Thursday Afternoon Links

by | Mar 19, 2020 | Daily Links | 435 comments

Well, Mrs. L has declared that everyone is staying home now. “For the baby.” I’m glad we have a replacement on the way, because I’m pretty sure one of the two running around isn’t gonna make it through an 11-day minimum home isolation. We’ll see.

Italy’s death-toll from coronavirus surpasses China’s announced deaths. I know which set of numbers I trust, and which ones I think are low.

Oh yeah, we’re totally ready for online learning. Let’s see if my kindergartner is better at using Microsoft Teams than my actual team.

Elephants raid farm for food, discover corn wine. “After drinking the lot the elephants were somewhat the worse for wear. Two males passed out, drunk, in one of the tea gardens nearby.”

Strip club adapts to the times.

Okay, this made me laugh.

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

Brett set out to find America, the real America, the America of strip malls and serial killers, of butthole waxing and kelp smoothies, of cocaine and maggots. He sought it in the most American part of America—Florida: swamp gas and fever dreams, where love arrives on a rickety boat and leaves when it doesn't have the money for its fourth abortion. Oh, where has Brett gone? He’s drinking at the neck of America’s wang, chewing its foreskin and working its shaft. Brett is becoming legend. Brett can never die. Brett can never die. Brett is America, facedown in his own patriotic puke: the red his blood, the white his stomach lining, and the cold, cold blue his gas station slushie, spiked with coconut rum and tetracycline.

435 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    Doctor Sleep was surprisingly good.

    • Naptown Bill

      Really? I went with Color Out of Space instead, and began to regret it about an hour in.

      • Count Potato

        I haven’t seen Color Out of Space yet. I’ve only seen the director’s cut of Doctor Sleep, but I’ve heard it’s better than the theatrical version from people who have seen both.

      • Tonio

        I reread the story recently. Fortunately, before the epidemic panic. Much depressing. So interminable.

      • Naptown Bill

        The movie was my wife’s introduction to Lovecraft, which is weird given how avid a reader she is and that she’s been 25 for the past 15 years, and I kept having to stop and say, “Yeah, the thing is, Lovecraft sort of alludes to a lot of the stuff that’s grossing you out right now.” I thought it was alright, but she was turned off by it pretty quick. I think I graded it on a curve because I grew up reading Lovecraft and am still a huge fan of “mythos” stuff.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Still need to watch Die Farbe (should be free on Amazon Prime right now). (German indie Color out of Space from a few years ago).

      • Naptown Bill

        Interesting, I’ll have to check that out.

  2. ruodberht

    I appreciate having yinz guys work on providing links and comments to give me something to do while I “WFH”.

  3. Count Potato

    That doesn’t makes sense considered there are way more people in China and that’s where it started.

    • ruodberht

      If you betray the Chinese Communist Party by contracting this capitalist virus, you no longer count as human, so your death doesn’t have to be reported.

      • Tonio

        Comrade Ruodberht will receive a bump to his social credit score.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        *laughter*

    • R C Dean

      Look for an uptick in China’s reported deaths due to smoking. I predict that’s where they will bury the “excess” CCP Virus numbers.

  4. Count Potato

    ““On Saturday we’re doing nude triple-X hand sanitizer wrestling,” Carlson said. “We have about 20 gallons of hand sanitizer, and we’re doing a cool nude hand sanitizer wrestling show.””

    I’ve never been so proud to be American.

    • Naptown Bill

      I feel like that might sting if you aren’t careful.

      • Tonio

        It’s the expired drums of Jesse brand lube that we repackaged as gallon pump jars of hand sanitizer.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Perhaps there should be disclosure to the volunteer wrestlers of the risk of stinging involved.

      • Tres Cool

        Or it could have the benefit of cleanin’ some things out, IYKWIM

    • Caput Lupinum

      That sounds like a bad idea; isopropyl alcohol is readily absorbed through the skin, and is metabolized into acetone by the liver. Using enough hand sanitizer to lube up a body and you’re going to end up with some really fucked up strippers.

      • Count Potato

        Purell uses ethanol.

      • Caput Lupinum

        Oh, that’s fine then. Drunk strippers are much better than sober ones, let alone dead ones.

      • gbob

        Is there another kind?

  5. Count Potato

    “Trump announces anti-malaria drug is APPROVED to treat coronavirus – but has to walk back the good news after FDA head says it is only green lit for ‘compassionate use’ in some patients

    The US is fast-tracking the anti-malarial drug chloroquine for use as a treatment against the new coronavirus, President Donald Trump said Thursday.

    ‘They’ve gone through the approval process – it’s been approved. They took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we’re going to be able to make that drug available by prescription.’

    But the FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn later indicated that, while the drug has not yet been formally approved, access to it was being expanded so that authorities could gather more data.

    ‘We’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately, and that’s where the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has been so great,’ Trump told reporters.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8131613/US-fast-tracking-anti-malarial-drug-treat-coronavirus-Trump.html

    • Tonio

      So, a good stiff gin and tonic? Sounds legit. /empire man

      • LCDR_Fish

        Everyone keeps saying that but according to Wiki, the tonic water has vastly less quinine than it did 75 years ago for…reasons.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Because malaria deaths are down…

    • Drake

      Trump should have slapped that douche away from the podium and announced doctors can prescribe it any damn time they think it might help. I stupidly assumed any doctor could prescribe it after South Korea had success.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Would a libertarian president just abolish having prescriptions?

        Would a constitutional president say that prescriptions are a matter for the states?

      • Suthenboy

        Any good doctor would but the CDC is more interested in preserving and exercising their power than preserving lives. This pandemic is their wet dream.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I would think they can prescribe it off label although the liability risk might be high. Trump just needs to fire any FDA douche that’s pushing back immediately.

      • leon

        BUT if we relax regulations in times of emergency, then what leg do we have to stand on to have them during normal times? Trump is doing it all backwards.

      • R C Dean

        I love this angle. Usually, “emergencies” are cited to justify new regs. I can hardly wait to see the pretext for all these regs snapping back into effect when there is no emergency.

        “Hey, if this stupid reg was suspended to save lives during the CCP Virus pandemic, then won’t putting it back into effect cost lives?”

      • invisible finger

        I would usually agree, but I’m thinking about what happens if that is also applied to antibiotics.

    • R C Dean

      Right now, I have my crack compliance and human subject research staff looking into whether we can just use chloroquine “off-label” for CCP Virus victims. I think chloroquine is a generic drug, in which case docs can probably just start dosing people with it whenever they want. Unless the FDA is running an informational study, I’m not sure what they are doing.

      But that’s why I have people looking into it.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Thanks for letting us know.

    • invisible finger

      “compassionate use” usually means “hospice” – so they guy is talking out his ass..

      It should probably be administered by a doctor of an actual coronavirus patient – meaning if someone isn’t suffering from the virus then they should not be using it. Treat it as a type of chemo-therapy; no need to take it if you have the virus and aren’t having complications.

      • Jarflax

        What are the risks/side effects of chloroquine? Maybe it is just because we drink quinine as a soft drink/mixer, but I had always chalked it up as pretty much hamless. I don’t know how chloroquine differs, any medical folk or chemists want to chime in? Woud OMWC treat his toytots with chloroquine?

  6. pistoffnick

    From the LV drive up strip club article:

    “…nude triple-X hand sanitizer wrestling…”

    Uhm. owwwww! That’s gonna sting.

  7. Gender Traitor

    I’m not usually a praying person, but I will make an exception for all the Glibboys currently living with a pregnant woman.

  8. Old Man With Candy

    One of the girls at work today gave me a bottle of hand sanitizer with glitter in it. “This way, you can pretend your hand is a stripper.”

    I have very helpful co-workers.

    • Tres Cool

      “Not only do I treat women as objects, Ive been known to treat objects like…..women.”

      /I may have read that here

      • Chipwooder

        Mr. Treehorn treats objects like WOMEN, maaaaan

    • invisible finger

      Cock sanitizer

  9. leon

    Were only a few days behind Italy.

    • Drake

      I thought the earth rotated faster than that?

    • Fatty Bolger

      So the corpses will be overflowing the morgue by Sunday?

      • Donation Not Taxation

        A quick look shows our august betters saying ’10 to 16′, ’10 to 14′, ’11’, and ’13 to 16′. Just to be safe, when ‘overflowing the morgue’ does not happen in at least 16 days, then you can assume that government, respected media, and their experts are lying to you. The next step is to become a libertarian, anarchist, Glibertarian, or something along those lines …

    • R C Dean

      Were only a few days behind Italy.

      Except for the older demographic in Italy, the higher rate of smokers in Italy, and the much higher number of hospital beds per capita in the US.

      But other than differences in the major variables, yeah, we’re just like Italy.

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        Don’t forget (1) the large numbers of expat Chinese (working in the textile industries that the Chinese had previously bought from the Italians) living in and around the epicentre of the Italian outbreak, who were commuting back-and-forth between Milan and environs and Hubei province (where Wuhan is located) until well after the outbreak began in Wuhan; and (2) the fact that Italy has the highest rate of antibiotic resistance deaths in Europe.

        We’re not out of the woods, necessarily, but we ain’t gonna be Italy, either.

      • Tundra

        Have any of these idiots ever been to Italy?!?

        It’s a wonderful place, but the idea that it is ‘first world’ is laughable.

      • l0b0t

        I had an older brother who born premature while mom was in Milano. The ‘hospital’ there had neither glass or screens on the windows… in 1970. PJ O’Rourke was quite right when he quipped that “Technically, Italy is NOT a third world country.
        But nobody seems to have told the Italians.

      • invisible finger

        My only knowledge comes from the episode of The Sopranos when they were walking on the beach – which looked filthier than the Barone Sanitation dump.

  10. Mad Scientist

    “We’re going to offer drive-up window strip shows,” said Ryan Carlson, director of operations for Little Darlings.

    OMWC’s van has been offering the same service for several decades.

    • leon

      Little Darlings

      Terrible stripclub name. I’m still a fan of Illum n’ Naughty

      • Ownbestenemy

        Place is terrible so I am told. Their tag line is funny though…

        1000s of beautiful girls and 3 ugly ones

      • Enough About Palin

        That’s the slogan for Deja Vu in Minneapolis. BTW, Deja Vu is French for “I can’t get no pussy”.

