The syrup-suckers held off the Finnish rally and will play the US in Boston for all the bragging rights in the Four Nations thingy the NHL has smartly replace the All-Star stuff with. There’s a scandal going on in the tennis world. The UCL knockout first round starts wrapping up this afternoon with some good matchups. And in local news, our autistic daughter made contact with the ball last night and got an RBI, which was pretty fun to see. I’d show you the video, but the camerawork was so poor, y’all would mock me mercilessly (which I’d deserve), so you’ll have to take my word for it. And that’s it for sports.
“These government officials shouldn’t have access to that.” “Only people like me should have access to all that!” You know, because they’ve done such a bang-up job of managing things to this point.
This is fine by me. Let em fight it out. A year ago, there would probably have been an NGO on the ground ready to help the losing side’s members come to the US for asylum.
CBS really went insane this past weekend. I can’t believe they thought they were picking the right side of this issue.
This will be interesting. I’m curious to see how it plays out.
WWWWHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! Might have wanted to come in a little softer there, buddy.
This would be good. It can help out after Cash For Clunkers and CAFE Standards made cars largely unaffordable for most poor people.
What did he expect to happen? He picked the wrong religion to represent as a gay man, apparently. Savages.
This sounds like it could use an investigation. Perhaps there Feds will be interested in their reasoning here.
I have a feeling this story will get crazier before it goes away. ::gets popcorn ready::
Just as long as we don’t replace California with Californians. Unfortunately, I think that’s exactly what will happen.
Here’s a catchy bleak tune. It deserved more airplay. As did this one. Enjoy them both.
And enjoy this lovely Tuesday, dear friends.
No surprise there — it is a racket, after all.
Morning, Sloopy! Morning all!
I hope you snapped your suspenders after that one.
Good morning!
If I ever start wearing suspenders — it would have to be with a bowtie and a fez.
SDF-7:
All the well dressed Glibs have fez.
If I ever wear suspenders it will be with giant waisted pants, a red nose, and oversized shoes.
@Jarflax – So, tuesdays?
I only wear clown gear when I am in clown world! **looks around, looks at calendar** so yes, Tuesdays.
But where does the fault lie?
With love, of course. They are drawn into the sport’s net by it and can never smash their way out.
(But while they’re there…. they do have a ball.)
What the deuce has this thread devolved into?
I don’t know Sloppy, but we need to squash it quickly.
lol Sure, Jan. 🙄
Same thing happened to Gustav.
Surprised he didn’t accidentally “fall on it in the shower”.
What’s that, Fritz? It’s a crime to insult people online?
0-2
Dude — on my last cross country drive to check on the GA house and my parents this summer, y’all may recall I swung up to Rushmore with my son. We did a helicopter ride (since it was right there literally adjacent to the hotel parking lot and we had time before check-in). I filmed it.
…
…
Probably 40 percent of the damned video is the C-pillar (or whatever the helicopter equivalent is) because I was looking around and not paying close attention to where I aimed the shot.
Suffice it to say — criticism of anyone else’s camera work is not high on my list of possibilities.
Glad your daughter did well, I’m sure y’all had fun.
Alright. So people dumped from FAA were probationary and NOT ATC or technicians. Well, some technicians such as general maintenance who don’t work on equipment.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-spitzer-stadtlander-jd-mpa-9b018b25/
This guy…is claiming more than what he actually does. He was out of OKC anf probably crunched numbers for the FAA-NDP program.
Oh..not even a number cruncher. He is a MPA, which is management program assistant…a secretary.
Lol, that must be doing wonders for the reputation of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
Intermilitary Administrator?
Won’t someone think of the 150 year old vampire grandmas, the non-audited COBOL fields and little Bobby Tables! :sob:
“CBS really went insane this past weekend. I can’t believe they thought they were picking the right side of this issue.”
You are misdiagnosing the problem. CBS knows it is on the wrong side of the equation. They still did it because they hope people are stupid enough to still fall for their bullshit. This tactic worked for them for decades: counting on people too busy trying to make a living never being able to find out the news media had become a bunch of shills for an evil cabal of marxist globalists in the unelected and unaccountable bureaucracies of the world. Pure fucking evil shit.
That’s how you get them also saying free speech is how Hitler got into power, and then plunged the world into WW2, without a hint of irony or self reflection.
CBS knows it is on the wrong side of the equation.
I’m skeptical of this analysis. I think they honestly believe this is how they get the hoi polloi to rise up and oppose OMB/prevent the next one from coming to power: by getting them onboard with restrictive speech in the US since in their mind it works so well in civilized European countries. .
That is one heck of a level of stupidity if they really believe that.
It’s more likely as simple as “the ends justify the means.” They don’t particularly care whether liberal attitudes and laws surrounding speech are “right” or “wrong,” at least as moral categories go; it’s simply an impediment to the result they want presently. Petulant, effete, unprincipled children.
Apparently amongst people there are great discrepancies in the definition of the word ‘civilized’.
For some it means respect for self-ownership, for others totalitarianism.
Pat: The word machiavellian comes to my mind frequently of late.
While there are obviously some people on the left for whom these tactics are used deliberately, knowing they are evil; for most they sincerely believe that freedom of speech and other liberties are only good in so far as they permit the right actions, and that it is immoral to allow certain ideas to be spread. It is a blind spot carefully instilled by the constant barrage of cliches about diversity, hate, tolerance etc. from the media and the educational establishment. Any criticism of a protected group, any policy that impacts a protected group adversely is seen as truly evil, and the average lefty reacts to it emotionally the same way we react to someone abusing a child.
“HaTe SPeeCH iSN’T FRee SPeeCH!”
