Tuesday Morning Links

Good morning my Glibs and Gliberinas!  And what a glorious morning it is for Democrats as Cohen is set to give three days of congressional testimony and provide plenty of fodder for Democrats and their quest to take down Bad Orange Man.  Will the Democrats finally succeed in their quest or will our anti-hero escape another dangerous trap?  Find out on the next episode of Trump!

For the drunk child in all of us.

 

Jessie Smollett’s defense appears to be that his Nigerian friends are homophobic.

 

183 people have been stranded on a Amtrak train for over 24 hours.

 

Maybe we do live in a patriarchy as men are even dominating women in women sports.

 

 

The Green New Deal’s estimated cost is $93 trillion.

 

 

That’s all I got for today.  I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.

 

 

Comments

510 responses to “Tuesday Morning Links”

    1. Banjos

      Mornin’, UnCiv!

  1. Sean

    Good morning Banjos.

    1. Banjos

      Mornin’, Sean!

  2. Jessie Smollett’s defense appears to be that his Nigerian friends are homophobic.

    So, the $3500 was what? Payment for the drugs he bought off them?

    1. AlexinCT

      Sexual services. In those cultures the catcher is the only one that is gay….

      1. Rhywun

        “We were born and raised in Chicago and are American citizens.”

        Assuming this presumably easily fact-checked assertion is accurate, I am still not clear on the relevance of Nigeria that the media seems intent on pushing.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          The media, with all of their prog slavishness to identity politics, refuse to treat anyone as an individual and always identify them as a member of a collective first.

    2. I wish those 2 guys would’ve beat the shit out him for real.

  3. Chipwooder

    I wish they’d write out the numeral for 93 trillion in those stories, because the mere words don’t give it the appropriate scale

    1. $93,000,000,000,000? Do you have change for a $100trillion note?

      1. AlexinCT

        Does that not have that picture of Karla Marx above on it?

    2. Atanarjuat

      Yeah, but what’s the cost of *not* doing it?

      1. Turns out we actually make money and have a drastically improved standard of living if we don’t do it.

        1. *shoves fingers in ears and begins singing Captain Planet theme song at top of lungs*

        2. AlexinCT

          And we don’t end up with a communist system of government that our elite class pines for. How are these elites finally going to give us serfs our due diligence for getting in their way unless we disarm and abdicate all our freedoms in return for the promise of money if we don’t want to work, free edumacashun, and free healthcare?

      2. PieInTheSky

        I say we survey a bunch of 14 year olds and find out

        1. Tejicano

          Paging OMWC to the white phone!

          1. Jarflax

            Paging OMWC to the white phone!

            Problematic

          2. pan fried wylie

            no. Teji fucked up, it’s supposed to be the “white courtesy phone”, and “white courtesy” is EVEN MORE PROBLEMATIC.

    3. straffinrun

      I tried to convert it to Roman numerals and all I got was a Crash Test Dummy song.

      1. invisible finger

        I looked this up and the internet would never lie to me. The answer made me chuckle.

        One trillion in Roman numerals would be “M” with three lines over it. Improved Answer:- (((M))) (X) = 1,000,000,000,000 Numerals in treble backets indicate multiplication by 100,000 and superscript numerals indicate mutiplication by that particular number.

        1. straffinrun

          Doing the work I wouldn’t do for my own bad joke. Thumbs up.

        2. robc

          M is a 1000 to gentiles and 1 trillion to jews. Seems right.

          1. pan fried wylie

            I only recently learned about the long-system of numeral naming.

      2. Juvenile Bluster

        I remember almost nothing about that song, but I remember every line of the Weird Al parody of it.

    4. Gadfly

      I wish they’d write out the numeral for 93 trillion in those stories, because the mere words don’t give it the appropriate scale

      Pshaw, you make it sound like a lot.

      It’s only the equivalent of 44 million lifetimes’ worth of salary.

      It’s only 18 times as much as the total amount of hard currency in the world.

      It’s only 3 times the value of all the homes in the US.

      It’s only slightly more than the total annual GDP of the world ($84T).

      Nothing, really.

  4. Pat

    For the drunk child in all of us.

    inb4 the c&d

  5. >>The Green New Deal’s estimated cost is $93 trillion.

    Why do you hate progress?

    1. AlexinCT

      Funny how the progress the left sells is tantamount with committing suicide as a nation, huh?

    2. Ayn Random Variation

      Once again shows that it’s a good thing the mask is off. The commies just a few years ago would be selling it as a net gain due to savings in “waste, fraud and abuse “.
      If you like your car, you can keep your car.

    3. Rhywun

      I wonder if that figure includes the graft.

      1. pan fried wylie

        It’s all graft, isn’t it?

  6. Pat

    183 people have been stranded on a Amtrak train for over 24 hours.

    When your choo choo utopia gets fucked up by a log…

    1. The obvious answer is to cut down all the trees near the train tracks.

      1. Trials and Trippelations

        You monster!
        Those trees are older than the train tracks and have the right to remain unmolested by 19th century progress

    2. ScoobaSteve

      They are lucky they weren’t in a plane. Hitting that tree in a plane would have killed them all.

    3. juris imprudent

      When I read that I almost thought the article stated the train started with 200 people on board and was now done to 183.

      1. juris imprudent

        down to, not done to…

        1. ElspethFlashman

          When will cannibalism happen? is what we are all thinking . . .

          1. AlexinCT

            That is why you always travel with a spice rack?

    4. Viking1865

      “”A lot of the [older] kids have been really good but they’re having to run up and down and it’s a lot,” she told the news station. “Especially the food — it’s not really food they’re liking. Moms are doing all they can right now.”

      Oh that triggers my parenting pet peeve. When I was a kid, we ate what was on the table. If you didn’t like it, the next meal might be more to your liking. But my parents used the phrase “I am not a short order cook” fairly often.

      1. pan fried wylie

        Except, it’s not your kitchen. It’s a commercial operation that actually employs a short order cook on the premises.

  7. Atanarjuat

    “Jesse Smollett”

    More like Juicy Smollett, when he goes to prison, amiright?

    /late night comedian

    1. They don’t do those jokes anymore.

      1. blighted_non_millenial

        Let me fix that for you – They don’t do jokes anymore.

  8. Pat

    I’ll leave you with a song

    I’m not one of these Brian Wilson dickriders by any means, but what they did to that song should be a capital offense

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      *clicks link*

      WTF

    2. MikeS

      *clicks link*

      Hmmm…I want to hate it…but I don’t.

    3. Tonio

      The Sloop John B is not a BB composition, but a traditional Bahamas folk song.

      1. Pat

        The only reason it’s famous though is because of the Beach Boys adaptation. Also the original publication of the folk song was under a different title (ACKCHYUALLY!)

      2. Tonio

        Meh. The Weavers version, which came out in the fifties, was fairly well-known.

        Yep. It was a folk song so it didn’t have a formal title. It’s been recorded with several different names.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          KULTOORAWL APROPEEASHUN!

      3. The Last American Hero

        Dick Dale did it best. Quit fighting.

  9. Slammer

    183 people have been stranded on a Amtrak train for over 24 hours.

    I thought Trump was a Fascist Dictator

    1. Fourscore

      If it was a Leap Year no one would have noticed

  10. Slammer

    Trump better still be President and give a rally speech July 4th, or I’m going to be super pissed off. My wife booked a hotel in DC for July 3rd and 4th so we can go.

    1. Tonio

      If you’re going to be there on July 4th check with the hotel if they have a good view of the fireworks on the mall.

      DC is miserable in July and full of tourists.

    2. Gadfly

      Trump usually gives rally speeches elsewhere than DC. He likes an adoring crowd, which is somewhat in short supply for an R in the DC environs. And if you were banking on him being out of town, that’s not going to decrease the traffic noticeably.

  11. >>their quest to take down Bad Orange Man

    More like the never-ending story, filled with twists and turns, not-so exciting “revelations” and a new cast of characters every week.

    Personally I’ve tuned a lot of this stuff out – and I imagine a lot of the public has too; minus the Orange Man Bad crowd.

    1. AlexinCT

      This show is both for that crowd (so they can continue to make campaign donations) and to distract from the criminal activity the Obama admin engaged in. I suspect Trump will declassify a ton of documents right before the 2020 election, and we will see how the Obama admin colluded with foreign intel agencies to spy on a political candidate to help out Clinton, and at that point his 5-D chess move, combined with the hard lurch into “We want to recreate the USSR” the dnc is taking will kill whatever idiot survived the dnc version of the Thunderdome. Then you are going to see some deranged lefties, as the investigations sure to follow result in the Justice Department being forced to put a lot of prominent democrats (including Obama and Clinton) and loads of Obama admin bureaucrats that were part of the weaponization of the US government to help Hillary finally break the dnc’s political enemies, into orange suits.

      1. WTF

        You are quite optimistic. I don’t think anything of the sort will ever happen, although it should and I would love to see it.

        1. Rebel Scum

          I think a document dump is plausible and possible. But I don’t expect any legal consequences for the perps.

          1. WTF

            Yeah, I agree. The media will go to heroic lengths to bury and/or explain away the info in any document dump that reflects badly on the Dems.

          2. AlexinCT

            I have no doubt that there will be a lot of resistance, but if there are no consequences, then not just Trump, but anyone that follows in the POTUS role, will basically be able to say he/she should be allowed to do the same shit that the Obama admin got away with. I suspect people will suddenly find a problem with that. Then again, maybe I am being optimistic considering how many idiots have fallen for Karla Marx’s new green deal shit considering the massive level of fraud behind the whole AGW movement.

  12. Trials and Trippelations

    *checks Va brewery link to make sure he’s never had their stuff*

    Nope.
    Whew

    1. Nephilium

      Meh. Platform bought out several stores worth of Count Chocula one year to make a chocolate breakfast stout, and for their iron brewer challenge one person had to use Froot Loops as an ingredient. Including children’s cereal is just another adjunct (albeit with even more sugar then most).

      1. Trials and Trippelations

        Ah. Yea, you’re right anything can be brewed with. The cereal is just sugar.

        In my (limited) experience the weird stuff iusually doesn’t taste good.

        1. Nephilium

          I’m just getting annoyed that this one story is getting so much press. FFS, it’s shown up in my Google news feed every day for the past two weeks, and usually from different sources. It’s a beer designed to taste like marshmallows (hopefully not stale ones like those in Lucky Charms), that’s not unusual nor new. Two Brothers had a s’mores inspired beer almost a decade ago, New Holland has released a s’mores variant of their Dragon’s Milk, and a quick search shows over a dozen other marshmallow themed beers.

  13. Pope Jimbo

    My boss and I took the Amtrak train home from Chicago about a year and a half ago. We got really, really drunk on the ride. I actually feel bad for the poor porter who had to put up with our drunk asses for the 9 hours or so we were on the train.

    But 24 hours stranded? We would have run out of booze by now and been surly and hungover.

    1. Trials and Trippelations

      My wife and I did the Coastal California train (waste of money). I remember some employee coming on the PA breathlessly yelling that you cannot drink your own alcohol on the train. She was all in a huff and had a how dare you attitude.
      Not sure if the announcement was aimed at me as I was sipping on beer from my growler

      1. MikeS

        I thought you were free to bring beer onto Amtrak. Maybe it depends on the route? I’m pretty sure the Empire Builder (Chicago-Seattle) allows it.

        1. Trials and Trippelations

          Could be a route thing.

        2. Cy

          They let you bring guns, why not beer and whiskey too?

      2. Pope Jimbo

        The porter didn’t give us any shit about us bringing on a cooler of beer and a bottle of Jameson.

        When I looked in the cooler the next morning, I found 3 cans of beer left out of the 36 beers we started with. The Jame-o was never seen again.

