Wednesday Morning Links

That’s a FOUL BALL!

Keep your body behind the ball.  Everybody that played the game as a kid has heard that. Well, almost everybody. Of course, there was a bigger error that’s not getting the attention it deserves.  I’ve watched it a million times and I’m still sure it hit the bat first. Oh well, I’m 0-1 with my wild card picks so far.  I’d love to be 0-2, but I still think the A’s win tonight.

I’m sure as I type this update Bayern has scored again on Spuds.  That was an absolute beatdown. The kind that costs people their job. Real drawing with Brugge is the same kind of result. PSG, Juve, Man City, and Athletics all won. More fun across the pond today with the second set of UCL matches.  Not to mention fun this side of the pond as the NHL season officially opens today.

The 80’s was a strange time.

King Richard III was born on this day.  So were: badass rebel Nat Turner, bald person Mahatma Gandhi, chump Paul von Hindenburg, comedic genius Groucho Marx, the nearly-as-funny Bud Abbott, overrated picture-taker Annie Liebovitz, egomaniac Sting, wrestler Yokozuna, and 80s musician (who posed in Playboy when it was kinda too late) Tiffany.

OK, let’s get on with…the links!

Seriously, dude? How in the world could that seem “romantic”, you dumb bastard?

I’m so sorry you’re going through this.

Sorry Meghan, but the Mail On Sunday is just publishing what they were given. I don’t see this going anywhere.  Also, your entire job is to be in public and do whatever you feel like on the dime of some else. Suck it up.

This would have been even better if he said he wanted sharks with freaking laser beams coming out of their eyes. Of course, the sources for the entire piece are “sources” and “people familiar with the matter”, so I’m having a hard time believing any of it. But it still sounds hilarious.Hilariously awesome!

Clinton-appointed judge behaves like Clinton. Receives punishment like a Clinton. Christ, what an asshole.

I really am sorry for what you’ve gone through.

Well, plan on Johnson & Johnson to be filing for bankruptcy in a few years.  Once you settle one of these, the floodgates will open.

That asshole who killed her neighbor in Dallas was found guilty of murder. Good.  Now I hope they sentence her to a veeeeery long time.

Man, I remember going to see them on this tour.  It was AWESOME!!!

That’s it folks. Have a great Wednesday!

Comments

629 responses to “Wednesday Morning Links”

  1. Rebel Scum

    According to a stunning excerpt from a forthcoming book by two New York Times reporters, during a panicked week in March, Trump cursed at immigration officials who he deemed ineffective and, at one point, insisted that the border be shut down “by noon the next day.” The report offers a glimpse into an increasingly frazzled president, one who feared for his political future because he had made zero progress on his signature immigration policy — “build the wall” — after more than two years.

    Yea, sure…I suppose this is from “a source familiar with the matter” or something.

    1. Rebel Scum

      #Winning

    2. Festus

      “Ladies and gentlemen, The Grey Lady!” * Strip Club customers file out disconsolately*

    3. Drake

      Heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard from a Brennan CIA plant.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        REO Shitwagon.

    4. Rhywun

      I wonder if it’s the same two reporters who tried to unleash Kavanagh Round II.

  2. Count Potato

    “A man who was gored by a bison in June took a date back to the same place – only for her also to be attacked. ”

    Don’t worry, Scro, there are plenty of tards out there living kick-ass lives!

    1. Tonio

      He sounds pretty Bourgeous to me.

    2. Is your ex-wife a pilot?

    3. Fourscore

      “Fool me once, shame…”

    4. Trigger Hippie

      Where’s your tattoo? Why come you got no tattoo? You’re not unscanabble, are you?

    5. Sean

      “Here’s your sign”

      -Bill Engvall

    6. Bobarian LMD

      Maybe the date wasn’t working out?

  3. Festus

    Foul Ball! Easy to see how the Ump missed that one, though.

    1. Chipping Pioneer

      Wrist > bat > shoulder.

      HBP

      1. Chipping Pioneer

        *wildly gesticulates

        *kicks dirt on Festus’ feet

    2. cyto

      That clip is great!

      Well, not the clip, but the reactions. It is perfect for our times. It perfectly illustrates motivated reasoning.

      I have no dog in that fight, didn’t see it until this post and generally don’t care either way. It isn’t very inconclusive in slow motion.

      And yet the very first comment out of the gate says “it clearly hit the wrist first” and the very next one says “it clearly hit the knob first”.

      1. cyto

        Ok, I decided to play with it and see if I could see it both ways.

        You know what.. you can.

        It looks to me like it comes in, hits the knob and bounces into his hand/wrist and up his shoulder.

        But if I stare at it and think “it hits the meat of his hand, bounces forward and hits the knob, ricocheting off, it actually looks like that. Because it is only 2D, you don’t have the depth information to know which direction it is moving – toward you or away.

        So I can see how easy this one is for motivated reasoning to impact your judgement.

        That being said… ball hit the bat and then the wrist.

  4. This would have been even better if he said he wanted sharks with freaking laser beams coming out of their eyes.

    Wouldn’t work, too much of the border is desert. Now a double-walled barrier with the interior filled with landmines and laser turrets is something else entirely…

    1. Tonio

      The Judicial Council for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order sanctioning U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia, who is based in Kansas City, Kansas. The order said Murguia also was reprimanded for being “habitually late” to meetings and court proceedings for years.

      Public reprimands like this are extremely rare. The usual resolution is a private talking-to. Neither the Chief Judge of the district, nor the Judicial Council for the circuit, can remove him from office; impeachment is the only mechanism for removing Article III judges.

      1. Tonio

        Today, the part of Brooksie will be played by Tonio.

        1. You failed the audition, since brooks replies in new comments. I forget what making a new comment as a reply was called.

          1. kbolino

            Gilmore’d? It’s hard to keep track of the posting errors vs. the linking errors.

          2. I’m thinking we might actually need that lexicon drawn up.

          3. leon

            SugarFree: Link that doesn’t Work
            Gilmore: Posting a response in the wrong Thread
            Brooksing: Posting a response in a new comment.

            Any others?

          4. Not Adahn

            ^That’s how I remember it.

          5. Tonio

            I’m working on a Noobs Intro to Glibs piece. Wasn’t planning to include things like that, but rather to let everyone post those in the comments.

          6. We’ll do one better and accidentally demonstrate them.

          7. Festus

            Yes, Tonio, Yes! An introduction to the Glib lexicon could even turn into a recurring series of articles. It may turn the focus inward but I’ve got the feeling that this site is going to see some robust growth both before and after the 2020 election. DO EEEEETTTTT!

          8. Bobarian LMD

            What about SMITHING: Causing noobs to recoil in fear and disgust, before they disappear.

          9. DOOMco

            Wasn’t it Gilmore’d when you mess a link up but it somehow still functions?

          10. DOOMco

            Or was that SF?

          11. leon

            I don’t know if we have one for posting a link that looks borked but still works. Though that might be a gilmore too.

      2. leon

        Kansas City, Kansas

        I hear that’s the crappy part of Kansas, City. Also, it sounds like he had been reading some of Mojeaux’s books.

        1. Trigger Hippie

          Wyandotte County is rough, yo.

          Fun Fact! I got sentenced to twenty hours of community service in KCMO for marijuana possession in my early twenties, did about half of it, and being the scofflaw idiot I was, said fuck the rest. Later, I found out the sentence was overturned because apparently it came to light that the presiding judge was pretty much piss drunk on the job for the last three years.

          Yeah, I thought of the court room scene in Up In Smoke as well.

          1. Festus

            “Hey! That’s straight Gin, Man!” Got grounded from seeing that movie because big brother got us stoned at the rink the night before. Had to wait two weeks which ruined it because nobody knew about spoilers back then.

          2. Bobarian LMD

            Bailiff! Whack his pee-pee!

            (Not in the movie, but was on the album)

        2. sounds like he had been reading some of Mojeaux’s books.

          Probably The Proviso, since I have a little workplace harassment going on there. (In my defense, the girl already has a crush on him and he knows it.)

          @Trigger Hippie is totally right about Wyandotte County. Except it has Go Chicken Go. I love that place.

  5. Rebel Scum

    Now I hope they sentence her to a veeeeery long time.

    She was overcharged and will get off (giggity) on appeal.

    1. I disagree. The charge fit even her version of events.

      1. cyto

        I don’t agree with that….

        Her version is that she walked in, there was some guy in her kitchen… she pulled her weapon and yelled at him to freeze…. he charged at her and she shot him dead.

        I think that goes under the heading of “good shoot” in most cases.

        Of course, in her case it wasn’t her apartment, they had a prior beef (or 3), forensics disputes the contention that he was charging, and (not sure if this made the trial because i didn’t follow it closely, but also relevant) neighbors say they heard a longer conflict than her version suggests. Which totally sounds like murder to me.

        1. Even a use of defensive force gets charged as murder with the jury tasked with establishing if the killing was reasonable and proportionate to the danger. The charge was appropriate.

    2. Count Potato

      “Killer cop Amber Guyger’s eyes well up with tears in her booking photo following her guilty verdict for murdering a black man in his home as it’s revealed she joked about MLK’s death and made critical comments about serving with black officers in deleted texts”

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7527463/Killer-cop-Amber-Guyger-joked-MLKs-death-texts.html

      1. Not Adahn

        eyes well up with tears

        Maybe I’m a cold-hearted aspie bastard, but while I can believe she was crying about having to go to prison, I can’t believe that her tears during the trial were much more than a performance to gain sympathy. Too much time has passed to not have gained control over yourself.

        1. Tonio

          She probably thought that she’d get acquitted, as bad cops always do. Denial is a hell of a drug.

          But the significance of this conviction cannot be overstated, particularly if it survives appeal.

          1. Jarflax

            But the significance of this conviction cannot be overstated

            I disagree. This case is being touted as a bad Cop being convicted, but it really isn’t. She was off duty, not acting under the policing authority and completely outside of qualified immunity. This was not a jury rejecting the thin blue line defense; it was a fact pattern where they weren’t required to reject it.

          2. cyto

            Right. If every single fact remained the same, but she had been sent to investigate “smells of a drug operation” or even a “domestic dispute”, she’d be just fine.

            “I told him to freeze and he refused” is plenty of justification for shooting a man in his own kitchen under those circumstances. Absent a video or other strong evidence that contradicts that claim, the state would sand behind that shooter.

      2. C’mon. Who HASN’T joked about MLK’s death?

        1. zwak

          RFK?

    3. leon

      I’ve thought about it more, and i don’t think she was overcharged. I think that we say that because we know about the blue card, etc. but this wasn’t manslaugter. Manslaughter is accidentally killing someone, which isn’t something she did. She Accidentally went into the wrong apartment, but she intentionally killed someone. Also IANAL but on appeal she would have to show that she was denied some ability to defend herself against the charges. She can’t just say “well i clearly didn’t murder him, so i was overcharged” because a jury already convicted her of murder.

      1. Rebel Scum

        Fair enough.

      2. kbolino

        “Accidental” only applies to involuntary manslaughter. In my “I’m not a lawyer and I don’t even play one on the Internet” opinion, this was voluntary manslaughter.

        1. leon

          Well hell, who’s idea was that? I’m sure it differs in different jurisdictions, but Voluntary Manslaughter sound’s like an oxymoron. I’m old fashion so i don’t know the statutes, but to me Manslaughter was always about doing something that might be reasonably considered as dangerous but not malicious or intentional, and causing someones death.

          1. kbolino

            I suppose it depends on whether you adhere to the original meaning of “malice aforethought” or the present meaning (in which it, like mens rea*, doesn’t mean much when a prosecutor wants a conviction).

            * = Unless your name is Hillary Rodham Clinton, in which case mens rea is so powerful it requires mind reading abilities and applies to laws that explicitly do not have an intent component in their definition

          2. leon

            Look Comey couldn’t recommend prosecution because then the FBI would have inserted itself into the election process. Also Trump was icky and needed to be removed at any cost.

          3. In Texas, First Degree Murder requires malice aforethought. Second degree murder does not.

          4. Tonio

            Manslaughter and Murder are pretty uniform between US jurisdictions, and with that of most other English speaking nations. Those concepts were long ago defined under English common law and really haven’t changed much.

          5. kbolino

            The Model Penal Code changed a lot of that, whether by being directly adopted or simply shifting the common understanding of what constituted certain crimes.

      3. Rhywun

        She Accidentally went into the wrong apartment

        Dunno if this was revealed, but how did she manage to accidentally unlock the wrong door?

        1. Dead guy didn’t lock his door.

          Yet another reason why I always lock mine.

          1. Rhywun

            In an apartment building? GTFO.

          2. Either that or she’d made a copy of his key when they were dating, but that further indicts her.

          3. Saw a couple mentions that his door was defective and didn’t close properly but nothing in detail, but maybe a sticky latch or something.

          4. Rhywun

            Oh, that’s believable.

          5. Sean

            Yet another reason why I always lock mine.

            #metoo

      4. Suthenboy

        “a forthcoming book by two New York Times reporters, ”

        Forthcoming. I see. Cant be any more fabulous than this report by Media-ite

        “She Accidentally went into the wrong apartment,”

        I am not convinced of that.

    4. kbolino

      That, and the prosecution made the whole thing about race, and the defense claimed the “castle defense” for her invading someone else’s home. This is just a whole bunch of awful from beginning to end.

      1. Rebel Scum

        I heard about that. That was an absurd defense.

        1. It’s as if the prosecution wanted her to skate and the defense wanted her convicted.

          1. The prosecution did a very good job. They charged her appropriately, objected to the castle doctrine request, and then explained how the jury must determine “reasonableness” if they’d allow the defense to use the mistake of fact claim with any success.

            The defense fucked up bu putting her on the stand.

          2. blackjack

            this. And, she admitted to trying to kill him, instead of the usual blue line…line of “I fired until the threat stopped”

      2. kbolino

        Should say “castle doctrine” defense*

      3. invisible finger

        “the prosecution made the whole thing about race”

        She brought it up. She said it was dark. The whole thing could have been avoided if only the guy would have smiled.

    5. Properly charged, was allowed to assert affirmative defense, even to the point of silliness….and convicted properly.

      She will be popular in her new abode, however.

