I’ve been terribly busy this week, but managed to do a lot of burning, and I can confirm that when structures are tested for fire resistance, everyone actually DOES stand around and giggle, “Fire! Fire! Uh-huh-huh-huh.” Mom continues her inexorable journey. SP and I have stepped up our drinking game, and we should be back in condition by Thanksgiving. Today will be a strenuous workout for our livers, what with a fine lineup of games and a lot of exploratory cooking to be done.
Auspicious birthdays today are led by one of my personal inspirations; an actually interesting historian; the butt of many jokes; an actually interesting filmmaker; Michael Strahan’s spirit animal; a marvelous guitarist; and the second coming of Milton.
News up.
I watched ten minutes of the livestream of this. Kaepernik learned his gamesmanship from Yasir Arafat. Note that this stunt dropped the attendees from 24 to eight.
This shouldn’t amuse me, but it amuses me.
See someone overdose on hopium.
Chances of this happening to Team Blue: approximately zero.
Some things, once seen, cannot be unseen.
Other things, once seen, cannot be unseen.
Old Guy Music features another birthday boy’s song. Nothing obscure this time, but I saw him do this song on this tour. He is significantly more sober in this video than the night we saw him…
Mornin’.
Yes. Yes it is.
Much more reasonable morning back East.
You can take a run up to Carefree Highway, with or w/o Gordie. You’re not far away.
Mornin’, homey.
sup’ pimp juice
::DDGs frantically:: Ooh! I learn so much here! ::preens::
It’s too damn early. I refuse to put booze in my coffee or drink a beer before 10am, because I’m not a bad person. It’s too damn early, what am I even doing up?
The first week of impeachment hearings was “devastating for Donald Trump”? What alternate universe do they inhabit?
Not one mention of Hunter or Joe Biden in that entire article. Gee, I wonder why.
The hysterical part is that these are the very same people who were saying Trump is done now!, every fucking day for 2+ years during the Mueller phase of the coup attempt. Now we’re supposed to believe them? I read one headline yesterday to the effect of ‘Impeachment will doom Republicans for a decade’. OFFS, a week after it fails, no one will even remember it.
But can the male sex robots take our true trash?
Is it just me or do these male sex-bots look distinctly… girlie?
Cheap product development. They probably just added a strapon to the I best selling model.
I’ve always wondered about this trend. When I was in high school, one of the big “teen heartthrobs” you saw on posters was Sean Cassidy. He was beardless, skinny and, well, girlie. The bunch of big, tough, broad-shouldered rural/farm kids I hung out with laughed at those posters: “What a pussy!”
But plenty of girls bought those posters and hung them up in their bedrooms, the implications of which I’m not going into in this forum – we’re supposed to be family-friendly, after all.
Fortunately for me, Mrs. Animal doesn’t go for that type. But I’ve never understood it. Are girlie-men less threatening to teenage girls, or what?
Interesting question and I have no idea. Sounds like an article from one of the mythical Glibs.
I thought the jocks got all the girls? Was I mislead? I do remember the only male cheer leader in high school had a lot of giggling girls hanging around.
Not a shrink, but I suspect that’s a lot of the appeal. Sean was slightly after my prime crush time – I was hot for his half-brother David. He was maybe slightly less girly than Sean, but same general type. Likewise Donny Osmond & Bobby Sherman (my older sister’s crush.)
Proof.
Dudes who look like Schwarzenegger seem like they would squish me, but girly men are an over-correction.
Yes.
It’s not just you.
To ignore it because Brexit looms larger is to declare that anti-Jewish prejudice is a price worth paying for a Labour government.
Brexidous.
You missed Danny DeVito’s 75th birthday today.
It wasn’t hard to overlook.
It’ll be a short party.
This pun thread will dwarf earlier attempts.
Stature best attempt?
I’ll have more in a little bit.
*lowers gaze*
*narrows gaze*
Invoking the statue of limitations on this.
For outside the most loyal circles of Republican politics, the hearings will allow the Democrats to position themselves as serious public servants trying to figure out what to do in an extraordinarily difficult and dangerous situation where the President has essentially forced their hand into taking action. Democrats are governing; Republicans are grandstanding.
Yeah.
Somebody done dranked all the kool-aid.
what is the extraordinarily difficult and dangerous situation?
The Democrats aren’t in power.
Somebody wins one internetz.
I think this is all just a symptom of the daily survival struggle coming to an end, AKA, first world problems. No one is out foraging and hunting all day, just hoping there will be enough to eat just to survive another day. No one was chased by a Short Face Bear or Smilodon today. No one lay awake last night wondering if a neighboring tribe are going to burn our village at any moment.
People are inventing a great struggle in their mind, because 200,000 years of that has just been removed in a couple of decades.
That BBC story about the “refugee” sure was a tearjerker.
“You can’t Go Home Again”
A sob story about a person who stole money from a trusting aunt to fund her journey does not a compelling story make.
That was just a loan! She was totes going to pay it back as soon as Merkel wrote the first check!
I feel sorry for the aunt. Her business failed because of that shithead
Ya, having a hard time feeling sympathy. Other than the slavery. That is a hard one to overlook. One would think people would figure out they shouldn’t walk across N Africa.
I can sympathize about the slavery, which is horrific, but two wrongs don’t cancel out, and I completely understand why their families don’t want to see them again.
What alternate universe do they inhabit?
The alternate universe inside their own assholes.
Those Saharan nomads seem a little racist.
I thought only wypipo could be racist.
Because white man have more cargo. And the white people of people of color, those Asians.
The Saharan nomads are the white people of black people.
Orange bad man strikes again. Those poor folk shouldn’t have had to try to sneak into Europe, they should be allowed to come to the USA, just like everyone else on the planet, it’s a right!
Little tax haven on the prairie
A decade ago, South Dakotan trust companies held $57.3bn in assets. By the end of 2020, that total will have risen to $355.2bn. Those hundreds of billions of dollars are being regulated by a state with a population smaller than Norfolk, a part-time legislature heavily lobbied by trust lawyers, and an administration committed to welcoming as much of the world’s money as it can. US politicians like to boast that their country is the best place in the world to get rich, but South Dakota has become something else: the best place in the world to stay rich.