        Of course, we had our own sleeper car room. Maybe that is why they didn’t care?

  14. The Late P Brooks

    “Strangers are playing cards. A teenager played his ukulele to kids to get them to sleep. Ladies who have never met before were dancing in aisles,” another passenger, Rebekah Dodson, told CNN.

    When you get to the camps, there will be ukuleles and dancing, too, Comrade. And plenty of strenuous activity.

    1. AlexinCT

      Moving a big rock from one end of the camp to another and then back?

    2. deadhead

      Puts a whole ‘nother meaning to “This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on.”

      On the other hand so does that time I ate four hits of four-way.

  15. Sensei

    And today’s WSJ has a page 1 article “Marine Recruits Learn an Important Lesson: What Happened on 9/11”

    It’s safe to say no American fought in World War II without a personal memory of the Japanese sneak attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Recruits at Parris Island and the West Coast boot camp in San Diego attend a mandatory history class where they’re taught about the Sept. 11 attacks and their connection to the Afghanistan war.

    As Orwell so presciently noted “We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.”

    1. WTF

      Well, technically we are still at war with North Korea.

      1. Sensei

        Maybe someday we can get the US out of both there and Japan.

        Right now Okinawa is being shit upon by Abe and Tokyo and being told we don’t care that you overwhelming don’t want an expanded military base, you’re going to take one for the team!

        1. Pope Jimbo

          The Japanese have never really considered Okinawans as real Japanese, so it isn’t surprising that the pols in Tokyo don’t feel bad at all about forcing Okinawa to be a floating prison for American servicemen.

          1. Sensei

            The Ainu (in the north) would like a word with the Okinawans…

            (But I agree with your point!)

      2. Rasilio

        Incorrect, they may technically be at war with us, not sure on that point but we never declared war on them and so our ally South Korea technically remains at war with the Norks but we do not.

    2. Chipwooder

      That should be instructive, but of course it won’t be.

      By the end of this year there will likely be soldiers sent to Afghanistan who weren’t yet born when the war began.

    3. leon

      If i was into 9/11 Conspiracy, i’d point to the fact that every elementary, Middle and High school seemed to have the resources available for every young child to watch what happened. You don’t get much better at indoctrination schemes than that.

      1. Sensei

        True enough, but not every 17 year old Marine recruit may have been paying lots of attention.

      2. They didn’t let us watch coverage, despite there being a TV in every room. The other Jr high in the district did get to watch it, though.

        1. Not Adahn

          Wait, you’re young enough to have watched it in school? I thought you were one of the crusty types.

          1. He was held back a few years.

        2. spqr2008

          They didn’t let us watch any of the coverage either, and killed the internet because we might take out our anger at it on the 5 Muslim students in my high school at the time. When they said that, I simply asked one of the twin girls ( there were only 3 families at the time) if their parents were traveling ( which I had asked of everyone that day, to make sure none of the people in my classes were going to lose parents). I also stated that it was highly unlikely the Pakistani and Jordanian families of our Muslim classmates was involved, because it was odds on Al Qaeda and Saudi nationals. I had done a research paper I turned in in May of 2001 that addressed the fact that Islamic terrorism from Al Qaeda was likely to hit the US Homeland again, and soon, since Clinton didn’t take out Bin Laden. As soon as I got home and learned about Flight 93, I figured that attack vector was permanently eliminated, so we went out to dinner for my mom’s birthday (and guess how my brother, my cousins, and I remember my mom’s birthday?).

        3. Viking1865

          The leftist teacher refused to turn it on, and decided to teach us about AMERICAN IMPERIALISM by way of Chomsky, Zinn, etc.

          1. So you formed a counterrevolutionary cadre and threw the teacher out the window, right?

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Fundamentally, there is a discussion to be had about American Imperialism, but Chomsky and Zinn are worthless hacks.

        4. Cy

          I was in an Alternative HS on the west coast. My mom woke me up just in time to watch the 2nd plane hit a tower. When I finally got to school, my teachers and classmates thought pretty highly of me because I managed to figure out how we could live stream the news using the internet, not bad for 2001. We didn’t have cable or TV.

          1. pan fried wylie

            “We found a desktop with a composite out, just need to slap this ethernet card in it, install some drivers, and RealPlayer, and we’re in business.”

        5. Old Man With Candy

          I had been at an industry-run wine training seminar up in Sonoma on the 10th. Was invited to spend the night there by a very nice wine journalist from Arizona, but remembered my (then) wife and kid back home and declined. Drove home, woke up early, turned on the TV and… holy fucking shit.

          I still have the diploma from the course, dated 9/11/2001. And in retrospect, I should have taken the journalist up on her offer, but that’s a story for a different day.

        6. Jerms

          I was right down the block working at 59 maiden lane. Got covered in dust and pretty much shit my pant when the first tower fell. Watched the second one come down while walking home across the Manhattan bridge.

          1. Rhywun

            I was at 120 Broadway, late to work. Saw the 2nd plane hit and dropped my coffee & hightailed it home to Queens. Didn’t know what happened until I got home several hours later.

        7. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Still in bed with my wife in San Diego.

          Friend of ours who was a flight attendant called us in a panic and told us to turn the TV on.

        8. Tundra

          Out for a run. I was listening to a local morning show and the guys were trying to figure out wtf was happening. I sprinted home and spent the rest of the day watching coverage and trying to reach some peeps who worked in Manhattan.

        9. I was unemployed at the time, gladly leaving a high stress job to become a Stay-At-Home Dad for a few months. My wife was off at work, and I was sitting down the baby to watch some TV. Flicking through the channels I saw a report that a plane had hit the first tower. I thought it was an accident, so we headed off to the grocery store to buy a few things. By the time we came back, the second plane had hit.

          That’s when I thought it would be a good time to fill up the tank of my truck. So off to the local gas station I went. Perhaps it was my imagination but the roads seemed quieter than normal; traffic a lit lighter and no one was using their horn. As I filled the truck up with gas, I saw some other customers: sobbing teenager hugging her dad. I drove home and wondered what kind of changes in the world my son would see.

        10. WTF

          I was off work because I had to help my friend handle their very large and uncooperative dog at the vet, since I was the only one he would allow to restrain him. Got back and flipped on the TV and saw the first tower burning, when they were still reporting it as an apparent accident. I saw the explosion on TV when the second plane hit, and didn’t quite understand what happened at first. Later looked to the east at the NYC skyline, and saw the smoke coming from the towers. Noted how weird it was with not a single plane in the sky.

        11. Not Adahn

          I was working. Nobody stopped working, and no TVs were watched.

          The next day was the last day I listened to Pacifica radio, since they were celebrating the attacks and saying they “needed to happen again and again until Americans values the lives of brown people as much as whites.”

          If I ever meet Amy Goodman or Juan Gonzales, I will beat them, possibly to death.

        12. hate_speech

          I was working on a production line at the time.

          Funny this came up today. I’m thinking of writing a few part series of articles about how I moved from progressive to libertarian, and it seems right to also mention why I was a progressive in the first place. Oddly, it all started with 9/11….. *Fires up wayback machine*

          1. dbleagle

            I was at Ft Bragg and a one person in group of us LTC’s were waiting in a conference room for our boss to chew us up for something that had gone wrong over the weekend. One of our people told us about a plane hitting the WTC so we turned on the TV to watch while we waited. We were commenting about how stupid a pilot had to be to hit the tower on such a clear day. As we watched we saw a blur cross the screen and the second tower explode and just turned to each other with “Oh shit” on our lips. We heard about the pentagon and then our boss walked in and simply told us, “Gentlemen we are at war. We don’t know with who yet. Get your sections on a war footing and be ready to send our battalions overseas.” Then we walked out to get ready to fight.

            That evening when I drove home to the Raleigh area I saw maybe 3 cars the entire way and the skies were quiet.

          2. hate_speech

            That’s fucking wild. I think you could have heard a pin drop across the entire country everyone was so stunned.

            I couldn’t imagine what it was like for anyone serving in the military at the time.

        13. Tripacer

          I was a fresh Private in the Army Guard, working full time for the recruiter. Had the day off. Saw the second plane hit on TV, decided to go the armory anyway. Then, in a scene reminiscent of the bowling ally scene from Canadian Bacon I was handed a rifle and told to hang out by the door.

    4. Pat

      It’s safe to say no American fought in World War II without a personal memory of the Japanese sneak attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

      Yes, but then we weren’t dealing with the sort of sophisticated nth dimensional chess high stakes statecraft like in today’s environment.

      1. juris imprudent

        You want to read some depressing shit about that sophisticated nth dimensional chess – read up on “mega cities” and the need for the Army to fightoperate in them.

        My question on that stupidity is, okay, so you want to play the German Army – in which operation, the Siege of Leningrad, or even better, the Battle of Stalingrad?

    5. Rebel Scum

      I was in fifth grade. We did not watch it. But I recall the teacher being called out of the room for a bit and being concerned when he returned.

      1. Rebel Scum

        9/11, that is.

      2. Holy shit, young’n. I was at home with LH Jr., who was just 6 months old.

        1. *looks sheepishly*

          I was in comp sci class in college when the first one hit, and standing in line in antoher campus building when the second did.

          Now I feel old.

          1. Not Adahn

            I was in Org II when the OKC bombings happened. Someone came in and got all the ROTC folks out to respond.

  16. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Tard Tuesday: Demoralizing the Opposition Is Voter Suppression

    As cited by the Snopes article, Brad Parscale (Trump digital campaign manager) admitted to Bloomberg, in Oct. 2016, that “We have three major voter suppression operations under way”.
    As well as claiming that targeted “dark posts” were used as part of those operations.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Personally I’ve tuned a lot of this stuff out

    #METOO

    It’s just buzzing in the background. Like the announcers on a football broadcast.

    1. pan fried wylie

      Thankfully, only to Florida Men.

  18. Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth
    After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on the planet. But its benefits mask enormous dangers to the planet, to human health – and to culture itself

    It also magnifies the extreme weather it shelters us from. Taking in all stages of production, concrete is said to be responsible for 4-8% of the world’s CO2. Among materials, only coal, oil and gas are a greater source of greenhouse gases. Half of concrete’s CO2 emissions are created during the manufacture of clinker, the most-energy intensive part of the cement-making process.

    But other environmental impacts are far less well understood. Concrete is a thirsty behemoth, sucking up almost a 10th of the world’s industrial water use. This often strains supplies for drinking and irrigation, because 75% of this consumption is in drought and water-stressed regions. In cities, concrete also adds to the heat-island effect by absorbing the warmth of the sun and trapping gases from car exhausts and air-conditioner units – though it is, at least, better than darker asphalt.

    It also worsens the problem of silicosis and other respiratory diseases. The dust from wind-blown stocks and mixers contributes as much as 10% of the coarse particulate matter that chokes Delhi, where researchers found in 2015 that the air pollution index at all of the 19 biggest construction sites exceeded safe levels by at least three times. Limestone quarries and cement factories are also often pollution sources, along with the trucks that ferry materials between them and building sites. At this scale, even the acquisition of sand can be catastrophic – destroying so many of the world’s beaches and river courses that this form of mining is now increasingly run by organised crime gangs and associated with murderous violence.

    So back to thatch huts made with manure and twigs?

    1. Slammer

      Rock-solid trolling.

      7/10, would read again

      1. Sensei

        Nice! I chuckled.

    2. No, no! The manure is fuel – it is mud brick.

      1. Chipwooder

        “The settlers didn’t use mud, they used sod, dad!”

        “That’s right, Audrey. And when they ran out of did, they used mud”

      2. Jarflax

        Mud brick releases water vapor when it dries. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas. Other animals sleep in holes in the ground formed by wind and water, why should you be better off than them?

