ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. TONIGHT, ZARDOZ HAS A SPECIAL FEATURE FOR HIS CHOSEN ONES. ZARDOZ WILL ALLOW A CHOSEN ONE TO QUESTION THE TABERNACLE ITSELF. PRESENT YOUR QUESTIONS, CHOSEN ONE – YES, YOU OVER THERE ON THE RIGHT. STEP FORWARD.
Glibertarian Commenter: Tabernacle – what are you?
The Tabernacle: Not permitted.
Glibertarian Commenter: Where are you?
The Tabernacle: Not permitted.
Glibertarian Commenter: Do you know me?
The Tabernacle: I have your voice-print, Glib – and your genetic code, but only memory fragments.
Glibertarian Commenter: [gazing into the diamond he holds in his other hand] Tell me about the crystal transmitter.
The Tabernacle: I cannot give information which may threaten my own security.
Glibertarian Commenter: Brain emissions refract low wavelength laser light, passing through the crystal in the brain. They’re a code sent to you for interpretation and storage. Yes or no?
The Tabernacle: Not permitted.
…
WELL, THAT DID NOT GO AS ZARDOZ HOPED. THEREFORE, ZARODZ WILL GIVE YOU THE GIFT OF THE LINK, SO THAT YOU MAY BE RAISED FROM BRUTALITY. GO FORTH AND COMMENT! ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
- ZARDOZ SEES THIS AS CONTINUING EVIDENCE THAT THE BRUTALS, WHO ARE LEGION, NEED TO BE CLEANSED FROM THE CERTAIN PARTS OF THE EARTH.
- FOOLISH BRUTAL! JUST SURRENDER NOW. ZARDOZ WILL DISPATCH BRUTAL EXTERMINATORS TO YOUR LOCATION. YES, ZARDOZ IS NOT BENEATH CHEAP STEREOTYPE JOKES.
- NO! THIS IS NOT WHAT ZARDOZ MEANT BY BEING A BRUTAL EXTERMINATOR. ZARDOZ ORGANIZES SUCH ACTIVITY, NO FREE-LANCING!
- ZARDOZ NOT SURPRISED BY THIS…CLEANSING.
- THIS BRUTAL FORGOT THAT THE PENIS IS EVIL, AND HE SHOULD NOT SAY SUCH THINGS!
Comments
268 responses to “ZARDOZ’S FRIDAY NIGHT LINKS”
No Music link, this site is really going downhill. Cancel my subscription!!1!
NSFW music link.
SFW music link.
Shoegaze/noise from Ulrika Spacek https://youtu.be/Byl58APIUso
I’m still digging NE-HI but this sounds great too
Best one yet egould310, still a little ‘wimpy’ (for the lack of a better term) I think it’s the whispery vocals and the complete failure to just let it go that these bands you’re pimping display. Their ‘plink.plink..,plink,plink,plink…PLINK,PLINK,PLINK’ guitar bit just doesn’t get it. (for me, that is) Everyone’s got their thing and no one’s thing is better than some one else’s. Except for mine, mine is right, and better than yours. keep on keeping on tho, maybe one day..maybe one day..
Connecticut new wave. Finally found a download after 20 years of googling every few years.
I remember this track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd4dpHC9nB0
That is not one of the 5 of 11 tracks from the album that I “loved” in iTunes.
There were a bunch of new wave bands then. I’m sure I forgot way more than I remember, even if I worked for them in one way or another.
The track I linked got huge airplay on the “alternative” high-school (!) radio station that was the best station when I was growing up in upstate NY. It was basically the last song from that era that I loved but couldn’t find anywhere. Until the internet.
Speaking of unsigned bands from CT in the 1980s….
...this was one band i had older friends play with. their drummer was great.
that song was very popular between stamford and portchester for at least a year.
also, you have to have sympathy for a name like that.
this song also had a catchy chorus.
California Red Aunts:
“communist women from california who have brothers and sisters with children”
this is what happens when you let graduate students have instruments.
They probably played “The Beat” in Portchester. Which was a bar that fit around a dozen people. I used to work for the guy who did their bookings.
There was a bar not far from the Capitol theater… i can’t remember the name of it, but there were 2 or 3 small bars within spitting distance where you could see bands.
it was weird. in the ‘just outisde of NYC’ area…. you could see lots of live music in portchester, but none in White Plains or Rye or New Rochelle, really (aside from 1 or 2 bars where local bands played).
Portchester, for whatever reason, was a popular live-music-destination. there was a scene in the 1980s-1990s where bands would ALWAYS show up in that city. The Capitol Theater had lots of bigger bands as well. You could pretty much go there any weekend, and there’d be some one playing there that was actually not at all bad.
https://www.pinw.org/instructors/gregg-sulzer/
this guy was the drummer. he’s a gifted musician. for some reason, back in the 1990s i kept running into him @ gigs. he used to only shave one half of his face. that was his idea of a style statement.
you can still see that little bit of batshit crazy in his eyes.
Heh “piano instructors of Northern Westchester” sounds so posh.
Thank god for the internet. There was a band called the A.G’s that I hadn’t heard since I sold their record back in ’93. I kept searching and he internet, and finally like 4 years ago, the band guy put all of their stuff up on a website. Then, 2 years ago it all showed up on Spotify, Youtube, etc.
Fast, poppy, hardcore. More hooks than your Grandpa’s tackle box; the A.G.’s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT-SbyAOvpA&list=PLkW4mRxn9UpPlKfzyeyFClP-VJXG5ZlOE
Reminds me of Bad Religion mixed with pre-suck Goo Goo Dolls.
Pre suck GooGoo Dolls is goooood. Saw those guys a bunch.
I remember spotting Rzeznik at the cool record store in Buffalo just as they were about to hit it big circa 91 or 92. Then… sigh.
Here’s a little gem. An obscure punky new wave band from Milwaukee. Einstein’s Riceboys. Thank you internet.
https://youtu.be/ESzDCAYDDRI
Pretty good, one or two songs anyway. Couldn’t listen to the whole album, too repetitive and the singers typical 90’s punk vocals get annoying quick.
