Thursday Morning Links

by | Feb 6, 2025 | I Am Lame | 271 comments

I can’t find anything to talk about on this side of the pond. Can one of you hockey insiders bring me up to speed on the season so I can tune in and start giving updates? Newcastle thrashed Arsenal (for the third time this season) and are in the League Cup final. They await today’s second semifinal second leg to see if they’ll face Liverpool or Spuds. And that’s all I’ve got, so moving on…

Although I suppose this could be considered a sports story. Either way, it’s huge, it’s overdue, and it is absolutely the right thing to do.

She ain’t wasting any time. On the former, I’d really like to see if Fani Willis perjured herself. Just for the lulz.

I hope they metaphorically bury this piece of shit. She is a horrible human being who deserves whatever she gets.

There’s a lot of green associated with this energy, alright. The green those people are forced to fork over n order to power their homes.

Three hours? More like 2+ weeks. It is a bit petty, but she’s a military officer and needs to understand that she should respect the chain of command and the positions of her commander.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha. I hope they keep crying. Forever.

Congress could always do their job. Has that ever dawned on the writers at Vox?

“Those Jews should have run and hid or concealed their jewishness.” Good luck winning this lawsuit, you antisemitic pieces of shit.

I guess that’s one way to find out if he was right. Not the smartest or safest way, mind you. But definitely a way.

I’ll be curious to see how this goes in court. Kinda hard to give tickets to people you don’t know are driving the car. But we’ll see how it goes.

Ooh, ooh, I can help with this one! STOP SPENDING SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY, YOU DUMB BASTARDS! You’re welcome. Now pay me a $250,000 consulting fee.

I’m going further back than normal today. And changing the genre too. I don’t think I’ll have any complaints though. Enjoy them both.

And enjoy this lovely Thursday, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

271 Comments

  1. The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

    “I hope they metaphorically bury this piece of shit.”

    I mean, why only metaphorically?

    Peak first world problems?

    My baby (finally) fell asleep right before the nanny arrived.

    Hope y’all are having a great day.

    • AlexinCT

      It’s supposed to be snowmaggedon out here. Which everyone knows means the planet is getting hotter…

      • sloopyinca

        I saw a story this morning that said it was the warmest January ever, but I decided to post something else because there’s no way in hell that can be accurate.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        It was literally freezing cold here in Florida…

        These people sure do love to ‘massage’ data.

      • Jarflax

        “ever” does a lot of heavy lifting for the Climate Scammers. But fortunately the Indians Native Americans Indigenous People of Color kept such amazing detailed records of temperature, that we can make accurate statements about temperature fluctuations year by year over the eons.

      • Pat

        We got snow a few weeks ago. It was 87 yesterday. Climate change in Texas takes place over the scale of days.

      • AlexinCT

        If this was the warmest January ever, they measured their temps in the Southern hemisphere or tropics.

        It’s all lies to protect that climate change and green energy racket as we keep finding out. They are lucky they could just send money to those NGOs from the EPA or Biden’s green act instead of USAID which everyone know should know was nothing but a $70 billion a year slush fund for criminal eneterprises that then paid a vig to dnc (and I am sure while we have not heard about it yet, some country club republicans) and individual democrat campaign coffers, while the bulk of the cash went to efforts to brainwash stupid low information morons.

        Heck, USAID seems to even have funded one of them Trump faux impeachments

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        “But fortunately the Indians Native Americans Indigenous People of Color”

        Its BIPOC, shitlord! That way we can lump group all the darkies non-whites together into one battering ram of racial harmony!

      • juris imprudent

        Not a battering ram Zwak, bundle of sticks. Each one too weak to overpower the hegemony of European-descended males, but when tightly bound together!

      • Jarflax

        You have to add an axehead, it is traditional.

      • Not Adahn

        But enough about my mother in law!

        *tugs collar, bulges eyes*

    • Nephilium

      I assume by “the nanny arrived” you mean that the orphan tasked with taking care of your child finished up their mining shift and was lax in getting to your home. I trust he was withheld his gruel for the day as way of punishment.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        I don’t provide gruel. He gets to eat any lizards or strays he can catch.

  2. Pat

    I hope they metaphorically bury this piece of shit.

    I hope she, uh, ‘metaphorically’ gets fed feet first into a woodchipper.

  3. AlexinCT

    Ooh, ooh, I can help with this one! STOP SPENDING SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY, YOU DUMB BASTARDS! You’re welcome. Now pay me a $250,000 consulting fee.

    That’s how you play this game, sir…

    Well done!

  4. Rat on a train

    Also, what is little known to the public is customers are forced to pay city property taxes imposed on utilities — passed along in their gas and electric bills — under a law concocted by city and state lawmakers.
    Costs are passed to customers? Say it ain’t so.

    • sloopyinca

      They’re not really customers if they are only given one option from the government and they can’t negotiate the rate.
      I’m sure we can come up with a more accurate word to describe their status.

      • SDF-7

        “Tax cattle”? Because that reads to me as an easy way for the city government to raise property taxes just on electric infrastructure, knowing it will just be automatically spread out as a tax hike on all the customers in a rate increase. Utility “rising costs… nothing we can do!”, Property taxing city — “Utility rates… nothing we can do!”

        Very California of them.

    • rhywun

      Costs are passed to customers?

      Without reading the article I’m going to guess that Kathy will call that “price gouging” and demand that Big Energy fatcats cough up the additional Indulgence she’s demanding.

      • Jarflax

        This idiot idea that you can impose a cost on a business and not have it end up paid by customers needs to die. Customers are the source of all business revenue. All of it! If you impose a cost the company will pass it on to the customer or the company will go out of business which still doesn’t keep the customer from paying either by being forced to do without something they want or by being forced to pay more at some competing business.

      • Nephilium

        Jarflax:

        From a local anti-tipping screed:

        “So not only am I paying employee salaries for restaurant owners, but I’m supposed to pay insurance and benefits now too?”

        Well… yes? The customer is the source of the money for the business.

      • Jarflax

        Economic fantasies are as common as they are stupid. There are some aspects of economic reality that get very complex and allow for arguments, but this one… I mean where the hell else do these people think the money comes from? I’ve run a business (briefly) where the money was coming out of my pocket. It does not work.

      • Rat on a train

        “So not only am I paying employee salaries for restaurant owners, but I’m supposed to pay insurance and benefits now too?”
        I came here for a meal. Why am I paying for the people washing dishes and cleaning bathrooms?

