NY Times is Concerned About China Dumping Subsidized Goods on Europe Due to Trump’s Tariffs

The New York Times has excoriated President Trump for trying to disengage the US economy from our mercantilist reliance on cheap Chinese goods. But for all its enmity toward Trump and his trade policies, the Times is concurrently worried that Europe might find itself in an unfavorable trade relationship with China – a trade relationship like the awful one from which President Trump is trying to extract the U.S.

Other than being driven by intense, partisan animus toward Donald Trump, it seems inexplicable that the paper of record would be concerned about Europe surrendering economic sovereignty to China, while at the same time being passionately opposed to America exerting its own economic sovereignty. Isn’t the Times being hypocritical?

No, the NY Times is not being hypocritical. It is very consistent in being rabidly anti-American. Therefore, being concerned about Europe retaining an industrial economy while cheering against American industry is quite principled for the voice of the left. It may be vulgar and offensive, but it’s consistent with the Times’ America-Last principles.

First off, here are some of the typical recent headlines the NY Times has been running as it contemptuously covers Trump’s economic agenda:

“Trump’s Tariffs Will Wound Free Trade” [NY Times – 4/14/2025]

“Why Trump’s Economic Disruptions Will be Hard to Reverse” [NY Times – 4/28/2025]

“Trump’s Tariffs Prompt Wave of Lawsuits as States and Businesses Fight Back” [NY Times – 4/27/2025]

“Bracing for a Slow-Moving, Self-Inflicted Economic Storm” [NY Times – 4/25/2025]

But amidst those stories blasting “Trump’s tariffs” and his efforts to rebuild American industry, the Times ran this story:

“Why Europe Fears a Flood of Cheap Goods from China; President Trump’s tariffs on China could lead to a hazardous scenario for European countries: the dumping of artificially cheap products that could undermine local industries.” [NY Times - 4/14/2025]

Just a quick fisking of that headline and sub-headline is revealing.

“Europe fears a flood of cheap Goods from China.” I don’t blame them, because a flood of cheap Chinese goods has done great harm to America.

“A hazardous scenario for European countries: The dumping of artificially cheap products that could undermine local industries.” Correct! China dumping artificially cheap products on America has undermined local American industries. What is so telling is that the Times is OK with cheap, subsidized products undermining American industries, and they want it to continue. Their concern is that Donald Trump may make it impossible for China to dump on us any longer, and that China may start dumping on Europe instead. That is a problem to the NY Times.

Here is some of the body of that story.

China has for years presented an economic challenge for Europe. Now, it could become an economic disaster. It produces a vast array of artificially cheap goods — heavily subsidized electric vehicles, consumer electronics, toys, commercial grade steel and more — but much of that trade was destined for the endlessly voracious American marketplace.

Per the Times, it’s OK for China to dump subsidized goods on the U.S. because we have a “voracious” marketplace. Their fear is that Europe might also have a voracious appetite for goods subsidized by a communist country artificially supporting its manufacturing.

With many of those goods now facing an extraordinary wall of tariffs thanks to President Trump, fear is rising that more products will be dumped in Europe, weakening local industries in France, Germany, Italy and the rest of the European Union.

Again, the Times is OK with China having already weakened local industries in the U.S. Their concern is that Trump’s tariffs might cause China to weaken local industries throughout their beloved European Union.

“The overcapacity challenge has taken a long time, but it has finally arrived in European capitals,” said Liana Fix, a Washington-based fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “There is a general trend and a feeling in Europe that in these times, Europe has to stand up for itself and has to protect itself.”

So we’re now acknowledging that China has overproduction, that it subsidizes the dumping of its excess production on other countries, and that Europe has to stand up and protect itself. But for some reason these same people are apoplectic that Donald Trump and a majority of U.S. voters feel the same way about protecting the United States from China.

“We cannot absorb global overcapacity nor will we accept dumping on our market,” Ms. von der Leyen [President of the European Union] said as Mr. Trump’s tariffs went into effect.

You’re right, Ms. van der Leyen! And neither can the United States absorb global overcapacity, nor should we accept dumping in our market either.

“The worst-case scenario is high U.S. tariffs” while at the same time “China is flooding the European market,” said Noah Barkin, a senior adviser for the Rhodium Group, a policy research organization. He said that would be “a double whammy for European industry. That is what Europe wants to avoid.”

Can a Principled Free Trader please explain to me why it’s a “worst case scenario” for Europe to be both the dumping ground for subsidized Chinese products while also being the victim of having its exports blocked by high foreign tariffs. I’ve been regularly assured by Principled Free Traders that that exact scenario is a desirable occurrence when that double-whammy of dumping and protective tariffs is inflicted on U.S. manufacturing. Doesn’t Europe benefit from the same “lower consumer prices” that the free traders are always touting when they promote American surrender to foreign mercantilism?

But trade experts say the economic relationship between Europe and China is rooted in a decades-old reality: a Chinese marketplace that is effectively closed to many European companies because of regulatory burdens and the Communist Party’s buttressing of Chinese companies. The European trade deficit with China was nearly $332 billion (€292 billion) in 2023.

Again, Chinese trade barriers and government subsidization of industry, along with the resulting trade deficit are bad for Europe. Correct. They’re just as bad when the U.S. is being victimized by China.

There is much more in this article that keeps hammering these same points about how unfair Chinese dumping would be for Europe, which are coincidentally pretty much the same points Trump and MAGA have been making about unfair, unreciprocal, unilateral trade that destroys American industry and economic sovereignty.

Jeffrey Tucker asks the question in the tweet below, “I’m trying to understand NYT economics. How can what’s good for the US be an obvious disaster for Europe.?”

The answer, of course, is that the New York Times does not want what is good for the U.S. It conveys a globalist disdain for America and wishes it harm. Unfair trade with China that harms the US is good for the left’s ultimate vision for the U.S., but our country must be harmed economically for the left’s vision to be fulfilled.

I would also argue that all “conservatives” and libertarians who similarly preach unilateral surrender by the United States to foreign mercantilism are just as antagonistic to a strong, independent Unites States as is the New York Times and their crowd.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Chy na

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at May 02, 2025 11:01 AM (2caBu)

2 Not 1st

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:01 AM (77rzZ)

3 Would Europe accept such massive imports to help destroy their already diminished manufacturing capabilities?

What's more important to them? Their own manufacturing or relationships with China?

We all know that their biggest priority is having their young women rounded up by rape gangs of migrants, but which is their second most important goal?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:02 AM (GBKbO)

4 ... but it’s consistent with the Times’ America-Last principles.

-------------

Blame America First!

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:03 AM (acnyG)

5 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:03 AM (Zz0t1)

6 I'm surprised the Times has the time and the column space to run these articles while they're busy ranting about Augusta.

>8>P

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 02, 2025 11:04 AM (/HDaX)

7 They are who we thought they were.

Posted by: toby928 at May 02, 2025 11:04 AM (jc0TO)

8 Nothing stopping NY Times moving to London or Beijing!

Posted by: Bang-a-gong at May 02, 2025 11:04 AM (SRiFu)

9 Its a Timu World after all...

Posted by: Pudinhead at May 02, 2025 11:05 AM (pZ64F)

10 It'll make it easier for Europe to reach their climate goals with none of that dirty industry.

Posted by: Stateless.. 21% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back next week at May 02, 2025 11:05 AM (jvJvP)

11 I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if every foreign country eagerly embraced a brutal communist dictatorship like China (even at their own economic peril) all to just poke the eye of Donald Trump.

This is why we need to disengage our military from the rest of the world, these countries would throw us under the bus all for trying to charge a tariff like they do

Posted by: Maroon at May 02, 2025 11:05 AM (eWTL+)

12 Make America $20 Same as in Town!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:05 AM (Zz0t1)

13 Their concern is that Donald Trump may make it impossible for China to dump on us any longer, and that China may start dumping on Europe instead.

--------------

You mean, like, shit in a swath?

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:06 AM (acnyG)

14
You mean, like, shit in a swath?
Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:06 AM (acnyG)

The Streets of San Francisco.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:06 AM (Zz0t1)

15 TL

R ?

This is a really really bad movie

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at May 02, 2025 11:07 AM (hnv2E)

16 Suggested slogans for the Democrat Party

MAW - Make America Worse
MACB - Make America China's Bitch
MAPA - Make America Poor Again

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:07 AM (Dv3i1)

17 Chy na

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at May 02, 2025 11:01 AM (2caBu)

*LeBron James bends over*

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:07 AM (Zz0t1)

18 Yeah... Talk about a contradiction...Reminds me of Schumer yesterday.... Going on about Trump's plummeting poll numbers and when a reporter says How about yours ? You're at 17 % he says poll numbers are temporary....

Posted by: It's me donna at May 02, 2025 11:07 AM (VE6XX)

19 Tangentially, Apple has announced that most of the new tech it'll deliver to the American marketplace come June will come from India and Vietnam.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:08 AM (GBKbO)

20 I'm waiting for Paul Krugman to comment before I know how to feel about this.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 02, 2025 11:08 AM (XeU6L)

21
China has long promissd not to do that thing in Europe's mouth and yet the Euro sophistos fall for it every time.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 02, 2025 11:08 AM (k/NIx)

22 Yeah... Talk about a contradiction...Reminds me of Schumer yesterday.... Going on about Trump's plummeting poll numbers and when a reporter says How about yours ? You're at 17 % he says poll numbers are temporary....
Posted by: It's me donna at May 02, 2025 11:07 AM (VE6XX)

When your self-awareness level is in the negative.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:08 AM (Zz0t1)

23 Doesn’t Europe benefit from the same “lower consumer prices” that the free traders are always touting when they promote American surrender to foreign mercantilism?

------------

Benefit voraciously even?

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:09 AM (acnyG)

24 22 When your self-awareness level is in the negative.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:08 AM (Zz0t1)

======

Is it too much to ask that politicians at a certain level stop using polling in talking points at all?

It's the stuff of low-level pundits, not Senators.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:09 AM (GBKbO)

25 I'm waiting for Paul Krugman to weigh in to determine what is best course of action and do the exact opposite.

Posted by: Ripley at May 02, 2025 11:09 AM (GUOwU)

26 You mean, like, shit in a swath?
Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:06 AM (acnyG)

Crapspackle!

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 02, 2025 11:09 AM (/HDaX)

27 The NYT writes like a fag and their shits all retarded

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 02, 2025 11:10 AM (Er3Q7)

28 I have long accepted that Buck hates free trade and anyone who supports free trade. But I have come around to Levin’s view: free trade as much as possible. Except with China, because China - the PRC - is the enemy.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 02, 2025 11:10 AM (jqrzj)

29 28 I have long accepted that Buck hates free trade and anyone who supports free trade.

There's no such thing as a free... Trade..

Posted by: It's me donna at May 02, 2025 11:10 AM (VE6XX)

30 Sports media reports Lebron James' future with the Lakers is 'uncertain.'

Wait.....you forced the team to draft your shit no talent son and pay him millions, now you can't commit to the team past the shit season you just had?

When will the world be done with this piece of shit?

They should cut him, then start his son game 1 next season, then cut him immediately after the game.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:11 AM (Zz0t1)

31 I'm generally against tariffs as a revenue source, but damn straight I like them as a political cudgel. I think Trump's tariff plans are over-broad and in many cases counterproductive, but China is a separate issue. I'm fully in favor of punitive tarrifs on China unless and until (if even then) they actually decide to play n a world with free markets.

Posted by: can of spam at May 02, 2025 11:11 AM (7oNMO)

32 Just a quick fisking of that headline and sub-headline is revealing.

“Europe fears a flood of cheap Goods from China.” I don’t blame them, because a flood of cheap Chinese goods has done great harm to America.

No shit. Maybe you should have been concerned for your own country, retards.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:11 AM (bss/y)

33
Is it too much to ask that politicians at a certain level stop using polling in talking points at all?

It's the stuff of low-level pundits, not Senators.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:09 AM (GBKbO)

Polls are crack to LIVs. And they know it.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:11 AM (Zz0t1)

34 28 I have long accepted that Buck hates free trade and anyone who supports free trade. But I have come around to Levin’s view: free trade as much as possible. Except with China, because China - the PRC - is the enemy.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 02, 2025 11:10 AM (jqrzj)

======

I love free trade, but free trade is more like assuming a spherical chicken to make a physics theorem work than an actual reflection of reality.

Maybe it'll sustain in small, isolated instances, but the world and humanity are too messy for it to work on a larger, longer scale.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:12 AM (GBKbO)

35 33 Polls are crack to LIVs. And they know it.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:11 AM (Zz0t1)

=======

What LIV is listening to Chuck Schumer?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:12 AM (GBKbO)

36 I'm waiting for Paul Krugman to weigh in to determine what is best course of action and do the exact opposite.

Imagine the money that could be made if Krugman gave out gambling picks.

Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:12 AM (McYvC)

37 Sports media reports Lebron James' future with the Lakers is 'uncertain.'
____

I'm not certain he can function in society unless he is playing basketball full time. It's probably best for him to move to the WNBA, he can play for the next 30 years at least.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (Dv3i1)

38 And we MUST - MUST - take a good hard look at how we undermine OURSELVES.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (jqrzj)

39 =======

What LIV is listening to Chuck Schumer?
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:12 AM (GBKbO)

They've replaced him with AOC. He just refuses to accept it.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (Zz0t1)

40 Their on again off again relationship is apparently off again.

Jackass James Carville Calls Out "Jackass" David Hogg

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (L/fGl)

41 I'm waiting for Paul Krugman to comment before I know how to feel about this.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 02, 2025 11:08 AM (XeU6L)

--------------

The World's Last "Flat Earth" Economist.

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (acnyG)

42 >>27 The NYT writes like a fag and their shits all retarded

Reminds me of when they ran that piece several years ago about women being fearful of pooping while at work.

Posted by: one hour sober at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (Y1sOo)

43 I have long accepted that Buck hates free trade and anyone who supports free trade. But I have come around to Levin’s view: free trade as much as possible. Except with China, because China - the PRC - is the enemy.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 02, 2025 11:10 AM (jqrzj)

People sometimes don't understand, when an enemy nation is applying government pressure to dump goods cheaply on another nation, that's not free trade!

Nor is it "free trade" when your own government gives sweetheart deals to enemy corporatists on its own shores, to reap the financial rewards of the "free trade" coming from an enemy nation.

It's like if you have a spouse who tells you they love you, but all they do is beat you, take your money, and when they feel like it, rape you in the middle of the night. They call it love. It's not love.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (dGCAG)

44 There is no such thing as free trade if there are tariffs and barriers to entry.

Free Trade is a fiction.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (T+d4M)

45
Is it too much to ask that politicians at a certain level stop using polling in talking points at all?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison
--------
Yes...yes it is. Live by the poll, die by the poll. It is their way of life.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 02, 2025 11:14 AM (XeU6L)

46 39 What LIV is listening to Chuck Schumer?
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:12 AM (GBKbO)

They've replaced him with AOC. He just refuses to accept it.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (Zz0t1)

=======

My point is that LIVs don't listen to politicians. They don't engage with politics except during election season.

