So the Taylor Swift show is on tonight, but unfortunately will be sporadically interrupted by some football game. Spud is in town, so WebDom, l0b0T, Tomb Raider, and I will be gathered over at his place to see if we can consume sufficient intoxicants to blot out the proceedings.
It’s an amazingly packed day for birthdays, so I’ll have to skip many that I’d usually comment on, but will not skip one of the most prescient, brilliant, influential, and not generally known scientists of the past few centuries; the older version of Mickey Rooney; a guy who cursed us with several more generations of imbeciles; my favorite Martian; Jethro’s dad; a guy whose fame was a dead end; a guy who thought he was Jack Kennedy; a guy who actually gave me some culinary training; a guy whose name wasn’t Shirley; the least interesting castaway; a guy who proved that pineapple =/= swinger; an actor who was actually an interesting human; frontman for one of my favorite prog bands; one of the dumbest people in the Senate, where there’s a lot of competition; someone you shouldn’t shake hands with; Animal’s favorite politician; a chick with famous nipples; and a guy who really walks the fine line between hilariously entertaining and stark raving nuts.
OK, speaking of nuts, here’s some Links:
On the one hand, there’s a good argument to be made for the US stopping most foreign aid and getting out of organizations like NATO. On the other, there’s always the stupidest way of making that argument. Gripping hand, Trump will inevitably make the stupidest argument. Get ready for President Harris.
At least I’m not retarded enough to live in Idaho. /gives Spud a side-eye.
If Team Blue did this, half the party would be gone.
Let’s be honest, the dude is as senile as Biden.
Maybe the Old Man was feeling a touch melancholy. Maybe the Old Man was just feeling old. Whatever. Last Days of Prine was somehow appropriate.
dumbest people in the Senate
Impossible to guess that one.
Fitzgerald was the only Democrat to represent New England in Congress.
Hard to imagine that Massachusetts these days.
Well, I guess that answers THAT question.
He’s at the age where he’d be fucking Lovie.
—“Heâs at the age where heâd be fucking Lovie”””
When I was young, the discussion was “Mary Ann or Ginger”.
Now that I am old(er), I get to choose from all three.
Mary Ann was preferable but I wouldnât have kicked Ginger out of bed for eating crackers.
I’m stumped as to who the opposite sex equivalents would be, as far as “A or B?”
Wait — there wasn’t a mass discussion for “Professor or Gilligan?”
I’m stunned and shocked….
Bo or Luke maybe (a bit later?) Ponch or John? (That one makes a lot more sense… the more “bad boy” with the relationship stability of a wet noodle or the more likely to stick with you but more “boring” rule follower…)
Your latter two pairs are good options…but I never really watched either show.
…and I DID think the Professor was kinda hot. I wonder if that’s why I’m still a sucker for smart boys…?
Professor was indeed cute.
Mr. Brady or Sam the butcher?
Maybe Greg Brady or Keith Partridge?
No contest.
Which one of the Hardy boys?
Never really watched that one either, but didn’t one of those actors marry Kirstie Alley? That one.
Kojack or Baretta?
Starsky or Hutch?
Crockett or Tubbs?
James Evans or Isaac from the Love Boat?
Chester, Quint, or Festus
Who the fuck would cast a fecking Norwegian for anything? Other than being a foot taller than Ken Curtis, I’m not sure what Arness brought to the table.* NewWife’s emotional demonstrations range the gamut from A to B….it’s just not in these icy behemoths.
* thanks for your service! đ
Sheâs desperate, heâs stupid.
With apologies to a lot of people around here, it would be a good thing if we could dispense with the idea that serving the state in any capacity is automatically praiseworthy and deserving of plus points in a political debate.
Family tradition of military service gives us fourth-generation imbeciles like John McCain.
McCain
They escaped MS, and look how little they did with it.
“Thank you for your service” has always been a bit of an eye roller for me.
What’s that? Your service didn’t make me or anyone else a lick safer or more free?
Who did you serve, exactly? Oh, you helped enrich and empower a bunch of sociopaths in the MIC, the federal government and questionable “allies” overseas? Cool. Thanks a lot, dipshits.
You should have kept your happy asses at home.
My dad had 18 months stolen out of his life courtesy of the peacetime draft.
He had ragweed allergies, so they sent him to White Sands in New Mexico, where he promptly discovered he was also allergic to tumbleweed pollen.
