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HULK SMASH!!!
So much for Sharapova-Serena being much of a match. In fact, there weren’t many surprises at all, as the seeded players cruised along. The exception was Kerber going out on the ladies side. And Federer dropped a set! Expect more of the same today, although the number of big matches will be small compared to yesterday.
Elsewhere, the Yanks, Dodgers, D-backs, Athletics, Reds, Phillies, Cardinals and Rockies all won on an abbreviated slate of games. A lot of players are coming out in support of Andrew Luck. The Texans may not have enough players to field a team with all the injuries. College and pro football both inch closer. And that’s about it. I don’t know enough about Serie A to comment on the game yesterday. Most of the games in that league are fixed anyway, from what I’ve been led to believe. So I won’t even note Inter Milan winning 4-0.
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On the hunt…for porn.
Yesterday’s slate of birthdays was particularly weak. Let’s see what today has in store for us. We’ve got serial killer Ed Gein, Warmonger and nanny-stater LBJ, the lovely Tuesday Weld, the equally lovely Barbara Bach, moviegoer Paul Reubens, political strategist and snappy dresser Roger Stone, MTV’s Downtown Julie Brown, rock god Alex Lifeson, and actor Aaron Paul who has a movie or something coming out soon.
Well that list was marginally better than yesterday’s. But I’ve sure as shit seen better. Anyway, there’s a big world full of big news. And we hit on the most important of them with…the links!
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Coming soon to a city near you!
Hey Silicon Valley, how’s about y’all go fuck yourself? Seriously. And when you’re done, stick your heads in a woodchipper.
In one of the most egregious cases ruling against personal responsibility, Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $572M in opioid lawsuit. The state charged them under “public nuisance” laws and, get this, they said they misled doctors while promoting their meds. Now let’s for a second forget that everybody for decades have known opiates are inherently addictive. How the hell do they say its the company’s fault when all the side effects discovered during the FDA approval process are included in all the company’s literature by law and that its the doctor’s responsibility to know what he’s prescribing. So either:
- the doctor’s didn’t read the literature about the drug before they prescribed it
- the FDA didn’t do a good job of identifying and listing side effects during the trials
- J&J committed fraud by omitting it from the information send to doctors
Now there’s no way in the world its #3, because they would have charged them with a slew of felonies and fraud instead of what they usually charge people with who don’t cut their grass often enough. This is a fucked up verdict. I only hope the state SC reverses it. Although I’m not optimistic that the same justice system that stands to receive a huge windfall of cash by leaving the verdict to stand will reverse course.
::inhales:: ::exhales:: ::inhales:: ::exhales::
Ok, I’m calmed back down. Maybe this story about weed will mellow me out. Just kidding, I don’t take the pot. But that’s a pretty good piece that does a better job of recognizing reality than most reporting on…anything.
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Oops, accidentally unplugged. Our bad. We’ll do better next time.
Of course, this is perhaps the least surprising news in the world. Maybe in the history of the world.
Just in case you stopped thinking New York City’s cops weren’t self-absorbed and self-serving cretins who care more about their “brothers” than justice, this’ll snap you out of that delusion. Not that I’m not happy about the numbers. I’m just not happy that whether they do their job or not is dependent on the city allowing them to operate above the law.
Soon you’ll be able to go into a KFC and say “it tastes like chicken”. Of course you could just order chicken and these damn militant vegans could stop telling us how horrible we are for eating meat while trying to make everything they eat taste like it. Whatever, Popeyes is taking over as KFC dies anyway. Not that either has chicken as good as Bojangles. Sadly I can’t get my Bojangles here.
Well those are the links. I’ve got to play more than one song today because they’re too short. Here’s the second one. And yes, there’s a birthday tie-in for both of them. Figure it out.
That’s all I got. Have a wonderful day, friends!
Good Morning, Vietnam veterans!
Oh, and the Iraq and Afghan vets don’t get to have a good morning?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?
HARUMPH!
You kids are too young.
“Here’s a news flash: Today President [Barack Who’s Sane Obama] passed a highway beautification bill. The bill basically said that his daughters could not drive in a Convertible on public highways.” Adrian Cronauer, Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
Howdy back atcha!
Thanks. Any thoughts on Sean Duffy’s retirement?
He’s a WI guy but on a personal level I can understand. He’ll be back it DC as a lobbyist making a ton of cash. As good looking as his wife is in the picture easy to see why he’s knocking out the little Catholic kids.
Hey Silicon Valley, how’s about y’all go fuck yourself? Seriously. And when you’re done, stick your heads in a woodchipper. – well that just lower your score. Be better or lose internet privileges
They really want this to come true.
Or this.
(Since I usually make the Black Mirror reference, I figure I should help someone out with the Community reference).
/Community fan mode on
“You know what they say. Fives have lives, fours have chores, threes have fleas, twos have blues, and ones don’t get a rhyme because they’re garbage.”
/Community fan mode off
Many Westerners are disturbed by what they read about China’s social credit system. – while others positively drool at the e prospect
NYT columnists especially…
You can basically destroy people’s lives without even having to send them to camps or sick government 3 letter agencies on them! That is just awesome to keep the plebes in line…
There is a reason i have avoided social media entirely…
Fuck those guys. I’ll be taking a cutoff saw to the poles for their facial recognition cameras before I bow down to the goddamn speech police.
^^THIS^^
Same here. Fuck them.
I’m having trouble finding the link, but for those who haven’t seen it, there’s great (for a cell phone video) footage of those awesome HK protestors doing just that recently.
https://twitter.com/Jordan_Sather_/status/1165327628825284610
This is why God made subsonic .22 LR.
Lake Erie region hardest hit.
That’s going to really hurt your social credit score.
Someone tell me again how the people publishing and enforcing personal reviews aren’t publishers?
So much for Sharapova-Serena being much of a match.
Well, she’s a man, so….
You know how I know she’s a man? Because she has hands as big as Andre the Giant’s. And she has an Adam’s apple as big as her balls.
Erm… she pees standing up, right?
One reason I don’t watch tennis is that one or two players dominate almost every match for a decade. At least in golf, there’s more than a dozen or more that have a realistic chance of winning., and a lot more “lightning strike” players who can win on any given weekend.
Tennis, golf, car races, paint drying on the wall…. all have the same appeal to me.
It’s worse on the men’s side. On the women’s side it’s like 7 or 8 different winners in the last majors. That may be due to Hulk Smash having a baby, though.
But there is a LOT of chatter wondering why the youngsters aren’t stepping up on the men’s side.
Jeffrey Epstein? Who’s that? Nobody even remembers that name or story…
*Cues hypnotic music* Sleep….sleeeep…go to sleeeeeeep
How the heck is Jizz-Lane Maxwell still walking free?
The deep state is protecting her.
Silicon Valley is building a Chinese-style social credit system
Don’tBe Evil.⭐️
That’s a three point citation for use of symbols instead of text.
Only three points for a five point star?
?
That’s a twenty-seven point citation for use of capitalist symbols.
You’ll poke your eye out, kid.
The penalty was lessened because it was a people’s symbol, comrade.
“In one of the most egregious cases rued against personal responsibility, Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $572M in opioid lawsuit. ”
Can hardly wait for RC Dean’s take on this case.
Also, given the strong causal link between Rush Limbaugh speaking on his show and Rush’s revenue, and given the credit Rush has been given fr creating the culture that got Donald J. Trump elected, and given that Rush allegedly has mis-educated the Dittoheads with his lies, when is Rush Limbaugh going to be sued as a deceptive “public nuisance” under pretty much the same reasoning this judge used in his opinion?
Is Limbaugh still on the radio? I seriously had no idea.
Seriously had no idea there was still “radio”.
“As of 2019, Rush Limbaugh net worth stands at $650 million as of the day of writing. He is the highest paid radio host in the world and the 11th highest earning celebrity globally having a salary of $84 million a year.” raphaelsaadiq.com/biography-wiki-net-worth/rush-limbaugh-2019-2020-2021-2022/
This settlement is brought to you by the state sponsored War on (some) drugs.
It is worse than a settlement. This was a trial without jury. The judge awarded $572,000,000, which was less than the suit asked for.
I kept waiting for you to tie into Rush’s own alleged dabbling in opioids.
That would be a separate tort, going after Big Pharma’s money instead of going after Rush’s money, by blaming opioids for Rush.
My take:
I hope they left enough for me.
I’ll write something longer when I have a keyboard. And yes, these are incredibly lucrative drugs.
Thank you for the preview. Looking forward to the feature presentation. Unfortunately, guessing it will be a comment and not an article.
Indeed not. I can’t give much detail for a number of reasons.
The basic story is this:
Back in the day, opioids were only used for acute pain, not chronic pain, because of the well-known risk of addiction and misc. other side effects (it suppresses your breathing and effs up your digestion). Then time-release opioids were invented, and Big Pharma had a new product to market. One that wasn’t getting all that much uptake, due to the well-known risks of opioid meds.
Big Pharma went about creating a new standard of care for chronic pain, sponsoring a bunch of research which showed, amazingly, that time-release opioids did not pose the risk of addiction or other side effects that regular opioid medication does. They were right on the side effects, but wrong on addiction. Some of their claims are, in hindsight, laughable (people who are really in pain can’t get addicting is my fave).
With a new standard of care in hand, physicians began managing chronic pain with time-release opioids (80% of which are sold in the US). Lo, we have learned that time-release opioids have a significant risk of addiction, and that long-term use of opioids makes what appears to be permanent changes to your brain chemistry – basically, your ability to create serotonin atrophies, so that you do actually need opioids to not fee like shit regardless of whatever pain you might have. It also creates challenges for anesthesia – long-term opioid users may need a different (and riskier) anesthesia regimen.
Its essentially a fraud case; with large of sums of money in the offing, research was created to reach a desired result (sound familiar)?
IFLS
What about the “public nuisance” angle?
That’s the claim with the big money attached, because it allows the government to get money to deal with the ongoing opioid problem. Regular damages are retrospective (what opioids have already cost you). Public nuisance damages are prospective (what it will cost to create programs to deal with opioid addiction).
Theoretically. We all know that, like the tobacco settlement money, those funds will disappear into the sands of general revenue.
