Saint Elon

Plus: Hegseth for defense secretary, updates from the Daniel Penny trial, and more...

Elon Musk x Vivek Ramaswamy: Yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump announced these two oddball entrepreneurs would be leading a new government agency focused entirely on making the obscenely wasteful federal bureaucracy more efficient.

"The Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before," wrote Trump in his statement announcing the picks. "It will become, potentially, 'The Manhattan Project' of our time." The name itself, which can be abbreviated to DOGE, is a reference to a cryptocurrency started as a joke, which Musk aggressively promoted.

pic.twitter.com/042NfHZOQU

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2024

"While it is not yet clear whether this entity will exist within the federal government or outside, an official government agency cannot be created without an act of Congress," scolded NPR.

The most immediate response from politics-watchers, and from diversity hire/Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has been to skewer the picks, pointing out that there are two people helming an agency focused on streamlining. Sure, I guess. There are lots of ways this could go poorly. But why the immediate negativity?

"All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency," wrote Musk on X. "Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know! We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining."

I'm sorry, but this is a helluvalot better of an idea than not having this department at all, and allowing federal bureaucracy to continue to balloon. The most reasonable objection so far has been from economist Russ Roberts, who points out that, though cutting spending is politically unpopular, that's the thing that will really make a dent:

The real challenge with actually reducing the size of government is not about waste, fraud, and abuse. It's about cutting spending which means making people unhappy. That art requires will more than skill. We'll see. https://t.co/loMQ8dKUcu

— Russ Roberts (@EconTalker) November 13, 2024

He's not wrong, but if Musk and Ramaswamy can meme and post their way to real power within the federal government, and use it for good not evil, saving taxpayers a little bit of money, count me a supporter.

Over the last 2 years, the Supreme Court has ruled that the administrative state is behaving in wildly unlawful ways. But slapping the bureaucracy on the wrist won't solve the problem, the only right answer is a massive downsizing. https://t.co/EfdJzd9XuT

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 13, 2024

Secretary of ax-throwing: President-elect Donald Trump just picked Fox News' Pete Hegseth as his defense secretary. Hegseth served in the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay, but has otherwise been in the media since 2014, making him a nontraditional choice to lead the 1.3 million active-duty troops. He also appears to have been stewing in the intellectual ferment of the New Right, or at least have roots there, to the extent that he's involved in intellectual spaces at all.

Patrick Deneen was Pete Hegseth's senior thesis advisor pic.twitter.com/zKOkytIG9R

— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) November 13, 2024

Trump's picks have been basically all over the place: some outsiders and innovators, some dyed-in-the-wool loyalists, some generic war hawks whose priorities seem to be in conflict with Trump's purportedly less-interventionist instincts. It remains to be seen whether this motley crew will be effective at carrying out his second-term goals.

---

Scenes from New York: "A Bronx man seen in a video last year helping Daniel Penny restrain a homeless man on a subway car floor testified on Tuesday that he had stepped in thinking that his assistance would mean that Mr. Penny would release his chokehold," reports The New York Times. Apparently, the man—Eric Gonzalez—lied to investigators, initially claiming that the homeless man, Jordan Neely, had hit him.

---

QUICK HITS

• Possibly the craziest free-range kids story I've ever read, courtesy of Lenore Skenazy. A Georgia mother let her 10-year-old walk a mile into town. Nothing happened; he was fine. The mother was arrested later that night, and now must sign a "safety plan"—which would force her, among other things, to surveil her son via an app—or possibly face a year in jail. She refuses to sign. The case is ongoing.
• Stephen Miller, a senior adviser for Trump during his first term who crafted hard-line immigration policy, is expected to play an even larger role in this administration, possibly serving as deputy chief of staff.
• Back in February, two climate activists vandalized the encasement holding the U.S. Constitution. Both pleaded guilty to destruction of government property; one of the vandals, Jackson Green, was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release.
• A few days ago, Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat, pleaded with his own party to have an ounce of self-reflection about culture war issues: "I have two little girls. I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete. But as a Democrat, I'm supposed to be afraid to say that," he said on TV. This resulted in wild backlash, including the political science department chair at Tufts University calling Moulton's office saying he will no longer "facilitate internship opportunities for students"—something Tufts then walked back.
• Please subscribe to my show's YouTube channel. It is very hard to start a new channel from scratch!
• Yes:

The primary mission of technology and economy policy should be to put everything on the TV price curve. https://t.co/gc1UgaJOf7

— Marc Andreessen ???????? (@pmarca) November 12, 2024

• Scientific American seems to be less and less scientific these days:

Neither should we forget this:
Claiming that men and women would run equally fast, if it wasn't for biases in how they are treated. pic.twitter.com/SlFwkdLIGr

— Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen) November 12, 2024

• lol:

wow crazy that he's breaking with the longstanding tradition of hiring people who hate your fucking guts pic.twitter.com/x5qsRhamGo

— Mike Solana (@micsolana) November 12, 2024

Comments

[Chumby]

Not a Fedophile

President Trump's new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, plans to cut the spending deficit immediately, "I think we're going to do it through deregulation, energy dominance, and re-privatizing the economy."

He'll also work with Elon Musk to cut out the waste.

- Bellum Acta

Editors here at Reason are going to fight the cuts all the way down. Someone get them a therapy plush toy.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

My plan for day 1.
Take all money spent on dei crap, multiply it by 10, and remove that from the departments next budget

[Commenter_XY]

ENB will need a sex toy in lieu of a plush therapy toy.

[Spiritus Mundi]

Prob wont be enjoyable with all that sand in her vag.

[mad.casual]

I think we all knew this discussion was going to end with a wire coathanger before it started.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Does anyone make a plush Oliver doll?

Or would that be too triggering?

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

It's a little boy, same as sbps toy

[Chumby]

The retailer that offered one discontinued selling it due to garnering only 0.4% of sales.

[Don't look at me!]

Turn out it was gay.

[R Mac]

I hope sarc had a chance to buy one before it left the market.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

I’m sure Pedo Jeffy will want one. Who drew Jeffy for ‘secret Santa’ this year?

[Chumby]

You’ll need a large piece of paper if you want to draw Jeffy. Yuge piece of paper.

[Don't look at me!]

Please subscribe to my show's YouTube channel. It is very hard to start a new channel from scratch!

Free advertising helps.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Perhaps if it moves to rumble I will

[R Mac]

^

[Dillinger]

word

[InsaneTrollLogic (Factio Democratica delenda est 5/30/24)]

Puting it on X might reach more people.

[HorseConch]

Is Mastodon not the new X any longer?

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

What's X? Is that like Twitter?

[Chumby]

I’ll watch it should it show up on Telegram. A billion user platform that western MSM avoids. Perfect for libertarian content.

[Chumby]

BoJo Clowning

Britain may send troops to Ukraine if Trump cuts funding to Kyiv,” former Prime Minister Boris Johnson

This slob’s mental health has long been in question.

- various Eastern channels

Football hooligans soon to FAFO?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Do they have enough beer in Ukraine?

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

“Bloody Russkies! If you’re not a Manc, you’re a wank!”

[Dillinger]

after that golf course shooter was nabbed they needed a new way to shuttle Pakistanis to the Ukrainian front.

[Don't look at me!]

I look forward to the entertainment that the spending leaderboard will no doubt provide.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

POST THE LIST!!!

[R Mac]

Follow this guy, he’s on it:

A million dollar NIH study on how to do better studies on transgenders, STRAIGHT TO THE DOGE LEADERBOARD!

https://x.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1856686747276476580

[Commenter_XY]

R Mac, it would be the height of hilarity for regular citizens to identify DOGE-worthy right-sizing, and maybe get a cut of the actual savings.

Why not incentivize anyone who can find a DOGE-worthy cut?

Elon has 6 companies to run, and Vivek has little kids. They need the help.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

I like it! Put a 10% bounty on any eliminated federal program, and make both citizens and other agencies eligible for the reward.

Is this a good time to bring up my plan for a similar way to reduce Social Security costs? Working title: Retire the Retired and Reap the Reward!

[Don't look at me!]

Hey, that would make a good bumper sticker.

[Jefferson Paul]

Then it's a good way to get sarc on board!

[Don't look at me!]

We have to, it won’t go anywhere without his support.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

I’ve long advocated for accelerated democrat attrition. So I want to collect bounties too.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Problem is, if you put a bounty of Democrats, some wise guy will start breeding and raising Democrats just to collect the bounty…

"Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong...

[R Mac]

I would consider quitting my job and doing that full time.

[Chumby]

Norks in New York (Donetsk)

The US State Department stated that North Korean military personnel have begun to participate in combat operations against the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region.

This was reported by the Deputy Head of the Press Service of the State Department, Vedant Patel.

- Intel Slava Z

North Korea getting 5 Gen Warfare experience while Bidenista NAFO types win battles against western taxpayers.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Yeah, but once those Norks see the good life in Kursk, will they ever go home?

[R Mac]

I heard they all got addicted to internet porn.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

I wonder why Seth Moulton thinks he’s supposed to be afraid to speak plain truths?

[Social Justice is neither]

Because the party of diversity and tolerance isn't.

[NoVaNick]

Because 1) Massachusetts 2) Democrats.
Don’t forget this is the state and party that continues to reelect a fake Indian. So plain truths are not acceptable.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Hey, the devout liberals in Massachusetts might have a truth better than plain reality. Did you ever think of that?

[NoVaNick]

+1 Derrida

[Don't look at me!]

The mother was arrested later that night, and now must sign a "safety plan"—which would force her, among other things, to surveil her son via an app—or possibly face a year in jail.

It takes a village to raise a child.

[NealAppeal]

...and jail their parents.

[Jefferson Paul]

It takes a village to raise a child.

And it takes a Viking to raze a village.

[sarcasmic]

I like Musk. This will get interesting.

[Mike Parsons]

agreed, and agreed

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Cite?

[ducksalad]

There is a missing step that needs to be filled in:

1. Musk and Ramaswamy identify a couple trillion in spending they would like to cut.
2. ???
3. Congress passes a budget that slashes spending by a couple trillion.

[Don't look at me!]

Yes.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Hey Mike. If you ever paid attention to Vivek you would know that under Obama appropriation language changed from may spend to shall spend.

One of the first things Vivek said he would work on with Trump is to change the language back to may.

Now why does this matter? May gives allowance to the executive to spend up to a spending level while shall forces the executive to spend the appropriated amounts.

Can you figure out why this small change would have big effects?

[Ajsloss]

May gives allowance to the executive to spend up to a spending level while shall forces the executive to spend the appropriated amounts.

In my experience, the words mean the same thing. As in, "if I don't spend all the money I *may* spend, they will surely reduce my budget next time." People always want bigger (or at least the same) budgets, so they always spend to the max regardless of whether or not they have to.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

In government budgeting language matters, especially in appropriation. Especially taking into consideration the ruling in the Impoundment Act.