–rallying cry of the moron
I don’t know if it installed by the media, or reflected. Remember, they are of the same class, and many of the virtues that we see are vices to that group. Generally, this is a continuum, but people at our end of the spectrum often mistake it for various abnormalities, such as sociopathy or psychopathy. Or, just file it under evil, when it is just a reflection of human frailty.
“Do you hear yourself, Margaret?”
What Alex said.
I’m more than a little wondering what the hell is beneath the surface that the left seems so up in arms about putting up illegal immigrants in luxury hotels and all. It can’t be shifting voter demographics… this is NYC. It can’t be grift… the hotels surely could make money operating normally…. (well, it can be grift for the organizations in charge of taking the Fed money… but they shouldn’t have that much power). So I can’t shake the feeling there’s something else going on here and it is nasty as hell. And somehow, getting deportations rolling will expose it.
And given this is the state that brought us “Kill more nursing home patients via COVID!”… it boggles the mind as to what they’re actually scared of coming to light might be.
I’m curious as to how a Governor can just “remove” a Mayor.
She claims constitutional authority, I just don’t see it in their constitution.
Here’s the answer to your question:
https://time.com/7253521/eric-adams-mayor-new-york-remove-governor-inability-committee-explainer/
This story from 2008 says the Michigan governor pretty much has the same authority as New York’s. Now I wonder if that’s common.
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-boot-a-mayor-903
In some states, the counties and cities are chartered under the state. So the governor can move to remove elected officials. In reality, it’s been used only when people named Kilpatrick are convicted of multiple felonies.
Ponder that the same guy will likely be Adams’ replacement.
It is some combination of Eric knows where the bodies are buried and Kathy is terrified of the totalitarian rabble that have taken control of her party.
In that case, force needs to be applied from the other end; she needs a very invasive investigation into her actions about immigration via the DOJ. I know suits have already been filed, but she in particular needs looking at, as Adams is only responding too incentives is so much as talking to Trump.
Dragging from the deadthread re: “No evidence of hate crime in ‘torture’ killing of transgender man in upstate New York: Investigators”
I just woke up to this on my local news. Oh wait a minute, no I didn’t. They were straight up calling it a “hate crime”.
I do find it interesting that a different man who was tortured and murdered even closer to my town a couple years ago did not get any attention whatsoever from Kathy. No vilgils either. Interesting, that.
I’d still put $20 on “sex party gone wrong.”
Or drug deal gone wrong. It is always something like that.
Embrace the power of “and” with – drug fueled sex party gone wrong.
Why not a drug fueled sex party gone right?
Whatever it is it will be something depraved and no doubt dope will be in the mix.
Take a group of mentally unstable people, add sex and drugs, results may vary, but will generally trend toward bad.
So, Germany is doubling down on their authoritarianism in the run up to the lection they are terrified the ‘authoritarian’ party will win?
“We gotta be a little fascistic otherwise the fascists will take over” js probably a winning electoral strategy over there, if I’m being honest.
Plus, I’m starting to believe that German people are genetically predisposed to “just follow orders.”
*looks around at most fellow countrymen after the pandemic, raises hand, slowly lowers hand*
“Look, if we don’t restrict speech, then the people who say bad things may win elections, and then we’d be forced to round them up and put them into camps.”
(most likely mis)attributed to Hitler. Everything old is new again.
“Don’t believe every quote on the internet” — Abraham Lincoln
ThE pArAdOx Of ToLeRaNcE!!!
No, they don’t. And they never have. Stop lying, asshole.
/come and get me
Not that I travel much, but there are now countries I’d never visit because they could arrest me for what I’ve written online. Canada, Germany, England to name a few.
I’m thinking we’re at the point that the U.S. is the only country where they won’t arrest us for what we’ve written online – and I have my doubts at how long that will be the case.
What TOK says. Hell, I almost feel that way about various states.
This comment is marked safe from Preet.
“Now use PREET to spray away those badthinks next door!
PREET, brought to you by UBIK.”
We can dream — and certainly if OMB’s EPA smites down the Cali regime on their own standards/gas blends it won’t hurt.
But I think the powers-that-be (including Elon) are in love with the idea of both “safety” to the detriment of affordability and “planned traffic” (i.e. taking control away from the driver to better “manage” traffic flows). As such, I don’t expect we’ll ever see actually cheap cars again — they won’t be allowed. I’m just hoping I can keep driving mine until I croak at this point (and that it lasts and all).
Could have been any Smiths song, tbh.
I will raise an objection to this blanket statement, since “Ask” and “Panic” exist. But those are the only two I can think of that don’t fall into the bleak bucket.
Meh, governor Moonbeam was a Jim Jones fan. Lefty nuttery tends to disappear quickly and quietly, for some strange reason totally not related to institutional capture…
Hochul removing Adams for being mildly anti-migrant is going to really play will with her “urban” base.
Hizzoner has been irrevocably contaminated by Cheeto Hitler dust. Such a toxin must be purged from the body politic!
She feels she needs to play to the left wing of her party to avoid a primary challenge.
The left wing of TEAM BLUE in NYS has become batshit insane since gaining total power in 2018.
“I didn’t vote for Elon!”
Well, yeah. I only get to vote for 5 of the 537 elected positions in the federal government. Everyone else is unelected.
“I have a feeling this story will get crazier before it goes away. ::gets popcorn ready::”
Stacy McCain has been following this story. It’s already pegging the bugfuck nuts meter.
https://theothermccain.com/category/gays/the-transgender-cult/
To be fair, none of the Abrahamic Big 3 are the right venue for gay representation. Jews and Christians generally don’t commit murder over it, but shaping your identity around behavior that the doctrine qualifies as unacceptable isn’t going to win you brownie points. It’d be like trying to make a name for yourself as a polygamous Baptist or a pork eating Jew. If you reject the doctrine, just reject the doctrine.
