferrari fielded in the mid-50s, including Peter Collins who might be the coolest race car driver ever. The F1 racing at that time was stupidly dangerous and drivers died with astonishing frequency.

    Highly recommended.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      Way Cool Tundra, thanks for the Find!

    2. Yusef drives a Kia

      Did you ever see “Speed” the Ron Howard movie? all about the 1976 season and Niki Lauda vs. James Hunt. excellent Movie in many ways

      1. slumbrew

        As a non-racing fan, I still enjoyed Carolla’s car docs – ‘Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman’ and ‘The 24 Hour War’ (about Le Mans)

        He’s also distributing some other people’s films: https://chassy.com/

        I’m looking forward to Uppity – Willy T. Ribs seems like an enjoyably crazy person.

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          Did not know he was doing that, will check it out, thanks,

          1. slumbrew

            The Newman one was the better of the two, IMO – biggest star on the planet just wanted to race cars.

            The Le Mans one was still quite good, but the Ford/Ferrari grudge may be old-hat to gearheads.

          2. Tundra

            Thanks! I’ll check it out.

      2. Evan from Evansville

        The movie is Rush, but it is, indeed, fantastic.

        It’s one of those movies like Moneyball, where you don’t have to care about the sport to enjoy the flick. It’s about people and not the sport itself, despite obviously being about sports. I fucking love both movies.

        I love the scene where Lauda meets his wife and he picks up the Italians whose car broke down. “I don’t need to drive fast. Why would I do that?” And she just says “Because I want you to.” And so off he goes.

        I also like that they never try to falsely put in a ‘broken relationship’ angle. Ron Howard has done enough fantastic work that I put him in the category of artists who can do whatever they damn well please.

        1. Evan from Evansville

          Wait. I might have missed a joke. Speed is a famous (and righteous) film in its own right. Maybe I missed the obvious bait-and-switch “joke.” Hrmmmm. Maybe you’re a no-talent assclown who likes to neg on Dennis Hopper.

          *Scratches chin furiously.*

          AND BY CHIN. MEAN CHIN.

        2. Tundra

          Senna is like that as well. My daughter couldn’t give a fuck about cars or racing, but she loved the movie. It is really well done.

          1. KSuellington

            Senna is one of my all time favorite docs, really well done. I also enjoyed Speed very much.

          2. KSuellington

            Dammit.

            Rush.

        3. Yusef drives a Kia

          Checks hard drive, oops… Rush it is,
          for non race fans, it gives a nice viewpoint to the sport back then, Carnage Bad

    3. Rufus the Monocled

      Thanks. I’ve wondered why there hasn’t been a movie dedicated to Ferrari.

      1. Tundra

        This one is really about the drivers, not really about Enzo or even the cars.

        One interesting thing I learned was that Ferrari and Maserati shared the same test track in Modena.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          Indeed they did. Alfa, Ferrari, Maserati. All from the same lineage.

          Ah. Then my wonderment continues.

    4. Mad Scientist

      Here’s one you can watch online. Jackie Stewart in Weekend of a Champion. Jackie is followed around Monaco prior to the 1971 race, which he wins. The move was filmed by OMWC’s favorite director Roman Polanski.

  31. AlexinCT

    This is what progtopia always looks like. Rationing and shortages.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      Just got my Gas Bill,19$
      it was 108 yesterday
      The live Comments are funny

      1. Tulip

        And your electric bill? I always have low gas bills in summer, but the electric climbs.

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          It should max this month, at around 180$, Normally it’s 75$/month

    2. Suthenboy

      Self-inflicted misery. Enjoy, California.

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        I didn’t vote for this shit, I’m leaving as fast as I can……

  32. Juvenile Bluster

    While TDS is a thing, it’s always important to remember that Trump is a fucking moron.

    Donald J. Trump
    ‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump

    Tariffs are the greatest! Either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on Trade negotiates a fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs. It’s as simple as that – and everybody’s talking! Remember, we are the “piggy bank” that’s being robbed. All will be Great!

    1. straffinrun

      That might be his worst tweet to date. “We’ll shoot our own consumers in the head if you won’t give us what we want.”

      1. commodious spittoon

        He’s got us right where he wants us.

      2. Gadfly

        Tariffs hurt both sides, so “we’ll shoot ourselves” is not an apt metaphor, as it addresses only half the picture. It’s more like a Mexican standoff, or maybe a suicide bomber. Higher prices will hurt the customer, but lower sales will hurt the seller. Trump is playing a game of chicken: if the other side blinks, he’ll come out looking like a winner, but if not, things could go south, potentially seriously.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s just that a moron is preferable to a criminal gang.

      Such is life.

