Good morning one and all to another glorious day!
Mexican president declines Trump’s offer of US troops to help fight drug cartels
Proposal gives new weapon in fight against cartels
Trump Says US Will Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Movies
IRS touts more efficient tax collection this year under Trump admin
Trump Demands ‘Bigger, Badder’ Alcatraz To Lock Up Nation’s Worst Criminals
Biden deportation data inflated by ‘turnarounds’ at border, a stat that now masks Trump success
‘A Small Price To Celebrate America’s Greatness’: Trump Champions $45 Million Military Parade
US Tariffs Push China’s Largest Wholesale Market to the Brink
Student loan collections restart for more than 5 million borrowers in default
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
Drinko de Mayo, another amateur night.
Morning, all.
Why? It’s not going to make people watch the domestic slop.
And let me guess, it won’t apply to US-based studios filming in Vancouver or the UK.
Canadian composition rules?
He’s just really tired of pretentious French films?
More seriously — 1) Since when is the American movie industry either critical to the nation or in unfair competition with foreign nations?
2) Congress, you useless assholes — can you please step up and establish your authority / some process on tariffs? This arbitrary “sounded good on the toilet when reading TRUTH SOCIAL at 2AM” shit is no way to run a country…
Gotta say, the 2am toilet tweeting is better than the dictates of FRAU DOKTOR Jill.
Congress could have written laws allowing executive discretion such that Congress must approve but, you know, Congress.
The “authority” Trump is using is supposed to have either an emergency or national security basis. I hate to argue for lawfare – but without the supposedly legitimate basis in place, he is in violation of the statutory language.
Considering you’re talking box offices at theaters around the country, I would love to see how they think they’re going to collect that tariff.
Clearly, it’s when the electrons or photons cross the border bringing the data in from overseas. Just put a toll booth on the information superhighway.
Crunchyroll sub price $99/mo
I refuse to knowingly give Crunchyroll money after they killed Rightstuf.
Rightstuf is still there
Dude is just an idiot. Getting real sick of this shit.
Me too. Just stick to the 75% that’s working, and stop being a nutter. The list is getting longer: Gulf of America, movie tariffs, military parade.
A Small Price To Celebrate America’s Greatness’: Trump Champions $45 Million Military Parade
Can’t wait to see how the MAGA types spin this.
‘Merca, Fuck Ya?
(I read somewhere that military recruitment was surging lately)
Have to surge up for the war with Canada. Trump wants to beat Desert Storm on duration of ground operations.
War with Canada? You mean Operation Desert Snow?
And Mexico! Two front war, yo!
Hopefully they don’t call it Operation Poutine, get confused, think it’s Operation Putin, and invade Russia.
Putin is the way …
I am gonna tell you why I think Trump is doing it: morale boost for the people in the military.
After years of DEI damage & destruction of fighting capability, he seems to believe this will instill some kind of boost.
Stupid shit, but I can see why he thinks this makes a difference.
Nope, he’s doing it for his ego and the ‘murica fuck yeah crowd.
We’ll see just how much the recruiting surge does when the year-end numbers are in.
You seem to think this is a recruiting stunt instead of a increase morale stunt. I think stopping DEI was enough to end the recruitment draught. This is about making the people in the military feel good after years of their DEI masters destroying moral for people that believed the military was supposed to be about killing enemies and braking their shit to make them cry uncle, and not about social welfare.
I am not condoning it, but I understand the messaging.
A lot of what is wrong with the military doesn’t start or stop with DEI. I know you have your fixations, but the problems really do run deeper.
The biggest problem facing our military is the fact that the political class has turned it from a force to kill and destroy (lethality) to a welfare program. If we accepted the military’s job was to scare anyone from fucking with the US, because once unleashed the military would go scorched earth, we would be able to cut the budget in half and still be the strongest military period. We started losing wars when we stopped believing that unconditional surrenders were a thing after WW2, because of nukes.
And Alex, that problem goes well beyond DEI and Obama. It is part and parcel of the DoD bureaucracy itself. Shit reaching back into the Cold War.
It’s a bureaucracy like any other. Whatever the mission on paper, the actual mission will inevitably become preserving and expanding the bureaucracy. If the trendy way to do that is DEI you will get more and more DEI. If the trendy way to do that is jingoistic parades…
The irony of a guy that avoided the military (along with his buddies, Cheney, Clinton, and Biden) needs to get ahead of the military parade.
And to Trump’s credit, he’s not the standard-issue DC warmonger – which just adds to the irony.
morale boost for the people in the military
Someone who has never had to march in a parade. I’d take a mandatory fun day over that again. “Let’s tear apart our TA50 from how we have it rigged for the field, clean it all up, paint the pull it tabs, etc etc. and then try to get it back to the perfect way it was before”
I don’t know if I am a MAGA type or not but I will spin it like this –
NO. We dont need to celebrate America’s military greatness. It is a stupid way to waste money and military parades look bad in my opinion. They aren’t a celebration. They are for show and to intimidate. Fuck that.
We have a 250th anniversary next year, have a few events then and include the military.
The trend now is to call Trump a dictator, let’s not feed into that.
I say we celebrate the 250th anniversary by burning down the Tax code, abolishing the NFA and ATF, and eliminating at least 75% of the remaining agencies.
He is not a dictator but this is a waste of money and gives the lunatics an excuse to pile on.
How about we just shit-can the DEI evil. That would go a lot further to up morale than any parade.
Trump would still be labeled dictator in waiting if he pulled a Biden for the next 4 years.
Fuck you, cut spending.
I agree — but at the same time… when you elect the guy known for ostentatious gold toilets and whatnot… are we surprised he loves his little parades and shows? Just saying — we all should have seen this coming as well as the stuff we like.
I have made an effort to stick to my pinciples over principals.
Not saying we should approve or not kvetch. Just saying — this is Trump… we’re lucky he doesn’t plate the Executive Mansion and make it The Gold House.
I’d be interested in the breakdown of the $45M.
Did someone add up the salaries of all the military guys marching? Along with the fuel used for the tanks/etc?
