0-When you besmirch the fine reputation of Polymarket, be mindful that you are casting aspersions on Donald Trump, Jr., who is an advisor to BOTH Polymarket and their competitor, Kalshi.
1-And speaking of prediction markets, my close, personal friend / nemesis Harelip is going to DOUBLE DOWN and make up for his 90% destruction of capital on Sunday (he bet $100 on Brazil and $100 on Mexico to win the World Cup).
2-Most importantly, I am more than halfway through Richard Hanania’s tour de force, Kakistocracy, which was published yesterday.
Hanania should have been drowned at birth. The visceral disgust and the desire for violence his face inspires is a powerful and ancient biological signal we would do well to obey.
Probably longing for the days when 35-year-old Hezekiah could get the parson to hitch him up to 14-year-old Dolly Mae and have a dozen young 'uns with her.
Sherman do you get an advance copy of each article as you are always ready with an insightful and relevant review as soon as the publication by our esteemed author hits the newsstands?
If you don’t have to sell your time, you can watch TV at 3 AM and be asleep at 3 PM. If you want to.
I’ll leave the JERB concerns to the Harelips of the world. He is trying to escape the permanent underclass too, but he recently referred to Martingale wagering as “Nightingale” wagering, so I hope he has his position size calibrated to bet on Thursday’s World Cup games.
[wags phone Oliver Twist-style] please, sir, a review of the Kakistocracy book?
If you do, it would be great if you could humor the irony of Hanania, a former ethnonationalist, turning on even the concept of ethno-nationalism for 99% of humanity in favor of receiving checks from the Only People On Earth Allowed To Embrace Aggressive Ethnonationalism.
Any excoriation of JD Vance seems well-deserved, but at the same time, what do you say about a cipher? I don't want to say "there is no there there" because in JD's case there is a wallet there and the wallet is filled by Thiel&Company and Thiel does indeed have preferences that the current presidential administration respects and defers to.
Re: Hanania, let's set our sights reasonably! He surely has the competence for a US Rep run, and the current left would support him if he could pretend for a year not to be an ardent zionist.
I mean, yeah: every time Hanania changes hi$ mi$nd he$ ha$ a well-rea$oned ju$tification for it - $ure. I say this carefully because you're as sharp as they come but be extremely careful, as it could be that hanania is simply unprincipled and capable of concocting thoughtful rationalizations for anything at the behest of his sponsors. Loads of his arguments are entirely specious or hypocritical.
Truly the more I think about it, Vance and Hanania have a lot in common. Including changing opinions more often than shoes and both being downstream of Peter Thiel's support whether verbal or monetary.
In his 2023 book The Origins of Woke, Hanania argues that central causes of "wokeness" are the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and multiple inventive court decisions and executive orders.[32] The book has promotional blurbs by Vivek Ramaswamy, David O. Sacks, and Peter Thiel, who wrote, "Hanania shows we need the sticks and stones of government violence to exorcise the diversity demon."[6]
Doubt it! But it is a thought provoker: Who is more authentic:
A guy with 4-5 name changes, who has no father, speaks openly in his book (devoted to victim-blaming deracinated and immiserated fellow citizens) about gay sex with a couch, and has reversed course in politics 100x in the last 2 years at the financial behest of the rapacious devils who immiserated the people (including his father!) who he grew up with, or
A nosferatu-looking palestinian-american man who was a former ethnonationalist for his own people, but now shills for the extremist, hyper-racial-supremacist extermination force killing his father's and mother's fellow countrymen by the tens of thousands?
Truly an ignoble competition here!
One common thread: both work against their own race at the behest of people who will eventually exterminate 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙝 them 𝙖𝙣𝙙 the people they continually chastise.
"A guy with 4-5 name changes, who has no father, speaks openly in his book (devoted to victim-blaming deracinated and immiserated fellow citizens) about gay sex with a couch, "
Cousin Jed's mother changed his name to correspond with her various husbands, before graduating Yale he chose the name he wished go by. His father—with whom he developed a somewhat close relationship—passed away in 2023. Feel free to give the page number where you find the couch story. As far as his changing his politics— you've already demonstrated you have no grasp of reality.
The name-change drama always strikes me as a gross demonstration of privilege. The people who make a big deal of it have never had to deal with a violent, dangerous, or just plain unpleasant parent. JD did what he needed to do to survive. AS A CHILD. I don't hold a bit of it against him.
In the interest of debating in good faith, I've been unable to find the couch story in copies of the manuscript I've found online. Quite possible I was bamboozled by doctored screenshots. Hilarious!
Regarding the rest... I think it comes down to a matter of opinion. I've seen Vance cheerfully give a keynote at a party for a "decarceration" ie "release the inmated to terrorize the citizenry" organization. There are a lot of conflicts in the guy that would make a lot more sense if he firmly believes a good bit less than he claims. But it really is in the eye of the observer, and you may see him in precisely the opposite way given the same information.
From "Cracked," Seanbaby I think, back when they were actually funny:
"Taking the beanbag chair to its next logical step in eroticism, this is a beanbag chair with a vagina. And by vagina I mean a toilet paper roll with a rubber glove inside it that was Velcroed into the beanbag. I feel this whole invention really paints a postmodern picture of retarded sexuality. Just imagine the nude and breathy miscreant perched atop his beanbag paramour, rutting away like a sloth trying to climb a particularly vexing tree limb and not making much progress. And all the while the beanbag chair just gets more and more pancake-like until it reaches that sort of bulgy disc shape with a man groove worn into the middle. Used and damp and totally without shape in a corner. The beast himself slouching away to clean his shame on an errant sock, or perhaps he buys those baby wipes for just such an occasion. Then he closes up the beanbag and what? Sits on it and watches Spike TV?"
I almost wet myself the first time I read these lines.
Sherman’s hatred of JD’s “hillbilly cosplaying” reminds me of when women who have been fat their whole lives get mad at women who have only been fat as adults for “not really knowing what it’s like.”
Can’t remember who said it but the line is “you have the same odds of winning the lotto whether you buy a ticket or not.”
Technically not true, but still directionally true.
Friend of a friend won million dollar jackpots twice. The first win was large enough to never have to work again, so the question is why was this guy still buying lotto tickets? Of course, he turned out to be right.
Let the records show, I do own the Dave Rockwell: We Were the Ramchargers book, which, according to amazon, was $20 more expensive brand new. I somehow value that book even more, knowing that this guy never touched it. Also the shipping to Germany was $8 cheaper than the US-only option he listed on eBay.
I have most of the Peter Egan books and can see them from where I sit in my office right now. He was the best part of both R&T and Cycle World, the latter of which I read only after finding out Egan wrote for them. Given his books sell for less than $20 on Amazon why would you buy anyone else’s copies?
Interestingly, my parents have houses in two different retirement-esque communities, north and south. In neither place do they have a golf cart “or similar.” Both contain a 4cyl Honda sedan. They use a Lexus RX to get back and forth between the two abodes. My in-laws, OTOH, have two houses about 1/8th of a mile apart in northern WI, and they do have a Club Cart 4-seater to go between them (mostly because the one house is down a 75’ hill from the other). My 14y/o drives it extensively when we are up there. There’s also a fleet of ATVs, tractors, and at one point an Argo 8x8 amphibious tracked vehicle. None of them were in danger of being replaced by a Fiat either.
S2k, sounds like your parents are taking care of themselves and have an interesting fleet of vehicles. One of my best friends has a client that keeps a Mayback and a Cloud at both the winter and summer home. I met them and complimented his car and he told me they were enjoying retirement.
My parents vehicles are the opposite of interesting, a 2017 Accord, a 2020 Civic, and a 24 or 25 RX350. My in-laws have the interesting stuff, most of which is in support of hunting. My parents are far healthier and happier than my in-laws though.
I figured hunting must have been part of the equation because there are not a lot of uses for a 8x8…. Except I know this girl in Kansas that has an Army Surplus 6x6 5ton truck for farm use. 😁😁
We are adjacent to a national forest and swamp, and the thought was the Argo could be used in the swamp. In reality, no one goes in the swamp except me, and I walk. And in November in Northern WI, the swamp is frozen anyways.
Yes I admire you citizens of Wisconsin as on my one visit we were at a fish fry and Helen told me what a lovely place Wisconsin is and why don’t I retire there. The waitress came by and I asked if the lake outside, does it completely freeze over in the winter? And the nice young lady said yes but it only gets two or three FEET of ice on it. My wife Helen likes cold. I on the other hand prefer Florida. But I do admire the people of Wisconsin that can live with that cold weather. 🥶🥶🥶
I only vacation there, I live outside Chicago. But it’s beautiful country. Honestly, the cold winters in WI bother me less than the hot summers of FL. The worst season in WI is spring, when the cold grey weather lasts nearly until June. At least in winter you can do fun stuff like snowmobile and ice fish. In the spring there’s nothing to do and it’s terrible and depressing.
I knew a legendarily rich guy, a SF Conservatory graduate, former world-class art collector. He and his now deceased wife owned THREE adjacent mansions overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. But they could walk from one to another. No golf cart needed.
Mansion #1 was their private abode.
Mansion #2 was for entertaining guests and hosting fundraisers for worthy causes.
Mansion #3 was so that hubby could play a piano as loud as he cared to, at any time, day or night.
His Music Room had facing Steinway 9-footers, and a SOTA 5CH surround-sound system (Halco amps and Egglestonworks loudspeakers) that had to have cost $250,000.
And, on the walls, a King's Ransom of the Canalettos that you see in the standard art-history books. I still have the "Scouting Shots."
When his wife died, he auctioned off their art collection for charity. IIRC, $30 million.
Of course, that is hardly a drop in the bucket, compared to the amount Trump stole from his Meme-coin patsies.
I think that the thinking was, that the IRS would not necessarily accept the Husband's opinion, or any appraiser's opinion, as to value.
WHEREAS, ten days of all-day auctions in a row, live-streamed by Sotheby's (I have worked with them in the past, on other matters), would establish exactly what the market values were.
The game is slightly different when a spouse passes. You step up the basis in the undivided interest in the joint property and then use the sales value as the new basis on the 706. No cap gains. The third party sale establishes value.
Community property states with an undivided interest (like CA, TX, AZ, etc) step up the whole asset for the deceased half and surviving spouse. It is one of the benefits that helps to compensate for all of the disadvantages for undivided community property.
My in-laws’ set up is a lot more reasonable. They bought and restored a small 100y/o 3br cabin right on the lake. As their family and fortunes grew, they wanted to expand, but it was either cost prohibitive or legally difficult (or both) to build on the lake, as it’s too close for modern zoning and grandfathered in. So they built a modern 4br ranch house across the street. No one likes the cabin except my wife and I and our kids and that’s the way we like it, everything else can go to her sisters, we have claimed the cabin.
The only thing i want i cant afford is a cabin/lakehouse of my own. My parents have one but we spent the Fourth of July at home because after 14 years of going to theirs with the dogs, dogs were banned this year. Its be nice to have something and not have to deal with my parent’s bullshit
Since we stay in the cabin and not the house, it’s great to have our own space. My in-laws bought their cabin in 1992 for around the equivalent of $200k today. Based on the lake frontage it’s probably worth 3-4x that today. And some asshole would probably rip it down to build an ugly monstrosity. But hopefully my kids and their cousins will be watching their kids and grandkids play there some day. It’s the only thing we really have worth handing down and would make a great legacy.
Heh, exactly why long ago my parents built their own cabin on the lake. Plus my dad wanted no part of trying to maintain his dad's cabin that was built in the late '40's.