Jews and Christians generally don’t commit murder over it,
Replace “generally don’t” with “never.” Also, there are a ton of gay and trans leaders of Christian churches. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but it’s becoming somewhat common to read about. Islamists, OTOH, routinely make a show out of killing gay people in public spectacles.
Usually a good sign it isn’t really a Christian church, but nobody starts shooting.
The outskirts of Christendom (Africa and parts of Asia) can be less tolerant than the west, so I hesitate to use absolutes, but it’s certainly rare enough that I wouldn’t call it a major problem.
Churches appointing clergy that reject fundamental doctrine *is* a problem, but not one worth killing over. It still seems retarded to me to try to shoehorn yourself into a group that rejects your beliefs and behaviors. I had a somewhat related moment of clarity regarding political affiliations some years ago when the public faces of libertarianism in the US all simultaneously turned into John Oliver and I quit using libertarian as a descriptor among political types who might mistake me for some Niskanen Center Koch-sucker.
It is like saying you are a constitutional conservative but don’t like the First or Second Amendments.
It is like saying you are a constitutional conservative but don’t like the First or Second Amendments.
Or like my dad who – unironically – put Bernie Sanders bumper stickers right next to his “I’m a Constitution Voter” bump sticker.
Cultures that practice and celebrate pederasty kill gays. Makes sense.
https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1891642144923717942
Hard to tell what happened but surprised no deaths.
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2025/02/18/watch-shock-video-of-crj-crash-in-toronto-released-reveals-a-ton-about-what-happened-n2185705
Clearer…hit the deck hard so I am guessing high winds
The NYP post in the links above said no strong winds.
That’s what I get for not reading the links
To be fair, OBE, nobody reads the links.
Now I’m seeing reports of 18 kt crosswind, which, shouldn’t be bad.
Mishandled landing
No flare. Hard landing.
It will be interesting to see why that happened.
It was the required amount of flare
Thanks
Reading the link about the Bay Area Zizians ‘death cult’ reminded me of a song I heard recently on this very topic……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSzJSV-7nCk
I dig it
Nothing left to cut.
The Week Trump Mounted an Unprecedented Takeover of the Kennedy Center
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-kennedy-center-board-takeover-78c2f122?st=UHeAit&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Trump should say if they want to keep their federal funding they need to rename it the Trump Center.
FTFY.
It’s been 30 years and she’s spent her entire career there. She knows nothing but carrying out the system as it is. Of course she’s scared of change.
Which is exactly why nobody should be allowed to work for the government for more than 5 years. And I could be convinced to lower that restriction to 2-3 years.
Grand slam.
Why are British police pandering to an Islamic State terrorist?
You know why.
They don’t want to lose their place in line for 12 year old girls?
But yet it appears she has plucked eyebrows and lipstick. What’s up with that?
Question for (((Glibs))), inspired by the circumcised snowman:
Is a (((transman))) required to be circumcised? Does it need to be within eight days of their transition?
Could the preempt it by just not taking all of the forearm skin usually used to make the fake weiner?
Is the person who performs the circumcision in this case a ho mohel? Does he perform the traditional orthodox technique of metzitzah b’peh (direct mouth suctioning to clean away the blood)? If so, is he required to provide a happy ending to the process, or is that extra? Finally, can I think of a way to make this reply any more offensive?
Finally, can I think of a way to make this reply any more offensive?
Not unless you manage to include a blumpkin in the process.
I don’t think a mohel would have the necessary expertise, they’d need to reach out to one of those muslim female circumcisers.
Don’t cry for me Argentina…
Ex-Argentine President Charged With Beating First Lady While in Office
Alberto Fernández, who called himself the country’s first feminist leader, allegedly battered his partner for years
https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/ex-argentine-president-charged-with-beating-first-lady-during-time-in-office-56a0b464?st=EJ1TLf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Hey, just like every politician that puts themselves forward as a male feminist.
One of the Dem’s media outlets is cheerleading for Team Blue to shut down the Fed Gov in March. It’s the only way to stop the TrumpenFührer and his minions “assault on the Fed Gov”…….
“Moreover, Trump’s extremism has given Democrats little choice. If Republicans need Democratic votes to keep the government open, how could Democrats explain to their supporters giving them away without getting a king’s ransom in return — especially after the White House’s blithe dismissal of congressional prerogatives? ”
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-mike-johnson-government-shutdown-resolution-rcna192114
Please don’t throw me into that briar patch!
Not sure how they manage that when the Republicans control both the House and Senate.
Repubs will jump on that if they get to poke Trump in the eye.
Repubs will jump on that if they get to poke Trump in the eye.
Given Trump’s poll numbers and their fear of getting primaried, I’m not so sure.
@WTF
You’re expecting rational behavior from irrational people.
Yeah. Pretty sure if the government is shut down this time, the national parks will stay open, and the drones won’t get their backpay.
Hey! The non-essential drones. I am expected to still show up.
I just love this “To protest the removal of nonessential employees and reducing spending, we’re going to force the government to send nonessential employees home and reduce spending!”
They really are just petulant children having a tantrum over their binky being taken away.
Got to keep the Work From Home gravy train keep going!
Also, if the current Continuing Resolution runs out, what happens to all those court cases requiring Trump to spend the money appropriated in that Continuing Resolution?
Hawaii will come to the rescue?
They have discovered that trillions is spent with the “TAS” field linking it to an appropriation left blank. Which I think I means Trump is free to cancel all that spending without getting sideways with TROs requiring him to spend money that Congress has appropriated.
