She caught us giving the kitten to my buddy last night and was not pleased. The kids are keeping one kitten and it’s super fun watching mom and baby play.
Toxteth O'Grady
on July 22, 2026 at 9:49 pm
I am so done with vet things too.
Woohoo!
CPRM
on July 22, 2026 at 10:56 pm
It is the dialogue of the script, if the AI did what I told it to.
I realized I have to make some use of the liver in my freezer, and was thinking of alternate preparations. “Country-fried liver” popped into my head, but it sounded more like a schnitzel when I thought through it.
My husband and I were on a work-trip to Belgium (well, I was working and he accompanied). He went biking for the day and ended-up at a small cafe where he erroneously ordered bakleverworst – thinking it was something else…
Somehow, someone got one of Dad’s checks, did something- or-other and got $8,500 out. They were stopped trying to take out $18,500 within a day or so. M&D talked to the police today, and Mom had a separate phone call later. She’s been changing all the bank account stuff so auto-payments, etc don’t bite.
Police said maid-services frequently do this. No idea if they’re the cause, but I always keep my door shut, a NO-GO zone for the twice-monthly maids. I don’t invite strangers into my fucking home. Mom today admitted I had a point, and no more maids for us. Such a fucking strange thing people voluntarily pay for.
I suggested to set the three youngins on it and she eventually agreed. Saying it out loud, I had to stop myself from telling her that “It’s what orphans are FOR!”
I’d maybe be ok to text for a bit, but not talk. I am not in a good mood. Pretty much, scared I’m not learning quick enough. Trainer got mildly upset when a silly error cost us a few minutes right as we were leaving. More of a brief vent, from her.
I’m thinking, now that boss and manager ‘know,’ kinda want to let Other New Dude and our trainer know about my issues. Not a Me Thing to do, but I’m feeling like I gotta do something to get in good graces to finish the week. More understanding, I suppose, from them. I detest it’s not a bad strategy, in my goal to stay long-term.
Not sure how I should frame the brief chat. (I’m thinking I really should let those two know. That won’t be pleasant for me. Still. Uh. Kinda gotta play the hand you’re dealt, yeah?)
Amazing thing in Korea: You could leave your phone or tablet on a table in a public park, in the daytime, and head home on accident w/o thinking. When ya come back, it’d still be there.
It was remarkable. Culture, huh. Kinda matters. (I do not care for how/why Korea became like Korea is, but there are perks to a 95% homogeneous nation. (Medical advantages, a big one.)
I mentioned once how I lost my keys in Germany and found them at the village Lost & Found.
This was decades ago, before recent waves of enrichment.
Brochettaward
on July 22, 2026 at 10:49 pm
I don’t like you impeaching the credibility of Manuella like this. She may have come here illegally and be using a stolen social security card and work off the books to get Medicaid and the stamps, but she would never steal directly from someone.
Just got my aunt YoutubeTV. $55/mo for the ‘entertainment package’ plus other free streaming stuff I think. So far ‘click down and scroll left or right to find a channel’ is proving far more difficult for her than her old cable.
I vaguely understand. Though, truthfully, I do not.
I’m semi-worried about my plan, tomorrow, especially if I actually do it, *how* i’ll get a conversation with the three of ’em w/o it being awkward. ANd it’s a hard thing to tell relative strangers. it’s the best play, I hope/fear.
I’ll have to try and see. I did tell my upper-ups. It’s a strange version of ‘ya miss every shot ya don’t take.’ Leaning into things, like my childhood “Short Fry” nickname helps ease the air.
Judge in the case over trannies ejected from the military is “demanding” Hegseth explain his double standard. Giving testosterone treatment to males is totally the same thing as not giving it to women transitioning to be men.
This shit has been all over in left wing spaces online. I didn’t really think it had to be explained in a fucking courtroom. Not peak derp, but next level.
So story time on why going above and beyond gets you fucked.
Employee A has been around a while. 20 some odd years. Strong worker, but clear boundaries and headstrong. They aren’t going to deal with bullshit from their manager and what do they have? A conflict avoidant manager.
