Saturday Morning Post Valentine Links

by | Feb 15, 2020 | Daily Links | 322 comments

My favorite poet of all time was Don Marquis, who once observed, “If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; But if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.” I have nothing I can add to that.

Birthdays today include Mr. Eppur Si Muove; the guy who found the key; some chick who made tokens for the Baltimore subway; Bertie Russell’s pardner; the only one and true Joker; a guy who helped us get rid of the piece of shit Carter (but enabled the piece of shit Reagan); a cartoonist who really ought to be better known; and another one who showed us that life really is Hell- and was quite good before he got famous. A side note: wikipedia is now hyphenating every American of note with their ethnicity, which is repulsive.

Yes, news.

 

I am now understanding the lure of veganism much, much better.

 

OK, this is stupid, but still fun.

 

Creators of drama are shocked that there’s drama.

 

“Crime piñatas.” Well, it is a nice turn of phrase.

 

And you wondered why we moved to Arizona.

 

“What’s Aleppo?”

 

In case you thought baseball hat swastika outrage was Peak Stupid.

 

Old Guy Music is a mix of music and animation, with a fabulous combination of Cab Calloway and the Fleischer brothers. This is… amazing. An absolute masterpiece of music and animation, with shit you can’t do any more. Cocaine, ghost electrocutions, nursing cats.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

322 Comments

  1. UnCivilServant

    And you wondered why we moved to Arizona.

    Fun fact, there are now more ostriches in the United States than in all of Africa.

    Also, there are more Tigers in the Unites States than all of Asia.

    • SDF-7

      Also, there are more Tigers in the Unites States than all of Asia.

      Likely because we don’t have ideas about how they help erections or something.

      • SDF-7

        I’m disappointed the baby shark show apparently doesn’t feature throwing an ostrich into a shark tank… “Swim for your life.. do do do do do do… swim for you life….”

      • JD is Unemployed

        How about throwing a shark into an ostrich tank?

      • Tulip

        I’m disappointed it’s not this weekend

    • Fatty Bolger

      We should keep an eye on that, it’s just a few evolutionary hops from ostrich to terror bird.

      • Gender Traitor

        I’m now imagining huge Hate Birds – The Birds That Hate. I may never sleep again.

      • Spudalicious

        Makes head shots that much easier.

      • C. Anacreon

        What immortal hand or eye
        Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

      • Gender Traitor

        ::swoons::

      • Spudalicious

        One holding a Bennelli semi-auto.

  2. UnCivilServant

    I actually meant to go off topic in the lingering last night thread, but the linx dropped while I was assembling my range bag.

    I spent a lot of time, effort, and a bit of money last week running around getting a red dot fitted to my ruger, exacerbated by the fact that the red dot I bought last week didn’t fit the stock ruger weaver rails.

    While collecting stray boxes of .22 LR ammo, Guess what I found in my closet?

    An Unopened red dot that would fit a stock Ruger rail.

    How in the hell did I forget I owned that?

    • UnCivilServant

      Well, my morming errand is to go zero the sight I do have on the ruger, so I’ll be gone a bit.

      Talk to all y’all folks later.

      • R C Dean

        Can’t let that go to waste. You’ll have to buy another gun to put it on.

      • Sean

        This guy gets it.

        Get a takedown 10/22.

      • DEG

        Thirded on getting another gun for the red dot.

        Seconded on the takedown 10/22.

      • UnCivilServant

        Hrmm… but I might want something other than another .22LR

      • Not Adahn

        Yup. I don’t think .22LR is a valid caliber in 2×4 format.

    • JD is Unemployed

      Non-binary Tankie of Love @triggeringnazissocialist · 1h

      Libertarian (nazi) gun nut owns so much gun stuff that he forgets he has some of it! That is peak #latecapitalism right there, people. It’s time for #confiscation and #redistribution!!! #punchnazis

      • Tejicano

        Ha! I have tried to mentally recall all the firearms I own back in the US by building an excel spreadsheet. Every so often I look at it and remember another one or two which I forgot to add to it. I’m pretty sure it’s complete now, except for the quantity of stripped AR lowers, I bought a number of them at different occasions.

      • JD is Unemployed

        Is there a column for indicating which have since been lost in boating mishaps?

        I was tempted to do this with tools. It’s a bit OCD but I might just.

      • Lackadaisical

        You should give some up to adoption for a loving home.

        *cough*

      • Tejicano

        I’m actually thinking about getting a table at a gun show and trying to sell a few of them. I figure that if I haven’t had time to shoot them there’s a good chance I never will so I may as well get my money out of them.

    • Fourscore

      “You Americans are too rich, having an extra RedDot that will lock its rails onto a Ruger, presumably a 10/22.

      There are kids in Africa that have never been to a ‘Stones concert”

      /Greta/

      • Jarflax

        But those kids in Africa likely have an AK in their hands.

    • UnCivilServant

      It took seventy five rounds to zero in the red dot.

      I would have done some shooting for the fun of it too, but I was getting cold.

      Now I’m back at my house doing laundry. It is not related to the shooting, but I need clean work clothes for next week.

      • Not Adahn

        I went home after 60 rounds at the 25 yd range, because the 100yd range was full and I didn’t feel like waiting around in the cold. AFAICT, I’ve got the sights adjusted all the way, but it’s shooting low. Not too low for Steel Challenge, but maybe too low for 2×4. I’ll try working on it more now that I don’t need insulated gloves.

        Mechanically though, there were no issues.

      • UnCivilServant

        I could have done it in fewer shots, but there was one iteration where I turned the adjuster dial the wrong way.

  3. UnCivilServant

    “So they were eating pork pies and scotch eggs in a vegan restaurant? Shocked.”

    I was going to say that but internet randos beat me to it.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      That made up story would have been much better if they’d attacked her with their made up knives. I would think that the various incarnations of Crowleyites wouldn’t be too happy with off the street random people interrupting their ceremonies.

      • Chafed

        You’re right. That story sounds like a complete fabrication.

  4. Timeloose

    “You guys know Minne the Moocher?, I Once knew a hooker named Minnie Mazola.”

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Why, you can get a phonograph record of Minnie the Moocher for 75 cents. And for a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie.

      • mindyourbusiness

        Hi dee hi dee hi dee hi!

  5. Gender Traitor

    That cartoon really is amazing. (Help a chick out – in the live action intro, is Cab’s band playing St. James Infirmary?)

    I voted for Anderson in the first presidential election after I reached voting age. Did his vote total really make a difference in the outcome?

    • DEG

      Yes, I think it is “St. James Infirmary”.

      • Gender Traitor

        When sung, possibly the most haunting song ever.

      • Charlie Suet

        James Ray’s version is excellent.

      • DEG

        I remember being at a Blues-themed dance and the DJ played “St. James Infirmary.” A bunch of folks started bumped and grinding to it. No. Just no. No.

      • Mojeaux

        Dr. House does a good version of that.

      • DWB

        AWESOME!!!!

  6. Atanarjuat

    Good for the bank president, who issued a statement that was in no way an apology. In fact, the reporter should receive Twitter castigation for using the term “backlash”.