Schumer's talking to donors, journalists, and political junkies.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:14 AM (GBKbO)

47 Polls are crack to LIVs. And they know it.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:11 AM (Zz0t1)

Well, look at how many poll threads we have. And while we are retarded, we would not be classified as 'LIV's.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:14 AM (bss/y)

48 Suggested slogans for the Democrat Party

MAW - Make America Worse
MACB - Make America China's Bitch
MAPA - Make America Poor Again

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:07 AM (Dv3i1)

-------------

BAFTA -- Blame America First, Trump Always!

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:14 AM (acnyG)

49 Cognitive Dissonance ain't just the distance to Mars.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:14 AM (VofaG)

50 Hitler used tariffs to “liberate” Germany from a globalized world order—careening the economy backwards, Timothy W. Ryback writes.
---
As Oilfield Rando notes, this isn't to change minds on tariffs--it's to normalize, and encourage, violence against Trump and his supporters.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (NwfFc)

51 47 Well, look at how many poll threads we have. And while we are retarded, we would not be classified as 'LIV's.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:14 AM (bss/y)

======

We get polling threads once in a blue moon these days.

Ace really pulled back on them for an assortment of reasons.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (GBKbO)

52
My point is that LIVs don't listen to politicians. They don't engage with politics except during election season.

Schumer's talking to donors, journalists, and political junkies.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:14 AM (GBKbO)

But the media believes the opposite. That's why they're still pushing polls, 100 days into Trump's admin. They think it matters.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (Zz0t1)

53 NYT is assho. Enemy of the People.

Posted by: torabora at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (Oohrt)

54 “Why Europe Fears a Flood of Cheap Goods from China; President Trump’s tariffs on China could lead to a hazardous scenario for European countries: the dumping of artificially cheap products that could undermine local industries.” [NY Times - 4/14/2025]
-----

The headline reveals one of my chief complaints about leftists. They already KNOW a lot of the stuff we spent 25 years trying to "voxplain" to them. (Note I said leftists not leftards. The leftists are the agitators. The leftards are the followers and wannabe leftists.)

I will never forget all the years and copy that was wasted by our side trying to "lecture" Obama that government "investment" is just taxing and spending and why doesn't he get it.

Then after 4 years of that in 2012, Mitt Romney (SBUH) has some ideas for "investment" - and Obama just laughs his stupid fake laugh and says "well that's just a tax, the government isnt paying for that, the people are."

Yup. They already KNOW all of it. They just like watching us try to convince them. It gets them off.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (QTr+M)

55 Reminds me of when they ran that piece several years ago about women being fearful of pooping while at work.
Posted by: one hour sober

WTF???

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (77rzZ)

56 There's a freight train coming down the track headed for Europe (see the art thread!) but *no* *one* appears to want to talk about it; and that is the death of their industrialized manufacturing sectors because of their insane energy policies. Worst in Germany and England; probably survivable in France and Italy. The situation in Spain and Portugal speaks for itself, but they're both already glorified third world countries.

Germany and England, at a minimum, will have *no* significant manufacturing centers for anything in 5 years.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (uWKK8)

57 Maybe it'll sustain in small, isolated instances, but the world and humanity are too messy for it to work on a larger, longer scale.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:12 AM (GBKbO)

What you're basically saying is governments won't allow free trade to actually exist. Which is true, but it doesn't negate the principle of free trade. It negates the principle of governments.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (dGCAG)

58
Well, look at how many poll threads we have. And while we are retarded, we would not be classified as 'LIV's.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:14 AM (bss/y)

And look how we respond to poll threads........

"Polls are for strippers."

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (Zz0t1)

59
LeBaron & Son can form an online business that writes and sells Table of Contents' reports to slacker stoojents. Big money out there for such a service, I'm sure.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (k/NIx)

60
I love freedom , but freedom is more like assuming a spherical chicken to make a physics theorem work than an actual reflection of reality.

Maybe it'll sustain in small, isolated instances, but the world and humanity are too messy for it to work on a larger, longer scale.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:12 AM (GBKbO)

That’s much better. (I’m sorry, but either we have economic freedom as much as possible, or we don’t, and eventually it equates to political freedom.)

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (jqrzj)

61 Remember slavery is a sin for which America can never be forgiven, but if you put tariffs on products made by slaves in China you are worse then that!

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (t0Rmr)

62 Phil Mickelson called Schumer a traitor. Not all sports celebrities are brain dead.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (VofaG)

63 Carville in his hissy fit about Hogg said he talked with him and the DNC "can't spare this man he fights" ( Lincoln about Grant). The problem is that Hogg fighting involves punching himself in the nuts

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (Er3Q7)

64 52 But the media believes the opposite. That's why they're still pushing polls, 100 days into Trump's admin. They think it matters.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (Zz0t1)

======

I'm not talking about the media. I'm talking about the most powerful Democrat Senator giving a little speech.

"Trump sucks because his policies suck and here's some economic number to prove it," is what I'd expect from him, not, "His polls are in the gutter."

I'm thinking too much of our political class, I freely admit.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (GBKbO)

65 We get polling threads once in a blue moon these days.

Ace really pulled back on them for an assortment of reasons.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (GBKbO)

The thing is they are pointless and can either be done or taken to mean whatever you want.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (bss/y)

66 I think your summary is good, but it doesn't really get at the heart of the issue.

China didn't have some sort of organic goods manufacturing industry that suddenly started exporting them to other countries, choking out the indigenous markets of those countries.

What happened was American corporations moved or outsourced manufacturing to China to take advantage of slave labor, because their American employees wanted crazy things like their own home, a wife and kids, a reliable car and food, and this meant that corporate bonuses might get shrunk by 2% for the elite executive suite.

China, for all the caterwauling about them conducting a trade war with us, is really nothing more than a proxy for the American corporations that send their contracts and facilities there.

Has that evolved over time to where many Chinese businesses have developed autonomy from their initial American corporate benefactors? Yes.

And that's why the sudden concern. When it was just the average worker getting f-*cked by having your Magnavox tv made in China, champagne corks popped. But when Chinese companies started selling them themselves and keeping the profits, that's when the gnashing of teeth started

Posted by: For What It's Worth at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (PWZG1)

67 Germany and England, at a minimum, will have *no* significant manufacturing centers for anything in 5 years.

Sounds like a local problem to me.

Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (McYvC)

68 Reminds me of when they ran that piece several years ago about women being fearful of pooping while at work.
Posted by: one hour sober

WTF???

yeah wtf?? women poop?????

Posted by: that's gross!!!! at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (jGJov)

69
Jackass James Carville Calls Out "Jackass" David Hogg
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks
---------

WTF? Yesterday Carville was lauding the little guy as a man of steel.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (XeU6L)

70 I'm thinking too much of our political class, I freely admit.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (GBKbO)

The guy puts cheese on raw hamburger, dude.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (bss/y)

71 Ace really pulled back on them for an assortment of reasons.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (GBKbO)

Ace has probably spent most of his vacation pulling back on polls.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (QTr+M)

72 But the media believes the opposite. That's why they're still pushing polls, 100 days into Trump's admin. They think it matters.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (Zz0t1)

They don't have anything else to do with their time. They know no one really listens to them anymore, so they all just spend their time trying to suck up to their oligarch paymasters.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (uWKK8)

73 Phil Mickelson called Schumer a traitor. Not all sports celebrities are brain dead.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (VofaG)

He moved from California because the taxes were too high.

The PGA shunned him for it.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (Zz0t1)

74 >>WTF???

I shit you not

Posted by: one hour sober at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (Y1sOo)

75 57 What you're basically saying is governments won't allow free trade to actually exist. Which is true, but it doesn't negate the principle of free trade. It negates the principle of governments.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (dGCAG)

=======

Nah, people won't make it work.

"I'm gonna protect my farm from competition," all the way up to, "I'm going to protect my country's steel industry."

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (GBKbO)

76 We all know that their biggest priority is having their young women rounded up by rape gangs of migrants, but which is their second most important goal?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:02 AM (GBKbO)

-------------

Helping establish The Caliphate to eventually rid them of those meddlesome Americans once and for all!

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (acnyG)

77 "Suggested slogans for the Democrat Party

MAW - Make America Worse
MACB - Make America China's Bitch
MAPA - Make America Poor Again

Posted by: Chuck Martel"

They would like to make America like China in the 60's/70's. Everybody living in unheated huts or tiny apartments and riding their bikes to get around.

Posted by: Ripley at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (GUOwU)

78 68 Reminds me of when they ran that piece several years ago about women being fearful of pooping while at work.
Posted by: one hour sober

WTF???

yeah wtf?? women poop?????
Posted by: that's gross!!!! at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (jGJov)

To be fair, I will avoid playing an away game if I can. Homefield advantage is important.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:18 AM (bss/y)

79 I'm sure it'll be a hard hitting interview. O⁹

Joe Biden Schedules His First Post-Presidency Interview... on The View

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:18 AM (L/fGl)

80 Ace has probably spent most of his vacation pulling back on polls.
Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (QTr+M)

garrett hardest hit?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:18 AM (bss/y)

81
They don't have anything else to do with their time. They know no one really listens to them anymore, so they all just spend their time trying to suck up to their oligarch paymasters.
Posted by: Tom Servo at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM

This is epic.......

https://is.gd/2LyfdK

Rumble, but it's not my fault they suck.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:19 AM (Zz0t1)

82 60 That’s much better. (I’m sorry, but either we have economic freedom as much as possible, or we don’t, and eventually it equates to political freedom.)
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (jqrzj)

=======

That doesn't mean disarming oneself in the world of trade for ideals.

You're not going to find many anarcho-capitalist utopians around here. Most of us recognize some valid use of government. Overall, there's an effort to limit it, but not abandon it to nothing.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:20 AM (GBKbO)

83 To be fair, I will avoid playing an away game if I can. Homefield advantage is important.
Posted by: Aetius451AD

Agreed. That was one thing I didn't have to worry about during COVID. Being the only person in my office on many days, I had the restroom all to myself.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:20 AM (77rzZ)

84 55 Reminds me of when they ran that piece several years ago about women being fearful of pooping while at work.
Posted by: one hour sober

WTF???
Posted by: Bulg
____

They should try using the restroom. A lot safer to poop there.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:20 AM (Dv3i1)

85 Imagine the money that could be made if Krugman gave out gambling picks.

Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:12 AM (McYvC)

--------------

"Back off, bitchezzz!"

/obligatory Jim Cramer

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:20 AM (acnyG)

86 What you're basically saying is governments won't allow free trade to actually exist. Which is true, but it doesn't negate the principle of free trade. It negates the principle of governments.

If a thing doesn't exist ? Then I don't worry too much about the principle of it.

As I say all the time, we really need to unlearn some of the shit we were all taught in high school econ. Maybe Gen Z is better off for not being taught the crap to begin with.

Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:20 AM (McYvC)

87 The thing is they are pointless and can either be done or taken to mean whatever you want.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (bss/y)

The latest cross tabs on the polls being pushed by the NYT and others were that they were polling 30% Trump voters, 70% Kamala voters, and saying "Trump's support has gone down into the 30's!!!!"

I'm glad Ace quit covering them. They're completely meaningless now.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 02, 2025 11:21 AM (uWKK8)

88
WTF? Yesterday Carville was lauding the little guy as a man of steel.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (XeU6L)

Yeah...it's the craziest turnaround in libtard history.

Who 'got to' him?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:21 AM (Zz0t1)

89 The central idea behind free trade is country X is good at growing wheat, country Y is good at fishing, rather then each trying to fish and farm it makes sense for them to focus at what they are good at and trade to get their needs.

Now, this assumes the two will always be at peace and that whatever they are trading isn't some strategic good.

Our trade with China is NOTHING like that. We are buying manufactured goods that are made in China primarily because regulations in our own country make it costly to make those goods here. So all we are doing is outsourcing things that are supposedly bad for the environment because the Chinese leadership doesn't care

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:21 AM (t0Rmr)

90 Biden's so out of it he'll think Joy Behar is a pretty young girl and he'll sniff her hair. She'll probably enjoy it

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 02, 2025 11:21 AM (Er3Q7)

91 I know that it is good to know your enemy; but I cant bring myself to read or watch the BS that the FNM spews out, I feel like I'm about to rage stroke when I try. Thankfully I read AoS, so I get some knowledge of what the enemy is doing by reading the posts from people who can be unemotional as they fisk the propaganda.

Posted by: PaleRider at May 02, 2025 11:21 AM (bP/i4)

92 I am always tickled by the ewetub ecosystem. Channels become successful, then other channels rise to do nothing but anklebite them. Weird.

Nedrotic is in FULL PANIC over his FAILING channel! Predator Badlands DOESN'T MATTER! | Shillcast
Actual Fandom
1.1K views
Streamed 1 day ago

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:21 AM (bss/y)

93
They should try using the restroom. A lot safer to poop there.
Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:20 AM (Dv3i1)

"But I poop from there!"

"Not today, you don't."

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:21 AM (Zz0t1)

94 Sports media reports Lebron James' future with the Lakers is 'uncertain.'
____

I'm not certain he can function in society unless he is playing basketball full time. It's probably best for him to move to the WNBA, he can play for the next 30 years at least.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (Dv3i1)

-------------

He could eventually play on the same team as his tranny grandson!

* Sports Media Swoooooooooon!!!!!! *

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:21 AM (acnyG)

95 “ The answer, of course, is that the New York Times does not want what is good for the U.S. It conveys a globalist disdain for America and wishes it harm.”

That and I’ll bet any amount of money the NYT — and all leftwing media — is bought and paid for by foreign money, including piles from China. Probably also some Fang-Fang “me love you long time” whores.

Posted by: Elric the Bladiest Blade at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (qYULV)

96 Trump sucks because his policies suck and here's some economic number to prove it," is what I'd expect from him, not, "His polls are in the gutter."

I'm thinking too much of our political class, I freely admit.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:16 AM (GBKbO)

No but you missed something simple which will make you slap your palm to your forehead in a second.

Talking about polls a lot has been a *Trump* thing for going on 10 years. We all know it. Remember ratings and polls, ratings and polls, he loves his ratings and his polls.

People like Kook Shambler see Trump's popularity (ironically) and believe it works so they ape it. Leftists don't just lie all the time, they steal too.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (QTr+M)

97 For those still interested in British politics, a string of local elections was held yesterday, and the Conservative and Labour parties got massacred by Nigel Farage's Reform party.

Reform picked up one Parliamentary seat on a by-election in what was supposed to be a safe Labour district; more importantly, it's won hundreds of county council positions, which are where the local electoral machinery for winning national races are really located.

