Clown World at it again

Jul 04, 2022

Competitive skateboarder Taylor Silverman said in a new interview that the 29-year-old transgender competitor who won a recent tournament against girls as young as 10 should not be allowed in the women’s division. Ricci Tres, a transgender woman, captured The Boardr Open after vanquishing second-place finisher Shiloh Catori, 13, of Florida, last weekend.

An adult man competes against teenage girls and thrashes them.

“I’m not going to go and be easy on them because they’re kids,” the Navy veteran said.

She also downplayed the possibility that she enjoyed any inherent advantages.

Of course.

Silverman noted that an increasing number of transgender competitors have been entering — and winning — skateboarding events.

“This happened to me on three separate occasions, two of which I placed second,” she said. “There are several skaters doing this in skateboarding.”

Posted at 11:15 PM in Politics, USA | | Comments (0)

Make it a century

Jul 04, 2022

No retirement for the youth:

A 50-year home loan might sound depressing to some, but perhaps not if the alternative is never being able to buy a property. Long-term fixed-rate mortgages are an emerging financial product that should in theory allow first-time buyers who are currently priced out of the market to get on the housing ladder.

By spreading the repayments over longer – the average for mortgages taken out this year is 29 years – buyers should be able to borrow up to eight times their income, rather than the current average of 3.2 times, say potential providers.

50 years? Those are rookie numbers. Go for 100-year mortgages! The boomers racked up huge budget deficits and exploded the public debt. Might as well add mortgages for the grandchildren. It's not like all that debt will be paid back.

Posted at 11:06 PM in Economics, Politics | | Comments (0)

It's so tiresome

Jul 02, 2022

Action: The federal government is restricted from doing something!

Reaction: FASCISM, says the crazy woman.

The Democrats control the other two branches of government. What exactly is stopping them from making these new, clear directives?

Posted at 01:41 PM in Politics, USA | | Comments (0)

Mediocre enemies

Jul 01, 2022

Posted at 05:55 PM in Politics, USA | | Comments (0)

Clown World Beverage

Jul 01, 2022

We went from You'll Own Nothing and Be Happy to You'll Eat Shit and Love It!

“NEWBrew” is no ordinary beer. The new Singapore blond ale is made with recycled sewage.

The first review:

“I seriously couldn’t tell this was made of toilet water,” said Chew Wei Lian, 58, who had purchased the beer from a supermarket to try after hearing about it. “I don’t mind having it if it was in the fridge. I mean, it tastes just like beer, and I like beer.”

That says a lot about beer.

Posted at 04:38 PM in Politics | | Comments (0)

GDP goes negative

Jun 30, 2022

Using prices gathered by Statistics Canada, the cost of hosting a Canada Day barbecue with eight adults and eight children today would cost $302.04 — more than 17 per cent higher than in 2021, when the bill came to $257.27. [...]

"Prices are going up much faster than we've been accustomed to for the past four decades," said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Financial Group.

That's a big reason why a recession is practically guaranteed. When the average family is spending close to a combined 50% more for rent, mortgage, food, and oil compared to 30 months ago, then they simply don't have any cash left for cars, restaurants, hotels, and vacations.

Posted at 09:32 PM in Economics | | Comments (0)

Was it the vax?

Jun 30, 2022

I got an email today titled, "A Message from Air Canada's President". He apologized about the upcoming cancelation of flights in the summer months. It was initially confusing because I don't have any domestic or US flight but then I realized that he's telling all possible customers to not bother booking any North American flight in the next couple of months.

Air Canada's stock fell as much as nearly 9 per cent in early trading on Thursday, after the company said it would cut more than 15 per cent of its scheduled flights in July and August.

The Montreal-based airline said on Wednesday that it will reduce its schedule – already operating at a capacity below pre-pandemic levels – by an average of 154 flights per day in July and August. Most of the affected flights are to and from Toronto and Montreal, the airline said, on domestic and Canada-U.S. routes.

Air Canada fired thousands of workers two years ago and then implemented vaccine mandates last year. My best guess would be that 20% of their original labor force has zero interest in returning to work for them which closely aligns with the volume of cancellations. Plus, it's likely that a few of the vaxxed pilots have had totally unexpected and unrelated health issues that make them unfit to fly. Sad!

Posted at 03:39 PM in Economics, Life | | Comments (0)

Epstein didn't kill himself

Jun 29, 2022

They protect the swamp creatures like the Clintons and the Bidens.

