Credit where credit’s due.
Only two races to go as we enter the last weekend of the baseball season. The Braves-Mets battle continues with the Mets clinging to a 1 game lead (with two extra games to play) and the Brewers are hanging in there for the last wild card hoping Philly, who are only 1/2 game up, continues their slide. Remember, though, that the Mets own the tiebreaker over Atlanta and the Phillies own the tiebreaker over the Brewers, as there’s no 163rd winner-take-all game this year in case of a tie. So the Brew Crew and and the Braves both face a bigger task than in past seasons. Aaron Judge tied the AL season homer mark finally. He’s also still chasing a triple crown. And that’s really it for sports today.
Glad she finally made it to the border. Oh wait…
Keep running cover for the administration, ABC. You’re doing a great job. What’s next, a deep dive into how ghosts are probably real, making that gaffe at the speech not really a gaffe?
You’re not a king, asshole.
Why even bother with a legislature or a judiciary branch? But remember, it was the last guy who didn’t respect the other coequal branches of government and wanted to rule like a king.
Well, it was a Fantastic Voyage. Rest In Peace, Coolio.
How the hell do these DAs, mayors, and governors not have woodchippers parked outside their homes every day? I’m sorry, but this is completely out of control and they are almost exclusively to blame for endangering the populace by letting these obviously dangerous and deranged people out early after violent crimes or without some kind of supervised release (at a minimum) before trial.
Fuck you, Ian.
Ian ripped Florida a new asshole. And it’s not done yet. Thankfully the human toll doesn’t appear to be bad as of yet, but the fallout is going to be devastating. Stay safe if you’re down there, friends. Especially you, Brett L.
I wonder if there will be riots. No wait, of course there won’t be. Even though the parallels to other shootings that led to riots are quite clear.
Well, she was kind of right. But still, have a little consideration for your fellow passengers, ok?
Let’s get the blood flowing this morning. What a masterpiece. Now to decide what else to play. What an easy decision. I know some would pick something else, yet I’m the one on the keyboard. Enjoy them both.
And enjoy this lovely Thursday and keep our Florida friends in your thoughts and prayers.
Let there be links!
Links, scrambled eggs and coffee!
Wifey made coffee, but those scramby eggs sure sound good. Do you deliver?
Scrambled eggs might be the single easiest thing to cook that I can think of.
You can do it, Hyp!
(Unless you have no eggs. You should always have eggs in the house. )
For a nutritious breakfast, two eggs is the minimum required.
Just ask Mojoeaux.
I already do it. I do the low heat method. No washing skillets. But delivery sounds like a better option.
Patties, fried eggs, and coffee!
Fried eggs really need some sort of carbohydrate to enjoy the yolk on. Ideally potatoes, but toast also works.
If your yolk is running, you don’t have fried eggs, you have a failed attempt at fried eggs.
Solidified yolk? You probably smother it with ketchup too don’t you. You fiend!
Black Pepper. Properly fried in butter, an egg only needs Black Pepper to finish it.
Well this is demonstrably false.
I’m avoiding grain carbs, so the toast is right out, but I do have some hash browns that I occasionally fry up.
I’m more of an over medium kind of guy, so the yolk stays mostly in place.
A 1/2 pound burger patty, sautéed onions, relish, a slice of sharp cheddar, and two eggs over easy on top.
With a bowl of charro beans and a tall ass glass of Clamato.
You’re welcome.
“Clamato”
No, thank you.
Heathen.
Apalling
Fried over medium, Swiss cheese, ham*, Frank’s Red Hot, a little salsa verde, iced Americano.
*turkey, really, since the surly teen at the deli counter sliced me the wrong thing but I didn’t notice until I got home.
Bacon, eggs and potato’s, all mixed together in a fry-up!
Coffee is the fuel of the gods, so, always a pot.
Sadly. I was done at ten till seven but started watching music videos and forgot to publish them.
“Ian ripped Florida a new asshole. And it’s not done yet. Thankfully the human toll doesn’t appear to be bad as of yet, but the fallout is going to be devastating. Stay safe if you’re down there, friends. Especially you, Brett L.”
Be safe and pull through all Floridians…
We are on the other side of south Florida, and it was much stronger here than anticipated. Lots of tornados and power outages.
But that wiggle to the east that brought so much more weather over here really screwed a lot of people. It was the perfect storm…. high tide, king tide, extremely slow landfall over 100 miles from where it was predicted to hit at lunchtime the day before…
They predict huge storm surges all the time, and they often fail to materialize. This time, the shape of the cost and the timing and the stall directly off shore all conspired to make a tremendous story surge. This definitely caught some people off guard.
One local sheriff said he had “fatalities in the hubdreds”, but I don’t know if he was just wildly speculating or reporting based on what they were actually finding.
I kept looking for video from Sanibel Island, because of its size and location. When I was a kid, a hurricane cut off a huge chunk of Emerald Isle in the North Carolina outer banks. A bunch of houses were destroyed, as was the island they were built on. A family friend used to point out where his beachfront property was, pointing at the chanel marker out in the middle of the water.
It looks like the causeway out to Sanibel got washed away. A storm this big can just move those barrier islands around, regardless of what buildings might be there.
The wife has some family friends and relatives who live in the area who did not evacuate, being a mile or two inland. No word on how they made out yet, but we think they were all safe from the storm surge.
This is a huge one. I anticipate losing my homeowners insurance yet again.
I wonder how Citizens’ will fare.
Poorly. Poorly. Flood zones and coastal building are a great example of subsidizing poor decision making. And I’m saying this as a person with a home a barrier island.
If people want to insure coastal properties they should pay market rates for both flood and wind without subsidy by the state and extension those who don’t live in such risky places.
Luckily the state has a budget surplus and a decent reserve in the Citizens fund. It’s likely they’ll use up all of that, but not have to issue binds or anything.
Wow..
https://youtu.be/VzgQoGvSKA4
“Well, it was a Fantastic Voyage. Rest In Peace, Coolio.”
Heart attack? From what?
Did da gangsta, gangsta out?
Until shown otherwise, I’ll assume he was killed by Pfizercide
That does seem to be the Moderna affliction
I’m a big booster of this message.
There is no Pfizercide or Moderna affliction. Those were approved, you Ultra MAGA vaccine deniers!
The Poolio vaccine is still good though.
👏
When I hear about a music industry guy being found unresponsive fentanyl always comes to mind.
Why didn’t they name the hurricane Ivan?
Missed opportunity to stick it to Putin.
There has already been a hurricane Ivan…
Ivan was retired in 2005 so they went with a Celtic version.
Juan helluva storm
Hans down.
Vladimir?
Delaware hardest hit?
“How the hell do these DAs, mayors, and governors not have woodchoppers parked outside their homes every day? I’m sorry, but this is completely out of control and they are almost exclusively to blame for endangering the populace by letting these obviously dangerous and deranged people out early after violent crimes or without some kind of supervised release (at a minimum) before trial.”
The answer to why they have no wood chippers is because they are scum themselves and have no problem releasing other scum on the rest of us, on purpose, to go cause harm. You can bet they are making sure these criminals don’t come to their hangouts however, just like the sanctuary Martha’s Vineyard did with them brown folks the Florida gov shipped there.
They keep taking actions that seem quite deliberately designed to destroy civil society. Their allies in the CWP and BLM and Antifa keep stating that their goal is to tear it all down so they can rebuild a communist paradise.
At what point does taking them at their word cease to be the crazy conspiracy theory?
About a year and a half back at a minimum?
Just like with abortion and the vax, it’s a socially acceptable – if not legal – means for the sociopaths to commit mass murder, albeit by proxy.
“How the hell do these DAs, mayors, and governors not have woodchoppers parked outside their homes every day?”
Because they are total pikers compared to Klaus and Mr. Bigglesworth, along with their most useful idiots, Fauci, Brandon and company? And WW3 hasn’t even started yet, but may be necessary soon to fix the midterms.
whaddup doh’
whats goody
Sloppy likes BrettL most of all!
Hope you’re doing OK, Penguin! Pls check in if you can
“DACA has been threatened in the past, but the current case ahead of the 5th Circuit Court is the most severe threat to date,” said Todd Schulte, the president and executive director of FWD.US, a bipartisan political organization that advocates for progressive immigration reform.
