Good morning one and all to another fantastic day!
Congress Breaks Record For Doing The Least
Washington Monument Illumination Kicks Off Yearlong Celebration of America’s 250th Birthday
Here Are The 10 Biggest Media Hoaxes Of 2025
5 States Cut SNAP Benefits for Unhealthy Food as Part of ‘MAHA’ Agenda
Socialist Mamdani takes charge of New York City, vows to ‘govern expansively and audaciously’
Mandatory ICE Partnership in Sweeping Texas State Law
Florida’s minimum wage rising to $15 in 2026
Indiana hands Alabama worst postseason loss in program history in Rose Bowl beatdown
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
Congress needs to be repealing laws.
Doing less is great relative to say the 110th Congress.
I continue to believe that the Repubs in Congress are just waiting out the Trump administration. They see no reason to change the system that has made them rich and powerful.
There is an enormous amount of reform that needs doing, I mean, if you care about the American citizenry and the health of the Republic. They’re not going to do it, because they do not, in fact, care about the American citizenry and the health of the Republic.
Hard agree. Since he’s limited to a single term, it’s all a waiting game for RINOs.
I had a college instructor that said this back in 1993. He was specifically talking about stalking, which was the new hotness at the time. He said they had several laws on the books that already covered stalking, but that by addressing stalking as a specific crime, now they had to meet all of the elements of the stalking law or they weren’t legally stalking so couldn’t be prosecuted. See also states that passed “intoxication manslaughter” laws that had lower maximum sentences than boring, unsexy, regular manslaughter charges.
In theory, Congress doing nothing is a dream.
In practice they have offshored their responsibilities to the Executive for decades and should be working to claw that back.
Isn’t the whipsaw every four years fun?
So Fight for Fifteen is over in Florida?
Just until the price of meth is inflated.
At that point, we’ll get meth subsidies for artisanal hand crafted meth which the Republicans will counter with a Trump themed website with coupons.
I love to Alabama getting a beating. They had no business in the playoffs.
And yet they won a round in the playoffs.
Over another team that shouldn’t have been in.
Maybe college football needs to be like hockey or wrestling and announce in advance how many berths each conference gets.
The SEC boosters may just quiet down for a while, even if Ole Miss wins it all. Georgia and Alabama – almost makes me believe there is a God.
3/4 of the teams with the bye lost, last year all 4 lost. Maybe byes are stupid in a situation where there is already a break between regular season and playoffs?
I think that just shows there are 4 too many teams in.
Get rid of the byes and cut the last 4 teams out.
8 is plenty, but no way do they give up the revenue from the first round so I suspect eventually we get 16.
Why are you people demanding less football?
If they got rid of the byes and knocked out the bottom 4 teams, it would be the same number of games.
It would be 4 less games, you just eliminated the first round. A single elimination playoff will necessarily have N-1 games where N = number of teams in the playoffs. 8 teams = 7 games 12 teams = 11 games.
Cut the maximum size of a conference to 8 teams.
Each conference winner goes into the playoffs.
You’re right, I must have taken my daily stupid pill early today.
ESPN and college football fans are like high school girls planning a prom. They love the drama and want it to be a controversial popularity contest.
Each conference winner goes into the playoffs.
Yep, the conferences are all but dead with the playoffs in the current format.
are like high school girls
Now stuck with the image of Paul Finebaum in a dress, and no it isn’t a good look on him.
Why are you people demanding less football?
I don’t care about football.
I care about the women cheerleaders.
We can have more of those.
Government should be out of SNAP entirely, not deciding which foods are “healthy”.
Yep, but as long as those are public dollars, there is a public say in how they get spent.
Public in this case meaning that group of special interests most able to leverage or bribe sufficient politicians and bureaucrats.
Sure – that’s politics. We aren’t under the impression it means something else are we?
Not at all, now let me check ADM shares real quick.
Miami realtors watching New York’s mayor talk about the warmth of collectivism
And – How hard New Yorkers are pronouncing the F in Florida.
https://x.com/Nicksdankmemes3/status/2006912963534344672
Hopefully sloopy is recovered enough by Monday for morning links.
WTF, Florida? DeSantis has no business crowing about “freedom” with that shit in place.
A while back, some idiots here in Ohio passed a state constitutional amendment linking the minimum wage to inflation. It’s gone up each year since (surprising no one).
