What a hell of a match this guy had.
Liverpool pounded Leicester and has the league by the throat. My prediction for Everton is on schedule. Chelsea sucked eggs. Spuds won without their fans getting all racist. And ManUre looked actually good for a change. There were other games, but nothing exciting. More games today. And tomorrow. And Sunday. With many teams playing on just two days rest, which is criminal.
This didn’t happen once…against Louisiana Tech?
The Miami Hurricanes have reached rock-bottom as a football school. They haven’t been the same since the Buckeyes wrecked their dominance in the 2002 National Championship game. Let’s hope the Buckeyes recapture that magic in the desert tomorrow night. I’m nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof about the game. Elsewhere, Pitt managed to recapture a bit of honor for the ACC by barely beating…a 6-6 Eastern Michigan team. Pitiful. Just pitiful. Also, no hockey for a second day in a row. You gotta get that fixed, NHL.
Astronomer Johannes Kepler was born on this day. So were milk ruiner Louis Pasteur (just kidding, kinda), Canadian steel magnate Cyrus Eaton, lovely actress Marlene Dietrich, actor John Amos, rocker Mick Jones, French actor and sexual deviant Gerard Depardieu, wrestler and (shouldn’t have been a ) playboy pictorial girl Chyna, and NFL flop Carson Palmer.
Chyna.
Look, I’m not one to give advice, but don’t go looking for that Chyna playboy pictorial. You’ll be racing off to an Arby’s, and they’re not open yet. Instead, stick around and comment in…the links!
The stock market gave a lot of people a late Christmas gift. Look for it to keep rolling too. And look for politicians to keep taking credit.
Now Chicagoans have Indiana to blame for something else. And I’m sure they will. And in this case, I’m curious why it took so long for the guy to be arrested. Looks like they had plenty of evidence a few weeks ago.
I wonder what she was carrying, and I sure hope it wasn’t contagious. I’m also certain Trump will be blamed.
Do parents not inspect these places before leaving their kids there five days a week? Seriously, they’d have to be clueless or way too trusting in a stranger.
I’m wondering if this could be the solution rather than the problem.
Apparently there are even millionaire 1%ers ruining California…from beyond the grave. Also, those things ain’t got shit on the ones in south and west Texas.
So much for “stop, look, and listen”. Oh well, I’m sure its nothing a little extra training (at time and a half, obviously) can’t fix. Also, I’m glad the story lets us know the important person went home safely…and it’s no shock they refuse to give his name.
Here’s a lovely tune from an underrated band. Hope you enjoy it.
Well, that’s it for me. The next post by me will hopefully be crowing about the game Saturday night. But see my comment above. I’m cautiously optimistic…but nervous as hell. Of course I always am. But I digress. Have a good day, friends. And a great weekend!
Nudity very rarely benefits somebody who looks grotesque in clothes.
Not that there’s anything wrong with being attracted to roided up bodybuilder chicks, if that’s your thing…
I may have been confusing her for Hope Solo with the roast beef tie-in. I’m thinking Chyna might have been the one with the micropenis instead.
Having seen the Chyna pics once upon a time, you guys are triggering my PTSD.
*pops a Valium*
I either haven’t seen the pics or repressed the memory. Either way I plan to keep it that way.
Chyna used to go to my Starbucks for awhile. She had a yappy dog.
Some have a ham wallet, others have a roast beef hoagie, and some have barber’s pole dressed in a meaty wedding dress.
I’ll stick with the ham, but to each their own.
She was a great guest on Howard Stern a couple times. RIP
FYI the California and day care links are the same
It’s an analogy.
I was seeing if anybody paid attention. Leon gets a gold star. And the rest of you get a corrected link.
“Leon gets a gold star.”
That’s how you get people hiding behind false walls.
There was a day care story hiding behind that wall.
Maybe the facility on the public side of the fake wall was nice.
I miss our bi-weekly “global pandemics are the price we pay for a civilized society with freedom of movement” arguments over at the old place. (not actually though)
What’s a little hemmoragic fever between frenemies?
That one was up there with forced vaccinations because viruses don’t respect privacy.
You need the forced vaccinations to prevent the outbreaks of random third-world diseases from the proud new Americans wandering across the borders.
I’m wondering why she was coming through Mexico to seek asylum when we have CBP stations at international airports that can accept asylum seekers.
It almost seems as if she was trying to sneak in.
Check your 1%er link. It’s a duplicate of the daycare link.
Yes. I read the links.
Sometimes.
You get a gold star too!
It’s fixed…like California’s homeless problem could be fixed by these hogs.
In North Texas, a 200 pounder is moderately large, but 300 pounds isn’t at all unusual. I think they get even bigger on South/East Texas.
Uffda. A 200 pounder is a big gal here. 300 lb is huge. And our preferred method of measurements is in axe handles measured across the ass. My guess is that even a 200 lb-er is going to be an axe handle and a half.
You Texans really do like the big stuff.
That day care lady had a permit that only allowed 6 kids. SIX! No wonder she cheated the rules.
The parents have been lead to believe that the government is taking care of it. Through having a permit process and occasional (maybe?) inspections why would the parents need to worry? Just lay back and let the government take care of all that due diligence. Turn your brain off and keep paying the taxes.
I get the impression it’s just a normal daycare with a normal amount of kids, but the permit says 6. When the man shows up they hide the overage until the coast is clear.
I’m going with “normal” meaning it looked like a normal daycare until you stumble into the fake wall…
If she only had two other workers and she was setup for infants six is a feasible number.
My snark was to point out that regardless of how many rules / regulations / inspections take place shitty things will happen. You shouldn’t depend on some low level bureaucrat to make sure things are being done properly.
You should hear the stories about home daycares.
The obvious solution is to reduce the maximum number of children allowed at a daycare to 4.
Nobody needs an assault daycare
I should have gone with a “High-Capacity Daycare”
*hands head in shame*
Daycare with that wall thingy that goes up?
The thingy that goes up is a feature at OMWC’s daycare.
The thingy that goes up is a
featurepunishment, source of nightmares, and cause of future therapy bills at OMWC’s daycare.assault daycare
Almost as problematic as “scary black daycare”
In case nobody has mentioned it, the daycare and the California links are the same.
Just sayin’
Stop living in the past, Scruffy!
Can’t help it, the drugs just fell out of my ass.
They should engrave “Trump was impeached – for real this time!” On that guys gravestone.
“
So much for “stop, look, and listen”. Oh well, I’m sure its nothing a little extra training (at time and a half, obviously) can’t fix. Also, I’m glad the story lets us know the important person went home safely…and it’s no shock they refuse to give his name”
Isn’t this the same department covering up that their cops made up claims for a drug raid that killed two people?
Houston sounds like a real Shithole.
All that shit was creeping north to our neck of the woods, so we moved a couple weeks ago out to Lake Conroe.
The police chief is a real asshole, that’s established.
Yeah, he had his cops murder someone passed out drunk in the back seat of their own car. Then defended said cop.
He also blamed the NRA for a couple of his cops getting shot in a no-knock drug raid. And blamed nobody when they killed a woman with a shotgun who the cops killed when they went to serve a warrant on a guy who was already sitting in a jail cell.
He’s a prick.
Pretty sure we got them beat. Remember the guy who killed some cop’s family member. During the man hunt, the guards posted at a cop’s house peppered the newspaper delivery ladies with bullets.
right here
Not to mention they mistook his full-size Ford truck for a midsize Toyota and they weren’t even the same color.
IIRC, those cops received additional training (at time and a half, I’m sure) and those women received several million taxpayer dollars.
That whole a Christopher Dorner thing was a shitshow of incompetence. The accusations he made which he blamed for his rampage were never investigated and reported on either.
I’m not advocating anything, just pointing out that in a more civilized time the sheriff would be tarred, feathered and possibly located near a lamppost.
He’s not a Sheriff, he’s an unelected Police Chief. How he keeps failing upwards is a mystery to me, since he’s a non-politician. He must have excellent blackmail material.
So you’re saying the mayor/commissioner should be colocated with him?
Well, that would go without saying obviously.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES…ZARDOZ DOES MISS THE GOOD OLD CLEANSING DAYS.
ZARDOZ IS SUDDENLY … DISCOMFITED. DO ANY OF THE CHOSEN ONES FEEL A CHILL?
ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
A big improvement in their shooting skills, at least this guy wasn’t killed. OTOH, maybe the shooting skills have deteriorated because the guy wasn’t killed.
I go with the latter. Can’t believe cops afeared for their lives weren’t shooting to kill. Probably mag dumped at five yards and only winged him.
Looking over straff’s post last night and he won the thread with just his author bio. hilarious.
Lowercase letters turned out to be a capital idea!
What am I? Chopped liver?
If you are, then you’re also false advertizing. Bacon is supposed to be pork belly, not liver.
^
First rate trolling.
Pftttt. That post last night is bullshit.
I didn’t get my legitimate first .gif.
straffin then art shamed me.
I didn’t get a participation trophy, despite the fact that I made three attempts.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/1GG8sb7cTz6Ne0wabE_WNQ.MgotEv81XbI6crSbFVa7XN
Then I think he impugned my avatar.
Here’s what I think of last night’s post: Blow me.
?
We turned on the Miami-La Tech and it was 7-0. I thought it was 4th down and then realized it was the 4th quarter. Yikes.
I hope y’all have a wonderful day. I’m crushing it. And by crushing it I’m trying to get through the day.
I knew a guy in college who racked up several grand in phone bills because his girlfriend went back to Thailand for the summer and he just couldn’t not call her each day. It was sad, really.
Remember how expensive phone calls used to be? I used to hate phone booths. They had banks of them. Half were broken and you had to figure out which ones were before you ran out of change. Arbitrary lines would result in long distance charges. Two blocks over and you’d have to keep dropping coins to talk. Hated that shit.
I can still find payphones in the wild.
Though they may be feral phones, we can’t be sure.
No pay phones here, they won’t accept ECB cards. And too cold to stand outside making a call.
