Betting on Bessent

Plus: Pregnant law student fights a holy war, NYC officials are trying to ruin your holidays, and more...

Houston, we have a Treasury secretary: President-elect Donald Trump announced billionaire financier Scott Bessent as his pick for secretary of the Treasury. Markets have responded well to that.

Journalist Mary Katharine Ham recently likened hearing about Trump's Cabinet picks to the experience of an edible hitting. ("For a little while you're OK. And then you're like, 'Ooh, there it is.'"). I think this is 100 percent accurate, but Bessent is at least widely regarded as a smart pick.

"Investors prefer orthodoxy, predictability, and coherence from economic policy; there were fears that some of the candidates may not possess those attributes. Bessent does," wrote Paul Donovan, chief economist of UBS Global Wealth Management, on Monday. Elon Musk, who has reportedly ascended to Trump's inner circle (and is one of his buddies?), was less keen on the choice.

Bessent "has described Trump's threats of steep levies on Chinese imports as a 'maximalist negotiating position,'" reports Bloomberg. "He has urged a phased approach to implementation, calling for tariffs to be 'layered in gradually' in an interview with CNBC earlier this month." (More on his broad approach here.) It is perhaps partially a result of this moderate approach on tariffs that markets haven't reacted terribly to the pick.

"When Bessent praises tariffs, he's winning over Trump, not setting future policy," Derek Scissors, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, suggested to Bloomberg.

Despite those signs of appreciaton for global trade, Bessent has recently called for onshoring of key components used in pharmaceutical manufacturing. In other words: He is a mixed bag (and, for what it's worth, a former donor to Democrats). There's a lot that could happen here in terms of tariff policy, other tax policies, and the U.S.'s approach toward China.

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Scenes from New York: Actions have consequences! About 11.5 percent of New York City's hotel inventory have been preemptively allocated for migrants, and Airbnb restrictions have wiped out about 75 percent of short-term rentals. The results:

(New York Times)

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QUICK HITS

• "Israel is potentially days away from a cease-fire agreement with Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Israeli ambassador to the US said, following a new round of shuttle diplomacy by a senior envoy for the outgoing Biden administration," reports Bloomberg. Such predictions come around with some frequency, so take with a grain of salt.
• "Colleges and universities have tightened rules around protests, locked campus gates and handed down stricter punishments after the disruptions of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments last spring," reports The New York Times. "The efforts seem to be working."
• Last week, news broke that Georgetown Law was giving a pregnant student a hard time about asking for a reasonable accommodation: taking her final exam early given that it conflicted with…her due date. Georgetown—which is ostensibly Catholic—has buckled under the pressure, but hell hath no fury like a pregnant woman scorned. I for one support her righteous crusade to improve accommodations for other students who may find themselves in a similar situation in the future (and, honestly, she seems like she's gonna be a damn good lawyer):

Georgetown gave Brittany Lovely a one-off exemption after initially telling her that moving a test that conflicted with her due date was unfair to her classmates.

She's fighting for them to change the *policy* so accommodation isn't exceptional. https://t.co/G2ZNx3rph3 https://t.co/JWKOFPYmCf

— Leah Libresco Sargeant (@LeahLibresco) November 23, 2024

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) has never found a market transaction she doesn't want to investigate or regulate. The latest: .com domain pricing, lmfao. It would all be hilarious if she didn't have real power.
• Anduril founder Palmer Luckey was totally misrepresented by a Fast Company writer. This shows the value of X's Community Notes:

Hey @FastCompany, it isn't ethical to fabricate quotes by taking two difference sentences from two different parts of an hour-long talk, placing them next to each other, and putting the whole shebang in a quote block that means the opposite of what I actually said. https://t.co/5TwLkz30Ec

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) November 24, 2024

Comments

[Chumby]

TRANSgression

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14117553/Transgender-policewoman-27-assaults-two-colleagues-penis-pump-seriously-inures-genitals-offering-threesome-drugging-following-night-notorious-sex-club.html

Tranny German polizei officer alleged to have assaulted two colleagues with a penis pump. Thought it was a stretch to include here, thinking it might be too local, but figured some would get pumped by having it shared. Hard to swallow that someone has the balls to have done this.

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

Sounds like something out of the first Austin Powers movie.

Clerk: One Swedish-made penis enlarger pump.
Austin: That's not mine.
Clerk: One credit card receipt for Swedish-made penis enlarger, signed by Austin Powers.
Austin: I'm telling ya, baby, that's not mine!
Clerk: One warranty card for Swedish-made penis enlarger pump, filled out by Austin Powers.
Austin: I don't even know what this is! This sort of thing ain't my bag, baby!
Clerk: One book: "Swedish-Made Penis Enlarger Pumps and Me: (This Sort of Thing Is My Bag, Baby)", by Austin Powers.
Austin: Ah.
Clerk: Just sign the form.
Austin: Okay, thank you, handy man. I'll sign here, just to get things moving. You know.

[Medulla Oblongata]

[must be seen to be believed, actually not sure it's not parody...]

https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1859679069677507061

Democrats believe our daughters should be forced to share a bathroom with this:

[Ajsloss]

Cute dress.

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

Yeah, goes well with the chest hair.

[Ajsloss]

Chest hair braids would really make it pop.

[Super Scary]

He wears his lemon dress because people make a sour face when they see him.

[Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment]

Not sure either.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Realized who I was reminded of...Harvey Fierstein...

[Dillinger]

Aunt Jack

[Ra's al Gore]

Free minds, free markets, and killing 5 billion in WWIII to stop Trump from deporting Venezuelan criminals.

US Officials Discussed Giving Nuclear Weapons To Ukraine
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-officials-discussed-giving-nuclear-weapons-ukraine

Desperate to bolster Ukraine’s standing in the war before the transition of power on January 20, the Biden administration is looking at a range of serious escalations. "US and European officials are discussing deterrence as a possible security guarantee for Ukraine, such as stockpiling a conventional arsenal sufficient to strike a punishing blow if Russia violates a cease-fire."

The article continues, "Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union."

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

All I want for Christmas is WWIII!!!!!

- Victoria Nuland.

[Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment]

I'd be happy knowing who is the acting POTUS. We seem to be a dangerous situation, and it would be reassuring to have a competent person in that position.
But I guess the issue is too local to be of interest to Reason.

[mad.casual]

+1

You know what’s scarier than a half-cocked POTUS off-handedly discussing giving nuclear weapons to a non-ally, that was complicit in the blowing up of NATO civilian infrastructure, in defense against a nuclear armed near-peer opponent?

Deep State pogues seriously discussing giving nuclear weapons to a non-ally, that was complicit in the blowing up of NATO civilian infrastructure, in defense against a nuclear armed near-peer opponent.

[Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment]

And the subject remains 'too local' to get attention from Reason or pretty much anyone else.

[Super Scary]

Sure things are going on in Ukraine, but have you heard of the hotel prices in NYC? Crazy stuff!

[Rick James]

*sigh* so... whatever. Now, this Priscilla Villareal situation...

[Stupid Government Tricks]

It has all the hallmarks of a committee. Confused, slow, uncoordinated, and none of its components know what the others are doing.

[R Mac]

One might go so far as to call it a soviet.

[Chumby]

Plus a few dozen pies.

[Chumby]

Unipolar Lust for Boys

Ukrainians add 16-year-old to state-linked ‘kill list’

A 16-year-old who brought a Russian flag to an anti-war rally in Berlin has been added to the Ukrainian Mirotvorets kill list. The moderators of the notorious Ukrainian state-linked Mirotvorets database have added a 16-year-old who brought Russia’s tricolor flag to an anti-war rally in Berlin earlier this month.

While the moderators of the website claim it is merely a list of individuals considered enemies of Ukraine, the state-linked organization has been labeled a “kill list”after several people on it were killed under suspicious circumstances often attributed to Ukrainian intelligence.

- Russia Today (from the land free of MAPedo)

You can have a rainbow flag parade there, but hoist a Russian flag and you get placed on a “kill list”!

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

Pluggo approves.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Wasn't there a dem Trans activist working for this group?

[Chumby]

Not sure. If a tranny Act Blue donor shows up at my compound, then I’ll know I’m on the list too.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Has been going on for a few years.

https://medium.com/@deborahlarmstrong/mirotvorets-removes-american-names-96de6a7a2a12

[Ra's al Gore]

America is evil; Americans are evil, therefore letting Americans speak is evil, for they speak only evil.

