I am calling in help.
There are plenty of reasons to be discouraged lately, and some things to be grateful for… Since many conditions are relative, we can see that it might not be too bad, just yet, to be here in the US of A…
- Where do I sign up? I hope this turns out to be a big middle finger up to local monopolies. Oh, and [Insert Usual Bad Remarks About Comcast or AT&T Here].
- If you think DC and our ruling dork class is bad and feels untouchable… get a load of this. H/T Heroic Mulatto for informing what a odd goon the PM is.
- Merkel’s bunch is getting slapped down – not for her creeping authoritarianism and miserable policy failures…but for an old fashioned beak-wetting scandal. Just like Cuomo, not taken down for the right reasons, but taken down nonetheless?
- Oh yeah? SCREW YOU! “Tax Justice Network” indeed. The CH has its own problems, you self-righteous swine.
For Starlink?.. you wait.. they are constrained on producing the consumer terminals. Current wait times are about 1 month after they decide to give you service. (another method of rationing) .
Interesting… I will have to look that up!
They’re targeting my area for later this year, but $600 start up costs and $100/month are way above what I’m paying now.
That’s insanely overpriced, I down to 30$ a month, it’s only me using the bandwidth,
Starlink is a service aimed at those with shitty options for internet, primarily found in rural areas where ultra-slow DSL lines are standard fare.
If you have decent internet service, there’s no reason to even look.
Being able to tell Verizon or Comcast to fuck off should not be underestimated.
And I don’t think Elon will let governments tell him to censor content.
He certainly won’t censor it for China.
Not a good enough reason because compared to wired internet, Starlink will suck, and likely be even worse in an urban/suburban area
Well, as it stands, the options are (at best):
– Verizon
– Comcast
– Some LTE provider
It can’t compete on price with the first two (and not everybody has both; I can only get Verizon but two blocks over they can get either). But it can (potentially) beat out the latter.
The problem with using Starlink in an urban or suburban environment is there is a fairly low practical upper limit to the number of devices that can be serviced in a geographic area before the devices start to create interference for each other.
Its why fixed wireless (not LTE) is also a largely rural thing – few enough users that their wireless signals don’t step on each others toes.
Its not because they don’t want to compete with urban/suburban wired providers, its because even with the full constellation of over 12,000 satellites only a very small fraction of a large metropolitan area could effectively be served before service level degraded.
I’ve heard a figure of as low as 450,000 subscribers in the US is the max practical number it could ever serve though I suspect that number is very understated and 4-5 million is more realistic.
Starlink can always serve a number of customers in any market. Therefore it now sets a minimum quality, and/or max price that the other ISP’s can charge… These things are set on the margin. and Starlink can compete on this margin even though it could never serve the broad base.
Starlink is better than the worst wired internet (3Mbit DSL) … it is not as good as the best wired internet. There is a large market between the two.
A year ago our local cable company was $95 for 100 Mbits. After a buy out they now offer 200 Mbits for $95. If/When Starlink can offer more than that, it will push the cable companies to compete, where before they only had to be better than the DSL provider.
Starlink will probably route traffic “in china” via the ISP’s that China requires. and those ISP’s will do the actual work If they decide to service that market. Part of getting the license to operate customer terminals in a country will be following their ISP rules and regulations.
The cost of fiber is pretty insanely cheap. I’ve seen 100Mbit plans at $29/month. 500mbit lines at $49.
My 1Gbit fiber line will cost $59 for 6 months, $69 for another year. After 18 months it goes to $89.
Right now my 12Mbit DSL line costs me over $90/month after taxes/fees.
My fiber plan…….150Mbits is $55 a month. I could have done 1Gig at 95 but I found it not necessary since it is just me in the palace.
It is all relative. There are large areas of the country that have to use VSAT or Cellular plans that have extremely low speeds or minuscule data caps. It is worth it for them, VSAT and LTE have about $500 startup costs, and the “unlimited” plans (they aren’t unlimited) are over $100/month. Starlink is for that class of customer.. and it will keep the other ISP’s in line… every single local monopoly now has a competitor.
Absolutely.
But if you have decent internet, Starlink is very likely going to be both more expensive, and slower.
Don’t get me started on LTE internet. We briefly explored it because our internet is fucking terrible.
I couldn’t get better than 5mbps unless I invested in an exterior antenna array that cost loads of cash, and even then I’d be topping out at 150mbps max.
I have fixed LTE at about $600 in capitol costs (router + antenna). for 30-40Mbits.. it was the best thing I had before Starlink, and it backs me up for the short satellite coverage outages I had 3Mbit DSL before that and was told by the local tech that was all I would get and that fiber link to VDSL box 1000m away, was not going to service me. I tried with my corporate contacts, nothing, they are not investing in rural broadband, and would prefer that it go away.
Cable wanted $4000 to run coax the 1200′ to my house for 100Mbit service @ $95/month. I thought about buying the service for my neighbor, and then running a WISP to my house. I did that back in the T1 days.
You are right.. if you have a good ISP, then you don’t use Starlink… But Starlink will put internet at every remote camp, farm, boat, and RV across the globe. Places that fixed wire providers and Cell providers were never going near.
I am 1km from fiber, and 1000′ from Cable.. yet still underserved, the ISP’s won’t run the wire and re-coup the cost. and It would take me years to break even. We are the market for Starlink. The houses at the end of the network.
I am also waiting for the release of the 5G modem card for my router, and if that can give me faster speeds, I will use both.
$100/mo for fibre optic speed (when they are nearer full deployment) isn’t bad, particularly when they throw mobility in.
Yeah, I put in for their beta program, never heard anything until they sent me an e-mail saying service is now available in my area–all I have to do is buy the hardware (thought it was $500) and pay $99/month indefinitely for service. I just wanted it to use for a relatively low bandwidth remote site that would transfer a tiny amount of data per day, so it’s not worth it.
Backup plan is to use my comcast commercial account to piggyback on someone else’s wifi at that location, if I can set up a high gain antenna and booster and pick up a good enough signal.