I still remember the parents setting up ring codes to come get picked up, or using the Collect call system to leave a message.
Oh yeah. “Let it ring twice. Call again and let it ring three times. Then call again and let it ring twice. And I’ll be there to get you in 20 minutes.”
The collect call scheme was better though. Especially once it got automated.
“This is a collect call from COME PICK ME UP AT 1311 SYCAMORE STREET IN CENTERVILLE. Do you accept the charges?”
I miss the days of phreaking, when technology didn’t require a battalion of Russians to exploit.
When everything was just based on tones.
+1 Captain Crunch
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Draper
May I recommend “Blowing Up the Phone” by Phil Lapsley?
Yes, you may.
I will recommend The Cuckoo’s Egg by Clifford Stoll in return.
Phil lived down the street from me when I was a kid. His dad was a professor at Berkeley. We used to blow stuff up in his yard with stuff from the chem lab. I think he got busted by the FBI for dinner phone card hacking he did.
hahaha, I remember doing that with collect calls to my parents!
Back in those days every phone number, including pay phones, in our little town had the same three number prefix. You could call using a pay phone and the second it was answered, shout the last four numbers and immediately hang up, and you’d get your dime back. Then your parents would call the pay phone using the standard prefix followed by the numbers you shouted. Worked every time.
Oh-oh, I’ve been outed.
In the halcyon early days of the internet (1996), lonely young me befriended online a rather beautiful young lady in Vancouver and we convinced ourselves we were in love. I think I ended up with an $800 phone bill for just one month.
Did the “young lady” have a deep raspy voice and want to meet you after school?
But she didn’t like spiders and snakes, right?
Not at all. I actually flew out to Vancouver to meet in person and…..nothing happened. She was quite attractive, though. Later became an actual Communist, which would have killed things between us had we already not drifted apart.
I remember being a kid and dating a girl a town away but not in the same local calling area. That shit lasted one telephone billing cycle before mom and dad nearly chopped my balls off.
Stupid Cincinnati Bell.
My bee partner got hit with a $400 bill. His teenage son denied making the 900 number calls to DomRep.
At the bank we had a guy come in claiming Fraudulent charge on his account to some porn site. When the banker was about to file the report she asked him again and he greased up that the charge was valid.
Smithfield Foods, being a large corporation, had telephone bills in the tens of thousands of dollars each month back in the 90’s. Someone in accounting noticed that their bill had been averaging about ten thousand higher for a few month so they tracked it back to an extension and put a camera over it. Turns out the night security guard was calling 976 numbers and yanking it for hours on end each night.
I felt bad for the guy whose desk it was.
Same thing happened to me. I was dating a girl who lived a mile away but across state lines. I had my own phone line (for the modem!) and broke up with her after the first bill came in that I was on the hook for.
Why didn’t you just FaceTime her or use Facebook messenger?
/Some kid today
a mind-boggling $235,000 today.
NO!
Today that charge would be $0. Think about that you punk kids. You can call anywhere today for nothing, something that only millionaires could do a 90 years ago. Don’t tell me how bad you have it anymore.
Your cane, sir. Would you care for a belt onion, as well?
Thank you for the offer good sir, but I will pass on that as I find it hinders my efforts when yelling at passing clouds.
Clouds today just don’t pass the same way they used to.
Oh god, I had to go to my local suburban YMCA this week since I wasn’t working in the office downtown. 6:30 AM suburban YMCA locker room conversations make me realize that the Simpsons where underselling this joke.
+1 old dude talking loudly while powdering his ballsack with a pound of baby powder
You might think those are hand-dryers, but they are in fact “pendulus testicle dryers”.
Old dudes should really have their own locker room. I guess it’s admirable that they are so comfortable with their bodies, but no one should have to see some fat old dude using a hair dryer on his balls.
I’m more amused at the kids nowadays who will absolutely not be seen naked in the locker room. Slipping their grundies on under the towel lest anyone see them. Of course, they are libertines compared to the dudes who don’t even bother to shower and drive home sweaty and grungy.
Personally I aspire to be one of those old guys in the locker room.
In the old days, we used to sneak into the Minneapolis Athletic Club and the old codgers in there were awesome.
The coots in the MAC were still mad that they accepted women members because it meant they had to wear a swim suit when they used the pool.
Of course, they are libertines compared to the dudes who don’t even bother to shower and drive home sweaty and grungy.
I live 5 min away from the Gym. Why would I bother risk n-many kinds of diseases and fungi in a public shower, get wet, hop into a freezing car and freeze my nuts off, when i could just hop into my own shower at home?
I sometimes take a shower at the gym that’s 45 minutes long with water hot enough to burn the bristles off a pig’s hide. My water heater repel firepower of that magnitude.
And for the record, i have no qualms about public showers per se. I have often been told that i am too comfortable with myself, but I really don’t care. If my suave and lithe naked body make you question your masculinity, that is your problem.
NOT STEVE SMITH PROBLEM AT ALL!
Supposedly, these imported boars were never domesticated wild variety.
Now there are people who insist that once a species has passed through a period of domestication, it can never again be regarded as ‘wild’, just ‘feral’, so what about when you have a population that has both feral and wild ancestors? Do you apply the wildlife one drop rule and declare them ever feral? Or can once-domesticated ‘feral’ populations eventually claim the ‘wild’ title again?
A proper eugenicist would use the one-drop rule, always.
Checks in with STEVE SMITH
I wondered thIs about feral horses. Most of these horses are born in the wild and have been for a long time. At what point do they just become wild horses?
When they can drag you away?
*applause*
Do you think we’ll rode them someday?
“Feral” and “Wild” are just social constructs. They can be ignored. But they can be ignored because (as far as I understand it) they are pretty arbitrary, not because they are social constructs.
The question should be how do the pigs identify?
Well, in this case, it’s not really a matter of crossing from “feral” into “wild.” As swine aren’t native to North America, they can only cross from “feral” into “invasive.”
::edit fairy flutters by::
*swine. Edit fairy?
Invasive isn’t a category that is mutually exclusive with feral and wild.
It’s not even a category I recognize. The same destructiveness people attribute to invasive species can be seen in underculled populations of whitettails for example. It’s simply a measure of how long a species has been in a given geographic area, since all species are imports on a long enough timeline.
Okay “not a category I recognize” isn’t completely accurate. But it is a loaded term that is less than useful
Yes, that’s exactly right. Biology is a field with very few hard boundaries; even “species” isn’t immutable.
When you realize at its most basic level, life is just an extraordinarily complex chemical reaction, things get a bit trippy. We are self-aware chemical reactions.
https://xkcd.com/435/
Math is a lie.
Only to you silly people who want numbers to have a finite number of digits in base 10.
Born to be feral doesn’t have the same ring to it though.
It describes my kids well, though.
Never, because there were no horses here before they walked off a ship. Like hogs, they are an invasive species.
My understanding – wild is used more for native species, feral for formerly domesticated/invasive species. Although Texas also now has free-ranging African antelopes that nobody hangs either label on, really. I suspect feral is mostly used for omnivores and carnivores that didn’t used live here until someone imported them, since nobody refers to feral horses, only wild ones.
Untrue.
There were horses in the Americas before ships. They just died out. Bringing in old world horses was correcting nature’s mistake.
And “Invasive Species” is neither a useful deisgnation nor mutually exclusive with wild or feral.
Yeah, I think I talked my around to that by the end of my comment.
Well, let’s be clear about one thing: “Nature” doesn’t make mistakes, because nature has no intent. Things just happen. Equids in North America died out about 12,000 years ago, along with a lot of other Ice Age fauna. Nobody knows exactly why.
The horses brought in by Europeans were introduced into biomes that had known no horses for over ten thousand years.
You’re taking that remark more seriously than it was intended.
Agnostic pedant mode activated: Prove that Nature has no intent.
Equal time compliance: Someone prove that nature has a plan.
I’m gonna stick out here between my chairs being uncertain whether to capitalize the Nns.
setIgnore(“Jarflax Request”, true);
error32 coding glove not detected.
Error34 love glove detected
Horses evolved in North America.
Point of order. The California boars were imported from North Caroline where Moore had a game preserve for a dozen years before and were already hybridizing with feral pigs.
Cuomo Vetoes Overwhelmingly Popular Bill to Legalize E-Bikes
The people will stay where they are they will like it. You wanna move around? Either a cab or a “zero emission” light train, dammit.
Bikes are individualistic forms of transportation and so will need to be destroyed
I seem to remember the Duke of Wellington saying something about his disapproval of railroads, claiming that they “enabled the lower classes to travel about too freely.”
He didn’t claim to be a champion of the lower classes. He was openly and honestly defending a class structure with his class on top. I vastly prefer the aristocratic version of this to the socialist one. It kills fewer people for one thing.
Plus he knows that e-bikes are popular among Trump voters and he can’t in good conscience sign something that would help Trump.
Really? I would have guessed the opposite.
I laffed.
I can go either way on this one. First, I see no visible signs of any “crackdown” – they’re fucking everywhere. And like bicyclists they ignore every traffic rule, blowing lights, riding on sidewalks, etc. Crack down on that and you can have my support.
What’s sad is there are already laws on the books outlawing those things. But rather than simply enforce them, they want more laws.
So now they’ll have laws on top of laws on top of laws with the benefit of being able to enforce them at their leisure based on the sassiness of the offender, or the color of their skin and the level of racism the cops have…which is usually a lot.
What did the driver strike her with? A Brick? A tire iron? And how annoying was she being on the scooter, was it enough to justify a beat down?
“You don’t need freedom. I know what’s best for you. Now shut the fuck up and do what I say or I’ll have the cops kill you.”
I’d love to see NYC call themselves a “motorized scooter sanctuary city” and kick the boogaloo into high gear.
Scooter Sanctuary 2: e-Bike Boogaloo
That which is not expressly permitted is forbidden.
FYI, this is only one type of e-bike — the sort that is effectively an electric motorcycle. Traditional ebikes don’t have throttles but have electric assist for when it senses you’re climbing a hill or something. As much as I hate those it’s inevitable they are going to be snuck in, probably under guise of the ADA (which rivals only the Commerce Clause for fewest number of words which fucks things up the most).