But I am still not sure that the opioid crisis is caused by prescriptions of opioid drugs. Is there some solid evidence on that?
You don’t need to prove that the entire opioid crisis is caused by time-release opioid prescriptions, only that a percentage of opioid addicts got their start on time-release opioid prescriptions.
The lawsuits are a festival of competing experts and statisticians. There’s really three things that need to be proven:
(1) Big Pharma sponsored Fake Science to market their new product (this is actually pretty easy once you get access to Big Pharma’s internal communications).
(2) X% of time-release opioid users got addicted.
(3) The cost of opioid addicts to your organization or government. Multiply this by the percentage in step (2), and you have your damages claim.
those funds will disappear into the sands of general revenue.
Bound up by sandtrout who eventually metamorph into sandworms that will consume us all.
In one of the most egregious cases rued against personal responsibility, Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $572M in opioid lawsuit. The state charged them under “public nuisance” laws and, get this, they said they misled doctors while promoting their meds. Now let’s for a second forget that everybody for decades have known opiates are inherently addictive. How the hell do they say its the company’s fault when all the side effects discovered during the FDA approval process are included in all the company’s literature by law and that its the doctor’s responsibility to know what he’s prescribing.
For me it is hard to know what companies did or did not. It is clear pharmaceutical companies sometimes encourage doctors to prescribe certain medication. But that, from my point of view, is more misbehaving by doctors than the companies. And I am not sure this could be linked to the so called opioid epidemic. There was also a recent study that showed not much correlation between opioid prescription and deaths although I can;t remember where I read it.
But is there real profit for pharmaceutical companies? I bottle of Vicodin sells for under $5.
Doesn’t seem like a market worth risking everything else for.
It’s about the money. People pretending they were unaware of the product’s problems and addictive nature is plain bullshit. Just like the whole cigarette shitshow. It’s about some fucks now looking to collect, and you go where the money is.
Bingo. Opioids are a cash cow.
“It’s about the money. People pretending they were unaware of the product’s problems and addictive nature is plain [redacted]. Just like the whole cigarette [redacted]. It’s about some [redacted] now looking to collect, and you go where the money is.”
States Attorneys General. It might also be about the virtue signaling as a co-about with the money.
This is a money grab because suing individual doctors isn’t nearly as profitable as suing an “evil corporation”.
If they actually went after the doctors that abused the system they would not be able to collect any fucking real money. These lawsuits in the name of redressing an ill that go after the companies and not the real culprits tend to be the same sort of shit as all the supposed safety violation related tickets government creates and falsely tells us improve traffic safety: nothing but cash cows.
You’re making a big assumption that doctors abused the system. Doctors giving patients pills is often preferable to patients buying snack on the streets. The problem is the highly regulated market to begin with, not the actors in the market.
Lachowsky hates food trucks, read all about it.
I was pointing out that if there was abuse, the ones that did it would be the doctors considering the fact everyone KNEW about the addictive properties. Again, it was a big “IF“. Me, I think this whole thing is a bullshit concocted crisis so government assholes can swoop in and fuck us over and their lawyer friends can get rich, but that isn’t enough to prevent what is happening from happening.
I wonder how many attorneys involved in that case have prescriptions for those kind of painkillers. Or have family members taking those pills.
Anyone involved should be denied pain medication for the rest of their life.
“Sorry, we just can’t trust that you won’t sue us.”
But you can get Popeyes and Church’s at least.
Church’s chicken is an embarrassment to fast food. And that includes Jack In The Box.
How absolutely DARE you sirrah! Home of the only edible biscuits for sale anywhere?
Last McDonalds along I-64 in KY before you enter WV.
Best fast food biscuits anywhere.
It is obvious they hired some old lady who took one look at the shit McDs makes and said, “Let me handle this.”
Hardee’s makes some pretty damn good biscuits.
“But you can get Popeyes and Church’s at least.”
Is Popeye’s the one with the jingle ‘Love that chicken at Chick-Fil-A’? So much they are trying to copy the spicy version of CFA’s sandwich?
They were just copying the idea of a chicken sandwich in general, but apparently made it better anyway. Popeye’s is the fast food fried chicken champion anyway.
KFC “is the fast food fried chicken champion” by number of locations.
Popeye’s has, the last two trips, given me 2 small pieces on my 3 piece meal. The unwritten rule has always been two big (any combo of breast and or thigh) and a leg or wing. They have given me a thigh, leg and wing. That is unacceptable.
My current favorite: Krispy Krunchy Chicken that I can get at the nearby gas station. Plus they have craft beer on tap.
krispykrunchy.com/locations/store-2665
They have awesome biscuits as well.
krispykrunchy.com/locations/store-2665
There’s a couple of those that went in the hood near my, which I take to be a sign of quality.
Beer on Tap at a gas station?
Where do you live?
I’ll miss Luck’s Twitter feed, as will many others apparently.
Well, I got fired today. Or something. Never really been fired before. Didn’t learn the system in enough time, I suppose. Kinda felt it coming. Lots of new protocols all at once where today’s lesson was given equal standing with the curriculum next June. Lady still has a gig with the same school. I was asked to leave the premises, surrounded by three guards. It was handled poorly by everyone but me.
Cons: Financial stability out the door. At least I get paid for the first month. Currently in a stage where neither of us have much money.
Pros: I wanted to get out of teaching and this pushes me back towards my old freelancing gigs. Anyone need a proofreader/editor?! Will be able to get through rent the next two months without dipping into any debt. Fresh credit car and loans all paid off. Pushes me towards what I actually wanted to do. Having said that, I did just apply for another gig. My experience looks awfully good on paper. Better in practice if in the right environment.
Pretty pissed that today was the day I had the time and plan to sort most of the problems that I was facing. You know what would have been better than waking up at 530 and getting fired at 730 in the morning? Sending me a fucking email in advance and not wasting my goddamn time.
For the record, an Evan is officially now 32.5 years old.
I’ve never been escorted out by security. I’ve been laid off. I’ve resigned. But never fired and ejected from the premesis. I’d normally think that’s reserved for people who are expected to cause problems on their way out.
May be SOP at some orgs just to CYA – especially if you weren’t a long-term employee. Genuinely sorry about your sacking, Evan, but I hope it leads to something much better.
Yep. Especially if security was part of the contract for doing production for another client. When they fired me from St. Gobain, they didn’t even give me time to write down my passwords to the non-networked computers.
That’s the way it is in my plant. Potential troublemakers are escorted out. Peeps in good standing are allowed to say their goodbyes sans escort.
Sorry to hear that.
ditto.
And the layoffs we’ve had at my department, there are some people who do get escorted out – by our overweight marine sergeant. I don’t think it’s out of safety as much as making sure the person being removed doesn’t do anything rash.
*to clarify, not safety for other employees but to ensure there is no last moment property or data destruction.
Good luck Evan, keep pushing forward. We’re all counting on you.
Stop calling me Shirley.
Damn. Here’s wishing you good luck.
Escorted by security? Why do they do that? They think someone’s going to rage?
I think it’s SOP at a lot of places, especially schools, banks and the like. I got escorted out once but it was just the manager making sure that I didn’t make off with that sweet Swingline that I’d had my eye on.
It’s CYA protocol in a lot of places.
Go there at night and throw eggs at the building!
Interestingly, I think the only time I’ve been fired happened to me when I as about a Evan old.
So you’re more than 1.0 Evans old?
Well that sucks. Commiserations from here, Evan.
Getting fired sucks. Been there twice. Both times because I told a customer to fuck off. Both times were warranted, so… Hang in there Evan. You’ll find another gig.
Only twice? 4 or 5 times here, depending on how you split the “you can’t fire me, I quit” hair.
Three guards in Thai uniforms. I received no verbal nor written warning. I will give them tomorrow. Thursday I’m coming in if needs be to sort out my shit. I told them to keep The Lady out of it.
Shitty school trying to do too much and complaints and low morale all-around. I’m more angry about how it was handled than the actual firing itself.
You gotta get fired at least once in your life. Helps you understand where the boundary is.
I agree.
I’ve been fired before. It sucks.
I’ve held the same job for the last 20+ years. Apparently, I can learn from my mistakes.
Or you’ve overcorrected.
Based on me not having a college degree and reviewing that chart of majors vs. salary, I can safely say I’ve made some very good choices.
I did go to college for a few semesters, but never finished.
+1 me “it won’t happen again” boss “you’re goddam right it won’t, you’re fired”
Try not to take it too personally – you would have been more miserable had you stayed most likely. You will get something better.
The gig was shit. Paid relatively well. I wasn’t a good fit. But no warnings and piss-poor training to boot.
I’m more upset about the How than the Why.
Kind of like anal?
Depends on who is “howing” and who is asking “why”, I’d venture. The place that escorted me out with the cardboard box of infamy were serial hirers and firers. The’d let new hires go about a week before raises and benefits would kick in. Mighty surprising that they were bought up by one of the big boys that promptly cleaned house.
Speaking of the cardboard box of shame….
I have a buddy who got fired and on his way home got pulled over for speeding. The cop saw the box and when he asked about it my buddy told him about being fired. Cop told him to slow down and wished him well.
Since then, my buddy always has a box of office supplies in the back seat and has gotten out of many more speeding tickets.
“What’s that box for?”
“Dismember hookers. Can You give me a warning?”
Am I doing this right?
Yeah, straff, I think if you go there you are guaranteed to get some time in Bubba’s cell. That’s what you mean by “doing it right“, right?
Put the dismembered hooker’s box at the bottom of the pile of limbs. Much classier. You don’t want to gross the cop out right away.
Hang in there Evan. You’re still young enough to absorb the hits. Take any job if need be. Cash flow is king. Trust me.
Sorry buddy. I know that sucks. You’ll find something else though. The market out there is large.
They are hiring at my plant if you get too desperate.
Sorry, dude.
When I got “let go”, it was a 4:30 phone call on a Friday (that my boss already knew was coming and warned me), so when it came there was almost nobody left in the office to say good-bye to.
Sorry to hear that Evan. Best of luck in landing your next gig.
Uffda. Sorry to hear about that Evan. Best wishes for your next job.
The best revenge is always to live well. When you have a new job you like, you will be so happy you didn’t waste your time on those losers.