Like the fancy video cards, they don’t want scalping and re-selling. Analysis also indicates that the terminals are subsidized by $2000 each. So it would take them nearly 2 years to re-coup that cost. So they are engaged in a phased slow roll out directly to customers with a “well you can’t move it to a place we haven’t activated yet.” Since as soon as they activate a person/address you can order your equipment and get it in about 4 weeks, there isn’t a large incentive for line jumping.
At the same time there is a theoretical limit to the number of people they can service per geographic area (15mile hexagonal “cells”) So they don’t want to oversubscribe.
At first the limit was continuous satellite coverage and at 40.9N Latitude I get 2-3 mins of “no satellite” each day, Now the limit is availability of the terminals. then it will be Bandwidth (more satellites)
$2k or more in subsidization per sub would pencil out a lot more conventional deployments. The problem is, outside of government money, there isn’t that level of free cheese.
I was offered service a couple weeks ago.
Had it been 6 months ago I’d have taken it, but a fiber company came in November and are laying out fiber lines.
We get ours Wednesday.
I’ve been waiting a couple years for fiber since nearby friends got it. I even saw them installing new machinery on my block last summer. Still not available.
PS. I heard somewhere it’s up to individual buildings to choose to connect…?!
Could be. Depends on what facilities are already in place, who owns them,agreements the building owner/management company signs, and what Verizon/Charter/whoever’s business model is.
We’d been waiting for a while for anything better than 12mbps DSL. Years.
We got a card saying they’re building fiber. We signed up near instantly. That was in November.
Our line is scheduled for install Wednesday, and I can finally tell Windstream to eat a massive bag of aids ridden dicks.
We better watch it with the puns today. We might get more than a narrow gaze leveled at us.
You think there’ll be a sPike in crackdowns?
Swiss is a ticking time bomb when it comes to puns.
He’s always watching, that’s for sure.
And that kind of precision doesn’t come cheap.
Be careful, we wouldn’t want him to blow up.
I have a feeling the blast radius will be narrow, but there’s always a chance of getting gazed by a flying piece of shrapnel.
I’ll be franc with you all. These puns are terrible.
Don’t you mean Huns?
SpaceX launches 22nd cluster of Starlink satellites
So business has really taken off.
Literally booming
It’s not a fly by night operation.
Switzerland only came in 5th?
That read like a surreptitious advertisement for the Cayman Islands.
$13B?
Gotta get those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers.
Per capita…not so bad. And remember, it is NGO parasites trying to determine this – do you think they, or the Swiss know where to look and how to figure it?
Well, if an NGO or government knows where to look, your bank secrecy sucks.
“Switzerland responsible for $13 billion in losses to tax evasion globally”
I bet that amount is dwarfed by the loss of tax dollars due to COVID lockdown.
13 billion dollars will soon be regarded as a rounding error.
$13B globally is chump change.
The US spends that much in an hour.
That’s about as much tax as people living in the PIGS evade each day. Of course, if they didn’t evade those taxes, then nothing would get done.
Joe’s new taxes will make for that, by further imploding the country.
Which they’ll then blame on OMB.
Sounds like $13B in gains to me.
I made the mistake of owning a part of a Swiss bank account once during an earlier marriage.
That sucker still requires about a half hour of extra questioning every time i have a clearance investigation.
Last I checked global GDP was down $4T from 2019 to 2020, so “dwarfed” is right.
The 22 demonstrators deny charges of committing sedition and a litany of other offences, which includes lese majeste in section 112 of the Thai criminal code, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison for each count.
“They can lock me up but they cannot lock up the truth,” protest leader Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak shouted as he arrived in a prison truck, defiantly flashing the three-finger “Hunger Games” salute synonymous with the youth movement.
Serves you right for that spicy behavior.
We’ll see how young they are when they get out of prison.
Seriously, I hope this joke doesn’t prove true. 🙁
Ladies and Germs, The king of Thailand:
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/bild_bund_handarchiv-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1286
Good thing I am not Thai nor subject to lese majeste, because I can think of lots of snark.
Obligatory
That’s a real man of the people, right there.
He made his dog an officer in the Thai air force.
He made his third wife (then girlfriend in 2007) sing happy birthday to the dog while she was topless in front of dozens of people. She also had to eat birthday cake out of the dog’s bowl in front of the same people.
Now he has divorced her and placed her under house arrest.
Yep a real nice guy.
What inevitably happens when you take an old world pre-modern idea like hereditary monarchy and try to force it fit into the modern and post-modern world.
Though, to be fair, there have been plenty of uh, colorful, monarchs in the past.
Remember that crazy shit that went down with the royal family of Kathmandu?
That was crazy. And crazily underreported.
Yeah. Crazy crown prince allegedly kills everybody, nobody knows why or even for sure that he did, and then he dies himself a little while later. The least-liked uncle becomes king and does such a piss poor job that a 240-year-old monarchy collapses. Though the political history of Nepal since the end of the monarchy hasn’t exactly been less crazy.
Yes. Yes, and yes.
“Florida Monarch”
Isn’t he just a puppet for the CCP?
As long as it’s not intentional
White House economist Heather Boushey underlined that Biden doesn’t intend to boost taxes on people earning less than $400,000 a year. But for “folks at the top who’ve been able to benefit from this economy and haven’t been this hard hit, there’s a lot of room there to think about what kinds of revenue we can raise,” she said in a Bloomberg TV interview Monday.
“How was I to know what would actually be the result of my tinkering?”
Read his lips.
That must be what the mask is for.
AMT says “hi!”
Or you could just cut spending?
? LOL get a load of this guy.
doesn’t intend to boost taxes on people earning less than $400,000 a year
Well, except for the increase in corporate taxes, and the increase in inheritance taxes. I doubt they put in a carve-out for those increases if the corporate owner or heirs are making less than $400K/year.
This fits me. Holy shot, how fucked am I about to be? I’m already using my savings to pay for this FMLA time I’m having to spend at home.
The first year of the Trump tax rates, I did a back-of-the envelope calculation of my taxes with those and with the previous tax brackets. I saved something like $400, and I make well under $15/hr.
We saved about $2K the first year.
