¡Enlaces de desayuno los jueves por la mañana!

Buenos Dias Gliberinos!  I’m probably asleep right now, but thanks to the time travel technology designed by the Mayans, I have been able to bring you Mexican links from yesterday!

Deportes:

Did your team win? I don’t know, and its too early for me to try and cater to everyone’s sportsball needs. Find out here.

Events from around the globe:

Trump postpones the next meeting with his puppet master Vladimir Putin for 2019, after the “witch hunt” is over.

Canada and Mexico are colluding against the United States in the trade war.

Women protest Mike Pence at a fundraising event, by dressing as characters from Handmaiden’s Tale. Apparently one of the reasons cited is US immigration policy, which strikes me as a bit of a stretch.

Another day, another high ranking member of a Mexican Drug cartel breaks out of prison.

Absurd Editorials:

Evidently, something was published in a journal called Nature Climate Change that found a correlation between climate change and suicides. What is the causal link you ask? During a month with “abnormally” high temperatures they found a slight uptick in suicides during the course of that month. Which means if the world is getting warmer on average we can expect more months to be “abnormally” hot, which means more suicides. Yes, it did occur to me this is very clearly, not listed in the editorial section.

Finally, the Communist Utopia in Cuba ended, because it never existed anywhere else….

Need a translator?  The Alpha Beta Corporation can help!!

 

Here’s some tunes, now turn it all the way up, get out there and kick Thursday’s ass!

…or at least make sure Thursday doesn’t kick YOUR ass

If Killswitch Engaged is too much for you, here’s something more your speed.

 

Comments

490 responses to “¡Enlaces de desayuno los jueves por la mañana!”

  1. PieInTheSKy

    Finally, the Communist Utopia in Cuba ended, because it never existed anywhere else….

    Yet …

    1. WTF

      IT’S NOT REAL SOCIALISM!!11!!!

      1. AlexinCT

        And they will say it without any hint of shame too.

  2. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Que?

    1. AlexinCT

      Mi mama me mima?

    2. Nephilium

      What?

    3. mexican sharpshooter

      YES

  3. PieInTheSKy

    Also being that the links are all in Mexican I can assume we need not comment upon them and just get straight to the off-topics …

    1. Old Man With Candy

      You should be able to understand it- Mexican and Romanian are practically the same language, except you Romanians add a bunch of useless diacritical marks.

      1. Diacritical marks are classy. Bigly classy.

    2. mexican sharpshooter

      I left a link for a free translating service. You have no excuse.

      1. PieInTheSKy

        mexicans man… not only taking american jobs, but then expecting us to enact their labor

    1. Jarflax

      how does one stan a musician?

      1. PieInTheSKy

        you are obviously not down with the lingo… are you a square or something?

        1. Jarflax

          Yes

  4. Old Man With Candy

    Why did someone drizzle pus on your eggs?

    1. PieInTheSKy

      better or worse than guac? The glibs are split …

    2. ElspethFlashman

      Extra protein?

  5. Slammer

    The Mexican was late…classic

    1. SugarFree

      He refuses to be held to your heteronormative notions of time.

      1. WTF

        Wouldn’t that be chrononormative?

        1. SugarFree

          cis-shitlord

    2. mexican sharpshooter

      You’re on Mexican time now.

  6. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Conspiracy Theory Thursday: All Your NRAs Are Belong To Vlad

    Serious people have brought serious charges that the NRA was used extensively by the Russian government in an illegal intelligence operation.

    1. Suthenboy

      Keep it up, please. They just wiped out 20 million votes of deplorables with one assertion.

      Blue wave a’comin!

      Add that to the ‘supporting Kavanaugh means you are evil’ and how many votes are they down?

    2. ChipsnSalsa

      Is there anything the Russians can’t do?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Sobriety?

      2. AlexinCT

        They broke into my neighbor’s house and made her dog take a shit on her carpet…

        So they can do anything and everything…

      3. Charlie Suet

        Build a stable, prosperous economy based on respect for property rights and the rule of law? Utilise their huge natural resources to create harmonious relationships with their neighbours rather than trying to grab power over them like some sort of mafia boss? Prevent their most talented people from leaving and / or transferring their money to offshore accounts?

        Russia is a failed state with an official economy smaller than that of Spain. With the obvious exception of WW2 even their military record isn’t that impressive. They seem to get away with a lot through sheer brazenness, but their Machiavellian ability has been overrated since the days of the Okhrana. These days they don’t even have Western traitors to help them because they’re not communists.

        1. ChipsnSalsa

          well, besides that.

        2. invisible finger

          Makes you wonder why Democrats are so afraid of them. Jealousy, prolly.

          1. commodious spittoon

            If it weren’t Russians, it would have to be something else. Dems struggle to find a foreign country they hate more than their own, so pretending that their newfound Cold War stance on Russia is about our imperiled democracy is a bit much to swallow. They can’t accept that grievance peddling and socialism lite isn’t popular with much of the country, so they explain away the failures of their ideology by contriving a new Red Scare.

          2. AlexinCT

            Not to mention their desperate need to keep people distracted from the real criminal activities the Obama admin engaged in and thought nobody would know about when Hilary took over the mantle.

      1. Jarflax

        McCarthy was a grandstanding wannabe torquemada but hes wasn’t wrong about there being communist and Soviet agents in Hollywood and foggy bottom

        1. Raven Nation

          True, but most of them had been rooted out before joe started grandstanding. And his crap tended to make it harder to go after others.

    3. Brochettaward

      My favorite reply is on how the GOP should give back all NRA money because Bill gave back a Chinese business person’s money in 1996.

    4. Rebel Scum

      Serious people have brought serious charges that the NRA was used extensively by the Russian government in an illegal intelligence operation.

      Female Seth Rogan (Rachel Maddow) is not a serious person unless you mean serious propaganda artist.

      *Reads down thread*

      And money laundering , and knowingly using funneled russian money for political campaigns and to influence elections from an enemy country presently attacking us. Aiding and abetting an enemy, and conspiracy . RICO is the best way to go after them. Unless they could go after them as terrorists.

      These people are insane.

      1. WTF

        “Enemy country”? Are we at war with Russia?

      2. Brochettaward

        RICO is the best way to go after them.

        I remember that from Batman, as well.

          1. I knew this was coming.

  7. Suthenboy

    I keep hearing ‘socialism fails every time’. Bullshit. It succeeds spectacularly every single time. The people claiming that it fails are mistaken about the goals of socialism.

    Hmmm. That sounds like a good article for submission.

    1. AlexinCT

      Socialism always produces the exact results it tells us that social justice must deliver: misery for all. That’s because it is far easier to make everyone serfs than it is to make them all emperors.

  8. PieInTheSKy

    FBI Boss Chris Wray: We Put A Man On The Moon So Why Not Encryption Backdoors?
    from the yeah-ok-then dept

    Despite the FBI finally admitting it had greatly exaggerated the number of encrypted devices it can’t get into, FBI Director Chris Wray keeps pushing the “going dark” theory to whoever will listen. This time it was NBC’s Lester Holt. In an interview during the Aspen Security Forum, Wray again hinted he was moving towards an anti-encryption legislative mandate if some sort of (impossible) “compromise” couldn’t be reached with tech companies. (Transcription via Eric Geller.)

    https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180721/12074340282/fbi-boss-chris-wray-we-put-man-moon-so-why-not-encryption-backdoors.shtml

    So honestly people like this are dangerous and should not be in positions of power. Also the put a man on the moon thing is silly.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      So the Clipper Chip is back.

      Fuck you Chris. I don’t want your protection at the expense of my privacy.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Or Carnivore. Ahh, nostalgia for the days of Bill Clinton.

    2. Brett L

      “Mostly, Chris, because the specs on how to access it would be on every Black Hat site in the world less than a day after the FBI had it. But also because fuck you, that’s why”

    3. Nephilium

      Because they know jack shit about encryption. If only there was some sort of ferrous dictum about this, or something similar.

      To put it simply, if there’s a hole through your encryption, it isn’t secure.

      1. Grummun

        The Feebs may or may not know jack shit about encryption, but more to the point, they don’t care. As long as they can get into your shit, preferably without you knowing about it, they don’t care about the economic impact of broken-by-design encryption, any losses are acceptable breakage.

    4. Gerry Rigg

      …Yeah, I think NASA would like to have a few choice words with Mr. Wray.

  9. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The Handmaid’s Tale protests may be the stupidest trend in political rabble-rousing I’ve seen in a decade.

    Apparently anything short of fully funded abortions on demand for anyone at anytime is female slavery.

    1. WTF

      Just ask any of these feminist protesters to explain what right they think they have that Trump or the Republicans have proposed taking away. And watch the incoherent sputtering begin.

    2. Slammer

      The big elephant in their room is Islam

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Forget it, they’re rolling.

      2. Heroic Mulatto

        FUN FACT: The epilogue of The Handmaid’s Tale basically talks about how what was portrayed in the future Republic of Gilead is present in modern-day Iran.

        1. Gadfly

          I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that won’t make it into the epilogue of the TV show.

    3. A Leap at the Wheel

      Have you forgotten about #BlackBrunch already? I submit that this remains the stupidest form of political rabble-rousing this decade.

  10. Pat

    I’m not even a metalhead, but linking to a Killswitch Engage cover of Dio should be punishable by the boats.

    1. robc

      Some songs don’t need covers.

      That is one.

    2. mexican sharpshooter

      I decided I will not please everyone, therefore I will insult as many as possible with my music selection.

      Fun fact: killswitch covered the song as a tribute to Dio while he was dying of cancer. Corey Taylor did somehtign similar with Rainbow in the Dark.

      1. Gadfly

        It’s good to have achievable, realistic goals. You can’t please everyone, but you can piss off everyone.

    3. Bobarian LMD

      The video makes me want to say “dilly dilly”.

      Which makes me hate you.

    4. A Leap at the Wheel

      On the one hand, I agree with that idea. But on the other hand, 1) it was a respectful tribute and 2) this video has multiple dudes eating smoked turkey legs, and thus should be signal boosted.

      (Also, metalcore is not metal. Its punk. Fight me)

  11. Slammer

    New word for the “muh Collusion” crowd: ‘Kolushnikovs’

  12. Sheffield topiarist ‘disgusted by drunk hedge sex’

    A topiarist says he is having to make regular repairs to his hedge due to drunk people pretending to have sex with it.

    Keith Tyssen has maintained his “privet lady” at his Sheffield home since 2000, but is often woken up in the night by distracted passers-by.

    “They’re climbing on top of her and pulling her legs apart – you know, it’s disgusting,” he said.

    Mr Tyssen has considered putting up a sign or an alarm to curb the behaviour.

    1. Pat

      She’s obviously asking for it shamelessly flaunting herself like that.

    2. Spartacus

      He needs to plant some poison ivy between her legs. Problem solved.

      1. ChipsnSalsa

        Excellent…

    3. Slammer

      I can’t tell where her bush is

      1. *narrows gaze*

    4. It’s Sheffield. They’re just going the full monty.

      1. Chipwooder

        Gary Sheffield? That dude was nuts.

    5. The Last American Hero

      Nice bit of trim.