Employee B has been around half that time. Bends over backwards not because they want to, but because they are consistently asked by same manager who realized they could get away with it. People think this employee is kissing manager’s ass and become their bitch. Gets trusted with every complex task that needs to get done (anything requiring thought or attention to detail etc. along with actual difficulty).
One employee had different managers over the years who for various reasons refused to give out max raises. Mostly because they weren’t allowed to by a specific manager above the headline manager. Other employee has always been given highest ratings. We’re basically talking two different managers, one of which was prior to this the manager signing off on the prior rating.
Can’t confirm (yet), but which employee do you think got the higher rating and raise as a percentage and dollar amount? Manager just looked and said one is used to this and the other is used to that, they’ll probably never know what the other got. Rubber stamp it, no one will argue.
It’s no surprise. Just the usual in the corporate hellscape.
The issue isn’t one rating. It’s piling on of years of bullshit at one place and knowing you are forever going to be used like a mule to do the heavy lifting to keep things going while never getting the meager breadcrumbs that can even be thrown your way. I *always* start reasonable with these people. Beyond reasonable frankly. I’ve killed myself over the years doing shit that no one else I’ve personally met would ever think of doing.
And at the end of the day most of this comes down to the manager’s are too scared to just speak up for the person who makes their life significantly easier and that’s how issues develop.
It’s just time to get out of this hellhole frankly. Burnt out on the stupid. I spend most of my time fixing shit that other people getting paid can’t and won’t do right with no real repercussions. Because conflict is scary even if it’s just going to amount to a mildly uncomfortable conversation.
My last manager (who favored a female who may or may not be blowing him on the side) looks like he’s about to cry whenever I see him. Asked me to come bail him out recently after beating around the bush the day prior. As fun as those moments are, I’d rather the pieces of shit just did the little that I ask so it didn’t get to that point.
She nails the performative hypocrisy but continues to participate in that world in order to “boost socialist candidates in primary races against the “establishment”? I don’t get it.
Politics attracts the venal. The societal safeguards all depend on the moral character of the populace. Of course it is a mess.
Brochettaward
on July 23, 2026 at 5:59 am
Apart from Ms. Barker’s family back in Missouri, nobody in her account creates any good or provides any service another person might find sufficiently useful to spend his own money on. Money flows, people “work” long hours, but no one produces anything of intrinsic value. The private sector exists somewhere out there—the source of all that money—but its customs are foreign to the weirdo revolutionaries who populate the world Ms. Barker once made her career in. Paid to get Democrats elected, they’re better at achieving the opposite.
So many of these whackos are unemployable without left wing politics. Both parties have solidified themselves into law in a lot of ways, but the Democrats in particular have turned themselves and their support networks into a quasi-state-apparatus. The public funds go to make-work jobs for the most useless among them.
There is a giant strap hanger entourage that makes a good living, producing nothing tangible, nothing of value. All the think tanks, all the news collectors, all the governmental agencies, need tax dollars.
A visit to a VA hospital will see a lot of couriers carrying folders, scurrying like mice when the lights get turned on, going somewhere.
Fourscore
on July 23, 2026 at 6:04 am
“Good morning, good morning, the best to you this morning”
I used to wake my kids up with that cheery little phrase. I still do whenever they are around. If I don’t, they use it on me when they drag their lazy butts out of bed.
The cries for attention and other various bullshit that some members post here are unfortunate. I’ve taken to Muting, but I’ve noticed that several long-time regulars seem to have left.
It’s hard to know what makes people come and go around here. It may or may not have anything to do with the site, since we don’t always know what’s going on in their lives.
You are correct. Not all of the defections are attributable to the drama. But I think it’s non-zero.
Chipping Pioneer
on July 23, 2026 at 6:12 am
I wondered yesterday whether Thomas Sowell was a closet anarchist, because I’ve never heard or read him making an argument in favour of the state. So I asked Gemini. Turns out I need to read more.