A linked article in this story mentioned that “Fight for 15” failed in Ohio. I am sure they will try to push it every year until the new hotness is 20 or 30. “Democratic socialists” are nothing if not extremely dedicated.
So taxes will go up at the rate of inflation, compounding. Someone has to pay for it.
The minimum wage has to keep up with inflation.
Do you know a person on minimum wage can’t afford a 2 bedroom apartment?
You need alliteration for a good slogan. $15 wasn’t picked for any reason other than it makes a good slogan with “fight”. Not seeing the slogan for $20 – “Twerk for $20”, maybe?
“Living Wage” is up there with “Housing First” on the list of destructive stupidity pushed by socialist assholes.
“20 is honey”
Indexing the minimum wage to the CPI would ensure that it falls behind the real rate of inflation.
Pay all GovSec workers minimum wage.
Relax, Congress is on the case! They’ll keep eroding the currency and get that $15 back down below the actual value of unskilled labor in no time at all. Hell it’s already close, $1 in junk silver is worth $50-$60 at current bullion prices, so $15 nowdollars equals about a quarter. You wouldn’t begrudge people a quarter would you?
In 1955 a Onescore could get a bowl of chili (Minnesoda style) and a cuppa coffee for a quarter in Podunkville.
My, my, how times have changed.
Chili made with mushroom soup is not chili.
I got a silver quarter back as change this week!
That was probably mine. Meth-nephew stole my coin collection!
Florida’s minimum wage will rise to $15 an hour in 2026 as the result of a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2020.
A constitutional amendment? Yes they did. Oh boy.
Republics with stupid voters die. We are an example.
Republics with stupid voters die.
So you mean all of them?
Yes
-1 American exceptionalism
Wow, I thought maybe the meme coverage was overstating it, apparently not.
I guess the warmth of collectivism will keep everyone comfortable when the heat is turned off?
JFC. Half that speech sounds like he prompted ChatGPT
“Spin me ten paragraphs of commie bullshit.”
It is gonna be a long four years with that prick flapping his gums the whole way.
“… the words that most define us are the two we all share, New Yorkers.”
I thought Florida was one word.
Four, rhywun?
Mamdani and Walz, new comedy act.
New Yorkers deserve it good and hard. Maybe not Staten Island.
DeBlasio 2 – Socialist Bugaboo
They will collectively burn the old art in the museums and other outdated relics of evil white men to warm the proletariat of color!
Gen Z AWFLs immediately soak through their panties.
Hey look, we fucked up 16 years ago, but vote for us now and we’ll fix it!
We need those subsidies, because the previous subsidies drove the prices up so high that no one can afford insurance without new subsidies. What do you mean by death spiral you bigot?
“A potent election year attack on Republicans”
Yes, health insurance companies are so popular that campaigning on subsidies for them is a sure winner.
This is totally different than hand outs to big companies. This is to lower costs for the little man [by giving large amounts of money to large companies]!
COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!
Thanks, (((Jar, now I understand it. These things are so complicated.
I on the other hand will not overmisestimate the intelligence of voters in this country.
Forgiving student loans is handing money to the banks, but the kids love it.
Just as you cannot hate the media enough, you cannot underestimate the intelligence of voters.
I wonder how potent of an attack it will be in light of all the fraud being uncovered in Minnesoda, Ohio and Washington?
The only thing that has been uncovered is racism against Somalis.
Unfortunately, it *is* a potent attack because people be dumdumz…
“We keep fucking up, but vote for us so we can fix it,” is a good working definition of democracy.
On twitter:
https://x.com/Aku_700/status/2006562608975929534/photo/1
So much this. I keep telling myself that today they are actually doing things behind the scenes to build a bigger better case that will catch more people, and that the arrests and indictments will come tomorrow. But I’ve been waiting for a long time.
It’s estimated that an adult with no children or spouse to support would need to earn $23.41 an hour to make a living wage in Florida, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator. The same person with a child or spouse would need to earn $37.98 an hour to make a living wage.
Never mentioned: how a “living wage” is calculated.
Just get a roommate or two and save your pennies until you can level up.
$46K a year, call it $4K/month, just to keep body and soul together? I have my doubts.
Wants/Needs have been misallocated.