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Surely you can’t expect me, the humble customer, to pay their rents and taxes too?

      • Suthenboy

        Wait a minute…those guys in Seattle or Portland that opened the commie ‘pay what you can’ restaurant…what are they up to these days? Anybody know?

      • rhywun

        OFFS, that was Panera?

        I’ve only been once or twice but I liked it.

      • The Last American Hero

        same thing happened to the Seattle tech company (sort of a Square or similar service) that decided to pay everyone the same. The top programmers and managers made the same as the front desk clerk. It’s almost like incentives matter or something.

  5. sloopyinca

    On advice from my lawyer, I am reinforcing my use of the word “metaphorically” in today’s morning links.

    • UnCivilServant

      How much were you billed for that advice?

      • sloopyinca

        Nothing. My lawyer is Grok, so I get the advice gratis. Only suckers pay for legal services when AI is out there doling it out for free between making me OJ Simpson memes.

      • Jarflax

        The custom of tarring for public display on the city walls could metaphorically be revived as an alternative.

      • Rat on a train

        With modern usage, couldn’t you say you literally want something to happen?

  6. Pat

    It is a bit petty, but she’s a military officer and needs to understand that she should respect the chain of command and the positions of her commander.

    In the interest of goodwill, perhaps she could stay temporarily in one of those newly freed up cells where the J6 illegal paraders were being warehoused.

    • WTF

      To the brig while she awaits court martial for insubordination.

    • R C Dean

      “Shortly after that, Fagan’s team reportedly received a call from aides to Sean Plankey, a Department of Homeland Security senior adviser and retired Coast Guard officer, instructing her to leave the house unlocked so the interior could be photographed.

      But Fagan pushed back on DHS’ efforts to take photos.

      ‘I do not authorize them to come into my house, whether I’m there or not,’ the admiral reportedly told another Coast Guard official.”

      It’s not your property, for starters. You are the equivalent of a tenant, and landlords have the right to enter their property on reasonable notice at reasonable hours.

      As a high-ranking member of the military, I’m sure housing can be gotten at very short notice. Maybe not the style to which she has become accustomed, but boo-hoo.

    • Ozymandias

      “Three hours? More like 2+ weeks. It is a bit petty, but she’s a military officer and needs to understand that she should respect the chain of command and the positions of her commander.”

      Given what she did to Coasties, this doesn’t look petty to me at all; looks like Justice. She shitcanned pregnant women, stranded families during their PCS, and fired people who were in disability processing. All because they wouldn’t take her preferred, unlicensed mRNA biologic product. She can eat shit and cry harder. Nobody got abused worse (as a group) than the Coasties. She published orders where she referred to the “unvaccinated” as threats to their communities and families. Unvaxxed were prohibited from going outside of 50 miles for liberty: no going to weddings, nor to see dying family members, nor to see births of grandchildren or nieces, etc.

      If she dies in a fire, it still won’t be justice, so this is just a small, small taste of what she did to the Coasties she commanded.

      • Jarflax

        This isn’t even a taste, having to move in a hurry isn’t all that unusual in the services. This is a perfumed princess bitching about the injustice of having to deal with something the lower orders have to deal with regularly.

  7. Pat

    Last month, the Jewish-American news site Forward reported a shocking scoop: The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, is planning to “identify and target” Wikipedia editors. Through analyzing text patterns, usernames, and technical data and employing social-engineering tactics, Heritage aimed to reveal the identities of anonymous Wikipedia editors it believes are “abusing their position” on the platform.

    I was reliably informed when Reason’s favorite Millennial doxxed the libsoftiktok founder that freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences.

      • Jarflax

        Surely USAID at least paid for the jacket and product for Robby?

      • SDF-7

        Why pay for the cow when they milk the topics for free?

      • Drake

        The comments are great.

    • rhywun

      founder Jimmy Wales insists the Wikipedia community aims for neutrality

      😂🤣

    • Nephilium

      /clears throat

      THaT’S DiFFeReNT!

      That being said, I have a very strong aversion to doxxing. But I also feel that anonymous commenters on the internet shouldn’t be driving policy.

      • sloopyinca

        I also have an aversion to doxing.

        But I have a greater aversion to hypocrisy. So fuck those guys.

      • R C Dean

        I have a problem with doxxing people in order to cancel them by targetting their jobs, making their address public, etc.

        I have less of a problem with doxxing people so you know who to sue for defamation.

      • rhywun

        Meh. They brought this on themselves. With all the dirty tricks the left has played over the last decade+, it is inevitable that the tables turn.

  8. Shpip

    Just over two weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump has already thrown American democracy into crisis.

    Followed by multiple paragraphs of… things the President has done, none of which “throw American democracy into crisis.”

    More like “following up on his campaign promises.”

    • WTF

      Yeah, during his campaign, Trump told everyone exactly what he was going to do, he got elected, and now he’s doing it.
      But we forget that “throwing American democracy into crisis” really just means curtailing the power of Democrats and the unelected bureaucracies.

    • Grumbletarian

      thrown American Democratcy into crisis.

      What they really mean.

      • dbleagle

        Yup

  9. rhywun

    Con Ed proposes massive rate hikes

    Good. Let’s get this horseshit over with already.

    “The people are revolting!”

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      Why yes they are. Yuck! /Liberal

  10. The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

    Regarding the energy bill things: foreseeable consequences are not unintended.

    This is a win for 3/4 parties here. Greens get everything they want (people suffering for their sins AND ‘clean’ energy), the energy companies get to hike rates, which means they get to keep a portion of that money for themselves, and the government taxes you based on your consumption, so they ALSO get extra money.

    Only the little guy gets screwed.

  11. rhywun

    Vox being Vox tells me that Donald’s doing the right thing.

  12. Pat

    I’m going further back than normal today.

    One of the best opening tracks of all time. Love that album.

    • sloopyinca

      After linking my second song, I just let YouTube do its thing as I wrapped up the links. It rewarded me with two Traveling Wilburys songs in a row.

      What a great way to start the morning.