    • Lackadaisical

      *consults AP style guide*

      The correct term is ‘whitelash’.

  7. Gender Traitor

    Professional pet peeve: I wish I believed in Hell so I could reserve a special place therein for these people. Hope they get hard jail time.

    • Tres Cool

      5/3 is turrble. Jus’ turrble.

      I had a brief relationship with them in the 90s, which got severed over them putting a hold on a check despite me having the funds in my account for it.
      It was a per diem advance for work, and I was going to be out of town for 2 weeka

      • Gender Traitor

        A co-worker of mine who formerly worked for 5/3 refers to them as “The Evil Empire.”

    • Oy the Billy-Bumbler

      A good rule of thumb is to not do business with any of the giant monster mega banks. Use a credit union.

      • Gender Traitor

        ^^^^DINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDING!!! We have a winner! /unabashedly biased

      • Tres Cool

        WrightPatt4Lyfe, yo

      • Gender Traitor

        The 2000-lb-gorilla of local CUs? Sorry – nope! ; )

      • Tres Cool

        Ive had decent luck with them. Then again, my banking needs are pretty basic.

      • Gender Traitor

        Do they still charge you to talk to a teller?

        It really depends – you just have to think about what services you need/use and check out different CU’s fee schedules. Some will be better/cheaper (or free) for one service but charge for another. Happily, since most I’m aware of have gone to a “community charter,” you have options. (BTW, “shared branching” among CUs makes physical branch locations less of an issue.)

      • Tres Cool

        I used to flirt hard with one of the branch managers, so if she’s around and there’s mention of a fee, I get her to waive.
        They seemed to be inconsistent in their fee schedule, tho.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        I have one of each. The account with the megabank is so that I can go into the physical branch down the street and pull cash. The account with the CU is a long term relationship that I value because they’ve treated me well over the years. They have my mortgage and my credit card.

        Besides the physical location and the inertia, the only reason I stick with the megabank is because I can spin up a new account in 2 minutes. I use them to keep the money organized.

      • Gender Traitor

        If the megabank ever mistreats you or you decide their fees are too high, are you close enough to any CU branch for this service to do you any good?

    • Atanarjuat

      It’s never made sense to me how you can do something like that and not go to jail, while people are being jailed for drug possession, misremembering to the FBI, etc. Ditto people who go to businesses and don’t pay (saw it happen in hurricane restoration a lot), it’s the same as stealing.

  8. Atanarjuat

    https://www.mercatornet.com/mobile/view/the-noble-tragic-terrifying-example-of-a-world-war-ii-conscientious-objecto

    The release of A Hidden Life, for which filming began way back in 2016, is finally bringing the story of Franz Jägerstätter to a global audience.

    During the Second World War, this Austrian farmer and devoted Catholic father and husband refused to fight for Nazi Germany. For this, he was imprisoned, and ultimately put to death. More than 60 years later, he was declared a martyr by the Church and beatified.

    Have y’all seen this? Sounds pretty good.

    • juris imprudent

      Did he punch Nazis? Twitter informs me you aren’t brave or noble if you don’t punch Nazis.

    • LCDR_Fish

      Sounds pretty slow. https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/movie-review-a-hidden-life-suffers-from-hollywood-moral-crisis/#slide-1

      It would be ideal to announce that Malick’s movie transports us to a different era before these treacheries occurred — or that the period story of Franz’s travails showed his/our suffering in a clarifying light and gave hope. Franz, his wife Fani (Valerie Pachner), and their towhead daughters are simple, devout people, close to the earth until the Third Reich jolts their peace and the film becomes All Quiet on the Western Front 2.0. Franz is jailed, then executed for refusing to fight another war.

      But how can A Hidden Life instruct us when it shares the culture’s current confusions? (Is this ode to pacifism left over from Malick’s Vietnam-era ideas?) Malick demonstrates the same interplay of banal citizenship and banal spirituality that blurs straight thinking and stymies good faith today. No wonder secular critics love it.

      Whether or not A Hidden Life was conceived in response to the current madness, the conditions under which a serious American artist must now operate (conforming to the dictates of the crudest, insensible production codes put in place by Titanic, Lord of the Rings, the Marvel franchise, HBO, and Netflix) make it nearly impossible to overcome the culture’s moral and intellectual breakdown.

      A Hidden Life is lofty and bloated, like The Irishman, its sin-celebrating counterpart. Malick’s three-hour narrative is too long and repetitive to communicate as a work of popular culture should, and as some of his previous films — especially The Thin Red Line and The New World — used to, even without topical relevance.

      Armond White is a really weird critic. I agree with him on some stuff, but at least a quarter of his reviews read like straight up trolling.

      • Ted S.

        Malick has been going downhill ever since at least “Badlands”.

    • Lackadaisical

      Franz Jägerstätter […] During the Second World War, this Austrian farmer and devoted Catholic father and husband […] he was declared a martyr by the Church and beatified.

      So not just a nazi, but a super duper nazi.

      • R C Dean

        My takeaway is the Nazis weren’t nazi enough for him.

  9. Atanarjuat

    Watching Klobuchar’s face freeze when she realizes what a huge on-camera gaffe she’s making… Well, it’s either that or a very aggressive facelift/Botox regimen.

    • R C Dean

      I cannot comprehend how anyone would vote for her for any office, much less consider her a front runner for the Presidential nomination. She oozes mediocrity and meanness, with zero apparent redeeming qualities.

      • juris imprudent

        Considering the current occupant…

      • R C Dean

        She is so devoid of personality that she hasn’t even made an appearance in Hat and Hair. You can’t even make up something interesting about her.

      • The Last American Hero

        There’s a lot of animation involved in making someone that shaky. Plus, there’s already one character with crazy eyes.

      • RAHeinlein

        She also has a number of the adult child of an alcoholic personality traits.

      • Ted S.

        She has a vulva.

      • Jarflax

        Is it a shitlord vulva or a goddess vulva?

  10. Lackadaisical

    My favorite poet of all time was Don Marquis, who once observed, “If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; But if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.” I have nothing I can add to that.

    Really makes you think.

    • Gender Traitor

      Well played.

  11. Atanarjuat

    That CNN article reads like it was made by a terrible writer who thinks they’re a great writer.

  12. Timeloose

    The Bernie sleeper agent bit was funny

    Well I’m just finishing house cleaning and getting ready to visit with my breakfast crew. Getting up at 3:30 do no reason is benefitting my household.

    Will be going to the butcher shop followed by a trip to the Italian winery.

    I hope everyone is having a good morn.
    .

  13. Lackadaisical

    This band, local to me does a great version of minnie the moocher.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf2vz-VpxIg

    Couldn’t figure out how to upload the version of the song I have to share though. Anyone wnat to walk me through adding it somewhere? I think I’ve got it in WMA format. 😕

  14. JD is Unemployed

    Can anyone help me? Many years ago I was taken out to a “secret” cult movie screening of a 1970s horror/thriller set in the UK. It starred a lady who had maybe a sort of German sounding name, which I also do not recall. Basically all I remember is that she becomes involved with some kind of weird sex cult that has these ritual orgies or something in a crypt where there is some sort of psychedelic ritual involving her being Cosby’d by the cult, which she eventually decides might not be the best life choice, or something. Maybe I’m way off into the weeds here on plot. Anyway if anyone remembers what this film is called I would be very grateful. Thanks.