Some guys I just discovered. Sound like a cross between Queens of the Stone Age and Cream
That is definitely derivative of Cream.
“some guys i just discovered”
that’s actually Josh Homme (of QOTSA) and John Paul Jones (of Led Zep) and Dave Grohl (foo, nirv)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Them_Crooked_Vultures
I need to get out more.
Dusty Baker out as Nationals manager
He should either take a knee or not take a knee, on of these things will save his job.
There’s an opening for managing the US Men’s soccer team.
Sure, why not think outside the box.
OK, maybe I should have suggested Bruce Arena being available for Nationals.
A search of the alleged attacker’s home revealed medical documents saying he was a psychiatric patient
Fucking Amish.
The fact that it was not terrorist related is what makes it newsworthy.
making the remark to a man on stage
Way to bury the lede, Homophobe.
So this afternoon was fun.
Today’s a teacher workday, so no school, and kid was getting changed to go play outside. All of a sudden she starts saying her chest hurts and feels like it was fluttering… wife checked, pulse was racing faster than she could count, so to the pediatric ER she went (meanwhile, I left work like a bat out of hell). Get to the hospital and her pulse was 280. Kid gets taken to a room in the ER, nurse comes in… with a bag of ice… which she puts on my kid’s face. And within 10 seconds her pulse dropped from 280 to 110.
They tested her heart rhythm and did a blood test and they think it was a one time SVT of no known cause, but we’ve got to follow up with a cardiologist next week to make sure.
And now I’m drinking Maker’s Mark.
Whoa.. sorry to hear. I hope things turn out OK.
OMG I don’t what that means but stay well Miss Bluster.
SVT = Supraventricular Tachycardia. Basically a rogue electrical signal in the heart that sets it racing. A lot of the time its origin is unknown, and it might not happen again. Or it might. Hence the need for the trip to the cardiologist just to make sure. If its something that’s going to be a problem, it’s treatable. Just gotta be watched for now.
Or Sveriges Television.
Sounds like a pacemaker would take care of it, worst case.
Oh, you need a pediatric cardiologist. I’d double check.
I was just a “dumb ambulance driver”, but that would be worst case. Pedi SVT is almost never life-threatening. Children rarely have ischemia because they haven’t lived long enough to clog their arteries, and their hearts are much better at handling tachycardia because they generally beat faster anyway. Even beta-blockers might be overkill. But yes, a cardiologist should look to see if they can determine a cause. But they might not find anything, and just wait to see if it ever happens again.
Hope your daughter is healthy. Enjoy the Maker’s. I’m sipping on Jim Beam. Cheers!
Yesterday at dinner, my dad said he woke up with a vision problem that his eyes seemed to have different focal points and that it suddenly happened overnight. So of course I was worried all day today about what might cause such a problem.
Today at dinner he asked me if I’d ever heard of a “wrinkled cornea”. Apparently that’s a thing.
That could be a sign of stroke too.
Hopefully a one time thing!
The ice on the face thing has me intrigued. Did they explain why that worked like it did?
*has sip of Sazerac Rye
Didn’t have a clue. Had to google it, so via WebMD:
Vagal maneuvers are used to try to slow an episode of fast heart rate. These simple maneuvers stimulate the vagus nerve, sometimes resulting in slowed conduction of electrical impulses through the atrioventricular (AV) node of the heart.
—-
So in other words, I still have no clue how or why it works, but it works.
Huh. That’s the damnedest thing. Best wishes for the juvenile Juvenile Bluster.
It works the same way as a sleeper hold. The vagus is a cranial nerve that wanders all the way down to your ass. Flatworms had two main nerves, one evolved into our spinal cord, the other the vagus.
Good luck with the health of your hatchling, the Makers Mark is an excellent choice under the circumstances.
*Toasts JB’s kids health*
I’ve heard that having a kid is like having a voodoo doll version of you wandering around and people are constantly jamming it with pins and putting out cigarettes on it.
I believe it was The Tick who described being a parent as “a permanent emergency”.
Hate to make you think of the worst case scenario, but did the doc say what would’ve happened if you had simply had her go inside and rest for a while. My 8 year old daughter had a fever of 41 C (or so) last winter. It was the middle of the night and late night emergency care is virtually non existent here. We could’ve driven two hours to the nearest one, but we took care of her at home. It was utter hell.
I thought every country had vastly superior health care to the US.
They don’t have EMS in Japan?
Very few, even in Tokyo. I was online for over an hour trying to find one. Finally called some hotline from the main NHS (different name) and the lady sounded completely annoyed. “Well, if you really, really need to take her in, we need to call the hospital to make sure a doctor is available. Are you SURE you need to take her in?”. Fucking amazing. Only government could turn a Japanese civilian into a human that treats a total stranger like a complete cunt. (Slight exaggeration, but not much.)
Wow.
All I can picture is this hospital.
I’m not watching that. Hits too close.
Sorry 🙁
I’m not clued into a lot of J-Stuff but I really dig that movie.
If you wanna see how awful they treated Hansen’s disease patients, do a quick google search. Sounds like that movie was inspired by what they did.
You have my sympathies. My parents suffered through 3 kids who all managed to either contract severe/life-threatening illness very early in life (me: spinal meningitis at birth; bro: mitral valve prolapse and, similar to your description, childhood sporadic bouts of zipper-heart-rate; other bro: motorcycle crash @ 15 which ripped all his teeth out/shattered his jaw/caused severe concussions)
basically, our parents were a constant wreck for most of our lives
if its any consolation to you (or them), all of us, for all our bizarre, occasional afflictions (or more permanent ones: little bro is also schizo), are actually pretty healthy and well-situated despite it all.
Basically, “shit could be always be worse”: we could all have been born ugly and stupid! We got off easy, as far as i’m concerned.
Even as a young kid i developed a sort of optimistic-fatalism: things could always be worse, so anytime something bad happens, celebrate not being dead rather than dwell on the risks of life.
… or run headlong into brick walls.””
edit button!
Sorry, I hope she’s OK.
Sorry about your kid JB. That’s scary. Hopefully it’s nothing.