  13. UnCivilServant

    Trying to figure out the best way to hook up the LEDs for a cable tester to tell me which pin(s) are being tested, and whether there are crossed pins inside the cable. I came up with three different ways to approach the issue, Option A is fully serial LEDs, Option B is common cathode hookup for the two indicators so that the one not running through the wire will light up either way and the one running through the cable only lights up when there’s a link. I didn’t draw out Option C, which is a hybrid of the two, where there’s a second Vcc connection after the cable to power the LED closer to the driver chip. I think Option C would burn out the second LEDs.

    https://www.glibertarians.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/LEDHookup_Options.png

    I have not figured out where to put the power limiting Resistors, or what the value should be, since a full 5v would be bad for the LEDs.

    Thoughts?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      10k resistors, right before the anodes, easiest way to use 5 v for single leds

      • UnCivilServant

        my gut reaction is “10k seems high”, but electronics are about math rather than instinct.

        If nothing else, I can test it, LEDs and Resistors are cheap.

  14. PieInTheSky

    In local news a large local news source was whining about USAID cutting funding to a Romanian program to prevent trafficking of minors. The money, about 10 million USD a year, ended up to a coalition of 9 NGOs with dubious outcomes. Encouragingly, 90% of the commenters were like “why should the USA finance this what is the local police doing?” and ” NGO parasites are loosing their sinecures”

    • AlexinCT

      You sure that money was not used TO traffic kids for sex?

      • PieInTheSky

        I mean some of it probably was. Then again as I always said what is the point of being rich and powerful if you cannot fuck 13 year olds? I mean why bother.

      • AlexinCT

        George Soros is that you talking through Pie?

      • The Last American Hero

        I thought he was quoting Mohamed.

    • The Other Kevin

      Hopefully people are getting wise to the scam: Create an expensive program to combat something we can all agree on, all the money goes to cronies, and when someone questions it, claim it’s the ONLY thing addressing the problem. Why do you want trafficking of minors, Pie?

  15. Shpip

    At the risk of stepping on OMWC’s schtick:

    Today is not only the birthday of Ronald Reagan, Eva Braun, Bob Marley, and the immortal Rick Astley, but also of Thurl Ravenscroft.

    You hear him every year in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and he is the voice of the singing busts at Disney’s Haunted Mansion, but he’s best known for uttering one two-word catchphrase for over fifty years…

    • AlexinCT

      but he’s best known for uttering one two-word catchphrase for over fifty years…

      Was it “Bitch, please?”.

    • Jarflax

      OMWC not doing the links today misses out on a perfect Rick Roll opportunity. The cause of internet trollery is lessened by this.

    • sloopyinca

      How can the sugar frosting be secret when the flakes are sparkling with it and “sugar” is in the name of the cereal, Tony?

  16. PieInTheSky

    Sports talk that matters:

    While the Warriors did not have to give up that much, I doubt Jimmy Butler makes them a contender.

    While the center the Lakers traded for fill a big need and has potential, an unprotected first plus a decent young player seems a bit stiff, price wise.

    There are more and more rumors that the Addelsons traded Luka Doncic for peanuts relative to value because they want to use the Mavericks as leverage to make Texas legalize gambling / casinos .

    • Nephilium

      Is the NBA still flopping harder than soccer players and not calling traveling or carrying?

      If yes, than doesn’t matter.

      • PieInTheSky

        Is the NBA still flopping harder than soccer players and not calling traveling or carrying? – yes more than ever.

        If yes, than doesn’t matter – I am kinda losing interest though I am curious what the Lakers do with Luka

    • R C Dean

      I don’t know people keep up with these obscure regional sports.

    • PieInTheSky

      To be fair why should Texas not have casinos and more gambling…

      • juris imprudent

        Lack of Indian reservations?

      • PieInTheSky

        nothing a few more H1B visas won’t solve

    • DrOtto

      I’m fine with legalized gambling, but I kind of like having to fly or drive a distance to have to do it currently. Otherwise, I could see where it could become a problem for me personally, so I kind of hope it doesn’t pass muster in TX.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh please great sovereign power, save me from myself?

      • Nephilium

        Here we have railing against legalized gambling (three casinos can have table games, race tracks can have slot machines, sports gambling is legal) while the state lottery system has gone to allowing virtual tickets to be bought via app and credit card.

  17. Suthenboy

    Women dont have peckers. I checked. They just dont have ’em.

    Giving sanctuary to criminals is…criminal.

    Samantha…isnt that little imp married to Cass Sunstein? That is really all I need to know.

    Every scam has one element in common: the urgent need for money. If you see that element you know you are looking at a scam. The answer should always be ‘NO’.

    The most appropriate thing Trump did on the campaign trail was the garbage truck stunt. Takin’ out the trash.

    The more tears they shed the better. It tells us we are on the right track.

    Vox. *facepalm*. Whatever.

    Never again, huh? And yet here we are.

    Well, ok then. Darwin Award? I was shocked to find out an intoxicant was involved.

    Traffic cams….no. Here, since you cannot confront your accuser in court traffic cams are not a thing. The scumbag parasites and highway robbers tried bluffing people into paying by sending a bill. When people started ignoring them they sent them to collections. Lawsuits and hilarity ensued.
    We have no traffic cams.

    Thief complains they are running out of stolen money? Where is my tiny violin…..?

    • AlexinCT

      Women dont have peckers. I checked. They just dont have ’em.

      But, but but! Chix with dicks!!

      As I tell them, there are no chix with dicks, just dudes with tits..

    • The Other Kevin

      That’s the big scare story right now. Musk is unelected and now he has everyone’s social security number and private information (what would he do with that, sell it to Russians for $.10 a piece?)

      Also, he’s going after your entitlements!

      • Ownbestenemy

        You mean that private information that you continually leak, lose and misplace, FedGov?

        Past 20 years and 99% of my personal info getting out in the wild was because of some FedGov agency.

    • sloopyinca

      What an amazing car.

      I’m still waiting to see how the Bernie Ecclestone stuff sold. Sadly, I don’t think they’ll ever release the numbers.

    • The Other Kevin

      Wow. Straight out of Speed Racer.

  18. The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

    “a hefty $500 fine for drivers going over 100 miles per hour over the posted limit (reduced fees will be offered to anyone who qualifies for a low-income discount)”

    I’m no fan of traffic cameras, but if you’re going 100mph over the speed limit something more than a fine needs to happen. Also, what’s the discount for being poor look like?

    • R C Dean

      For most cars, the only place they could go 100mph over the speed limit is in a residential neighborhood. Yeah, a fine ain’t gonna cut it. Being dragged out of the car and beaten by the residents, with the car set on fire, sounds about right.