    • Tres Cool

      Have you checked Pr0nhub ?

      • JD is Unemployed

        Do they has such a category?

    • RBS

      I think I found that VHS in my dads sock drawer when I was about 13.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      This sounds familiar; was it on Turner Classic Movies last October or a Friday (underground) night? Ted, help!

    • egould310

      Manos: The Hands of Fate

      • JD is Unemployed

        Close but sans cigar. It was definitely set in the UK, IIRC there was no burning hand, and I’m 99% sure it was well into the 1970s. ’66 definitely seems early.

    • JD is Unemployed

      Boom! Found it!

      All the Colors of the Dark

      I think I’d like to watch it again.

      • JD is Unemployed

        It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been down to the big dirty, but I don’t think much has changed in that department. Maybe they reupholstered in the ’90s? They have specially patterned fabric to hide all the stains so it can last a few decades, bed bugs and all.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Aldwych station, awww. So Piccadilly line. I think even the Northern line has been modernized by now.

        Yeah, dear old TFL moquette. A dozen or so years ago the shop site was selling accessories such as dog coats made of surplus fabric.

        /spotter

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Oops, too slow in replying.

      • JD is Unemployed

        Much appreciated anyway. That looks like a good resource for looking up oddball movies.

  15. leon

    It’s stupid. I Doubt Joe could name the head of Mexico or the EU. It’s a “gotcha” because the media makes you think that every president knows the name of every pissant world leader. Here’s a thought ask them something substantial about those leaders. Like what their policy’s are. This same “gotcha” happens every election cycle to the candidates the media deems not experienced enough in foreign policy.

  16. Yusef drives a Kia

    I’m at a loss for words, a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders, now I can complete the last task,
    Thank you all, and thanks Anonymous, whoever you are.

    • Gender Traitor

      <3 (Can't insert proper emojis)

      • Sean

        Like this?

        ???

      • Gender Traitor

        Flaunting your emoji privilege! >: (

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Well, he is an Emo, so……….

      • UnCivilServant

        I think it’s because he’s on a phone

        ????☎?

    • R C Dean

      You’re welcome.

      I’m curious – did you follow up on Mojeaux’s suggestion to contact the nearest LDS chapterhouse?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that,

      • R C Dean

        Something about bishops having an obligation to look after everyone in their parish, not just Mormons.

        Also a secret passphrase – “a friend in Missouri”.

      • Tres Cool

        /rubs side of nose

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I shall, Bella and I walked the church grounds many times, nice folks as usual,
        Thanks Mo,

    • DEG

      You’re welcome, and I’m happy the burden was lifted.

      • juris imprudent

        Just catching up with the news, and adding my condolences.

    • hayeksplosives

      You’re welcome, Yusef!

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        did you see?

      • Tundra

        Nice job, hayek. You are a good person.

      • DEG

        Seconded.

      • Tejicano

        Three-d-ed!

      • Sean

        Quatro’d

      • dbleagle

        Fourthed

      • JD is Unemployed

        Pentupled (pentulpa’d?)

        Cinco cinco cinco!

  17. juris imprudent

    Something must be done. This is something, therefore this must be done.

    • leon

      Certainly let’s not end the deployments to shitholes. That couldn’t help stem suicides in the military.

    • R C Dean

      “there are important questions about where to start and how to integrate tech companies, healthcare providers, and the government agencies that provide regulation. “

      Just jump straight past whether this is a good idea, and go straight to “what is the quickest way to a dystopian hellhole?”

  18. juris imprudent

    This is something that really, really shouldn’t be done. Thanks wasteful military spending on “research”, thanks a lot.

    • Tundra

      Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with people?

      Oh, I know.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Who doesn’t want a microphone listening in on them 24/7? I mean, if you’re not saying anything objectionable you haven’t got anything to worry about.

    • Rhywun

      Yeah, that’s horrifying. Which means get ready for it.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Alexa, am I going to be fired today?

      • Fourscore

        “Sorry, no record of you employed by that firm”

    • R C Dean

      *consults financial planning spreadsheet, tenders resignation*

    • JD is Unemployed

      Ah yes, the aspiring techno-Stasi.

  19. DEG

    “Maus” was good. “Life in Hell” was good too.

    “All the people – and there are at least 20 of them – are wearing floor-length black robes. Some have ceremonial daggers. They’re making polite conversation and chomping on mini pork pies. It’s like Eyes Wide Shut meets Keeping Up Appearances.”

    Pizzagate was more believable.

    “Russia and (President Vladimir) Putin has been very bad, as far as I know, on climate change. They have a lot of oil, oil is important for their economy, they make a lot of money on oil,” Sanders explains.

    Putin is no Joe Stalin.

    Trump proposes a budget that assumes unrealistic growth, ignores deficit warnings

    CNN cares about budgets with unrealistic growth and cares about deficit warnings? Oh. Right. The president has a R by his name.

    I skimmed the article about the “comics”‘ commentary on politics. I see I am not missing much.

    A woman I used to know who played more games than usual and was a moocher herself loved “Minnie the Moocher.” Whenever that song comes on I have unpleasant flashbacks to her. I guess I’ll need extra booze in my tea this morning.

    • Lackadaisical

      I drank a beer this morning, but I woke up at 1:30, so it was like it was after noon.

      • DEG

        I’ve had beer for breakfast on days that weren’t St. Patrick’s Day and on days where I wasn’t in Germany. It’s OK to do every now and then.

      • Gender Traitor

        Well, it IS cereal, right?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        And you can Wax your Floors!

      • Tundra
      • DEG

        I like the Johnny Cash version of that song best. It’s a great song though.

        Beer 30

      • Not Adahn

        Best breakfast in Harry Potterworld is a Cornish Pasty and a cider.

      • The Last American Hero

        And I thought it was a slice of Granger Pie.

      • Not Adahn

        Have you seen the prices at Harry Potterland?

    • Tejicano

      Yo DEG! – I really like your avatar. I know exactly which scene from which movie that comes from. That particular dialog is etched in my brain. “..only an indian…” But I wonder how many others know about it…

      • DEG

        Thanks! I liked the movie.

        At work, due to some changes which I won’t go into, a few of us adopted “Endeavor to Persevere” as a motto. I thought about using this clip as my avatar for our Slack accounts, but settled on a different picture of Lone Watie. Now I use this picture.

        I switched from the cockatar to a well deserved dunce cap picture. For reasons I can’t remember, I got tired of the dunce cap and went to Lone Watie.

  20. Tundra

    Good morning, Old Man and a hearty good morning to all my digital friends!

    Your Old Man music inevitably led me to the Blues Brothers, which led to Steve Cropper, who I learned is 1) still alive at 78 and 2) co-wrote one of my favorite songs.

    Make it a great day people!