Then I dug into the anarchist argument more with Gemini. Gemini offered very weak arguments against anarchy, first using Sowell’s material, then drawing on other arguments. I wonder if Gemini is weak at argumentation, or if the arguments against anarchy are weak.
I had friend of a friend declare he was an “anarchist”. He moved to Portland to become a standard-issue Antifa asshole.
Chipping Pioneer
on July 23, 2026 at 6:28 am
Yes, and when you point out that anarchy and chaos are not synonymous, you can almost see the idea enter their ear canal, get rejected by their brains as it is inconsistent with their worldview, fly back out their ear, and they carry on as if you never said it.
Chipping Pioneer
on July 23, 2026 at 6:31 am
@rhywun – I bristle when people call Antifa “anarchists” and then paint all anarchists with the same brush. Antifa aren’t anarchists. They want to impose their preferred version of totalitarianism on everyone else. Until it comes for them.
(((Jarflax
on July 23, 2026 at 6:21 am
I think the basic argument against anarchy is infinitely strong, namely that it is impossible.
We’re too tribal, we always need some sort of structure.
If the latest polls are any indication, we’re going to get it, good and hard.
Chipping Pioneer
on July 23, 2026 at 6:29 am
Most of your relationships are anarchic.
Chipping Pioneer
on July 23, 2026 at 6:36 am
@Fourscore – there are all manner of structures and hierarchies that are voluntary rather than coercive. This is another false equivalence that many people make in their minds: if coordination or organization are required to achieve some goal, then it must be done through the state, rather than voluntarily by self-interested individuals.
R C Dean
on July 23, 2026 at 6:37 am
Anarchy is sustainable only in very small groups where behavioral restraints are effectively cultural and ingrained/enforced because you have a direct relationship with everybody in the group.
Once you get more than a couple hundred people, you need (a) a final arbiter of disputes and (b) enforcement of the final arbiter’s decisions. IOW, a government.
(((Jarflax
on July 23, 2026 at 6:40 am
Yes, they sort of are, so what? How does that have any bearing on the blatantly obvious fact that any group ends up with a power structure, and that because there are rewards to those who end up in control people will strive for control? Even in most friend groups there are those who have more control over decisions, and who get their way more often.
Not Adahn
on July 23, 2026 at 6:43 am
All utopias are impossible. It’s a fully generalized argument against all forms of government.
The best you can do is find one that deviates the least from its proposed purposes — but that just pushes the problem up a meta-level since there will never been any large-scale agreement on what the purpose of government is.
(((Jarflax
on July 23, 2026 at 6:44 am
Anarchists are every bit as utopian as the true believer socialists. Fantasies about what it would be like if human nature were different are not things that can ever become reality. You are not going to eliminate greed because you think it unfair that some get more, nor are you going to eliminate the drive to power because you think it would be nice if everyone left everyone else alone.
Chipping Pioneer
on July 23, 2026 at 6:47 am
I am not claiming that anarchy is utopia.
Chipping Pioneer
on July 23, 2026 at 6:48 am
That is a claim that statists make to defend the status quo: if what you are proposing isn’t perfect, then you are to be mocked.
(((Jarflax
on July 23, 2026 at 6:49 am
Anarchy is definitionally not a system of government. It is the absence of such, a state which has never existed, and I believe cannot exist. I am not making the same argument as Mr. Dean, although I agree with him. I am stating that questions of desirability are irrelevant because a government WILL form and form rapidly in any group even if the group wants to be anarchic, the very measures the group adopts to resist someone taking it over will be a government if they succeed in resisting those who want to be king.
Chipping Pioneer
on July 23, 2026 at 6:56 am
@(((Jarflax – Are you claiming that anarchy never existed?
I think, like many people, you are conflating hierarchy with the state.
Not Adahn
on July 23, 2026 at 6:58 am
You’d need a particularly general definition of “government” for that to be true. Heck, the concept of the nation-state itself is very recent humanity-wise.
The point of government is to validate otherwise acceptable behavior. Taxation isn’t theft when the state does it. A lawful arrest and execution isn’t kidnapping and murder, etc.