      1. *narrows gaze*

    6. Bobarian LMD

      Maybe he should install a camera and post the most entertaining videos on YouTube?

      And some of the more enthusiastic ones on PornHub?

  13. PieInTheSKy

    Speaking of communism …

    Condemn communists’ cruelties, but capitalism has its own terrible record

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/26/communists-capitalism-stalinism-economic-model?CMP=twt_gu

    “Don’t get me wrong: regimes that took the name “communist” – from Stalin’s to Pol Pot’s – committed unspeakable, monstrous crimes. But for the right, a revival of interest in Marx’s pre-Stalinist vision of communism is the most striking and chilling example of its own collapsing ideological supremacy: “communism” is synonymous with tens of millions of deaths and nothing else. Capitalism, by contrast, is presented as a largely bloodless, blameless engine of human prosperity.” – so not real communism also capitalism is just as bad…

    “But he also noted in a 2006 paper that in the middle of the 20th century, China and India had the same life expectancy – around 40 years. After the Chinese revolution, a massive divergence took place. By 1979, Maoist China had a life expectancy of 68 years, more than 14 years longer than that of capitalist India. ”

    Let me go to wikipedia for this one

    Nehru advocated a socialist model for the economy of India — Five-Year Plans were shaped by the Soviet model based on centralised and integrated national economic programs[17] — no taxation for Indian farmers, minimum wage and benefits for blue-collar workers, and the nationalisation of heavy industries such as steel, aviation, shipping, electricity and mining. Village common lands were seized, and an extensive public works and industrialisation campaign resulted in the construction of major dams, irrigation canals, roads, thermal and hydroelectric power stations and many more.

    A leadership election resulted in the elevation of Indira Gandhi, Nehru’s daughter who had been serving as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, as the third Prime Minister. Indira Gandhi and her Congress (R) were returned to power with a massively increased majority. The nationalisation of banks was carried out, and many other socialist economic and industrial policies enacted

    Yup capitalist India …

    1. PieInTheSKy

      Also

      Capitalism was built on the bodies of millions from the very start. From the late 17th century onwards, the transatlantic slave trade became a pillar of emergent capitalism.

      Is not true. Slavery had an input but saying it was the base of capitalism is outright false.

      1. Gadfly

        Not only that, but it’s a hypocritical line of attack when the entire basis of communism is slavery. “From each according to his ability” has been the motto of masters and kings since time immemorial, and the benevolent ones have always practiced a form of “to each according to his needs”.

    2. straffinrun

      Sorry, dude. Copied your link. It may take two readings to understand what the hell he was talking about.

    3. Pat

      Let’s not forget that by wiping out 100 million people in half a century communism very probably kept us from even more serious global climate change. Let’s hear it for Marx, everybody!

    4. invisible finger

      LOL, someone believes Chinese statistics.

    5. Rebel Scum

      Maoist China had a life expectancy of 68 years

      Not factoring in the chance of being murdered as a traitor to the revolution.

      As discussed yesterday, communism does not work on paper because at any scale of consequence it will not be voluntary. If it is not voluntary it must be coerced. If it must be coerced it requires a total state and ideological dissent cannot be allowed. If it requires a total state without dissent, it will always result in murderous dictatorship.

    6. A Leap at the Wheel

      Comparing Utopian-communism-in-theory vs Capitalism-as-practiced is no more useful than comparing Capitalism-in-theory vs Communism-as-practiced. Which is as useful as comparing a horse to a unicorn.

      That is, potentially interesting when you are 7 years old, but kind of embarrassing for an adult.

    7. trshmnstr

      Capitalism isn’t an “ism” like communism is. Capitalism is 1) freedom of association and 2)private property. There is no top down system, and no killing done by a government entity. Most criticisms of capitalism are actually criticisms of diluted socialism/fascism, including crony corporatism and oligarchy. Only the true believer pinkos dare criticize freedom of association or (more commonly) private property.

      1. AlexinCT

        Exactly. These people are complaining about a rigged system not producing the results they want, and act as if the problem is thus capitalism, which finds such rigged systems anathema to the freedom that is integral to it.

  14. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Conspiracy Theory Thursday: I Guess I Should Be Happy They Stopped Beating Around the Bush

    Outside experts have concluded that the Russian attack on the 2016 election did enough damage to swing 80,000 votes in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, which put Trump in the White House.

    In his latest column for The Washington Post, Max Boot wrote:

    While the intelligence agencies are silent on the impact of Russia’s attack, outside experts who have examined the Kremlin campaign — which included stealing and sharing Democratic Party emails, spreading propaganda online and hacking state voter rolls — have concluded that it did affect an extremely close election decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in three states. Clint Watts, a former FBI agent, writes in his recent book, “Messing with the Enemy,” that “Russia absolutely influenced the U.S. presidential election,” especially in Michigan and Wisconsin, where Trump’s winning margin was less than 1 percent in each state.

    1. WTF

      So I’m sure these “outside experts” have plenty of facts and data to back up these assertions? No?
      What a shock.

    2. westernsloper

      So Obama with the help of Susan Rice got Trump elected…..Ha!

      http://dailycaller.com/2018/06/20/susan-rice-stand-down-russian-meddling/

    3. Rebel Scum

      sharing Democratic Party emails, spreading propaganda online and hacking state voter rolls

      Such a shame that Team Blue’s dirty laundry was aired out to dry. Spending a negligible amount of money on shoddy fb ads hardly constitutes an elaborate propaganda campaign. And the last thing? Doubtful. As the saying goes, show me the evidence. Also, on the last thing, seems more up Team Blue’s alley, no? And wasn’t there a recount in Michigan that went all hush-hush when inconvenient irregularities were discovered?

  15. Slammer

    Donald J. Trump

    Verified account

    @realDonaldTrump
    Follow Follow @realDonaldTrump
    More

    Twitter “SHADOW BANNING” prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.

    1. PieInTheSKy

      illegal ? how?

      1. 4D chess. Think about it Pie.

      2. Brett L

        No, no. I’m interested in this line of reasoning. If DJT cannot ban people from following him due to 1A issues, can Twitter restrict political speech at all due to the same issues.

        1. WTF

          Good point, it seems that the ruling re: Trump blocking people could be construed to mean that Twitter is a “public forum”.

          1. Brett L

            SLD, Twitter should be able to do whatever it wants, but now that the courts have been dragged into this process, I want to see everyone suffer equally.

          2. Pope Jimbo

            Fuck, I swear I didn’t see any of these comments. I’m stupid this morning*

            *Go ahead and make your cheap shots about why this morning is any different from other mornings. I won’t understand your hurtful comments anyhow.

          3. Brett L

            I appreciate that you independently came to the same brilliant conclusion

          4. invisible finger

            I take it Twitter has officially come out against net neutrality then.

          5. Pope Jimbo

            I see why the gators bit you Brett. It isn’t just your shitty name, it is that mean streak.

      3. Pope Jimbo

        If a court can rule that Trump’s twitter account is somehow a public forum and that he cannot legally ban people from following it, I think that logically it follows that Twitter isn’t a pure private company that can do what it feels like.

        I don’t agree with that. Twitter should be able to do what it wants. Trump should be able to ban who he wants.

        It is funny (to me at least) if Twitter gets wrapped around the axle by Trump hate.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      illegal practice

      Shut the fuck up Donny

      1. I hazard a guess that in Don’s head, he’s already decided they are a public utility.

        1. SugarFree

          And if he buys both of them, it is x10 the dice roll of a fine if you land on either.

          1. “11”…dammit!

      2. A Leap at the Wheel

        As much of a weasel as Trump is on this, does Twitter’s TOS give them the power to shadowban a user based on political opinions or affiliations? (assuming arguendo, that they are.) Their TOS is pretty assertive that the user is entering a “binding contract” and that they reserve the right to remove content, but shadownbanning is a different beast.

        Has any user of a free service like Twitter ever litigated an issue to forced a service provider to live up to their TOS a la the way FIRE sues private colleges that violate their public statements of abiding by first amendment principals?

        1. Rebel Scum

          I disagree with the court ruling on Trump not being able to ban people on Twitter the private platform. But as the courts have already (unconstitutionally) injected themselves, the logic follows that Twitter cannot shadow ban for political opinions.

          1. Rebel Scum

            Trump *block* people…

          2. A Leap at the Wheel

            That’s pretty tortured logic. Both Trump and Twitter hold rights to exclude in his reply ‘area.’ Preventing a government actor from doing something while allowing a private actor to do the same thing in the same area is perfectly logical. In fact, its pretty foundation. You can exclude people from standing in your front yard and praying. The government can’t. You can exclude people from using the side of your barn to put up a sign to advocate for a particular political position. The government can’t.

          3. Bob

            There’s nothing foundational about this. Your examples do not make sense. Public officials can ban people from praying in their yard and advocate for political positions. They do that all the time.

          4. R C Dean

            Preventing a government actor from doing something while allowing a private actor to do the same thing in the same area is perfectly logical.

            I’m not at all sure that Trump’s tweets are done in his capacity as a government actor, rather than his capacity as just another person on Twitter with poor impulse control.

          5. A Leap at the Wheel

            Well, that’s an explicit finding in the decision. I don’t actually think its the craziest thing in the world. Fireside chats and presidential addresses from the oval office are clearly in the capacity of a government actor, and at least some of the twitter usage has been in that vein. Plus I don’t mind ties going against the government. If the government actor doesn’t want the confusion, they can muster the self control to keep their work and their personal lives separate.

  16. I’ve not noticed the shortened form of “bourgeois” term “bougie” as a derisive term until 2 times this week already.

    The first time I heard it, my bourgeois engineer friend that visits Newport Folk Festival yearly, was relating a story about how he was taunting his bourgeois mid level IT project manager at Wells Fargo Bank, homeowner girlfriend with the term, and she was kinda upset about it. Yearly global leisure vacations all over Europe are also apparently not bourgeois activities.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The only proper response is “Shove it up your prole ass.”

      1. SugarFree

        The correct reply is, “No, I don’t see that you have a booger hanging out. Just go blow your nose if it worries you that much.”

    2. ChipsnSalsa

      bourgeois, the subjective term you can apply to people with slightly more money than you or spend their money in a way you don’t think is right.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        I think you need some further training in the dialectic, comrade.

          1. Chipwooder

            That’s a pic from the Abolish ICE PDX camp, right?

    3. Chipwooder

      My wife’s idiot 20something co-workers are quite fond of the term, she has told me.

      1. Brett L

        They still think of themselves as bohemian rather than bourgeois. They spend their paychecks on cool things like tattoos and concerts, not houses and minivans.

    4. Heroic Mulatto

      Really? It’s been used as such in Black American culture since at least the 60s, perhaps even earlier.

      1. Just call me white bread I guess. I heard it through the bougie white grapevine.

      2. AlexinCT

        Like in “Boogie on down!”?

      3. Bob

        Maybe in the 60’s. Today? I think your not in touch with black Americans as much as you think if that’s common.

