CriSP Autumn Morning Links for Friday

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”dancing in an autumn sunrise photo” _builder_version=”3.15″]

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.15″ color=”#ffffff” divider_weight=”4″ /][et_pb_text admin_label=”intro text” _builder_version=”3.15″]

Good morning, my dear Glibs. How are you all today? You know me and mornings, so while I pour more coffee, I’ll just say it is a delightfully criSP morning here, down in the low 50s to start the day. The mosquitoes are finally leaving me alone. What a relief!

Sloopy is off actually working (yes, it’s true Rufus!), so you get my typical links today. But they will be better than no links.

Probably.

(You can always ask for a refund of your subscription price. See our refund policy here.)

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.15″ color=”#0c71c3″ divider_style=”dotted” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Events” _builder_version=”3.15″ border_width_all=”2px” border_width_top=”3px” custom_padding=”15px|15px|15px|15px” saved_tabs=”all”]

On this day in history

1829: Chester A. Arthur was thrust upon the world. I was torn between history and birthdays for this listing. Looks like history won.

1947: Harry Truman ushered in the dark age of presidential media usage by making the first live televised speech from the White House. And this set a very bad precedent, which has led to Trump tweeting incessantly and all presidents being constantly seen on TV, even after they are out of office. (GO AWAY, OBAMA.)

1974: David Kunst finished a little stroll.

2011: Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc died.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”ricin crispies” _builder_version=”3.15″]

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Links” _builder_version=”3.15″]

 
 
Oh, Elon.

No shit. H/T OMWC

Good.

Check your doorstops.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Birthdays” _builder_version=”3.15″ border_width_all=”2px” border_width_top=”3px” custom_padding=”15px|15px|15px|15px” saved_tabs=”all”]

Born on October 5

Louis Lumière (1864); Giorgio Abetti & Robert H. Goddard (1882); Larry Fine & Ray Kroc (1902); Bill Willis (1921); Bil Keane (1922); Steve Miller (1943); Brian Johnson (1947); “Fast” Eddie Clarke (1950); Bob Geldof (1951); Michael Andretti (1962); Mario Lemieux & Patrick Roy (1965); Kate Winslet (1975); Kevin Mirallas (1987)

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Links” _builder_version=”3.15″ border_width_all=”3px” custom_padding=”15px|15px|15px|15px”]

Kids. What can you do?

Florida Boy: “Don’t tell the teacher.

One of those awkward conversations with teenagers. “Dad, what have you done?”

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.15″ color=”#ffffff” divider_weight=”4″ /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Crispy links” _builder_version=”3.15″]

Royal Mail begs customers not to post criSP packets back to Walkers after campaigners urge people to return the bags in protest. Idiots. Social media could actually be used for good. I swear, it could.

Most of North Carolina usually doesn’t have the same criSP mornings we do in Chicagoland in early October.

We’ll have to ask our ex-pats in Japan if this is even remotely true: More Japanese workers are ditching criSP business suits?

Some manufacturers in Iceland are producing a new “festive” criSP for the holidays. I think I’ll pass.

And just because it fits my theme and I had forgotten how droll the man was: Quentin CriSP. Oh, and, his HAIR!

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Chef John Apple Crisp video” _builder_version=”3.15″]

No, I have never used the secret ingredient in my fruit criSP topping. Yes, I am going to do so immediately.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.15″ color=”#ffffff” divider_weight=”4″ /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”I don’t like mondays video” _builder_version=”3.15″]

(Or mornings, either.)

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”closing Text” _builder_version=”3.15″]

I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I’m going to have a great day. Right after I take a nap.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Comments

614 responses to “CriSP Autumn Morning Links for Friday”

  1. Old Man With Candy

    GO AWAY, OBAMA.

    When I got to the part about Obama’s modesty, I wet myself.

    1. Tundra

      C’mon dude, he was such a giver. And orator. And racial healer. And athlete.

      *barf*

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Not to mention a fine model for Mom Jeans.

      2. Rufus the Monocled

        He never played that’s for sure.

        Just the way he sheepishly rocked the glove tells that the picture.

      3. JaimeRoberto

        A scholar and a gentleman and a French tickler.

    2. Dread pirate Robert

      Depends

  2. ChipsnSalsa

    The caps… I see what you did.

      1. Pat

        I found it to be a little exaSPerating after a while.

        1. WTF

          I thought it was really SPecial. I love SP’s links format.

          1. Pat

            To be sure, the links were inSPired.

          2. Raphael

            This is quite the SPecial thread that’s popping here.

          3. Raphael

            Oh, SPoopy, I don goofed. SPare this poor soul of his foolishness.

          4. Pat

            On account of your contrition, you may be granted a special diSPensation.

          5. Jarflax

            Missed one Pat:

            On account of your contrition, you may be granted a spSPecial diSPensation.

    1. Pope Jimbo

      Uffda, I only noticed it now. And when I saw it, I did a SPit take.

      1. Enough About Palin

        Years ago, I saw Danny Thomas on TV claiming that HE invented the spit take. Since then, I have seen numerous examples of it being done decades earlier by folks like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.

    2. *narrows gaze at the lot of ye*

      1. *suSPiciously SPies*

  3. How are you all today?

    Sleepy.

    I also don’t want to be at work because I’m still listening to this boring video on PeopleTools.

    1. trshmnstr

      I have a ton of outside counsel work to review today and through the weekend before my trip to Ft. Collins next week. Business trips are much less stressful when you’re not behind on your work.

    2. I clicked in at 4:27. I don’t want to hear the rest of you bitching.

      1. Why would you even come here then?

        As for your late hour of rising, that is irrelevent without the time of repose and the degree of actual sleep conducted.

      2. Noodlez

        What if you only have to read it?

  4. ChipsnSalsa

    Some manufacturers in Iceland are producing a new “festive” criSP for the holidays. I think I’ll pass.

    so… gin flavored snacks?

    1. So… twig flavored?

    2. Nephilium

      I have seen olive oil cooked chips that had several flavors, one of them was rosemary. The chips were good, but a tip, the crumbs at the bottom of the bag aren’t broken chips. They’re dried rosemary leaves. I learned this while finishing off the bag in a dark room.

      1. ” while finishing off the bag in a dark room.”

        These euphemisms.

    3. Charlie Suet

      To be pedantic, it’s a UK supermarket called Iceland, rather than the country itself.

      1. Gerry Rigg

        They’ve even gotten sued over that!

  5. Woah – formatting overload. My own webpages are uh – simple.

    1. The formatting made me miss a third or more of the stories on my first read-through.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        That’s for the best- they may have been too spicy for you.

        1. WTF

          Too SPicy for the pepper?

        2. bacon-magic

          Oooooh the SPicy burns!

    2. I should say simple – as in I have the barest grasp of html and make 1990s era list-like webpages. Go me?

      1. AlexinCT

        Where are you going? Not to join the #MeToo movement I hope.

    1. Ayn Random Variation

      You go girl.

      Seriously, these assholes have made me like Lindsey freaking Graham. I’ll never forgive them for this

      1. straffinrun

        I mentioned this before, but Graham is probably pissed off that the gentleman agreement he had with fellow powerlusters was broken. Doesn’t make him wrong, but I still have serious problems with a guy that blows of the constitutional rights of Americans by spewing out, “They’re enemy combatants!”

        1. Ayn Random Variation

          Well this is what makes us better than the tribalists. We can separate out the good from the bad. When you’re right about something you deserve kudos, even if you’re generally an asshole.

  6. Pat

    “Dad, what have you done?” the 14-year-old said after watching a period drama that suggested he killed 20 people. He confessed to only four murders.

    20 murders? What do you take me for, a monster? It was only 4.

    1. “Look, I haven’t killed anyone recently

    2. Drake

      I’m imagining the daughter introducing her first boyfriend to Dad. I think we’ll get a return of traditional courting.

    3. leon

      And I turned states witness, so I’m totes cool. Though they must have crappy witness protection if the daughter was able to ID him…

    4. PieInTheSky

      TO be fair when one admits to 4 I suspect at least 7

      1. AlexinCT

        What happened to the laws of threes? You know when a guy says he slept with 30 women, it is really 10, and when a gal says it was 10, it was really 30….

        Think it applies to murders too.

    5. Brett L

      ,…And those 4 guys were, like, really bad dudes. They treated women horribly. I was making the world better.

      1. JaimeRoberto

        There are some people out there that need killin’.

  7. Tundra

    I love the refund policy. So criSP.

  8. Pat

    Some manufacturers in Iceland are producing a new “festive” criSP for the holidays. I think I’ll pass.

    I love gin, I’d give it a go.

  9. ““Republicans have felt that this has become an ideological war, one in which liberals or Democrats are fighting to stop a conservative from rightfully taking his place on the Supreme Court”

    Not a Republican, but my beef has absolutely nothing to do with feeling like someone entitled to a SCOTUS spot is being denied it unfairly; my beef is with Dems trying to set up a new standard in which random accusations from decades ago not just lacking evidence, but with significant evidence against them, are sufficient to torpedo someone’s career and personal life.

    1. Old Man With Candy

      ^This. I was not particularly a Kavanaugh supporter, but Team Blue managed to convince me otherwise.

      1. Pat

        I can’t help but wonder if his cop-sucking interpretation of the 4th amendment and deference to lawmakers might change going forward in light of his experience.

        1. leon

          Judging by most people’s capacity to be unaware… No

        2. Noodlez

          We can hope.

          1. AlexinCT

            ^^THIS^^

            If one good thing comes from this is that he should be far more dubious of people that make please to authority rather than present facts.

      2. Jarflax

        ^ So much this! I was disappointed when the pick was announced and am still unenthused about him as he is the consummate Washington/Ivy League insider, but if these tactics are allowed to work then civilization is done. I would support Kagan or Sotomajor if their opposition tried this crap on them.

    2. PieInTheSky

      You are clearly a closed republican and a known objectifier of teh wimminz

      1. AlexinCT

        Way to call em out Pie!

    3. straffinrun

      If we make it out of this alive, one day we’ll all look back and laugh. “… they said ‘by any means necessary’ and then tried to sell us an unfalsifiable, uncorroborated allegation.”

      1. AlexinCT

        Yeah, I have repeatedly pointed out that these are people that are guaranteed no vote no matter what suddenly demanding we run out the clock so that evidence can be gathered to allow them to do an informed vote. Fuck that shit.

    4. Drake

      Howie Carr: We are all Brett Kavanaugh

      They believe in “any means necessary” including destruction of a normal guy who played high school football and drank beer in college.

  10. Nephilium

    It’s work from home Friday, my queue of tickets is low (most are just waiting confirmation as well), the Indians are in the post season, I’m within .2 lbs of my goal weight this week, it’s currently 49 and party sunny. Overall it’s a good day. And as a bonus, I managed to piss off one of those “Microsoft support” scammers last night to the point he asked me what a computer was, called my answer wrong, and then started yelling at me that I was a fake IT person. I laughed and I laughed.

    1. A computer is a machine for doing bitwise arithmatic really fast.

      1. Nephilium

        You are wrong! You are fake IT too! FAKE IT!

        1. In the end, it all comes down to flipping switches.

      2. Pope Jimbo

        A bitwise, a byte foolish amirite?

        1. trshmnstr

          Word

      3. Jarflax

        Computer: a magic box that adds 1s and -1s really fast, allowing us to add useless administrative tasks to our day almost as fast as the box adds 1s.

      4. straffinrun

        It’s a machine? I thought there were tiny ladies doing unspeakable things behind the screen. My fantasy is shattered.

          1. Nephilium

            I prefer this Shattered.

    2. “What is a computer?”

      “If you don’t know, you’re in the wrong field, bub.”

      1. Nephilium

        Dude was trying. He wanted me to know my Microsoft OS was infected, and he had the license validation key to let him know which machine was infected. He had me go to the home screen (where all the icons are), and asked me to read them all to him (he didn’t want me to click on anything). At that point, I started listing them starting with “1 – Fuck You, 2 – You fucking scammer, 3 – Does this still work, etc”. I got up to 6 or 7 before I asked him if he wanted me to keep going. Usually they hang up after being called a scammer.

        1. “Okay, I don’t have any icons, but a long listing shows ‘bin’, ‘boot’, ‘dev’, ‘etc’, ‘home’, ‘kernel’, ‘lib’, ‘mnt’, ‘opt’, ‘proc’, sbin, ‘usr’, and ‘var’.”

    3. Drake

      I’m working at home today too. And it would be a quite day – but our Program Director is out and now I have to lead a meeting of the Senior Management Team on an initiative I’m not very familiar with. Fun times.

      Once that’s over, I’m going to a different gym as my regular place is closed for renovations.

      1. Drake

        Then I’m going to stop by the local orchard and pick up their freshest apples and cider. Tonight the kid has a high school football game. Will hang out with a buddy from work who’s kid plays for the other team – the kids will probably be matched up against each other on some plays. Then I shall retire to the local brewery for a nightcap.

        So yes – should be a good day.

      2. Brett L

        I have to lead a meeting of the Senior Management Team on an initiative I’m not very familiar with.

        Delegate. “Hi, you know I’m not familiar with this, so rather than waste your time, just tell me when I’m covering old ground.”

        1. Drake

          I was just planning on throwing out the controversial stuff first, then going on mute while they argue.

          1. Private Chipperbot

            Ah, the old pull the pin and walk out of the room tactic. Classic.

          2. Brett L

            **bows to the master**

    4. PieInTheSky

      Sounds like a good moment to have a drink

      1. Nephilium

        I wish, with the stupid scheduling of the Indians/Astros games I won’t even get to enjoy a beer with most of them. Seriously? The Latest start time is 16:37 (no typo there, I don’t know what goes on in Houston), and that’s tomorrow. Then the Tuesday game (if necessary) is at 16:35, so I’ll be driving home during it. At least for the game tomorrow, the girlfriend and I will be heading to the brewery area of Cleveland to check out a new brewery (doing their grand opening tomorrow), grabbing a good bite, and finding a place to watch the game. There’s nine breweries in that area, a meadery, and a lot of good restaurants.

        1. egould310

          Wish I was Cleveland next weekend for this. Looks fun. https://www.facebook.com/groups/100194703847/permalink/10155814716803848/

          1. Nephilium

            There’s a lot going on next weekend in Cleveland, Cleveland Beer Week starts on Friday, and continues through Sunday the 21st. Events are still being posted as bars lock in their plans. The big decision for Saturday is if I want more rare Bell’s beers, or rare Great Lakes Brewing beers.