And in this week’s edition of “Texas, WTF are you doing?”, I’ll be going from strategically-placed space heaters to prevent pipes from bursting tonight, to dragging the window unit back out of the closet for the 2nd time this month, all in the span of 6 days…
Your getting a dose of Missouri weather……
Well, I mean, not in February. *looks outside at all the snow that fell last night*
*laughs in Oklahoman*
Wow
I got an emergency text from Kathy saying “for the love of God do not go out on the roadz!” We got nothing.
Having said that, the previous two days culminating in 29 degrees and raining followed by overnight road clearing and a hard freeze means there’s a freaking ice dam at the base of my driveway.
AWD FTW!
Why is it every time I “buy once, cry once,” I get over it and life goes along merrily, but every time I cheap out, I end up yelling at myself, “I TOLD YOU SO!!!1!!1!”?
Sam Vimes’ boots theory. Sir Pterry in Men at Arms.
Sam Vimes “Boots” theory of socioeconomic unfairness
It’s a conditioned reflex. I rented an outdoor storage unit under conditions that would not require a piano to be stored there. HOWEVER, it did occur to me to get the climate-controlled indoor unit just in case and I dithered because it was more expensive. And for what? Some boxes and a couple of chairs? No. So I cheaped out. Now I’ve decided to move Mom’s piano at the same time the movers come for her other stuff (the piano was supposed to stay there until the house sold and my brother could come get it because he wanted it, but now he’s got stage IV colon cancer and is undergoing chemo, so he won’t be transporting a piano from NW Missouri to central Florida), and piano movers have storage. But why should I pay TWO storage places? Dammit. Listening to “just in case” whispers has saved my ass more than a few times. I should stop ignoring them.
Anyway, this decision is on the heels of my lawyer’s movements toward forcing the sale of the house, in which he is going to tell Cunty Aunt Susie to list the house immediately if not sooner and he’s going to make sure the courts tell her to do so. Soooooo happy we filed that motion to partition, even if we did fuck it up (and we did—lawyer fixed it). EVEN THOUGH every lawyer we’ve talked to grimaces when they hear we did that, they also say it was the right and appropriate thing to do.
Now I’m envisioning you trying to find a spot for a full-sized concert grand piano, though balance of probabilities tells me it’s an upright…
As long as it got fixed before it had any negative consequences that is all that matters. I admit, yes I grimaced when you said you had filed it yourself. 🙂
Upright, yes, but console/studio size.
Speed was of the essence at that point in time, so we didn’t have a choice. We did it fully knowing we would have to hire someone to fix it.
Lawyer said nothing except, “It’s wrong. I’ll fix it.”
It’s confirmed I’m old.
Led Zeppelin’s ‘Physical Graffiti’ Turns 50
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/music/led-zeppelins-physical-graffiti-turns-50-c5bb7645?st=swhiqR&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
I remember seeing that album on display when it came out, back when just about every strip mall had record store. I bought a used copy back in 80’s which I recently threw away. The first record(sides 1-2) was completely worn out and the second record was barely played.
The first record(sides 1-2) was completely worn out and the second record was barely played.
Checks out.
Swallowswell (who else?) beat down a dozen of his collegues in the rush to jump on stage and blame it on Drumpf.
I can’t even imagine the pretzel-logic required to make that connection.
At least it’s good to know the Democrats have learned nothing from the last election.
They know their left wing are a bunch of brainwashed fools who will believe anything as long as it makes Trump look bad.
Bill of Rights vs. ECHR
https://x.com/prestonjbyrne/status/1891510647373943012
Toby! https://dailysceptic.org
Any cake left? 🍒 🌰
New insights of cultural cannibalism amongst Magdalenian groups at Maszycka Cave, Poland
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-86093-w
Of all of the humans that have existed prior to 5000ya what percentage do we have evidence of? Of the ones we do have evidence of how many show evidence of cannibalism? I think you know where this is going.
Cannibalism goes through stages, I may not get this exactly right.
1. Outright hunting and eating those not of your tribe the way you would hunt any animal for food as a matter of course.
2. Only eating your neighbors in times of famine.
3. Eating people as some sort of ritual, usually to take their spirit or strength
4. Rituals replacing killing and eating people with only consuming parts and leaving the victim alive. In one NA injun tribe this evolved into just giving hickies.
5. Ritually consuming some food that is symbolic of human flesh.
6. Complete rejection of the idea of consuming your fellow man.
Looking at cultures today and of the past that we have good records of you see all of them in various stages of that evolution with the small minority being at 6.
Cannibalism, for the majority of human history was a horrific reality as common as pig tracks. My suspicion is that by the time we became homosapiens sapiens it was already long part of our reality. See: Chimpanzees today.
America Is Paying The Hefty Social Cost Of ‘Free’ Trade
More or less the way I’ve evolved since b school as well. There’s no denying the soundness of the theory, but the world isn’t populated by homo economicus.
I still mostly towards free trade, but as I said with care e.g. not with enemy countries and certainly not to strategically essential goods for defense, energy security etc.
So long as we have allies that produce the stuff, I’m OK with free trade.
And we have allies that produce the stuff.
Allies come and go. Global supply chains get cut.
anyway no free trade would not guarantee millions of manufacturing jobs it would boost automation a lot.
I prefer American Robots to Foreign Slaves.
FYI: there’s a made-in-America red dot available. It’s $700.
Who makes it?
Also, Given the last two Winter steel mishaps, I’m wondering if it might not make sense to just mail to form to me.
Primary Arms
https://www.primaryarms.com/primary-arms-plx-htx-1-enclosed-reflex-sight-acss-vulcan-dot-reticle
I’d hate to trust the paperwork to the USPS. Maybe meet for lunch closer to you?
