Dominant
Greetings from Mexico. Where we are on vacation. And speaking of vacations, the Vegas Knights can start theirs off right after winning the Stanley Cup. They were just too much for the Florida Panthers. The US Open starts tomorrow in Los Angeles. And that’s pretty much it for sports.
I guess she wasn’t dying to leave yet. Wow.
“I did that.”
Maybe they could get Obama to help raise money. He’s responsible for half of this shitshow, after all.
Boo fucking Hoo. Pay your debts, you greedy bastards.
Christ, what an asshole. I can’t express strongly enough how much I dislike this person I’ve never met before.
Elitists doing elitist shit
“Forced” is doing a lot of work here. You know, since they could have just gotten in their cars and left. And while I’m not surprised they treated people like shit, words do have actual meanings. Either way, I assume they’ll settle to keep things hush-hush.
This will be an interesting trial. Also, WTF is a “FIOD Card” and how is a scheme like that even legal?
“I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It’s yours.” The zombie apocalypse is almost here (well, in that city anyway).
Good. Do your job. This has overwhelming support in the state. So get it passed.
Here’s some music for you. Man, that’s one of my favorites. As is this one. Such a fun pair of songs from a fantastic band. Enjoy them both.
And enjoy this lovely Wednesday, dear friends.
Boo fucking Hoo. Pay your debts, you greedy bastards. – paying debts is oppression.
Damn capitalists giving out loans and expecting to be repaid (WITH INTEREST!). It’s terrible how these poor, uneducated, stupid people keep getting tricked into signing up for loans.
I am reminded of the congressional hearing where the heads of various banks went “We’re not in the student loan business, you took it over.”
Of course we took it over. You weren’t willing to loan money for grievance studies degrees at low interest rates.
To be fair… I think there is a certain amount trickery going on. Kids are stupid and when you feed them a lifetime of propaganda that they will have no future unless they attend college, well… you get what we have today.
on the one hand yes, on the other there are plenty who pay their debts, and something tells me most who don;t are a bunch of commies anyway.
It’s almost like counselors are motivated to a one size fits all.
The least impressive employee in a public school.
Oh, the collapse of the college bubble will be entertaining as hell to me. I’d say there’s a fair amount of blame for the parents for pushing college as well.
I have 11 years for the bubble to burst.
It needs to hurry up, I dont want to wait for the last minute, and I want some recovery time.
the student loan pause was such a sweet deal for people who continued to pay them over the duration. no interest accrued. amazing gift.
the problem with gifts like this is that over half the recipients don’t understand and will just scream when it goes back to normal. there’s no largesse that doesn’t work like this.
One call center I worked in had a fairly generous 401(k) match (100% match up to 5%, vested in 5 years). During a market correction back in the early 00’s, there were several agents in the call center (that had long reached fully vested) that were complaining about their 401(k)’s going down, and decided they would stop contributing in it until they started going back up. There were several people who confided they had found the way to “win” the system, they put their entire 401(k) into the company’s stock, and sold it every May, and bought it back every fall!
People are shockingly ignorant when it comes to finances.
1. Never put your 401k money into your company stock.
2. Unless it was down greater than 50%, they were still up with the match (ignoring the vesting adjustment).
3. NEVER PUT YOUR 401K MONEY INTO YOUR COMPANY STOCK.
But they had figured out the timing. Sell in May and walk away!
It rhymes! How could it be wrong?
With so many ill-informed employees dumping stock in may, does it cause a noticable dip in the stock prices? Are there opportunists buying the may dip and selling to the fall spike?
My company 401k match used to only be company stock,
Fortunately, when they laid me off I was allowed to sell it.
Often the match is paid in company stock but once put in your account can be moved. And should be.
Your household already has an economic concentration exposing you to financial risk in the form of your employer. Putting retirement money in that same entity is a terrible idea.
Just ask the folks that were in Enron’s 401k. 6 largest company in the country, strong until they weren’t and selling energy to California – how can anything go wrong?
Not just Enron, but that is a great example.
My previous company, when they laid me off, the stock was at $47. A year later it was about $3. Fortunately, other than options that expired worthless, I had no exposure to their stock.
We do 100% match up to 4%, eligible after 1 year and fully vested.
Hiring?
We do 4% match on 5%, eligible after 6 months, fully vested.
And we are hiring.
LOL. I picked up two more employees in the past month.
One of my best friends spouses typically transfers hers to money market funds immediately after a big drop, then buy back in again after the recovery sets in. She insists this is beneficial.
Beneficial to whoever is buying her stocks.
Sounds like my retirement plan, buy high, sell low
That’s funny. Whoever was servicing my dad’s student loans wouldn’t let him pay on them.
(He only got his degree recently, I was the first in my family to graduate college.)
my fiance continued paying hers and scored the 10-year non-profit forgiveness for a cool 15k debt deletion. I understood that you needed to continue making payments to be eligible. She ended up overpaying by some 600 dollars so they owe her that…eventually.
I understood that you needed to continue making payments to be eligible.
Not quite for the gov/non-profit forgiveness. The program requires 120 payments for forgiveness (a maximum of 1 each month) and not a set dollar amount. During the pause, they simply counted one payment of zero dollars each month towards 120 payments required from the loanee (no actual payment needed). So if a doctor would have normally owed a $1,500 monthly payment, it was waived with zero dollars owed and still counted against the 120 total payments need for forgiveness.
This wiped years of payments away for those in gov and nonprofits. This is the real grift. But the government through out the proposed $10k forgiveness to everyone like that was the end game and it was followed like cats to a laser pointer.
Wow, really? That’s incredible.
JFC
“they simply counted one payment of zero dollars each month”
Words really have become completely disconnected from meaning these days.
Yep. And because there are no taxes owed on the forgiven amount, the incentive is to max your loan and minimize your payment.
“they simply counted one payment of zero dollars each month”
Words really have become completely disconnected from meaning these days.
It’s really complex and tough to summarize. I’ve probably put well into 30 hours trying to understand the system. Essentially you have to make 120 payments to be eligible for forgiveness. 1 payment each month for the minimum amount required by the loan provider. During the pause, the required amount was zero so the payments were applied automatically and counted against the 120 payments.
Additional payments each month do not count against the 120 payments, so paying extra just hurts the debtor by coming out of what would have been forgiven anyway.
“Forced” is doing a lot of work here. You know, since they could have just gotten in their cars and left. And while I’m not surprised they treated people like shit, words do have actual meanings. Either way, I assume they’ll settle to keep things hush-hush. – Alex Jones knows all about this they should get him on the witness stand
The economic hollowing out of leftist cities gives me a pretty big schadenboner.
Honestly expected the pendulum to have swung back towards “law and order” by now but then I recall the last big crime wave lasted decades and we’re only less than a decade into this one.
After the earthquake in Syria earlier this year, the US refused to lift sanctions on the country.
It turns out that we are the assholes.
Unfortunately, yes.
https://southfront.org/u-s-looted-another-shipment-of-syrian-oil-sana/
Good. Do your job. This has overwhelming support in the state. So get it passed. – the job of the legislature is to do what is right not what is popular.
Well, it’s also the right thing to do, so my statement is still accurate.
The right thing to do is abolish the public schools.