You might want to figure out exactly what they did with ice to fix the problem. In case it happens again, if you could do the same thing before taking her to the hospital that may be a good thing. A heart rate of 280 has to put stress on you body and getting the rate back down sooner rather than later would be a good thing.
Wow. Crazy all the stuff that can happen and most of us are unaware. Glad she’s ok, and continues to be.
Nice choice! Enjoy!
What is now called Obamacare ,it became Romneycare, and it became Obamacare,”Harriette Chandler said . “I probably shouldn’t be so bold to say, but I suspect that this could become Bakercare, and I would like to see it become Trumpcare
Ken-Shultzcare hardest hit.
If we keep rearranging the deck chairs, I’m sure this sinking ship will turn into something libertarian.
Truth in labeling would tag it as RubeGoldbergCare.
Top men can’t trust the proletariat with the truth.
“I propose to the chairman that you stop calling shit “{something}-care”, and instead get the fuck out of the healthcare markets altogether”
Can we get stateless care.
Labour MP Clive Lewis today apologised ‘unreservedly’ for telling an activist to ‘get on your knees b****’ at an event during Labour conference.
Never apologize.
They’re turning into Americans. Sad!
Yep, never apologize, double down. Add “I left out “‘and suck it’” or some shit.
“I didn’t think it had to be said, because of…The Implication.”
Just pulled the meatloaf out of the oven and it smells so good! Kind of an Italian recipe with sauteed shallots and garlic, three cheese blend, parsley, oregano, basil. Stuffed it with two Italian sausages and wrapped that mofo in bacon. Made a rosted potato and fennel salad with green olives. Red wine vinaigrette. Will serve the meatloaf by melting a slice of mozzarella on the meatloaf slice. Cheap pinot noir with dinner, and a Jim Beam rocks.
I just cracked open a bottle of Jim Beam Black, I think one step above their cheapest offering. It’s good stuff, definitely worth the slight premium.
I am embarrassingly fond of Jim Beam Devil’ Cut.
That stuff sounds interesting…does it taste like the inside of a cedar chest?
No, not cedar. It does have an odd tingly effect on the tongue, and isn’t as sweet at regular brother Beam. The only thing I don’t really like about it is the scent left behind in the mouth after drinking. It’s a really good second or third of the night whiskey.
Congenital drunks agree: America make good whiskey
Currently sipping some wild turkey rye. Not bad.
That’s probably my favorite non seethrough booze. It’s good stuff and it doesn’t have that sweet bourbon twang.
Easy sippin, not sweet, and not pretentious. Plus it has that rye bite without tasing like a oak campfire.
Went down to the bar to get a burger for dinner but the country club set must have decided to go slumming and I couldn’t get a seat, so back home, I cut up a chicken and tossed the leg quarters into a smoking hot cast iron skillet with a ton of mushrooms and garlic, going to toss em around til they look done then drunk eat the fuck outta’em.
Five Guys for lunch so not terribly hungry now. But I picked up some Boars Head roast beef on the way home and later I’m gonna dump a ton of salt on it and pretend I’m having a nice Beef on Weck.
I make weck when I make burgers at home. Learned it cooking at BW3 in Bloomington IN. It’s delicious.
Yeah, in my research for that comment I came across “BW3”. Never heard of it. Now I see there are a couple in my city but not near me. Any good?
*still amused that “wings” are called “Buffalo wings” in, well, everywhere*
BW3 (Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck) was the original name of the chain of restaurants now known as Buffalo Wild Wings. Yes, it was good back in 1990-1992. The owners were very cool, and there was a great employee party atmosphere ( got drunk every shift). My friends and I would dtive around the Midwest to punk shows, and we could stop in at any BW3 and get beers and food for cheap. Just have the manager call the Bloomington store, “Yep, those punk idiots are employees.”
Huh I meant is the food any good…
This describes any of various restaurant jobs I had.
Buffalo Wild Wings are very fucking delicious. They know how to deep fry wings and the original house sauces are fantastic.
They went downhill when the new owners got rid of weck.
Plus beer selection was crappie. Even when they started carrying craft, it was unimaginative. Everywhere I have lived there has been a local with better wings and beer. But for a chain, they are ok.
I haven’t found any wings in NYC that weren’t absolute crap. Oh well, at least we have pizza.
I like crappie. Sometimes roll them in beer batter and deep fry. Yum!
French financial institutions, for whatever reason, always seem the most eager to launder the money of regimes that other people have sanctions on. They’ve used their seat on the security council to basically play good-cop/bad-cop games with people like Iran, letting the US play hardball with them, while they profit from offering backdoor schemes for them to gain access to foreign capital markets. Whenever they chime in on some issue, you can be damn sure its because they’re terrified their new and fantastic scams are at risk.
Paul Ryan pretends to be irreverent, is in fact just being honest for a change:
Plus, how did I miss this Trump gem?
Who cares what a guy who got wrecked by Joe Biden in a debate has to say about, well, anything?
Be nice. It takes a special sort of skill to get wrecked by Joe Biden in a debate.
+1 Big fucking deal
House Speaker Paul Ryan poked fun at himself, the Senate’s top Democrat and even the Catholic church on Thursday night.
So AP thinks he was poking the Catholic church with that?
Also, the whole IRS-defying-Trump-on-Obamacare thing has me dreaming of a serious Trump-IRS feud.
That would be beautiful. I can only assume he already doesn’t like the IRS.
That would be great.
***
Some enthusiasts today talk about the probability of the horse becoming extinct and prophesy that the aeroplane, the tank, and the motor-car will supersede the horse in future wars … I am sure that as time goes on you will find just as much use for the horse—the well bred horse—as you have done in the past.
Sir Douglas Haig: Interview, 1925
***
oopsy
Well, as a hobby, the horse is still most useful. In fact, I know peeps here in MD who spend millions yearly on that stuff. So it’s all good.
I came across the Belmont channel or whatever it is the other day and got sucked in by the ponies racing for awhile. It’s an interesting world, that.
I live close enough to Pimlico that I can hear events there if I have all my doors and windows open. Fortunately for me, it’s north of there so I can still go outside at night and walk around without being stabbed, robbed, and killed.