MSNBC News Actor, Race Scholar ‘Confront the First Amendment’s Dark History’
https://pjmedia.com/benbartee/2024/11/25/msnbc-news-actor-race-scholar-confront-the-first-amendments-dark-history-n4934599

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

This is the persuasion to censor bad thoughts Jeff supports.

[Chumby]

Spinning Out of Control

Iran’s Nuclear Gambit: Spinning Centrifuges, Shattering Western Illusions

Iran’s announcement of deploying advanced centrifuges in response to the IAEA resolution is not merely a technical escalation, it’s a geopolitical masterstroke in a high-stakes chess game where the West continues playing checkers. Tehran’s move signals that it will no longer tolerate the charade of “nuclear diplomacy” orchestrated by Washington and its European vassals, who cloak their hegemonic agenda under the guise of “international security" aka security on Israel's terms.

- Two Majors/Islander News

Full article at both cited locations. Iran will have a nuclear weapon at some point.

[Ra's al Gore]

Paid for by Obama/Biden. Iran could treat women better, but they agree with the Dems on what's most important: Death to America.

[Ajsloss]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZxdOeXUiJ0

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

They never stopped developing the weapons. They just made the areas of research off limits to inspection under the Iran deal. It would take 6 months to a year to allow inspectors in under Obama.

[Incunabulum]

Iran would treat women better - but they can't tell which ones are the women. They're not biologists.

[Vernon Depner]

Iran has more more male to female sex change surgeries per capita than any other country.

[Jefferson Paul]

There certainly are quite a few MtoF transitions in Iran, but most (all?) of them are by force. Men aren't allowed to be gay in Iran, so if you "transition" all of them into women, you can claim you have no gays in your country.

[Ra's al Gore]

Free minds, free markets, and bringing 6 year olds into the country to buttfuck and kill.

https://x.com/TomHoman_/status/1860808065307590981

Human tr*fficking alert.

Early today, the Texas Department of Public Safety came across a group of 211 illegal aliens in Maverick County, Texas. Within this group, there were 60 minors without parents ranging in age from 2 to 17. Six of those young children coming all the way from Mali and Angola!

Among them was this two-year-old child from El Salvador who stated she traveled to the US alone. All she had with her was a note with a contact number and a name.

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

Pluggo and Jeffy approve.

[Medulla Oblongata]

In UK, government/BBC charity pays for the trafficking.

https://reason.com/2024/11/25/dispatch-from-trump-world-the-spirit-of-24/?comments=true#comment-10813880

In a scathing resignation letter seen by The Times, former CIN chair Rosie Millard accused the organisation’s management of ‘institutional failure’, after it took three months to suspend funding to the controversial trans charity, LGBT Youth Scotland (LGBTYS).

Until 2009, LGBTYS was headed by convicted child abuser James Rennie. He was sentenced to life in jail for sexually assaulting his three-month-old godson, and for conspiring to gain ­access to children in order to abuse them. He and another man were revealed to be the leaders of Scotland’s biggest paedophile ring.

[Ra's al Gore]

I eagerly await the trials of the NGOs for working with the cartels to violate immigration law, only to have them claim entrapment because the government paid them to do it.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Did you see the House GOP report on the Haitian and Venezuelan refugee program under Biden? A few hundred sponsors, many with same telephone, address, IP. Admittance to drug only being used to "sponsor" them.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

They are all no cost, tax revenue generating benefits to this country. Ask sarc.

[sarcasmic]

They steal jobs and refuse to work at the same time. Ask Jesse.

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

Are you dense or what? You do realize that they get jobs for less pay while also getting subsidized housing, healthcare, and food, right, oh drunk one?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

And the employment rates for those granted work permits is small.

But sarc has to rely on this belief that a job is created every time someone crosses the border. It is part of his retarded belief system.

He will also intentionally ignore the costs associated for welfare of citizens based on the taking of jobs, another cost he pretends doesn't exist.

[sarcasmic]

Why don't you conflate asylum seekers with immigrants looking for work, lie about what I have said, show off your dearth of economics knowledge by treating the economy as a zero-sum game, and then lie some more about what I've said?

Never mind. You just did.

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

Why don’t you stop conflating illegal aliens with legal immigrants and legal asylum seekers?

[DesigNate]

Even Jeff has admitted that most of these “asylum seekers” don’t actually qualify.

[R Mac]

And then with this new information he changed his conclusion right? RIGHT?

[Medulla Oblongata]

Let's be clear that most asylum claims are false, knowingly made false at the time they are made. Economic opportunity is NOT a valid reason for asylum.

The overall approval rate for adjudicated asylum cases in FY 2023 was only 14.40%, and 61% were disposed of through “abandonment, not adjudicated, other or withdrawn.", i.e., the person who filed for asylum has skipped, so it's pretty clear the claim was not important to them except that it allowed them to walk away from detainment.

[sarcasmic]

Let’s be clear that most asylum claims are false, knowingly made false at the time they are made. Economic opportunity is NOT a valid reason for asylum.

I draw a distinction between asylum seekers and people seeking work for the same reason why Jesse intentionally and dishonestly conflates them. They're not the same thing.

[R Mac]

Cite?

[Medulla Oblongata]

I'm not sure I get your position. Are people who lie on their asylum claims--because they are only seeking economic opportunity, and not truly fearful of persecution--asylum seekers or people who want to work? In my mind, they're people who've committed perjury on top of their general illegal immigration crimes and neither asylum seekers not people looking for work, and thus should be sent back in favor of more people who play by the rules. IF the lie on this paperwork, lying on job applications, welfare applications, and voter registrations seems to be something they'd be willing to do, too.

[R Mac]

Sarc’s best buddy is Lying Jeffy. He doesn’t mind people lying.

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

Cite, drunky?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

What lie sarc? 2 Saturdays ago you demonstrated your utter dishonesty on the topic.

You keep crying you don’t believe migrants should get welfare. Then 2 Saturdays ago you said it was too hard to stop welfare to illegal immigrants, but should still let anyone cross. So yes, you do want open borders into a welfare state. You willingly ignore all costs. You demand the protection of the rights of some despite the taking of 180M taxpayers. You put the few above the many. Defending the spending on it.

You don’t even realize the group I’m discussing is refugees. Literally the group that embodies your belief system. Work permits. Low employment. Costs billions a year.

You’re just fucking retarded. Zero facts are on your side. All emotion.

This is because you have such a sophist view of libertarianism. That of a middle schooler who first learned the term.

[sarcasmic]

If someone deliberately misinterpreted and lied about what Trump says in the manner in which you do to what I say, you’d freak out and attack them to no end while accusing them of hypocrisy because you like to accuse people of what you are doing while you are doing it.

[R Mac]

Keep crying sarc.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Please help clear it up for me:

A. Open Border after Eliminating Welfare State
B. Close Border and Eliminate Welfare State
C. Open Border, Keep Welfare State
D. Close Border, Keep Welfare State

Or is there some more nuanced position that you espouse that we haven't been able to ferret out of your seemingly contradictory statements as they've accumulated over time?

Maybe: Open Border, Contemplate Thinking About Maybe Eliminating Welfare State Someday?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

He is incapable of basic logical construction. He pretends to say he isn't got migrant welfare but then defends migrant welfare. All the fucking time. Saying it is too hard to end it. While creaming racist and xenophobia to those who want to enforce all welfare and then don't give a shit about migration.

He can't figure out that applauding open borders into the current state of gov spending on migrants is the problem. It is the literal definition of open borders to a welfare state. But he somehow lies to himself to think it isn't.

Let alone all the other retarded shit he fails to realize.

Migration faster than I frustration growth.
Net tax loss on new migrants.
Inflationary pressure from gov funded migrants.

Etc. Etc.

Even when shown his views are from marxist.org he thinks his false solution (one proven to not work) is a libertarian solution. He is a child saying communism has never been tried, just with open borders.

[sarcasmic]

*sigh*

All I’ve ever said is that people who want to come here and work should be allowed to come here and work.

Jesse The Liar sees that and claims I said I want anyone who wants welfare should be allowed to come here and get welfare.

Then you argue with what he said, not what I said.

Fuck off.

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

Cope harder, Sarc.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

I've given you the numbers on their employment rate. Why do you continue to ignore it?