The second year was not a typical year, but we spent far more than we would have previously because we couldn’t deduct legal fees.
Democrats say this every time, but they’re lying anyway.
Taxing the 1% simply does not raise a significant amount of money. The only purpose is punishing people for making the most money.
There is not enough money flowing into that income bracket to even dent the deficit with any kind of remotely realistic tax increase. I could only find the 2014 numbers, but the total income of people making $250k or more was $1.51 trillion. They are already paying about 25% tax on that (effective rate rather than nominal rate). Tack on another 25% and you’re at $378 billion. Adjusting that for CPI gives a 13% increase to about $426 billion. The deficit in 2019 was just shy of $1 trillion. The deficit in 2020 was over $3 trillion. The deficit so far for FY21 is already over $1 trillion (we are just about to wrap up Q2FY21 so the deficit is on track to exceed $2 trillion by the end of the fiscal year).
And to bolster the point, there were about as many households in the $200k–250k bracket as the $250k+ bracket, and there were as many households in the $150k–200k as in those other two brackets combined. Even if all of these brackets have slid up by $50k since 2014 (doubtful), that’s still well shy of $400k. If you want to raise real revenue from income taxes, and you don’t much care about capital flight or other realistic mitigations people will take if you do, you need to people making $100k or more not $400k or more. There’s far too few of the latter, no matter how much money they make (this isn’t some dystopia where only 5 people control all the income).
Ok, I’ll stop responding to myself after this. My estimate was off. I found the 2019 numbers, and the income of those households making more than $250k per year was $3.26 trillion, so a 25% tax hike on them would “net” about $814 billion.
Interestingly, every single high-income bracket saw a major increase in number of households from 2014 to 2019. There were more than twice as many making $250k+, 65% more making $200k–250k, 50% more making $150k–200k, and 28% more making $100k–150k. The U.S. population only increased by 4.5% over that time period. Clearly one can see the reason why $400k is the new cutoff: too many people are making $100k-400k and those are largely Democratic voters.
I follow everything you’re saying except this:
It’s not obvious to me that those would be democrat voters. And if they were, why would the donkeys want to punish them?
/confused.
Democrats are the party of status and power. Not all high-income people are social climbers, but if you want to get paid more it helps to be on the right side.
The $400k cutoff is the lower limit. So the $100k-400k bracket of households is not going to see a tax hike. But at $400k+ there’s too few people to constitute a significant constituency (regardless of favored party).
Alright, so I think if we get a little more specific:
$100k–250k leans Republican
$250k–400k leans Democratic
The $250k dividing line here is a bit arbitrary and could probably go a little up or down both ways and still be true. Under $100k and over $400k probably also lean Democratic.
I’ll buy that. Sounds about right. Although I do think Trump made major inroads in the under $100k group, and another “I love America” populist could repeat that.
However, when I read the White House economist statement, I got from it “we don’t mean to raise taxes on incomes $400k but it turns out we will anyway.” Not “we don’t mean to, hence we won’t.”
I’ve already heard mutterings from California that there was a surplus last year so the Covid thing wasn’t so bad for the economy after all.
It’s infuriating. They learned all the wrong lessons. They will take the “surplus” and put it into the pension coffers and not do a dang thing to benefit the people of California (or at least not those who aren’t democrat voters).
Agreed, all around. Of course it will go towards pensions; that’s a double vote purchase: first, of the pensioners, and second, of the recipients of pension fund investment.
Merkel’s CDU suffers heavy losses in German regional elections, exit polls say
I bet she did nazi that coming.
Surely it will be her downfall.
She’d be more likeable if she wasn’t such a deutschbag.
Some people like her just fine, depends on whose ox is being Goeringed.
*narrows gaze*
Italy is investigating whether one,of the vaccines killed a teacher.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9363963/Europe-Covid-wave-Italy-enters-lockdown-cases-soar.html
This is a disturbed, and disturbing, woman.
If the allegations are true, she looks either nuts or evil or maybe both.
Gotta get an edge on the other competitors somehow.
But canny enough to avoid the kiddie porn charges.
Sacrificial lambs were found
Two men have been arrested and charged for assaulting US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after responding on January 6 to hundreds of rioters who stormed the Capitol, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, of West Virginia, are alleged to have worked together to spray police, including Sicknick, with a toxic chemical spray during the Capitol riot. Khater called what was in the cannister “bear sh*t,” according to court records, but the Justice Department on Monday said the spray is unknown.
Investigators had struggled for weeks to build a federal murder case in Sicknick’s death as they pored over video and photographs to try to determine the moment in which he suffered his fatal injuries. Investigators determined that initial reports suggesting Sicknick had been struck with a fire extinguisher weren’t true.
Prepare the stake and pyre.
Aggressively overcharge and see if the two will plead out before it goes to discovery.
Fairly tame charges, and if they hold form they will do all they can to make the process the punishment knowing that is all they’ve got.
Bull. Fucking. Shit.
Doesn’t pepper spray count as technically a toxic chemical spray? It could be true depending on how loose their definitions.
The FBI gets two glorious periods in its history, one when it was the truncheon and jackboot of authoritarians (the Hoover era) and one when it is the incompetent enforcement arm of the feckless limousine elite.
“Investigators had struggled for weeks to build a federal murder case”
That’s the infuriating phrase for me. Maybe if you had to struggle that long, there wasn’t a murder case-federal or otherwise-to be built.
Me too. Not, “Struggled for weeks to determine his cause of death” or even “Struggled for weeks to determine if he had died from natural causes or something that happened at the riot”. Nope, lets start by assuming this square peg will fit into a round hole, and keep hammering at it until it fits.
What exactly did the coroner rule on this anyway?
No clue. The autopsy is being withheld.
Now that they’ve charged somebody, it should be public very soon. If I was a defense lawyer, it would be the very first thing I would demand.
The defense lawyers should have it made in the shade on this case.
But instead, the defense team will be vilified and hounded at home and at work, their families will be harassed.
All to serve as a warning to others.
They aren’t being charges with killing the guy only assault and if the court filings are to be believed the assault is on video, not sure what the autopsy would show to disprove that.
Exposure to bear spray?