    • Nephilium

      Hell, I think 20 MPH over the limit here gets you a chance at a reckless operation charge. Pretty sure that 100 MPH over definitely qualifies as reckless operation.

    • sloopyinca

      Also, what’s the discount for being poor look like?

      They only charge you with car theft since it’s be impossible to get their own car up to that speed.

      But seriously, they’re just using that statement to get people onboard with the fine scheme. There won’t be any people doing 100 over because it’s physically impossible on any SF street to go that fast.

      Take note, speed racers, as the fee will vary according to how fast you’re going: $50 for driving 11 to 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, $100 for 16 to 25 miles over, $200 for 26 to 99 miles over and a hefty $500 fine for drivers going over 100 miles per hour over the posted limit

      It’s all about dinging a shitload of people for $50 (plus a nice sized processing fee, I’m sure) and figuring at least half of them will pay it.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Speed camera companies have to eat too.

      • CatchTheCarp

        Where I live if you get caught doing 20 mph and over the posted speed limit the police can arrest you if they want. Get caught driving 100 mph and over will guarantee you a trip to jail and having your vehicle impounded. I remember a person wearing a monkey mask who was captured repeatedly on speed cameras years ago…… law enforcement could not prove who was driving the car.

      • Suthenboy

        CTC: Same here. I have seen those guys before. I remember one dude spent a fortune having his car painted with ridiculous taunts to the cops. ‘Cant catch me’, ‘Cops are idiots’, ‘Fuck the cops’, that kind of shit.
        I dont see him around anymore.
        There are plenty of legit reasons to criticize individual cops and their actions without resorting to a moronic, deliberate picking of a fight.

      • The Last American Hero

        In WA the registered owner is presumed to be driving the car unless you can provide the contact information for the person you loaned it to or have reported the car stolen before receiving the ticket in the mail.

    • Suthenboy

      Here the fines are pro-rated by speed up to 100mph. At 100 and over you are going to jail.

    • The Last American Hero

      In herotopia, the carpool lanes would be Autobahn lanes. It would encourage people to carpool.

  19. Shpip

    It may or may not dissuade a determined lone wolf terrorist, but New Orleans has decided on a massive show of force leading up to the Super Bowl Chiefs’ coronation.

    • R C Dean

      A heavily armed New Orleans would be residents open carrying any damn gun they please.

      Swarms of armed agents of the state is more like an occupied New Orleans.

      • Suthenboy

        We have constitutional carry in Louisiana.

    • Nephilium

      As strong as you think you are, the one thing you can’t stop is the lone gunman determined to kill you, even if he gets killed in the process.

      –Babylon 5

      • juris imprudent

        This in fact is why most of us sleep comfortably at night, we don’t think someone is out there with a severe enough grudge against us.

      • ron73440

        A heavily armed New Orleans would be residents open carrying any damn gun they please.

        Swarms of armed agents of the state is more like an occupied New Orleans.

        Can’t have the plebes thinking they can have a chance to protect themselves.

        Did they have a stupid “New Orleans Strong” slogan after that guy ran over all those people?

        Or because the main weapon wasn’t a gun it wasn’t as scary?

  20. R.J.

    Houston government is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. The state needs to storm-troop in and pull a Doge.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      You know you’re a well run city when your population is booming, the economy is going bonkers AND you got huge infusions of funny money just a couple years ago… And yet your still broke as f.

      Sounds like they need a little visit from a good forensic accountant to figure out where all they’re money is really going.

      • R.J.

        It’s going into hi-jacking the state level government.

    • juris imprudent

      For the life of me, I don’t know why Republicans never run a campaign based on every locality with more than 20 years of pure Democratic party governance – there isn’t one that isn’t a shit-hole.

      • Suthenboy

        Government is a manifestation of the culture?

      • juris imprudent

        I suppose the answer is, you would lose most people giving them details, when what they want is a slogan.

      • The Last American Hero

        How about “Enough Already”?

  21. PieInTheSky

    In local news, there is an argument between two insignificant parties of who owns the local trademark to the slogan „Make Romania Great Again”

    • Jarflax

      Google translate gives the acronym as FRDNM which kind of sounds like that florist bull, but probably looks like a New Mexico Fire Department if you put it on a hat.

      • PieInTheSky

        Nono the trademark is in English not Romanian

      • Jarflax

        MRGA sounds like a murloc having an orgasm.

      • Not Adahn

        Mrrrrrrrrga!!

    • juris imprudent

      I will be happy with the retirement of that idiot slogan in this country. About as meaningful as hope and change.

  22. rhywun

    A daily ray:

    Last week, Boston University announced that Kendi would be decamping to Howard University and that his Center for Antiracist Research would close — the proverbial house of cards collapsing.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      God, that guy was so overrated. Just incredibly facile arguments made with a highschool vocabulary (as opposed to the usual grade school vocabulary of the allegedly intelligent and educated).

      • rhywun

        I wasn’t convinced that the times they are a changin’ but when Big U is sick of your shit… yeah. Wow.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        This is his real problem: “He was not capable of […] managing $50 million in charitable donations.”

        I wouldn’t be surprised if some of this went into his pockets in some unscrupulous way, and his departure is part of an agreement to keep the worst of it quiet.

        “They frantically searched through the catalog of black academics and, through some unknown combination of bad luck and human error, selected Kendi, the soft-spoken professor, as their racism whisperer.”

        Bad luck strikes the communists again? Who could have seen it coming? Those poor commies have the worst ‘luck’ I’ve ever seen.

      • rhywun

        Rufo nails it there. The whole thing was just wypipo tripping over themselves to appease the black man and be on the “right side of history”. Same grift as BLM.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Isn’t Howard an HBUC, or whatever they call the all black schools these days?

    • UnCivilServant

      Looking at that map, my reaction is – I keep forgetting Belarus exists.

      • Jarflax

        White Russian Privilege!

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Whats with France? Somewhere in Africa taking their crown?

      • PieInTheSky

        Democratic Republic of the Congo Official language French Population 2025 estimate 111,050,097

      • UnCivilServant

        Except, are we sure all of those congolese actually speak French? It is a very non homogenous polity.

      • PieInTheSky

        well we cannot be sure of anything. Hell on frog twitter there are theories that the population of most African countries is lower than claimed.

      • Jarflax

        Non-homogenous, but homovorous at times.

      • AlexinCT

        Hell on frog twitter there are theories that the population of most African countries is lower than claimed.

        Could this be the cause?