Again. There is a program in place already that offers work permits within 30 days. What is the cost to taxpayers for these people? What is their employment rate?

Do you care to ever educate yourself?

Your entire border worldview is one of chosen ignorance. You refuse to admit to the net negative costs. Yet in thread after thread you'll pretend to be for cutting spending.

You put open borders into a welfare state above all other libertarian views you pretend to have.

So I'll ask again. If I give you links to the costs and outcomes of your preferred system, will you educate yourself? Or double down on remaining ignorant?

[sarcasmic]

I've got an idea. Why don't you cherry pick data, ignore everything I've ever said, and then make the strawman argument that you rehearsed while driving to your useless government contractor job?

Oh, never mind. I see you already did.

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

So your answer is that you’ll double down and have a 40. Great.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

What the fuck am I cherry picking? Talking about tens of thousands in a system you advocate for you retarded dishonest shit weasel.

This is your problem. You’re too fucking stupid, too fucking uninformed, and just plain retarded to the point you can’t defend your views.

[sarcasmic]

I don’t defend what you dishonestly claim are my views because they are not my views. They're just strawmen that you practice arguing against while you drive to your do-nothing government contractor job.

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

So sayeth the king of straw, Strawcasmic.

[Quicktown Brix]

two-year-old child from El Salvador who stated she traveled to the US alone

This does not add up.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

She said she came over on a unicorn.

[R Mac]

Lol.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Sounds like just the real independent go-getter type of woman we need in this country.

[Vernon Depner]

Doing the jobs American children won't do...

[Ra's al Gore]

EXPERTS!!!!

World Bank ‘Misplaces’ $41 Billion in Climate Change Funds – Oxfam Investigation finds: ‘No clear public record showing where this money went or how it was used’ – Climate Depot
https://x.com/ClimateDepot/status/1849604010644549992

[Dillinger]

it's at Fred's house.

[Ajsloss]

"Hey! What the hell ya doin with my money in your house, Fred?!"

[Medulla Oblongata]

It's at Fani WIllis's house, in cash. It's a 'black thing'.

[Medulla Oblongata]

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — United Nations climate talks adopted a deal to inject at least $300 billion annually in humanity’s fight against climate change, aimed at helping developing nations cope with the ravages of global warming in tense negotiations.

The $300 billion will go to developing countries who need the cash to wean themselves off the coal, oil and gas that causes the globe to overheat, adapt to future warming and pay for the damage caused by climate change’s extreme weather. It’s not near the full amount of $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for, but it’s three times a deal of $100 billion a year from 2009 that is expiring. Some delegations said this deal is headed in the right direction, with hopes that more money flows in the future.

[Vernon Depner]

Accounting is white supremacy.

[Ra's al Gore]

Force them to sell the farmland to be used for solar panels while we eat bug pasts.

https://x.com/Babygravy9/status/1861032410244084021

But it's not just that the Labour government's new inheritance-tax law will force farmers to sell their land; it's that they'll end up selling to mega corporations and asset funds who'll put the land to alternative uses, either for mega solar farms or for GMO monoculture.

Both of these alternative uses will not only fundamentally alter the English countryside, but they'll also be used as a bludgeon for the climate-change agenda, to force people to eat less meat and animal products.

It's no coincidence that this new law was announced hot on the heels of a commitment by Keir Starmer to reduce Britain's carbon emissions by 80% by 2035.

[Ra's al Gore]

Or just reintroduce surfdom

Think tank used to justify farmer IHT raid implies state could take ownership of land
Report reveals the Government could become landlord to tenant farmers who are forced to sell up land to cover their tax bill
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/22/farming-iht-tax-raid-budget-centax-think-tank/

The head of a think tank used by the Government to justify its tax raid on farmers has suggested the state could take ownership of land.

Arun Advani led a report for the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax) suggesting that the state could become the landlord to tenant farmers.

The report suggested such a move would prevent the loss of tenant farmers as a result of introducing inheritance tax burdens on agricultural assets.

It was released shortly before Rachel Reeves announced that farms worth more than £1 million would be liable for inheritance tax (IHT) from April 2026.

Farming groups have warned that the tax could lead to landlords selling up tenanted farmland to cover their tax bill, forcing tenant farmers out of the industry.

[R Mac]

Some of us have been comparing their plans to serfdom for about a decade.

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

Serfdom is just a rest stop on the the road to collectivization, or in other words, slavery to the state. First they will confiscate and lease farmers back their own land. When too many farmers balk, they will pass laws that force farmers to stay and work the farms.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

"Or just reintroduce surfdom"

Johnny Utah approves.

[mad.casual]

or for GMO monoculture

Yeah, sorry. I 'nope' out of this discussion with 'everyone is assholes' at the use of this term. Just like 'minor attracted persons' or 'social justice' you aren't even trying to have a straightforward discussion when you use it.

As usual, they aren't upset that someone is seizing the land and using it for their purposes, their just upset that it's not them seizing the land.

[Ra's al Gore]

they're admitting the open borders are punishment

https://x.com/pragueyerrr/status/1859534909926191264

[Ra's al Gore]

EXPERTS!!

‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03784-6

[Mike Parsons]

damn, mastadon must be full

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

The rush to shoot their skeets.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Anything not purely STEM from nature.com is not to be trusted, and I don't know how much I'd trust their STEM articles at this point.

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

I wouldn’t. They can’t even define what a woman is.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Here's an example, from Watts Up With That.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/11/25/redefining-net-zero-will-not-stop-global-warming-scientists-say/

In a new study, led by the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics and published November 18 in Nature, an international group of authors who developed the science behind net zero demonstrate that relying on ‘natural carbon sinks’ like forests and oceans to offset ongoing CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use will not actually stop global warming.

[Medulla Oblongata]

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/11/22/bluesky-is-hell-on-earth/

So, how are things over the wall, in the place where the skies are blue? Well, the sudden surge of users on Bluesky (though we must remember that X is also reporting all-time usage highs) hasn’t quite created the promised paradise. It turns out that snitchers love to snitch, wherever they go. Simple statements of fact like ‘sex is not a spectrum’ are, on Bluesky, swiftly labelled with the single warning word: ‘Intolerance.’ Intolerance of what, exactly? Delusion?

The sofa Stasi are certainly busy over there. ‘In the past 24 hours’, the Bluesky safety team posted last week, ‘we have received more than 42,000 reports (an all-time high for one day). We’re receiving about 3,000 reports [per] hour. To put that into context, in all of 2023, we received 360,000 reports.’ Then, in marvellously pompous language, they added: ‘We’re triaging this large queue so the most harmful content such as CSAM [child sexual abuse material] is removed quickly.’ What a great advert for your own site – the place is full of informers and child molesters. Grasses galore and nonces by the score – roll up, roll up!

Anybody who self-IDs as a kind, nice person on the right side of history is almost always a status-craving sociopath who will say anything, tolerate anything, to stay in their tribe. Men can literally take over a breastfeeding charity to satisfy their fetish for babies sucking at their nipples – as was exposed earlier this week – and the ‘kind’ people will say nothing for fear of status loss.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Also:

What would the #BeKind crowd do if they ever achieved their aim of a pure, high space above the fray? You can’t feel superior if there’s nobody to feel superior to. They need their out-group, for how else would they know that they are the in-group? All they can do then is turn on each other like starved piranhas.

They are the most rancorous, disputatious people on the planet. Now they are rats in a sack. Bluesky will only drive them insane. More insane.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

All the censorship of Twitter ramped up to 11.

[Mike Parsons]

"Georgetown Law was giving a pregnant student a hard time about asking for a reasonable accommodation: taking her final exam early given that it conflicted with…her due date. "

Meanwhile multiple medical schools around the country (and probably law schools as well) give lucrative time exceptions for people that need extra time, and separate accommodations than the bulk of the class, due to 'special educational needs'. Ill give you one guess as to the demographic breakdown of the 6 students in my former alma mater that were given a significant advantage on these tests.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

I actually tutored this group in college, it paid well let me set my own schedule. I would say 90% of the kids didn't have a learning disability, and they would admit it. Their parents paid a therapist to give the note to the school so the kids could get double test time and forced teachers to allow note cards.

[BYODB]

I too worked with disability students taking tests while I was in school myself, and this lines up exactly with my experience. Helicopter parents that want their little angels to have every possible advantage in school would get ADDHD or other diagnosis (a lot of them from the same MD, as it turns out) to get all kinds of state mandated accommodation. There are a few who honestly and obviously needed it, but most did not and were just gaming the system.

