Good morning my Glibs and Gliberinas! It’s that wonderful time again to sit down, sip that coffee, bitch about traffic to your coworker and enjoy another lovely day and the links!
Obama Lays Blame for Hamas Terror on “All of Us”
Antifa Crazies Harassing Conservative Opposing Child Gender Surgeries Get Yelled at by Muslims
Comer Teases ‘Around Two Dozen Subpoenas’ For Biden Family Investigation
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Strict Illinois Ban on “High-Powered Guns”
Election Fraud Cases Break Out in 3 Democrat States
FTC: Amazon Earned Over $1 Billion Through Secret Price-Raising Algorithm
Strikers Caused 75k Net Job Losses in 2023
Woke investing takes massive hit as investors lose interest, risks becoming more apparent
“Beyond Meat” Cuts Non-Production Workforce by 19 Percent Due to Lack of Demand for Fake Meat
Downtown San Francisco’s McDonald’s Closes After 30 Years, Citing Lack of Tourism
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
“Obama Lays Blame for Hamas Terror on “All of Us””
Yeah, figuring after his 3 administrations have been giving Iran money and encouragement in return for nothing, that he would want other people to take the blame for their doing.
All that asshole does is blame America for the ills of the world. Almost like he was raised to hate this country and Western Civilization or something.
….
Almost….
I remind every fucking idiot that tells me how great this asshat was/is that we are in his third administration right now and that the simple reason none of the Bidens are facing criminal charges but instead have the entire apparatus desperately trying to hide these facts and gaslighting the people (just as the machine did for Hillary) is to protect Obama’s legacy as the left’s Jesus. When the truth comes out about how evil the corruption and criminality created by the Chicago politics that Obama brought to an already corrupt D.C. as part his promise to change America, a lot of people are going to realize this guy’s agenda when he promised to change America fundamentally was not for the better, but to destroy the ability of anyone to succeed in this country through hard work and perseverance, and replace it with a marxist one where the people in power are the only ones picking winning and losing.
“…people are going to realize…”
No they’re not.
Yeah, when you’ve got almost the entire media apparatus running interference for you, most people won’t realize shit.
I mean, with the amount of power the US government has held over the rest of the globe the past almost century, you can certainly point to a lot of suffering the US government has caused. And in Obama’s mind, (or anyone else that believes in “democracy”) the actions of the government are the actions of it’s people, so it makes sense why he would blame “all of us”.
“It’s not my fault Libya is a failed state, you all voted for me. Twice.”
Sorry we let you down again, Barry.
CWAA
“Comer Teases ‘Around Two Dozen Subpoenas’ For Biden Family Investigation”
REPUBLCIANS POUNCE!
I’m afraid we’re going to be left with a serious case of blue balls after all the teasing from this “investigation”.
The defense is all about protecting Obama and Obama’s manufactured and carefully curated legacy. They would rather burn it all down than have people find out the guy was a snake oil salesman with a real evil agenda, because it would expose the left for the naked emperor that it is.
“Federal Appeals Court Upholds Strict Illinois Ban on “High-Powered Guns””
Drag it out as long as it takes to kill a few conservative SCOTUS people and replace them with some good leftists willing to finally disarm the freaking unwashed and annoying serfs.
The examples of limits on rights given are all “Your Liberty To Swing Your Fist Ends Just Where My Nose Begins” examples.
This ruling is not.
Gun grabbers…all sophistry all of the time. Fuckin’ liars.
But, but…people have a right to not be afraid!!
No matter how irrational that fear may be.
So, I can throw the commies out the ‘copter to keep me safe from communism?
I like the cut of your jib.
Yesterday I was visiting my wife’s family that lives out in the boonies and I was playing outside with my 3 yo son. We started hearing gun shots from the woods (just plinking cans from the tempo of shots) and he asked what it was. I said it was gun shots and I helped him sound out the word. Later my city dwelling mother in law tried telling him they were fireworks after he went inside to tell everyone his new word.
All lies all of the time with that crowd. Amazing.
“Woke investing takes massive hit as investors lose interest, risks becoming more apparent”
It has always been easy to be woke, because nobody exacted any sort of cost or punishment for that, while not being woke caused cancelation. Under those conditions, it would be easy to force woke on people. Now that there is a cost, suddenly woke will crash & burn hard.
“Downtown San Francisco’s McDonald’s Closes After 30 Years, Citing Lack of Tourism”
Wait, there is nobody that wants to spend money to go to a city and see how rampant lawlessness and homelessness have turned it into a giant shithole? And I guess neither the crooks spending the money they get from selling stolen goods or robbing mofos nor the homeless fucks go to Mickey Ds either it seems.
I’m sure it won’t be just SF once the Fast Food Labor Council (or whatever they called it) kicks in. Because a starting job for a minimally skilled teenager should pay to raise a family of 3 or something and the rest of us will just pay it.
Yay one party idiotic state.
That’s a song I haven’t listened to in quite some time. Never saw the video before — didn’t realize her hovercraft was full of eels.
Morning, Banjos – thanks as ever for the links. Morning, all.
I remember Beavis and Butthead mocking it, but I liked it.
And she’s just as adorbs as I remember. Some ugly-ass women’s clothes in the 90s though.
1993 brains: “What’s the nadir of the feminine sartorial arts?” “Uhh, early ’70s?” “Yeah, let’s revive it!”
I have fond memories of hip huggers and halter tops. The 70s were all bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6fcdhQn32M
I used to see Kay and her husband regularly – they were both pool enthusiasts and the’d be in Boston Billiard Club all the time.