“Here at NBC we calls ’em like we sees ’em.”
If it’s so bipartisan, get off your ass and get legislation passed.
Certainly it would have cost less to naturalize those kids than it’s costing us to fund the death and destruction in Ukraine.
“a bipartisan political organization that advocates for progressive immigration reform.”
I sees a conflict of interest here.
Jumbo shrimp
Bipartisan. Adjective. Meaning two parties working together.
The greens and the democrats are two parties. CWP and the democrats are two parties.
Why does everyone just assume they meant the Republicans?
Because there are plenty of Republicans who like open borders? There are, you know. Cheap labor for big biz, and all that.
It used to be that R’s were for open borders/less restrictive immigration, while D’s were for closed borders/restrictive immigration, mostly due to labor markets. But, as that aspect of the two parties is switching, of course some people aren’t getting the message in time.
They both seem to be in favor of *illegal* immigration, if we solely judge by the outcome. And it has been 30 years since the last comprehensive reform, so you kinda have to believe there is intent behind it at this point. I mean, the rest of us have to present e forms of proof of citizenship…. yet 30 million illegals live and work here?
Because the Dems and the Reps both would rather run naked through a razor blade factory and go swimming in vinegar than admit a third party any significant status?
Cleveland Fed’s Loretta Mester is on CNBC at the office.
Does anybody notice the similarity to Newhart’s Carol Kester Bondurant?
Or Anne Meara.
That picture looks 35 years old.
Anne Meara’s way better looking.
Liz Truss is the second coming of Margaret Thatcher. And not in a good way.
She’s there to implement DC’s war goals.
One deputy was injured when he was hit in the face with shrapnel, Dicus said.
I like to think I’d manage to take a bunch of them out with me.
Oh noes, our ticketting system is down.
How are they ever going to know to do something, no one can send them a ticket!
Then you don’t have to deal with any tickets!
In my world, if it’s not a ticket, it doesn’t exist. It’s literally how my job is justified, so I’m a stickler.
No ticket
You did not disappoint.
/looks at number of tickets I’ve had to generate for people who decide to “just e-mail Neph, he’ll take care of it”…
My colleagues allow their customers to email them individually, but I’m mean and tell them to email the ticket system.
If no ticket then everything is running smoothly! You’d be surprised how many outages of equipment are not documented in the national airway system…
I have instructions on how to open particular tickets saved as snippets in my clipboard manager (Alfred for you Mac nerds).
”
Thanks XXX, please open a ticket so we don’t lose track:
!ticketXXX
”
Shit, I’m about 3 levels away from handling tickets and yet people still e-mail me (or, worse, IM me).
The penalty for competence is people bypass workflows and come to you directly.
Years back, the people managing our ticket system decided that all service requests should be generated via the service catalog so that you can require information in the ticket (often information that isn’t required, isn’t available or doesn’t exist, but I digress) unfortunately, systems which generated one request every few months weren’t seen as worthe the effort and clutter to add to the service catalog. So, to gain access to at least two of these small systems the process remains “Email UCS, he’s the only one with the access and knowledge to add you”
I necro-posted this in night thread.
Check the first aid aisle for this.
I answered in the old thread that when I tried that it was less effective than superglue.
I’ve found it takes a few coats, yes.
NYT says DeSantis has “paused his political bomb-throwing”.
He’s still Public enemy Number One, though, and don’t you forget it.
How even handed of them.
Lotus Eaters takes on Libertarians, Please Stop Being CringeTOS.
Hey! How’s your weather?
Wet. Didn’t lose power though, other than a few brownouts, which are reoccurring. Plus side, my emergency battery is fully charged.
The Orlando area basically got a nasty rainstorm.
Glad you’re doing ok!
Thx. KK.
Seconded.
Thirded, nice to hear. No Firsts on this thread!
The planning for a possible court defeat echoes a strategy the administration tried to use after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three months ago.
Petulant foot-stamping and name-calling?
As was prophesied…
As expected. A whitewash.
The reason this does not pass the giggle test is because we know from contemporaneous notes that everyone from president to field agents was aware that they were being directed to frame people and spy for partisan reasons. Obama was made aware of the source being a Clinton campaign strategy from the beginning.
You would have to parse things very carefully to conclude that everyone was acting in good faith and simply got conned.
I will note that when they wanted to get people in the Trump camp to talk, they invented process crimes and prosecuted them and people around them. They did not cut sweetheart deals for people found to have committed actual crimes of intent, letting then off withblittle consequence without securing cooperation for further prosecution.
Barr did not choose his team cavalierly. They protect their own.
Mob Bosses in jail must be thinking….WTF even we weren’t this bad.
Here’s the thing though: if they’re that susceptible to getting conned then they should all be forced to resign in shame.
As the self-described premier law enforcement agency in the world, you’re supposed to be better than that. If you’re not, you need to go. And if it’s the alternative and you were in the know that it was bullshit, you still need to go…only with a stint in prison for your crimes.
👆👆👆
Incompetent or maliciousness are your only options here. Both require some form of accountability.
some form of accountability
[shrieks and flees like a vampire from dawn]
I didn’t know you were a bureaucrat.
Naw, he’s just a consultant. That’s why he’s afraid. He doesn’t have the natural immunity to accountability Bureaucrats have.
One of the more disturbing trends over the past couple decades is the growing acceptance of good faith incompetence as an excuse for bulldozing others. This isn’t a criminal trial, mens rea has no bearing on your culpability.
There’s no redeeming or reforming any of it.
I’d say the FBI wasn’t misled as much as they needed an excuse.
They pay well for good ones.
“According to Durham, the nation’s premiere law enforcement agency was misled by a serial liar and con man.”
Just wide-eyed naïfs, they are.
The sad fact is that supposedly smart people will act as if nothing bad is happening because the FBI is doing the thugging in their favor.
James Comey?
‘Orning ‘ordles:
Warmup round went reasonably well… faster than my usual, though of course nowhere near reigning Gold Medalist Hype’s line:
Daily Duotrigordle #211
Guesses: 36/37
Time: 05:31.08
https://duotrigordle.com/
Main event did not go nearly as well… seed words chosen left me stumped, burned a couple more guesses before getting really lucky on UL, which set me up for UR and let me pull a non-chump out of my… hat. Yes, hat… that’s the ticket. LR I strongly disagree on the commonality of the “alternate” spelling, but tried it and got it.
Daily Quordle 248
5️⃣7️⃣
6️⃣8️⃣
quordle.com
Daily Quordle 248
5️⃣4️⃣
8️⃣7️⃣
quordle.com
Daily Quordle 248
3️⃣4️⃣
🟥7️⃣
quordle.com
Wasted too much time jacking with LL and it ruined me.
Daily Quordle 248
3️⃣4️⃣
🟥9️⃣
Horrible. Wasted three guesses on LL with three of five letters in the right place.
I hear you — I wasted one there then focused on the uppers. Which got me the fourth letter (not in place, but it made it sufficiently clear that I was able to get it).
I don’t see a “give up” button. I literally cannot get a word accepted in LL with the letters I have left.
So…
4 5
x 7
Think eye color or your great aunt’s name.
Okay, the latter might just be me. And maybe she was a great-great aunt.
Oh, duh.
I swear, I tried every other combination.
Was she a Witch?
Daily Duotrigordle #211
Guesses: 36/37
Time: 03:22.83
Daily Quordle 248
4️⃣5️⃣
6️⃣7️⃣
Daily Quordle 248
5️⃣6️⃣
7️⃣8️⃣
Chessle 229 (Expert) X/6
🟨⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨🟨🟨🟨🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
https://jackli.gg/chessle
So, yeah, that 5th move for black was weird, IMO.
Sämisch King’s Indian, Byrne variation. This was somewhat popular in the early 1970’s, but I spaced it out for some reason (and wound up with the same result). The idea of the Sämisch is that White will castle queenside and attack Black’s castled king on the h file with h4-h5. Black’s idea here is to defer castling and prepare a queenside counterattack with b5-b4, a5, and Qb6 leveraging the powerful g7 bishop.