    • DEG

      That is a great song.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Knew without clicking, I was right,
      Great tune Tundra!

    • Bill Door

      +1

    • westernsloper

      ?

    • Spudalicious

      Steve Cropper cowrote that?!? That was the first album I bought at a school fundraiser in second grade.

    • Q Continuum

      Kinda like misusing Constitutional procedure to try and remove an elected President becuz he’s BAD.

    • Lackadaisical

      In a way it’s not bad, except in the same way the impeachment of trump would never apply to the right people.

    • Viking1865

      They’re doing that here too. The law is no longer “the laws that are voted on by the people and/or the people’s representatives in accordance with the Constitutional framework.” It’s now “the law is affluent educated white progressives list of policy preferences, anything other than that is against the law.”

      Remember when the CA Supreme Court struck down the gay marriage ban that passed via constitutional amendment? Obviously I would have voted against that proposition, but the whole point of a constitutional amendment is that it is the final arbiter of policy in a constitutional republic. If you can pass the benchmark, whatever it is, to amend the Constitution, then that’s the final arbiter of what is and isn’t legal.

      Whenever I see a prog or a liberal or one of the “centrist” or “moderates” talking about “the rule of law” I just substitute “the progressive policy consensus of the current year” because thats what they really mean.

      • kbolino

        I agree wholeheartedly but I would say, instead, when just about anyone talks selectively about “the rule of law” you can substitute in its place “the government generously applying laws and policies I like, and ignoring or overturning laws and polices I don’t like”.

        This was plainly evident by the “law and order” types on Hit & Run back in the day (before Sarwark skinsuited the LP, Reason went full cosmo, and Trump was living rent free in far too many people’s heads). The LP getting denied ballot access for some triviality = rule of law. Eric Garner getting killed over whatever it was exactly that the police didn’t like about him = rule of law. Pre-dawn no-knock raids on the wrong house based on dubious tips = rule of law. The government confiscating your guns in a “crisis” = rule of law. Flashbanging a toddler = rule of law. The Surpeme Court using the commerce clause to ban partial-birth abortion and drugs = rule of law. etc. and so on.

        But flip the picture around and turn those laws against the “law and order” types? Oh no, they’re fucking angels and saints who follow every jot and tittle of the law even the thousands of pages they’ve never heard of nor read. Enounter some contradiction in the law, or some area where it’s overbroad, and all of a sudden concepts like “prosecutorial discretion” and “the police are not malicious” and other rationalizations can be used to justify people in authority making it up on the spot. For most, “the rule of law” is just rule by men-in-power doing “the right things” with a veneer of “legitimacy”.

      • kbolino

        I should say, the Supreme Court upheld laws that were passed by Congress using the commerce clause to ban those things. But, regardless, the point was that there is no guiding principle of law at play; the same conservatives who would otherwise reject or at least look askance at the expansive interpretation of the commerce clause nevertheless had little compunction about upholding unconstitutional legislation they happened to like.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      Do we get to posthumously impeach FDR for doing the same damn thing to Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis?

    • AlmightyJB

      Europeans need to start building more woodchippers.

  21. Tundra

    From AoS

    I’ve had mornings like that.

    • DEG

      I think #22 is not a real redhead. I need to investigate more. I’d like to spend some quality time with #81 when finished.

    • Jarflax

      Pre VD

  22. Mojeaux

    I am at a loss as to how Alistair Crowley could possibly be the “wickedest man in the world.” Was he sacrificing pets? Was he sacrificing people? No? Not wicked.

    Harriet Tubman debit card issued by black bank. I think one problem is that generally, people don’t think of banks as black owned. Also, I think it’s kind of bold and they’re not backing down. So the not backing down makes me a fan.

    And you wondered why we moved to Arizona.

    And DIDN’T move to Overland Park? Still wondering. ?

    @Jarflax, my IP (and ISBNs and domain names) is not at risk in the BK. I was reassured of that. Also, my lawyer said she was incredibly impressed that I can do that.

    Re suicide: Very touchy subject in this house right now. Lots of tension amongst us, and not because of the bankruptcy. I feel like living and dealing with the histrionics of a teenager is like dealing with a long-term disease. Does it NEVER end? Is it always this emotionally draining day after day?

    YAY!! Yusef’s GFM hit goal! Yusef, Mojeaux household is still praying for you.

    • Q Continuum

      “Does it NEVER end? Is it always this emotionally draining day after day?”

      You were a teenager once right? I think they must enter a chrysalis and just emerge as an adult one day without warning.

      • Mojeaux

        Yeah, but by my mother’s admission, I was never like this. My brothers are much younger than I, saw what I went through and kept their heads down. The biggest problem my closest-in-age brother had was his refusal to practice his trombone and refusing to learn how to drive (dad’s teaching method was not student-friendly). I taught my youngest brother to drive a stick.

      • westernsloper

        “I’ll take porn hub categories for 100 Alex.”

      • Tundra

        This.

        Gotta just roll with things as best you can, because better times are ahead.

      • Mojeaux

        If I thought I could just ride it out without his destroying himself through sheer ego and arrogance, I would do it.

        Man, I love this kid and I know it doesn’t sound like it, the way I talk about him, but he’s only 14 and I’m already at my wits’ end.

      • Tundra

        You can and you will. All of us who have raised kids have had those dark times. Not exactly the same, of course, but we’ve been there.

        Focus on the first five words of your second paragraph. It isn’t easy when you want to wring their necks!

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        ^this, an sometimes they Don’t grow out of it,
        We ended up batting .500 for two kids………

      • Gender Traitor

        Too bad Wentworth is closed. (To which Mr. GT replies, “Too bad? Not really.”)

      • Mojeaux

        That would be a very bad decision.

      • Gender Traitor

        Understand completely.

        Fun facts: Mr. GT’s phenomenally-cool mother sent him a copy of Alice’s Restaurant while he was locked up there during the height of the Vietnam War. Also while he was there, he got his butt kicked in a guitar playing contest by Pat Metheny.

      • Mojeaux

        I LOVE PAT METHENY!!!1111!1!1

      • Gender Traitor

        Of that experience, Mr. GT has always said, “It’s like being able to say ‘Tom Sawyer whooped me once!'”

      • Gustave Lytton

        Whoa. I remember the ads for them and Valley Forge in the back of Boy’s Life magazine.

      • Mojeaux

        I think about my mom. She’s still worrying about us and we’re in our 40s and 50s. All three of us have mental illnesses, one did a stint as Florida Man, I’ve got my troubles you all know about, and my youngest brother is in a gentler version of electroshock therapy.

        So … I guess it does not end.

      • Tres Cool

        Well, Tres Sr. had to just bail me out of a mess. And he’s in his 80s
        I wasnt very proud to ask for his help.

      • Fourscore

        My kids are in their ’50s. I see repeats of unsuccessful past behavior. It’ll work this time.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Crowley was a grifter, an adventurer, and an all around interesting semi-lunatic. Wicked maybe but he wasn’t even Jeffrey Dahmer wicked much less you know who wicked.

      • Tres Cool

        Kamala Harris ?

