In the news

This is a grim read

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-64770716

How so?

Sad reflection on the state of the country

This is the earlier piece which sets out a bit more about the way suspects are identified. El Salvador: The people caught up in the gang crackdown https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63793652

Scott Adams calls black Americans a hate group and says white Americans should stay away from them. Media outlets drop his comic.

He's been known as a cunt for some time, but I guess he decided that Stormfront is the best place to host Dibert.

He sounds like your typical white male boomer who can't accept that's he's not relevant/his shit isn't funny anymore so he needs a reason - c.f. John Cleese.

Mother Jones's description of Dilbert as mediocre is spot on.

They really hate the idea that older white men might not be on top for much longer don't they?

took them a really long time to drop him, he's said worse

I’m guessing the prison they were in was worse.

They say the aim is to make the problem disappear. I assume that's just disappear from sight. Maybe it doesn't matter what happens when they're released, maybe the won't be. Wonder what the long term plan is.

Hunger games?

Battle Royale

This is so fucked up:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/25/colorado-sheriff-office-purple-heart-officer-shot-richard-ward

Wonder what the long term plan is.

I doubt there is one.

It's a really tough situation isn't it? Ideally you want rule of law, due process, etc. But i guess there are times when you have such endemic criminality that you need to break it. My understanding is that for many people living in gang neighbourhoods, you are more or less forced to join. However, El Salvador has a pretty solid history of right wing authoritarianism, so it doesn't feel great. When I was there it seemed a bit sureal seeing police with covered faces.

Plus you inevitably have innocent people caught up. In Colombia in the past 10yrs there's been a lot more come out about the extrajudicial killings in the early '00s. Iirc some soilders received bonuses for bodies of FARC rebels - so unsurprisingly lots of them just killed anyone.

I doubt there is one.

I agree, once the gangs have such a massive hold over the population and the officials (either bribery or intimidation/murder) then it is an almost impossible situation.

There’s an interesting book called Narconomics which discusses a lot of this.

This was my thought exactly - he's choosing the ageing stand-up's easy route to something vaguely approximating relevance.

Adams was always a poor man's Gary Larson.

At the very least, US police need to be completely disarmed. They'd be a lot more interested in de-escalation strategies if they didn't have the nuclear option.

I dread to think what a poor man's version of this is

Heh. Also not a fan. The Vettriano of cartoonists.

To be fair, that particular panel is so wilfully obscure and generated so much confusion that it has it's own Wikipedia article

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Tools

I always thought that Dilbert was ok. Not brilliant but funny enough to justify about 5 seconds of my time.

Is it possible that it’s just not funny?

Needs moar pineapple sticker. Obviously.

Deals been reached for NI protocol. So what concessions has the U.K. made?

What, the "Cow tools" panel? I agree, it's not very funny, but it's not really representative of Larson's work. That's all I was pointing out.

The general word salad around the green energy transition now has a new ingredient, social justice. The rebranded just green energy transition explored in this doc..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jklx

Unexpurgated salad here.. Turkeys and Christmas comes to mind..
https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2023/02/27/time-to-fully-embrace-the-energy-transition/

It's amusing that the green lobby cloak their policies in the trappings of socialism without any real thought to the lumpen proletariat. Green and red mixed forms a shade of jobby brown.