Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Republicans do not trust women.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

No one could have predicted…

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Indicators

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Indicators

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Lmao holy shit

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 31, 2025 at 10:10 PM

Reader Interactions

178Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve LaBonne

    I thought I was a cynic, but not cynical enough apparently. It never occurred to me that the motive for going after the obscure USIOP was to steal its fucking building. Wow.

  7. 7.

    satby

    We’re supposed to believe that an observant Muslim student was deported for DUI during Ramadan? Alcohol is haram. Not saying it’s impossible, because young people can experiment when out of their more strict environments, but call me hugely skeptical.

    And weird it wasn’t stated earlier, hmm?

  8. 8.

    CCL

    . . . and the price of an oz of gold today is:  $3,164.60

    Previous all time high ever was:  $3,127  on March 31st, 2025

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    @Baud: Elon Musk really really hates people who take short positions on Tesla.

    So that’s another reason to cheer them on.

  10. 10.

    rusty

    It would be nice if Congress stepped up and defended what they funded, there is clear supreme court precedent against this.  Unfortunately the Republicans in the house and senate are collaborators, not supporters of our form of government.  No system can stand long when run by those acting in complete bad faith.

  13. 13.

    Steve LaBonne

    @rusty: We should always be very clear that the Republican Party is responsible for all of this shit, not just Trump and Co-President Skum. Hang every disaster around their necks. None of it could happen without their collaboration, and the time for punishing collaborators will come.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    Senator Booker still filibustering! Senator Warner tagged in at the moment

    ETA: 35K watching on Booker’s YouTube channel and tens of thousands more on TikTok.

  17. 17.

    suzanne

    @Steve LaBonne: One thing that I have learned — but still struggle to grok — is that I can imagine a certain amount of badness…. and these people exceed it. Every time.

  27. 27.

    Lyrebird

    @Betty Cracker: Thanks Betty for putting that up earlier, as well – I got to watch Sen. Booker and Sen. Warnock bounce questions off each other happily in between laying down truth.

    Thank you Anne Laurie for wading through stuff I cannot stomach!

  28. 28.

    Deputinize America

    @suzanne:

    Dreher has occasional bouts of empathy, but those get choked out by his southern roots and a Catholicism (and later Orthodoxy in the supremacist OCA) informed by evangelicals.

    He’s a deeply conflicted man who struggles stupidly with the fact that he is attracted to men.

  29. 29.

    Geminid

    I need to get my gold pan out of storage and see what I can find in Swift Run. It crosses the road just a hundred yards for my driveway. There probably is not much if any gold in that stream, but you never know!

    There actually is a “gold belt” thirty miles east of me. It runs from Northern Virginia all the way into North Carolina. Buckingham County is a likely place, and the James River must collect some gold from smaller streams and rivers. The Rappahannock would too.

    I read that when WWII began there were 40-some small gold mines in Virginia. Then, gold mining was classified as a non-essential industry and the workers were drafted or took jobs in defense plants.

    So maybe I’ll take a road trip to this place just south Greensboro where someone will take me on a guided panning trip on their property. For less money, they’ll give me a bucket of good silt and gravel to pan. I wouldn’t get much gold but I mainly want to get the hang of panning.

    But I’d better get down there soon. I figure my gold panning season will run from July through August because I’m a real wimp when it comes to cold water.

  32. 32.

    catclub

    @CCL: Gold bugs and Bitcoin maximalists. Two things I get less and less.

    Both likely to be allied with Trump, but both betting against the Trump economy.

  34. 34.

    Trivia Man

    @satby: I can easily believe he was ARRESTED for DUI. I am also skeptical he was actually drunk. Many people have had their life ruined because of blatantly fabricated arrests. You can beat the rap but you cant beat the ride. And sometimes tge ride is enough to get you fired or put you in derp debt.

  36. 36.

    Jackie

    Of course he is!😡

    The law firm that employs Doug Emhoff, former Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, has learned that it is among the next firms that Mr. Trump plans to use his power to punish,” the New York Times reports.

    “The firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, also employs a top investigator for the congressional committee that documented President Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and a litigator who spearheaded a lawsuit that two Georgia election workers brought against Rudolph W. Giuliani.”

