Black Friday Morning Open Post

by | Nov 28, 2025 | Open Post | 181 comments

The turkey and pie are still impacting productivity in Glib HQ, forgive the Open Post. Enjoy the riots for spyware televisions.

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Glib Staff

Glib Staff

181 Comments

  1. Rat on a train

    Somebody needs to stop Pie.

    • PieInTheSky

      Pie is rather fattening but feels great inside you

      • slumbrew

        Ew.

      • Chafed

        That’s what she said.

    • Gender Traitor

      Your Dog Owns Your House

      …but your cat owns YOU. 😒😸

    • R C Dean

      “More thought is needed fully to unravel the question of who owns your house, and indeed the question of who owns anything.”

      He then goes on to list a bunch of things that I paid for. Why these things are also entitled to an ownership interest in my house is unexplained. Definitely gets into “you didn’t build that” territory.

      • PieInTheSky

        yes, it is in the article

        “How soon, in reading the above, did you spot the underlying, crucial fallacy?

        All contributions of others to the building of your house have been paid for at each link in the chain of production. All current contributions to its maintenance and security are likewise being paid for. Value has been and is being given for value received, even though the “value” is not always money and goods, but may sometimes be affection, loyalty or the discharge of duty. In the exchange relation, a giver is also a recipient, and of course vice versa.”

      • Ted S.

        I think de Jasay’s point was that nobody would seriously think your dog should have an ownership stake in your house and that therefore, none of those other interests should either.

    • Rat on a train

      If this is not immediately obvious to you, you will find it helpful to consider some aspects of the ethics and economics of redistribution.
      ethical theft …

    • PieInTheSky

      did anyone read the article to the end?

      • R C Dean

        Not me. Just skimmed the first few paragraphs.

      • slumbrew

        🖐️

        It was good. Still won’t convince the “not fair!” brigade.

    • ron73440

      Your dog is alert, plucky and a fearsome guardian of your property

      My Husky might be the first 2, but definitely not the 3rd.

      The Australian Shepard thinks she’s a guard dog, but gets scared easily.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        My #17 terrier mix is also definitely with it on the first two, but at that size, not up for number three.

      • slumbrew

        60# staffie is no better than your terrier mix. She does sound like a world-class killer, at least.

      • DrOtto

        That is the one area my dog holds up his end of the bargain. Out on walking trails he loves everyone, but come to our door uninvited and he bangs against the door snarling. The UPS guy has taken to leaving him treats to no avail. I love bringing him to the door when the solar salesmen show up. They can’t get through their spiel and get gone quick enough as I hold a snarling dog by my side as they speak. If I didn’t have him, I wouldn’t even bother answering, he’s that entertaining to me.

      • slumbrew

        Same – only ever barks inside the house and sounds like a murder machine.

        As you note, an excellent way to ward off solicitors.

    • (((Jarflax

      I read it Pie, and I feel your pain reading the comments.

      • (((Jarflax

        Surely that means I own some tiny part of Romania!

      • UnCivilServant

        After EU taxes, you not only down own any part of Romania, but owe the EU $27,000

      • PieInTheSky

        I own some tiny part of Romania – In the same way I own all that land from the Laphroaig bottles, sure.

      • PieInTheSky

        and there were a lot of Laphroaig bottles.

      • (((Jarflax

        Laird Pie!

  2. R C Dean

    “spyware televisions”

    *pet peeve activated*

    Just got a new Sony for the new house (and holy crap, is it nice). They did some kind of deal with Google *spit*, and it is just jammed with spyware. I think I’ve got it all turned off, but does moving the little slider to “off” really do anything?

    I’ve got all the connectivity and apps I need in my streaming box, ya feckin’ knobs. Why is it impossible to buy a plain old “monitor” TV without spending an ungodly amount of money? It has fewer “features”! It should be cheaper*!

    *I know, Google is probably paying a lot of money to manufacturers to get its spyware installed. Fuck Google.

    • Rat on a train

      Finding dumb devices is getting more difficult. I have a few smart devices that are eternally searching for a network to attach to. I expect more “always online” requirements in the future.

    • Tonio

      Yes, you can still buy video monitors. But if you’re using someone else’s streaming device they can monitor (pun intended) you through that device.

      Blu-Ray players now have internet connections so they can “automatically obtain updates” (download ads and other content, also phone home your viewing habits). Fortunately they work without being connected.