As a mountain biker I consider ebikes to be cheating, although I’ve stopped saying anything since I’m tired of being shouted down by the PC types who accuse you of harshing on old people (of whom I arguably am one) and people paralyzed in bike accidents.
I envision a nightmare scenario of losing yet another lane on major roads for these things. A “bike” lane for human-powered vehicles, a “slow” lane for ebikes and other low-speed electric vehicles.
There is a couple of guys in a close community that have somehow rigged small two cycle engines (guessing chainsaw) to their bikes. Less than 50cc and it is unregulated here. I appreciate their ingenuity and chuckle anytime I hear them coming down the road which is at a distance of about a mile. They are on the loud side of the decibel scale.
I hear that shit or something similar all day every day here in NYC. It does not make me chuckle.
I hear it maybe once a month. Two guys in a community of just under 20,000 residents. If they were rampant people would be batting them off their bikes from the sidewalks.
Yeah, you can get convo kits for that. They are annoying since they don’t have even the minimal mufflerage of a scooter or purpose-built moped.
Most state laws don’t regulate motorcycles (or motorized bicycles) under a certain engine limit. A lot of scooters which should have to be licensed under the law are operated illegally since that’s hard for roadside enforcement. “I don’t know how big my motor is.” Scooter manufacturers do not prominently print the engine size on those things, unlike proper motorcycles.
I did not know that thanks! I have an old Trek hardtail that would be a good conversion candidate. Says here they get 100-150 mpg so you haters are ignoring those guys are helping the environment!
GAH! There are a bunch of those in NE Philly. I hate them. The morons get drunk and rip thru neighborhoods at 2am during the summer. Every time I’m there, I dream of them getting plowed over by a large truck.
Ya, I am going with NAP violation on that one.
Land of (rapidly) diminishing returns
William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Friday’s findings follow a trend that demographers have seen over several years. While California has always seen domestic outmigration — people moving to other states — the rate has grown over the last decade.
“For some years after the Great Recession housing crunch, California was losing domestic migrants — but not as much as it could have. Now that’s starting to push up again,” Frey said.
The most common destinations for those leaving the state were Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington, he said, as the economy has picked up throughout the west and other parts of the country. Aside from a lower cost of living, some Californians are drawn to areas with no state income tax.
——-
“California was the place, the big destination, for people around the country and around the world,” he said. “It’s lost its luster a little bit. The question is whether it’s short term or long term. I think the jury is still out. To me, it’s kind of a stunner to see that California is losing migrants. The land of dreams and the gold rush and all that, now turned the other direction.”
Frey said the decline in growth could have implications during the 2020 census count and the ensuing apportionment that is based on census figures.
“It’s something to be concerned about,” he said. “California could be on the cusp of losing a seat if it doesn’t show up with a decent count.”
Oh, horror. Lose a voice for the Party of Grift, in Washington? That would be a tragedy.
The people who are fleeing California are not some sort of hard core leftist fifth column. They are, too be sure, not exactly rabid Constitutionalists, but for the most part, they are the fed up conservative fringe of the Californian political spectrum. They do, unfortunately, have higher imgrained expectations of what the government should be doing.
” To me, it’s kind of a stunner to see that California is losing migrants. The land of dreams and the gold rush and all that, now turned the other direction.” It’s a stunner, alright.
Amazing how streets encrusted with sleeping winos, feces and used needles will have that effect.
“California could be on the cusp of losing a seat if it doesn’t show up with a decent count.”
The count will be just fine. Don’t worry. It might not be accurate, but it’ll get the necessary job done.
+1,000,000 illegal aliens
Makes me think about the citizenship question.
It’s funny to me that we are supposed to think the best things about Dem proposals but assume the worst motives for GOP ones. I’m sure the questions addition was about limiting the count in California. But why not be cynical about Dems.
This is what gets me crazy about the team politics. The unthinking masses start to actually believe they are good and the other side is evil.
Obama’s stimulus just happened to handout cash to blue states and districts. It certainly wasn’t a raiding of the treasury.
I have always thought Census districts should be based on citizens, not residents, or even adult citizens.
You mean congressional districts, right?
Yes, but state districts too. I meant voting districts based on the census.
“for the most part, they are the fed up conservative fringe of the Californian political spectrum”
Anecdotally, they don’t vote like it once they relocate. I would love to see some data, but I suspect CO didn’t go blue, and AZ didn’t elect a blue Senator, in spite of Californian expatriates,
Bluer than Arizona can still be the conservative fringe of California.
Consider the last GOP governor, for example.
They appear to be voting their biggov ideology/Overton Window, rather than on a (presumed) Repub party line. Or they are biggov Dems. Either way, any significant in-migration from CA will turn your red/purple state blue and pave the way for radical proggy nonsense.
Some data would be nice, but I doubt anyone is even gathering it, other, perhaps, than Dem operatives who are not going to publish it.
I’m suspicious of all of that. Los Angeles is made up of almost entirely transplants from other places. I’m pretty sure your state’s rejects turned us blue. People leave here to get relief. The Kool aide drinkers are happy with this shit and mostly stay.
Los Angeles is made up of almost entirely transplants from other places.
Some foreign, some domestic.
I’ve been tossing back and forth on whether it’s a demographic change or an imported leftism change… I lived in a solid red district in Dallas that flipped blue in the last election. What changed in the 5 years I lived there? State Farm moved its HQ down the street (Illinois refugees), Toyota moved its US HQ up the road (California refugees), and a number of other California companies opened up major offices in the area.
Alternately, most of the farmland, rural living, and small towns were swallowed up by row after row of the same 5 models of McMansion, all tightly controlled by HOAs.
The parents have been lead to believe that the government is taking care of it. Through having a permit process and occasional (maybe?) inspections why would the parents need to worry? Just lay back and let the government take care of all that due diligence. Turn your brain off and keep paying the taxes.
Exactly.
Amazing how streets encrusted with sleeping winos, feces and used needles will have that effect.
There is probably less of that in Cairo, or Nairobi. In the better parts of town, anyway.
If England had a winter break like real leagues, there wouldn’t be scheduling problems.
Their winter break sucks. They give half the teams a week off Feb 8 and the other half the week off Feb 15th. And this is the first year that shitty break has been implemented.
If you want time off, lose early in the fa cup, then you get a break every 3 weeks for a while.
1. Who needs a winter break?
2. That would make scheduling worse, as there would be more midweek games necessary.
The way they pile on the games around Christmas, I don’t begrudge them a winter break. I didn’t expect it would come in February, though.
That’s what 18-team leagues are for. But they don’t want to give up the money of the extra two home games.
They already cut from 22 to 20.
Those “real leagues” that put out a consistently inferior product to the EPL?
The Bundesliga is the only league that even comes close In terms of quality.
I wouldn’t put Liga and Serie A in ‘quotes’.
DON’T ANY OF YOU WORK!??!
Nobody is working today. I think we have less people here than on Monday.
NoDaks invented Tinder.
The actual picture that the story goes on and on about, but tries to force you to watch a video to see.
The barn dance bit is true….
When my wife’s grandfather passed away, they gathered the entire family. At one point the group kinda moved away and left grandma alone, so I sat down next to her and asked how she met her husband.
She was 89 at the time.
Well, she said, we used to go to the dance at the barn every Friday night. And Harvey was older… he was the only man in the county with a car. (this was around 1920) “I saw him and I said, ‘I’m gonna catch him!'”.
She told me that what they used to do at the dances was dance and flirt and then if you found a boy you liked, you’d sneak off into the woods behind the barn. She was one of 11 sisters. Her eyes lit up as she told me “I was never the pretty one……. but I was the FUN one!”
She got her man, and they stayed married for some 70 years.
So score one for the Barn Dance and the woods out behind the barn.
Growing up, there was a bar in Ottertail, MN that would have a “teens night” every Wednesday during the summer. Gobs of kids would pile in from all over (it was a 45 minute drive for us) just so you could meet other teens. The bar only served sodas there and the security was pretty tight so the trick was to get drunk in a park a few miles away then go to the bar to hit on gals.
Good times.
You didn’t invent that, Young Man
Didn’t claim to invent it. Was just reminiscing about good times.
The economy is strong because of Obama!
Now for some local politics. I’m interested in Ben McAdams UT4 seat. He voted for impeachment. His last election where he unsteated Mia Love was one by less than 700 votes. I’m curious to see what happens this time around.
Uffda. Here’s your uplifting holiday story.
I guess that those kids behind that fake wall could have had it far worse.
Sovereign immunity has no place in a free peoples
Honestly, I’m surprised that sovereign/qualified/prosecutorial/judicial immunity is still possible in states with large deer hunting populations. I thought for sure that judge in PA who sent a bunch of innocent kids to juvie for the kickbacks was going to get plugged by some Fudd with deer rifle. But humanity keeps finding ways to let me down.
He should have been strung up in the town square.
By his shriveled testes
You are right about Miami’s football program…. but that 2002 title comes with a big asterisk. So big, you can’t actually see the trophy behind it.
And this from a disinterested 3rd party.
As another disinterested 3rd party, I think it was a good call, but the flag was damn late. I agree about the asterisk for that reason alone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLqrAcQuqVo
Through the magic of modern technology, folks can judge for themselves.
Oh boy. Here we go.
They called Gamble out of bounds on a catch for a first down he made with two minutes left. He was both interfered with and inbounds. They get that call right and the game never goes to overtime because Krenzel takes a knee three times and they run the clock out.
Well, if you wanna go by the rules, they could have enforced the NCAA recruiting rules and neither team would have been eligible!
#MikeDrop
#SourGrapes
#SoIsYourMother
Not to mention it was obviously a good PI call.
Thanks to everyone who gave me advice yesterday re: sighting issues.