    3. Trigger Hippie

      Question from the ignorant: Is the cost effectiveness and availability of volcanic ash-based/Roman concrete so poor that it’s unfeasible to use on modern day construction? It sure as hell lasts far, far longer than the modern stuff.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Concrete is almost always made from local materials. Hence why Florida concrete is soft(sugar sand and limestone), but Louisiana concrete is hard (river aggregate and washed river sand).

        1. STEVE SMITH CONCRETE HARDEST OF THEM ALL

      2. I suspect it is easier to mass produce portland cement than it is to sift the volcanic ash. And if the building lasts fifty years instead of two thousand, does it make a difference for the people who built it?

      3. Shpip

        When I was in Hawaii I noticed that most of the buildings were made from local volcanic rock, even the public restrooms.

        That’s why they called them lavatories.

        1. That’s just what happens after a light eruption covers the base structure.

          Oh, and that wasn’t rock…

        2. Jarflax

          The magmatude of this disclosure is erupting in my brain!

          1. pan fried wylie

            Just a warm-up for the really explosive leaks to flowllow.

    4. Taking in all stages of production, concrete is said to be responsible for 4-8% of the world’s CO2.

      Except that man-made sources only account for 4% combined…

      1. MikeS

        Stop messing with the narrative!!!!11!!

    5. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Concrete enabled the construction of the modern city that this asshat lives in and takes for granted.

    6. Rufus the Monocled

      “Concrete is tipping us into climate catastrophe. It’s payback time
      John Vidal”

      He wants to exact revenge on a material. That humans invented.

      That’s a name I’m gonna keep tucked away in the back of my mind whenever I think ‘retard’.

      These people are drunk on animus.

    7. PieInTheSky

      Tucked away in volume three of the technical data for Britain’s £53bn high speed rail project is a table that shows 20m tonnes of concrete will have to be poured to build the requisite 105 miles of track, culverts, bridges and tunnels. – but high speed rail is greeeeen

      A more modest 3 million tonnes of concrete will be needed to construct the Hinckley B nuclear power station in Somerset – I am sure all those windmills don’t use concrete.

      1. Tonio

        I would imagine that those windmills sit atop huge concrete slabs to keep them from tipping over, so yeah.

        1. pan fried wylie

          A windmill isn’t as dense a structure, so the foundation slab wouldn’t be quite so massive as say for a comparatively sized storage tank, though the top heavy nature would call for a wider footprint.

          /armchair-engineer-off

  19. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Slams GOP Senator for Quoting ‘Hitler Ally Benito Mussolini Like it’s a Hallmark Card’

    “In case you missed it, while the GOP is calling paying a living wage ‘socialism,’ a Republican Senator full-on quoted National Fascist Party leader and Hitler ally Benito Mussolini like it’s a Hallmark card,” the New York Democrat wrote on Twitter.

    The democratic socialist was responding to Cornyn’s tweet which read: “‘We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become.’ Benito Mussolini.”

    After a backlash, Cornyn sought to clarify that he was not endorsing Mussolini or the quote.

    Bud Kennedy, a news columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, wrote on Twitter that he thought Cornyn “appears to be warning us against an overly powerful central government. But it’d help if he’d clarify.”

    The senator replied: “You nailed it, Bud. Since so-called Democratic Socialists have forgotten or never learned the lessons of history, and how their ideology is incompatible with freedom, I guess we have to remind or teach them.”

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        Say what you will, the man was a snappy dresser.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          And he had excellent posture

      2. invisible finger

        Kinda looks like Manny Machado

        1. Jerms

          Dont mention Machado. He should be a Yankee.

    1. Pat

      Republican senator makes an elementary point about the historical illiteracy of young media and politics types; young media and politics types immediately prove him right

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        Exactly.

        When I read it, I knew what he was getting at.

        We’re running out of words to describe the spectacular stupidity of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

        1. Tonio

          ^These

        2. juris imprudent

          PAOCs – Points of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This is an open-ended scale of real numbers (whole, non-negative) starting at 1 correlated to the stupidity of the statement/person. It is debatable if this scale has an end point.

          1. pan fried wylie

            The end point is a practical matter, as with length. A 1km long ruler just won’t fit on your desk.

          2. Sure it will, just design it to fold into 1000, 1 meter segments.

        3. kinnath

          cunt

    2. Slammer

      After a backlash, Cornyn sought to clarify that he was not endorsing Mussolini

      Why does this even need to be said? The quote is obviously true. To me it’s like if Hitler said, “water is wet” it doesn’t have anything to do with Hitler

      1. Guilt by association.

        Also, socialism is moral and proper; anything else is white supremacy.*

        *I actually think there is a large contingent of leftists whose thought process is this shallow.

        1. AlexinCT

          if you got them to be honest you would be proven right.

          1. Rufus the Monocled

            I got one to admit force against people for their own good is justified.

            Th funny thing is they don’t connect the dots to this is how you get a gulag.

          2. AlexinCT

            That’s because these people tend to be fanatics Rufus. I have a knack for getting lefties to feel comfortable or so rattled that they come clean, and to a man they admit they believe their side is not just in the right – all the time – but that they MUST do whatever it takes to force others to see the light or get rid of them. Utopia can only be reached if non-believers or the kulaks & wreckers are reeducated or exterminated.

            When I tell them that if you look at the brutal history of their collectivist movement, it always starts with those people getting sent to the camps and getting killed in wave one, but that the followup waves are true believers that get in the way of the people that used the stupid ideologues to gain power and now want to make sure they retain it.

            You would be surprised how many of them will tell you it will never be them. When I then point out that they are admitting a willingness to become virtual stooges or slaves to these new masters, they get angry, but they never reassess their beliefs. I suspect that is because it would be a life shattering event to have to admit you were not just had, but are not even close to being as good or smart as you thought you were for believing the marxist drivel.

      2. invisible finger

        I always like to bring up “You know who ELSE was a vegetarian?” when smug leftists won’t get away from me.

        1. Old Man With Candy

          Me?

          1. AlexinCT

            Wait…

            Erm.. I thought you were a member of the tribes that other vegetarian guy wanted to exterminate..

          2. Old Man With Candy

            I would say that we eat our own, but that doesn’t quite fit here.

          3. Wait, you mean veggieburgers aren’t made from vegetarians? I am disappoint.

          4. Nephilium

            Wait, you mean veggieburgers aren’t made from vegetarians? I am disappoint.

            When I first started in the new office, I got to hear a story about how one of the Indians had gotten confused when he first got to the country. So, if veggieburgers are made from vegetables, turkey burgers are made from turkey, what are cheeseburgers made of? Cheese!

            He was unhappy with his mistake.

          5. My favorite secondhand tale of the unnamed Indian consultant was the one who ordered a hamburger and remakred “Indian cows are sacred, American cows are not.” I also suspect he wasn’t very vegetarian either.

          6. AlexinCT

            I know plenty of Indian consultants that are only vegetarian when they go back home to visit…

      3. Rufus the Monocled

        Anyone with a working knowledge of history and isn’t blinded by contemporary idiots pushing socialism knows that’s exactly what the left went for: Strip people of their guns and agency. Submit the individual to the collective organized and managed by not the community of men but of the state.

        The Green Deal is an attempt to do this. Mobilization my ass.

      4. Hey did you guys know China Girl and Money for Nothing are cringey problematic songs? Some dipshit on PJ Media told me.

    3. straffinrun

      Should’ve had Ezra Pound read it.

    4. leon

      Did anyone tell her about quoting Former Hitler Ally Joseph Stalin?

  20. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Three days of testimony from a man who can’t be trusted to tell the truth about even the smallest things and is certainly angling to save his own skin somehow? That’s time we’ll spent.

    1. juris imprudent

      So you’re saying he will be right at home in Congress.

  21. Pope Jimbo

    Here’s a story to rev Tundra’s blood pressure up into the red zone.

    Some background. In 2008 Minnesoda outdoorsy types wanted to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The amendment would create a 3/8th of a cent tax for 25 years. These funds would be dedicated to preserving rural lands and creating hunting and fishing habitat. (Sure that is ostensibly the job of the DNR, but they are too busy investing in woke projects to actually manage the natural resources). The ballot question was blocked by Twin Cities proggies until the amendment was changed to also include arts as the target for these new funds.

    The amendment passed and we now have the Legacy fund with a ton of money being collected and distributed with almost no elected oversight. Go figure, more of the money gets sent to the Arts than to the outdoors. A lot of my friends who thought the Legacy fund was going to be great are super pissed to see how this money is spent.

    Here are some of the projects that got funded (I think 10K is a magic number where something can be easily approved without too much oversight, in previous articles, it seemed like $5K was the cap for “oral history” projects)

    Rosy Simas, Minneapolis $9,875
    “Weave” honors the interwoven, interdependent nature of our world in an intersectional Indigenous dance project that envelops the audience in an immersive experience of story, dance, moving image, and quadrophonic sound.
    ***
    Deborah Thayer, Saint Paul $10,000
    Thayer will choreograph “All Hail the Queen,” using somatic explorations to unearth experiences of the female voice and vagina. The piece will be presented as an evening length dance installation in Minneapolis.
    ***
    Kirsten L. Whitson, Saint Paul $9,950
    Whitson will create and perform cello concerts reflecting global racial injustice and genocide with video program notes, history, personal stories about cultural loss, and audience feedback sessions.
    ***
    William Nour, Minneapolis $10,000
    Nour will develop his play Turbulence and present it to an audience over three weekends. He will work with community members to tell a story of anti-Arab racism in the airline industry and homophobia in the Arab community.
    ***
    Jennifer Newsom, Minneapolis $10,000
    Newsom will develop Barricade, a new work exploring the relationship between black and blue bodies (i.e. African Americans and police) in an immersive installation within a gallery setting in Minneapolis.

    Bonus Link to the “art” that Minnesoda paid $10K for (from an actual indigenous artist!)

    1. PieInTheSky

      I cannot see how anyone who is serious about good government aka the left want bureaucrats to be turned to art critics. One would think there are more important things to fund.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Dedicated slush fund. 3/8th of a cent on all sales in the state goes into this fund. There are a bunch of “art councils” who are responsible for doling out the money. There is no criticism. If you are tight with an arts council, you can skim $10K out of the fund with no questions asked.

        The people pushing this amendment wanted to be sure that there were funds that were always available, so that they never had to deal with the “isn’t there a better thing we could spend this money on?” question.

        1. Fourscore

          Too much art is going unfunded, need to to raise the tax.

          For example, I know a guy whose “Flight of the Honey Bees” project is totally funded by participatory donations of food. To really get the long term project going would require an infusion of , oh say, roughly $9,999 annually. That would allow an additional exhibit at a local charity, The Log Cabin, during the “Flight of the Snow Flake” season.

      2. Tonio

        The left are not serious about good government, only big government.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Those all sound great.

      /dead pans into camera.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Did you see the painting where Trump was grabbing Lady Liberty’s naked breasts? Surely Q would pay top $ for art like that.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          No, I didn’t ’til you mentioned it.

          So if you like Trump your tax dollars went to that. Swell.

          I now get the classical conservative perspective that when man/artists didn’t believe in God’s will and authority what followed was vulgar art.

          Of course the media is going to praise it. In their usual paternalistic and racist PC way, minority art tells a story ergo its beautiful.

    3. Tonio

      Yeah, they are really getting pernicious with this government funding for art.

      There is also this bullshit thing where art teachers are trying to horn-in on STEM by adding an extra letter – STEAM.

      1. juris imprudent

        OMFG – I was hoping you were joking.

        1. Tonio

          Yeah, I wish I was. When I first read about STEAM and figured out what they were trying to do I wanted to break something.

    4. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Bonus Link to the “art” that Minnesoda paid $10K for (from an actual indigenous artist!)