    5. commodious spittoon

      The only time I’ve heard “bougie” used was by my ex, the black girl, who described anything a little over-indulgent as “bougie.” It wasn’t meant negatively, afaict. More of an aspirational thing. But it sounds like just the thing white millennial know-nothings would appropriate to sound “authentic” by using it inauthentically.

      1. trshmnstr

        I heard bougie the first time from an inner city public school teacher. The way she used it was as an antonym to ratchet.

    6. Gilmore

      Its been a common term for decades, but its usage seems to ebb and flow w/ fad

      it was popular in the late 1990s because of the booming .com wealth producing lots of glittery-idiots with too much money

      now, i think its popular because there is a sort of socialism-chic on the progressive left, and its a handy term to sneer at ‘regular liberals’ with

  17. straffinrun

    Condemn communists’ cruelties, but capitalism has its own terrible record

    Capitalism was built on the bodies of millions from the very start. From the late 17th century onwards, the transatlantic slave trade became a pillar of emergent capitalism. Much of the wealth of London, Bristol and Liverpool – once the largest slave trading port in Europe – was made from the enslaved labour of Africans. The capital accumulated from slavery – from tobacco, cotton and sugar – drove the industrial revolution in Manchester and Lancashire; and several banks today can trace their origins to profits made from slavery.

    1. PieInTheSKy

      ehm …

      1. straffinrun

        Kind of compliment, don’t you think?

        1. PieInTheSKy

          totes

          1. That monkey sure wants those grapes.

          2. AlexinCT

            HAH!

            You beat me to it!

    2. Lol. Whataboutism.

      Did I do that correctly?

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Someone explain to me how and why after capitalist countries abandoned slavery, communist countries needed to bring in back in the form of gulags and reeducation camps in order to survive?

    4. WTF

      Yes, of course, this is why the Confederate states were wealthier and more industrialized than the Union which allowed them to wear down the Union and win the Civil War…oh, wait….

    5. Suthenboy

      See my comment above about socialisms spectacular successes. These fuckers really do want to put everyone back in chains.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Romney is a socialist?!

        1. AlexinCT

          Was this a serious question? Cause the guy is definitely a nanny stater.

          1. commodious spittoon

            Eh, just picking on Biden. I know, low-hanging fruit.

  18. Pat

    Incidentally, I am now 5 songs deep into a Norah Jones playlist on YouTube. Forgot how much I like her.

    1. The Last American Hero

      Have you figured out why she didn’t cum yet?

      1. Pat

        You just had to make it dirty. And worse yet, that song was originally written and recorded by a dude.

  19. Rebel Scum

    Canada and Mexico are colluding against the United States in the trade war.

    Do you know who else colluded on a two front war?

    1. WTF

      Roosevelt and Stalin?

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Brazzers?

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Chinese finger cuffs.

      2. Chafed

        ^^^My hero

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      +1 trillion dollar coin

    2. WTF

      Now if he can just control the hoarders, Kulaks, and wreckers, it will be socialist utopia!

    3. Pat

      Why not just switch to scientific notation?

    4. straffinrun

      Maduro, Chavez, Che and the Castro Brothers?

    5. Michael

      He should order it switched to hexadecimal, but that might require a precarious brush with self awareness.

      1. straffinrun

        Or go digital. With all the prostitution going on, they could call it clitcoin.

        1. PieInTheSKy

          If I were to visit Venezuela I would have an ethical dilemma… I would want to try some of the local escorts but would feel bad because of the situation… Would be a good test…

          1. WTF

            By purchasing their services you would be helping them to survive. So, win win!

          2. PieInTheSKy

            Also I could ask for a good rate and pay actual money… Like USD

          3. Pat

            There’s no discounts if you cry during. Or, uh, at least that’s what I’ve heard anyway.

          4. straffinrun

            Something wrong with me perhaps, but strangers asking me, “You wanna party?” was never tempting.

          5. AlexinCT

            What about “HEEEEY BABY, YOU WANNA GO OUT??”

          6. invisible finger

            You’d feel bad because of the disease you’d wind up with.

          7. PieInTheSKy

            Neah get a 20 year old one new to the trade…

          8. WTF

            a 20 year old one new to the trade

            That sentence contradicts itself.

          9. I don’t think malnutrition is contagious…

    6. Juvenile Bluster

      It will work just as well as it did the time that Chavez knocked 3 zeroes off the currency.

      Given the rate of inflation, it won’t be too long before they’re back to where they are now anyways.

    7. Nephilium

      But that just makes them all poorer!

    8. C’mon if you can remove five, you certainly can remove six.

  20. Rebel Scum

    Women protest Mike Pence at a fundraising event, by dressing as characters from Handmaiden’s Tale.

    Christians in a constitutional republic with separation of church and state are a threat to women. Muslims in Muslim theocracies are totally not.

    Apparently one of the reasons cited is US immigration policy, which strikes me as a bit of a stretch.

    “Stretch” is an understatement.

    And I still don’t get this “Pence is Christian fascist who wants to subjugate women and kill teh gayz” stuff. Every time I have heard him speak he has been nothing but respectful and has never called for harm on any particular group in the US. Am I missing something?

    1. WTF

      Nope. If you ever ask any of them for citations of Pence making any such statements to support their insane assertions, there will be nothing but incoherent sputtering.

    2. Old Man With Candy

      Yes, you’re missing the dog whistles. It’s dog whistles all the way down.

    3. Pat

      He’s about as bland and milquetoast a mainstream Chamber of Commerce conservative as exists in this country. The only thing the rage mobs know about him or need to know about him is that he’s a Republican and he ran with Trump. Oh, and he doesn’t spend time alone with women other than his wife because he doesn’t want to be accused of even the appearance of impropriety, the shitlord.

      1. WTF

        Oh, and he doesn’t spend time alone with women other than his wife because he doesn’t want to be accused of even the appearance of impropriety, the shitlord.

        For some reason it enrages the shrieking fem mob that he protects himself from being #MeToo’d.

      2. A Leap at the Wheel

        They know he looks like the villain in an 80’s era X-men comic book, which is frankly all they need.

        1. Bobarian LMD

          Race Bannon is not a villain!

          1. Endless Mike

            Neither was Cable?

    4. PieInTheSKy

      If you were not a literal Nazi you would understand. As such…

    5. Michael

      Isn’t a big part of the show’s premise that the regime prevents people from leaving? Admittedly I wouldn’t know for sure because this is what I’ve gleaned from only watching about half an episode.

      1. Heroic Mulatto

        Having read the book, yes. In the book, Gilead, which is not the entirety of the U.S., is surrounded by “The Wall” and Catholics and others who didn’t convert to their version of bat-shit fundamentalism were hanged from it. Blacks were rounded up and placed outside the borders of Gilead and Jews were supposed to be given “free” transport to Israel, but were instead taken out to see and drowned.

        1. WTF

          Ah, I see now why the left thinks it reflects Trump’s America – so very very true to life under the current regime.

          1. Rebel Scum

            I haven’t even noticed any real religious inclinations from the man. Does he even attend church?

        2. A Leap at the Wheel

          This book has been on my “to be read, maybe, at some point, but probably not because your actual to-read list is already a hundred books long” list. Should I promote it up to my “actually read this list.”

          If it matters – I’m a huge fan of 1st wave feminism, charitable to 2nd wave feminism even when I disagree with it strongly because I was raised by 2nd wavers, and viscerally repulsed by 3rd wave. Also, i much prefer heroic fiction over lit-fic. Is there anything in here for me?

        3. Pope Jimbo

          What did they show the Jews before they drowned them?

          It has to be totes cool if even you won’t link to what they were taken to see.

    6. Suthenboy

      “We must destroy western civilization”

      /Frankfurt School

      Yeah, you are missing something, or else it is so unbelievable that you have dismissed it. Like always these women are 100% projecting

      1. Rebel Scum

        Oh, I know they are projecting. It’s all they have. Just yesterday I was told how close-minded I was right before also being told by the same person that he was unwilling to discuss/debate/justify ideological positions he was espousing. I am as much a victim of government schools as anyone, but jebus christ, I learned things on my own by reading and listening to opposing ideas/arguments. Anyone can do it.

  21. Brett L

    Identical twins running for the same office from different parties. They need to step up the eliminationist rhetoric if they want a chance at the reality show.

    1. straffinrun

      Typo. Same orifice.

      1. Michael

        Can we get security over here to escort this individual out?

        1. straffinrun

          You’ll have to scrape me out of here.

    2. robc

      Same office in different districts, so they could end up serving together.

    3. DOOMco

      “your 5 cent titanium tax doesn’t go too far enough!”
      John Jackson

  22. Pat

    Swann’s home security camera recordings could be hijacked

    A popular wireless security camera designed to safeguard businesses and homes was vulnerable to a spying hack.

    The flaw meant it was possible to hijack video and audio streamed from other people’s properties by making a minor tweak to Swann Security’s app.

    Researchers found the problem after the BBC reported a case where one customer had received another’s recordings.

    Australia-based Swann and OzVision – the Israeli provider of its cloud tech – said the issue had now been fixed.

    1. PieInTheSKy

      Just don’t put one in the bathroom

      1. Pope Jimbo

        -1 Chuck Berry

    2. Pope Jimbo

      I love the fact that they kept saying “intercepted the messages”. Dude, it is a wireless product, it is broadcasting its messages. Sure they should be encrypted or at least secured with some sort of access control, but it isn’t like they were cutting a cable and installing a tap.

      I feel bad for the camera company (sort of). They got fucked by the same thing that has been fucking home automation products since people first had the idea to sell this crap to consumers: If you want to sell home automation equipment, you need to build a product that can be installed by morons.

      If you secure your equipment you make it waaaaaay harder for the average Joe to install themselves. So security gets whittled down to make it easier to install. Most of the time this shit isn’t caught because no one cares enough to hack some shitty product like this. Unfortunately this company had two idiots who lived next door to each other buy their camera. Go figure the pairing/claiming process was wonky and you could see each other.

    3. And yet the politicians who bitch about this are the same ones who want a government backdoor on every device.

  23. Pat

    Boys more ‘cliquey’ than girls

    Whether it’s due to popular teen films such as Mean Girls or gender stereotypes most people imagine girls form more cliques than boys.

    Yet a new study contradicts this, suggesting that boys are more likely to form tight-knit friendship groups.

    Researchers say analysing social mixing patterns is important for infectious diseases and vaccination planning.

    They found that boys were more likely to mix with the same six friends over a period of six months.

    Girls’ friendships, however, were more variable.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      That can also be interpreted as girls are less loyal and more prone to backstabbing while climbing the social ladder.

      1. Heroic Mulatto

        I think it’s common knowledge that these hoes ain’t loyal.

        1. AlexinCT

          That’s why we have that saying “Bros before hoes”..

    2. leonadasiv

      Well if you do a study on cliques, you should probably study actual behaviors of cliques. E.g: barriers to entry; Animosity toward competing groups;

      Because its not surprising that people form groups and that guys tend to stick around in one group.

    3. WTF

      I see they confuse “friendship groups” with “cliques”.