It would be nice to have our own on the opposite side so the kids can play with grandma and grandpa and we can have dinner and wine on our own later without being judged by teetotalers when we have our second glass
Jack I have not met Mr Baruth but I have an almost certain feeling that he is not going to be motoring down the streets of The Villlages or Sun City in a mini-me Fiat. Now remember almost all the houses in those communities have a two plus garage, the plus is for the golf cart, and having driven through The Villages, Club Car is the vehicle of choice. When those nasty baby boomers are not driving their LS-500 or E-450 sedans (the Cadillac Sedan Deville use to be the vehicle of choice but thanks to the brilliant leadership of Queen Mary and Sir Mark of Aztec the royal leadership at the House of GM has run off all their customers to foreign brands).
somewhere around here I suspect there is a box of Animorphs books that my kids read in elementary school. never for a sec thought they would be "valuable". if I find them in the massive cleanout that I need to do, they will go into the recycle bin.
Ahem, I maybe had the Scholastic Book Of The Month Club for a few years in the late 90s, which racked up something like three dozen KA Applegate books. I remember reading her followup series for older, edgier teens (which, um, I guess I'd turned into by then) and it was bad. From a content perspective (viking rapes were suspiciously absent from the Animorphs series) and writing. But my oldest son, Ivan, enjoyed The One And Only Ivan when he was younger, so I guess she wrote enough to satisfy two generations of L's.
Those $5 trade paperback books from the 90s are definitely worthless today.
Honestly seemed like a waste to get rid of it but I don't have the space so it is somewhat relieving it is gone. Maybe I'll buy the wife something nice with the cash.
My in-laws paid around that ($4k) for their used golf cart maybe 10 years ago. But then it needed new batteries (known at time of sale) for almost the same $4k again (again, 10 years ago) which was shocking to me at the time.
And for the life of me I can't understand why. I see it in my dad's neighborhood in Florida. But why drive a golf cart when there are four perfectly good, air-conditioned cars in the driveway? I can see the appeal of small vehicles in tight places with limited parking. But Suburban Florida?
In 2026, idk that there is a better "enthusiast" bargain than a used 500 Abarth. It's not a good car in any measurable way, but they are fun and extremely cheap to buy.
I wish they'd continued the Neon because you just know we'd have Hellcat, Redeye, Jailbreak, Demon, and Helephant versions, with widebody options for the relevant iterations.
On the subject of Mandami's eligibility, I am laughing my socks off over the fact that the linchpin of the US Men's Soccer Team's success so far is an accidental US Birthright Citizen. His mom tried to return to London to give birth, but the airline said she was at too high a risk of going into labor mid-flight, so the refused to let her board. She never planned on giving birth in America. Suck on that, Trump, is all I can say.
BUT THE POINT IS THAT HE WAS AN UNINTENTIONAL ANCHOR BABY.
And Under Dumpf's proposed rules, his citizenship would have been taken away, and the US would have been eliminated molto pronto. As they say in Shtoot-gart.
These are human lives we are talking about. Both the US and the UK refused to accept ships carrying Jewish refugees during WWII. That's the next-to-worst stain on America's Presidency.
When I was growing up, in an Irish-Jewish Working-Class neighborhood, I knew four concentration-camp survivors. You cannot gainsay or argue with that!
I have worked at the highest "State" levels of public policy. I reported directly to the Governor of Rhode Island's Chief of Staff (AFAIK, Jack Baruth has not).
Flushing all the Birthright Citizens out will be a DISASTER for US employers, and it will drastically increase all sorts of consumer prices.
"Flushing all the Birthright Citizens out will be a DISASTER for US employers, and it will drastically increase all sorts of consumer prices"
more importantly it would tank the housing market and jobs would be absolutely everywhere and as they would be competing for workers the wages would be great
think about how much money could be saved if none of it went to treating or housing illegals/"birthright citizens" or any of the govt programs that support it directly or indirectly
I'm sure you believe that whole Rhode Island thing is really impressive, but all it says is, "I was a low-level flunky who answered to the guy who answered to the guv in a do-nothing Democrat administration in the smallest and least significant state in the country."
Unintentional. Right. Came over here very pregnant and just happened to stay long enough to be too pregnant to fly back. Any facts available for how long his parents stayed here before trying to fly back? A week? Two weeks? A month? I’ll post and look for your answer later.
I’ve been watching Clarkson’s Farm, and Elle on Amazon Prime which is the TV series prequel to Legally Blonde. I’m watching it with my daughters, but I’d sooner admit to that than admit to watching soccer (only had the Ghana game on when a Ghana-born friend was over). Otherwise haven’t watched a minute.
Not a humble brag but I watched a minute of it. I currently have a team working in Bogota and to say they are disappointed is an understatement. From my respective, what respectable sport ends a massive playoff game with a shootout?
PS- Clarkson’s Farm might be the most significant documentary ever made. Fight me.
We stopped in Dodge City, KS Monday at a local bar & grill. Very much the kind of place one would expect to find in Dodge City, KS.
There was a little shitkicker trio playing when we arrived, but soon thereafter the US v Belgium match started. When the national anthem played the entire place stood, removed hats, hand over heart..then cheered at the end.
The pulisic heat is deserved but the midfield not being able to connect 2 passes and the defense not defending had that game sealed. Messi wouldn't have made a difference. Maybe they'd lose 4-2 instead.
I know next to nothing about soccer but I know it's not supposed to look like kickball. And that goalie...
I sort of forgive him for the 3rd goal f’up because I suspect he was trying to make a play to get things going back upfield given how poorly the rest of the team was playing.
The back line, midfield and wingers were just awful. Timid, slow, indecisive, terrible passing, and so on.
That was the most embarrassing that I’ve ever watched and it was also the best. Mainly because I’ve only watched one in its entirety. I should’ve stuck to watching reruns of Reba.
Someone predicted a couple of articles back that the USMNT would be taken apart by a good team. Not that I’m gloating. Canada got further than it ever has before, then got thrashed by Morocco, who were easily defeated by France.
'“Goal for England! A great debut for a player who just joined the England team last week when he realised he qualified for England citizenship due to a three day holiday in the Cotswolds he went on as a 12 year old”. 🤣'
Is that any different from whoever that Chinese American girl who competes for China in the Olympics?
I wonder how many countries outside the Anglosphere have anything at all like birthright citizenship. Considering the original purpose of the 14th Amendment, I’m surprised that more black Americans are not disturbed about the dilution of their franchise due to birthright citizenship.
My younger daughter responded to a text message to vote for al Sayed in the Dem primary next month by telling them “not even for a million dollars.” So I told her, “I dunno. A million dollars is a lot of money.”
She and her mother are very much typical suburban Jewish females who reflexively vote Democratic. It’s almost sad the way they now feel politically homeless. They’re going door to door telling people to vote for Stevens and whoever is running against Rashida Tlaib.
I’d love to see some reporter ask al Sayed or Rashida Tlaib if they’ve ever heard a family member use the term “ebed” for Blacks, and if they did, did they call it out?
Without looking it up, my impression is used to be where the parents had differing citizenships and then the child had dual citizenship recognized by those country but not the US for both.
The father of a housemate of mine in college was a high level CIA officer and both his parents were 100% ethnically Greek. When his father was stationed in Athens and he was approaching his 18th birthday, his parents sent him back home so he wouldn’t get drafted into the Greek army. The Greek government considered him to be Greek.
His mother, by the way, was an administrative law judge. Deep statists for sure. When his dad was stationed in the Philippines, he got called on the carpet because one of the embassy cars was spotted outside the home of a known drug dealer.
To answer your question, European politicians who favored an influx of migrants, and the Europeans who tolerated it. Look at what's going on in Spain. The left is open about replacement.
I find it interesting that while many teams from Central and South America have players of African descent due to the slave trade, but none of them have players that are 2 generations of less removed from Africa. Why are there no African ringers playing for teams from Latin America?
I think in any international sporting event when national prestige is on the line (viz. Olympics), many countries are, ah, generous with citizenship requirements.
Skeptical Rick T is skeptical that she was “unexpectedly” denied boarding on a plane back to Nigeria and had to drop him here. It’s unclear from a quick search if this star player has any experience of actually having lived the US outside of soccer playing and practice.
PS fat lot of good he did playing against the tiny country of Belgium.
Don’t worry John we got 10,000 new INS agents certified this month. We are going to ramp up the volume deportations. The baby train is going to pretty much stop running as DHS is starting to check incoming visa holders,!
The law is clear. If you had to take a Covid test to fly into the US during the troubles, we can make foreign females take a pregnancy test to enter now.
This sounds funny (and to your point, the US is missing an easy win by just funding US Soccer better... can't speak to recently, but in my era US Soccer was always massively underfunded and stolen-from by corrupt sinecurists), BUT...
... america has perhaps 100 better sports in which to specialize than soccer. Too hard on Women's knees (they're shredded by their 20s/30s at latest) and men can't play after the concussions get too numerous.
As a sport, and I say it as an experienced player, 2/10. Almost anything would be better
"Gambling was a big enough problem when you had to fly somewhere to do it but now you can bankrupt yourself from the casino in your phone. "
My late aunt and uncle would go to Vegas or Atlantic City to gamble. He was no idiot, having grown a storefront paint & ladder store into a fairly successful contractors' supply. I once asked him about their casino trips and he said that he enjoyed gambling, budgeted X amount of dollars for their trip, and that if he lost it all, that's how much the trip cost him.
Of course, not everyone has that level of self-discipline.
The few times that I've been in a casino, I'm struck by how few people look happy there.
Almost 60 years ago my brother found an antique penny slot machine someone had dumped in a undeveloped lot near our house. Slots were highly illegal in Michigan then. He figured out how to fix it (Jeff's mechanically gifted and services industrial machinery for a living) and my parents set it in the den and put a bowl of pennies out so their guests could play. It was right around then that I first learned the word "automaton" and to me, that's what people look like when they play the slots.
I used to do fairly well when gambling, because I set limits and I was careful about what I played. Craps is a game you can do well in, if you really understand that almost all of the bets on the table are bad. If you're a 'pattern roller' you can enhance your odds enough to do well at it.
Blackjack is a game were if you count cards you can do well. But you have to remember is that a lot of the dealers cheat. The casino doesn't care, just as long as they're cheating YOU and not the Casino. I've seen it. Friend who was a card mechanic once taught me the signs. It's also why casinos use diamond back cards - so your eye can't see it when they do.
The real money, is in Texas Hold'em. As long as the dealer isn't cheating to favor someone else or hurt you (see that twice too). The biggest secret to that game is to play the limit tables when the Asian tourists are in. They come in intending to lose every last dime.
(and no, I don't gamble anymore. There are easier ways to make money)
I’ve been to a casino over in Indiana many years ago on a Monday night. Very depressing. Full of people who looked like they should be somewhere other than a casino gambling on a Monday night.
I went with a friend who was going with his out of town brother who was hot to piss away a large superbowl pot win. Pressured by his brother, my friend lost $50 in about two minutes. I didn’t bet anything. I see no sense in betting on something I have no control over.
My theory on casinos is they don't build those large elaborate buildings and keep them running by letting guys like me win too much money so I don't bet either.
Rows of seniors pissing away their Social Security at the slots one quarter at time. A third with oxygen tanks, a third with walkers and a third with both.
"Frank T. Ippolito, et al. v. Bally's Park Place, Inc. (1998) involved skilled video poker players who had discovered that certain machines became favorable after particular jackpot states ("persistent state" or "must-hit" style advantage play). They weren't cheating or tampering with the machines—they were simply exploiting the game's design. The New Jersey Supreme Court held that casinos could exclude these advantage players because casinos generally have a common-law right to exclude patrons, absent unlawful discrimination or contrary gaming regulations.
Narrator: The state of New Jersey and Bally's are business partners.
I’ve always had a bit a an issue with that Greatest Generation moniker. One of the greats no doubt. Top 3. In my mind definitely the Revolution generation beyond question with the civil war generation following.
I’ve spent some time recently on Civil War and Revolution *history. We live in an era where the deaths of 13 military personnel in the conflict with Iran can be turned into political fodder so it’s a bit hard to comprehend just how brutal combat was in the 18th and 19th centuries. Simply slaughter. There were four Civil War battles with more than 3,500 dead (both sides). 7,000 died in three days at Gettysburg. There are battlefields that are still literally soaked with blood.