Modern day ‘needs’
-Cellphone that you are financing along with usage fee
-Fastest possible internet
-Doordash, im to lazy to save $15 upcharge and delivery
-2 to 6 various streaming services
-on and on
They like to compare the minimum wage with the average rent.
Roommates? What kind of peasant do you think they are?
They deserve a 3,000 square foot house while they flip burgers.
“Minimum”. “Average”. These are not the same thing.
I know that, you know that, hell the people pushing this probably know that.
Most of the useful idiots do not know that.
Are you suggesting MIT is dishonest??
It isn’t dishonesty per se, it is what consequence attaches to them as a result – do they pay any price for being wrong?
They can’t, some idiot raised the minimum wage so high that there are no barista jobs available, and no Johns are willing to listen to an hour of them yelling about globalizing the intifada during the BJ, so they are unemployable now.
So, you are saying the minimum wage is zero? As in unemployment?
Yes, yes it is. The Gods of the copybook headings with terror and slaughter return, no matter what laws you pass.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/762/616/d60.gif
“an hour of them yelling about globalizing the intifada during the BJ”
If you’re able to talk while giving head you’re doing it wrong.
If you’re able to talk while giving head you’re doing it wrong.
Good BJs are a tool of the patriarchy!
In fairness, you can’t talk when your tongue is stretched out past your lips either.
Just watched Good Fortune last night with Keanu Reeves and Aziz Ansari. It was about an angel who’s not very good at his job and he swaps Aziz Ansari’s life for that of tech bro Seth Rogan to teach him a lesson. While the movie had it’s moments, the overall message sounded like The Zohran’s speech. Apparently, in L.A., you are either a spoiled tech bro or an underpaid gig worker. No commentary on overpaid actors, which seemed funny to me, especially because they were in L.A. Also, no suggestion to learn a valuable skill to earn a living.
Pretty much anything with Suck Rogan in it these days sounds like a Mamdani speach.
It had the premise of a good movie, but Hollywood just can’t help itself.
My dog’s favorite song came on so she is howling.
Now the husky joined in.
The Bitch Is Back?
It’s actually Bastard Son by the Dead South
They’re trying to tell you to turn that shit off.
Daily Ray of Sunshine
Cats and paper bags. Hours of entertainment.
Fake: Aldi doesn’t have bags.
The ones in my neck of the woods offer paper bags.
Not sure if our Aldi’s has paper bags or not.
I do remember you can get a nice shopping cart for a quarter though.
Also, no suggestion to learn a valuable skill to earn a living.
You know how some NFL players have those stupid messages on the back of their helmets? I want to see somebody put “Do the Work” on his.
The “Do The Work” workshop?
Just read the messages as if in Ratso Rizzo’s voice. Same for anything Mamdani says.
“Society has a subscription problem, and I’m sick of it.
In 2009, Apple debuted the catchy, cultural truth-teller slogan “there’s an app for that.” Nowadays, there’s not only “an app for that,” but also an accompanying recurring fee you must pay to make most of them remotely usable.”
https://thefederalist.com/2026/01/02/its-time-to-cancel-our-subscription-culture-once-and-for-all/
Not only apps, but plenty of regular software doesn’t work without internet.
Sure, Jan.
When you had one big lump sum of a payment for software, people just stole it.
The subscription model seemed like a great deal for everyone. Low cost to entry cut down on piracy. They also got steady revenue streams.
And it isn’t just software. Let’s not forget about the granddaddy of this: Health Clubs. Everyone signs up on New Year’s. Everybody stops going by the end of January.
I know it’s for “copy protection”, but it’s also to spy on you and force you to get “upgrades”. You also have to have internet.
CT:
Not all subscription models are the same. Some (most?) are bad and do the spying and other stuff like you said. Some do better.
For example, JetBrains will try to get you to subscribe annually to get all the upgrades, but you can also opt out and just keep the stuff you bought at the version you purchased. It is a nice compromise. Corporate users can keep updated and have the latest. Individual users can purchase once and only upgrade if there is an actual need.
Needing to be connected to the internet for the software to work is an abomination. Everyone should ridicule companies that do that.
Postman is the only software I use that actually refuses to work offline – I actually hit that issue the other day. Even MS stuff like Visual Studio will work if you don’t sign in.