Vouchers and the like are a dangerous tactic – they hurt the public schools and teachers’ unions in the short term by getting kids out. The risk over the long term is that the programs will be captured. We dodged a bullet in NH – the Democrats, due to low attendance by Republicans, were briefly in the majority in the State House of Representatives. They passed a bill adding a requirement to use the state’s Education Freedom Accounts. The requirement was that you can’t use the accounts unless your kid has been in the public schools for a certain number of years. The bill went to the State Senate which shot the bill down. Close one.
That’s right-wing extremist talk. The job of the legislature is to pass what the king demands.
“ TikToker David Baerten, along with his wife and children, decided to orchestrate the pseudocide to prank loved ones and see who actually cared about the 45-year-old.”
I think i see the problem.
Well, it’s a lot fewer people now.
Baerten would have been a Glib candidate and would really have found freedom from people.
Christ, what an asshole. I can’t express strongly enough how much I dislike this person I’ve never met before.
“TikToker ” is all you need to know?
That’s where I checked out. Seems a pretty complete explanation for all manner of alsoish behavior.
Which settlement will probably include race and sex quotas or some shit.
I was rooting for the Panthers – but they just ran out of gas against Vegas.
Many run out of gas after Vegas breaks them.
Usually on the way back to L.A.
Woman presumed dead found alive in coffin at her wake in Ecuador
I assume she awoke just in time.
I’m trying to work a Cleveland Browns joke in but I just can’t come up with one.
She used the Browns as the funeral home, and they let her down one more time?
There it is.
Did they check to see if she casts a reflection in a mirror?
Sometimes, being woke ain’t so bad.
Boo fucking Hoo. Pay your debts, you greedy bastards.
I just need to know when I need to start paying again.
The same outfit runs the mall that recently opened at the World Trade Center – it’s full of snooty boutiques instead of any useful shopping so I wonder how long it will last.
Given that a big chunk of WTC foot traffic is tourists from around the world, it may do OK. But that is not a normal downtown shopping environment.
Yeah but it also has a heavy commuter presence – I used to walk through it every day. The old mall that was destroyed on 9/11 had lots of normal-people shopping, but this one… I literally never saw anyone shopping in any of those stores back when I commuted.
words do have actual meanings
Not to leftists and grievance mongerers.
It’s only the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign if you’re from the Université de l’Illinois à Urbana-Champaign region of France, otherwise it’s just a University of Illinois Urbana-Sparkling Wine.
https://twitter.com/JackTindale/status/1668736277397618688
meh a bit too on the nose
LEAVE ALMA MATER ALONE!
Rishi Sunak has announced his plans for AI regulation, saying he wants the UK to become the leader in regulation the technology
https://twitter.com/theipaper/status/1668194312444624896
leader in regulation of a technology is a new one
Genie is already out of the lamp.
Watching Clarkson’s Farm, I’d say they could be the leader in farm regulation.
This is gut wrenchingly awful.
The Russian Soldier Who Surrendered to a Ukrainian Drone
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-soldier-surrender-ukraine-drone-3860ab6a?st=13s784jx69ap2gf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
“Strange” how they’re giving that a big article, but not all the dead Leopard tanks and Bradleys.
WSJ has been fairly evenhanded. That comes from interviews in May.
It did a few days ago with the losses of western equipment. So if your only source of news was the WSJ you’d be in far better shape than WP or NYT reader for example.
I assume that WaPo and NYT readers are hopelessly propagandized at this point if they don’t go outside that bubble.
Ukrainians are angels and they are destined to win, comrade.
It infuriates me that my tax dollars are prolonging this agony.
whaddup doh’
Dried up limeys.
Water rationing has been introduced as the Met Office declared swathes of the UK to be in a heatwave today, with temperatures soaring to 30C in some parts.
As some areas experienced weather hotter than Ibiza, a bizarre meteorological record – known as the June 13th Enigma – was broken. June 13 was the only day of summer not to see the mercury rise above 30C – until now.
According to data stretching back more than 150 years, it has traditionally been cooler than any other day in summer and temperatures of 30C or above had never previously been recorded.
It’s one day, ffs…
And the soaring temperatures spelled bad news for the UK’s solar panels, which were operating below peak capacity due to the heat.
The National Grid fired-up two coal power stations to help meet demand yesterday. The hotter it gets above 24C, the less efficient solar panels become due to problems caused by the silicon that many are made from.
Solar panels don’t work in the sun…
86F is a dangerous heat wave?
The Brits used to have moxie.
When you’re covered from the throat down in wool, with a bearskin hat? Yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Guard
Anything approaching the 90s, and you people by the lake tend to melt. Same as Canadians.
Here we are on the cusp of summer, and my dumb ass accepted a job with a firm that has an office not only in HOT-lanta, but Baton Rouge as well.
Those are places I tried to work in when its winter here.
We usually hit the triple digits once or twice in the summer, we bitch about it, and the big cities have started to open “cooling centers” for the unhoused and underhoused communities (when I was a kid, those were called malls or movie theaters).
The house I grew up in, a 2-story “farmhouse” style had no a/c. Looking back on hot summer days, I have no idea how anyone survived other than blissful ignorance.
Window fans was the best we got. I can remember Mama Tres getting supper ready, heat of the late afternoon, and 3 burners on the stove and the oven on.
I joke that one of the reasons I enlisted in the Army was for air conditioning.
We also had no video games, no internet, a rotary-dial phone, and no cable TV (until I was a senior in 1987).
GET OFF MY LAWN!
My room when I was living with the parents was the converted attic in a house with no central AC until it was nearly time for me to move out. Freezing in winter, blazing hot in summer, with the only respite being two window fans set up on opposite sides to create at least some air flow through the room.
We got AC in my parent’s house about the year I moved out. They still don’t have cable or cell phones. They upgraded to a cordless phone sometime after I moved out. They do have the interwebs. My dad is still amazed with the speed of e-mail.
Yep. I had no AC at the elementary school I attended. Texas was hotter then, actually, than it is now most months. So spring/fall was tough. It was a huge incentive to never fail a class and have to attend summer school. I remember the windows open in 5th grade, and a roofing company was re-tarring the roof. The smell was unholy. We just kept learning. Occasionally a student would faint.
Did the school discourage hydration or something? I mean, it’s really not condusive to learning if your students faint from environmental conditions.
Kids don’t hydrate or take care of themselves. Back then, the school did not see that as their responsibility. You either drank from the water fountain or you didn’t. I had a friend, K, who played outside, didn’t drink water and passed out after two hours of classes. The nurse cooled him off and gave him water. That was standard practice back then. If a kid was really bad off they would be sent home.
Thats how they weed out the weak in Tejas.
When I was stationed at Ft. Hood, we’d be detailed to mow grass. In the heat. In full duty uniform (BDU).
Other than being too dumb to realize it, and being 19 or 20, I have no idea how I managed it.
As long as the wet bulb was below 90, that which does not kill you makes you suffer from heat exhaustion.
Temperatures are SOARING!!11
Also, windmills burn up if there is too much wind and fall apart when it’s cold. But, by all means, lets subject everyone to these energy sources.
OFFS.
That would have been nice to know before spraying them all over thousands of square miles of desert in order to Heal the Planet™️.
All the limeys on Twitter are saying we don’t understand what they’re going through because all of their homes are built with the express purpose of keeping cold out and heat in and they don’t have air conditioning.
I just laugh at their ignorance of insulation and their inability to figure out how an exhaust fan can be installed.