      1. Festus

        “Hey there Lil’ Blondie!’

      2. Tonio

        We all know she’s going to some sort of special facility where she will get special treatment that your non-LEO convict wouldn’t.

        Also: Fuck you, Dunphy, wherever you are.

        1. kbolino

          What I don’t get, through all of this, is what her day job has to do with anything. She wasn’t at work when this happened, she wasn’t serving a warrant, she wasn’t on patrol. Yet, for a lot of people who share her profession, that was a really important detail.

          1. leon

            ^^This. I don’t know how many of them are “True believers”, in that they think that cops can’t do any wrong, or how many are truly awful and think that cops should be allowed to do anything.

          2. Tonio

            They are all members of the LEO club. According to them they are a special, elite breed of human being. They constantly put themselves in danger to protect the public. We civilians don’t, indeed *can’t*, know what that is like. And they play that at every opportunity for all it’s worth. And if you pushback against, or even question that, you are an anti-cop bigot. Go spend a day over at Police One (I think that was Dunphy’s preferred online LEO clubhouse).

            And yes, she probably wouldn’t last long were she placed in the general inmate population in a maximum security prison (which is where they send violent felons). Womp, womp — that “with great power comes great responsibility” thing works both ways.

          3. kbolino

            I (half-jokingly) think we should start calling attention to any lumberjacks or roughnecks getting worked over by the legal system, since their jobs are more dangerous than being a cop.

          4. Tonio

            “start calling attention to any lumberjacks or roughnecks”

            Yes, please.

          5. invisible finger

            When is a lawman really off-duty?

            /barneyfife

      3. Rufus the Monocled

        She’s a sociopath.

        Yet it’s ok for people like her to have the guns.

        Makes totes sense.

        1. Festus

          I remember the kids from high school that went on to become cops. They were mundane and yet “different”.

    6. She wasn’t overcharged according to Texas statute. Murder is the crime when your intention is to inflict serious bodily injury or death. And she said in open court that she intended to kill him because she thought he was an intruder.
      She went with a castle doctrine defense and the “mistake of fact” that she thought she was in her own apartment. The jury didn’t think a reasonable person would ha e made that mistake of fact and held her responsible for the action she said she intended to carry out once she entered the apartment.

      1. Not to mention she was in uniform and claimed she was acting as a cop once she “realized” there was an intruder in her apartment (sitting on the couch eating ice cream). Departmental policy states she should have retreated since that was an option as she was in the doorway. Instead she entered the apartment, gun drawn, with the intention to kill the person inside.

        1. Festus

          So much about this tragic story that will never be unearthed. We’ll just chalk it up to the same mechanism that leaves the Vegas shooter’s motivation “unknown”. That was two years ago and still nothing.

          1. What Vegas shooter?
            -the FBI

    7. DrOtto

      Had she not taken the stand, this may be true, but she gave the prosecution intent in her testimony. She is her own worst enemy.

      1. I’m guessing the defense thought a tearful blonde girl on the stand could pull on the heartstrings of the jury.

  6. leon

    OT: For Ozzy. Thanks for the article again. :Put’s tin foil hat on: I wonder how much the government actually enjoys the anti-vaxer movement, because it helps create a staunch “You’re either a crazy person, or a smart rational person” divide. Anyone who questions a vaccine is immediately put into the crazy camp, thus creating an incentive to not question at all.

    1. Tonio

      ^This. Really good series.

    2. invisible finger

      You’re ignoring the bureaucratic totem pole. Ultimately you’re only crazy to be an anti-vaxer if you are not registered as a Democrat. Anti-vaxers that are D’s are totally rational because D.

    3. You could swap “anti-vaxxer” with “climate-change denier” and the arguments start to look very similar in style, content, and form, I find. I think the anti-vax side is incorrect, but I find the treatment of the position as heresy by the pro-vax side to be counterproductive at best.

      1. ChipsnSalsa

        I’m very skeptical of the HPV vaccine. My kids won’t be getting that one. Nor the yearly flu.

        1. Same on both.

          “No, I don’t want HPV or flu.”

          Doc raises eyebrows.

          “One in its infancy and the other one is hit-or-miss on this year’s strain of flu. They don’t need random stuff in their bodies that you don’t know if it works.”

          1. Yeah, I’d think the rational approach to a stranger injecting something into your body would naturally be skepticism, so I’m not sure why it’s so easy for people to look at vaccination skepticism as totally insane or reprehensibly stupid.

    4. Jarflax

      ^This, every issue is like this, a binary choice between stark choices one of which is the side of brilliant holy purity and the other ignorant evil. Vaccines are a broad class of things, DPT, Tetanus on one end HPV Flu and Anthrax somewhere else. A rational person can make different decisions about different vaccines.

    5. Ozymandias

      Leon – I’m glad you’re… “enjoying” doesn’t seem the right word… “making your way through it.” The anti-vaxxer crowd was relatively nascent at the time this was all going down, from my recollections. The internet (as we know it) was still only a few years old and a lot of ways of connecting didn’t exist. But you’ve asked a question that nagged at me when I was in the middle of this whole thing. All I can say by way of answer is that back then, the govt was quite keen that anyone pointing out problems with the vaccine and program were definitely “internet conspiracy theorists.” They worked that angle really hard.
      There were a handful of attorneys just like me, mostly military, a few civilians, who were hated by military higher-ups because we were seen as betraying the “larger cause” of FORCE PROTECTION!!1!1!! I lost friendships, professional standing, and a shit-ton of Christmas party invites because I was quite publicly pointing out the things you’re reading now. General officers are, if nothing else, “company men” and junior officers saying the Emperor is in his birthday suit is not exactly endearing to senior officers trying to implement the SecDef’s orders.

  7. Count Potato

    “Well, plan on Johnson & Johnson to be filing for bankruptcy in a few years. Once you settle one of these, the floodgates will open.”

    Those lawsuits are bullshit. If people can sue drug makers when people do stupid shit when using their drugs, Bacardi owes me a billion dollars.

    1. I could bankrupt most of the craft breweries in the Midwest.

      1. Tundra

        Hmmm. Maybe time for a class action?

        1. Jarflax

          But after you bankrupted all the brewers, what would you spend your winnings on?

          1. Tundra

            Scotch and sports cars.

          2. Jarflax

            That is a fair response. Carry on.

    2. Drake

      Aren’t they still trying to sue gun manufacturers for Sandy Hook? Next will be suing Ford for a kid getting run over.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Wait for self-driving cars.

        Lawyers will own the auto industry.

      1. CampingInYourPark

        In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Central Islip, 19-year-old Shawn Hochhauser of Massapequa says he started smoking Juul e-cigs when he was 15 years old — drawn to the company’s mango-flavored variety.

        But, he claims, he didn’t know the product was addictive and contained high levels of nicotine and, before he learned of the adverse health effects, he was smoking one or two Juul pods a day.

        So, he claims he couldn’t read the package when he was 15. Shouldn’t he be suing the school system?

        1. Akira

          drawn to the company’s mango-flavored variety.

          I fucking hate the implication that it’s the fruity flavor that gets the kids hooked. I’ve met plenty of grown-ass men who shy away from beer and whiskey in favor of sugary alcopop bullshit.

          Hell, I regularly tease my friend (32 years old) about his dessert-flavored vape juices.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Trump has cancelled himself!

      I sooooo want him to win in 2020 just to see the mother of all meltdowns. What the heck are these asshats going to do for an encore? I almost don’t want to know.

      1. DOOMco

        For all the parts of trump I disklike, half of me does want a landslide victory in his favor.
        It would also be hilarious if he won the popular vote, thereby flipping those stupid states that decided their statehood doesn’t matter.
        VT and California giving electoral votes to him would be the best tearfest ever.

        1. Not Adahn

          He’s probably the best president that I’ll ever see, because no one else will be capable of inspiring such set-in-concrete gridlock and incessant focus on trivialities. Next to making congressional sessions one week long every two years, he’s the best thing.

          1. Tonio

            Justice Neil Gorsuch. If his entire presidency consisted only of that, he’d still have done more lasting good for us than any other president of whom I can think.

          2. kbolino

            If they got the votes, I wouldn’t put impeachment of Gorsuch and, of course, Kavanaugh beyond them. The number of people thinking Garland’s appointment was “stolen” is stunning.

            The Constitution says “advice and consent” of the Senate. The Senate did not give its consent. The people wailing that they had to hold a vote seem blissfully unaware or unconcerned with the apparently just as grave “pocket veto” that the President enjoys.

          3. Tonio

            It would be very dicey to try to impeach two justices on obviously trumped-up charges. And they’d have to go after Kavanaugh first to appease the feminists.

        2. Rhywun

          It would also be hilarious if he won the popular vote, thereby flipping those stupid states that decided their statehood doesn’t matter.

          That silliness only happens when enough states join the pact. They’re like a dozen short.

          1. kbolino

            The minimum number to push it over the line is 3: Texas, Florida, and any other state with 6 or more electoral votes. The states that have adopted it have 196 electoral votes, and it needs to cross the 270 line to come into effect (barring court challenges).

          2. Rhywun

            Welp, that’s terrifying.

        3. Sean

          VT and California giving electoral votes to him would be the best tearfest ever.

          I would need to contact my doctor for an erection lasting more than 4 hours.

          Though, even I don’t believe he’ll swing CA.

          1. kbolino

            If the NPV compact were to go into effect, CA as a signatory would have to give its electoral votes to whoever won the popular vote. If that were Trump, even though he almost certainly would lose in CA itself, the state would have to give its electoral votes to him. Of course, I’m sure they would hold an eleventh-hour legislative session to undo that, thus throwing the whole country yet again into electoral chaos.

          2. Rhywun

            Noted wit Samantha Bee is plugging a bit where she compares the electoral college to John Wayne Gacy. That lady is a card.

  8. Rufus the Monocled

    Maybe Markle and Bryce Harper should hook up and have a whine fest.

    1. Festus

      Wasn’t she just some moderately attractive actress on a mid-range TV show a few years ago? When did she get get the power to hold A Prince of the Realm’s balls in her purse?

      1. Drake

        I thought Harry was a red-pill guy back in his army days. He seems to have swallowed the blue pill hard. She must be something in the sack.

        1. Yeah. It’s a bummer. I liked that guy.

        2. Festus

          This is the same guy that used to play Nazi dress-up at parties. I don’t really condone that (maybe it was an inside joke) but yes, Ms. Markle does indeed own one of those “Magic Pussies” that we hear about and endeavor to discover.

          1. Drake

            I thought it was hilarious when he showed up at a party in an Afrika Korps uniform.

          2. Festus

            You would. j/k

          3. Festus

            You would. j/k

          4. Festus

            Gotta stop feeding them or they’ll just come back.

  9. Rufus the Monocled

    All I needed was one take to see it hit the bat first.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Still. The bull pen and Grisham….yeesh. Ironically, the position Yellich plays. Talk about ‘we needed Yellich!’ after all.

      Scherzer is no Verlander in big spots.

    2. Festus

      Easy to see from that angle but from behind the play, guess work.That ball is coming in at 80-100 MPH and it’s just “feels” at that point.

      1. Then what’s the point in having replay?

        1. Festus

          Replay is an abomination in baseball.

          1. Festus

            There is no point to it. I’m pretty old-school.

          2. So am I. But if it exists, it needs to be used properly.

          3. Festus

            We are in total agreement.

  10. Rebel Scum

    Maxine Waters✔
    @RepMaxineWaters

    I’m calling on the GOP to stop Trump’s filthy talk of whistleblowers being spies & using mob language implying they should be killed. Impeachment is not good enough for Trump. He needs to be imprisoned & placed in solitary confinement. But for now, impeachment is the imperative.

    1. Fourscore

      Its true, political lightweights, like cream, rise to the top.

      1. Tonio

        It’s all she has.

      2. pistoffnick

        Scum. Scum also rises to the top.

      3. pistoffnick

        “Society is like a stew. If you don’t stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.”
        ― Edward Abbey

        1. ChipsnSalsa

          I like that. And by “stir”… (no, not a STEVE SMITH reference)

    2. DOOMco

      And they get mad at Trump for saying civil war like

    3. kbolino

      whistleblowers being spies

      Any day now they’re going to pardon Snowden and release Assange…

      Any day now, I’m sure.

      1. Trigger Hippie

        *Dons a southern accent*

        Bless your heart.

      2. Tonio

        Only the executive can issue pardons and commute sentences.

        1. invisible finger

          That might be a good play for him now. Trreaten me and I pardon your other enemies.

        2. kbolino

          I thought about that, but I don’t think it’s true. Congress can’t pass bills of attainder or ex post facto laws, but there is no prohibition on Congress carving out exemptions by category or even by name. I believe that Congress could, within its power, pass a law saying “John Q. Public shall not be prosecuted or otherwise held liable under XX USC § YYY or related provisions of law”.

    4. leon

      Now i don’t know the full timeline yet, but what’s crazy to me is how fast the democrats (including Pelosi) decided to go all in on impeachment. They had a leaked report of a whistle-blowers report being adjudicated that was itself a second hand report.

      Finally, i do think it’s curious that you get a whisleblower about this, but that the CIA doesn’t seem to have whistelblowers about all the other shit we know we’ve done. Like i’ve said, if the CIA said that water was wet, i’d be suspicious of what their angle was.

      1. invisible finger

        It all makes sense when you realize Democrats are oversized 5-year olds. Patiently thinking things through is not in their nature. They’re all extremely jealous of the oversized 9-year old that won the election.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          It makes sense when you realize that Barr is going after all the dirty shit the CIA pulled during the election.

          1. Tonio

            Please let that be true. The deep state needs a good rattling. We’ll never get rid of it, but it needs to be reminded of it’s proper place.

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            I think it is. He’s actively soliciting assistance from outside the country to nail down some facts, which implies that he does not trust our own agencies.

        2. Drake

          Democrats and others in this new aristocracy had grown very used to having a GOP whose members played the game like gentlemen (and that includes the Republican women). Every now and then there had been an eruption from the more combative right such as Bill Clinton’s impeachment or Gingrich’s short-lived Contract With America. But for the most part the left and the Democrats had to deal with people who were only tepidly on the right and often more than willing to play ball with the left, people such as McCain (the candidate in 2008) and Romney (2012). Even George W. Bush was no street fighter and no conservative, although they hated him for other reasons.

