Friday Morning Links

The Eagles won the NFL season opener in a snoozer. Serena and Osaka head to the US Open finals, Tiger and Rory tear it up at the BMW on day 1.  The new (soccer) Nations League got underway in Europe with Germany tying France. And the baseball winners were: San Diego, Chicago, Cleveland and Atlanta.

Apropos of nothing, this made me laugh.

Famous birthdays for today are: Queen Elizabeth I, painter Grandma Moses, NFL hall of fame coach Paul Brown, moviemaker Elia Kazan, actor Peter Lawford, singer and flight-booker Buddy Holly, singer Chrissie Hynde, actor Corbin Bernsen, rapper Eazy-E, sexy Shannon Elizabeth, and “comedienne” Leslie Jones.

Its also the date on which the following occurred: The Battle at Borodino, the first baby was placed in an incubator, the Boxer Rebellion officially ended, the first ever Miss America pageant was held, Interpol was formed, Hoover Dam began operations, the last thylacine died in captivity, Whitey Ford threw his second no-hitter…in a row, the Bell X-2 set the altitude record of 126,000 ft, the pro football hall of fame opened, Jackie Stewart became F1 world champion, Jimmy Carter signs away American control of the Panama Canal (22 years later), G Gordon Liddy got out of jail, assassination attempt on Pinochet killed five people, and Bob Packwood resigned from the Senate.

Slim pickings today, for the most part.  Oh well, on to…the links!

So did this.

Twitter permanently bans Alex Jones and Infowars for life because of “abuse”.  They even suspended a lot of people for lamenting the fact.  Trust me, I read about it on twitter. It was all over the Hamas feed as well as Louis Farrakahn’s You know, because they are still working just fine.

Elizabeth Warren openly calls for a coup in the United States. I don’t know how else to put it. I mean, its a procedural coup, but she wants unelected bureaucrats to eject a sitting President and install a replacement. Because that’s how to preserve a democracy or something.

But this one is the best.

Yeah, it might be time for somebody at Tesla to step in and take control from Elon Musk. He’s cracking under the pressure. Well done, Joe Rogan.

We’ve all had some shitty flights, but I’m sure these people were more pissed off than any of us have ever been while on a plane. Alternate headline: Urine Trouble, Passengers!

(At least) Two things are really fucked up in this story. First, trying a person for six counts of murder for one killing because each count is “based on a different legal theory”. And more importantly, the fact that police are held to a much lower standard that a normal person when it comes to killing people in Illinois. Expect a guilty verdict on maybe one minor charge and for the cop to walk…and Chicago to burn.

Looks like there was a lot of shit-lordery going on at the New York City Ballet. Nude photos, recordings of sex with ballerinas, degrading language. I, for one, am shocked to find this kind of thing happening in the entertainment industry.

OK, maybe I spoke too soon on that last one…

Colin Kaepernick watched the controversial Nike commercial debut from Nike’s headquarters. Good for him that he didn’t have a practice or film session to participate in ahead of a season-opener. You know, because nobody will hire him because he sucks as a player.

Nice trigger discipline, dumbass.  I just hope they contain this rogue gun. Here’s the first paragraph (emphasis mine):

An AR-15 rifle wielded by a Houston police officer mistakenly fired into the floor at the baggage area of Hobby Airport on Thursday night, according to authorities.

No, it didn’t fire. The cop carrying it fired it into the floor. Guns don’t fire themselves. People handling firearms do…sometimes negligently.

I don’t know what to do.  I am sure everybody was expecting a song by these guys. So I have to play it.  But I really want to hear this as well. (NSFW without headphones, by the way) Too bad they didn’t do a video for this version. And in my opinion, its one of the top 10 songs all-time of the genre.

And on that note, I’m out.  Have a good day and a great weekend, friends.

 

Comments

651 responses to “Friday Morning Links”

  1. Troy

    Cops suck

    First

  2. baggage area of Hobby Airport on Thursday night

    So the airport isn’t ready to go pro and commit to air-transit full-time?

    1. *strongly narrows gaze*

    2. Pope Jimbo

      I hate that fucking airport.

      One time flying there I totally managed to make a connection with a hot gal in the next seat over. When we landed we were all ready to sneak into a bathroom and get it on. But when we got to the main lobby bathroom there was no condom machine and the gal was all “no glove no love.”

      That is why I hate the Hobby lobby and its lack of birth control.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        BOOOO!

      2. C. Anacreon

        Brilliant!

  3. PieInTheSky

    Yeah, it might be time for somebody at Tesla to step in and take control from Elon Musk. He’s cracking under the pressure. Well done, Joe Rogan. _ I don’t think smoking weed with Rogan is indicative of anything

    1. Are you just saying that because there are incriminating videos of you out there?

    2. I don’t care about that. But listen to what he said. Dude is losing it.

      1. PieInTheSky

        I was planning to check out the podcast today after work, I assume it hit youtube… But still I would not judge people based on what they say to Joe Rogan

        1. Drake

          I’m trying to imagine the CEO of my company smoking dope with Joe Rogan and saying crazy shit.

          Can’t do it.

          1. PieInTheSky

            That is why your company is just not cool and hip and down. And tesla is down recently

          2. Drake

            No we aren’t. On the other hand, we do make an operational profit and pay our shareholders a dividend every quarter.

          3. PieInTheSky

            Dividend? Money stolen from the blood and sweat of the worker.

          4. Drake

            We stole some of it from our customers too. They just keeping coming back for more of our services theft.

    3. I don’t know … I’m starting to like Musk more and more.

      1. I feel a little bad for him. He’s a grown-ass man and he made the decisions that brought him to this place, good and bad, sure. But I know people like him. I mean, this is a guy who made his money by doing online banking stuff with Paypal in the early days, right? He’s a tech guy, but a software/web guy, and those types are very much idea people first and foremost. In a lot of other industries, you can’t just be an idea guy, but when the barriers to implementation are as low as they are when you’re dealing with software development, but particularly with the web, you can be the smart weirdo and that’s enough to succeed. I know people who are smart, know they’re smart, and are charismatic enough that they can sell their ideas to people who will do the legwork required to make them happen. These are the kinds of people who are so busy thinking big thoughts that they forget to tie their shoelaces. They need handlers.

      2. AlexinCT

        Me too. Especially after reading this….

    4. bacon-magic

      Maybe that’s what he needs to bring him back down to Earth.

  4. straffinrun

    “If senior administration officials think the President of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment,” Warren told CNN

    She’s exactly right. Put out your name or STFU anonymous man.

    1. They know it’s not any of the people who can actually participate in an Amendment 25 removal proceeding. It’s either a NYT hack, or some leftover grease stain from the previous administration.

      1. leonadasiv

        The immediate call for 25th amendment removal is the best reason I’ve seen for arguing that the letter is a fabrication. I still don’t believe it, but the coordination if the push for removal (saw two articles yesterday) right after it’s release is a bit suspicious.

        1. They’ve been floating the 25th solution on and off since the election, it’s not surprising to me that some would jump on it immediately.

          1. leonadasiv

            Like I said, I believe the letter is real, because it fits the whole MO of government employees ‘resisting’. But by jumping on it to call for something they knew can’t/won’t happen, the Democrats are bringing it’s veracity into something of a question.

          2. straffinrun

            It’s legit from a high ranking official. Usually, undercover cops don’t write op eds in the NYT telling the world there is a rat in a specific gang’s hierarchy. But that’s what they did.

    2. As yet the fuckers didn’t remove a clearly incapacitated John McCain.

      1. Raston Bot

        and now the screeching leftists are calling for Kyl to recuse himself from Kav’s confirmation vote.

        LOL

      2. Well he was an American hero, Ted.

        1. Bobarian LMD

          Certified reverse Ace. Took out five aircraft.

          1. AlexinCT

            Own goal!

        2. The Last American Hero

          And I thought I was the last.

    3. Pope Jimbo

      Wait. What?

      The way I read that story, was that Warren was supporting Trump. She may have talked about the 25th, but I thought that was more tongue in cheek. The real point of her story was that when Trump finds these leakers and cans them Warren will support him.

      It does not provide that senior officials go around the President — take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds … Everyone of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It’s time for them to do their job.

      She’s openly telling them to stop obstructing and do their jobs. I think it is great to see Dems finally coming around and supporting the president.

      You guys are so cynical and negative.

      1. slumbrew

        Fine, I’ll RTFA…

        Yep:

        “They can’t have it both ways. Either they think that the President is not capable of doing his job in which case they follow the rules in the Constitution, or they feel that the President is capable of doing his job, in which case they follow what the President tells them to do.”

        I don’t read that as “it’s time to use the 25th Amendment”, I see that as “put up or shut up”.

        That headline is terrible and misleading.

      2. Democratic Hitler

        I guess we found the Democrat who can see how the precedents they’re now setting could backfire when she’s the one sitting on the throne of skulls.

        1. Pope Jimbo

          I think that she really wants them to step up and invoke the 25th.

          There will be no shocked face at all if she condemns Trump for firing the leaker when he finds him.

  5. PieInTheSky

    Elizabeth Warren openly calls for a coup in the United States. I don’t know how else to put it. I mean, its a procedural coup, but she wants unelected bureaucrats to eject a sitting President and install a replacement. Because that’s how to preserve a democracy or something. – the first need to win the senate and get rid of pence to get the presidency

    1. No, they’re just going to get a Hawai’ian judge to rule that the office belongs to Herself and Donald should be jailed.

      1. AlexinCT

        From the shit I have seen the leftist intelligentsia say justifies his removal and who should then get the office, this is about as accurate and compelling legal case they have made for removing Trump from office because they are pissed the unwashed masses had the temerity to steal an election they had rigged for Hillary and handed it to Trump.

    2. Raphael

      But trust me, Hillary will become President at the end of all this. I have good sources on this one.

      1. leonadasiv

        You have access to a time machine?

        OT: an interesting idea for a time traveling show is one where you go to a different reality everytime you make a jump, so you never really know what will be there when you arrive.

        1. Sounds a little like “Sliders”. Which could have been a good show.

          1. Raven Nation

            Sliders, to me, was a great example of “good concept, bad execution.”

          2. Is this going to lead into a debate about which place has the best and worst teeny-tiny hamburgers?

          3. Bobarian LMD

            Best – Krystal

            Worst – White Castle

        2. You mean Quantum Leap?

          1. The Last American Hero

            Voyagers.

        3. Raphael

          I have some reliable, anonymous sources. That is all I’m willing to say. Time machines may or may not have been involved.

          1. AlexinCT

            ^^^THIS GUY GETS HOW TO PROG HARD^^^

          2. Raphael

            Here you go assuming I’m a guy now. What a world we live in.

          3. Mojeaux

            It’s your fault for not changing your name and announcing your preferred pronouns.

            /victim blaming

          4. Raphael

            WORST TIMELINE.

          5. Nephilium

            Well there aren’t any libertarian women, so…

          6. AlexinCT

            I was told guy is gender neutral… unlike “Lesbian trapped in a man’s body”….

          7. TARDIS

            It wasn’t mine, I swear!

        4. Slammer

          Whatever happened to John Titor?

          1. Maybe he went back to his home-time?!?!?!

          2. Raphael

            Maybe he went to a different World Line?

        5. robc

          Niven did it.

          1. commodious spittoon

            Is that the SIMPSONS DID IT of sci-fi?

    3. bacon-magic

      Natives are restless.

    4. What scares me about the Democrats these days is that they’re so short-sighted. That idiot from Nevada, Harry Reid, changed Senate rules to make it easier for the majority party to bring a motion to a vote, completely ignoring the fact that, inevitably, his party would lose the majority and the new rule would be used against them. It was entirely predictable, but like little kids in a candy store, they couldn’t resist their impulses long enough to make a good decision.

      Now they want to establish the precedent that it’s perfectly fine to use parliamentary procedures to remove the duly elected president. In other words, they want to set the precedent that if an election doesn’t go the way your party wants, just get the legislature to declare a mulligan, electoral process be damned. There’s been a lot of semi-serious talk about civil wars and so forth lately, but this is actually the way you get that. Roughly half the country voted for Trump. If the Democrats in Congress just vote him out of office because they don’t like him, they effectively tell those people that they have no say in their own governance. Never mind that you’ve now set up a situation where a sitting president might in theory need to be removed by force because he simply doesn’t recognize the authority of a portion of Congress to remove him.

      Referring to this as a coup is very, very accurate. Which is not a pleasant thought.

  6. PieInTheSky

    Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s presidential front-runner, stabbed at rally

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45441447

    One of Jair Bolsonaro’s key campaign messages is that he will try to turn around the growth in violent crime. The fact that he is now a victim himself plays into the hands of his supporters, who see this as a very important problem for Brazil to tackle.

    I mean he seems an unpleasant fellow but I would think it is pretty much a fact that crime is a problem in Brazil, or…?

    1. Unpleasant in the eyes of the media class.

    2. AlexinCT

      At least Brazil’s strict gun laws prevented it from being a shooting!

  7. PieInTheSky

    Looks like there was a lot of shit-lordery going on at the New York City Ballet. Nude photos, recordings of sex with ballerinas, degrading language. I, for one, am shocked to find this kind of thing happening in the entertainment industry. – I never understood why people wanna do ballet. Seems hard, painful and not that profitable.

    Also Alexandra Waterbury is a definite would – this is not harassment just a statement of fact.

    1. Drake

      I’ll need to see the pictures to form a definite opinion.

      I thought most of those male ballerinas were gay – and it was just the few straight ones living the dream.

      1. Don’t know about the NYC Ballet, but word was the Bolshoi was run like a brothel for the benefit of the Party officials.

        1. AlexinCT

          You really don’t think anyone likes that kind of crap unless they can get some, now do you?

    2. SugarFree

      It’s the closest thing to being able to be a pretty princess forever and ever without having a time machine and access to an enobled vagina.

    3. Spartacus

      Having married a ballerina, I can definitely say that, although the “treat them like farm animals” part is…odd, tying them up is pretty awesome. Consensually, of course.

      And these male principals will land somewhere else. Top-notch male ballet dancers are rarer than left-handed catchers. They are always in high demand, and artistic directors are not known for having the highest ethical standards. They want a great production, period, and will do whatever it takes to get one. If the men are good dancers they will turn up at a new company in short order, possibly in Europe.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        So you married one too.

        1. Spartacus

          26 years, and counting. Still would.

    4. Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s not surprising. My wife quit the Pennsylvania Ballet early in her career precisely because of raging egos that were out of control. Professional ballet is extremely tough and quite often the ones who succeed had to give up and tolerate so much that they become eager to take it out on the next generation.

      1. Michael

        Chicago mayor unavailable for comment.

