Thursday Morning Rhode Warrior Links

I’ve spent this week on a business trip to New England, and am currently in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, fittingly the longest state name among the 57 states for the runt of the litter. I have gotten some interesting history lessons from my associates here, the most amusing of which (to me) was the SJW attempt about 10 years ago to have the state renamed because it sounded racist. That attempt was a spectacular electoral failure, which increases my respect for Rhode Island’s denizens. It is especially ironic considering Roger Williams’s own life and history, which was as a strong advocate for the local casino-not-call-center Indians, enough so to arouse the ire of the nearby Massholes. Rhode Island today is apparently a Mafia colony, which explains why it has traditionally had the highest protection money taxes in the nation.

Anyway, I’ll spend my last hours here putting up links before returning home- and I hope that SP hasn’t spent her entire allowance on more Barbie stuff while I was gone. The babysitter is supposed to watch these things, but teenagers today seem to have lost much of their sense of responsibility.

Today in history is quite momentous. It is the anniversary of the founding of the Gestapo and of the Ehrfurt mass school shooting in Germany (which I am assured never happens in Europe because of common-sense gun laws). It is also the birthday of Sal “The Barber” Maglie, Bernard Malamud (my favorite Jew-writer), Rudolph Hess (everyone’s favorite Nazi), Ma Rainey (today’s featured image), and David Hume.

In today’s news…

 

TDS Of The Day. And some delightful irony tossed in.

The lawyer representing The Happiest Hour, Elizabeth Conway, argued that he was not discriminated against because only religious – not political – beliefs are protected under state and city discrimination law. “Supporting Trump is not a religion,” Conway argued.

 

Don’t fuck with Microsoft. Just… don’t.

Although restore disks are given to everyone who buys a computer with a licensed version of Windows (and can be downloaded for free), Microsoft decided to press criminal charges against Lundgren for distributing the disks, which he did to help people keep their computers running longer. Microsoft argued that this free-to-download software was worth $25 per disk, which the court accepted.

 

The New York Times never gets tired of running Rednecks In the Mist stories. Today’s delight examines the ubiquitous phenomenon of Waffle House, with a wonderfully wide-eyed contempt because they feature racism served six ways.

 

Ford will stop making and selling cars in the US. Except, apparently, the Mustang. Apparently, stupid rednecks who hate the Earth only want to drive pick-ups and muscle cars. We really do need more regulations to make sure that people’s freedom to choose does not include wrong choices.

 

Oh, those wacky Jews are at it again! This time, killing a fine family man who only wanted to improve life for his impoverished people.

 

OK, a weekday edition of Old Guy Music, this time from the days when Fleetwood Mac was actually an interesting band. The band I was in covered this song, so every time I hear it, my fingers start twitching in sympathetic memory.

 

Comments

480 responses to “Thursday Morning Rhode Warrior Links”

  1. Count Potato

    “The Happiest Hour denied that Piatek had been removed in the first place, stating Piatek “was sufficiently pleased with his service at the bar [and] that he added” a $36 tip onto the $186 tab, according to the New York Post. The bar owners suggest Piatek’s lawsuit was a “publicity stunt.””

    FAKE NEWS!

    1. Slammer

      ““Anyone who supports Trump — or believes in what you believe — is not welcome here! And you need to leave right now because we won’t serve you!””

      The Harpiest Hour

      1. He should have asked her to bake him a cake.

    2. Bobarian LMD

      “Supporting Trump is not a religion,”

      It’s not like he’s Obama.

  2. Slammer

    “Ford will stop making and selling cars in the US.”

    Fix Or Repair Daily?

    First On Race Day?

    Fucked-up Old Rebuilt Dodge?

    1. Old Man With Candy

      Fix It Again Tony

    2. Neither my Focus nor my C-MAX have shown anything but solid reliability (admittedly the Focus stopped working, but that was because of the Buick in the wheel well)

    3. What really pisses me off is that I have no interest in truck-sized daily transport (Overkill for my purposes) and I don’t like most of the companies that do sell proper cars.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Are they too spicy?

        1. No, they’re foreign. (Or they took taxpayer bailouts)

          1. MikeS

            I’m the same. Ford is the only auto company that doesn’t fit one of those two descriptors. It sucks to see them struggling.

          2. Bobarian LMD

            I don’t believe it is so much ‘struggling’ as getting out of the segment of the market where margins are thin. I’m with UCS (and bought the wife a Focus), but Ford makes more money off 1 truck than they do off of 3 cars.

            If I were to buy a truck, I want Ford to bring back a Courier, because the new Ranger looks to be bigger than an old F150.

          3. MikeS

            I am curious how the gas mileage mandates will affect them by removing those fuel efficient vehicles. Does it mean more Mustangs with 4 cylinders and more F150’s with under-powered 6 cylinders? Makers have to meet a certain mileage average number across their lineup, don’t they? I’m not sure how that works…

          4. Bobarian LMD

            There is a separate standard for cars vs. trucks.

            But, yes, Ford could have a problem with only Mustangs on the car side.

            There was some talk of making a hybrid ‘Stang, though.

          5. A Mustang without a V8 is not a Mustang.

            Even a V6 is a betrayal of principle.

          6. Brett L

            I had a friend who had a ’76 Ranger. That motherfucker was the size of an F-250 and had 2 gas tanks. So– its kind of a middle ground now. Just face it, there’s not much demand for 4-cylinder fuel sippers with gas prices under $3 a gallon everywhere that doesn’t tax it outrageously.

          7. MikeS

            Yeah, “Ranger” and “Explorer” were trim packages offered in those ’70s full sized Ford trucks. I had a ’74 F100 Ranger XLT

          8. I thought the Focus was also spared.

      2. Meh, I hate the kinetic typography that dominates their ads.

    4. MikeS

      Found On Road Dead

    5. Sensei

      Dodge? Please – they are made with Mostly Old Parts And Rust.

    6. Rasilio

      Yeah well it is a good thing they stopped selling Pontiac’s because those were so racist

      1. They stopped selling Pontiac’s what?

        1. MikeS

          Pontiacs line of car’s.

          1. Badolph Hilter

            Thi’s guy get’s it.

    7. Drake

      I don’t get it.

      I considered a Focus ST before my last car purchase. Pretty nice, almost bought it. Are they really dumping all those models of normal cars?

      1. Brett L

        Not enough margin. There’s a knife fight with Kia, Toyota, Mazda, Fiat to sell those efficiency cars. Ford has 40% of the pickup truck market, and pickups sell for $35k+ now, with lots over $50k.

        1. Bring back the Crown Vic.

  3. PieInTheSKy

    Don’t fuck with Microsoft. Just… don’t.

    Although restore disks are given to everyone who buys a computer with a licensed version of Windows (and can be downloaded for free), Microsoft decided to press criminal charges against Lundgren for distributing the disks, which he did to help people keep their computers running longer. Microsoft argued that this free-to-download software was worth $25 per disk, which the court accepted.

    I blame the free market and capitalism

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s a bit of an asshole move and they’ve been making a lot of those lately. Can anyone recommend a good Linux distribution for a Linux beginner?

      1. What are you planning to use the machine for?

        1. Stinky Wizzleteats

          Just general computing and web surfing, nothing too demanding.

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Mr. Lundgren sought out counterfeit software which he disguised as legitimate and sold to other refurbishers

        Not that much of an asshole move. If he had avoided using the Microsoft name, he probably would have been in the clear.

        Other than that, Ubuntu is decent. It’s just a headache to keep up with.

        1. I stopped endorsing them for desktops when they introduced the craptastic “Unity” interface. I still use it for my home fileserver.

          1. Lachowsky

            Home file server. You’re a government employee with a home server, eh. Where did you get that idea from?

          2. I was a Tech guy long before I was a government employee. Keeping my data in one spot where it can be managed and accessed from the other network nodes just made sense.

            None of the data there is the state’s.

          3. Lachowsky

            Nothing but emails about your daughter’s wedding, I’m sure.

          4. Don’t be silly.

            It’s porn.

          5. Bobarian LMD

            It also helps keep his bathroom toasty warm.

          6. For the last time, I do not live in Chappaqua!

      3. robc

        As a desktop, Mint is easy to install and use.

        1. My daily is Windows 10 for gaming, light office productivity software use, and mostly front-end web development, but I dual-boot Mint for goofin’ around and for some other dev stuff, like if I want to have a LAMP stack but not deal with XAMPP. I like it, but like I say I don’t really put it through its paces.

      4. Juan-Baptiste Emmanuel Seguin

        I started with Mint. It’s been pretty easy.

      5. Emmerson Biggins

        I like Mint, with Mate as the desktop manager.

        Right mix of “just works” and “I don’t need your fancy shit, get off my front lawn” for me.

        It’s basically Ubuntu without the shitty Unity desktop.

  4. PieInTheSKy

    The New York Times never gets tired of running Rednecks In the Mist stories. Today’s delight examines the ubiquitous phenomenon of Waffle House, with a wonderfully wide-eyed contempt because they feature racism served six ways. – I would comment by I want to limit my clicking of new your times links

    1. Not clicking a link has never stopped me from commenting. Join the carefree glibertariat.

      1. Wait, you can click on the links? What happens then?

        1. *shrug* it’s a mystery.

        2. Zunalter

          A piece of your soul is trapped in the link forever.

    2. straffinrun

      I’ve never been to a Waffle House, but I didn’t need to read that article to figure out that it’s a place that sells… waffles. OWMC’s description of it was too generous. Total pile of shit piece.

      1. I’ve never thought of it as a Southern thing so much as an urban thing. You’re out with your friends and close down the bar/club, but you’re not ready for the night to end, you’re kinda drunk, and you want some place you can go sit, eat, and regroup. So you go to an all-night diner, most of which are centered around breakfast food. And, around me at least, are either chains like IHOP or Waffle House, or are owned by Greek people.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          or are owned by Greek people

          Lemme guess, the Greek matriarch sits on the till while the rest of the family works for next to nothing.

          1. Pretty much. There’s a patriarch kind of walking around supervising at people, usually an older brother running the bar area, and then the rest of the fam in various roles. Hard to tell what they’re pulling in, though. They do a good, steady business but I tremble to think of the overhead for a menu that looks like a phone book.

        2. Rasilio

          The double t diner on West street is awesome. My wife will often make me driver here there from Kent Island at midnight just to get the Matzo ball soup.

          That said I’m guessing you never lived south of the Chessapeake, lets just say that down there Waffle House is a bit more than it is up here. There are intersections in Atlanta where there are Waffle Houses on multiple corners of the same intersection. Waffle House is very much an institution in the South. There is also something of a racial element to it in Georgia. Waffle House is for whites and blacks go to Huddle House (essentially the same thing but a different company)

          1. Yeah, I’ve been in Annapolis or the surrounding areas just about all of my life. I remember when they put that Double T up. Back in the day I practically had my mail delivered to the smoking section on weekend nights.