If I’m defending someone accused of “assaulting” someone with bear spray, and there’s a document that might show the “victim” was not, in fact, hit with bear spray, damn right I’m going to subpoena it.
Fair enough. I took your meaning to be that if the bear spray didn’t kill him, then bear spaying him wasn’t a big deal, not that there might be exculpatory evidence. Mea culpa.
“Bear spaying” Now THAT’S a man’s sport.
Release the autopsy you lying cunts.
The Bro has it right. The cause of death is determined. Was it the bear spray? Highly, highly unlikely, since he died hours later and apparently told his family he was only dinged up a little.
First time for everything…
What you did there…
… deserves an award?
Weird. NY Post was still going with the “fire extinguisher” lie within their top-of-the page article on these arrests a couple hours ago – which has since vanished.
Switzerland responsible for $13 billion in losses to tax evasion globally
The tax regime is full of holes.
Any minute now…
Again?!
*NARROWS GAZE*
Doing reps on the narrow gaze… feel the Bern…
Cheese it, guys! Swiss is on the prowl!
That’s a lot of cheddar!
Who moved my cheese?
Lorraine is involved.
They’ve had their fon, now the price is due.
So naturally they turn to the leftist parties for relief from the corruption. Der Sigh… viel Glück damit! ?
The court record doesn’t mention Sicknick’s death, or how the spray may have contributed to it.
For weeks after Sicknick’s death, federal authorities said they were pursuing a murder investigation. Neither alleged rioters were charged with murder.
They’ll long for the gallows, by the time the feds are done with them.
They’re getting the Trump treatment. Dammit, I know he’s guilty, just give me a minute to figure out the crime.
Or you could just cut spending?
Stop it. you’re killing me.
Yeah, that ship sailed a long time ago. I remember Obama advocating for taxes on the very wealthy in order to be “fair,” not for any reason of budget necessity.
And the other week, there was that global internet tax, about which the whole discussion revolved around how to get companies to pay it, not whether the revenue was necessary or not.
Brian Stelter
@brianstelter
Mar 14
Tucker Carlson is the new Donald Trump. Tucker has taken Trump’s place as a right-wing leader, an outrage generator, a fire-starter…
Indeed, you do seem outraged that there is competition in media that purports itself to be news. And I guess someone is jelly that Tucker actually has an audience.
Stelter is a fat and loathsome toady. The kind that would be the first to die in a Lord of the Flies situation.
Talk about “long pig”. . . .
Jelly that Tucker can still afford trousers / doesn’t broadcast from home?
Jelly that Tucker doesn’t look like the androgynous model they used to develop the new Potato-Head toy.
How dare he say something I disagree with!
Hypocrisy thy name is Nancy.
@GStephanopoulos asks @SpeakerPelosi why she’s trying to steal an election where the votes were “counted, recounted, and certified by the state.”
Pelosi says it is ok to overturn the results because the Republican candidate only won by 6 votes.
What a hypocrite. #IA02
Well it obviously was not legitimate if a Democrat lost.
The sooner that cunt follows RBG, the better.
MSNBC business channel reports on TAX CHEATS
For example, high earners — those making at least $1.5 million a year — paid the IRS just 39% of the taxes they owed, on average, according to the audit. Such taxpayers still owed about $2.4 billion in delinquent tax.
“High-income taxpayer noncompliance can have a significant corrosive effect on overall tax administration as well as add to the belief that the nation’s tax system favors the wealthy,” according to the Inspector General report.
It’s important to determine how effectively the IRS is addressing delinquent taxes among the rich due to its limited staffing of experienced tax collectors, the report said.
——-
The IRS doesn’t make taxpayer income a high priority when determining which cases to work, the Inspector General report said. The agency places greater significance on other factors, such as dollar amount of the tax balance.
But tax dollars owed isn’t always an accurate identifier of the wealthy, according to the report. For example, the largest number of high-income taxpayers (69%) owe less than $25,000, the watchdog found.
Sometimes i think the muddy, unclear writing in these stories is intentional.
“Take our word for it, those rich bastards aren’t pulling their weight. They’re lolling around in their Scrooge McDuck gold filled swimming pools, laughing at you chumps.”
For example, high earners — those making at least $1.5 million a year — paid the IRS just 39% of the taxes they owed, on average,
Now do elected officials and public sector employees.
There’s a reason the IRS doesn’t go after these people super hard, and it’s that they can afford good accountants and good lawyers. If you hit someone who has a high income with a massive tax bill, then they can probably hire someone to argue it down to nothing.
The problem with these “audits” is just like the problem with auditing the taxpayer: there’s so many loopholes in the tax code that it’s just a question of finding the right way to claim not only do you not owe money, you’re actually due a refund!
they can probably hire someone to argue it down to nothing
Which is why “high earners — those making at least $1.5 million a year — paid the IRS just 39% of the taxes they owed, on average” is bullshit. I’m betting that’s the IRS’s first cut at what they owe. Its the upper bound, and the real underpayment is much lower.
Mother of the year.
Police arrested a 50-year-old Bucks County woman March 10 for sending her teen daughter’s cheerleading coaches fake photos and videos depicting her rivals naked, drinking, or smoking, to try to get them kicked off the squad, according to media reports.
Raffaela Spone, of Chalfont, was charged with two misdemeanors, Hilltown Township Police officers said. Spone is facing three counts of cyber harassment of a child and three counts of harassment.
An investigation last year led officers to discover that Spone had sent harassing text messages directly to the teenagers as well, police said. As the investigation continued, more teenagers came forward, who were all part of a traveling cheerleading group — Victory Vipers — based in the Doylestown area.
“Spone last year created the doctored images of at least three members,” according to the affidavit. There were no indications that Spone’s daughter knew what her mother was doing.
Would not.
I am SO glad my daughters grew out of the dance thing. Dance mom’s are the worst.
Baseball moms.
Ugh.
I have 3 daughters and im blessed to have never attended one single dance class or recital. Talk about lucky.
Would not.
Would’ve expected this under my link to the story. [grin]
Just a steel town girl on a Saturday night
Lookin’ for the fight of her life
In the real-time world no one sees her at all
They all say she’s crazy
What sorts of drugs fell out of her ass?