All of this makes it more likely that Reform will solidify itself as a major contender in the next general election.

Posted by: Dr. T at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (EynyL)

98 And that's why the sudden concern. When it was just the average worker getting f-*cked by having your Magnavox tv made in China, champagne corks popped. But when Chinese companies started selling them themselves and keeping the profits, that's when the gnashing of teeth started
Posted by: For What It's Worth at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (PWZG1)

Exactly. Which is why the attack on "free trade" is misguided.

What happened was not "free trade." It was government screwing the people, while rewarding the corporatists.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (dGCAG)

99 Free Trade should be called Fair Trade so we don't have to have these theorist debates based on the word Free.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (VofaG)

100 To be fair, I will avoid playing an away game if I can. Homefield advantage is important. /i]

I have no interest in, uh, sharing seats with my coworkers.

As a man lucky I can mostly avoid that...as long as I don't eat Indian or Taco Bell for lunch

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (t0Rmr)

101 Reminds me of when they ran that piece several years ago about women being fearful of pooping while at work.
Posted by: one hour sober

This sounds like more than just germaphobia on the women's part, though. What was their "reason" for being "fearful."

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (77rzZ)

102 Biden's so out of it he'll think Joy Behar is a pretty young girl and he'll sniff her hair. She'll probably enjoy it
Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 02, 2025 11:21 AM (Er3Q7)

There's a video out there showing where Biden rubbed Melania's ass during the inauguration.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:23 AM (Zz0t1)

103 We are buying manufactured goods that are made in China primarily because regulations in our own country make it costly to make those goods here.

What regulation makes it too costly to manufacture shoes here?

Child-labor laws?

Posted by: For What It's Worth at May 02, 2025 11:23 AM (PWZG1)

104 This sounds like more than just germaphobia on the women's part, though. What was their "reason" for being "fearful."

given it's the NYT I'm going to guess it was "the patriarchy"

Posted by: brak at May 02, 2025 11:23 AM (jGJov)

105 Their on again off again relationship is apparently off again.

Jackass James Carville Calls Out "Jackass" David Hogg

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at May 02, 2025 11:13 AM (L/fGl)

--------------

BREAKING: David Hogg Lover and Governor Tim Walz Challanges James Carville to a Duel With Tampons as Weapon of Choice. Developing ...

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:24 AM (acnyG)

106 Reminds me of when they ran that piece several years ago about women being fearful of pooping while at work.
--------------
Taking a shit on the clock is wonderful.

Posted by: Pudinhead at May 02, 2025 11:24 AM (pZ64F)

107 NYT (and all leftists): it’s OK when other countries do it.

It meaning anything. Tarriffs, restrictions on abortion, the use of nuclear power, enforcing immigration laws. The list is endless.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:24 AM (NWr1F)

108 I wonder if Europe will decide that tariffs aren't so bad or will they allow their markets to suffer?

Silly question: As long as the ruling class get their cut, who cares what happens to the little people?

Posted by: NR Pax at May 02, 2025 11:24 AM (lXCUP)

109 What LIV is listening to Chuck Schumer?
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:12 AM (GBKbO)

Too many, unfortunately.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at May 02, 2025 11:24 AM (5xuJ/)

110
What regulation makes it too costly to manufacture shoes here?

Child-labor laws?

See for example plastic recycling. Its been tried several times in my blue state each time the locals get it banned.

Now the Chinese answer to this is honestly brilliant. They take the money to recycle plastic and then just dump it in the ocean.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:24 AM (t0Rmr)

111 97 For those still interested in British politics, a string of local elections was held yesterday, and the Conservative and Labour parties got massacred by Nigel Farage's Reform party.

Reform picked up one Parliamentary seat on a by-election in what was supposed to be a safe Labour district; more importantly, it's won hundreds of county council positions, which are where the local electoral machinery for winning national races are really located.

All of this makes it more likely that Reform will solidify itself as a major contender in the next general election.
Posted by: Dr. T at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (EynyL)

=======

Well, that's fun.

I'd largely written off Reform when it only won 5 seats. I hope to be proven wrong.

And I hope Reform isn't full of grifters and liars who will say anything to get their nose in the trough of government corruption through Parliament.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:24 AM (GBKbO)

112 Just saw on X, the Atlantic is at it again:

Hitler used tariffs to “liberate” Germany from a globalized world order—careening the economy backwards, Timothy W. Ryback writes.

Yes, because the problem with the Nazi regime was... trade policy? Not the Holocaust (which, after all, the Left is now basically in favor of).

Posted by: Ian S. at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (JAJvV)

113 The left's next martyred hero?

Kash Patel’s FBI Arrests Satanic Neo-Nazi Network Leaders Targeting Children

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (L/fGl)

114 Here's the graphic NYT ran with their women pooping at work article.

https://tinyurl.com/5ese82xu

Lots going on there.

(I had no idea women take off their shoes before pooping).

Posted by: one hour sober at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (Y1sOo)

115 What regulation makes it too costly to manufacture shoes here?

/-

The whole “you can’t use slave labor” thing for starters.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (NWr1F)

116 109 What LIV is listening to Chuck Schumer?
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:12 AM (GBKbO)

Too many, unfortunately.
Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at May 02, 2025 11:24 AM (5xuJ/)

======

Low Information Voters aren't listening to politicians.

They're low information. They don't listen to politics...at all.

They're purely cultural voters where their party preferences are completely driven by the culture that they live in.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (GBKbO)

117 This sounds like more than just germaphobia on the women's part, though. What was their "reason" for being "fearful."
Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (77rzZ)

I'll take What Is Men in Wigs in Their Restrooms for $500, Alex.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (QTr+M)

118 Its the NYT, populated by anti American lefty garbage. completly expected.

Posted by: fd at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (rgC6E)

119
The whole “you can’t use slave labor” thing for starters.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (NWr1F)

And child labor laws......

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:26 AM (Zz0t1)

120 And I hope Reform isn't full of grifters and liars who will say anything to get their nose in the trough of government corruption through Parliament.
____

Based on my X feed, Nigel Farage is a grifter, Rupert Lowe is the real deal. YMMV

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:26 AM (Dv3i1)

121
They're low information. They don't listen to politics...at all.

They're purely cultural voters where their party preferences are completely driven by the culture that they live in.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (GBKbO)

But they do listen to CNN and MSNBC.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:26 AM (Zz0t1)

122 120 Based on my X feed, Nigel Farage is a grifter, Rupert Lowe is the real deal. YMMV
Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:26 AM (Dv3i1)

=======

I am suspicious of politicians who almost never hold office but are constantly running for office.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:26 AM (GBKbO)

123 As I said yesterday about Canada applies to Europe as well....

Its a bottle of fine wine that's spilled on the floor. The bottle is pretty, the contents are useless, and no one wants to clean up the mess.

Europe expects daddy to clean up the mess, make everything right, increase their allowance, and hand over the keys to the car.
The NY Times is the best friend that helps badger daddy to give in to demands.
Big daddy Trump is fed up with this shit and taking off his belt. Hopefully he will swat the NYT a few time also.

Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench) at May 02, 2025 11:27 AM (2J/Lj)

124 113 The left's next martyred hero?

Kash Patel’s FBI Arrests Satanic Neo-Nazi Network Leaders Targeting Children
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (L/fGl)

Has anyone else watched the angrycops thing about Buffalo school system? I watched it last night when arch and Sargon went over the video.

It is short on details to the point that I am not sure which favored group is actually to blame here. It sounds like both a teacher's union and gang double play.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:27 AM (bss/y)

125 What regulation makes it too costly to manufacture shoes here?

Child-labor laws?

-

See for example plastic recycling. Its been tried several times in my blue state each time the locals get it banned.

Now the Chinese answer to this is honestly brilliant. They take the money to recycle plastic and then just dump it in the ocean.
Posted by: 18-1

-

I cannot in good conscience allow you to detract from and slander the U.S. recycling industry with that statement.

They also contaminated our water and food supply (and children's reproductive systems) with microplastics by needlessly shredding plastic without any notion of what they were doing, all while not saving any energy or resources.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Look up the definition of Nose Ring Theory at May 02, 2025 11:27 AM (Ji8U7)

126 If a thing doesn't exist ? Then I don't worry too much about the principle of it.

As I say all the time, we really need to unlearn some of the shit we were all taught in high school econ. Maybe Gen Z is better off for not being taught the crap to begin with.
Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:20 AM (McYvC)

There's a reason it doesn't exist though. That's because government killed it. Whether it's ever possible to bring it back to life or not, that's a different question, but it's not like the principle died of natural causes.

I wouldn't mind TRYING to bring it back to life, but I'm also not so much an idealist to really believe that's going to happen.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:27 AM (dGCAG)

127 114 Here's the graphic NYT ran with their women pooping at work article.

https://tinyurl.com/5ese82xu

Lots going on there.

(I had no idea women take off their shoes before pooping).
Posted by: one hour sober
____

That is chaotic. Serenity would certainly improve the process.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:27 AM (Dv3i1)

128 121 But they do listen to CNN and MSNBC.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:26 AM (Zz0t1)

=======

I think you're confusing, "brain dead" with "low information."

People who watch CNN and MSNBC are highly engaged partisans. I would not classify them as low information. They may get a lot of bad information, but it's not low information.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:27 AM (GBKbO)

129 I hope Reform isn't full of grifters and liars who will say anything to get their nose in the trough of government corruption through Parliament.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

Like most political movements they start out sincere and then as soon as they gain power they turn to the grift.

See Tea Party as a recent American example.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:28 AM (NWr1F)

130 What happened was not "free trade." It was government screwing the people, while rewarding the corporatists.

The Left is absolutely correct that certain American social classes exploit the rest. They just lie about who is exploiting who.

Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:28 AM (McYvC)

131
I think you're confusing, "brain dead" with "low information."

People who watch CNN and MSNBC are highly engaged partisans. I would not classify them as low information. They may get a lot of bad information, but it's not low information.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:27 AM (GBKbO)

I blame my hangover.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:28 AM (Zz0t1)

132 And I hope Reform isn't full of grifters and liars who will say anything to get their nose in the trough of government corruption through Parliament.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

And I hope that Tara Yazdi shows up in my front yard looking for the bikini top that blew away, leaving her topless, and requests my help in searching for it.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:28 AM (77rzZ)

133 The whole “you can’t use slave labor” thing for starters.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (NWr1F)

Because contrary to popular belief in the gay community, we are not running gay concentration camps. The chinese are and gleefully take advantage of the labor.

Honestly, you could look at the entirety of China as one huge forced labor camp.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:28 AM (bss/y)

134 132 And I hope Reform isn't full of grifters and liars who will say anything to get their nose in the trough of government corruption through Parliament.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

And I hope that Tara Yazdi shows up in my front yard looking for the bikini top that blew away, leaving her topless, and requests my help in searching for it.
Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:28 AM (77rzZ)

======

So...

You're telling me there's a chance...

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:28 AM (GBKbO)

135 The left tells me that income inequality has exploded in the last 20 years or so, which is the same time period the US has embraced a China focused notion of "free trade".

But if you note that correlation you are a racist NAZI apparently.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:29 AM (t0Rmr)

136 The whole “you can’t use slave labor” thing for starters.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (NWr1F)

Hence the push for open borders.

It's not a perfect replacement for slave labor, but if you can't import enough 3rd worlders you can drive labor costs down enough to get it within one standard deviation from slave labor.

And if they start complaining, you can deport them.

Posted by: For What It's Worth at May 02, 2025 11:29 AM (PWZG1)

137 Joe Biden Schedules His First Post-Presidency Interview... on The View
-----------------
Odds of Joe Brain Freeze?

Posted by: Pudinhead at May 02, 2025 11:29 AM (pZ64F)

138 Revenue for shoes manufactured in South Korea are more than $8 billion.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:29 AM (GBKbO)

139 Now the Chinese answer to this is honestly brilliant. They take the money to recycle plastic and then just dump it in the ocean.
Posted by: 18-1
=======
Burning plastics is actually a pretty decent way to recover some of the energy used in the making of it.

That being said, a lot of things are plastic now that do not need to be because metal can cost more.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 11:29 AM (ctrM5)

140 Like most political movements they start out sincere and then as soon as they gain power they turn to the grift.

See Tea Party as a recent American example.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:28 AM (NWr1F)

Tea Party got infested quick. And then was head off.

Side note: do you all realize that was 15 years ago now?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:29 AM (bss/y)

141 There's a freight train coming down the track headed for Europe (see the art thread!) but *no* *one* appears to want to talk about it; and that is the death of their industrialized manufacturing sectors because of their insane energy policies. Worst in Germany and England; probably survivable in France and Italy. The situation in Spain and Portugal speaks for itself, but they're both already glorified third world countries.

Germany and England, at a minimum, will have *no* significant manufacturing centers for anything in 5 years.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 02, 2025 11:15 AM (uWKK

--------------

To paraphrase Sir Edward Grey:

"The lamps are going out all over Western Europe ... this time for good."

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:29 AM (acnyG)

142 One thing you can always depend on the NYT is a complete lack of concern over America and Americans. Why it almost like the NYT is actively against the USA and it’s legal citizens.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable at May 02, 2025 11:29 AM (17s+e)

143 "I know that it is good to know your enemy; but I cant bring myself to read or watch the BS that the FNM spews out, I feel like I'm about to rage stroke when I try.
Posted by: PaleRider"

For some reason when traveling and stating in hotels I find myself channel surfing at night, about the only time I watch MSM TV. It is mind numbing, especially the news. The ancient alien and ghost hunter shows are more believable.

Posted by: Ripley at May 02, 2025 11:30 AM (GUOwU)

144 Honestly, you could look at the entirety of China as one huge forced labor camp.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:28 AM (bss/y)

No no I learned last night on reddit that only idiots believe China is a communist country.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:30 AM (QTr+M)

145 And I hope that Tara Yazdi shows up in my front yard looking for the bikini top that blew away, leaving her topless, and requests my help in searching for it.
Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:28 AM (77rzZ)

And she'll hold them 2" from your face, then kick you in the balls if you try to lick them.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:30 AM (Zz0t1)

146 (I had no idea women take off their shoes before pooping).

Posted by: one hour sober at May 02, 2025 11:25 AM (Y1sOo)

I'm stunned that any woman poops at work

Posted by: kallisto at May 02, 2025 11:30 AM (dCxaZ)

147 And I hope that Tara Yazdi shows up in my front yard looking for the bikini top that blew away, leaving her topless, and requests my help in searching for it.
Posted by: Bulg
========
I don't even know who that is.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 11:30 AM (ctrM5)

148 144 No no I learned last night on reddit that only idiots believe China is a communist country.
Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:30 AM (QTr+M)

=======

They are a fascist dictatorship running a slave-capitalist system.