      • Fourscore

        Deja Vu has nothing you haven’t seen before…

      • Plinker762

        Why are the three ugly ones always working when I visit?

  11. Drake

    We’re all home-schooling, prepping, Alex Joneses now.

      • leon

        I mean, if you can’t be trusted to pump your own gas, do you think the state is going to trust you to figure out an online class?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Worse than that

        “Protecting student rights has to be front and center during the conversation about distance learning,” Marc Siegel, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Education, told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an email. “You cannot open a brick-and-mortar school in Oregon unless it is accessible to every student in their school district. The same rules apply to an online school.”

        Not educating students needs to be front and center. Bullshit positive rights. Siegel should be dragged from his office and his employment terminated on the spot. Unfortunately his is a symptom of the public schools establishment and not unique.

      • leon

        That is disgusting. So because some may not have access, no one should have access?

      • leon

        Not every student has equal access to parents who are going to force and help their kids with the online classes. So i guess we should just can it until we can strip kids from their parents, to make sure everyone has equal footing.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Wasn’t that the case in Plato’s Republic?

      • Jarflax

        Plato’s Repubic is the root source for leftism and totalitarianism.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yep. And it is disgusting. Downright evil.

        This whole thing is ripping a lot of masks off. Leftists are a death cult.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        But how many people will pay attention? Emperor has no clothes with people pretending the masks are still there.

      • Tonio

        “Nobody gets a scooter until everyone has a bicycle. Nobody gets a car until everyone has a scooter.” /commie punk ignoring Zil driving by

      • Ted S.

        A nice reliant automobile?

      • Rhywun

        I’ll take the nice chesterfield instead.

      • Juan-Baptiste Emmanuel Seguin

        K-Car? The ZiL is nowhere near as technologically advanced.

        And no, I’m not kidding.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Disgusting.

      • Tonio

        The reasons why boil down to two words: Access and equity.

        Because some students don’t have tablets and have slow internet.

      • Gustave Lytton

        And special needs. Everyone must be lowered to the same denominator. It’s the same philosophy as mainstreaming special needs and disruptive students at the expense of everyone else.

      • Drake

        So we’re all retards now too. Terrific.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        No, it’s due the compulsory nature of school. My son would be disruptive in a mainstream classroom. He’s also way too advanced for a special needs classroom. If he has to go to the local public school because the government has forced me to send him with threat of jail, then damned straight he’s going to sit in the mainstream classroom.

        Both of those sound like shit options for my son, so we homeschool him. Unfortunately, many states restrict parents’ ability to homeschool and other parents don’t have the funding to homeschool after it’s already been taken from them to fund the public schools.

        Take away the compulsory nature of school and forced taxes to pay for it and the whole problem disappears.

      • Drake

        My sister goes round and round with her town on this with her son. The school doesn’t really care if they are teaching him anything.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Exactly, the schools don’t give a shit. And special education classrooms are depressing circles of hell. The one in the elementary school closest to us when the teacher’s aide turned the special ed teacher in for beating some of the students. That made the news and the teacher went to jail.

        One of my wife’s patients had been raped daily for months by another student without the teacher realizing. 6 year-old nonverbal kid couldn’t tell anyone.

      • Q Continuum

        But then we lose our government-funded, forced indoctrination factories.

        /leftist

      • Mojeaux

        I wish I had the wherewithal to homeschool because my son desperately needed that. However, a) I can’t teach anything worth shit, b) my son and I mix like gas and fire, and c) I’ve been in survival mode since he was born and must work.

        That said, I regret not being able to.

        Yesterday, I had him scanning old photographs of my travels. He kept asking me where this was and where that was. “That was when I went to South Dakota.”

        “Where’s that?”

        I actually turned around and gaped at him. “Don’t they teach you geography in school?”

        “Probably but I might not have been listening.”

        *headdesk*

        There were several other states I mentioned and…he didn’t know where any of them were. Shit, I had been so angry that my daughter didn’t know that I made her memorize all 50 states AND every nation in Europe and Eurasia.

        I don’t have the energy to do that again.

      • Tonio

        Crikey.

        I missed your mid-day article will catch up later.

      • DEG

        I missed your mid-day article will catch up later.

        Same here.

        Sorry about your kid headaches Mojeaux.

      • Mojeaux

        Sorry about your kid headaches Mojeaux.

        Thanks. My biggest problem is that I just don’t know how to deal with him most days, and he and his dad keep their distance.

      • Tundra

        Do you have any other male friends/family who can take a crack at him? He’s at an age when there is almost no way he’s listening to his dad.

      • Mojeaux

        No.

        I’m going to let him get a job soon and hope that will rein him in somewhat, with people who a) don’t know him, b) have no vested interest in putting up with his bullshit [like, say, school and church], and c) can tell him to shove his attitude up his ass along with his last paycheck. If he lasts a week at McDonald’s with his attitude, I’ll be shocked.

        I’ve taken his business away from him for various reasons, so unless he gets a job and can keep it, he will have no income.

      • Mojeaux

        Emancipation is always on the table.

        Now, he’s screamed at me that he doesn’t want to be here. Okay, that’s fine, but you can’t be emancipated for 2 more years. So this is what we are going to do:

        1) You can pay rent and your portion of the utilities and then you will be our roommate and not part of the family. You will buy all your own food and your own phone service and your own wifi and your own cable.

        AND

        2) We will make a plan for you to be emancipated when you are 16 so that you don’t fall on your face, and we will spend the next 2 years preparing for this.

        He doesn’t like either of those options, so his only OTHER option is to act like a halfway decent human being. As long as he’s doing that, he can stay as long as he wants.

        IF he can keep a job and IF he can manage not to blow his money on stupid shit, he’ll dart out the door on his 18th birthday.

      • DEG

        I’m going to let him get a job soon and hope that will rein him in somewhat,

        I think it will.

      • Jarflax

        Teens that are at war with the parents and their teachers are not necessarily going to be at war with employers or other adults. I speak as a kid that spent my teens in screaming fights with my overly controlling and religious mother, and about half my teachers. With the other half of my teachers, and most people I worked for I was a favorite student/employee. Sometimes it is about personality clashes, built up anger over past interactions, a lack of trust, and not about the kid being a ‘bad seed’.

      • Tundra

        I totally agree with Jarflax.

        Again.

        Shit. 😉

      • Mojeaux

        Teens that are at war with the parents and their teachers are not necessarily going to be at war with employers or other adults.

        I hope, for his sake, that that is so.

        You’ve before spoken of your troubles with your mother, and I can appreciate that because I had my own troubles with my very controlling and not-altogether-very-wise dad, which was a very bad combination.

        And I can admit that I haven’t been a terribly good parent, but I try. His therapist told me I haven’t done anything that can’t be fixed, BUT he DID admit that XY is a tough nut to crack and has described the exact same kinds of conversations we and his teachers have with him.

        Regardless of how it sounds, we do love the kid and I want what’s best for him. When we are not screaming at each other, he and I actually have a decent relationship. Maybe it’s codependency. Maybe it’s just habit.

        I can see why it appears that we’re controlling assholes to him over seemingly nothing, but there is a lot more bad stuff going on here that I don’t talk about and won’t talk about, so I’m okay with looking like a controlling asshole to a normal headstrong teenager.

      • Jarflax

        Regardless of how it sounds, we do love the kid and I want what’s best for him. When we are not screaming at each other, he and I actually have a decent relationship. Maybe it’s codependency. Maybe it’s just habit.

        I can see why it appears that we’re controlling assholes to him over seemingly nothing, but there is a lot more bad stuff going on here that I don’t talk about and won’t talk about, so I’m okay with looking like a controlling asshole to a normal headstrong teenager.

        Seriously, I am not in any way accusing you of bad parenting. I have 3 brothers, all younger. The one immediately after me joined the navy, served for 2 or 3 tours and moved to Tulsa and the only contact we have had with him was Mom’s funeral. He hated our mom far mor than I ever did. The next brother adored my mom. The youngest got along with mom, fought with ( outright hates to this day) her second husband.

        Kids are not interchangeable. The best parenting in the world for one may end up in a war with another one. If I have any message in my comments here it is don’t burn any bridges, and remember that often problems and troubles that seem overwhelming as they come toward you shrink in the rearview mirror. And my issues with my mom were not exclusively on her part. I am a moody asshole a lot of the time, even today and I was much worse as a teen. (now I will say I think telling the moody asshole teen how worthless and wierd he is, while preaching a deeply repressive creed at him when he is in puberty is likely NOT ideal)

      • Mojeaux

        Heavens to Betsy, creeds aren’t going to work and I’m not much of a creed-pusher anyway.

        The church stopped subsidizing Scouts and totally pulled away from the BSA, which was a huge financial blow to us because a) he loved it and b) we can’t afford it. It hurts my heart. So many, many problems we have right now that probably wouldn’t be problems if we had Scouts, but it’s expensive and getting more expensive. Who knows how long it’ll last anyway.

        He works hard and he’s self-motivated (many of our problems stem from the fact that he is TOO self-motivated). I’m proud of him for wanting to be an entrepreneur, but subsidizing his business is not something I’m willing to do anymore because of his behavior.

        He’s motivated by money and I’m hoping that working for someone else as an employee will give him what he needs and fills his time and teaches him some discipline.

      • Libertesian

        Hey Mo! Cost shouldn’t be an impediment to your son being in Scouts BSA… I happen to know of a local Troop that believes this, anyway. Let me know if you (he) is interested.

      • Mad Scientist

        Just remember, they care about the children.

    • Ownbestenemy

      +1 gay frogs

    • Donation Not Taxation

      Keep a tally of how many frogs you turn gay.

  12. Donation Not Taxation

    “Oh yeah, we’re totally ready for online learning https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/03/18/pinellas-schools-all-set-for-online-learning-leaders-say/. Let’s see if my kindergartner is better at using Microsoft Teams than my actual team.”