      GLIBS WRITERS SHOUT-OUT: Any of you nerds want to do an article addressing privacy and current AV equipment?

      • R C Dean

        Oh, I found some plain old monitors. They appear to be made only for commercial applications, thus the “spending an ungodly amount of money”.

      • juris imprudent

        I’ll just post links to Huxley’s Brave New World and Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death – those pretty much cover exactly why we’re in the pickle we are in with regard to technological elimination of privacy.

      • (((Jarflax

        Streaming by definition isn’t private, and if the device has a camera or microphone it is watching or listening to you as long as it has power.

    • PutridMeat

      “Smart TV” – Never connected to the network, wifi disabled (and blocked at the router for good measure). Hook a computer up to the TV and handle any video/network needs through the computer – I at least have a good grasp of what is running on my linux box and a better insight into how to block stuff I don’t want.

      Less ‘convenient’ than having a networked ‘smart’ tv and having streaming ‘services’ (and information privacy) available at the push of a remote button? Maybe, but so be it. If one doesn’t value control of that information at the level of a bit of extra work (or dollars to get a dumb terminal – probably closer to reflecting the true cost of the TV and the value of your data to data miners), can’t really expect the people benefiting from mining your data to care about your concerns.

      Next big TV purchase may involve opening it up and physically disconnecting any microphones or cameras as well, but that would just be for entertainment as I make sure they don’t have way of transmitting said data anywhere.

    • DrOtto

      I have a dumb projector, but pretty sure the Roku box knows whattsup.

  3. Grumbletarian

    In at work finishing annual performance reviews. The company has all employees submit their own evaluation, then management provides a review. Apparently everyone that works for me is the best person the company has ever hired. Not a single self-eval I have to review has anything less than “Outstanding” for their rating.

    • R C Dean

      HR should be walled in to their cubicles just for coming up with the employee self-evaluation.

      • UnCivilServant

        You could have stopped at “HR should be walled in to their cubicles”. And cut the network connections.

    • Fourscore

      In the old Army 97% of the officers were in top 3 %. Anything 96 or under was a career killer. Anything less than an “Excellent or Superior” in the comments was an indicator that one’s career was going downhill.

      I once got an “Unobserved” in “Sociability” , ’cause I didn’t hang out in the ‘O’ Club after work. That was not a positive.

      • Ted S.

        You may be low in sociability, but those murderbees are a useful weapon for the army.

      • juris imprudent

        Wonder what Ike’s evaluations were like in those 11 years he was a MAJ?

      • Rat on a train

        I worked in an Army-Air Force joint office. The airmen were terrified that they would get anything less than top marks. I was fine getting “meets standards” ratings as a soldier. The airmen hated when an Army warrant officer was their rater.

      • (((Jarflax

        Grade inflation is inevitable in any organization with politics. And politics are inevitable in any organization larger than 2 people. There’s no way to avoid it because any subgroup that tries to apply honest standards immediately falls behind those inflating the standards in power and influence. The incentives just work that way.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        JF, sounds like the theory Pie recently linked to, about once-excellent unis being taken over by midwits seeking prestige.

      • (((Jarflax

        I think that probably is an example of this. Fighting this is hard, and probably impossible absent a strong widely accepted sense of honor and reverence for whatever institution you are trying to preserve. This is kind of the heart of what conservatism is supposed to be, preservation of the institutions that support a civilization. Our current world is what happens when the ‘conservatives’ forget that. My pessimism is based on the fact that I don’t believe you can easily or quickly rebuild those institutions once they are corrupted.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Should you rebuild them, (((Jarflax? Or have they outlived their usefulness by the time they get to this point in the cycle and need to be torn down and have something new replace them?

      • juris imprudent

        Our current world is what happens when the ‘conservatives’ forget that.

        Our current world evolves a lot faster than the world did when conservatism first arose. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, but the consequence is no one conserves beyond a certain point (relative to themselves).

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Conservatism has been around as long as two cavemen were trying to decide to fuck the cavewomen. One says lets do it now, the other says lets wait until she wakes up.

        Progress vs reaction. All of politics summed up.

      • (((Jarflax

        I don’t think you can rebuild them in the sense you mean. They are the emergent result of experience over very long time frames. I think we are now in Nietzsche’s world and have to figure out civilization untethered to the past. I don’t think we’ll succeed, at least not in any way that appeals to me.

      • juris imprudent

        ZWAK our notion of conservative is rooted in 18th century English Whig politics, nothing more, nothing less.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        And Whiggism is just a fancy word salad for Reactionary. Just like Marxism is a fancy way of saying Progress.