One thing I am grateful for the previous owners of the house I know own (with the bank) was that they put in some really good insulation. Gets a bit strange at the beginning of summer when the inside of the house is 10-15 degrees cooler than outside without the AC running.
When I built the house I live in, I got every green feature I could. Heavy insulation, tankless water heater. All very valuable long-term.
The girlfriend wanted to jump to a tankless water heater when we replaced the old one. There’s two of us in the house, and it would have cost three times as much with little benefit. So I declined.
We have replaced a patio door, a garage door, and the nat gas heater with more energy efficient ones. Noticeable decrease in the gas bill in winter, even keeping the house warmer. At some point we need to replace a big living room window with something that has insulation in it, but there are other home improvement projects on the list first. My push for this year is running Cat5/Cat6 through the house.
I popped for a geo-thermal system when my old AC went tits up, and installed a metal roof when hail wrecked the old one (Thanks, Insurance Company!).
My electric bill dropped $30-$100 a month, depending on weather.
If you are building new, a tankless water heater is great. I agree that having one installed on an older house is expensive. I will say this about them which is the main reason to get it – Infinite hot water. It cannot be beat. Your wife wants to turn on the dishwasher and clothes washer while you shower? No problem. Stay in that shower as long as you want. Got six guests at the house who all shower in the morning? No problem.
Hard water can be murder on them, though. Definitely worth taking into consideration.
Since Im about to re-program my POS Honeywell water heater gas valve with a sledgehammer, Ive been considering a tankless replacement. How is it on duration? For some reason, my teen son likes to take LONG showers….
Go away, baitin’!
You and the bank are just currently partners in ownership. Even once its paid off, neglect your county/Ohio/Federal taxes and see who comes to take it.
Here in the PAC northwest, having AC in residences is uncommon.
Fortunately for me, there are huge shade trees in my apartment complex, as well as shade from the opposite building, and I haven’t suffered yet.
I keep my office VERY cool.
*laughs in American*
Yeah, this is literally every single day here for 6 months.
But I do rock that AC now, without AC I would GTFO so fast.
Don’t forget to cup the balls.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/orange-county-anatomy-teacher-placed-leave-following-clip-discussing-sex-toys-sexual
This was a discussion in a high-school anatomy class? I’m not seeing anything remotely unreasonable here.
It really depends on who your lab partner is.
You know how the High School WWII unit is 3 weeks long and they spend 2 weeks talking about Japanese internment camps?
It’s sort of the same thing.
If your argument is that government schools are garbage, I’m in complete agreement.
I don’t believe for a single second that any of the protesters in the article are making that argument.
Really? I’m not so sure anatomy requires teaching people about sexual stimulation for anybody, let alone going into graphic detail of a specific act and then explaining where kids can go buy sexual stimulants.
It’s not the school’s fucking job and it’s not the school’s fucking place to teach that kind of thing. And I’d be surprised if their focus on shit like that rather than concentrating exclusively on core competencies hasn’t led to the demise of our system relative to other nations.
We’re only a couple years away from this:
https://youtu.be/zRD0-7NSXd8
Well said.
Really.
If you want to make an argument that schools shouldn’t teach Sex Ed, sure. Whatever you want, I don’t care. No children I spawn will ever come within direct LOS of a government school, IDGAF what the curriculum is.
But if a school is gonna have Sex Ed classes, especially at the high school level, talking about prostate stimulation doesn’t even get a raised eyebrow from me.
Reproductive education is fine. It’s part of biology.
And this isn’t sex education. It’s sexual education. Sex education is the explanation of the human male and female and how they work together in order to reproduce offspring.
“Teaching” kids where they can buy sexual stimulants is completely unnecessary from an educational standpoint. I cannot think of a single legitimate educational purpose it serves.
When the paramedics showed up, they noticed the bag off drugs that fell out of his ass and called the cops.
I’m on vacation, man. I might be a bit out of touch for world events.
Nono, I was just extending the event to the meme, like the undead lady with the Browns.
’cause IIRC, the drugs fell out of someone’s ass after they were shot.
Specifically, the rectal narcotics shooting was a testicular trauma.
And I take credit for being the original poster/linker.
You’re welcome.
Ah. I always took it to mean the story had already been posted here on several occasions (like the story about the lady who had drugs fall out of her ass).
Daily Quordle 506
8️⃣9️⃣
7️⃣4️⃣
m-w.com/games/quordle/
Blossom Puzzle, June 14
Letters: A E H C I R T
My score: 298 points
My longest word: 9 letters
🌸 🌼 🌻 🌷 💮 🌹 🏵 💐 🌺
Play Blossom:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-games/blossom-word-game
It could mean they get concrete galoshes too.
You mad, bro?
Fake News Jake Tapper Having A Meltdown Watching Footage Of President Trump At Miami Cafe
“The folks in the control room, I don’t need to see anymore of that.”
Funny, I feel that way when Biden talks on TV.
It’s feeling like a Monday. Customer paid their account with a $17K check and then stopped payment on it without calling us first.
I’m not amused.
Psych Out!
Nice.
Plus the bank fees you incurred on the stopped check is just the cherry on top of that sundae.
“Uh… uh… we switched banks and they wrote checks off the old account!”
Still doesn’t explain why you had time to stop the checks but not call your vendors.
French President Emmanuel Macron has asked South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for an invitation to the upcoming BRICS summit
https://twitter.com/joiedevivre789/status/1668711939822821382
Is an EU serf state allowed to engage in trade negotiations?
Hard to tell if this is a big crack in the EU. France always did their own thing under De Gaulle, maybe Macron thinks he has the stones to do the same. Or, maybe he thinks he can go there and talk sense into everyone, which would be comedy gold.
Trade negotiations with non-member states are supposed to be handled by the EU, not by member states.
So whether or not this is a crack in the EU depends on whether or not a trade agreement between France and the BRICs comes out of this.
Boo fucking Hoo. Pay your debts, you greedy bastards.
Ehh. I have trouble giving much of a shit about it. The amount is peanuts compared to the money being stolen out of every paycheck for Social Security.
“The group of Neo-Nazis who protested outside Disney World were from a newly-established hate group identified as the Order of the Black Sun.
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) researcher Ben Popp told local media that the group – also known as ‘OBS’ – is a white supremacist network that formed just months ago and that the demonstration outside the children’s theme park was its first.
Popp said the hate group is ‘well known’ to the ADL and that it’s comprised of individuals who have ‘been involved in other white supremacist groups and organizations in the state of Florida for the past couple of years.'”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12191575/Neo-Nazis-held-rally-outside-Disney-World-Order-Black-Sun-hate-group.html
Yeah, sure.
white supremacist network that formed just months ago
IOW, they’re feds.
newly-established
‘well known’ to the ADL
Methinks the ADL is full of shit.
That would be pretty wild, a neo-nazi group that references a Dead Can Dance song…
Go fuck yourself, Nikki.
“If this indictment is true, if what it says is actually the case, President Trump was entirely reckless with our national security,” former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said during a Fox News interview Monday.
Haley, a Republican presidential candidate, added that the documents could have put “all our military men and women in danger.”
The same day, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, another of Trump’s rivals, said during a campaign stop in his home state that the allegations against Trump were a “serious case with serious allegations,” according to The Post and Courier of Charleston.
I wanted to like you, Tim.