*puts the fire bombs away*
Sorry 🙁
That suck bud. sorry to hear it.
Sorry you got the boot. Hopefully, it turns out with something better.
Sorry to hear about this. I hope your next arrangement is better for you and pays well.
I would advise you to use whatever slack time which might come out of this to run/exercise get/stay fit or get more fit. I’ve been transitioning from my last full time job in February to my current mostly-commission/work-my-own-schedule gig by optimizing my workout routine. It’s not only satisfying to be making gains in my health and fitness but keeps the stress at bay.
OT: Sorry Tejicano, but I’ve nobody else to share this with –
KAORI SHOJI reviews a book on perfume
‘Perfume: In Search of Your Signature Scent’: Up the distinguished nose of an olfactory detective
It’s the little things!
And Evan I’ve been tossed about 3 times – each time it worked out for the best. One place was especially toxic.
Last time I was fired, well really laid off, I was off the day before Thanksgiving when the others were notified. Thursday was a regular work day for me so I got to hear the rumors but my boss was too busy having turkey dinner to come in and let me know. I was over the initial shock on Friday when it actually happened. Got led into the conference room (and noted the carefully positioned Kleenex box), got my letter, and it was a non-event. This was a lay-off so it was something like 7 or 14 day notice.
Meanwhile, the department Christmas cards from the area VP came out before my last day. I, being a young snarky punk, photocopied a copy of my termination letter and tossed that, along with the card and a post it with “Merry Christmas to you too” in interoffice envelope and sent it back to her. I heard later that she wasn’t happy with it.
Opiates are addictive? Who knew? Obviously the Chinese.
Server Squirrels too.
And who could forget ZARDOZ’s own addiction.
Ok, the last one had me just about fall out of my chair.
A song selection which may or may not have been inspired by google’s famous motto.
Beta ‘Truth’
Breitbart News: The president, Trump, after Charlottesville, said that he condemned the white supremacists and the neo-Nazis “totally.” Are you aware that you are misquoting him, or partially quoting him — no quoting the full extent of his remarks in Charlottesville? Are you concerned that that might inflame tensions rather than heal divisions?
Beto O’Rourke: No. I believe in the truth, and in being honest about what the president was doing. And it’s not just that he referred to Klansmen as “very fine people,” it’s that he attempted to ban all people of one religion from this country. We’re constantly warned of an “invasion” of killers, and rapists, and animals, from Central America and Mexico, though we know that they commit crimes at a far lower rate than those who are born in this country. This is a very coordinated attack on minorities in this country, on the most vulnerable and the defenseless, for political gain for the president. And he knows full well that it not only offends our sensibilities as a country, it is leading to violence and the taking of lives, as we saw in El Paso.
Breitbart News: But he said that he wasn’t referring to the neo-Nazis and the Klansman — just a clarification — he said he wasn’t referring to the Klansmen as “very fine people,” that he was referring to non-violent protesters, left and right.
Beto O’Rourke: He has openly courted the support of white supremacists and that’s a matter of fact and a matter of record. He has repeatedly, though given the opportunity, refused to disavow their support. I reference — and you can check the tape on this one — at a rally in Florida in May, when someone says, “Shoot them!”, referring to immigrants, he laughs and smiles and he joked about that. If that is not a total failure of leadership, and a total inducement to violence and hatred, I don’t know what is. And you can also check a rise in hate crimes in this country, every single year that he’s been a candidate, or in office, and in fact in those counties that hosted a Trump rally, you saw a more than 200% increase in hate crimes there. He is very much responsible for much of the violence, the hatred, and the racism that you see in this country.
I am telling truth to power, and it just happens to serve our narrative, so why don’t you just leave me the fuck alone?
/asshat
The “fine people on both sides” hoax really was the final (after many many finals) nail in the coffin.
Even when presented with the direct transcript, they just switch into NPC mode. It’s the Brezmenov quote about True Information happening in front of my eyes.
The transcript is right there. But they don’t accept it
They have a narrative that makes them happy, and you will NOT get to harsh that with facts, logic, or something as mundane as the truth, you fucker!
I’ve been following politics since I was about ten…and angry ever since. I’m really wondering if it’s just my perspective or not, but I can’t think of a time in the past 40 years where blatant lies, and easily disproved lies, were presented in the media without any other media calling them on it. I’m not naive. I know Cronkite and crew were biased..but at least it seemed like they tried to stick to actual facts to build their narrative around.
It’s depressing.
Spin and selective reporting were not working well enough as demonstrated by Trump winning. They had to pull out all the stops.
It’s only a win for democracy and a clear sign of the need of putting big government in charge of all important decisions when they have the power and win elections. If that is not happening, then democracy and government suddenly are both existential problems….
I’m not old enough to remember the Soviet media before Perestroika. But in the late ’80s there were many journalists, newspapers, TV programs in the USSR that didn’t toe the Communist line. They were more mainstream than Breitbart. So, despite growing up in the Soviet Union and following politics there even when I was a little kid, I would say that the current state of the media in the US is the worst I’ve observed in my life.
So, he says he believes in telling the truth and immediately afterwards spouts lie after lie after lie. This guy could have a future in politics!
Snopes says: totally true
where else?
Sex-Seeking Sharks Now In Florida
Rule 34.
So does this mean that instead of gobbling up some people they will now fuck them STEVE SMITH style?
SEA SMITH BEG TO DIFFER.
No it’s the cute and cuddly porpoises that give female swimmers a SMITHING. Sharks respect sexual boundaries.
Sharks are the dolphins of the sea.
Shark Porn?
Sharkpornado.
“OOO , OOOOO, Mistah Kottah! Mistah Kottah! I know da ansah!
Let’s hear it…
Barbara Bach is married to Ringo and of course the other one needs no explanation. Hmmm. Barbara in “Caveman”.
We have a winner!!!!!
How depressed am I lately? This depressed – https://youtu.be/rl_NpdAy3WY
I guess I’m gonna watch Chappelle’s new stand-up tonight. Anyone else catch it yet? I’ve only seen this clip. I like the crowd instinct to say, “Trump”
He intentionally offends everyone – literally everyone – and it’s very funny.
That’s the essence of comedy though, ins’t it? As soon as something becomes taboo, your comedic value has dropped to shit.
It’s not necessarily the essence of comedy – comedy doesn’t have to be offensive. However, I applaud any comedian – seemingly the last bastion of free speech in this country – who makes a generous living making people laugh while intentionally pushing boundaries.
My point was that by its very nature, making fun of everything was going to result in some people being offended. Especially in this day and age of professionally offended people.
Oh. Then I agree.
Watched it last night. Does not disappoint.
I’ve already seen some review sites saying it’s not worth watching. So it goes to the top of the list.
https://reason.com/2019/08/26/google-speech-big-tech-bias-conservatives
So I read this on the old site – went there to see how things are after not reading for a while, and am starting to think Robby is, in fact, kinda of … you know… dumb
Also in general the comments section does not seem fun. As in banter, memes, inside jokes etc. But then again maybe I don’t get it no more
Is there any writer who is less interesting and receives more vitriol than Robby Soave? He intelligently plays a role where he tries to be measured and calm and down the middle, which resulted in a book deal, but it’s also generally boring.
I don’t get it.
To be sure, he does occassionally make cogent points, but he also tends to draw the ‘middle’ line where either there is no middle ground, or on a position which is not on it.
And book deals just mean they schmoozed the publishers, who have polarized significantly.
…
The obligatory middle ground or “a pox on both houses” was Joe Scarborough’s big schtick for years. I think it’s how he kept his show on MSNBC. He’d be the resident contrarian during the Obama years, but he’d, without fail, say something like, “[Bad Thing] is a problem on both sides,” or something to that effect. It’s tedious, because it’s so trite and stupid if its true and its ridiculously disingenuous and dismissive if it isn’t.
I dunno it just happened to be the article I clicked on first.
Also it is generally easier to pick on him.
which resulted in a book deal,- how much did that sell?
I have no idea how successful the book was, but he worked his schtick into a book deal, and he is frequently on the cable news, so that’s something.
Robby?
No, I’m Crusty.
Crusty Robby. His writing style is, shall we say, more direct and his fashion sense and hygiene are sorely lacking. To be sure.
I am with you on this one. I never found the ‘to be sure” stuff offensive. In fact I tend to find the X did something bad:therefore X is BAD and no counterpoint is permissible (or good as the case may be) nauseating.
The comment section got weird a few years ago when they took a left-turn. Then everyone I liked left for this place.
Robby isn’t nearly as smart as he thinks he is and peppers his articles with so much apologetic “I don’t agree, but…” and virtue signals constantly while also trying to defend basic freedoms. I stopped reading him as it was just too tiresome. Shikha on the other hand, is completely retarded and is a fun read if you want to elevate your blood pressure.
I kind of wonder what the Reason offices are like. I get the feeling that Robby might feel a particular way about whatever topic but he’s got to throw enough Cosmo signalling in alongside is actual opinion to keep in good with the editors.
keep in good with the
editorsKoch’s.the Koch
‘sNeph – I hear tell from a board game friend that Robby S is a national-level competitive Dominion player. Did you know about this? It sounds true, because that game doesn’t require you to change a tire.
I did not. A quick Google search just showed that Robby wrote about the new Dominion online at TOS. And here’s the site if you’re interested:
https://dominion.games/index.html
I’ve got an account there, but it’s been a while since I’ve played on there.
Dominion? As in the game with the cards? I’ve played that a few times with my wife. I had no idea there were national-level competitions. Huh.
Yes, the game with cards.
It’s now one of my goals in life to play Dominion with Robby.
Was this covered?
Andrew Yang’s plan to fight climate change features:
* A carbon tax
* Stopping oil/gas leasing on federal land
* Nuclear fusion power
* Space mirrors, if need be
Do Marianne’s next, please.
You can extract energy directly from spacetime with the power of love and unicorns?
And a lot of dick sucking is needed to make it happen?
That’s Harris.
Yeah but now that she is big time it is Mama’s dick getting sucked
“…And she was breeding a dwarf! But she wasn’t done yet. She had grey-green skin, a doll with a pin! I told it was alright, but I couldn’t coooome iiiinnn….”
Space mirrors?
To direct more sunlight towards Earth – raising the temperature?