[InsaneTrollLogic (Factio Democratica delenda est 5/30/24)]

Which is an attitude within the executive departments that needs to be eliminated.

[Commenter_XY]

Exactly.

[Randy Sax]

The bloated budgets go all the way down the chain. When my father was security engineer working for the state dept. (buying and installing cameras, metal detectors, fences, etc.) he had a yearly budget for the embassy he was appointed to that year. He was in charge of one embassy at a time, not a group of them or anything. He never spent the full budget, till the end of the year when they blew all the remaining money on expensive tools, shop machines, and scissor lifts, all that they really didn't need.

It's not just one guy at the top that needs to get cut for overspending, it's a problem every single level down.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

It's inherent in government, which is an immortal coercive monopoly. Even rewarding snitches with 10% of the savings is useless, since it really encourages them to overbudget even more to get bigger snitch rewards.

[R Mac]

Yeah, that’s the point.

[Jefferson Paul]

My idea, and I don't know if it would even be feasible, is to have the employees of the government department get a bonus straight into their paychecks at the end of the year that is a fraction of whatever amount of funds are left over and not spent. That way the ones wasting the funds previously just to spend to the limit would have an incentive not to just spend the funds frivolously.

You'd still have overpaid and largely useless bureaucrats making even more money than before, but far more money would be saved than what we have now.

The top bureaucrats in the department, the ones who make most of the decisions on the spending would get the largest fraction of a percent of the saved funds, and the mid to lower bureaucrats would receive an even smaller amount. But there would be a culture shift in the bureaucracies toward not spending as wastefully.

I don't know if this would even be legal, but something that offers a personal incentive to all of them, especially the ones higher up, to not spend for the sake of spending would probably help with all of this government bloat.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Won't work. The incentive then is to overbudget even more to get bigger rewards. Like cobras in India and rats in Indochina.

[Quicktown Brix]

How does this address the missing link?
Who sets the language? Not Vivek.

[Don't look at me!]

Apparently , you are the only one who thinks a link is missing.

[Quicktown Brix]

Apparently you missed the link to the missing link.

[Don't look at me!]

I stand corrected.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

OPM. Vivek has discussed this a lot.

[Quicktown Brix]

Sure. Vivek was my favorite of the 2024 candidates, but this positions seems to be powerless. That's the problem. How do Vivek's ideas get implemented?

[Don't look at me!]

Step one: elect trump.
Oh yeah, we did that.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Not sure if serious.

It is explained above. Trump is listening to him and Musk.

Do you want daily minutes for a plan or something?

[Quicktown Brix]

Trump is listening to him and Musk.

That makes DOGE nothing. Any president can listen to anyone at any time. NO TEETH.

[Don't look at me!]

Libertarians for powerful government agencies!

[Quicktown Brix]

If it's cost cutting dept, then yep.

[R Mac]

Not sure if you’re just not comprehending this or trolling, so I’ll try one more time.

Elon and Viveke are geniuses, particularly when it comes to systems (a bureaucracy is a type of system). They are going to get into the executive branch and figure out what agencies can be cut, either wholly or partially.

They are also going to look at what can be cut by the executive itself, and what will need to be cut by the legislature.

They are going to report to Trump and say “You have the authority to do this, this, and this, and here is what must be included in the executive orders to make it work. Congress has the authority to do this, this, and this.”

Then Trump will sign an executive order for what he can, and pressure Congress to do what he can’t.

[ducksalad]

Then Trump will sign an executive order for what he can, and pressure Congress to do what he can’t.

Genius! No one has ever thought about executive orders before. And pressure Congress! Wow, only a brilliant mind could have thought of pressuring Congress. This is an astounding level of innovation, Vivek's intellect is gobsmacking.

[Quicktown Brix]

Not sure if you’re just not comprehending this or trolling, so I’ll try one more time.

No. I get it. And I'm not trying to troll. Everything you describe is advisory. Nothing changed. I guess I was naive to think this new campaign-promise-cost-cutting-dept would have authority to, you know, cut costs. So, yeah, I'm a bit disappointed.

[ducksalad]

Nardz, I challenge you to explain the following facts:

1. Trump didn’t get the language changed in 2017 or 2018 when he had control of both houses of Congress.
2. Vivek Ramaswamy was alive an able to read, write, and speak at the time.

Explain why it didn’t happen last time. Was Trump so dumb that he and his whole staff didn’t see this one simple trick? Could only a supergenius like Vivek notice the difference between shall and may?

I’ll go ahead and offer you some help, since you’re badly in need of it: Whether Congress changes the wording in the budget is not dependent on Vivek Ramaswamy approving it. He is not a member of Congress and they don’t have to listen to him.

[sarcasmic]

Stop it! You forgot the rules. You're supposed to focus on what he says and ignore his record, except when you're supposed to focus on his record and ignore what he says. This is one of the cases where you ignore his record and focus on what he says. See?

[Don't look at me!]

Ideas™ !

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

You and Mike always contribute so much here.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Sounds like you have low blood sugar Sarc. Why don’t you go eat a Trumpburger?

[Don't look at me!]

Wash it down with some Trump Ice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Ice

Oh wait, it doesn’t have any alcohol in it. Never mind.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Are you getting more retarded Mike?

Vivek wasn’t involved with Trump at the time.

Trump likely didn’t understand the point and was under the lawfare you cheered for.

But both points are red herring because you have nothing of substance or intelligence to actually contribute.

Trying to attack me as nardz is hilarious BTW Mike. You're getting increasingly desperate.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Trump likely didn’t understand the point and was under the lawfare you cheered for.

always making excuses for Trump
he gets the infinite, infinite benefit of the doubt from you and your team.

Why can't you just say what everyone else plainly sees: "Trump is not nearly as smart as your team thinks he is"

[Don't look at me!]

Maybe, but he still got elected.
Again.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Seethe harder you fat bitch. Trump’s going to get rid of your precious illegals.

[R Mac]

How smart do you think our “team” thinks Trump is, Lying Jeffy?

Especially when it comes to understanding detailed language in law. You guys really are just being stupid on purpose at this point.

[DesigNate]

Trump, to his discredit, didn’t take the threat the Democrats and never-trumper “resistance” posed and kept surrounding himself with people that were actively working against him.

I won’t hold my breath that it doesn’t happen again, but I have some hope.

[R Mac]

These idiots keep thinking this is a gotcha, but all the weaknesses of Trump regarding this topic have been acknowledged years ago. They won’t let that stop them yelling at the lies they tell themselves.

[DesigNate]

I've found, when it comes to Trump, the people that hate him are like Dory in Finding Nemo. No matter how many times someone dings him for something, they'll forget it five minutes later.

Then they'll turn around and say something blatantly false or out of context, causing the other person to correct them and leading to "Why do you Trump cultists always defend him!"

[sarcasmic]

Maybe he can come up with an incentive for departments to not use up their entire budget.

[InsaneTrollLogic (Factio Democratica delenda est 5/30/24)]

Perhaps. That would be a good thing.

[ducksalad]

Incentive? What happened to the unitary executive? Can't he just *order* them not to spend it?

I hate to throw you in with JesseNardz, but could you explain what is different now than in 2017-2018 when Trump had Republican control of Congress? Do you believe that no one then had the brilliant idea to cut spending, until Vivek and Elon mentioned it?

[sarcasmic]

I hate to throw you in with JesseNardz

Then don't. I'm not a cunt.

could you explain what is different now

Nothing.

Do you believe that no one then had the brilliant idea to cut spending, until Vivek and Elon mentioned it?

I think Elon, being the definition of an outside-the-box thinker, might possibly maybe perhaps think of something.

Doubt it though. The problem is incentives. Even Musk can't fix that.

[Don't look at me!]

Yes, and reusable rockets will never be possible.

[ducksalad]

I don't deny that Musk is a remarkable person, and if he had dictatorial control over the budget he could and would cut it, maybe even in some innovative ways you or I wouldn't have thought of.

However, he's merely advisor to a mercurial person who has a proven four-year track record of increasing spending and debt, who has a long history of ignoring advisors and then tossing them completely after a year of two. Furthermore, that mercurial person is constrained by Congress and the constitution, and couldn't act as Elon's proxy dictator even if he wanted to.

I suppose Musk's new position might give him a better platform to propose ideas that might convince some key congressmen. Maybe, we'll see.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Mike, how the fuck do you have origination of spending completely backwards? Lol.

You blame Trump for Congressional spending increases. Because you're a partisan moron.

Boehm had an article just 2 years ago showing most of the pre covid increase was interest on the debt and entitlements programs. Programs Trump had no say over, yet you credit to "his spending" like a moron.

Trump even wanted to get rid of ACA before McCain voted no.

Then on 18 Pelosi took over the House and worked with McConnel.

You continue to show a complete misunderstanding and disregard foe the functions of government. It may be due to your ignorance, but it seems to be motivated by partisanship.

When he first got in office he ordered depts to identify spending cuts. Many refused and formed The Resistance, which you cheered. All while being under false investigation by the DoJ which again, you cheered.

You and sarc have so much partisan bias you refuse to recognize reality.

You two are the reason nothing ever gets fixed. Congress counts on the idiocy of people like you to never make a hard decision or cut spending. You two are the useful fucking idiots.

[R Mac]

Mike Liarson isn’t misunderstanding anything. He’s just squawking like a bird.

[ducksalad]

Oh, we all get it. You'll say anything.

Trump will reduce spending. Trump doesn't control spending. Congress undermined him and he couldn't get around them. Congress can't undermine him this time because he'll go around them.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Then don’t. I’m not a cunt.

Cite?

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Sarc, you’re being way too hard on yourself. You’re a massive cunt.

[Medulla Oblongata]

"Then don’t. I’m not a cunt."

Objection! Assumes facts not in evidence.

[NealAppeal]

Possibly that Trump is a little more savvy on his staffing hires and won't have a bunch of big government cronies willing to undermine him at every turn. Even so, Trump did get rid of some regulations last term...which is better than any other POTUS in recent history.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

It's never Trump's fault. Never.

[Don't look at me!]

Now you are catching on.

[R Mac]

You’re not even comprehending the posts you’re responding to Lying Jeffy.

[DesigNate]

He can’t, hate has blinded him.

[Chumby]

Or diabetes from all the HFCS products consumed.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Poor, fat raving faggot. Trump broke you.

Get ready, your pain has just begun.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Imagine being so dumb you look to sarc for education.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Let’s try this. It’s just remotely possible that Trump in 2016–as a political neophyte, unschooled on Congressional language, the powers of the President, and the interplay between Executive/Legislative and the bureaucracy–didn’t really understand some of these sorts of issues.

And maybe eight years later, with 4 years of being President (and 2 years of battling Nancy Pelosi and 4 yeas of lawfare against hime), with people like Musk and a wonk like Ramaswamy doing some of the legwork, perhaps this time Trump will actually advocate for and work with Congress to make the changes?

