This is the end of my fourth week of shelter in place/cower in place/safer at home/ whatever the fuck my incompetent governor calls it. My distaste for government has turned into loathing. The recent news reports Covid 19 has likely been with us months earlier than originally believed and has infected more many more people than previously suspected has only solidified these feelings.
The Paycheck Protection Program continues to be a clusterfuck. My firm’s application was submitted the day after I received it from my bank. As anyone following the news knows, the program ran out of money. The modicum of goodwill I had for Donny Two Scoops evaporated. In about two weeks, I am going to have some very difficult decisions to make concerning my employees.
I hate the idea of telling someone they are fired through no fault of their own. The government forcibly choked off our revenue based on incredibly exaggerated predictions of doom from Top Men. Sorry about that but I am sure you will feel better knowing it was for the common good. Heaven forbid our betters or *shudder* the media *shudder* consider the ideas of someone who doesn’t whole-heartedly support The Narrative.
Our weather will be heating up by the middle of the week. Forecasted highs are in the 80s. So, I guess bikini season is coming.
My abs have never been my strong point. Carrying extra weight hasn’t helped. I have made some reasonably good progress on that front and continue to work on it.
Abs have been something of a mystery because there is so much misinformation about how to train them. I have made mistakes in the past doing ab exercises that injured my back. I really didn’t want to repeat that mistake. So, as per usual, I turned to AthleanX to find exercises that are ergonomically correct and effective.
About six months ago, I started this ab program. I really appreciate there is a beginner level and more advanced level. Truly, there is something for everyone.
This week’s music choice makes me wonder how this hasn’t become our anthem.
GlibFit horizontal vaginas.
http://archive.li/BGJpA
I was going to say 4, 5 and 6, but then I realized they all look the same.
?
Not bad, though not too many that are GlibFit.
Which one is Straffinrun’s wife?
So would 14 be vertical?
…then an hour later you feel like clicking then again.
Why would the Payroll Protection Plan cause your goodwill for Donny Two Scoops to evaporate? Congress set the budget.
1. Trump gave political cover, if not outright encouragement, for this shutdown.
2. PPP is supposed to be for small businesses hurt/shuttered because of the shutdown. Then I read about construction companies (all open for business because they are deemed “essential”) and Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse getting the money. Now this looks like Obama’s bailout money.
3. My bank couldn’t get their forms in place for three days because of the feds dithering on the regulations.
4. There are many small businesses that couldn’t get applications in because the money center banks, for reasons unclear to me, were first in line for disbursing the money.
5. The amount is clearly too small given the demand.
6. This is effectively an uncompensated taking of my business. I was told I would, in some measure, be compensated. That turned into a lie.
7. It would have been better to never implement the program on the federal level and Donny could have told the states, “You shut down the businesses. You figure out what to pay them.” That would have lead to some political accountability.
8. If the fucker was going to go forward with this program then he should have been able to forecast the demand and underfunding it would lead the present gridlock for more funds.
“PPP is supposed to be for small businesses hurt/shuttered because of the shutdown”
Yep. The company I work for qualified, and our CFO told me to my face that we could have managed without it, but if they’re handing it out we might as well get it. He definitely felt some type of way about it, but he wasn’t gonna not take the money.
Honestly, the biggest issue with Trump from a money/economics/fiscal policy perspective is that he is a successful real estate developer. Hes got no issue with debt, because that’s how he made his fortune. Borrow the cash, build the building, sell it. But if you borrow 2 trillion and dump it in to the economy, there’s no way to sell it off and profit from it. You’re just printing paper.
If you want to be pissed, be pissed at all the huge hotel chains (and restaurants I hear) that profited from this. Each location counting as a separate business.
Be pissed at Congress for not getting a clean extension of money for PPP.
No construction allowed in PA right now due to assclown Wolf.
Yes – a number of large hotel groups, restaurant chains, developers/construction, and auto dealers played the multiple LLC game to qualify. Then we get to the outright fraud on the community bank side.