    5. bacon-magic

      I’m disappointed there was no photo evidence.

      1. There was, but it’s been… sequestered for closer examination

    6. commodious spittoon

      I never understood why people wanna do ballet. Seems hard, painful and not that profitable.

      Nor watch it, for that matter. Seems hard, painful, and not that profitable.

      1. Democratic Hitler

        I watched about 3 minutes of Black Swan, does that count?

        1. commodious spittoon

          I can imagine which three minutes.

          1. Democratic Hitler

            I’m imagining it right now!

  8. straffinrun

    “Tweets designed to threaten, belittle, demean and silence individuals have no place on this platform.”

    “I was silenced by a Tweet” said no sane person anywhere.

    1. leonadasiv

      That tweet sounds chilling, should Twitter ban themselves.

    2. Jarflax

      We must protect voices from being silenced by silencing all dissenting voices, only then can we have true freedom!

      1. Democratic Hitler

        Fish don’t know they live in water I guess.

  9. Scruffy Nerfherder

    An AR-15 rifle wielded by a Houston police officer mistakenly fired into the floor at the baggage area of Hobby Airport on Thursday night, according to authorities.

    The on-duty officer was patrolling the airport when the semi-automatic rifle went off around 8:15 p.m. at the southeast Houston travel hub, Houston police Capt. Jerome Stevens said during a press conference.

    That’s the most egregious usage of anthropomorphism I’ve seen in a while.

    1. Pat

      It’s comically absurd.

      1. Drake

        It’s a negligent discharge, Any Marine in the Corps would lose at least 1 stripe for that kind of stupid dangerous behavior.

        1. straffinrun

          So would would a porn star

    2. Brett L

      A novel with malevolent guns with a will of their own. Warning, the writing is excellent, but like China Meiville’s stories about worlds of fantastical constructs, it gets wrapped up in the world and loses the plot. Often. Also, the guns are opposing a malevolent society of trains that basically instills gray socialism. Caught between it all are the remnants of a nation that just wanted to be free.

      1. Did you read Kraken?

        1. Brett L

          Yeah. I’ve pretty much read all of his fiction. I really like the stories, I just have to be okay with there not being a really tight plot to any of them. I don’t recall Kraken being quite as meandering as the New Crobuzen(?) stories on land.

  10. leonadasiv

    “Elizabeth Warren openly calls for a coup in the United States.”

    Seeing as the only reason that gave for him not being capable is “we don’t like him” this is nothing but a call for a coup. It’s the first time I’ve seen it go mainstream, but I saw an article about it before I saw Lizzy call for it, so at least the Democrats are all in lockstep with this “save democracy by destroying it”.

    This is seriously the weirdest political tantrum. You have at worst 5 more years if Trump. But you want him out so bad that you will even suggest that a coup occurs rather than present policies that gain traction across this Nation. I don’t think Lizzy gets the precedent. Because Democrats never think these guns they make would be turned against them.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      There is a perfectly legal method for Congress to remove the President. Warren is calling for someone else to do her dirty work for her. That’s what is striking to me.

      1. AlexinCT

        She knows there is no legal grounds (being pissed your side lost and election you had rigged and fabricating a crime you can’t produce any evidence off don’t count) for her to do her job, which is why she is going here.

    2. straffinrun

      I believe the strategy is something along the lines of, “We don’t expect him to get removed. We’ll throw the shadow of suspicion on Trump and the less attentive in the population will turn away out of fear.” If this were Shakespeare, at least the audience would be clear on what the plan is via a Corey Booker soliloquy.

      1. The Last American Hero

        If this were Shakespeare, Trump would be giving a soliloquy on how he was going to make Booker think his woman was stepping out on him.

  11. Drake

    September 7th the final battle of the Siege of Szigetvár began.

    The Ottoman army swarmed through the city, drumming and yelling. Zrinski prepared for a last charge addressing his troops:

    “ …Let us go out from this burning place into the open and stand up to our enemies. Who dies – he will be with God. Who dies not – his name will be honoured. I will go first, and what I do, you do. And God is my witness – I will never leave you, my brothers and knights!…

    Zrinski did not allow the final assault to break into the castle. As the Turks were pressing forwards along a narrow bridge the defenders suddenly flung open the gate and fired a large mortar loaded with broken iron, killing 600 attackers. Zrinski then ordered a charge and led his remaining 600 troops out of the castle. He received two musket wounds in his chest and was killed shortly afterwards by an arrow to the head. Some of his force retired into the castle.

    Before leading the final sortie by the castle garrison, Zrinski ordered a fuse be lit to the powder magazine. After cutting down the last of the defenders the besiegers poured into the fortress. The Ottoman Army entered the remains of Szigetvár and fell into the booby trap; thousands perished in the blast when the castle’s magazine exploded.

    1. PieInTheSky

      I am sure the brave Moldovan soldiers were in the rear and din not suffer much from the explosion

    2. Raston Bot

      balls

  12. >> Alternate headline: Urine Trouble, Passengers!

    Urine Trouble was the name of my made-up punk band. Alternative: Urine Sane

    1. Pat

      Is Jimmy Urine in your band, or nah?

    2. We weren’t made up, but the Ted Bundy Machine were short-lived.

  13. WTF

    Trump >a href=”https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-jr-tweaks-colin-172259118.html” target=_blank”>trolls Nike.

      1. straffinrun

        My it’s just me, but *Whoosh*.

        1. WTF

          Nah, I fucked up the link again.

        2. WTF

          Okay, one last try: here.

      2. WTF

        Oh, fuck it.

    1. Rebel Scum

      Enough monkey business with the linking.

      1. Enough About Palin

        “monkey”

        RACIST!!!!!!!

  14. The End of Neutrality
    Society’s shared middle ground is quickly turning into a battlefield. What will that do to democracy?

    It’s easy to blame Donald Trump for this shift, with his casual mendacity and contempt for conventions. He has cavalierly trashed institutions he dislikes, from CNN to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to the intelligence agencies, as tools of the opposition, encouraging his followers to dismiss their pretenses of fairness. But Trump isn’t the root of this problem so much as a poisonous flower. The cynicism he exploits and deepens has been metastasizing for decades. Now it has reached stage 4.

    We can already see the implications: dysfunctional Washington politics, a shrill public discourse rife with accusations of bad faith, conspiracy theories sprouting like toadstools, sharp hostility to universities. The inability to marshal a national consensus even on basic facts—like the Russian efforts to disrupt our elections—has prevented us from taking steps to secure our democracy and left many fearful about the soundness of our system. Without trust in the government and other neutral bodies to provide reliable information and to adjudicate fairly among viewpoints, we risk losing one of our democracy’s greatest virtues: the ability to wage our debates freely and contentiously while knowing that ultimately most of us will accept the resolutions as legitimate. Without such acceptance, self-government becomes like a trial without a judge, a boxing match without a referee. What happened?

    1. PieInTheSky

      When exactly was this mythical shared middle ground?

      1. AlexinCT

        When they were telling us herself was all but guaranteed to office of POTUS and we better accept that shit?

    2. Pat

      This is just an overly verbose restatement of that idiotic quip Hillary’s ghostwriter stuck in her memoir about how the takeway from 1984 is that we must maintain faith in our government and intelligentsia.

      1. AlexinCT

        The thing these people are most pissed about is that the rabble dared to not just stand up to the intelligentsia and their agenda, but then had the temerity to fuck up an election they thought had been rigged to favor their stooge.

    3. Suthenboy

      “What happened?”

      Slimey-assed commie shitweasels are trying to destroy and take over a nation of people that hate communism. There is no middle ground here.

      1. AlexinCT

        What we have here is the inept, ineffective, and insidious members of our global elite cabal making sure everyone knows they will not allow the country to be run by anyone not approved by them, and more importantly, that anyone that helps someone like a Trump – whom has too much wealth, influence, and plays by their rules, so he can stand up to them – thwart their will again, will be destroyed. This should scare everyone.

        1. Raston Bot

          it’s certainly not a comfortable squishy feeling but with Kav’s confirmation, there won’t be any civilian disarmament for another 30 years. in fact, we’ll see state AWBs and restrictive carry laws ruled unconstitutional.

          and without civilian disarmament, that international cabal can fuck right the hell off.

          1. AlexinCT

            And that is why we are seeing the current meltdown. They thought they had it after Obama weaponized the deep state for Hillary, and now that is all gone, and they are furious they will have to wait decades to have this chance again (if ever)…

          2. Raston Bot

            I think this internet thingy changed everything. My guess is the push to regulate America’s net through speech codes will be next. But just like the 2A, Kav’s confirmation (WHICH IS CRITICAL) is a big FU to the command-control types.

          3. AlexinCT

            Hard to run a totalitarian state when people can get the facts despite your operatives with byline’s best attempt to fool them….

    4. Raphael

      Maybe another reason there is no “neutrality” is because anyone who said they were a “centrist” or what-not got lambasted and humiliated by partisan hacks and twitter mobs. Damn these assholes for forcing people to take sides in a stupid game.

      1. leonadasiv

        Yup. By. Vilifying third party voters, they certainly ensured more votes to their opposition.

        1. Stinky Wizzleteats

          Nah, third party voters are a problem and probably should either be lobotomized or put in camps along with those who vote for the wrong major party.

    5. WTF

      What happened? The left decided they would refuse to accept the results of a free and fair election and decided to have a never-ending tantrum combined with administrative coup attempts to overturn the result.

      1. Drake

        I keep saying it – it reminds me of the late Roman Republic. Who holds power became more important than any specific issue. Rules and customs got tossed out in favor of street violence and assassination. A few years later, legions were marching on Rome and politicians’ heads were on spikes. A generation later and the Republic was gone forever.

        1. Stinky Wizzleteats

          So Trump is Sulla then?

          1. Drake

            Maybe. Or maybe the do succeed in shivving him. The next guy will be Sulla or Pinochet and the Deep State goes for a short helicopter ride.

        2. WTF

          Who holds power became more important than any specific issue.

          This is really spot on. Trump, policy-wise, is basically a 1990s Democrat. The internet is full of videos of Schumer, Pelosi, the Clintons, etc. espousing exactly the same policies Trump does. It’s the fact that Trump is an outsider and has an ‘R’ after his name that infuriates them.

    6. Chipwooder

      sharp hostility to universities

      Oh NOOOOOES! Not the universities.

      Gee, can anyone think of any reason why the average person might be hostile towards institutions that do nothing but denigrate every aspect of his existence?

      1. Chipwooder

        And now that I’m actually reading this pile of manure…

        But Fox’s claim of being an ideological alternative to the networks was misleading. Those networks aspired to neutrality; they weren’t trying to advance liberal causes (even if some perceived bias in their reports)…..So, too, with think tanks. Conservative shops like the Heritage Foundation might have fancied themselves right-wing counterweights to “liberal” ones like the Brookings Institution, but Brookings, like the network news shows, adhered to a neutral scholarly ideal.

        “Jerry, it’s not a lie if YOU believe it.”

        1. Raven Nation

          “adhered to a neutral scholarly ideal”

          That’s how most academics think of themselves.

          1. AlexinCT

            And anyone right of Karl Marx is not a neutral anything!

    7. Rebel Scum

      casual mendacity and contempt for conventions

      Inadvertently creating two acceptable band names. Nicee.

      cavalierly trashed institutions he dislikes, from CNN to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to the intelligence agencies,

      They fucked up by themselves. He just called them on it.

      And the rest of that is just crap.

      1. commodious spittoon

        I prefer the conventional mendacity and casual contempt of normal politicians.

    8. Democratic Hitler

      Obviously it’s slathered in a thick layer of progressaline, but I do think there’s a kernel of truth there about the country getting more and more politically polarized as time goes on. I know there have been “lifelong Republicans|Democrats” for ages, but I get the sense that a greater percentage of the population have “chosen sides” as time goes on. I don’t “blame” social media, but I do think it’s been a catalyst which has accelerated the process.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    The genius which is Michael Moore

    “Fahrenheit 11/9” draws on this rich legacy to offer viewers Moore’s most powerful movie yet. The film uses the story of the rise of Trump to document the failures, weaknesses and flaws in our democracy. For Moore, the story of Trump is not a story about a momentary breakdown in a system that allowed a dangerous, narcissist to come to power; it is a story about a system that has been careening towards this outcome for decades.

    ————

    If you were looking for an easy out of the Trump era, like impeachment, this isn’t the movie for you either. But, if you are looking for a movie that reveals the complex web of political manipulation, abuses of power and institutional failures that made Trump possible, then this film is must-see.

    ———–

    At the heart of the film is the message that abusive systems of power depend on a public that is complacent, compromising, passive and distracted. In order to draw out how we came to be a nation where so few people vote and even fewer feel like their voices matter, Moore takes aim across the political spectrum. One of the most powerful aspects of the film is the way that Moore pulls no punches as he outs the establishment left and faults them for their complicity with corporate capital. Nancy Pelosi, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all come under fire as Moore reveals how they sold out the ideals of the Democratic Party to corporate backers.

    When I think of incisive, insightful analysis of the political system…

    1. Pat

      “The most powerful documentary film since Loose Change” say the critics.

      1. AlexinCT

        These critics must write for the NYT and CNN, cause I bet this will be nothing but a giant warmed over collectivist shit sammich, and the usual morons will gobble it up and make the guy peddling this bullshit’s wallet even fatter. Say what you want about Moore, but that asshole sure as hell is one heck of a profiteering capitalist, and the fact that he is doing it to the people that hate profits the most, warms my heart.

        1. cyto

          My favorite things about him are that he pretends to be an impoverished lesbian truck driver instead of a mega-rich movie mogul, and that he is a producer of political films who opposes the supreme court decision that says the government can’t stop you from making political films.

          Those are two impressive accomplishments.

    2. Rebel Scum

      our democracy.

      Republic.

      dangerous, narcissist to come to power

      Enough about Barry.

      …complex web of political manipulation, abuses of power and institutional failures…

      IOW, “The proles didn’t vote how I think they should have!”

    3. Michael

      I hate to break this to you, Salon, but seeing your preordained queen lose an election that was rigged in her favor in every way imaginable does not indicate “failures, weaknesses and flaws in our democracy.” It’s a feature, not a bug.

  16. Pope Jimbo

    At the risk of going OT too early in the morning and incurring Swiss’ wrath, I have big news for all of us Glibs that have been lube shamed by HM and his 55 gallon drum of lube.

    Behold! Open your garage door and reveal to everyone your stacks of crates containing 275 gallons of lube!

    It may be a bit pricy, but hey at least you will have the slipperiest orphans on the block.

    1. Pat

      From the “Customers who viewed this item also viewed” crawler: Zagone Studios Goosh Pants. One stop shopping.