Just a thought.

[ducksalad]

It’s just remotely possible that Trump in 2016–as a political neophyte, unschooled on Congressional language, the powers of the President, and the interplay between Executive/Legislative and the bureaucracy–didn’t really understand some of these sorts of issues.

People pointed this out in 2016. The right told them to shove it because (a) Trump was a genius, and (b) he doesn’t need to understand the rules, he needs to make the rules. We were told this over and over again.

perhaps this time Trump will actually advocate for and work with Congress to make the changes?

Maybe if he delegates it. Trump himself is never really going to be capable of seeing the point of view of a legislator. He’s never had to be a team player, never worked for a boss.

[Jerry B.]

The names of the legislators who sponsored and cosponsored the biggest boondoggles go up on the Board of Shame.

[Commenter_XY]

sarcasmic...totally agree on both points.

If Pres Trump does nothing else but chop the federal bureaucracy by a meaningful amount, he will have done what no POTUS has done for a long time...shrink the government.

[Zeb]

Yeah. I love that this is actually happening. Even if it doesn't make a huge dent in spending, it will be fun to watch. At least someone is trying something to start chipping away at it.

[R Mac]

Nuh uh! Trump bad! Trump supporters bad!

— Lying Jeffy, Mike Liarson

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Oliver, best known for forcing a runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Hershel Walker in Georgia, is a relic of previous iterations of libertarianism. His support of open borders, transgender surgeries for children, and the Black Lives Matter movement and his less than stellar record on COVID-19 tyranny alienated right-leaning libertarians. With the Left’s all-out embrace of totalitarianism, a transactional relationship with a Republican candidate offering a seat at the table became too good a deal to pass up.

Oliver performed worse than any libertarian candidate for president since 2008, finishing fifth behind Green Party nominee Jill Stein and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped out of the race and urged his supporters to vote for Trump. While former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson set the high water mark for the Libertarian Party in 2016, earning 3.3%, nearly 4.5 million votes, Oliver garnered only 0.4%, just over 600,000 votes. Trump won the so-called blue wall states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, by an average of 1.1%, meaning the libertarian vote may very well have been the difference between a clean sweep of the swing states and an Electoral College victory by Vice President Kamala Harris.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/3226719/libertarians-turned-out-for-trump/

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Oliver is not a libritarian. Everyone but the retards at reason knew that.

[Don't look at me!]

Sarc said he was gay. Probably ruined his campaign.

[Mother's Lament (Salt farmer)]

Wait, what??
Oliver was gay? But he looked like such a ladies-man.

[Chumby]

Sarc said sarc was gay? Was that when be was railing against “binary”? Must be because there is no way Chase is gay. No way.

[Don't look at me!]

Well he either is or he isn’t.
It’s pretty binary after all.

[(Good Riddance Robert L. Peters) Weigel's Cock Ring]

There was a campaign? He was so invisible I pretty much forgot he even existed. He never even appeared on a single one of the libertarian or libertarian-leaning leaning podcasts, and I know for a fact he got invited to appear on a bunch of them, including some of the biggest ones.

[Jefferson Paul]

I do remember him appearing on the Just Asking Questions podcast Liz is plugging above. It was a little after the LP convention. He couldn’t give a good answer as to why he’s in favor of allowing medical/chemical sex changes for children, because he wants government out of medical decisions, but in favor banning surgical sex changes for minors, which does involve government in medical decisions. It wouldn’t have been hard to say the same reasoning for why he opposes surgical sex changes for minors should apply to medical/chemical sex changes for minors, as well. Both are mostly permanent, drastic changes to a minor that can’t legally consent or contemplate the consequences of such actions.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

He. Took. An. Online. Test.

[sarcasmic]

Was it the same test that said you're a totalitarian?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Lol. The guy who defends and applauds lawfare, attacks firing bureaucrats, wants to raise taxes, cheers J6 prosecutions, ignores the regulatory abundance under Biden…

Calls me an totalitarian. Lol.

God damn man. Fucking hilarious.

Good work psarc.

[sarcasmic]

Look at the pathological liar lie. You make Hillary Clinton look honest.

[Don't look at me!]

Ideas™ !

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

It is funny how you start projecting onto others. Too dumb to even generate your own assertions.

Been pointing out how pathological you are for months. So you project the same claim to me. Amusing.

[sarcasmic]

Except that I don’t defend or applaud “lawfare”, I don’t attack firing bureaucrats, I don’t want to raise taxes, I don’t cheer j6 prosecutions, and I don’t ignore Biden’s regulations.

Despite me saying this I know for a fact that you’ll be repeating those same lies in a matter of minutes, because the only thing you’re good at arguing against is stuff you make up.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Which one do you want me to link to showing you to be lying?

Maybe stop drinking yourself into blackouts.

[R Mac]

Never seen you advocate for higher taxes, but I’ve seen you do everything else on that list.

[Commenter_XY]

sarcasmic...question for you.

Was Chase Oliver a good candidate for POTUS, and did he represent the LP well?

[sarcasmic]

No and not really. If I was a registered voter I would have supported him anyway though, to keep Libertarians on the ballot and to increase the chances of a third party getting onto the debate stage.

[Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)]

If I was a registered voter

How many felonies?

[sarcasmic]

I gave up on voting when your Republican party nominated a gameshow host who went on to become president. No felonies needed, though I'm sure you consider not voting for Trump do be one.

[Don't look at me!]

Quitter,

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

chemjeff never did convince you to vote for chase, huh?

[Don't look at me!]

Sarc thought he was gay or something icky like that.

[R Mac]

OMG, after all that gnashing of teeth, sarc still wouldn’t vote for a gay guy!

Haha.

[ducksalad]

He was a weak candidate but it didn’t have anything to do with his stated policy positions, which were sound. He chose to emphasize his differences with MAGA and Christian Nationalists which was perfectly appropriate for an opposition candidate.

The weaknesses were: lack of experience, lack of depth on the issues, and most of all a lackluster, low profile campaign. (Leaving aside that both Harris and Trump had even less depth on the issues – Trump ran away from the only Republican document that laid out policy in detail and Harris avoided any scenario where she'd get questioned; but the LP rightly gets graded on a different scale).

We were stuck with a weak candidate (he was the best of the available contenders) because the toxic atmosphere in the party drove off people like Justin Amash.

[Don't look at me!]

So dreamy…..

[ducksalad]

I confess to being a Justin Amash fan. And I think his idea to market the LP as the party of normal people was excellent.

[Don't look at me!]

It failed.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

normal people

Like jeff, sarc, yourself...

[Mother's Lament (Salt farmer)]

"I confess to being a Justin Amash fan."

That's as exciting as being a Jim Risch or John Barrasso fan. Amash might have gone somewhere if he hadn't lied about what the Mueller report said in the hopes of support for a presidential bid.

Now that we know what we know about Biden's Ukraine dealings and the Russiagate hoax, Amash looks pretty fucking unethical.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Note you use the term policy positions. Because he didn't have actual policies or plans. He had bumper stickers. And even then, nobody who knows his history believed him because he couldn't make educated arguments for his positions.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

He had bumper stickers.

But "MAGA" is a concrete policy idea.

[Don't look at me!]

Making America great isn’t a good idea?

[ducksalad]

There is one thing he was fairly specific on: mass deportations.

[Chumby]

Fewer rapists, murderers, and traffickers that have a home country as well as $150B/year in savings is s good thing.

The illegal aliens are free to leave now under their own volition.

[Mother's Lament (Salt farmer)]

Mass deportations of criminals are worse than a turducken cooked in HO2, right Mike?

[ducksalad]

That's basically correct and I essentially said the same thing, although he was still good enough for me to vote for him given the other options.

[Don't look at me!]

You have low standards.

[Jefferson Paul]

For me, now, to vote 3rd party (Libertarian) and not for one of the major parties (Republican), the LP candidate has to be really good, both on the positions as well as personally. You know the LP candidate isn't going to win, so it's a protest vote. I personally am not going to vote for someone I know can't win and that I'm not very enthusiastic about.

I guess if you view the two major party candidates as EQUALLY bad (and I mean absolutely equally bad), you might as well vote for LP candidate. I didn't view Trump and Kamala as equally bad, though. I thought Kamala would be an unmitigated disaster and Trump as someone I might get a few things I like out of, while being disappointed on most things. That's an easy decision for me.

[Medulla Oblongata]

"Trump ran away from the only Republican document that laid out"

Of course, despite that every Democrat and talking head had Trump implementing each and every word of Project 2025, tried to hang it around his neck like a dead albatross, and projected their own evil plans into Pr 2025 as if the document actually said what they said it said, and blamed Trump for it all.

[sarcasmic]

Oliver did not support surgeries for children. You wouldn’t be you if you made two sentences without lying. If you ever said something truthful I'd figure you'd been in a car accident and had a traumatic head injury.

[Don't look at me!]

Did you read that on the daily mail?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

I literally posted directly from an article without comment.

Are you drunk already?

He did and does support child castration drugs. Did you figure out what those do yet? He also did support surgeries as recently as 18 months ago. Past tense was used.

[ducksalad]

In this case Jesse's merely quoting someone else lying.

[sarcasmic]

I don’t see much of a difference between lying and knowingly repeating lies.

[Mother's Lament (Salt farmer)]

Except Mikesalad is lying because Chase supported chemical castration for the kids.

[sarcasmic]

Chase did not support surgeries on minors. That's the lie I'm pointing out. Changing the subject and moving the goalposts to defend Jesse doesn't make the lies he's spreading true.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

He did support it, just not during this campaign. As I stated above. His switch seems to be around the time of the Koch vs Dave Smith debate where Koch changed advocacy to castration drugs. Which actually have long term health consequences as well.

So basically you and Mike are running based off recency and ignorance.

[sarcasmic]

Retcon for the win!

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Another word you don't know?

His modified position is in no way better than his prior one.

Weird you keep ignoring the castration drugs issue and the long term effects on children in order to try to get a win lol.

[Mother's Lament (Salt farmer)]

How is it retcon when he actually said it first?

[sarcasmic]

Retcon means making up history, which is what Jesse is doing. All he does is lie and make stuff up to argue against. You're a piece of shit for defending him.

[Mother's Lament (Salt farmer)]

Except it's not mAkiNg uP hiStoRy, Chase really said that. You're a piece of shit for regurgitating White Mike's lie.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

When sarc is ignorant of a topic he just screams the other person is lying. Even after being given dozens of links on the topic.

[R Mac]

Yeah, going from physical to chemical castration of children is really changing the subject, smart guy.

[Don't look at me!]

EVERYONE IS LYING!

[Chumby]

Boaf sidez!

Mike Laursen’s Tgiving feast:

Sarc: To go with your GMO turducken, would you like mashed potatoes or dressing?

