Thursday Morning Links

by | Nov 2, 2023 | Daily Links | 319 comments

One of the best

The Rangers have wn the World Series. The D-backs had a nice run, but they ran onto s buzzsaw.  Basketball legend Bob Knight has passed away. And ManUre got bounced out of the League Cup. And that’s about not for sports.

There’s stress in the real world. The guy is an asshole, but this is a ridiculous response.

Yeah, that’s a problem. They’re gonna want to get that fixed.

This is on-brand. If anybody would know about bypassing a normal process for military promotion and service, it would be Dick Blumenthal.

What a bizarre case. I got nothing else on this one.

He’s just like us!

Oh, the humanity! Living like a normie is now breaking news?

How generous of them. We should all thank them for their graciousness in letting people keep a few more dollars they’ve earned.

What a guy. I actually believe him, so that’s not said in jest.

So hip. So edgy. What a joyless asshole this guy must be.

Truly the greatest generation of music. That’s their only hit that I can’t place in a movie. This one was in a movie though. One of the greatest movies in the history of mankind, I might add. Enjoy them both.

And enjoy the end of this cold snap, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

319 Comments

  1. PieInTheSky

    The Rangers have wn the World Series. – finally a real win for the state of Texas 🙂

    • R.J.

      It’s amazing. Much celebration. I will join it later. Too busy for excess joy until tonight.

    • sloopyinca

      Uh-huh.

    • Aloysious

      You could say that the Rangers put a stake in their opponents.

  2. SDF-7

    What a bizarre case. I got nothing else on this one.

    Reminds me of a Columbo movie but the money was real for that one.

    Morning, Sloopy. Morning, all.

    • rhywun

      That one is great – the ending is so LOL.

    • R C Dean

      So what was her plan for getting the money after she killed him?

      I’m guessing, claim they were common-law married so she would inherit. If so, good luck with that. I rejected every claim of common law marriage that crossed my desk at the hospital, because none of them could produce a tax return filed as a married couple.

      • Chafed

        You wanted proof? You monster!

  3. PieInTheSky

    Yeah, that’s a problem. They’re gonna want to get that fixed. – toyota is a brand of car I never considered buying because they are for some reason ugly compared to say honda or mazda.

    • Sean

      I’m with you on this. Their styling sucks.

      • DEG

        I like some Lexus cars.

        The Toyota Avalon looked decent before its facelift around 2013 to try to make it more marketable to the younger crowd.

    • Sensei

      Yes, but they make the least disposable car of any major manufacturer.

      I, however, have the same problem – I hate their styling.

      Also they went all in on the turbo hybrid 4 cylinder for most of their volume cars for emissions compliance. Theirs is the best of any, but I hate them.

    • Lachowsky

      i learned to drive in an 83 Toyota 4×4 pick up. My dad bought that thing in 85 or so and drove it every day until 2004 or so. Say what you will about their styling, Toyota makes things that keep going.

  4. SDF-7

    Living like a normie is now breaking news?

    Well, we had all the hubbub about the Speaker of the House apparently not exploiting his office for corrupt profit — so yeah, apparently so.

    • rhywun

      Kanye West now lives in an apartment with NO security, NO nannies and NO chef

      I don’t believe this for a quectosecond.

  5. PieInTheSky

    How generous of them. We should all thank them for their graciousness in letting people keep a few more dollars they’ve earned.

    My taxes are about to go up and I am not happy. Very short notice too, they could have fucking waited until after the end of year bonus…

    • sloopyinca

      They car raise taxes mid-year?
      That sounds crazy. How do businesses or regular people for that matter do their taxes?

      • PieInTheSky

        Well here my employer does my taxes it is all withheld before I get it. The law became official mid October. There were tax raises for some companies, which kick in on january 1st. There were some changes for some employees which kick in November 1st. Most companies are scrambling to do it.

      • sloopyinca

        Companies there withhold exactly the right amount for the government? There’s no deductions at the end of the year that could cause an over- or underpayment?

      • PieInTheSky

        There’s no deductions at the end of the year – nope

        A nice flat tax. It comes out at 42% of income, including mandatory the ponzi ehm… pension and healthcare contributions.

        It may not seem like much, but we also pay 19% VAT on purchases, additional excise tax for gas which makes it more expensive than the US (fun fact: vat is applied after excise tax so we pay VAT on the tax), and additional excise tax for alcohol and some “luxury” goods. There is also property tax but that is very low. And car tax. And a few more.

      • PieInTheSky

        today I am having the kind of day which reminds me of

        H.L. Mencken — ‘Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.’

      • UnCivilServant

        Skip steps 1 and 2.

        And go after whoever decided 42% is a good idea.

      • Nephilium

        42%? Just ran the numbers, after my pre-tax deductions, I’m at under 30% payroll tax (that’s fed, state, local. Social Security, and Medicare taxes). That’s not counting sales tax, property tax, capital gains tax, or any of the other assorted fees and taxes that need to get paid through the year (I assume Romania has most of those as well).

      • UnCivilServant

        I just did the math off my paystub.

        Taxes are 24.3% of gross. (Just the fed, state, SS, and med)

      • R.J.

        He also mentioned his socialized medicine. How much is your healthcare contribution? Did that go into your calculation?

      • Nephilium

        RJ: I left out health care as it’s pre-tax, and is wildly variable based on family status and employer. but including it in my example wouldn’t change my statement (it would just push me closer to the 30%).

      • R C Dean

        Don’t forget to include employer-side SocSec and Medicare taxes. That adds another 8%, more or less.

      • UnCivilServant

        If you add that you would also have to increase the number used for the gross, since that money isn’t listed on the stub. So your math would have to start from 1.08x gross.

      • UnCivilServant

        With those adjustments I’m stil at either side of 30% (with or without health contribution)

      • Mojeaux

        We pay $15,000 a year for our healthcare “benefit” portion of the premium, so I would add that, if Pie’s numbers take into account his socialized medicine.

      • Atanarjuat

        Taking 42% of your income is a crime.

      • Aloysious

        They’re real bloodsuckers.

      • robc

        Slave 3 days out of 7.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It comes out at 42% of income…we also pay 19% VAT on purchases

        😳😳

      • UnCivilServant

        Agreed. How can you live like that?

        my 24.3% income and 8% sales taxes are atrociously high. I can’t imagine 42 and 19

      • PieInTheSky

        How can you live like that – by not assuming you afford nice tings 🙂

      • Gustave Lytton

        Not being the reserve currency sucks for that.

      • robc

        Left out the VAT in my calculation above…slave 4 days out of 7.

      • robc

        A 19% VAT is why I oppose a vat (amongst other reasons). Being hidden, it can sneak up. Sales tax is in your face on every purchase. And on Tuesday (I put my ballot in the box yesterday however) we are voting to get rid of the sales tax on groceries in my city (already exempt from state sales tax).

      • PieInTheSky

        Gas now is about 6USD per US gallon, most of which is tax.

      • SDF-7

        So… California then.

      • PieInTheSky

        without the weed and mexican ass sex

      • Atanarjuat

        Hopefully you have fewer squatters shitting next to their discarded drug syringes.

      • PieInTheSky

        they are growing in numbers… three years ago not so many today more and more…

        most shelters do not want them because they get drunk or drugged and start trouble. There are places in shelters.

        the local left says the government should give them houses but I wonder how that will work for mentally ill drug addicts…

      • Atanarjuat

        Forcible institutionalization is not good, but it is less bad than what we have now.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        “without the weed and mexican ass sex”

        Presumably you have Moldovan ass sex and wine instead.

  6. Homple

    “What a joyless asshole this guy must be.”
    How do you say “pendijo” in Tex-Mexican?

    • Homple

      Goddamit! I meant “pendejo”. Every time I try a wisecrack I blow it up. I get my jokes from ACME inc.