Roofies.
*shocked face*
WOW! @clovisusd, a CA school district is proposing a $6,000 bonus per employee with state and federal aid money!
“Because of the influx of one-time dollars from the state and federal government… [we were asked to] work on a possible one-time, off-schedule payment to employees” …
The $6K proposed teacher and staff bonus to be voted by the board this Wed. It was shared with us by someone part of the negotiations. This person is outraged they are offering $6k in bonuses, money which is supposed to go towards programs for students.
They do it for the children.
So, in the real world, I hear, bonuses are generally related to very favorable performance by the company, the division, the employee that exceeds certain targets and merits appreciation.
Anyone care to explain how the school district here had any kind of performance above standard over the last year?
Above standard?
Public schools have been running miles below standard the past year.
I now have an EpiPen.
A friend gave it to me as he was dying.
He was all choked up.
It seemed really important to him that I have it.
That’s a real thigh-slapper, there!
In lieu of Swiss…
*narrowed esophagus*
That’s just dispeptic.
On a serious note, wife was asking about getting one just in case. I didn’t see the point of going through the hassle for an expirable device that needs a script when there’s no medical history to support it, but whatevahs. Now basic surgical tools..
I think an EpiPen costs around $600. A syringe with an equivalent amount of epinephrine is something like 10 cents.
Posted too soon.
Reason for that disparity is that the CEO of the company that makes EpiPen is the daughter of a Dem senator. Must be pure coincidence that epi autoinjectors are required to be purchased and stored by school systems (and on a regular basis since, as you note, they expire). Also pure confidence that for years the FDA rejected any competing autoinjector designs, giving EpiPen a monopoly on the market.
It’s not technically a monopoly. There are other manufacturers, however, FDA laws do not allow for substitution in this case (I can’t remember the specifics of *why*) if the prescribing doctor uses the brand name EpiPen on the prescription. If the doctor prescribes “epinephrine autoinjector,” the pharmacist is free to substitute a lower cost alternate.
But the manufacturer (Mylan, I think) of the EpiPen brand has a very good marketing wing and they get a lot of doctors to specify the brand name when prescribing.
That was a very short time when EpiPen was the sole certified provider as the alternates had been decertified and were re-designing.
I have an AUVI-Q and it was $25 with no insurance.
Their official pricing is a rube goldberg, Don’t ask us for the official price.. but here is our home delivery price.
Thank you! I’ll pass that one on to my wife.
A decent amount of time has passed to show y’all this:
https://www.glibertarians.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/60A8714-portrait-crop.jpg
Hope you like it.
Hideous. Where’s the rest of her?
Is there more? Tell me there’s more.
There’s more. I didn’t photograph it, but there’s more. ;-)
I hate you. LOL.
I work with only crusty old dudes (like me).
? That warms the cockles of my shriveled, wizened, blackened little heart. Or maybe it’s my inter-cockular region, or possibly my no-no spot. I’m never quite sure.
No one is coming for your guns, you knuckle-dragging, deplorable bitter-clinger.
The gun ban bill introduced by Feinstein and Cicilline, on the other hand, appears identical to the gun ban she introduced last year in the Senate. Here’s how Feinstein’s office describes the new bill.
I should pick up a binary trigger for a 10/22.
I never understood the binary trigger thing. Sounds dangerous and not like something I want my gun to do.
I could see it being fun on a .22.
I could also see it sitting in it’s packaging for years on a shelf…
I hope the Repubs realize if these bills and/or the election bill make it through the Senate, they are done as a political party.
The big question in my mind remains: Will the Dems kill the filibuster to ram these through? I think its a very close call for the election bill.
And once the filibuster is gone, the floodgates will open.
I’m looking at downgrading Uruguay as an expat destination – I didn’t realize just how far down the shitter Argentina has actually gone. Yeah, their politics are still firmly stupidly Peronist, but the damage to the economy is really bad. And they’ve already tried the “military adventurism to distract from domestic problems” once.
Montevideo is right across the river from Buenos Aires. I’m not liking that in the long run.
I hope the Repubs realize if these bills and/or the election bill make it through the Senate, they are done as a political party.
Why? I’d think we as libertarians know above all else that laws are not magical. They can write the law, they can enact it, they can get Joe Biden’s feeble signature, but it’s still just words on paper.
That election law? They will enforce the shit out of that.
The gun control laws? The real base of the Repub party is already pissed at them, and those would be the last straw for a lot of people, making the Repubs non-viable in a whole lot of districts and states. Even if the Repubs campaigned on repealing them, who would believe them after OCare?
Oh, you might be right there. I think I read what you wrote too broadly since you started talking about expatriation. The GOP might die as a useless and ineffectual holdover of a bygone era, but that doesn’t mean the political opposition will vanish.
The voting law is already a fait accompli. They got everything they wanted through the state legislatures, state officials, and state and federal courts last time. Passing some omnibus measure in the Senate is more about punishing knuckledragger states than anything else. The problem they will face, however, is that their gaming of the process is plain for all to see.
I agree with you RC.
I was listening to Victor Davis Hanson on some podcast wondering why the GOP base doesn’t donate as much as the Dem base does. I wanted to scream “Because the Dem base gets results! The GOP base has figured out that the people that are supposed to be representing them don’t give a shit”
Remember all the promises to get rid of Obamacare Day 1? Just elect us and it will be gone?
The GOP base remembers. Now the GOP wimps are going to lay down for this shit too.
My prediction is that McConnell and others will say that they had to bend over and take it up the ass on these gun control bills because if they fought, the Dems would get rid of the filibuster. And without the filibuster they would be powerless to stop important legislation. They will have no clue why that will piss off their base so much.
The fact that the GOP base isnt still frothing at the mouth after last November tells me all I need to know about republican accountability.
they had to bend over and we get to take it up the ass
Edit for clarity.
That’s called bipartisanship. Right?
I prefer to think of it as bipartisanal.
Heh.
So instead of getting from both ends, it’s double the fun down yonder. Yay.
