The Mr. Beast thing is probably bigger than ANY of us realize, because it's difficult to overstate how important he is to Gen Z and below. He's their Johnny Carson and Steve McQueen and everything else all in one. Now he's being exposed as someone who at least winked at really unpleasant behavior, even if he didn't directly engage in it.
Apropos of nothing, it doesn't help the trans cause that so many of them end up implicated in child porn or minor-attracted behavior or whatever we have to call it now. It's like being in 1910 arguing that the Irish don't drink.
wanna have fun? check out the '36 esquire magazine--can't remember the month--with 2 long analytical unemotional articles; one pro-hitler, one anti-hitler.
Your phrasing took me down a nice little nostalgic path. In my first few weeks of college I happened to have a one night stand with a junior girl named Katie. I also had a good friend from my hometown who attended the same college as me, also named Katie. So my friends differentiated the two by referring to them as “Katie that you banged” and “Katie that you didn’t bang.”
Is the girl in question a tall, slender blonde nurse in New Jersey with a small shamrock tattoo on her hip, who chain smoked when she drank and drove a turquoise Dodge Neon? We could’ve been Eskimo bros.
MotoGP in the UK keeps things in an absolute dogfight between Bagnaia and Martin. Also, there's something called the Hamilton straight at Silverstone? Not sure what that's about.
Enea Bastianini, Aleix Espargo, Bagnaia, and Martin set the top qualifying times: a big improvement for Enea who has phenomenal late race pace and consistently suffers from middling qualifiers.
Martin made early moves in the sprint to work his way to the front. Bagnaia crashed at the midway point, followed by M Marquez shortly after, this is dimming Marquez' hopes for a championship on the GP23. It also means Martin and Bagnaia closed to within a handful of points. Bastianini, however, manages to beat out Martin and place 1st for the sprint with a second place for Martin.
Only a handful of points between Martin and Bagnaia with Bastianini posing a late threat if he can maintain consistency in qualifying or if either of the two ahead of him make serious blunders.
In the race our previous DNFers manages to stay upright. Bagnaia looked solid at the beginning but his pace fell off toward the midway point and it looked as if Martin would take the win. Bastiani's tire management came into play, though! He made huge gains every lap for the last few, passed Martin, and put about 2s on him for the victory.
I remember that time I came to Detroit and sat at the head of the table at some sort of all you can meat restaurant. You laughed at all my jokes like a gentleman. Thanks dude.
Walz was able to win reelection in a fairly red district multiple times, that to me is evidence enough that he’s got both moderate tendencies and political instincts (I’m aware that those are sometimes in conflict).
His actions since becoming governor are a bit more mixed but in the whole I approve more than disapprove. He refused to defund any police, he fed school kids, he protected abortion. All of which I favor. Is he perfect? Of course not. Would he be a moderate influence on a Harris administration? I would expect and hope so.
I also think the demographics of the parties have shifted enough since 2004 that a “swift boat” style attack on a guy that served honorably for 24 years is more likely to backfire than earn votes.
I freely admit it's probably just the places and circumstances of my visits that soured my opinion. The trip to do a tactical extraction of my stepdaughter from the convenience store parking lot at midnight where she was blind drunk comes to mind. Semi-conscious sitting in her car with some sketchy looking dudes eyeing her from across the parking lot. Took her straight to rehab. Again.
I haven’t been there but I can tell you it can’t be worse than San Angelo in a 1980’s July heatwave while visiting a rendering plant. It was the only place my company relaxed its dress code down to jeans.
The stank permeated the gravel parking lot which means the stanky dust got on your clothes and then it got in your car and then into your hotel room and then finally permeated your skin and hair.
Nothing like seeing a bloated and overripe half ton steer hanging by its hind leg to whet your appetite. Good times.
My only Amarillo experience was in 2021. I was helping some friends move back to Detroit from Phoenix because they needed someone to drive the 15ft Uhaul (I'm always told "we would've died in the mountains, we had no idea you could use the transmission to slow down!) and tow the Kia Soul. Our first overnight was in Amarillo just off I40. The highway abruptly went from 2 lanes into a single lane lined with K-rails on both sides that were sat directly atop the lane lines making one final challenge for my 13 hour day. I just said "if the semi ahead of us can fit, so can we."
Anyway, we finally got into the hotel around 2 am, and just as I was getting to sleep around 3ish the phone rang. Someone had broken 2 slats out of the wooden fence from behind, cut the latch of the truck, and started rooting for anything worth stealing. Since they cut the truck and not the pad lock, we had to wait for a service guy to take the latch assembly off a truck an hour away, and then bring it to our location and install it on our truck. This delayed our day 2 start to about 2 in the afternoon, and that was a 14 hour day to Springfield, IL.
Needless to say, I have ZERO desire to return to Amarillo!
Yeah people will surely point to other things he’s done that are more radical like giving drivers licenses to illegals or some of the trans sanctuary stuff, but taking everything he’s said and done into account he just seems like a decent Midwestern guy that thinks the way a lot of Midwesterners do.
Whether he’s electorally optimal vs Shapiro, who can say, but I don’t think Tim Walz is going to turn anyone away from the Democratic ticket that wasn’t already voting Trump.
"decent Midwestern guy that thinks the way a lot of Midwesterners do."
Aka Molly Tibbett's parents. Lot of "turn the other cheek" parallels between "decent" midwesterners of Scandinavian/German descent and (West) Germans like that migrant-shielding judge mentioned above.
I am a midwesterner and know zero middle-road midwesterners who don’t have a problem with Trans-ing children. For those on the bubble this sort of thing may push them to vote (R).
I dont think any person who could realistically be on a D ticket in 2024 would hold any different views on the matter. My imperfect understanding is that MN’s law is fairly anodyne.
I think people have already mostly sorted themselves over the trans issue and that very few people both 1) see it as a major issue and 2) are undecided on their vote.
I just saw a clip where he said misinformation or hate speech isn't apart of free speech. Nothing decent about that. How can he uphold the constitution?
The feeding the school kids is a good thing obviously but I just keep thinking about the signs that say "don't feed the wildlife." You all of course know why they don't want the wildlife fed. After a quick google search I see it says this is going to happen at participating schools regardless of family income. Seems like the agenda of the left to get those dependent on the government even more. I am all for helping those that really need it and maybe trying to find the issue with why these family need help and trying to find a way out of this poverty like maybe bringing jobs back from china or something.
My family was upper middle class yet I was hungry most of the time and wasn't allowed to have the crappy free school lunches many kids did .
Since America has BILLION$ of $ to give to already rich people and corporations making record profits, I see no reason -NOT- to give decent meals to any child who wants it .
-Nate
Edited because I wrote this more poorly than I usually do
Nate, I can't explain the childhood hunger but I will try to provide a reason for NOT giving decent meals to any child who needs it.
In my previous example of the wildlife in the park, they are not to be fed because if every person came through the park and gave the animals food after a few short weeks the animals would surely forget about finding their own food and be completely reliant on the food they are receiving from the people. The animals would get lazy and lose skills needed to survive. There are other reasons for not feeding local wildlife as well.
Anyway, it the same situation with people as we are just animals as well. If you give everyone food regardless of whether they absolutely need it they are going to become reliant on it. They will not have motivation to go out and find their own food or work hard to be able to provide for their families.
Again, I am all for providing meals to those truly in need because of course there are always extenuating circumstances but those that can provide for themselves should not be getting free meals. It just breeds reliance on the government which should not be what the government is for.
I completely agree with you about the billions given to rich people and corporations, it ridiculous, but I think that money would be better spent to try to figure out why the poor people that cant provide their kids breakfast or lunch.
A Swift boat attack is probably not warranted, at least based on what is known now. The question is why did he lie about his honorable service? Reenlisting for 6 years, retiring after 4 (just before an Iraq deployment) then claiming to the media when running for governor that he only reenlisted for 4. There could be an explanation for retiring when he did, but he hasn’t given one except lying about the enlistment period.