          The left grew used to having opponents of a certain type, and Trump most definitely is not of that type.

          1. invisible finger

            Looking back, playing the left-right game is really a mistake. It’s more Deep Sate vs. Citizenry.

            When G H W Bush was elected, he was ex-CIA and Deep State loved him. Then Clinton wins and – the horror! – he wanted to close military bases. So IMPEACHMENT! Naturally the simpletons in a political party go right along. Clinton survived, the point was understood, and the Deep State got the increased funding it wanted. Dubya folded like oragami, as did Obama – in part because they owed so many favors. Along comes Trump, threatens the Deep State, and voila! IMPEACHMENT shrieking yet again.The opposing political party is only too happy to oblige.

            Rinse, repeat. Only this time the target isn’t folding so easily. So we’re just waiting for the CIA to foment unrest elsewhere to get their funding increased again. The Hong Kong thing came up without their doing which is screwing with their m.o.

          2. Drake

            Make no mistake they aren’t just impeaching Trump because they hate – they hate everyone who voted for him.

          3. Obama didn’t fold. He realized the deep state could be harnessed to his ends.

      2. Not Adahn

        I’m pretty sure that “whistleblower” report was coordinated with house dems in the same way that Blasey-Ford’s accusation was with dem senators.

      3. Tonio

        There is a lot that could happen between now and the gavel banging to open the impeachment proceedings.

        1. leon

          :Gasp: Tonio is inciting CIVIL WAR

          1. Well that’s better than inciting an uncivil war. We can try to kill each other, but still be polite about it.

          2. leon

            I do say good chap, I believe you’ve shot me in the arm.

          3. Not Adahn

            I was pretty happy with that movie.

          4. Tonio

            Nothing that dramatic, Leon. I was just thinking Pelosi might have a change of heart

          5. l0b0t

            And here I was, hoping that Gavel Banging was some sort of hitherto unknown to me secret thing (like the old hankie code) that involved an older gentleman of distinction dressing as Elihu Smails and getting a good rogering from a twink with a big red afro.

      4. invisible finger

        I’d rather they waste time on impeachment proceedings that go nowhere than spending time legislating.

        1. But if they’re going to impeach, they need to hold a vote to open the hearings. They refuse to do so because once they do, the R members on those committees will also be able to subpoena witnesses. They’re doing an end-around by calling it an “impeachment inquiry” while maintaining the regular committee rules that only allow witnesses to be called that are approved by a committee vote, which effectively means the Dems can run a kangaroo court without the opposition being able to present their case.

          Once an impeachment vote is held in the House, a lot of people that have been behind the 2016 election shenanigans will be getting subpoenas. And a lot of them will be exerting their fifth amendment rights or lying under oath.

          Think: Strzok, Page, Rice, Brennan, Comey, McCabe, maybe even Obama.

          1. Yes – there’s discovery in an impeachment proceeding, is there not?

      5. Scruffy Nerfherder

        As was pointed out by Caitlin Johnstone and John Kiriakou, an actual whistleblower, he’s not a whistleblower.

        A CIA whistleblower would be reporting on all the dirty shit the CIA is most definitely doing.

        This guy is a spook doing spook things for his CIA masters.

        1. Not Adahn

          If your testimony begins with “Well, I was told that…” you’re a rumormonger.

      6. So they are really going to war with hearsay “evidence” from an anonymous source?

        1. invisible finger

          Deep Statethroat

  11. Festus

    Saw Van Halen in 1980, “Women and Children First” tour, I think. We were front and center, row 19. I wasn’t a huge fan but they put on a helluva show. Anyone that says that Dave wasn’t the best front man in rock during that era is just plain talking out of xer ass. We’d just seen Rush a few nights before at the same arena. Different band, different seats, much different vibe.

  12. blackjack

    “Man, I remember going to see them on this tour. It was AWESOME!!!”

    I’m going to the Troubador Friday, so here’s a quick Van Halen story.

    I went there in about 1981 with my buddy Marvin. He was driving a stolen car. We were on ‘ludes. We went to the bar to try and talk them into serving a couple of 15 y/o’s, when we noticed three chicks at the other end. We asked the bar tender ” hey who are those chicks?” He said ” That’s David lee Roth!” When we left, Marvin wanted to show off. He was driving some kinda of Caddy. When he turned the corner, he mashed the throttle and did a huge burn out. Well, he lost control and careened wildly up Robertson and then crashed right through the window of a flower store. We got out and were standing in the middle of the showroom. I grabbed a huge bottle of expensive Champagne from a cooler and started to split. He grabbed two giant tree like plants. I was like ” what the fuck are you doing?” and he says ” they’re worth 100.00 a piece!” I told him to leave them but he wouldn’t. We ran up the street, me with a huge bottle of bubbly and him with the stupid giant plants. Eventually, he realized they were to cumbersome and left them on the sidewalk. Then we just strolled around on Sunset Blvd drink champagne and hitchhiked home.

    1. Tonio

      One meets the most interesting people here.

      1. Tundra

        Blackjack is something of an outlier.

        1. Tonio

          I was being serious; would love to have a beer with the guy. Stories like that are like crack for writers. And there are many awesome people here who have done or experienced things that are exceptional.

          1. Tundra

            I am too. Even in a group of knaves, brigands and scalliwags, he’s got some tremendous stories.

          2. Jarflax

            I once met a libertarian woman!

          3. Ozymandias

            {Shakes head} There’s always one guy who has to take it too far…

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Lol. Pineapple Express-esque.

      1. Tonio

        You trolling me, bro?

    3. Festus

      You are a year younger than me and yet you are my spirit animal, blackjack.

      1. Festus

        I’ll bet that we would have been inseparable at that age or conversely, mortal foes.

    4. PBRstreetgang

      You have the best stories

      1. blackjack

        I’ve only told a tiny sliver here. Even after I got sober my life been, well, an outlier.

  13. Count Potato

    “Bizarre moment woman wrestles with a man as she tries to unlock his phone using his Face ID”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7519429/Hilarious-moment-woman-caught-video-fighting-man-Face-ID-unlock-phone.html

  14. Rufus the Monocled

    “As a result of this process, I have deeply reflected on my actions and have implemented self-imposed corrective measures, both personally and professionally,” Murguia said. “I am truly sorry and am committed to ensuring that such conduct is not repeated.”

    The council’s order said there was no evidence that Murguia’s misconduct continued after he was notified of a complaint against him. But 10th Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich wrote in the order that Murguia was “less than candid” after being confronted with the allegations.

    “He tended to admit to allegations only when confronted with supporting documentary evidence,” Tymkovich wrote. “His apologies appeared more tied to his regret that his actions were brought to light than an awareness of, and regret for, the harm he caused to the individuals involved and the dignity of his office.”

    Tymkovich appointed a special committee in August 2018 to investigate a complaint against Murguia, and it interviewed 23 people, according to the council’s order. A public reprimand as “the most severe sanction available” to the council, the order said.

    The order said that female employees said that Murguia made sexually suggestive remarks and sent inappropriate texts to female employees and had “excessive, non-work-related contact” with them. It said the employees were “reluctant” to tell Murguia to stop “because of the power he held as a federal judge.”

    “One of the employees eventually told him explicitly to stop his harassing conduct, but he continued,” the order said.”

    “Sell-corrective”? I bet. He won’t stop.

    How can he even keep his job during cancel culture month?

    1. Tonio

      See my misplaced comment under UCS #4 above.

  15. Fourscore

    At 15 I was going to the county fair and watching a square dance competition. Not the same experience, I guess, but still exciting for a kid from the woods.

    1. Festus

      An ankle glimpsed is a memory to be cherished, right?

  16. Not Adahn

    The 80’s was a strange time.

    You misspelled “totally awesome.”

    Well, until that whole AIDS thing, that was kind of a downer.

    1. blackjack

      That shit pissed me off. All my friends were terrified and had to wait weeks for results. Fucking depressing episode. Of course, everyone tested negative.

  17. Tundra

    “Man, I remember going to see them on this tour. It was AWESOME!!!”

    Row 8, St. Paul Civic Center. What an unbelievable show. I’m pretty sure it was close to a week before I could hear again.

    Good morning, Sloopy and the rest of you potential hockey fans!

    Opening night for the NHL! the best night of the season, because your team still has a chance to win the SC. Bacon’s Blues will be raising their banner tonight before Ovi and his boys beat the shit out them.

    Is the most wonderful time of the year.

    Make it a great day, mofos!

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Dumba better not play Dumb-a. I protected him in my pool.

      1. Tundra

        He’s looked spectacular in the preseason. And he will be protected this year. Even during the preseason, Foglino jumped a dude who took a run at Dumba.

        You will be fine. Good pick.

  18. Festus

    Saint Greta preserve us! https://youtu.be/b2XYan7ifo4

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      I like that channel.

      1. Festus

        They’re just a couple of mellow working stiffs that have been red-pilled. The one dude lives in his RV when he isn’t running painting contracts.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          Yeh. I think Dave reduced his painting load though.

          1. Festus

            All those sweet Youtube bucks, I’d imagine.

  19. commodious spittoon

    San Francisco backs down to NRA.

    Being a lefty politician sounds like the easiest job in the world. Local problems proving intractable? Promise your idiot constituents you’ll go after the NRA.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Now De Blasio/NYC should be sued.

      Enough of this insane and inane faux-virtuous wokenag madness.

  20. Bob Boberson

    To soon after the links have posted to solicit Glib advice? Oh well……

    As I prepare to relocate I’ve been researching the housing market in Spokane. Up until now I’ve been a renter (debt phobic + nomadic) but thought this may as well be the time that I acquire a home or duplex to eventually turn into an income property.

    After a little cursory research it seems that the Spokane real estate market is now the third fastest growing in the country. Amazon is building a shipping center there and it’s going ape shit. modest single family homes are in the $200K-$300K range. Rent for a 2-3 bedroom house is $1200+. Proponents of buying (realtors) say the city is just catching up to the national average of similar sized cities.

    I’m skeptical that the economy at large is going to be chugging along at this rate in 2-3 years….

    What says the Glibertariat?

    1. invisible finger

      sounds like it is only a small regional shipping center. The better advantage is a state university is there. As long as you are prepared for the headaches of college nitiwts renting the house it could be a good idea. If you can afford to pay cash for the house, put 50% down and save the rest for short-term and long-term repairs. Don’t think about renting it out with a short bankroll. Consult a local attorney with experience in the rental market.

      1. Bob Boberson

        It’s a solid rental market. Several colleges, a military base, several hospitals…..never a shortage of potential renters

      2. Bob Boberson

        I have enough saved for a sizable down payment but not on the order of 50%. If I put 20-30% down and mortgaged the rest I’d still have enough in savings to cover renovations and repairs in the near term.

    2. Tundra

      Hard to say, Bob.

      It’s unlikely demand will disappear in that area, so even if you are buying on the high side, if you live there long enough you are probably fine.

      Realtors are realtors so take what they say with a grain of salt, but their mantra of location, etc. Is spot on. In every market there are neighborhoods that outperform (due to income, schools, etc). I do believe there will be another correction soon, but locating in one of the better preferring neighborhoods will at least buffer that.

      Do we have any Spokane Glibs who can point you in the right direction?

      1. Bob Boberson

        None I’m aware of unless there are some lurkers who haven’t spoken up 🙁

        1. Plinker762

          I’ve been in Spokane since ’89 and have mentioned it a few times. My quick take (I have to go to work soon) is that in the past 5 years or so, the city has grown to the limits of its infrastructure which isn’t helped by the government’s desire to add bike lanes. The city is headed down the Seattle route.

    3. R C Dean

      How long do you plan to live in Spokane?

      1. Bob Boberson

        5-6 years, and possibly keep it as an income property even if I leave

        1. Certified Public Asshat

          Long distance rentals always make me clutch my heart.

          1. Bob Boberson

            Yeah, I’ve heard some horror stories. I’ve known people it’s worked out for though too. I think a lot depends on the contract you sign with the Property Management Company.

          2. Tonio

            I’ve also heard horror stories about PMCs.

          3. Jarflax

            Property managers for single family houses suck. Long distance landlording is begging for pain. The keys to successful landlording are:

            1. a phlegmatic personality. Tenants are going to damage your property. Tenants are going to have sob stories about why they cannot pay. You need to react calmly and logically.

            2. staying on top of what is going on in your properties. You, or your manager need to be inside each house no less than every 6 months. Almost no one does this, and almost everyone eventually discovers that they have a tenant who has allowed a $300 water leak to turn into a $10,000 rehab. Or that the tenant hasn’t changed the furnace filter for 3 years and the unit is shot.

            3. replacement reserves are NOT cash flow. If you are not putting aside 20-40% of the monthly gross rents received to pay for absolutely certain future maintenance and repairs you are spending money that is not actual cash flow. Roofs, furnaces, sewer lines, appliances etc all fail on a fairly predictable schedule. The money has to be there to fix them, and it has to be there for turnovers. Every extra vacant month, whether between tenants, or due to being unable to afford needed repairs, costs you several months of cash flow from the property. A six month vacancy can put your bottom line in the red for years.

            4. there are a lot of actually criminally dishonest managers out there, these people will rent your units and pocket the money. They will charge you for repairs and not perform them. I have seen s duplex that the manager turned into a triplex (without permits or attention to code) at the owner’s expense, but without his knowledge, and then rented all three units while telling the owner they were vacant.

            5. Honest managers in single families have to manage too many properties (to make a decent income) to be able to give them the attention they need. Turnover times start to grow (see 3 above), collections drop, evictions stretch out for months while no rent comes in, maintenance gets deferred.

            I work almost entirely with investors and one of the best sources for motivated sellers is lists of out of town owners. Californians buy houses here because they are cheap, rents are very high relative to the value, and realtors pitch them as ‘turnkey’. Then the ‘turnkey’ tenant who was generally the first applicant with the first month and security deposit, flakes out, the management lets them slide for a couple of months before evicting, the unit needs work, that also drags out before it can be marketed, and voila hyper motivated pissed off seller.