The big question in my mind remains: Will the Dems kill the filibuster to ram these through?
Same here. I had planned on taking a break, but this bill pushed me into spending half of my substantial family stimulus check on more guns and ammo.
I don’t have a good feeling about things and even best case scenario of a total Dem failure is that it will still be years before prices and availability return to normal.
Yup, same here (not stimulus, but some cash earmarked for a down payment on a house). Prices are gonna stay nuts for the foreseeable future, so I’ll buy here and there as the cash comes available. I see them getting their way on online ammo sales eventually, so may as well stock up while that’s still a thing.
By the way, thanks for the ammo link you threw up the other day. I was able to grab 12 boxes. Hopefully at least… still waiting on shipment.
They’ve been reliable for me in the past. It takes a few days to process and then it ships quickly.
I wonder if the thing that goes up is a “military characteristic”.
It’s certainly given me my marching orders in the past.
It has a well practiced salute.
The Jerry Michulek Prohibition Act
Yeah, what the fuck is that? The cyclic rate on an M3 Grease Gun is like 300 rounds per minute. That’s a 0.2 second split. I can do 0.12 second splits reliably, faster when I’m in practice. An UZI SMG (full size) has a cyclic rate of 550 rounds per minute (0.109s split), and I can easily squeeze off single shots in full auto mode.
They’re just doing what the American people want them to do. You know, the American people who bought record numbers of guns, including the most popular semiautomatic rifles, this past year.
bad link?
Found the bill online.
The Ruger mini-14 without a folding stock or a pistol grip and the PC9 are specifically exempted.
The Springfield M1A does not appear as a specifically banned or specifically exempted rifle.
Of course, all of my magazines would be banned.
Bans the sale, manufacture, transfer and importation of 205 military-style assault weapons by name.
CA did that, and the receiver manufacturers simply renamed lowers as soon as they were put on the list, forcing the state to play whack-a-mole until they just gave up.
@Hayeksplosives, carried over from dead thread because I am slow on the throttle:
The maiden mare: It means she’s never been mounted at all or if so, penetration did not happen. So, a virgin.
That’s quite a bit of chaperoning, I’d imagine, to guarantee that.
At most horse farms the mares are kept in separate fields from the geldings, and definitely separate from the stallions. Geldings can go in the field adjacent to the mares, but stallions should have to take down multiple fences to get to a mare in season. Also if your stallion is a stud line, you get the semen extracted at another farm, not his home territory.
Ah, so the heifers get to whore it up and retain their delicate title if they are on the pill.
#fillysarepeopletoo
#whorecowsaysmoo
#mootoo
#AnimalHusbandryIsRape
My stepdad didn’t separate the bull from the cows soon enough. He had several cows give birth during the worst part of February this year. 11 calves born early. Only one is still alive.
He likes veal?
Mammary Monday dares you to ban these assault weapons.
https://archive.is/zgFas
I have a thing that goes up.
No face diapers and good choices.
Excellent.
I’m SHOCKED that Whitmer will not be investigated by the Michigan AG over nursing home deaths related to covid-19.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/15/gretchen-whitmer-nursing-home-policies-dana-nessel/4707894001/
Your winnings, Major–
Some folks get poisoned by the locals not knowing how to run the water system = charge the governor with a crime. The governor personally makes a decision leading to thousands of deaths? No problemo.
Minnesoda GOP engages in kabuki theater. Until they control the house, they have no chance of ending King Walz’s emergency powers. I’m going to pretend that if they did have the house, they would actually end the dictatorship and not even entertain the thought that it would be a replay of Obamacare if they controlled the legislature with the GOP chickening out.
Why do you guys call me a tyrant? I’m giving you a chance to pass laws codifying my edicts. What more can you want?
Controlling the legislature didn’t do jack shit for PA’s GOP, and having a supermajority is still not enough for KY’s GOP.
Correct.
The KY state courts are gonna have massive shoulders with all the water they’re carrying for the governor.
They have pulled the Hawaiian judge trick here a few times. In once case a judge from just south east of St. Paul ruled against a bar owner in the SW corner of the state who was defying lockdown rules.
Was there no judge anywhere in that corner of the state who could have ruled on that case? Why did they have to get the case in front of a judge so far away?
State law here says that in order to file a suit against the gov, it has to be done in Franklin County.
AKA, the state capital.
The legislature tried to change the law to be able to file suit against the gov in any county.
Guess what court issued an injunction.
Color me surprised. Anonymous sources get it wrong.
Anonymous sources are almost always bullshit, but it’s become standard to use them.
If a story cites anonymous sources, you can bet that whatever they’re saying is complete bullshit, if there’s a source at all.
Link
https://reason.com/2021/03/15/trump-find-the-fraud-media-wrong-anonymous-source-call/
Of course it’s Robbie. Nobody else there would dare minimize the evil that is Trump. He doesn’t even have a degree from Columbia, or he’d know that “fake but accurate” is just as good (better even!) than factual.
“The public needs to have confidence that when The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, NPR, etc., supply information from a confidential source, that information is accurate.”
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Also, the audio file was found in the trash.
If journalists actually cared about their industry being a profession then they’d be calling for high-level resignations. But they don’t care, which is why they’re not professionals. To say they exercise the prerogative of the harlot is an insult to harlots.
Too local, too stupid. Small exurban city council passes ordinance saying that no LEO resources will be used to enforce any of King Walz’s mask mandates. All the Right People get the vapors at such stupidity.
One of the anti-mask council women used a bad analogy saying that the mask laws may have been found to be legal by the courts, but don’t forget the internment of Japanese during WWII was also found to be legal.
Local proggies have decided to ignore that the councilwoman used a bad and convoluted analogy and instead have called it racist and alarming. The Japanese American Citizens League of Minnesoda has condemned it thoroughly. For racism? A bit, but more because:
Yes, it is explicit now. Not obeying mandates is now risking liberty.
Funny. That was pretty much the justification for internment.
Oh, fuck off.
Surprise!
I blame FDR for the fundamental shift in how the government’s relationship to the people is framed, and what freedom is.