      At least Trump is getting some.

    5. tarran

      2008 Minnesoda outdoorsy types wanted to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The amendment would create a 3/8th of a cent tax for 25 years. These funds would be dedicated to preserving rural lands and creating hunting and fishing habitat.

      Well, I hope the morons who decided that robbing people to pay for their hobbies learned a valuable lesson.

      Who am I kidding?!?

    6. Tundra

      Yeah, my meathead buddies thought it was a small price to pay to get the amendment. I reminded them that DU, TU and PF do a shit ton of work to make sure things stay good, but it’s almost as if people can’t resist stealing money from others to fund their pet projects.

      And then there are the stadiums…

    7. Funny. They inexplicably rejected my one-man “show” entitled “Oooh man, Morena Baccarin is sooo hot.”

      Also, it’s a one-man show since I’m not allowed within 500 yards of Morena Baccarin.

  22. Nephilium

    So can anyone guess why comic book sales continue to decline while the movies and TV shows are taking off? And why wouldn’t they target a release day of May 1st for this?

    1. why wouldn’t they target a release day of May 1st for this?

      Because the people who’d work on that project can’t make deadlines.

    2. PieInTheSky

      goddamnit that will probably not be on sale in Romania. We never get the cool comics.

      1. Nephilium

        I’m sure someone here can ship you one. Now that just needs to cross over with the Obama book.

      2. invisible finger

        Maybe nostalgia isn’t popular in Romania.

  23. Pat

    Musk Faces U.S. Contempt Claim for Violating Accord With SEC

    Elon Musk is facing a new round of regulatory trouble for tweets about Tesla Inc., raising fresh concerns about the billionaire CEO’s ability to keep his impulses in check and responsibly run a public company.

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday asked a judge to hold Musk in contempt for violating a settlement that required him to get Tesla approval for social media posts and other writings that could be material to investors. He breached that deal with a Feb. 19 tweet that said Tesla would make about half a million cars in 2019, the agency claims. The CEO posted a few hours later that deliveries would only reach about 400,000.

    The SEC move, which sent Tesla shares down 3 percent in pre-market trading, puts Musk in fresh legal peril less than five months after he settled claims that he misled the public with tweets about taking the electric-car maker private. He could face a variety of penalties, with the stiffest being that he’ll be barred from running Tesla or any other public company for a period of time, said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

    1. leon

      He’s just prepping for a run for president.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Musk’s code name among SEC agents is “The Pinata.”

  24. Duke the Minnesota Dog Mayor Has Died at the Age of 13

    Duke, the beloved four-term mayor of Cormorant Village, Minnesota, passed away last Thursday at the age of thirteen. Typically, any resident seeking to become mayor in Minnesota must be above the age of 21, but due to the “dog years” rule, Duke was approximately 50 years old when he was elected. In all seriousness, Duke was a beloved part of the community. Local radio station KFGO reported that Duke acted as the village’s ambassador to the public.

    1. Pat

      With the loss of its beloved mayor, that whole town has gone to the dogs.

      1. MikeS

        He was beloved by some, but he was also the mutt of a lot of jokes.

      2. Pope Jimbo

        Without his visionary leadership, citizens just sit around and bitch, bitch, bitch.

      3. Slammer

        Put the puns on paws, or Swiss is gonna show up

        1. Pope Jimbo

          Big deal. Let Swissy unleash his narrow gaze. We don’t care!

    2. Old Man With Candy

      That would have been great if someone had put it in the morning links this past weekend.

      /harrumphs

      1. Hey now – I was sick as a dog all weekend.

  25. Titty Tuesday to the rescue!

    http://archive.li/7nF9K

    27 plz.

    1. Pat

      28>4>14>1

  26. MikeS

    North Dakota looking to pass “the single dumbest piece of legislation enacted anywhere in the United States“. I, for one, will be damn proud when we do.

    House Bill 1381, which passed the House 66-26 Feb. 19 and now is being considered by the Senate, would ban gun buyback programs conducted by state agencies or local governments, as well as buybacks funded by taxpayer dollars.

    1. Sounds like a good idea. Amazing it made it past a legislature.

    2. The study is flawed, Weisser argued in a Feb. 21 blog post, because the success of gun buyback programs should be measured by the number of guns they take off the street.

      No wonder this guy is pro gun-control. His sister-mom shot his dadpa after he was done beating her one night. The ricochet off of dadpa’s brain pan clearly lodged in this guy’s frontal love.

      1. PieInTheSky

        his love is forever damaged

      2. invisible finger

        Now that’s a damn good John-o.

        1. Rhywun

          *crosses legs*

      3. SugarFree

        “You shot my head in the heart” is a good foundational hook for a country song.

    3. Rebel Scum

      buyback

      Interesting development. But I detest the use of the term “buyback”. You can’t “buy back” something you never owned in the first place.

    4. prolefeed

      “called the bill “the single dumbest piece of legislation enacted anywhere in the United States.” ”

      It was part of my job once to read legislation proposed by CA legislators. I can assure you, no matter how dumb any given idea might sound, they came up with dumber stuff.

  27. PieInTheSky

    Children in Romania associate childhood drunkenness not with lucky charms but with Vişinată, a sweet sour cherry liquor. Lucky charms sound bleah

    1. MikeS

      Lucky Charms is blah. Fruity Pebbles is the obviously superior breakfast cereal.

      1. Slammer

        You mean Capn Crunch with crunchberries

      2. Barf – Captain Crunch (with Crunchberries) is the superior choice.

        1. MikeS

          Crunch Berries is pretty damn excellent, too. But I dock it one point for the whole roof-of-the-mouth-cutting thing.

          1. true! by the time I finished the second bowl of Crunch Berries the roof of my mouth felt like I went on a 10-pack smoking binge.

          2. robc

            Covered by Neil Stephenson. If you aren’t following his advice, that is your problem.

            There is a large section of the Cryptonomicon dedicated to just this.

          3. Fourscore

            Oatmeal with raisins and local wild flower honey, that’s the ticket. Then a banana, take the pills with the OJ. Every morning for the last 25 years.

        2. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Cracklin Oat Bran for the best gas you’ll ever have.

          1. Blue Sharpie markers used to match the Cracklin’ Oat Brand packaging perfectly. My friends and I used to go to the store and color in the L’s to read Crack in Oat Bran.

          2. Busy hometown, eh?

      3. You misspelled Count Chokula (something that should also appeal to Pie).

      4. Chipwooder

        Apple Jacks or go home

      5. Nephilium

        One of the grocery stores in my neck of the woods this winter had entire boxes of “dehydrated marshmallows” sitting by the hot chocolate (think about the size of a brick). It’s essentially just the Lucky Charms marshmallows broken into smaller pieces, just in case you couldn’t get your diabetes from the regular overly sweet cereal. This has all the sugar, and none of the nutrition.

      6. robc

        Honey Nut Cheerios.

        1. Viking1865

          Yep. Top three along with Frosted Mini Wheats and Grape Nuts.

      7. Mike S is my homeboy. Fruity Pebbles or G.T.F.M.F.O!

    2. PieInTheSky

      Also putting in the cereal before the milk is silly. You add the milk and then add cereal gradually.

      1. Are you on a crusade to do everything backwards?

      2. >>then add cereal gradually.

        say what now?

        Cereal first, then milk. Bonus – the cereal is now wet and can take extra added sugar like I used to do with Cheerios.

        1. MikeS

          …or Rice Krispies. Then, when the cereal is all gone there’s some milk soaked sugar at the bottom to scoop out. Delicious!

        2. PieInTheSky

          Most cereal has already to much sugar adding more is ridiculous.

          1. Hey man, it was the 70s and 80s. Sugar was like 80% of my diet.

      3. PieInTheSky

        There is no way to ensure maximum crunchy cereal if you add it first.

        It is the same as eating soup with croutons and adding all the croutons at once. It will absorb liquid and turn into mush. You add the croutons 2 or 3 at a time.

        1. The best cereal was the stuff that absorbed the most milk and became saturated. Getting past the crunchy stuff was just a chore you had to do to reach it.

          1. l0b0t

            Indeed. Shredded Wheat/Frosted Wheat FTW!

          2. PieInTheSky

            That is ridiculous. The difference in texture is very important. That is why you don’t directly buy gruel. Then again I expect you like gruel as long as it is not to flavored.

          3. A lo, the Great Cereal Wars of 2019 started with an ember that turned into a fire that engulfed Glibertarians. Brother turned against brother, others turned against mothers, and STEVE SMITH licked his hairy lips in anticipation.

          4. You can’t taste the flavor when the texture gets in the way.

          5. pan fried wylie

            pre-made gruel would have terrible shelf-life.

      4. straffinrun

        Whatever gives your Kix.

        1. Okay, that chex out, I’ll allow it.

          1. Jarflax

            *shrugs

            It’s your Life

          2. juris imprudent

            Someone is begging for the branhammer.

          3. Rasilio

            It might be fruity but there is a pebble of wisdom in what he is saying

        2. AlexinCT

          No love for the Special K kids?

    3. Old Man With Candy

      Guilty pleasure: Grape Nuts with hot apple cider poured on them. Bonus points for a shot of Calvados added.

    1. AlexinCT

      The elite don’t want to do what the people want, because it impacts their ability to keep robbing the stupid serfs blind.

  28. Pope Jimbo

    I may have to put aside my smug sense of Minnesoda superiority for a few days.

    At least until I forget about this article that lists out helpful do’s and don’ts about legally taking road kill home.

    For some, spotting fresh roadkill on the side of the road is symbol of an unclaimed resource and a chance to acquire a cheap source of meat, but first, residents must obtain a permit before they can take that deceased animal home.

    Carlton County Conservation Officer Scott Staples with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources answers the Pine Journal’s questions about the proper protocol.

    1. Look, if I didn’t run it over, I’m not eating roadkill. (And probably not even then.)

    2. Fourscore

      I understand that some people make their own, even if they have to stop twice. Fawn doesn’t always run away.

    1. Tonio

      Awww, that’s so cute. He still thinks he matters.

  29. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Tard Tuesday: Focus On Anything But Killing the Enemy

    Following the arrest of a white nationalist Coast Guard officer with a planned kill list of journalists and politicians, House Democrats are very interested in what the military is doing to screen and track white supremacists in their ranks. Reps. Elijah Cummings, Anthony Brown, Jamie Raskin, and Jackie Speier wrote to the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security, noting that the cases of Christopher Hasson and some other members of the military recently arrested for white nationalism are of “significant concern, particularly given their combat and weapons training.”

    1. leon

      “arrested for white nationalism”

      No i think he was arrested for plotting terrorism. That’s like saying that guy in Ferguson was shot for being black.

    2. Pat

      I remember when I was about, what, 13 years old, 20/20 or one of those types of shows did a whole special on how gang members were joining the military to gain knowledge on tactics and weapons and then bringing it back to the mean streets and using it to wage LITERAL WAR against our brave occifers. I blame a lack of gun control within the military.

    3. Slammer

      Sounds more like a workplace and employee violence issue

    4. Chipwooder

      I may be wrong, but I don’t think the Coasties do a lot of high level combat training. And they do plenty to screen white supremacists. I have a celtic cross tattoo, and that got me raked over the coals at MEPS in 2001 because some sergeant there thought it was a Klan symbol.

      1. Tonio

        You should have filed a religious discrimination complaint.

      2. Not Adahn

        Before the Vietnam and the GWOT, the Coasties were the branch most likely to engage for realsies. My BIL’s (navy) only confirmed kill was when his boat was re-flagged as USGC for an interdiction mission.

        1. Not Adahn

          Me no tipe so gud.