*I just received a copy of the annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. I was disappointed to see the book jacket had a blurb from racialist Ta Nahesi Coates. Coates and Grant don’t inhabit the same moral universe.
The saddest thing I ever saw was an elderly woman in a wheelchair at a casino, breathing bottled oxygen, working an entire row of slot machines. In the parking lot I walked by what I was 100% sure was her car: an old beater, full of spare or used oxygen bottles... and her cat in a carrier. The windows were cracked at least.
Jack, I met you once in like 2007, for all the time it took to shake hands. I had not given that a thought since, until I discovered a couple weeks ago that you've been building this obsessive fantasy about my life ever since.
While it's flattering that you're so into me, I don't think this weird jealous fixation is doing you any favors.
You know, Wes, this comment was quite kindly-phrased and perhaps even deserved.
I would typically feel the same way, but for over a decade jack has been fixating on a variety of topics and personages that allow him to elucidate the differences between the real and the synthetic. Perhaps food for thought.
Looking back through the *two decades* of stalker content Jack's written about me, one of the strangest things is just how much of it is entirely made up. It's like he wrote a choose your own ending book about me that started from a single event, then just spiraled into hate fantasy so intense it has to somehow be sexual in nature.
First: you’ve self styled yourself as a public figure. Your WHOLE LIFE is online. Jack isn’t “stalking” you any more than a guy who reads a book from the library and doesn’t check it out is a shoplifter.
Second: everything you have, as such, is basically public. Almost every slight directed at you is either a matter of opinion (Jack thinks you’re sexy) or a matter of public record. From the horrendously out of touch and cringeworthy Walz shit to the insane, just mind your own goddamn business Subaru thing.
The only thing left to know is if you’re really a kept man. Can you please confirm or deny for the public record?
That's fair. It's just so odd the way it's all translated into weird shit. I post photos of my dogs and my wife on my Instagram, along with the occasional dead animal. I write about policy and science. It seems like a very weird filter is applied between a relatively normal online presence, and the weird shit that gets put out here.
look man, im not in the business of blindly defending anyone besides my wife, let alone Jack, who is wildly entertaining but never without fault or blindspot. sometimes his attacks on people are totally unwarranted and borderline cruel (still funny though, did laugh) but this kind of response is exactly what hes talking about if you cut through jack's vitriol.
your entire problem is that you come across as totally insincere and not genuine in your cultivated persona or actions. first, you do not "write about policy and science". you repost and occasionally add 3 sentences of commentary around agitprop boomer bait for people who unironically say "orange man bad" under the thin veneer of "national parks advocacy". just call a spade a spade.
further, you stick your nose into the realm of the automotive and are clearly vastly unqualified to do so. dont feel bad about that part; 99% of auto "journalists" are. if you want to throw your hands up and say "gosh golly im just a silly little guy what is jack doing" then stick to posting pictures of the night sky and your dog. which is *totally fine* man. not everyone can be, or should be, deep.
lastly, the image you've clearly tried very hard to forge feels, again, inauthentic. a self styled wilderness tough guy coming in here and crying "stalker" is both hilarious and feminine at the same time.
honestly, id read jack's stuff about you and never bothered to look you up or validate info until today because i never cared. i dont think many of us did.
🙄. I refer you to Jack's complete and utter inability to articulate the difference between 4wd and awd.
And my "three sentences" result in articles that get read aloud on the floor of the US Senate.
Again, think critically, not just through the lens of an aggrieved ex con who's mad he got raped so much when he went to prison for trying to murder a black man.
“I post photos of my dogs and my wife on my Instagram, along with the occasional dead animal. I write about policy and science. It seems like a very weird filter is applied between a relatively normal online presence, and the weird shit that gets put out here.”
To respond by way of explanation, Jack is an extreme authenticist who via his transformation at Miami University became an borderline extremist hater of simulation/simulacra and has structured his life basically as a learning algorithm for recruiting the most authentic and extreme and comprehensive experiences of unmediated life.
As such he sometimes gossips about or lampoons people who in his often correct, often prejudiced view exemplify inauthentic living. Sorry that happened to you, but might be helpful info worth considering. Eg, the Subaru thing, come on.
As an aside, a lot of the “weird shit” is simply the realism filter of men who communicate as men. Everything at acf comes off as right coded because we mostly communicate with brusque forthrightness. The “relatively normal Internet presence” you refer to is in the truest sense more of a lib-coded hyperfeminine safe space speak-presence; it may be the patois of the time, but that doesn’t mean everyone has adopted it, particularly men with their organs intact.
I'd change that to: as a chubby loser who never got to have much of a career, Jack expresses jealous rage about people out there living lives and holding down careers he could never have even have aspired to.
"While it's flattering that you're so into me, I don't think this weird jealous fixation is doing you any favors."
I think the word you want here is "envious", unless you think that I think you're going to steal my health insurance for the purpose of additionally sucking Jon Guzik's dick, the way you did to the kid who saved your life and believed in you while you were stealing from him.
P.S. You made up that story about the dude who tried to rape you and your dog.
I don't think there's anything humble about it. Some of us create content that matters and leads to change, meanwhile Jack is a pathetic loser trying to snipe at people whose lives he envies.
There's nothing wrong with being who you are. But we see some of the worst in people come out when they feel forced to hide it over the course of their entire lives.
It's what I call gross misogyny and an open celebration of hate. I think you'll find general conservatism detests the idea of telling people how to live their lives.
Wow, I just have to thank you for the WILDLY entertaining comment thread. I chortled, sir! Multiple times.
Your comments here read like the output of a very early LLM trained exclusively on post-purge Reddit and YouTube shill-bot comments.
It’s so perfect, I would not be surprised if our host here made you up out of whole cloth two decades ago, playing the long game to deliver this as a punchline moment.
I used to work in what was at the time the world’s largest casino in CT, as a cook. We would drink there after hours. People would ask as we were leaving “did you win?” “Yeah I spent $20 and I got drunk.” Aside from fantasy football and the odd March Madness bracket I don’t gamble at all, zero interest in it.
Our Greek friend in Lemont has an automatic debit from his bank account for the Lotto every week or so his wife said. He has won a couple of decent size raffles including a car one time. Pretty sure he’s probably underwater on the lottery though.
I'll buy a powerball ticket when it's 100mm or so every once in a while. 100mm would change my life. Winning 50k wouldn't even do anything. I'm boring, I'd pay down my mortgage so there isn't even a thrill
I used to be a Mtn Dew addict and so would frequent convenience stores and gas stations for a fix, and would buy a lotto ticket if it was crazy high. Now I don’t drink soda and aside from the bathroom on road trips couldn’t tell you the last time I was in a place to buy a lotto ticket.
Bit of a non-sequitur here, but... did you see any health benefits from giving up soda pop, and what were they? As a T1D I am addicted to Diet Mtn Dew and am wondering what benefits I'd see (if any) if I gave it up.
I switched from 64 oz of Diet Coke every day to 64 oz of cold-brewed iced green tea almost a month ago. Less caffeine and it reminds of me life back in Japan, but if you need your tea sweetened this might not be the path for you. I still eat too many peanut butter cups, but I do feel better drinking the tea than the diet cola.
Good pure cocaine, 7 days a week, has to cost more than $100,000 a year TODAY. I knew a JD/MBA/CPA in the music business in LA, 30+ years ago, and his cocaine budget was $50,000/yr.
I never tried recreational cocaine. But when the doctors thought I had cancer in my facial bones and sinuses, they used the medical version of cocaine on me, to get a diagnosis. They apparently could not wait for it to take effect, so they just shoved the instruments up my nose, and it hurt.
But, 15 minutes later, I was walking on air, and I said to myself, "Ah! So this is why someone would spend $50,000 a year on this. A long time ago.
BTW: I later was operated on for three+ hours at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (literally hammer and chisel work), and there was no cancer in any of the bones they removed. But, the bones were "spongy," from recurrent infections since childhood.
There’s storys of multimillionaires losing it all gambling. Sure some multimillionaires lose it all from drugs but it’s usually the side effects and not the purchase price
Mick Fleetwood has claimed that if you laid every line of cocaine he's ever snorted end to end it would be 7 miles long. It also has been estimated that he has, over the course of his career, inhaled $60M worth of the drug. (That doesn't necessarily mean _he_ paid for all of it.)
It definitely contributed something. Rumours was recorded with so much cocaine you could get a contact high listening to it.
I read "Making Rumours," Ken Collet's memoir of recording the album. It seems they all did blow, but Mick and Stevie were especially fond of it. (Mick also drank a lot of Heineken.) Lindsey smoked bales of weed. Christine did coke and drank champagne. I don't recall reading that John did much in the way of drugs, but he usually recorded his parts in the morning with a screwdriver or tequila sunrise nearby.
The last time I was at Harbor Freight I noticed that they sold replacement engines and I thought back to how my brother and I had to scavenge a motor off of a discarded lawnmower to make our go-kart. Kids have it so easy these days.
This is how I learned that you can’t just take a lawnmower engine and turn it sideways and expect it to run. On an u related note, a boxspring is not starting enough to strap a lawnmower engine to.
Funny you should mention it. We didn't want to spend money on angle iron, so we used old bed frames. I was responsible for designing the steering and brakes (a cast iron plumbing Tee levered into the rotating tire).
As for the engine, someone on a nearby street was throwing away a reel mower with a horizontal shaft.
Most of the Harbor Freight engines are horizontal shaft. Only one is a vertical shaft for a mower. Most of their business has to be for go cart like things.
For someone who can card count naturally (rarer than hens teeth as they say) it would be interesting. Anyone who has to learn to do it is going to get caught and if tv and the movies are accurate, beat up by large gentlemen wearing shiny suits.
Further evidence you are destined to lose gambling is that card counting is illegal. How a game of some mental skill makes certain mental skills illegal screams “you don’t have a chance”.
Using your brain to card count is legal but the casino will kick you out pretty quickly and you’ll be on a list at all casinos. These guys use disguises and stuff
The way you win is by betting more when the deck favors you and less when it favors the house. Varying your bet size in line with the count is a dead giveaway.
If you're curious, Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House is a pretty entertaining fictionalized account of the real life MIT Blackjack Team.
What Jeff said. Also, from my experience watching movies, starting with $10,000 in fresh hundreds and ending up with hundreds of thousands to millions in winnings with a group of people standing around watching and cheering.
If they think you're doing to well I guess? Beats me. I have friends who count cards and they never got tossed. Then again, they never made insane bets after betting almost nothing for half the current deck.
The thing is, if you think there are card counters at the table, just shuffle more often. That's all it takes to stop them.
Security doesn’t duck when they hear a “shot” ring out and the leading opponent of the disastrous Iran war goes down? And why did they need 10 inches of crime scene soil removed STAT?
You can question all you want. What you cannot do is deny facts and evidence, which will be presented in the trial. Until then relax.
Candace Owens has an agenda and she is a terrible person for what she is doing. I was never a Charlie Kirk follower. I barely knew who he was until he died but I appreciate how he approached life and family. All influencers exist to get your attention and guess what, that is what Candace Owens is doing. Don’t be a sucker. Or be a sucker if you want, but be aware.
FYI- I believe a fair amount of Charlie’s security was ex-military. I am ex-military. Don’t know your status Cb, but military people react differently to gunfire because they are used to it. Also, if you have any experience with guns, and being shot at (again, more likely if you were in the military (well, the army) it isn’t always loud, and if it is one shot it can take a second to realize what happened. You, asking your questions, already know what happens, so you have a bias. It was a different experience for those who were there and didn’t know what was going to happen compared to anyone watching the video after the fact. Common sense.
what you say is correct but i cant help this nagging feeling like something is off. like its not exactly as they claimed it happened. his neck stopped a .30-06? dunno about that. i dont think ill ever get closure though
Unless you are a ballistics expert or a metallurgy expert for different bullet materials I wouldn’t let it bother you. It doesn’t bother me. We can’t have all the answers and most people aren’t metallurgists or ballistic experts.