Very few hotel chains own all or even most of their branded hotels. They’re basically franchisors and sometimes contracted operators of the individual properties. Even the franchisees set up small groupings or individual properties as separate legal entities for a variety of reason.
Holy Mackerel! Last night’s Zoom thingy killed me. I’ve been awake for about 3 hours now and I still can’t keep down solids. Now I remember why I quit drinking for 16 years.
Wine spritzer. Worked for me. And you checked out too early. It got weirder.
It was a lot of fun!
It was fun from what I remember but I fear I don’t remember all of it or what I said. Seems some asshole emptied a whole bottle of tequila here. I didn’t fall on my face though so I count the night a success.
In about two weeks, I am going to have some very difficult decisions to make concerning my employees.
Sorry. I am a strange mix of hopeful and cynical concerning the protests popping up.
I have no idea what is going on with my weight. I get walks in when I can and do my PT exercises plus other exercises.
Six packs are made in the kitchen. Typical compound exercises are more than adequate to develop the rectus abdominus and oblique muscles. The trick is the layer of fat that covers them; no amount of ab work will get that to go away. The only way to eliminate it and reveal the abs beneath is by lowering body fat. Most males will begin to show abs around 12-14% body fat, once you get under 10%, you’ll starting getting the “ripped” look.
Captain Positive says we will be okay.
Almost as tone deaf as Patton Oswalt.
Anne F. did complain, in writing.
Glad to know you saw it too.
Dat’s de joke. 😉
From what her peers have said, it sounds as if she wasn’t a Greta Thunberg.
I completely agree your eating is a huge determinant of whether you get to the requisite level of body fat. I’m not sure I agree about compound exercises being more than adequate. For reasons I can’t explain, on my left side I had some visible ab development but not on my right side. Doing focused ab work, consistently, has helped to even that out.
Let’s also remember that regular conditioning, while eating appropriately, will help to get to the desired body fat percentage. I’m not doing sprints for my health!
Despite the old fashioned tasting party I had for myself last night (I prefer both a lemon and orange peel!), I got outside and had a good hour of cardio. My legs hurt, which is a good feeling. I don’t think I’ve gained too much but the muscle mass is down like whoa.
Also, a group of Negros wearing masks over their faces is congregating near my home, so I called the police. Your safety doesn’t trump mine!
I’m highly offended that you didn’t know the plural of negro is negroes
My Girlfriend’s Sexual Appetites Are a Little Terrifying
lol
No blood, no foul.
Just hold a gun to her head during coitus like our spirit animal.
Joe Biden?
The advice is actually not bad.
Check the government handout again, the plural of negro is gang
Blood Clot
I made a pizza… it came out in the shape of puerto rico.
Was it also corrupt and insolvent ?
Nope. Tastes of pizza.
Did it contain half of the hubcaps which used to be in New York?
Pepperoni, yes, hubcaps, no.
Does it have a large crucifix bouncing in between heaving cleavage?
Only when giving the weather forecast in front of a green screen.
‘LAND OF THE FREE’: Protester wears US Navy uniform and refuses to leave the ocean amid beach closures
Hero.
Does it contain the emptied out remains of America’s pharmaceutical manufacturing industry?
I made pizzas last night. I thought of you as I placed the the anchovies among the pepperoni.
Troll
;^)
Turkish Spiderman helping elderly amid virus lockdown
Once Dr. Octopus gets wind of this those olds are going to be in trouble!
An endless orgy of Anatolian Aunt Mays. https://images.app.goo.gl/wCh938iSoagRpX9MA
Doc Oc doesn’t wear a mask. He’s the biggest danger to the oldsters.
Nothing compared to Italian spiderman tho.
I have abs somewhere. Middle of my body I think. Well they used to be anyways. Sometimes people do things just because they can. The trick is to figure out what you can do and not accept that. Sometimes I am there, sometimes not.
Kiteboarding is quite popular here in The Rockaways. It looks like tremendous fun but I think I already have enough ways to hurt myself.
Give it a shot. Fuck getting in the water in NY though. Wait till you’re back in Noleans.