(((Jarflax
on July 23, 2026 at 7:03 am
Yes, it never existed. Anarchy doesn’t mean no State, it means no ruler. A tribal chief is a ruler with no State. There has never been a human group larger than a family with no government, and even families have a hierarchy and an ultimate arbiter.
These people are rarely called to defend their sick bullshit. Apparently this one was during Trump I but she just dialed up the hatred and racism to 11.
I would like to know why we are paying for this crap.
If I’m paying or the music I’d like to call the tunes.
Grumbletarian
on July 23, 2026 at 6:43 am
Hartig tried to feign ignorance about the document, despite the fact that the Smithsonian has adopted and promoted the MASS Action Toolkit in staff development and educational material since the start of her tenure in 2019.
The screed was developed by a left-wing activist coalition, Museums as Sites for Social Action, that is dedicated to using museums as platforms for social justice, “anti-racism” and “equity” and funded by the DEI-obsessed Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among others. Smithsonian staffers were even involved in its inception.
Classy burger. McDonald’s?
Uhh….
I sat through that whole thing thinking that there would be a closing scene like a Marvel movie.
*Sad Stan Lee noises
Jeez, not what I not-married into. An offer to go to the store turns into an argument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTTgpTeb0Z8
It does feel like Walkabout!
Forget Argument Clinic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpQlyUjp3vM
Using my limited wattage on youse. Because you have always been so kind.
Who knows morris code?
In completely unrelated news the last kitten went home with one of my buddies last night.
Get mom snipped here in a couple weeks and her and I can lay around and cuddle both of us post surgery.
Nice.
I used to have a “Learn the Code” button from an amateur radio convention.
It just says “boobs” over and over again.
Probably.
Most likely.
Ugh she is gonna try to chew out the stitches. Best wishes!
Rhy, one of our neighbors had a kitty that did that four or five years ago. Not pretty.
So far so good on all the cats I’ve have. It’s come time.
There was a cone for a big dog at goodwill a couple weeks ago. I put it on and told the boy I’d be wearing one after my surgery.
I can’t remember if my one kitty had a cone. Maybe? It was a long, long time ago. She probably put up such a fit that I had to take it off.
Now I have to watch Red vs. Blue. Again.
You are a genocider stripping cats away from their mother like this.
Spell check doesn’t recognize genocider as a term, but that’s only because it was developed by genociders.
She caught us giving the kitten to my buddy last night and was not pleased. The kids are keeping one kitten and it’s super fun watching mom and baby play.
I am so done with vet things too.
Woohoo!
It is the dialogue of the script, if the AI did what I told it to.
https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2026/07/22/india-leopard-bursts-into-liquor-store-attacks-employee/
I’m guessing there was no “beware of leopard” sign.
A drunk cat or reincarnation of Carrie Nation?
Hey. Leo’s a ‘fun,’ cheap as fuck Thai version of Bud, Miller, etc.
Would recommend. If that’s the mood you’re in. (It’s a lot better if you’re actually, you know, *in* Thailand, etc, I’m sure.)
It’s India. Probably assumed by all residents.
It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.
That leopard was just avenging the abuse of genociders like threedoor above. Karma.
Close enough.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZJW842T?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
Is there a formal name for liver schnitzel?
I realized I have to make some use of the liver in my freezer, and was thinking of alternate preparations. “Country-fried liver” popped into my head, but it sounded more like a schnitzel when I thought through it.
➡🗑️
Dutch – bakleverworst.
My husband and I were on a work-trip to Belgium (well, I was working and he accompanied). He went biking for the day and ended-up at a small cafe where he erroneously ordered bakleverworst – thinking it was something else…
Baked liverwurst? I am OK with liverwurst.
My mom used to fry liver cutlets. 🤢🤮
Leberspätzle is a traditional German variation of spaetzle made by enriching the dough with minced pork liver.
I’ve wanted to make that but have never followed through.
Ooo that sounds nice. I like Spätzle – so easy to make.