Daily Quordle 248
4️⃣5️⃣
8️⃣7️⃣
3 4
6 7
Daily Quordle 248
5️⃣4️⃣
6️⃣8️⃣
quordle.com
Daily Quordle 248
5️⃣6️⃣
4️⃣7️⃣
quordle.com
Domestic surveillance capabilities are a profit center for the DC connected.
https://theintercept.com/2022/09/26/keith-alexander-saudi-hackers-khashoggi/
Not just those connected in DC…
Cleveland wants to spend $2.8 million to quadruple the size of its controversial gunshot detection tool: Stimulus Watch
Definitely has a “monorail!” vibe to it.
2,777 alerts for shots where 911 was not called.
Saves lives.
Yet… not a single life saved mentioned? Not even 1 shooting victim found because of this thing?
Yup. Monorail.
Civic duty
Jury selection for the most high-profile criminal trial to emerge from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol began on Wednesday morning. And more than halfway through the laborious process, what’s emerged is a uniquely D.C. snapshot — lawyers and a federal judge sifting through a government-centric populace in search of an impartial jury.
There was a former Hill staffer — and current defense contractor — who professed to being a reader of Politico Pro (full disclosure, we publish that). An elementary school principal whose good friend was close with a police officer who died days after Jan. 6. And a marketing professional who says she’s in social groups with Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn. And from there, the distinctly Washington D.C. pool just kept on growing. In all, prosecutors and defense lawyers labored to narrow down the pool of 120 potential jurors to judge the seditious conspiracy case against five members of the far-right Oath Keepers, including their founder Stewart Rhodes.
More than halfway through the process, which is being overseen by U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta, a clear pattern has emerged: prospective jurors with strong feelings about the horrors of that dark day vowing to set aside any preconceived notions in order to judge Rhodes and his associates based on the facts and the law.
Wheeeeeeeeee!
vowing to
set asidehide any preconceived notionsIt is astonishing to me that this charade is still proceeding. They canceled their “hearing” yesterday because of the hurricane in Florida. Sure, it is over 1,000 miles away, but you gotta play it safe…
They realized it was a crisis they couldn’t let go to waste and allows them to push further into election meddling
And they wouldn’t get the views because every one is covering the hurricane.
Change of venue should have been automatic for the simple fact that none of those swamp denizens are vaguely “peers” of the rest of the country. Company town offended that anyone might disagree with the Company (and yes, I do think the Company and its affiliates are running the show…).
You have a right to an impartial jury, not one of your “peers” (since we don’t have nobles and commoners).
We don’t?
Nope…just impartial. Though there are probably some 1st, 4th, 6th and 8th amendment violations leading up to the trial.
We have wanted a nobility from day one – Hamilton most overtly. But he wasn’t wrong – people crave that. I don’t fucking understand why, but it’s clear enough to me that they do.
Because humans are more like a bee or an ant colony, rather than equal and separate organisms?
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Also note, no right to a change of venue since the alleged crimes took place in DC.
A few were never even in DC. So hauling them tk DC for imprisonment and trial seems…. arbitrary?
I was thinking of those at the Capitol building. Those not in DC didn’t commit the act in DC and so shouldn’t be tried in DC. But… FTYW.
the horrors of that dark
+1 “dagger at the throat of democracy.”
Also, go fuck yourself.
Glad she finally made it to the border. Oh wait…
The borders of South Korea and Ukraine are sacrosanct. The border of America is racist.
According to Durham, the nation’s premiere law enforcement agency was misled by a serial liar and con man.
They need more training. And a bigger budget.
Reason still fashions itself as the arbiter of what constitutes “libertarian.”
https://reason.com/podcast/2022/09/28/how-should-libertarians-think-about-ron-desantis/
I’m perfectly capable of thinking for myself. Fuck off, TOS, you’re not my supervisor!
How libertarian to tell libertarians how to think…I see Q had the same thought.
turning the Sunshine State from a joke to one of the hottest destinations in the country?
I didn’t know about Florida myself until two years ago.
These guys are certified idiots. It really does remind me of when Drudge quietly sold out and apparently his site was taken over by DNC operatives.
They rarely deviate from partisan attacks on Republicans. They have maybe 2 “libertarian” opinion pieces a week, with daily DNC hit pieces from multiple authors.
The last 2 weeks they have gone all-in on attacking Marco Rubio of all people. The most milquetoast mainstream republican imaginable. But he was targeted by the DNC. So obviously a libertarian magazine joined in the attacks.
I have to believe that Charles was the only libertarian, and with his death comes the death of the libertarian funding stream.
The signs have been there for a long time. Despite many pointing to TDS as the factor driving sundry people and institutions’ ‘broken brains’, I think it happened under Obama, but just wasn’t as noticeable until Trump caused the frothing of mouths.
They totally bought into Obama’s post-racial harmony bullshit and they continued to buy into it as he stoked racial division.
Even before that. Weigel and others when they left reason. Or more recently with the libertines who think they were libertarians.
How could I have forgotten about the left libertarianism? Or the love of nudges (that always end up coming from the buttstock of government’s power)?
I seem to recall some love for Cass Sunnstein back in those days.
Reason has been tainted by a desire for a benevolent technocracy for a long time. Ron Bailey typifies it.
When reason has led you to the optimal decisions for society, how can you simply accept that other people don’t see the same?
Why are there only a few nutcase who can see just how careful and intentional he was about stoking racism?
The initiation of BLM in St. Louis was so blatant and obvious, yet you are a nut if you even notice it. The administration muzzled local officials with very real and public threats so that riots could continue, all while hiding the proof that “hands up, don’t shoot” was a lie.
I cannot believe he has never been asked about that. It was one of my first clues that we had progressed way beyond “bias” in media and way over in to straight propaganda. After the last 6 years, it seems quaint. But the signs were clear even then.
Yes. Barry gave lip service to it racial harmony in public while he fomented it in the background. And he was perfectly content to let the media run with “any and all opposition to Obama’s agenda is motivated by racism.”
That cunt Diane Rehm was constantly apoplectic about racist Republicans who objected to the ACA.
BLM started with Trayvon Martin right before the 2012 election, then got quiet, then started up again before the 2016 election, quieted down again, then went nuts before the 2020 election.
I think it really started earlier than that. Booosh was no friend to liberty, so it made it easier to hide the bias. I blame Wiegel for getting the “progressive-larping-as-libertarian to get a better job” ball rolling.
Bush definitely broke the conservative libertarian – left libertarian alliance.
And created the “state above all” tools that enabled Obama’s people to completely subvert the bureaucracy.
“Controversially, DeSantis has yanked longstanding tax breaks for Walt Disney Corporation after the company criticized his stance on gay rights…”
Is that what happened?
Nope, Disney dropped its neutrality and came out as pro-groomer/pedo in response to a parental rights in education bill, so the state ended some outdated incentives.
The White House is preparing to take executive action to protect hundreds of thousands of immigrants known as “Dreamers,” people close to the White House told NBC News, as the Biden administration braces for a potential court defeat that could end the decade-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“The court made its decision. Let it enforce it.”
You’re not a king, asshole
Remember, Republicans are authoritarians and the Democrats just want the will of the people.
This president has publicly announced that the actions he is taking are unconstitutional several times.
It seems a really odd thing to do in a country with a free press and a democratic process for removing officials who violate their oath of office.
Impeachment and conviction are political. Brandon knows he would have to severely anger his own party to get convicted.
Thot Thursday celebrates your lack of a baculum.
https://archive.ph/khRfF
Can’t help but read obituaries like Coolio’s – 59 isn’t young, but not elderly, not obese – and wonder about the vax. That sneaking suspicion is a gift from Fauci and Trump that will be with us for the rest of our lives.
I wonder why everyone here just immediately goes to the vax instead of the far more likely event that it was because of a drug overdose…
I was holding out for angry hard core Amish who couldn’t find Al, myself.
Because I’m petty, vindictive, and if he had any cred it would be “Rapper shot fifty-two times in wild gunfight”
Yeah. It gets a little old.
It says he went to the bathroom at a friend’s house and didn’t come back. So an Elvis-type ending.