Yeah, the surfers wear wetsuits all year long here. I grew up on the Gulf Coast; I can’t even with the cold water.
When I was in WA state I went to a surf shop to buy a wetsuit so I could windsurf and and asked the kid working, “When do you guys stop surfing here? Water is frickin cold.” He said, “When the waves stop coming”. Give me the gulf coast or S FL. I am not a fan of cold water.
I like the replies to this Sununu tweet.
Especially this one.
Look like an even split of support and dissent.
There’s some sickening levels of bootlicking in the replies. Even the dissent is more of a “WE NEED A GOOD PLAN FOR YOU TO LEAD US TO SAFETY” more so than “Fuck off slaver.”
They were running a bit heavier on dissent when I found the tweet. The ratio pretty quickly changed.
The irony of his shirt seems lost on him.
I decided to start taking some supplements. Started with a multivitamin, a fish oil, a Vitamin D, and a glucosamine. Even got myself one of those pill boxes with Monday through Sunday compartments.
The best supplement you can probably take is high quality magnesium. Most people seem to be deficient in it, for whatever reason.
I take the magnesium, a good multi, Ubiquinol, Tumeric, Niagen, a bunch of different herbs (for various reasons), and several different nootropics, including Piracetam and Aniracetam.
My doctor says none of it is helpful for anything, except that I am contributing to the economy. But most doctors, including mine are overly arrogant assholes who don’t know jackshit about much of anything and are glorified drug salesman for the big pharm companies.
For the next “What are we reading?”
https://www.amazon.com/My-Sentient-Fleshlight-Alex-Thompson-ebook/dp/B08727NDWR/
I took two walks with the dog this weekend.
Yesterday after dinner, since the snow had melted, was nice, with blessed solitude for 40 minutes.
Today was an hour walk. Met two mountain bikers going in the opposite direction and just let them go by (although everybody says hello). Pretty much the same four four walkers who didn’t look the right ages to be parents and two kids.
But there were two assholes who had a dog *not on a leash*. Thankfully I came up behind them so just had to keep my distance. But I don’t care how well-behaved you think your dog is; out on the trails it damn well better be on a leash.
Clue: Government bailouts and subsidies are always, always, always a looting of the taxpayer on behalf of political favorites.
Every. Fucking. Time.
That was the whole purpose of the Obama administration. The Trump admin isn’t as bad by a long shot, but it is still there.
Yeah Trump is far superior to Obama.
Something douche something something shit sandwich.
Pretty bad weather here. My phone keeps going off with loud sirens for tornado warnings.
Looking out the window now….it looks like the earth is holding its breath. Not a single leaf moving. Dead air.
That always worries me. I will go stick my head out of the door and listen. If I hear any roaring I guess I am gonna have to stuff my wife, all the dogs and myself in the hall closet.
Is it too wet where you live to have a basement or cellar?
Yes. Basements don’t work here. The two I have seen both filled with water.
Do you have a reinforced room?
Christ.
Good luck, Suthen.
Yowza, be safe!
As someone who escaped Oklahoma I can relate. That is a freaky feeling when all goes silent with dark swirling skies and thunder in the distance. I trust it will pass you by. ?
Be safe, Suthen.
Hopefully the bad shit passes you by.
I love these guys. Mike is getting fat.
Pretty bad weather here. My phone keeps going off with loud sirens for tornado warnings.
Looking out the window now….it looks like the earth is holding its breath. Not a single leaf moving. Dead air.
Does the sky turn green down there?
Took the new hotness to the range. I love it.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/o-UD2U8dTDO8Ij0hpIOQog.QP3vhKqU-IoqVfZXGuDwaG
The range was fairly busy too. ?
Would.
You people are weird.
Don’t kink shame me.
Yo, Hyp…from the last thread – don’t salt your steaks as heavily as shown in her pics.
Saw that, Thanks. I RTFA and she remarks about that I think I got it right.
⬅
Nice
I came in from transplanting a weeping spruce to participate in your excellent submission.
I think we missed the PPP as well. I’m really sorry about your situation. The last crash put me in the same place. It sucks.