At the heart of South Dakota’s business success is a crucial but overlooked fact: globalisation is incomplete. In our modern financial system, money travels where its owners like, but laws are still made at a local level. So money inevitably flows to the places where governments offer the lowest taxes and the highest security. Anyone who can afford the legal fees to profit from this mismatch is able to keep wealth that the rest of us would lose, which helps to explain why – all over the world – the rich have become so much richer and the rest of us have not.
Liz Warren will put the shazzam on this.
Nobody needs two Dakotas
Rapid City is a nice town but NoDak has MikeS
I’ll admit; it’s a toss-up.
Nice SF of the link.
I hadn’t noticed. I never bother clicking on his links, since I assume all or most of the article is quoted in the post.
Meow.
Politicians are always and everywhere addicted to other people’s money, and think it belongs to the state first.
She’ll put a heap big scalpin on those fat cats.
Envy is a very ugly and dangerous thing.
“he rich have become so much richer and the rest of us have not”
One of the biggest lies ever told. If that were true, this guy would be worrying about where his next meal is going to come from, instead of writing made up bullshit on the internet all day. I few years back, I had this very conversation with an enlightened wok progressive a few years ago. I explained to him that the avg middle class American alive today is many times better off than the richest of Kings only a couple of hundred years ago. He countered that, that’s not what matters, what matters is inequality. By his logic, it wouldn’t matter if we were all so rich that we owned our own planet with all the resources, because some other guy owns an entire solar system. You cannot reason with these people because envy has consumed them to such a degree, they’ve lost all ability to reason.
Were you trying to stir-fry up some shit?
He had just made one of his comments to himself that everyone else is supposed to hear and so become enlightened. Someone else was in a conversation the guy was not part of, but as always, he was listening, and ready to pounce. It was about someone wealthy, I can’t remember who, but one of them says ‘You know how he made his money?’, and the guy blurts out ‘On the backs of the poor, just like all these capitalists!’. That as one of his favorites. That’s what started it.
Progressive envy is nothing particularly modern; thou shalt not covet…
“Anyone who can afford the legal fees to profit from this mismatch is able to keep wealth that the rest of us would lose,”
There’s two ways to solve that problem.
Add more laws and…I’m not seeing another option. Add even more laws?
No shit, Sherlock. That’s why your phone was made in China and your lawn guy is named Pedro.
A Union of States, dipshits. A Union of States.
Grrrrrrr
In recent years, countries outside the US have been cracking down on offshore wealth. But according to an official in a traditional tax haven, who has watched as wealth has fled that country’s coffers for the US, the protections offered by states such as South Dakota are undermining global attempts to control tax dodging, kleptocracy and money-laundering. “One of the core issues in fighting a guerrilla war is that if the guerrillas have a safe harbour, you can’t win,” the official told me. “Well, the US is giving financial criminals a safe harbour, and a really effective safe harbour – far more effective than anything they ever had in Jersey or the Bahamas or wherever.”
Those of us who cannot vote in South Dakota elections have little hope of changing its laws. But if we don’t do something to correct the imbalance between global wealth and local legislation, we risk entrenching today’s inequality and creating a new breed of global aristocrat, unaccountable to anyone and getting richer all the time – with grave consequences for the long-term health of liberal democracy.
Look out. The Guardian is going to declare war on South Dakota.
I’m betting on the USS South Dakota vs the HMS Guardian
Interfering in a foreign election again, a la Operation Clark County.
South Dakota is safe, the Guardian is so bogged down in their war on logic and reason, that they can’t possibly start an offensive.
I don’t believe this was one of the disasters that befell Spencer Tracy
The minister carries a leather portfolio to fight fires?
You don’t?
“He will return home grateful and happy, bringing home a memory of a minister hitting him with a leather portfolio during his daughter’s wedding”
Kinky.
They aren’t just limiting candles, they will no longer allow decorations. I don’t get the connection
Control
Woman minister puts sick burn on the patriarchy.
“Don’t lean your paraffin-waterproofed jackets into the open flames.”
Re: the BBC story. I don’t understand why the IOM won’t pay the allowance in cash. It just says that most would just use the money to repay their families. I don’t understand why that would be bad. It sounds like they might be re-accepted if they repaid, and thus have housing and support. Plus, it would help restore businesses that were destroyed when the mine was stolen.
The BBC is truly racist by the way. This story is written in a way that implies (at least the headlines) this is a cultural failure of Sierra Leone – they failed, so now they are disowned. Rather than, they stole, thus destroying their families and were disowned. The returnees say they would have repaid the money, but there are no interviews with anyone whose family member stole, made it and sent money. There are no interviews with immigrants that say they do send money.
Man, those South Dakotans are all kinds of fucked up. The proper function of government is to confiscate and redistribute the wealth of its subjects, not to assist them in its preservation and control.
Kap’s been ready for three years to go out and throw those ducks! Why come NFL not bend the knee?!
What you did there, it was observed.
Worser and worser
When I spoke to the official from one of the traditional tax havens, who asked not to be identified, for fear of wrecking what was left of the jurisdiction’s financial services industry, he was furious about what the US was doing. “One of the bitter aspects of this, and it’s something we haven’t said in public, is the sheer racism of the global anti-money laundering management effort,” he said. “You will notice that the states that are benefiting from this in America are the whitest states in the country. They’ve ended up beating the shit out of a load of black and Hispanic places, and stuffing all the money in South Dakota. How does that help?”
Oh, the injustice of it all! Stealing from those other crooks.
Because it’s complete horseshit and you don’t want to laughed out of town?
Here is an example from one academic paper on South Dakotan trusts: after 200 years, $1m placed in trust and growing tax-free at an annual rate of 6% will have become $136bn. After 300 years, it will have grown to $50.4tn. That is more than twice the current size of the US economy, and this trust will last for ever, assuming that society doesn’t collapse altogether under the weight of this ever-swelling leach.