Elon commenting on Russell Brand videos on Rumble. Shit’s getting interesting.
Over at Reason, Soave had an article about how bad it is that YouTube took down an old speech by the new Italian PM in which she defended the family. He praises YouTube for quickly putting it back up, but studiously avoids the obvious issues (like the fact that Reason has been denying that there is any censorship at all for a decade, then saying it is no big deal because it is only icky people, then saying “private company”)
I get that all those propagandists in the media are happy that their team is winning the battle of censorship…. but I have to wonder how in the world they avoid the obvious conclusion that they might be next.
“my cocktail party friends would never do that to me. They only do it to the people we condescendingly roast at our cocktail parties”
snarky, but more accurate than we’d like to admit.
We have been comforting ourselves by saying they all live in a social bubble.
I don’t know if that holds up any more. The things they shill are so far over the line… I keep saying “1970s Pravda would blush”… but it is true. The propaganda is so thick, so unbelievable, they cannot just be innocently going with the flow.
I mean, remember the hysteria over every slight exaggeration out of the Trump white house?
Try reconciling “it is just the social circles” with this bit of water-carrying by the press over a completely inconsequential gaffe.
https://twitter.com/realdailywire/status/1575188142952394752?s=42&t=axYA87OOtOZSRhVNAGxkIg
Tariq Aziz was rarely so brazen.
I think the social bubble effect is much bigger than just some DC elbow rubbing and hobnobbing clique. Its an entire subculture with a national and international network at this point. Like any other subculture, they reinforce their own and they heap scorn on the other.
They may not be the desperate kid brother we portray them as, but they know who butters their bread. If they want a gig outside of TOS, they have to show themselves to be mutual. Unmutual journos wash out or end up at some declasse conservative online rag.
I wouldn’t want the shame of having my name associated with some leftist rag.
It’s bad enough I write for a Libertarian site. 😛
^^^ THIS. We are a bubble here too after all.
https://youtu.be/muEFD_odvUg
I do try to look at this for our situation…
But there is a difference with the press. *Everyone* is singing from the hymnal. Even FOX stays in their establishment lane for the most part.
The way they all wait for instruction before saying anything… a guy who posts pan-african racist propaganda and sings about running over white people drives a red SUV through a Christmas parade In a small Wisconsin town. Everyone condemns MAGA racists … until the identity becomes known. Then? 100% silence. The story completely went away.
That was not a bubble In action. That involved some level of command and control. 60 people mowed down at a Christmas parade, on video?? And suddenly CNN and NBC and ABC and PBS and CBS and the Milwaukee Beacon all drop it like it never happened?
That isn’t dozens of independent editorial decisions. It is just way too big of a story. They say “dog bites man” isn’t news. Well? This is “man eats dog”. And it got memory holed.
There is no good way for “we all just agree with each other about politics” to cover that.
That involved some level of command and control.
Yep. Journolist never went away, and there are similar mechanisms in place in other industries, I’m sure. The enforcement mechanism, OTOH, is the bubble. The one two punch of trying to fit in and the implied threat of never being able to get a job in the industry again keeps those journos only partially in the know from sticking their noses out too far. It also doesn’t help that the newsrooms at these places are as ideologically pure as the DNC headquarters, so a bit of coordination to crush the bad guys is not a big deal to them.
Yep. Journolist never went away
Yep:
After Klein shut down JournoList, a new group, calling itself “Cabalist” was started by Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic, Michelle Goldberg and Steven Teles, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. The group, which had 173 members by late July, was made up mostly of former JournoList members. Its existence managed to stay secret for several weeks, until The Atlantic magazine correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg revealed its existence in a blog post on July 21. Goldberg reported that one recent discussion concerned whether or not members should ignore the articles on The Daily Caller website. “In other words, members of Journolist 2.0 were debating whether to collectively respond to a Daily Caller story alleging—inaccurately, in their minds—that members of Journolist 1.0 (the same people, of course) made collective decisions about what to write.”[17]
That spin-off section has been there for a long time. I remember linking to it before.
Confirmation bias is a powerful drug. And it only gets ramped up when your beliefs are challenged, even (especially?) when the challenge is being posed by reality.
This is very true.
And worse, we are all susceptible equally. In fact, the smarter you are, the more effective your rationalizations become.
Look, man. Milf-olini is a total fascist with all that god and family talk.
“Milf-olini”
Heh.
*golf clap*
/joins round of applause
“private company”
That bullshit needs to stop.
Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.
Speaking of the “Private Company” thing, I was reading up on the two conflicting court cases about social media censorship, and my general thought was that I get it about private companies, but when the gov’t rammed Affirmative Action down the throats of private companies, basically saying that they are also responsible for constitutional protections, they opened the door for lawsuits against the same companies for not protecting 1st amendment rights. That they lost that excuse when they accepted AA.
Mehta repeatedly swatted away challenges to several of the potential jurors by defense lawyers who worried that some of the candidates’ gut responses to Jan. 6, or the view of the Oath Keepers they had formed from media coverage, would be impossible to overcome. Rather, the judge said, those jurors had vowed to be open-minded and willing to hear evidence that might run contrary to the news they had consumed.
“I vow to listen carefully to the prosecution with an open mind, and convict the defendants accordingly.”
There is no way anyone on the political right is going to get a fair trial in DC.
The fact that there is even a trial for some of these cases proves that. The cases where they have video of capital police waving the defendant in should be open and shut. They should not even survive summary judgement.
Yet they don’t even get basic discovery.
With people who engaged in actual political violence on the left not even getting charged in the exact same jurisdiction, you would think that we would see more outrage among the general populace.
If I was charged with sedition, which some of these random dudes from internet chat rooms have been, I would be demanding to depose the House staff, Nancy Pelosi, etc. They are facing life… you gotta go scorched earth when faced with something like that over posting something on a website.
Well, starting with your likely representation, appointed or hired, is a local lawyer. Then if they did get such a hair up their ass, a judge would quickly stifle it. And even if somehow something came out of it, the presiding judge would rule it inadmisible.
Look at Bannon’s contempt trial.
Yeah, that is kinda what I was angling at. They are saying “you get this handful of video clips, and nothing else”. It seems pretty blatant, and they are going to conviction without any interlocutory appeals… so, facts on the ground.
I just can’t believe this stuff is happening in the country I grew up in.
I guess we have always been susceptible to moral panics and group think. But this one seems so hard to believe… grandma walking around shooting video gets held without bail for a year on a trespassing charge? And even the judges are all in?
Pretty scary.
Seditious conspiracy is a charge sustained by innuendo alone. Fuck the authoritarian assholes that put it on the books and that are using it now.
GUILTY! [oh were we supposed to wait before saying that?]
Harris got confused about which side of the border she was on.
During the stop she confused onlooks by asserting the United States has a “strong alliance” with “the Republic of North Korea.”
(Not sure what “onlooks” are – hopefully not a Korean racial slur)
That’s no gaffe
Awesome. Man, it would be hilarious if Biden died during his term and was replaced by an equally gibberish-spewing clown.
At least his excuse is dementia. Idk what hers is.
Repeated concussions from overexuberant “job promotion meetings”?
Before the election, when there was open speculation on the left about a convention deal to draft Cuomo to replace Biden, I confidently predicted that they would replace Biden by the 2 year mark, one way or the other, so Harris could run as the incumbent.
What I did not suspect was just how utterly incompetent she would turn out to be as a politician. They really seem to be stuck.
She couldn’t win a single delegate to the Democratic convention – how much more obvious does it get?
She dropped out of the race two months before the New Hampshire primary.
Are you really in the race if you don’t even start?
She got the veep nod, didn’t she?
Would have been Stacy Abrams if she didn’t run.
She dropped out before even getting to her home state.
I assumed it meant they had something on hee and promised a veep spot or other high cabinet position for her to drop out.
Why campaign? She met the job selection requirements the day she was born.
I didn’t expect much from her, but I have been surprised at how genuinely stupid she is.
She didn’t win office in California based on intelligence.
American Airlines flight diverted to El Paso after woman screams ‘We’re all gonna die!’
Get a Hold of Yourself!