Carlson verbally nailed all of these liars to the wall in his most recent Twitter episode.
https://rumble.com/v2u11v2-tucker-carlson-on-twitter-ep.-3-61323-americas-principles-are-at-stake.html
In his last video, Tucker mocked her and Pompeo for being bootlicking sycophants to Trump when he could give them prestigious jobs.
Quality Russian troll
https://twitter.com/russembkenya/status/1668890458779533313?cxt=HHwWgoC-yfbBi6kuAAAA
Heh…
Blather
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Tuesday she didn’t want her staff educated after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky offered to clarify the reporting procedure on COVID-19 vaccines for Greene’s team. (Watch the video below.)
It was basically an interrogation intended to humiliate Walensky in front of a House committee. The anti-vaxx lawmaker interpreted data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, to baselessly suggest that an inordinate amount of Americans died from the shots, and suffered miscarriages and stillbirths.
Greene blathered on about vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna reaping fortunes. She facetiously asked Walensky, who leaves her post at the end of the month, if she planned to join the board of either company “because you’ve done one hell of a job at making sure that they’ve made a lot of money.”
Walensky kept her cool, noting that she could not address the economics of the vaccines because the CDC didn’t purchase them. But she did want to shed light on VAERS. Walensky said the data includes any adverse event that happened to someone after they received a vaccine. That includes being hit by a truck.
That’s some evenhanded journalisming.
The obverse of that argument is that hospitals would report someone that was hit by a truck and died as being CoVID positive.
she didn’t want her staff educated after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky offered to clarify the reporting procedure
Because Walensky is a lying cunte.
We’re in looney law land now. The First Amendment is dead.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/judge-lets-e-jean-carroll-seek-more-damages-against-trump-defamation-lawsuit
*Ken White writes article about how this is a completely justified and appropriate lawsuit*
The law that Carroll is suing him under was lobbied for by her and it expires after one year.
In other words, the law was specifically designed to go after Trump.
was it in effect at the time of the alleged offense(s)? Are we going to see some ex post facto nullifications here?
derogatory remarks…defamatory statements
These are not the same.
“‘Mom, these bad men have me, help me, help me!’ Arizona mom-of-two targeted in deepfake kidnapping scam gives gripping testimony revealing how AI impersonated her 15-year-old daughter’s voice as a man threatened to ‘have his way with her'”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12192741/Arizona-mom-fell-victim-deepfake-kidnapping-scam-gives-gripping-testimony.html
https://nypost.com/2023/06/14/ariz-mom-recalls-sick-ai-scam-in-gripping-testimony-to-congress/
“AI ‘deepfakes’ poised to wreak havoc on 2024 presidential election: experts”
https://nypost.com/2023/06/14/ai-deepfakes-poised-to-wreak-havoc-on-2024-election-experts/
After the “very fine people” stupidity, it became apparent that deepfakes aren’t required to wreak havoc.
Yes, but we know the “very fine people” thing is a hoax because you can watch the video. What if it was faked?
Deep fake is going to continue to get better and more efficient.
Did it shout “welcome to MAGA country?” Because if so, the AI is getting very convincing.
“Trump’s defamatory statements post-verdict show the depth of his malice toward Carroll since it is hard to imagine defamatory conduct that could possibly be more motivated by hatred, ill will, or spite,” the lawyers wrote in the complaint, filed on May 22 (pdf).
And your client is motivated by nothing other than the love of truth.
Good morning, Sloop!
Thanks for taking time from vacation for us. What side of Mexico are you on?
I’m with OBE wrt the Knights. BEing an expansion team should be years of struggle and pain – just like the Wild! Still, that’s a really good hockey team.
What’s interesting about SF is how quickly the RE situation went to shit. It’s not like crime, addicts and all the other fuckery wasn’t there 5 years ago. But the vacancy rate then was like 5% – which is effectively zero. It’s hard to imagine how bad it’s gonna be in another five.
Great musical choices as usual. Love those guys.
The other day the girlfriend said (in reference to the Golden Knights), “They’ve been waiting for a championship for so long.”
No. No they haven’t.
/forlornly looks over at the Browns and
IndiansGuardians“They’ve been waiting for a championship for so long.”
For laughs, I can also refer you to Somerset County Cricket Club which entered the English competition in 1895 and is still waiting for a title. Or, my home state of Queensland, which entered the Sheffield Shield competition in 1926 and finally won the title in 1995.
I believe the appropriate response according to the internet would to to instruct said team to, quote, “git gud”, and possibly refer to them as a “skrub”.
We’re at a place just south of Cancun. And it’s just lovely. They’ve got the sargassum barriers up a ways out so the water is clean and the beach isn’t a mess.
A nice respite.
Wonderful! We’ll be down later in the year and I can’t wait!
I think we might bring the whole family back down over fall break. It’s quite lovely here.
We’ll be on the Pacific side. And, if you can believe it, the kids want to come along!
That’s awesome. I’ve already told my oldest she should come with us in the fall and she’s excited. I just hope the boy is back from Korea in time.
Cool! Mine are 23 and 21 and still want to do family trips. I hope we can continue for a long time!
Your boy is Army, correct?
LV benefited from the overly generous expansion draft.
“Being an expansion team should be years of struggle and pain”
Exactly,
Sabotage
Ohio Senator J.D. Vance has vowed to “grind [the Justice Department] to a halt” in response to the indictment of Donald Trump on charges related to his treatment of classified documents after leaving office.
Trump was arrested and arraigned in Miami on Tuesday. Vance posted a video from the steps of the Capitol earlier in the day declaring that he “will be holding all Department of Justice nominees … I think that we have to grind this department to a halt until [Attorney General] Merrick Garland promises to do his job and stop going after his political opponents.”
Congressional oversight is treason.
I grew up in the Bat Area and I hate to see what SF has become.. in jr high I’d take the bus from San Leandro, by myself, to Market St to do my Christmas shopping at the fancy, decorated to the nines department stores. Don’t think I’d let a 13-year-old go through the SF bus depot alone today. At that age a buddy and I would go to Giants/Dodgers double header’s going home through the bus depot at 1:00 AM.
Complain-y rant of the day:
I have been wearing earmuff-style earpro for many reasons, and I’ve been generally happy with them. However, they do limit my headwear to ballcaps, and since I have an absurdly large melon, I only have found two that vaguely fit me. Also because of that, the button thingy at the top gets pressed down on by the headphone strap and can be really uncomfortable after about four hours or so.
So I’ve been considering earplug style for a while, and when there was a 20% off deal for USPSA referees I went ahead and bought a pair.
Holy hell is the sound quality shit. Plus, while the company makes themselves out to be some sort of ‘murican company that got into the business because they love the shooting sports so much, when you dig through their packaging and get to the actual usage manual you see that it is obviously a made-in-some-foreign-cheap-labor-haven with really crappy machine translation into English. I’m also not completely convinced that these will reduce gunshot sounds all that much, but I haven’t tried that out yet.
Might it be a better option to seek a hat without that silly button on the top? Or perhaps remove the existing button and stitch a cloth reinforcing circle in its place?
Hat shopping has never been a passion of mine. But now I will be doing some of that, if for no other reason than to get a current measurement. My High School graduation cap was an 8 1/4, but I had much more hair then.
Or just stop wearing ballcaps, grown men should not wear ballcaps, unless of course they a actually playing baseball. Have some class people.