My workouts this week were better than last, but not what I want. This week will be better.
Thanks, Chafed!
There’s a video up of the birthday motorcycle parade I posted last thread.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/178612249448/
Damn.
Burn outs, wheelies, American flags, and a police escort. Now contrast that with other lockdown states.
The irony of his shirt seems lost on him.
No shit. He should be wearing one that says
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
I don’t get the reference, but I appreciate the passion.
WTF?
Exactly!
And I keep clicking on Glib links. Insanity something same results something.
Rick and Morty
Because Fuck You That’s Why
Today’s focus was emailing officials about their nonsense shut-downs. Multiple emails were sent protesting the skate park closure – it seems the people of Ames don’t like to see young people having fun.
There’s blessed little authority-fellating in the comments. That gives me hope.
No problem, I’m sure a fed bailout will cover the cost of restoring that park.
Burn it all down.
Reverse Manifest Destiny. Give it back to Mexico.
hard to burn concrete,
I saw that yesterday. What a waste of time.
Counterpoints – Skateboarders are assholes, Cities should have never built skateparks in the first place, and the only bad thing about filling them in is that they aren’t using concrete.
Hyperbolists are nice guys? WTF? Skateboarders are individuals. Not all of us were “Dogtown” whiny rich kids.
Fair enough, skateboarders, like everyone else, are only mostly assholes. Still doesn’t change the fact that the cities should never have built skateparks, razing them and selling the land to private developers is the right and proper thing to do.
I never supported taxpayers financing skateparks. Merely wanted to refute your assertion that skateboarders are assholes. It cannot be doubted that politicians are assholes. A side point, however is that city regs were responsible for many private skateparks closing back in the day. There was no shortage of kids willing to pay to get in, that’s for sure. Courts and building and safety orders closed them. Funny how all those issues seem solved now that they are public owned.
That’s not funny at all.
Fuck Off! jealous you can’t skate a pool?
If I want to ‘skate a pool’ I’ll find one that wasn’t built with stolen money.
Some abdominal truths:
1. As Q notes, abs for aesthetics are ~80% made in the kitchen, 20% from “ab work”
2. You want functional abdominal strength more than you want a “six-pack” – the most functional movement for the abdominals is NOT “crunching”, it’s not movement at all: it’s midline stabilization.
2a. Abdominals, in concert with the rest of “the core,” including all of those muscles that attach around your sacrum and run up and down you back, are meant to provide midline stabilization, which protects the spine and lower back. Why is this important?
2b. Because the “core” is the transmission of the human body. All power begins with the hips and then radiates from core-to-extremity, from pitching a baseball to swinging a bat to taking a slapshot to the golf swing to passing someone’s guard in BJJ. All great athletes have incredible hip ‘functionality’ and the best translate that through their cores for sport dominance. From Marcelo Garcia (linked) to Roger Clemens to Tiger Woods.
3. Crunches are to core strength what curls are to arm strength; they work a relatively small area, over a limited range of motion, but you really want the entire complex incredibly strong.
4. A lot of “ab work” includes your hip flexors; you need them, too, but you also need to isolate them. The other problem with most “ab work” is it hurts your lower back because your body’s natural (neutral) spinal position is an S-curve, known as lordosis, or the lordotic arch. (It’s that awesomely sexy curve inward just above a woman’s butt). Get an abmat and do those situps to start.
5. Start with static holds like planks, then L-sits (on rings or parallettes or from the ground), then move to light weight in the overhead squat, until you can manage bigger weights overhead. Proper rowing technique on a C2 rower also helps. But the big daddy is this, the Glute-Ham Developer (GHD) situp – unfortunately, GHD machines are not cheap and need to be adjustable.)
6. Flip over and you can use them for back and hip-back extensions. Now your core is getting strong.
7. They don’t look like it, but some of the strongest “cores” on the planet belong to olympic weightlifters. It’s a necessity because if you’re “doughy” though the middle, the weights you have overhead will cause you to fold like a cheap, wet, comic book.
