You may have heard a hurricane made landfall in California. I just want to mark myself safe due to the reports of rain here in Arizona. All is more or less back to normal other than unseasonably cool forecast of 101 degrees and 67% humidity today.
Enlaces!
For years I kept hearing how America didn’t export anything anymore. We just didn’t know what the world really wanted: Taylor Swift.
A court hearing is scheduled today to decide if Texas gets to keep its shark net floating border in the Rio Grande. My money is on the judge winning.
If I really wanted to kneecap a potential Millei presidency with the shittiest possible economy, I might implement price controls…on food.
Somewhere in this story is a joke with a M*A*S*H* reference to a chicken, but I am not there today.
An “anti-corruption” candidate wins the Guatemalan presidency.
This is probably the most Ecuador headline they could come up with, and the AP didn’t even give me a picture of the banana tycoon. At first glance their election is probably a bigger deal that we might think given Ecuador is a heavily Dollarized economy located geographically in between the two biggest cocaine exporters in the world. Plenty of money laundering in the banana business. They also didn’t think a right wing candidates would be able to gain this much traction in Ecuador either.
Lets do something a little different today.
Rain is allowed in Arizona?
Sometimes.
The monsoons. Were late this year.
I hear this every week when I talk to my Mom and Step Dad.
I’ve never listened to one of her songs.
“but I am not there today”
Yeah, don’t go there.
Unless Taylor Swift performed in a Super Bowl halftime show, I’ve never heard a single song of hers.
I knew you were in trouble when you walked in.
It is all right, grrizzly and Tater — we won’t exile you — I know (all too well) the thought must have you haunted.
Not in your wildest dreams could you ever imagine a Taylor Swift song? Now we got bad blood.
Long story short it was a bad time…. but I bet you’re not sorry.
I’m not, but karma will end up getting me in the end. Still, I’m fearless.
The only good thing about bad blood is letting it slide.
I with the grizzly on this one.
Although I seem to recall hearing something that repeated “shake” over and over and over…
I recall something about people who love Starbucks.
The Starbucks Vocal Band?
What is your End Game? Is it Fearless to Shake It Off, when you Should’ve Said No? Our Song is the Blank Space you have (for Taylor Swift). Look What you Made me Do.
Also, Love Story is playing every time I go in to a grocery store.
Nice — but should have stayed in the thread. Now you’ll have to begin again.
Love Story
Funny – I just heard this week that she’d turned down a Super Bowl gig because supposedly they wanted her to do it for free “for the publicity/exposure.” Can not confirm.
The artists get money to cover the cost of the show (sets, etc). But the artists do not get paid.
Despite what the grumpy old men in this group think, she is bigger than the Super Bowl. She does not need it.
Exactly. Not familiar with her catalog, but given the amount of $$$$ involved in the SB, it seems unfair to me not to compensate the halftime show artist.
She has zero need for more publicity. She just played sold out six nights in a row in a Los Angeles stadium. The cheap seats were going for literally thousands on the secondary market. She’s bigger than the Super Bowl halftime show.
Yeah, super bowl halftime seems to mostly be for stars well after their prime, appealing to the 40+ crowd.
I guess we’ll see her on it in about a decade, then.
She doesn’t need the Super Bowl, but it’s a unique opportunity to have 120+ million people watching you perform live, and her fans would love it.
Don’t worry, it will pass like 1989.
Taylor Swift must have really good PR people. The local media were hyping her concerts in the Bay Area bigly, and it looks like they are running the same script in Latin America.
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard Taylor Swift’s name more on NFL preseason coverage than I have Deshaun Watson’s name.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=taylor+swift+saves+economy
Taylor Swift played two nights in my town last month. It took over the news cycle for three weeks.
Price controls? Why didn’t Biden think of that?
My takeaway from these links is that Taylor Swift needs to endorse the left-wing alternative in Ecuador to ensure that the libertarian (aka “literally worse than Hitler”) wins. Based off of Swift’s political endorsements in the US and her dating history, she’s the kiss of death.