            Landlording is a business, not an investment. If you treat it as such you can make a fantastic return, but you need to do your homework and face the fact that it is not a passive activity.

        2. R C Dean

          To me, 5 years is probably the minimum you should plan to stay somewhere if you buy a house. Ownership is a long term play unless you want to speculate on real estate.

          I say go for it.

        3. Don Escaped Texas

          The house you would want to own to live in and the one that has the correct cashflow to investment leverage are two very different houses.

          Rentals are somewhat people-proof with base fixtures, features, and finishes. Rent out a nice house and you’re just asking someone to chip up your granite counter and drive nails into the new aluminum eaves to string Christmas lights; every screen will be destroyed after two years, and anything other than a vinyl floor will be gouged and stained, the corners knocked off the sheetroock, the alarm and smoke detectors broken, the fireplace damper won’t work, the garage door will be dinged up and make a crazy noise that you don’t remember, and the bathrooms will be so filthy that the tile will nearly be destroyed trying to clean them.

          If you want to own a rental, go find a place that never had nice or has already had the nice beat out of it.

          1. Scruffy Nerfherder

            If you want to own a rental, go find a place that never had nice or has already had the nice beat out of it.

            This.

            There’s the occasional good renter, but most of them are horrible.

          2. invisible finger

            Solid advice.

          3. Jarflax

            One quibble, “the corners knocked off the sheetroock”, they won’t stop at the corners, and the crayon drawings on the drywall will add to your fun.

          4. Akira

            the alarm and smoke detectors broken

            Uh…

            *nervously tugs collar and flashes back to the time he got super drunk, burned a pot of soup on the stove, set off the smoke detector, and frantically tried to unplug it and ended up ripping the entire fixture out of the ceiling*

          5. l0b0t

            Our downstairs alarm was the 1st thing I disabled. It is hardwired into the ceiling 19″ from the kitchen entrance despite being clearly labeled that 36″ minimum from the kitchen entrance is required. It would screech about CO anytime used more than 1 range burner or the deep fryer or ran the cleaning cycle on the deck oven. I replaced it with self-contained unit and keep up with our fire extinguishers.

    4. Festus

      Judging by the direction that Portland and Seattle are headed you might just get the gold-laying goose but it’s a gamble. Not my monkeys, not my circus. Good luck, though!

    5. Raven Nation

      You might want to check tax & mortgage rules. I’m pretty sure that those are different if it’s a rental property than if it’s your primary residence.

  21. DOOMco

    I lost my wallet at TD Saturday.

    They finally told me they don’t have it. It’s rather hard buying stuff using Google pay. On the plus side, my new banks checks finally got here. So I could be *that guy* at the grocery store now.

    1. *glares*

      Paying with a check? This isn’t the 1980s.

      1. DOOMco

        I want to break the nap every time I get in the 10 items lane when I have 3 things behind a person who has 13 and then pays with a check. And they always argue over some miniscule sale price or coupon.

        Rage inducing.

        1. “I’m sorry this is the express lane – no checks or coupons.”

          1. Tonio

            If only…

        2. This is also why I tend to prefer going shopping at 3am.

          It reduces my options to the 24-hour places, but there’s almost never a line.

          1. Not Adahn

            But the people who are there…

            It was always fun going to Wal-Mart after we had the booth torn down after the renfair closed for the night, and not just because we had various swords and daggers strapped on everywhere.

          2. Aside from my feelings on Wal-Mart, the one near me isn’t 24/7

        3. Jarflax

          Why do you hate old people? Wait until every single item is scanned to slowly rummage through your purse, which is larger than my luggage for a week vacation, for your check book. Write the check at a speed not seen since cuneiform was in fashion, then look surprised that the cashier needs to see your id. Rummage again, produce id. All the time having a leisurely chat with the cashier about every thing that has ever happened to either of you.

          Or the only thing worse, when a young person produces the check book, which means 50-50 chance that they have no money and are just hoping the cashier doesn’t scan the check. When they do it is necessary to act angry and shocked when told the check is no good. Make sure that you argue for at least 5 minutes before storming off ‘to get money’ from the bank that just reported your check was no good.

      2. Not Adahn

        Honestly, last time I saw someone pay with a check, they handed a signed blank check to the cashier who stuck it in the printer, which then printed out the rest of the info. It took less time than a chip card.

        1. I’ve seen it, but I still can’t figure it out.

          1. Fourscore

            Its what I do, then they give me back my printed check, what’s not to like? I don’t like credit cards, I still can’t get over the idea of debt, even tough I pay off my cards totally every month.

            Actually the check at Walmart is really a debit card, deducted from your account.

        2. Tonio

          Those devices also read the MICR numbers on the bottom of the check: bank (routing) number, account number, and check number; this allows the check to be deposited in under a minute. The fields which it prints are uniformly located on the checks so it just blind prints store name, amount in words, and amount in digits.

    2. Trigger Hippie

      Make sure to fumble with check while detaching it from the book, accidentally ripping it, mutter ‘oh, dear’ then start from scratch.

      1. Drake

        And don’t even start the check-writing process until everything is rung up and you’ve haggled over coupons.

        1. Festus

          The crusty old change purse is always an option.

          1. DOOMco

            This comment is made extra hilarious by your picture.

          2. Fourscore

            Stop othering me!

      1. DOOMco

        It was a bit of a quest to get back to Newton to get my car.

        1. Festus

          Are you in New Hampshire? You should road-trip past Styx’s place in Vermont and honk the horn loudly.

          1. If he does that he should keep going and will be near both myself and Not Adahn once he hits the hudson.

          2. Festus

            Glib meet-up! https://youtu.be/59Hj7bp38f8 Thank me later.

          3. DOOMco

            I have to drive through Rutland to get to my parents house. And ladydooms house. I mentioned it last time and she went “the YouTube guy without a shirt?”

          4. Festus

            Doomco’s brush with celebrity! That’s kinda neat, man!

          5. Not Adahn

            You should come shooting with me October 26 and/or 27th. I’ll be the guy with the Glib logo grip on the right side.

          6. DOOMco

            Where?

          7. DOOMco

            I’d like that. How is it now with bringing a gun into new York?

          8. Don’t bring a handgun. They don’t respect a lot of out of state paperwork.

          9. DOOMco

            Ughh.

          10. Look, I don’t want to see you arrested.

          11. DOOMco

            No that’s for the best. But now I’ll have to borrow Adahn’s guns?!

          12. Just knock his mailbox off it’s post with a bat.

            Jesus, don’t you guys know how to properly honor people?

          13. Jarflax

            Ohio credentials validated.

    3. Make sure you wear a robe and slippers to Ralph’s.

  22. Private Chipperbot

    Sheedy going full racist.

    U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib told Detroit police Chief James Craig he should employ only black people on the department’s facial recognition team because “non-African Americans think African Americans all look the same.”

    The congresswoman wrote: “@detroitpolice You should probably rethink this whole facial recognition bull—-.”

    Tlaib then was asked whether that means non-whites should be barred from working as crime analysts in mostly white communities.

    Wow. A reporter actually asking the tough question.

    1. Sounds like people are getting tired of her shit already.

      1. Bob Boberson

        Of all the members of the squad she may win the most contemptible award, which is really saying something.

        1. Festus

          She wasn’t even lucky enough to win the genetic lottery. Ugly, inside and out. No mystery why she’s such an angry cunte.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      She’s crazy.

      And people who tell her to ‘keep up the good work’ in her Twitter account are crazy too.

    3. leon

      Geeze. When will people learn. You can’t be racist against white people. Power structures and all.

    4. DOOMco

      “did I do a racism?”

    5. commodious spittoon

      She replied: “Look it up.”

      Positively Trumpian.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Did you expect her to enact their labor? Geez, man.

    6. Trigger Hippie

      To be fair, from what I’ve read on it, it seems facial recognition tech is still highly flawed.

      1. Jarflax

        Thank God.

    7. kbolino

      There’s a kernel of truth to what she’s saying. Any “AI” algorithm needs a large corpus of training data to distinguish fine details in a broad category of things. If the algorithm is trained heavily on white faces but lightly on black faces, it will indeed think “they all look the same” (or, at least, that there are only a few groupings). It might also think other, even more racist things. The model is only as good as the data.

      However, that is true in any direction. A model developed in Nigeria will probably be really good at distinguishing all of the different Nigerian ethnicities (barring whatever local socioeconomic biases they have) but terrible at identifying Caucasians or Asians.

      1. kbolino

        It’s probably worth noting that “black” and “white” are a lot more subtle than some people think. If the only black faces you train the model on are of people who look like either Morgan Freeman or Forest Whitaker, it’s going to think every black person looks like either one of them to various degrees. You’d have a “Freeman score” and a “Whitaker score” and in today’s scientific journals you could probably write and submit a paper on how some social factor is correlated with being more Whitaker or more Freeman and other absurdities that wouldn’t even exist if you had just found a more diverse corpus of faces.

        1. kbolino

          I’d also like to see how much effort has to go into getting facial recognition to categorize Valerie Jarrett as black. It’d probably take several iterations of having to carefully retrain the model.

          1. Who? Are you talking about that extra from some 60s movie series?

        2. Festus

          G’way with yer science and shit! We just want to hate the toad!

    8. leon

      wait…. Is she saying she wan’t MORE black people behind bars?

    9. Rebel Scum

      Does the same logic hold true for blacks on whites?

    10. I would actually support her if she just came out against using facial recognition AI.

      1. Festus

        ^^^

  23. Scruffy Nerfherder

    SJWednesday: It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year… With The Kids Racist Baiting…

    Halloween is a holiday about glorifying all things spooky and scary, a day to dress up in a costume for the sake of having fun.

    Unfortunately, sometimes the “fun” comes at the expense of others, and the scariest thing is how rampant racism is on Halloween.

    Before you give me an eye roll and say, “Relax, it’s just a joke,” listen up. Because I used to be you.

    If you’re anything like me, then you go to your nearest Halloween store and innocently pick out a costume, never with the foul intention of hurting anyone.

    But regardless of whether your costume selection was done with innocent intentions or not, your costume can still perpetuate harmful stereotypes and stigmas, which then welcomes more aggressive racist attitudes.

    That is: Even if you don’t think you’re vehemently racist, you can still perpetuate racism.

    For example, in the past, I was a “Sexy Indian Girl” and a Geisha. I picked these costumes out because—well—I thought I’d look hot in them, and isn’t that what Halloween is all about for us ladies? (Sigh. One topic at a time.)

    Why would I ever have thought about the implications that my costume would have on Native American or Asian women? Why would I think that deeply about the implications of a costume?

    Well, it’s simple: Because these implications don’t affect me.

    And it never occurred to me that an establishment would openly sell racist (or otherwise offensive) costumes. Why would they?

    But if you’re anything like how I used to be, I have some news for you.

    Racism is deeply ingrained into our history.

    1. commodious spittoon

      Because I used to be you.

      Admitting to past wrongthink? #Cancelled.

    2. For some reason, people took affront at my coal miner costume.

      /sarc – in case you couldn’t tell.

      1. Tonio

        Sexy hillbilly girl will never be considered racist.

    3. Bob Boberson

      #MakeBlackfaceGreatAgain

    4. Trigger Hippie

      White girls are allowed the following costumes:

      Slutty Cat
      Slutty Angel
      Slutty Devil

      Anything else is forbidden.

      1. Bob Boberson

        No love for slutty cop?

        1. Trigger Hippie

          I find cops triggering and masochism ain’t my bag, baby.

        2. leon

          Too risky. She’s more likely to walk into someone elses house and shoot them.

          1. Tonio

            [golf clap]

          2. Trigger Hippie

            Ditto

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Orion slave girl or GTFO

        1. Do you not realize how offensive greenface is?

          Wow, I never knew you were a massive bigot.

    5. leon

      Unfortunately, sometimes the “fun” comes at the expense of others,

      As kids that was the best kinda fun.

      Before you give me an eye roll and say, “Relax, it’s just a joke,” listen up. Because I used to be you.

      Then you know how insufferable you are being right now.

      1. Because I used to be you.

        That’s ok, just because you’re in a slump now doesn’t mean you can’t come back.

    6. Tonio

      We have the trifecta of SJW grievance holidays – Halloween, Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. Sweet.

      1. All of a sudden I want to see if there are any special events on those days at Turningstone (Indian Casino in New York)

        1. Tonio

          I suspect there will be something for Indigenous Peoples Day with is the same day as Columbus Day.

          1. What are the odds that their website is blocked from work? I’mma gonna find out.

          2. Shockingly, it’s not blocked.

            As for holiday events – nothing until Christmas.

    7. Shirley Knott

      I so badly want a “person of color” to put on whiteface over which is applied blackface and go as Justin Trudeau.

    8. R C Dean

      “listen up. Because I used to be you.”

      “And now I have grown and evolved into a condescending prick.”

    9. Because I used to be you.

      Nah.

    10. Rebel Scum

      “Everything is racist. Everything is Sexist. An you have to point it all out.” – some bimbo

    11. Jarflax

      implications that my costume would have on Native American or Asian women

      I was going to jump on the idea, but I am more tired of illiterate journos. implications can be for a group of people. Effects can be on a group of people. (ok, not really, the effect is on individuals, who may or may not belong to a ‘group’)

      /end diction fascisting.

    12. blackjack

      I went as Jesus once when I was about 25. I looked pretty much like Jesus then, so it was easy. I got few disapproving glares, but most people thought it was great.

  24. Private Chipperbot

    SJWs continue to destroy Star Wars.

    Whether or not Emperor Palpatine ever returns, there’s no denying that his empire’s greatest weakness was having HIM as a leader. Cruel, vindictive, hateful, and detested across the galaxy, it’s a miracle Emperor Palpatine took as long as he did to lose all power. But now, Star Wars has revealed the woman who was actually keeping the Empire together all those years, despite its incompetent leader: Imperial Minister Pitina Voor.

    1. Bob Boberson

      George Lucas destroyed it long before the SJW’s got their hooks into it. They are just the scavengers stripping the carcass at this point.