To reflect sunlight away from Earth to cool it off (with who knows what consequences)?
Or as a nifty weapons system to burn down the houses of gun owners like a kid burning ants with a magnifying glass?
All.
Space mirrors are too expensive. Thor’s Hammer is all you need
Mjolnir is a little close-range.
If by close you mean worldwide that is true.
“Was this covered?” Yes.
https://glibertarians.com/2019/07/andrew-yangs-one-thousand-and-one-policies/
Good review of Yang by Mythical Libertarian Woman, who was apparently not too mentally impaired by all that 2019 version of Charmed
Fusion power? Not Dilithium crystals? That’s just dumb.
Pfffft.
The future is Naquadah generators.
The PTBs won’t even recycle “spent” fuel rods because of proliferation and you want to let civilians get their electricity from naquadah? Or is this a ploy to get your hands on some because it is currency out there? /Stargate fan
/Stargate fan mode off
I’m holding out for an Atlantean ZPM
I bet you that while he claims to be all for nuclear, like Obama, nothing at all will come of this because there is very little opportunity for the graft that accompanies green and/or renewable energy.
Dilithium crystals are to create a warp field, powered by a deuterium/anti-deuterium reaction. Deuterium-fueled fusion is used to power the impulse engines which are used to propel the ship at both faster than light and slower than light speeds. Thrusters are slower than impulse and used for maneuvering and not for main propulsion except when leaving space dock. / Star Trek fan
/Star Trek fan mode off
FTFY
Don’t have a Dork fan mode. Did Fred Savage host the aftershow for the premiere of Dork?
What Just Happened??! With Fred Savage reference
Christ, I’m going to regret asking, but impulse engines go faster than light without warp? What’s the reasoning on that?
/Star Trek fan mode on
Without the warp field created by the warp drive, impulse engines can only get the ship to travel at sublight speeds. Without a way of getting the ship to move, such as the impulse engines, the warp drive and warp field are insufficient to get the ship to travel at faster than light speed.
/Star Trek fan mode off
All I know is that the show hit the pinnacle of science when captain Pickard told Riker: “Number one take the bridge so I can go do a number two.“
I could be wrong, but here is an example of how I think it works: The warp drive is set so that the ship can travel 88,000 times faster than if the warp drive is off. The ship is not moving. 88,000 times 0 is 0. Inertial dampeners plus impulse engines get the ship from 0 to ¼ the speed of light in sixty seconds. 88,000 times ¼ the speed of light equals 22,000 light days (which is more than 60 light years) in a day. Without warp drive, the trip would take 88,000 times as long.
Posted that too fast. Do not mean that 88,000 is a fixed amount, just how you set it for the trip in the example.
The whole concept of the warp drive is based on the work of the Mexican physicist Alcubierre which involves warping the space before and behind a traveling object.
In the real world yes, however the star trek explanations predate it by quite a few years and s they don’t exactly match up. That said I suspect more recent versions of Trek have probably made some evidence to retcon their warp drives to match the current state of the theoretically possible Alcubierre Drive
… No, the more recent versions have not even bothered to think about internal consistancy, let alone real science.
Could be wrong, but IIRC, Miguel Alcubierre claims that it was because of Star Trek that he thought of his version.
Also, could be wrong, but IIRC, the Morris-Thorne-Yurtsever-type wormhole model was inspired by Carl Sagan wanting reality for that part of his book Contact.
Literally smoke and mirrors.
And yet, still the most realistic plan from any Dem running for office.
as in “None of my ideas will actually work, but here’s how we’d actually pay for them.”
I know many of you probably saw this already, but a little bit of counterpoint to all the Amazon hysteria.
Shot:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/08/26/why-everything-they-say-about-the-amazon-including-that-its-the-lungs-of-the-world-is-wrong/amp/
Chaser:
https://mobile.twitter.com/PhilipinDC/status/1166160047547854849
Some of the footage being used is apparently decades old.
That’s a hella burn
“adding that Macron can’t even protect a foreseeable fire in a church.”
SICK. BURN.
I read that this is a normal and deliberate burn done every year for farming purposes. The msm has no shame.
LOL
This is all about the desire to keep Brazil poor.
“It is estimated that marine plants produce between 70 and 80 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Nearly all marine plants are single celled, photosynthetic algae. Yup, that’s right, good ol’ scum on the pond…”
But that stuff is icky, so lets talk about beautiful forests and try to get rid of all that icky pond scum.
Look, Cyanobacteria is so good at producing oxygen that it nearly killed off all life on earth. The whole planet couldn’t rust enough to absorb it all and the plants were suffocating until something mutated into a form that metabolized this massively corrosive gas we call oxygen.
One cyanobacterium’s halitosis is another human’s breath of life.
Fake fucking news. Algae is not plant.
You Can Definitely Skip Dave Chappelle’s New Netflix Special ‘Sticks & Stones’
The comedian doubles down on misogyny and transphobia in both the special and the hidden bonus scene that follows.
Dipshit from Vice says don’t watch Chappelle – he’s a meanie!
Dave Chappelle Shouldn’t Defend Michael Jackson
Downplaying child molestation? Linking pro-lifers to #MeToo? Chappelle’s comedy takes a strange turn in his new Netflix special.
Kyle Smith, Nation Review’s entertainment critic, says Chappelle is a meanie!
Dave Chappelle, a man who tells jokes (let’s pause and focus on this for a second), is uniting us all!
In a way it is sad Patrice is no longer around
Yes, but also when you have diabetes stop being a fat fuck.
*sheds a single sugar tear
et tu Crustivus?
Being inappropriate isn’t funny.
Chappelle’s new show is both inappropriate and funny.
Would you take a mixture of creepy and cringy?
I can’t think of anything funnier than doing that… I guess I am evil.
To you, maybe not, but a ton of humor is based around inappropriate behavior. Humor, after all, is being surprised by the unexpected. There’s a very thin line between humor and horror for that reason, which is why gallows humor is a thing.
You guys don’t know me at all. Then again, why would you?
I mean you’ve never come around and visited.
Then again, why would I?
Why do people stare at train wrecks?
I am more inclined to stare at hawt nekked chicks…
Aren’t train wrecks a little too exciting for you?
a/s/l?
Well, I’ve been awake for too long and I don’t get jokes at the best of times, so…
That just makes me want to watch it.
meh it’s just too preachy like old tired Carlin to me. Which stinks because he used to be awesome and still has his moments but so did old tired Carlin.
Vice and National Review both writing punchlines to feminist jokes. Nice.
Just an average guy.
Welcome to the latest installment of “Beto O’Rourke: Real Person,” starring everyone’s favorite deep thinker, Robert Francis O’Rourke. You’ve enjoyed previous episodes, we’re sure, such as Beto Goes On the Road, Beto Goes To The Dentist, Beto Gets A Haircut, and Beto Changes A Tire.
Now you can enjoy “Beto Flips Burgers.”
“Beto sucks dick for money to buy crack” is the one I am waiting for.
That would be an improvement, at least he would be providing value.
I don’t like to kink shame, but you should probably keep this to yourself.
I just went there in honor of the talk about Chappelle being back in business…
That stupid fuck. There’s a griddle in the middle of his range yet he uses three pans to cook four patties. And then a steel turner on a nonstick pan. And raw yellow onions with no other toppings.
The man is a fucking sociopath.
String him up by his own entrails.
What all of those make clear to me is that they guy has no idea how to do any of those things. Next up: Beta cant tie his shoes. We should let him run the country.
His mom will wash the dishes.
Naw, they have people for that.
Oh, like he was actually going to eat that. That’s as bad as him “changing the flat” when you know that he is not driving himself to all of these events. Next time it’s a livestream of him wiping his own butt and he’s going side to side with the tissue like a cross-cut saw.
I’d almost be willing to bet money he swirls his toilet paper.
Ya know, I almost went with that.
Toilet paper? Oh crap I forgot something again. -Beto
Didn’t properly melt, or even place the cheese either.
And, did he… did he put that burger on an english muffin? Mother of God, this is somehow *less* natural that Warren’s beer video.
If wants to impress us, he should make them while skate boarding.
Into a car door?
Imagine how full of yourself you must be to, as a gag, release videos of you acting like a “normal person”.
I know the presidency isn’t a cooking show, but how can one guy commit so many fuck ups in the simple process of making a god damned hamburger?
I’d wager Beta has never cooked in his life.
This is a surprise
Your college major has a huge impact on the size of your paycheck later on. Pharmacy majors earn a median salary of $100,000, while music majors make $36,000.
Flower fan? Botany majors typically earn $50,000.
A new ranking by personal finance website Bankrate.com orders majors by the median income and unemployment rates they lead to. With the cost of attending college exploding over the last few decades, it’s important to understand how much your degree can earn you in the future.
“Picking a major is a huge decision and it has financial impacts for the rest of your life,” said Adrian Garcia, a data analyst at Bankrate.com.
——
If you do study a field without blockbuster income projections — such as journalism, with a $50,000 median pay — borrowing too much can backfire.
That’s because people who take on an exorbitant amount of student debt find it hard to land work tied to their major, and then are under a lot of pressure to get a paycheck that will simply allow them to meet their monthly loan bill.
Hard hitting journalism from the MSNBC Business Channel.
In a world without government guarantees, the banks might actually determine their loan amounts based on your major.
Although actually, back in the day, they just wanted a co-signer with assets.
Back in the day you had to go to an Ivy to break $10k in tuition.
That is because back in the day the loan amounts while high relative to the median income were still something a person earning the national median income could realistically pay back in a lifetime.
Go back to the 80’s and the median income was something like $12,000 a year but a 4 year degree only cost somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000
Today the median income is around $50,000 but that 4 year degree is going to cost you between $50,000 and $200,000
Petroleum Engineering used to be at the top of the list, it has slid down to #32. My major is at #2, even though I don’t work in that field.
Drama and Theatre Arts is at the bottom. While the median salary is low, I bet the average is higher, due to a few blockbuster members of the major. Same if they allowed “Basketball” as a major. The median would be low, but the average would be much higher.
What? Employers don’t real find value in some shithead that knows how to quote Hamlet and acts out the bitch? Go fucking figure…
And for the jobs in the major, there is a lot of competition for few posts.