      1. straffinrun

        I bet he still would’ve won with that slogan.

        1. Tejicano

          Yeah, if he had you would have voted for him too. It would have been true and at least he would be owning it.

    3. Chipwooder

      That’s what makes me hate the #RESIST mob more than anything – I don’t actually like Donald Trump, but they leave me no choice but to defend his blustery, buffoonish ass over and over.

      1. wdalasio

        Hitler was the leader of Nazism, Stalin the leader of…Stalinism, not communism.

        The logical conclusion of Gillespie’s argument, one where even he has the common sense not to follow, is that the neo-Nazis might well have a point. If you accept Gillespie’s reasoning, that stuff back in the 1930s-40s was just Hitlerism, not Nazism. True Nazism hasn’t been tried yet. If Julius Streicher had just been more successful…

        1. wdalasio

          threading fail. Replacing at the bottom. Sorry for the graffiti

        2. Chipwooder

          I’d say the Strasser brothers, Gregor and Otto, who took the socialism part of National Socialism more seriously than Hitler did and were purged in 1934 as a result.

    4. Suthenboy

      He is a moron that just conjured up bargaining chips out of thin air. He is like drunken Kung Fu master.

      1. Rebel Scum

        I remain hopeful that this is part of the negotiation and won’t lapse into a prolonged trade war.

    5. Rebel Scum

      Tariffs are the greatest!

      Free trade is the greatest. Tariffs are retarded.

    6. Viking1865

      I will say that “free trade” as it is practiced stems from some enormous market distortions, in much the same way that the “free market” as it is practiced has a hell of a lot massive governmental intervention. I’m not exactly sure that I’m willing to defend the WTO as a libertarian institution, in much the same way that I’m not sure I’m going to defend Bank of America as a pillar of the free market.

      Particularly, the current “free trade” environment is built upon the US playing world police, patrolling the sea lanes, more or less maintaining the global financial system, and more or less acting as the enforcer of international trade agreements. That costs a lot of money, and it’s money that comes from American taxpayers. When you open a factory to make Nikes in Indonesia, you’re doing so knowing that the US Navy is suppressing the pirates, that the IMF and the State Department are funneling hundreds of millions to the Indonesian government to make sure they keep order, and that the Indonesian government knows that nationalizing the factory might result in losing that aid. So Joe Taxpayer pays all this money and Nike is, on balance, getting the profits. Yes of course Nike pays a lot in taxes, I’m not saying they don’t, and obviously it would be hard to actually calculate it all, but I can see how some people think Joe Taxpayer is getting screwed.

      I’m of the opinion that if we pulled out of the IMF, the WTO, got out of the foreign aid business, and pulled back the fleet to actually defend our country and not the whole world, you would see a lot of factories returning. Right now the whole “transnational liberal order” thing basically allows companies to set up in Third World shitholes and basically enjoy the same legal protections that they would have here in the US, but they get to pay dirt cheap wages and don’t have the regulations to deal with.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    That Wired article about Elizabeth Holmes is such a tangled mess of awfulness, I can’t stop reading it. It’s like watching the ambulance crew pulling bodies out of a crashed school bus.

    I read a couple of paragraphs and say, fuck it, I can’t read any more. But then I go back.

  34. commodious spittoon

    it doesn’t mean you have any room to slack off!

    But the women here get a lactation room…

  35. Scruffy Nerfherder
    1. The Other Kevin

      I read that and my first thought was, what a great world it would be if that were true and more people had a work ethic like they did in the past.

    2. slumbrew

      Fuck that guy – I like my work, and the people I work for. Plus, I like earning my keep.

      1. wdalasio

        I like earning my keep

        What a cis-white-hetero-patriarchal comment! Check your privilege, shitlord! Just because you got stuff for putting in valued effort doesn’t mean you earned anything! As Dear Leader has said, “You didn’t build that”!

    3. Tundra

      Oops. Someone skipped The Gods of the Copybook Headings

      In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
      By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
      But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
      And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

  36. Rebel Scum

    WHY PAUL IS SKEPTICAL OF THE KAVANAUGH PICK

    Civil libertarians of the Paul variety are particularly troubled by a short concurring opinion Kavanaugh wrote in a case called Klayman v. Obama, a challenge to the National Security Agency’s metadata collection program. A federal court in Washington concluded that the program was unconstitutional in 2015. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the court on which Kavanaugh serves, stayed that decision, allowing data collection to continue.

    Kavanaugh’s brief opinion argued that metadata capture was consistent with existing Supreme Court precedent. He cited the 1979 Smith v. Maryland decision, a landmark ruling that allows government to access records held by a third-party — like telephone companies — without a warrant…

    “The government’s program for bulk collection of telephony metadata serves a critically important special need — preventing terrorist attacks on the United States,” he wrote. “In my view, that critical national security need outweighs the impact on privacy occasioned by this program.”