    • DEG

      Re suicide: Very touchy subject in this house right now. Lots of tension amongst us, and not because of the bankruptcy. I feel like living and dealing with the histrionics of a teenager is like dealing with a long-term disease. Does it NEVER end? Is it always this emotionally draining day after day?

      Sorry.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        At the risk of being obvious or even obtuse, have you considered family therapy? I know money is tight but perhaps someplace offers a sliding scale. Don’t know what LDS offers in the way of counseling, or your kids’ attitude to church.

      • Mojeaux

        He has a therapist.

        Today is my first session with the therapist also. I’m not sure about going to the same therapist because what if I don’t like him? But I kind of feel like it’s important he know my side of things.

    • Jarflax

      Yay!

  23. Fourscore

    “And you wondered why we moved to Arizona”

    I had a friend in Pahrump, NV that thought it would be a good idea to get some ostriches in his retirement. One egg will provide breakfast for a family of 24 so egg sales were limited. He had one butchered and the local shop took the meat but the demand was rather limited, price was rather high. He ended up giving them away to some cowboy with lots of fenced in land, I dunno what happened to the birds but my friend died about 5 years ago without telling me.

    He probably had chinchillas in his closet as a kid, too.

  24. Q Continuum

    Thiel is half right IMO. He uses airlines/aviation as an example of decay, yet that is one of the most highly regulated industries so it stands to reason that it would not be innovating or inventing the way it should. In many other ways, our lives have been massively transformed for the better compared to 50 years ago. Medical advances have created new treatments for disease, I can go online and buy pretty much anything I want and have it in a day or two, cars are much safer and more efficient… I could go on.

    https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/03/back-to-the-future

    I think he has a point when it comes to cultural decay. Failed government policy of course contributes to sclerosis and cynicism, but things like a falling birthrate? I have yet to hear a convincing argument about why that’s such a horrible thing; if it is so horrible, then why does pretty much every high-income, industrialized nation follow the same pattern? Also, what do you plan on doing about it? Forcing people to reproduce?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      How about creating economic conditions that are conducive to making babies, ala, post WW2

      • cyto

        You know what is conducive to making babies? Having a livelihood that entirely depends on manual labor provided by the family unit and a complete lack of any retirement services or safety net. You want babies? Get rid of all social safety nets, investment vehicles and return to a completely agrarian society. Bonus points for high mortality rates which force people to plan for having less than all of their children survive to care for them in their senescence.

        Of course, that sort of society doesn’t really support more than maybe 250 million people, planet wide. Actually, probably quite a bit less. So 94% of you assholes will have to move off the planet.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        OK Millenial……..

      • Spudalicious

        *snicker*

      • The Last American Hero

        We’ll we haven’t dropped bombs in Europe in a generation, and haven’t really given it to them good and hard in 70 years, so you may have a point. While we’re at it, we should probably knee-cap the Japanese and South Koreans.

    • cyto

      Also, what do you plan on doing about it? Forcing people to reproduce?

      I have a couple of ideas…….

      I think maybe they are based on something I saw in Dr. Strangelove?

    • Rhywun

      Whereas the fifties, the sixties, the seventies, and the eighties all had distinctive by-the-decade styles in design, clothing, music, and art, from the nineties to now feels like one big remix.

      Yeap.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        That does ignore the nostalgic “homages” present in each generation. Like how folk artists in the 60s looked back to the 30s and the 70s looked back to the 50s (Grease, Happy Days, etc.).

  25. cyto

    You learn something every day.

    Today I learned that Bettie Boop was the daughter of German immigrants. Who knew?

  26. Tres Cool

    Ya’all may want to have a peek @ Drudge.

    • Not Adahn

      He linked to a SF story?

      • Mojeaux

        Worse. Yes, there IS something worse than an SF story.

    • RAHeinlein

      GTFO!

    • Gender Traitor

      Has he seemed despondent lately?

      • Hyperion

        1 month after inauguration, Bloomberg found face down on Manhattan sidewalk from apparent suicide. Hillary finally inaugurated as queen of the world.

      • Not Adahn

        Bah, she wouldn’t need to do that. Just leak what she’s got on him post-election, let the ‘pubs impeach him, and then have enough senators flip. Her hands stay clean.

      • Hyperion

        If the pubs impreach Bloomturd to make Hillary POTUS, I will… I will… become a libertarian! I mean it!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Hell yes, I knew it!! (sort of)

    • westernsloper

      Fer christs sake. That headline made me feel slightly ill.

      *cracks beer

    • Hyperion

      A winning ticket for sure. Here, hold my big sugary drink while we bomb the fuck out of some middle east shithole.

    • Rhywun

      *falls off chair laughing/choking*

      • cyto

        Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

        Oh, dang!

        Well, when you’ve lost Trevor Noah, I guess you really gotta slap some stuff up on the wall to try to win. Holy crap….

        Even dumber, they think his “official residence” is what would drive the politics of the electoral college? Jesus H. Lopez on a stick! That would be epic….

        They nominate Bloomberg and there’s a decent chance the split with the black vote finally happens. They’ve been voting against their core beliefs for a long, long time. Most of the actual SoCons I knew in the 80’s and 90’s were black, and I suspected that someone like Kemp would crack that wall at some point. But if it were to end up being Trump…..

        Well, I’ve been convinced this is all just a dream sequence for quite a while now. That would certainly clinch it.

    • Tejicano

      Ahh… like using a virus as a delivery vehicle to splice a different DNA code into an unsuspecting organism.

    • DEG

      I’m looking at Drudge and I guess I am missing something. Other than the TN tampon sales tax holiday story, the rest looks like “Same shit, different day”

      • kbolino

        I believe this is the headline in question:

        EXCLUSIVE: BLOOMBERG CONSIDERS HILLARY RUNNING MATE

      • DEG

        That doesn’t show up when I go to Drudge. Odd.

      • R C Dean

        Just checked. Giant red headline, two links to supporting stories, including one that Bloomers will change his residence to another state to get around the Constitutional prohibition on the Pres and Vice Pres being from the same state.

        Establishing legal residency isn’t as easy as issuing a press release, though.

    • JD is Unemployed

      Perfect. He mysteriously commits suicide by shooting himself in the back his first day in office, and hello President Her.

  27. Mojeaux

    I have noticed for many years that dramas, cop, fire, medical, have a “theme of the week.” Invariably all the shows will pick a hobby issue and pound the authoritarian party line. This week’s is vaping. 3 shows, 3 teenagers, 3 sets of failed lungs. 3 “as you know, Bob” lectures to parents. NOT ONE lecture about black-market pods or whatever you call it.

    I swear, cigarettes are going to make a comeback.

    • Tres Cool

      In the interest of tax revenue, its by design

    • Rhywun

      I haven’t watched any of that crap in a couple decades.

      • Tres Cool

        Me either. An ex of mine (OG-2X-OG) would go through the channels, “cop drama, fire drama, government drama, family drama…”

      • Tejicano

        I found that TV, unlike a few other addictive substances such as sugar or alcohol, was really easy to quit once I walked away from it. In fact, soon after quitting TV I was pretty much immune to it’s influence in any culture I inhabited.