Communism just has this nasty trick of turning into right-wing fascism, but the next guy to do it will do it right.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:31 AM (GBKbO)

149 And that's why the sudden concern. When it was just the average worker getting f-*cked by having your Magnavox tv made in China, champagne corks popped. But when Chinese companies started selling them themselves and keeping the profits, that's when the gnashing of teeth started
Posted by: For What It's Worth at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (PWZG1)

Exactly. Which is why the attack on "free trade" is misguided.

What happened was not "free trade." It was government screwing the people, while rewarding the corporatists.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (dGCAG)

This goes way back to the early 70's. Zenith sued Sony for dumping their TV's and other products here, selling them cheaper than they sold for in Japan. In the end, most American manufacturers, slowly, but surely, began to manufacture their products either in Mexico or in the far East. RCA modules were made in Mexico and/or Indonesia. Eventually, nearly all products were made off shore. Zenith was one of the last to close shop. I was in the electronics repair business back then, and American consumers wanted "low prices". Well, here we are.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at May 02, 2025 11:31 AM (5xuJ/)

150 137 Joe Biden Schedules His First Post-Presidency Interview... on The View
_____

They want a shot at the coveted Grammy Award for Outstanding Editing

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:31 AM (Dv3i1)

151 Joe Biden Schedules His First Post-Presidency Interview... on The View
-----------------
Odds of Joe Brain Freeze?
Posted by: Pudinhead at May 02, 2025 11:29 AM (pZ64F)

It will be a deep fake.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:31 AM (Zz0t1)

152 No no I learned last night on reddit that only idiots believe China is a communist country.
Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:30 AM (QTr+M)

Huh.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:31 AM (bss/y)

153 Side note: do you all realize that was 15 years ago now?
Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:29 AM (bss/y)

Time flies doesn’t it?

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:31 AM (NWr1F)

154 And she'll hold them 2" from your face, then kick you in the balls if you try to lick them.
____

That happened to you too?

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (Dv3i1)

155 Must Not See TV!

Watch: Michelle Obama Tells Actor-Comedian Marlon Wayans He’s a “Role Model for Dealing With a Child That’s Transgender”

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (L/fGl)

156
The Left: Look at how great all the Socialist countries are doing!

Also the Left: True Socialism has never been tried.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (QTr+M)

157 I don't even know who that is.
Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 11:30 AM (ctrM5)

https://is.gd/hf4Y36

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (Zz0t1)

158 147 And I hope that Tara Yazdi shows up in my front yard looking for the bikini top that blew away, leaving her topless, and requests my help in searching for it.
Posted by: Bulg
========
I don't even know who that is.
Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 11:30 AM (ctrM5)

https://tinyurl.com/2p9hpr9c

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (bss/y)

159 I don't even know who that is.
Posted by: whig

Model with great tracts of land.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (77rzZ)

160 156
The Left: Look at how great all the Socialist countries are doing!

Also the Left: True Socialism has never been tried.
Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (QTr+M)

=======

"But Sweden!"

"We're not socialist."
-Sweden

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (GBKbO)

161 "Joe Biden Schedules His First Post-Presidency Interview... on The View
-----------------"

i hope he gropes Whoopie's butt.

Posted by: fd at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (rgC6E)

162 o no I learned last night on reddit that only idiots believe China is a communist country.
Posted by: ...

Just like how Nazis weren’t socialist. Even though the word socialist was in the party name.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (NWr1F)

163
#1 Hit Song in China:

*sings*

We're dumping goods in England
For about a quarter pound
We're dumping goods in Germany
Cuz we love that "oompah" sound
We're dumping goods in Denmark
Too make those Squareheads cry
Then we'll dump a lot inside of Greece
We like to get beside those guys!

*chopstick solo*

Posted by: naturalfake at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (iJfKG)

164
Watch: Michelle Obama Tells Actor-Comedian Marlon Wayans He’s a “Role Model for Dealing With a Child That’s Transgender”
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (L/fGl)

Otherwise known as child abuse.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (Zz0t1)

165 i hope he gropes Whoopie's butt.
____

So do I

Posted by: Whoopie at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (Dv3i1)

166 https://is.gd/hf4Y36
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (Zz0t1)

You realize that bulg is just trolling for cheesecake he could easily look up himself, right?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (bss/y)

167 They also contaminated our water and food supply (and children's reproductive systems) with microplastics by needlessly shredding plastic without any notion of what they were doing, all while not saving any energy or resources.
Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Look up the definition of Nose Ring Theory at May 02, 2025 11:27 AM (Ji8U7)

It's a shame we don't live in a country with bazillions of square miles of open space, where waste can be safely buried in landfills that actually become green space over time, thus being their own "recycling" system.

Yeah.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (dGCAG)

168 No one wants to pay $200 for a pair of athletic shoes because they were made in America by Americans. They want $50 shoes.

Though some people will line up to pay $200 for a pair of athletic shoes made in China by 8 year olds because they say "Jordan" on them.

Posted by: brak at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (jGJov)

169 Bulg -
I see you are on the thread: what was the name of the book you were reading that said the Brits were behind the Epstein op? I would like to read it too.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (VphID)

170 The ancient alien and ghost hunter shows are more believable.
---------------
Then there is Oak Island and Emma Culligan and her spectrometer.

Posted by: Pudinhead at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (pZ64F)

171 That actor that played the flash abducted an underage girl and held her in his house claiming she came out as trans and her family kicked her out.

I'm sure the sex he was having with her was completely incidental to him being stunning and brave

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:34 AM (t0Rmr)

172 168 No one wants to pay $200 for a pair of athletic shoes because they were made in America by Americans. They want $50 shoes.

Though some people will line up to pay $200 for a pair of athletic shoes made in China by 8 year olds because they say "Jordan" on them.

Posted by: brak at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (jGJov)

=======

We can just buy them from South Korea.

Their shoe industry is $8 billion per year.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:34 AM (GBKbO)

173 The NYT has a problem with the PRC dumping cheap consumber goods? LOLOL

Hey, NYT, look at the world market for state-subsidized PRC rolled steel! China has been ruthlessly undercutting domestic steel production by using state subsidies, ignoring basic environmental clear water and clean air international agreements, and artificially capping steelworkers' wages. Can't sue PRC companies in Chinese courts, either.

As a result, the entire world is slapping huge tariffs on Chinese steel exports - from Japan to Patagonia.

Posted by: mrp at May 02, 2025 11:34 AM (rj6Yv)

174 No one immigrates to China. But the leftist propaganda points out that they have over a million foreign born residents. ( that is a relatively small number anyway) but what they don't tell you is that number includes Hong Kong, Macau and even Taiwan.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:34 AM (VofaG)

175 157

https://is.gd/hf4Y36
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (Zz0t1)

158

https://tinyurl.com/2p9hpr9c
Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:32 AM (bss/y)

We rule.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:34 AM (Zz0t1)

176 Well, that's fun.

I'd largely written off Reform when it only won 5 seats. I hope to be proven wrong.

And I hope Reform isn't full of grifters and liars who will say anything to get their nose in the trough of government corruption through Parliament.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:24 AM (GBKbO)

Last year's election was unfortunate, but had to happen. You can rarely achieve a complete replacement of a mainstream party in one election cycle. But that switchover is happening now, and both Labour and Conservatives are hemorrhaging voters.

As for what Reform turns out to be...who knows. It's certainly not as far-right as it's made out to be, but it's a start.

Posted by: Dr. T at May 02, 2025 11:34 AM (EynyL)

177 i hope he gropes Whoopie's butt.
Posted by: fd at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (rgC6E)

So much for lunch.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (/HDaX)

178 There's a reason it doesn't exist though. That's because government killed it. Whether it's ever possible to bring it back to life or not, that's a different question, but it's not like the principle died of natural causes.

It never existed. Never. Not because of government. Because of people.

We don't even have free trade internally. Not when states subsidize industries to attract them. Thats not free trade. Thats not fair trade. Thats not equal trade.

Free Trade is a loosely defined concept that only exists on paper. That some will go so hard to the mat for something that never existed tells us something about ideology.

Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (McYvC)

179 We rule.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:34 AM (Zz0t1)

We are also helpful.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (bss/y)

180 168 No one wants to pay $200 for a pair of athletic shoes because they were made in America by Americans. They want $50 shoes.

I've got a pair of $60 American-made New Balance that every suburban dad owns.

Posted by: For What It's Worth at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (PWZG1)

181 The msm still has a ton of influence. Not as much as it once did. But nonetheless they do sway a huge swath of the population.

If we had an honest media democrats would be a regional party in the NE and coastal California,

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (NWr1F)

182 Servants of the People- that's what we are.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (bss/y)

183
You realize that bulg is just trolling for cheesecake he could easily look up himself, right?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (bss/y)

That's what he does. It is known.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (Zz0t1)

184 [snip]

But when Chinese companies started selling them themselves and keeping the profits, that's when the gnashing of teeth started

Posted by: For What It's Worth at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (PWZG1)

---------------

Fair point -- vis-a-vis the oligarchic elites "suddenly" being outraged at the theft of our Intellectual Property.

But for Trump, it's (regardless) clearly about reversing the off-shoring of manufacturing and selling-out of flyover country and what we now call "The Rust Belt."

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (acnyG)

185 Just like how Nazis weren’t socialist. Even though the word socialist was in the party name.

that was a recurring meme on Reddit to make fun of the right:

"Did you know reich-wingers are so stupid they think the Nazis were socialists just because the word socialism was in their name? LOLLOLOL"

5000 upvotes, gilded 20 times

Posted by: brak at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (jGJov)

186 No one wants to pay $200 for a pair of athletic shoes because they were made in America by Americans. They want $50 shoes.

Here's thing thing, absent the inflation and taxes we've layered on over the last 20 years those shoes would be $50 if they were made by Americans too. And your taxes would be half of what they are now as well.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (t0Rmr)

187 176 Last year's election was unfortunate, but had to happen. You can rarely achieve a complete replacement of a mainstream party in one election cycle. But that switchover is happening now, and both Labour and Conservatives are hemorrhaging voters.

As for what Reform turns out to be...who knows. It's certainly not as far-right as it's made out to be, but it's a start.
Posted by: Dr. T at May 02, 2025 11:34 AM (EynyL)

=======

I expected the Conservative Party to become the default opposition party with Labour in such a monumental majority while Reform had just 5 seats.

People returning to, "Let's vote for the other guy, and the only other guy is the guy I know and hate, the Conservative Party."

Seen it play out way too much over the years.

A break from that is nice.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (GBKbO)

188 Bulg -
I see you are on the thread: what was the name of the book you were reading that said the Brits were behind the Epstein op? I would like to read it too.
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit

One Nation Under Blackmail, by Whitney Webb. 2 Vols.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:36 AM (77rzZ)

189 The entire dem platform from an economic and immigration standpoint has been boiled down to a demand for cheap, exploitable labor.

Remarkable.

Posted by: The Central Scrutinizer at May 02, 2025 11:36 AM (KbCG3)

190 I've got a pair of $60 American-made New Balance that every suburban dad owns.

You sure? New Balances are made in Vietnam and Indonesia, unless it's the special order ones from their website that are made in the USA...and start at about $199.99.

Posted by: brak at May 02, 2025 11:36 AM (jGJov)

191 I knew something was missing but I didn't know what it was!

Disney “Star Wars: Andor” Introduces Lesbianism to Streaming Series

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:36 AM (L/fGl)

192 I've got a pair of $60 American-made New Balance that every suburban dad owns.

I noticed their quality has dropped lately. They stopped making the shoes I always bought and their latest ones are obviously made more cheaply.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:37 AM (t0Rmr)

193 Recycling plastic.....
Melt it down and pour it in to giant half ton blocks. Use the blocks to build the US/Canada border wall. Sudden lack of used plastic will improve the environment, lack of drugs and aliens crossing the border is good for the US, and who gives a shit what Canada thinks.

Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench) at May 02, 2025 11:37 AM (2J/Lj)

194 As a result, the entire world is slapping huge tariffs on Chinese steel exports - from Japan to Patagonia.
Posted by: mrp at May 02, 2025 11:34 AM (rj6Yv)

besides the quality of the steel sucking.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:37 AM (VofaG)

195 No one wants to pay $200 for a pair of athletic shoes because they were made in America by Americans. They want $50 shoes.

—

Because people are idiots generally speaking.

That $200 shoe will last 2-3 times longer than the $50 shoe. So relatively speaking the $50 shoe is more like $100-150. And your taxes will be much lower as the need to support tens of millions of unemployed people will go away.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:37 AM (NWr1F)

196 189 The entire dem platform from an economic and immigration standpoint has been boiled down to a demand for cheap, exploitable labor.

Remarkable.
Posted by: The Central Scrutinizer
____

It always was the party of slavery, it hasn't changed.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:37 AM (Dv3i1)

197
We are also helpful.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (bss/y)

And great Americans.

https://is.gd/Sma4QY

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:37 AM (Zz0t1)

198 No no I learned last night on reddit that only idiots believe China is a communist country.
Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:30 AM (QTr+M)

Fat, drunk and learning from Reddit is no way to go through life, son.

Posted by: Dr. T at May 02, 2025 11:37 AM (EynyL)

199 Disney “Star Wars: Andor” Introduces Lesbianism to Streaming Series

Let me guess they will look nothing like the ones in those special videos Ace hides in his "boring working stuff" folder...

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:38 AM (t0Rmr)

200 If there are infinite genders across a vast spectrum, then what the fuck is a "lesbian"?

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:38 AM (QTr+M)

201 Due to the thoroghness of the post, I'm going to assume the GOP was not mentioned on purpose.

Posted by: Francis at May 02, 2025 11:38 AM (bbuBP)

202 You realize that bulg is just trolling for cheesecake he could easily look up himself, right?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:33 AM (bss/y)

That's what he does. It is known.
Posted by: Sponge

Hey, I'm going through Mannix-girl withdrawal.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:38 AM (77rzZ)

203 Why would we want to trade at all with Chyna? I’m sure I’ve purchased products that used slave labor there… no knowingly though. I’ll gladly pay 10x…. Trade with most countries is a good thing but not your enemy. I don’t care about their huge market

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 02, 2025 11:38 AM (ZtAny)

204 If the NYT were a tool of a foreign power hell bent on the destruction of the USA, what would the NYT be doing differently?

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable at May 02, 2025 11:38 AM (17s+e)

205 given it's the NYT I'm going to guess it was "the patriarchy"
Posted by: brak at May 02, 2025 11:23 AM (jGJov)

Tell him what he's won, Don Pardo!

"Poop shame is real — and it disproportionately affects women, who suffer from higher rates of irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. In other words, the patriarchy has seeped into women’s intestinal tracts. Let’s call it the pootriarchy."

https://archive.ph/YiEBL

Posted by: one hour sober at May 02, 2025 11:38 AM (Y1sOo)

206 >>> Dem Rep. Eric Swalwell Vows Use of ‘Subpoena Power’ to Investigate Whether Elon Musk’s Starlink Rigged Election For Trump (VIDEO)

Now how could thar even be plausible?