    “We think that we really need to do it. So it’s ok to engage in clear violations of civil rights and the constitution”. More “compelling government interest” claptrap…

    1. A Leap at the Wheel

      The problem with this line of attack is that the metadata capture was consistent with the jurisprudence around Smith until last fucking month. And Smith was only reinterpreted from a “applies to everything” rule to a “do we extend it to this situation” rule by Roberts and the 4 libs. So replacing Kennedy (who thought this way) with Kavanaugh (who probably things this way) is most likely a wash with a long-shot for improved 4th amendment protections.

  37. A Fuggin White Male

    Anyone have sloop’s email? I know he’s probably shared it here before, but I haven’t seen it.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      Write to the overlords, they will pass it on I’m sure

  38. Suthenboy

    “Totalitarians professing communism killed millions of people, but this analogy is flawed. Hitler was the leader of Nazism, Stalin the leader of…Stalinism, not communism.”

    Not real communism. Gotcha.

    I may have mentioned this before but I am a single issue voter. The litmus test is one’s position on the second amendment. I dont remember when it was but the first time Gillespie gave some mealy-mouthed defense of the 2nd with plenty of caveats I smelled a rat. This tweet doesnt surprise me one bit. You cant have central command and control and mandatory compliance without disarming the population. No matter how you slice it pinkoism invariably leads to state sponsored mass murder.

    No one ever wanted to make you defenseless for your own good. This is the reason I am here and not at TOS.

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      I’m not sure what exactly is going on with NickyG. Early onset dementia? Not too bright? Just desperate for attention and envious of Peterson? Whatever the problem, that tweet was just terrible.

      1. Suthenboy

        People are still making jokes about ‘the jacket’
        The guy became a vegan FFS. Some people dont know who they. They are empty so they flit from one crowd to another seeking an identity thinking that is something that comes from outside themselves.

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        It strikes me as envy and a desire to hang with the cool kids.

        If he made a valuable argument against one of Peterson’s tenets, it would be one thing, but he appears to be using high school level argumentation against him. It’s really pretty sad and pathetic.

        1. A Leap at the Wheel

          He’s hilarious when he tries to justify his PhD with the cool kids. I remember an old video on reason.tv where he was interviewing some queer theorist academic, and he kept name-dropping all these authors he wrote. Then he asks something along the lines of “What do you think queer theory can take from libertarian theory” and the academic’s answer was along the lines of “like, nothing.”

        2. wdalasio

          It strikes me as envy and a desire to hang with the cool kids.

          Or just maybe writing for a libertarian publication was the best gig available at the time. I don’t think you can entirely discount the notion that libertarian “elites” or “thought leaders” are just as economically self-interested as the next guy. And the “woke progressive” thing is probably better for where Gillespie has positioned himself than trying to compete with more libertarian-oriented conservatives.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    The F1 racing at that time was stupidly dangerous and drivers died with astonishing frequency.

    I can’t see how anybody can think racing is better now than it was in the days of hard, skinny tires and no downforce. They should have just focused on not killing so many drivers.

    Another excellent F1 documentary is the movie 1.

    1. Tundra

      I don’t think it is better. I love watching vintage racing.

      Thanks, I haven’t seen 1. I’ll check it out.

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        Speed, is the Ayrton Senna Documentary, a very Gruesome movie, they have some F! Archival stuff that’s unreal

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          Or is it Senna? I need more Coffee……………

    2. trshmnstr

      Cosigned

      1. trshmnstr

        I’ll add, as somebody who grew up in Indianapolis, I lived, ate, and breathed Indy 500 every May. 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s (through ’95) Indy 500 were the pinnacle of American racing. Wings or no, they put on a great show.

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          I has envy, I saw you on T.V. growing up 🙂

        2. Tundra

          I have very fond memories of watching my dad’s cousin race stock cars on the dirt tracks of southern Minnesota. Man, when those guys fired up their cars it was like thunder! It made quite an impression on young Tundra.

          1. Yusef drives a Kia

            We had many Drag strips, Ontario Speedway and now Fontana, but I watched the scene go from fun to Sterile, So I quit going

          2. Desk Jockey

            I’ve been thinking about putting in an article about the dirt track scene out here in NY. How it started, developed and became what it is today. Got some good lessons about what uninhibited innovation can provide vs tight rules. I still race, but I wish I could’ve gone up against guys from the ’60s and 70’s era.

          3. Tundra

            I’d love to read that. Do it!