It’s not resolved yet, but I think the root cause is most likely me being sloppy with centering the front post (vertically) using the large aperture. A bore laser indicates that the sight line and the bore are convergent. I’ve ordered a sight adjustment tool, since my front post is too shittily designed for a bullet tip to work (though I’ve adjusted it down as far as I can with a pair of precision pliers). Tomorrow I’ll head out to the range with some wrapping paper and a few hundred rounds and see if things have improved any.
Anecdotally, they don’t vote like it once they relocate. I would love to see some data, but I suspect CO didn’t go blue, and AZ didn’t elect a blue Senator, in spite of Californian expatriates,
In an article about Boise, not long ago, the point was made (alleged) that the majority of Californians relocating to the Boise area call themselves Republicans. There is a lot of daylight between a California Republican and a “free stater” but I don’t think it’s necessary or productive to accuse them of being Chavistas.
As I said above, they undeniably have baseline expectations which lead them to want more in terms of government “services” than states like Idaho and Montana have traditionally provided.
My mom once bitched after we left Boise that “they don’t even have kindergarten”. I’m sure that’s been “fixed” but I do wonder what “services” Idaho doesn’t provide that California does, and would be missed by a typical refugee from California.
Hi Sloop! Thanks for the lynx, especially the GP song.
I also loved their first iteration.
Best of luck to your team. Our Gilded Rodents actually have a big-boy bowl game on NYD. Shocking, really.
Have a great Friday, y’all!
It does seem strange that the Golden Rodents haven’t already played their Participant Trophy Bowl game.
Good morning!
I’m happy to see Minnesoda in a high profile game. I’m not happy to see Penn State poach their OC/QB coach.
He nearly left a couple times already. It always happens when a team has a good year.
Anyone catch this line in the daycare article, “But one of the officers noticed a large stack of children’s backpacks in a closet.” How does one notice something behind a closed door?
Backpack sniffing dog?
Door was open?
They opened the door? Which they are probably allowed to do under the terms of inspection.
Then it’s the decline of journalism? I’m just saying that if they have permission to search then they don’t need to notice anything, they can find it. That’s how I would describe what happened. It sounds to me that the article gets clearance from the Police before it can be published.
Math is a lie
Without math you couldn’t answer any of the Big Questions. Like how long would it take to zamboni Lake Superior? (they also list the Zamboni times for the other Lesser Lakes)
*693 years for those of you too lazy to read the original material.
Someone needs to build a bigger zamboni.
Or a faster one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVvLXnuvcg0
Wouldn’t the zamboni fall through the ice well before then?
not in an ice age
We are still in the tail end of an ice age.
now we are in an interglacial period
No kidding? I’d be interested in reading more about how they figure that. Got any links for a layperson?
Probably something off the wall like how they count inauguration day crowds: count the legs and divide by two.
Well that explains why the Victims of IED’s Alliance doesn’t have half the clout you think it would.
layperson
*Turns Male Gaze of Sauron on GT*
Hey baby!
I asked for that. No, really – “Dear Santa…” : )
So I finally so the witcher and it is well not good.
I watched a couple of episodes and so far am unimpressed. I’ve heard it picks up though.
it looks cheesy to me and I don’t like the fight scenes. Also the witch has smallish tits, Q would be disappoint.
I enjoyed it. 1st and 4th episodes were a bit annoying but the rest was good. I’ve only played the game though. So fans of the books might not like it.
i did neither. Also the magic was a bit silly and I did not get the rules
That’s an important observation….
If you are going to write an alternate reality with some form of magic, there have to be rules, and they have to be consistent. There’s suspension of disbelief, and then there’s a hot mess.
“Lost” came under the heading of hot mess, because they didn’t have rules or consistency. L.E. Modessitt was readable even though his writing is simple and repetitive because his worlds have magic that follows rules and has costs. And they are consistent, so you don’t get unfair twists in the story.
-1 Modulation of the main deflector shield
+1 reverse the polarity
Yes on both counts. Stupid lazy writing deus ex machina…..
Hey, I’ve written myself into a corner here……
…. just have them modulate the shield frequency.
+1 MIDI-Cloroxian Immaculate Conception
That bothered me more than Jar-Jar Binks.
Did Qui-Gon not catch on to the fact that Annakin’s mom was just a skanky ho who was so hoped up on drugs all the time that she just didn’t know who had sired the little bastard? Because either that’s what happened or she was trying to play herself off as wholesome so he’d sleep with her and take her away from that (space-Jew caricature) conman who had her as a slave.
It was a bunch of hand-waving from Lucas. I thought it was lazy and uninspired.
As handwaving that was totally pointless. There was no mystery that needed to be solved. Kid of unknown ancestry has potential super powers that are rare but known to exist in the story world, no further explanation needed. I think it was that Lucas had read somewhere that Christ images are a literary device and nailed as big obvious one onto his creation.
Man of Steel used blatant Christ imagery.
I watched the first 3 eps and this is something I noticed as well; if I hadn’t played the games I wouldn’t have understood that he drank a mutegin to fight the Strigga, because it wasn’t mentioned, and when he started using magic that wasn’t explained either, he just did them.
It gets better as it wears on. The real problem with it is the lack of explanation of the different timelines. I was confused for the first four episodes.
They could do better with establishing the rationale of magic though.
Some got better some not. one magic had a high cost, most others seem to have no cost at all. I don’t know what the basis is, how it works, how it can be used, how powerful, what are the downsides etc.
I think watching hema channels made me enjoy battles less. In the firs episode when the knight were charging drawing swords, all I was thinking was where are your lances?
I do that with John Wick movies. Firing ARs and shotguns inside cement tunnels without earpro? Are you shitting me?
We all have a point at which our suspension of disbelief is busted.
John Wick – no prob. The whole thing is basically a comic book, and is fun, so I set my suspension of disbelief close to the max.
Weirdly, Star Wars is also basically a comic book, but routinely wrecks my suspension of disbelief.
Anachronisms are an Achilles heel of mine. To the point where Keira Knightley, for example, in a historical movie is almost a non-starter. Yummy as she is, she just oozes modern attitudes and sensibilities.
Oh, John Wick is absolutely a comic book movie.
I think what bugs me is when something takes such care to be “real” and then does something completely wrong. So in JW, the setting/society/economics are all laughably “unrealistic,” but they are self-consistent. But when they spend so much time fetishizing the guns, and sending Keanu to Tarran Tactical to make him able to actually shoot, keep track of the number of shots fired before reloading, but then disregard “gun are loud,” that grates on me.
Ditto The Punisher deciding to go into a fight against multiple opponents carrying a pair of single-stack 1911s.
Or “Three Body Problem,” where they make such an effort to be “hard” sci-fi, but the plot hinges on the sun being a magical radio amplifier.
I have always thought Census districts should be based on citizens, not residents, or even adult citizens.
To be honest, it never occurred to me that non-citizens would be included in the census numbers. Why would non-citizens require representation in Congress?
Stop laughing!
Blame Slavery and the southern states.
No seriously that is the reason.
This^^.
I find it funny whenever someone criticizes the 3/5ths doctrine, because it would have been 0/5ths without the slave states pushing for them to count.
The census should count all citizens and legal residents. That’s it, in my opinion.
“The people” should consist of only people with a legal right to be here.
I know this will be contentious, but that’s my belief. Also, I say that as someone who supports open borders once we completely dismantle the welfare state in all its iterations.
How about tourists and exchange students? Shouldn’t they be able to have Congressional representation long after they’ve returned to Japan or Europe or wherever?
What the heck, out of town students at the local university were able to elect my state rep who we are now burdened with.
It is funny that we count people here illegally or temporarily, but Mormon Missionaries who are temporarily out of the country don’t count.
I’m not saying they should, but i am saying that the rules should be consistent.
Consistency does not allow for advances in political skullduggery and other technical marvels of the political science field.
Yeah, there’s a reason college towns are leftist hotbeds.
Because the congressman also theoretically represents the interests of non-voters in his district — children, legal immigrants, non-voting citizens.
Maybe the census should count everyone. And then we should apportion representation to citizens.
That makes sense to me. If the census were only used for representation it would be one thing, but it’s used for a whole bunch of crap having to do with social services, non-governmental social science stuff, etc. It’s useful to know how many people live where and what, broadly, they’re like. BUT, you also have to know who’s a citizen or not, because in a roundabout way you’re using those numbers to decide how power is distributed in our government. That right does not belong to non-citizens. I think it could be argued that it doesn’t belong to non-voters, either.
You mean all the unconstitutional stuff?
Oh shush you. The federal government certainly doesn’t perform an end-run around its constitutional limitations by attaching strings to money directed towards the states.
-1 Elizabeth Dole
reading Gordon Moore’s Caltech 1953 PhD thesis, where he figures out the structure of nitrogenous molecules using infrared. the whole thing ends on this amazing suggestion for the field of chemistry:
https://twitter.com/rivatez/status/1210397151303553024
Excellent idea. Looking forward to this new show on the Science Channel in the new year.
In the 1960’s my dad was working on nitrogenous molecules for rocket fuel. Tri-Nitro-Toluene has three nitrogen and is very explosive. He was working on synthesizing tri-cyclic nitrogen compounds with rings composed only of nitrogen molecules. Extremely explosive. Extremely unstable.
He tells the story of working behind a big metal and glass shield wall using robotic arms. One day, he takes a filter paper with his precipitate and sets it on a ring stand to dry. The higher-ups come in to talk about the project and as they are all standing there talking, there is a huge boom. When their eyes clear from the flash, they are standing in the middle of a field next to the shield wall. The building is …. gone.
That was from a tiny amount on a little filter paper.
It eventually became the fuel for the Shrike anti-missile missile. Basically a bomb with a warhead on the front. Hey, if you want to go from zero to mach 3 in under a tenth of a second….
He never slept well because of that job. You definitely weren’t sneaking out of the house with my dad. Rolling over in bed at 3:00 might get a “stop all that ruckus!”
But your dad had the funniest cigarette loads in the neighborhood, right?
*I remember thinking that there was nothing funnier than slipping a cigarette load into some adult’s smoke and watching them nearly die of fright when it exploded
Odd intersection of references….