    2. Troy

      Only $5.00 shipping. How can you not love capitalism?

    3. I. B. McGinty

      I will also put a big blue tarp and a strobe light in my shopping cart.

      1. Democratic Hitler

        actual LOL

      2. Pope Jimbo

        I have to ask. Why is the tarp blue?

        1. I. B. McGinty

          Because when you pour a bunch of the lube on it and roll around, it feels like you’re swimming. Uh, so I’m told…

    4. mindyourbusiness

      Did anyone check the price (!)

  17. PieInTheSky

    What rand paul said about lie detectors was stupid… But fascist is a bit much. popehat is good on some thing but sometimes says dumb shit

    https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1037771771489865728

    1. straffinrun

      We may be having link trouble this morning/afternoon/evening.

      1. PieInTheSky

        Well if something was int he evening links I don’t know. Although I skim things and actively try to not re-link. I even o occasion search for keywords in the comments for older links. But some misses are inevitable.

        1. straffinrun

          No, the problem was on my end. Continue as if nothing happened.

    2. Suthenboy

      Attempting to find out who in his administration is openly admitting to sedition is fascist?

      Who knew?

      1. AlexinCT

        When you start from the premise that since you are not in power the people that are by default are thus illegitimate, then this statement accurately reflects your views and objectives.

      2. Rebel Scum

        It’s amazing how quickly people forget the habits of the last admin with regard to leakers. I guess it is only “rounding up dissidents” when Trump does it.

        1. slumbrew

          The Whitehouse can just spy on the NYT reporters to find out who wrote the article, right? Because that’s the established way to go after leakers.

          1. Bobarian LMD

            Just have the NSA figure out who has left some ‘meta-data’ between themselves and the NYT.

    3. WTF

      Not sure how trying to ID a saboteur in your administration is the same as “rounding up dissidents”.

    4. You’re gonna have to summarize it for me and the other people Popehat has blocked.

      1. PieInTheSky

        So @RandPaul is like a recurring SNL character at this point — Not-So-Secretly-Fascist “Libertarian” Man Paul: “Open Markets! Open! So there’s more room to round up dissidents!”

        1. Pat

          The background being that Rand said Trump would be justified in using polygraphs to track down the source of the NYT op-ed. Firing members of your staff who publicly admit to sabotaging your agenda behind your back is basically Nazism.

          1. Scruffy Nerfherder

            It’s a little too close to loyalty oaths for me, however…

            Trump is perfectly justified in the continued shaming whoever did it for not resigning. I would beat on that for a long time. It will come out eventually who did it and they should never get a job anywhere ever again.

          2. straffinrun

            Is it possible that it’s Cohen? That would just be too funny.

          3. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Now that would be funny. Written by Davis, signed by Cohen.

          4. Old Man With Candy

            Has he suggested horoscopes or tarot cards? Just as accurate.

            Rand has Cleveland Brownsed me.

          5. PieInTheSky

            It was dumb. And disappointing. But fascist?

          6. Pat

            That’s my take as well. Polygraphs are garbage, so shame on Rand for advocating a ridiculous method of rooting out the culprit. But there’s nothing about uncovering a self-confessed mole and relieving them of their post that’s fascist unless the word has completely lost any semblance of meaning (which of course it has).

          7. Chipwooder

            Precisely. It was a stupid comment, but tarring the entirety of his career because of it is even more stupid.

            Ken is terrific when it comes to the 1A, but goddamn is he tiresome on other subjects.

          8. WTF

            Rand has Cleveland Brownsed me.

            Jeez, these euphemisms. Not sure if I should look up in Urban Dictionary.

          9. AlexinCT

            It was an obituary…

          10. A Leap at the Wheel

            Lie detectors are still a regular part of security clearance by the US gov even if they aren’t reliable. Rand see them all the time and its a normal part of life for him, so its reasonable that he’d think they work.

            Its not like he’s some kind of medical professional with scientific training or anythi

            oh fuck.

    5. Raston Bot

      lie detectors are the same as water-boarding according to Popehat’s commenters.

  18. gbob

    Warren may have a point. What I would like to see added to our constitution is some method of removing an unpopular president, every so often, by letting people decide if he should go. Seems to me that would prevent abuse by congress. We could even have a special group of electors who could meet every four years to decide who the president should be. I’m just blue skying here.

    1. Democratic Hitler

      Since we’re just blue-skying, maybe we should reserve the power to actually make laws to some sort of large representative legislative body, rather than handing it off to a bunch of bureaucratic agencies under the nominal control of a single figurehead.

      1. slumbrew

        The only way such a thing would work would be if we had some other, I dunno, co-equal branch that could ensure those laws conform to some predefined framework. Then some other co-equal branch that would be responsible for enforcing those laws. Set all three up in balance with each other, so no one branch can run hog-wild. That’d be a nice setup.

        A man can dream.

        1. Democratic Hitler

          Meh, it’d never work. Next time I’m voting for Kang.

  19. Suthenboy

    “If senior administration officials think the President of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment,”

    Once upon a long time ago some state bureaucrats tried that shit on Earl Long, governor of Louisiana.
    He fired their asses on the spot.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Because that’s how to preserve a democracy or something.

    Anything which impedes the march to permanent one (Democratic) party rule is a betrayal of democracy.

    1. Old Man With Candy

      Can’t you read? IT’S IN THE NAME.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Warrren dismissed questions that invoking constitutional remedies would provoke a constitutional crisis.

    “What kind of a crisis do we have if senior officials believe that the President can’t do his job and then refuse to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution?” Warren told CNN. “They can’t have it both ways. Either they think that the President is not capable of doing his job in which case they follow the rules in the Constitution, or they feel that the President is capable of doing his job, in which case they follow what the President tells them to do.”

    Get back to me when the people with the Constitutional authority to invoke the 25th are willing to go on the record about it. Until then, STFU.

    1. Suthenboy

      Unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats get to decide who is competent to be president, not the voters.
      I dont think that would turn out like she hopes.

      1. AlexinCT

        She hopes most people are too stupid to know better.

        1. Democratic Hitler

          It’s not a bad gamble.

  22. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. This is sad.

    My favorite T-woof of all time – KG – is suing his accountant for $77M because the accountant knew about a con man looting his bank account and did nothing.

    Sounds like the same con man also stole from Tim Duncan. I wonder if he only stole from small forwards.

    1. PieInTheSky

      They were actually centers

      1. Chipwooder

        Nah. Duncan played the 4 while Garnett was officially a 3 but played a little bit of all three frontcourt positions.

    2. Nephilium

      Considering the security I saw at a Financial Planning firm back in the day, I can believe it. I asked for a set of sample data to build out the CRM DB they wanted to use. They sent me an unencrypted plain text file through e-mail with real customer data, including SSN’s. I opened the e-mail, closed the e-mail, walked into the bosses office, “Where’s the NDA that *client* sent us?” Boss, “They never even asked for one.”

      /facepalm

      1. ChipsnSalsa

        And that’s how Nephilium owns an island of his own.

        1. Nephilium

          Maybe if I was a little more morally flexible. Although I did consider sending an e-mail to the client list they sent me warning them to move to another company.

  23. gbob

    I was not aware we had any Glibs from Blackpool.

    A MAN faked his own kidnapping and demanded £80 in ransom money from his terrified pregnant girlfriend so he could go drinking with his mates.

    Leigh Ford, 45, staged a series of frantic phone calls to his partner Zoe Doyle claiming his kidnappers would break his legs, cut off his genitals and throw boiling water over him.

    1. Pat

      That’s the most Scottish headline I’ve ever seen.

    2. PieInTheSky

      I like to think any glib has 80 to his name and no need for this

      1. AlexinCT

        Exactly! If this had been a Glib they would at least have demanded 800 pounds to go drinking…

        1. Eight hundred pounds?

          Oi, get that landwhale outta here…

          /drunk glib

  24. The Bullet in My Arm
    I grew up in a gun-loving town in Alabama. My grandfather’s store sells firearms. But only after I was shot did I begin to understand America’s complicated relationship with guns.

    1. AlexinCT

      I call bullshit.

    2. Suthenboy

      Bullshit. “I grew up around guns and I am a gun person but even I…”
      I have heard this bullshit argument before. You cant have my guns.

      1. Michael

        “As a former Republican, I really must say that ARGLE BARGLE DERPA DERPIDY DOO.”

    3. Chipwooder

      I also got the sense that not every customer who buys an AR-15 really needs it.

      I get the sense that you don’t understand a fucking thing about the Second Amendment, leftist cunt.

      1. Democratic Hitler

        The precautionary principle applies to every aspect of life EXCEPT self-defense.

    4. Raston Bot

      lesson learned: next time you’re shot, return fire or get the license plate

  25. straffinrun

    Whispers of China-Vatican deal, as Beijing steps up persecution of Christians

    Given the current scandals embroiling the leadership of the Holy See, and even calls from within the Vatican for Pope Francis to step down, it seems unthinkable at this time that the Vatican would consider selling out Catholics in China to the Communist Party, and yet this is precisely what many in China fear the Papacy is considering.

    Moving from protecting kiddie diddlers to protecting authoritarians. Best pope ever.

    1. Raphael

      Time for me to down another beer.

      1. straffinrun

        I’m running low. Roll one down hill for me

        1. Raphael

          You got it, aniki.

    2. Pat

      It’s almost as if the pope’s theology is subsidiary to his political ideology. If only we had some historical references to draw from in imagining what happens next.

      1. Troy

        Excuse my ignorance regarding shitty Pope’s, but what does history say l?

        1. Pat

          TL;DR version: crusades, inquisitions, political excommunications, endorsement of monarchs, and eventually, treaties with Nazis (the literal 1933 German government type, not the Ben Shapiro type).

          1. The Last American Hero

            Antipopes. Don’t forget Antipopes.

    3. Suthenboy

      Commie pope loves him some commies. I am shocked.

  26. PieInTheSky

    Exit Rahm
    Announcing that he won’t run for reelection, Chicago’s powerhouse mayor leaves a mixed record and a city badly in need of a new political model.

    https://www.city-journal.org/rahm-emanuel-exit-16153.html

    Now, at the end of Emanuel’s second term, Chicago faces the prospect of many years of tax increases to close the pension-funding gap, with city contributions to the system almost set to double by 2023. What mayor wants to preside over years of tax increases that produce no public benefit, going only to pay for yesterday’s mistakes? This looming future perhaps helps explain Emanuel’s decision to step down. The mayor recently floated a proposal for a pension-obligation bond, generally a move suggesting desperation.

    Pensions are never a mistake just evil right wingers refusing to fund them.

    I still have problems understanding how many people do not see the immorality of defined benefit pensions and how they think it is OK to put burdens on future generations which they had no way of voicing opinion over, especially the democracy lovers.

    1. Just Say’n

      Spoiler: The alternative to Emmanuel is so much worse

      1. Raston Bot

        i imagine his replacement will be just as progressive but without Rahm’s ethics, accountability, or reason.

        1. Michael

          I am expecting nothing but the most spineless, boot licking toadie subservient to the public sector union cartels.

  27. Drake

    Steve Jobs’ daughter has some nice things to say about him.

    “Small Fry,” the new memoir by his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs, depicts a sadistic man and a horrible father: sexually inappropriate, verbally and psychologically abusive, pitiless and cheap — with his time, money, emotions, attention.

    1. PieInTheSky

      Meh… how was the saying great men are often bad men…

      1. Troy

        He was just a fucking salesman. That people buy shitty apple products made so that the functionally retarded can use them means he was a very good salesman.

        1. leonadasiv

          My hate for Apple products it’s only matched by my hate for most Microsoft products.

      2. AlexinCT

        I am sure she felt robbed because he told her he wouldn’t let her live like a princess off his wealth cause he saw what that did to people like Paris Hilton, and that pissed this child of the entitled world off.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          It’s been pretty well established for decades that Jobs was a total douchebag to her and her mother.

          1. AlexinCT

            He was a douchebag to everyone.

          2. PBRstreetgang

            Except AAPL shareholders. I LOVE the guy!!

          3. cyto

            That is standard fare for ex wives.

            I have an acquaintance who just went through a divorce. The husband did the leaving, the wife tried to save the marriage.

            The (ex)husband is now a complete douche to her and the kids 90% of the time, despite the fact that he got exactly what he wanted in the divorce and has little in the way of responsibilities as a dad. ( as a coach on their youth league teams and volunteer at church, I spend more time with his kids than he does. Literally, not hyperbolicly.)

            I can’t figure out where all the animosity comes from. He goes on crazy rants about her dating other guys…. really weird. And if his kids give him a hard time when they have visitation, he just sends them back to mom – at any time of the day or night, without calling…. then yells at her in front of the whole neighborhood because his kid doesn’t like him.

            Relationships make people crazy, that’s all that I can come up with.

    2. trshmnstr

      I wonder how much of that is actually true. I don’t doubt that Steve Jobs was a weapons grade asshole, but children of world famous multigagillionaires aren’t exactly known for their honesty

      1. leonadasiv

        I have heard of his assholery elsewhere, so not commentating on this directly, but I always find it interesting when people come out to say shit after someone has died.

        1. Troy

          Well when u are a vindictive prick that denies the paternity of your own kids, how far of a stretch is it that he would ruin thier lives?. Sure, I will take her story with a grain of salt, but a small grain

      2. Pat

        Fits pretty well with what nearly everyone who had a close working or personal relationship with him has ever said about him, so I doubt it’s too far off. Being a shitty person is one of the many privileges of wealth.

        1. Pat

          Bear in mind this is the daughter of which Jobs spent years and millions of dollars denying paternity while her mother made a living as a housekeeper.

          1. Tundra

            Christ, what an asshole.

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Yep

        2. Rufus the Monocled

          Never deify mortals.

          We never learn.

          See Kaep. That asshole will end up as a bronze stature somewhere.

          1. If they do it by dipping him in bronze, I’m okay with that.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Everyone at Apple (I know a couple of people in management) was scared shitless of him. It doesn’t surprise me at all that he had some serious issues.

    4. Rufus the Monocled

      I have a buddy of mine who is wealthy and very cheap with his family. It makes them miserable.

      1. It’s not their money to squander.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          I don’t follow.

          I’m guessing sarc?

          1. If he’s not outright starving his children or anything like that, they have no claim on his money. Anyone who his not his child has even less.

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            It’s up to you how you spend your money, but if you’re not going to use it for the betterment of your immediate family, I’d say you are probably a miserable person.

            Money is only as good as what you use it for.

          3. Is it really betterment if the result is you end up with children with no concept of the value of money and no work ethic?

          4. Rufus the Monocled

            Exactly SN.

            For the love of God don’t make your family beg for money.