Will you please control yourself?
Well she’s not wrong.
When he did agree to strike one specific juror, Mehta cited another classically D.C. characteristic: that juror’s Twitter feed had strayed so far over the line into perceived bias that it could erode public confidence in the trial. The juror, an international dispute resolution attorney, had liked tweets calling Republicans “nihilistic” and comparing Trump supporters to fascists.
“We choose what we retweet,” said Rhodes’ defense attorney Phillip Linder.
Even then, Mehta seemed torn. He described his decision to strike the juror as a close call, saying he was doing so out of an abundance of caution.
“It’s going to have to stand up to public scrutiny,” Mehta said of the trial.
“Okay, have it your way. We’ll have a fair trial. Then, we’ll hang ’em.”
NPR had an… interesting framing on their reporting of “Nordstream go boom.” But of course the most important thing to keep in mind is that they are NOT claiming that the Russkies are wut dun it.
They did point out that the location of the bombs seemed to have been carefully chosen so as not to have been inside any NATO members’ territories. Because Russia would not be so careless as to draw a NATO response.
And their last line was “Russia benefits from higher energy prices.”
That line requires a room-temperature IQ.
The idea that Russia self deleted their biggest bargaining chip for restricting weapons sales to the Ukraine is ridiculous.
Do you have a journalism degree from Columbia? I thought not.
Stolen from Twitter: So Russia pays billions to get Nordstream 2 pipeline pumping gas to Europe so it will no longer have to pay transit fees to Ukraine & Poland. Then blows it up so it can keep paying billions to them. Thanks western media for relieving us of critical thinking skills
That line is a giveaway. They know.
The fact that the initial explanations came out via WaPo and NYT and NPR after a day of mostly ignoring a very sexy story that comes with really good video of ocean volcanoes og gas bubbles is a tell. They have been the mouthpieces for CIA propaganda for quite some time.
Russia makes no sense at all. They want to be able to sell gas at will. And they can simply shut the gas off at will by turning a valve. Anyone who pauses for even a moment knows this.
I wonder if anyone will even ask the administration.
How would you ask the question? Who would you ask?
My preference would be to ask Biden directly, but not a question that calls for a blanket denial. I would ask something like “why did you approve the sabotage of the Nordstream pipelines?” Something that puts the onus on a response that might defend his actions or intentions before he can focus on the stock answer of “we are investigating and we will get to the bottom of it”
More likely, a spokesman will be asked about what can be done about it, completely avoiding the questions.
They should have gotten a crew from NBC out there to ignite the gas. The visuals would have been awesome
You know what else is awesome? That reference!
a room-temperature IQ
If the room is a morgue.
Here’s hoping Coolio ends up in Amish Paradise…RIP.
All the Black strippers at Sugar’s would dance to Coolio.
And Irish TV crew members.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11262417/Coolio-perform-production-crew-backing-dancers.html
Here are 10 of the worst hurricanes to hit the US
What about this one?
Former frogman Matt Bracken linked this article on Nord Stream 2 security and agrees with the threat assessment.
Just about every nation in Europe had the capacity to pull this off. Even some self-interested private organizations could do it. It’s not like it takes an insane amount of technical expertise to get a scuba diver to hook up a charge.
I thought this happened well below scuba depth.
ROVs are cheap (relatively) these days.
Correct. They’re also really freaking easy to DIY, particularly if they’re single use vehicles.
But the interests?
Ukraine. Us. Maybe Poland? Maybe Norway?
Do you really see Norway bombing pipelines to keep their gas selling at a premium? That seems tremendously dangerous for a very small gain… the conflict had no indications of resolving any time soon.
Poland is in a unique position. They are kinda all-in on the anti-russia thing now, and they are uniquely exposed. I could see some motivation to keep Europe from slipping in their resolve.
But who else?
And who would be bold enough to do such a thing?
Even Ukraine seems a bit sketchy as a choice. Would they really risk pissing off their benefactors?
I am really having a tough time finding plausible alternative suspects.
In RE Poland, there’s another pipeline, overland, that passed through Poland. Do they get a cut of its revenues?
Yup.
But would it ever be operating at less than capacity?
And is there any chance to escape massive retaliation from your much bigger and more powerful neighbors?
I just can’t see it making sense at this moment. The pipelines were both shut down at the time. Russia was making a point by pretending to do maintenence right before winter.
It seems like a really odd time for old fashioned industrial competition to rise to the level of blowing up competing pipelines.
Polish frogmen? There have to be some jokes here.
“This is Ribbitski, he doesn’t say much, but is a damn amphibian.”
And who would be bold enough to do such a thing?
Exactly, that’s the thing. The US is running the show. The UK or Poland could have physically done it, but wouldn’t have done it without approval from the US. It’s a distinction without a difference if the US greenlit the bombing and a proxy country or organization carried it out.
Biden and Nuland are both already on video saying we would do this. I’m not at all following these contortions to disown their statements and find another responsible actor.
“I’m not at all following these contortions to disown their statements”
That goes on every single day since Biden ran for office. At this point its just a reflex action.
Even Ukraine seems a bit sketchy as a choice. Would they really risk pissing off their benefactors?
The Germans haven’t exactly been beneficent.
We are working hard to get you those armaments we publicly promised. We just need to deal with a few more logistical issues.
They should be arriving real soon now…
The tank is in the mail.
You said the same thing about the Czech. Just leave it in neutral, we’ll send the tractor corps to pick it up.
*eagerly runs to mailbox…turns away disappointed*
And I just put up a larger mailbox for packages!
*excitedly opens large package delivered freight*
Dammit, these are just pre-filled mail in ballots for the 2024 election!
We appologise for that issue, you were supposed to get the 2022 edition this month.
I thought I was pessimistic but Michael Yon takes the prize. I hope he’s wrong – we’ll know if the Norwegian pipelines start going down.
Russia is a Prop in a Bigger War
My current working paradigm is proving highly predictive.
Nutty. But also a stunningly high degree of plausibility. Compare your reaction to something like that today with your reaction from, say, 2005. Even in a post 9/11 world, 90% of what is happening was impossible.
Nuttier than the squirrels in Alex Jones’ backyard.
I think the model of preventing a Russia/Germany alliance works just as well. It would be a direct competitor to US hegemony in Europe and beyond. The neocons and NATO are not going to allow that.
Certainly the Poles have a vested stake in it, as does Ukraine and the Baltic states.
Wtf is wrong with some parents?
Artisan’s Palate restaurant in Charlotte
Baby gives cash to drag queen
Their need for validation exceeds their parental instincts.
They’re morons who are following the latest thing and aren’t thinking?
This bucktooth tyrant needs to fuck off.
PM Jacinda Ardern calls internet freedom a “weapon of war” in most recent UN speech. Calls for a new type of internet with “rules and transparency”.
“How do you tackle climate change if people don’t believe it exists”.
“How do you tackle climate change if people don’t believe it exists?”
It’s a religion.
“How do you tackle climate change if people don’t believe it exists”.
Nuclear.
Not a budding religion at all
Nothing makes people believe like squelching competing theories. I mean, it worked with Galileo. I’m not about to let some chick who can eat corn on the cob through a chainlink fence tell what to think.
My go-to in these cases is to point out that for a very long time abolitionists, gay rights activists, and women’s rights activists were a small minority, and it was only freedom of speech that allowed them to prevail. They would have all been shut down for spreading “disinformation”. Are they so arrogant that they know without a doubt they won’t shut down the next important movement?
“We don’t want it if that next movement is full of evil wrongthinkers!”
How the fuck have we gotten here? Politicians have a long history of being liars. Everyone knows it. Now they want to the be the sole arbiters of what is “truth”.
I’d be for a disinformation board, provided it’s made up of Glibs and is only used on politicians and government officials. If they are caught spreading “disinformation”, they agree to resign and drink a bowl of hemlock.
The Fabians won.
Good morning, Sloop!
Footage from the freakout on the airplane.
Great songs. The second one is a frequent (welcome) brain worm.
Hope all y’all in Florida are cool.
Daily Ray of Sunshine
Nice story. Thanks, Holiness!