That’s how I got my dad to quit smoking some 30 or 40 years ago. I kept loading his cigarettes with onion and peppers.
Apparently, that is nasty and quite memorable. It only took a few hits and he was done with cigarettes for life.
While I agree that teaching high school kids how to blow things up would lead to more chemists, I worry about the “unforeseen” shortage of ditch diggers.
Roll call!
Got to figure out who is missing because of their recent scrape with the law.
This robbery did not go according to plan.
I beg to differ.
No. The journalo got it right. It didn’t go according to plan, it went even better than planned!
Add some whiskers and it looks like the guy in Sean’s drawing last night
I’ve got a new drawing up top that I’m rather proud of…
On Christmas spent with various family, the tv was often on DIva (aka hallmark) and it amused me to read the salon article about how it is fascist propaganda. I assume that was covered
Love Triangles emphasizing Feminine Fantasies were a cornerstone of the Nazi Party Platform.
Well a quick search of Hallmark Christmas movies comes up with “Holiday Camp” and “Secret Santa”. I think we all know those are dog whistles for.
Ilssa – Santa’s Secret Nazi Mistress
We scrolled through the on demand movies recently that were available on TCM. Man, the euphemisms We’re off the hook.
The Bank Dick
The Gay Divorcee
Run Silent, Run Deep
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
here the link in case someone missed it
https://www.salon.com/2019/12/25/hallmark-christmas-movies-fascist-propaganda/
Damn…
I thought you were being hyperbolic
Right-wingers keep trying to meme the idea that Nazis were socialist. That’s ridiculous.
Mussolini’s *fascists* were socialist, yeah. But the Nazis were just overenthusiastic Wilsonian progressives.
https://twitter.com/St_Rev/status/1210233986116665345
:Opera Applause:
I think he’s right, but I also agree with his later tweet that the usefulness of the distinction is highly debatable. And I think that’s because the difference between Socialism and Progressivism is largely academic; in practice, whether the state controls the economy because it’s more just or because it’s more qualified is sort of moot if you’re not the state.
They only differ in terminology. Progs and commies love coming up with new names for things and believing it’s somehow different.
the difference between Socialism and Progressivism is largely academic
This is true, when looked at historically, but one could nevertheless draw a different distinction for something that doesn’t have a name right now: between the working class and the radical bourgeoisie. The progressivism/socialism of yesteryear was composed primarily of farmers and industrial workers (whence the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party got its name). The progressivism/socialism of today is composed primarily of white collar office workers and their underemployed overeducated children. Sure, there are some unions that still represent industrial and other blue collar workers, but their leaders look and act nothing like their rank-and-file members*. This division is not exactly new, as one can see from the contradictions in Pasolini‘s life. The unholy union of workers and technocrats that was the first American progressive movement has shed the workers this time around.
* = With the notable exception of cop unions
It depends on what year we’re talking about here. Prior to 1934, there absolutely was a faction in the NSDAP who took the socialism part of “National Socialism” very seriously, led by the Strasser brothers and Ernst Röhm. In the ’20s, at least, Goebbels was part of that faction. Hitler purged them in the Night of the Long Knives to earn the backing of wealthy patrons, which assured them that socialism would not be a part of Nazi administration.
There was more to it with Röhm and the SA – that was also about assuaging the army’s hatred of the SA. Still, that had an element of socialism as well. Röhm was not part of the aristocratic Prussian officer caste and envisioned the SA as an egalitarian replacement for the army. To a certain extent, that’s what the Waffen-SS eventually became.
Socialism is a superset of Marxism (I mean, socialism predates Marx..). The Nazi’s were always socialist. They were Marixsts only shortly, like you say.
Ready for the Bern
Democratic insiders said they are rethinking Sanders’ bid for a few reasons: First, Warren has recently fallen in national and early state surveys. Second, Sanders has withstood the ups and downs of the primary, including a heart attack. At the same time, other candidates with once-high expectations, such as Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke, have dropped out or languished in single digits in the polls.
“I believe people should take him very seriously. He has a very good shot of winning Iowa, a very good shot of winning New Hampshire, and other than Joe Biden, the best shot of winning Nevada,” said Dan Pfeiffer, who served as an adviser to former President Barack Obama. “He could build a real head of steam heading into South Carolina and Super Tuesday.”
The durability of Sanders’ candidacy has come as a surprise even in some states where he performed strongly in 2016 and where he is attempting to improve his standing ahead of the 2020 election.
It’s his turn.
I’m just gonna put this out: All the states mentioned are states where other people are the favorite for #1 spot. Nevada has Joe as a +9% Favorite. You don’t win by taking 2nd Place all the time.
In the D primary, 2nd all the time doesn’t do too bad. In the R primaries, you are toast.
True, there is the split vote, so there is technically a way to run it where you come out on top because everyone else is swapping between 1st and 3rd. But with really only 4 people in the running and 50 contests, I don’t think being perpetual 2nd place is a winner.
If you can get a consistent 30% of the vote, you will probably win (just spitballing) 40% of the pledged delegates. That might not give you the lead going into the convention, but it probably guarantees that no one has the votes from pledged delegates alone. So it would depend on who the superdelegates support.
Cool. Looks like it will be Putin’s puppet vs. Stalin’s puppet?
At the same time, other candidates with once-high expectations, such as Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke, have dropped out or languished in single digits in the polls.
The people you are talking to are morons.
I’m sure that there are some realists in the party that think that, and remember how a lot of Bernie voters sat out or voted Green (or whatever) after their perceived betrayal in the last election. But those realists, while some may be high in the party echelon, are not in charge.
Also, if Bernie is elected we’d end up with Warren anyway; she’s his natural VP pick and I don’t see Bernie lasting two terms.
It’s his turn
Which is why it will be all the more entertaining when Hillary announces just before the convention and uses her knowledge of inner party politics to screw him out of the nomination again. (and then she will be bewildered as to why she got even less votes than before).
Prominent lawyer Jolyon Maugham clubs fox to death while wearing kimono.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/dec/26/prominent-lawyer-jolyon-maugham-tweets-about-clubbing-a-fox-to-death
From the internet
? Last Christmas
I gave you a bat
And the very next day
A fox went ker-splat
If he had a gun it would have been a less barbaric fox killing… discuss.
The authorities are investigating…… Uh?
You can’t kill a fox that is stuck trying to get into your hen house. Not a metaphorical henhouse, but a literal hen house.
I mean, quicker being less painful, sure, but I’d think if I could square up on a fox’s noggin with a Louisville Slugger I could send him to Valhalla in one good swing. But yes, in the civilized world, these things are handled with small-caliber firearms to the back of the dome, Sopranos-style.
The proper way to kill a fox when running your trap line is with a love tap from an axe handle. You don’t want to shoot it and ruin the pelt. And only namby-pamby’s who are so soft that they have time to play games would have a baseball bat.
But agreed that one good swing and it is all over for the fox.
You country people know how to do it right. A New Yorker would throw ink on it.
People are upset that he literally wouldn’t let the fox in the hen house.
I blame gun control.
Damn it beat me to the punch
The obi one, he’s our only hope.
Boo.
I have to admit, I liked it… Maybe more than I should.
I’m with Ozy. Straff done himself proud with this one.
Did it find it in a suitcase?
When dealing with wildlife follow these simple rules.
1. kill it.
2. bury it.
3. Shut up.
If it is tasty or has a nice pelt or hide, you can add a step 1.5
I’m torn. The guy is a remainer. In this day and age aren’t we supposed to gauge one’s actions based on his or her beliefs instead of his or her actual actions?
He’s a white person assigned male at birth married to a person assigned female at birth and a QC, which is aristocrat adjacent territory. So a white cis-hetero shitlord. We don’t need to examine his beliefs to know he is wrong.
People are too far removed from the reality of subsistence living.
So. Much. This. ^^^^
I want to rant about this, but you all know and agree, so I won’t waste the electrons. I wish we could make everyone “get in touch” with nature – and by “get in touch” with nature, I mean, “stick them out in the wild so they fucking starve for a few weeks and learn some fundamental shit about themselves and Mother Gaia.”
The funny thing is the guy who should be the poster child for “Hey Greenies, Nature is a stone cold uncaring murderous bitch” became a folk hero to them, because they are stupid.
Sentence first, trial afterward
“The presidential oath and the senatorial oath to be taken before an impeachment trial are kin,” Greenfield wrote, adding that on the rare occasion the president has not been faithful in acting without corruption, “the Senate is required to be faithful in its adjudication of the case against him.”
“But we have already seen indications that McConnell has no intention of doing impartial justice. He has said that he does not consider himself an ‘impartial juror.’ He is coordinating strategy with the White House,” Greenfield said.
“Every senator has a constitutional obligation of impartiality. But McConnell’s role as Senate leader makes his obligation even more important and crucial to the constitutional framework.
Presumption of innocence is a repudiation of the oath of office.
Look, the Democrats have been entirely impartial. You can tell because we have not seen any editorials about partisanship among the democrats.
I mean, sure, these same democrats have been crowing about how they were going to impeach Trump since November of 2016. But that isn’t evidence of partiality or partisanship. It is just a sign that they are doing their sworn duty of oversight. You can tell… because the press would have told us if it were true.
It was with heavy hearts that they were forced to do this. But they had no choice. Even though they were planning on it for three years and were just looking for a reason.
Look, they knew he was guilty as sin since 2015 and they spent four years trying to find evidence to disprove it, but, sadly, they weren’t able to exonerate him.
Look. I think McConnell saying what he isn’t impartial was stupid. We all know it, but you’re just giving them ammo and an out. But let’s not kid our selves that Boocker, Klondikebar, Warren, Sanders or Harris are impartial either. They are all on record for being vitriolic towards the president, and some are on record as having already decided their vote. Not to mention that most of them (Bye Bye Harris) are running against the man, that seems a bit like a political conflict of interest…. Almost like an abuse of power.
Yeah, McConnell is getting judged on his unusually honest comment while the others are getting judged on their blatant lies. But, that is politics. It’d be nice to have people stop pretending otherwise.