My issue with the subscription model is not really that it spies, everything online spies and everything is online. It is that I have this old fashioned concept of well being which relates to keeping what I have, adding new things I desire as I can afford them, and not having those things require ongoing outlays of money simply to retain them. I want to own my tools and toys not rent them even if renting them is cheaper overall (seldom), because I want to have them even if my financial position worsens, or prices rise, or the maker decides to discontinue them.
“The NFL website boasts 18 cable TV networks and streaming services fans can use to tune into games. Not a single one of those, however, promises access to all 272 regular-season face-offs.”
https://thefederalist.com/2024/12/16/the-nfls-streaming-scheme-makes-watching-football-insufferable-and-nearly-impossible/
I hate this. The games on Christmas were on Netflix. Yesterday’s games were on ESPN+, which I couldn’t watch even though I have regular ESPN.
The answer is simple. Just don’t watch.
Football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. — the prophet Orwell
That’s not an answer. I also don’t think it’s good for the NFL long term.
Common Tater:
The NFL seems determined to drive off old fans to attempt to attract young fans (who don’t care about the new stuff either). I do wonder what the long term plans are for the games in Europe and South America. Expand a full division in one of those countries? Having a single team would lead to brutal traveling for the rest of the teams.
I quit watching the NFL decades ago. It was easy. No great loss.
Cold turkey, my friend. It’s the only way it works.
drive off old fans to attempt to attract young fans
Ah yes, the modern audience as the Drinker puts it.
Kinnath- that would free-up a lot of time on Sunday, Monday night, and Thursday
It certainly did Tres.
Like you would turn down the dump trucks of money all those companies drove up with.
I agree that it isn’t good in the long term, but that long term is long. They will have decades still; to swim in their vault of gold coins (ala Scrooge McDuck).
Ever since they started Thursday night games, it has been apparent that money now is the goal. Screw long term thinking.
“Ever since they started Thursday night games”
I don’t like that either. There should be only one night game, the way God and Nature intended, on Monday, and the announcers should be drunk.
Yeah “long term” basically ends when the economy crashes.
Until then, as long as you have taxpayers happily bending over to reward billionaire owners and millionaire players, nothing is going to change.
NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I welcome the change. For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty.
That made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
His words are as empty and chilling as his smile.
‘Cruelty’ is the new proggie soyjack term-of-art.
As British blogger David Thompson likes to say, so much of “woke” is using the language of civility and justice as an excuse to get one’s inner bully on.
That made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
That happens on the guillotine doesn’t it?
I think the guillotine is more likely to trim the hair on the back of your neck.
Rebuilding efforts in Palisades going as expected.
“13% of homes destroyed in LA fires have permit to rebuild as lawsuit claims ‘endangered plants’ hindered firefighting efforts.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/just-13-of-homes-destroyed-in-la-fires-have-permit-to-rebuild-as-lawsuit-claims-endangered-plants-hindered-firefighting-efforts
“Large portions of the park were designated as “avoidance areas” where normal firefighting tactics are restricted. Restrictions include “no heavy equipment, vehicles, and retardant are allowed,” and the document states that “fire suppression activities may not occur within these areas without consultation of an Agency Representative, or a Resource Advisor assigned to the incident.” Firefighters are also restricted from conducting “mop-up” operations to extinguish hot spots in these areas “without the presence of an archeologist READ [resource advisor].””
WTF??
“It’s California-town, ‘tater”
“They hate you and want you dead” in action.
Is that Mamdani “warmth of collectivism” stuff an AI vid or is he really that Goddamn stupid? Enjoy the bed you’ll have to lay in NYC, you deserve it.
The problem is how to contain the damage to NYC so that the rest of us don’t get fucked over as well.
Narrator: the rest of us will get fucked over as well.
He is the ultimate nepo wastrel. That is why it looks like AI. Those types don’t have an ounce of sincerity in their cold, dark hearts.
That’s what I thought at first, but he really did say it.
I wish not to join the collective, thank you very much.
Resistance is futile meets stop resisting!
I wonder if the Minnesoda Somalis will decamp for the greener pastures of NYC?
The “Do The Work” workshop?
Not exactly.
The problem is it’s raw fish.
(Nobody seems to understand that just because I speak Japanese and work in NYC with access to world class sushi that I just don’t like the stuff.)
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/parenting-food-diet-kids-sushi-8ff64063?st=2Hh8WL&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Hmmm. I think I see the problem here.