Also, on a somewhat related note, there are multiple people in that school who did require accommodation of such magnitude that there was a virtual guarantee they would never be hired in their industry.

School might give you quadruple time on your tests, but an engineering firm isn't going to extend your deadlines because your brain is fundamentally broken. It's a scam by the schools themselves, knowing full well some of these 'graduates' are unemployable. As long as the school gets paid, no harm no foul other than the huge amount of debt piled onto a disabled person who will never be able to take advantage of that 'education'.

[Vernon Depner]

Earning a living is white supremacy.

[Ra's al Gore]

BBC ‘misrepresented’ Covid risk to boost lockdown support, inquiry told
Epidemiologist Prof Mark Woolhouse criticised corporation for reporting rare deaths among healthy adults as the norm during pandemic
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/25/covid-inquiry-bbc-misrepresented-risk-pandemic/

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Did facts change?!?

[I, Woodchipper]

Everyone already knows this. All of us sane people knew it AT THE TIME.

[DesigNate]

Conspiracy Theorist!!!!

[Vernon Depner]

That fact was on the CDC web site all along. I had no luck getting anyone to look at it.

[mamabug]

Of the many reasons I will not vote Democrat for awhile, 'can't forgive them for Covid policies' ranks at the very top.

[Ajsloss]

What the fuck?

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

Usually my response upon reading the Reason front page and then Sarc and Jeffy’s comments.

[Ajsloss]

Especially when it's an hour and seven minutes late?

[Chumby]

Santa could bring Liz an alarm clock this Christmas.

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

Fist could use one too.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

She had to work through her cyber Monday deals on Amazon. Give her grace.

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

Thought cyber Monday was next week?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

I have no idea. If I wanted shit that breaks quickly I'd go to TEMU.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Shit from TEMU breaks before it arrives at your house.

[Chumby]

work comes before play

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

Mrs clause can bring me a sandwhich

[Dillinger]

that edible seriously floored her.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

The links will continue to be late, until all of you subscribe to my podcast!

[Dillinger]

from fuck off, Slaver! to enslave yourselves @Screwtube! in three moves.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Finally! Was starting to jones a little.

[Medulla Oblongata]

"I don't understand how normal people can afford to go there"

Feature, not bug.

[Vernon Depner]

Why would normal people WANT to go to NYC?

[Medulla Oblongata]

It does work both ways, you're right!

[Chumby]

Oh Sarcles tree, Oh Sarcles tree,
Continue to shill for Team D.
Oh Sarcles tree, Oh Sarcles tree,
Continue to shill for Team D.

Dems did it first, so they’re immune,
When Trump got charged, we saw him swoon.

He’ll post some shit, with disclaimer,
And told us Chase is a flamer.

Oh Sarcles tree, Oh Sarcles tree,
Continue to shill for Team D.

He thinks he’s strong, when you’re muted,
Most of his posts, get refuted.

Strawman, binary, with tu quoque,
Meanings of words, lost on this bloke.

Oh Sarcles tree, Oh Sarcles tree,
Continue to shill for Team D.

He pulled his kid’s feet off the bed,
There was no more, is what he said.

His best pal Mike, stalks ENB,
On Mastodon, though few did see.

Oh Sarcles tree, Oh Sarcles tree,
Continue to shill for Team D.

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

+1. Absolutely beautiful.

[Dillinger]

ya love it.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Disclaimer: this song is accurate.

[Quicktown Brix]

The first post in a thread, Cha chum chum chum-by

A burn on Sarc is said, It’s a Chumby-pun pun, pun pun pun pun, pun pun pun pun

Err..uuhh..Now I’m done

[Chumby]

*golf clap* That is THE most amazing thing ever. Tremendous. That is like a game-winning, walkoff, grand slam, Super Bowl three pointer buzzer-beating hole-in-one.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Calm down Waltz.

[Rick James]

I think this is 100 percent accurate, but Bessent is at least widely regarded as a smart pick.

That's what concerns me. I rest easier when everyone is losing their shit.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

They seen to be gunning for Tulsi. Laughably saying how anyone can trust her after Biden put her on the airline watch list.

[mad.casual]

Yeah, when you compare the pick to your edibles high, it feels an awful lot like Deep State cruise control.

[lwt1960]

Georgetown- ask any D1 athlete about getting accomodations for their situation regarding practices, travel to games/matches, etc. and they'll laugh at you. The professors are more likely to tell them not to make "your problem my problem". And these are for university-sponsored programs. The university's response was correct. Fairness has nothing to do with it. Honoring obligations and not demanding after the fact accomodations has everything to do with it.

[Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment]

Uh, OK.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Played a recognized club team for 2 years on college. Had to take finals early ax it was the week of the national tournaments. Was a pain when topics hadn't even been taught yet. But largely correct. I had to arrange early tests and turn in HW early every spring semester.

[mad.casual]

Uh, yeah, she's not asking for after-the-fact accommodations, the kid isn't here yet and she's asking if she can take the exams early, which would favor the other students, grade-wise.

If you play on a D1 team, you play on the team or at the event. Academics is neither team nor sport and, even if it were, she's being more than fair.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Georgetown- ask any D1 athlete about getting accomodations for their situation regarding practices, travel to games/matches, etc. and they’ll laugh at you. The professors are more likely to tell them not to make “your problem my problem”.

This isn't really how it works at big-time universities. The schedules of athletes there are pretty heavily managed to revolve around their sports obligations. They might go to classes, but in a lot of cases they're just doing study clubs at the athletic complex because online courses and loose enrollment requirements means they don't even have to worry about anything other than their sport and maybe 2 or 3 classes, at the most. And the advent of NIL means that a lot of them are just mercs rather than students.

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

This is the same day care (can't call it a university) that made accomodations/had coloring books and Legos avaliable for the children too upset by the election. Fuck off

[Ra's al Gore]

A matter of scale: the cultural and environmental impact of big solar
https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/eyes-on-environment/a_matter_of_scale_the/

Eighty miles east of Palm Springs, California, eight million solar panels lean toward the sky, their deep blue shine a modern oasis interrupting the brown dust of the Mojave Desert. Known as Desert Sunlight, the solar power plant is the first of its kind and promises to provide 550 megawatts (MW) of clean energy powering over 150,000 homes in California (a few percent of the state's total power consumption)1. Such large amounts of power from one, 3000-acre solar installation have been unheard of until now, hinting at a revolution in large-scale renewable energy generation that could compete with fossil-fuel-based power plants.

Not so fast, say Native American tribes and environmentalists, who protest these solar plants due to their impact on sacred heritage lands and native species. The ongoing debate shines an important light on the fact that renewables introduce unique environmental and cultural impacts. These issues may rest in a blind spot for policymakers trying to reduce fossil fuel emissions at all costs or private companies taking advantage of renewable energy mandates and subsidies to cultivate successful business ventures.

...The Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi, and Navajo make up the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) that live on a reservation along the Colorado River just east of Desert Sunlight. Companies that want to follow the example set by First Solar must obtain land grants from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to allow private construction on the federal lands surrounding the reservation. However, much of this region contains sacred lands, buried artifacts, and relics important to these Native American tribes. To try to prevent the destruction and desecration and of artifacts and lands, CRIT has filed a lawsuit against the federal government to try to delay the issue of land grants given to private companies by the BLM

...Unfortunately, this doesn't work for all species. In the Mojave Desert, a plentiful number of species will be affected - coyotes, desert foxes, horny toads - but the desert tortoise is especially vulnerable. The tortoise creates its home by burrowing deep into the desert ground, and once it has made a home, it doesn't like to leave. The animal stores large amounts of water in its bladder to survive dry seasons but, if frightened or disturbed, the tortoise will release the entire content of its bladder at once, leading to potentially fatal dehydration and making relocation difficult. In addition, studies have shown that desert tortoises are especially resistant to relocation and stubbornly return to their original habitats4. Being so resistant to relocation, it is unclear how energy companies are ensuring the animal's protection

[Ra's al Gore]

https://x.com/JamesMelville/status/1860855776408928470

This is not environmentalism.
This is corporatism land grabbing. The vast majority of solar panels (often used on prime farmland) will reduce farm food supply, blot the beautiful countryside, end up in landfill after 25 years or risk being damaged by adverse weather conditions.