      2. Is there ever not a good moment to have a drink?

        1. When you need to drive or operate heavy machinery.

    5. RAHeinlein

      So, what happened with the carrots?

      1. Nephilium

        The girlfriend got money back. She had used the self checkout, and misunderstood the prompt for “How many [bundles] of carrots” as “How many [individual] carrots”. So instead of 1 bundle, she counted up the number of carrots in the bundle, and entered 6. She got the $10 back, and hopefully a lesson in paying attention to the prices that come up. Of course, she still hasn’t grasped that when the market says 2/$5 it means an individual item is $2.50 (unless otherwise labeled), so she’ll still overbuy on a regular basis.

        1. AlexinCT

          Impulse control man…

        2. Is your girlfriend 10?

          OMWC wants to know.

          1. Nephilium

            Add 30 years to that and you’d be closer. She came from money, and led a relatively sheltered and pampered existence. She’s never worked a 40 hour work week in her life. Then she’s made some terrible choices in boyfriends in the past (and possibly the present) who did nothing but sponge off her. Her relatives all love me because I have a job, I don’t ask them for money, and I can cook. Our accounts are separate, so her poor spending habits don’t hurt me.

    6. AlexinCT

      Seriously the douchebag got in an argument with you and tried to one-up you by asking you what a computer was and then telling you your answer was wrong regardless of what you answered? See you are doing this wrong. What you do is set up a container instance on your computer you grant them access to, load it with spyware to find their IP, then hack them and put a nasty virus that wipes the harddrive on their machines. I have not heard from these cunts in a few years since I did that.

        1. Nephilium

          ^This^

          Plus, I’m not going to commit a felony just because they are. I’ll waste their time (assuming I’m doing something else where I can also talk on the phone), and call them the scum bags they are.

          And yeah… he argued with me which was hilarious to me. I’m not sure if he’s the one who hung up on me or his supervisor cut his line off when he realized he was yelling at someone over the phone. I’ve never gone to this level though.

  11. Pope Jimbo

    Trump was in Sunny MInnesoda yesterday and made a bit of news.

    I listened to the audio on the radio and it was pretty funny. He riffed on the ineptitude of the local DFL pretty hard. The transcript doesn’t do it justice. I’d love to be sitting in Al Franken’s breakfast nook this morning to see how upset he will be about this.

    “He was wacky,” Trump said of Franken. “Boy, did he fold up like a wet rag, huh? Man. Man. He was gone so fast, O.K.?”

    “Oh, he did something,” he said. “‘Oh, oh, oh, I resign, I quit.’”

    “I don’t want to mention Al Franken’s name, so I won’t mention,” he added.

    1. Noodlez

      The takeaway:
      You want to have breakfast with Al Franken.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, I’m gay enough to deserve breakfast with him”

        1. AlexinCT

          How do you measure gayness? Is there some kind of tool for that or is it all gaydar?

    2. Fourscore

      The prez changed the weather overnight. Woke up to snow, not much but enough to track a small deer. Hope he doesn’t spend too much time here this winter, may run out of fire wood.

      1. Did you catch the deer?

      2. WTF

        You sure Al Gore’s not in town?

    3. pistoffnick

      My mom was strongly encouraged to leave her office by noon-thirty (even though the president wasn’t expected to arrive until 5pm.
      All that lost productivity, not to mention the costs of security which the taxpayers of Rochester, MN will have to pay – all so Trump can stump for a Republican candidate who has little chance of winning.

  12. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Good morning Glibs

    You may want to take a look at the bond markets. An implosion appears to be coming which will carry over to emerging markets and no earnings stocks.

    1. Not saying this won’t happen – but I’ve read so many dire ZH warning … and… and… and… nothing ever seems to happen.

      Agree the market is one big house of cards made with wobbly carboard. Something is due for sure.

      1. Drake

        They’ve accurately predicted 6 of the last 2 recessions.

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        I don’t read ZH.

        Yields are jumping and the market can’t absorb a significant decrease in bond prices. Corporate cash to debt hit 12% in 2017, and most of that cash is with just a few companies.

        From a business standpoint, I may benefit as my competitors are extremely debt laden. But if there isn’t any construction business because of frozen credit markets it doesn’t matter.

        1. Gerry Rigg

          Speaking of which, what sites do y’all recommend for economic news? I tend to be a bit wary of ZH myself, but I don’t really know much in the way of other places (and I don’t trust Bloomberg even as far as I could throw ’em).

          1. A Leap at the Wheel

            I recommend actively abstaining from from day-to-day market news, assuming your employment doesn’t require you to know the up-to-date permutations that all come out in the wash.

  13. Foxy Friday readies you to let fly your dogs of genetic war!

    http://archive.is/KxSkM

    With so many great choices, I feel I can be picky. 8, 34, 56, 69, 76.

    1. Pat

      65 & 90.

    2. The Last American Hero

      34 has some nice puppies

    3. Raphael

      I liked 1, but sadly I was a Seminole so I think it was never meant to be. Alas, I will need 19 , 45, and 49.

      1. REPENT!

        /former Hurricane

  14. Tundra

    Happy birthday, Mario!

    Big enough to be a goon, but as fast and skilled as anyone who ever played the game, he started the changeover in the game.

    And cost my North Stars their best chance at a SC.

    1. Certified Public Asshat

      Very skilled plumber too.

    2. Chipwooder

      He’s exactly like his weaselly protege Sydnee: immensely talented, sneaky dirty, and crybabies of epic proportions

    3. ChipsnSalsa

      So many goals scored in that clip with a guy or two hanging on him and he still makes an awesome shot.

  15. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. I’ll grant you that the Nipponese have traditionally dressed pretty conservatively, but criSP? I think that PJ O’Rourke said it best.

    “If the Japanese want to be taken seriously as world financial powers, they’d better quit using the same tailor as variety show chimps.”

    That is pretty spot on from how I remember the salarymen dressing when I was there. Goofy lapels, ill fitting suits and ugly ass ties.

    1. straffinrun

      Problem is that they don’t want to be under dressed in comparison with their customers. Problem is they are all someone’s customer so the vicious cycle never ends.

    2. Sensei

      The beautiful thing is you only need one black suit.

      White tie = wedding
      Black tie = funeral

  16. Slammer

    Hahahaha

    This is great

    1. “Signs and symptoms of senile dementia:

      – memory problems, particularly remembering recent events.
      – increasing confusion.
      – reduced concentration.
      – personality or behaviour changes.
      – apathy and withdrawal or depression.
      – loss of ability to do everyday tasks.”

      I see at least three just from that gif. Roll her actions for the past two weeks all together and I think you hit all six.

      1. straffinrun

        I believe women…with dementia.

      2. Fourscore

        You had to bring that up, didn’t you?

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Even the guy towards the end in the background is creepy.

      Creepy.

  17. More:

    “Kavanaugh has taken the spotlight off Trump which is bad for Democrats and at the same time, allowed the GOP to focus on cultural issues which expands their eroding base.”

    So due process, presumption of innocence, statutes of limitations, not to mention common-decency (read: lack of Machiavellian sociopathy) are now “cultural issues?” Maybe the Pubs won the kulturkampf after all? Also, the fact that the Pubs control Congress, the Presidency and the majority of states seems to give lie to your “eroding base” statement.

    1. leon

      1. Don’t correct your enemy when their perceptions don’t match reality.

      2. Everyone knows the GOP has no support with the young, I don’t need to prove it.

      3. “GOP to focus on cultural issues which expands their eroding base.”

      I will say that since ~2014 the GOP has been all out abandoning the SoCon right, and rebranding itself on cultural issues. The Dems are making a serious mistake if they think leaving open civil liberties for the GOP is a good move.

      1. Drake

        The GOP hasn’t abandoned “SoCons”. They have just stopped catering to them.

        Since the Democrats are actively at war with every kind of traditional western cultural norm, the SoCons have literally no chance but to support Republicans. No need to recruit them since they Democrats have already herded them right into the Republicans’ corner. And some of the people they drove to the right are Black and Hispanic.

        1. leon

          “They have just stopped catering to them.”

          A little of one, a little of the other. I would say that a smart Dem would pull a trump and could easily steal this ‘safe’ SoCon votes from team Red.

          1. Drake

            How? The Democrats have literally declared war on White, straight Christians.

            “Vote for me, I caucus with all these crazy cultural Marxists and vote however Chuck Schumer tells me, but I’m with you.”

          2. leon

            The same way Trump was able to convince a bunch of blue collar workers that he wasn’t part of the insiders who were screwing him over. By overlooking a former core constituency as safe, the GOP is opening itself to have them flip on to the right Dem. I could see a Christian Socialist doing very well and taking the GOP by surprise.

          3. trshmnstr

            I could see a Christian Socialist doing very well and taking the GOP by surprise.

            I doubt it. SoCons tend to be rabid constitutionalists on the issues of guns and money.

          4. Damn straight we are.

            *Metaphorically clings to rifles and silver hoard*

          5. A Leap at the Wheel

            Its not like there’s a long, long, long tradition of Christian populists in this country… oh wait…

          6. AlexinCT

            it looks more and more like nobody but a radical marxist can make it past the dem primary cote, so i am not worried about this scenario.

          7. Jarflax

            Jimmy Carter did some of this when he campaigned as “born again’

          8. AlexinCT

            That was a different time man. back then the dems were not fully co-opted by the marxist movement sine that KGB op was still in its infancy.

    2. Pat

      The people wanting to form lynch mobs to avenge the chastity of their womenfolk are the forward-thinking purveyors of truth and justice. Only a retrograde misogynistic racist would thwart the righteous.

    3. Jarflax

      I would say that those things are all cultural issues, who and how you screw are private matters. Rules of fairness are what unites a culture

  18. leon

    The “crisp bags in the mail” article is a mirocosm of the green movement. The bags can’t get through the machine so they have to be hand sorted. So in the end the environmentalists do something worthless that makes some poor workers life worse off.

    1. BakedPenguin

      In addition, how much gasoline (sorry, petrol) is the UK mail service wasting by this pointless display? Also, the fact that greenies are (almost) always demanding others do the work they want done really reflects the value of what they can achieve.

      As for me, after reading the story, I went to the store and got some Pringles.

  19. Urthona

    Did you hear the latest Ford juiceiness? Her friend apparently told the FBI in questioning that her FBI friend had talked her into changing her story to implicate Kavanaugh.

    1. leon

      Link?

        1. leon

          “A source close to the situation told the Journal that Dr. Ford’s friends “including Ms. McLean, had contacted Ms. Keyser after her initial statement to warn her that her statement was being used by Republicans to rebut the allegation against Judge Kavanaugh.””

          This is BS. If you are “close to the situation” you can tell us what those friends said to pressure Leland. Otherwise STFU.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      If she has proof, somebody is going to jail

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Otherwise she shouldn’t talk about it.

      2. straffinrun

        Somebody needs some jail time to make sure this kind of shit doesn’t happen again and again and again.

      3. AlexinCT

        I heard this AM on the news that she was not the only one that was contacted by democrats and encouraged to change their stories in order for the smear campaign against Kavanaugh to keep its steam going, and that some senators after hearing this are now calling for an investigation into that. I would love to see a whole bunch of these lying asshats actually having to spend money defending themselves in a court of law, and would think it the icing on top of the cake if they got some jail time. It might stop people from carrying out this injustice we have seen in the last month. I am not a fan of Kavanaugh, but we can’t let these people set this as the new bar.

  20. Did the commissioner accused of sphincter bleaching just compare the mayor to Hitler?

    Last month, the mayor of Hallandale Beach, Keith London, bizarrely accused fellow commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub of profiting from bleaching her sphincter, causing public outrage and series of #MeToo posts on social media. Now, Lima-Taub is the one under fire for apparently comparing the mayor to Adolf Hitler during Wednesday night’s regularly scheduled commission meeting.

    Both the mayor and Lima-Taub are Jewish, so did the commissioner really compare the mayor to Hitler? The vice mayor says yes. She and the mayor are offended. Lima-Taub says absolutely not.

    Whatever the interpretation, the commissioner did throw out the names Hitler and Fidel Castro in her comments focused on London. Here’s what happened.y

    1. Drake

      Looks up images of Anabelle Lima-Taub…

      Yes, I’ll need to see the evidence.

      1. Private Chipperbot

        Carefully set head shots.

        It’s a trap!

    2. Chipwooder

      You can profit from bleaching your sphincter?

  21. Tundra

    Add this to the ‘no good guys’ file:

    Elon Musk Tweet Mocks the Securities and Exchange Commission

    Seemingly without prompt, Mr. Musk sent a tweet in the early afternoon that suggested the SEC was enriching investors betting against the electric-car maker. “Just want to [say] that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work,” Mr. Musk tweeted. “And the name change is so on point!”

    I am no fan of the SEC, but if I were Elon’s attorney, I would lock his phone up for awhile. And investors?

    Tesla shareholder Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, sent out an urgent plea on Twitter to Mr. Musk’s account: “@elonmusk WTF please stop tweeting. Feel free to call me to vent. We want to see Tesla succeed. You’re just helping the enemy. I don’t get it.”

    House of cards, Ross. Windstorm coming. Sorry, dude.

    1. I think Elon figured out a while ago he was never going to be able to keep all the plates spinning and the effort of keeping up appearances made his brain crack.

    2. leon

      “CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management,”

      :Checks portfolio:

    3. PieInTheSky

      Seriously this guy smoked weed with Joe Rogan and it made him stupid. Avoid weed kids.

    4. Brett L

      I think he’s angling to get completely bought out at a decent share price so it won’t be his fault when it all comes apart. He’s already been forced out as CEO. He’s basically in violation of his consent agreement with the SEC, as I understand it. They’re gonna make him step down as chairman, he’ll sell a shitton of stock on options and walk away wealthy and the hero. When it all falls apart, many people will blame the SEC.

      1. Tundra

        Dipshit should have done a deal with VW after the emissions bullshit. Who’s gonna pay a premium for that company now? It’s a niche market that is getting more crowded. The projections are absurd – once the true believers have all bought, what then?

  22. PieInTheSky

    I cannot comment on any links as the format confuses me

    1. straffinrun

      For no reason I can figure out, I hate the word “crisp”.

      1. Slammer

        Read the linkth with a lisp it’s very funny

      2. PieInTheSky

        You prefer things moist?

        1. straffinrun

          Yes. Love/hate Krispy Kreme.

          1. How about “used”?

          2. straffinrun

            “Her moist, used panties …”

            I’m coming around.