“McConnell saying what he isn’t impartial was stupid”
Agreed. Can’t these politicians think before they put their mouth in gear? Similarly, why did Trump have to mention the Bidens when talking to the Ukrainian dude? All he had to say was “please investigate the reports of widespread corruption in your country.” Then let the talking heads speculate who he meant and let Dems try to make
the case that presidents should not be complaining about corruption in foreign countries.
Then the impeachment would be based on something else but similarly bogus. The impeachment has nothing to do with mentioning Biden in the phone conversation.
That was not well phrased.
I think you can draw a distinction between whether the articles actually state impeachable offenses, for which no evidence or impartial consideration of evidence is required, and the actual trial, where impartiality is more or less presumed. Even so, voting on the motion to dismiss should be done impartially. The fact that it will be a party line vote could be taken as an indictment of both party’s lack of impartiality, but of course it will only be the Repubs who get beat up by the DemOp Media.
Although why impeachment is ‘purely political’ in the House, but requires quasi-judicial non-partisanship in the Senate, remains a mystery to me.
Although why impeachment is ‘purely political’ in the House, but requires quasi-judicial non-partisanship in the Senate, remains a mystery to me.
I can’t help but think that the parties that control the bodies have something to do with it.
Meh, the Senate is going to (someday?) try the case that the House has prepared. Although impartiality at all stages would be ideal, there is a greater need for impartiality in the trial than in the “indictment”. One decides whether to proceed further, the other decides a person’s legal fate. However, there is the underlying assumption many seem to have that impartiality will somehow inevitably lead to removal, when that seems to be missing the point of impartiality altogether.
Meh, the Senate is going to (someday?) try the case that the House has prepared.
Dunno about that. The rule package for Clinton’s impeachment included a motion phase, during which I believe a motion to dismiss was argued and voted down.
I think the Senate is going to use the Clinton rules, only this time I think the motion to dismiss might get approved (I give it a 55%(?) chance), and everybody moves on to the next installment of DC Kabuki Theater.
there is a greater need for impartiality in the trial than in the “indictment”. One decides whether to proceed further, the other decides a person’s legal fate.
Not sure about that. The burden of proof is different (indictments are, I believe, “clear and convincing”, but trials are “beyond a reasonable doubt”). That doesn’t mean the adjudicators or fact-finders are allowed to be less impartial in the indictment phase, just that the evidence they consider doesn’t have to be piled as high.
Impartiality is just as important when charging someone, that is the point of having a Grand Jury in criminal proceedings, to take those decisions away from people who might be politically motivated. Simply being charged vastly disrupts a life, and opens the door to ‘detaining’ the person pending trial, and around the world you see tyrants arresting political opponents and then holding them indefinitely awaiting trial.
What the House did was within their powers but it was an abuse of those powers.
This would be the trial that can’t happen yet because the matter hasn’t been officially handed over to the Senate? This would be the oath that nobody has taken yet because the proceedings have not yet begun?
Hey, they have to vote on it before they can see what’s in it, standard procedure. Then Nancy will hand over the actual wording and it’s all in double negatives, so voting to acquit actually means voting for impeachment and installing Hillary as Lord and Commander. Super easy, barely an inconvenience.
Sorry, not seeing that in there.
I’ll Say it again: McConnell should have said that the Senate Trial will mirror the rules the Majority in the house set for the minority. It should be given all the diginity and propriety that the Dems gave it in the house.
Yup. Republicans have never learned how to hoist the opposition by their own petard.
It doesn’t help that the media is nothing but a propaganda machine – a fact that i’m really surprised the alternative media doesn’t harp on more. Look at Reason…. Welch, Mangu-Ward et. al. think that it is nutty conspiracy thinking. They barely see bias, let alone the outright propaganda that has become the modern media.
Back in the 90’s Bill Clinton openly told the press that he was going to shut down the government and blame it on the republicans. That’s how he was planning to win the budget battle. I know this because it was reported on every news channel. Tom Brokaw told me himself.
Fast forward to two weeks later…. Tom Brokaw tells me that Newt Gingrich and the Republicans childishly shut down the government because they couldn’t get their way.
And that’s all the proof I needed that they were openly propaganda tools for the DNC.
It is also all the proof I needed to realize that the American people as a group are dumb as a fucking stump. I mean, if the dude tells you something like that and you can’t remember it for two weeks…. you are an idiot and should not be allowed anywhere near a voting booth.
Some of it is a function of attention and audience. More and different people were paying attention later than earlier.
To this day, I remain bewildered that all of the alleged “adults in the room” never seem to mention that shutdowns are a product of an executive interpretation of the Anti-Deficiency Act and we could avoid the whole “problem” by just amending that Act.
Gay men are increasingly voting for anti-LGBTQ right-wingers, says gay cultural historian
“Give [gay men] the chance and they will vote for xenophobia, for racism, and for misogyny,” he says.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/02/gay-men-increasingly-voting-anti-lgbtq-right-wingers-says-new-study/
I say gay men should lose voting rights, whos with me?
In other words, gay men are smart enough to realize that voting for the importation of third world cultures that burn homosexuals at the stake is a bad idea, unlike the LBTQ+
How dare they! Don’t they know they were bequeathed in their entirety to the Democratic Party?
It is almost as if he confuses gay rights with the progressive agenda.
Here’s a clue… Progressives are not your friends. They’ll toss you in the fires of eugenics with the rest of us if you give them the chance.
If your freedom is not based in the individual, it is an illusion.
“Not radically pro-trans” is not synonymous with “anti-LGBTQ”.
So gay men are tired of trying to climb the greasy pole of Democratic party politics?
They were promised the top butt only delivered the bottom
No shit?
The article is almost a year old, but probably not much changed.
It’s weird to see this talking point in the comments: “According to the president, the Vice President has said many times that gays should be hanged. Not one of his staff denied it.”
And Pence is their best example when they claim that Trump is “homophobic.”
DUDE LOOK AT HIM, HE LOOKS JUST LIKE THE BAD GUY FROM GOD LOVES MAN KILLS AND THAT WAS BASICALLY ABOUT GAY PEOPLE SO
Also see: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P2ATyEYq5ls/TxkJRhD0TmI/AAAAAAAABN8/XEVpEdvGths/s1600/marvel-graphic-novel-5-william-stryker-ideals-1-100k.jpg
This proves that Pence hates gay people.
Damn it! That should have read hung, Mike, Gay men want to be hung. NOT hanged.
Gays are making queer political decisions.
Voting against their own interests!!!111!!!1!one
I love historians who are a-historical. It is almost as if the log cabin republicans were never a thing. Or that Goldwater never existed. Or that Lincoln was Gay was never a meme.
Personally, I consider this video to be an absolute Christmas miracle. It combines two things, neither of which I can do, into a cool song.
I was barely able to fulfill my GenEd music requirements in Junior High by squeaking out Mary Had a Little Lamb on the recorder and keyboard. Just as difficult for me would be to scrape that many wrenches up. All mine have been helpfully scattered across who knows how many timezones by wife and kids.
Right wing smear machine
In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Thursday, media critic Eric Wemple said MSNBC host Rachel Maddow was a “clearinghouse” for news concerning the Steele Dossier, a document she hoped would provide clear evidence that Donald Trump and Russia worked together to rig the outcome of the 2016 election.
While some claims made by the dossier have been corroborated, a report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz concerning the investigation gave no clear answers to Republicans or Democrats.
“The ubiquity of Horowitz’s debunking passages suggests that he wanted the public to come away with the impression that the dossier was a flabby, hasty, precipitous, conclusory charade of a document,” wrote Wemple. “Viewers of certain MSNBC fare were surely blindsided by the news, if they ever even heard it.”
“When small bits of news arose in favor of the dossier, the franchise MSNBC host pumped air into them,” Wemple continued. “At least some of her many fans surely came away from her broadcasts thinking the dossier was a serious piece of investigative research, not the flimflam, quick-twitch game of telephone outlined in the Horowitz report. She seemed to be rooting for the document.”
“[Maddow] was there for the bunkings, absent for the debunkings—a pattern of misleading and dishonest asymmetry,” Wemple added.
Fake news. Media bias is a myth.
I noticed that Comey tried to take a similar tack on his Interview with Fox. He often said “your viewers have been led to believe that i was going to jail, and i’m not so you were wrong”, and dodged the whole “I presided over an entirely fraudulent investigation of a political campaign”.
He sounded like OJ after his first trial.
If he was held to the standards the FBI uses against ordinary citizens, he would be going to jail.
I blame the interviewers. There has not been a decent political interview in this country since Bill Clinton had Christiane Amanpour suspended for three months for having the temerity to ask a follow-up question about broken campaign promises on Bosnia.
That was the end of the tough interview – at least where democrats are concerned.
Obama managed to endure 12 years of public life without ever once being asked a direct and incisive question by anyone who wasn’t a plumber.
Obama managed to endure 12 years of public life without ever once being asked a direct and incisive question by anyone who wasn’t a plumber.
There was that one reporter who yelled a question during a press conference. I’m not sure he was a plumber and think he worked for FOX (?) but then he had to face a week of criticism from his fellow journo’s because he was so rude to yell in a press conference and interrupt the smartest and bestest president we have ever had.
Which one’s?
The ones that affirmed that Trump existed.
You can get piss hookers in Moscow.
That named individuals exist, that communication and meetings between some of them occurred at the dates and times specified, etc.
Nothing of substance (content, intent, etc.). Not even the details about the DNC getting “hacked”.
This part from the Wikipedia article is particularly telling:
If you assume your conclusion, then everything contrary to your conclusion is “not logical”. That’s some mighty fine circular reasoning.
Not being glib:
AFAIK, the only parts of the dossier that have been verified true are the ones that were collected from previously existing public sources. IOW, nothing original to the dossier has been proven true.
The thing I really love about the “verification process” is when they went to talk to his source for all of the salacious stuff. They come away from the meeting being very impressed with the source’s candor and honesty. And they discover that he doesn’t corroborate a single detail of the dossier. In fact, quite a bit of it is transcribed completely wrong by Steele. And of this, they are well and truly convinced.
