I had an old friend come through town this week. We used to frequently travel together in Europe, go camping in California, and hang out in his compound (he did very well in financial engineering) in the great town of Nederland. I even got to see the infamous Dead Guy Festival. Many fine evenings with him hanging out with Spud and me. We’ve stayed in touch but hadn’t seen one another in meatspace for at least 15 years. It was fun watching his reactions to the goings-on here in the Gulch. And these haven’t-hung-out-in-a-lifetime things can go one of two ways, either we’ve grown apart and it was nice to see you but we then lose touch OR we pick right back up where we left off. It was the latter. We both have aged, but we both are still 11 year old boys trapped in adult bodies. No real point to this story, just relating why I had no bizarre incidents this week to regale you with.
Birthdays today include a spy who was certainly not a cat; a champion cyclist; a famous Jew-hater; the creator of a SoCal amusement park; a pianist whose work I love; a bass player whose work I love; a singer/songwriter of very modest talent who made a career out of being a lesbian; an actor who made a career out of being a flamboyant gay; a bizarre and usually unfunny chick who was in my favorite Jerry Lewis film; and a guy who was in the worst film about wine ever made.
“We have to creatively kick the can down the road.” Here’s a simple answer: fuck you, cut spending.
Imagine, oppo research being used in campaigns. Inconceivable!
OK commenters, raise your hands.
Were we the only people to whom this was screamingly evident for decades?
We’re not supposed to notice the commonality.
Let it die. It’s as interesting as SNL.
See, it’s OK to politicize science, but not with the wrong politicization.
I know this cost us money, but still, it’s amusing as hell.
The Old Guy pays tribute here to SugarFree’s gall bladder.
whaddup doh’
L’Chaim!
/feel better SF
I keep hearing that the recipients of the payola were “informants”. What information did they provide? What did SPLC do with it?
And what was done with the money they received?
How much of an annual payment separates an informant from an employee?
+1 1099
I am reminded of organizations which “help” the homeless or the poor by creating more of them, such as the Democratic Party and the galaxy of NGO’s to whom they give our tax dollars.
Yep. Of what help were those informants? What did they help shut down or stop?
a famous Jew-hater
Cockburn was neither French nor German and the most famous of Jew-haters are all French or German.
Then he gets an A for effort.
And a F for an unfortunate last name.
a champion cyclist
Perhaps the other Krebs?
I was going to guess Melanie Safka.
Or Milutin Milanković.
I can’t figure out why he kept the loot at his house.
I also can’t figure out why he didn’t retire from the agency once he had his millions. Although since this was all done through a super-secret program he created out of thin air, he probably boxed himself in so he couldn’t quit or whoever was put in charge of the program as his replacement would figure out it was a scam.
I’d tell you, but it is top secret, so hush-hush.
Again I don’t want to “Select all squares with motorcycles” – what is it?
He learned it from someone.
The chain of guys before him that didn’t got away with it.
very modest talent
Happy birthday Melissa Etheridge!
Q: What do you call a dozen lesbians with AR-15s?
A: Militia Etheridge/obviously old joke
Lol
Nice.
was in the worst film about wine
Happy birthday Henry Fonda!
I should have added, “…and in a film about the worst president the US had up until Wilson.”
Still applies to Fonda.
I am frequently counted as a bot because I can never guess correctly which goddamn squares contain motorcycles. Do the tires count? Mirrors? F’ed if I know.
That’s the exact kind of fuzzy logic that computers fail at!
Yeah, I hate that shit. I refuse anymore.
I recently tried to buy something from ebay and went through that after clicking “buy it now”. I then closed the page and bought the same thing from Amazon. Check my e-mail and ebay was also sending me the damn thing even though I didn’t do the thing. So this keeps me safe how?
Perfect fit for my father’s definition of an expert; an ex- is a has been and a -spurt is a drip.
I just texted an old college buddy to wish him a happy birthday. Lost touch around the time of the plague, so it hasn’t been all that long. Have not heard back. 🙁
I call up my best army buddy about once a year. He’s never been chatty in the phone though. Haven’t seen the guy since 2007
Someone’s been cribbing from Kathy’s and Zohran’s notes.
Good morning and hello everyone.