    Why do we have government-run schools paid for by taxes with semi-mandatory attendance with government oversight over the other options if you can get government approval to get your children into them?

    • leon

      The South and Reconstruction or something. IDK

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Two issues: mandatory education and taxation

        Should government be involved in trying to ensure a universal minimum of education?

        If you like your public schools, you can keep your public schools, as long as you can get voluntary donations to pay for them. Any Glibs support taxes to pay for educating the poor?

    • Hyperion

      Hopefully, if anything good comes of this, it will be to convince organizations that some people should work from home more often. I don’t know if anyone else is getting anything done, but I’ve been cranking out app updates all week. I get way more done at home because there are no constant interruptions by co-workers and it’s much quieter here.

      • leon

        I’m much more productive when i have something to work on.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        And you still have time left over after being productive to comment here. As long as your employer is pleased enough with your output that you get paid. Productivity is about amortizing more widgets over the same costs.

      • Hyperion

        “And you still have time left over after being productive to comment here.”

        I was told yesterday that I’m allowed to eat food, take a walk, or go to the bathroom while working from home. I didn’t ask about shitposting online, so I’ll just assume that’s OK as well.

      • leon

        I was told yesterday that I’m allowed to eat food, take a walk, or go to the bathroom while working from home

        Do you work for the Nazi party? Geeze. Tell them then you are going to work 5 hrs, because when i worked in an office i easily had 3 hours a day wasted by interruptions, bullshit and other crap.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Glad you can be here and get paid.

  13. Hyperion

    This is just like working from home, only everyday, and there aren’t any potatoes in any of the stores. This is going to make me have to get out of bed early on the weekend. I don’t like it.

    • Drake

      I was at a farm store yesterday with full bins of potatoes. Other than tp, people can’t decide what to hoard.

      • Hyperion

        Here it’s any fresh vegetables, especially potatoes and tomatoes. Stop eating healthy stuff people, that’s government propaganda! The frozen sections are full, eat that instead and it will never spoil in the freezer!

        The first few days of the panic buying, there was plenty of fresh produce. I guess when people had their basements and attics filled with TP and water, they decided to make a run on veggies.

    • Nephilium

      Fuck. I’m getting the hell out of the house on Saturday. I don’t even care if it’s just to drive around (20’s/30’s predicted).

      • Hyperion

        I’m going to make a field trip and get to some of the stores farther way from the city. Just as much stuff, but less people, so I figure I will have a better hunting day.

    • Brett L

      Potatoes and onions were back. Chicken is gone. I asked the meat guy as he was turning a chuck roast into hamburger for me when it would be back and he said, “maybe tomorrow, but we were supposed to get a literal ton of ground beef today and nothing so far.” And then as I was driving away I saw the truck turning in. So maybe.

      • Ted S.

        We actually had some chicken in stock today after none the past two days. There was also more pork chops, as well as ham.

        And a lot of bread.

      • Hyperion

        I figure a lot of people are going to realize soon enough that they bought more stuff than they need or can use.

      • Ted S.

        I’ve actually gone the past three days, which I don’t normally do. One day they were almost out of ice cream bars but had a ton of Triscuits.

        I didn’t check for canned tuna today since it turns out I’ve got enough here to make Tuna Helper.

      • B.P.

        “Tuna Helper”

        You must be taking a worse beating in the stock market than I am.

      • Suthenboy

        Hey, Tuna Helper isn’t bad. It is also a pretty good emergency stock food as the box of dry ingredients and the canned tuna have very long shelf lives.

      • Rhywun

        Tuna Helper was a great treat when I was a kid.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        When I was a kid, we were so poor we used Tuna Helper Helper.

        We also stuffed the crow with newspaper; my fondest Thanksgiving memory is of getting one of the drumsticks and a sports page.

      • Mojeaux

        I like tuna. I like hamburger helper (a great treat! when I was growing up). I do not like tuna helper. For some reason, I just don’t like the flavor combination.

        Now, I know that hamburger helper is just a watered-down beef stroganoff and I make that from “scratch” by the stockpots full.

        I had a friend jeer at me on my blog when I posted the recipe that it was just hamburger helper and I was cheating by using canned cream of chicken soup and how pathetic was I to use canned cream of chicken soup. I left her comment, but didn’t respond. So in a private forum with about 10 people, she said it again. I said, “What, you weren’t satisfied with saying it the first time and I pointedly ignored it but left the comment, so you had to try again?” Then she played all innocent “I was joking!” Yeah, sure you were. That was when I realized she’d been doing that to me for years and I didn’t get it because it wasn’t offensive, so she didn’t know me too well, I guess, even after 10 years. That relationship didn’t last much longer.

        I have heard that crow isn’t bad eating, but people seem reluctant to eat crow for some reason.

    • Drake

      My wife hardest hit.

      • Juan-Baptiste Emmanuel Seguin

        Don’t worry, sex is always better when it’s forbidden.

    • Q Continuum

      Liquor? I barely know her!

  14. grrizzly

    An interesting account of a man who returned to Beijing last Saturday.

    In China, each building or community complex is overseen by staff members who we had already been in contact with regarding our arrival. Since at this time home quarantine was still an option, we were told that we would be allowed to go to our apartment for 14 day quarantine. However, we were not allowed to get there on our own, so we had to wait for a private vehicle to take us directly to our home.

    Upon arrival at our community, one staff member left the shuttle and escorted us. We were met with management from our community, who were expecting us, to fill out more paperwork and contracts regarding our 14 day home quarantine. We were given a thermometer which we need to use to report our temperature once per day, and were told that someone would stop by daily to check on us and take out our garbage.

    • Hyperion

      “so we had to wait for a private vehicle to take us directly to our home.”

      The chicoms don’t want anyone seeing the piles of dead bodies they haven’t had time to bury or incinerate yet.

    • Chipwooder

      6 wins “girl I’d most like to be quarantined with”

    • UnCivilServant

      Those pictures make me want to kill tattooists.

  15. hayeksplosives

    Sorry to those in the previous thread about railguns. I should have stuck around to interact, but work called.

    (I did add one more comment to mojo). Clarification: the Navy’s largest gun In use is the Mark 45, a 5 inch gun. That is diameter inches.

    Also, yes the equal and opposite reaction is mitigated where possible with recoil, gas handling, and the almighty muzzle flash, among other things.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Technology improvements and all but you have to admit the 16 inch guns on the Iowa class battleships were awesome.

      • hayeksplosives

        Oh, yeah. That’s (Iowa class 16inchers) are what we had in mind when we pitched the 320MJ gun.

        They used them even into Vietnam, where they’d lob a shell inland to a forest from offshore, thus creating a helicopter landing zone. They provided great cover.

        We don’t really have a naval force that can do that now. DDG51 have thin armor and are expensive, so they get parked so far off shore, they’re not in great gun range. Need to improve that.

        As for the 16 inch, there’s still one at Aberdeen MD. I have a pic of me standing next to it. I’m shorter than the shell.

      • B.P.

        A family friend was the skipper of the USS Wisconsin, and they used their 16-inch guns to lob shells ashore during the Gulf War.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Ahem, Desert Storm. Both the Missouri and Wisconsin fired shells.

      • Gustave Lytton

        And I’d be remiss if I didn’t link this.

      • B.P.

        Great moment from Late Night (or whatever it was called), when she performed that song in the same outfit:

        David Letterman (paraphrased): “That’s quite an outfit. Did your hotel catch on fire?”

        Cher: “You’re an asshole, Dave.”

      • Ted S.

        I got yelled at when I linked that.

      • Mojeaux

        Thought it was going to be this.

      • Gustave Lytton

        That’s a goodie too.

      • l0b0t

        I was told in Army that the first series of MOABs were just old 16 inch barrels filled with high explosive and capped at both ends. They make for very effective earth penetration.

  16. Count Potato

    “China Is Avoiding Blame by Trolling the World

    Beijing is successfully dodging culpability for its role in spreading the coronavirus.

    The evidence of China’s deliberate cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan is a matter of public record. In suppressing information about the virus, doing little to contain it, and allowing it to spread unchecked in the crucial early days and weeks, the regime imperiled not only its own country and its own citizens but also the more than 100 nations now facing their own potentially devastating outbreaks. More perniciously, the Chinese government censored and detained those brave doctors and whistleblowers who attempted to sound the alarm and warn their fellow citizens when they understood the gravity of what was to come.

    Some American commentators and Democratic politicians are aghast at Donald Trump and Republicans for referring to the pandemic as the “Wuhan virus” and repeatedly pointing to China as the source of the pandemic. In naming the disease COVID-19, the World Health Organization specifically avoided mentioning Wuhan. Yet in de-emphasizing where the epidemic began (something China has been aggressively pushing for), we run the risk of obscuring Beijing’s role in letting the disease spread beyond its borders.

    China has a history of mishandling outbreaks, including SARS in 2002 and 2003. But Chinese leaders’ negligence in December and January—for well over a month after the first outbreak in Wuhan—far surpasses those bungled responses. The end of last year was the time for authorities to act, and, as Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times has noted, “act decisively they did—not against the virus, but against whistle-blowers who were trying to call attention to the public health threat.”

    This is what allowed the virus to spread across the globe. Because the Chinese Communist Party was pretending that there was little to be concerned about, Wuhan was a porous purveyor of the virus. The government only instituted a lockdown in Wuhan on January 23—seven weeks after the virus first appeared. As events in Italy, the United States, Spain, and France have shown, quite a lot can happen in a week, much less seven. By then, mayor Zhou Xianwang admitted that more than 5 million people had already left Wuhan.

    If that weren’t enough, we can plumb recent history for an even more damning account. In a 2019 article, Chinese experts warned it was “highly likely that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China.” In a 2007 journal article, infectious-disease specialists published a study arguing that “the presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb. The possibility of the reemergence of SARS and other novel viruses from animals or laboratories and therefore the need for preparedness should not be ignored.” It was ignored…..

    Well before the new coronavirus spread across American cities, the Chinese regime was already rather creatively trolling U.S. publications, expelling American journalists, and “weaponizing wokeness” over anything it perceived as critical of China’s role in mishandling the epidemic. To hear Chinese spokespeople use the language of racism and prejudice is somewhat surreal, considering this is a regime that has put more than 1 million Muslims and ethnic minorities in “reeducation” camps.