    4. A Leap at the Wheel

      Link to the original: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0200090

      By integrating data collection into a public engagement programme, we examined self-reported contact networks in year 7 groups in four UK secondary schools. We collected data from 460 unique participants across four rounds of data collection conducted between January and June 2015, with 7,315 identifiable contacts reported in total. Although individual-level contacts varied over the study period, we were able to obtain out-of-sample accuracies of more than 90% and F-scores of 0.49–0.84 when predicting the presence or absence of social contacts between specific individuals across rounds of data collection. Network properties such as clustering and number of communities were broadly consistent within schools between survey rounds, but varied significantly between schools. Networks were assortative according to gender, and to a lesser extent school class, with the estimated clustering coefficient larger among males in all surveyed co-educational schools. Our results demonstrate that it is feasible to collect longitudinal self-reported social contact data from school children and that key properties of these data are consistent between rounds of data collection.

      (Year 7 corresponds to 6th grade in Freedom Schools)

      The lead author in the linked article says this goes against stereotype. I think HM is right. 6th grade girls having more amorphous social cliques sounds right within stereotype to me. Totally fits the model that boys assort by testosterone-related dominance features which stay pretty static, and that girl operate like a bucket of crabs while trying to climb the dominance ladder.

      So yeah, super stereotypical.

  24. straffinrun

    He wasn’t trying to rape her, he was attempting ‘outercourse’, says lawyer for ex-Stanford student Brock Turner

    Turner was originally convicted of assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman and penetration of an unconscious person after passers-by spotted him thrusting on top of a motionless woman outside of a fraternity house in 2015. But his lawyer Eric Multhaup argued in court Tuesday that his client was not attempting rape, but was seeking “outercourse”, which he said was sexual contact while clothed and a “version of safe sex”, the Mercury News reported.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s the latest in rape defense legal theory.

    2. Pat

      It’s a bold strategy Cotton, lets see if it pays off for them

    3. PieInTheSKy

      I feel for the lawyers sometimes I mean you need to come up with something

    4. Old Man With Candy

      Outercourse sounds so much classier than dry-humping.

      1. Jarflax

        +1 frottage

        1. Old Man With Candy

          I think I had that at a French restaurant.

      2. STEVE SMITH COURSE WITH OUTERS AND INNERS!

    5. JaimeRoberto

      In fairness I don’t think there was any penetration in this case. There probably would have been had nobody stopped him.

  25. Pope Jimbo

    A very Minnesoda news story.

    OK, the throat slitting might not exactly be Minnesoda Nice, but the reporting is perfect.

    LAPORTE, Minn. — A Lake George, Minn., woman was charged with attempted murder and assault Monday after police say she slit the throat of an acquaintance at his Laporte home.

    Defendant Janelle Nicole Rex, 32, and the victim, identified as Larry Holm, “didn’t particularly like each other,” according to a court documents that provide an account of the throat-cutting.

    (my emphasis)

    1. straffinrun

      A friend of mine and his wife didn’t particularly like each other, either. When their child was born, the doctor asked if he’d like to cut the umbilical cord, he declined. “But could I slit her throat?”

      1. PieInTheSKy

        I feel hospitals would not want their maternal mortality statistics to increase.

        1. straffinrun

          UnCiv worthy comment.

  26. PieInTheSKy

    Why Was the 20th Century Not a Chinese Century?: An Outtake from “Slouching Towards Utopia?: An Economic History of the Long 20th Century”

    http://www.bradford-delong.com/2018/07/why-was-the-20th-century-not-a-chinese-century-an-outtake-from-slouching-towards-utopia-an-economic-history-of-the-long.html

    TW: long and without much conclusion

    1. Brett L

      Why Was the 20th Century Not a Chinese Century?

      I’ve always suspected that murdering and imprisoning a significant number of your citizens, along with transporting people with technical expertise to slave labor camps seems to hold back economic progress. If only there were some empirical evidence to support that.

      1. PieInTheSKy

        I think the idea of the article is that decline started in 1200…

        1. Brett L

          Well then Neo-Confucianism’s over emphasis on tradition, social harmony, and hierarchy, as well as a lack of religious wars, acted as a brake on the wheel of progress, eventually stultifying the technologies and ossifying the society. Also, there was no systematizer like Bacon to push the idea that everything about the physical world could be known, and had some relation to each other.

          1. PieInTheSKy

            Look dude cant be that simple economic historians need to sell books too

          2. Gadfly

            … tradition, social harmony, and hierarchy, as well as a lack of religious wars …

            It is interesting that competition seems to encourage innovation. China had a flowering of philosophy during the Spring and Autumn period of disunity but stagnated during imperial unity. Europe saw a flowering of philosophy among the disunited city states of Greece followed by stagnation during the unity of imperial of Rome, but then again experienced periods of innovation during the competition of Italian city states in the Renaissance and again during the competition of empires during the colonial period that was coincident with the Enlightenment. On the other hand the competition can’t be too intense, because in periods where competing factions are basically nonstop plundering and razing each other you get dark ages.

    2. Gustave Lytton

      Brad DeLong: Niskane Center Board of Advisors member

  27. Pat

    Student’s suspension over border wall shirt costs Oregon school district $25,000, an apology

    An Oregon high school student who was suspended over a shirt that touted President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall has agreed to settle his lawsuit after the school agreed to pay $25,000 for his legal fees and have its principal write him an apology.

    Addison Barnes, who graduated this year from Liberty High School in Hillsboro, Oregon, outside of Portland, filed the federal lawsuit in May alleging that his First Amendment rights had been violated by the school when he was punished for wearing the shirt to a politics class discussion about immigration. The shirt said “Donald J. Trump Border Wall Construction Co.,” and “The Wall Just Got 10 Feet Taller.”

    An assistant principal told Barnes that he needed to cover the shirt because a student and a teacher said it offended them, according to the complaint filed in district court in Oregon. Barnes was removed from the class and given a suspension after he refused, though the suspension was later rescinded.

    District Judge Michael Mosman sided with Barnes and his lawyers in late May, ordering the school to prevent the school district from banning the shirt while the lawsuit was in progress, a sign that the case had merits to succeed.

    1. PieInTheSKy

      Liberty High School i – hmmmm

      1. Too bad it’s the taxpayers paying, and not the principal and teacher. Oh, and the student who was offended.

      2. They should rename it Alanis Morrisette High School.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      Is the kid suing because they rescinded the suspension?

      “HEY! You promised I didn’t have to come here anymore. No takebacks.”

      I really hope the kid returns the apology letter with an F and covered with red correction marks.

      1. invisible finger

        Plagiarized boilerplate

  28. Rebel Scum

    I don’t expect much to come of this

    “For 9 months we’ve warned them consequences were coming, and for 9 months we’ve heard the same excuses backed up by the same unacceptable conduct,” Meadows, the head of the House Freedom Caucus and ally of President Trump, said in a statement. “Time is up and the consequences are here. It’s time to find a new Deputy Attorney General who is serious about accountability and transparency.”

    “The DOJ is keeping information from Congress. Enough is enough. It’s time to hold Mr. Rosenstein accountable for blocking Congress’s constitutional oversight role,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), another GOP lawmaker who has been fiercely critical of the DOJ, said in a statement.

    The articles include a series of allegations against Rosenstein.

    They charge that Rosenstein has a conflict of interest in Mueller’s probe, stating that he is a “witness” who could be called to testify in the ongoing investigation into potential surveillance abuse since he signed off on an FBI surveillance renewal application to wiretap Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump campaign.

    “As such, his conduct in authorizing the FISA surveillance at issue in the joint congressional investigation makes him a fact witness central to the ongoing investigation of potential FISA abuse,” read the articles of impeachment, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

    “Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein’s failure to recuse himself in light of this inherent conflict of interest and failure to recommend the appointment of a second Special Counsel constitute dereliction of duty. Wherefore, Rod Rosenstein, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office,” it continues.

    1. Rebel Scum

      Cue hysteria:

      Democrats on Wednesday night called the articles “a direct attack on the special counsel’s investigation.”

      “It is a panicked and dangerous attempt to undermine an ongoing criminal investigation in an effort to protect President Trump as the walls are closing in around him and his associates,” said the top Democrats on the House Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform, and House Intelligence committees, Reps. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), in a joint statement.

      “It is certainly not, as its sponsors claim, a principled attempt to conduct oversight of the Department of Justice, because House Republicans have refused to conduct oversight of any aspect of the Trump Administration, except where the inquiry might distract from their failed agenda, undermine law enforcement, and serve the interests of President Trump,” they continued.

      Um…ok.

      1. Suthenboy

        What part of Trump’s agenda has failed?

        1. invisible finger

          The wall hasn’t been built yet?
          The swamp hasn’t been drained yet?

          ‘s’all I got.

        2. Old Man With Candy

          “Agenda” implies a consistent and organized set of goals. So they start with an incorrect premise.

        3. Repeal of Obamacare.
          Building the Wall with Mexico paying for it.

          1. WTF

            Soooo, the Democrats want these things to happen, hence the criticism of it not happening?

          2. Drake

            The Mexicans are building a wall on their southern border…

          3. R C Dean

            Which will actually help cut down illegal immigration in the US, too.

          4. mexican sharpshooter

            Which incidentally, they are paying for…

      2. invisible finger

        “their failed agenda”

        Everything is projection with these people.

  29. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda.

    Not so Minnesoda Nice?

    More than once, Jama said, people she solicited for votes responded to her with racially charged comments — “go back to where you came from” and “we don’t support a terrorist” — before slamming the door in her face. Worse yet, she added, an elderly white man even spat on her before telling her to get off his property.

    Am I wrong to think this needs to be filed under: “Things that never happened”?

    The angle I would have taken is why it didn’t appear that any of the 15 muslims running for office in Minnesoda have ever worked in the private sector.

    1. PieInTheSKy

      Yeah video or it didn’t happen

    2. I. B. McGinty

      So if her mom was bad, she would be “Bad Mama Jama?”

      1. *narrows gaze*

        1. I. B. McGinty

          I think that’s my first narrowed gaze…

          * crosses off bucket list *

          1. kinnath

            I had mine about a week ago. I was so proud.

      2. Pope Jimbo

        Don’t laugh but her incontinent brother is known in town as Pee Jama.

    3. Stinky Wizzleteats

      “Worse yet, she added, an elderly white man even spat on her before telling her to get off his property.”

      Bull. Fucking. Shit.

    1. WTF

      I shall not go to England, it is a silly place.

  30. Rufus the Monocled

    Do any of you smart asses know what the symbol (##) means? I got this text from an unfamiliar number (based in Alberta) at 2am.

    1. Pat

      It’s the censored version of (.)(.)

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      You moron, didn’t you get the memo? It’s the signal telling you that your next shill payoff from the Koch Brothers is coming, and you have to get ready to handle the gold coins.

    3. Heroic Mulatto

      I’m guessing it was just a drunk text.

      1. straffinrun

        Video of drunk texting in Alberta sounds boring.

    4. PieInTheSKy

      I thought in press releases meant nothing else is coming… Over and out…

    5. Jarflax

      It’s Trudeau’s eyebrow, you found it for him!!!!

  31. Rufus the Monocled

    Isn’t Trump removing security clearances to people who actively undermine him a good thing?