    3. Yusef drives a Kia

      Thanks! I’ll check it out as well,
      YT is a great source of Vintage F1, material,

  40. The Late P Brooks

    You don’t kill millions with the Communism you want, you kill millions with the Communism you have.

    1. Suthenboy

      Excellent.

    2. Tejicano

      That is superb.

    3. wdalasio

      Well said.

    4. Michael

      I’m stealing liberating this for my own use.

      1. I’m appropriating it.

  41. Certified Public Asshat

    How Is This Shit Legal

    This past spring, Michael Ferro resigned as chairman of publicly traded media-looting hell-company Tronc, Inc., just ahead of the publication of sexual harassment allegations against him. As a parting gift, Tronc paid him $15 million, voluntarily bundling up the total value of a three-year consulting contract into one lump payment expensed against the company’s earnings and putting itself $14.8 million in the red for the first quarter. Today, Tronc gutted the New York Daily News, laying off at least half of its editorial staff to cut costs. In a society not crippled and driven completely insane by capitalism, motherfuckers would go to prison for this.

    When people talk pejoratively about “class warfare,” they almost never are referring to things like the above sequence of events. But what happened to the Daily News at the hands of Tronc is class fucking warfare, a massive redistribution of wealth from the paper’s working people to a disgusting handsy shitbag multimillionaire, in a decision made far above those working people’s heads by a small handful of executive- and investor-class vampires. The journalists who lost their livelihoods today in effect had their salaries and benefits re-routed to Michael Ferro’s bank accounts. Against their wills, they were made to pay him for being a fucking pig.

    Tronc bought NYDN for $1.

    1. Suthenboy

      Market principles are class warfare. Ok then.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The real issue is that Tronc fucked their shareholders by gifting Ferro $15M when he should have been fired with cause.

      And herein lie the problem with public corporations, the feedback loop sucks. Shareholders have some recourse in the act of buying and selling, but they are rarely able to exact direct punishment on the board for misconduct.

      1. wdalasio

        In the modern progressive parlance, shareholders aren’t supposed to matter. They’re just supposed to do without and put their savings at the disposal of sufficiently woke administrators. These people really are stupid and evil.

      2. Juvenile Bluster

        They can always file a derivative lawsuit, which usually ends in a settlement at the limit of the company’s D&O insurance to make it go away.

      3. Creosote Achilles

        This is, I think, one of those places where I kinda run out of the libertarian country club. I’m not sure that corporations and stock markets AS PRESENTLY constituted are all that compatible with free markets. Both because of the agency problem you describe and the distortions in decision making that quarterly and monthly filings cause in actual practice. Both are also somewhat artificial creatures of the law. And large corporations are symbiotic with government creating negative feedback loops.

        I don’t have any more in depth opinion on it then that, beyond my vague feeling there is something janky about the whole setup. Eh. It’s a half-formed idea and way down on my list of priorities for when Libertopia arrives.

        1. R C Dean

          I’m not sure that corporations and stock markets AS PRESENTLY constituted are all that compatible with free markets.

          My biggest issue with the stock markets isn’t the mandatory reporting so much as it is the misapplication of fraud laws. Insider trading by a fiduciary shouldn’t be allowed as a violation of fiduciary duties; but nobody else should be subject to the insider trading laws. Also, we are currently running two markets – one in human time for the rubes, and one in computer time for the big fish to fleece the rubes. The one in computer time should be outlawed as a species of fraud.

          Corporate law used to do a better job with the agency problem. In recent generations, though, the protections for owners have gotten weaker and weaker.

          1. Creosote Achilles

            The misapplication of fraud laws is part of what I’m referencing too, yes. And I agree about the rubes / big fish too. It’s all part of … I have a preference for de-centralization and the stock markets and current corporate law seem focused on centralization in a way I find off-putting. Also, I think Brooksies comment below is pretty spot on too.

    3. wdalasio

      Their newspaper failed. The sooner these idiots realize that, the better. Tronc is only trying to salvage the remains of a working enterprise from the wreckage. The world doesn’t owe journalists jobs,. In fact, I’d say cuts to the editorial staff are entirely appropriate, given that the Daily News has been getting its copy directly from the DNC.

      1. AlexinCT

        I think that is what pisses these leftists the most Bill: that they see a direct correlation with capitalism not rewarding their woke shit.

    4. Yusef drives a Kia

      Oh, The Downtrodden Paperboy!
      Those poor, dirty printers hard at the presses Woe to them!

    5. A Leap at the Wheel

      Ah yes, just like Occupy was class warfare. The top 5% of the population getting angry at the top 3%.

    6. Chipwooder

      Cuffy‏ @CuffyMeh

      I’ve been told that folks trapped in dying industries should learn to code.