It was at a pretty good range and I suspect they were hunting rounds, so the bullet is gonna mushroom quickly. Also the neck is mostly bone and muscle.
The not ducking thing? I don't duck. Been shooting for ages and yes been shot at too. If you hear it, the bullet has already passed you. Ducking is kinda pointless.
What you do is take cover - unless you're security. Your job is to engage.
thats what i was thinking too. the mushrooming ought to be fairly large no? i guess i was expecting a large chunk to be taken out of his neck if not nearly decapitated especially since it seemed to have hit the side of the neck
- So this is the second time Max's rear wing malfunctioned and could've killed him? WTF? I'd be standing on the conference room table telling the fuckers I'm not getting back in the car. Before that it was the rear brake harvesting locking up the back wheels. These guys are special.
- I personally never understood gambling for leisure. I remember my father wanting to bet me on something to which I said, "why would I do that if I don't know what's gonna happen?" He said, "Why would you bet on something you're sure of?" "Because that's how I know I'll win!" I still don't get it.
For those of us who live to incompetence on the big roads, the Topolino may be useful as a Neighborhood Vehicle. Subject to limits: better than nothing? Bruce Parker
It's closest competitor has to be the MOKE right? It's fundamentally more "car" -- I think a larger range, four seats, 45ish mph top speed -- but also costs at least twice as much.
Would be interesting to read a compariosn between the two.
Our previous city regime dumped about 50 downtown parking spots to various "traffic calming" and pedestrian friendly features because they assumed that everyone was just dying to take the bus. Now that things are gridlocked this summer and business traffic is down because there is no parking to be had anywhere we need a solution. The entirety of the City of Ketchum and the city of Sun Valley is max 30mph, and just about everything you want to do is within those limits, similar to staying in a resort development. A few people are driving around in electric Mokes kei trucks, or similar. The Mokes start in the 20s and go much higher.
An excellent solution would be to designate a 3rd of the parking spots for vehicles under 150" and under or 70" in width, or something. We could get 5 spots for 3 current ones on many blocks. With adequate enforcement every second home would have a conforming vehicle in the garage next to their Ineos. Win for efficient vehicles, win for.local business, no coercion just encouragement.
Hilarious! Because that is what the did 3 years ago. city hall and the fire department shared a large structure in our commercial core so they built a larger fire station in the industrial area, and moved city business to a smaller building outside the core, which is good!
The bad is they took that footprint, some of the most prime real estate in a very expensive place, and used federal dollars to put up subsidized "workforce" housing. Of course all the city employees, teachers, police officers, bartenders, bank tellers, retail workers, fishing guides, plumbers, paperhangers and tow truck drivers make too much money to qualify to live there.
They installed underground parking, but only one space per unit, units have 1 to 3 bedrooms. They all have multiple adults. Shockingly more people are living in each unit than are allowed to be there but no one is doing anything about that, so for the surrounding area all on street parking greater than 2 hours is always full.
Added bonus, the city is trying to raise its LOT tax because of a shortfall in property tax revenue vs. expenses. Guess how much less revenue that lot generates vs. the adjacent lot?
I also have a small Ram Power Wagon toolbox / press kit, a Ram Heavy Duty lunch box / press kit with thermos, and a small Toyota FJ Cruiser canteen. Same deal, free for shipping and handling.
0-When you besmirch the fine reputation of Polymarket, be mindful that you are casting aspersions on Donald Trump, Jr., who is an advisor to BOTH Polymarket and their competitor, Kalshi.
1-And speaking of prediction markets, my close, personal friend / nemesis Harelip is going to DOUBLE DOWN and make up for his 90% destruction of capital on Sunday (he bet $100 on Brazil and $100 on Mexico to win the World Cup).
2-Most importantly, I am more than halfway through Richard Hanania’s tour de force, Kakistocracy, which was published yesterday.
Hanania should have been drowned at birth. The visceral disgust and the desire for violence his face inspires is a powerful and ancient biological signal we would do well to obey.
Jack is George Clooney compared to Hanania
I don't know who should be more insulted to be in this comparison ,
but banania nuked from orbit here
He looks like a child molester. But not just any old child molester. He looks like one of the ones who thinks the kids started it.
Probably longing for the days when 35-year-old Hezekiah could get the parson to hitch him up to 14-year-old Dolly Mae and have a dozen young 'uns with her.
The best description I’ve heard to date for his looks is “lesbian nosferatu”
It’s the only way to be sure
Fuckin' A!
Sherman do you get an advance copy of each article as you are always ready with an insightful and relevant review as soon as the publication by our esteemed author hits the newsstands?
Sounds like the plot of a TV show.
No I just keep close tabs on my inbox throughout the day.
I can usually anticipate when I have gotten under Jack’s skin, however.
being unemployed has its perks!
Is that unemployed or unemployable?
Both, in fact.
My time is not for sale.
because it is both unsellable and priceless! quite the paradox
Why would you hire someone for a job that you both know they don’t need?
If you're watching TV at 3 PM, you're unemployED. If you're watching TV at 3 AM, you're unemployABLE.
If you don’t have to sell your time, you can watch TV at 3 AM and be asleep at 3 PM. If you want to.
I’ll leave the JERB concerns to the Harelips of the world. He is trying to escape the permanent underclass too, but he recently referred to Martingale wagering as “Nightingale” wagering, so I hope he has his position size calibrated to bet on Thursday’s World Cup games.
this has to be a dude you made up lol
It has a great commute. You wake up in the morning...you're THERE!
[wags phone Oliver Twist-style] please, sir, a review of the Kakistocracy book?
If you do, it would be great if you could humor the irony of Hanania, a former ethnonationalist, turning on even the concept of ethno-nationalism for 99% of humanity in favor of receiving checks from the Only People On Earth Allowed To Embrace Aggressive Ethnonationalism.
He excoriated the Ultimate Lizard Person - “JD Vance” (or whatever his name is right now) - in a podcast episode yesterday.
I wish Hanania would run for President. The book is far better than anything Jack has recommended for the book club, that’s for sure.
Any excoriation of JD Vance seems well-deserved, but at the same time, what do you say about a cipher? I don't want to say "there is no there there" because in JD's case there is a wallet there and the wallet is filled by Thiel&Company and Thiel does indeed have preferences that the current presidential administration respects and defers to.
Re: Hanania, let's set our sights reasonably! He surely has the competence for a US Rep run, and the current left would support him if he could pretend for a year not to be an ardent zionist.
He has not (yet) addressed it, but every time Hanania changes his mind he has a well-reasoned justification for it.
JD Vance changes his name, his religion, his everything when the wind changes direction.
I mean, yeah: every time Hanania changes hi$ mi$nd he$ ha$ a well-rea$oned ju$tification for it - $ure. I say this carefully because you're as sharp as they come but be extremely careful, as it could be that hanania is simply unprincipled and capable of concocting thoughtful rationalizations for anything at the behest of his sponsors. Loads of his arguments are entirely specious or hypocritical.
Truly the more I think about it, Vance and Hanania have a lot in common. Including changing opinions more often than shoes and both being downstream of Peter Thiel's support whether verbal or monetary.
https://www.richardhanania.com/p/why-jd-vance-is-both-the-realest
JD Vance is fifty or possibly a zillion times as authentic as Hanania.
Even if they are equally faithless, however, JD Vance is the Vice President and Hanania is a weird feeb on the Internet.
Richard Hanania has never seen Peter Thiel’s penis up close, however.
If that ever happened, I assume it was because they were at adjacent urinals during a break at a Hoover Institution seminar.
Are you so sure? From Wikipedia:
In his 2023 book The Origins of Woke, Hanania argues that central causes of "wokeness" are the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and multiple inventive court decisions and executive orders.[32] The book has promotional blurbs by Vivek Ramaswamy, David O. Sacks, and Peter Thiel, who wrote, "Hanania shows we need the sticks and stones of government violence to exorcise the diversity demon."[6]
Don't bother Sherman when he's fluffing this raccoon-eyed deviant.
He is no longer on the Plantation with those grifters.
Yeah, because Peter Thiel's penis isn't attached to an elementary school student's groin.
You should DEBATE him.
Woah, easy there, Trigger
Doubt it! But it is a thought provoker: Who is more authentic:
A guy with 4-5 name changes, who has no father, speaks openly in his book (devoted to victim-blaming deracinated and immiserated fellow citizens) about gay sex with a couch, and has reversed course in politics 100x in the last 2 years at the financial behest of the rapacious devils who immiserated the people (including his father!) who he grew up with, or
A nosferatu-looking palestinian-american man who was a former ethnonationalist for his own people, but now shills for the extremist, hyper-racial-supremacist extermination force killing his father's and mother's fellow countrymen by the tens of thousands?
Truly an ignoble competition here!
One common thread: both work against their own race at the behest of people who will eventually exterminate 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙝 them 𝙖𝙣𝙙 the people they continually chastise.
"gay sex with a couch"
hol up
How was the couch male? I don’t follow.
"A guy with 4-5 name changes, who has no father, speaks openly in his book (devoted to victim-blaming deracinated and immiserated fellow citizens) about gay sex with a couch, "
Cousin Jed's mother changed his name to correspond with her various husbands, before graduating Yale he chose the name he wished go by. His father—with whom he developed a somewhat close relationship—passed away in 2023. Feel free to give the page number where you find the couch story. As far as his changing his politics— you've already demonstrated you have no grasp of reality.
Your ‘Fell For It Again Award’ is in the mail!
The name-change drama always strikes me as a gross demonstration of privilege. The people who make a big deal of it have never had to deal with a violent, dangerous, or just plain unpleasant parent. JD did what he needed to do to survive. AS A CHILD. I don't hold a bit of it against him.
In the interest of debating in good faith, I've been unable to find the couch story in copies of the manuscript I've found online. Quite possible I was bamboozled by doctored screenshots. Hilarious!
Regarding the rest... I think it comes down to a matter of opinion. I've seen Vance cheerfully give a keynote at a party for a "decarceration" ie "release the inmated to terrorize the citizenry" organization. There are a lot of conflicts in the guy that would make a lot more sense if he firmly believes a good bit less than he claims. But it really is in the eye of the observer, and you may see him in precisely the opposite way given the same information.
From "Cracked," Seanbaby I think, back when they were actually funny:
"Taking the beanbag chair to its next logical step in eroticism, this is a beanbag chair with a vagina. And by vagina I mean a toilet paper roll with a rubber glove inside it that was Velcroed into the beanbag. I feel this whole invention really paints a postmodern picture of retarded sexuality. Just imagine the nude and breathy miscreant perched atop his beanbag paramour, rutting away like a sloth trying to climb a particularly vexing tree limb and not making much progress. And all the while the beanbag chair just gets more and more pancake-like until it reaches that sort of bulgy disc shape with a man groove worn into the middle. Used and damp and totally without shape in a corner. The beast himself slouching away to clean his shame on an errant sock, or perhaps he buys those baby wipes for just such an occasion. Then he closes up the beanbag and what? Sits on it and watches Spike TV?"
I almost wet myself the first time I read these lines.
Sherman’s hatred of JD’s “hillbilly cosplaying” reminds me of when women who have been fat their whole lives get mad at women who have only been fat as adults for “not really knowing what it’s like.”
I am an ACTUAL Hillbilly. He is from Middletown, Ohio, which is flat as a board.
He is a Lizard Person who’s liable to transition into a woman or become Hindu next week.
There’s that angry fat girl energy!
We have two trannies in our office.
They're not fooling anyone but themselves.
I juts stick to blowing 5 bucks on the lottery every month or so. Its a nice overnight dream well worth the $5.
real
You’re not a loser until you check the ticket!
Can’t remember who said it but the line is “you have the same odds of winning the lotto whether you buy a ticket or not.”
Technically not true, but still directionally true.
Friend of a friend won million dollar jackpots twice. The first win was large enough to never have to work again, so the question is why was this guy still buying lotto tickets? Of course, he turned out to be right.