1) She seemed relatively sane before moving to NYC and presumably hanging out in the bubble there more and more. Then she went full proggie.
2) I thought she actually was in a serious relationship (like marriage looming) as of a year or so back. :shrug: I know her songs and her PR make her more than a little on the “crazy” side of the matrix… but honestly I hope she’s faking that to some extent and has a decent enough life. She doesn’t seem like a bad person (just driven, as such people must be), so I don’t harbor ill will towards her — and I would hope anyone who isn’t a total asshole can find some peace and love in their personal life.
We saw her open for Brad Paisley when she was 17 and had maybe two songs out on the country stations. It was the first concert for at least one of my kids. Now none of us can afford her tickets. It’s a good showbiz/American success story so I think it’s cool.
My step-granddaughter was over the moon when she learned she and Taylor were descended from the same Mayflower person (Richard Warren). Got her lots of attention among her girlfriends until she admitted her “cousin” wasn’t about to get them free tickets to her concert.
“Son of banana tycoon pulls off upset in Ecuador and advances to presidential runoff”
So does he beat the commie in the runoff?
https://www.kold.com/2023/08/17/irs-agent-accidentally-shot-killed-by-fellow-agent-during-training-phoenix-gun-range/
Of all the crazy things the federal government does, arming 25 year-old CPAs is in the top five for sure.
Did drugs fall out of either of the agents’ asses?
Can’t be any worse than the Army handing a 22 year old Lt. with a general ed degree an M-16.
How about giving a 20 year old E-4 access to an arms room and a company’s worth of weapons and ammunition?
That’s totally different.
True. An E-4 has experience.
That is why they call them “Specialist”.
Emphasis on the “Special”.
Taylor Swift:
I like flat butts and I don’t know why…
Kinda surprised at the Latins.
Denisse Castro, 26, who has been unemployed for six months, hoped that building a credit history and obtaining a card from the bank sponsoring the concert would help her to secure good seats.
Unfortunately for her, the bank recently tightened its credit restrictions, so Castro could only afford the cheapest tickets.
Sound financial decision-making seems to be a universal constant among young people.
I am enjoying the tune. Thanks for that.
So youtube feeds me this as a suggestion
The xx – Intro 3 hour extended mix with rain
They gave me a 7 hour version
As am I.
One of those bands I am vaguely aware of but couldn’t name a song.
Not a team player
After a fifteen-minute call, Musk agreed to give the Pentagon more time. He also, after public blowback and with evident annoyance, walked back his threats to cut off service. “The hell with it,” he tweeted. “Even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.” This June, the Department of Defense announced that it had reached a deal with SpaceX.
——-
In the past twenty years, against a backdrop of crumbling infrastructure and declining trust in institutions, Musk has sought out business opportunities in crucial areas where, after decades of privatization, the state has receded. The government is now reliant on him, but struggles to respond to his risk-taking, brinkmanship, and caprice. Current and former officials from nasa, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration told me that Musk’s influence had become inescapable in their work, and several of them said that they now treat him like a sort of unelected official. One Pentagon spokesman said that he was keeping Musk apprised of my inquiries about his role in Ukraine and would grant an interview with an official about the matter only with Musk’s permission. “We’ll talk to you if Elon wants us to,” he told me. In a podcast interview last year, Musk was asked whether he has more influence than the American government. He replied immediately, “In some ways.” Reid Hoffman told me that Musk’s attitude is “like Louis XIV: ‘L’état, c’est moi.’ ”
Musk’s power continues to grow. His takeover of Twitter, which he has rebranded “X,” gives him a critical forum for political discourse ahead of the next Presidential election. He recently launched an artificial-intelligence company, a move that follows years of involvement in the technology. Musk has become a hyper-exposed pop-culture figure, and his sharp turns from altruistic to vainglorious, strategic to impulsive, have been the subject of innumerable articles and at least seven major books, including a forthcoming biography by Walter Isaacson. But the nature and the scope of his power are less widely understood.