I like being able to see. It helps me to hit the target. And my fedora doesn’t fit over the ear pro.
Here you go.
You have just proven you have no fashion sense.
Begone, unstylish fool!
Fine, buy some behind the neck ear protection and wear the fedora.
Etsy? ETSY?
He’s just flogging his sideline.
Huh.
It is sufficiently unattractive to be countersignalling, cheap enough to be practical, and the headphones might be sufficient to hold it on during a sprint if the fit is sub-optimal.
If you’re comparing those things positively to a ball cap? I just don’t know what to tell you…
While it wouldn’t work for competing, I’m thinking of an oversized novelty sombrero for ROing.
With or without a hi-vis poncho?
If I still lived in Austin I could just go and get a fabulous one made from the mariachi outfitter.
No can do. It would obscure the official NROI jersey.
Pin it to the outside of the poncho?
White would be best for keeping cool, but that is a really nice shade of blue:
https://www.amazon.com/Threads-West-Mariachi-Sombrero-Burgundy/dp/B073HRGG95/
Perhaps a stylish flatcap?
Those patterns hurt the eyes…
UCS is right (for once) Donegal Tweed or GTFO.
They do have solid colors available as well. Besides, if it’s in your head, you won’t be able to see it, and it can distract the competition.
I’ll just stick with my Gibson’s cap.
Those don’t seem to offer much in the way of sun protection.
Fun fact, one of my ranges requires brimmed headgear for safety reasons. And also the sun gets a wee bit intense in the summer.
Walk into the bar in any small farming community and spout that nonsense.
Why would you assume I haven’t done exactly that on multiple occasions.
You are still alive to comment.
Exactly
Hell, walk into CO and spout that nonsense. Even the chicks wear them.
I said grown men, women get a pass, particularly if they pull their ponytail out the back hole.
Pony play is something else entirely man.
It’s not about playing with a girl’s ponytail? I’ve been cruelly misinformed…
Furry status: Confirmed
The backhole interest confirms it.
Get a collar and leash, like a civilized person.
Is it not hot and sunny where you are? Do you wear a sombrero instead? Ball caps are the smallest possible hat that allows you to see and keep your face from burning off.
I doubt he’s ever seen daylight.
I wear a very stylish outback hat when it’s raining and a Donegal tweed flat cap if it’s chilly, other wise I go hat less, the sun and heat do not bother me, I also don’t even own a pair of sunglasses.
What do you wear for outdoor athletic events on hot sunny days?
A cycling cap?
Outdoor athletic events? Never heard of them.
“stylish outback hat”
It’s called a squatchee.
SugarFree taught me that.
OH yeah, it’s Joemala day!
The only way to do active in-ear protection is to get it custom made at your audiologist. Expect to pay about a thousand bucks for a decent-but-not-top-shelf set. Make sure they have Bluetooth capability, so you can use them as headphones at the gym, etc.
Funny how state institutions won’t comment on pending litigation unless it is in their favor. Meanwhile I’m imagining an attorney is having a conversation with his client.
The school system also provided emails between the district and Zwerner in which the teacher wrote: “I wish to resign. Thank you.”
https://nypost.com/2023/06/14/virginia-teacher-abby-zwerner-resigns-after-being-shot-by-6-year-old-student/
I’m not seeing how the resignation really hurts her lawsuit.
Me neither. But it contradicts her attorney’s rhetoric to the press.
Are we going to see some ex post facto nullifications here?
Haha, good one.
Wow…
The suspect said his target was the 52-year-old instructor, but that he first shot a 25-year-old SDF member next to him because he was obstructing his line of sight, investigators told NHK.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/06/14/national/sdf-range-shooting-incident/
Well, the SOB should have moved.
Whats that jeep thing in the picture? I may want one.
https://silodrome.com/mitsubishi-type-73-kogata/
RHD only though!
Good Lord, that thing is going for $22K
“can be mounted with heavy machine guns or anti-tank missile launchers depending on requirements”
I’ll take two.
Shut up, Mike.
“Having read the indictment,” the former Veep says, “these are very serious allegations. And I can’t defend what is alleged. But the President is entitled to his day in court, he’s entitled to bring a defense, and I want to reserve judgment until he has the opportunity to respond.” He emphasizes both that “no one is above the law” and also that “as Americans, you’re innocent until proven guilty.” That said, he seems troubled by what Mr. Trump is alleged to have casually stashed at Mar-a-Lago.
“The suggestion that there were documents pertaining to the defense capabilities of the United States and our allies, our nuclear program, to potential vulnerabilities of the United States and our allies . . . ” Mr. Pence says. “Even the inadvertent release of that kind of information could compromise our national security and the safety of our armed forces. And, frankly, having two members of our immediate family serving in the armed forces of the United States, I will never diminish the importance of protecting our nation’s secrets.”
Pence has turned out to be a truly unprincipled POS. He’s obviously looking to feather his nest with the MIC.
Unprincipled because he doesn’t boot lick Donny and defend him against an and all charges?
Unprincipled because he’s on-board with selective application of the law in order to protect the permanent warfare state.
But his principles are to protect the permanent warfare state!
You’ve got me there.
Pence was the guy who staffed the COVID task force with the bio-terrorism people (most notable Birx and Fauci) and then helped fend off attempts to reign them in.
He belongs in Gitmo, albeit I’d be generous and allow him three square waterboardings a day in consideration for his past service.
Does Trump bear any responsibility for that?
Trump bears responsibility for being an easily-manipulated ego-driven ass. So yes.
Of course Trump bears responsibility.
The first time Birxx fucked him over, he was a victrim. The fifth time she did it and he did nothing about it, he was an accessory to her crimes.
Reading between the lines of Atlas’ book, you could tell Pence and Kuchner both had their own agenda. And Pence was clearly not Trump’s ally. Kushner, it looked like if it was convenient to him he’d be Trump’s ally. Otherwise, no.
Ouch, my pride.
The vandalism happened at 3:10 a.m. on Sunday as the three men were walking past the Stonewall National Monument in Christopher Park on Christopher St.
They broke a number of flags displayed on a fence, then took off, heading east on Waverly Place.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident, which comes as the city celebrates Pride Month. The Stonewall is considered the birthplace of the gay rights movement.
Cops released surveillance footage of the three suspects Monday and are asking for the public’s help identifying them and tracking them down.
The concept of “hate crime” is a civil rights violation.
Too bad the FBI swamped chasing down hatecriminals, those people defrauded will just have to wait their turn:
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/13/1182001331/a-sophisticated-scam-uses-technology-to-impersonate-real-law-enforcement-agents
I am almost a 1A absolutist, but I can see that banning caller ID spoofing would be a legitimate prohibition against fraud.
I support the death penalty against scammers, and if foreign countries protect them, that’s an act of war.
You can’t ban caller ID spoofing without revamping the entire phone system. There’s still people complaining about the “new” regulations about STIR/SHAKEN that are due to be implemented by everyone by the end of the month.
From personal experience, T-Mobile is the most draconian with the blocking, followed by ATT, and then Verizon (at least in the cell phone world).
Since I don’t have to implement it… I’m not seeing the problem.
/Management
This should have been done 30 years ago.
Also, email.
Both need to be rewritten from scratch.
I’d say it should have been done when the switch to VOIP was done on the phone systems, as that was the latest “big change” moment that they could have attempted a re-write.