The money will be locked up, accruing interest (at highly doubtful rate), with no withdrawals and no fees, forever. In other words, of no practical benefit to the trustees. Good assumptioning there, Lou.
Empty your Scrooge McDuck Vault, racist!
Either somebody is just now beginning to understand the time value of money or they believe their readers do not understand it.
It’s the Guardian…
So you’re saying “both”.
Old Colt Ted Hendricks?
Classic
Nope, Don Joyce. Instigator of an absolutely brutal beating of Les Richter… using Richter’s helmet.
One lasy tidbit:
Susan Wismer, one of just 10 Democrats among the House’s 70 members, attempted to prolong the discussion by raising concerns about how South Dakota was facilitating tax avoidance, driving inequality and damaging democracy. Her view was dismissed as “completely jaded and biased” by a trust lawyer sitting for the Republicans. It was a brief exchange, but it went to the heart of how tax havens work. There is no political traction in South Dakota for efforts to change its approach, since the state does so well out of it. The victims of its policies, who are all in places like California, New York, China or Russia, where the tax take is evaporating, have no vote.
The victims; politicians and bureaucrats.
Dog-eat-dog kkkapitalism, unconstrained. Oh, the humanity.
Russia!!!!!!!!
In the case of at least the first two, gee, I wonder why that is?? (Not sure I understand the reference to the second two.)
You should feel bad for punching down at the Guardian like this. They can’t help it, you know.
I suppose if they continue to be successful in ignoring the fact that Schiff’s people met with the so called whistle blower who previously worked with the DNC to elect Hillary Clinton.
Didn’t Willy Clinton fire every high ranking state dept official held over from George the senior?
When was it decided that these leaches were guaranteed tax payer funded jobs for life?
They even fired the White House travel secretary so they could bring in one of their friends from back home.
Michael Strahan. I don’t get it.
Look at their pics side by side, preferably smiling.
No. I meant. I don’t get the love for him. He gets all these gigs.
I don’t get it.
He plays large-but-cuddly amicable non-threatening black man ex-sports star very nicely.
Toofes.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/watch-giant-whale-swim-under-surfers-southern-california-n1082056
Did this make the rounds yet?
Neat vid…
Is it really an especially large whale, or is it an average size whale?
Little bit bigger than Lena Dunham.
As my Korean friend would say ‘That not human, that whare!’.
That is a sub adult whale. A full grown whale is much larger.
That is a cool vid, but, as someone who used to surf a bit and lives here, can I point out that there are no waves there at all? Sure drew a big zoo of surfers for such a flat spot.
Is it me or does Kaepernick not get it? YOU made this bed.
The venue switch meant a 60 mile trek from the original spot. They couldn’t get it to be open to the public there?
Also, all he did was throw a ball and showed he has some accuracy. It would have been interesting to see some actual defense in there to disrupt some patterns and timing.
And even after all this begging to have teams come see him, he still takes his shots at them. I have no idea, since I haven’t read or heard anyone talk about it, but I would think him suing the league kinda pissed off some people and now he’s all ‘stop running from me like I’m some nigga!’
That’s all they do at any such work out. The scouts are looking at mechanics, which he showed he hasn’t worked on. The ball left his hand at the wrong angle, he couldn’t get a good spiral on it even under those perfect circumstances.
Ah. You observed this from the videos?
That’s what I saw in the video OMWC linked, and I assume those were the highlights.
Kapernicks problems on the field have never been about the physical attributes of being a quarterback in the NFL, they have been about the mental aspects. He has trouble reading defenses, throwing with anticipation, and has a tendency to run when pressured. His last season in the NFL, which his defenders laud as a great season, showed he he didn’t throw the ball downfield and on a bad team, didn’t generate a lot of offense for his team.
So he did fairly well in a venue designed to accentuate his positives and not talk about his negatives.
I don’t get why some team in the NFL is not willing to hire a drama queen with average skills. It must be racism, as is obvious, because there are no people of color in the NFL, obvious racism.
His legs are skinny. He looks skinny. He’ll get broken in two pieces the first time he’s sacked.
Any team that’s stupid enough to take him on deserves whatever they get and they will get it, that’s for sure.
You think he’d start up again?
I want someone to sign him just to a) put an end to him being some sort of martyr how lost his job. Sign him and that goes away and b) see him start up his activism on the NFL’s dime again. THAT would be ‘Must see TV’.
He’s already established that his being provocative and then playing victim at the pushback is a lucrative racket so the incentives for him to start up again are definitely there and I’d expect nothing less.
That little snark goading NFL teams does seem to suggest that.
Just throw in a free Antonio Brown with the trade. Drama queens are better in pairs!
Feature, not bug. I’m sure it was all planned in advance.
I feel like this is a “read the transcript” thing all over again. Every single NFL team has had the opportunity to draft him. Every team knows what he is and what they’d be getting. Nobody bit. What has changed? The media is pumping this racism, “blackball” angle because it’s clickbait, but the fact is that he was relegated to backup status before he started pulling the kneeling thing. He was a talented college guy and he was one of the “dynamic” quarterbacks of the RG3 school, a style which has proven to be difficult to maintain over the long term and thus not worth investing in. In the NFL, he proved to be a decent quarterback probably somewhere on a level with a Case Keenum or a Ryan Fitzpatrick. Then, in a desperate grasp for relevance, he pulled the knee bit and angled himself as a PoC for publicity because, honestly, his football abilities were unexceptional at the pro level.
Tom Brady can be a whackadoo pain in the ass. Cam Newton can be a disruptive prima donna. Colin Kapernick doesn’t have the chops to pull that shit. He should’ve been grateful that he was able to make a career as an NFL quarterback in any capacity and he should’ve thanked Christ that after screwing that up he managed to make a ton of cash as a race-baiting martyr.
…….and a lot of exploratory cooking to be done.
Do tell. I have been on a paella kick. Still screw it up every time. I can’t help but overcook the rice.
I’m convinced that rice was never meant to be eaten.
i think a bland food joke could bee made here
90% of the world population disagrees.