TV scene that made me giggle:
[Interior. Dead body with 4″ Colt Python lying nest to it]
Crackerjack detective: That’s a big gun. Too big to have made that entrance wound.
Plucky coroner: Correct! He was shot with a 9mm.
… I hate hollywood writers’ ignorance.
It later turns out that the python was bought on the black market… for $1000.
Why were they paying near retail? If you’re buying black market you can get a better discount since the merch is likely stolen.
Even better, the show was filmed pre-2020, so all pythons were collector’s items.
*headdesk*
Eh, stolen gun is stolen gun. More than once police have found a high-end shotgun with the barrels chopped. People going on the black market DGAF about collectability.
Relevant
PolitiFact:
.357 equals 9.1mm.
0.1 bigger
True
Fact check, the .357 magnum round is actually only 9.07mm
Plus, the Python might have been loaded with 9×29.5mmR ammo instead.
Revised PolitiFact:
Needs Context
“Correct attribution.”
Was his lung laying on the ground behind him?
Now I wish I were running a cop show so I could make that a thing.
“See how the lung is external to the body, kid? Now we won’t know for sure until it comes back from ballistics, but that’s a damn good sign our vic was shot by a 9mm.”
You know, one of these days I want to see a Lorcin or a Hi-Point show up as the murder weapon.
(I first found out Lorcin even existed while observing a court case for my criminal justice minor)
There was a cop show where the Bad Guy o’ the Week was an evil cheap gun manufacturer flooding minority communities with cheap guns, And the show did in fact use the Hi-Point as the gun in question. I was impressed.
It would have been funny if they’d used a really expensive firearm.
Make S & W 29s affordable! I see discrimination
That would make my day.
Seems legit.
The People’s Republic of China has opened at least three police stations on Canadian soil as part of an alleged attempt by the country’s security state to keep an eye on the Chinese-Canadian diaspora.
Three addresses in Toronto are known to be registered as “service stations” operated by the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau, a police force active in the Chinese metropolis of Fuzhou.
The revelations were contained in a newly published report by the Asian human rights group Safeguard Defenders.
Blowing up the pipeline keeps wafflers in line. Even if they are tempted to give in and start buying gas from Russia, that option is gone.
It’s like if you shot all the horses at the Alamo to keep people from leaving.
I think this is likely. Hungary considering dropping sanctions is too much of a coincidence.
Meloni’s election, Hungary’s threat to drop sanctions, protests in Germany and the Czech Republic…
The psychopaths in charge are determined to have their war.
My question is whether it was done to keep NATO wafflers in line or EU wafflers in line.
“Even though the parallels to other shootings that led to riots are quite clear.”
Maybe not?
“Teen girl, 15, killed by cops SHOT at them first as she charged towards officers wearing tactical gear – after she was kidnapped by fugitive father who murdered his wife”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11260991/Teen-girl-15-shot-police-fugitive-dad-started-gunfight-officers.html
Only one of those is a known truth…the rest are all alleged, I believe that is what the parallel is.
“Charged toward them”
Or ran, screaming for help….
Either one. Just keep on journalisming.
Amber alert has been cancelled because police shot the child they were looking for.
I’m going to hell for chuckling at that.
I’m sure there are plenty more reasons.
The citizens of St. Paul are getting the govt they asked for good and hard
Various govt flunkies are promising to do their best to limit the increases. No one proposed cutting anything from the budget though. The mayor didn’t even think to cut his guaranteed basic income program that he is so proud of.
Didn’t cutting all those police help at all?
What about all the savings from not prosecuting petty crimes? Surely this stuff adds up?
No 10% for the big guy? The hero of the pandemic?
“It IS what you think it is! TV reporter desperate to protect her mic from Hurricane Ian covers it in a condom”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11262177/Its-think-TV-reporter-desperate-protect-mic-covers-condom.html
Then she put it up her butt on her OnlyFans?
I get that it’s a little known fact, but roadies and film crews will often use condoms to protect microphones from moisture damage in transit. The lapse in judgement isn’t the use, but in bringing it in front of the camera that way.
Why is it a lapse in judgment? I’m not that triggered seeing one.
Nah, she played chess. On OnlyFans.
Milfolini takes no prisoners.
Watch how the new Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni, unmasked French imperialism in Africa. Truth on steroids.
Damn, that left a mark.
“Hands off our Ethiopia!”
I didn’t realize Italian could sound so stern. Jeez, I’m getting a little turned on for some reason.
What, you have never met an Northern Italian Ice Queen before? Dude!
They didn’t translate it, but in the middle of ripping Macron and calling him disgusting, she stops and looks up at someone in the audience and says, “Bono, is that you?”
I like her style.
“Outrage after small child rubs the CROTCH of a drag performer at a ‘family friendly’ drag show in Tennessee
A spokesperson for Chattanooga Pride told NewsChannel 9 that the performer is a biological woman and has performed for children in the area several times. They noted that all of the Disney Princess impersonators who performed at the show were biological women.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11261369/Outrage-child-appears-rub-CROTCH-performer-Chattanooga-Pride-Youth-Day-drag-show.html
????
Kids shouldn’t be rubbing on strange womens’ crotches either.
It appears the child was feeling the material. The troublesome part was the person not redirecting the child’s hand to a more…acceptable location.
Plus, the Python might have been loaded with 9×29.5mmR ammo instead.
Or plain jane .38 spl.
That’s what I said.
All the good names for corporate breakup appear to have been taken.
J&J Says New Band-Aid and Tylenol Company to Be Named Kenvue
Kenvue?
How much did that cost them in marketing advisors and focus groups? Because $5 was too much.
All of the name changes listed suck. Blame the desire to make sure the new name isn’t offensive in some other language and can be trademarked out of the gate.
Fuckit, call the new company “Cuntesplitter, formerly a division of Johnson and Johnson”
If Johnson and Johnson is breaking up, shouldn’t the companies just be named ‘Johnson’?
Johnsone and Johnstwo
They’re worried one Johnson might be bigger than the other and hurt morale.
*narrows gaze*
I hope one of the new Johnsons merges with the BBC. Then – sort of like MSNBC – we get BBJohnson.
This may be a loony toons site, but this article is worth a read because it is far more accurate than any propaganda from the current US media when there is a near complete blackout of anything that does not align with the anti-Russia narrative.
“Finally, Putin will not back down, and Putin is far more intelligent than any of the cognitively-challenged lunatics running the USA, UK or NATO countries. The leaders of western nations are so utterly incompetent that they don’t even qualify as “clowns,” since good clowns are actually intelligent, capable communicators who can make people laugh. Biden, Blinken, and Nuland just make us all want to puke.”
WW3 has already begun
Let’s move that doomsday clock a little closer to midnight.
NATO Formally Blames Sabotage for Nord Stream Pipeline Damage
https://www.wsj.com/articles/nato-formally-blames-sabotage-for-nord-stream-pipeline-damage-11664449396
Fuck…
You’d expect, for example, the CIA to make this exact argument as a cover story.
They’re very busy lately with training. Lots of automatic weapon fire at the moment.
That’s usually not a good sign and tends to precede unusual happenings.
“Unnamed sources say…”
European diplomats said there was little serious doubt in capitals that Russia was behind the pipeline damage
A bunch of US vessels and aircraft have been hanging around the exact area of the sabotage recently, any evidence for Russian craft?
Doesn’t fucking matter. They’re not going to self-incriminate.
The only real chances we have for derailment of this insanity are EU protests. DC is on the warpath and will not be deterred by public opinion here.
“Remember the Maine!”
Fuckheads.
Why? Did an R get elected somewhere?
/Union of Concerned Scientists
We’re one mean tweet from nuclear war.
If that’s the story they’re going with then they’re dangerous liars and/or fools. Sweet Jesus…
Well, Europe was worried about heating this winter, and now they have a Reichstag Fire.
“Any deliberate attack against Allies’ critical infrastructure ”
The pipeline is also Russian infrastructure. We now have NATO publicly claiming that they will defend Russian infrastructure.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdwOzVDXEAsYICa.jpg
LOLOLOL
I can’t tell if that’s a parody account.