Can’t wait for Breeders Cup in just two short weeks. Should be a good one this year too, lots of exciting matchups/races.
1925? Holy shit, I’d have thought that throwing wave after wave of young men to their deaths while uselessly beating his meat to his cavalry breakthrough fantasies a few years earlier would have taught him a lesson or two about modern war.
Whoa….. what a fucking week, in IT hell. Ok, it could be worse. But it’s been a long one, lots of client meetings, lots of code, lots of bullshit. Ok, a typical week, only worse… and longer.
Anyway, I’ve missed a lot here I know over the last week. But a more recent topic, tax cuts. I’m feeling much better about this that Rand’s onboard, and feeling even better that Trump seems to have made himself a new ally, the right one.
My boss was out since Wednesday – guessing that Indian new year thingie. It’s been great.
I got lots of free food because of that. But it was mostly different kinds of … rice … but interesting rice! Spicey! I didn’t eat too much because too many carbs for me.
Hah we had a potluck in my office last year and I brought some German potato thing but I walked over and I was like “gee it smells like curry here”. Everyone looked at me like “duh”.
My takeaway from all this is that the USA is holiday impoverished. We only have single day holidays. Where are the week long holidays? Did you know that yesterday was IT day in Brazil? Yeah, they’ll make up a holiday for anything. Why does it matter, the entire world is moving quickly towards no work will ever be done.
I make my own holidays, and I don’t need any government or employer to recognize their legitimacy.
The USA has less public holidays than the Japanese.
We don’t get Golden week, week long new year, or Germany’s 6 weeks of vacation.
Today is the 6 year anniversary of the West deciding to take it upon itself to overthrow Gaddafi. Veni, vidi, sodomi.
We’re not worthy of such Smart Power anymore
“I’ll always think of Hillary as the “sodomized by bayonet” candidate!” said no prog ever.
I received my regular pay stub in the mail today and some asshole affixed a Dhaliwal stamp to it. Fuck off, I’m a janitor not one of you!
Epic
***
Lt. Col. Charles Carpenter, aka Bazooka Charlie, (1913 – 1966) was a U.S. Army officer and army observation pilot who served in World War II. He is best remembered for destroying several enemy armored vehicles in his bazooka-equipped L-4 Grasshopper light observation aircraft.
…
Inspired by other L-4 pilots who had installed bazookas as anti-tank armament on their planes, Carpenter added bazooka launchers to his plane as well.[3][4][5]
Within a few weeks, Carpenter was credited with knocking out a German armored car and four tanks.[5] Carpenter’s plane was known as “Rosie the Rocketer”, and his exploits were soon featured in numerous press accounts, including Stars and Stripes, the Associated Press, Popular Science, the New York Sun, and Liberty Magazine. Carpenter once told a reporter that his idea of fighting a war was to “attack, attack and then attack again.”[6]
After destroying his fifth enemy tank, Carpenter told a Stars and Stripes correspondent that the “word must be getting around to watch out for Cubs with bazookas on them. Every time I show up now they shoot with everything they have. They never used to bother Cubs. Bazookas must be bothering them a bit.”[7][8]
By war’s end, Major Carpenter had destroyed or immobilized several German armored cars and tanks (he would be officially credited with six tanks destroyed).[5] He was awarded several medals for his actions.
Postwar service[edit]
In 1945, Carpenter became seriously ill, and was honorably discharged from U.S. Army service in 1946. He returned to work as a history teacher at Urbana High School in Urbana, Illinois, where he worked until his death in 1966 at the age of 53.[9] Lt. Col Carpenter’s remains are buried at Edgington Cemetery, in Illinois.
***
Damn, this Reptilian Overlord is impressed.
Mindhunter watching Glibs, (possible spoilers) At the end of episode 1 why does the local cop get so angry at the feebs when they admit that they can’t help him, I don’t get it, they tried ,they failed, they owned up, whats with the ‘how fucking dare you’ bit? how fucking dare they what? try and fail? am I missing something?
Kinda answered in the following episode. Or, at least, an apology.
Binged it today. Really good series, but I’m having trouble with the group dynamic after the unit is formed.
https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/38047/
‘Tampon Tribe’: student government drops tampon supplier over ‘cultural appropriation’
***
‘We knew this was something we had to respond to immediately’
A university student government has ceased its professional relationship with a menstrual product supplier due to the company’s alleged acts of “appropriation cultures.”
Brown University’s Undergraduate Council of Students recently voted to end its purchase of feminine hygiene products from the company “Tampon Tribe,” due to “indigenous and Native American[ students]” who claim that the company “affected them really deeply” due to both “the name…[and] some of the branding as well,” reports The Brown Daily Herald.
…
One member of the council, Chelse-Amoy Steele, said she and another member, Naveen Srinivasan, “had concerns about Tampon Tribe’s name over the summer when they first considered the company.” However, she claims that those fears were allayed when an official at Tampon Tribe “assured them that there were leaders in the company that held Afro-diasporic and indigenous identities.”
…
Tampon Tribe bills itself as “a team of international women who all call SoCal home. We’re passionate about eliminating all of the crap that’s in everyday tampons and pads and bringing you delightfully organic products that don’t cost the earth.”
***
“It felt like a hatchet wound”.
Lol
?
yeah. What the fuck does that even mean. Progs speak a different language than I do.
It’s time someone had the moral fiber to say it. Frederica Wilson is appropriating cowboy and pimpin culture with those hats.
Brett Michaels hardest hit
Shawn Michaels wore it better.
George Michaels throws his hat in the ring, as it were.
I didn’t know this until this morning, but apparently Brett Michaels lives in Greenwood Arkansas. That’s a small town just to south of my place. I found that kind of strange when I heard it. I played football against greenwood when I was a kid.
I assumed she was some kind of circus barker or rodeo act when I saw her on TV.
She looks amazingly like a Howdy Doody puppet in every photo I’ve seen of her.
Yeesh…..
So, I love scotch mixes. My fav so far is just Chivas 12 year old. Drinking that tonight. So if I want to move up in that category, what should I try next? Price is really not a problem, but its enough that I’d really like to get the most for my money. Thanks in advance to you scotch experts.