Long anguished thumbsucker (TW: the New Yorker) about E Musk. If we had a global socialist dictatorship we could just take his stuff and do whatever we want with it.
Heavens to Betsy, no!
Those agencies have an unlimited well of cash but couldn’t accomplish a fraction of what one guy in the private sector did while risking his own money. They all deserve to be defunded.
Not mentioned in the first half of this long ass piece is the reason SpaceX cut service in contested areas of Ukraine was the mandated embargo by FedGov.
Not because Musk wanted Ukrainians dead. But that doesn’t sound as dramatic.
I remain perplexed at the phenomenon. I know nothing about her other than she looks like a drag queen in that picture.
LOL and apparently she treats her fans like shit, too.
I’m with you. I’m sure I’ve heard her songs and I remember crazy Kanye and her at some award show, but that’s it.
We can’t all listen to obscure jazz bands or death metal….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo7mYqaMKXA
That obscure jazz band sold out dude, dead to me now.
Phenomenon is the right word to describe her. It’s like the Beatles or Elvis the amount of sheer adoration she inspires in people. I respect her ability to write and record the sheer amount of pop hits that she has had. That’s not an easy thing.
As far as the fan thing, I don’t think she is treating them like shit, and is actually doing the opposite in a way. There is such demand for the tickets that she is at least giving her real fans a shot at a ticket. The woman just easily sold out 6 nights in a row in a stadium in LA for Christ sakes. That is unreal.
It is amazing to me how easy it is to avoid such a juggernaut. In an earlier age it would not have been possible to avoid someone like that.
Yes. You can now listen to anything you want on demand. Back in the day you had a few radio stations to pick from, and they mostly played the same thing.
For me it usually comes down to what my kids are into. Neither listened to TS, but my son loved Foo Fighters and my daughter made me suffer through a Bieber phase and I ended up taking her to a Fall Out Boy concert. I dodged the 21 Pilots and Imagine Dragons shows, though. She never thought it was funny that I called them 21 Beta-males and Imagine Dragoons.
I took the middle kid to Fall Out Boy and 21 Pilots, and I enjoyed both. I also took her to Panic at the Disco with Wheezer and Pixies, and she liked the latter two bands.
I took my son to his first concert at 12yo, Tool. It ended up being a make-up show, so not too great. But still.
My only experience with Ta-Ta is the Ryan Adams cover album of her 1989, song for song in his own style. Other than that, not my thing at all.
My daughter loves her, she’s seen her in concert a couple of times. Apparently her songs are full of links and references to each other, things that have happened to her, places she’s been or lived in, and people she’s been with. Her fanbase spends a lot of time deconstructing them to find hidden messages or narratives, and they really get into it.
Yeah, I like a lot of her music (barring the Reputation / Lover eras… I just despise hip hop and that was way too hip-hoppy for me…), but I’m not that rabid. I leave that to the teenyboppers.
Same. But I do think it partly explains why her fanbase is so rabid. Her songs are personal and connect with them on what they perceive as a pretty deep level.
I’d actually count myself as a fan of hers. Not enough to go to a concert, but I dig a lot of her music. I spend half of each workday driving around, and while I stream music when I am actually working, I listen to the radio driving and she is inescapable on the FM dial. A few years ago I realized how good she was to be able to keep the hits coming. I respect that.
Longevity in that world is truly an accomplishment.
As far as I know, I’ve never heard any of her music.. She is one of those people who the camera just loves; I know when I run across her on a screen, she holds my eye.
I also gather she is a pretty capable performer, but with the general shit state of music production these days and the hugely overblown stadium shows, its probably hard to tell.
You know, if that guy didn’t contact me to whine and sulk that I ‘took his position’ I wouldn’t have used my contacts on the Air Traffic side to reach out to their peers to get a feel for exactly what type of technician he is.
Why he never would have thought he trying to spoil the pot before my arrival would backfire on him is probably an indication of why he wasn’t selected.
I have already swung the favor in my direction even before me stepping into the job. I would have never done that if he just graciously said congrats instead of whining to my wife during a tour of CVG begging me not to take the job.