Right?
I was thinking of you when I heard the NSFW weather news this morning: The Kinki region is facing heavy snow.
Rich people problems. 🙄
We got cheap pizza and we liked it.
And yes, raw fish is disgusting. Like most crap plucked out of the water.
I love sushi and so did my kids when we lived in Japan.
Now I get it once every 2 months or so, but it is pricey.
These parents can’t tell their kids no apparently.
In NYC there is quite a bit of good (relatively) inexpensive sushi if you know where to go.
Even here in the NJ suburbs you can find it and it is priced similarly to most “regular” restaurants.
I also love sushi, and you ain’t kidding about the price.
The best sushi I’ve ever had in the US was at a strip-mall cafe in Rockville, Maryland, back when I was living there. Turned out that the owner was a former executive chef at Restaurant Suntory in Tokyo. The people you meet in the suburbs…
So it was a relaxing time?
Given the ingredients a big part of it is your relationship to whatever your local fish market and wholesalers are.
You’ll have the staples like tuna, but a good place is going to change regularly depending upon what’s available and worth it at any given time.
I actually prefer sashimi to sushi. Don’t need no stinking rice! Just give me that raw fish.
Also Pope Jimbo…
https://tenor.com/view/gollum-fish-lord-of-the-gif-25308004
We eat sashimi much more often than sushi, but it’s basically the same thing, unless you are talking about California rolls and that is not sushi.
We buy sashimi from an asian store in Raleigh every time we go down there to see our son.
My wife makes chirashi for dinner with it.
JI:
If only. I’d kill for Gollum’s body fat %.
The warmth of Friday Funbags is infinitely superior to the warmth of collectivism.
https://archive.is/MYiuV
“Will Smith is being sued for sexual harassment by violinist Brian King Joseph.
The professional musician filed a complaint against Smith and his Treyball Studios Management, Inc., company at the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, on Tuesday, Page Six can confirm.
The 33-year-old’s lawsuit alleged a “traumatic series of events” took place during Smith’s global tour last year.”
https://pagesix.com/2026/01/02/celebrity-news/will-smith-accused-of-sexual-harassment-by-violinist-brian-king-joseph-traumatic/
Nigga looks more gay than Ilian Omar’s brother-husband. Which I didn’t think was possible.
“Joseph, pictured above in 2025, alleged someone entered his Las Vegas hotel room while he toured with Smith, leaving “a sexual threat of violence.”
Well, that’s obviously Will Smith’s fault.
Plus, nice clown shoes, bro.
Violinist? I would’ve expected it from the flautist instead.
Not the organist?
“Independent journalist Nick Shirley says he has received death threats and harassment — including phone calls to his family — after releasing a viral video alleging fraud at Minnesota daycare centers.
Shirley described the threats during a Dec. 31 appearance on the PBD Podcast, and said he was warned he would be “Kirked,” a reference to the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.”
https://nypost.com/2026/01/01/media/nick-shirley-says-hes-gotten-death-threats-told-hell-be-kirked-over-minnesota-fraud-viral-video/
Sad.
May be true, but everyone claims that nowadays.
There is a world of difference between a Twitter bot or online asshole saying “go die in a fire, bitch” and legitimate threats. That being said, I have zero doubt the crazies are coming for Nick based on how much corruption he exposed.
Oh, I have the feeling that threatening the gravy train for Somali gangs has a certain element of risk.
Not to mention that the radical left is overflowing with violent assholes.
“Yep — number-inspired names are officially a thing. Picks like Amillion, Billion, Cinco, Deuce, Dua, Eleven, Five, Four, Ivy, Million, Nine and Octave are popping up — because apparently nothing says “new baby” like… basic math.”
https://nypost.com/2026/01/01/lifestyle/romantasy-to-anime-2026s-wild-new-baby-name-trends/
No Six-seven?
Six-seven doesn’t produce offspring
No shaming Tres Cool, please.
Ivy?
Compare to the famous Norwegian actress 54 Ullmann.
“Influencer” = “not being afraid to show off your T&A”
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/instagram-spiranac-ebanie-lehmann-dunne-36469604
I have trouble understanding which is more bogus; “influencer” or “content creator”, though I guess the Venn diagram has significant overlap.
These ladies are just the tip of the iceberg.