She was adorbs IRL too.
I like the song. *shrug*
The song is fine — just not one I remembered. And the eels stood out as a “Why?” moment in the video is all.
I remember it because the love interest dude from Parks & Rec was obsessed with them. I think she even made an appearance.
Recent-ish live, better audio than those old VCR rips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgKntnIhOHo
Letters to Cleo lead singer Kay Hanley did all the original songs on the Josey and the Pussycats soundtrack, which is the best part* of that movie. Some solid pop tunes.
* SPOILER
The actual best part is when the manager of the boy-band walks into the cockpit and tells the pilot “Take the Chevy to the levy” then they both grab parachutes and bail out.
Love the juxtaposition there, Banjos.
“Election Fraud Cases Break Out in 3 Democrat States”
I actually had a moron that kept telling me there was no fortification in the 2020 election at all, completely ignoring any and all arguments that not looking for cheating/fortification efforts and/or ignoring the breaking of the laws – in numerous ways – to favor ballot harvesting practices does not mean there was no cheating, tell me that the reason these cases are not the same is because in this case they could prove these things in court. When I pointed out that the few things that actually made it through the gauntlet of courts saying the people bringing the suit had no standing or lacked enough gravitas and dismissed the cases all proved cheating, but that they were then ignored, he told me that was not true. He stood by his point that the issue isn’t that democrats cheat all the time, even against each other, because he was going to have a aneurism admitting that he is fooling himself on this shit.
BTW in the People’s Republic of Connecticut I have heard that the response to so many video instances of team blue cheating (and then, against team blue) some politician has proposed that no video capturing systems will be allowed near any drop box locations going forward. I guess tat way the people that say there is no fortification can say there is no proof.
I suppose it is slightly better than government by Twitter poll (or whatever their platform of choice would be) — because everyone knows internet protocols are perfectly secure and purely digital records can not be changed… so… “Yay?”
The 1800s would have already broken out Mistress Clucky and her friends along with some heated petroleum products.
We would never get a government by Twitter/X poll, because the political class has sold out to the CCP and that role is reserved for Tik-tok.
Democrats have to cheat to counter Republican cheating!!!
That’s exactly what I’m seeing some Repubs saying, only with the parties reversed.
Oddly, securing the elections doesn’t seem to be an option anymore.
So henceforth the accusations will be “But but but they cheated harder!”
Bobbleheads on TV a while back asking why dems proposals all seem to make voter fraud easier: Guest – (deadpan look, flat voice) “Because they want to commit voter fraud”
Which guests / channel(s)?
Hell, I dont remember. That has been years ago. I just remember how stark his reply was and his voice was dripping with “You have to ask? You are a bunch of idiots”
Now that I say that I want to say the guest was Charles Krauthammer. That could be wrong.
That would have been a few years ago, then. 🤔
Yes the clash on intersectionality is fun to watch, but one thing that really struck me about the Muslim women labasting the Antifa goon: they ask him straight-up “What religion are you?” and don’t put up with his bullshit post-modern answers about not having one.
They’re not foolish enough to buy into the modern notion that one can have “no religion”. Virtually all of our cohort in the secular West have bought the lie that the distinction is whether one “has a religion” or not. These ladies know better. EVERYONE has a religion.
The religion of the leftists are variants of either nihilism or marxism. Sometimes both, since they both result in the same thing: piles of bodies.
Bullshit. Unless you torture ‘religion’ wildly out of shape, no one is born with a religion, although most are born into one. It is perfectly possible to andon religion (and still retain ethics, morality, etc.).
It’s theoretically possible, but I think it’s vanishingly rare for anyone to lack a set of a priori assumptions that are isomorphic to “religion”. Everybody believes in something unprovable. Kurt Gödel even made a mathematical argument (not sure if it was a proof) of that.
Who said anything about ethics and morality? You know exactly what I mean – a religion is a set of beliefs, principles, and practices. Everything you see from the global warmists, proggies, hoplophobes, marxists, Western secularists/materialists, (etc.) is every bit as religious as any professing Hindu, Protestant, or Animist. No torturing of definitions required.
The problem seems to be semantic.
Humans are pre-wired for magical thinking and the accompanying behavior.
How about ‘I have no religion but behave as if I do’. Depending on how religion is defined that does not have to be a distinction without a difference.
Warby is a little less euphemistic about that – he terms it the human tendency for self-deception. And in that regard, there is little difference between a Marxist and a Calvinist (who believes all other Christian doctrines are wrong, not just all other religions).
Religion is about belief in the supernatural, one god (as from the Levant) or many (as in South Asia, pagan Greece or Scandanavia, etc.).
Nope. I get what y’all are saying in trying to restrict it to a belief in the supernatural. But I just think you’re in error.
You do realize you have a problem in this discussion, in that you think all other religions but your own are invalid, wrong, and misleading people to hell.
Historically and etymologically you’re quite wrong. The conflation of ‘religion’ with “a set of beliefs, principles, and practices” is quite modern, and roughly coincides with 2 historical facts — the growing awareness of polytheistic religions and the decline in staunch, especially evangelical, Christianity.
To the point that “the problem seems to be semantic — it seems so because it is. Clarity of speech and clarity of meaning are incredibly important. I claim precedence for the meaning I use, based on history and etymology.
So you’re claiming that the Dharmic religions aren’t religions? And you think other people are the ones torturing definitions?
Thank you.