      Cuffy added,

      Joe CaporosoVerified account @JCaporoso
      Cheering on people being upset at losing their livelihood to own the libs https://twitter.com/CuffyMeh/status/1021422309138198528

      9:05 AM – 23 Jul 2018

    7. Juvenile Bluster

      David Burge
      ‏ @iowahawkblog

      David Burge Retweeted Seung Min Kim

      I don’t rejoice anyone losing their livelihood, but I don’t recall this kind of pathos over laid-off workers in other dead end rust belt industries

      1. commodious spittoon

        Coal miners are dumb rubes who are too dumb and stupid to know what’s good for them, like working in their stupid dumb coal mining industry when they could be assembling solar panels.

        1. Last quarter there was a substantial plunge in the number of solar installations performed.

          1. commodious spittoon

            Those stupid, dumb solar panel assemblers need to learn a new trade, like building mud huts for low-income families.

    8. Sell a product worth buying and it won’t go under. NYDN hasn’t been worth the paper it’s printed on for at least the past 5 years. Shitty businesses die.

  42. Michael

    For anyone that’s fascinated by failed public works projects as I am:

    https://www.instagram.com/incompiutosiciliano/

    1. Suthenboy

      A country populated entirely by Elon Musks?

    2. AlexinCT

      God damned guineas. My paisans are screwing the pooch yet again.

    3. slumbrew

      The important thing is the contractors got paid until the money ran out.

    4. kinnath

      I worked with a guy from Europe on one project in the past. He was half German and half Italian. He was born in Germany, but lived and worked in Italy for many years.

      He would tell visitors: See that bridge. It was built by the Romans 2000 years ago. We still use it. See this other bridge. It was built by the Italians 10 years ago. It is closed because of structural problems. We can’t use it.

      1. Dr. Fronkensteen

        The engineers of 10 years ago should be crucified for their mistakes.

        1. kinnath

          Yes. But the problems in Italy are systemic and run from the C-suite down to the common laborer.

          That being said, important stuff — like wine presses — still get the proper attention and work as intended.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    There’s some cool shit in that Incompiuto thing. I want to live in this one!

  44. Titty Tuesday.

    http://archive.is/eAkZO

    Gotta love the monkey in 13 looking down her top.

    1. Unreconstructed

      If we ever needed proof that you weren’t the one creating these collections, the inclusion of #63 in this group confirms it.

      1. Gotta throw a bone to the itty bitty titty committee every once in a while.

        1. Unreconstructed

          I see what ya did there – and heartily approve.

  45. Spudalicious

    I’m still waiting for one of these stories to actually be true.

    https://www.oaoa.com/news/business/article_741af8b8-8eb5-11e8-b276-6fd15202251a.html?mode=jqm

    “I’m sorry. I deeply made a huge, big mistake,” Cavil said. “And I’m in the process of getting the help that I need.”

    Like unemployed?

    1. commodious spittoon

      “I don’t have an explanation. I made a mistake. There is no excuse for what I did.”

      Damn it, man, stick to the script! You were starting a conversation! Raising awareness! Protesting mistreatment and oppression!

      “After further investigation, we have learned that our employee fabricated the entire story. The customer has been contacted and invited back to our restaurant to dine on us. Racism of any form is intolerable, and we will always act swiftly should it occur in any of our establishments. Falsely accusing someone of racism is equaling disturbing.”

      Uh oh. Someone’s chumming the water.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Cavil claimed he was left no tip and that “we don’t tip terrorist” was written on the receipt. Cavil had said he hoped the post would spur conversation “about this hatred that is still going on, that is still here and prevalent. I just wanted people to understand that.”

      I’m really tired of that particular bullshit.

      1. Suthenboy

        If hatred were prevalent then he wouldn’t have to wave false flags. Same with poop swastikas, BLM etc.
        It’s all bullshit. There is no nation full of racist misogynist deplorables. However, I encourage them to keep this shit up. Keep insulting people and then demanding their votes. I am sure it will work this time.

        Blue wave a’comin!

  46. The Late P Brooks

    In a society not crippled and driven completely insane by capitalism, motherfuckers would go to prison for this.

    In an education system not gutted and crippled by unions and unabashed self-dealing on the part of administrators and staff who run things for their own benefit, rather than that of the students, people would understand simple arithmetic. Two plus two is always and everywhere four.

    1. Suthenboy

      In countries not crippled by capitalism people go to jail for most things really.

      1. Only if they’re not starving to death.

    1. CPRM

      Been a long time since I even thought about that song now it’s gonna be stuck in my head.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      A site that dares to print articles that question the standard explanations for the racial wealth gap (racism) is definitely going to receive criticism from the universities.