My guess is a large chunk of that money would have been spent anyhow.
As an enlisted mope, though, I hated all the stupid parades and formations. Just more time you had to spend polishing and cleaning. Extra infuriating when the visiting dignitary spent 5 minutes on the parade ground before heading off to the O-club.
I figured it was for bunting and confetti.
Can we get tariffs on poorly-made films?
Who gets to decide what is poorly made?
Trump will screen each film and set the tariff.
This will end up making Q very happy I suspect. “Terrible titties on that actress, like totally the smallest not even perky, 300% tariff!” “Serious HUUUUGE, just the best, perfect Slavic assets! No tariff!”
Jarflax, it sounds like you are recommending that Joe Bob Briggs gets to decide. We could do worse.
How would it mask the fact that crossings are now virtually nil? That is the metric for border security – how many people got through outside of ports of entry.
And we’re nowhere near the rate of removals we need to get to. Having lost 100 days of poor performance, we now need to push almost 20k/day net out migration.
Nobody knows, or can know, the rate of self-deportation. I do think they need some incentives on that front to help speed things along – free plane ticket, maybe eligibility after 10 years to re-enter the country (whereas if we deport you, lifetime ban) – but I suspect the current rate isn’t negligible. Ironically, the MSM’s tales of horrific abuses are probably speeding things up.
That last point is interesting. If these people really believe they will be sent to Bukele’s prison, they’ll either hide like Anne Frank or leave. For once our insane media might have accidentally helped.
Because they were trying to make it look like Biden was shipping people out and decreasing the number of illegals in the country, not just slowing the rate of increase.
For people so into “messaging” this is a mess. Make it look like Biden was deporting more people, but also say that deporting people is what Nazi’s do.
Can’t blame her — if I were any other country, and especially Latin America — I wouldn’t be looking to invite the military of a foreign power onto my soil either.
But if Mexico (and the cartels that I think run it at this point) doesn’t get their house in order, they’re likely eventually going to get a visit one way or another out of self-preservation. Hopefully if we get our house in order, continue to secure the border, get the economy running again (cheap energy and deregulation) so people aren’t so damned depressed, especially in “flyover states” we can get their market opportunities dried up on this side of the border. Not holding my breath — but it would be nice. But otherwise, there’s going to eventually be a push to go after the cartels more directly and a President willing to do it — human history makes that clear.
Morning Banjos… morning all you drinkers (critical and otherwise) who down non-snake margaritas to celebrate today.
Peter Zeihan has suggested that the cartels will eventually bring their violence north of the border and when that happens there will be a full military response (without regard for who is in the White House).
If Zeihan said it will happen you can count on it not happening. He’s the Jim Cramer of geopolitics.
Just curious, what example of him being egregiously wrong do you have?
“Russia will not invade Ukraine.”
Later…
“Russia was always going to invade Ukraine.”
If he said Russia won’t invade post-Maidan, then yeah, that’s ridiculous. If he said that in 2013, c’mon.
Eventually? Dude, where have you been the last 40 years?
I think he’s been predicting China’s imminent collapse for years and years now.
There’s something about him that just triggers my bullshitometer.
My prediction on China’s fall is When the Three Gorges fails. And it will fail, it is not well made nor securely anchored.
Uncivil: have you ever tried to build a dam? I tried when I was a kid and knew jack shit about soil science and engineering. I tried damming up a small creek to make a swimming hole. It failed repeatedly. I learned a bit each time and so the dams each successively took a bit more time to fail but in the end they all failed.
My father, who was at the time one of the top experts on earth fill dams was veery amused by my efforts and when I complained he told me “All dams fail. The aim of the engineer is only to put the failure off as long as possible.”
A successful dam is a complex structure and EXPENSIVE in time, money and effort. You are correct. Everything the Chinese do is fake. I cannot believe for a minute that they put in the time money and effort necessary.
You are correct.
Hoover Dam took 5 years and cost less than a billion in today’s dollars.
@Suthen – sorry, all my understanding of hydrology and riverine engineering is book learning. You got me trying to mentally draft an earthworks a youngun could construct that would last… I’m waffling on how to prevent erosion on the spillway though.
@LAH – The site was well chosen and the structure was well designed. Plus we didn’t have all of the environmental reviews and various interfering paperwork nonsense that inflates the costs of modern projects.
Eventually?
ZWAK, we don’t have anything like the shit going on down in Mexico. Quite possibly because far too many of us have the guns to shoot back. Even Baltimore and Chicago aren’t anything like down there.
STEVE SMITH SAY DEMO’RATS NEED PURGE. AND BY PURGE, MEAN RAPE.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5281653-stephen-smith-2028-purge-democrats/
Stephen A. is no STEVE.
HIM’S GREATEST GAME IS BEING WHINEY BITCH.
WHINEY BITCH ABOUT WHITEY RACISM. AND WHITEY RACISM ALMOST AS OMNIPRESENT AS STEVE SMITH RAPE
Well, at this point I would put him at being smarter than most people on talk shows, and pushing regular intelligence.
“IRS touts more efficient tax collection this year under Trump admin”
Is the plan still to go after people that can’t or won’t engage a lawyer because the amount the IRS defines they still own is too little for that, so they just pony up? Or has that crap stopped?
They more efficiently disallowed my IRA deduction, and claim I owe them money. The only problem is… I did a rollover and the deduction they disallowed was already cancelled out on my return. So they efficiently don’t even understand their own forms.
I heard that is a very common IRS problem: that they do not understand their own rules & regs. I myself have experienced it a couple of times, but fighting back, even though costly stopped that crap.
They could efficiently close out my audit that has been open for something like 4 years now.
Oh…. fuck me. Why is every single “anti-crime” / “anti-terrorism” action “Monitor everyone’s financial transactions harder”. The cartels are much less of a concern for most citizens versus the overreach. Stop trying to have oversight of every transaction to stop “the black market” or “laundering” and arrest actual criminals, assholes.
Actual criminals can afford real expensive lawyers..