  37. 37.

    BarcaChicago

    Hello from Wisconsin! I live in Chicago, but I’m from Wisconsin and my elderly mother still lives there so I come home a minimum twice a month to help her. I’ve been driving from Chicago into Milwaukee and Kenosha for the past month and a half to canvass for the state Supreme Court election, and I got to Madison on Friday and have been canvassing every day.

    On Sunday, Ben Wikler came to fire up the canvassers and I have to say he’s a stellar leader – powerful communicator, really inspiring. I haven’t been around that kind of energy in a while and it was impressive.

    I just got back from doing a busy intersection “Vote Crawford” event – It was fun to interact with the drivers who were honking and waving. It was also cold as hell and windy, but that’s typical here.

    I’ll be canvassing again at noon and this time Susan Crawford herself will be there to see us off. I had to work my ass off for this election because I could not live with myself if I didn’t. When I’ve been canvassing, people have been especially pissed off about Elon Musk handing out money to bribe voters, unsurprisingly. Anyway, it’s been really good to be involved and tonight is probably gonna be a long night…

    PS Yes, I have a selfie with Ben Wikler that I will always treasure as the political nerd that I am.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    Something happened. Tesla is now shooting up. Market is weird. Gotta play the long game.

  39. 39.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Watching the day to day fluctuations of the stock market can be maddening. Tesla has the strength of the US government on speed dial, it could be market manipulation for all we know.

  41. 41.

    Barbara

    When my husband and I read about what was going on at IOP we knew right away it was a real estate ploy.  We saw that building going up as we drove into work many years ago and we were always a bit puzzled by the whole enterprise.  The building is incredible, as is the location.  But guys, the value of even the most incredible buildings is being worn down by the commercial real estate market.  Yes, it’s still outrageous. The building is actually titled to the IOP, not the federal government.

    It also wouldn’t surprise me if selected individuals were trading in stock and other commodities based on the apparently random threats of tariffs that are then rescinded.  They aren’t random.  Someone knows.

  44. 44.

    Trivia Man

    @rusty: i called my senator Ron F’n Johnson today. “Why are giving up the power of the senate? You can support, oppose, adjust any of president trumps positions but you are just ceding all power of the senate without a comment.”

    at least i had a voice message and not “mailbox full”

  46. 46.

    Deputinize America

    @Baud:

    Saudi money saving him.

    He’s worth their national investment in destabilization. Probably a few more oligarchs throwing money in, which is a reminder of what happens with tax cut money and why the hyperwealthy who hoard digits in an electronic ledger need ever higher tax rates.

    At least Carnegie eventually built libraries, Vanderbilt endowed schools and some of the others funded art collections.  Even the fucking Koch brothers sponsored apolitical content on PBS, along with some cancer wings because of family cancer history.  This crowd makes Jay Gould seem generous and virtuous, but the modern crowd has less personal taste in decor.

  47. 47.

    Deputinize America

    The TSLA share volume compared to the average is nuts – its like it is social security check day at the slots at an off brand  tribal casino.

    Share Volume
    10,409,871,905

    Average Volume
    99,720,158

  48. 48.

    Lapassionara

    @Jackie: Trump smells blood in the water, thanks to the firms that have already given in to his ridiculous demands.

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    @Steve LaBonne: with trumpov 2.0, it’s probably a safe bet that outright thievery is the primary motivation behind any given issue, incident, or policy.

    sorry…”policy”…this is MAGA we’re talking about, after all

  53. 53.

    A Ghost to Most

    If DC traffic weren’t already impossibly snarled, I would root for a human mass to descend on it.

  54. 54.

    Shakti

    @Betty Cracker:

    This is all kayfabe, if there was any chance of Trump doing anything in the neighborhood of the right thing this exchange wouldn’t exist.

    Context for everyone: Rod Dreher kept bleating about “soft totalitarianism” and has relocated to Hungary and up Orban’s ass.

    He thinks DEI is an attack on Christians, he thinks gayness is an affront; even though he has been piss kink on main. (twitter screenshot just words)

  55. 55.

    JML

    @Betty Cracker: the comment that gets me is the “eh, he’s collateral damage” as if that makes it ok. because deporting people is soooooo important that we can’t possible have anything get in the way of that! The casual cruelty and unthinking embrace of evil is just the most horrifying thing.