          3. AlexinCT

            Smells like fish, but it tastes like chicken?

  23. leon

    Repost from tail end of yesterday’s links:

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/04/elon-musks-settlement-with-sec-hits-a-snag.html

    This is just stupid. Why bother with the SEC if the Fed gov then goes and says the regulator (ostensibly the experts) isn’t being harsh enough. Just come out and say, we’re shaking you down and our goons didn’t do good enough

  24. Oh Guardian – never change

    How we roasted Donald Duck, Disney’s agent of imperialism

    When Ariel Dorfman co-wrote a book finding colonialist intent in the actions of a well-loved cartoon character, it got burned in Chile’s streets and earned him death threats. Now it’s back – and newly relevant in the ‘pre-fascist’ Trump era. He explains why

    Probing hundreds of Disney comic strips – sold by the million on newsstands in Chile and countless other lands – we had tried to reveal the ideological messages that underlay those supposedly innocent, supposedly apolitical stories.

    We wanted Chilean readers to realise they were being fed values that were inimical to a revolution that sought to unshackle them from centuries-old exploitation: competition rather than solidarity, prejudice rather than critical thinking, obedience rather than rebellion, paternalism rather than resistance, money rather than compassion as the standard of worth.

    It was not enough, we felt, to change the economic and social structures that benefited a rich minority and their international corporate allies. It was also imperative to understand how the previous rulers of our land had presented this subjugation as normal, natural and benign; how they had been covertly selling us an American model of success and consumer affluence as the false solution to poverty and misdevelopment.

    1. Pat

      Yeah a century old cartoon duck is the reason your country is a basket case.

      1. Jarflax

        Chile is anything but a basket case! The base of their thriving economy is helicopters

  25. Pat

    Sarah Huckabee Sanders Is Just Doing What White Women Do Best

    Despite mountains of evidence (theoretical, anecdotal, and empirical) suggesting otherwise, there remains a compulsion to believe that when white women prove to be as abhorrent as their male counterparts, it’s only because of some sort of Stockholm Syndrome.

    Not everyone is as willing to extend them the benefit of the doubt. Black women have been shouting, for centuries now, that white women have been complicit in each facet of white supremacy; enacting it, upholding it, benefiting from it, and harming those who attempt to subvert or destroy it. (Admittedly, it’s taken black men a bit longer to retain that lesson. As a collective, I liken us to Chris from Get Out, who refused to believe that Rose was also evil—the most evil—until she dangled the keys.)

    But when Sarah Huckabee Sanders (or someone like her) does a thing like she did Wednesday afternoon—where she said “I dispute that it was anything other than the president stating the facts” in response to President Trump mocking Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during a rally in Mississippi last night—embedded in much of the criticism of her is that she’s being held captive by some mysterious force. That she’s swallowing her pride and her integrity for the party. That she’s made a deal with the devil. That she’s sold her soul.

    But none of that is true. She isn’t being held captive; she’s a captor. She is not swallowing her pride and her integrity for the party; the party is her pride and her integrity. You can not sell your soul if you don’t possess one.

    1. Raphael

      TIL: Questioning the validity of an accuser’s claims is actually mocking them.

      1. WTF

        And he really did just quote her testimony. He wasn’t doing her voice or anything, just quoting her testimony. If that counts as mockery it says a lot about her testimony.

        1. Raphael

          Pretty much, which is why I’m just sitting back and laughing.

    2. leon

      Anyone who disagrees with me is evil.

      1. AlexinCT

        GIMME WHAT I WANT!

    3. WTF

      Why the hell should Ford be off-limits for mockery? She is trying to ruin a man with no evidence, no corroboration, has lied about her fear of flying, has apparently lied about polygraphs, she lied about the second door on her house, her story is not credible, and everyone she named as potential witness have signed sworn statements to have no knowledge of any such thing. And she scrubbed her social media prior to coming forward to try to hide her rabid partisanship. She is an awful person.

      1. leon

        She’s a survivor*. You can’t make fun if them. Unless they are conservative/right-leaning

    4. What we’re seeing here is a spontaneous reorganization of the progressive victimization totem pole. No longer does “vagina” apply to white conservative women in any way, including in matters of “violence against women”. Before, they were unknowing collaborators, now they’re just as toxic and on the same level as white men. I imagine we’ll see a similar movement toward defenestrating insufficiently prog white women coming soon. They always eat their own.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        Sane progressive: You know, I fear maybe what we’re doing is counter-prod…..

        97% consensus comrade: BURN the heretic! See if it floats or sinks in water!

        Confused 97 percenter (confused): Do you want us to burn it or throw it in water?

        97% percenter comrade: Yes. And rape it after to make sure.

        1. AlexinCT

          Pretty much dead on when you consider that the end goal of these people is basically to destroy.

      2. Raphael

        Adding to your point, the latin and asian american women I know are more eager and happy to disparage and trash “wyte wimmin” than this supposedly “machismo” latino right here. This nonsense is a friggin comedy of divine proportions.

    5. Rufus the Monocled

      I can’t believe that douche has a platform to spew his ridiculous ignorance like GQ. What in God’s name? Is GQ’s readership made up of woke-SJW hipster asshats?

      TO KNOW NOTHING AND BE ABLE TO EXPRESS IT!

      1. Rhywun

        GQ has been hard left for awhile.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          It’s the metrosexual way

      2. Charlie Suet

        I’d quite like this “Get woke, go broke” thing to be true. So many newspapers, magazines, comedians etc. have completely abandoned any sense of balance on what is a very complicated issue. Whatever happened to Republicans buying sneakers too?

        1. It is true, the problem is a healthy corporation can eat quite a few bad quarters before it finally crumbles.

  26. Ayn Random Variation

    First crisp NYC day yay.
    On a more retarded note, they’re phasing in natural powered commuter buses into the the city from jersey. Turns out these busses can’t handle the weight of standing riders, so it’s getting harder to get on a bus. I don’t have anything snarky to add.

    1. Pat

      natural powered

      it’s being pulled by horses?

      1. Teams of orphans would be the correct answer.

      2. Ayn Random Variation

        Oops natural gas powered.
        I will add that after one of the youngins (mostly all youngins in my town) looked up the reason on his gadget, everybody cheered when a good old diesel bus came. One kid said, “Ahhh, the smell of efficiency ”

        Maybe there is hope for the yutes

    2. Drake

      Do you have to pedal?

    3. I thought DeBalsio got rid of all the horses in NYC?

      1. Pat

        They still have plenty of asses though.

      2. Only those stabled on land he wanted his buddy to get cheap.

  27. PieInTheSky

    Cheerleader allegedly brings pot brownies to school for homecoming queen votes, police say

    https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/04/student-trades-pot-brownies-homecoming-queen-votes-police/1520263002/

    1. Raphael

      Now that’s how you get out the vote.

    2. Pat

      Whatever happened to the good old days when the cheerleaders just fucked all the upperclassmen to get the votes they needed?

      1. PieInTheSky

        that was 80s rape culture.

    3. straffinrun

      Hartford patrolman Michael Prince, who is investigating the incident, told WWMT-TV that some of the brownies, nine of which are unaccounted for…

      …paused to wipe some crumbs off his uniform.

      1. ..and then burped and giggled.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    The prevailing expectation is that he will be confirmed by the narrowest margins and the conversation will drift elsewhere shortly thereafter. As a general matter, it would constitute a massive, emotionally difficult defeat for the party. Politically, some strategists and activists concede it might be the best of all outcomes.

    “We’re seeing an incredible mobilization of women to fund grassroots campaigns to take down the people responsible for putting a sexual predator on the [Supreme] Court,” remarked Sean McElwee, co-founder of the progressive think tank Data for Progress. “Pundits are often dismissive of the idea that these votes will have consequences two or four years away. By banking the fucking rage that people are feeling with this fraudulent vote, activists are ensuring that a wrong decision will linger over the re-election bids of these senators for years to come.”

    “We’re crazy, and we vote!”

    1. Raphael

      Progressive Think Tank.

      I think I found something that doesn’t belong here.

      1. Private Chipperbot

        I’m not ‘get off my lawn’ old, but using epithets in an interview strikes me as asinine. I think it’s an automatic tune out or revulsion from most normals.

      2. “Progressive Feelz Tank”

        Better?

      3. Rebel Scum

        They have a different definition of the word “think” than you do.

    2. trshmnstr

      By banking the fucking rage that people are feeling with this fraudulent vote, activists are ensuring that a wrong decision will linger over the re-election bids of these senators for years to come.”

      I don’t think he knows exactly how true this is.

      1. …but just which voters will be motivated.

        Saw some metric earlier that normalized voter motivation to 10 and calculated it three months ago, then today.

        Three months ago: Dems were 9.5 and Pubs were 6.5.

        Today: Dems are 10 and Pubs are 9.

        They had already whipped their crazies into such a frenzy that it was pegged at “end of the world”. All this shit did nothing to help them and motivated their opponents big time.

    3. straffinrun

      Clearly we need to expand SCOTUS to 21 justices and those additional 12 must be women appointed by democrats.

      1. leon

        Tom Woods pointed out that as soon as the Left regains power, this will be their first item on business. The will not stand for 20 years of a ‘Trump’ court.

        1. straffinrun

          FD fucking R.

        2. …and then Glenn Reynolds counter-proposed having the Pubs preemptively expand it to 1001 justices and either pack it with hard core right-wing true bleevers or random people off the street.

          1. Pat

            Buckley’s phone book strategy.

        3. related:
          The Left Declares Total War

          It’s almost impossible to envision the Senate convicting Kavanaugh—it requires a two-thirds vote, which is to say, Republican support, and given that party’s commitment to anti-empiricism, all evidence will become beside the point—but a House-enacted resolution to impeach would in itself throw the Court into crisis.

          First, additional revelations from a House investigation might compel Kavanaugh to resign. Second, were he to stay on the court, the Senate would have to hold a trial (unless, if the Republicans still control the Senate, they refuse to, which would lead to a constitutional impasse that would doubtless have to be decided by, yep, the Supreme Court). Third, whether Kavanaugh could continue to hear and rule on cases while all this was proceeding would be hotly disputed and, again, a matter that the Court would have to decide since there would be no one else who could decide it. Fourth, if after all this Kavanaugh remains on the Court, the legitimacy of its rulings would be questioned as never before in our history, laying the groundwork for the addition of at least two justices to the current nine should the Democrats control the White House and Congress following the 2020 election.

          1. WTF

            They really are determined to foment a serious constitutional crisis and get started on Civil War 2.0, aren’t they?

          2. AlexinCT

            As others have pointed out, they will not like how that plays out…

          3. Ayn Random Variation

            “Second, were he to stay on the court, the Senate would have to hold a trial ”

            Lol they don’t want no stinkin trial. That would mean they couldn’t use their “It’s a job interview not a trial ” excuse for having no evidence.

            Which reminds me, I lost my shit on someone the other day who gave me the “it’s a job interview” rationale. I said that due process isn’t just a law or some abstract theory, it’s a fucking principle that you either believe in it don’t. Plus, You just grabbed my dick and I’m going to HR and hiring a lawyer*

            *last sentence made up but wish I said it

          4. Rebel Scum

            given that party’s commitment to anti-empiricism

            Progjection.

          5. AlexinCT

            That’s usually what they are about now, isn’t it?

    4. leon

      “putting a sexual predator on the [Supreme] Court,”

      He can stay on those lower courts but not on the Supreme Court. He’ll ruin the peppers and olives.

      “fraudulent vote”

      You see the Senate needs to not confirm him. Any other outcome is fraudulent.

      1. WTF

        Yeah, “sexual predator”. There is no evidence that he is any such thing, and abundant evidence that this all just a smear job with a cooked up story.

    5. Old Man With Candy

      “We’re seeing an incredible mobilization of women to fund grassroots campaigns to take down the people responsible for putting a sexual predator on the [Supreme] Court,” remarked Sean McElwee

      Question for the lawyers here- is this actionable libel?

      1. WTF

        Also, “grassroots” = “Soros funded”.

      2. Jarflax

        No, since Sullivan libel has a different standards for public figures than non-public figures and for a public figure you have to prove knowing falsehood. In other words belief in the allegation or even just belief in its possibility is a defense. I have had a bit of a sea change in my view of this over the years that is crystallizing now.

        I used to think it was the right rule as libel claims are in strong tension with 1st Amendment absolutism. But it always had the issue that having different standards for people based on notoriety, even if the different standard disfavored the powerful, is contrary to the rule of law. Now I am coming around to the idea that libel laws value as a deterrent to false allegations outweighs the danger libel claims pose to free speech.

        1. WTF

          Hell, the standard isn’t even having to prove “knowing falsehood”, it’s having to prove actual malice, which is damn near impossible.

          1. The only case where I think they have a shot at proving actual malace is Meyer V Waid. Mostly because Waid is a dumbass who broadcast his intent to the world on Twitter.

    6. Rebel Scum

      take down the people responsible for putting a sexual predator on the [Supreme] Court

      Trump nominated Bill Clinton?

      1. AlexinCT

        Exactly.

        The fact that we have the same people that made excuses for Bill – whom we know did the shit he was accused of – now going all mad-woke over Kavanaugh whom we all can clearly see is being lied about, just galls.

  29. Vice: Socialism Is Incredibly Popular but Does Anyone Know What ‘Socialism’ Is?
    We asked a bunch of socialists what their vision of America would look like.

    In the popular imagination—and especially among conservatives—socialism means the death of freedom. Mark J. Perry from the American Enterprise Institute recently defined it as “a centrally planned economy without market prices or profits, where most of the property is owned or controlled by the state.”

    Yet when the UK Labour Party released a report last year about what a more socialist economy could look like, it described something different. “National state ownership has historically tended to be too centralised, with power in the hands of a private and corporate elite,” the report argues. Labour’s plan to move away from capitalism, The Economist noted, “owes more to little-known 20th-century economists than it does to Karl Marx. And its radicalism, which is real, lies in the area that has so far attracted least attention.”

    Instead of large centralized authorities, public ownership of things like utilities might be managed by local governments, unions, and workers. The Labour model encourages workers to purchase their company and run it as a cooperative if it goes up for sale. “Economic decisions are often made by, and on behalf of, a narrow elite, with scant consideration of the well-being of the general population,” the report reads.

    1. Pat

      Oh, well, as long as they only want syndicalism that’s totally different.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      i.e. corporatism, which the fascists were quite fond of

      1. A Leap at the Wheel

        Yep. Socialism ’18 is basically “keep everything the way it is, but just give me money.”