I grew up with a friend whose family was German. Spaetzle, homemade.
And the homemade french fries à la In n Out.
Perhaps I should say Incompetent x2.
Tried “Unsafe Discharge” a week or two ago re mother, but Pt is not admitted. Bob will be her NOK at this rate, after her separated husband dies.
See why TOG doesn’t care anymore!?
And a household health concern has been ruled out. Phew.
I think it was Noted. Showed my sorry little ipad note to the PA. SSNs included.
TOG gives no craps anymore.
Somehow, someone got one of Dad’s checks, did something- or-other and got $8,500 out. They were stopped trying to take out $18,500 within a day or so. M&D talked to the police today, and Mom had a separate phone call later. She’s been changing all the bank account stuff so auto-payments, etc don’t bite.
Police said maid-services frequently do this. No idea if they’re the cause, but I always keep my door shut, a NO-GO zone for the twice-monthly maids. I don’t invite strangers into my fucking home. Mom today admitted I had a point, and no more maids for us. Such a fucking strange thing people voluntarily pay for.
I suggested to set the three youngins on it and she eventually agreed. Saying it out loud, I had to stop myself from telling her that “It’s what orphans are FOR!”
Aw, hun. I have heard about that ahem for now.
Fucking thieves and chancers preying on pensioners. ASK me how I know. Not Bob.
My own ipad chatge has gone from 100 to 30 in a day or I would chat with y’all longer.
Got a phone number, E, if I can ever find an apparatus?
I am so fired from downstairs duties, so 👍.
I’d maybe be ok to text for a bit, but not talk. I am not in a good mood. Pretty much, scared I’m not learning quick enough. Trainer got mildly upset when a silly error cost us a few minutes right as we were leaving. More of a brief vent, from her.
I’m thinking, now that boss and manager ‘know,’ kinda want to let Other New Dude and our trainer know about my issues. Not a Me Thing to do, but I’m feeling like I gotta do something to get in good graces to finish the week. More understanding, I suppose, from them. I detest it’s not a bad strategy, in my goal to stay long-term.
Not sure how I should frame the brief chat. (I’m thinking I really should let those two know. That won’t be pleasant for me. Still. Uh. Kinda gotta play the hand you’re dealt, yeah?)
OK, autofuck you, autofuck. Don’t change “dealt” to fucking “death.” Christ.
Another time, believe me.
Shit. Keep us apprised on the culprit if you find out.
/news I can use
Amazing thing in Korea: You could leave your phone or tablet on a table in a public park, in the daytime, and head home on accident w/o thinking. When ya come back, it’d still be there.
It was remarkable. Culture, huh. Kinda matters. (I do not care for how/why Korea became like Korea is, but there are perks to a 95% homogeneous nation. (Medical advantages, a big one.)
I mentioned once how I lost my keys in Germany and found them at the village Lost & Found.
This was decades ago, before recent waves of enrichment.
I don’t like you impeaching the credibility of Manuella like this. She may have come here illegally and be using a stolen social security card and work off the books to get Medicaid and the stamps, but she would never steal directly from someone.
A question.
Does anyone have experience with either of these –
Verizon FIOS TV and xfinity (Comcast)
Those appear to be my choices at new apartment. NB: I don’t stream other than TV-style like Pluto and such – I mostly watch cable.
Leaning toward Verizon but I’ve never had either product. Spectrum has been my only option for decades.
Fios is good.
Xfinity in PA has been quite good to me. Ymmv.
USPS is partnering with them when I filed my change of address.
That makes me extremely leery.
And that was after a very brief surface comparison seemed to favor Verizon – which until then I did not know offers a “TV” package.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have time.
Verizon FIOS – I despair having ONLY Xfinity options.
Just got my aunt YoutubeTV. $55/mo for the ‘entertainment package’ plus other free streaming stuff I think. So far ‘click down and scroll left or right to find a channel’ is proving far more difficult for her than her old cable.
I’ve been happy with Fios for 20 years. Skip the router and connect directly to the ONT if you have your own network equipment.