That might also work.
Though my next free lunchtime is March 1st since this comign weekend is the safety class.
😭
https://www.opticsplanet.com/primary-arms-plx-htx-1-reflex-red-dot-sight.html
Other than $50 what is the difference between the 4MOA and the Vulcan?
Lazy US workers demanding time away from the assembly line! They probably insist on bathroom and meal breaks too!
I’m onboard with the reciprocal tariff program Trump announced last week. Whatever they tax out stuff, we tax their stuff.
B school Pat has visions of Smoot-Hawley, but the global economy has changed in 90 years, and laying the entire blame for the depression on tariffs was always tenuous. I’d rather live in a world where friendly nations engaged in mostly unrestricted trade, but wish in one hand, shit in the other…
I blame FDR for the Depression.
It was obvious from the start that this would be the end result. The question is who did and did not give a shit about it.
I always thought it was one of the major blind spots over at TOS.
In weather, we had I think more snow than anytime in the last 7 years. I did more shoveling than the last 5 years combined.
I will probably not move my car a few days as my spot is prime parking these days. I am the only one among the neighbors who removes all snow around the car. Most remove just enough to get the car out, but then it gets difficult to get back in again. Also as the snow started over the weekend, there are a few spots which had no cars so no one shoveled them. Parking is difficult where I live in the best of times… now unless critical my car stays put.
temps will drop to -15 in in couple of days. My heating bill was higher than expected the last months which was one of the warmest Januaries on record I don;t want to know what it will be in February… but as long as the gas keeps running and it is warm, I will pay.
I’ll say this much for Texas: at least there’s no snow. Don’t miss extricating the car from the drifts at all. Commiserations.
These are the days my husband longs for SoCal.
The ice storms can more than make up for it, though.
Musk Derangement Syndrome is in full swing here in Greater Seattle. Threatening notes are posted everywhere warning Tesla drivers to sell or trade their Teslas by Feb 21 “or else” they are fair game for destruction. (No comment on whom they’re supposed to be selling to…)
My Tesla-driving coworkers (and there are quite a few) have had our premiums hiked last month. One guy was dropped by his insurance—he lives downtown.
Two problems: 1) Tru Believers think property destruction is OK if your views are icky, and 2) the Seattle cops aren’t going to do anything because they agree.
To be fair I have been annoyed by the guy myself when he boosts the local nutjob. I doubt he understands anything about Romanian politics but that does not stop him from having opinions, a train I find unpleasant in people in general.
Nobody’s stated political opinions should make them or their property fair game for vandals.
off course. I just said I am annoyed a bit, not that should have any outcome.
One coworker had his brand new (3 weeks) Tesla rear ended in a hit-and-run two weeks ago.
Tesla cameras caught everything including the license plate of the car. Cops told my colleague outright that they aren’t going to allocate resources to it, so he should go through his insurance.
Can he sue in civil court?
Sure. And might even win. Then he can get the judge to sign a piece of paper telling the same cops that told him to go fuck himself to go collect his money from the asshole that hit his car.
My assumption would be that’s up to the insurer if it made the policyholder whole.
I suppose the policyholder would have a claim for the deductible.
(Assumes no Bodily Injury.)
Funny part is those same people were giving out free blowjobs to Tesla owners prior to Musk buying Twitter.
It is amazing the complete 180 the left has done on him. Their hive-mind messaging system is unbelievably effective at getting the seals clapping in unison.
As if the $7,500 tax credit weren’t enough!
Why There Is No Relief Ahead for High Used-Car Prices
Factory disruptions three years ago are coming back to haunt the auto market
No way…
https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/why-there-is-no-relief-ahead-for-high-used-car-prices-8d7617be?st=XUCfBi&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Here’s another one of those areas where economic theory runs aground on the coast of reality. Theoretically, production should have ramped up when capacity was restored and pent up demand drove prices up. New entrants should have jumped in with fresh capital to compete with the big boys, and the big boys should have been tripping over each other in an effort to push new cars out to consumers. Now I wonder why none of that happened, and why there’s fewer major global automotive manufacturers than there are continents…
I have a (totally uneducated) opinion that it is like airlines, the start up capital investment you have to tied up in equipment, distribution/sales and product development is enormous and the risk:reward comparison is not great.
High capital requirements are definitely a barrier to new entrants, but probably not sufficiently to explain the oligopolistic nature of the modern global auto market. Regulatory compliance and trade policy are likely the greater factors. As much as I dislike Tesla as a corporate welfare queen, I’ll give the Muskrat credit for being the first asshole in a century to dare to question the legitimacy of banning direct consumer sales by automotive OEMs.
The regulatory/trade policy aspects I consider to be part of the risk profile, again a parallel to airlines. When your industry requires tying up tens or hundreds of billions in capital for start up, but with limited opportunity for rapid recoupment, regulatory an trade policy uncertainty is at least as big a risk factor as competitors outcompeting you.
I find it telling that the left didn’t give a shit about the corporate welfare but holy shit are they upset that the same person is helping expose rampant criminal fraud and graft that benefits them.
Since it looks like more hybrids are going to be with us for longer – Honda has an interesting take on market leader Toyota. I’ve read multiple good reviews on the new Civic.
2025 Honda Civic: The Prius Has Met Its Match
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/cars/2025-honda-civic-review-the-prius-has-met-its-match-d38e4b6f?st=zhkGyv&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
It’s much more fun to drive than the Prius. Downside for those of us with snow is the lack of AWD in the Civic. However, I’d expect variations of this drivetrain to come across more and more of the line up because of emissions and regulatory requirements across the globe.
I’ve been eyeballing one of those but
won’t be until next year though. They’re pretty nice.