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      Removing security clearances from everybody no longer employed by or contracted to the government would be better.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        ^This. There’s actually a cost to maintaining clearances, and it’s out and out robbery to put taxpayers on the hook for that so that ex-politicos can rake it in as Beltway bandits.

      2. Gustave Lytton

        I thought it was that way too, but doing some reading over the last thread on this, clearances are tied to a position. They automatically expire when you leave or move to a non-cleared position. What remains, for 2 years, is eligibility to have it reinstated without going through a full background investigation again.

        The problem is two fold, first the federal government has greatly expanded the requirements for mandatory clearances for a lot of government & government contracted work while the amount of government contracted work has exploded. Second, the length of time to do background investigations has reached an excessive amount.

        As long as the government is requiring clearances, taxpayers will pay for them one way or another.

        1. Gustave Lytton

          And clearance basically means you have a current background investigation and can work in a cleared position. It grants no access in and if itself.

          If ex-heads of the CIA, who are not in any sort of legitimate position are being given classified documents or information, it doesn’t matter if they have a clearance or not. The person providing such info is commiting a crime. And the recepient is too, if they don’t report it and return the classified material. It certainly doesn’t authorize them to publicize it further.

          1. Bob

            This is correct. Part of me thinks the issue came up because the Republicans wanted to advertise all of Brennan’s security breaches on network news and the rage media fell for it.

            Hard to believe since that would be clever, this out of character for republicans.

  32. egould310

    Good news! I’ve been offered a job at a great company and with a substantial increase in salary.

    Bad news: I’ll actually have to work M-F, all day like regular business hours. This will curtail my Glibertarian activity.

    Good news: there is a little bit of travel involved, so maybe I can meet some more of you West of the Rockies Glibs.

    Anyways, I’m stoked!

    https://youtu.be/fuzBMhAM20E

      1. mexican sharpshooter

        Thats bad…

        Congratulations!

    1. DOOMco

      Nice!

    2. straffinrun

      Thumbs up. If you get far enough west of the Rockies, beer on me.

      1. egould310

        ???

    3. Suthenboy

      Sounds good E, congratulations and good luck!

    4. invisible finger

      Congratulations on breaking through the lace ceiling.,

    5. Rufus the Monocled

      Congrats.

      /cues 9 to 5 song.

    6. Old Man With Candy

      Congratulations! if they have an opening for a slightly shopworn (((scientist))), remember your old pal, the pervert.

      1. egould310

        It’s an (((accounting))) firm.

        1. Certified Public Asshat

          Big 4?

          1. egould310

            No. Just a very small local firm. 10 employees. I’ll be an auditor/field examiner.

        2. Old Man With Candy

          Everyone knows that Jews own that field. You’d better not have a foreskin, Shaygetz!

      2. Grummun

        We’ve got some open faculty positions, but 1) your work has to be computational in nature, 2) you’d have to move to O-hi-o, and 3) you gots to bring in that sweeeet grant money.

    7. ChipsnSalsa

      I’ll actually have to work M-F, all day like regular business hours. This will curtail my Glibertarian activity.

      doesn’t stop most of us here.

      congratulations.

    8. Slammer

      Nice! Best of luck!

    9. DEG

      Congratulations!

    10. Professional Beach Bum

      Congratulations!

  33. DOOMco

    Did you know the freedom caucus is 100% behind Trump? They put that impeachment proceedings out there to signal to Donny two scoops that the caucus is in full support of his racist fascist ways.

    Npr knows.

    1. DOOMco

      Seriously I have yo stop listening to them in the car. The blood pressure spikes must be cutting my lifespan.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Your taxes support it, so listen away, you already bought the ticket, however involuntary that purchase was.

        1. DOOMco

          Vpr is going to all the counties in Vermont to ask people what they want from them. Part of me wants to go and tell them to hire a single libertarian it Republican. Just one. Maybe stop working every sentence into a slant. It’s impressive how much they must work to give every single thing a slant.

          1. ChipsnSalsa

            so… no Asians then?

          2. DOOMco

            The demographics of VT aren’t suited for crazy stuff like that!

  34. PieInTheSKy

    How cinema embraced the silent agony of being a parent

    In the British drama The Escape, Gemma Arterton stars as a mother who walks out on her family, unable to cope. It’s one of several new films about parenthood with which many women will empathise

    https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/26/how-cinema-embraced-the-silent-agony-of-being-a-parent

    I find that headline kinda dumb. Humans have been parents for… at least 6000 years. It is a normal part of life… silent agony is a bit overly dramatic.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Suck it up and deal

    2. Pat

      It’s also largely an opt-in program. If you don’t want to be a parent, then don’t.

    3. Chipwooder

      Because, while Charlize Theron badassing her way through action movies in six-inch heels is inspiring, it doesn’t say much about the daily reality of most women’s lives.

      Maybe it’s just in the circles I run in, but abandoning her children doesn’t say much about the daily reality of the lives of the women I know, either. Yes, most mothers (and fathers) have moments where they regret the choices they’ve made and fantasize about what could have been in a life unencumbered by family demands….but you get over it and fulfill your responsibilities.

      Also, I note that I’ve never seen anyone sympathetically portray men who abandon their children. GRRRRRRRL POWER!

      1. AlexinCT

        Cause dudes must pay for the kids and the woman, even though we now are told there is no difference between men and women other than what the patriarchy inflicts.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Gotcha!

    President Donald Trump has spent weeks drawing battle lines for a trade war with Europe and courting Vladimir Putin — causing almost universal angst in Washington. On Wednesday, he blinked on both.
    Trump’s decisions to put trade hostilities with the European Union on hold and to delay the Russian President’s visit he had planned for the fall are likely to be widely welcomed among Republicans and among US allies who have been concerned by his tendency to elevate US enemies while criticizing friends.
    At the White House, Trump declared what appeared at first to be a stunning breakthrough in transatlantic trade amid fears of an all-out trade war.

    ———–

    The announcement on trade was dressed up as a huge victory, held in the Rose Garden, the traditional venue for big state announcements, and in front of a group of Republican lawmakers apparently called down from Capitol Hill to serve as a backdrop.
    Yet in essence, its real effect seemed to be to disguise a step back by the President who has imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on US allies in Europe, repeatedly threatened to slap a 25% tariff on European cars imports and blasted the European Union in public.
    The two sides said that they had agreed to discuss tearing down all tariffs, trade barriers and subsidies on non-auto industrial goods. Trump said that they had also agreed to work together to resolve the issue of “retaliatory tariffs” imposed in recent months.

    That Trump, him so dum.

    1. invisible finger

      Can’t wait for CNN’s new series on game theory.

    2. “The announcement on trade was dressed up as a huge victory”

      Didn’t the DJIA jump like 200 points upon this announcement? Not really dressing up…

    3. Stinky Wizzleteats

      How are talks concerning the elimination or tariffs Trump backing down? That was the explicitly stated goal from the outset of all of this-the retaliatory tariffs were a bargaining chip to achieve this goal and it’s apparently working.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        “elimination of tariffs”

    4. Suthenboy

      This morning on the teevee I saw some shithead senator insisting that that there is no evidence whatsoever that any progress has been made on North Korea.

      Short of further entrenching and enriching the self appointed ruling class at the expense of the country there is nothing the guy could do to get them to back down. It isnt just draining the swamp that is driving them nuts, it is the benefits to the country/deplorables that gets under their skin.

    5. R C Dean

      Yet in essence, its real effect seemed to be to disguise a step back by the President who has imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on US allies in Europe, repeatedly threatened to slap a 25% tariff on European cars imports and blasted the European Union in public.

      Odd, that the story doesn’t really mention why he did this. And lo, there is a reason:

      EU concessions to avoid pending trade war

      First, note the URL “eu prepares retaliatory tariffs”, not really borne out in the actual text. An old headline, superseded by events, perhaps?

      Trump and Juncker said after a White House meeting that they agreed to hold sweeping trade talks that also cover increased European purchases of American soybeans and liquefied natural gas (LNG) and reducing barriers to transatlantic trade in services, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and medical products.

      They also said they would cooperate to reform the rules of the World Trade Organization.

      Juncker said that while negotiations were taking place on those issues, both sides had agreed not to impose new tariffs, including those threatened by Trump on autos and auto parts.

      Its almost like this Trump guy knows now to put a deal together. Huh. Just like with the Norks, he brings a pool cue to the negotiations, convinces everyone he’s willing to use it on them if they don’t get cracking, and waddayaknow, they get cracking.

    6. Rebel Scum

      CNN: Facts First

      Lol. Never gets old.

    7. Endless Mike

      If only there was some sort of instruction manual that clearly outlined his negotiating tactics – gosh, the reporter that found that could probably win some sort of prize for in-depth investigative journalism…

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Seriously I have yo stop listening to them in the car. The blood pressure spikes must be cutting my lifespan.

    They’re trying to help you. They just want to cut through the fog of ignorance and bigotry which engulfs you, and show you how wrong you are about everything.

  37. Thot Thursday.

    http://archive.is/gFgti

    22 sez “I’ll make your erection great again”. 49 sez “My chest controls your mind”. 98 sez “I’ve never paid for a drink in my life”. 81 sez “You’ll beg me to destroy your life and I’ll happily comply”.

    1. DEG

      Some good choices, but I think this isn’t up to your usual standards.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Since the President also declined to answer questions about the Putin invitation, the prospect that he had been snubbed by the Russian leader could not be ruled out, though the Kremlin — which had never showed much enthusiasm about the prospect of a Putin visit to Washington — said Wednesday that it hadn’t begun planning for the summit.
    Given that the Russian leader so comprehensively outdueled Trump in Helsinki, Putin may have had little inclination to offer the US President a do-over in such a high-profile setting.

    Everywhere I look, I see what I’m looking for.

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Yep, that should go into a textbook as an illustration of confirmation bias.

  39. Nephilium

    For those Central Ohio Glibs, I’ll be in Canal Winchester (outside Columbus) next month for BrewDog’s Annual General Mayhem (AKA: stockholder’s meeting). I’ll be available to meet up with people Friday night, or for a post-beerfest Sunday breakfast/brunch/lunch.

  40. Certified Public Asshat

    Deadspin* derp of the day**:

    Soledad O’Brien Brutally Owns Meghan McCain for Being Mad Online About Socialism

    What was this brutal own? A tweet!

    Hi @MeghanMcCain ! I have a (busy!) life—four kids, run a small business, anchor some tv shows, been an award winning journalist for a minute (not to brag ❤️). Watch you’re video. You were having a full-fledged freak out. It undermined your argument. You should work on that. https://t.co/yDUFjQ6QE3

    *actually from fucking splinter
    **it’s still early

    1. Certified Public Asshat

      And of course, the comments:

      “Name any country where this has worked”

      *starts rolling off a list of industrialized nations where this has worked*

      “name any country as large as the third largest nation in history where this has worked”

      Someone should have pointed out what the tax rate was in the 50s and 60s and that both Ike and Nixon were openly discussing UBI and universal health care.

      1. Chipwooder

        The tax rate that no one actually paid? That tax rate?

        1. Gustave Lytton

          Not to mention the incentives for non-cash benefits then that would be taxed under today’s structure.