So?
Yes, we get it, you hate yellow people and want them all to starve.
What??!
It’s all about this plot to genocide the yellow man.
It takes stupid amounts of effort to grow, it’s got a five second band between undercooked and overcooked, and it doesn’t have any flavor. What more do you need?
“What more do you need?”
A rice patty and a dozen Chinese orphans?
it doesn’t have any flavor
You’re doing it wrong. Even plain rice has a rice flavor. It is also an excellent carrier for Maggi sauce.
We eat rice with a lot of meals. I’ve never seen my wife over or under cook it, and she’s not even Asian. Uncivil needs to get an Asian girlfriend to learn about all the things that can be done with rice. My wife has bee putting broccoli in it recently. And what the hell else are you supposed to eat with black beans? And what are you supposed to do with your stir fry? Put it on what exactly? Crackers?
I make wonderful jasmine and basmati rice.
We do a killer vegetarian paella. No skimping on the saffron and pimenton. One key is to use the correct (Bomba) rice. And the Maillard Reaction is your friend.
The rice was my suspicion. I just have Jasmine. Bought some saffron and holy moly that stuff is expensive. I am a big fan of the Maillard Reaction but always called it caramelizing.
There’s actually a difference between caramelization and Maillard, though both often happen together. Jasmine is not a good choice- you need shorter and starchier, more like Arborio. Bomba is relatively easy to find, sometimes just called Valenciana.
Pro tip: saffron is never cheap, but Indian groceries are the best source.
From the CNN article this nugget was a gem:
“As if that were not bad enough, David Holmes, an aide to the top US diplomat in Ukraine, William Taylor, ended the day behind closed doors explaining, according to his opening statement, how he overheard the President speaking loudly on the phone with Ambassador Gordon Sondland in a restaurant in Kiev about the investigations related to Hunter Biden and conspiracy theories about the origins of the Russia investigation.”
Was he chewing and spitting out food at the same time?
Was Taylor in the next table dressed like Kermit the Frog in his Newsflash?
Sierra Leone is a straight up shit hole like Somalia (waves at Ilhan). I feel for those people escaping. They have no way out. Nuts.
You could just list the countries on that continent that are not shit holes. That would save a lot of time.
Botswana. Done.
What’s a Botswana?
Morocco is kinda not a shithole if you squint at it.
My wife was robbed there by airport employees. The guy just ask for her purse, opened it up, took all the cash out of it and gave it back to her. Right in broad daylight in front of other airport employees. Not a shithole, really?
Well, compared to the Congo…
Or South Africa? Or anywhere else there?
My DIL and her husband were robbed in Cape Town before even getting to their hotel room. They stopped at an ATM to get some cash and two guys came up and asked if they needed help. When they said no, one of them pulled out a gun and demanded all their belongings.
That’s 2 people I personally know who got robbed the first time they stepped foot in Africa. Lots of places I want to go, none of them are in Africa. I’ll pass.
Since I was a kid I wanted to see the pyramids and all that stuff, but I will never ever set foot in Africa. Frankly, I’m skeptical of most places outside of the US, and maybe a third of the places inside of it.
Well, you already know to avoid Baltimore as much as possible.
was it US cash? Because if it was local currency I think it is illegal to take it put of the country.
Yes, it was US cash. She was only changing planes there on her way back from Europe.
No one should go through what they went through on their journeys. But, the one guy stole and sold the equipment that would have supported the whole family. If the article had discussed how much is sent back in remittances (long the most successful form of aid from the u.s. to Mexico and S.America) then I would have more sympathy to their current plight. But these people screwed over their families and are now whining that their families don’t want anything to do with them.
Funny you mentioned that because throughout I was all ‘yeh but’. They took serious gambles. ‘If I get to Juan les Pins all will work out!’
The whole story just pisses me off because of how it’s written. Remittances are important https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2019/04/08/record-high-remittances-sent-globally-in-2018. Note that remittances to Subsaharan Africa are growing. So, if they talked about people whose family raised the money, the migrant didn’t make it and was now being treated like shit, that would be one thing. Instead, they expect us to be sympathetic to people who made their families substantially worse off by destroying their businesses.
Even if they had made it to Europe and started sending money back to their families that wouldn’t excuse stealing from them in the first place.
I wasn’t clear. I suspect that people who steal from their families are unlikely to be the ones sending remittances. That seems more likely to come from those whose family raised the money and sent them with the expectation they would send money home.
Gotcha, that makes sense
“Mom continues her inexorable journey.”
Hats off to OMWC and SP!.
I’m grateful that I didn’t have that experience with my parents. I can only hope that I don’t provide a long trip for my own kids.
OK, who here is going to tell him?
Now I understand why you live in Arizona – you one cold m*****f*****.
Chicken chips.
https://www.wildebrands.com/collections/chips
Anyone tried these yet?
Chips are supposed to be made out of taters. That’s why they’re chips.
You eat salsa with potato chips?
Corn chips, that’s another thing. And just let me ask you something, mister! Do any of those bags have a name!?
wtf? never heard of those.
Are they made by Popeyes? Everyone I clicked on said out of stock. Also, $6 a bag?
“Also, $6 a bag?”
That’s why chips are supposed to be made from taters.
Also, salt and vinegar, or GTFO.
Keep your stinking douche chips. Original Flavor as God intended.
There are the best chips, the salt and vinegar being the best of those.
Chips, made from taters like God intended
Obsession
Commentators today tend to downplay the extent to which race and slavery contributed to the Framers’ creation of the Electoral College, in effect whitewashing history: Of the considerations that factored into the Framers’ calculus, race and slavery were perhaps the foremost.
Of course, the Framers had a number of other reasons to engineer the Electoral College. Fearful that the president might fall victim to a host of civic vices—that he could become susceptible to corruption or cronyism, sow disunity, or exercise overreach—the men sought to constrain executive power consistent with constitutional principles such as federalism and checks and balances. The delegates to the Philadelphia convention had scant conception of the American presidency—the duties, powers, and limits of the office. But they did have a handful of ideas about the method for selecting the chief executive. When the idea of a popular vote was raised, they griped openly that it could result in too much democracy. With few objections, they quickly dispensed with the notion that the people might choose their leader.