    • Ted S.

      You’re obviously a good boss since you’ve hired nothing but great employees.

    • Nephilium

      They learned it from video game reviews:

      “Terrible controls, buggy gameplay, rote story. 8 out of 10.”

      • Ted S.

        He has a nice beat, and you can dance to it.

      • creech

        Nice “Bandstand” reference, Ted S.

    • Sensei

      Well as somebody that fills these out, what do you expect?

      In my company we all know that they are HR ass covering. My evaluator and I joke about it. I used AI to make my answers and he used AI to write his responses and the evaluation.

      There is no upside to being modest as HR will use it if required. Welcome Lake Woebegone, Inc.

      • juris imprudent

        Love to see HR subject to the Bobs treatment.

      • Rat on a train

        We have “goals” and a self evaluation. This past year I didn’t set any goals (receiving multiple reminders through the year that I need to set goals) and submitted a bland evaluation instead of selling myself as the greatest. I have not kept my hate of the evaluation system a secret. I am still employed.

    • rhywun

      I have always done straight “meets expectations” down the line. It doesn’t really matter what I put, it only matters what my manager puts and why would I want him to knock me down.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      It really has nothing to do with HR, outside of being the part of the organization that has to handle this. It comes from various management philosophies of empowering the workers, butis used as a way to keep from having to actively manage personnel by weak leaders.

      A good manager has always kept track of the employee and the direction they are going in the company, good or ill, and keeps an ongoing dialog with them. Having them write their own review is a way to move it off the boss’s plate, and dump it all on the worker. So, of course the worker is going to give themselves 100% ratings, and of course the manager is only going to accept that, as he is going to do the same to his boss, and so on up the chain.

      Outside of holding the files, nothing to do with HR.

      • Sensei

        Those reviews are absolutely used in employment litigation.

        In my company they are absolutely used on the incentive compensation determination. That allocation is lead by our HR department.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Every F500 company I worked at, these were a top down push from upper management, and while, as I said, HR had to administrate them, they were the result of a change in management philosophy when a new CEO came in. And, as I started in the book world, B&N, you could see which book they came out of. Goldratt’s “novel”, the chainsaw dude, Star Trek for bosses, it was usually right in the open.

        Of course they are for compensation and litigation, those are the carrot and the stick of management at this point. And that is ELR and its lawyers.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Are there any bonuses or raises on the line based on these reviews? If so, I’m on the reviewees side of this.

      I once worked at a company that had big bonuses every year. They spent a lot of time each year setting goals, reviewing employees, etc. All of it to figure out how big your bonus would be.

      At the end of the year, you were supposed to give yourself a review. The self-review would be looked at by your boss and his boss. My boss’ boss was the CEO, so he saw mine.

      I always gave myself top ranks in everything. I was perfect according to the review. My boss would complain that I wasn’t taking it seriously. I told him that there was no way I was going to help the company give me less bonus money. Why in the world would I not give myself top marks?

      My boss wasn’t offended, but he was worried about what the CEO would say when he saw my review. I told him I actually had talked with the CEO in the company gym about this and the CEO thought it was funny that I was giving myself top marks and understood my logic.

  4. PieInTheSky

    Italy braces for two national strikes as union rivalry heats up

    https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/italy-braces-two-national-strikes-union-rivalry-heats-up-2025-11-11/

    Recent years have seen the emergence of USB as an aggressive grass-roots union which is challenging the traditional dominance of the three main confederations, the leftwing CGIL and the centrist CISL and UIL.

    The USB, which says its membership is rising sharply, accuses the CGIL of signing wage deals it opposes, and is keen to mark out more radical positions than its larger partner.
    “We want salaries of at least 2,000 euros per month, a retirement age of 62 (compared with the current 67), and government guarantees regarding public housing and services,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

    Sensible policies for one o0f the most aged countries in Europe.

    • PieInTheSky

      It said climate activist Greta Thunberg and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Palestinian rights Francesca Albanese would be at its Italian protests, which have also been publicly supported by former Pink Floyd leader Roger Waters, an outspoken critic of Israel.

      off course. Why not.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        And Italy was probably the best about the Jewish problem during the last immolation on the continent.

      • Chafed

        Dumb and hateful is no way to go through life.

    • rhywun

      Let incoming utopia in communist NYC show you the way, Italy!