Who the fuck needs 20K Hamlet wannabes to teach remdial Engrish?
and the skills you need to land them you learn upstairs at the frat house, not in class
Damnit, my major is number 4.
Guess I should’ve tried to find a job in the field instead of dropping into machining.
Here is a bypass of cnbc to the ranking referenced
Huh. I make above median for my major. When did that happen?
Me too. Because my major has nothing to do with my career.
HM is not going to be happy
How so?
“Eating ass” is not a major that was ranked?
Make HM happy.
UCS doin God’s work here folks.
Not entirely clear on how many years of experience are supposed to be considered here. Am I just reading dumb or do they not say.
I didn’t spot it either.
What exactly is the difference between Electrical Engineering (#5 on the list) and Electrical Engineering Technology (#8 on the list)
EEs can do math.
Generally accurate.
Electrical Engineering is more theoretical in nature. EE Tech is intended to be preparation for lab work. Quite often techs go on to become full fledged design engineers.
The best thing you can do for a new EE is to pair them off with an experienced EE Tech to bring them up to speed on the practical aspects of the job.
About 23K a year.
what about design methodology engineers?
Or is electronics a part of “electrical engineer” or different?
Maybe.
They’re different.
To do electronics, you have to be able to solder.
And put a robot out of work?
56 Miscellaneous Fine Arts $38,000 5.7% 20%
157 Film Video And Photographic Arts $37,000 6.5% 15%
162 Drama And Theater Arts $35,500 5.2% 26
That seems low. I blame porn being free online.
I think online porn falls under the auspices of a medical education by it’s healing properties.
*Marvin Gaye nods approval from Heaven*
It’s folks like me bringing down those numbers.
HAHA suckers.
No degree and no debt here and I’m beating almost all of those.
Oh, just ’cause you actually do something and produce value, you get to rub it in to the rest of us.
Not sure there are many here I’d be willing to rub it into
Me too.
and you get to see big booms.
yeah but you live in butfuck AK or some shit like that. How many specialty coffee roasters are within a mile of your house? How many Micheline star restaurant in your city?
It may be AR not sure
Some of those numbers look hinky. Petro engineers with over 7% unemployment? Mat sci with over 6%. But Geoscience at <1%.
That doesn't comport with my perspective on those industries.
Not sure if it’s the actual field or people with degrees in that major in total.
The pharmacy one seems a bit misleading. I assume it means those working in the pharmaceutical industry (including tits and teeth sales positions). I worked with a gal going to school to be a pharmacist and it was not that lucrative, and it was an extra year or two for that PharmD.
Even David Koch’s Philanthropy Was Toxic
Like other plutocrats, from Andrew Carnegie to Jeff Bezos, the late billionaire used charity to legitimize inequality.
He built oil refineries for people that were willing to pay for them? OMG.
These people think it’s terrible that the rich give to charity because it proves that the poor can be taken care of in capitalism. But even further under their system there will not be any extra to get the same results as you do under charity.
Just saw the crossword puzzle from last night. Did anyone complain about the lack of the clue for 4 across?
Probably. I did not read the comments
There is no 4 across.
Sue there is, it is just one letter long.
Sorry. “It’s the shape of robc’s cock.”
Mann’s hockey stick?
If you want one, “Non-punctuation most likely to get the attention of Ted.”
Waiting for the opportune moment.
Hillary Clinton, the Ma Barker of American politics, is still out hustling, still staying one step ahead of the law as she tries to weasel her way into the presidential sweepstakes. She says she isn’t running in 2020, but, as we know too well, truth is a fungible commodity to a Clinton.
The signs don’t look good. She just announced a fundraiser for the DNC at her Washington D.C. mansion with tickets as high as $50,000 (scraps for the homeless in the dumpster out back).
A couple of weekends ago she was at de Rothschild’s estate on Martha’s Vineyard — go socialism! — to celebrate Bill’s birthday, which included “quite an A-list cast of characters, including many Democratic party stalwarts.”
Recently she and Chelsea announced they were publishing a book in October about “gutsy women,” no doubt the tale of some courageous women in Arkansas who stood up to privilege and power even before the #MeToo movement. At least that’s my guess.
In any case, the subject is irrelevant. It’s the timing that matters. A book tour in the middle of the primary race? Just a not-so-subtle reminder from Madam Secretary: The air in the room belongs to me, bitches.
Hearing Hillary announce a third presidential bid would be like hearing your dentist say he has to go ahead with that third root canal, and he just ran out of Novocaine.
No sane person wants her in the race, which doesn’t stop her from getting the party’s full support, of course. However, a former aide said she would “ankle dive at the door” to stop her from running (a possible fatal act of heroism, depending on how things fall).
Best timeline.
Holy shit, I desperately want an old, bitter, ill Memaw Clinton elbowing her way on to the stage at the convention.
“fundraiser for the DNC at her Washington D.C. mansion with tickets as high as $50,000”
Influence doesn’t come cheap, you know.
“Ankle got nothing on Cankle, Little One!” Hillary smirked as she savored the freshly severed foot of her former aide. Taking an enormous bite from the instep, bones, ligaments and all she smiled a red, almost lecherous smile. “This time it will be Different!”
A severed foot makes an excellent stocking stuffer.
– Mitch
Sadly, looking around at the other candidates, is she wrong for thinking she’d be the Dem’s best option?
Yes she would be very wrong for thinking that
Experience: I had an erection for three weeks
I grabbed a wine-cooling sleeve from the freezer and wrapped it around my penis
So how did this affect the nurse?
Also kinda gay
a handsome, bearded nurse
I’m a terrible old-fashioned person who immediately imagined the circus bearded lady.
Well, that was what he was talking about.
/don’t try to change my mind.
#metoo
Wine cooling sleeve? Like a wine bottle coozy? Jfc how big is this dude’s dick?
I usually need one of them champagne cooler thingies – about 18 inches deep and able to handle 15-20 lbs of ice – when my junk is acting up…
Stupid is as stupid does.
Lol, has to catch an Uber and ambulance? Buy a car, you eurotrash pussy.
Letting a stranger stick you in the peter with a needle is just the kind of sloppy thinking you’d expect from some carless euro hipster idiot.
He’s at the vanguard of sexual progress.
Sexual progress meaning the extinction of the Human race. Eggs and omelets, I suppose.
Eggs have nothing to do with this guy.
No wait: this guy will have nothing to do with eggs.
https://thinkprogress.org/dea-concedes-that-marijuana-research-monopoly-must-end-opening-door-to-sweeping-change-2d60015acd1d/amp/
Asian consume things weirdly
https://twitter.com/JackKennedy/status/1165629624497377281
That dude will soon be weightlifting as a female…
Footage from camera outside Epstein’s cell deemed unusable
Move along. Nothing to see here.
It’s unreal all the utter indifference these actions be the Deep State are garnering.
*by
Its painfully clear that there is something extremely fishy about his death. Yet nothing will ever come of it because there is too much powerful interest in making this go away. The limited hangout was the prison warden getting reassigned.
The only good I can see coming of this is that when the state does something this egregious and out in the open, maybe more people can begin to see what what a bunch of rotten fuckers we have running this country.
Also. I’m still waiting to hear what happened with the Vegas shooter.
Vegas shooting?!? There was no “Vegas shooting”, move along citizen.
#MeToo
Don’t hold your breath.
Pumpkin spice lattes — and the backlash, and the backlash to the backlash — explained
This monster dismisses all criticism to enjoy a beverage she enjoys. It’s madness!
Pumpkin beer is an abomination unto the gods old and new. I assume the coffee is no better. But you do you.
Pumpkin beer is an abomination unto the gods old and new.
Agreed.
There are new gods? How does that work?
I’ve had good pumpkin ale.
Saranac’s version is quite good.
As is Newburgh Brewing’s
Jack Kirby was hired by DC to introduce a bunch of new characters, so he created a pantheon of characters vaguely based around classical mythology + superheros + whatever fucking psychedelics Kirby was on to create the Kirby style.
The pantheon was split in half, with the evil characters living on a planet called Apokolips and having a patriarch named Darkseid, while the heroic characters lived on a planet called New Genesis and have a patriarch named Highfather. In a diplomatic move to avert all-out war, Darkseid and Highfather exchanged sons, so Orion is Darkseid’s biological son and raised by the Highfather, while Mister Miracle is Highfather’s biological son and raised by Darkseid. In general, all the New Gods have power levels comparable to members of the Justice League.
Darkseid, in a neat little twist, is a villain that has already conquered his world. So he is obsessed not with taking over, but with exterminating any possibility of his reign coming to an end. As such, he seeks out the “anti-life equation” that, which complete doesn’t kill off all life, but kills off free will and thus the ability to rebel from his rule.
In the 70’s, Darkseid got a hot tip that the key to the anti-life equation could be found on Earth, so he sent his agents to infiltrate organized crime, the lucrative doll-manufacturing industry, and talk radio in order to find the anti-life equation (I told you you need drugs to understand this, right?)
Also, Darkseid is a ma fuckin pimp.
And that’s how the New Gods work.
Pie, I’m right there with you. I’ve had one pumpkin beer that was tolerable, it was a one-off by Sixpoint brewing that was never made again.
Suthenboy posted this abomination over the weekend.
Pumpkin beer is kinda dumb. Either it’s just pumpkin pie spice, which winds up just being a kind of mild ale with pie spice–great if you like cinnamon and nutmeg in your beer I guess–or it’s made with pumpkin in the mash. I’ve done the latter at home, and it’s a pain in the ass without much in the way of noticeable difference. It’s just an adjunct, and since plain pumpkin doesn’t have a very strong taste it doesn’t really come through in the beer. You get a thicker mouthfeel, which is fine I suppose, but it’s a huge pain to strain it out when you go to keg or bottle.
^^This guy gets it^^
This one is really quite good, but it’s made mostly with butternut squash instead of pumpkin:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29419/86868/
I don’t care. Don’t care about pumpkin anything don’t care that people enjoy it. Just annoyed it’s a topic of conversation every year. For me it’s just Ocktoberfest beer season.
I refuse to buy an Ofest before Labor Day weekend.
agreed.
It’s “Flying Dog Dead Rise Goes on Sale” season for me, which is my favorite.