      2. invisible finger

        When you point out those tax rates, also point out the 100% deductions that existed then that no longer exist.

      3. Scandinavia has been steadily moving away from socialist policy for the last couple of decades because, to their credit, they recognized it wasn’t working. Given their demographic problems now, it may be too little too late though.

        Still Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea are the best, most explicit examples of “true socialism/communism” on Earth.

      4. invisible finger

        “Nixon…openly discussing UBI and universal health care.”

        Really?? THE Saint Nixon?

      5. invisible finger

        Nixon also discussed wiretapping his opponents campaign offices. Didn’t know the Democrats admired the man so much.

        1. Chipwooder

          I don’t know, a glance at the machinations of the Obama Administration would indicate a healthy respect for the Nixon White House.

          1. Jarflax

            Nah, Obama held Nixon in contempt for being a piker when it came to election rigging.

          2. AlexinCT

            Exactly. If anything he thinks Nixon was a rube because they got to do all the things he only dreamed of doing.

    2. Old Man With Candy

      Grammar and usage are not Soledad’s specialty.

      1. Chipwooder

        I’m not sure she has a specialty, unless stupidity is a specialty.

      2. Certified Public Asshat

        You’re grammar can suffer when you are brutally owning someone.

      3. Your sure about that?

    3. Pat

      I have a (busy!) life—four kids, run a small business, anchor some tv shows, been an award winning journalist for a minute (not to brag ❤️). Watch you’re video.

      When you’re trying to be a condescending prick and you make basic grammatical errors…

      Also, can you fucking imagine the collective bitch fit if any man told any woman in the public eye You were having a full-fledged freak out. It undermined your argument. You should work on that?

      1. AlexinCT

        Been there and done that… Left the company and went elsewhere so I could avoid the bullshit from the HR zombies.

    4. A Leap at the Wheel

      Once upon a time, Deadspin used to just be a sports website that would post pictures of Casey Hampton shirtless and pounding tequella or would make jokes about Derick Anderson having horse balls. Seems like so long ago.

    5. Drake

      Who? The bald singer lady?

    6. Watch you’re video

      Enough said.

  41. 2-Chili was on yokel radio this morning talking occupational licensing. It was a really good discussion that transitioned into the Administrative State and what he called a “permission-based society” in which we have to ask the bureaucracy for permission to do so many things that they can control us without due process by revoking (or just threatening to revoke) permission to drive, work, travel and any one of a zillion other things.

    2-Chili is way too good for Reason. We need to get him over here.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      I read a really good term in a book (White Goodman voice): Conformist extremists.

    2. A Leap at the Wheel

      “The Permission Society” is a really great turn of phrase. Who coined it? Does anyone know? First I heard it was from Timothy Sandefur. I wonder how it resonates with people outside out camps.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Good news! I’ve been offered a job at a great company and with a substantial increase in salary.

    Bad news: I’ll actually have to work M-F, all day like regular business hours. This will curtail my Glibertarian activity.

    But the running will continue, right?

    1. Nephilium

      *sigh*

      /thinks about the two bicycles that have been sitting in the garage this summer

      Stupid work schedule.

    2. egould310

      Hell yes. Running will continue. My drinking is going to have to decrease ☹️

      I’m going to have to get better at managing my time. I couldn’t sleep last night, my mind was too occupied trying to figure my new schedule for running, work, family time, guitar shredding, Glibs assholery.

    3. commodious spittoon

      But the running will continue, right?

      Until morale improves.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    It’s impressive how much they must work to give every single thing a slant.

    File under: Does a fish know it’s swimming?

    1. DOOMco

      I thought for a while that they might not realize or be trying.
      But I’ve decided they know. They try too hard on some things.

  44. Gadfly

    Canada and Mexico are colluding against the United States in the trade war.

    Canada’s GDP + Mexico’s GDP = $2.8T
    USA’s GDP = $19.4T

    Methinks they might be a tad outgunned.

  45. DEG

    The food in the teaser picture on the front page looks delicious. I ate a big breakfast, saw that, and felt hungry again.

  46. DEG

    Norah Jones – would? would not?

    1. Oh heck, why not. Would.

    2. Drake

      Would have last time I saw her – at least a decade ago.

  47. ‘Serious concern’ over plans to house sex offenders in open prison opposite primary school

    A decision to house sex offenders at an open prison opposite a primary school is a “serious concern”, a police chief has said.

    Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner David Keane wants an urgent meeting with Government officials over the change at HMP Thorn Cross in Warrington.

    The Ministry of Justice said the prison will start to accept men convicted of sexual offences by the end of the year.

    The prison is a few hundred yards away from Appleton Thorn Primary School.

    Does each prisoner get a free pair of binoculars?

    1. Chipwooder

      And a large supply of hand lotion and tissues.

    2. Brochettaward

      What better punishment could there be than for them to hear the laughing and giggling of school children? So close, yet so so far away?

      1. R C Dean

        A few hundred yards ain’t that far. Not sure exactly what an “open” prison is, but it doesn’t sound like its super-secure.

    3. Slammer

      An adult prison next to a child prison…what’s the big deal?

  48. TW: Autostart video

    Teacher dubbed ‘Kim Kardashian’ by pupils BUSTED ‘for having sex with underage student’

    Shannon Moser, 37, is facing a stint in jail after being charged with having sex with a pupil in North Dakota.

    Officers arrested the West Fargo educator after they received a tip-off that she had sex with a 16-year-old boy on a gravel road in a local park.

    The science teacher, who allowed pupils to call her Kim Kardashian, was charged with two counts of using a minor in a sexual performance, Class A felonies, and one count of sexual assault, a Class C felony.

    1. Brochettaward

      The victim said he got in Moser’s van and the pair drove to a gravel road and had sex, according to the News Tribune. The student said that Moser told him “no one can know,” after the intercourse. That report says that Moser is also accused of giving the boy “electronic tobacco products.”

      https://heavy.com/news/2018/07/shannon-moser/

      1. invisible finger

        Prolly gave him a plastic straw, too.

      2. commodious spittoon

        The student said that Moser told him “no one can know,” after the intercourse.

        She’d been a teacher for how long and expected her middle-school-age paramour would keep his yap shut?

        1. Pope Jimbo

          The News Tribune reports that cops in West Fargo got an anonymous tip in June saying that Moser was having sex with minor males at Rendezvous Park in West Fargo. That student denied the relationship to police on July 3 but a friend told investigators that the teenager had spoken about the alleged abuse to him. When the victim was interviewed again, he admitted to his mother and to cops about the alleged abuse.

          Sounds like he tried to keep his yap shut, but his buddy fucked him and then he caved.

          Who would have thought that a teen ager having sex with his teacher couldn’t be trusted to be a hard case?

          1. “alleged abuse”

            Only abusive if she didn’t swallow.

      3. “Moser’s Husband Is the ‘Lead Pastor’ for the River City Church”

        This always seems to be part of the theme also.

    2. “using a minor in a sexual performance”

      So, like a live sex show?

    3. ChipsnSalsa

      cool link brah.

    4. Stinky Wizzleteats

      From the photo the Kim Kardashian thing does not add up. Can’t see her ass though…

  49. DEG

    NH House holds up Internet sales tax bill

    Because of the the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair, businesses based in New Hampshire may have to collect sales taxes on behalf of other states if the person making the purchase lives in another state. For example, if someone living in California, Illinois, Maryland or any state that applies sales taxes uses the internet to purchase an item from a New Hampshire business, said business would have to collect the sales taxes for the other states.

    A bipartisan task force had drafted a bill that would require states and other taxing jurisdictions to register with the attorney general’s office, pay fees and prove compliance with state laws and the Constitution before collecting taxes. The Senate passed it unanimously.

    However, the House voted 164-151 to strip the bill, SB1, of everything but a 13-member commission that would study the issue. The Senate refused to concur with these changes, but members said they would soon return to Concord with new legislation.

    1. DOOMco

      I still can’t believe that case was decided the way it was

    2. R C Dean

      I wonder if a state could pass a law prohibiting businesses domiciled there from having to collect and remit sales taxes to other states.

      1. DOOMco

        Wasn’t that what the court decided on? Maybe it wasn’t. I thought the case meant the companies would have to collect taxes on behalf of all states.

        1. R C Dean

          The case said that companies could be required to collect and remit sales taxes on behalf of every state, county and municipality in the country. The reasoning basically ignored their old requirement that the company have some physical nexus in the state, and ruled on the grounds that states, etc. were just “losing” too much darn revenue to online sales, the usual requirements for jurisdiction be damned.

          My law would say that any company domiciled in my state was prohibited from doing so. Given the conflict in the laws, I think the tie-breaker would go to the state where the company actually, you know, existed.

      2. Drake

        Sounds like they are willing to collect for other states – for a nice taste of the revenue.

  50. If you like bad girls… uh mug shots:
    https://twitter.com/mugshawtys

    1. Pat

      The DUI chicks seem to be the best looking.

      1. Morally flexible drunk chicks… I like.

      2. Bobarian LMD

        I love a chick whose been crying…

    1. commodious spittoon

      Could it be the stupid-evil polarity is shifting?

      1. robc

        No, the Dems are shifting to being both. The GOP is still stupid, although maybe they are shifting to both too.

    2. The Other Kevin

      Recently I came to the conclusion that the Dems, like a lot of people, are conflating being loud with being important. They are letting very vocal fringe groups dictate their direction, but ignoring the silent majority. We’ve discussed on her that truly transgender people are like .3% of the population. But the Dems are acting like it’s 30%. If the Dems want to come back, they need to see their base as the blue-collar, working class union guys who switched to Trump. Instead those voters are now considered cis shitlord deplorables.

      If they do want to make those fringe issues important, they need to learn to be the adults in the room, and persuade people instead of yelling and insulting them.

      1. Pat

        It’s difficult to put the genie back in the bottle when you’ve made your entire voting coalition by carefully stringing together disparate minority groups, many of which have little or nothing in common ideologically, and some of which are in fact fierce ideological rivals.

        1. “some of which are in fact fierce ideological rivals”

          Presenting: CAIR vs. GLAAD, the Final Battle.

        2. Spartacus

          When you are the party of minorities, you will be the minority party.

      2. Given all that, however, I have very little hope that the Pubs will be able to take advantage of the Dems’ spectacular self-immolation. The Dems may be proving themselves stupid, but no one can out-stupid the GOP.

        1. The Other Kevin

          Trump has it figured out, but half (or more) of the Republican establishment hates him, so I’d agree with you.

        2. invisible finger

          True, but the Dems want you to hold their beer.

      3. Bob

        They’ve made their platform the anti-white party.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    Artificial Intelligence Shows Why Atheism Is Unpopular

    The person who wrote that headline should be beaten with a knotted rope. There is, I’d say, fuck-all in that article which could in any way justify that characterization. It’s about various groups of eggheads pissing away government money trying to model human social behavior.

    Viz:

    Using a separate model, Future of Religion and Secular Transitions (FOREST), the team found that people tend to secularize when four factors are present: existential security (you have enough money and food), personal freedom (you’re free to choose whether to believe or not), pluralism (you have a welcoming attitude to diversity), and education (you’ve got some training in the sciences and humanities). If even one of these factors is absent, the whole secularization process slows down. This, they believe, is why the U.S. is secularizing at a slower rate than Western and Northern Europe.