            It’s horrific.

          5. Rufus the Monocled

            UCS, you’re being a little too literal.

            You’re right but you can do that without being an asshole tight wad.

            He’s not teaching shit to his kids.

          6. You might have a better idea of the circumstances, because “cheap with his family” can range anywhere from “shooing away the endless stream of ‘cousins’ with their hands out” to “You’ll eat ramen and learn to like it, brat”

          7. Scruffy Nerfherder

            There’s a distinct difference between teaching the value of money and work ethic and being a stingy asshole. My (very well off) uncle was a stingy asshole and his kids turned out with no work ethic and no respect for money and hating him to boot.

          8. Mojeaux

            It’s okay. He’ll die old, alone, and bitter, people who might have loved and cared for him in his old age off earning money to hopefully treat their children better.

            /cue Cat Stevens

          9. Just Say’n

            “/cue Cat Stevens”

            It’s Yusuf Islam now

          10. Mojeaux

            And generally, if they can’t be arsed to share the wealth, they sure as hell aren’t going to share knowledge and teach a child how to be a decent human being.

          11. Rufus the Monocled

            Well, I can’t get into the intricacy of it all.

            But let’s just say they don’t enjoy their vacations with him.

            Even getting an ice-cream is hard.

            How is that remotely teaching anything?

          12. Mojeaux

            It’s Yusuf Islam now

            I was too lazy to look it up.

          13. Rufus the Monocled

            They’re not laying claim to jack shit.

            Talk about the family not meaning much.

    5. Suthenboy

      I dont care.

    6. Wonder why she didn’t write it when he was still alive?

      1. The dead can’t sue for libel and defamation.

  28. Rufus the Monocled

    The best way for Americans to send a message to cunts like Warren is to make sure the mid-terms stay in Trump’s favor.

    1. PieInTheSky

      Don’t use the C word. People like you should be banned from owning a daycare / prog

      1. But he didn’t say “Communism.”

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Whatever you say Ken

      3. Rufus the Monocled

        If they found out I comment here, they’d want to destroy me.

        1. PieInTheSky

          hashtag doxx rufus will be trending soon (joking joking…)

        2. Just Say’n

          If I ever had to move to Canada, I would definitely use your daycare services, Rufus

          1. Scruffy Nerfherder

            You’re a little old for diapers, aren’t you?

            NTTAWWT

          2. Just Say’n

            Are you age shaming me?

          3. PieInTheSky

            If I ever had to move to Canada, it would not be french Canada

          4. Look, we can assemble a small army of maybe thirty or so people and conquer the ice sheets. We’ll force them to give up socialism, and by the time they get enough resources to chase us out, they’ll have learned what it’s like not to have a boot on their throat.

          5. Rufus the Monocled

            Well, I did offer OMWC to become a partner.

      4. Troy

        So cocksucker is still ok?

        1. Chipwooder

          Cocksuckers are always aces in my book.

      5. It’s different in Canada.

    2. straffinrun

      She’ll promise to impeach Trump and then back off when it comes up to a vote. You know what that will make her?

      1. AlexinCT

        A cock tease?

        1. Jarflax

          Cuck tease

    3. Old Man With Candy

      This sounds like foreign meddling in our elections.

  29. Bigfoot Involved In Olive Branch Theft

    According to daughter-in-law Lynn, Alan HIllerman made an 8-foot wooden Bigfoot cutout for his grandchildren and placed it in the wooded area behind the house.

    “It took him a while because he had cancer and he wasn’t real strong, but he worked hard and got it done and it sat out here under a tree. A couple of times he moved it from tree to tree to surprise the grand kids,” says Lynn Hillerman.

    Sadly, Alan lost his battle with cancer this past Wednesday, and while working in the yard the following weekend, the Hillermans noticed their Bigfoot was gone.

    “We noticed it was gone. So, somebody has walked off with an 8-foot by 4-foot Bigfoot,” says Lynn Hillerman.

    1. leonadasiv

      Here I thought Big Foot was stealing Olive branches.

    2. STEVE SMITH ANGRY. NO STEAL CANCER MAN’S NICE WOODEN TRIBUTE TO STEVE SMITH. GRRRR!!!!!

  30. Pat

    CB Therapeutics’ lab-grown cannabinoids could unlock new medicines and make others affordable

    Marijuana may still be on shaky legal ground, but the therapeutic benefits of the psychoactive molecules — cannabinoids — inside the plant are solidly established. Unfortunately, cultivation of that plant is resource-intensive and yields only tiny amounts of some useful medicines. CB Therapeutics, a new biotech company launching today at the Disrupt SF Startup Battlefield, aims to change the game with cannabinoids produced cleanly and cheaply in the lab — out of sugar.

    1. Mojeaux

      out of sugar

      Hello quadrupled sales of metformin and glipizide.

    2. cyto

      Cultivation of weed is resource-intensive?

      Don’t the call it… you know… weed… because it grows like a … you know… weed?

      1. It’s a relative measure. It still needs to be harvested, rendered down and the relevent components extracted if you’re going to be making pharmaceuticals. A process which skips this step and yields better ratios of the relevent chemicals would still be valuable.

        1. cyto

          Yeah, I was just referring to the first bit.

          If they ever make “getting high” a legitimate and legal purpose for drugs, finding inexpensive laboratory synthetic pathways for THC and derivatives will be a priority for retail drug companies. There’s a reason aspirin is so cheap…. and it isn’t because of the ease of cultivation of willow trees.

      2. Hyperion

        “Cultivation of weed is resource-intensive?”

        They must be referring to the hydroponics and grow lights, and indoor growing spaces.

  31. Work update: I had my meeting with the VP yesterday and – shockingly – she didn’t change her mind on my new manager. But… I set a little trap for her and she took the bait. At my suggestion the decision is going to be pushed off for six months while the new person “finds her place” and learns about the different plants, manufacturing, etc.

    But, in the meanwhile, unknown to them, I’ll be looking for a new job.

    Not really a win but it gives me some time.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Diversity is our strength.

      Repeat after me….

      1. Raphael

        Viefalt über alles

        1. Raphael

          whoops Vielfalt, there goes the joke.

      2. Troy

        Up to lifting 50 lbs. Then I have to exercise (heh) my white privilege.

        1. So you’re making people with more melanin do the heavy lifting?

    2. WTF

      That seems like the perfect way for you to handle this.

      1. AlexinCT

        Seconded..

    3. Brett L

      Well played, sir. There’s a reason you’re the leader of a rag-tag band of marauders.

    4. Gustave Lytton

      Good. But don’t slack expecting six months. VP could reconsider or decide princess manager is ready to take over sooner at any time.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    We can already see the implications: dysfunctional Washington politics, a shrill public discourse rife with accusations of bad faith, conspiracy theories sprouting like toadstools, sharp hostility to universities. The inability to marshal a national consensus even on basic facts—like the Russian efforts to disrupt our elections—has prevented us from taking steps to secure our democracy and left many fearful about the soundness of our system.

    Christ, what an asshole a bedwetter.

    1. straffinrun

      I agree on a some facts from both parties, it’s just that the Repubs don’t call me a racist when I disagree with them.

      1. Raphael

        This right here. I can at least have a civil discussion/argument with my old man whereas I can’t even utter a word among my former colleagues.

      2. Democratic Hitler

        And then organize a campaign to have you un-personed.

    2. leonadasiv

      All our dysfunction is because of people I don’t like

    3. Michael

      …conspiracy theories sprouting like toadstools…

      Yeah, what could possibly give these paranoid kooks such hare brained ideas? It’s not like people just write about it in NYT op-eds.

  33. Tundra

    The major car companies know that EVs are a marketing gimmick. Jag and MB both have launched luxury EVs. Porsche and BMW are on the way.

    I don’t blame Elon for getting stoned. It sucks to be a one trick pony.

    1. I’m just know Ford is going to release an electric Mustang (with piped in engine sounds) someday in the Mustang. Yes it will be the fastest Mustang evah but it just won’t be the same to me.

      1. Electric… Mustang? That’s blasphemous.

        1. WTF

          Seriously, V8 or GTFO.

          1. AlexinCT

            What so special about vegetable juice?

          2. All the nutrients, none of the chewing.

          3. AlexinCT

            That’s what I tell the ladies…

            Oh, never mind.

    2. Drake

      My brother brought his new Tesla to the family get together last weekend. It’s nice enough and very quick – although it looks almost exactly like my Mazda. Basically an electric Mazda 6 – for twice the price.

      Somebody in the family naively asked him how many miles to make up for the extra money it costs – I laughed while he had to admit the answer was close enough to infinity to make no difference in our lifetimes.

      1. Democratic Hitler

        Eh, at least he made an informed decision then.

      2. commodious spittoon

        KDW brought it up in the last MD&E episode, said they’re remarkably fun to drive and accelerate like nobody’s business. I could see buying maybe a Leaf, but no way would I drop a fortune on a Tesla.

    3. If only he realized Tesla was an energy company and not a car company, he’d be better off.

      1. Wait, Tesla isn’t a spring manufacturer?

  34. Rufus the Monocled

    Re diaper flush: People are thoughtless piece of shits sometimes.

    Re Warren: I don’t get it. The economy is strong, he hasn’t gone to war (yet), immigration and tax reform are on the table…things are fine, no?

    I also love he’s tearing up existing trade deals. He’s actually doing countries like Canada who have become way too complacent because of their comfort with America a huge favor.

    Straighten up, tuck in your shirt and smarten up.

  35. PieInTheSky

    ‘Under Swami’s spell’: 14 tourists claim sexual assault by guru at Thai yoga retreat

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/07/under-swamis-spell-14-tourists-claim-sexual-assault-by-guru-at-thai-yoga-retreat

    The 14 women and two men claim that for 15 years the retreat facilitated sexual assault, rape and misogynistic teachings, allegedly “brainwashing” hundreds of women into having sex with the Swami – whose real name is Narcis Tarcau – in the name of helping them achieve enlightenment.

    After 31 women submitted testimonials alleging abuse to Agama, the school first tried to deal with it internally, but have now launched an independent inquiry .

    Tarcau is understood to have left Koh Phangan in July, when several women went public with the allegations of abuse at Agama, and is no longer in Thailand. He could not be reached directly for comment.

    Tarcau had studied under Gregorian Bivolaru, another Romanian guru who was on a publicised mission to sleep with 1,000 virgins as the path to enlightenment. Bivolaru went on the run in 2004 after being sentenced for having sex with an underage girl, was arrested in Paris in 2016 and was later released. He remains on Europol’s most wanted list, accused of human trafficking.

    Good to see Romanians out there doing their part for the meetoo movement

  36. Rebel Scum

    It was all over the Hamas feed as well as Louis Farrakahn’s You know, because they are still working just fine.

    Hating christians/jews and white people is pc acceptable hate.

  37. Pope Jimbo

    Well this is interesting. Cops have finally charged someone for changing the letters on a local Arby’s sign to contain “racist and sexist” words.

    Strangely, there was no picture of the perp or any mention of his race. His name was Usindini Christopher Colling-Harper, which doesn’t sound like a normal Norwegian name. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess he wasn’t a white supremacist.

    According to a criminal complaint, Colling-Harper altered the sign in the early morning Sep. 1. He was also the first person to post on social media about the sign at 3:31 a.m.

    During an interview with Colling-Harper, he told investigators he changed the letters on the sign because, “he was bored while waiting for a bus and thought it would be funny.”

    The guy is 19. He is being charged with two misdemeanor crimes for this. If I was on the jury (as if it will get that far), I’d vote to acquit.

    1. straffinrun

      Acquit? Hell, the NYT should hire him.

    2. Pat

      Eh, I mean, he should have to do some kind of restitution since the restaurant could have lost a lot of business until the source of the vandalism was cleared up. Public apology, financial compensation, something like that. At the end of the day though, it’s just vandalism. It’s a prank. Pry yourselves out of your own assholes and move on with your life.

      1. Gustave Lytton

        I’d agree if he just altered the sign. But he altered the sign, then posted it on wherever trying to stir up trouble. Good that he gets slammed for that.

        1. Pope Jimbo

          It wasn’t in the story I posted, but the first post of the sign was actually from his girl friend who sent it to others laughing about it. A “better” story. . So the guy wasn’t actually trying to gin up a mob of outrage.

          However, the mob showed up anyhow:

          The complaint also said Arby’s had to unplug its phones due to persistent harassment and threats from the community. Others have expressed their outrage by yelling through the drive-through intercom system.

          Who the fuck is so dumb that they think that Arby’s did that on purpose or that the people working there are all actual racists?

          1. The Last American Hero

            Future President and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz?

          2. Bobarian LMD

            Who the fuck is so dumb that they think…

            It was in Minnesoda.

    3. I want to know why the word “whore” is sexist.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Shut your whore mouth.

        1. AlexinCT

          Well played…

    4. Rebel Scum

      What were the words? I can’t feign offense if they are censored.

  38. Скажи-ка дядя ведь недаром….

  39. Rebel Scum

    this made me laugh.

    ///MeToo

    Speaking of, I have not had any success with my acquaintances making the moral argument about socialism necessitating, in effect, enslaving one’s fellow man. Class envy is strong and slavers gotta slave.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Straighten up, tuck in your shirt and smarten up.

    And put your goddam hat on straight.

    1. slumbrew

      And take the goddamn tags off of the hat.

  41. Rufus the Monocled

    25 years for insider trading a possibility for Kendricks:

    https://nypost.com/2018/09/07/super-bowl-champ-pleads-guilty-to-insider-trading-charges-faces-25-years-in-prison/

    25 seems a tad….um….excessive for IT.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      25 years? AYFKM?

      1. slumbrew

        ISTR the government loses a majority of IT cases if they actually go to trial vs. pleading out. Too many grey areas. He should fight it and was a fool for already issuing an apology.

        1. cyto

          Unless the 25 years is off the table in a plea, and they let it be known that they won’t settle for less than the max if they go to trial… on this charge and the other 13 charges they have waiting in the wings.

    2. Pat

      Benefiting financially from non-public information is pretty much the same as 2nd degree murder or forcible rape, so the sentence makes sense.

    3. Usually the sentence for Information Technology is 30 years or more in a cube.

      Oh, you meant Insider Trading.

  42. Rebel Scum

    “If senior administration officials think the President of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment,” Warren told CNN. “The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the Vice President and senior officials think the President can’t do his job. It does not provide that senior officials go around the President — take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds … Everyone of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It’s time for them to do their job.”

    A couple things: 1) like she cares about upholding the Constitution. 2) None call it insurrection.

    1. Just Say’n

      It’s not a coup if it is under the auspices of the 25th Amendment, but the fanciful thought is #resist porn

  43. Pope Jimbo

    Where all the Indian wimmin at?