Did I make it clear that I am past offended and now worrying about B? Not taking all this personally.
He’s probably bipolar. I know my ankles are swollen. IDGAFA.
Not married and never will be. Just as housemates.
This is an escape room from hell. Tontine.
I JUST WANT OUT
And this is no place for someone with misophonia. Dogs, cats, flies.
Thank you all.
Robert Arthur Lozonne, 8.25.63, if I have to do it.
He got bored with you all anyway.
Bob, while I was napping you threw food at me. Fast food I asked you not to bring. “FOOD.”
There’s a whole list of this. Two party recording state.
Sorry my editing is so farkatke lately, Moj and Evan.
And to those who know my details, I don’t think a welfare check would do any good.
I vaguely understand. Though, truthfully, I do not.
I’m semi-worried about my plan, tomorrow, especially if I actually do it, *how* i’ll get a conversation with the three of ’em w/o it being awkward. ANd it’s a hard thing to tell relative strangers. it’s the best play, I hope/fear.
I’ll have to try and see. I did tell my upper-ups. It’s a strange version of ‘ya miss every shot ya don’t take.’ Leaning into things, like my childhood “Short Fry” nickname helps ease the air.
I’ll have to check in with you sometime, sugar.
Fucking mental illness!
Not mine own, relatively?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi9MLL8QOY0
I used to work in family law. This is the situation I was trying to avoid. 🚬
THEY GOT HIM NOW!
Judge in the case over trannies ejected from the military is “demanding” Hegseth explain his double standard. Giving testosterone treatment to males is totally the same thing as not giving it to women transitioning to be men.
https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/judge-hegseth-testosterone-transgender?utm_campaign=mrf-facebook-TheAdvocate&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&mrfcid=202607226a601dc13d97176cafe54f94
This shit has been all over in left wing spaces online. I didn’t really think it had to be explained in a fucking courtroom. Not peak derp, but next level.
“The Advocate” is a perfect example of mission creep. Safely ignored.
TOG is so fired. Dog and cat and pensioners’ needs are not my problem anymore.
But less stress, like B and me avoiding each other, seems to help my physical health a bit, and it IZZ that bad in my old age.
Meshuggana!
So story time on why going above and beyond gets you fucked.
Employee A has been around a while. 20 some odd years. Strong worker, but clear boundaries and headstrong. They aren’t going to deal with bullshit from their manager and what do they have? A conflict avoidant manager.
Employee B has been around half that time. Bends over backwards not because they want to, but because they are consistently asked by same manager who realized they could get away with it. People think this employee is kissing manager’s ass and become their bitch. Gets trusted with every complex task that needs to get done (anything requiring thought or attention to detail etc. along with actual difficulty).
One employee had different managers over the years who for various reasons refused to give out max raises. Mostly because they weren’t allowed to by a specific manager above the headline manager. Other employee has always been given highest ratings. We’re basically talking two different managers, one of which was prior to this the manager signing off on the prior rating.
Can’t confirm (yet), but which employee do you think got the higher rating and raise as a percentage and dollar amount? Manager just looked and said one is used to this and the other is used to that, they’ll probably never know what the other got. Rubber stamp it, no one will argue.
It’s no surprise. Just the usual in the corporate hellscape.
The issue isn’t one rating. It’s piling on of years of bullshit at one place and knowing you are forever going to be used like a mule to do the heavy lifting to keep things going while never getting the meager breadcrumbs that can even be thrown your way. I *always* start reasonable with these people. Beyond reasonable frankly. I’ve killed myself over the years doing shit that no one else I’ve personally met would ever think of doing.
And at the end of the day most of this comes down to the manager’s are too scared to just speak up for the person who makes their life significantly easier and that’s how issues develop.
It’s just time to get out of this hellhole frankly. Burnt out on the stupid. I spend most of my time fixing shit that other people getting paid can’t and won’t do right with no real repercussions. Because conflict is scary even if it’s just going to amount to a mildly uncomfortable conversation.