          2. Old Man With Candy

            Is that the same as the Double T that was on Rt 40 and Rolling?

          3. Rasilio

            Not sure exactly where that is but probably.They have about a dozen locations in Eastern Md

          4. Brawndo

            “There is also something of a racial element to it in Georgia. Waffle House is for whites and blacks go to Huddle House.”

            I grew up in Georgia and still go to WaHo when I visit, and I’ve never seen this.

    3. Copy and then incognito mode for NYT and WaPo links.

  5. gbob

    A #metoo moment for giant sloths?

    We argue that the tracks evidence temporal and spatial associations of sloths and humans and infer that humans actively stalked and/or harassed sloths, if not hunted them.

    I like to think we were just setting up for a really slow moving gang bang.

    (On a side note, as a kid I loved the giant sloth bones at the Smithsonian.)

    1. Think about it – most of human history revolved around the search of sufficent food. You have a walking buffet moving slowly overland, of course humans are going to hunt it. In fact, harrassins animals into fleeing until exhaustion is a siganture move of humans alongside tool use. They probably just strolled along behind the sloth until it collapsed then carved it up for dinner.

      1. gbob

        It’s really the fault of extinct animals for being so damn tasty.

      2. WTF

        Yes, the reason that humans are relatively hairless (to shed heat efficiently) and have well developed glutes is an adaptation for long distance endurance running, a strategy used to run other animal into exhaustion for an easy kill.

        1. SugarFree

          the reason that humans are relatively hairless (to shed heat efficiently)

          Only if you dismiss The Aquatic Ape theory, which makes SEA SMITH very angry.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis

          1. I do dismiss it.

          2. WTF

            YOU NOT LIKE SEA SMITH WHEN HE ANGRY!!

          3. Bobarian LMD

            AND YOU REALLY NOT LIKE HIM WHEN HE HAPPY!

          4. I think it’s a fun idea but I don’t think that the evidence given adequately supports the premise.

          5. Bobarian LMD

            Aquatic Ape Conference

            Now that sounds like a party!

            And a band name.

    2. Suthenboy

      Misanthropes and malthusians are fond of the theory that man’s arrival in NA is the cause of so many extinctions. What they conveniently leave out is that the late pleistocene is the beginning of the end of the last ice age, one that is still in the process of ending.

  6. PieInTheSKy

    Cry Closet’ Installed for Finals at University of Utah

    https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2018/04/26/cry-closet-installed-finals-university-utah

    A student at the University of Utah has invented a solution to the pressure of finals week, which begins at the college today: a library “cry closet.”

    Nemo Miller, a senior in the fine arts program, installed the closet in Utah’s library Sunday. The installation will remain in the library until finals week ends May 2, spokeswoman Jana Cunningham said in an interview. Miller was profiled as a Human of the U last week.

    1. Old Man With Candy

      How low the mighty LDS church has fallen.

      1. leonadasiv

        Haha, so it’s funny, while a good chunk of the school is LDS (I myself an alumnus), it’s the ‘satan school’ (jokingly) as it’s not BYU (the school actually run by the LDS church). I’m not surprised, but a am saddened.

        1. Old Man With Candy

          Yeah, I used to teach at the U and the dynamics were fascinating.

    2. Bobarian LMD

      How many penii will cry there?

    3. Akira

      Just more babying that goes on at colleges these days.

      One of the pharmacists at work mentioned going to “adulting” classes. Why the fuck is that a thing?

    4. If he’s not charging for time in the closet, he’s dumb.

  7. gbob

    Was the lawyer sleepy, or did Cosby just take a fancy to him?

    Mesereau slept at the defense table for some 30 minutes, and awoke as the testimony from the deposition was still being read. His nap was not commented on by the judge or anyone in the courtroom.

    During the often-explicit testimony, Cosby occasionally smiled. He spent much of the two-hour reading rubbing his eyes and face.

  8. Choad Island? Sorry to hear that.

  9. gbob

    Bad boys, bad boys. What you going to do?

    Footage has been released of a 2014 shootout at a Nebraska Wendy’s restaurant that took the life of a ‘Cops’ sound technician as he rushed to film an encounter between police and a robber.

    Bryce Dion, 38, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest during filming, was fatally shot in the armpit and died after cops opened fire.

  10. gbob

    At least now you can run over old people while saving the planet.

    Sunday morning in Lutz, Florida, a woman trying to park her Tesla Model X to go to a nail salon ended up putting the car into a gym’s wall. No one was hurt in the incident, though one poor guy’s workout was rudely interrupted.

    1. Tundra

      The driver told troopers and deputies that she was coming into the parking lot to stop at the nearby nail salon, and says she was pressing the brakes, but the vehicle kept accelerating.

      Uh huh. No fan of Tesla but that is absolute bullshit.

      1. People have been stepping on the accelerator thinking it was the brake for as long as there have been pedals in cars. I hate Tesla, but this sounds like driver error.

      2. Pope Jimbo

        Jokes on her. Pretty soon Tesla won’t have any money so she won’t be able to extort a settlement from Elon.

        Like UCS says, this sort of bullshit claim has been around forever. Listen to Malcom Gladwell’s Blame Game.

      3. WTF

        Of course it’s bullshit. Hop in your car, put it in gear, and step on both the brake and the accelerator simultaneously as hard as you can. You aren’t going anywhere because the accelerator cannot overcome the brakes.

        1. Michael

          The ’69 Galaxie I used to have had no trouble whatsoever overcoming the brakes in that situation. It still didn’t move very far, granted, but the rear wheels performed a delightful smoke show.

          Also, I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss this woman’s claim. In the olden days it would absolutely been bullshit since the brake and accelerator pedals were distinctly separate, mechanically actuated devices. Teslas (and most other modern cars) now feature drive-by-wire which basically means that there are no mechanical cables directly connecting the throttle to the accelerator pedal. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover that this happened due to some firmware glitch.

          1. WTF

            The ’69 Galaxie I used to have had no trouble whatsoever overcoming the brakes in that situation.
            That just means there was something wrong with your brakes.

            Teslas (and most other modern cars) now feature drive-by-wire which basically means that there are no mechanical cables directly connecting the throttle to the accelerator pedal.
            Still shouldn’t be able to overcome the brakes.

  11. Count Potato

    “Kanye West put his love for Donald Trump on full display as he donned his MAGA hat while leaving his California studio not long after he traded adoring tweets with the president and blasted former president Barack Obama on Twitter.

    West proclaimed that the mob ‘can’t make me not love’ Trump and praised the President’s ‘dragon energy’.

    ‘You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him,’ he wrote.

    ‘We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals.’

    He later revealed that his MAGA hat is signed by the President himself, posting a picture of the accessory, which itself prompted another reply from Trump which simply read: ‘MAGA!’”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5658359/Kanye-West-leaves-studio-wearing-MAGA-hat-traded-adoring-tweets-President-Trump.html

    Kanye 2024?

    1. Slammer

      All I’ve seen are headlines like, “Is Kayne Unhinged?”, “Kayne has a Meltdown”, “Kayne was addicted to Drugs and had a Breakdown”. “Is Kayne Crazy?”.

      The Narrative is to portray Kayne the Trump supporter as mentally ill.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        From what I’ve seen of Kanye I’d think a West-Trump friendship would be a match made in Heaven.

        1. Both of them are unbearable narcissistic blowhards. Makes sense.

    2. Bobarian LMD

      Pence better look out.

      VP West.

    3. CPRM

      *begins looking for audio of kanye rants for a project*

  12. MikeS

    “Supporting Trump is not a religion,” Conway argued.

    Opposing him sure seems to be.

    1. Slammer

      Nice.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      Wait so now religion is a valid reason to deny someone service? Is baking a cake some sort of exception?

      Oh yeah, this is another principles before principals.

      The MAGA hat guy should have claimed he was gay. Made those fuckers serve him. And demand body shots off the waitress (although that might undermine his claim to be gay?)

      1. MikeS

        Not if he self-identifies as a lesbian.

      2. Gadfly

        The MAGA hat guy should have claimed he was gay. Made those fuckers serve him. And demand body shots off the waitress (although that might undermine his claim to be gay?)

        That’s why you always claim “bi”.

      3. Hyperion

        You guys think small. If you really want to quickly claim some privilege, just claim you are a gay Muslim transsexual who identifies as a pony.

        1. MikeS

          Don’t forget gluten-sensitive vegan

  13. OK, a weekday edition of Old Guy Music, this time from the days when Fleetwood Mac was actually an interesting band.

    So you don’t have a big love for later-era Fleetwood Mac?

  14. MikeS

    Awesome old man music today. Back before Fleetwood Mac started sucking.

    1. Tundra

      Agreed. Excellent song.

    2. Drake

      I love Peter Green Fleetwood Mac. He and Danny Kirwan were both geniuses – who both took bad LSD and went insane. But they cranked out some spectacular stuff for a few years.

      (I do like some of the Bob Welch and Christine McVie stuff too)

        1. Drake

          Well it does feature the world’s greatest marching band.

      1. R C Dean

        I love Peter Green Fleetwood Mac.

        Yup. I recall giving his solo album a real workout when I was in college.

        1. MikeS

          +1 Rattlesnake Shake euphemism.

        2. Drake

          In the Skies?

          The album has some great grooves to it – although Snowy White did a lot of the lead guitar since Green had kind of gone insane for a few years.

    3. Drake

      Alright, now I’m listening to old Fleetwood Mac all day.

      Here’s Hugh Hefner introducing the band as they play a song about jerking it – while Hugh’s with Barbie Benton who was the subject of much bunk-time in the 70’s.

      Now, I know this guy
      His name is Mick
      Now, he don’t care when he ain’t got no chick
      He do the shake
      The rattlesnake shake
      Yes, he do the shake
      And jerks away the blues
      Now, jerk it

      1. MikeS

        Oh that kicks ass. I may go digging through old ‘Mac now too!

  15. gbob

    L’il Sebastian given police escort.

    Police responded to a call that the tiny horse was running down U.S. Highway 27 last week and got a workout trying to catch the escaped pony on foot.

    The department released dispatch audio from their pursuit of the pony. An officer can be heard saying the horse was near a Popeye’s restaurant, then running away. The officer asked for more help and finally reported that the horse was near fences and had nowhere else to go.

    I am embarrassed to admit that until two years ago, when I started doing photography at rodeos, I did not know that a pony wasn’t a baby horse.

    1. MikeS

      *Insert Popeye’s horse meat joke here*

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Breaded Cajun Pony Fingers?

    2. Brett L

      The cops down there know all the horses that are stump trained, too.