    In Montana, a legislative tribal relations committee has proposals for five bills to deal with missing persons. In July 2017, 22 of 72 missing girls or women — or about 30 percent — were Native American, according to Montana’s Department of Justice. But Native females comprise only 3.3 percent of the state’s population.

    On some reservations, Native American women are murdered at a rate more than 10 times the national average and more than half of Alaska Native and Native women have experienced sexual violence at some point, according to the U.S. Justice Department. A 2016 study found more than 80 percent of Native women experience violence in their lifetimes.

    Of course, one of the people interviewed for the story blames it all on racism. With those stats, though, it would take a shit ton of white eyes driving onto the res every day to get those numbers that high.

    Having grown up next to the res, I can verify that Indian men aren’t the most enlightened when it comes to feminism. I’d also guess that those numbers are super inflated. After all the more suffering on the res, the more money from the government.

    My guess is that the stats are inflated like most of these are, but growing up next to a res, I can tell you firsthand that Indian men aren’t going to be getting any trophies from the feminists any time soon.

    1. Suthenboy

      I would bet the majority of those injun chicks just got the fuck out of there and didn’t tell anyone where they were going.

      1. Pat

        I was thinking the same thing. From my experience on reservations up in Washington, I can’t imagine why the fuck anybody stays.

        1. pistoffnick

          That annual casino check, dude!

          1. slumbrew

            My cousin briefly worked for the Miccosukee tribal police in Florida. What a shitshow – apparently taking all that sweet casino money and just handing out checks to people has some negative consequences. Who woulda thunk it?

      2. Pope Jimbo

        I don’t know. The res has a pretty strong draw for a lot of the Indians. I know of at least two classmates from high school who went straight back there after graduating from college. It is weird.

        My guess is that the majority was killed in a drunken fight and buried somewhere out in the boonies.

    2. A 2016 study found more than 80 percent of Native women experience violence in their lifetimes.

      “Violence”? I got into a fight in grade school. That counts as “experiencing violence”. How is it only 80% with such a lax standard?

      1. commodious spittoon

        A teacher got sick of being gainsaid?

        1. Naw, it was the usual stupid crap between schoolchildren.

          1. AlexinCT

            Mom jokes?

    3. The Last American Hero

      So it’s far past time to end the reservation system.

  44. Evan from Evansville

    Evan is confused.

    Whitey Ford never threw even a single no hitter. I believe you’re thinking of Johnny Vander Meer who did, indeed, throw two no=nos in a row. But I looked it up and he did that in in June.

    *Looks suspiciously at sloopy. Commences search for illegal substances*

    1. robc

      I don’t know if you saw my comment yesterday, but your hometown has a very nice Ronald McDonald house.

      1. Evan from Evansville

        Yeah, I saw that. I normally ctrl-f “evans” to find if I have someone I need to reply to. It was jarring to see the actual city come up.

        Sorry to hear about the therapy. I hope everything goes well for your child’s health and future.

        May I ask where it was located (if you got any landmark/neighborhood or something)? I want to think it’s near St. Mary’s off of Washington Ave, but I could be way off. That’s where I got my first hip replaced. Lovely people there. Everything went off without a hitch. I’m sure the same will happen for the feeding therapy.

        Stay well, man.

  45. Rebel Scum

    The on-duty officer was patrolling the airport when the semi-automatic rifle went off around 8:15 p.m. at the southeast Houston travel hub, Houston police Capt. Jerome Stevens said during a press conference.

    Passive voice is passive.

    “As far as I understand it, (the gun) was not dropped,” Stevens said.

    No shit. It wouldn’t (shouldn’t?) “go off” even if it was.

    1. Drake

      It certainly wouldn’t – particularly if the safety is on – which it should be at all times unless he is actually confronting a potential criminal.

      1. Chipwooder

        Someone wasn’t paying attention to the four rules of the range.

    2. Stinky Wizzleteats

      No BS version: He got careless and pulled the trigger somehow.

      Despite what the media thinks guns aren’t magical items.

      1. Drake

        After disengaging the trigger. He got bored and fingered the thing until he actually fired it.

        1. Stinky Wizzleteats

          Twenty years ago I would have thought nobody’s that stupid but the internet has convinced me differently.

    3. R C Dean

      Why carry a rifle if you are patrolling indoors?

      Why have one up the pipe if no threat is in view?

      1. slumbrew

        Do you even tactical, bro?

    1. Rebel Scum

      HAWT.

    2. straffinrun

      Was that after the first accusations of white power? If she did that the next day, I bow before her.

      1. Just Say’n

        Yes. Apparently she wanted to mock the totally not insane people who insisted that she was displaying some hidden white power symbol specifically for all those white supremacists who watch CSPAN all day.

        1. straffinrun

          Why more people don’t steer into the skid is beyond me. That’s perfect subtlety.

    3. Raphael

      Holy crap that made me laugh much more than it should’ve.

    4. commodious spittoon

      Somebody should photoshop a Spectre ring onto Kavanaugh’s hand.

    5. Raston Bot

      that tweet was removed before i saw it.

    6. Private Chipperbot

      Getting a link doesn’t exist now 🙁

      1. R C Dean

        #metoo. What did she do?

        1. Raphael

          she casually yawns and gives the “okay” sign right behind Kavanaugh but in full perfect view.

  46. PieInTheSky

    Millions of us are trapped in Idlib, facing death. The world must save us
    Anonymous

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/07/millions-idlib-death-world-platitudes

    Syria is still complicated, although I fail to see what can be done about it at this point for peace besides the rebels quitting the lost cause… But anonymous letter in the guardian have little to add to the proceeding…

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      I expect another chemical attack any day now as an attempt to draw us back in to save our off the books allies. Hopefully Assad and the Russians can get this over with once and for all and quickly.

  47. PieInTheSky

    Well as the clock strike 4 I am outta here. Goddamn bastards are killing all processes on the server farms and I had my shit all set up… I have to do it again Monday.

  48. Just Say’n

    There is a protest near my office and I’m very disappointed that unions no longer sing catchy songs. Their chants are not repetitive and irritating.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV6KhmOwXw4

    Now, this is a protest song

    1. Drake

      Put on your top hat, tail-coat, monocle, and cane and confront those scum! Give them a sound tongue-thrashing from all of us.

    2. Raven Nation

      Here’s a union song for ya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOCWUgwiWs

  49. Drake

    Either devastating stuff from Bruce Ohr’s testimony – or wishful navel gazing.

  50. Scruffy Nerfherder

    This has to be one of the glibs.

    But one Virginia resident got so fed up with neighborhood kids trespassing on his property, he put up an electric fence.

    1. Pat

      County officials determined the fence was on an easement and asked Tucker to remove the fence.

      Yeah, of course it is.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    Tarcau had studied under Gregorian Bivolaru, another Romanian guru who was on a publicised mission to sleep with 1,000 virgins as the path to enlightenment.

    Follow your dreams.

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Huh, that guy looks like a younger Steve Bannon after a rehab stint.

    2. PieInTheSky

      Belive in something and sscrifice everything?

      1. PieInTheSky

        And yes i realize the typos on my phone in the subway

  52. Tundra

    Elon better get out the big bong.

    Tesla slides after chief accounting officer walks away

    Morton statement: “Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations. As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla’s leadership or its financial reporting.”

    Uh huh. One month in.

    1. Does that read to anyone else like “The books were a mess and I couldn’t convince anyone of the need to clean it up”?

    2. Just Say’n

      Prediction: Musk responds with a Tweet simply saying “Account for deez nuts”

      1. Tundra

        What will he say about HR?

        Tesla HR boss to depart

        Busy Friday at Tesla corporate.

        1. “Now no one else will be able to quit, since we can’t process your departure”

        2. Just Say’n

          “Human resources on deez nuts”?

          I could care less about a man who made millions off of rent-seeking. That’s just how I see Musk

        3. Scruffy Nerfherder

          The gates are wide open now. Watch ’em scurry.

      2. commodious spittoon

        Tesla releases quarterly BOFA statement.

        BOFA DEEZ NUTS, BITCH

    3. ChipsnSalsa

      Elon needs to look up Herbert Kornfeld CPA

    1. straffinrun

      I can count on one post op tranny penis how many times I’ve mistakenly walked into the wrong apartment.

      1. So… once?

        /you never said it was M2F

        1. straffinrun

          M2F, F2M, M2M, F2F… I have no idea what’s going on.

          1. Woman murdered a man, probably intentionally, came up with bullshit story to cover it up.

          2. straffinrun

            Hey, this is not my beautiful house!

    2. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Mistakingly thought was her own? Not a very good cover story is it?

    3. Drake

      Alcohol related incident is the best case scenario I can think of.

    4. Pat

      On Friday morning, police did not immediately explain how the officer became confused as to which apartment was hers, or how she managed to get into the apartment.

      “It do be like that sometimes”

    5. Rebel Scum

      There is a lot of information missing there.

      1. Rebel Scum

        So I call bs on her story.

    6. R C Dean

      First question: what are the relative positions of the two apartments?

      1. The cynical part of me wants to say “Different complexes in different parts of town.”

        I don’t actually know.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    I slogged my way though that Atlantic “Bullet in My Arm” thing. How deep, how insightful. Such verbose self-congratulatory introspection.

    I was pleased to have arrived at this insight. “Republicans are alienating reasonable and responsible gun owners,” I wrote in my notebook.

    “I talked to some people who said what I wanted to hear. From this, we may deduce the sentiments of the vast army of ‘sensible people’.”

    1. AlexinCT

      I know nobody that doesn’t feel only agents of the state – serving the elite top men cabal, of course – should bear arms… Plebs with the ability to defend themselves is just a recipe for disaster.

      1. How on Earth could Nixon have won? I don’t know anyone who voted for him!

      2. cyto

        They have won this fight already.

        The terms have been shifted. The debate is on terms of “who needs?” and even on the pro-gun side it is “hunting and self defense”.

        We are so far afield from the theory of the 2nd amendment and the checks and balances on government power that you couldn’t explain it to the average voter if you had a week of uninterrupted class time.

        The unerrant supremacy of the state monopoly on force is so deeply ingrained in the culture that most people have taken the position that citizens don’t really have any right to protect themselves or their property… that is the job of the police.

        Try hunting down someone who stole your property and getting it back yourself. See how well that goes for you.

        There is no concept among the people that the government gets its powers from the people… and that the people retain the same rights. As in, the authority to create a military derives from our individual rights to self defense and our right to freedom of association…. in other words, we can decide to coordinate our self-defense.

        Way less than five percent of the population would agree with that idea. They would say that these are government matters and not for the people in any way… a view that the government is separate and above the people, not an extension of the people.

  54. Pat

    Former Facebook security chief says creating election chaos is still easy

    As someone who’s had a years-long front-row seat to Russia’s efforts to influence U.S. politics, former Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos has a pretty solid read on what we can expect from the 2018 midterms. Stamos left the company last month to work on cybersecurity education at Stanford.

    “If there’s no foreign interference during the midterms, it’s not because we did a great job,” Stamos said in an interview with TechCrunch at Disrupt SF on Thursday. “It’s because our adversaries decided to [show] a little forbearance, which is unfortunate.”

    As Stamos sees it, there is an alternative reality in which the U.S. electorate would be better off heading into its next major nationwide voting day, but critical steps haven’t been taken.

    “As a society, we have not responded to the 2016 election in the way that would’ve been necessary to have a more trustworthy midterms,” he said. “There have been positive changes, but overall security of campaigns [is] not that much better, and the actual election infrastructure isn’t much better.”

    1. cyto

      soooooo…. the underlying assumption is that the Russians stole the election from Hillary?

    1. This makes them a publisher, correct? No longer a platform.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yes, yes it does.

      2. Raston Bot

        still protected under Section 230 of CDA.

        1. R C Dean

          Maybe. They have to do it in “good faith”. Double standards =/= good faith. If they take down a “conservative” video based on X number of complaints, and they leave up any other video in spite of X number of complaints, I think they are in trouble.

          1. Raston Bot

            A watered down Section 230 is not worth the benefit of Facebook, Twitter, et al being crushed under defamation settlements. A competitor (or several) will eventually emerge.

          2. R C Dean

            That’s not watering down Section 230. It currently requires good faith.

          3. cyto

            There isn’t even a “this rating is horse manure” option. The mob has spoke. So let it be written. So let it be done.

    2. SugarFree

      Take that, Nazi scum!

      1. cyto

        I wonder if this will change the editorial stance over at reason. They’ve been pretty tepid in their reaction to all of the censorship of right wing speakers. They seem sort of free speech is good but these are private companies but mostly it is conservatives who are starting to play the same game who are really the bad actors here….

        There have actually been several posts of the “first they came for the….” style, and they’ve been poo-poohed as being paranoid and unrealistic.. because Alex Jones is crazy. Nobody even seemed to notice that Dennis Prager was on the same list.

        Now you can’t even agree with them from a libertarian (read as nazi if you are a proggie) point of view.

        1. slumbrew

          It’s a video critical of Reason so I expect this censorship will be ignored.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    “As a society, we have not responded to the 2016 election in the way that would’ve been necessary to have a more trustworthy midterms,” he said.

    Seriously. We still plan to let a bunch of ignorant hicks from godforsaken shitholes like Wyoming vote. That’s just crazy.

    1. Rebel Scum

      As a society,

      Pass.

    2. R C Dean

      Last I saw, the government runs elections. If they don’t think elections are trustworthy, they should be pointing at the government, not “society”.

      And by elections, I mean the actual voting process. I suspect what they are really unhappy about is the campaigns, because that’s what all the MUH RUSHINZ bitching has really been about. But whatever they are trying to say ab out “trustworthy” elections becomes gibberish if you try to apply it to campaigning.

      1. trshmnstr

        This is just an underhanded ploy to overrule Citizens United while ginning up impeachment furor against Trump. They think it’s a win-win, but they’re so damned desperate for it to work that they come off as nutcases

        1. cyto

          Look, the first amendment clearly wasn’t intended to protect political speech aimed at a candidate near the election.

          And besides, it was about a movie. Do you really think the framers of the constitution were thinking about digitally mastered, full color movies when they wrote the first amendment? Clearly the first amendment only applies to forms of speech that existed at the time of the signing.

        2. Dr. Fronkensteen

          What if the Russians did interfere and it was on behalf of the Democrats to create a gridlocked government? I think they would think justice prevailed. Especially if it was the socialists who won. Of course the Russians know that socialism would be one of the fastest ways to destroy an economy. Makes me rethink the She Guevara win.

  56. straffinrun

    Anyone see The Humanity Bureau with Nicholas Cage? Watched it today and the plot is: Each according to his needs…
    Most Marxist film I may have ever seen.