There is a little doubt about the SS database. It looks bad but my guess is there’s some spit and string programming that kicks out some of the more obvious problems. That’s the most generous scenario. But they do need to look into the code that prints the checks, and get the DOJ to hunt down who is receiving checks for 150 year olds (if that’s happening).
That CBS segment was terrifying. They sent like 10 people to arrest someone for posting a cartoon. The most chilling part is the “reporter” didn’t ask any of the obvious questions, she just went along and laughed light-heartedly.
That landing looked pretty rough. My nephew is a pilot, we’ll see what he has to say.
“That CBS segment was terrifying. They sent like 10 people to arrest someone for posting a cartoon.”
That’s why I’m a fanatic for the 1st and 2nd Amendments. If you take away the 2nd, the Left will then go after the 1st which would enable them to do whatever they want without any pushback. Their wet dream has always been to disarm us so they can whittle down our rights and force us to be slaves to their bullshit utopian view of the world.
Allowing unelected officials to define what is false or offensive is the short road to totalitarianism. The German law also bans “insulting” a politician. So I guess if someone is running against a politician and says they’re doing a bad job, that can be taken as an insult and the opponent can be thrown in jail?
Not sure why you included “unelected”, TOK.
Lèse-majesté without actual majesty.
Take away the 2nd and there will be no ‘whittling’. Whittling is what we have now.
That is what I don’t get. Maybe it’s my Americanized brain, but this idea that a bunch of unelected bureaucrats can determine what is or isn’t good speech is a terrible idea.
R C, the people on 60 minutes were German prosecutors, so I’m not sure if they were elected or not. They do have discretion to charge or not charge people so it seems like it all rests on their opinion.
“It looks bad but my guess is there’s some spit and string programming that kicks out some of the more obvious problems.”
Shouldn’t be hard to see who is getting a check. If the DOGErs had access to that data, we’d know already. But I wouldn’t want to rely on spit and string programming in an ancient system to prevent fraud, regardless. If I had to bet, some is getting caught, and some isn’t. Don’t forget, organized crime (including foreign cartels/gangs) have a long history of sophisticated fraud on government programs.
The first round of normalization talks with Russia went well.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-russian-officials-propose-peace-plan-lay-groundwork-cooperation-riyadh
The Euros are big mad and are meeting to try to sabotage the peace plans. They can enjoy their irrelevance.
Trump knows they’re worthless and is focusing on the 2 other major powers in the world.
Of course, Russia imposing it’s version of a color revolution on Ukraine is somehow perfectly OK.
Fucking auto-correct.
It’s about as relevant to any US interest as the Brexit vote. And followed on the heels of the color revolution we pulled to install Zelenskyyyyyyy the gnome as beneficent democratic
dictatorunopposed emergency president for life in the first place. The first rule of holes: when you’re in one, stop digging.Yeah better them than us. Sucks for Ukraine but I don’t really care, Margaret.
“Spheres of influence”, Ted. It’s the only alternative to global hegemony, which doesn’t seem to be working out very well for us. “Every government plays nice all the time with everybody” is, well, unlikely.
I’d prefer to have the Euros as friends and trading partners. But they need to start pulling their own weight. Especially if they believe all this talk of Putin as the new Hitler.
Russia is like a 12 hour car ride from Berlin. So if your mortal enemy and would be conqueror is half a day away from your border, shouldn’t you be pumping up your military budget, considering conscription, and preparing your defenses?
Perhaps you’d want to be on good terms with them in that situation rather than doing everything you can to provoke them?
If that’s not possible, you certainly wouldn’t want to destroy your electric grid and deindustrialize your country while talking war.
Europe and Zelensky had years to come up with a cease fire, instead they took Old Man Biden’s lead and refused to talk to Putin. I have zero sympathy for these assholes.
Nobody forced Putin to invade.
Nobody forced Putin to invade.
Forced? What’s the right verb when Putin says “I’ll go to war to stop Ukraine entering NATO” and the west says “Let’s get Ukraine into NATO” ?
Rasputin
“In his role as a Senior Advisor to the President, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors,” Fisher said in his declaration to the court.
“Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” he continued. “Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President’s directives.”
Fisher compared Musk’s role to that of Anita Dunn, who served as a senior advisor to former President Biden.
His declaration comes as part of a lawsuit brought by 14 states against Musk, Trump and DOGE last week, arguing that the government role of the world’s richest man is unconstitutional because he has not been confirmed by the Senate.
They should petition the court to check Trump for a neural implant.
Actual photo of Anita Dunn advising Biden
https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Wormtongue-LotR.jpg
I didn’t even realize that bitch was in the Biden admin. I remember when Obama had to cut her loose after Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh brought to public attention her admiration for Chairman Mao
Wasn’t there supposed to be a massive string of crippling protests bringing about the downfall of OMB yesterday?
A few people out in town yesterday. More drive past giving them the finger.
NPR loves to promote protests.
They rans stories hyping up a nationwide fast-food worker’s strike for months. Then when the strike happened, it had <200 people, more than half of which were union reps trying to organize the workers.
Ironically, they were directly involved in setting up one of the anti-Trump protests back in 2017 when rooshen shitposters would promote anti- and pro-Trump protests at the same time and place.
They reported a couple hundred in Tucson (metro population nearly a million), with the usual carefully angled and cropped photo. So if a couple hundred were reported, I’m guessing more in the dozens.
There was a big one in DC, but that could easily be all the people who were fired.
There were two protests mentioned in the local news. Protests at a Tesla dealership on the east side, and protests at an ice festival yesterday.
Why There Is No Relief Ahead for High Used-Car Prices
Nobody wants small cheap simple cars.