I like to joke that Dad helped prevent the missiles from getting in the hands of Ernst Blofeld, or maybe the illegal immigrants.
Is that really why they sent him there? Iâm going to be retiring before too terrible long and itâd be nice to live somewhere Iâm not sneezing all the time.
That’s what Dad says. They could have sent him to Germany like Elvis since he speaks German.
He also says the doctors at the Army physical told him he had terrible teeth. He didn’t need dentures until he was 84.
So the Taylor Swift show is on tonight, but unfortunately will be sporadically interrupted by some football game.
I have a feeling Westwood One will focus a bit more on the game. It’s not as if they can show the halftime show either.
I’m glad I didn’t SugarFree the link, even though I didn’t close the tag properly.
They’re starting their coverage at 2:00??
CBS is starting NFL related stuff at 11:30 AM, with The NFL Today coming on at 2:00 PM.
someone you shouldnât shake hands with
Dad was a grocery, a tiny gear in a huge corporation that moved us every two years so we would never need to renew our library cards. They sent us TN in 1974, a sweet town with a huge new tire plant, more than one traffic light, and their superintendent could even read. Escaping MS was my first claim to fame, one that I share with everyone from Kermit to Darth Vader and from Elvis to Oprah: we had found Mayberry.
When corporate decided to shuffle the deck again, the next stop was Kennett, MO, maybe 40 miles as the crow flies. For the first time in his life, Dad said no to somebody, to something…..and they took it well. My sister and I went on to incredible academic success, and Dad kept that job and our dental plan for 43 years.
But I never met Sheryl Crow.
Well — you’re an original and it sounds like you walked that diamond road after decided a change would do you good. I mean — c’mon, c’mon my attempts at getting out of California continue to crash and burn. But everyday is a winding road, so all I wanna do is get home and have a nice ordinary morning.
No one said it would be easy and I know why.
Out before Swiss throws the book at me — chances are by the time he gets up, I’ll be real gone.
whaddup doh’
yo whats goody yo
Ginger was the least interesting castaway? The starlet in Hollywoodâs Golden Years? Doubtful, just think what she had to get those roles back then-banging Harvey Weinstein probably seemed like an evening with Brad Pitt in comparison.
I think psychologically she might be interesting if only to answer the question of “Why the extended wardrobe for a 3 hour tour?”
Instagram photos. Duh.
Im off to skip church and take Tres Ver 2.0 to breakfast and then the range.
TALL CANS!
Enjoy yourself — sounds like you’ve got a shot at a great day.
Personally, I think you’re being a little harsh — and the article author was more than a little misleading given the facts they put out there.
This is a Florida Bill, not a policy proposal by DeSantis — and there’s no quote from DeSantis on it one way or another. Just “It is in Florida and a R proposed it (how many influential D’s are left there are this point?)! And then the quote at the end from FL Dept. of Ag:
That’s more likely bureaucrat “Ban it until proven otherwise” than a firm position on the matter from DeSantis — the entire extent of the governor’s office position on it being “didn’t respond to requests for comment” after all. The idea of the government being “You have to prove it is safe” isn’t unheard of for the last century, after all.
I mean, maybe he’s all for the bill. Maybe he hates “artificial” meat. Maybe he thinks this is throwing red cloned tissue at his bbq loving, tail gating, swamp gator harvesting fan base. Can’t tell from the article at all…. it could just as easily be “What? No idea what the hell you’re talking about and we’ll worry about it if it gets out of the legislature so ‘No comment'”. Who’s to say?
Fair points.
Our politics are all cult of personality. Honestly, Yusef wants to know why all the black pills – that’s why. We are a stupid people by and large, but most of all the closer you get to the top (and/or influence).
The depressing part is humankind are a stupid people, not just Americans. I donât think thereâs a single nation on the planet thatâs got their shit together.
boom: how could it be otherwise
and how could anyone think that a majority of the mob should be entrusted to decide who should be in charge of squandering half of my earnings?
We are no smarter, or dumber for that matter, than anyone else.
That was Festus.
Well I knew it wasn’t Rufus.
Cause the world sucks right now,
Black pills indeed,
Cheers!