      • Rhywun

        Oh, I still watch TV all day, mostly sports. If I didn’t live alone I would probably watch a lot less.

      • Mojeaux

        My husband “likes” those shows, and I like hanging with my husband. He makes sure not to watch the ones I totally loathe (hello, SVU and most cop shows). Anyway, when I say “likes,” what I mean is that he has his laptop in front of him sweepstaking while the TV is playing. I sit here on my iPad and hang out with you guys or reading the trainwrecks on Reddit or editing my books. But I follow the storylines more closely than he does because I can’t not.

        Of course, I don’t mind his sweepstaking. Not one bit. His middle name is “Lazlo Hollyfeld.”

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      You can thank the Norman Lear Center for that. They help scriptwriters develop stories with the correct viewpoint.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Yep, that’s typical for all the “network TV” shows. Generic plots and characters, with constant “issue of the week” episodes. It’s so tired. That’s why I hardly watch anything on network TV any more. Outside of a couple of comedies, the only thing I’ve found palatable is Stumptown, and even it shows some signs of suffering from networkitis. Unfortunately it probably either won’t last long, or will be turned into a soap opera, the fate of most network dramas.

    • UnCivilServant

      The funniest of these I’ve ever seen was in a childrens’ superhero cartoon. On any given episode the characters are exchanging building-destroying amounts of force with only minor quips, but for this episode, everyone was freaking out because one of the characters had *gasp* a safely stored handgun!

  28. Hyperion

    Good morning, wokesters.

    “Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer couldn’t name Mexican president in interview”

    To be fair, I can’t remember the name of that commie fuck either off the top of my head.

    Am I the only one to notice that fat face Asian commie dictators look a lot alike? Look at Pooh Bear and Rocket Man. It’s like Xi and Mini Xi.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Kim’s much cuter, like a mass murdering Pilsbury Doughboy.

      • Hyperion

        Choose the form of your destroyer!

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Xi always looks like a bad liar, “I have a Secret!”

      • Hyperion

        He always looks to me like he just ate so much honey his face is about to explode.

      • Naptown Bill

        He looks like he needs a nice nap in a cozy chair. Maybe that’s his problem. I know I’m not at my best when I’m not getting enough sleep.

    • Rhywun

      I knew it was Elmo or something like that.

    • Rhywun

      I wonder how many times Trump’s twitter staff have had to talk him down from using “Pooh Bear”.

      • Hyperion

        It’s a huge mistake to stop him. Let him do it, we need the lulz.

    • cyto

      Funny, when there’s some republican who doesn’t know the undersecretary for defense for a former Yugoslavian province, it lights up CNN and the network news feeds. Not seeing this as a main feature anywhere….. I wonder why?

      A quick check confirms that CNN, MSNBC and HuffPo have no mention of this story on their website. Odd that…..

  29. Tres Cool

    Filed under “too local news”, it seems its good to be the King’s Men.

    • Gender Traitor

      Isn’t drunk driving required by law in Clermont County?

      • Tres Cool

        It was Loveland, so pretty civlized

      • Tres Cool

        /civilized

        *Jugsy was pawing @ me while I was trying to type

      • hayeksplosives

        You poor thing!

      • Hyperion

        Just put on your best shitlord and resist!

      • Gender Traitor

        Loveland always reminds me of this castle I visited on a church youth group canoe trip while the original builder was still alive. Glad to see it’s still open to the public.

      • Tres Cool

        You ever roll up North to check this out?

      • Gender Traitor

        Yes! When I was a kid, my older sisters went to a Presbyterian church camp not far from there. At that time, there were two castles, and I think we visited both. I’ll have to dig to see what happened to the other one.

      • Gender Traitor
      • egould310

        Yeah, I’ve been to both of those too. Saturday afternoon drives with the family. We’d drive to same place in rural Ohio/Indiana and get lunch. Go for a hike. Take a tour of some hillbilly castle or what not. Then drive back to New Castle, IN. My dad would put on “A Prairie Home Companion” on the radio and we would laugh and sing along. Very wholesome.

        I’m not sentimental, but I kind of miss those days.

      • R C Dean

        A responding officer noted Miller had slurred speech and was “mush-mouthed,” and had alcohol on his breath, Houck said.

        No breath tests were administered to Miller when police arrived after the crash, Houck said. There were no follow-up questions, and no additional efforts were made to determine if Miller had been “under the influence to the degree that it would render him incapable of safely driving,” Houck said. No summary citations were issued.

        At times, officers shut off the audio, but not the video, when they were near Miller, Houck said.

        And, of course, the punchline:

        He believes the officers involved followed their training.

        Hoadley says Slate Belt Regional police conducted an internal investigation and decided no disciplinary action needed to be taken.

        Fuck all these fucking fucks.

      • Tres Cool

        “At times, officers shut off the audio, but not the video, when they were near Miller, Houck said.”

        Well, of course they did.

      • R C Dean

        Apparently, they are trained to do so.

    • hayeksplosives

      A relationship with a girlfriend is based on intimacy, attachment and reciprocity.

      Citation needed.

      • Hyperion

        Not sure why, but I first read that as: intimacy, impeachment, and resistance.

      • Rhywun

        You’ve been dreaming about Nancy again, haven’t you.

      • dbleagle

        Hopefully the grabbers know that people are serious about not being disarmed.

      • R C Dean

        What on earth makes you think they either know or care?

        The thought of door-to-door SWAT raids and dead gun owners makes them rock-hard (or soaking wet, depending), from what I can tell.

      • kbolino

        Yeah. The guy who got killed by AA County Police right after MD passed its “red flag” law was widely seen as “proof” that the law was necessary.

      • Naptown Bill

        Yeah, the older guy who objectively posed no imminent threat to anyone and got SWATted by a sister who the entire family knew had a decades-long grudge against him. Ferndale, I think, near BWI. I’m unaware of any deaths being prevented by red flag operations since these laws have started popping up, but there do seem to be plenty of gun owners being killed.

      • kbolino

        Much like lives saved by people conspicuously carrying, or just generally known to be carrying, it’s hard (read: impossible) to quantify lives saved by “red flag” laws. But measuring success of a law that’s meant to save lives by the deaths it causes is a pretty fucked up metric.

      • Naptown Bill

        Intimacy – givin’ up the drawls

        Attachment – co-dependence

        Reciprocity – expecting sex in exchange for gifts, meals, bar tabs, etc.

        I’m not Sigmund Freud or nothin’, but boning a robot is probably a better thing in the long run psychologically than getting involved in a, or a series of, unhealthy relationships based primarily on the desire to bust a nut or patch some emotional damage.

      • Tres Cool

        +3 Skeets

    • Hyperion

      Yep. Find that witch so that we may burn it! Also, science my ass. I read an interesting article a couple weeks ago where the author was claiming that most researchers in academia now do completely worthless research that is not about science at all, but about getting funding. IOW, they aren’t researchers, they’re professional grant writers. As someone with inside knowledge of this, I can confirm that is 100% spot on.