  5. PieInTheSky

    “Milton Keynes” is apparently AOC’s favorite economist

    https://x.com/MiltonFriedmanW/status/1979236214805778689

    Sir Humphrey Appleby: Didn’t you read the Financial Times this morning?
    Sir Desmond Glazebrook: Never do.
    Sir Humphrey Appleby: Well, you’re a banker. Surely you read the Financial Times?
    Sir Desmond Glazebrook: Can’t understand it. Full of economic theory.
    Sir Humphrey Appleby: Why do you buy it?
    Sir Desmond Glazebrook: Oh, you know, it’s part of the uniform. Took me 30 years to understand Keynes’ economics. Then when I’d just cottoned on, everyone started getting hooked on these new monetarist ideas, you know, “I Want To Be Free” by Milton Shulman.
    Sir Humphrey Appleby: Milton Friedman.
    Sir Desmond Glazebrook: Why are they all called Milton? Anyway, I’ve only got as far as Milton Keynes.
    Sir Humphrey Appleby: Maynard Keynes.
    Sir Desmond Glazebrook: I’m sure there’s a Milton Keynes.
    Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes, there is, but it’s…

  6. Shpip

    Pie touched on it yesterday, but here’s a deeper dive into the article that declared that $140K per year is the new poverty line.

    The essay is by Michael W. Green, who is chief strategist and portfolio manager for Simplify Asset Management.

    It is…The Worst Poverty Analysis I Have Ever Seen. (And I’ve read Matthew Desmond!)

    Much of the essay involves other arguments about middle-class expenses, and I’ll try to address those claims separately. Here I just want to convince you that Green’s claim about poverty is, I’m sorry, hot garbage. Rather than the Free Press piece, I’ll be critiquing his longer Substack post.

    At the risk of sounding like I’m shooting the messenger, Mr. Green’s sub reads a lot like a roundabout advert for his firm, which is… not highly regarded by Morningstar.

    • UnCivilServant

      I define poverty at less than $365/yr, including handouts, subsudies, foraged materials, and farmed material.

    • Ted S.

      This line is going to piss off Glibs commentators:

      But it’s important that the price index accurately reflects the true change in the cost of living. Most experts agree that our most-used indexes actually overstate inflation.

      • Nephilium

        Overstates? Really?

      • DrOtto

        Yes, if there’s an issue, it’s that inflation has been overstated. Seems credible.

    • Sensei

      Typical financial firm PR type research.

      https://www.simplify.us/etfs

      Tiny. Only three etfs with over $1bn in assets. $1bn is basically table stakes for a fund for widespread consideration.

  7. PieInTheSky

    Claire-Marie Bray, 27, unemployed, Nuneaton: Mum-of-four Claire-Marie and her partner Kieran receive Universal Credit and have struggled to make ends meet with £200 a month for her family of six with another child on the way. Labour’s scrapping of the child benefit cap from April next year means “absolutely the world” for Claire-Marie’s family who top up food shops with visits to the food bank.

    Thea Jaffe, 40, single parent, North London: Thea works full-time in client solutions but says the two-child limit was pushing them into poverty and taking a toll on her mental health. In a good month when UC gives full entitlement, Thea has a total of £6,142.00, from £2,800 in take-home pay and £3,342 in universal credit plus child benefit. Her monthly expenses such as childcare, rent, council tax, energy and food etc are usually around £6000. She says: “So it’s living very much on the edge.”

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/skint-pregnant-mum-four-budget-36309267#google_vignette

    procreate less.

    • PutridMeat

      £3,342 in universal credit plus child benefit.

      $55,000/year in benefits. $55,000. Sigh.

      single mother

      This is probably the source of so many of our problems.

      child care

      See above. Maybe don’t reward or facilitate or incentivize single parents and you wouldn’t have to pay for child care. How much of the “we need two incomes” is driven by child care costs – that you don’t have if you have one person… taking care of the kids? And how much is ….

      taxes, energy, food costs

      The later two exacerbated by grifting – oops, I mean regulatory – costs and the tax that we like to call inflation. Maybe you don’t need two incomes if you don’t have to pay so much to a bunch of credentialed grifters and wankers – oops, I mean selfless public servants.

      So yes – Low taxes, 2 parent households to take care of the damn kids, low regulatory burden to control costs of food and energy and 99 percent of our ‘social problems’ go away. But there’s very little opportunity for credentialed parasites to make a living off that – they might actually have to do something productive for a living.