So the FBI reports this to the FISA court – we met with the source to verify the report and found him to be reliable and trustworthy.
And our Inspector General, bless his heart, labels this “a mistake”.
Ha-ha-ha-ha! “a mistake!”…. you kill me….
Muscle memory milling grain, zero error tolerance
https://mobile.twitter.com/AgBioWorld/status/1209831278180229122
Just maintain proper posture and don’t lean forward,
Yikes!
First comment wins:
Truth.
Dude, beans come in a can. Why do we need weedkillers?
I dunno I liked this one:
Even modern agriculture can be pretty damned dangerous and tragic.
Kid, his dad and his uncle (who tried to save them) all killed when overcome by fumes in a silo.
Oh man….that boy bears a fair bit of resemblance to my own son. Makes it that much more heartbreaking for me to read.
Urge to kill… rising.
Union, unicorn, it’s all magic apparently.
Personal computer CPU pioneer Chuck Peddle dies at 82
https://www.engadget.com/2019/12/25/chuck-peddle-cpu-pioneer-dies
and here I though everything was invented by government. This is a good example of competition, Motorola did not want what he was doing he went somewhere else.
The history of Silicon Valley really is interesting stuff. Motorola was a behemoth once upon a time, now they’re just an old brand name like Polaroid.
Kodak was offered the digital camera and passed, as it would cut into their film business.
Yeah. One of the dumbest business decisions of all time.
Velcro was missed by the guy that ran Remington? razor. The one that made the razor commercials. Said it was his biggest investment mistake
Victor Kiam
His father Omar had a ruby yacht.
Like Xerox inventing the PC revolution, but deciding the real future was still in photocopiers.
And giving the grand tour of all of that technology to Steve Jobs and Apple. Who promptly went back and made the LISA. Which flopped. But then they made the Macintosh. And a revolution was born.
Too bad the Commodore folks didn’t know how to escape their niche. The world would have been a lot better off if AmigaOS had been the model. It took a decade for the computer industry to catch up to where they were at the end of the 80’s.
For those who don’t know… before we had preempting multitasking operating systems, you couldn’t format a floppy while you were doing other things….
Ok…. So before we had USB thumb drives, there were these things called floppy disks, and you had to format them…
You know what… never mind….
My first ‘pro’ computing job involved networked Z-80 boxes and 8 inch hard sectored disks.
There is a famous comp-sci story about the era of mainframes and drum drives. Quick version:
Dude is hired to work on code on an old mainframe. He finds that there is a loop that just does nothing. It just delays for fraction of a second, every single time the code loops through.
Well, this is stupid….. I’ll delete that and speed things up, says our intrepid coder.
The code immediately grinds to an unbearably slow pace. Perplexed, our intrepid coder investigates. He finally tracks down the guy who wrote the code.
It turns out that he inserted the delay because the physical drum disk took that amount of time for the sector to come back around. So if he timed it properly, it would be in position for the next read operation. But if he didn’t put the delay in, it would take another trip around before lining back up and getting the read.
Always told as a cautionary tale against changing stuff you don’t understand. And as a pat on the back to the genius of the guys who optimized for the extremely limited hardware we had in the early days of computing. (here ya go… you get 32 bits of working memory and a thousand operations per second. Have fun!)
Prominent lawyer Jolyon Maugham clubs fox to death while wearing kimono.
Would it have made a difference if he had been wearing a kilt?
(Not my joke, but…)
I gave my wife an orgasm for Christmas and she…?
*Any guesses?
Regifted it to some dude?
re-gifted?
Points for the re re gifted.
The other answer: She spit it back in my face.
Your wife sounds hot.
Christmas snowball?
Is running out to the store to get new batteries.
I really thought D-cell batteries lasted longer…
Duct tape them end to end and you don’t need the device.
If your idea of an electro-stim device is 3 D-cell batteries duct taped together….
….. you just might be a redneck.
/foxworth voice
Alternate joke…
I was wondering why my wife kept asking if there was such a thing as an “F” cell battery….
..gave me an STD?
The Death of Privacy and the Curse of Secret Investigations
There was another article today about how much data your new car is collecting on you.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/17/what-does-your-car-know-about-you-we-hacked-chevy-find-out/
TTAC had an editorial about that as well.
Fucked up.
The data isn’t really anonymized so much as psuedonymized. If it was truly anonymized, it would be mostly useless: you’d have no correlation between two pieces of data that were from the same person, because you wouldn’t even know that they were from the same person. This part is correct that, with the form of “anonymization” they’re using, it’s almost trivial to figure out who the person really is (unless they are very careful about certain things, like not linking to their phone, but even then you’d probably still be able to figure it out by where they drive most often). Moreover, some forms of “anonymization” don’t even require connection to data, e.g. “anonymizing” an IPv4 address by hashing it is a complete waste of time, as there are only 4 billion IPv4 addresses and it would take at most a couple hours on AWS to identify every possible hash value.
He’s seen German cars with 300-gigabyte hard drives — five times as much as a basic iPhone 11
I get that this is the WaPo and they generally want to dumb everything down, but this is laughable. A car is not an iPhone, and it having 300 GB of storage doesn’t mean anything (how large is the system software? the map data for entire countries, so the navigation works even with poor signal? does it store redundant copies of things in case updates fail? etc.), except that relative comparisons are kind of meaningless (“it’s less than a third of what a bargain basement PC has”).
Phones are all about cloud storage, something I’d be more worried about than my hard drive/SSD.
I do not store my stuff in AT&T’s or Samsung’s cloud. I do not use Google or OneNote or MS’s cloud or whatever it’s called. I use Dropbox for sharing files, although I do have sensitive information in a crypted Dropbox file I used TrueCrypt to encrypt.
I have a MyCloud that the family uses and I use Carbonite, a small external hard drive, and the MyCloud for triple backups. For the MyCloud and small hard drive, I use SyncToy (although I can’t get Scheduler to work with it properly.
I’ve stopped caring. Ive seen the level of info that can be gleaned from metadata and realized that it’s an all or nothing proposition. The data itself doesn’t matter. The whens, wheres, and hows of the transmission of the data is more than enough to work up a damn good profile on somebody.
TrueCrypt is deprecated, you should migrate to VeraCrypt.
Post your password here and we’ll check to make sure your account is properly secured……
#WeBeCoolLikeThat
They also make the Tesla “video snippets” out to be some nefarious secret. It is an advertised feature.
And it is kind of an internet meme these days to post videos from the Tesla security system showing people vandalizing Tesla automobiles. So, kinda useful. Owners also post videos of accidents and road rage from those cameras frequently.
But his expert “discovered” this secret.
sheesh.
Poe.exe has crashed
https://twitter.com/ScribeUndead/status/1210304005341143063
All right, folks. Name a perfect movie. As in, one that you don’t need to do anything to in order to improve it. There is nothing you can criticize.
https://twitter.com/JoePCunningham/status/1209999363281309696
it is either Jaws or anything but Jaws.
Porky’s
The Canadian cut of Transformers: The Movie with the swears still in it.
That fucking voice cast: Peter Cullen (obviously), Scatman Crothers, Eric Idle, Casey Kasem, Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Clive Revill, Robert Stack, and oh yeah Orson Mother Fucking Welles.
I never saw a cut without the swearing, and I never been to Canada.
In the US, they had to remove the swears to get a PG rating, so that’s what played in (most? all) US theaters. The VHS version had it restored, since not technically bound by MPAA rules.
Ah, yeah, we were too poor to get to see it in the theater.
There were swears in the US version, because I saw it in theaters.
Midnight Run
Seconded. Along with Princess Bride.
Also, Slapshot – you’re welcome.
Speaking of Slapshot, this is a damn fine present for Tundra if anyone forgot him at Xmas.
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/slap-shot-brothers.html?product=adult-tshirt
That is pretty good. You can also order Charleston Chiefs jerseys and sweatshirts and the likes on HockeyTron (I think) and I am definitely getting that in the New Year.
Sweeet!
It’s a trap!
Oh, you mean Rocky Horror Picture Show?
The Princess Bride
The Burbs
No Country for Old Men
Caddyshack
The French Connection
The Godfather Part II
Once Upon a Time In the West
The Maltese Falcon
Rear Window
Labyrinth (natch)
Kill Bill
Dogma
My Fair Lady
Strictly Ballroom
An Autumn Afternoon
Are you a cinephile like Ted? I see you recommend obscure movies sometimes.
Whoa now, Ted is a cineast
Learned a new word. Nice, thank you!
All credit belongs to Ted – it’s literally in the title of his blog (IIRC).
2001: A Space Odyssey for me
Also Dr. Strangelove
A Fish Called Wanda
Raising Arizona
Ooooh, Fish Called Wanda is a good choice. My wife and I do Otto’s “ASSHOOOOOOOOOOOLE!” all the time while driving.
Do you do it DP or train style?
“K-k-k-kevin’s c-c-c-oming to kill me” is one of my favorite lines.
Thirded
Agreed… brilliant movie
Princess Bride
The Iron Giant
Babe
Ex Machina
Maltese Falcon
Bringing Up Baby
They Live
Die Hard
North by Northwest
High Noon
Terms of Endearment
Chinatown
Harold and Maude
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Dark Knight Rises
Dr. Strangelove
Forest Gump
Shawshank Redemption
The second reply on that twitter feed was “Mean Girls”.
WTF?
I really, really don’t get the love for that movie. They heaped praise on Tina Fey for “the most original screenplay, ever”! I watched it with my girlfriend – later wife – and was relieved that she agreed that it was kinda crappy and every single syllable of the movie had been done better in the movies that it was ripped off from.
Maybe it is a generational thing. We didn’t realize that the Flintstones was a clone of “The Honeymooners” either….
There is a certain type of film that I really appreciate. It is fairly rare these days…. the film that exists entirely for the denouement. “Babe”, “The Iron Giant” and “Ex Machina” are great examples from my list.