  16. PieInTheSKy

    Neandertals, Stone Age people may have voyaged the Mediterranean

    http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/neandertals-stone-age-people-may-have-voyaged-mediterranean

    1. gbob

      My unsupported by actual facts view has always been that pre-ice age civilizations may have been more sophisticated then we gave them credit for. Humanity was spread too far out to be simple nomads before the bottleneck event.

      1. robc

        Hence the high CO2 levels right?

        1. Yes. The first Industrial Revolution not recorded and lost to the sands of time.

          1. Rasilio

            Bah apparently you missed my proving there was no prehistoric industrial civilization in yesterdays morning links.

            Basically if there had been a high technology (and for this purpose I mean anything post 1900 level of tech) civilization that existed on earth before now then there would be little to no coal that originated in the Carboniferous left because that civilization would have used it as a primary energy source.

          2. Bah, it’s almost as if I also posted something similar yesterday around the same time.

          3. Emmerson Biggins

            Obviously the anti gravity machines that were used to build the pyramids also had a power mode.

      2. Hyperion

        The suppression of ancient secret knowledge is even more suppressed than you might think. They excavated new ruins in Guatemala recently, Mayan ruins and there’s proof they had wireless technology! No wires were found anywhere! /things they don’t want you to know

    2. My reaction to this type of headline seems to often be “No shit, Sherlock”. Given the remote islands that stone-age cultures managed to populate before recorded history, it would be more shocking if boats were not among the technologies from the dawn of time alongside spears and clubs.

    3. Suthenboy

      “The orthodoxy until pretty recently was that you don’t have seafarers until the early Bronze Age”

      “The earliest known boat, found in the Netherlands, dates back only 10,000 years or so”

      This is more of the ‘how did humans domesticate dogs’ nonsense. Humans and no doubt Neandertals have been hollowing out logs and lashing logs together for as long as there have been people and Neandertals. There are hundreds of examples of stone age people with quite sophisticated boats and sea faring ability from nearly every continent right up until today.

      1. Suthenboy

        I meant to say stone age technology.

        1. egould310

          I was watching a documentary where the cave women used baby mammoths as vacuum cleaners, and cavemen used baby pterodactyls as hedge trimmers. It apparantly was a fairly sophisticated society with civic organizations based on the mythology of water buffaloes. Go figure.

          1. MikeS

            I saw that documentary too. They used a brontosaurus as a crane in the rock quarry. Fascinating stuff.

      2. “There’s no evidence” but primitive small boats A: rot easily and B: the remains don’t look that artificial. Plus the materials can easily be repurposed once you get where you’re going, so a lot of them will have been dismantled, or even intentially burned for fuel.

        1. And lastly – the Pleisticene coastline is underwater! Glacial melt innundated it, making it damn difficult to find the stone age coastal settlements.

        2. Tonio

          ^This.

      3. Precisely. I’ve been playing the historical simulation “Far Cry: Primal” and it got me thinking a little bit about pre-Columbian American cultures, which were effectively Neolithic cultures. They were technologically sophisticated not to mention socially complex, and the idea that they would be capable of establishing large empires with trade networks and bureaucratic administration but not be able to make a really big canoe isn’t very believable.

        1. The Aztec capital was built on a series of Artificial islands in the middle of a lake. But boats are on the ‘Bronze Age’ technology tree, so they couldn’t get in or out of the city.

          1. Hyperion

            That was only around 900 AD or so ago if I remember correctly. But yeah, they built Tenochtitlan on a lake. Apparently they also had some pretty amazing technology going, that took the Spanish by surprise. We might even know something about it if the Spanish didn’t destroy the city in pretty much it’s entirety and build Mexico City on top of it. Shame really, we lost a lot of history there.

          2. Hyperion

            There we walkways out of the city they built, they wouldn’t have needed boats.

          3. Don’t spoil the joke.

          4. MikeS

            I got it, UCS.

            *silent chuckle*

    4. +1 Thor Heyerdahl

    5. CPRM

      One of the mysteries I’m interested in is The Copper Culture. The only ones to use metal work on a large scale in pre-colombian america, and instead of starting a bronze age, the tech just died out.

      1. Their environmentalists insisted that smelting copper would destroy the world.

  17. Count Potato

    “Days before the alleged August 2016 rape, the woman apparently wrote to him: ‘love to c u soon’ and ‘I emailed u love’ when she did not receive a reply back right away.

    A few weeks after the alleged second attack, she wrote to him: ‘I miss you Russell… are you OK?’ and ‘Sending love,’ as well as ‘Coming to 1 a. I want to see u OK’, according to the documents. Simmons said he ignored the messages.

    Phat Farm clothing creator Simmons and self-proclaimed ‘writer and yoga instructor’ Jarosik have been ‘casual’ acquaintances for over a decade, he said.

    The documents alleged the woman has a ‘propensity to exaggerate,’ suffers ‘untreated mental health issues,’ and is ‘unfit to properly parent’ her young son.”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5657691/Rape-lawsuit-filed-against-Russell-Simmons-DISMISSED-pair-reached-settlement.html

    1. Hyperion

      But, but… the accuser deserves to be believed, it’s her reality whether it’s true or not! *Lights the Twitter mob signal*

  18. Tundra

    I like Providence. I used to have to go there for biz and always stayed up on Federal Hill with all the goombahs. Dunkin Donuts Center for a Providence Bruins game on occasion.

    Nice place.

    1. Rhode Island-style calamari is very good. The mansions at Newport are also worth a gander.

  19. robc

    One hand: My article drops at 11 CT today, so sharpen your knives.

    Other hand: I am leading a meeting at 11, so won’t get to comment myself until after lunch. Hopefully nothing else comes in until the afternoon links.

    Gripping hand: You don’t care what I have to say anyway.

    The one bad thing about this site is that threads go dead the instant the next one posts.

    1. Did someone hear something?

    2. Have you changed topics yet?

      1. robc

        I believe my last published article was on college football, so yes.

        1. robc

          The only other thing to say is it is not the article I have been promising for a year.

        2. Football is not a subject I get passionate about, so I wouldn’t have noticed.

    3. straffinrun

      One hand: My article drops at 11 CT today, so sharpen your knives.

      Um, not thanks. (I owed you that)

    4. Brochettaward

      I hope you don’t expect me to read the damn thing before commenting.

      1. Read? The Articles? That’s Crazy Talk.

      2. Tundra

        I’m not even waiting for the article:

        OT: Congressmen Call for Disclosure of U.S. Aid to Palestinian Terrorists

        You know, I’d like to know that number.

        1. straffinrun

          Point awarded for sneaky linkage.

        2. Rufus the Monocled

          I wonder if spiked under that faux-intellectual half-wit.

      3. robc

        I rarely read articles, and I sure don’t wait to comment even when I do.

  20. Pope Jimbo

    Officer Noor is going to plead Not Guilty Because I Feared For My Life.

    Local attorneys say it will be difficult for Freeman to secure a guilty verdict on the murder charge, given the lack of body camera footage and the fact that Noor has declined to speak with state investigators or a grand jury probing Damond’s death. Noor is the second Minnesota officer in recent memory to be charged with an on-duty death and the first to be charged with murder.

    Noor’s legal team, he said, will likely ask a jury to consider the facts from the perspective of a reasonable officer, a legal standard established in the 1989 Supreme Court case Graham v. Connor, and a common defense in police shooting cases.

    1. leonadasiv

      “perspective of a reasonable officer”

      If only such a thing existed.

    2. straffinrun

      He added that observers might wonder: “If he accidentally shot her, then why he didn’t say that?

      “Well, if he says that, then he’s guilty of some derivative of manslaughter,” Padden said.

      It wasn’t an accident. I just shit my pants and fired on a defenseless person. Wow.

    3. Suthenboy

      How in hell are they going to seat a jury for that guy?

      1. Pope Jimbo

        I don’t know what you’ve heard Suthen, but I’m sure that the rumors of Minneapolis cops being overwhelmingly gay are overblown and they will be able to find 12 women who are married to a cop. OK, maybe not 12, but they can add a few Somalis to round out the jury.

    4. Anybody who tries that defense against a cop banging on their door at 2AM is going to get laughed out of court.

      1. Viking1865

        +1 Cory May.

    5. Lachowsky

      If that cop in Arizona who shot a man on his knees who was crying and begging for his life can and get off, Noor has nothing to worry about.

  21. straffinrun

    Man charged with libel for hate speech against Koreans

    The prosecutors charged that Hitoshi Nishimura, a former senior member of Zaitokukai, defamed a pro-Pyongyang Korean school in Kyoto by saying via a loudspeaker in a park in April last year, “We must kick out (from Japan) a school that has kidnapped Japanese,” while streaming his speech live on the internet.

    Count Dankura.

    1. I agree, any pro-NorK school needs to be chucked in the sea.

      1. straffinrun

        Even Berkeley?

        1. Suthenboy

          Especially Berkeley

        2. Especially Berkeley.

        3. LJW

          Especially Berkeley… I’ve heard if you say it three times Berkeley gets sucked into another dimension.

        4. Especially Berkeley.

        5. Slammer

          One of you forgot to log out

    2. Stinky Wizzleteats

      For God’s sake Japan, don’t fall into this trap.

    3. Sensei

      They missed the mark. It would have been more entertaining to see them go after Yuriko Koike.

      The Pride And (Anti-Korean) Prejudice Of Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike Is A Big Problem

      I’d be curious to hear how Pope Jimbo’s wife dealt with her time in Japan.

  22. Count Potato

    “The CDC Study The Anti-Gun Lobby Doesn’t Want You To Know About

    Did you know that defensive gun use is happening more regularly in the United States than gun crimes?! Probably not!

    Why? Because the Centers for Disease Control never publicized it.

    The agency sat on this information for years. The unpublished CDC Study confirms there are nearly 2.5 million defensive gun use situations per year. A lot higher than 100,000, which is the low-ball number leftists have been throwing around recently.”

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/24/cdc-study-anti-gun-lobby/

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Gut the CDC of the public health/sociology majors and return it to its original mandate. It’s way overdue.

      1. Just get rid of it altogether. I don’t know what they do other than churn out politicized junk science anyway.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          There’s a shrinking contingent of people who do actual research on communicable diseases.

    2. LJW

      One of my first jobs out of college was at a bank. In training they bragged that they have un-armed guards in the bank because studies showed that armed guards provoke violence with robbers. A month after I started one of the guards was shot and killed in a robbery.

      1. “If she didn’t want to get raped, she shouldn’t have worn that outfit!”

    3. Suthenboy

      A lie of omission is still a lie. Gun grabbers lie, news at 11.

    4. “Well, Congress said we couldn’t conduct gun-related studies. Hands tied!”

    5. Viking1865

      The lowball number of 100,000 was calculated by Handgun Control Inc. So even the gun grabbers admit that there are 6 times as many DGUs as there are total homicides in this country. Even the people who want to take away your handguns admit that handguns save more lives than they take.