Real account, made up Tweet (i.e. photoshop)
Pretty epic
Things seem to have gone okay in Big College Town. No serious localized flooding that I’m aware of, and the tree limbs that came down are mostly of the “smaller than the diameter of your pinkie finger” variety. The worst passed well to the south and east of us.
Thanks for thinking of us Florida Men, Glibs. Much appreciated.
It’s actually blue skies here in Other College Town / State Capitol. I saw pictures of houses underwater in the Ft Myers area though.
Now we can test the Broken Window Theory.
“Thousands of High Paying Jobs Created”
“Building Boom in Florida”
Several senior European diplomats said there was little serious doubt in capitals that Russia was behind the pipeline damage but that it was important to be absolutely certain given the implications of reaching that conclusion.
Why would the Russians do it? They already control the flow at the source.
This “conflict” won’t last forever (probably), and eventually the Europeans are going to need Russian gas again.
What am I missing?
The understanding that we need to throw more billions of dollars at Ukraine?
That unified statement is hard to reconcile.
They are the victims here. Why would they jump on board something so hard to believe, so quickly?
I mean, sure, maybe Russia did it. But if they did, that would be some 4D chess level stuff. Sowing dissent and distrust? I mean, what possible motivation? They were already doing the “we are not sending you gas” thing without needing to blow anything up.
So why would they come out and say they know it was Russia? Did the US, UK, Germany and France all agree to do this so that the poorer countries wouldn’t waver on sanctions when their people start freezing to death in a few months?
It seems a bit aggressive to do this now as a group project. I don’t get it.
Only Ukraine really makes any sense. And they don’t really make any sense. Why piss off Europe? They are sending billions.
Maybe someone will explain how Russia makes sense as a suspect.
I don’t think it was done specifically with regards to the Russia-Ukraine war. It sounds more like the Great Reset crowd worried Germany was wavering in its anti-human/anti-carbon resolve and the move was aimed at them.
It’s getting to the point that a third-party villain from KAOS is makes more sense than any official state actors.
Actual WaPo hed:
“7 ways a recession could be good for you financially”
Soon it will be “Ten Ways a Nuclear War Is Good For Your Health and the Climate”
Well the good news is that once the nukes hit, there are a lot of cities that will never again have a chance of setting a new daily temperature record. That counts as cooling right?
Oh, a new temperature record will definitely be set.
You’ve been wanting to shed those extra pounds…
Well, they couldn’t reuse “funemployment”…
1) it may slow the rampant inflation down
2) the housing market may crash when foreclosures flood the market
3) used car prices may drop as repos flood the market
4) Biden may write some more checks for the unemployed
5) the flood of illegals makes for cheap unskilled labor
6) they say you should buy low, so now is a great time to buy stocks
7) shut up bigot!
One of y’all suggested the book the Great Game, about the colonial era in central Asia. The picture at the top of this blog post fits in perfectly with the theme.
For all the people who love spiders
Maybe the spider is just waiting for a turn.
Not clicking.
same
Is that dude on the toilet squeezing so hard cause a spider climbed up his chute?
I want that job.
Surf reddit all day looking for crap to repost as news articles.
Good lord…
I suppose that one would be super easy to replace with a bot.
Like those Robots Reading Reddit YouTube channels?
Probably already automated.
I was able to read that for ~5 seconds before it redirected me to some ad page.
Awwww. Huntsman spiders are adorable.
four days with a huntsmen
If you can stomach it, this op-ed by Max Boot is one for the ages.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/29/baltic-nordstream-pipeline-sabotage-putin-russia/
He’s one of the few people on this earth that have been more wrong more often in matters pertaining to his area of expertise than Krugman.
He’s a perpetually vile human being who even looks the part of Goebbels.
Trump is now even offering to negotiate a deal with the Russian dictator to avoid further escalation
Truly contemptible move on the part of OrangeManBad, trying to avert nuclear annihilation.
President Biden has done a superb job of marshaling European countries to oppose Russian aggression. He would never risk the blowback from an attack on European energy infrastructure.
Would Lloyd Austin or Jake Sullivan or Victoria Nuland risk it though?
Morning, peeps.
I’ve got a question for you HR/physician/lawyer types.
Can my husband, who’s turning 65 in January (yes, I’m still in my forties—barely) opt out of Medicare? He’s on my work insurance policy and will be for 15 more years.
We got a letter saying that since he’s taking his social security check (since 62.5 years old) they’d automatically enroll him in Medicare at 65 and they’d deduct his premiums from his SSA check.
WTF?? We don’t want or need Medicare and we DO want his SSA check.
Can we opt out?? Googling “Medicare opt out” delivers results on how doctors can reject Medicare patients.
I don’t know about optouts, but I do know that if he does get enrolled, his work insurance becomes the secondary coverage and shrinks what it is responsible for, so you take the hit on the SSA checks and the coverage.
Can you confirm with your own HR department that someone Medicare eligible is eligible on your corporate plan.
For example, my Fortune 100, healthcare plan specifically won’t insure a family member who is eligible for Medicare.
That’s norm that I’m aware of with private health insurers.
It depends on the policy I guess.
My wife and I just turned 65 and spent a lot of time trying to figure this out.
You can choose to not sign up for Medicare if you are already covered by a “qualifying” health plan. The general advise I found online was the “all” obamacare-compliant work-sponsored health insurance programs would be qualifying.
But, I recommend you dive into it further.
Same May-December boat here. Yes, you should get a form prior that allows him to defer Part B. If not, contact Medicare. My wife did this and even though we(I) slipped up and I didn’t return it until the month she turned 65, they still processed it.
Do make sure like Sensei says that your employer insurance will continue to cover him and if he loses insurance for any reason such as you change employers again, you may need to enroll right away to avoid permanent penalty premiums.
Huh, apparently there are premiums for Part A if you didn’t pay enough into that as well.
https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Find-Your-Provider-Type/Employers-and-Unions/FS3-Enroll-in-Part-A-and-B.pdf
Keep your annual notices of credible drug coverage to avoid penalty premiums for declining Part D.
Also, while he should immediately enroll if losing coverage, I believe you can still cancel the enrollment if you regain coverage.
The form (or card) should be in that welcome packet.
Also also, totally get why you’d want to stay off Medicare. After all, we’re doing the same. Particularly after the difficulty my wife had with getting doctors for her mom.
However, practicing not accepting Medicare patients might be for new patients only. So if you’re an existing patient, he’d be ok. Having a good doc in your corner can help with opening up supposedly closed to new patient practices or specialists too.
A recently retired colleague found his family’s docs were fine with Medicare and it was cheaper to cover his wife via that route (she retired first) instead of covering from his employer plan. Ymmv.
Game-y
“We’re in uncharted territory,” says a senior intelligence officer. “Threatening to respond forcefully and creating catastrophic consequences for Russia [without] suggesting nuclear war: Is that strong enough to deter Putin? And is it really clear? I’m not so sure.”
Because Biden and his top national security advisers can’t conceive of pressing the nuclear button short of a full-scale attack on the United States, the White House is focusing too much—in its planning and its messaging—on what it considers to be “usable” capabilities, the military officers say. The non-nuclear options include military and non-military measures, including the total economic isolation of Russia.
“We have to ponder whether other [non-nuclear] threats are powerful enough to deter Putin,” says a former bomber pilot who is now a Washington-based Pentagon officer.
The officials and the STRATCOM civilian, all with experience in nuclear planning, were granted anonymity to speak about highly sensitive matters.
“Don’t worry. Every time we play this game on the simulator, I win.”
A business passenger who wished to remain anonymous told Rohrlich that the flight made an abrupt landing in El Paso after a woman aboard the plane rushed up to him and his seatmate and began repeating “Repent, repent, we’re all gonna die.” The woman’s voice grew louder as she reiterated the words, ultimately screaming, “Redemption is coming! Redemption is coming!”
Better or worse than a maskhole?
I’m gonna say better because she is more correct and less smug.
MacGregor’s blog is endorsing the Poland theory with Western support.
https://futuredefensevisions.blogspot.com/2022/09/naked-capitalism.html
If true, it could easily lead to an expansion of the war and direct attacks on Polish assets which then invokes Article V. The Baltic could become the flashpoint for nuke-lobbing and not Ukraine.