A lot of this stuff is I think conservatives skipping ahead to the inevitable plot twist. Most sane people are more than happy to give transgendered adults the same rights everyone else has, and some also want to respect their choices regardless of whether they agree with them. You only get one of these and if you think this will make you happy… And then five years later they start chopping off parts from six year olds. And everyone suddenly says, “wait, what?”
The reason _why_ there’s a push for artificial meat is because they’re planning on preventing you from eating cows, pigs and chickens down the line. You _know_ they’re planning this, they’ve talked about doing this for the sake of reducing carbon emissions. “You will eat the bugs.” And so conservatives take the bait by throwing a tizzy over the seemingly benign appearance of meat substitutes, making themselves look bad.
No artificial meat shouldn’t be banned, but neither should real meat, and that is what’s eventually on the agenda. DeSantis just isn’t clever enough to navigate this trap.
I am a little sensitive to this because of the stereotype of vegetarians (and especially vegans) being intolerant of other people’s food choices. I *wish* people wouldn’t kill pigs for food, but there’s no way I would ever want that put into a form of legal compulsion. Unfortunately the stereotype has too much truth to it…
Tomb Raider points out that I personally have the perfect Prog profile and vegetarianism is part of that. “Yet somehow… you’re a fascist.”
You advocate for state control of private enterprise?
I do? Since when?
I was making a lame joke about the use of “fascist”
On the plus side, nobody fantasizes about being ravaged by a progressiveâŠ
Someone is being facetious calling you a fascist. Or she’s a perfect example of my misanthropic characterization above.
Tomb Raider apparently does not know who else was a vegetarian.
Bambi?
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 02/11:
*23/23 words (+11 bonus words)
đ In the top 3% by bonus words
I played https://squaredle.com 02/11:
67/67 words (+30 bonus words)
đ In the top 15% by bonus words
đ„ Solve streak: 140
The main one was a bit tricky today.
Yeah — I had to turn on hints and definitely messed up accuracy because of some of the bonus words being misspellings of normal forms (so I had to think about “Is that variant allowed?”). Plus I suck at stupid salad dressing spellings, apparently.
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 02/11:
*23/23 words (+2 bonus words)
đŻ Perfect accuracy
I played https://squaredle.com 02/11:
67/67 words (+11 bonus words)
đŻ In the top 7% by accuracy
đ„ Solve streak: 237
I played https://squaredle.com 02/11:
67/67 words (+35 bonus words)
đ In the top 8% by bonus words
I wonder how Swift-Kelce compares to Monroe-Dimaggio as a popular culture phenomenon.
I thought you were going to compare her to Natalie Wood — but Swift boating is so 2008.
The White House appeared to slam former President Trump over comments he made about NATO in a Saturday statement.
âThanks to President Bidenâs experienced leadership, NATO is now the largest and most vital it has ever been,â White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in the statement. âEncouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged â and it endangers American national security, global stability, and our economy at home.â
At a rally in South Carolina Saturday, the former president spoke about his time as president and how he worked with NATO. He called the organization âbustedâ before he entered the presidency, and seemingly made reference to contributions that the members have to make to the alliance.
âOne of the presidents of a big country stood up, said, âWell, sir, if we donât pay and weâre attacked by Russia, will you protect us?ââ Trump said at the rally. âI said, âYou didnât pay, youâre delinquent. He said, âYes, letâs say that happened.â No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.â
At the same rally, Trump railed against a Senate foreign aid bill, saying instead that the U.S. should âgive it to âem as a loan.â
What would they use as collateral?
The bioweapons from the labs there?
And NATO being the “largest” is part of the problem there, Mr. Bates…. it shouldn’t be that large, it shouldn’t be up on Russia’s borders given they see it as a threat (and I can’t really argue with their reasons all that much). And if you see the alliance as a contract (which is not unreasonable) of course saying “We won’t fulfill our end of the deal if you’re shining us on the rest of the time!” I’d say “unbelievable” — but this is “wrong on every foreign policy” PPP’s administration, after all.
âI canât really argue with their reasons all that muchâ
Itâs understandable, yes. I do think the notion that NATO would invade Russia is ludicrous, no matter how long the shared border.
We would never do such a thing. Now NGO and IC collaboration on regime destabilization, well… [then the military can handle the mop up if it must].
âNGO and IC collaboration on regime destabilizationâ
Indeed. But that doesnât depend on a shared border.
Trump is … not smart.
One of Biden’s worst weeks ever and he of course pulls an unforced error.