    3. leon

      “a centrally planned economy without market prices or profits, where most of the property is owned or controlled by the state.”

      That’s pretty much the dictionary definition.

      “public ownership of things like utilities might be managed by local governments, unions, and workers”
      And it’s sad that these people don’t know enough about history of their own ideology that they just described Russian ‘Soviets’.

    4. PieInTheSky

      To be fair, in the US the right called so many things socialism, it is getting confusing.

    5. “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”

      The only evidence I need to prove my assertion that, as they so quaintly say, “socialism means the death of freedom”, is to look at countries that are outwardly and unabashedly socialist and see what has become of them. We have an example in living color of Venezuelan socialism imploding and causing millions to flee/starve/die and the religious zealots refuse to see what’s in front of their eyes.

      They’ll never reconsider until the boot of the state is choking the life out of them.

      1. WTF

        THAT WASN’T REAL SOCIALISM!!!11!!!

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          “Capitalism did whaaaa to our socialism!?”

          When I was in university (and studying Latin American history) the popular angle in justifying the murdering psycho Castros and their violent cohorts was that Batista was a corrupted right-winger suppressing the people and it needed to be done.

          Whaddya gonna do?

          1. Viking1865

            Which you know, even if that were 100% true, that was in 1959. Why they still have murdering oppressive dictators?

            Pinochet murdered between 3 and 10,000 communists and their sympathizers. Then he stopped. Then he retired and they had elections, and now Chile is probably the best governed country in South America. Franco had a similar trajectory in Spain. South Korea and Taiwan have similar arcs where they go from rather nasty dictatorship to a stable democracy over the course of time.

            The whole “we did what we had to do to free our country from a dictator” is only an excuse if you actually stop the murdering and the tyranny and transition to a better society. Hell, post American Revolution there was some rather nasty stuff going on with the Loyalists. Nowadays we would call it ethnic cleansing.

            Revolutions are ugly and nasty and very bad things happen. But the excuse of necessity wears thin over the years. Particularly when it comes to lying commie filth. Batista didn’t fight. Their was no glorious uprising. Castro was completely unopposed as he took power, the “battles” he bragged about weren’t actually battles at all.

            Look at Russia, they had a democratic government that was probably going to end up setting up a constitutional monarchy. That’s what the Bolsheviks rose up against, not the tzar.

          2. AlexinCT

            Pinochet murdered between 3 and 10,000 communists and their sympathizers. Then he stopped. Then he retired and they had elections, and now Chile is probably the best governed country in South America. Franco had a similar trajectory in Spain. South Korea and Taiwan have similar arcs where they go from rather nasty dictatorship to a stable democracy over the course of time.

            The sad fact is that to get stable democracy and some level of prosperity once you move from the fascist/socialist model, you have to cull the commies. If you leave them around you get Venezuela.

    6. Jarflax

      Now we can have a motor company for the 21st century!

    7. Charlie Suet

      There’s little to stop workers purchasing their companies as it is, beyond the prohibitive cost. The free market has room for workers’ co-operatives as it does for other ownership structures.

      Can’t be bothered to read the Vice article, the Economist article or the Labour rubbish, but I’m pretty certain the proposal is to attack property rights by trying to prevent business owners selling at the market price. It’s probably envisaged that the workers would be given first dibs and that the state would step in if the owners refused them. This is not freedom.

      In any case, the idea of things being run by governments, unions and workers runs into the same old problem of creative destruction. There’s a disincentive to reduce overmanning, or to innovate to reduce labour costs, where the people running the company are the same as those who want to keep as many employed as possible. In a free market this leads to lack of competitiveness; in the government monopolies the Corbynista idiots would create, it leads to massive subsidies and/or miseries for consumers.

      There’s nothing new about any of this, or about the explanation as to why it won’t work. Given that the Economist has a column named after Schumpeter you’d think they’d realise that…

    8. Rebel Scum

      Socialism Is Incredibly Popular but Does Anyone Know What ‘Socialism’ Is?

      I’m going to wager that Vice doesn’t.

      socialism means the death of freedom

      Indeed, it does.

  30. Rufus the Monocled

    “…Sensing a bump for Republicans, some strategists want to pivot if he’s confirmed. Problem is the base may not be so ready to let it go.”

    Once you rile up the mob, you can’t control them.

    Is the Democrat leadership and its base this astonishingly short sighted and lacking in wisdom or basic common decency and sense?

    THEY PULLED OUT A FRICKEN HIGH SCHOOL YEAR BOOK. Hell.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      They were playing a game of chicken from the beginning. They were obviously hoping Kavanaugh would withdraw under the pressure.

      1. Kudos to him for sacking up and not folding.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          He…persisted.

      2. AlexinCT

        They were hoping Trump would cave too, but they keep reading the guy wrong. Unlike the rest of team red that is thinking they can win the boxing match against team blue by fighting under Marquis of Queensbury rules while the democrats are fighting with prison rules and bringing in shanks, Trump’s go to is to play by the same rules team blue does, and to one-up them and use a bazooka.

    2. leon

      Can’t wait in 20 years when the first SC nominee has his Facebook gone through.

      1. AlexinCT

        That selfie disqualifies you because you are part of Q’s daily postings on the Glib website!

  31. Rufus the Monocled

    SP, they *say* they work but how do we know for sure?

  32. Pat

    Vietnam’s children and the fear of climate change

    One little girl draws a nightmarish picture of people calling for rescue as they drown in rising water.

    Another sketches a huge snake with sharp teeth to show the power and danger of flooding.

    These disturbing images are the work of children at a primary school in Can Tho province, a region of Vietnam that is regularly swamped.

    They live in the Mekong Delta, a huge plain of rivers and rice-fields that’s popular with tourists but lies only just above the surface of the ocean.

    The land itself is sinking and, at the same time, the level of the sea is rising, as global warming causes the water to expand and the ice caps to melt.

    That’s why the delta, one of the world’s greatest centres for rice production and home to 18 million people, is recognised as especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

    1. WHUT ABOWT TEH CHILDRUNZ!?

      1. We have a Modest Proposal to deal with them.

        1. AlexinCT

          OMWC not involved right?…

          1. No! I’m referencing Johnathan Swift.

            I’m not that sick.

      2. PieInTheSky

        I never know how to spell CHILDRUNZ properly but I assume multiple spelling are acceptable

    2. leon

      But GW activists don’t order peddle in fear mongering. Nope not at all.

    3. PieInTheSky

      Oh noes not teh children…

      “But, in recent years, the floods have become more damaging; the projections are for more severe and frequent inundations to come. ” – I would like to see some quality data on that one.

    4. Tundra

      I’m gonna ask my Vietnamese friend if climate change was first and foremost in her list of concerns as the Communists were busy butchering her family.

      1. Brett L

        Do it over the phone or IM.

        1. Tundra

          Yes, that’s probably wise.

      2. Chipwooder

        Was she one of the boat people? I have a friend from high school who was, and his hatred of Communism makes mine look dilettantish.

        1. Tundra

          Her mom was. Mom is a beast. I have neighbors from Laos. Same deal.

          If the socialists think they are gonna win here, I’ll pit my silent army of Vietnamese, Hmong, Ukranians, Belarussians and Russians against them any time.

        2. Viking1865

          I used to pass a house daily at an old job. Modest house, not much of a muchness. But there were two flagpoles in the yard. One with the vanished flag of the Republic of Vietnam, and one with the Stars and Stripes.

          1. Chipwooder

            There’s a house near my parent’s house that has the same.

        3. Psycho Effer

          My girlfriend was one of the boat people (3 years old at the time. We had a discussion about it last night regarding how much she hates Trump because of his reduction in the numbers of refugees allowed into the country. The refugee camps in Hong Kong were in operation from 1975 – 2000 remarkably enough. It took that long to find sponsors for less than 4000 people, though the majority were placed withing a few years, and my gf in a few months.

          Her TDS is extreme.

    5. WTF

      as global warming causes the water to expand and the ice caps to melt.

      The arctic ice is nowhere near historic lows, and the antarctic ice has actually increased.
      If you have to lie to promote your position, maybe you should re-think your position.

    6. Rufus the Monocled

      Rufus: “Any marketing ideas on climate change?”

      Orphan: “Scare the children. Always scare the children. You know that boss! You scare us all the time!”

      Rufus: “Excellent.”

  33. Something, something, if you bring the Third World here, here becomes the Third World.

    https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2018/10/04/downtown-la-skid-row-typhus-outbreak/

    (NB: I personally believe this has a lot more to do with bums camping/shitting on the streets, but the illegals will get blamed/don’t help)

  34. Rebel Scum

    If Dems Lose Again, Obama’s Legacy Is Gone Forever

    I am not seeing a downside.

    Also, maybe Team Red will finally start governing like actual conservatives, which would at least be a step in the right direction.

    1. straffinrun

      Let’s just hope this whole ordeal ends soon because it’s making me ill to be agreeing with Graham and McConnell.

      1. Rebel Scum

        Yea, makes me feel dirty.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Geez, they say that as if it’s a bad thing.

      It’ll piss off Presidential historians enough to put him at #1 as greatest President ever!

    1. Pat

      Well, yes, venom generally is toxic.

    2. I’d like to fill the Michelle Pfeiffer catwoman with my toxic masculinity.

      1. Evan from Evansville

        ^^This man…..he gets it.

        WOWZA.

        I also love that Tim Burton et. al. had to have a meeting and be like….”Mk…we need a good actor. That’s a given. But he needs to be very short, fat, and monstrously ugly.”

        And THEY GOT EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEEDED!

      2. Evan from Evansville

        ^^This man…..he gets it.

        WOWZA.

        I also love that Tim Burton et. al. had to have a meeting and be like….”Mk…we need a good actor. That’s a given. But he needs to be very short, fat, and monstrously ugly.”

        And THEY GOT EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEEDED! I imagine many hi-fives/gratuitous circle jerks were had when he accepted the part.

        1. You can say that again.

        2. DOOMco

          Do *you* want to do the repeater?

    3. Private Chipperbot

      A guy trying to get his girlfriend back is ‘gender stuff’? What a weird world that writer must live in.

    4. Drake

      Bob Menendez calls FBI’s Brett Kavanaugh report a ‘bullshit investigation’.

      If anyone knows about poorly executed investigations, it’s Bob Menendez.

      1. Drake

        Not supposed to be a response.

        I’m waiting for a realistic movie scene where a crazy woman tries to spin-kick a 240lb SEAL – and the guy laughs.

    5. Nephilium

      From most of the reviews, Venom is better then the DCEU, not as good as the first two X-Men movies, and worse then the MCU. The only interest I have in it is how they are going to do a Venom story arc without including Spider-Man. If it hits streaming for free, or a I have a discounted rental, I may watch it.

  35. Rebel Scum

    Check your doorstops.

    STEVE SMITH NO STOP AT DOOR. BUT STEVE SMITH CRASH LIKE METEOR. BY CRASH LIKE METEOR, MEAN RAPE.

  36. DOOMco

    We had frost here.
    ESPecially chilly on my way to work.

    Need winter tires stat. Blizzaks next week I think.

    1. Tundra

      Check out the Hakkapeliittas too. I have used both, as well as some Nokian AS tires on my wife’s car that I’ve been very happy with.

      The Finns are weird but they make good tires.

      1. The Hakka tires were given very high ratings by Car & Driver.

        I had good look with Blizzaks on my ol’ RWD BMW 325i- turned a car that got stuck all the time to a winter warrior. I once was visiting my parents on the coast of Lake Michigan and got hit by a massive blizzard. It was me in a BMW and a few 4X4 trucks out on an unplowed country road. No problems – though the suspension / handling was acting oddly with all the packed snow in the innards.

        Pirelli Sottozerro’s were good on my FWD MINI Countryman – I didn’t miss AWD at all – especially how I still had traction even when the temp his below 0F, where normal tires turn into hockey pucks.

        1. *luck – damn early onset dementia / 6 hours of sleep

        2. Tundra

          Yep. I have Blizzaks on the Passat and Jetta, Hakkas on the Beetle. With the new tire compounds, winter shoes are a must.

        3. DOOMco

          I like pirelli as a brand, but haven’t seen much of their winter tires around here.

          1. Tundra

            I used to put them on the Volvos. Seemed to wear faster than the others. Great performance, though.

          2. DOOMco

            That’s what has me looking blizzaks and haaks. I need rims, too.

          3. whahappan

            Check out Tire Rack. They have good deals on wheel/tire packages.

          4. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Last Pirellis I bought were shit. Way too soft. The Michelins I replaced them with were far better.

          5. The local tire place uses Sottozerros – used the tire on two different MINIs – since they often fit the odder wheel sizes (or work with BMW TPMS systems ?)

            This place also stores your other set of tires when not in use. So no extra space taken in my garage.

            Don’t know what they will recommend for the Mustang which I plan to drive through the winter – this will be interesting but I’ve driven all sorts of RWD cars in Michigan. It’s isn’t that bad with the right tires and careful driving.

          6. Tundra

            I’ve driven RWD cars in the winter all my life – even the RX7 – and it all comes down to tires. My old Volvo 245 was absurdly good in the snow. Tall, skinny snow tires, plenty of weight – I never got stuck or slid off the road.

            It’s fun as hell.

        4. The Hakka tires you say?

          1. Tundra

            CULCHRAL APPROPRIASHUN!!!!

            *faints*

          2. commodious spittoon

            *flails, roundhouse kicks rugby player*

          3. *glances down, sees what little is left of cs*

          4. *Ahem* The All Blacks always have someone of at least partial Maori heritage lead the Haka.

      2. DOOMco

        I like the hakks. I had the studless ones (r8?) On my old outback.
        It’ll probably come to price.

  37. PieInTheSky

    Most political charts I see recently are memes, simple and meant to be funny but this one took some extra work.

    https://twitter.com/Styx666Official/status/1047631204634247169

    1. WTF

      I don’t see Mexicans, ass sex and pot on that matrix.

  38. Evan from Evansville

    So another Korean president is behind bars!

    My kids laughed at me when I told them that it was such a good thing. I tried to explain it to them, but only the oldest and smartest kids could grasp it, even if they had heard it in Korean. I don’t blame them. Ever since 1945 Korea has had an incredibly corrupt executive. My pet theory is that the Japanese occupation created a whole society that couldn’t remember a working system of government, and the ones that were old enough before the Japanese lived in abject poverty. Couple that with Confucianism and the cultural sense of loyalty and you have quite an interesting recipe. Here’s the recap. I knew it was bad, but getting the dates…I didn’t fully realize JUST how bad.

