Thursday Links in the Afternoon

by | Jun 18, 2026 | Daily Links, Florida | 88 comments

Happy Thursday, everybody. And for those of you who get Juneteenth off, happy end of the work week. My wife works for the local community college. They are closed on Fridays in the summer, so she also got today off in recognition of the federal holiday. I’m not jealous.

My favorite World Cup meme so far – Neves and Vitinha carrying Ronaldo at the WC:

And now some links…

Cuba is so broke, they’re willing to try capitalism!

Oh no, parts of the European Parliament (lol) are getting based. I assume this means the French and the Germans are feeling some pressure from their own citizens.

That’s it, Pride Night is cancelled! Maybe, I dunno, we could let some people not wear the ribbon?

Just a reminder, watermelons like Greenpeace have let 100,000 children die rather than let poors have GMO rice.

Not sure whether this applies more to work or talking to my kids, but, yeah…

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

Brett set out to find America, the real America, the America of strip malls and serial killers, of butthole waxing and kelp smoothies, of cocaine and maggots. He sought it in the most American part of America—Florida: swamp gas and fever dreams, where love arrives on a rickety boat and leaves when it doesn't have the money for its fourth abortion. Oh, where has Brett gone? He’s drinking at the neck of America’s wang, chewing its foreskin and working its shaft. Brett is becoming legend. Brett can never die. Brett can never die. Brett is America, facedown in his own patriotic puke: the red his blood, the white his stomach lining, and the cold, cold blue his gas station slushie, spiked with coconut rum and tetracycline.

88 Comments

  1. trshmnstr

    JD Vance on Israel:

    “What the president gets a little frustrated with sometimes is that we seem to be right on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the agreement, and then all of a sudden, there’s a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut, and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives. That is not acceptable; that is the sort of thing we’ve asked for closer coordination to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

    • Pat

      Maybe the president should have not conducted a questionably legal military campaign in the middle east that accomplished precisely dick besides spiking gasoline and commodity prices, and then Israel’s conduct of its war against Hezbollah wouldn’t be threatening his brilliant deal to return to the status quo ante while releasing a couple dozen billion dollars back to the mullahs.

      • Brett L

        I can’t imagine why Israel would think that any hard cash the Iranian regime gets will be immediately funneled to Hezbollah.

      • Sensei

        I presume rebuilding air defenses will come first.

      • Aloysious

        I can’t imagine why Israel would think that any hard cash the Iranian regime gets will be immediately funneled to Hezbollah.

        Humanitarian aid. It will feed the wimminz and childrenz. Clothe the nekkid. Dogs and cats will live together in harmony.

    • Pat

      and then all of a sudden, there’s a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut, and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives

      Also, not for nothing, but that’s what tends to happen when you put your clandestine rocket sites in civilian centers precisely so that you can use the ensuing deaths of your meat shields as propaganda to perpetuate your campaign. I wonder what ol’ J.D. think about the Dresden bombings or Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Actually I don’t. It would depend entirely on whose votes the smarmy little fuck is courting.

  2. Pat

    The document, which has not yet been made public, will be submitted Thursday to Cuba’s National Assembly. It envisions expanding opportunities for private enterprise, greater autonomy for municipalities and state-owned companies and measures to attract additional foreign investment, including from Cubans abroad.

    Remittances and oligarchy, then?

    • Aloysious

      “Communism has failed momentarily, comrades. We must implement free market reforms. After they succeed, we will try communism again, because the first try wasn’t real communism. Hopefully, we won’t get thrown out of any helicopters.”

  3. The Late P Brooks

    players refused to wear uniforms that featured a rainbow design, team officials said.

    Garter belts are still okay, right?

    • Brett L

      You don’t mess with the streak!

    • R.J.

      “Rainbow codpieces are to be worn on the outside, so we can check.”

  4. The Late P Brooks

    No star studded Obamafest tongue bath?

  5. rhywun

    Pride Night is cancelled!

    Good for them. Play politics on your own time.

  6. DEG

    Cuba’s powerful Communist Party on Thursday approved an emergency economic package featuring unprecedented free-market measures aimed at opening up the struggling island’s economy as pressure from the U.S. and the European Union heightens.

    I thought when Raul Castro took power there was some liberalization? Or is my memory off?

    • R.J.

      BY LIBERALIZATION MEAN…
      He stopped shooting people who asked questions.

      • DEG

        I mean it was possible that’s what I was remembering.

    • R.J.

      I feel bad for snarking now, so I found this:

      Following Fidel Castro’s retirement in 2008 and death in 2016, Cuba underwent gradual economic liberalization under his brother Raúl Castro, who introduced limited free-market policies such as allowing small private businesses and foreign investment. However, the most significant shift occurred in June 2026, when the Cuban government, backed by Raúl Castro, approved sweeping market reforms to address a collapsing economy exacerbated by US sanctions. These measures include opening 23 economic sectors to private investment, eliminating most price controls, and granting equal status to domestic and foreign investors.