Just be a venture capitalist instead!
Let the records show, I do own the Dave Rockwell: We Were the Ramchargers book, which, according to amazon, was $20 more expensive brand new. I somehow value that book even more, knowing that this guy never touched it. Also the shipping to Germany was $8 cheaper than the US-only option he listed on eBay.
oh hell yeah bro
I have most of the Peter Egan books and can see them from where I sit in my office right now. He was the best part of both R&T and Cycle World, the latter of which I read only after finding out Egan wrote for them. Given his books sell for less than $20 on Amazon why would you buy anyone else’s copies?
Interestingly, my parents have houses in two different retirement-esque communities, north and south. In neither place do they have a golf cart “or similar.” Both contain a 4cyl Honda sedan. They use a Lexus RX to get back and forth between the two abodes. My in-laws, OTOH, have two houses about 1/8th of a mile apart in northern WI, and they do have a Club Cart 4-seater to go between them (mostly because the one house is down a 75’ hill from the other). My 14y/o drives it extensively when we are up there. There’s also a fleet of ATVs, tractors, and at one point an Argo 8x8 amphibious tracked vehicle. None of them were in danger of being replaced by a Fiat either.
S2k, sounds like your parents are taking care of themselves and have an interesting fleet of vehicles. One of my best friends has a client that keeps a Mayback and a Cloud at both the winter and summer home. I met them and complimented his car and he told me they were enjoying retirement.
My parents vehicles are the opposite of interesting, a 2017 Accord, a 2020 Civic, and a 24 or 25 RX350. My in-laws have the interesting stuff, most of which is in support of hunting. My parents are far healthier and happier than my in-laws though.
I figured hunting must have been part of the equation because there are not a lot of uses for a 8x8…. Except I know this girl in Kansas that has an Army Surplus 6x6 5ton truck for farm use. 😁😁
We are adjacent to a national forest and swamp, and the thought was the Argo could be used in the swamp. In reality, no one goes in the swamp except me, and I walk. And in November in Northern WI, the swamp is frozen anyways.
Yes I admire you citizens of Wisconsin as on my one visit we were at a fish fry and Helen told me what a lovely place Wisconsin is and why don’t I retire there. The waitress came by and I asked if the lake outside, does it completely freeze over in the winter? And the nice young lady said yes but it only gets two or three FEET of ice on it. My wife Helen likes cold. I on the other hand prefer Florida. But I do admire the people of Wisconsin that can live with that cold weather. 🥶🥶🥶
I only vacation there, I live outside Chicago. But it’s beautiful country. Honestly, the cold winters in WI bother me less than the hot summers of FL. The worst season in WI is spring, when the cold grey weather lasts nearly until June. At least in winter you can do fun stuff like snowmobile and ice fish. In the spring there’s nothing to do and it’s terrible and depressing.
Wisconsin is a wonderful place where people don't judge you if you drink at lunch.
Yeah I got the hell out of there, the winters suck.
I knew a legendarily rich guy, a SF Conservatory graduate, former world-class art collector. He and his now deceased wife owned THREE adjacent mansions overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. But they could walk from one to another. No golf cart needed.
Mansion #1 was their private abode.
Mansion #2 was for entertaining guests and hosting fundraisers for worthy causes.
Mansion #3 was so that hubby could play a piano as loud as he cared to, at any time, day or night.
His Music Room had facing Steinway 9-footers, and a SOTA 5CH surround-sound system (Halco amps and Egglestonworks loudspeakers) that had to have cost $250,000.
And, on the walls, a King's Ransom of the Canalettos that you see in the standard art-history books. I still have the "Scouting Shots."
When his wife died, he auctioned off their art collection for charity. IIRC, $30 million.
Of course, that is hardly a drop in the bucket, compared to the amount Trump stole from his Meme-coin patsies.
Your supposed to donate the art so you don't have to pay capital gains!
I am a bit close to this story.
I think that the thinking was, that the IRS would not necessarily accept the Husband's opinion, or any appraiser's opinion, as to value.
WHEREAS, ten days of all-day auctions in a row, live-streamed by Sotheby's (I have worked with them in the past, on other matters), would establish exactly what the market values were.
Tax law isnt exactly consistent so it might have been different then
The sale of the art collection was only a couple or few years ago.
World-famous couple. Sotheby's was the best choice.
The game is slightly different when a spouse passes. You step up the basis in the undivided interest in the joint property and then use the sales value as the new basis on the 706. No cap gains. The third party sale establishes value.
You only step up the spouses half of the basis. There's still cap gains issues.
Community property states with an undivided interest (like CA, TX, AZ, etc) step up the whole asset for the deceased half and surviving spouse. It is one of the benefits that helps to compensate for all of the disadvantages for undivided community property.
My in-laws’ set up is a lot more reasonable. They bought and restored a small 100y/o 3br cabin right on the lake. As their family and fortunes grew, they wanted to expand, but it was either cost prohibitive or legally difficult (or both) to build on the lake, as it’s too close for modern zoning and grandfathered in. So they built a modern 4br ranch house across the street. No one likes the cabin except my wife and I and our kids and that’s the way we like it, everything else can go to her sisters, we have claimed the cabin.
The only thing i want i cant afford is a cabin/lakehouse of my own. My parents have one but we spent the Fourth of July at home because after 14 years of going to theirs with the dogs, dogs were banned this year. Its be nice to have something and not have to deal with my parent’s bullshit
Since we stay in the cabin and not the house, it’s great to have our own space. My in-laws bought their cabin in 1992 for around the equivalent of $200k today. Based on the lake frontage it’s probably worth 3-4x that today. And some asshole would probably rip it down to build an ugly monstrosity. But hopefully my kids and their cousins will be watching their kids and grandkids play there some day. It’s the only thing we really have worth handing down and would make a great legacy.
My parents will sell it to die with the most money in the bank they can is my guess
makes me want to just go slap some sense into your parents. they should be figuring out how to keep the lake house in the family.
Yeah... I'm kinda' with your parents on this one.
If they dont want them there, thats fine but we arent going if we cant bring them. we live 6 blocks away and they never see their grand kids
... that part is pretty strange to me. We take every minute we can get with them.
Forgive my slowness, but: couldn't they just build some doghouses outside the house or something? Is it an allergy thing?
that's really sad.
Heh, exactly why long ago my parents built their own cabin on the lake. Plus my dad wanted no part of trying to maintain his dad's cabin that was built in the late '40's.
It would be nice to have our own on the opposite side so the kids can play with grandma and grandpa and we can have dinner and wine on our own later without being judged by teetotalers when we have our second glass
just got to get your priorities sorted out.
and kids grow up fast, which is why my parents built a smaller cottage than they really wanted rather than wait a few more years.
Was he that guy on Craigslist who was renting out the 5,000 square-foot second floor of his living-room chandelier as a vacation condo?
As a piano player myself, I've long dreamed of having the means to do exactly what this fellow did.
Jack I have not met Mr Baruth but I have an almost certain feeling that he is not going to be motoring down the streets of The Villlages or Sun City in a mini-me Fiat. Now remember almost all the houses in those communities have a two plus garage, the plus is for the golf cart, and having driven through The Villages, Club Car is the vehicle of choice. When those nasty baby boomers are not driving their LS-500 or E-450 sedans (the Cadillac Sedan Deville use to be the vehicle of choice but thanks to the brilliant leadership of Queen Mary and Sir Mark of Aztec the royal leadership at the House of GM has run off all their customers to foreign brands).
I read Animorphs when I was in the 5th grade.
I remember my friends made fun of me about it, claiming that I had a crush on one of the female characters.
somewhere around here I suspect there is a box of Animorphs books that my kids read in elementary school. never for a sec thought they would be "valuable". if I find them in the massive cleanout that I need to do, they will go into the recycle bin.
Your kids read them because they are children's books. No one told Brad this. Which explains SO MUCH.
Counterpoint:
The Departure #19 is a profound Narniaesque allegory:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/363394.The_Departure
animorphs lore deepens
why recycle them when you could sell them to Brad?
Not worth the effort required
Liking girls in fifth grade? I don’t know, sounds pretty sus.
get a load of this homo liking girls and shit lmao
girls had cooties in 5th grade
All except for Lisa Mitzlefeldt, that is.
and Corissa C., whose last name I won't share b/c it is somewhat unique.
They have cooties now!
I read Lord of the Flies in the 5th grade. Fat Brad Webster accused me of having a crush on Piggy. I beat Brad up after school.
My 48 Y.O. son was always a terror with the girls from maybe 5 years old .
-Nate
Ahem, I maybe had the Scholastic Book Of The Month Club for a few years in the late 90s, which racked up something like three dozen KA Applegate books. I remember reading her followup series for older, edgier teens (which, um, I guess I'd turned into by then) and it was bad. From a content perspective (viking rapes were suspiciously absent from the Animorphs series) and writing. But my oldest son, Ivan, enjoyed The One And Only Ivan when he was younger, so I guess she wrote enough to satisfy two generations of L's.
Those $5 trade paperback books from the 90s are definitely worthless today.
"viking rapes were suspiciously absent from the Animorphs series"
sentences that have never been said before
you've never read George RR Martin...
george rr martin wrote an animorphs book?
I have no idea, but if he did, there would be viking rapes.
$14k for a FIAT "golf cart"? YHGTBFKM! LOL. NO.
I should've kept the street triple just so I could comment "You know what's better than a 14k fiat golf cart? a 2013 street triple."
did I miss hearing you finally sold it?
It was buried in a large comment section a few days after the post. Sold it last week to a nice Chicago Polish father and son
Congratulations
Honestly seemed like a waste to get rid of it but I don't have the space so it is somewhat relieving it is gone. Maybe I'll buy the wife something nice with the cash.
And spoil the habit of a lifetime? Pull yourself together, man!
The funniest part is that my daughter bought a 696 Monster something like 24 hours after you sold the Triple.
hell yeah man way to go
I’ll miss you mentioning it in the comments.
Im sure i will occasionally bring it up
I believe the Kawasaki NUV is priced similarly. People love, rolling around their suburban neighborhoods in golf carts now.
I can see rolling around in a golf cart, IF it costs $4k NOT $14+k
My in-laws paid around that ($4k) for their used golf cart maybe 10 years ago. But then it needed new batteries (known at time of sale) for almost the same $4k again (again, 10 years ago) which was shocking to me at the time.
And for the life of me I can't understand why. I see it in my dad's neighborhood in Florida. But why drive a golf cart when there are four perfectly good, air-conditioned cars in the driveway? I can see the appeal of small vehicles in tight places with limited parking. But Suburban Florida?
I’d really very much like to compare the Topolino to MY 160 horsepower Fiat Golf Cart I bought for like 1/3 the price.
(I finally had time and decent weather to rip the Abarth around. It is a terrifically fun little shitbox.)
hell yeah
there is one in my neighborhood. I keep an eye on it in case a for sale sign appears.
In 2026, idk that there is a better "enthusiast" bargain than a used 500 Abarth. It's not a good car in any measurable way, but they are fun and extremely cheap to buy.
" they are fun and extremely cheap to buy"
the world needs more cars like that.
Manufacturers: 'Best we can do is neither.'
or rather, "you can have cheap or you can have fun. choose one."
[applies tinfoil hat] They killed the Neon SRT4 to deny us this.
I wish they'd continued the Neon because you just know we'd have Hellcat, Redeye, Jailbreak, Demon, and Helephant versions, with widebody options for the relevant iterations.
nice Wilderness reference. For a chuckle, look up Adam Driver animorphs
That's the most believable animorph of them all!
On the subject of Mandami's eligibility, I am laughing my socks off over the fact that the linchpin of the US Men's Soccer Team's success so far is an accidental US Birthright Citizen. His mom tried to return to London to give birth, but the airline said she was at too high a risk of going into labor mid-flight, so the refused to let her board. She never planned on giving birth in America. Suck on that, Trump, is all I can say.
Yes, an Anchor Baby!