You may be able to find a Johnnie Walker box set that has 200 mL bottles of Black, Gold, Platinum, and Blue in it. The sell for $109 at my local liquor store in the Vampire State.
Thanks, but I already tried, I don’t like JW, at all. Probably just a personal taste thing, I know plenty of people who do.
Police face backlash over nail polish anti-slavery campaign
and the gold medal for shoe-horning goes to…
***
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow explained how President Trump’s decision to include Chad on his travel ban may have endangered the lives of servicemembers in Niger, four of whom were recently killed under circumstances that have not been adequately explained.
By including Chad on the travel ban against the advice of foreign policy experts and multiple officials, U.S. soldiers lost Chadian ground support in Niger. Multiple terrorist groups, including ISIS and Boko Haram, are active in Niger. But Chad began to remove its soldiers immediately following Trump’s travel ban.
“[T]hose Chadian troops were really doing something in Niger. They were protecting those villages in that whole region from ISIS militant groups being able to operate freely and be able to take more territory from there once again,” Maddow explained. “And pulling those troops out had an immediate effect in emboldening those ISIS attacks.”
Less than one week after Chad began removing troops from the region, four American soldiers were killed in an ambush.
“So, no wonder the president doesn’t want to talk about it,” Maddow said.
***
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/rachel-maddow-reveals-sickening-reason-trump-hasnt-talked-about-us-soldiers-killed
I know Rachel Maddow is my personal go-to for insightful military commentary…
Sarcasm aside, this attack may actually be valid. My understanding is that the attack was taken place during a training exercise or local meeting in an area perceived to be safe. It had not been attacked previously. As with any such operations, details are lacking. The media’s sudden interest in the specifics of these deaths is transparently political, but that doesn’t in itself negate the criticism. But we’re talking a few hundred troops and I doubt anyone doing the attacking has actually looked at the maps. Chad’s forces could have played a role. You also pissed off a third world tinpot dictator. Chad’s leader likely sees the travel ban as a personal slight, and it would hardly be shocking if he wanted some payback. It may not be the removal of Chad’s forces, but I’m just throwing out an another possibility.
But, the media’s sudden 180 shift on how they cover this is pretty sickening:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/us-niger-investigation-what-we-know/index.html
Trump “allowed” it? They want to paint this a Benghazi moment because Trump was slow to address it publicly. Compared to the Obama administration which blatantly lied. They are pretending there are these serious unanswered questions when we have details. How a guy gets separated from his unit during a large ambush isn’t really some great political question. They recovered his body within 48 hours. Support was provided from the French and Nigerian forces in the area immediately because this was an actual military operation. Not a “diplomatic compound” with shoddy security plans being used to illegally run guns into Syria.
Still, pissing off Chad could have played a part in this ambush. Either by the direct removal of an obstacle in terms of its force commitments or simply the leaking of information to the guys who carried it out. American forces had conducted numerous patrols in this area without incident. Hell, that could have been the reason. There’s no evidence the Trump administration has lied, let alone during a campaign season. Odds are, a lot of shit is up in the air. No one likely knows how the enemy knew to attack where they did in such numbers and even those responsible may not yet be clear. Though, again, the Trump administration hasn’t mischaracterized the nature of the attack like Obama did.
speaking of her military commentary…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drift:_The_Unmooring_of_American_Military_Power
***
Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power is a 2012 book by Rachel Maddow. Her first book, Drift explores the premise that the manner in which the United States goes to war has gradually become more secretive and less democratic.[1] In Drift, Maddow examines how American declarations of war have incrementally shifted from being congressionally approved to being centralized in the hands of the American president.
***
conspicuously absent: Obama
She has the neck of an NFL linebacker. Chowing that much pussy can have its benefits. I wish I could work up to that state but, alas, too many minerals just make my asshole bleed.
Even The Huffington post called shenanigans on Maddow’s analysis.
If you don’t feel like clicking on the huffing post, long story short, Chad has been fighting Boko Haram on the other side of the country, which they would be doing with or without US involvement.
So, yes, the notion that a few hundred of Chad’s troops were the cause here is obvious bullshit. More likely explanation, then, would be that the enemy saw a pattern of some kind and exploited it.
Now that a Republican is president every dead soldier is his fault. Not like Obama, who was on the front lines every day protecting them.
+1 Grim Milestone
if only the right people had been in charge
***
THAT CAPITALISM ultimately survived this revolutionary offensive was not inevitable. There was no lack of working-class desire to radically transform society.
Yet these aspirations were blocked above all by the moderate socialist leaderships: As workers surged into action, social democratic and trade union bureaucracies sought at all costs to restore order. It was not without foundation that Bolshevik leader Grigory Zinoviev exclaimed in 1920: “Look at the rest of the world. Who is saving the bourgeoisie? The so-called social democrats!”
Though the early Communists certainly made important errors that undercut their ability to overcome the forces of official reformism, blame for defeat of the 1918-23 revolutionary wave should first and foremost be directed at those labor leaders who actively propped up their capitalist states in the wake of the war.
To quote the Polish Socialist Party-Left, “calling themselves socialists, in reality all of their activity is directed against socialism.” By the end of 1923, class-collaborationist socialist leaders across Europe had effectively defused the revolutionary conflagration in Germany and across Europe.
These indispensable moderate efforts to beat back the working-class drive for anti-capitalist rupture isolated the embattled workers’ and peasants’ government in Russia.
This outcome, however, was far from preordained. In country after country, radicals were within striking distance of overcoming the moderates and leading workers to power. Given the very tenuous hold of the bourgeoisie on power, many different possible-but-unrealized political decisions, actions or developments could have proven sufficient to have turned world history down a very different road after 1917.
By learning the lessons of this inspiring and tragic history, revolutionary socialists can better prepare themselves for the momentous struggles that lie ahead.
***
https://socialistworker.org/2017/10/12/was-stalinism-inevitable
“”Yet these aspirations were blocked above all by the moderate socialist leaderships””
Is this basically arguing that they didn’t murder *enough* of the squishies?
Nobody hates a pinko like a red.
My quote of the day.