He gave us all the “freedom FROM” shit, like freedom from want, that gives rise to “your excess stuff is going to be distributed to those in need. It’s their basic rights and freedoms.”
He would have loved “____justice” as a label for everything.
Can we cancel FDR over that Japanese internment thing and then toss out the govt agencies he created?
Taking his socialist mug off the dime would be OK too!
I think FDR’s “Four Freedoms” branding is just the most visible face of a much deeper transformation. FDR turned the civil service from a quaint but generally accountable bureaucracy into a massive and permanent self-driving machine. He was the undisputed king in charge of the machine during the course of his life, but not a single President since, not even LBJ, could claim the same. So powerful was FDR that he even brought down a major city’s political machine, something which has certainly not been done since and had rarely happened before.
That is a very good question. Funny how he gets a pass on that.
When it happens on the Democrats’ watch, society is to blame. Cf every death in police custody in Democrat run cities.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
I wonder what the free market answer for this problem is….
There’s a whole lotta fishiness going on here.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/15/revealed-seafood-happening-on-a-vast-global-scale?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1
I have been reading that line for years. The free market answer is to buy from a fisherman you know or a trusted one. I missed my clans “Salmon dealer”‘s orders this year because I quite facebook. I was pissed.
+1 Caveat Emptor.
-1 caviar pun empptortunity
Dam it!
Hey, just accept the fact that you’re further down the pun ladder than most of us.
I’m thinking there are steps the industry itself can take to avoid epic levels of fraud.
No government.
I’m not at all opposed to industries policing themselves.
Fish fraud?
Classic bait and switch!
They had to study that? That has been the case for thousands of years.
“What kind of fish is that?”
“What are you looking for?”
“Salmon.”
“Its your lucky day. That, my friend, is a salmon.”
Do you know who else gave vehicular service?
Wendy S.?
Why do we need Starlink? The Covid Relief Bill has $1B to make sure all tribes have broadband access and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Minnesota has thrown hundreds of millions just in our state at getting rubes out in the sticks all hooked up. So I’m sure there is no need for anybody out in the countryside to need Starlink.
A good reason to stick to astrology and tarot cards and stay away from that crystal ball quackery
“Payback time: Biden to repeal Trump tax cuts and propose first major federal hike since 1993 to help fund $1.9 trillion COVID package: President is expected to raise corporate tax and personal rates for high earners”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9363465/Biden-propose-major-tax-hike-1993-signing-massive-1-9-trillion-COVID-relief.html
That’s dangerously stupid.
They took a big gamble that they could take away or seriously impede rights such as peaceful assembly, worship, free speech, religion, bearing arms. They closed shops and told people to stay in their homes. They stole elections blatantly and on video.
End they got away with it all.
Why would it be stupid of them to raise taxes? They will never suffer any consequences if the past year is anything to go by.
“Why would it be stupid of them to raise taxes?”
Because even if one believes in Keynesian economics (and I don’t) this is not the time to raise taxes.
Raising taxes in the middle of a recession. What could possibly go wrong?
Of course, when things go south, they’ll insist the solution is…more of the same. Sadly, a large part of the public will buy it. Including a sizeable portion of economists.
We live in Idiocracy. Except the dumbing down is amongst our intelligentsia.
Then again the whole country has gone stupid:
“US Marines APOLOGIZE for insulting tweets against Tucker Carlson in debate over women service members after Ted Cruz complains about ‘officials in uniform’ launching political attacks on civilians”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9364749/US-Marines-apologize-snarky-tweets-calling-Tucker-Carlson-boomer.html
I read the article and am still confused.
I do have a suggestion though: active duty officers should put the Twitter machine down and back slowly out of the room.
“Shocking moment woman driving wanted felon’s car shoots traffic-stop cop at point-blank range before he returns fire and kills her”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9364523/Woman-shot-dead-pulling-gun-cop-critically-injuring-traffic-stop.html
yikes!
I’m thinking that’s probably a good shoot by the cop.
Not really into watching people die.
Avoid Reno
Nice! I got that reference.
Took me a while, but the train came a’rolling down the track eventually.
Fatty-on-fatty action
For HM, wherever he may be:
Humans owe their intelligence to dat ass.
What, what?
Hmmm, something to think about when gazing upon a woman’s tuchus. I feel smarter already.
“RIGHT NOW: NY is on cusp of finally legalizing marijuana. But there’s a hold up. Cuomo is *insisting* cops still be able to lie about smelling an “odor” to justify racist stops & searches. Public defenders know that the “odor of marijuana” drives broken windows policing. No!”
https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1371516306911023106
On the one hand, yes, many cops will use whatever excuse they can to get a search and an arrest if possible. On the other hand, they’re not doing it because of racism.
Some people don’t understand logic.
Racism is wrong.
Bad policing is wrong.
Therefore bad policing is racism. Duh.
Cuomo, as always, is asshoe.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that a supermajority of those who partake of the reefer in their cars in NY are, uh… “diverse”. So yes, whether or not Andy harbors racist intent, that is how it will be portrayed.
“While I’m not suggesting Bill Burr is a racist, a white man having a non-white wife can sometimes be a sign of racism. So you shouldn’t assume someone isn’t racist just because they own a minority sex servant. They may very well have one because they’re racist.”
https://twitter.com/Clayburn/status/1371268469145079809
CWAA
He should come to my house and try calling the Spousal Unit my “sex servant,” minority or otherwise. He’ll leave a gelding.
What an ass.
These people don’t even see the irony of how seriously they take comedy.
Bill Burr is hilarious. Comics have always been edgy. There have been a few comedians speaking out about censorship in comedy but they don’t seem to get much traction.
(Related question: since Dave Chappelle is married to an Asian woman, but he himself is black, does that make him more or less likely to be racist? Also, if he proposed to her and she said yes, is she still his minority sex servant?z)
How about if the lady did the proposing? Mrs F’s inquiring mind needs to know if she is a racist. I used to feel like a sex servant but now mostly like a servant.
“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised.”
If you think being married means you “own a sex servant”, your marriage is very sad indeed. Regardless of whether you are the owner or the sex servant.