…or Democrat congress people…
I hear more than half of the people in our federal government bureaucracy, and more than that in the IRS, all have tax problems. Like, of the sort where they didn’t pay their taxes like they expect us serfs to do.
There will be much wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments.
Muh, FREE SHIT!!
Dangnabbit… I need to learn another song for my World’s Smallest Violin now! Another “A Good Start” story.
TMITE will, of course, try to paint these people as sympathetic victims, and not realize how badly that will turn out.
Tonio:
I was already getting the sob stories before the deadline. “This poor social worker still owes $150k in student loans after 15 years!”
Can I get bailed out for my bad life decisions too?
Shit, I went to college for longer than I needed to and still only left with $54k in debts.
How does one rack up these absurd numbers I’ve seen floating around? Or is it the result of interest capitalization due to nonpayments?
UCS:
My understanding is the massive student loan balances are due to:
1) Spending 6-8 years to get an undergrad degree
2) Charging everything to the student loans, including vacations.
3) Paying the lowest amount possible since graduation
4) Being too worthless/incompetent to get a government/non-profit job that will get the student loan forgiven.
Vacations? My vacations consisted of going home over break. These were cheap.
I thought the driver of student loans was negative ROI graduate degrees.
Err, withholding money that the creditor would otherwise pay the debtor and apply it to outstanding debts isn’t exactly an extraordinary collection power.
Since I want China out of the WTO (because they’re just using it to exploit everyone else) and all trade cut off to them until they stop using forced labors, reeducation camps, etc…. Let me find my World’s Tiniest Violin here. Because “A Good Start” is my core reaction.
“A good start”? My reaction is “Not good enough”. You can come back from the brink. I want the Chinese people to eliminate the CCP.
What if, bear with me here, the Chinese people don’t want to rid themselves of the CCP?
Then we don’t have to let them sell us stuff.
I am pretty sure that things are bad enough nowadays – youth unemployment, massive population imbalances between generations, genders, and classes, enormous banking and real estate debt, insane GDP to debt ratio, and Xi’s desire to keep power wrecking what little private sector motivated growth there was – that a large number no longer see the CCP as acceptable.
Then we don’t have to let them sell us stuff.
So you are a protectionist libertarian? No free trade with people that don’t do exactly as we say!
I am not a Libertarian.
Never have been.
“So you are a protectionist libertarian? No free trade with people that don’t do exactly as we say!”
So your logic is that to prove libertarian bona fides you need to accept horribly biased trade abuses? I am all for free trade if the trade is not massively fucked up by one side to benefit just themselves, which is clearly all trade against the US these days, with the CCP’s country leading that pack.
Well, why should anyone in China give one shit about what you think? We don’t even all agree here. Heck, even WTO is just a BS institution that we set up – when has it ever held this country accountable?
I am fine with people in China not caring what I think as long as that comes with consequences THEY then suffer from it.
with consequences THEY then suffer from it
Yes, God-Emperor!
The consequences they do suffer have nothing to do with your opinion.
The two biggest Chinese abuses are forced labor (not sure how much product is produced via that) and violating IP. No American company was ever forced to do business there – they ALL did it out of greed; not just cheaper labor but the mirage of the billion-person untapped market.
You seem to think or conflate that because I want to change the current abusive trade model I somehow supported the stupidity and greed of American companies and our wealth sector of the last 30 years. I have repeatedly pointed out here that American companies and investors should have seen from the getgo after Tiananmen that this dance with the devil was gonna change us, not them. They stayed because of greed and because their profits were all on paper and decoupling would kill too many of them. It was not until the Kung Flu that they finally realized they were always going to stay the bottom n that relationship.
Also, China has not limited their theft of IP to companies setting up factories in China. Their students in the US, those of their extraction that become servicemembers, and a massive hacking operation are all used to steal shit. They have waged an economic war on us for close to 3 decades, but our leadership class, because of globalism, treated it as part of the necessary agenda.
So decoupling and making it painful for China’s CCP right now makes me cheer. Especially when it hurts the fuckwads here that stayed in that stupid relationship with the CCP’s criminal enterprises. Fuck trading with them.
The big reason that all of our so called democracy efforts vis-a-vis China have failed is due to, as you correctly surmise, the Chinese people being relatively happy with communism. They are happy with this due in the main to never having had the background of democracy or liberty that we take for granted. What they have is no worse, and in many cases better than, the emperors that ruled before.
As far as our trading goes, anytime there is inequality via tariffs, our side or theirs it doesn’t matter, there is no free trade. Any excuse to cover for that is BS. The part of the Chinese people that we deal with have always been a mercantilist faction, and as there has never been a method for dealing with trade war, which is the best description of the relation we have between the two countries, we have to go fully into that mindset. If no one in China should give a shit about what I think (or UCS and Alex, for that matter) then why should I give a shit what they think? And to Alex’s point, we, failing to realize or admit to this, is hurting us, not them.
Decoupling and leveling the playing field is probably the most consequential act of Trumps time in office, and one I wholeheartedly approve of, no matter the short term pains. Which will be pains, mark my words,
so called democracy
The worst thing that the Republicans ever did, and I believe it was McCarthy, was the “who lost China” bullshit when the Communists seized power.
Personally, I would prefer no WTO at all to China out of the WTO.
ding-ding-ding
Well, prefer in one and, and shit in the other, see what fills up first.
All of which is to say that getting rid of the WTO is harder, and less likely to happen, then decoupling and reversing idiot first trading nation status.
It isn’t that hard to get rid of WTO. We pull out and who is there to enforce anything?
And how is that going for you, JI?
Trump reportedly called Sheinbaum and asked, “How can we help you fight drug trafficking?”
She told Trump the country will “never accept” the presence of the U.S. Army in its territory.
“No, President Trump, our territory is inalienable, sovereignty is inalienable,” Sheinbaum said. “We can collaborate. We can work together, but with you in your territory and us in ours. We can share information, but we will never accept the presence of the United States Army on our territory.”
She’s onto us!
The very snarky side of me almost wants Trump to do some precision bomber strikes on the cartels now. “You never said anything about the US Air Force over your territory!” (almost — not really serious here)
How about long range artillery?