Will this sink the campaign? Probably not, mostly because the media won’t give it the time of day. But it may affect veteran and families of veterans who are voting, and a few votes here and there may make all the difference.
Given that part of his putative appeal is the "command sergeant major" thing, this is likely to be relevant. And we still have at least one more election in which a lot of Vietnam-era Boomers are gonna vote.
From what I've gleaned from the research done by some stolenvalor-obsessed dude on Twitter, Walz didn't do much "wrong" beyond deciding that at 41 y.o., and as a parent of young children, he'd prefer not to serve overseas in combat and retired early. Much will be made of his final record showing whatever rank is below CSM, as some sort of "he was busted down in rank" bullshit. It's apparently common to earn that promotion, and serve in that capacity, but retire with the pension of the prior rank, because you never completed the prerequisites—Walz need more continuing ed to retire at that rank.
24 years in the National Guard should not get any traction as some sort of "Deserter." Especially facing a ticket headed by a guy who famously dodged the draft.
I don’t think we disagree. A problem will be how much they play up his Army service (goes to Jack’s point) and like I mentioned, why he lied about the reenlistment (4 vs 6 years). If they don’t talk about it then it probably goes away except on the right.
I'm no fan of Walz, and there's plenty of stolen valor to stick to him.
However I don't think the special forces accusation is valid; the hat was given to him as a gift from a unit he was visiting and they took photos of him wearing it.
I have a Cleveland Indians ballcap but that doesn't mean I'm pretending to be in the MLB.
Yeah, it does make him a coward. Hell, I called back up and tried to get back in so I could go to Desert Storm. Guys told me they were flooded with recently separated trying to get back in and go.
It's why you serve.
He quit before he finished CSM training, so he never earned that rank, btw, and no, it doesn't make him 'rational'. It wasn't a shit show, I have friends who did artillery tours and are happy they served. Hell, I have a friend who was Marine Recon and didn't want to leave.
Actually getting orders to deploy and refusing to deploy is a crime in the military UCMJ. Not saying that applies here but it is serious. You sign up and take the job, you do the job. We had one clown miss movement aka not show up for deployment formation and it was bad for him.
24 years in the guard and then retired right before Iraq deployment as the Battalion CSM (Senior enlisted). Not a good look. I’d be curious to know if he had any activations or if he only had the one weekend per month/2 weeks a year that is typical for guard duty.
Nope. He was never a CSM. He was in training for it and never finished the program. He bail the moment he got wind of their being sent to Iraq. The unit HATES him for running away.
JVS, just have to second your emotion here. Non-military peeps will have to take our word for how much influence a Battalion CSM has over troops—especially looking towards a deployment. Not to mention, those slots are few and far between and when a (substandard) political grifter camps out in a billet, it prevents a real soldier from filling it. I spent quality time in Gardez and Balad with lots of Army Guard troops. Some were great and some were an embarrassment to the uniform. This a point-blank disqualifier for me. Next?
While he is certainly no true Scotsman, in the case of politicians his service should be in the neutral or better category if that sort of thing matters to you. I am sure there a plenty of those on the left who consider his service at all the be a detriment.
He could be Chesty Puller reincarnate and I still wouldn't like him as a a candidate because of his policy record.
Hold on, now. Minnesota is the most Dem voting state in the union. The last time they voted for a Republican president was Nixon in 72. It was the one state that kept Reagan from a 50 state sweep in 84. In almost a century, the only Republican presidents they voted in was the aforementioned Nixon, and Ike twice.
It is true that they have the longest streak of voting Dem, but it’s hardly a deep blue safe state. Clinton beat Trump by 1.5% in 16 and Biden won by about 6% in 2020. Democrats had or have a 1 vote advantage in the state senate. Republicans have 4 of the 8 US House seats. It’s not California.
Like many other states, the big MN cities make it go democrat. The outstate people are solidly conservative, redneck, republican, whatever you want to call them.
Yes, democrats have owned it for the presidential races.
Happily paid for my yearly subscription. However, I will continue to demand value for my money. You STILL—lo, these many months(!)—owe us an article on the contractor who should have built your barn but didn’t. Memba, the Samaritan’s Purse supporter? As the world descends into chaos—I’d offer the Apocalympics as Exhibit A—your stories about friends and neighbors in rural Ohio remind me that there are still pockets of “normal” left in America.
Whatever "normal" occurs within California does so absolutely against the wishes and policies of it's political class (Gavin Newsom and Scott Weiner, et al.).
the hate crimes committed agaist whites both here and overseas drive me into a rage like nothing else and what boils my blood even further is that absolutely nothing is done to stop this or even atone for it with the perpetrators allowed to live
"as the finest automotive writer any of you will ever meet or know because all the great ones are dead"
holy shit peter egan died
also tim walz can eat a grenade at his earliest convenience
His humor transcended political boundaries, in my opinion. He was definitely to the right of me but I always chuckled when I read his stuff. Still working my way though one of his books.
Holidays in Hell was pretty good. I’m pretty…ahem…left of center (ducks). I sure did read a lot of him in C&D back when I was too young to get the jokes though.
I was a huge PJ O'Rourke fan and have all of his books through at least the mid-2000s. I even subscribed to Rolling Stone for a few years in the 90s in order to read his articles before he turned them into book form then cancelled once he stopped writing for them. Over the years I've used a lot of his lines and occasionally even gave him credit for them.
This weekend I was in NC with a " free upgrade" tacoma rental car. A terrible vehicle to drive especially since I was expecting to be cruising in a malibu. Anyway, I'm driving down the road and my wife points out somewhere I need to stop so I pull off the road to do a u turn and after waiting for a vehicle to go by I realized I was stuck. I put in in 4wd and still stuck. Had to straighten the wheel and shimmy it around to finally get it out. It was hardly any sand too.
im using hate crime as their word and like you said its a bunk term but acquiescing to them is my mistake
theyre racially motivated as anyone can see but not persecuted in the same way or at all compared to crimes against non whites and im not even sure well get anything out of the eventual bloodshed
Just restrict what you click on to only 1 or maybe 2 trusted sources, and by sources, I mean individuals and not regular media. And then NEVER click on a story, only read the headline. Also clear out your cookies and cache so previously visited sites don’t come up. My suggestion would be to go cold-turkey. There’s a big, beautiful world out there to find when you’re not clicking on useless and counterproductive news stories, 99% of which probably will never impact you personally. Only go online for your amusement, nothing more. You can get all the news you need from the Babylon Bee, and that’s a parody site whose slogan is “Fake News You Can Trust”.
I hardly look at any news online, but sadly, it appears I’m still up to date, but it only cost me a few minutes of my time. Although I didn’t know about the hurricane until one of my neighbors asked me if I was ready. It is fantastic when you tell people “I have no idea what you’re talking about”.
Manipulative all. The worst of the lot is Matt Vespa, who LOVES titling his articles with dreck like, "Oh, So THAT'S Why X Happened" or "Can You Believe The Media Said THIS About Trump?"
I get it, but that’s mainstream media. I only follow a couple people I trust who don’t do click bait. In that case the headline does tell the story. Plus it’s easy to discern lies these days.
I did finally pull the trigger on cancelling my Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger Medium subscriptions, and unsubscribing to their emails. I decided I’ll get most of my news from the WSJ online subscription and, ugh, “X”.
X is about the only place I get my news. It's a shame about how you feel about Taibbi, but the problem is that he's the type of journo that puts significant time and effort into one or two things, which means readers are required to go elsewhere for other news. I decipher the left and right myself.
I have all the respect in the world for Taibbi and his reporting. I just got tired of reading about how terrible the government is to us every day. I know, and I don’t want to be continuously reminded of it.
I hate politics, and I HATE the people who made everything in America political.
I just want to go to work, draw, build models, hot rod my cars and write. I don't want to have to pay attention to who the IRS Commissioner is or what the Agriculture Department is up to in Idaho.