    Of course, Americans will have to be vigilant against scapegoating Asians in general or the Chinese people in particular. With one of the highest infection rates and death tolls, Chinese citizens have suffered enough. The Chinese leadership, however, is another matter. A government is not a race. It’s a regime—and easily one of the worst and most brutal in our lifetime. Criticizing authoritarian regimes for what they do outside their own borders and to their own people is simply calling things as they are. To do otherwise is to forgo analysis and accuracy in the name of assuaging a regime that deserves no such consideration.”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/china-trolling-world-and-avoiding-blame/608332/

    • leon

      What evidence do we have to doubt the Chinese?

    • Hyperion

      “Beijing is successfully dodging culpability for its role in spreading the coronavirus.”

      They’re being greatly aided by the NYT and Atlantic.

      • Count Potato

        Apparently not everyone at the Atlantic.

    • hayeksplosives

      The ChiComms can kiss my Most Favored Ass.

    • Gustave Lytton

      One nit to pick with that is that China or even the Chicom part of it isn’t unitary. Low level party members and bureaucrats in Wuhan and Hubei respond to incentives and are jockeying for power just like functionaries here, both during the initial outbreak and then continuing (such as intercepting supplies destined for other provinces). And when their fuckups embarrass people higher up the chain, they get thrown under the bus.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      I think most pundits are grossly misinterpreting China’s intentions, as usual.

      It just ain’t about us, honey. All this bullshit is intended for domestic consumption. After the death of the whistleblowing doctor, Li Wenliang, (who despite being healthy and in his 30’s somehow died of a disease that kills the elderly and obese) there was a huge grassroots campaign on Chinese social media – “We Want Free Speech”. That scared the shit out of the CCP. Thus, they, in the tradition of authoritarian dictatorships everywhere, turned to blaming the gringo. It was so successful that Li Wenliang is now able to be officially “rehabilitated”.

      Now, of course, a key part of the Chinese strategy was counting on Americans to be dumb and petty. If the people in charge were smart, they would have fallen over backwards to signal their support to the suffering people of Wuhan, both from the virus and from a regime that put them in danger of it by denying them freedom of speech and the press.

      Yet, Americans are dumb and petty.

      • Tundra

        Some Americans.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        I was thinking more that individually we are smart but collectively we are retarded.

      • Tundra

        That applies to every group on the planet.

        But yes, I would love to help the Chinese people. I would love to see the CCP leaders all hanging from lampposts.

        FEE thinks this might be the end of the shitheads, but I doubt it.

      • Shirley Knott

        All of us are dumber than any of us.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Perfect example of what I mean. Headline is “Chinese Authorities Admit Improper Response To Coronavirus Whistleblower”. Admit would be something that they did. No, they placed the blame on Wuhan authorities, who in turn blamed the two cops doing their job.

    • Fatty Bolger

      the Chinese government censored and detained those brave doctors and whistleblowers who attempted to sound the alarm

      Or possibly worse.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    How to be a condescending, sanctimonious douchebag as if your typical Atlantic reader needs coaching in this.

    Just as the coronavirus outbreak has so far spread unevenly across the country and the world, so too has the caution that is necessary to mitigate it. For each American leaving home only when absolutely necessary, it seems, there is another who is cavalierly out and about like it’s still 2019.

    Many in the former group have been saddled with the terribly vital task of getting those in the latter group to change their ways and stop endangering their own and others’ lives. Government health agencies and other experts have repeatedly emphasized that the decisions people make about leaving the house and sanitizing their surroundings have a significant effect on how quickly the disease spreads.

    But how to impress those stakes upon the youths who continue to party and the 60-somethings who still want to get a haircut? I consulted a researcher who studies the psychology of pandemics, a public-health expert, and a clinical psychologist who specializes in families and relationships. Below are their general tips—as well as an example script—for communicating with friends and loved ones who still aren’t taking the pandemic seriously enough.

    ——-

    One reason people may underrate the gravity of a pandemic is that they harbor doubts about mainstream science or mistrust authority figures, but a pandemic is not the time to address that skepticism. “People have underlying value and belief systems that are very difficult to change,” Piltch-Loeb said. “If we don’t want to get into an existential conversation about all those things, we’re better off focusing on the issue at hand”—say, the need to stop meeting up with friends or running nonessential errands—“and trying to separate it from the core belief system.”

    Doubt mainstream science and authority figures? Who would do that?

    “Look, it’s right there in the title: they’re ‘Scientific’ and they’re ‘American’. Why don’t you take their every pronouncement as gospel, you luddite? Now go to your room.”

    • Chipwooder

      Wait, we’re not supposed to get fucking haircuts now? Fuck youuuuuuuuuu. I do NOT endure long hair goddammit.

      • Gender Traitor

        Stay out of Ohio.

      • Tres Cool

        Im happy I got my hurrcut last weekend. Tho my barber is the kind of guy to tell anyone to fuck off.

      • Nephilium

        Speaking of that…

        I’m really beginning to dislike people more.

      • Tres Cool

        “Concerned citizens called Cleveland Heights police…” was about all I needed to read.

        Christ, what assholes. (prolly their competition tho)

      • Jarflax

        This one will make you really proud to be an Ohioan.

      • Rhywun

        Jesus. Will they send his family a bill for the bullets, too?

      • Tres Cool

        Oh, I really hope that Lt. Colonel Paul Needledick (cant really read it) gets pancreatic cancer. Tomorrow.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        -1 Flowbee

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Medical establishment says wearing long hair down is an infection control issue.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Navy is letting CO’s relax some grooming standards within limits to their discretion…for the duration.

      • Gustave Lytton

        ?‍♂️

    • Hyperion

      If anyone is going to out hackjob the NYT, I think they’ll be the ones.

    • leon

      For each American leaving home only when absolutely necessary, it seems, there is another who is cavalierly out and about like it’s still 2019.

      O geeze now they are going to do “Your acting like it is [current year -1]”.

      • Drake

        Renumber back in the good old days of early March when you could eat at restaurants and drink at bars? Man those were the days.

      • Mojeaux

        Shit, I shouldn’t have linked that. It’s depressing.

      • Drake

        But appropriate.

      • Gender Traitor

        Still beats the hell out of I’ve Never Been to Me.

      • Mojeaux

        SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!!111!1!elebenty

  18. mikey

    The nearest Costoc is chock-a-block full of TP and paper towels. There are pallets of the stuff everyhwere.
    According to our son his Cosco in Henderson has a sign saying no returns on TP.
    Capitalism is wonderful.

    • Drake

      There’s a sign I never expected to see.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        My friend worked returns at a Kohl’s during college. He has stories.

    • Hyperion

      I hope they can pull that off for potatoes, rice, and tomatoes here soon before my wife freaks out.

      • Private Chipperbot

        Aldi only accepts canned goods returns. They may take other stuff, but they toss it instead of restocking.

      • Hyperion

        The solution is that we need to send people out into the countryside to learn to farm and raise all of their own food. Someone tried that once before, not sure how it worked out, but I think they named it, something something about fields…

  19. Ownbestenemy

    Mo thanks for the youtube link.

  20. slumbrew - double secret satan

    I’m sorry to report that the hound passed away yesterday.

    Requiescat in pace, Delia. You were a Good Dog.

    • Mojeaux

      Oh, I’m so sorry. Was she the rescue?

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Yep. World’s Most Expensive Rescue. We learned all sorts of medical terms in the last 3 weeks, like “pericardial effusion” and, eventually, hemangiosarcoma.

        She had a good final week – plenty happy and the end came pretty quickly, although she essentially died in my arms while waiting outside the veterinary hospital, since they’re on Wuhan lockdown; not that it really would have mattered, I just hope she wasn’t in any unnecessary pain.

      • B.P.

        Good dog.

      • Sean

        Sorry dude.

        Pretty dog.

      • l0b0t

        OUCH! Right in the feels. I’m sorry for your loss of such a beautiful doggo.

      • Tonio

        “she essentially died in my arms”

        That is the best, last thing we can do for other creatures. Sorry for your loss. Thank you for being there for her.

      • Tundra

        You are a good man.

        I’m very sorry for your loss but I’m really glad she had someone who loved her with her at the end.

    • grrizzly

      Sorry, slumbrew.

    • Brett L

      That sucks. Sorry, slum.

    • Mad Scientist

      Well, shit. I’m sorry to hear that Slumbrew.

    • Donation Not Taxation

      All Dogs Go to (1990)

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Damn, I’m sorry man.

    • hayeksplosives

      Sorry to hear it. Doggos leave us too soon.

    • Tres Cool

      Condolences and sympathies.

    • Count Potato

      Sorry 🙁

    • juris imprudent

      Sorry to hear. I have one that is slowly losing her hips – she’s still getting around, but if she lasts the year I’ll be surprised.

    • Rhywun

      So sorry, slum.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Thank you, for all of the kind words.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Sorry slumbrew. Glad you were able to brighten her last days like you did.

      Goddam seasonal allergies.

    • Shirley Knott

      I’m so sorry.

    • R C Dean

      Condolences, slum. Its hard to lose a pack member. Really hard.

    • DEG

      Sorry.

    • Not Adahn

      The only time I’ve driven drunk was to take my raised-from-a-puppy friend to be put down.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Absolutely would have if I needed to.

    • gbob

      Man. So sorry. Puts shit in perspective. A year from now we barely remember the virus…the loss of a dog is never forgot.

  21. Raston Bot

    BATFE’s NFA processing branch is still functioning 🙂

    Greetings from Silencer Shop! Just a quick note letting you know that your application was received by the ATF and the check was cashed on 3/18/2020 for order…

    • Donation Not Taxation

      Martial law (?) with firearm and ammo sales still allowed.

      Rufus the Monocled on March 18, 2020 at 5:03 pm

      Are we at the ‘martial law by other means’ stage yet?

      I’m starting to get a tiny bit worried where this can go. The cure worries me more than Covid (ie the flu).