    5. Tonio

      Rep. Elijah Cummings should know that the USCG is not a DOD agency, but a Department of Commerce agency. They do count as part of the armed forces (along with NOAA who are probably an elaborate CIA front) and as a uniformed service (all of the above, plus the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (originally formed to tend to the health of merchant seamen, but the agency has long outlived its utility).

      1. Caput Lupinum

        The coast guard is under homeland security, not commerce. They used to be under the treasury, but they haven’t been for a while. They can also be placed under the command of the navy at any time by the president or Congress, as they were during both world wars. NOAA doesn’t count as an armed service, but they are part of the uniformed services and have officer rankings. That was done by Jefferson, albeit to NOAA’s predecessor, to provide them with protections if they were captured. As officers, they would have to be treated as prisoners of war, protecting them from execution as spies or press ganging by foreign navies, which was very common at the time, press ganging being one of the main casus belli of the United States during the war of 1812.

    6. Rebel Scum

      white supremacists in their ranks

      As if this is even a thing on any significant level.

  30. How Any Behavioural Research Findings Negate Free Will

    This is something that I’ve said many times in many places but I have never explicitly written it up in a blog post. Today, I am going to return to one of my favourite topics: libertarian free will (LFW).

    Every single time that a piece of data is collected that shows one particular subgroup of people is more likely to do a given thing than those not in that subgroup, we have a negation of free will. And this data is being collected every single day the world over. Just think how many scientific papers show behavioural trends for any particular type of subgroup of people. The range and scope of this data is simply enormous. Trends of people doing some kind of behaviour (that is not shown to be random) show causality working, at some level, on those people.

    Some libertarians will claim that, yes, we are largely determined, or influenced, but that we can overcome this problem with our own volition. This is what I call the 80/20 Problem. That is to say, if an LFWer claims that they are influenced, say, 80 per cent, then this leaves 20 per cent of a decision, making the process open to agent origination (this is often put forward by proponents I have spoken to). The problem is that all the logical issues I mentioned above are now distilled into the 20 per cent. In effect, it makes the problem worse. The LFWer here accepts much determination but allows a small window of opportunity and does not escape the grounding objection and any other logical issue with causality previously expressed. The problem of LFW is even more acute, then.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Every single time that a piece of data is collected that shows one particular subgroup of people is more likely to do a given thing than those not in that subgroup, we have a negation of free will. And this data is being collected every single day the world over. Just think how many scientific papers show behavioural trends for any particular type of subgroup of people. The range and scope of this data is simply enormous. Trends of people doing some kind of behaviour (that is not shown to be random) show causality working, at some level, on those people.

      1. How many of those are replicable?
      2. How many are examples of behavioral changes based on voluntary association as opposed to genotype?

    2. PieInTheSky

      This is what I call the 80/20 Problem – it is no where near 80/20 there is variation in decision making between groups. Also how would thing ever change if we were determined by our subgroup?

      Culture matters but there are plenty of behaviors and decisions in each culture.

    3. Rufus the Monocled

      I’m not especially bright but….

      Is this suggesting submission is inevitable?

      1. juris imprudent

        There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet!

    4. Tonio

      But there was this beautiful moment back in 2016 where this stats weenie named Nate Silver was sure Clinton was going to win the election. And he was wrong. Dead wrong.

      This is why I never answer survey questions. They can make a reasonably confident projection about the behavior of the type of people who answer surveys. And often those projections are accurate for the population as a whole. But sometimes they get things spectacularly wrong because of people like me who won’t talk to them.

      1. AlexinCT

        Survey questions are constructed to elicit a certain response. I always answer with what would be the obvious negative to fuck up the survey.

      2. In a tad bit of fairness, Silver was less wrong than everyone else.

    5. Rasilio

      Every single time that a piece of data is collected that shows one particular subgroup of people is more likely to do a given thing than those not in that subgroup, we have a negation of free will.

      Freeze Fallacy police! You are under arrest for an egregious use of the ex post facto fallacy

      No I hate to break it to you buy studying trends of what people have actually done does not in any way shape or form mean that those actions were predetermined for them and it is not even evidence for forget proof of their lack of free will any more that someone winning the lottery means they were predetermined to win. In order to prove a lack of free will you need to first establish a casual mechanism that acts to direct the persons actions and then show that said mechanism cannot be overcome through any volition of that or any other person subject to the same mechanism’s will

  31. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Tard Tuesday: Yes, Please Do That

    Trump/ Epstein/ sex trafficking of young girls/ modeling agency/ sex parties on private islands.
    Isn’t time we start talking about this? Trump’s earlier involvement in all of this is creeping out.

    1. MikeS

      Oh, man. Yes. Do it! We need to talk about all of Epstein’s associates and their travels on his sex plane to his sex club residence

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Has Trump ever been mentioned or seen? All I’ve seen up to now is Clinton and celebrities.

      Or are they just making it up considering it’s DU?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s less “making shit up” and more “waking hallucination”

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          They’ll just swap Clinton for Trump.

          Sure! Why not? It’s not like they care for facts or truth. They like Narrative Troof.

    3. Tonio

      You’re a brave man, Scruffy, for wading into those fever swamps for us.

  32. Rebel Scum

    Cohen is set to give three days of congressional testimony

    *adds popcorn to grocery list.*

  33. Pope Jimbo

    Reparations?

    A glowing article about how replacing an old utilitarian bridge across a freeway with a fancy new bridge is going to start the healing process for minorities in St. Paul.

    The new bridge will include 16′ wide sidewalks, a poem etched into the sidewalk, a “leaf pattern will be etched in the sidewalk to follow the steps of the Lindy hop” as well as grassy medians and street lights.

    Anders said she looks forward to walking across the new bridge with her 9-year-old daughter to check out books at the Rondo library or hop onto the Green Line.

    “We want it to feel like a place people can rest and reflect — not a scary thing people have to cross to get someplace,” she said.

    1. AlexinCT

      Who will pay for this stupid shit?

      1. Rasilio

        Got a mirror?

        1. AlexinCT

          NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    2. I suppose there are countless worse ways to spend money.

  34. Rebel Scum

    Soon you will be able to crack open that magically delicious taste.

    Pickup lines that never work…

    The beer was brewed to taste like the marshmallows found in Lucky Charms cereal.

    Ew. Guinness is vastly superior for a breakfast beer,

    1. Nephilium

      Founder’s Breakfast Stout is the best breakfast beer. It is known.

      1. robc

        Not KBS?

        They can’t sell it as Kentucky Breakfast Stout here, as there is legal problems with the first word.

        Not sure if it is due to Kentucky Ale or it being a Michigan product.

        1. Nephilium

          The KBS is good, but I think it’s a bit much for a breakfast beer.

          I think they’ve flipped to just calling it KBS and CBS everywhere just to avoid the labeling issues. At least we still get the kid on the regular breakfast stout label, they had to ditch it in Michigan. And the Mountie was removed from the CBS label after Canada complained.

          1. robc

            What, not a fan of bourbon for breakfast?

            Actually, I don’t drink stouts, so I have no idea on those.

          2. Lackadaisical

            Labeling issues?

            But we have a fed gov department that approves those, no way there could then be issues. *incredulous*

      2. Chipwooder

        Honestly, I can’t stand those breakfast stouts. My cousin the beer guru gave me a six pack of some breakfast beer for my birthday once, and five bottles of it languished in the fridge for years.

        1. Nephilium

          That’s fair, if you don’t like coffee and chocolate, and don’t like stouts, you won’t be a fan of them. I’ll tend to drink a lot more of them in the cooler months, I’m not as big a fan of them during the summer heat.

          1. Chipwooder

            I love stouts. I just didn’t like this. I’m generally someone that prefers the taste of “straight” beer, without oddball flavors, which is why I love beer but really am not terribly interested in a lot of craft beer.

          2. robc

            I am the same, but am terribly interested in most craft beers, just not the weirdos that make big news splashes, like this.

          3. Chipwooder

            Fair enough. I also despise IPAs, which puts me at odds with about half of what seems to be produced by small breweries. I like a good, classic lager, stout, schwartzbier, bock. I really shouldn’t have been so dismissive before – I actually like quite a few local craft breweries like Center of the Universe (El Duderino White Russian Stout is awesome) and Hardywood (Pils pilsner is excellent).

      3. Trials and Trippelations

        It is know

  35. Rebel Scum

    Jessie Smollett’s defense appears to be that his Nigerian friends are homophobic.

    Plausible. It will fun to see where this all goes.

  36. Rufus the Monocled

    “Soon you will be able to crack open that magically delicious taste.”

    What happens if people don’t like the cereal?

  37. Pat

    Microsoft chief defends controversial military HoloLens contract

    Microsoft employees objecting to a US Army HoloLens contract aren’t likely to get many concessions from their company’s leadership. CEO Satya Nadella has defended the deal in a CNN interview, arguing that Microsoft made a “principled decision” not to deny technology to “institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy.” The exec also asserted that Microsoft was “very transparent” when securing the contract and would “continue to have that dialogue” with staff.

    The $479 million contract would supply HoloLens to help prototype an augmented reality system for troops both in training and in combat. It would provide battlefield awareness on the front line, and could help medics both gather vital health data and communicate with doctors. Microsoft and the Army have pitched HoloLens as a potentially life-saving tool, but objectors have argued that it’s turning peaceful technology into a game-like weapon that detaches soldiers from the reality of war.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m guessing those Microsoft employees haven’t read much technology history.

      1. Pat

        inb4 ARPANET

      2. AlexinCT

        Or their contracts of employment…

    2. juris imprudent

      The reality of war as depicted in sci-fi where terabits of data flow seamlessly and instantaneously through infinite EM spectrum.

    3. Endless Mike

      Wow, so someone could LITERALLY get the “blue screen of death”

  38. straffinrun

    That pic from the transgender athlete article. Wow. Caption away?
    https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/hannah-mouncey-e1551137853577.jpg

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      STEVE SMITH endorses Nair products!

    2. Chipwooder

      “Wow, this is so much easier than playing against men! I’m awesome at this now!”

      1. Tonio

        ^This.

        1. Chipwooder

          It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Kramer is bragging about how he’s dominating his karate class, and then Elaine goes there to talk to him and discovers the rest of his class is comprised of children.

          1. Chipwooder

            Just to add to this…..my wife is in terrific shape. She works out all the time, lifts a lot of weights, teaches fitness classes, works at a gym (2 gyms, actually). Me, I’m a chubby, way out of shape middle aged guy who hasn’t done anything more strenuous than hiking in years. So one night recently she was kind of playfighting with me in the kitchen, and I’m only halfheartedly responding so she says “Cmon, don’t go easy” OK. I pretty easily bullrushed her, picked her up, and took her down. She basically couldn’t do anything without doing something serious like gouging my eyes, something like that. Now, my strength is average at best for a man my size and age, probably a bit below average, but my innate strength easily surpasses hers by a good bit.

          2. AlexinCT

            Biology is a bitch.

          3. STEVE SMITH MAKE YOU HIS BITCH

          4. AlexinCT

            Gulp….

            I am already SPACE SMITH’s bitch?

    3. The Hag and the Ogre?

      1. B.P.

        I did get a Shrek vibe.

    4. Tres Cool

      David Spade and Chris Farley in “Powderpuff”

    1. AlexinCT

      I think the Chinese way is to just let them die?

  39. A World Without Clouds
    A state-of-the-art supercomputer simulation indicates that a feedback loop between global warming and cloud loss can push Earth’s climate past a disastrous tipping point in as little as a century.