You may not pay attention to who the IRS Commissioner is , but he pays attention to who you are if you make a mistake on your April 15 rectal exam intake form
But of course the IRS Commissioner pays attention to who we are - he has the government bureaucracy behind him. What do we have? We can't even vote the bastard out.
Artists and creatives don’t owe us anything. They have shared their craft already. If they want to recede into background, that’s their prerogative. If they want to party like it’s 1999 and flame out early, that’s a shame, but they do have the freedom to do that. I wonder why that writer doesn’t get that.
Krist Novoselic, Nirvana’s bassist, had kids, moved to an organic farm in Washington State, and apparently spends his time farming, flying planes, and dabbling in libertarian politics. Could’ve partied his way into the ground or stayed in music; just didn’t. Respectable choice, neither going the way of Dave Grohl or JD Salinger, and the one I hope I’d make if I were in his shoes (though, I hate to say it, I probably would’ve had a bit too much fun with the grunge chicks and ultimately ended up wrapping a 935 Turbo into a Seattle-area tree).
In April, 1945, J.D. Salinger helped liberate a sub-camp of the Dachau concentration camp. He later was hospitalized for what we would call PTSD. He much later told his daughter, "You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live."
Thanks to everyone who upvoted this post. I am (to say the least) an older chap.
When I was growing up, I knew four concentration-camp survivors, one of whom, as a girl, had been "experimented on" by Josef Mengele. That woman survived, but her twin sister died in the camp.
My violin teacher at Brown University twice escaped from the Nazis on his way to being executed. He was sheltered for 18 months by a Righteous Gentile Ukrainian peasant farm family. Those parents risked their children's lives to help a Jewish stranger. What uncountable Treasure in Heaven!!!
So, nobody speaks ill of Ukrainians in my presence.
1. The two tier system of justice is already making inroads into the US. As I've said before, violent crime in the United States is primarily the result of an epidemic of severe under-incarceration where violent criminals face no significant sanction for the violent crimes they commit. You can look at the numbers from the Bureau of Justice Statistics here from 2018 to see one of their most recent publications on the matter, and then factor in that the situation is significantly worse post 2020 as is just about every metric involving violent crime:
Keep in mind that even BJS's numbers will not tell you the full story as it has no way of accounting for how many criminal cases are resolved via plea deal (on the order of 90%) where crimes of violence are negotiated downwards from initial charges to get a guilty plea. It saves time and prosecution costs and results in lesser sentences that the convicted won't fully serve anyway. Everybody wins...except for the victims of the crime the conviction was on and the future victims that will be generated by the convicted who is turned loose where they will most certainly do it again.
If the accused is a life-long criminal, odds are that the system will proceed with incredible leniency given the nature of the accused's act. Examples are legion, but this is one of the more egregious ones you will find where the judge literally cries for a man who tried to commit multiple murders to advance himself in a criminal gang:
This will contrast to people...often who don't have significant criminal backgrounds...who get caught in some sort of criminal act where prosecutors or politicians want to "set an example" or something similar and who have the full prosecutorial resources of the government marshalled against them.
This has always been true to an extent...but what we are seeing is an increasingly weaponized and political system where the criminal justice system is being used in concert with The Preferred Narrative. The examples of British citizens who have done nothing more than say unapproved things on social media facing stiffer penalties than a migrant who actually raped a 12 year old girl tells the tale.
Actual justice should be the focus of the justice system. The only reason it has legitimacy despite its many flaws is because, like Tinkerbelle, enough people clap to keep it alive. These kinds of obvious public miscarriages of justice will only result in an end to the clapping. And then we're right back on my aforementioned warnings about fighting over who is in charge of the guest list for the camps because that's the EXACT message being communicated by actions like Madam Goring.
....and OF COURSE she's a Goring. Like Whoopie Goldberg she just argued it's not "rape, rape" when someone who is favored does it. (Goldberg said that exact thing about Polanski)
This is a remarkably similar attitude that was found in the investigation of the Rotherham rape gangs scandal, where the authorities charged with keeping the peace and seeing to justice knew full well what was going on and blamed the underage girls for being harlots. Note that no one in the government involved in that two decade plus scandal ever faced any sanction for their actions and there's considerable evidence the exact same thing is going on today and in a lot more parts of the UK without any useful action from the government for the exact same reasons.
2. Walz is a horrible pick...but the thing about Our Betters is that they are often wrong, but never in doubt. The disconnect between their actions and the outcome is always attributable to some boogeyman that intervened, not their lack of knowledge or ability. So being thoroughly disconnected from reality her pick isn't a surprise. I would have preferred she pick Shapiro so that PA's corrupt actions in persecuting small farmers, jailing farm workers without cause or criminal conviction, and trying to jail people for the unimaginable crime of *recording their own divorce proceeding* and then noting that the official record was altered to the detriment of their case, thus pointing out corruption in the courtroom.
But, alas, Kamala instead picked a dumber and more malicious version of Bernie Sanders who speaks with a very thinly veiled and easily perceived intention to punch you in the face if you don't acquiesce to his bullshit.
I don't believe she will find that helps her win over the groups Biden was in trouble with, not that VP's contribute a great deal to candidate appeal anyway. I predict this duo...that nobody voted for, mind you...will end up doing a little bit better with the professional managerial class types that is now the core of the DNC's political power. But the duo will do worse with working class people of all stripes simply because whatever remains of Joe Biden still had some blue collar appeal among zombified union types in places like Pennsylvania where I've literally heard with my own two ears that type of zombie sitting at a bar holler out "DEMOCRATS UR FURR DUR WORKIN' MAN!!!"
Kamala has no such pull in those parts of PA or the industrial north or midwest that Biden had. The base will be more enthusiastic because even though she's catastrophically stupid, she's at least not the brain-dead mess Biden was. Except those base folks won't be able to deliver the goods in the electoral college save maybe for Virginia and there only because Virginia is right next to the empirical capital and so many revolting specimens of the empire have settled in its northern parts.
I think the democrats have gone from the proverbial frying pan into the fire, but that the magnitude of their mistake won't be visible until too close to game day to do anything else about it.
"The defendants noticed the co-plaintiff's impaired condition and then exploited this in various group constellations for sexual intercourse without having ensured consent." Is there anyone alive who would hear that and say "Oh, what a relief - I thought we were talking about RAPE here." I am absolutely done trying to dialogue with these people.
Hey, speaking of things "left" - guess how I helped my son overcome his fear of left turns on a motorcycle? I took a couple of days off last week and we rode OH Rt 555 (aka the Triple Nickel, aka Ohio's Tail of the Dragon). What a road. So much fun. Also got a beer and some pulled pork at Boathouse BBQ in Marietta. Not only do they have great BBQ and an Ohio River view, they have a stray kitten who works the crowd on the patio for handouts. Recommended.
Triple Nickel is one of my favorite roads. I haven’t gotten the Boxster on it more than once or twice (as a consequence of living 2.5 hours away from it now), but in high school, living 15 minutes from it was the greatest temptation. The Golf and Miata have certainly been wrung out on it to no end.
Boathouse is also awesome; if the weather is chill today, I might even go (happen to be in town for once). It’s a bummer they stopped serving the brisket burritos, tacos, quesadillas a while back. Loved that stuff; even had them cater my HS Graduation party with them.
"There is a perception now of two-tier policing. "
A 75 year old grandmother was sentenced to two years in federal prison for violating the FACE Act by obstructing access to an abortion clinic. To get that law passed, sponsors had to included a provision regarding places of worship. A few weeks ago, there was a pro-Hamas rally in Los Angeles, where protesters blocked people from accessing a synagogue. Edit: I'll simply note that the Department of Justice has taken no action against those protesters.
What concerns more than the fact that there is a two (or more) tiered justice system is the appearance that those implementing that system don't seem to care that it's obvious.
" I was a loyal Soviet citizen until the age of 20. What it meant to be a loyal citizen is to say what you are supposed to say, to read what you are permitted to read, to vote the way you are told to vote and, at the same time, to know that all this is a lie. " - Natan Sharansky.