The only deity I am sure exists is some evil god that is in charge of tangling lines, ropes or anything else that can be wrapped around itself. How else can I explain how I can set a fishing lure down on the boat seat and 1 second later it has somehow turned into a giant snarl of monofilament line and hooks?
Praise Loki!
Isn’t that what String Theory is for?
Ah….the old open-faced reel’s bird nest.
That can be explained by my spastic casting technique.
What is only explainable by the existence of some malevolent god is how you can carefully put a lindy rig into a tackle box and have it turn into a huge not – and incorporating lures that were in totally different compartments – 5 seconds later when you open the tackle box again.
The word ‘religion’ is, by definition and history, inherently theological. ‘Re’ ‘ligios’ — to bind men back to god.
To (attempt to) re-define religion as “a set of beliefs, principles, and practices” is to grossly abuse the meaning of the word. It is also renders it so broad as to be useless — football, fine arts, French cuisine, etc., are all to be taken as religions? Pfui.
Fine. Everyone has a god. Better?
No, worse. What is a god? How can you tell when you’ve found one?
Most (but not everyone) have a deity they believe to be omnipotent, that they can propitiate by ritual and who will answer their pleas and give them succor in their distress.
No atheists in the foxholes….I beg to differ.
I joked about that once to a guy who replied: “We were all shitting our pants. If there was a god he would have given us toilet paper.”
That’s speaking a truth about humans, nothing more, and clearly falls in the succor in distress category. Then again, I’ve never been in a foxhole.
First, as this discussion has been going on for centuries, I doubt we’ll utterly resolve it here (and I’m supposed to be working…).
For a quickie rejoinder, then, I’ll just reco to take the examples in your last sentence (football, etc.) and contrast them with some I’ve mentioned earlier. Football and such are just practices. Nobody “believes” in them. Even enthusiasts don’t. But you know people who truly BELIEVE in global warming, who BELIEVE in Marxism, who BELIEVE that there’s nothing supernatural out there, who BELIEVE whatever Proggie BS comes down the line to demonstrate their adherence to the Proggie church. It’s different from “fine arts”. It’s just that they pretend their gods aren’t gods.
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”—Baudelaire (allegedly)
You and I are going to have fun when I dig a little deeper into Nietzsche.
Okey doke.
You know different football fans than I do if you seriously think they don’t BELIEVE in football.
The argument has barely been going on for centuries, and hardly for the millennia ‘religion’ has behind it.
“Believe’ is a very slippery, and ultimately unhelpful word here. I think you’re looking for ‘committed to’, but it’s hard to tell. Every proposition can be taken as a statement of belief. Saying ‘believes’, even in all caps, doesn’t really add anything.
Once again, we’re back to ‘just what is a god anyway? How do you know when you’ve found one?’ And all the plethora of questions that erupt from the simple request for a defensible definition.
Which is why I object, strenuously, to attempts to assert that ‘everyone has a religion.’ It’s a cheap shoddy rhetorical move to slide god(s) into the discussion. It is still refuted by ‘no one is born with a religion’ although many are born into one.
But enough. I believe I’ve made my points clear. Further would call for an article, which I am deeply reluctant to write for fear of pissing off and/or offending persons here whom I respect.
Offending people here? Ha! Stop it, you are killing me!
Write the article. We will probably get over it.
Humans are offended by uncertainty. Even Einstein was… God doesn’t play dice with the universe. That’s the most vital function religion serves – giving certainty. And that is an act of faith.
Which for me, is an excellent demonstration of God’s non-existence. If God and probability are in opposition, and probability can be demonstrated…
That’s just begging the question.
Shinto isn’t a religion? Tell the government of Glorious Nippon that they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Freaking Buddhism isn’t a religion?
Nah.
Almost everyone has a belief in the supernatural. Most people, regardless of professed religion are animists in behavior/belief anyway.
EVERYONE has a religion.
Nope.
Thank you again.
Find me someone that doesn’t.
Me.
I regards, to your first comment, in my antiquated Religions of the World Class, the instructor said that religion is defined by transcendence. God is optional.
You don’t believe in rights, other than those privileges that are granted by the government? That there is something “special” about human life?
I’ve said it before, and I believe it was Trashy that agreed with me that the only logically self-consistent beliefs are some sort of theism, or nihilism.
Of course, there is a state of existence wherein on might not have an internal state corresponding to “belief” but the external actions which would seem to indicate such a belief. A “useful fiction.”
You don’t believe in rights, . . .
Non sequitor
only logically self-consistent beliefs are some sort of theism, or nihilism.
Bullshit
One of theses days, I will write an article that says evolution favors the Golden Rule.
Anytime you start anthropomorphizing abstract concepts, you’re more than halfway to defining a deity.
An explictly religious concept is an example of non-religion?
An explictly religious concept is an example of non-religion
I am saying the golden rule exists because evolution favors people who cooperate.
And the golden rule is just another feature of life that people think they need a god to explain.
the sun can’t exist without god
the rain can’t fall without god
the corn can’t grow without god
wolves can’t form packs without god
people can’t care for one another without god
whatever
These natural rights only seem to have been figured out by an extremely narrow slice of humanity, and at a rather particular point in time. You don’t think that might be slightly problematic, at all?
We’re going to talk Nietzsche, soon. He too was greatly concerned with theism and nihilism!
Problematic is beside the point. My point is, once you start assigning value to the point that an observer would conclude you “believe” in something beyond the easily demonstrable might-makes right/history is written by the victors, you’ve stepped into the realm of Faith.