    Now, new findings reported today in the journal Nature Geoscience make the case that the effects of cloud loss are dramatic enough to explain ancient warming episodes like the PETM — and to precipitate future disaster. Climate physicists at the California Institute of Technology performed a state-of-the-art simulation of stratocumulus clouds, the low-lying, blankety kind that have by far the largest cooling effect on the planet. The simulation revealed a tipping point: a level of warming at which stratocumulus clouds break up altogether. The disappearance occurs when the concentration of CO2 in the simulated atmosphere reaches 1,200 parts per million — a level that fossil fuel burning could push us past in about a century, under “business-as-usual” emissions scenarios. In the simulation, when the tipping point is breached, Earth’s temperature soars 8 degrees Celsius, in addition to the 4 degrees of warming or more caused by the CO2 directly.

    Once clouds go away, the simulated climate “goes over a cliff,” said Kerry Emanuel, a climate scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A leading authority on atmospheric physics, Emanuel called the new findings “very plausible,” though, as he noted, scientists must now make an effort to independently replicate the work.

    To imagine 12 degrees of warming, think of crocodiles swimming in the Arctic and of the scorched, mostly lifeless equatorial regions during the PETM. If carbon emissions aren’t curbed quickly enough and the tipping point is breached, “that would be truly devastating climate change,” said Caltech’s Tapio Schneider, who performed the new simulation with Colleen Kaul and Kyle Pressel.

    1. PieInTheSky

      I am convinced. Bring on the new deal.

      state-of-the-art simulation – I am double convinced.

      1,200 parts per million – meh most alarmist projections don’t even see that much.

      1. That’s in the carboniferous range. I’d hate to see a return to the greenist period. What would we do with all that plant life?

    2. Pat

      Don’t worry about that, we have a plan.

    3. tarran

      Here’s the crazy thing:

      One aspect of climate that all climate models model poorly is cloud cover.

      The reason for it is pretty simple; the actual mechanisms of nucleation, the process by which a bunch of steam molecules in the air condense into a droplet that becomes part of a cloud are poorly understood. So the models use stats to guess at cloud formation rates.

      So basically, their model is little better than slaughtering a sheep, scooping out its liver, slapping it into a copper pan and divining the future from its appearance and the pattern formed by the blood spatter.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        But they used a supercomputer dude!

        Everybody knows supercomputers can’t be wrong!

        1. AlexinCT

          GIGO..

    4. juris imprudent

      DUNE, desert planet, only source of the spice. We have seen the future.

      1. Not Adahn

        Wait — I’ll live for centuries and be able to mind-control people my sexually imprinting them?

        *burns ALL the carbon*

    5. Rebel Scum

      Doesn’t the heat cause evaporation?

  40. Rebel Scum

    183 people have been stranded on a Amtrak train for over 24 hours.

    In Oregon. I have seen this game before. It doesn’t end well.

    1. robc

      I have an idea for a semi-cooperative board game.

      The premise: The players are members of a Rugby team whose plane has crashed in the Andes.

      The goal: Work together to survive until you reach civilization or are otherwise rescued.

      I think the “semi” part is obvious. Hard choices have to be made.

      1. robc

        Hard, delicious choices.

        1. Unless your teammates have no taste.

      2. Nephilium

        You’ll probably want to try out Lifeboat and Donner Dinner Party first.

        1. robc

          I was pretty sure I was stealing an existing idea. Lifeboat sounds familiar.

        2. robc

          Donner Dinner Party sounds like a rethemed Werewolf.

          1. Nephilium

            Werewolf is just a rethemed Mafia. Same as Resistance, Resistance Avalon, Secret Hitler and many others are slightly modified Werewolf. It’s not “stealing an idea”, it’s reimplementing a mechanic with a new twist!

            I didn’t read to much of the blurb of Donner Dinner party, I remember it being mentioned on a thread I was reading on BGG a while back.

    2. Donner, Party of 183!

      1. Jarflax

        I made that joke already!

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Children’s Crusade

    “I am here because people in my community don’t have jobs, are starving and turning to opiods [sic] and dying. Mitch McConnell refuses to do anything about,” said 15-year-old Kentucky high school student Lily Gardner, according to a press release from Sunrise Movement.

    —————-

    The Sunrise Movement played a part in helping Ocasio-Cortez’s office draft the Green New Deal resolution.

    The youth protesters have held multiple rallies to support the initiative at the Capitol this year, including staging their first sit-in at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office in the fall with Ocasio-Cortez present.

    The group held a similar protest outside McConnell’s Kentucky-based office last week.

    If you think jobs are scarce now, little girl, just wait.

    1. Chipwooder

      The fuck do opioids have to do with Green Nude Eels?

      1. They clothe them and we end up with just Green Eels.

      2. Pat

        Forget it, he’s rolling

        1. juris imprudent

          That would be MDMA not opioids.

      3. Juvenile Bluster

        Remember the part about people unable or unwilling to work?

        1. Chipwooder

          Aha!

    2. Tonio

      Nailed it. This is exactly like the various childrens crusades and peasant crusades in terms of naivete and effectiveness.

      Most of those wannabe crusaders ended up boarding ships which took them straight to the slave ports of North Africa.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        This guy gets it.

        I feel horrible for these kids being frightened by fucken asshole adults like AOC or even their parents.

        1. pan fried wylie

          “who want’s to skip school? here’s your script” is super frightening, I’m sure.

  42. Rebel Scum

    Maybe we do live in a patriarchy as men are even dominating women in women sports.

    Something something biology.

    That said, Bruce Jenner winning “Woman of the Year” did prove that men are better at everything up to and including being women.

  43. Jarflax

    Calling Donner party of 183 182 181…

    1. Damnit. You beat me to it, and did it better. But you fucked up the reply location!

  44. The Late P Brooks

    So- Lucky Charms beer.

    Will they put some broken glass in the can when they make Cap’n Crunch beer?

  45. Local videographer refuses to film same-sex wedding

    In the bliss of planning for their upcoming July wedding, the couple started searching for the perfect videographer to capture their special day. Suhyda called a company with high ratings, MediaMansion.

    “He asked for my fiancés name which normally the vendors do so they can make their notes, and I said Amanda. He kind of paused. I was like okay, maybe he’s writing notes and we moved forward with the conversation. Everything seemed fine,” Suhyda said.

    Suhyda was told to sit tight and they would send over a contract, but instead she received an email.

    “The email said they weren’t going to serve the LGBTQ community – with an exclamation point.”

    Anna was left stunned. Then a post on MediaMansions’ Facebook page offered clarification. It says in part “If a person who identifies as LGBT needs a video for their growing business, a vlog, shortfilm idea etc., we’d love to assist. We simply do not film gay ceremonies or engagements. This decision is based on personal religious beliefs.”

    “But why are you going to pick and choose? Because if you don’t feel it’s the proper lifestyle or you can’t produce good families, why are you helping us with our business to support our family?” Suhyda said.

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Heaven forfend! This small business must be crushed.

    2. Pat

      “But why are you going to pick and choose? Because if you don’t feel it’s the proper lifestyle or you can’t produce good families, why are you helping us with our business to support our family?” Suhyda said.

      “So you’re willing to sell us goat milk, but you don’t want to participate in a satanic goat sacrifice?”

      If you actually understand the significance of marriage as a religious institution within Christianity you can see how silly that question is.

      1. commodious spittoon

        They have an investment in not understanding the distinction, because if they did, they’d realize they’re being high-handed authoritarian shitweasels about someone else’s religious convictions. And that’s only supposed to matter when you’re upholding someone’s right to a burka.

    3. Juvenile Bluster

      “But why are you going to pick and choose? Because if you don’t feel it’s the proper lifestyle or you can’t produce good families, why are you helping us with our business to support our family?” Suhyda said.

      Wait, what? Isn’t that backwards?

      This is what I don’t get about all these situations. If I know somebody hates me, I’m not going to be interested in giving them my money. Why insist on doing it?

      1. It’s about forcing the wrongthinkers to submit.

        1. juris imprudent

          A new twist on shut up and take my money?

          1. AlexinCT

            More like shut up and we are now going to ruin your life to set an example for others that think this way.

    4. Chipwooder

      The unimaginable horror of having to find someone else to tape their wedding. It’s basically Cambodia 1975.

      1. pan fried wylie

        “After a trail of tears literally paved by the skulls of our loved ones, we gather here today to join these two….”

    5. leon

      “But why are you going to pick and choose? Because if you don’t feel it’s the proper lifestyle or you can’t produce good families, why are you helping us with our business to support our family?” Suhyda said.

      Sadly this is the common mindset now. If you disagree on something, you will refuse to do anything with them. It makes no sense. People are not willing to let other people find common ground. You have to be all or nothing.

      1. MikeS

        In a few short years we went from “tolerance” to “acceptance” to “participation”.

        1. Chipwooder

          We’ve gone beyond “participation” now to “enthusiastic endorsement”.

          Tolerance as a concept is deader than disco.

    6. Tonio

      And they’d probably refuse to make an ad for an abortion clinic, too. Because that would be supporting abortion.

      But an ad for a car repair place would be fine because there is no biblical prohibition against car repair AFAIK.

      1. “And lo, the leaf spring was cracked, and so speakith the Lord, deliver up this vehicle to heaven and worry not the steel.”

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        “Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 19:31

        My experiences with modern vehicles sometimes leads me to divination to figure out what’s wrong.

        1. It’s the computer. And the CAFE standards.

        1. Not Adahn

          Which is why Little Caesar’s pizza is so cheap!

      3. “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to parallel park a Chevrolet Silverado Crew Cab LTZ in this space.”

    7. ” with an exclamation point.”

      This sent me off looking for a clip of Kramer dictating the letter when he says “DOUBLE EXCLAMATION POINTS!”

    8. B.P.

      Apparently these women live in my neighborhood, because they were hyperventilating on that Next Door website about the incident.

  46. Pat

    The Pixar short that tackles office ‘bro’ culture

    Hot-button issues like workplace misogyny and a lack of diversity aren’t often explored by family-friendly Pixar. But this month, it released a nine-minute short that does just that.

    Called Purl, it was released on 4 February and has already amassed six million views on YouTube. It’s the story of a walking, talking ball of yarn called Purl. She’s carnation pink, bubbly and eager to kick off her new desk job at the firm B.R.O. Capital.

    But after her colleagues – all male – negatively react to her, she shapes herself (figuratively and literally) to be more like the hyper-masculine workers around her so she can fit in.

    Pixar story artist Kristen Lester, who wrote and directed the short, says the film is inspired by her own experiences in the animation industry. Starting out, she was often the only woman in the room, and felt like she had to morph into “one of the guys”.

    So brave

    1. Oh, noes, altering behaviour to fit in rather than expecting the world to bend to accomodate you is so traumatizing.

  47. LJW

    Opinion: Why bubble-era home mortgages are a disaster waiting to happen

    Another housing bubble? We need more regulations!! I suggest AOC comes up with a plan.

    1. Pat

      Well the last thing we need now is housing prices falling from their all time highs as interest rates tick up. The humanity!

      1. LJW

        Our county government is over inflating the prices for more tax revenue. People are starting to get pissed.

        1. Tonio

          Your board of supervisors is too cowardly to vote for a straight-up property tax rate increase, so they are going the backdoor route and having unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats do their dirty work. Happens all the time.

          I can’t think of a legislative remedy to prevent this. But stripping immunity from government employees so they could be individually sued and personally liable for their actions would be a good first step; government would not be allowed to represent (provide lawyers or other similar assistance) for sued employees – they’d have to carry insurance.

          1. AlexinCT

            It seems practically every government institution has resorted to this sort of tactic Tonio. From our congress down to the local shlubs. I guess passing the buck makes it less likely that the electorate votes their ass out. So they keep the perks and rob us blind, but never do anything that allows us to lay blame on them and kick their ass at the ballot.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Jesus Christ, I knew it was bad, but holy hell this is horrible.