[BYODB]

Yeah, blowing sand and solar panels are not good bedfellows. In fact, sand is hugely destructive to just about everything so putting any power generation in an honest to god desert is just about automatically retarded. The lifespan of those panels is going to be shit.

That's before you get into the weeds of solar panels themselves not being a renewable resource. You must mine for those materials, and I don't think 'environmentalists' are going to be happy with that. The watermelons will be overjoyed though since their goal isn't to generate clean power but rather to restrict supply of electricity to the proles.

[Stuck in California]

So, California has expensive power. My region power is the most expensive in the nation, worse than Hawaii. Peak times it can be up to 70 cents per KWh, average close to 50 cents. For reference, when you see the cost sticker for energy use on an appliance, those numbers are usually like 14-17 cents per KWh, so, yes, average cost is triple the nation's average.

This is how "good" energy sources like solar and other renewables are.

But here's the rub: Sempra Energy doesn't make money off power anymore, they just do transmission and infrastructure and you get power from some other sort of company, which is also pretty well limited in choice because those generators aren't allowed to use anything actually, you know, efficient. So, you get no choice, and the provider is guaranteed a certain profit so they have no incentive to lower the costs, and they're very much limited in what they're allowed to generate with, so they put in these solar farms and make their profit regardless of how expensive the power is. They don't care, they make their margin no matter what.

And Sempra has margins capped as a monopoly, but they can charge extra for the capital investments to "upgrade" infrastructure. So they're heavily incentivized to do lots of work on boondoggles like these solar farms, and connect them up, and do other infrastructure work. They actually have incentive to do MORE expensive infrastructure work because they make a margin, and more money spent means more money they can make on those margins.

Meanwhile, we get bitched at by Sempra that people are using less power (which has doubled in cost since the 20teens), installing solar, etc so they have to charge even more.

All incentive is to be more expensive, no incentive or ability to think up new and more efficient ways of generating and delivering power. It's literally the opposite of good. Whenever people using less doesn't cause a good to be less expensive, the fundamental laws of supply and demand, the market is broken.

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

They have to destroy the environment to save the earth.

[Dillinger]

>>I for one support her righteous crusade to improve accommodations for other students

Juno d'Arc

[Dillinger]

>>the experience of an edible hitting.

lol. lightweights.

[BYODB]

Edibles are kind of dumb anyway if you ask me. I can see why some people would be into it, but in places where THC products are legal the clandestine benefit isn't of much concern.

[mad.casual]

As opposed to what?

I happen to be the kind of person who still enjoys a cigar intermittently, but I could understand how people with lung or breathing issues might appreciate the high without inhaling the combustibles.

[Dillinger]

>> appreciate the high without inhaling the combustibles.

some of the chocolate bars from like 10 -15 years ago could deliver an equivalent punch but a gummy the size of Manhattan would be required in today’s world.

edit: and hey I'm just mouthing off for fun I don't want to spoil it ... everyone should try the THC and if candy is the medium who am I to stop anyone?

[mad.casual]

some of the chocolate bars from like 10 -15 years ago could deliver an equivalent punch but a gummy the size of Manhattan would be required in today’s world.

Welcome to the "The narrative that 'people only use fentanyl because heroine is illegal' is stupid." crowd.

[BYODB]

As opposed to smoking it, of course. It's the easiest and most effective way to control your dosage. You can stop smoking, but it's harder to stop digesting.

I don't care if someone prefers edibles, I say go for it, but disguising your drugs as candy isn't the wisest course of action either.

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

“We do not sell hash brownies! We're a simple Dutch bakery! Now put your clothes back on, white boy!”

[Dillinger]

lol. people on ludes should not drive.

[Jefferson Paul]

That movie was good!

[Gaear Grimsrud]

My wife grows her own, legal, dope and makes her own edibles for insomnia. Eats a chocolate half hour before bed time and gets a full night's sleep. Nothing clandestine about it.

[Dillinger]

America.

[mad.casual]

Is paranoia from edibles not a thing?

[Dillinger]

I'm sure it is to a non-regular who might feel the effects of an edible ... like the point in your teens the can of beer stopped making you giggle

[Ra's al Gore]

https://x.com/MayorBillWells/status/1861046647381528767

The State of California is threatening to take pensions and charge police officers with felonies if they comply with federal deportation laws. While the Trump administration is working to enforce immigration laws, California seems intent on blocking these efforts.

Here in El Cajon, we are NOT a sanctuary city, yet our officers are being put in an impossible position. If they comply with federal immigration authorities, they risk felony charges and losing their hard-earned pensions.

This is unacceptable. No officer should have to choose between doing their duty and jeopardizing their future.

As Mayor of El Cajon, I’m doing everything in my power to protect our officers and stand against these dangerous policies.

[I, Woodchipper]

Automatic win on the lawsuit. These cops are salivating at the chance of this happening.

[Dillinger]

you're Mayor of El Cajon?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Keep shipping illegals to blue states. They already cried uncle. Ramp it up. Cut off the federal funds in support.

[Vernon Depner]

It's a trick. They want the illegals so they get more Congressmen and electors.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

They can just lie on the census like last time.

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

And we’re getting the threats of no harvests and no lawn mowing again.

https://x.com/asymmetricinfo/status/1861030794640158783?s=46&t=qeA47-JjK6vq0pfnxg60dA

He’s getting dragged for this but in fact deporting millions of immigrants would make lots of things more expensive and force people to substitute home labor for market transactions. If those people preferred to paint their own house and mow their own lawns, they’d be doing it.

Newsflash: we already mow our own lawns. Who the fuck has any money to hire people to do it!?!

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

The left really does characterize them as slightly more free slaves don't they.

[BYODB]

Well, if you ask the left apparently illegal immigrants only role to play is to shore up programs like social security and work bottom-tier manual labor jobs that American's 'won't do'. (notably, construction or lawn care are some of the few jobs that don't actually require a high school education. Even a moron can hang drywall, even if poorly.)

Of course, the reason why Americans might not 'do' those jobs couldn't possibly be related to market distortions from a huge number of laborers that employers can pay under the table at below market rates without any of the associated costs of American labor protections. That is simply unpossible in their view.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

It's like they're still in this early 20th century mindset that farms can only be harvested by thousands of workers.

When Argentina lost a bunch of peon labor north, their ag industry had to adapt and figure out a way to keep their operations going. They responded by innovating on the mechanical side and a lot of their farming is done by machines now.

The insistence on the importation of Third World labor for A&M jobs is choking off the innovation necessary so we don't have to rely on it. If the open borders crowd was in charge of domestic labor, we'd still be doing laundry by hand or taking it to the immigrant laundress in our 15-Minute City, instead of throwing it in the washing machine and dryer.

[BYODB]

Hell, farming in the United States has been largely automated for my entire life. I grew up in a farming/ranching community of about 7000 residents, and even the poor farmers in that area all had mechanized equipment if their farm was for commercial rather than personal use.

Hilariously, my hometown has a lot of illegal immigrants and just about none of them work in agriculture. It's all construction and lawn care. Zero food trucks, too. That isn't the whole of the United States, obviously, but it's a data point.

I think the only other job I noticed a lot of illegal immigrants working in was chasing chickens at a Tyson facility, which is not a very good job. The only other employees were mostly high school students (that didn't last long in the role) because the wage was straight up so bad you'd make more at McDonalds with much, much better conditions. It's a case study in how illegal immigrant labor drives down wages, actually.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I think the only other job I noticed a lot of illegal immigrants working in was chasing chickens at a Tyson facility, which is not a very good job.

Yeah, it's not just the mayor of Springfield getting a nice kickback on importing thousands more Haitians than the local factory needs. The Monforts in Colorado own a lot of the industrial farms in the state and they're notorious for exploiting illegal immigrant and TPS labor. To the extent any of them have actual businesses, it's mostly a burrito stand here and there out of their kitchen or a hole in the wall shack. Otherwise, it's mostly day labor. Greeley Central High School, for example, went from about 30 percent Hispanic to 70 percent Hispanic over the last 35 years.