——-
What’s clear is that, more than two centuries after it was designed to empower southern whites, the Electoral College continues to do just that. The current system has a distinct, adverse impact on black voters, diluting their political power. Because the concentration of black people is highest in the South, their preferred presidential candidate is virtually assured to lose their home states’ electoral votes. Despite black voting patterns to the contrary, five of the six states whose populations are 25 percent or more black have been reliably red in recent presidential elections. Three of those states have not voted for a Democrat in more than four decades. Under the Electoral College, black votes are submerged. It’s the precise reason for the success of the southern strategy. It’s precisely how, as Buckley might say, the South has prevailed.
Among the Electoral College’s supporters, the favorite rationalization is that without the advantage, politicians might disregard a large swath of the country’s voters, particularly those in small or geographically inconvenient states. Even if the claim were true, it’s hardly conceivable that switching to a popular-vote system would lead candidates to ignore more voters than they do under the current one. Three-quarters of Americans live in states where most of the major parties’ presidential candidates do not campaign.
More important, this “voters will be ignored” rationale is morally indefensible. Awarding a numerical few voting “enhancements” to decide for the many amounts to a tyranny of the minority. Under any other circumstances, we would call an electoral system that weights some votes more than others a farce—which the Supreme Court, more or less, did in a series of landmark cases. Can you imagine a world in which the votes of black people were weighted more heavily because presidential candidates would otherwise ignore them, or, for that matter, any other reason? No. That would be a racial entitlement. What’s easier to imagine is the racial burdens the Electoral College continues to wreak on them.
If if if. If only we could rig this game in our favor, we could bring forth true justice upon the nation.
Hey hey ho ho
the electoral college has gotsta go!
“the electoral college has gotsta go!”
Are they still on that pipe dream?
I read the first sentence and though it was about the Kapernick story.
* thought
All hail the Imperial Cities of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago and the states they’re in (plus Texas).
Cali is Panem West and NY is Panem East. Everything in between will be divided up into districts to compete in the Hunger Games.
Lies and pandering racism. Well done, The Atlantic.
Seriously…
The electoral college can be disparaged because of its true primary intent…. to safeguard against the people being duped by a cult of personality type and ensure that any candidate had true national support. The electors being empowered to go a different way, should they believe the candidate chosen by the people to be untrustworthy.
Because they had been living in a monarchy, they were extremely worried about the rise of a tyrant.
That black man has the whitest name ever.
When the evil Shredder attacks, these titty gals don’t cut him no slack.
http://archive.li/htFJZ
I adore them all. To show how much I appreciate them, I will give each and every one a nice romantic wedgie. You’re welcome, ladies.
“What does it mean that the best HBCU quarterback is white?”
Ummm… nothing?
is Nickelback related to quarterback?
“But one thing seems certain: The predicted political backlash over impeachment that Democrats were frightened about will not be taking place. Republicans won’t have an easy time employing the standard partisan witch hunt argument.”
Yeah, sure. If said backlash doesn’t take place, it’s only because no one is fucking paying attention to this retarded cousin of kabuki.
No one is paying attention.
We went to the outlets yesterday – https://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/philadelphia
The place was packed with shoppers. People are busy living their lives and spending money.
I think the Mueller circus and then the Kavanaugh aftermath burnt them out. No one is ready for Coup Act 2.
Because the impeachment vote totally won’t be straight party-line. ?
“the 2022 Gay Games”
OK?
“set to be held in Hong Kong.”
We’ll see what the PLA has to say about that.
“I’m just as much a man as every other guy on the stage — maybe I have to work a little harder, but that’s fine,”
Dood(ette), you’re probably throwing back so much (legally prescribed) steroids that building muscle is a piece of cake. Which give me an idea: can I say that instead of a male-presenting, transgender lesbian, I’m not a male-presenting transgender lesbian who’s transition to male? Could I then get prescribed some ‘roids and start bodybuilding?
Jesus, that’s a dumpster fire of typos.
gives me an idea*
I’m now*
who’s transitioning*
As a bonus, women who turn you down are transphobic…. win/win!
Enlightened self interest? That’s so elitist.
The offer: A $1 million check from a major Democratic donor to a major Democratic group. The one condition: The money would be refunded if Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren becomes the party’s nominee.
That offer was rejected, according to an official familiar with it, but it was indicative of the larger anxiety felt by many in the Democratic Party’s elite circles about the state of the 2020 Democratic presidential field. “Ninety to 95 percent of our donor base is terrified about Warren,” said a prominent Democratic official.
——-
Some on the left wonder which is scarier to donors: Warren or Sanders losing to Trump or winning against him and raising their taxes.
“Makes you wonder if they’re trying to save us from Trump or are they really just trying to save themselves from Bernie and Warren,” said Rebecca Katz, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who now advises insurgent progressive candidates.
Warren’s campaign has begun selling mugs to drink “billionaire tears” and engaged in public fights with wealthy financiers who feel, as many of them did under Obama as well, that they’re being unfairly targeted.
Whycome they don’t want to be demonized? Why don’t they support the candidate who calls for their scalps? It’s for their own good.
You mean all the posturing about how they themselves needed to pay more taxes was complete virtue signaling bullshit?
UNPOSSIBLE.
The offer: A $1 million check from a major Democratic donor to a major Democratic group. The one condition: The money would be refunded if Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren becomes the party’s nominee.
LOL!!!!
“ Warren’s campaign has begun selling mugs to drink “billionaire tears” ”
She is just the absolute worst isn’t she? She wants to take your money and wealth and taunt you while she does it.
She gives Shrillary a run for her money.
And the owner of the company that made the mugs? A billionaire.
I hope he keeps one on his desk.
Chris Murphy:
“The President attempted to use the power of his office to affect an upcoming election.”
That has never happened before. We’re dooooomed.