Great links as usual OMWC. And Wilco to boot!
Good morning, ‘loosey!
Music for the image up top.
Had it gone otherwise.
Had it gone very badly
Thumbsucker on Democrats celebrity gap!
There are no Democrat celebrities. It is known.
I’ve heard Hollywood banned Communists once!
Lisa Rinna told me celebrities shouldn’t be politicians. I mean if she said it, isn’t that enough?
Republican celebrities become politicians. Democrat politicians become celebrities.
🤣😂
I could hardly come up with three Dems who are more smug, condescending, and inauthentic than those. Well done!
Never mind the racism – excluding Brandon Johnson!
White man commits fraud, gets CBS News to admit it is an issue. Just remember, this is an old, white, MAN.
In a way, it’s a testament to the productivity of the American people that fraud, at the level of the total economy of several small and not so small countries, can be absorbed so easily.
In a just world, the level of theft our government, at all levels, engages in would result in politicians hanging from lamp-posts. Instead, we get things like 70% of the population of LA voting for some brand of communist that will not only tolerate, but actually endorse and foster the institutions that promulgate and profit from it.
Oh the level of parasitism, of which fraud is still only a part, on the productive host – yeah, astonishing. The real question is can it be sustained?
The politicians tolerate it as long as they get their skim.
+1 wilding
Unlike every other job in the history of ever.
/totally not pretentious assholes, the lot of them
Unless the dictator is Jeff Zucker. Then it’s cool.
…with my tax dollars.
Go fuck yourselves.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-03-at-6.02.02-PM.png
Permission denied. Oh well, just another list I’m on
powerline doesn’t like screenshot or links to individual meme for some reason.
I get the same error.
Tres Cool:
The reason they don’t like the direct (or deep) links is that for a long time, those were a common way to set up a scam. Have a web page, sell advertising on it, then instead of hosting your own content, you deep link to someone else’s. Their server and bandwidth utilization go up, you make the moneys.
A large number of sites started redirecting deep links to shock/joke images due to that.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/06/the-week-in-pictures-pulling-pelley-edition.php
The helicopter one.
“Jokes about dropping communists out of helicopters are like communists dropped out of helicopters
…
They never get old.”
My list of internet besties is getting smaller, for reasons. I was in a group of 7 or 8 that were friends in VN, I knew them all very well, some knew each other. I was unfriended by one and unfriended another for politics. Two moved on to their final reward. Two are closing in and are unable to communicate their thoughts. That leaves just 2 of us. Over the last 35 years we shared a lot of good times, visits, fishing trips, phone calls but time has taken it’s toll.
Yesterday was a high school meet up, 5 classmates that get together every 2 weeks, in an extended care residence where one lives. Even that group has gotten smaller
Now besties are anyone still living that we’ve ever known in the past.
My friend group has gotten pretty small.
The one friend who held the weekly gaming at his house moved eight years ago. Two of the guys I had known forever dropped me like a bad habit. I have to assume over politics, one is a communist, the other is a self loathing pro Muslim former Catholic. They haven’t returned my calls going on for seven years. I finally gave up on reaching out to either of them five years ago or so. Other friends moved and once I was out of site they stopped calling.
This group of people who I have only met a handful are the closest to just three or four people I have known for decades. Life is funny that way.
It was not yet clear who Becerra would face in the general election. His top rivals came down to Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator backed by President Donald Trump, and Democrat Tom Steyer, a billionaire climate activist who poured $215 million of his own money into his campaign.
So we’ve already progressed from “OMG no Democrat might be on the ballot!” to “We know one Democrat already will make it, and now to see if the second one will too” in just a week after counting ballots.
I think everybody knows that was never going to happen.
She was very good in Roseanne; I don’t really know her much otherwise.
She was very good in Roseanne
Was that her sister’s name?
No.
Roseanne’s sister was Jackie played by a different actress. Sandra Bernhardt played her on-and-off lesbian friend.
Sigh. Poorly executed joke attempt. Too obscure I suppose.
Wasn’t she the one that wrote about sexually assaulting her sister digitally (not in the analog/digital sense)?
That was Lena Dunham.
For the record, I’m not proud of knowing that.
lol
The Marxist privledge in Minnesota is insane.