Unless....
The voter machines really are on the net and hackable!

Tacit admission of vote fraud.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (hnv2E)

207 And great Americans.

https://is.gd/Sma4QY
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:37 AM (Zz0t1)

And good looking.

https://tinyurl.com/4uv95bb3

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (bss/y)

208 But trade experts say the economic relationship between Europe and China is rooted in a decades-old reality: a Chinese marketplace that is effectively closed to many European companies because of regulatory burdens and the Communist Party’s buttressing of Chinese companies.

The "huge Chinese market" is a myth. They have a couple of hundred million coastal Chinese who buy a few copies of Western goods, and nearly a billion people who don't have electricity or running water and whose idea of public sanitation is shitting in the middle of the road, in public.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (FoIOl)

209 Fat, drunk and learning from Reddit is no way to go through life, son.
Posted by: Dr. T at May 02, 2025 11:37 AM (Eynyi

I will not take fat but drunk I may have to vouch for.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (QTr+M)

210
If there are infinite genders across a vast spectrum, then what the fuck is a "lesbian"?

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:38 AM (QTr+M)

Ultraviolet?

Posted by: naturalfake at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (iJfKG)

211 199 Disney “Star Wars: Andor” Introduces Lesbianism to Streaming Series

Let me guess they will look nothing like the ones in those special videos Ace hides in his "boring working stuff" folder...
Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:38 AM (t0Rmr)

=======

Eh. The gay character was obviously gay (explicitly so, it's mentioned that she's in a relationship with a woman) in the first season.

The show is designed for adults so much that I find it hard to imagine anyone under 13 even getting through an episode at all.

Engagement farming is all this is.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (GBKbO)

212 The funny thing about "Country X isn't really socialist" is that before Country X falls apart the same people will tell you that in fact it is a socialist paradise and anyone that disagrees is a fascist. And the fun part? They even said that about fascist Italy way back when

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (t0Rmr)

213 You sure? New Balances are made in Vietnam and Indonesia, unless it's the special order ones from their website that are made in the USA...and start at about $199.99.

Posted by: brak at May 02, 2025 11:36 AM (jGJov)

I just looked and....now I stand corrected and somewhat pissed off at New Balance.

*spits*

Posted by: For What It's Worth at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (PWZG1)

214
"Poop shame is real — and it disproportionately affects women, who suffer from higher rates of irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. In other words, the patriarchy has seeped into women’s intestinal tracts. Let’s call it the pootriarchy."

https://archive.ph/YiEBL
Posted by: one hour sober at May 02, 2025 11:38 AM (Y1sOo)

Women are on more pharmaceuticals. This is a side effect.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:40 AM (Zz0t1)

215 China has 1.3 billion people. It should be able to sell to itself and still be wealthy.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:40 AM (NWr1F)

216 212 The funny thing about "Country X isn't really socialist" is that before Country X falls apart the same people will tell you that in fact it is a socialist paradise and anyone that disagrees is a fascist. And the fun part? They even said that about fascist Italy way back when

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (t0Rmr)

=======

I remember the Venezuelan economic miracle.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:40 AM (GBKbO)

217 206 >>> Dem Rep. Eric Swalwell Vows Use of ‘Subpoena Power’ to Investigate Whether Elon Musk’s Starlink Rigged Election For Trump (VIDEO)

Now how could thar even be plausible?

Unless....
The voter machines really are on the net and hackable!

Tacit admission of vote fraud.
Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (hnv2E)

I speak for everyone here when I say that every election should be audited to a ridiculous degree.

Posted by: The Central Scrutinizer at May 02, 2025 11:40 AM (KbCG3)

218 Dem Rep. Eric Swalwell Vows Use of ‘Subpoena Power’ to Investigate Whether Elon Musk’s Starlink Rigged Election For Trump
-------

"We have the most secure electoral process in the history of the universe!!!"

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:40 AM (QTr+M)

219 I would also argue that all “conservatives” and libertarians who similarly preach unilateral surrender by the United States to foreign mercantilism are just as antagonistic to a strong, independent Unites States as is the New York Times and their crowd.

I'd like to believe that they're just misguided... that they cannot see the forest for the trees. I'd like to believe that but I can't believe that hard anymore.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 02, 2025 11:40 AM (ExV1e)

220 Reminds me of when they ran that piece several years ago about women being fearful of pooping while at work.

nearly a billion people who don't have electricity or running water and whose idea of public sanitation is shitting in the middle of the road, in public.
_____

Problem... Solved!

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:40 AM (Dv3i1)

221 Poop is sexist. I mean that makes sense when your world is a place where trees are racist.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:41 AM (NWr1F)

222 And good looking.

https://tinyurl.com/4uv95bb3
Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (bss/y)

Thicc!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:41 AM (Zz0t1)

223 Dem Rep. Eric Swalwell Vows Use of ‘Subpoena Power’ to Investigate Whether Elon Musk’s Starlink Rigged Election For Trump (VIDEO)

Now how could thar even be plausible?

Unless....
The voter machines really are on the net and hackable!

Tacit admission of vote fraud.
Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (hnv2E)

In the next election, all voting machines will be required to wear tin foil hats.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 02, 2025 11:41 AM (iJfKG)

224 That $200 shoe will last 2-3 times longer than the $50 shoe.

that's true for dress shoes like Allen Edmonds that are made in America, but not really for athletic shoes

I brought up shoes because it's frustrating. There are not any options for athletic shoes to be made in America, just like about anything made with textiles.

Posted by: brak at May 02, 2025 11:41 AM (jGJov)

225 Northern Italy was devastated by Covid first because a lot of Chinese travel back and forth there because of the clothes manufacturing industry.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:41 AM (VofaG)

226 It never existed. Never. Not because of government. Because of people.

We don't even have free trade internally. Not when states subsidize industries to attract them. Thats not free trade. Thats not fair trade. Thats not equal trade.

Free Trade is a loosely defined concept that only exists on paper. That some will go so hard to the mat for something that never existed tells us something about ideology.
Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:35 AM (McYvC)

Well that's not true, but people gotta believe what they do.

Far be it from me to try to change anyone's mind.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:41 AM (dGCAG)

227 89 The central idea behind free trade is country X is good at growing wheat, country Y is good at fishing, rather then each trying to fish and farm it makes sense for them to focus at what they are good at and trade to get their needs.

Now, this assumes the two will always be at peace and that whatever they are trading isn't some strategic good.

Our trade with China is NOTHING like that. We are buying manufactured goods that are made in China primarily because regulations in our own country make it costly to make those goods here. So all we are doing is outsourcing things that are supposedly bad for the environment because the Chinese leadership doesn't care

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:21 AM (t0Rmr)

And by producing them there and not here under the same Chinese rules, we actually make the environmental issues worse b/c transports costs on the environment now also have to be absorbed...

Posted by: Nova Local at May 02, 2025 11:41 AM (tOcjL)

228 226 Well that's not true, but people gotta believe what they do.

Far be it from me to try to change anyone's mind.
Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:41 AM (dGCAG)

======

When did free trade exist?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:42 AM (GBKbO)

229 I'm sure it'll be a hard hitting interview. O⁹

Joe Biden Schedules His First Post-Presidency Interview... on The View

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:18 AM (L/fGl)

----------------

[Racist Sunny Hostin:] "If anything, would you have done something differently as the President during the past four years?"

[F. Joe Mugabe:] "I was the President?"

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:42 AM (cXwBh)

230 Ultraviole n t?

Posted by: naturalfake at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (iJfKG)

According to the statistics anyway

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:42 AM (QTr+M)

231 If there are infinite genders across a vast spectrum, then what the fuck is a "lesbian"?

I saw a blogger go to some feminist rally. They were chanting all the normal stupid things and yes they were mostly spherical.

He found one particular spheroid and asked her what her advice was for men which was, "Men need to really listen to women and do what they say even if it is hard for them to do because women know how to fix the planet".

Then he asked her, just so he could be sure he was taking advice from the right people, what is a woman?

The spheroid tried to answer him 5 times, failing to get out more then a few odd sounds each time then just walked away.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:42 AM (t0Rmr)

232 >>> The "huge Chinese market" is a myth. They have a couple of hundred million coastal Chinese who buy a few copies of Western goods, and nearly a billion people who don't have electricity or running water and whose idea of public sanitation is shitting in the middle of the road, in public.
Posted by: IllTemperedCur

So China is like California

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at May 02, 2025 11:42 AM (hnv2E)

233 Since WWII, both political parties have told Americans and American workers that they must sacrifice so the world can do better.

Higher taxes, unfair and unfree trade agreements, offshoring of jobs, trillions in un-repaid loans, grants and aid, the lives and limbs of our youth in endless wars.

And what has America gotten for that deal?
Nothing.

But the politicians of both parties, the Bernie Sanders and the Mitt Romneys, have gotten obscenely rich, generational wealth.

But so ingrained is the propaganda, "free trade good, tariffs bad," that even now, after all the facts and results are laid bare, even now there are dead-end adherents, "just give it one more chance and this time our globalization theories will prove correct."

Go sit next to the maxists with your ever-failing stories, charts and graphs.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at May 02, 2025 11:42 AM (NwfFc)

234 BTW… America first is great but it can go too far. I listened this morning to Tucker Carlson talking to Matt Walsh about the Douglas Murray, Dave Smith “debate” on Rogan and their conversation was jarring to me. They were expressing an attitude that they really couldn’t care less what happens with Israel and Hamas; they only care about our country. It doesn’t sit well with me because I do care about good vs evil even if it’s not happening here. Those two have gone too far

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 02, 2025 11:42 AM (ZtAny)

235 And good looking.

https://tinyurl.com/4uv95bb3
Posted by: Aetius451AD

The cross necklace with the seriously undersized bikini is an interesting combination.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:43 AM (77rzZ)

236 Let's do the time warp again?

“Rocky Horror Picture Show” Getting 4K Restoration for 50th Anniversary

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:43 AM (L/fGl)

237
The cross necklace with the seriously undersized bikini is an interesting combination.
Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:43 AM (77rzZ)

She's admitting God given talent.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:43 AM (Zz0t1)

238 he msm still has a ton of influence. Not as much as it once did. But nonetheless they do sway a huge swath of the population.
——-

The real power the MSM has is in the stories they swish and never see the light of day. People know that the MSM is nothing but lies on what they do say but have yet to figure out all of what they hide.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (17s+e)

239
“Rocky Horror Picture Show” Getting 4K Restoration for 50th Anniversary
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:43 AM (L/fGl)

Fer f*cks sakes WHY?!?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (Zz0t1)

240 239
“Rocky Horror Picture Show” Getting 4K Restoration for 50th Anniversary
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:43 AM (L/fGl)

Fer f*cks sakes WHY?!?
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (Zz0t1)

=======

Because people will buy it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (GBKbO)

241 Well that's not true, but people gotta believe what they do.

Show me one time - just one - where two political entities engaged in commerce where each entity had identical rules and regulations pertaining to the manufacture or exchange of said goods.

You. Can. Not. Because Free Trade is just an ideological model.

Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (McYvC)

242
Because people will buy it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (GBKbO)

People are fagz.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (Zz0t1)

243 So Eric Fartwell thinks elections can be stolen…. Good to know. What does he think about 2020?

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (ZtAny)

244 Speaking of Italy, I saw a doc on the great divide between the north and south in Italy. I knew the south was a bit poorer and shit. But man I had no idea how wide the chasm is. Northern Italy on its own would be a European powerhouse on the same level as Germany.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:45 AM (NWr1F)

245 Bulg -

Thank you! I am going to go look for it now.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 02, 2025 11:45 AM (VphID)

246 Show me one time - just one - where two political entities engaged in commerce where each entity had identical rules and regulations pertaining to the manufacture or exchange of said goods.

You. Can. Not. Because Free Trade is just an ideological model.
Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (McYvC)

Canada can't even free trade between it's own provinces........

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:45 AM (Zz0t1)

247 242
Because people will buy it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (GBKbO)

People are fagz.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (Zz0t1)

=======

Eh.

I bought the 4K of Six-String Samurai.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:45 AM (GBKbO)

248 I saw on some leftist forums recently a complaint about a thing of apple slices, on the container it tells you

Apples grown in Argentina
Apples processed in Turkey

and the produce was on sale in New York. The leftest complaint? Its terrible for the Erf to ship this stuff all over...they have apples in New York!!!

Which is true...but the current "free trade" paradigm that Trump is Hitler Squared for modifying leads to exactly this sort of outcome. Add in enough tariffs and your apple slices in New York will come from New York.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:45 AM (t0Rmr)

249 Meanwhile, the US economy added 177, 000 new jobs in April, UNEXPECTEDLY higher than the 133,000 jobs the "experts" predicted. In LIBERATION APRIL, no less.

Posted by: mrp at May 02, 2025 11:45 AM (rj6Yv)

250 “Rocky Horror Picture Show” Getting 4K Restoration for 50th Anniversary
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:43 AM (L/fGl)

Fer f*cks sakes WHY?!?
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM

Come on, Sponge...we all see you shivering with antici.....

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at May 02, 2025 11:45 AM (kgE5c)

251 243 So Eric Fartwell thinks elections can be stolen…. Good to know. What does he think about 2020?
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (ZtAny)

=====

He will now support paper ballots and purple fingers.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:45 AM (GBKbO)

252 Thicc!
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:41 AM (Zz0t1)

More real?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:46 AM (bss/y)

253 https://tinyurl.com/4uv95bb3
Posted by: Aetius451AD
*
The cross necklace with the seriously undersized bikini is an interesting combination.
Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025

***
She needs to check out GoLo or Ozempic, and more important, work out some.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 02, 2025 11:46 AM (omVj0)

254 Northern Italy on its own would be a European powerhouse on the same level as Germany.
-------------
Its been that way for a long time.

Posted by: Pudinhead at May 02, 2025 11:46 AM (pZ64F)

255 Boomers will buy all sorts of repackaged 50th anniversary this or that. How many times have the same Beatles songs been released? But each time there’s some remastered copy or something. And they’ll happily plunk down money for it.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:46 AM (NWr1F)

256 70

The guy puts cheese on raw hamburger, dude.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:17 AM (bss/y)
----
quarter pounder steak tartar with American cheese?

Posted by: Ciampino - angry bees are bad bees at May 02, 2025 11:46 AM (sPQoU)

257 This is yet another example of how "empathy" is twisted on the left. They claim to exercise ALL the empathy (while the non-left does not, in their view) and yet they are absolutely insensitive to real people experiencing real harms. So they end up being outraged that someone would decide to stop being mistreated.