  22. Enough About Palin

    Right now, Mayor Bill de Blasio is holding a press conference. He says the Federal government has all of the resources needed, but they’re not doing anything. Liar. He says all they have to do is print more money. What a piece of shit.

    • leon

      He says all they have to do is print more money.</em

      DAHH it is so simple!!!

    • Rhywun

      de Blasio is holding a press conference

      Oh great. I can’t wait for the next fresh horror.

    • Tonio

      They’re not doing enough for him.

      This is a distraction from why the mayor of “The Greatest City in the World(tm)” has failed to spool up resources. Center of innovation and industry and all that.

  23. LJW

    Wow, apparently 9mm is popular right now. Went to the store to pickup a quick safe, 9mm sold out, .45 stocked full.

    • leon

      Yeah. I find the arguments of 9mm vs .45 vs 10mm. vs .40 very interesting, but the wisdom of the day is that 9mm is king.

      • leon

        :DISCLAIMER: Previous statement should not be taken as stance on the argument. Other than to say .45 can suck donkey shit 9mm FTW.

      • LJW

        I have no preference, but I will say my favorite gun in my collection is my HK .45. Too bad I lost it in a boating accident.

      • leon

        I’m just being silly, i really don’t care. I Prefer to shoot 9mm, because of the ease for me to handle them.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        .40 is the British Knights of the Nike vs Reebok sneaker war.

      • Q Continuum

        .357 must be adidas. Also explains why it’s the best.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        European. No residence in American headspace. Used for… things Americans don’t do. Very well made and effective.

        No, I believe Adidas is the 7.62×25 Tokarev copper coated steel bullet.

    • A Leap at the Wheel

      Makes sense. COVID killing boomers means no one left alive wanting to shoot .45 AARP.

      • Fourscore

        heh-heh, when those ol’ ‘lebens get dumped on the market Fourscore be waitin’ wit a pocketful whatever it takes to free ’em up.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Right now, Mayor Bill de Blasio is holding a press conference. He says the Federal government has all of the resources needed, but they’re not doing anything. Liar. He says all they have to do is print more money. What a piece of shit.

    Ah, of course. The Magic Hat theory of wealth creation.

  25. mikey

    Winco has a large fulk food section. Pasta and beeans about cleaed out. And Goldfish – the crackers not the swimming things.
    Also snack foods were OK. Except no Cheezits.
    People are srange

  26. Heroic Mulatto

    I’m not a racist or homophobic, but I don’t think non-white or gay people can fully understand or enjoy DOOM. I don’t want to see Id or Bethesda bow down to the SJW overlords just so Doomguy can have sex with a black woman (if it’s an Asian female near legal age that’s fine). Wolfenstein: The New Colossus was bad enough with it’s pro-liberal propaganda against Germany.

    Homosexuals don’t really fit the lore of DOOM either. The series is about traditional Christian values. If Doomguy were ever to have sex, it wouldn’t be with another man. He wouldn’t strip his armor off, skin caked with sweat and blood, straddling a robot man’s groin, now fully kitted out with synthetic sex organs. Nor would he start licking the robot man’s armpit swivels, which were pre-coated with tangy, sour sweat-like lubricant beforehand. Doomguy is straight as an arrow.

    • Q Continuum

      4/5 would fap to

    • Hyperion

      I’ve started to just be able to ignore the SJW stuff since it’s totally infested the gaming industry. I just bought Borderlands 3 and some people are ranting on Steam about the SJW theme to it. I’m just somehow able to ignore it.

      Not a DOOM fan, I don’t care much for FPS shooters with no RPG elements.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Doom peaked at Doom 2.

        That was back when LAN parties and serial modems were things.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        serial modems were a thing

        Acoustic coupler or GTFO.

      • Hyperion

        The first company I worked for when I was working on my Compsci degree had a Token Ring Network on Unix with 9600 baud modems. Seriously.

        My first home internet connection was a 56k dialup modem. I still remember the sounds they made and watching stuff come slowly displaying on your screen once you finally had the magical connection working.

      • Hyperion

        Also, even before that, internet trolls were a thing. One of my Compsci profs had the first and only internet connection that I knew about, in his house.

        He invited the entire class over so we could witness the miracle of an online connection. He was a member of a ‘chat room’ and apparently a victim of a troll. He had taken the online handle of ‘Prof’, short for professor. He was on and in about one minute the troll appeared and started trolling him. He became greatly distressed by this. The guy called him ‘prophet man’ and asked him to prove his power of prognostication. He typed furiously ‘It’s Prof! As in professor! Stop it, I blocked you!’. I don’t know how much time I spent retelling that experience and laughing my ass off about it.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        “Flame wars” seem so quaint now.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Pshaw – my first job out of school, the 9600 baud modems were the fast ones. Most customers still had 4800 baud modems, and there were still a few 1200 baud modems floating around in the wild.

        I suspect I can still tell you how fast the connection is just based on the tones.

        Kids these days just don’t appreciate the glorious anticipation of an interleaved image downloading from the BBS, while you figured out if it was something you could fap to (narrator: everything could be fapped to, with enough effort).

      • Hyperion

        “Kids these days”

        Can you even imagine them going to a store and buying a game in a box, on 30 floppy disks, going home and taking all day to install it, failing to get it to work and there is no Steam or Valve or developers who they can immediately threaten online with lawsuits?

      • Mojeaux

        We still have floppies (the small plastic ones) and I think somewhere around here we might have a floppy drive, although I don’t think it’s hooked up.

        Thing is, you really learned how to get into your box and tinker and fix things. I was on Reddit and someone was asking about the capability to do X, and I’m like, hey, I have a utility for that. Here’s the link.

        Blew their mind there was such a thing.

        Dude, there’s a utility for EVERYTHING. I’ve been porting the same utilities for 20 years and praying they don’t fail with the next Windows upgrade, which is one reason I hate Windows “up”grades.

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        110 baud acoustic modem. Fer reelz. Took an employment aptitude test using one hooked up to a remote server.

        As it turns out, and according to Employment & Immigration Canada back in the early 1980s, I was an ideal candidate for Canadian Armed Forces Munitions, Explosives and Weapons Technical Specialist.

        If only they had known . . .

      • Mad Scientist

        56k! In my day we had 14.4, and we liked it that way!

      • Ted S.

        And storing programs on cassette tapes.

      • Tonio

        Nobody needs more than 9600bps.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Back when it first came out, we’d play multiplayer Doom on work computers after hours. My wife still resents waiting in the car for me while we finished playing a round.

    • A Leap at the Wheel

      Dear Mr. Gates

      Was that actually ur (your) son I met on Modern Warfare 2??? I believe his name is “XxXSmokeDank420XxX.” He said his dad is Bill Gates, and he’ll get me ?banned❌ from Xbox Live?. He also said he engaged in intercourse with my mother???‍♀️??. I’m not sure if that’s true, but when I asked her about it ❔???❓, she started crying???. Just want 2 (to) know if that’s ur (your) son.

      P.S. (postscript) I’ve met like 30 of ur (your) children?? on Xbox Live. u (you) must be laying mad pipe ???? in order to have spawned that many offspring?. Honestly inhuman how much pussу u’ve (you’ve) been pounding ???????????????????. Keep up the good work!!?(Though I suggest u (you) should b (be) a little more careful ⛑? 4 (for) now, with ?coronavirus? going around and everything??.) Stay safe and have a good day!

      Sincerely, Adrian 🙂

      • Heroic Mulatto

        I think he is laying mad pipe, to be honest.

    • l0b0t

      Dear HM

      I love you. Never change.

      Signed
      A fan

      • Heroic Mulatto

        I’ll be signing autographs and eating ass in the main exhibit hall.

      • Gadfly

        Is it safe to assume, given your stance on Doom Guy’s sexuality, that you will not be providing both services to all comers?

    • Tres Cool

      Right? Thats why I play it safe with ‘Chinky Cough’ when discussing the pathogen.

      • Hyperion

        Wuhan Flu. Chingylingy Flu. Yellow flu.

      • Tres Cool

        Wu-Han Flu aint nuthin’ to fuck with!

    • Hyperion

      I just found out recently that ‘Oriental’ is an offensive and racist term. Really? I remember the old guys I knew who had fought in WW2 and they used a lot of derogatory or racist terms, but Oriental was not one of them. People have become completely stupid and seemingly uneducated these days.

      • Gustave Lytton

        It’s like everything else. In a couple years, it will be people of the Orient.

      • Jarflax

        We have always been at war with Eastasia. Why are you giving them aid and comfort?

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Yellow Fever?

      • Tundra

        My son has it bad.

        Last three girlfriends: Japanese/American, American/Chinese, straight up Chinese (adopted, though, so she calls herself a banana).

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Good man.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I’m always disappointed that nobody has posted the scene from The Corruptor, where the Chinatown cops are talking to Mark Whalberg’s character – “I bet you got a Chinese girlfriend, though – you’ve got the yellow feeever!”

      • Fourscore

        The fever is long lasting, too.

      • Suthenboy

        Policing people’s language is an end in itself. They don’t care about offense so there will always be a new word you aren’t allowed to say. It is about power.

    • Rhywun

      Interesting that both TEAMS are slamming her for refusing to name names, for different reasons.

    • R C Dean

      I’ve moved on to “CCP Virus”.

      Not racist, because it points at the government.

      Highlights the Chinese government’s responsibility for this.

      Has just a soupcon of “bioweapon” tinfoil hattery.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Ok. But that absolves Tom Hanks of all responsibility.

      • The Hyperbole

        Can’t we compromise and simply acknowledge that the CCP Virus gives you Tom Hanks Disease?

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Fair point.

      • Jarflax

        In before Infowars and Lew Rockwell denounce the link as a conspiracy theory and explain that THD is a result of vaccination.

      • The Last American Hero

        I’m rooting against Hanks. I want to see someone try to punch God in the face. I’m not sure how that works but either way, dude will look like a jackass.

      • Pine_Tree

        The current term I’ve been using in our org for the “social distancing” practices is “Kung Flu Fighting”

      • Tundra

        Agreed.

        I’m done with my favorite term, but this one seems acceptable.

        Thanks, Pine Tree!