BUT THE POINT IS THAT HE WAS AN UNINTENTIONAL ANCHOR BABY.
And Under Dumpf's proposed rules, his citizenship would have been taken away, and the US would have been eliminated molto pronto. As they say in Shtoot-gart.
okay deal
These are human lives we are talking about. Both the US and the UK refused to accept ships carrying Jewish refugees during WWII. That's the next-to-worst stain on America's Presidency.
When I was growing up, in an Irish-Jewish Working-Class neighborhood, I knew four concentration-camp survivors. You cannot gainsay or argue with that!
I have worked at the highest "State" levels of public policy. I reported directly to the Governor of Rhode Island's Chief of Staff (AFAIK, Jack Baruth has not).
Flushing all the Birthright Citizens out will be a DISASTER for US employers, and it will drastically increase all sorts of consumer prices.
Suck it up, MAGA!
"Flushing all the Birthright Citizens out will be a DISASTER for US employers, and it will drastically increase all sorts of consumer prices"
more importantly it would tank the housing market and jobs would be absolutely everywhere and as they would be competing for workers the wages would be great
think about how much money could be saved if none of it went to treating or housing illegals/"birthright citizens" or any of the govt programs that support it directly or indirectly
would be incredible for the average american
The downside: Your produce will go up 15%
The upside: You'll have a job where you can afford produce.
Well that escalated quickly. From African parents wealthy enough to visit here from London to Jews dying trying to escape Hitler.
Look at the entire thread.
It was His Jackness who brought up the Holocaust.
In defense of Drumpf, eckshewelly.
yeah the whiplash is strong
I'm sure you believe that whole Rhode Island thing is really impressive, but all it says is, "I was a low-level flunky who answered to the guy who answered to the guv in a do-nothing Democrat administration in the smallest and least significant state in the country."
But hey, good for you. Have a cookie.
Unintentional. Right. Came over here very pregnant and just happened to stay long enough to be too pregnant to fly back. Any facts available for how long his parents stayed here before trying to fly back? A week? Two weeks? A month? I’ll post and look for your answer later.
AFAIK, the mother was ALONE.
No. Take it up with Wikipedia.
After the London call out, I checked first.
Not knowing what you're talking about is essential to calling Trump names. There have been no exceptions in a decade.
He made no difference. Team sucks. Soccer sucks.
Gay land hockey.
Oh hell I’m using that one
Pro soccer players are the biggest whiners in professional sports.
That was the most embarrassing soccer match I have ever watched. Worse than women vs 14 year old boys
More embarrassing than admitting you watched a soccer match?
I enjoy the world cup and then promptly forget about it. It's that or reruns on hulu right now.
I’ve been watching Clarkson’s Farm, and Elle on Amazon Prime which is the TV series prequel to Legally Blonde. I’m watching it with my daughters, but I’d sooner admit to that than admit to watching soccer (only had the Ghana game on when a Ghana-born friend was over). Otherwise haven’t watched a minute.
Not a humble brag but I watched a minute of it. I currently have a team working in Bogota and to say they are disappointed is an understatement. From my respective, what respectable sport ends a massive playoff game with a shootout?
PS- Clarkson’s Farm might be the most significant documentary ever made. Fight me.
"PS- Clarkson’s Farm might be the most significant documentary ever made. Fight me."
It has made a significant difference in how the UK views farming, that's for certain.
same thing with hockey. make the goals 3xwider and get rid of offside and they might be fun to watch.
Well Elle is easy on the eyes.
The Continental Soccer Association is coming to Springfield! It’s all here: fast kicking, low scoring, and ties! You bet!"
Most everything can be explained with a Simpson’s reference or quote.
^ Comment of the week, right there ^
We stopped in Dodge City, KS Monday at a local bar & grill. Very much the kind of place one would expect to find in Dodge City, KS.
There was a little shitkicker trio playing when we arrived, but soon thereafter the US v Belgium match started. When the national anthem played the entire place stood, removed hats, hand over heart..then cheered at the end.
It was a genuinely touching moment.
I'd never watched soccer before, but Cape Verde v. Argentina was almost enough to make me start. that was a great match.
yes, it was very painful to watch. the US was 2-3 steps behind the Belgians most of the game.
did you see Carly Lloyd's slam of Pulisic? "you rest AFTER the WC"
The pulisic heat is deserved but the midfield not being able to connect 2 passes and the defense not defending had that game sealed. Messi wouldn't have made a difference. Maybe they'd lose 4-2 instead.
I know next to nothing about soccer but I know it's not supposed to look like kickball. And that goalie...
The goalie made a great save in the first minute.
I sort of forgive him for the 3rd goal f’up because I suspect he was trying to make a play to get things going back upfield given how poorly the rest of the team was playing.
The back line, midfield and wingers were just awful. Timid, slow, indecisive, terrible passing, and so on.
That was the most embarrassing that I’ve ever watched and it was also the best. Mainly because I’ve only watched one in its entirety. I should’ve stuck to watching reruns of Reba.
The England - Mexico game was the complete opposite. Cliff hanger until the end.
I heard of that matchup and wanted both teams to lose.
Cape Verde v. Argentina was great too.
Someone predicted a couple of articles back that the USMNT would be taken apart by a good team. Not that I’m gloating. Canada got further than it ever has before, then got thrashed by Morocco, who were easily defeated by France.
Being a lifelong Cleveland Browns fan was good preparation for that kind of humiliating defeat.
Lions fans are right there with you.
How many members of the French, Belgian, German, and British teams are ethnically French, Belgian, German, or English/Scot/Welsh/Irish?
The GERMANS lost on penalties. That says something about their makeup. The French team is 80+% african I think.
“As a proud Englishman who just moved here two weeks ago…”
https://x.com/Phoxotic/status/2074483787195425225/video/1?s=61
'“Goal for England! A great debut for a player who just joined the England team last week when he realised he qualified for England citizenship due to a three day holiday in the Cotswolds he went on as a 12 year old”. 🤣'
Satire…but will it still prove to be over time?
Is that any different from whoever that Chinese American girl who competes for China in the Olympics?
I wonder how many countries outside the Anglosphere have anything at all like birthright citizenship. Considering the original purpose of the 14th Amendment, I’m surprised that more black Americans are not disturbed about the dilution of their franchise due to birthright citizenship.
'Is that any different from whoever that Chinese American girl who competes for China in the Olympics?'
Yeah, cause that broad is fine.
"I wonder how many countries outside the Anglosphere have anything at all like birthright citizenship."
That would be essentially NONE:
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/03/31/us-style-birthright-citizenship-is-uncommon-around-the-world/
“She killer her last two boyfriends!”
“But she’s hot!”
My younger daughter responded to a text message to vote for al Sayed in the Dem primary next month by telling them “not even for a million dollars.” So I told her, “I dunno. A million dollars is a lot of money.”
She and her mother are very much typical suburban Jewish females who reflexively vote Democratic. It’s almost sad the way they now feel politically homeless. They’re going door to door telling people to vote for Stevens and whoever is running against Rashida Tlaib.
I’d love to see some reporter ask al Sayed or Rashida Tlaib if they’ve ever heard a family member use the term “ebed” for Blacks, and if they did, did they call it out?
Without looking it up, my impression is used to be where the parents had differing citizenships and then the child had dual citizenship recognized by those country but not the US for both.
The father of a housemate of mine in college was a high level CIA officer and both his parents were 100% ethnically Greek. When his father was stationed in Athens and he was approaching his 18th birthday, his parents sent him back home so he wouldn’t get drafted into the Greek army. The Greek government considered him to be Greek.
His mother, by the way, was an administrative law judge. Deep statists for sure. When his dad was stationed in the Philippines, he got called on the carpet because one of the embassy cars was spotted outside the home of a known drug dealer.
That Chinese American girl was at least half Chinese
Ronnie, any thoughts on who and/or what world historic forces were behind this precipitous change?
Even in world cup 1994, if I remember correctly, most national teams were mostly composed of players of their own nationalities.
To answer your question, European politicians who favored an influx of migrants, and the Europeans who tolerated it. Look at what's going on in Spain. The left is open about replacement.
I find it interesting that while many teams from Central and South America have players of African descent due to the slave trade, but none of them have players that are 2 generations of less removed from Africa. Why are there no African ringers playing for teams from Latin America?
It doesn't even seem to make them better. A very German team won the world cup 12 years ago
I think in any international sporting event when national prestige is on the line (viz. Olympics), many countries are, ah, generous with citizenship requirements.
1/4-1/3
Skeptical Rick T is skeptical that she was “unexpectedly” denied boarding on a plane back to Nigeria and had to drop him here. It’s unclear from a quick search if this star player has any experience of actually having lived the US outside of soccer playing and practice.
PS fat lot of good he did playing against the tiny country of Belgium.
His mother was trying to get BACK to LONDON.
Perhaps you think London is in Africa???
might look like it now unfortunately
Ooh you got me! His Nigerian parents going back to London…which misstatement of fact in no way affects my larger point.
You seem to be the one that thinks Nigeria is in London. Otherwise, your claims of believing this commie's narrative are even more ridiculous.
Don’t worry John we got 10,000 new INS agents certified this month. We are going to ramp up the volume deportations. The baby train is going to pretty much stop running as DHS is starting to check incoming visa holders,!
The law is clear. If you had to take a Covid test to fly into the US during the troubles, we can make foreign females take a pregnancy test to enter now.
"the troubles" lol, may have to use that term some day
This sounds funny (and to your point, the US is missing an easy win by just funding US Soccer better... can't speak to recently, but in my era US Soccer was always massively underfunded and stolen-from by corrupt sinecurists), BUT...
... america has perhaps 100 better sports in which to specialize than soccer. Too hard on Women's knees (they're shredded by their 20s/30s at latest) and men can't play after the concussions get too numerous.
As a sport, and I say it as an experienced player, 2/10. Almost anything would be better
"Suck on that, Trump, is all I can say."
Your celebration of this is more or less tantamount to someone laughing during the pacification of Lidice. "SUCK ON THAT, BEN GURION!"
Obviously, I disagree.
"Gambling was a big enough problem when you had to fly somewhere to do it but now you can bankrupt yourself from the casino in your phone. "
My late aunt and uncle would go to Vegas or Atlantic City to gamble. He was no idiot, having grown a storefront paint & ladder store into a fairly successful contractors' supply. I once asked him about their casino trips and he said that he enjoyed gambling, budgeted X amount of dollars for their trip, and that if he lost it all, that's how much the trip cost him.
Of course, not everyone has that level of self-discipline.
The few times that I've been in a casino, I'm struck by how few people look happy there.
Almost 60 years ago my brother found an antique penny slot machine someone had dumped in a undeveloped lot near our house. Slots were highly illegal in Michigan then. He figured out how to fix it (Jeff's mechanically gifted and services industrial machinery for a living) and my parents set it in the den and put a bowl of pennies out so their guests could play. It was right around then that I first learned the word "automaton" and to me, that's what people look like when they play the slots.
I used to do fairly well when gambling, because I set limits and I was careful about what I played. Craps is a game you can do well in, if you really understand that almost all of the bets on the table are bad. If you're a 'pattern roller' you can enhance your odds enough to do well at it.
Blackjack is a game were if you count cards you can do well. But you have to remember is that a lot of the dealers cheat. The casino doesn't care, just as long as they're cheating YOU and not the Casino. I've seen it. Friend who was a card mechanic once taught me the signs. It's also why casinos use diamond back cards - so your eye can't see it when they do.
The real money, is in Texas Hold'em. As long as the dealer isn't cheating to favor someone else or hurt you (see that twice too). The biggest secret to that game is to play the limit tables when the Asian tourists are in. They come in intending to lose every last dime.
(and no, I don't gamble anymore. There are easier ways to make money)
easier than betting everything on chance?
yup.
like legal ways to make cash?
Shocking, I know, right?
I’ve been to a casino over in Indiana many years ago on a Monday night. Very depressing. Full of people who looked like they should be somewhere other than a casino gambling on a Monday night.