      • hayeksplosives

        Another reason the govt shouldn’t be funding “science.” Let the free markets work! If your research is useful and solid, you’ll get funded by what the market will bear.

        The notion that the govt is an honest broker here is laughable.

      • kbolino

        Thirty-plus years of “basic research is critically important, the private sector won’t do it, and so the government must fund it” has worked its magic (that, and a spending binge of epic proportions across the board). Now, thirty years ago, nobody would call any of this bullshit “basic research” but they also didn’t expect anything other than a middle class existence.

      • cyto

        Yeah, this is one of the deep conundrums of my political philosophy. Sure, charitable foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation could pick up some of the tab for basic research. But they are also likely to be focused on results. Plus, we still wouldn’t ever get a superconducting supercollider. We might have gotten a human genome project, but would we have anyone studying the genetics of nematode development? Or all of the basic research that led up to the advent of GMO food? None of that early work would have been funded if there were not preliminary breakthroughs that didn’t come from ag-science. Who would have been studying Thermophilus Aquaticus and its enzymes so we could have PCR? And without that, there never would have been the work that got CRISPER.

        It’s tough, because even if you are not libertarian, simply being a constitutionalist means that none of this should be funded…. not without a constitutional amendment anyway.

      • kbolino

        It is an interesting problem to look at, because while the government is often at the heart of the nexus of “basic research”, there have been many developments at the periphery of that nexus. Nobody* disputes that some money has to be spent to get some kind of result, but I remain unconvinced that all or even most of it has to come from the government. You also run into some interesting conundrums when the government is involved. (D/I)ARPA doesn’t operate like the rest of the government; government agencies that have their own research departments let them operate with all kinds of special exceptions to the rules; the government contracts a lot of its research out to universities and private organizations; many breakthroughs and major developments happen when the government is paying but kept at arm’s length from operational control; yet, take these same factors and rearrange them slightly and you’re just as, if not more, likely to get a massive money pit with no discernible benefit (and, often, some detriment). The concept of “basic research” breaks down quickly under scrutiny, amounting to cherry-picked and specially pleaded successes amid a sea of costly but far more regular failure.

        * = The usual caveats about careless use of the universal quantifier apply

      • cyto

        At least the “professional grant writer” part is true. And has been for decades. In fact, that realization is what killed my enthusiasm for that career. I just didn’t want to sit around essentially writing term papers all day, every day. And worse, having a bunch of people’s livelihoods depending on my stupid term paper.

        I really enjoyed the “analyze the issue and design an experiment” part of the process. Executing the experiment is fun too, but tedious and frustrating. (ever had a gel column crack at 3 in the morning, ruining weeks of work?)

        Journal club is the best. You get to do the intellectual exercise part of it without having to follow through with the tedium of doing the work.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        I just didn’t want to sit around essentially writing term papers all day, every day.

        Your institution didn’t have a grants and development department?

      • cyto

        My moment came in grad school. I was working on building a special oligonucleotide to make a site-directed mutation into a transgenic mouse. The insight I had was to find a way to make 2 changes at once – one that we wanted, and a silent change that would save months of work by changing a restriction map.

        So, to get time on the mini-computer, I had to work at night. At about 3 in the morning I hit paydirt. I had found the answer – meaning I’d finish this process in a few days instead of a few months, saving tens of thousands of dollars in addition to the time.

        So I celebrate, as one does, by running down the empty halls woo-hoooing. Out pops my major professor. He’s got a 2 week old baby at home, but he’s in the office pulling all-nighters getting a grant finished.

        I didn’t quit. But something inside died. I just knew I didn’t want to do that.

        Probably a mistake, but I didn’t make a conscious decision. It is just in retrospect that I recognize that this was the moment that deep-down I realized that writing papers on a deadline all the time is not what I wanted to do.

    • AlmightyJB

      All nanny’s go in the wood chipper.

  30. Fatty Bolger

    Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer couldn’t name Mexican president in interview

    I don’t know if Trump could do it either, but I bet he has a nickname for him.

    • Q Continuum

      Speedy Gonzalez?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        A…….Manuel Lopez Obrador

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Trump dealt with him on immigration and trade, he know AMLO’s name

    • Naptown Bill

      I can’t, either. Considering the state of Mexico, though, does it really matter who the president is? I do recall him talking the requisite shit about Trump and repping socialism in order to get elected and then being utterly incapable of addressing the problem of his country becoming a narco-state run by feuding warlords.

      • cyto

        One day the people of Mexico are going to figure out that if they just clean up the petty corruption that permeates their society, they are poised to explode economically. With close access to two of the largest economies on earth and easy shipping to both europe and asia, they really are screwing up by being such a basket case.

      • R C Dean

        If they haven’t figured it out by now, what makes you think they ever will?

      • Naptown Bill

        ^This. God only knows how you get Mexico to unfuck itself, but I can’t imagine it happens without some massive, society-wide revolution in the way people think about the role of government in their lives, about *their* role in their own governance, corruption, etc. And it has to reach a critical momentum or else it’s washed away by Bolivarian class warriors and populist idiots.

    • AlmightyJB

      I’d rather them be able to identify the flyover states on a map.

  31. R C Dean

    Rudy ‘Can Prove’ the Bidens and a ‘Bunch of Democrats’ Engaged in Ukraine Money-Laundering ‘Scam’

    Rudy Giuliani says he “can prove” that the Biden family and a “bunch of Democrats” engaged in a money-laundering scheme and that the evidence is “with the right hands now.” He wouldn’t say who those people are, but it’s possible it’s the Department of Justice.

    I guess its possible that DOJ is the right organization to give evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Swampers, but seeing as they just let McCabe walk on lay-down felonies, some of which he admitted to, it seems kind of unlikely.

  32. DEG

    Bourbon in my tea. Yum.

  33. hayeksplosives

    Bloomberg is considering Hillary as VP running mate?

    They could actually win. Scary, kids, scary.

    • kbolino

      Maybe. The whole Democratic Party has crawled so far up its own ass that they don’t seem to be able to talk like normal people anymore.

    • R C Dean

      They could actually win.

      I think Nanny Bloomers is going to run aground on gun control in a general election. There are some swing states where a decent Repub campaign on that topic could probably overwhelm the voter fraud.

      • kbolino

        I think being a sanctimonious ass will be more of a turn off; the man said he’s first in line to get into Heaven, for Chrissakes. Unfortunately, while the gun rights movement is licking its wounds, gun control is advancing right now. I don’t see gun control, in and of itself, being a losing position.

      • R C Dean

        I don’t see gun control, in and of itself, being a losing position.

        I’ll be curious to see if the gun rights holocaust in VA motivates gun rightsers to vote, etc. this year. I’m thinking optimistically, yes. Trump is a weak reed on gun control, and Allah knows the rest of the Repubs are fucking useless, but I’ll take their dithering inaction over the frothing hatred and fanatical will-to-ban of the Dems.

        You can’t get a clearer warning of what the controllers will do whenever they get near the levers of power. I’m really not excited about dropping cash on guns right now (got other demands), but if the Dems get close to the levers in DC or AZ, I’m going to have to do what I have to do.