Next up, you should totally bang his wife too.
Q perks up his ears and preps a “Cuck” response….
Lol. Nice.
“STANDING HOVATION: Who will perform at Super Bowl halftime 2024, slated for 2/11 at the Las Vegas-adjacent Allegiant Stadium? Taylor Swift, who would be a logical choice given her mind-blowingly successful year, has supposedly passed. We don’t know if this is just spin from Swift Nation HQ and she wants a big check from the NFL rather than incurring the substantial cost of mounting the show. That is a non-starter, of course—other performers have had to come up with a large sum to pay for the production. Dr. Dre, for example, is said to have put together a multimillion-dollar budget for his huge hip-hop tribute.”
https://hitsdailydouble.com/near_truths_item&id=337247&title=NEAR-TRUTHS%3A-LINES-OF-SCRIMMAGE
So, she wont get down on her knees for just anyone?
During the Starlink controversy, Musk called him for advice. But other officials expressed profound misgivings. “Living in the world we live in, in which Elon runs this company and it is a private business under his control, we are living off his good graces,” a Pentagon official told me. “That sucks.”
What an outrage!
As I said above, if these agencies had done a better job, they wouldn’t need Musk.
“Wealthy residents in Dem-led Bay Area city are branded NIMBYs for fighting to keep 100 homeless people from being housed in $134-a-night hotel – despite 75% voting for California Gov. Gavin Newsom progressive policies”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12433215/Wealthy-residents-Dem-led-Bay-Area-city-branded-NIMBYs-fighting-100-homeless-people-housed-134-night-hotel-despite-75-voting-California-Gov-Gavin-Newsom-progressive-policies.html
“LA Mayor Karen Bass slams Texas Gov. Greg Abbot for sending bus of migrants to the city as Tropical Storm Hilary caused widespread chaos: ‘It’s evil to endanger their lives'”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12434051/Karen-Bass-Greg-Abbot-Tropical-Storm-Hilary.html
Can we sell California to Mexico?
Only if you give me time to get out first.
You mean we haven’t already?
I think we’re just kind of giving it back.
Economy Minister Sergio Massa made the announcement after a meeting with supermarket representatives, noting that officials reached the deal with representatives of 31 local supermarket chains to “stabilize” prices until national elections scheduled for October.
Massa himself is running for president as the standard-bearer of the ruling Peronist coalition, after he won its nomination in last Sunday’s primary vote.
Ahh, a Peronist. That explains it.
Bernardo Arevalo’s victory is seen as a repudiation of the political elite in the Central American nation, long the target of corruption allegations.
The 64-year old former diplomat led his rival, former first lady Sandra Torres, 58% to 37% with all votes counted.
“The people of Guatemala have spoken forcefully,” Mr Arevalo told reporters. “Enough with so much corruption.”
Hmm… wonder how he compares to Gloria Alvarez?
Left-winger Luisa Gonzalez is leading in Ecuador’s presidential election overshadowed by the assassination of one of the candidates.
The folks on the FreedomFest Latin America panel predicted leftists would gain in the upcoming Ecuadorean election.
On topic!
Weak Hurricane Hilary Performance Blamed On Russian Interference
Bwahahahaha!
New headline: “Not-news site maintains heroic effort to get as many Hilary jokes in as possible before storm dissipates.”
They are pretty good though. I must go read some more.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see that headline there.
“Hurricane Hillary has more raindrops than New York Super Storm Trump, but fails to get the state wet.”
“EXCLUSIVE: BA.2.86 Covid variant IS spreading in the US: Virginia resident who traveled from Japan becomes second US patient to be infected with mutant strain – as experts say case is just the tip of the iceberg”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12433597/bax-ba286-second-case-covid-usa-virginia-japan.html
No.
They will get their fear mongering on and the people will gladly step in line once again.
I don’t know, it takes the cities to do what they did last time, and it destroyed their tax base in the process. I am not sure they will go along this time.
I could be wrong though.