      Key reforms approved in June 2026 aim to shrink the state’s role and revive the economy:

      Private Sector Expansion: Uniform legal rules established for state and private enterprises, allowing private businesses to operate in previously restricted sectors.
      Investment Incentives: New frameworks to attract capital from Cubans abroad and foreign companies, including direct investment in the private sector.
      State Reduction: Plans to merge government institutions, reduce the number of ministries, and grant greater autonomy to state-owned enterprises.
      Agricultural Freedom: Farmers gain access to foreign currency and the right to import raw materials without state intermediaries.
      Energy Deregulation: Removal of taxes on solar energy technology to encourage foreign supply of panels and batteries.

  7. rhywun

    parts of the European Parliament (lol) are getting based

    And sooner than I would have expected. Yeah, the pressure must be intense. I mean, it’s not like every parliament there hasn’t been completely ignoring the wishes of the subjects for decades or anything. I wonder what changed.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Steady as you go

    Washington, D.C., City Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist, has won the Democratic primary for mayor, NBC News projects, putting her in line to manage the capital city and its relationship with President Donald Trump.

    ——-

    Lewis George is on course to be a heavy general election favorite in the deep-blue city, and the primary marks another major advance for democratic socialists in municipal politics around the country.

    New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is in his first year in office after a swift and surprising rise in his city, while Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman advanced to a runoff earlier this month in the race for mayor there, where an early Los Angeles Times poll indicates a close race against current Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who is also a Democrat.

    Business as usual, then.

    • Brett L

      The city built on other people’s money is getting a socialist mayor? Its good to know everyone will be having their chocolate ration increased to 6 grams from 10.

    • Grummun

      Empty DC of residents. It should be nothing but government buildings.

    • R C Dean

      “the capital city”

      *sigh*

  9. Pat

    Environmental groups, led by Greenpeace, fought it in country after country for two decades.
     
    As far as I can tell, no one has calculated the cost of that delay. I’ve spent the last few weeks doing so. My rough estimate is that the delay has killed about 106,000 children and left another 210,000 to 425,000 blind.2 Measured in healthy years of life lost, that is somewhere between 7 and 12 million.3 (My full calculations are here. I will update these figures as I receive feedback.)

    Splashy numbers make me skeptical. Let’s check the footnotes:

    † The range depends on estimates of how much vitamin A reduces child mortality (GiveWell’s reading of the trials: 12–24%).[1]
    Beta-carotene content is set at 6.3 µg/g — the average of the only two field studies that measured actual beta-carotene per gram of GR2E grain, in the Philippines (Swamy 2019) and Bangladesh (Biswas 2021).

    So this is based on someone else’s analysis of trials, two studies measuring beta-carotene content, and presumably, the assumption that golden rice would have been substituted 1:1 for non-GMO rice.

    Now I’m not saying Greenpeace aren’t a bunch of fuck hats, but this sounds pretty speculative, and there may possibly be other reasons golden rice hasn’t been widely adopted in the countries where malnutrition is a problem.

    • R.J.

      I will say this: I put as much faith in those numbers as I do when lefties cry about the millions of Africans killed by the shrinking of USAID.

    • Rat on a train

      Unless Golden Rice is provided using US taxpayer funds it wouldn’t help anyone.

  10. Sensei

    Love the Guardian article. There is left and center left, but center right and far right.

    • rhywun

      There is no difference between “left” and “far left” now so in a way they’re right.

  11. DEG

    Japan Nobunaga account explains his America posts

    The foundation was comedy.

    A lot of Japanese comedy starts with an obviously ridiculous premise and then commits to it completely. You take something absurd and refuse to break character. The audience understands the premise is impossible, and the humor comes from watching the character apply that worldview to ordinary situations.

    That was the samurai.

    A man from a completely different time trying to understand chain restaurants, diners, parking lots, free refills, and all the small things that modern Americans barely notice anymore.

    • Sensei

      Given my interests his posts started showing up in my feed. I don’t follow him, but they kept showing up to the point I had to block him to stop the posts showing in my feed.

      I’m not sure if it’s my knowledge of Japan and its history or what, but I just didn’t find the posts entertaining. I didn’t find them offensive either, just uninteresting.

      • Gustave Lytton

        It flooded mine as well. There’s something a little too on the nose about the account that feels off.

    • The Other Kevin

      Tundra got me following that guy. I read his take on Biscuits and Gravy to my wife and she thought it was hilarious.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      One thing that may be difficult to explain is the role comedy plays in Japan.

      Of course we laugh because things are funny.

      But comedy is also a way of dealing with everyday life.

      Life is difficult. Prices go up. People worry about work, family, money, health, and the future.

      So there is a tendency to look for small moments of humor, gratitude, absurdity, or beauty in ordinary life.

      People often try to make each other laugh not because life is easy, but because it is difficult.

      So, completely different from everywhere else on Earth.

      • Sensei

        Right.

        Also similar to the U.S. humor is regional to a degree.

        The difference between Tokyo area and Osaka area is quite different. Osaka goes for much more word play and subtle humor. Tokyo is more slapstick. Not that there isn’t crossover.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Trump commented on the race earlier this month, telling reporters at the White House that “we won’t put up with it” if Lewis George won and that he would consider a federal takeover of Washington.