Okay, how about on Cartel territory? Since you don’t contol that anymore.
Walmart is *dead.* I strongly approve the chilldom. Apparently, some of y’all really *do* work.
*Suspicious gaze intensifies*
I reviewed monthly billing reports and updated authentication routines.
(Translation – I spotted a typo on a report someone else made, then I went and changed my passwords before they expired).
More seriously, though, right now I’m trying to assess whether there is a justification to push to complete the adoption of a product that has been giving us two years of headaches, or if we should abandon it. Plus having to solve an issue with getting updates for a different piece of software through our firewall without ripping a giant hole in it. Neither of these really look like work, beacuse mostly I stare at the computer while thinking.
You’re GovSec. It’s a political decision, not a financial or logistical decision.
Wrong, Ted. It is MY decision. I can use whatever criteria I think important to justify one approach or another.
I think you proved Ted’s point.
Incorrect, JI. I am looking at what process benefits might be realized, the probability of ongoing failures in implementation, and whether similar benefits can be attained for less that what we’re paying for this software.
Yet you won’t be rewarded for saving money, nor will you actually save money, it’ll just get spent elsewhere.
Political decision making.
You keep using those words. I don’t think they mean what you think they mean.
UCS, your decision is as arbitrary as any other bureaucrat, and could be over-ruled by higher political players for even more arbitrary reasons.
All decisions are at some level arbitrary. Even if it’s choosing the criteria.
We might end up pulling a Black Jack Pershing style raid in the end. But this is the consequence of kicking the can down the road for so long: all kinds of shit is gonna get broken.
Do it next year for the 110th anniversary celebration.
But we have to accept millions of their illegal aliens.
Yiiiihaaa!
But Rojas apparently crossed the border at least one more time and remained undetected by immigration authorities until NYPD cops arrested him Sunday night in connection to the shocking defilement of 37-year-old family man Jorge Gonzalez, who suddenly died on an R train nearly three weeks before, the spokesperson said.
https://nypost.com/2025/05/02/us-news/alleged-ny-subway-corpse-raper-is-an-illegal-immigrant-ice/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=nypost
So the corpse was riding the train for 3 weeks?
Damn, that would make for one ripe body… How do you look at that and go “Yeah, I need to tap that”…?
Month at Bernie’s?
In Local News… the local election was somewhat different than expected…. I thought the football hooligan would get 36%, he got 41% … This was more than what he and the banned candidate got cumulatively last year, so it seems the whole canceling elections thing motivated some people to vote… And the current mayor of Bucharest came in second above the candidate of the government coalition, which surprised few in the end.
Onward for round two in two weeks
polymarket has simion at 70% to win at the time of writing.
So, how are they going to ban the popular choice this time around?
I don’t think that can… He is not guaranteed to win but it is a bigger gap than expected. Maybe Simion’s supporters will be less motivated in round two I dunno.
They have two weeks to figure out that this too was illegitimate, and the front-runner disqualified.
You are talking the EU here, Pie. Populism is anathema to that cabal of criminals, the money they loot from you Euros, and the globalist marxist agenda. I expect them to try to undermine this result and punish you Romanians for not getting the message.
well I shall certainly see what happens… I think it is closer than 70 30 but who knows
““The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated,” Trump said in a Sunday post on Truth Social.
“This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” he added.”
That sounds nuts. If anything in regards to trade, Hollywood movies are crap because they are selling them to China, not that movies from other countries are being sold here.
Hollywood movies are not crap because they’re chasing the chinese market. They are crap because they are chasing a mythical ‘modern audience’ that doesn’t exist and producing garbage.
They are crap because they are more interested in preaching woke stupidity and forcing the normalization of clearly stupid, if not outright evil, shit. Shit like marxist based oppressed vs. oppressor racism, pedophilia, hyper feminism of the dumbest kind, and dial-a-genderism.
Yes, but that’s not in regard to trade.
Movie tariffs are not going to improve the domestic box office for Hollywood slop. There are far too many substitute goods for the two hours of time-filling they provide. The only thing that will fix the revenues will be improving the quality of content and cracking down on wokies.
They can crap out movies on their own dime. Learn to make something that turns a profit and the studios will come back.
I disagree. There are a lot of topics that are verboten because of China. Plus, interesting drama’s are a harder sell than Pacific-Rim giant robots smashing monsters which cut across language and cultural boundaries.
therefore, a National Security threat
You keep using that word but I do not think it means what you think it does.
Couldn’t help but notice that foreign women are capturing American men as marital partners. We’re having an invasion!
When it reaches the top levels of gov,,,,Oops…We need more laws. Foreign women are taking our American boys…
You want better movies? Pick one big budget disaster, and give that money to Bruce Campbell. He’ll make 20-50 movies out of it. There will be at least 4 that are brilliant in it.
Or even just more smaller filmmakers. Instead of giving one person $100mil for one movie, find twenty independant filmmakes and bankroll a project each for $5mil, and you should have enough hits to cover the original expenses. None of them individually need to hit a billion, and they can be riskier concepts since the risks are amortized across projects.
I am more with Cartman from South Park about making movies with Adam Sandler….
UCS:
I was leaning into a statement that Bruce made regarding My Name Is Bruce. He was specifically calling out the Spider-Man movies and (his friend) Sam Raimi.
I forgot that movie existed.
Co-teaching a class on revolutions next year with a colleague who was trained in comp lit. The course will be partially focused on the Marxist tradition. We’re planning to cover some classics: Marx, Lenin, Luxemburg, Fanon, Che, Mao. Any non-canonical suggestions or ideas?
https://x.com/xgabegottliebx/status/1918399559794905243
No Trotsky? What kind of tankie is this anyway!?!
Talk about how the marxist ruling class was so good at telling people to believe they were living in paradise, while the people all knew they lived in hell (or else)?
And discuss walls. Point out that in free and good countries you build walls to keep barbarians out. Under marxism you build walls to keep your sheepo from running away…
Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
The Black Book of Communism. That is enough of a weight to counter this crap.