Mike: Boaf sidez!

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Hey Mike. Remember when you spent years here pretending surgeries never even happened? Despite all the evidence you were given?

[Chumby]

Mike the Sea Lion is a children’s book that helps boys understand the transition to becoming a girl. It is an autobiography.

[ducksalad]

For about a month, when busted for yet another lie, literally all you (and Chumpy) have got is pretending I'm Mike Laursen and then tagging me with what he said.

I take it as an implicit admission that you've been caught again.

[Don't look at me!]

Poor Mike.

[ducksalad]

Thank you for your words of kindness.

[R Mac]

Caw caw!

[Chumby]

Poor Mike the ankle biter

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Mike. You have this weird need, almost requirement, to praise yourself on your socks. Lol. It happened for white knight. It happened again on this sock.

[Chumby]

Chase finished fifth and sarc chased a fifth with a forty.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

When the cops showed up neeley was still alive. Penny didn't kill anyone. As with the Trump trial new york is a sham of a justice system

[Mother's Lament (Salt farmer)]

New York's been doing an awful lot of political show trials lately.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

It's their new role as a sanctuary city for Democrats.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

New York has never been a fan of self defense use.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Gen Flynn says Trump will reduce the size of the IC.

https://justthenews.com/government/security/ex-trump-adviser-michael-flynn-predicts-not-all-17-intelligence-offices-will-be

"I can't imagine that two years from now we're going to continue to have the 17 Intel agencies," Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, said Monday on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. "I just cannot see that if we're going to move this country forward in a way that needs to be moved forward where we're sort of that shining city on the hill."

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Step one. Everyone that worked on a domestic spy program gets executed for treason.
They took an oath to defend the constitution against enemy's foreign and domestic.
They are the domestic enemies.

[ducksalad]

Flynn? Are you talking about the disgraced former military officer who:
– lost his job as national security adviser for lying,
– had to register as a foreign agent for the Erdogan regime in Turkey, after being caught,
– pled guilty to a felony count, begged the judge for mercy, recanted under the advice of Sidney Powell, and was pardoned by Trump,
– posted himself pledging an oath to QAnon, then later recanted and said it was a set-up to make the oath takers look like idiots,
- called for martial law so that a replacement 2020 election could be held under military control,
– claimed that Covid-19 was fabricated to distract from the stealing of the 2020 election, and
– was condemned by the Auschwitz Memorial for his suggestion that Jews willingly gave up their children during the Holocaust.

His predictions aren’t worth shit and his followers are garbage.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

I'm not shocked Mike goes with the MSNBC attacks supported by outrageous lawfare, even ignoring the case was dropped.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/05/07/michael-flynn-criminal-case-dropped-by-justice-department.html

Mike. You keep beclowning yourself in defense if state abuse by democrats.

I'll bookmark this one for next time you want to pretend to be libertarian as a show of you defending government legal abuses.

Thanks buddy.

[ducksalad]

LOL. Who are you going to believe:

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/937007006526959618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E937007006526959618%7Ctwgr%5E6081dc6077455478395d44c992a042541aff722e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F2017%2F12%2F2%2F16727988%2Ftrump-michael-flynn-fbi-lies-obstruction

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Wow. You're getting worse aren't you.

[ducksalad]

Haha, you’re humiliated by own man’s words again. You clownish chump.

Do you agree or disagree with Trump? Can't answer, can you?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

You're literally parroting deep state lawfare as valid while pretending you're libertarian Mike.

Think about it. Lol.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

posted himself pledging an oath to QAnon

I'll have to see a notarized membership card before I take this seriously.

[Mother's Lament (Salt farmer)]

“Flynn? Are you talking about the disgraced former military officer who:
– lost his job as national security adviser for lying,”

You want to expand on the one a little bit, White Shrike? No? MSDNC didn't explain it to you?

[ducksalad]

It's explained right here:

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/937007006526959618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E937007006526959618%7Ctwgr%5E6081dc6077455478395d44c992a042541aff722e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F2017%2F12%2F2%2F16727988%2Ftrump-michael-flynn-fbi-lies-obstruction

[Mother's Lament (Salt farmer)]

Poor Trump. It turned out the FBI essentially lied and entrapped Flynn, and Trump has since apologized to Flynn for believing them, which is something only a fucking idiot would still do (see: Mike, White).

[I, Woodchipper]

– lost his job as national security adviser for lying,

Lying to the FBI is a manufactured crime. Anyone who knows anything knows this.

[Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)]

The FBI solicited the lie.

[ducksalad]

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/937007006526959618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E937007006526959618%7Ctwgr%5E6081dc6077455478395d44c992a042541aff722e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F2017%2F12%2F2%2F16727988%2Ftrump-michael-flynn-fbi-lies-obstruction

[DesigNate]

You know that doesn’t change the fact of what Woodchipper said right?

[R Mac]

Mike Liarson doesn’t care.

[Don't look at me!]

Oooh, he gets really mad when you call him by name.

[ducksalad]

Sure, the FBI entraps people all the time, and I can understand why anyone on Team MAGA is opposed to firing liars.

That doesn't change the fact that he lied, and Trump fired him for it. Trump fired him. You need to stop and think about that. You can't say Flynn and Trump were both right on this issue.

Sorry, I take back that last sentence. If you're on Jesse's team you might be capable of saying anything.

[R Mac]

The FBI agents that interviewed him don’t think he lied Dee.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Look at Mike continue to double down on IC and DoJ bad acts.

It is amazing.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Americans really need to get past this gauzy Reaganite "shining city on the hill" crap. If nothing else, because it cluelessly conflates the City of God with the City of Man, which was what Augustine was trying to differentiate with that description by pointing out the imperfect cannot become perfect through earthly means.

We don't need to be a beacon to anyone.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

No beacon? There goes the progressive Batman fantasy, where rich people get to run around in drag and save innocent people from mean villains.

[Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)]

A beacon is a signal to gather. A much better metaphor is that we should bear the standard of liberty in front of the world.

"Oh, say, does that star spangled banner yet wave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

Some people get it.

[Social Justice is neither]

Doesn't Rand Paul already do something similar to DOGE?

I can see this as a good way to monitor the excesses of government in a way Rand might not have time for and I can see these two doing a much better job making the results penetrate the normie consciousness but the real money is in the structural reforms they can't really touch.

[Don't look at me!]

Isn’t step one admitting you have a problem?

[Social Justice is neither]

Yes, and that's why that penetrating the normie consciousness thing is important but I'm not overly optimistic at the moment because I've seen this type of thing for decades and normie friends shrug.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Paul does the festivus report. Latest eddition should be published shortly.

[Medulla Oblongata]

The man is like Rasputin...and you really can't hate the media enough

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/11/06/deplorable-no-more/

You do not have to be a Trump supporter to have taken an outsized pleasure in watching the realisation dawn on the ‘centrist sensibles’ – the most uninsightful and insufferable people in public life – that Trump was once again going to upend their smug prognostications.

No doubt, this is a political comeback for the ages – and a defiance of political gravity. Since his victory in 2016, Trump has been smeared as a fascist and a Russian asset. He was impeached twice. His own anti-democratic tantrum after his 2020 loss was supposed to cast him into the wilderness for good. As was his legal witch-hunting at the hands of Democratic prosecutors. If that weren’t enough, this election campaign brought him two assassination attempts. Now he is on the verge of receiving a historic democratic mandate, placing the Republicans in full political control.

It’s a remarkable achievement, and one that reflects a far more sophisticated and serious campaign team this time around than in previous years, where the wingnuts often took centre stage and Trump’s worst instincts were given free rein.

At the same time, the fact this result has so flabbergasted those who are paid to follow and comment on politics speaks to how clueless they were to begin with.

[Don't look at me!]

This is why they will kill or jail him before January.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

The only path to jail at this point is through Merchan and while I wouldn't be shocked if he tries I would be shocked if he gets away with it. And Iran is denying that they are in any way connected to an assassination attempt on Trump and are actually expressing a willingness to work with him. If true, it may be that the deep state is creating cover their own operation. I mean they're still claiming that they don't know anything about the two previous assassins.

[Commenter_XY]

For sure, someone will try again to whack him. I cannot say I have a lot of confidence in the USSS to keep him alive and healthy. The errors of Butler, PA were just too many.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

"errors"

[Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)]

Poor aim still counts as an error...

[Mike Parsons]

"that Trump was once again going to upend their smug prognostications."

Maybe my favorite from election day (cant find video) was smug champagne lady.

Posts on election day, bragging about a conversation she had, dunking on some grocery store cashier.

Specifically brags how she was cackling in his face because, as she told him, "im a political analyst, and I know!" "Im going to be toasting madam president tonight"

"You just wasted your vote" referring to his likely Trump vote.

Best part: basically all of her great political knowledge from her poli-sci PHD, amounted to regurgitating the Ann Selzer poll word for word. "Shes going to take all the swing states, AND IOWA!"

Probably the most satisfying self own

[Ajsloss]

Maybe my favorite from election day (cant find video) was smug champagne lady.

I don't do the twitter, but I do remember that Dean Cain had linked to it. Might want to try his twitter feed.

[Marshal]

“im a political analyst,

This is the key to her failure. She pretends she's a political analyst, but really she's a political activist. The former seeks to understand, the latter seeks to manipulate. The instant she said Harris will win because women are going to rise up she broadcast which of these she is. Ultimately the problem with the leftists that they don't have any analysts, everyone is in it to push their agenda.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Be fair. She is a product of our modern academy, where activism has replaced scholarship.

[Medulla Oblongata]

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=972289388059120

[Marshal]

She has a follow-up claiming predictions cannot account for racism and misogyny so that's why her prediction was wrong.

[Don't look at me!]

Plus, she isn’t very smart.

[Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)]

She has a follow-up claiming predictions cannot account for racism and misogyny

What a stupid fucking thing to say. Of course they can. You could predict Democrat wins in the South for 100 years.

[Super Scary]

That's the takeaway a lot of the left is taking from this election. "Oh no, these people are even more racist and sexist than we thought!"

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I've been having a blast banging on these people for their sour grapes.

"There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach."

[Jefferson Paul]

Does anyone have a link to this follow-up video? I so enjoyed watching the first one that Medulla linked above.

[David Perry]

Afterwards she copped out stating that polls can't account for sexism and misogyny.

Their lack of any kind of self-reflection or common sense will help to cement in conservative control (hopefully).

[Medulla Oblongata]

For all that's holy, let's not help them figure out why they lost! Let's just exploit it again and again for as long as it works.

What was their excuse going to be when Joe got trounced? Neither racism nor misogyny generally would have applied.

[Quicktown Brix]

It's amazing to think that some time around 20 years ago, Trump, a man with no particular experience, skills or traits to suggest such a path, thinks, "I'm going to be President of the USA."