*Sobs, hugs Naptown Bill*
I’ve actually met more people who hate it then love it, but I too am a fan of the Dead Rise.
I’m just sayin’, I may not care about crabs, but there isn’t anything I wouldn’t put Old Bay on or in, and that apparently includes a blonde ale. I’ll drink as much of that stuff as they care to make.
I may not care about crabs
*Dramatic Gasp*
I’m a bad Marylander, I know, but I just don’t see the point when there are things like sausage and pulled pork and brisket in the world. Or fried catfish.
Blonde women in ugg boots minding their own business drinking their PSL are definitely less annoying than the people bitching about it.
Talk about painting a bulls-eye on your own back in this day and age of totalitarian government trying to take over everything. Nothing serves to dissuade people deluded by the prattle of collectivist (primarily marxist in nature) indoctrination tactics like seeing the real world effects of that evil ideology.
In exchange, the program paid my medical school tuition. The penalty for breaking the contract was harsh: repay three times the tuition amount immediately or go to jail.
And people who rage against slavery 150 years ago want this new version.
This one is totes cool cause it serves the collective. All collectivism has done is make slavery-light chick again.
And this creates a work environment where the office bureaucrats are unaccountable overlords. There’s literally nothing preventing them from behaving like small tyrants, so they do.
I, for one, am flabbergasted
A federal investigation into misuse of millions of dollars in training center funds by Fiat Chrysler executives and United Auto Workers leaders has expanded to General Motors.
Michael Grimes, a retired senior official with the union’s GM division, has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly receiving $2 million in kickbacks from UAW vendors. He was charged in a criminal information, which indicates a guilty plea is expected.
Grimes’ plea at a hearing Sept. 4 in Ann Arbor would be a major milestone in the Department of Justice investigation into one of America’s largest unions. He is the first person not affiliated with Fiat Chrysler to be charged as part of the multiyear probe.
——
Prosecutors did not identify any GM executives as being involved in the corruption, as they did with FCA.
There also were no allegations that the actions were meant to impact the UAW’s collective bargaining with GM, as there was with the Italian-American automaker.
In a statement, GM called the alleged conduct of Grimes and other union officials “deeply disturbing” and said it is “fully cooperating” with the investigation.
“These serious allegations represent a stunning abuse of power and trust,” GM said in a statement. “There is no excuse for union officials, entrusted with a fiduciary responsibility to their members and the Center for Human Resources (training center), to enrich themselves at the expense of the union membership they represented — and to steal CHR funds invested by GM for training our hourly employees.”
Betraying the sacred trust of the union’s brothers and sisters? It’s unheard of.
Union leadership wants all members to know that spending their dues on bitchez, blow, booze, and filling dnc campaign coffers was a wise means to an end…
The charges come at an inopportune time for the union and the Big Three Detroit automakers, which are negotiating new contracts for 158,000 UAW workers. The expansion of the investigation could make ratifying the contracts more difficult, according to officials.
“This doesn’t appear to have affected the bargaining process in past rounds, but it does cast a shadow over this year’s talks because it undermines trust in leadership,” said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor and economics at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.
You don’t say.
The UAW, who owns golf courses, is possibly in trouble for misusing funds? I don’t believe it!
A Group Of Czech Students Recreate Weird And Strange Scenes From Medieval Books
https://designyoutrust.com/2019/08/a-group-of-czech-students-recreate-weird-and-strange-scenes-from-medieval-books/
Wait, I thought the Kamasutra was more than 2000 years old?
Beer Pong Getting Sustainability Makeover with New Aluminum Cup
It’s on!
You know what is good to drink beer from over and over?
Glass. Shaped in the proper shape for the type of beer you are drinking.
Man dressed as Stephen King’s Pennywise strolls through subway
Their phones out on the NYC subway at 1am? The nerve.
Clowns? It’s not 2016 anymore folks.
IT Chapter 2 comes out soon and it is going to be HUUUUGE.
They’re only on chapter 2? I mean I know the book is best suited as a barricade across a door, but come on folks.
IT Chapter 2 is a sequel to IT.
So they’ll be filing for bankruptsy in Chapter 11?
the killer klown kraze was one of my favorite internet hoaxes of all time, behind only tide pods, eating ass, Momo and IPAs being good.
“eating ass”
I guess someone isn’t a member of the eat-a-booty gang.
sesame street has a larger street presence than the eat-a-booty gang.
NOT TRUE!
IPAs being good.
Someone clearly has no taste.
Now, to be fair, IPAs qualify for Sturgeon’s Law just like everything else, but that doesn’t mean the good ones arent good.
You IPA lovers need to give up the ghost it’s not good, you fell for some some charismatic hipsters cosmic joke.
I was an IPA lover before the hipsters discovered them.
Are you saying you are the charismatic hipster that hypnotized a nation?
Possibly.
Stare into my eyes.
You will love the hops.
You will love the hops.
You will love the hops.
Why are Koch-funded activists trying to derail a US city’s public transit?
Because light rail sucks?
Monorail!!
It’s pathetic that “Koch” has become an argument unto itself.
I can never remember which Koch brother owns Sam Adams and which owns Stone.
Related to multiple topics upthread: I assume I am not the only glib who has read The Unincorporated Man. I thought the writing was shit, the idea was interesting but stupid and I am pretty sure didn’t make any sense.
I never figured out where the author stood exactly, which actually might be a positive. I also don’t think he knows what libertarian means. But that isn’t unusual.
As bad as it was, things like loans for majors and etc make me think about the book. Which means it had some impact.
What did the rest of you think?
For those that haven’t read it: Society collapses. A group of “libertarian” Alaskans basically take over and form the new world government. Every person is “incorporated” and has public shares issued. The government owns 5% of everyone and never buys or sells shares. That is the entirely of the government’s revenue (it is a small government, obviously). Parents get 25% ownership in their children in return for raising them to adulthood.
Very few people own a majority in themselves and they have to sell shares for education, medical care, and etc. And then if you are successful, your shares get so expensive it is hard to buy back enough to get to majority.
The title character was in cryo-sleep from before the incorporated era, and thus is the only unincorporated person in the world when he awakes.
My initial reaction to that is… not kind.
Not in an angry kind of way, but in a “that’s just supid” kind of way.
It doesn’t get any better actually reading it.
That was my take, though I didn’t finish it because it was stupid.
“that’s just supid”
One of the best examples of joez law I have seen in a long while.
I had to look that up.
And all I have to say is that learning how to type was not a requirement of my major or my jobs. Yes, I work in computing and writing. No, I don’t know how to type.
joe was an annoying prog, but his Law was deadly accurate.
There’s an interesting concept there, but the implementation was… not good. Nor was the overarching plot.
A similar concept was brought up in one of the Callahan’s stories (which were written back in the 70’s-80’s), when the group finds themselves with a lot of cash (fuck you levels of cash). One of the suggestions was for them to ask at top schools for the people who where accepted, but didn’t qualify for financial aid. Then approach them with an offer, the group covers the education of the student, in return for free services for 20-30 years.
That’s a terrible deal for the students. Most loans in a useful field are repayable within a ten year timeframe, and are less than one to two years of income.
Unless the ‘services’ do not preclude real employment.
I think the latter. Like if they are law students, you get X number of pro-bono hours or something.
Having the best and brightest on retainer has its advantages.
It was just sketched out and referenced in a couple of later stories, but yes, it was basically a retainer for doctors, lawyers, accountants, and the like.
thicc?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7398523/Demi-Rose-covers-hourglass-curves-bold-satin-summer-dress.html
Tard Tuesday: Making Helter Skelter Great Again
tl;dr
lol. This isn’t a condemnation of the NY times 1619 project?
It’s an interesting read, but it’s not what I want to discuss here. Nor do I want to talk about Manson.
Four paragraphs in to say that. You’re the psycho.
^^THIS^^
I really am loving how Trump has forced so many fucking lunatic leftist cunts to show their true colors and how stupid and venal they really are.
“Trump is Hilter” is old hat so now we’ve moved on to “Trump is Manson”? Just turn the dial all the way up and declare him the Price of Darkness already.
Drew Carey already has that job.
legit lol’ed
Trump is bezulbub and his followers are Legion
“Worst dressed stars go WILD at MTV VMAS! YouTuber Tana Mongeau carries a SNAKE like Britney Spears while Nikita Dragun drags along men on LEASHES on most shocking red carpet yet”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7397033/Worst-dressed-stars-WILD-MTV-VMAS-YouTuber-Tana-Mongeau-carries-SNAKE.html
Yes, shockingly bad.
I guess I’m officially old because I don’t who any of those idjits are.
Are those even real names? God it’s nice to be old.
Why Aren’t More People Preppers?
Just so you know I will be leading a group of the unprepared to your homes, where we will storm your property and take your food.
The mine field and machine gun nests may not stop you, but it will make it costly.
Huh, I went with a moat and punji sticks.
Then again, the whole house was a decoy, there’s nothing in there.
As a friend of mine says, “I don’t need to stock up on food, I’ve got a room full of ammo.”
Good luck.
^^^THIS^^^
After I hang you and your gang’s bullet riddled corpses in the trees, I bet it will seriously dissuade any other commers.
Not sure where you live, it is possible you live far enough into the boonies that you don’t need to worry about the Horde. More than likely however that isn’t the case.
Give it 7 days from a major societal collapse and everyone will be fleeing the cities and the starvation therein. This doesn’t just mean the inner city urban areas, it means the suburbs and some of the exurbs as well. All of those people are going to come flooding out looking for food and when they are already either engaged in or fleeing from cannibalism your corpses hanging from trees are not going to be a warning, they are an advertisement that you have something worth protecting. Do you think the threat of death will stop them from attacking you? They are going to be dead within days if they don’t get into your stores so why not take a chance, worst that happens is they catch a bullet and end it sooner.
If you manage to ride out the first month without being overwhelmed by a 1000 starving naruto runners you should be in good shape as most of them will be dead by then however if you are within 50 – 60 miles of even a moderate sized city your odds of making it that long are slim no matter how well you are prepared.
“Not sure where you live, it is possible you live far enough into the boonies that you don’t need to worry about the Horde. More than likely however that isn’t the case.”
