About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

Wife of sloopy, mother to three bright, curious, and highly active young girls. Perpetually exhausted.

520 Comments

  1. Yusef drives a Kia

    ‘Mornin’ Banjos,

  2. The Late P Brooks

    Live ammo for the military occupation forces.

  3. UnCivilServant

    Morning, Banjos.

    I wish I had more to say, but don’t.

    • Ted S.

      So no idiotic tickets to complain about?

      • UnCivilServant

        At the time.

        Since then I’ve had a few hundred emails.

        Now I’m irritable.

      • Festus

        Now?

      • UnCivilServant

        Everyone wants my attention at once… then they don’t answer me when I respond to them.

  4. The Late P Brooks

    A new peer-reviewed study from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that in-school transmission of COVID-19 is “extremely rare.”

    Fake news. It hides.

    • AlexinCT

      You will be surprised how much more of this will be coming down the pike now that they no longer have to ultra politicize things to hurt bad orange man.

    • rhywun

      Biden’ its time.

    • WTF

      Kind of like all the global warming that never happened is hiding in the oceans.

      • juris imprudent

        Just saw an article trumpeting a study that says carbon sinks will turn into carbon sources! I didn’t read it, but I’m fairly sure magic was involved.

      • Cy

        It’s COMING!

        Meanwhile… all of the controls/taxes/restrictions/grants/contracts instituted by governments are still enacted. It’s weird how global warming got side lined and we haven’t heard shit about it.

        It’s a good time to go watch Al Gore talk about the end of times in ‘Inconvenient Truth (2006).’ I was young and dumb during that era and believed some of that shit. Strange thing, the oceans are still at the same damn level. Now it’s STORMS! The STORMS are going to get you because of “climate change.”

        *sigh*

      • AlexinCT

        It’s weird how global warming got side lined and we haven’t heard shit about it.

        They found a new and more immanent crisis to peddle their rest through?

      • hayeksplosives

        Ding! Ding! Ding!

        We have a winner!

        Your prize will be liberation from the responsibility of ever making a decision again for the rest of your life!

        The government is Mather, the government is Father. They will take care of you and protect you, even protecting you from icky thoughts.

      • AlexinCT

        I wanted to laugh…

        Then I remembered that while we see this as dark humor, the left sees this as key component of their utopian world.

      • Rebel Scum

        CO2 sequestration to the oceans is real.

      • WTF

        That’s not the argument they were making. They were claiming that the actual temperature increase is in the deep ocean, without ever explaining how the deep ocean can be warmed without warming of the atmosphere and the shallow ocean. And as far as CO2 sequestration in the oceans, that actually explains why increasing CO2 levels follow warming, rather than cause warming, as liquids can hold less dissolved gas at higher temperatures.

      • AlexinCT

        SCIENCE DENIER!

        A consensus exists that this is reality. Why do you insist in making a nuisance out of your self and demanding for some actual proof/details?

        Accept the directives of your betters!

      • WTF

        It cracks me up that people try to claim that science is done by consensus, rather than hypothesis, testing, and observation.

      • AlexinCT

        More importantly is the fact that the scientific process only moves ahead when you are absolutely open about the data underlying your hypothesis and the falsification process, neither of which seem to be a requirement of those peddling AGW cultism so they can reset us all.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I remember having an argument with Tony (or whichever writer was using him as sock puppet) on TOS. I brought up the fact that the Lamarkian view of evolution was the consensus until Darwin formulated a hypothesis that fit the facts better. I remember a getting great deal of special pleading in his responses.

      • Plisade

        Consensus = Democracy

        And everything is democracy, even communism, if we vote for it. Facts are things we vote into existence. It’s true if enough of us want it to be.

      • zwak

        Reality?

        Its Realitx!

      • Rebel Scum

        I can’t find it now but Patrick Moore had a presentation making the case that the industrial revolution saved us because CO2 levels in the atmosphere were getting too low in part due to being absorbed into the oceans and used by sea life.

      • hayeksplosives

        The Gulf of Mexico recovered quickly from Deepwater Horizon spill when it was found that the oil slick was being devoured and broken down by bacteria in the ocean.

        And politicians are arrogant enough to believe that only they can save the earth.

        Look, pal, Mother Nature doesn’t need your interference; she’s been at this planetary change and survive game for over 4 billion years.

      • UnCivilServant

        One thing I remembered most about the Exxon Valdez incident was that the coasts that recovered fastest were those that were untreated. The beaches where they cleaned the oil off ended up sterilized and dead.

        We knew oil was biodegradable a long time before deepwater horizon.

      • Fatty Bolger

        that actually explains why increasing CO2 levels follow warming, rather than cause warming

        An inconvenient truth they always try to handwave away.

    • The Other Kevin

      Our school district kept careful track of transmission. Kids have been in assigned seats all year, even at lunch. They determined no spread occurred at school, it was all outside activities and spread among family members. So now the kids are in school, and you can only do online learning if you test positive, have been exposed, or have a doctor’s note.

      • juris imprudent

        Your poor teachers – so let down by their union!

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        My kids have been in their (private) school since August. Governor Dickless (Beshear) recommended that schools not open; the faculty cancelled the opening of school, which was promptly reversed when the board met after receiving hundreds of angry letters from parents.

        Not a single case of community spread. Then we got forcefully shut down in November. They’re back now in school now.

  5. Stinky Wizzleteats

    GoDaddy is an absolute shit company. Who’s the web host here I wonder.

    • Festus

      Well “GoDaddy” does sound rather iffy on Pornhub searches.

      • Count Potato

        I remember their ads being not woke.

      • Festus

        #metoo

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Young Danica Patrick in hot pants suckered a lot of people.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        All I heard was, “I’ll host.” When I watched those ads.

      • JMBOO

        If only she could have turned left.

  6. Swiss Servator

    One these big GOP donors should spend that money on an ISP and Hosting company, rather than giving the money to politicians. Do something that might actually support freedom.

    • AlexinCT

      The politicians stole the election and want to destroy Trump precisely because he threatened their racket. They have been getting rich selling us out to China and picking the winners and losers (especially in the business world) in return for hefty checks. These monopolies exist because it helps the mandarinate. Most of these big donors realize that when Twatter Assbook, or Coockle can simply pay off politicians to let them flex their monopolistic muscle, they would be fools to piss that money away.

      • Swiss Servator

        “Twatter Assbook, or Coockle”

        Is that you, Block Insane YoMamma?

      • AlexinCT

        It’s me and my most transparent and ethical administration evah, yo!

      • Ted S.

        Alex also learned a new vocabulary word recently, based on how much he’s been using “mandarinate”.

      • AlexinCT

        Actually that is a word I used a decade or two ago and just felt needed to come back. It’s a fitting term.

      • Festus

        Mandarin oranges are pretty tasty. My Grandma always called them “Jap Oranges” so there is that.

      • Pine_Tree

        You know how you have oranges, and then you have “mandarin oranges” – the little ones? Once sitting in a meeting in China, there was a bowl of little oranges on the table. One of my US-ian colleagues asked “what do y’all call these?”, and our Chinese guys looked at us like he was a nut. “It’s an orange. I thought you knew what an orange was.”

        They have plenty of the big ones – just don’t make the distinction, especially with “mandarin”. Thought it was funny.

      • AlexinCT

        Damned gweilos..

      • Swiss Servator

        I don’t want to be a Mandarin. I want to be a Babu!

      • Tejicano

        All that time I spent learning to speak, read, and write Mandarin thinking it would give me special rights and privileges. And a snazy outfit.

      • Rat on a train

        Don’t feel bad. I learned Russian, but we won the cold war. Now I just get to cringe at the bad Russian in films and State Department propoganda.

    • mrfamous

      What makes you think GOP donors want to support freedom?

      • Old Man With Candy

        Two of them did. One of them is dead now.

        Not much, I admit, but two more than Team Blue.

  7. AlexinCT

    Democrats are still in the midst of a temper tantrum.

    This is about the fucking mandarinate making sure they at a minimum label this guy as evil (so they can then take revenge and punish anyone that says otherwise) and if they can sneak it, keep him from staying politically relevant and a thorn in their side. Especially the republicans that want to go back to fucking us over and pretending they are different, like they used to back in the good old days, without worrying about Trump being a king maker and not letting them go back to the giddy days of playing voters like two dollar whores.

    • Agent Cooper

      The Democrats ARE a temper tantrum.

  8. Animal

    This is a good start.

    Indeed. Let’s get after it.

    • UnCivilServant

      The long term ramifications of handing the world to china far outweigh any potential benefits of a split – of which there are few.

      • WTF

        The Democrats are already handing the world to China. Because as we’ve seen they are on China’s payroll. And they are determined to crush anyone who doesn’t go along with their program. So staying together and under the thumb of China’s puppets doesn’t seem to carry much benefit at this point.

      • UnCivilServant

        Then the solution, rather than make it wasier on China, is to get rid of the puppets. Retake our country, not dice it for easier consumption.

      • WTF

        Since the puppets are firmly in control of the reins of government, including the bureaucracies and alphabet agencies, and are using it to punish and destroy dissenters, I’m open to suggestions on how getting rid of the puppets might happen.

      • UnCivilServant

        Simple, [REDACTED By order of the Ministry of Truth].

      • UnCivilServant

        Also, if there’s no hope of removal, you sure as shit aren’t going to get a split out of them.

      • WTF

        Not an amicable split anyway. It all depends on how the military rank and file react if red states decide to secede.

      • juris imprudent

        I would expect the military to split, just like families will. If we can’t do the Czech/Slovak thing, it will end up much more like a Balkan thing.

      • WTF

        Yeah, Balkanization is most likely, and it will be awful.

      • Drake

        Irish Democracy is probably the only short-term peaceful alternative.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Easier said than done, as Private Hudson said, I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked pal!

        And they’re intent on rigging the game so we get our asses kicked in perpetuity.

        A national divorce is the only way to prevent bloodshed at this point.

      • UnCivilServant

        As I said above, if there’s no hope of removing them, you’re not getting a national divorce. It will be all or nothing.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I don’t think they have the stomach for it.

      • juris imprudent

        They will whine you into surrendering.

      • Viking1865

        It depends on which narrative they adopt, in their fever brains. One of the common talking points among the woke left types is that its actually the blue producers that are being dragged down by the red parasites. People with that line of thinking might be very happy indeed to see The Gulf Republic break off.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The, frustratingly smug “Voting against your own interests!” narrative is often coupled with the “Red States are welfare queens,” herp a derp. What they often fail to say is the reason that red states get more federal dollars is due the the fact that the preponderance of DoD spending is done in those states.

        If they want to talk about out of control Defense spending, I am up for that. However, I don’t think that is what they mean.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They truly believe that Apple, Google, and the like are all they need to survive.

        The reality is that the industries required for subsistence are not nearly as woke.

      • Viking1865

        “not dice it for easier consumption”

        Let’s assume, just for the sake of argument, a split into four successor states. Call them the Atlantic, Pacific, Lake, and Gulf Republics.

        The GDP of Japan is less than 5 trillion. The US is over 20 trillion. So you can assume that the four successor American states will all be one of the top 6 or 7 economies in the world. The oceans are still there. The American nuclear arsenal is still there, its just split up. There’s still over 500 million small arms in private hands.

        This idea that a peaceful split means the Chinese hordes somehow acquire a blue water navy that can cross the ocean is pretty suspect to me. Now, obviously if there was a hot war every faction would be looking for foreign allies. Or maybe not, maybe the nuclear factor deters anyone from such a risky endeavor.

      • UnCivilServant

        They will immediately have the Blue water Navy of the left coast People’s Democratic Republic.

        And they don’t need to send troops, their current strategy will continue to work, but have more traction on a divided nation.

      • WTF

        The Chicoms already know trying to beat us in a hot war is doomed to massive failure, that’s why they are fighting using other means.

      • juris imprudent

        But, but, but we can’t protect Taiwan from the CCP! [As though we can now.]