Posted by: Emmie celebrates the Audacity of Trump! at May 02, 2025 11:47 AM (Sf2cq)

258 The real power the MSM has is in the stories they swish and never see the light of day. People know that the MSM is nothing but lies on what they do say but have yet to figure out all of what they hide.

so much focus on the criminal deported to El Salvador and not a peep about the hostages Trump had returned to the USA in the first 100 days

Posted by: kallisto at May 02, 2025 11:47 AM (dCxaZ)

259 quarter pounder steak tartar with American cheese?
Posted by: Ciampino - angry bees are bad bees at May 02, 2025

***
"In France they call that a Naked Royale, man."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 02, 2025 11:47 AM (omVj0)

260 https://tinyurl.com/4uv95bb3
Posted by: Aetius451AD
*
The cross necklace with the seriously undersized bikini is an interesting combination.
Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025

***
She needs to check out GoLo or Ozempic, and more important, work out some.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 02, 2025 11:46 AM (omVj0)

Yeah… for me she’s in Stacy Abrams territory. Fit at any size or whatever that idiot motto is…

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 02, 2025 11:47 AM (ZtAny)

261 New Balance has domestic and foreign plants. I think only a small percentage of their shoes are made here. Mostly out of Maine IIRC.

Top of the line tennis shoes (actually for tennis ) cost up to $200. Mostly made in Vietnam and Indonesia.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:48 AM (VofaG)

262 Boomers will buy all sorts of repackaged 50th anniversary this or that. How many times have the same Beatles songs been released? But each time there’s some remastered copy or something. And they’ll happily plunk down money for it.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:46 AM (NWr1F)

Ha ha, what fools!!

*pays Nintendo for Super Mario World for the 7th time*

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 02, 2025 11:48 AM (l3YAf)

263 And good looking.

https://tinyurl.com/4uv95bb3
Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:39 AM (bss/y)

Thicc!
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:41 AM (Zz0t1)
——

Some cushion makes for better pushin.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable at May 02, 2025 11:48 AM (17s+e)

264
Eh.

I bought the 4K of Six-String Samurai.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:45 AM (GBKbO)

That's just solid economics.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:48 AM (Zz0t1)

265 More Donk demolition derby!

"United Around What?" Sanders Shreds Schumer’s Party Unity Claim

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:49 AM (L/fGl)

266 262 Ha ha, what fools!!

*pays Nintendo for Super Mario World for the 7th time*
Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 02, 2025 11:48 AM (l3YAf)

=======

*glances over at Steam Deck with Emudeck installed and hundreds of NES, SNES, GBA, PSX, and PS2 roms on it*

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:49 AM (GBKbO)

267 I would also argue that all “conservatives” and libertarians who similarly preach unilateral surrender by the United States to foreign mercantilism are just as antagonistic to a strong, independent Unites States as is the New York Times and their crowd.
-----------
I'd like to believe that they're just misguided... that they cannot see the forest for the trees. I'd like to believe that but I can't believe that hard anymore.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 02, 2025 11:40 AM (ExV1e)

But that's just another pointless strawman argument. Your choices aren't "unilateral surrender" or a stone wall of tariffs.

I wish I had an answer, but I don't. Criticizing people for believing there was a better way, and that OUR GOVERNMENT IS TO BLAME for blocking that way isn't the answer either.

If you think the tariffs are going to make your lives better, so be it.

I guess we'll see.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:49 AM (dGCAG)

268 Some cushion makes for better pushin.
--------------
The bigger the waist band, the deeper the quicksand.

Posted by: Pudinhead at May 02, 2025 11:49 AM (pZ64F)

269 She needs to check out GoLo or Ozempic, and more important, work out some.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

Eh, she's zaftig. That's a concept that the modern Western World has seemed to lose completely.

Zaftig, done right, can be very appealing.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 11:49 AM (77rzZ)

270 According to Sebastian Gorka, 45 Americans have been freed from overseas jail since Trump took office this term.

Posted by: kallisto at May 02, 2025 11:49 AM (dCxaZ)

271 You want big natural tits, there is a body type, guys.

I am not saying I want shamu, but calling this gal fat (at least from this pic) is the height of pointy elbow territory.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:50 AM (bss/y)

272 Zaftig means you can survive a small famine.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 02, 2025 11:50 AM (Ceyey)

273 Northern Italy was conquered by a Germanic tribe, the Lombards: that’s why there are so many blondes there with those peculiar curly blonde locks. Might be why they can so easily be compared with Germans. They _are_ Germans, who happen to speak Italian.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 02, 2025 11:50 AM (VphID)

274 According to Sebastian Gorka, 45 Americans have been freed from overseas jail since Trump took office this term.
Posted by: kallisto at May 02, 2025 11:49 AM (dCxaZ)

"What an asshole!"

- - - - - - Democrats

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:50 AM (Zz0t1)

275 But that's just another pointless strawman argument. Your choices aren't "unilateral surrender" or a stone wall of tariffs.

As with many such things the old paradigm failed. Trump has suggested a solution and the usual people all are against it with no discussion needed.

Why not give it a try for a year?

Posted by: 18-1 at May 02, 2025 11:50 AM (t0Rmr)

276 *glances over at Steam Deck with Emudeck installed and hundreds of NES, SNES, GBA, PSX, and PS2 roms on it*
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:49 AM (GBKbO)

I think I have bought Fallout 2 three times.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at May 02, 2025 11:50 AM (bss/y)

277 And what has America gotten for that deal?
Nothing.

But the politicians of both parties, the Bernie Sanders and the Mitt Romneys, have gotten obscenely rich, generational wealth.

But so ingrained is the propaganda, "free trade good, tariffs bad," that even now, after all the facts and results are laid bare, even now there are dead-end adherents, "just give it one more chance and this time our globalization theories will prove correct."

Go sit next to the maxists with your ever-failing stories, charts and graphs.
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice
=======
Fair trade up to about the 70's was what US politicians aimed for and the financial industry plus globalists wanting the dollar to be the world reserve currency ended that. Add in one of the tenets of US engagement with Europe was to accept permanent trade deficits in order to rebuild the place using US consumers to do it but sacrificing US manufacturing.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (ctrM5)

278 Zaftig means you can survive a small famine.
Posted by: Anna Puma at May 02, 2025 11:50 AM (Ceyey)

Take off every Zig.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (Zz0t1)

279 Me 25 years ago was all in on free trade, and tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, and basically everything National Review pimped.

It’s what I was taught in college. Econ class says free trade good. It must be good. Look we have all these formulas and everything! How can it be wrong?

Took a long time for me to see the light.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (NWr1F)

280 “Rocky Horror Picture Show” Getting 4K Restoration for 50th Anniversary
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:43 AM (L/fGl)

Fer f*cks sakes WHY?!?
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM

--------------

I can't wait to see Meatloaf's sweating pores!

"Let's Do The Time-Warp Again ..."

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (cXwBh)

281 Again Free Trade has always been a misnomer. It's actually fair trade.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (VofaG)

282 You. Can. Not. Because Free Trade is just an ideological model.
Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:44 AM (McYvC)

Nah, it's not that I can't, it's that I won't.

Internet arguments get boring after a while. This one is past its sell-by date.

Posted by: BurtTC at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (dGCAG)

283
Since games have sorta snuck onto this thread...

Has anyone played the one-player boardgame, "Final Girl"?

I got a n almost DOL with a birthday coming up and she's a game nut. I figured this might be fun for her.

Anyway...anyone?

Posted by: naturalfake at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (iJfKG)

284 But I have come around to Levin’s view: free trade as much as possible. Except with China, because China - the PRC - is the enemy.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 02, 2025 11:10 AM (jqrzj)

So... free trade with Russia? Free trade with the EU, which says that US companies must obey European laws? Free trade with all the other countries that treat us exactly the same as China but aren't China?

Whatever gives you the most shit at the lowest price and fuck the country. Yay. Free trade.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 02, 2025 11:53 AM (ExV1e)

285 Microsoft has followed Nintendo's lead and jacked up prices even though they don't have a new console to sell.

Brilliant...

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 02, 2025 11:53 AM (Ceyey)

286 Can I get a "Well, duhhhhh"?

Justin Trudeau's Brother Says Canada is Ruined

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:53 AM (L/fGl)

287 Me 25 years ago was all in on free trade, and tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, and basically everything National Review pimped.

It’s what I was taught in college. Econ class says free trade good. It must be good. Look we have all these formulas and everything! How can it be wrong?

Took a long time for me to see the light.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (NWr1F)

It's not an either / or.

It's a matter of degree.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:53 AM (VofaG)

288 According to Sebastian Gorka, 45 Americans have been freed from overseas jail since Trump took office this term.
Posted by: kallisto at May 02, 2025 11:49 AM
—-

Yeah but how many America hating black lesbo drug addict Bakaball “players” were in that group?

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable at May 02, 2025 11:54 AM (17s+e)

289 Justin Trudeau's Brother Says Canada is Ruined
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:53 AM (L/fGl)

Yeah but we have the finger to Trump. And it was worth it.
- Canadian voters

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:54 AM (NWr1F)

290 Justin Trudeau's Brother Says Canada is Ruined
___

He has a brother? I assume he's not Castro's spawn.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:54 AM (Dv3i1)

291 I can't wait to see Meatloaf's sweating pores!

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (cXwBh)

I saw Meatloaf's Sweating Pores live. They opened for the stifling summer night heat in the non-air-conditioned Armadillo World Headquarters in '76.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 02, 2025 11:54 AM (iJfKG)

292 As with many such things the old paradigm failed. Trump has suggested a solution and the usual people all are against it with no discussion needed.

Why not give it a try for a year?
Posted by: 18-1
======
Because the 'free' traders know that once the chain of supply networks are obliterated (manufacturers cannot effectively suspend operations for a year without going under), that there is no going back to the old paradigm.

There will also a hit on financialization of the US economy. In the 50 and 60's, Wall Street was a boring place relatively but when we hit the 70's, bad times led to large gubmint deficits (at that time), trade deficits after 1975 due to the rising price of oil, and the creation of the Eurodollar where these dollars stayed in Europe instead of repatriation. 1970's was the pivot point and from there, Main Street declined and Wall Street began to boom.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 11:55 AM (ctrM5)

293 To what extent does free trade exist between the states inside the good old USA? I think there are some agricultural restrictions (worries about pests, etc.) with some states like Hawaii, but isn’t there a lot of what is essentially free trade between the citizens of one state and another?

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 02, 2025 11:55 AM (VphID)

294 4k?

Geez, yeah pass

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 02, 2025 11:55 AM (Ceyey)

295 Whatever gives you the most shit at the lowest price and fuck the country. Yay. Free trade.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 02, 2025 11:53 AM (ExV1e)

Yeah, if we’re going to rebalance world trade, just creating a bunch of new mini-Chinas isn’t the answer.

I don’t really see China as an enemy—Europe is more of an enemy to my rights and freedoms—but we run trade deficits with nearly everyone. It’s unsustainable and has hollowed out our productive economy and given us a shallow, consumerist culture.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 02, 2025 11:57 AM (l3YAf)

296 Add in one of the tenets of US engagement with Europe was to accept permanent trade deficits in order to rebuild the place using US consumers to do it but sacrificing US manufacturing.
Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (ctrM5)

People here get very upset when I say it, but the post - WWII / cold war policies of this country absolutely, knowingly and purposely fucked the American middle class in order to "rebuild the world" which, in all reality, was really just enabling a small group of people to become unimaginably wealthy and powerful.

And those policies have marched on throughout the world to this day.

But if we want to put our finger on when the DC consensus became "we'll trade some of the American middle classes money for our own money / power through international maneuvering and shitty trade deals", I'd say it was with the Marshall Plan.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at May 02, 2025 11:57 AM (uCjyK)

297 If Justin Castro's bro thinks Canada is ruined, wait until Alberta leaves

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 02, 2025 11:57 AM (Er3Q7)

298 Ohio Express: Their first single, a reworked Rare Breed tune called "Beg, Borrow and Steal" cracked the charts, but it was the sugary-sweet one-two punch of "Yummy Yummy Yummy" and "Chewy Chewy" that produced their biggest hits. These tunes were pair of million-sellers for the band and their label, bubblegum powerhouse Buddah Records. Future 10cc leader Graham Gouldman sang lead on their final chart bow in 1969, "Sausalito (Is the Place to Go)." The band had a somewhat nebulous existence for the next two decades. For a brief time in the mid-'70s, Kasenetz and Katz assembled a version of Ohio Express made up of completely new musicians to play the band's hits in Long Island clubs and dive bars. This in-name-only version of the band was short-lived. In the 1980s, original drummer Tim Corwin assembled a new lineup of the group and they began touring the oldies circuit playing the band's late-'60s hits. In 2012 this version of the band offered up Bubblegum Days, an album of newly recorded versions of both their most famous hits as well as other covers from the bubblegum era.

Posted by: Pudinhead at May 02, 2025 11:57 AM (pZ64F)

299 To what extent does free trade exist between the states inside the good old USA? I think there are some agricultural restrictions (worries about pests, etc.) with some states like Hawaii, but isn’t there a lot of what is essentially free trade between the citizens of one state and another?
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 02, 2025 11:55 AM (VphID)

Milk and Firearms

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:57 AM (VofaG)

300 Lets be honest - some here will oppose tariffs just because back in the day Democrats were for them.

Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 11:57 AM (McYvC)

301
Don't tease me, bro! You've been promising this since the election ... let's get 'er done!

-------------

Nick Sortor
@nicksortor

🚨 JUST IN: Tom Homan was asked “why not just arrest [sanctuary city] leaders who are harboring and shielding illegals from deportation?”

HOMAN: “Wait until you see what’s coming!”

LFG! PERP WALK ‘EM! 🔥

https://is.gd/BVWYQ4

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 11:57 AM (cXwBh)

302 Blu ray is good enough for “Rocky Horror,” and that’s been out for years. Doubt I would bother with a 4k version.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 02, 2025 11:58 AM (VphID)

303 Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at May 02, 2025 11:51 AM (NWr1F)

If you can change your mind on that how come you can't switch doors? Fair enough you did say it took you a long time.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 11:58 AM (QTr+M)

304 No sadder place on earth than Europa. Place is a toilet, the people love giving up their freedoms and no one who lives there wants to work or have normal sexual relations. Kinda like California.

Posted by: Zombie Bob Hope at May 02, 2025 11:58 AM (R/m4+)

305 293 To what extent does free trade exist between the states inside the good old USA? I think there are some agricultural restrictions (worries about pests, etc.) with some states like Hawaii, but isn’t there a lot of what is essentially free trade between the citizens of one state and another?
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit
____

I think California put restrictions on foie gras and on pork. The latter needs to have the pigs brought up with larger minimum space per animal than most pig farmers at the time the law was passed. I was curious to see what the effect was going to be, but most likely huge price increases in California, hard to tell if that happened across the USA, if so, probably masked by Bidenflation.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 11:59 AM (Dv3i1)

306 And a State 'tariff' on cigarettes and gas.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 02, 2025 11:59 AM (VofaG)

307 302 Blu ray is good enough for “Rocky Horror,” and that’s been out for years. Doubt I would bother with a 4k version.
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 02, 2025 11:58 AM (VphID)

=======

4K is a niche collectors thing.