The really funny thing: when Biden’s name popped up in the famous Ukraine telephone call, he wasn’t even an announced candidate. I mean, everybody was pretty sure Gropey Joe was going to run, but at that point he wasn’t.
But somehow asking for somebody who isn’t even a candidate yet to be investigate for corruption is trying to affect an upcoming election. I think we’re pretty much to the point where investigating a Democrat politician is an abuse of power.
I cannot take any of this seriously. They were spying on Trump’s campaign from day one, and I’m supposed to be upset that Biden’s cokehead son getting a job way over his paygrade got focused on by Trump?
The Hyperbole would tell you that Trump had to develop a lifelong reputation for fighting corruption on a purely non-partisan basis before looking at a high-profile democrat’s shady dealings.
Nobody who spends any real time in government has completely clean hands. The people who make careers out of going after “corruption” are not good people otherwise. Outside of this group (and the handful left at H&R who remember), Preet Bharara is seen as the good guy (among those who even know who he is). That he wanted to scare and possibly jail harmless Internet randos engaged in juvenile bluster and obvious hyperbole is either irrelevant to them or even a good thing (decorum, civility, social contact, yadda yadda).
(not directed at The Hyperbole, just at the argument)
Good grief Now they’re charting “tweets per week”. Trump is on the ropes.
“Trump is on the ropes.”
With the wagons circling. Yawn.
And the walls are closing in. Don’t forget the walls closing in.
Surrounded, walls, wagons, got him this time. They’ll continue this unabated for 5-6 more years if Trump is re-elected.
*Checks popcorn futures position, places buy order*
“The testimony was compelling. The witnesses were people of stature. I saw exactly what I was looking for.”
“I saw exactly what I was looking for”
It’s hard to not see what you are looking for when you have a predetermined outcome.
The witnesses are bureaucrats with political grudges.
I listened to excerpts from Ivanovich’s testimony. “I felt so betrayed…” “It was shocking…” “It hurt so much…”
Christ lady; either you’re a liar or you’re too fragile to work as a greeter at WalMart, let alone as an ambassador.
Buzzwords to help prove up intimidation and just generally paint Trump as a meanie. The dems are counting on people to not really pay any attention and just vaguely know that there’s an impeachment going on. All they need is a tiny bit of ambiguity before the election and the mostly braindead electorate might just bite.
Leaving aside the delusional nature of much of the article, I don’t disagree with the conclusion:
I don’t think there will be a perceptible backlash by voters. The Dems ran a Kangaroo Kourt on Kavanaugh, voted in lockstep against him based on a “case” no stronger than the case to impeach Trump, and then immediately went on to win the House and pick up seats in the Senate.
Past performance, etc., but I see no reason why there would be a backlash on impeachment when there wasn’t on Kavanaugh. And I’m pretty sure a lot more people watched the Kavanaugh farce.
If Kavanaugh was telling the truth (his own histronics aside), this is really something. Everywhere he goes in public, there’s a chance some group of crazies is going to show up and shout obscenities at him. A woman he barely even knew said he raped her. Even though he did get confirmed, that’s got to be traumatic.
If Kavanaugh was telling the truth (his own histronics aside)
I think he showed admirable restraint in some ways. If I was in his shoes and looking across the room at a bunch of lying sociopaths accusing me of raping teenage girls, assaulting college women, and running a roofie rape gang, I don’t think my response would have been more . . . pointed. Without the tears, I believe, but basically I would have used my time to go down the row of Democrats one by one and rip every single one of them by name for every single scumball thing they have ever done. Probably would have needed another day to get through it all.
I
don’tthink my responseWell, traumatized or not he did want to be an SC justice. The battle lines were already drawn, the sides already set. Doing that would just have made it worse.
Probably. I would have enjoyed it, though.
Harris: Mr. Dean, I am not on trial here!
R C: Neither am I. I am merely trying to discern what standards we have for making accusations against public figures. You seem to believe that hearsay and uncorroborated testimony from 30 years ago meet your standards. If so, then apparently X, Y, and Z meet your standards. Yet here you are, saying they don’t. I am trying to understand what your standards and principles are, if in fact you have any.
Just looked to see who the Broncos are going to lose to today. Minnesoda. That should make a few glibs happy to see that match up.
“That should make a few glibs happy to see that match up.”
Only if the Donkeys lose.
Odds are they will. I like to keep my expectations low. It is a life skill.
I started doing that a long time ago. I’m also completely detached from football now. I watch it, if my team wins, I enjoy it. If not, I forget about it and do something else.
Assume a dispassionate observer
Miller’s defenders have largely focused on the source of the latest stories about him: the SPLC, a civil rights organization that works to identify and expose hate groups.
The White House ripped the group as a “discredited, debunked” organization. It cited a 2018 settlement in which the SPLC paid $3.4 million after it included Muslim activist Maajid Nawaz on a list of anti-Muslim extremists.
Michael Edison Hayden, the SPLC reporter who has authored the summaries of Miller’s communications, argued that his work should be viewed separately from any criticisms of the organization’s leadership and that Miller’s emails speak for themselves.
We are an organization dedicated to smearing and diminishing the influence of anyone who disagrees with us, but that doesn’t mean you should take that into account when you get our press releases. And whatever you do, don’t scrutinize our definition of “hate groups” or “white nationalism”.
Much racist. So bigot.
*gasp* Advocating for restricted immigration (which, err, is theoretically what we have now)? Crucifixion is too good for them.
Miller’s emails speak for themselves
That point would be a lot more potent if they were actually available and not just “summarized” by the SPLC. Also, I thought exposing private email communications was a bad thing?
Progs/ It isn’t wrong when WE do it.
Hard hitting journalism from the kids at Meet the Press:
“Many self-identified Republicans we spoke to said they feel politically homeless. The Republican party doesn’t look like the party they grew up with. Because, you know… Ump-Tray. They are probably going to vote for a Democrat. Trust us on this.’
I find it quite credible that the handful of “Republicans” who live on the Upper East Side feel that way.