    “The U.S. has found ways to limit the effects of education by keeping it local, and in private schools, anything can happen,” said Shults’s collaborator, Wesley Wildman, a professor of philosophy and ethics at Boston University. “Lately, there’s been encouragement from the highest levels of government to take a less than welcoming cultural attitude to pluralism. These are forms of resistance to secularization.”

    And I thought the climate modellers were on shaky ground. What a bunch of nonsense.

    1. Pat

      Lately, there’s been encouragement from the highest levels of government to take a less than welcoming cultural attitude to pluralism.

      This is true, but not in the way they think it is.

    2. Nephilium

      I saw that the other day, and made it up until the point they started talking about using models to map humans religious beliefs. I don’t think that’s something you have the data, or understanding to model. Here I was hoping for some article about machine learning where they fed the system something like an Atheism reddit or some such.

    3. “The U.S. has found ways to limit the effects of education by keeping it local, and in private schools, anything can happen”

      What we need is common sense, federally centralized indoctrination. That’ll cure the Deplorables of their attachment to voodoo and witch doctory.

  52. This is bullshit.

    http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/07/colleges-cant-or-wont-track-where-phds-land-jobs.html

    The fact that people continue to enter these programs is due to a lack of knowledge of job prospects. Anyone entering a Humanities PhD program already knows that the academic job market is dismal for them, and if they don’t, they’re not smart enough to finish the program anyway.

    1. AlexinCT

      I encourage these humanities PhD candidates to do it. Nothing will help like having a whole number of these woke fucks be broke.

      1. Chipwooder

        Are you sure? Pretty sure they’re gonna be the shock troops of the Free Shit Army.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Philosophers should be given a guaranteed job. I propose Lucy-inspired Philosophy kiosques. ‘Thoughts for a dime!’

      1. MikeS

        A dime?! It used to be only a nickle! The American health care crisis strikes again!!!11!

    3. “is *not* due”

      Fairly important word there.

    4. Semi-Spartan Dad

      I umm, ermm just submitted an application to a PhD program.

      It’s STEM though and a well-paid field if you have those three little letters after your name.

      It’s a lot of money though to do the exact same job I do now with a Bachelor’s. The MS and PhD combined will almost be more than my mortgage. Yay for credentialism.

      1. I have a PhD in Physics. It’s opened some doors for me that I probably would not have had access to otherwise. But make no mistake, on balance, it was not a smart financial move, even though I had tuition waivers and stipends all the way through. The opportunity cost alone made it not worthwhile. I went in with my eyes open; getting a PhD was a personal goal, not a career move. I don’t regret it, but I wouldn’t recommend anyone enter a PhD program without considering all of these facts and closely examining their motives.

        1. invisible finger

          Dr. Titz, I presume.

          1. Pat

            Heavenly bodies. Celestial globes. Etc etc.

        2. Semi-Spartan Dad

          My situation is pretty much the opposite, those letters are a requirement for career advancement and grant a sizable increase in salary/opportunities. It’s similar to climbing the executive ladder with an MBA.

          1. Creosote Achilles

            I got my MBA while working at an “Evening MBA” program at a private university with a good reputation. It could have bought a real sports car for what it cost. I don’t regret it as 6 months in I got a major promotion/pay increase at work due to even being in the program. It since granted me access to jobs at 2.5x what I was making before starting the program. It paid for itself so I don’t regret it, but I also had a good basis before hand to base it on.

          2. Semi-Spartan Dad

            That’s very close to my situation. I’ll be keeping my job and continuing to work. My boss is applying for a large promotion for me in a few months just due to getting the MS and hopefully starting the PhD. I’m anticipating doubling my salary in a few years, or at least close to it. I could so immediately if I jumped ship, but I like where I am even if the pay isn’t competitive.

          3. Creosote Achilles

            Congrats on taking the leap then and good luck to you. Working + Full-time education is a bitch, but I found I thrived in it.

          4. Semi-Spartan Dad

            Thanks! I’ve really been enjoying it, though it’s made domestic life more difficult with my wife working full-time as well. The goal is for her to phase out work as I replace her lost income with mine until she’s able to stay at home with the kids, especially since I’ll need to travel a lot more. It’s also because I’m a cis het shitlord who enjoys seeing her barefeet under the stove while cooking my dinner.

      2. kinnath

        I make plenty of money without an advanced degree. There are a fairly limited number of positions in advanced R&D at my company where those credentials are useful.

        On the other hand, an MBA gets you on the fast track to engineering management.

        1. Semi-Spartan Dad

          Sounds like you picked the right field then. We have a fair number of R&D scientists at my company and all have PhDs.

          1. kinnath

            Luck of the draw 33 years ago.

          2. Semi-Spartan Dad

            I put most of the blame today on the rise of HR

          3. kinnath

            I doubled in CompSci and Physics. Had planned to go into research. But I was married; had kids; was flat broke when I graduated. Grad school was not an option.

            I applied for a few engineering jobs thinking “why not”. I landed one and have been an engineer ever since.

            We had a guest speaker come visit the physics department one time. He said the average salary of a PhD in physics was less than a BS, because PhDs go into research and BSs become engineers.

            That stuck with me.

      3. Chipwooder

        I’m getting an MBA through an evening program right now, but Uncle Sugar is paying for it through the GI Bill.

        1. Semi-Spartan Dad

          Nice!

    5. Nephilium

      *sigh*

      And the girlfriend is going for a Masters in History. At least she’s spending her own (and grandmother’s) money on it.

    6. R C Dean

      Oddly, though, they always can find their grads when its time to raise money for something.

  53. AlexinCT
  54. Another day, another story about campus racism.

    https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11157

    I would think very long and very hard about recommending college to anyone at this point.

  55. MikeS

    I haven’t been around much lately, so not sure if this latest outrage has been commented upon yet:

    Self-taught businessman with no engineering credentials designed Missouri duck boat, records say

    Karen Koehler, a Seattle lawyer who represents plaintiffs injured in a 2015 crash involving a Ride the Ducks boat and a charter bus, said she had always assumed that building the amphibious vehicles required expertise from structural engineers.

    “I don’t want to turn this man into a villain or anything like that,” she said, referring to McDowell. “He had a vision and wanted this to happen and he made it happen . . . I just think, gosh, it would be like me practicing without a law license.”

    Gosh yes, Karen. That would be the end of the world.

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      “It remains unknown whether McDowell’s design was a factor in the boat’s sinking.”

      And that’s all that needs to be said.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Rain and 65 mph wind gusts pummeled the amphibious boat last week while it was on a sightseeing tour of the picturesque Ozarks lake. Gripping video footage showed the boat seesawing and lurching in unrelenting waves.

      If only the boat weren’t 15 inches longer than originally designed, it wouldn’t have capsized.

      1. R C Dean

        There is no design margin that can’t be overcome by bad judgment.

      2. WTF

        Yeah, reading that it’s obvious why the thing sank, and it’e not because of a design flaw. But I’m guessing the boat operators have no real money, so they are going after the boat maker.

    3. DOOMco

      We all know that no one has ever cut or extended the frame of a truck. There’s no extensive videos on how to bob a deuce and a half. All those Jeep’s with their wheelbases extended a whole 10 inches are probably out murdering children as well speak because they were made by some redneck machinist who never went to no fancy engineering school.

      1. DOOMco

        I realize that a bunch of states and people do want you to not be able to even touch an automobile in these ways.

        Hope is lost.

    4. DrZaius

      What made her settle on structural engineer as the credential of choice? There’s a whole industry called shipbuilding/naval engineering she could of cited. Might as well blame his lack of Tarot card skillz because otherwise he would of seen this coming.

    5. Suthenboy

      It was my understanding that those boats were never meant to be in water more than a few feet deep. They were taking the fucking things out o n a lake as if they are proper boats and they aren’t.

      1. kinnath

        The boat didn’t fail. The operator failed, and should be held accountable.

        1. Mojeaux

          Correct.

  56. The Late P Brooks

    It’s difficult to put the genie back in the bottle when you’ve made your entire voting coalition by carefully stringing together disparate minority groups, many of which have little or nothing in common ideologically, and some of which are in fact fierce ideological rivals.

    That’s the thing. If you promise conflicting and mutually exclusive groups everything they want, you will be exposed (sooner rather than later) as a liar. Trying to keep your story straight eventually becomes impossible.

    How can they not know this?

  57. Gaming’s toxic men, explained
    Experts tackle the phenomenon of angry men, trolls, racists and misogynists who hover around the video game industry

    I’m a feminist media scholar, and as such, I don’t believe in gender essentialism. While sex is biological, gender is a social construct. We are trained from childhood to behave in certain gendered ways.

    There’s an often promoted belief amongst certain people within the worlds of gaming and tech that technology is naturally, even biologically, the domain of men. This is usually based in the idea that men are naturally logical and women are naturally emotional. It completely negates the fact that computer programming was originally a feminized profession.

    With the first computers, hardware design was considered to be the big challenge, and therefore was considered to be in the male domain. Programming was seen to be menial labor, like secretarial work. It was boring and repetitive, so they decided it was work for the women to do.

    etc

    1. “I’m a feminist media scholar”

      Didn’t I see you on the corner with a sign that said “Anything Helps”?

    2. R C Dean

      I’m a feminist media scholar, and as such, I don’t believe in gender essentialism. While sex is biological, gender is a social construct.

      OK, fine. Gender is a subjective mental state informed by the social environment, and thus has no “inherent” or essential qualities or attributes.

      But what about that biological sex? Does that have inherent or essential qualities or attributes. Be careful here; I think an answer either way could blow up part of your belief system.

    3. Raston Bot

      what happened, was she also caught fucking a reporter and now trying to deflect criticism?

    4. R C Dean

      It completely negates the fact that computer programming was originally a feminized profession.

      Punching cards and stacking them was originally secretarial “women’s” work, true. But that’s not really programming, any more than someone taking dictation is the author.

      1. Creosote Achilles

        Bingo. Having had a job at a ball bearing manufacturer back in college one summer, and having done that task (Yes, the company still had punch cards for one of their computers running in the early 90s), that isn’t programming. It’s data entry and filing, not programming.

  58. The Late P Brooks

    “using a minor in a sexual performance”

    So, like a live sex show?

    NEEDZ MOAR AUTOPLAY VIDEO

  59. The Late P Brooks

    I’m a feminist media scholar

    That’s nice, hon. I’m hungry. I wish somebody would make me a sammich.

  60. Perhaps now we can see why Zuck was so desperate to become a regulated public utility.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-pays-for-all-its-mistakes-at-once-and-it-is-a-big-bill-2018-07-25

  61. Creosote Achilles

    Paging (((Glibs))) to the gold courtesy phone.

    If you were to go to a tiny gas station diner in the middle of nowhere hillbillystan and see on the menu an item labeled ‘Hebrew Omelet’ which was eggs with ham, bacon and sausage, how would you take it?