    “Threatening Home Rule because you do not like how residents vote is an attack on democracy itself. The people of D.C. elect the mayor of D.C. And they want someone who will stand up to Donald Trump,” Lewis George said in a statement responding to Trump’s comments.

    That’s nice. As soon as the District becomes self-supporting she can call the shots.

    • rhywun

      A handful of activists who could be bothered to show up for a primary + a cabal of global Bond villains have spoken: the future is communism.

  13. DEG

    The NH Division of Tourism released a NH Ice Cream Trail guide. I’d rather the tax money that went to this be in private hands, but I guess there are worse things the government could spend money on.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Whom will the Democratic Socialists blame when Trump is gone?

    • The Other Kevin

      1. Trump caused so much damage it will take decades to undo.
      2. Any Republicans will still be “Trump acolytes” or “Trump adjacent”.

      • Pat

        2. Any Republicans will still be “Trump acolytes” or “Trump adjacent”.

        Nah. Even Trump will become a moderate elder statesman in comparison to this new crop of Republicans who are LITERALLY HITLER!!!!!

        Same as it ever was.

      • The Other Kevin

        That’s a tough call. Romney was “Literally Hitler”, Bush II was “Chimpy McBushitler”, and they’ve been rehabilitated. But Trump broke some people’s minds so badly they’re going to have PTSD for the rest of their lives.

      • trshmnstr

        Is Trump uniquely effective or is the left increasingly unhinged?

        I know where I’m putting my money.

    • Nephilium

      /looks at California

      It’ll be Republicans fault for obstruction.

  15. Chipping Pioneer

    I’m not jealous.

    No, you’re envious.

  16. R.J.

    TPTB: Tonight’s GlibFlick, “Dark City” is still pending.

      • R.J.

        Good question! Not sure what cut we have. Tubi consistently surprises me. I will have to look at the run time.

      • R.J.

        Looks like the theatrical version, with opening monologue. 1 hour 40 min.

      • EvilSheldon

        Leave the intro on mute until the camera zooms in on the hotel room.

  17. Aloysious

    Hey Editor… what does the Hulk say when he gets angry while visiting Glibertarians.com?

    Editor: I don’t know.

    HULK SMASH PUNNY HUMANS!

  18. UnCivilServant

    So, I was all prepared for this afternoon to be a heaping stack of disasters. My original plan was to come right back to the house after the barber’s and stay until tomorrow. Instead, I got there early, and got out again before my original appointment, so I told myself I’d see how bad the traffic was and head on up towards the smokehouse. It was a bit crowded, but I was barely slowed down and made it half an hour before closing.

    Sorry, NA, I did not see any vending machines.

    Not only did they have a freshly restocked tray of venison, I was able to pick up the Bison, Bacon, and even got some ground elk I had not originally intended to buy. Best of all, when I got back to my house, my parking spot hadn’t been taken. That in of itself is a miracle.

    So, do I add the elk and make it a five beast chili? the pot is a tad crowded with what I’ve got.

    • Sean

      Remember to add the bay leaf.

      • UnCivilServant

        resting on your laurel (leaves)?

      • The Hyperbole

        Add 20 bay leaves, get that sweet, sweet, bay leaf goodness all up in that chili.

    • Gender Traitor

      Do it, even if you can only add a little!

      • UnCivilServant

        All right. Five beast chili it is.

      • Gender Traitor

        🐄🦬🐖🦌

        No elk emoji! 😞

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Best of all, when I got back to my house, my parking spot hadn’t been taken. That in of itself is a miracle.

    Go buy a lottery ticket.

  20. R.J.

    Texans: the pool is now being sprayed with Gunite. Because of all the rain, looks like a September party instead of August.

    • Gender Traitor

      Goodness! How long does it take to set??

      • R.J.

        I spend one week spraying the gunite twice a day to harden it, before the construction continues. I am doing a pool and a large building adjacent.

      • Sensei

        Phrasing.

  21. Gender Traitor

    To update earlier news of interest to no one but me, my coworkers and I finally got our payroll direct deposits at about 5 minutes before 5 p.m. 😅

      • Gender Traitor

        It was scheduled a day earlier than usual because of the Fed holiday, but everyone expected it first thing in the morning at the same time we usually get it on Fridays. Hence panic ensued. 🙄

      • Ted S.

        Are these the same people who think they’re putting one over on somebody by getting their paycheck up to two days early?

    • rhywun

      direct deposits

      SS is still sending me monthly deposits even though they told me they were going to stop doing that, buddy. Because I, you know, have been working full-time for over a year and they know that.

      The bank keeps calling me to “set something up” because my balance is crazy but I can’t touch it because I was told I might have to pay it all back.

      Your government at work, folks.

      • rhywun

        I am so completely financially ignorant I would not have thought of that.

      • Sensei

        May as well make some money on it!

    • R.J.

      I will be on the road from 8-11, but otherwise will try to join

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