Posted at 11:19 PM in Politics, USA | | Comments (0)

Squeezed

Jun 24, 2022

The price of butter tracks almost exactly with my experience: $3 to $4.29; a 43% increase. The most insane price increase I've noticed is for corn. It used to be $0.2 each, now it's going for $0.5.

Posted at 12:06 PM in Economics, Life, USA | | Comments (0)

The wicked lose

Jun 24, 2022

The US Supreme Court makes the right decision after nearly 50 years:

The U.S. Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump definitely deserves credit.

Posted at 11:45 AM in Politics, USA | | Comments (0)

No shortage of suckers

Jun 23, 2022

Yeah. The highest savings account interest rate in Ontario, Canada is 2.4%. The best rate for a 5-year GIC is 4.6%. The long-term yearly average US stock market return is 8%. Anything that "guarantees" a percentage return that's more than a single digit is a guaranteed scam.

Posted at 02:31 PM in Economics, USA | | Comments (0)

Talent, confidence, and aggression

Jun 22, 2022

Buttler didn't make a huge impact on the previous World Cup. He should make up for that next year:

Eoin Morgan labelled Jos Buttler "the best white-ball cricketer in the world" after his innings of 162 not out off 70 balls led England to a record ODI and List A total against the Netherlands in Amstelveen, while Buttler suggested he was playing the best cricket of his career.

Buttler hit seven fours and 14 sixes, a boundary every 3.33 balls, after England's bright start saw him promoted to No. 4 and his partnerships of 184 off 90 balls with Dawid Malan and 91 not out off 32 with Liam Livingstone saw them fall two runs short of the first 500-plus score in 50-over history.

250 runs was a competitive score in ODI cricket in the previous century. England couldn't chase it in the 1992 World Cup final. Today, they smashed 248 runs ... in 30 overs! It would be quite a sight to see them successfully chase 400+ runs against big teams.

Posted at 11:55 PM in Cricket | | Comments (0)

Money printer went brrrr

Jun 19, 2022

Some are stunned. A few idiots accuse him of lying. How can that add up to $155! There's no meat! Where are the lobsters!

Of course, most completely miss the point. All this food was $60-70 only a few years ago.

The really shocking part was the price of bananas: $2.5 per pound! Just today, I saw them at the supermarket for under US$0.5 per pound. (CAD$0.6.)

Posted at 02:40 PM in Economics, USA | | Comments (0)

The Wicked Star

Jun 19, 2022

Toronto Star:

Employers are lifting COVID-19 vaccination requirements and employees sent home for refusing to get vaccinated are flooding back. We asked experts how we should deal with what already looks like a messy situation.

The full article is behind a paywall but these tweets were quite precious:

It's amusing that this newspaper talks about a "tenuous workplace" and "frayed relationships" when they printed a cover headline on August last about the unvaccinated which stated "Let them die."

Posted at 11:47 AM in Politics | | Comments (0)

Poor Netherlands

Jun 17, 2022

They met the World Champions of cricket today and it was a massacre:

An ODI world-record total of 498 for 4, built on Buttler's brutal 162 not out and further centuries from Dawid Malan and Phil Salt before Liam Livingstone smashed 66 from just 22 balls, left Netherlands facing an implausible target after winning the toss on an exceptional surface.

It beat England's own record for the highest ODI total of 481 for 6, made against Australia in 2018, and, despite spirited knocks from Max O'Dowd and Scott Edwards, who helped them come within two balls of seeing out their 50 overs, Netherlands lost by 232 runs.

The scary thing is that England wasn't at full strength! Bairstow and the legend were not in the team today. The Champions still have the most powerful batting order in the ODI world: Roy, Bairstow, Root, Stokes, Buttler, Malan, and Livingstone. A few of them can bowl as well.

England went into the 2019 World Cup as the favorites. They look even more fearsome for their title defense next year.

Posted at 02:50 PM in Cricket | | Comments (0)

A debt-powered economy

Jun 17, 2022

Airlines, hotels, restaurants, and car companies are going to suffer in the following quarters. When people are squeezed to the point where a giant proportion of their incomes is going to rent, mortgage, and food, then they don't have any money left for weekend trips, vacations or new cars.

Posted at 10:36 AM in Economics, Politics, USA | | Comments (0)

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