And what a passive-aggressive pussy Clayburn Griffin is. “While I’m not suggesting Bill Burr is a racist” my ass. That’s exactly what you are suggesting.
And what a passive-aggressive pussy Clayburn Griffin is
Cyberbully needs wall to wall counseling.
And a safe space with puppies.
Puppies aren’t safe, those poop machines are dangerous.
Where can I find one of these sex servant wives?
/asking for a friend
Ms. Maxwell is a bit restrained right now. Check back later. She might have a tip on finding an experienced girl.
LOL at the musical reply.
Scott Atlas on Lil Rona Panic measures
It is always a great pleasure, and an important part of my job, to speak to students. It is essential for students to hear ideas from many sources, especially ideas they may not agree with. That is a key part of learning how to think critically – and critical thinking is the most important lesson to learn in college, in my opinion.
The coronavirus pandemic has been a great tragedy, there can be no doubt about that. But it has also exposed profound issues in America that now threaten the very principles of freedom and order that we Americans often take for granted.
First, I have been shocked at the enormous power of the government, to unilaterally decree, to simply close businesses and schools by edict, restrict personal movement, mandate behavior, and eliminate our most basic freedoms, without any end and little accountability.
Second, I remain surprised at the acceptance by the American people of draconian rules, restrictions, and unprecedented mandates, even those that are arbitrary, destructive, and wholly unscientific.
Last night I made mushroom risotto for the first time ever in my life and ate it along side a center cut loin pork chop. Sweet lavender smelling baby jesus that is good stuff. Tonight I am having leftovers and thinking I am eating early because I just want to eat that again.
*goes to get leftover pork chop to reheat in the oven* The risotto will be re-heated with more cream and parm. Might even get crazy and top with some blue cheese because I like blue cheese.
Only a philistine would attempt reheated risotto.
Your point?
Just This.
Arancini brings the receipts.
I had to DDG that. Would.
Yeah, good arancini are the proverbial bomb.
I’m dubious about the blue cheese. But, hey, its worth a try, I guess.
Seems like most TV chef contestants get sent home for fresh risotto. Yours must be awesome.
My son tells my wife to pack her knives often.
As Hype points out I am a philistine. I have never had snooty proper restaurant risotto, and I did Chef Johns oven bake cheater method and it worked well for me. I should have taken half and stored prior to the final pan finish for later use but I was drunk so didn’t plan ahead. I am sure it won’t be as good as last night but hey, it is mostly mushrooms cream and cheese so it is hard to fuck that up with my pallet.
Damn you got splinters in your tongue? [pallet/palette]
Or palate… 😉
She shoots, she scores!
It’s that time of year in Texas… Good old allergies back in full swing… I love this place. ?
Get a neti pot.
Still snow on the ground here. The chipmunks are out, which means this is the brief time of the year when you can see their holes. Alas for the two that are living in my back yard now, soon there will be a digging machine sharing the space.
Bevis and Butthead snicker.
Switzerland benefits from tax abuse by companies and individuals to the tune of around $12.8 billion (CHF11.9 billion) according to a new global ranking. However, it also loses out on $5.7 billion in revenue.
Tax abuse? Fuck you.
The fifth-place ranking puts Switzerland in what the NGO refers to as the “Axis of Tax Avoidance” along with the UK (with its network of Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies), the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The top five jurisdictions are responsible for half of the world’s corporate tax abuse risks.
Fifth place is fourth loser. Do better Switzerland.
That’s the thing I always see with progressives. They can’t stand the idea of anyone, under any circumstances, being outside their sphere of control. Even the goddamned Taliban isn’t set on their doctrines being universal. At least not to the extent that you’d seriously hear them talk about “haram avoidance”. The progressive mind dreams of a world where nobody is ever able to get out from under their rules, even if those people would have no effect on their lives.
Those people might make the wrong decisions. We can’t have that.
Corporate tax abuse?
Before I go leaping down a rabbit hole in search of information, I figured I’d ask here.
Does anyone know at what point in the sugarcane growing process they burn the fields, and why?
Because sugarcane is very dense. So before (and often after) the cane is harvested, the fields are set on fire to burn away the leaves.
Also, there is a difference between a sugar cane knife and a machete.
I was aware of the cane knife.
But just foliage density?
Pretty much. The leaves don’t have any sugar, or any other value, but they are a huge impediment. It’s pretty much impossible to cross a sugarcane field without a machete, and clearing it by hand would be too labor intensive. Not to mention all the bugs, snakes, bats, etc. the fire drives out.
Well, that doesn’t suck
I should probably still get a 2011 for my limited gun, but then again…
Pretty sharp!
I just took my CGW Shadow 2 out of the box. That was a few bucks well spent…
Sununu and Covid
A year ago, Chris Sununu was standing outside the Market Basket store in Epping at 5:45 a.m. consoling anxious seniors who snaked in a long line waiting for the supermarket doors to open.
Emotions were high, with COVID-19 lockdowns sparking a panicked run on essentials, especially toilet paper, as rare as gold coins at the time.
“The toilet paper crisis of 2020, that was a real thing,” Sununu says.
“The anxiety was palpable. People were coming up to me and saying, ‘Oh my God, if I don’t get some of these basic needs, I don’t know what I am going to do, Governor.’”
While consumers were concerned with shortages, Sununu couldn’t get out of his head an early Centers for Disease Control alert to all governors that as many as 2% of all Americans could die from COVID-19.
Sununu and his wife, Valerie, had family friends in Italy, a world hotspot for COVID infections in early March 2020, where scores of residents were dying every day in their homes before health care professionals could find hospital beds for them.
“I always feared that it could become the five-alarm fire that it became,” Sununu says. “I was doing the math, thinking that it was going to be a lot worse.”
I managed to read the whole thing.
/begin sarc
He had it really hard
/end sarc
an early Centers for Disease Control alert to all governors that as many as 2% of all Americans could die from COVID-19
That would be nearly 7MM deaths. Off by more than a literal order of magnitude. And people still take the CDC seriously.
Drugs from ass? Maybe. Still, good stuff.
https://mobile.twitter.com/MagPulDeezNuts/status/1371071980888199170