Not to mention that this is a direct attack on the German civilian population.
Maybe, the only thing I’m pretty sure of is it wasn’t the Russians.
It’s the most in-depth analysis of the surrounding political situation I’ve read yet. The US coverage in general has been either non-existent or just propagandistic drivel like that from Max Boot above.
That said, the lack of restraint being shown by whoever did it is the scary part. This is the kind of thing that ignites all kinds of really bad happenings.
This is nowhere near as important to the media as, say, Meghan Markle’s latest snub from one “royal” or another.
What does article V say about one NATO member attacking another member?
Fuck if I know. I would assume that any attacks going forward will be blamed on the Russians.
I would say it obligates the rest to defend against the aggressing state.
Picturing the rest of NATO trying figure out what to do as Poland and Germany, then Greece and Turkey start fighting. The smart move is to do nothing – so that’s not what they’ll do.
I support Poland and Greece in that scenario.
Poland because they’ve been stronger defenders of Western Civilization, and Greece because we need a Free Byzantium!
It would be better than US/Russia going at each other. Avoiding that outcome should be in everyone’s interest.
Yeah… Biden has walked us up really close to a shooting war. And it is now quite clear that our military would go through their conventional forces just as easily as we did Iraq’s forces.
Which only leaves defeat and surrender or nukes.
Not a good end-game scenario.
Hold on.
I’m not so convinced the woke division would do so well, even against battle-weary conscripts.
The conventional phase would over in a day. Russia would be forced to attack the military lift from US to Europe, we would start attacking their ships, etc…
I doubt we would even get to the tank faceoff before it went mushroom-shaped.
Hard disagree. US forces are unusually understaffed and low on material right now. The Russians can interdict supplies and troop movements in ways the Iraqis couldn’t. However I agree the end result will be humiliation on one side or both and nuclear armageddon.
It’s starting to feel a little 1914ish over in Europe.
These politicians have to understand that the nukes are aimed directly at their headquarters, right? And even if they make it to a bunker in time, when they emerge the world will be at a sub-Stone Age level of development.
“We just have to stop some tribal from blowing up our secret off-shore base and we’ll be fine”
There will be no life of private jets and 5 star dinners if the nukes go off. Hell, there probably won’t be agriculture at all.
With the Poles, we’re talking generations of visceral hatred and distrust for Russians and Germans. Who the hell knows how far they’re willing to go?
Hubris of politicians wanting their new new world order have little time to worry about such small matters
Obligatory.
Just like WWI, they have no idea how quickly things can go sideways.
What’s the saying?
They’ll burn the world down if it means they get to rule over the ashes.
If I was a Brewers fan I would rest a little less easy now with the announcement that the Phillies have added three assistant coaches, experts in the Heimlich maneuver, to sit in the dug out.
Ilya Smirin: Chess commentator sacked for sexist comments during match
Can one of our chess following Glibs explain to me why there is a male and female division? I thought there was no distinction mental or physical between the sexes in our new world.
Reading that made my brain hurt. “Seemingly…” was a frequent word used. I hate everyone.
You got me there. That seems to fly in the face of all of gender studies science.
Intertubz says cause it is male dominated, separate divisions created to make ot feel more welcoming.
It’s because the bell curve distribution of cognitive ability is flatter in males, meaning we have more geniuses and imbiciles than women, who tend to cluster around the median. So if it were a combined division, people would bitch about it being male dominated since it only takes one end of the distribution. The same people would have no problem laughing at the surplus of male imbiciles though.
Yes, but we aren’t allowed to say that.
I’m reminded of yesterday afternoon’s discussion of Hugo Awards.
Also, autism is higher among males.
Technically, it is a combined division. The two divisions are open and women. Any woman who can qualify can play in the Men’s tourneys. Judit Polgar never played in women’s tournaments, IIRC, she was a GM and didn’t see any reason to play against just women.
Interesting. Surprised they haven’t Harrison Bergeron’d the open division.
An interesting exception is Pia Cramling. She is a GM (not a women’s GM, she has the open title) and was the #1 ranked woman in the world for a few years in the early 80s. I think she is still the top ranked woman in Sweden. Her and her daughter both played on the Swedish women’s Olympiad team this year. Her daughter Anna is a chess youtuber. She is a Women’s IM, I think. The best player in the family is Pia’s husband, who is a GM also. Pia seems like a very normalish 59 year old woman, who just happens to be exceptional at chess.
Honestly, this seems the case for lots of the better women players, you don’t get that autistic vibe like with the best male players.
Wikipedia says that Cramling was the 5th woman to earn the GM title.
Actually, Pia’s current FIDE rank is higher than her husband, but he is 72 years old. Her peak was also higher than his. So I guess I was just wrong about who was the best in the family.
Also the Polgar sisters. Judit was at one time the #8 ranked player in the world.
And there’s this…
The sisters were homeschooled, with a specific focus on chess – which was criticized and not a popular school choice at the time. Laszlo also believed that his daughters should compete against men, and was against the idea of them competing in female-only events
These politicians have to understand that the nukes are aimed directly at their headquarters, right? And even if they make it to a bunker in time, when they emerge the world will be at a sub-Stone Age level of development.
Nonsense. We’re talking tacticool nukes. Small, focused, clean. Pinpoint accuracy.
Points will be made, civilian casualties will be acceptable (and confined, for the most part, to those who will not really be missed).
Let a new New Normal arise!
Florida Man does good!
‘He is everyone’s boyfriend now’: Man saves cat as Ian’s floodwaters rise around him
Better than the asshat reporter who snapped a photo of a stranded kitten and subsequent “I tried” bullshit. Next time don’t post it cause you know you can’t get to it.
Strategic ambiguity
Biden administration officials have tiptoed around offering specifics in response to the specter of Russia using nuclear weapons, deploying a form of strategic ambiguity in an attempt to avoid escalating the conflict.
U.S. officials have in recent days repeatedly warned of severe consequences should Moscow deploy nuclear weapons in its war in Ukraine, though they have not outlined what those consequences would involve. And they have repeatedly said they are taking talk of nuclear weapons seriously, but have not publicly shifted the country’s nuclear posture in response.
Experts say the U.S. approach is the right one, especially given the uncertainty around how serious Russian President Vladimir Putin is with his threat.
“There’s no need to tell Putin what exactly we would do. This is where strategic ambiguity makes sense,” said David Kramer, who spent three years as deputy assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs during the George W. Bush
“There’s no telling what those idiots might do.”
There is no specter of Russia using nukes unless NATO gets involved. Putin was just stating their doctrine, the same doctrine that’s been in effect since a while ago.
Glad we straightened that out.
Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin has confirmed that the U.S. was not responsible for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline explosion, because the Pentagon told her so.
But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.
Just for a moment consider the past few years, the outright lies and the willingness to do unspeakable things in the name of Covid. Those same people are in charge. I have a hard time believing it wasn’t the US.
Griffin is the prowar hawk that has been pushing that crap for months.
I had to hover over that to confirm it was not, in fact, a Bee headline.
Well there you have it, nothing to see here, move along, comrades.
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/current-mortgage-rates-jump-to-6.7
Nothing to see here.
Not a bubble or crisis in site. Inflation does not exist. Putin sabotages own pipeline.
Apparently there was a school shooting in California yesterday? I wonder why it wasn’t a bigger deal?
…never mind.
Did you forget to put up “gun-free zone” signs?
They did, but I hear it from a totally anonymous but completely trustworthy source that some Ultra MAGA types were seen taking those down.
Must’ve been some white, hick boys from Nevada.
Just for a moment consider the past few years, the outright lies and the willingness to do unspeakable things in the name of Covid. Those same people are in charge. I have a hard time believing it wasn’t the US.
And, of course, they have suffered nothing in the way of consequences. Why wouldn’t they think they can do anything they please?
Outside of a genetically engineered virus worse than Covid and a nuclear war, how to you expect us to get to the Great Reset? Klaus is getting disappointed by these useful idiots, and we all know what happens to disappointing useful idiots. Something about walls and lined up. Just watch Rand Paul’s latest grilling of Fauci to get a sense of the fear.