    Clearly there’s just too many people in this country who are ok with evil so long as they think it’s not going to hit them. culture of selfishness has poisoned us.

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: please let me know if I should wade into the Mighty Hardware River and find me some gold flecks ;)

    (I’m surprised that the trump kkkrime kartel isn’t selling miner’s pans with His Orangeness’ likeness on them)

  60. 60.

    Jackie

    @Jeffro:

    I’m surprised that the trump kkkrime kartel isn’t selling miner’s pans with His Orangeness’ likeness on them

    Give him a day… FFOTUS jr seems in charge of FFOTUS merch.

  61. 61.

    Spanky

    @A Ghost to Most:

    If DC traffic weren’t already impossibly snarled, I would root for a human mass to descend on it.

    It will, sooner rather than later.

    And speaking of which, does anyone have a recommendation on the best burner phone? Phone and text mandatory, camera preferred but not an absolute necessity. Must be useable without subscribing to a plan.

  62. 62.

    Deputinize America

    @Baud:

    The average volume doesn’t show that much different between Google (that you posted), Barrons, Marketwatch or the NASDAQ, but the trading volume is swinging wildly between 10-12 billion on NASDAQ.

  63. 63.

    Shakti

    @JML: There are lovely “Christians” who are perfectly willing for other people to die and suffer for their faith or in the name of whatever boogeyman keeps them up at night. Dreher included a story from an ex-Soviet woman [She’s Ukrainian with a Russian husband; multiple citizenships, sus to me]  in one of his stupid books calling DEI soft totalitarianism. This is what soothes her to sleep at night as she’s losing her university chairmanship — it’s DEI’s fault what’s happening to my university; I will get mass deportations. I think if the administration attempted to bring him back or succeeded it would upset this type of person greatly.

  64. 64.

    Deputinize America

    @Spanky:

    Cheap smartphone with a SIM card with minutes bought with cash at any scruffy urban convenience store that caters to black or immigrant populations.

  66. 66.

    suzanne

    @rebelsdad:

    I know we’ve had our differences of opinion but it warms my cold, cold heart that we can bond over mutual hatred of Rod Dreher.

    Come sit by me, friends. I have snacks and wrath.

  68. 68.

    Deputinize America

    @rebelsdad:

    On one level, I would like to feel some empathy for his ridiculous situation, but on the other, it occurs to me that it was mind-bogglingly  stupid of him to move to Hungary without his family while thinking there wouldn’t be a consequence.

    Also, I suspect that he’s not keeping up any financial obligations – just a few begrudging payments unless he’s got a right wing sugar daddy (which is no way to live).

  70. 70.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Thanks Anne for highlighting the Transgender Day of Visibility news story. This year definitely was more somber, as this second AP story discusses.

    “What he wants is to scare us into being invisible again,” said Rachel Crandall Crocker, the executive director of Transgender Michigan who organized the first Day of Visibility 16 years ago. “We have to show him we won’t go back.”

  73. 73.

    Deputinize America

    @Baud:

    I think it’s some serious oligarch and Saudi money there to prop up Elon while fucking the shorts. That kind of volume would do it.

    I can’t believe that I’m rooting for hedge funds.

  78. 78.

    David_C

    Today is HHS’s bloodbath day. At one building there was a long line—security had a list of those who were RIFfed and they had 45 minutes to get their stuff and leave for two months of administrative leave or remote work. Contracts are being cut even though there’s money in the current CR. Huge delays in new grant reviews, negotiations, and approvals. Jay B is in charge now, riding in after the carnage.

    Universities and any institution involved in public health or scientific research are feeling the pain now, but the effects on society will be long-lived. This is a five-alarm fire.

  79. 79.

    Deputinize America

    @Baud:

    But then they’d have to do something with them.  Do you give them away (LOL)? Sell them to call it an investment?  These are people with no imagination beyond acquiring more and more and more….

  85. 85.

    David_C

    @rikyrah: The problem is that the Project 2025-ization of the federal government was buried on page A18 (or the equivalent). The Harris campaign would raise the issue, Trump would feign ignorance, and the media would move to another shiny object, while a large segment of the voting public was tuned out.