      The NRA throws around 2 million. CDC found it was almost 2.5 million.

      A great example of Bastiat’s old “seen and unseen”.

    6. creech

      Only 100,000? O.K. so we need to say “I don’t care if it is only once. How would you feel if it was your family being threatened and we prevented you from usin a gun to save their lives?”

      1. kinnath

        No, the answer is: “my rights are not subject to some fucking business case that decides whether or not more lives are saved/lost because of guns”.

        The statistics for defensive gun use are important to showing that gun grabbers are idiots. But using those statistics to justify gun ownership is falling into their trap. I don’t have to prove shit about anything — I have the right to own at gun. That’s all the farther we need to go.

        1. Lachowsky

          Pretty much this.

          Molan Labe motherfuckers.

        2. Agreed, but it’s helpful to be able to say, “This right is unalienable, and it’s not just stiff-necked adherence to obscure philosophical principle. So not only are gun rights important on principled grounds, they’re important on pragmatic grounds as well. The real-world evidence of the exercise of the principle is further evidence that the principle exists.”

          1. Akira

            Yep. Beat them on both fronts.

  23. So lemme get this straight…

    If the Nazi cake people had just said they wouldn’t serve teh gheyz because of the latters’ political beliefs and not their bedroom antics, it would be 100% fine?

    1. sounds queer to me.

    2. straffinrun

      Yes. Thank god politics, religion and sexuality are completely separate.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        So… does that mean banging your wife while she wears a nun’s habit and you’re wearing a Trump mask is constitutional or unconstitutional?

  24. Pope Jimbo

    The Stupid Party is hard at work here in Minnesoda. Turns out there are secret talks going on to turn them from the majority to the minority.

    Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt revealed Wednesday that there have been behind-the-scenes talks for some time about possible compromise legislation on gun control. He didn’t rule out action on gun measures before the session concludes in a few weeks.

    “I hope that there is. I think there will be. I think there can be. I don’t know what that looks like yet,” he said.

    Holy shi-ite. You’d think that the head pol would understand that the reason there is no vote for gun control is because almost all the pols in Minnesoda know that it is a huge loser of an issue. One attention whore of a new pol has a sit in and you cave? Fuck that noise. The other pols in the GOP better storm into his office and shut this shit down. And then vote for a new leader next time.

    1. MikeS

      And I saw just today a Republican authored bill to raise the Minnesoda state income tax.

      1. Tundra

        We are now fifth in the nation as far as tax burden. Minne has been coasting for years on a med-tech driven economy and a damn nice environment. If this taxation insanity continues, we will become Illinois in a heartbeat.

        1. Lachowsky

          “damn nice environment”

          citation needed.

          1. Bobarian LMD

            It was a typo — “damn n ice environment”

      2. Hyperion

        At that point, they’re no longer Republicans. It’s like that all over the east coast. There are so called Republicans, it’s just that they’re really Democrats pretending to be the opposition.

  25. Count Potato

    “Swedish woman who accompanied two Afghans to prove that xenophobes are wrong, is raped and abused

    A middle-aged Swedish woman was raped and abused by two Afghan asylum seekers in their asylum accommodation, Fria Tider reports. The woman, who was a member of a Facebook group against migrant deportations, tried to prove that xenophobes are wrong about the fact that Afghans are dangerous.

    The woman was raped and harassed on 26 December last year. She wanted to meet someone during a night out and when she was unsuccessful, decided to go with the two Afghan men, she told the police.

    She met the two unaccompanied refugees from Afghanistan outside a pub and decided to accompany them to their asylum centre in Ljungby.

    When they arrived at the men’s room in the asylum accommodation, things changed rapidly. They drank alcohol and one of the men started touching her, even though she told him she didn’t want him to and against her repeated protests.

    Later, one of the men, called Anwar, raped her vaginally and anally, while the other masturbated next to her. It was a very painful experience she said.

    After getting away the woman called the police. The two Afghans were arrested and were convicted last week by the Växjö District Court.

    Anwar is convicted of rape. His sentence was one year and three months in prison. He will also pay 134,990 SEK (13,000 euros) in damages to the woman. Fardin is sentenced for sexual abuse and he will pay 23,990 SEK (2,300 euros) in damages to the victim. The prosecutor never asked for Fardin to be expelled.”

    https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/04/swedish-woman-who-accompanied-two-afghans-to-prove-that-xenophobes-are-wrong-is-raped-and-abused/

    1. It’s not a phobia if the danger is real.

      1. Hyperion

        I’m sure she’ll later be arrested for racism. And probably deported.

        1. It can’t be rape if the dick is brown.

          That’s the secret, invisible ink part of the statute.

          1. Hyperion

            It was rape, but she’s the real rapist, by virtue of being white. She tempted them and in their culture that’s wrong, so they’re the actual real victims. Not sure why Sweden didn’t already come to that conclusion. I thought they were woke.

      2. Psycho Effer

        1 year and three months for rape? What in the actual fuck?!

        1. It’s even worse when you remember Scandanavian prisons are basically resorts.

          1. Psycho Effer

            That looks like in invitation to more rape, rather than less. Do Scandinavian countries just want to commit civilizational suicide?

          2. WTF

            Evidently. And the left is striving for the same thing here in the US.

          3. Hyperion

            I would say as far as Scandinavia goes, it’s quite apparent that is exactly what they want. The real problem is that weak minded people bought into the politicians diversity bullshit. And even now that it’s obvious that the politicians attempt to create this heaven on earth diversity is becoming a total disaster, those same people cannot admit to themselves or anyone else that they made a mistake.

        2. Violent vaginal and anal rape.

          1. Well they are right next to each other. Maybe his aim was bad.

          2. Hyperion

            He was just pretending she was a camel.

        3. Gadfly

          Remember Norway gave that domestic terrorist who killed like 70 kids only 20 years in prison (that’s like 3 months per kid), and Sweden is to the left of Norway on non-economic issues. They probably view the year sentence as super harsh.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      xenophobes

      It’s not xenophobic to be opposed to foreigners for very specific reasons.

    3. I’m surprised they even got arrested.

      And I bet that woman is still a vocal supporter of “refugee rights” or whatever they call it. It’s like that woman who was grateful to her rapist in Haiti; high quality brainwashing doesn’t go away so easily.

      1. Suthenboy

        I see little hope for them. It is going to have to come to blows and mass deportation or they are done for.

        1. Hyperion

          Germany and Britain not far behind them. And that will be the end of Europe as we know it, since those are the 2 countries in Europe with the biggest economies.

          1. Frankly, between the refugee insanity and NHS’s T4 program, I think Europe deserves to die. They don’t care about their own culture, why should anyone else?

          2. Hyperion

            After the latest round of NHS bullshit, I wouldn’t shed a tear if Britain sinks into the sea like Atlantis.

          3. WTF

            Now I’ve got Donovan running through my head.

          4. Schnirt Gurgleburger

            It makes me wish I could travel back in time to say, May 1944. I wonder how all the remaining WW2 combat vets feel about the waste of their efforts.

          5. Psycho Effer

            It would be fine if Europe died. The problem is that it’s going to transform into a murderous monstrosity, rather than just die.

          6. The only question left will be which group is going to be the one doing the murdering in the long run.

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        If she isn’t a vocal supporter she had best keep her mouth shut. I’m betting the penalties for hate speech are worse than a year and a half in the clinker.

      3. Rufus the Monocled

        Yeh. Was gonna say that. She’s probably working on a ‘how to not provoke rape’ manual.

        1) Cover yourself up as much as you can. They seem to be very horny.
        2) This horniness can turn violent. I know. I was surprised because that part of the world is known for its respect for women.
        3) Always be accompanied by a chaperone. Preferably, sigh, a man. But not too manly. It can trigger them.
        4) If all these fail. Be submissive and accept your fate. Diversity is our strength.

        1. Hyperion

          Sounds about right.

        2. Gadfly

          3) Always be accompanied by a chaperone. Preferably, sigh, a man. But not too manly. It can trigger them.

          But not too feminine, either, or he may be the next victim. Islam may condemn homosexuality, but in the Middle East “pitching” ain’t gay.

    4. straffinrun

      Looks like Anwar is good for drilling after all.

      1. Chipwooder

        *golf clap*

    5. Pope Jimbo

      How are refugees supposed to pay those fines? Isn’t that one of the gripes is that the laws in Sweden put the refugees in camps and they can’t work by law?

      Does that mean that those fines will be from welfare payments that these refugees are being paid by the Swedish tax payers? Knowing govt, there is probably a special benefit this guy can apply for to pay that fine.

      1. Lachowsky

        Rape fine relief loans

      2. Not a full set….

        There is a victims fund for when the perpetrator is too poor to pay where you can beg for compensation, but it will be what they feel you should get if at all. Anyone who gets fined or convicted of a crime are forced to pay about $50 in to the fund.

  26. Hyperion

    Well, that picture is most def racist, since it’s obviously showing white devils doing what they do best, buying Rhode Island from the poor natives for some beads and bobbles.

  27. When the going gets tough, the tough look at titties.

    http://archive.is/GzjrF

    Merge 3 and 4’s boobs and you might just form a black hole or cause a nuclear explosion.

    1. Slammer

      Q, check out Emily Barry. NYC real estate agent and Instagramer

      1. Sweet Jesus.

        https://www.instagram.com/emilyhelenbarry/

        A little bit of a butterface but Good Lord dem titties…

        1. I think she’s got a cute, poor man’s Marisa Tomei thing going on.

      2. Rasilio

        Her working in Real Estate makes sense because she’s got Huge Tracts of Land

    2. PieInTheSKy

      I usually go for fully visible face but 5 22 35 look nice.

      Also 20 27

  28. slumbrew

    Rhode Island today is apparently a Mafia colony…

    I can highly recommend Crimetown, an 18-episode podcast diving deep into what a fucked-up, corrupt place Providence is.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Can anyone recommend a good Linux distribution for a Linux beginner?

    I am using Elementary Linux, on an Acer laptop. It is quite satisfactory for my purposes, which consist almost exclusively of reading agravating news stories, ordering stuff from Amazon, and commenting here.

    I got it on a “try linux” cd stuck in one of those magazines at Barnes & Noble.

    1. Hyperion

      Stop that peasant OS use and use Windows like a real first worlder!

      1. The first-worldiest of first-worlders are Apple users, and Mac OSX is Unix-Based (Not Linux though, it’s a branch of BSD).

        1. slumbrew

          Correct – work is steeping in linux (thousands upon thousands of servers) but most people use Macs (albeit with VMs/containers).

        2. Hyperion

          “The first-worldiest of first-worlders are Apple users”

          Nope, those people are delusional and Apple is overpriced garbage. Ever see anyone with a high end gaming system running on Mac? Well, there it is.