The only revolutions this guy is familiar with are Marxist ones?
Those weren’t real Marxist revolutions.
It’s not a real revolution unless the proletariat are seizing the means of production.
“Virginia Republicans are splintering over GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s call for the party’s lieutenant-governor nominee to step aside — after the hopeful was accused of posting gay porn on Tumblr.”
https://nypost.com/2025/05/04/us-news/gay-porn-scandal-ensnaring-gop-nominee-splits-virginia-republicans/
When was this? Tumblr banned porn a long time ago.
I believe the posting was long ago.
But I didn’t look at the timeline.
That’s the Republican party we all know and love – ready to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!
I’m not holding out much hope for Virginia. The ex-CIA dingleberry has the governors race locked up just by ‘virtue’ of being a Fed, here in the Land of the Federal Worker…
“Over 30 bikini-clad influencers stranded after $4M Lamborghini luxury yacht ‘flipped over’ off Miami Beach”
https://nypost.com/2025/05/04/us-news/4m-lamborghini-luxury-yacht-flipped-over-off-miami-beach-32-rescued/
OK
Shouldn’t the term be ‘capsized’?
Neither. The boat didn’t flip over. It just took on water and nearly sank. Some dumbass did something stupid. The only question is what.
I blame the journalist for not being accurate in their headline.
“The only question is what.”
Someone saw a button related to the plug or purge valve and said “Hey, I wonder what this does?”
The S.S. Guam
Johnsons do like bikini clad influencers.
ALOL, or ATOL?
I would thibk 4 mil is cheap for a luxury yacht
Post needs to take some lessons from the Daily Mail. With that headline, no one is clicking to see pictures of the boat.
Has anyone here shaved off their eyebrows? I hear that is a thing from the woke propagandists.
Shaving off eyebrows is something we might do in the Army to someone who passed out in the barracks without being in contact with their bunk.
Why?
Teach you there are consequences to passing out..
Why do fraternities do dumb stuff? Most of the soldiers in the barracks are single, young men. Combine with drinking.
I’m surprised there aren’t more grudge murders in these groups to be honest.
+1 Polaroid of a penis by the mouth
This prevents grudge murders, as you get to do it to the next guy.
How so? The next guy isn’t the one who pulled this crap.
I trim mine when they get too bushy. If I ever shave them off, you can assume that there was some kind of horrible trimmer accident…
Come on now, Rock the Mentat look from the Lynch version.
Pie, what’s you take on the Romanian elections?
Define take… Besides my prev message
You expect people to read the comments?
Will the others coalesce to defeat Simion? Do you expect a different turnout in the second round?
Hard to say… The general expectation is for the others to join agains simion. I think many who would vote for him did so already but this. I expect most who voted antonescu to vote dan in the second round. All who voted lasconi as well. Ponta voters are hard to pin down. I think the second round will be tight.
Ideally take: The subject’s personal share of the proceeds of some course of action. I hope you hold out for at least a county or two.
“The indictment goes on to maintain the sex extravaganzas required advance planning and multiple organizers. It also explains how the case became federal by crossing state lines.
“In arranging these freak offs, Combs, with the assistance of members and associates of the Combs Enterprise, transported, and caused to be transported, commercial sex workers across state lines and internationally,” it claims.”
https://nypost.com/2025/05/05/us-news/doomsday-for-diddy-epic-sex-trafficking-trial-could-put-him-behind-bars-for-life/
Calling that “trafficking” when no one is being forced is bullshit.
That’s got to be at least 90% of what passes for trafficking.
They need to change their wording. “Sex extravaganzas” sounds awesome.
Reading the article (what, who does that?), it says they were forced and coerced, which would seem to indicate that trafficking is an appropriate description. Whether they actually were forced is another matter.
The local rag has a story about prosecuting someone because a 2020 mail-in ballot was cast under their name when they are a foreign citizen. Took a moment to figure out what was going on. They are labelling the guy as pro-Trump, which explains why anyone is being prosecuted for illegal voting in New York.
What a perfect scapegoat for NY to prosecute.
Daily Ray of Sunshine
I don’t know why I watched it, though I appreciate the big dog’s yawn at the yapper’s antics.
As a former military person who was many times forced to participate in Army parades and other canine/equestrian events, I can promise you these events do not help morale.
Report to assembly area at 0800. The parade starts at 1200. Our unit is near the rear of the formation.
Sometimes when the Nimitz goes out they have sailors in their dress uniforms standing on the rails. It take 10-12 hours to get from the base to the open ocean. Everyone hopes they don’t get chosen for that.
Uffda. Should have read all the comments before I made mine upthread.
I 100% agree with 3Pacer.
This sort of shit is detested by everyone with the possible exception of the senior brass. I bet even they think it is pointless.
Few people who aren’t in the formation care. I’ve been through enough change of command ceremonies.
The only somewhat interesting ceremony I was ever in was for the activation of a linguist unit. Each subunit gave commands and responses in the sub’s language.
Ratsy:
When in Okinawa, I spent a lot of time midfield (between the active runway and the taxiway). That is where our gear was. We had a lot of down time and would fuck around a lot. One of our favorite games was a made up version of baseball. Broom stick for a bat, tape ball to hit and the base paths involved jumping over AC units and generators.
I bring that up because we were once playing that while there was a change of command ceremony going on on the taxiway. Afterwards the new CO called our CO to chew him out because our game distracted everyone on the reviewing stand. New CO was not pleased to be upstaged by a bunch of dumb E4’s running around. Luckily our CO was a mustang (ex-enlisted) so he listened to the guy bitch and then did nothing.
That’s a good officer.
Titso de Mayo!
https://archive.is/oOYcH
Mammary Monday.
holiday related:
https://izispicy.com/2019/09/30/latinas_are_blazingly_hot_55_pics.html
#5 is my favorite just because I love the two guys in the background sitting next to their wives and trying not to ogle her.
https://babylonbee.com/news/new-improved-hymnals-to-include-silly-songs-with-larry
Hymnals are for Catholics. Baptist have praise bands.