  87. 87.

    Peale

    @JML: Yep. You know, this wouldn’t have happened if there was actually due process as there is supposed to be.  But hey, we can’t go fascist if we don’t bend down on our knees and beg for due process to be eliminated.

  88. 88.

    Ksmiami

    @suzanne: and I want to bring vengeance- that’s what we all need to plan for. No bygone forgiveness, no whitewashing. Scaffolding for the leaders, jail and penury for the collaborators

  91. 91.

    Deputinize America

    @David_C:

    What the idiots of the White House and congressional press corps never understood is that they were trying to get the truth out of and argue with people who were the rough equivalents of seagulls playing chess. Truth and reason were never going to come, the chess pieces would all get knocked over, and they were going to shit on the chess board.

    They should have been interviewing the future victims of these plans ahead of time.

  94. 94.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: The Hardware might have gold. I’d try crossing the James and panning Hunt’s Branch. It starts near Gold Hill in Buckingham County. The Slate River might be good, or if the James gets low this summer you might try the James itself.

    Maybe pack a net, so if anyone gets suspicious you can pretend you’re searching for hellgramites to use as bass bait. Don’t let them know about your gold!

  95. 95.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @David_C: I’m old enough to remember Harris’ and other Dems’ attempts to make Project 2025 the central issue of the election, and how they went absolutely nowhere because the media only wanted to talk about inflation and Progressives only wanted to scream Genocide.

  97. 97.

    piratedan

    just as a FYI, looks like the late Rep Grijalva may well be followed by his daughter (Adelita) for his vacant Congressional seat (AZ CD-5).  She’s tendered her resignation as a Pima County Supervisor and submitted the paperwork to run for her father’s seat.  Since the family has a strong legacy in the district, I suspect that she’ll win on her own chops coupled with the family legacy.

  98. 98.

    schrodingers_cat

    @UncleEbeneezer: They shouldn’t be called progressives, because the only thing their actions lead to progressing the Republican agenda.

    Their actions don’t match their stated goals. I judge them by their actions, because talk is cheap.

  99. 99.

    ExPatExDem

    I just saw that a few days ago, Harvard pushed out its entire Center for Middle Eastern Studies leadership.

    Sad to see how quickly some elite institutions are bending the knee/obeying in advance.

  101. 101.

    David_C

    @UncleEbeneezer: Yeah, that. The news will say that there was a 10% (or so) cut, and that won’t seem bad, but whole groups, and some key leaders, have been eliminated and the ability to spend appropriated funds will be hampered. The real analysis seems to be on Reddit, posted by insiders.

  102. 102.

    Salty Sam

    Open thread, boosted up from downstairs thread:

    @Geminid: So maybe I’ll take a road trip to this place just south Greensboro where someone will take me on a guided panning trip on their property. For less money, they’ll give me a bucket of good silt and gravel to pan. I wouldn’t get much gold but I mainly want to get the hang of panning.

    Please report back on this, let us know how it pans out for you (Ar ar ar).   I find it very interesting and would like to know more.

  104. 104.

    Baud

    Via reddit, today X, tomorrow your tax info.

    Massive breach of Elon Musk’s X allegedly leaks over 200 million users’ email addresses

    Billions of X accounts could be affected overall

    By Matt Binder on April 1, 2025

  106. 106.

    ExPatExDem

    @Baud: Agree.  And once this is over, people should not forget what people and institutions went Vichy during these times.

  109. 109.

    Shakti

    @Deputinize America: I haven’t the slightest bit of compassion for this man.

     

    @Melancholy Jaques:  Look, the Titanic submersible implosion was a year ago? ~Two years ago? I suppose the VR experience is just traveling on the ship and not being on the ship during the sinking.

    Randomly: a song about Flying Whales (in space) from Gojira, the same metal band who performed at the Olympics.

  110. 110.

    trollhattan

    @Baud: Let’s check the size of their, um, endowments. End of FY’23:

    Harvard–$51B
    Yale–$41B
    Stanford (“what are we doing here?”)–$36B
    Princeton–$33B

    Think they’ll muddle through a-ok.

  115. 115.