          1. You’re not snobbing hard enough. Virtue Signal, Hyp.

            /guy who’s never bought and Apple Product.

          2. Hyperion

            I can snob harder! I just started warming up!

          3. I’ll say this in defense of Apple: Their hardware is very sturdy, it’s aesthetically pleasing, and if you find using a computer to be a necessary evil then Apple’s a good buy.

            For my part, I think their UI design philosophy sucks (e.g. the way windows are handled on the desktop), their software compatibility is too limiting, and the processing power per dollar ratio is god-awful. Which isn’t to say that Windows is that much better an OS, it’s just that on a Windows/PC platform there’s much more room to customize, so that you can deal with the ways it doesn’t fit you much more effectively. If you don’t like they way MacOS does something or there’s a specific hardware need you might have, you’re kind of SOL.

          4. Rasilio

            Yeah but he has a point, something like 80% of the developers I know have switched over to developing on a Mac because it’s core OS is Unix based. The place I am working right now all but 1 developer is on Mac and that one uses a dual boot linux/windows machine.

          5. I don’t mess with Mac because I build my own PCs and the IDEs I like are all PC-based, but I do like that about MacOS. That’s part of the Linux appeal for me, too.

      2. Pope Jimbo

        It is old (Vista rant), but still accurate. All computer OS suck.

        That’s the other problem with the Mac vs. PC debate: it completely misses the point. Computers aren’t couture, they’re screwdrivers. Your screwdriver rocks, and our screwdriver sucks. So what? They’re screwdrivers. If you really want to convince us, stop talking about your screwdriver, and show us what you’ve created with it.

        1. Pope Jimbo

          Visual representations of the OS’s:

          May be NSFW

    2. I use Mint. The only real problem I had was finding the right driver to work with the wifi, since it didn’t come as part of the distro for whatever odd reason.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Rhode Island today is apparently a Mafia colony, which explains why it has traditionally had the highest protection money taxes in the nation.

    I thought they got their money from registering evil shell corporations.

    1. Isn’t that Delaware?

      1. Hyperion

        Does anyone actually live in Delaware?

        1. Yes. Didn’t you notice the sweet toll you pay on I-95 for the pleasure of driving a few miles? Much more tolerable than Murrland’s toll a few miles prior, however.

          1. Hyperion

            I try to never go to NYC again, so I might never be in Delaware again.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    use Windows like a real first worlder!

    I’ll go back to Mac first.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Local attorneys say it will be difficult for Freeman to secure a guilty verdict on the murder charge, given the lack of body camera footage and the fact that Noor has declined to speak with state investigators or a grand jury probing Damond’s death.

    And he is now sitting in jail for obstruction of justice and contempt of court, right?

    RIGHT?

    1. “I invoke my fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.”

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Isn’t that Delaware?

    OOPS.

    Yes. Yes, it is. Those insignificant little ink blotches on that side of the map all look the same.

  34. Count Potato

    “NEW VIDEO: Living As A Man For A Day! Yes, I went out like this. Don’t dare me to do things because I WILL. This is the hands down the funniest video I’ve done.”

    https://twitter.com/MsBlaireWhite/status/989217511240482816

    You can still see she has boobs though.

    1. Silicone is stubborn.

    2. straffinrun

      Turtles all the way down.

    3. …yeah if you wanted to do that, you should have gotten smaller implants. Find a member of the itty bitty titty committee to do that experiment more realistically.

      1. It is a testament to the skill of the surgeon that a biological male can’t pass as a man anymore.

    4. Hyperion

      She still looks way too feminine to be hired at Starbucks.

    5. Suthenboy

      She doesnt look like a man at all.

    6. R C Dean

      Well, that pic of her is more “Look at me LARP as a lesbian” than her passing as a man.

  35. Kanye West and the Kartrashians are the voice of reason in this country .

    https://mobile.twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/989258910942072833

    Demons are buying ice skates.

    1. Hyperion

      This is hysterical stuff. If he keeps it up, this will be epic.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        I’d be a horrible celebrity. If I was Kanye I’d spend all this week praising Trump. Next week I’d bash Trump and praise Bernie. Just to watch EVERYONE change sides. The left would instantly start praising him again. The right would go back to calling him a degenerate.

        Then I’d shut up for a month. Then repeat. Or I might just switch back and forth every week just to see how long people could keep this up.

        1. commodious spittoon

          I have to think that nobody is so moronic or so thoroughly up their own ass that they wouldn’t recognize the deliberate bait-and-switch, but then, they’re bitchy gossip columnists masquerading as journalists.

    2. Suthenboy

      There sure is a lot of butthurt in that string.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    The ubiquity, cultivated over decades of syrup-soaked waffles and strong coffee, makes the 24-hour chain’s booths and barstools a round-the-clock reflection of the South and invites every kind of story, some chronicled on Instagram, others in mug shots.

    Sheer poetry. Get this man a Pulitzer.

    1. NYT’s “let them eat cake” foreign tours of America never get any less insufferable.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Waffle House, a chain of more than 1,800 eateries, has also faced multiple lawsuits from customers complaining about racist treatment from employees. Some plaintiffs said that restaurant workers used racial epithets and ignored black guests while catering to white customers, and the chain’s restaurants have tangled several times with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which serves as a discrimination watchdog.

        If you have 1800 locations, you’re going to get sued, you’re going to get investigated by the EEOC, you’re going to end up hiring assholes who cause problems for the company, it’s fucking unavoidable.

        1. Pope Jimbo

          Are you saying that there isn’t a waiting list of Ivy League grads waiting for a chance to work the 11pm – 7am shift at a Waffle House? That maybe the only people you can find to staff that shift are the misfits who couldn’t make it on the second shift?

          Also, my guess is that those third shift workers have used epithets and refused service to rowdy/drunk/obnoxious asshole customers of all colors. Only minority “guests” though have the option of suing.

          Nothing good happens after midnight.

        2. But it’s scandalous! A scandal!

        3. Suthenboy

          The last time I was in a waffle house the staff was all black.

          1. Pope Jimbo

            Did they run out the back when your scary white ass came in?

          2. Chipwooder

            When I lived in Pensacola, there was a Waffle House within a short walk from our house, and we ate there frequently. Half of the staff was black, as was about 75% of the customers.

          3. Chipwooder

            Oh, and I used to see Roy Jones Jr. there occasionally, bragging about his fighting roosters.

          4. straffinrun

            You know who has the best pound for pound cock in the world?

          5. MikeS

            Foghorn Leghorn?

          6. MikeS

            Apparently there’s a lot of Uncle Toms in the Pensacola area.

    2. Gee whiz, NYT, I wonder if there are any stereotypes about NYC that can be ridden into the ground…

    3. Drake

      The NYT publishes that article and doesn’t notice that the photos are indistinguishable from a NY or NJ Diner they think are so unique and special.

      What kind of bizarre place can you get breakfast food all day?

  37. The Late P Brooks

    But statistics and numbers rarely seem to matter at Waffle House. It was especially so in Nashville on Wednesday as Store No. 2267 reopened, the shattered windows replaced and the bloodstains wiped away. The grill crackled. The coffee cups clinked. The servers called out orders through the somberness that still hung in the air.

    I guess they should have torn it down.

    1. Viking1865

      I think it’s adorable how the NYT reporter thinks that Waffle House as a company doesn’t have procedures for reopening after a murder.

      Waffle House after midnight in certain places is a walk on the wild side man.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        My nephew is enchanted by the Waffle House culture and hates the condescending views of the NYT.

        He’s on the spectrum but is one smart, sharp cookie and gets right to the heart of things.

        1. Viking1865

          Waffle House is fucking life in flourescent. It really is a national fucking treasure, and even though they got rid of blueberry waffles, I still love them. Sausage and egg Texas Melt with the hashbrowns scattered smothered covered well done.

          But seriously, bring back my blueberry waffle for real.

          1. Chipwooder

            And Waffle House is a really well run company, as demonstrated by their disaster planning.

          2. Rufus the Monocled

            lol.

            Only in fucken America.

          3. Do you want your waffles or not?

        2. commodious spittoon

          He’s on the spectrum

          An aspiring libertarian, then.

          1. Rufus the Monocled

            Which is why it will never have a moment.

    1. Hyperion

      Go ahead, progs, just boycott Starbucks until you drive them out of business, it’s the only way.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        They want to boycott a company that is woke. FFS they’re shutting down the company on May 29 for ‘racial bias’ training! And still it’s not enough.

        NEVER APOLOGIZE.

        Ignore them. They’ll whither. The anger will eventually dissipate because it’s not real anger.

        1. Ignore them. They’ll whither. The anger will eventually dissipate because it’s not real anger.

          They get bored and move on to the next outrage. Honestly, unless you operate a niche industry that specifically caters to perpetually outraged SJWs, then long term the outrage will not put you out of business; SJW patronage is worth practically nothing. Starbucks is an example that even if you do your best to cater to SJWs, they will be happy to gorge themselves on your bleating and weakened corpse until you’re done with.

          1. Suthenboy

            Is their boycott having any real effect on their bottom line?

          2. commodious spittoon

            Serving a scorched simulacrum of their stock in trade hasn’t.

          3. Rufus the Monocled

            This is what I’m not getting with CEO’s who enter the ‘woke’ foray – your MECs, Starbucks etc. – Did they calculate it’s a safe bet to virtue signal? I’m still a firm believer, because I’m a cis-male white privileged prick, the wisest move is to steer clear of politics. No matter how much pressure they put on you stay away. NOTHING good can come of it.

          4. Rufus the Monocled

            Make that ‘identity politics’.

          5. Businesses that are actually at long term risk to SJW boycotts are ones that completely depend on advertisers. The sponsors generally freak the fuck out (in my opinion, due to their poor long term risk analysis) about any sort of large public controversy, and drop their sponsorship like a hot potato because they believe that the stink of association will hurt them in perpetuity. Consumers have a comically short memory, and when controversy #34452 is buried in a sea of other similar controversies, it’s impossible for the general public to keep track, let alone give a fuck.

          6. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Because most CEO’s at that level are sales/marketing MBA dipshits who don’t really get paid to run anything, just to be overpaid mouthpieces. If you asked the COO or CFO the same question, you’d get a different answer.

          7. The culture of phoning it in from home.

          8. slumbrew

            Because most CEO’s at that level are sales/marketing MBA dipshits …

            Most have finance backgrounds, with sales/marketing being the #2 path to CEO. This says the breakdown is 30%/20% between those groups.

          9. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Point taken.

            My personal experience with CEO’s has been less than desirable, which probably taints my opinion of them.

