Hi All! Hope you had a great weekend. I’ve recovered from my round trip to Houston and this weekend I went over to Annapolis to hang out with some friends. Let’s see what else is going on, shall we?
More reasons to dislike this guy…
Peter Thiel’s midterm bet: the billionaire seeking to disrupt America’s democracy
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/15/peter-thiel-who-is-he-republican-donor-tech-entrepreneur
Seems like that is going well
Russia is grabbing men off the street to fight in Ukraine
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/16/russia-mobilization-men/
Idiot Trump remains Idiotic:
Trump attacks American Jews, posting they must ‘get their act together’ on Israel
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/16/trump-jews-israel/
Stonks!
After two years of shipping snarls, things are starting to turn around
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/17/after-two-years-of-shipping-snarls-things-are-starting-to-turn-around.html
Sprots!
Jorts over here with the facts:
Have a great Monday!
I just had a revelation: Is the “(and Jean)” of “Jorts (and Jean)” America’s most insightful newspaper columnist, Jean Teasdale? I looked her up. Apparently her output has decreased significantly, probably another genius Herb Spamfellow move, but when last we heard from her she had survived the pandemic in her own unique Jean Teasdale way:
https://www.theonion.com/welfare-check-1846085921
I will be forever grateful to this article for mentioning fidget spinners, that bizarre pre-plague trend that vanished even more quickly than it appeared. I remember when I first saw someone using one the memory of it existing seemed to unform even as it was forming in my mind.
…I could be wrong but I thought jean was another cat…my (& I’m guessing most people’s) first knowing about jorts had to do with some deal on reddit’s AITA board…jorts apparently had a tendency to bump the door closed of the closet their food was put in & jean would get stuck inside
…there were some other things…including that a co-worker had put margarine on jorts to try to encourage him to up his personal grooming game…& that they thought he (an orange cat) was dumber than jean (a tortoiseshell)
…then jorts got a twitter account…& turned out to be quite adept & have a tendency to root for labor over management…& it took me a minute to even remember the margarine thing
…the cat could have been named after the jean you were thinking of, for all I know…but that’s what I remember, anyway?
@matthewcrawley, @splinterRIP, here you are: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/jorts-the-cat
One little sign of how badly Spanfeller screwed up The Onion is that the layout no longer accommodates bylines. The wholesale destruction of old graphics was worse, evidently because Spanfeller and company were freaked about some old IP claim popping up over 1997 image of a snack chip that wasn’t covered by protections for satire.
At any rate, Jean Teasdale was written by Maria Schneider, another one of the early crew out of Madison, Wisconsin who created The Onion by completely bypassing the standard NYC and LA method of hiring boring toadies of TV producers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Schneider_(cartoonist)
On-brand.
Kanye West plans to acquire Parler
Apologies if anyone else linked this. This report on Trump and his social media platform is nuts — it makes Facebook seem like a rationally run platform instead of Zuckerberg’s narcissism swamp.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/15/truth-social-trump-animosity-whistleblower/
The opening scene where Trump called up the company cofounder and demanded he hand over shares to Melania Trump is like something out of a mob movie, as is the later revelation that Eric and Don Jr. made similar demands for stock.
As so many people have pointed out, Trump is corrupt to his core, and every time the press fails to frame him that way, they give him a little more strength.
I’m trying to wrap my head around the whole “give me stock” concept. When stock changes hands, it’s a taxable event. You are normally expected to pay for it, in cash or labor. When you hand it to someone, it has to be assigned a fair market value. You pay taxes on any capital gains. The person you hand it to has to pay taxes on it like income. I assume you could collect the amount owed in taxes from the recipient, pay your tax bill, and then they’d have to declare it as income? Maybe? But the money you collected to pay your tax bill would be income to you.
Point is, SOMEBODY’S paying that tax bill or bills. I guess unless your name is Trump and you expect to defund the IRS after your re-election (as an aside, the pr0bability of that is virtually zero, so not trying to spark a panic, just showing how fucking stupid all of these people are).
Kids in high school have a better grasp of finance than this.
Allegedly, Russia has already lost more soldiers in Ukraine than we did in all of Viet Nam.
Despite the way we tell it, the bulk of the fighting was done by the countries the US was trying to prop up. It’s one sign that Putin is even dumber than the US was that he never got anyone else to be his proxies.
Dr. Oz loves to drink pee!
https://crooksandliars.com/2022/10/are-you-kidding-me-dr-oz-shocked-other
Apparently things are getting kinda interesting over in Parliament today?
Evidently Liz *did* eventually make an appearance today… but the speculation & chatter over on Twitter is a hoot!
Also, in news which will be of interest to many of us here, apparently there is an annual Aligot-stretching competition!
Being from the Midwestern US, I’m a MASSIVE fan of a good Cheesy-Hashbrown.
But their ancestor, Aligot, sounds pretty darn amazing, too!😁