Last year while traveling around Japan/Korea, any time we went sight seeing there were gobs of young ladies trying to create “influencer” pics. Certain spots would have lines of fetching young ladies and some incel photog waiting to take pics.
For a while, I tried being polite and not walking through their shots. I eventually got tired of waiting for these idiots and just started walking where ever I wanted. Too bad if you got me in your glamour shot. No, that rock you are trying to pose on is not your own personal one. Anyone can stand on it to see the view.
Sad how many girls think that they should make a living that way.
Eh, the world needs more
slap/chop pitchmen, er,carneyer, used car saleswomen.When I was in Vancouver last year was the first time I was annoyed at Instagram folk.
No, you dumb retarded bitch, stopping in the middle of a suspended bridge to get your reel is, indeed, not my fucking priority, nor is it cool.
Poor Needless Markup.
https://www.wsj.com/finance/saks-prepares-for-bankruptcy-after-missing-debt-payment-ff3df6d2?st=cjeiew&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
I thought you were going to link to a complaint about XML.
YAML bobo confirmed!
“Scores of Zohran Mamdani fans who braved freezing temperatures to celebrate the new mayor as he was publicly sworn into office Thursday were left disappointed by the bash the socialist pol had promised.
Around 10,000 supporters stood outside City Hall during the event — billed as an “Inauguration for a New Era Block Party” by Mamdani’s staff — crammed into several barricaded pens without access to bathrooms or any food concession stands.”
https://nypost.com/2026/01/01/us-news/mamdani-fans-disappointed-by-disastrous-block-party-inauguration-with-no-food-bathrooms/
*chef’s kiss*
Really, it’s the perfect way to mark a communist taking power.
“Are you not entertained?”
Get used to it. The “democratic socialist” future is today!
Delivering on his promises from the first day!
If anyone in the private sector did that, the Mamdanis of the world would be screaming bloody murder.
Mamdani Fyre Festival?
Shades of things to come.
Government as Fyre Festival.
“Immersion in the hyperreal explains why Fuentes’s worldview is so liquid and incoherent. He was able to transition smoothly from being an early MAGA adopter in 2015 to going to war against Trump in 2024. He operates with a double script, inhabiting a version of himself on his livestream that is antithetical to the one he presents to mainstream podcasters.”
https://americanmind.org/salvo/only-real-masculinity-can-overcome-groyperism/
Too clever by half. He’s just another grifter that will say whatever necessary to gain clout and followers to line his pocketbook and get attention.
To be fair, I reject any variant of “masculinity” pushed by a purported male saying “having sex with a woman is gay.”
It’s progressive word gaming and he’s been raised on that. That much I get.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW7IF64bS88
On Piers Morgan he said he was a virgin.
Almost like this has been explored before the world was online.
Isn’t Fuentes’ popularity completely artificial?
The Left loves him far more than the Right does. By pretending that an idiot racist is popular, the Left gets to battle easy strawmen.
Better fight against Fuentes than someone like Rand Paul or Thomas Massie.
“According to NCRI, Fuentes’s rise was driven by synchronized amplification networks, anonymous booster accounts, foreign engagement farms, and a media ecosystem that mistook manufactured noise for genuine political momentum.”
Isn’t the NCRI funded by Israel?
Is NCRI any more credible than SPLC?
Say what you want about the NCRI, but at least they aren’t a bunch of splitters like the Judean People’s Front!
“For Gen Z men, woke impositions compound the deformations of hyperreality, which is itself intrinsically feminizing. Digitally mediated communication promotes relational fluidity by concealing and flattening distinctions in social hierarchy. It privileges emotional expressivity and performative empathy, and edges out unmediated real-world relationships by offering an overabundance of simulated social bonding. It homogenizes viewpoints by rewarding consensus within one’s group while penalizing direct confrontation and logical, linear argument. And it encourages self-construction on the basis of signals of emotional affirmation such as engagement stats.”
Can I get that with Thousand Island?
I hope that you’re being sarcastic there. Because the concept that Lee was trying to communicate is really fucking important.
EvilSheldon:
Help me out. I am a graduate of Memphis State.
That quote makes no sense to me. Way too many multi-syllable words in there for me.
Then he should communicate in plain English, not pomo gibberish.
“It must also take into account the hyperreal nature of digital discourse by emphasizing the world outside the screen, which is the only way to reestablish common referents in the real.”