        1. Raston Bot

          I started into the opposing “literature” on the racial wealth gap particularly wrt savings rates. Duke has put out contrary studies. The group there has a real knack for heavily citing their own prior works. That’s not exactly a red flag for me but it’s pretty close. What’s the matter? Can’t cite somebody else’s work that’s not part of your sociology department?

        2. ChipsnSalsa

          A 2017 Nielsen report found that, compared to white women, black women were 14 percent more likely to own a luxury vehicle, 16 percent more likely to purchase costume jewelry, and 9 percent more likely to purchase fine jewelry. A similar Nielsen report from 2013 found that, while only 62 percent of all Americans owned a smartphone, 71 percent of blacks owned one. Moreover, all of these spending differences were unconditional on wealth and income.

          ding, ding, ding. Luxury vehicle & designer name clothing.

          1. R C Dean

            And people are baffled when they realize they don’t have enough saved for retirement.

          2. Suthenboy

            And someone has to be blamed.

          3. Raston Bot

            unconditional on wealth and income

            that is critical. i’m glad that was put in there.

            the Duke shop goes on and on how none of these stats hold if controlled for income. but their claim has proven bullshit by another study i read.

    2. Can I help the cause by copulating with Claire?

      1. Chipwooder

        You mean, coitus?

  47. wdalasio

    Hitler was the leader of Nazism, Stalin the leader of…Stalinism, not communism.

    The logical conclusion of Gillespie’s argument, one where even he has the common sense not to follow, is that the neo-Nazis might well have a point. If you accept Gillespie’s reasoning, that stuff back in the 1930s-40s was just Hitlerism, not Nazism. True Nazism hasn’t been tried yet. If Julius Streicher had just been more successful…

  48. Well I got rid of two of my MINI fleet and went with a used 2014 Mustang V6 – burgundy hardtop – with only 24k miles on the clock. Weird thing? Insurance for the ‘stang is cheaper than the Countryman CUV.

    1. Does that mean the average Mini owner is an insurance risk?

      1. Give the number of Mustangs that attack crowds…
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cw1bHMGOxg

  49. DOOMco

    Howdy y’all.
    I am alive. Miss you guys.

    1. ::blows whistle for the St. Bernard to return::

    2. Whycome u no post?

      1. DOOMco

        Eh. Just not a bunch of time. I drive home during the pm link and feel like I’m behind.
        Work had me jammed up recently. Lots to do while the kids aren’t here.

        1. Moving back to CO anytime soon?

          1. DOOMco

            Not anytime soon, afaik.
            Wouldn’t be opposed to that though.

    3. DOOMco

      Still been reading a bunch. Just not as much time to comment as I might like.

    4. Tundra

      DOOOOOOOOOOM!!

      Missed you, kid. Welcome back!

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Tariffs are the greatest!

    Trump’s a landlord. What if he thinks tariffs are like charging “rent” for the “use” of “his” market?

    That doesn’t make him right. It definitely doesn’t make him smart. That’s just something which popped into my head.

    And- I would be interested to know if the people who used to tell me how awesome it would be if Obama jacked up a bunch of tariffs to protect American enterprise are cheering, now that Trump is talking about it.

    1. Creosote Achilles

      My guess is that he’s looking at it from a negotiation and game theory perspective. Based on his comments his preferred agreement is for neither side to have any tariffs, because that would be best for the US. So the alternatives are; the status quo, tariffs both ways, or removing tariffs altogether.

      From the side of whatever other country, the perception is that the status quo is better than no tariffs. As the US has traditionally avoided imposing too many tariffs, they see no reason to negotiate as the status quo is better than the alternative.

      Imposing tariffs changes the math. It’s also a tit-for-tat, in his mind. We’re just doing to them what they are doing to us. Add in that I think he’d say we are better able to weather the economic impacts of tariffs than our trading partners because our economy is large, more diverse, and more dynamic, and the choice for the other side then becomes whether to continue suffering the effects, escalate, or negotiate to either lower or remove the tariffs.

      I’m a little torn. On the one hand, free market economic theory is right that tariffs as an end-state are bad, and actual free trade is better or all parties. But can tariffs be used as a temporary cudgel to get to the preferred end state of low/few or no tariffs? Is the economic drag of the tit-for-tat trade war worth the additional growth and velocity of a post trade war situation with lower tariffs? Dunno. I don’t know if there are any economists who would even ask the question let alone study it in detail. Or that could be trusted if they did.