    2. kbolino

      Meh, that on its own is actually plausible (see real history for examples). It’s not that they put women or minorities or whatever into roles; it’s that they’re such shitty writers with terrible imaginations and no empathy, they write absurd plotlines and shallow characters.

      1. And then try to hide behind the forced diversity when people call out their failures at basic storytelling.

        1. leon

          ^^This. There will of course be some people upset no matter what happens, but a good story and realistic characters is what is wanted. Take a look at other stories/movies that have done this well. Hunger Games (despite being a fairly formulaic teenage dystopian story) did very well. But the same people who loved the Hunger Games get called sexist becaues they are upset about the Star Wars movies being piles of shit. It’s dishonest on the part of the producers and lazy. It’s crazy how Diseney has just let their producers take one of the most valuable franchises they own and literally grind the value into dust.

        2. kbolino

          That, and they make fun of the people who enjoyed the works before it became cool. They’re just dumb bullies.

          1. Not just the works they’ve acquired. Thinking about it, I can’t imagine any of them would be able to stand a film like “Zulu”, because it depicts tribal Africans behaving in a tribal manner, even though the Zulus are played by actual Zulus in actual Zulu attire and acting in a the manner their ancestors did at the time, as authenticated by them.

          2. Jarflax

            Zulu exists, and yet certain wrong thinking wrong people here still call the rubber shark movie best.

  25. straffinrun

    “Wrestler Yokozuna”. Which Yokozuna?

    1. Gustave Lytton

      Rikishi?

  26. Scruffy Nerfherder

    SJWednesday: Do you think I’m a nasty girl?

    From the time we are young, women are told to be nice. To be polite. To smile more often, to not curse or confront, to be pleasant — and most of all, to make others feel comfortable.
    When 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg spoke at the United Nations yesterday, she was not cute or pleasing. She did not try to sugarcoat the environmental crisis humans have created, nor did she attempt to coddle adults’ feelings. She was powerful and most definitely not “nice.”
    And so it was no surprise that the president of the United States, a notorious hater of “nasty women,” responded with a snarky tweet: “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future,” he wrote. “So nice to see!”
    Attacking a teenager trying to save the planet is very much in line with Donald Trump’s comic book villain persona, but what stuck out to me was how similar his tone was to an exchange between a female reporter and Joe Biden last week.

    1. Bob Boberson

      “From the time we are young, women are told to be nice. To be polite. To smile more often, to not curse or confront, to be pleasant — and most of all, to make others feel comfortable.”

      As opposed to what young boys are taught? It’s really problematic how female school teachers are constantly teaching our boys to be brave, noble and assertive.

      1. commodious spittoon

        TEACH BOYS NOT TO RAPE!

        Also: NOT LIKE THAT.

      2. leon

        The whining and bitching about this small and insignificant bullshit is what drives me mad. “The world is so sexist because women are alwasy told they need to smile”, You know what, there are people with serious and real problems who couldn’t give a fuck that mean old boss asked you to be happy.

        1. Bob Boberson

          It’s just more ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ garbage coming from the 4th wavers. Boys must be taught compassion, to be sensitive to feelings above all else, to be painfully aware of their privilege, whereas women must be taught to be less nice, more confrontational and more prone to righteous indignation.

          And people wonder why MGTOW is a thing….

          1. commodious spittoon

            I don’t get the feminist hatred for MGTOW. Men who acknowledge they don’t have the patience or wherewithal or inclination to put up with your happy horseshit are dedicating themselves not to have to. Maybe that’s why “I wouldn’t even rape you” struck such a nerve. You’re allowed to play by their rules or sit in time out, but you’re not allowed to quit the game.

          2. Well, it makes more sense when you look at how the current crop has become a female supremacy movement and cares not a whit for equality. You can’t have the serf population going ‘screw this’ and leaving.

          3. commodious spittoon

            A movement comprised of supremacists who without a doubt hate one another far more than they hate men. And not without reason.

          4. Bob Boberson

            Like all things political it’s about power and submission. USC calling it a “Female Supremacy Movement” is spot on and not at all a stretch based on their own rhetoric.

          5. Akira

            Personally, I’d call modern feminism a hate movement.

        2. Akira

          The whining and bitching about this small and insignificant bullshit is what drives me mad. “The world is so sexist because women are alwasy told they need to smile”, You know what, there are people with serious and real problems who couldn’t give a fuck that mean old boss asked you to be happy.

          We are deluged with messages from the media, politicians, and pop culture about how horrible women have it in this country. Just yesterday, I came across this baffling passage in an otherwise good book about opera where the author opined that “women’s expressions of their feelings are always heard loud and clear on the stage, unlike in real life” and proceeded to describe a New York Times article about “why women remain silent in the boardroom” (hint: because mean men interrupt them and steal their ideas).

          Women’s voices are never heard, huh? Nobody ever raises the concern about the “effect on women” of some policy or another? No politician ever panders to women? There aren’t a bunch of scholarships for women and companies tripping over themselves to hire more women? Seriously? What fucking alternate dimension do you live in where this is the case?

          But oh, they get told to smile. The horror! It’s like the Handmaid’s Tale out there!!

          1. because mean men interrupt them and steal their ideas

            That’s actually true.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        Official alt-video of that:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOOwGhaFpVk

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Tundra gets it

    2. Trigger Hippie

      …Okay, I haven’t commented yet at about this kid and this will be the only time I do. I pretty much hold the same position that I do with at other girl awhile back who dressed up in a black hijab and did a long YouTube rant that gained some traction here. Being, it’s a kid being used by adults. I’m not going to feed that one way or the other.

      No clicky of linky and no further comments from me.

      1. Trigger Hippie

        And yeah, I know that wasn’t the point of the article. Sorry for my off topic rant. I just keep seeing the name and it irks me. Again, sorry.

    3. Tonio

      “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future,” he wrote. “So nice to see!”

      OMG, I missed that. Brilliant. So snarky and dismissive.

    4. Rufus the Monocled

      I’m secretly keeping list of names of all the people who venerated this poor kid in case it doesn’t end well. The thing about shit heads like Valenti is they’ll be the first ones to cry if something happens to Greta down the road never once pondering having played their own role in her possible eventual downfall.

      Anyone who is encouraging her and claiming she’s not to be criticized are enablers in this grotesque charade of child sacrifice for Gaia.

    5. Fatty Bolger

      You and your ilk have terrorized this poor girl into thinking the world is going to be destroyed by a tiny amount of harmless gas, but yeah, Trump and his snarky tweets must be the real problem.

    6. Rebel Scum

      she was not cute or pleasing

      But her performance was cringe-worthy.

  27. Certified Public Asshat

    New York judge dismisses blue state suit over SALT tax deductions

    On Monday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by four states against the IRS, thwarting four blue states’ challenge against a new $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes, also known as SALT. Those states — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland — sued the Treasury Department, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the IRS, among others, in July 2018.

    They alleged that the new limit on the SALT deduction, part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, was “an unconstitutional assault on states’ sovereign choices.” In the dismissal, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken in Manhattan said the plaintiff states ultimately failed to show that the SALT cap was unconstitutionally coercive or that it imposed on their own sovereign rights.

    Maybe they can fix their state’s high taxes now? Lol me.

    1. Drake

      Good one. Everyone knows life is better in a high-tax, high-debt, blue state.

      1. … I hope that’s snark, else New Jersey rotted your brain.

        1. Drake

          It probably has, but yes, that’s sarcasm. An Admin Assistant I used to work with had fairly simple outlook. See noted that state with low or no income and sales taxes still had roads, schools, firefighters, and cops. She and her family moved to Kentucky or Tennessee (forgot which) a while ago.

          1. I’ve noticed that there is either no functional difference in roads, or the roads in red states were better* than New York.

            Mind you, we do freeze solid more often than a lot of them I’ve been to.

            *Does not include the parts around Atlanta or Dallas, those cities fucked up.

          2. Certified Public Asshat

            state with low or no income and sales taxes still had roads, schools, firefighters, and cops

            Remember fuel taxes and property taxes?

          3. Drake

            NJ has about the highest property taxes in the country. I’m over $1k a month in an outer suburb town. Further East it goes up significantly from there.

    2. Tonio

      Damn, that’s good news.

      1. Tonio

        Pet Peeve (against CNBC not CPA): Not a New York Judge (implying a judge for the State of NY), but rather a federal judge in NY.

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          New York also has a state supreme court that is not the final say in the state’s jurisdiction, because New York doesn’t understand how words work

          1. You mean it doesn’t go “Supreme Court” –> “Appellate Division” –> “Court of Appeals” everywhere else?

          2. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            “Words? How dat work?”

            – New York

            “Jesus Christ, dude”

            – Every other state

          3. I mean, what sense would it make to start at the court of appeals?

          4. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            “Ooohw, Chicago pizza is alright, but it’s no better than supreme. New Yawk pizza is appeals. Ya naw what I’m say’n”

            “Words. How dat stuff work?”

            “Fogetabotit”

            -Fin-

    3. Not Adahn

      Fredo’s brother was on the radio bitching about how this was a disgusting “redistribution of wealth” in which Trump was taking from the blue states and giving to the red.

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        Can you imagine how embarrassing it must be to be a shitty governor than your father, but your father also happens to be Mario Cuomo? Dude has it rough.

        Also, I appreciate that white liberals are now admitting that when they said “take from the rich and give to the poor” they didn’t mean them. They meant take from those other rich. You know, the non-woke ones or Mr. Monopoly with his expensive monocles or something.

      2. leon

        I thought taxes were the price we pay for civilization.

        1. kbolino

          Only if they go to civilization. You know, San Francisco, New York, Washington DC. Civilization.

    4. Rebel Scum

      “an unconstitutional assault on states’ sovereign choices.”

      Leftists care about federalism? Lol.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Nobody wants to take your guns money away

    It may sound like nothing, but consider that if invested prudently, wealth, on average, grows about six to eight percent per year. To use Warren’s framing, you could say it grows only six or eight cents per dollar per year.

    Under Bernie’s proposal, if you’re a billionaire, and you want to get richer, you’re either going to have to be a financial genius, extremely lucky, or have really good accountants and lawyers to even just maintain your level of wealth. The tax, if effectively enforced, would eat fortunes. Jeff Bezos, for instance, would pay around $9 billion this year under the plan. Unlike Warren’s proposal, Bernie’s policy wouldn’t just slow the growth of wealth at the top. It would essentially stop it.

    Bernie’s team estimates the policy would slash billionaires’ fortunes in half over the next 15 years and raise $4.35 trillion over the next decade. Warren’s team says hers will raise $2.75 trillion over the same period. Like Warren, Bernie doesn’t have any issues figuring out how to spend the money. His campaign says it will “be used to fund Bernie’s affordable housing plan, universal childcare and would help fund Medicare for All.”

    Punitive wealth confiscation will make America a better place. And when Bezos’ and Buffett’s wealth has been pissed away, we’ll need yours.

    Maybe I missed it. Has Bernie come out for universal wage and price controls?

    1. Bob Boberson

      Yes. I believe the retard already announced he’s for national rent control.

    2. leon

      Bernie’s team estimates the policy would slash billionaires’ fortunes in half over the next 15 years and raise $4.35 trillion over the next decade.

      I’m confused why this is seen as a good thing at all. Other than pure envy. So you’re plan is to permanently and forcefully hamper economic growth, for a onetime injection of 4.35 Trillion dollars? Because once that wealth is taxed it’s not coming back, and then you’ll be saying how evil it is that those CEO’s use the “Loophole” to just make enough to not get taxed and we need to raise them again.

      This is cutting off your nose to spite your face as policy.

      In other words: Fuck off slaver.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Not that I’d approve anyway, but are we using the money to pay down the national debt? No? We’re using it to fund some fresh crop of incentive-perverting, wealth-destroying policies? Then why would I want the feds to have this money?

        1. straffinrun

          And war.

    3. straffinrun

      And the billionaires will just sit there quietly as they’re raped?

      1. AlexinCT

        If they know what’s god for them….

        1. Shirley Knott

          Then you remember fist can be a verb.

    4. kbolino

      It may sound like nothing, but consider that if invested prudently, wealth, on average, grows about six to eight percent per year.

      “If invested prudently” apparently means “if you track the S&P 500” which is something anybody can do.

      To use Warren’s framing, you could say it grows only six or eight cents per dollar per year.

      Something, something, compound interest

      Bernie’s team estimates the policy would slash billionaires’ fortunes in half over the next 15 years and raise $4.35 trillion over the next decade. Warren’s team says hers will raise $2.75 trillion over the same period.

      Once slashed, they can’t be slashed again. Neither plan will “raise” anywhere near the forecast.

      Like Warren, Bernie doesn’t have any issues figuring out how to spend the money.

      It’s already been spent! We’ve been spending it for fifty-plus years. Any new spending will be debt-funded the same as before.

    5. PieInTheSky

      I never got this. Billionaires don’t have cash. Tax wealth and they will have to sell assets. TO whom? Unless the government prints money to buy those assets, asset prices will tank. Fortunes will go down but the government will get shit. If the government basically nationalities stocks, it will all end in hyperinflation and tears. How is this supposed to work?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        It would immediately collapse the credit markets. I don’t know if Sanders’ is that stupid or if that is by design.

      2. Fatty Bolger

        Your typical billionaire lives a far less extravagant lifestyle than your typical Hollywood millionaire.

    6. Rebel Scum

      So TheBern! is a full blown commie. color me shocked.

  29. Drake

    Nobody wants to take your guns AND money away.

    A wealth tax is like a property tax, but, instead of just taxing real estate, it taxes everything a person owns.

    We’ll need to see what’s in that safe…

    1. leon

      It also would require an amendment to work in any fashion that they have envisioned.

      1. Drake

        That new Amendment would have to effectively repeal the Fourth and gut 6 through 8.

        1. Jarflax

          The Fourth is dead, We Patrioted it.

      2. kbolino

        Call it a penaltax and you’re done.

        More seriously, they can just tax income in proportion to wealth. Oh, you’re worth more than $1 million? Your top marginal rate is now 45% instead of 35%, etc.