    1. AlexinCT

      Thanks for telling me to avoid that then.

      1. Democratic Hitler

        Let’s not jump to conclusions. Does it end with everyone being lined up at the edge of a big pit of bodies to get their final reward?

        1. R C Dean

          “To each according to his needs, and you need killing.”

          1. AlexinCT

            So a marxist love story…

    2. Suthenboy

      It’s like the USSR never happened.

  57. Pat

    Welby – Taxes must rise to tackle ‘unjust economy’

    The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for a fundamental rethink of how the economy works, including more public spending and higher taxes on technology giants and the wealthy.

    In an interview with the BBC to mark the launch of a major report by the Commission on Economic Justice, of which he is a leading member, Archbishop Justin Welby said the present economy was “unjust”.

    He backed demands from the commission for a new regulator for technology firms, similar to those that oversee public utilities such as energy and water.

    1. slumbrew

      This from a guy who lives in a palace.

      1. commodious spittoon

        The world needs a Bernie/Father Jack crossover. FECK! ARSE! SOCIALISM!

        (Yeah, yeah, Welby’s not Catholic, whatever.)

    2. straffinrun

      Explain, slowly please, why it’s “unjust”. Not even a Christian, but go ahead and use the Bible if you want.

      1. He needs more poor people so he can feel better about himself.

    3. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s.

      Why do I suspect Jesus would tell this guy to shut the fuck up (in a much nicer way of course)?

      1. The Last American Hero

        It depends. If he was in a mellow mood, he’d quietly point out their hypocrisy. But don’t forget Hulk Jesus. Hulk Jesus walked into the Temple, flipped over tables and kicked some money-changer ass, like the Rock in Walking Tall.

    4. Suthenboy

      It’s like the USSR never happened.

      1. AlexinCT

        Well it wasn’t real communism/socialism/social justice, so it doesn’t count…

  58. Drake

    Pretty funny – Trump’s old Generals haven’t lost their situational awareness – and still plan to kill everyone they meet.

    1. Raston Bot

      that was funny in a she-is-batshit-crazy sort of way until Kelly did that eyes on you sign.

      1. Drake

        Lindsey got alpha-ed in a big way.

      2. Sean

        Kelly did that eyes on you sign

        That was awesome.

  59. Just Say’n

    https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1037771771489865728

    I don’t see what is “fascistic” about making bureaucrats take a lie detector? If your employer forced you to take a lie detector test, the free market position is to say that’s “fascistic”?

    Bureaucrats should be afforded more rights than a private employer? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

    1. Just Say’n

      “I totally believe in small government, but I like a permanent bureaucracy that is able to undermine democratically elected representatives”

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        Using a polygraph to try to root out a rat isn’t fascism, it’s a sound decision when the stakes are this high.

      2. I remember when Ken White had some interesting and valuable insight on legal and Constitutional issues, and was a fun read to boot. This was before the TDS really took hold. Now it’s just the usual, tired, “Trump is literally Hitler” routine you get from any standard media chatbot.

        1. Just Say’n

          Wokehat

        2. slumbrew

          It’s depressing how quickly he went from “must read” to “must avoid”.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      My only reservation about his plan to use a polygraph to ferret out the leaker is polygraphs are bullshit.

  60. The Late P Brooks

    And then there’s this, in the Atlantic thing:

    It occurred to me that guys like Duvall—and the others at the counter, Jarred Johnson and Morgan Pate—had had their voices hijacked by people like Kaitlin Bennett. She’s the woman who marked her graduation from Kent State this year with a photo of herself shouldering an AR-10 and holding her cap, which she’d decorated with the words come and take it. The photo went viral, and now Bennett is a far-right notable who posts incendiary tweets designed to elicit “liberal tears.”

    How dare that little bitch post incendiary things on the internet and “hijack the voices of reasonable, mature gun owners”? Why can’t she be more like David Hogg, and use restrained and respectful rhetoric and engage in rational debate instead of stirring up a lot of kneejerk emotionalism?

  61. The Late P Brooks

    The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for a fundamental rethink of how the economy works, including more public spending and higher taxes on technology giants and the wealthy.

    He then declared the Church’s intent to renounce its tax free status, right?

    RIGHT?

    1. Pat

      I’m afraid it’s worse than that in merry ol’ Enland, the church actually receives millions of pounds in government grants to maintain its thousands of property holdings that can’t be financially sustained by the dwindling number of parishioners. It’s almost as if there were some kind of incentive at play…

      1. Henry VIII had an answer to that problem. He should be careful what he wishes for.

        1. Chipwooder

          Henry II did as well.

          1. So we’re looking for a Henry X solution which combines the two? Dissolve the monastaries and this meddlesome priest?

      2. Stinky Wizzleteats

        Let’s just start calling it Airstrip One and be done with it.

        1. I don’t want to always have been at war with eastasia.

        2. Suthenboy

          We aren’t now?

    2. Just Say’n

      The Church of England is a state religion and is therefore also supported by tax revenues.

      I’ve never understood people’s complaints with the tax exempt status that churches enjoy, though. I suppose the local soup kitchen or fraternal organization should also be taxed then.

      1. Semi-Spartan Dad

        My college roommate was the son of a pastor. Pastor Dad drove a new Mercedes, Mom drove a new Lexus, roommate drove a new Audi. All paid for by their church. Pastor Dad’s calling was an extremely lucrative one for his family, though I’m sure he occasionally kicked an orphan a loaf of bread every so often for appearance sake.

        Doesn’t mean churches should lose their tax-exempt status. Also doesn’t mean some churches are any closer to a charitable organization than Enron was.

        Correct solution is to make every organization, business, and citizen tax-exempt.

        1. slumbrew

          A US televangelist has asked his followers to help fund his fourth private jet – because Jesus “wouldn’t be riding a donkey”.

          Jesse Duplantis said God had told him to buy a Falcoln 7X for $54m (£41m).

          He added he was hesitant about the purchase at first, but said God had told him: “I didn’t ask you to pay for it. I asked you to believe for it.”

          (this would be the 4th jet, BTW).

          Doing well by doing good.

          1. Jesus “wouldn’t be riding a donkey”

            True. That’s Jesus’s mom territory.

        2. ChipsnSalsa

          don’t want to “muzzle that ox” by making him drive a GM brand car.

        3. There is a church I drive by every day, they have the same construction company work on the building for a month or so every summer. Now maybe it’s just that the business owner is a devout and generous member of the congregation, but I can’t help but think it’d be a good way to launder the church money.

      2. R C Dean

        I’ve never understood people’s complaints with the tax exempt status that churches enjoy, though. I suppose the local soup kitchen or fraternal organization should also be taxed then.

        Churches qua churches can get tax exempt status, regardless of whether they do any charitable work. To me, its a blatant establishment of religion. I wouldn’t have any problem with them being tax exempt as a charity, but that would mean they have to meet the same standards as any charity.

        1. Spartacus

          My mother, who was always a committed Southern Baptist, never did understand or agree with tax-exempt status for churches. She easily saw the shenanigans that this leads to. The Constitution only requires all religions to be treated the same; requiring them all to pay taxes is perfectly consistent with 1A.

          1. Just Say’n

            Separation of church and state works both ways

          2. Just Say’n

            You can’t say “keep religion out of government” and then say “get the state in religion”. The power to tax is the power to kill.

            And what revenues would churches be taxed on, exactly?

          3. R C Dean

            The power to tax is the power to kill.

            Then not taxing churches is an establishment of religion. Taxing them more than any other organization would be also be unconstitutional.

            And what revenues would churches be taxed on, exactly?

            Treat them like any other organization. If they qualify as a charity, great – they can be a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. If they don’t, they get taxed like any other business. I don’t see the problem with getting rid of special tax treatment for churches.

  62. Festus

    Disgusted by Kamala trying to out-shrewd a better legal mind and laughing at Corey for donning the dunce cap. This is truth to power in the current year, folks.

    1. AlexinCT

      We are literally watching our inept, ineffective, and insane credentialed elite class prove why they should not be allowed near the leavers of power anymore and that the movement that brought us Trump and is trying to get rid of them is on the right side of history. Booker was screaming he was Spartacus (I think he wanted to actually do a Gerard Butler “This is SPARTA! thing but fucked even that up) and was going to violate senate rules and release emails that had just been declassified and released that very AM before he did his “Look at me!” moment. What a douche.

      1. commodious spittoon

        But certainly, let’s entrust our healthcare to these creeps.

        1. AlexinCT

          And education, including free college.

          Speaking of healthcare, did anyone catch Cynthia Nixon telling the NY voters that they all deserve free healthcare – it is a human right – and when asked how she would pay for it, responding (with venom in her voice I have been told) that they just needed to pass it and figure out how to pay for it later. Reality is that the low/conservative estimate of this things cost for NY state – and you know it will cost twice as much as their worst projections – is around some $117 billion per year, which also happens to be about the entire NY state annual budget. Residents of that state are basically being told we are gonna double your taxes. Well, the productive ones that actually pay taxes, that is.

          1. Every state that floats the idea of universal health care runs the numbers and ends up saying “on second thought…”, even California had enough sense to back off of it when they saw the price tag. Even in my blue-tinted purple state we had a ballot initiative a few years ago for universal health care and *80%* of people voted against it. Getting that much agreement on any political issue these days is insane.

            Of course, somehow it’ll all work out if we give that authority to the FedGov. They’ll just print their own money to pay for it and everything will be hunky dory. I’m super cereal.

          2. Pope Jimbo

            As long as it isn’t Minnesoda, I really wish a state would pass this free shit stuff.

            Think of the service they would do to the rest of the country as every slacker piles into the state giving away free health care.

            You wonder if they account for that when they run the numbers.

          3. AlexinCT

            Of course they do! Just like they account for people that will also come that were not part of the country but want free shit.

            OK, sorry that was a bad joke.

          4. Democratic Hitler

            NY would be very high on my list of states I’d like to see try it. But only if there’s not a Democratic federal gov on the sidelines waiting to bail them out.

          5. The Last American Hero

            It’s a joke. They couldn’t pass it in Vermont, home to Comrade Sanders and a small state that is somewhat analogous to those northern European countries the left beats off to. They couldn’t pass it in California, the large state that boasts every day about how it’s the 8th largest economy in the world or some such. If you can’t make it work in Vermont or Cali, you.can’t.make.it.work.

          6. Just because something can’t work won’t stop them from doing it anyway.

          7. Hyperion

            No worries, democrat candidate for MD governor, Ben Jealous promises free healthcare for all as soon as he’s elected.

      2. Drake

        Corey made a classic Glib mistake – he didn’t read the links before commenting.

        Lindsey Graham on Booker’s ‘Gotcha’ Document: You Should Have ‘Read the Damn Thing’

      3. Chipwooder

        I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Cory Booker is the dumbest, most buffoonish senator I’ve ever seen, and given who comprises the Senate that’s really saying something.

        1. But he’s so dreamy! If I squint I could swear he’s Obama!

  63. AlexinCT

    WTF Sloopy, did you approve this?

    1. cyto

      It is impressive how the Bush economy started shortly before he took office and extended for 8 years after he left office… and the Obama economy didn’t kick in until the day Trump was elected.

      1. Brett L

        And will continue until shortly after the next President takes office.

  64. B.P.

    “I don’t know what to do. I am sure everybody was expecting a song by these guys. ”

    Actually I was expecting one from these guys…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha_bppvZ0a8

    Kind of a cool video too.

  65. Pat

    Filing: Mohamed Noor raised red flags among psychiatrists, training officers

    Former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor concerned psychiatrists and training officers about his fitness for duty long before he fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond, new court records show.

    Revelations about Noor’s past were introduced by Hennepin County prosecutors on Wednesday in response to a motion by defense attorneys to dismiss the third-degree murder and manslaughter charges filed against him in Damond’s death.

    Noor was flagged by two psychiatrists during the pre-hiring evaluation in early 2015 after he exhibited an inability to handle the stress of regular police work and unwillingness to deal with people, according to the records.

    Best and brightest.

    1. Tundra

      I’ve got friends on the MPD. The pressure on training officers to pass certain minority candidates is intense. Noor is not unique.

      1. slumbrew

        That’s not at all unique to MPD, anecdotally (cousin was NYPD).

        1. Bobarian LMD

          The Rivera case with the LAPD could probably be hung on that branch, as well.

      2. Pope Jimbo

        My father refused to sit on hiring boards for new probation officers for the last 10 years or so of his career because there was so much pressure to hire women and minorities. He basically told them to hire who they were going to hire, but he wasn’t going to help them pretend it wasn’t a complete sham.

        1. Tundra

          My buddy tried to wash out a trainee who he described as ‘scary’ (this is a guy, btw who did two tours in Iraq). The powers moved the guy to another TO, who wrote that the trainee was in no way fit for the job. Finally, after the third TO, they bounced the guy.

          Fucked up.

    2. RAHeinlein

      This morning’s breakfast discussion topic was the negative impact of affirmative action in hiring and college acceptance.

    3. commodious spittoon

      Could Star Tribune stuff another couple popups in there?

  66. Enough About Palin

    “painter Grandma Moses”

    Who the fuck names their kid Grandma?

    1. SugarFree

      Hipsters. They probably waxed their mustaches and talked endlessly about fair trade coffee.

  67. The Late P Brooks

    I’ve never understood people’s complaints with the tax exempt status that churches enjoy, though. I suppose the local soup kitchen or fraternal organization should also be taxed then.

    By George, I think he’s got it.

    1. commodious spittoon

      Congress passes a huge tax increase aimed squarely at the country’s wealthiest citizens, and Democrats still aren’t happy.

      1. AlexinCT

        Well in all those freeloading heavily taxed blue states all those wealthy citizens are now packing up and moving because they don’t want to now pay the state money they used to be able to deduct from their fed taxes and no longer can. But this tax bill was totes just crumbs for the masses and favored the rich….

        1. commodious spittoon

          In fairness, accelerating the progressive diaspora is likely on net a negative for economic sanity.

          1. AlexinCT

            The only economic sanity marxist value and feel is just, is everyone being equally poor. Cause the way they make everyone millionaires – see Venezuela – seems to not really do much for people.

          2. commodious spittoon

            It’s great for weight loss. And PETA should love it, how many animals are now kept captive or slaughtered in Venezuela? Very few, I imagine. And they’ve drastically cut back their oil production. Chavez hated Israel, so that’s a feather in the cap for BDS kiddos.