      • UnCivilServant

        Single mother should reduce the amount of benefits recieved.

        Children by multiple men should reduce benefits recieved.

        Children by men other than the husband should reduce benefits recieved.

        Unemployed should reduce benefits recieved.

        The scheme however, is the opoosite of good incentives.

      • rhywun

        This is probably the source of so many of our problems.

        Yup. Aimless fathers, rampant urban crime, and busted budgets but at least “you can have it all, baby!”

      • juris imprudent

        they might actually have to do something productive for a living

        Getting paid to do something doesn’t necessarily mean it is productive. There is a lot of parasitic “work” – but it is still an improvement upon being on the dole.

      • creech

        “What would Jesus want you to do?” Maybe the Church of England can take all these struggling moms in and be responsible for them for the rest of their unproductive lives? Or did Jesus advocate for sending out swarms of tax collectors, backed by armed agents of the local warlords, to impose their will on you?

      • PutridMeat

        improvement upon being on the dole.

        Doing something productive (or at least non-destructive) was in relation to those in the state apparatus that do all the functions of the state, from administering the dole to holding workshops and writing annual evaluations to micromanaging commerce. I have more sympathy for those on the dole, even those exploiting the system, than those who sanctimoniously administer the programs and the multitude of other government activities. Those on the dole have, after all, been brought up in and educated into a system where that’s the norm/requirement and often truly don’t have an alternative in the system that others have created, often for their own benefit (even if justified by empathy – and maybe even actually started that way). Those who keep them and our social system as whole in that state are the true parasites.

  8. PieInTheSky

    Christopher Snowdon
    @cjsnowdon
    I’ve written about the absolute gibberish that is “Modern Monetary Theory”.

    https://x.com/cjsnowdon/status/1993994041994756313

    Burn Before Reading
    @Burnbefreading
    C’mon 😆 Arguing MMT is gibberish is the same as arguing Newton’s universal law of gravitational force is gibberish. It absolutely exposes you for your lack of knowledge or that you are lying to protect your zombie orthodoxy you can’t admit is incorrect. Which is it?

    MMT is SCIENCE !!!!!!!

    • (((Jarflax

      It is science like climate science and gender science are science. It provides a scientific sounding justification for the people using it to do exactly what they want to do anyway. I suggest a rule of evaluation: If the results of your science always suggest doing what you wanted to do anyway something is broken.

    • Nephilium

      You are a very model of a modern monetarist?

    • juris imprudent

      I’d love to see that person defend ALL of economics as “science”, or is it just that particular hobby-horse?

    • Common Tater

      Read the article. Seems utterly pointless.

    • rhywun

      Jeebus… I can hear the sound of the flop from here.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Maybe, if they used a laser instead of a needle, the whole thing could work…

      • Sensei

        https://www.elpj.com/

        People who want to play their vinyl collection love them, but big dollar.

      • Common Tater

        Doesn’t say how much it cost.

      • Sensei

        They start at $11k.

      • DrOtto

        And encode it in 1s and 0s, that would be sweet.

      • Sensei

        I’m a big audio guy and have no love for vinyl I gave it up as soon as I could.

        However for old music that was never digitized and for content that was “remastered for loudness” when digitized I get the vinyl love.

        But buying new music on vinyl strikes me as pointless.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        It really isn’t that different than buying hardback first editions, which I do.

        A big part of the album experience isn’t just listening, which is trivial to do via streaming, but also spending time looking at the album cover art, being forced to flip sides, protecting it with the liner, and all of the other non-trivial actions that vinyl forces you to do in order to listen to it that way.

        In other words, it moves past mere listening, and forces you to be an active participant in the whole experience.

      • Sensei

        I wear a mechanical watch. I get it, but not my thing for audio.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        I have to admit, I would totally be a vinyl collector, if I wasn’t a book collector. And it is an urge that I still have to fight.

        Really, I am just a stuff person, and vinyl is great stuff.

  9. PieInTheSky

    Dan is an absolutely classic example of the retards who form the modern Left and currently run the country, the path is so well trodden that you’ll instantly recognise it:

    Born (1992)
    School
    PPE at Oxbridge (natch)
    Civil service role (HMT in this case)
    Local councillor (classic)
    Think tank role (Resolution Foundation)
    Think tank role (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)
    MP
    Cabinet minister (ffs)

    He’s 33, and has never worked in a real job. That should disqualify him from having any ministerial role on its own. Instead, he’s been totally coddled within the lifelong safety of public sector and left leaning think tank / NGO type roles, that have prepared him for the mind bendingly retarded policies he now either helps formulate or defends. You should have 30 years+ market experience before you even think about a senior role in HMT or advising the Exchequer.