      • Not Adahn

        I can never forget Belarus’ existence because of my exposure to Svetlana Boginskaya at a certain age.

      • rhywun

        Mmm… white Russians. Both kinds.

    • juris imprudent

      I hate that BS that you had to have religious reasons for declining a dubious medical treatment.

    • Ozymandias

      Yes – they were forced out of the Academy rather un-solicitously.
      Not quite “Lords of Discipline” walk of shame, but not that much better.

      • Not Adahn

        That movie was one of my earliest exposures to Masonic signalling.

  23. PieInTheSky

    Police in Wales have refused to return a stolen phone to its owner because the thief used the device, meaning it now contained the snatcher’s private information.
    Listen to this article

    Melvyn Mainwaring awoke on May 18 to find his phone, bank cards and bus pass were all missing from his home on Pennington Terrace, Abergele.

    After a short investigation, the phone was later found by police in the possession of Daniel Reid, who claimed it was his own.

    Now, North Wales Police are refusing to return the stolen device to Mr Mainwaring, claiming it would infringe on GDPR (General Data Protection Reulation) rights of Reid.

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/crime/police-refuse-to-return-stolen-phone-to-owner-because-thief-used-device/

    GDPR is all powerful. It is known.

    • Pat

      Digital adverse possession?

    • R C Dean

      Is Wales part of the EU? If not, why do they care?

      • PieInTheSky

        After brexit they made sure to keep all the shitties EU regulations I guess. And add some more of their own.

        In the UK, data protection is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)

    • Jarflax

      That… is an idea only a lawyer could come up with. I think a career in German porn would have been a cleaner choice.

    • Drake

      Glad my ancestors left Wales 400 years ago.

  24. The Other Kevin

    I’m pretty excited, I’m putting the finishing touches on my $500,000 grant proposal for promoting inclusivity and transgenderism in adaptive sports, focusing on marginalized societies in the High Andes. Does anyone know how to contact USAID? Their web site is having problems.

    • AlexinCT

      Reach out to Liawatha, the pretendian, or AOC. I hear they are products of that entity and still very connected.

    • R.J.

      Bravo.

    • AlexinCT

      My G.I. Joe’s used to beat my cousin’s Ken up, and take Barbie out for a ride in the back of her own car, before heading off in his M60 tank…

    • Rat on a train

      “Every boy wants a RemCo toy … and so do girls.”

      • Jarflax

        Hell so do I now.

      • R.J.

        Me too! That thing is cool!

    • Rat on a train

      I had army men and an air rifle.

    • PieInTheSky

      you guys had toys?

      • AlexinCT

        Not those kind of toys, Pie…

    • Jarflax

      You can’t even get proper bigotry these days, I blame Trump.

    • sloopyinca

      That golf course layout is stupid. No fairways? Just a bunch of par 3s? Nobody is gonna want to play that track.

      Get the ghost of Pete Dye on the phone before breaking ground. If you can’t reach him, call Ben Crenshaw.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Mmm… No tranny strip club. How are you gonna attract the Pali’s back with out a tranny strip club?

  25. ron73440

    Man allegedly shot and killed his friend who claimed he could dodge bullets

    Bullet Tooth Tony : Boris the Blade? As in Boris the Bullet-Dodger?

    Avi : Why do they call him the Bullet-Dodger?

    Bullet Tooth Tony : ‘Cause he dodges bullets, Avi.

    • AlexinCT

      Fucking Matrix movies…

  26. PieInTheSky

    Data from a controversial survey which asked school pupils as young as 14 about their sexual experiences has been advertised for use by external researchers, without the explicit consent of children or parents, BBC Scotland has learned.

    The Scottish government’s Health and Wellbeing census hit the headlines in 2021 after asking highly personal questions of more than 130,000 school children, raising concerns among education experts and families.

    Parents said they were not told the nature of the questions in advance and were not asked to agree that their children’s private information could be shared.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yvr65dpgzo

    This is less of a privacy concerns as the phone thing it seems. Then again Scotland is extra retarded in the UK.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    The administration has also coerced corporations into giving Trump money and other concessions, through tactic threats of regulatory scrutiny.

    Unprecedented in the annals of American history! Good one, Vox.

  28. The Other Kevin

    Next on the list… COVID PPP fraud! https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886904722335862884

    I’m sure that Epstein list will eventually come out. This “steady stream” strategy seems to be working just fine.

    • Drake

      We’ve only seen part of the top of the corruption iceberg that is our federal government.

    • The Gunslinger

      Who’s the unlucky bastard getting assigned to dig around in President Poopy’s Pants looking for fraud?

    • Nephilium

      So with all the USAID stuff coming out, am I the only one who’s really feeling the Chump effect?

      • Jarflax

        Chump because your money has been used to fund your enemies? Or chump because you didn’t get a slice of that sweet corruption cake?

      • Drake

        Yes

      • The Other Kevin

        Yes. I mentioned this the other day… It’s tough to start a business and we’ve been struggling for 18 months. Then we see all these corrupt people getting fat off our tax money. It’s both infuriating and depressing.

      • Nephilium

        Jarflax:

        A bit of both? If things went a different way, I could easily see myself falling into the grifting arts.

        TOK:

        When I was showing the girlfriend some of the spending, she was… vocal… about how she wasn’t able to get any aid for her salon.

      • rhywun

        Chump has been the lesson of the last more than a decade.

        See also: everything Biden did.

      • The Other Kevin

        Neph: That is one way to look at it, and I can’t blame her. Why are those people getting rich but small businesses get nothing? But I look at it this way, if taxes were low, the economy was doing well, and inflation was lower, I’d be doing a lot better and people would have extra money to spend on my business. We’d all win… except for those corrupt POS’s.

      • Nephilium

        TOK:

        She’s probably my closest window into “normie” views on politics. Getting into a discussion on the fundamentals of the economy, dead weight losses, opportunity costs, and the like was not a conversation I wanted to broach at that time. 🙂

      • R C Dean

        Unfortunately, “where’s my cut?” is where way too many people are going to land.

    • Sean

      “I’m just getting started. I’m gonna pull the whole thing down. I gonna bring the whole fuckin’ diseased corrupt temple down on your heads. It’s gonna be Biblical.”