8. One set of 15 reps of bodyweight overhead squats is an incredible test of functional core strength and athleticism. Watch a guy doing sets of 10. Start very light – like a broomstick or piece of pvc pip) and get the position down before you move to an empty barbell, then weighted.
Go forth and make your core like a steel rod is up your ass! Judo players are known for this kind of “spinal stiffness” (core strength) because the entire sport is premised on kuzushi. I don’t have time to get into that here, but look it up or grapple with an advanced judo player and you’ll know what I mean.
Edit Fairy for the win!
Ozy, this is some good ab stuff. Having a “bad back”..compliments of the Parcel Service; I am always looking to “strengthen the core”. My goal this year is to play a round of golf without self medication before, during and after the round. Recent past has limited my play to those courses that allow for a wild back-nine and an open bar tab. Modest intermediate goal is to no medicate during the round.
Thanks for the info.
Ozy or Chafed: Any feelings on recovery time for abs/core versus limbs, chest, shoulders? I’m in the 60s on my modified 100s plan. Still alright for straight sets on the squats and toe touches. I moved to every other (or third) day on push ups, rows, dips; and those are all broken in however many sets they take.
Progress was made on the ab exercises (mostly situps) until the 30s, but then endurance started to decline.
Ozy or Chafed: Any feelings on recovery time for abs/core versus limbs, chest, shoulders? I’m in the 60s on my modified 100s plan. Still alright for straight sets on the squats and toe touches. I moved to every other (or third) day on push ups, rows, dips; and those are all broken in however many sets they take.
Progress was made on the ab exercises (mostly situps) until the 30s, but then endurance started to decline.
You can work your abs every day. The key is high intensity but short duration.
I found out about the GHD sit-up through a review of cross-fit exercises and that was probably my biggest take-away from that system. Luckily, my roof-top has a feature which I was able to use for mounting a Roman chair (the equipment you do GHD sit-ups on).
For anybody first getting into the use of this device – please understand that getting your body accustomed to it takes time. You have to start with far fewer reps than you might think are enough. Honestly, even in the times when I had been too busy / traveling too much to be using mine often I usually start with no more than 3 reps, one set the first day. Sounds like too few but if it’s your first time (or even first time in a couple months) just doing 10 will be excessive and you will feel that pain for a few days afterwards. The next day I do them I might bump that up to 5 reps. Taking it slow is the key.
Hey, any Mods, I’ve got a comment hung up because of links. Can someone please release it for me? It’s “Ozy’s Guide to Abs” and the links are the various exercises.
Thanks!
Does Covid cause a rash? I have a rash on my chest. Please DM me if Covid causes rashes. I’m pretty sure I’m dying.
It might be a tumor.
What type of rash?
The rash of death.
Heavy coughing can cause a petichial rash by bursting capillaries. The red dots are distressing but essentially harmless relative to the cough.
It was one of the symptoms I had during the illness that was probably Wuhan.
No cough, although I’m half-convinced the tickle I feel in my throat is the start of one. Otherwise it’s just a rash that appeared on my chest.
It causes rash decisions. Reversing said decisions takes way longer.
There was chatter about a bottom of foot rash associated with it, more in young people.
It caused rash government decisions.
It’s herpes. Especially because by chest you mean balls.
Getting laid? I’m in.
Good. Bubba will be right over.
He said he’d be in too. Not sure what that means.
My money is on schistosomiasis.
I drank myself into a oblivion last night and don’t have a rash. I suggest you drink a bottle of tequila.
What did Dr. Google and WebMD say? You’re dying?
Just snagged a thousand rounds of 556 NATO at a rational price at SGAMMO. Maybe the world is straightening up.
Still looks high to me ~25-30%
Lol! Asshole.
??
Just sayin…
I didn’t say normal.
Now, I have 2K+ rounds. I can wait until things get back to normal before I buy more.
Trump calls US the ‘King of Ventilators’ as governors plead for aid
New York is delivering ventilators to other states. But Trump still has his feet on the brakes of testing production, I guess.
I heard somewhere that dialysis machines are the new shortage – I’m sure Cuomo will be screaming for the Defense Production Act to produce 30,000 any day.