    This is why the country is so utterly fucked. We have for at least ~3 decades now had an army of Dan’s running the major apparatus of state. They all float effortlessly between “think tanks” and other policy making and paid writing gigs without ever seeing a tax they didn’t like or a “rich person” they didn’t need to pay more tax. They drive the enshittification of the country through their complete lack of understanding on anything and a totally misguided sense of righteousness and ideology.

    https://x.com/RollingHedge/status/1994301574424764445

    See this is when the word midwit is useful. The minister is obviously not a retard, but a midwit grifter with a sweet sweet deal. But I assume the OP did not mean retard as in retard but as in retard.

  10. Common Tater

    “Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is planning to install high-tech surveillance along Long Island’s border with New York City when Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani takes office.

    Blakeman — a Republican eyeing a run for the gubernatorial nomination in 2026 — told Fox News in a recent interview that he’s directing police and county workers to line Nassau’s border with Queens with cameras, plate readers and facial recognition tech.

    “We are doing everything necessary to make sure that Nassau County is safe,” Blakeman told the outlet, calling Mamdani’s policies “pro-criminal” and “anti-American.”

    The county executive’s office hasn’t disclosed a price tag for the bolstered border security but said he’d fund the price tag for the gadgets through asset forfeitures.”

    https://nypost.com/2025/11/28/us-news/nassau-exec-bruce-blakeman-plans-a-wall-of-surveillance-at-nyc-border-after-mamdani-win/

    WTF??

    • UnCivilServant

      How about a Wall?

      If every border county built their own wall, we could get NYC enclosed.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

  11. Evan from Evansville

    “Enjoy the riots for spyware televisions.”

    Last dispense was a massive order for 67 ppl and ~94 total items. Over 21 were tvs. Got those in and smaller stuff before van was full. Making 2nd trip but I’m now on lunch! I was only briefly involved.

    I have cute, fingerless Walmart gloves, now! They actually are cute. Picking groceries the rest of the day.

    I don’t know what day Derp begins.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Dunno if you drink these days, but you’ll deserve one later.

    • Evan from Evansville

      We only do one or maybe two of those van pickups a shift.

      Damn. That driver was also, a large, large man. 450? Damn.

  12. Common Tater

    “The assistant principal of a Virginia high school and his brother have been arrested over an alleged plot to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

    John Wilson Bennett, 54, and Mark Booth Bennett, 59, were detained at separate locations on November 19 after authorities uncovered the alleged plan….

    According to a criminal complaint seen by WTKR, Mark allegedly told his brother he had purchased an assault rifle which ‘utilizes the explosive rounds that are needed to penetrate the vests’ worn by ICE agents.'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15333111/john-mark-bennett-ice-plot-kill-virginia-assistant-principal.html

    explosive rounds?

    • UnCivilServant

      Explosive rounds for small arms are less effective against armor than armor piercing ammunition, which is solid.

      • UnCivilServant

        Admittedly the odds of finding them are basically Nil. You have to make your own explosive rounds by filling hollow points with mercury fulminate.

      • EvilSheldon

        Explosive small arms ammunition isn’t a real thing. The smallest available explosive projectiles is the .50BMG Mk211 Mod 0 ‘Raufoss’ projectile made by Nammo.

      • UnCivilServant

        If I can make it explode it’s explosive ammunition.

        You’re not creative enough – and too reliant on commercial suppliers.

      • EvilSheldon

        I’ve been handloading long enough to know not to fuck around with homemade explosive projectiles.

      • UnCivilServant

        So you must admit that they are in fact, a thing.

      • (((Jarflax

        One the one hand they are a thing, on the other hand… Oh wait you tried handloading exploding bullets so now there is no other hand.

    • rhywun

      overheard the duo discussing plans to ‘kill police officers and ICE agents’ while dining at a local restaurant

      lol Brain trust.

  13. Sensei

    Rivian’s software-powered e-bike won me over with its adaptability

    https://archive.fo/p2wYB

    Hard no. If I needed a e-bike I want one as simple as possible. My problem with e-bikes is not the machine, but the assholes that ride them and don’t believe in traffic laws. Which is most of them.