  68. My theory on Kaepernick has always been that this kneeling bullshit started as a distraction from his disappointing performance on the field. He goes from a one of the up and coming new stars to riding the pine, he needed some way to draw attention from that. I don’t think even he knew it was going to explode like this. Of course now he’s bathing in the sweet sunlight of SJW beatification so he can’t jolly well give it up now. Forget about the fact that he’s a washup, just like a thousand other “promising” prospects that didn’t work out; no, the reason he doesn’t have a contract is because he “took a stand” and was “blacklisted” by racist coaches and a racist league in a racist nation.

    1. slumbrew

      The NFL has proven over and over again that they’ll put up with a lot of bullshit if you’re really talented. If Kap were that good, someone would have grabbed him.

      I love that Kap’s lawyer felt he had to depose Robert Kraft – sure, the Pats were going to drop that liability Brady, skip Garoppolo and go with Kap, if it weren’t for the other owners telling Kraft not to.

      1. commodious spittoon

        The surest sign that nobody wanted him long before he made a spectacle of himself is that nobody stepped in before he made a spectacle of himself.

      2. The Last American Hero

        Michael Bennett was still getting plenty of playing time in spite of taking a knee, mixing it up with Vegas PD, and making some controversial remarks. Bennett was also causing chaos in the backfield for opposing teams.

    2. Creosote Achilles

      I think that’s close. But there’s a strong case of a commie g/f who treated him like hardwood; she laid him right the first time and now she can walk all over him that’s a piece of it.

      I think she manipulated him once he was at the low point and commie g/f started whispering in his ear about this shit, or had been for a while and at that point it seemed like a good decision as what did he have to lose?

      1. AlexinCT

        Some guys will sell their soul for poon-tang…

        1. commodious spittoon

          I can’t even be bothered to pay for a haircut.

        2. Creosote Achilles

          Something garden, something tree of something.

          1. I wonder how Eve was in the sack?

          2. Creosote Achilles

            I’m guessing Adam thought she was pretty phenomenal, though given Adam was a virgin and had nothing to compare her against besides Rosie Palm and her Five Sisters…

          3. The Last American Hero

            She was more into it than Lilith.

          4. The Last American Hero

            Ask the snake.

      2. Case in point: Ravens are interested in Kaep, girlfriend promptly tweets about Ray Lewis being a House Negro.

  69. Enough About Palin

    Alexandra Waterbury — Would

    1. commodious spittoon
    2. Definitely scrawny for my taste, but still would.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Oh, goodness, yes. Bizarre Gollum photoshoot aside, she’s adorable.

        1. cyto

          Amazing that people who make their living by being attractive are, you know…. attractive.

          1. commodious spittoon

            Not a safe assumption given the push among progs to popularize frankly ugly people. Sorry, a pretty face isn’t going to make corpulence attractive.

          2. Bobarian LMD

            You say that, but when the commies win, and we start eating people…

            Yummy.

  70. wdalasio

    I little bit of a theory is percolating in my head. It’s being formulated by the utter rash of complete and total idiocy being advocated by ostensibly “elite” institutions.

    I don’t think current elites are necessarily worse (read “less competent”) than previous generations of elites. I think the major distinction is that they have a wildly higher opinion of themselves. Unlike previous generations of elites, our current generation of elites fancy themselves a meritocracy, fueled ultimately by little more than a credentialism that obscures what is ultimately the same networks that have supported elites for generations. The older elites at least understood that they weren’t tremendous outliers in terms of talent or ability, but were simply fortunate to be in a favorable position in life. The current elite genuinely believes they’re elite because they have an outstanding level of insight and intelligence.

    Because they have this higher opinion of themselves, they’re more ambitious. Prior generations of elites would content themselves to a “caretaker” role, taking custody of society’s institutions to keep them relevant to changing circumstances. In contrast, the current elite sees themselves as supremely gifted and, therefore, fit to remake society’s institutions in an image more in accordance with their enlightened sensitivities. But, their collective intelligence doesn’t even approach a margin of the combined historical and practical knowledge that society’s institutions have accumulated organically through spontaneous order.

    But, the public mostly appreciates the spontaneous order of society’s institutions. An elite that mostly tinkers around the edges and respects its own limitations can be planned for and accommodated (maybe even appreciated) more easily than one determined to implement its own social designs. And, oddly, I’m not sure that doesn’t explain, at least in some small part, the populist appeal of Donald Trump. His populist supporters look to Mr. Trump not to wrest control away from a corrupt elite and remake society and its institutions, but to stymie an elite convinced of our society’s fundamental corruption (a corruption that conspicuously omits them) and their entitlement to remake it. “Make America Great Again” is a rallying cry convinced of our society’s fundamental greatness. The “Again” part his supporters want to revisit is before the rise of the current generation of elites.

    Then again, I could be wrong.

    1. “I don’t think current elites are necessarily worse (read “less competent”) than previous generations of elites.”

      In general, you’re probably right. However, reading some of the writings and speeches of politicians/statesmen from bygone eras (think Lincoln-Douglass debates) I have a hard time thinking of any politician today displaying that level of nuance and intelligence. Perhaps it’s that the audience has gotten stupider? I’m sure Ted Cruz (for all his faults) is smart enough to have deeply philosophical discussions on his theories of government, he just knows the electorate wouldn’t understand any of it and would immediately start playing Candy Crush on their phones.

      1. wdalasio

        True. But, to be fair, for every Lincoln-Douglass, you had five Boss Tweeds passing out election day money and having their mobs attack anyone running against the ticket.

    2. Raven Nation

      That’s pretty good. I would add that it seems to me today’s elite is a lot more self-protective and believes (as you suggest) that everyone on the elite is better than everyone outside the elite. A hundred years ago, someone who was born into the elite (or was somehow part of it), who screwed off would be packed off to be assistant to the assistant to the deputy governor of the Sudan. Now that same person will be pushed to some kind of bureaucratic position where they can do real harm.

    3. Democratic Hitler

      Then again, I could be wrong.

      The correct closing is: tl/dr – Laura Ingalls Wilder.

      1. Mojeaux

        Ding ding ding. We have a winner!

    4. AlexinCT

      I don’t think current elites are necessarily worse (read “less competent”) than previous generations of elites.

      ……

      Then again, I could be wrong.

      Our top men today are not just worse than the ones before them, but they are not even bright enough to see it (or if they do, keep it in mind when they are about to fuck things up). And they certainly feel far more entitled than our previous elites. Do you see these douches successfully creating something like our interstate system or the Hoover dam project today? All we get is bullet trains to nowhere that cost insane amounts of money because of all the politically motivated nonsense that exists to give useless people work in the name of protecting Gaia.

      1. wdalasio

        To some extent, I agree with you. I just think the difference is not one of competence, but of hubris. Our previous elites understood that they weren’t so clever that they could build an interstate or a Hoover Dam. They’d have to listen to people who knew more about the topic. And those other guys might have a little more insight into the value or worth of the project. Our current generation of elites doesn’t feel the need to be bothered with input from those lesser sorts. Just consider Cynthia Nixon’s dismissal of the idea of figuring out how her universal healthcare fantasy is going to get financed, for just one example; why should “leaders” spend time listening to bean-counters?

    5. A Leap at the Wheel

      I agree, I don’t think they are any worse. I think that the environment they are working in allows their same terribleness to have greater impact on society.

  71. KSuellington

    There was a discussion the other day about bathrooms that open into the living room or kitchen. I think this may just be taking that to the next level. Any Saint Louis Glibs out there looking for an apartment?

    https://www.padmapper.com/buildings/p127629/4917-19-mcpherson-avenue-100-318-apartments-at-4917-mcpherson-ave-st-louis-mo-63108#warm

    1. ChipsnSalsa

      Evan thought he had it rough…

    2. ChipsnSalsa

      and a combo kitchen/bathroom for maximum efficiency.

      Probably don’t want to cook bacon while your on the shitter though, splatter (either direction) could be detrimental.

      1. KSuellington

        Ya gotta love the realtorspeak there.

    3. Democratic Hitler

      The #warm anchor at the end makes me not want to click.

  72. RE: Musk.

    Mental breakdown or purposely trying to crash the stock?

    Also, why does the Daily Fail always give my browser AIDS?

    1. A Leap at the Wheel

      I was going to say, if he goes private in the next 12 hours, that would be the greatest troll job.

      1. AlexinCT

        Would they be able to accuse him of insider trading malfeasance?

        1. Well, if he screams “Fine Then! I’ll buy it back from all of you!” and makes it look like a random impulsive move, maybe not.

      2. Tundra

        He lawyered up this week. SEC is looking to ream him already.

  73. The Late P Brooks

    You can’t argue with science.

    Now, the debate over minimum-wage hikes in 21st-century American metropolises is finally moving from the realm of theory to fact. The results from our natural experiments are coming in — and the latest numbers look like a win for team “forcing businesses to pay their workers more money is good.”

    In the first six major U.S. cities to raise their minimum wage above $10 an hour, workers’ earnings went up while job growth held steady or improved, according to a new study from Berkeley’s Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics.

    ———–

    “We find that they are working just as the policy-makers and voters who enacted these policies intended,” Sylvia Allegretto, co-author of the report, told the Seattle Times. “So far they are raising the earnings of low-wage workers without causing significant employment losses.”

    It’s from Berkeley’s Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics; they’d never tweak the model, or work backwards from their predetermined conclusions. The (social) science is settled.

      1. Hyperion

        They’re using the wrong formula, the non-woke one. See my comment below for correction.

    1. Hyperion

      I can make anything work on paper. IOW, I increase minimum wage, wait for magic. Now I have some data. So I take my set of data and take out the pesky part about loss of jobs caused by my magic, and voila! There you have it! The results are just what I said they would be! Need more socialism, it works!

    2. Rebel Scum

      forcing businesses to pay their workers more money is good.

      No it isn’t. It is morally reprehensible. Put down the gun.

      1. trshmnstr

        This

  74. The Late P Brooks

    It’s plausible that Berkeley’s study doesn’t tell the whole story. But the chapters we’ve currently got suggest that higher minimum wages are a net win for working people.

    And the people unable to find any work at all? Well, we’ll think about them some other time.

    1. I had to take Economics 101 as a general education requirement in college. We learned that minimum wage hurts workers in the first month. This was a very simple conclusion drawn from first principles of supply and demand, themselves an immutable artifact of human nature and the reality of scarce resources.

      They can fuck with their model six ways from Sunday and it won’t change these basic facts. Also, let’s completely skate over the fact that Seattle is now second only to SF when it comes to piles of homeless people discarding needles and shitting in the street.

      1. Hyperion

        Same here. Our economics prof first taught us the valuable lesson ‘You don’t want everyone to get a raise, you want YOU to get a raise’. So some socially aware individuals voiced concern. Why be so greedy? He then went on to say that if you give everyone a raise, you raise the cost of production and the raise is completely eliminated by the rising cost of living. So effectively your $12 an hour is worth exactly what your $10 was worth. He then brought up the point about this forcing some jobs to disappear when employees could no longer afford to pass this cost on to customers without losing customers. This was in 1994.

        How is it that 50% of the country cannot understand these simple lessons today? I suspect that if I were in college today, I’d be too busy taking required gender studies and toxic masculinity 101 to even think about non-requirements like economics or math.

        We don’t need no stankin economics, but we be woke!

        1. “We don’t need no stankin economics, but we be woke!”

          The progressive education project in one sentence.

  75. A Leap at the Wheel

    Cue we’re putting together a team montage.

    Last night I invited any Glib interested in doing a play-by-voice/video-chat RPG to email me (account name, no spaces, at g mail) to get things set up. Currently we have 6 folks who have emailed me, and I’ve responded to all of them.

    1)If you think you emailed me but you didn’t hear back from me, I didn’t get your email. Sound off here with your email address.
    2) If you didn’t email me but are interested, email me and I’ll add you to our list. We are currently working through schedule and logistics, etc.

    1. I saw your email this morning, but didn’t have time to compose a response before I had to leave for work.

      1. A Leap at the Wheel

        No problem.

        1. Democratic Hitler

          His response was “fuck no”.

          1. commodious spittoon

            Two hours of UCS backseat DMing and sniffing that 40k would have been better.

          2. A Leap at the Wheel

            I would listen to that podcast.

          3. commodious spittoon

            True enough. You should record these sessions.

          4. A previous online-run tabletop game I was in did that. Some people found them highly entertaining.

          5. Hyperion

            I don’t get all of this. Would a great B-day present for ya’ll be a box of number 2 pencils and some graph paper?

          6. Used to be.

            But digital mapping has edged out hand-drawn.

          7. A Leap at the Wheel
          8. ChipsnSalsa

            don’t for get to include something to hold them

  76. The Late P Brooks

    Minimum-wage laws are still an imperfect means of reducing poverty and inequality. They’re difficult to fully enforce, do nothing to help those who cannot work, and do little for underpaid workers in the middle of the income distribution. Direct government subsidies of workers’ living expenses — such as a universal basic income, single-payer health care, or social housing — would likely do much more to improve economically insecure Americans’ lives. And reforms to promote sectoral bargaining or mass unionization would do more to increase workers’ share of their employers’ profits (many Scandinavian countries have no federally mandated minimum wage, as union-negotiated, industry-specific wage floors fulfill the same function).

    But raising the minimum wage is cheap, easy, and popular. And the weight of available evidence suggests it makes economies a bit less unjust.

    Free lunch! Who doesn’t want that?

    1. R C Dean

      But raising the minimum wage is cheap, easy, and popular.

      Well, for the people who don’t have to pay for it, sure.

      1. AlexinCT

        Isn’t that what progressivism is all about though? Something I get that other people pay for….

      2. Hyperion

        I don’t get all you non-woke folk. It’s been explained already that if some of the greedy 1% small business tycoons won’t get woke, and insist on saying they can’t pay a living wage, then it’s all better for everyone if they just close shop. The employees who lose their shitty job can now be artists or poets. What’s not to like?

      3. Michael

        But raising the minimum wage is cheap, easy, and popular.

        This instantly reminded me of an old sign often found hanging in many auto mechanics’ shops:

        “You can have it good, fast and cheap. Pick two.”

        1. How slow is it if we pick good and cheap?

    2. “reducing poverty and inequality”

      Reduce poverty? Great! We know how to do that; it’s called unfettered free markets.

      Reduce inequality? What exactly do you mean by that? Inequality of intelligence? Can’t be done. Inequality of opportunity? Free market solves this. Inequality of outcome? Can be solved but only by kneecapping the successful and creating a lot of mass graves in the process.

      1. AlexinCT

        Reduce poverty? Great! We know how to do that; it’s called unfettered free markets.

        Free markets are unjust because they actually reward people that do more than sit on their ass and hold their hands out!

        1. Hyperion

          They (the TOP XE) already know damn well that universal equality is not achievable. But they will get to chose the winners and those winners will start with them and their own. It ALWAYS works that way. They’re not only not for any type of opportunity for equality, they are those who are most against it.