At least he didn’t put [real] in brackets.
Boiled down to one sentence:
Likes-driven online culture is inherently feminizing (and that culture is the only one that Gen-Z men have ready access to.)
put down the phone
talk to people in real life
The concept being that the terminally online are condemned to a virtual hell and social retardation?
CT:
Dissecting a postmodern concept is probably going to require some postmodern vernacular.
Pope Jimbo:
I’ll take a shot at it.
“Young guys are tired of being told their garbage in person and in mainstream places (such as classrooms). Due to this, they prefer online communication which allows for more social mobility as class and cultural differences are hidden behind online avatars. Since it’s text and audio, they perform for the audience of every other young guy. As people self sort into sub groups online, they take on more of the traits that are considered good in the sub-group. Large numbers of these groups push for self-improvement and personal responsibility.”
Human beings make decisions based on mental models of reality, not reality itself. Various aspects of the modern world, including visual entertainments, and social media interactions, trick our minds into creating or modifying those mental models in a way that is increasingly divergent from actual reality. We perceive fictional narratives as data points in forming our world views and likes on facebook et al as social approval. The woke world view is heavily pushed by these false, but impactful phenomenon leading people to form mental world views that are in line with that set of ideas rather than reality.
I think I captured the gist, not sure if this qualifies as plain English
audience of every other young guy
Absent real adults – Lord of the Flies.
Neph’s rewording captures the true parts.
The part that may or may not be true is “Social relations are inherently feminine or at least feminizing.”
If you believe that there is a social/objective duality to reality and that those correspond to feminine and masculine, then it is plausible that living online is feminizing. The flip side of this is that living offline in the objective/concrete world would be masculinizing and thus you’d expect women who lived in that way to be more “masculine.” And, that’s not an atypical viewpoint, though historically it’s been deeply confounded by class issues. The lives in the house reading books/playing piano/having tea parties woman is definitely more feminine that the car mechanic tomboy.
living online is feminizing
Glibs women (mythical as they be) arch an eyebrow.
5 will get you 10 that he was a 2015 MAGA supporter in order to help fuck the Reps for the Dem’s.
In 2024 he was against him in order to help discredit him.
Dude is as fake as the “groupers” who supposedly follow him.
Yup, that dude screams DNC plant. Im sure he is getting funded in someway by them.
Lab rats
A record-breaking year for electric vehicle (EV) sales in Norway puts the country within touching distance of effectively erasing gasoline and diesel cars from its new car market.
A total of 95.9% of all new cars registered in Norway last year were EVs, according to data published Friday by the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV). In December, 98% of new cars were EVs.
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The figures reaffirm the oil-producing country’s position as a global leader in sustainable transportation.
“2025 has been a very special car year. We see the effect of long-term and targeted electric car policy, and how specific tax decisions have immediate effects on the market,” OFV director Geir Inge Stokke said in a statement.
Good for them. I’m sure the lessons learned will be universally applicable here.
Yes. You can use your vast oil wealth and sales to subsidize EV sales and create a vast charging infrastructure within a country with relatively small population and reasonable travel distances.
If they were True Believers, shouldn’t they cap all those oil wells?
Instead of dirty oil money, they could run their country on lutefisk sales.
Ctrl-F “subsidy” – no results.
Yeah, pull the other one.
inhabiting a version of himself
That’s like, so deep, man.
Terrible news
Crude fell below $60 a barrel for the first time in almost five years last month as political leaders began to inch towards a Russia-Ukraine peace deal which could increase the glut in the global market if western sanctions are lifted on Russian exports.
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Opec normally tries to manage the output of its members to keep prices within a “Goldilocks” range: high enough to guarantee them healthy revenues, but without becoming so high that consumers take up cheaper, low-carbon alternatives such as electric cars and heat pumps.
How can we force the plebs to conform to our behavior models if we can’t make energy unaffordable?
It’s almost like that “green” stuff isn’t actually “cheaper” when you remove the massive subsidies.
Woah, you are saying burning oil to generate electricity to charge batteries to power an electric motor is less efficient than a motor than burns gasoline? That’s just crazy talk!
I haven’t checked, but I’ll bet the party of soda taxes and limiting the size of a big gulp are suddenly upset that EBT won’t buy junk food.
Narrator: Kevin was not surprised.