My last manager (who favored a female who may or may not be blowing him on the side) looks like he’s about to cry whenever I see him. Asked me to come bail him out recently after beating around the bush the day prior. As fun as those moments are, I’d rather the pieces of shit just did the little that I ask so it didn’t get to that point.
For want of a phone…
Are you B?
I would pour drinks for all of you who want one. Three, ten.
Sorry, hun. Would meet you at the bar now if not for the time difference.
🍻
Why do men hate women so much? Because mothers?
🚬
Bob Wants Nothing to Do With Me. OK.
My family are and apparently always were all in on bullying me, so no help there, QED.
“Whyyyyy didn’t you ask for help? ”
GFD, this is what asking looks like.
Toxteth, people on here are willing to help. But none of us knows the specifics of how to do that or what you need.
I know. All a bit chaotic.
My stepfather put in his time too. (Both assholes!)
Bob is making a hash of this crackerbox palace.
Oh yeah, gladly take on your mother’s mess. Worse mostly.
for now; sorry I can’t punctuate
hoarder clutter nightmare here
Happy national Lemon day, y’all.
🍋🌤️⏰
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySzrJ4GRF7s
🎶🎶
Be safe, TOG.
Good morning, Sean and Ted’S.!
I had a long night of Firsting for the Glibertariat’s sins, and I don’t even get a good morning.
Didn’t know you were still around. Good morning, Bro.
Sorry to hear about your work situation. Hope you can find something better.
Morning.
Good morning, U. How are you today?
Well, I made it back to the house before falling asleep yesterday. I did oversleep though
😣
Oops! 😳
Happy birthday Arthur Treacher!
Have some fish and chips in his memory.
Donors Make Democrats Crazy
A former operative recounts her time in the world of left-wing political consulting.
Book review in the WSJ. It’s as vapid and feels oriented as you’d expect.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donors-make-democrats-crazy-1ce06605?st=S5YzjK&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
She nails the performative hypocrisy but continues to participate in that world in order to “boost socialist candidates in primary races against the “establishment”? I don’t get it.
Her nailing the performative hypocrisy is performative hypocrisy. Sort of an Ouroboros of idiocy.
Exactly.
Democrats are nuts, Republicans are ineffective, Libertarians are pathetic…we’re fucked.
Politics attracts the venal. The societal safeguards all depend on the moral character of the populace. Of course it is a mess.
So many of these whackos are unemployable without left wing politics. Both parties have solidified themselves into law in a lot of ways, but the Democrats in particular have turned themselves and their support networks into a quasi-state-apparatus. The public funds go to make-work jobs for the most useless among them.
There is a giant strap hanger entourage that makes a good living, producing nothing tangible, nothing of value. All the think tanks, all the news collectors, all the governmental agencies, need tax dollars.
A visit to a VA hospital will see a lot of couriers carrying folders, scurrying like mice when the lights get turned on, going somewhere.
“Good morning, good morning, the best to you this morning”
I used to wake my kids up with that cheery little phrase. I still do whenever they are around. If I don’t, they use it on me when they drag their lazy butts out of bed.
Good morning, 4(20)! It’s nice to have family traditions like that.
Good morning, all.
The cries for attention and other various bullshit that some members post here are unfortunate. I’ve taken to Muting, but I’ve noticed that several long-time regulars seem to have left.
Good morning, ChipP.
It’s hard to know what makes people come and go around here. It may or may not have anything to do with the site, since we don’t always know what’s going on in their lives.
Good morning, GT.
You are correct. Not all of the defections are attributable to the drama. But I think it’s non-zero.
I wondered yesterday whether Thomas Sowell was a closet anarchist, because I’ve never heard or read him making an argument in favour of the state. So I asked Gemini. Turns out I need to read more.
Then I dug into the anarchist argument more with Gemini. Gemini offered very weak arguments against anarchy, first using Sowell’s material, then drawing on other arguments. I wonder if Gemini is weak at argumentation, or if the arguments against anarchy are weak.