Well I’d retired from the discussion to work, but real quick:
– Regarding your first sentence – everybody figured out natural rights wrt themselves. Pick anybody in any culture at any time and they’d be sure that it’s wrong for you to steal from THEM (or to murder them, etc). Extension by principle to others is of course not at all universal.
– To go ahead and get it out of the way so you don’t pull it (accidentally?) into your Nietzsche article and I have to say it there too: upthread you say “a deity they believe to be omnipotent”. Some do, but omnipotence isn’t at all a defining character of a god in plenty of religions. Lots of them with limited scope of course.
Later.
Moi aussi. The Greeks were pretty good at seeing the gods as human foibles in immortal guise.
How long have you been involved with Burning Man again?
Oh there is a ritual aspect to that, I grant you. And there are people who invest in it as though it had some religious significance. My cup nearly overfloweth with fed-up-ed-ness for all of that horseshit.
Until telepathy is invented, the only way I know what’s in your head is by your actions. Yes, statements are actions, but human words about their internal states have such a horrible track record wrt their truth-values, that I don’t feel bad about disregarding them.
We don’t even need intersectionality in it’s classic form, we can have the sectarian edition!
Tangentially related to Amazon’s price shenanigans, I recently had a run-in with their aglorithm, but it was in my favor.
I generally search for things I don’t commonly buy while logged out, not intentionally, but because I do so in a private window to keep the search records from mingling with my common history. Anyway, logged out, the grow lamp I got for work was listed at about $15. The moment I logged in, the price dropped to $10. I double checked a couple of times. Logged out, $15, logged in $10.
Not sure why I’d rate a lower price for cheap chinese crap, but I’m not going to turn down a 33% discount. I’d have to log in anyway to use my saved address and prime shipping.
Amazon this past week canceled a monthly subscription I have had for more than 5 years. When I started it I bought the product for $9.29 a month. Three months ago – with all the hikes happening after the Kung Flu – I was paying $16.99 for it but had not received a delivery in 2 months (they claimed the product was out of stock). The cancelation told me the product was no longer available. When I checked I found the price was the issue. The product now cost $38 a month but I didn’t see the version I had the subscription for. So I went to a different device and signed into Amazon with a different account, and they did indeed have the version of the product I purchase, but now want $38 to deliver it each month. This is basically a way for them to avoid someone suing their ass for breach of monthly contract.
“But this one has a different product code, so it’s not the same thing you had a subscription for.”
“FTC: Amazon Earned Over $1 Billion Through Secret Price-Raising Algorithm”
Government has no business interfering in muh free market to pick winners and losers.
We have credentials, and governmental author-uh-tie; so peon, don’t you tell us what we can’t do.
A. Fuck Obama. That is all.
B. Giant circus.
C. I don’t know when they are going to get it. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE.
D. “As we know from long experience with other fundamental rights, such as the right to free speech, the right peaceably to assemble, the right to vote, and the right to free exercise of religion, even the most important personal freedoms have their limits,”
It is known. We have decided what rights we will allow you to exercise.
Where is my woodchipper?
E. Cleanest, mostest honestest election ever.
F. I dont care.
G. 75k my ass.
H. Go woke and all that. Whodathunkit?
I. I am not eating fake meat and I am not eating bugs. I might eat some vegans or proggies. That is a possibility.
J. All they had to do to stay in business was put down one of those extra scrubby door mats so that people could wipe the human shit off of their shoes. That would draw people in wouldn’t it?
“A. Fuck Obama. That is all.”
At least as hard as he fucked us over, yes.
Speaking of Obama, among other things
The usual garbage
Obama amplified partisanship but partisan hacks want to believe otherwise.
Obama’s image is all curated and nothing about it is the truth. This man was not just destructive but evil.
Hope for what and change from what? I never got what was so terribly wrong that we needed “hope” and “change” so badly back then.
NOW we need hope and change – from all the damage caused by him and his proteges.
“Hope for what and change from what? I never got what was so terribly wrong that we needed “hope” and “change” so badly back then.”
I can tell you what he wanted to change: he evils of capitalism and the American system that rewarded merit and perseverance..
And losers hoped desperately for that system where they could look down on successful people. Kind of like they do today by labeling all that “acting white”.
Yep, all platitudes and nebulous bullshit. Many words signifying nothing. That is a giant flashing red caution sign. I dont know how anyone missed it but they sure as hell did and still do.
I would say, partisan hacks want you to believe otherwise.
Soooo glad I didn’t vote for him either time. Remember the 2008 endorsements on TOS? 🤮
To vote for him once may be regarded as misfortune; both looks like carelessness.
Vividly. And many of them were shameless about admitting it was entirely because of the color of his skin.
That location is like the center of the financial district. Calling bullshit on “no traffic”.
How many homeless people or people stealing shit out of stores would use the cash they eventually get to buy Mickey Ds instead of drugs?
Didn’t I see the other day where a one hamburger meal combo at McDs is around 25-30 bucks? Or did I dream that?
I thought it was 16 bucks.
Give California a little time — they say the meal price represents an hour’s wage to a McD’s worker… so $20 “value” meals, here we come… with worse approaching as the Fast Food Politburo gets their hands in things.
A gift to the indies / small chains? I read that Nader wouldn’t stop at chain restos while traveling; I kinda dig that, depending upon how insistent he was.
I bet he was not traveling with young kids and a wife with a small bladder.
But he was driving his Corvair.