      • Not Adahn

        I just read my new favorite on Slate Star Codex:

        Sinos Infection

      • invisible finger

        CCP Flu sounds too Soviet.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    9mm sold out, .45 stocked full.

    Interesting.

  28. Nephilium

    Well, in good news, I did receive my state tax rebate check. Now to see if it’ll still clear.

    • Ted S.

      I file an 8880, so TaxAct told me just as I was about to file that it wouldn’t be free.

      Hope TurboTax isn’t the same way.

      • Mojeaux

        Hope TurboTax isn’t the same way.

        It will be. Anything more complicated than a 1040-EZ, they’re going to charge you for.

      • Ted S.

        It wasn’t that way for my 2017 taxes. Last year I had a 1099, so I had to pay.

        States and FedGov can’t just let us fill out the fucking forms online at their sites?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Tax prep industry got them to stop from developing their own free filing solutions by offering “free” tax filing for simple/low income filers.

      • Not Adahn

        FedGov did. NY insists that you buy software.

      • Mojeaux

        There is an alternative: Fill the forms out by hand and mail them in.

        That’s how I learned how to do my taxes. I was a brand new independent contractor and got stuck with a $2000 tax bill. I was whining to my aunt, who said, “Oh, wait, no. This is what you do–” So I went and got a booklet, a 1040 form, a Schedule C form, and went through them line by line until I understood thoroughly what was necessary.

        I’ve had to account for a won car, which, as it happened (and I can’t take credit for knowing this; my friend is a tax attorney and I happened to be telling her about it), was a hybrid and I could write the entire thing off.

        I’ve had to account for a legal settlement (it took me forfuckingEVER to figure that one out).

        I’ve had to account for lottery winnings.

        I’ve had to account for energy-saving improvements to our home.

        Anyway, that first year, I filed an amended return (the tax preparer took it upon himself to file electronically without asking us first). The IRS forgave me the 41c I still owed.

        Do it by hand and mail it if you don’t want to pay for more than a stamp.

      • Ted S.

        Didn’t have to pay to file with Turbo Tax, although I had to update Chrome because it didn’t like Firefox on Linux and didn’t like that I was apparently using an old version of Chrome.

  29. Spudalicious

    They’re shutting down bars and restaurants here, so I’m at my favorite haunt for the second day in a row. Almost time to roll up the sidewalks and hunker down for a bit.

  30. RAHeinlein

    Boeing – holy crap, what a shit show.

    • Gustave Lytton

      What happened now?

      • RAHeinlein

        Down over 70% ytd; Nikki Haley just resigned from the board in protest due to bailout request. Congress is comparing to AIG – in trouble due to poor decision making. Talk of Buffet jumping-in – he and Charlie have the cash.

      • Q Continuum

        Unlike AIG, they actually make shit and they aren’t going anywhere. Buy, buy, buy.

      • Fatty Bolger

        They’ve got to own a shitload of valuable IP as well.

  31. Gadfly

    So the drumbeat has started to criticize Texas for not being quite as panicky as other states. Hopefully the criticism falls on deaf ears.

    • Tres Cool

      Clearly they’ve never spent time with an actual Texan™.

    • Fourscore

      Clearly, the governor is paralyzed.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Hi-yo!

    • Suthenboy

      As far as I can tell the only people panicking are pols stomping their feet and demanding more power.

      Everyone around here seems calm and unworried. That could change but so far….

      • Suthenboy

        Oh, and of course the press.

      • invisible finger

        A distinction without a difference.

      • Jarflax

        I’m losing my mellow for two reasons.

        1. If I have to listen to one more absolute moron assuring me about their concern in this ‘time of crisis’ I’m going to end up in jail for assault.

        2. If this crap continues for even 2 months we are screwed economically. Great Depression II, Socialism Boogaloo. Every new shut down measure comes with more promises that ‘we’ should bail everyone out. Newsflash people if you are bailing everyone out there isn’t anyone available to actually do the bailing out.

      • Gustave Lytton

        #2 is what I really worry about. Even assuming the uglier models are correct, the worldwide depression that would result from shutting down the economy for 18-24 months would have similarly ugly outcomes with social unrest and reduced living quality (which would have both direct and indirect reduced health outcomes) for years.

        What really bothers me is no one is questioning what is really known and where the truth lies. It’s not in gut feelings about what things should be.

      • Jarflax

        What really bothers me is no one is questioning what is really known and where the truth lies. It’s not in gut feelings about what things should be.

        Even asking gets you denounced as “Not caring about other people”. Damnit, I am not worried for myself. I’m fat, 52 and have more or less accepted that I will drift along until I die. It is the kids I am terrified for. They are going to get fooled into voting in a socialist and then it’s over. Bread lines and gulags.

      • Nephilium

        Yep. I’ve seen plans where they allow us to go out, and things to open for a month or so, before going back to shutting everything down for a couple weeks. Plans where they’re saying this is a 2-3 month thing, plans where this is a 3 week thing, etc.

        You can’t plan around the unknown. Those businesses that just opened, or were going to open in the past two weeks. Odds are they’re done. $1,000 isn’t going to make up for the loss of business, spent rent, spent utilities, waste from needing to throw out perishables, etc.

      • invisible finger

        There was a significant minority clamoring for a worldwide debt jubilee 12 years ago. They may not be a minority anymore.

  32. Tundra

    Hi Brett!

    That’s your best opening paragraph ever. I read it to Mrs. T and she thought it was hilarious.

    Well done.

    It was a mixed bag today. I spoke to one of my best customers this afternoon and business is booming (SoCal)! Then I spoke to my dad and found out his TDS is, too. Honestly, not sure what happened to the guy. Sad!

    I swung by the office to pick up some things for a project. Empty. I almost stayed.

    The drunken elephants are so peaceful. We should all aspire to be drunken elephants.

    • Mojeaux

      There is nothing better, occupation wise, than having an office all to yourself.

    • Gadfly

      The drunken elephants are so peaceful. We should all aspire to be drunken elephants.

      “Drunken elephant” sounds like it should be the name of a fighting style, or fighting stance, or bar, or album, or something. It’s just too good of a name.

      • Tundra

        Sexual position?

    • invisible finger

      Tell your Dad, “Why do you listen to that shit? It will rot your mind!” No doubt he told you the same judging by your recent avatars.

  33. Tulip

    Someone at work tested positive. I didn’t have contact.

    • Tundra

      Remind me, Tulip, where are you?

      I understand that here in Minne, almost no one is being tested.

      • Fourscore

        Because there have been few reports or tougher or smarter or don’t care.

    • Tulip

      NoVa

      • invisible finger

        NoVa – aka Chickenshit Central.

  34. DEG

    One Las Vegas strip club is staying open amid a 30-day shutdown recommended by Gov. Steve Sisolak and taking social distancing to another level by offering drive-through strip shows.

    Little Darlings strip club will begin offering drive-through strip shows for those who want to indulge in some adult entertainment, but do not want to enter the building, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending people keep 6 feet in distance between themselves and others.

    I guess it could work.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      For people without internet?

    • invisible finger

      What do you insert your chip card into?

  35. DEG

    Baker says no to shelter in place in MA

    Gov. Charlie Baker said there are “tough days ahead” for Massachusetts, but there are no plans to implement a shelter-in-place order.

    The governor spoke at a press conference Tuesday amid a steady rise in novel coronavirus cases in Massachusetts.

    “Without question we are likely to have some very tough days ahead of us, as we are still at the beginning of the battle against this virus,” Baker said. “Faith and confidence. We’ll get through this by pulling together, caring for one another.”

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      it’s been 2 whole days – we’ll see if he sticks with that.

      • DEG

        The first I heard of it was today. I picked up some take-out from the restaurant in the area that I like that is open. They had the TVs on the news, and the news had a story about Baker shooting down the call for a shelter-in-place order.

    • Rhywun

      Cuomo and Deblasio are bickering (as usual) over this issue. Cuomo doesn’t want it and apparently it’s his call.

  36. DEG

    Suit challenges ban on large crowds. Prediction: It fails BFYTW.

    A group of political and religious activists has filed a court challenge to Gov. Chris Sununu’s order to restrict the size of public gatherings because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The suit asks a Merrimack County Superior Court judge to issue an injunction against the ban on community meetings of more than 50. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday morning.

    “To be clear, of course we do not wish the spread of COVID-19,” said Dan Hynes of Manchester, the lawyer representing the three people who brought the suit.

    “However, the government should not be acting in an unconstitutional manner in order to possibly address their concerns.”

    In the court filing, Hynes said Sununu has every legal right to advise citizens not to gather in large crowds, but he said that mandating this behavior runs afoul of constitutional protections.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      “If the governor has unilateral authority to declare anything an emergency, and take action to effectively revoke constitutional rights, we no longer live in a constitutional republic,” Hynes said.

      Dan, that ship sailed off a long, long time ago, bro.

    • creech

      Praying to God to stop this ChinaVirus pandemic probably has a great chance of succeeding than this lawsuit.

    • Not Adahn

      Dude, some Westchester County hack shut down a synagogue and nobody batted an eye.

  37. Fourscore

    Entrepreneurs selling seating on the van? Probably needs some of the Costco Big Bundle TP included.

    • Fourscore

      Respond to DEG’s # 38

  38. Gustave Lytton

    Putting this here because I have a healthy respect for both heights and rusty can lids.

    Thank you SP and TPTB.

    • Mojeaux

      Ditto.

      • Fourscore

        Concur

    • Shirley Knott

      Yes, that’s a very good, and very nice, thing to have done. TPTB rock.

    • DEG

      Yes, thanks to SP and TPTB.

    • Jarflax

      Yes, thank you SP, and I sympathize with your mood. It isn’t so much the pety tyrants getting their power boners on over this disease, or even the wreck they are making of the economy. It is the smug glee of my fellow serfs as they tell me I am ‘selfish’ for standing up for the small businesses being ruined by ill thought out closure orders.

      • Tundra

        This.

        Quit fucking telling me what to do. I have been through some ridiculous economic meltdowns and I’m tired of it.

        There is nothing in this whole clusterfuck that doesn’t point to inept government.