[soldiermedic76]

The industry is already well into the process. Probably one of the most labor intensive, relying on immigrants for labor (legal or otherwise) is the dairy industry. The industry, however, has long been mechanizing and today, robotic milking parlours, many of them carousel style, are quickly becoming the industry standard. Hell, some dairies, the cows move themselves. They have radio tags on that record when the cow goes to and returns from the parlour. When the cow feels it is time to get milked (and yes, they do, hell even in non-automated dairies, the cows are usually lined up in the pen waiting to move when it's time to be milked) it walks to the parlour, the machine reads it, and records it. Because it's a carousel, they go on as soon as a pen is open, the machine washes their teats, hooks up, milks them, and then performs post milking care and then they walk off. If a cow is overdue, an alert is sent to the farm managers PDA, who can then send someone to check on that cow. It can cut the size of a cre by 75-90%. Big start up investment but huge payoff (it also improves milking efficiency and decreases disease actually, the machines do a better job cleaning than humans).

[soldiermedic76]

They also have automatic feeders that work in a similar manner. That’s more for concentrates, like corn and soybeans and such, with a base diet of hay, grass and alfalfa, and silage fed to everyone. The automatic feeders aren't quite as common (although places like New Zealand and Ireland where they use managed pasture systems, they're more common).

[Vernon Depner]

the cows are usually lined up in the pen waiting to move when it’s time to be milked

I've seen dairy sheep doing the same thing in small operations. They don't need to be called or herded in for milking.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Farming Robot Kills 200,000 Weeds Per Hour With Lasers
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/farming-robot-kills-200000-weeds-hour-lasers

[Vernon Depner]

Jewish lasers?

[soldiermedic76]

Yeah, when I worked for Montana State we were testing systems like this. They also have a system that uses ground up walnut shells like a shotgun that blasts the weeds, and another that uses a miniature flamethrower. They're also testing drones that can identify disease and insect infestations in field and apply pesticides at the spot of infestation, without having to treat the whole field.

[BYODB]

I'm fairly sure that California can't pass laws that interfere with Federal enforcement, but that's never really stopped them before.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

their hard-earned pensions.

Shouldn't steal their benies, but lmao about hard earned penisions. They greased the wheels of politicians to get these, the same politicians who are stabbing them in the back. The same politicians who stabbed the taxpayer in the back in order for the police to get these hard earned penisions.

[BYODB]

Yeah, they may want to read the room on pensions. Government may find their arguments persuasive, but working people should laugh them out of the room.

Private sector employees haven't had those for the entire time I've been alive as paying a big part of your labor that literally don't work for you anymore is a losing proposition.

If someone thinks shit is expensive now, wait until places like Amazon have to pay a pension for tens of thousands of retired workers. It doesn't matter how cheap the shit made in China is, it'll be a hell of a lot more expensive when American firms have to cover the living expenses of retired workers directly rather than funneled through the American governments graft machine.

[Stuck in California]

El Cajon?

Those cops are earning their pay. Shit job in a shithole town. Not nearly as bad as it used to be, but that ain't sayin' much.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

The State of California is threatening to take pensions and charge police officers with felonies if they comply with federal deportation laws.

Someone needs to inform Newsom and his fuckwit AG that federal immigration law supersedes their precious sanctuary statutes, especially when it comes to the removal of violent criminals.

Looks like this is going to be the new political activism of Blue Not America--resist the enforcement of actual immigration laws in order to keep the revolution advancing.

National divorce today.

[Dillinger]

>>Israel is potentially days away from a cease-fire agreement with Lebanon's Hezbollah

the two guys left just want to come to America & open a restaurant.

[Dillinger]

>>Sen. Elizabeth Warren ... It would all be hilarious if she didn't have real power.

she wouldn't have real power if the jornolists did their jobs.

[I, Woodchipper]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) has never found a market transaction she doesn't want to investigate or regulate. The latest: .com domain pricing, lmfao. It would all be hilarious if she didn't have real power.

Wasnt she looking into the price of Taylor Swift concert tickets at one point?

Americans are dumb but the people of Massechusets are dumberer

[Eeyore]

If she really cared wouldn't her friend Nancy be in prison for insider trading?

[Ra's al Gore]

Father who pleaded with pediatrician ex-wife not to 'chemically castrate' their son, 9, is dealt crushing blow
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14118499/father-pleaded-ex-wife-chemically-castrate-son-crushing-blow.html

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas ruled that Jeff Younger's ex-wife Anne Georgulas would be granted full custody of his 12-year-old son James and would be able to allow him to transition.

[BYODB]

Well, on the bright side his ex-wife's pediatrician clinic will probably go out of business once people read this. If she doesn't own the clinic, she'll be out on her ass since now she's a huge liability for any system to hire her.

Stupid is as stupid does.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

The really infuriating part about this case is that the boy isn’t even her kid. She basically kidnapped him and used California’s troon rights laws as a shield against extradition by claiming that he’s a girl.

In a decent world, she’d have her head smashed into a pulp by a sledgehammer. But this is the California coast, not a decent world.

[Eeyore]

It's kind of like a return to 17th century China when human traffickers would emasculate (cutting off the penis and testicles) young boys in the hopes of getting a better price.

[Dillinger]

>>This shows the value of X's Community Notes:

if one is to snark one should spell correctly Luckey's name.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Kyle Cheney
@kyledcheney
NEW: Former Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge is fighting a contempt order that could result in fines or even jailtime for refusing to reveal a source.

Today, an appeals court panel seemed unlikely to rescue her.

w/
@joshgerstein

https://politico.com/news/2024/11/18/court-fox-news-reporter-contempt-fight-00190223

Too bad she isn't a random Texas blogger.

[Dillinger]

I would contribute to her commissary account.

[DesigNate]

Fuck that Chen lady. She sounds shady as fuck.

[I, Woodchipper]

“Georgetown Law was giving a pregnant student a hard time about asking for a reasonable accommodation: taking her final exam early given that it conflicted with…her due date. ”

I haven't read it, but if I had to bet, I'm sure this woman isnt black.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Did kamalas 1B campaign break the DNC? Long term employees are being fired.

https://x.com/dncstaffunion/status/1858452951372550236

[Chumby]

Haven’t seen Jeff as much lately. Maybe getting the Pluggo treatment.

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

Might explain the rage Jeffy has had over the past couple of weeks. He’s scared shitless he’ll lose his fifty cent job. Can’t afford cheesy poofs or Ben & Jerry’s by the 55-gallon drum without it.

[Chumby]

Hopefully they give him a Golden Corral parachute.

[Eeyore]

Did they already spend all the money they laundered through Ukraine?

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

Yes, and then some. They’re $20 million in debt.

[Medulla Oblongata]

NYT: “The ‘Landslide’ That Wasn’t,”

All the folks at MSBNC, etc. pumping this article producing so much sour grapes.

E.g. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/one-of-the-smallest-margins-since-the-19th-century-nyt-crushes-trump-s-landslide-claim/ar-AA1uAvio

Ok, so let’s consider. There is some validity to the argument if one limits it to strictly the numbers. Obama got more EC votes. Biden got more mythical popular votes (there is no “popular vote”). After California finishes counting, Trump’s total will be below 50% (i.e., only a plurality and not a majority of votes).

But supporting the “mandate” side of things…

Trump carried all 7 so-called swing states, and flipped 6 of them.

Only a tiny number of districts became more blue (western exurbs of Atlanta being the most apparent), whereas the map of districts that became more red in their Presidential votes is almost solid red.

Trump increased his numbers significantly almost across the board, inc. about 4M more of those mythical popular votes.

Trump was the only Republican other than GW Bush’s 2nd term to win the mythical popular vote since 1988.

Trump’s vote count is the 2nd highest ever recorded for the mythical popular vote (to only Biden’s 81M tally, which is a HUGE statistical outlier).

Republicans held the House, and flipped the Senate.

Trump out-performed polls, mythical popular vote, and EC votes by large enough margins in fortified elections by enough that even election deniers like Nancy Pelosi have largely had to just accept the loss.

I’m not going to say there’s a mandate” to do anything he wants…his results were nowhere near Reagan’s results, for example, but for MSM to bend over backwards to spin this somehow as some sort of “if the ball bounces differently on 1 or two plays, we win” result is just stupid.

You really can’t hate the media enough.

[Chumby]

Their narrative falls under “Scenes from New York.”

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Just look at the number of counties Trump won.

But the left believes shit hole urban centers are the center of the US.