      • kbolino

        I don’t doubt the gun rights vote would be animated by (opposition to) Bloomberg. But I don’t think they constitute the majority or a sizable enough plurality. The consensus has swung to the “moderate” position is now “sensible gun policy” which just means “I have no fucking clue how to regulate guns, so we’ll just apply whatever the gun grabbers want but toned down”.

        See also: healthcare. We’re not fighting between the market and the government setting prices any more, we’re fighting between full-on socialism and socialism-lite.

      • kbolino

        I dropped a couple of words in there. The consensus has swung to the gun control side; between the rabid gun grabbers and the moderates, the majority is in favor of “something should be done” to solve the “gun violence problem”.

      • R C Dean

        The consensus has swung to the “moderate” position is now “sensible gun policy”

        I think the usual suspects would like you to believe that. I wonder how many actual gun owners do. I’m thinking this election will turn on motivation, and with a little effort, the Repubs should be able to motivate the gun owners. Who aren’t a majority or likely a sizable plurality, but you don’t need a majority of the population to be motivated single issue voters to win an election.

      • Rhywun

        The Dems – including Bloomberg – have staked extremist positions on every single issue. Guns, abortion, health care, “green” horseshit, you name it. They could easily lose on any one of them. They are toast.

      • R C Dean

        I think Nanny Bloomers may be the candidate that would most motivate the Berniebots to stay home, even with Trump on the ballot. From what I gather, they fucking hate him. Combine that with their (not at all unfounded) belief that Bernie wuz robbed, and I think you get a chunk of the Dem voters sitting this one out.

      • RAHeinlein

        I would support so-called Medicare for all if the healthcare system was private, private insurance options still existed, citizens only, and every public sector health plan was replaced by this option (private sector could make their own choices for current and retiree employees).

      • R C Dean

        Make a free-to-you healthcare option available, and private plans, other than possibly as wrap-around Medicare-Advantage style supplements, go away. The value proposition just isn’t there if you can get “free” coverage for most of what you are likely to need.

      • kbolino

        Does the public payer compete side-by-side with the private payer? If so, then the private payer outcompetes the private payer and drives up the price.

        If not, then the payee gets less than market price and cannot supply as much as demanded.

      • kbolino

        The private payer outcompetes the public payer*

      • R C Dean

        But measuring success of a law that’s meant to save lives

        That’s certainly not the primary reason red flag laws are passed. I don’t give the controllers the least benefit of the doubt for good intentions. Plus:

        Foreseeable consequences are not unintended.

        They were warned and went right ahead. They can’t say they didn’t intend for it to happen.

      • R C Dean

        Dammit. Meant a reply to kbo there:

        Medicare isn’t entirely free-to-you (current premiums for someone at median income are probably $135/month, although true to form, there is a complicated formula that can spit out different amounts). I don’t see any way at all that a private plan can even come close to competing with that.

        The best you can hope for is private plans that sell additional coverage to people on Medicare-For-All. I don’t see any private market for full coverage. Even Medicare Advantage Plans basically take an enrollee’s Medicare money and restructure benefits, but its still fundamentally Medicare and doesn’t compete with Medicare.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I would say, burn Phoenix to the ground, but it keeps popping back up, otherwise the map of AZ is pretty Red, district wise….

      • R C Dean

        Phoenix and to a lesser extent Tucson have robust voter fraud/ballot harvesting operations. I still think there’s a good chance that’s how Sinema won.

        And the idiot Repubs who control the state government won’t do a fucking thing about it.

      • dbleagle

        Tucson has been reliably blue since I was young. Raul G is a key case in point.

        Maricopa County going blue is the killer. Over half the state lives in the Phoenix metro area.

      • Naptown Bill

        “Common sense” gun control is enough of a screen to get people who don’t feel particularly strongly about gun rights to go along, I think. If you’re not an absolutist on the 2A, there’s always a “reasonable” argument to increase restrictions until the amendment’s regulated out of existence. Most people seem to be perfectly happy to endorse or at least accept regulations that violate rights provided they aren’t violating *their* rights, which is why you see hunters who might own a few shotguns, maybe some long rifles, either looking the other way or even cheering on regulations that impact handguns or scary black carbines.

      • R C Dean

        Entirely possible. I wonder about two things, though:

        (1) How much of what is presented as broad support for common sense gun control is just DemOp narrative bullshit.

        (2) How many people have realized that it won’t stop short of full confiscation, given the increasing number of Dems who have made that pretty clear?

      • Naptown Bill

        Anecdotally–I know, I know, “nobody I know voted for Nixon”–my FIL, an ex-deputy in east Texas who target shoots in his back yard with an AR and spits whenever he hears Eric Swalwell’s name, thinks red flag laws are a necessary evil because, essentially, you can’t risk crazy people having access to guns. Several people I know who either own guns or aren’t against owning them have said that a.) they think it’s reasonable to expect people to have to take some sort of training course before they’re allowed to buy a gun, or b.) having a license for a gun makes sense because you have to get background checks anyway and, after all, you have to have a license to drive a car. I’m talking about people who aren’t committed to any particular ideology or set of principles when it comes to politics or government much beyond “common sense” and “reasonable” laws. Basically, people who would govern on a case-by-case basis rather than according to set principle.

      • 61North

        I think the proliferation of scary black rifles across all walks of people and the refusal of people to register them in whatever New England state, CT?, has shown that people won’t put up with becoming criminals based on an arbitrary state decree.

    • cyto

      Bloomberg can’t bring out the black vote. In fact, he may give permission for black voters to vote for Trump.

      That’s a death sentence.

      He might have the means to swamp the ad space with his content, but I don’t know if that is enough to get past Trump with a good economy *and* a black electorate who trusts him less than Trump.

    • MikeS

      Naming Hillary as VP sounds like a sure-fired way to become the first US President to commit suicide.

  34. Tres Cool

    *ahem*

    LETS GO FLYERS!

    • Gender Traitor

      ^^^THIS!!!

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t even know what that means.

      • Gender Traitor

        U of Dayton men’s basketball team is on a winning streak & nationally-ranked. I don’t follow basketball at all, but I’ll root for one of my alma maters.

      • R C Dean

        I think it signals enthusiastic endorsement of the previous comment.

  35. AlmightyJB

    Would Betty Boop.

  36. Heroic Mulatto
  37. Donation Not Taxation

    “Birthdays today include” “the only one and true Joker”
    Mark Hamill was born September 25, 1951.

  38. mikey

    AS HM showed on moring links the DoD is upping the “be scared – really scared” narrative WRT to the Chinee.
    Well, the Rooshins are a big problem now too and not just with their defiling the purity of our elections. They’re taking over Africa!
    Yep, them evil Rooskies are doing stuff, lots of stuff, in Africa. Ergo, we need to get busy and do lots of stuff there too. Why, we’re falling behind!

    Close your eyes and click your heels and its 1963 again.

    https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/02/13/facing_few_obstacles_and_scant_pushback_russia_keeps_advancing_in_africa_115041.html

    Howza bout we just let them have the place?