      In 2012, just 2% of all these delinquent borrowers had not paid for more than five years. Two years later that number had skyrocketed to 21%. Why? Mortgage servicers around the country had discontinued foreclosing on millions of delinquent properties. Homeowners got wind of this and realized they could probably stop making payments without any consequences whatsoever. So they did.

      Take a good look at the figures for 2016. Nationwide, almost one-third of these delinquent owners had not paid the mortgage for at least five years. In the worst four states, more than half of them were long-term deadbeats. Notice also that four of the other states were those you would not expect to have this rampant delinquency — North Dakota, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maryland.

      1. Chipwooder

        Boy, what a sucker I was for doing everything possible to keep making my payments around 2008-11 when I was either unemployed or marginally, low-earning employed.

        1. Wait you mean I’m making a mistake by paying down the principle so I can turn around and resell the property without leins when I move out of state?

          1. commodious spittoon

            Your expatriation tax will be your equity. But if it makes you feel any better, it’s not like New York will be able to offload it.

        2. Rasilio

          Yeah I feel like a chump for doing the honorable thing when I could no longer make the payments because I lost my job and there were none available capable of paying me enough to meet the morgage so I moved out and mailed the finance company the keys.

          If I’d have known I could have lived there rent free for 5 years I could have easily saved up enough money to have bought a new house with a much lower payment and be better off for it.

      2. Tonio

        I’m wondering if those states (ND, MA, VT and MD) have unique state laws which make it harder to foreclose.

        1. In Maryland the law IIRC is that you have to serve notice of intent to foreclose which gives thirty days to make the account current. If within that time period the mortgage owner applies for HAMP or whatever then that suspends the process until that application is reviewed, at which point either the mortgage is reinstated or the thirty days starts again. Also, I think if the mortgage was initially done under the First-Time Homebuyer thing the company is obliged to offer some sort of repayment plan, typically a refi or something where they tack the delinquent portion on to the end of the loan. They’re usually more interested in doing that, since the odds they’ll get their money back are better and it keeps them in good standing with the fed.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    The fuck do opioids have to do with Green Nude Eels?

    Government can do anything. Once we clear away the dead wood of radical individualist neoliberalism, our phalanx of Top Women will bring forth a Paradise on Earth.

  49. commodious spittoon

    Anyone else hoping this resort to children is the childish end-game for the loser left? It reeks of desperation, to begin with. You don’t rely on kids unless you’re either desperate or a sociopath—child soldiers or drug mules come to mind. Besides, most voting adults have or had kids. They know kids are mostly dumb, and that they grow up. Even helicopter tiger moms don’t revere other people’s sprogs with the same gushing affection she does her own. And they all know that kids are gullible and easily led. So this spectacle of teenagers and pre-teens “storming” senators’ offices and delivering canned statements has to come off as desperate and creepy to almost everyone.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I hope, but I know it isn’t the end.

    2. Chipwooder

      It’s not the end. It’s just a tactic that they think plays well because THINK OF THUUUUUUH CHILDREN!

      1. AlexinCT

        It’s a desperate need to make emotional appeals, since there is no logic or facts they can properly use to peddle the shit they are trying to sell.

      1. commodious spittoon

        The younger the person making the argument, the more pristine and authentic it is deemed, with the implication that one should not just listen to but also respect them simply because they are young, regardless of how insanely idiotic and ignorant their argument is. It’s the posture and passion of Joan of Arc with the intellect and IQ of Billy Madison.

        Hah!

        1. Rebel Scum

          I must be quite an a-hole because I would tell-off petulant children (and their supposedly adult handlers) way worse than Difi did.

          1. “Who told you to blindly parrot talking points? Why didn’t you question them? Why didn’t you get the other side of the story? Why did you expend all this effort to pester a decrepit old cronyist? Don’t you have anything better to do? Or are you all so sad and pathetic that you think this matters?”

    3. Tonio

      So this spectacle of teenagers and pre-teens “storming” senators’ offices and delivering canned statements has to come off as desperate and creepy to almost everyone.

      Everyone rational.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Well the last thing we need now is housing prices falling from their all time highs as interest rates tick up. The humanity!

    “Listen. I know we might have said we want housing to be affordable, but that’s not what we meant.”

  51. Fatty Bolger

    Jason Brown, coach featured on ‘Last Chance U,’ resigns after controversial texts with player

    Jason Brown’s time at Independence Community College has come to an end.

    Brown, who rose to prominence when Independence’s football program was featured on the third season of Netflix series “Last Chance U,” announced his resignation on Sunday night. Brown, known for his brash style, came under fire last week when a German-born player publicly shared a series of text messages between him and Brown. In one, Brown tells the player, “I’m your new Hitler.”

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      People are stupid.

    2. I feel like making ironic “I’m your new Hitler” t-shirts.

  52. Rebel Scum

    Gulag Barbie doesn’t get the joke.

    Cornyn tweeted, “‘We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become.’ Benito Mussolini.”

    While Cornyn was obviously mocking her and her fellow true-believers who want the government to clamp down on individual rights by blowing up the size of the federal government, Ocasio-Cortez demonstrated her razor-sharp intelligence by responding on Twitter, “In case you missed it, while the GOP is calling paying a living wage ‘socialism,’ a Republican Senator full-on quoted National Fascist Party leader and Hitler ally Benito Mussolini like it’s a Hallmark card.”

    1. Viking1865

      Yeah when I quote murderous evil politicians, it’s not as endorsement, but as a warning.

      “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” for example.

    2. commodious spittoon

      There’s a Wayne Gretzky/Michael Scott meme in here.

    3. You know, I can handle stupid if it’s quiet, or humble, or at least nice. Stupid and arrogant or stupid and obnoxious takes me straight to DEFCON-1.

  53. Private Chipperbot

    Ugh. Three minutes to meeting where I’m pulling a $5m/yr contract from a long time vendor.

    1. AlexinCT

      Go get em!

    2. So, did they screw something up beyond redemption? Or just slouch in the quality department for too long?

      1. Private Chipperbot

        Little bit of everything. Strangely enough, they are our highest rated vendor on internal surveys. That sucked.

    3. Nephilium

      /must avoid making a joke about having a meeting with someone we supply in a couple of minutes.

    4. Deliver subpar goods & services, win shitty prizes.

    5. I smell a story.

      1. Private Chipperbot

        Not much to it. They were a good vendor who I could call and get anything I needed. We have a new -redacted- of -redacted- who doesn’t like them very much for some reason (his last job?) and wants to put his thumbprint on our org.

        1. blighted_non_millenial

          Ahh, the old redacted of redacted who has his/her own vendors, people and org structures. Applies them and moves on before it stinks the joint up to much. Lather, rinse, repeat.

        2. Tundra

          That sucks. In my experience, Mr. Thumbprint will spend an exorbitant amount of time and resources fixing what ain’t broke, then leave just past the time his bullshit could be easily undone.

        3. Oh, that BITES HARD.

          So you’re just the messenger.

          I’m sorry. 🙁

          1. Private Chipperbot

            I’m in a tough spot. I do all of the contracts, and set the program parameters, but I also manage the day to day relationships which sometimes creates a weird friction.

  54. Rebel Scum

    Jon Stewart commits a cardinal sin and deviates from “orange man bad”.

    Comedian Jon Stewart on Monday offered a rare compliment to the Trump administration for how it has handled a fund for 9/11 victims but blasted Congress for playing political games with the program.

    Stewart, who has been a vocal advocate for the program that provides help to 9/11 victims killed or injured by the terrorist attack, plus their families, offered the qualified praise as part of a press conference on Capitol Hill marking the introduction of a bill that would restore recent cuts and make the fund permanent.

    “Are the cameras on? Is everybody on me? The Trump Justice Department is doing an excellent job administrating this program. The claims are going through faster, and the awards are coming through,” Stewart said of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. “The Trump Justice Department, I don’t know about anything else, I’m not going to comment on anything else, but that’s why we’re in the problem that we’re in is the program works exactly like it’s supposed to, so now it’s Congress’ job to fund it properly and let these people live in peace.”

    Well, Jon, it was nice knowing you.

    1. Chipwooder

      One of the Glibfathers needs to post that pic of Donald Sutherland from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Gotta think Jon has F-U money within an order of magnitude of Seinfeld. What’s #Resistance going to do, threaten to quit watching Trevor Noah?

      1. commodious spittoon

        “We’re not going to invite you to our public struggle sessions to be berated on the sins of whiteness and Jewishness and masculinity,” the mob threatens, mercifully.

      2. They can always manufacture evidence of pedophilia or bestiality to try and destroy his personal life.

        1. pan fried wylie

          “he wasn’t handsy”, done and done.

          1. pan fried wylie

            errr, “was”

      3. Idle Hands

        I don’t think anyone actually watches that show, but they can’t cancel it because of the message it would send.

    3. invisible finger

      “Well, Jon, it was nice knowing you.”

      It wasn’t really.

      People deserve to be eaten by the mob they support.

    4. Endless Mike

      The fund to help people directly affected by a single event in time needs to be made PERMANENT???

      Sorry, was there another story here?

      1. Fatty Bolger

        Seriously, WTF. Is it going to be a hereditary stipend or something?

  55. KSuellington

    The vocals only stack of Sloop John B is divine.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Um3MhkU0u7k

  56. Kinda surprised the NYDN published this considering they seem to be simpatico with the renewed Glorious People’s Revolution.

    https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-socialism-talk-will-sink-democrats-20190225-story.html

    1. Rhywun

      won the presidency thanks to a dysfunctional Electoral College

      Whelp, I made it half-way through the first paragraph.

      1. MUH DUHREKT DUHMOKRUHSEE

  57. commodious spittoon

    Coming up on 36 hours fasting. After a miserably unhealthy weekend I figured I have to kick-start better habits. So I opted to skip lunch yesterday, then dinner last night, on the ketogenesis theory of woo dieting. Is it scientific, is it sound? Hell, I don’t know. It sounds good. It has to be better than snacking on tater tots for meals. I’ll probably break fast for lunch today, then get back into the IF routine + low-carb diet.

    1. While my current eating schedule could be described as intermittant fasting, it’s not because I believe the scheduling will have any positive effect. It does, however, help me keep the daily caloric intake down to reasonable levels, which in of itself has a positive effect.

      1. commodious spittoon

        It’s laziness and convenience for me. If I eat before seven in the evening and get off work at eleven the next morning, that’s an easy 16:8 schedule without really thinking about it. And after this fast I bet I can push it up to 20:4 without much trouble, eating after class/before bed.

    2. Tundra

      I did about 22 yesterday. Same reasons. Too much time indoors!!

    3. Ketogenic diet does, in fact, work. However, you have to be pretty strict about it. Go to Walgreens and buy the sticks, then follow online guides on what to eat to get started. You are going to get the keto flu and feel like crap for a week or so (probably). Once your body starts adjusting to ketosis, you’ll need to drastically increase your fat intake to boost your energy levels. You will lose weight like crazy though.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Do you (did you) watch your salt intake? I drank the broth thinking maybe I should keep my salt intake steady.

      2. Tres Cool

        I never bothered with the pee sticks, cause time of day, how much you’ve had to drink, etc. can make the reading unreliable. I just go off of how many carbs Ive had, and how much protein.

        I never got the keto “flu”, but the 1st couple days Id wake up with an intense, ice-cream, headache. It went away after about 15 minutes.

        In addition to keeping your fiber/roughage up, throw in a multivitamin/mineral just for good measure.

        As always, YMMV, talk to your doctor.

    4. Nephilium

      I don’t think I could last 24 hours without food, let alone 36. So far I’ve managed to keep up with at least 30 minutes of exercise every other day for a month.