That varies. If there is any defining attribute of baptist churches is that they are not at all consistent.
and potlucks
defining attribute of baptist churches is that they are not at all consistent
Down around our Virginia property you can choose from a plethora of Baptist flavors.
There’s one on every corner.
The Starbucks of religion.
And they only included the first, second, and last verses of each hymn.
iykyk
“The investigation centers on how Moriarty adopted “Negotiations Policy for Cases Involving Adult Defendants,” which advises prosecutors to factor “racial identity” into their plea deals. The policy states prosecutors “should be identifying and addressing racial disparities at decision points, as appropriate.” ”
https://thepostmillennial.com/doj-civil-rights-atty-harmeet-dhillon-investigates-soros-backed-minnesota-da-over-considering-race-in-plea-deals
Guess the whole lady wearing a blindfold thing is out the window.
Has the lawsuit against this been filed yet?
IRS: If I had a time machine and went back to the debates over the bill of rights and say -” The agency that will administer an income tax will become the most hated agency of this government. It will be the source of endless dread and fear. The tax code will become an indecipherable encyclopedia that not even this agency understands. It will gobble up your hard earned wealth then cast it to the wind to lunacy and nonsense. It will impoverish countless people, imprison us and ruin lives. A president of the country will mock us to our faces that the tax code is not and never was a source of revenue but rather a cudgel to be used as a weapon by this government against the very people that elect and employ them. It will be used to cow them and control us. This government, using this tax code will become a bottomless pit into which your lives and sweat will be wasted. We will be chained to it as slaves and the people we hire into service will see themselves as our masters. They will hire swarms of armed agents to harass us. They will despise us, mock us and tell us no other way is possible or imaginable. ”
Would we have the income tax today?
If you said it to the guys doing the BOR, they’d say “well duh, that’s why it ain’t there”.
If you said it to the Proggressive Era guys that stuck it onto the Constitution, they’d say “well, duh, that’s why we’re doing it – fytw”.
This, of course. My question was mostly rhetorical.
The big giveaway was when they put ‘happiness’ in the DOI instead of ‘property’.
I consider the ideals and application of them in the United States to be a high point in cultural and political evolution but we still have a long way to go before I would call us ‘civilized’.
The DOI’s bigger mistake was that all men are created equal.
Nope, we’re all equal before the law, and the law is all man-made and secular, nothing to do with our creation.
What could they do to prevent amending the Constitution to allow an income tax?
Hop in Suthen’s time machine to jump foward a little more than a century and kill the people who drafted the 16th before it went before congress.
A suggestion: “Every person’s mind, conscience and body are exclusively their own property by virtue of their humanity. This right of self ownership extends to the fruit of one’s labor. Every person has the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of property.”
I am seeing a problem with the ‘extends to the fruit of one’s labor’ part. That could easily be twisted by the pinkos to claim ownership of others who benefit in any way from one’s labor.
I help someone build a company in exchange for a paycheck. Afterwards I claim ownership in that company. It is a certainty that people will do tht.
Any suggestions for alternate wording?
This right of self ownership extends to the fruit of one’s labor.
I think that would’ve been a tough sell in the slave-holding states.
nothing done 200 years ago would have effect if present peoples do not believe it.
Would we have the income tax today?
Yes. Woody Wilson and the Progressives hated the Constitution and successfully executed a revolution to overthrow it. A few more lines on the parchment wasn’t going to stand in their way.
The fundamental flaw of the founding was an assumption that liberalism could be self healing. It can not, and we have lived in 100 years of increasing fascism disguised as “democracy” as a result. The founders’ system died for the same reason all democracies die… the people voted for it.
As bad as I thought WW was, my opinion of him has become worse as I’ve picked my way through The Dangerous Historian’s take.
I drive past the exit for the Wilson memorial/library in Staunton, Virginia on a semi-regular basis. I want to spit every time I see the sign.
No constitution can prevent the people from replacing, modifying, or ignoring it.
Essential
Trump has long sought avenues to cut off support to public broadcasting, which is actually a time-tested Republican culture war target. Shortly after he took office this year, his new head of the Federal Communications Commission launched dubious probes into NPR and PBS. The CPB is already suing the administration over its attempt to fire its board members. Now, in accordance with the authoritarian checklist sketched out in Project 2025, Trump is escalating this campaign by trying to starve the networks of funds while calling them “left-wing propaganda.”NPR and PBS have vast reach: NPR stations collectively broadcast to more than 40 million listeners a week, and PBS has more than 130 million viewers on traditional television a year. While most of their funding doesn’t come from the federal government, losing access to that money would have a transformative effect on them — and their tens of millions of listeners and viewers.
PBS’ chief executive Paula Kerger recently said in an interview that about 15% of the network’s budget comes from federal funds, while the rest comes from viewers. But she emphasized the reach that the federal funding enables. “The idea behind this public-private partnership is that there are many stations in communities that, without the federal support, the stations would not exist,” Kerger said. “I have been to really extraordinary stations in small parts of the country in places like Granite Falls and in Cookeville, Tennessee, where you just see that the public media stations are such an important part of the fabric of those communities.”
Who else can those communities turn to for self serving left wing propaganda?
If every one of those freeloaders bought a Rick Steves video or tote bag, we wouldn’t need federal funding.
Rick Steeves is more overtly proggie on his radio show.
WEVL in Memphis is a fantastic radio station run 100% by volunteers.
Each DJ loves some sort of music and uses their time slot to do deep dives into that genre. You can learn a ton just by listening to that radio station.
This should be the model for the nation. Give the radio licenses to local groups and let them create their own stations.
That sounds awesome. I wish this kind of thing were more popular.
For an online/streaming variant, I’m a huge fan of Soma FM.
You could, maybe, convince me of the value of helping out stations in small, rural areas, if only for emergency purposes.
But they can pull stories off the AP feed like everyone else – they don’t need “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me” shoved down everyone’s throat.
I thin NPR is afraid that OMB will actually follow through this time. I’ve noticed several stories lately that have had their rhythm broken to toss in 10 or 15 seconds of criticizing (D)s.