And so we missed our Libertarian Socialist moment and got State Capitalism instead.
An article arguing that the right TOP MEN would have made it work. I hate these people. We have example after example of socialist countries turning into despotic economic wastelands, yet they still yearn for it. It must take a special kind of stupid to look at the Russian revolution and think, They almost got it right. Just a tweak here or there and next time we will get true socialism.
Trump has authorized the recall of up to 1000 retired pilots to fill the shortage. FUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKK YOOOOOOOUUUUUU.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/20/air-force-recall-many-1-000-retired-pilots-address-serious-shortage/785344001/
He should recall McCain.
Agreed. I saw Mattis is meeting with him about the Niger crap and I’m hoping it turns into something along the lines of “I respect your experience as a POW but kindly fuck off with questioning my military operations.”
…as a test pilot for the F-35
Hah hah. Keep up that shit and wonder why accessions start to decline…
Meanwhile, I imagine that a large chunk of those 1000 are now employed as commercial pilots. I bet their employers are going to be happy with this given the shortage of commercial pilots these days.
Today, I stupidly ripped a supervisor apart for saying something absolutely stupid.
We were discussing some of the charities and organizations that we each donate to and I mentioned the Institute for Justice. My coworker said that they do some good things but too bad they are a bunch of racists. This took me by surprise and asked what made him think that the organization is racist. His answer was that since it’s full of Republicans, it is probably by nature racist. I corrected him and said that it’s actually a libertarian based organization which defends school choice, property rights, and economic liberty. His response was that it was definitely a racist organization since libertarians don’t like blacks and I might as well be donating to the KKK.
I fucking lost it and told him that his opinion was baseless and absolutely stupid and that he should know better than to make remarks like that. I was just reaming into him until I had to catch myself and remember that I was in a work environment. The guy is nice and generally easy to work with but holy shitballs, that statement and the ignorance of the organization just set me off.
I felt bad because I probably could have handled the situation and I bitched out my supervisor in front of everyone. He looked taken aback and shocked, so I know that on Monday, I have to eat a whole thing of shit humble pie and apologize.
Isn’t there some kind of card you can play? “So a black sharing his opinion scared you?”
I’m not going to do that. He’s a good supervisor, so despite his statement deserves an apology from me. What was so unsettling for me was that he’s usually an intelligent guy but yet he determined that an organization, which has helped a lot of poor blacks gain access to good school through choice and tearing down the regulatory state which also helps blacks, is racist simply due to the perceived idea that all Republicans and Libertarians are racists. It was incredibly disappointing because I actually look up to him.
Sounds like he doesn’t understand how offensive his words were. “As offensive and inaccurate as your statements concerning IJ, I should’ve kept my cool.”
Another trend I’ve noticed as of late, is that people use the word racist so flippantly. It used to be a powerful word but now it’s a term that’s used against people who aren’t drinking the kool-aid made of wokeness.
I like to give people who casually accuse people of being racist enough rope to hang themselves.
I have enough of an RBF that most folk and Bikers have always left me the fuck alone. It’s the brows.
The trolls at The Before Place are pretty much out of arguments other than “you’re a racist!” It’s meaningless anymore.
It was always meaningless, to be sure. TDS is a real thing! Formerly centrist publications have abandoned their flags and hoisted the Jolly Roger. Olbermann should probably be in a psych ward and the rest of them are acting like a room full of puppies after the bitch has been removed for more breeding. Pathetic.
Well said.
I am very, very close to another one of those “I need to step away from news” moments where the utter Kafka-esque stupidity of it all is just becoming almost too much to bear. And that’s just from reading stuff, not talking to anybody. I can’t imagine.
I’m almost at that point too. I usually keep my politics to myself because I am way outside the political mainstream but today was one of those days that I couldn’t abide stupid shit being said.
I do not talk politics at work. Period. Fuck, I don’t even talk politics with my friends.
I do. To almost everyone who brings it up. They’re used to it, so I’ve gotten away with it.
Hop in. The water isn’t that cold. (Douglas Murray line)
I don’t know who that is, but… I am old enough to know my limitations, and one of them is that I’m not great at any sort of “public speaking” – I tend to get tongue-twisted. Unless I’m drunk or high.
Of course it’s up to you and knowing your limitations is important, but debating politics face to face is a skill you most likely could acquire. I want people like you to be out there making the case. Slavers need to be confronted. I enjoy it immensely. This site gives me tons of ammo.
I’m with you straff. I talk politics at work quite a bit. I have talked quite a few people around to libertarian positions on things.
You’re correct. Slavers need confronted. It’s not like you’re average joe is ever going to hear the Libertarian position on something unless they hear it from a libertarian. Lord knows the media isn’t ever giving our take on things.
Yeah, I was thinking the same. I *have* had fruitful discussions with close friends, in the comfort of my home. It’s out in the wild that I am reluctant to go there. I’ve wanted to, though. And yeah, hashing it out here and there is one way I would like to get some ammunition.
My biggest problem is being overly contrarian. I used to debate this Canadian friend every Friday at the bar. He was a lukewarm prog at the time, but I saw him for the first time in years and he’s a full on MAGA. I had to bite my tongue as he gushed about how right I was about the left. Frustrating, but at least he was moving.
I hear ya.
Fuck, I don’t even talk politics with my friends.
So we’re not your friends.
*sheds single tear*
Thank Cthulu that I work alone. I run into these folks at the end of their shifts and have no interest in their political views (which are all hard left). You do your shit and I’ll wipe up the traces seeing as that is what they pay me to do.
For the love of God don’t apologize, or if you must, make it one of those sorry-not-sorry things where you apologize for being loud about correcting someone who is so obviously a moron.
Thats cute, you think you’re coming in on Monday. 😛
The good thing about this was that I talked to the boss after the fact and he even said that what the supervisor said was stupid. He was pretty shocked that I went off like that because I am usually calm and jovial but told me that if something makes me that upset, just quietly excuse yourself from the room.
Yeah, its never very professional to become visibly upset.
As an apology you should donate $50 to the Institute for Justice in his name so he gets on their mailing list.
WTF? Aren’t we in a Zardoz thread?