Reagan didn't have to deal with mail in ballots and ballot curing either.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Ok, so let’s consider. There is some validity to the argument if one limits it to strictly the numbers. Obama got more EC votes. Biden got more mythical popular votes (there is no “popular vote”). After California finishes counting, Trump’s total will be below 50% (i.e., only a plurality and not a majority of votes).

And let's get real, the main reason that's happening is California's shameless ballot stuffing.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Leaving aside the (post fraud) numbers there is no question that Trump's victory was an historic event. Fraudulent investigations throughout his first presidency. Open treason on the part of the executive branch and military. Two bullshit impeachment trials. Novel lawfare federal, state and local. 85% negative press coverage. Attempts in multiple states to remove him from the ballot. Two assassination attempts, the details of which have been hidden or memory holed by the ruling regime. I don't trust AI to write history but by any honest assessment this is the political event of the century.

[Dillinger]

>>About 11.5 percent of New York City's hotel inventory have been preemptively allocated for migrants

I hear they never stood a chance.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

By the way. Has anyone noticed the democrats shift to being for the fillibuster? For saying they will work with Trump? Despite their continued attacks on picks?

A false shift to the center after they openly stated they would remove the guard rails.

It is the same behavior you see from Jeff and other leftists now. A false shift to the center.

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

Of course the Dems are for the filibuster now. It’s great when they’re the minority party, but detrimental when they’re the majority party.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Former Ukraine military commander says ww3 has already begun.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/world-war-3-has-officially-begun-ukraines-former-top-military-commander-says

Stupid. He doesn't know about the 3 world wars under Trump.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Keir Starmer under threat of recall.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/viral-petition-demanding-uk-general-election-hits-2-million-signatures-under-week

Similar to what is happening in France.

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

Keir Starmer has a lot of skeletons in his closet.

The man is probably one of, if not the most evil people around today. Watch and listen: https://x.com/lotuseaters_com/status/1860413007194726756?s=46&t=qeA47-JjK6vq0pfnxg60dA

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Starmer's got bigger problems than just being under the threat of recall, considering his party's brazen interference in the US election, their efforts to get Musk indicted under their dumb anti-free speech laws, and UK officials chimping out by threatening to have Americans extradited for "hate speech" and "incitement of riots" by criticizing them for their draconian actions against immigration protesters.

I'm going to be seriously disappointed if Trump doesn't bring Starmer and his sponsor Waheed Alli to DC and reads them the riot act for this shit, assuming Starmer is still in office by then.

[Chumby]

At least he has lasted longer than a head of lettuce:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/20/iceberg-lettuce-in-blonde-wig-outlasts-liz-truss

[BYODB]

It's almost like Brexit never happened.

[DesigNate]

It’s still hilarious to me that the PM of England has a name that sounds like it was lifted out of some alternate reality novel where the Nazi’s won WW2.

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

I guess if the Hugo Boss SS uniform fits…

[soldiermedic76]

Has anyone seen Harry Turtledove lately? He has written a few novels where the fascists took control of Britain.

[Minadin]

'Boris' didn't get you?

[mamabug]

Nah - Boris Johnson sounds like your Minnesota Lutheran uncle who gets completely smashed at family dinners.

[Chumby]

Mein Führer, Starmer.....

[Medulla Oblongata]

Ahh...progressives are just such tolerant people...

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/11/25/the-bullying-of-the-gender-critical-congresswoman-exposes-the-cant-and-misogyny-of-the-woke-elites/

A prominent woman in American public life was openly threatened with death last week. A man posted a sick video on Instagram in which he fantasised about grabbing her by her ‘ratty looking fucking hair’ and repeatedly bashing her face into the floor until ‘the blood’s everywhere and you’re dead’. How did the right-on respond to this vile act of misogynist rage? Did they offer the woman in question their solidarity, damn the man who menaced her, promise to stand firm against the scourge of violence against women? Nope. They went after the woman herself. They called her a bully, a ‘cunt’, ‘hormonal’, a pox on the republic and ‘one of the worst people in the country’. I guess #MeToo’s over then?

The only person being ‘bullied’ here is Mace. There’s that man who said he hopes he encounters Mace in a women’s bathroom one day so that he can use extreme violence to murder her. One of Mace’s members of staff received an anonymous voicemail calling her a ‘dumb, degenerate bitch’ and saying she should commit suicide. Far from standing with Mace against such woman-hating hysteria, the woke commentariat has joined in the demonisation of her. The Daily Show called her a ‘transphobic Cruella de Vil’. TLDR: she’s a witch. The Independent condemned her ‘rage bait’ while others say she has ‘no shame’, is ‘disgusting’ and ‘hateful’, and is straight up ‘one of the worst people in the country’. It seems it’s okay again to fume about ‘nasty women’.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Also:

The Mace hate confirms something many of us already knew: that trans activism is misogyny in drag. It also shines an unforgiving light on the phoney virtue of the correct-think clique, who spent years wearing pussy hats and posing as feminists and yet who now shrug as a woman is threatened with violent death for defending women’s rights. We’re witnessing the rage of an activist class that feels its cultural power waning. Trans is falling out of fashion. The sea of reason is crashing on the shores of their bullshit. And how are they dealing with it? The same way every dogmatic fruitcake in history dealt with such revolts – by burning a witch.

[mad.casual]

that trans activism is misogyny in drag

Again, there’s pretty solid historical fact supporting the notion that this statement is redundant, that drag queens/female impersonation itself has it’s origins in the minstrel shows’ derision of blacks *and women*.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

that trans activism is misogyny in drag.

That isn't much of an exaggeration. Troons legitimately think they're a higher level of women than actual women, because of the dumb marxist belief that they've "liberated" themselves from the oppression of their actual physiology.

These are mostly dudes with an AGP fetish, particularly the troon who was yelling at her at that event, and hulks like Big Al Caraballo that Mace embarrassed in Congress a few months ago, who absolutely despise women. They reveal it every time they "daintily and femininely" start posturing like the men they actually are when trying to browbeat women into going along with their lies.

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

It’s definitely an AGP fetish. Have you noticed that these men cosplaying as women never wear what women really wear, like T-shirts and mom jeans? They always go for the dress, skirt, sexy blouse, and always go for the DD or larger cup size. They’re never A or B cups.

[BYODB]

I'm not sure what an AGP fetish is, and I refuse to find out, but the idea that the trans movement is largely men who hate women (Or have massively distorted views on what womanhood is) seems clear.

Notice that women who pose as men are just about never the center of any controversy. That's curious to me, since I've known a few women who consider themselves men but every single last one of them was in essence a lesbian by another name. All of them were also violent, so they have a pretty distorted view of masculinity as well.

One thing I'll note is they also would get in fights with men then, when they inevitably got their ass whipped so hard they ended up in the hospital, they play the 'but I'm just a woman' card with the cops. Funny, that, if not so absolutely depressing and sad.

At least in my limited experience, every trans person I've known has a twisted idea of the opposite sex that they are looking to act out themselves which is pretty damn unhealthy and pretty miserable. I'm also sure of at least a few of them that childhood abuse was a thing.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

There's a reason this shit should have stayed confined to Tumblr, but it notably broke out when the left used their old reliable child human shields to mainstream it, starting with Coy Mathis and Jazz Jennings.

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

AGP = autogynephile. A man who is turned on by the fantasy of being a “woman”.

[Medulla Oblongata]

"Autogynephilia is defined as a male's propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female. "

[mamabug]

If anyone were allowed to research the psychology of it, I'm sure we'd find very different reasons why a woman might want to be a man than a man be a woman.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Had a friend back in the late 70s who decided he was a woman trapped in a mans body. He took to wearing short skirts and prancing around in ways that I've never seen a woman act. The butch girls I've known were all bull dykes involved in what appeared to be sub/dom type relationships with smaller feminine girls. Each to their own but these are not lifestyles people should be encouraged to aspire to. For the most part these people have lived out their, miserable in my view, lives without creating problems for the rest of us. Good on them. But lately they've crossed several lines with their misogyny and obsession with recruiting children. Live and let live cuts both ways. I'm cool with people pretending to be whatever want. Just leave real women and children alone.

[Chumby]

You knew Hank in the 70s? Wow.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

A man posted a sick video on Instagram in which he fantasised about grabbing her by her ‘ratty looking fucking hair’ and repeatedly bashing her face into the floor until ‘the blood’s everywhere and you’re dead’.

How ladylike!