    SYNGMAN RHEE (1948-1960)–Forced out in uprising–died in exile in Hawaii.
    PARK CHUNG-HEE (1961-1979)–Assassinated by his right-hand man.
    CHUN DOO-HWAN (1980-1988)–Spent time in exile. Sentenced to death. Later pardoned.
    ROH TAE-WOO (1988-1993)–Was also sentenced to death with Chun. Also pardoned.
    KIM YOUNG-SAM (1993-1998)–Booted out after IMF scandal. Son was arrested and jailed for corruption.
    KIM DAE-JUNG (1998-2003)–Hey! It’s not all bad! Won Nobel Peace Prize for NoKo talks. Still left office with many corruption scandals involving his sons.
    ROH MOO-HYUN (2003-2008)–Committed suicide in 2009 amidst corruption scandals. His son was jailed for 2.5 years before being pardoned.
    LEE MYUNG-BAK (2008-2013)–Just sentenced to 15 years for corruption.
    PARK GEUN HYE (2013-2017)–Impeached for influence peddling and bribery. Sentenced to 24 years in prison.
    Moon Jae-In (2017-present)–We shall see. He seems like a good dude, but what do I know. Power corrupts.

    My takeaway for the kids was that, HOLY SHIT Korea looooves itself some corruption. That’s an almost uninterrupted string of presidential misfortune from the inception of the country. I told the kids that the important part is that the citizens are still fresh to democracy. The frog hasn’t yet been boiled–they still will throw a bitch’s ass in the klink if they fuck up. We the boiled are too far removed from our national principles that we’re numb to insane corruption like the Clinton Foundation. (Not Us us; you know what I mean.)

    Maybe a couple of kids nodded in actual understanding. A republic if you can keep it, indeed.

    1. How the hell did south korea manage to prosper economically with that track record?

      1. PieInTheSky

        Depends on the percentage of government in the economy I suppose… Also Korea has a specific model of development which may work better this way, but not necessarily the best model.

      2. Evan from Evansville

        North Korea was wealthier than the South until 1979-1980. Granted that was with a bunch of Soviet money, but still.

        Park Chung Hee is a VERY controversial figure here. He fucked people over, crushed student rebellions and was a huge dick to his people. But goddamn he really did do amazing things for the economy.

        He is eerily similar to Pinochet. People here are very conflicted about his tenure. The story of his assassination is riveting.

        1. commodious spittoon

          There is still a great deal of controversy on Kim’s motive and whether it was a planned act as part of a coup d’état or was an impulsive, spur-of-the-moment act. The chief investigator Yi Hak-bong famously concluded that it was too careless for a deliberate act and yet too elaborate for an impulsive act.

          So… it was methodically planned in the guy’s subconscious? That’s some Manchurian shit.

    2. Drake

      Did they build a special luxury jail to house all their ex-Presidents?

    3. straffinrun

      Roh Moon Hyun actually seemed better than most of them. At least he tried to meet with Kim Jong Il. Him and Trump would’ve been an interesting couple in the negotiations happening today.

    4. BakedPenguin

      Meh, that just tells me they actually prosecute corrupt politicians, unlike the US

    1. Pat

      Who tracks the trackers?

    2. Tundra

      Ruh roh.

  39. Rufus the Monocled

    It’s amazing how much more authentic late talk shows used to be.

    Now it’s all shit.

    Except Norm’s new show.

  40. Pat

    Instagram prototypes handing your location history to Facebook

    This is sure to exacerbate fears that Facebook will further exploit Instagram now that its founders have resigned. Instagram has been spotted prototyping a new privacy setting that would allow it to share your location history with Facebook. That means your exact GPS coordinates collected by Instagram, even when you’re not using the app, would help Facebook to target you with ads and recommend you relevant content. The geo-tagged data would appear to users in their Facebook Profile’s Activity Log, which include creepy daily maps of the places you been.

  41. Rebel Scum

    Democrats Fear the Party’s Kavanaugh Obsession Could Backfire

    In a sane society it would. They have been going after him for his drinking habits in college. Not only that, his acquaintances from the time that have commented on the matter have said that he was drunk once or twice over the weekend and occasionally during the week. I mean, ZOMG, that is totally unusual for a college student.

    Obviously 20yo Brett Kav. was not fit to be on the Supreme Court, but 20yo Brett Kav. has not been nominated.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I read the acquaintance editorial on his drinking. It just goes to show that you can’t trust Ivy League assholes to not betray your confidence.

      1. Snitches get lifetime appointments at HUD?

    2. DOOMco

      Breaking! Brett kavanaugh invented thirsty Thursday!!

      1. Certified Public Asshat

        I wasn’t drinking last night, but I did pass out on the couch watching tv. I don’t remember what happened in the show I was watching. Hopefully I did not assault anyone.

        *begins to sob into hands*

        1. straffinrun

          Me too. Maybe we should start a hashtag campaign.

    3. commodious spittoon

      When your religion eschews any possibility of redemption, he’s as guilty as fifty as he was at twenty.

  42. DOOMco

    Pats win, Brady gets to 500 on that sweet bomb.
    And the bruins turn around from the opening game to win over buffalo!
    Happy Friday everyone!

    1. Old Man With Candy

      I fucking hate the Pats, but did root for them to beat the Irsays, the embodiment of all that is evil in this world.

      Now back to rooting against them.

      1. Viking1865

        Irsay the Elder is a Hero of Liberty. Not many people can say they saved a billion dollar franchise from government theft.

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      You know, there was a time I commiserated with Boston fans, even liked them. Philly and Boston fans were partners in heartbreak and failure for a long long time.

      Then y’all won everything. Now you’re as annoying as New York fans.

      Rooting for SMOD in the first game of the ALDS tonight.

      1. DOOMco

        Aw.
        I don’t think I’m too bad. I do dislike how a lot of the Boston fans turn into apocalypse predictors the second someone drops a pass, or good forbid we lose a game to a good team.

        1. BakedPenguin

          As a kid, I was a huge Red Sox fan (I still like them, and want them to win, but 2004 helped a lot). I remember 1978 The Red Sox at one point in July, held a 14-game lead over their rival New York. however, the Yankees worked their way back. .

      2. Chipwooder

        A Philly fan is gonna talk about how annoying anyone else’s fans are? That’s rich.

          1. Tundra

            Lol. The next video:

            The Minnesota Vikings: A Legacy of Failure

            It’s a fair cop. Pretty well done.

          2. DOOMco

            He’s a great channel.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    When I was in university (and studying Latin American history) the popular angle in justifying the murdering psycho Castros and their violent cohorts was that Batista was a corrupted right-winger suppressing the people and it needed to be done.

    Whaddya gonna do?

    Somebody’s going to oppress and impoverish those people, so it might as well be the ones who pretend they aren’t motivated by greed and the lust for personal power.

  44. Certified Public Asshat

    Too Sick, Too Pregnant, Too Well Paid: Walmart Workers on Why the Company Fires Them

    Splinter spoke with a dozen> Walmart employees across the U.S. for this piece; several were unwilling to talk on the record out of fear of retribution, but all of them described a retaliatory and unfair system. The employees willing to identify themselves were connected with Splinter through the Making Change at Walmart campaign, a project of United Food & Commercial Workers International union, as well as local UFCW organizers and the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart).

    Big story there.

    1. Pat

      #IBelieveThem

      1. Brasidas

        Eh, you can. There are somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 salaried Walmart store managers. There are bound to be some dumbasses mixed in.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    It is a rather criSP morning. Snow at the higher (~500ft higher than me) elevations.

  46. Tundra

    How about some good news?

    Federal Judge Restores Non-Violent Offender’s Gun Rights Following Landmark Case

    Chief Judge Christopher Conner of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania ruled that Raymond Holloway’s second misdemeanor DUI conviction in 2005 was not a serious enough crime to result in a lifetime abridgment of one of his constitutional rights. Connor applied the standard set in the landmark case Binderup v. the U.S. Attorney General where the Third Circuit Court of Appeals found those convicted of certain nonviolent offenses can’t be barred from owning firearms for the rest of their lives. He said the government had failed to show that Holloway’s misdemeanor DUI convictions meant he should be disarmed for life.

    Frankly, I think that once you’ve done your time, any restrictions are wrong.

    1. DOOMco

      once you’ve done your time, any restrictions are wrong.

      I agree; newsletter please.

      1. I disagree. A pattern of recidivism for some crimes can call for restrictions short of three hots and a cot on the taxpayer dime after the initial incarceration, but these should be set at sentencing and be tailored to the offender’s behaviors.

        1. DOOMco

          I can see that. I just think if you are bad enough to be free, you should be in jail.
          I think parole would be the middle. There should, or can, be a time period of a middle ground.

        2. Gustave Lytton

          Even someone with a recividist record has the right to lawful self defense, ergo also a right to bear arms. They still do not, and never had, the right to use arms to commit a crime. Which is addressed under the criminal act.

          If they cannot lawfully defend themselves due to state action, then the state is personally responsible for their safety.

    2. Raston Bot

      that is good news. take his license, not his gun.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Don’t know what they will recommend for the Mustang which I plan to drive through the winter – this will be interesting but I’ve driven all sorts of RWD cars in Michigan. It’s isn’t that bad with the right tires and careful driving.

    I assume it has traction control. No?

    1. DOOMco

      Pedestrians add traction, right?

    2. Traction, Stability, hill hold, ABS, and all the other nannies that one could “wish” for.

      1. DOOMco

        Not having hill hold on the WRX is sometimes not a blast. Some people just loovee to be an inch off my bumper.
        On the other hand, not needing to repair it eventually will be nice.
        The fj doesn’t roll as much on hills, is this from the rolling resistance in the larger tires?

        1. That really annoys me when people inch really close to my bumper on a hill. And I carefully pull away from them, trying to get some space before the light turns green… and then they inch even closer. The middle finger has been deployed a few times. It’s pretty obvious – at least to me – when someone is driving a stick shift, especially on a hill.

          1. Tundra

            That’s why I’m bummed the hand brake is disappearing. I always use it on a steep hill start.

          2. DOOMco

            I think my least libertarian policy, if supreme ruler of anarchy, would be to ban automatic transmissions in almost every case. People without arms or legs can have one, that’s it.

          3. Just because of that, I propose we instead ban manual transmissions.

          4. DOOMco

            Civil war II: sticks and slips.

          5. DOOMco

            Honestly, I like autos. I dislike how people that use them forgot that it’s possible other cars exist. Just forcing people to use a stick shift for a week or two might solve the problem.

          6. I really doubt it’s a case of ‘forgetting manuals exist’ rather a case of ‘tailgating asshole tailgates’.

          7. *even at a stoplight*

            I don’t get why anyone would want to be within collision distance of another vehicle.

          8. DOOMco

            It is mostly just assholes, who can drive like morons in either car.

          9. Juvenile Bluster

            As someone who drives in stop and go traffic for 45-60 minutes to and from work every day: Fuck that shit.

          10. DOOMco

            I’ve done it, too. But tailgating is the real scourge in our country!

          11. BakedPenguin

            If the government made me use a stick, I’d demand government subsidized replacement of my grinded gear teeth which would inevitably happen.

            But I also try not to be a dick while driving, even driving amongst the millions of oldsters going 5mph under the speed limit we have here in FL.

          12. You live in the Snowbird Graveyard and still get mad at them?

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Frankly, I think that once you’ve done your time, any restrictions are wrong.

    Unless you were convicted of armed robbery and/or actually shooting somebody, I don’t see why you should loswe your right to own a gun.

    *If you’re a professional criminal, niceties like legal prohibitions will prove no impediment.

    1. Tundra

      Honestly, if you shot someone, completed your sentence, and were released why should you be denied the right to self defense? If you are a serial killer, sure, but then why are you out?

      Nope, I’m going with rights restoration upon release.

      1. Suppose it’s a second sentence for reckless manslaughter due to the offender’s unsafe handling of firearms? Sure they’ve spent twenty of the past thirty years behind bars, but they’ve also shown themselves to be dangerously irresponsible.

        1. Tundra

          Yeah, what about the guy who fucked up and then became a model citizen?

          We can do this all day. Liberty is messy.

          1. I would not bar petition for restoration, but as I said above, blanket rules that don’t take into account the circumstances of the case are a terrible idea. If you’ve already fucked up multiple times, It’s going to be on you to show that you’ve actually turned around, since the pattern isn’t favoring such an outcome.

          2. Tundra

            If you keep fucking up, presumably your sentences are going to stretch out, right? Violent multiple offenders are the ones that should be seeing lengthy prison terms. The rest, why?

          3. So you’re okay with customized sentences only in so far as the duration of the rapecage, but not to other punitive aspects that don’t involve incarceration?

          4. Tundra

            I’m open to suggestions.

            If you’ve done your time, you get your guns back. To do otherwise is unconstitutional. We can debate forever about what is a serious enough crime for the rape cage, but permanently taking away rights is flat out wrong.

            Oh, and I’d love to see no-shit restitution for crimes where there is a victim.

    1. Just Say’n

      “A friend of Christine Blasey Ford told FBI investigators that she felt pressured by Dr. Ford’s allies to revisit her initial statement that she knew nothing about an alleged sexual assault by a teenage Brett Kavanaugh, which she later updated to say that she believed but couldn’t corroborate Dr. Ford’s account, according to people familiar with the matter.

      Leland Keyser, who Dr. Ford has said was present at the gathering where she was allegedly assaulted in the 1980s, told investigators that Monica McLean, a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and a friend of Dr. Ford’s, had urged her to clarify her statement, the people said. …

      On Thursday, a day after sending to the White House the report on its investigation into the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh, the FBI sent the White House and Senate an additional package of information that included text messages from Ms. McLean to Ms. Keyser, according to a person familiar with the matter.”

      – Wall Street Journal

      1. Pat

        It’s like witness tampering, only this is a show trial, so it’s different!

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        On Thursday, a day after sending to the White House the report on its investigation into the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh, the FBI sent the White House and Senate an additional package of information that included text messages from Ms. McLean to Ms. Keyser, according to a person familiar with the matter.”

        These FBI types sure aren’t real bright.

        1. Certified Public Asshat

          I was hacked!

      3. WTF

        This is corrupt as shit. I hope Trump gets someone to replace Sessions as AG and investigate these assholes.

        1. AlexinCT

          I wish Sessions would just resign the fuck already so we can get someone that can actually be sicked on the metastasized corruption Obama’s presidency created.