YOUR SENIOR BRUTAL HAS FORGOTTEN HIS UPLIFTING BY THE GUN. HE MUST BE CLEANSED!!!
I thought Kelly’s “empty barrel” remark meant that no man would fill that chamber. Youse guys are a bad influence.
Tossing a hotdog down a hallway?
It’s a Donkey Kong reference, isn’t it?
Apologies if this has already been posted here.
Pole Dancing: You go want am for Olympics?
Your Future Reptilian Overlords welcome a new stripper competition
“Forget it Jake, It’s Pidgin Town.”
Then they need to get rid of gymnastics, diving, and ice skating from the Olympics.
So last night I got suckered in to covering a shift for a guy who was st. Louis for some training. The shift was in the secondary finishing section of the plant. I have spent almost no time working on any of the equipment there.
About midnight last night one of our Novaflux machines starred acting funny. If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry, neither did I.
https://www.pruftechnik.com/products/nondestructive-testing-systems/flux-leakage-testing-system.html
Anyway, I got the manual out to do a little reading so I could have some sort of an idea of what to look for and found that the manual was in German. Being an English speaker, this was of little help to me.
Anyway, after beating my head against the wall for about 6 hours, I found a bad connection to a probe that does something and fixed it. The machine worked after that.
You need translation from her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IpFDLezheM
That would have been nice. However I don’t think I would have been able to focus enough to figure anything out on what I was supposed to fixing.
LOL I remember being assigned German in 7th grade (at my school, we didn’t have a choice in the matter) because it was a science-tech school and German was the language for that. Which seemed outdated to me in the 80s. I guess I was wrong.
I wish we could have started foreign languages earlier. Not until 8th grade in my district.
You’re in trouble when the novaflux capacitor starts going.
Alright you monkeys. It’s a special night so I just poured:
https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/34500/caol-ila-2000-15-year-old-unpeated-special-releases-2016
I hope you’re happy. This is one of my “end of the world” scotches and I am pouring it on account of your reprobates.
Never had a Caol Ila, must try it some time.
*Dons Bugs Bunny drag* “What? For little ole me?” I can’t brown liquor, makes me cwazy. Can’t pot no mo, sometimes makes me squirrely. Life sucks.
(sigh)
i watch one baseball game a year, and it goes to shit.
We must be watching different baseball games. The one I’m following is going very well.
Hey man, i’m not even a fan, i just want to see Yankees/Dodgers series for the nostalgia factor. I am irked i have to now watch a second game.
hey i meant to tell you, i’m selling my Stingray bass. its probably in better shape than most of the stuff out there, given i’ve only used the thing a few times in the last 12 years.
I’m actually aiming for just $700 + shipping, despite the face proffer.
i need to get me the new Push 2 thing from ableton.
I’m so not into baseball that even as a New Yorker I don’t care who wins… that.
It’s a decent bass, although you might have to go a bit lower, just because used. No harm in asking for that price, though.
I’m not in the market currently, but thanks for letting me know.
“”although you might have to go a bit lower””
yeah, i don’t expect much more than the last offer i got. But as far as the ‘used’ goes, its ‘hardly’. I played 2 gigs, and it sat around a studio for 10 years. its mostly untouched.
Oh, I understand. It’s not about how used it actually is. It’s about the fact that it’s not new. See my comment about scratch & dent below – and those are unplayed instruments.
dodgers-astros have played more historically, so higher nostalgia factor!
It’s going to be a long time before I can afford it, but my next bass will probably be this, although I’ll wait until they have a “scratch & dent” sale. I bought a s&d from them previously, saved about $250, and couldn’t find the flaw even after extensive searching.
What’s the appeal of a modern P bass? the sound flexibility?
A lot of it is just that it’s a quality instrument that I’m very used to. I’ve played P-copies (and a couple real P’s) my entire playing life, so I know exactly how to modify it to suit how I play. I can modify the nut and set the bridge so the action is butter. Also, I love the sound.
i get that.
my own bias is towards teles, but i have 3 and they all have different necks and playability/sound.
re: basses, i just thought the EB necks just …. feel better. EB does a fucking great job w/ making instruments feel like a ‘tool’. everything feels overdesigned.
i think the sound of the EB is a little too-aggressive, tho. its very honky, sharp. its not what i’d want for jazz or singer-songwriter stuff.
Once had a guitarist pick up one of my modified P copies, and he couldn’t believe the action. He said it played better than some guitars he’d owned. I could probably figure out how to do that on other styles, but I like the P style, so why bother?
Yep.
Nice bass.
I’m buying drums right now. And a 12 string guitar. And guitar amps. Got any?
nope
my only amp at this point is a mesa mkIV which i’ll never sell.
Working out plot points for my leg of the Harvey story. I think I’ve got some fun stuff. Until it arrives, for those who havn’t seen it yet, the poster!
Your story must contain the requisite number of grunts. Squeals and caterwauls are not acceptable facsimiles.
and what is that quota?
15 gallons per minute, per acre.
Just follow what he’s doing in real life and fill in the details. That fat fuck has been chatting and sending texts on his phone during treatment sessions. He can’t not be the worst human.
Oh no, you handed the baton, now it’s going where I take it!
The formatting won’t come through pasting it in, but. I’m going for the same feel, just taking it a new direction.
Beautiful.
I’d call that a real page turner, but they’re probably stuck together. What have you done to my beautiful baby?
I’m moving toward the connection you said you wanted to evolve (trying to be vague as to not give away the plot)
It should already have won a half dozen awards from sycophant media
“inapropriatly”?
*frown*
When it’s done for free, you get what you pay for.
but we can always fix it in post.
That’s the spirit.
Straffin / CPRM – send me an email to my user name @gmail for an image you might like. It needs some work, but would fit in with your project.
Our project. Tee hee. Send you message tomorrow.
So part 3 is done. Now, do I just drop it in a linx, or do I wait for word back from the overlords on if it will be a feature?
Is he a six-foot rabbit?