    1. I’d think it was hilarious.

    2. R C Dean

      How would I take it?

      With cheese and maybe hot sauce, that’s how.

    3. commodious spittoon

      Ask for a side of spam.

    4. MikeS

      On a bagel.

      1. Creosote Achilles

        See, I think a combo of your and RC Dean’s would be about a perfect breakfast.

        1. R C Dean

          Well, MikeS’s order has the benefit of being more (((stereotypical))).

    5. Old Man With Candy
      1. Creosote Achilles

        So, no one would feel like it was an anti-semitic micro-aggression which normalizes violence toward Jewish persons by ridiculing and marginalizing your religion?

        My g/f is a Jewess and kinda reflexively proggie, and I’m trying to open her up a little bit to not seeing boogie men everywhere. I was trying to convince her the owners were most likely trying to be funny and had no animus toward Jewish folks, but her gut reaction was to be frightened. She’s fairly sensible most of the time, and reasonable, but she has some of this feminist/prog brainwashing that shows up like that out of nowhere.

        1. “but her gut reaction was to be frightened”

          No offense and I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but that’s a little unhinged.

          1. Creosote Achilles

            None taken. That was my point to her. And maybe frightened oversells it. She was uncomfortable. Nonetheless I gave her my look as she was relating this that says, “really?” she stopped a minute. And I was like, “I think it is kind of a long god damn way from a Hebrew Omelette w/ pork products to camps and showers, yeah?”

            Like I said, she’s usually not much for that kind of always a victim mentality. But she has her moments and a reality check helps sometimes.

          2. Prohibition on bacon alone is enough to quit eating Kosher!

          3. Creosote Achilles

            That’s what made it even weirder. She’s not kosher at all. She’s not observant. She’s an atheist. I chalk it up to “chicks, man.”

          4. commodious spittoon

            I really should look up that Jewish acquaintance I mentioned, see whether she’s mellowed out any… or taken a shine to goy men. I promise I’ll be gentile.

          5. something something Jewish foreplay something 4 hours of begging

          6. commodious spittoon

            I guess by “be gentile” I mean I’m not taking no for an answer I’ll be super persuasive.

    6. Raston Bot

      order it and see if the waitress yells to the kitchen “Hey Mel, another Heeb special!” and if he yells back “Flo! What did I tell you about using that language, don’t you know who runs Hollywood!?” and then Flo would yell back “Kiss my grits!” and we’d all enjoy a hearty laugh.

  62. Ayn Random Variation

    OT and late….
    But I wanted to share that on the prog Knicks blog I frequent, a couple of weeks ago I was making fun of the straw bans and I was mocked when I said every law can end up with you being thrown into a cage.
    Sure enough, this story shows up on reason last week and I link to it and make an I told you so” post. But I was called a liar on the grounds that only the distributors of contraband straws can be jailed.
    I nearly knocked myself out with a face palm.

    1. DOOMco

      They really do think that business owners aren’t people.

    2. Ayn Random Variation

      “….this Santa Barbara story….”

    3. AlexinCT

      Technicalities allow weasels to pretend the real world is not going to stomp on their pipe-dreams.

      1. Ayn Random Variation

        I try very hard on there to be reasonable with them but it’s freaking impossible to reason with progressives. They will give no ground at all on anything.

        1. It’s their religion. Admitting anything incorrect admits that their entire psychological foundation is built on sand. Cognitive dissonance is the only way they stay out of the loony bin.

        2. AlexinCT

          I used to waste my time doing this too, thinking that by using logic, reason, and facts, you would force them to see reality. Then after a while of not getting anywhere with this I realized that proggies react to logic, facts, and reason like vampires react to holy symbols, holy water, sunlight, or garlic. In fact whenever you had cornered them, they would just move the goal posts. I stopped bothering with the approach of being logical, and started resorting to derision and snark. Far more satisfying and effective.

          1. “started resorting to derision and snark”

            I actually think this is the proper tactic. Humiliation and mocking are effective at neutralizing opposition. Since they’ve proven themselves impervious to persuasion and unwilling to change their views, the best option is to marginalize and destroy. Turning their beliefs into a joke is an effective method.

          2. trshmnstr

            The ridiculous should be ridiculed, by definition.

    4. R C Dean

      Any law that only calls for a fine puts you on the path to being jailed as well. Don’t pay the fine, and you’ll go to jail.

      Every single law is basically saying “Submit, or be chained and caged, or killed if you resist”. Every. Single. One. The only difference is just who and what you have to submit to.

      1. Ayn Random Variation

        I use this point a lot. Even not paying a traffic ticket will lead to a warrant for your arrest which will lead to you being arrested eventually.

        1. …which if you then resist will end with you being injured or killed.

      2. commodious spittoon

        And no doubt these same people balk about the carceral system throwing minorities in jail over unpaid traffic fines when they’re pulled over and arrested for outstanding warrants for same.

      3. kinnath

        Every single law, regulation, and administrative rule is basically saying

      4. Chipwooder

        Yes indeed. Every single code violation, every library fine, all of them require you to surrender your money. If you don’t pay up, they will arrest you. If you attempt to evade arrest, they will try to kill you.

    5. “Knicks blog”

      I think I found your problem.

  63. The Late P Brooks

    Probably nothing everybody here doesn’t already know, but at least it’s not a horror story.

    Big barriers remain in the way of a nuclear renaissance. It takes years to test prototypes and get approval from federal regulators before a company can even start construction. “In order for advanced nuclear technologies to play a role in deep decarbonization over the next several decades,” the United States would need to overhaul the way it’s rolling out the technology, according to a study published earlier this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    Experts point to many of the same steps to give advanced nuclear a fighting chance: Making regulations more friendly to innovation, instead of favoring conventional reactors. Creating incentives to reward utilities for buying low-carbon power. And a lot more funding.

    A good admission of the way the regulatory process has squelched innovation, too.

    1. R C Dean

      Inevitably, though, they can’t imagine making any progress without state funding:

      Creating incentives to reward utilities for buying low-carbon power. And a lot more funding.

      What a small people we have become.

  64. commodious spittoon

    Speaking of bougie liberals… @redsteeze (Stephen Miller) went through Ocasio-Cortez’s social media history looking for the provenance of her socialist radicalism, and found… virtually nothing. She’d graduated from BU with her (alleged) degree in economics, interned for that stalwart of the radical vanguard, Ted Kennedy, and once mentioned passing by Zuccotti Park during the OWS campout. No doubt she’s always been a soft-headed lefty, but the turn toward socialism chic is recent, and a turn away from her mainstream bona fides.

    It’s not personally invalidating, of course. People change their minds, and even opportunists fill authentic niches. But it does show the (literally) skin-deep substance of American socialism: a pretty face can upend all that “liberals get the bullet, too” rhetoric.

    1. Well, you can’t have more than a paper thin belief because if you dig even a micron, you’d understand that socialist economics is built on a perpetual motion machine. Willful ignorance and cognitive dissonance are the only ways someone can be a socialist.

  65. CPRM

    The local sushi place had on their sign ‘free ice cream’ that does not sound like an appetizing combination.

    1. Chipwooder

      You can’t beat the yellowtail sundae.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Mmmmm… mochi.

      1. Creosote Achilles

        Damn straight. Sushi + mochi may be one of the perfect summer meals and proof that cultural appropriation is a good thing.

        1. commodious spittoon

          Cool sushi, hot sake, cold mochi.

    1. Chipwooder

      You’re a terrible person, but for completely unrelated reasons.

      1. Creosote Achilles

        Chipwooder is correct. I also LOL’d yesterday on seeing it. Can’t stop the pron signal.

  66. Mojeaux

    Forgive my rambling. It makes sense to me.

    Isn’t a big part of the show’s premise that the regime prevents people from leaving?

    Gilead, which is not the entirety of the U.S., is surrounded by “The Wall” and Catholics and others who didn’t convert to their version of bat-shit fundamentalism were hanged from it. Blacks were rounded up and placed outside the borders of Gilead and Jews were supposed to be given “free” transport to Israel, but were instead taken out to see and drowned.

    So, I went to a Southern Baptist private school from 4th grade to 12th. I graduated in 1986. You do the math. I have certain bitternesses about that, but all their conspiracies and prophesied slippery slopes have come true. The accuracy is breathtaking.

    Anyhoo. IIRC, and it’s been many a year since I read Handmaid’s Tale (certainly not in school), it is a catalog of all the conspiracies and slippery slopes of what I was taught the left was working toward then, and still is.

    Since my teachers began on some shaky premises, I viewed their predictions with some skepticism, but couldn’t deny the feelogical progression of the left.

    It seems to me we don’t learn the lessons of history because we can’t see the slippery slope. It’s the little things that don’t make it into the history books, which the victors write anyway, that we can’t see, feel, or have any frame of reference for.

    In addition, by the time people end high school, the 20th century is given short shrift because classes weren’t paced well. I don’t remember learning about the Bolshevik Revolution. I don’t remember learning about WWI, but I do remember learning how evil FDR was, and the loss of the gold standard.

    So we did get a good grounding in the left’s incrementalism, and all these years I’ve just watched in fascination as all these nutty ideas have come to fruition. It may end in Gilead, with the left at its helm, but I think it’s best not to underestimate the American people and its collective inherent rebelliousness and willingness to back it up at the point of a gun.

    Someone said yesterday that Russians were culturally a very adaptable tough people. They are also morose and willing to bear the burden of a totalitarian authority. If it’s not the Tsar, it’s the Bolsheviks.

    We are not.

    Trump is popular because the America people are finally happy to have an expression of our inherent rebelliousness back on display for the world to see.

    1. A Leap at the Wheel

      That was me.

      Cultural conservatives are batting 1,000 on their predictions and about 500 on their implications. That is, they were right about everything that would happen, but wrong on what that would mean about half the time. For example, porn. Its a thing. Its everywhere. And as far as I can tell has had just about 0 negative impact on anything. On the other hand, the destruction of the family and the tearing-down of respect for the male role within a family has been devastating for anyone not at the top of the social-ability scale.

      1. Mojeaux

        about 500 on their implications

        Yes, I think I agree.

        I’ve gotten more libertarian about porn and sex work, gay marriage (although my contention is that “marriage” needs to involve a lawyer writing a contract between consenting adults”), marijuana.

        But I follow a couple of very interesting pro-family subcultures on Twitter that seem to be gaining traction. I have hope the tide will turn back a little, just enough to stall the leftist march.

    2. Bobarian LMD

      Trump is popular because the America people are finally happy to have an expression of our inherent rebelliousness back on display for the world to see.

      True for a limited portion of the American People, and only a portion of Trump supporters.

    3. ChipsnSalsa

      Do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to?

      1. Mojeaux

        🙂

        My worldview is that we are a nation of ADHD- and hypomania-addled misfits who have enough of the population willing to buck everybody’s rules to get shit done. I’m raising one, and it’s tough, but he comes by it honestly.

        We exist solely because a whole bunch of people said, “We don’t like your rules and we are going elsewhere.”

    4. R C Dean

      all their conspiracies and prophesied slippery slopes have come true. The accuracy is breathtaking.

      Sounds like a Glibs post to me.