    • UnCivilServant

      An ebike should have:

      A battery
      An electric motor
      A method of charging the battery
      A throttle to control the motor’s speed
      A method to disengage the motor from the drive
      Brakes

      Where is there room for software?

      • Sensei

        Firmware for regen and pedal assist. Low level only. Same for range estimates and charging info and battery stats.

      • UnCivilServant

        You get five LEDs, four green and one red. It indicates the current battery.

    • Nephilium

      I have several problems with e-bikes, my main one with them being treated as Schroedinger’s vehicles by their riders. Bike when they want to excuse them for violating traffic rules, vehicle when they want the protection of the rules. Ignoring the fact that a bike is a vehicle and needs to follow the rules regardless.

      • slumbrew

        💯

        Assholes driving the wrong way, on sidewalks, right through lights, etc.

        Cops really need to throw the book at a few of them pour encourager les autres .

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s simple, rule update – e-bikes are not permitted on roads where motor vehicles can travel, nor on pedestrian walkways.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        How is that different than the rest of the riders? I know, there are some who do obey the traffic laws, but the vast majority will cut corners as it is so easy on two very nimble wheels. And, when they can, most car drivers do the same: rolling stop signs, turn outside the designated lanes, speed, and so on.

      • slumbrew

        For whatever reason it’s a much higher percentage of asshole on e-bikes, plus much higher speed.

      • UnCivilServant

        four-wheels tend to break the laws in more predictable ways.

        two-wheels are just batshit.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        They break laws in totally predictable ways, from the perspective of the cyclist.

        Just like cars do.

      • UnCivilServant

        If by predictable you mean “suicidal”, then yes.

        If you are implying their behavior is rational and can be predicted by real humans, then no.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Trump is going to pause immigration from third world countries? I hope that includes the EU.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Admittedly the odds of finding them are basically Nil.

    Nonsense. They sell depleted uranium rounds in vending machines.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    He’s 33, and has never worked in a real job. That should disqualify him from having any ministerial role on its own. Instead, he’s been totally coddled within the lifelong safety of public sector and left leaning think tank / NGO type roles, that have prepared him for the mind bendingly retarded policies he now either helps formulate or defends.

    He merely promotes self evident truths.

  17. Common Tater

    “President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States may “completely” cut federal income taxes in the coming years, saying that new tariff revenue would be large enough to replace the current tax system. Speaking during his Thanksgiving address, Trump said,

    “The next couple of years I think we’ll be substantially cutting, and maybe cutting out completely, but we’ll be cutting income tax. Could be almost completely cutting it because the money we’re going to be taking in is so large. Other countries have been ripping us off for many years.”

    https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-trump-says-us-may-completely-cut-income-tax-in-next-couple-of-years

    No way

    • (((Jarflax

      There’s a way: Fuck You, Cut Spending. The fact that we won’t do it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the only way.

      • juris imprudent

        There would still be SocSec – he isn’t talking about that of course.

      • (((Jarflax

        That we have planned expenditures that are off budget, and income taxes that are not income tax, should make the dishonesty of our Government obvious to all. Smoke and mirrors to dazzle the herd. Now go out and do your patriotic duty and buy lots of useless crap marked down 50% from a price they made up last night that was 200% higher than the price last week for Black Friday!

        Smedley Butler was correct but incomplete, it’s all a racket

      • juris imprudent

        And a flim-flam man as commander-in-chief! We are so close to full on Idiocracy.

      • Fourscore

        There’s still some wiggle room but it’s incremental idiocracy now. The next prez will be worse ’cause he’ll build on the past exercise.

    • Tres Cool

      Neal Boortz finally gets his “Fair Tax” ?

  18. Shpip

    Bad Kitty ruminates on the recent attack in D.C. and calls it like he sees it.

    i will never cease to marvel at how the leftist media industrial complex seems able to frame every outrage committed by themselves of their allies/mascots as “just some unfortunate thing that happened” and of how their adherents stand ever eager to believe and amplify them.

    it’s reality breakage. and again, i fear this is not an accident. it’s a potent brainwashing tactic and like the 20 people standing in the audience after 2 minutes of patter from the stage hypnotist, we’re really starting to see who has fallen into trance.

    And much, much more.

    • rhywun

      Well, yes. It is all the obvious and inevitable result of decades of leftist propaganda. And it has worked marvelously.