  29. PieInTheSky

    I’m seeing lots of people asking for empathy for the decent, hard working, honest government employees who might be losing their jobs. I’m seeing lots of people say we need a scalpel, not an axe…
    Unfortunately the time for a scalpel was decades ago. It is now axe and TQ time before the gangrenous limb kills us all.
    I respect the honest government employees who do necessary work. I’m not being flippant when I say that. However, you and I both know that guy does 90% of the work while his three coworkers do 10%, and the biggest bum among them will be the one who gets promoted.
    People have been trying to cut the government forever. They always fail. It always grows. It is an insatiable leviathan. We have individual departments today bigger than LBJ’s entire federal government. This is the first time anybody has been even sorta effective at curbing it.
    If you give malignant actors access to rivers of free unaccountable money, they’re going to use that resource to fortify their position, drive out their opponents, and reward their friends. We’ve known this forever, but even the most jaded among us are still getting surprised daily for the last couple weeks by the sheer fucking audacity of these clowns.
    For the first time in our lives we’re seeing actual push back against this cancerous growth. We have a narrow window of opportunity here to obliterate the entrenched power structures and endless money river of the permanent bureaucrat class and their allies in media, culture, and academia.
    Time is of the essence. Democrats are struggling to figure out how to throw up road blocks to protect their slush funds, cushy jobs for their pals, and bribery scams. They’re evil, but they’re not stupid. They’ll start finding ways to effectively fight back soon.
    Precise cuts take time we do not have. It is time to hack away the necrotic flesh. That’s gonna suck for a lot of decent government workers. But life has sucked for a lot of regular folks because of our big stupid corrupt government fucking them over too, only they finally got sick of it, and ultimately you work for those regular people.

    https://x.com/monsterhunter45/status/1887241013850415461

    • AlexinCT

      To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women and soi boys.

    • Jarflax

      Ahh, MHI, my home on facebook. Larry can sometimes be a bit thin skinned about things, but he’s right on target here.

    • Drake

      I’ve been laid off multiple times while doing actual value adding jobs. People get fired every day.

      They can learn to code or mow lawns. I don’t care even a little.

      • R C Dean

        Yeah, this idea that pubsecs should have lifetime tenure and be immune from the economic ups and downs that everybody else has to deal with offends me, and I hope/suspect a lot of other people.

      • rhywun

        And they used to claim that the job security was in exchange for lower salary and benefits.

        Seriously.

    • The Other Kevin

      We were just talking to a friend who’s working in national security. I wasn’t aware EVERY government employee got the resignation offer. She’s not taking it, her job is in security clearances and it should be secure. Her boss was called in to work in the office now.

      • R C Dean

        “She’s not taking it, her job is in security clearances and it should be secure.”

        For now. As DOGE uncovers massive government malfeasance, some of it is going to be shielded by security clearances, and those are going to come into question. They are already claiming that USAID promoting transgenderism is a national security thing, so it’s inevitable.

      • juris imprudent

        Clearances are almost as ubiquitous in departments that have no justification for them as armed, sworn-agent (LE) offices. Classification protects more embarrassing information than actual state secrets.

    • The Gunslinger

      “I’m seeing lots of people say we need a scalpel, not an axe…”

      Personally, I’m hoping they’ve been using the scalpel so far and are getting ready to use the axe.

    • The Last American Hero

      It’s a more direct version of the post the other day that said this is essentially zero based budgeting for the Fedgov. Rip it all out and make the parts you restore give good justification for their existence.

    • EvilSheldon

      I’m sympathetic to, for instance, my little brother, who just got called back into the office full-time (with the associated multi-hour commute) for his .gov job. But Larry is right, and we’ve known he’s right for a while. The only way to fix an entrenched bureaucracy is to destroy it utterly and put something else in it’s place. The cancer metaphor is exactly on point.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    In the US, however, we have added a bizarre and hazardous extra step to this process: If Congress’s laws require the Treasury to borrow money in excess of a certain statutory limit, then the House and Senate must take an additional vote raising that limit (which is commonly called the “debt ceiling”).

    The government must explicitly recognize their profligacy? What’s really bizarre is their steadfast refusal to live within our means.

  31. juris imprudent

    Teixeira gets it, even if the proggies don’t:

    Hogg is almost as out of touch as the winning candidate for DNC chair, Minnesota’s Ken Martin. He confidently asserted: “We’ve got the right message. What we need to do is connect it back with the voters.”

    In short, all the early signs point to a party that has learned nothing from defeat. If only the Democratic Party were wearing lapels, because then someone could grab them, shake hard, and yell: “What part of ‘the voters just rejected your fixation on identity politics’ do you not understand?”

    • Not Adahn

      But… but… they need to show the stupid white male voter that they can represent them too!

      Also, this disconnect is data point n+1 that using Ruy as a proxy for Democrat is perhaps unjustified.

      • juris imprudent

        Outer party, not inner party. He lost those privileges.

    • R C Dean

      Honestly, I can’t think of a better candidate for the Fredo of the Democratic Party than David Hogg.

      “I’m smaht! Not like everybody says… like dumb… I’m smaht and I want respect!”

      • Grumbletarian

        Remember when he was going to crush the MyPillow guy and sell better pillows?

        Yeah…

      • Nephilium

        Grumbletarian:

        Are you saying Mike Lindell hasn’t been crushed yet? See… Hogg delivers on his promises!

    • The Other Kevin

      The way to beat Trump is to agree with him on principle, but go after him for doing things the wrong way, or say he’s going too far. Hopefully they don’t realize that.

      • rhywun

        But the lunatics who are running that asylum don’t agree with Trump on any principle.

    • R.J.

      When the DNC connects to me with their message, it makes me want to break things. Remember when Waltz said to confront people in grocery stores and discuss democrat policies? That would not end well. Ever. The message is vomitous.

      • Nephilium

        I saw a tidbit the other day that was mildly shocking. Walz was the first person to be on the Democrat president/VP ticket who did not go to law school since 1980. I don’t care enough to confirm it, but off memory it seems correct. Obama, Clinton, Clinton, Harris, and Biden were all lawyers to my recollection.

      • juris imprudent

        Lawfare is their natural environment?

      • UnCivilServant

        Lawyers should be banned from public office. Especially as judges or legislators.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    “We’ve got the right message. What we need to do is connect it back with the voters.”

    We’re just not browbeating the voters hard enough.

    • juris imprudent

      There are semi-sane Democrats, but they don’t run the party. Honestly, I’m kinda thrilled by that.

    • The Other Kevin

      It’s ridiculous. Let’s not address the things that are important to people, let’s work harder to convince people they’ve got the wrong priorities.