Speaking of hybrids, Harry did a thing recently on the state of the business. He thinks hybrids will win. Then he started talking about why small internal combustion cars are doomed. He used an older Renault something or other as his example. The car itself, adjusted for inflation, would be about 30k Euros, but the Eurozone “carbon tax” would be more than double that. The carbon death cult needs to be wiped out.
Harry’s Garage
The consensus seems to be without regulation and taxes that hybrids are the way to go.
I just don’t like the complexity. But given the multiple emissions systems today that ship has sailed.
Hybrids seem like the stupidest solution to me. Woefully complex drive trains.
ICE or EV or EV (with onboard gas generator) make way more sense.
48V starter / generator aka “mild” seems tolerable. But I still hate the complexity.
I would love a cheap, simple car… as long as it has the headroom and legroom for a tall person. One of the reasons I drive Subarus is I can fit even in the Impreza, and the Forester I’m driving now seems huge inside. But I hate all the electronic crap.
I bought a 2017 Versa because it is so dead simple. No electronic horseshit in the cabin.
But it wasn’t made for tall people.
Brooks, I think it’s more “Nobody Who Matters wants us to have cheap, simple cars”.
Cool! I’m going to be flying into Guayaquil with my family next week. Sounds like there may be some adventure opportunities.
Guayaquil – like NyQuil but gay…
ok that was bad and I instantly regret it
Whatcha up to in Ecuador? I spent a couple months there in the edge of the 90’s. Didn’t hit the Pacific side at all tho, I was in the Andes and the lowland jungle the whole time.
NatGeo cruise to the Galapagos Islands. We’re flying into Guayaquil and spending the night, then flying a puddle-jumper out to a small cruise ship and touring the islands for a week, then the same puddle-jumper back to Quito for a day, then home. I’m super excited.
Ooh, that sounds awesome. I’m sure you’ll be fine, just avoid any temptation to take random nighttime strolls around Guayaquil, heard it’s pretty spotty. I didn’t go to the Galapagos when I was there as I was trying to stretch every dollar and last as long as possible. I should have. Have a great trip!
Yeah, Guayaquil has some bad areas, and the present state of emergency is making things even more sketchy than usual. That said, most of the violence seems to be narco business, and the place we’re staying is a 5-star resort hotel in the bougiest neighborhood in the city – I think we’ll be fine. And even if the entire place was an active warzone, I’m not missing a chance to visit the Galapagos.
BTW, kidnap & ransom and medical evac insurance is surprisingly cheap. Who knew?
My sister and her husband visited Ecuador a couple years ago and had a layover in Guayaguil, where they nearly got mugged walking from the KFC to their hotel. Sounds like you’ll have an adventure.
I love being the first to know about news by reading SF
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/02/11/lindy-li-biden-was-doped-up-n2651975
I just don’t like the complexity.
I can’t help wondering about the long term reliability of those in-the-bell-housing starter/generator/booster units.
On the Toyotas that seems fairly robust.
More government efficiency!
“Under the agreement, 9,000 Marines — just under half the force currently on the island — are eventually supposed to leave. But their departure is already two decades behind the original schedule and may not happen for more than a decade to come, until construction of replacement bases is completed.”
U.S. Marines Start to Leave Japan, Decades Behind Schedule
The American base on Okinawa has relocated 105 Marines. But an agreement to move 9,000 in total is colliding with the perceived threat from a rising China.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/world/asia/us-marines-japan-okinawa.html
Remind me again when we defeated Japan?
January 8, 1992
Nice!
I remember getting into a fight with a good family friend and NJ RINO when some comedian trained a monkey to imitate that.
Ah, I was doing news on my college radio station that morning when the news came over the wire.
Those wire machines were *loud*.
Construction of a replacement base, where?
Why do I have the feeling that we can squeeze them in on existing bases in the US? I mean, if we want to.
Partly Guam. Assuming it doesn’t tip over…
I have lied on the app on which I account my work time… I had said I would go to the office two days this week but I did not because blizzard and cold and I worked from home . No one checks obviously and half the office is on holiday but still..
They celebrate Washington’s Birthday in Romania too?
Hybrids seem like the stupidest solution to me. Woefully complex drive trains.
It’s an answer to a question which never should have been asked.
I like to think I’m good at cheating. My professional career is figuring out weak points in processes. But I still learn new things.
Practical shooting started as a combat sport, and you can see remnants of that in the target size/shape, the standard of “shoot it twice” and in the idea that bigger bullets = more stopping power. To reward more powerful man-stopping handguns, shooters (in some divisions) get bonus points for using ammunition that imparts sufficiently high momentum. We get the mass by weighing the bullet, and the velocity by way of chronograph. There is a rule C2-49, which says that the chronographer can instruct a competitor to fire up to six shots into the berm before testing begins. I couldn’t figure out the purpose of this rule.
It turns out people were lubricating their barrels to make the bullets go faster.
This was probably back in the day when it took some serious handloading work to make a Major PF load that would run in your 2011 without blowing it up.
Nowadays everyone shoots minor 9mm and no one cares. It’s better, IMO. If you want to do competitive handloading, the open-class benchrest guys will be happy to have you. 😉
I do like a nice ballistic euphemism.
After six shots, my seventh isn’t going very fast. I guess I’m getting old.
After six shots the spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised.
Ah who am I kidding, the spirit isn’t even willing at that point.
“Jeebus, what does a man have to do to get a sammich around here?”
I’d love to see the Yugo make a return. We need more cheap, no frills cars. Back when I was a kid one of my paper route customers had one and I always dug the shape of it. I once bought another cheapie Euro car in a campground in Croatia for 300 euro, a right hand drive Skoda. It looked like a Suburu. Drove it to Istanbul and then tired to sell it and found out after a hard day driving around to fixers that I would not be allowed to exit Turkey without it unless I gave it to the government. Drove it back to Amsterdam and sold it to some Czech guys for 500 euros and a case of beer.