Political gamesmanship
First lady Jill Biden said in an email to campaign donors on Saturday she didn’t know what the special counsel was trying to achieve when he suggested President Joe Biden could not remember when his oldest son died.
“We should give everyone grace, and I can’t imagine someone would try to use our son’s death to score political points,” she wrote. “If you’ve experienced a loss like that, you know that you don’t measure it in years â you measure it in grief.”
Your feeble-minded jackass husband has been using his dead family members’ names in pursuit of political points for years.
“Biden is senile” becomes a hit on his dead son. Just like any criticism of Hunter is being mean to a helpless addict. When you see the pattern it gets so tiresome.
It was an emphatic defense of her husband in a note to supporters as Biden’s team worked to alleviate Democratic concerns over the alarms raised by a special counsel about Biden’s age and memory, in a report determining that Biden would not be charged with any criminal activity for possessing classified documents after he left office.
I can see it clearly. Doktor Grandma sitting at her desk scowling, her mouth pinched down tight and round as an asshole in the middle of her face, tapping furiously at her ipad, calling on Joe’s loyal supporters to open their purses and wallets to combat this odious slander. Won’t you please give generously?
“May 30th is a day forever etched on our hearts,” Jill Biden said in a note to supporters about the day Beau Biden died. “It shattered me, it shattered our family. … What helped me, and what helped Joe, was to find purpose. That’s what keeps Joe going, serving you and the country we love.”
Cut it the fuck out.
i thought his purpose was to fight Trump the white supremacist?
Treachery most foul
Russian forces in occupied Ukraine are using Starlink terminals produced by Elon Musk’s SpaceX for satellite internet in what is beginning to look like their “systemic” application, Kyiv’s main military intelligence agency said on Sunday.
The terminals were rushed in to help Ukraine after Russia’s February 2022 invasion and have been vital to Kyiv’s battlefield communications. Starlink says it does not do business of any kind with Russia’s government or military.
“Cases of the Russian occupiers’ use of the given devices have been registered. It is beginning to take on a systemic nature,” the Ukrainian defence ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) quoted spokesman Andriy Yusov as saying.
In a statement, the agency said the terminals were being used by units like Russia’s 83rd Air Assault Brigade, which is fighting near the embattled towns of Klishchiivka and Andriivka in the partially-occupied eastern region of Donetsk.
Elon is aiding and abetting the Russian army. Lock him up.
Tom Luongo is always an interesting read. As a black pill antidote, give this a read about Davos and whatâs emerging to displace it.
https://tomluongo.me/2024/02/05/the-great-reset-is-dead-long-live-the-great-reset/
He has a well-placed, IMO, criticism of libertarians in there.
Klaus von Commie Schnitzelâs right hand man,
That right there made me laugh out loud.
Leads with a B5 ref… has a paragraph intro that’s a SRD ref…. get out of my head, man! đ
It is a good read so far… not done yet… just had to share my amusement there.
Itâs a fair critique, except Iâm not sure what he expects of the ten of us. And the Rand Fucking Paul spent 4 years publicly jousting with Fauci to not move the Overton window one inch.
May the tits be with you.
https://archive.is/JjzQb
Slutty Sunday.
Fake news
In some cases, Carlson even fed into Putinâs narratives. For instance, Putin advanced an absurd deep state-style conspiracy theory that the U.S. government is not controlled by its elected leaders but by unelected powers at the Central Intelligence Agency who direct the president like a puppet from the shadows.
âSo, twice youâve described US presidents making decisions and then being undercut by their agency heads,â Carlson said after Putin made the assertion, earnestly summing up the Russian leaderâs mendacious narrative. âSo it sounds like youâre describing a system thatâs not run by the people who are elected, in your telling?â
âThatâs right, thatâs right,â Putin replied.
Carlson never followed up to challenge the absurdity.
That’s just silly.
That part stuck out to me. Mostly because we already knew that.
The ironic part is that that every MSM outlet is reporting the exact same criticism verbatim, almost as if someone handed them all a script.
That is silly. Itâs the FBI thatâs tasked with that. After all it was Comey who talked to Trump in private about the Steele dossier.
Carrying on in Hoover’s grandest tradition. And really, that’s why it should be burned to the ground and the earth salted.
Instead of burning it to the ground, Congress is giving it a brand new $Billion headquarters said to be larger than the Pentagon.