The entire movie is written to set up the perfect moment, so that when it all comes together, the Farmer simply saying “That’ll do, Pig.” is an emotional triumph.
I often wondered if “Babe” wasn’t written as a dare made one drunken saturday night at a bar. “Oh, yeah… I’ll bet you that I can write a screenplay about a pig …. and you’ll have tears in your eyes.”
It must be really difficult to write that sort of story… because although that is the classic drama formula, well written versions are very rare.
Add Frequency to that list. Add it twice if you are a father.
Alt-right, I just found some little nuggets of sound that now give me what I was missing to write a new episode. I like having that one last kicker joke, and I found THE BEST! THE MOST CLASSY! one.
GM spokesman David Caldwell declined to offer specifics on Doug’s Chevy but said the data GM collects generally falls into three categories: vehicle location, vehicle performance and driver behavior. “Much of this data is highly technical, not linkable to individuals and doesn’t leave the vehicle itself,” he said.
The company, he said, collects real-time data to monitor vehicle performance to improve safety and to help design future products and services.
Fuck off.
I used to know a few people who hunted one of the properties next to Hearst’s ranch and castle and he let out just as many animals, weirder but less destructive. Aoudad and zebra and peacock among the more interesting.
A place I used to hunt mulies on (near Cartwright, ND) used to have a pair of peacocks living on it. You’d see them in the ranch yard sometimes, other times you’d see them in some tree on the ranch. Rancher had no idea where they came from (or at least he wasn’t going to blab to some Minnesoda guy no matter how handsome he was).
My great grandmother had some on her ranch. They are nasty birds.
I heard Beetlejuice ehm I mean Betelgeuse is about to explode. Whatever shall we do?
Or did it already explode??
Hah! Was going to make that same comment.
Have you noticed that Orion the Hunter—one of the most iconic and familiar of the wintertime constellations—is looking a little… different as of late? The culprit is its upper shoulder star Alpha Orionis, aka Betelgeuse, which is looking markedly faint, the faintest it has been for the 21st century.
https://phys.org/news/2019-12-betelgeuse-tempestuous-star.html
When I was a young lad in the country, away from cities, the stars were quit visible. Especially over the hills from the village. I had hear Orion is one of the iconic constellation, but I missed the winter part, so spent many a summer frustrated and not finding in in the night sky
aka Betelgeuse, which is looking markedly faint, the faintest it has been for the 21st century.
DOES CLIMATE CHANGE KNOW NO LIMITS?
I watched “6 Underground.” It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a Ryan Reynolds/Michael Bay movie. I’d like to take it back in time and show it to Albert Broccoli ca. 1971.
Mornin’ Glibbies. The special Christmas food is almost gone. The tree will be soon, also, but all I have to do is drape it in a sheet and stick it in a corner of my closet.
I’mma start trying to make my jeans happier in the new year by walking a bit and eating less. That’s the best I can do, if that, but I must if I don’t want to end up in sweats in April. GlibFit is way too much.
The Christmas was good. Everybody got what they wanted. Nobody cried. No pipes burst. Furnace still works. I’m implementing a scarcity policy at my house for all food Christmas related or even adjacent. No candy, no home baking of Christmas-flavored things, no Christmas punch, and (for myself) no Christmas music till Thanksgiving (I tend to start in September).
Anybody wanna beta a medieval romance and give me an opinion which denouement of the two I’ve written (the alternate is not actually finished) would be better? I am genuinely stuck.
“The stock market gave a lot of people a late Christmas gift. Look for it to keep rolling too. And look for politicians to keep taking credit.”
Not bad since we’ve been on the verge of the next great depression for 3 years now, according to our esteemed media.
I’m curious if the persistent economy is related to the tax cuts. Would love to see someone do an analysis. Of course googling only turns up articles of how the tax cuts failed.
Republicans fall into the same trap every time making ridiculous economic predictions from tax cuts rather than saying hey we’re stealing less of your money, and regardless of the economy that’s good for you. Kansas is a prime example of the Republicans guarantee that backfired. Brownback cut taxes, the economy chugged along but didn’t reach the level he promised. Then they didn’t cut spending resulting in a deficit. Which Democrats spun as “see tax cuts don’t work!”. Now we’re one of the most heavily taxed red states.
“Democrats spun as “see tax cuts don’t work!”. Now we’re one of the most heavily taxed red states.”
They’ll use that forever, no matter what. It’s part of their little red book now. It’s right there between ‘All Americans agree…’ and ‘97% of Scientists agree…’
Along with “We Tried Free markets…”
Of course what won’t appear is: We Tried stimulus spending in both the Great Depression and Great Recession and it didn’t work either time, with the downturns and anemic recover extending to several years.
Makes perfect sense that the large corporate tax cut would have resulted in that. But who am I? I mean this one dude at the NYT has a prize and all that and he said we’re on the verge of the Apocalypse, and he should know.
Not bad since we’ve been on the verge of the next great depression for 3 years now, according to our esteemed media.
We have been plunged into an economic downturn from which we may never recover!
This isn’t aging very well.
I’m curious if the persistent economy is related to the tax cuts. Would love to see someone do an analysis. Of course googling only turns up articles of how the tax cuts failed.
I have seen about a half dozen articles recently about the complete and utter failure of the tax cuts do do what was promised. I take that to mean they have been a huge success.
I’m pretty sure that the number 1 driver was the removal of the threat of Obama’s Pen and Phone. Business needs predictability. Remember, Obama redirected the TARP money into a takeover of 2/3 of the big 3 auto makers. And then he used the threat of federal action to steal 30 billion dollars from secured creditors and then simply gave 30 billion in equity to the UAW.
That sort of dude is gonna make markets jittery.
Then Trump doesn’t add to regulations, he removes a little bit of regulations. That’s all that was needed after 8+ years of pent up demand.
And I am off to acquire another filing cabinet. I love filing cabinets.
I love filing cabinets
What criteria do you use to sort them when you are filing them?
When you store filing cabinets, do you organize them according to a filing cabinet filing system?
Color. Basic black gets priority, for elegance and near invisibility. I have not yet been arsed to paint my current one black, as I did my Steelcase desk.
Man, I’ve been having the craziest dreams. Night before last I was on Mars. No idea why or how I signed up for that, but anyway we’re on Mars to … I don’t know why, but we’re in this large plastic biosphere thing with mostly clear exterior, so great view of the weird Martian landscape, well it was a dream you know. But then everything started to just go to hell when this thing just started collapsing on us and an emergency departure was called for our 200 day journey home. But wait! They fixed it! Then things went worse when we started just springing air leaks all over, looks like we’ll all die, except I woke up. Whoo, that was close.
Then last night, I decided to retire and try my hand at drug dealing. But the cops would show up every fucking time I was about to give the kid on the playground some drugs. No seriously, I really had that dream. Then I woke up again and back to work today, for one day and then no more until after the New Years.
Also, I started playing The Outer Worlds yesterday. After a couple of hours I realized that I am stuck in a bubble gum colored strange world filled with.. FUGLY BUTCH DYKES! GAAHHHH!!!!! WTF? Almost every female NPC in the game has the same butch hairdo. And then I finally got my ship going just to realize that the AI on my ship is… A FUGLY BUTCH DYKE! GAAHHHH!!!!! WTF, Obsidian!? WTF!?
You could possibly be living out the plot of Total Recall.
Sharon Stone was not fugly in that movie tho.
GET YOUR ASS TO MAHHHZZ
I know the media scares are all about kids on the playground, but little kids don’t have money so I suggest a different clientele.
The Outer Worlds woke signaling was so in your face as to be difficult if not impossible to ignore. They could have at least announced up front that the future belongs to lesbians.
I’m not really sure why they’re signaling to us that all lesbians are fugly butch dykes. Maybe they didn’t think this through so well?
Ugh, it’s not about you. You know, the person who spent money on the game and decides whether it’s worth recommending to other people who spend money on games. It’s about empowerment, and representation, and whatever other buzzword bingo bullshit is in right now.
This is pretty awesome. A guy went to the abandoned Broscht Belt hotels and resorts in the Poconos and recreated shots from old postcards and has them fading back and forth from present to 60’s heyday. I have a fascination with abandoned structures so I dig this kind of thing.
https://dcist.com/story/17/08/30/abandoned-postcards-poconos-catskills-animations/
https://pin.it/kb53lhh5on3oak
Ha! Nice, I’m know I’m not alone in that fascination. There’s something so sad and creepy about them yet also very beautiful as nature reclaims them.
Yes Pat, I remember seeing that one on malls as well. Cool stuff.
The Sarajevo Olympic Village has a similar vibe as well.
Thanks! Will watch later.
That’s pretty cool. There was a website a while back that I can’t remember now that did a similar type of thing with abandoned malls.
That is kind of sad. Sure, tempus fugit and all that, but still.
Impermanence is the new permanence.
Kansas rule could lower property tax bills. Legislature has ignored it for 15 years
“Gov. Laura Kelly wants to provide property tax relief by reactivating a long-dormant subsidy program for Kansas cities and counties.
The Democratic governor’s tax council on Tuesday recommended lawmakers start following a state law they’ve ignored for 15 years at a cost of more than $1.3 billion to local governments. Her office said it would give localities “a strong tool to begin lowering local property taxes.”
Kansas is required to send a share of its sales tax collections to cities and counties each year through a program called the Local Ad Valorem Tax Reduction Fund. But the Legislature has continuously waived the rule since 2004, opting to use the tax dollars as a hedge against the Great Recession and Gov. Sam Brownback’s signature tax cuts.”
Prime example of the Democrat spin mentioned earlier. Nothing in this law says that counties have to cut taxes to receive the money and I’d bet they wouldn’t. Here’s a better idea cut sales taxes to the amount being redistributed, rather than sending the money you stole from me to other counties I have no business in.
They waived the rule from 2004 on because of a recession that happened in 2008 and a governor that was elected in 2010?
What prescience the Kansas legislature has.
They have Hari Seldon as speaker.