    2. It doesn’t matter to the #metoo / crazy train womyn. The narrative is already set and will always – at least to them – remain so.

      A decade or two from now, Kavanaugh – if he gets the seat – will still be called a rapist and his rulings immoral and illegitimate.

      1. Pat

        On the bright side, those are the people who will be writing the history books, so he will also be known as a rapist and his rulings immoral and illegitimate long after this death as well.

        1. Raston Bot

          yeah but damn did he know how to party!

      2. Charlie Suet

        100%. Just like Clarence Thomas. And James Buchanan for that matter, on different charges.

        It’s not solely a left-wing thing to ignore the flaws in accusations against your political opponents, but they are providing the worst examples at the moment.

    3. Raston Bot

      Monica McLean is the FBI agent that Ford helped with passing her polygraph and is her “beach friend” that advised her to hire Katz.

      1. WTF

        But the Deep State totally doesn’t exist!

      2. Charlie Suet

        Assume for a second that Ford is telling the truth (I know…). She was exceptionally poorly advised to trust Feinstein, Katz, etc. She would have been better off sending her story to the Republicans early doors.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          I’ve been asked that question by some lefty acquaintances.

          My response was that if she is telling the truth, then this entire fiasco was mishandled. It should have been raised privately in committee instead of turning it into a public spectacle.

          1. WTF

            Although as more information comes out, it looks more and more that Ford is a co-conspirator who participated in cooking up a smear.

  49. Tundra

    Keep it up, dumbshits.

    Lawsuit accuses Seneca Valley ‘mean girls’ of targeting boy with false allegations

    Awful story.

    In a tape-recorded interview with school officials in 2017, the lawsuit alleges K.S. said she made the sexual assault claim against T.F. because “I just don’t like him.”

    “I just don’t like to hear him talk. … I don’t like to look at him,” K.S. reportedly disclosed in the recorded interview obtained by Fishman.

    On Oct. 2, 2017, K.S. told fellow students “that she would do anything to get T.F. expelled … and accused T.F. of sexual assault” with school officials, the lawsuit states. T.F. was subsequently charged in juvenile court with indecent assault and two counts of harassment.

    There’s more!

    “On April 10, T.F. was removed from class at Seneca Valley High School and placed in leg and wrist shackles by the Jackson Township Police with the assistance of Juvenile Probation Officer Michael Trego,” the lawsuit said.

    Trego testified at a hearing that T.F. was a threat to the community, and the teenager had to spend nine days in a juvenile detention center before being released on home-electronic monitoring.

    “After 28 days, T.F. was only allowed out of his home to mow his lawn,” the lawsuit contends.

    Infuriating. I would spend my last dime making sure that everyone involved paid for this bullshit.

    1. Pat

      Better a thousand innocent shitlords be locked up than one guilty shitlord go free.

    2. Raphael

      But I was told sexual assault allegations are never lies.

        1. Raphael

          Bookmarked dat shiz.

          1. Tundra

            +1

        2. AlexinCT

          Sounds like an excuse not to hold these people accountable to me. At a minimum they should get whatever they were trying to inflict on the victim of the false accusations.

    3. Juvenile Bluster

      #BelieveSurvivors

    4. Just Say’n

      If you raised a daughter that went on to think that falsely accusing someone of sexual assault was funny, you failed as a parent. This is some evil shit

      1. Nephilium

        And you should be worried they’ll turn it on you.

    5. Raston Bot

      the plaintiffs bar is going to have a fucking field day on these lying hoes.

      1. ChipsnSalsa

        Like their crow bar?

    6. Scruffy Nerfherder

      “The Butler County District Attorney’s office promised to file a petition to expunge the record of T.F. in September, but has not yet done so, providing further evidence of gender-based discrimination. The (district attorney) has refused to file criminal charges against K.S., Villegas, C.S., E.S. and H.R. due to gender-based discrimination,” the lawsuit states.

      The lawsuit claims school officials have repeatedly refused to mark the academic records of the girls who lied about the assaults.

      The girls need to go to juvie and the school administrators/DA should be sued into oblivion.

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        The girls need to go to juvie and the school administrators/DA should be sued into oblivion.

        You think that qualified immunity for cops is bad, try getting around the absolute immunity prosecutors have.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          I said “should”, I know the reality.

          Frankly, if I were a parent of the boy, I might be looking for a pound of flesh instead.

    7. Subwoofer

      What this world needs is an app to identify false rape accusers.

      Meet a girl.
      Take her picture with the app.
      It uploads it into a database and uses facial recognition to match it with any prior entries.
      If said girl ever #MeToo’s you or anyone you know, tag her profile thusly.
      Anyone who has ever taken her picture receives a notification that the girl in question is a false rape accuser.
      Anyone who takes her picture in the future is immediately notified.

      Tag these bitches with a lifelong scarlet letter.

      1. Five words: False positives and false negatives.

        1. Subwoofer

          Both would indeed pose problems. It would also be ripe for fraud. There might be ways to correct for that though.

  50. straffinrun

    Grassley is on the floor ripping in to the dems.

    1. straffinrun

      Ugh, now it’s Feinstein. Did Trump really say he would only appoint justices that promised to overturn Roe v Wade?

      1. Raphael

        The youtube live comments are hilarious man.

        1. straffinrun

          The Fox feed? Predictably that one isn’t pro Diane. I hate to say it, but I got a bad feeling this nomination is going wind up a vote short.

          1. Raphael

            Yeah, I’m on the fox feed, I just realized. Albeit when I was on the TIME stream the other day, they were ripping into the Dem speakers there too. I honestly don’t know how this nomination is gonna go in the end.

          2. straffinrun

            Now Schumer is putting on a master class in projection. “The Republicans have engaged in a scorched earth strategy…”

          3. Raphael

            I was laughing my ass off the whole time. Especially when he just hand-waved away the fact all the dems were against the nomination at the outset before any of this.

          4. WTF

            It’s not projection, Schumer knows damn well he is lying.

  51. commodious spittoon

    There’s a bookshelf here at work tucked away in a little-used corridor between departments. It’s nothing but cheap paperback mysteries and thrillers, so I don’t usually bother, but something caught my eye this morning, and surprise surprise, it’s a copy of Gulag Archipelago.

    1. Raphael

      READ IT. STUDY IT.

  52. Pat

    Poll: Almost A Third Of Millennials Identify As Socialists

    Thirty-one percent of millennials identify as a Democratic socialist or socialist, according to a study by Maru/Blue and BuzzFeed News released Thursday.

    Participants were first asked what description “best reflects your current political leanings,” before being given options ranging from “Strong Democrat,” to “Strong Republican” or “Independent.”

    A total of 22 percent identified as “Strong Democrat,” versus 10 percent as “Strong Republican.”

    The pollsters then asked, “Would you call yourself a democratic socialist, a socialist or neither?” A total of 31 percent responded “yes,” with 18 percent responding “Yes, a democratic socialist,” 8 percent with “Yes, a socialist” and 5 percent with “Yes, either a socialist or a democratic socialist.”

    Millennial men were far more likely to identify as some kind of socialist, with a total of 40 percent responding affirmatively to the question.

    I know, I know, “they don’t even know what socialism means!” etc etc. You can’t really identify with the label even in the most generous sense and be anything other than a statist fuckhat though.

    1. Raphael

      For real, anyways, I’m just glad I’m of the 32% who’d never call himself a socialist/demo-socialist.

      1. AlexinCT

        You mean you are not lacking in common sense and a desire to know more than just what Miley Cirus, Lady Gaga, or Justin Bieber are up to? Just busting your chops bro. After you piece last night I know you are one of those that managed to escape the stupidity imparted by the public school system on so many unwitting fools.

        1. Raphael

          Haha, no problems or offense taken at all. Now please excuse me while I get myself a beer for Kavanaugh.

    2. Nephilium

      My niece supports Bernie Sanders. I somehow feel I failed as an uncle. At least she hated Hillary even before the revelations of how the Clinton machine screwed Sanders in the primary came out. Of course, she’s in her early 20’s, so I expect some terrible decisions to be made.

      1. Charlie Suet

        My worry is that people aren’t growing out of this crap. You expect know-nothing early 20’s to be a bit lefty, but millennials in principle could be in their thirties. Once you’re out of the clutches of state education and have to work for a living you should start seeing through the likes of Sanders and Corbyn.

        1. AlexinCT

          My worry is that people aren’t growing out of this crap.

          When you have an everyone gets a participation trophy and the peddling of high self-esteem beliefs without any real achievements to back that self-esteem, you end up with people that primarily believe they are owed shit simply because they were born. Going out in the real world with that mindset will only lead to failure and an even harder entrenchment, accompanied by a demand for even more free shit, as they wrongly assume the problem isn’t the shit they believe in.

          1. Nephilium

            I don’t believe she got the participation trophies, I’m hoping it’s just stupid youth. She’s one class away from a Bachelor’s degree, and hasn’t signed up to take the class in 2(?) years. She moved to the Tremont neighborhood and wanted a bartending job in the area (instead of one out in the suburbs), I talked to a bar manager there who knew me and got her an interview. She never called to set it up. My sister gets pissed about it, but I think back to the questionable decisions I made in my 20’s and realize she’s got to learn on her own. I can only try to guide her and help.

        2. I see a healthy number of that generation who take the opposite tack, though. There are also a fair number who take a third way approach and advocate for a lot of the Sanderista positions but don’t trust the government enough to entrust it with the responsibility of enforcement. And I think that’s great, personally. Either you see for yourself that some of those positions aren’t feasible, or you come up with a way to make them work in a free-market environment, which is ideal. Personally, and I think this is probably true for a lot of people, I have no problem with the results that the leftists aim for, I have a problem with the methods they advocate. That and their casual dismissal of individual liberty as not just something to be valued in its own right but as the best mechanism by which all of those good effects can be attained.

          1. trshmnstr

            Personally, and I think this is probably true for a lot of people, I have no problem with the results that the leftists aim for, I have a problem with the methods they advocate

            Yes and no. If you abstract progressivism out to a 50k foot view of “unfair institutions should crumble”, I can possibly get on board. Any more specific than that, and I struggle to support it. SLDs obviously apply, but I can’t support equality of outcome, whether or not it’s mandated by force.

            As I wrote here, charity should be about compassion, not pity. IMO, equality of outcome is a pity thing. As the saying goes, a hand up is better than a handout.

          2. Yeah, but equality of outcome is (or ought to be at least) a strategy rather than a goal. And, to specify, I’m talking about the economic left, socialists and so forth, not the Progressive left. The Progs want to control society itself, to mold it according to their preferences. The Commies, at least if you take them at their word, want to eliminate poverty and hunger and all that jazz, and they don’t so much care whether you bake the cake or homeschool your kids or whatever so long as it doesn’t interfere with the economic goals. I’m all for that, except for the part where they sacrifice individual liberty and property ownership to do it. I believe those things are inextricably linked and valuable in and of themselves, but I also believe that sacrificing them gets you further from rather than closer to a post-poverty society.

          3. A Leap at the Wheel

            The Progs want to control society itself, to mold it according to their preferences. The Commies, at least if you take them at their word, want to eliminate poverty and hunger and all that jazz, and they don’t so much care whether you bake the cake or homeschool your kids or whatever so long as it doesn’t interfere with the economic goals.

            [citation needed]

            That’s nearly 100% incorrect.

            The progressive movement has always been about equality of outcomes and equal advancement of (aka progress) of society in a way that benefits everyone. That’s why it includes things like redistribution taxes (which transfer wealth) *and* Taylorism (which is generally Pareto improving).

            Communism, on the other hand, is in both name an action a change from the current hierarchical system into a hierarchical system. Getting there requires tearing down the post westphalian (the anarchist strain of communism) and the organization of communes. Economic goals are transitory and will be discarded in this bat-shit crazy utopia.

          4. A Leap at the Wheel

            * into a non-heirarchical system

        3. trshmnstr

          but millennials in principle could be in their thirties..

          Yup, and we do everything we can to distance ourselves from our idiot 20-something brethren.

          /30 year old millennial

          1. Subwoofer

            I’m an early 30s millennial with a mid-20s millennial sibling.

            The differences between those of us born a half-decade apart are profound. While we went to the same high school it was completely different for both of us. When I was there we were allowed to carry backpacks around and besides the state-funded SRO there was no security. Fast forward a few years and no backpacks were allowed plus metal detectors at every entrance.

            The teaching staff completely turned over too. We actually read Ayn Rand’s Anthem when I was there, math teachers actually taught math, and we learned about the reasons for the founding documents. My sibling had none of that and was taught intersectional social justice instead. The math teachers didn’t even teach math anymore. It was strange.

          2. The math teachers didn’t even teach math anymore

            As someone who took Calculus in high school, this… does not compute.

          3. WTF

            The Gramscian Long March is complete.

          4. trshmnstr

            My brothers didn’t quite have such a night and day difference in experience (I’m older by 7 and 8 years, respectively), but I agree that things have changed immensely in the intervening years.

            Hell, when I was 16, texting and driving wasn’t considered a particularly bad thing. We had physical phone buttons and could type out a message without even looking. Quick glance at the next stop sign to make sure there were no typos, and send it off.

            Most of my issues with the school (shit teachers, stupid rules) were still around when they attended, but not too much more movement in the SJW prog direction. Maybe some more anti-bullying crap.

    3. My totally unscientific guess based in part on my own personal experiences being in my 20s and in college at one point in my life is as follows.

      One, I think it’s the whole, “If you’re young and conservative you have no heart; if you’re old and liberal you have no brain,” bit. I went through a couple of months around 23, maybe 24, where I thought very seriously to myself, “You know, what’s so bad about socialism? People will complain, but those are just kulaks and wreckers, and they’ll come around once everybody’s comfortably middle-class and working no more than 40 hours a week, which should only take five, maybe ten years at the most.” Honestly, the hole in the dyke for me was that I couldn’t get around the idea that you’d have to force people to go along with it. As far back as I can remember I’ve had a visceral, overpowering aversion to authority, and I rather surprisingly given my age and maturity reasoned that if I didn’t believe anyone else had a right to tell me what to do if followed that no one has the right to tell anyone what to do. Or everyone has the same right to tell everyone else what to do, which kind of nullifies the right, if you see what I mean.

      Two, these “studies” are notoriously inaccurate, from the methodology to the execution. Two days ago I saw another study that found millennials were fleeing the Democratic Party in droves and increasingly self-identified as conservatives or libertarians.