      • AlexinCT

        Who needs a hot war? China has been at war with us for more than a decade and we have pretended otherwise. It’s an economic and political influence war. They steal our IP, set up rules of commerce nobody anywhere else would ever accept or go along with (but we do), conduct operations on out own soil to undermine both our confidence in our system, and our sellout political class has turned a blind eye to it. They went after Trump cause their masters in Beijing told them they needed to stop Trump from derailing the Chinese long term agenda. China is basically maneuvering us into a position where it will not have to worry about any US response when it goes first after Taiwan, and then whatever other neighbor it wants. They plan to neve have to confront us in a real shooting war at all and to win by attrition. The only way the war goes hot is if we decide we have to.

      • juris imprudent

        Our precious Intellectual Property. That happens to be one fiction I don’t believe in and the fact that it is now a cornerstone of our economy is probably not a good thing.

        The Chinese are playing a long game, and they have absolute advantages in doing that. Doesn’t really matter all that much what we do, though I would clearly agree that we should not be helping the CCP.

      • AlexinCT

        The Chinese are playing a long game, and they have absolute advantages in doing that. Doesn’t really matter all that much what we do, though I would clearly agree that we should not be helping the CCP.

        Can’t disagree more. There is plenty we could do. For one, letting China tell us they will not allow companies in China to repatriate earnings without a CCP approval (a rule that should have by and of itself disqualified China from being considered a member of any economic organization) has force US companies that thought setting up plants in China was a good idea. Now those plants have to share all IP and tech with the ChiComm military and then compete with a cheap knockoff competitor financed by the CCP. The worst thing is they can’t pick up operations and go elsewhere without taking ruinous losses. Now I have no empathy for people that accepted this bullshit from the CCP to bein with, but this is not only allowing the CPP to operate outside of all norms of commerce, but to hold a sword over our business class (it is a rarety that a company doesn’t have some assets they will lose if they piss of the Chinese).

        I won’t even go into the damage they have done at universities and colleges, hacking infrastructure and companies working with the military or directly hacking the military, and how they have been using big tech to censor anyone pointing any of this out. We choose to act as if we have no choice. Trump proved we did. People with an agenda will say otherwise at this point.

      • juris imprudent

        No one ever forced an American company to open up a presence in China – they all did it because of their own fucking greed. Too bad.

      • AlexinCT

        No one ever forced an American company to open up a presence in China – they all did it because of their own fucking greed. Too bad.

        While I agree with this feeling wholeheartedly, I remind you everyone that owns any kind of investment in these companies is also going to get screwed. Maybe what you suggest should happen (I hold absolutely zero shit in my 401K that is directly tied to China, and am always looking to replace the few I own that are indirectly tied to it too, so saying fuck you will impact me far less than most others), but nobody is willing to do that because of the havoc it will wreak, not just on us, but the world.

      • juris imprudent

        China is a sovereign country – they can set up their rules however they like. It was the blind stupidity and arrogance of American experts that said “we will transform them into a form we prefer”. The Chinese were duplicitous and we were full of hubris – lovely combination.

        Of course it will be painful unwinding it. The less painful option is to continue down the road we are on.

      • AlexinCT

        China is a sovereign country – they can set up their rules however they like.

        Not disputing that, but we let them into the world WTO because they promised these rules were temporary. It has been forever, and we should tell them that clock ran out. If they don’t comply, kick them out. But that won’t happen because the WTO is also bought & paid for by the CCP.

      • hayeksplosives

        Well said, Alex.

      • juris imprudent

        “We let them in”

        Two things: 1) that was our mistake, and 2) who put us in charge?

      • AlexinCT

        By our mistake you mean the members of the WTO, right? Cause there was a vote to let that happen. It was not an unilateral US decision. I think this answers the second question as well.

      • Plisade

        Word. The navy is all. And a well-functioning one doesn’t appear in short order. There’s nothing to fear from China militarily, nor any other country or alliance for that matter. Keeping the middle east destabilized and focused on a ground war prevents an Indian Ocean navy of any substance from being built. And this might sound silly, but the Space Force will be a big factor in keeping our navy dominant for decades to come.

      • Pine_Tree

        The USN is, sadly, sunsetting. And the PLAN is ascendant. Big-time. Keep up with CDR Salamander’s blog and his other articles on it. The change is not done yet, but it cannot be stopped now.

      • AlexinCT

        You said it Pine. Our NAVY is busy teaching the sailors to be politically correct and to combat AGW (see the numerous recent incidents of ships colliding because training prioritization requires sailors to learn PC shit before they learn how to fight the ship), while China is prepping theirs to go to all out war.

      • AlexinCT

        The democrats are jealous of the power and autonomy of the CCP. When you are someone that wants to take revenge on your political enemies for showing how despicable and evil you are, being an absolute power like the CCP makes that cake. And man, do they wish they had that power. That’s why they are selling us out to China without worry: while that means that they will need to serve Beijing, they will have the power they crave here to punish. And that later one is the most important thing after them staying on top of the pyramid they created.

    • limey

      Well, the either the Deep State and their enforcement apparatus all go to the big blue side, at which point all the militias and tacticool trucks aren’t going to cut it against the full capabilities of a blue invasion, or they establish themselves in both camps and coordinate to run it all anyway. Right?

      I think Animal has the right idea.

      • limey

        Oh never mind I see that conversation already happened while the page was loading.

  9. blackjack

    AOC: Let’s stop people from saying untrue and stupid things!

    AOC if she succeeds: …

    • Nephilium

      It’s no longer who controls the facts, but who controls the fact-checkers!

    • AlexinCT

      Is your point to make the obvious one that these people are hypocritical evil lying fucks that only care about their own power and wallets?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Untrue and stupid things are acceptable if the sentiment is right. Selective enforcement of the standards for the win so she’ll still be talking.

    • Rebel Scum

      Nah.

      Truth > facts, comrade.

    • Timeloose

      Someone should ask her if she wants to create a new gov ministry to ensure that only the truth is shared in the media. Some sort of Ministry of Truth. I’m sure it will go over her head.

      • limey

        *wide-eyed nostril flare*

        *stare intensely at the back of some GOP Congress critter’s head until he acknowledges her distaste*

        *give up and go to lunch*

  10. The Late P Brooks

    GoDaddy claimed that the site “both promotes and encourages violence,” but did not offer any specific examples. Instead, they offered AR15.com 24 hours to relocate its business.

    “That’s what Kamaulya told us to say. We’re not asking questions.”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I’m certain it can be found if the forums and comments are searched but those can be found on any, and I mean any, forum that allows public input. It’s the differential enforcement that grinds my gears.

      • juris imprudent

        The Tech companies appear to want to blow up their own safe harbor (Sec. 230). Trump didn’t need to propose doing so.

    • mrfamous

      “The Biggest Gun Forum On The Planet Was Just Kicked Off The Internet Without Explanation”

      I think the explanation is fairly straightforward,

  11. Stinky Wizzleteats

    “Quarter of Americans believe it’s time for U.S. to split into separate red, blue countries”

    Only a quarter? That’s disappointing actually.

    • ignoreLander

      Especially when you see the part about “a solid majority (62%) oppose this measure”. Dammit….

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It might be one of those things that depend on the measure:
        “Do you support the United States remaining a unified country or are you a filthy traitor that supports secession that ought to be hung?” An exaggeration sure but the wording can skew the result.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        The question is in the article. It’s not quite so bad, but it’s definitely not unbiased.

    • Endless Mike

      How would you answer the survey? I would answer it the same way I answer surveys asking “How many guns do you have in your home?”

      • AlexinCT

        “I had a boating accident recently, so none”?

      • Rat on a train

        2. Even counting the cats.

    • Agent Cooper

      I don’t believe it’s time for a split because frankly, I don’t really think it would work out in any non-terrible way.

      • ignoreLander

        I think it would be glorious, the problem is it’s completely impractical from a logistic standpoint.

      • Rat on a train

        Split by voting precinct?

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Considering our ideological differences aren’t distributed equally in any geographical area, yeah. The logistics would be near impossible. It’s not the civil war 1 where geography was the difference.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    One these big GOP donors should spend that money on an ISP and Hosting company, rather than giving the money to politicians. Do something that might actually support freedom.

    *uptwinkles*

  13. Homple

    “One these big GOP donors should spend that money on an ISP and Hosting company, rather than giving the money to politicians. Do something that might actually support freedom.”

    The mistake is thinking big GOP donors, or the GOP, care about freedom.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s hard to grift if you can’t speak though and they do care about continuing that.

      • AlexinCT

        I hope you guys are kidding. Splitting the country up will do nothing but make things worse, leave us all weaker, and in the end lead to the Chinese dystopia faster. Do you think that once split, and because of that both entities being not weaker but likely opposed to each other, that China will not find a way to control the government of the part you think you will be in, regardless of which side you are on? Those that are selling us out to China are everywhere. Splitting is not going to solve anything.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I get the criticism but what we’re doing now isn’t working. If we’re going to go down we may as well go down trying something different.

      • AlexinCT

        I would prefer not to go down and make them go down on me…

      • EvilSheldon

        I agree that a split would be bad, but the social and economic collapse that we’re heading for right now will be worse.

      • juris imprudent

        You don’t think that a split would include a share of the debt, presumably an over-representative share?

  14. The Late P Brooks

    “Quarter of Americans believe it’s time for U.S. to split into separate red, blue countries”

    Easier said than done, unless we’re willing to accept some serious ethnic cleansing.

      • Viking1865

        Yep, the whole point is to split now, so people can peaceably vote with their feet, not wait until there’s a massive economic crisis or similar shitstorm where tempers will be running hot.

  15. Cy

    I could only see 2 out of the 8. Damn filters.

    Good morning all!

  16. The Late P Brooks

    It’s the differential enforcement that grinds my gears.

    What’s the point of having all this power if you can’t show the untermenschen who’s boss, once in a while?

  17. Trigger Hippie

    General Observation: The government is now apparently dead-set on stealing most of the money all you hard working and intelligent people have saved up over the years, stealing your guns, forcing you take a highly questionable vaccine by way of punishing your employers if they don’t force it on you, stripping away your online platforms, criminalizing speech, trying to criminalize an entire political party, forced struggle sessions in the workplace and schools, and soon your property will probably be taken from you for [insert reason].

    Given all of that, my decision to be a tax-dodging scofflaw on the fringe of society who never procreated is starting to look like the smart move. The system is now completely focused on destroying you. Stop playing by its rules and start being shady whenever possible.

    Have fun today, kiddos. I’m off!

    • Swiss Servator

      “who never procreated”

      Ha, ha! That will show those SOB’s! I’ll willingly end my family line.

      Is that akin to “I’ll kill myself, and they’ll be sorry”?

      • DrOtto

        It’s a big middle finger to the Ponzi scheme that is social security.

    • Tonio

      You are exactly the sort of person who should be reproducing, TH.

      • Rat on a train

        The documentary Idiocracy shows that is still a losing strategy.

    • Rebel Scum

      Disagreement with Democrats is sedition and treason. It is known.

      I do really need to move away from Richmond.

  18. Festus

    Pictured- Festus’ Mom.

  19. ignoreLander

    Re: Cortez and her “truth and reconciliation”: Their hysterical over the top reaction to what amounts to the “panty raid” in Revenge of the Nerds with some LARPers tells you everything you need to know about what they think of themselves, and what they think of you. Burn down Portland for months at a time? Murder a Trump supporter in the street? Nothing to see here; it’s ‘just an idea’.

    Angry Republicans come into the “Peoples’ House” (HA), sit on Queen Nancy’s throne, and come within 300 yards of the Royals? Impeach the world! Arrest everyone! Treason! Insurrection! Truth and Reconciliation tribunals! And say goodbye to your free and independent media we allowed you to have!

    It’s a cliché but it’s true: you aren’t a citizen, you’re a subject.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Untrue and stupid things are acceptable if the sentiment is right.

    Modern Monetary Theory, for the win.

    We can just shut the economy down for a few weeks/months/years, and write checks for everybody to stay home.