I went with a friend who was going with his out of town brother who was hot to piss away a large superbowl pot win. Pressured by his brother, my friend lost $50 in about two minutes. I didn’t bet anything. I see no sense in betting on something I have no control over.
My theory on casinos is they don't build those large elaborate buildings and keep them running by letting guys like me win too much money so I don't bet either.
Rows of seniors pissing away their Social Security at the slots one quarter at time. A third with oxygen tanks, a third with walkers and a third with both.
one of the few people that would actually be better off with video games
That's why they have video poker! An option for everyone!
Haha. I’m at a loss to understand how anyone trusts this.
From ChatGPT:
"Frank T. Ippolito, et al. v. Bally's Park Place, Inc. (1998) involved skilled video poker players who had discovered that certain machines became favorable after particular jackpot states ("persistent state" or "must-hit" style advantage play). They weren't cheating or tampering with the machines—they were simply exploiting the game's design. The New Jersey Supreme Court held that casinos could exclude these advantage players because casinos generally have a common-law right to exclude patrons, absent unlawful discrimination or contrary gaming regulations.
Narrator: The state of New Jersey and Bally's are business partners.
Most of the people I’ve seen at the Detroit casinos look like they’re gambling the rent money, its very depressing.
Yeah. Does not redound positively on my g-g-g-generation.
I mentioned slots elsewhere. Slots generate most of casino revenue.
Why don't y'all f-f-f-f-fade away...
We are working on it.
We didn’t have the decency to die before we got old.
This was some time ago. They were at least Silents or Greatest.
I’ve always had a bit a an issue with that Greatest Generation moniker. One of the greats no doubt. Top 3. In my mind definitely the Revolution generation beyond question with the civil war generation following.
I’ve spent some time recently on Civil War and Revolution *history. We live in an era where the deaths of 13 military personnel in the conflict with Iran can be turned into political fodder so it’s a bit hard to comprehend just how brutal combat was in the 18th and 19th centuries. Simply slaughter. There were four Civil War battles with more than 3,500 dead (both sides). 7,000 died in three days at Gettysburg. There are battlefields that are still literally soaked with blood.
*I just received a copy of the annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. I was disappointed to see the book jacket had a blurb from racialist Ta Nahesi Coates. Coates and Grant don’t inhabit the same moral universe.
The saddest thing I ever saw was an elderly woman in a wheelchair at a casino, breathing bottled oxygen, working an entire row of slot machines. In the parking lot I walked by what I was 100% sure was her car: an old beater, full of spare or used oxygen bottles... and her cat in a carrier. The windows were cracked at least.
Maybe the cat got a legacy.
Jack, I met you once in like 2007, for all the time it took to shake hands. I had not given that a thought since, until I discovered a couple weeks ago that you've been building this obsessive fantasy about my life ever since.
While it's flattering that you're so into me, I don't think this weird jealous fixation is doing you any favors.
Be the bigger man. Become a paid subscriber.
He has to ask his wife.
The two of you are not so different!
nevermind, this is the single funniest comment on ACF. i should have never doubted you sherman!
Why would I have to ask my wife to read my own substack? That's just silly.
Is she hot?
With certain exceptions, I never want to disrespect a man's spouse, so I have no opinion.
One of my readers did message me "He's the pretty one in that marriage", but I neither confirm nor deny this.
Pretty sure you'd come in your pants if you ever got the chance to be within 10 feet of a woman as smoking hot as my wife.
Sir, the only fetishes we indulge here on this Substack are sartorial and horological.
You know, Wes, this comment was quite kindly-phrased and perhaps even deserved.
I would typically feel the same way, but for over a decade jack has been fixating on a variety of topics and personages that allow him to elucidate the differences between the real and the synthetic. Perhaps food for thought.
Looking back through the *two decades* of stalker content Jack's written about me, one of the strangest things is just how much of it is entirely made up. It's like he wrote a choose your own ending book about me that started from a single event, then just spiraled into hate fantasy so intense it has to somehow be sexual in nature.
First: you’ve self styled yourself as a public figure. Your WHOLE LIFE is online. Jack isn’t “stalking” you any more than a guy who reads a book from the library and doesn’t check it out is a shoplifter.
Second: everything you have, as such, is basically public. Almost every slight directed at you is either a matter of opinion (Jack thinks you’re sexy) or a matter of public record. From the horrendously out of touch and cringeworthy Walz shit to the insane, just mind your own goddamn business Subaru thing.
The only thing left to know is if you’re really a kept man. Can you please confirm or deny for the public record?
That's fair. It's just so odd the way it's all translated into weird shit. I post photos of my dogs and my wife on my Instagram, along with the occasional dead animal. I write about policy and science. It seems like a very weird filter is applied between a relatively normal online presence, and the weird shit that gets put out here.
look man, im not in the business of blindly defending anyone besides my wife, let alone Jack, who is wildly entertaining but never without fault or blindspot. sometimes his attacks on people are totally unwarranted and borderline cruel (still funny though, did laugh) but this kind of response is exactly what hes talking about if you cut through jack's vitriol.
your entire problem is that you come across as totally insincere and not genuine in your cultivated persona or actions. first, you do not "write about policy and science". you repost and occasionally add 3 sentences of commentary around agitprop boomer bait for people who unironically say "orange man bad" under the thin veneer of "national parks advocacy". just call a spade a spade.
further, you stick your nose into the realm of the automotive and are clearly vastly unqualified to do so. dont feel bad about that part; 99% of auto "journalists" are. if you want to throw your hands up and say "gosh golly im just a silly little guy what is jack doing" then stick to posting pictures of the night sky and your dog. which is *totally fine* man. not everyone can be, or should be, deep.
lastly, the image you've clearly tried very hard to forge feels, again, inauthentic. a self styled wilderness tough guy coming in here and crying "stalker" is both hilarious and feminine at the same time.
honestly, id read jack's stuff about you and never bothered to look you up or validate info until today because i never cared. i dont think many of us did.
🙄. I refer you to Jack's complete and utter inability to articulate the difference between 4wd and awd.
And my "three sentences" result in articles that get read aloud on the floor of the US Senate.
Again, think critically, not just through the lens of an aggrieved ex con who's mad he got raped so much when he went to prison for trying to murder a black man.
“I post photos of my dogs and my wife on my Instagram, along with the occasional dead animal. I write about policy and science. It seems like a very weird filter is applied between a relatively normal online presence, and the weird shit that gets put out here.”
To respond by way of explanation, Jack is an extreme authenticist who via his transformation at Miami University became an borderline extremist hater of simulation/simulacra and has structured his life basically as a learning algorithm for recruiting the most authentic and extreme and comprehensive experiences of unmediated life.
As such he sometimes gossips about or lampoons people who in his often correct, often prejudiced view exemplify inauthentic living. Sorry that happened to you, but might be helpful info worth considering. Eg, the Subaru thing, come on.
As an aside, a lot of the “weird shit” is simply the realism filter of men who communicate as men. Everything at acf comes off as right coded because we mostly communicate with brusque forthrightness. The “relatively normal Internet presence” you refer to is in the truest sense more of a lib-coded hyperfeminine safe space speak-presence; it may be the patois of the time, but that doesn’t mean everyone has adopted it, particularly men with their organs intact.
I'd change that to: as a chubby loser who never got to have much of a career, Jack expresses jealous rage about people out there living lives and holding down careers he could never have even have aspired to.
Far more eloquent than I could ever manage as usual DK
very excellent comment
"While it's flattering that you're so into me, I don't think this weird jealous fixation is doing you any favors."
I think the word you want here is "envious", unless you think that I think you're going to steal my health insurance for the purpose of additionally sucking Jon Guzik's dick, the way you did to the kid who saved your life and believed in you while you were stealing from him.
P.S. You made up that story about the dude who tried to rape you and your dog.
Please feel free to reach out in the future if you'd like to make this weird obsession a little closer to reality.
theres absolutely no way this account is real and not elaborate bait. gotta be Jack's funniest bit yet! bravo!!!
Wes are you the “F-1” race car driver that ran for office in Ohio this spring? G
I briefly ran for local office here in Montana, only to discover that politics is absolutely all it's cracked up to be.
Ohio is my least favorite state. I'm not sure I've ever managed to find human food there.
"Human Food"???
Like, Cannibalism???
No, that's longpig. Human food is anything that won't immediately give you four types of cancer the second it enters your body.
Yes, the Arawak phrase for human meat was "Long Pig."
It horrified the Conquistadors.
Sorry Wes I had you confused with a guy named Casey. My bad
Similar persona
Then why did you go out of your way to humblebrag that your words were read on the Senate floor?
Seems like “politics” was really important to you just a few comments ago.
So, which is it?
I don't think there's anything humble about it. Some of us create content that matters and leads to change, meanwhile Jack is a pathetic loser trying to snipe at people whose lives he envies.
This is great. You can’t even remember what you wrote. I’ll dumb this down for you.
You bragged that your words were read on the Senate floor and patted yourself on your back for something nobody cares about.
I, Wes, whose content “matters” and “leads to change”, have been validated through the political system! I am important and should be envied!
But just a few comments later, you discovered “….that politics is absolutely all it’s cracked up to be.”
Back to my original question: Which is it?
Capisce?
I'd rather participate as a journalist than a politician. We have much more power.
Lynn, I think you’re thinking of Casey Putsch. However that is spelled.
Donkey, thanks I could not remember the name, but are correct it was Casey Putsch (he of auto schools and other failed endeavours.
"erm youre acting kinda gay"
bro shut up
There's nothing wrong with being who you are. But we see some of the worst in people come out when they feel forced to hide it over the course of their entire lives.
cringe
did some girl from instagram ghostwrite this for you
Oh right, I forgot this is an Andrew Tate fetish newsletter.
is that what you call anything vaguely right of center
It's what I call gross misogyny and an open celebration of hate. I think you'll find general conservatism detests the idea of telling people how to live their lives.
Wow, I just have to thank you for the WILDLY entertaining comment thread. I chortled, sir! Multiple times.
Your comments here read like the output of a very early LLM trained exclusively on post-purge Reddit and YouTube shill-bot comments.
It’s so perfect, I would not be surprised if our host here made you up out of whole cloth two decades ago, playing the long game to deliver this as a punchline moment.
I've been gambling once or twice in my life not counting poker games with friends. Lost 100 bucks in 20 minutes "People enjoy this?"
We have clients who will gamble away 100k+ per year. Yeah, they can afford it but it always strikes me as odd. A drug habit is cheaper.
I used to work in what was at the time the world’s largest casino in CT, as a cook. We would drink there after hours. People would ask as we were leaving “did you win?” “Yeah I spent $20 and I got drunk.” Aside from fantasy football and the odd March Madness bracket I don’t gamble at all, zero interest in it.
Our Greek friend in Lemont has an automatic debit from his bank account for the Lotto every week or so his wife said. He has won a couple of decent size raffles including a car one time. Pretty sure he’s probably underwater on the lottery though.
In case anybody thinks I am stereotyping Greeks:
https://greekreporter.com/2024/12/21/gambling-greece-epidemic-new-record-2024/
I'll buy a powerball ticket when it's 100mm or so every once in a while. 100mm would change my life. Winning 50k wouldn't even do anything. I'm boring, I'd pay down my mortgage so there isn't even a thrill
I used to be a Mtn Dew addict and so would frequent convenience stores and gas stations for a fix, and would buy a lotto ticket if it was crazy high. Now I don’t drink soda and aside from the bathroom on road trips couldn’t tell you the last time I was in a place to buy a lotto ticket.
I buy them online. I don't think I've ever bought one in person.
Bit of a non-sequitur here, but... did you see any health benefits from giving up soda pop, and what were they? As a T1D I am addicted to Diet Mtn Dew and am wondering what benefits I'd see (if any) if I gave it up.
youll lose weight rapidly and feel better
i was in that position when i was a kid but not drinking calories does wonders especially when its loaded with sugar
I did lose weight when I gave up sugar soda. Now I'm wondering if the diet stuff is somehow killing me.