Then, inexplicably, he does it, not by adjusting his traits to be acceptable to Americans, but by adjusting Americans' attitudes to accept his traits. Even if he fails to accomplish anything, I think are better off (for a while) by seeing the establishment can be dislodged.

[Don't look at me!]

That’s why they hate him so much,

[Dillinger]

>>Then, inexplicably, he does it, not by adjusting his traits to be acceptable to Americans, but by adjusting Americans’ attitudes to accept his traits.

1. not inexplicable. American dream.
2. Americans' previously skewed attitudes were readjusted to "American".

[Quicktown Brix]

I think I'm way more cynical than you... but maybe just dumber.

[Dillinger]

I am wildly optimistic and remember the 80s for what they truly were. and I rarely let anyone believe they are more dumb it’s highly unlikely.

[Longtobefree]

Dear God, that damn fool Trump wants the Department of Defense lead by a warrior, not a bureaucrat.
What is he thinking?!

[lwt1960]

I've seen Musk and Ramaswamy referred to as many things, but "oddball entrepreneurs" is a first. People who created literally trillions of dollars of wealth and tens of thousands of jobs are not oddballs.

Using a quote from NPR, last seen complaining about an overemphasis on truth getting in the way of mission, as a point of reference is troubling.

I continue to be baffled by the agenda at Reason. You have someone committed to shrinking government and all you can offer is snark. Yeah, that'll work.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

People who created literally trillions of dollars of wealth and tens of thousands of jobs are not oddballs.

Yes they are. 99% of humanity don't do these things. Also being an oddball should be a badge of honor if within the entrepreneur class being normal is Bill Gates.

[Ajsloss]

Also being an oddball should be a badge of honor

Well, being "weird" used to be a badge of honor... and then it wasn't anymore.

[Longtobefree]

It seems the Reason agenda is to transform into a news magazine where no one reads the articles, just the comments.
And they are doing a great job.

[Don't look at me!]

The comment count is dropping, so even that isn’t going well.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Well, then, just spark some endless side threads with Jeff and Sarc. That will get the comment count up.

[Don't look at me!]

It’s not worth it.

[Commenter_XY]

Yeah, I paused at the 'oddball' description, too.

@LizWolfe...It isn't oddball to be a very successful businessman. Any more than a trad wife with kids is an 'oddball' mother.

Are you oddball, Ms. Wolfe?

[Zeb]

I kind of think she would have little problem with the characterization. She's definitely a bit of an oddball both among the Reason staff and the young NYC hipsters she lives around.
When normal is what it is today among the political and corporate classes, being weird or oddball should be a matter of pride.

[Chumby]

If it is a matter of pride, Chase was an oddball candidate.

[Social Justice is neither]

Depending on the intent behind it, I don't see calling Elon an oddball as inappropriate. He says and does what you're not supposed to and tackles issues for odd reasons. These are all oddball actions and they're often a good thing that has put him in the place he is today.

Vivek seems much less an oddball by those metrics but the coupling of the two of them does make an odd pairing at a cursory level.

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

In a world where Jeff bezos names an arena “climate pledge arena” to pander to the global warming losers, musk saying whatever the fuck he wants is indeed oddball.

Good for him. And I think Liz meant no disrespect.

[Zeb]

I think you are reading “oddball” as too negative. Musk is certainly a singular personality. And approaches business in a rather different way from most entrepreneurs. Vivek is a little more normal in manner and business conduct, but you don’t see a lot of people taking the paths of either of those guys.
We need more oddballs because the normal stuff isn't going very well.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

To be fair, Musk is kind of a weirdo, like a lot of tech-obsessed people tend to be, and has dated weirdos like Amber Heard and Grimes.

[I, Woodchipper]

eh, it's kind of fair. Elon is a bit of an oddball compared to every other billionaire who is a stiff in a suit. he posts his Diablo scores and walked into Twitter with a sink to make a pun on the day he took over.

He's quirky, and oddball is a word that fits.

[mad.casual]

Yeah, "entrepreneurs who are personally or otherwise odd" not "entrepreneurs of odd professions". I'd say that's on you.

[Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)]

I was listening to NPR this morning and they were waxing poetic about Engels and Marx observing the labor movement in Manchester and somehow forgot to mention that the takeaways from those 2 men transformed into a political philosophy that lead directly to the deaths of 100's of millions of people.

Nobody should quote NPR. They are pure propagandists.

[Jefferson Paul]

It's only because communism just hasn't been tried the right way yet! If the right leaders usher it in, we'll all have the communist utopia promised by Marx and Engels.

[Small w woodchippertarian]

IF ODBALLIN' IS WRONG I DON'T WANNA BE RIGHT!

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""A Bronx man seen in a video last year helping Daniel Penny restrain a homeless man on a subway car floor""

Odd that NYC didn't charge him too.

[Longtobefree]

Check skin color

[Don't look at me!]

It’s the most important thing.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Didn't Saint Martin say that in 1963?

[Don't look at me!]

Quite the opposite, actually.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

The hell you say!

[R Mac]

Hegseth supports Defend The Guard. That should be noteworthy to libertarians.

[InsaneTrollLogic (Factio Democratica delenda est 5/30/24)]

Back in February, two climate activists vandalized the encasement holding the U.S. Constitution. Both pleaded guilty to destruction of government property; one of the vandals, Jackson Green, was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release.

So these guys who actually vandalized something get far less time than people led through the Capitol on J6!?! WTF!?!

[Chumby]

Biden’s coronation >>>>> US Constitution

[Moderation4ever]

I totally agree that the problem with cutting government spending is not in finding spending cuts, but rather in having the will to make those cuts. It is not a question of Elon Musk finding areas to cut, but rather can he convince lawmakers to make the cuts.

[Commenter_XY]

That becomes easier with a unified Team R Congress = enact cuts

[Quicktown Brix]

History refutes this claim.

[Don't look at me!]

History also shows nothing stays the same forever.

[Quicktown Brix]

Fair enough.

Let's make it interesting... lay your predictions here for 2024-2028.

I'll start:

2025 and 2026, real, but small cuts (well short of $2T). Sometime in 2027 or 2028 another crisis pops up and we kick it up another few billion and no one remembers the DOGE when they get their next set of stimmies.

[Don't look at me!]

Making bold predictions is a fool’s errand.
Look how many people were wrong about this election, and there was plenty of data to work with.

[Quicktown Brix]

Making bold predictions is a fool’s errand if you have large stakes riding on it. Bold predictions in the comments is just for fun like “This is why they will kill or jail him before January.”

[Don't look at me!]

Ok, I’ll play
If they cannot reduce the budget by 2 trillion dollars within 1 year, musk will quit.

[Dillinger]

Grodin did it with a pencil & legal pad for criminy

[Quicktown Brix]

Yeah, I think these 3 will have trouble getting along or agreeing on much. All alpha's, especially Trump and Musk.

[DesigNate]

Say what you want about Newt and the 90’s Republicans, but they took that electoral mandate they received and actually got to work reducing spending. Forcing Clinton to tack more towards the center.

[Quicktown Brix]

Yes, you are right. I should have been more specific with my claim. R's are good on spending when in minority or divided government. Newt's class especially so. But give them the Exec and both houses and...

[Don't look at me!]

Difficult to see,
Always in motion,
The future is.

[Medulla Oblongata]

It helped that Bill Clinton was a cruel, racist and xenophobic fascist by today’s progressive standard.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4631739/user-clip-bill-clinton-illegal-immigration

All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?74043-1/welfare-reform-legislation

When I ran for president four years ago I pledged to end welfare as we know it. I have worked very hard for four years to do just that. Today the Congress will vote on legislation that gives us a chance to live up to that promise — to transform a broken system that traps too many people in a cycle of dependence to one that emphasizes work and independence, to give people on welfare a chance to draw a paycheck, not a welfare check. It gives us a better chance to give those on welfare what we want for all families in America, the opportunity to succeed at home and at work.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

If you want a laugh, check out Clinton's deportation figures. He made Trump look like an open borders fanatic.

People are asking how Trump would pay for all these mass deportations; we don't need to know, he can just pull Billy Jeff's playbook out of mothballs. Get him banging a White House intern and the good times of the 90s will be back again!

[Moderation4ever]

Except that Team R has a lot to protect. The fact is that 7 of the top ten states getting excess Federal moneys are Republican. Agencies like military and NASA spread money around to make cutting tougher. I am guessing that top groups getting farm subsidies all support Republicans (and likely Democrats too). It will not be much easier and it will still take will. With the narrow House margins, whoever controls, it will only take a few stragglers to stop cuts.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

You guys are still using this study by a university grad student that didn't even remove SS or Medicare as retired people move to lower cost of living states? Lol.

[DesigNate]

It’s like a tick.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Cutting this or that does matter much when you raise something else. I'll cut 100 Billion here but boost the immigration enforcement by 100 Billion.

The Rs also complained about the sequester, IIRC.

I have zero expectations that the Rs will reduce anything that impacts deficits in a meaningful way. I would love to be wrong about that.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Cutting the government, in size, spending, power, etc. will always run afoul of those who want government to provide something, especially material things (though ideological direction is an old favorite, and emotional support is a popular new thing).

I still think a good way to wake people up is at least a year of replacing progressive income taxes and payroll taxes with a head tax. For 2024, that's just under $20k. If that does not make most people question what the feds spend, then there is no hope.

[Moderation4ever]

Stephen Miller deputy chief of staff? I wonder how well that works with Susie Wiles? I'm not sure I see those two working together well and I'm guessing Ms. Wiles comes out on top.

[Commenter_XY]

The 'Ice Maiden' is very definitely the first among equals. Wiles gets results. One week post-election and most cabinet positions have been named. Wiles has been around long enough to know about the skeletons in different politicos past.

I don't think DC politicos will fuck with her like they did with Pres Trumps other Chiefs. She will make an example out of the first who does, and everyone will settle down after that.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Wiles has been around long enough to know about the skeletons in different politicos past.

I honestly wonder if that's why Tulsi hasn't been named for anything, unless they're waiting to announce her nom for VA chief, which I think is where she should be. I'm pretty sure she wanted Defense, but that department needs a thorough housecleaning in the Pentagon, and while she's principled I don't think she's the kind of bare-knuckle street fighter needed to accomplish that. She's too amiable.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Former Democratic Congresswoman, Democratic National Committee Chair and Lieutenant Colonel Tulsi Gabbard has been nominated as the next Director of National Intelligence.

[Jefferson Paul]

Well, that's one pick I have no issue with whatsoever.

[Dillinger]

what if HRC is right about Tulsi?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

What if JD Vance is wrong about Tulsi? Or Hillary?

[D-Pizzle]

JD Vance is wrong about Tulsi, and Hillary.