      Three, I suspect “democratic socialist” for a lot of these kids means something like, “Raise taxes on rich people and advocate for one or two marquee social programs beyond what the typical Democrat supports,” so something like where you’d consider a liberal Democrat in the 80s.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Two days ago I saw another study that found millennials were fleeing the Democratic Party in droves and increasingly self-identified as conservatives or libertarians.

        Gillespie – “We’ll capture those kids with our leftist friendly libertarianism!”

      2. AlexinCT

        Yeah, shit like this kind of wrecks it all. Maybe technology isn’t working out to be such a boon for the young.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          They prefer robots because they’re afraid of human interaction. Based on the risks involved as demonstrated by the Kavanaugh fiasco, I’m not sure I completely blame them.

          1. My computer accused me of removing its case and touching its sockets during a memory upgrade.

          2. commodious spittoon

            Putting on the anti-static wristband kinda show premeditation, you know.

    4. JaimeRoberto

      They are lured by the promise of free college and they don’t yet know that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Yeah, what about the guy who fucked up and then became a model citizen?

    We can do this all day. Liberty is messy.

    That’s why we need to abolish it, and surrender to the tender embrace of our betters.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    something caught my eye this morning, and surprise surprise, it’s a copy of Gulag Archipelago.

    It’s a trap.

    1. commodious spittoon

      It is under a camera…

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Honestly, I like autos. I dislike how people that use them forgot that it’s possible other cars exist. Just forcing people to use a stick shift for a week or two might solve the problem.

    I don’t like autos, but I won’t ban them when I ascend to my rightful place as Supreme Overlord.

    Speaking of dummies, though, you don’t have to be on a hill. I “like” how every once in a while I’ll be in front of some dumbass at a light who just stabs the throttle assuming everybody else does, as well. A little bit of a lazy upshift, and the idiot is practically in your back seat. Sometimes i do it on purpose, just to see their reaction in my rear view mirror.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I run a delivery service for my equipment, and manuals make it impossible to hire drivers.

      I’m losing count of the clutches I’ve bought.

  56. The Late P Brooks

    This is corrupt as shit. I hope Trump gets someone to replace Sessions as AG and investigate these assholes.

    Oh, you.

  57. Chipwooder

    This seems like a very effective form of protest. No way Kavanaugh gets confirmed now!

    1. Pat

      There are people drinking PBR from red Solo cups outside Mitch McConnell’s house at this early hour. They are chanting “I like beer.”

      They’re clearly lying. Anyone who liked beer wouldn’t be drinking PBR.

      1. Raphael

        Can’t even beer correctly. What a bunch of scrubs.

      2. commodious spittoon

        Hey, now. At $2.50 a pint it’s a fine beer.

        1. Nephilium

          You just need better bars:

          CBW Event: Tree Fiddy Day – Saturday, October 20th, 2018, 10AM

          With Stout Brunch the following day we need all of our draft lines back! All draft beers all day will be only $3.50. Check our Untappd page for up to the minute updates to our tap list. Please drink responsibly.

          True, it’s only for one special day, but if I wasn’t going to an event that night, I’d be going. Here’s the current tap list (with regular day pricing).

        2. $3 Kirin Ichiban drafts at the local hipster sushi bar. I think they started doing it as some sort of bar industry inside joke when another bar in the area started pricing Natty Boh cans as “craft” beer.

          1. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Now we’re talking

  58. Juvenile Bluster

    G-d help me, I’ve actually come around to supporting Kavanaugh’s nomination.

    Mind you, my view on him as a judge hasn’t changed. He’s awful, and his nomination might be death for the 4th Amendment, which is already struggling to breathe.

    But outside of Kavanaugh being withdrawn and Justice Willett replacing him as nominee, anyone that comes up for nomination will do that. And if this nomination goes we’re going to know the drill for anyone who comes up for a confirmation hearing from now until forever.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m at the same place.

      He sucks, but the alternative to confirmation is the validation of Title IX show trials in the Senate.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        I should mention he doesn’t suck as hard as anything the Democrats would come up with. They’d probably nominate Debra Katz.

        I would approve of Justice Dershowitz though. I don’t like his politics, but he’s principled and believes in the 4th more than just about any lawyer out there. He hates the 2nd but has openly talked about the need to amend it out of the Constitution instead of legislating from the bench. As far as leftists go, that’s a good as it gets.

    2. Chipwooder

      Precisely. If I thought there were a chance in hell of getting someone better, I could at least look for the silver lining if Kavanaugh went down. There is none. We’d get someone similar or worse, and it will have validated the most disgusting tactics imaginable.

      1. I’m temped to suggest filing articles of impeachment against Ginsberg for being medically unfit. But I’m not sure if that’s a valid standard. Sure she sleeps more than a narcoleptic…

        1. Jarflax

          Against Sotomajor and/or Kagan for dereliction of her duty to apply the law impartially. RBG, much as I dislike her rulings, at least gives lip service to applying the law the Wise Latina and Kagan rule purely on feelz/victimhood hierarchies.

    3. commodious spittoon

      I’ve gotten righteously angry on behalf of a man whose nomination I don’t especially care about and whose judicial record doesn’t inspire me. I can’t imagine how I’d feel watching Willett’s ritual destruction.

      1. Drake

        A guy who had fun as a teenager, graduated and grew up, got serious about his career, and raised a family… Describes me, my Dad and brother, lots of my friends. And now he’s branded for life as a rapist simply because Democrats got some crazy cat ladies to lie about him.

        1. I would trust any of my close friends with the lives of my wife and child, and none of them would survive the kind of scrutiny Kavanaugh is experiencing. For that matter, nobody in that room would, especially the people yelling the loudest.

          1. commodious spittoon

            This is why I think this shit is making progressives hysterical but bombing with the rest of the country: progressives are so mistrustful of ostensibly close friends, let alone strangers, and themselves most of all, that they can’t imagine giving anyone the benefit of doubt or having to excuse the bad bits in light of the totality. Lapses in judgment become terrible flashes of true character, innocent mistakes are personal slights, and the sum of a person is what he can do to help or harm you. When your worldview makes no room for good faith, tolerance, or redemption, all gray areas are sinful and all sins are unforgivable. Normal people don’t think this way.

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            When the personal is political, you can’t trust anyone.

          3. Rhywun

            We should formalize this into an organization that embodies all the ideals mentioned. “Stasi” has a nice ring to it.

          4. Raphael

            And here I thought my Catholic Guilt depressed me. *takes another swig of his drink*

          5. Raphael

            I thought it was* my Catholic Guilt that

          6. Well, it comes down to the redemptive power of political correctness. If Kavanaugh was pro-abortion, anti-2A, and in favor of baking that cake, he’d be on the bench right now.

    4. Kavanaugh’s nomination stopped being about his qualifications as an SC judge, which are certainly debatable, and became a referendum on the nature of justice in the Progressive/SJW/#MeToo era. And you can thank the Feinsteins of the world for that. Because now if Kavanaugh doesn’t get the nod you establish a slew of horrible precedents that will trickle down into the real honest-to-goodness legal system regarding the burden of proof, statutes of limitations, etc.

  59. Chipwooder

    Oh, and BTW, just in case it hasn’t been mentioned here…..Monica McLean, Ford’s buddy who she coached to take a polygraph, used to be the FBI representative working in our old pal Preet Bharara’s office.

    Sean Davis

    Verified account

    @seanmdav
    Follow Follow @seanmdav
    More
    I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Ford’s “beach friend” who helped her fabricate her anti-Kavanaugh smears, and whom Ford coached on polygraphs, just happened to be a FBI PR rep in the office of Preet Bharara, who used to work for Schumer on Judiciary.

    6:23 AM – 4 Oct 2018

  60. The Late P Brooks

    If Kavanaugh were to withdraw, and be replaced by Coney Barrett, they’d find some way to smear her.

    1. commodious spittoon

      At this point it’s more about punishing and invalidating Feinstein and the Dem’s outrageous gambit and the media’s shameful lackeying. They blew their load, make ’em lay in it.

    2. Drake

      I’m certain the Democrats have investigators combing through every moment of her past right now. If she drew a naughty picture or said a bad word in 3rd grade, we’ll know about it after RBG croaks.

      1. commodious spittoon

        It’ll be a black staffer who claims she routinely called him racist epithets, strangely just out of earshot of anyone who might credibly corroborate his claim. They’re grooming someone already.

        1. Drake

          Maybe Trump should nominate somebody out of left (or right) field next time. A strict interpretationalist tucked away in State Supreme Court somewhere maybe.

          Or maybe the GOP will win in a blowout next month, somebody like Cruz will replace Flake on the committee, and they’ll just ram through whoever is nominated without acknowledging the Democrats’ complaints.

          1. I think it’s high time to dispense with any civility here. The Feinstein cabal has demonstrated a total lack of anything like good faith. If that’s the way they want it, give it to ’em.

          2. Tundra

            If Ward fucking Cleaver is having this much trouble getting confirmed, what normal person could possibly stand a chance?

          3. Rhywun

            I see K more as Eddie Haskell.

          4. Drake

            No way – Eddie would have cruised through the process telling everyone exactly what they wanted to hear.

          5. BakedPenguin

            “Good afternoon, Missus Clinton.”

          6. Rhywun

            Good point – he’d really turn on the charm.

          7. Drake

            Hell, Eddie would have explained that he always thought Ford was really cute and special, apologized for any misunderstanding, and talked her into a date to make it up to her.

          8. *raises hand*

            I’m unphotogenic and antisocial, but I’m a strict textualist, and not afraid of what might turn up in my past.

            I add that Not being a judge or lawyer is a plus when it comes to interpreting the law in a manner that the common citizen can grasp.

          9. commodious spittoon

            Don’t you dare bring that kind of heat down on us.

          10. “I’m sure you might have heard this, but sarcasm and humor fall under freedom of speech. You may not find it funny, but that doesn’t mean a damn thing.”

          11. *Spoken as though answering confirmation hearing questions about our “Family Friendly” content*

          12. commodious spittoon

            “I want to draw particular attention to one contributor, er, ‘Unsweetened’…”

            *aid whispers into Feinstein’s ear*

          13. “With all due respect. Nobody actually reads the articles. Least of all, me.”

          14. WTF

            “And now let’s move on to this “STEVE SMITH” issue…

          15. “You’ll have to take that up with Mister SMITH. I was not involved in any of his activities, nor did I endorse them.”

          16. MikeS

            “It’s been said that puns are one one of the highest forms of comedy. If you are confirmed, would you allow appellants to court your favor merely by including puns in their arguments?”

          17. I would hope they’d use good arguments instead. It’s much more effective.

          18. Pope Jimbo

            They’d find some crazy woman who claimed you left a driving glove up her yoohoo and that would be the end of you nomination.

          19. “While I have no recollection of an encounter with Ms. Accuser, all she would have had to do to end a theoretical engagement would be to utter the safe word. Even as I say I doubt we ever had such an encounter, I can’t help but also say that regret does not make rape.”

          20. A Leap at the Wheel

            Ted Cruz to replace RGB on the SC.

  61. straffinrun

    Flake, Manchin and Collins all voted “Yea” on the first (cloture?) vote. Murkowski voted “no”. Make of that what you will.

    1. Drake

      She’s on the long-seat and will either retire or hope people forget by 2022. If not, she’ll get primaried out again and this time won’t win as an independent.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Senator “Inherited My Office” voted no. No surprises there.

      1. wdalasio

        Who’s running against her? Yes, I want to donate to their campaign. And no, I don’t care if they’re a Democrat.

    3. RAHeinlein

      The Murkowski angle is interesting – she has been lobbied by one of her major constituency groups to vote “no” because “Native” Alaskans are concerned that Kavanaugh would rule against some of their constitutional protections.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Alaska is filled with teat-suckers. It seems everyone up there is getting something from the feds.

    4. Just Say’n

      So Murkowski and Collins are going to vote “no” on the final vote. And Flake is going to give some self congratulatory speech about “institutions” and some nonsense, while Welch creams his pants watching it on TV

      1. Chipwooder

        Collins says she’s announcing it later. Not sure why she’d vote for cloture but then against confirmation.

        1. Just Say’n

          Because she thinks this somehow satisfies everyone

          1. Chipwooder

            Then she’s even dumber than I thought.

        2. straffinrun

          She did say the FBI conducted “a thorough investigation”. Don’t know how she’d square that with a no vote.

        3. Drake

          So she can attention whore in front of cameras some more, pretend to be seriously considering it, collect IOU’s from whichever side has the highest bids for her vote…

    5. straffinrun

      51-49. Can’t imagine you could swing one of those 49 by tomorrow, but I could see one or two of those 51 flipping.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Let one flip, and have Pence break the tie.

        That would send them all into epileptic fits.

        1. straffinrun

          Looks likely it will go 50-50. I wouldn’t count on Manchin.

          1. MikeS

            Would Murkowski really vote “no” for confirmation, though? She almost got primaried last time, right?

          2. Subwoofer

            There’s no almost about it – she was primaried out. She mounted a write-in campaign and managed to win without being on the ballot.

            I believe it was around that time that she said she had no loyalty to the Team Red anymore.

          3. Raven Nation

            She got primaried in 2010 but then won the general as a write in.

          4. AlexinCT

            The way I heard it is that team red has made a deal with Manchin that if the vote is tied he will vote a yes, and if it looks like the vote is a no even without his vote, he can just abstain. That way he can avoid the wrath of team blue and prevent his deep red constituency that wants Kavanaugh from kicking his ass to the curb.

      2. Raphael

        Yup, that vote just now was waaayy too close. I don’t think he’s making it.

  62. Just Say’n

    I am really disappointed that Trump nominated Kavanaugh and we’re left discussing a lame bar fight where he threw ice in some guy’s face, rather than nominating Barrett and hearing all about a nasty catfight she had in college with a girl who was wearing an unacceptably low cut cocktail dress.

    Think of what could have been.

    1. LJW

      Pics or it didn’t happen?

      1. Just Say’n

        Grassley: This committee will need to thoroughly vet a security camera from Mrs. Barrett’s time in college when she was involved in a nasty altercation with another woman. We have subpoenaed the tape and have instructed the FBI to update the picture quality for senators to view

        Collins: Mr. Chairman, I don’t think it will be necessary for the committee to view this tape

        Bluemanthal: No, I think the chairman is right. I would only request that each individual senator be provided with their own copy of the incident and that the picture be blown-up for better home viewing

        Grassley: The Senator’s request has been granted. *whispers to Senator Graham* Oh man this is so hot

    2. Tres Cool

      Or maybe something like this ?