The cities are still run by cobalt-blue myrmidons who will do what they’re told, and there are still a boatload of Karens who will repeat the
liesshibboleths unquestioningly.The positive case was detected in an asymptomatic patient in Virginia who was tested August 10 after returning to the US from Japan.
Why the fuck are we testing people who aren’t sick?
How else will we keep them in line?
The talking points seem to have gone out to the media. Multiple outlets using the same language. An “uptick in cases”. Not an increase, not more cases, an “uptick”. Maybe the word was focus grouped. The new Covid booster will be more effective against the new strain, so go get boosted when it comes out. Get your RSV shot if you’re over 60. And do it by Halloween.
Yup. There’s been local “upticks” in my part of the world, too. Single digit percentage increases if you read far enough into the article, but that’s sure to change…mask up!!!!!11
Upticks from a very low base.
Buried way the fuck at the bottom, the ONLY thing you need to know: “He warned that the strain may be more transmissible than other currently circulating Covid variants, but added there was no data to suggest it was more likely to cause severe disease or death than other variants.”
Which by all logic it’s just now part of the common cold
It is. And I’m sure you could write this exact story about common cold variants with scary-sounding mutations.
Th whole family had a cold this summer. It was a PIA, but nothing more. It was probably COVID and I don’t give a shit.
Look at it from pharma’s viewpoint, they finally found a way to sell a cure for the common cold, without even having an actual cure.
You mean like every respiratory virus since God first sneezed?
Sweet Jesus we’re done for.
Yup… next up, a new variant of the Spanish Flu — we must lock down the country!
Highly mutated, like Godzilla levels!
“mutant strain”
Well, seeing as every variant is a mutation, you can just fuck right off with your fear-mongering.
I just noticed that my local paper has started putting a link to a Coronavirus Tracker in the sidebar of their articles.
Bernardo Arevalo’s victory is seen as a repudiation of the political elite in the Central American nation, long the target of corruption allegations.
Imagine how corrupt you have to be to get other Latin American countries to point at you and say “Those guys… muy corrupto, jefe.”
A local US politician* was showing a visitor from a corrupt country** around. They passed by a bridge and the US politician says to his guest. “See that bridge, I got 10% of all the construction contracts for that bridge.” The foreign politician says, “Hmm, that’s very good.”
Sometime later the US politician goes to visit the corrupt country. While his counterpart was showing him the sight of his country, they pass a ravine and the foreign politician says, “You see that bridge over there.” The US politician says, “What bridge, there’s nothing there?” The foreign politician points to himself and with a big smile says, “100%”
*Insert corrupt US location of choice
** Insert country of choice
Morphy Auctions September firearms and militaria auction catalog is up.
Nice. I saw a great Colt Maxim machine gun in there on wooden carriage wheels.
Strafford County, NH sheriff on paid leave
Disgraced Strafford County Democrat Sheriff Mark Brave, facing a 24-hour deadline from the county commission, announced Monday night he would step down from his post and accept paid leave while his criminal case moves forward.
The county’s three-member commission voted earlier Monday to give Brave until noon Tuesday to go on paid administrative leave or face an expulsion vote by members of the county delegation of elected representatives.
Monday night, he caved.
“As I continue to ensure that you all are informed of processes, I wanted to let you know I have made the difficult decision to take administrative leave while the investigation, due diligence, and the legal process continues,” Brave said in a statement. “While I maintain that I am innocent, and none of my spending of [sic] out of state line items was due to deceive the county or the people of Strafford County, I do want to make sure that the wonderful team at SCSO is able to function without added stressors to their already difficult positions.”
More details on the case here.
This is odd.
https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1694042015338742267
That is puzzling.
Their version of spin on this on Monday was “Biden has a big blind spot where his son is concerned, and it might come back to bite him”. That really is some next-level spin.
They still seem to be going with the “it is all about the son and he didn’t know anything” deflection, which is odd for a bribery scheme in which the President is the key player and the son is the bag man.
The father and son are so close and talk to each other several times a day, yet Joe had no knowledge of anything his son did.