You were not dreaming
https://www.wtnh.com/food/food-in-connecticut/big-mac-big-bucks-connecticut-mcdonalds-among-most-expensive-in-the-u-s/
Oh, at a rest stop.
That explains everything.
Interesting read. That question of why these fucks are leading us into WW3 but destroying our ability to fight or even win, is interesting though.
We’re going to fight a world war against Russia because of fucking Ukraine? Bullshit.
Ugh.
As part of the recent contract, we got a one-time non-pensionable payment referred to by various names depending on who’s talking about it. Since it’s arriving in the upcoming pay check, I looked at my paystub to see how badly it was taxed.
😲🤢🤮
In agregate, my paycheck tax rate went up from 24% to 30%. If the changes in gross pay and deductions are isolated, the one-time payment was taxed at a European 38.6%.
Hell, the one time payment is 70% of one paycheck’s gross, but paid 117% and 134% of the absolute value of state and federal taxes respectively because of the abusive way marginal taxation is set up.
Are you complaining that the crooks running things wanted their taste? They are gonna send that character played by Joe Pesci in Goodfellas to come fix you for that!
Good, I’ll get to knock out his teeth with a pipe.
DO YOU THINK I AM FUNNY?
No.
*stab**stab**stab**stab**stab**stab**stab**stab**stab*
Fuck off, you short-tempered freak.
😵 🩸
If you’re an unhappy civil servant, I think you’ll have to fire yourself.
I keep trying to get all of the state agencies dissolved so that I can find a real job.
So far it hasn’t worked.
Yeah, I’ve seen bonuses taxed at around 50%. I don’t know how that works.
Bonuses are withheld at a different (usually higher) rate than paychecks. Other than giving the tax-free loan to the government, it doesn’t really matter. A person’s tax rate remains the same and the extra withheld amount will be returned to the taxpayer after submitting a tax return.
You can even use it to your advantage. I intentionally have zero income tax withheld from my paychecks during the year and then the larger amount withheld in year end bonus squares me with Uncle Sam.
Meant interest-free loan.
We get our bonuses in April, so I don’t have to do that end-of-year math, but I do the opposite – I crank up the withholding on the last couple of paychecks so I don’t get an underpayment penalty (and don’t have to dick-around with quarterly estimated payments).
It all works out as long as Uncle Sugar gets his cut before year is through.
My bonuses are way too variable to attempt that.
You get one hell of a yearly bonus.
Any bonus payment must be withheld at the highest marginal rate to avoid IRS shenanigans (your w-4 is based on your base salary or whatever)
It evens out at tax time when you file.
I don’t trust them.
They’re professional thieves.
5-D Chess?
He’s not wrong — overthrowing the government using you as human shields and PR fodder and learning to actually live in peace with their neighbors would help a great deal.
Given the “Sesame Street Equivalent teaches hatred” stories over the years, I have zero confidence it will happen. If someone overthrows Hamas, I fully expect it would be because Hamas isn’t Israel-hating enough in their minds at this point. Which is why I have no solutions, only griping from the sidelines. Would love to be pleasantly surprised, though.
“He’s not wrong — overthrowing the government using you as human shields and PR fodder and learning to actually live in peace with their neighbors would help a great deal.”
Yeah, can’t argue with this. The problem is these people volunteered to be under this government, which tells me they share a vision. And those that might not share that vision would very likely be killed by this government also.
What to make of this story?
Least surprising fact I will learn today?
Regardless of whether it happens or not (and its clearly happening), ballot drop boxes and mail-in voting is a fraud risk.
And that is the “Duh!” statement of the day.
I forget the exact quote from “Mote in God’s Eye”, but it is something along the lines of “Threat analysis isn’t about intention but about capability.”
I presume.
Yep, that is it. My paraphrase is punchier.
I don’t understand why there’s a problem with what Amazon did. They raised their price on some items and got more money for them.
So? If a consumer is willing to trade $X for Y product and clicks the purchase button, that’s a legitimate transaction.
And what is “excess profit” anyway?
And I wonder about the “and other retailers raised prices to match Amazon’s” part. Wouldn’t those other retailers prefer to keep their prices lower?
Only thing that I can come up with is that they set up some automation to follow Amazon’s lead so they won’t be undercut, and didn’t complain when it went up, despite the advantage in volume having the lower price would mean.
Only if it drives more volume. If the place people go to price-check (Amazon) raises their prices, I can see others doing so as a knock-on effect.
all profit is exploitation, for one.
Excess profit is generally defined what leftists find icky. Unless they are the ones making it.
Well said my brother from anotha motha in anotha country…
Excess profits are when someone with something can raise the price of something you want due to high demand.
Everyone knows that you should get whatever you want for what you think is a fair price.
People that hate capitalism are the ones that believe society underestimates their worth, and thus pays them too little, while it rewards those they hate and are envious of. They then conclude the system must be fixed to give them free shit because.
Yeah, the whole thing sounds like BS to me.
Blue on blue violence over religion and sexualizing kids…
Those poor muslim women of color have been bamboozled by white male MAGA tricknology!
Daily Ray of Sunshine
Wow. Thanks for that.
Glad I could lend a hand in making your day.
Booo!
Enjoy another!
Ohio car theft suspect foiled by quick-thinking forklift operator who holds him 20 feet in the air
https://nypost.com/2023/11/06/news/ohio-car-theft-suspect-foiled-by-quick-thinking-forklift-operator-who-holds-him-20-feet-in-the-air/
Somerset Gimp banned from wearing a gimp suit in public and ‘crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground’ for five years
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1720496292856549477
In public? Da Fuq??