Too many people define anarchy as chaos. To many people, anarchy means revolution.
I had friend of a friend declare he was an “anarchist”. He moved to Portland to become a standard-issue Antifa asshole.
Yes, and when you point out that anarchy and chaos are not synonymous, you can almost see the idea enter their ear canal, get rejected by their brains as it is inconsistent with their worldview, fly back out their ear, and they carry on as if you never said it.
@rhywun – I bristle when people call Antifa “anarchists” and then paint all anarchists with the same brush. Antifa aren’t anarchists. They want to impose their preferred version of totalitarianism on everyone else. Until it comes for them.
I think the basic argument against anarchy is infinitely strong, namely that it is impossible.
We’re too tribal, we always need some sort of structure.
If the latest polls are any indication, we’re going to get it, good and hard.
Most of your relationships are anarchic.
@Fourscore – there are all manner of structures and hierarchies that are voluntary rather than coercive. This is another false equivalence that many people make in their minds: if coordination or organization are required to achieve some goal, then it must be done through the state, rather than voluntarily by self-interested individuals.
Anarchy is sustainable only in very small groups where behavioral restraints are effectively cultural and ingrained/enforced because you have a direct relationship with everybody in the group.
Once you get more than a couple hundred people, you need (a) a final arbiter of disputes and (b) enforcement of the final arbiter’s decisions. IOW, a government.
Yes, they sort of are, so what? How does that have any bearing on the blatantly obvious fact that any group ends up with a power structure, and that because there are rewards to those who end up in control people will strive for control? Even in most friend groups there are those who have more control over decisions, and who get their way more often.
All utopias are impossible. It’s a fully generalized argument against all forms of government.
The best you can do is find one that deviates the least from its proposed purposes — but that just pushes the problem up a meta-level since there will never been any large-scale agreement on what the purpose of government is.
Anarchists are every bit as utopian as the true believer socialists. Fantasies about what it would be like if human nature were different are not things that can ever become reality. You are not going to eliminate greed because you think it unfair that some get more, nor are you going to eliminate the drive to power because you think it would be nice if everyone left everyone else alone.
I am not claiming that anarchy is utopia.
That is a claim that statists make to defend the status quo: if what you are proposing isn’t perfect, then you are to be mocked.
Anarchy is definitionally not a system of government. It is the absence of such, a state which has never existed, and I believe cannot exist. I am not making the same argument as Mr. Dean, although I agree with him. I am stating that questions of desirability are irrelevant because a government WILL form and form rapidly in any group even if the group wants to be anarchic, the very measures the group adopts to resist someone taking it over will be a government if they succeed in resisting those who want to be king.
@(((Jarflax – Are you claiming that anarchy never existed?
I think, like many people, you are conflating hierarchy with the state.
You’d need a particularly general definition of “government” for that to be true. Heck, the concept of the nation-state itself is very recent humanity-wise.
The point of government is to validate otherwise acceptable behavior. Taxation isn’t theft when the state does it. A lawful arrest and execution isn’t kidnapping and murder, etc.
Yes, it never existed. Anarchy doesn’t mean no State, it means no ruler. A tribal chief is a ruler with no State. There has never been a human group larger than a family with no government, and even families have a hierarchy and an ultimate arbiter.
LOL this is spectacular.
These people are rarely called to defend their sick bullshit. Apparently this one was during Trump I but she just dialed up the hatred and racism to 11.
I would like to know why we are paying for this crap.
Because we live in Chumpville?
If I’m paying or the music I’d like to call the tunes.
Hartig tried to feign ignorance about the document, despite the fact that the Smithsonian has adopted and promoted the MASS Action Toolkit in staff development and educational material since the start of her tenure in 2019.
The screed was developed by a left-wing activist coalition, Museums as Sites for Social Action, that is dedicated to using museums as platforms for social justice, “anti-racism” and “equity” and funded by the DEI-obsessed Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among others. Smithsonian staffers were even involved in its inception.
Shouldn’t that be called MASSA?
suh’ fam
whats goody