      • UnCivilServant

        Those are not the ACME of Jokes.

      • SDF-7

        They can be pretty wiley, though.

      • Nephilium

        /pushes can of black paint behind a rock

        “Look, there’s raclette through that tunnel!”

    • SDF-7

      “Beto O’Rouke”?

  7. SDF-7

    I didn’t think this one was in a movie either, though I could be wrong.

    Dangnabbit… now I have to go find my “Best of Survivor” album…. haven’t listened to them in a while….

    • sloopyinca

      What a great freaking song.

    • RBS

      -(evocative rock music plays)-

  8. The Gunslinger

    “What a bizarre case. I got nothing else on this one.”

    Another bizarre court case was supposed to begin on Monday, but Mann’s lawsuit against Steyn has been postponed again. Now 11.5 years and counting. As Mark often says, “the process is the punishment”.

    https://www.steynonline.com/13897/for-want-of-a-judge

    • hayeksplosives

      I now believe their plan is to prolong the process until Steyn has a fatal heart attack.

      • The Gunslinger

        Agreed

      • DEG

        That’s probably the only way Mann can win.

      • R C Dean

        Nope. Kangaroo court, DC jury. The trial is a formality. The odds of Mann losing are quite low.

    • rhywun

      I don’t understand how any of this is happening. It’s such obvious bullshit.

    • SDF-7

      Federal pandemic relief means household finances are stronger, even now, than before the pandemic.

      Yeah…. I’m smelling shite to quote The Drinker there…

      • Nephilium

        /looks at gas and food prices

        Man, I’m really glad that those prices are still the same as they were before.

      • Sensei

        That’s my sense. Wages are up, but so are a prices. And I’ve long thought that economists gave food and energy short attention.

        The reason they broke it out was to better study it and remove the volatility from core CPI. However, surprise surprise, it became something that could now be used politically.

        I hate macroeconomics with a passion, but I had to study it. Like it or not you need to understand it to understand what words the mandarins plant in politicians’ ears.

        But the mainstream does little to educate on this. So rather than crap on some guy (who I generally don’t like because he’s your typical left of center economist) who tries to take an honest stab at analysis I’ll share it. Doesn’t mean I agree with it.

      • R.J.

        Wages are not up. Not at all for most people. Unions are getting big wins which will only make stuff more expensive for the majority of people who do not get decent raises. The papers and Joe Fucktard keep championing the union wins because it looks like they are somehow solving the problem instead of throwing gas on the fire.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Some headline union wins, but largely not. The laptop class had and has essentially pay raises by cost or time avoidance. So has entry level pay. Still seeing lots of hiring begging.

      • SDF-7

        That’s a point — although since I went WfH pre-pandemic, that might be why I don’t feel the “savings”. But I’m damned sure glad that it has insulated me to some extent from gas prices directly (went from at least two fillups a week to one every month or two now — but of course, food prices driven by fuel and fertilizer costs come for us all).

        And yeah, COLA adjustments have been nowhere near inflationary rates. Given there have been layoffs and from my perspective the economy is slow, I can’t blame the company I work for, and I’m much more in the “glad I still have my job” camp as far as that goes….

      • R C Dean

        “Still seeing lots of hiring begging.”

        Yet as far as I know, we had more jobs (or at least a higher labor force participation rate) before the plague. The highest growth sector for jobs has been the government (which is to say, non-productive) and our quasi-socialized health care sector.

      • Sensei

        They are – anecdotes aside.

        https://www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.nr0.htm

        However, including my own household, my costs of living have outpaced my increases in wages. And my wages have not increased at the rates in the BLS statistics.

      • Nephilium

        There were no raises where I worked in 2020 or 2021, and only small ones in 2022. I did get a pay raise this year, but that was by changing jobs. I may just be in a mood to be angry at the WSJ after seeing this headline in my feed earlier:

        Americans Can Stick More Cash in Their 401(k)s Next Year, Thanks to Inflation

      • Sensei

        That’s because inflation has increased maximum contribution levels in plans as allowed by FedGov.

      • R.J.

        Arg. Same here, when I did exceptionally well I would get a 2% increase in pay. That’s it. I have been losing ground for a while. The only bonus I got was W@H, which allowed me to save gas and time, which was significant.

      • CPRM

        Wages are up, in areas where there used to be a low cost of living, thus making them higher cost of living. In 2019 McDonald’s paid a starting $10/hr, that’s now $15/hr. The job I was hired for in 2020 pre-pandemic was $13.20/hr, now $20.30 starting. Those earlier wages were good wages around here. At the latter they can’t find enough people willing to work and everyplace is still shorthanded.

      • kinnath

        2020 — 10% pay cut

        2021 — 5% pay cut (restored part of original salary)

        2022 — 3% raise on original salary (while inflation was high-single-digits, so another de facto pay cut)

        202 — 3% raise (while inflation was middle-single-digits, so another de facto pay cut)

        All expenses up dramatically.

        Yeah, life is good.

      • Lachowsky

        That tracks pretty closely with how its been for me. I know for sure that i ain’t doing anything different than I have been for years, but I used to be able to save a whole lot more money on a week to week basis than I can now.

      • Lackadaisical

        …and worse that money was worth more back then. So the real effect to savings is quite a bit larger than the dollar amount drop.

      • Sensei

        These are economists.

        You can argue about methodology – but without rereading the the thing my assumption is dollars saved is higher. No idea of those are real or nominal.

        He’s honestly trying to sort through the the series to figure out why the public mindset, but he’s got the professional mindset.

      • Homple

        People are simply pissed because there are no trustworthy institutions left anymore and they sense the managerial class hates them, wants them dead and degrades them on the way to the grave. They’re mad but don’t know exactly why. So they focus their anger on stuff they can at least personally observe. The macro numbers have nothing to do with it because nobody believes the people who generate the numbers.

      • SDF-7

        Yeah — my problem is I don’t believe he’s right there.

        https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-excess-savings-consumer-spending-us-economy-fed-study-2023-8?op=1
        https://www.axios.com/2023/10/27/americans-saving-rate-down-consumer-spending-up

        There have been many other articles lately that households have been draining their savings, the “paycheck to paycheck” level is going up, etc… hence household finances are worse, not better.

        And trying to somehow tie in pandemic spending to claim credit for something that doesn’t look to actually be happening just spilled it over into “complete shite” range for me.

      • Lackadaisical

        There is some evidence that not just savings are falling, but actual incomes:

        https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2023/demo/p60-279.html

        That helps explain the ‘why’ in the drop in savings beyond just inflation. People are actually making less money, even if wages are up, since that isn’t the only way to make money.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Wonder how a proposed rate hike for Minnesoda natural gas will be spun in the Bidenomics world?

        CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy — Minnesota’s largest natural gas providers — asked regulators Wednesday for rate increases of more than 9%.

        The utilities said in filings with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) that the increases are needed to pay for things like infrastructure and because of inflation and supply-chain shortages.

        The company — with 830,000 residential customers in Minnesota — said the increases would add about $5.91 a month to a typical residential customer’s bill in 2024 and an extra $2.58 per month in 2025.

        Maybe, I don’t know, not spend $3M a year in naming rights for a hockey arena? It isn’t like I had a choice in who to get my utilities from, so I don’t know why marketing matters all that much.

      • SDF-7

        That’s how I feel about the constant PG&E Youtube ads touting how they’re going for green energy / burying lines / etc… All I can think is maybe “Please don’t hate us and come burn down our headquarters and put our heads on pikes as warning to the next ten generations that some utilities come at too high a price.” or something. Would strongly prefer they save the money to bribe the utility commission upgrade the infrastructure.

      • thrakkorzog

        What you did there has been seen. Nice B5 reference.

      • Lackadaisical

        Raising prices for dirty natural gas is a good thing because it will slow global warming (which is a big problem for Minnsodans).