Actually I do. I live in a small town, in the least densely populated part of it, far away from highways and clustered people, and my house is surrounded by natural barriers, with mostly neighbors that are all gun owners and collectivist haters in similar situations as myself living near bye.
“Give it 7 days from a major societal collapse and everyone will be fleeing the cities and the starvation therein.”
By the time they get to me they will be few and far in between and desperate, and would have walked the gauntlet of my neighbors. I don’t plan to wait for them to get to me however, as a good offense is the best defense.
Thanks!
Cue the Ron Swanson line: “That’s decoy gold. You think I’d leave my gold in a locked safe buried underground where anyone can find it? You don’t know me at all.”
“Hello”
“Yes, we are doing a poll for MSN. Do you have guns and food supplies stockpiled up in your basement?”
“No, no I do not” he says while loading another batch mosins and SKSs into PVC pipes while wearing a shirt that says ‘No Officer, I’m Here To Take Yours Away’.
FEE responds to the Business Roundtable manifesto of wokeness
It’s as if the pursuit of profit is somehow immoral, the aim of increasing shareholder value doesn’t require the care of customers, employees, and suppliers, and our free market system hasn’t produced more prosperity for more people than any other economic system in the history of humankind.
——
We can only imagine the squishy, subjective claims of success these modern CEOs will announce.
In his monumental essay in The New York Times on September 13, 1970, Friedman said,
The discussions of the “social responsibilities of business” are notable for their analytical looseness and lack of rigor.
——
Abandoning a 50-year-old view on the purpose of a corporation also undermines the belief in markets themselves. On this issue, Professor Friedman offered this dire warning:
[T]he doctrine of “social responsibility” involves the acceptance of the socialist view that political mechanisms, not market mechanisms, are the appropriate way to determine the allocation of scarce resources to alternative uses.
A simple review of the 20th century should convince us all that’s not a road we want to travel.
If you are the sole owner and proprietor of a business, and decide to give your “excess profits” to charity, that’s your business. If you are an employee, entrusted with the money of others, you had better be focused on returns.That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make decisions based on ensuring the long term success of the business, or properly rewarding those who create value in the enterprise.
This is all a smokescreen to stay ahead of the rhee-crowd. Nothing’s gonna change inside the board-room.
“They want to be more careful. They have to protect themselves because no one else is going to protect them,’’ the source said.”
Not getting this hissy fit. Didn’t Pantaleo use a chokehold that’s illegal? Are they saying they want to have the option to kill someone with an illegal tactic?
Just go do your damn jobs and spare citizens the damn drama. He was wrong, got fired and it’s time to move on. Just like it would happen to anyone in the real world.
Just like it would happen to anyone in the real world.
Why in the hell would you think they want to be treated like people in the real world? JFC, they used their CBA to negotiate a separate justice system for their employees that largely keeps the public in the dark. Being treated like everybody else is not their intention.
You’ve been around long enough to know the answer to this question.
They want:
No liability
No accountability
Guaranteed jobs for life and big pensions
^This^
How do incentives and self-interest work again? My Cop Brother, case in point. At one time a big Ron Paul supporter now turned into a Thin Blue Liner.
What kinda fucked up mindset do you have to be in to think a guy getting fired for straight up murdering someone is too harsh. This is why I don’t call police a professional. Real professionals try to remove the shitbags. It’s not a case of a few bad apples the whole place is rotten to it’s core.
Tard Tuesday: All Things Must Be Measured in Trumps
Does anyone else wonder how these people simply don’t fucking have a clue? When Obama was really acting out the tyrant, they were totes cool with everything he did because he was their guy and could do no wrong. Now they make up shit about what Trump is doing and get bat shit insane stressed about their fantasies and projections of the very things Obama doing just caused them to yawn. How fucked up must life be for these morons?
Progjection all the way down.
As the Republican Party has become more extreme
Yea, sure. “Extreme” is a relative term.
They are to the right of the guy that is a mile left of Marx!
Another poll came out today with way more recent data putting Biden back on top by 13 points and showing the Monmouth poll as most likely an outlier.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html
Absolute silence from the media (on both sides, interestingly).
I am by no means a big Biden guy, but it fascinates me how much the media can control a narrative simply by choosing to report or not to report.
..
The news would have you believe Warren is closing in on Biden. The actual data shows she’s moved maybe 1 point closer and is still over 10 points away.
“Warren’s Poll Numbers On the Rise!”
A totem to her persistence and grace.
I’d like to believe that the Progressives have cooked their own goose as some here seem to think. They’ll reject Biden because he’s too white, too male and too centrist for the modern DNC. IDK, maybe they will. Maybe this will guarantee another Trump term. I tend to see things more pessimistically al la RC Dean’s view. The media and tech companies control the narrative and the majority of the population fall in lock-step. Who the nominee is might not ultimately matter.
I think the distinction here is, while they might be controlling the narrative, they sure as hell aren’t controlling the votes, at least as reflected in the polls.
At this point, I hope they foist Warren on the Democrats. Their own people are trying to tell them that socialism doesn’t fly. They’re trying to tell them to go with someone who isn’t a would-be cadre from the Cultural Revolution. They just refuse to listen. So, fine, we’ll have a second Trump term.
In the case of Warren especially; she’s promoting textbook fascism, which is lost on the dummies of the left. A little too ironic, don’t ya think?
I’ve maintained for a long time that Democratic socialism is just fascism under a different more acceptable name.
SPEND! SPEND! SPEND!
But the world’s central banks are now thinking about how to keep money moving again. When the economy enters a downturn, they usually cut interest rates to encourage spending. But interest rates are already close to zero, which could be a huge problem in another recession. For a long time, economists believed rates couldn’t go negative for a simple reason: If saving in places like a bank costs people money, they will instead just hoard cash, which won’t cost them money. Cash becomes a roadblock to economic stimulus. One way around this is higher inflation, which devalues or “taxes” money in real terms, but central banks like the Fed have been showing that they have much less power to increase inflation than previously thought.
Central banks in Europe and Japan have been experimenting with teeny-tiny negative interest rates as a way to stimulate the economy, but the issue still remains that people will start hoarding cash if rates go significantly negative. It’s why serious economic thinkers consider Gesell relevant again.
In our technological age, a Gesellian system of unhoardable cash wouldn’t actually have to involve stamping paper bills for a fee. It could involve high-tech physical cash, such as magnetic strips that allow the government to impose a “Gesell tax” on holding cash, as one economist proposed some years ago. Harvard University’s Kenneth Rogoff has been advocating we get rid of paper money altogether and move almost completely to a system of electronic cash. He believes it could give central banks the power to impose negative interest rates deep enough to rescue our economy from future recessions. In all of this, Gesell was a pioneer.
Silvio Gesell has been called everything from a “libertarian socialist” to an “anarchist” to a “free spirit” to a “crank.” John Maynard Keynes had a much more affectionate term for him: a “strange, unduly neglected prophet.”
Silvio Gesell, prophet of money which decays in value. Because nothing says stable economy like punishing thrift and prudence.
Saving is for chumps.
And companies that work out of their cash flow instead of borrowing are just assholes.
Saving is for suckers…
Private savings are the only sustainable driver to economic growth and this asshat wants to outlaw them.
I thought one of the defining properties of money was that it was a stable store of value?
Goddammit.
link
The fiat currency seems to fit his bill in some respects. More money can be brought into circulation and you’d better spend what you have now otherwise it won’t go as far latter.
a massive financial crash in 1890 that convinced him that money was behind the world’s economic problems
Just like gravity is behind the problem of people falling.
We need more tokers writing economic policy.
“Like, what if, man, like uh… what if… there weren’t any money at all you know man?”
“Like, like, what if people just exchanged goods and services, and if you didn’t need the plumber’s services today, he could, like, give you a plumber’s token instead, and you could trade the plumber’s token for a loaf of bread if you needed bread.”
“Silvio Gesell hated money. A German entrepreneur who moved to Argentina for business in the late 19th century, he witnessed a massive financial crash in 1890 that convinced him that money was behind the world’s economic problems: poverty, inequality, unemployment, stagnation.”
You know who else moved to Argentina?
Seriously though his idea wasn’t original then, it’s certainty not original now. I mean I came up with the idea of getting rid of money to fight crime in college. It’s a stupid unworkable idea. People will flee the system.
People invented money because it worked. It meant they didn’t have to immediately find something the other person wanted to get what they wanted, and the other people could go to someone who had what they wanted without finding something that person would want, etcetera.
If Trump did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.
I think they did invent him. To the left there has always been this archetypal perfect Republican enemy, a cigar-chomping business man who is racist and sexist and is all for big corporations exploiting workers and the environment. Part of the playbook is to fit every Republican into that mold. Trump just seems to fit into that delusion a lot more easily.
Went on a Derp expedition and dragged this back.
https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/26/20829771/slavery-textbooks-history
I really enjoyed the back and forth with HM in yesterday’s Cato article. I certainly do not want to continually bring up slavery and get labeled a neo-confederate. This article illustrates why I feel the need to qualify so much of the discussion surrounding slavery. I don’t know where all these slavery apologists exist besides in the writers mind in 2019. I don’t know who is trying to justify and soften the realities of that terrible institution. On the contrary the only acceptable portrayal of American Slavery I ever watch or read about is the fictitious version where slave masters whipped their slaves all day for no reason and killed them at will. I think this cartoon portrayal of slavery is as dangerous if not more so than the softened version the author claims (that hasn’t existed in the classroom in my lifetime).
Dude. I wouldn’t push Vox on my worst enemy.
Missed the discussion yesterday, but I’m sure you are a racist neoconfederate
But Tom Woods had a good discussion on the 1619 project yesterday.
Listened this morning, it was excellent. The claim that Capitalism and slavery are inseparable is mendacious to say the least. As he pointed out the defacto implication is that slavery is efficient and workable, just morally repugnant. How long until it’s advocated for (as long as it’s along non-racial lines) as an unalloyed good?
Oh wait, we already have an income tax with enthusiastic support.
If slavery were an efficient economic model, we’d be a global economic backwater to the powerhouses of South America. The global slave trade pretty much treated even the American South as a secondary market to South America, where slave importation exceeded that to the North American British colonies by a factor of about 20.
https://mises.org/wire/why-they-keep-trying-blame-capitalists-slavery
slave masters whipped their slaves all day for no reason and killed them at will.