Unfortunately, the SIP protocol is basically built on e-mail and web frameworks, so…
If you had charged 1/100 of a penny for each email, there would be almost no spam.
You can ban it in the sense that it is illegal.
You could, and it technically is illegal now. There’s just so many carve outs, exceptions, and bad planning that went into making it illegal that it’s toothless. Mostly because most people, and even fewer politicians, really understand how the phones systems work.
As a prime example, you have a call center that has a TFN (Toll Free Number( that routes into it. If you have tier 1 agents in that center that are making outbound calls, you would want to present the TFN as the outbound ANI (Automatic Number Identification; the number that displays as the CallerID, the name would be the CNAME information, which is carrier dependent). However, since TFN’s are ingress only, you can’t do that unless you’re using an outbound ANI mask for the TFN. As that’s not the originating calling number, it’s spoofing it. This is the exact scenario that’s biting a lot of companies now that STIR/SHAKEN is being implemented, as they didn’t do the due diligence in registering all of their TFN’s with all the carriers so they could use them as the outbound ANI. Now, since most TFN’s route in through PTN (Point To Numbers) which will be local numbers, you generally can get around with sharing the PTN as the outbound ANI. Yet, that’s still spoofing, as that’s not the actual originating number of the call.
Why yes, I do work in a field with massive amounts of TLA (Three Letter Acronyms).
You mean to tell me that a system that is a series of cludges bolted onto 19th century technology or to other cludges which mimic it isn’t all that adaptable?
The suspect said his target was the 52-year-old instructor, but that he first shot a 25-year-old SDF member next to him because he was obstructing his line of sight, investigators told NHK.
Adapt. Overcome.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a letter to major automakers they must comply with a federal vehicle safety law and not with a state law that requires open remote access to vehicle telematics and vehicle-generated data.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-tells-automakers-not-comply-with-massachusetts-vehicle-data-law-2023-06-13/
I’m not clear on how remote the access is. Right to repair I’m 100 percent behind, but OTA seems stupid.
A wired standard seems sensible. Even if it’s just a requirement to publish the standard so people can make their own access devices that plug into the car.
There should be No wireless telemetry of any kind, and certainly no way to recieve commands remotely. (I include door locks, key fobs, and keyless ignition in that)
I’m not opposed to wireless data transmission, but remote commands are straight out. And I’d prefer any wireless data publishing to be encrypted, with the vehicle owner having the only key for decryption. Stop laughing!
Given how much trouble I have explaining basic PKI concepts to technical people, I have doubts about the general public to get it even in the simplest of terms. Even if it’s the mechanic saying “We need the original keyfob that came with the car to run the diagnostics” (assuming you’d store the encryption key there as a means of making sure the customer retained it)
That’s kinda the point though. I don’t *want* that data to be easily accessible. I want it to be available for those with the desire to use their own data, but not for manufacturers to collect at their whim (especially since that means government agencies will have it shortly thereafter). Most people won’t give a damn about it, and that’s fine. Those who do will have the ability to get to their information and do with it as they please. Repair shops would certainly be able to get to relevant data, especially if the fob is used to store the encryption key (I’m not 100% on that, but it seems like a reasonable solution).
TLDR: Feature, not bug.
I picked the fob because it already has electronics in it, it’s something the owner is likely to retain, and it will move on to future owners at resale. Plus it’s not part of the car per se and can be separated from the vehicle.
What I’m worried about is customer service nightmares.
Just as an FYI, the fob for my car does keep the maintenance record on it, as well as any warnings/codes thrown by the car. The dealers have a special reader they slot the fob into to read it. It also stores the vehicle settings (including radio presets), and has a rechargeable battery that gets charged while it’s in the ignition slot.
I pine for the days when cars had one key for the doors, another for the ignition, and neither contained any electronics.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/02/23/subaru-right-to-repair-fight-cars
I’m all for the right to repair, but this is just a bizarre complaint.
Thank you. That was very informative.
Size comparison of battleships
https://twitter.com/yulenbilbao/status/1668940687947988992
Why is the Macross not on there?
The Yamato is better when in 2202 spec.
https://ourstarblazers.com/vault/163a/
🙂
Yeah!
🙂
It’s not the size of your battleship, Pie.
It’s the motion of the ocean.
That’s what all the guys with PT Boats say.
Biden put the old Bush conservative guard in a tough spot, because while they hate Trump, they hate attacks on the unitary executive even more. Barr and Yoo are triangulating by saying that *if it were anyone other than a President*, they would counsel the person to plead guilty.
https://twitter.com/CityBureaucrat/status/1668759987039117312
from the category American politics I don’t really understand
Bidenomics
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly confirmed Jared Bernstein to be the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
A longtime aide to President Joe Biden and an economist focused on workers, Bernstein was confirmed by a vote of 50-49.
——-
By being elevated to chairman, Bernstein, 67, is succeeding Cecilia Rouse, who returned to Princeton University earlier this year. Bernstein has long been close to Biden and worked as a vice presidential aide to him during Barack Obama’s presidency. Bernstein received his doctoral degree in social welfare from Columbia University.
We’re in good hands.
There’s a new trend in China where people make and eat spiceless “white people lunch”, as form of self torture.
And their commentary has me crying
https://twitter.com/TheCartelDel/status/1668512652233179138
they should hire UCS as a consultant
I’d subcontract out to Sean to combat hateful stereotypes and misinformation.
My pepper powder is a seasoning and a weapon.
A salad without dressing? A ham sandwich without mustard?
That is torture.
We know a fair number of adults who eat like that. They didn’t grow up in a house where someone cooked, so they continue to eat either fast food or bland, processed food.
I’m still of a mind that everyone who likes to eat should know how to cook.
I’m looking forward to tonight’s steak, though that only requires salt, pepper, and heat.
And here we go…
https://t.me/intelslava/48817
Funny how the western media portrays Putin as an evil radical. In Russia, he’s the cautious moderate.
C’mon man, Navalny would be running things if it weren’t for Putin’s dictatorial ways, keeping the Russian people from expressing their true love for all things British.
That’s the thing. In the long run of Russian leaders, Putin isn’t that bad by comparison.
Families of 19-year-old Nottingham students killed in knife rampage are ‘in bits’ says one’s grandfather – as friends and teammates of the sport-loving pair pay tribute: Suspect, 31, is a ‘West African migrant with history of mental health issues’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12192033/Families-19-year-old-Nottingham-students-killed-knife-rampage-bits.html
“The suspect arrested by police is understood to be a 31-year-old West African national who has been living legally in the UK since his teenage years, and who has struggled with mental health issues.”
I am unsure if there is a libertarian way to deal with this or it is one of those unavoidable things. Migration control is something for non-open borders libertarians like me, but if someone comes and x years later is a liability can you just deport them or what? It would be difficult after 14-15 years to do so. I assume the most libertarian way is armed people shooting the guy at the very start of the rampage…
I assume the most libertarian way is armed people shooting the guy at the very start of the rampage…
Bingo. Diversity (of calibers) is our strength.
Pretty much.
The fact that the killer was a legal resident for many years, really makes his immigration status irrelevant and uninteresting.
Stop white hate.