It's not a flaw in their strategy, it's a flex. The people pushing this malevolence are openly doing so as a flex of their power, all the while smirking and saying "What are you going to do about it?"
The bet is that you're too good of a person to do what they willingly and eagerly are doing to you.
If pushed far enough, that's a bet that they will lose. Hence my desperate warnings that will go unheeded.
I wish you were correct, but I'm not certain they will lose. If the dictators/communists learned anything, it is to *always* play the long game. As part of that game, they attack the system "bottom-up." So, you go after the families and the religious groups / organizations. Once you undermine that, everything else just falls apart.
They won't lose no matter how far they push, because they will take their time pushing. Current generation of kids won't complain. In 40 years, absolutely no one will complain.
In regards to Shapiro, he has A LOT of baggage that wouldn't have been great to bring to the table. The Zionist stuff (he pretended to be in the IDF, after all) won't play very well when Israel ain't exactly the most popular kid in school at the moment.
Way more importantly than even that, though, and missing from your piece: do look up the Ellen Greenberg case and ask yourself how well that would play on a national stage. It's... Not Great, to say the least.
As for Walz, I like him. I don't know many Minnesotans, but those I do know praise him. He seems to be very popular. He absolutely has a folksy charm to him that has been missing on a presidential ticket for about ever. I would argue that he is a good speaker, at least from the ckips I've seen. His life is relatively free of (known to us currently) skeletons. I'm not well-versed enough to know the ins-and-outs of his policies, but from what I've gleaned they seem just fine to me.
Beshear or Kelly were my favorite choices, however Walz will play just fine as people get to know him I think. This is in stark contrast to JD Vance, on the other hand, who appears to be an anchor on the Trump campaign that can do nothing other than make people hate him as quickly as possible.
As someone who lost a lot of my family to socialists, both national and international, he lost me when he said this: "Don't ever shy away from our progressive values. One person's socialism is another person's neighborliness,". No Tim, being sent to the gulag or the concentration camps is not neighbourly.
If I may, though, I would wager he meant that comment more as a nod to the Fox News Brain crowd who hears “all kids can eat for free” as “Literally Stalin.” Like some social policies are good, but that does not necessarily make one a socialist? Could be projecting here too. Just feels like that’s much more likely than he wanting to kill millions…
I don't think Walz is all that popular, really. He's a Twin Cities liberal who ran against an opponent who was dramatically outspent in the effort, with major support showing up really late by my recollection. Walz's margin of victory shrank in 2022 most likely due to his COVID extremism, which is not going to play very well especially as people have learned in the interim how much they've been lied to on issues he was an absolute screaming lunatic on. (Masks, lockdowns, etc)
BUT YOU CAN NOW PUBLISH CONTENT AT ANY TIME!
It's such a bad platform. I don't know what it says about America that it literally has zero competition.
Have you looked into Patreon or Ghost at all?
Comment system on those makes this comment system look like a finely tuned precision machine.
Well that is certainly nauseating to think about
The Mr. Beast thing is probably bigger than ANY of us realize, because it's difficult to overstate how important he is to Gen Z and below. He's their Johnny Carson and Steve McQueen and everything else all in one. Now he's being exposed as someone who at least winked at really unpleasant behavior, even if he didn't directly engage in it.
Apropos of nothing, it doesn't help the trans cause that so many of them end up implicated in child porn or minor-attracted behavior or whatever we have to call it now. It's like being in 1910 arguing that the Irish don't drink.
That thing stinks to high heaven. It may turn out to be youtube's Jimmy Saville.
“I have both types of readers”
"country and western"
I still need to do more in that regard.
wanna have fun? check out the '36 esquire magazine--can't remember the month--with 2 long analytical unemotional articles; one pro-hitler, one anti-hitler.
Ah, for the days when adults could discuss facts and ideas. Might as well wish for the return of King Arthur.
Your phrasing took me down a nice little nostalgic path. In my first few weeks of college I happened to have a one night stand with a junior girl named Katie. I also had a good friend from my hometown who attended the same college as me, also named Katie. So my friends differentiated the two by referring to them as “Katie that you banged” and “Katie that you didn’t bang.”
You're of an age with this fellow, I think; would be really funny if the banged Katie was his BESTEST FRAND.
Is the girl in question a tall, slender blonde nurse in New Jersey with a small shamrock tattoo on her hip, who chain smoked when she drank and drove a turquoise Dodge Neon? We could’ve been Eskimo bros.
Maybe David will come on here and let us know?
(he won't)
Found her on FB. The years have been kind. Four kids though, yikes. I will not be friend requesting her.
MotoGP in the UK keeps things in an absolute dogfight between Bagnaia and Martin. Also, there's something called the Hamilton straight at Silverstone? Not sure what that's about.
Enea Bastianini, Aleix Espargo, Bagnaia, and Martin set the top qualifying times: a big improvement for Enea who has phenomenal late race pace and consistently suffers from middling qualifiers.
Martin made early moves in the sprint to work his way to the front. Bagnaia crashed at the midway point, followed by M Marquez shortly after, this is dimming Marquez' hopes for a championship on the GP23. It also means Martin and Bagnaia closed to within a handful of points. Bastianini, however, manages to beat out Martin and place 1st for the sprint with a second place for Martin.
Only a handful of points between Martin and Bagnaia with Bastianini posing a late threat if he can maintain consistency in qualifying or if either of the two ahead of him make serious blunders.
In the race our previous DNFers manages to stay upright. Bagnaia looked solid at the beginning but his pace fell off toward the midway point and it looked as if Martin would take the win. Bastiani's tire management came into play, though! He made huge gains every lap for the last few, passed Martin, and put about 2s on him for the victory.
"Also, there's something called the Hamilton straight at Silverstone? Not sure what that's about."
No doubt an acknowledgement of the fact that having the best engine was how Lewis won 5 of the 7 championships!
they should be calling it the hamilton gay
I don’t even recognise that place. It’s not Silverstone. Silverstone you never dropped below third gear, even for the Woodcote chicane.
Every championship he won was because he had the best car, I dunno what this comment adds.
I've kind of gotten used to it since we used to get BBC broadcasts in India when I was growing up before Star Sports started covering it...
The F1TV commentators at least don't have their tongues ALL the way up the British driver's bungholes. Sky is comparatively intolerable.
Every f1 champ in history has been in the best car. You can’t win the championship without an all around killer package.
I remember that time I came to Detroit and sat at the head of the table at some sort of all you can meat restaurant. You laughed at all my jokes like a gentleman. Thanks dude.
Well sir, YOU were the star of that show, I was just visiting! Let's do it again.
Say when.
We are due for another FP....
maybe one closer to the east coast this time? I know, I know, filthy coastal elite, etc
"all you can meat restaurant"
this is a wonderful description
I am pretty sure I drank $100 worth of cab on the Baruth tab while he sipped tap water.
Entirely possible, I'm in a sober phase right now!
if youre talking about the acf meet last may at that steakhouse then i wish i had gone
i mean i would have had water but still
Because you're a fellow teetotaler, or because you don't want to be a financial burden at a party?
Fantastic food!
Gaucho Steakhouse?
Fogo de Chao. Was a great evening!
My sister got married that weekend. I was disappointed when I realized that I couldn’t make FP.
I’ll be 5 min away from there all next weekend for the Woodward Dream Cruise.
Walz was able to win reelection in a fairly red district multiple times, that to me is evidence enough that he’s got both moderate tendencies and political instincts (I’m aware that those are sometimes in conflict).
His actions since becoming governor are a bit more mixed but in the whole I approve more than disapprove. He refused to defund any police, he fed school kids, he protected abortion. All of which I favor. Is he perfect? Of course not. Would he be a moderate influence on a Harris administration? I would expect and hope so.