“Proof of citizenship for voter registration, voter ID fails in Michigan
The proposed amendment passed the Michigan House 58-48 on Thursday, with all Republicans voting yes and all Democrats voting no. To be placed on the ballot, it needed to pass with a two-thirds vote from the House and Senate.”
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/proof-citizenship-voter-registration-voter-id-fails-michigan
So ridiculous.
Trump’s executive order states, “Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options.” While it’s true that today’s media landscape is “diverse,” it’s also experiencing a funding crisis that has killed jobs and outlets across the industry, ravaged local news coverage and made many surviving media operations incredibly unstable. Economic strains on the media sector are precisely why the latest World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders, described U.S. press freedom as having hit a historic low. In other words, at a time when the country should be experimenting with more ways to publicly subsidize independent media, Trump is trying to torpedo them.
Progressives hate progress.
“the country should be experimenting with more ways to publicly subsidize independent media”
“Independent”. Somehow I doubt Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn aren’t what they have in mind.
As soon as they start to talk about the number of jobs, you know is is a failure.
“Press freedom” defined as payed for by government.
payed
Now you people are just torturing R C Dean on purpose, like Ted’s’
Ugh.
Do K-Dramas count as foreign films? Will they get tarriffed?
I know a lot of people that are gonna be reeeeeeeal mad if they have to pay more for K-Dramas.
A 1000% tariff on BTS, on the other hand, is A-OK by me.
What about BT’S?
Trump’s executive action against PBS and NPR is just one more plank of his authoritarian agenda. As he bullies universities, law firms and nonprofits on various flimsy pretexts, Trump is likewise pursuing a litigious agenda against the media sector to devastate independent news and education for the American public. As with his other actions, this attack — even if unsuccessful legally — seems engineered to discourage NPR and PBS from pursuing the kind of accurate, fact-based coverage of his administration that could make it look bad.
Reality is what I say it is.
Go find a new patron. Government is a terrible patron and should be banned from giving support to artists.
Still gaslighting about them being innocent, independent bastions of freedom. As if all those entities weren’t working together to shut down speech on the “far right”, aka anyone not in their far-left club.
NPR and PBS from pursuing the kind of accurate, fact-based coverage of his administration that could make it look bad.
Oh fuck, my sides can’t handle laughing that hard.
“President Javier Milei Declassifies 1,850 Secret Files Exposing Nazi Arrival and Cover-Up in Argentina After WWII”
https://x.com/gatewaypundit/status/1919366111155360002
This guy keeps making us look bad.
This guy keeps making us look bad. – “us ” as in Nazis? I KNEW IT !!!!!!
Remind me again, which side was Romania on in that war?
the we did not have much of a choice side tbh like most wars
The advantage of not being a Slavic population.
Pie is the Iron Guard of our Blood and Honor.
Tagging and bagging music tracks today because I spent yesterday on ebooks, and the day before that on family photos. Look. I have to organize SOMETHING, and all my knickknacks are already organized.
BTW, I had the idea for Wikipedia long before it was Wikipedia. MUST. SLAP. LABELS. ON. THINGS. Maybe I should’ve been a librarian.
From dedthred:
UCS:
I kinda knew you were right when I explained further, probably why I explained further.
Bro:
Yeah, y’all are right. I shall plow through.
I don’t think you’d be satisfied as a librarian, given the amount of time spent on non-organizational tasks, and dealing with the general public.
Copper cable theft in Spain delays thousands of high-speed rail passengers
https://apnews.com/article/spain-train-delays-cable-theft-highspeed-rail-5a28e93f23e24c77c60749d5db397105
a fatal vulnerability in high speed rail. I hope they were not Romanians of a certain ethnicity.
Copper theft is a plague of third world nations.
Do we have any first world left?
Third world nation
Well, we know California was a shithole that imported the third world.
We need wireless power.
In my area there have been a few thefts of older air conditioners to get the copper coils. Newer units with aluminum coils are safe.
Clawing back authority from runaway agencies?
The proposal would turn Congress into a gatekeeper for certain major rules and allow lawmakers to roll back countless regulations for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term, drastically transforming the way the federal government oversees everything from businesses and banks to health care and energy development. The House Judiciary Committee advanced it last week as part of the Republicans’ broader budget reconciliation package — a potentially major step toward finally catapulting the deregulatory proposal to Trump’s desk.
“For those who say it would make a radical change, a radical departure from the status quo of rulemaking, I’d say, ‘Thank heaven above for that,’” said Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah).
——-
Moderate Republicans with the power to sink the bill — such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — declined to weigh in on whether they would back it. And Democrats didn’t put up much of a fight during the House Judiciary deliberations.
The proposal would require any “major rule that increases revenue” to be approved via a joint resolution of the House and Senate before taking effect. It would also allow lawmakers to retroactively terminate countless rules that federal agencies have already implemented by requiring them to submit them to Congress for review. Rules that Congress does not approve would automatically sunset.
More authoritarianism from the Project 2025 playbook, I suppose.
I’m with the general idea. Now to debate what triggers the need for Congressional approval.
Any textual update or change of interpretation.
A shift of a comma could completely upend the meaning of a rule, therefore it all must be reviewed and debated before congress.
A shift of a comma could completely upend the meaning of a rule, therefore it all must be reviewed and debated
Wisconsin governors would be sad.
I used to proofread power plant specs for Black & Veach. These were also legal documents. A comma could, indeed, throw the whole thing off.
Rate My Plate
@ratemyplatenow
Baked beans cheese and poached eggs
https://x.com/ratemyplatenow/status/1916536452332011709
Rate My Plate
@ratemyplatenow
Oysters on Toast by David
https://x.com/ratemyplatenow/status/1913598674346627389
looks like guyslop to me…
Canned oysters on toast… 🤮
Smoked canned oysters are delicious.
I mean, not to you, but to other people.
I don’t think I’d do them on buttered toast, though.
My favorite response:
“Is David in prison?”
It does have that vibe.
Don’t ask how they got the cans of oysters in to the prison.
What did they do to those beans? They look terrible.