Why do so many people have kinks that they need others to see and approve of so they can get off, huh? Can’t you just keep your weird shit to yourself?
Narcissists gonna narcissism.
A lot of people in the kink scene are just walking collections of personality disorders. Which is a bummer for those of us who only have one or two…
We still have checks
President Joe Biden — perhaps the nation’s biggest Amtrak fan — is set to promote new federal investments for trains on the heavily trafficked Northeast Corridor.
The Democratic president is headed to Bear, Delaware, on Monday to announce more than $16 billion in new funding that will go toward 25 passenger rail projects between Boston and Washington, the White House says. Bear is located about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Biden’s home of Wilmington.
His remarks will be held at the Amtrak Bear Maintenance Shops, where trains are maintained and repaired. The investments, the White House says, will help trains run faster, cut delays and create union jobs.
The money comes from the roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law that Biden signed nearly two years ago, one of several legislative achievements that the president is touting as he gears up for his reelection bid. From the law, Amtrak will get about $66 billion in new investments, according to the White House.
He should have a Presidential sleeper car built, and do a whistle stop campaign.
train are useful in some cases I use them a bunch in Europe when I travel
The geography here dictates differently than it does in Europe.
Although I do think trains make more sense than long haul trucking. Trucks obviously make sense for the final regional bit, but cross country freight should be trains.
Absent external factors, I agree.
The death of the railroads was accellerated by taxes versus subsidies. Localities used the railroad lines as property tax piggy banks while the feds were subsidizing the interstate highways that gave long haul trucking a financial edge over the more efficient trains. Ton for ton, from a mechanical and fuel standpoint, it’s trains hands down.
Yes, exactly. Undo the subsidies and etc and trains take back over the long haul freight.
Plus, they have to be safer.
Yeah, except for that one corridor. And if it is so “heavily trafficked” there should be no need to throw billions of taxpayers at it.
What we’re really throwing those billions of dollars at are those cow-towns in Montana and such to keep the pols there happy.
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/06:
*22/22 words (+3 bonus words)
🎯 Perfect accuracy
I played https://squaredle.com 11/06:
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🎯 In the top 14% by accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 84
Screwed my accuracy going for a couple I thought should be bonus words that it refused to recognize. Sigh. I should know better, I know…
I played https://squaredle.com 11/06:
*26/26 words (+2 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 41% by accuracy
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/06:
22/22 words (+6 bonus words)
I played https://squaredle.com 11/06:
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I do like Mondays.
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/06:
22/22 words (+5 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 25% by accuracy
I played https://squaredle.com 11/06:
*26/26 words (+4 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 8% by accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 50
Tell me why?
There it is.
luuuuv that song
I can’t tell you why.
I played https://squaredle.com 11/06:
*26/26 words (+4 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 7% by accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 17
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/06:
*22/22 words (+4 bonus words)
🎯 Perfect accuracy
How America can stop Iran
War in Israel shows the danger of appeasement
https://unherd.com/2023/11/how-america-can-stop-iran/
Israel can defend itself. But the US-Kurdish garrison in North-East Syria, as well as America’s remaining friends in Iraq, Kurdistan, and, most important, in the Arabian Peninsula, are all threatened and continue to be — unless Biden switches gears to deter Iran instead of trying to appease it.
The President’s backbone is not in doubt. Biden’s immediate reaction to the October 7 assault and Hezbollah’s threat to launch its vast arsenal of rockets and missiles was to send the US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier and six guided-missile warships to the eastern Mediterranean, as well as a second aircraft carrier task force and US fighter bombers to a base in Jordan.
But in Biden’s foreign-policy team, only Secretary of State Antony Blinken shares his determination to switch from polite conciliation to genuine deterrence — and that is not enough. The US is a Presidential republic, and nothing can be done unless White House staffers translate Presidential choices into well-defined policies that are properly structured to secure Congressional backing. It is, therefore, most unfortunate that both Sullivan and the Obama holdovers who staff the White House are still locked into the former President’s ill-concealed desire to distance the US from Israel and Saudi Arabia, and to reconcile with Iran.
Bunch of “foreign policy, alliance with India” stuff. Which — while it has its place, isn’t the simplest answer. “Go back to cheap energy policies” is. Funny how Russia and Iran started finding the money to export trouble when you jackholes jacked up the global crude and natgas markets, hmm? And your stupid “sanctions” don’t mean shit to China.
Want to curtail their actions? Hit them in the pocketbook, undercut them in the market. Bonus in that we get energy independence back and all.
But of course that’s the last thing they really want to do. Perpetual War, Raytheon dividends and big, big, unbelievable slush funds they can siphon from… that’s obviously the important thing. If a few thousand or million of their lessers have to suffer and die for it, well… can’t make a Fabrege omelette without breaking a few of those eggs, right DC?
Stop Iran? Stop Hamas? Easy-peasy. Drop a couple of JDAMs on the Ayatollah. Send a note to the Iranian govt: “We have lots more”. No explanation necessary, all of this shit would come to a screeching halt overnight.
Huh? Biden was ready to resume propping up Iran’s nuclear ambitions as recently as a few weeks ago.
I am certain the only reason he’s mum about it now is the optics.
Good forbid we lose our Legos garrison in Syria.
If that happens we will all be speaking Arabic the next week!
Legos=Kurdish…
Legos would be more fun though and a lot cheaper.