I also think the demographics of the parties have shifted enough since 2004 that a “swift boat” style attack on a guy that served honorably for 24 years is more likely to backfire than earn votes.
Yep. And Clinton with the saxophone.
It is ultimately just a very high-stakes popularity contest, after all.
The fact that he now paints pictures of immigrants is the most astounding thing to me; would be like de Gaulle painting pictures of Panzers in Paris.
Condolences on your trip to Waco. Probably my least favorite place in Texas. The Dr. Pepper museum is fun though.
Imagine being a dictionary writer these days:
"leather show" (n, US-TX) --
"leather show" (n, US-CA) --
I freely admit it's probably just the places and circumstances of my visits that soured my opinion. The trip to do a tactical extraction of my stepdaughter from the convenience store parking lot at midnight where she was blind drunk comes to mind. Semi-conscious sitting in her car with some sketchy looking dudes eyeing her from across the parking lot. Took her straight to rehab. Again.
You, my friend, have obviously never been to Amarillo.
I was there by morning!
I haven’t been there but I can tell you it can’t be worse than San Angelo in a 1980’s July heatwave while visiting a rendering plant. It was the only place my company relaxed its dress code down to jeans.
The stank permeated the gravel parking lot which means the stanky dust got on your clothes and then it got in your car and then into your hotel room and then finally permeated your skin and hair.
Nothing like seeing a bloated and overripe half ton steer hanging by its hind leg to whet your appetite. Good times.
My only Amarillo experience was in 2021. I was helping some friends move back to Detroit from Phoenix because they needed someone to drive the 15ft Uhaul (I'm always told "we would've died in the mountains, we had no idea you could use the transmission to slow down!) and tow the Kia Soul. Our first overnight was in Amarillo just off I40. The highway abruptly went from 2 lanes into a single lane lined with K-rails on both sides that were sat directly atop the lane lines making one final challenge for my 13 hour day. I just said "if the semi ahead of us can fit, so can we."
Anyway, we finally got into the hotel around 2 am, and just as I was getting to sleep around 3ish the phone rang. Someone had broken 2 slats out of the wooden fence from behind, cut the latch of the truck, and started rooting for anything worth stealing. Since they cut the truck and not the pad lock, we had to wait for a service guy to take the latch assembly off a truck an hour away, and then bring it to our location and install it on our truck. This delayed our day 2 start to about 2 in the afternoon, and that was a 14 hour day to Springfield, IL.
Needless to say, I have ZERO desire to return to Amarillo!
Clearly you’ve never been to Odessa.
You are correct.
I’ve been as far as Midland, and that was far enough.
"He refused to defund any police, he fed school kids, he protected abortion. All of which I favor."
Precisely the feedback for which I'm looking. I suspect a fair number of people will feel the same way.
Yeah people will surely point to other things he’s done that are more radical like giving drivers licenses to illegals or some of the trans sanctuary stuff, but taking everything he’s said and done into account he just seems like a decent Midwestern guy that thinks the way a lot of Midwesterners do.
Whether he’s electorally optimal vs Shapiro, who can say, but I don’t think Tim Walz is going to turn anyone away from the Democratic ticket that wasn’t already voting Trump.
"decent Midwestern guy that thinks the way a lot of Midwesterners do."
Aka Molly Tibbett's parents. Lot of "turn the other cheek" parallels between "decent" midwesterners of Scandinavian/German descent and (West) Germans like that migrant-shielding judge mentioned above.
Disgusting.
I am a midwesterner and know zero middle-road midwesterners who don’t have a problem with Trans-ing children. For those on the bubble this sort of thing may push them to vote (R).
I dont think any person who could realistically be on a D ticket in 2024 would hold any different views on the matter. My imperfect understanding is that MN’s law is fairly anodyne.
I think people have already mostly sorted themselves over the trans issue and that very few people both 1) see it as a major issue and 2) are undecided on their vote.
Pardon my asking Scott but ;
How is a pre teen child supposed to decide this ? they're not fully developed mentally, too young (IMO) to be making life changing decisions .
I know a few parents who IMO pushed their little children into this .
-Nate
I just saw a clip where he said misinformation or hate speech isn't apart of free speech. Nothing decent about that. How can he uphold the constitution?
He can't, and has no intention of doing so.
I saw that today and find it concerning. Hopefully he corrects himself or retracts the statement.
What about letting Minneapolis burn? Encouraging BLM, etc.?
Idk, at least one prominent Republican observer was quoted at the time as saying he did a pretty good job.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/07/trump-praised-walz-2020-george-floyd-protests-00173152
The feeding the school kids is a good thing obviously but I just keep thinking about the signs that say "don't feed the wildlife." You all of course know why they don't want the wildlife fed. After a quick google search I see it says this is going to happen at participating schools regardless of family income. Seems like the agenda of the left to get those dependent on the government even more. I am all for helping those that really need it and maybe trying to find the issue with why these family need help and trying to find a way out of this poverty like maybe bringing jobs back from china or something.
Well Brian ;
My family was upper middle class yet I was hungry most of the time and wasn't allowed to have the crappy free school lunches many kids did .
Since America has BILLION$ of $ to give to already rich people and corporations making record profits, I see no reason -NOT- to give decent meals to any child who wants it .
-Nate
Edited because I wrote this more poorly than I usually do
Nate, I can't explain the childhood hunger but I will try to provide a reason for NOT giving decent meals to any child who needs it.
In my previous example of the wildlife in the park, they are not to be fed because if every person came through the park and gave the animals food after a few short weeks the animals would surely forget about finding their own food and be completely reliant on the food they are receiving from the people. The animals would get lazy and lose skills needed to survive. There are other reasons for not feeding local wildlife as well.
Anyway, it the same situation with people as we are just animals as well. If you give everyone food regardless of whether they absolutely need it they are going to become reliant on it. They will not have motivation to go out and find their own food or work hard to be able to provide for their families.
Again, I am all for providing meals to those truly in need because of course there are always extenuating circumstances but those that can provide for themselves should not be getting free meals. It just breeds reliance on the government which should not be what the government is for.
I completely agree with you about the billions given to rich people and corporations, it ridiculous, but I think that money would be better spent to try to figure out why the poor people that cant provide their kids breakfast or lunch.
A Swift boat attack is probably not warranted, at least based on what is known now. The question is why did he lie about his honorable service? Reenlisting for 6 years, retiring after 4 (just before an Iraq deployment) then claiming to the media when running for governor that he only reenlisted for 4. There could be an explanation for retiring when he did, but he hasn’t given one except lying about the enlistment period.
Will this sink the campaign? Probably not, mostly because the media won’t give it the time of day. But it may affect veteran and families of veterans who are voting, and a few votes here and there may make all the difference.
Given that part of his putative appeal is the "command sergeant major" thing, this is likely to be relevant. And we still have at least one more election in which a lot of Vietnam-era Boomers are gonna vote.
I thought he didn't complete the schooling? Didn't he quit either during or after that?
They're saying he made it to CSM, although I can't see where or when.
From what I've gleaned from the research done by some stolenvalor-obsessed dude on Twitter, Walz didn't do much "wrong" beyond deciding that at 41 y.o., and as a parent of young children, he'd prefer not to serve overseas in combat and retired early. Much will be made of his final record showing whatever rank is below CSM, as some sort of "he was busted down in rank" bullshit. It's apparently common to earn that promotion, and serve in that capacity, but retire with the pension of the prior rank, because you never completed the prerequisites—Walz need more continuing ed to retire at that rank.
24 years in the National Guard should not get any traction as some sort of "Deserter." Especially facing a ticket headed by a guy who famously dodged the draft.
I don’t think we disagree. A problem will be how much they play up his Army service (goes to Jack’s point) and like I mentioned, why he lied about the reenlistment (4 vs 6 years). If they don’t talk about it then it probably goes away except on the right.
I don't mind that as much as it appears he's exaggerated his service.
who gives a poop about economic policy, right? jeepers!
Not the people who don't care that he's boasted about carrying a specific type of weapon into a war that he never attended.