You’re free to worship but protestors invading and denying that are also free to do so cause…reasons.
I’d like to see the response to a conservative protest that disrupts a Unitarian Universalist service.
Or, I don’t know, maybe a conservative protest that disrupts abortion services, where disrupts might just mean make people with wombs who are attempting to empty said wombs contemplate what they are doing as they walk, unobstructed, to the door.
Or just stand nearby, praying silently. Was that Britain? I can see it happening in the US too if it hasn’t already.
Don’t have a Kao man.
Keith Ellison/Tim Walz applaud.
A little pay bump for Mr Kao.
Make the church a private club, members only
“Robot soccer player that will likely render humans obsolete kicks ball so hard it dents wall”
https://nypost.com/2026/06/06/tech/robot-soccer-player-kicks-hole-in-wall/
“Robot revolt? Viral footage shows humanoid bot kicking child during sci-fi nightmare”
https://nypost.com/2026/06/06/world-news/robot-revolt-viral-footage-shows-humanoid-bot-kicking-child-during-live-demo/
Now I know why these kids are carrying these huge Stanley cups of water.
Soccer is still a thing?
[*golf claps* for ignoring the U.S. hosting the World Cup this summer]
I expect little kids to try it and British prison colonies.
Hear me out. Robot soccer, full contact, with a metal ball and medieval weapons.
BattleBots needs to cash in on FIFA fever!
Yeah, only if all the robots were made by different humans.
Robot teams made by the same company would just play to a draw every time.
That would be entertaining.
Unlike regular sportsball.
“Raman gained 23,115 votes in Friday’s update, compared to 10,711 for Pratt and 20,419 for Bass. In a single ballot drop, Raman netted 12,404 votes on Pratt….
With observers estimating that 550,000 to 600,000 ballots may still remain countywide, there are likely well over 200,000 mayoral votes left to count.
That is more than enough for Raman to make up the difference if she keeps posting numbers like Friday’s.”
https://nypost.com/2026/06/05/opinion/prospects-dim-for-spencer-pratt-los-angeles/
Does it matter? It is pretty obvious Pratt can not win the general election. Angelinos deserve getting it good and hard.
Not obvious to me.
Because even if Pratt winds up at #2, nobody is going to switch their vote from one of the losing Dems to the Republican.
I am hearing that chick, incredibly, is to the left of Bass – meaning her win is guaranteed to be engineered. We are watching it happen in real time.
It’s deeply disturbing.
“President Donald Trump knows more about sports ‘than just about any human being not in the business,’ his son and namesake wrote on X last month.
But faced with a Pro Football Hall of Famer in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin on Friday, the elder Trump couldn’t help but admit he was at a loss.
‘Look at this guy over here,’ Trump said while seated alongside Cleveland Browns legend and former Wisconsin Badgers left tackle Joe Thomas. ‘I don’t know who he is, but he is one hell of a specimen.'”
https://www.dailymail.com/sport/nfl/article-15878451/NFL-Donald-Trump-Hall-Famer-Wisconsin.html
Wouldn’t recognize him either.
“He shoots a dozen hole-in-ones every weekend.”
“One hell of a specimen”, he said. Then Trump checked his teeth.
“Revealed: Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico’s history of romantic trysts with young state House staffers includes aide he wooed with flowers, traded heart emojis and called his queen”
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15873971/Texas-James-Talarico-history-dating-state-House-aides.html
Surprised they are female.
Pendulum…
Tarzan swings both ways, too
Hey look over there
Millett, an Obama appointee, peppered Roth with questions about the extent of the Trump administration’s view of its power to “move fast and break things” without being subject to legal challenge.
“If the government decides, very quickly, to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty — the people whose ancestors that was the first thing they saw coming to this country, but the government moved too fast — nothing can be done?” the judge asked.
“I think that’s right, yes,” Roth responded.
It spoils the view.
He’s more likely to cover it in gold leaf.
Tears in Richmond for the ancestors who followed Lee and Jackson?
Trump has repeatedly ridiculed the lawsuit over the project, asserting in a social media post that it was “brought by a woman walking her dog, who has absolutely No Standing to bring such a suit.” In fact, the National Trust has claimed standing through Alison Hoagland, a historian and retired professor who has volunteered on various preservation boards and regularly visits the area.