  21. Festus

    Awesome tune, Banjos. My theme song if you will. “I am the Janitor! I Sweep and I Wipe… “

  22. Tonio

    “I can tell you that I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die,” she said. “And you have all of those thoughts where, at the end of your life…all of these thoughts come rushing to you. And that’s what happened to a lot of us on Wednesday and I did not think – I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive.”

    She said she didn’t just mean it generally but in a “very, very specific sense.”

    The congresswoman gave no details, saying she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to completely discuss what happened for security reasons.

    It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that “many, many members of the House were nearly assassinated,” she told her followers.

    We will of course never know the actual threat level, and nobody in Capitol Police is about to say AOC is full of shit; they’ve got their careers to think of, after all.

    I also recall that somehow there were reporters in a secure location to which congresscritters were evacuated. That doesn’t sound like good policy, letting the press know that. And if the press were evacuated along with congress, that is also a problem. Do ordinary people get the same consideration?

    To follow on to what Kristen said earlier the worst thing about this incident is that it makes people feel sympathetic towards politicians.

    • Festus

      She nearly got gored by a crazy person wearing faux buffalo horns. It was terrifying! Meanwhile a skittish cop shot a misguided lady through a window. All is well. All is well.

      • Rebel Scum

        And all he had to do was push her back.

        Ashli Babbitt. Say her name. Justice for Ashli*.

        *Even though she spelled her name wrong.

    • Viking1865

      “many, many members of the House were nearly assassinated”

      Crazy how this armed mob of insurrectionists didn’t shoot anyone.

      • Rat on a train

        Give them a summer of protesting to gain some experience.

  23. Rat on a train

    Now that Trump is on double probation, it’s time for a toga party. Also start work on his entry for the inauguration parade.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Ramming speed–!

    • Festus

      “It’s time for a totally stupid and pointless gesture! Who’s with me?”

      • Rat on a train

        We gotta take these bastards. Now, we could fight them with biological weapons. That could take a year, cost thousands of lives and force a shutdown of the economy…

    • Rebel Scum

      He should hold a rally at the time of the inauguration, but not in DC.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    I’ll re-write a WaPo headline i just saw on the google news:

    “With America Distracted by Impeachment Circus, Biden Team Prepares to Bring Elephant on Stage.”

    Spoiler alert- it’s an armored killer attack elephant, and he’s going to turn it loose on the audience.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      *Alexander the Great cowers in fear*

  25. Rebel Scum

    Democrats are still in the midst of a temper tantrum.

    Impeachment is a political farce now. Something something political and constitutional norms.

    They also seem to be under the impression that they can impeach after Trump is out of office. I am pretty sure you can’t do that. But for some reason they really really want to bar him from office from holding office in the future (not that I find it likely he will, dude is old.).

    • WTF

      Well, they did impeach him in the House, but he can’t be convicted by the Senate after he is a private citizen, because the senate has no authority under the constitution to put a private citizen on trial. And the trial would only be to determine if he should be removed from office, which is moot since he will not be in office. A “trial” and “conviction” after the fact would be akin to digging up Cromwell’s corpse to behead it. Nothing but theater and constitutionally ridiculous.

    • Drake

      They want to bar any outsider from ever holding office again.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ?

        There’s bipartisan consensus no that point.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        On

      • AlexinCT

        No asshole that will actually do things for the voters and torpedoing our grifter system wanted!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      If they convict, which will decimate the Republicans if done, it’ll go to the courts. An impeachment and trial process after someone’s out is just transparent idiocy and isn’t supported by the constitution not that that matters so much anymore.

    • Plinker762

      The speed of this impeachment should demonstrate that it is purely political but these are ” unprecedented” times.

      What is going to stop them from impeaching him out of office? The Constitution?

    • AlexinCT

      Impeachment is a political farce now.

      Yup. Like the over use of the accusation of racism or being Hitler, impeachment is now nothing but political kabuki/tantrum throwing.

    • Ownbestenemy

      My non-constitutional scholar self says – impeach while out of office, yes. Convict in the Senate while out of office, no. Which I think lines up with other actual constitutional scholars on the reading of the passage.

    • Rat on a train

      What constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors is a political question. They also want “unable to perform duties” and what qualifies as insurrection to be a political questions.

    • mrfamous

      TOS wrote an article claiming it’s totes legit to impeach someone after they’re out of office. The historical reasoning seems to be a bit of a stretch, as it appears all of the existing legal precedent (though there isn’t much of it) suggests otherwise.

      • Rat on a train

        Cromwell is the Common Law precedent, don’t you know?

  26. The Late P Brooks

    I can’t wait for Congress’ definition of “sedition” and “insurrection”.

    • Rebel Scum

      “Disagreement with the establishment/deep state.”

  27. Rebel Scum

    At one point, Ocasio-Cortez read a question from a viewer who asked if there is discussion in Congress on “truth and reconciliation or media literacy initiatives” to help with healing.

    She wants a ministry of truth. But you are a fascist, MAGAt.

  28. Tonio

    The Virginia CItizens Defense League, one of the most effective 2A civil rights groups in the country, may be about to shoot itself in the foot. Apparently they are planning to decorate buses with “Free men own guns; Slaves do not” signs. While we, here, wholeheartedly agree with that, it’s not the messaging I would use. But, sometimes big gambles pay off and many black-owned businesses and properties suffered during the riots this summer when the (Dem mayor controlled) RPD did nothing. Trying to find a picture of this I can link to…

    FYI, VCDL’s traditional Lobby Day will be a vehicle caravan this year due to Capitol Square being conveniently closed in response to the success (for VCDL, embarrassment for mayor and gov) of the 2020 Lobby Day last year.

    • juris imprudent

      “Free men own guns; Slaves do not”

      I would suggest the appropriate graphic would be the Black Panthers standing on the California Capitol steps, with guns.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Excellent choice

      • WTF

        Or Harriet Tubman wielding a pistol.

      • Tonio

        ^That is an easier, more accessible image as it has a single, highly identifiable face and no geographic context. Always go for the simple graphic.

      • Endless Mike

        MIght want to say “Free People” though – wouldn’t want to misgender zer.

    • Viking1865

      There’s no combo of signs and banners the VCDL could put up that would meet the PC standard and be an effective message. Even if this magical perfectly nuanced, snappy, and yet inoffensive slogan existed, there’s no way the media would spread it if it did.

      “Free men own guns, slaves do not.” is absolutely true, absolutely topical, and if it triggers the left thats a good thing, not a bad thing.

      Nothing the VCDL says will change whats about to happen in the session. They’re going to come for our guns. 2020 VCDL didn’t stop them, 2021 certainly won’t now that they can strip you of your rights via Zoom call.

      They use power when they get it.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        A not insignificant part of the reason that we got the hell out of VA tootsweet.

  29. Festus

    You have to realize that the Dems are getting payback for four years of dank memes. The Deplorables will be sleeping on the sofa for the foreseeable future (if they are lucky).

    • Count Potato

      “You have to realize that the Dems are getting payback for four years of dank memes.”

      That wasn’t 2016 – 2020 though. Notice how few memes there were before the election.

  30. Rebel Scum

    Twenty-five percent of respondents back “splitting the red states and blue states into separate countries.”

    A very solid majority, 62%, oppose such a measure.

    The desire to control others is strong.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      For many it’s the desire to hold onto a familiar security blanket. If things get bad enough they’ll get over it.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      25% is a huge number. One I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.

      • Chipwooder

        Seriously. Imagine if you had asked this question 15 years ago? Maybe 3 or 4% would have answered yes?

    • Drake

      Like the Electoral College – it will be decided by majorities within certain states.

    • Tejicano

      Where ‘you think you goin’ boy?

  31. robc

    Sonny Siebert, Erick Aybar, Terry Forster. I told you yesterday today’s baseball birthdays was awful. This is 3 in a row.

    Tomorrow will be much improved.

    And as for the post on the afternoon links referring to Mitchell, I knew exactly what catch that was too.

    Yes, that is how bad today’s is, I am still talking about the yesterday.

  32. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    The news sucks but the music, as always, is excellent!

    Thank you!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Yes, thick like a layer of walrus blubber.

  33. AlexinCT

    Payback is a bitch.

    Now watch the left complain about how this is just childish and petty, completely acting as if the last 4 years of their destructive tantrum never happened. People that told everyone they would resist till the bitter end now want to silence & punish those that want to resist them right back, under the guise of unity…

    As I said from the get go: the left wants everyone to know they will never tolerate anyone but one of their own in power, and that anyone that tries to do otherwise will be made to pay.

    • juris imprudent

      So she’s going to be the Republican version of Maxine Waters?

      • Idle Hands

        probably that role has yet to be taken on the right. The right learned some lessons the last 4 years this is going to get ugly.

      • WTF

        Only if she’s actually serious about it, and not just doing it to make a point, which I think is more likely.

      • Viking1865

        There’s a hell of a lot more evidence for Biden’s corruption then there is that Trump is a Russian agent.

      • Ownbestenemy

        It was the natural political outcome…

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The Virginia Democrats are going full tilt at anyone in the legislature who objected to the election results. Censure, removal, etc… are all on the table.

      The stakes keep getting higher and they just don’t give a shit.

      • AlexinCT

        This is a consequence of their resist movement. They now have to deligitimize it so the other side doesn’t do to them what they did to them. I admit I often wondered what these leftists would do when they resorted to the tactic of lying, cheating & stealing to undermine their political enemy and keep power in their hands, the scorched earth politics they implemented, ended up giving them power. Would they then find themselves kneecapped by the very same tactics? How would they ever be able to convince people their guy was legit? Well, it looks like they think they can just double down on being totalitarian corruptocrats to try and force the sheeple into compliance.

      • Idle Hands

        they have no incentive to taper down their base craves it. I think the politicians on both sides are legit getting scared as they should be they are holding the bag on the one of the largest coordinated attacks on the working class in our nations history. They are singularly responsible for the millions accruing debt and losing their business’s. This isn’t like 2008 where they can handwave and divide people about whether it was wall street/ banks responsible not their policies everyone knows whose enforcing the rules and who passed them.

      • Rebel Scum

        Virginia Democrats

        In the state legislature? I haven’t heard anything about that.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Of course you wouldn’t. They don’t want you to.

        Facebook removed Amanda Chase and the legislature wants to follow suit. Her sin being that she was at the rally and is unapologetic.

    • db

      That’s kind of silly, like awarding a world leader a Nobel Peace Prize before they have spent a year in office.

      Plus, the messaging is stupid: “People on my side might get violent because of things your guy does.” Let’s avoid that kind of talk, please.

  34. KromulentKristen

    Our condo board is having a special meeting tonight to discuss redevelopment “Phase I assessments and early out payments”.

    Y’all. I need your stunning & brave thoughts & prayers that this means I will be released from this bondage and will be free to gambol within a year.

    • UnCivilServant

      Do you have your new home ready? Where will you go first?

      • KromulentKristen

        It will be at least a year even after they finalize payments & schedule, to allow owners with lessees to give notice to tenants, so I’ll have plenty of time to plan.

      • UnCivilServant

        When you pick a destination, we want Pics.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I pray for your freedom KK,

    • Festus

      Careful with that Gambolling! You might just try to hit an inside strait and stub a toe.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    After a lifetime of being told A Lincoln “saved” the nation by forcing the Confederacy to remain, seeing a quarter of the population even willing to entertain the idea of a split should be extremely worrisome to our Lord and Master class.

    But it isn’t. Because they are incapable of self-reflection. It’s part of the job description.

      • UnCivilServant

        I didn’t even open the link and appear to have guessed correctly.

      • robc

        Where else would it be?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Why not a General Lee Satellite? Elon did it….

      • Festus

        Shoulda been a ‘vette!

    • Pope Jimbo

      I can just see Space Sheriff Roscoe P. Ackbar watching helplessly as the General Lee satellite jumps the asteroid belt and gets away.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Wasn’t the show set in Georgia? (the state, although I would definitely give the Dukes of Tbilisi a watch)

  36. Festus

    Make as much fun of Alex as you like but he’s not wrong. China was controlled by that caste for hundreds of years. Get the right papers, move up in the world. It’s happening right here, right now.