Really damages the resale value.
the fictitious version where slave masters whipped their slaves all day for no reason and killed them at will.
Business assets. You maintain them. You take care of them, so they will provide a return on your investment. Some people are better at it than others, but you don’t make a living by intentionally wrecking your production line.
On the above mentioned podcast he talks about slave value being proportional to the amount of work they expected to get out of them; $800-$1200 dollars for a working age male in an era when the average wage was $16 per week. The idea that you woulds beat or work said person to death for sadistic pleasure is economically nonsensical. That does nothing to justify slavery morally but it says a lot about how slaves were treated in america vs how slaves of conquest were treated in virtually any other era of human history.
The Romans and Greeks also had very valuable slaves and often treated them well.
I think indentured servants probably got it a lot worse. Treated like the car you rented instead of the one you bought.
Am I the only person who treats rental cares nicely?
Yes
Yes.
My personal motto is “All rental cars are off-road vehicles.”
“Any vehicle is an off-road vehicle if you try hard enough.” -Leonard Colfax, Shadowrealm
Penske, the truck rental company that offered 100% ding and damage coverage, will no longer do business with me.
We will cover 100% once…once.
God bless you.
I rent equipment for a living.
No. I often rent vehicles for my company and I always treat them well, whether a car, van, or truck.
I’m glad I’m not alone. Whenever I’m using a rental, I’m acutely aware that it is not my stuff, and I should be able to return it in the condition I got it.
No, I treat rental property with far more care than my own
The phrase “Worked like a rented mule” comes to mind
Ridden hard and put away wet?
Especially after 1808 when importation was outlawed, and there wasn’t a ready supply of replacements.
Even before, replacements cost money, the one you already own is “free”.
Somewhere on the interwebs (some time ago and I can’t find the damn thing now), I found a fairly well-researched blog post that had some images of posters for slave auctions. The author was Irish (or of Irish descent) and trying to make the point that blacks weren’t the only people enslaved during the same point in history. The slave auction poster he had showed that Irish men fetched WAAAYYYYYYYY less than a Black man – I think it was about 10% of the cost of a Black man. He mentioned that it wasn’t something people cared to discuss much, but as a history and economics lesson, I found it fascinating – because it turns a bunch of modern “truths” (which are barely more than religious shibboleths) about slavery completely on their head.
http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-missile-disaster-shows-signs-nuke-reactor-blew-up-experts-2019-8
Pretty interesting. I had never heard of a nuclear powered cruise missile. I’m having a hard time figuring out the application. Longer range I guess could allow it to take an erratic flight path to avoid defense networks? I dunno. Either way, probably would be a good idea to have better relations with Russia.
The ones I had heard about for nuclear powered cruise missiles was something akin to an automated Strategic Air Command. They were bombs that would orbit in-atmosphere for years on end until the time came to erase all cities.
The radiation trail and emergance of ICBM tech made the idea never fly when it was on the US drawing board.
Not sure if this is implying a similar concept.
The B in ICBM is ballistic. The flight path is a hyperbola with the ends in the atmosphere and the midpoint in space. A cruise missile flies low enough that you can even specify which window it uses to enter a multistory building right before the warhead explodes. A cruise missile will not have to evade defenses if the defenses do not know it is there. The theory behind using nuclear to energize the propellant instead of using a chemical reaction is for the cruise missile to have intercontinental (IC) range. However, even if it works, today’s cruise missiles only carry a single warhead per missile compared with 3 to 12 “multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles” per American or Russian ICBM.
+1 Tomahawk (TLAM or TASM)
Thanks.
Speaking of caricatures
In addition, the shareholder-rights movement of the ’80s — driven by corporate raiders like Carl Icahn — accused corporate management of squandering money. What the movement considered waste included indulgent pet projects and the hiring of cronies, but also things like generous pension funds for workers. Economists urged that management’s only goal should be the maximization of shareholder profit. The 1987 film “Wall Street” captured this ethos in Gordon Gekko’s famous speech about shareholder greed, which was “good” — the salvation not only of American businesses but also of America itself.
By the 1990s, these ideas had become a kind of national gospel: Focus on consumers and shareholders and all else will follow. This simple, disciplined formula is not without appeal, and it has been wildly popular in the tech industry, which loves metrics. But at its center is a glaring omission: the fact that the American people are not just consumers and shareholders. We are also employees, business owners, family members, citizens. And the hard fact is that there is no such thing as prioritizing one thing without neglecting others.
By now it has become obvious that the formula has gone too far, contributing to much of the social and economic dissatisfaction in the country — from the perpetual low-level fatigue with our consumer culture to the growing rage against callous corporations. In the service of our selves as consumers and shareholders, we have hollowed out many of the aspects of life that we care most about.
Bring on the national socialists; fascism will make America kinder and gentler.
Where is our modern Teddy Roosevelt? Who will tame the beast? Who will put the brakes on the rampant unconstrained dog-eat-dog capitalism which is destroying the very fiber of American society.
The only people I hear complaining about that anymore are the same people that line up every year for a new iphone.
If you don’t like it, drop out. You can still buy a regular flip-phone and use generic products that get the job done to a satisfactory level, if you want. But if what you want is the new new to keep up with the Jones’, that’s your choice. Get off my lawn!
If the Jones family wants to be profligate with their funds, that’s their mistake.
I’m like three iPhone models behind, it’s in perfect condition, and I have no need or desire to upgrade. I don’t get those people.
But then the other day I was at a friend’s house and he described how his roommate, who had recently moved out and left a shit ton of her crap lying around, simply had no cares in the world. Like, she would open a package of cheese, cut a slice off, and leave the rest just sitting there on the counter. Her old laptop looked like a crime scene was poured all over it. She didn’t do laundry, she just bought new clothes all the time. There really are people like this, all around.
Suffering is the only way to teach these kind of people.
The sooner she suffers, the better the rest of her life will be.
Well, a tragic event is the cause of her (and my friend’s) moving out and regrouping with family, so… there’s that, I suppose.
Can it be them that suffers instead of me for once?
The girlfriend thought we had to buy a new washer and dryer once because the dryer wasn’t spinning. It cost me ~$15 in parts (a new belt), and ~30 minutes to repair it.
Does this ex-roommate earn her money?
She had a nice job until recently. No idea if she had “help”, I barely know her.
Thanks.
I want a car that doesn’t have 100+ sensors / monitors, motors, LCD screens etc to stop working. And it doesn’t cost 1/4 of my house value. Find me one of those. Oh, you can’t because they are mandated by federal regulations.
You get off my lawn!
Find me one of those.
Done.
You don’t realize how cheap my house is.
Go high-mileage. Those things are built like tanks, one of the few, possibly the only, Toyotas sold in America that were built in Japan. I have every expectation of getting 300K miles out of each of ours.
Interesting thought. Though I commute and an FJ would not be on my list of vehicles, would it be better than getting a more fuel efficient vehicle that could have more issues? I smell a spreadsheet.
“Where is our modern Teddy Roosevelt? Who will tame the beast?”
Already tamed. The NYT just does not not know it.
“Focus on consumers and shareholders and all else will follow. This simple, disciplined formula is not without appeal, and it has been wildly popular in the tech industry, which loves metrics.”
If that were true, “tech” would spend zero on lobbyists and the names of people from “tech” would not be all over the White House visitor logs during the immediately previous administration.
I don’t know why people keep using that speech as the best example, this one was MUCH better
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62kxPyNZF3Q
Then again, this one was more accurate and showed that the greedy capitalists actually have a point and that their “responsibility” mantra is BS.
David Hogg
✔
@davidhogg111
· Aug 25, 2019
I’ve said this before but I’m going to say it again for the record
If I die from gun violence I want my photo published, there will be those that say you are politicizing tragedy—
They are wrong, not doing anything to stop it this violence is politicizing tragedy. #MyLastShot
David Hogg
✔
@davidhogg111
In the event I am killed, organize, mobilize and get the Peace Plan passed and put my body on the NRAs doorstep in Fairfax, VA
Um…ok…
As you wish
“said this before but I’m going to say it again for the record”
Any chance David Hogg can start “say”-ing with correct grammar, punctuation, and syntax?
“not doing anything to stop it this violence”
David Hogg is among them.
‘Gun control,’ whether ‘common sense’ or otherwise, is like ‘seatbelt control.’ Excluding suicide by firearm, seatbelts and firearms reduce permanent injury and reduce loss of life.
Unlike seatbelts, firearms are also potentially useful in a potential hate crime situation. Reducing hate crimes is allegedly a D priority.
There are, roughly speaking, two kinds of ‘gun free zones,’ those that are enforced and those that are not. Try comparing statistics on “this violence” in gun friendly zones, gun free zones that are enforced, and gun free zones that are not enforced.
Notice this is addressing reducing the “violence,” not accepting the premise and using a 2A argument. That’s because this place is full of 2A and not so much about the dangers of putting up “gun free zone” signage without metal detectors and so on.
Evan, I’m sorry about the job loss and the way it was handled. BTDT.
In honor, I am on a Sixx:AM binge lately. Yes, I know they’re old news, but I am old. Not as old as Nikki Sixx. Heroin must be a preservative.
Long time no see Mojeaux, hope the writing and sales are going well.
Thanks! Writing going excellently. Sales, not so much. Way too much noise in the book world.
I feel your pain. “Beyond the Edge of the Map” is underperforming all previous titles. In fact, the trend is each book gets fewer sales than the last, and I’m not sure how to reverse it. No one can point to an issue with content, so it has to be something else.
Me, too.
My current one is so chock full of cliches (because I was amusing myself) (the premise is itself a cliche) I’m hoping to get something out of it. At least grocery money.
Well, I’ve already bought the cover art for “On Unknown Shores”, so I might as well finish writing it. (Already scheduled a writing break from the day job in case I can’t get into the zone on nights and weekends).
Any ideas on what sort of marketing services might help? I don’t currently have a budget for that, but if I had confidence that it would break even, I could change.
No. I’ve tried to get a spot on BookBub but have never been able to. That would do the trick, but the “publicists” I’ve hired haven’t made a dent. I ended up sending physical books to fucking Israel FFS.