Good thing we didn’t sign on to the land mine ban.
Yo! I got a special treat. Last night I got to see John Cleese! “An Evening with the Late John Cleese” came to Indy. Damn impressive, especially for an 84-year-old.
Without telling the audience, his daughter opened with some stand-up. She was damn funny. I didn’t know, but she is a serious Hollywood writer and has worked as a writer on several big projects.
Cleese comes out and does his thing. About half of it was talk of the past, using short vid clips as examples. After intermission, he had a Q&A w the audience. (Not positive how legit, though I did fill out two question cars before the show, as did my Mom.) He answered questions selected in his own way, with plenty of stories and tangents along the way. Neither of ours was read in the full-ish theater, mostly w older folk.)
I gots to get going, but it was a fantastic evening. Mostly midwest, but I’d check it out. He does 5 shows a week.
See if coming to you. Well worth it. My ticket was $63.
Yay for youse! I hope he’s not still paying spousal support.
When I saw him, he went on with a very recently broken front tooth. I’m not sure why he couldn’t find a downtown dentist to rustle up something, but I applaud the Show Must Go On spirit.
The girlfriend and I caught that when it was down in Akron. We both greatly enjoyed it.
Good grief, I hope I’m that spry at 84. Thirty years to go and I can feel my body rapidly falling apart already.
CURVE Collective Lingerie Fashion Show | Dual Angle Ultra 4K | Miami Swim Week 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-TzC14QX2o
“Curve” does not mean “flat chested skinny women with no butts”.
Olive Oyl had curvy limbs.
Will that IL weapon law lead to a glut in the art market?
There was no violence before guns existed. This is known.
So cyto was making the point (in the ded-thred) about lack of media coverage.
I think part of the problem is, there’s just so damn much to cover!
Heinlein fan or no idea where the word originated? (I don’t necessarily mean Musk.)
Elon Musk Unveils ‘Grok,’ an AI Bot That Combines Snark and Lofty Ambitions
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/elon-musk-says-his-new-ai-bot-grok-will-have-sarcasm-and-access-to-x-information-b4e169de?st=qclfcinm9jg2l8z&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
More on Musk (and taking a big shot at Soros).
I miss the old fatcats who were content with just being fabulously wealthy, without, you know, tearing down all of civilization around them.
*Insert C. S. Lewis quote about robber barons here*
Or, in Carnegie’s case, putting books into the hands of almost anyone who wanted one.
And in case you had any thought that Team Red had any libertarian aspirations.
Why Republicans Abandoned Their Fight to Repeal Obamacare
Conservatives have become more open to a government role in healthcare and other sectors
The whole article is depressing.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/why-republicans-abandoned-their-fight-to-repeal-obamacare-a28d4872?st=x0c8bv994vmu36k&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
.
They’re not conservatives. They’re center-leftists.
They are conserving what was handed down to them.
What you want is the reactionary party – that rejects the reforms enacted and goes back to the prior state.
Why? Because they are liars and useless squishes that never intended to repeal Obamacare or stop the march leftward? I am just spitballing here.
Just fucking wow…
See, that’s why they need their overseers, otherwise they too damn dumb to know what is right.
Is that like not getting modern art….because behind the smoke screen of garbledy garbledy there is nothing to get?
Big problems, obvious solutions that no one wants to implement so rationalize it away with bullshit.
“You are just too dumb to understand my brilliance!”
When will we have common sense statistics control?
America’s gun epidemic has become deadlier than ever for children since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and firearm-related injuries are driving children to emergency rooms at significantly higher rates than before.
Pediatric emergency department visits for firearm injuries became twice as common during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to research published Monday, in the journal Pediatrics.
From 2017 to early 2020, there were about 18 firearm-related visits every 30 days, which jumped to 36 visits every 30 days during the pandemic, from March 2020 through November 2022. The analysis was based on data from nine urban hospitals that participate in a research registry supported by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
“Really no child is immune to the growing risks of firearm violence in this country,” said Dr. Jennifer Hoffmann, lead author of the study and a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Shameless lies are bad for your health, too.
Gang-bangers are children too!
Any one under 27 is a kid. /Media
The religion of peace..
Downtown San Francisco’s McDonald’s Closes
(Junk) Food Desert!
But the increases were particularly stark among Black and Hispanic children, widening an already existing disparity, she said. About two-thirds of all emergency department visits for firearm injuries during the pandemic were among children from the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Emergency department data about the intent of an injury is prone to misclassification, Hoffmann said, but other research suggests that the rise in firearm-related visits is likely a combination of accidental injuries, self-harm and assault among children.
No shit, Shirley?
Whatever you do, don’t break out the number for those categories, and definitely don’t group them by age.
Saw something on the interstate you don’t see every day: a flatbed semi hauling a covered wagon (its cover in turn covered with plastic.) It was from an outfit called PlainsCraft. Slogan: “A Wilder Kind of Experience.” :: lights Mojeaux signal::
I watched The Apartment and had a Billy Wilder kind of experience.
Ted, I forget if I’ve asked, but have you been to the left coast? You would be fun to chauffeur around.
Back in 1978, not since.
Hee hee! Project!
https://iv1.lisimg.com/image/15529802/355full-cher-horowitz.jpg
(Come out; do!)
Speaking of Billy Wilder, we had to watch Sunset Boulevard for my college film class.
Oh good! What did you think?
Mojeaux is ready for her close-up.