    • juris imprudent

      I’ll agree that as long as Repubs position themselves as like the Dems but not as bad, we’re pretty screwed. But guess who is to blame for that – not nefarious forces conspiring in darkness; that is what the people are CHOOSING. You hate most of your fellow Americans, not just the politicians. And no, the Repubs becoming juvenile ass-clowns to pwn liberals is not going to defeat the whining, mewling herd of toddlers. You can’t out-child children.

      I’m truly fed up with the angst about the Presidency. As long as everyone in the country treats that as the single most important thing, it will be the single most important thing. The 2020 election produced a lot results against Democrat ambitions – turning around and saying it’s all over, they have captured the country and we are doomed is flat out ignorant.

      • Ownbestenemy

        ^^ How the American public, of all political affiliation, view the presidency is a major problem.

      • Ownbestenemy

        err…I was feeling randy and just throwing up random commas apparently.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Embrace the commaphilia. I have it pretty bad. Sometimes it’s because I don’t proofread my comments, sometimes because I put a comma, anywhere, that, my, mental, narrative, pauses.

      • R C Dean

        It just makes me hear it as if William Shatner is reading it.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Greatest

        Actor

        Ever

      • Viking1865

        “As long as everyone in the country treats that as the single most important thing, it will be the single most important thing”

        I think that’s a serious misunderstanding of the concerns people have. Most people here aren’t worried about Biden, they’re worried about what the monstrous federal security apparatus is going to do when directed against “domestic terrorists” and “white supremacists”.

        I said repeatedly last year that Biden was just going to sign off on whatever was stuck under his nose. Donald Trump had the entire apparatus of the State working to stop him from doing whatever fool thing popped into his head. Biden will have the entire apparatus of the State unleashed on his political enemies, with the enthusiastic support of his base and more importantly of the bureaucracy itself.

      • Homple

        “…turning around and saying it’s all over, they have captured the country and we are doomed is flat out ignorant.”

        It’s fine.

      • AlexinCT

        I’m truly fed up with the angst about the Presidency. As long as everyone in the country treats that as the single most important thing, it will be the single most important thing

        Pretending that the left doesn’t prefers to dictate policy through the presidential pen, completely shitting on the constitution and separations of power, is not a good way to go about this. I know the office shouldn’t be as powerful as it is when one of them is in there, but it is. And we are remiss in not taking that seriously.

      • juris imprudent

        That can only be fixed by a long march up through all of the political institutions. Are you patient enough for that?

      • AlexinCT

        How do you plan to deal with it otherwise? Cause just telling the these people (left and right) this is not how things should work has not just failed, but seems to be something we will not get back to. Are you advocating we ignore it and pray for the better? Cause that is what you seem to be telling me. It will take time to fix, so stop worrying. Sounds like just go ahead and stop worrying, bend over and take it in the ass, and try to enjoy it (or pretend to), to me. Some people are into that, and I cheer them on. I am a lesbians trapped in a man’s body, so this scenario doesn’t work for me.

      • R C Dean

        The long march worked because the institutions didn’t police themselves against leftists, got infiltrated and taken over, and now rigidly enforce any entry by non-leftists. They will absolutely continue to police themselves against non-leftists. I’m not sure a long march from the non-left is even possible.

      • Agent Cooper

        Activism is a lifestyle that many on the non-left don’t really want.

      • AlexinCT

        So when do we start burning it all down? Cause I am not interested in just going along…

      • Viking1865

        “I’m not sure a long march from the non-left is even possible.”

        It isn’t. In my poli sci courses I always got Bs not As because I was anti-leftist in my discussions and writing. The guy who effortlessly and glibly repeated the professors thoughts back got straight As, and through the influence of the professors got internships at White House, House, and Senate along with three national news networks.

        There’s no way in hell I would have gotten those, even though we routinely had in class debates and I routinely shredded him to the point that the professor would step in and help him out. Then I’d shred her too, because she was a stupid cunt who had somehow acquired a PhD in International Relations without ever knowing what the Monroe Doctrine was.

      • juris imprudent

        There is no advocacy for what we want, because there is no constituency for it. That’s a sad fucking truth, isn’t it?

      • AlexinCT

        Most people have bought into the free shit thing. They are willing to sell their freedom for the promise of security.

      • juris imprudent

        That’s why your desire to burn it down won’t get you what you want.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The Georgia election turned on whether people would get $600 or $2000 in their bank accounts.

        Ponder that on the Tree of Woe.

      • UnCivilServant

        Georgia’s election turned on the complete inaction on addressing the integrety flaws identified from November.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The $2000 check promise resulted in a four point swing in the polls in the days leading up the election.

      • Viking1865

        “The Georgia election turned on whether people would get $600 or $2000 in their bank accounts.

        Ponder that on the Tree of Woe.”

        I think leaving out the context here is pretty nonsensical.

        People want stimulus checks because the government shut down their businesses to fight the Commie Cough. They’re not asking for free monies for no reason at all.

        The anger, and it is anger, is coming from people who have spent a year being reduced to poverty while people who make that decision don’t even take a pay cut. Hell I’d argue one of the main reasons people love them some Trump is that he took no salary, and has seen his net worth crater since 2016, as opposed to the rest of Nomenklatura.

      • mrfamous

        I think there’s a growing sense that there’s an “overclass” hell bent on centrally planning our existence, but that the Presidency is one of the few avenues left available to the populace to resist said overclass.

        In a sense someone like Biden being president is worse in such a scenario than a Bernie Sanders, because a guy like Biden is a perfect vehicle for the overclass to continue to consolidate their power. Biden is the emptiest of empty suits.

        If you told me that in three hours my phone, internet, e-mail, checking account and credit card accounts will all stop working because of my participation on this site (all of which are “private companies” who apparently have a “right to do so”) what the hell would I do? Start my own homeless shelter? I mean what?

        For better or for worse, the Presidency is one area where there might be a chance to throw a spanner into those works.

      • juris imprudent

        The President is not a tribune. We attempt to make it into one at our own peril.

        If you (and the rest of us) are un-personned, then it is time for armed rebellion. There is no political, lawful process otherwise available to destroy that kind of tyranny.

      • R C Dean

        What will count as being unpersonned?

      • juris imprudent

        I was going on the list he provided. If getting kicked off Twitter is the end of your world I have no fucking time for such childishness.

      • Viking1865

        Yep Trump was the spanner in the works. The system turned on him, all their energy was directed toward the Bad Orange Man. Now they have a smooth operator, an experienced Washington insider to unleash the federal governments full power.

        God help us all.

  37. robc

    Somewhat oppose on the split. Mainly because the problem isnt between states. The solution is independent city-states for the largest cities in the US. Free upstate NY and downstate IL.

    Proposal: Constitutional amendment allowing/mandating cities above a certain size to become city-states. They would have 1 senator each. The state they leave would still have 2 senators. They would get the number of representatives as if they were a state. But the districts would be contained within the city boundaries, as if it was a state.

    The 5 boroughs of NY would become the NYC city-state. NY state would be upstate plus Nassau/Suffolk counties.

    Next would be LA county — this one would be tricky. Not sure if the whole county would be in the city-state or just LA/Long Beach/etc. The 210 might be the border. I am sure Santa Clarita and Lancaster would prefer to be outside. But I could also see including the Angeles National Forest within the city-state. The big version would include Orange County too. And would you include parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties?

    Anyway, since I didn’t include LI in NYC, I guess LA city-state would be the 210 version or all of LA county at most.

    3rd would be Chicago. Maybe just Cook County. There isn’t another county over 1MM people, so yeah, just Cook. Illinois can keep the burbs.

    • db

      This kind of a scheme would be necessary for a split to work, I agree. Look at the split county wise in PA, for example. I want to write more about this some time, but a big issue is that it’s not just county based, either. For instance, my county went heavily for Trump, but there are still around 30-35% Biden voters. What would we do, say, OK all of you, go somewhere else? Can’t happen, not peacefully, and the whole idea of a split is to encourage a peaceful realignment, not a violent conflict.

      Similarly, I work for a company headquartered in Allegheny County, incorporated in Delaware, and we have locations in at least 10 different states, red, blue, purple, whatever. The amount of chaos a split could cause economically would be hard to untangle. Not impossible, but difficult and expensive.

      A final note that needs to be pointed out is that many of us have wives, husbands, domestic partners, children, and friends who do not share our political beliefs and the decisions whether to stick with the people you love versus a political faction may be very difficult. For those of you whose families are completely in line with your politics, I envy you, but recognize that is not by any means a default or even a common situation.

      As I said, this all needs to be fleshed out in more detail. If a split happened, could a dual citizenship or Schengen-like arrangement be arrived at such that we would still maintain freedom of movement and ability to work where we need to?

      • juris imprudent

        No, if a split is ever to happen it would be a hard split. The reason being what you have described is how it is supposed to be now, with the states being relevant. The left (and some on the right, taking their cues from the left) want total control. So the only way to avoid those that want total control is complete separation. Unfortunately, you may only separate from one faction of totalitarian into another faction.

        The idea that we are going to have some preserve of liberty is the greatest self deception of all.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The stakes are simply too high.

        Costa Rica is looking better and better.

      • db

        But I think what robc is suggesting is a compromise wherein the cities/metro areas are granted some of the benefits of statehood on their own, while allowing the outlying areas control over themselves. Both get to survive under a framework more of their liking.

        But I agree it is a difficult thing to accomplish, and if history has shown us anything, it is that people will not undertake difficult things until they become impossible but necessary–resulting in a cataclysmic reordering.

      • juris imprudent

        People don’t want control over people like themselves – they want control over the people that don’t agree with them. This is the infuriating and utterly normal human thing we confront.

      • robc

        Exactly. The biggest tensions are between large cities and their rural states, or smaller cities in states.

      • juris imprudent

        But didn’t you defend state sovereignty down below?

      • juris imprudent

        Never mind, that was Viking.

    • robc

      Texas leaving would leave the rest of the country in bad shape. If it was allowed to happen, the rest of the south would soon follow. Would Texas join up with them or just go it alone?

      • robc

        In the new confederacy, the national football championship would be ACC champ vs SEC champ. Would make scheduling easy.

        Plus, Texas A&M would have to go back to the Texas conference where they belong.

        And the ACC could rid itself of the Yankee members of the conference.

      • limey

        I’m potentially applying for citizenship if that happens, although I can’t imagine I’d be anywhere near the top of the queue.

      • Tundra

        Go it alone, most likely. They have everything: ag, manufacturing, energy, large ports, etc. The guy said that currently they would be the 9th or 10th largest economy in the world. Without the boat anchor of the Fedgov, they think they would move up a few spots.

      • robc

        So, Texas goes alone.

        5 minutes later SC secedes, because of course. NC, GA, FL, AL, MS, LA, AR, TN, KY quickly join them. Does VA? What about WV?

        Then the question is does the midwest join the southern states or do something on their own? If OH, IN join in, MO will too, if they haven’t already. Same for OK, KS, NE, IA at that point. Southern IL is begging to join, but no one wants Chicago. Ditto PA without Philly.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        OK definitely goes around the same time TX goes. Colorado, maybe from the Springs south and Eastern Colorado and parts of the Western Slop go, WY definitely goes as well. Idaho goes as well, I’d put Montana in the maybe column. Not sure at all about Nevada. The Pacific coast is an obvious, “No.” Athough the East side of both Oregon and Washington and North Cali would go, or be depopulated by migrations to Idaho.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Actually I could envision a rapid demographic shift/migration as this hypothetical progressed, I think the smallest unit of government you will get to go would be a state, Springfield is not going to want to lose everything but Chicago and NYC would not cede upstate.

      • Viking1865

        The states are still theoretically sovereign, on paper this is still a Union of free states joined together of the free will of their citizens.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        “theoretically”

        The central bank has long since made that irrelevant.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        There would no secession in Virginia without significant bloodshed and it would go very, very badly for anyone who tried. Between the military presence and the DC metro area, there is a tremendous amount at stake and the Feds would not play nice.

        If I ever heard an inkling of anything about it, I would get my family out of here in a flash.