Well, lol, if we are talking policy I’ve got problems with both sides but could never vote (D)
True, but as the VP he is facing Vance, who DID go to Iraq and has been scrumptious about not claiming a combat record.
For Trump and Kamala, all we can say is that they're clearly both "veterans" of some kinky stuff, between Marla Maples and Montell Williams.
He's Pretended to have been Special Forces and he's claimed to have been in combat. Many times.
Those two are what have triggered the 'stolen valor' folks.
According to those who served with and under him, he was a complete Blue Falcon.
I'm no fan of Walz, and there's plenty of stolen valor to stick to him.
However I don't think the special forces accusation is valid; the hat was given to him as a gift from a unit he was visiting and they took photos of him wearing it.
I have a Cleveland Indians ballcap but that doesn't mean I'm pretending to be in the MLB.
He's a coward. He didn't want to go to war. He was just there for the extra money and playing soldier.
Yeah, it does make him a coward. Hell, I called back up and tried to get back in so I could go to Desert Storm. Guys told me they were flooded with recently separated trying to get back in and go.
It's why you serve.
He quit before he finished CSM training, so he never earned that rank, btw, and no, it doesn't make him 'rational'. It wasn't a shit show, I have friends who did artillery tours and are happy they served. Hell, I have a friend who was Marine Recon and didn't want to leave.
So yeah, he was a coward.
if hes not a coward then what is he
when the going got tough he got out
Actually getting orders to deploy and refusing to deploy is a crime in the military UCMJ. Not saying that applies here but it is serious. You sign up and take the job, you do the job. We had one clown miss movement aka not show up for deployment formation and it was bad for him.
24 years in the guard and then retired right before Iraq deployment as the Battalion CSM (Senior enlisted). Not a good look. I’d be curious to know if he had any activations or if he only had the one weekend per month/2 weeks a year that is typical for guard duty.
Nope. He was never a CSM. He was in training for it and never finished the program. He bail the moment he got wind of their being sent to Iraq. The unit HATES him for running away.
JVS, just have to second your emotion here. Non-military peeps will have to take our word for how much influence a Battalion CSM has over troops—especially looking towards a deployment. Not to mention, those slots are few and far between and when a (substandard) political grifter camps out in a billet, it prevents a real soldier from filling it. I spent quality time in Gardez and Balad with lots of Army Guard troops. Some were great and some were an embarrassment to the uniform. This a point-blank disqualifier for me. Next?
This alone is enough for me not to like him....along with executive actions on the trans kid situation or letting his state burn......
Yeah, those two items are hard no’s for me also.
While he is certainly no true Scotsman, in the case of politicians his service should be in the neutral or better category if that sort of thing matters to you. I am sure there a plenty of those on the left who consider his service at all the be a detriment.
He could be Chesty Puller reincarnate and I still wouldn't like him as a a candidate because of his policy record.
Hold on, now. Minnesota is the most Dem voting state in the union. The last time they voted for a Republican president was Nixon in 72. It was the one state that kept Reagan from a 50 state sweep in 84. In almost a century, the only Republican presidents they voted in was the aforementioned Nixon, and Ike twice.
It is true that they have the longest streak of voting Dem, but it’s hardly a deep blue safe state. Clinton beat Trump by 1.5% in 16 and Biden won by about 6% in 2020. Democrats had or have a 1 vote advantage in the state senate. Republicans have 4 of the 8 US House seats. It’s not California.
Like many other states, the big MN cities make it go democrat. The outstate people are solidly conservative, redneck, republican, whatever you want to call them.
Yes, democrats have owned it for the presidential races.
I always have called it “Berkeley of the Frozen Tundra,” but as @jack4x notes, that might be a little harsh.
His Covid policies were pretty bad, even for team D:
https://reason.com/2024/08/06/tim-walz-was-a-covid-19-tyrant/
Happily paid for my yearly subscription. However, I will continue to demand value for my money. You STILL—lo, these many months(!)—owe us an article on the contractor who should have built your barn but didn’t. Memba, the Samaritan’s Purse supporter? As the world descends into chaos—I’d offer the Apocalympics as Exhibit A—your stories about friends and neighbors in rural Ohio remind me that there are still pockets of “normal” left in America.
Ah yes! I'll put that on the list. He's a good fellow.
too bad the normies run nothing and have no resources
No kidding! 🙄
Are you quite sure of that SML ? .
I live in California, land of the weird so I don't know if my views in this count of not but I see plenty of 'normal' going on .
-Nate
Whatever "normal" occurs within California does so absolutely against the wishes and policies of it's political class (Gavin Newsom and Scott Weiner, et al.).
That's incorrect ~ just a handy knee jerk reaction .
-Nate
Excellent point!
More Eeyore, please!
I got an interesting email from Eeyore last month...
the hate crimes committed agaist whites both here and overseas drive me into a rage like nothing else and what boils my blood even further is that absolutely nothing is done to stop this or even atone for it with the perpetrators allowed to live
"as the finest automotive writer any of you will ever meet or know because all the great ones are dead"
holy shit peter egan died
also tim walz can eat a grenade at his earliest convenience
Had to look up PJ O’Rourke. 2022. I really don’t read enough to know if I’m supposed to like him or not in this crowd but he made me laugh a lot.
His humor transcended political boundaries, in my opinion. He was definitely to the right of me but I always chuckled when I read his stuff. Still working my way though one of his books.
Holidays in Hell was pretty good. I’m pretty…ahem…left of center (ducks). I sure did read a lot of him in C&D back when I was too young to get the jokes though.
Calling Congress a “Parliament of Whores”, per the title of his book, needs to be a commonplace reference in the American lexicon.
I came of age later. I read his stuff in Automobile in the DED Jr era. Sampled the C&D stuff later.
I was a huge PJ O'Rourke fan and have all of his books through at least the mid-2000s. I even subscribed to Rolling Stone for a few years in the 90s in order to read his articles before he turned them into book form then cancelled once he stopped writing for them. Over the years I've used a lot of his lines and occasionally even gave him credit for them.
He once wrote that the best-handling vehicle wasn't an RWD car, or a FWD car or even an AWD car.
It was a RENTED car.
Rental cars are known to be the best off-road vehicles as well
seconded
This weekend I was in NC with a " free upgrade" tacoma rental car. A terrible vehicle to drive especially since I was expecting to be cruising in a malibu. Anyway, I'm driving down the road and my wife points out somewhere I need to stop so I pull off the road to do a u turn and after waiting for a vehicle to go by I realized I was stuck. I put in in 4wd and still stuck. Had to straighten the wheel and shimmy it around to finally get it out. It was hardly any sand too.
Also Satch Carlson .
-Nate
“also tim walz can eat a grenade at his earliest convenience“
Honest question: why do you want him to die?
I suspect his reasons can be found here: https://jeffreycarter.substack.com/p/the-pick-is-in
just saw that now but thats a lot of good reasons
thanks bud
i dont necessarily want him to die but if he did it wouldnt bother me
like cjinsd posted below there are quite a few things i vehemently disagree with him on
There's no such thing as "hate crimes," because the very concept lets the State decide which ideas are acceptable and which aren't.
Besides, as opposed to "love crimes?" Which frankly sound like things homosexuals do to each other behind closed doors.
im using hate crime as their word and like you said its a bunk term but acquiescing to them is my mistake
theyre racially motivated as anyone can see but not persecuted in the same way or at all compared to crimes against non whites and im not even sure well get anything out of the eventual bloodshed
Crimes that are not prosecuted nearly as often or as severely as crimes against other races.
What does that sound a lot like?
Congress?
Yeah, has anybody checked on Sam Smith?
if someone cut the brake lines in his 2002 im gonna lose my mind
Sam, like Egan, is a humorist masquerading as an autowriter!
(and very well)
He’s probably reveling in his book sales!