        Fuck off, I have to make a living.

      • Jarflax

        I got this response on facebook from a long time friend (prog who calls himself libertarian but only distrusts government with an R) to my posting:

        “Tyranny in the garb of safety” about that letter I linked up thread somewhere:

        Look up what they did to Typhoid Mary. If you violate the order, you increase the risk of exponential spread of this virus, which increases the chances that our hospitals get overwhelmed. If the hospitals get more critical patients than they can treat, people will die. This bar owner is putting a few dollars in his pocket over saving lives. I thought you were pro-life?

        The bolded part has me seeing red and wanting to post something Tom Kratman like on my wall, but I won’t because Jacksonian tyrants are not less tyrannical than Wilsonians.

      • Tundra

        Want me to respond to the cunt?

        So glad I’m not on fb.

      • Jarflax

        I replied:

        I am fine with asking businesses to close. I don’t care for seizing people’s businesses because an authoritarian is flexing his muscles. We do not live our lives by permission of the State. And I thought you didn’t care for Trump or Dewine? Now you are ok with them exercising total control over your life?

      • Tundra

        Crickets?

        Or “so I suppose it’s ok for anyone to do what they want, regardless of how it affects other people?”

      • Jarflax

        LOL: no, he replied:

        I think DeWine is doing a much better job than I expected, It appears that many Republican Governors have suddenly figured out that Scientists actually know what they are talking about.
        And it appears that too many people thought the requests for keeping distance was a joke, hence the big parties in the bars that triggered the order by the Health Commissioner to shut down bars and restaurants.
        Neither DeWine or Trump* are exercising total control over my life. I am free to do what I want, If I am willing to face the consequences. But if we flatten the curve, I’ll have a life.
        *impeached

      • Q Continuum

        Time to drop that asshole like a bad habit.

      • Rhywun

        I am free to do what I want, If I am willing to face the consequences.

        O RLY?

      • Gender Traitor

        Neither DeWine or Trump* are exercising total control over my life. I am free to do what I want, If I am willing to face the consequences.

        Except operate or patronize a restaurant, bar, barbershop, hair salon, tattoo parlor, gym/health club, private school… (Have I missed anything?)

      • Jarflax

        Yes, you are free to do what you want and the Chekists are free to shoot you tovarisch!

      • Jarflax

        Except operate or patronize a restaurant, bar, barbershop, hair salon, tattoo parlor, gym/health club, private school… (Have I missed anything?)

        But he doesn’t want to do those things, and HIS job is safe (Hint, his job is likely to cease to exist if this goes on for a couple months, but he hasn’t realized that yet, he does high end work in Cruise ship entertainment/set design)

        also no idea if you have missed anything because I cannot find a single source that shows all the orders out there…

      • Nephilium

        GT/Jarflax: Weren’t the churches ordered to skip services as well? I know the Cleveland Catholic Diocese was asking elderly and at risk people to not come to Mass, and gave them a dispensation.

      • The Hyperbole

        I am free to do what I want, If I am willing to face the consequences.

        He’s not wrong. Hell, you are free to serial kill 20 or 30 hitchhikers as long as you are willing to spend 30 years on death row and maybe be executed before you die of multiple gang rapes.

      • Nephilium

        Fuck, I’m waiting for the state/fedgov to shut down the delivery services. Cut off UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS, etc… then see how long everyone stays calm.

        I’m going to try to risk the grocery store this weekend, and get some local food (take out, because that fuckwit DeWine thinks that’ll keep me safer). Over a week since I went through Atlanta, no fever, no coughing. no where to go.

      • Not Adahn

        My holster arrived today.

        It started off in FL, the went to… Denver. From Denver it moved with reasonable speed through various cities in a reasonable direction until it bypassed me and went to Springfield (MA). From there, it went to… Boston, where it sat for four days. Then back to Springfield, but only for a few hours before taking three more stops to get to my house.

    • Suthenboy

      What am I missing?

      • Tulip

        New post

  39. Chipping Pioneer

    Whelp. I’m bored.

  40. Q Continuum

    Supply chains. Yeah, totes.

    https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/coronovirus-kills-playboy-printed-editions-for-2020

    Couldn’t possibly be

    A) The insane proliferation of porn online that you could never in a million years compete with
    B) Your iconic founder is now taking a dirt nap
    C) In response to A and B, you got woke

    I do find it a little ironic that A is due to being a victim of their own success. Playboy helped usher in the Sexual Revolution and solidify new societal norms that created the environment for its own destruction.

    • Not Adahn

      Yeah, Playboy without nudes is Esquire. And nobody reads that.

      • Suthenboy

        Playboy is still around? Who knew?

      • Rhywun

        And Esquire is basically another Salon now.

  41. Fatty Bolger

    SpaceX reveals timeline for first manned flight to International Space Station

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX will soon launch U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time since 2011.

    NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 flight test will send two astronauts to the International Space Station in May, the first time American astronauts aboard an American rocket and spacecraft have visited the station since the final space shuttle mission on July 8, 2011.

    NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will make the journey aboard Crew Dragon launched from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “NASA and SpaceX are currently targeting no earlier than mid-to-late May for launch,” a statement released by NASA read.

    • Not Adahn

      May of this year? As in eight weeks?

      • Fatty Bolger

        Yep.

  42. Not Adahn

    I’ve started drinking early so that I can fall asleep early.

    To help me out with that, nobody say anything interesting between 20:00 – 20:30 EDT.

    Thanks in advance.

  43. Q Continuum

    Thought experiment:

    RBG kicks off. Does that crowd coronavirus out of the news?

    What about if it was from Kung Flu that she died?

    • Fatty Bolger

      Maybe not crowd out the virus entirely, but it would spawn hundreds of articles on how Trump can’t nominate her replacement before the election.

      • Rhywun

        ^yeap

    • Not Adahn

      Absolutely. The only thing making nCoV-2019 Wuhan a thing is it’s political relevance.

  44. mock-star

    PA Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered that all non-life sustaining businesses to be closed. “Non-life sustaining” to be determined by not you.

    • Tundra

      Fuck that.

      Time for some massive disobedience.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        That’s draconian.

        They know better than to try and force the closure of liquor stores and Dunkin Donuts around here – that would be a recipe for civil insurrection.

      • Not Adahn

        Remember the Tsarnev crisis? When everyone in Boston was ORDERED To say in their homes except for police and Dunkin Donuts employees?

        People don’t believe me when I told them that happened.

      • Jarflax

        The words “shelter in place” are starting to sound like Arbeit Mach Frei to me.

      • The Last American Hero

        Because “Boston Strong” means cowering in your house like a little bitch while the police track down 2 murderers.

      • invisible finger

        I called it “Boston Chicken” back in the day.

      • Q Continuum

        No kidding. Business owners need to stop being supine.

      • Sean

        I’ve tried. I rallied my boss to keep open until this.

        Our contracts have been slowly telling us to cease and desist.

        This was the final straw.

        PANIC HARDER YOU FUCKING PLEBES.

        RESPECT YOUR MASTERS.

      • Not Adahn

        NYers are a bunch of panicky pussies.

        They cancelled Sunday’s Steel Challenge.

    • Nephilium

      Of all the fucking terrible chains to have to cheer for… Gamestop is claiming to be an essential business.

      • Rhywun

        And their employees are balking. They’ll fold like everyone else unless they don’t mind the optics of firing any no-shows.

      • Nephilium

        Gamestop has been hemorrhaging money. No way could they survive being shut down for a week, let alone multiple weeks.

      • Rhywun

        I’m kind of surprised they’re still around. I haven’t been inside one in years.

      • Suthenboy

        They are bad? My stepson worked for them for a while. They were very good to him and he loved the job.
        But then I don’t know much about the gaming world.

      • Jarflax

        I don’t know that Gamestop is anyworse than another retail company, but when your product is bits and bites, and you are known as a brick and mortar store, life got bad for you 20 years back and hasn’t improved since.

      • Nephilium

        They were decent at one point (almost all national companies are), but they started pushing pre-orders for anything, as well as pushing their used games/console sales, where they would pay ~25% of the game cost (in store credit), and sell it for ~95% of the game cost. That got them a lot of money until the games went to more online activation and online play. We’re now in the time of the online store and digital downloads. Why go to the store to drop $70 for a game, instead of staying at home, paying the same (or less if you can wait), and having it already downloaded to your machine before the launch?

      • Jarflax

        My current gaming rig doesn’t even have an optical drive, and streamin/downloads took off too fast for the usb physical media to ever really happen. Hard making money as the less convenient, equally expensive alternative, with higher overhead.

    • DEG

      Fuck.

      I wonder what I’m going to get from some relatives in PA that I’ve been exchanging mail with.

      “Our hospital friends are scared! They’re overwhelmed! People are dying!”

      I tried to be rational but I think I failed.

      My friend that decided to resurrect a restaurant is going to be fucked.

      • Mojeaux

        My friend that decided to resurrect a restaurant is going to be fucked.

        Everybody is.

        The economy is going to collapse in ways that rival 1929 and it will have been completely self-induced.

      • Sean

        For the first time, I’m actually scared and not of the virus.

      • Jarflax

        No worries Comrade, the Government will mail out checks and everything will be fine.

    • Gustave Lytton

      $5? Look at Mr Moneybags there.

  45. Chipping Pioneer

    Jesus Feathery Christ this thing is overblown. The TOP MEN are taking every opportunity to increase control. Fuck off, Tom Wolf.

    And fuck off, Tulpa!

    • Chipping Pioneer

      Meant as a reply to Tulpa up there.

    • Fatty Bolger

      The markets stopped crashing, so something had to be done.

      • Suthenboy

        ^This^
        They know Trump was going to run on the economy and there is no chance in hell they can beat him with a strong economy.
        It isn’t going to work.
        They were trying to crush it slowly under Obama…manage the decline they called it. That failed so now they are just taking a hammer to it.

      • Gustave Lytton

        They aren’t that smart.

      • Suthenboy

        No they are not but I was recently debating ‘collectivists follow the same patterns because they study what works and develop a plan vs. collectivists follow the same pattern because they all think the same’

        In the end I was swayed to some combination of both but mostly mentality. Large parts of Lieawatha’s platform looks a lot like Mussolini’s because they think the same.