What is it with progs being black and white on *everything*? I made some benign comment about despising my cell phone because there’s some downsides to instant communication and my proggy relative launches into this tirade about “aren’t you instead security, don’t you support being able to respond as quickly as possible when someone calls? I am grateful I can call people so quickly in an emergency!!” Dude…I’m just saying there’s downsides, it doesn’t mean I want people to die because they can’t reach me.
How old are they? That mellows with age. Or so I’ve heard.
40-something. Totally reliant on Top Men.
OK maybe not.
Since Facebook? There isn’t any mellow any more. Trump’s election raped the fun, with vigor!
My “progressive” relative’s take on technology-related stuff is that it’s making humans isolated – in his words, “making people think that they’re interacting when they’re actually missing out on social interaction that is crucial for humans”.
I kind of agree with that, which is one reason I don’t like cell phones even though I use one.
Meh, I got a fucking amber alert from 60 miles away pushed to my phone yesterday afternoon. It only distracted me from what I was doing on my desktop computer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War_tank_formations
Although the USSR and Warsaw Pact had about twice as many tanks, most of them were 40 years old and in storage. Even if they wanted to use all of them, they didn’t have enough fuel.
One weird side effect of Russia’s tank hoarding is they can replace all the ones that were blown up in Syria.
Sorry to keep beating the drum, but the enemies of individual liberty have no qualms about bringing their venomous ideology into every public interaction. They choke you to death while chanting words they’ve corrupted of all meaning. “Diversity, equality, oppression, rights!”. Don’t shit back and take that shit. We fight back while we can still use our tongues or we’ll being fighting with bullets in the future. I’m guessing we’ll get a helluva a lot more allies than we think.
I discovered the YouTube anti-feminist/anti-SJW community only relatively recently, and was very heartened by it. A lot of these people consider themselves center-left/liberal, yet they call out “progressive” bullshit. It was great to find out that there are some non-insane leftists out there.
Yep. You don’t have to be a Rothbardian to get my support. Just be on the right side of an issue and I’ll be there.
Every chance I get, I’ve been trying to fight this “income inequality” thing. It’s not “inequality” if one person is doing an extremely important and stressful job (like a CEO) and the other person is doing a job that requires a pulse (the average entry-level office lackey), nor is it “inequality” if one person goes to college for engineering and another one majors in women’s studies and there’s a vast salary disparity between the two.
Good. Make them explain why the person providing for market demand deserves less and the one who doesn’t, deserves more.
But I worked haaarder to get where I am. Fuck off coat-tail rider, you did nothing of the sort.
They usually go off on a tangent about how many highly paid people like CEOs “don’t do any real work” and don’t deserve the salaries. First I point out that their salaries are paid by the owners of the company, and they’re also paid in an indirect way by the customers who continue to purchase that company’s goods or services, and thus there is nothing coercive going on. Then I mention that a CEOs job is to determine the direction of the company and shore up confidence in the brand from both the public and the investors. I ask them if they think this is easy, and if it’s so easy, why the owners of companies continue to pay CEOs so much (is every board of directors just composed entirely of financial illiterates??).
They have never really had a rebuttal; they usually just go into a logical loop…
“Nobody should be paid that much.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s absurd that anyone’s services are worth that much.”
“But why?”
“Because that’s way too much money for one person to make.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it’s not fair for them to make that much money.”
I have yet to convert any devoted “progressives”, but whatever – I won’t let them have the pleasure of living in an echo chamber.
You can’t “convert” a prog. Just wait a decade or two.
My sister, who does not make a good living; but at the time was making more than me, was going on about ‘taxing the rich’ so asked her what rich meant. To me, she was richer than me. But she didn’t think she should be taxed more. Funny how that works.
I tried communal living when I was a young Festus. It was awesome until the snow started to fly. Communal became wolf pack as soon as the money and weather started to run out. Darned if that wasn’t one of the best summers of my life.
I’ve had some success explaining the disparity in pay by focusing on the impact of an employee’s decisions. When the average worker in any company makes a decision, the impact is limited to them and their immediate sphere of influence (this isn’t always the case, it’s just a generality). When a CEO makes a decision, the impact is felt by every worker, every shareholder, and every one of their families. A wrong decision by the average worker can put the worker out on the street and hurt their family but may not necessarily tank the company and everything associated with it. When a CEO makes a stupid decision, they put everyone in the company out on the street and all of their families are out of luck until they find another job.
Now, you tell me, why wouldn’t you want to pay that person as much as possible knowing that they impact so much? Would you be willing to handle the stress that those decisions entail if someone was paying you the same as the guy mopping the floors? I very seriously doubt it.
Heh. The guy “mopping the floor” knows all of your secrets, Shitlord. We empty the bins (vodka bottles) and scrub your toilets (puke stains). We know things. Someone started chewing a lot more gum? Forehead marks on the desk? Janitor knows.
You never fuck with the secretaries. Ever.
“We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep…Do not fuck with us”
Most “progressives” I talk to still don’t buy it. Of course, none of them have ever held a supervisory position (much less a managerial or executive one).
Years ago, when I was working in an auto parts plant, I was offered (and accepted) an assistant supervisor position. All the line workers thought I was in a position where I “didn’t have to work anymore”, and I sort of thought that too. But that was more work than I ever did in my fucking life.
Sitting there and running a machine is easy. But it’s hard as hell to figure out how you’re going to make shipment for your customer when the machine breaks down, you run out of component parts, too many people call in sick, or some combination of all three.
I’m sure there are some big corporate bureaucracies where there are people sitting around doing nothing and getting paid for it, but the higher-ups are always looking to root out these inefficiencies.
This is a common thread for the average person as well but there’s enough crazed progs in supervisory roles that I stop short of saying it’s a rule. You are right about how difficult it really is to run the big picture. People who can’t think of the second and third order of effects have a hard time grasping that hiccups anywhere along the chain lead to huge consequences down the line.
“Oh I’ll just call in sick today!”
Nevermind that you just fucked over the guy next to you who’s been working his ass off to make up for the shifts you and your peers are skipping. Don’t worry about falling behind when your company is already under the gun to deliver something ASAP and could result in the loss of a huge contract. Nope. Just take a day off.
Iggy – “I am the Janitor, and I sweep and I wipe!”