Jessie Ventura to Tim Walz in one generation? WTF!
ya lost me there
I'd include Patrick Bedard as one of the automotive writers who was always worth reading. I hope he is still with us.
He is, and he knocked out a couple articles for me at my absolutely bended-knee request, but he has zero interest in the business now.
He’s retired and lives in Sedona, AZ. Sold an old T-Bird on BaT some time ago.
Sometimes these really ruin my day. I have been working on full political ignorance.
Just restrict what you click on to only 1 or maybe 2 trusted sources, and by sources, I mean individuals and not regular media. And then NEVER click on a story, only read the headline. Also clear out your cookies and cache so previously visited sites don’t come up. My suggestion would be to go cold-turkey. There’s a big, beautiful world out there to find when you’re not clicking on useless and counterproductive news stories, 99% of which probably will never impact you personally. Only go online for your amusement, nothing more. You can get all the news you need from the Babylon Bee, and that’s a parody site whose slogan is “Fake News You Can Trust”.
I hardly look at any news online, but sadly, it appears I’m still up to date, but it only cost me a few minutes of my time. Although I didn’t know about the hurricane until one of my neighbors asked me if I was ready. It is fantastic when you tell people “I have no idea what you’re talking about”.
"NEVER click on a story, only read the headline"
I have to disagree with this, as the headlines are often lies which sometimes even the body of the article will make clear.
Check out THESE headlines:
https://townhall.com/
Manipulative all. The worst of the lot is Matt Vespa, who LOVES titling his articles with dreck like, "Oh, So THAT'S Why X Happened" or "Can You Believe The Media Said THIS About Trump?"
Well said, sir. The media sometimes prints the truth, but it needs to be dug for.
I get it, but that’s mainstream media. I only follow a couple people I trust who don’t do click bait. In that case the headline does tell the story. Plus it’s easy to discern lies these days.
You sir are the most correct commenter of all time.
relatable
Come back for the inline-6 bike test on Friday!
While I like bikes, I favor inline-6 cars.
If you like Inline 6 cars, you're gonna love inline 6 bikes.
I did finally pull the trigger on cancelling my Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger Medium subscriptions, and unsubscribing to their emails. I decided I’ll get most of my news from the WSJ online subscription and, ugh, “X”.
Taibbi is up and down. Some of his hobbyhorses have limited appeal to me - e.g., YES I KNOW about The Twitter Files, etc.
But he’s a quality resource in the run-up to a pivotal election.
I also read a lot of left leaning establishment news (e.g., Puck), because they manufacture consent. Important to know where things are headed.
X is about the only place I get my news. It's a shame about how you feel about Taibbi, but the problem is that he's the type of journo that puts significant time and effort into one or two things, which means readers are required to go elsewhere for other news. I decipher the left and right myself.
I have all the respect in the world for Taibbi and his reporting. I just got tired of reading about how terrible the government is to us every day. I know, and I don’t want to be continuously reminded of it.
I know what you're getting at -- everything he says is both exhaustively supported and absolutely misery-inducing.
I hate politics, and I HATE the people who made everything in America political.
I just want to go to work, draw, build models, hot rod my cars and write. I don't want to have to pay attention to who the IRS Commissioner is or what the Agriculture Department is up to in Idaho.
You may not pay attention to who the IRS Commissioner is , but he pays attention to who you are if you make a mistake on your April 15 rectal exam intake form
But of course the IRS Commissioner pays attention to who we are - he has the government bureaucracy behind him. What do we have? We can't even vote the bastard out.
So, I opt to ignore the IRS Commissioner as well.
Two headlines:
* 6 days ago: Idaho is losing a farm a day. How will we feed a growing population?
* 5 days ago: Despite loss of farmland, Idaho's agriculture industry is still producing more than ever
The USDA isn't a friend to most Idahoans, and you learning that should make you empathize with your fellow countryman, you danged isolationist!
Artists and creatives don’t owe us anything. They have shared their craft already. If they want to recede into background, that’s their prerogative. If they want to party like it’s 1999 and flame out early, that’s a shame, but they do have the freedom to do that. I wonder why that writer doesn’t get that.
See J. D. Salinger.
Or Gerry Rafferty.
Krist Novoselic, Nirvana’s bassist, had kids, moved to an organic farm in Washington State, and apparently spends his time farming, flying planes, and dabbling in libertarian politics. Could’ve partied his way into the ground or stayed in music; just didn’t. Respectable choice, neither going the way of Dave Grohl or JD Salinger, and the one I hope I’d make if I were in his shoes (though, I hate to say it, I probably would’ve had a bit too much fun with the grunge chicks and ultimately ended up wrapping a 935 Turbo into a Seattle-area tree).
He went right down the line.
In April, 1945, J.D. Salinger helped liberate a sub-camp of the Dachau concentration camp. He later was hospitalized for what we would call PTSD. He much later told his daughter, "You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live."
R.I.P.
jean
The other funny thing is : the very *instant* you smell burning Humans, you know _exactly_ what it is .
I don't know why but this is a fact .
-Nate
Thanks to everyone who upvoted this post. I am (to say the least) an older chap.
When I was growing up, I knew four concentration-camp survivors, one of whom, as a girl, had been "experimented on" by Josef Mengele. That woman survived, but her twin sister died in the camp.
My violin teacher at Brown University twice escaped from the Nazis on his way to being executed. He was sheltered for 18 months by a Righteous Gentile Ukrainian peasant farm family. Those parents risked their children's lives to help a Jewish stranger. What uncountable Treasure in Heaven!!!
So, nobody speaks ill of Ukrainians in my presence.
What was it that Faulkner said?
"The past is not dead. It is not even past."
john
1. The two tier system of justice is already making inroads into the US. As I've said before, violent crime in the United States is primarily the result of an epidemic of severe under-incarceration where violent criminals face no significant sanction for the violent crimes they commit. You can look at the numbers from the Bureau of Justice Statistics here from 2018 to see one of their most recent publications on the matter, and then factor in that the situation is significantly worse post 2020 as is just about every metric involving violent crime:
https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/tssp18.pdf
Keep in mind that even BJS's numbers will not tell you the full story as it has no way of accounting for how many criminal cases are resolved via plea deal (on the order of 90%) where crimes of violence are negotiated downwards from initial charges to get a guilty plea. It saves time and prosecution costs and results in lesser sentences that the convicted won't fully serve anyway. Everybody wins...except for the victims of the crime the conviction was on and the future victims that will be generated by the convicted who is turned loose where they will most certainly do it again.
If the accused is a life-long criminal, odds are that the system will proceed with incredible leniency given the nature of the accused's act. Examples are legion, but this is one of the more egregious ones you will find where the judge literally cries for a man who tried to commit multiple murders to advance himself in a criminal gang:
https://nypost.com/2014/11/03/judge-blames-society-in-sentencing-shooter-for-only-three-years/
This will contrast to people...often who don't have significant criminal backgrounds...who get caught in some sort of criminal act where prosecutors or politicians want to "set an example" or something similar and who have the full prosecutorial resources of the government marshalled against them.
This has always been true to an extent...but what we are seeing is an increasingly weaponized and political system where the criminal justice system is being used in concert with The Preferred Narrative. The examples of British citizens who have done nothing more than say unapproved things on social media facing stiffer penalties than a migrant who actually raped a 12 year old girl tells the tale.
Actual justice should be the focus of the justice system. The only reason it has legitimacy despite its many flaws is because, like Tinkerbelle, enough people clap to keep it alive. These kinds of obvious public miscarriages of justice will only result in an end to the clapping. And then we're right back on my aforementioned warnings about fighting over who is in charge of the guest list for the camps because that's the EXACT message being communicated by actions like Madam Goring.
....and OF COURSE she's a Goring. Like Whoopie Goldberg she just argued it's not "rape, rape" when someone who is favored does it. (Goldberg said that exact thing about Polanski)
This is a remarkably similar attitude that was found in the investigation of the Rotherham rape gangs scandal, where the authorities charged with keeping the peace and seeing to justice knew full well what was going on and blamed the underage girls for being harlots. Note that no one in the government involved in that two decade plus scandal ever faced any sanction for their actions and there's considerable evidence the exact same thing is going on today and in a lot more parts of the UK without any useful action from the government for the exact same reasons.