    Tazj

    Per Josh Marshall at TPM, FDA employees who were fired found out when they showed up for work. Nice. As he said, they not only want people to lose their jobs they want to humiliate them.
    Asked about someone falsely deported to a prison in El Salvador, Trump’s press secretary said it was a clerical error but now that he’s in another country they can’t get him back. Oh, there’s evidence he belongs to another gang. She can’t tell you the evidence but she’s seen it.
    Every day this administration creates more harm in the world, and they’re proud of it.

  116. 116.

    Betty

    @BarcaChicago: Thanks so much for your dedication and the report. I am praying that Wisconsin sends Musk and his ilk (Koch guys too) the message that our democracy will survive their money grubbing ways. Fingers and toes crossed. America is depending on you, Wisconsin!

  117. 117.

    ArchTeryx

    @Melancholy Jaques: If it’s just a VR representation of the ship, I would do that. That’s some spectacular history there, even if you discount the infamous fate of the boat. White Star made some great ships, and looking at a recreation of one would be a lot of fun.

    However, if it’s the disaster they want to recreate… no thanks. That ship’s sinking was an unbelievable horror show, which the 1999 movie showed all too well. Don’t need to relive a catastrophe through 3D glasses. I’m living one every single day.

  118. 118.

    Betty Cracker

    Kleptocracy lawyer Pam Bondi press release:

    “Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America. After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”

    Trump was sad when Biden commuted federal death row sentences to life without parole. He likes killing people.

  120. 120.

    Omnes Omnibus

    My polling place in Madison was quite busy this morning.  There was a DJ on the parking lot.  Given where I live, it doesn’t tell us much except that the people you would expect to vote are voting.

  121. 121.

    Baud

    @Spanky:

    I remember when Hooters was on the front line of the culture war.

    I can’t believe liberals killed off love of breasts.

  123. 123.

    ArchTeryx

    @frosty: I can do bloodthirsty with the best. I often say I was raised by a WWII fighter pilot, and though he didn’t talk about what happened in the war much, he taught me the art of violence pretty well.

    But he also taught me: Use it with great care and use it against the right targets.

    Anyone can bloviate about violence and Ksmiami seems to be a whole lot of talk. I’m not impressed, especially with bragging on a blog. Take your geek show somewhere else.

  124. 124.

    rikyrah

    @Baud:

    Saw a story, don’t know if I believe it cause it was the NY Post, but, one of those College Consultants said that not one of her Columbia Acceptance folks is considering them.

  125. 125.

    Betty Cracker

    Has anyone been taken in by an April Fool’s prank? I was, on Bluesky in the wee hours. An account published a fake ornithological magazine report that claimed researchers had decoded bird calls and translated them into English. Boy, did I feel like a silly goose!

  126. 126.

    zhena gogolia

    @Betty Cracker: Were they funny at least?

    I kind of hate April Fool’s. It’s like “amateur night” for non-comedians. Kind of like people who only drink on NYE.

  128. 128.

    ArchTeryx

    @Baud: I’ll never forget my one visit to a Hooters – dragged there for my little brother’s corporate function in Florida. Of course it would be Florida. I actually ordered to the waitresses’ faces, made eye contact and tipped them better than the expense account assholes. They all probably thought I was gay, but the waitresses actually seemed to appreciate a guy that didn’t just ogle them.

    That Southern Fried idiocy can’t go away soon enough, 

  133. 133.

    JML

    @Tazj: I’m sure that according to the Thugs in Charge, being part of the sheet metal worker’s union = gang.

    just so much naked racism. the Current Occupant’s base is convinced it won’t happen to them. What will it take for them to understand that the Current Occupant and his allies hate the poors just as much as they hate non-whites? or will they still stick with him on the premise of “it’s ok for me to suffer, so long as people I hate suffer more!”

  135. 135.

    Geminid

    @Salty Sam: I will. I need a road trip and Greensboro is a nice 3 hour ride. Gotta get couple things straightened out with my car first though.

  136. 136.

    JML

    @Betty Cracker: have not been taken in, but it seems people are trolling Minnesota Vikings fans on social media by pretending Aaron “malignant narcissist” Rodgers is signing with them for $200M today…I mean, that’s just mean.

  140. 140.