  51. RE: The Jacket going full retard

    Not surprising given the editorial direction Reason has taken of late. He/his site have been slowly creeping more and more progtarian for years, I guess now he’s just leaning into it. Like I said yesterday, with the exception of a few articles by a few writers every now and again, Reason is a progressive rag. Not sure if this is more of his failed strategy to try and attract yoots to “libertarianism” by watering down the philosophy to such a degree that it’s unrecognizable, or if hanging out at all the cocktail parties finally liquefied his brain, but anyone who tweets something like that cannot be called libertarian in any way.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      I really didn’t like the sophomoric articles on Peterson by ENB and Welch.

      1. Chipwooder

        ENB is a joke. On most issues, she’s a prog, and always has been. The entirety of her published work prior to Reason was proggy, a fair chunk of it still is even at Reason, and she’s marrying a far-left jackass.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          Married. Get up to speed shitlord.

          Who’s the guy?

          And she focuses too much on porn and Stormy Daniels.

          1. Chipwooder

            The “guy” would be this sorry motherfucker.

          2. Rufus the Monocled

            Lemme guess. He thinks Trussia is a real thing.

    2. Raston Bot

      it’s a fair critique. after all, capitalism is responsible for slavery and communism never used slave labor.. *cough* gulag *cough*

  52. The Late P Brooks

    Howdy y’all.
    I am alive.

    Phew. We, uh, took a vote and decided not to pay the ransom.

  53. DOOMco

    My escape was cunning and brave, I assure you.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    Like I said yesterday, with the exception of a few articles by a few writers every now and again, Reason is a progressive rag. Not sure if this is more of his failed strategy to try and attract yoots to “libertarianism” by watering down the philosophy to such a degree that it’s unrecognizable

    He should offer that kid from Harvard a job. He’ll fit right in.

  55. Rebel Scum

    Are you ready for Eric?

    Former Attorney General Eric Holder told “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert that he’s “considering” running for President in 2020, but won’t make an official decision until after the 2018 midterm elections…
    “I’m thinking about it and what I’ve said is that I’d make a determination sometime early next year,” Holder said.” “My focus, really, now is on 2018, the midterms and trying to make sure that Democrats take back the Senate, take back the House, and that we do well, importantly, at the state level.”

    The audience broke out into applause which, Politico says, Holder “paused for a second to soak up.”

    A young, fresh face for Team Blue the definitely does not have any baggage.

    1. CPRM

      His campaign will be something Trump never sees coming, it’s going to be Fast and Furious!

      1. Rebel Scum

        “Remember when you were attorney general? It was a complete and total disaster, ok? I’m a stable genius with a big league brain.”

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      The Obama administration: The rag weed of politics.

  56. The Late P Brooks

    The audience broke out into applause which, Politico says, Holder “paused for a second to soak up.”

    They misspelled “laughter” I’d say.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    Corporate law used to do a better job with the agency problem. In recent generations, though, the protections for owners have gotten weaker and weaker.

    A major problem I have is the perceptual transformation (I blame the business schools) of managers who are quite simply employees of the enterprise and custodians of the wealth of the owners into some species of extraordinary intellectual powerhouses. This allows them to routinely thumb their noses at the shareholders and act in their own personal best interest.

    *some are, the overwhelming majority are not

    1. wdalasio

      It isn’t so much that htye are intellectual powerhouses, as that they have the advantage of regulatory capture. The legislatures, the bureaucracies, and even the courts, all favor management over company owners because they’re largely populated by the managerial class, rather than the investor class, and because the managerial class is much better positioned to provide legislators, bureaucrats and the courts valued things.

  58. The Post can’t go the way of NYDN fast enough.

    https://freebeacon.com/politics/denver-post-runs-letter-editor-suggesting-trump-executed/

    Make that all dead tree publications.

    1. commodious spittoon

      I never took you for an environmentalist.

    2. commodious spittoon

      This new breed of Cold Warriors is putting the old guard to shame. Next they’ll be advocating internment for anyone with a Slavic name.

      Here’s VDH for a palette cleanser.

    3. Rufus the Monocled

      I’ve been assured the ‘alt-right’ are the worst.

    4. DOOMco

      When are the charges filed

    1. Raston Bot

      Tester is still going to vote for Kavanaugh.

  59. Count Potato

    Planet Fitness is the worst gym ever. They have no heavy weights. They have all these stupid rules. And the whole place is painted yellow and purple. It’s like inception into some Viking’s fan homoerotic dream.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      We’re at a point where the best weapon is to ignore them outright and never apologize.

      Just don’t give them the time of day. Let them scream bitch and moan. Heck, let them protest and go berserk. Eventually they all have to go home and do their chores.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Should have included a container car piled high with coal.

    1. Just the URL was enough to make me dry heave a little.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Because you said ‘don’t’ I took it as ‘do.’