Considering that the federal government believes American citizens are the greatest threat to the federal government, and not any foreign powers, this should be no surprise.
“Trump will inevitably make the stupidest argument.”
That the other countries should pay up? He was saying that eight years ago.
I think perhaps the phrasing “I would encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want” won’t win over a lot of independent voters in swing states, but I’ve been wrong before.
I understand, but I think even the normies realize that’s just how Trump talks.
You know you may be right. I don’t think this particular thing will
move the needle as much as the blue press hopes it does.
While Carlson was once a critic of the Russian government, in recent years he has been far more sympathetic to the Putin-led state, dragging the GOP with him. Carlsonâs commentary on Russiaâs brutal war on Ukraine has been anything but favorable toward Kiev, with the right-wing extremist even likening Volodymyr Zelensky to vermin last year.
Which is precisely why Putin agreed to the interview with Carlson, while actual journalists who would have pressed the Russian leader on a range of critical issues, have been denied access for years. You donât have to take our word for it, either. Putinâs own spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters this week that Carlson was selected because he âhas a position that is different from the restâ of Western media.
Really? A powerful national leader wants a favorable interview, one which might even contradict the stories about him in the foreign press?
Putin would be terrified of a “real journalist” like Oliver Darcy, of CNN, who would march right into his office, look him in the eye, and force him to confess to his many and varied crimes against humanity.
Too bad Putin’s not like Biden. Joe unhesitatingly takes on any interviewer, no matter his philosophical predilections or biases. Honest Joe, they call him.
Joe gets terrified and angry when a softball is lobbed his way.
“The impending chaos and violence is coming precisely because of Isaac Newtonâs 3rd law, popularly summarized as âfor every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.â”
More like Hegel. People aren’t mechanical.
Political augury
The nationâs suburbs are moving toward Democrats. But not on Long Island.
Republicans have a three-year winning streak in the close-in suburbs east of New York City â places that rejected then-President Donald Trump in 2020 but have turned red amid concerns about crime and, more recently, immigration.
Next weekâs special election to replace ousted Rep. George Santos will test whether they can maintain their recent stranglehold on those New York suburbs. Former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi is running against Republican Mazi Melesa Pilip. Both independent and partisan polling shows the race is tight.
For Democrats, a win would â among other things â suggest a way to overcome ongoing Republican attacks over crime and immigration, which they concede are a major problem for their partyâs image.
Yes, let’s pretend Long Island election results can be extrapolated to the nation at large. It’s a representative sample of America.
As for a way to overcome concern about crime and illegal immigration, what might that be; lies and personal attacks?
I’m unconvinced they are. I think it’s a Trump phenomenon with housewives. My life long Republican wife can’t stand the man.
And yet he is polling higher than Biden, and the party seems to not want any of his challengers.
Funny, that is.
Eh so was Kerry at this point.
If we he wins, great.
But his unusual weakness among certain demographics is pretty clear.
Not so sure those are “unusual” weaknesses – the SCOTUS ruling on abortion seems to have contributed to the weak ass midterm non-Red-Wave.
The Democrats have picked up votes from women, but are losing support to male minority voters. Waiting for the hilarious moment when the Republicans get just over 50% of Latino voters, and the parties suddenly swap positions on immigration.
From what I saw in DC this week, thereâs a good chunk of the GOP that is on board with wide open borders and funding (the NGOs that fund) illegals.
On the “fake meat” FL bill – any damn fool in a legislature can propose any bad idea they want. That doesn’t mean there’s enough support for it to pass, especially if the bill sponsors are beholden to companies located in their district.
The article appeared to be a hit job on DeSantis – he made one ambiguous statement that could be interpreted more than one way, followed by a no comment when some reporter tried to pin him down.
I used to write letters, replying to constituent letters, when I worked as a legislative aide. My boss called them “supportive non-support” letters, oh so carefully worded language that the constituent might interpret as support, but which didn’t actually weigh in at all. My boss would glance at the draft letters to make sure I hadn’t committed him to anything, and sign em.
You know you may be right. I donât think this particular thing will
move the needle as much as the blue press hopes it does.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the vast majority of Americans give a shit bout NATO, other than perhaps as one more example of money going “over there” instead of “staying here”.
Yo-yo, ma.
Anyone still ’round?