It was a Fiat 128 that they licensed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_128
I do think there is a pretty good market here for a no frills cheap car, but I don’t think the bureaucrats want one.
https://www.salon.com/2025/02/18/ai-could-widen-the-wealth-gap-experts-say/
AI: It may or may not make us all richer or poorer. But it is certain the government needs to manage this.
If we get real AI, is there a possibility it could be used to provide intelligence transplants to the writers at Salon?
I’ve already seen AI posts that are smarter than anything at Salon.
Stagflation!
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz flagged major concerns for the economy under President Trump, claiming fluctuating policies put the nation at risk of stagflation.
“It risks the worst of all possible worlds: a kind of stagflation,” Stiglitz, who served as chair of former President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, told The Guardian.
——-
Stiglitz and others, including Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, have said the commander-in-chief is making the wrong move.
“Almost all economists agree that the tariffs will increase prices. How much it will increase prices is a little bit affected by the magnitude of the appreciation of the exchange rate, but all economists think that the extent of the appreciation of the exchange rate won’t be anywhere near enough to compensate for the tariffs,” he told The Guardian.
“I could certainly see a scenario where we get to stagflation – we get inflation, and a weak economy. I cannot see a really robust economy, because I just see the global economy suffering so much from the uncertainty that Trump poses.”
I’m sure Stiglitz was all over the stagflation call when the plague “forced” us to jack up the money supply while choking off production.
A timely warning, coming as it does a couple of years after the annual inflation rate reached 9% with GDP growth at sub-3%, inclusive of $2 trillion in additional annual federal spending…
“It risks the worst of all possible worlds: a kind of stagflation”
No, Mr. Nobel Prize Winning Regime Mouthpiece. The worst of all possible worlds is hyperinflation.
Here’s the deal: you can’t break inflation without a recession. Saying “Ermagerd, we can’t risk a recession with inflation so high” is like saying “We can’t do a damn thing about inflation. Just lie back and think of your banker’s expanding net worth.”
stagflation
Been there; done that.
Just a few years ago as a matter of fact.
You can never reach peak “Atlantic”.
Recently, though, I’d begun to reconsider. I was in the midst of an admittedly strange-sounding project: I was spending a year trying to change my personality. According to a scientific personality test I’d taken, I scored sky-high on neuroticism, a trait associated with anxiety and depression, and low on agreeableness and extroversion. I lived in a constant, clenched state of dread, and it was poisoning my life. My therapist had stopped laughing at my jokes.
Want to Change Your Personality? Have a Baby.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/03/motherhood-parenting-personality-change/681440/
Poor kid.
I lived in a constant, clenched state of dread, and it was poisoning my life.
Being obsessed with politics will do that to you.
As a disagreeable, neurotic, and anxious person with an Irish propensity to depression, alcoholism and suicide, I can confirm that getting too immersed in politics definitely helps bring out the worst. Staying busy and making an effort to pry yourself out of your own asshole and go touch grass helps a bit.
You sure we’re not related?
Amen to that. I used to stupidly waste my time on social media arguing about politics and came to grips especially during COVID that no one’s mind going to be changed along with realizing ow stupid it was being angry at people on the internet. Now I just post pictures of my pets or house projects and either unfollowed or muted those who discusses politics all the time.
On tour
“We have to be organizing everywhere, which is, by the way, the name of this tour. We’re going to be talking with voters, with union members, with farmers, door knocking for candidates, holding listening sessions throughout those red, purple, and blue states that we’re visiting this week,” Martin said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“We need to get the DNC out of D.C., out of the Beltway, reconnecting our message back with voters,” he added.
Earlier this month, Martin was elected as the chair of the national party, replacing Jaime Harrison. While campaigning for the post, Martin said Americans had a warped perception of Democrats and what they stood for, compared to Republicans.
Voters are stupid, and must be re-educated. That’s the message you need to bring to Flyoverstan.
Considering the private workforce is ~12% unionized (last I checked, anyway), and about 2% of the US workforce is engaged in agriculture, I’m the tour with be an absolute triumph. There’s nothing a, say, self-employed diesel mechanic making $100k a year, loves to hear more than how they need to organize to stick to The Man.
Once again, it’s not the substance of our platform that’s the problem, it’s the messaging.
A 55-year-old retired teacher who identified himself only as Tom and who held a sign that read: “No one voted for Musk,” told TechCrunch, “As much as I dislike the fact that a significant number of Americans voted for Trump, it is absolutely the case that no one voted for Musk.”
I’d like to ask our 55 year old reitiree how many people voted for Soros?
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/17/thousands-protest-elon-musks-doge-in-nyc-on-presidents-day/
Lefties decrying unelected figures running a shadow government, and also defending the unelected permanent bureaucracy and intelligence apparatus spending 9 consecutive years going after Drumpf
“You are aware that of the more than 2MM civilian employees in the executive branch, only two are ever elected, yes?”
I was always skeptical of the idea of ‘Self Talk’ as a beneficial practice, but since starting to lift I have discovered that I was wrong. Saying “You are a weak little bitch, stop being a bitch and move that weight” to myself, actually makes me able to do the last rep! That’s what they mean by self talk right?
It may be the spiritual side of me, but I find that prayer is just as effective: “Jesus Christ, stop being an idiot for the love of God!”
Hmm, I like the basic idea, but the specific content seems off for me. Starting to lift at age 57 and morbidly obese makes “don’t be an idiot” kind of a questionable message. 🙂