      The party of gaslighting.

    • Rat on a train

      Calling voters racist, sexist, etc hasn’t worked. What can we call them that will win them over?

      • R C Dean

        I know! Bigoted, privileged, etc.! That’ll do the trick!

    • juris imprudent

      So, some others are noticing as well. I highlight the word noticing because Warby makes a lot about the necessity of not-noticing, most particularly when reality conflicts with ideology, that is core to the progressive mind.

      • Jarflax

        I sincerely hope so, and love reading things like this, but every time the party in power loses an election there is a wave of X is doomed, they will be a perpetual minority party now. I do think the Democrat social message is unappealing to the center at this point, and hopefully they continue to double down on ideas that are blatantly evil, stupid, and contra-reality, but I am not convinced that this past election was anything more than disgust at Biden’s senility plus expensive groceries, maybe with a side of leave the kids alone. I hope I am wrong.

      • Rat on a train

        The latest DNC elections indicate they still think voters are the problem.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Stay the course, and fight to the last drop of your blood

    The television news magazine 60 Minutes — the most storied and profitable show in the history of CBS News — currently finds itself as the avatar of President Trump’s onslaught against the media in the courts and the court of public opinion.

    Despite brave talk from the news division, CBS’s parent company appears to be inching toward capitulation, as its controlling owner wants to drag CBS out of the headlines and wrap up a corporate sale.

    ——-

    “Now, more than ever, only a fearless press stands between an aggressive [White House] and the public,” former CBS News correspondent Marvin Kalb posted on a Facebook page for CBS alumni. “If news organizations such as CBS bend a knee before a president, then we have all taken a big step towards autocracy.”

    The clash at CBS represents just the latest front in a multi-pronged assault on the press waged by the second Trump administration, using litigation, regulatory agencies, budget powers, executive prerogatives and sympathetic lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

    “You’re a brave man. Go and break through the lines. And remember, while you’re out there risking you’re life and limb through shot and shell, we’ll be in be in here thinking what a sucker you are.”

    When will the black shirts smash NPR’s windows? When will Trump Henchman Number One get around to pulling the plug on government supported dead-ender media?

    • rhywun

      the administration’s focus on partisan culture wars

      LOL

      something reap something sow

      • juris imprudent

        We are above partisan bickering, we are… HOLY and ANOINTED.

    • R.J.

      He just did. USAID funds most of it. It will take about two business quarters to die.

  34. PieInTheSky

    Volga Warrior grave 4800-4500 BC.
    “three mace heads circled. A tibia from another individual rests against his right arm & another between his tibias. Two severed hands of two individuals rest on his left hip…A long beaked bird carved from antler rests across his head & face.”

    https://x.com/lefineder/status/1887225386909733100

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      Ah yes, the good old days, when times were simpler.

  35. rhywun

    Welp, one dental visit down, one to go.

    /happy accident of scheduling-fu

  36. Suthenboy

    I hear them on the TV now screaming and cursing that their books are going to be opened. I wonder what that means?

    • Drake

      The DNC and half the RNC are nothing except money laundering and propaganda machines funded by your tax dollars. Once that is exposed fully, it will be a permanent shift in American politics.

      • rhywun

        Stop I can only get so hard.

  37. The Late P Brooks


    More broadly, the president and his allies are seeking to pressure the media writ large, both to inhibit its ability to check the president and to punish it for coverage he views as unfavorable.

    ——-

    “Each settlement weakens the democratic freedoms on which these media organizations depend,” Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, writes in the New York Times. “They create precedents — not legal ones, but precedents nonetheless — that will shape the way that judges and the public think about press freedom and its limits. They also damage the media institutions’ prestige and credibility.”

    The “press” bear no responsibility for shitting all over their credibility with blatant partisan bias and personal animus against Trump. Everything they publish is true.

    • Rat on a train

      Fact Check: Mostly False
      It is Trump’s fault. His existence forced the media to lie to protect Democracy.

  38. juris imprudent

    Maybe Trump’s mouth isn’t as crazy as we tend to think?

    Here is the stark reality: Gazans, not just the enlisted members of the Hamas brigades, waged an exterminationist campaign against Israel, and they lost. At virtually any other time in history, save the last 75 years, they would be lucky to lose only territory and not have their legend and language permanently deleted from the book of the living.

    Trump’s generous offer to the Gazans therefore signals a return to history, but with a twist. Trump has not only spared them, but vowed to provide them with new lives, better lives, work, new homes, a chance to raise their families in peace, an existence not premised on total and permanent war with a more powerful adversary destined to rout them entirely, and would have already done so if not for the objections of other powerful global players.

    • R C Dean

      It also gives him the ability to say “Hey, I tried. The whole two-state thing, Palis and Jews living side-by-side thing died on 10/7, if not earlier. We’re not going to build up Gaza again so they can do 10/7 again. I put this option on the table, and nobody took me up. There’s really nothing else we can do.”

      • juris imprudent

        And I do get why Egypt and Jordan are unenthusiastic about accepting the Palis, but then we can cut off the tap if they don’t. The other benefit to the region – this may serve as something of an example to the Kurds.

    • creech

      Many of us here think Trump’s Gaza “plan” is both crazy and some sort of bargaining chip. Is there any chance “he is a sincere philanthropist, compassionate and altruistic person who is saddened by the plight of the Palestinians and feeling the need to apologize for all the destruction caused by the Biden/Harris Administration’s sale of deadly offensive weapons to Israel? ” That’s one way to spin it, I guess, to lefties who are outraged over Trump’s annexation suggestion.

      • rhywun

        It’s so crazy it just might work.

        Either way, somebody had to suggest it and of course it was Donald. Nobody else has the balls to tell it like it is with the “two-state solution”.

  39. B.P.

    “Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha. I hope they keep crying. Forever.”

    Holy shit, Slate still exists. And it’s hilarious over there.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    I guess I didn’t read far enough:

    Carr opened an inquiry into NPR and PBS, saying he was concerned their corporate underwriting spots had become virtually indistinguishable from commercials. The two public broadcasting giants said they were scrupulous to follow the law and guidance from the FCC itself over the decades. Carr used his announcement to urge lawmakers on Capitol Hill to review whether to fund public broadcasting at all.

    When Trump’s chief spokesperson was asked about government spending on news organizations at a news briefing on Wednesday, the question brought a smile to her lips.