Prices on the discs are not coming down like Blu-ray did because the market is smaller.

There's a trend towards larger sets (I'm probably gonna spend $40 on the Dark City 4K).

The format has its place, but it's kind of a small market.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:59 AM (GBKbO)

308 But if we want to put our finger on when the DC consensus became "we'll trade some of the American middle classes money for our own money / power through international maneuvering and shitty trade deals", I'd say it was with the Marshall Plan.
Posted by: Harry Paratestes at May 02, 2025 11:57 AM (uCjyK)

Disagree. The primary impetus for the Marshall Plan was making sure Western Europe could effectively oppose the Soviet Union. General Marshall was a patriot and came from a modest background. He was no globalist

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 02, 2025 12:00 PM (P/Wjn)

309 I saw Meatloaf's Sweating Pores live. They opened for the stifling summer night heat in the non-air-conditioned Armadillo World Headquarters in '76.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 02, 2025 11:54 AM (iJfKG)

------------

lol

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 12:00 PM (cXwBh)

310 To what extent does free trade exist between the states inside the good old USA? I think there are some agricultural restrictions (worries about pests, etc.) with some states like Hawaii, but isn’t there a lot of what is essentially free trade between the citizens of one state and another?

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 02, 2025 11:55 AM

I don't know about other states but here in Texas there are livestock inspection stations on major highways coming into the state. I see them operating quite often on US 75 just north of Denision. Tons of trucks pulled over with uniformed state people inspecting trucks and paperwork.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at May 02, 2025 12:01 PM (e5NfL)

311 So I was watching Relax History AI. They use AI to animate historical figures. Some of them are pretty close but there is always a difference between the portrait/photo/sculpture depicting the person. Anyone from the far east got a westernized look.
There was another channel that simply colorized and cleaned up old photos then animated the photo. That one stayed more true to the photo. No westernization, no making them look younger. It was pretty cool.
I discovered that Walt Whitman looked exactly like my neighbor. I think my neighbor could be a time traveling Whitman. Things that make you go hmm..

Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench) at May 02, 2025 12:01 PM (2J/Lj)

312 Nothing would be sweeter than Elon Musk purchasing the NY Times.

Posted by: Ordinary American at May 02, 2025 12:01 PM (UseAb)

313 I think free trade is great, but it’s a hypothetical. It doesn’t exist in the real world. It’s a great thought experiment for understanding how free markets generate mutual wealth, but that’s not the system we have.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 02, 2025 12:01 PM (l3YAf)

314 I like 4k for the resolution upgrade on my movie screen and I'm a pixel peeper - but I'm really not sold on HDR. For video and photography HDR is fairly cool I guess. Movies much less so.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 12:02 PM (QTr+M)

315 313 I think free trade is great, but it’s a hypothetical. It doesn’t exist in the real world. It’s a great thought experiment for understanding how free markets generate mutual wealth, but that’s not the system we have.
Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director
_____

Unexpectedly!

Posted by: Economic Experts at May 02, 2025 12:02 PM (Dv3i1)

316 That and I’ll bet any amount of money the NYT — and all leftwing media — is bought and paid for by foreign money, including piles from China. Probably also some Fang-Fang “me love you long time” whores.
Posted by: Elric the Bladiest Blade at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (qYULV)

It may get laundered through foreign lands but I bet all that money originated in our taxes. The "elite" have been using us to fund our own destruction for a long time.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 02, 2025 12:02 PM (ExV1e)

317 314 I like 4k for the resolution upgrade on my movie screen and I'm a pixel peeper - but I'm really not sold on HDR. For video and photography HDR is fairly cool I guess. Movies much less so.
Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 12:02 PM (QTr+M)

=======

I'd be interested in a TV that allowed you to turn off the HDR layer.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:02 PM (GBKbO)

318 So... free trade with Russia? Free trade with the EU, which says that US companies must obey European laws? Free trade with all the other countries that treat us exactly the same as China but aren't China?

Whatever gives you the most shit at the lowest price and fuck the country. Yay. Free trade.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic
---------
People are for cheap goods until they lose their jobs. The meat of the matter is that other nations are deliberately running mercantilist strategies and we end up being the target of that. For example, Euroland runs a trade surplus with US on goods so that they can pay for their oil/gas imports. Japan, ditto plus some agri deficits. China does it for dominance, India does it to raise itself out of the middle rank of nations and to supplant China, and so on.

No other country is a principled free trader, their leaders are out for themselves and their countries. But the US is expected to be the patsy because we are viewed as ahistorical lottery winners and are so rich. The fact that Brazil has similar advantages of geography and resources and is still poor is ignored.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 12:02 PM (ctrM5)

319 Maybe the 500Kg Soviet probe will hit the NY Times.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 02, 2025 12:02 PM (Ceyey)

320 Disagree. The primary impetus for the Marshall Plan was making sure Western Europe could effectively oppose the Soviet Union.

Don't really care why. The decision was made, by our political class, to use the American worker as a mule to pull along the rest of the West.

Thanks.

Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 12:02 PM (McYvC)

321 This girl is a fan of orange and doesn't care if China dumps goods on the EU. https://tinyurl.com/52e75bue

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at May 02, 2025 12:03 PM (LPS7w)

322 I discovered that Walt Whitman looked exactly like my neighbor. I think my neighbor could be a time traveling Whitman. Things that make you go hmm..
Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench)

Whitman was gay.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 12:03 PM (77rzZ)

323 There's a trend towards larger sets (I'm probably gonna spend $40 on the Dark City 4K).

The format has its place, but it's kind of a small market.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:59 AM (GBKbO)

I'll cough up for "Dark City" cuz I'm a fan. And, the enhanced contrast, etc on 4K will probably be worth it.

Mostly though, even if I want a 4K version of some film I'll wait till there's a good sale price.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 02, 2025 12:03 PM (iJfKG)

324 Why is the NYT worried about China enslaving Muslim nations? It's never bothered them before?

Posted by: Polka will never die at May 02, 2025 12:03 PM (OW907)

325 All of this makes it more likely that Reform will solidify itself as a major contender in the next general election.
Posted by: Dr. T at May 02, 2025 11:22 AM (EynyL)

And, in all likelihood, continue the exact same policies as the Tories and Labour.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 02, 2025 12:03 PM (ExV1e)

326 323
I'll cough up for "Dark City" cuz I'm a fan. And, the enhanced contrast, etc on 4K will probably be worth it.

Mostly though, even if I want a 4K version of some film I'll wait till there's a good sale price.
Posted by: naturalfake at May 02, 2025 12:03 PM (iJfKG)

======

I'm generally a sale-hunter, too. Most discs, I'm just happy for the disc and don't need any tat.

But the Dark City tat is...I wants it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:04 PM (GBKbO)

327
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at May 02, 2025 12:00 PM (P/Wjn)

This has nothing to do with General Marshall as a person, I know very little about him and his background.

My contention is that all of those justifications were fake and gay and the money was used as a gigantic slush fund. Which we know is true, as large portions of the money flooded to Allen Dulles' network of spies and criminals across Europe (the predecessor of the CIA) to immediately start fucking with elections all over Europe, targeted assassinations, and buying off "friendly" industrialists by rebuilding their businesses.

So, in essence, American middle class was paying the rebuilding cost of their competitors' manufacturing capabilities.

Now did the people at the top truly believe in the Soviet threat rhetoric they spouted publicly? I don't know. It's hard to tell. I suspect some did, some didn't. I don't think Dulles did. Angleton ... maybe.

The military brass probably did as it fit their worldview.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at May 02, 2025 12:04 PM (uCjyK)

328 321 This girl is a fan of orange and doesn't care if China dumps goods on the EU. https://tinyurl.com/52e75bue
Posted by: Chairman LMAO
____

Orange you glad she went swimming?

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 02, 2025 12:04 PM (Dv3i1)

329 This girl is a fan of orange and doesn't care if China dumps goods on the EU. https://tinyurl.com/52e75bue
Posted by: Chairman LMAO

Nice. But pity about the pierced navel and the claw-like fingernails.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 12:04 PM (77rzZ)

330 Them Euroweenies luv themselves some WM Dolls.

Posted by: wth at May 02, 2025 12:06 PM (v0R5T)

331 I am suspicious of politicians who almost never hold office but are constantly running for office.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 11:26 AM (GBKbO)

This is about me, isn't it? -- Bobby O'Rourke

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at May 02, 2025 12:06 PM (ExV1e)

332 The military brass probably did as it fit their worldview.

As it turns out, old Smedley Butler was right.

Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 12:06 PM (McYvC)

333 Nah reform will get in and they will make some changes. Nigel isn't just doing this for kicks.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 12:06 PM (QTr+M)

334 333 Nah reform will get in and they will make some changes. Nigel isn't just doing this for kicks.
Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 12:06 PM (QTr+M)

======

The Conservative Party is more likely to form a majority government with Labour than Reform holding any power at all.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:07 PM (GBKbO)

335 296
‘ People here get very upset when I say it, but the post - WWII / cold war’

I don’t get upset . I just conclude you’re misinformed about the Cold War. Communism kills and enslaves. We were right to resist it

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 02, 2025 12:07 PM (jbnUc)

336 But if we want to put our finger on when the DC consensus became "we'll trade some of the American middle classes money for our own money / power through international maneuvering and shitty trade deals", I'd say it was with the Marshall Plan.
Posted by: Harry Paratestes
-------
Yep. People do not realize that the Cold War had two losers--the Soviet Union AND the United States. Soviet system crumbled and the US took a massive economic hit from government debt to finance our overseas adventures and a hit to manufacturing due to foreign competition from Japan and Euroland. As a result, we have cities like Detroit, St. Louis, Akron, etc. that look as though they have been bombed and have zombies staggering around mired in drugs and hopelessness.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki despite being a-bombed are flourishing.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 12:07 PM (ctrM5)

337 How about this? Free trade is an ideal we strive for. But life is full of imperfect circumstances and the world is full of imperfect people so we must compensate with less than the ideal. Hopefully we choose the next least-worst option. Temporary tariffs might be that option. But our wisdom is also imperfect, so there's a decent chance we won't choose the most perfect alternative. But we do the best we can and the universe has a wide enough tolerance for a certain degree of imperfection.

And then we thank our Father for providing.

Posted by: Emmie at May 02, 2025 12:08 PM (Sf2cq)

338 Disney “Star Wars: Andor” Introduces Lesbianism to Streaming Series
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 02, 2025 11:36 AM (L/fGl)
---
Didn't they get enough of that in The Acolyte?

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 02, 2025 12:08 PM (7fElN)

339 Bulg -

Thanks, I just bought volumes 1 and 2 from ThriftBooks. I’m looking forward to reading them (along with the umpteen other books I’ve got coming in from them)!

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at May 02, 2025 12:08 PM (VphID)

340 As it turns out, old Smedley Butler was right.
Posted by: Fast Eddie Felson at May 02, 2025 12:06 PM (McYvC)

Yeah. And MANY of the WWII - era Generals and Admirals seemed to come around to Smedley's worldview in the tail end of their careers.

Of course, you have people on the opposite end of the spectrum like Admiral John McCain (Juan's father), who never met a war he didn't want to commit the US to.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at May 02, 2025 12:08 PM (uCjyK)

341 Parliament hypothetical:

3 parties.

30%
30%
40%

It's possible for the two 30%'s to form a majority government, right? The driver of discussions doesn't have to be the one with the most seats?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:09 PM (GBKbO)

342
I said it a long time ago: I would love to live in Chernobyl. It is a paradise.

Posted by: Soothsayer at May 02, 2025 12:09 PM (vc0YZ)

343 Whitman was gay.
Posted by: Bulg

Was. He's not now! Has a wife, kids, grandkids, a tractor, a motorcycle, and used to drive a big rig before he retired!
Time travel evidently changes a man.

Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench) at May 02, 2025 12:09 PM (2J/Lj)

344 Oh no, the Soviets are going to take over Europe! They’ll make them hate Americans and smoke cigarettes and drink tiny cups of coffee and be gay and import a bunch of Muslims! They’ll kill Christianity in Europe! We must stop them!

Posted by: George C. Marshall, imperialist cuck at May 02, 2025 12:09 PM (l3YAf)

345 No sadder place on earth than Europa. Place is a toilet, the people love giving up their freedoms and no one who lives there wants to work or have normal sexual relations. Kinda like California.

Posted by: Zombie Bob Hope at May 02, 2025 11:58 AM (R/m4+)

--------------

[Most here have likely heard the great Bob Hope "Zombies" & "Democrats" line from the 1940 film "The Ghost Breakers" with Hope as Larry Lawrence, ? as Mary Carter, and Richard Carlson as Geoff Montgomery:]

Lawrence: "You live here?"

Montgomery: "Yes."

Lawrence: "Then maybe you know what a zombie is"

Montgomery: "When a person dies and is buried, its seems there are certain voodoo priests who ... who have the power to bring him back to life."

Carter: "How horrible!"

Montgomery: "It's worse than horrible because a zombie has no will of his own. You see them sometimes walking around blindly with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring."

Lawrence: "You mean like Democrats?"

youtube.com/watch?v=V1X11M7phg0

Posted by: ShainS at May 02, 2025 12:10 PM (cXwBh)

346 What country makes the best pickleball shoes?

Posted by: Thom McCan at May 02, 2025 12:10 PM (G5+As)

347 334 333 Nah reform will get in and they will make some changes. Nigel isn't just doing this for kicks.
Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 12:06 PM (QTr+M)

======

The Conservative Party is more likely to form a majority government with Labour than Reform holding any power at all.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison
========
I dunno, we have sailed off the map. Lots of people here thought Trump was done in 2021. Four years later, he is president.

IIMHO globalism is dying like the Roman Empire did but much quicker. The reason is that the system had so many internal contradictions that it collapsed in a mire of government debt, foolish military expeditions, and the intangible lack of will to defend it.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 12:11 PM (ctrM5)

348 Bulg -

Thanks, I just bought volumes 1 and 2 from ThriftBooks. I’m looking forward to reading them (along with the umpteen other books I’ve got coming in from them)!
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit

Great! Hope you find them enlightening.

I'm still making my way through the first volume. It's very difficult to keep track of all the names she menations.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 12:11 PM (77rzZ)

349
Chernobyl is the new Montana, before hollywood celeries and real estate developers and foreigners spoiled it.

Posted by: Soothsayer at May 02, 2025 12:11 PM (vc0YZ)

350 It's possible for the two 30%'s to form a majority government, right? The driver of discussions doesn't have to be the one with the most seats?
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:09 PM (GBKbO)

Not only that, but sometimes your coalition doesn’t even have to have a majority of seats!