        1. leon

          Yes, and i haven’t seen any specific proposals about what the tax would look like, but if they did that it wouldn’t actually acomplish what they are saying Zuckerbergs Salary is 1$ a year. Raising the tax on that from 35 cents to 45 cents is not going to get you a trillion dollars. Yeah of course he gets money from elsewhere, but the point stands that if you are taxing income, then income is what will be avoided. Maybe some people will bring down their wealth holdings but the tax could also have others reduce their income and put more compensation into wealth.

          1. kbolino

            They can tax any kind of income, whether it’s currently considered taxable or not (“from whatever source derived”). Zuck may find other “loopholes” but they’ll go after capital gains too.

          2. leon

            Sure, but you only pay that tax when you realize the gains.

            My point is that welath tax as described above:

            A wealth tax is like a property tax, but, instead of just taxing real estate, it taxes everything a person owns.

            Is not possible under current law.

          3. kbolino

            Yes, I was more discussing what, realistically, they could/would do.

          4. leon

            And i hadn’t seen that they had proposed taxing unrealized gains….

            And if we are talking about reality, the constituion is just a piece of paper – so they can do whatever the fuck they want.

    2. Tundra

      I asked office prog why wealthy people would continue to amass wealth if it was all just confiscated anyway. And if they say fuck it and/or move away, where’s the next round of money coming from?

      Crickets.

      1. Bob Boberson

        Yet that person will block out that conversation and continue to hold the exact same beliefs. Why is it that us autistic libertarians seem to understand human motivations yet the infinitely compassionate and humanitarian progressives can’t seem to grasp them?

        1. Because we’re forced to think about them to figure out what other people mean?

          1. Jarflax

            Because we’re forced to think about them to figure out what other people mean?

            What, like all those meat puppets I see?

        2. leon

          Well, (and i know that you were being rhetorical) it’s probably because they aren’t actually infinitely compassionate and humanitarian. They are only willing and able to have empathy for those whom it is easy to be empethetic towards. Try to understand how a rich person might feel? Who cares? They are rich, so fuck them.

          1. Bob Boberson

            I think that pretty well sums it up.

          2. kbolino

            They’re not empathetic, they’re guilt-ridden. They hate the poor but can’t say that out loud. If they had empathy, they would want more standards not more free money.

          3. Rufus the Monocled

            They’re enablers. Which makes them dangerous.

      2. kbolino

        If they thought about it deeply at all, they’d realize that raising the capital gains tax a little bit is smarter than trying to tax wealth. But instead they’re coming up with batshit insane ideas like taxing unrealized gains, or double-taxing gains, or making gains no different from income.

        1. kbolino

          I suppose, in a certain sense, treating capital gains as regular income is not so insane, and really is just “raising the capital gains tax a little”. But that is almost never proposed in isolation.

          1. Jarflax

            I suppose, in a certain sense, treating capital gains as regular income is not so insane, and really is just “raising the capital gains tax a little”. But that is almost never proposed in isolation.

            a certain sense here is a term that translates into “absolutely bat shit crazy and evil”

            Taxes on capital are stupid, counter productive, and purely based in envy. This is true of wealth taxes, capital gains taxes, and inheritance taxes. They distort capital markets preventing proper allocation of resource. They punish prudent behavior. They slow growth more than any other taxes.

          2. Akira

            Taxes on capital are stupid, counter productive, and purely based in envy.

            It always struck me as stupid that you would tax something that could be a great vehicle for people in the middle class (or even lower class) to move up.

            I guess it’s just one more way that their hatred of the rich greatly exceeds their compassion for the poor.

          3. kbolino

            Isn’t that true of all personal income? The primary vehicle for middle class advancement for most of the 20th century in the U.S. was saving a portion of your paycheck.

          4. kbolino

            A capital gains tax is not a tax on capital (well, as long as it is < 100%). It is a tax on the productive output of that capital, which is to say an income tax by another name. That having been said, I don't think raising it is a good idea, and if anything I think the income tax should be reduced to equal the capital gains tax (as well as making capital losses and non-mortgage interest personally deductible).

          5. Jarflax

            If it were accurately indexed for inflation, and discounted based on all taxes paid on retained earnings you would be correct.

      3. Don Escaped Texas

        The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money – Thatcher

      4. Wait? Jeff Bezos lives in Switzerland now? When did that happen?

      5. Gadfly

        And if they say fuck it and/or move away, where’s the next round of money coming from?

        And this is the point of the conversation where you drop the truth bomb that the income tax your acquaintance most certainly has to pay started as a tax only on the wealthy.

  30. Certified Public Asshat

    “Billionaires should not exist” does not mean certain people should not exist.It means no person should have a billion dollars.The ascent of billionaires is a symptom & outcome of an immoral system that tells people affordable insulin is impossible but exploitation is fine. https://t.co/fjxKOGIdc2— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 2, 2019

    Billionaires should not exist because insulin is expensive?

    1. kbolino

      affordable insulin is impossible

      Nobody said this. Except maybe the FDA.

      1. I think traditional insulin is still cheap, the newer insulin analogues are a little pricier. It’s the test strips that cost a fortune.

        I know too many diabetics.

    2. leon

      exploitation is fine.

      I see you trying to steal that base and say fuck you. Exploitation Theory of Capital is thoroughly devoid of any logical support.

      1. kbolino

        Healthcare is expensive in the U.S. because of profit!

        And for-profit companies are in a race to the bottom!

        /head explodes

    3. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      This tweet is going to be real awkward for her to explain when under Commissar Warren we are all billionaires as rampant inflation takes hold

      1. *Clutches $100 trillion Zimbabwe notes*

      2. kbolino

        Twitter will be gone by then, purged as counterrevolutionary no matter how fast they try to keep up.

    4. PieInTheSky

      I say no one should have more than 10 million dollars. Why give hundredmillionaires a break?

    5. Rhywun

      If we didn’t already have historical examples of this kind of thought, I’d have to think she was doing satire.

    6. invisible finger

      A months supply of insulin is available OTC at Walmart for $25 (except in Indiana). But you have to use the old-school hypodermic needle that prior generations had to use. But you can get those for free in California if you just tell the government you’re hooked on smack.

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      Hero

      1. Maybe his name is Hoagy.

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          True. I shouldn’t have assumed what sandwich he identifies as.

          1. straffinrun

            That wasn’t intentional? Kudo to Agent C.

    2. straffinrun

      She needs moar salami.

    3. Rufus the Monocled

      They bitch about EVERYTHING.

      The gall of them going to bother people in a restaurant and getting in people’s faces. It’s nuts.

      The problem is the person retaliating pays the price; not the instigators. Look at those three Proud Boys who acted in self-defense against three pieces of shit Antifa thugs now facing up to nine years in prison. Racist PB where one of the defenders has three kid by a black wife.

      It’s crazy.

      1. straffinrun

        They don’t like what I’m eating. The unless it’s human, fuck off.

    4. After watching the video, the punch is really unncessary and should could be considered assault.

      1. straffinrun

        No harm, no foul. It was a lame punch.

    5. l0b0t

      Sounds like there was a Rumble in Brighton

    6. I have very little problem with this. Demonstrate all you want, but the second you physically prevent me from getting where I want to go or interacting with someone I want to interact with, you’ve crossed a line.

      Also, vegans, protip: your weak, frail, malnourished bodies cannot possibly withstand the amount of punishment a hungry person full of protein can deliver.

      Also also, vegans, have you seen pigs? Chickens? Like on a farm? You know what chickens and pigs will eat without a moment’s hesitation? Dead chickens and dead pigs. My SIL’s chickens will fight each other to eat left-over chicken. Pigs will happily and somewhat notoriously eat dead human bodies (and sometimes not-so-dead human bodies) without a shred of remorse. So fuck off.

        1. l0b0t

          Lisa’s gonna marry a carrot! She admitted it.

      1. Chipwooder

        Be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm. Brick Top taught me that.

        1. “Are they Lancashire pigs?”

          “Who the fuck’s talkin’ to you, boy?”

    7. Rebel Scum

      vegan activist

      This is why no one likes you. Eat what you want but don’t try to control what I eat.

  31. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I’ve been asking my attorney for filing costs associated with a lien for the past month. They finally give me an invoice yesterday afternoon which I immediately use to provide a settlement number to my customer.

    This morning they send me an additional bill for escrow costs. Unprofessional bullshit.

    1. leon

      Dude I had a lawyer working on a settlement. 6 months. 6 months he “spent” reviewing our 4 page settlement agreement. When we called him about it there were parts that he had clearly missed or misunderstood (i know this because when i pointed it out, he said “Oh yeah, then never-mind”). Two months later he billed us for the amount of the retainer again. And then 4 months later he hit us with another $500 dollar bill. Worst lawyer i’ve ever had to deal with.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        I was discussing it with my sister. Apparently they also fucked up a real estate contract she was working on (copied somebody else’s terms over to her contract). Fortunately she caught it.

        I think I’m done with them. I can’t trust their work now.

        I do know they got caught up in a scandal over the local airport and misuse of federal funds That may have something to do with their downward trajectory. That and they take our business for granted.

  32. PieInTheSky

    Being a sucessful cooking YouTuber 101.

    https://twitter.com/klara_sjo/status/1179092938363682817

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Woodcolt.

    2. I’m not seeing the problem here. Does she knead dough or perhaps churn butter in other videos? Just wondering.

      1. commodious spittoon

        No one kneads so much dough.

        /Bernie Atkins

  33. The Late P Brooks

    I am not sure how buying and selling pieces of paper is fundamentally different from buying and selling cans of dog food, or hand carved wooden toy trains, for purposes of taxation. I’d be okay with a uniform (low and flat) tax rate on various income sources. Low enough and flat enough to make avoidance more costly than compliance.

    I crack myself up.

  34. Certified Public Asshat
    1. Drake

      That’s how you destroy family farms and business.

      1. Jarflax

        and how you funnel billions to Buffet and other sellers of insurance.

    2. Rebel Scum

      and restoring the estate tax to 2009 levels.

      Always looking out for the little guy.

  35. PieInTheSky

    As I am about to leave for home, I will just leave this here

    It is impossible to understand the 20th century – particularly post-1917 – without understanding that this was the perspective of millions of people. This fear was fundamentally why Germans ran to Hitler.

    https://twitter.com/StefanMolyneux/status/1179165452687290368

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Oh dear.

      So Molyneux IS an extremist as charged?

      1. Drake

        Do you need to be an extremest to agree the Weimarer Republik was a complete shit-show and the commies trying to take over even scarier?

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          No, but did you see the original link?

          And then the replies?

          I don’t cringe easy but that’s cringe city.

          1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            To be fair, though, if he included the words “it’s all about the Benjamins” and then threw in some intersectionality language, he’d be praised

          2. Well, to be fair, the Russia Insider sidebar links about the white race disappearing from America (under a picture of smiling multi-ethnic schoolchildren in a classroom) wouldn’t look out of place if you flipped it around and made it about gentrification.

          3. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            Exactly. Think like a white liberal. Lie to your hearts content and then project on others.

        2. No, but the source Molyneux is retweeting for his point is unhinged. Like it’s the kind of website you’d make up for a movie if you were a production assistant and someone was like, “Hey, we need a crazy-ass conspiracy website that’s wildly racist and anti-Semitic. It’s supposed to be a Russian propaganda outlet, too, so make it seem like it would fit in some Russian intelligence conspiracy thing.”

    2. Whoo, boy. Those replies. And God help you if you venture over to the original tweet. I started to get nervous and I’m English and Scottish.

    3. kbolino

      There’s a whole lot of crazy in the replies. Also, why does every conspiracy theory on the Internet depend on the lowest grade images you can possibly find? They didn’t have JPEGs in 1907 and the archives aren’t encoded like that.

  36. PieInTheSky

    one more

    As English counties are urged to fly their flags, here’s a handy guide to them all:

    https://twitter.com/_F_B_G_/status/1079669434942398464

    1. Northumberland- due to a clerical mix up in 1973, this image from a non-verbal reasoning test for council employees was accidentally adopted as the county flag. Nobody has noticed yet.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Go home.

    3. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      “Guys, fly your flags to show pride for your counties”

      “Can we decide what are flag is, because we’re not to keen on this weird bird thing anymore.”

      “No. Unless parliament grants you the right to alter your flag, which it probably won’t. Cheers.”

      “Then why the fuck am I flying a flag for a political entity that does not exist? I might as well fly the Union Jack instead of our true flag, that EU star spangled monstrosity.”

    4. Rhywun

      7: Cornwall- Evil Denmark.

      Heh.

    5. Not Adahn

      “He’s also a squirrel, sir.”

  37. The Late P Brooks

    But wait, there’s more:

    A few months ago, Planet Money made an episode on the subject of wealth taxes. The policy has been tried many times before overseas. It hasn’t worked out well. (You can also read our past Planet Money newsletter about it here ). Wealth taxes were difficult to enforce, encouraged rich people to move their wealth out of the country, hurt the economy by distorting investment decisions and, in the end, they didn’t accomplish their main goal of raising lots of revenue.

    To combat the problems seen with wealth taxes overseas, Bernie’s Tax on Extreme Wealth calls for expanding the role and power of the federal government. It calls for a “national wealth registry” and a major expansion of the IRS. And it includes an “exit tax,” which would confiscate 40 percent of a rich person’s wealth under $1 billion and 60 percent over $1 billion if they renounce their citizenship and try to escape the tax.

    Increase the role and power of the federal government? Bernie? I never saw that coming.

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      “It calls for a “national wealth registry” and a major expansion of the IRS. And it includes an “exit tax,” which would confiscate 40 percent of a rich person’s wealth under $1 billion and 60 percent over $1 billion if they renounce their citizenship and try to escape the tax.”

      Freedom of movement ends where progressive orthodoxy begins

      1. kbolino

        Nationalism is simultaneously the greatest evil imperiling our society and a moral imperative that every good citizen must adhere to.

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          Nationalism is so evil that it was the only method by which liberalism ever spread throughout the world in literally every single example.

          But, also, racism or something.

    2. kbolino

      That’s not so much “combating the problems” as “doubling down on them”.

    3. Fatty Bolger

      Gee, you would almost think that socialist policies lead inevitably to totalitarianism or something.