Malaysia asks Interpol to help track down comic who joked about missing Malaysia Airlines flight at NYC club
Of course it did.
https://nypost.com/2023/06/13/malaysia-asks-interpol-to-help-track-comic-jocelyn-chia-who-joked-about-missing-malaysia-airlines/
a country that take hate speech seriously should be a role model for the US
And apparently Egypt just applied to join BRICS
https://www.firstpost.com/world/de-dollarization-egypt-drubs-dollar-in-trade-with-brics-nations-12733572.html
I’m wondering if they’ll default on their IMF/Wold Bank loans now. The Western to Developing World debt system seems to be unraveling rather quickly.
They should accept Cleopatra was black in order to be let in
This won’t go well for the BRICS. You are trading Europe and the US for China and Russia as masters and both are utterly opaque in their business practices.
Not defending the corruption in the West, but holy shit are they about to learn a lesson in the real meaning of corruption.
Pick your poison.
At the moment, one of them comes with extra doses of sanctions and warmongering.
The scam is to start without the US, and then after a few years when the insiders realize how shaky the setup is, invite the US in as the stabilizer/sucker.
And the official US reaction is “No big deal, nothing to see here.”
Sixty-five survivors of a Kenyan Christian cult are facing charges of attempted suicide after refusing to eat after they have been rescued.
It is a criminal offence to take your own life in Kenya under laws introduced by British colonisers.
https://twitter.com/BBCAfrica/status/1668560359660085248
“”Medical intervention is reserved for older adolescents and adults”
The AMA is spreading obvious and easily debunked misinformation. We’re moving toward a world in which there’s no reason to trust major institutions and that’s scary.”
https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1668765540058533888
Looks like we are already there.
Notably they don’t define “medical intervention” as sterilizing usage of puberty blockers and hormones.
It’s all word games. You can’t trust anything you read anymore.
Friend of my wife has argued that kids as young as 12 or 13, once they’ve gone through “extensive” counseling, should be allowed to begin the physical and medical processes required to transition.
I told her to ask him if he would support kids as young as 12 or 13, once they’ve gone through “extensive” counseling, starting a career in porn. His response was deflection.
I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter!
What?
Do you hate science or something?
Of course a fag would say that.
“After some early attempts at relationships with women, by the late 1930s, Williams began exploring his homosexuality. In New York City, he joined a gay social circle that included fellow writer and close friend Donald Windham (1920–2010) and Windham’s then-boyfriend Fred Melton. In the summer of 1940, Williams initiated a relationship with Kip Kiernan (1918–1944), a young dancer he met in Provincetown, Massachusetts. When Kiernan left him to marry a woman, Williams was distraught. Kiernan’s death four years later at age 26 was another heavy blow.”
I mean, at least the guy TRIED some punani.
Gays in Provincetown? That’s just crazy talk!
Good old Tennessee would probably be considered a troglodyte by today’s standards.
There were 28.8m people employed in the UK in 2005
There are 30m employed in the UK today (4% increase)
The population has gone up by 7.2m (11% increase).
GDP has increased by 28%
Yet no one is earning any more money.
Public spending as a percentage of GDP has increased from 39.7% to 43%. An 8% relative rise
Yet the public sector employee percentage has fallen from 21% to 17.7%. A 16% relative fall.
In 2005 UK debt to GDP stood at 40%.
Today, it stands at just shy of 100%.
Completely broken economics.
https://twitter.com/MavenPolitic/status/1668913806108504064
Including any government spending in GDP renders it worthless as a measure of the economy.
It might be sorta OK if you also deducted debt funded spending.
SO I was maybe just window shopping. Looking at a Glock 21, Gen 2. .45 ACP
Its a “law enforcement trade-in”, which makes me think of buying a car from a rental agency. Or most lease turn-ins that were never maintained.
Any of you gun-slinging glibs have thoughts on how beaten-up that thing could be ?
Cop trade-ins are generally a good deal. They’ll be scuffed but barely shot.
I have a bunch of LEO trade ins. *points to avatar*
Including a G21. Most of mine barely even have much cosmetic wear.
Points taken. Given how poorly they shoot during in an actual engagement, I doubt its seen much range time.
note to self- ask how many dogs the firearm has killed
Based students.
Parents and community members spoke up at a meeting of the Burlington Select Board Monday after an incident at the Marshall Simonds Middle School last week.
The incident happened on Friday when Principal Cari Perchase said “some students had independently organized a counter message to Pride Spirit Day.”
“This became evident in the lunchroom, where several groups of students wore red, white, blue, or black, including face paint,” Perchase wrote in a letter to families.
Perchase said stickers, banners and signs were also torn off walls and crumpled into water fountains.
“…groups of students were heard chanting, ‘U.S.A are my pronouns,’ and students glared intimidatingly at faculty members showing pride,” Perchase continued. “Students were shamed into removing their stickers or covering their clothing with rainbows.”
I wonder if anyone asked the obvious question: “Why the fuck is ‘PRIDE’ in a middle school in the first place?”
I remember in seventh grade, I suddenly realized that all of the girls in my class wee amazingly hot. And the fashion of tight jeans was the most amazing thing ever.
Oooooohhh, ‘intimidating glares’ from middle-schoolers!
To the last
mandollarPresident Joe Biden met Tuesday with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House and reiterated that the alliance is united in defending Ukraine for as long as it takes to fight off Russian forces. But neither offered clarity about the unsettled question of who will lead the alliance after Stoltenberg departs later this year.
“We’ve strengthened NATO’s eastern flank, made it clear we’ll defend every inch of NATO territory. I say it again: The commitment of the United States to NATO’s Article 5 is rock solid,” Biden said, a reference to the charter’s fundamental provision under which an attack on one member nation is considered an attack against all.
The meeting, initially scheduled for Monday but then postponed following the president’s last-minute root canal, comes roughly a month ahead of NATO’s annual summit, which is being held in Vilnius, Lithuania. Ostensibly, it served as a routine visit to talk through the issues related to the ongoing war in Ukraine that are likely to dominate the July meetings. Before his meeting with Biden, Stoltenberg stood alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he teased a “robust” new package of defense and political aid for Ukraine that would be unveiled at the Vilnius summit.
Blinken later announced a $325 million tranche, which includes more munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, anti-tank weapons, armored vehicles, artillery rounds and other equipment. “The United States is partnering with over 50 nations to lead efforts in support of Ukraine’s self-defense against Russian aggression,” Blinken said in a statement.
Maybe we should just drop money on the Russians until they surrender.
Is… Joe aware that Ukraine is not a member of NATO?
Joe aware? No.
The line is getting blurred.
The spearhead brigade of the Kiev invasion force getting pounded into dust is fully equipped, from small arms to armor, with NATO weapons and spent the past 6 months training in the UK and other European sites. Might as well be NATO forces.
The fact that the United States is obviously at war with Russia ought to be a bit more concerning to the average American, I would think.
I know propaganda works but holy fuck it is more powerful that I would have ever imagined.
I’m sure our woke, inclusive, DEI, trans, gay, rainbow, etc. military can take on the Ruskies.
NATO is just an idea, like antifa.
the alliance is united in defending Ukraine for as long as it takes to fight off Russian forces
Why? Ukraine is not in the alliance and the alliance is doing nothing but spending treasure and equipment while prolonging the direct belligerents spilling each others blood. This is not NATO’s or the US’s war.
The average attached garage is 1.5x the size of the average bedroom, costs about the same to build, and never holds any cars.