      • robc

        I could see western VA joining WV and leaving. NoVA/Richmond/Tidewater becomes Virginia.

      • Viking1865

        https://www.270towin.com/maps/z4XzL

        I made this. Atlantic, Lake, Pacific, and Gulf Republics. Roughly equal population splits, although the Gulf Republic is bigger than the other. Each state retains a decent portion of the military establishment, and particularly we see each state retains a nuclear deterrent.

        States that get fucked over are WV (to a certain extent) and the inland Pacific Northwest gets fucked over majorly by being chained to California.

      • juris imprudent

        Why would state boundaries be considered sacrosanct? You can split California pretty much along I-5 down to Orange County. Everything south and east would make more sense together than the configuration of the state today.

      • Viking1865

        Honestly because I could click and make a map in three minutes. Although there is also the idea that the States are actually sovereign entities.

      • robc

        Move TX going alone, and KY goes south and stays pretty even. No way does WV stay with the NE.

        This is more reasonable: https://www.270towin.com/maps/NAW3A

      • R C Dean

        AZ is pretty well screwed. Its boxed in by NM, a Dem playground, and CA. AZ is still pretty evenly split, and there’s a lot of people here who aren’t squishy about despising progressives. Chaining it to the progressive West Coast would be ugly.

      • Viking1865

        I was thinking with mine making equal chunks with roughly contiguous borders, not having gerrymander style trails all over, or enclaves. Which I know fucks over some states.

        I actually think, in my map, that the Atlantic Republic settles more into an old school Dem kind of vibe. The national Dem Green plank is built a lot more on California than anything else. The Atlantic Republic is going to be a lot more of a Wall Street/public sector union/Catholic working class type Democrats. Big time Green politics are from the Left Coast not so much the NE big city Democrats.

      • robc

        You all can join the Deseret Republic.

      • robc

        the Atlantic Republic settles more into an old school Dem kind of vibe.

        That makes the map easier then:

        CA.
        Everyone else.

        Honestly, CA independence solves a lot of problems.

      • hayeksplosives

        The US Navy needs the strategic location of a good western harbor like in San Diego.

        How would the Gulf Republic deal with not having access to the Pacific? Just turn isolationist? Pay for transport through Panama?

      • robc

        Build a canal from El Paso to the Gulf of California thru Mexico?

      • Viking1865

        “How would the Gulf Republic deal with not having access to the Pacific? Just turn isolationist? Pay for transport through Panama?”

        Why would the Panamanians turn down money to ship goods? That’s what their entire economy rests on. It’s not like anything would change in the international shipping markets.

      • AlexinCT

        Make the Messicans build it!

      • Homple

        “They have everything: ag, manufacturing, energy, large ports, etc.”

        But no military and a long border with a large failing narco state with a military plus lots of paramilitary criminal gangs.

        It would go well, I’m sure.

      • juris imprudent

        Ah c’mon – in this libertopia drugs will be legalized and we won’t ever have to worry about narco-terrorists because we have defanged them.

      • Tundra

        https://tnm.me/texit/defense-national-security/how-will-an-independent-texas-defend-itself

        You tell me. Look at the numbers, man.

        Using the NATO target average of 2 percent of GDP for military and defense spending would provide approximately $32.78 billion annually, making Texas 11th in the world in defense spending. Funding at this level would cover the costs of recruiting, training, equipping, and maintaining an active duty enlistment in excess of 125,000 troops. This would be in line with the number of Texans currently serving in the United States military in all branches.

      • Viking1865

        Yeah and remember, a Texas Republic is acting in defense, not maintaining bases all over the world. They’re also free of the political constraints of the old US defense allocation system. So, for example, the Texas Air Force is mostly composed of drones, because instead of having a bunch of old fighter pilots insisting that you need a man in the cockpit, the Texas Republic is looking for bang for buck.

        Shit the current Texas National Guard is 20k strong, that’s more than enough force to guard the Texas/Mexico border.

      • Chipwooder

        I still really like Viking’s Gulf Republic concept.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      The migration of wokists into Austin and other urban centers in the state might stymie this a bit

      • prolefeed

        TX is not the bastion of rugged individualism and liberty most people imagine. It’s a lite Red state on the verge of following GA and AZ and flipping lite Blue. I would be amazed if a secession vote got even 30% support.

      • Cy

        Houston, Austin and Dallas are HUGE population bases. They’re also heavily blue. Like the retarded kind, not the middle of the road kind.

      • R C Dean

        The trend toward urbanization is the health of the state.

        Pulling every military asset back into the US would be very bad for the military-industrial complex, but would do nothing to reverse the totipotent administrative state. And for whatever reason, the emerging domestic totalitarianism is supported by the urban areas.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    If they convict, which will decimate the Republicans if done, it’ll go to the courts. An impeachment and trial process after someone’s out is just transparent idiocy and isn’t supported by the constitution not that that matters so much anymore.

    They’d be better off with a Congressional Resolution declaring Trump to be a poopyhead.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I expect the Republicans will take the easy road out like the pussies they are: No conviction followed by a heavyhanded censure that will satisfy no one and will piss off everyone.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    A dude from the Texas Nationalist Movement was on Buck Johnson’s podcast this week. It was quite interesting how much thought they have given it and it’s a pretty compelling argument.

    Will they ring-fence Austin, and establish a secure transit corridor, like Berlin in the Cold War days?

  40. Cy

    Secession won’t work. It’ll just prolong the inevitable. It’s a coward’s trap. The Dems have already proven they’re China’s bitch. How long before the blue states pull some Cuba shit with China’s hand over the buttons?

    The truth is we cannot cede anymore land, organizations, cities, states to the communists. We damn sure can’t do it that close to home. Everyone knows the answer to this issue but nobody has the stomach to do it, except our enemies.

    To borrow from another fairly accurate saying: Everyone wants to be a Patriot until it’s time to do real Patriot things.

    • juris imprudent

      Speaking of traps – believing you can get a political solution without being part of the political process. Who here intends to run for even some local office let along anything higher? Leadership in some volunteer organization?

      This is the human impossibility of libertarianism/anarchy – as soon as the any part of the populace is infected with the desire for power, the game is on, and not playing is not an option.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        We should setup a Politburo of Glibs, it would be weed, Mexicans and ass sex for all!

      • Cy

        “This is the human impossibility of libertarianism/anarchy – as soon as the any part of the populace is infected with the desire for power, the game is on, and not playing is not an option.”

        Absolutely. What our founding fathers did was extremely unique. We can only hope that what comes out of the ashes is something similar.

        —-

        What did King George say of George Washington?

        When told by the American artist Benjamin West that Washington was going to resign, King George III of England said “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”

  41. The Other Kevin

    We already live in two countries, just not physically. Like Scott Adams says, we are watching two movies on the same screen. I keep thinking of the pictures of the national guard all over the capital. If Trump had won, those same pictures would be irrefutable proof he’s a Nazi dictator and we’re turning into the Third Reich v2. Same thing with Biden’s German shepherd. That’s a Nazi dog.

    • AlexinCT

      Who keeps shaping the two realities?

      I think those of us that want the truth and not just whatever agrees with our team allegiance simply are so outnumbered that there is no answer…

  42. Pope Jimbo

    InstaPundit says this is real although, I don’t think they meant it to be so accurate.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I saw that, interesting if real,

    • Ownbestenemy

      Hmm…looking like my marriage. I keed, I keed. Interesting indeed.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s astoundingly appropriate.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    I’m truly fed up with the angst about the Presidency. As long as everyone in the country treats that as the single most important thing, it will be the single most important thing. The 2020 election produced a lot results against Democrat ambitions – turning around and saying it’s all over, they have captured the country and we are doomed is flat out ignorant.

    I agree about the Imperial presidency, but that is pretty much what was been fed to the boys and girls in school for decades. The longing for a king/savior is real.

    The Republicans, such as they are, made good inroads down ballot. We’ll soon see if they have any backbone. We can only hope the states are willing to defend themselves from Washington’s excesses and the Democrats’ coming grab for moar centralized power.

    • WTF

      We’ll soon see if they have any backbone.

      We’ve already seen that they don’t. Several Republicans are already going along with the ridiculous incitement/insurrection gaslighting.

      • R C Dean

        Yup. There’s very little pushback against the absurd insurrection narrative being used to drive non-Dems out of civil society.

    • juris imprudent

      The longing for a king/savior is real.

      We really need people to go back to church for that shit.

      • db

        As someone, I think robc, pointed out yesterday, 1 Samuel 8.

      • robc

        Someone else referenced it, I just fleshed it out.

        But I have posted it many times before.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Based on that Cassius Clay documentary I watched at 4AM yesterday:

    With whom would you rather have a beer: Malcolm X, or Ta Grape-Nehi Coates? Or perhaps Frederick Douglass?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Douglass any day of the week, but Malcolm X would be a close 2nd.

    • Chipwooder

      Well, Malcolm X didn’t drink, so definitely Frederick Douglass.

      • Nephilium

        Wasn’t Douglass a teetotaler as well?

    • Idle Hands

      X would be a fucking awesome hang. Gotta go Douglass though. Coates I’d rather drown in a puddle of said beer.

      • juris imprudent

        I’d love to hang with either Douglass or X and make Coates take notes.

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        None of them. My American hero for black people back in the day is George Washington Carver. Man of action. Bettered the lives of millions and millions of people, regardless of race.

        Plus he invented peanut butter. Every housewife in the Western world has probably wanted to erect a statue in his honour at some point or other.

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!

        I just went and re-looked at Carver’s accomplishments, and “peanut butter” is NOT amongst them! (Mind you, Wikipedia, so y’know…)

        Harrumph!

      • Nephilium

        You can thank American Dad! for that.

    • Agent Cooper

      Douglass. One of the greatest Americans.

  45. Rebel Scum

    Because there isn’t any.

    Kinzinger said, “Truthfully, it was not a hard decision. I mean, it was hard to go through with it. Because, bottom line is, you’re impeaching a president a second time. It’s never something that should be easily done. But I think the evidence was not something we had to go discover. It was brought right to us on the 6th.”

    History does not support that assertion.

    The Post reported Tuesday that Gayle Manchin, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said she has spoken with the Biden transition team about religious freedom.

    Manchin asserted:

    The Biden administration will be just as strong. I certainly congratulate the [Trump administration]. Trump put a spotlight on [religious freedom]. I believe the Biden administration will continue that.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Sigh. That’s the problem right there.

      A Senator’s wife gets a nice cushy no-show job and no one bats an eye.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ?

        They’re all grifters.

  46. Rebel Scum

    Jake, you mendacious cunte.

    Rep. Brian Mast
    @RepBrianMast

    I lost two legs for @jaketapper’s right to say whatever the hell he wants, but that free speech also protects the Republicans he is so eager to condemn for asking Constitutional questions about the election.

    Daily Caller
    @DailyCaller

    Jake Tapper:

    “Congressman Brian Mast… who lost his legs by the way fighting for democracy abroad, although I don’t know — about his commitment to it here in the United States”

    • Rebel Scum

      Using legitimate constitutional mechanisms is “sedition”.

      Jake Tapper
      @jaketapper

      You’re a hero for your service and I’m grateful, as I’ve said before. And yes i question the commitment to democracy of anyone who spread election lies, signed onto that deranged TX AG lawsuit, and voted to commit sedition. You were not just asking questions.

      • Viking1865

        The word of the week on the Journolist 2.0 is “sedition.” They’re talking about “domestic terrorists” and “insurrectionist”. AOC is talking about liberating the red states from the yoke.

        Last time politicians talked like this, Iraq got democracied and freedomified with extreme prejudice.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yep. They are playing with fire.

        70,000,000 people are not all simply going to roll over willingly.

        I can’t decide who’s brain-dead stupid and who’s Stalinist cynical anymore. I don’t think it matters.

      • Viking1865

        The Spanish Civil War to me has some worrisome parallels. The violent left, the commies and such were very active leading up to the last election. The left narrowly won control, and the head guy was an older man, a moderate democratic socialist. But he was unable or unwilling to control the violent commie types, who began murdering priests and other such things. Then Franco crossed the water and it was on.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yes

        And for someone reason the dead murderous commies are lionized in our media arts as heroes.