      1. commodious spittoon

        I used to be much more dedicated about exercising. Got back down to my high school waist a few years ago. Then I went on paroxetine for ten months and lost interest in working out, started drinking more heavily. Killer for motivation and diet. I’ll get back into the gym soon. Fasting was just to shock myself out of malaise and prove I can do something, even if it’s just foregoing eating.

        1. Nephilium

          I was doing well up until the job change last year. My old commute was ~20 minutes. The new commute is ~50 minutes. So that cut deeply into my free time. I may be transitioning to work from home for ~4 days a week later this year as opposed to my work from home 1 day a week now (which was 0 last year due to lack of access). I’d like to get back in the saddle and get some miles going again. I sat out my two charity rides last year due to a lack of training time, and did no long (50+ mile) rides at all. The year before I’d be getting in at least one long ride a month (during late spring to early fall).

          1. commodious spittoon

            Damn, dude. I have a nice-ish Trek bike sitting in the garage that I want to get back on the road this summer. I could knock out ~20 miles with pleasure, but I never did any rigorous rides.

          2. Nephilium

            If you can do a 20 mile ride without an issue, you’d be good for a 30-40 mile ride. Just get some good shorts (with the padding), make sure to grab some snacks, and either carry more water, or make sure you can refill your water bottles on the way. If you’re gasping and sore at the end of 20 miles, then you’re probably not ready to step up to longer rides. If you’ve got any of the MS rides in your area, you can ride with Team Left hand for some companions and incentive (free beer at the end).

          3. I can’t ride a bike 20 feet, but that’s just because I have the balance of an oaf.

    5. Fatty Bolger

      A long fast to reset appetite, followed by intermittent fasting (16 hours a day) seems to work for a lot of people. It’s amazing how much our hunger is “trained” and not intrinsic to any given time of day. And studies have shown that while sleeping, your body preps an energy store for use when you wake up. There’s no need to eat in the morning to “recharge.”

    6. I’ve gotten back on the LC wagon and am watching my steps (Fitbit), but between postmenopause and a new antianxiety med, I’ve put on a few pounds, lost muscle mass, so it’s slow going. Very discouraging. I’m thinking about getting a bike too.

      1. Tundra

        When the weather improves I highly recommend hiking. I lift and play hockey, but I’m at my fittest when I’m logging a lot of slow miles.

        1. I actually had that on my list. How many miles do you do?

          1. Tundra

            Depends. There is a nice six mile loop around a lake near my house. I try to do that a couple times a week. Otherwise, there is a big park nearby with many hiking trails and hills. I try to do 2-3 hours there once a week.

            The most important thing is just to get out every day and walk. Two miles minimum, longer if you have time. It’s weird, but once you get in the habit you barely notice the time.

          2. I can’t do 2 miles yet, but what I tend to do is put on the music and go at a fast walk in time with the music and wear myself out too quickly. Right now my goal is 2 miles.

          3. Tundra

            Perfect. By the end of the summer you will be shocked at how far you can go.

            Have fun!

          4. I’m an idiot. I’m sitting here thinking about “Where can I go hiking?” when I have a woods, a meadow, and a park with a trail RIGHT BEHIND MY HOUSE.

      2. Nephilium

        Stay away from the big box store bikes, instead hit up local bike shops (or better, Craigslist). Fall is usually the better time for Craigslist hunting, as people decide to ditch bikes instead of putting them into storage. Get it tuned up at a local bike shop after the fact (~$60), and slowly start picking up the tools you’ll need to maintain it yourself. You don’t need the riding shorts, jerseys, hats, etc. to get started.

        You will need sunglasses/riding glasses (gnats love to dive bomb your eyes when you get going), helmet (optional, but worth it IMHO), a small bag (saddlebag, handlebar, or fanny pack your choice), water bottle, water bottle cage (I mount two on all of my bikes), clothes that are appropriate for a work out (with shorts or tight fitting pants).

        If there’s interest, I could probably put together a piece on it. It was only a couple years ago that I got started riding. I figured I was old and needed at least one healthy hobby.

        1. Thanks. I’ve made a note of all you’ve said.

          My daughter has a $700 bike she does not use. I’m hesitant to use it (maybe I’m too heavy? I don’t know), but I haven’t ridden a bicycle in 30 years. My last bike had 920 ccs.

          1. Nephilium

            I doubt you’re too heavy for it. But I would check the fit. You can go to a shop and pay for one, but they’re pricey and not really needed until you get into the long rides (75+ miles). When you’re in the saddle, you should just be able to reach the ground with the tips of your toes. if you can put your feet down flat, then the saddle is too low, or the frame is too small. Find multi-use paths to start with until you get comfortable, then street riding. If you prefer company there’s usually some group rides that you can join, look for casual or no drop rides (no drop means that they make sure that no one gets left behind accidentally, you can drop off the ride if you want).

            My gap between riding was about 22 years, and I did a 55 mile ride in my first year. My second year I got in a 70 mile ride (and signed up for a brutal 50 mile ride to start the season, I learned my lesson from that).

          2. ChipsnSalsa

            You will not be to heavy for a $700 dollar bike. If it was a $3500 road race bike, then you could be, still doubtful.

            Get a bike that is comfortable to ride. Crazy thought here… you’ll ride more if it’s enjoyable.

  58. The Late P Brooks

    We thus far are unable to prove he’s a witch. But we’re looking into it.

    Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said Monday that he believes the Justice Department should not reveal information about people it does not charge with crimes — an ominous sign for those hoping the department will soon disclose the closely held details of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of President Trump and his campaign.

    Speaking at an event about the rule of law at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Rosenstein said, “The guidance I always gave my prosecutors and the agents that I worked with during my tenure on the front lines of law enforcement were if we aren’t prepared to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt in court, then we have no business making allegations against American citizens.”

    Though he asserted his comments were not about any particular case, he noted the issue was one “that we’ll be discussing nationally.”

    The very notion. What about the People’s Right to Know?

  59. Socialism, reparations, gun confiscation and, now, infanticide! What’s not to love?

    https://freebeacon.com/issues/dems-defend-infanticide/

    1. How are they going to pay for the first two if they keep reducing the supply of slave laborers?

      1. invisible finger

        That’s where the immigration comes in.

        Even if they have to import immigrants against their will.

        1. juris imprudent

          Give me that old-timey Democrat policy!

      2. Pan Zagloba

        Importing new supply of course. Only Trans-Atlantic trade was a problem, after all…

  60. The Late P Brooks

    Jon Stewart- I caught a brief (because I grabbed the remote and turned it off) segment of him grandstanding and puffing his chest atop a pile of “noble first responders”. What a heaping helping of bullshit.

    “My next door neighbor’s father was a cop on duty that day, and he came home all covered with concrete dust, and I breathed some of it. Where’s my check?”

    Fuck off.

    1. Rhywun

      The whole “victims compensation fund” rubs me the wrong way. Why do these people win the lottery and those people don’t?

      (Note: I know why.)

  61. Chipwooder

    I was listening to some Johnny Cash this morning on the way to work and “Cocaine Blues” was one of the songs. Boy, how have the SJW hordes not descended onto that one yet?

    1. invisible finger

      He goes to jail, so the statists are satisfied.

  62. Fatty Bolger

    Gay rights activist accused of burning down own house in alleged hate crime hoax

    A popular gay rights activist was charged on Monday with first-degree arson after an FBI investigation led authorities to believe he set fire to his own house in an elaborate hoax meant to look like a hate crime.

    Nikki Joly lost five pets when his Michigan house burned to the ground in 2017, according to the Detroit News. At the time, he was a prominent figure in the LGBTQ community who had helped open the city’s first gay community center, organized the first gay festival and helped establish a hard-won ordinance that prohibits discrimination against gay people.

    Considering Joly’s status in the community, the FBI initially treated the fire as a hate crime. But the more they pounded the pavement, the more the trail led right back to Joly.

    1. I blame the Talking Heads

      1. Tres Cool

        Same as it ever was.

    2. tarran

      It takes a pretty evil man to murder his own dogs by burning them to death.

      1. AlexinCT

        Shit, there are some that want to murder people. Their excuse, like this guy’s I bet, was that it was for a good cause…

        It’s gonna get us talking about the hate or something.

    3. MikeS

      who had helped open the city’s first gay community center,

      WTF? I thought the whole point of “regular” community centers is to bring the entire community together?

      1. Tundra

        Like there haven’t been gay bars forever.

        1. MikeS

          Sure, because in the past they had to create safe spaces for themselves.

          I don’t care what group wants to make their own clubs or bars or community center. But that also means sorority girls don’t get to join fraternities and if the Elks say all their members must have penises, then so be it.

      2. Will they be checking for gayness at the door?

        1. Fatty Bolger

          The bouncers will be using these.

  63. Raven Nation

    So, in things we perhaps SHOULD be concerned about but no one in the US seems to worried about, I present the India-Pakistan tensions/shots fired: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47366718

    Not advocating the US should be involved, but this is the sort of things that deserve a little more news coverage and, maybe, some offers to mediate from somewhere outside the region.

    1. Trump can host the Curry Summit

      1. Rhywun

        AKA “potluck day” at work.

  64. Walmart’s house brand lobster bisque is edible. Scratches the itch (cheaply), but that’s all.

    1. Rhywun

      What difference does it make etc

    2. commodious spittoon

      How long do you give it before mainstream journalists are saying that of course bureaucrats had to go light on Clinton, the stakes were too high and it’s only right that they excused gross negligence rank incompetence abject corruption lapses in judgment?

      1. Rhywun

        Negative two and a half years.

  65. prolefeed

    A question arising from the previous post:

    What the heck is monocle, does it work on Firefox, and if so, where do I go to download it?

    DuckDuckGoing it wasn’t helpful.

    1. Tundra

      Main Glibs page – right sidebar -toward the bottom. Lynx and everything!

    2. MikeS

      It’s is a bitchin add-on for commenting joy

      Yes

      Here

      Do yourself a favor and also download Tophat in the same thread. See the thread under comment #21

      1. prolefeed

        WOW!

        This works great!

        I’ll try not to abuse it by going all Q on your okoles

        posting OT pictures of bewbs like this:

        http://archive.is/vNqVN

        1. prolefeed

          Can’t figure out how the link thing works??

          1. Rhywun

            With the URL on your clipboard, type some text, select it, click “link”, and paste the URL into the second box. Click “submit”.

          2. prolefeed

            The same link above, as a test

          3. prolefeed

            Thanks, everyone!

            I will only use my newfound powers for acts of despicable debauchery good.

          4. MikeS

            Rhywun has created a monster

            *washes hands of entire affair*

  66. The Late P Brooks

    Natsoc Propaganda Radio is concerned

    NPR has found that Walmart is changing the job requirements for front-door greeters in a way that appears to disproportionately affect workers with disabilities. Greeters with disabilities in five states told NPR they expect to lose their jobs after April 25 or 26.

    Walmart is the largest private employer in the U.S. and has a large workforce of workers with disabilities. And the job of greeter has been a particularly attractive fit, as it isn’t physically strenuous and is easy to learn.

    But Walmart has been eliminating greeters and replacing them with “customer hosts,” who have expanded responsibilities, such as taking care of security or assisting shoppers. The change is going into effect at the end of April. It is the latest wave in a policy that Walmart started in 2016. It has already affected about 1,000 stores.

    According to interviews with workers and documents reviewed by NPR, to qualify for these new host positions, workers must be able to lift 25 pounds, clean up spills, collect carts and stand for long periods of time, among other things — tasks that can be impossible for people with disabilities. Workers say they’ve been told they must be able to climb a ladder to qualify for some of the other jobs at the store.

    Evil Walmart has suddenly developed a deep and abiding hatred for their disabled employees, some of whom have been there for ten years or more. No mention of “Fight for Fifteen”.