[Moderation4ever]

Except that it wasn't DC politicos weren't the problem it was the President. The President, whoever they are, is the most powerful person in the country. Believe it or not they need a minder to keep them in-line and that is the Chief of Staff's job. The COS is the one person that needs to be able to stand up to the President and say no. It is likely the COS most important job.

I like to think of the movie Patton and its ending. Patton talks of the Roman conqueror riding through the streets of Rome on a chariot. Saying, "A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: That all glory is fleeting." Now the COS is not a slave but does have a similar task.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Parody.

Deep state entrenched officials need to control the president huh.

[Moderation4ever]

The COS is not the deep state, they are picked by the President themselves.

[DesigNate]

Being picked by the President doesn’t preclude them from being entrenched in the Bureaucracy.

[Don't look at me!]

Broken.

[I, Woodchipper]

ooooh, teacher's lounge level analysis. This is helpful.

[Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)]

teacher’s lounge level analysis.

My brain translates that as Marxism for Dummies.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'"A Bronx man seen in a video last year helping Daniel Penny restrain a homeless man on a subway car floor testified on Tuesday that he had stepped in thinking that his assistance would mean that Mr. Penny would release his chokehold," reports The New York Times.'

Were the Times reporters sitting next to Madame Defarge and eagerly waiting for "justice"?

[TrickyVic (old school)]

I wonder if he was threatened with charges if he didn't "cooperate".

[DesigNate]

Wouldn’t be surprised.

[Spiritus Mundi]

The most immediate response from politics-watchers, and from diversity hire/Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has been to skewer the picks, pointing out that there are two people helming an agency focused on streamlining.

For future reference for a particular commentor(s), Warren is engaging in ad hominen here.

[Don't look at me!]

I suspect their positions are unpaid, and they have other things to do as well.

[I, Woodchipper]

Warren is a moron. the dumbest Senator and that says a lot.

[Quicktown Brix]

OK so maybe Native Americans aren’t known for landing jokes, but… I mean…naming 2 leaders for a new Department of Efficiency…that’s inherently funny.

[Don't look at me!]

The Redundancy Department of Redundancy?

[Medulla Oblongata]

My MIL was doing some genealogy research...fully unbeknownst to me, it turns out I'm (probably) more Native American (Mohawk) than Warren.

Well, maybe my mother said once that there was some Indian in our bloodline, but I didn't believe a word she said since she was a pathological liar.

[Quicktown Brix]

I grew up being told I was part American Indian because my GG grandmother's surname was "Moon". A few years back I did some research. It turns out "Moon," in this case, is Dutch.

[Jefferson Paul]

How did the American Indians make it all the way over to the Netherlands?

[Quicktown Brix]

Biden's Indian Ocean train?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'Possibly the craziest free-range kids story I've ever read, courtesy of Lenore Skenazy.'

Did it include gender or species changes?

[Don't look at me!]

The crazy part is that none of those things were mentioned!

[Spiritus Mundi]

"I have two little girls. I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete."

You don't have to worry about the latter. The only way to be formerly male is to be formerly alive.

[sarcasmic]

WTF, I open Reason and my browser closes.

[Don't look at me!]

Poor sarc. The error lies between the keyboard and chair.

[Medulla Oblongata]

It's a sign.

[sarcasmic]

Yeah, I shouldn't let your mom play with my computer.

[DesigNate]

What are you, 12?

(J/k I’ll almost always laugh at your mom jokes)

[Medulla Oblongata]

That's true. She is 82 years old and in a memory-care facility with dementia and an uncanny ability to screw up any technology she touches. Sounds like maybe you and her have a lot in common! I can introduce you if you like.

[R Mac]

Sarc spent a year being homeless, giving handies under the bridge for booze money. You think he’s turned off by a 82 year old woman? I wouldn’t let him near her.

[Chumby]

For that comment, he might want to burn you at the stake -or- burn your steak.

[sarcasmic]

Uninstalled and reinstalled Chrome. Works now.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

Hooray.

[Dillinger]

feature ...

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'Scientific American seems to be less and less scientific these days'

Um, SA has been as scientific as your local coven or crystal healing shop owner for decades.

[Ajsloss]

Don't know about you, but I was never attacked by a Tiger while wearing a mask during covid.

[Dillinger]

loss, I want to buy your rock.

[MK Ultra]

What about a trunk bear?

[Don't look at me!]

You need to double mask for that.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Reposting from Sullum's midnight article, since government spending is the topic here:

Once again, because people don’t actually realize it–from September’s Monthly Treasury Statement:

Table 4–Receipts
-Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund: $386.8 billion

Table 5–Outlays
-Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: $2.147 trillion

Delta: $1.76 trillion

FY24 Deficit: $1.83 trillion

Pretty much all of our national debt is due to government grants for Medicaid spending. Realistically, Medicaid isn’t going anywhere, so how does this get addressed? Go after medical monopolies and introduce price competition, and incentivize massive discounts for cash over third party insurance payments, including Medicaid. Get rid of EMTALA to mitigate the mooching off of the emergency room.

Once these are in place, then we can start having a discussion about how much Medicaid really needs to be giving out, since you’re working to actually try and mitigate the problem.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

I have calculated the same thing in the past, and concluded that we could balance a still bloated budget without Medicaid, federal "income security", and "other" (about $1.6 trillion in 2023). Granted, most people support something like Medicaid. In addition to your suggestions, I propose a bare-bones provision of very basic health care, even if that makes some people sad.

[Will Nonya]

As far as Musk and Vivek go their unseriousness and multiple conflicts of interest are probably the best arguments against them being in this position.

I am all for cutting government spending, regulation and bureaucracy, I just have zero faith that these nitwits will do anything meaningful.

[Don't look at me!]

Yes, look at the big brainiac here, saying musk is a nitwit.
Lol.

[mad.casual]

+1 I certainly have my reservations about the guy. I certainly see people say praising things that are fawning, embellished, or even dishonest about him, his companies, or his products, but 'nitwit' in reference to Musk (and Vivek) is clearly projection on the part of the speaker.

[Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)]

I am fine with Musk other than his Mars colony fetish. Our bodies function correctly at 1G. He should be smart enough to grasp the implications there.

[mad.casual]

I don’t mind the crazy mission to Mars. I actually think he knows, if he gets there, it’s going to be as a corpse or shortly thereafter.

It’s the real life bona fide Tony Stark hero worship that gets me. Like he’s some uber tech genius who learned coding and electromotive force and rocket science last night by reading a textbook rather than just a shrewd salesman and manager.

It just feels like a very Solzhenitsyn, “the Devil is just one man with a plan but true evil is a collaboration of men”, Stalin-esque cult of personality thing. He knows (or he should) that when he swaps the Tesla batteries and waves away the payment process for his cars but counts it against the ICE he’s lying. They know (or should) that the battery swap of the two Teslas was less than the mileage gain of the ICE fill up and that the ICE filling up isn’t anywhere near maximum speed. He/They know that Hyperloop was far more research project that maybe shouldn’t ever leave the ground than public works project that consumers should be looking at a map and getting excited about. They know (or should) that he knows and that he knows they know… but they all clap like seals anyway.

We’re, of course, nowhere near the point of gulags and I don’t think he even has that bone in his body. Still, the cult of personality is creepy as fuck. Worse than any Pope or Joel Osteen Megachurch as, once Osteen dies and that church fades away, there aren’t Osteen tunnels under peoples’ homes and Osteen supercharger networks for some pogue who might actually have the gulag bone in their body to take over.

It's a good thing that he purchased Twitter, but this country notably more others should know that even if Elon is a lion at the helm of X, eventually he's going to be replaced by an ass.

[I, Woodchipper]

lol. The best case you have against them, even if they get somthing done, is that they dont stand stiff in a suit and nod seriously during the press conferences? Grow up.

[Mother's Lament (Salt farmer)]

"Musk and Vivek are unserious"

Well here's a new Act Blue narrative that doesn't comport with observable reality. You want to unpack that for us?

[Zeb]

Well, look where "serious" has gotten us.

Maybe I'm being suckered, but I think that Must is sincere in his stated desires to make things better. If he was out for personal gain first and foremost, he wouldn't have kept all his money in Tesla for so long, wouldn't have bought Twitter, wouldn't have taken sides so strongly in the election, etc.

[mad.casual]

Musk is sincere in his stated desires to make things better.

Even if not, like Trump, at least a welcome change of pace in the aim and direction in which they'll get worse.

[Quicktown Brix]

Musk/Vivek–>Trump–>Congress–>Trump–>Cost cutting

I wouldn’t worry about Musk and Vivek being the weak link.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'wow crazy that he's breaking with the longstanding tradition of hiring people who hate your fucking guts'

Hey, only leftists are allowed to impose ideological purity tests! For, um, reasons.

[Chumby]

Militia Etheridge Member

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14073763/corey-burke-jeff-bezos-murders-father-timothy-election-night-meltdown.html

[NoVaNick]

According to team blue, it’s Burke, not her dad, who needs protection.

[A Thinking Mind]

Well her dad sure doesn’t need any protection right now, he’s dead. Checkmate.

[NoVaNick]

Needed

[Don't look at me!]

She seems nice.

[A Thinking Mind]

We need to investigate whether she watched that Star Wars show where a brave and stunning woman from a lesbian force cult choked her father figure to death. Some people called that “empowering.”

[mad.casual]

I actually was just thinking that it's one of those few times I actually kinda feel sorry for Hollywood being unable to write a good murder mystery anymore.

So, Inspector, was it the maid, the chauffeur, the second chauffeur, the second chaffeur's wife, the second maid, the head butler, or the "Power lesbian" half of a female-trannie couple who's been trying to redefine people's relationships with their parents for years?

[Super Scary]

Well that last guy that killed his family because of Trump winning was at least crazy enough to talk about witches and aliens. This one seems more like a 1:1 situation. Trump won, so she killed her dad, who presumably (it doesn't say in the article) voted for Trump.

[Chumby]

In future elections, he will be voting a straight D ticket.

[Ajsloss]

In future elections, he will be voting a straight D tickets.

FTFY

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

According to Daily Fail, she was arguing with her dad to turn off the lights, and he didn't, and she snapped and killed him.

It sounds like she was already looney tunes to begin with, as a dyke shacking up with a tranny, was likely a heavy drug user, and the election made her snap.

[Medulla Oblongata]

How much do you want to bet that Dad voted for Trump?

[Medulla Oblongata]

Ohio Dem Reveals the ‘FAFO’ Conversation He Had With Trump-Supporting Aunt, Gets Responses He Deserves

https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2024/11/12/ohio-dem-reveals-the-fafo-conversation-he-had-with-trump-supporting-aunt-gets-responses-he-deserved-n2181886

My colleague Becky Noble, for instance, recently wrote about how a longtime friend of hers cut her off after last Tuesday’s election, finding it unacceptable that Becky would support someone like Trump who, that friend’s daughter insisted before blocking her on Facebook, allegedly would be okay with a woman dying due to a medical emergency.