For fifty years people have been tricked into building their house around a glorified shed. Enough. It ends here!
https://twitter.com/EvilVizier/status/1668705348763648000
/looks at two car garage that holds two cars, three bicycles, and assorted other tools and junk.
Garages are for dryfire practice and loading ammo.
I had a 1950’s house with nominally a 2 car garage.
The models of 1950’s cars that would fit in it would be extremely limited. In the sense that to park my Z3 in it, I’d have to stop, and push it until the front bumper contacted the sheetrock, and then the garage door could be closed.
However, getting the paint out of the central TX sun was totally worth it.
Later, after joining Biden in the Oval Office, Stoltenberg said that Ukrainian forces “are making progress” with their just launched counter-offensive. “The more land the Ukrainians are able to liberate, the stronger hand they will have at the negotiating table,” he said.
Negotiate? Never!
This year, organizers aim to raise some $11.2 billion, though humanitarian officials acknowledged that pledges will likely fall short.
Hmm…. $11.2 billion. Not even real money.
Because Americans are more productive and tend to work more than people in other developed countries, they earn substantially more than them.
French workers only have 71% as much disposable income.
Japanese workers only take home 45% as much.
https://twitter.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1668675439529697289
Sounds like nonsense to me. Everyone here knows Europeans are better off, have better healthcare, more vacation, better houses not those too large ones y’all have. And trains. Lots of trains.
Maybe I will at some point get to the states to see for myself.
We were hosting a pride event when a pride event broke out.
It’s like she’s never been to a pride event.
The uproar about some dude taking his shirt off seems a little overblown to me.
Dude who wants it both ways.
Not the greatest ad for that surgeon tbh.
lolright?
How date Blackberry express such naked transphobia!
Free the nipple!
That sort of behavior isn’t appropriate at the White House. They need to take that behavior to elementary schools where it belongs.
Furthering JR’s post about French Polynesia last night, it looks like Air Tahiti has an island flight pass that lets you take 3-6 flights among the different islands to get to some of the off the beaten track islands. I’ve always been fascinated by remote places and especially the islands of the South Pacific since reading Kon Tiki when I was young. I may just have to move that trip way up the bucket list. One of the positives of being in SF is that flights to Pacific destinations are quicker and more reasonable. Looks like I can find sub $600 flights to Tahiti from here.
https://www.airtahiti.com/en/web/air-tahiti-international/airpass-fares
People’s right to know
The operation was devised on the eve of the arraignment.
The chief judge presiding over the Miami federal court in which former President Donald Trump was arraigned on Tuesday had made the decision to prohibit electronics inside the courthouse, presenting a major hurdle for news organizations needing to quickly transmit information from the historic proceeding to the outside world. Without access to electronic devices, the rudimentary task was a formidable one.
After surveying the courthouse on Monday, CNN’s team hatched a plan — one that ultimately led the news network to become the first to report that Trump was in custody and had entered a not guilty plea on 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified intelligence documents.
Smoke signals? Semaphore flags?
Tin cans and a string. Their one viewer appreciated the effort but complained about the audio quality.
Are we expected to believe that somebody isn’t feeding every titillating detail to CNN for the delight of their braying viewers?
Wait, there’s more than one person who watches CNN?
“NEW: From S&P Global to the London Stock Exchange, tobacco companies are crushing Tesla in the ESG ratings. How could cigarettes, which kill over 8 million a year, be deemed a more ethical investment than electric cars?
One answer: Tobacco’s gone woke.🧵”
https://twitter.com/aaronsibarium/status/1668658866337218560
https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/how-tobacco-companies-are-crushing-esg-ratings/
Very long thread if you aren’t already convinced ESG is cancer.
It’s all about political control of corporations.
Both EVs and Tobacco have histories of dependency on slave labor.
“You’ve come a long way, baby!”
Elon is the devil and Philip Morris plays the woke game.
LOL that’s a polite way of saying that ESG is horseshit.
Heads will roll
Houston police are investigating the death of a 4-year-old K-9 who suffered heat exhaustion Monday after being left in an air-conditioned patrol car when the engine unexpectedly shut off, police said.
Houston Police Department K-9 vehicles are equipped with a system that notifies the handler, activates cooling fans and rolls down the windows should a vehicle shut down, police said. However, “this did not happen in this instance,” the Houston Police Department said in a news release.
When the handler returned to the vehicle, he found the dog in distress. The K-9 was taken to a clinic but ultimately died from the heat, the release stated.
“Please keep Aron’s handler and the entire K-9 team in your prayers as they mourn the loss of Aron,” police said, adding that Aron had served with the department for about a year and a half.
“The handler left Aron in a running, air-conditioned patrol vehicle, which is a necessary and common practice when the K-9 partner is not actively engaged in police work,” the statement said. “All HPD vehicles that transport K-9s will immediately be inspected by the vendor to ensure the systems are working properly.”
They should charge the owner of the donut shop with murder.
I thought police dogs were officers and their deaths were to be treated like murdering uniformed enforcers. Shouldn’t they be naming the negligent handler and maintenence staff and prosecuting them on charges of capital murder of a police officer? I mean if we locked officer dogkiller in a hot car until he died, they’d certaily charge us with that.
OBITUARY: TED KACZYNSKI
Pretty good. I’ve never read Ted’s manifesto, but I may have to now.
Uncle Ted made some points.
First time I saw someone here say “RIP Uncle Ted” I thought Ted Nugent had died. haha
The Jam is the subject of the latest Political Beats podcast (NR).
The uproar about some dude taking his shirt off seems a little overblown to me.
Muh decorum!
That’s the sort of thing you would expect at a Trump event.
2023 vibe.
https://twitter.com/TRHLofficial/status/1668937049292914688
See above about deep fake. This is going to get worse.
The PBS one was a deep fake?
Who knows? Neither or both could be fake.
Unless they deep faked the Fox news one into my TV last night it is real.
Not fair
After three years, the pandemic-era freeze on student loan payments will end in late August.
It might seem tempting to just keep not making payments, but the consequences can be severe, including a hit to your credit score and exclusion from future aid and benefits.
More than 40 million Americans will have to start making federal student loan payments again at the end of the summer under the terms of a debt ceiling deal approved by Congress.
——-
Rodriguez says her organization always advises against deferment or forbearance except once a borrower has exhausted all other options. In the long term, those financial choices offer little benefit, as some loans will continue to accrue interest while deferred.
At this point, I’d love to see those loans become dischargeable in bankruptcy, followed by a tsunami of defaults and the collapse of “higher education”.
So long as the feds continue to back the loans themselves, making them bankruptsy eligable will not harm the university scam. You’d need someone on the hook who has a reason to say “No” to the applicants who have no reason to sink themselves into debt for an indoctrination.
If you made the student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy, that just adds more debt to the Federal budget, as that’s who guaranteed the loans.
…but the consequences can be severe, including a hit to your credit score and exclusion from future aid and benefits.
Yeah, that’s not ominous. Can’t people see what’s coming?
If you made the student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy, that just adds more debt to the Federal budget, as that’s who guaranteed the loans.
What difference, at this point, does it make?
On a long road trip. Observation:
Gas prices in red Texas – $3 gallon
Purple Arizona – $4 gallon
California – $5 gallon
Yep. California has its own refinery, and prices are the highest. Ah! and I see this thread is dead. RIP.
Yep. California has its own refinery, and prices are the highest. Ah! and I see this thread is dead. RIP.