          10. It really depends on the CEO. You know a competent executive after just a few minutes of conversation. You can tell very quickly whether someone is sharp and on top of shit, or if they are phoning it in and riding the momentum of the good strategic decisions their underlings offer up.

          11. Hyperion

            Even way back in my first corporate gigs, it was very common wisdom that you DO NOT combine business with politics or religion or any other sort of divisive stuff like that. Business has one purpose, profit. Don’t offend people, they might be your customer.

          12. slumbrew

            They get bored and move on to the next outrage.

            Related, but I was just thinking I’ve been mercifully free from David Hogg recently. Checking google, it looks like he’s down to TMZ coverage at this point (“Parkland Leaders David Hogg and Cameron Kasky Not Going to Prom Together”).

            The short attention-span has its good points.

          13. Chipwooder

            So he’s about a week from doing porn, right?

          14. slumbrew

            Presumably.

            Oh, and apparently his book will be ‘Never Again’ which has some (((people))) pissed off, for some reason.

            (stay classy, Hogg)

          15. The Last American Hero

            Yes, but the script has Hogg in one house as two other actors are getting it on in the house next door while a security guard stands outside and listens.

          16. Suthenboy

            Where is…uh…*scratches head*…Sandy…no Sandra…uh…Sandra Fluke! That’s her name. What is she up to these days?

          17. slumbrew

            She’s rooming with Cindy Sheehan, collecting cats.

          18. slumbrew

            TBF, I have sympathy for Sheehan; hard to blame a parent for getting crazed after the death of their child. I have no sympathy for those who cynically used her grief as a cudgel.

          19. Viking1865

            “TBF, I have sympathy for Sheehan; hard to blame a parent for getting crazed after the death of their child. I have no sympathy for those who cynically used her grief as a cudgel.”

            Sheehan is a genuine anti war activist. She protested Obama as well…..but the media coverage suddenly died when Obama entered office.

            Shocking huh?

          20. Viking1865

            “SJW patronage is worth practically nothing”

            Exactly this. These people do not have any fucking money. They are broke losers.

            Like especially with this whole SHUN THE NRA thing. The wokesters have persuaded all these dumbass business school types that the NRA is a collection of Cletus the Slackjawed Yokel funded by Koch Dollars, when in reality I bet you NRA membership as a whole is solidly above median income.

            As I said when Dicks did their virtue signal: you’re pissing off dudes who spend 10k a year on their hobby of shooting shit with guns to cater to people who voted for Bernie because they have 100k in student loan debt.

            If Gun Guy Gus is also Golf Guy Gus and also Softball Dad Gus, and Family Camping Gus, that’s literally thousands of dollars you just kicked out your door to appeal to people who have no money and wouldn’t spent it at Dicks if they did, because they are fat and lazy.

          21. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Bingo

          22. Rufus the Monocled

            That’s what I was driving at. ESPECIALLY Dick’s. How could they possibly make this decision if it’s presumably run by competent people?

            I wonder if even musicians who willingly alienate people (ie Waters, Steely Dan, even Springsteen) with their politics could see a dip in sales on some level.

            Personally, I’ve made that decision to not pay for their entertainment.

          23. R C Dean

            These people do not have any fucking money.

            I suspect that SJW griefing probably affects sympatico Blue overcredentialed office-worker types in urban areas, so you probably get some people with money going along in some markets.

            For a business whose market demographic does not include urban office-workers, though, going along with SJWs is probably a dead loss.

            From what I can tell, Yeti may be a more or less innocent bystander – I thought I saw that they were restructuring a lot of their marketing affiliations, and the NRA wasn’t singled out. But they will take a hit regardless, because the fucking SJWs and their useful idiots* have politicized absofuckinglutely everything.

            *Think how sad it is that the haflwit SJWs actually have useful idiots of their own throughout corporate America.

          24. see Chic-Fil-A

      2. commodious spittoon

        Maybe they’ll be replaced with a coffee chain.

      3. Count Potato

        Waffle House sells coffee.

    2. Just Say’n

      “Not that there is anything wrong with boycotts having sexual feelings for other boycotts of the same sex”

      FIFY

  38. straffinrun

    So we’re giving Joy Reid a pass? You guys have become true gentlemen.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I always pass on Joy Reid.

    2. Hyperion

      Who’s this we? I’m not sure the outrage mob has decided her fate yet. But with a Kanye making such a distraction, she might survive.

    3. Viking1865

      “I was hacked” has become the go to excuse for all these people.

      What exactly did she say that was ZOMG OFFENSIVE.

      1. commodious spittoon

        You people don’t understand, maybe it will turn out that this is point of al Queda’s 8chan’s sword.

    4. Just Say’n

      Joy Reid’s punishment is that she has to live as Joy Reid for the rest of her life. She’s brave

      1. Hyperion

        They say that when you’re retarded, it’s sort of a blissful state. She must be in heaven.

        1. commodious spittoon

          When you’re retarded, the world is your toaster.

          1. Just Say’n

            Let’s not insult the mentally challenged by comparing them to Joy Reid. But, Joy Reid is most definitely retarded

          2. Juvenile Bluster

            The mentally challenged cannot help it because of genetics or other injury.

            Joy Reid is willfully dumb.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    I think it’s adorable how the NYT reporter thinks that Waffle House as a company doesn’t have procedures for reopening after a murder.

    Waffle House is famous for their preparation for and response to natural disasters: hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, whatever. There was a big article in the Wall Street Journal (I think) a long time ago about it. Which is probably where this astonished little tidbit about a governor openly admitting the superior efficiency of a private enterprise comes from:

    In 1997, the governor of Alabama wondered aloud whether the state should look to improve its efficiency and consistency by studying Waffle House’s operations.

    Shocking.

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      Waffle Houses being open or closed is actually an informal metric used by FEMA to determine the scope of a disaster.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index

      1. God damn that is remarkable.

        1. Viking1865

          I love finding little gems like that of how the private sector gets shit done.

          Another great example is how WalMart had some insane number of supplies into New Orleans post Katrina before the government even finished their meetings.

          Or how the 9/11 evacuation of Manhattan was accomplished by civilians. 500,000 people pulled out in 8 hours by an impromptu boatlift. That’s more than Dunkirk.

          1. slumbrew

            Or how the 9/11 evacuation of Manhattan was accomplished by civilians. 500,000 people pulled out in 8 hours by an impromptu boatlift.

            Boatlift is a worthwhile mini-doc (12 mins) about that.

          2. commodious spittoon

            WalMart had some insane number of supplies into New Orleans post Katrina before the government

            And, iirc, their drivers were being hassled and turned away by FEMA before too long.

            Meanwhile, NOPD officers murdered a couple men on a bridge and covered it up.

            Then Bush flew around in a helicopter and was, of course, admonished for not further disrupting efforts on the ground with his presence.

            But let’s shit on the Waltons for making a grip of cash.

  40. I can personally attest to this; Miami traffic is THE. WORST.

    http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article209810969.html

    1. Mr Lizard

      Yep and completely self-inflicted

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      I’m very glad I no longer work in the city of Miami itself and that I don’t have to drive there every day. I dread the times I do have to go there.

  41. Hyperion

    Horde to cross border?

    Well, they’re already in Mexico, so I’m sure Mexico is willing to take care of them. So no problem.

    1. Just Say’n

      Mexico taking care of migrants is even better than that TV show plot where they took an illegal immigrant in the US to Switzerland where he won’t be hassled by authorities

    2. Suthenboy

      If I remember correctly an asylum seeker must seek asylum in the first safe country they arrive in.

      1. Hyperion

        Sounds right to me.

  42. Hyperion

    Well, I guess when Mueller, Comey, McCabe, Rosenstein, all the Democrats, RINOs, Stormy, etc. cannot get the job done, it’s up to…

    MAXINE!

    1. Just Say’n

      Maxine Waters is not insane. Definitely not insane

      1. MikeS

        I’m with the Orange One on this; I think she is literally “Low IQ.” With a healthy dose of crazy, as well.

        1. Suthenboy

          Government is the only organization she can survive in. If she were not in congress she would be a mid-level bureaucrat with state government fucking up everything she touches…you know…the one everyone else gives make-work to and otherwise avoids like the plague.

          1. Hyperion

            She’d be the lady at the DMV that everyone hates.

    2. Badolph Hilter

      “As impeachment stalls” ? That is not possible, I have been assured by a great many scholars on Twitter that impeachment is IMMINENT.

      1. Hyperion

        Meuller is circling the wagons, for the 49th time, surely he gets his man this time.

      2. R C Dean

        As impeachment stalls

        How can it stall when it hasn’t even started yet?

  43. Warty

    Inferi

    In way shittier news, possibly the coolest man I’ve ever known kicked it. Fuck.

    1. tarran

      Dang!

      I never took any of his classes, but I heard good things about him.

      1. Warty

        I never had any of his classes either, but I did go to a couple cram-lectures he taught before the Fundamentals of Engineering exam when I was about to graduate the first time. I remember the moment when I suddenly grasped why you use imaginary numbers when you’re dealing with AC current, which I had never understood before, even though I could do the math well enough to do fine in my circuits classes.

        Plus, I’d shoot the shit with him in the weight room all the time, and went drinking with him a few times. Awesome dude.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          I’m interested in his explanation of j. I’ve seen and read many, some of which are complete bullshit and others only partially useful.

          1. Warty

            Wish I could remember his explanation. The best I can come up with now is that you need a vector to represent the phased nature of the current, since it retains magnitude in some sense, but not voltage. It’s been about 15 years since I’ve thought about AC circuits, though.

    2. Slammer

      Thanks. Sounds like the guy from Vektor.

      You listen to Artificial Brain?

      1. Warty

        Nope, but now I will.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Bret Stephens masturbates dreamily to the patrician statesmanship of George Herbert Walker Bush

    Bush was the only G.O.P. congressman to see off Lyndon Johnson as the 36th president departed Washington in January 1969, a humane gesture for a broken man from the opposing party. Trump couldn’t bring himself to invite a single congressional Democrat to his state dinner with Macron.

    Bush presided adroitly over a high-water mark of American power and influence, a remarkable four-year stretch that included the collapse of the Soviet Union, the creation of Nafta, lightning victory in the Gulf War and the rescue of the Kurds. Trump is all that in reverse: the looming collapse of Nafta, the resurgence of Russia, an incoherent policy in the Middle East and prospective abandonment of the Kurds.

    Bush presided adroitly over a high-water mark of American power and influence

    SRSLY? I thought he was just along for the ride. If he was so fucking “adroit” at the job, why wasn’t he a two term President, Bret?

    Blah blah blah Bush good, Trump evil, America doomed, Bret sad.

    1. WTF

      H.W. Bush was the do-nothing squanderer of the Reagan legacy. Of course, he did manage to raise taxes, and give us the Wetlands Conservation Act, which stole the use of millions of people’s land without compensation. Oh, yeah, and the Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires millions of businesses to create accommodations at their own considerable expense without proportional benefit to their profitability.