Hoagland’s court declaration says nothing about a dog.
The dog is a red herring.
As is often pointed out – cats and laser pointers.
“After three days of juror selection, attorneys selected 12 jurors and six alternates for the trial, narrowed down from 600 initial summonses. None of the jurors are Black….
“The prosecution used its final strikes to remove the remaining qualified Black jurors from the jury pool, raising serious concerns about fairness and equal justice,” the Next Generation Action Network civil rights organization, based in Dallas, wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.
“We respect the court, but we will not remain silent … Every person deserves a fair trial and confidence that justice is being administered without bias. We are calling on the court to ensure Mr Anthony’s constitutional rights are fully protected.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/06/trial-killing-2025-texas-high-school-track-meet
The right to black jurors?
NGAN, please
Yup, there is no such right. And the Guardian knows that.
And without fail- as soon as the guy finishes with the trusses in my garage and Im ready to fire up the trusty Honda to mow: it starts to rain.
#SaveStargate
Another Trumpista authoritarian poseur
On 21 June, he will face the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda in the runoff. Backed by the current president, Gustavo Petro, Cepeda advocates continuing the government’s “total peace” plan of negotiating the dismantling of all criminal groups, which has so far failed to stem rising levels of violence.
De la Espriella is a criminal lawyer with a lavish lifestyle who has never held public office, gives military salutes despite never having served in the armed forces and has filed more than 100 lawsuits against journalists. Analysts interpret his lead in the polls as the latest example of a wave of far-right admirers of Bukele and Donald Trump who have been winning elections across Latin America in recent years.
Good golly, where do these people come from, and how do they get anybody to vote for them?
Donald’s tentacles extend worldwide.
I first read that as “testicles.”
Obligatory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwNurAxrsqY
But according to Tiziano Breda, a senior analyst for Latin America and the Caribbean at the NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (Acled), De la Espriella has clearly modelled himself on El Salvador’s self-styled “world’s coolest dictator”. “He wants to be a Bukele,” said the analyst.
But hoping to become Bukele and actually becoming him are two different things, Breda said, noting that, unlike the Salvadorian autocrat, who has a grip on his congress, De la Espriella – whose party will hold only four of the Colombian Senate’s 108 seats and just one of the lower house’s 188 seats – “would not have the legislative majority that allowed Bukele to dismantle the rule of law and concentrate power in the executive”.
Even so, Breda believes the lawyer’s election could pose risks to Colombian democracy, as he has shown little regard for democratic checks and balances – or for human rights in general.
Where would we be without NGO telepaths to foretell the future and warn us of the dangers of ultra right wing despotism?
The only guy I know from El Salvador is jacked about what’s been happening there. He said you can go out at night now and the economy is booming.
“Perhaps the most revealing moment came from Megyn Kelly, who on her podcast took the “election fraud” grievance in a different direction. Rather than simply attacking election officials, she turned her fire on the voters themselves, ranting about mail-in voting: “Do we really want to make it that convenient? I mean these are lazy-ass people. If they can’t get off their fat asses and get to election polling stations on Election Day, then we don’t want you.” The mask slipped entirely. The objection was never about fraud. The objection is about voter participation. Specifically, the participation of people who tend not to vote Republican.”
https://www.salon.com/2026/06/06/right-wing-media-melts-down-spencer-pratt-vote-count/
Democrats are lazy ass people.
The truth hurts, Salon.
I’m good with that.
Fewer people should be allowed to vote.
“None of these middling elements would be particularly grating if it weren’t so apparent that “Cars” had an ulterior capitalist motive. I don’t agree with applying gender to toys, but it seems more than convenient that the Western world’s most successful animation studio happened to create characters that could be easily transformed into the same type of toy that’s been marketed to young boys for decades.”
https://www.salon.com/2026/06/06/how-cars-ruined-pixar/
Oh no!
What?
Ratatouille (mid at best) WALL-E (looked great but another Malthusian propoganda piece) and Up (not good at all) were duds.
Cars was not.
Israeli soldiers shot a baby.
Did they stand him up against a wall and offer him a final cigarette and a blindfold?
A baby in a car trying to run over the soldier?