That cheese looks like the eggs, bad choice.
The eggs should have been hard fried.
Not horrible, but the egg-to-bean ratio is a little bit slewed in favor of the beans. Also, needs some toast to sop up the egg/bean juice…
“It would be a war on regulations,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the minority whip. “To take that authority away from the executive branch would be a serious mistake.”
Democrats and progressive advocates argue that the REINS Act could empower congressional majorities to reject regulations they oppose, allowing partisan divisions to effectively sideline rules crafted by dedicated experts across federal agencies.
Supporters say lawmakers need to be able to sign off on certain agency regulations in order to check the executive branch’s broad powers and ensure increased congressional oversight over rules that have significant impacts on individuals and industry.
What we need are regulatory agencies completely insulated from any sort of meddling or review by anybody.
Unless they start going rogue and become threats to (D)emocracy.
What we need are regulatory agencies completely insulated from any sort of meddling or review by anybody.
*CFPB has entered the chat*
It really needs its own police, courts, prisons, …
Do not give them any ideas.
Hell, I would not bet against them already having armed agents, like half the other agencies.
Yes, CFPB does have armed agents under their Office of Inspector General. Although it looks like their agents are dual hatted or fall under the parent Fed Reserve’s OIG agents.
https://oig.federalreserve.gov/investigations-what-we-do.htm
Special Agents conduct investigations of criminal, civil, and administrative wrongdoing by Board and CFPB employees, as well as investigations of alleged misconduct or criminal activity that affects the Board’s or the CFPB’s ability to effectively supervise and regulate the financial community.
Is that aimed at the Board itself? Or does the second half cover investigations _by_ the Board?
*guffaws*
“To take that authority away from the executive branch would be a serious mistake.” So now he’s in favor of Trump running the executive branch? Give me a break. The entire Dem strategy is to have a fourth branch of government that’s only accountable to them. They are so damn transparent.
They want the socialist system where the government is subordinate to the party. When are the going to call for the military to be a party organization like China?
Congress could also stop writing broad rulemaking authority into the laws they pass.
A War on Regulations is exactly what I voted for. And I mean a real war, fucking scorched-earth salt-the-fields war to the knife, not any of this wussy war on drugs/poverty/homelessness bullshit.
Dick Durbin has a standing invitation to gag on my asshole.
Goldarnit, EvilSheldon, you use your tongue prettier than a 20-dollar whore!
I disagree. Winston’s Mom has a better way with words, and she’s only a $5 whore.
But Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, said during the markup that Republicans are “trying to handcuff the agencies that work to make sure that our food and drugs are safe and our air and water are clean.”
Raskin also blasted the provision that would allow Congress to repeal numerous regulations through the use of a single resolution, asserting that such action would be used to “hide the most destructive deregulatory votes among dozens of others, completely burying it in darkness.”
“This is not what the American people are looking for,” he said.
The only thing preventing wholesale slaughter by the corporations is our glorious regulatory state.
“Nobody I know…”
Doesn’t he have more performative schmoozing with MS-13 gangbangers in El Salvador to do?
“Raskin also blasted the provision that would allow Congress to repeal numerous regulations through the use of a single resolution”
But the Inflation Reduction Acts was totally cool.
Any act of Congress should require regulatory approval.
“Trump Says US Will Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Movies”
So Trump is intervening in the economy to stick up for those salt-of-the-earth people in rustbelt cities, dead or dying manufacturing industries, and…. Hollywood?
“‘A Small Price To Celebrate America’s Greatness’: Trump Champions $45 Million Military Parade”
Didn’t Trump have a big military parade for the 4th of July planned during his first term that fell from memory about three days after he blurted it out on Twitter?
I’m a little confused myself. Letting Hollywood die on the vine can’t be a bad thing for the 47 administration…
$5 says he had dinner with someone who talked about how Hollywood was facing so much unfair foreign competition and now, *presto*!
He seems very suggestible.
He’s still mad LOTR wasn’t filmed in Texas.
Slumbrew – no bet. That’s probably exactly it.
Free
beertrade tomorrowWarren Buffett wants the United States to knock off its trade war.
“Trade should not be a weapon,” the billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO said on Saturday morning, at his annual shareholder meeting in Omaha.
The United States “should be looking to trade with the rest of the world. We should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best,” Buffett told the crowd of thousands in a downtown arena, who broke out into applause.
Buffett did not mention President Trump, whose sweeping new tariffs have ignited a global trade war, roiled financial markets, and sounded wide-ranging alarms about a recession.
Free trade is good. When do we get it?
Never. Free Trade is like True Socialism – impossible for humans to implement.
“Trade should not be a weapon,”
This, of course, only goes one way. Those yokels in flyover country deserved the harm caused to them by outsourcing everything.
“Business is war.” – Japanese proverb.
Buffett, 94, also closed the event with major news, announcing that he would be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year, in favor of his long-designated successor, Greg Abel. He received a prolonged standing ovation from the audience in Omaha’s CHI Health Center.
“The enthusiasm from that response can be interpreted in two ways,” he quipped as he left the stage.
Where will the personality cultists turn for guidance?
“The enthusiasm from that response can be interpreted in two ways,” he quipped as he left the stage.
That’s a good line, to be fair.
I didn’t realize he was that old. Go play with your grandkids, man.
Once again, pols don’t seem to understand the concept of insurance. Minnesoda is fighting over whether bus drivers and other hourly school workers qualify for unemployment insurance.
When you take a job as an hourly school worker, is it really surprising that you won’t be getting paid in the summer?
Why are the GOP being such meanies over a piddling $135M (that has already been burned through and will no doubt need more money soon).
The original grant of unemployment insurance access was when the DFL owned the House, the Senate and the Governorship. This was Walz and the DFL burning through our $17B surplus with no hand brakes.
Seasonal work should not qualify a person for unemployment payments in the off season. You knew from day one that this job was only during part of the year. Unemployment is for people unexpectedly completely separated from employment to bridge their job search. It is not there to finance idleness in the off-season. Either save money or find a second job for the off-season to cover the gap you knew was going to be there.