Regular or some sort of oxygenation like ECMO?
Not specified – based-on Covid-related kidney damage, apparently ~1/3 of NYC ICU patients are experiencing issues.
How many of those are from comorbidites that are unrelated to the infection and more related to their pre-existing conditions?
Yesterday morning, after recovering from Friday Night Zoom, I would have gladly subjected myself to dialysis.
Or maybe Pie coulda sent me a quart or so of fresh, clean, A-, blood.
Yes, Ozy still reminds me of Henry Rollins.
Only if one of his crony friends owns a company who produces them. If you want to know a career politicians motives, just follow the money trail.
What was the peak number of ventilators NY needed? I’m curious because I think Cuomo said NY would need 40,000 at some point. I imagine he was way off.
~6000
Cuomo just wants federal aid to cover for the deficit he helped create before the virus hit.
Happy happy joy joy!
https://americanmind.org/essays/children-and-transgenderism/
Pizza on the stone.
Oh, Canada.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/19/police-officer-dead-another-injured-in-canada-shooting/
““This is one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province’s history,” said Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil.
He said it was an additional “heavy burden” amid efforts to contain the new coronavirus, and that police will announce further details later.”
Whelp, that ties it to CV now. +10 more CV related deaths.
“northwest of downtown Halifax.”
So, a Trailer Park Boy went on the loose?
How could this happen? Canada has common sense gun control and people were told to stay at home?
A civilian-involved shooting.
Ummm… bullshit?
https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/04/wife-slept-with-better-endowed-men-advice.html
You’ve been married to her for 43 years and you’re just now getting insecure about this?
What’s the over-under on the percentage of these advice column questions being made up by the editors? I’m going with 83%.
Dear Penthouse…
Sounds like maybe John is writing this column.
cismen/ciswomen…. barf.
When I was in J school, I ran an advice column and we made up every question we printed.
Zardoz knows.
Judging from the authoritarian shite D governors and local officials are pulling, the DNC must have decided to run this year on, ” Nobody needs 23 choices of civil rights.”
I’m going to go out on a limb here and make another wild projection, like the one I made in 2016 that Trump had a 50/50 shot of winning the election.
If the R guvs start opening up and the D guvs start staying locked down or even going farther with lockdowns, and I’m sure it will be mostly just to spite Trump, this is what will happen:
The states who re-open will not see any increase in infections or deaths and their economies will start to rapidly recover.
The states who remain locked down will not see any decrease in infections compared to the states that reopen and their economies will start to enter depression like numbers.
The the states that did no reopen will blame the states that did reopen on their ill fated attempts at getting Trump. The media will reiterate this until the end of eternity or until the dems regain power.
I think you are right. I also think that the coronapocalypse will result in a Quickening of all bad international, national, state and local economies. The EU is going. The unsecured pension states will default or get bailed, and cities will go bankrupt. It was eventually going to happen (5-10 yr horizon) ..now it will just happen within the next 18 months.
If the states that reopen get back to something kind of resembling normalcy and things go well the Dems are going to be toast no matter what they do.
People seem to be 50/50 split on their level of fear, what do the fearful do when states re-open. Will they return to “normal,” will they go back to work if it means returning to an office, will they send their children back to schools? It seems that many are genuinely fearful, trusting and believing those that predicted (and continue to predict) the worst. Will they return to living. If half of the workforce is unwilling to go back to work, what do you do?
Toxic Masculinity
Fortunately, this site occasionally has links which may help mitigate this.
As long as you don’t try to stick your weewee in the bottle of Corona and put the lime in the coconut, you’ll be fine.
I would bet men tend to do worse because they smoke and engage in other health wrecking behaviors way more than women do.
Hickok45 shoots a Lee-Enfield No. 5.
I wonder how bruised his shoulder was afterwards.
I know that this is a dead thread but I have to say, holy crap, I never would have thought that I could do 50 squats. And I have another 50 days to go!
50 squats. 50! Never would have thought that I could do that . Today, doing my 50, I realized that I could probably do 50 more!