Luddism

It began, as so many of these things do, with the French, over two centuries ago.  Now we have this:

UK workers are sabotaging and assaulting workplace robots in an attempt to stop them taking their jobs, finds study.

But for some manual workers they have found their own ways of stopping the robots’ rise to world domination – by confusing them.

I predict that this is going to become more, not less common.

“But why, Kim,” you may ask, “is this happening at all?  Aren’t robots / A.I. / Smart Stuff going to be the Way Of The Future?

Here’s a hint:

The report also predicted 20 million people will have been replaced by the machines in the work place by 2030.

That’s just in Britishland.  And let’s not hear the tired old “buggy-whip maker” argument again.  With the trend which is taking place, robots and A.I. will soon have the capacity to take over jobs which may now seem intrinsically human, but aren’t, e.g.:

A backlash is not at all out of the question.

Going Out In Style

What more can be said about a bunch of Ole Pharts not only having sex in public, but a guy letting his 85-year-old wife pull the train?  (I’m guessing about the last part, but it wouldn’t surprise me, nowadays.)

And who knew that dogging had come to Connecticut (state motto:  “Like Massachusetts, only with less class and charm”)?

Goddamn Baby Boomers… couldn’t they just have had an orgy at Happy Hours Retirement Village, like all the others do?

Dead But Not Forgotten, Alas

Oh fer gawd’s sake.  Here we go with the John McCain Image Rehabilitation Project:

Cindy McCain marked the one-year anniversary of her husband John McCain’s death with a string of rebukes to Donald Trump and his leadership of the Republican Party.
She told ABC News there is no one in the GOP to carry on her husband’s mantle and be a ‘voice of reason’ for the Republican Party.

I have great respect for the fact that she’s McCain’s widow and therefore loyal to his memory.  Unfortunately, my memories of her late husband are not so rosy, e.g. when he had the deciding vote on legislation which would have killed ObamaCare, he voted against it, thus:

 

I will also never forgive nor forget the many times McCain stabbed Republicans in the back — including especially Bush 43, to whom he had lost in the 2000 primaries — simply so that he could curry favor with the fucking Democrats and the media [lots of overlap].

The hell with him, and  his nonexistent “voice of reason”.  “Spiteful” describes the late senator from Arizona better than any other adjective.  (Feel free to add your  suggested adjectives in Comments.)

Oops

Everybody told them that it was a monumentally-stupid idea;  but noooooo:

Restaurants Unlimited, a Seattle-based chain with restaurant locations in 47 US cities, announced on Sunday it was seeking Chapter 11 protection, citing “progressive” wage laws.
The company, which has operated since the Lyndon Johnson Administration, said rising labor costs—part of a national trend of government-mandated minimum increases—were part of its decision.

Note the 47 cities affected by these closures (see link).

I would feel more sorry for the soon-to-be-laid-off workers, but I’m betting that most of them supported the higher-minimum-wage idiocy in the first place, so… sucks to be them.  Maybe next time they’ll vote with their brains instead of with their greed.  (Granted, working-class people have trouble making ends meet in liberal shitholes like Seattle and San Francisco;  but the politicians who have caused the high housing prices are the same ones who pushed through the higher minimum-wage thresholds.  So there’s a double whammy here, and yet those idiot voters keep sending them back into office.)

Of course, it’ll be all Trump’s fault (according to the West Coast media).

Challenge Accepted

A whole bunch of people have been getting worried about this development:

Liberals are notoriously loath to take their own side in a fight. But their reticence may well be changing in an age of vigilante, white nationalist terror—openly condoned and supported by an incumbent president who has suggested that his armed devotees won’t stand for his removal from office. Increasingly, the antifa left is arguing—and training—in response. They are worried not only about an armed reckoning following a contested election, but also about rising violence from the paramilitaries loyal to President Donald Trump.

Such paranoid fantasies may be familiar to heavy consumers of YouTube and Reddit, but watching them transposed on to the structures of governance is a novelty. As a result, many leftists and even some liberals are beginning to reconsider their feelings about firearms, joining a loose amalgamation of gun groups, from John Brown Gun Clubs (which take their name from the abolitionist) to the Pink Pistols (an LGBTQ group), Liberal Gun Club, and Socialist Rifle Association. Some of these organizations are moderate and traditionalist, others radical and revolutionary. But all share one implicit goal: to normalize firearms ownership and training among liberals. Some of their members hope such efforts will at least make Republicans think twice before attempting a massacre.

LOL.  They must be thinking about Spanish  Republicans circa 1937 (who, by the way were Communists) and not our flabby Murkin Republicans, who couldn’t massacre the syrup at a pancake breakfast.

Seriously:  do these tools honestly think that conservatives are going to launch a massacre of Lefties in this country?  Given the de-platforming of conservative voices, attacks on people simply for wearing MAGA hats and throwing Republican civil servants out of restaurants — not to mention the Pantifa attacks on peaceful protest marches in Portland and D.C. — I would suggest that it’s the Left  who are far more likely to trigger civil violence.

Then we have this kind of picture, which some find alarming:

Yup;  he sure looks like he means business.

To my mind, though, this doesn’t make for nervousness — it makes the whole thing interesting.

Go on, Pantifa Boys:  show us what you’ve got. Let’s see how it works out for you.

Oh, and one last thought:  if all this “preparation” by the Left means they’re waiting for conservatives / Trump supporters to begin the shooting, they’re going to end up being a lot older than the graybeard in the pic above before they get to put all that training into play.  In the meatime, we have crap like this:

The climate of vigilante violence on the right has elevated racist attacks, hate crimes, and terrorism in our political culture.

What “vigilante violence”?  Fucking shitbrains are starting to believe their own lies.

Quote Of The Day

From Bearing Arms, after the first round of Great Clown Car Debates:

“Pro tip to Democrats: If Elizabeth Freaking Warren sounds like the voice of reason, it might be time to reevaluate your life choices.”

This after she was slammed for not embracing “Australia”-type gun control.