      Just another statist asshole.

      1. Viking1865

        Yeah Bush ran as Regan’s third term, got into office, and raised taxes and did gun control by executive action, which then gave the White House to the Clintons.

        There’s a reason he is the Left’s favorite Republican.

        1. robc

          In the late 90s, I used to refer to us as being in the 3rd term of Bush/Clinton.

      2. Drake

        Bush was far worse than that, he was a Trojan horse. He actively and purposefully undid many of Reagan’s reforms. Ed Rollins was one of the few hold overs and documented the insanity.

    2. Suthenboy

      I thought the left was crowing about the American decline under Obama’s capable hand and it was a good thing. Now we are in decline because of record low unemployment, a booming economy, tax breaks and a perspective withdrawal from money-pit wars. Good Lord, what a retard.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Why wouldn’t he? GHW Bush is the epitome of the Rockefeller Republican contingent and will probably be the last of their kind in the presidency. He’s the perfect Republican for the NYT.

    4. Raven Nation

      Plus, I’m pretty sure HW only kept the pressure on Gorbachev because of Thatcher.

      1. Viking1865

        “Now George, don’t get wobbly.”

        1. Raven Nation

          Yep, that was it. And I think HW also expressed some sympathy for keeping the USSR intact because it made for a more stable world.

          OTOH, he flew Avengers in WWII.

          1. tarran

            As far as the WW-II thing goes, when Bush volunteered for flight training, the life expectancy of an avenger air crew was something like 1.8 combat sorties. Whatever other sins the guy has, you have to respect volunteering for that.

          2. R C Dean

            And W volunteered for one of the most dangerous planes in our inventory at the time as well. The reason he didn’t go to Viet Nam was in large part because we weren’t flying many? any? of those planes in that theater.

          3. WTF

            From what I understand, when he volunteered they were phasing out the type of plane he had almost all of his hours on, and his term of service remaining was too short to qualify for the newer planes.

          4. What respect the act might earn can be outweighed by later actions.

            There is no laurel that cannot be tainted to irrelevence.

          5. MikeS

            Not true!

            /Roman Polanski

          6. MikeS

            And he may have been the youngest pilot in the military when he graduated flight school. He was only a few months past 18 IIRC.

            But, yeah, he’s a fucking RINO

          7. Chipwooder

            GHWB as a man? Sure, plenty of respect. GHWB the politician? Fuck that guy.

      2. WTF

        “Don’t go all wobbly on me now George.”

    5. Chipwooder

      hah. Hahahaha….Bush rescued the Kurds…..after he hung them out to dry first.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        And then hung them right back out again.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    When you’re retarded, the world is your toaster.

    *outright prolonged laughter*

  46. Just Say’n

    https://twitter.com/dangillmor/status/989310350951514113

    Whoa, whoa, whoa there, Nazi. Are you asking questions about obvious bias? Why don’t you back to Russia, you bot

  47. commodious spittoon

    Isn’t it strange that the Constitutional crises we’ve all feared (even lefties, ludicrously enough) is not Trump’s doing, but Obama’s, courtesy of a Roberts’ appointee acting as guardian of his legacy? Wait, did I say strange? I meant unsurprising.

    Yet Judge Bates held that rescinding a memorandum that was issued outside the bounds of the APA violated the APA. To issue that ruling, he had to do three things: (1) hold that he had the ability to review a change in prosecutorial discretion; (2) apply the APA only to the Trump change in discretion; and (3) hold that the Trump administration’s constitutional concerns — based in part on Supreme Court authority — did not sufficiently articulate a “rational basis” for the Trump memoranda.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      If the GOP had any balls, they would be calling for the impeachment of the judge(s) in question. It’s an outright attack on the separation of powers and could end up provoking partisan violence.

      1. Suthenboy

        Yeah, and if my aunt had balls…

        I am looking at the courts themselves. They can remove judges sans impeachment. All they have is credibility and this guy just took a huge shit on that.

        1. Badolph Hilter

          He only lost credibility in the eyes of the half of the country that believe legal decisions should be made based on things like laws.

    2. creech

      What happens if Trump orders Immigration officials to proceed regardless of this judge’s decision? Wouldn’t that accelerate SCOTUS review or
      Congressional legislation? Or would it be grounds for impeaching Trump?

      1. “The judge made his decision, now let him enforce it.”

        I think Trump needs to start doing this. These judges are out of control and he needs to press the issue.

        1. R C Dean

          I would go with a moderated version of this.

          “We believe that this lower court exceeded its authority. We will decline to participate in this Constitutional violation. If SCOTUS upholds the decision, we will revisit our position.”

          Effectively, give himself a stay of the decision until SCOTUS decides, and then, maybe, go along with SCOTUS if they uphold.

          1. Badolph Hilter

            “And by the way, if SCOTUS does uphold the decision, I will declare that they no longer serve a useful purpose and wipe from the face of the Earth.”

            Slightly less moderate, I admit.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Stop him! He’s getting away!

    This was again his point Wednesday afternoon when he showed off a “Make America Great Again” hat signed by Donald Trump. He has not given any substantive reasons for supporting Trump. He has given aesthetic and emotional ones—“We are both dragon energy,” he tweeted. Most of his statements on the topic have been, rather, bland aphorisms about independence: “The mob can’t make me not love [Trump].” “Free thinkers don’t fear retaliation for your thoughts.” “I’m used to the heat of independent thoughts.” It’s his core message, still. You really can’t tell him nothing.

    Media reaction is thus just not all that relevant to what Kanye does—or rather, the criticism only fuels him. This applies even to commentators who raise concerns about his mental health, which ends up only driving him (and his wife) to adopt more of a persecution pose. Maddeningly, his “free thinking” talk is exactly the kind of empty rhetoric that closes itself off to critique. Folks are mad because of what West is saying, not the mere fact that he’s saying it. But in his impenetrable worldview, it is tantamount to censorship to point out, for example, that West is effectively cheering efforts to make it harder for people of color to vote.

    I love the part where the writer, whoever the fuck HE is, casually brushes away the very notion that a substantive argument could possibly even exist for not despising the Trumpocalypse.

    If I were West, I’d say, “Trump is putting all those black people to work. That means they’ll have money to buy my music.”

    1. commodious spittoon

      which ends up only driving him (and his wife) to adopt more of a persecution pose

      He’s using victimhood in unauthorized ways!

    2. Folks

      Uh oh. When someone says “folks”, you know you’re gonna find…

      people of color

      Yep, there it is. “Folks” means black people, with the implication that it’s just regular ol’ folks who put their pants on one leg at a time just like anyone and have a lot of good ol’ fashioned common sense like.

      …are mad because of what West is saying, not the mere fact that he’s saying it.

      So they wouldn’t be mad at him as long as he said something else? You just said they aren’t mad that he’s saying things, they’re just mad that he’s saying the wrong things. That isn’t the same thing as saying that they are open to different points of view. That’s just Hobson’s Choice.

      But in his impenetrable worldview, it is tantamount to censorship to point out, for example, that West is effectively cheering efforts to make it harder for people of color to vote.

      Maybe if you beg the question enough people will just automatically assume that establishing uniform requirements for proof of identity in order to vote inherently discriminates against “folks” because “folks” are too incompetent to obtain a form of legal ID required for everything from buying beer to opening a checking account.

      1. Badolph Hilter

        Speaking of keywords: West is effectively cheering efforts to make it harder for people of color to vote

        Yep. That sure it what he’s doing alright. I mean, not really, but effectively.

        1. commodious spittoon

          Have we finally moved on from using “literally” in a figurative sense? Because the author’s use of effectively is effectively the same as using literally figuratively.

          1. Badolph Hilter

            It was literally effectively literally.

          2. commodious spittoon

            Of course, that raises other questions. If he’s “effectively cheering for” something, that either suggests he’s unwittingly cheering on the thing, in which case he’s not really cheering it on, he simply doesn’t know better. Or his cheering is effective in bringing about the thing he’s cheering on. The former is a more credible interpretation, but it’s just as farcical as claiming he’s literally cheering for something he’d obviously never cheer on. If the author wanted to suggest that West is unwittingly advancing the case to disenfranchise blacks, he could have said as much. Instead, he suggests West isn’t just mistaken but knowingly advocating the bad thing. That’s ludicrous, obviously, but that’s what the author wrote. So either the author is using effectively as a mealy, underhanded bit of verbiage to distance himself from the accusation, or he’s as dumb as the rest of the article would suggest.

          3. ron73440

            Why can’t it be both?

      2. Hyperion

        Funny, but when I was growing up, I heard that word being used a LOT. So much that I still sometimes use it. It’s like ya’ll, which I still find myself sometimes using. And I could have counted the number of black people within a 50 mile radius of where I lived, on one hand. Note also, the people who were using folks so much, they weren’t black either. Not sure where the hell someone got that notion from.

        1. I don’t remember when it became passe to say “black people”, but “black folks” is the acceptable alternative for some reason. People who say “black folks” and “people of color” never say “white folks”, because that implies equivalence. Usually it’s “black folks” and “white people” or “white men”, since usually it’s the accursed white cishetero male shitlord they’re talking about.

    3. Chipwooder

      He has not given any substantive reasons for supporting Trump.

      Because the leftist borg in the entertainment industry is all about substantive reasoning, right?

      1. commodious spittoon

        There’s a reason it’s called fuck you money.

    4. “Maddeningly, his “free thinking” talk is exactly the kind of empty rhetoric that closes itself off to critique”

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Fucking Hell-

    Now, were his tweets to go ignored in the press they, indeed, would hold less power. But they do hold power, already. (Yes, this parallels the logic around the media’s coverage of Trump’s provocations during the 2016 election.) West saying, “I love the way Candace Owens thinks,” has likely already sent a lot of his followers, many young and impressionable, to the conservative pundit’s YouTube channel where she rails against the “losers” in Black Lives Matter. It’s not unreasonable to think that his tweet may well have a measurable effect on this country’s politics.

    “OMG those dumb niggers will believe anything. That’s why we have to keep them the fuck away from people like Candace Owens.”

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      They don’t want a debate. They want indoctrination and absolute adherence to the principles of the revolution.

      1. Free thought will not be tolerated! Back on the plantation!

      2. Suthenboy

        They dont have a case worth making and know that given other options people will choose against them. Violence and shutting down the other side are their only viable choices. Look at the history of leftists.

    2. Chipwooder

      It must really, REALLY piss them off that they can’t just call Candace Owens a racist.

      1. Akira

        There’s a special circle of “progressive” hell for minorities, gays, or women who express unapproved viewpoints. See also: Clarence Thomas and Thomas Sowell.