I wrote a paper on it about how it was a combo of film noir x horror x (I forget). I was an underclassman but I think I deserved a better grade about my dad’s idea.
I honestly don’t remember. To me, then, it was an assignment. I don’t remember what I wrote about it. I was on my penultimate semester, working graves 50 hours a week, my dad just died, and my car was working on dying. I would sit in the back on the floor and sleep with my recorder running. I managed to watch the movie on the VCR.
What do I think of the actual movie now? Don’t know. It exists.
Oh, those are neat! The Ingalls never glamped like that, tho.
Wish they made one road legal that you could tow with a Subaru.
“You didn’t build that business, but you are responsible for that terror attack.” GFY.
I’ll bet you that Julia wasn’t responsible.
‘After outside retailers began matching or increasing their own prices, Amazon would continue to sell the product at an inflated price, the FTC alleged, which resulted in $1 billion in excess profit.’
So it’s Amazon’s fault other people are doing anticompetitive practices, such as price matching?
What’s an excess profit? No such thing.
The NYT remains true to form. Thank goodness for experts.
Vapes Look ‘Like Toys’ Now. Uh-Oh.
Bright colors, rounded edges: Many of today’s most popular vaping devices are a perfect match for the Gen Z aesthetic. Experts are concerned.
Paywall – https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/style/vape-elf-bar-juul.html
Vaping devices should resemble smoking razor blades or some other aesthetically unappealing thing for the children of course. Anytime someone trots out the do it for the kids argument it’s time to check for bullshit.
Oh no, you’re already hip deep in bullshit at that point. First thing you use the shovel for is to smash the head of the bullshitter, then you can start scooping up the mess.
“Look at the context: capitalism or socialism. In a capitalist context it is capitalist commodity production. In a socialist context it is socialist commodity production.”
– Mao Zedong, pic unrelated
https://twitter.com/EarlOfThePseud/status/1720794751048298547
NEWS: St. Pancras station unveiled its Christmas tree today! We know, but it is a beauty. It’s covered in books and there are cubby holes around the bottom where you can sit and read.
https://twitter.com/SkintLondon/status/1719710788972101695
Just what St Pancras needed, more congestion.
It was too crowded whenever I was there, and didn’t need to get clogged up worse.
So you’re saying books should be burned?
It was about under tarpaulins last time I was there.
Aw, Hatchards.
I’ll be there in about a month.
I always read that as “St. Pancreas.”
Same.
Producer of the blessed insulin.
Me too.
Proposed 1860s skyscrapers, which only narrowly missed being built. Before lifts and steel frames, (fairly) tall buildings were structurally possible but not very useful or efficient. But maybe a few Gothic skyscrapers would have affected how the English feel about the genre.
https://twitter.com/SCP_Hughes/status/1721489474830442877
This is an excellent microcosm of the current approach to policing: that crowd is getting violent, you are easy to deal with, so we will deal with you.
https://twitter.com/SAshworthHayes/status/1720909095253803357
Much more of this and the natives aren’t going to be so “easy to deal with”.
mob rule
Either the mob wins, or the mob gets crushed. Violence is inevitable.
Something something bigotry of low expectations…you can’t expect those Middle Easterners to behave responsibly. Then again, if they hadn’t been removed they probably been beaten or worse. Not that people should be detained for carrying their national flag but they were about to get themselves in serious trouble.
“Election Fraud Cases Break Out in 3 Democrat States”
Election fraud never happened and, anyway, it was not enough to affect the outcome.
Yeah, we found out on Sixty Minutes last night that only 4 dead people had voted in Georgia!
Sounds like something a Nazi would say
A top politician in Germany has panned the concept of a four-day workweek for full pay, saying it’s a hindrance to prosperity.
“Never in history has a society increased its prosperity by working less,” Christian Lindner, the German finance minister, said late Friday at an event in Switzerland, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.
“The key to our prosperity remains hard work,” added Lindner, who heads the pro-business Free Democratic Party.
It’s not the first time Lindner has panned the idea of a four-day workweek. He expressed similar thoughts earlier this year, as reported by local German media. Germany’s finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.
We don’t need to build wealth, just find better ways to redistribute it.
Obviously, the First World is more prosperous than when folks worked six days per week or before the 40 hour work week was instituted. Therefore, we have to understand the conditions under which “more” can be churned out with “less” labor. Maybe the answer lies in “capitalism,” investment in better tools, and more education and personal freedom? Let’s find ways and explain how prosperity will be possible with less time spent working if government would just get out of the way and stop trying to pick winners and tie the hands of society’s real doers.
Nashville shooter’s manifesto leaked-Probably NSFW
https://youtu.be/P97bQ0uYlfw?si=-118pKQ71u71ZZ1L
Fuck ScrewTube, see it on Rumble….
And yes, it is EXACTLY what you all expected it was which is why they were hiding it from us….
Most boring manifesto ever?
Pushback against Tlaib?
And, do they really think they can talk Biden into standing down? And in favor of whom?
Tlaib and friends are referred to, this morning by Assoc. Press, as “members of the progressive caucus of the Democratic Party.”
Most Republicans, of course, are “hard right wingers.”
<em.But Biden and his team would be fools to bet on lingering distaste of Trump being enough to save his reelection bid. Broad swaths of the public are telling pollsters that life under Biden is harder than it was under Trump, and they see Biden’s policies as hurting them, not helping them.
Trump = the good old days. I’ll be that sent shrieks of outrage through the halls of the White House.
“Quick, to the Spendmobile!”
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