        Violence begets violence which begets the most violent leader winning. Once that norm is broken, the ones that promise to restore order gain a following among the masses. They permit anything and everything to happen in order to save themselves.

      • mrfamous

        Am I the only one who starts singing from ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ when I see that word?

        I am? Okay…

    • Chipwooder

      a)I didn’t realize he was quite that old
      b)Didn’t Roy just die a few months ago?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Roy died in May of last year, yes.

    • Old Man With Candy

      best duo illusionist act to ever grace Vegas
      Penn & Teller?

      • Ownbestenemy

        I think they are better, but not Vegas better. Siegfried and Roy were that flamboyantly over the top style you expect to see in a Vegas show.

  47. The Other Kevin

    “Quarter of Americans believe it’s time for U.S. to split into separate red, blue countries”

    I’m saying this a lot lately, but now would be a good time for someone, say, an incoming president, to try to tamp down the rhetoric and calm things down. Not doing so is a sign of a very shitty leader, IMO.

    • Floridaman

      That is what they are trying to do. Ban conversation to tamp down on the rhetoric. After all if you don’t see it, it doesn’t exist, right?

    • juris imprudent

      Every call for unity just sounds like stop resisting to me.

      Stop expecting me to roll over for your insanity, and then maybe we can co-exist peacefully.

    • Tejicano

      Once upon a time, maybe 30-some-odd years ago, I pondered the idea of setting up a business in Japan to offer proofreading services to Japanese companies, vetting their labels, slogans, and other printed matter representing English words to ensure those words were not just spelled correctly but to ensure there were no improper nuances nor overt meanings which the clients had not intended.

      I gave up this idea when I realized that, in general, corporate Japan simply doesn’t GAF how English words and phrases printed on their products and literature sound to native English speakers.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Cue Engrish YouTube videos.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    ANARCHY

    After several disruptive incidents and confrontations on flights to and from Washington, D.C., last week, federal authorities are now cracking down on unruly airline passengers.

    The head of the Federal Aviation Administration signed an order Wednesday to enforce a “zero-tolerance” policy against passengers who engage in threatening or disruptive behavior on commercial airline flights.

    The FAA says there has been “a disturbing increase in incidents where airline passengers have disrupted flights with threatening or violent behavior. These incidents have stemmed both from passengers’ refusals to wear masks and from recent violence at the U.S. Capitol.”

    ——-

    Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., told the Chicago Sun-Times that some passengers on his United flight back home to Chicago last Thursday threatened violence.

    “They were beyond abusive to the flight attendants, crew… “one of the most abusive” of “these idiots had to be restrained. He was charging one of the flight attendants,” Quigley said. “I was afraid for the life of the flight attendant. He called her a Communist and then the c-word.”

    They were going to lynch that poor sky waitress, right there on the airplane!

    And- refusing to wear your mask properly? That’s attempted murder.

    Do-Something-ists, ASSEMBLE.

    • Viking1865

      Pics or it didn’t happen.

    • Ownbestenemy

      My administrator (FAA) has been awesome up until last week. He is in full “I will take up the sword to defend Democracy!” mode since.

    • wdalasio

      Funny, four years ago weren’t these ssame arseholes demanding public confrontations with people who disagreed with them?

  49. Old Man With Candy

    Job opportunity alert: if you have familiarity with plant maintenance (pipes and pumps, not leaves and flowers), want to live in a wretchedly hot place that has constitutional carry, work in a place with an official “you are encouraged to carry concealed or open on company grounds” policy, and love lots of overtime, I have the gig for you. If you’re interested, drop me a line at omwc at this domain.

    • Chipwooder

      Perfect!

      Well, it would be if I had any experience with plant maintenance, anyway.

    • db

      Is this an engineering job or technician level?

      • db

        I don’t mean to besmirch either type, but it’s a meaningful distinction.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Technician/mechanic/wrencher. A chimera of electrician, machinist, and plumber.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I just got that exact job, I’ll stay here,

  50. Rebel Scum

    Wut?

    “I’m sick of people comparing, you can’t compare what happened this summer to what happened at the Capitol,” Lemon told Cuomo. “It’s two different things. One was built on people, on racial justice, on criminal justice, right, on reform, on police not beating up – or police treating people of color differently than they do Whites. OK? That was not a lie. Those are facts. Go look at them. What happened at the Capitol was built on a lie, perpetrated by the president and the people who support him.” …

    “Those things are not comparable. So they should not be doing that. And stop this whataboutism,” Lemon said. “No one has ever, ever gone this far in terms of saying an election was illegitimate, with all the evidence we have that this election was legitimate.”

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      Burning down a local business has absolutely nothing to do with police reform or the vague notion of “racial justice”. It also doesn’t help the cause that the riots continued for days in places like Seattle and Portland (less diverse on race and income than the national average), but not Cleveland and Detroit (majority black cities).

      • Nephilium

        Cleveland had riots for one weekend. After that, the business owners showed up open carrying (and concealed carrying I’m sure) to protect their storefronts near every other announced protest.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Ah back to whataboutism again.

    • wdalasio

      In other words, riots are just honkey-dorey as long as Lemon approves of their motives.

      And stop this whataboutism,

      If there’s one term I truly detest, it’s “whataboutism”. “Whataboutism” is the claim of those whose dearest hope is to drop the context of any discussion. It actually originated honestly enough, with American commentators noting that their Soviet counterparts would raise utterly unrelated criticisms of America to deflect from criticisms raised by the Americans. But the key element there is “utterly unrelated”. The proponents of claims of “whataboutism” have extended the claim of fallacy to situations where the standards being examined are exactly the same. Doing that is a thinly veiled ploy to drop the context of the standards being applied. Worse still, in practice, it ultimately amounts to a negation of the universality of principle.

      • kbolino

        See also: gaslighting

        If you contradict someone’s memory with the facts of what happened (e.g. what Trump actually said after Charlottesville), they will accuse you of “gaslighting” them since their memory of what happened is equivalent to reality.

    • R C Dean

      you can’t compare what happened this summer to what happened at the Capitol

      I would agree, but not the way he means.

      • juris imprudent

        ^^^ What he said.

  51. "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

    The people to voice opposition to Biden’s first illegal war will be dubbed “terrorists” and “white supremacists”. The difference between #Resist and “insurrection” is corporate sponsorship.

  52. Chipwooder

    All this talk about various secession schemes just reminds me that federalism would cure most, if not all, of this. There is absolutely no reason for there to be a central government which is so deeply entrenched in the daily life of a massive 330million+ population. Returning to a structure where the states are the primary form of government would be far preferable…..unless your goal is impose your will on everyone.

    • Floridaman

      The problem is that is precisely the goal of both sides. Imposing their beliefs by force.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Shit covered ice cream or shit flavored ice cream.

      • wdalasio

        I find myself less and less convinced of this “a curse on both their houses” line of reasoning. No, I’m not saying conservatives are pure as the driven snow. But, for the last twenty or so years or so, I’ve seen less and less to fear from them in the course of my daily life. On the national level, my biggest fear from conservatives has been that they’d go along with progressives in a display of “bipartisanship”. Yes, it would be absolutely terrific to see them finally come around on victimless crime and war and peace (although some seem to be starting to do that one). But, all of that is just status quo suck rather than making life even more miserable. And I can’t think of an issue where I think conservatives are bad where I haven’t seen the progressives prove just as bad or worse.

      • Viking1865

        Yeah to me the conservative liberty threats are in the baskets of PUT GOD BACK IN OUR GOVERNMENT and BOMB BOMB BOMB EM ALL

        The Bible thumpers are incredibly marginalized. They’re the voters, but never the ones in power. Not saying they can’t come back, they need to be closely watched, but I can’t think of a single Republican who ran on a BAN THE GAY MARRIAGE platform. I know abortion can be contentious among libetarians, I consider it to be the one issue where libertarians can have good faith disagreements.

        Pretty much all the Perpetual War Republicans voted for Biden. It was kind of a big thing they hated Trump for. Biden has promised to reengage with the world (as though we ever stopped) which means more boots on the ground somewhere.

      • R C Dean

        I think the SoCons are pretty much in the dustbin of history at this point.

      • kbolino

        I disagree. Even absent a reactionary surge, the social conservatives can still provide a compelling alternative to the secular angst and malaise currently on offer by the overculture. They will have to shift tactics, and expand their audience, but adapting to change is (somewhat paradoxically) not anathema to conservatism.

      • juris imprudent

        The Bible thumpers are incredibly marginalized.

        Which of course explains the plethora of atheist politicians in this country.

      • kbolino

        The Justices of the Supreme Court have been overwhelmingly Catholic and Jewish for a long time, even though a large majority of the country is Protestant.

        This is an inverse version of the representation fallacy of the left. There’s no reason to expect the people in power to be a demographic mirror of the country as a whole.

      • Viking1865

        I think there’s a pretty wide spectrum of people from Bible thumper to atheist. Not to mention that in American politics atheism is highly correlated with outright socialism.

        Aren’t the out and proud atheist politicians Bernie Sanders and a couple of the most leftist Congressmen from California?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Only a short while ago, atheism was pretty much a disqualifier for higher office.

      • kbolino

        Conservatives vs. progressives is a fight that plays out on TV and the Internet but not among the people who hold power nationally.

        The political establishment of both parties is happy to keep diving into the well of inside-the-box solutions. It does not matter what the question is, the answer is always to expand the government. Even when the power of government doesn’t get expanded in statute, more money is still spent, more people are hired, more equipment and facilities are purchased or leased, and the government ends up expanding its power anyway by administrative law and judicial precedent.

        We don’t alternate between ideologies, we alternate between cliques. The underlying philosophy is not materially different between these cliques.

      • Viking1865

        Yep. Remember, W voted for Clinton and Biden, and I bet he voted for Obama too. It’s the Uniparty, Red and Blue is just a con for the rubes.

      • kbolino

        Bush and the Republicans bear about 80% of the responsibility for turning NoVa (and eventually the entire state of Virginia) blue. The War on Terror was a massive handout to the white-collar public sector and public sector-adjacent (read: contractors, nonprofits, NGOs, etc.) cultural faction. Mainstream Republicans consider it to be the greatest accomplishment when they reach a grand bipartisan compromise that sends more money and power to the Democratic-leaning establishment.

    • db

      Exactly. This is what federalism was for.

      • Drake

        Also why every objection of the Anti-Federalists was proven correct.

      • db

        So many end runs around the Constitution have been discovered in the ensuing centuries that it doesn’t really function as designed anymore. That may have been a concern of the Anti-Federalists, but I’m not familiar enough to say that for certain.

      • R C Dean

        The Constitution is basically an historical artifact at this point. About as relevant to governance as the Magna Carta.

    • mrfamous

      “unless your goal is impose your will on everyone.”

      And have you seen any evidence that this _isn’t_ the goal of a great number of people currently in power? Like Anthony “Do What You’re Told” Fauci?

      • Chipwooder

        Oh, absolutely. It’s just depressing.

      • juris imprudent

        What is the purpose of power? The 18/19th century notion of the state is dead, we are clearly 20th and beyond.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    All this talk about various secession schemes just reminds me that federalism would cure most, if not all, of this. There is absolutely no reason for there to be a central government which is so deeply entrenched in the daily life of a massive 330million+ population.

    Stop. You’re killing me.

  54. Tundra

    There are a fuck-ton more countries today than there were in the mid-20th century. The idea that you can’t split things up is silly. This is an interesting article from over at AIER:

    Witnessing Lithuania’s 1991 Fight for Freedom from Soviet Power

    The then head of the Soviet Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev, was hailed in the West as an enlightened communist reformer who wished to create a new Soviet “socialism-with-a-human-face.” He was also praised as a man of peace who was allowing the Eastern European “captive nations” to go free, when the threat or use of Soviet military force – like had been used in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 – could have, once again, crushed the dreams of the people in these lands finally to be free.