Meh. That Trump would divide the Republican Party was obvious from the start. The number of people who voted Republican before who are off put by Trump now is not insignificant. Trump is pure id and not everybody wanted that. He got to be the nominee because 1) the Republicans held an actual primary instead of a show primary like the Democrats did and 2) the Rockefeller Republicans didn’t unite around a candidate until too late in the cycle.
The problem is more that we have a two-party system that fails to capture the range of views held by people. Yet nobody actually wants to change that.
When the fuck did everyone start “identifying” as everything. It’s a weird fucking turn of phrase that must have post modern connotations. I don’t like it.
Also stay off my lawn.
Absolutely post-modern, in line with post-modernism’s general denial of objective reality in favor of subjectivity.
Their definition of subjectivity is shit. It’s not that everybody gets their own truth, it’s that some people get their own truth and everybody else has to STFU. I don’t think even the postmodernists were that crazy.
I decided to do a derpdive and read the comments on an IG social justice site. Some brave fool was asking why it’s the fault of all men that one woman feels afraid every time she takes an Uber.
The answer, distilled down, was ‘STFU h8r’
If you distill down the message, it’s the most regressive and ancient of all: my tribe, über alles. The only thing modern, never mind post-modern, about it is that the tribal lines are not strictly ethnic.
I guess that helps explain why they absolutely need White Supremacy to be pervasive. You can’t be ‘the one true people’ without tribal enemies.
That, and if they didn’t exist the struggle would have to end. They need white nationalists (and various and sundry other tribal enemies, homophobes, transphobes, sexists, etc.) to be pervasive so that nobody can be a bystander sitting on the sidelines thinking “isn’t the civil rights movement done? didn’t we achieve equality already?”
“He [Trump] is poison to suburban white voters.’
I remain unconvinced.
Women donations for Trump surge, No. 1 in suburbs
To be fair, all the Dems as a group have gotten more money from chicks and soccer moms than Trump has, around $34mm total from soccer moms as compared to $8mm for Trump. Weirdly, Buttigieg and Harris are raking it in from that demographic, and Warren is lagging.
Weirdly, Buttigieg and Harris are raking it in from that demographic, and Warren is lagging.
I don’t find that weird at all. Neither of those two are pinkos and Harris has additionally got that “I locked bad people up” cred that soccer moms love.
Neither of those two are pinkos
They both support the Green New Deal, which makes them pretty effing pink in my book.
I think, though, that absolutely nobody takes that seriously, including them, so voters don’t hold it against them.
Yep. It’s no downside, all upside to them right now. Like Obama’s “opposition” to gay marriage.
Also, pink is relative here. Grandpa Gulag and Chief Five-Year Plan are also frontrunners.
Buttigieg is their perfect non-threatening gay male friend, so those donations make sense. The Harris donations, I don’t get.
Not so much in my white suburb.
They’re basing this opinion on the mid-term “blue wave”. I think that is a mistake.
we’re pretty much to the point where investigating a Democrat politician is an abuse of power.
GOOOOOAAALLLLL!
Lunch – 3 lbs of porterhouse goodness.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/sY0RQrNPQvyYz-0ijT-7KQ._ejETkcrN6vcMWN3pjYaQ8
*Some where in the distance, a progressive is triggered and starts crying*
Mornin, Glibbies. I guess. The Benadryl sans Tylenol worked a treat. How long will it work? I know not.
…not to mention drama that must have left you exhausted.
Hope things look brighter by the light of day.
Thank you. I am going to purge some more today to make myself feel better and a little more in control of my life, of which I have almost zero right now.
Good morning. I hope your day is better than yesterday.
Moje: another thing you can try if the Benadryl stops doing its thing is generic Gravol (Dimenhydrinate). The spousal unit and I use it whenever we need to take the edge off to get some sleep. It’s cheap, available everywhere (even crappy airport “pharmacies”), and works. Trademarked Gravol™ will work too, of course, but it’s pricey.
Dammit. I knew I forgot something in my post.
Again I want to thank everybody for the good wishes. It helped and we felt them.
I missed your post last night, but sorry to hear you’re going through it right now. Hope today is better!
‘stiff upper lip chap!’
Damn stomach flu had me out all night.
Dude, tequila doesn’t give you the stomach flu.
My stomach flu’s usually keep me house (and toilet) bound.
Good hungover morning from PST Glibs!
The problem is more that we have a two-party system that fails to capture the range of views held by people. Yet nobody actually wants to change that.
And the media goes all in on collectivist characterizations of voting “blocs”.
I remember when they used to ridicule Booooosh for his simpletonian with-us-or-agin-us Manicheanism.
tPhiladelphia, Kansas City, New York, Washington, San Francisco, Detroit and Nashville. So predictable.
?
Teams showing up for CK’s workout. All politics. Not football.
SanFran is 8-1. That must be a problem, looks like they’re trying to find a way to fix it.
Wait a minute!
Ah.
California bans government purchases of most gas-powered cars under Newsom climate order
How long until the state sinks into the Pacific from the weight of smugness and stupidity?
FTA:
Something, something, Wickard v. Filburn.
Also, note that it only says “full gas sedans”. In other words, they’re just going to buy lots of hybrids.
Would be nice if, say, Texas were to require that state agencies only buy vehicles from manufacturers that do not recognize California’s ability to set its own air pollution standards.
That would (rightfully) be smacked down as unconstitutional pretty quickly.
Only if CA’s mirror image rule is struck down. Honestly, not sure why it would be. Purchasing requirements for state agencies are not regulation of commerce.
Everything is commerce, thanks to SCOTUS. And until very, very recently the feds were supreme vis-a-vis commerce (and, I have a very strong suspicion, will be again in 1.5-5.5 years).
That having been said, California’s regulation is not targeted at any state in particular. Even if we reject federal supremacy over all commerce, there is still the fact that states cannot disadvantage commerce from other states. Texas can’t single out California.
“Texas can’t single out California.”
Depends on if they go Blue and are controlled by Democrats. Then they can do whatever they want. In cause you haven’t been watching their behavior recently, they’ve thrown out the rule book and are making it up as they go. But no worries, there will be no collateral damage to the entire nation.