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 02, 2025 12:11 PM (l3YAf)

351 I don’t get upset . I just conclude you’re misinformed about the Cold War. Communism kills and enslaves. We were right to resist it
Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 02, 2025 12:07 PM (jbnUc)

I don't think I'm misinformed. I was born not long before the Berlin Wall fell, so I didn't grow up marinating in the propaganda, but I've certainly spent a lot of time and effort reading everything I can about that era -- well, mostly WWII through the 1970's.

And, oddly enough, thanks in large part to the JFK assassination and those professional autists who have been at it for decades, we have huge troves of now declassified documents that spell out a verrrrry different picture of what was going on in DC during that era than what was being sold to people on the evening news.

But to your point -- is communism a system most of us would want to live under? No. Was it ever an existential threat to the US / western world? In hindsight, clearly no. Did the people in power at the time truly believe the propaganda or were they just lying? That's a bit more up for interpretation, I suppose.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at May 02, 2025 12:12 PM (uCjyK)

352 347 I dunno, we have sailed off the map. Lots of people here thought Trump was done in 2021. Four years later, he is president.

IIMHO globalism is dying like the Roman Empire did but much quicker. The reason is that the system had so many internal contradictions that it collapsed in a mire of government debt, foolish military expeditions, and the intangible lack of will to defend it.
Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 12:11 PM (ctrM5)

=======

I'm just saying that, assume Reform gets 20% and no one else gets 50%.

What's the most likely outcome?

The Conservative Party forming a government with its direct competitor for the same voters or forming a government with its actual allies: Labour.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:12 PM (GBKbO)

353
Ruth Buzzi is mortadell?

Posted by: Soothsayer at May 02, 2025 12:12 PM (vc0YZ)

354 341
‘ It's possible for the two 30%'s to form a majority government, right?’
I would have thought but the way it worked out in the UK was that the 40% beat the the two 30% on most of the elections at the seat level.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 02, 2025 12:12 PM (jbnUc)

355 I believe "cry more, bitch-tits" is apropos in this situation.

Posted by: An evergreen phrase, suitable for most occasions at May 02, 2025 12:13 PM (TbWk/)

356 it collapsed in a mire of government debt, foolish military expeditions, and the intangible lack of will to defend it.
____

We'll defend to our death our satanic pizza and hot dog parties though.

Posted by: Globalists at May 02, 2025 12:13 PM (Dv3i1)

357 Good surfin' coming to the southern tip of Chile soon.

Posted by: Moondoggie at May 02, 2025 12:13 PM (Y1sOo)

358 Ruth Buzzi is mortadell?
Posted by: Soothsayer at May 02, 2025 12:12 PM (vc0YZ)

Seems so.

The original manface.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 12:13 PM (Zz0t1)

359 353
Ruth Buzzi is mortadell?
--------------
Seems so.

Posted by: Pudinhead at May 02, 2025 12:14 PM (pZ64F)

360 Europe has little to fear. Once China, regulation, taxation, and unfettered immigration destroy industry and the job market, Europeans will gladly buy cheap Chinese crap in order to survive. China as savior!

Posted by: t-bird at May 02, 2025 12:14 PM (09t5c)

361 I was born not long before the Berlin Wall fell
Posted by: Harry Paratestes

My lawn. Exit sign. Some assembly required.

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 12:15 PM (77rzZ)

362 337 How about this? Free trade is an ideal we strive for. But life is full of imperfect circumstances and the world is full of imperfect people so we must compensate with less than the ideal. Hopefully we choose the next least-worst option. Temporary tariffs might be that option. But our wisdom is also imperfect, so there's a decent chance we won't choose the most perfect alternative. But we do the best we can and the universe has a wide enough tolerance for a certain degree of imperfection.

And then we thank our Father for providing.
Posted by: Emmie
======
Emmie, there is no such 'free' trade because the world has no government. The WTO and GATT before that simply lack the ability to punish countries that cheat and as a result, every country cheats and not only via tariffs but trade barriers, currency manipulation, cultural refusal to buy foreign goods, etc.

Best you can hope for is 'fair' trade which means that economic relationships between nations must be adjudicated at the national, not global, level.

Most economists are pig ignorant of political science and international relations theory. And their advice as to what is optimal suffers for their ignorance.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 12:15 PM (ctrM5)

363
Buzz Aldrin, not mortadell. 95.2.

Posted by: Soothsayer at May 02, 2025 12:15 PM (vc0YZ)

364 I was born not long before the Berlin Wall fell
Posted by: Harry Paratestes

So, your Paratestes haven't been Harry for very long, then.......

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 12:15 PM (Zz0t1)

365 The original manface.
Posted by: Sponge

My brother used to refer to the late SC justice as "Ruth Buzzi Ginsberg."

Posted by: Bulg at May 02, 2025 12:16 PM (77rzZ)

366 Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:09 PM (GBKbO)

TJM, any two parties in the UK could form a government if they can command a majority of seats between them. It's not overly common, but it has happened.

However, I think the Conservatives probably would ally with Reform if it came to it. This isn't like continental Europe; Reform hasn't been successfully smeared as a bunch of far-right racists. And the Conservatives are in much more danger of political irrelevancy than, say, Germany's CDU. They'd make peace with Reform if it gave them a shot at power again.

Posted by: Dr. T at May 02, 2025 12:16 PM (EynyL)

367 361 I was born not long before the Berlin Wall fell
Posted by: Harry Paratestes

======
Oh, so you are to blame for that comrade.

Posted by: Putin at May 02, 2025 12:16 PM (ctrM5)

368
Goldie Hawn, lone survivor of Laugh-In?

Posted by: Soothsayer at May 02, 2025 12:16 PM (vc0YZ)

369 That being said, a lot of things are plastic now that do not need to be because metal can cost more.
Posted by: whig
-------

I use Chock Full O' Nuts coffee, because, value. Intrestingly, on the side of the can, they point out that they have stayed with actual steel coffee cans on the basis that steel is infinitely recyclable, as opposed to the cardboard/foil lined 'cans'.

I'm not a recycle nazi, and I drink cheap coffe as opposed to grinding my own, but there is an appeal to their steel cans, and useful for storing 'stuff' in the garage, if only because real coffee cans were used for such purposes in my past. I now look upon the rows of cardboard cans in the grocery with distain.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 02, 2025 12:16 PM (XeU6L)

370 Buzz Light-year is mort?

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 02, 2025 12:16 PM (Er3Q7)

371 Buzz Aldrin, not mortadell. 95.2.
Posted by: Soothsayer at May 02, 2025 12:15 PM (vc0YZ)

And still a man's man.

https://is.gd/HhSoi4

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 12:17 PM (Zz0t1)

372 So, your Paratestes haven't been Harry for very long, then.......
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at May 02, 2025 12:15 PM (Zz0t1)

Heh, I guess not.

Although, I hate to be the bearer of bad news here guys -- the Berlin Wall fell 35+ years ago.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at May 02, 2025 12:17 PM (uCjyK)

373 366 However, I think the Conservatives probably would ally with Reform if it came to it. This isn't like continental Europe; Reform hasn't been successfully smeared as a bunch of far-right racists. And the Conservatives are in much more danger of political irrelevancy than, say, Germany's CDU. They'd make peace with Reform if it gave them a shot at power again.
Posted by: Dr. T at May 02, 2025 12:16 PM (EynyL)

=======

I just remember how the Conservative Party...last year...conspired with Labour to geld itself in order to fend off the rise of Reform, giving Labour the largest majority in Parliament in many, many years.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:18 PM (GBKbO)

374 351
‘ Was it ever an existential threat to the US / western world? In hindsight, clearly no’

You’re assuming the Communists would have collapsed without outside pressure which you have no way of knowing. For all we know, they would have overrun twice as many countries and killed twice as many people before they collapsed, if they collapsed at all.
They sure as hell were trying to install regimes everywhere.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 02, 2025 12:18 PM (jbnUc)

375 He hates cardboard cans!

Posted by: Navin at May 02, 2025 12:18 PM (i0F8b)

376 The Conservative Party is more likely to form a majority government with Labour than Reform holding any power at all.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:07 PM (GBKbO)

People are tired of voting Tory AND Labour

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 12:18 PM (QTr+M)

377 It's a shame we don't live in a country with bazillions of square miles of open space, where waste can be safely buried in landfills that actually become green space over time, thus being their own "recycling" system.

Yeah.
Posted by: BurtTC

-

It's impossible to find now but in Obama's term there was research done showing that ALL the trash in the US could be kept for 100 years in one county about the size of Durham, NC. With the assumption that no new technology was developed.

ALL the trash. Glass, plastic, etc.

And it would make the residents of that small county wealthy beyond belief.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Look up the definition of Nose Ring Theory at May 02, 2025 12:18 PM (Ji8U7)

378 NOOD Media Hate

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 02, 2025 12:18 PM (/HDaX)

379 I was born not long before the Berlin Wall fell
Posted by: Harry Paratestes

My lawn. Exit sign. Some assembly required.
Posted by: Bulg
-----

I was born not long after the fall of the Maginot Line.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 02, 2025 12:18 PM (XeU6L)

380 Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:18 PM (GBKbO)

A lot of people have been fooled by labour for the last time. Whether it's enough I don't know but it's significant.

Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 12:19 PM (QTr+M)

381 Goldie Hawn, lone survivor of Laugh-In?
Posted by: Soothsayer at May 02, 2025 12:16

Isn't that Twiggy character still alive.

Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench) at May 02, 2025 12:19 PM (2J/Lj)

382 ALL the trash in the US could be kept for 100 years in one county about the size of Durham, NC.
------

Thus improving Durham County.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 02, 2025 12:19 PM (XeU6L)

383 359
‘ Ruth Buzzi is mortadell?
--------------
Seems so.’

I thought she was already dead.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 02, 2025 12:19 PM (jbnUc)

384 Most Americans bitch and moan and oppose communism as a totally evil and soul sucking blah blah blah then rush off to vote for as many freebies as they can get.

Posted by: Public Schools Too at May 02, 2025 12:21 PM (R/m4+)

385 ALL the trash in the US could be kept for 100 years in one county about the size of Durham, NC.
------

Thus improving Durham County.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc.

-

With the exception of the Green Room pool hall and that BBQ place near the western line, yeah, this isn't wrong.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Look up the definition of Nose Ring Theory at May 02, 2025 12:21 PM (Ji8U7)

386 380 Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:18 PM (GBKbO)

A lot of people have been fooled by labour for the last time. Whether it's enough I don't know but it's significant.
Posted by: ... at May 02, 2025 12:19 PM (QTr+M)

========

Both Labour and the Conservative Party know how to manipulate the first past the post system so well that they'll be in the conversation of power in Parliament for a long time yet.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:21 PM (GBKbO)

387 I just remember how the Conservative Party...last year...conspired with Labour to geld itself in order to fend off the rise of Reform, giving Labour the largest majority in Parliament in many, many years.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at May 02, 2025 12:18 PM (GBKbO)

I put that more in the realm of typical party competition than a hard-core anti-Reform firewall.

None of the parties *wants* to let Reform into the club, obviously. But the Conservatives don't hate them to the extent of allying with Labour against them. As things now stand in Britain, that would be suicide for the party.

Posted by: Dr. T at May 02, 2025 12:22 PM (EynyL)

388 I'm just saying that, assume Reform gets 20% and no one else gets 50%.

What's the most likely outcome?

The Conservative Party forming a government with its direct competitor for the same voters or forming a government with its actual allies: Labour.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison
------
I understand your analysis and it seems reasonable. But I think we are living in an era where things break down and international relations and internal country politics are breaking down. If we are lucky, we do not end up with something like the One Hundred Years war (or perhaps if you take all the wars in the 20th Century until now, we are in the midst of such an era."

The internet is partly to blame with the impact on the world of teh printing press and mass literacy. AI will be the next unsettling thing as for example, it can eat congressional bills and spit out understandable summaries of provisions and highlight noxious middle of the night insertions.

Not sure any of the old assertions and assumptions hold anymore including the UK. Brexit was believed impossible until it happened for example.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 12:22 PM (ctrM5)

389 and the US took a massive economic hit from government debt to finance our overseas adventures and a hit to manufacturing due to foreign competition from Japan and Euroland. As a result, we have cities like Detroit, St. Louis, Akron, etc. that look as though they have been bombed and have zombies staggering around mired in drugs and hopelessness.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki despite being a-bombed are flourishing.
Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 12:07 PM (ctrM5)

The Marshall Plan was essential to Western survival. Period.

After Europe and Japan regained some semblance of stability by the mid-60s, the US should have restarted a tariff regime to protect American industries.

Posted by: mrp at May 02, 2025 12:24 PM (rj6Yv)

390 Both Labour and the Conservative Party know how to manipulate the first past the post system so well that they'll be in the conversation of power in Parliament for a long time yet.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

Your base assumption is that the English parliamentary system continues to exist. I am not sure of that going forward. Essentially, politicians have to yield to make massive reforms in Euroland and I am not sure that they can or will do so to preserve the system. Have the same doubts about the US before Trump actually took office. He is essentially challenging the entire Deep State rationale of bugger the US common folks and rule by coercion and fear. Euroland is going that way--if the people will not approve of their serfdom then we shall import swarthy denizens that are not so picky to suppress them.

In country after country, the 'peasants' are rejecting what the Globo Homo aristos want. Explosive situation with unpredictable results.

What is basically at stake is the Westphalian state system dating back to 1648. The end of that will be massively disruptive if it occurs--Globo Homo thinks it will, the people, fearing irrelevance are liable to resist.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 12:29 PM (ctrM5)

391 The Marshall Plan was essential to Western survival. Period.

After Europe and Japan regained some semblance of stability by the mid-60s, the US should have restarted a tariff regime to protect American industries.
Posted by: mrp
=====
Any government program gathers its own set of supporters and as a result never ends until it becomes insupportable. The Mohair subsidy for uniforms dating from WWI lasted well into the 90's.

The simple fact is we do not know what would have happened. One of the best cures apparently for communism is having to live under it. And as a result, Eastern Europe are the most fervent of opponents. So, it is entirely possible if Euroland had went communist, that poverty and deprivation would have eventually destroyed that regime from within like what happened to the Soviet Union.

The truth is that all Empires are built on a foundation of sand.

Posted by: whig at May 02, 2025 12:32 PM (ctrM5)

392 As Chris Rock said, stay off the poll (sic) and out of jail. Well, so far our senators manage the second mostly, but we can live in hope.

Posted by: Eric2 at May 02, 2025 01:30 PM (q7Vou)

393 The New York Slimes has lied about just about everything and covered up for the Enemy Stalin Castro the Viet Cong and probably even Mouse-E-Dung

Posted by: Spurwing Plover at May 02, 2025 05:49 PM (FLiOE)

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