    Old Man Shadow

    @Spanky: Never been there. Never been a strip club either.

    Never saw much of a point. I wanted women to genuinely like me, not pretend to like me because they were being paid to do so.

  142. 142.

    Old Man Shadow

    @JML: My, that is quite the cruel prank making fans think the Plague Rat is coming to their city.

  145. 145.

    catclub

    @Salty Sam: I find it very interesting and would like to know more.

    The main people who made money during the California and Yukon gold rushes sold real estate, rented rooms, or sold  shovels, whiskey and prostitution.

  146. 146.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Old Man Shadow: When to Hooters once, and that was one of the most creepy experiences I have had in a Stepford Wife kind of way. Easily a dozen women, all were identical and interchangeable.

  149. 149.

    Trivia Man

    @schrodingers_cat: my old church in a small town Wisconsin hosted voting and provided free baked goods every year. Presbyterian niceness… fresh cookies, muffins, and bread all day

  150. 150.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    There actually is a “gold belt” thirty miles east of me. It runs from Northern Virginia all the way into North Carolina. Buckingham County is a likely place, and the James River must collect some gold from smaller streams and rivers. The Rappahannock would too.

    I read that when WWII began there were 40-some small gold mines in Virginia. Then, gold mining was classified as a non-essential industry and the workers were drafted or took jobs in defense plants.

    Spent more than three decades of my life in the Old Dominion, and I had no idea about this.  Thanks for the education!

  153. 153.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: You are welcome. Are you ever gonna make it out to the Green Valley Book Fair, near Harrisonburg You can get all the bamboo you want on the way back. I’ve good plenty of good 2.5″ stock and will cut to order. I call it, “Green Gold.”

  154. 154.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @brendancalling: I’m not going to pretend that what Mangione did was right. But I’m also not going to pretend that I’m sorry Brian Thompson was murdered and I hate that these monsters made me feel this way. Perversely, Thompson and his bosses helped created the circumstances that led to his death.

  155. 155.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro:

     the Mighty Hardware River

    Ah, that brings back some memories!  There used to be (and probably still is) a cement dam on the Hardware River maybe halfway in between 29 and Old Lynchburg Road, with some fairly flat rocks below the dam.  When I lived in C’ville, I’d bike down there in the summertime, spend some time in the water there, then bike back again.  Went skinnydipping there with several different young women.  Good times!

  157. 157.

    Spanky

    @catclub: I remember a tween novel sixty or so years ago about a rich kid who runs away to the gold rush, and his butler chases him. At one point they sold haircuts and beard trims, and panned the cuttings for gold.

    Many adventures later and loaded with gold, their ship sinks and …

    well, no spoilers.

  160. 160.

    laura

    @catclub: re: the money made during the gold rush and prostitution- even after the gold rush, logging industry in northern california demanded and supported sex work on the regular; every two weeks loggers would leave camp to spend some time and wages. Many also get STDs. There’s a horrific story about loggers who went blind from gonorrhea due to having one single towel to share at the wash sink. Anyhow, below is a link to a now closed restaurant in Forestville, Ca between Sebastopol and Guerneville called the backyard. As you can see from a photo, the location was a beautiful whorehouse, an enclosed courtyard around a huge oak tree and two stories of tiny rooms where the sex got done, or down, as the case may be.

    jsfashionista.com/backyard-forestville/

  163. 163.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    You are welcome. Are you ever gonna make it out to the Green Valley Book Fair, near Harrisonburg

    I might get down that way this summer.  I’ll let you know!

    You can get all the bamboo you want on the way back. I’ve good plenty of good 2.5″ stock and will cut to order. I call it, “Green Gold.”

    I would so hate to deprive you of any!

  164. 164.

    WTFGhost

    @Steve LaBonne: It’s not about stealing the building; it’s about forcing in new occupants ASAP, so the theft can’t be unrolled.

    @satby: With the Trump administration, you can’t trust anything that isn’t stated, under oath, for the record, with an angry judge glaring, and even then, they’ve been known to perjure. It’s one of those things, you know; why don’t reporters repeatedly state, so,  you know, damn well, that they don’t think it’s a crime to lie to reporters?