      • R C Dean

        You can tell household finances are in great shape by the high rate of car loan and credit card defaults.

      • The Last American Hero

        ^This x1,000. This is why economists are generally full of shit. They can produce calculations and models that say the ship isn’t sinking, but any dumbass can look over the rail and notice how high the waterline is. But Mr. Economist is married to his models and calculations and completely ignoring basic economic health indicators.

    • Gustave Lytton

      The average Starbucks coffee has gone from under $3 at the start of the pandemic to $3.63 in the second quarter

      I am surprised at this. Or do they mean the average price for a small black coffee? No way is that the average purchased drink.

      • Lachowsky

        Tubes of red silicone are up 400% from pre pandemic. Leather welding gloves are up 200%. Mineral oil for use in transformers is up 180%. DC electric motors are up 150%. Braided steel cables for crane hoists are up 200%.

        that’s just a few that quickly come to mind. We had a meeting yesterday about why our two week maintenance outage went several hundred thousand dollars over budget. Supply cost was some of the reason.

      • The Last American Hero

        Potato chips cost double what they were pre-pandemic. Same for soft drinks.

      • Lackadaisical

        Don’t get me started on construction costs. BTFO’d all our estimates in the capital plan.

      • Nephilium

        I’m aware of several cancelled expansions, and several others that are going way above the estimate when the project began at local breweries, meaderies, and distilleries.

    • The Other Kevin

      This is a good example of how they’ve gone from reporting to creating narratives. They really believe if they craft a good enough narrative it will change reality.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        To be fair, they’ve always been doing this, but the current generation of “journalists” is incapable of doing so with any semblance of nuance.

  9. Strange Brew

    As a kid from the 80’s I must admit the greatest generation of music, by far, was in the 1970’s. The greatest genres ever created were Prog and jazz fusion, and some of the greatest bands who will ever exist were, in no specific order, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan, The Who, and Genesis. This is known and irrefutable.

    • Sensei

      Genesis – are we talking with drummer singing or not singing?

    • robc

      Despite the claim of no specific order, you got #1 correct.

    • sloopyinca

      The 80s tied so much music to movies in a way that inextricibly intertwines them. The movies wouldn’t have been as good with different music and the music wouldn’t make much sense if the songs weren’t part of a movie.

      That’s especially true for movies involving fighting and/or set in Shermer, IL.

      • SDF-7
    • Not Adahn

      I would say that the ’80s were the last decade where there was an attempt to make pop music that was also Art.

    • The Last American Hero

      You dare to create that list and leave off ELP and Rush?

      • Strange Brew

        You are correct. I will accept my punishment.

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      That you included Steely Dan in a list of good music shuts down that idea quick. The seventies did have a lot of good music, but any list that includes that or Yes is suspect.

      • Strange Brew

        Yes had the greatest group of musicians ever assembled. Chris Squire is the greatest bass player to ever touch that instrument. Steely Dan’s music was perfectly engineered, wonderfully complex, and they never wrote a bad song.

  10. rhywun

    The guy is an asshole, but this is a ridiculous response.

    Yup. Nut up. Did the stupid plague teach you nothing?!

    about 22% of the student body is Jewish

    I find this claim highly suspect. From personal observation at least half the students are East Asian. Another quarter are various hues of brown.

  11. Lachowsky

    “The recall covers certain RAV4s from the 2013 through 2018 model years. Toyota said in a statement that some replacement 12-volt batteries used in the SUVs have smaller top dimensions than others. If the hold-down clamp is not tightened properly, the battery could move, allowing the positive terminal to contact the clamp and short circuit, the company said.”

    This here speaks to a larger theme of Americans generally being morons who don’t know how anything works or how to fix a damn thing. I mean, for gods sakes. If you put a new battery in your vehicle and when you tighten the hold down bar, if it doesn’t like you know HOLD DOWN THE BATTERY, then put a shim in there and make it hold down the battery. And if the positive terminal looks like its’s going to ground out, then put some damn insulation on it, or move the bar, or the battery. A 1.8 million vehicle recall because the battery dimension changed slightly is plumb retarded.

    • Sensei

      +1 Zip tie. Auto manufacturers now recall at the drop of a hat. You can thank FedGov.

      Also thank the auto parts store where the teenager shoved whatever into the car because every day there are fewer and fewer good independents left.

      • The Last American Hero

        We get our parts at a shop owned by a local Irishman named O’Reilly!

    • SDF-7

      There’s also the strong possibility that you have to take half the car apart to GET TO THE DAMNED THING and all. So people may be relying on mechanics to do it, and the mechanics may be doing a shitty job. (I think in my wife’s ’14(?) Equinox I only have to disconnect and move a computer block. Who the hell at GM thought it was a good idea to put major electronics on top of the battery area?!?)

      • Sensei

        I took one look at my wife’s new Acura and the amount of plastic I’d have to remove to replace that battery and decided I’ll let my beloved independent swap that one out.

        And let’s not forget you need the $1k scan tool to reset the ECU to tell it you put a new battery in the thing. Even Honda has play this game thanks to it’s auto stop/start.

  12. robc

    Grand Swiss update.

    Standings after round 7: https://chess-results.com/tnr793016.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=7&fed=KAZ&flag=30

    We have a sole leader again! Vidit continues his amazing run after losing round 1 with another win yesterday. He is on 5.5 pts. There are 11 players on 5.0 pts. And another 12 with 4.5. Everyone else is out of it at this point, realistically. However, because of his round 1 loss, Vidit’s average opponent rating is low, so to win, he needs to win outright, he is unlikely to win a tiebreaker.

    Round 8 pairings: https://chess-results.com/tnr793016.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=8&fed=KAZ&flag=30

    Vidit has the white pieces and plays American Hikaru Nakamura today.
    In the 4.5 group there is an all-american matchup between Levon Aronian and Hans Niemann.

    IM update. Zhalmakhanov lost his first match of the tourney, he is still at a 2755 performance rating, well above the 2600 he needs for the GM norm. He has 4 pts, another 1/2 pt should lock that up for him. He plays american Sam Shankland today.

    The second IM also lost, the 2nd loss for Rodrigue-Lemieux, he has 3.5 pts and a 2649 performance rating. I think he will have to get to 5 pts to get his norm.

    IM Shreyas Royal of England won yesterday, is up to 3 pts and a performance rating of 2600 exactly. He would probably need to get to 5 pts also.

  13. Winston

    it’s a zombie apocalypse.”

    Why is that? There is plenty of weed, Mexicans and Ass-Sex and very few Socons in Frisco. Why isn’t San Francisco having a libertarian moment?

  14. rhywun

    GrowSF, the tech-backed group behind the “Dump Dean” political action committee and other efforts to unseat left-leaning politicians, has since attempted to distance itself from Musk

    The stain of Musk is worse than accepting help from a like-minded, richest person in the world?

    What the fuck is wrong with people?

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      Musk took their favorite toy away.

  15. Winston

    In all seriousness there is something destructive about modern urban living. Has anyone figured out why that is and if anything can be done about it? I mean anything not requiring the return of independent Yeoman farming. And this is nothing new. Herbert Spencer was bitching about municipal socialism and urban political machines even in the nineteenth century.

    • Not Adahn

      Wait, you’re in favor of of sociual engineering to make a New Libertarian Man?

      • Winston

        Could you elaborate on what you mean?

        I did say that I don’t like the idea of returning to yeoman farming.

      • Not Adahn

        there is something destructive about modern urban living. Has anyone figured out why that is and if anything can be done about it?

        My idiosyncratic variant of libertarianism precludes “doing something about” other people unless/until they’re coming after me or mine.

      • UnCivilServant

        The problem is that in agregate, they are coming after your and yours.

        You haven’t noticed the effect of their actions on you?