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        “Ummm….we already have socialism, bigot. Trump is a socialist. He’s not calling for dismantling social security and Medicare, so he’s a socialist. Got this MAGAtes are so dumb.”

        – Vichy libertarian

        1. kbolino

          Well, we also already have fascism. And the person running to be fascist-in-chief is Elizabeth Warren.

          Something, something, intellectual honesty

        2. Fatty Bolger

          “Vichy libertarian”, I like that.

    4. leon

      And you guys thought HM was being hyperbolic when he compared our lot as that of the serf in a feudal system. Being an American Citizen is rapidly loosing it’s allure.

    5. Rhywun

      Their main goal is not to raise lots of revenue, it’s to punish rich people for being rich.

      1. Fatty Bolger

        Yes, and they’re not even pretending otherwise any more.

    6. Rebel Scum

      He really does want to enslave everyone.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Freedom of movement ends where progressive orthodoxy begins

    Their real objection to a wall is that it’s only supposed to keep people *out*.

    1. leon

      And you guys thought i was being paranoid when i said that President AOC/Warren/Sanders would use the wall to keep people in.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    You know- morons

    Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders hauled in a whopping $25.3 million during the July-September third quarter of fundraising, his presidential campaign announced on Tuesday morning.

    The massive fundraising figure is up more than $7 million from his second-quarter numbers.

    ——-

    Unlike some of his rivals for the nomination – such as former Vice President Joe Biden, Buttigieg and Harris – Sanders eschews big donor fundraisers and instead relies solely on grassroots donations. The campaign announced it received 1.4 million donations the past three months.

    Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in a statement that “Bernie is proud to be the only candidate running to defeat Donald Trump who is 100 percent funded by grassroots donations – both in the primary and in the general.”

    News of Sanders’ cash haul comes as the populist independent senator from Vermont has faded in many recent polls to third place behind Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who along with Sanders is the other progressive standard-bearer in the 2020 Democratic nomination race.

    Shakir argued that “media elites and professional pundits have tried repeatedly to dismiss this campaign, and yet working-class Americans keep saying loudly and clearly that they want a political revolution.”

    A political revolution? That sounds much more genteel and rational than “civil war”.

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      “media elites and professional pundits have tried repeatedly to dismiss this campaign, and yet working-class Americans keep saying loudly and clearly that they want a political revolution.”

      Damn, so Bernie got all ten of the working class people who still vote Democrat? That’s quite the coup

      1. kbolino

        They got their revolution. Its name was Trump.

  40. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

    If it’s cultural appropriation for a white girl to dress as Moana for Halloween then how is it OK for white trust fund kids to pretend to be working class every day of the year by drinking PBR and wearing flannel ironically?

    1. commodious spittoon

      They probably earn less, owe more, and are generally trashier and dumber than the working class. They’ve earned those digs.

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        I don’t know, hipsters always seem to have money for mustache oil and vinyl albums from some douchey Dutch pop group that you’ve probably never heard about, because you’ve moved on since college.

        1. pistoffnick

          “…some douchey Dutch pop group…”

          Don’t you be disrespecting Diesel! Sir, I’ll have to ask you to step outside!

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMAGI7zRqj8

          1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            It’s like Styx and REO Speedwagon got together and decided to form a super group of awful

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            That’s…. awful.

          3. pistoffnick

            *writes TGA and Scruffy into book of miscreants*

          4. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            Thoroughly disappointed that I wasn’t already in that book.

          5. Jarflax

            It’s hard writing about you when you won’t keep the same name for a month!

            Just say’n

          6. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            Well now I feel like I need to change names again

  41. Raston Bot

    https://youtu.be/t3qGJ5yyJnY?t=77

    Pompeo’s presser in Rome wrt House subpoena. takeaway is that members of the House have contacted State Department employees and instructed them not to speak with State Department legal counsel.

    1. leon

      Which members of the house?

      Also, i know FYTW but doesn’t everyone have a right to counsel? Or are congressional things different? I don’t know all the rules.

      1. Raston Bot

        no names. right to counsel not at play. Schiff or whoever is fishing for Ukraine leaks from La Resistance.

      2. kbolino

        I believe the problem is not that anyone is being denied their rights per se, but that the legislature is overstepping its constitutional bounds per separation of powers.

        1. leon

          ^^ Thanks. I figure the people at the state department were smart enough to say “Fuck you i’m talking with counsel” but who knows.

        2. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Yep, Schiff is overplaying his hand here. He risks a full-blown no-shit constitutional crisis.

  42. Re: blackjack’s stories

    Stories like that are like crack for writers.

    As I say in my Twitter bio: Anything you say can and will be used in a book.

    You can’t have the serf population going ‘screw this’ and leaving.

    That’s exactly what the serf population did during the plague and died off. Put the aristocracy in a bit of a bind.

    Your typical billionaire lives a far less extravagant lifestyle than your typical Hollywood millionaire.

    Or, as I heard it, “Money talks. Wealth whispers.”

    1. Hey. Yesterday, I rudely interrupted Jesse and posted the draft of the latest blurb for “Prince of the North Tower”, I got a few opinions, but was wondering if you’d be willing to weigh in.

      1. Actually, I saw it and meant to comment, but forgot. What I remember thinking is “He needs to put that in present tense, not past tense.” Makes it more urgent.

        Post it again and I’ll see if I can remember what else I thought.

        1. Prince Kord preferred the book to the blade, but studied both diligently. When what looked like a minor incursion of goblins into his family’s lands turned out to be more serious, he was sent to fetch aid. Frustrated playing messenger, Kord is tempted to leave his obligations behind and study magic. When his uncle and foster father are caught in a trap, Kord needs an army to rescue them – only everyone else is busy fighting their own wars.

          1. Prince Kord prefers the book to the blade, but studies both diligently. When goblins wander onto his family’s lands, he realizes there’s more to it than simple trespassing. He’s sent to fetch aid even though he is frustrated by playing messenger. Kord is tempted to leave his obligations behind to study magic, but when his uncle and foster father are caught in a trap, Kord needs an army to rescue them – only everyone else is busy fighting their own wars.

          2. I have to quibble over the use of ‘wander’. It implies an accidental incursion, when it’s a coordinated effort with one of Kord’s vassals.

          3. Does he believe it to be an incursion at the time?

          4. Raids are not a minor incursion. After the first raid, he needs to do something.

            Prince Kord prefers the book to the blade, but studied both diligently. When goblins raid his family’s lands, he’s sent to fetch aid immediately. But frustrated playing messenger*, Kord is tempted to leave his obligations behind and study magic. When his uncle and foster father are caught in a trap, Kord needs an army to rescue them – only everyone else is busy fighting their own wars.

            *If he prefers the book to the blade, why is he frustrated with playing the messenger? Wouldn’t that suit him better than fighting?

          5. If he prefers the book to the blade, why is he frustrated with playing the messenger?

            Because it’s talking to people, trying to get them to do stuff they have no interest in doing, and having to stick to the rules of etiquette and soforth. The people who have armies tend to have egoes too.

          6. Prince Kord prefers the book to the blade, but studies both diligently. When goblins raid his family’s lands, he is sent to fetch reinforcements from neighboring [kingdoms]. After [X time] in his unsuccessful role as ambassador and diplomat have gone by, he is tempted to leave his family to their fate so he can study magic. Then his uncle and foster father are caught in a trap, and Kord now desperately needs an army to rescue them – only everyone else is busy fighting their own wars.

          7. Aren’t you supposed to end blurbs like this with the book title

            “…and in the process become…The Prince of The North Tower! ” (DUN DUN DUH (ominous notes implied not printed))

          8. He was already Prince of the North Tower.

          9. “…and in the process become…The Prince of The North Tower! ”

            Spoiler, so no.

            In the case of a hero’s journey, you might say something tantalizing like, “…and along the way, learns he has more in common with the blade than the book.”

            I don’t end my blurbs with stuff like that most of the time because it’s a romance and the point is not that they grow as characters or become something they weren’t already, but how the couple gets together and what obstacles they have to overcome to get together. Genre romances ALWAYS end with a happily-ever-after (or a happily-for-now). If they don’t, they’re really love stories.

            That said, most writers are not good blurb writers for their own stories. We already know all our details and trying to boil them down to something tantalizing for the reader is hell.

            This is my short summary for Cuntes & Cods:

            1420: Newly made English Earl Grimme Kyneward must wed a noblewoman—quickly. Time is of the essence, so Grimme abducts one. Except … Brigdhe is the wrong bride—or is she? Together, Grimme and Brigdhe must defeat an evil duke who covets everything Grimme loves.

          10. has more in common with the blade than the book

            [spoiler]He gains the moniker of ‘the Bloodstorm’ after personal involvement in a few battles[/spoiler]

          11. He gains the moniker of ‘the Bloodstorm’ after personal involvement in a few battles

            That was obvious. But maybe that’s because I know the tells.

            So. Harry Potter. First book, I’m like, “Snape’s acting the way he is because he loves Lily and is protecting her son.”

            Then everybody gasps at this confession in book number whatever.

            Rowling was shocked when someone whispered that in her ear at a book signing or whatever (after book 1). “How did you KNOW?”

            Bitch, please.

            Every romance reader in the country knew that the second Snape’s adolescent relationship with Lily was revealed.

          12. It’s not really a spoiler, since the first page of the story is a preface by Dug which mentions Kord’s nickname (which Kord hates) and that he’s setting the record straight with retalling the firsthand account of events from Kord’s perspective.

            Older Kord has a cameo at the start of “Beyond the Edge of the Map”

          13. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            Reading the serious responses to your obvious joke makes me feel bad for ragging on you yesterday.

            I, personally, think that the Prince of the North Tower should be a choose your own adventure book. Why don’t people make that anymore?

          14. Because it’s a difficult genre to write, carries a small audience, and requires reducing the depth of storytelling to fit in the branching logic.

          15. Why don’t people make that anymore?

            I will not speculate for anyone else, but I HATED those. I’m sitting here thinking about why so I can explain and I got nothin’. I really hated them.

          16. Jarflax

            Because once we had computer games the interactive genre jumped media.

          17. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            “I’m sitting here thinking about why so I can explain and I got nothin’. I really hated them.”

            I loved those as a kid.

            I wish “Sounder” was choose your own adventure book. That would have saved me the trauma of having read the ending of that book in fifth grade.

          18. Because once we had computer games the interactive genre jumped media.

            *lightbulb moment*

            That’s exactly it.

    2. kinnath

      Just a raised eyebrow, just so.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    My advice for those who die, declare the pennies on your eyes

    Elizabeth Warren wants to tax the corporate lobbying she says is breaking the American political system.

    Warren, whose presidential campaign has been incrementally releasing a package of anti-corruption proposals, has unveiled a plan to tax corporations and trade organizations that spend a lot of money lobbying Congress and federal agencies.

    The proposal would tax groups and companies that spend between $500,000 and $1 million per year on lobbying at a 35 percent rate, increasing the rate for bigger lobbying budgets. Corporations and trade groups that spend more than $1 million per year on lobbying would get hit with a 60 percent tax rate, and those spending more than $5 million would see a 75 percent tax rate.

    These brackets would hit the pocketbooks of big pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, the real estate industry, fossil fuel companies, Wall Street firms, and electric utilities the hardest. They do not apply to charitable or social welfare organizations that also lobby the government, such as 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 nonprofit groups, but do apply to trade and professional associations, 501(c)6 groups.

    Don’t worry, we’re only going to tax the people who lobby on behalf of the people who create wealth.

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      Somehow, I don’t expect these rules to be applied against public teacher unions and Planned Parenthood.

      1. Rhywun

        Now you’re just being paranoid. I’m sure the impact that only Democrats will get lobbying money going forward is just a coincidence.

        1. Sean

          *sigh*

          Gilmored

    2. Sean

      Does this apply to donations to presidential campaigns?

    3. creech

      A penalty tax for exercising the right to petition the government? Lobbyists are valuable in that they teach ignorant legislators about technology, human resource problems, and the like (at least from their perspective). I’d bet that 99% of what legislators know about any topic are due to summaries and overviews provided by lobbyists. Absent lobbyists, they’d all believe crap like Guam will tip over or that revenue and profit are the same thing.

      1. leon

        Yeah. Adds a whole new meaning to penaltax.

  44. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

    https://freebeacon.com/politics/tlaib-has-promoted-four-viral-racial-hoaxes-in-2019/

    “Tlaib Has Promoted Four Viral Racial Hoaxes in 2019”

    Left unsaid is that our brave firefighters in the corporate press fell for these exact same hoaxes, never apologized for them, no one from their institutions were penalized for promoting said lies, and we’re all suppose to pretend like it was just an honest to God mistake that they just happen to keep doing.

    Tlaib ain’t the problem. The corporate press that makes hucksters like Tlaib possible is the problem.

    1. Raston Bot

      make her the face of her party. moderates love hyper-emotional race baiters.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    This proposal is in line with many ideas that have been floated in good-government circles — ideas like creating tax incentives for companies that don’t spend money on lobbying or creating a separate tax bracket all together for companies that do, according to Lisa Gilbert, with progressive consumer protection think tank Public Citizen.

    “Taxing corporate special interest lobbying as a means to push back on the influence machine is both innovative and important,” Gilbert said.

    Of course it is.

  46. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

    https://www.disrn.com/2019/09/26/china-is-murdering-religious-minorities-and-harvesting-their-organs-to-order-watchdog/

    “China is murdering religious minorities and harvesting their organs “to order”: watchdog”

    If this tariff war goes on, how is China going to pay for its new re-education camps? Fucking trade war pisses me off so much.

    1. China going to pay for its new re-education camps?

      Organ exports.

    2. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      https://www.disrn.com/2019/09/18/china-replaces-ten-commandments-with-xi-jinping-quotes/

      “China replaces Ten Commandments with Xi Jinping quotes”

      *THIS IS NOT PARODY*

      1. Gadfly

        While that is horrible, it is not really that surprising and, superficial man that I am, I got distracted by this side-bar story: Kanye West announces he will no longer make secular music. Apparently Mr. West is pulling a Bob Dylan.