        They are creating crisis because that’s when the looting and power grabbing is good.

    • Sean

      I came here to say this.

      Tom Wolf – “burn it all down”

      • Timeloose

        This is making everyone mad. I have several small business owners as friends. They were going against Wolf’s recommendations and staying open. A hair salon is not safety critical, but how safe is it going to be once you remove food money from people’s mouths.

        The new Wolf decree is that he is t asking anymore but telling businesses to shut down.

    • Raven Nation

      “Fuck off, Tom Wolf”

      *Momentarily confused, looks up thread*

      Ah, THAT Tom Wolf

  46. l0b0t

    Trying to fall asleep before my shift. Drinking Bonded Old Grandad and rewatching the Showtime/Canal 4 production of Armistead Maupin’s Tales Of The City. It is REALLY well shot, the cinematography is beautiful.

    • Not Adahn

      That’s the one with a slave ship full of gay guys?

      • Rhywun

        IIRC there’s a cruise ship full of gay guys but that’s one of the later books.

  47. gbob

    Well, just got a long email from my ex.

    She was always a germaphobe. Got worse after our daughter passed away. I expected her to freak out over this, and I was right.

    She tells me that I’m not allowed to see my son until I get tested and isolate for two weeks.

    Grrr.

    On the bright side, since both my woman and I do gig work at a grocery store, we already resigned ourselves that we ARE going to get it. Every person in the area walks through, coughs, breathes and touches our environment. I don’t care. I’m actually doing a service that helps people. I have twenty or thirty people a day I shop for…people who are either too afraid, or unable to get out of the house. I’m donating blood on Monday. I’m isolating from my parents (which…I mean…isn’t the worst thing in the world if you catch my drift)

    It’s crazy. Thank god I have booze on hand, and a new stack of 20 Vinyl albums I haven’t listened to yet.

    I hate this. People need to stop panicking.

    • Don Escaped Texas

      Good news; there’s hope on the horizon. The day that last check clears, you’ll never hear from her again.

    • Tundra

      Bless you gbob.

      You are exactly the kind of person who grinds us through this bullshit.

      I had to stop at Home Depot today to get a couple things for a work project. The young lady at the self-checkout smiled, took the gun and scanned my stuff. Then she stepped back and had me take care of the payment. As I was leaving, I looked back and another kid was wiping down everything.

      The kids are allright.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Good on you gbob.

    • DEG

      Sorry about your ex.

  48. Sean

    This bullshit in PA really has me freaking out right now. I was doing good until this evening.

    Ugh. Bad things are coming.

    • gbob

      If you need some hooch mailed to you, I’m happy to help….use next thread!

      • Sean

        I’m good for a little bit, but I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks!

  49. Mojeaux

    This will be the death knell of the medical transcription industry for everybody, Americans, Indians, Filipinos. Hospitals and doctors who use it now will figure out they really don’t need it and even if they want to keep it, they won’t have time to do it.

  50. Suthenboy

    Touched on earlier: 9mm vs 10 mm vs 45

    9mm – I have a mold with the same design but obviously discontinued as 377 (third row down, first one on the left) but mine is 147 grains instead of 122 grains.
    I load them up hot and lube the hell out of them. They shoot fast and flat and penetrate like crazy. They will shoot through and through a car body with plenty of punch left over.

    An acquaintance of mine is a sheriff’s deputy. He was attacked by a lunatic with a knife and was badly hurt. He was able to get two shots off as the guy was stealing his patrol car. one hit the car and stopped in the door, the other hit the guy dead center mid-way up his thigh. The 115 grain hollow point went through the guy’s jeans and skin, fragmented and stopped just inside the muscle. It did not even slow the guy down.

    I am of the opinion that 9mm is a good round but you need heavy, fast loads with hard bullets.

    10mm – After acquiring one I duplicated the success of the nine by applying the same principles to the 10 (D47 bottom row 8 from left) and a raging success it was.
    If I get another pistol it will probably be in 10mm.

    45 acp – Large diameter, heavy bullet. You can load it up so that it has plenty of energy but less blast and recoil than the previous calibers and still be effective. It doesn’t shoot as flat but for pistol use long range is not usually an issue.
    I won’t complain about the 45 acp and I would buy another.

    Saeco chart: https://www.redding-reloading.com/online-catalog/87-saeco-precision-bullet-moulds

    • Suthenboy

      Apologies….when the link opens scroll down and click the center chart to enlarge it.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I’m thinking about using my Trumpbucks as a discount against a CMMG Banshee 300 Mk10.

      • leon

        I’m really torn on Trumpbuck spending. I want to spend it to lock in some value. But My upbringing (and wife) are pushing me to save it. Also it doesn’t help that i know that the government wants me to spend it, which makes me really not want to spend it.

      • leon

        Maybe i’ll compromise and buy Bitcoin…

      • Suthenboy

        Yeah I joked about a new gun but honestly it should either go to the step-son (hours cut in half) or house payment.
        We are soooooo close to paying this house off.
        Invest in my whims or invest in family? Not really a tough choice.

      • Mojeaux

        Also it doesn’t help that I know that the government wants me to spend it, which makes me really not want to spend it.

        Check.

        My upbringing (and wife) are pushing me to save it.

        My current situation demands it.

        Funny thing with me and cash though. Put the green in my hand, and that’s not going ANYWHERE. Put plastic in my hand and money is like water through a sieve. Or electrons, which feel worthless.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Picked up an 80% lower a few weeks ago – taking it my buddies place this weekend – think it’ll be an AK-AR.

        Still want to buy a Shield 2.0 9mm for carry, but all the sale prices are gone for the moment. I’m happy with my 220, but of course….with my job – not much I can do unless I want to hide my pistol in the car every day (parking on base). Not really worth it.

      • Not Adahn

        The radial delayed blowback is nice.

    • Don Escaped Texas

      You pretty much speak for me.

      We both have the SW686: I absolutely believed in the energy of the .357.

      I reluctantly moved away from revolver, and, though I’m not stuck in the fifties, I went with .45 because You can load it up.That said, I don’t have small hands: a double-stack ACP feels about right to me but would be a clear burden to most people.

      That said, I have nothing against hot 9mm to this extent: it’s gonna take 1,000 ft*lb to cancel a man’s Christmas subdue the threat, and no pistol load can do that. I’ve given up on marksmanship in and have joined the lead-slinging idiots and hope 10+1 is better than 6: the bozos I’m apt to run into don’t know about the rule of three, and you don’t get to go one-on-one with them in any regard.

      • Suthenboy

        The advantage of the nine is that being small you can put more in the magazine or make a much smaller pistol. The disadvantage is the blast that the effective loads make and the recoil. Your double stack 45 spreads that out. My my Sig 938 the hot loads are quite sharp and the fireball can be blinding under dark conditions.
        For a decade or more I carried a Kimber 1911 45acp. I traded for the much smaller Sig because I. got tired of lugging the bigger pistol around.

        *the load I described will easily bring someone down in one shot. If you are not a cast bullet aficionado you are probably not aware of how effective they can be.

      • Not Adahn

        Shot placement > all.

        Jack Wilson (White Settlement) got an aimed headshot. The fact that he was using .357 SIG didn’t matter at that point.

    • Not Adahn

      Fragmenting in the thigh he’s lucky the femoral artery stayed intact.

      And of course, a hit to the femur typically stops people from moving.

      The hip new tacticool trainers are teaching people to shoot for the pelvis on the theory that it will prevent the bad guy from being able to stand.

      But lead in general doesn’t seem to perform well if it hits metal or glass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0piGeTVMZWs

      • Don Escaped Texas

        shoot for the pelvis

        I’ve always said that because most people shoot high and float higher under stress. General advice for non-experts: focus on the belt-buckle and keep squeezing until the threat subsides.

  51. Don Escaped Texas

    Cramer runs to populist pose as markets crash

    We can not have the fat cats make money at the expense of the workers

    Cramer has been so consistently wrong on any point of principle for the past three decades that his populist pivots completes his qualifications for Pennsylvania Avenue.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Ooh.

      I think the next national fee holiday was going to be on April 18, but well done nonetheless.

      Slumbrew, I’m sorry. Got an old complicated pup right here, and by no means the first one.

  52. Gustave Lytton

    New thread (beyond the no off topic assist one) is up.

  53. Suthenboy

    “But lead in general doesn’t seem to perform well if it hits metal or glass”

    I have done extensive tests on wood, metal and glass. Different ranges, surfaces at different angles and from different ranges.

    Range seems to have the greatest effect. Ever spin a top? It starts off wobbling, then stabilizes, then slows down and begins wobbling again. Bullets perform in exactly the same way. The rifling spins it and it exits the barrel and begins wobbling. Down range a bit more it stabilizes and flies spinning straight. At near the end of its flight the spinning slows and it wobbles again. If the bullet strikes a surface while it is wobbling its performance is poor penetration and greatly altered trajectory. If it strikes dead nose on penetration improves a lot and trajectory also but to a lesser degree. The greater the angle of the surface is less than 90 degrees, the greater the alteration of both. The angled surface is akin to the bullet wobbling…it doesn’t strike nose dead on.

    Wood penetration at 20 yards for 30 caliber, 150 grain bullet at 2750 fps – 20 inches or less. Same load at 100 yards – 36 to 40 inches.

    Test results on glass – best performance on plate window glass striking dead on, single pane. Poorest performance on car windshield glass. So poor in fact that shooting through the windshield of a car headed straight at you is unlikely to hit the driver without a magazine dump. Most car occupants shot are shot through side window opening after the first shot shatters the window out.

    Sheet metal – 90 degrees at 20 yards barely changes trajectory but greatly decreases velocity and penetration of Back target. At about 20 degrees penetration becomes unlikely for pistols.

    Tested: 22lr, 38 spl, 9mm Luger, 44 mag, 45 acp, 30-06 Springfield.

    • Suthenboy

      Oh, and the back targets were 8 inches of newspaper soaked over night in water and then wrapped in two layers of denim.