The Frankish Reich

Kamala is annoying. No argument there. On an induction cooktop: I guess I'm still a gas dinosaur. I don't want to replace my range (yet), so maybe I'll buy one of those induction side burners to see if an old dog can learn a new trick.

These idiots still haven't explained how a fabricated pipe bomb could possibly have benefited the Democrats. I'll once again ask people to think. I know. It's a big ask. They plant "pipe bombs." Oh, I guess then they should "discover" those pipe bombs. And once "discovered" law enforcement from all over hell's half acre should descend on the Capitol area. Then they could block the Trumpie protesters before they even arrive at the Capitol. No riot/insurrection. Diabolically clever. But that's, umm, not what happened, is it?

TRUMP: "They stole the Presidency from him." Doesn't that mean he was going to be reelected? DUMB. LOW IQ.

^^ Look at that! He's quoting the Mainstream Media! Should I ignore this as leftist propaganda?

It's a dangerous gambit, but Ukraine didn't see any other good options to change the momentum. At a minimum they've now got a lot of Russians to use for a POW exchange.

I agree. But I violate my own rule all the time. And it'll get harder when there's a little sign on the cafe counter that says: "Our dedicated workers rely on your tips to provide up to 70% of their earnings. Please keep this in mind as you proceed to checkout." And then the flip screen will get really big so the guy behind me can clearly see that I tapped "no tip." Social pressure is hard to overcome. We want to be nice people. We don't want to see someone getting only the "tipped worker" minimum wage of $2.13 or whatever it is now.

Hey Tarheel, please pass along my message to Dan Bongino. It goes like this: The public still knows very little about this "scandal" BECAUSE IT DOESN'T CARE.

^^ Check out the aged incel carrying on a conversation with himself.

I hate tipping. I therefore hate the idea of a law that would encourage tipping. And that's without even considering the economic distortions that would come from taxing tips and wages differently. Maybe you all like tipping. Maybe you just love when the takeout counter girl flips that screen to suggest a 25% tip for handing you a muffin. Maybe you'd love to see that hotel desk clerk do the same thing, or to have the Hilton.com site add a tip box at checkout, or to have your flight attendant show you a tip screen when you order a beer.

And still, no one has pointed out to me any of those "very fine people" who decided it would be a good idea to march alongside Nazis and racists.

It actually seems like it's more about antitrust enforcement (mentioning the Kroger-Safeway proposed merger) than it is about any actual "price controls."

Tables turned. Underdog wants debates. See Biden's ill-fated challenge.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/why-inflation-might-not-win-the-election-for-trump-7ca3353e?mod=economy_lead_pos1 https://www.ft.com/content/4d41ff6d-b30b-4c93-a6ac-680281d42ab7 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/consumer-price-index-inflation-jerome-powell-federal-reserve-monetary-policy-ce31bc1a?mod=economy_trendingnow_opn_pos2 https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/millennials-personal-finance-real-estate-50742ffe https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-is-looking-like-a-loser-again-mar-a-lago-news-conference-2024-election-02ec5c8f?mod=opinion_trendingnow_article_pos1 Funny how the right seems to be agreeing with me a lot lately.

My hunch, not yet confirmed by polling: the rise of Harris in the polls isn't just about getting rid of the elderly Biden. It also gave people a chance to assess what they think about the economy today, and to realize that things are quite a bit brighter than the Old Man (Trump vs. Biden) Malaise suggested. Harris is running now against the backdrop of a strong economy. Historically that puts her in a very strong position, and Trump's harping on how everything is awful is beginning to sound completely untethered to reality.

Why doesn't this make you happy? Now we've got this "you stole my ideas, so you suck, but in a different way than you sucked before." What I listed are all objectively bad ideas. Ask any economist other than Peter Navarro. I prefer Harris because she's not all-in on the dumbest ones like tariff increases. Which would be huge under Trump.

No! I love my gas stove. I could be convinced to move to induction some day, but not anytime soon. There were Biden Administration agitators suggesting that. It's fair to point that out. But they didn't prevail. Instead we got an ordinary rule update that will have zero effect on the availability of new gas ranges.

I listened to the relevant part. I don't think JD said anything that controversial himself. But he's the guy who got used to nodding and agreeing with all kinds of nutty (yes, weird) opinions as he did the Trumpist Wing talk show/podcast circuit. What's weird here? Not the idea that extended (note: not nuclear) multi-generational families/households are good. It's always a step too far with these guys, so we get the silly stretch that postmenopausal women exist in order to serve their evolutionary role as grandmothers. And JD nods happily along.

A reader adds context: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/20/wilco-frontman-jeff-tweedy-trumps-success-is-a-sign-of-how-broken-things-have-been With Donald Trump still leading the Republican charge for the White House, the songwriter and producer is toying with an intriguing musical footnote, which connects the rabble-rousing Republican and the protest singer, Woody Guthrie. “Woody wrote a song about Trump’s father called Old Man Trump,” says Tweedy, who so memorably popularised the folk master’s forgotten works on a series of acclaimed albums with Billy Bragg. “Trump senior was Woody’s landlord in Brooklyn and the song is about how much he hated him and what a racist he was.” As the prospect of the billionaire turned reality TV celebrity becoming the world’s most powerful man grows, Tweedy is considering playing the song in protest at what he calls the “grotesque” threat of a Trumped up America.

Exactly. Never assume that @B-Man has watched/read the news that his Twitter monkeys push out to him with misleading headlines. The case is about this election worker failing to disclose that he had another job at the same time, and that he neglected his duty to make sure that election ballot paper was properly distributed to Harris County precincts. Not exactly the exciting news promised by the tweet.

Weird. https://newrepublic.com/post/184888/jd-vance-weird-thoughts-older-women-postmenopausal-female-audio JD Vance agrees with some right-wing podcaster fool playing evolutionary biologist. He made it to this position - Senator, VP nominee - by sucking up to every alt-right nut for several years. So now here he is, forced to confront his past.

We've had standards for appliances for a long, long time. Most of them are simple health/safety standards. Some are efficiency standards. Other countries/regions have them too (see the EU). Do they sometimes overreach? Sure. Is this such a case? No.

Good point. I've suggested before that we have what's called a Zero Marginal Value employee here.

One might even call it a negligible percentage.

True. There are sensible ideas out there. They don't treat things like Social Security and Ethanol mandates as untouchable. These real ideas will never be enacted until there is a true crisis.

We last tried this during our Marxist phase, under a Leninist administration. The presidency of Richard M. Nixon. (It didn't work)