2. Walz is a horrible pick...but the thing about Our Betters is that they are often wrong, but never in doubt. The disconnect between their actions and the outcome is always attributable to some boogeyman that intervened, not their lack of knowledge or ability. So being thoroughly disconnected from reality her pick isn't a surprise. I would have preferred she pick Shapiro so that PA's corrupt actions in persecuting small farmers, jailing farm workers without cause or criminal conviction, and trying to jail people for the unimaginable crime of *recording their own divorce proceeding* and then noting that the official record was altered to the detriment of their case, thus pointing out corruption in the courtroom.
But, alas, Kamala instead picked a dumber and more malicious version of Bernie Sanders who speaks with a very thinly veiled and easily perceived intention to punch you in the face if you don't acquiesce to his bullshit.
I don't believe she will find that helps her win over the groups Biden was in trouble with, not that VP's contribute a great deal to candidate appeal anyway. I predict this duo...that nobody voted for, mind you...will end up doing a little bit better with the professional managerial class types that is now the core of the DNC's political power. But the duo will do worse with working class people of all stripes simply because whatever remains of Joe Biden still had some blue collar appeal among zombified union types in places like Pennsylvania where I've literally heard with my own two ears that type of zombie sitting at a bar holler out "DEMOCRATS UR FURR DUR WORKIN' MAN!!!"
Kamala has no such pull in those parts of PA or the industrial north or midwest that Biden had. The base will be more enthusiastic because even though she's catastrophically stupid, she's at least not the brain-dead mess Biden was. Except those base folks won't be able to deliver the goods in the electoral college save maybe for Virginia and there only because Virginia is right next to the empirical capital and so many revolting specimens of the empire have settled in its northern parts.
I think the democrats have gone from the proverbial frying pan into the fire, but that the magnitude of their mistake won't be visible until too close to game day to do anything else about it.
Judges will keep doing this until cartel rules are applied.
"I've literally heard with my own two ears that type of zombie sitting at a bar holler out "DEMOCRATS UR FURR DUR WORKIN' MAN!!!"
if lobotomies were still legal i might be able to think like this guy
One of the best lines I’ve heard this year is:
The Democrats are the party of the NON-WORKING class.
That’s perfection.
the unemproletariat
Ha! Peter Egan came to mind when I read that too.
"The defendants noticed the co-plaintiff's impaired condition and then exploited this in various group constellations for sexual intercourse without having ensured consent." Is there anyone alive who would hear that and say "Oh, what a relief - I thought we were talking about RAPE here." I am absolutely done trying to dialogue with these people.
Hey, speaking of things "left" - guess how I helped my son overcome his fear of left turns on a motorcycle? I took a couple of days off last week and we rode OH Rt 555 (aka the Triple Nickel, aka Ohio's Tail of the Dragon). What a road. So much fun. Also got a beer and some pulled pork at Boathouse BBQ in Marietta. Not only do they have great BBQ and an Ohio River view, they have a stray kitten who works the crowd on the patio for handouts. Recommended.
Ah, this is the best news possible.
The worst news possible is that you didn't tell me you were going to be there!
Regarding the judge's comments, I had the same thought and reached the same conclusion. There is no reasoning, there is no compromise possible now.
Triple Nickel is one of my favorite roads. I haven’t gotten the Boxster on it more than once or twice (as a consequence of living 2.5 hours away from it now), but in high school, living 15 minutes from it was the greatest temptation. The Golf and Miata have certainly been wrung out on it to no end.
Boathouse is also awesome; if the weather is chill today, I might even go (happen to be in town for once). It’s a bummer they stopped serving the brisket burritos, tacos, quesadillas a while back. Loved that stuff; even had them cater my HS Graduation party with them.
"There is a perception now of two-tier policing. "
A 75 year old grandmother was sentenced to two years in federal prison for violating the FACE Act by obstructing access to an abortion clinic. To get that law passed, sponsors had to included a provision regarding places of worship. A few weeks ago, there was a pro-Hamas rally in Los Angeles, where protesters blocked people from accessing a synagogue. Edit: I'll simply note that the Department of Justice has taken no action against those protesters.
What concerns more than the fact that there is a two (or more) tiered justice system is the appearance that those implementing that system don't seem to care that it's obvious.
" I was a loyal Soviet citizen until the age of 20. What it meant to be a loyal citizen is to say what you are supposed to say, to read what you are permitted to read, to vote the way you are told to vote and, at the same time, to know that all this is a lie. " - Natan Sharansky.
It's not a flaw in their strategy, it's a flex. The people pushing this malevolence are openly doing so as a flex of their power, all the while smirking and saying "What are you going to do about it?"
The bet is that you're too good of a person to do what they willingly and eagerly are doing to you.
If pushed far enough, that's a bet that they will lose. Hence my desperate warnings that will go unheeded.
I wish you were correct, but I'm not certain they will lose. If the dictators/communists learned anything, it is to *always* play the long game. As part of that game, they attack the system "bottom-up." So, you go after the families and the religious groups / organizations. Once you undermine that, everything else just falls apart.
They won't lose no matter how far they push, because they will take their time pushing. Current generation of kids won't complain. In 40 years, absolutely no one will complain.
I feel like it will be a long time before people start killing the overlords...
But remember those Mormon ranchers? They seem to have gotten away with it all.
In regards to Shapiro, he has A LOT of baggage that wouldn't have been great to bring to the table. The Zionist stuff (he pretended to be in the IDF, after all) won't play very well when Israel ain't exactly the most popular kid in school at the moment.
Way more importantly than even that, though, and missing from your piece: do look up the Ellen Greenberg case and ask yourself how well that would play on a national stage. It's... Not Great, to say the least.
As for Walz, I like him. I don't know many Minnesotans, but those I do know praise him. He seems to be very popular. He absolutely has a folksy charm to him that has been missing on a presidential ticket for about ever. I would argue that he is a good speaker, at least from the ckips I've seen. His life is relatively free of (known to us currently) skeletons. I'm not well-versed enough to know the ins-and-outs of his policies, but from what I've gleaned they seem just fine to me.
Beshear or Kelly were my favorite choices, however Walz will play just fine as people get to know him I think. This is in stark contrast to JD Vance, on the other hand, who appears to be an anchor on the Trump campaign that can do nothing other than make people hate him as quickly as possible.
As someone who lost a lot of my family to socialists, both national and international, he lost me when he said this: "Don't ever shy away from our progressive values. One person's socialism is another person's neighborliness,". No Tim, being sent to the gulag or the concentration camps is not neighbourly.
"No Tim, being sent to the gulag or the concentration camps is not neighbourly"
i dont remember this line from home improvement
It was hard to hear over the fence.
I hear what you’re saying.
If I may, though, I would wager he meant that comment more as a nod to the Fox News Brain crowd who hears “all kids can eat for free” as “Literally Stalin.” Like some social policies are good, but that does not necessarily make one a socialist? Could be projecting here too. Just feels like that’s much more likely than he wanting to kill millions…
At the very least, something like 1 in 6 children face food insecurity in the United States.
I don't think Walz is all that popular, really. He's a Twin Cities liberal who ran against an opponent who was dramatically outspent in the effort, with major support showing up really late by my recollection. Walz's margin of victory shrank in 2022 most likely due to his COVID extremism, which is not going to play very well especially as people have learned in the interim how much they've been lied to on issues he was an absolute screaming lunatic on. (Masks, lockdowns, etc)
I’m actually curious about how the whole Covid spectacle plays out this year.
How many people don’t want to remember it at all?
How many people will hang on to it as the lynchpin for whom they choose to vote?
Will the number of older people who really did die of it be enough to influence the election with their lack of turnout?