  63. Tres Cool

    Someone needs to get a really, big can of Raid.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder
      1. Tres Cool

        Oh fuck no.

        1 word: SQUISH

    2. It still doesn’t make me dislike the house centipedes any less. Even if they never get bigger than an inch or so.

      (They look creepy as hell and move really fucking fast. It doesn’t help with something all legs and spines startles me by darting in my periferal vision)

      1. RBS

        My apartment in DC was infested with them. Try coming home after as night of [REDACTED] to a bunch of those things crawling on the walls.

        1. Spotting one once in a while is bad enough. I would not be able to handle “a bunch” and would engage in saturation chemical warfare. I know they eat other bugs, but there are things I’m not rational about.

          1. Certified Public Asshat

            I don’t usually scream like a 12 year old girl, but when I do, it is because a house centipede has run out from underneath the shower curtain.

          2. Nephilium

            There are few things that creep me out, but I will join the bandwagon in admitting that house centipedes are one of those things.

          3. Rhywun

            I still hate roaches more. They only show up in my kitchen as a nagging reminder I’m not cleaning up well enough.

            Centipedes only show up in my bathtub and the kitties love to play with them.

          4. commodious spittoon

            My ex nearly left me over the roach problem we had. And it wasn’t all that bad, it was just the second night in a week she woke up with one skittering through the bedsheets.

          5. AlexinCT

            For a sec there as I was reading I thought she was angry you left your joints lying around till you mentioned the skittering on the bedsheets…

        2. BakedPenguin

          JFC. I thought I hated Florida roaches.

          I’ll take them over that.

    3. Here’s the headline adapted for me: “Man finds, shoots, decapitates, and immolates world’s largest centipede in backyard”

  64. Chipwooder

    Dems are some real master strategists

    Adrian Gray
    ‏@adrian_gray

    Qunnipiac: Generic Ballot among white women

    Jul 22: D+14
    Sep 9: D+5
    Sep 30: D+1

    1:25 PM – 4 Oct 2018

    1. Just Say’n

      This Kavanaugh hearing is probably the worst strategy that the Democrats have employed since they nominated Hillary Clinton for the presidency

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        As if Hillary gave them a choice?

        1. Just Say’n

          Imagine if they didn’t filibuster Gorsuch. Then they would still have the filibuster and could have killed Kavanaugh’s nomination already. Instead, now they have a zero percent change of taking the Senate and Kavanaugh may still end up on the court

          1. commodious spittoon

            Yep; they’d have forced Grassley to choose between the confirming Kav and holding on to the Senate. Delaying the vote might have hurt them electorally, but the nuclear option almost certainly would.

          2. commodious spittoon

            Er, McConnell.

    2. Viking1865

      Of all the insanities of the Left, the belief they seem to have that all women are crazy psycho feminists who hate their dads, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, etc is mindblowing. The Tumblrinas are believing their own bullshit, that they are Speaker For Teh Wimminz.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        They move about in echochambers and think everyone thinks like they do. It’s not serving them well this time.

        1. AlexinCT

          They thought they were playing 5D chess, only they were playing bad pocket pool…

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        The crazy progs have learned that being the loudest, they get the most attention in the party. They’ve weaponized their victimhood.

        1. AlexinCT

          Yup, this is pretty much it.

    3. commodious spittoon

      Wouldn’t you know it, most white women have white dads. A lot of them have white brothers. Some of them even have white sons! And only a hardcore minority would want to see them treated as shabbily as Kavanaugh on as scant a basis.

      1. Chipwooder

        Ovarian traitors!!!!

      2. Stinky Wizzleteats

        I don’t think it’s just white people who have a problem with this. There aren’t many people out there of any color that want to see their male relatives railroaded with 30 year old allegations.

        1. Chipwooder

          Plus, given history, I would think black people would be particularly uneasy with a standard of “Well, she says this guy raped her, so that alone is good enough for us”

          1. Viking1865

            There have been some spicy memes on Twitter of lynched black guys with the howling mob holding photo-shopped “BELIEVE WOMEN” signs.

          2. They’re not wrong. Emitt Till could speak to that if he hadn’t been lynched on the basis of a white woman lying about being sexually assaulted, which is something that only happened in the bad old days before color television and women becoming genetically incapable of being less than 100% factually accurate about sexual assault.

      3. wdalasio

        And some of those women, even if they don’t have white fathers, sons or brothers, just might have some modicum of a sense of justice that they believe only people who do bad things should be punished.

      4. I think there are probably also a number of women who knew people like Ford in high school and particularly in college. She strikes me as one of those chicks who is and probably was…maybe just a little high-strung, maybe has some weird thing about guys where she sort of wants their attention but is also afraid of them because she has some kind of anxiety or hang-ups about them. Not “crazy”, per se, but likely to maybe show some very tentative interest in a guy and then freak right the fuck out when he responds too aggressively.

  65. Chipwooder

    Well now!

    This whole fucking thing gets ever more rotten as more details emerge.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      You had to figure the DNC pulled in all their reliable hatchetmen when Ford came forward.

    2. commodious spittoon

      The first gif in the replies is gold.

      1. Drake

        * Goes ad looks*

        Yes – And they haven’t lifted off the gas yet.

    3. DOOMco

      How can anyone see her as truthful at this point

    4. Rebel Scum

      After reading through that, I am kinda surprised they did not just happen to *find* child porn on Kav’s computer.

  66. Juvenile Bluster

    Your nutpunch of the day (non-Congress edition)

    https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2018/10/clackamas_county_sheriff_calls.html

    3 Sheriff’s deputies videotape, laugh and mock prisoner while he dies on a cell floor from a drug overdose. One deputy resigned, two were “disciplined” (the Sheriff declined to say what the discipline was, so I’m guessing they got a letter of reprimand or the like). City taxpayers will pay for it I’m sure. The Sheriff is really, really sorry though.

    1. Raphael

      Christ, what assholes.

    2. Chipwooder

      Well, JB, they got home safely that night, so everything worked out OK.

    3. MikeS

      “Compassionate treatment of those suffering from addiction and/or mental health issues is a cornerstone of our agency,” [Sheriff] Roberts said.

      Funny way of showing it, you fuck.

  67. The Late P Brooks

    Collins says she’s announcing it later. Not sure why she’d vote for cloture but then against confirmation.

    I suspect she’s one of those people who are starting to become “uneasy” about the lynch mob.
    At least then she can say the process moved forward.

  68. The Late P Brooks

    Turning every youthful personal interaction into a potential Crime Against Humanity cannot lead anywhere but to robot brothels.

    I’m going all in.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      *invests in WD40*

    2. Subwoofer

      But it won’t matter. There’s no evidence at all that Kav and Ford were ever in the same room together but that hasn’t had any impact on the charges.

      If you start going to Robothels the “real” women who you’ve spurned for less risky alternatives will just accuse you of raping them because you pissed them off, like the girl in Tundra’s story earlier in the thread, and you’ll still go to jail.

      1. There’s no evidence at all that Kav and Ford were ever in the same room together

        So did they actually remove Kav from the Judiciary Committee chambers for her “testimony”?

        1. Subwoofer

          IIRC they were not in the same room at the same time. I didn’t see the whole thing, just parts of it even though NONE OF US WORK, but it looked like she said her thing and left, then he entered and said his thing.

          1. commodious spittoon

            If they’d been in the same room, CNN would have run clips of Kavanaugh grimacing during her testimony. And there’d be a 99% chance they dubbed her voice over unrelated footage.

          2. commodious spittoon

            “Mr. Simpson, your silence will only incriminate you further.”

        2. Creosote Achilles

          He testified that he didn’t even watch it on a monitor as he was preparing for his own testimony.

  69. kinnath

    This is a quick summary of the Democratic strategy on the Kavanaugh nomination.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nUS0BXkdDU

    1. AlexinCT

      Gives a whole new meeting to friendly fire…

  70. wdalasio

    Honestly, at this point, I’d say the only way forward is to nominate a complete and utter psychopath to replace Ginsberg. If Kavanaugh had hauled off and decked Booker during the hearing and broken his nose, I think the rest of the Senators would have gotten in line quickly enough.

    1. Can you imagine the nuclear holocaust that will result if RBG donks off while Trump’s in office and he gets ANOTHER nominee? The left doesn’t have any hair left to catch on fire after this episode. They’ve already taken it to 11, I don’t know how much further they can go.

      1. Bob Boberson

        I’m coming to believe violence is their only remaining move. Mad Max and what’s his nuts have already been not so subtly calling for it, I would expect for them to just come out and tell their constituents to start giving their conservative neighbors the ol’ Rand Paul treatment.

        1. commodious spittoon

          Their ideas aren’t electorally popular, their big policy achievements of the Obama years translated into crushing defeats at the ballot box, they lost an election to a widely (and often rightly) reviled man, their benches are depleted and they’re losing ground to very narrowly popular insurgents, and now they’ve converted what was supposed to be a solid lead in the House and the possibility of taking the Senate into a dubious retention of the status quo. They view the courts as their birthright, as Jonah Goldberg put it in his piece this morning, because it allows them to impose by judicial fiat what they can’t by legislative gumption. If they lose even a Roberts-led liberal-leaning majority in the SCOTUS, they will have nothing left. To most people, that would be a sign that they should reassess their ideology and restrain their rhetoric. After the past couple years and the past week especially, I don’t think they can.

          1. trshmnstr

            If they lose even a Roberts-led liberal-leaning majority in the SCOTUS, they will have nothing left

            I think this is roughly correct when viewed through the lens of the increasing irrelevance of the mainstream media, the ever growing private competition to public primary schools, the signs of cracking in the wall that they call college, and the Trump led delegitimization of the administrative state.

            The institutions that they spent 50+ years infiltrating and purifying are all starting to unravel at once.

          2. Bob Boberson

            It will be interesting to watch the student loan bubble burst. Inevitably the left will double down on “free collage” but if there isn’t the political will for it, it may just end up breaking the stranglehold progressives have on higher education. Time will tell.

          3. commodious spittoon

            When university staff see Medicaid-style payment offers for “free college,” they’re going to revolt.

          4. trshmnstr

            Many of the millennials I follow on Instagram (long story… It’s related to my Dave Ramsey debt free journey) are constantly posting about how nobody can get ahead these days and how student loans are such a damn societal burden.

            They get really pissy when I (talking in first person to avoid being “accusatory”) talk about having 10x the student debt they have and how it was my signature on those loan docs, not society’s. They get frothing mad when I post about how millennials have the ability to be the most successful generation in history.

            Lazy fucks.

          5. I didn’t need Society to help pay off my loans. Perhaps if these people had not made terrible choices about their field of study and future employment prospects, their interest wouldn’t be capitalizing on them.

          6. Bob Boberson

            To Unciv:

            Agreed but lets not forget what mendacious assholes the banks and universities are and the insidious roles they play; “You can afford it, with that degree you’ll make so much money it doesn’t matter.” An adult ought to know better but and 18 year old just barely qualifies.

          7. ChipsnSalsa

            Bob… I can get my 9 year old to make some free collages for anyone who wants them. She loves doing that stuff.

          8. @Bob: That’s a good point. Also, I know I wasn’t alone growing up in the 80s and 90s being told every day by every adult I encountered that the only path to any kind of viable career was a college degree. I believe the quote was always a variation of, “It doesn’t matter that much what you study, as long as you get that piece of paper so you can get a good job.” I was pushed toward CS and prelaw but went Poli Sci because I assumed that was how you began a career with the Illuminati.

            My wife is in academia and is already pushing that on our daughter, but I’m trying hard to balance it with stuff like, “This isn’t her college fund, this is her startup capital; if she wants to go to college, great, if not, great, so long as she’s working on a plan and is at least looking for a career of some kind.” And I’m dead serious, which I think my wife doesn’t understand; I’d wholeheartedly encourage my daughter to go into a trade before I’d encourage her to go to college and just pick a major when she figures out what she wants to do.

          9. commodious spittoon

            I was pushed toward CS

            You were one of the poor women a friend set me up with?

        2. trshmnstr

          Evil party gonna evil

        3. wdalasio

          And that’s the beginning of the end. When the “respectable” embrace violence, it’s never a one-way street. And the “respectable” pretty quickly get muscled out by the violent people they tolerate to advance their goals. In a world of street fighters, the skills of the president of the student council don’t really count for all that much.

          1. AlexinCT

            That street fighter is gonna make him/her their prison bitch.

      2. wdalasio

        Can you imagine the nuclear holocaust that will result if RBG donks off while Trump’s in office and he gets ANOTHER nominee?

        Maybe. Maybe not. I think the Kavanaugh fight was the one they couldn’t lose. Now there looks like there might be conservative majority on the SCOTUS. Losing Ginsberg now amounts to just a more heavily weighted conservative set of opinions.

      3. Subwoofer

        If he wins in 2020 its almost guaranteed unless RBG becomes the oldest SCOTUS justice.

    2. Bob Boberson

      Nick Nolte for SCOTUS!!

      1. Tres Cool

        Nah…..Busey.
        Or as Ive mentioned before, he can fire Pie and make Busey the press secretary.

        1. Bob Boberson

          I’d start shopping around for a MAGA hat

          1. Tres Cool

            tough to beat this- Gary on Hobbits

            https://vimeo.com/48759071

        2. MikeS

          I’d like to see James Woods as Press Sec

          1. Tres Cool

            I’d buy that for a dollar.

          2. commodious spittoon

            Dorsey would have an aneurysm.

    3. Chipwooder

      Get read for “The Apprentice: West Wing Edition”, as President Trump makes his Cabinet secretaries do idiotic projects in order to keep their jobs.

      1. trshmnstr

        “Whoever can get Pie to eat the most pies in a 24 hour period will win this round”

        1. MikeS

          And she has to bake them all herself, too.

  71. A Fuggin White Male

    Honest question: do you think Kavanaugh would have risen through the ranks as quickly as he did (or at all) if he had been a more staunch defender of 4A and 5A? Doubtful.

    Now, having seen him absolutely dragged through the mud and experiencing his own sort of violation of due process, along with the FISA abuse that has been uncovered (spying on the Trump admin), do you think it’s possible he’ll move more towards our side on 4A and 5A? Especially since he no longer has to worry about getting promoted??

    I hold out hope.

    1. Bob Boberson

      I wouldn’t hold your breath. Par of what’s so infuriating about this whole Kavanaugh debacle is that he isn’t a great pick by any stretch; at best he won’t be a net-loss for liberty. Sort of like we were saying about Trump a few months after Nov 2016; “Fuck you progressives for making me defend Kavanaugh.