  50. Did we ever figure out the solution to HM’s riddle from last week about who the secret Nazi commenter is?

    1. I think it died on the vine.

    2. commodious spittoon

      It was Tulpa. It’s always been Tulpa.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Exactly what I’d expect Tulpa to say.

        1. Juvenile Bluster

          Shut up, Tulpa. You’re not fooling anyone.

          1. Just Say’n

            Is this whole site just me and all of Tulpa’s sock puppets?

          2. R C Dean

            Exactly what a Tulpa sock would post to pretend they weren’t a Tulpa sock.

          3. Chipwooder

            If that’s the case, would admitting to being Tulpa be evidence that one actually ISN’T Tulpa?

          4. commodious spittoon

            *rubs temples, tries to remember how Jennifer Connelly solved the riddle*

          5. slumbrew

            *rubs temples, tries to remember how Jennifer Connelly solved the riddle*

            Jennifer Connelly we’re talking about: those probably aren’t your temples you’re rubbing.

          6. Bobarian LMD

            It is a standard icon at many fertility temples.

          7. Raven Nation

            +1 Oolon Colluphid

    3. Hyperion

      I’m the secret Nazi, I’m turning myself in. You guys are so lame you didn’t figure it out.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        FALSE.

        That was never a secret.

    1. Just Say’n

      That’s a dark story.

      A wife v. mistress catfight would have been a happier ending. Probably would have saved the marriage too

  51. The Late P Brooks

    Hitler. It was Hitler.

  52. Hyperion

    So, the left’s latest talking point that all their sheep are parroting, is that survey after survey has been done and not one person, not even one, has seen any increase in their pay from the tax cut. I must be one lucky son of a bitch I guess, since I’m the only one, that they don’t know about. Anyway, why the hell are they crusading against a tax break that doesn’t even exist? What’s up with Nancy? How do you repeal something that doesn’t exist?

    1. Suthenboy

      Survey after survey done by whom? I have my suspicions.
      Suthenboy’s survey says otherwise.

      1. Canvasser: “Mr Welfarerecipient, have you seen an increase in your paycheck from the tax cuts?”

        Welfare Dude: “What paycheck.”

        Canvasser: “Senora Undocumentedworker, have you seen an increase in your paycheck from the tax cuts?”

        Illegal Woman: “Cash only. Cash, no checks.”

        Canvasser: “Xe Activist, have you seen an increase in your paycheck from the tax cuts?”

        Antifa Rioter: “Can you get my iPhone seven out of my pocket, I need to call my dad for bail money.”

        1. Hyperion

          lol

      2. WTF

        As does mine. I end up with another $3,600 a year.

      3. Chipwooder

        And survey after survey of whom, exactly? I’m 41 years old and I have never been surveyed for anything.

      4. Hyperion

        I hope you’re not suggesting that Democrats are intentionally oversampling people on fixed income or who already pay no taxes? They would never pull such a stunt!

        I’ve asked a number of people about that. I’ve gotten two responses mostly.

        1. Yes, it’s great!

        2. I didn’t look yet.

        I’ve only had one person answer: Yes, but it’s not very much. Well, it wouldn’t be if you’re already claiming 5 deductions.

      5. Just Say’n

        Canvasser: Did you see how Nazi president Hitler and the racist Republicans stole your money and gave it to Mr. Monopoly on Wall Street?

        Person: Ummm….I guess?

        Canvasser: Well, I’m just going around the neighborhood to see if anyone got any money back from that racist tax cut. Obviously, only Kulaks got money, so a fine respectable person like you wouldn’t be part of the KKK’s tax money giveaway to the rich

        Person: I’m sorry, is there a question here?

        Canvasser: So, that’s a no, right?

        Person: Yeah, I’m not interested. Thanks

        1. Just Say’n

          NYT Times Headline: “Taxpayers Say They’re ‘Not Interested’ in Tax Cuts”

    2. Raven Nation

      As usual, Yes, Minister addresses this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xC2bNpXdAo

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Unintentionally revealing?

    Other aspects of the rule “seem to me to be efforts to allow rich stakeholders to ‘data bomb’ the agency,” she said. They seemed designed to force the agency to surrender old data, she said, so that the fossil-fuel and chemical industry can run endless studies reanalyzing it, tweaking their models each time until they get the answers they want.

    A big breathless panic attack about Pruitt’s new rule designed to “gut” the science behind EPA rulemaking. “We tweaked the shit out of those models to get the results we were looking for, and we don’t want anybody messing with them.”

    Another little nugget:

    Every time the EPA adopts a new air or water rule, it must run a cost-benefit analysis, proving that the new rule’s benefits to the public exceed its costs. Each time an American dies earlier than they otherwise would have, the EPA says their death costs the U.S. economy about $9.2 million. Since PM₂.₅ kills hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, the costs of all these early deaths can quickly become overwhelming. The EPA has justified many air-pollution rules—including the Clean Power Plan, President Obama’s landmark climate-change rule for the power sector—on the basis of the high cost of PM₂.₅.

    If you “estimate” the benefit to be sufficiently high, you can justify nearly any cost.

    1. slumbrew

      …the fossil-fuel and chemical industry can run endless studies reanalyzing it, tweaking their models each time until they get the answers they want.

      as opposed to the tweaking we did to get the answers _we_ wanted.

      1. slumbrew

        Which, uh, is pretty much what you said. /me dons dunce cap

      2. R C Dean

        the fossil-fuel and chemical industry can run endless studies reanalyzing it, tweaking their models each time

        Sounds like . . . science?

        until they get the answers they want

        Smells like projection. Although I’m sure that the private sector is fully capable of being just as scummy as the government. But that’s the genius of forcing the EPA to open their data and their studies – now the ground is set for competing hypotheses to prove out in the light of day. Just getting the result you want isn’t good enough if people who disagree can prove you wrong.

    2. WTF

      Since PM₂.₅ kills hundreds of thousands of Americans every year

      I would really like to see the data showing how they “proved” that one.

      1. Hyperion

        Hundreds of thousands? Yeah, ok.

        1. Bobarian LMD

          Canvasser: Do you have any idea how many people die from PM₂.₅ every year?

          Bob: WTF is PM₂.₅?

          Canvasser: Hey! I’m asking the questions here. Do you have any idea how many people die from PM₂.₅ every year? Be cause I have no idea.

      2. commodious spittoon

        Seriously. That’s absurd. Also absurd is the suggestion that, at least on average, the people dying early would have been a net tax contributor after decades of pulling SS and Medicare. Whatever these people are smoking, it’s too strong not strong enough not enough.

        1. slumbrew

          … people dying early would have been a net tax contributor after decades of pulling SS and Medicare.

          “No, the math is easy: people make, what, $100,000 a year or so? And they work for, uh, 100 years, so that’s $10 million right there, most of which they’ll pay in taxes, so there’s your $9.2 million right there.”

    3. R C Dean

      Each time an American dies earlier than they otherwise would have, the EPA says their death costs the U.S. economy about $9.2 million.

      Holy shit, really? I thought it was around a million bucks, which seems to be what they were paying out after 9/11.

      I can tell you in wrongful death cases, the payouts are generally based on (a) lost earnings (which seems like the only rational way to place an economic value on a life) and (b) pain and suffering to the family. The pain and suffering value varies by jurisdiction and the size of the family, but on average I would bet that its south of half a million.

      1. You’re forgetting the government multiplier

      2. Hyperion

        “Each time an American dies earlier than they otherwise would have, the EPA says their death costs the U.S. economy about $9.2 million”

        Really? Because it seems that these days , most American die in their 80s or 90s, long after they are retired. So wouldn’t them dying actually save the government money, like in SS and Medicare?

        Maybe they should take a lesson from the NHS and just start killing people soon after they’re born.

        1. Given how much they fund Planned Parenthood, they’re on-upping the British by killing them before they’re born.

          1. R C Dean

            But Planned Parenthood aborts a lot of POCs, and they only count for 3/5s of a person, amirite?

            It would be amusing to use the EPA value for abortions, just to see the circuitry frying at PP headquarters. I think the number is around 700K abortions a year, conservatively. At an economic loss of $9mm per, that means abortion “costs” us $6.3 billion a year.

    4. Hyperion

      I’ve mentioned it several times here already, but now Trump has appointed a denier to head up NASA. It sounds like the guy wants to do actual space exploration. What a racist Islamaphobe sexist pig! Rockets are shaped like giant penises on purpose, because patriarchy! Everyone know that space aliens have been flying around in saucers for decades now! Because space aliens are woke!

      1. Those aliens stole the saucers from the straight white men, see!

        *plays ‘Forbidden Planet’*

        1. Rasilio

          Is Uranus the forbidden planet?

  54. The Late P Brooks

    I would really like to see the data showing how they “proved” that one.

    Well… you can’t.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Holy shit, really?

    Precisely my reaction.

  56. Hyperion

    What the fuck?

    What even in the name of… fuck is he talking about? Lock that fucker up in the looney bin with Nancy and Maxine, he’s lost his fucking mind.

      1. Hyperion

        Arrgghhh!!!!

        Last Try

        1. slumbrew

          Christ, what an asshole.

          1. Bobarian LMD

            And Comey’s pretty bad , too.

        2. leonadasiv

          Better than trading it for a tax increase.

        3. Says James Comey, who repeatedly traded integrity for promotions and eventually a book deal.

        4. R C Dean

          how Republicans will have to rationalize their support for Trump to their grandchildren who will ask “did you trade a tax cut for the rule of law?”

          Uh, we didn’t trade the tax cut for anything. If you’re trying to solve the murder of the rule of law, I suggest that your prime suspects are the judiciary, the DOJ, and the FBI. Constitutional government and separation of powers was pretty much dead of neglect when Trump took office.

    1. commodious spittoon

      Oh, that’s rich. Mr. “I let presidential polls determine whether I charge a suspect,” Mr. “I can skirt classification rules when it’s convenient and I need a paper trail,” Mr. “I play politics with intelligence reports,” Mr. “My loyalty is first to my boss in the DOJ and her boss in the White House before I give a thought to the American people.”

    2. Suthenboy

      Christ, it really is all projection all of the time with them.

    3. Rebel Scum

      Comey: How Will Trump Supporters Explain To Grandchildren They Traded The Rule Of Law For A Tax Cut?

      Speaking of things that grind my gears. This fucker is out and about speaking to the rule-of-law as if he actually believes in a practiced it. But to the tax cut bill, how the flying fuck can you suggest that it violated the law??? No one has made any case that congress violated the legislative process. Like peak derp, there is no such thing as peak projection.

      Meanwhile judges are telling the president that he cannot undo an executive action by a previous president. Barry’s admin destroyed the rule of law and now leftists are nuking it from orbit, just to be sure.

      1. I love that he’s out there blabbing when he could be asked to testify in the future.