      • Not Adahn

        Ah, but as an individualist, I also can’t treat people as aggregates/class members/intersections at oppression axes.

      • UnCivilServant

        Except humans are a pack species with a strong herd instinct. To ignore the agregate is to be willfully blind.

      • Not Adahn

        I never said ignore, I said treat as.

      • R C Dean

        This is just as much of a blind spot as collectivists who can’t treat people as individuals. Like it or not, humans are pack animals, and the groups they are part of are real and have a profound impact on what they think and believe, what they do and, yes, who they are.

      • Derpetologist

        +1 ‘asabiyyah to RCDean

        ***
        Ibn Khaldun describes asabiyya as the bond of cohesion among humans in a group-forming community. The bond exists at any level of civilization, from nomadic society to states and empires.[4] Asabiyyah is strongest in the nomadic phase, and decreases as civilization advances.[4] As this declines, another more compelling asabiyyah may take its place; thus, civilizations rise and fall, and history describes these cycles as they play out.[4]

        Ibn Khaldun argued that some dynasty (or civilization) has within itself the seeds of its own downfall. He explains that ruling houses tend to emerge on the peripheries of existing empires and use the much stronger asabiyya present in their areas to their advantage, in order to bring about a change in leadership. This implies that the new rulers are at first considered ‘barbarians’ in comparison to the previous ones. As they establish themselves at the center of their empire, they become increasingly lax, less coordinated, disciplined and watchful, and more concerned with maintaining their new power and lifestyle. Their asabiyya dissolves into factionalism and individualism, diminishing their capacity as a political unit. Conditions are thus created wherein a new dynasty can emerge at the periphery of their control, grow strong, and effect a change in leadership, continuing the cycle. Ibn Khaldun also further states in the Muqaddimah that “dynasties have a natural life span like individuals”, and that no dynasty generally lasts beyond three generations of about 40 years each.
        ***

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      We’re hunter gatherers in a modern urban living. Our lifestyles are not syncing up with our psychology. Just try to live more primally while having access to modern technology seems to be the only solution I can think of. Modern work is really no conducive to this.

    • KSuellington

      Pretty sure the solution is to fish and hunt more.

      • EvilSheldon

        Works for me.

  16. PieInTheSky

    shot

    MARKS AND SPENCER SHOW THE PALESTINIAN FLAG BURNING IN A PROMO

    Their hashtag makes it clear that they intended to burn the Palestinian flag.

    Marks and Spencer’s is Zionist owned.

    I will not be shopping at Marks and Spencer again

    https://twitter.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1719819852129485017

      • SDF-7

        befuddlement

        What the hell is a “Marks and Spencer” anyway?

      • PieInTheSky

        large store chain

      • Gustave Lytton

        Department store/retailer.

      • Pine_Tree

        1. Never apologize to these people. Not that M&S would have the guts to stick to that.
        2. “Must be Italian.”

    • SDF-7

      I’m assuming this is a counter point to “In the future, all restaurants are Taco Bell”? I mean — that’s a classy looking ChikFilA — but otherwise, I fail to see the point.

    • Pine_Tree

      Well I’m not a Republican. But that is certainly part of a future I could get behind.

      • Atanarjuat

        Not an eyesore at all.

      • robc

        It looks like it should be an insurance office.

        Put a state farm sign where the Taco Bell sign is and no one even thinks about it.

    • Rat on a train

      It would fit in back in my home town. The civic center area has many Tudor style buildings. They also had British style phone booths.

      • SDF-7

        That’s just Biden’s open borders policies letting in all those Gallifreyan asylum seekers.

    • Lackadaisical

      cool.

  17. SDF-7

    I displayed baseline competence at https://squaredle.com/xp 11/02:
    *22/22 words
    🎯 Perfect accuracy

    I screwed up accuracy playing https://squaredle.com 11/02:
    *43/43 words (+4 bonus words)
    🎯 In the top 8% by accuracy
    🔥 Solve streak: 77

    • Sean

      I played https://squaredle.com 11/02:
      *43/43 words (+12 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 14% by bonus words
      🔥 Solve streak: 4

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/02:
      *22/22 words
      🎯 In the top 30% by accuracy

    • rhywun

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/02:
      *22/22 words
      🎯 Perfect accuracy

      I played https://squaredle.com 11/02:
      43/43 words (+8 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 5% by accuracy
      🔥 Solve streak: 46

    • UnCivilServant

      So, in a century, there were only 921 slaves sold in the city?

      • PieInTheSky

        it was an enlightened time

    • SDF-7

      Weird how those Slavs were put to forced labor. One would almost think that would have influenced the language or something.

      (Wonder what the graphic would look like for some of the Northern Africa or Middle Eastern markets at the time….)

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Fake news. The US wasn’t around to invent slavery yet.

    • Lackadaisical

      A few of these were amazing. Nice set.

  18. DEG

    The IRS, citing the rising cost of living, boosted the annual individual contribution limits for 401(K), 403(b), most 457 plans and the government’s Thrift Savings Plan by $500, to $23,000.

    Wait a minute, is the government now saying inflation is real?

    I was worried that [Twitter] was having a corrosive effect on civilization. That it was just having a bad impact. Part of it is where it’s located, which is downtown San Francisco. While I think San Francisco is a beautiful city — and we should really fight hard to kind of right the ship of San Francisco — if you walk around downtown San Francisco right near the X fka Twitter headquarters, it’s a zombie apocalypse.”

    This is like saying the Sun rises in the East.

    Ghostpatzer, I saw your health update on the last thread. I left for the gym before you posted it. It’s good that the stone is gone. I hope your wife’s hip replacement goes well.

      • Sensei

        Do you have a newsletter?

      • Lachowsky

        It’s probably the only way they can keep social security solvent. I wouldn’t count on being able to keep both. One or the other is toast in my lifetime.

      • robc

        Raise the retirement age. They bumped it up from 65 to 67 by adding on 2 months per birth year over a dozen year period. They should have continued on instead of stopping at 67.

      • robc

        As an aside, 65 was originally chosen as it was a few years above the life expectancy at the time. So to keep up, it should be about 80 instead of 67.

      • Lachowsky

        Cancel the whole thing. Government has no business managing retirement accounts in the first place.

      • robc

        I agree. But if we raised retirement age 2 months per birth year, it would effectively do that eventually.

      • Sensei

        As long as you give me the money that I paid back, right?

        I won’t even bring up employer contributions…

      • Lachowsky

        President Lach to Sensei:
        I’m real sorry, but we stole all that money from you and used it to fund a ponzi scheme that finally blew up. We fucked you and feel real bad about it, but thems the breaks. In the future, we aint gonna do that no more.

      • The Last American Hero

        It won’t be a direct seizure. After the next market crash, it will be a requirement to be substantially invested in “safe” things like TBills.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I could see them implementing some sort of “fat cat” tax on unrealized gains above a certain level. I could also see them exempting TBills from that tax calculation.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        This is where I have a conflict of heart. On one shoulder sits Dave Ramsey saying “plow 15% into the market in case the worst scenario doesn’t happen”. On the other shoulder is Jack Spirko saying “put it in bitcoin, precious metals, and investments into your land so you don’t lose it when FedGov goes looking for pennies in the couch cushions”.

      • Lackadaisical

        Just like tax planning- spread out your risk.

  19. Bob Boberson

    Re: Tuberville

    I saw some whiny article earlier about Republicans pleading with him to relent because these “HEROS” we’re not getting their richly deserved their promotions.

    These are the DEI pushing, $150k salary military industrial complex drones who wanted me ruined for not getting the clot shot (which went away quietly overnight without another whisper)

    Cry . Me. A. Fucking. River.

    • Winston

      Silly Republicans still think the MIC is on their side.