        And yes, your original story is horrible and deserves condemnation, but the Commies have always been opposed to religion as it offers something higher than the state, so it’s sadly a dog-bites-man story.

    3. straffinrun

      China denies the charge of mass organ harvesting.

      The Bobbitt defense, eh.

  47. kinnath

    That Trump dude has turned the world upside down.

    WTO rules in favor of US in Airbus dispute, paving way for tariffs on $7.5 billion of EU goods

    The World Trade Organization (WTO) has backed a U.S. request to impose tariffs on $7.5 billion of European goods, potentially sparking a new trade war across the Atlantic.

    Arbitrators from the WTO have granted President Donald Trump’s administration the right to levy billions against imports of European goods for what they say are illegal subsidies granted to planemaker Airbus by the European governments of Germany, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      This is dangerous. Without allies like the Europeans, who is going to tell us which country to bomb, while they hold our jacket? Did no one think about who is going to hold our jacket?

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        *Great moments in US-EU relations*

        France: S’il vous plait, please help us in bombing the Libyans

        US: Sure, that sounds like fun

        Italy: Eh…they’re directly south of me and I don’t want a bunch of Libyans landing in Sicily

        Germany: Libyan immigrants are a blessing. And also they stay in your country

        Austria: Why does no one pay attention to me?

        France: Let us get on with this bombing

        US: Hell yes, let’s do this!

        France: Give us your jacket

        US: OK

        Germany: Now bomb. Bomb away.

        US: What will you guys be doing?

        France: Holding your jacket, of course

        1. Drake

          You forgot the Brits who were cheering us on the whole time. And literally towed their last aircraft carrier past Libya while we were bombing them, to be scrapped in Turkey.

          1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            The British are beyond parody at this point.

            I remember reading after the bombings that the French and British lobbed something like three cruise missiles between the two of them while the Americans launched some obscene number that was in the hundreds.

            I’m pretty sure the Poles could invade and conquer Germany at this point and I’m all for it. Turnabout is fair play

          2. Gadfly

            I’m pretty sure the Poles could invade and conquer Germany at this point and I’m all for it. Turnabout is fair play

            How does one say “Lebensraum” in Polish?

        2. Grummun

          ::applause::

      2. leon

        Nick Gillespie. Duh.

        1. MikeS

          The Jacket is The Jacket of jacket holders.

  48. l0b0t

    So the link is to a GIS of my neighborhood. Every house looks exactly the same from the outside. In the 8 years we’ve been living here, IIRC, we’ve had 4 walk-ins. None were residents, they were all people looking for friend’s houses. Shockingly, no gun-play ever occurred.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=arverne+by+the+sea&sxsrf=ACYBGNRASo401d1bulEzKhHLrdnMxUT9HA:1570026505473&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin35XB5P3kAhVNmuAKHW4tC2sQ_AUIFCgD&biw=1920&bih=1127

    1. Chipwooder

      Clearly none of them were trained law enforcement professionals.

    2. straffinrun

      That’s the only reason I lock my door. I don’t want to wake up with a salaryman passed out in my genkan.

      1. Are you required to tend to stray salarymen like wandering cats?

        1. straffinrun

          Eeew. Who would have sex with a stray cat?

          1. straffinrun

            Quit answering a question to a question with three questions. It’s rude.

          2. straffinrun

            It’s simple really. If you don’t, they keep coming back.

          3. Salarymen are that good in bed?

          4. straffinrun

            I dunno. I’ve only tried the genkan.

          5. Not Adahn

            If you want more children, you need to use the vagina.

          6. Some women don’t have vaginas, you know. Stop othering them.

          7. Rhywun

            Back in the 80s I wouldn’t have kicked any of them out of bed.

          8. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            The 80’s were a different time. The salarymen would lettuce do anything (for the right price)

          9. straffinrun

            You guys are weird.

          10. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            See, what I did there is I took “salary” as meaning “celery” and then I threw in a “lettuce” for “let us”.

            It was a lot funnier in my head. Just trust me.

          11. You guys are weird.

            It took you this long to figure that out?

        2. Not Adahn

          Unfortunately yes. But the neutering has had the side effect of a drastic population decline.

    1. Certified Public Asshat

      Feel the heart bern.

    2. straffinrun

      I was expecting him to visit the wizard for scarecrow and not tin man problems.

      1. Biden’s the scarecrow.

        I’m trying to pick out the cowardly lion.

        1. straffinrun

          Sarwark?

          1. Not Adahn

            He’s one of the background munchkins that didn’t make it into the credits.

          2. Jarflax

            No, he’s one of the mice towing the lion obviously.

          3. straffinrun

            Heh. Or a flying monkey.

    3. leon

      NO!!!! Why do the good die young?

    4. Bob Boberson

      Nobody needs more than one heart stent when children are starving in this country.

    5. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      We should honor Bernie by putting people in gulags

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        Doctor: Mr. Sanders, we need to talk about the 1%

        Sanders: That’s what I’m talking about. All the time, I’m rallying against the one percent, but the…

        Doctor: No, no, Mr. Sanders. I mean the 1% chance that you’ll live to see 2021

    6. After putting in stents, they put you on blood thinners for six months to a year. People on blood thinners feel colder, and turn up the thermostat.

      Bernie’s going to spend even more heating this three houses this year.

      1. pistoffnick

        Fun fact: warfarin was originally used as rat poison.

        https://www.nature.com/articles/nrcardio.2017.172

    7. wdalasio

      Maybe I’m an awful person, but if I were a doctor, I don’t know if I could provide service to Bernie Sanders. He’s a guy who has made no bones about his desire to enslave doctors. Let someone with less self respect save his life.

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        You can’t do that. Freedom of association ends where progressive orthodoxy begins.

        1. wdalasio

          I guess you’re right. Of course, accidents do happen.

    8. Fatty Bolger

      How inefficient! In Bernie’s socialist paradise, there would be a waiting list for that procedure, which is much more economical. Of course as an important man in government, he would skip the waiting list and get it done immediately, but that’s irrelevant.

  49. wdalasio

    These brackets would hit the pocketbooks of big pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, the real estate industry, fossil fuel companies, Wall Street firms, and electric utilities the hardest.

    The strategy with this has been obvious for awhile. She wants to use the state to silence the constituencies that would disagree with her policies. Elizabeth Warren has achieved the notable distinction of being the most vile piece of shit in American politics.

    1. Akira

      They’re going to destroy the First Amendment if they ever get power again. They’ve got a trifecta of excuses that their base will enthusiastically support: “Foreign interference in our elections”, “big money in politics”, and “hate speech”.

      1. wdalasio

        You take away the soapbox, you take away the ballot box. I don’t think they’ll be too happy the the remaining box.

  50. With regard to the facial recognition discussion above, I am moved to ask: How long will it be before we go full Gattica or will that day be derailed by some mechanism such as revolt or disease (like the plague)?

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      Aren’t you an optimistic one.

      In ten years we’ll all be gulags. And no, I will not be anyone’s bunk mate.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Don’t be so stingy.

        1. He’s already been assigned to nightsoil duty. He’s supposed to be shovelling out the latrine pits while everyone else is asleep.

          1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            Just for that, I’m going to fling gruel at you in the mess hall.

            See you in ten years

          2. straffinrun

            Ten years? I’ll be underwater, so I call top bunk.

      2. invisible finger

        You’ll be everyone’s bunk mate.

    2. straffinrun

      A facial properly done, no can recognize.

      -Mr. Miyagi

    3. Private Chipperbot

      Google is removing the fingerprint sensor from the Pixel 4 and just using facial recognition. So, three months, I expect no revolt. Maybe disease if they have the tinder app.

    4. Florida Man

      The problem I have with future sci-fi dystopian is government is too incompetent to run anything that complicated.

  51. Sean

    https://www.foxla.com/news/planned-union-march-at-lax-expected-to-snarl-traffic

    Among the dignitaries expected to join the marchers are presidential hopeful and California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, former state Sen. Kevin de Leon and Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union.

    Can we all agree to let CA secede?

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The unions already run California, what else do they want?

      I know, I know, stupid question.

    2. Rhywun

      SEIU – of course. One of the most wretched hives of scum and villainy out there.

    3. Akira

      Can we all agree to let CA secede?

      I like how the Left actually brought up the idea of California secession after Trump’s victory as though it were some big middle finger to the Right. What they don’t remember is that gun rights people have been dreaming of excising California so they can have their civilian disarmament and the rest of us can have our natural rights.

      1. straffinrun

        That was when they thought they would be ruled by Trump. Now they think they can rule over Alabama.

    4. Jarflax

      Move the Wall!

  52. Private Chipperbot

    You know who else’s hockey season starts today? /two thumbs pointed at this guy.

    1. ChipsnSalsa

      Don’t forget the foil!

  53. straffinrun

    C-SPAN Issues Clarification After Saying Bernie Sanders Was ‘Suspending His Campaign’

    “He will be resting up over the next couple of days,” he said about Sanders. “His campaign says that … he will likely be back into the race.”

    “Likely”.

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      Hillary 2.0 “Native American Edition” is going to win the primaries

      1. straffinrun

        I keep hearing that Bernie’s supporters will automatically move over to Warren. I’m not so sure. I could see a lot of them got Butterstuff.

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          They’ll move over and vote for her. A socialist is a socialist is a socialist.

          1. straffinrun

            Even socialists have ear drums. When she does rallies, she gets all wrapped up in the moment and works herself into a screeching frenzy. She makes Dean’s howl sound like Freddy Mercury.

          2. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            Normal people have ear drums. True believers have faith alone

  54. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-01/china-s-70th-anniversary-celebration-is-bittersweet

    Bloomberg is pimping Chicom propaganda again.

    FTA:

    “Chinese leader Xi Jinping obviously hopes to project national power and confidence on a grand scale. For the great Chinese quest for national wealth and power that began during its long “century of humiliation” by Western powers has been substantially fulfilled.

    By any conventional measure, the Chinese people have redeemed the promise made by Mao Zedong on the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. They have “stood up.”

    Just three decades ago, China with its near-destitute millions seemed a hopelessly backward nation. Today, in the most startling national transformation of the modern era, it is a global economic powerhouse — a fact evidenced by, among other things, President Donald Trump’s obsessive and self-defeating efforts to penalize China.

    China also poses a deeper challenge to the West. At a time when liberal politics and economics are losing legitimacy, and voters are expressing their frustration by electing demagogues, China triumphantly upholds a model of technocratic authoritarianism.”

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      AND:

      “China’s earliest thinkers and leaders witnessed how the success of some countries in the West was achieved through brutal imperialism and slavery; how it involved ethnic cleansing and international conflict, including many minor and two major wars.

      They insisted that Chinese civilization with its long traditions of statecraft and philosophy had devised better ways of organizing human society and channeling individual passions. Criticizing Western traditions of liberalism and democracy as hypocritical and shallow, Liang Qichao emphasized China’s own traditions of social harmony and political pluralism.

      Yan Fu, the Chinese translator of John Stuart Mill and other Western liberal thinkers, denounced “Western progress” as leading to “selfishness, slaughter, corruption and shamelessness” and urged attention to China’s philosophical and political traditions.”

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        I remember all the “state craft” and “philosophy” that the Chinese state employed in their war with India, or their cultural revolution, or when they drove tanks over humans at Tienanmen Square.

        1. Chinese statecraft and philosophy, huh? Chinese history is years and years of near-constant warfare followed by lengthy periods of authoritarian dictatorship. If you’re lucky you live in a period where you’re away from the capital and you’re just dealing with hordes of local bureaucrats.

    2. Rhywun

      Just… wow.

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        I still can’t get past this line:

        “At a time when liberal politics and economics are losing legitimacy, and voters are expressing their frustration by electing demagogues, China triumphantly upholds a model of technocratic authoritarianism.”

        Orban, Trump, Salvini, and Johnson are worse than the Chinese leadership. Now that’s a take. A tremendously stupid and morally bankrupt take, but a take nonetheless

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          Does…does…Bloomberg not realize that having elite media play PR for the Chicoms probably sours people on the “liberal order” much more than Trump saying mean things about them?

        2. China triumphantly upholds a model of technocratic authoritarianism.”

          They say “authoritarianism” like it’s a good thing.

          I cannot get past their idea that they won’t be the ones falling into ditches with holes in the back of their heads.

          1. Rhywun

            Yeah, that’s what comes after the “standing up”.

    3. invisible finger

      Paywalled without a hint of irony.

    4. Raven Nation

      I’ve posted this before, but worth a read: https://time.com/73594/china-tiananmen-square-25-years-later/

      TW: it’s Time so there’s a lot of wordplay that’s BS, but the overall point is interesting.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    In Bernie’s socialist paradise, there would be a waiting list for that procedure, which is much more economical. Of course as an important man in government, he would skip the waiting list and get it done immediately, but that’s irrelevant.

    It’s all about your contribution to Society, Comrade.

    Bus drivers are a dime a dozen, but visionaries are a precious commodity.

    1. invisible finger

      “Bus drivers are a dime a dozen,”

      maybe they ain’t unionized where you are…

      Speaking of which… I rode a CTA bus the other day. Had to transfer at a terminal so I got on the bus and expected to wait a few minutes until the route was supposed to start. Bus driver wanted to get out to use the bathroom, but could not unlatch her thick plastic cage. Pretty damn funny watching three CTA employees trying to get the thing open. I kinda wanted to see how long it took to get the driver out of the thing but they had sent a backup bus and I thought I should get going. (Big mistake – the mishap caused all sorts of backups along the route so the bus was filled with standing passengers and each stop took twice as long.)

  56. The Late P Brooks

    China also poses a deeper challenge to the West. At a time when liberal politics and economics are losing legitimacy, and voters are expressing their frustration by electing demagogues, China triumphantly upholds a model of technocratic authoritarianism.”

    Who the fuck wrote that?

    I don’t want to click.

    1. Rhywun

      I’d say Tom Friedman but I think even he would be embarrassed.

    2. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      Pankaj Mishra for Bloomberg (of course).

      1. straffinrun

        Pretty sure it’s Ash.

    3. Fatty Bolger

      Somebody who 85 years ago would have been writing about how the fascists made the trains run on time.

    4. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Send that fucker to China