          1. AlexinCT

            Marxism, if you are going by Marx’s own words, was about replacing the current crop of leaders & the institutions they manned with ones that would put him on top and let him pick the winners and losers. It has nothing to do with fighting for the little guy. But gullible people easily misled because of their envious nature have gobbled that shit up.

          2. Hyperion

            “Marxism, if you are going by Marx’s own words, was about replacing the current crop of leaders & the institutions”

            Someone, can’t remember who, went on a rant a while back about post modernism being at the core of all we’re seeing now, including Marxism, identity politics, and rage against Western culture. Have not researched that theory myself, maybe there is something to it.

          3. AlexinCT

            Postmodernism is part & parcel of marxism’s game plan: you must destroy anything of value or that would allow people to realize the shit marxists peddle is tripe.

      2. commodious spittoon

        Can be solved but only by kneecapping the successful and creating a lot of mass graves in the process.

        How’d you get the Democrat’s 2020 party platform memo? Are you a RUSSIAN?

        1. Hyperion

          STOP LYING, RETUGLICAN TRUMPTARD!

          They didn’t say socialism, they said democratic socialism!

          They didn’t say minimum wage, they said living wage!

          They didn’t say socialized healthcare, they said single payer… uhh, I mean Medicare for all!

          STOP LYING!

    3. Rebel Scum

      mass unionization would do more to increase workers’ share of their employers’ profits

      Profit is what is left over after costs. Wtf are they talking about? //Rhetorical

      1. Want a share of the profits? Buy stock.

  77. A Leap at the Wheel

    “If senior administration officials think the President of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment,”

    Funny enough, if you append “otherwise shut up and do your damn job” at the end, I’d get on board with that.

    1. slumbrew

      She did, actually – that headline is terrible:

      “They can’t have it both ways. Either they think that the President is not capable of doing his job in which case they follow the rules in the Constitution, or they feel that the President is capable of doing his job, in which case they follow what the President tells them to do.”

      1. slumbrew

        (standard disclaimer – Warren is still terrible, I just don’t think she’s being particularly terrible here).

        1. Even if the author is legit and all the shit he’s saying is true, he’s a fucking coward for hiding his identity. If there’s one thing left that unifies most of America, it’s a distaste for cowardice; that undermines everything he says in the Op-Ed and why I think it will/is backfiring.

    2. Suthenboy

      I am still waiting to hear in what way he is unable to do his job. We get a lot of baseless claims and innuendo but no specifics.

      1. Hyperion

        “I am still waiting to hear in what way he is unable to do his job.”

        Because we lost! RUSSIANS!!! WAAAHHHH!!! /NYT and CNN

    1. AlexinCT

      It is sad that the harder these democrat 2020 try to distinguish themselves from the pack, the more idiotic they show they are. But team blue players keep lapping it up and talking about resisting a lawfully elected president based on a deep state witch hunt intended to undermine the will of the people.

      1. Hyperion

        It’s easy to be a democrat these days. Which is why we’re getting our new crop in of ex bartenders, hamburger flippers, and ugly guys who think they’re chicks. and all selling socialism, the choice of dummies everywhere. You know your constituents are dumb, so you have to talk their lingo naturally.

        1. AlexinCT

          Appeal to envy and greed?

  78. commodious spittoon

    I’m sitting at a desk at work for another half hour to earn maybe five bucks while I pine to go home so I can sit at my desk earning nothing.

    I did not imagine life turning out like this.

    Is it possible to learn C# without a compiler or whatever?

    1. AlexinCT

      C# is a Microsoft language and part of their Visual Studio product, but you can download a open source IDE like Visual Studio Code and learn how to do it.

      1. commodious spittoon

        The only problem is that I’d be using my work hours to learn it, but I can’t install anything on this machine.

        1. AlexinCT

          Sounds like you need your own computer – at home?

          1. commodious spittoon

            I’m mostly trying to bolster my employment prospects. Revit plugins run on C#.

          2. AlexinCT

            That is not C# but Java, which is currently the more popular development language/platform (yes I have done them all in 25 years of this stuff), and that is an online compiler. More like a place to verify your code runs than an actual IDE, and a place where somebody takes a copy of it and could cause problems if you have information you shouldn’t be sharing.

      2. Michael

        It’s maybe worth noting that Visual Studio Community Edition is free* to download as well. A few of our engineers use this for Revit scripts, though I don’t know what is needed to write plug-ins. Your mileage may vary.

        *as in beer

        1. Brett L

          Community has full support for the language, project templates, and NuGet. It just doesn’t have all the Team stuff — code repository, test-suite, etc. It would be fine. I think (as a guy who wrote C# code for a living for a long time, and will again once I get out of Azure Data Factory integration Hell) python might be a better first language just because the free “learn to code from nothing” internet support is better. Although I think (Ah yes) every VS version supports python now as far as compiling and basic intellisense. I’m not sure if its a good or a bad thing to learn from that IDE, but it would facilitate an easy transfer.

          1. slumbrew

            I’m slightly skeptical as to learning to program in an IDE is a good idea – they can hide too much behind the scenes and be overwhelming for novices.

            That said, I had to delicately place every one and zero by hand when I learned to program, so my learning experience is hardly fresh.

            (for the record, I just use Atom these days, though I will experiment with their new IDE functionality).

          2. trshmnstr

            I agree. Part of truly learning is manually doing stuff. Its a bit too plug and play with an IDE sometimes.

            If you’re set on C#, commodious, check this out.

          3. I want to claim I started with machine language, but I actually started with LogoWriter and BASIC when my age was in the single digits. Then I learned machine language and assembler and worked my way up to C++ and Java. Extent to all these languages I use in my day job – nada. The closest I come to programming is bash scripting.

          4. slumbrew

            Atari BASIC, a little TI LOGO, some Pascal in school, C/C++. Never actually learned assembler.
            First thing I got paid for was Visual Basic.

            A smattering of things, like Java.
            A bunch of Perl, but little of that now, other than fixing old things.
            Ruby on Rails – still maintaining one large app we’re going to replace Real Soon Now.
            Python and now maybe some Go.

            Plus the dozen of little smaller languages that are part of the ecosystem, like Bash.

          5. trshmnstr

            I started with basic in visual studio, too. Then I moved to C++ in visual studio. Then, in college I learned C (my kernighan and Richie book is still around somewhere), kornshell (because bash is too easy, I guess), python, and then machine languages. Took an algorithms class in C (the assignment was graded on accuracy and runtime of your code). Compilers class in C. Operating systems class in C. Microcontrollers class in some ARM variant. A handful of IC design classes in VHDL. A class and a research project in MATLAB.

            All this to say, the language itself doesn’t matter as much as the concepts. Once you get the concepts, a new language takes 2 or 3 weeks to become adept in. The more you’re insulated from the core hardware and logic concepts by a language, the steeper the learning curve when you start doing embedded work (raspberryPi).

          6. I found learning what it means to manage memory registers and individual CPU operations in assembler useful. And then was grateful when I could replace it with

            Integer J=3;

          7. slumbrew

            the language itself doesn’t matter as much as the concepts.

            100% agree, which is why I recommended starting with Python.

            Once you get the concepts, a new language takes 2 or 3 weeks to become adept in.

            “[A]dept” is overstating things. Years after learning a new language, I still find new corners and nuances.

          8. There is one thing I would add. While I agree that the concepts are key, do not misapply them. You would not believe the pain it is to try to debug a script written by someone applying Object-oriented principles to a structured language. It isn’t meant to work that way, and forcing it just makes a lot of work for yourself and those that come after.

      3. Hyperion

        Yeah, you can download a free version of Visual Studio .NET with which you can do all the basic stuff you can do with the paid version.

    2. You only make $15/hr?

      1. commodious spittoon

        Not even that much.

        I hope to be working an internship in ~four months.

        1. I was going with ~1/3rd to taxes (based on my net being 64% of my gross) as a quick and dirty calculation. I know it doesn’t hold true across all income levels. I didn’t know you were serious about it only being $5 for a half hour.

          1. commodious spittoon

            In fairness, I’m probably a net tax sponge after the tax rebate. Worst libertarian ever.

    3. slumbrew

      Skip C# (at least for now):

      https://www.learnpython.org/

      Get the basic ideas of programming down first. Python is a good language for that. You can apply those basics to other languages later.

      Most languages have something unique but they all have types*, basic operations, conditions, loops, etc.

      * don’t get pedantic on me people – even duck-typed languages still have the concept of types, even if they’re mostly hidden away

      1. commodious spittoon

        Learn TWO things?!

        Thanks for the advice. I’ll start that today.

        1. Michael

          +1 on learning Python. It’s pretty much the defacto gateway into everything else, including C#. I’ve been dabbling in it lately myself.

        2. Hyperion

          You should learn HTML and CSS first, then learn javascript, C#, and SQL.

          1. AlexinCT

            I think this is actually great advice…

          2. trshmnstr

            I disagree, and here’s why. Python is python is python. It compiles or is interpreted and does the same thing on every computer, even on online simulators. It doesn’t depend on anything you don’t tell it to depend on, and it doesnt have all sorts of secret crap going on in the background that interacts unpredictably with your code.

            Html/css/js is a big system of components with a shit ton of built in assumptions that are very helpful for getting off the ground quickly, but are confusing as hell to somebody unfamiliar with the environment. Different browsers treat the same thing differently, impose different limits, etc.

          3. Yeah, I agree. I’d also add that unless you’re going to be making websites, there’s no reason to learn HTML or CSS and very little to learn JavaScript. Plus, the problem with learning HTML and CSS is that you’re learning markup, not programming. JS is my bread-and-butter, but if I wasn’t a web developer I’d never mess with it. Considered in the pantheon of programming (and scripting) languages it doesn’t have a hell of a lot to recommend it over, say, Python, or C++.

      2. Hyperion

        Javascript is sort of like C# syntax wise, but a lot easier. Since it doesn’t require compiling or any tools, anyone can start learning it right off. It’s hell to debug though when you get into more complex stuff. That’s why I love .NET because it separates the HTML and code and you can debug it in real time. Also, employment wise, at least in the USA, those two languages are prime for getting employed quickly as possible.

        1. AlexinCT

          Javascript can be a bitch to debug though for the less experienced developer.

      3. Oooh, I second Python. It’s a fantastic general-use language, it’s got a huge, thriving community, and you can do a whole bunch of stuff with it. Plus, I really appreciate the “there’s one right way” philosophy.

        1. slumbrew

          I really appreciate the “there’s one right way” philosophy.

          That’s my primary reason for recommending it as a first language. I love me some Ruby, but TIMTOWTDI isn’t good for novices.

          1. trshmnstr

            I also like that the creators of python are (were?) still active in the community. I forget the name of the guy who trained me when I was at Cisco, but he obviously knew his stuff… Turns out he wrote more than half of the libraries he was teaching us about.

    4. kinnath

      Haven’t written code since 1993. So I have nothing of value to add. And yet, I still felt compelled to post something. 😉

      1. slumbrew

        You’ve got management written all over you, my boy!

        1. kinnath

          I’ve spent the last 25 years avoiding management. I am now cruising towards retirement without ever managing other people.

          1. You don’t code. You don’t manage. You aren’t a government employee. What do you actually do all day then?

          2. R C Dean

            Hang out on Glibs?

          3. kinnath

            Good fucking question.

            Today, I am doing traceability.

            Over the last 25 years: a) writing proposals, operational concepts, system specifications, industry guidance, verification and validation procedures & reports, certification summaries, patent applications; 2) managing small IRAD projects; and 3) attending meetings, lots of fucking meetings (around the globe at various times in my career).

            At present, the company doesn’t seem to know what to do with me.

      2. kinnath

        I will try to provide some useful information though.

        Language doesn’t matter that much. Solving problems is about solving problems. Recognizing that big problems are collections of small problems which are collections of tiny problems which are collections of micro problems is the key to success. Coding is about putting together the solutions to a vast number of micro problems. How you organize these micro solutions determines if you are good or bad at developing software. Integrated Development Environments provide you with huge libraries of collections of micro solutions. This let you focus on the larger solutions to larger problems (this is good, it is efficient). It also hides the details from you which allows lots of programmers to never actually learn the details (this is bad).

        If you want to learn to code without spending any money, read other people’s code. Red mark it to death. Figure out all the places the programmer wasted code (inefficiencies) or took convoluted paths to get the right answer (unsupportable code). Write down the solutions implemented by that code in English. Then rewrite the English into better English. Later, you will find coding is just a translation problem of converting your solutions into whatever language you need to work with for a particular job.

        1. trshmnstr

          . Write down the solutions implemented by that code in English. Then rewrite the English into better English. Later, you will find coding is just a translation problem of converting your solutions into whatever language you need to work with for a particular job.

          This is how the pros do it. Of course, they call it “pseudo code” and write it in a half-English, half-code shorthand, but as a beginner, you could write things out in sentence fragments and be no worse off.

        2. AlexinCT

          Language doesn’t matter that much. Solving problems is about solving problems.

          DING DING DING!

          I am never impressed by the guys that know all the buzz words and the book knowledge but couldn’t think their way out of a paper bag without someone giving them a nearly completed and full shell to work with. The best programmers in my experience have always been the problem solvers that think outside the box.

          1. Problem solving is a real bitch to teach. Either people take to it or they don’t. A lot of people are more comfortable being tech-priests – perform the sacred ritual and the machine god will make it work. Asking them “Why did it happen?” gets blank stares – as if they are incapable of inquiring. Frequently I dig around and find they’re doing extra, pointless stuff and what actually needed to be done was a fraction of the process, without all the prayers and chanting.

          2. trshmnstr

            Frequently I dig around and find they’re doing extra, pointless stuff

            My favorite is when you copy and paste portions of the code into Google and see all the stack overflow threads they cobbled together the solution from. (not knocking the Google and steal code approach, many parts of Monocle were built that way, but at least I learned what was going on and wrote the code based on what I needed)

          3. Sometimes I forget the exact syntax for what I want to do and ask the internet. But I never blindly grab the code* and usually parse what it’s actually doing before applying it.

            *okay, chunk of bash or awk script, but the principle is the same

          4. commodious spittoon

            *taking notes*

            “steal code from google”

          5. slumbrew

            The “let me change 8 things at once and see if it helps” school of troubleshooting is endemic and always makes me shake my head. “You do this for a living, you say?”.

          6. Democratic Hitler

            Likewise the school of troubleshooting that goes:
            “Well, that fixed it”
            “Do you know why it fixed it?”
            “What do you mean?”

          7. slumbrew

            “FBM (Fixed By Magic)”