      • Bob Boberson

        Anyone halfway paying attention can see the MIC will eat out of whatever trough is filled for them.

    • R.J.

      Hear Hear!
      *Bangs fist on table, lacking any other implement

    • Pine_Tree

      Yeah Republicans often have a serious case of Tom Clancy Syndrome. This may have been Trump’s very biggest weaknesses. They think all those GOFOs are somehow not the swamp politicians that they are. One of the best moves that could be made in the DOD is elimination of 90% of them, and most of the billets.

    • Lackadaisical

      Amen Bob.

    • Atanarjuat

      Basically Muslim nations versus Western nations. I bet it separates by age and parental status too. Every white woman I’ve dated has been a lazy atrocious cook who orders out every meal.

    • Lackadaisical

      It is also interesting to see which countries are cooking more meals per week.

      • Lackadaisical

        Interesting to see many countries that are considered to be ‘patriarchal’ in the west having a very small gap (Spain, Italy, and to a lesser extent France)

      • Lackadaisical

        These guys aren’t counting breakfast for some reason, despite it being the most important meal of the day.

      • PieInTheSky

        being the most important meal of the day. – that is cereal propaganda

      • Atanarjuat

        Cereal ain’t food.

      • The Last American Hero

        Well, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

        Kidding.

      • Lackadaisical

        That got a good laugh out of me.

      • Ted S.

        So you make your own sandwiches?

  20. Derpetologist

    When I lived in Chicago, all the taxes I paid, federal, state, and local, amounted to more than 1/3 of my income.

    One of the first Swahili articles in a newspaper I understood was about an mchawi (witch doctor) who cleansed the parliament of evil spirits.

    I wrote a translation of the Swahili article about zombies (msukule) and also a short story about such creatures:

    https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2023/10/msukule-zombie-of-east-african-folklore.html

    https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2023/09/curse-of-msukule.html

    • PieInTheSky

      1/3 of my income. – luxury

      • Derpetologist

        You’re a level 5 speaker of English. Brag to your friends and family.

        ***
        ILR Level 5 – Native or bilingual proficiency
        Native or bilingual proficiency is rated 5 on the scale. A person at this level is described as follows:

        has a speaking proficiency equivalent to that of an educated native speaker
        has complete fluency in the language, such that speech on all levels is fully accepted by educated native speakers in all of its features, including breadth of vocabulary and idiom, colloquialisms, and pertinent cultural references
        ***

        Unless you really are a vampire. Then, being centuries old, your linguistic prowess is nothing special.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWk4YtK-iHY

      • PieInTheSky

        I do not remember taking any tests

      • Atanarjuat

        Your English is excellent, though I can’t say the same for your formatting of blog posts.

      • PieInTheSky

        thems fighting words

      • The Last American Hero

        What level do you have to be to untangle Kamala’s word salads?

      • Derpetologist

        5 tones alien translator?

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZj7gUIO-2k

        I had a dream where I got abducted by the aliens in this movie and they taught me their language.

        The 5 tones mean: Hello. How are you?

        I forget what the rest mean.

  21. Lackadaisical

    ‘The IRS, citing the rising cost of living, boosted the annual individual contribution limits for 401(K), 403(b), most 457 plans and the government’s Thrift Savings Plan by $500, to $23,000.’

    What a joke, a 2.2% increase in the limit will totally offset 10% inflation rate.

    • Urthona

      Why isn’t it 100%?

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘The range for taxpayers making contributions to a Roth IRA goes up to between $146,000 and $161,000 for singles and heads of household, an $8,000 increase. For married couples filing jointly, the income phase-out range is increased to between $230,000 and $240,000, a $12,000 jump. ‘

      Please someone make these journalists learn grade school math. I would trust my 5-year old to get these right at least half the time.

  22. Q Continuum

    Hey guys, I finished No Nut November and I’ve got to say I’m not a fan of the powers I’ve gained this year. Last year I was able to breathe fire and tell the color of the panties of any girl within a 5 mile radius, but this year all I’ve gotten was the ability to levitate 3 inches off the ground if I imagine a tree wearing a bra. Does anyone else have this issue guys? I’m probably gonna ask my pastor if he can email God for a patch. Oh well. Peace out. I’m going to go jerk off to a curvy rock I found on the beach.

    https://www.dailystar.co.uk/love-sex/what-no-nut-november-rules-31341825

    • Atanarjuat

      And quitting masturbation rockets risk of depression and erectile dysfunction, a study from the University of California, Los Angeles, found.

      The team of researchers surveyed 587 men who participate in the abstinence practice, who said they felt sad, worthless, shame and in some cases suicidal when they ‘relapsed’.

      Thanks, academics.

      “Quitting heroin is bad. Users who relapsed said they felt shame!”

      • Lackadaisical

        What a great non-sequitur.

        Good luck on your abstinence.

    • Atanarjuat

      I’m doing it, as is Thirite on the Glibz Discord. Not expecting to gain any powers. I do think that porn is bad for the watcher and for everyone involved in making it. Self-indulgent behavior has become the ruler of my life and I don’t like it. I’m also quitting alcohol for the month.

      • Drake

        I agree with you on the porn. It seems to be damaging to young men.

        Not giving up having some drinks around Thanksgiving although it’s been weeks since I last had a drink. Just doesn’t do much for me these days.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Look at the socons over here!!!

        In seriousness, I’ve been off the porn habit for a decade and it has been substantially for the better. I’ve not been perfect, but I’ll not be going back to how I was.

        Similarly, cutting out almost all social media has been a huge quality of life upgrade. I’ll pop in here on occasion and maintain my LinkedIn for whenever I need a new job, but being unplugged from the matrix is a freeing experience.

  23. PieInTheSky

    Have you heard of the “Hispanic Health Paradox”?

    In the US, Hispanics are poorer than white Americans, are less likely to be insured, and have higher rates of obesity. Yet they live about two years longer on average! Researchers have tried to explain this fact but come up empty. Some have invented a just-so story in which Hispanics live longer because they have a “collectivist culture,” but this seems ad hoc. This wouldn’t explain why they have such high rates of diabetes and heart disease. Why would a collectivist culture protect you against death but not illness? Aren’t there many “collectivist cultures” that don’t have higher life expectancies?

    There’s a good possibility that the causes here are genetic. Perhaps hybrid vigor? Or some kind of selection pressure brought on by the encounter with Europeans, that wiped out the majority of natives through disease? There are ways to investigate such questions, but most scholars don’t seem interested.

    https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1719436532946489571

    • Urthona

      It’s because health insurance has actually nothing to do with it and is a red herring.

      Hispanics don’t live longer than whites. They live longer than the blacks driving down the average who have uniquely bad life expectancies for a variety of social reasons.

      • Lackadaisical

        It wouldn’t surprise me that health insurance has a negligible effect on lifespan once other factors are accounted for. Most medicine that really works is emergency medicine, and you’re going to be getting that regardless of insurance status.

        But why do you say they don’t have higher life expectancies? Are you saying the graphs presented are just wrong?

      • Urthona

        It’s a correlation. Wealthier people live longer for *other* reasons.

        There may have been some suspicion early on about the pre-Obamacare “Oregon” study and others proving that health insurance does nothing when controls are used, but after Obamacare there’s just no denying that increasing health insurance coverage does not improve outcomes.

      • Lackadaisical

        My second comment was regarding: ‘Hispanics don’t live longer than whites.’

        From what was presented, they certainly do, on average, live longer. There may be a good explanation other than genetic, but I still feel it should at least be broached, no?

      • UnCivilServant

        Hispanics don’t live longer than whites because >70% of them are white.

      • Lackadaisical

        They didn’t break out the Hispanics by race sadly.

        But assuming that Hispanic blacks aren’t all living to 100, why are white hispanics living longer than non-hispanic whites?