    @Betty Cracker: I’d like to have both of them get a nice, through-and-through gunshot from the cops, and be told they don’t have a tort against the cops or the city/state, because they were just collateral damage, so, so sad, too bad, hope you were insured for those medical bills!

    No, I wouldn’t really like that – but I get some vague satisfaction at imagining them squealing like little tortured piggies to realize how the tides have turned. I don’t suppose “Lucifer” is a documentary, is it?

    @Deputinize America: Oooh, I almost forgot that. Yes, and congrats, Pope Franky, you found ecumenical comfort in the ancestors of the slavers. Really seized the brass ring, didn’t you?

    @Deputinize America: Don’t forget, the Saudis have a chunk of Twit-X, so if IUD, I mean, TSLA tanks, their Twit-X also tanks.

  165. 165.

    catclub

    @WTFGhost: Don’t forget, the Saudis have a chunk of Twit-X, so if IUD, I mean, TSLA tanks, their Twit-X also tanks.

     

    You are late to the game. Twit-X has been merged into xAI, or however they spell it. The investors now have slightly different stock in a slightly different company.

  166. 166.

    stinger

    @Baud:

    I can’t believe liberals killed off love of breasts.

    I dunno, I’m still pretty attached to mine.

  167. 167.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Omnes Omnibus: John Brown did nothing wrong.

    Luigi, I’m not so sure; as wretched as American healthcare might be, it’s nowhere up there with the Enslavement.

    “I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with Blood. I had…vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done.” — John Brown.

  168. 168.

    Citizen Alan

    @The Thin Black Duke: As far as I’m concerned, Brian Thompson was a prolific serial killer with a body count likely higher than the Joker, and he got away with it because his murders helped the company’s bottom line.

  169. 169.

    BritinChicago

    @suzanne: The young Keynes said of one of his teachers: “All he ever did was wonder whether there was a god and prove that there wasn’t and hope that there was.”

  171. 171.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @frosty: ​Dream on. BSMiasma is the blog’s Cosplay Stalinist, donchano. For some obscure reason the Blogfather tolerates him.

  172. 172.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    IMO it leads down a pretty dark road.

    Truly. I mean, we all have our theoretical lists, don’t we?

    Wormer, he’s a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer…

  173. 173.

    WTFGhost

    @Professor Bigfoot: The other side of Luigi, is, when lots of people feel bitter and angry and trapped, people like Luigi are going to snap, and it often happens well after a society that revered justice would have put a stop to the problems.

    I.e., if we revered justice, we’d have good health care for all, and, lots of the extra money we spent providing it would spread benefits throughout society.

    But we, collectively, don’t, and too many Americans are actively hostile to the very concept of justice.  Or, they think they only thing “justice” means is that Luigi die for his crime, not that people should be treated fairly, and well. With justice, often there are so few people feeling so trapped and so angry that we notice them as standouts, and maybe help talk them down.

    Cynicism may well be the justice-killer; we get so used to injustice, it literally becomes invisible. Then, when it pops out a killer, blinding flash of he obvious causes more angst than it might have.

    The AGTRUMP-USA, Bondi, sees pitchforks, and hopes crucifixion will head off wider problems with rebellious folks, because that’s worked everywhere it’s been tried. Others are blinded in their empathy, and can joke about an “insurance executive” being murdered, as if “insurance executives” weren’t real, living people.

    Don’t harsh on them, MAGA, until you harsh on Trump for joking about “illegals,” as if they were non-human, and all deserving of suffering.

  174. 174.

    lowtechcyclist

    @WTFGhost:

    The AGTRUMP-USA, Bondi, sees pitchforks, and hopes crucifixion will head off wider problems with rebellious folks, because that’s worked everywhere it’s been tried. Others are blinded in their empathy, and can joke about an “insurance executive” being murdered, as if “insurance executives” weren’t real, living people.

    Don’t harsh on them, MAGA, until you harsh on Trump for joking about “illegals,” as if they were non-human, and all deserving of suffering.

    “Sin, young man, is when you treat people as things.” – Terry Pratchett

  175. 175.

    The Lodger

     

    @Baud: AFAIK it’s illegal to short-sell a stock as long as its price is going down without interruption. So this is an opportunity to short!

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