I switched from 64 oz of Diet Coke every day to 64 oz of cold-brewed iced green tea almost a month ago. Less caffeine and it reminds of me life back in Japan, but if you need your tea sweetened this might not be the path for you. I still eat too many peanut butter cups, but I do feel better drinking the tea than the diet cola.
I admit we occasionally buy a $2 ticket when we hear the pot totals near a billion. We average about 1 number per 3 tickets.
Costs me $8 for 30 minutes of "What if" entertainment.
That's me once or twice / month .
I dislike gambling in general because the house is designed to win .
Oddly, whenever my Sweet goes to Las Vegas she wins some .
-Nate
I used to buy the occasional ticket for a big jackpot but stopped when I realized I never checked my numbers after the drawing.
Yeah, the ball is up to 457 and mega is 604. Guess it's time to buy a couple numbers!
"A drug habit is cheaper." Mmmm...
Good pure cocaine, 7 days a week, has to cost more than $100,000 a year TODAY. I knew a JD/MBA/CPA in the music business in LA, 30+ years ago, and his cocaine budget was $50,000/yr.
I never tried recreational cocaine. But when the doctors thought I had cancer in my facial bones and sinuses, they used the medical version of cocaine on me, to get a diagnosis. They apparently could not wait for it to take effect, so they just shoved the instruments up my nose, and it hurt.
But, 15 minutes later, I was walking on air, and I said to myself, "Ah! So this is why someone would spend $50,000 a year on this. A long time ago.
BTW: I later was operated on for three+ hours at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (literally hammer and chisel work), and there was no cancer in any of the bones they removed. But, the bones were "spongy," from recurrent infections since childhood.
There’s storys of multimillionaires losing it all gambling. Sure some multimillionaires lose it all from drugs but it’s usually the side effects and not the purchase price
Not many celebrities going broke from drugs but many have overdosed.
I've never been a druggie but I've tried stuff. These days, nothing is safe enough to even try. my buddy died of a fentanyl overdose
Mick Fleetwood has claimed that if you laid every line of cocaine he's ever snorted end to end it would be 7 miles long. It also has been estimated that he has, over the course of his career, inhaled $60M worth of the drug. (That doesn't necessarily mean _he_ paid for all of it.)
I wonder how much that contributed to his unique drumming style which to me is very recognizable and added much to their music.
It definitely contributed something. Rumours was recorded with so much cocaine you could get a contact high listening to it.
I read "Making Rumours," Ken Collet's memoir of recording the album. It seems they all did blow, but Mick and Stevie were especially fond of it. (Mick also drank a lot of Heineken.) Lindsey smoked bales of weed. Christine did coke and drank champagne. I don't recall reading that John did much in the way of drugs, but he usually recorded his parts in the morning with a screwdriver or tequila sunrise nearby.
I should read that. His drumming in “Go Your Own Way” was special. Not sure who else would have played it like that.
Recommended, but it’s amazing to me the album got made at all.
Nice old gentleman who has a shop next to mine makes hot rod golf carts with Harbor Freight motors and sells them for about $2500.
Would suck the headlights out these battery powered buggies.
The last time I was at Harbor Freight I noticed that they sold replacement engines and I thought back to how my brother and I had to scavenge a motor off of a discarded lawnmower to make our go-kart. Kids have it so easy these days.
This is how I learned that you can’t just take a lawnmower engine and turn it sideways and expect it to run. On an u related note, a boxspring is not starting enough to strap a lawnmower engine to.
Funny you should mention it. We didn't want to spend money on angle iron, so we used old bed frames. I was responsible for designing the steering and brakes (a cast iron plumbing Tee levered into the rotating tire).
As for the engine, someone on a nearby street was throwing away a reel mower with a horizontal shaft.
And that is how I learned that there was a hold world of lawn equipment I couldn't comprehend like "dethatchers" that has side shaft motors!
Most of the Harbor Freight engines are horizontal shaft. Only one is a vertical shaft for a mower. Most of their business has to be for go cart like things.
So funny how gambling was considered a societal vice growing up. A tax on poor people, etc. You had to go to Vegas or Atlantic City to do it.
Now they are advertising gambling sites on my kid’s phone. What changed?
Who gets bribed.
Society is degrading in front of our eyes. Two current giveaways of who may be (ok, is) a sucker:
1) any gamblers who think they could win over the long term.
2) anyone who believes Candace Owens.
I watched some card counting shows on youtube and it was interesting. It was also a lot of effort to win 200k a year.
For someone who can card count naturally (rarer than hens teeth as they say) it would be interesting. Anyone who has to learn to do it is going to get caught and if tv and the movies are accurate, beat up by large gentlemen wearing shiny suits.
Further evidence you are destined to lose gambling is that card counting is illegal. How a game of some mental skill makes certain mental skills illegal screams “you don’t have a chance”.
Using your brain to card count is legal but the casino will kick you out pretty quickly and you’ll be on a list at all casinos. These guys use disguises and stuff
The guy I started a couple businesses with back around 1999 was a card counter. I'll tell his story on a Sunday.
It's not illegal anymore. Though if caught you will be asked to leave and they'll tell the other casino's about you.
how do they catch you? is it just something based on presumption?
The way you win is by betting more when the deck favors you and less when it favors the house. Varying your bet size in line with the count is a dead giveaway.
If you're curious, Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House is a pretty entertaining fictionalized account of the real life MIT Blackjack Team.
What Jeff said. Also, from my experience watching movies, starting with $10,000 in fresh hundreds and ending up with hundreds of thousands to millions in winnings with a group of people standing around watching and cheering.
If they think you're doing to well I guess? Beats me. I have friends who count cards and they never got tossed. Then again, they never made insane bets after betting almost nothing for half the current deck.
The thing is, if you think there are card counters at the table, just shuffle more often. That's all it takes to stop them.
Security doesn’t duck when they hear a “shot” ring out and the leading opponent of the disastrous Iran war goes down? And why did they need 10 inches of crime scene soil removed STAT?
and somehow ben shapiro was notified before 911
seems legit
You can question all you want. What you cannot do is deny facts and evidence, which will be presented in the trial. Until then relax.
Candace Owens has an agenda and she is a terrible person for what she is doing. I was never a Charlie Kirk follower. I barely knew who he was until he died but I appreciate how he approached life and family. All influencers exist to get your attention and guess what, that is what Candace Owens is doing. Don’t be a sucker. Or be a sucker if you want, but be aware.
FYI- I believe a fair amount of Charlie’s security was ex-military. I am ex-military. Don’t know your status Cb, but military people react differently to gunfire because they are used to it. Also, if you have any experience with guns, and being shot at (again, more likely if you were in the military (well, the army) it isn’t always loud, and if it is one shot it can take a second to realize what happened. You, asking your questions, already know what happens, so you have a bias. It was a different experience for those who were there and didn’t know what was going to happen compared to anyone watching the video after the fact. Common sense.
what you say is correct but i cant help this nagging feeling like something is off. like its not exactly as they claimed it happened. his neck stopped a .30-06? dunno about that. i dont think ill ever get closure though
Unless you are a ballistics expert or a metallurgy expert for different bullet materials I wouldn’t let it bother you. It doesn’t bother me. We can’t have all the answers and most people aren’t metallurgists or ballistic experts.
It was at a pretty good range and I suspect they were hunting rounds, so the bullet is gonna mushroom quickly. Also the neck is mostly bone and muscle.
The not ducking thing? I don't duck. Been shooting for ages and yes been shot at too. If you hear it, the bullet has already passed you. Ducking is kinda pointless.
What you do is take cover - unless you're security. Your job is to engage.
thats what i was thinking too. the mushrooming ought to be fairly large no? i guess i was expecting a large chunk to be taken out of his neck if not nearly decapitated especially since it seemed to have hit the side of the neck
- So this is the second time Max's rear wing malfunctioned and could've killed him? WTF? I'd be standing on the conference room table telling the fuckers I'm not getting back in the car. Before that it was the rear brake harvesting locking up the back wheels. These guys are special.
- I personally never understood gambling for leisure. I remember my father wanting to bet me on something to which I said, "why would I do that if I don't know what's gonna happen?" He said, "Why would you bet on something you're sure of?" "Because that's how I know I'll win!" I still don't get it.
"I'd be standing on the conference room table telling the fuckers I'm not getting back in the car."
I don't know why Alonso isn't doing that
Does the Aston Martin go fast enough or run long enough to kill anybody?
beyond Lawrence Stroll's ego, Adrian Newey's reputation, Lance Stroll's self-esteem, and Fernando Alonso's legacy? no. probably not.
For those of us who live to incompetence on the big roads, the Topolino may be useful as a Neighborhood Vehicle. Subject to limits: better than nothing? Bruce Parker
It is absolutely NEV-focused. The question is: does it provide value?
It's closest competitor has to be the MOKE right? It's fundamentally more "car" -- I think a larger range, four seats, 45ish mph top speed -- but also costs at least twice as much.
Would be interesting to read a compariosn between the two.
LOL, I'm envisioning Jack trying to hustle a Moke around mid Ohio at max velocity!
He’d own the NEV-class lap record for sure!
Lots of my neighbors have golf carts and four wheelers and side by sides but if I had room to store it I think I’d rather have a Citroen Mehari.
incredible choice sir
Our previous city regime dumped about 50 downtown parking spots to various "traffic calming" and pedestrian friendly features because they assumed that everyone was just dying to take the bus. Now that things are gridlocked this summer and business traffic is down because there is no parking to be had anywhere we need a solution. The entirety of the City of Ketchum and the city of Sun Valley is max 30mph, and just about everything you want to do is within those limits, similar to staying in a resort development. A few people are driving around in electric Mokes kei trucks, or similar. The Mokes start in the 20s and go much higher.
An excellent solution would be to designate a 3rd of the parking spots for vehicles under 150" and under or 70" in width, or something. We could get 5 spots for 3 current ones on many blocks. With adequate enforcement every second home would have a conforming vehicle in the garage next to their Ineos. Win for efficient vehicles, win for.local business, no coercion just encouragement.
Hmmmm, bulldoze city hall and put in a parking lot?
Make sure there is no basement before you take it on.
Hilarious! Because that is what the did 3 years ago. city hall and the fire department shared a large structure in our commercial core so they built a larger fire station in the industrial area, and moved city business to a smaller building outside the core, which is good!
The bad is they took that footprint, some of the most prime real estate in a very expensive place, and used federal dollars to put up subsidized "workforce" housing. Of course all the city employees, teachers, police officers, bartenders, bank tellers, retail workers, fishing guides, plumbers, paperhangers and tow truck drivers make too much money to qualify to live there.
They installed underground parking, but only one space per unit, units have 1 to 3 bedrooms. They all have multiple adults. Shockingly more people are living in each unit than are allowed to be there but no one is doing anything about that, so for the surrounding area all on street parking greater than 2 hours is always full.
Added bonus, the city is trying to raise its LOT tax because of a shortfall in property tax revenue vs. expenses. Guess how much less revenue that lot generates vs. the adjacent lot?
"Porsche Belt Buckle Made In USA Solid Pewter"
I have Toyota Tundra and International Harvester belt buckles that I got as auto show media preview swag.
Speaking of selling swag, if any ACF readers are interested, I'll send one of these for the cost of shipping & packaging to the first five people that request it: https://www.ebay.com/itm/168512480208?_skw=ferrari+press+kit+2002
I also have a small Ram Power Wagon toolbox / press kit, a Ram Heavy Duty lunch box / press kit with thermos, and a small Toyota FJ Cruiser canteen. Same deal, free for shipping and handling.
I have a tie tack from my Dad that’s a miniature Champion spark plug. It’s really cool. I’ve seen them for sale on eBay.
hey thats pretty neat
When can I swing by and pick up the Ram stuff?
I live near 11 Mile and Greenfield. Let me know when it's convenient for you.