    • creech

      I like how some commentators are using words like “alleged premeditated murder” and “we don’t know his motive.”
      Yeah, sure, he was a tourist who drove from the West Coast to see the national Christmas tree and when two guardsmen jostled into him outside the Metro, and maybe used an ethnic slur, he whipped out a gun that he found under a nearby bush and the gun went off accidentally and bullets struck the guardsmen.

      • juris imprudent

        …he whipped out a gun that he found under a nearby bush and the gun went off accidentally and bullets struck the guardsmen

        The Will of Allah!!!!

      • (((Jarflax

        I blame the National Christmas tree! The racism emanating from the white supremacist festival overwhelmed this innocent person of color and forced him to defend himself!

  19. Evan from Evansville

    Going back in for Shift Pt 2 in the aisles. I trust I won’t hip or cart-check anyone in the aisles.

    (Extra points for children and the elderly. Bonus bonus for preggers.)

  20. Common Tater

    “The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Wednesday charged Sayed Nazir Sadat with Murder in the First Degree for the Nov. 23 “honor” killing of his wife, Geety Sadat, inside the couple’s Auburn, Washington apartment….

    Sadat told detectives he had suspected his wife of having an affair and said he had contemplated killing her for 7 to 10 days. He described waking up shortly after 7 am, rolling her onto her back, and strangling her with both hands for 15–20 minutes. At one point, he kneeled on her chest. He referred to the killing as an “honor” killing and told investigators he believed the other man he suspected “should also be killed,” though he said he lacked the means to obtain a gun….

    A recent King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO) report showed that over half of felony domestic-violence survivors in King County are women of color.”

    https://thepostmillennial.com/seattle-area-man-charged-with-murder-after-honor-killing-of-wife-prosecutors

    Which color?

    • Q Continuum

      All cultures are equal! We can have unlimited third-world immigration with no impact on our communities!

    • PieInTheSky

      I am happy to be 1 and done on this one. Send her to my place.

      • slumbrew

        Wow. Yes, top notch.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Statesmanship

    But the response from politically powerful nations, such as the Haida – whose consent the government needs – was both quick and simple: “This project is not going to happen.”

    ——-

    Marilyn Slett, the president of the Coastal First Nations (CFN), which represents eight coastal First Nations including the Haida, said the group had no interest allowing tankers in coastal waters.

    “We have zero interest in co-ownership or economic benefits of a project that has the potential to destroy our way of life and everything we have built on the coast,” she said.

    Dog in the manger politics. Dictatorship of the minority.

  22. Common Tater

    “he U.S. government has caused massive food waste during President Donald Trump’s second term. Policies such as immigration raids, tariff changes and temporary and permanent cuts to food assistance programs have left farmers short of workers and money, food rotting in fields and warehouses, and millions of Americans hungry. And that doesn’t even include the administration’s actual destruction of edible food.

    The U.S. government estimates that more than 47 million people in America don’t have enough food to eat – even with federal and state governments spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on programs to help them.

    Yet, huge amounts of food – on average in the U.S., as much as 40% of it – rots before being eaten. That amount is equivalent to 120 billion meals a year: more than twice as many meals as would be needed to feed those 47 million hungry Americans three times a day for an entire year.”

    https://www.salon.com/2025/11/28/as-hunger-rises-trump-administrations-efficiency-goals-cause-massive-food-waste-partner/

    40%??

  23. The Late P Brooks

    I like how some commentators are using words like “alleged premeditated murder” and “we don’t know his motive.”

    Look what Trump made him do!

  24. Raven Nation

    Glibs HQ: thanks for a Black Friday post of any kind.

    And thanks for keeping this little island open for us all.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    U.S. government has caused massive food waste during President Donald Trump’s second term.

    Now do food waste under plague hysteria.

    • rhywun

      To be fair, picking crops is a job Americans won’t do.

    • Common Tater

      MAKE AUTOMOBILES DANGEROUS AGAIN!!!

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Chief executives of Detroit’s three automakers and a senior Tesla executive have been summoned to appear at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation—set for Jan. 14—to explain why vehicles have become so expensive.

    Late stage capitalism, duh.

    • UnCivilServant

      They should hold up a mirror and go “The people you see are the reason it’s expensive.”

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Vehicle safety advocates argue such mandates save lives and don’t go far enough when some 40,000 people a year die on American roads.

    “Regulation is the best way to make sure everybody’s got this technology that’s highly effective,” said a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

    Fuck off, slaver.

    • R.J.

      Jeez yes! Fuck off! If I want a little tin box with an engine that is my business.

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