    The reality was that the Soviet Union was finished. I was traveling to the Soviet Union fairly regularly in its last years doing consulting work on market reform and privatization. What was clear was that the Soviet system was like a giant tree that had been eaten away from the inside. Outwardly, it appeared immovable, but inside there was nothing but rot. All the power structures remained in place: a large bureaucracy overseeing a vast government-owned and managed economy; the Communist Party with its tentacles of monopoly control all around the country; and the dreaded KGB, the secret police, maintaining its omnipresence throughout every corner of Soviet society.

    But beneath the surface, the system had been eaten away. Soviet ideology had neither true believers nor idealistic adherents. At the same time, both the rulers and the ruled knew that the system ultimately could not be saved in its existing form. All that drove those who controlled and managed the bureaucracy and the Party was the fear of losing the power and the special privileges a communist dictatorship had put into their hands.

    Any of that sound familiar?

    • AlexinCT

      How are all these new countries doing? Not just economically but in a world where the U.S. has so far provided security, Tundra? Now play that out in a world where that security is provided by China….

    • juris imprudent

      I just love this video on that subject.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Malcolm X didn’t drink

    Quit quibblin’.

    • juris imprudent

      Just sit down with him when he was still Malcolm Little – that man knew a good time.

  56. The Late P Brooks

    My new bumper sticker idea:

    I’M A LIBERTARIAN, AND I DON’T VOTE

    A bumper sticker- for my car, which I drive on ROADZ. I’m such a hypocrite. No wonder nobody takes me seriously.

    *I could probably cast 100 ballots, and have no meaningful effect, locally or nationally.

    The bumper sticker I have actually seen: “Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for any of those idiots.”

    • Rat on a train

      I prefer: I’M PRO SOMETHING AND SOMETIMES I VOTE

    • creech

      My car still carries a “Don’t Blame Me, I voted for Goldwater” sticker. Every once in a while, I get a honk and a thumbs up.

  57. Rebel Scum

    I, for one, welcome our technocrat/banking overlords.

    Shannon Watts wants to know what’s in your wallet. Even more, she wants what’s in your wallet to decide what you can buy.

    Michael Bloomberg’s front woman for his bought-and-paid-for gun control group Moms Demand Action is demanding credit card companies monitor and police cardholder purchases. Specifically, she wants credit card companies to ban purchases of precursor firearm parts. Watts derides them as so-called “ghost guns” and wants to ban their sale. Her claim is that the ATF recovered 10,000 of these “ghost guns” last year, but those included firearms with obliterated serial numbers and older firearms not legally required to serialized.

    Here’s the problem. It’s perfectly legal for anyone who can buy a gun to build their own at home. She’s stomping her foot and demanding that credit card companies do what tech companies are doing. She wants them to dictate law and to be the arbiters of what’s legal, of what’s allowed and what rights law-abiding citizens can exercise.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      This was predictable.

      And will probably come to pass.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Ill equate this whole thing to chess. The Left/Right have been slowly developing their pieces with the left at an advantage having captured more material. The Right saw an opening and pushed out its queen but was skewered. Sensing their opportunity, the Left is beginning to play a bit more haphazardly and advancing pieces without thought.

        How the Right responds will determine the outcome of the game.

      • juris imprudent

        Which side is the pigeon?

    • Chipwooder

      That cunt is no good.

  58. robodruid

    Nothing says “peaceful transfer of power” like hundreds of troops around the capital, the national mall shutdown.
    Can they get Max-Heardoom to deliver the inaugural address?

  59. The Late P Brooks

    “No one has ever, ever gone this far in terms of saying an election was illegitimate, with all the evidence we have that this election was legitimate.”

    There is no such thing as cheating in Calvinball!

    • robc

      Has Clinton accepted 2016 yet?

      • mrfamous

        No, I think it’s safe to say she’s taking that one to her deathbed.

      • Rebel Scum

        No.

        Plus there is the irony there with the Stein requested recount that discovered…irregularities…and was quieted very quickly.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Add it to the articles of impeachment for Biden along with China collusion.

      Also Pelosi’s impeachment

      Violating covid rules.
      Inciting violence.
      Stating the 2016 election was illegitimate.

    • limey

      Good grief Toyah Willcockth looks mighty perky.

      She used to star in the title role of a kids’ show called Barmy Aunt Boomerang about a ghost who teleported from Australia to help some kid in the UK.

    • Agent Cooper

      I’m guessing she’s had work done.

    • limey

      Yikes. Anyone and everyone who pokes the bear is out. How long before this turns into people being disappeared and suddenly appearing a few months later with a vacant stare just muttering “Democrat very nice. Pay taxes. Be good citizen. Wear mask. All in this together”?

      Fan Bing Bing, I’m looking at you.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Thanks

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      And we can not use or visit Twitter and boycott Twitter advertisers.

      Yes it will take time and capital, but start a new communications platform.

      • kbolino

        And that new platform will likely get captured or shut down too, eventually.

        The lesson is not to put all your eggs in one basket.

      • mrfamous

        You think this is about Twitter’s advertisers? Twitter is not doing this for any sort of financial incentive. They’re doing it to appease what will soon be the “ruling party.” A party, I might add, who will be adding a bunch of former Twitter employees to their various administrations. The idea that it’s not “government censorship” as long as the government uses an intermediary to do it is absurd.

      • kbolino

        There are two reasons Twitter is doing this. One of them is definitely being driven by their customer base, which is to say their advertisers. Ever major publicly traded corporation is owned by institutional funds and those funds have been captured by the left.

        The other is that they’ve likely engaged in shady business practices, the same as Google and Amazon etc. have, and they want to deflect attention from the government regulators. Getting in bed with, as you say, the ruling party is their strategy to do this.

        I’d agree with you that the government is not innocent here, but the layers of indirection are pretty extensive. This is a cultural shift that will eventually (very soon, most likely) reach the government too but it was not driven by the government so much as enabled by the government (through various means).

      • juris imprudent

        Ever major publicly traded corporation is owned by institutional funds and those funds have been captured by the left.

        Makes me very happy that by switching to Fisher, I get direct stock ownership – no fund mediation.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        No, but if their bottom line takes a hit their either going to walk back the bannings or be funded by the government. The latter would be a shit show and not outside the realm of possibility. But one step at a time. First step. Attack Twitter’s bottom line.

    • Count Potato

      “That said, Twitter is a private company that can do what they want”

      Twitter is not a private company, and private companies cannot do whatever they want.

      • kbolino

        Twitter is technically not a private company, yes, they had their IPO years ago. But they are not a state-run or state-controlled corporation, either. They are massively in bed with the cultural faction that worships government, and they’ve no doubt enjoyed some kickbacks for funneling data over to the surveillance side of the state, but so far as has been shown in open information, they do not take their marching orders from the state.

      • juris imprudent

        The corporations in fascist Germany and Italy were not technically controlled by the state either.

      • db

        Right, all that is needed is that the corporate leadership is susceptible to leverage and coercion from the state.

      • juris imprudent

        Well, we’re all susceptible to state coercion – it’s really just a matter of how it is applied.

      • db

        It also matters how much *we* matter. I can’t accomplish much in terms of setting the direction of the economy, nor can the state effectively apply large amounts of pressure to the tens of millions like me. The CEO of my company, and a few hundred or thousand more, with the appropriate pressure applied, can.

      • R C Dean

        I think its more of mutual thing. Symbiosis, based on shared values and the ability to join together to achieve common goals.

        Money and power will always find each other.

  60. Count Potato

    “We do not currently have anything resembling evidence that Trump organized or directed the Capitol riot. He bears moral & political responsibility & should be convicted & disqualified by the Senate, but you’re just playing make-believe facts here under an imaginary body of law.”

    https://twitter.com/baseballcrank/status/1349497969029099531

    Looks like someone has been hitting Rich Lowry’s weed, because that’s double-talk.

    • kbolino

      “He bears moral & political responsibility”

      He’s apparently the only member of the ruling class to bear this sort of thing, why is he singled out?

      • kbolino

        Well, to be fair, there’s also a movement afoot to censure or remove a bunch of Representatives. So he’s not the only one. But this burden of responsibility is still pretty one-sided.

    • Viking1865

      “He bears moral & political responsibility & should be convicted & disqualified by the Senate”

      This, BTW, is a laywer writing this.

    • R C Dean

      “We do not currently have anything resembling evidence that Trump organized or directed the Capitol riot. He bears moral & political responsibility

      Just, wow. Trump had nothing to do with it, and is completely responsible for it. I mean, even the Stalinist show trials were more legitimate than that.

      • kbolino

        “If we get rid of Trump, then things can go back to normal”

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        And his influence and if we’re unable to get our way in something that just proves he still has influence and all of his enablers/supporters will have to be ferreted out until we get our way.

      • R C Dean

        That was last week.

        This week is, “When we get rid of everyone who supported Trump, things can get back to normal.”

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        As evidenced by some frat brothers that I blocked on social media two days ago.

        They’re out of their god-damned minds.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        After that is “When we get rid of everyone who has said anything inappropriate, things can get back to normal.”

      • kbolino

        Well, it was a false premise to begin with. That the goalposts have moved is intentional. As Malice says, “they want you dead but will settle for your submission”. Though even then your submission today will not save you tomorrow.

  61. robc

    Chess update — I have seemed to settled in at about 950 rating. I wish they had a 10/5 instead of 10/0 game speed. 15/10 is longer than I want to play, but I lost 2 games last night on time when I was clearly in a winning position. The extra 5 secs per move in a 10/5 would have been enough to get the wins. Heck, 10/2 would have probably worked.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Are you on chess.com? If so, I’d like to sic my kid on you.

      • robc

        Yes. I know I suck, I don’t need some kid beating me up to prove it.

      • robc

        Even when I win, and am feeling proud of my victory, I look at the analysis and see I made a huge blunder that fortunately my opponent was crappy enough to miss and blunder me back in the game.

        Nothing ruins a nice win like seeing you missed a mate 15 turns earlier.

      • Ownbestenemy

        ^^ This. I reviewed a couple of my games and seeing the blunders, saying “why did I think that was a good move at the time?”.

      • robc

        Although sometimes I see suggested moves and say, “yes, that is probably technically better against good players, but my move is good enough against the people I am playing against, plus, I am not sure I can make that line work, while mine worked just fine.”

        But if I improve, I will need to figure out more of those moves.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Any game with him where I can get past Move 15 is, to me, a victory.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve lost in two before.

  62. Rebel Scum

    Lyft is assho.

    A Lyft driver has been fired by the ridesharing service after she admitted to firing her legally-owned and licensed gun during an attempted carjacking.

    Cynthia Norman said she picked up a pair of young men — likely in their 20s — at an apartment complex in Cleveland’s Nottingham neighborhood around 1:00 a.m. Sunday.

    As she arrived at the destination, the NEO Sports Plant, formerly known as the Euclid Sports Plant, she became concerned as it appeared the facility was closed.

    That’s when the ride turned violent. …

    Thankful she’s okay, Norman is frustrated that her supplemental income has been taken away by Lyft, which has a zero-tolerance policy for drivers carrying weapons — even if they’re legally carried.

    Our “No Weapons” policy applies when you are doing business as a representative of Lyft, which includes times that you are driving for Lyft, as well as times that you are visiting a Lyft Hub.

    This means that even in places where it is legal to carry a weapon, we ask that you do not carry a weapon on any Lyft property.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Image the story if she wasn’t carrying and she was killed. No journalist would ever ask Lyft, “Should you rethink your ‘No Weapons’ policy?”

    • kbolino

      Violence against bad-thinking women is just hunky dory.

    • juris imprudent

      you do not carry a weapon on any Lyft property

      So was she driving a vehicle owned by Lyft?

  63. The Late P Brooks

    Hey, everybody, America executed a woman. I assume the radical feminists are planning a big celebration of this giant leap forward in gender equality.

    • Rebel Scum

      If only she would shut up and stop acting like such a tyrannical cunte.

    • R C Dean

      Because she actually has a pretty rockin’ bod.

      • Count Potato

        Needs moar booty.