Before Joe went bye-bye I’ll bet he was pissed that Beau tipped and he was stuck with the retard.
Same thing they did in 2020 with Cuomo. There are factions behind the scenes who are worried that he can’t do it and want their own guy.
Who is Newsome aligned with? Is he a Clinton guy or an Obama guy?
Newsom has been in FL a lot the last few months giving speeches. Now why would he do that? 🤔
Well, not because he has a chance in hell of winning the state. Not if DiSantis gets the nod anyway.
My guess is that he is trying to get DiSantis to elevate him to the status of the pre-eminant democrat and presumptive nominee by debating him in the press.
This. He wants the stamp of approval, and one of the best ways to get it is to be taken as a contender.
But DeSantis fucked up on his rush to the top, and so the whole thing is kind of a non-event.
Why the fuck are we testing people who aren’t sick?
Desperation.
Dinero.
Elon Musk should buy U S Steel, just to gain ownership of the ticker symbol.
“X”
The hatred for Musk is really remarkable. And the stuff they make up is astonishing. For some reason it is really important to a huge swath of the left that he not only is terrible in every way, but he didn’t actually start any companies or design anything or build anything. He stole it all, none of it actually works and it is all just a grift…. and he inherited all of his money anyway.
This article seems to have all of those thoughts swimming around in the background of the writer’s head. Starlink doesn’t really work, it is just a scam, but it is vital infrastructure that he is hoarding from the public and he probably stole it anyway and it really should belong to the people. He only gave away a hundred million dollar wartime contract for free because it is really all just a grift to get the taxpayers to pay for everything.
The newest iteration is that Starship is all a scam that will never work and is just a grift to get money for the lunar lander – a program that will pay SpaceX a tiny fraction of what other companies want for delivering a tiny fraction of the capabilities of a starship lunar lander.
The anti-musk crowd desperately wants the EPA to ground SpaceX in Texas because – get this – when they launched their first orbital test article, it kicked up a bunch of sand! Also, they plan to dump a bunch of clean, fresh water on the ground.
The rest of the launch providers are fully claws out – if this monster works as Musk intends, I really don’t see how anyone else ever wins a fair contract bid. Over 100 tons to LEO at an internal cost of a couple of million bucks? Maybe as little as a million, if Musk’s hyperbolic wet dreams are even close to reality. No wonder all of these mystery “advocacy groups” are so hot and bothered.
My reply to said advocacy groups.
The last guy on the escalator made me LOL.
If you like to keep up on this stuff, check out LabPadre on YouTube. They mostly cover SpaceX (probably because SpaceX is by far the most active), but they cover things the other companies are doing, too. They have live feeds at a bunch of locations, and also do a weekly status update showing all the stuff that happened that week (which has been moving at an insane pace at their Texas facility lately). Just a few months ago I was reading articles about how much trouble SpaceX was after all the damage with that test launch, and now they already have the pad rebuilt with new water cooled steel plates that have been tested and are working, on top of continuing to rapidly expand the construction areas and building multiple new rockets and boosters.
The newest iteration is that Starship is all a scam that will never work
To be fair, it is
Best part is reading their conflicts about loving his cars and hating the man.
They don’t have this issue with their iPhone and slaves at Foxconn because Apple makes the right gestures.
Watching my true bleever brother in law – a huge EV and Tesla fan – tie himself in knots trying to disavow and virtue signal simultaneously has been endlessly entertaining.
I read them on the car forums and it is a hoot!
I have a genuine prog teammate and that’s exactly what he’s said about Musk. He’s not to be trusted, he’s not smart, all those talking points.
I can understand not trusting him, but that’s because I don’t trust any public figure completely. To say he’s not smart is ridiculous. He invests in a lot of stuff, and will probably get some things wrong, which people can seize on and say he’s an idiot, but overall, he’s done pretty darn well. I don’t particularly like that he’s gotten rich off taxpayer subsidies via Tesla and Solar City, but don’t hate the player, hate the game. As for what he’s done with Twitter, it seems if anything it has improved, except for renaming it X.