Consider that the troons who go through the chop have to dilate their frankenvag all the time because it will close up like the axewound it actually is, no matter how much chemtard wants you to repeat the lie that this is a True and Honest Woman.

[BYODB]

It couldn't be more clear that it's a delusion disorder. A man claiming to have knowledge of what it actually means to be a woman is notably not possible, even with a huge EQ score.

What is possible is they have a totally distorted idea of what they think being a woman is like, and they want to cosplay that in public.

Simply noting how many trans-women(?) work in the porn industry should be enough of a clue, one would think, although it's interesting to note that there seems to be an audience for that which is a disturbing fact all on it's own. That is the image a lot of them seem to have of women, that being a sex object and little else.

I don't doubt that this isn't representative of every trans person, but it's a whole lot of them considering how few of them actually exist. The one's who end up in media firestorms are almost certainly that type, since attention seeking seems part and parcel of the disorder for many.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Beyond the misogynist undertones to all of it, it's also a means of gaslighting self-loathing gay men into thinking they're the opposite sex, or pornsick nerds who can't get laid and think if they change to a woman, they'll be able to have sex whenever they want.

And that isn't even getting into the really deviant worlds some of them inhabit, from pedophilia to castration fetishists, or BDSM freaks like the Wachowskis.

[Vernon Depner]

Yes, M to F transgenderism is a genocide against gay boys. It's the most radical form of conversion therapy.

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

Shit, they do that to gay men all the time in Iran, but it never gets brought up anywhere.

[Vernon Depner]

Castrating gay boys is traditional in many cultures.

[Chumby]

Dog Dick, Georgia for instance.

[mad.casual]

"Colleges and universities have tightened rules around protests, locked campus gates and handed down stricter punishments after the disruptions of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments last spring," reports The New York Times. "The efforts seem to be working."

PRIVUT INSTITUSHUNZ! To be sure. Poor F.I.R.E. [sad trombone].

[mad.casual]

I for one support her righteous crusade to improve accommodations for other students who may find themselves in a similar situation in the future (and, honestly, she seems like she's gonna be a damn good lawyer)

I don't often feminist, but when I do, it's because of stuff I couldn't possibly do.

Good on her for not just having the foresight not to know from conception that her baby is an impending part of the future, but for also having the wherewithal to move her exam *earlier* to meet the accommodation.

This used to be what rubber stamps were for.

[Dillinger]

good news is she'll have an assistant to move the trial dates for her after G'Town finals are passed.

[Incunabulum]

> It would all be hilarious if she didn't have real power.

Warren doesn't have any power - hence why she's flailing around trying to find *someone* who is scared of her.

She's accomplished less than Sanders (ie, nothing) in her national political career.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I'll say this for Bernie's jobbing--he's actually managed to yank the party further to the left during his tenure. AOC is either working as a bartender in New York to this day, or some grifter job in a Manhattan NGO, if that wasn't the case.

[shadydave]

"Journalist Mary Katharine Ham recently likened hearing about Trump's Cabinet picks to the experience of an edible hitting. ("For a little while you're OK. And then you're like, 'Ooh, there it is.'")."

The "cool kids" haven't figured out that they're neither "kids" nor "cool" anymore.

[mad.casual]

Hey @FastCompany, it isn't ethical to fabricate quotes by taking two difference sentences from two different parts of an hour-long talk, placing them next to each other, and putting the whole shebang in a quote block that means the opposite of what I actually said.

Sounds like somebody's just a troll who wants to destroy the individual free speech rights of corporate editors and murder all the Good Samaritans who need Congressional protection.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Journalist Mary Katharine Ham recently likened hearing about Trump's Cabinet picks to the experience of an edible hitting.

Dude weed lol

[DesigNate]

“ has recently called for onshoring of key components used in pharmaceutical manufacturing.”

I don’t know what the libertarian solution is, but this seems like a no brainer. Doubly so for anything that is vitally important to the military. SLD about military spending not withstanding.

[soldiermedic76]

Also, not a libertarian take but one that needs to be addressed, is how much vital medical equipment is only produced in one or two factories. There was a nationwide shortage of iv fluids a couple months ago because, almost all IV fluids were produced in a single factory in western North Carolina, which was heavily damaged and off line. That's possibly life threatening shortage. And it lasted quite awhile, in fact my facility is still listing twice daily what IV fluids we have available.

[Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment]

"Blinken questioned over State Department hosting in-house therapy sessions after Trump win"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbKD-wA1l54

Satire is no longer possible.

[I, Woodchipper]

Every single high ranking member of the US State Dept should be arrested and put on trial immediately.

[mad.casual]

To be fair, they could've used an in-house therapy session for anywhere between 12 and 20 of the last 24 yrs.

[Eeyore]

The snowflakes aren't even pretending they aren't snowflakes anymore.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

So after spending 50 million on lawfare Jack Smith files a motion with his main squeeze Chutkan to dismiss all charges. The biggest jury in history has reached a verdict.

[Chumby]

Abolish the witch hunt!

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Headlines you'll never see on Reason.com for 200.00 Alex.

[Chumby]

They’d lose subscriptions in NYC if they had me write their headlines.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug - Jan 6 = 9/11 (same motive)]

Just like OJ. The jury voted for race first.

[Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment]

turd, the ass-clown of the commentariat, lies; it’s all he ever does. turd is a kiddie diddler, and a pathological liar, entirely too stupid to remember which lies he posted even minutes ago, and also too stupid to understand we all know he’s a liar.
If anything he posts isn’t a lie, it’s totally accidental.
turd lies; it’s what he does. turd is a lying pile of lefty shit.

[Chumby]

Trump is Native American?!?!

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

Do you ever tire of lying, Turd?

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug - Jan 6 = 9/11 (same motive)]

I like Bessent at Treasury and the FDA guy. We got two good picks out of Fatass. The rest are all trash - especially the frat boy Neo Nazi for Defense and the evil Nazi Sebastian Gekko. And Tulsi the Russian tool. But we got an upgrade at AG with the chick although she spouts Donnie’s Big Lie.

Bessent has a 3-3-3 goal. 3% GDP growth, 3 million new bps oil, and reduction of the deficit to 3% of GDP.

Chance of success? Zero.

But the plan was simple enough to get Donnie on board.

[Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment]

turd, the TDS-addled ass-clown of the commentariat, lies; it’s all he ever does. turd is a kiddie diddler, and a pathological liar, entirely too stupid to remember which lies he posted even minutes ago, and also too stupid to understand we all know he’s a liar.
If anything he posts isn’t a lie, it’s totally accidental.
turd lies; it’s what he does. turd is a lying pile of lefty shit.

[DesigNate]

Nobody cares what you think, shrike.

[Chumby]

Pluggo is an associate economist at NAMBLA.

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

I’m guessing he’s into deep analysis?

[Dillinger]

analyst/therapist … analrapist.*

*probably David Cross. not mine.

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

I’ll take “The rapists” for $400, Alex.

[Ajsloss]

He’s just looking for a nu start.

[Jefferson Paul]

If only Bushpig2 were also a "never nude." The little boys he victimizes would be so relieved not to see his ugly ass again.

[I, Woodchipper]

Pluggie saying he likes Bessent is a terrible sign. It's like if Jim Cramer were to like him.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Democrats want to abandon single-member House districts in favor of allocation by percent of vote...would allow big cities to dominate statewide representation more than they already do...for "Democracy!"

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/23/2287347/-The-House-is-broken-These-Democrats-have-a-plan-to-fix-it?detail=emaildkreicymi&pm_source=DKRE&pm_medium=email

[Medulla Oblongata]

You'll notice California never offers to select their Electors based on proportional allocation...

[I, Woodchipper]

They always accuse their enemies of the very thing they want to do.

They hate democracy and want to put a stop to it. Those filthy plebes voted for the wrong guy!

[I, Woodchipper]

The backup plan is to just import their own voters

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

These are the same dickheads that complain about the Senate being "anti-democratic" while wrapping themselves in the Constitution.

National divorce today.

[Eeyore]

We need common sense electoral vote control. When they wrote the constitution they never intended one state to have so many votes.

[Eeyore]

Maybe if we rephrase it a bit. If Libertarians get 3% of the popular vote then they should be guaranteed 3% of the seats in the house. This rule should only apply to minor parties. Anything less than 1% should be rounded up to 1%, just to make it interesting.