“It all seemed so textbook militantly leftist, with each message getting more hostile the more it became clear to her that my views weren’t changing, almost as if it was planned,” Becky wrote, noting that the choice to end their friendship wasn’t hers.

There are other examples of this that people are writing about on social media, including leftists who are openly bragging about cutting ties with any family member or friend who supported the Trump-Vance ticket.

Rick Taylor, a failed 2022 Democrat Senate candidate from Ohio, wrote on Twitter Monday that he had a conversation with his aunt, who had called him regarding Thanksgiving plans…
----
Rick Taylor
@OhRick4
My Aunt called asking about Thanksgiving plans
During the conversation she mentioned she voted for Trump
I told her my home is not open to traitors and I would not go to theirs. I have no space in my life for those who could care less about the United States

Shes upset

FAFO
———

Independent journalist Andy Ngo was among the many who responded accordingly. “This is unhinged. What a terrible nephew you are,” he wrote. “Someday your family and love ones will return this treatment to you.”

Matt Dawson, known as “Twitter’s [conservative] pharmacist,” also chimed in. “Meanwhile you’re using the app of the largest donor and contributor to Trump’s campaign. Ok dude,” he quipped.

“My parents (unfortunately) voted for Kamala. We’ll be having a great family Thanksgiving together nonetheless, because none of us are sociopaths,” another Twitter user noted.

I get that people have strong opinions when it comes to politics and current events, but letting them come between family and close friendships is a bridge too far for me. Life really is too short for this stuff. I know many people in our neighborhood who are leftists but they are good people and we look out for each other.

I think where the problem comes in for a lot of people who share Taylor’s mindset is that politics is like a religion to them and any deviation from their belief system is grounds for ending relationships.

Melissa Chen
@MsMelChen
Something really hilarious about people who put up “Hate Has No Home Here” lawn signs cutting off family and disinviting them from Thanksgiving for voting the other way

In any event, some final thoughts from Vice President-Elect JD Vance on the subject (something he talked about a week or so before the election):

“If you discard a lifelong friendship because somebody votes for the other team, you’ve made a terrible mistake… Don’t cast aside family members and lifelong friendships. Politics is not worth it. If we follow that principle, we’ll heal the divide in this country.”

[Medulla Oblongata]

Original tweet.

https://x.com/OhRick4/status/1856103563581145145

[Chumby]

The nice thing about covid hysteria and those following the misinformation narrative was when NPCs cut themselves out as a result of me being pure blood and refusing to wear face diapers.

[NealAppeal]

"diversity hire Sen. Warren"
This is why you are the good Liz.

[Chumby]

Mrs. Wolfe is a wisegal.

[mad.casual]

Men are not permitted to act as pacesetters in many women's events because of the belief that they will make the women "artificially faster," as though women were not actually doing the running themselves.

The iteratively insane levels of retardation here are mind blowing. The 6 female readers and 50 male feminist readers of Sci Am are being gaslit as to strategy in the sport of endurance racing in order to generate equity between the sexes via pace setting.

If you told me it was being done specifically to make women, male feminists, and/or the readers of Sci Am more stupid, I would find no fault in the premise. If you told me it was a ploy perpetrated by one distance runner to get other distance runners to fuck up their training so that they themselves would do better relatively, I would consider the con to be a bit convoluted or success improbable, but not the con itself not to be implausible.

[Dillinger]

they write about the pacesetter thing all snooty and ingenious like they didn't steal it from greyhound racing

[mad.casual]

+1 They don't want male pace setters because they think the spectacle of women chasing around a male lure like a bunch of bitches in heat would be undignified.

[Dillinger]

we call that The Benny Hill Show

[Don't look at me!]

Ha ha

[NoVaNick]

I may be getting too old now to remember when Scientific American actually was about science.

[Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)]

I am sure descendants of Alexander Lysenko feel vindicated.

[rbike]

I remember Popular Mechanics being a better science source than Popular Science or the Scientific American.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

The iteratively insane levels of retardation here are mind blowing. The 6 female readers and 50 male feminist readers of Sci Am are being gaslit as to strategy in the sport of endurance racing in order to generate equity between the sexes via pace setting.

Adam Conover (the "Adam Ruins Everything" dipshit) made this exact argument when he went on Joe Rogan, saying that women should not only be allowed to participate in men's sports, men should be forcibly handicapped with shit like tying a hand behind their back to ensure "fairness."

I'm not even joking. Watch the podcast or pull up the clip on YouTube. Rogan is softly asking him to explain his position, and he comes off sounding more and more like a completely insane person as the conversation goes on. Conover later said that it was the most exhausting experience he'd ever been through; he'd spent all his energy trying to defend a lunatic position in a logical manner and couldn't pull it off.

[Dillinger]

>>Yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump announced these two … would be … making the obscenely wasteful federal bureaucracy more efficient.

exclamation points here! and here!

edit:>> if Musk and Ramaswamy can meme and post their way to real power within the federal government, and use it for good not evil, saving taxpayers a little bit of money, count me a supporter.

yes, exactly.

[Dillinger]

>>The mother was arrested later that night, and now must sign a "safety plan"—which would force her, among other things, to surveil her son via an app—or possibly face a year in jail. She refuses to sign.

administrative gig or is this getting to a jury of human beings?

[Use the Schwartz]

Oddball

Don't say weird...

[Zeb]

Don't let retarded Democrat talking points determine how you use the language.

[Chumby]

“i” before “e” except after “c.” Weird.

[Dillinger]

>>Stephen Miller ... is expected to play an even larger role in this administration

Yin required on the border because Yang went bananas.

[Dillinger]

>>"A Bronx man seen in a video last year helping Daniel Penny restrain a homeless man on a subway car floor testified on Tuesday that he had stepped in thinking that his assistance would mean that Mr. Penny would release his chokehold," reports The New York Times.

are there no editors willing to work @NYT to stop such awful writing?

[Don't look at me!]

Do you know how expensive punctuation is ?

[Dillinger]

lol also the misplaced period of time and three unnecessary “that”s in one sentence … which would totally save on ink

[Ajsloss]

Look at Mr. Significance of the Passage of Time over here!

[Dillinger]

A Bronx man seen in a video last year hurts my head

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

three unnecessary “that”s in one sentence

It reads like a high school student trying to pad out his essay to reach a word-count requirement.

[Dillinger]

exactly.

[mad.casual]

Eww gross! He stepped in some thinking!

[Dillinger]

>>Hegseth served in the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay, but has otherwise been in the media since 2014, making him a nontraditional choice to lead the 1.3 million active-duty troops.

you can't just say that without the why nontraditional.

[Zeb]

Tradition seems to be to hire career DOD people or generals.

[Dillinger]

Pete's bio isn't < any of these other fuckwads. mho

https://history.defense.gov/DOD-History/Secretaries-of-Defense/

[Zeb]

I don't know enough about him to make any comment.

[Dillinger]

bummer. usually I like your comments

[Dillinger]

>>He also appears to have been stewing in the intellectual ferment of the New Right, or at least have roots there, to the extent that he's involved in intellectual spaces at all.

oh I see you think he's stupid. I will subscribe to youtube if you will have Hegseth on.

[Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment]

Notice on the price chart how O-care really knocked the cost of medical care down!

[Dillinger]

the Ghost of Barney Frank rides!

[Don't look at me!]

What? You didn’t see the drop in electricity prices from wind farms?

[mad.casual]

Marc Andreessen @pmarca
The primary mission of technology and economy policy should be to put everything on the TV price curve.

Uh… I hate to be all “Tell the genius entrepreneur he’s an idiot.” but there’s kind of a business or operations philosophy that “When everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority.” and at an economic or even just mathematically conceptual level, if you put everything on the TV price curve, nothing goes on the TV price curve.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Trump wants to upend Dept of Education...huzzah

“And one other thing I will be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington DC and sending all education and education worker needs back to the states. We want them to run the education of our children because they’ll do a much better job of it,” Trump said in the footage.

“You can’t do worse. We spend more money per pupil by three times than any other nation and yet, we are absolutely at the bottom. We are one of the worst,” he added.

“We’re going to end education coming out of Washington DC. We’re going to close it up. We’re going to send it all back to the states,” he concluded.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I'd legitimately laugh my ass off if Carter lived long enough, including a bout with brain cancer, to see the department he lovingly created shut down. That might be enough to finally finish the old coot off.

[R Mac]

Don't bother reading the quoted thread, it's fake, gay, and retarded.

It basically boils down to a bunch of cocked up examples where 2 + 2 doesn't = 4, if we change the definition of "2", "4", "+", or "=".

This is an example of what I call Sperg Dunking.

And it's why nerds are socially despised, and have far less respect and power as a group than you would think, given that they are a collection of the smartest people on the planet.

Nerds have lowered respect and social power because they have no solidarity. They are bucket crabs.

Almost any time a nerd (or anyone else, for that matter) expresses a potentially useful idea, other nerds see an opportunity to gain valuable Nerd Points (redeemable for absolutely nothing) by discrediting that idea, and thereby showing that they have superior brains, or a greater store of knowledge.

Now, this is fine when the actual idea contains errors, and they are pointing those errors out.

But more often, the urge to contradict and correct results in Sperg Dunking, which the act of pointing out an error in the expression of an idea as if it were an error in the idea itself.

For example, let us articulate an idea about the economic effects of Columbus discovering the New World:

"The value of new things is often hard to see through old paradigms. The new world contained many valuable things such as land and new plant species. But the conquistadors came looking for gold, and gold alone. Had that been all they found, they would simply have collapsed their economy... you can't do anything with gold other than make jewelry out of it or use it as currency."

If you say this in a group of nerds, the immediate response is what?

"You are wrong! Gold is not useless! It's great for making circuits out of!"

This is a Sperg Dunk. It's technically correct, which is the worst kind of correct, but it doesn't disprove the central thesis, nor is it even relevant.

Because conquistadors don't have the capacity to make circuits out of anything, much less gold.

The central ideas of everything you expressed were correct. But you said "YOU can't do anything with gold..." rather than "conquistadors can't do anything with gold...", and thereby opened yourself up for a Sperg Dunk.

The effect that Sperg Dunking has is to increase the cost of expressing ideas when your audience has nerds in it.

A group of normies would simply have nodded and agreed that this makes sense.

A group of smart normies would have thought to themselves "well, we can use gold for more stuff nowdays, but he's talking about the 16th century, so that doesn't matter", and they would never even bring it up.

But if there's a nerd in the room, there's a chance he'll try to Sperg Dunk you with this technicality. And the more nerds there are, the more likely it is that someone is going to try it.

When this happens, you have a choice. You can either

- Argue with him, and point out the irrelevancy of his "correction", at the cost of derailing the conversation away from the point you were trying to make, and creating a personality conflict with him.

or

- Ignore him, at the cost of allowing casual listeners to possibly think your core idea is wrong, and allowing others in the audience to be derailed into irrelevant sidebar conversations.