      • PieInTheSky

        cilantro

      • UnCivilServant

        Insufficient data.

        We get differences in life expectancy between French, Germans, English, etc So there are factors that need to be investigated.

      • Pine_Tree

        Didn’t RTA or anything, and yeah, could easily be genetic. I’ve also noticed that hispanics around my neck of the woods don’t seem to be smokers. Maybe that’s not representative. Dunno, but if it’s a fairly pervasive cultural thing then it could matter.

    • Lackadaisical

      Interesting read.

      And holy shit is that pandemic era life expectancy chart depressing as hell. People generally lost around 5% of their life expectancy during the pandemic.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Maybe Hispanics are more likely to take care of their older parents at home and they have on average larger families that are able to accommodate that.

      • Lackadaisical

        That is my theory.

  24. The Other Kevin

    Could not agree more regarding the music links. That Rocky movie was the first of the series I’d ever seen. My friend’s dad took us to the theater to see it back in the day. The movie and the song still get me pumped up.

    I think the singer from Survivor is from my area, and I think he has a music store a few towns over.

    • UnCivilServant

      Is that really a pyramid? The angle is pretty flat.

      • Not Adahn

        Of course it’s flat, it’s a steppe pyramid.

      • UnCivilServant

        🙄

        That was so bad I rejected it when I thought of it

    • R.J.

      Agreed.

    • The Last American Hero

      Every Marine is a back office accountant just doesn’t have the same ring to it, and probably isn’t as effective during wartime.

      • Sensei

        Yes, “literate”. But anybody of education in either language knows in excess of 10k.

    • rhywun

      lol

      There is one with 64 strokes whose meaning escapes me but it probably doesn’t win because it’s made up of 4 copies of a 16-stroke character arranged in a square.

      • Sensei

        It was a bit of an epiphany when you realize you “only” need 200 or so parts to make the characters.

        https://kanjialive.com/214-traditional-kanji-radicals/

        Oddly, no major Japanese text I know teaches learning them in this way. Plenty of internet “hack” videos and posts on them. I think it is personal preference. I found it easier to memorize entire characters and slowly learn the pieces from the whole character.

      • rhywun

        They are fundamental to learning Chinese. You need them in order to use a dictionary.

      • Sensei

        Japanese dictionaries work the same way.

        The thing that muddies the waters in Japanese is romaji, hiragana and katakana. That’s the first bit of fundamental learning, but the kanji (Chinese characters) are equally as important for true fluency and everyday usage.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, may have been willing to spend $44 billion to save humanity from San Francisco, but he never followed up on giving the $100,000 he pledged to a political action committee intended to defeat Supervisor Dean Preston, a Democratic Socialist whom Musk has called to be imprisoned for reasons unknown.

    GrowSF, the tech-backed group behind the “Dump Dean” political action committee and other efforts to unseat left-leaning politicians, has since attempted to distance itself from Musk; one of GrowSF’s founders now says he would not accept Musk’s hypothetical donation, which he doesn’t anticipate Musk would ever try to contribute, anyway.

    That’s a bizarre non sequitur. Of course, I don’t follow San Francisco politics.

  26. Derpetologist

    Saw this article and decided to comment from a SIGINT (signals intelligence) perspective.

    ***
    Report: Special operations forces need to rethink language training
    ***

    Yeah, they should do more language training instead of playing silly tough guy games.

    ***
    The new report sites examples like Special Forces soldiers who learn French as their assigned language, but find it useless in most European assignments, especially since the U.S. trains directly with French forces less often than many other allies in the region. Other soldiers who were trained to speak Russian told GAO investigators that rarely do in Eastern Europe and in some countries the language is even considered “culturally offensive.”
    ***

    French is spoken in about 20 countries and Russian is the language of one of our longtime rivals. It’s worth it to teach both.

    ***
    “Imagine if I spent a month in Indonesian language school and then got on a plane and went to Afghanistan and got killed,” he said. “Imagine how my wife or my parents would feel going ‘maybe he could have been training instead of sitting in a language that nobody speaks in the country.’”
    ***

    Agreed. Then just have a general cultural/history course for the AO.

    ***
    The Air Force Special Operations Command and Naval Special Warfare Command do not have a foreign language requirement for any of their personnel, the report said.
    ***

    Pathetic.

    ***
    Special operators across the military speak 80 languages. The report also noted that the Army spends over $30 million each year training its troops in a foreign language, far more than the other services, who spend about $2 million each.
    ***

    Yay Army. They do occasionally need to go outside and talk to people in wartime.

    ***
    “Learning the language of our enemies instead of our allies, kind of makes it harder for us to use our language. One of my biggest complaints has been, why don’t we learn our allies’ languages?” he said according to the report.
    ***

    Get a Lonely Planet phrasebook, dingleberry.

    ***
    But sometimes, it doesn’t always translate to the field. Cook described his personal woes about learning Modern Standard Arabic which is the written, formal version of the language. He did not learn any of the Arabic dialects which he said would have been more useful when talking to partner forces or Middle Eastern populations.

    “A lot of times I found that our partners couldn’t speak modern standard and that made them ashamed and it actually did the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do,” Cook said.
    ***

    SF language training should be restricted to Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian. At least for the last 2, they can learn to read the letters. Otherwise, give the rest a reprinted WW2 phrasebook for their AO. I have them in 20 languages. My maternal grandpa made the illustrations for them when he was in the Army.

    link

      • Derpetologist

        Thanks. I bungled another link.

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘The new report sites examples like Special Forces soldiers who learn French as their assigned language, but find it useless in most European assignments’

      Yeah, you’re probably learning French so we can go do stupid shit in Africa, not in Europe.

      ‘“Learning the language of our enemies instead of our allies, kind of makes it harder for us to use our language. One of my biggest complaints has been, why don’t we learn our allies’ languages?” he said according to the report.’

      They can learn English, duh.

  27. PieInTheSky

    Irish Prime Minister Taoiseach Leo Varadkar complains that Irish institutions are too white and promises to promote more “black and brown” people into power. Therefore he will do this not based on the quality or meritocracy of the individual, but he will choose based on the color of his skin. Real racist.

    https://twitter.com/RadioGenoa/status/1719573927343591572

    • UnCivilServant

      Shouldn’t these institutions be staffed with Irish instead?

    • kinnath

      The Irish are the Blacks of Europe . . . . .

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        An’ Dubliners are da blacks of Oireland…

    • Sensei

      “black and brown”

      First read that as “black and tans”. Still might be accurate.

      • juris imprudent

        No, that might have actually got him in Troubles.

    • rhywun

      Equal opportunity grifting.

    • Lackadaisical

      If whites don’t start playing racial favorites or at least pushing back on this it won’t be long before they’re second class citizens in their own countries (In America it already happened).

  28. The Late P Brooks

    You keep using that term…

    As the Israel-Hamas war rages, anxiety at Cornell University has surged. Responses to the conflict have varied, polarizing our community. Over the past few weeks, Cornellians for Israel and Cornell Hillel hosted a candlelit vigil, Professor Russell Rickford called Hamas’ initial invasion into Israel “exhilarating” and “energizing” at a pro-Palestinian off-campus rally, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organized a vigil and rally, and anti-Israel graffiti was sprayed across campus. The underlying tones of antisemitism and Islamophobia have called Cornell’s protection of freedom of expression into question.  

    Sounds like freedom of expression is pretty robust. You just don’t like it.

    • R C Dean

      Oddly, although they give examples of anti-semitism, up to and including vandalism, they don’t give any examples of the Islamophobia that is supposedly equally rampant.

      I note that the idiots are still saying there is a genocide in Gaza, even though the population of Gaza has skyrocketed since the Egyptians left the Palis to the tender mercies of the Jews.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    But while I fear for my safety, I also fear for what happens next — now the threat has hopefully been neutralized, and our campus attempts to return to some modicum of “normal.” In the face of violence, I have watched the Cornell community become increasingly torn by the conflicting fears and concerns for their respective communities. They vie for who is more oppressed, although both Jewish and Muslim students face extreme safety concerns.   