    “Coming out here, to the briefing room, I was made aware of the funding from the U.S. [Agency for International Development] to the media outlets, including Politico, who I know has a seat in this room,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “I can confirm that the more than 8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone essentially to subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the public taxpayer’s dime will no longer be happening.”

    ——-

    The question was posed to Leavitt by a new face in the press room: Brian Glenn, a national correspondent for the far-right Real America’s Voice network. He is also dating U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and Trump backer.

    The death of legitimate journalisming is upon us.

  41. juris imprudent

    Bwahahahaha – as if they haven’t been doing it in every place they can already?

    Democrats at the state level can do one thing in the medium term that might help: redraw their state’s congressional maps to favor Democrats as much as possible ahead of the 2026 midterms. Republicans only control the House by a handful of votes. Making it easier to retake that chamber next year will be the first, best opportunity to serve as a check on the White House.

    Never mind that legitimately speaking you have to wait for the next census to do another round of re-districting; and you have to control the state government first.

    • Nephilium

      Pretty sure there’s a couple of lawsuits still out there about Ohio’s “gerrymandered” districts. The Democrats tried to push through a constitutional amendment to change the commission to one of official party (D and R only of course) appointees and “neutral” parties instead of the current one where various state elected officials (Secretary of State, house majority leader, AG, etc.) got to appoint the members.

      The main reason is that the Democrats have managed to lose every single statewide elected office in Ohio for quite a while now.

    • R C Dean

      Hard to read that as anything other than an admission that they can’t win without rigging the system.

    • Ted S.

      Which states haven’t they gerrymandered yet?

      • R C Dean

        The ones the Republicans have gerrymandered?

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      “Bwahahahaha – as if they haven’t been doing it in every place they can already?”

      Exactly my reaction. ‘The problem for the democrats is that they’ve been fighting fair’ might be the worst take of this millennium of bad takes.

    • EvilSheldon

      I wonder if they’re going to mention any of the good ones?

      • Not Adahn

        I enjoy whoever does arfcom news. It’s a very Glib attitude.

        I only regularly watch Ian and Honest Outlaw now. I do catch TGC News to see what’s being released. I used to like David from The Humble Marksman, but he’s too often wrong, and my tolerance for broishness has decreased over time.

      • EvilSheldon

        Despite going to school and being on the Purdue pistol team with Ian, I’ve never much followed his channel. I’m just not all that interested in historic guns.

        I follow Ben Stoeger of course, Brass Facts and Hop mostly for night vision stuff, Tim Herron because he’s my homie, and the perfectly-named Mullets, Mountains, ‘Muerica for the super-technical long-range rifle content.

    • Not Adahn

      To some, the videos that review firearms, test gear and offer training tips resemble a hobby that could just as well be cycling or guitar playing.

      Oh Noez!

      • EvilSheldon

        We certainly can’t have guns being normalized in the culture! How then can we make sure people stay afraid of them?

    • Not Adahn

      Many guntube channels are run by men, but one — Tacticool Girlfriend with more than 62,000 followers — is run by a trans woman who conceals her identity because she’s wary of being stalked. In a video last fall, she called guntube a “very toxic place” that is “filled with machismo and all sorts of bigotry,”

      Because of course.

  42. creech

    Well, Tuesday’s conversations at Fellowship went about as expected. Summed up, Trump and his un-elected sidekick, Elon Musk, are engaged in “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” Response from moi: “Are you saying all of Biden’s or Obama’s policy makers were elected? I think not but I’ll listen to your evidence.” Crickets. “Maybe if you Democrats had been willing to actually throw out the bathwater over the last few decades, there would be no need to clean up the foul mess now.” Response is pretty much how the rank and file lefty thinks: poor and deserving people will die and we are the richest country on earth and need to accept a bit of corruption and inefficiency in the interest of helping them.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      ‘we are the richest country on earth and need to accept a bit of corruption and inefficiency’

      You don’t stay the richest with this mindset, and what do you know, we’re not actually the richest country anymore (on a per person basis, which is what matters for this discussion).

      • Jarflax

        “a bit” I actually agree with. Flexibility always comes with some inefficiency and government always comes with some corruption. But we are so far beyond ordinary levels of corruption, and minor duplication of efforts or ordinary waste that it’s either have a painful house cleaning now, or a literal blood bath in a few years.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      Also, is Fellowship a religious thing? Why would you be talking politics there?

      • creech

        First half hour is coffee and goodies, with informal chatting. Over the years, just about everyone has been pegged into one camp or another. The presentations tend to be non-partisan, except last year a couple of us had to get up and speak out after the presenter used S.A. Cupp and her Trump denouncements as non-partisan, telling truth to power goodness.

    • trshmnstr

      “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

      “Quite frankly, I don’t trust you to be able to properly identify a baby in comparison to the bathwater. I mean that both literally and figuratively.”

      • Rat on a train

        Throw out a clump of cells …

      • R C Dean

        Beat me to it, Rat.

        “What’s the big deal if a clump of cells gets thrown out with the bathwater, anyway?”

    • B.P.

      Trump is a dictator! And he just gave all his power away to the rich, unelected guy!

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Do your duty

    A group of former administrators of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) joined on Wednesday to issue a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency.

    In a joint statement, five former administrators who “served different presidents and voted for different political parties” stressed the global importance of the agency and said destroying it would only harm Americans.

    “While we don’t agree on all issues, we wholeheartedly agree that USAID and America’s foreign assistance programs are vital to our interests, that the career men and women of USAID have served each of us well, and that it is the duty of the Administration and Congress to swiftly protect the Agency’s statutory role,” they wrote in the statement.

    “Failure to maintain the global engagement that foreign aid enables, to honor the men and women of our civilian service as we do those in the military, or weaken and even destroy the Agency is to the benefit of neither political party and the detriment of all Americans,” they continued.

    The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      Paying tribute all around the world is not the way.

    • trshmnstr

      “Waaaaaahhhhhh, you took our grift away!!!!”

      Hey numbskulls, now that the mask is off, “bipartisan” doesn’t mean jack. The GOP has been exposed as controlled opposition.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    NYT/ Nicholas Kristoff:

    The World’s Richest Men Take on the World’s Poorest Children

    Oh, infamy!

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump ally, said Monday on social platform X that the president “agreed” to shut down USAID — an independent agency that supplies funding all over the world for development projects, dishing out funds to various contractors, universities and nongovernmental organizations, among others.

    That sounds reasonable. what are we quibbling about?