      • R C Dean

        Concur. She would benefit from SQUAT MOAR.

    • Urthona

      Damn. Good photo. If only I was a pasty white left wing dweeb I could be her boyfriend.

    • Agent Cooper

      Reply- “For those who make your “Ministry of Truth” comments, from 1949 to 1987, the FCC used to enforce the fairness doctrine that required holders of broadcast licenses to present controversial issues of the day, both do so in an honest and unbiased manner. Eliminating this rule led to these stations that show the utterly biased view points that we see today. If they simply reinstituted that law, we could reestablish news credibility. It’s not forcing news stations to report what the Government wants, but enforcing that they report all sides of the story.

      Then why did Walter Cronkite lie about the Tet Offensive?

    • mrfamous

      “Why you make me hit you, baby?”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I still don’t know how Twitter makes money.

      • robc

        EPS=-1.58 per share

        Answer: They dont.

      • robc

        They do have 3.3B in revenue, so they money is coming in.

  64. The Late P Brooks

    Just, wow. Trump had nothing to do with it, and is completely responsible for it. I mean, even the Stalinist show trials were more legitimate than that.

    By any means necessary. We’ll worry about the collateral damage later.

    • Mojeaux

      Internalized racism.

    • creech

      What happened to “1619?”

      • kbolino

        History began yesterday, but slavery is forever.

    • Agent Cooper

      Jeff Davis is laughing in his grave.

    • kbolino

      I’ve said since early on in his Presidency that if they stopped calling him Hitler and tried to work with him they could have accomplished a lot.

      I would have hated all of those “accomplishments” but still.

      • Urthona

        Yes. How much of his being strangely libertarian was actually forced on him?

        I’m glad they refused to work with him. We need to double down and find someone that infuriates them even more for 2024.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Actually Rand Paul seems to drive them crazy. He’s been shot at, had his ribs broken, and harassed by a mob.

        The mob was yelling at him to say the name of a person he named a bill he authored after.

      • Urthona

        Well, yes. I would give my right nut to see that guy elected. And that’s my favorite of the set.

    • robodruid

      Its not “I’ll be back”?

      • Urthona

        HE MUST RETURN TO COMPLETE THE IMPEACHMENT TRILOGY.

    • Endless Mike

      JP started off as a funny hippy joking about how vegans need to lighten up, and then he got Red-Pilled HARD.

  65. The Late P Brooks

    I guess Washington is going to be sealed off and put under martial law for Biden’s ascension.

    That’s what HEALING looks like, baby.

    • db

      You misspelled “heel.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      A useless heel and a warmonger

  66. Mojeaux

    Reading y’all’s comments, I’m starting to feel the way I felt reading ZeroHedge that led to the Great Mojo Prepper Panic of 2008. I am trying very hard to divorce my fight-or-flight from my bank account because I spent a lot of money trying to prep without knowing what I was doing. I just bought things willy nilly at the first prep website I came to that day, none of it really useful for anything but camping for a night or two.

    I don’t have any guns in the house for reasons some of you know. Plus, I had that one stupid purchase that made me mad at myself for years. I’m getting older. My knee is broken somehow (not broken-broken, but I have to see a doctor–I think it’s commonly known as runner’s knee). My rotator cuff never really recovered its post-tear strength, not even after surgery (hence, little DIY). My family drama is ongoing, and although we are making good progress, good things and progress are still stressful.

    I love you all, but I’m panicking again. The problem is, I just can’t quit you. This is one of only two places I hang out, and the other place has sparse traffic. So, carry on. It’s good to vent. If I’m not around as much, it’s because I’m trying to not panic.

    • Urthona

      I’m not a true libertarian in the sense that I don’t really have any guns either, except a shotgun my dad gave me.

      As last night’s thread proved, if things actually went bad I am not in the least bit self sufficient either.

    • Drake

      I really wish we could return to where we were a few decades ago – when nobody seemed to pay much attention to politics between election and the politicians left us alone.

      I’ve had to calm myself down, tune out the news, and concentrate on life on several occasions during the last few months.

      Living well = best revenge, yada yada….

      • Urthona

        Agreed.

        Federalism is the key to everything too.

    • db

      Don’t panic; there is so much speculation and dissonance from all quarters that you have to try to tune things out. Don’t think about how the world will crash around you. The situation in politics and media right now is trying very hard to burst everyone’s bubbles and to drag us in, to force us into their ways of thinking, driving us down blind alleys that no one really sees an exit from.

      Sometimes when I feed put upon by the world, I try to imagine what it would be like to be functionally immortal–unkillable by disease or age, but susceptible to violence. What actions would I take to improve my ability to weather the storm at hand, so as to maintain the long run (which could be thousands of years). I know that is unrealistic, but taking the long view in that way can help relieve the sense of immediacy that societal panics can induce.

      Try to stay on top of the swells, and don’t get washed up in the breakers.

    • R C Dean

      Lemme help you out. The odds of the following are vanishingly low:

      (1) Civil war.

      (2) Secession.

      (3) Meaningful insurgency against the government.

      I think the following is more likely:

      (1) One-party corruptocrat state. Think Mexico under the PRI.

      (2) Creeping socialism/collectivism and associate slow decline.

      The latter is not worth panicking about. Its mostly lost opportunities over the next decades. I don’t foresee mass starvation, violence, etc. With the wild card being currency collapse, which will take everything down with it. The currency collapses when it stops being the reserve currency, and I don’t see an alternative reserve currency on the horizon, so even though the table is set for it, I don’t think its imminent.

      • Urthona

        I concur.

        *sigh*

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ?

      • kinnath

        I expect a repeat of the Carter years with the 20% misery index — 10% inflation plus 10% unemployment.

        I remember stories of little old ladies eating dog food to survive and in some cases freezing to death their houses because inflation destroyed the value of their savings and social security didn’t keep up.

        With retirement just around the corner, this is what keeps me up at night.

      • Mojeaux

        To me, this is a best-case scenario.

    • robodruid

      Get out of the cities.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Pretty much this

        We’re going to see a lot more Detroits in the near future.

  67. The Late P Brooks

    I love you all, but I’m panicking again.

    Hang in there. Take a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

    There’s still a lot of good, and good people, in the world.

    That’s what i tell myself, anyway.

    • The Other Kevin

      My good friend, the former cop/union guy who voted for Trump twice, keeps telling me that most people just want to go to work and go about their daily routine. They just want to live and let live, and are tired of all this political crap. I hope he’s right.

      • db

        That’s reasonable, but how does it jive with the fact that record numbers voted in the last election? Do all those people just want the problem resolved and thought that voting would help put the issue to rest for a few years? Possibly. Are those voters still exercised/upset, or do the majority of them accept the outcome?

      • Agent Cooper

        “record numbers voted in the last election?”

        Got a ballot in the mail? Send it back with little difficulty.

      • R C Dean

        Nobody Who Matters cares what most people want. They care what People Who Matter want. Corrupting the electoral system is just making sure what most people want is irrelevant.

        And, frankly, most people seem to want a big government with its fingers in everything. Maybe not their thing, but once you start with “There otta be a law”, their fingers are in your thing, too. Unless you are People Who Matter, which by definition most people aren’t.

      • juris imprudent

        Hey Buddy…

    • Old Man With Candy

      There’s still a lot of good, and good people, in the world.

      Meeting me should have disabused you of that naïve notion.

      • Mojeaux

        You’re a mensch.

    • UnCivilServant

      How much are you paid per click?

      What’s our cut?

    • Urthona

      When I suggested not sharing Twitter links I was just theorizing on how we could cut into whatever revenue they get but if people don’t want to that’s fine. Just an idea.

      • Count Potato

        I don’t think Twitter gets any money from just clicking on their links.

      • Urthona

        What do they actually get money for?

      • R C Dean

        Ads. Which are valuable based on volume, so clicks on links add value to Twitter?

        I’m guessing. I have successfully cultivated my ignorance of all things Twitter.

      • Count Potato

        I never see any ads because ad blockers.

      • Count Potato

        *shrugs*

        Anyway, Trump flirting with Rudy Giuliani dressed in drag is hilarious.

    • Agent Cooper

      This is old news. I’ve seen this. Young people can be dumb.

      • Agent Cooper

        They think everything started yesterday or no one has ever done anything before the day they were sentient.

        Add cultural amnesia to our list of problems with society.

  68. The Late P Brooks

    I’m glad they refused to work with him. We need to double down and find someone that infuriates them even more for 2024.

    Maybe we can get that fire-breathing libertarian wrecking ball, Mitt Romney.

    • Urthona

      When he was running, he was the anti-christ I swear. I remember having to see multiple articles about the evils of Bain Capital.

      And then the Obama administration hired like 5 people from that company.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Yep, I remember the weeks leading up to the election, it was non-stop talk about how “Arch-conservative Mitt Romney” was going to enslave women and minorities, and drive the entire country back into the middle ages.

    • juris imprudent

      Mitt will only be a viable Libertarian candidate when he’s completely washed out of the Republican party.

  69. The Late P Brooks

    When he was running, he was the anti-christ

    That’s the guy. The one who wanted to dismantle Social Security, and ban medicine. And make it illegal to be poor.

  70. The Late P Brooks

    My good friend, the former cop/union guy who voted for Trump twice, keeps telling me that most people just want to go to work and go about their daily routine. They just want to live and let live, and are tired of all this political crap. I hope he’s right.

    #METOO

    I think he is right, despite the people whipped into a frenzy of hate for President Cartoon Villain.

    The media, is, in fact, our enemy. I see no evidence of any inclination to lay off the deplorables once Grandpa Joe takes over the wheel. An insurrectionist racist under every bed. A heavily armed fascist militia in every garage.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      The media is enemy number 1. While they actively do everything possible to tear the country to shreds, they’re taking in massive cash flow, drinking their champagne as they laugh at the rest of us.

  71. KSuellington

    “A sizable percentage of U.S. voters support a proposal to split the country into two separate countries — amid bitter political divides…”

    And here I am for years hoping that we will see a California split. Got my State of Jefferson decal and everything. But seriously, get up an hour or two north or east and you will see plenty of State of Jefferson flags, bumper stickers and homemade signs. I’d love to see that happen, but don’t think it will.

  72. The Late P Brooks

    Meeting me should have disabused you of that naïve notion.

    I didn’t say EVERYBODY.

  73. The Late P Brooks

    That’s reasonable, but how does it jive with the fact that record numbers voted in the last election? Do all those people just want the problem resolved and thought that voting would help put the issue to rest for a few years? Possibly. Are those voters still exercised/upset, or do the majority of them accept the outcome?

    Maybe we shouldn’t discount the possibility that a lot of people were voting for “STFU!” Maybe if President Shiny Object could be put back in the closet,
    the screaming children would quiet back down and stop being such a pain in the ass.

    • R C Dean

      Well, they must be disappointed.

      Why they thought giving the screaming children what they were screaming for would shut them up, I have no clue.

      You get more of what you reward, and all that.

    • The Other Kevin

      Maybe that’s why the establishment picked Old Joe. He seems like the old, boring Democrat. And if he acted like that, things would probably settle down. But he’s still trying to appease the screaming children. Hopefully there is already some widespread buyer’s remorse.

  74. The Late P Brooks

    Why they thought giving the screaming children what they were screaming for would shut them up, I have no clue.

    You get more of what you reward, and all that.

    That’s just, like, your opinion, man.

  75. Muzzled Woodchipper

    Looks like Governor Dickless has some ultra-thin skin.

    A few guys write a letter to the legislature in accordance with state law, and now they’re TERRORISTS TRYING TO VIOLENTLY OVERTHROW DEMOCRACY AND OVERTURN AN ELECTION!!!

    I play baseball with one of these fine gentleman. I’ve known him for several years now. He was an advisor for Rand Paul when he ran for Senate the first time. One of the honest Tea Partiers that didn’t fold as soon as they got to DC.

    https://amp.courier-journal.com/amp/6645373002

    • Agent Cooper

      When government fears the people, there is liberty.

    • Agent Cooper

      Also, enough with the infantry cosplay. It’s overkill.