Now do George Soros or Bill Gates
These same people used to adore him. But you make one little stand for freedom of speech, and suddenly the left doesn’t want you any more. Says a lot.
For the life of me I can’t remember why they hated him so much even before X.
Was it nonunion workers or some shit?
This is a really good breakdown of the Trump phenomenon with a great description of the Lake of the Ozarks. I had forgotten about the horror about the massive parties that were held there despite the shrieking of the health harpies in 2020. The 23 year old who wrote this had a great piece on buying a farm at 22 that was linked on realclearpolitics today.
https://www.thefp.com/p/welcome-to-the-maga-hamptons
Great article
If the Beltway types had just half that much insight into it, they’d have half more than they do now.
I really dug his piece on buying a farm in Iowa and his rationale for doing so. Here it is.
https://www.thefp.com/p/i-bought-iowa-farm-at-age-22
love it
Wow, that was quite a story.
Nut punch or inspiring, I’m not sure.
Excellent article.
I was just in Jackson. They absolutely failed this important test.
To be fair, you’re not sweet.
Officials who have worked at osha and at an equivalent California agency told me that Musk’s influence, and his attitude about regulation, had made their jobs difficult. The Biden Administration, which is urgently trying to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, has concluded that it needs to work with Musk, because of his dominant position in the electric-car market. And Musk’s personal wealth dwarfs the entire budget of osha, which is tasked with monitoring the conditions in his workplaces. “You add on the fact that he considers himself to be a master of the universe and these rules just don’t apply to people like him,” Jordan Barab, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor at osha, told me. “There’s a lot of underreporting in industry in general. And Elon Musk kind of seems to raise that to an art form.” Garrett Brown, a former field-compliance inspector at California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, added, “We have a bad health-and-safety situation throughout the country. And it’s worse in companies run by people like Elon Musk, who was ideologically opposed to the idea of government enforcement of public-health regulations.”
What sort of monster doubts the necessity of very single government regulation? Without OSHA, factories would be dumping dead and maimed workers in the streets by the thousands every single day.
Your typical OSHA inspector can’t find their own asshole without the assistance of a proctologist and a full set of safety regulations.
That April, after county officials extended shelter-in-place orders, Musk was on a conference call with outside financial analysts. His rhetoric became nakedly political, to an extent that would have been uncharacteristic just a few years earlier. “I would call it forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all of their constitutional rights,” he told the analysts, speaking of the lockdowns. “What the fuck?” he added. “It’s an outrage. An outrage. . . . This is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their goddam freedom.” The pandemic seems to have sparked a pronounced shift in Musk. The lockdowns represented an example of what Hoffman told me Musk considered to be a cardinal sin: “getting in the way of the mission.”
Elon Musk is a science denier!
His rhetoric became nakedly political, to an extent that would have been uncharacteristic just a few years earlier. “I would call it forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all of their constitutional rights,” he told the analysts, speaking of the lockdowns.
Keeping the people locked down wasn’t political at all, nosirree.
Hey Tundra, this is right up your alley:
Ryan Adams doing Black Sheets of Rain.
Wow. That was excellent. I loved his banter, too.
Is he one of your regulars?
And everyone should listen to that album once in awhile. It’s a 10/10
95 degrees and the dew point is 82. Tomorrow we should hit 100. Awesome.
We were 100 yesterday, but 16% and a low dewpoint.
Honestly, it still sucks. Rain and cooler temps en route, though.
HEAT DOME!!! is heading west so we are getting mid 80s and lower humidity.
How are your apple trees doing?
Had a big load of Whitney crabs, from an old tree. 3 of the nursery trees had a few apples on them, I’m thinking next year I may see a few more. The baby trees from seed are growing well. if anyone wants to take some after HH we’ll dig them up. I think now they are dormant enough to move. Later would be better though.
The drought has been hard on them. I lost one tree. I’ll plant another next spring.
Some of the trees have apples for the first year. They’re all stunted and small now.
But I’ve been watering them. And they mostly seem to be healthy enough.
How I imagine Kinnath
Yes, please.