He’s not Kevin. He is The Other Kevin.
TOK:
It is OK to shame the poors. It is not OK to take their money away.
The same people that can say you can’t talk bad about their [sub]culture while also saying these people have no choice because of capitalist advertising fooling them.
The market is awash with more crude than global industrial activity can absorb, in part due to weaker than expected economic growth in major economies and the impact of the US president Donald Trump’s trade war against China, which has dulled demand from the world’s biggest energy importer.
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Oil analysts at the Australian investment bank Macquarie wrote in a recent note to clients that the downward price momentum was already outstripping their weak expectations for the market, which it has previously characterised as “cartoonishly oversupplied”.
That bastard Trump is wrecking our glorious green future.
Reducing demand for crude is only good when WE do it!
Accept the warm embrace of the collective; or else
We asked the governor to weigh in on Edgewater’s decision, as well as Denver’s choice to maintain its existing structure. In a statement, he said:
“If local communities like Denver don’t use the law we passed to get this right to save restaurants, and restaurants continue to suffer and close, costing workers their livelihoods, then it’s imperative the state intervene to fix it.”
Libertarian hero.
*Some sort of convoluted bullshit about minimum wages and tipped workers.
In 1994, I got a job at IBM as a repairman for $10.20/hr. (Min wage was $5.25) I would have stabbed people for that money. It helped me finish school and keep my family somewhat above water. To qualify for that job, I had to have a lot of electronic repair skillz that I learned in the Marines.
I can’t believe that a dishwasher in CO can make $18.17/hr now. And think they are still underpaid.
When the money is getting cheaper, you need more of it.
Murderous malfeasance
Coal is a dead energy source. It’s costly, inefficient, and deadly both for workers and for all species on Earth alike. For these reasons, coal has seen a rapid decline in the US, as the country shifts to significantly better power sources.
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There is no point to opening new coal plants, because they’re enormously expensive, and it’s getting worse. This is why almost all of new US capacity this year has been solar or wind generation.
But that hasn’t stopped republicans from trying. The current squatter in the White House, who cannot legally hold office in the US, is doing his best to force the high costs and poison from this dead energy source onto the US populace. He’s already dedicated $625 million of taxpayer money to propping up this dead energy source, and the former oil CEO he installed into the Energy Department fired his latest salvo today.
The DoE ordered Craig Power Plant in Craig, Colorado to stay open for at least three months, the day before the plant was set to retire.
He only did it to piss you off.
They understand that electricity comes from sockets.
Coal sucks, it’s inefficient, expensive to prevent from causing actual pollution, requires transport of enormous amounts of fuel long distances and the mining is dangerous and destructive. It is vastly better than wind or solar in terms of reliability and cost. It would also be almost completely obsolete if the idiot evil greenies had not succeeded in villifying nuclear which solves every issue with coal at a higher efficiency and lower cost.
And if the green commies had not also vilified the cleanest of the fossil fuels, natural gas. Funny enough, at one point they actually supported nat gas. That was before massive amounts of it were discovered in the Eastern US a decade or so back.
Shift in the narrative?
This is the daily summary of important stories from a local proggie news site. I noticed this in their summary:
Seems like they are now trying the old “Sure there is fraud, but it is old news! Why are you bringing it up again? RACIST!”
Then why the fuck are they still receiving millions a year in guvbux?
“Durham revealed her toned frame in a skimpy bikini as she relaxed on the beach”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-15427383/Mark-Wahlberg-wife-Rhea-Durham-beach-Barbados.html
Toned frame?
Eyewash: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-15428641/Sydney-Sweeneys-box-office-flop-streak-officially-ends-new-film-Housemaid-hit.html
Too bad the costar is a dumb progressive.
“The Florida rapper was arrested Wednesday night in Collier County on a charge of drug paraphernalia, per TMZ.
Law enforcement says Venegas, 22, is being held without bond on a 24-hour hold because he was already out on bond from a February arrest tied to a firearm with an altered serial number.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-15427043/Island-Boys-Franky-Venegas-arrested-New-Years-Eve.html
I can’t believe that person would use drugs.
Congratulations, Franky. You’ve managed to gross me out. Not many people manage that.
JFC I’m trying to eat lunch.
🤢🤮
^^
This
Sounds like you need to be more stoic. :-p
I think I need some penicillin after just viewing those photos.