    “It’s terrifying to be Jewish on our campus right now. I think that Jewish students feel alone. They feel isolated. They don’t feel supported,” Cornell Hillel Vice President Simone Shteingart said in an interview with The Cornell Daily Sun. Malak Abuhashim, president of Students for Justice in Palestine, expressed a similar dissonance: “I think as a Palestinian, as an Arab, as a Muslim, as a human, it’s been very upsetting to see how the death and destruction in Israel has been empathized with, and it’s so easy for society and Pollack to empathize with that and call it out and stand with Israel, but then when there’s a genocide in Gaza, she can barely even say anything.”    

    Good golly. It’s the Warsaw Ghetto all over again.

    • Suthenboy

      No, of course not, but the general atmosphere seems we are headed that way. We have seen this movie before.

    • R.J.

      …And which way did this person vote in the elections? I think we all know.

      • R C Dean

        Well, if Malik really is an Arab and a Pali, rather than an American, he shouldn’t be voting in this country at all.

  30. Suthenboy

    Per Wikipedia: In economics, inflation is a general increase of the prices of goods and services in an economy.

    NO, it fucking is not. That definition is a lie, plain and simple.
    Rising prices are a symptom of inflation. To use that definition is an attempt to confuse the issue to the point where the people responsible for inflation can avoid blame. They whine about how hard they are trying to fix things nobody can figure out why or how or blah blah blah blah .

    Inflation is the increase of the money supply. Deflation is a reduction of the money supply. Econ 101 folks.
    Want to fix inflation? STOP PRINTING MONEY. The fix is very simple, like most solutions to big problems, simple and obvious. No one wants to do that…..

    Pols: If you aren’t going to stop printing money then shut your fucking mouths.

    • Lachowsky

      That’s gonna be a lot silent Pols if you get your wish.

    • juris imprudent

      If it was that simple we’d have been in hyperinflation for over a decade.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Talking point, off the port bow

    But because his caucus approaches every legislative opportunity like a hostage negotiation, Johnson is trying to notch a putative win with the IRS cuts — and in the process is telling the world what the GOP really cares about.

    I like that one. Democrats would never approach a negotiation with a take-it-or-leave-it proposition.

    • juris imprudent

      What is there to negotiate, all we want is goodness. /Dems

  32. juris imprudent

    Typing with one hand, because just got home from surgery on the left to fix the trigger finger.

    • UnCivilServant

      Sounds like there was some misbehavior going on.

      • juris imprudent

        No such luck. Trigger finger is a bitch; doc said mine was quite nasty.

    • R C Dean

      “Typing with one hand,”

      Its only day 2 of No-Nut November, and you’re no longer Master of Your Domain?

      • juris imprudent

        I can still set one up though!

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Just in time for No Nut November.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Republicans have tried to portray Biden’s attempts to reform the IRS with increased enforcement (among other things) as an attempt to soak and surveil ordinary Americans. But increased tax enforcement is increasing audits of people making more than $400,000 a year, and is generating greater scrutiny of exceptionally high-income people whose finances are more complicated, and who can afford to hire help to find loopholes in the tax code. Meanwhile, axing funding for the new portal for free filing increases the likelihood that Americans will continue to have to pay to use services like TurboTax to file their taxes.

    The author is now undoubtedly hard at work on an impassioned plea for a flat tax, right?

    Right?

    • R C Dean

      “But increased tax enforcement is increasing audits of people making more than $400,000 a year, and is generating greater scrutiny of exceptionally high-income people”

      He asserted, without a shred of evidence.

      Note, also, that even if true, it doesn’t refute the assertion that teh IRS is going to soak and surveil average Americans.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      “But increased tax enforcement is increasing audits of people making more than $400,000 a year, and is generating greater scrutiny of exceptionally high-income people whose finances are more complicated.” Which is why we have to report any income over $600.

  34. Common Tater

    “Republican Sen. Ted Cruz demands Coca-Cola explain why it scrubbed all support for Black Lives Matter from its website – after sparking fury with pro-Hamas posts calling for the ‘end’ of Israel”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12698929/Republican-Sen-Ted-Cruz-demands-Coca-Cola-explain-scrubbed-support-Black-Lives-Matter-website-sparking-fury-pro-Hamas-posts-calling-end-Israel.html

    So everyone is just going to pretend they didn’t know the far left hates Israel?

    • juris imprudent

      BLM ain’t givin’ up their victim status to anyone.

  35. Derpetologist

    more dream translation:

    Klaatu barada nikto = Klaatu is not dead

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ly25wz8LR0

    ***
    This is commander Klaatu. I have given our ultimatum to the earth-men. Over.
    ***

  36. Sensei

    Well this just got interesting.

    Or possibly 100 percent: if IBM holds and manages its RBA contribution, it doesn’t have to pay anything out at all until the employee leaves the company. It would thus move from paying cash into workers’ external 401(k) accounts to writing them an IOU.

    IBM to scrap 401(k) matching, offer something else instead
    https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/02/ibm_401k_changes/

    • kinnath

      no, no, no, no, no

    • juris imprudent

      When they apply for PBGC coverage you’ll know the end is near.

  37. DEG

    Sad, sad news

    A Florida man was cited this week for driving a truck that was painted similar to the look of Border Patrol vehicles but read “Booty Patrol” on the back, authorities said.

    The driver was pulled over Sunday and cited under a law that deals with prohibited vehicle lights that resemble those of law enforcement or other officials, the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Is the Booty Patrol hiring?

  38. The Late P Brooks

    There’s little chance these numbers (or basic logic) will deter Johnson, since reducing debt is simply a shoddy disguise for an effort to advance a plutocratic agenda. The bigger issue for him is that the bill is already receiving criticism from both parties in the Senate. Among other things, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wants Ukraine in the bill, and Democrats have said the IRS cuts are unacceptable. Since Republicans were able to get Democrats to agree to $20 billion in IRS cuts as part of the debt ceiling deal earlier this year, they’re banking on being able to prevail on that front again by attaching more cuts to top-tier foreign policy goals. When asked to react to the CBO’s estimates, Johnson told reporters, “Only in Washington when you cut spending, do they call it an increase in the deficit.” Johnson surely knows that you can’t spend money that hasn’t been collected.

    *guffaws, slaps knee*

    And, of course, the only thing Democrats hate more than cuts to welfare spending is cuts to the government payroll.

    • juris imprudent

      Well who knew I was a plutocrat. Then again I don’t vote D.

    • Rat on a train

      If you want to reduce debt you need to stop funding wars and reset the baseline to pre-lockdown levels. The debt increased more than $500B in October.

  39. juris imprudent

    Funny how we were just discussing the influence of the far left…

    https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/the-progressive-left-is-a-paper-tiger

    Start with the fundamental fact that the progressive or intersectional left, for whom issues from ending fossil fuels to open borders to decriminalizing and decolonizing everything (free Palestine!) are inseparably linked moral commitments, is actually a pretty small slice of voters—six percent in the Pew typology, eight percent in the More in Common typology. So we should ask whether and to what extent their commitments are reflected in the views of the voter groups in whose name they claim to speak.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      You don’t need to take a scoop from every tray to get a tummy ache at the buffet.

      I’m not worried about the 8% true believers. I’m worried about the 65% nincompoops who predictably and emotionally react to the propaganda beam pointed at their foreheads. The doctrinaire national socialists weren’t the ones turning the valve on the gas showers.

      • Derpetologist

        +1 banality of evil

    • Beau Knott

      See also El Gato Malo.