    3. straffinrun

      Sex in the Slurry.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      For real lol.

  60. The Late P Brooks

    Planet Fitness is the worst gym ever. They have no heavy weights. They have all these stupid rules. And the whole place is painted yellow and purple. It’s like inception into some Viking’s fan homoerotic dream.

    Wasn’t it Planet Fitness who canceled some woman’s membership for complaining about a man using the ladies’ locker room? Said she was a transphobic bigot whom no honorable organization could tolerate association with, I think.

    1. It wouldn’t surprise me. Planet Fitness is the soyboy of gyms. You can be thrown out for being too loud or being, in their opinion, a “meathead” (ie: someone big lifting big stuff). They also serve pizza and doughnuts to people.

      1. commodious spittoon

        But it’s cheap and filled with ladies in spandex, which is really all I ask of a gym.

      2. Raston Bot

        it’s not their fault they’re fat. Trump is president!

      3. ron73440

        HEY!!! I go to Planet Fitness.

        I kind of hate it, but it’s the only gym 5 minutes from the house so I can go before work and not have to shower there.

        Plus it’s only $10 a month.

      4. Rufus the Monocled

        Not a place for White Goodman.

      5. Via Wiki:

        “As early as March 2015, the “Judgement Free Zone” policy has been expanded to include allowing biological men, whose identity is self-reported as a woman, to use the women’s locker room. The policy states that “members and guests may use all gym facilities based on their sincere self-reported gender identity.””

        GAY

    1. Count Potato

      So brave. Much wisdom.

    2. Rebel Scum

      I smell another PSA. Surely, that won’t have a negative impact on the coming #BlueWave.

    3. Rufus the Monocled

      Jesus Christ.

      Holy shit.

      Man oh man.

      What in the fuck?

    4. F. Stupidity Jr.

      Honestly, Zach Braff’s tweet was worth a chuckle.

    5. Michael Ian Black’s was at least an attempt at humor.

  61. Chipping Pioneer

    You know who else was Austrian and caused disorder?

    Conan the Disorderer?

  62. The Late P Brooks

    Here’s another little thing I have had rattling around in my head for a long while: you can call them “tariffs” or you can call them “port fees” but without the US defense umbrella, international trade would most likely be a whole lot more difficult, dangerous and expensive. Getting our trading partners to assist in funding that umbrella is not necessarily a bad thing, and making those costs obvious and explicit is unquestionably a good thing.

    I was reminded of this by a couple of other people’s comments.

    1. Mojeaux

      I subscribe to the theory that Trump is playing chicken with the tariffs, but of course, he can’t SAY that, unlike Chocolate Jesus, who dropped every detail of a plan of operation to the world.

      1. AlexinCT

        And then wondered why he was played like the bitch he is?

      2. R C Dean

        Same here. And its not like he’s hiding it, either. He says right out loud that tariffs are the stick that we will use if we don’t get a “better” trade deal.

        Assuming current trade arrangements are to the favor of other countries, they have no reason to change unless we have stick to hit them with if they don’t.

        1. Mojeaux

          And its not like he’s hiding it, either

          Either

          1) They don’t believe he’d do it or

          2) They don’t understand what he’s saying because of #1.

          So it’s essentially stealth.

  63. Count Potato

    “Twelve Types of White People I’d Like to Call the Cops On
    Why let Permit Patty and Coupon Carl have all the fun?””

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a3qemj/twelve-types-of-white-people-id-like-to-call-the-cops-on

    1. R C Dean

      When did outright racism become acceptable again in this country, anyway?

      And how naive do you have to be, to believe that the race which is actually in the majority, and has the wealth and power, won’t win this game once it decides to play?

      1. Suthenboy

        Jan. 20, 2009

    2. Stinky Wizzleteats

      “Trump voting white people

      Self-explanatory.”

      Arrest them? I get the feeling they’d be happy to put them in camps.

    3. Raston Bot

      well if there’s one thing white people and black people can finally agree on…

      Militant vegan white people

      You burst a vessel when your favorite gluten-free bakery admits they’ve been using wheat. You’re the derelict that looks to annoy me with your pretentious-ass diet of seventeen chickpeas and a tablespoon of Aquafina water. Don’t come to my visible space and compare another juicy and succulent pig to a former slave in chains. Just go away, grab that homemade trail mix, go on a hike, hit up that Kanye West concert, and let me enjoy my meat.

      1. Suthenboy

        I was gonna say most of those people are insufferable assholes but because Noel is also and a screaming fucking bigot he got Trump voters and people offended by his blatant bigotry mixed in there.

    1. Tundra

      Excellent. Getting some weird looks from people walking by, though!