The third option is to speak so carefully and precisely, and insert so many disclaimers into your speech, that it is near-impossible to aggressively misunderstand you.

However, this vastly increases the effort and cost of getting your ideas across. And you'll often find that nerds are smart enough to find a way to aggressively misunderstand anyone, if they really want to.

This happens, of course, because nerds are bucket crabs. They love to see other nerds succeed among normies, but they don't like to see nerds succeed among other nerds, especially if that group includes them personally.

It also happens because nerds are accustomed to operating in areas such as programming, where they must very precise, and it can be difficult for them to shift gears and realize that they are now in a social situation, where unnecessary precision is not only irrelevant, but destructive.

This phenomenon makes nerds, in groups, far less capable of working with each other and getting stuff done, especially when it's nerd stuff, which requires a lot of suggestion and examination of ideas.

It also makes normies not want to work with nerds, because they correctly recognize Sperg Dunking as an odious personal habit, and they certainly hate it when someone does it to them.

Everyone knows that 2 + 2 = 4.

Everyone knows that edge cases where it doesn't are ginned up examples of math being misapplied, not cases of math being wrong.

Everyone knows that even if there are cases where math is wrong, they will personally never encounter this in anything they use math for.

Everyone knows that even if you are mathematician working with the highly esoteric, maybe non-existent, cases where math is wrong, then you can easily distinguish those cases, specify that you are only talking about them, and not bother ordinary people with lectures about them, when they are busy using math for practical purposes.

This boils down to a sort of personality litmus test... are you dealing with someone who thinks language is for communicating ideas, so we can work together and get stuff done, or with someone who thinks language is for status competition?

If you are dealing with the latter, sometimes it's best to ask yourself whether it's worthwhile to try to work with that person, whatever his capabilities.

If you have read this and realized that you are, or sometimes act like, the latter, here's what you can do to improve.

First, before raising an objection or correction, ask yourself if it is relevant against the smartest possible idea that you can interpret this person as having said.

This is called a "steelman". It's the opposite of a strawman.

If your objection isn't relevant to that version, consider not saying anything.

If you still think you should, because you're not sure if the steelman version is what he actually meant, consider asking a clarifying question instead of arguing.

The benefit of this practice is that other people will like you better and be more willing to listen to you.

https://x.com/Devon_Eriksen_/status/1856726394207691248

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Tufts University calling Moulton's office saying he will no longer "facilitate internship opportunities for students"—something Tufts then walked back.

ronpaul_itshappening.gif

[Fist of Etiquette]

...force her, among other things, to surveil her son via an app—or possibly face a year in jail. She refuses to sign.

She's been emboldened by the election results, no doubt.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Stephen Miller, a senior adviser for Trump during his first term who crafted hard-line immigration policy, is expected to play an even larger role in this administration...

Has anyone checked on Shikha Dalmia?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Back in February, two climate activists vandalized the encasement holding the U.S. Constitution. Both pleaded guilty to destruction of government property...

Maybe they were looking for clean energy solutions secretly written on the back by the Templars.

[Don't look at me!]

There’s a treasure map on the back!

[Fist of Etiquette]

The primary mission of technology and economy policy should be to put everything on the TV price curve.

Time to subsidize OLEDs.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Fuck, if the government subsidized OLED TVs, they'd be on the same curve as healthcare and higher-education costs.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Scientific American seems to be less and less scientific these days...

And less American by the minute.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Make America Scientific Again

[Dillinger]

I dunno dude there's been a lot of trusting the science recently

[Fist of Etiquette]

Apparently, the man—Eric Gonzalez—lied to investigators, initially claiming that the homeless man, Jordan Neely, had hit him.

Someone's getting a deal.

[JFree]

Every living SecDef signed an op-ed on Jan 3 saying that it was insurrectionist and unconstitutional for the military to get involved in the 2020 US elections. Timed specifically in advance of what was being talked about (by Flynn/etc re declaration of martial law) re Jan 6 plans. A week after Jan6, every Chief of Staff of every branch signed a letter saying that any order to troops to get involved in challenging the election would now be considered a violation of their oath to defend the Constitution.

It's very obvious that Hegseth sole qualification to be SecDef is that he would not only not sign that opinion, he would have deliberately violated it in personal loyalty to Trump.

Nor does he have the skill to drain that part of the swamp.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

The guy's got the same number of years in uniform as Tim Walz, and unlike Walz, actually went to the desert. What fucking qualifications are you talking about?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Another bad pick:

President-election Donald Trump named controversial Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz has his nominee for Attorney General in a move that is bound to outrage Democrats and even shock some Republicans in Washington.

Like Noem, Gaetz is a clown who is nowhere near capable enough to handling a high-profile office like AG. It's like putting up AOC for Secretary of State.

If Trump wanted to reward these two, he should have stuck them in low-profile busywork departments like Transportation, Interior, or Commerce. Not two of the most important positions in the Cabinet. I halfway suspect this was why the Senators ultimately picked Thune to be the new Majority Leader.

I do like Tulsi being nominated for DNI, although she better avoid snooping in Hillary's files if she wants to avoid suicide from a bullet to the back of the head.

[R Mac]

I don’t disagree with you, but I like Gaetz a lot more than I thought I did a couple years ago. I underestimated him cuz he’s a little goofy/creepy.

[R Mac]

This was one of the moments I remember being impressed:

Matt Gaetz as AG has REAL potential. We needed a pit bull to hunt down and prosecute the deepstate. He's a pit bull.

Here he is eviscerating the current AG Merrick Garland six months ago.
Solid pick.

https://x.com/LibertyLockPod/status/1856805436965400710

[Medulla Oblongata]

https://x.com/JamieWhistle/status/1856670756479905885

The NYT spoke to 13 young undecided voters for months leading up till the election. Here is one of those 13 young voters:

I shocked myself and voted for Trump. No one tell my family. I was so impressed by JD Vance, the way he carried himself and how normal he appeared. I think I became radicalized on the men and women's sports issue. The ad that said, "Kamala represents they/them. Trump represents you." that was so compelling. While Trump is deranged, he represented normalcy somehow to me.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

That ad's been cited frequently as one of the biggest impact influencers of the election. It's going in the history books as being right up there with the "Morning in America" ad in terms of its potency.

[Medulla Oblongata]

This Kamala supporter is going viral for encouraging black men to r*pe white women.

These are very sick and dangerous people.

https://x.com/iamyesyouareno/status/1856064518666998179

"You wanted a SA-er in office, so I hope you get SA-ed every day."

[She's also a vile racist with a dirty mouth (figuratively and literally, you'll see) and lacking in manners (belching in the middle of her tirade).]

[Zeb]

"SA"?

[InsaneTrollLogic (Factio Democratica delenda est 5/30/24)]

Sexual assault.

[Medulla Oblongata]

For what it’s worth…the days of Mitch are officially over.

“On Wednesday, Republican senators selected Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) as their new leader for the 119th Congress.”

Also

https://x.com/Olivia_Beavers/status/1856767102532894859

The new Senate GOP leadership line-up, per Barasso's email:

Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD)

Assistant Majority Leader John Barrasso (R-WY)

Republican Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR)

Republican Policy Committee Chair Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV)

Republican Conference Vice Chair James Lankford (R-OK)

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC)

[D-Pizzle]

James Lankford, the Republican co-sponsor of the Democrat "border bill" that would have allowed one million people to cross the southern border before Biden had limited discretion to keep doing nothing about it.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Election denial only goes one way, even now.

NBC News: "Republican Eric Hovde refuses to concede Wisconsin Senate race, casts doubt on the results"

But is there a single mention of Bob Casey's refusal to concede PA Senate race? No article titled "Democrat Bob Casey refuses to concede Pennsylvania Senate race, casts doubt on the results"? Nope...

[ducksalad]

I guess you found out about Casey by going to interview him yourself.

Other people saw it reported on obscure outlets like CBS.

[Medulla Oblongata]

As far as I know Casey still has not conceded, and it is still being reported as such, albeit not with any “election denier” rubbish attaching to Hovde’s recount in Wisconsin.

https://time.com/7174032/mccormick-flips-pennsylvania-senate-seatbut-casey-refuses-to-concede/

McCormick Flips Pennsylvania Senate Seat—but Casey Refuses to Concede

Could Bob Casey Win Pennsylvania Senate Race Recount?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/could-bob-casey-win-pennsylvania-senate-race-recount/ar-AA1u4kvj

In Pennsylvania’s closely watched U.S. Senate contest, a mandatory statewide recount is set to commence, marking a high-stakes faceoff between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick.

The Associated Press called the race for McCormick last week, projecting Casey could not make up the deficit based on uncounted ballots.

However, with the count continuing, preliminary tallies revealed McCormick’s narrow 28,000-vote lead falls within Pennsylvania’s 0.5 percent margin for a legally mandated recount, Secretary of State Al Schmidt announced Wednesday.

Casey declined the option to waive the recount by the noon deadline, cementing the next procedural steps for county election officials.

While McCormick attended Senate orientation meetings in Washington, Casey’s campaign manager accused McCormick of attempting to “disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters.”

Compare to headlines and statements about Hovde:

Huffpost: Wisconsin GOP Senate Candidate Eric Hovde Refuses To Concede After Loss

USA Today: Defeated GOP Senate candidate Hovde calls loss ‘painful’ but refuses to concede to Baldwin

The Milwaukee Election Commission in a statement said it “unequivocally refutes Eric Hovde’s baseless claims regarding the integrity of our election process.”

[Medulla Oblongata]

He's certainly at least partly, if not mostly, right...

James Carville says Kamala Harris' failed campaign could be reduced to Sunny Hostin's question on 'The View'

'That's the one question you exist to answer,' Carville said of Sunny Hostin's question during her interview with Harris

Democratic strategist James Carville said Saturday that Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign could be reduced to her failure to differentiate herself from President Biden during an interview on "The View."

"I think if this campaign is reducible to one moment, we are in a 65% wrong-track country. The country wants something different. And she’s asked, as is so often the case, in a friendly audience, on 'The View,' 'How would you be different than Biden?' That’s the one question that you exist to answer, alright? That is it. That’s the money question. That's the one you want. That’s the one that everybody wants to know the answer to. And you freeze! You literally freeze and say, ‘Well, I can’t think of anything,’"

https://www.foxnews.com/media/james-carville-says-kamala-harris-failed-campaign-could-reduced-sunny-hostins-question-the-view

[ducksalad]

Matt Gaetz named as Attorney General.

My theory is that his Republican colleagues begged Trump to pull him out of the House so they could elect a Speaker. Maybe this is the “little secret” Trump and Johnson were talking about.

No regrets about the DoJ staff he'll fire, it's just that he'll replace them with people that are even worse.