      • juris imprudent

        Warby goes on in depth about woke (or as he calls it Post Enlightenment Progressivism) as itself a colonizing effort.

      • R C Dean

        Fascinating. Someone should do a post on that topic for this site.

      • Common Tater

        What kind of ridiculous fucked “debate” is that?

  40. Derpetologist

    armata strigoi = army of troubled spirits

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zx1ZtxUbGE

    ***
    Strigoi in Romanian mythology are troubled spirits that are said to have risen from the grave.[1] They are attributed with the abilities to transform into an animal, become invisible, and to gain vitality from the blood of their victims. Bram Stoker’s Dracula has become the modern interpretation of the Strigoi through their historic links with vampirism.[2]
    ***

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Not a moment too soon

    The White House announced Wednesday the administration will develop a National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia in the United States.

    “President Biden ran for office to restore the soul of our nation. He is unequivocal: There is no place for hate in America against anyone. Period,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in statement.

    The strategy, a joint effort led by the Domestic Policy Council and the National Security Council, aims to create a comprehensive and detailed plan to protect Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim “because of their race, national origin, ancestry, or any other reason, from discrimination, hate, bigotry, and violence,” said a White House official. The White House will be partnering with local communities on coming up with the strategy.

    “For too long, Muslims in America, and those perceived to be Muslim, such as Arabs and Sikhs, have endured a disproportionate number of hate-fueled attacks and other discriminatory incidents,” Jean-Pierre said. “Moving forward, the President, Vice President, and our entire Administration will continue working to ensure every American has the freedom to live their lives in safety and without fear for how they pray, what they believe, and who they are.”

    Joe Biden, Healer-in-Chief.

    • B.P.

      Okay, there was that one nut who stabbed a six-year-old Muslim boy to death. What other events am I missing?

      • The Other Kevin

        There has been a rash of people with injured vocal cords from yelling “Death to the Jews”.

      • UnCivilServant

        Oh, that’s incurable. The only treatment is to remove the windpipe in its entirety.

      • juris imprudent

        And early reporting was he had given no statement to the police, so the narrative there was whole cloth.

  42. Common Tater

    “The podcast host, comedian and UFC commentator revealed he developed arsenic poisoning after over-consuming sardines.

    “You can get arsenic from sardines, too,” Rogan said on a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” with Elon Musk. “I found that out the hard way.”

    While his initial reaction to the low levels of arsenic in his blood was that someone was poisoning him, doctors discovered it was Rogan’s nightly indulgence of three cans of sardines after coming home late from the comedy club.

    “That’s a lot of sardines, man,” Musk quipped during the episode.”

    https://nypost.com/2023/11/02/lifestyle/joe-rogan-said-he-poisoned-himself-eating-too-many-sardines/

    Why didn’t he eat one big can?

  43. The Late P Brooks

    The president on Wednesday traveled to Minnesota – which has a sizable and growing Muslim population – and promised to continue to press Israel to adhere to international laws protecting civilians in conflict and to push for increased aid to Gaza. But Biden’s standing has taken a deep hit among Muslim Americans in recent weeks with polls having shown a drop-off in support as anger swells over his handling of the Mideast crisis.

    Oh, come on. What are they going to do, vote for Trump?

    • R C Dean

      Purely on a technical basis, what international laws apply to this conflict? I know the Geneva Conventions don’t, because Hamas, as the government of Gaza, never signed on.

    • blighted_non_millenial

      Must have stuffed ballots for the wrong candidate.

    • UnCivilServant

      IT’s shocking in that they got the video into the courtroom.

  44. Derpetologist

    Dialogue between a Palestinian and an Israeli, from the film Munich

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjmM__ZSZYk

    I liked the film Paradise Now better.

    ***
    Paradise Now (Arabic: الجنّة الآن, romanized: al-Janna al-Laan) is a 2005 psychological drama film directed by Hany Abu-Assad about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Israel. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.

    “The film is an artistic point of view of that political issue,” Abu-Assad said. “The politicians want to see it as black and white, good and evil, and art wants to see it as a human thing”.[4]

    Plot
    Paradise Now follows Palestinian childhood friends Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) who live in Nablus and have been recruited for suicide attacks in Tel Aviv. It focuses on what would be their last days together.

    Their handlers from an unidentified resistance group tell them the attack will take place the next day. The pair record videos glorifying God and their cause, and bid their unknowing families and loved ones goodbye, while trying to behave normally to avoid arousing suspicion. The next day, they shave off their hair and beards and don suits in order to look like Israelis. Their cover story is that they are going to a wedding.

    An explosive belt is attached to each man; the handlers are the only ones with the keys needed to remove the belts without detonating them. The men are instructed to detonate the bombs at the same place, a military check point in Israel, with a time interval of 15 minutes so that the second bomb will kill police arriving after the first blast.
    ***

  45. Common Tater

    “Kadyn Leo Swainston, 18, and Rachael Swainston, 42, of Pocatello, Idaho, have been hit with several felony charges after police launched an investigation in June after the girl’s mother reported to police that she had been raped, according to the Idaho State Journal.

    Kadyn has been issued felony charges of rape, second-degree kidnapping and three counts of producing child sexually exploitative material.

    Rachael Swainston has been issued felony charges of second-degree kidnapping, trafficking in methamphetamine, one count of harboring a wanted felon, and two counts of possession of a controlled substance, one each for the possession of fentanyl and psychedelic mushrooms.

    On June 18, police said a woman contacted the Pocatello police to report that her daughter had been raped and taken to Bend, Oregon, without her permission, for an abortion.

    On Aug. 7, the girl participated in a forensic interview at a local child advocacy center, during which she disclosed that she had engaged in a consensual sexual relationship with Kadyn when he was 17, with the relationship continuing after he turned 18. The age of consent in the state is 18.”

    https://thepostmillennial.com/idaho-mom-son-arrested-after-alleged-rape-and-kidnapping-of-15-year-old-girl-to-obtain-abortion-in-oregon

    I wouldn’t call a consensual sexual relationship between 17 and 18 “rape”.

    • blighted_non_millenial

      15 yo and 17-18 yo, but still. Doesn’t make a lot of sense or serve any kind of justice for it to be ok the day before he turned 18 and a felony the day after.

      • Common Tater

        Oh, right.

      • Urthona

        Seems like it should not be a felony.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Blah blah blah

    The world is facing more extreme weather that scientists say is fueled by human-driven climate change. The poorest countries have done the least to cause the problem, but they are being hit the hardest by more intense droughts and floods and storms. Yet as the threats from a warming planet grow, the United Nations says in a new report that less money is being sent to developing countries to help them adapt.

    Developing countries, which have less wealth than developed countries like the United States, were promised $100 billion a year from their richer neighbors to help pay for cutting climate pollution and coping with the impacts of rising temperatures. Developed countries didn’t deliver on their pledge. In 2021, they actually gave poorer nations 15% less money for climate adaptation than they did the year before. That meant less money for things like flood defenses, drought-resistant crops and early warning systems to help people evacuate emergencies.

    Rattle that tin cup.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Okay, there was that one nut who stabbed a six-year-old Muslim boy to death. What other events am I missing?

    They FEEL threatened. You can’t walk down the street dressed like a Bedouin without getting gunned down by some radical Zionist maniac.

  48. Derpetologist

    arduino mini surface-to-air missile and radar

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahhb5EjHleY

    ***
    Arduino is an Italian open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices.
    ***

  49. EvilSheldon

    Shouldn’t Cornell be celebrating that a literal nazi got punched?

    • creech

      If Cornell’s student population is 22% Jewish, then they should be able to defend themselves against whatever tiny minority of the students who are Muslim jihadists.

      • Urthona

        And all the liberal arts majors.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Put another way, poorer countries need at least 10 times more money for climate adaptation than the $21.3 billion in public funding that they received in 2021.

    Fuck off.