Some people who know Musk well still struggle to make sense of his political shift. “There was nothing political about him ever,” a close associate told me. “I’ve been around him for a long time, and had lots of deep conversations with the man, at all hours of the day—never heard a fucking word about this.”
This whole tedious article is packed with examples of government officials making things difficult for him just because they can. But his “sudden” anti-government tirades just came out of nowhere.
Paywalled NYT. She was wearing tight clothes and asking for it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/business/media/kansas-newspaper-marion-county-record.html
Keeeeev making new cemeteries.
This is so fucked up.
A good read.
https://twitter.com/Inversionism/status/1693753424628633787
Besides that being a demonstrably false statement because there are immunologically inert substances which are not harmless…
Didn’t your kid have issues with aluminum?
God damn do I wish I had known even a little about this bullshit 20 years ago. I was conditioned – admittedly – to think the anti-vax people were lunatics. No excuse, of course, but damn.
Yes, he did.
All I can be thankful for was that he was born right after they got rid of thimerosal, because that probably would have killed him or rendered him completely autistic and non-verbal.
These fuckers.
Thimerosal and Vaccines
Fuck me, they even use the same language.
And it’s an outright lie. They absolutely know it’s a lie.
Look up the Simpsonwood papers. They realized their massive fuckup and deliberately decided to bury it instead of coming clean. Because coming clean would have compromised their perceived authority and their grift.
It’s interesting that even after St. Ronnie gifted them immunity, they never stopped lying.
Do you think they were only in it for the money?!?
The liability shield was granted because the DTP (not the TDaP) vaccine was killing kids. So in the name of public health, they granted the manufacturers immunity. Had to save our glorious public health programs.
It’s no coincidence that the childhood schedule started blowing up immediately thereafter. Almost mandatory treatments for every child and no risk of lawsuits? The pharma companies jumped right onto it and ghouls in the government like Fauci saw their golden opportunity.
They all deserve the boats.
They all deserve the boats.
Yes. I would help.
I have family and friends that are having kids. Amy good resources for keeping them safe?
You seem to have more knowledge about this than anyone I’ve come across.
The first one to avoid is the Hep B vaccine. Unless you strenuously object, they will administer it on the newborn’s first day.
By strenuous I mean you have to threaten lawsuits because the nurse will just do it without even checking the baby’s paperwork because they just do it all the time. Ask me how I know.
The Hep B vaccine is pure grift. 99.9% of kids are never exposed and those that do get it are almost always born to junkie mothers. There is absolutely no reason to put it into your kid.
Beyond that point, it’s about doctor selection, and that’s not an easy task. Pediatricians are some of the most close-minded, highly educated and morally arrogant dipshits I’ve ever met. They’re in their own class, even among doctors.
Check for the local homeschool networks and start asking around. Other people have already been through it and they are usually the best resources in a community.
As far as books go, this is probably a safe introduction that won’t scare the bejeezus out of them. Vaccines 2.0: The Careful Parent’s Guide to Making Safe Vaccination Choices for Your Family
Thanks, Scruff.
I appreciate it.
“The first one to avoid is the Hep B vaccine. Unless you strenuously object, they will administer it on the newborn’s first day.”
WTF?? Do they also give the baby a zippo and a pack of condoms?
Why the fuck is the mayor of NYC in Israel?
Probably wants to run for state office and needs AIPAC support.
He solved all the problems in NYC. Raise taxes on the rich.
Probably better than being in NYC right now.
I remember them pulling similar shit in Germany a few years ago. I’m sure nobody saw this coming to the U.S. 🙄
“Then, as one organism, the Glibertariat sat down to eat. Electronic devices set aside. The site could wait. The combined desire to eat dinner spanned time zones. Scientists who studied the phenomenon later said it resembled the coordination of menses among unrelated female roommates.”
Not eating yet, but very soon – it’s Fish Stick Day!
Yum! Homemade burgers with sweet jalapeños hete.
Leftover spaghetti and meatballs and leftover hamburger and mac & cheese.