This is results-based jurisprudence taken to its (il)logical end, which is that the rules will get rewritten every time a decision is handed down. Precedent only matters if it gets the right result.
Why not? NY can single out Trump’s accountant.
“Why not? NY can single out Trump’s accountant.”
And minor league court judges in Hawaii and Cali can overturn any law of the land at their whim.
Texas can’t single out California.
Not sure why not, but if this is a problem Texas can adopt a policy directed at all states who claim to have teh ability to set their own air pollution standards.
Bullshit. My state’s ferry’s require a certain percent to be built at home.
I just hope it happens before the great depopulation the Democrats are 100% assured going to cause and half my neighbors, no matter where I live, are Cali expats who vote for the same shit they just fled from.
^THIS right here^
Voting lags culture and markets. The problem isn’t that they come, it’s that they come wanting to transform rather than adapt.
#notAllFormerCalifornians!
We left when I was 10. Pretty sure I wouldn’t recognize the place now.
Greaaaat. Are they deliberately trying to depopulate their own state and inflict their citizens on the intermountain west?
Half of the refugees are in North Carolina from what I’ve heard. First VA turns Blue and NC will be next.
Yes
Man, the mosquitoes were huge here all summer and late into the fall. Woodticks, they came early with snow on the ground and are still in the woods. Snow? It started in October, this winter is gonna be way colder and more snow than last year, according to the locals. I don’t mind -30 but when it gets too cold for ice fishing I’m staying in.
Psssst. Pass it on to friends in CA, NY, etc
I like the cold. You’re not keeping me out that way, buster.
There is only one good things that happen in Winter, sometimes my clients all shut down because Balmer can’t handle removing more than 2″ of snow and no one is brave enough to get on the roads here when it’s snowing anyway. SNOW DAY! Drives my wife crazy, I’ll usually get the memo before 7am and then I’ll run back to the bedroom and jump up and down on the bed yelling SNOW DAY, SNOW DAY! She really hates that, but I find it endlessly amusing.
When you see state governments running authoritarian stunts on their own employees, rest assured it’s just mini-trial runs of what hey have planned for all of us. I remember a while back when the Baltimore City government banned their employees from traveling to Georgia because of some silly bathroom law or something like that.
Next week, California quadruples the size of the state government. For Gaia.
WRT pickle juice as a treacle.
Sitting in church this morning, my friend next to me said “did you have pickles for breakfast or something?”.
Guess I coulda stifled that burp a little better.
Pickle Juice is wonderful stuff. I could drink an entire jar of it right now if any of it were left.
Redneck moment:
We use pickle juice as a condiment. Particularly for salmon croquettes. Just drizzle over the crunchy/soggy mess to make a meal come alive.
That’s about as redneck as it gets.
Even if we reject federal supremacy over all commerce, there is still the fact that states cannot disadvantage commerce from other states. Texas can’t single out California.
*searches dim memories of California explicitly banning travel to or purchases from states not towing the transgender bathroom justice lion*
See my comment upthread about Balmer. They did exactly the same thing. They’re are no rules when wrong thinkers have to be punished.
Yeah. Hyp has probably got the more accurate read on this, which is (much like gerrymandering) “Democrats did it = good, Republicans did it = bad”.
I should say, this isn’t entirely accurate. The party affiliation is only a weak proxy for whatever the actual factions are. Even right-left or conservative-liberal isn’t quite the dividing line. People who were on the right side of history yesterday get kicked out of the bus today and called dangerously regressive tomorrow.
I had good intentions of getting up and going to church…..but I’m hung over and it’s raining. I guess coffee and RDR2 will have to suffice.
At first, I read that as “R2D2” and thought you were going to attend this service.
You non-gamers…
I even took Solitaire off my laptop because I found it too addictive.
I play Spider a lot, but I’ve gotten so good at it, I never lose, so I’ll probably just quit and stick to RPG or strategy games on PC.
I’m so early in, I was just getting ready to rob a train when I quit last night. Going to be a lot of RDR2 today, with maybe some foozball in between.
I’m experiencing a fair amount of stuttering & crashing. Kinda putting me off playing. The “crashing” is the stuck/hang-on-loading-screen variety. So loading is always a gamble whether I will have to force close and try again.
I have a geforce gtx 1660 TI, it shouldn’t be struggling too much, I would think.
Also, I would like to enjoy playing online, but it seems so bare-bones right now, and there’s no text chat, like wtf? How are you supposed to coordinate/group with anyone?
Rockstar is weird. Core game is great so far when it works.
I get about 40-50 FPS with the graphics maxed out and 70-80 on medium, at 3440×1440. The last patch seemed to increase performance for me quite a bit. No stuttering, but I have a gsync monitor. 1080ti. I always pause and crank the graphics down to medium before any shooting or anything. The part early on when you go deer hunting was driving me nuts. I could not hit one of those fuckers at all at 40-50 FPS, but then I tried it on medium and I shot 2 of them in less than 5 seconds of each other, first shot.
Even right-left or conservative-liberal isn’t quite the dividing line. People who were on the right side of history yesterday get kicked out of the bus today and called dangerously regressive tomorrow.
“Right” and “Wrong” are malleable concepts, depending on who wins and who loses.
It all depends on intentions. They did it and it’s bad, but we did it and it’s OK, because we had the right intentions.
One thing my religious adult family members would oft repeat when I was a kid, that has sort of stuck with me: The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Baby ducks jumping into the water… cute.
https://twitter.com/Tank92007670/status/1196106072995614720?s=20
That is a lot of mouths to feed. ?
The wife and I tore through half a bottle of Four Roses small batch yesterday. I’m showered and feeling like a champ. My wife is still passed out. And I want breakfast. Wake up. Breakfast. Wake up. Breakfast.
We’ll check on you a little later today to see if your wife’s murdered you yet.
I got up at 7am. Not sure what I was thinking. Waited 5 hours to pop a beer, that’s no fun at all.